Category: Desserts


Aug
2019

Honey, I Shrunk the Pies!

categories: Cook A Long, Desserts, Pastry, Pastry Desserts, Pieathalon, Vintage Recipes

Happy Pieathalon People of the internet!  Yep, it’s that special time of year when a group of bloggers get together and bake the good, the bad and the ugly of vintage pies!  It’s also my birthday week  so it’s double the celebrations for me!  Pie and champagne!  Life, my friends, is good indeed!😍

Let’s get down to it, shall we?

The Pie

Pie choice day is always exciting.  What will that email from Yinzerella reveal?  There is always a slight worry in the excitement –  I am happy to have an odd pie – but not too odd.  One of my favourite parts of Pieathalon is that I get to eat a pie so I always give a little silent prayer.  “Please do not let this contain anything disgusting like offal or beetroot.  Or sugary onions.”   Speaking of the sugary onions, my recipe came from The Nostalgic Cook who sent Jenny the Sweet Onion Pie recipe last year!  Honey Cream Cheese Pie 4

Luckily the Gods, (and Kari and Yinzerella) smiled down on me.  The pie I received was a gorgeous sounding Honey Cream Cheese Pie from Sunset’s New Kitchen Cabinet Cookbook from 1938.  It is described as a “not-quite-so rich version of the very rich German Cheesecake.  This Honey Cream Cheese Pie will be welcomed by everyone”.  It was more than welcomed by me.     I had most of the ingredients which is important when you are leaving the country for a month!  I did not want to buy things only to have to throw away any leftovers because we were going away!

This book looks great.  I love the little cartoony insets.  The recipe page also had a v cute cartoon for a less than appealing sounding carrot mould.

Sunset's New Kitchen CAbinet Cook Book

Speaking of which…remember a  few Pieathalons ago, when I made the Lime Jello Pie?  I totally forgot that I had moved it to the fridge in the garage so the housesitters could use the main fridge.  When I opened the garage fridge about a week after we got home, it was like I had just put it in there.  It had not changed one iota in the month it had been in there.

Terrifying!!!!!

 

The Song

Every year I get a song stuck in my head at Pieathalon time.  For my first Pieathalon it was Waterloo by Abba. For the lime jello pie I went a bit hair-metal and subbed in the words “Lime Jello Pie” into “Sweet Cherry Pie”

There were two contenders this year.  The first was, of course “Sugar Pie Honey  Bunch” by the Four Tops.  But nah, too obvious.  The song that stuck was  “Honey Child, what can I do?” by The Ballad of The Broken Seas.  Which became Honey Pie what can I do?  Which then morphed into….no, we’ll get to that…

 

honey-cream-cheese-pie-recipe-only (1)

Ch…ch…changes

The recipe for the pie says that it is big!  Enough for 8 which was way too big given our impending departure.  There were three eggs in the original recipe and everything else was easily divisible by three so I decided to make a  third of the original recipe.  And also that small pies were going to be easier to distribute out if we didn’t eat them all.  It might be weird to give the neighbours who are picking up our mail a half-eaten pie.  But I think, perfectly acceptable to give them a few freshly baked tartlets as a pre-emptive thank you.

Honey Cream Cheese Pie 2

The Bake aka Honey Pie what did I do?

I baked my pies on Saturday afternoon where there was a LOT happening.  We were still booking some accommodation so there was stuff happening on the internet, there were phone calls, there was washing and packing and I don’t know just a lot of things going on.  I was also obsessing about the nutmeg.  Personally, I don’t like it so was trying to decide if I used it on all of the pies, or none or some.

But the making of the pies went perfectly.  There was enough mixture for the 6 small pies and some leftover. I had a little taste of the raw filling, it was really good!!!  I nutmegged three of the six tarts, popped them in the oven and went to hang out the washing.

When I came back inside I noticed a jug of milk on the bench.  And realised that I had totally left the milk out of the recipe!!!!

It was too late to do anything about it. I briefly contemplated pulling the pies out of the oven, scraping out the filling, adding the milk and refilling them but they were already a little bit too set for that.

So, there was nothing to do but to sit and wait to see how these milkless tarts would turn out.

My song quickly became “Honey pies what did I do?”

