Zuppa Inglese Gelato

When I heard of the License to Chill Sweet Adventures Blog Hop hosted by the Kitchen Crusader, I was really excited because one of my favourite kitchen appliances is our ice cream maker. I was thinking of all the different flavours of ice cream that I am still to make....hmmm.... rum and raisin.... rocky road......ZUPPA INGLESE!

When I was in Italy as a kid over 20 years ago, I discovered this amazing gelato - half creamy, custardy ice cream and half trifle. Then, when we were in Florence on our honeymoon and on the day of my birthday I discovered it again! I started doing a bit of research on what exactly is in a Zuppa Inglese - the original trifle, rather than the gelato variety, and it turns out that it is savoiardi biscuits soaked in an Italian liqueur called Alchermes, a spirit infused with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and vanilla flavours. Not having come across this before in Sydney (although I'd love to find it) I decided to replicate the flavours in my Zuppa Inglese Gelato and soak the biscuits in Pipeclay Tawny Port from Pieter van Gent winery in Mudgee which has many similar flavours through it - I'm sure you could substitute with any Australian Tawny to get the same effect as my dessert.

Zuppa Inglese Gelato

500ml Milk
125ml Cream
Cinammon stick
1 vanilla pod (I used 1 teaspoon of Queen Vanilla Bean Paste instead of the real thing)
8 cloves
5 egg yolks
110g caster sugar
8 Savoiardi Biscuits
125 ml Pipeclay Tawny Port
Cocoa powder to sprinkle

Put milk, cream, cinammon stick, vanilla pod (or paste), cloves into a saucepan over a low heat;
Separate the eggs, and beat the yolks with the sugar until the mixture is thick, creamy and looks like a ribbon when you lift the whisk out of the bowl;
When the milk mixture is a at almost boiling (you can see little bubbles starting to appear around the edge of the saucepan), pour quickly into the egg mixture. Be careful to keep the cinnamon stick in the saucepan when you pour it;
Whisk it all together for a few seconds, till combined, and then pour it back into the saucepan;
Stir constantly with a wooden spoon over a low heat until the custard thickens. You'll know it's ready when the custard coats the back of the wooden spoon, and holds the position when you run your finger through it;

Sieve the custard into a jug or bowl, and discard the cinnamon sticks and cloves;
Cool the custard in the fridge;
When the custard is cold, churn in the ice cream maker according to the instructions;

Once churned, it's time to layer the gelato and soaked savioardi biscuits;
Soak the savioardis in the Tawny Port till they are completely covered by the port, but not totally soaked through;
Layer one scoop of gelato with half a savioardi; repeat this twice but in the 3rd layer use a whole savioardi and finish by a layer of the gelato;
Put back in the freezer until ready to serve;
Serve sprinkled with some cocoa powder.

Mojito Sorbet

Thinking of tropical climes, for the Sweet Adventure Blog Hop hosted this month by Nic from Dining with a Stud, always makes me crave a great cocktail - something refreshing and cool to soothe the sizzle of the day. There are some classics I love when on vacation like Pina Colada or Sex on the Beach, but one of the most refreshing after a long day on the beach is a Mojito, zesty lime and muddled mint with a hit of rum and plenty of ice. Delicious!

And, what better to cool you down during these hot evenings than a sorbet. I decided to have my cake cocktail, and eat it too with this easy to prepare, fun to eat summer dessert

Mojito Sorbet

1 cup of caster sugar
1 cup water
rind of 2 limes
juice of 5 limes
1/4 cup of loose mint leaves sliced thinly + whole leaves to garnish
60ml bacardi

Make a sugar syrup by dissolving the caster sugar in the cup of water. Leave to cool;
Mix the remaining ingredients (reserving some whole mint leaves for garnish) into the cooled sugar syrup;
Churn in the ice cream maker following the instructions of the machine;
Serve in Martini glasses decorated with a mint leaf as a refreshing end to a summer meal.

White Chocolate Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

I had so many ideas flying around in my head for the Sweet Adventures "Berry Nice to Meet You" Blog Hop hosted by the Hungry Australian this month that I was a week late to post - well not just that, but also that I had friends around for lunch and thought it a much better occasion to crack out a berry dessert for them! I had thought about something alcoholic, but with a 3 year old as one of the lunch guests I thought the better of it, and it ended up being a great hit - raspberries are her favourite!

As a kid, I always loved raspberry ripple ice cream, there were never enough ripples though. Not so when you make your own! This experiment had lots of ripple through a deliciously creamy white chocolate ice cream.

