Desserts

Apple Pie

Shortcrust Pastry

2 cups Plain flour

1 Tblsp caster sugar

150g cold butter, chopped

1 egg yolk, whisked iced water pinch of salt

6 Granny Smith cooking apples OR 2 tins “Golden Circle” Pie Apple juice of 1-2 lemons

100ml water

1Tblsp sugar

6 whole cloves or ¼ tsp ground cloves

To Cook Apples:

Peel, core and cut the apples into wedges. Place into a saucepan with lemon juice, sugar, and water. Bring to a simmer and cook on low until apples are tender but not falling apart. Cool the cooked apples.

Method

Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Rub through the butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the beaten egg yolk and sufficient iced water to bring the dough together. Knead on a lightly floured surface, wrap in cling film and allow to rest for an hour.

Grease a deep pie dish with butter.

Divide the pastry into 2 pieces, one slightly larger (for the base of the pie) than the other (top of the pie)

Roll out the pastry, cut into a round slightly larger than your pie dish.

Line the base of your pie leaving the excess pastry hanging over the edge.

Spoon in your apple mixture and stud with cloves - approx 6 per large pie - or a sparing sprinkle of ground cloves.

Roll out the remaining pastry to a round large enough to top your pie.

Brush the edges of the pie bottom with beaten egg/milk and place pastry lid onto pie, tamping down the edges to seal.

Using a sharp knife, trim away the excess pastry from the edges - angle your knife at 45 degrees and run around the edge of the pie dish. The pastry will shrink back during cooking, so cutting the edge on an angle gives a neater, straighter finished cooked edge.

Slice some air vents in an attractive pattern (I usually form a \ / toward the centre of the pie at north, south, east & west, then another \ / between these toward the outer edge of the pie - in all 8 vents for a large pie) allowing steam from the filling to escape during cooking and pastry to crispen.

Glaze top of pie with milk or beaten egg and dust with sieved caster sugar before baking.

Bake in a moderate to hot oven 180˚C for approximately 30-40 minutes or until golden.

Apple Crumble Pie with Cream Cheese Pastry

Jackie Camilleri

CREAM CHEESE PASTRY:

85g unsalted butter - cold

1 cup Plain flour

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp Baking Powder

65g cream cheese - cold

1 Tbsp iced water

1½ tsp cider vinegar

APPLE FILLING:

7 green apples - or your favourite pie apples

1 Tbs lemon juice

1/3 cup light brown sugar - firmly packed

¼ cup caster sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp salt

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

2 tsp cornflour

CRUMBLE TOPPING:

1 cup Plain flour

120g cold butter - cut into cubes

½ cup hazelnut meal

2/3 cup sugar

Method PASTRY:

Cut the butter into cubes, put in a plastic bag and freeze for ½ hour.

Place the flour, salt and baking powder in a plastic bag and freeze for ½ hour.

Place the flour mixture in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.

Cut the cream cheese into 4 pieces and add to the flour.

Process for 20 seconds til it resembles crumbs.

Add the frozen butter cubes and pulse til the butter looks like tiny pebbles.

Add the water and the vinegar and pulse another 10 - 15 seconds.

The mixture will still be in clumps so put it in a bowl or a plastic bag and knead it til it comes together and is a bit stretchy when pulled.

Wrap it in plastic and flatten it into a disc then refrigerate it for 45 mins.

Preheat the oven to 210˚C

Roll out the pastry between floured sheets of plastic wrap to fit a pie dish.

Refrigerate for another 15 mins.

Remove from fridge and blind bake pie shell for 20 mins.

Remove baking paper and beans and prick pastry all over with a fork and bake a further 5 - 10 mins til golden. Remove from oven and set aside.

CRUMBLE:

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse til it looks like crumbs.

APPLE FILLING:

Peel and core the apples and cut them into small chunks. In a saucepan combine the lemon juice, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, cornflour, salt and unsalted butter.

Cook over medium heat for 15 mins.

Put the apple chunks into the cooked pie shell and pour the syrup in as well.

Cover the top with the crumble mixture.

Bake at 200˚C til browned ontop - about 45 mins

Notes & Tips

Putting the pastry ingredients in the freezer first helps to get a really flaky pastry.

Chocolate Fondants

Gary Mehigan

200g dark chocolate 70% cocoa solids

200g butter

4 whole eggs

4 egg yolks

100g caster sugar

60g plain flour additional butter for coating moulds cocoa powder

250g ice cream

Method

Preheat oven to 180˚C

Place butter and chopped chocolate into a large heat proof mixing bowl.

Put approx 2cm water into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Melt butter and chocolate over simmering water. Remove from heat allow to cool slightly.

Brush moulds with melted butter and dust with cocoa powder and place in fridge to chill & set.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, yolks and sugar until pale and thick.

Fold the chocolate mixture gently into the egg mixture.

Sift the flour over the mixture and fold through.

Spoon mixture into moulds and bake for approximately 12 minutes

Chocolate Mousse

Lynne Ferguson

6 eggs, separated

200g dark chocolate 70% cocoa solids dash of brandy or rum or Kahlua

Method

Melt chocolate. Allow to cool slightly.

