HHDD#21 - Tiramisu

I am barely getting my entry in for this round of Hey Hey it's Donna Day, literally by the skin of my teeth. I've been thinking about this all month and I've had so much stuff on with family and friends that I've hardly managed to do any cooking at all.

So seeing as today is a very beautiful day and it's supposed to rain tomorrow we decided to dine al fresco tonight a.k.a sitting inside the french doors as we were too lazy to get the patio table and chairs out. So homemade beef burgers and salad with goats cheese it was followed by a very deconstructed and simple tiramisu flavoured with orange, chocolate and honey. This was gorgeous, mascarpone is so good and I managed to get organic mascarpone too, lovely organic oranges slightly reduced to make a syrup, and the best chocolate - Cadburys flake!!!


So here's what you'll need for 2 people:

12 lady fingers/savoiardi biscuits, 6 per person
125g mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp honey
juice and zest of 2 oranges
cadburys flake or similar crumbled
1tsp galliano (or vanilla extract)

Zest the 2 oranges and then juice them. Put the juice in a pot and bring to the boil. Boil the juice for 2-3 mins until thickened very slightly. Cool.
Mix the mascarpone with the honey and galliano.
Place 2 biscuits on a plate, soak with the orange syrup and top with a dollop of the mascarpone.
Place another 2 biscuits on top, soak and top with mascarpone.
Do this a third time finishing with a dollop op mascarpone.
Sprinkle with orange zest and crumbled flake.

This was gorgeous, I was marginally worried it wouldn't be but it was light and sweet and perfect to enjoy sitting in the evening sun.

Perfect profiteroles

I've been so bad not posting for the last 2 weeks and after the amazing reponse I had to my Daring Bakers Challenge, very exciting getting 50 comments and every time I got a new one I was emailing my husband at work to tell him!! I'm sure he was thinking how easily amused I am but what can ya do?!?!?!

So last weekend we were in London for our second wedding anniversary (we ate in the Jamie Oliver restuarant (meh! not that it was bad I was just slightly non-plussed and I really like Jamie's books and programmes) and had the most fantastic brunch here in Covent Garden, and this weekend we were at an engagement party for some friends who got engaged on a Caribbean cruise, with the most perfect amazingly romantic proposal, so congrats to S&E we are so thrilled for you!!!

The day before we went to London I was craving profiteroles, every since I made the profiteroles with the honey orange cream and cardamom icing I've been thinking about the texture of the choux pastry and the gorgeous flavours but seeing as my sister was coming for these I stuck to the traditional profiterole and filled them with sweetened cream and topped them with the most amazing chocolate sauce I got from m&s.


These were fantastic, light pastry and they cooked so well, I used a different recipe to the one I used for HHDD#20 and to be honest I preferred this one, it was slightly sweet and thicker than the one I made for HHDD. I used a recipe from a chef whose pretty big in the UK, James Martin, I have his Desserts book and am falling back in love with it. I made some desserts from it at christmas and wasn't impressed at all but I've tried a couple of different things since then an got the mille feuille idea from my last post from browsing his book and he is rising in my estimation again after me being sorely disappointed with him at Christmas.

So anyway, enough rambling here y'all are to make 24 generous sized profiteroles or 16 eclairs:

125ml milk
100g butter that's been cut into little cubes
3g fine salt
g caster sugar (I used golden caster sugar)
150g flour, sifted
4 medium eggs

Preheat the oven to Gas 7/220.
Put the water, milk, butter, salt and sugar into a saucepan and heat over a high heat for 1 minute stirring all the time. Take the pan off the heat and add the flour stirring all the time until the mixture is smooth.
When the mixture is smooth put the pan back on the heat and stir for another minute. (The paste will poach and the water will evaporate but make sure not to let it dry out too much or it will crack when it's cooking). Add the eggs one by one mixing each one in before you add the next egg stirring well until the mixture is smoothe and silky.
Spoon the mix into a piping bag and pipe the choux into whatever you are making profiteroles or eclair. Use a finger dipped in water to smoothe tops of your profiteroles.
When you are putting the choux into the oven throw a cup of water into a heated baking tray, this will create steam and help the choux to rise. Open the door after about 5 mins to allow the steam to escape and wedge the door open open a small ammount.
Cook for 10-20 mins depending on how big your profiteroles are or until golden brown. Mine took about 20-25 mins but my oven may have been open a but much.


Fill will cream either using a piping bag or cut the choux in half and spoon in, top with melted chocolate or in my case gorgeous rich chocolate sauce. Enjoy!!!

Mini speckled chocolate cheesecakes

After last weekend cheesecake sisaster I decided it was time to try again to assuage my cheesecake craving and get the creamy hit that I was looking for. I've wanted to make a chocolate cheesecake for a while and after searching the food blog search etc I settled on Nigella's chocolate cheesecake recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess, but with a couple of changes.

