Fat Friday #21 Salted Buttered Toffees

Christmas is fast approaching. Have you finished that shopping yet? Better get a move on. If you planning to make some small gifts to give out to friends and work colleagues may I suggest these buttery soft toffees? They want to be caramels but are more toffee like. Or are they more caramels who wants to be more like a toffee? Either way, they make great gifts once you've wrapped them up in cellophane bags with a cute little ribbon plus a cute little tag (thanks Chloe!) and they are extremely addictive. Be warned...addictive!!



 

Recipe: Makes 40 soft toffees (depending on how big you cut the pieces) (Recipe adapted from Sweet Things by Annie Rigg) 

Ingredients:

·       150g Demerara sugar

·       125g golden syrup

·       100g unsalted butter, diced

·       250ml double cream

·       150g caster sugar

·       ½ teaspoon of sea salt, plus a little extra for garnish

·       ½ vanilla pod seeds

Equipment:

·       Baking tray greased with sunflower oil and lined with silicone

·       Sugar thermometer

·       Small saucepan

·       Rubber spatula

·       2 litre saucepan

·       Knife

·       Extra baking paper

·       Airtight container

Method

1.    Grease the tin with sunflower oil and line the tin with silicone paper.
2.    Put the Demerara sugar, golden syrup, butter, double cream in a small pan and place over a low heat.
3.    Stir the mixture until smooth and once the mixture is hot, remove the pan from the heat.
4.    Place the caster sugar in a 2 litre pan with the 2 tablespoons of water and place over a low heat. Don’t stir the mixture but swirl the pan from time to time. Continue to cook until the mixture turns an amber colour.
5.    Slide the pan off the heat and really carefully pour the hot cream mixture into the caramel mixture. It will hiss and spit so do be careful. Return the pan to a medium heat and place a sugar thermometer into the mixture and cook in 121c/250f.
6.    As quick as you can add the vanilla seeds and sea salt and stir briefly to combine and pour into the prepared tin.
7.    Leave to cool completely for at least for 4 hours or overnight.
8.    Cut into little pieces with a hot knife, sprinkle with a little sea salt and wrap in silicone paper in cute twists and store in an airtight jar.

 

Fat Friday #18 Rice Pudding Terrine served with a Salted Liqorice Parfait and Bitter Chocolate Sorbet

Welcome to Novembers last Fat Friday. This quite an usual dessert, it sounds like something that would grace the table of a nice little kitch restaurant. Well for now it will grace this blogs Fat Friday #18. I was not convinced to start with, but tasting the finished dessert was sweet, salty and creamy all in one. Its a great dinner party dessert and will impress dinner guests. Tuille is a type of very thin biscuit that can be shaped as soon as it comes out of the oven. However, in this recipe they are kept straight for height. Also for future reference, a parfait is a type of mousse and as Donkey says: "Everybody like parfait!"

Recipe: Makes 1 terrine, which will serve 6-8 people (recipe kindly  provided by my pastry tutor).

Rice Pudding:

·       50g sugar

·       75g risotto rice

·       350ml milk

·       100ml double cream, plus 100ml extra lightly whipped cream

·       1 ½ leaves gelatine

·       1 vanilla pod split lengthways

Pastry Cream:

·       100ml milk

·       75ml double cream

·       40g sugar

·       1 egg yolk

·       5g cornflour

Rice Tuilles

·       35g egg whites

·       40g icing sugar

·       100g reserved rice pudding

Salted Liquorice parfait

·       200ml double cream

·       100ml water

·       150g sugar

·       6 egg yolks

·       40ml liquorice essence

·       Fine sea salt

Bitter Chocolate Sorbet

·       750ml water

·       250ml milk

·       50g sugar

·       75ml glucose

·       100g cocoa powder

·       240g bitter chocolate

Equipment:

·       Saucepan

·       Rubber spatula

·       Bowl x 3

·       Blender

·       Pastry brush

·       Baking sheet

·       Whisk

·       Measuring jug

·       A square container that is suitable for freezing x 2

·  Ice cream machine

·  Fine sieve

 

For the rice pudding

1.    In a saucepan, simmer the pods, milk, cream, rice and sugar for 20 minutes until thick and creamy. 

2.    Remove from the heat and reserve 100g of the rice pudding for tuilles.  

3.    Place the gelatine in cold water until it is soft and add to the remaining rice pudding. Place both the rice puddings in the fridge to cool.

