Vanilla and passionfruit friands

A few weeks ago passionfruits were ridiculously cheap... so I purchased 20 and made passionfruit and chocolate tartlets. I had a lot of pulp left over from this recipe as all I needed was the juice from the fruit. I didn't want to waste it so I froze the pulp to use for another day and another recipe.

I love to cook. I find it relaxes me and takes my mind off anything that's troubling me. Sometimes I cook for pleasure and other times I cook to show the people I care about that I love them. These little babies were born as a "sorry for being such a prat" treat.

Note: The passionfruit and cocoa measures are estimates only as I didn't measure how much I was using at the time.

Vanilla and chocolate passionfruit friands

(Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Makes 6

3 egg whites
1/4 c GF flour (I use white wings)
55 gr almond meal
3/4 c icing sugar
92 gr butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
pulp of 6 passionfruits

(To make chocolate passionfruit friands, add 2 tbsp of cocoa with the other dry ingredients)

Step 1: Making the friand base recipe
Preheat an oven to 180 degrees (160 degrees if using a fan forced oven) and grease six holes of a friand tray.

Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Beat the egg whites in a large bowl with electric beaters until light and fluffy. Sift the almond meal, flour and icing sugar into the egg white mixture. Stir to combine. Add vanilla and pour in the cooled butter, stir to combine.

Step 2: Preparing the passionfruit
Put the passionfruit pulp in a small food processor and blitz until pureed. Pass the pureed pulp through a sieve, reserving the juice.

Add the juice to the friand batter and stir to combine.

Step 3: Cooking
3/4 fill the greased friand holes with batter. Cook for 25 minutes, turning the tray half way through cooking.

Chocolate and passion fruit tartlets

Dessert has become a regular thing in our household. Maybe it's got to do with winter setting in or me being inspired by Masterchef to create delicious things, but these days our fridge seems to be full of tarts (both sweet and savoury), creme brulees, cheesecakes, brownies and other goodies.

I was looking for inspiration for dessert recipes the other day and found it in the form of passionfruits. Passionfruit is usually pretty expensive at this time of year but for some reason my local supermarket was selling them for 29 cents each... so I brought 20! What is one to do with 20 passionfruits?

I remember a while back thinking I'd like to put a twist on the traditional lemon tart and use passionfruit juice instead, so that's what I did. I couldn't have been happier with the result. The filling was lusciously creamy and tangy. This will be a recipe I'll repeat the next time passionfruit is ridiculously cheap. The passionfruit juice can be substituted with anything acidic -- lemon, orange, lime or even grapefruit.

Chocolate and passionfruit tartlets (Recipe by Stef at Essential ingredients)

Serves 6

Ingredients

Passionfruit filling

3 eggs

1 egg yolk

150 gr caster sugar

150 ml cream

200 ml passion fruit juice (20 to 30 passionfruits)

Crust

220 gr plain flour (I use White Wings gluten free flour)

30 gr cocoa

100 gr icing sugar

100 gr unsalted butter

pinch salt

Step 1: Make the pastry

To make the pastry, place the flour, sugar, cocoa and butter in a food processer. Blend until the mixture looks like bread crumbs. Add the eggs and blend until combined.

Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured board (or a silicon mat) and bring together into a ball, kneading until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic and set to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Step 2: Make the tart cases

Grease six 12 cm-diameter loose-bottomed tart tins.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Make a disc from one of the pastry portions and place it on a lightly floured board. Roll the pastry so it is around 5cms wider than the tart tin and about 3mm thick. Fit the pastry to the tin, pushing in into the fluted edges and trimming off any excess pastry. Repeat this for the other tins. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes to prevent the dough from shrinking.

Wrap and leftover dough in cling film and store in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for up to a month.

Step 3: Cooking the tart cases

Preheat an oven to 170 C (150 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Place a piece of baking paper in the tart cases and fill with ceramic weight, beans or rice. Blind bake for 10 minutes.

Remove the cases from the oven and increase the temperature to 180 C (160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Remove the baking paper and the weights. Place the cases back into the oven and cook for a further 4 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 140 C (120 C fan forced).

Step 4: Preparing the passionfruit juice

Cut each passionfruit in half and scoop out the pulp, trying not to loose too much juice. Place the pulp in a sieve over a bowl. When you’ve done this for half of the passionfruits use the back of a spoon the push out as much juice as possible from the pulp. Repeat this with the other half of the passionfruits. You can keep the passionfruit pulp and use it for another recipe.

Step 5: Making the passionfruit filling

To make the filling, lightly mix together the eggs, egg yolk and caster sugar in a bowl until sugar has dissolved. Stir in the cream and passionfruit juice. The mixture will thicken at this stage and some of the egg yolk may clump together. This is what is meant to happen. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug. Pour the filling into the tartlets shells and bake for 15-20 minutes or until just set. The tartlets are cooked when the filling still wobbles slightly in the centre. Leave to cool to room temperature.

