laurasaur

Well my husband came home slightly intoxicated tonight. First question: Do we have any more pie? Me: haha no you ate it all last night. Hubby: (standing in front of fridge) I’m going to make sticky date pudding!! Me: (staring in disbelief) um, okay? Do you want me to make you something? Hubby: (guilty look) Yes please baby!!

Haha OK that is a slightly shortened version but he is really cute. And a huge fan of toothsome desserts with fruit. So we didn’t have very many dates, and I hugely improvised this recipe with amazing success

Pudding:
100g dried dates (pitted)
150g sultanas – you can vary the quantities of the sultanas/dates as long as they add up to 250g.
1 tsp baking soda
250ml/1 cup water

125g butter at room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour

Coconut Caramel Sauce:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup coconut cream

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place dates, raisin and baking soda into a bowl. Pour over boiling water. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold through date mixture and flour until just combined.

Spoon mixture into casserole dish or cake pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Pierce holes in top with a skewer and then pour some of the syrup over the top.

To make the sauce: place sugar and water in a heavy based saucepan. Heat over medium heat until dissolved, stirring often with a wooden spoon. Once all the sugar is dissolved, stop stirring and heat until mixture turns golden brown. This will take about 8 minutes, but I looked away and mine burnt slightly.

Once it is brown, pour in coconut cream. It will bubble and sizzle like crazy but stir it anyway for about 3 minutes until all incorporated and thickened. Remove from heat and store leftovers in a jar in the fridge.

Pâte Sucrée is delicious and so easy to make yourself, you will never buy it ready made again.

The only thing you need to respect is to not overwork the dough.

This recipe is not as traditional as I did not have the full measure of almonds, so I added the finely sliced zest of one lemon to make up some of the difference, and the taste comes through very strongly.

300g salted butter, at room temperature
190g icing sugar
30g ground almonds
seeds from 1 vanilla bean
2 eggs
500g plain flour
finely chopped zest 1 lemon

Assemble all ingredients before starting.

Beat butter until soft and creamy in KA or by hand.

Add icing sugar, ground almonds, lemon zest and vanilla seeds. Beat until combined.

Add eggs one at a time, beating between each one until fully incorporated.

Remove from mixer if using and add all of the flour. Gently combine until dough is just crumbly but just holds together, do not overwork or it will be tough and chewy instead of flaky and crispy.

Divide into 3 balls, flatten gently and wrap tightly in gladwrap. Chill for 2 hours before using.

The dough can now be stored in the fridge for 2 days, or in the freezer for a month (Defrost fully in fridge before using).

I have refridgerated most of this, but I had to make a special treat for hubby.. a quick messy freeform strawberry pie which by all accounts was delicious!

This is a mildly spicy flavoursome pie. Based lightly on B’stilla it is slightly time consuming but very much worth it for a lazy Sunday.

Loads more pictures and step by step recipe by clicking on “more…” below.

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Some things you just can’t improve on. Fudgy, Dense and rich brownies are one of them. These are not for the faint hearted or those on a diet. I have never worked out the calorie content nor do I want to!

These are MUCH better the second day, and are at their best when having been stored in the fridge overnight and then brought to room temperature.

For this recipe it is important to use a good quality rich cocoa powder and good quality eggs. Check often while baking to ensure you don’t overcook them or they will not be fudgy.

Adapted from Salt Lake City Examiner

1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder
320g/11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60-72%), chopped coarsely
225g/8 ounces butter/2 sticks, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C. Line a 9×13x2 pan with baking paper and grease the paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and cocoa powder.

Fill a large saucepan about 1/4 – of the way with water and bring to a simmer. Place a large heat proof bowl over the simmering water (the bottom should not be touching the water) to make a large double boiler. Place the chocolate and butter in the bowl of the double boiler and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are almost completely melted and combined. Once they are melting, the heat from the chocolate and butter that is already melting will help to melt the rest of the unmelted butter and chocolate in the bowl. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler and add both sugars. Whisk the sugars until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. Let it cool before adding the eggs so that you don’t scramble and cook them into your batter.

Add three eggs to the chocolate and butter mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining 2 eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not over beat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey instead of fudgy.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate. Use a rubber spatula (not a whisk!) to fold the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture. Fold the ingredients together until there is just some of the flour mixture visible so that you don’t overwork the batter.
Pour the mixture into the pan and smooth the top with your spatula. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes (rotating the pan half-way through baking)

Check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving.

Makes 24 small brownies.

This was one of the most disappointing things I have ever baked. I don’t know what I did wrong but it was very time consuming and very ugly. My second (top) shortbread layer split and I had to patch it up a abit. But hey, it tasted delicious but I won’t be making this again any time soon.

Adapted from “Ladies, a Plate” by Alexa Johnston..

shortcake:

170g/6oz butter
115g/4oz sugar
1 egg
250g/2 cups flour
1 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp baking powder

caramel filling:

390g/1 tin condensed milk
100g/4 tbsp golden syrup
115g/4oz butter
1/2 cup sugar
vanilla to taste

icing:

120g/1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C and line a 12×8 tin. Make the filling by combining filling ingredients in a saucepan over low heat until all mixed together.

Cream the butter and sugar together and beat in the egg. Add the sifted dry ingredients and vanilla and mix to a dough. Divide in half and chill for about 15 minutes.

Roll one half out and place in the prepared tin. Pour over the caramel filling. Roll out the second half and place on top.

Bake for 20 minutes of until firm on top. Ice while hot with the chocolate icing, made by combining the icing sugar and cocoa with the butter (melted) and enough hot water to make spreadable. I think a better option would be melted chocolate.

My rolling skills are poor!!