For this standing pear chocolate cake, you will need some small pears, preferably ripe, although not so much they crumble in your fingers. If your pears aren’t ripe, you should cook them partly in a sugar syrup . Note, there are many ways with sugar syrups for pears, for example, if you don’t have any wine for the poaching, you can use orange juice. The flavour will be different but still beautiful.
As for the nutmeg, I was experimenting and probably put a little too much (1/2 teaspoon) which was not overbearing but maybe not to everyone’s taste. I have reduced it in the recipe. You could also put a pinch of cayenne pepper or medium chilli powder.
Ingredients:
For the cake
5 small ripe pears, peeled and cored from the bottom, stem on
4 eggs (about 60 g each)
160 g of sugar
200 g of butter, melted
30 g of hazelnut meal
140 g of plain flour
1 tsp of raising powder
1/4 tsp of freshly grounded nutmeg
60 g dutch cocoa
For the chocolate sauce (from Pierre Herme):
250 ml of water
125 ml of cream
130 g of dark 70% chocolate
70 g of sugar
Preparation:
Line the bottom and side of a springform pan, about 25 cm wide (it can be less but no wider).
Preheat oven to 170°C.
Mix the eggs and sugar until quite moussy. Add in melted butter, nutmeg, cocoa powder and hazelnut meal.
Add in the flour and raising powder.
Pour the batter into the lined mould, placing on pear in the middle and the other pears evenly as a ring. Make sure there is batter underneath each pear.
Bake until just set (about 30-40 minutes, it varies between ovens), the cake will show a few cracks on the sides and the top does not appear wobbly when the cake tin is slightly pushed. Allow the cake to cool down a little (or more if time allows) before transferring to a serving plate. The cake will collapse in the middle as it should still be gooey.
To prepare the chocolate sauce, cut the chocolate in small pieces. Place in a thick based saucepan the water, sugar, cream and chocolate. Slowly heat up and stir until smooth with a wooden spoon. Bring to boiling point and simmer while stirring constantly until the sauce becomes unctuous and covers the back of the wooden spoon. Use the sauce hot, or allow to cool at room temperature and use warm. The excess sauce keeps in the fridge for two weeks.
Tip- transferring the cake can be a little tricky. I use the removable metal bottom of a tart tin as a very large spatula.
Tip – Keep the cake at room temperature if leftovers (i.e. not in the fridge).
This lemon curd pudding is one of our favourite. It is quick to make and really easy. I either make it as individual portions as here on the photos or family version in a larger souffle dish. The pudding consists in a lemon curd (don’t be afraid, read on, you can’t get it wrong) and a cake batter.
Ingredients:
This makes 8 serves.
For the lemon curd
120 g of butter
170 g of white sugar
4 eggs
175 g of lemon juice (about 2 good lemons)
Tip: the bright yellow colour is linked to the egg yolks, the brighter your eggs, the more vibrant the lemon curd.
For the biscuit
160 g of butter
160 g of castor sugar
3 eggs
160 g of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp grated lemon zest
Method
Lemon curd:
Melt the butter in a saucepan with the lemon juice and sugar.
In a medium bowl, break the eggs and beat them well with a whisk (to homogeneise them). Bring the warm liquid to boiling point.
As soon as bubbles appear on the sides, pur it over the eggs while whisking. It is very important you whisk all the time to disperse the heat and avoid omelette pieces in your curd. It is possible the curd will be thickening on its own at this stage, if that is the case, no need to transfer back in the pan and cook further, keep whisking at low pace until the curd cools down a bit more (30 second to 1 minute). If the curd has not thickened yet, then pour it back to the saucepan, always whisking and place it on medium heat. Keep mixing until the curd thickens then transfer to a clean bowl.
Tip: Want to know when your curd is at the right thickness? If the curd coats the back of a clean spoon (it doesn’t all run away), then it is ready.
Tip: Your lemon curd will further thicken when cooling down.
The pudding
Tip: If you are choosing the turn over steamed version , you will need to line bottoms with greaseproof paper circles. This would not be necessary if you are using silicone moulds. You will also need to cover the ramequins in foil and cook in a large roasting dish with water coming to 1/2 height.
Heat up the oven to 170ºC
Grease eight small 150 mL ramequins or pudding bowls.
Cream butter and sugar.
Add the eggs on at a time, mix.
Add the flour, baking powder and lemon zest. Mix well.
