the dessert book stone fruit
belinda jeffery
the dessert book stone fruit
belinda jeffery
INTRODUCTION Where I grew up, we had an archetypal Aussie cake shop in the main street, its glass-shelved windows filled with a glorious array of cakes and pastries, and despite my mum being a really good cook and baking our cakes and biscuits, I well remember saving up my pocket money so that every now and then I could buy myself a treat there. On the big day, I’d agonise for ages, my nose glued to the window, trying to decide what I would buy; would it be a rather discreet brown and white Neenish tart, its plainness belying a hidden layer of jam and silky almond mock cream? Or a tubby little rum baba, syrup oozing from its golden crust, a bright red glace cherry perched jauntily on top; or the shiny-topped chocolate éclairs, plump with cream and sitting enticingly at eye level. It was such a dilemma! Coins clutched in my hot, little hand, I would look at all the prices adding up as I went, wondering if I could possibly squeeze two treats from the money I’d saved. Occasionally, the baker would add something new to the line-up, a spicy ginger sponge roll, or flaky, sugar-dusted apple strudel, but the thing I remember most is the day I tried my first Napoleon. I ate it painfully slowly savouring every last crumb. It’s only as I’ve grown older that I realise just how much work goes into creating such a special treat. And I’d have to say that sadly, it’s hard to find a really good one these days, where the pastry is properly buttery and crisp, the filling just so, and the jam and icing neither too sweet nor too bland. I have a feeling that’s where the idea came from for the dessert that follows. It’s obviously not a true Napoleon, far from it, but for me it blends those things I so loved about that first one.
CONTENTS a lovely simple apricot cake
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roasted stone fruits with maple syrup and lemon- scented cream
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not quite peach melba
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summer fruit crostata
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little cheesecakes with white peaches lychees and berries
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summer fruit ‘napolean’
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peaches and cream ice cream
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white chocolate brioche pudding with roasted apricots
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a lovely simple apricot cake
8 medium-size ripe apricots (about 600g), thickly sliced into wedges 3 ½ tablespoons castor sugar Cake: 300g self raising flour 100g almond meal 2 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 3 x 60g eggs 300g castor sugar 320g unsalted butter, in chunks, at room temperature Finely grated zest of 2 lemons 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup (250ml) milk Icing sugar, for dusting
Preheat your oven to 180C. Butter and flour two 20cm springform tins and line the bases with buttered baking paper. Set the tins aside. Gently mix the apricot wedges and 2 ½ tablespoons of the castor sugar together in a bowl and leave them to sit while you get on with the recipe. Put the flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt into a large food processor fitted with the steel blade. Whiz them together for 10 seconds or so until they’re thoroughly combined, then tip the mixture into a bowl. Now put the eggs and 300g castor sugar into the processor and whiz them together for 1 minute. Add the butter chunks, and whiz for 40 seconds or so, stopping and scraping down the sides of the work bowl once or twice, until the mixture is thick and creamy Add the lemon zest and vanilla and whiz briefly.
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Now tip the flour/almond meal mixture into the egg mixture and whiz with on/off turns until it’s just combined.
Pour in the milk and whiz briefly again until it’s mixed in. You should end up with a lovely, creamy batter. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared tins, and smooth the tops with the back of a spoon to even them out. Use a slotted spoon to scoop up the apricot wedges – hold them over the bowl briefly to drain away any excess juices, then scatter them evenly over the top of the remaining tin of batter. Sprinkle the reserved tablespoon of caster sugar over the top. Pop the tin in the oven, and bake the cake for about 1 hour. Remove the cake to a wire rack and leave it in the tin for 10 minutes, then gently release the sides and leave it to cool. Serve with good vanilla ice cream, or a scoop of cream. Serves 8.
