Honey Pear Tarte Tatin

This one received hearty accolades from both Mr Pink and Mr Pizzaman, which is all the proof you need, to know that its a good one! And there's no sugar in the ingredients so it must be healthy! (Yes yes, I am choosing not to realise how much sugar is in honey...)

Serves 6 and ready in less than 30min!

Ingredients:
- 150gm honey
- 3 beurre bosc pears, quartered (recipe online actually says 2 1/2 pears, but I used the whole 3 pears so I guess my cake pan may have been bigger or the pears may have been smaller... regardless, don't make my mistake and look forward to eating half a pear only to discover there's none left!)
- 375gm sheet of butter puff pastry

Honey cream:
- 200gm double cream
- to taste: honey
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped seeds only

Method: 
Step 1: Preheat oven to 200degreesCelcius.

Step 2: Cook honey in an 18cm-diameter cake pan over medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until dark caramel colour, remove from heat and let bubbles subside.

Step 3: Arrange pears over honey caramel, overlapping slightly, and stand until caramel cools.

Step 4: While the caramel cools, make the honey cream: For those who haven't done it before (like me!), to get the vanilla seeds out you have to awkwardly slice the vanilla bean in half length-ways and then gently scrape a knife along the inside of the halves to collect the seeds.

Combine ingredients in a bowl, whisk until smooth and set aside - Note, it doesn't take long to whisk! I stupidly whisked a teeeeensy bit too much and it became too stiff... still yummy, but too stiff.

Step 5: Using a plate slightly larger than the cake pan as a template, cut a round of pastry (as best you can if you're using frozen pastry like I do you'll end up with an octagonal shape but it does the job... for the most part) Place the pastry over the pears, tucking in edges then bake for 20min or until pastry rises and is dark golden in colour.

Step 6: Stand for 5 minutes then place a large serving plate over cake pan and carefully invert onto the plate (be very careful as the caramel will be hot!) At this stage I drained a fair bit of the honey away because it was so runny - not sure if it would have set and been fine anyway, but there was plenty of honey to the tart anyway!

Serve with the honey cream and enjoy!!

Creme Brulee

Santa (aka Mummy and Daddy) gave me a Creme Brulee Set for Christmas, and it was about time I gave it a go... What followed was not exactly a disaster, but I think I'll definitely need to practice this one. One or two of the four I made turned out 'ok', so although this is a fairly quick dessert (if you dont count refrigerating time of 2-3hrs, which I reckon you shouldn't if you make it the night before!), apparently its not so easy to get right...

Ingredients: 
- 1 cup cream
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
- Extra 1/3 cup sugar

Method:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 150degreesCelcius.

Step 2: Combine cream and 2 tablespoons sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir occassionally for 5-6 minutes until small bubbles begin to appear around the edges of pan. -This may have been my first mistake; I walked away for a minute and when I came back it was bubbling a fair bit... So, lesson to be learnt: don't walk away at this stage!!

Set aside.

Step 3: Beat egg yolks and vanilla in a bowl until light and smooth. Gradually pour hot cream into egg yolks while stirring constantly, until well mixed.

Step 4: Strain mixture through a fine sieve and pour evenly into 4 ramekins. Possible mistake number 2: I noticed when I poured it into the ramekins that they didn't all look the same - some had a slightly frothy top, others did not... Maybe I should have strained it twice??

Step 5: Place ramekins into a bain-marie (baking dish with boiling water up to halfway on the ramekins). Cover pan loosely with aluminium foil - possible mistake number 3: foil may not have been 'loose' enough...

Step 6:  Bake for approximately 25min until set. Possible mistake number 4: After 25 min they still didn't look set, so I left them in another 15min (checking on them every few minutes)... they still weren't all 'set' but at that point I figured they weren't ever going to...

Remove carefully from oven, cool, then refrigerate for 2-3hrs.

Step 7: Sprinkle extra 1/3 cup of sugar evenly over the custards.

Using a circular motion, heat the sugar with a Creme Brulee Torch. Continually move the flame over the sugar until it mels and becomes golden brown and bubbly.  

Tip: add sugar and then torch it one ramekin at a time... I found that by the time I got to the 3rd and 4th ramekins the sugar had sunk into the custard. Now this could just be because the custards didnt 'set' like they were meant to but I figure it can't hurt to do it one at a time anyway

Little Orange Sponge Puddings with Rhubarb Sauce

Now I'm not the biggest fan of rhubarb, I admit it. But this dessert was nice enough, and the 3 other people that ate it seemed to quite like it - especially soon-to-be-Mrs Pizzaman who can't get enough of rhubarb!! Although I can see that orange and rhubarb are a good mix, I guess I just have too sweet a tooth for the slightly bitter taste of the rhubarb.

Anyway, its fairly easy to make and doesn't take long.

