xmas week 2024 - sticky gingerbread bundt cake

xmas week 2024 - sticky gingerbread bundt cake

17 Dec 2024

Is it even Christmas if you don't make gingerbread in some form? This year rather than gingerbread men or a gingerbread tree, I made a gingerbread bundt cake, because I really wanted to test out the cake goop I had stored in the fridge.

Gingerbread usually contains some form of sugar syrup that when baked welds the cake firmly to the cake pan. Trust me I know because I've had any number of baking disasters in the past. For the recipe I turned to Belinda Jeffery and a recipe that I found in a Delicious magazine many years ago. It's a triple ginger cake because it contains both ground ginger, fresh ginger as well as crystallised ginger. I'm not a huge fan of molasses so I diluted it's flavour by the addition of some golden syrup to the mix. 

Thankfully the cake goop worked a charm and the cake unmoulded pretty easily however if you're not in the mood for a bundt cake, this makes a 17cm square cake.

Here's the recipe for you which makes either a 5 cup bundt cake or a 17cm square cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to make an 8 inch cake, you can find the recipe here.

Sticky Gingerbread Bundt Cake - Belinda Jeffery

Ingredients

150g plain flour, plus extra to dust
Pinch sea salt flakes
scant ½ tsp bicarb of soda

1¼ tsp ground ginger (as fresh as possible)
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
pinch ground nutmeg
5 small lumps crystallised ginger, chopped, plus extra chopped to serve
85g room temperature unsalted butter

105g brown sugar
105g molasses/treacle or golden syrup
1½ (75g) eggs
2½ tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1¼ tsp finely grated lemon zest
60ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon-Butter Glaze
80g icing sugar
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
15 g unsalted butter, melted and warm
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp warm water

To decorate

Crystallised ginger, chopped, to serve

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Grease and flour a bundt pan then place in the fridge until needed. If using a square tin, grease then line with baking paper.

Sift flour, soda and ground spices into a large bowl. Stir in the crystallised ginger, then set aside. Place butter and brown sugar in another bowl and beat with an electric beater on medium speed for 3-4 minutes until fluffy. Add molasses/treacle and beat until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition – don’t worry if the batter looks curdled, it will smooth out when you add the flour. Mix in fresh ginger and zest, then gently beat in the flour mixture. Add buttermilk and vanilla and beat on low speed until just combined.

Scrape into the prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top feels springy and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then carefully loosen around the sides and invert onto the rack to cool completely.

Lemon butter glaze

Sift the icing sugar and cinnamon into a small bowl. Add the melted butter, lemon juice and water and mix with a spoon until smooth and the consistency of  honey. Ice the cake and allow the glaze to set before serving. If liked, you can top the cake with the extra crystallised ginger. 

Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or in the fridge for up to 10 days, if you prefer it stickier.

This is one of those cakes that tastes better as it matures and it's a recipe I will certainly be adding to my repertoire. It was, as Belinda described it, a really good gingerbread.

See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Xmas week 2024.

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more

xmas week 2024 - raspberry and cranberry curd tart

xmas week 2024 - raspberry and cranberry curd tart

10 Dec 2024

Welcome to the final day of Xmas week 2024. This was going to be my version of David Tanis's famous cranberry tart, until frozen cranberries disappeared from the freezer section at the supermarket. Undaunted I made a raspberry curd tart to share with you but the filling failed to set. The tart was a photographic disaster but very tasty, so back to the drawing board I went. 

I had 50g of frozen cranberries stashed in my freezer and a pack of frozen raspberries so I made a batch of cranberry raspberry curd. It certainly set better than the raspberry curd did, but I added some cornflour to the curd to ensure the filling set sufficiently when baked so I could cut a clean slice. With only a few cranberries available, I could only make a small amount of curd so I made a very small tart. Please refer to the original recipe for quantities sufficient to make a 10 inch tart. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 16.5 cm x 2.5 cm tart. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Raspberry and cranberry curd tart

Almond shortcrust pastry
¼ cup icing sugar
35g almond meal
200g plain flour
Pinch salt
110g cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cold water

Cran-raspberry curd
50g frozen cranberries/120g raspberries
90g caster sugar
½ orange peeled (coloured part only) and juiced to yield ¼ cup of juice

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

pinch salt

55g room temperature unsalted butter 

2 tsp cornflour (starch) mixed with 2 tsp orange juice

To serve (optional)

200 mls cream whipped with 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 punnet of raspberries

Pastry
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. 

Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. You’ll only need about half of the pastry dough to make a 16.5cm tart. The pastry freezes well so just wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.

Refrigerate the pastry for an hour and then roll out thinly - 4mm thick. Line a greased 17 cm flan tin with the pastry then return to the fridge for another 30 minutes.

To blind bake, preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. Cover the dough with a piece of aluminium foil (dull side down), tucking it snugly into the corner of the tin. Fill the lined tin with rice or baking beads. Place in the oven, then reduce the heat to 170°C and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 5–10 minutes so the base crust is a biscuity brown colour. Cool on a wire rack.

Raspberry and cranberry curd

Put the cranberries, sugar, orange juice and peel in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer for about 7 minutes before adding the raspberries. Cook until the  cranberries have popped and softened, about 10 minutes. Purée the cooked cranberry and orange mixture with an immersion blender or in a food processor or blender until smooth then press through a fine-mesh sieve. 

Put the egg and the yolk into a microwave safe bowl and beat lightly. Slowly whisk the warm cranberry liquid into the eggs to temper. Add the salt then cook in the microwave on medium for 5 or 6 minutes stirring thoroughly every minute until thickened and the curd measures 82°C on an instant read thermometer. 

Pass the curd though a fine sieve into a bowl to remove any eggy bits, then whisk the butter into the warm liquid. If using immediately, let cool to room temperature. If working ahead, cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap (press wrap against curd) and refrigerate. 

Just before pouring the curd into the pastry shell, thoroughly stir in the cornflour mixture. This will help the curd to set. Pour the cooled cranberry curd into the prebaked tart shell and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake at 180°C conventional for 20 minutes to set the curd. The curd will look opaque but will not be completely set in the middle. Cool completely on a wire rack then store in an airtight container in the fridge. 

Just before serving dollop whipped cream in the centre of the tart or pipe the whipped cream around the edges and decorate with the fresh raspberries.

Undecorated, the tart will keep for 2 days covered in an airtight container the fridge.

How was it? The tart was absolutely delicious and well worth the hype.

I hope you enjoyed Xmas week 2024. 

See you all again next year.

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more

white chocolate macadamia and dried pineapple shortbread cookies

white chocolate macadamia and dried pineapple shortbread cookies

9 Dec 2024

Xmas week 2024 is just around the corner. As I'm knee deep in baking and photographing Christmas treats, I needed something quick and easy to put together. As I'm still auditioning this year's Christmas cookie, I thought I'd bake a batch of white chocolate, macadamia and dried pineapple cookies adapted from this recipe by Nagi from Reciptineats.

The cookies are inspired by the famous Byron Bay White Choc Chunk and Macadamia Nut cookies. I had everything I needed to make a batch but I found a few pieces of dried pineapple left in the cupboard, so I chopped them up and added the pineapple to the mix. I made my cookies a little thinner than the recipe, so ended up with 18 cookies.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 18 cookies. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies - makes 18
Ingredients
175g butter, unsalted, softened 
70 g brown sugar
70 g caster sugar
pinch salt
2 egg yolks 
2 tsp vanilla extract
225 g plain flour 
75 g rice flour (sub with plain) 
½ tsp baking powder
80g macadamias, roughly chopped 
110g white eating chocolate, chopped into pretty small pieces

6og dried pienapple pieces, coarsely chopped

Method
Beat butter, sugar and salt on medium (speed 5) using a handheld mixer for 1 minute until smooth. Add egg yolks and vanilla, beat for 1 minute or until smooth. Add baking powder, rice flour and half the plain flour. Beat with mixer on medium speed until flour is incorporated.