Spoon two generous tablespoons of lemon curd into each ramequin.
Spoon the biscuit dough over the lemon curd trying to cover it fully.
Bake for about 20 minutes until well golden. (for the steam version allow 30 min).
Serve warm. Careful it is very hot when just out off the oven. If unmoulding the steamed pudding, run a gentle knive around the outside of each pudding before turning out.
Creme patissiere is a thick custard used for filling a number of pastries and desserts. This recipe of creme patissiere can be used to fill in choux (profiteroles), eclairs or between two layers of sponge cake. You can also use it for the portuguese custard tartlets, snail pastries, etc.
There are two options when you make creme patissiere, use cornflour or “normal” flour. The amounts are not purely interchangeable, the quantities vary. In the end, it is a matter of taste. I like the cornflour one for choux pastry, I prefer the flour one for the portuguese custard tartlets.
Want to add flavours? Sure:
Coffee: add cup of very strong coffee
Chocolate: add 50 g dark cooking chocolate (or 1/2 cup cocoa)
Vanilla, nutmeg and pistachio: add 1/2 tsp good vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg and 1/3 cup chopped pistachios then toasted before adding (make sure they are small enough to fit through a piping tip if you are piping the creme patissiere.
This makes one quantity which is your starting point.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 L of milk
4 eggs yolk (keep the white in a box for another usage)
60 g white sugar
40 g corn flour or 60 g plain flour
flavour, by default some ground vanilla bean or a few drops vanilla extract
15 g of butter
Method:
In a saucepan, heat up the sugar, milk and vanilla (if using). If using chocolate insert it at this stage.
In a bowl whisk the egg yolks with the corn flour or flour adding half a ladle of the milk to dilute slightly. If using coffee, use the coffee extract at this stage.
When the milk is about to boil, pour over the egg mix while whisking. Transfer back to the saucepan and return over a low heat continuously whisking until the cream thickens.
Add the butter and mix through, the butter is not essential but gives a nice finish to the cream.
Complete the flavours if required (nuts, spices)
Transfer to a clean bowl or plastic box. Cover the surface with cling wrap. Make sure it is the plastic wrap is in direct contact with the creme patissiere. This will avoid the formation of a thick skin. Allow to cool down before using.
The choux pastry or pate a choux is something you can only control better with repeated experience. In other words, you may get it right at the first go and that is great, but if you miss, don’t drop the arms. There are a few factors that make this pastry hard to master but not impossible. Here is where things can go wrong:
At the start of the recipe, just after adding the flour, you will be asked to combine and “dry” the dough over low heat until the dough detaches from the saucepan. Well, the amount of water lost during this stage will strongly depend on the type and temperature of your saucepan.
More importantly is the size of your eggs. The recipe calls for four eggs. If you use 60 g eggs (700 g box of 12), you will likely need three to three and a half. If you use small eggs, this is the other way around, you may need an extra half to one egg. to add half an egg at the time, beat the egg slightly in a small bowl and pour half of it. What difference does it make? The dough will not be firm enough if you put too much egg. It will not be liquid either but will not be firm enough to retain its shape and the shape will collapse in the oven.
Finally the baking. All recipes will tell you to use a very hot oven for the first 10 minutes. Then this is where there are differences : some recipes will ask to reduce the heat while leaving the door of the oven slightly open with a wooden spoon, others will only ask to reduce the heat. The process during that stage is the drying of the skeleton of the choux (this is assuming the choux have reached their full size which often takes more than 10 minutes I find). What happens if you do not dry your choux sufficiently? Well, the choux will look great for 2 minutes when pulled out of the oven and will then collapse. What a pity!
That said, if you have a thermomix, it is time to use it, the outcome is guaranteed (or almost, you could always get the cooking wrong!).
Now that you know what can go wrong, you can only get it right!
Missed pate a choux (left), successful (right)
Ingredients:
for 18 good size choux (makes about 10 large eclairs).
4 eggs (see note above on egg size), plus one yolk for glazing
150 g of plain flour
75 g of butter
250 mL of water
1/2 tsp of table salt
Method:
Preheat oven to 220°C.
Place the water, salt and butter cut into pieces in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and stir until the butter is fully melted.
Out of the heat, add the flour all at once and mix with a wooden spoon. Mix and return to a reduce heat until (keep mixing) the dough detaches from the sides of the saucepan. If your pan is very hot, you may not even need to put it back on the stove.
