Rice Pudding Tart

I am delighted with how this tart turned out as it was born out of a desire not to let some leftover homemade rice pudding go to waste and be thrown out.

I regularly make homemade rice pudding as it just represents the ultimate in comfort food to me; it is warm, sweet and creamy and because it is so delicious I always want just another “little spoonful” even though I have usually eaten loads of it already! I made rice pudding the other day and despite my best attempts, was unable to eat it all, so I covered it and put it into the fridge. At the best of times, I like chilled rice pudding, but this time I decided to experiment a little.

It occurred to me that the basic creamy rice-pudding that I make would make a wonderful tart if enriched with some egg yolks. So I made some sweet shortcrust pastry, and blind-baked a tart shell. When cool, I spread some raspberry jam in a thin layer on the bottom of the tart and then covered it with the rice pudding mixture before popping it into a moderate oven to bake for about half an hour. It really was quite simple and resulted in an elegant looking tart which, most importantly, tasted fabulous!
 
Some of the tastiest dishes happen almost by accident without any great planning and they result in the creation of something beyond your expectations. This was the case with this tart and I will admit that I was completely chuffed with how it turned out. I predict that, in future, I will deliberately cook too much rice pudding, just so that I have the opportunity to make this tart again.

 

The rice pudding and the sweet shortcrust pastry were made using the recipes that I have previously posted.

 

Ingredients:

1 x 20cm round sweet shortcrust pastry tart shell, blind-baked (leave in its baking tin)
500g leftover cold rice-pudding

3 egg yolks

2 generous tblsp of raspberry jam

A little icing sugar to dust over the top of the finished tart
 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/Fan Oven 140/Gas Mark 2.
2. Spread the raspberry jam in a thin layer on the bottom of the blind-baked tart case. Mix the egg yolks thoroughly into the rice-pudding and pour this evenly on top of the raspberry jam.
3. Place the tart tin on a baking tray and bake in the pre-heated oven until the rice pudding is just set and the top of the tart is a pale golden colour.

4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

5. Serve dusted with a little icing sugar.

Serves 6-8. 

    

Raspberry & Hazelnut Meringue Cake

There are certain flavour combinations that are just meant to be. One of my favourite is that of raspberries with hazelnuts – add in some softly whipped cream and something delicious is created.

 

Raspberries can be extraordinarily expensive to buy and on one level this is understandable. As a soft fruit, they spoil easily and have a relatively short supermarket shelf-life. Added to this, they have to be carefully hand-picked and packed so that the fruit is not damaged. I resent paying exorbitant prices for raspberries, but I find the taste of them so difficult to resist, so from time-to-time will purchase them.

 

If you are lucky enough to have the space to grow your own raspberries, I urge you to do so. Both summer-fruiting and autumn-fruiting varieties can be grown and in my experience they are a fairly undemanding plant to grow. Given favourable growing conditions and a little care and attention, you will be rewarded with a large harvest of juicy berries which can be used in numerous ways.

 

In making the meringue, which forms the basis of this dessert cake, the usual rules apply; make sure that your bowl and other implements are spotlessly clean and that not a trace of egg yolk gets in to your egg whites when you are separating them. If any yolk gets into the whites, they just will not whip up into the soft peaks that are required for this recipe and you will have to start anew with fresh egg whites! Other than this one critical aspect of the recipe, everything else is fairly plain sailing and it is easy to prepare.

 

I have used hazelnuts, because they go so well with raspberries, but you could experiment with other ground nuts. Almonds also work very well, but experiment using other nuts if you feel so inclined. Some melted dark chocolate drizzled over the top would not go astray but I actually like the simplicity of it without added chocolate.

 

Ingredients:

120g ground toasted hazelnuts
4 large egg whites

225g caster sugar

2 tsp white wine vinegar

To serve:

1 punnet of fresh raspberries (about 150g)

250ml carton single cream
 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4.  Base-line two 20cm sandwich tine with non-stick baking parchment and grease the inside edges of the tins with flavourless vegetable oil. Set aside.

2. Whisk the egg whites in a scrupulously clean bowl until they form stiff peaks. Gradually add the caster sugar whisking all the time, until the sugar has been fully incorporated and the mixture is stiff and glossy. Mix through the vinegar and then fold in the nuts. Divide the mixture evenly between the two sandwich tins sand level the surface. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 35 minutes or until the meringue is firm to the touch. Switch off the oven and allow the meringues to cool completely in the oven. When cold, remove from the tins and peel off the baking parchment.

