Masterchef - Gary's Blackforest Cake & why do you cook?

I've been meaning to try this out for some time now - and with quite a bit of stress over the past couple of weeks, I figured the best thing to do to de-stress over the weekend was to make a cake. :)

For me, cooking and baking is a way to deal with stress. Because it's so unlike anything else I do in my day to day - and it requires the utmost concentration, it really helps to reboot my brain and relieve stress. Back in 2001, when 9/11 happened, I wasn't in New York at the time as I was in college. The whole thing was so mind numbing and impossible to take in, I ended up making pasta alfredo for everyone to give me something to mentally cope. (Mind you, it tasted absolutely horrendous.)

Gary's Blackforest cake

http://www.masterchef.com.au/black-forest-cake.htm

While the recipe is quite complex and involves quite a number of techniques and creations, the whole thing wasn't actually that bad. As you can tell, I didn't end up with the 5 tier cake like the one on the show simply because it was too late to try and make a second sponge cake (I only had 1 springform pan) and I hadn't bought enough marscapone cheese. Plus, when we served it up, most people had already eaten dessert anyway, so it was probably a good thing that it was a little smaller in size.

Yummo.

Why do you cook? What hobbies help you destress?

Flat Macarons again

Foodies - I'm at a loss. I tried to make the macarons again for the 2nd time. I got a new little egg beater thing to make sure I beat the eggs to peaks. And again everything seemed to be going well - in fact the little macarons were definitely rising in the oven! I have a picture to prove it!!


See? Rising macarons!!



But low and behold - when I took them out of the oven - collapse! They went back to being flat as coins (again I have a picture to prove it!)

See - FLAT macarons. :(


Any help? Advice? Suggestions? Has this happened to you? If you know anything about meringue and how it's supposed to crust over and not collapse - help would really be appreciated.

Master Chef Inspired Pavlova

Marshmallowy Goodness.

For Anzac Day - I decided to try and make a Pavlova, having seen Donna Hay's recipe on Masterchef. I mean what better way to celebrate a great Australian public holiday than with a great Australian dessert?

The only problem - small tiny problem - was that I didn't own a beater. And when I saw those dreaded instructions: "whip egg whites to glossy, satiny peaks" I knew I was in trouble.

About 30 minutes of hard core whipping later - I had my glossy peaks and my pavlova in the oven. Feeling quite proud of myself, I went on to read about the topping.

"300 mL cream, well whipped"

Crap.

(turned out okay, but definitely investing the $30 in a mixer!)

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Ingredients:

4 egg whites
300 g caster sugar
1 tsp vinegar
3 tbs corn flour
1 tsp vanilla
-- and if you don't have a mixer - a fork and some strong forearms!

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Lay out a piece of baking paper on a baking tray and draw a 20 cm circle, if desired.

Whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly sift in sugar and continue beating until the peaks are stiff and satiny. Mix in corn flour. Fold vanilla and vinegar into the mixture.

Mound your mixture into the centre of your baking paper and bake for 25 minutes. Turn off the oven and allow pavolova to cool in the oven.

For the topping, use about 300 ml of well whipped cream and seasonal berries, kiwis, passionfruit etc.

Croquembouche!

Over Easter long weekend, I finally managed to tackle it - the elusive croquembouche. I started at about 1 pm (this time without a dinner party or non-cooks trying to tell me what to do going on in the background). Four hours, eight eggs and a burnt sauce pan later (which I managed to scrub out - whew) - I had it - a 2 foot tall croquembouche!

A croquembouche is essentially puff pastries (or choux pastries in the book), filled with custard then stacked into a tall cone shape held together by rich thick caramel. Event croquembouches use about 100 puffs and are about 3-4 ft tall. You can rent or buy a croquembouche cone from a catering shop to get the cone shape. Or you can do what I did - rolled up some newspaper into a cone and line it with baking paper.

It took about 40 choux patries (many of which were quite flat and not very well puffed, but they were okay once I turned them on their sides). Though on the small side - the results were certainly delicious!

One word of warning though, choux pastry and caramel do NOT keep in the fridge. We put 1/2 our croquembouche in the fridge thinking we could save it for later (there were only three of us that night as I was afraid of another eminent disaster). Unfortunately, I discovered the next day a gooey sticky pile of pastry with runny caramel on top. Very not cool.

(will post ingredients and methods soon!)
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Chocolate AND cheese cake

Seriously, two of my favourite desserts - in ONE! I saw these lil chocolate cheesecake cupcakes at this patisserie near work and thought, wow! What a concept! I figured I'd give them a go for my boyfriend's birthday.

The tricky part was trying to figure out how to bake the cake for long enough but then be able to add the cheesecake in the middle...my flatmate suggested baking paper, which totally did the trick. I tried to put some rice in the middle to weigh it down, but it just ended up rising with the cake.

However, in the end (little bit of Physics here...) because the cheesecake is denser than the chocolate, it held its own so the cake just rose around it. And I have to say...it was indulgently good!
Gourmet Inspired Tip: I was short on time so I cheated and bought cake mix. I'm sure your favourite choc cake recipe will work just as well. Or you can try and mix up the flavours? Do an orange cake with chocolate cheese filling? Hmmm...combinations are pretty much endless!

Ingredients:

Chocolate cake batter: here's a good one from Nigella that should work. I would just make enough batter for one 8 in cake tin and skip the frosting. Or if you're lazy, buy a mix!

For cheesecake filling:

250 g cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs vanilla
20ish Blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Make the batter per instructions and pour into a round, greased 8 in cake pan.

Lay a sheet of baking paper across the surface, gently pushing down in the centre so that the paper sticks to the batter, but don't push the paper all the way to the edges of the pan. You want the edges of the cake to rise and a crust to form while the paper keeps the middle gooey.