Let the dough cool down for 2-3 minutes.Tip: the next stage is important, we will add the eggs one by one and mix vigorously between each of them. The mixing is critical, this is the stage where we develop the flour gluten structure. This will allow the steam coming from the dough of the choux to be trapped inside the choux and make it rise.
Add the first egg, mix using the wooden spoon until fully combined and the dough starts to stretch a little (in other words add another 20 sec elbow oil after it is combined).
Repeat with egg 2 and 3. If you are using large eggs only add 1/2 the next egg at the time. When will you know the dough is ready? This is the multi million dollar question! The dough must be firm yet flexible:
So the “strands” must not break when you mix it.
the “shapes” made when mixing must remain 3D and not collapse.
expect gaps between sections of your dough as the ball of dough is moved one way and another by your wooden spoon.
If you know what the surface tension (tension superficielle) of a liquid is, great! Imagine it here, there need plenty to keep the shape.
Place all the dough in a piping bag (I love those disposable ones you find in supermarkets these days!).Tip: if you do not have a piping bag, just use a spoon. I have done it like this for years!Tip: to fill the piping bag neatly, place the empty bag inside a cylinder – my ikea cuttlery holder is perfect for that task! – turn the mouth over the edge. Fill in the bag then lift it and turn the top to close.
If you are not using a large tip, simply cut the end of the plastic bag (about 1.5 cm diameter). Pipe the shape you are willing to go on a lined (use baking paper) baking tray.
Beat the remaining egg yolk and dilute with a couple drops of hot water. Using a kitchen brush, brush over each piece.
Insert in the oven. After 10-15 minutes reduce to 170 °C and cook further for 25 minutes. The cooking time here depends very much of your oven. The first stage of the baking will see the shape pop up and almost double in volume (mostly upwards but also in width) to its full size or close to full size. Once this is achieve, bring the temperature down and bake further to allow the skeleton of the choux to dry and hold the shape (or the choux will collapse). This can be as little as 25 minutes, to as much as 40 minutes.
Dry choux can be kept at room temperature before using. Missed choux (whatever went wrong in the making) are great snack for kids, trust me!
To serve, you can choose to:
fill the choux with a vanilla, chocolate, coffee or other aroma creme patissiere and add an icing
cut the choux open, place a ball of ice cream in it and pour melted dark chocolate on top
last option (which I do not like but Australian people love it). Place whipped cream in the middle and pour over a chocolate glaze.
For a recipe of creme patissiere (filling custard), click HERE.
Flat choux (missed pate a choux) on the left, successful choux on the rightChocolate eclairs and vanilla, nutmeg, pistachios with raspberry icing eclairs
This pepper apple and strawberry crumble is a twist on the traditional recipe of the crumble. Be ready for a radical change in taste! The recipe is inspired from a bakes apple recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi. The pepper is not at all overpowering, it brings up a different flavour combination.
Ingredients:
4 apples (3 if quite large) – all apples are good, although the granny smith are likely to be a bit bitter (not my favourite)
1 punnet of strawberries
1 teaspoon of pink peppercorns
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
Black cracked pepper
for the crumble: 150 g of flour, 75 g of soft butter, 60 g of caster sugar
1/2 cup of orange juice (or water)
1 tablespoon of pistachio (shells removed)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Prepare the crumble top: place sugar, flour and sugar in a bowl and rub until the ingredients are combined in a rough sand (or gravel to be more exact!). Cut the pistachios with a large knife and set aside.
Peel and cut the apples in small pieces. Rinse the strawberries and cut in quarters. Place the fruits in the baking tray with the orange juice. add the cinnamon. Toss.
Crack the black pepper all over (a bit les than for a steak) and sprinkle the pink peppercorn all around.
Sprinkle the crumble all over, then the pistachios.
If you have been to France, you would have seen the Flan Patissier in bakeries or maybe had a serve in a bistro. The flan patissier is a classic french dessert, it is alike a baked custard. Some versions of the flan patissier include a shortcrust pastry. My version does not have it. I grew up with that version, I prefer it as such. The pastry makes unmoulding easier, otherwise I do not find it adds much to the dessert as a whole.
To make it quite thick – I find it looks amazing like that! – you will need either a narrow baking dish (17 cm diameter) or you need to double the recipe like I did for the photo session!
