Sugar High Friday #45 - Berries

and a first for me, food processor shortcrust pastry!

I've been thinking about Sugar High Friday all month and had decided to make a blackberry cake topped with meringue but at the last minute we went to the organic farmers market this morning and got organic gooseberries that were freshly picked and also some organic redcurrants too. So I changed my mind about what I was going to make and decided on a gooseberry tart.

In the vein of recent reminiscent posts on Helens blog I have been thinking about my grandparents a lot and particularly my maternal grandfather Michael, he was a tall and wonderful man from a small island off the southern coast of Ireland called Cape Clear (or Oileán Chléire in Irish), he became a teacher and moved to Co. Clare, where my heart lies and this is where he met my grandmother Bríd and they married, moved to Dublin and had 4 children; my mother, my aunt who is also my surrogate mother, my uncle who lives in Australia and my second uncle who lives in the south of Ireland and is a bear of a man vey like my grandfather in height and looks who I am extremely fond of.


My memories of my grandfather, who died when I was quite young, are still very strong, I remember the day he died and how hard it rained, I remember him handing us biscuits that christmas from an assorted tin of biscuits which were and still are very popular in Ireland at christmas time. My main memory though is gooseberries, jam and eating them off the bush in his garden, the sharp sweetness, the lovely crunch when you bit into one and the prickly skin. I don't think I've had gooseberries since I was a child so grandad, this tart reminds me of you and how much I wish you had seen me turn into the married woman that I am today. Crap, I am also premenstrual and crying at something I don't think I've ever cried about before, so apologies if I've gotten a little deep in this post and we haven't even gotten to the recipe yet!!!

Firstly, the food processor pastry which have never made before and am sure purists think is scandalous but seeing as I felt lazy it was easy and is flavoured with vanilla which will compliment the gooseberries perfectly.

From Donna Hay magazine issue 38

250g plain, all purpose flour
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
180g cold butter, chopped
80ml iced water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the flour, caster sugar and baking powder into a food processor and mix.
Add the butter and process until it resembles bread crumbs.
With the motor running, add the water and vanilla essence and process until it all comes together.
Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins.



For the gooseberry tart, taken from Rachel's Favourite Food for Friends by Rachel Allen:

1lb of gooseberries, cleaned and de-stalked (is that a word??)
100g sugar
1 tbsp water

Put the gooseberries, sugar and water in a pot and heat for 4-5 mins until the gooseberries have softened. Turn off the heat and allow to cool in the syrup.

Blind bake your pastry at Gas 3/160 for 15 mins then egg wash and bake for another 15 mins, I used a 14x4 inch long rectangular tart tin. Drain the gooseberries from the syrup and place them in the bottom of the tart.


For the custard:

250ml cream
100g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs

Mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla together and then add the cream. Whisk until well mixed and pour over the gooseberries. Bake for 35-40 mins until the custard is set. Allow to cool and serve with whipped cream and a berry or 2 if you have some left.

This tart was gorgeous, light and custardy with a fantastic tartness from the gooseberries, the perfect combination of sweet and sour to my mind. A perfect summer tart I think, and the pastry was lovely despite it being not my usual method of making it. Special thanks to Susan from Food Blogga for hosting this month and also as usual to Jennifer of the Domestic Goddess for inventing this whole hoopla!

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!!!

Daring Bakers Challenge 4 - Danish Braid

This months Daring Bakers Challenge of a Danish Braid has been my favourite so far. I love love loved it!!!!! We made danish pastry which was something I had never done before and it was fantastically exciting to watch it take shape and then produce something as delicious as an apple strudel inspired danish braid. I also made fresh croissants which my husband was VERY excited about and croissants are one of my favourite foods all fresh and warm from the oven with a wonderful flakiness and the scent of cardamom and orange wafting through the house on the warm breeze (sounds all tropical doesn't it, not near it though just a day of no rain but no summer sunshine here in the Emerald Isle).