Bake pan for 15-20 minutes.

While the cake is baking, gently fold the cream cheese into the sugar and the egg until smooth. Add lemon juice, vanilla and most of the blueberries and whip quickly until well mixed and the blue berries are just starting to break apart.

Remove the cake (but leave the oven on!) and gently remove the baking paper from the centre of the cake. The sides of the cake should just beginning to set while middle should still gooey without a crust. Carefully spoon your cheesecake mix into the middle of the cake, using the back of a wooden spoon to evenly distribute it into a general roundish shape. Don't worry if batter spills over the sides of the developing crust. Top cheesecake centre with remaining blueberries.

Put the cake back into the oven and bake for another 25 minutes until the cake part is cooked all the way through and toothpick comes out clean. The cheesecake part should be firm and not runny and little brown peaks should just be starting to form. Turn off the oven and cool the cake in the oven with the door ajar for about 2-3 minutes. Remove, let cool completely and serve.

My quest for the perfect cuppa - and Portuguese Cafe Tarts

Since I've started this new job, I've been on the hunt for the perfect cuppa. But right now, I'm stuck in the faceless masses of average joe's amidst Town Hall, where eveyrone uses Grinders or Lavazza or heaven forbid - Vittoria - beans. Coffee in the CBD doesn't seem to have any real personality or distinction...much like the people caught in the morning rush...

Sigh...give me Surry Hills...where you could tell the creatives from the journos from the designers...and you didn't have a problem picking that one good cafe in the mix...it was the one with the longest line!

If anyone knows good coffee in the Town Hall area of Sydney CBD, please let me know! In the meantime, enjoy this Portuguese Cafe Tart recipe.

Portugues Cafe Tarts (Coffee Tarts)

Gourmet Inspired Tip: Who doesn't love a good coffee dessert and who doesn't absolutely adore Portuguese tarts? I thought I would marry these two passions of mine and create some Portuguese Coffee Tarts.

I didn't have a muffin tin, so I used the oven safe tea cups again, but they turned out amazingly well with the puff pastry - if you like that extra bit of puff.

Ingredients:

4 x 10 cm rounds of puff pastry
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup milk
2 egg yolks
1 shot of espresso or strong coffee
2 tbs corn flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs brown sugar

Method:

Grease a muffin tin (or in my case, tea cup) and cover with puff pastry sheets to form 4 good bowls. Refrigerate.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. While the oven is heating, combine sugar and water in a saucepan and stir slowly over low heat until sugar dissolves and becomes syrupy. Remove from heat.

In a bowl, combine your corn flour, milk and egg yolks and whisk until well combined. Add sugar mixture and vanilla extract and mix thoroughly. Return mixture to stove and heat slowly until mixture thickens to a good custard consistency. Add espresso and stir until well combined.

Remove pastry cups and pour custard mixture into bases. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry just starts to brown. Remove from oven and let the custard settle back into the bases.

Spread brown sugar on a piece of aluminium foil and dry in oven for 1-2 minutes to remove moisture. Gently tap the tarts out of their containers and then sprinkle the tops with brown sugar. Place under hot grill or broiler, or use a blow torch, to quickly caramelise the tops. Serve.

The Aussie Creme Brulee

It actually worked! Hurrah!

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Gourmet Inspired Tip: I love creme brulee, and have always wanted to try making it. But after a bit of thinking and reading, I decided to give it an Aussie twist.

Aussie creme brulee is basically creme brulee with an Anzac bikkie base. It gives the dessert a little bit more substance, and I think the crumbly texture and sweetness of the bikkie really takes the custard and caramelised sugar flavour to a new level.

I've been super stoked to try this idea and it actually worked the first time around, well almost...my base was a little soggy as I was overly excited and didn't think to "bake it blind" first. The method below rectifies my error, but even with the sogginess the flavours were definitely there.

Enjoy!

Aussie Creme Brulee

Ingredients:

- 400 ml pure cream
- 6 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar (raw or white)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups Anzac biscuits, crumbed (about 6 biscuits)
- 3-4 tbs butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- pinch of salt

Method:

- Preheat oven to 180⁰C.
- In a mixing bowl, using your hands, mix the Anzac biscuit crumbs and the butter until the crumbs stick together.
- Layer the mixture evenly across the base of four small (5 oz) ramekins. I didn't have any, so I used short flat tea cups (pictured). Just make sure whatever you use is small and shorter than it is wide, as you will have to fill it to the brim with your custard. Cover the entire base and flatten it as much as you can, should be about 2 mm thick.
- Bake in oven for approximately 10 minutes, until the bases are set. Remove and let cool.
- In a pan or pot, heat the cream until it is hot but not boiling.
- In another mixing bowl, gently combine egg yolks and sugar, but do not whisk. Slowly add hot cream, stirring constantly until sugar and eggs are completely dissolved. Add vanilla and salt and mix thoroughly. Strain out any remaining solid bits.
- Pour custard into bases, filling the cups all the way to the top. (If you don't, it will be very difficult to caramelise the sugar on top at the end).
- Place cups in a deep baking dish and fill the dish with hot water so that it comes about halfway up the cups. Bake in oven (still at 180⁰C) for about 30-40 minutes until the custard is set.
- Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until chilled.
- Sprinkle brown sugar on tray lined with baking paper and dry in oven for a few minutes. Remove and break up the clumps of sugar using a rollin pin or the base of a cup. Set aside.
- When ready to serve, sprinkle brown sugar generously on top of custards. Place under hot broiler for 3-4 minutes to caramelise the sugar. Alternatively, use a torch. Remove and serve. :)