This is a traditional cheesecake made with eggs and cream cheese and baked in a water bath, I decided to make individual cakes as this makes sure I'm not eating a mahoosive slice and saying it's just a slice (tee hee). I used crushed chocolate bits that I whizzed in the food processor as opposed to melting the chocolate and adding it to the mix to make a swirled cheesecake like the brownies I made before. I used ginger nuts for the base instead of digestives as I like the ginger flavour is brings to the cake.

I was delighted with the results, creamy and rich but with a bitter hit of chocolate and a lovely gingery flavour. I think my craving has been satisfied for now, moving onto something more exciting next which I've made already but will remain a secret until next weekend but just to tell you it was a dream to make and I love love love the new skill I've gotten though it too, dying to share with you all


Anyway, enough rambling here's the recipe:

125g biscuits crushed, ginger nuts or digestives work best
50g butter, melted.
500g creamcheese
3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
150g sugar
175ml sour cream
1tsp lime juice
150 plain choclate, melted.

Heat the oven to Gas 4/180 and boil a kettle full of water.
Process the biscuits and mix with the butter, put this into the bottom of a 20 cm springform tin or 6 individual moulds if you have them, and chill this while you make the creamcheese mix.
Whisk the creamcheese until it's smoothe, add the sugar and then the eggs one by one whisking each one in well before you add the next.
Add the sour cream and lime juice.
Fold in the chocolate bits and pour the mix into your tin.
Put your springform tin into a large roasting tin and fill the roasting tin with water until it comes 2-3 cm's up the sides of the springform.
If using a 20cm tin bake for an hour, if using individual moulds approx 20 mins.
Sit on a rack to cool and dust with icing sugar when ready to serve.

This was gorgeous, creamy and chocolatey and bitter all at the same, definitely one to make again. Hope you enjoy it if you try it

Cheesecake Topped Brownies

So to carry on the lucious chocolate theme and also because I'm seriously back on the diet wagon and torturing myself with food I can't have I want to post these as I made them last weekend and they were amazing!!! I got this recipes AGES ago from La Tartine Gourmande who adapted the recipe and had in turn got it from Epicurious, I'd wanted to make these for ages but never got around to it and Paddy's weekend seemed like as good a time as any!

These are DIVINE!!!! I am in love with them and since they were all devoured I've been thinking about the lovely cheesecakey goodness on the lovely rich chocolate base. I wanted to eat them all myself but finally saw sense and only ate a few (read about 5 here). Also this recipe was in cup measurements, the original is here on Epicurious and another above on La Tartine Gourmande, I weighed everything but please remember it's approximate in case it doesn't work out
Here's what you'll need:

For the Brownie Batter:

• 3 oz 70% dark chocolate
• 100g flour, sifted
  
• 4oz butter, diced
• 165g caster sugar
  
• 2 large eggs
• Pinch of salt
  

For the Cheesecake Batter:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
  
• 1 large egg yolk
• 75g caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350F/180C/Gas 4 and line an 8 inch square tun with buttered parchment.
Mix all the cheesecake ingredients together and set aside
Melt the chocolate and butter in a double-boiler. Let slightly cool.
Beat together the eggs and sugar with a pinch of salt until light and pale in color.
Add 2 tbsp chocolate first, then fold in the rest of the chocolate, keeping the mix as light as possible.
Sprinkle the flour on top, and fold in delicately.
Pour the chocolate mix into the pan.
Add the cheesecake batter on top and make a swirly design in it using a fork or knife.
Bake for 30 mins, at this point the brownies will be slightly gooey still. If you prefer them more cooked, increase the cooking time by 5 min or so.
Let these cool in the tin before cutting them, you should get about 16 out of this recipe

Enjoy!!!!

Chocolate Ganache Cakes

So this weekend myself and the husbag were away visiting my family who live in Waterford, my cousins are a good few years younger than me so I'd promised I would cook with them and cook we did. We made my smoked haddock fishcakes on Friday night with roasted root vegetables and Italian style broccoli and green beans, homemade pasta filled with ricotta and basil with a fresh tomato sauce and these AMAZING chocolate ganache cakes courtesy of Kieran.

What can I say about these cakes, I've wanted to make them since Kieran blogged about them nin January but the diet started then so they went in my del.icio.us and I kept looking for an occasion to make them and what better time than visiting my family whose 2 children, Lol and J are complete chocoholics!!!