Honey Cream Cheese Pie 3

The Verdict

The honey cream cheese pies looked so gorgeous when they came out of the oven, gorgeous golden domes.  The smell of the baking was divine.  And they tasted delicious!

We had one each while they were still warm from the oven and they were like a cross between a cheesecake and a Portuguese tart.  So tasty.

I don’t know what the milk would have done to these but they were so good without it that I will not add it in when I make these again, which I will definitely do!

We had no leftovers to give neighbours or anyone else!  I ate the last one the following night as we waited for the Uber to take us to the airport.  With a little glass of sparkling wine, it was the perfect end to Pieathalon 2019 and the start of the holiday!

Thanks as ever to the amazing Yinzerella who organises this whole shebang each year!

You can find her Pieathalon recipe over at Dinner is Served 1972 and check out all the other pieathletes per the links below.  Why not start with Kelly over at the Velveteen Lounge who got my recipe for Angel Pie?

Here is the full list of this year’s participants.  Some of the links will not be working yet, I will update later today as people post their recipes!

Battenburg Belle baked Betty Crocker’s Hawaiian Pie

Doctor Bobb made a Macaroon Pie

Camilla channeled Alf from Home and Away and made a Flaming peach pie!

Yinzeralla got surreal with a Dali Oasis Leek Pie

Greg got arty, but did not choke on his Artichoke pie

Jenny found her inner Italian with a spaghetti pie

Kaci at the Homicidal Homemaker bammed some berries and produced some Bamberry turnovers

Kari at The Nostalgic Cook, who provided my recipe got a bit saucy with a Cheese Applesauce Pie

Kelly, the angel over at Velveteen Lounge made my Angel Pie

Surly got a Salmon Custard Pie.  Oh dear, I might be surly too….

Peter whipped up some low calorie goodness with a Weight Watchers Cherrie Pies…?

Poppy made Banana Split Pie…I do hope she didn’t fall on the peel!

SS got fidgety with a Huntingdon fidget pie

And finally, here is the musical accompaniment for this post!

Thanks again to Yinzerella for organising this and Kari for the fab recipe!

Have a great week!


Mar
2019

Use By: Apricot, Lemon and Basil Sorbet

categories: Apricots, France, Fruit, Sorbet

There were so many things I could have named this post.  But hey, I made an Apricot, Lemon and Basil Sorbet. So when I couldn’t decide between witty or explanatory  I decided to go with plain old pragmatism. Who knew ice cream was so complicated?

Apricot, Lemon, Basil Sorbet

BEING MORE FRENCH

Towards the end of last year, one of my work buddies and I were talking about New Year’s Resolutions. He said he never made the traditional resos of saving money, losing weight or getting fit.  Instead, he chooses something that explores a different way of being / thinking / creating.  So, it could be a  year of reading the financial papers or a year of being vegetarian or a year of being celibate or totally slutty or otherwise exploring a part of your personality that you feel needs expressing or you just want to have fun with.

“You know, like a year of being more French”

My reaction?

 

BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

This is the beauty of something like this – it can mean whatever you want it to be.  For me…in no particular order:

Dress More French

  • Such as totally indulging my love of a striped t shirt.

 

Eat / Drink more French food (and wine)

Fromage anyone?

Fig, Fennel and Pistachio Roulade10

Watch More French movies / French tv shows

Including one of my favourite films ever The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

And just to balance out all that sweeetness, some gritty French police drama.

Be more Cultured

Self Care

French women take fabulous care of their skin and have amazing beauty regimes.

I plan on getting me a piece of that. My first foray into this realm was to buy some French eye drops that were RAVED about in a beauty blog.  They have made absolutely no discernible difference so that was money down le toilet but  I will try a new product each month.

 Read More French

I haven’t quite decided where this bit lands

  • Dip my toe in – Read more books set in France…eg Cara Black’s Murder In….Series
  • Float along – Read more books by French authors…I have some Proust and some Zola and some Binet in my TBR.
  • Dive in deep – Read French in French – I also have Flowers of Evil by Baudelaire and, weirdly a French translation of a James Patterson novel.

Maybe a bit of each…

Other ideas not fully thought out yet

  • Have an attitude
  • Start a revolution
  • Sexy Frugality

Mais, bien sûr

Cook More French

Which brings us back to doh oh oh oh.

