Jamie Oliver's Chocolate Tart

It's true what they say about English weather, you get a patch of sun for a week every summer and you're done for the year. This couldn't be more true at the moment, we've had a few scattered days of sunshine and now I'm sitting here typing this up whilst it rains again, just for something different. Well one of those days way back when the sun was shinning for a brief period in time, I made this delightfully summery chocolate tart with berries. This was my first time using a sweet Jamie Oliver recipe, it was super delicious and delectable.

Ingredients

Base

1 packet of Chocolate Digestive Biscuits or Chocolate Wheatons

250g butter

Filling

300ml double cream

2 tsp caster sugar

A pinch of fine sea salt

50g unsalted butter, softened
200g 70% cocoa cook’s chocolate, broken into small pieces (I used Lindt)
50ml whole milk
Berries, sea salt flakes or crème fraîche or ice cream, to serve

Method

1. Crush biscuits in food processor until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.

2. Add butter and mix together, mixture should be firm when pressed together.

3. Press biscuit mixture evenly and firmly into a tart tin and leave to cool in refrigerator whilst you make the filling
4. Put the cream, sugar and salt in a pan and bring to the boil. Remove as soon as the mixture boils up. With the pan off the heat, add the butter and chocolate. Stir until blended.
5. Take a couple of minutes for a breather, then stir in the milk. Keep stirring till it's shiny.

6. Pour into the tart shell and leave at room temperature for 4 hours to set.
7. Once ready add your berries, salt or whatever your desired topping is and serve with cream or ice-cream.

Cannoli with Crema di Pasticceria

Given that the festive season is upon us, I thought I would share a little family classic. This is the kind of food we have at parties and celebrations and Christmas. Cannoli are a Sicilian pastry dessert, cannoli essentially means little tubes, traditionally they are filled with ricotta cream or another kind of sweet pasty cream/custard which I will show you below. Now I normally love making everything from scratch, but given these tiny tubes are consumed in seconds but are time-consuming to make, I always buy the shells and then fill them myself. I know shells are readily available in Australia from a good continental deli, but finding them in the UK has been seemingly difficult. I ended up purchasing my shells from my local Antonio Carluccio restaurant for a staggering £12 which is about $20AUD for 24 small shells, but it was all worth it, they disappeared in minutes. So here is my recipe for Cannoli Crema di Pasticceria.

These were the only cannoli shells I could find!

Crema di Pasticceria (fills 24 cannoli shells)

1/3 cup cornflour

1/3 cup of custard powder

1/4 cup caster sugar

2 cups milk

2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or essence

300ml cream

1 egg yolk (beaten)

2 tbls of liquor (only if you like)

(150g of mixed dark/milk cooking chocolate for half the mixture to be chocolate flavoured)

1. Sift cornflour, custard powder, and caster sugar into a pot and stir to combine.

2. Gradually add milk and whisk until smooth and free from lumps.

3. Add vanilla bean and cream and continue whisking until combined.

4. Turn heat on. Whisk over a low heat until mixture begins to thicken and simmer.

5. Remove pot from heat and allow to cool slighly before adding the beaten egg yolk. Mix well.

6. Separate mixture evenly into two bowls.

7. Pour in melted chocolate into one of the bowls to make a chocolate version of the crema di pasticceria.

8. Cover bowls with cling film and refrigerate either over night or for several hours. Don't worry if mixture is slightly lumpy at this point.

9. Remove from fridge and place mixture into an electric mixing bowl and beat for a few minutes. This will remove any lumps from the cream and will make the mixture smooth and easy to pipe.

10. Fill piping bag up with mixture and pipe vanilla through one side and chocolate on the other. This means you get the best of both in one tiny tube. (Note: It is best to pipe the mixture as close as possible to serving so cannoli shells are still crispy)

11. Once piped, sift icing sugar on top for serving. Enjoy!

Chefette's Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie is something I have always been curious about as a keen foodie, you can't watch an American TV show centered around Christmas or Thanksgiving that doesn't feature the humble pie. It is such a strange concept for me, putting pumpkin in a pie, and given that it has just been Thanksgiving in the US and having many American friends, I had to try making my own. Pumpkin was initially used in American pies as a filler, but gradually over time, people loved the taste so much that it became the "star" of the dish. Now to be completely frank, this was the first time I have made Pumpkin Pie and eaten it, so I have no idea whether it tastes the way it should, but upon serving I had clean plates, which is always a good sign, so it could not have been all that bad. Also it is so easy peasy and such a lovely taste of winter! Special shout-out to my Missourian friend Amber for her invaluable Pumpkin Pie advice ;-) So here's my take on Traditional American Pumpkin Pie.

(Note I used a shortcrust pasty to line my pie dish, but after tasting, next time I make this, I think I'd use a biscuit base, similar to what you would use in a cheesecake) 

Biscuit Base

500g Sweet Biscuits (Marie, Rich Tea, Digestives etc)

250g Butter

1. Crush biscuits in food processor until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.

2. Add butter to food processor and blend until combined.

3. Press biscuit mixture into a lined spring-form cake tin or pie dish.

Pumpkin Pie Filling

1kg Pumpkin (any kind) I also used a sweet potato as part of my 1kg for something different.

1 397g tin of sweetened condensed milk

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons brown sugar

50g butter

1. Boil pumpkin with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar until soft.

2. Blend pumpkin in food processor until smooth.

3. Add all ingredients (eggs last)

4. Pour into prepared pie base.

5. Bake in a preheated oven at 160°C until the center become firm.

(I baked mine for about an hour and ten minutes, but it was quite deep and large, so timing will vary from pie to pie. If it is starting to brown, cover with foil to finish the baking)

Best served with whipped cream and nuts! Happy Baking! xxx