Passionfruit and Lemon Tart with Burnt Sugar

This is a fabulous dessert by Mindfood. I did not change the recipe at all and it turned out perfectly. As you can see from the picture it was not so easy to cut! But a great dessert that is not too sweet.

 Sweet Pastry (or use the bought stuff)

125g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

1 egg, plus two yolks

250g flour

Passionfruit And Lemon Filling

2 cups cream

½ cup sugar

1 lemon, zest only

3 egg yolks, plus two eggs

175ml lemon juice

85ml passionfruit pulp, whisked and seeds strained

caster sugar for the glaze

whipped cream or ice cream, to serve

3 passionfruit, halved, to serve

Method

Take a medium-sized mixing bowl and cream the butter and sugar together until pale in colour. Add the egg and stir to combine. Next, lightly mix through the flour until dough forms. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate until required.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 28cm diameter by 3cm height round flan tin. Cut out a circle of baking paper to place in the bottom of the tin.

On a lightly floured bench, roll the pastry out to a 5mm thick round. Gently lay the pastry into the flan tin and press into the edges. Using a knife, trim the excess pastry from the lip of the tin. Rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. This will prevent the pastry from shrinking when you bake it.

Blind bake the pastry shell for 20 minutes until slightly golden, using baking paper weighted with beans, rice or similar. Remove the paper and weights, turn the oven down to 150°C and continue to bake until the base is cooked and crisp (about 10 minutes). Beat the yolks lightly and brush around the inside of the tart and return to the oven for a minute. Remove from the oven and cool. (The yolk will create a protective membrane and prevent any possible leakage.)

Turn oven temperature to 120°C.

For the filling, gently heat cream, sugar and lemon zest together in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved.

Whisk eggs and yolks together in a mixing bowl. While whisking continuously, slowly drizzle the hot cream into eggs a little at a time until fully combined. Stir through the lemon juice and passionfruit juice, before straining custard through a sieve. Let custard sit for 5 minutes and skim any froth off the top.

Fill your pre-baked shell with custard and bake for 45-50 minutes until the tart is just set. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate once tart is completely cool.

Sprinkle a healthy layer of caster sugar over your tart and “brûlée” with a gas blowtorch until dark and close to burnt in places.

Portion up with a hot knife and serve with a dollop of cream and half a fresh passionfruit on the side

Sticky Date pudding

This is such an easy recipe and is sure to please guests!

Ingredients
1.5 cups (200g) seeded dried dates
1.5 cups (310ml) boiling water
1 tsp baking soda
50g butter chopped
half cup (100g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour

Butterscotch sauce
3/4 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar
300ml cream
80g butter

1 Preheat oven to 175oC. Grease deep 20cm round cake tin, line base with baking paper.
2 Combine dates and the water in medium heatproof bowl. Stir in soda and stand for 5 minutes.
3 Blend or process date mixture with butter and sugar until pureed. Add eggs and flour, blend or process until just combined. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
4 Bake, uncovered, in oven about 1 hour (cover with foil if pudding starts to overbrown). Stand for 10 minutes; turn onto serving plate. Serve warm with butterscotch sauce, strawberries and vanilla ice-cream.

Butterscotch sauce  Combine ingredients in medium saucepan; stir over low heat until sauce is smooth and slightly thickened.

Serves 8.

Rhubarb Apple Crumble

Ingredients

3 cooking apples, peeled, quartered and cored
1 cup water
20 sticks rhubarb
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated orange rind
100g butter, chopped
½ cup self raising flour
½ cup lightly packed brown sugar
½ cup rolled oats

Method

1 Preheat oven to 180 C.

2 Cut apples into thick slices and place in a saucepan with water. Simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile wash rhubarb and chop into 5 cm lengths. Add rhubarb, sugar and orange rind to apple, return to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes. 

3 Pour mixture into a shallow oven proof dish. Make the crumble by rubbing the butter into the flour, mix in brown sugar, and rolled oats. Sprinkle crumble evenly over the apple and rhubarb and bake for 30 minutes. Serve with icecream, cream or custard.

