Tag: dessert

18th Century Trifle

When you can’t find the music to get down and boogie, all you can do is step back in time.  Ball of confusion when nothing is new and there’s nothing doing, step back in time

 – Kylie Minogue, Step back in Time

I feel that ball of confusion is probably a polite way to describe 2020.   Maybe in a subconscious desire to block out the present, I decided to step back in time with dessert on Christmas Day.  And when I say step back, I mean step waaaayyyy back.  We ate a dessert that could have sat on the table of poor old Mad King George – an 18th-century trifle!  Fitting I think as so many of us came near to losing our sanity at least once over the last 365 days!

18th Century Trifle

You will note that most of the pictures of my trifle have the dish adorned with some ivy leaves.  I not only did this to up the Christmassy green and red of the recipe but when washing said dish before making the trifle I dropped it in the sink and broke a bit off the bottom.  It still stood perfectly well but was not very sightly!  It was way too late to go and buy another trifle dish so it had to be disguised!

18th century trifle 4

The recipe called for Boudoir biscuits.  I had never heard of them before.  But, in my imagination they are a glamorously louche biscuit eaten by the French only in the privacy of their bedrooms.  Turns out it is just the French name for what we here would call sponge fingers or savoiardi.  It also turns out that pretty much every country has a different name for these sweet treats – my favourite being the name used in Uruguay and Venezula –  “plantillas” meaning little plants!

So first thing we do it give our little plants a good old watering in some booze.  I used marsala because I had some but the recipe suggests sherry.  I also really like the label on the marsala bottle.  It has a jaunty little horse, with what looks like a plant pot on its side, pulling a wagon containing what is presumably a keg of marsala.  Is the plant meant to be a boronia plant?  And is the plant the same thing that the little horse is wearing on his head?

Incidentally, marsala wine was first brought to England in the 18th century so using it is not entirely out of place!

 

18th century trifle 2

I topped the soaked biscuits with custard and then topped the custard with the syllabub.  The recipe asks for the trifle to syllabub be decorated with “blobs” of red currant jelly.  I went to 3 supermarkets but I could not find red currant jelly for love or money!  The shelves were piled high with all sorts of condiments containing cranberries. But no redcurrants in sight!   I subbed in some raspberry jelly and fresh raspberries for my topping.

18th century trifle 3

The trifle was delicious!!  And proof that a step back in time can be a wonderful thing!

18th century trifle 5

 

18th Century Trifle – The Recipe

18th century trifle 6

This recipe comes from Sarah Edington’s excellent book Classic British Cooking.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsala_wine

This will be my last post for 2020 so, as ever thank you all for reading and commenting and being a part of this!  I wish you and yours a fabtacular year ahead!

2021 here we come!

 

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Quince Blancmange

I’m fairly sure that Quince Blancmange was invented when someone put the names of the most old fashioned fruit and the most vintage of desserts through a random generator to see what came up.  It could have been worse.  We could have been eating Medlar Junkets.   or Whortleberry Possets.  BTW…just in case you are writing an academic history of quince blancmange don’t quote me on that origin story!  For everyone else?  That’s how it happened.  Other people will tell you that blancmange originated in the Middle Ages and used to contain chicken and other meaty treats.  That it moved from savoury to sweet in around 1600 and that the name is a portmanteau of the French words for white (blanc) and to eat (manger).  And I’m not saying that they are wrong.  “Quince” blancmange however?  Random name generator.  For sure.  100%.

Quince Blancmange1

Quince are one of the weirdest fruit around!  If you are not familiar with them, they are those bright yellow fruit that look like large misshapen pears that you might see in your greengrocer in autumn.  When you cut them open the flesh is white and so, so sour and a little bit bitter.  But when you cook them that flesh becomes a glorious deep pink to dark red and sweet.

And blancmange? Is pretty much jelly / jello with cream or milk mixed through it.  Who knew!

So, I bought a quince because I didn’t really read the recipe first and made the assumption that quince blancmange would contain quince.  I mean stands to reason right?

Hmmm….wrong.  The quince blancmange recipe uses the quince jelly you buy to eat with cheese.  Now, for some reason we had a shit ton of this in our fridge.  Well, one of them was Fig paste but for the purpose of the blancmange, it was all the same.  I have no idea why we had so much of this.  I suspect they came in hampers or were freebies with something because the only other time I have ever cooked quince was to make my own membrillo which is the proper name of Spanish Quince paste and we have been eating that.  Delicious too I might add!  If you do make it, a little splash of vanilla essence in the quince mix does not go astray.  Trust me on that one.