To finish:

3. Whisk the cream until it just softly holds it shape. Spread 2/3 of the cream on the top of one of the meringues and evenly scatter over half of the raspberries. Gently place the other meringue on top. Using a disposable piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle, pipe the rest of the cream on the top of the uppermost meringue and decorate with the remaining raspberries

Serves 6.     

Plum Tart

Plums are an underused fruit in my opinion and one that when baked and used in cooked dishes is truly delicious. This is really simple to prepare and like most of the recipes I gravitate towards and prefer to develop, speedy to make.

I prefer to eat it warm with a dollop of clotted cream or some ice-cream slowly melting as it hits the warmth of the tart, but it can be served cool. The base of the tart has an almost biscuit-y like texture but is not as short as pastry tends to be.  Because of this, I find that this tart is also delicious served with warm pouring custard and this is particularly welcoming when the weather is cold and wintry.

Almonds have a natural affinity with most stone fruits, so I have added a little to the sponge to give a subtle almond taste. To create slightly more cake like and moister crust you could substitute 50g of the self-raising flour for 50g of ground almonds…but it is up to you. I have previously experimented with the basic recipe using chopped hazelnuts sprinkled on the top and ground hazelnuts in the base. It was also delicious and there was something quite autumnal with this flavour combination.

The French really embrace the use of plums in their cooking, but we Irish tend to always resort to using apples as our fruit of choice when making tarts, pies and other fruit dishes. This really is a shame, because when baked, the rich fruitiness of plums is released and accentuated.

Other stone fruits such as peaches, nectarines or even greengages (technically a variety of plum) can be used in this recipe, but I favour the use of plums because I find their taste more complex and interesting.

Ingredients:

115g butter, softened
115g caster sugar
1 large egg

225g self-raising flour, sifted

1tblsp Amaretto

Topping:

3-4 plums, halved and stoned

6-8 blanched whole almonds

25g Demerara sugar

To glaze:

2tblsp apricot jam

1tblsp water

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Grease a shallow baking dish (30cm x 20cm approximately) with a little butter and set aside.
Using a hand-held electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat again to fully incorporate.
2. Add the self-raising flour and beat in using a wooden spoon before adding the Amaretto and mixing in.

3. Press this mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared baking dish, smoothing out with the back of a metal spoon if necessary.

4. Press the halved plums, cut side upwards on the dough and place a single blanched almond in the centre cavity of each plum. Sprinkle the Demerara sugar evenly over the surface. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the plums are cooked and the sponge is well risen and golden-brown.

5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.

To finish:

6. Place the apricot jam and water in a small saucepan and heat until just boiling. Remove from the heat and sieve into a small bowl to remove any lumps. Brush the sieved apricot jam mixture over the warm plum tart and serve immediately with some clotted cream or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

Serves 4-6.     

Lemon Clotted Cream Cake

I am a complete sucker for lemon cakes and whenever I chance upon new recipes or variations on the theme, I feel compelled to try them out. I love lemon cakes and desserts and when made well, that perfect balance between the sweetness of the cake or dessert and the bitterness of the lemons is hard to beat.

Although I adore lemon meringue pie, tarte au citron and other lemon desserts, I especially love a well-made lemon cake. I actually prefer slightly austere lemon cakes and have a particular fondness for loaf versions, which tend to keep very well. At most I like them decorated with a simple lemon flavoured sugar glaze, gently drizzled over the top of the cake - with lemon cake, I feel that less is often more so I try not to overcomplicate them!

I have a couple of fail-safe recipes which I have been baking for years and which satisfy my quite demanding requirements regarding what the perfect lemon cake should be but I am always eager to try out anything slightly different.

The recipe that I give here is a slight variation on one that was recently included in the UK edition of Delicious magazine. From the start the recipe intrigued me as it did not contain any butter – given my passion for butter, I would normally consider this a travesty, but my concerns were somewhat allayed by the fact that it contained a generous amount of clotted cream instead.

Clotted cream can be hard to acquire in Irish supermarkets, but if you seek it out, it can be bought. Glenilen Farm, based in Drimoleague, County Cork produce, amongst a range of other dairy products, a particularly addictive tasting clotted cream and this is the one that I used for this cake. At 60% fat content, it is richly creamy and the perfect accompaniment to freshly baked scones smeared with homemade strawberry or raspberry jam as part of a traditional afternoon tea. I think it is a great product and one that I would strongly recommend, especially if it is used to bake this wonderful cake.

If you like lemon cakes and you also like simple, pure tasting cakes, you really must try baking this one – it is absolutely delicious and one that I know I will definitely make again and again.

