Rhubarb Meringue Tart

Off on holiday to France tomorrow, so thought I'd post a French recipe. Will be back posting in 2 weeks.


At the weekend I picked just enough rhubarb to make some kind of dessert. Wanted something different, and browsing through some old French cookery magazines, I found a recipe for a meringue tart with a difference, as it has a custard layer on the rhubarb before you add the meringue topping. Sounded like a great idea.
I love rhubarb, but we haven't a very big garden so I have to make good use of what we can grow!


It uses a 27cm tart tin, which is quite big.

So, you need:

350g of shortcrust pastry
1 kg rhubarb
1 egg and 2 yolks
20cl of cream
1 tbspn vanilla sugar
150 g of caster sugar (50g for marinating the rhubarb and about 100g or a bit less in the custard]
1 tbspn cornflour

For the  meringue :
 2 egg whites
50g caster sugar per egg

Preheat oven 220C/gas 8

Make the pastry and chill.
Cut the rhubarb stems into 2cm pieces, taking the strings off when necessary. Cover with the 50g of sugar and leave for an hour to macerate.
Drain the rhubarb in a sieve to get rid of some of the liquid..
Grease the tart tin and roll out the pastry to fit. Prick the bottom with a fork then add the rhubarb.
In a bowl, beat together the whole egg, yolks, cream, vanilla sugar, 100g of caster sugar [or less if you haven't got a sweet tooth] and the cornflour.
Pour this over the rhubarb and bake for 30 mins.
While it's cooking, beat the egg whites into peaks, then add the caster sugar a bit at a time - using 50g per egg gives a meringue which is dry and will harden. Use less sugar if you want a soft meringue.

When the tart is cooked, lower the oven temperature to 140C/gas1 or even lower if you can.

Pipe or spoon the meringue over the tart and put in the oven to dry out gently for about an hour. Test gently with your finger to see if it's dried.

We love meringue, so I used more than the 2 egg whites in the recipe - I used the whites from 3 large eggs to make a nice thick layer and piped it using a large nozzle.
 The acidity of the rhubarb was great with the sweet meringue and the custard layer gave it another texture. Could use this idea with other fruit - maybe apple, or plums, but I think it's the contrast between the rhubarb and the meringue which makes this tart so good.

ps I inherited several cake servers from my Mum, so decided to use one of them in the photo - it's my favourite one.

       

Chocolate Chip Cake

This recipe is my adaptation of one from an American cookery book called ' Mom's 100 Best Cakes' by Annette Bley. To be honest, most of the cakes in the book don't appeal to me as they're too fussy and complicated, but I've made this one a few times, usually in a plain springform tin; but my lovely dil gave me a tin which had a tube insert a while ago, so I thought I'd try it out.
There seems to be a lot of ingredients, but it's not difficult to make, tho' it is a bit more effort than a chocolate sponge. The original recipe was of course in cups, hence the strange amounts.
It's quite a big cake, so one to make for an occasion [and not if you're on a diet!].


Preheat oven 160C/gas3
Grease a 23cm/9" springform tin or tube pan, and line the base with baking paper. Dust inside of tin with flour and shake out excess.


2 tspn instant coffee granules
2 tsps vanilla extract
1/4 tspn hot water
330g plain flour
30g sr flour
40g + 1 tbspn cocoa powder
1/4 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn bicarbonate of soda
1 tspn salt
320g dark chocolate chips [ if they're large, chop them up]
220g butter
300g granulated sugar
100g light brown sugar
5 eggs
250ml sour cream
2tbspn double cream



Stir the coffee, vanilla and hot water together.
In a large bowl, sift the plain flour, sr flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb and salt together.
In another bowl mix the chocolate chips with 1 tbspn of the flour mixture.
In a mixer, or with an electric hand beater cream the butter; scrape the sides then add the granulated sugar a bit at a time. Add the brown sugar and beat together.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix in the coffee mixture.
Then add the flour mixture carefully, alternating it with some sour cream, scraping the sides to make sure it's all mixed in. Add the double cream, and finally mix in the chocolate chips using a wooden spoon or spatula.
Spoon into the tin.

Bake for about 70 mins till the cake is coming away from the sides.

Cool in the tin for 15 mins then invert onto a wire rack; take the paper off, then invert it right side up and leave to cool.

You can leave the cake as it is or make a simple chocolate ganache with 300ml double cream and 200g dark chocolate.

Put the chocolate in a bowl, then warm the cream - but don't let it boil.
Pour the cream over the chocolate, leave for a minute then gently stir together.
Let the ganache cool to room temperature then pour it over the cake.