roasted stone fruits with maple syrup and lemon- scented cream
Apricots: An assortment of 10-12 small to medium-size, just ripe apricots, freestone peaches and plums (or you can use all one fruit, see recipe for White Chocolate Brioche Pudding page 000). ½-2/3 cup (125 – 170mls) pure maple syrup ½ teaspoon vanilla extract Sugared almonds: ¼ cup flaked almonds 2-3 teaspoons pure icing sugar Lemon-scented cream: 1 cup rich cream 1/3 – ½ cup lemon curd (butter), to taste
Preheat your oven to 220C. Wash and dry whatever mixture of fruit you’ve selected. Use a sharp knife to cut each one in half, right through to the stone, then hold the fruit in your hands and twist the halves in opposite directions to pull them apart. This is easier said than done with some fruits - apricots and peaches are fine, but plums tend to cling rather tenaciously to their stones and it often ends up firmly embedded in one half. If this happens, cut carefully around the stone as best you can to loosen it and pull it free of the flesh. Sit the fruit, cut-side-up, in a single layer in a shallow ceramic oven dish, gratin dish or enamelled baking tin, so they fit snugly. Stir the maple syrup and vanilla together then drizzle this mixture evenly over the halves. Put the dish in the oven and roast the halves for 15 minutes or so until they’re tender
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Remove the fruit from the oven and leave it to cool in the dish.
For the almonds, preheat an overhead grill to medium/ high. Spread the almonds as best you can in a single layer on a foil-lined oven tray. Sift the icing sugar evenly over the top. Run the almonds under the grill, stirring them gently every now and then, and watching them closely until they’re pale golden (the sugar will only caramelise in patches and mainly remain white.) Remove them from the oven and let them cool and crisp up on the tray. Store them in tightly sealed jar until you need them. Whip the cream softly and fold in the lemon curd; taste it, and add a bit more curd if you like. To serve, spoon 3 or 4 halves into shallow plates or bowls, drizzle some of the syrupy juices over the top, dollop lemon cream on the side, then finish with a scattering of almonds. Serve with a few crisp almond wafers. Serves 4-6 depending on the size of the fruit.
not quite peach melba Raspberry sauce: 80g castor sugar 120ml (1/2 cup) water 225g raspberries (fresh or frozen) Sugared almonds: ¼ cup flaked almonds 2-3 teaspoons pure icing sugar 6 smallish, just-ripe freestone peaches (ideally white but yellow are fine too), halved and pitted 2-3 tablespoons castor sugar The best quality vanilla bean ice cream you can find (for a terrific homemade version, see recipe page 000), for serving
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For the sauce, first make a syrup from the sugar and water by putting them into a small saucepan over high heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then stop stirring and bring the mixture to the boil. Reduce the heat a little so the syrup bubbles steadily, then leave it to cook for 4 minutes. Remove it from the heat, let it cool in the saucepan, then pour it into a container, seal it tightly, and chill it.
For the almonds, preheat an overhead grill to med/ high. Spread the almonds as best you can in a single layer on a foil-lined oven tray. Sift the icing sugar evenly over the top. Run the almonds under the grill, stirring them gently every now and then until they’re pale golden. When they’re ready, remove them from the oven and let them cool completely and crisp up on the tray.
Once it’s cold, pour the syrup into a blender along with the raspberries and puree them together (or if you have one, use a stick blender to puree the two together). Now comes about the only bit of hard work in this recipe, and that’s straining the puree to remove the seeds To sieve the puree, sit a fine sieve over a bowl and pour the puree into it, work the mixture with the back of a spoon to extract as much of the pulp and liquid as possible – remember to scrape the bottom of the sieve as a surprising amount of puree can stick to it. When it’s done, scrape the puree into a small container.
To cook the peaches, preheat your grill again. Sit the halves, cut side-up, on an oven tray lined with foil and sprinkle them evenly with the sugar. Slide them under the grill and cook them until they’re caramelising around the top edge, about 6-8 minutes. To serve, nestle 2-3 peach halves cut-side up, in four shallow bowls and dribble some of the raspberry sauce around them. Add a scoop of ice cream, then scatter sugared almonds over the top. Serve immediately. Serves 4.
summer fruit crostata Shortcrust pastry: 1 ½ cups plain flour ¼ teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon castor sugar Zest of 1 small lemon, finely grated 125g cold, unsalted butter, cut into small chunks ¼ cup iced water Filling: 6 amaretti biscuits 2 tablespoons plain flour 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 5 tablespoons castor sugar A mixture of stone fruits – you will need approx 6 medium size ripe nectarines or smallish peaches; 6 ripe apricots; and 4-5 plums, halved and stoned 2 teaspoons regular white sugar, extra
To make the pastry, put the flour, salt, castor sugar and zest into a food processor and whiz them together. Add the butter and whiz everything together until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. With the processor running, pour in the iced water and whiz the mixture again until the dough forms a ball around the blade.