The topic for our latest Tasty Reads Book Club was a “non book” book.  So you could cook recipes off the interwebs or the tv or, in my case a food magazine.  I bought this mag when I was on holiday last year and had not cooked anything from it.  

So, when some friends gave me a big bag of apricots of varying degrees of ripeness,  I decided to

  1. Be more French,  and
  2. To use this produce before it went bad (Year of Less Waste)

By cooking the Apricot, Lemon and Basil Sorbet from the mag.

Here’s the recipe.

In English.

Print

Apricot, Lemon and Basil Sorbet

Print Recipe

A delightfully refreshing fruity sorbet

Ingredients

Scale
  • 500g apricots
  • 12 basil leaves
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 3 eggs
  • 200ml of cream
  • 150g sugar
  • 1 tbsp honey

Instructions

  1. Infuse 6 basil leaves in cream for at least 2 hours.
  2. Then put the apricots, the rest of the basil, lemon juice and a little water into a pot and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes.
  3. Taste and add the honey (a little more or less may be required depending on the sweetness of the apricots.
  4. Cook for another five minutes.
  5. Let cool.
  6. Separate the eggs.
  7. In a large bowl, beat the yolks and the sugar until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture turns pale. Then stir in the apricot mixture.
  8. In a separate bowl, beat the whites to soft peaks.
  9. In a third bowl, beat the cream to soft peaks.
  10. Add the cream to the apricot mix and blend through.
  11. Gently fold in the egg whites.
  12. Pour into a container. Freeze for 24 hours

Au revoir mes amis and have a lovely weekend!

 

 

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Nov
2018

Sour Cherry Stuffed Monkey

categories: 1970's recipes, Desserts, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Israel, World Cooking

Disclaimer: No monkeys, stuffed or otherwise, were hurt, or even involved in the making of this week’s recipe.  Stuffed Monkey is actually a Jewish pastry.  With a totally kooky, and kind of revolting,  name.  Which is, of course,  why I had to make it!

Stuffed Monkey

And I’m so glad I did because Stuffed Monkey is delicious!  The pastry is like a cinnamony shortbread and the filling is slightly fudgy, a bit like a brownie. It’s so good!

Now, the original recipe for Stuffed Monkey, direct from the pages of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery, had candied orange peel as the fruit in the filling.  I’m not a big fan of candied peel at the best of times and, certainly not in the quantities required to make this.  So I subbed in some dried sour cherries and some dried apricots for my version.  I did add some orange zest as well so there was a hint of orange in my recipe as a small nod and a wink to the original.

Stuffed Monkey2

So, why the odd and not appetising at all name?  I found a couple of theories on the old interwebs…the first is that “monkey”  is a corruption of the Arabic word “makhshi” which means stuffed.  So this would then become a Stuffed Stuffed?  The other theory I found is that these were first popularised by a family called the Monnickendams.

I’m not sure I’m entirely convinced by either of these but what do I know?

Stuffed Monkey3

Here’s the recipe direct from Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery:

Stuffed Monkeyrecipe3

And here is my version with the cherries and apricots.

Print

Stuffed Monkey

Print Recipe

A delicious baked dessert

Ingredients

Scale

For The Pastry

  • 170g butter
  • 227g plain flour
  • 170g caster sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 egg, beaten

For The Filling

  • 80g dried sour cherries, chopped
  • 80g dried apricots, chopped
  • 60g slivered almonds
  • zest of an orange
  • 227g ground almonds
  • 85g butter
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 egg white

Instructions

For The Pastry

  1. Rub the butter into the flour.
  2. Add the sugar, cinnamon and salt.
  3. Add the egg. Combine until the mixture becomes a smooth dough.
  4. Divide in two equal pieces.
  5. Roll the first piece out and use it to line a pie dish.

For The Filling

  1. Beat the butter, ground almonds and egg yolks together.
  2. Add the dried fruit, nuts and vanilla and salt.
  3. Stir to combine.
  4. Spread the filling over the dough in the pie dish.
  5. Roll out the second piece of pastry and cover the filling with it.
  6. Press the edges to seal them.
  7. Brush with the egg white to glaze.
  8. Heat the oven to 180C.
  9. Place the pie pan in the oven and bake for around 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes

  • This is great on its own but is fabulous with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

There is a downside to making a dessert called a Stuffed Monkey.

