Tag: citrus

Heat Busting Key Lime Pie

If you live in Sydney then I must begin this post by applauding you for still being here. After the extreme prolonged heat yesterday (37 degrees Celsius – that’s 98 degrees F my European and American friends!) anyone who didn’t dissolve into a puddle on the floor must be commended as having superhuman strength. That was one damn hot day, and on a damn hot day you need something light, cool and refreshing. Which, I imagine, is why we have the Key Lime Pie.

And thank god we do.

Because I totally heart Key Lime Pie.

And biscuit crumbs.

(see what I did there?)

 At the moment with the heat and general busy-ness that comes with the winding down of the year, I am feeling the easy/quick prep dishes, and this one is about as simple as you can get. The base is just cookie crumbs, butter and coconut. The filling is sugar, eggs and condensed milk. The topping is cream, vanilla and a little icing sugar. I think that the cooking time was about 15(ish) mins each for the base and the filling and you can make it in short bursts over a few days. This is particularly good if you are lazy (like me) or if you are sweltering under a series of hot days and can only manage having the oven on for a short amount of time.

I started off with some Butternut Cookies and as I was sans food processor, I bashed them out with a rolling pin. Did I mention that this recipe was also good for stress relief?

Soon I was left with a mountain of crumbs

to squish into the pan and blast in the oven

Then I sampled baked the filling.

Whipped the cream, sugar and vanilla for the topping

and spread that baby over the top of the pie

What you end up with is a tangy, cool and refreshing Summer dessert, perfect for cooling you down. Delightful! I used the recipe from the wonderful blog Mangada [to eat] who always floors me with her creativity, simplicity and beautiful photography. The only change I made was the omission of the ginger cookies from the base as the mothership malfunctions when fed anything containing even a hint of ginger.

So, my lovelies, what do you do/eat/drink to cool you down when it feels as though the world around you is melting? And are any other Aussies freaking out at the prospect that days like yesterday are the shape of things to come?

Little Drops of Sunshine – Lemon Curd Tartlets

When the mercury hits 30+ degrees (celsius, my European friends) you know that Summer is well and truly here. Despite the fact that technically, it is still Spring. So to celebrate the sunshine and the general laziness that long beautifully warm days brings, I thought I would make some easy peasy lemon tartlets.

If you think these babies are looking a little on the large side, take not that they are sitting in a mini muffin pan not a normal sized one

What really started this off was a little road trip I took a few weeks ago to the NSW Southern Highlands. It was a great weekend away with great company, amazing food, lots of antique shops and second hand bookstores. The first place we explored was Berrima which is a pretty little town that has a bit of everything – history, beautiful flowers and gardens, food and knick knacks. I was also surprised to come across a working jail which I am going to request if I ever get convicted of a crime. I might even plead guilty to something I didn’t do if I could be guaranteed I would serve my time out at Berrima such is the (external) beauty of the sandstone building and splashes of bright tulips. Lets hope it never comes to that!

So after I had pondered my career as a criminal mastermind and thought through my Plan B, we made our way to a store called the Little Hand Stirred Jam Shop. With a name like that how could you resist? Lucky I succumbed to my frivolous whims as I left the store with these

Lemon Butter and Creamed Honey.

Far out brussle sprout.

Show me a person who doesn’t like either of these and i’ll show you a fool.

Fool I tell you!

A bottle of sunshine.

And Bronze at the Sydney Royal Easter Show! Hooray!

Although if this baby only won bronze, I desperately want to try whatever won silver and gold, they must be like liquid crack.

All you will need for this recipe is three things. A packet of Butternut Snap Cookies, a jar of Lemon Butter or Lemon Curd and a mini muffin pan. You can use chocolate to decorate them but it isn’t strictly necessary.

Pop a cookie on the top of an empty muffin hole and place the tray in the oven for 5-7 minutes.

When they are soft, make a light impression with a tea spoon but be careful that you don’t break the biscuit. The place the tray in the fridge until the biscuits are hard again.

Once the biscuits are cooled, spoon the Lemon Butter on top until they are filled to your satisfaction. Then place back in the fridge until they are set.

At this point you can pipe some chocolate on top of your tarts, I just melted some dark chocolate and added a little glycerine to make it more pipeable.

Cute!

Quite simply, they are little mouthfuls of happiness.

I adapted the recipe from this one  although if you follow the link you will see that my laziness is incredible as the recipe was originally one for quick and easy lemon meringue pies. Except that I couldn’t be bothered with the meringue. But I think these are just as tasty as a snappy citrus tart!

So,  my lovelies, what short cuts do you take in the kitchen? What can you never be bothered to do?

 

There’s been a murder in my kitchen…

The victim? Blood Oranges.

Scalped

Sliced

and disemboweled.

All in the name of dessert.