Quince Pastes

Quince blancmange is so easy to make.

First, tip your paste into a sauce pan, add water and melt that jelly down.  Taste.  Add sugar if needed, or if already very sweet a dash of lemon juice.  Add a splash of vanilla too.  Then, turn off the heat, allow to cool slightly and stir through the cream.  This looked so pretty as it made a beautiful marbled pattern.  It was very soothing moving the spoon through the swirls of colour…

Quince Blancmange 5

Then add some gelatine pour into the mould and you are done!

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Quince Blancmange

A fruity dessert that tastes better than it looks!

  • Yield: 6 1x
  • Category: Dessert

Ingredients

Scale
  • 200 grams Quince Jelly
  • 100 grams water (Plus moe for gelatime)
  • 1 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 4 Gelatine leaves
  • Sugar, to taste
  • Lemon juice, to taste
  • 250 ml Cream
  • Berries to serve (Optionaal)

Instructions

  1. Add the quince jelly to the water in a small saucepan and simmer over medium heat until the jelly melts.
  2. Add the vanilla.
  3. Taste and add sugar and / or lemon juice to taste.
  4. Remove from heat. Stir through the cream.
  5. Soften the gelatine leaves in a little cool water, then removeand squeeze out the excess water. Stir the gelatine into the warm cream andquince mixture.
  6. Pour into a mould and chill until set.
  7. To serve, invert the mould and garnish with the berries.

If I did not now know this was quince flavoured I would not have guessed that was it was.  And I don’t think that was because of the figs because it did not taste overly figgy either.  It tasted generically fruity sweet.  The Quince Blancmange was much nicer to eat than it was to look at.  Because it looked revolting.  Really bad.  It reminded me of being back in school and seeing a picture of some lungs with all the arteries and veins running through it.

Spot the Difference

Quince Blancmange 8

So, not fail but not a total win.  I probably will not make this exact recipe again but I am definitely going to experiment with blancmange a bit more to try to bring out the actual flavour of the fruit.  I wonder if it would have been different if I had used fresh quince instead of the jelly?

Have a great week friends and stay safe!

 

Sour Cherry Stuffed Monkey

Disclaimer: No monkeys, stuffed or otherwise, were hurt, or even involved in the making of this week’s recipe.  Stuffed Monkey is actually a Jewish pastry.  With a totally kooky, and kind of revolting,  name.  Which is, of course,  why I had to make it!

Stuffed Monkey

And I’m so glad I did because Stuffed Monkey is delicious!  The pastry is like a cinnamony shortbread and the filling is slightly fudgy, a bit like a brownie. It’s so good!

Now, the original recipe for Stuffed Monkey, direct from the pages of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery, had candied orange peel as the fruit in the filling.  I’m not a big fan of candied peel at the best of times and, certainly not in the quantities required to make this.  So I subbed in some dried sour cherries and some dried apricots for my version.  I did add some orange zest as well so there was a hint of orange in my recipe as a small nod and a wink to the original.

Stuffed Monkey2

So, why the odd and not appetising at all name?  I found a couple of theories on the old interwebs…the first is that “monkey”  is a corruption of the Arabic word “makhshi” which means stuffed.  So this would then become a Stuffed Stuffed?  The other theory I found is that these were first popularised by a family called the Monnickendams.

I’m not sure I’m entirely convinced by either of these but what do I know?

Stuffed Monkey3

Here’s the recipe direct from Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery:

Stuffed Monkeyrecipe3

And here is my version with the cherries and apricots.

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Stuffed Monkey

A delicious baked dessert

Ingredients

Scale

For The Pastry

  • 170g butter
  • 227g plain flour
  • 170g caster sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 egg, beaten

For The Filling

  • 80g dried sour cherries, chopped
  • 80g dried apricots, chopped
  • 60g slivered almonds
  • zest of an orange
  • 227g ground almonds
  • 85g butter
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 egg white

Instructions

For The Pastry

  1. Rub the butter into the flour.
  2. Add the sugar, cinnamon and salt.
  3. Add the egg. Combine until the mixture becomes a smooth dough.
  4. Divide in two equal pieces.
  5. Roll the first piece out and use it to line a pie dish.