Which is that no one wants to eat it.  The minute you mention the name, they get a funny look on their faces.  Then they ask you to repeat what you said.  Then they say “It’s okay, I think I might just have coffee”.

So just tell your friends it’s called Sour Cherry Tart or something.   They’ll be shovelling it down like nobody’s business and asking for seconds in no time at all!

Or tell them the name and keep it all for yourself.  It’s that good!  

Stuffed Monkey Meme

Have a great week!

Signature 1 Vintage Valentine Quick as Wink2


Oct
2018

Treasure Island Sundae / The Sunday Girl

categories: 1960's recipes, Books, Desserts, Icecream

Who would have thunk that so soon after the lack of crushed pineapple in London in August for Pieathalon that,  I would again have it on my shopping list?  Luckily for me, now I am back home and pineapple of all varieties  is once again,  freely available!

Treasure Island Sundae1

The recipe for the Treasure Island Sundae comes from The Golden Circle Tropical Recipe Book, which was a birthday present from my gorgeous friend Ali, a few years ago.  I’ve been meaning to make something from it for ever so long because, quite frankly, this book is BONKERS.  With a subtitle of “Every day meals with a Tropic Holiday Flavour” you just know that this is going to be full of recipes containing pineapple crammed into places pineapple has no business to be.

Golden Circle Tropical Recipe Book

And speaking of Pieathalon, someone out there should be thanking their lucky stars that I didn’t inflict this on them!

Pineapple Shepherd's Pie

Or what about turning that Tropic Holiday vibe Italian with some Spaghetti with Meat Sauce Tropical?

Golden Circle Tropical Recipe Book2

There are also some recipes where the pineapple seems perfectly normal compared to another totally random ingredient.  Let’s take a look at a Hungry Man Salad.

https://www.retrofoodformoderntimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Golden-Circle-Tropical-Recipe-Book3.jpg

So like me, you’re probably wondering what the slices between the pineapple slices are?  My guess was crusty bread. Because maybe hungry men need more carbs than all that white rice. Or maybe crumbed pineapple rings? Weird I know but so far what’s been normal?  I was wrong. On both counts.   Quick, before reading any further, drop down to the comments and tell me what you think they are….

Okay…so the reveal?

A Hungry Man Salad “combines Golden Circle Sliced Pineapple and Beetroot with cooked rice, red and green capsicum, celery, eschalots, gherkin, tomato lettuce and….. a sliced meatloaf.

WTF?  Who does that?

Although I suppose it’s no worse than pineapple, oops, I mean Tropic Holiday Flavour in your spag bol.

I’ll definitely share more from this book in the not too distant! But for today, it’s the Treasure Island Sundae. And thankfully the treasure in that Sundae is not a sliced meat loaf!

The reason we are making the Treasure Island Sundae is because whilst on holiday I read a book called Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale.  I actually read it in its entirety on the plane to the UK because it’s one of those books that once you start, you can’t put down!

(Also I couldnt’ resist the idea of writing about a sundae and a book called the Sunday Girl while listening to the Blondie song Sunday Girl on a Sunday.  No nasty riverside for me today.  I’m safely ensconced with the four ant-free, bird free and bird poo free walls of my own home…and it’s bliss!).

But back to the book.  How’s this for a premise?

Some love affairs change you forever. Someone comes into your orbit and swivels you on your axis, like the wind working on a rooftop weather vane. And when they leave, as the wind always does, you are different; you have a new direction. And it’s not always north.’

Any woman who’s ever been involved with a bad, bad man and been dumped will understand what it feels like to be broken, broken-hearted and bent on revenge….

So Taylor consults The Art of War and makes a plan. Then she takes the next irrevocable step – one that will change her life forever.

Ah, revenge…a dish best served cold right?  Just like a tropical ice cream sundae!

Treasure Island Sundae2

Here’s the original recipe.  Look at the super gorgeous pineapple page numbers!  😍😍😍

Treasure Island Sundae4

I made a few changes to the recipe as given above.  My supply of maraschino cherries has vanished!  Lord only knows what has happened to them so my fruit component was a strawberry and some blueberries.  Instead of a jelly cross, I used popping candy!  X may not have marked the spot but it was a lot more fun!  And finally, the real treasure for those of you, who like me are counting their calories?  Instead of strawberry ice cream, I used Halo Top Birthday Cake – at 280 calories per TUB you could eat these sundaes all the live long day and not increase your waist size!