This is a very rich, decadent cake, but lovely for a birthday or other special occasion. If you made it without the tube, you could cut it in half and make a filling of your choice. Oh, one thing to be careful of, when you're pouring the ganache over the cake, make sure that you have a tray or something underneath or it goes everywhere! I learnt that the hard way!

Asparagus Tart

I'm making the most of the British asparagus season [hence the clafoutis in my previous post] so decided to make a tart. I wanted the asparagus to be the main feature, so no tomatoes nor other veg. Creme fraiche and eggs makes a good savoury custard, so that's what I used.
To add some flavour I chopped up a spring onion [oh, I did say no other veg, but these aren't a strong flavour] and it needed some kind of herb, so I used some finely chopped thyme.
I made some shortcrust pastry for the case.

So, for the pastry: Put 200g plain flour and 120g butter in the food processor and blitz to breadcrumbs, then add 1 medium beaten egg mixed with 1 dspn water. Put it in the fridge in a polybag for 30 mins, then roll it out into a 20cm loose-bottomed flan tin. There was some pastry left over, so I put it in the freezer. I think this amount of pastry would be just right for a 22-23 cm tin, but I don't have one.
 Bake the pastry blind, plus baking beans, in oven preheated  to 190C/gas5 , then take out beans and cook it for 5 more mins.
Reduce the heat to 160C/gas3.

I used 8 stalks of asparagus, and put them in boiling water for 30 secs, then ran cold water over them till they were cold.

For the filling, Beat 2 eggs with 200ml of creme fraiche, then add a finely chopped spring onion and 1 tbspn of chopped thyme. Grate 75g of gruyere cheese and add half to the mixture. Pour the mixture into the pastry case, add the asparagus and sprinkle the other half of the cheese on top. Bake for 30 mins or till the filling is set and the top is golden.

We enjoyed the tart with some watercress, and OH had some Jersey potatoes, but I would have liked a stronger cheese flavour. Perhaps i should have used 100g or maybe a good strong Cheddar would have been better.

Again, a versatile recipe you could make with other veg.

Asparagus and Tomato Clafoutis

And now for something completely different! I don't usually post anything savoury on here, but this was so tasty that I wanted to share it.
I posted a recipe not long ago for a clafoutis, which we love. Looking through some old French cookery magazines of recipes for summer [making the most of the sun!] I found this recipe for a savoury version.
Local asparagus will soon be gone, so this is a different way of making the most of it.

100g asparagus
10 cherry tomatoes
20cl of whole milk
25cl of single cream
2 eggs
4 tbspn plain flour
salt and pepper

Preheat oven 180C/gas4
4 ramekins or an oven-proof dish about 20cm.

If you're using ramekins, cut the asparagus into 2 or 3 pieces, then wash and dry the tomatoes.

In a bowl mix the eggs, milk and cream, season, then fold in the flour and beat with a whisk till it's all combined.

Put the asparagus and tomatoes in the bottom of a greased ovenproof dish, or if using ramekins, as I did, put a couple of pieces of asparagus and 2 or 3 tomatoes in the bottom. Pour the egg mixture over and bake for about 40 mins.

You can serve it hot or cold.

I made mine in shallow ramekins and decorated with some basil leaves. Good contrast between the soft texture of the savoury custard, the asparagus and the soft tomatoes. They made a tasty light meal with some green salad. The recipe could be adapted in so many ways using different veg. I'll certainly make it again.

Walnut and Courgette cake

Another one of my favourite loaf cakes. This one's another quite healthy cake, as it uses wholemeal flour, sunflower oil and nuts. It came about because in France we always had a glut of courgettes and were finding ways to use them up. The recipe came from a neighbour who had the same problem!
I suppose this is a bit of nostalgia too, as we don't have room to grow courgettes in our small garden, so the ones I used were lurking in the veg drawer.

3 eggs
90g light muscovado sugar

125ml sunflower oil

250g wholewheat flour

1 tspn baking powder

1 tspn bicarb. of soda

1 tspn cinnamon

1 tspn allspice

150g grated courgettes

125g chopped walnuts

60g sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas4

Grease and base line a 900g loaf tin.

Beat eggs and sugar together and gradually add oil.

Sift flour into another bowl and add the baking powder, bicarb, spices and nuts. Add the grated courgettes and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and spoon into loaf tin.

Bake for about 40 mins. Cool slightly in tin and then turn on to a wire rack.