For The Filling

  1. Beat the butter, ground almonds and egg yolks together.
  2. Add the dried fruit, nuts and vanilla and salt.
  3. Stir to combine.
  4. Spread the filling over the dough in the pie dish.
  5. Roll out the second piece of pastry and cover the filling with it.
  6. Press the edges to seal them.
  7. Brush with the egg white to glaze.
  8. Heat the oven to 180C.
  9. Place the pie pan in the oven and bake for around 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes

  • This is great on its own but is fabulous with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

There is a downside to making a dessert called a Stuffed Monkey.

Which is that no one wants to eat it.  The minute you mention the name, they get a funny look on their faces.  Then they ask you to repeat what you said.  Then they say “It’s okay, I think I might just have coffee”.

So just tell your friends it’s called Sour Cherry Tart or something.   They’ll be shovelling it down like nobody’s business and asking for seconds in no time at all!

Or tell them the name and keep it all for yourself.  It’s that good!  

Stuffed Monkey Meme

Have a great week!

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Profiteroles For Very Special Occasions

You might think that five and a bit years into this that I would cease to be surprised.  Both when things go awry and when by some stroke of mad luck things work out just as they should.  Such was the case with the Profiteroles I made on the weekend from the Very Special Occasions Chapter of The A- Z of Cooking (1977).  When the profiteroles came out of the oven looking like, well, profiteroles, there were whoops of joy, squeals of excitement and a bit of spontaneous kitchen dancing!

Yep, in this house, this:

Equals This:

http://www.laughinggif.com/view/ew0vxmklkk/56.htmlBut let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet.  First.  Hello V.  And whilst we’re on the subject let’s’ all note the name of the chapter.  Not just Special Occasions.  Very Special Occasions.  Requiring very special dancing apparently.  And also requiring several goes at making something that was worthy of posting. After all, it’s a very special occasion.

First up there was a go at Carpetbag Steak.  Now, if you lookup Carpetbag Steak anywhere on the interwebs, you will more than likely read that it is a famous  Australian recipe.  I’ve lived here virtually all my life and I have never head of it.  However, I really liked the idea of steak and oysters.  I made the recipe and it looked and tasted meh.

Then I made a Beef Stroganoff.  Tasted good.  Looked terrible in all the photos.  I think it’s that thing that Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers told me about where brown food just doesn’t photo well.  This was about the best…

So then I made Carpetbag Steak v2.  A modern recipe this time.  Still looked and tasted meh.

I was left with a choice.  Champagne and Orange Juice.  Or Profiteroles.  And believe me . You came so close to having Champagne and Orange juice as your very special occasion meal.  Because this is what happens inside my head whenever pastry is mentioned:

https://giphy.com/gifs/bored-room-clean-clWd5ft31I23KThe profiteroles only happened because the very special occasion was a long weekend due to the Football Grand Final being the next day.  I know right.  Who has a holiday BEFORE the big day?

“It’s the dumbest reason for a holiday ever” I said.

“Come to work then” said my boss.

“It’s the best holiday ever.  Better even than Jesus being born.  Or dying.”

So anyway, on the holiday for best/ worst reason ever I got a little bored in the evening and thought that I would have a flick through The A-Z of Cooking, to plan V-Z.  The profiterole recipe caught my eye and  I realised that I had every ingredient.  And a whole heap of bravado due to being about 3/4 of a bottle of a wine in.

Don’t judge.  That produced these.  Light as air, melt in the mouth, boozy cream filled and shiny chocolately pastry balls of deliciousness,

The basis for profiteroles, and the reason for my hissy fit is pastry.  Choux pastry to be exact.  I have made choux pastry exactly once before.  For a recipe called Cherry Fritters from The A-Z of Cooking.  Don’t bother searching the archives for them.  They were a total disaster and I didn’t post them.

But choux starts with a roux…actually no. According to The A-Z of Cooking choux pastry starts with 63g of flour.  Yep.  63.  Not 60.  Not 65.  63.  And seeing as this was a very special occasion, 63g of flour it was.

Profiteroles5This became this:

Which became these.  I couldn’t find a piping bag and my piping skills are non-existent so I just blobbed spoonfuls of the pastry onto the tray.  Also, I wasn’t really expecting this to  work.  And need I remind you about that bottle of wine that was now 5/6’s gone?

Well, slap my arse and call me Charlie if those funny looking blobs didn’t turn into these.  They’re shall we say  “rustic” but on a scale of one to ten of  being recognizable as profiteroles, they have to be at least an eight.

Profiteroles 10So then fill and ice and sprinkle and you get these: (even more profiteroley).

Profiteroles 11

Here’s the recipe direct from The A-Z of Cooking:

Profiteroles 12I tweaked the recipe by swapping out the rum for Amaretto and adding some sprinkles.