Treasure Island Sundae3

The Treasure Island Sundae is a great little dessert.  There’s lots of different flavours and textures and so it is super fun to eat.  The blend of pineapple, lime jelly and the ice cream reminded me of one of my favourite icy – poles the Pine-Lime Splice!

I can see myself making a heap of these as the weather warm up!

And that’s me done!  Have a great week!

Signature 1 Vintage Valentine Quick as Wink2


Jun
2018

The Crown Princess Victoria’s Birthday Cake

categories: Birthday Cake, Cake, Gluten Free, Meringue

Can you believe I’ve been doing this for 6 years?  Who knew this was going to last longer than most proper jobs,  many romantic relationships and a large percentage of prison sentences!

This is a belated celebration though because I’m having a horrendous month.  First I hurt my back and was out of action for a couple of weeks.  And now I have an awful cold.

But better late than never!  And if we were going to wait for anything?  This might be the one! 

This is the Crown Princess Victoria’s birthday cake!

Crown Princess Victoria Birthday Cake

Time sure flies when you decide to follow your own brand of weirdness!

But let’s talk about this cake.  Because it’s not quite cake as we know it.  I also need to confess that I have no idea where this recipe came from.  I copied it out of a  book but totally forgot to note the book from whence it came. So, if anyone knows, please drop me a line so I can attribute it properly!

It’s also gluten-free for those of you who care about those sorts of things!

First up you need to start with two layers of nutty biscuit base.  The original recipe said walnut but I had almond meal in the house so rather than grinding walnuts into meal, I took the lazy girl’s option and used what I had.  (In my defence I also had a bad back at the time.  😉 ).  

And haters look out, I also thought it would work better with an almond base seeing as I was going to decorate it with marzipan.  It was going to be a double almond delight!

Next up a meringue!

Crown Princess Victoria Birthday Cake

Then meringue was sandwiched with whipped cream between the two almond discs.  This is where it got a little crazy because the meringue was round on the top and the discs were not.  So the sandwiching was a little rough…

Crown Princess Victoria Birthday Cake The the “cake” was “iced” with more whipped cream and decorated with fresh raspberries and some marzipan roses!

Crown Princess Victoria Birthday Cake3

This looked so pretty and was absolutely delicious.  The crisp biscuit, the crunchy outside of the meringue and the marshmallowy inside made for a lovely blend of textures. The raspberries added a cake much-needed tang into the overall sweetness of the cake and whipped cream just makes anything a party!

Crown Princess Victoria Birthday Cake

Here’s the recipe:

Print

The Crown Princess Victoria’s Birthday Cake

Print Recipe

A different and delicious “cake” to celebrate any occasion.

Ingredients

Scale

For The Biscuit Layers

  • 1 1/4 cups almond meal
  • 1/4 cup icing sugar
  • 2 egg whites

For The Meringue Layer

  • 2 egg whites
  • 1/2 cup caster sugar

To Decorate

  • 1 1/2 cups whipped cream
  • 250g fresh raspberries
  • Fondant or marzipan roses

Instructions

For the Bicuit Layers

  1. Mix together the almond meal, icing sugar and the unbeaten egg whites.Spread out into 2 x 20cm rounds on baking paper on baking trays.
  2. Bake in a moderate oven for 10 minutes until firm to touch.
  3. Turn out onto wire racks and carefully peel off the paper.
  4. Cool.

For The Meringue

  1. Beat the 2 eggs whites until stiff.
  2. Add the sugar gradually, beating all the time until glossy and thick.
  3. Spread out to a 20cm round on baking paper on a baking tray.
  4. Bake in a slow oven until dry and crisp – around 45-50 minutes.
  5. Cool and carefully remove paper.

To Decorate

  1. Sandwich the meringue between the two biscuit layers with whipped cream.
  2. Cover the top and sides with whipped cream.
  3. Decorate with raspberries and fondant or marzipan roses.

You can find an article on how to make proper marzipan roses here.  Or you can muddle through and hope for the best like I did with mine!

Crown Princess Victoria Birthday Cake

And of course, I couldn’t let the moment go by without reference to this!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Signature 1 Vintage Valentine Quick as Wink2