Cranberry and White Chocolate Biscotti

Because of their dry texture, biscotti are traditionally served with a drink such as coffee or wine, into which they can be dunked. I like to serve it with the white chocolate creme brulee (see recipe in blog) that I also love to eat!

Ingredients
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups flour (2 cups depending on the size of your eggs)
1 tsp baking powder
100g white chocolate, coarsely chopped
70g blanched almonds
100g dried cranberries

Method
1  Preheat oven to 175oC. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla until pale and thick.
2  Add sifted flour and baking powder, chocolate, almonds and cranberries and fold together to form a sticky dough. Divide mixture into two and turn out onto a lined baking tray.
3  Using wet hands, shape dough into two flat logs about 7cm x 20cm. Bake 25-30mins until lightly browned and firm.
4  Reduce oven to 150oC. Allow logs to cool at least 15 minutes then cut into 1cm-thick slices. (I like to cut mine thicker than this). Place on lined trays and bake for 15-20 mins until dry and crisp, turning over halfway through cooking. Cool on wire racks. Makes up to 35.

You can create your own biscotti flavours from this recipe using different chocolate, dried fruit and nuts, rum essence, or finely grated zest of an orange.

White Chocolate Creme Brulee

One of my New Year's resolutions was to get out the gas torch I had been given over a year ago and finally get some gas in it so that I could try making my own creme brulees. Of course, I'm not going to make any ordinary creme brulees, hence, starting with this wonderful dish. I wasn't sure on the size of the ramekins the recipe suggested, so trialed two different sizes and found the smaller cups to be the better size.

Ingredients
5 lg egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups whipping cream
75grams white chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp sugar

1 Preheat oven to 150Celsius and place rack in centre of oven.

2 Whisk egg yolks and 1/4 c sugar in medium bowl.

3 Bring cream and remaining sugar to simmer in medium saucepan, reduce heat to low and gradually add chopped chocolate to cream mixture and whisk until smooth.

4 Gradually whisk hot chocolate mixture into yolk mixture and add vanilla.

5 Ladle custard into four-six custard cups or creme brulee cups depending on how big you want the dessert. Place cups in large baking pan and add enough hot water to come halfway up sides of cups. Bake until custards are set in centre (about 1 hr).

6 Remove custards from water and cool. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

7 Next comes the interesting part. Sprinkle 1/2 tbsp sugar over each custard. Using the grill, or a gas torch caramelise the sugar.

8 Serve hot or refrigerate for about 1 hr and serve cold.

These were served to friends last night and they were delicious. Very smooth and not too rich either. Lovely.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Profiteroles

Here is a delicious recipe that I have now made for the past two Christmas's when the raspberry season is in full swing. I'm sure you could use frozen berries, but I prefer to use in-season fruit and veg as much as possible. Credit needs to go to the December 2008 issue of Taste magazine as this is where this idea has come from. The magazine has a much more spectacular idea, but if you just want dessert for 4-6, this is ideal. Of course, when time, you can make your own profiteroles, but for a quick and easy dessert buy them from the supermarket.

Ingredients:
1 x small bottle of fresh cream
1 x punnet of raspberries
1 x packet of profiteroles from the supermarket (box of 14)
1 x large block of white chocolate (actually you only need half - but someone is sure to want to eat the rest)

Method:
1 Beat the cream until stiff. In a separate bowl, use a fork to swash the raspberries until they are almost liquid. Fold the raspberries into the cream.
2 Cut the profiteroles in half, ready for the cream.
3 Melt the chocolate on a low heat in a bain-marie (that means in a pot of water with the bowl on top). Make sure you stir, as if it gets too hot the chocolate will crumble and not spread well onto the profiteroles. Once melted, let cool a little, but don't let set.
4 Fill the profiteroles with cream and put on the platter for serving. Using a spoon, carefully drizzle the chocolate over the top of each profiterole. Place place in fridge for setting.
5 They are ready to eat as soon as the chocolate is set, but can also be prepared a couple of hours ahead.
6 Before serving, sprinkle some icing sugar over the top and add a few extra raspberries for decoration.