Clementine Posset with Cranberry Compote

I love desserts that are simple to make but look elegant and appear more complex to produce than they are in reality. This is one of those types of desserts and one that can be made in advance which is a distinct advantage at this busy time of year when there is so much to do in the run-up to Christmas.

This would be a wonderful dessert to serve on St. Stephen’s day, when you still want something that’s luxurious but a little lighter after all the rich fruit puddings and trifles traditionally served on Christmas Day.
 

This dessert has a lovely citrus freshness which is very refreshing on the palate. Clementines can be very sweet but the cranberry compote cuts through that sweetness to create a balanced dish. I have added a splash of Cointreau to the cranberry compote because I have always associated the orange liqueur with Christmas but also because it echoes the citrus notes of the posset.

The posset would be delicious served with a few madeleines on the side or as I have done with some stem ginger shortbread hearts.

I like to serve this dessert in small individual serving glasses  (about 70ml capacity) as I like to be able to see the colour and texture contrasts between the posset and the compote.

Ingredients:

Cranberry Compote:
150g fresh cranberries
115g caster sugar
1 tblsp Cointreau

3 tblsp water

Clementine Posset:

300ml double cream

75g caster sugar

Juice of ½ lemon

Grated Zest and juice of 1 large clementine

 

Method:

Cranberry compote:
1. Put the cranberries, caster sugar and water in a small saucepan over a moderate heat and bring to a simmer. Stir occasionally but try not to break up the fruit too much. Allow simmer for about 7 minutes or until you have achieved a syrupy consistency. Remove from the heat, stir in the Cointreau and allow to cool.
2. When cool spoon a couple of generous teaspoons of the compote into each of the individual serving glasses and refrigerate while you make the posset.
Clementine posset:

3. Put the double and sugar in a medium sized saucepan over a moderate heat and bring to the boil. Allow to bubble for two minutes and then remove from the heat. Add the clementine and lemon juices and the grated clementine zest and stir well.

4. Leave to cool for roughly 10 to 15 minutes and pour, dividing the mixture equally on top of the cranberry compote in the individual serving glasses. 

Serves 6.

Lebkuchen

As Christmas is almost upon us, I decided to include another recipe for a biscuit that is very popular at this time of year. It is believed that lebkuchen was originally invented by German monks in the 13^th Century. There is no hard and fast rule for the spice mix that is included in recipes for lebkuchen, but historically they always include ginger. Although the primary flavour is of is ginger, other spices are used, most usually cinnamon and nutmeg. I have experimented using different spices and the recipe that I give here is the one that I think achieves the best balance.

 

In addition to the spices mentioned above I have also included some ground cloves because I love their pungency but I do caution their judicious use, because if used excessively they are reminiscent of the mouthwash used in dental surgeries!

I also decided to include some freshly ground pepper in this recipe because I felt that it would add an extra spicy warmth to the finished biscuits. I was really pleased with how these biscuits turned out.

The real revelation was the inclusion of finely grated lemon rind. It accentuated the spiciness of the biscuits but also left a lingering fruity freshness. Ginger and lemon are classic bedfellows and I think that this is really proved here.

Due to the different spices that are sometimes used and because of regional variations, lebkuchen is also known as honigkuchen (honey cake) or pfefferkuchen (Pepper cake).

Lebkuchen is usually soft, but a harder version is made to produce the highly decorate lebkuchen heart shaped biscuits that are for sale all over Germany at Christmas time. The recipe that I give here produces a softish biscuit.
 

Ingredients:

115g dark brown muscovado sugar
85ml runny honey

30g butter

225g plain flour

½ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

Generous pinch each of freshly ground pepper and ground cloves

Grated zest of half a lemon

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 egg, beaten

50g ground almonds

Sugar glaze:

50g icing sugar

3-4 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
 

Method:

1. Make the dough the night before you intend to bake the biscuits.
2. Place the honey, butter and sugar in a large saucepan over a moderate heat. Stir occasionally until the butter and sugar have melted. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

3. Sift the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda together and mix into the melted butter and sugar mixture in two batches. Add the egg and lemon zest and mix well to fully incorporate. Then add the ground almonds and do the same.

4. The mixture will still appear to be quite sloppy, but will firm up after being chilled. Place the mixture into a bowl and cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight, but anything up to two days.

The following day:

5. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Line two large baking trays with non-stick baking parchment.

6. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll between two sheets of non-stick baking parchment until approximately ½cm thick. Use 5cm cookie cutters of your choice (I like to use plain circles).
7. Stamp out biscuits from the dough and place on the parchment-lined baking trays.

8. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until golden brown and then remove from the oven. Allow to cool on the baking trays for about five minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Sugar glaze:

9. Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together to form a quite liquid solution. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush the glaze onto the biscuits. Repeat and then allow the glaze to dry completely. These biscuits will keep for quite a long time if stored in an air-tight tin – anything up to two weeks. 

 

Makes approximately 20 biscuits.


 

Individual Pear Clafoutis

I previously posted a recipe for Cherry Clafoutis and mentioned that all manner of fruits could be used. I find that blueberries work particularly well, but pears are particularly delicious especially if you include a generous glug of Amaretto – the Italian almond flavoured liqueur – in the batter. Almonds and pears have a natural affinity for each other and I think that they complement each other so well in this recipe.

 

I know that I am posting yet another recipe using pears, but the reasons for this are simple…

 

Pears are in season and I passionately believe that where possible we should cook to the seasons, using ingredients that are plentiful at that particular time of the year. Where feasible, I also try to use Irish ingredients. This makes practical sense on so many levels. Produce that is in season tends to be abundant and as a result is often much cheaper to buy than at other times of the year when the elevated prices that you pay are basically to subsidise the costs of shipping and flying the produce half way around the world.