Nestle the nectarine, peach and apricot halves, cut-side down, closely together all over the biscuit filling wedge them in as tightly as you can since they shrink a little as they cook. Now tuck the plum halves, cut-side up, here and there over the top. Fold the pastry overhang in over the fruit, pleating and pressing it gently to seal it and form a border.
Tip the dough out onto a board and form it into a ball then flatten it into a disc and wrap it tightly in cling film. Chill it for about 50 minutes, or until it’s firm but supple enough to roll out. Preheat your oven to 200C. To make the filling, crush the biscuits and mix them with the flour, cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of the sugar – or whiz them all together in the food processor.
Bake the crostata for 35-40 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and deep golden brown. Remove it from the oven to a cooling rack and leave it to cool in the tin for at least 40 minutes so the filling firms up.
After the pastry has chilled, roll it out thinly into a round that is a bit larger than the prepared pizza tin. Drape it over the tin leaving an overhang all around. Press it very gently into the sides. Spread the amaretti mixture evenly over the base.
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Serve it with rich cream or vanilla bean ice-cream. Serves 8-10.
little cheesecakes with white peaches lychees and berries
300g crème fraiche or sour cream 60g caster sugar 2 packed tablespoons finely grated lemon zest 120g cream cheese, in chunks, at cool room temperature 360g firm, dry-ish ricotta (not the creamed ricotta that is sold in small tubs), broken up 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract 6 open-ended moulds (see note in introduction) Muslin, for lining moulds 2 just-ripe white peaches, about 18 lychees and 2 punnets berries to serve Raspberry sauce, to serve
Put the crème fraiche (or sour cream), caster sugar and lemon zest into a small saucepan over low heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar then heat the mixture gently until it’s hot but not boiling. Turn off the heat, cover the pan and leave the mixture to infuse. Once it’s cool, transfer it to a container, cover it tightly and chill it in the fridge. Once the lemon cream is cool, pour it through a fine sieve into a bowl, pushing down on the zest with the back of a spoon to extract as much cream as possible. Cover the bowl and pop the cream back into the fridge until you need it. Put a cake rack on a flat plate and sit your 6 moulds on top. Cut 6 x 20cm (roughly) squares of muslin. Rinse the squares under cold water then squeeze out the excess. Use the squares to line the moulds as best you can, leaving an overhang all around. Puree the cream cheese, ricotta and vanilla in a food processor, stopping and scraping down the sides occasionally, until the mixture is as smooth as possible.
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When it’s ready, scrape the mixture into a large bowl. Now, gently whip the chilled crème fraiche mixture until it forms soft peaks. Mix a little into the ricotta mixture to loosen it, then gently fold in the rest. Divide the ricotta mixture evenly between the moulds, then draw up the muslin overhang and twist it tightly to help compress the cheesecakes. Cover the whole lot with cling film, then sit the plate in the fridge and leave the cheesecakes overnight to firm up. I usually take the cheesecakes out of the fridge 20 minutes or so before serving them to warm them up just a bit so the texture is lighter. When you’re ready to serve the cheesecakes, open out the muslin, slide a wide palette knife under each one and invert them onto serving plates. Serve them straight away with a jug of raspberry sauce. Serves 6.
summer fruit ‘napolean’
Lemon Filling: 250g mascarpone 300ml tub thickened cream 1/2 cup pure icing sugar, sifted Very finely grated zest of a lemon Wafers: 1/4 cup (25g) flaked almonds, toasted 1/4 cup castor sugar 4 sheets filo pastry 50g butter, melted 3 teaspoons icing sugar Fruit: 4-8 pieces of fruit e.g. ripe peaches, figs, nectarines, plums or apricots (As a guide I used ½ a peach, ½ a blood plum and 1 figs to make the napoleon in the photograph)
Put the mascarpone, cream, icing sugar and lemon zest into a medium sized saucepan. Sit the pan over low heat, stir until the sugar dissolves, then stop stirring and heat the mixture gently until it’s very hot, but not boiling. Remove it from the heat and leave it to cool; once it has, pour the mixture into a container, cover it tightly and store it in the fridge. To make the wafers, put the almonds and sugar into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and whiz them together until the nuts are quite finely chopped. Set the mixture aside. Now lay a sheet of baking paper onto the back of a large flat tray or board (it needs to be larger than the filo sheets). Place a sheet of filo on the paper then brush it with melted butter.
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Remove the filo stack from the fridge, and using a ruler to help you, shave a narrow strip from each side of the rectangle with the tip of a very sharp knife – this helps make all the edges sharp and neat.
