Spoon-dent cookies with lemon curd

Have you read about Benicio Del Toro’s new movie? It’s not even ready yet and I’m eager to see it – the cast is amazing and I love stories that take place in the Victorian age. One could say that I am in a wolf state of mind after watching my favorite mutant on screen. :D

I am indeed in a lemony state of mind and present you these cookies: one of the most delicious I have ever baked. Top 3 delicious – really.
The curd is wonderful – much better than the one I made a while ago - and goes perfectly well with the buttery dough. Try them and tell me later.

Spoon-dent cookies with lemon curd
from Donna Hay magazine

Lemon curd*:
½ cup (120ml) lemon juice
zest of the juiced lemons
125g unsalted butter, chopped
1 cup (200g) sugar
3 eggs, beaten

Cookie dough:
180g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (200g) sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups (280g) all purpose flour, sifted
½ teaspoon baking powder

Start with the curd: place the lemon juice, zest, butter, sugar and eggs in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan if rapidly simmering water. Cook, stirring continuously, for 20 minutes or until mixture has thickened slightly. Pass through a sieve into a glass/ceramic bowl and cover with plastic wrap touching the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until cool and thick.

Make the cookie dough: preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.

Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat well. Using a spatula, stir through the flour and baking powder to form a dough. Roll 2 teaspoons of the mixture into balls and place onto prepared sheets 5cm (2in) apart.
Press deep dents into the middle of the balls with the back of a small teaspoon, wetting the spoon if the dough starts to stick – I though it was easier to do that with my index fingertip.
Fill each of the indents with ½ teaspoon of the cooled lemon curd and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden.

* there was some curd left – I think that ¾ of the recipe should be enough to fill all the cookies

Makes 35 – I halved the recipe and still got 24

Lemon and chilli marinated chicken

Some dishes take me way back to my childhood days - roasted chicken is one of them. My mom loved it and used to make it deliciously well: nicely golden and crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, the meat almost falling off the bones. So good! I can almost taste it as I write this. :D

I immediately thought of mom when I saw the “simple chicken classics” spread on the latest DH magazine. Since I had some marvelous lemons around, this is the recipe I chose.

Oh, and before I forget, I have added an ingredient measure list to the blog that might be useful to some of you.

Lemon and chilli marinated chicken
slightly adapted from Donna Hay magazine

1 x 1.5g whole chicken, butterflied – or use your favorite chicken parts
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
juice of 2 lemons
1 tablespoon chilli flakes*
1/3 cup (80ml) olive oil – I used garlic infused olive oil

Place the chicken on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place the garlic, salt, paprika, lemon zest and juice, chilli flakes and oil in a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour over the chicken and marinate in the fridge for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 200ºC/390ºF. Roast the chicken for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through – I roasted mine for 1 ½ hours to get it really golden.

* the chicken turned out spicy and I loved it but my husband thought it was a bit too hot; therefore, adjust the chilli flakes amount according to your taste.

Serves 4-6

Mini citrus syrup sponges

These little darlings gave me such a hard time while unmolding them that I kept thinking of a song I love, Erasure’s “Here I go impossible again”. :D

The workout made me wonder why Ms. Lawson’s photo for these mini cakes shows them still in the pan they were baked, but it was worth it: the mini sponges were delicious and had an amazing texture – the syrup really gets into them, enhancing the citrus flavor. Yum!

I used both lemons and limes here but if you want to make the original recipe use just limes.

Mini citrus syrup sponges
from How to Be a Domestic Goddess

½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup + 1 tablespoon (112g) sugar
2 large eggs
zest of 1 lime
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (160g) self-rising cake flour
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons milk

Syrup:
2 tablespoons lime juice, plus zest for decoration
2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus zest for decoration
½ cup (70g) confectioners’ sugar

Preheat the over to 180ºC/350ºF; generously butter an 8-cup mini-loaf pan.

Cream together the butter and sugar, and add the eggs and zest, beating them in well. Add the flour and salt, folding in gently, and then the milk. Spoon into the mini-loaf pan, and cook for 25 minutes.

