Doughnut bread and butter pudding with strawberries and almonds

Right so I don’t usually do this but I do know that not everyone has a whole lot of time these days before dinner parties. At the end of the day my blog is about teaching you how to cook without the recipe as well as to know how to make simple things taste amazing!

So here is the first of two recipes that both involve store bought cinnamon and sugar doughnuts. Mine come from Woolworths but I am positive any fresh cinnamon and sugar doughnut that is light and fluffy will do. 

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Ingredients:

6 cinnamon doughnuts, torn

50 grams salted butter, softened

3 extra large eggs

75 grams castor sugar

1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla essense

1 cup (250 ml) milk

1 cup (250 ml) cream

1/2 cup Strawberries roasted with butter and caster sugar, to serve.

50 grams chopped almonds

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Instructions:

Preheat an oven to 180 degrees celcius

Place the torn doughnut in a dish and dot with the butter.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs, caster sugar, vanilla essence, milk and cream together well.

Pour the milk and egg mixture over the doughnuts and bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the custard is set.

Place strawberries in a small saucepan over a medium heat, sprinkle with castor sugar and add a knob of butter. Let them soften and remove from heat once sugar has dissolved.

Serve warm with roasted strawberries, almonds and whipped cream if you wish!

-Melissa

rhubarb and honey tart

Rhubarb is not something I was not familiar with growing up as a child. I’m not sure why, but we just never used it. In my adult life I must admit the first person I saw use rhubarb was Jamie Oliver. He grows it in his garden and he uses it in so many recipes. Thanks to him I got the bee in my bonnet and decided to hunt down a great recipe. This one is so tasty because of it's layering of not only rhubarb but frangipane and honey which balances out the tart flavours of this celery like plant. I’m rather excited that I have discovered rhubarb and there are definitely many more exciting recipes to come. 

For this recipe you can use your own home made puff pastry or store bought puff pastry. If you get a good store bought puff there is no judgment here. Although I do think that home made just tastes better.

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Serves: 6 

Ingredients:

Puff pastry:

•    250 grams cake flour

•    Pinch of salt 

•    250 grams butter

•    5ml lemon juice or brandy 

•    175ml ice cold water Filling:

•    1 cup almond flour

•    6 tbsp. castor sugar

•    ¼ cup cake flour

•    ¼ tsp. salt

•    6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

•    3 eggs

•    1 tsp. vanilla

•    1 fresh bunch of rhubarb roughly 500g (I like to go for the reddest stalks)

Instructions:

preheat oven to 200c

Puff pastry:

Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Rub in a piece of butter the size of a walnut. 

Add lemon juice or brandy to water, make a well in the center of flour and pour in about 2/3 of the liquid.

Mix it with a palette knife or a round bladed knife. When the dough is beginning to form, add the remaining water.

Turn the dough out on to a clean counter that has been dusted with flour. Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes, and then roll out to a square about 1.3-2cm thick.

Beat the remaining butter if necessary to make it pliable and place in center of dough. Fold the dough up over butter to enclose it completely (sides and ends over center like a parcel)

Wrap it in a cloth or in greaseproof paper and refrigerate for 15-20 minutes 

Flour your clean worktop, take the dough out, the join facing upwards, and bring rolling pin down on the dough 3-4 times to flatten slightly.

Now roll out to a rectangle about 1.3-2cm thick. Fold into three, ends to middle, as accurately as possible, if necessary pulling the ends to keep them rectangular.

Seal the edges with hand or rolling pin and turn the dough half round to bring the edges toward you.

Roll out again and fold in three (keep note of the turns given)

Set aside in refrigerator for 5 minutes. Repeat this process, giving a total of six turns with a 15 minutes rest after each two turns. Then leave in the refrigerator until wanted. 

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Roll out pastry to fit a baking sheet. Place pastry on greaseproof paper on baking sheet and keep chilled in the fridge or freezer until needed. If the butter in the pastry melts it will not puff up.

To make the almond paste, pop everything in a food processor and blend until thoroughly mixed. You can mix by hand but make sure you use good elbow grease! 

Evenly trim down the rhubarb stalks. Gently sauté stalks in a little butter and pinch of sugar until they begin to soften. Set aside to cool.

To assemble the tart: spread the almond paste evenly over the pastry. Place the rhubarb on top of the almond paste sideways next to each other-like little soldier and fold in the sides of the pastry. Brush the sides with a beaten egg yolk.  Place in the oven and turn heat down to 180C and bake for 40mins, checking towards the end that it does not brown too much.

When removed from the oven dust with icing sugar.

To serve: drizzle with honey and cut 

-Melissa

easter ring

There is something special about growing up in a family that honours tradition. I can say that because I am lucky enough to have a mother, that no matter what takes time out of her busy life for the little moments that I will cherish forever. Be it baking on Easter or decorating our Christmas tree. 

I grew up at her knee learning how to bake and be the woman that I am today. She is my best friend and my rock. I am sure that there will be many posts up on my blog where I speak of her. She is a taste connoisseur in my eyes and a master of flavours. She is possibly the birthplace of The Truffle Journal and all things food in my life, unless I go further back to my grandmother.

