Strawberries and cream with a twist

Strawberries and cream cheesecake with mascarpone and rhubarb coulis jelly

With Wimbledon coming up, the strawberries and cream will be out in force, always a firm favourite and why not, they make the perfect pairing.  However, there are many different ways they can be brought together and this week I have been doing just that, inspired by a punnet of the locally grown fruit.  But, there is a twist in my recipes, as they are all made using cream from my goats.  I know you can buy goat’s milk in the supermarkets, but has anyone thought of selling the cream? It’s not easy to come by, I have to collect the milk from the two girls for three days before I have sufficient to make it worthwhile to fire up the separator.  With a cow, I would probably have enough with one milking!  I’m no expert on the difference between the two, but I believe the fat globules in goat’s milk are smaller, making it easier to digest.  Nevertheless, you can do all the same things with it and when it is fresh, it doesn’t have a goaty taste or odour.

Strawberries and vanilla cream on a meringue nest

First up, I made a batch of meringue nests with leftover eggwhite, combined them with a generous dollop of vanilla whipped cream and topped with locally produced strawberries.  A light dusting of icing sugar sets if off to perfection.  So easy to make and yet absolutely delicious.

Strawberry sundae with vanilla gelato, chocolate ice cream,  crushed meringues, chopped strawberries and whipped cream

This sundae contained two types of ice cream, both made from goat’s milk.  The first a simple vanilla gelato, and the second a chocolate ice cream, made in the traditional way with egg yolks, hence the leftover whites.  Crushed meringues, chopped strawberries and whipped cream, made this dessert delish.

Vanilla panna cotta with crushed meringue, strawberries and rhubarb coulis

One of my all time favourites, creamy, silky, panna cotta.  It’s so easy to make, yet such lush tasting little treat.  I love it with coulis and this one came from the garden.  A few stalks of rhubarb, sugar and water in a pan, run it through a food processor, strain it, and it’s done.  Again, I added crushed meringue for a bit of crunch, and then finished it with the ever present strawberries.

Rhubarb ripple ice cream served on a meringue nest with strawberries, blackberries and rhubarb coulis

I found another use for the coulis in the rhubarb ripple ice cream, which left me with more egg whites  When you’re faced with egg white, make meringues.  Put them together with the strawberries and a couple of blackberries (not from my garden, it’s far too early) and another beautiful but simple dessert is created.

Ginger snaps, crushed for the cheesecake base

Finally, we have the cheesecake.  This one was created from mascarpone (which was, of course made from my goat’s cream).  I firstly baked the ginger biscuits (a favourite Delia recipe).  Crushed gingernuts mixed with goat butter, formed the base, where I laid out the last of my strawberries.  I combined cream and mascarpone together with some caster sugar, then ladled the mix onto the base and smoothed it down.  Lastly, I made the jelly with the remainder of the rhubarb coulis and a couple of sheets of leaf gelatine to set it softly.  Left overnight in the fridge, the next day it was firm and ready to devour. Five glorious days of strawberries and goat’s cream.

Rhubarb coulis

Mini bakes and a product review

Mini Victoria Sandwich with grapefruit and lime curd and buttercream

I had been coveting the Lakeland 12 hole mini baking tray for some time and was delighted when I received it as a gift.  It was a good solid product with loose discs in the bases and a few spares too, in case of loss.

Mini 12 hole baking tray

Before jumping straight in as I would normally do, I read all the reviews on the website and took note of the fact that some people had experienced problems with the tiny sponges sticking.

To avoid falling into the same trap, I was particularly careful whilst greasing each indentation.

For the batter, I used their own recipe on the website for Mini Lemon Curd Sponge Cakes but I created my own grapefruit and lime curd (recipe below).  I made sure not to overfill each one, stopping at three-quarters, however, I found that there was too much mixture for the twelve cases.

Once the first batch were baked I fill another 4 and baked again.  The second lot came out looking like big top tents!

Sponge cake or pork pie?

I needn’t have worried as the sponges didn’t stick at all, in fact they all came away from the sides and popped out really easily.

I was a bit surprised at them, as they looked more like pork pies than sponges and they were very small.  At first I was rather disappointed, but that didn’t last long as when I sliced them in half and filled them with curd and buttercream, they looked magnificent and tasted fantastic, light as a feather, with the zestiness of the curd, cutting through the sweet buttercream.

