strawberry Archives - Page 4 of 6

Fresh Strawberry And Whipped Coconut Cream Tart

4|07|2015

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at my bathroom scales this morning. I lost weight! A good 2 kilos. What I’ve been trying to achieve through exercise and self restraint in pastry matters, without luck..I achieved through a few weeks of medical tests and doctor visits. If you remember this post where I shared some health concerns with you, my nightmare is finally over. I completed the last of the tests this week and to my utmost relief I was assured that I did not have the dreaded disease. I do not have cancer!

My eyes well up at the thought of what I had to put my family through during this phase. The fear, the unknown, the unspoken, the unthinkable. The horror of lying inside closed machines (has anyone experienced an MRI machine?), learning to cope without food and water every other day of the week whilst cooking for others because most tests require you to do that. The one verdict that could have changed my world..and so many more that are intertwined with mine. It’s over at last! Leaving me a bit more in love with my life and the precious beings in it.

So I am trying to bring my life back on track again. Trying to put my heart and mind in things that I love to do. This recent experience has left me so exhausted that I am finding it hard to get back the creative flow of my work. Ideas that would take me a moment to turn into a recipe earlier are a struggle to give shape to. I am hoping this is just a phase and it will pass away soon.

I’ve been meaning to make a tart with coconut cream in it since I discovered the ease and deliciousness of whipped coconut cream in this recipe. Top it with fresh strawberries and you have an amazing dessert in your hands. The tart pastry is quite easy to make because there is no need to roll out the dough. You just make the dough in the processor and press it with your fingers on the base and sides of your pan. Using dessicated coconut in the shell, not only gives it an extra crunch but is also a delight for any coconut lover. It is really an easy recipe that you can whip up without any fancy ingredients or a great deal of time. I have used part coconut cream and part whipped heavy cream for the recipe because I did not want the resulting cream to be too strong in coconut flavor. But if you are a coconut fan, by all means double up on the coconut cream by using two cans of coconut milk.

Fresh Strawberry And Whipped Coconut Cream Tart
Yields an 8-inch round tart

To make the coconut tart shell (adapted from Epicurious)

1/2 cup (50 g) sweetened dessicated/flaked coconut

3/4 cup (about 105 g) plain flour

100g (7 tbsp) cold butter, cut into cubes

1/3 cup (about 40 g) icing sugar

1/4 tsp salt

For the filling
Coconut cream from this recipe (If you would like a strong coconut flavour, double up and use two cans of coconut milk/cream)
1 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks with 1/2 tsp vanilla essence and 3 tbsp castor sugar. Refrigerate until needed

For the topping
Fresh strawberries, cleaned, hulled and quartered
Toasted coconut chips/flaked coconut
Icing sugar to dust

Make the tart shell:Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees C fan-forced). Spread coconut in an even layer on a baking tray and toast in middle of oven, stirring occasionally, until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. (Leave oven on for baking crust.) Cool coconut to room temperature, about 10 minutes.
Pulse together flour, coconut, butter, confectioners sugar, and salt in a food processor until dough just begins to form a ball. Press dough onto bottom and up side of an 8 inch tart pan with floured fingers, then freeze until firm, about 10 minutes. Bake in pan on a baking sheet in middle of oven until golden, about 25 minutes, then cool completely in pan on a rack.

Make the filling
Gently fold in the coconut cream into the whipped cream mixture. Refrigerate until needed. Once the tart shell has cooled, spoon the cream into the shell. Top with fresh strawberries and coconut chips. You can store in the fridge until serving. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.

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.

Lemon, Coconut and Strawberry Cake

27|01|2015

Over the long weekend we ticked off the final items on the twin’s school to-do checklist. School is now less than a week away. I am not ready. They however,seem to be ready which is a relief. Where has time flown away? I wish I could hold on to the next few days and make them last a bit longer. Or tuck away the sound of their laughter and endless innocent conversations in a safe place to be treasured forever.

We were blessed with great weather yesterday after a sizzling 38 degrees C on Sunday. Since we didn’t go out anywhere, just sitting together over a small barbecue lunch while watching the rain made perfect sense. Deep inside,I knew such occasions wouldn’t come by as easily and frequently as our lives begin to embrace routines in a bigger sense in future. We had this cake for dessert. I haven’t baked a lot this month and have been mainly creating frozen recipes so it was a refreshing change to be able to switch on the oven and do things that are more therapeutic for me.

