Tag: almond

Roasted almond and chocolate slice

This roasted almond and chocolate slice is very easy to make and quick. The difference from the more frequent almond cake base is the amazing aroma that comes from having toasted carefully the almond meal!

You will need a 20 x 20 cm slice tin or brownie tin for this slice.

Ingredients:
  • 180 g of caster sugar
  • 4 large eggs (that means from a box of 12 eggs weighting 700 g min)
  • 200 g of  almond meal
  • A few drops of good vanilla extract
  • 100 g of melted butter (I use salted butter, the choice is yours)
  • Chocolate top: 150 g of dark chocolate and 70 g of butter
Method:
  1. Heat up the oven to 170°C.
  2. Place the almond meal in a large thick based frypan on medium to high heat (no need for anything else!).  While constantly moving the almond meal around slowly with a wooden spoon or wooden spatula, allow it to toast to a nice golden brown. Remove from the heat when you reach the colour and immediately transfer to a bowl (else the almond meal will further darken). Careful, this is hot.
  3. In a food mixer with the whisk (or by hand with a wide whisk!), whisk together sugar and eggs until light and fluffy like a mousse.
  4. Add the vanilla extract.
  5. Slow down the speed of the mixer if using one. Add the melted butter. Then add the roasted almond meal once it has cooled down.
  6. Line the tray with baking paper (use a bit of butter to help it stick well on the sides). Pour the bottom mix into the slice tin.
  7. Bake until light brown (you can insert a skewer to check or simply press the top of the base with the tip of your fingers, it will slightly spring back). Remove from the oven. Leave in the tray.
  8. Melt the chocolate and  70 g of butter. Once melted, mix until smooth, then pour over the base and use a spatula to spread across the base.
  9. Leave to cool until set. If you are short of time, place the tray in the freezer for 20 minutes.
  10. Cut into slices.  The slices keep well for a few days in an air-tight container. Do not refrigerate.

barre amande et chocolat

Peach and franginane tart

Make this peach and frangipane tart before the peaches disappear for 10 month! I know, I often say so, but it is true: it is another classy  easy to make dessert.

Small warning: use a bit of intuition on this recipe as I made the tart up on the moment and my quantities may need slight (not big) adjustments.  I will try to do it again soon and will edit as required.

Serves 8.

tarte aux peches et romarin

Ingredients
Pastry:
  • 120 g of plain white flour
  • 50 g of melted butter (I use salted butter)
  • ½ cup of cold water
Frangipane custard
  • 3 eggs whole
  • ½ L of milk
  • 50 g of plain flour
  • 30 g of white sugar
  • 1 to 1 ½ cup of almond meal

Note: the amount of sugar may seem small to you, it is by design.  We don’t want the frangipane custard to overpower the sweetness of the peaches. The peaches are the heroes of the dish!

Tart assembly
  • 5 peaches cut in small quarters (roughly 12 pieces per peach), skin on
  • A handful of rosemary leaves
  • ½ cup of good quality apricot jam.
Method
Shortcrust pastry:
  1. Place all ingredients together and combine.  You need to be careful here not to mix and not to work the dough but only to combine it all. Add a few drops of water at the time if necessary. Make a ball, cover loosely for ½ hour, let it rest.  If the dough is too sticky add a spoon of flour or two.
  2. When the dough has rested, roll the dough to the size of the tart shell you are using.  Transfer the dough to the tart shell.  Roll the rolling pin over the edge to trim excesses.  With a fork, make marks over the whole bottom and blind bake until slightly golden.  You can use blind baking balls if you have some (don’t forget to place a piece of baking paper between the dough and the baking stones, I forgot once and learnt a lesson!).
Frangipane custard:

Basically a custard with added almond meal.

Heat up the sugar and milk until almost boiling, in the meanwhile beat the eggs and flour together.  When the milk is hot, insert while mixing to the egg mix and return to the stove until it thickens.  Make sure the mix does not boil. It should take up to 5 minutes (depending how hot is the heat). Once you have obtained a thick custard remove from the heat and add the almond meal.  You want a thick spreadable consistency but not runny.  It will thicken a little more when cooling down.

Tart assembly:

In the blind baked shell, place the frangipane custard at the bottom. Then, starting by the outer ring, place peaches pieces in a circle. Depending on your tin diameter and the size of the peaches, you may be able to do a full second ring or use the peaches in the other direction for the inner ring (as in the photo).

Bake on 180°C until the pastry is well golden.  Once the peach and frangipane tart has cooled down, transfer to the serving dish.  Heat up the jam and with a brush “paint” jam all over the peaches and exposed custard an on the inner part of the pastry shell.  Place the rosemary leaves randomly over the tart.

tarte aux peches et romarin tarte aux peches et romarin tarte aux peches et romarin

Galette des rois – chocolate version

This chocolate version of the galette des rois works a wonder.  Kids and adults love it and it is so easy to make. Seriously! (as my 7 y. o says all the time).

