Lemon & honey Anzac tart

Lemon tarts – or lemon bars, for that matter – are not something exactly new on this blog, but since they’re among the most delicious desserts out there I never tire of baking them. When I saw the Australian Delicious lemon tart version with a crust made of Anzac cookies I had to bake it and I’m glad I did: the tart is wonderful and not difficult to make. I believe that store-bought ANZAC cookies are easy to find Down Under, but not in Brazil – so if you can’t find the cookies where you live either, do not worry: I’ll share the recipe I used to make mine.

Lemon & honey Anzac tart
from the fabulous Delicious - Australia

300g Anzac cookies – recipe follows
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons honey + some extra to serve
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
2/3 cup (160ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
395g can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup (120ml) heavy cream
4 eggs
whipped cream, to serve

Lightly butter a 22x4cm round loose-bottomed tart pan*.
Place cookies in a food processor and whiz until fine crumbs. Gradually add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles damp sand – add butter gradually because depending on how buttery the cookies are you might not even need all the butter. Press crumb mixture into the base and sides of prepared pan. Chill for 30 minutes or until firm.
Preheat the oven to 170°C/338°F. Place honey, lemon zest and juice, condensed milk, cream and eggs in a bowl and whisk gently until combined. Pour into the tart case and bake for 35 minutes or until just set but the centre still has a gentle wobble. Cool in the pan to room temperature, then place in the fridge and chill for at least 2 hours or until cold and set.
To serve, slice the tart and drizzle with thickened cream and extra honey.

* my pan was the right diameter but wasn’t deep enough, so I made the exact amount of base but halved the filling recipe; my tart was done after 15 minutes in the oven

Serves 6-8

ANZAC cookies
from the always wonderful Modern Classics 2

1 cup (115g) rolled oats
1 cup (140g) all purpose flour
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
¾ cup (75g) desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons golden syrup
½ cup + 1 tablespoon (127g) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon hot water

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
In a large bowl mix the oats, flour, sugar and coconut. Place the golden syrup and butter in a saucepan over low heat and stir until melted. Mix the baking soda with the water and add to the butter mixture. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well. Place tablespoons of the mixture onto prepared sheets 5cm (2in) apart. Flatten slightly. Bake for 8–10 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 22 – I rolled 2 leveled tablespoons of dough per cookie and got 20

Baked apple and maple doughnuts

One of the many things I loved about NY was the food: I ate wonderful things in several places, and brought home some great ingredients, too; I had many, many addresses on my list and unfortunately couldn’t go to all of them, and one of those places was the Doughnut Plant – my plan was to try their crème brûlée doughnut, but that will have to be done on my next trip to NY.
While that doesn’t happen, I made doughnuts at home – a very nice baked version I found in the glorious Gourmet Traveller.

Baked apple and maple doughnuts
from the beautiful Australian Gourmet Traveller

Dough:
5 1/3 cups (745g) all purpose flour
2/3 cup + 1 tablespoon (145g) granulated sugar
2 ¼ teaspoons (7g) dried yeast
1 cup (240ml) lukewarm whole milk + a bit extra for brushing
1/3 cup (80ml) buttermilk*
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, melted

Apple-maple filling:
2 Granny Smith apples, cored and coarsely chopped
½ cup (120ml) maple syrup
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
¼ cup (60ml) water
juice of 1 orange
juice of 1 lemon
2 cinnamon quills

For assembling:
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar combined with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine flour, sugar and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and mix to combine. In another bowl, whisk together milk, buttermilk, eggs and butter. With motor running, add milk mixture and mix on medium speed until dough is smooth and elastic (4-5 minutes). Form into a ball, place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm place until double in size (1-1½ hours).
Meanwhile, for apple-maple filling, combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, then cook over medium heat until apple is tender and liquid is syrupy (about 10 minutes), then cool completely.
Line two large baking sheets with foil.
Knock down dough, turn onto a lightly floured work surface and roll to 5mm thick. Using an 8cm-diameter cutter, cut 24rounds from dough (re-roll scraps if necessary). Place half the rounds 5cm (2in) apart on the prepared baking sheets and place a heaped teaspoon of apple-maple filling in centre of each (try to remove the excess syrup from each portion of filling before placing it onto the dough). Brush edges with milk, cover with the remaining dough rounds and press to seal edges well. Trim edges by cutting with a 7cm-diameter cutter. Cover with a tea towel and stand in a warm place until risen (1-1½ hours).
Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F. Brush doughnuts with milk then bake until bottoms are just golden (8-10 minutes). While the doughnuts are still hot, dip them in the melted butter, toss in the cinnamon sugar and serve with maple syrup and any leftover apple/syrup mixture.

