Honey-and-Tea Jammers

 This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Honey-and-Tea Jammers. Jammers are one of Dorie’s  signature cookies, and we have made a different version before.

Jammers comprise a sable cookie topped with a jam centre surrounded by streusel. These Jammers have a tea and honey flavoured cookie base. I used T2 Strawberries and Cream tea, given to  me by my friend Swee, to flavour my cookies. As suggested, I used strawberry jam for all but 4 of my Jammers, as I ran out of it, and blackcurrant jam for the final 4. I actually liked the blackcurrant ones the best, but all of them were good. 

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - Parisian Macarons

This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Parisian Macarons. These delicate, pretty

treats had a moment a few years back as the successor to the cupcake, and they are still very popular.

I have made macarons before here and here. I have even gone out of my way to try macarons made by patissiers here and here.

It is more than 10 years since I last made macarons, so I think it was time. Dorie’s recipe turned out well for me, with feet and all.

I tinted my half recipe of macarons pale pink, which required more colouring than I expected. I filled some of them with musk flavoured ganache (using the aptly named Flamingo Fantasy flavouring) made with pink chocolate melts:

 

Flamingo Fantasy is the perfect way to describe these macarons:

I filled the remainder of the macarons with strawberry jam:

I may have piped my macarons a tad too large so some of them spread into one another, but they were devine nevertheless.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Yoghurt Pudding with Mango and Medjool Dates

Despite the gloomy news just about everywhere, today the sun is shining after a cold, wet grey week. Let’s enjoy this beautiful day and be happy.

Beautiful sunny days should start with beautiful sunny breakfasts, and I think Helen Goh’s recipe for Yoghurt Pudding with Mango and Medjool Dates fits the bill.

Helen says you can add icing sugar for sweetness, but I thought it was perfect without. I liked this pudding because it tastes delicious, has contrasting textures and is packed with good stuff - yoghurt, fruit, nuts and spice. You need to make it the night before you want to eat it, as it needs 4 hours to chill.

Tempted?  You will need (for 4-6 serves):

500g plain yoghurt (I used Greek yoghurt)

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

Zest and juice of a lime

120ml pouring cream

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons icing sugar (optional)

160g mango flesh, puréed in a food processor

4 pitted Medjool dates, finely sliced

20g toasted almonds, roughly chopped

20g pistachios, roughly chopped

Sea salt flakes

First, strain the yoghurt.  Put a sieve lined with cheesecloth or a clean Chux dishcloth over a large bowl. Put the yoghurt into the cloth, and twist the cloth around the yoghurt. Put a weight (eg a small plate Weighed down by cans) on top of the cloth-wrapped yoghurt, and put in a cool place to drain for an hour.

Once the yoghurt has drained, discard the liquid, and put the drained yoghurt In a large bowl. Stir in the cardamom, lime juice and zest, and set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the cream, honey and icing sugar (if using) until soft waves form. Fold the cream mixture into the yoghurt. Fold through 100g of the mango purée.

Spoon the pudding into one large bowl or 4-6 individual bowls or cocktail glasses. Cover each bowl with cling film, and chill in the fridge for 4 hours.

Just before serving, spoon the remaining mango purée over the puddings, and swirl it through with a butter knife. Scatter the dates and nuts evenly over the top of each pudding, and sprinkle with salt. 

Enjoy!

TWD - Thanksgiving Bars

 This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Thanksgiving Bars. They comprise a chocolate walnut cookie base, filled with a homemade jam and fresh raspberries.

The jam is meant to be made with fresh or frozen cranberries, but those are like unicorns here, so I used red currants for the jam instead.

These were quite luscious.

I was a sad when I made these bars, as my downstairs neighbour, who I have been sharing my baking with in lockdown, passed away last week. This is the first TWD in lockdown without him. I enjoyed the brief interactions that we had through my baking, and it feels a little bit lonelier in this corner of the world.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website. 

One-Pot Sticky Salmon

Recently, searching for new ways to cook salmon, I found this One-Pot Sticky Salmon on Taste.com.au. I liked this recipe because the salmon is flavoured with oranges.

Not only does it taste good, but it looks pretty:

If you would like to try this dish, you will need:

4 salmon fillets

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons cornflour 

1 teaspoon fennel seeds (I skipped these)

1/3 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 orange, thinly sliced

Season the salmon with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, and cook the salmon, roughly 3 minutes per side, over medium high heat.

In a jug, combine the cornflour, garlic, fennel seeds, stock, orange juice and maple syrup. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the maple syrup mixture over the salmon, and cook for 4 minutes or until the sauce is thickened.

Top the salmon with the sliced orange. (I cooked the orange for a minute or so in the pan.)

Serve with rice and vegetables.

 

Poh’s Orange and Passionfruit Curd Tart

Recently, I obtained some gorgeous fresh passionfruit, and my first thought of what to make with them was Poh Ling Yeow’s recipe for Orange and Passionfruit Curd Tart in the Harris Scarfe newsletter.

This gorgeous tart has a macadamia crust and is filled with orange and passionfruit curd:

To make this gorgeous tart, you will need:

Tart shell

1/2 cup ground macadamia nuts

130g plain flour

90g sugar

100g butter, softened and cut into 2cm cubes

1 egg

Curd

1 cup sugar

150g butter

4 eggs

1/3 cup passionfruit pulp

Grated zest of an orange

1/3 cup orange juice

 

For the tart shell:

Put the ground macadamias, flour, sugar and butter into a food processor and pulse until the mixture has a sandy texture.  Add the egg and pulse until the pastry starts to form a ball.

Remove the dough from the food processor, form it into a disk, wrap it in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

In between two sheets of baking paper, roll out the dough to a thickness of 3mm.  Grease a 9” tart pan with a removable base, and fit the dough to snugly line the tart pan.  Roll your rolling pin over the top edges of the pan to remove any overhanging dough.  Put the pan into the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius.  Line the tart shell with Alf oil sprayed with cooking spray, oiled side down, and fill with baking weights or rice.  Bake the tart shell for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and weights and bake the tart shell for another 5-10 minutes until the tart shell is golden brown.  Allow the tart shell to cool completely on a wire rack.

In the meantime, make the curd. Put all of the curd ingredients into a large microwavable bowl and whisk to combine. Microwave the curd for 2 x 2 minute periods, whisking in between, then microwave for 1 minute periods until the curd thickens. Press cling film onto the surface of the curd, and allow it to chill completely before using.

Just before serving, fill the tart shell with the curd. Slice and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Chocolate Caramel Bars with Salty Sprinkled

 

For Substitution Cooking School for Quarantine with Jam and Clare on Saturday, we made Chocolate Caramel Bars with Salty Sprinkles from the Beatrix Bakes cookbook.

These decadent creations start with a crisp biscuit base, that is topped with a dark rich caramel (I added minced fresh ginger to mine), and layered with a chocolate-butter mixture. Finally, crushed toasted walnuts and sea salt are sprinkled on top.

They look good, don’t they:

The good news is that if you fancy trying these luscious bars yourself, the recipe is available online here, here and here.

The recipe makes 14 bars.