Caramel apple cheesecake

Caramel apple cheesecake (Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Serves 12

Crust

1 pkt rice cookies, crushed

115 gr butter, melted

1 tbsp icing sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Cheesecake filling

Apple filling

1 ½ tbsp butter

2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into small cubes

3 tbsp brown sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Cheesecake batter

600 gr cream cheese, at room temperature

4 eggs

125 gr brown sugar

2 tsp corn flour

Step 1: Prepare the biscuit base

Grease a 20 cm diameter spring form pan and line the base and sides with baking paper. Put the rice cookies in a food processor and blitz to a fine crumb. Add the melted butter, icing sugar and ground cinnamon. Blitz until the mixture comes together. Press the biscuits into the base of the tin and place in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling. Preheat your oven to 180 C (160 C if using fan forced).

Step 2: Prepare the apple filling

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon and apples. Stir to combine. Cook the apples for about 3 minutes, or until tender. Set aside to cool.

Step 3: Prepare the cheesecake batter

Put a kettle full of water on to boil. In a clean food processor, blend the cream cheese, brown sugar and cornflour adding the eggs one at a time. Continue to blend until smooth.

Step 4: Assemble the cheesecake

Place the cooked apples on the biscuit base. Gently pour other cheesecake batter over the apples. Wrap the tin in a few layers of foil to prevent water seeping in from the water bath.

Step 5: Prepare the water bath

Place the tin in a deep baking dish and pour in the boiled water around the cheesecake so that it comes halfway up the sides of the cheesecake tin. Be careful not to splash the cheesecake.

Step 6: Baking and setting the cheesecake

Cook the cheesecake for about 45 to 55 minutes. The cheesecake is done when the outside is set and there is a slight wobble in the centre. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and return it to the oven. Turn the oven off. Let the cheesecake sit in the oven for 1 hour. Place the cheesecake on a wire rack and transfer to the fridge, covered in cling film when cool.

Strawberry hazelnut gateau

My mum has been making this cake for me for years. I've had it on many occasions - on birthdays, christmases and just because!

A few years ago I started cooking it myself. Mum traditionally uses 'pavlova magic' instead of egg whites. However, I prefer to use fresh ingredients where ever I can so I adapted this recipe to use egg whites instead.

Because strawberries are not always in season or are, at times, ridiculously over priced, I've also made this cake substituting strawberries for tinned black or sour cherries. Frozen raspberries would probably also work quite well. Something I think would be nice, but have yet to try, is to substitute the hazelnut meal with a mixture of macadamia and almond meal and to use tinned sliced mango instead of strawberries.

This cake always makes me think of home :).

Strawberry hazelnut gateau (Recipe adapted from my mum's recipe)

Serves 12

Ingredients

4 egg whites
275 gr caster sugar
1 cup (100g) hazelnut meal
1 tsp white vinegar
½ tsp vanilla extract
185 gr dark chocolate, melted
20 gr butter, melted
600 ml thickened cream, whipped
250 gr strawberries, sliced with a few reserved for garnishing

Step 1: Heating the oven and preparing the tins

Preheat oven 180 C (160C if you are using a fan forced oven). Grease 2 x 20 cm springform tins. Line the base and sides of the tins with baking paper. Grease the paper, sprinkle with cornflour and shake away the excess flour.

Step 2: Prepare the meringue

Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add the caster sugar, beating after each addition until the sugar is dissolved. Fold in hazelnut meal, vinegar and vanilla extract.
Divide the meringue evenly between the two tins and bake for about 35 minutes or until the meringue is crisp. Release sides of tins and cool meringues on base of tins.

Step 3: Preparing the chocolate ganache

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir the chocolate with a metal spoon until it begins to melt. Add the butter to the bowl and continue to stir until all the ingredients are melted and combined. Remove from the bowl from the heat and set aside.

Step 4: Assembling the cake

Remove meringue layers from the bases of the spring form pans and peel off the baking paper. Place one of the meringue layers on plate, flat-side down. Spread it with half of the chocolate mixture and top with 1/2 of the cream and strawberries.

Spread flat side of second meringue layer with remaining chocolate mixture. Place the second meringue disk on top of strawberry layer, chocolate side down. Cover top and sides of cake with the remaining cream.

Step 5: Dress the cake

Decorate the top of the cake and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Lemon chicken

This dish has been a favourite in our house for a while. I developed it as a way of using some of the lemons my boyfriend's mum would bring us in the summer. It's a taste sensation of sweet and sour. The chicken is crispy and juicy and oh-so-delicious.

There's a lot of sauce in this dish.. mainly because I increased my original quantities by half... we love the sauce that much!

Lemon Chicken (Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Serves 4

Serve with boiled rice and steamed greens.

