Sweet New Zealand

There is a lot of sweetness to celebrate this month in New Zealand, not least a long, hot summer now stretching into autumn (with apologies to farmers).  And this weekend is Easter with its proliferation of eggs, bunnies and chickens, mostly of the chocolate variety. But what could be nicer than food bloggers dropping their delectable concoctions in my mailbox?  Come let me share with you the roundup for the month of March.

A peek into the world of raw food starts us off with this exquisite looking entry from Nicola of Homegrown Kitchen. Nicola made this for Purple Cake Day and the poignant and inspiring story behind this can be found on her post. I am so pleased she chose to enter with this, much admired by me,  Raw Blueberry 'Cashew' Cheesecake.    I am in awe at the wonderful colour and can only imagine what it would be like to bite into the creamy berry filling and chewy chocolate base. Nicola says it is so delicious and so good for you and I am certainly not going to argue with that.  I just long for a slice.  Sigh.

Sweet New Zealand creator Alessandra Zecchini dishes up her Apple Slice Cake made with Oratia Beauty apples.  Don’t you just love their name?  Apparently it’s an incredibly simple and quick recipe that makes an amazing apple cake. 

Alessandra has several blogs (I don't know how she does it, I have difficulty with one) and this second entry comes from her Only Recipes site.  Delectable Bergamot Orange Cupcakes topped with candied Bergamot Orange peels. Sounds exotic – and I have to say I am in love with that chair.

Mairi’s curiosity was piqued by a recent raw food class she attended and this dish, Fruit Salad with Honey Nut Crumble, stood out for her.   I’m not surprised as it really took my fancy too.   It looks so tasty with fresh summer fruits and a date & orange syrup.  Do check it out as Mairi has written about the rest of the raw food dishes too.

For those moments when only chocolate will do, Julie at Domestic Executive heads to the kitchen to make this, descriptively named, Anti Chocolate Nemesis Brownie.  In her words – it packs the same, if not better, chocolatey punch as a sugar and wheat version.  Or so my friend told me.  I believe a reliable brownie recipe should always be in one’s repertoire and I willingly add this one. 

In the unlikely event that it has escaped you, this is Easter weekend and Lydia of Lydia Bakes has played Easter Bunny by giving us her take on the famous Cadbury Crème Eggs – Creme Egg Cupcakes.  Love it!  Lydia is a real creative talent in the kitchen so you know these are going to be good.  Vanilla fondant filling, topped with chocolate buttercream and a mini crème egg on top.  Come on, you know you want to and Easter is a great excuse for a chocolate gorge.

Nutella + crostata. Those two words would be enough to warrant a look at GreedyBread Michelle’s entry but if you really require persuasion let me tell you her bad boy Nutella and Crostata tart (or the mini version) is very easy, very delish and very quick and you can slip in a cup of coffee while you’re waiting for the pastry to rest. Now, who can say No to that? 

I love the bunny that pops up everywhere on Genie’s Bunny Eats Design blog; he (she?) is so cute. This time topiary Bunny is guarding these Banana Hakanoa Mini Cakes (so much prettier than banana muffins). If, like me, you didn’t know what Hakanoa is, well it’s a ginger syrup. Bunny, or no bunny, these cakes look very appealing and that thick cream cheese frosting does it for me.

Fragrant cardamom is one of my favourite spices and I am always keen to see how it is used in both sweet and savoury dishes.  Inspired by a plum and cardamom jam, Sue from Couscous & Cousciousness has used it here to give autumn warmth to her Plum  & Cardamom Cake.  I love that she has frozen single serves ready for breakfast on the run or a quickfire dessert.

Jess, a Californian now living in New Zealand, makes people laugh with her stand-up comedy routine as well as promoting fitness and healthy eating on her blog Jessness Required.  So don’t be fooled by the names Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Eggs (top) or No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookie Balls (bottom), these are her healthy versions.  Go on, take a look and experiment a little.

Last but not least will be me and my Peach Pie with Lemon Pastry.  Well it’s not actually mine it belongs to Nigel Slater but I am so glad I baked it.  It is everything a summer pie should be: fragrant golden peaches, light, lemony pastry and crispy crust.  It leaves you wanting more.