Grapefruit and lime curd

• Difficulty: easy
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A slightly different curd

Ingredients

• 1 grapefruit
• 1 lime
• 4 large egg yolks
• 125g caster sugar
• 75g butter

Instructions

1. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and juice from the grapefruit and lime in a heat proof bowl
2. Place over a saucepan of boiling water and cook gently stirring constantly
3. Do not allow to boil
4. Eventually the mixture will thicken to a mayonnaise consistency
5. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter
6. Leave to cool
7. Refrigerate until use

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Condensing

Condensed, sweetened goats milk

The Great British Bake Off episode this week was another gem.  Traybakes, tuiles and towers of biscuits.  Loved the first two challenges but the third was a little over the top.  I can’t help but worry about having to eat the confections and I really didn’t fancy a bite of that Dalek.

I think certain contestants are beginning to win me over with their personalities, if not there baking and there certainly seems to be a great sense of camaraderie this year, which is lovely to see.

The tension was as sharp as ever and I found myself gasping when they were wrapping those thin bits of baked batter around the spoon handles, remembering a similar experience when I made my own ice-cream cones.  You really do need asbestos fingers.

This week coincidentally, I made my own traybake.  Toffee shortbread, recipe here.  The challenge for me was not the bake but the fact that I made my own sweetened, condensed milk from my goats.

It really is simple to make but unless you happen to have a Rayburn that’s running all day, every day, it could work out quite expensive.  The milk needs to barely simmer for at least 4 hours.

I left it steaming away whilst I got on with my day and eventually it was ready to strain and leave to cool, when it thickened up nicely.  Although it did seem to separate slightly, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the taste.

Smoothing the shortbread

For the shortbread layer in my traybake I used goat’s butter.  The resulting mixture was rather like putty so instead of trying to roll it out, I pressed it into the base of my tin and smoothed it out with my cake polisher.  It worked really well and made a good foundation for the next layer.

The condensed milk worked perfectly and made a lovely golden toffee which I poured over the shortbread and left to firm up before finally adding the chocolate.  As Himself is not keen on plain I used half milk chocolate.  I also added a couple of tablespoons of cream – goat’s cream, of course!

When the chocolate had set, I cut the whole thing into 9 fairly large squares.  Whilst it tasted fantastic, it was incredibly sweet and a whole square was just too much in one sitting.  In fact I experienced quite a sugar rush.  We decided that half a square was a more appropriate portion.

My first experiment with condensing was a great success and I’m guessing that you could make evaporated milk in the same fashion but just leave out the sugar.

Another great use I’ve found for my plentiful goat’s milk

Sweetened condensed milk

• Time: Prep 5 mins Cooking 4 hours
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

• 1 litre milk (I used goat’s milk)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbls butter
• 1 tsp vanilla paste

Instructions

1. Pour the cold milk into a saucepan and place on a low heat.
2. Add the sugar and stir until well combined.
3. Let the mixture warm up until it is just starting to simmer.
4. Keep the temperature low to prevent the milk separating.
5. Leave to reduce for at least 4 hours or longer.
6. A skin will form which can be removed.
7. When the milk has reached the desired consistency, remove from the heat.
8. Strain through muslin into a clean bowl.
9. Stir in the butter and vanilla and mix well.
10. Pour into a clean jar and seal the top.
11. Allow to cool and then keep in the fridge until completely cold where it will thicken up a bit more.
12. Use as normal condensed milk.
13. It should keep for a week or so in the fridge.

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A whole square was just too much for one person

A more appropriate portion of toffee shortbread

Ascending egg mountain

The best ever egg custard tart

Last night’s Great British Bake Off was toe-curlingly good.  There were bits I had to watch from between my fingers, rather like a horror movie.  In the technical challenge, when the bakers were trying to get their custard tarts out of the tins, I could barely breathe.  What a shame so many didn’t make it.

The fruit pies weren’t a great success either and as for the filo pastry, well I’ve never seen anything like it.  Absolutely fabulous TV.

My egg mountain

I’ve never tried to make filo, in fact I have nowhere large enough to roll it out without it getting covered in dog hairs!  However, I have made the odd custard tart.

In spring our chickens, geese and ducks start laying with a vengeance, after their winter break.  Although we sell our surplus at the gate, we can become inundated with eggs and trying to find something to do with them all is a huge challenge.

