Tag Archives: vanilla

La Tarte Tatin

27 Monday Feb 2017

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Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin

I made this a couple of months ago with a friend and didn’t get round to blogging it so I had to make it again as this is a sublime dessert. It’s one of those desserts that’s really easy to make but definitely impresses.

What you will need:

An oven proof pan
4 apples
100g sugar
100g butter
1 sachet of vanilla sugar (usually 7.5g)
1 tsp cinnamon

Short crush or puff pastry

Heat your oven to 180C. Peal your apples and remove the core and slice into 8 or 12 slices. Put your oven proof pan on a medium heat and add the butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and cinnamon. You want all the ingredients to turn into a caramel, continuously mix the ingredients so that they don’t burn or over-boil. Once you have a caramel add to it the apples slice around the bottom of the pan. Cook the apples on a medium heat for about 10 minutes. When the apples start to soften they are ready. Take the pan off the heat.

Roll out your pasty and cut a circle a little bigger than the pan. Place the pastry over the apples, you can have a bit of pastry going up the side of the pan but make sure that the pastry is slightly tucked in and air tight.

Place the pan in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove and let the tarte cool. Then use a plate to place over the pan and flip over and ta-da there you have it, a tarte tatin a la francaise.

I had a little pastry left so I rolled it out, added parmesan, sliced and then fried leek with chopped parma ham on top and put it in the oven for 25 minutes. A great little addition to our salad based meal before having our yummy dessert.

Enjoy
Mel

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Chocolate Eclair Pots

10 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by in Desserts, Valentine's

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Chocolate eclair pots
This is a dessert that my mom used to make that would be perfect for a Valentines’ Day treat.

I made the whip cream and chocolate ganache to step it up a notch.
This was a BIG hit with friends at the dinner we hosted last night.

What you will need:
1 box Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix
1.5  Cups of Whipping Cream
8oz Chocolate Bar
8 Graham Crackers
1/2 Cup of Scalded Heavy Cream

I made 6 pots out of this so change accordingly if you want to make more or less.

First make the instant pudding which just requires milk. SUPER EASY. It sits for 10 minutes in the fridge.

Whipped cream

Whipped cream

Then whip 1.5 cups of whipping cream.

Fold the instant pudding into the whipped cream. Put it back in the fridge to sit while you make the chocolate ganache.

Fold cream

Fold cream

First chop your chocolate into bits. Then pour the cream in a double boiler over medium heat. As soon as it starts to bubble, add your chocolate and stir until chocolate has melted.

Melt chocolate

Melt chocolate

Let the ganache sit off the heat for a few minutes to help it thicken.

You can either layer this with graham crackers in a small casserole dish or in individual pots.

The pots are cleaner and have a better presentation but either one works.

Lay crackers

Lay crackers

You just layer graham crackers and the spread the vanilla cream over it. Put the vanilla cream mixture in a baggie and piped it out for better control but you can just spoon it.

Pipe cream

Pipe cream

You should be able to do this about three or four times before topping it off with chocolate ganache.

Continue layering

Continue layering

Let it sit in your fridge for at least an hour before serving.

This is a quick and easy dessert that looks and tastes like you slaved over it!

Enjoy!
Joy

Poached Pears

15 Sunday Jul 2012

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Poached Pears

Joy and her family came to England for a visit and so the two of us were able to cook together again – what joy! We invited some friends over for a dinner party and we made a new dessert neither of us had made before. Whilst in the local supermarket looking for raspberries that turned out to be way too expensive we thought why not try poached pears… So we gave it a go and the result was pretty good, we were both stunned by how easy and yummy these treats turned out.

Here is what you need:

Poached pears
6 Pears (we had six guests)
4 Juiced Oranges
Enough water to fill ¾ of a pot
1 Orange’s rind
2 Anise stars
2 Cups Sugar
3 Cloves
1 Cinnamon stick
1 Vanilla pod

Vanilla syrup
1 1/2 Cups of Sugar
4 Cups of Water
1 Vanilla pod

Poaching the pears

Peel the pears. Slice the vanilla pod down the middle and scrape the seed out the pod add with all other ingredients into a big pot and then add the pears and bring to a boil. Once it boils reduce the heat, cover and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the pears from the pot and place to one side. If you find there is too much water for the size of your pot then reduce the amount.

For a nice presentation, you can place the pear on top of a tablespoon of melted chocolate or nutella. This helps keep the pear in place on the plate or bowl.

Vanilla syrup

For the vanilla syrup combine all ingredients in a small saucepan on medium heat. Stir constantly until sugar is dissolved and it thickens. You could use the water that the pears were cooked in instead of using water.

Pour over pears and serve.

Enjoy!
Mel and Joy

Pecan Pie Sundae

23 Sunday Oct 2011

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My husband’s birthday is this week and I was making an early celebration dinner because his mom was in town.
He is not a chocolate lover, so I was slaving away at a pecan pie for him.
After I baked them I asked if he liked pecan pie and he said,”not particularly”.
Can you tell we are newlyweds? I had no idea!

So instead of panicking, I said, “Well, this pecan pie will change your mind!”
Instead of serving it on a plate with whipped cream or ice cream, I made a sundae out of it.
I put the pecan pie on top of vanilla ice cream and drizzled dark chocolate over it.
It was a HUGE hit! He could not stop telling me how “amazing” it was.