And if you want more, don't forget Sweet New Zealand will be hosted in April by Monica from Delissimon. 

I’ve had fun hosting Sweet New Zealand for March and bringing these recipes and blogs to you.  Have a Happy Easter.

Chocolate Cherry Brownies

Chocolate Cherry Brownies

If there’s one thing to raise the hackles of my daughter, it is my habit of breaking into song at the mention of a few trigger words.  My father did this to me, so I know how it feels.  That doesn’t stop me.  It’s a hard habit to break. The latest trigger word was cherry.   Making the most of what may be a short supply cherry season,  I surprised myself (and probably the fruit shop owner) by buying a whole box of cherries.  That’s when I started singing (not in the shop, you understand) the Cherry Ripe song from a version of Alice in Wonderland.  Alice is taken to another world in the story and without too much exaggeration so will you when you indulge in these.  

I imagine you’re already in food overload (I know I am) but try not to resist this gooey, rich brownie studded with a sweet and juicy cherry. 

I can’t envisage you'd want to leave the cherries out, but just in case you do, this brownie will still taste good.  

Be warned though, this is the fabulous fudgy kind of brownie, not the “cakey” type (which I so loathe) so you don’t want to leave it lying around when it’s warm.  I keep mine in the fridge (being summer here).  It really is the kind of brownie you'll want to make again and again, with or without cherries.

Chocolate Cherry Brownies

200gms butter, melted

¾ cup cocoa powder, sifted

2 cups caster sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ cup plain flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

2 cups good quality dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces ¼ inch  (0.635cm)

fresh cherries, stalk and pip removed*

*A wee note on the cherries – I haven’t given quantities as it will depend on what size you cut the brownies.  I cut mine into small squares and squidged a cherry in each portion.  Use a cherry pitter to remove the pip, otherwise cut around half of each cherry with a small, sharp knife, twist gently to detach one half and remove the pip from the other half.  You now have 2 halves of a cherry to make a whole (who said I wasn’t good at Maths?). 

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Grease a 20x30cm sponge roll tin and line with baking paper.

Place the melted butter, sifted cocoa powder, sugar, salt, eggs and vanilla in a cake mixing bowl and whisk on a low to medium speed until light in colour - about 5 minutes. 

Sift in the plain flour and add the chopped pieces of chocolate and gently fold to combine.

Pour the mixture into the baking tin.  Take two halves of a cherry to make a whole cherry.  Roughly work out how large you want each brownie portion.  Take 2 halves of a cherry (to make a whole) and push into the middle of  each bite.  

Bake for 50-55 minutes.  The brownie should be coming away from the sides of the tin but will still be soft in the middle. 

Leave to cool completely in the tin.  When cold, cut into portions.  If you find it too sticky to cut, use a jug of hot water to dip your knife into after each slice (like they do with ice cream scoops).  Dry the knife before cutting again.  It will cut cleaner without all the goo attached.

Dust with icing sugar to finish.

Like this?  Try my Plum and Chocolate Slice based on a cherry and chocolate slice recipe.

Plum (or cherry) chocolate slice

I'm submitting this to Sweet New Zealand, hosted in December by Lydia from Lydia Bakes.

plum crazy

As much as I adore being on holiday, returning to work does bring some kind of routine and structure back into life.  Conversely, with less time, more seems to get done.  I will, of course, be eating these words in a few weeks when it all gets too much for me and when I will be longing for another holiday.

Last year around this time, my first blog post ever featured plum jam.  Once again, the two plum trees are laden with plump fruit and the annual plum and vanilla jam has been made and I have stewed plums, freezing them in servable sizes for later use.

Looking for other ideas for plums, I spied Toast’s blog post on plum and lemon cake (here). Hardly waiting for breath, I made it as soon as I jumped off the blog.  Something I hardly ever do.  It was oh so quick and easy and such a gorgeous result.

Then I had a disastrous attempt at a recipe for Plum Clafoutis where the batter separated and although it was edible, it didn’t look good, and I couldn’t face it, so it got binned.