The dogs enjoy a boiled egg or two, I only make cakes that take at least 5 and we eat a lot of omelettes.

This year, in despair, I stumbled across a recipe for a custard tart that used a total of 11 eggs – fantastic.  That would help to deplete my egg stock somewhat, and it looked pretty simple.

The recipe was from Marcus Wareing and can be found here.  I didn’t make any great changes to it apart from adding vanilla to the custard filling.

Rather than go through the grief of trying to get individual tarts out of tins, I prefer to make a large one.  If you can’t get it out, you can always slice it in-situ.

This time I thought I would take strips of baking parchment and lay it under the pastry, hanging over the edge of the pie dish, so in theory I could just lift it out (I thought I spotted someone doing a similar thing last night).  It didn’t quite work out that way but it was worth a go.

Another hazard is filling the pie casing with the eggy mixture right up to the brim without spilling it all over the place.  I guess it’s OK if you can slide your shelves smoothly in and out of your oven but in my case it took two people to accomplish it.  But it doesn’t stop there, once it’s filled you have to hold it there with the heat from the oven blasting you whilst you grate the nutmeg over the top!

Whatever the difficulties, it certainly had no impact on the taste of the tart, which was smooth, creamy and absolutely more-ish – the best custard tart I’ve ever tasted and well worth making again but not until the spring.  Eggs are not so plentiful right now.

 

A mere trifle

Rhubarb trifle with vanilla custard and whipped goat cream

The signature “bake” this week on the Great British Bake Off  was the humble trifle.  One of my all-time favourites which I make instead of Christmas pudding every year. When I was a child my mother would cook a roast dinner every Sunday.  Most weeks she would bake a cake, usually from a packet mix and I would get to lick the bowl.  She would also make a trifle for dessert.  This too was from a packet, the good old Bird’s trifle.  I loved the cream and the custard but I was never very keen on the jelly layer.  However, this became my idea of the perfect trifle and when I made my own trifles, not from a packet, they never quite tasted the same. I watched with interest when Heston Blumenthal was in Pursuit of Perfection and attempted to make the ultimate trifle.  It was a long and complicated recipe but I did try a couple of his ideas.  For instance, beating some ground tapioca into the cream makes it taste remarkably like “Dream Topping”.  Another little thing I tried was adding a layer of black olive jam but I’m not sure that was my idea of a perfect trifle.

I got this mould for Christmas and I intended to make tea cakes as demonstrated on the Bake Off last year but so far I’ve only used it for trifle sponges

As you may expect the contestants on the bake-off produced a wide range of exotic desserts, not really my cup of tea.  If it hasn’t got hundreds and thousands on the top, it’s not a trifle as far as I’m concerned.  In fact I rarely even add a glass of sherry. I always bake my trifle sponges a few days in advance and they freeze well.  I use a simple fatless sponge or alternatively a Swiss roll recipe is perfect.  In fact the last time I made a Swiss roll I couldn’t fit all the batter onto the tin so I poured the leftover into tea cake moulds and they made the cutest little sponges yet.

Trifle sponges

• Time: Prep 5 mins Cooking 25 mins
• Difficulty: easy
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A simple fatless sponge, perfect for trifles

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 110g caster sugar
• 45g plain flour
• 25g cornflour
• 1 tsp baking powder

Instructions

1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and beat thoroughly
2. Grease and line a small cake tin
3. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake at 180 degrees C for 20 minutes or until firm to the touch
4. Turn out on a wire rack to cool

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Trifle sponge spread with jam

For the custard I use one of Delia’s recipes which includes cornflour.  If it gets over-heated and goes horribly wrong, just tip in a clean bowl, beat well with a whisk and it should return to a smooth custard. The jelly layer is made up of whatever fruit I have to hand.  I usually simmer it in a little water then add 3 sheets of gelatine to get it to set. To assemble my perfect trifle I spread the sponges with jam, arrange them in my bowl, then pour over the jelly.  This goes into the fridge and when set the custard goes on top.  I usually put in back in the fridge with a layer of cling film on top to stop a skin forming. All the above can be done the day before.  On the day itself, I add the lightly whipped goat cream layer and finally finish it off with hundreds and thousands – what else?

My perfect trifle