Other Sweet Treats Archives - Page 2 of 10

Strawberry Panna Cotta With Earl Grey

2|04|2015

Strawberry Panna Cotta with strawberry puree and hints of earl grey tea to make the perfect cold dessert that requires no baking.

Autumn may not be my favorite season but there are a few things I associate with this time of the year that I absolutely love and look forward to. When I first moved to Sydney, the things that charmed me most were the farms and the farmer’s markets. Which is funny considering Sydney has so so much to offer. I had lived a city life before that and I was moving to another happening city. As I gradually explored around the city I found myself being more drawn to the country side, the lush green fields and the fresh produce farms. That way Sydney offers the best of both worlds. A modern city with glamorous beaches and a beautiful country side. On weekends, visiting farms to pick fruits and going to a different farmers’ market became a ritual. Something I can never grow tired of. A habit that my boys have embraced with open arms. The apple orchards are my favorite and I was thrilled when I got the opportunity to adopt a little tree a couple of years back. We picked car loads of apples and for months I did not buy a single apple from the shops. Now, it’s apple season. Time to go back and the boys are already counting down till the long weekend.

This time we will be accompanied by friends and picnic gear. We hope to spend the day picking apples and peaches and having lunch under the color changing leaves of Mount Wilson. I am planning on baking a large cake or maybe cakes to take to the picnic but I also wanted to make a simple dessert to keep at home for guests. Panna Cotta is a perfect dessert to make ahead with a few ingredients and not much effort. The beauty of this dessert is that it can be flavored with literally anything and the choices are endless. I infused the cream here with an earl grey teabag and blended it with freshly pureed strawberries. Along with a slight hint of bergamot from the tea, the strawberry panna cotta dessert tastes like a creamy strawberry mousse with subtle citrus notes. Except that it has no eggs and is certainly not rich like mousse.

I hope you guys have a fun and delicious Easter. I can’t wait to share my apple picking adventures with you over the weekend.

Strawberry Panna Cotta With Earl Grey
Serves 3

1 cup thickened cream
1 cup + 1/4 cup +2 tbsp milk
1 earl grey tea bag
21/2 tsp powdered gelatine
400 g fresh strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped
6 tbsp castor sugar
whipped cream, to serve

Soak gelatine in 2 tbsp milk to bloom. Warm the cream and 1 cup milk together with the Earl Grey teabag. Once the mixture comes to a a boil, remove from heat and leave aside for 20 minutes to infuse the flavor.
Place the strawberries, sugar and 1/4 cup milk in the bowl of your food processor. Process till smooth. Keep aside.

Remove the tea bag. Warm the milk-cream mixture just slightly, add the bloomed gelatine and mix. Add the strawberry puree and mix till smooth. Pour the mixture into serving glasses. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until set.

Serve with whipped cream and finely ground pistachios.

Cream Puffs With Orange Whipped Mascarpone

18|03|2015

Today we attended a cross country carnival at the twin’s school. This was a first for my boys who have just started school this year. A first among the innumerable races they will perhaps run through childhood and adulthood and the many ‘finishing lines’ they will persue in real life. To say that they were excited would be an understatement. One of them was up way past bedtime yesterday. ‘I can’t sleep. What if I don’t win?’ I was surprised, happy and a wee bit disappointed that my baby boy appeared to have grown up in leaps and bounds in the past one month. I told him what my mum told me as a child ‘It is more important to give your best’.

It was evident that he was not convinced with my answer and continued to fret till he fell asleep holding his teddy bear who in recent times has been lovingly named after their school house. In the morning, everyone was in high spirits at the school. Mums and Dads had decided to wear respective house color clothes to support their children and the school pretty much resembled (for lack of a better description, sorry!) a giant box of mobile Nestle Smarties (can’t stop thinking about food, eh?)

The race began. Despite being forbidden by the Housemaster to come close to the running track and causing distraction to the boys, the parents made a mad dash after the little ones with their mobile phones. ‘OMG he is running for the first time’, ‘OMG he is running first time in his house t-shirt’ ‘OMG I have taken the day off for this landmark event’ You know what I mean! As much as I love photography, I am actually terrible at using my phone camera. So I don’t even make an attempt and leave that bit for my husband who is quite a pro in taking pictures with the phone. I stood in one corner and thoroughly enjoyed the race and watching frantic parents running uphill and downhill alongside the boys.

