Chocolate Swirl Meringues with glazed strawberries

4 egg whites
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
2 tsp cornflour
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tbs cocoa
1/2 cup (110g) good - quality strawberry jam
250 punnet strawberries, hulled and halved
300 ml thickened cream
1 vanilla bean, split, seperated

Preheat oven to 140c. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
Place egg whites and caster sugar in a heatproof bowl set over a sauce pan of barely simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water), stirringuntil the sugar has dissolved. Transfer the mixture to an electric mixer and whisk until firm peaks form. Carefully fold in the cornflour and vinegar with a metal spoon until just combined.
Sift the cocoa over the egg white mixture and carefully stir through with the metal spoon until you have lovely chocolate swirls.

 Spoon the mixture into 6 large rounds on the prepared tray, making a slight indent in the centre of each with the back of the spoon. Place in oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 120 degrees. Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until crisp and dry. Allow meringues  to cool completely in the oven.

Meanwhile, place the jam and 1/4 cup cold water in a saucepan over low heat and stir gently until the jam is melted and syrupy. Remove from the heat, then stir through the strawberries. Allow to cool.  Whisk cream with icing sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Keep chilled until ready to serve.

To serve, top the meringues with the whipped cream and spoon over glazed strawberries.

**Firstly, i reduced the sizing and got a lot more than 6! Which is good because as soon as they were ready they were GONE! I didn't even get to try one!!!! So from that I have concluded they were out of this world yummy! :) It was complicated for making meringue but the quality and texture definately showed it was worth the extra bit of fiddlign.

Triple Chocolate Fudge Cookies

250g unsalted butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups plain flour, sifted
1/4 cup cocoa, sifted
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/3 chopped roasted hazelnuts (optional - i left them out as they were being shared and nut allergies)
100g Salted Caramel (Sub Regular milk chocolate)
150g Dark chocolate chopped
150g white chocolate chopped.

Preheat oven 180 degrees, line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Place the butter, caster sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer and beat until thick and pale. Add the egg and beat until well combined. Sift in flour, cocoa and bicarbonate soda, stir in salted caramel and 2/3 cup of each dark and white chocolates. Roll level tablespoons of cookie dough into balls then arrange on the trays 5cm apart . Slightly flatten each ball with your hand then bake for 12 minutes or until just dry on surface. Allow to cool until slightly firm, then transfer to wire cooling rack.

Take the remaining chocolate and melt (one at a time, don't mix!). Drizzle the chocolate over the cookies. Cool until the chocolate sets. Makes 36 large cookies.

**These were a massive hit! Soooo yummy. Everyone devourered them! Enjoy!

Apologies

Sincerest apologies for the lack of updates of late...

My laptop had an unfortunate accident, ironically mid cooking session.

Whilst the laptop has been out of commission, the kitchen has not! So stay tunned for some of the delish dishes I have been created over the last few weeks!

Dinner isn't complete without dessert.... Baked Custards!!!

No dinner is complete without a deliciously fattening dessert! Combine this with Master 3 pestering me 24/7 for custard, and I have the perfect opportunity to create another recipe! Baked Custards!

600ml pure (thin) cream
300ml milk
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Icing sugar to serve

I did say fattening!

1. Pre-heat oven to 140oC
2. Combine the cream, milk, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a bowl, lightly whisking to combine. Strain through a fine sieve into a jug.
3. Pour into six 200ml ramekins. Place ramekins in a roasting pan then pour enough boiling water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins

4. Bake for 1 - 1 1/4 hours until the custards have set, but still have a slight wobble. Cool slightly, then refrigerate.
5. To serve, cut a shape (I choose star) slightly smaller than the top of the ramekins from a square of baking paper. Sit the baking paper square over the custard and dust with icing sugar. Repeat with the remaining custards and serve.

Ratings
10/10
7/10
6/10

And Master 3 - Two thumbs up and is having left overs for breakfast :P

Really this was quite simple to make, it just lacked (for me anyway) the 'WOW' factor.

Twice-baked souffle

The first recipe off the mark was Twice-baked souffle. This was simply to die for with high scores across all 'tasters'.





Souffle after 1st baking

50g unsalted butter
1/2 Cup (75g) plain flour
2 cups (500ml) milk
Pinch of grated nutmeg (I used ground)
4 eggs, seperated plus 1 extra egg white
150g baby spinach leaves (I used frozen)
120g soft goat's cheese, crumbled (I used one with herbs through it)
1/2 cup (40g) finely grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup pure (thin) cream (again, I used normal thickened cream)

1. Preheat oven to 180oC and grease six 1 - cup (250ml) darile moulds or ovenproof tea cups - I used ramikens and only got 5 whilst the recipe says it makes 6. But mine were the perfect size for a main course.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat and add the flour, cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk, nutmeg and some salt and pepper. Bring to just below boiling point, then whisk for 2 minutes or until very thick and smooth. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the blanced spinach, goat's cheese and half the parmesan.

3. In a clean, dry bowl, whisk the 5 egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Fold one-third of the eggwhite into the cheese mixture to loosen, then fold in the remaining eggwhite until just combined. 

4. Place the moulds in a baking dish and divide the souffle mixture among them. Run your finger around the insude edge of the mould (this will ensure the souffles will rise evenly) - I used a knife instead of my finger -- it was smoother and easier and still worked perfectly.

5. Pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the moulds. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden. Remove from the baking dish, cool then invert onto a greased baking tray. The souffles can be chilled at this stage for up to 24 hours, if desired.

6. When almost read to serve, preheat oven to 180oC, pour cream over the souffles and sprinkle with the remaining parmesan . Bake souffles for 10 - 12 minutes until puffed and golden.



Finished with some crushed cashews

Souffles were served with a fresh salad and James Squire beer.

Ratings for this dish:

8/10
9/10
10/10

And most importantly, Master 3 gave it 2 thumbs up and asked for it again tomorrow night :)



Tonights dinner...

Sauteed spinach, scotch fillet steak with a seeded mustard and vodka sauce... A wing it meal but OH SO YUMMY!

Dinner Guests...

2012 is here! And so is the time to start fulfilling the challenge I set myself of working through the Delicious - Simply the Best cookbook.

On thinking of the challenge, I started to feel slightly overwhelmed - How would I go about this challenge? Start from the first page and systematically work my way through or scatter all over the chapters?

The recipes serve 4 -6, there is only two of us here, do I try and adapt or simply cook more than we need?

So I have a plan. I need dinner guests. I feel this works quite well with my second 'goal' for 2012 - to work on my friendships. So without any further ramble:

I need dinner guests.

Sunday 8 Jan will be my first attempt at this challenge, if you would like to come and try the food (and enjoy my company), please let me know... I would love to cook for you.