White Chocolate Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

White Chocolate Ice Cream
5 egg yolks
110g caster sugar
250ml milk
500ml thickened cream
150g white chocolate


Raspberry Ripple
300g Raspberries (I used frozen ones)
30g sugar

For the White Chocolate Ice Cream

Melt the white chocolate with the milk and cream over a low heat;
Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar till thick is a very light cream colour;
When the milk/cream/choc mixture is almost at boiling point, whisk to combine with the egg yolk/ sugar mix;
Return to the heat in a clean saucepan and stir constantly over a low heat till thick and custardy;
Remove from heat to cool, then refrigerate till cold;
Churn according to the ice cream maker instructions

For the Raspberry Ripple
In a food processor, whiz the raspberries and sugar together;
Pass through a sieve to make a smooth purée
Refrigerate till required.

Putting it together
When the ice cream is churned, scoop half into a container;
Pour over the purée;
Scoop in the other half of the ice cream;
With a knife (not sharp) swirl the purée through the ice cream to make the ripple;
Put in the freezer to freeze through completely;
Serve with fresh raspberries.

Pumpkin Pie

We have an American gal from Texas staying with us right now, so when  we were on our way home from work, I asked her about pies from the US to get some inspiration for the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop this month. Pumpkin pie immediately sparked my interest as I have heard that in the States Pumpkin Pie comes right out of a can and into a pre made pastry case, so I thought it might be a challenge to make one from scratch, but where to start? Fast forward to a few mins later when I sat down to think about our menu for meals for next week. I pulled my June '06 copy of Delicious Magazine from the shelf, opened it at a random page to start flicking through, and there it was....Jill Dupleix's recipe for Sweet Pumpkin Pie. It was a sign! So, here we are!

Jill's recipe calls for store bought shortcrust pastry. Whilst I'm a fan of this for making quick pies in my pie maker, today's pie for a Blog Hop called for a home-made pastry too. I also jazzed up the presentation with a blow torch to the marshmallows on top. Whilst this recipe is heavily based on Jill Dupleix's, I adapted it a little too, so here goes:

Pumpkin Pie

Pastry
200g Plain Flour
100g Chilled Butter
Pinch of salt
2-3 tablespoons of water

Filling
1 Butter nut pumpkin
3 eggs
60g fine breadcrumbs
200g brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
250ml evaporated milk
Marshmallows to decorate

• Preheat the Oven to 200C;
• Halve the pumpkin and lay seed side down on a greased baking tray. Cook until tender for approx 45 mins (fan forced);
• Meanwhile, prepare the pastry: In the food processor blitz flour, salt and butter till it resembles breadcrumbs; Add water to bind, 1 tbsp at a time. When it starts to form clumps turn it out onto a floured bench top and knead till smooth;
• Wrap in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 mins;
• After chilling, roll out the pastry to around 3mm thick. Prick the base a few times with a fork and return to the fridge for around 20 mins to chill again (this prevents the pastry from shrinking in the oven);
• Line pastry case with the pastry, and then cover with baking paper and pastry weights;
• Remove pumpkin from the oven and turn off fan;
• Blind bake the pastry for around 10 mins, then remove weights and baking paper and bake for another 10-15 mins until browning;
• Meanwhile, remove 350g pulp from the baked pumpkin and set aside to cool;
• Into the food processor, add the three eggs and whizz gently to lightly beat;
• Add the pumpkin flesh and process till smooth;
• Pour in spices, sugar, breadcrumbs and a pinch of salt. Beat till combined;
• Finally add evaporated milk and blitz till all mixed in and smooth;
• Pour the mixture into a slightly cooled pastry case and return to oven for 25 mins or until the filling is set;
• Remove from oven to cool slightly (can be served warm);
• To serve, line white marshmallows around the outside of the pie. Blow torch to brown the marshmallows;
• Serve with vanilla ice cream or pouring cream.

Thanks as always to the #SABH team, especially the Kitchen Crusader, for hosting this month's Bloghop!

It's the Bombe!

My Strawberry Bombe Alaska

To celebrate the end of Series 3 of MasterChef, I thought I'd go a bit outside my comfort zone, and add a bit of MasterChef pressure to my kitchen! I thought I'd try a version on Bombe Alaska. Now the MasterChef recipe looks fantastic, with coconut ice cream, cherry sorbet and a 10 egg yolk sponge, which is really a bit much for my busy weekend, so I searched around for a slightly easier version. It turned out pretty hard to find a less complex version where you actually make all the components. If I am going to the trouble of using a sugar thermometer and a blow torch on my creation, I at least want to know I've put the effort into the easy parts myself! Here is my Strawberry Bombe Alaska:

The Ice Cream and Sponge should be made in advance so they have time to cool (and freeze into the bombe shape in the case of the ice cream) so actually, this is quite a good dessert for a dinner party as it looks impressive and can be prepared before the guests have arrived! The gadgets I use are an ice cream maker, food processor, sugar thermometer and a blow torch. It is much easier with these, but I'm sure possible without (although a sugar thermometer is crucial for getting the Italian meringue right.)