I made a couple of changes to the recipe to make it my own but not straying too far from the original so here they are:

• I used 2 medium eggs and 1 egg yolk instead of 2 large eggs
• I added a whole tsp of cardamom as I love it so much I just couldn't help myself
• I had no vanilla pods so I just used the vanilla extract
• I needed to add at least another 1/2 cup of flour as my dough was super sticky, this may have been due to the changing of the eggs but it all worked out fine in the end and the dough was a dream to work with
• I added All Spice to my apple filling as opposed to cinnamon and vanilla, for those of you who don't have All Spice as I'm not sure it it's an Irish thing or an international/european thing it's a pre-blended mix of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves
• I also added 125g sultanas to my apple mixture.
• I used a sugar almond crunch on top of my braid as my husband thinks he "doesn't like" nuts but I use them all the time without telling him and he never leaves anything behind!!!
  

I made my braid with the aid of the wonderful photos from Comida De Mama and found them extremely helpful in pointing me in the right direction in terms of tucking in the end etc, the YouTube video that Kelly posted was also very helpful in terms of advice in keeping the dough rectangular etc.

The pastry was in a word - Divine, I love cardamom and it gave the dough (and the kitchen) the most amazing scent. I think my pastry cooked very well and was flaky and not too crispy and I could really see the layers which was pretty impressive (I thought anyway).

Thank you so much to Kelly and Ben for hosting this months challenge, it's been the most enjoyable and most challenging challenge for me so far and I loved every single second of this, I will definitely be making this again as it's such a versatile dough and I even have the leftovers defrosting down stairs at the moment for todays dessert.


Just to advise you, I have kitchen measuring cups and use them anytime the recipe says cups, apologies to anyone who doesn't have these to hand but as far as I know there's 8 ounces in 1 cup and I'd go with this, so after all that here's the recipe:

Danish Braid inspired by Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking

DANISH DOUGH:

Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough

Ingredients
For the dough (Detrempe)
1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 large eggs, chilled
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

DOUGH
Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Without a standing mixer: Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a hand mixer on low speed or a whisk. Add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice and mix well. Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a fountain. Make sure that the “walls” of your fountain are thick and even. Pour the liquid in the middle of the fountain. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the fountain, slowly working towards the edges. When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky.


BUTTER BLOCK
1. Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.
2. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
4. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

APPLE FILLING
Makes enough for two braids

Ingredients
4 Fuji or other apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes. Then add the apple mixture and sauté until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. If you’ve chosen Fujis, the apples will be caramelized, but have still retained their shape. Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet. After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream topping, for muffins, cheesecake, or other pastries.


DANISH BRAID
Makes enough for 2 large braids

Ingredients
1 recipe Danish Dough (see below)
2 cups apple filling, jam, or preserves (see below)

For the egg wash: 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk

1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.
2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.
3. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.

Egg Wash
Whisk together the whole egg and yolk in a bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly coat the braid.

Proofing and Baking
1. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.
2. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.


Also make sure you check out the other Daring Bakers challenges on the Daring Baker Blogroll here

*Update*: I also made my version of mille feuille using the very end of my pastry, filled with a lemon curd cream (using the recipe from here with the juice of 2 lemons and the zest of 1), sweetened with 1 tbsp honey and whipped and as many strawberries as I could fit in, in a word DIVINE!!!

Lucious Lemon and Lime Cream Tart

To follow on from my shortcrust sweet pastry and to stick with the Jamie Oliver theme this is the tart I made with it my pastry last weekend. Lemon is one of my all time favorite flavours (along with almond and cardamom) and this tart is creamy and luscious but sharp and tangy at the same time.

So you'll need

• 1 tart shell, baked blind and cooled
  
• 340g/12 oz caster sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 350ml/12fl oz double cream
• 200ml/ 7 1/2 fl oz lime juice
• 100ml/3 3/4 fl oz lemon juice

I also added the zest of 4 limes to this tart to make it extra limey as per Jamie's suggestion.

With this tart you need to remember as it has a very wet filling that the pastry will need to be brushed with beaten egg before you add the filling (egg washed) to keep the tart shell crisp. I normally do this at the very end of the blind baking but Jamie doesn't specify so whichever you want to do is fine.