But my overall favourite would have to be this plum and chocolate slice that I adapted from a cherry, cream cheese and chocolate slice by Genevieve McGough –  from Cuisine magazine November 2005.

Food pleasure for me is often in direct relation to the amount of fat and sugar contained therein, so I was not surprised at my choice.  However, I did baulk more than a little when I read:

300g dark chocolate

300g butter

365g sugar

250g cream cheese

Okay, I baulked a lot.  Post-Christmas, I am trying to return to eating as usual which, much as I’d like it, doesn’t involve desserts, continuous chocolate treats and give us our wine, our daily wine, so the mere scanning of my eyes over these three ingredients set off an alarm. 

So what’s a girl to do?  I compromised and halved the recipe. Me and halving recipes is a bad combination.  It goes something like this. 

Mistake No. 1 – Not thinking

I’ve already measured the plums working on a whole recipe

Mistake No. 2 – I don’t write it down

I start off efficiently calculating half of 300g, 250g, etc.  then…

Mistake No. 3 – I forget

So when I get to, in this case, the water, I’m gaily sploshing in the full amount, and just as the chocolate, butter and water overdose are melting, I remember and start spooning out what I fathom is half the water, which by now has butter merging into it.  Oh dear…

All I am saying is don’t be like me.  Use the full recipe, which I’ve given here, or know what you’re doing.  Fortunately it all turned out exceedingly well in the end.

The original recipe was for cherries, so use them if you prefer (250g cherries, stalks removed, stoned and halved).  As plums have larger stones than cherries, I reckoned on 400g plums (which, as I mentioned above was my calculation for the whole recipe).  If you’ve any plum syrup left over, use as an addition to a breakfast of muesli and yogurt, or porridge or add to baking such as muffins, etc. I can vouch for it being yum!

So, what was the slice like?  Well worth making. I expect my version was a bit fruitier than the original (remembering I had the full portion of fruit and half the batter!) and that may have affected the texture, which was lighter than I expected. I absolutely loved it though and so did everyone else.  It had a rich, chocolatey-mousse taste, with the moistness of sweetened, but still somewhat tart, jammy plums and velvety cream cheese - reminiscent of a raspberry brownie. 

Honestly, the photograph does not do it justice and I intend to make it again soon!  I might even try a version omitting the cream cheese just to taste what that’s like. (That will be the low-fat version then?)

Sadly, once I’ve exhausted all the plum recipes (and myself), the neighbouring plum tree ripens and is left sad, lonely and neglected.  Well not really, I will try to pass them around but you would not believe how many times bags of plums, ready to donate to friends, family and work colleagues have been left behind on the kitchen table!

Plum tree with most of the plums picked or eaten by birds

plum and chocolate slice

400g plums

1¾ cup (365g) caster sugar

185ml water

300g dark chocolate (I used Whittaker’s Dark Ghana 72% cocoa)

300g butter

5 eggs

1 ½ cups (210g) plain flour

250g cream cheese

Preheat oven to 150°C.

Grease a 32cm x 22 x 5 baking tin and line with baking paper.

Halve and quarter plums, removing stalk and stones.

Place 50g of the sugar and 85ml of the water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Add the plums and simmer for 10 minutes.  Leave to cool.

Melt chocolate, butter and remaining water in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Stir to combine and leave to cool.

Whisk the eggs and remaining sugar on high speed in an electric mixer for about 10 minutes until all the sugar has dissolved.

Turn mixer to a slow speed and slowly pour in the chocolate mixture until is incorporated.  Switch off mixer, sift in flour and mix briefly with a wooden spoon until flour lumps are gone.

Pour batter into the prepared tin, dot with small blobs of cream cheese and the plums, then drizzle with a little of the plum syrup.

Bake 40-45 minutes or until mixture is cooked through and springs back when pressed lightly with your fingertips or until a skewer comes out with some of the mixture like wet crumbs rather than wet batter.

Leave to cool in the tin. 

Dust with icing sugar if you wish. Cut into squares.  Serve with yogurt or cream for dessert or with a cup of coffee or tea.

Adapted from a recipe by Genevieve McGough

Published in Cuisine magazine, November 2005