A nice moist texture, with a good hit of spice. You can see specks of green in the cake, but I don't think people would realise that it's a courgette cake.

French 'Flan'

One of my favourite French desserts, which you find in most French Patisserie shops and supermarkets, is a 'flan'. It's like our custard tart but with flour added to the custard mixture, which makes it more solid, just like a set custard. I've never made one, but browsing on the web I found a few recipes.
Apparently, French pastry chefs use a 'Flan' powder.
Some recipes used sweet shortcrust pastry, others puff pastry, but the method was usually the same. Some added seeds from a vanilla pod, others vanilla extract.
I decided to make some sweet shortcrust pastry  - these ingredients make 250g of pastry.

125g plain flour
80g cold butter cut into cubes
25ml milk
pinch salt
10g caster sugar
1 small egg yolk

Put the butter and flour onto a working surface and rub the butter in till it's fine breadcrumbs.
Make a well in the middle and pour in the milk, then add the salt and sugar and dissolve them in the milk with your fingertips. Add the egg yolk and mix it all together using both hands.Only mix till everything's combined.
Cover with clingfilm and put in fridge to rest for at least an hour.
You could use a food processor or a stand mixer with a paddle.

Line a flan tin with the pastry and put in fridge for 1/2 an hour, then bake blind at 160C/gas3 for 35 mins.

For the filling:

Bring 280ml milk and 1 tspn vanilla extract to the boil.
In a large bowl whisk together 2 eggs and 40g of caster sugar till white, then add 15g of cornflour, mix well and pour in the boiling milk.
Put the flan tin with pastry in the oven, then carefully fill with the custard mix using a jug. It's easier to do it like this so you don't spill the custard!
Bake for 30-40 mins at 140C/gas1 till golden brown.
Cool in tin.

I love the texture of this tart. It's smooth, but solid, and I like the contrast of the pastry at the bottom. I've seen lots of things added to the basic recipe, but I like it plain, just like this!

Walnut and Orange Cake

This is a nice easy, healthy cake made using a food processor.


I love Claudia Roden's orange cake with whole cooked oranges, but this recipe uses a whole orange, chopped up and not cooked.
We're trying to eat less and lose a bit of weight. I know eating any cake won't help, but at least this one has oil instead of butter and  is a healthier option [or IS it? I'm confused by all the research on butter, oils and fats]
You need a thin skinned orange, a navel if possible, as it has little bitter pith and no seeds - I found some in my local supermarket which were fine. They were sold singly, not in a net.

preheat oven 180C/gas4
grease and base line a 20cm springform cake tin

So, cut 1 orange into quarters and take out any core and pips. Put it in a food processor with 220g of caster sugar, 100 ml olive oil and 2 eggs, then whizz it up till the orange is finely chopped.
Add 135g plain wholemeal flour with 2 tspns of baking powder and 100g ground walnuts and whizz again till just mixed together. Pour into the tin and smooth top.
Bake for 30-35 mins then take out and leave in tin for 5 mins then turn onto a wire rack.
Dust top with icing sugar.
The cake will keep up to 3 days in an airtight tin.

I used ground hazelnuts because I found a bag in the cupboard that needed using up. The cake's very moist and I'm not sure if I like the tiny bits of orange. OH thought the cake wasn't cooked, but I left it in for 45 mins and the tester came out clean. It's an interesting idea, and I'll try it again with the suggested ground walnuts and see what difference it makes, if any.

White Chocolate Truffle Cake

Recently my friend asked me to make her a special cake, and inspired by some white chocolate truffles I'd been given, I decided that a creamy truffle type topping over a light sponge cake would be ideal . I wanted to add some body to the truffle topping, so used an idea I saw in a magazine and added fromage frais.

It's not a big cake, but is rich, so you only need a small slice.

You need a 20cm springform cake tin, base lined.

Preheat oven 180C/gas4

For the sponge:

Whisk 2 eggs with 50g of caster sugar till light and frothy. Fold in 50g of plain flour and then 50g of white chocolate, which has been melted in a microwave or over a pan of hot water.

Pour this batter into the cake tin and bake for 25 mins till the cake is springy to touch.

Leave cake to cool for a bit in the tin and then turn out onto a wire rack.

For the topping:

Put 300ml of double cream into a pan and bring to the boil, stirring to stop it sticking and burning.

Turn the heat down very low, then add 350g of white chocolate broken into pieces. Stir till the chocolate is melted and mixed with the cream.

Take pan off the heat and leave till it's nearly cool, then add 250g of fromage frais and stir together.

