Tiramisu

Ladyfinger biscuits highly discounted – what are you going to do?

 

• 250ml cream
• 250g mascarpone
• 75ml marsala
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 2 shots of espresso
• 200g pack ladyfinger biscuits
• 100g good dark chocolate

Whisk the cream, sugar, mascarpone, marsala and sugar vigorously until the mix comes together and the cream thickens.


Line a bowl with the half the biscuits and drizzle over one shot of espresso, evenly spreading over the biscuits.

Spread over half the cream mix then finely grate over this half the chocolate.


Add another layer of biscuits and finish the layering with the rest of the cream mix and chocolate.

Cover and refrigerate.


Highly modified from a BBC recipe, which in my opinion uses too much cream and substitutes regular coffee for espresso.

Vegetarian Panna Cotta

The secret to good panna cotta is powdered agar-agar. Agar-agar is a gelling agent derived from algae (usually seaweed). You can also use gelatin, though gelatin is made from animal parts and can also be tricky to work with.

Here is my formula; scale it down if you want a smaller quantity. Some recipes substitute milk for some of the cream.

• 1 litre milk
• 300–400ml sugar, depending how sweet you like your dessert
• 5ml (level teaspoon) agar-agar powder (you can use flakes but the quantity is much harder to measure)
• half a vanilla bean

Split and scrape the half vanilla bean into the sugar in a saucepan and add the agar-agar. Mix thoroughly so the agar-agar is evenly distributed and won’t form lumps. Mix in the cream and heat to boiling. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2–3 minutes.

Panna Cotta Moulds – I ordered a set like this
and will update the article to review them.

Leave to cool, then remove the vanilla bean pod and decant into 6–8 moulds. Chill for at least 2 hours to set.

If you can find a mould with a removable end (see picture) so the panna cotta can be pushed out from the smaller end of the mould, it should be easy to unmould.

Applying heat to loosen it from the mould is tricky – you can easily end up unsetting the contents; if you are less concerned with being fancy, set it in the serving bowl.

Limoncello almond poppyseed cake

Here’s another of my occasional culinary forays, my adaptation of this recipe for a wheat-free cake:

• 4 eggs, 3 of which separated
• 2 tablespoons limoncello* (limoncino) or zest of 3 lemons
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 100g brown sugar, split into halves
• 170g almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• icing sugar (powdered, for Americans) to decorate

Whisk the 3 egg yolks with one whole egg and half the sugar until smooth and light. The trick here is to keep one egg whole so the mix is less likely to collapse compared with whisking all 4 egg whites separately.

Thoroughly mix the baking powder and almond flour. Add the limoncello (or lemon zest), poppy seeds and sweetened egg yolks, and mix thoroughly until smooth. Aside from adding flavour and texture, distribution of the poppy seeds is a good indicator of whether everything is thoroughly combined. For the alcohol intolerant: the alcohol should all cook out.

Whisk the 3 egg whites until very frothy, then gradually add the rest of the sugar, while continually whisking. Stop at the soft peak stage (the mix just holds its shape when you lift the whisk). Some tricks of the trade: use an unlined copper bowl, and whisk the egg whites at room temperature. Egg white is hard to aerate from cold, and a copper bowl makes whisking much more effective and more stable without additives like vinegar or salt.

Incorporate the egg white into the almond mix slowly at first, until you’ve added about half the egg white, then gently fold in the rest so you don't flatten out all the air.

Put a disk of non-stick baking paper in the bottom of a spring-form cake tin, and butter the sides. Slide the mix in and bake in a 175°C oven for 30 to 35 minutes (checking at the end that a skewer comes out clean).

Cool the cake on a rack, baking paper down.

When the cake is cool, ease off the baking paper and decorate with a little icing sugar (put about half a teaspoon in a strainer and smack the side lightly to spread it evenly; this is best done just before serving as the cake is quite moist and will absorb the sugar).

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*Edit: I used 4 on my first try but it came out a little too lemony.

Frozen Raspberry Cheesecake

Enough with the US election. Obama is probably going to win and Romney is boringly predictable and will soon be forgotten. Here’s something for the future, a really easy recipe that’s better than anything you can buy.

• 250g mascarpone
• 125ml cream
• 500g frozen raspberries (fresh will do but frozen gives you a head start)
• 125ml sugar

Whip the cream lightly. Poor the sugar over the raspberries and work in the mascarpone: if too hard, let the raspberries thaw a little. Then work in the cream, making sure the sugar is well mixed.

That’s it. Serve as is, or put it back in the freezer to set a bit more. If you leave it overnight in the freezer, you may want to bring it our half an hour before serving.

Technically, it needs a crust to be a real cheesecake but it’s good enough just like this.

How to make Meringues

Making crispy meringues is not too hard. I’ve reported this before but it’s worth repeating in an article of its own.

You need to observe a few basics:

• eggs do not beat well from cold; bring them to room temperature
• separate the egg whites you will be using cleanly; any yolk is no good
• do not over-whisk at first
• use a copper mixing bowl, otherwise you may need to add extra ingredients to get the best effect

Here’s how to make enough meringues to fit a baking tray:

• 3 eggs
• 125g finely granulated sugar or caster sugar

Whip the egg whites until they are foamy, then gradually add the sugar while continuing to whip. You want to aim for a mixture that holds its own shape:

Note I use a balloon whisk; this is saves me spending time in a gym. Use a reasonably large one. Once you have the mix stiff enough, shape it into meringues on a nonstick baking sheet:

I shape mine with a spoon as you can see from the shape variants.

Bake in a 90°C oven (190°F for the troglodytes) for 2-3 hours, depending how crunchy you like them. For a drier effect leave them in the oven overnight, to dry out further as the oven cools.