Sugar et al

Because Life is a blend of flavours...

Orange, Honey, Rosemary and Chia Seed Friands/Financiers

24|11|2014

After a lovely little vacation in Melbourne, I am back to the precious confines of my home. Though to be honest, I did not miss cooking and baking, I was very excited at the sight of my kitchen when I came back. Melbourne is a colourful city. That was one of the first things that caught my eyes. The buildings can exist in any colour you dream of. Amongst the grey, brown walls or the striking blue waterbodies all over the city, there would be a yellow wall somewhere, red staircase, an orange coloured bridge…some blue boats floating around. It makes a lovely sight. My camera has been working overtime in the last few days..the birthday pictures of my twins, then Melbourne and the beautiful Victorian countryside. So much to share but I guess I will stick to food photos here. You can see my travel photos on Instagram.

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So before I left for Melbourne, I made a birthday cake for my twins and we had an advance celebration at home. It was a big cake and we were happy to come back to it after a vacation of plentiful eating outside. It made a delicious dinner for me last night when I barely had the zeal to put a meal together. I also had these friands in my freezer that made a happy breakfast for all of us. My regular readers would know my love for friands…the lovechild of egg whites and almond meal, both of which I am totally obsessed with. I added some more love to it in the form of orange, honey, rosemary and chia seeds. It sounds like a lot of things happening in these friands but really, you can taste each one of those flavours. They are a treat.

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The rosemary leaves add a subtle depth and paired with orange and honey, they elevates the sweet citrus notes to a different level. The chia seeds were a last minute addition because I was introduced to them recently and have been looking for ways to add them to recipes. They provide a crunch to these gorgeous little  afternoon tea treats. The great thing about the recipe is that it is totally flexible. Use any nut meal, substitute orange with lemon or lime, use golden syrup or maple syrup instead of honey, poppy seeds in place of chia seed. There is so much you can do to it to make it your own. As you can see, I baked the friands in my mini bundt cake pan which was almost forgotten for a year. Friands can be baked in any shape and size so you can use muffin pans, friand molds or ramekins.

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Here are a few photos of the birthday cake. It was a double chocolate cake with a swiss meringue buttercream.

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Orange, Honey, Rosemary and Chia Seed Friands/Financiers
Makes 10

1 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
1 1/3 cups icing sugar, sifted
3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
5 eggwhites
125g butter, melted
1/4 cup honey
Finely grated Zest of 1 large orange
1 tbsp rosemary leaves (fresh or dried), finely chopped
1 tbsp chia seeds

Orange Syrup
Juice of 1 orange
1 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.  Lightly grease a 12- capacity muffin pan or mini bundt cake pan. Place the almond meal, icing sugar, flour, baking powder, eggwhites, butter, honey , orange zest, rosemary and chia seeds in a bowl and whisk until combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 20–25 minutes or until the friands are golden and cooked through. Remove from oven and release friands immediately. Drizzle with orange syrup .Cool on a wire racK.

To make the syrup : Place the orange juice and honey together in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove as soon as it comes to a boil and blends together.

 

Chocolate Almond Ginger Cookies

24|10|2014

I just wanted to bake cookies. For no rhyme nor reason. Do you really need a reason to make a cookie or a reason to eat one? If I am not doing anything else, I just have to get my hands whisking some kind of dough. I have to be cleaning away bits of dough, wiping away tiny drips of melted chocolate or scraping bowls till I am convinced I cannot scrape out any more for a cookie, brownie or cake batter. The mousse and cheesecake variety have a different outcome where scraping can be replaced with licking and I have takers. My kitchen and countertops tell a story that I like to see and experience every day. I like to keep a tab on my stock of chocolate, sugar, butter and eggs so I can shop for refills before I run out of them. My head, heart and hands are so in tune with this that I don’t feel like myself if I go for several days without baking my favourite things…or rather just baking something sweet.

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So I took out chocolate, rummaged through my cupboards for almond meal (I blame that on moving houses several times), studied my spice rack and in minutes I was mixing together a luscious, thick batter. There is huge sense of satisfaction that comes with rolling balls of dough between your palms. You know you are in your final stages of giving shape to something spectacular from a few things that were mere ingredients minutes ago. The thrill of opening the oven door as you are greeted by the whiff of freshly baked goods.