Pour the topping onto the cake and chill for 2 hours in the fridge. That's it - all you have to do is enjoy it!

I made some chocolate curls the other day for my chocolate gingerbread, had some left over and used them to decorate the top of the cake. I dusted a little cocoa over the top, using my trusty small tea strainer.

I didn't have any trouble finding fromage frais, but you could use Quark instead. It went down well with my friend and her visitors. They said it was rich without being too sickly and heavy. The sweetness of the white chocolate in the topping is counteracted by the fromage frais and cream. Adding the cheese gave it an extra bit of zing!

Chocolate gingerbread

This recipe is for a 'pain d'épice' [spice bread]  type of gingerbread - a French classic. Each country has its own version of gingerbread, but I love the French one best.

I wanted to do something a bit different for a special tea, as I'd invited the French conversation group I belong to. I decided to push the boat out, so instead of making just a normal cake looking gingerbread, I made it into a sort of millefeuille version, and added chocolate to it.

The basic recipe came from my French friend's mother, and unlike our English gingerbread, it uses several spices. It's not difficult to make, but making it into a millefeuille was a bit of a faff!

You need:
100g of dark chocolate
100g of honey
*200ml cold double cream
130g flour [my friend's Mum used rye flour but I didn't]
11/2tspns baking powder
2 tspns vanilla sugar
20g icing sugar

for the spices:
1 tspn of cinnamon, 1/2 tspn ground ginger, 1 tpsn freshly grated nutmeg and 1 star anise [crushed in a mortar or a grinder]

100g bar of chocolate to make chocolate curls - or buy some
4 tbspns of cocoa powder

a little flour and 1 tbspn of oil to grease the cake tin

Preheat oven 180C/gas4


Grease and flour a 15cm springform tin - the original recipe asked for a small 'moule à manqué, so I judged that this would be about the right size, and it worked out fine.

Melt the chocolate, honey and 10ml of water in a bowl over a saucepan. Add the spices and mix together.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl then add to the chocolate mixture a little at a time. if the mixture seems too thick, add a little water.
Spoon into the tin and bake for 35-40 mins.
Cool on a wire rack.

Tip:
It's best to make the pain d'épice the day before you need it, as it's easier then to cut it into disks. This is what I did, and it wasn't too difficult to cut the layers.

Whip the cream till thickish then add the icing and vanilla sugars at the end and mix in gently.

Cut the cake into disks using a bread knife. Make a layer with a disk of pain d'épice then some cream, another biscuit layer and finish with a layer of cream.
Decorate the top with the chocolate curls and sprinkle the cocoa over [I used an old tea strainer].

Everyone enjoyed this, and loved the subtle spice flavours mixed with the chocolate and then the cream layer. It really is a cake of contrasts.


*Sorry, I originally said 20ml of cream - it was 20cl of cream in the French recipe and I just typed 20ml, but it's 200ml of course.

Blackcurrant Clafoutis

 Am having a clear out of last year's fruit from the freezer, and found a bag of blackcurrants lurking in the depths. I have to say that they're not my favourite fruit - not sweet enough for me, but OH loves them. What to do with them? Didn't want another crumble or tart, so had a look in one of my cookbooks and found a recipe for an apple clafoutis - I was sure that blackcurrants would work just as well.
What is a clafoutis? A batter pudding/flan with fruit, usually cherries.
I 've seen many recipes for the batter, including one using yeast; I read through this one, then did it the wrong way round - beating the melted butter and sugar together instead of the sugar and eggs, but it didn't seem to have made any difference. I was a bit worried that the blackcurrants would be too tart, but in the sweet batter they were fine.


Preheat oven 220C/gas7 and grease a gratin dish with a little butter.


Put 500g of fresh or frozen blackcurrants [or cherries, thinly sliced apples, plums, blueberries] into the dish.
Beat 2 eggs with 100g of caster sugar and a tspn of vanilla extract. Stir in 150g of plain flour, 400ml of milk and 100g of melted butter till well mixed. Pour this batter over the fruit and bake for about 30 mins [if you're using frozen fruit, add another 5-10 mins].

 

I used the gratin dish I bought from a pottery in Alsace. The clafoutis had a good texture hot, but I preferred it cold.

I know it doesn't look very appetising in this photo, but there's a great contrast between the tart fruit and the sweet batter. It's more solid now it's cold.

Moka Cake

Part of my husband's Christmas present to me was a 2 day Cookery course, which included making and decorating cakes.