While the cakes are cooking, prepare the syrup by putting the lime and lemon juices and sugar into a small saucepan and heating gently so that the sugar dissolves.

As soon as the mini-sponges are ready, take them out of the oven and prick them with a cake-tester all over. Pour over the syrup evenly. Try to let the middle absorb the liquid as well as the sides, then leave it to soak up the rest. Don’t try to take the cakes out of the pan until they have cooled slightly and the syrup looks like it has been absorbed, but be aware that if you leave these to cool completely they might be very difficult to get out of the pan.

So, after an hour or two, turn them out onto a rack and grate some lime zest over them before serving.

Makes 8 – I halved the recipe, used a muffin pan (each well holds 1/3 cup batter) and got 5 mini cakes

Rosewater marshmallows

Searching for something good on TV last night I stopped zapping when I saw Giovanni Ribisi. It was a drama movie and I was pretty surprised – in a very good way – by his performance... Let’s be honest: it’s not easy to stand out working next to the marvelous Ms. Blanchett. :D

Whether it’s a heavy drama or a light comedy – who can forget Frank Buffay Jr.? – Giovanni Ribisi is always a joy to watch, like marshmallows are a joy to make (and eat).

My inspiration was this recipe but I did not want to use egg whites and adapted a Donna Hay recipe instead.

Rosewater marshmallows
adapted from Donna Hay magazine

2 tablespoons powdered gelatin
½ cup (120ml) warm water
330g caster sugar
½ cup + 1 ½ tablespoons glucose syrup
1/3 cup (80ml) water, extra
1 tablespoon rosewater
1-2 drops pink food coloring

For rolling the marshmallows:
¾ cup (105g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon corn starch, sifted

Lightly oil a 20cm (8in) square cake pan and line with non-stick baking paper.

Place the gelatin and warm water in the bowl of an electric mixer, stir well to combine and set aside. Place the sugar, glucose and extra water in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil and cook without stirring for 5-6 minutes or until soft ball stage (115ºC/240ºF) on a sugar thermometer.

With the mixer running at high speed, gradually add the hot syrup to the gelatin mixture. Add the rosewater, the food coloring and beat for 10 minutes or until thick and fluffy. Pour into prepared pan, cover with lightly greased non-stick baking paper and refrigerate overnight (I used regular baking paper and oiled it very well).

Place the icing sugar and corn starch in a bowl and stir to combine. Turn the marshmallow onto a surface lightly dusted with a little of the icing sugar mixture and carefully remove the paper. Cut into squares with a lightly oiled knife.

Dust with remaining icing sugar mixture and store in an airtight container.

Makes 36

Coconut cake

Make up: I’m no expert - mascara and lipstick are the only things I wear - but know how much different it makes. Not to mention make up in movies – there are fabulous and talented artists out there. Otherwise it would be impossible to transform the charming Gary Oldman into an old and ugly vampire... Especially after he showed up as a handsome 19th century gentleman (I had the biggest crush on him when that movie was released). :D

As for this cake, the “make up” – a.k.a., the icing - served as a cover up: I unmolded the cake after completely cooled and some of it got stuck in the bottom of the pan. :(

Even though the icing came in handy here, I found this cake so tender and delicious that it should be served with nothing more than a sprinkling of icing sugar on top.

Coconut cake
from Donna Hay magazine

250g butter, softened
275g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
300g self-rising flour, sifted
80g unsweetened desiccated coconut
250ml milk

Icing:
640g icing sugar, sifted
80ml (1/3 cup) boiling water*

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/320ºF; Grease really well a 10-cup capacity bundt or ring pan.

Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well.
Add the flour, coconut and milk and beat until well combined. Spoon the mixture into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely – don’t let the cake cool completely in the pan or it might stick.

For the icing, place the sugar and water in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Spoon the icing over the cake and allow to set.

* even though I added more water, my icing was a lot thicker than the one in the magazine, but ended up keeping it that way to cover up the bruises on the cake

Serves 8-10 – I halved the recipe and used a 19cm (6-cup capacity) ring pan