Red velvet cookies

This post was meant to feature the red velvet black and white cookies that Cakespy posted for Valentines Day, from an edition of Every Day with Rachael Ray. And sure, these are red velvet cookies. They are just not red velvet black and white cookies, because Cakelaw did not realise until 10.30pm last night that she had virtually no icing sugar left to make the white icing. Accordingly, these cookies have transformed into red velvet cookies with chocolate icing.

I had previously made black and white cookies, having been introduced to this phenomenon by Nic at Baking Bites. However, I was keen to try the red velvet experience, because I have seen so many people post about red velvet cake and how much they love it. (I had never heard of red velvet before I started reading blogs, because like black and white cookies, you don't really see it in Australia.) I decided that these cookies would be an easy introduction to red velvet, because they are smaller than a cake and therefore there is less overall red. Still, I was mildly shocked when I added the red colouring, which unsurprisingly turned the batter a very vibrant red. The interesting part about it for me is that when the cookies had baked, they turned a deep, mellow shade of red - phew!

These cookies are huge - the recipe is only meant to make 10 cookies, and I ended up with 15 of varying shapes and sizes. (I need to work on my technique with this one, as it is a little like making pancakes.) They bake up nice and soft, like black and white cookies are supposed to be. The chocolate icing also tastes very nice, consisting as it does almost entirely of chocolate. Although I cannot speak for the white icing, I am sure that it would taste great too!

If you are looking for a fun cookie to make that is a little different from the every day, I can recommend giving these cookies a go. Next step - the red velvet cake!

Pi Day - Blackberry and Apple Pie

Kitchen Parade is hosting a one-off event called Pi Day to honour pi, the mathematical constant approximating to 3.14. In a wonderful play on words, to participate in Pi Day, you must make a pie with a home-made crust and post about it between March 10 and March 14.

I have mentioned previously that one of my favourite food magazines is Cuisine, a Kiwi publication. While flicking through Issue No. 127 (March 2008), I spotted a lovely sounding recipe for a single crust blackberry and apple pie by Ginny Grant on p102. I am a sucker for a fruit pie, so I have chosen to make this pie for my Pi Day entry.

If a blackberry and apple pie with a cream cheese crust strikes your fancy, you will need the following ingredients:

Pastry

100g plain flour

100g cubed butter

100g cubed cream cheese

Fruit filling

1kg apples

50g butter

3 tablespoons sugar

300g blackberries

2 tablespoons brandy

2 tablespoons cornflour

milk to brush the crust

To make the pastry, blitz all the pastry ingredients together in a food processor until they resemble coarse breadcrumbs. Press the pastry into a disc and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

While the pastry is chilling, peel, core and slice your apples into wedges. (I used my fantastic $2 shop gadget that cores and slices in one go.) Melt the butter in a large frypan, then add the apples and sugar and cook the apples until they are soft. Add the blackberries and brandy and stir lightly so as not to break up the blackberries, then finally, sprinkle the fruit mixture with the cornflour and mix through to thicken slightly.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Grease a deep pie plate, and spoon the fruit mixture into the pie plate. Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll it out until roughly 3mm thick, then place over the top of the fruit, cut off the excess pastry around the edges of the pie and prick the top in a few places with a fork so that the steam can escape during baking. Ginny recommends refrigerating the crust again for 30 minutes after rolling out, but I didn't find it necessary. (At this stage, you should also brush the crust with milk to help it brown in the oven - I forgot this part, but it ultimately didn't matter much. You can also optionally sprinkle the top of the pie crust with extra sugar to give it some extra crunch.)

Place the pie in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180 degrees Celsius and continue to bake for roughly another 30 minutes until the pie crust is golden. Allow the pie to cool to room temperature before serving.

The highlight of this pie for me was definitely the fruity filling. Cooking the fruit prior to baking gave it a marvellous depth of flavour, and the smell and colour of the cooking fruit was delightful. I was not so enamoured of the crust, and if I made this again, I would probably use a standard egg pastry, and perhaps give it a double crust.