Ingredients

Vegetable oil

600 gr chicken thigh meat

3 egg whites

1 ½ tbsp cornflour

½ tsp salt

8 spring onions

Lemon sauce

1 ½ tbsp cornflour

150 ml chicken stock

¾ c lemon juice (3­–4 lemons)

3 tbsp honey

2 ½ tbsp white sugar

Step 1: Prepare the lemon sauce

Mix the cornflour and 3 tbsp of the chicken stock in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Add the remaining chicken stock, lemon juice, honey and white sugar. Stir to combine. Increase the heat to a medium-high heat and bring the sauce to the boil. When the sauce reaches boiling point, decrease the heat and simmer the sauce for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside until needed.

Step 2: Preparing the chicken

Pour the oil into a wok or saucepan until one-third full. Heat over medium-high heat until hot.

Slice the chicken into cubes. Whisk the cornflour, salt and egg whites together. Add the chicken to the egg white mixture and coat.

Step 3: Cook the chicken

Fry the chicken in the hot oil in small batches. Once the chicken is cooked, set aside on a paper towel to drain.

Step 4: Combine chicken and sauce

Drain the oil from the wok. Return all the chicken to the wok and heat through for 3 minutes. Add the lemon sauce and the sliced shallots to the chicken and toss to coat the chicken. Cook until the sauce becomes “sticky”, about 3 minutes.

Banana, caramel and passionfruit tart

Since discovering I have a wheat intolerance a few years ago, certain foods became taboo. Pastas, gnocchi and pastries. I love all things pastry.

Recently I tried my hand at making gluten free pastry and, after having great results with a number of different pastries (pate brisees, sucrees and sablees), I've been obsessed with all things (gluten free) pastry!

My latest creation was inspired after having dinner at my boyfriend's parents' house where I was offered some delicious banana, caramel and passionfruit tart for dessert (and had to throw away the pastry because it was not gluten free!).

The gooey caramel and sweet bananas contrast so well with the crisp pastry and tart sourness of the passion fruits.

Banana, caramel and passionfruit tart (Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Serves 8

This recipe could easily be made with normal plain flour.

Ingredients

4 passion fruits

2 lady finger bananas, sliced into thin rings

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp brown sugar

300 ml cream

1 tsp icing sugar

Pastry

125 gr gluten free plain flour (I use White Wings)

50 gr unsalted butter

50 gr pure icing sugar

1 egg

Caramel

275 gr caster sugar

1/3 c water

110 gr cream

135 gr unsalted butter

Chocolate ganache

40 gr dark chocolate

30 gr cream

5 ml milk

Step 1: Make the pastry

To make the pastry, place the flour, sugar and butter in a food processer. Blend until the mixture looks like bread crumbs. Add the egg and blend until combined.

Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured board (or a silicon mat) and bring together into a ball, kneading until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic and set to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Step 2: Make the tart case

Grease a 20 cm loose bottomed flan tin.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. Make a disc from the pastry and place it on a lightly floured board. Roll the pastry so it is around 7cms wide than the tart tin and about 3mm thick. Fit the pastry to the tin, trimming off any excess pastry. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes to prevent the dough from shrinking.

Step 3: Cooking the tart case

Preheat an oven to 170 C (150 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Place a piece of baking paper in the tart case and fill with ceramic weight, beans or rice. Blind bake for 15 minutes.

Remove the case from the oven and increase the temperature to 180 C (160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Remove the baking paper and the weights. Place case back into the oven and cook for a further 5 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool.

Step 4: Making the ganache

Scald the cream and the milk in a small saucepan. Pour the warm cream mixture over the chocolate and stir until smooth.

One the pastry has cooled slightly, brush the chocolate evenly over the base and sides of the case. Put in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or until the chocolate is set.

Step 5: Making the caramel

Combine sugar and 1/3 cup water in a saucepan and stir over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and cook for 8-10 minutes or until medium-caramel in colour, remove from heat.

Meanwhile, heat the cream for 30 seconds on high in a microwave. Carefully add cream and butter to the caramel mixture (be careful as the mixture will bubble and spit), stir to combine. Return to heat and cook for 2 minutes or until smooth. Let the caramel mixture cool slightly then pour into pastry case and refrigerate for 2 hours or until set. Note: you do not want the caramel to be hot or it will melt the chocolate in the tart case.

Step 6: Preparing the tart dressing

Place the pulp of 4 passionfruit in a sieve to drain the juice. Reserve the juice.

Heat 1 tbsp of butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the brown sugar and stir until dissolved. Add 1 of the bananas to the pan, cook for 1 minute on each side. Remove the banana slices from the sugar and butter mixture and set aside.

Stir the other banana slices with half of the passionfruit juice. Remove from the juice and set aside.

Add the other half of the passionfruit juice and 1 tsp of icing sugar to the cream and whip until medium stiff peaks form. Set aside.

Step 7: Dressing the tart

Lay the banana slices on the caramel, alternating between the cooked and uncooked banana slices. Spread half of the passionfruit pulp over the banana slices. Top the bananas and passionfruit with the whipped cream. Scatter the remaining passionfruit pulp decoratively over the cream.