Beat in egg yolks one at a time.

Mix in brandy/rum/Kahlua.

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Gently fold into the chocolate egg mixture. Pour into individual moulds.

Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Top with chocolate curls or shaved chocolate & double cream

Churros

Thomasina Miers

125g self raising flour

125g plain flour pinch salt

2 Tblsp vegetable oil

450ml boiling water

Vegetable oil - sunflower, rice bran or canola additional caster sugar mixed with ground cinnamon for dusting/rolling churros

Chocolate Sauce

200g dark chocolate

50g milk chocolate

300ml double cream

3-4 Tblsp golden syrup

Optional extra: dash of tequila

Pavlova

6 egg whites (at room temp)

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1 cup caster sugar

2 Tbls cornflour

2 tsp white vinegar

To make Sauce:

Into a saucepan on low heat add the cream, chopped chocolates and golden syrup and heat, stirring occasionally, until all indregients have melted.

Heat oil in a heavy, deep saucepan or frier.

To make Churros:

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl & make a well. Add oil and boiling water and mix to a paste. Put into a large piping bag with a large ‘star’ nozzle. Pipe the dough into hot oil, snip off with scissors. Fry until golden brown, drain on paper towels then roll in cinnamon sugar.

Serve with hot Chocolate sauce

Method

Preheat oven to 200˚C.

Grease a large springform pan and dust with cornflour, tapping off excess. Alternatively, line a baking sheet with baking paper and dust with cornflour.

Tip: Use a pencil to mark out the size pavlova you want on a piece of baking paper, then put it pencil side down onto your baking sheet.

Sift sugar, cornflour and cream of tartar.

Using an electric mixer beat egg whites until glossy and stiff peaks form. Gradually sift in the sugar/cornflour/cream of tartar and continue beating well after each addition.

Drizzle the vinegar over mixture and gently fold through using a spatula. Pile mixture into springform pan (or onto the lined baking sheet) and put in pre-heated oven.

Immediately reduce heat to 120˚C and bake for 1¼ to 1½ hours. Should be ever so slightly golden but NOT brown.

Leave pavlova in the oven to cool, with door held ajar - use a wadded up tea towel.

Top with: Fresh stoned peaches, hulled strawberries, sliced kiwi fruit (I peel the kiwi fruit and use an egg slicer), passionfruit atop huge - I mean HUGE - dollops of whipped cream (add 1 Tblsp icing/confectioner’s sugar to stablise the cream) or double cream. Dust with icing sugar and/or chocolate curls.

Tiramisu

500g mascarpone - softened, not straight from the fridge

125g caster sugar

1 Tblsp caster sugar (for whites)

Savoiardi sponge fingers - either 2 x 250g ‘thin’ fingers, or 1 x 500g ‘thick’ fingers

6 eggs (at room temperature) separated

4 Tblsp. marsala

1½ -2 cups strong black espresso (please, NO instant coffee!!!)

Toblerone Cheesecake

2 cups chocolate flavoured biscuits, processed to crumbs

½ cup melted butter

2 Tblsp ground almonds

2 x 250g Philadelphia brand cream cheese, softened and at room temp.

2 teaspoons gelatine dissolved in

1/3 cup of boiling water

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 x 100g Toblerone Swiss dark or milk chocolate, melted in double boiler

1/2 cup cream

Method

Make the coffee - be generous with the coffee, not the water. Once steeped, place into a shallow bowl to cool. Add marsala. (be generous!!) Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form add 1 Tblsp caster sugar to help stabilise the whites.

If using an electric mixer, place whites into another bowl. Beat egg yolks and sugar until very, very pale and creamy - up to 5minutes for best results.

Add the mascarpone and continue beating/whipping until completely incorporated. Put about one third of the egg whites in and mix well with a metal spoon to ‘loosen’ the mixture, then carefully fold in the remaining whites - try not to knock too much air out, be gentle!

Dip each savoiardi biscuit into the coffee, turn over & quickly dip other side. You need to move quickly - place into bottom of a large, deep (preferably square or rectangular) casserole. Continue with more biscuits until the base of the casserole is covered. Make sure they are tightly packed & if you like drizzle a little more coffee (or masala) over them.

Gently spoon the ‘custard’ over the layer of biscuits. Dip more biscuits & create a second layer. Spoon on more custard.

Continue until you use all the biscuits & custard. Top layer should be a layer of custard.

Cover will cling film to prevent odours entering custard & prevent skin from forming. Refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours. Once chilled (which develops the coffee flavour & creates the trademark ‘trifle’ consistency sprinkle top with:

Ground coffee - sprinkled lightly over top Crumbled Dark Chocolate Cadbury “Flake” Better still, a combination of both!!

Method

Mix breadcrumbs, almonds and butter and press into the base of a 20cm springform pan. Chill.

Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer until soft.

Add gelatine mixture, caster sugar, melted Toblerone and cream. Blend until smooth.

Pour onto crumb base, and chill for 2-3 hours.

Decorate with blueberries, strawberries chocolate curls or grated chocolate and dusted with cocoa and icing sugar.