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These cookies are like little brownie bites. The batter is similar as well. Almond meal adds a slight nutty texture while powdered ginger gives it a warm, spicy feel. You could replace the almond meal for the same amount of plain flour or leave the ginger out if you want plain chocolate cookies. I have also used glace ginger pieces in the batter which tastes amazing with the chocolate. The recipe makes a lot of cookies but they were gone quite quickly in my house. I baked them in two batches, one slightly longer than the other. The first batch resulted in soft chewy cookies while the second one came out to be crisper ones. I prefered the chewy ones as they did taste like brownies.

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Chocolate Almond Ginger Cookies
Makes 24 medium cookies

120 g unsalted butter, chopped
120 g dark chocolate, chopped
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 firmly packed cup brown sugar
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 cup glace ginger, finely chopped
toasted whole almonds (10-12), roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Place butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let bowl touch water) and stir until melted. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs, vanilla and sugars with electric beaters until thick and pale. Add the chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Sift over the flour and cocoa. Add the almond meal and ginger. Fold in the glace ginger and chopped almonds. If the batter is too sticky to handle, stick it into the fridge for 15-20 minutes.

Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and place onto the baking tray, leaving room between them to expand (about 4 cm). Bake, rotating tray halfway, for 14 minutes or until set. Cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

Hazelnut and Chocolate Chunk Friands (Financiers)

16|08|2014

Financiers or friands as they are known in Australia are a great way of using up egg whites. Personally, I find it hard to decide between a meringue based dessert and a friand if I happen to have egg whites at home. I love making and eating both immensely. The deciding factor ultimately is whether or not I want to use my electric mixer. Friands are simple to make with a few ingredients and can be put together with just a bowl and a whisk. But that is not really the reason why I love them.  Friands use nut meal, ground nuts as a core ingredient. Therefore they have a nutty flavour and a crunchy bite to them which is so addictive. And textures are an important part of my recipes.

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Though friands are relatively heavier on the butter as compared to a muffin or an unfrosted cupcake, they are truly a treat. The crispy exterior and nutty buttery centre is open to many different add-ins…fruits, chocolate, coconut, nuts and so on. Any ground nut works which means you have so many permutations and combinations to choose from. For me, chocolate and hazelnut are made for each other. In this case, big chunks of chocolate melt in your month as you bite into a warm crunchy hazelnut pastry. I love to use my oval friand moulds to bake these but they result in about 6 big ones that are a bit too much for my little ones to eat. I used a regular muffin pan that yielded 10 friands.

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Hazelnut and Chocolate Chunk Friands (Financiers)
Yields 10

6 egg whites
180g butter, melted and cooled
1 cup (100g) hazelnut meal
1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1 1/2 cups icing sugar mixture
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped into small and big chunks

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease or line a 12 capacity muffin pan with paper liners.
Combine the egg whites, hazelnut meal, icing sugar, flour and vanilla essence in a large bowl. Add the butter and stir to combine. Add half the chocolate chunks and stir to combine
Pour the friand mixture evenly among the prepared pans. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chunks over each friand. Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Set aside for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool. Eat warm or at room temperature.

 

 

 

Chocolate and Coconut Slice

22|06|2014

I love recipes that can be made without prep or planning. Shopping for ingredients is always fun but once in a while it’s nice to be able to make something with regular pantry ingredients. One-bowl recipes make life so much easier. The last thing you want to do in winter is wash heaps of dishes. And the one thing in winter that you love to do is use the oven.

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This recipe is all of the above and tastes amazing. I discovered chocolate and coconut as a combination only recently. Individually I’ve cooked or baked with both for as long as I can remember. Put together in a slice or bar, I found it hard to stop eating them.

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Technically, there is no chocolate in the recipe however it tastes as good as chocolate. They are fudgy almost like brownies but not soft. They have a great texture and the icing makes them really indulgent.

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Chocolate and Coconut Slice (adapted with variation from Taste.com)
Yields 16 slices

150g butter, melted, cooled
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup desiccated coconut

Chocolate Icing
1 cup icing sugar mixture
1/4 cup cocoa powder
20g butter, finely chopped
2 tbsp. boiling water

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a 20cm x 30cm rectangular pan and line with baking paper extending paper 2cm from edge of pan at long ends.
Place butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir until well combined. Sift over flours and cocoa. Add 1/2 cup coconut. Stir to combine. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until firm to touch

Make Chocolate icing: Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a medium heatproof bowl. Add butter and boiling water. Stir until smooth. Spread hot slice with icing. Sprinkle with remaining coconut. Set aside to cool completely in pan. Cut into pieces. Serve.