For the pastry cream:

1.    Bring the cream and milk to the boil.

2.    Whisk the egg yolk, sugar and flour.

3.    Combine the two mixtures and return to the pan until thickened. Leave to cool

For the rice tuille:

1.    Place the egg whites, sugar and rice pudding into a blender and puree to a smooth-ish texture.

2.    Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

3.    Brush onto a sill matt using a pastry brush into a thin strips and bake on gas mark 3/170c/ 325f for 5 minutes or until golden brown.

For the parfait:

1.    Whisk the cream to ribbon stage. So almost whipped but not quite there.

2.    Place the sugar and water into a pan and cook to a deep caramel.

3.    Whisk the egg yolks until pale.

4.    Once the caramel is ready, slowly add the eggs whilst whisking.

5.    Fold in the cream and essence and place into a square shaped container and freeze.

Bitter Chocolate sorbet:

1.    Place the water, milk, sugar and glucose in a pan and bring to the boil.

2.    Whisk the cocoa powder into the milk mixture and pour the hot liquid over the chocolate to melt it. Whisking as you go.

3.    Strain through a fine sieve and freeze in an ice cream machine.

To Serve:

1. Cut the rice pudding into a rectangle on a plate.
2. Cut the parfait into a rectangle shape and place directly place on top of the pudding. Make sure its not too thick.
3. Scoop a little of the ice cream and place on top of the parfait.
4. Quickly place a tuille biscuit on top. Nom.

So would you order this dish? What do you think of the combination?

Fat Friday #13 Blackberry Lemonade Marshmallows

Its unlucky week number 13 for Fat Friday! This week we're  looking at blackberry lemonade marshmallows. The tartness of the citric acid makes the white half really taste like lemonade. The blackberry was added because it's blackberry season here in the UK. It's actually a coincidence that this recipe is being published on week 13, because the first time I made marshmallows it went so wrong that I nearly cried with the amount of mess that was leftover. This time it much better than expected and they were so tasty. I gave them to a couple of friends at college and they thought they were lovely as well. I would suggest that you eat the marshmallows as soon as possible because they will sweat once you dust them with icing sugar. 

Recipe: 30 minutes (Depending on how many you cut) (Adapted recipe from Sweet Things by Annie Rigg)

Ingredients:

·       2 tablespoons corn-flour

·       2 tablespoons icing sugar

·       Sunflower oil

·       The zest of one lemon and the juice

·       200g blackberries

·       350g caster sugar

·       ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

·       6 gelatine leaves

·       2 large egg whites

·       A little salt

·       ¼ citric acid

Equipment:

·       20cm square baking tin

·       Baking sheet

·       Silicone paper x 2

·       Sugar thermometer

·       Knife

·       Saucepan

·       Blender

·       Free-Standing whisk

·       Rubber spatula

·       Palette knife

·       Sieve

·       Fine sieve

Method

1.    Mix the cornflour and icing sugar together in a bowl. Lightly grease the tin with the sunflower oil and line with silicone paper, lightly grease this again. Dust with the icing sugar and cornflour mix and save the rest for later.  
2.    Finely great the zest and save the juice and put aside.

3.    Place a saucepan with the blackberries and 1 tablespoon of sugar on low heat. Cook until blackberries have burst and they become soft.

4.    Using a blender blend until really soft and push the blackberry puree through a fine sieve to remove the pips.
5.    Cook the blackberry puree until it becomes a jam like consistency. Add the vanilla and remove from heat.

6.    Cover the gelatine in cold water in a separate bowl.
7.    In a free-stand mixer place the egg whites, salt and 1 tablespoon of caster sugar.

8.    Tip the rest of the caster sugar into a clean saucepan with 150ml of  water and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Bring the syrup to boil until it reaches 120c/248f.
9.    Working fast switch the free standing whisk on to whisk the egg whites fast until the hold a stiff peak.
10.    Drain the gelatine and add to the sugar syrup, combine with a rubber spatula.

11.   With the mixture running on a medium speed pour the sugar syrup into the egg whites (be careful not to get any on whisk). After whisking for 3 minutes it should have doubled in size, it should be thick and glossy.
12.   Put half the mixture in another bowl and add the reserved lemon zest and citric acid. Mix well, spread in the prepared baking tin and spread evenly with a palette knife.
13.  Fold the blackberry puree into the other half of the marshmallow mixture and combine.
14.  Smooth over the lemon marshmallow to create a double layer of marshmallow.

15.  Once completely cold cover the marshmallow with clingfilm and leave to set overnight.

16.   To serve, tip the rest of the cornflour/icing sugar mixture onto a silicone paper lined tray.
17. Tip the marshmallow out of the lined, carefully peel the paper off.
18. Cut the marshmallow into pieces and roll in the icing sugar/cornflour mixture to coat.

Have you made any marshmallows before?
Happy Baking! and Have a great weekend!