 

The principle is the same than the traditional creme frangipane one: 2 layers of puff pastry with an almond base cream filling (creme frangipane) in the midle and a little “feve” (a piece of ceramic about 1 cm long) hidden in the filling.

chocolate and puff pastry kings pudding

I know, it looks I bought it at the bakery! No, I needed somewhere to store it safely and had some spare boxes.

Serves 8

Ingredients:
  • 400 g of puff pastry (better if butter puff pastry, in Australia, Careme provides a ready-made one and can be found in deli shops, if you want a recipe, here is my puff pastry recipe, I make it all the time now!
  • 100 g of caster sugar
  • 150 g of good quality dark cooking chocolate
  • 1 egg
  • 100 g of almond meal
  • 25 g of butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoon of milk
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 feve (if you don’t have any, use a large ceramic button or a shell)
Method:
  1. For the filling: melt the chocolate with 2 tablespoon of milk.  Once melted, add the egg, sugar, almond meal and melted butter. Mix well.
  2. Preheat the oven to 170ºC
  3. In a small bowl, mix the egg yolk with 2 tablespoon of milk or water to make an eggwash, you will use it to assemble the galette and brush it before baking.
  4. Divide the pastry in the pieces and using a rolling pin and a little flour, prepare two disks of 25 cm diameter.
  5. Cover a baking sheet with baking paper and place the first disk on it.  Pour the filling and spread evenly leaving a 1.5 cm border all around. Place the feve in the garnish but not right in the middle (or you will for sure cut right through it when serving)
  6. Using a small sharp knife, score the exposed pastry and brush with eggwash. Place the second disk over the top.  With your thumb press the two disks edges together regularly moving your thumb around the edges.  Use the sharp knife to score the top with lines making diamond shape or square shape patterns.  Brush generously with eggwash and bake until golden brown for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool down.  It can be eaten slightly wam or at room temperature. Do not place in the fridge!

And by the way the one with the feve in its piece is the king/queen and has to choose a queen/king!

chocolate and puff pastry kings pudding

Baking aplenty!

These last couple weeks, there has been intense activity in the kitchen, I mean more than usual.  There has been renovation works, still are actually.  Now, I have, after 18 month of cooking on an outdoor stove, a good oven and cooktop and, ceiling lights and power plugs there and there! You can imagine I was pretty excited to get this new oven to the test! In addition to that, I will be managing the food stall at my daughter’s school Halloween Fete and I am trialing a few recipes! A great adventure.  Hence, cooking aplenty at the moment!

Last pears of the year

Pears are nearing the end of their season in Australia and I came across a bunch of them just begging to be used on the seconds trolley of my grocery store.  Of course I could not resist!  I have been willing to do an almond pear tarte for a while.

tarte poire et amande

I ended by using a Donna Hay recipe .  The recipe is easy.  There is no tart shell. The tart consists simply in a cake dough placed in a tarte tin with pears pushed in it. Cool it down it its tin and serve on a long platter.  I would advise to place some baking paper at the bottom, this would make the removal of the bottom part of the tin easy.  Click HERE for the recipe.

Tarte amande et poireLook how we recycled an old laundry wash board!

tarte poire et amande

Bread renewal!

With my new oven which keeps the steam (and the heat), I have made a try at semi-sourdough baguettes.  Mines were quite short, just to make sure they could fit in the oven.  Success!!!

mini baguettes

 

These below is the preshape stage.

mini baguette preshape

And another beauty, this one baked Friday night. A semi-rhye sourdough

semi rhye sourdough

Halloween pre-taste

For the school fete food menu, I have decided to expand a bit into some creative pieces that the children will beg their parents to get them.   I will speak more about it in a coming post, here is a little pre-taste!

madeleine bugs halloween

These creatures are madeleines covered in coloured white chocolate. The antennas are pretzels.

 

Pear and Almond Tarte

Pear and almond are so good together. This tarte is not only very easy to make, it presents well. The recipe is from Donna Hay, with a few twicks in the method. This tarte has no shell, it is a cake with the fruits placed on top. The shape of the tin makes it (plus it is good!)!

Pear and almond tarte

Ingredients:
  • 90 g of soft butter (I use salted butter)
  • 90 g of brown sugar (1/2 cup)
  • 2 eggs
  • 120 g of almond meal (1 cup)
  • 40 g of plain flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons of finely grated lemon rind (decrease to 1 if you prefer the lemon flavour to be softer)
  • 2 pears (I used Corella, you can use Packham, Williams would work well, but not too ripe)
  • 90 g brown sugar (1/2 cup)
  • raw sugar for sprinkling
Method
  1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process until just combined. Add the eggs, almond meal, flour, baking powder and lemon rind and mix until just combined.
  2. Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased 9.5cm x 33cm loose-bottom fluted tarte tin. Here, you may want to use baking paper to cover only the bottom of the tarte tin, this will make the transition to the serving dish easier.
  3. Place the pears and extra brown sugar in a bowl and toss to coat. Press the pears into the tart mixture and bake for 35–40 minutes or until golden brown. You may not be able to place all your pieces of pear.
  4. Sprinkle with raw sugar and allow to cool in the tin. pear and almond tarte