But back to tradition. Its something I value and something I hope to share. That magical moment in the kitchen baking Easter rings or setting up osterzweig (a German tradition) is something that will stay with me forever. I hope that by trying this Easter ring and sharing it around a table with loved ones will inspire you to do it every year and to bake it with your children, nieces or grandchildren. It has all the essentials to qualify as a glorified hot cross bun meets cinnamon bun, that is a game changer for Easter!

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Serves: 8

Ingredients

Dough:

•   500g flour, sifted

•   5ml salt

•   55g sugar

•   10ml ground mixed spice

•   10ml ground nutmeg

•   5ml ground cinnamon

•   10g instant dry yeast

•   60g butter

•   150ml milk

•   1 egg, beaten

•   125ml lukewarm water

•   150g cake fruit mix

Filling:

•   80g butter

•   60g castor sugar

•   30ml cinnamon

•   180g cake fruit mix

•   1 egg

•   12.5ml milk

Icing:

•   85g icing sugar, sifted
•   15ml water or brandy depending on what you like
•   5ml vanilla essence

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Instructions:

Dough:

In a mixing bowl combine the first six ingredients. Once combined sprinkle dry yeast over.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter in the milk. Once melted set aside to cool.

Add the dry ingredients together including the fruit with the egg, milk and butter mixture and enough lukewarm water until it forms a soft pliable dough. You can do this part in a mixer if you wish using a dough hook. Knead for 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. It shouldn't be too sticky. If it is, add a little flour until the dough is balanced. 

Lightly flour your counter and place the dough on the surface, covering it with a greased glass mixing bowl.

Allow to rest in a warm environment for 20 minutes. (I leave my oven on to warm my kitchen or put the dough in the sun.)

Once dough has rested you will roll out into a roughly 35cm by 25cm rectangle. Don’t forget to flour your surface when rolling so that it doesn't stick to the counter.

Filling:

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Once this has creamed spread it all over the rectangle like you are buttering toast!

Sprinkle the cinnamon over the butter and then top the rectangle with the fruit mix.

Next you're going to roll up your rectangle like a Swiss roll. Starting at the long side tightly roll up the whole rectangle.

Place it on a lightly greased baking tray, shaping it into a ring. Score the ring into 5cm slices. Keeping slices joined near the inner circle. 

Cover with greased cling wrap and leave in a warm place for a further 10 minutes or until your ring has doubled in size.

In a small jug mix your egg and milk. Brush over the ring after it has risen.

Bake at 200°c, 20-25 minutes. Your ring should be golden brown. If you tap on it and its sounds hollow, it's ready!

Allow to cool

Icing sugar:

Mix your icing sugar with the water and vanilla, make sure you do not have any lumps.

Drizzle it over your ring-when it comes to this part I always say, don't be shy!

You can decorate your ring with cherries if you wish!

-Melissa

rainbow meringues

This recipe takes me right back to being a child. I received this recipe form my grandmother in a little pink book, put together by all the ladies that went to church with her. The recipe is the best I have yet to taste on meringue, as it doesn't have that jaw aching sweetness due to the vinegar. I remember making it when I was younger and being so proud of my whipped egg whites.

As I have gotten older I have played more with the recipe and these beauties are the result. They are fun and interactive and a great idea for children parties or for the adult who believes in unicorns. I had a lot of fun making these with my friend Nikita who was so kind as to hand model the dunking of the meringues. They are little mouthfuls of colour and super easy to make! This recipe can also be doubled should you need more!

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serves: 6

ingridients:

• 1 egg white
• 2 Tbsp boiling hot water
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• powder food colouring
• 80g dark chocolate
• 60ml hot milk
• sprinkles of your choice

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Instructions:

Preheat the oven at 100°c

Line a flat baking tray with baking paper and set aside

Beat the eggs white on high speed with an electronic mixer. As they start to stiffen add the cup of sugar followed by all the ingredients except the baking powder.

Once the egg whites are stiff add the baking powder.

At this stage is when I separate the egg whites into different bowls. Sprinkle the colouring into the individual bowls. Don’t mix the colouring in as you will beat out the air of the egg whites.

Get your piping bag ready. Using a star nozzle and holding your piping bag open, gently scoop the first colour into the piping bag. Gentle squeeze out the meringues mixer into swirls the size of a teaspoon. Working neatly and in rows.

Once you have finished the first colour, wash the piping bag with hot water and repeat with the next colour. Make sure the piping bag is clean and dry.

Once you have piped out all the different colours into neat rows put them into the oven and bake for 2 hours.

Dipping chocolate:

Place a small bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. Make sure no water can splash into the bowl. Add the chocolate by breaking it into small pieces. The steam will gentle melt the chocolate. Keep stirring it until you have a smooth consistency. Then add the hot milk. The milk must be hot or you can seize the chocolate. Once it is all combined remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Once your meringues are out of the oven and cooled, dip the bottom end of them into the chocolate, followed by the sprinkles. Place them on a cooling rack upside down so that the chocolate can set.

If you want you can also dip the meringues in chocolate and match them up to another in size. Sticking them together and making meringue sandwiches. Roll the meringue sandwiches in the sprinkles and let them stick to the side of the meringues.

Serve with laughter, love or simply a great cup of tea.

-Melissa