Add remaining flour and beat with mixer until flour is incorporated. Add macadamia nuts and chocolate, then mix through with a wooden spoon (dough gets a bit too hard to use mixer).

Scrape mixture onto a work surface, press together and shape into a 22cm log. Roll up in baking paper or cling wrap, twist ends then refrigerate for 2 hours.

Slice and bake
Preheat oven to 200°C, conventional. Line 2 trays with baking paper. Remove the log from the fridge, unwrap and slice into 1cm thick slices (18 cookies). Place 9 cookies on each tray, then bake for about 7 minutes. 

Turn the oven down to 170°C conventional, switch the trays between shelves then bake for another 15 minutes, or until just set and golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and cool cookies on a tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool completely before eating.

Storage - keep in an airtight container for 4 to 5 days. 

I haven't had a Byron Bay cookie for a while so I can't tell you if these copycat cookies were exact replicas, but they were a pretty good cookie.

See you all again next Monday for 5 days of Christmas treats aka, Xmas week 2024.

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more

xmas week 2024 - small batch chocolate candy cane cookies

xmas week 2024 - small batch chocolate candy cane cookies

7 Dec 2024

Each Christmas I make batches of cookies to share with friends and neighbours. I don't like to repeat myself, so every year I audition a new cookie recipe. I found this Jessica Brook recipe on instagram and the cookies looked very appetising, so I thought I'd give them a go.

The cookies are an easy to make, mix and melt one bowl affair so they take no time to put together but they do need some chill time. The end result is a deeply dark and chocolately cookie with a brownie texture topped with crunchy pieces of candy cane. 

I've baked with candy canes before and unfortunately they melt when baked, leading to an unattractive looking result. You have 2 options - drizzle the cooled cookie with melted chocolate and press the chopped candy cane pieces into the chocolate or press the candy cane pieces into the partially baked cookies. As the cookie is already chocolate dense, and all the more delicious because of this, I went with the latter option.

Here’s the recipe for you which makes 8 cookies although of course you can double or even treble the recipe if you like. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Small batch chocolate candy cane cookies – makes 8 

Ingredients
1 egg

60g melted, cooled unsalted butter
¼ cup (55g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp caster sugar
½ cup plain flour (75g) 
⅓ cup (55g) Dutch cocoa powder
¼ tsp bicarb soda
60g chopped dark chocolate
Salt flakes to sprinkle
4 candy canes, chopped into 1 cm pieces

Method
Whisk the egg, the cooled butter and the sugars together. Add the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate soda and mix well to combine. Fold through the chocolate pieces and refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes to firm. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional and line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper or silicone. 

Scoop the dough into 8 portions and place on the prepared tray alllowing plenty of room to spread. Sprinkle with salt flakes before placing the tray in the oven on the centre rack. Bake for 6 - 7 minutes, then flatten each cookie a little and stud the warm cookie dough with the candy cane pieces. Return to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes - the cookies should still feel soft to the touch.

Remove from the oven, tap the tray to flatten the cookies, and if you like you can ‘scoot’ the cookies with a large round cookie cutter to neaten the edges, then rest for 10 minutes before placing the cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely. Remember the candy canes will be hot so take care when doing this. The cookies will keep for up to a week in an airtight container if they last that long! They're really delicious.

See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Xmas week 2024.

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more

xmas week 2024 - Ban-Almond Double Crunch Cheesecake

xmas week 2024 - Ban-Almond Double Crunch Cheesecake

6 Dec 2024

I know at Christmas time that a cheesecake topped with tropical fruits is out of reach for my Northern hemisphere readers, but it's perfect for my Southern hemisphere readers. Without the tropical fruit topping it's still delicious - imagine a velvety smooth banana flavoured cheesecake. Please note that this is not a spur of the moment recipe, as you need to make the cheesecake the day before serving to allow it time to set.