I went to the first day last Saturday and brought home this Moka cake. We made tuiles and langues de chats too, but they were eaten before I had a chance to take a photo! I asked, and got, permission from the tutor to put this recipe on my blog, so it's legal, but I've written it in my own words anyway.

It's quite a complicated cake, and it pushed me out of my comfort zone, but it's worthwhile making for an occasion. As it was Mothering Sunday last w/e, it was the perfect special cake for tea.

It's a Genoese sponge cake which is cut in half and sprinkled with some coffee syrup. Then you make some crème au beurre [it's much posher than a buttercream, hence the French term!] and use this to fill the sponge, to cover the cake and to pipe around the top of the finished cake. It's a luxurious 'treat yourself' kind of cake.

For the Genoese cake:

4eggs

225g caster sugar

225g flour

15g butter

A 20cm springform cake tin and a sugar thermometer

Coffee syrup:

100g granulated sugar

75ml water

2 tbspns strong black coffee or coffee extract

Crème au beurre:

150g granulated sugar

75ml water

2 egg whites

225g unsalted butter

10g vanilla sugar

coffee essence

50g grilled flaked almonds

Preheat oven 160C/gas3

Use the 15g of butter to grease the cake tin.

For the cake:

Break the eggs into a bowl, add the sugar and set over a simmering saucepan. Beat with a wire whisk till doubled in size and warm when you touch it. Take the bowl off and beat till cold.

Beat in the sieved flour then pour into the tin.

Bake for 18-20 mins and don't open the oven door [a couple of people on the course had to have a look and their cakes were flat!].

Cool on a wire rack.

For the coffee syrup:

Boil the sugar and water together over medium heat for 5 mins. Let it cool a bit and then add the coffee.

For the crème au beurre:

Cook the sugar and water till it registers 220 on the sugar thermometer [or you can drop a bit of the syrup into some cold water and you should be able to make a soft ball when you roll it between your fingers].

Beat the egg whites to a stiff peak, then slowly add the boiling syrup beating all the time. Keep beating until the mixture is cold.

Soften the butter till creamy, then add the vanilla sugar and fold in the egg whites. Add a few drops of coffee essence to give it a bit of colour.

Cut the cake across and sprinkle the cut surfaces with the syrup.

Put cake onto a plate and spread the bottom half with some of the cream and put the other half on top.

Using a spatula dipped from time to time in water, spread some cream over the top and side of the cake, keeping as bit back to decorate the top.

Coarsely chop up the grilled almonds and press them over the top and side of the cake.

Put the rest of the cream into a piping bag with a fluted nozzle and pipe around the top edge of the cake.

Chill the cake in the fridge for a few hours before using.

Like I said earlier, this cake really took me out of my comfort zone. I hadn't made this kind of butter cream before - I really had to concentrate hard pouring the boiling syrup into the egg whites. I feel very proud of my effort - it's good to learn new techniques. The second day of the course is next month, and we'll be using yeast and making some biscuits.

And the cake? Lovely flavour from the coffee [I bought some extract from Lakeland], a light sponge cake, delicious cream filling, and added texture from the almonds. A little piece of heaven!

Pecan Brownies

Needed to make something for a Bake Stall, so decided something with chocolate, as they're always popular. My friend had been raving about these brownies, so I persuaded her to part with the recipe! Have to admit that I'm not a great brownie fan. I think it's because I've eaten a lot of overcooked ones which were disappointing. There's a fine line between their being squidgy and overcooked - as I know too well! I made a recipe not long ago that was so awful even the birds wouldn't eat it! What a waste of chocolate!



180g 70% dark chocolate
175g butter
150g light brown sugar
3 eggs and 1 yolk
85g plain flour and 1 level tspn of baking powder
100g pecans - keep 25g for the topping



Preheat oven 180C/gas4/fan165C


Grease a 18x32cm tin
.

Break the pecans into pieces.
In a bowl beat the eggs and yolk lightly with a fork.
Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over simmering water. Take off heat when melted.
Add the sugar and mix together.
Add the eggs a bit at a time, mixing well.
Add the flour and baking powder, and the broken 75g of pecans.
Spoon into the tin and sprinkle the rest of the pecans over the top.
Bake for 18-20 mins. Leave in tin for 5 mins then turn out onto a wire rack.
When the brownies are cold, cut them into squares.

A nice deep squidgy brownie, much appreciated in the Bake Sale. They're fairly quick to make and I like the addition of the pecans as an extra texture. Could use walnuts or hazelnuts. I don't think this recipe is better than my usual one, but it's a change.
.