I had made these cream puffs for an after school treat. I am crazy for choux pastry! I thoroughly enjoy making it and almost always use the same batch to make cream puffs or profiteroles and eclairs at the same time and at home every one loves to eat 2 or 3 at a time. They are such light, delicate, addictive little treats. If you haven’t made choux pastry before, do give them a try. They aren’t difficult to make. The only thing is that you will need to pay attention to details the first time. Once you get a feel of things, you will want to make them over and over again. When they raise their little brown heads in the oven, you will feel a sense of excitement. They are in fact creating a little hollow inside for you to fill up with your favorite cream, custard or chocolate filling. I have filled these with whipped mascarpone that has been infused with orange zest. Easy peasy but very tasty.

You may want to serve them with a chocolate sauce but here, since the filling is slightly rich, I thought a dusting of icing sugar is good enough.

Cream Puffs With Orange Whipped Mascarpone
Makes 15

60 g butter, chopped
3/4 cup (185 ml) water
3/4 cup (115 g) plain flour
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (180 degrees C for fan-forced). Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Heat the butter and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat until butter melts and the mixture comes to the boil. Remove from heat. Sift in the flour. Use a wooden spoon to beat for 1-2 minutes or until mixture comes away from side of pan. Transfer mixture to a heatproof bowl. Set aside, stirring occasionally, to cool slightly.

Using an electric mixer, beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, until mixture is thick and glossy.

Pipe the mixture or place tablespoonfuls of mixture on the prepared baking tray 3 cm apart from each other. Use wet hands to pat down any peaks of dough. Sprinkle trays with water to create steam. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until puffed and golden.

Turn off the oven. Use a knife to pierce the base of each puff. Place the puffs in oven for 20 minutes to dry out. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To assemble, using a serrated knife, slice through the top third of the choux puff. Leave the top aside. Pipe or fill up the base with whipped orange mascarpone (recipe below). Put the top back. Dust with icing sugar. Repeat with all the choux puffs.

Orange Whipped Mascarpone

1 cup mascarpone cheese
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 tbsp finely grated orange zest

To make the orange whipped mascarpone, place all the ingredients in a medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer until cream is thickened and smooth. Keep refrigerated till needed. Place mascarpone mixture in a piping bag fitted with a star tip just before assembling.

Rose And Cardamom Cheesecake Mille-feuille

13|03|2015

With puff pastry, I think the sky is the limit when you think of recipes. Remember my story about my fridge overload. One of the things I always stock up on is puff pastry. I stopped making my own a couple of years ago. It is not difficult to make at all but time consuming. With two little boys on tow, I would never remember to take the dough out on time after it had rested between the different stages of rolling. When I would remember, it would be too hard to roll. I would leave it on the counter and forget again. But now that I keep the rolled sheets at home, I find it really helpful to make sweet and savory food in a jiffy.

Mille feuilles are a great way of using puff pastry. Layers of pastry cream or even whipped cream and fruit sandwiched between crumbly layers of pastry. Visually, they are beautiful in their little rustic stacks and the perfect marraige of contrasting textures. Here I’ve use whipped cream cheese between the layers for a no-bake cheesecake kind of dessert. So basically it is a fusion of two desserts that come together in minutes. I’ve infused the cheesecake with rose water and tiny bit of cardamom powder and sprinkled them with with ground pistachios. You could go with vanilla, orange or even lemon if you do not have rose water at home.

Piping the cheesecake certainly makes them look pretty but if you are not comfortable with piping, you could spread the cheesecake mixture on the layers. I would insist though that you give piping a try. A plain round tip will work nicely too or if you do not have nozzles and piping bags at home, just cut a tiny opening at one corner of a zip-lock bag and use that to pipe on the pastry layers. These mille feuilles can be stored in the fridge but is best assembled just before serving.

Rose And Cardamom Cheesecake Mille-feuille
Makes 4

1 sheet (25 x 25 cm) frozen ready-rolled butter puff pastry, just thawed
250 g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup icing sugar, sifted
1/2 cup cold whipping cream or heavy cream
1 tbsp rose water (or 1 tsp rose essence)
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
1 handful pistachios, skinned and finely chopped

Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut the pastry sheet vertically and horizontally. You will have four squares. Cut each square equally to get 8 rectangles.