Ingredients:
(Serves 6)
- 40g softened butter
- 3/4 cup castor sugar
- grated zest of 2 oranges
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs, separated
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons plain flour

Sauce:
- 4 stalks rhubarb, trimmed and cut into small chunks
- 1/4 cup soft brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons orange juice

Method:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 180degreesCelcius. Lightly grease six 125ml ramekin dishes or tea cups and sprinkle a little castor sugar inside to coat the sides and base (I forgot the sprinkling of sugar step and it tasted fiiine without, so don't worry if you forget like me)

Step 2: Cream the butter and a third of the sufar until light and fluffy. Add the orange zest, salt and egg yolks and beat well.

Step 3: Mix in the orange juice, milk and sifted flour.

Step 4: In another bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form and then gradually beat in remaining sugar. (The original recipe calls for you to 'whisk' the eggs, but that seems a tad silly to me when we have wonderful appliances such as electric beaters at our call nowadays... if you disagree, please, by all means whisk away)

Step 5: Gently fold in the egg whites into the egg-yolk mixture

Step 6: Spoon into the prepared dishes and place in a bain-marie (for those not in the know (as I was when I first did this recipe) a bain marie is a larger oven-proof container that you fill with boiling water up to the halfway point on the ramekins). Bake for 35minutes or until puffed up. Place ramekins on a wire rack to cool.

Step 7: To make the rhubarb sauce, gently heat the rhubarb with the brown sugar and orange juice in a saucepan for 8-10 minutes. (You don't have to stay with it for 10minutes, I left it and gave it a stir a couple times). Cool to room temperature.

Step 8: Once puddings are cool, turn them out onto individual plates and serve with a spoonful of rhubarb sauce.

Apple Cinnamon Crisp

This is my fall back plan for Friday Night Pizza Night... Its quick, easy and soo yummy! Plus, its mooostly apple, so really, its quite a healthy dessert! (Please dont believe a word of that last sentence...)

Ingredients:
Serves 12 (I made this for 3, so just divided ingredients by 4)
 - 10-12 apples
 - 1 1/2 cups sugar
 - lemon juice (a few drops)
 - 1 cup flour
 - 1 tsp baking powder
 - 3/4 tsp salt
 - 1 unbeaten egg
 - 1/3 cup butter or margarine
 - 1/2 tsp cinnamon
 - icecream (optional)

Method:
Step 1: Thinly slice the apples and break into small chunks. If making full serve for 12 people, put into an oven-proof bowl; if, like me, you're making it for significantly less people, divide into appropriate number of ramekins (general guide: I used 2 apples for 3 ramekins/serves).

Step 2: Sprinkle 1/2 cugar and a few drops of lemon juice over the apples and stir gently.

Step 3: Mix together with a fork until crumbly: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1 unbeaten egg. Pour over the apple mixture.

Step 4: Melt 1/3 cup butter/margarine and pour over the apple mixture. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

Step 5: Bake at 180degreesCelcius for 30-40 minutes or until lightly browned on the top.

Pavlova

So Mr Pink's cousin made a Pavlova recently (which although sunk a little, was of course absolutely scrumptious!!) and she made me think: I've never made a pavlova from scratch before. I've always just bought the bottom from the supermarket and put the toppings on. So, challenge set and accepted. And, now, challenge completed with High Distinction. And it was nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be! Be warned however, its easy, but not so quick... 45min to bake in oven, and then 1hr to cool in oven...

Serves 6-8 people according to the recipe (so adjust estimates depending on who your intending to feed it to, for instance, 6-8 people may become 4-5 people if you have certain males around like those that I know...!)

Ingredients:
- 6 egg whites at room temperature (this is very important as I later found out with a second attempt at a Pav which saaaaaank sooo much...)
- pinch salt
- 2 cups caster sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp vinegar (yeah I would NEVER have guessed to put that in... but somehow it works...)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- whipped cream for filling (I like to use fresh cream with about a tablespoon of icing sugar when beating)

Method:
Step 1: Preheat electric oven to "slow" (whatever that means) 150degreesCelcius

Step 2: Beat egg whites with salt at high speed until soft peaks form. Add sugar, 1tbs at a time, beating well after each addition.

Step 3: Stop beating when all sugar has been incorporated and fold in vinegar and vanilla.

Step 4: Pile mixture

  - into a greased 20cm greased china flan dish, or
  - into a greased 20cm springform tin , or
  - onto a large baking tray (I happened to have one of these so this was my option)

...and smooth the top.

Step 5: Bake pavlova in the preheated oven for 45min. Then turn the oven off and leave with the door shut for 1hr. -This is where you see if you failed or not... with any luck, it won't sink... I must have had beginners luck with me, because mine didn't! ... the first time anyway... the second time I used a couple eggs that were not room temperature, and let me tell you, lesson learnt :-(

Step 6: Remove from oven and cool completely. Cover with whipped cream and your favourite toppings - mine are strawberries and chocolate. Some may be inclined to ruin the pavlova with horrible things like passionfruit or kiwi fruit, and although I highly recommend not doing this, each to their own so go ahead and ruin it with yucky toppings if you wish!

Stack-of-Stars Cake

This is a really light, quick and easy dessert that is sure to impress! :-) I made a double batch for Christmas and it made about 10 stacks. Slightly awkward to eat, but their beauty makes up for it!