Make, eat, enjoy, do a little dance of sheer pleasure.

http://www.laughinggif.com/view/ew0vxmklkk/56.html

And have a great week!

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REPOST – Strawberries in Grand Marnier with Mint Sugar

The good news, is that with this post, we are done with the letter F in the A-Z of Cooking.  The chapter heading promises that we will be “Finishing with Flair”. The bad news is that without seeming like Mary, Mary Quite Contrary right from the get go, another F word springs to mind when I consider the contents.  Except for these Strawberries in Grand Marnier.  They were good!  Although how could a combination of fresh sweet strawberries combined with luscious orange liqueur with mint as it’s cheerleader not be delicious?

Strawberries in Grand Marnier With Mint SugarWe’ll get to them later.  However, back to Finishing with Flair – we have already mentioned this so called Mango Mousse. The picture of which contains bananas, oranges, passionfruit, eggs and nuts.  The recipe below has none of these.  The Mango mousse recipe actually sounds really nice.  Maybe I am just being a brat for not making it.  Then again, if they can’t be arsed putting the right picture with the recipe, what are the chances that recipe will turn out?

Mango MousseThat fear of 1977 desserts not being all they were cracked up to be was born out when I made the Continental Chocolate Squares featured on p28.  The picture from the A-Z of Cooking is on the left, with the Squares looking rather decadent.  Mine are on the right looking a lot more Raggedy Anne.  I think I tried to cut them when the chocolate topping was still too hard from being in the fridge and I could not get a nice clean line. Maybe I should have glammed them up by adding some candlelight!

Continental Chocolate Squares3What both of these pictures fail to convey is the overbearing sickly sweetness of the filling. It contained 4 cups of icing sugar which was far too much!  I love sweet food but this was way too much for me and prompted the fussiest eater in the world to ask if I was trying to put him into a diabetic coma.  It is a shame that the middle layer was awful because the base which was chocolate and walnuts and biscuits was quite nice.  It is probably worth someone spending some time on trying to get that filling right because this could have been amazing.  I just don’t think that person will be me!  Although, now I kind of want to.  So maybe it will rear its head in another incarnation down the track.

Strawberries in Grand Marnier With Mint Sugar2
There was a lovely sounding recipe in this section for French Cherry Fritters.  This is the one I would have loved to make but you had to deep fry the fritters and I do not have a deep-fryer.  This however is one I am going to:

a) Play around with until I can perfect a baked version

b) borrow a deep-fryer.  i think my mum has one.

Until then, it’s Strawberries with Grand Marnier.  Adding the mint sugar was an idea I borrowed from Sabrina Ghayour in Persiana.  She makes a number of herb sugars to sprinkle over fruit and now it is something I do all the time!

Strawberries in Grand Marnier With Mint Sugar4I served this with some white chocolate dipped almond bread which was every bit as delicious as it sounds!

Initially I thought this might be a bit too simple to blog about – soak some strawberries in booze.  And done.

And it is very simple.  But sometimes that is all you need to finish a meal with flair!

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Strawberries in Grand Marnier with Mint Sugar

A simple way to finish your meal with flair!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 punnet of strawberries
  • 2 tbsp Grand Marnier
  • Handful of mint leaves
  • 3 tbsp caster sugar
  • White Chocolate Dipped Almond Bread to serve (optional)

Instructions

  1. Halve the strawberries and place in individual serving dishes.
  2. Sprinkle each dish with 1/2 tbsp of Grand Marnier.
  3. Leave to stand at room temperature for at least an hour.
  4. Meantime, make your herb sugar.
  5. Place your mint and your sugar in the bowl a mortar and grind with your pestle until them mint is finely ground and well combined with the sugar, which will be a lovely green.
  6. Alternatively, place both in your food processor and whiz until you achieve the same effect

Notes

  • You could use basil instead of mint. Or a mix of basil and black pepper.
  • Any Orange flavoured liqueur could be used instead of Grand Marnier.
  • Any left over herb sugar can be used to rim a cocktail glass, or used in place of regular sugar in anything else you are making – I’m thinking lemonade would be amazing.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 4

Ok so  that’s F done.

Coming up we have G is for Good Health.  I have actually already made the Cheese & Date Bread from this section so we may skip it altogether as there is not much else to get excited about.  So, possibly our next venture into the A-Z will be The Gourmet’s Touch.  Ooh la la.  Exciting times ahead!  Possibly.

Have a wonderful week lovely people and this week, what ever you do, I hope you finish it with flair!

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