As part of Pi Day, we have been asked to include some tips and tricks about making pastry. In general:

• Start with the amount of flour stated in the recipe when making pastry. If it is too sticky to form into a ball, add more flour; if it is too dry, add cold water tablespoon by tablespoon until the pastry is of the right consistency to work with easily.


• Refrigerating pastry wrapped in clingfilm for roughly half an hour makes it easier to roll out.
  
• I find it easier to roll out pastry on a sheet of lightly floured greaseproof paper. This stops the pastry from sticking to the bench, and makes it easier to lift once rolled out.


• If I find a particular pastry is hard to roll out without sticking to the rolling pin, I find that rolling out the pastry between two sheets of greaseproof paper is helpful.


• The greaseproof paper on which you rolled out the pastry can be used to lift the pastry into the pie dish without breaking. Draping the pastry over the rolling pin also helps with lifting it.
  
• Try and avoid making pastry on a hot or humid day, as it makes the pastry very soft and almost impossible to work with.


• If it is very difficult to line the pastry pan with a particular pastry in one piece (eg because the pastry is very soft), then you can always patch up any holes with leftover pastry and smooth over the patches with your fingers until they meld into the crust.

I find a food processor invaluable in making pastry, because it cuts out a lot of the elbow grease in rubbing butter into flour, and is much quicker. Partly for this reason, partly because it produces a great tasting pie crust that doesn't compete with the filling, and partly because it doesn't shrink much, I like to use this pastry recipe from Exclusively Food for sweet pies.

Thanks to Kitchen Parade for hosting Pi Day, and do check out the progressive roundup of pies here.

Blog Party #32 - Pizza Party - Proscuitto, Potato and Goat's Cheese Pizza Squares

It's Blog Party time again over at Stephanie's Dispensing Happiness, and this month's theme is Pizza Party. That's right folks - bring along a bite-sized pizza and a matching drink to join the party.

I had recently found this great recipe by Ray McVinnie for proscuitto, potato and goat's cheese pizza from Stuff.co.nz, so Stephanie's choice of party theme gave me the perfect opportunity to try it. I changed it a little by spreading some barbecue sauce on the pizza crust over the egg glaze (I highly recommend doing this with your choice of sauce - it makes the pizza moister), and substituted kumara (sweet potato) for the Agria (huh?) potatoes. For context, this was the pizza before it became Blog Party pizza squares (I use the term "squares" loosely):

Now as everyone knows, beer and pizza makes a great combination. Unfortunately, I didn't have any beer in the house, so I have brought along stout - Guinness nonetheless - to accompany my pizza squares instead:

Thanks to the hostess with the mostest, Stephanie, for hosting Blog Party, and I look forward to the party roundup later in the month.

SHF #41 - Sweet Gifts - Rum Baba

Danielle of Habeas Brulee is hosting this month's Sugar High Friday, and has selected Sweet Gifts as the theme. The gist of this theme is to make a dessert for someone, and share the story of why you made that particular dessert for that particular person.

For my entry, I made a rum baba for my friend, Charet, who invited me to stay at her house in a beachside suburb for the Labour Day long weekend. Rum baba is one of Charet's favourite desserts, so I decided to make it for her as a gift for her generosity in having me to stay.

Until Charet mentioned rum baba, I had never heard of it, and I didn't actually know what I was making when I started this project. Some research on the Internet informed me that rum baba is a rum-soaked yeast cake, sometimes served with cream and fruit. There were a lot of different recipes on the internet for rum baba, all generally along the same lines, but some contained dried fruit while others which did not. I opted for this version of rum baba, adapted from an Ina Garten recipe. However, I didn't bother with the cream, and I left out the rum-soaked currants (which turned out to be the right move!!). I was rather scared that the cake would fall apart after being drowned in all that rum syrup, but amazingly it didn't - so if you make it, don't be shy!

