White Chocolate & Nuts Blondies

Ingredients:

White chocolate - 175 gms (finely chopped)

Unsalted butter - 115 gms (softened)

Powdered sugar - 100 gms

Eggs - 2 (lightly beaten)

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Maida - 130 gms

Cashew Nuts - 50 gms (roughly chopped)

Almonds - 50 gms (roughly chopped)

Directions:

1. In a bowl, take chopped white chocolate. Temper the chocolate either using double boiler method or using microwave. For tempering using microwave, use microwave for 30 seconds and mix well using silicone spatula. Later, use microwave for 10 each and mix well until chocolates becomes runny and shiny
2. Add softened butter, mix well until butter melts
3. Add powdered sugar and mix well
4. Add lightly beaten eggs and blend it well using hand mixer
5. Add baking powder as well as maida. Fold it in the chocolate-butter-sugar mixture
6. Add chopped nuts and mix well
7. Pre-heat oven at 180 degrees centigrade
8. Grease 8" x 8 " tin and pour the mixture
9. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for around 30 minutes or until tootpick inserted at center comes out clean
10. Once baked, allow it to cool completely and cut into 1" x 1" squares
11. Serve it with vanilla cream or dust with icing sugar

Fresh Fruit Tart

December has already started and it is the season for fresh strawberries. This weekend, I decided to make Fresh Fruit Tart. I considered using fresh strawberries, mulberries, kiwi and dragon fruit for the topping.

Tart is a baked dish with a shortcrust pastry as the base with usually custard filling and topping.

Ingredients

For Pastry Crust

Maida (all purpose flour) - 200 gms

Unsalted Butter - 150 gms

White sugar - 50 gms

Salt - 1/8 tsp

Egg - 1

Cold water - 2 tbsp

For Pastry Cream

Milk - 300ml

Egg yolks - 3nos

Maida - 20gms

Corn flour - 20gms

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

For Topping

Strawberries - 15nos

Kiwi - 2 nos

Dragon Fruit - 1no

For Glaze

Corn flour - 1 tbsp

White sugar - 50gms

Water - 1 cup

Instructions:

For Pastry Crust

1. In the food processor bowl, take maida. Add sugar and salt
2. Cut cold butter in 1/2 inch cubes and add to maida
3. Lightly beat the egg and add to maida
4. Turn on the food processor and pulse it until all the ingredients just come together and forms the texture of small granules. If necessary, add 1 tbsp of cold water (if mixture is not coming together)
5. Take out the mixture and place on the clean working platform. Bring all the ingredients together to form a ball. Do not over work the batter otherwise pastry crust will not be light after baking.
6. Flatten the ball in the form of the thick disc, cover it with cling wrap and keep in the refrigerator for 30 minutes
7. Take 8-9 inch tart mould with loose bottom. Grease it with butter
8. Remove the pastry disc from the refrigerator and roll it on the clean working platform using rolling pin. The size of the rolled pastry should be at least 3-4 inches more that the diameter of the tart mould (Instead of flattening using rolling pin, I placed the pastry ball in the mould and flattened it evenly using fingers and palm while raising the pastry over the edges of the mould.)
9. Transfer the rolled pastry in the mould, press lightly with fingers along the inside edge of the mould and cut excess of pastry hanging over the mould top using knife.
10. Keep the pastry along with mould in the freezer for 15-20 minutes
11. Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees centigrade
12. Take out the pastry and mould from the freezer, prick the bottom of the pastry.
13. Bake the pastry in the oven for 5 minutes at 200 degrees centigrade
14. Reduce the temperature to 180 degrees and back until crust turns light brown (around 15-17 minutes)
15. Turn the oven off, take out the baked pastry and allow it to completely cool
16. While crust is warm, apply either apricot glaze or lightly beaten egg whites on the inside surface of the crust. This prevents the crust becoming soggy once pastry cream is poured inside the crust
17. Once cooled, remove the bottom of the mould 
18. While pastry crust is getting cooled, prepare pastry cream

For Pastry Cream

1. Separate egg whites and yolks
2. In a bowl, take 3 egg yolks and mix well with sugar
3. Sift maida and corn flour in the egg yolks and mix well until smooth paste is formed
4. In the sauce pan, bring the milk to just boil (until milk starts foaming up)
5. Remove the sauce pan from heat and pour small quantity in the egg yolk mixture while whisking constantly. This is called tempering of the egg yolk mixture
6. Slowly add the remaining milk in the egg yolk mixture while continuously whisking
7. Pour back the above mixture in the sauce pan and keep it on the gas stove on medium heat.
8. Whisk continuously (this will avoid curdling of the egg yolk mixture) until the mixture thickens with the custard like smooth consistency (around 1 minute or so). Whisking continuously will also help avoid any lumps being formed
9. Remove it from the heat and allow it cool completely. Cover the surface of the pastry cream with cling wrap to avoid formation of the skin
10. Once cooled, add vanilla extract and mix well.

