Forgotten Pudding

I had some left over egg whites in the freezer from last week. And I thought I had double cream and passionfruit at home, whipping up a pavlova would be great, not just any pavlovas but mini nest pavies which I could just put a teaspoon of whipped double cream and passion fruit and pop them straight into my mouth!The sweet crisp mashmallowy texture with cream and tangy passion fruit.My imagination made me salivate.......until I opened my tub of double cream to find pink crystals on the cream.Eeew!Not even past the due date, mind you,it smelt real bad. I had to throw it away obviously but I had passion fruits that were wrinkled so bad. I had no choice but to still make them.Lucky mum wanted to go grocery shopping that night! While shopping, mum came up to me excitedly ," Let me show you something,they are beautiful! Do you want some? If yes, make sure you eat them by tomorrow." What were they? Beautiful red raspberries! I told her I could use them in my pavies. She frowned at me and placed them in the cart! We came home and usual I came up to my room to check facebook.Sucha addict. This time it brought some good to me. Nigella updated her news feed with this fool proof simple dessert- Forgotten Pudding!! I have no idea why it's called a pudding but this is her description:

There is a wonderful poetry to the name of this pudding which, thankfully, once eaten could never be forgotten. It's an old,old recipe popularly exhumed- I believe_ by the late, great Richard Sax. Think of it as a kind of mashmallow-based pavlova. That's to say, you whip the egg whites as if making meringue, spread on a swiss roll tin ( or that's how I make it) put it in an oven which you immediately switch off,leaving the pudding to cook overnight,hence 'forgotten'.

Interesting enough.Anyway here's the recipe I got from her website, adapted version as she used 6 egg whites and I only had 4.

4 egg whites

a big pinch of salt

200g caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

300ml double cream

4 passion fruits

1 packet of raspberries

1. Preheat oven to 220 C/ Gas 7
2. In a large clean bowl, whisk egg whites and salt until peaks begin to form.
3. Gradually add the 2oog of sugar, then the cream of tartar and vanilla, whisking all at maximum speed,until the whites are stiff and glossy.
4. Spread meringue mixture evenly on baking parchment paper or buttered swiss roll tin.
5. Put in the oven,close the door, then immediately switch off the oven and leave overnight, without opening the door or even thinking of peeking. shooo go sleep!=P
6. When you want to serve it, remove to a large plate.
7. Whisk the double cream in a well chilled bowl using well chilled balloon whisk until thick but soft and spread over the mashmallow meringue.
8. Scoop out the seeds and pulp of the passion fruit and dot them over the cream. Tumble the raspberries over the top.
9. Cut into slices and serve.

Viola~

Lemon Yogurt Cake

I have made this cake before in October last year and also had a post on it but I realised it didn't look appealing. We always judge a book by its cover,well most of us.I know I do. Today I decided to follow the recipe exactly, word by word. It turned out good the other time as well but mum just got a new oven so I just wanted to be on the safer side.This is a very simple one bowl lemon yogurt cake!Delish~

Recipe from Donna Hay's book - Fast,Fresh, Simple. Barely adapted.

180ml vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 tablespoon lemon rind

2 tablespoon lemon juice, about two medium lemons

280g thick natural yogurt

400g caster sugar

300g self raising flour

For the lemon frosting

150 g caster sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/160 C - for fan forced/gas 4
2. Place oil,eggs,rind,lemon juice,yogurt and sugar in a bowl and whisk to combine. Sift over the flour and stir until smooth.
3. Pour the mixture into a greased 8"/9" round baking pan and bake for 65 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. While cake is still hot remove from the tin and place on a plate.
4. To make the lemon frosting, gently stir together the sugar and lemon juice. Spoon over the cake and allow to set.
5. Serve warm. It's so good on it's own!

Kue Nastar (Indonesian Pineapple cookies)

Ahh the blissfulness of having melt in the mouth pineapple tarts. Seriously,I always thought the ones I have been making for the past 10 years was the pineapple tarts but when I tried this recipe out because after months of not making my pineapple tarts I kinda forgot the recipe.Well mostly it was feel,touch and taste.

I brought these ready made pineapple jam from Malaysia to make pineapple cookies but never really got around it.I will be leaving Sydney for good in June so I had to start clearly my pantry of junk accumulated over the past 4 1/2 years I have been here. (Can't believe I have been in and out of Sydney for sucha long time) No the pineapple jam is not 4 1/2 years old.I brought them over last semester.

I have been wanting to making these so called melt in the mouth pineapple cookies for the longest time but never found a recipe that I was comfortable with,I mean a recipe,in my gut feeling, is the right one.