Place the pastry rectangles on the lined tray. Top them with another sheet of baking paper and another baking tray. Bake in oven for 12-15 minutes. Turn the trays over and bake for a further 5-10 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and golden. Set aside for 30 minutes to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the cheesecake filling. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the icing sugar and beat until smooth. Gradually add the heavy cream, rose water and cardamom powder and whip until the frosting is thick enough to pipe. In case you are using a brand of heavy cream that does not whip easily, then whip the cream separately to stiff peaks and fold it gradually into the cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate till needed.

To assemble, pipe the cheesecake filling onto one pastry rectangle. Sandwich with another pastry rectangle. Pipe filling again. Sprinkle with pistachios. Decorate with edible rosebuds.

Coconut Crepes With Yogurt, Mango And Palm Sugar Caramel

20|01|2015

I am surprised at how much I have started to like coconut recently. This comes from someone who has eaten/drank as much coconut as one would eat potatoes or drink milk as a child. I was actually never fond of milk and unfortunately there were no alternatives like almond or soy milk available at that time. There was coconut milk but in a place where one had easy access to coconut water, the water was preferred, more than the milk. In tropical countries, coconut is found in abundance. In India, where I grew up, drinking coconut water or cooking with freshly grated coconut is a way of life. People are equipped and ready to give themselves a arm workout when the need arises. Which is frequently. The grated version is used in curries, sweet dishes, rice and fillings while the milk (which is actually extracted by passing the grated coconut through a cheesecloth) finds its uses in many different dishes. Yet, I don’t have any memory of a particular liking for coconut. Maybe some of the dishes that it was used in were a favorites but not coconut itself. I guess it needed a few cakes, friands and crepes to acknowledge this liking.

In the present day I cannot imagine standing long hours trying to grate a coconut or extracting milk when it is so convenient to get hold of a packet of desiccated coconut or a can of coconut milk that is ready for consumption and is so much easier to store. Ask my mother and she will tell you that the packed variety is nowhere close to the fresh one. True! But in this turbo charged, everything-needing-attention world I could do without cracking open a fruit by hitting it on the ground (that was how it was cracked open back home).

This breakfast dish is very tropical. I have used coconut milk in the crepe batter and desiccated coconut in the filling. Then there is yogurt, fresh mangoes, raspberries, basil and a palm sugar caramel. In the sweet treats that I ate as a little girl, coconut was often paired with palm sugar, hence the idea. Other than the caramel, the dish is a healthy breakfast option so if you are on a diet, leave out the caramel and run a tablespoon of maple syrup or honey through the yogurt instead to sweeten it. The flavors are amazing together, very refreshing! If you do not have access to fresh mangoes, you could use canned ones or replace with seasonal fruits. Like persimmons, figs and even bananas.

Coconut Crepes With Yogurt, Mangoes And Palm Sugar Caramel
Makes 5-6 crepes

1/2 cup plain flour, sifted
2/3 cup coconut milk
2 eggs, lightly whisked
40 g butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
2 cups unsweetened Greek yogurt (if leaving out caramel, you could use sweetened yogurt)
2 mangoes, chopped into cubes
10-12 raspberries/strawberries
fresh basil leaves, for garnish
Icing sugar, to dust (optional)

For the palm sugar caramel
1/2 cup palm sugar, roughly chopped
1/2 cup water

Place the flour in a bowl making a well in the centre. Slowly whisk in the coconut milk, eggs and butter. Let stand for 15-20 minutes. Heat a non-stick frying over medium heat. Add 2-3 tbsp of the crepe batter, swirling the pan to coat the base evenly. Cook for a minute or until edges start to brown. Turn and cook for another minute until golden. Transfer to a serving plate. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

Divide the desiccated coconut, yogurt, mangoes and raspberries between the crepes. Serve with palm sugar caramel and basil. Dust with icing sugar.

To make the palm sugar caramel, heat the palm sugar and water together until smooth and thickened. The mixture solidifies on cooling down so reheat before serving.