This is another Natalie Paull recipe adapted from Beatrix Bakes: Another Slice. As you know from previous recipes I've made from the book, the temperatures indicated in the book do not work in my gas oven. I've written 2 temperatures in the recipe, the lower temperature comes from the book, whilst the higher temperature is what I used in my own oven.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17cm cheesecake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to make an 8 inch cake, you can find the recipe here.

Ban-Almond Double Crunch Cheesecake - makes a 17cm cake
Toasted Almond Crumb
55g raw almonds, skin on
65g unsalted butter, roughly chopped
55g light brown sugar
80g plain flour
pinch fine sea salt

Cheesecake Filling
225g ripe banana (approx 2 large bananas), roughly torn
100g caster sugar
15ml lemon juice
pinch fine sea salt
375g full-fat cream cheese at room temperature
150g egg (approx 2 eggs)
35g crème fraiche/greek yoghurt
1 tonka bean/1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Tropical Fruit Topping
1 lime
20g caster sugar
tropical fruits: passionfruit, pineapple, mango

Method
Preheat the oven to 140°C/160°C, conventional. Line a shallow baking tray with baking paper.

Start the crumb base by chopping the almonds finely. Melt the butter, then combine with the almonds and the remaining crumb ingredients in a wide mixing bowl. Mix together with your hands to form very damp clumps.

Scatter the mix onto the tray and bake for 15 minutes. Take the tray out and, using a metal spoon, stir and break up the mix to help the crumb brown evenly. Return to the oven and continue to bake for another 15 minutes, then cool. Reserve a few tablespoons for decoration.

Reduce the oven to 130°C/160°C, conventional. Start the cheesecake mix by putting the banana, sugar, lemon juice and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Whiz to a smooth liquid. Add the softened cream cheese, breaking it into chunks as you add it. The goal is silky smooth, so stop the processor and scrape a few times or break up large chunks that aren’t processing. Weigh the egg and crème fraîche/yoghurt and finely grate the tonka bean on top or add the vanilla bean paste if using. Add this in one addition and process until the mixture forms a smooth, homogenous mix. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Clean the food processor bowl. When the crumb has cooled, whiz in a food processor to a coarse damp sand consistency.

Grease and flour a 17cm × 7.5cm round deep cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Set up a high-sided roasting tin for the water bath and place a piece of paper towel in the base to stop the cheesecake tin slipping. Fill the base of the cake tin with half the crumb, packed lightly. Pour the filling into the prepared cake tin, then place the cake tin in the roasting tin. Gently scatter the remaining crumb evenly over the top. Smooth with an offset spatula.

Pour enough hot tap water into the roasting tin to just reach the first joint on your index finger. Carefully lift the roasting tray into the oven. Bake for 60–90 minutes until the cheesecake, when jiggled, barely wobbles. The internal temperature will be 70°C.

When ready, turn off the oven and leave the door ajar for 30 minutes before removing the cheesecake. Leave to cool. Lightly cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight until set.

The next day, juice the limes and simmer to a syrup with the caster sugar. Cut the tropical fruits into thin slices and lay on a plate. Cool the lime syrup, then pour it over the fruit. Set aside.

Immerse the cake tin in a shallow roasting tray of hot water for 20 seconds to warm the butter in the crust and loosen the cheesecake from the tin. Place a flat plate or board on top of the cake in its tin. Flip over confidently and place the plate on the work surface. Peel the paper off the crumb crust and re-invert. Decorate the top with pretty and relaxedly strewn peeled slices of tropical fruits and some of the reserved crumb. Serve chilled.

Eat soon after decorating, as the fruit can oxidise quickly. The un-decorated cheesecake can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

The cheesecake is utterly delicious and one I'll certainly be making again.

See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Xmas week 2024.

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more

xmas week 2024 - chocolate caramel tart with a peanut crust

xmas week 2024 - chocolate caramel tart with a peanut crust

5 Dec 2024

Welcome to Xmas Week 2024. This year I have a mix of goodies to share with you - cake, cookies, tarts and a showstopper or two. Today we're starting with this chocolate caramel tart with a peanut crust, topped with peanut brittle that was inspired by this recipe I found in a copy of Delicious magazine. There are a few steps involved but the dulce de leche, the pastry and the peanut brittle can all be made ahead of time.