I stumbled upon this amazing blog Bisous A Toi while surfing the net for recipes and I must admit I was hooked as I was scrolling her blog. Love at first sight.Why? Because she has recipes that I have been longing to recreate/bake & her ideas are interesting to inspire.This is my version of the nastar recipe.I played around with the ingredients to see if I could get the texture and taste I wanted.And I am almost there.=) Yeay!

250g unsalted butter

50g caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

275g plain flour

75g corn flour

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoon full cream milk powder

egg wash (one yolk with a little milk mixtured together)

approx 500g pineapple filling ( I used store bought one, I made my own pineapple filling before but didn't like the taste of it.Will have to play around with the flavours and get a proper recipe)

1. The night before ( you could make these 2 hours before as well), I made little pineapple rolls out of the filling.60 balls.And refrigerate it to harden.


2. Beat butter,sugar & vanilla until well combined.Don't overbeat it,you don't want to incorporate too much air into the mixture)
3. Add egg yolks and blend to combine with a wooden spoon or hand held mixer.
4. Then add the flours and milk powder and gently mix to combine.
5. Roll out little balls,this recipe should give 60 mini balls.With the palms of your hands, flatten each balls and place one pineapple filling ball in the dough. Then with two palms roll the pineapple filled dough into a ball again.
6. Once all the cookies are done brush the cookies with egg wash.
7. Bake in a preheated oven of 175 C for 20-30 minutes.
   
   
   
   

Mini plum crumble

The sweetness of the crumble and the tangy flavour of the plums is a match made in heaven combo.I never really liked sour things in my desserts because I always loved my desserts to be only sweet but ever since I made a couple of good sweet-tangy desserts,I have to admit I'm hooked! While grocery shopping the other day, I found these beautiful plums on sale 2 something dollars a kilo!Pretty cheap I would say. Back in Malaysia, I got my Australian plums for RM 9 for 500 g, that's like 6 dollars for a kilo.Three times more! This is a simple recipe I created. And it was delicious!Let's wait till mum comes home to give me the feedback she got from her colleagues at work. She took some for them!

6 ripe plums or any stone fruit you like

3/4 cup plain flour

75g cold butter,cubed

1/2 cup caster sugar

vanilla sugar for sprinkling on top

melted butter for lining muffin pan

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Brush 1-12 hole regular muffin pan generously with melted butter.
2. Core the plums and cut them into small chunks. Pat them dry with a kitchen towel and place them in the refrigerator until needed.
3. In a large bowl, butter, sugar and flour are rubbed together into a mixture that resembles 'oats' or like very coarse breadcrumbs. Chill it in the fridge for half hour before assembling the plum crumble for baking.
4. Divide the plum chunks equally into the 12 hole muffin pan, before scattering the crumble mixture generously on top of the plums. Sprinkle vanilla sugar also generously on top the crumble.
5. Bake for 30 -35 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
6. Carefully scoop the plum crumble from the muffin pan with a spoon. Serve warm with a dollop of double cream.

Fig tart

Mum never knew what figs tasted but heard so much about it so she bought figs on We

dnesday evening. Then she realised she didn't know what to do with it.Genius! I stumbled upon a couple of fig tart recipes in the past and thought maybe I will try of the recipes but I couldn't find my saved recipes.Hate it when I look for a particular recipe,I can't find it and when I don't need it,it pops out.=.=" I showed my boyfriend a picture of my fig tart and he asked me what is figs. My reply was Good question.I know I may sound bimbo but I honestly didn't know what it was so I googled it and this was the only understandable description of a fig,quite obvious though.LOL.

A Fig is A soft pear-shaped fruit with sweet dark flesh and many small seeds, eaten fresh or dried.

I made a simple frangipane tart filling with a puff pastry base and topped it with honey coated figs

1 1/2 sheet store bought puff pastry,thawed

100g butter, melted and cooled

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup almond meal

3/4 cup plain flour

7 figs, quartered

1 vanilla pod, scraped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100ml honey

1. Preheat the oven to 200C .Lightly butter a rectangular tart pan, then cut an exact size of puff pastry for the base of the pan. Then for the sides. Bake the base for 10 minutes.
2. While baking the base, in a large bowl place the dry ingredients ( almond meal,sugar & plain flour ) and in a measuring jug, place the wet ingredients (eggs, melted butter,vanilla extract and beans). Mix the water and dry ingredients until well combined.
3. Remove the base from the oven, pierce the pastry with a fork then gently scope the frangipane filling into the base and bake for another 25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean and the pastry is puffed and golden.
4. Place the figs and honey in a bowl and toss gently to coat and set aside.
5. Top the pastry with the coated figs and bake for another 5 minutes.
6. Dust with icing sugar and serve with double cream.