To bake the wafers, first preheat your oven to 180C. Use a wide spatula to carefully transfer the filo wafers to the prepared baking sheet/s, then pop them into the oven. Bake the wafers for 8-10 minutes. To assemble the napoleons, first slice the fruit thinly then lay the slices on paper towel to absorb some of the moisture. Strain the lemon filling through a fine sieve into a medium-sized bowl. The mixture will be quite thick so you will have to work it through the sieve with the back of a spoon. Use a balloon whisk to whip the mixture until it’s softly fluffy but not at all grainy. Put a little dab of the filling into the centre of each plate Sit a wafer on top, then spread it evenly with lemon filling. Overlap a layer of fruit slices on top of this, roughly following the shape of the wafer. Put another wafer on top, then spread on more lemon filling and top with more fruit. Sit one more wafer on top, scatter it with some of the flaked almonds and dust it with icing sugar. Serve immediately Serves 4.
peaches and cream ice cream
1 kg just-ripe peaches 250g caster sugar 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice 300ml pure cream 4 egg yolks 2 teaspoons vanilla extract Peach slices, to serve Purchased or home made almond biscotti or almond wafers, optional
Firstly you need to peel the peaches - if the skins pull away easily, just use your fingers, however if they cling to the flesh you’re going to have to blanch them first. To do this, heat a saucepan of water over high heat until its boiling; while that’s heating, fill a bowl with ice and water to dunk the peaches in once they’ve had their hot bath.
Return the mixture to low-ish heat and cook it, stirring constantly, with a flat-based wooden spoon or sauce whisk, until it thickens somewhat. The most important thing of all is not to let it boil, otherwise it will curdle. As soon as it’s ready, remove the custard from the heat and pour it over the peaches. Stir them together, then mix in the vanilla.
Drop two peaches into the boiling water, give them about 20 seconds then fish them out and dunk them into the iced water to cool down. When they’re all peeled, slice them thinly and put the slices into a large bowl. Sprinkle them with the castor sugar and lemon juice, stir them gently together.
Churn the mixture in an ice cream maker, in batches if necessary. Pack it into a container with a tight fitting lid and freeze it.
When the peaches are nearly ready, rinse out a medium size saucepan with cold water and pour in the cream. Heat the cream gently until it’s very hot but not bubbling. Meanwhile, with a balloon whisk beat the egg yolks in a medium bowl until they’re well combined.
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If the ice cream seems very hard, remove it to your fridge 30-40 minutes before serving so it’s soft enough to scoop easily. Scoop the ice cream - Decorate them with thin slices of peach, and serve with biscotti or almond wafer biscuits. Serves 8.
white chocolate brioche pudding with roasted apricots
250g brioche (you could also use panettone or pandoro) 2 cups (500ml) pure cream 150g good quality white chocolate, finely chopped (or use buttons) 1 cup (250ml) milk 3 eggs 3 egg yolks ¼ cup castor sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Icing sugar, for dusting 1/2 quantity of Roasted Stone Fruits with Maple Syrup made entirely with apricots.
Lightly butter a 20cm round or square enamel or Pyrex baking dish, then set the dish aside. Slice the brioche just under 1cm thick. Lay the brioche slices in the prepared dish, overlapping them decoratively so they fill the dish. In a small saucepan, heat half the cream over low heat until it’s very hot, but not boiling. Remove it from the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Leave it for a couple of minutes so the chocolate starts to melt, then use a flat sauce whisk or something similar to stir until the chocolate has dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Heat the remaining cream and milk in another saucepan over gentle heat until they’re very hot.
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In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and caster sugar with a balloon whisk until they’re well combined. Slowly pour in the hot milk/cream mixture, whisking all the while. Now gently mix in the white chocolate mixture along with the vanilla extract.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a large jug. Slowly pour the warm mixture evenly over the brioche in the dish. Press down gently on the slices so they’re well soaked, then cover the dish with plastic wrap and leave it in a cool place for an hour or two. When you’re ready to cook the pudding, preheat your oven to 180C. Sit the pudding dish in a large baking tin then fill the tin with enough very hot water to come halfway up the sides of the dish. Put the lot in the oven and cook the pudding for about 45-50 minutes. I usually serve this family-style, passing both the pudding and a bowl of the roasted apricots around the table for everyone to help themselves. Serves 6-8.