These were a sinch to make, there's chocolate, cream, vanilla and cognac and they are one of the most delicious desserts I've had in a very very long time. The only changes I made to the recipe, were to use vanilla extract instead of a vanilla pod as I didn't have one to hand, everything else was the same and the original recipe is here. I also wanted to use my new individual mini cheesecake tins, which I could find nowhere apart from ebay until I stumbled upon them in a fantastic kitchen shop called Cook Shop in Cork on Saturday AND they were on sale so how could a girl leave them behind?!?!? Everything will be in miniature from now on.........................

Make these and relish in their amazing chocolatey deliciousness

Murphy's Banana Ice-Cream with Chocolate Shavings

Now I am sure I didn't need any more dessert this weekend after the baked chocolate tart but I promised the husbag that I'd make him banana ice-cream with chocolate chips and being the perfect wife that I am I couldn't let him down!!! ;-) tee hee and a girl can never have too much chocoalte either!!

So last week Kieran posted the most gorgeous sounding banana ice-cream with chocolate shavings recipe and I just had to try it. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with bananas, sometimes I can't get enough of them and sometimes I won't touch them. I think it's all the little stringy bits to be honest and I prefer them slightly under ripe as the flavour is different to a really ripe one.

So anyway enough rambling about my relationship with bananas here's the recipe, I have changed the order of the ingredients to reflect the order I used them in and the original is available in the link above.

• 2 large bananas (the original recipe called for 3 but mine we MAHOOSIVE so I used 2)
  
• 15 ml (1 tablespoon) fresh lemon juice
  
• 130g sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 200 ml milk
• 240 ml cream
• 20 g good quality dark chocolate (I probably used a bit more as I threw in some extra chips once I had the first 20g in)

Combine the bananas with the lemon juice and blend or mash until smooth, I used a blender to make the bananas as smooth as possible cos the idea of lumps just doesn't do it for me but you might like your bananas a little lumpier.

Put the bananas in a small saucepan, add two tablespoons of sugar and cook over low heat, stirring all the time. Don’t over-cook them as once they're warm they should release a strong banana smell so you'll know then that's enough!

Beat the rest of the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow.

Bring the milk to a low simmer in a small saucepan and then beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.

Put the mixture back into the saucepan and place over low heat. Stir continuously until the custard thickens slightly (around 65-70C) and coats the back of a spoon. Don’t over-heat the mixture because at around 76C you will scramble the eggs! I never use a thermometer for this part but if you have one then I'd say to use it cos it'll be much easier.

Mix in the bananas and transfer the custard into a small container, cover and put into the fridge until cool

Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks - don’t over-whip and fold the cream into the custard.

I have an ice-cream maker and very rarely use it as I'm just too lazy to put the bowl in the freezer overnight I guess. It's just as easy to stir every hour or so I find. But if you're using an ice-cream machine then put it in for about 15 mins and then put it in the freezer until it's solid

I used chocolate chips as I had some left over from christmas and mixed them in after 4 hours in the freezer.

This was the first ice-cream I've made with milk in it and it was lovely and light. Am definitely a fan of fresh banana ice-cream and will make this again.

Chocolicious Baby

Seeing as my cheesecake was such a disaster I decided to make a tart, something I know I'm definitely good at and NEVER goes wrong for me.

So out came the books and surprise, surprise Jamie Oliver won out. A baked chocolate tart from the Naked Chef was just what I needed to get over my mother laughing at my upset and my husband trying to be supportive but it really not making any difference cos I am a cheesecake making failure!!! (boo hoo) :-(

So this is a baked tart, it's made with the same shortcrust sweet pastry I made a couple of weeks ago and I have had a tart shell frozen since then, thank god as my friend Cleo wouldn't have gotten anything other than a digestive biscuit if I hadn't had it in the freezer.



There wasn't any of my usual Green & Blacks cooks chocolate or even Lindt in my local supermarket so I ended up with Blake's Organic 71% chocolate which I have never used before but it worked out just fine.



So here's what you need:

• 1 tart shell, blind baked
• 140g/5 oz unsalted butter
• 150g/5 1/2 oz best quality cooking chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 8 tbsps cocoa powder, sifted
• small pinch of salt
• 4 eggs
• 200g/7 oz caster sugar
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 3 medium heaped tbsp of creme fraiche (you can use sour cream here either)

Put the chocolate, butter, cocoa and salt in a bowl over a simmering pot of water. Allow to melt slowly, stirring occasionally until well mixed. In a seperate bowl mix the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy and then add the golden syrup and creme fraiche. Stir your chocolate into this mixture making sure to get all of it out of the bowl you melted it in. Once well mixed pour it into the pastry shell. Place into a preheated oven for 40-45 mins at 150/gas 2. During cooking a crust will form on top.

The book says the filling will shrink and crack while cooling. While mine shrank it didn't crack at all and it is rich and lucious and supremely chocolicious.