Serves 5
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 vanilla bean (you can also use some of the vanilla powder you find in gourmet spice shops)
80 g white sugar
700 mL of milk
75 g of corn flour
300 mL of cream
Method:
Heat up the oven on 180°C, butter and flour the tin (use a spring form one if you have one).
Note: if you are making the single proportions above, you can use a ceramic tart dish to bake it it and serve it directly as such (my Mum always did that!).
Scrap the vamilla beans and place in th milk. Heat up the sugar, milk and cream.
In the meanwhile, whisk together the eggs and corn flour. Once the milk is hot, pour the equivalent of a laddle in the egg mi and mix well, add the rest. Mix well before returning to the saucepan and, using a whisk, keep stiring. The custard will thicken. Once it becomes thicker remove from the heat an transfer to the prepared tin. Flatten the top with a spatula.
Bake for 45 minutes or until browned to dark on the top. It may look a little burnt, don’t worry this is normal.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before unmoulding.
Serve warm or completely cooled down at room temperature. If unmoulding, first use a sharp knive to make sure the flan does not stick to the edges of the tin.
Tip: you can add soaked sultanas, a couple spoons of rhum or chocolate chips to make it a little different.
I love a good generous chocolate souffle. It is really quick to prepare, and cooks quickly too. And it is deliciouuuuuus. I prefer the souffle family version or sharing version, that it in a big tall round dish. This is a personal taste, some may prefer the individual ramequins. This recipe is from a French magazine called “ricardo cuisine“, I have adapted the recipe (essentially removed the sugar, it is not necessary).
Chocolate souffle and cake – here the souffle has already deflated.
For a successful souffle (any souffle, not just chocolate), there are a few rules to follow:
Do NOT open the oven door while the souffle is cooking. The sudden drop of temperature is very likely to make your souffle collapse and it will not rise again. when you check for donesness, do it quickly and do not remove the dish from the oven
Serve you souffle as soon as possible once out of the oven because it always deflates a little and seeing the souffle change shape is fun too!
The souffle needs either to be baked in ramequins or in a large dish with tall vertical edges, what is important is that the width is about 1.5 size the height of the sides, not much more, and the sides must be vertical.
Make sure your egg whites are well beaten and inserted without breaking them i.e. they need to be folded in, not mixed in!
For a chocolate souffle. there are a few ways to go about it. Here, there is nothing very technical, so all good. Choose a good quality cooking chocolate, a 55-60% cocoa is best if the souffle is also for children, otherwise feel free to use 70% cocoa cooking chocolate.
Ingredients:
140 g dark cooking chocolate
3 medium eggs
125 mL of milk
1 tbsp corn flour
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
A nut of butter and caster sugar for the dish
Method:
Butter the dish and coat over with caster sugar.
Heat up the oven to 180°C.
Separate the egg white and egg yolks. Mix the cornflour and cream of tartar with the egg yolks.
In a saucepan, melt the chocolate in the milk. As it is melted, remove from the fire and mix and add in the cornflour/eggyolk mix.
Beat the eggwhites until firm. Add to the chocolate mix and gently fold in. Transfer to the tin.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the top of the souffle is steady when gently poked and cracks have appeared on the top. If you want it not so oozy in the centre, allow for a little longer.
Serve immediately but be careful, it is hot!
Tip: if there are left overs, keep those at room temperature for the next day! (not in the fridge please).
A perfect light dessert with a little chocolate treat! A poire belle Helene is a poached pear, covered in dark chocolate sauce. There is nothing very technical in it. This recipe includes a small crumble, if you have some biscuits, you can omit the crumble and serve with a biscuit.
Serves 6 people
Ingredients:
For the poached pears
1 beurre-bosc pear per person, not too ripe
Juice of 3 oranges
2 cups of dry white wine
1 roll of cinnamon
½ vanilla bean seeds scrapped
3 star anises
2 cups white sugar
1 lemon juice
6 cloves
5 grains all spice – whole (can omit if you don’t have any)
1 to 2 cups of water
For the crumble
½ cup of shelled pistachios
1 cup of plain flour
½ cup of brown sugar
½ cup of soft (not melted) butter
For the chocolate sauce:
100 g of 70% cooking chocolate in pellets or cut into small pieces
2/3 up of the poaching sauce
Method:
Peel the pears being careful to keep the stem. Once peeled, extrude with the the end of a pointy knife the bottom end to remove the seeds.