* homemade buttermilk: to make 1 cup buttermilk place 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a 240ml-capacity measuring cup and complete with whole milk (room temperature). Wait 10 minutes for it to thicken slightly, then use the whole mixture in your recipe

Makes 12 – I halved the recipe above, used 8cm and 7cm cutters and still got 12 doughnuts

Chocolate stout cake with peanut butter frosting

I've been trying to keep up with the inventory idea for the last year and it's worked out fine so far: the ingredients no longer end up in the garbage and that is great. From time to time I check the contents of my pantry/freezer/fridge to make sure nothing goes to waste and a couple of days ago I found a can of Guinness beer in the cupboard; while searching for something delicious to make with it I remembered this great cake I made months ago but still hadn't shared with you - it's another one of Donna Hay's wonderful recipes and it was the first time I ever baked with stout beer.

Chocolate stout cake with peanut butter frosting
slightly adapted from the always gorgeous Donna Hay Magazine

Cake:
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (150g) all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
½ cup (120ml) Guinness or other stout beer
½ cup (113g/1stick) unsalted butter, chopped
1/3 cup (30g) cocoa, sifted
1 egg
1/3 cup sour cream*
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (224g) granulated sugar

Peanut butter frosting:
½ cup (70g) icing sugar, sifted
½ cup smooth peanut butter
3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter, softened
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 ½ tablespoons heavy cream

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 1.5l loaf pan, line it baking paper and butter the paper as well.
Cake: in a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Place the stout and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir to melt the butter. Remove from heat and whisk in cocoa; set aside.
Whisk together the egg, sour cream and vanilla. Add to the stout mixture, followed by the sugar and the sifted ingredients. Whisk to combine. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 55-65 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan over a wire rack for 20 minutes. Carefully unmold cake and transfer to the rack. Cool completely.

Frosting: place the sugar, peanut butter, butter and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Add the cream and beat for a further 2 minutes. Spread the frosting over the cooled cake to serve.

* homemade sour cream: to make 1 cup of sour cream, mix 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream with 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice in a bowl. Whisk until it starts to thicken. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 1 hour or until thicker (I usually leave mine on the counter overnight – except on very warm nights – and it turns out thick and silky in the following morning; refrigerate for a creamier texture)

Serves 6-8

Marzipan and berry muffins with amazingly good homemade marzipan

Certain things to me are revelations, and Paul Hollywood’s fabulous homemade marzipan was one: when I was little every time my German grandmother came to visit she would bring small boxes of marzipan – she loved the stuff. Soon I began loving marzipan, too, and that was pretty much the only good thing about grandma’s visits (let’s just say she wasn’t a pleasant person to be around).

Grandma Frida stopped visiting after my mom died, and then a few years later she was gone, too, and that was the end of my marzipan-flavored days. As a grown-up I began searching for that delicious marzipan, the one I ate as a kid, and to my disappointment the versions I found tasted nothing like it – they were poorly made artificial versions of the almond paste and tasted of anything but almonds.
Last week, though, flipping through my newest purchase, I found a recipe for marzipan that seemed easy; since I had all the ingredients at home I gave it a go immediately, and the result was a thick, luscious marzipan, with an amazing texture and equally fantastic flavor, so good I had to hide it in my fridge otherwise I could have easily eaten a pound of it in one seating.