For Glaze

1. In a small pan, take sugar, corn flour and water
2. Bring the mixture to boil 
3. Remove it from the heat and allow to cool completely. The mixture will be slightly thickened

Assembling the tart

1. In the cooled pastry crust, spread the pastry cream evenly
2. Slice the strawberries, kiwis and dragon fruits
3. Arrange the fruit slices on top of pastry cream in concentric circles or any other decorative form
4. Using pastry brush, apply cooled glaze on the surface of the fruits. This glaze bring shine to the surface of the fruits as well as prevents the fruits from turning stale
5. Store the tart in the refrigerator until served.
6. We can use any other fruits of your choice as well

Rolled crust inside the tart mould

Baked pastry crust

Pastry cream getting thickened

Ready and cooled pastry cream

Assembled Tart

Glaze applied on the tart

Waffles

This Sunday we planned to have brunch at home rather than conventional lunch and finalised on loaded Waffles, Chicken Schnitzel and bacon. I had once read waffle recipe by Gary Mehigan (one of the hosts from Masterchef Australia) and decided to adapt the same. The result is what you see in the picture....

Waffles

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon castor sugar
• 250 gm plain flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast (I used Blue Bird brand)
• 250 ml (1 cup) milk
• 250 ml (1 cup) fresh cream (I used Amul fresh cream)
• 4 egg yolks
• 150 gm melted butter (salted or unsalted..If using salted, no need to add salt mentioned above)
• 4 egg whites

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup luke warm milk. Let it stand until creamy / frothy (about 10 minutes) Make sure that milk is not too warm else it will kill the yeast

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 1/4 cup of the luke warm milk and the melted butter. 

3. Stir in the yeast mixture, sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir in the remaining 1/2 cups milk as well as 1 cup cream alternately with the flour, ending with the flour. 

4. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks

5.Fold the egg whites into the batter. 

6.Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let it rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour

7.Preheat the waffle iron and grease with oil 

8.Pour 1/2 cup batter in the center of the iron. Spread it evenly and close the lid  

9.Bake until waffle is golden brown. Serve with honey, maple syrup and fresh fruit slices

Batter and cut fruits ready

Fresh waffles from the iron

Waffles loaded with hone & fresh fruits

Divine Waffles

Pavlova Miniatures

Yesterday, I had been for lunch at a restaurant and they had Pavlova as one of the many options for dessert. Pavlova is meringue based dessert having delicate but crisp crust and soft marshmellowy center. It is typically served by decorating the top with whipped cream and fresh fruits like Strawberries, Kiwi, Passion Fruits etc. This dessert is said to be created first either in Australia or New Zealand. After having tasted this lovely dessert, I decided trying to recreate it.

The base of Pavlova is made by slow baking the firmly beaten egg whites and then garnishing it with whipped cream, fruits crush and fresh fruits.

Baked Meringue Bases, Whipped Cream and Fresh Fruits

Ingredients

Egg Whites - 4 (make sure not even a drop of egg yolk is mixed)

White Sugar - 225 gms (finely ground)

Cornflour - 2 tsp

White Vinegar - 2 tsp (you can substitute it with lemon juice)

Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

Whipping Cream - 250 ml

Kiwi Fruit - 2 nos.

Peach - 1 no.

Strawberries - 10-12

Fruit Crush - 3/4 cup (I used Mala's Very Berry crush)

Makes 9 Pavlova miniatures of 4 inch diameter

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven at 150 degrees centigrade
2. In a sufficiently big bowl take egg whites and beat until they hold firm peaks but are not stiff
3. Gently add sugar, one spoon at a time while beating continuously. Make sure that all the sugar is dissolved completely and then beat further until you get snowy and shiny meringue but it is not dry. (Ensure not to over beat the meringue else egg whites loose volume and deflate when folded with other ingredients)
4. Sprinkle cornflour, vinegar and vanilla essence on top and gently fold in the meringue to combine
5. In the baking tray, keep the silicone baking sheet (alternatively you can use baking sheet lined with parchment paper)
6. Spoon the meringue on the baking sheet and spread in approximately 4 inch diameter circles with 1 inch spacing between them. Try to make the rim little higher than the center so that it can hold whipped cream and fruits later (unfortunately, my meringues were not indented in center. You can use backside of the spoon to make indentation in center)
7. Put the baking tray in the oven, reduce the temperature to 130 degrees and bake for around 50 minutes or until the surface is slightly light brown and is hard if touched
8. Switch off the oven, keep the oven door slightly open and allow it to cool inside the oven itself for around 30 minutes.
9. Once cooled, transfer to wire rack
10. Meanwhile, peel and cut the fruits
11. In a cold vessel, take whipping cream and beat it until soft peaks are formed. (Add 1 tbsp sugar while beating if whipping cream is unsweetened)
12. While assembling the Pavlova, put a dollop of whipped cream on the baked meringue based and smooth it from all the sides. Place a spoonful of fruit crush and then place cut fruits on top
13. Enjoy the tasty Pavlova

Tip: If you are not assembling the Pavlovas immediately, baked meringue bases can be stored in airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days