• Whisk together the sugar and eggs.

• When they are mixed slowly stir in the cream and the juices. Put the cooled tart shell int0 the oven and pour the filling into it. If you pour it in while it's on the oven tray you shouldn't spill any of the cream mixture. Bake for 40-45 mins at 180/gas 4 or until the filling is set but still a bit wobbly in the middle. Let that tart cool for an hour before serving because if you don't then the filling will pour out and be gooey.
  

Dust with icing sugar and serve with strawberries or raspberries. DIVINE!!!!

The simplest shortcrust sweet pastry

Seeing as it's January again and I've got the constant feeling of being full still from Christmas tomorrow is time to get back to my healthy eating and water drinking routine, so we had friends over last night for the last bit of indulgence before I get back on track and I made homemade pizza and then lemon and lime tart for a simple meal that still looked good and was tasty.

I'll start with the pastry as the tart was definitely the highlight of my evening. It's from Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef which I think is Jamie's first book and everything I have ever made from this book has been gorgeous and it's one I go back to time and time again for the basics as there are fantastic bread recipes in it and also stock, homemade pasta and risotto.

The pastry is a shortcrust sweet pastry and is definitely the easiest one I have ever worked with out of Avoca, Rachel Allen, Gordon Ramsey and Nigella Lawson as it's so pliable and doesn't break to easily when it's handled so if you haven't made pastry before then this is a good one to start with I think.


This recipe says it will make enough pastry for 2 12 inch/30cm tart moulds but I used a 10 inch round tin and a 11.5 x 8.5 rectangular tin and had some pastry to spare. It's easy to make less or more of this pastry aswell as I have made the ammount for 1 tin before aswell and the recipe says you can make more too which I am sure would be no difficulty.


So here's what you need

• 250g/9 oz butter
• 200g/7 oz icing sugar (I find icing sugar makes a nice dough compared to doughs using castor sugar)
• medium pinch of salt
• 500g/just over 1lb flour (I used plain white but I'm sure any white is fine as long as it's not self-raising)
• 4 egg yolks
• 4 tbsp cold milk or water (I used milk)

This pastry can be made by hand or in a processor and I used a bit of both as my processor is tiny and everything wouldn't have fitted in and mixed properly.

Cream together the butter, icing sugar and salt and then rub in the flour (or pulse if using the food processor).

I creamed in the food processor and then rubbed in the flour by hand. Normally if I'm making pastry I grate in the butter (I think this is a trick I saw Nigella do at some stage but can't remember exactly where it's from) and find this makes the rubbing in much easier than having to break down cubes of butter. Add in your milk or water and gently work together to form a ball. Then lightly flour the ball and form into a large, short, fat sausage shape then wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.

The idea behind this pastry is not to handle it too much as then it will get too elastic and be all chewy and it'll shrink in the oven.

This bit of the recipe is a bit unorthodox I think as after the hour you take the pastry out of the fridge and cut thin slices off (approx 1/8 inch thick or thicker if you want but you'll need to adjust your baking times) and place them in the tin like a jigsaw. Push the pieces together with your fingers until smooth and either clean off the excess from the edges or leave it on.

Put the pastry in the freezer and allow to rest again for at least another hour. Putting the pastry in the freezer should allow you to bake it blind without the need for baking beans but to be honest I'd have to be pretty confident it wouldn't all puff up on me so I haven't tried it without the baking beans but I am sure if Jamie says it'll work then it will I just need more faith I think.

If you are using the tart shell for a baked tart then you should cook it at 180/gas 4 for 10 mins so it's lightly coloured and then another 5-10 mins with the beans removed. The recipe in the book talks you through baking the shell blind without the beans and in which case if you have more faith than me you should bake it at the same temperature for 12 mins if you are making a cooked tart so the pastry is only lightly baked and for 15 mins if you are making a non-cooked tart.

This is a pastry I think everyone can make and I hope that if you have thought that making pastry is difficult up to now that this is really simple and you can manage it for any kind of a sweet tart you've had in mind.