Strawberry Ice Cream

Custard

1 cup of milk

1 cup of cream

4 egg yolks

½ cup of caster sugar

Strawberry puree

500g strawberries

1/3 cup of caster sugar

Sponge Base

62g butter

Dash of vanilla essence

¼ cup caster sugar

1 egg

¾ cup self raising flour 

1/6 cup of milk
1 tbsp brandy

Italian Meringue

4 egg whites

1 ½ cups caster sugar

Make the Ice Cream (I did this the night before)

Heat the milk and the cream until almost boiling;

Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light and ribbony;

Whisk the milk mixture into the egg yolks, then quickly put back on the stove in a clean saucepan;

Stir until thick and coats the back of the spoon;

Cool the custard (to prevent a skin forming on the top, rest some cling film over the surface of the custard).

Meanwhile, whizz up the hulled strawberries in a food processor, then pass through a sieve to remove the seeds;

Heat in a pan with 1/3 cup caster sugar and reduce till you have around 1 cup of puree;

Cool the puree.

Make the Sponge

While you're waiting for the ice cream components to cool, start on the sponge base. Preheat the oven to 180º; 

Grease and line a 20 cm round baking tin;

In the food processor, beat butter and vanilla essence until light in colour, add the sugar and beat till creamy;

Add one egg and beat till combined;

Add 1/2 of the flour and beat, then 1/2 the milk and beat till combined; 

Add the remainder of the flour, beat and then add the remainder of the milk and beat till combined and has formed a smooth mixture;

Scrape the mixture in the prepared baking tin and bake in the preheated oven until lightly golden (about 15 min in my oven) and a skewer comes out clean;

Remove from oven, and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Churn and freeze the ice cream

When the ice cream mixtures (custard and puree) are cold, mix them together well and churn as per your ice cream maker's instructions.

Line a pudding basin (just under 20 cm in diametre and 1 litre capacity) with cling film. When the ice cream has churned, scoop the ice cream into the pudding basin and place in the freezer to freeze completely.

Italian Meringue

I used the recipe from the MasterChef magazine, also found HERE which is outlined below.

"Combine sugar and 60ml (1/4 cup) water in a saucepan over low–medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Brush down the side of the pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals forming. Increase heat to medium and cook, without stirring, for 4 minutes or until syrup reaches 115C on a sugar thermometer.

Using an electric mixer, whisk egg whites and a pinch of salt to soft peaks. With mixer on low speed, gradually add syrup in a slow, steady stream, then increase speed to high and whisk for 10 minutes or until stiff and glossy." (taste.com.au)


Assemble the Bombe Alaska


When the Italian Meringue is stiff and glossy, it is time to assemble the bombe. Lay the sponge on a serving dish and sprinkle a tablespoon of brandy (or liqueur of your choice) over it to moisten. Turn out the ice cream out on to the sponge round. Trim the sponge if it's a little bigger than the ice cream pudding basin shape. Quickly cover the ice cream in Italian Meringue and then create your pattern with the spatula or a knife. Quickly caramelise sections all over with a blow torch.
Serve and Enjoy!

The Big French Feed

The Big Feed is a campaign running from April to June encouraging foodies to use their talents to raise a bit of money to help food education projects of disadvantaged children in Australia. To put my cooking talents to good use sounded like a great idea to me, and my friends were happy, as always, for an invitation. If I was commanding donations, I thought I'd better go all out and what better cuisine than French to try for my gourmet meal!

MasterChef Justine's Duck with Sauce Aigre Douce

We kicked off the meal with Deep Fried Brie, a bread-crumbed brie dunked quickly into the deep frier until golden brown. The brie melts inside and oozes out all over the plate! It's delicious served with redcurrant jelly. The entree was a crowd pleaser and we kept the wine topped up while I prepared the next course, MasterChef Season 1 Justine's Duck with Sauce Aigre Douce with an Eschalot Tarte Tartin.