Ingredients:
melted butter for greasing
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup plan flour
1/2 cup raspberry or strawberry jam
200ml double cream
Pure icing sugar (for dusting)

Method:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 180degreesCelcius.

Step 2: Brush base and sides of a 38x26cm Swiss roll tin with melted butter, then line with baking paper. After resigning myself to the fact that I didn't have a fancy Swiss roll tin, and buttering and lining a couple of other baking dishes as subsitutes, I discovered that I did in fact have a swiss roll tin... for those who, like me, had no idea what the heck a Swiss roll tin was, its basically just a shallow, flat baking tray... (A bit deeper than the average baking tray though, so don't try using a baking tray instead it'll just overflow)

Step 3: Beat eggs, vanilla and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer for 10-15minutes or until the mixture is thick and creamy and a ribbon pattern forms on mixture when beaters are lifted (I don't actually know what a 'ribbon' pattern is meant to look like, but I stopped when there were clear lines radiating out from the beaters that stayed when I removed them [is that any clearer than 'ribbon pattern'? Probably not...]).

Step 4: Sift both flours twice, and then sift flours over the egg mixture. Fold in with a large metal spoon until just combined.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and smooth the top.

Step 5: Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cake is lightly golden and springs back when touched with your fingertips.

Run a knife around the edges of cake, then invert onto a clean surface or chopping board lined with baking paper.

Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to cool.


Step 6: Using 3 star-shaped cutters (largest being 8cm) cut out 4 shapes of each size from cake.

Step 7: Put the largest star on a serving plate. Put 1 teaspoonful of jam in centre of the star, then add a dollop of cream and top with the medium sized star. Repeat with jam and cream then top with the smallest star. Dust the stack with icing sugar. Repeat with remaining stars, jam, cream and icing sugar.

Chocolate Ball Christmas Tree

This is a bit of an amalgamation of 2 different but similar recipes I found in christmas-y magazines leading up to the festive season. It was thus a little rough around the edges, and as always, not quite what I had pictured it to be, but overall they went down well. I feel I must warn you however, its not terribly quick - because its fiddly, and its kinda easy - once you get the hang of covering the balls in chocolate.

Ingredients: (here's where I went wrong first: these ingredients make 1 tree only... I had to add marshmallows to make it stretch and make 2 dodgy trees...)
2 x 600g Chocolate Mud Cake (essentially 2 ready-made mud cakes (I had one white and one chocolate) straight from Coles/Woolworths/Bilo/etc... no this is not cheating, but by all means if you feel the need, make your own mud cakes!)
3 cups white chocolate melts
3 cups milk or dark chocolate melts
1/2 cup hundreds and thousands*
1/2 cup flaked almonds*
1/2 shredded/dessicated coconut*
1 pack toothpicks
1 styrofoam cone (about 20cm high)

*or anything else you want to decorate the balls with

Method:
Step 1: Put the decorations into some kind of container to make it easy to sprinkle them onto the melted chocolate quickly. I used flaked almonds for one of my decorations, except that I crushed them up in a mortar and pestle so they weren't really 'flakes' anymore.

Step 2: Remove icing from mud cakes and crumble/break the cake up into crumbs.

Step 3: Make sure hands are wet/moist and then squish a handful of the cake crumbs into balls - I kept a small cup of water nearby to keep my hands wet for each ball. The balls should be about 2cm in diameter.

Step 4: Place either the white choclate or the chocolate melts into a heatproof bowl and suspend over a saucepan of boiling water (I use a vegie steamer attachment for the saucepans to sit the bowl in). Stir the chocolate melts until chocolate is completely melted (be careful - the bowl gets rather hot!). Once melted, remove from saucepan.

Step 5: Dip one cake-ball at a time into the melted chocolate. The recipe I was using said to use a fork to do this, but I discovered this can make the balls disintegrate into the chocolate... I found using my fingers was a messier but more reliable way of dipping the balls into the chocolate. Place the ball onto baking paper and sprinkle with one of the decorations you're using immediately as the chocolate will start to solidify quickly (especially the milk chocolate). Once all balls are done, leave to dry and if the christmas tree is not being assembled/eaten that day, keep in the refrigerater.

Step 6: To make the styrofoam cone stay securely on the plate I put a lump of glucose syrup in the middle of the plate and then pushed the cone down onto it. This was actually quite effective, though I did have to cover up the leaky bits of glucose syrup around the bottom with coconut.

Step 7: When ready to assemble, stick toothpicks into the styrofoam cone starting from the bottom (you may need to cut them in half for the top of the cone) and gently push the balls onto the toothpicks. Alternate colours, decorations etc in a pattern or randomly, whichever takes your fancy.

Because I had some 'slight' quantity issues, I had to bring in marshmallows to help fill the trees up properly, but if you use the right amount of ingredients (those listed should be right) you shouldn't have to worry about that!

I also had a gingerbread star left over from when I made gingerbread, so I popped one of those on the top as well for decoration :-)

The chocolate balls were very popular, and I might do this one again in the future but without the christmas tree. (not that you shouldn't try the christmas tree, just, don't be limited to christmas!)