What I like about this cake is that it combines simple, every day flavors and turns them into something totally delicious and refreshing. The cake batter has been infused with lemon zest for a citrus flavor and mixed with desiccated coconut for texture. Sandwiched between the layers are strawberry jam and lemon Swiss meringue buttercream. Then it is frosted with more buttercream, covered in flaked coconut, topped with fresh strawberries and drizzled with strawberry sauce (made by diluting the jam itself) The cake is moist and soft with a crunch from the coconut and the flavours nicely balance each other out. As you can see, I have put a thin layer of frosting in between the cake layers because I don’t give the boys a lot of richly frosted cake. But you will have enough buttercream left with this recipe to apply a thicker layer if you choose to.

Lemon, Coconut and Strawberry Cake
Serves 10-12

375 g butter, softened
2 tbsp lemon zest
11/2 cup castor sugar
4 x-extra large eggs (or 5 eggs)
3 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
11/2 cup coconut milk (can use regular milk)
1/2 cup strawberry jam+ 3 tbsp to make strawberry sauce
lemon Swiss meringue buttercream (recipe below)
1 cup flaked coconut (unsweetened)
Fresh strawberries to decorate

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C ( 160 degrees C for fan-forced). Grease and line the base of three 7 inch round cake pan with baking paper.
Place butter, lemon zest and sugar in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Add half the flour and coconut. Stir to combine. Add half the milk. Stir to combine. Repeat with remaining flour, coconut and milk.

Divide the mixture between the prepared pan. Bake for 45- 55 mins or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Once cakes have cooled completely, frost the cake. Place one layer onto a cake plate or stand. Spread 1/2 the strawberry jam all over the base. Dollop or pipe some of buttercream on top of the strawberry jam. Sandwich with another cake layer. Repeat.

Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining buttercream. Press the flaked coconut onto the sides with your palm. Sprinkle the top with more flaked coconut. Decorate with fresh strawberries and drizzle with strawberry sauce (made by mixing 3 tbsp strawberry jam with 1 tbsp warm water).

Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream
4 egg whites
1 cup castor sugar
300 g unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Clean the bowl of your electric mixer with a paper towel to remove any traces of grease. Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl that is placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk constantly but gently till the sugar has completely dissolved and the egg whites are warm to touch. Remove from heat.
Using the whisk attachment of your mixer, whip the egg whites till they are smooth, glossy and form stiff peaks. By this time the bowl should have cooled down and feel neutral to touch. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer, add in the butter, slowly (2 cubes at a time) and mix until a smooth consistency is reached. Add in the lemon juice and zest and mix till well blended.

Neopolitan Marble cake

27|06|2014

Life is all about choices. Blogging is no different. Sweet or Savory. Healthy or indulgent. Hot or cold. Moody pictures or bright images. To post or not to post. And so on. Choices can be confusing. Also overwhelming. A Neopolitan cake at least saves you some choices.

My twin boys have very different personalities and palates. They make different choices when it comes to food and I think they secretly enjoy that. When it comes to cake, one of them wants a strawberry cake while the other one loves chocolate. Thankfully, I have a solution to that now. This cake has 3 flavours- strawberry, chocolate and vanilla, present individually but mixed together in a marbled effect. It starts with a single batter that is later divided into 3 different bowls and flavoured with the respective ingredients.

It is actually fun to make this cake, especially with kids. When I saw condensed milk in the recipe I was a bit concerned if the cake would be too sweet. On the contrary it wasn’t like that at all. The texture was dense almost like a mud cake. I found the chocolate part of the batter too subtle for my liking and I might increase the amount of cocoa next time. On it’s own, the cake tasted alright. I thought it might benefit from a little bit of frosting, ganache or even whipped cream. So I piped whipped cream which lifted the appearance as well.

Neopolitan Marble Cake (adapted with variation from Nestle recipes)
Serves 12

250 g butter, room temperature
395 g can sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
21/4 cup plain flour, sifted
1 tbsp. baking powder
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Pink food colouring
1 tsp strawberry essence
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp. milk, extra
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks and sweetened to your taste
maraschino cherries, to decorate
sprinkles, to decorate

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Grease and line the base a 19 cm round pan with baking paper.
Beat butter and condensed milk until thick and creamy. Add eggs, beating well. Fold in sifted flour, baking powder alternately with milk.

Divide mixture among 3 bowls. Add vanilla essence to the first bowl, mix, leave aside. Using pink food colouring, tint the second bowl pink and add the strawberry essence. Mix. To the last bowl, add the cocoa powder and milk and mix.

Drop alternate spoonfuls of mixture into pan. Swirl mixture with a skewer to create a marbled effect. Bake for 11/4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

Once completely cooled down, pipe swirls of whipped cream onto the top of the cake. Decorate with cherries and sprinkles.