Creme Caramel - slow baked

I have had a severe multi-dose of procrastination, indecisiveness and writer's block - all of which I am going to use as my excuse for the long gap from the last post. It's not all hopeless. I got over the indecisiveness when I ticked the voting paper today for the NZ general election.  I also knew whether I would have voted aye or nae for Scottish independence but sadly expat Scots, who really still care about their beloved country's future, were not given the vote.

Back home when I was a child I would not have given the vote to creme caramels.  I hated them with a passion and don't remember why.  I think it was just the taste, which is everything really.

Late last year in Ortolana restaurant, I ordered a salted caramel flan and got it into my head that I was ordering a pastry tart filled with custard and strawberries (I know, I'm a little mixed up at times). I had to be convinced I had ordered it when it arrived and glumly tried it.  It was nice in the way that it was better than I'd expected but wasn't quite what I'd had in mind.

So it still seems a little strange that I'd want to make these creme caramels, but I had half a tin of sweetened condensed milk I wanted to use and, bingo, saw this recipe and thought "why not?". (Be assured I don't vote for political parties in the same flippant manner.)

The result is that the caramel sauce worked (I thought I'd burnt it at first), the custard set, they were easy to bake and looked pretty good (but would look much prettier with some added decoration e.g. fresh or marinated strawberries which I didn't have). 

Once baked, they just had to languish overnight in the fridge. Ideal for do-ahead desserts. Oh, and I did like them and can't imagine why I didn't before?

Creme Caramels

Makes 4

1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 a 400g tin of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Turn your slow cooker onto the HIGH setting.  Pour in 2 cups of hot tap water.  

Lightly spray or grease 4 ramekins, cups or small bowls (which can hold 3/4 cup of water). Check beforehand that they fit in the slow cooker (I used two upturned tiny soy sauce bowls to allow two of the ramekins to be at a different level so they would all fit in).

For the caramel: Heat the sugar over moderate heat in a medium saucepan, preferably with a pouring spout.  DO NOT STIR.  Tilt the pan carefully to ensure all the sugar melts evenly and turns golden brown. As soon as it reaches that stage and still without stirring, pour equal amounts into the bottoms of the ramekins.

Place the eggs, milk, condensed milk and vanilla into a mixing jug or bowl and beat until combined but not frothy. Pour this mixture through a fine sieve into the ramekins.

Carefully place the filled ramekins into the slow cooker.  Put the lid back on the slow cooker and turn the setting to LOW. Cook for 4 hours or until custards set.

Once set, turn off the slow cooker and carefully lift out the bowls.  Cover with plastic film and leave overnight in the fridge.  Remove from the fridge half an hour before serving.

To turn out the custards, run a small palette knife or similar, around the top.  I turned them out onto a flat, stainless steel pastry scraper so I could easily transfer them to a serving plate. Otherwise you can scoop them out onto your hand (I did not trust myself with this!).

And there you have it, a caramel topped custard with a pool of caramel sauce.

Recipe from Slow Cookers & Crockpots by Simon & Alison Holst




This is my entry for September's Sweet New Zealand hosted by Karen at Mummy Do It (I remember those words!).

Chocolate Caramel Banoffee Tarts

Fridays, I have off.  I have had to train myself to go and do something I enjoy on these days otherwise  I can fritter the time away at home accomplishing what feels like nothing (even though it is not).  So I took off today to Ruben in Parnell Road.  Except I couldn't find it (incorrect street number on referring blogs) even though I wandered up and down a few times.  Fortunately I'd already spied Vaniye where I'd purchased some croissants for the weekend so I returned for a second time that morning and sat in their small but tastefully elegant space with a crisp, buttery almond croissant in all its gorgeousness and a good coffee.

Later I headed across town to the Capitol Cinema to take in the movie, Frances Ha, which I'd spotted but not had a chance to get to at the recent Auckland Film Festival.  It was funny to hear the elderly woman behind me commenting at the closing credits "well that was a lot about not much at all".  We were probably not the film's target audience age group really but the lead actress plays her part so endearingly well that she won me over.  Filmed in black and white and with nods to Woody Allen, it was amusing and sometimes awkward as it follows the late-twenties Frances as she tries to find her way in life (and homes).

