Cook. @ Home - Pear Tarte Tatin

Hands up those who've been watching The Great Australian Bake Off?  I love watching it, especially whilst on Twitter as it's like watching a good show with a whole bunch of witty friends.  The down side of it is that I'm always hungry and hankering for some of the baked goodies that are happening on the screen.  A few weeks back they had an episode on tarts and it reminded me that I'd been meaning to try making a tarte tatin.  I've been thinking about it since I had a slice of Nadine Ingram's awesome pear tart at Flour and Stone when I visited Sydney earlier in the year.  In no way was my tarte tatin as yummy as that, but it was delicious, easy to make and the family gobbled it up in the blink of an eye!

Vanilla Pear Tarte Tatin      adapted from taste.com

2-3 ripe William Bartlett Pears 

100g sugar

50g butter

1 tsp of vanilla bean paste

one sheet of frozen puff pastry

1) Heat the oven to 200 C (fan force) and cut the pears into slices 

2) Melt the sugar over medium flame in an oven proof pan/skillet until slightly brown/caramelised - don't stir, but instead just agitate the pan as the sugar melts

4) Take the pan off the flame, add the butter and vanilla and stir to melt

5) Arrange the pear in whatever pattern you like on the pan, return to a medium flame for 5 minutes or until the pear is soft (becomes slightly translucent) and remove from heat

5) Cut your rolled out puff pastry with a sharp knife to just fit over the bottom of the pan. Place the pastry over the pear in the pan and tuck the sides in

6) Put the pan in the oven and bake for  20 minutes or until the pastry is slightly brown and puffy

7) Remove from the oven and rest for 5 minutes, put a large serving plate over the pan and flip, so that the tart sits on the plate pear-side up

8) Spoon over any remaining caramel and serve with a dollop of ice-cream

Cook @ Home - Orange Madeleines

So my instagram followers would have seen lots of photos of my madeleines, as I became a bit obsessed with these little delicate French cakes over the course of last year.  Finally here is the recipe I use most often.   I found this recipe a while ago from Le Delicieux and it's my absolute favourite one as a) it's so easy and b) these madeleines are so light and delicious!  I love making the batter the day ahead when I'm expecting guests, then after dinner I just grab my bowl of batter, fill the pans, bake the madeleines, and have impressive little cakes to serve with a cup of tea for dessert!  

Orange Madeleines

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup plain  flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup of caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice
• 80g of butter, melted

Method:

1) Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside
2) Using the whisk attachment,  add the sugar and orange zest to the mixer bowl and mix on the lowest setting until the sugar and zest are well combined (sugar becomes slightly orange!)
3) Add the eggs and whisk until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture becomes light and fluffy
4) With the mixer at its lowest setting, gently add the flour and vanilla extract, and mix until just combined
5) Add the melted butter and orange juice and again mix until just combined
6) Cover the bowl with glad wrap and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours (overnight if possible)
7) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (355 Fahrenheit)
8) Grease your madeleine pan (I use butter), and fill with the batter to 2/3 full. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until cooked
9) Dust with icing sugar and serve

They are really quite easy and are soooooo very good with a cup of tea!

The trick to the pretty shell shaped is in the special madeleine pans which are quite readily available at most kitchenware sellers.

Filling the pan to 2/3 full will yield little delicate cakes.

Some people don't like the "hump" on their madeleines, others say it's not a true madeleine unless there's a hump!

Tips - 

• Madeleines are best eaten whilst warm, so take them out of the tin, cool slightly on a rack and serve them up straight away
• I use my KitchenAid to whip these up but it can easily be adapted for the Thermomix

Cook. @ Home - Yum Cha Style Mango Pudding

Hands up those who always order mango pudding at yum cha.  Apart from the obligatory jelly  pieces, the mango pudding is my kids' favourite.  There are so many different recipes out there to make this dessert, but I'm really glad that I found this recipe on the thermomix forum which doesn't contain any raw egg yolks, so it's suitable for young children, and all those friends who might be in their early pregnancies but can't tell you yet! 

I have reprinted my version of the recipe, but Nean's original version can be found here at the thermomix forum.  This recipe is so easy!  I have included the non-thermomix instructions in brackets.  I tried using small Japanese cups I got from Made in Japan, small ramekins and also the mini tupperware gel cups and made about 12 serves each time.