Charet shared her rum baba with me, and I was pleasantly surprised. It is certainly very different to the types of cake which I usually make, but pleasant all the same, and boy, does it smell like rum! Charet says that rum babas are often even rummier than this one, but that she liked my less rummy version because she could have more than one slice ;)

Thanks to Danielle for hosting this month's SHF, and do check back to her site for the roundup later in the month.

St Paddys Day Pub Crawl - Cider Braised Pork with Beery Warm Potato Salad

Emiline of Sugar Plum is hosting a St Paddys Day Pub Crawl, and is inviting us all to come along. To join the fun, you only have to cook a sweet or savoury dish containing booze (it is, after all, a pub crawl!) and post about it by March 17th. There is contest to win a great prize if you are creative.

Unfortunately, I am not creative, and I am not in the running for the prize as I openly took inspiration from the greatness of others. However, I didn't want to miss out on the fun, so I am bringing along Cider Braised Pork with Beery Warm Potato Salad, both of which have a distinctly Irish flavour (although neither recipe was touted as such by its author). The booze that I used is as follows:

For the Cider Braised Pork, I turned to the great Stephanie Alexander and her seminal work, The Cooks Companion. To make this dish, you will need:

4 roughly chopped cloves garlic

1 clove garlic cut into slivers

~ 1.5kg pork neck

cooking oil

100ml brandy

1 cup boozy apple cider (I used Magners, an Irish brand)

a roughly diced onion

2 roughly diced carrots

1 sprig rosemary

1 cup stock (I used beef stock)

a small knob of butter

1 tablespoon plain flour

1 tablespoon mustard

salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Toss the slivered garlic clove in salt and pepper. Make small cuts on one side of the pork and insert a garlic sliver into each cut. Dry the pork's surface by patting with kitchen towel, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Bundle the pork into a rectangular parcel shape, garlic side in, and tie in place with kitchen string. (Make sure you don't use plastic string, otherwise you will have a Bridget Jones moment!!)

Brown the pork on all sides in a small amount of cooking oil in an ovenproof dish that has a lid (or just do what I did and use a frypan and subsequently transfer the browned meat to a casserole dish). Skim off any excess fat that cooks out of the meat. Once the pork has browned, pour the brandy and cider over the pork and into the pan over high heat, and toss in the onion, carrot, garlic, rosemary and stock. (Tip - Don't be too precious about how you cut up the veges, because you don't eat them - they are used for flavour only.) Once the liquid is boiling, remove the dish from the stovetop, cover the pork with baking paper, and cover the dish with the lid. Place the covered dish in the pre-heated oven and cook for 1 1/2 hours or until the pork is cooked through, turning the pork every 30 minutes during cooking to ensure even distribution of flavours.

Once the pork has finished cooking, lift it out of the dish, wrap it in foil and put it aside to rest while you make the gravy. Strain the pan juices, then add them to a pan with the knob of butter, the flour dissolved in enough water to make a smooth paste, and the mustard. (Stephanie directs you to make a roux with the flour and butter then add the other ingredients, but I stuff this up 100% of the time, including this time, so I find that the paste method works better for me.) Stir your gravy until it thickens and just reaches boiling point, then remove from the heat. Serve slices of pork drizzled with the gravy.

To accompany my pork, I made a beery warm potato sald, the recipe for which can be found here. I left the onions and parsley out, used white vinegar in the dressing, and of course, used Guinness in the dressing.

Both dishes were fantastic comfort food, and contained plenty of booze!

Thanks to Emiline for hosting this St Paddys Day pub crawl. Be sure to check out the other pub crawlers at Emiline's site here.

International Women's Day - Lemon Semifreddo with Limoncello Syrup

Zorra at Kochtopf and Fiordisale are hosting a blogging event for International Women's Day today, 8 March 2008. To participate, Zorra and Fiordisale have asked us to make a yellow dish. The yellow represents the colour of mimosa (wattle) flowers, which are given as a sign of respect and an expression of solidarity with women in their support for oppressed women worldwide.

