Hot cross bun macarons

I absolutely love baking. I love how it calms my mind after a stressful day - the precision of the measuring and technique distracts me from all the worries and life's to-do lists. In the moment, it's just you and the recipe and the wooden spoon. One of my favourite things to do lately when baking, is it create hybrid desserts. It sounds sciency, but it's basically 'smooshing' two recipes together to create one super dessert. In the big food world, they call these 'Double Desserts' and I have written about them before. What's better than one dessert? Well, two. Duh. There is no logic in the world, that could find fault in that conclusion. 

Now it doesn't take a genius to figure out that my favourite holiday is Easter. Chocolate AND fluffy bunnies? Who doesn't like chocolate and bunnies! But I also love hot cross buns and even though we get them all year round, I flat out refuse to eat them at any other time, except the month leading up to Easter. Toasted with oozy melty butter, thanks. This got me to thinking what else I could infuse with delicious hot cross bun flavour. Last year I did a 'Hot cross bun sponge' with buttercream frosting and those addictive mini speckled eggs. So this year, I tackled the hot cross bun macaron. 

If you have ever made macarons you will understand the analogy that making them is not unlike experiencing a great deal of pain.  A little like child birth I would imagine. Afterwards you never seem to remember how unpleasant the experience really was. This is my relationship with macarons. So when I decided to concoct these, I was excited - and obviously delusional. Humming away to myself I measured out all the ingredients and got to work. Then it started; I remembered the dozens of blogs and articles I'd read as well as the comments made by fellow chefs about these little monsters and how tricky they are to get right. Not to mention how many burst or flat macarons had emerged from my own oven during my numerous recipe attempts! I was promised that this was The One; the best macaron recipe. So my optimism won - this time. I remember my grandmother always used to say a little prayer when she slid something into her oven and I used to think it completely silly until of course it came time to put my macarons in the oven. Yes, I was praying for these macarons. They not only had me praying, they had me sitting on the floor in front of my oven embroiled in a staring match with them, to make sure they rose perfectly. So not only were they making me religious, now the macarons were making me down right crazy. 

Having lost years of my life during the baking process, they emerged from my oven perfectly. This recipe really makes the perfect macaron so do give it a try - despite me taking years off my life with the amount of stressing, it's very hard to flop. But just incase, say a little prayer as you put them in your oven!

Photography and styling by Katelyn Williams

Hot cross bun macarons
Makes 50

 
120g ground almonds
200g icing sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

100g egg whites (about 3 large eggs)

1/4tsp cream of tartar
35g white sugar

Orange white chocolate ganache

100ml cream
1 tbsp Stork Bake

peel of 1 orange

250g white chocolate, chopped

Line 2-3 baking sheets with baking paper.

Sift together the ground almonds and icing sugar to remove any clumps. Blend any leftover mixture then sift again until nothing remains. Stir in the spices.
Begin beating the egg whites and cream of tartar on low speed. Once the egg whites are very foamy, begin sprinkling in the sugar as you beat. Increase the speed to medium, if necessary, and beat the meringue to stiff glossy peaks.

Add about 1/4 of the almond/sugar mixture and fold until no streaks remain. Continue to add the almond mixture in quarters, folding until incorporated.
Pour the batter into a piping bag fitted with a fluted nozzle and pipe rows of batter onto the baking sheets, giving them space to spread. Tap the pan on the counter to bring up any air bubbles and quickly pop them with a toothpick.

Allow the cookies to rest on a level surface for 30-60 minutes until they are no longer tacky to a light touch.
While they rest, place an oven rack in the lower 3rd of your oven and preheat to 150C.
Bake the cookies for 16-20 minutes.

Make the ganache by heating the cream, Stork Bake and orange peel together until just simmering. Set aside for 1 hour to infuse before heating again and pouring over the white chocolate. Stir until melted then allow to set until spreadable.

Sandwich the macarons together with the ganache. 

Photography and styling by Katelyn Williams

Chocolate meringue gateau

World Nutella Day is here and personally, I will be keeping it simple by celebrating with a jar and a spoon. But, if you'd rather make more of an occasion out of the day, then decadence is the key. This gateau is a marriage of meringue, shortcrust pastry, chocolate, nuts and of course, Nutella. Meringue is simplicity at its sweetest – soft pillows of marshmallow with a crisp outer crust created out of nothing more than whipped egg whites and sugar. Combine this lightness with layers of rich chocolate and whipped cream and you have a dessert that will get any chocolate-lover’s heart a-flutter! It certainly got mine going!

Photography by Angie Lazaro 

Chocolate meringue gateau

(serves 8-12)

Meringue

8 egg whites, at room temperature

500g castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup pecan nuts (or other nuts), finely chopped

Shortcrust pastry

225g Sasko Cake Flour

125g cold Stork Bake, chopped

½ cup icing sugar, sifted

3 egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp ice cold water

Gateau

1 cups cream

200g dark chocolate, chopped

1 cup Nutella spread

200g white chocolate, chopped

2 cups cream

2-3T Amaretto liqueur

chocolate curls, to garnish

Place egg whites in a large bowl and whisk until soft peak stage. Gradually add the sugar in small amounts, whisking until stiff peak stage. Whisk in vanilla.