There are lots of components to this dish - a creamy celariac puree, crispy pastry of the eschalot tarte tartin, carrots with a hint of spice, and a delicious jus for a medium rare duck breast - but it's well worth it. Good mis en place made my life a lot easier so I could cook the duck perfectly and plate up quickly. Another successful course and all that was left on the plate was the top stalks of the baby carrots!

Eve's Chocolate Cake and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

The third course was a recommendation by my Uni classmate, Donn. It's his favourite chocolate cake and, when he found out I was a foodie, sent me the recipe to try out! Damien Pignolet, a chef of the reknown French Bistro in Sydney Bistro Moncur, is on to a winner with this one! Eve's Chocolate cake was probably the course of the evening! The flourless chocolate cake was simple to make, but so tasty and looked fabulous. I served it with a home-made vanilla bean ice cream which was a great combination.

What a fantastic evening - great food, great company and all for a great cause! Thanks to The Big Feed for the inspiration, and my lovely friends for making very generous donations to the great cause!

The Way to a Man's Heart.....

I take the proverb very seriously and it was even in our vows that I would continue to plan great menus for the week and cook gourmet meals for my husband when we wed a year ago. For our first Valentine's Day as a married couple I picked Cam's favourites and created a special Valentine's Menu.

One of Cam's preferred Italian dishes is gnocchi, and after the My Kitchen Rules WA girls created lovely "soft pillows" for Pete and Manu, I wanted to do the same for my hubbie. I chose another of his favourites, prawns, and for entree prepared Bird Cow Fish chef, Alex Herbert's Potato Gnocchi with Sauteed Prawns in a Burnt Butter Sauce  in the first season of Masterchef. I bought a potato ricer for the occasion (from one of my favourite shops which has everything a wannabe pro cook could need, The Chef and the Cook in Camperdown, NSW)

The gnocchi dough was surprisingly easy to make with the help of the potato ricer and I realised the importance of "mis en place" as I came to cook the dish. Everything only took a few seconds so I was pleased I'd taken the time to get everything ready and next to the stove top by the time I threw the gnocchi in the boiling water, and the prawns in the frypan.

The next course was Cam's all time favourites: duck. Duck is typically quite a rich meat and being summer I wanted to choose a lighter course, so the duck was served with a warm salad: Duck Salad with Red Wine Dressing. It was a delicious main, full of flavour with a delicious watercress and beetroot salad, with potatoes crisped up in the duck fat.

Cam not being a big dessert fan, but a lover of our homemade ice cream, I chose to prepare a challenging (for me) dessert, something that I'd not tried before - Mocha Souffle with my own Coffee Mallow Ice Cream.. I was very impressed with myself that the souffle rose and that the ice cream went so well with it! A light but delicious end to an amazing Valentine's Day meal.

Buck's Fizz

Even on New Years Day we managed to pull together our creative energies and come up with a theme for our New Years Day dinner party for 8 - Buck's Fizz. And what better way to start 2011 that with a Champagne inspired meal.

We started with a seafood entree - Oysters with Cava Dressing - a fabulous recipe by Jane Lawson in her book Cocina Nueva - which delighted our British friends who had never had oysters before and BBQd Balmain Bugs marinated in orange juice and chili oil.

Main was a whole barramundi with a fresh herb rub (from our little herb garden), wrapped in foil with Cava poured in which keeps it moist and caramelises beautifully. We love cooking whole fish, so the next challenge is to be able to elegantly serve it at the table! Luckily there was plenty of meat to go round despite the somewhat hapharzard carving style!

Finally, we pulled an old favourite from the Readers Digest Cookery Year, but adapted for the ice cream maker. I picked this cooking bible up from a 2nd hand book stall in a market for $4.00. Bargain! It's filled with classic recipes that my Mum cooked for us as kids, but also has sections on cuts of meat, descriptions of produce, and basic techniques.

Champagne Charlie is an ice cream inspired by the cocktail, and was a scrumptious and glamorous but light way to finish our Buck's Fizz inspired menu.

Strawberry Sorbet

Last week my ice cream machine broke – right in the middle of preparing “Strawberries 3 ways” – Strawberry ice cream, strawberry sorbet and fresh strawberries – for a dinner party for 12. I was gutted!

In a last minute panic, an hour before guest arrived, I decided that an ice cream maker is something a gadget lover like me could just not live without – with summer coming up and all – and I rushed out to by a new one! The world was back in order! My ice cream and sorbets worked a treat and my guests loved them. Churning and freezing in the machine for super fresh, delicious frozen desserts! YUM! I knew it was a good investment the moment the first spoon of strawberry sorbet fizzed on my tongue!