For this event, I have made lemon semifreddo with limoncello syrup from the March 2008 edition of Delicious magazine. The recipe is by Margaret River Providore in Willyabrup, Western Australia.


I can honestly say that this is one of the most delicious things that I have ever made. It is absolutely devine. If you make it, do not skip the limoncello syrup - this really makes the dessert.

The recipe is as follows:

for the semifreddo:

1/2 cup sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1/3 cup lemon juice
4 egg yolks
250ml pouring cream

for the syrup:

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup vodka
zest of one lemon
100ml lemon juice

To make the semifreddo, place the sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice for the semifreddo in a saucepan and heat it, stirring continuously, until it develops a syrup-like consistency (~ 10 minutes). Remove from the heat.

Beat the egg yolks in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer until "fluffy", then while the motor on the mixer is still running, pour the syrup-like mixture into the yolks, and continue beating for aorund 10 minutes until cool.

Whip the cream to soft peak stage, then fold int the egg yolk mixture. Spoon the mixture into 4 dariole moulds lined with cling film, cover the tops of the moulds with more cling film, and freeze for a minimum of four hours.

To make the limoncello syrup, put the sugar, vodka, lemon juice and zest into a suacepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes until thickened into a syrup, then remove from the heat and allow to cool completely.

When serving the semifreddo, place each unmoulded semifreddo on a plate and pour over some limoncello syrup.

This is a smooth, silky, very adult dessert, which I would gladly make again anytime. The best part of it is that I have three more of these babies in the freezer ...


Do check Zorra's and Fiordisale's sites for the roundup of other dishes celebrating International Women's Day.

Let's celebrate great women everywhere!

Novel Food - Steak and Kidney Pudding

O, who would be a puddin',

A puddin' in a pot,

A puddin' which is stood on

A fire which is hot?

O sad indeed the lot

Of puddin's in a pot ...

(From The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay, 1918)

Champaigne Taste and Briciole are hosting Novel Food: Spring 2008. To participate, it's simple - prepare a dish that is connected to a published literary work and post about it by 22 March 2008.

When I read about this event, the first book that popped into my mind was The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay. (For art lovers, the author was also a famed Australian artist, who was the subject of the film Sirens.) While The Magic Pudding is regarded as a children's book, there is much academic discussion about the hidden symbolism and meaning behind the plot and characters. The "magic pudding" of the title is a walking, talking pudding with stick- like legs called Albert. In addition to having an unpleasant personality, this pudding is magic because (a) it is literally the pudding that never runs out - when you cut a slice, the pudding regenerates itself; and (b) it is a steak and kidney pudding on one side, and is jam roly poly and apple dumplings on the other side.

As I have never made a savoury steamed pudding, let alone one with a suet crust, I made a traditional steak and kidney pudding in honour of The Magic Pudding for this event. I used Delia Smith's recipe (sans the extra gravy), which can be found here. Delia mentions that the cockney slang for steak and kidney is "Kate and Sidney" - I think this is really cute!

The one barrier which I hit with making this pudding is that suet is as rare as hen's teeth in Australia. It is not sold in supermarkets, and even butchers can't promise that they can procure any for you, because the suet (beef kidney fat) is often removed before they receive the meat for processing. Rather than hang around hoping for some suet to turn up at the butcher's, I decided to substitute the suet for a product known as Supafry, which is basically tallow (rendered suet) used for frying. I'm not sure what effect this had on the finished pudding, but it worked! (We won't mention that I also stupidly did not buy an onion, incorrectly thinking that I had one at home, so I substituted spring onions instead.)

This pudding was, to my surprise, delicious. The crust was "melt in your mouth", and the filling was rich and flavourful. I would definitely make this again at some point in the future.

Thanks to Champaigne Taste and Briciole for hosting this event, and please check their sites after 22 March for the orundup of literary-inspired food.