I've made 2 versions of this tart. For the first version I used the peanut crust recipe from the magazine and homemade dulce de leche using this David Lebovitz recipe. The filling is an oldie and a goodie from the late Valli Little. I found the peanut crust very crumbly and hard to work with but the end result was delicious. I returned to the kitchen to rework the recipe and for tart number 2, I adapted my regular shortcrust pastry recipe using salted peanuts instead of almond meal. It was a dream to work with but the peanut flavour was very subtle. In the future, I'll just use my regular almond shortcrust pastry recipe. 

I was time poor when I made the second tart, so instead of making my own dulce de leche I used shop bought. It didn't really set so there is ever a tart number 3, I will definitely find time to make my own dulce de leche.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17cm tart. Note you will only use half the pastry but it freezes well. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate caramel tart with a peanut crust - makes a 17cm tart. 
Peanut butter shortcrust pastry

¼ cup icing sugar
25g salted roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped or almond meal
200g plain flour
pinch of sea salt flakes
110 g cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cold water

Filling
250g dulce de leche, homemade or shop bought
150g good-quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 egg and 1 yolk (reserve the white)
120ml thickened cream
150ml milk

optional - 50g salted roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped 

Peanut praline
1/3 cup (50g) salted peanuts, roughly chopped
2 tbs caster sugar

To serve
200ml thickened cream, whipped
Sea salt flakes

Pastry
Combine all the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and the peanuts have broken down. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes. 

Roll out the pastry to a 5mm thickness on a lightly floured bench top or a silicon sheet. Lightly grease a 17 cm tart ring and place on a baking sheet. Line the tin with the pastry and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Remove the tart from the fridge and trim the edges then line the pastry shell with baking paper and pastry weights or uncooked rice. Blind-bake for 40 minutes, then carefully remove paper and weights and bake for 5 minutes or until pastry is dry. Transfer pan to a wire rack, let the crust cool while making the filling.

Reduce oven to 160°C, conventional. Lightly brush the cooked tart shell with egg white and place in the oven for 5 minutes or until the egg white has dried out then place on a wire rack to cool. 

Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, not letting the bowl touch water. Allow to melt and then stir until smooth. Remove from heat and cool. In a separate bowl, gently whisk the eggs to just combine (don't allow to froth).

Heat cream and milk in a saucepan over medium heat until just below boiling point and then pour over eggs, stirring. Return to pan over low heat and stir for about 5 minutes until thick. Pour through a sieve over the bowl of chocolate, stirring gently until smooth.

Spread the 250g of dulce de leche over the pastry and top with a few sea salt flakes. If you like, you could top the caramel with some extra salted peanuts. Place the tart shell on a baking tray and pour about 2/3 of the mixture into the tart shell. Carefully place the tray onto the centre rack of the oven then pour the rest of the chocolate mixture into the tart until it just reaches the edge of the pastry. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until just set. Leave the tart in the switched-off oven for 1 hour with the door closed. Remove and cool completely before serving. I like to refrigerate the tart until serving time as it makes it a bit easier to slice.

Peanut brittle
Line a small baking tray with baking paper. Arrange salted peanuts in the centre in a single layer. Place the 2 tbs caster sugar and 1 tbs water in a medium fry pan over medium-low heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and cook, without stirring, for 4-5 minutes until a caramel colour. Pour over peanuts and set aside to cool and set. Roughly chop.

You can bake the tart the day before serving, stored in an airtight container. When ready to serve, dollop the whipped cream over the tart. Serve sprinkled with praline and a few sea salt flakes. 

The tart was a definite crowd pleaser and there were complaints from my workmates that the tart wasn't big enough. Don't worry, I shared the second tart with them as well.

See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Xmas Week 2024.

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more