What all this has to do with chocolate banoffee pies, I have no idea, except I had no other way of introducing them so I decided to waffle on about what I'd done today.

After our food bloggers' afternoon tea, I promised I'd share this recipe so here it is. This is the first time I've ever made banoffee pies (or in this case, chocolate caramel banoffee tarts) but I can assure you it will not be the last.  They are very tasty and not too decadent as they are only a mouthful or two!

If you make the tart shells ahead of time (they will keep for a couple of days in an airtight tin) it makes for a reasonably easy assembly on the day of eating.  I am sure they will also freeze well too.

The recipe used mini-muffin tins for cooking.  However I found these made tiny cases that were too small for the filling and the pastry too thick so I used tart tins.  Leave the banana slices and cream topping until you are ready to serve (brushing a teensy bit of lemon juice on the banana will stop it from  browning).

I'm sharing this recipe at Sweet New Zealand, hosted this month by Sweets & Brains.

Chocolate Caramel Banoffee Tarts

1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
1/4 cup (40g) icing sugar
1/4 cup (25g) cocoa powder
185g (6oz) cold butter, chopped coarsely
1 egg yolk
2 tsp iced water
1 small banana
1/3 cup (80ml) whipped cream

chocolate caramel filling

60g (2oz) butter, chopped coarsely
1/4 cup (55g) brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup (300g) sweetened condensed milk
30g (1oz) good quality dark chocolate, chopped coarsely
2 tsp golden syrup or treacle


Place the sifted flour, sugar, cocoa and butter in a food processor and process until crumbly.  With motor running, add egg yolk and enough of the iced water to make ingredients cling together.  Turn the dough onto a floured surface (it will be still be crumbly) and knead gently until smooth.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Grease two 12-hole tart tins.  Roll out half the pastry between two sheets of plastic wrap or baking paper until just under 5mm (1/4 thick).  Cut out rounds to fit the holes in your tart tins (use the thin rim of a round wine glass or drinking glass to cut if you don't have anything else - just not your expensive crystal and a heavy fist!).

Ease the pastry neatly into the holes.  Repeat the process with the other half of pastry.  Prick the bases of the tarts with a fork and refrigerate again for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C.  Bake cases for about 12 minutes - watch carefully to ensure the tops do not burn.  Remove from the oven and leave in the tins for 5 minutes before removing to a cake rack to cool.  The cases can be made two days ahead.  Store in an airtight container if you are not going to use immediately.

chocolate caramel filling

Stir the butter and sugar in a small saucepan over a low heat until the sugar dissolves.  Add the condensed milk and stir for 5 minutes or until the mixture boils and thickens (make sure it does not catch on the bottom of the saucepan).

Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate and golden syrup (or treacle) until smooth.  Remove from the heat.

Divide the hot caramel filling into the pastry cases.  Leave to cool and then refrigerate for 1 hour.

When ready to serve, place a slice of banana on top of each tart (brush very lightly with lemon juice if they will be sititng for a while - this stops the banana going brown) and then either pipe or dollop some whipped cream on the top.  Dust with sifted cocoa powder if you wish.

Strawberry season

 

Unless strawberries are very sweet and juicy, I'm not so taken with them in their natural state.   I just have to enhance them with sugar or vanilla syrup or cream, such is my wont (and sweet tooth).    Here's a couple of things I've done recently whilst we are in strawberry season.  The second is more of a what to do with just the wrong side of fresh strawberries assembly than a recipe - great for breakfast though.

Strawberry, rhubarb and vanilla crumble

Filling

2 punnets of strawberries, hulled and cut in half

1 bunch of rhubarb, washed and chopped into 2.5cm (1-inch) slices

zest and juice of 1 orange

1 teaspoon vanilla syrup* (or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence)

1/3 cup brown sugar (use less or more according to taste and sweetness of fruit)

Crumble topping

1 cup (120g) plain flour

1 cup (140g) brown sugar

1 cup (100g) porridge oats

100g butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F)

Place the strawberries, rhubarb, orange zest and juice, vanilla syrup or essence and brown sugar in a large bowl and mix to combine.  Pour into a medium sized baking dish.