Yum-Cha Style Mango Pudding

• Flesh of 3 medium mangoes
• 2 tablespoons gelatin
• 125 g water 
• 425 g boiling water 
• 280 g sugar 
• 250 g evaporated milk 

1) Blend the flesh of 2 mangos at speed 8 for 30 seconds (or in food processor)

2) In a bowl, add gelatin to the water and stand for few minutes

3) Add boiling water to the gelatin mixture in the bowl

4) Stir in the sugar until all the gelatin and sugar are dissolved

5) Add this to the mango puree and mix at speed 4 for 5 seconds  (can do this by hand)

6) Add evaporated milk and mix at speed 1 for 5 seconds (again can do this by hand)

7) Chop up the flesh of the last mango into pieces and place a few pieces in each container.

8) Pour mixture on top of the mango pieces in each of the containers and refrigerate overnight.

9) Serve with extra evaporated milk poured on top, just like at Yum Cha!

Tips - 

• You can adjust the amount of sugar to your taste.   My first batch tasted too sweet but was fine after adding the evaporated milk.
• I use Carnation Light and Creamy Evaporated Milk in this recipe quite successfully.  It also helps to reduce each serving to about 150 calories!
• Tinned mangoes can be used when mangoes are not in season, and you have not had the foresight to store any frozen mango cheeks away (I kick myself every winter for this reason!)

Cook. @ Home - Portugese Egg Tarts

Just realised that Eat.Play.Shop. quietly turned one earlier on in December!  Time for a bit of a change,  so I've decided to launch a new part to the blog by starting some Cook. @ Home posts, to share the recipes of some of the stuff we've been whipping up here.  As the Little Ones are growing into Bigger Ones, cooking has become something that the kids all want to participate in, sometimes more successfully than others!  Their tastes in food have also become quite broad and varied.   It's pretty cool to watch them try to make and eat different foods, and learn to appreciate their discoveries!

For my first recipe I will post a recent favourite - The Portugese Tart.  I paid $4 for one at Market Lane Coffee the other day and it got me thinking about how difficult easy it will be to make these yummy and delightful little tarts, which are perfect for afternoon tea.  Research on the net yielded quite a few variations in cooking methods and I have taken these on board and added my own changes.  As most of you know I have a thermomix (love!) so the custard is prepared in the thermomix here, but there's no reason why it can't be made on a stove top with gentle heat and stirring.  I have never failed using this recipe (yet!) and it makes a big batch of 24 - because they are very more-ish and just disappear so quickly!


The recipe is inspired by Bill Granger's,  with thermomix adaptation inspired by Winosandfoodies.


Fail Safe (Thermomix) Portugese Egg Tarts (Pasteis de Nata)

2 sheets of puff pastry

6 egg yolks

150g caster sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour

250g double cream

330g milk

2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

1) Blend egg yolks, caster sugar and cornflour in the thermomix bowl at speed 4 for 5 seconds
2) Add cream and milk and cook at 80 C, speed 4 for 10 minutes
3) Add vanilla bean paste and whiz at speed 8 for 8 seconds
4) Pour mixture into a bowl to cool to room temperature, with glad wrap on the surface of the custard to stop a skin from forming
5) Turn oven on to 200 C (fan force) and grease 2 x 12 muffin tins
6) Place the 2 sheets of puff pastry on top of each other.  When thawed, cut this down the middle to form 2 rectangles.  Roll each rectangle up from the short end to short end to form 2 rolls and cut each into 12 rounds
7) Roll each round out on a floured surface and place into the muffin tins
8) When the custard has cooled it will set somewhat.  Spoon the mixture evenly into the 24 puff pastry cases and pop them into the oven for 20 minutes
9) Remove from the oven and rest for 5 minutes.  Then pop the tarts on a wire rack to cool and eat them when they're just warm!

Egg, Caster Sugar and Corn Flour blended

Adding the vanilla bean paste after the custard is cooked

Waiting for the custard to cool

Cutting the Puff Pastry

Rolling out the rounds

Cases all done - Rustic is good!

Just out of the Oven

Cooling on the rack, and looking quite delicious I must say!

Tips - 

• you can pop the custard mixture into the fridge to cool if pressed for time
• the custard will rise and bubble quite high while in the oven and will collapse down to achieve the look you're used to once out of the oven
• I love vanilla so I use lots of vanilla bean paste, but you can substitute this with vanilla extract and reduce the quantity quite easily
• I am quite lazy with pastry making so I always use purchased puff pastry, but you can make your own, and if you have a thermomix there's a recipe for this in the Everyday Cookbook

Apart from enjoying eating these, the thrifty housewife part of me finds it quite satisfying that for under $10 of ingredients I've produced $96 worth of tarts with very little effort.  Enjoy!