In a saucepan, place all the poaching ingredients. Only put one cup of water at this stage. Bring to a simmer. Once the sugar is dissolved, place the pears in the saucepan. Add just enough of the last cup of water to cover (there may be little parts sticking out, don’t worry).
Simmer for about 30 minutes or until soft when inserting a skewer in a pear. For those pears slightly sticking out, roll them from time to time.
Leave to cool in the saucepan away from the heat until needed.
For the crumble, place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until combined. Spread on a baking sheet, and bake for about 10-15 minutes in an oven on 180°C. Make sure to stir through every few minutes to ensure the crumble pieces do not stick to each other. When it comes close to 10 minutes, it tends to cook very quickly, so watch out to avoid burning it.
When the crumble is ready, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
For the chocolate sauce, pour 2/3 cup of the hot poaching juice on top of the chocolate, stir until melted.
To serve: place a pear in the middle of a place, standing up. Use a ladles to pour the chocolate sauce right over the stem of the pear until fully covered. Place 2 tablespoons of the crumble on one side of the pear. Serve.
The sugar tarte, known in Belgium and northern France as “la tarte au sucre” is a tarte based on a yeasted dough, soft brown sugar and cream. It is very simple to make and you can get the kids involved all along.
Ingredients:
For the dough
200 g of plain flour
100 g of butter
1 egg
2 tbsp of milk
1 tbsp of caster sugar
10 g of fresh yeast (or 4 of dry yeast)
1 pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)
For the toping:
125 g of soft brown sugar
1 dL (100 mL) of cream
Method:
In a large bowl, place the flour in the bowl and with a spoon, make a well (a hole in the middle of the flour in which you will place all the other ingredients).
Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk.
Add in the well, the yeast, butter, caster sugar, egg and salt.
Mix until you obtain a nice dough.
Transfer into a large bowl, cover with a clean tea-towel and allow to rise in a warm corner until almost double.
Preheat the oven on 180°C.
Butter and flour your tarte tin. Transfer the dough and using the palm of your hand, spread it gently making a little edge. in the centre spread the soft brown sugar, then randomly pour the cream.
Roasted rhubarb is another way to use rhubarb. You can use roasted rhubarb as a side to a number of desserts, as a topping over a plain cake, or just with plain yoghurt.
Ingredients:
1 bunch of rhubarb stalks, leaves removes, cleaned, ends trimmed and cut in 10 cm length
honey – 2 tbsp
juice of 1 orange
5 cloves, 2 anise star
Method:
Preparation of the rhubarb
This is something you can get your child to help with, it is fun.
Cut the leaves and discard.
Rinse/wash the stalks.
Cut the bottom part of each stalk and pull any stringy skin that comes with it
Cooking:
Place some baking paper at the bottom of a small roasting tin (a brownie tin is perfect for that).
Place the rhubarb stalks, the orange juice and spices, drizzle the honey all over.
Bake on 160°C for about 15 min or until the rhubarb is just tender.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool, discard spices unless if using for decoration.
Use this as a dessert served with a biscuit or as a part of breakfast.
Ingredients:
1 bunch of rhubarb stalks, leaves removes, cleaned, ends trimmed and cut in 5 cm length
White sugar
Method:
Preparation of the rhubarb
This is something you can get your child to help with, it is fun.
Cut the leaves and discard.
2. Rinse/wash the stalks.
3. Cut the bottom part of each stalk and pull any stringy skin that comes with it
Cooking:
Just cut in 5 cm pieces, place in a saucepan, add water until mid-heigth (of the rhubarb) and cook gently for about 15 minutes. When stirred it should come apart, add some white sugar to taste. Keeps well in the fridge for a week in an airtight container.
Rhubarb is a summer to autumn food. The plant grows in temperate climate, it produces large green leaves on thick stems. The parts used in the kitchen are the stalks. Apparently, the leaves are toxic and are most often used for compost and in natural home made preparatation against some garden insect pests.
To prepare rhubarb, first cut off the leaves and discard and was the stalks. Cut each end of the stalk. Pull on the sting that comes from the sides of the stalk if any and discard too.
Cut the bottom part of each stalk and pull any stringy skin that comes with it
add water until mid-heigth (of the rhubarb) and cook gently for about 15 minutes. When stirred it should come apart, add some white sugar to taste. Keeps well in the fridge for a week in an airtight container.