Ingredients:

225g caster sugar
2 large eggs
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

225g clotted cream

215g self-raising flour, sifted

2tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice, from the zested lemons (keep the rest of the juice)

To finish:

Juice of the zested lemons (see above)

45g granulated sugar plus extra for sprinkling
 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Line a 900g loaf tin with baking parchment and set aside.
2. Using a hand-held electric mixer, cream the sugar, eggs and lemon zest together until light and creamy and almost doubled in volume – this will take about 5 minutes.
3. Add the clotted cream and gently beat in to the egg mixture until fully incorporated. Add the sifted flour and fold in gently. Add the lemon juice and mix through.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes approximately until the cake is well risen and golden brown. Check the cake after 35 minutes or so and cover with tin foil if it is browning too quickly.

5. Remove from the oven when baked and allow cool in the tin for 5 minutes while you make the lemon syrup.

Lemon syrup:

6. Heat the lemon juice in a small saucepan until just boiling and remove from the heat. Stir in the granulated sugar.

To finish:

7. Using a thin skewer, prick the cake all over. Pour over half of the lemon syrup and set the cake aside to cool completely.

8. Remove the cake from the tin and also remove the baking parchment. Gently turn the cake over and prick the underside with the skewer. Pour over the remainder of the syrup and allow soak in to the cake.

9. Sprinkle to top f the cake with a little granulated sugar before serving.

Serves 8-10.     

Irish Soda Bread

This is my hundredth post and as such I wanted to include a recipe that is very close to my heart and also one that I regularly bake. In fact, brown soda bread was one of the first things that I ever made all by myself from scratch; it is unbelievably tasty and incredibly simple to make and an ideal recipe for those starting out on their cookery journey.

 

Given the fact that St. Patrick’s Day was only yesterday, I also think that is a timely recipe to give; not that I am suggesting that you should only make this bread on St. Patrick’s Day… far from it! As this is such a simple bread to make and is also exceptionally tasty, I am confident that you will want to make it time and time again.
 

Soda bread is so called because the raising agent used is bicarbonate of soda or ‘bread soda’ as it is commonly known as in Ireland. This reacts with the acidity contained in the buttermilk and results in the bread rising in the heat of the oven. As this bread doesn’t use yeast and no requires no proving, it is incredibly quick to make. Unlike yeast breads which tend to have a slightly chewy crumb, soda bread has a more cake-like consistency in the mouth. If made well, they are not dry and crumbly but are moist and moreish to eat.

 

Traditional soda breads are made of flour, bread soda, salt and buttermilk, but modern recipes often include a little butter or an egg. I don’t tend to add butter, but I do like to add an egg as this creates a moister bread, which keeps a little longer. In this regard, one of the essential things to remember about soda bread is that it is best eaten on the day that it is made, preferably still slightly warm from the oven. It is still edible for up to a couple of days, but if I have any still hanging around at this stage, I tend to slice and toast it. I find that toasting brown soda bread really highlights the almost nutty characteristics of the stone-ground wholemeal flour which is used, which I find particularly pleasing, especially if slathered in good Irish butter and some homemade orange marmalade. I also love to eat a freshly poached egg on toasted soda bread. Delicious!
 

The key to success when making soda bread is to handle the dough as little as possible after you have added the buttermilk to the dry ingredients. Just mix it enough to bring everything together – there is no need for kneading – form it into a round loaf shape, score a cross on the top using a sharp knife and pop into the preheated oven. Don’t dilly dally or let it sit around before baking in the oven; once the buttermilk is added, you must work briskly and with a light touch.

One other tip, the dough should be on the slightly sticky side… the last thing you want is a dry dough, because this will result in a very dry bread.

Ingredients:

125g plain flour
½ tsp salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

350g stoneground wholemeal flour

35g porridge oats

350ml buttermilk

1 egg, lightly whisked
 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan Oven 180C/Gas Mark 6. Lightly flour a baking sheet and set aside.
2. Sift the plain four, salt and bicarbonate into a large mixing bowl. Add the wholemeal flour and porridge oats and mix through.

3. Add the egg and then pour in most of the buttermilk (do not add it all at one time as you may not need it all) to create a soft, but not sticky dough.

4. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and form into a circle about 20-24cms in diameter and place on the prepared baking sheet. Slash a shallow cross on the top surface of the dough. Immediately place in the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes or until well risen and a golden brown colour. Remove from the oven and once cool enough to handle, place on a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

Makes 1 loaf.