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

Vanilla, Honey and Saffron Pears with a Vanilla and Honey Mascarpone Cream

My click entry - CLICK!!!!

These were our dessert on Sunday evening, I made Indian Spiced Lamb burgers with Herb yogurt which I'll write about later and they were the perfect light end to a lovely meal. They are also my first ever entry for Sugar High Friday that's being hosted in April by Amrita at La Petite Boulangette which is entitled “Asian Sweet Invasion”

This recipe is from a book called Best Ever Book of Wok and Stir-Fry Cooking and it cost me the grand total of €6.95 when I was in Waterford over the easter weekend. I got this book along with another one called Best Ever Indian Cookbook, I don't normally buy books like these but my aunt has the Indian one and being a very visual person I was pulled in my the fantastic pictures.
This was a last minute recipe aswell as I read about April's Sugar High Friday this morning and happened to have everything I needed in my press for once and they were asian influenced to go with the lamb burgers, maybe different parts of asia but asian none the less!!!

For 4 people you'll need:

5oz caster sugar
7tbsp honey
1 tsp finely grated lime zest
large pinch of saffron
1 vanilla pod
500ml water
4 large pears (comice or conference are best)

Put the caster sugar, honey, lime zest, saffron into a wok or large pot.
Cut open the vanilla pods and scrape out the seeds and add to the pot along with the emptied pods.
Pour the water and bring to the boil while you peel the pears.. When the syrup comes to the boil add the pears and gently turn them to coat all sides.
Cover the pot and allow to simmer gently for 12-15 mins turning the pears halfway through. Once the pears are done remove from the pot with a slotted spoon and increase the heat under the pot to high so the syrup comes to a boil.
Allow to reduce for 10 mins until thickened.


For the mascarpone cream:
125g mascarpone or half a tub
125ml cream or half a large carton
seeds from a vanilla pod
1 tbsp honey

Mix everything together well and serve.

I have to say this was one of the nicest dessert I've had in a long long long time!! It was light and the flavours worked so well together after me thinking it smelled a bit weird buring the cooking. We ate all 4 pears despite my good intentions of keeping 2. I also got to play with my new piping bag and in the top pic you can see my new pestle and mortar courtesy of a bargain in TK Maxx in Blanchardstown on Friday night, it's actually for my birthday in a couple of weeks but there's no sense wrapping it now I've seen it is there..............................................................



This is also my entry for April's Click (I hope it's ok to use 1 post to enter 2 events) and this months the theme is Au Naturel so I am entering this picture with the pestle and mortar and the pears as it stuck me as rather nice and as I'm learning more about my camera this is my current favourite shot.

Fingers crossed!!!!!

Rice Rice Baby................................

Tee hee in my head I'm very funny, really I am and I'm singing da da da dala da da to the tune of Ice Ice Baby still!!! Also given the fact that I was hungover today for the second Saturday in a row (I'm a filthy stop out) this was the perfect accompaniment to the sprouts and broccoli with chilli, garlic and lemon that I had for my dinner cos I had no cash in my purse for take away and couldn't have been bothered getting out of my pyjamas to go to the bank!!!

But enough rambling, this is a recipe from Jamie at Home and is as easy as can be, myself and the husbag are big fans of rice pudding, he eats his with jam while I like mine plain, we're still big fans and after having this there'll be no more rice out of a tin for us!!!

You need

1.2 litres of milk
200g pudding rice
2 tbsp vanilla sugar

I used low fat organic milk and the original says full fat but as far as I'm concered there was no difference in taste at all, secondly I used 2 tbsps of normal caster sugar and the seeds of half a vanilla pod. I also cooked the emptied pod with the rice and took it out when it was done.

Put everything into a pot, bring it to a gentle simmer and put the lid on, stir occasionally and after 3o mins, homemade rice pudding WAY better than anything out of a tin. If the rice is a little thick then you can add a bit more milk to it to loosen it. Serve with jam or leave plain