For the topping, place the flour and sugar in a food processor and pulse to combine.  Add the porridge oats and pulse a couple of times to combine.  Pour in the melted butter and pulse just to combine.

Distribute the topping evenly over the filling and bake for 30 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the rhubarb is cooked.

Serve with cream or custard.

Sweet strawberry yoghurt muesli 

Simply soak the strawberries, preferably overnight, in the juice and zest of an orange (just enough to coat the fruit) and a teaspoon of vanilla syrup* (or a couple of drops of vanilla essence).  In the morning, put a layer of muesli (see my recipe here) or cereal in a glass or bowl, top with a layer of yoghurt and finish off with the strawberries.  (I zap the strawberries in the microwave for about 10 seconds just to take the chill off before using).

*In both recipes, I used Equagold's Tahitian Vanilla Syrup - another of those divine products given to us at the Food Blogger' Conference.  

Poached Pears with Clotted Cream

Say July to me and I’ll tell you it’s summer.  Even after twenty years of being in the southern hemisphere I still can’t get my seasons right.  I’m eating and cooking with pears and my mind’s tuning in to autumn, hence the pears. Here. Now. When it’s not autumn.  But somewhere in the world it is autumn (or fall), so this is for you, my friend.

The starting point was clotted cream.  If you are familiar with clotted cream in England you may be disappointed to find “Devonshire teas” in New Zealand are not served with traditional clotted cream but with ordinary whipped cream.  I was, but then I got over it.

Some time ago, a work colleague, who hails from Devon, gave me a slow cooker recipe for clotted cream.  She was excited as she’d sent it in to NZ chef Peter Gordon in response to his request in his newspaper column for clotted cream suppliers and her reply was published.  It is so very easy you must try it.

Instead of marrying it up with scones, I matched it with some poached pears for a simple pudding (I love the word “pudding”).  The inspiration came from some poached pears I’d eaten at Dida’s Food Store in Auckland during a dinner and talk with Dianne Jacob (more on that in my next Etcetera post).

Traditionally clotted cream uses unpasteurized milk but, hey ho, even though I live in the country the only milk making it to my house is the supermarket standard (full cream) milk.  (Visions of me on a milking stool milking a cow? Not likely!)

This pudding is my entry for Sweet New Zealand, hosted for November by pet lover, Lucy at The Kitchen Maid.

Tips for clotted cream

Start the recipe two days before required as it has to cook for 10 hours, cool and then chill  for 10 hours.

Follow the instructions for the use of your own slow cooker.

Try and match the dish you use for the cream and milk to the shape of your slow cooker for maximum area coverage.  The more surface area you have the more cream you will get as the cream forms on the surface of the dish.  So if you have an oval shaped slow cooker, use an oval shaped dish.  I used a Pyrex glass dish (without the lid) inside the slow cooker.  

After skimming off the top, cover the leftover milk with the lid and store in the fridge.  Use it to make scones or a rice pudding. 

Store the cream in the fridge but leave at room temperature prior to serving to soften.

The cream is best eaten on the day or next day. 

Clotted Cream

Makes a small bowlful (see photo above) - approximately ¾ cup.  

Double the recipe if required and if you have the room in your slow cooker.

500mls (1 pint) full cream milk
250mls (1/2 pint) single cream

Turn the slow cooker on to “low” setting.

Invert a saucer on the bottom of the slow cooker.  Place a Pyrex dish, or similar, on top of the saucer to fit your slow cooker. 

Mix the milk and cream in a large jug and pour gently into the bowl in the slow cooker.

Carefully pour water into the slow cooker so that it comes up to approximately 4cms from the top of the container holding the milk and cream.   Replace lid on slow cooker (not container) and leave for approximately 10 hours or overnight.  A lovely golden crust should have formed.