The combination of raspberries, strawberries and marzipan involved by a very tender and almond-y batter is what makes these muffins the best I’ve ever made; I would love to tell you how addictively flavorsome the warm marzipan bits tasted inside the muffins, but I’ll stop before I drool over my keyboard. :)

Marzipan and berry muffins
slightly adapted from the gorgeous Delicious - Australia

¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (185g) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup + 2 ½ tablespoons (180g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup (105g) all purpose flour, sifted
1 ½ cups (150g) almond meal
pinch of salt
100g marzipan, chopped into small cubes – I used homemade, recipe follows
100g fresh strawberries, chopped into small cubes
100g frozen raspberries, unthawed
icing sugar, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a 12-hole muffin pan (each cavity holds 1/3 cup batter) with paper cases, or generously butter the pan cavities.
Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer until thick and pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Fold in the flour, almond meal and salt, then fold in the marzipan. Divide the batter among muffin holes.
Scatter the berries over the top (I pushed them a little into the batter) , then bake muffins for 25-30 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then very gently unmold them. Transfer to a wire rack.
Dust the muffins with icing sugar and before serving – these muffins taste even more amazing while still warm.

Makes 12

Homemade marzipan
from the beautiful and fantastic How to Bake

1 large egg
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
90g superfine sugar*
1 cup (140g) icing sugar, sifted
220g almond meal
finely grated zest of 1 orange

In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg and vanilla with a fork.
In a large bowl, mix together the superfine sugar, the icing sugar and the almond meal. Add the zest and the egg mixture and combine first with a wooden spoon, then with your hands. Knead the marzipan until smooth. Form into a ball, wrap well in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.
Marzipan can be kept well wrapped in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

*I always use granulated sugar in my recipes, but I did not want a grainy texture in the marzipan, therefore I blitzed the sugar in the food processor before using it

Makes 500g

Almond joy tartlets

A couple of months ago my friend Ana Elisa and I were talking about the new Baked cookbook that was about to be released (it’s out now). We were talking about purchasing the book or not, since both of us have the other two Baked cookbooks but neither of us have baked much from them. Culinary coincidences, I guess. Then Ana decided to put those cookbooks into some good use and kept telling me how pleased she was with the results, that was when I thought I should do the same – that is why I baked these tartlets (that and the fact that I needed to use up some cream I had in the fridge).

I have never had an Almond Joy candy bar but thought that the combination of chocolate, almonds and coconut would certainly turn out delicious; the tartlets are a bit time consuming because of the three components that have to be made, but you can break the recipe down into little projects and divide the whole thing in two days – that is what I did.

Almond joy tartlets
from a cookbook I’m determined to use more often

Dough:
1/3 cup (33g) almond meal
¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups + 1 tablespoon (195g) all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 large egg
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and chopped

Filling:
225g (8oz) white chocolate, chopped
1 cup (240ml) heavy cream
2 cups (200g) sweetened flaked coconut
1 tablespoon Amaretto or rum

Glaze:
55g (2oz) semisweet chocolate, chopped
55g (2oz) milk chocolate, chopped
½ cup (120ml) heavy cream
6 whole toasted almonds

Dough: place the almond meal, sugar, flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and process to combine. Add the butter and pulse until sandy. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg and vanilla together with a fork. With the machine running, pour in the egg mixture, a little at a time, just until the dough comes together – you might not need all the mixture. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.
Filling: place the white chocolate and the cream in a small heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat, cool to room temperature then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
Lightly butter six 10cm (4in) tartlet pans with removable bottoms. Divide the dough into 6 equal parts and place each part between two pieces of lightly floured baking paper – dough is sticky, so make sure it’s cold when you roll it. Roll into a rough circle, then carefully transfer to the tartlet pan and gently press it to the bottom and sides of the pan. Remove any dough scraps. Repeat the process with the remaining dough. Prick the base of the dough with a fork and freeze for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Line crusts with a piece of foil or baking paper and fill it with dried beans/baking weights. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the beans/weights and the paper and bake for 10 minutes longer or until golden. Remove from the oven and cool completely over a wire rack.
Place the chilled white chocolate ganache in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until soft peaks form. Do not overwhip. Gently fold in the coconut and the Amaretto. Spread the filling over the crusts and place one almond in the center of each tartlet. Refrigerate while you make the glaze.
For the glaze, place the chocolates in a small heatproof bowl. Heat the heavy cream until it just comes to a boil, then pour it over the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Let cool for 10 minutes, then spoon the glaze evenly over the tarts. Refrigerate again until glaze is set, about 10 minutes.
Tarts can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for 2 days.

Makes 6 – I halved the recipe above, used tartlet pans the same size called for and got 4 tartlets