But oh my, it was a good dessert! This Blood Orange and Vanilla Syrup Cake was another experiment with seasonal winter fruits. I had been eyeing it off in my Seasons cookbook by Donna Hay since the mothership bought it for me last Christmas. As my weakness for all things citrusy and syrupy have been well documented on this blog, this cake was a natural progression from the basic syrup cake to a prettier, deeper flavoured dish.

Easy to prepare, this cake didn’t take long to cook and the only difficulty I had was getting the blood orange stains out of my chopping board! I didn’t realise that the gorgeous deep red juice would be so stubborn! I shook my fist at it. Then let the mothership shoot her tractorbeam of cleanliness at it.

I broke out my bundt pan for this baby

Tah Dah! Golden, puffy goodness!

Note the abundance of progress shots. The deep red of the blood oranges was so beautiful that I got on a bit of a photo taking roll! I just wish that practise made perfect in this case.

Finally, I have a pretty product to photograph. Excitement to the max.

Blood Orange and Vanilla Syrup Cake – Adapted from Seasons by Donna Hay

Ingredients – Topping

1 cup (220g) caster sugar

1/2 cup (125ml) water

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

3 Blood Oranges, thinly sliced

Method – Topping

1. Place sugar, water and vanilla in a frying pan over medium heat and stir until sugar has dissolved

2. Add orange slices and simmer for 10-15 mins or until the orange is soft. Remove from heat and set aside

Ingredients – Cake

4 eggs

1 cup (220g) caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup (150g) self raising flour

150g butter

1 cup (120g) almond meal

Method – Cake

1. Place eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat until the mixture is thick, pale and triples in size (8-10 min)

2. Sift the flour over the egg mixture and fold through

3. Melt the butter and fold through the cake batter along with the almond meal

4. Line the bottom of a cake tin with the orange slices and remaining syrup. If you are using a spring form tin you might want to wrap your tin in aluminium foil or place a baking tray on the shelf below in the oven in case of any leakage

5. Pour batter over orange slices

6. Bake at 160 degrees celsius for 40 mins or until golden and firm. (I took mine out after about 30 mins)

7. Turn out onto a platter to serve with cream or ice cream.

Mandarin Syrup Cakes

I don’t like change. I know thats an awful thing to admit, but when things change I feel all out of my depth. A little bit lost at sea.

By now i’ve gotten used to the fact that things like the seasons must change, the weather changes and traffic lights change (thank god). But i’ve never been able to get my head around the seasonality of fruit and vegetables. I hate wanting to make something with Mangos in June, and not being able to find nice fresh juicy ones in the store 🙁 So, in order to make the most of seasonal fruit and vege and educate myself a bit, i’ve been trying to eat and cook with things that are in season.

Enter: The Mandarin

I have been quite neglectful of the humble Mandarin over the past few years. I had forgotten how sweet and juicy its segments are. How lusciously orange its juice is.

Yummo! Mandarin Juice!

The recipe for Mandarin Syrup Cakes in the Good Living section of the paper was just what I was looking for. Why didn’t I think of it before? However, I am a little wary of newspaper recipes. They aren’t always the most reliable and something I think their writers omit a crucial ingredient or step on purpose! Who honestly wants to share their secret recipes with the nation?

Have you ever seen such a beautiful simple little cake?

I shouldn’t have worried! These little babies came out wonderfully. They slipped out of the pan and stood proudly on the plate in all their buttery goodness, waiting for the syrup. Fluffy, moist and lightly mandarin-y, they were everything you could want in a cake.

and of course, they didn’t last long!

The syrup was subtle and sweet. If you aren’t a fan of the tangy lime or lemon syrups, this is absolutely the one for you. I drizzled the syrup over the cakes after putting them on the plate. If you want the syrup to permeate deeper then I would syrup them when they are just out of the oven but still in the pan. Yum!!

Mandarin Syrup Cakes – From the Good Living Guide (Sydney Morning Herald)

Ingredients

125g butter

1 cup caster sugar

2 tsp mandarin zest

2 eggs

1 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup mandarin juice

1 tsp orange flower water

Method

1. Beat butter, half the sugar and zest in a small bowl until light and fluffy

2. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition

3. Stir in flour and buttermilk

4. Divide mixture  between 6 greased muffin holes (recipe say 180ml capacity, I just used one of those giant texas muffin pans with the huge holes)

5. At 180 degrees celsius, bake for 25-30 mins (I did mine for 20, make sure you check yours!) or until they are golden on top and feel cooked

6. Combine mandarin juice and remaining sugar in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar is dissolved.

7. Simmer for two to three minutes or until it has thickened slightly

8. Remove from heat and stir in orange flower water

9. To serve, drizzle syrup over cakes and serve with cream or icecream (original recipe also suggests greek yoghurt, whatever floats your boat!)