Pipe the meringue in 4 large spirals and sprinkle with the chopped nuts. Preheat the oven to 120°C, turn the oven off, prop the door open slightly with a wooden spoon and let the meringue discs dry for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Photography by Angie Lazaro 

For the pastry, place the Sasko cake flour, Stork bake and icing sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process in short bursts until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. While the motor is running, add the egg yolk and vanilla. Add the iced water and process until the dough just comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and bring together to form a ball. Flatten into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Roll the pastry out to 3mm thick. Cut the pastry into a disc the same size as your meringue spirals. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

Photography by Angie Lazaro 

To make the fillings, heat the cream and pour ½ cup over each of the dark chocolate and white chocolate and stir until melted. Allow to cool. Place the pastry disc on a serving plate. Whip the cream with the liqueur. Spread the dark ganache on the pastry disc and spread with whipped cream follow with a meringue disc, the Nutella spread, more whipped cream, another disc, the white chocolate, the final disc and then finish with more cream. Refrigerate for 3 -4 hours before serving. Decorate with chocolate curls or drizzle with melted chocolate and top with chopped nuts. 

Photography by Angie Lazaro 

My famous baked white chocolate cheesecake

I’m not one to hold on to so-called ‘secret’ recipes but this one, I keep close. In fact I’ve been prolonging the day I’d share this recipe with anyone because it is just that good. How good? Well, good enough to help in winning over a boyfriend or two. After all, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and anyone who contests that, hasn’t tasted my cheesecake. But speaking of ‘secret’ recipes, I’m reminded of a story my grandmother used to tell of a dear old friend of hers who was known for her outstanding bakes at the church bazaar. To everyone’s amazement, she would willingly hand out her ‘secret’ recipes with a smile to any avid baker who asked for them. However, her ‘secret’ recipes never seemed to emerge from other’s oven’s quite as perfectly as it did from hers. You can only imagine the scandal and sordidness of it all when it was discovered that she would leave out an ingredient or two when passing on the recipe. With that in mind though, rest assured that my precious, velvety, rich white chocolate and cardamom-laced cheesecake recipe below, features in all it’s original glory. No recipes were harmed in the posting of this blog. Enjoy!

Cardamom and white chocolate cheesecake

(serves 10-12)

Cheesecake

400g coconut biscuits

100g butter or margarine, melted

800g cream cheese, room temperature

300g crème fraîche, room temperature

180g castor sugar

40g cake flour

4 eggs

200g white chocolate, melted

1/4t ground cardamom (optional)

zest of 2 lemons

Combine the biscuits and butter in a food processor and press into a 20cm lined cake tin.

TIP: If using a springform tin, cover the outside of the tin in one large sheet of foil to prevent the water from the bain marie entering the cake tin.

Mix the cheese, crème fraîche, sugar, flour, eggs, white chocolate, cardamom and zest together until smooth and pour into the crust.

TIP: Don’t beat or whip the mixture – filling should be creamy and smooth not aerated.

Bake in a bain-marie at 100°C until just set with a slight wobble in the middle.

TIP: Don’t over bake the cheesecake or it will become crumbly instead of smooth and velvety.

Allow to cool at room temperature then refrigerate until set.

VARIATIONS

SAFFRON NEW YORK CHEESECAKE:

Mix 120ml sour cream and 2T castor sugar with a pinch of saffron that has been steeped in 1t hot water for 10 minutes. Just before the cheesecake is ready, remove from the oven and carefully spread the saffron mixture over the cheesecake and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

MARBLED CHEESECAKE:

Combine all the ingredients except the white chocolate and divide into two. Add 100g white chocolate to the one batch and 100g dark chocolate to the remaining batch. Pour the white chocolate mix into the crust and drizzle with the dark chocolate mix. Swirl with a skewer to create a marble effect before baking.

FRUITY CHEESECAKE:

Add a handful of raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries or any other fruit into the cheesecake mix once it has been poured into the base, before baking.

Lady in red

This sexy little rouged number is a red velvet cupcake topped with a 

luscious marshmallowly frosting...

It is said that the first red velvet cake got its colour from the reaction between the acidic vinegar and alkaline cocoa – it revealed the red anthocyanin in the cocoa which, back then, was ‘Dutch processed’. Nowadays it requires quite a large dollop of colouring to give the cake an impressive inky red appearance. Whether it got its luscious hue by accident or from a bottle, it’s definitely a favourite and in my opinion, will paint any town red!

Red velvet cupcakes with marshmallow frosting

This recipe can also be used to make a large 23cm cake

(makes 24)

2 ½ cups flour

1 ½ cups sugar

1t bicarbonate of soda

1T cocoa

pinch salt

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 ½ cups oil

1t vinegar

1T red food colouring

1t vanilla extract

Marshmallow frosting

4 egg whites

pinch salt

1 cup castor sugar

Line 2 muffin trays with cupcake cases. Sift dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Pour the batter into the cupcake cases, filling them 2/3 full. Bake for 18–20 minutes.

Make the frosting by whisking the egg whites with salt in a heatproof bowl until soft peak stage. Add castor sugar and whisk over simmering water until the meringue is hot to the touch. Remove from the heat and beat on high with a hand mixer until cool. Colour with red  food colouring, if desired and use immediately.

Photograph Angie Lazaro