Here is what you need:

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter (melted)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
6 large eggs
1 cup and 1/3 light corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup bourbon
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
4 cups pecans, chopped and toasted
I bought a frozen ready-made pie crust which I don’t usually do, but it worked great!

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Whisk eggs and then your sugar and corn syrup.
Add vanilla, salt, butter and bourbon to egg mixture.
I whisk, but you can also beat together in mixer on slow speed.
Stir in pecans.
Pour into a 9 inch unbaked pie shell. Sprinkle evenly with pecan halves.
Bake for 55 minutes. Pie should be firm and will “set-up” while cooling for at least 2 hours. It may crack.

Scoop on top of ice cream with drizzled chocolate or serve traditionally.

Enjoy!

Joy

Apple cake

11 Sunday Sep 2011

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A big apology for the abscence of blogs these past few weeks but I was on holiday in France enjoying the sun. It does however mean that I have come back with loads of new recipes. However today I’m going to share the apple cake Alexis and I just made  – perfect for a rainy day in England – though the apples did come from my grandmother’s garden in France.

Sugar coated violets

What you will need:

4 apples
150g of sugar
120g melted butter
85 g flour
3 eggs
75 ml milk
1/2 tbl spoon of vanilla extract

Oven at 180C
Cooking time of 40 minutes

Start with heating your oven to 180C. Peel your apples, remove pips and cut into small chunks. In a pan add apples, vanilla extract and about a tbl spoon of the sugar – mix together and cover on a medium heat. Every minute or so stir the apples and add a bit of water if you find they are caramelising.  Turn the heat off when they go soft – should take about 5 minutes.

In two bowls seperate your eggs. Mix the ingredients everytime you add a new ingredient – to your yolks add sugar, then your melted butter, flour and milk. Now turn to your egg whites and whisk until you can virtually tip the bowl upside down without them falling on your head 🙂 Now incorporate your whites to the other mixture. You don’t what to break your whites as their fluffiness is what will make your cake nice and light. So what you need to do  is add the whites little by little to the mixture and fold the mixture over the whites. Once you have added all the egg whites add in the apples and then add to a non-stick or buttered cake tin.

Place in the oven for 40 minutes. Whilst the cake is cooking the apples will fall to the bottom of the mixture – so when you cake is ready turn it upside down on a dish and leave it that way as it will give a classy but rustic look to it. (I had it with a bit of cream but it’s just as great eaten on its own.)

For the frosted violets click http://wp.me/p1sdbX-1n

Mel

Nut and Caramel Crusted Banana Cream Pie

02 Tuesday Aug 2011

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I LOVE my mom’s banana cream pie recipe but I wanted to do it a little different, so I changed the crust.

Here is what I did:

Crust:
1 1/2 cups  Vanilla Wafer Cookies (crushed)
2/3 cups of Macadamia Nuts (crushed)
1/2 stick of Butter
4-5 Tablespoons of melted Caramel
1-2 Ripe Bananas

Once I combined the first three ingredients, I pressed them into a pie crust pan.
I covered it and put it in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours with a couple of heavy jars on top to ensure it would be as compact as possible.

After two hours, I took it out and poured my melted caramel on top. You just want a thin layer because otherwise it will effect how your custard sets up.
Put the crust back into the refrigerator for another 1-2 hours. When you are ready to start making your custard, slice the ripe bananas on top of your caramel layer.

Pie Filling:
2/3 cup of Sugar
1/4 cup of Cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon Salt
2 1/4 cups of whole milk
1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
4 egg yolks (beaten)
1 tablespoon Butter
2 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract

Sift the sugar, salt and cornstarch.

In a *double boiler, combine the milk and cream over medium heat and slowly add your 3 dry ingredients. Stir until thickened and bubbly.

Reduce heat and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and stir in 5 tablespoons  (one tablespoon at a time) of the hot milk mixture into your beaten egg yolks.
While you are slowly adding your tablespoons of the milk mixture, be sure to whisk constantly.
This is the tricky part. If you do this part incorrectly, you will end up with scrambled eggs! Once you have added all 5 tablespoons, you can pour the egg mixture back into the double boiler with the remaining milk mixture.

Whisking constantly, bring to a gentle boil. This should take 5 minutes (set your timer) then cook it for an additional 2 minutes. If you do not set your timer and you don’t cook it long enough, your custard will not set and you will end up with pudding instead of pie.

Remove from heat and stir in your vanilla and butter.

Pour custard into a bowl and press plastic wrap onto the surface of the custard. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. Then you pour the custard into your pie crust and enjoy!

I know this sounds long and laborious but it really isn’t. Each step only takes 10 minutes.
It’s perfect for those days when you are cleaning and doing laundry because you do one part and then go back to your chores. Then you do the next part and go back to your chores, etc.

*I don’t have a proper double boiler, I just use 2 saucepans. The smaller one goes on the bottom.You get the water to boil on the bottom pan and you put your ingedients in a slightly bigger saucepan, which sits non top of the smaller pan.
This ensures that you will not burn the milk. It is so easy to do.

Joy