Leave to cool, then place in fridge for approx 10 hours. Take crust and cream off the top (it pretty much comes off in one piece) and there you have it, yummy clotted cream.  Stir gently and serve.

Save the leftover milk in the fridge for another recipe.

Poached Pears

4 firm eating pears, firm and slightly under-ripe

600ml (1 pint) good red wine

65g (2½ oz) sugar

Peel the pears, leaving the stalk on and keeping the pears whole.  Place in a heavy saucepan, add the wine and sugar, stir and bring to the boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 1 hour, or until the pears are tender (test them with a skewer trying not to mark them too much). 

When the pears are ready remove with a slotted spoon and keep warm.

Reduce the liquid over a high heat until it has the consistency of syrup. 

Place the pears on the plates and spoon over the syrup.

vanilla panna cotta with Piopio blueberries … and a year older

♫ Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me … ♫

That’s the blog singing, not me.  My birthday was lost somewhere between Christmas shopping, Christmas organization and travel plans. Either way, we’re both a year older.

Yes, last Tuesday 10 January was the first anniversary of eat, etc…

And, as if Food Gawker somehow knew 10 January was a special anniversary, my first attempt at a photographic submission, succeeded. Oh, happy days.  Click on the Food Gawker badge in the right hand column if you have no idea what I am talking about. There’s only one photo as yet but first birthdays are kind of special, don’t you think?

Thank you to each and every one of you who has taken the time to stop by.  Sometimes I feel like such a fraud being a food blogger, especially when others have so much more talent.  So I remind myself that I’m not pretending to be anything other than what I am – someone who likes to cook and bake and wants to write about it.  There. Now you know.

Okay, on to the main idea, a creamy little dessert. 

After the Christmas rush (refer paragraph two above and/or my last post if you really want to relive the details. I don’t.), New Year’s Day lunch was a combined celebration – my birthday, Christmas AND New Year - with my sister and her partner, and most of all it was going to be simple.

Panna cotta is one of those easy yet impressive desserts that you make in advance.  It is velvety smooth on the palate and creamy to taste. The cream should be flavoured softly to give just a delicate hint of what’s inside.  Then use what’s in season to accompany it or to decorate. 

We had purchased a 1-litre box of big fat blueberries from the Piopio Orchard on our trip back from Taranaki (and on our way down!). The blueberries are juicy, sweet and better than any blueberries I’ve ever tasted.  No bruised or shriveled ones here and they last really well.  They also sell strawberries, fruit ice creams and coffees.  No wonder they’re so popular. I texted a friend to say the only traffic jam we’d encountered on our way south was the one in the car park at the orchard! 

Back home on New Year’s Day, I didn’t bother to use moulds for the panna cottas (stressless lunch, remember?) but you are welcome to try.  They look just as appealing served in little glasses or ramekins.  Plus, you don’t have the “will they, won’t they slip out whole” factor. I served them with fat blueberries and star shaped sweet shortbread.

Another fine start to a New Year.

vanilla panna cotta with blueberries

3 tsp gelatine

2 tbsp warm water

375ml (1 ½ cups) cream

375ml (1 ½ cups) milk

75g (1/3 cup) caster sugar

1 vanilla pod (or substitute with 1 tsp vanilla essence)

1 small punnet blueberries (or use seasonal fruit of your choice)

Optional: sweet shortbread or similar dessert-type biscuit to serve

Soak the gelatine in the 2 tbsp warm water.  Stir briskly with a fork until the gelatine is completely dissolved.

Using a sharp knife split the vanilla pod lengthways to open but don’t cut right through. 

Place the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla pod in a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil. When it comes to the boil, take the pan off the heat.   Remove the vanilla pod (you can rinse this in water, dry and re-use) and whisk in the soaked gelatine until it is well combined.

Lightly butter or oil* six ramekin dishes or moulds, then pour in the mixture.  Leave to cool, and then chill in the fridge for at least two to three hours until set.

Arrange the blueberries on top of each dish or alongside and serve with a suitable dessert biscuit such as sweet shortbread.

*Use a light, flavourless oil.