 

Using fruit as an example, so often the fruits are picked when very under-ripe, are packed into cold-storage and then shipped thousands of miles. They apparently ripen on the journey and continue to do so when they arrive in our supermarkets and shops. Is it little wonder that these foods are so often tasteless? Eating fruit and vegetables grown in this country, when they are in season, makes sense because they usually taste so much better!

 

For the cook this inevitably means that you will be using certain ingredients more often depending on the time of the year, but honestly, I don’t have a problem with this! I will have my fill of them when they are in season and then re-acquaint myself with them with renewed and joyful enthusiasm each year.

 

It is also interesting to note that the reason that certain foods go so well together is because they are in season at the same time. Blackberries, pears and hazelnuts are a perfect example. They are harvested at roughly the same time and it is therefore inevitable that many classic recipes have been developed that use them together. Game is also in season at the same time that blackberries and other hedgerow fruits are coming in to fruit and again it is little wonder that they are so often paired together on the plate.

 

So, here is another pear recipe, but it’s a simple one and it tastes delicious. One piece of advice, use pears that are ripe and do remove the inner core using a melon baller or small teaspoon. The pears will then be beautifully cooked all the way through. I like to keep the pears whole and retain the stalks as I think that they look very alluring when served on their individual pillows of plumped-up clafoutis batter!
 

Ingredients:

6 small ripe pears, peeled but left whole with stalks intact80g caster sugar

2 large eggs

90g plain flour sieved

30g butter, melted
1 tblsp Amaretto

150ml milk

½ tsp vanilla paste

2-3 tblsp icing sugar
 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C.Gas Mark 4.2. Grease 6 individual jumbo muffin tins or largish individual ramekins (about 150ml capacity) with butter.

3. Beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla paste together with a whisk until well mixed. Next whisk in the flour.

4. Finally add the melted butter, milk and Amaretto and ensure that everything is well mixed.

5. Divide the mixture evenly between the greased muffin tins/ramekins and then pop a whole peeled pear upright into each on top of the batter. Immediately place into the pre-heated oven for approximately 30 minutes until the batter has puffed up, is golden brown and the pears are cooked through.

6. Remove from the muffin tins or serve in the individual ramekins whilst still warm with pouring cream, caramel sauce or custard. Dust with a little icing sugar if you like.

 
Serves 6.

      

Jam-filled Doughnuts

I am ridiculously pleased with how these doughnuts turned out.

 
I have recently spent a lot of time trying out and tweaking different recipes in an effort to make what I consider to be the perfect doughnut.

This quest for my own personal doughnut nirvana would only be realised if I could make a doughnut that replicated the ones that I loved eating so much when I was a child and which were only every bought for me as a special treat.

I didn’t want a cakey dough, one that was reminiscent of that used in the doughnuts that are so beloved across the Atlantic. These have their place and I do enjoy them, but what I was after here was a good old fashioned jam-filled doughnut with a slightly chewy but perfectly cooked crumb that was light to eat. I wanted them to be coated sugar that clung to my moist lips and be generously filled with sweet jam which threatened to splodge out of control with every bite taken.

Quite a challenging list of requirements really!

 

Well… I think I have achieved everything that I wanted to.

I used raspberry jam, but I am itching to make another batch using a seasonal alternative such as cranberry jam or mincemeat. I don’t know how these will turn out, but I suspect that they could be really delicious.

What I like so much about these doughnuts is that notwithstanding the fact that they are covered in sugar and filled with jam, the overall effect is not too sweet as sugar is kept to an absolute minimum in the dough. I am not suggesting for one moment that these doughnuts are low-calorie… unfortunately they are not, but everyone needs something special every now and then and these definitely fit the bill.

Although you can knead the dough by hand I recommend using the dough hooks on a free-standing mixer to do the job for you. It is quite a soft dough and you will only be tempted to add more flour if you do the kneading by hand.

Ingredients:

225g strong white flour
5g dried yeast
½ tsp salt

25g sugar

75ml milk, warmed

35ml water, warmed

20g butter, melted and allowed to cool slightly

1 medium egg lightly beaten

To finish:

Flavourless vegetable oil for frying

Caster sugar for sprinkling

3 tblsp jam (I used raspberry) for filling
 

Method:

1. Place the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl and mix well together with a wooden spoon. Add the milk, water, egg and melted butter and stir with the wooden spoon until all the ingredients come together.

2. Place the mixture into the bowl of a free-standing mixer and using the dough hook attachments, “knead” the dough for about ten minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Put the dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover with cling-film. Leave the bowl in a warm place for about an hour until the yeast starts to work and the dough is doubled in size.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work-surface and knock out some pf the air. Shape into six even-sized balls and place on a lightly floured tray and cover with cling-film or a clean, damp tea-towel for about forty minutes, to rise again.

4. Heat the oil in a large pan or deep-fat fryer until it reaches 160C. Cook the doughnuts in batches for about three minutes each side until they have puffed up and are a deep golden colour. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and place briefly on some absorbent kitchen roll to soak up excess oil. Sprinkle with caster sugar.

5. Put the jam into a disposable piping bag filled with a small round nozzle and pressing firmly against the side of each doughnut, inject with about a teaspoon’s worth of jam. Allow the doughnuts to cool and serve.

 

Makes 6

 

Clementine Macarons

Macarons or Macaroons to give them their English name are little meringues made with ground nuts, most usually ground almonds, although one of my favourite versions includes ground pistachios.

Macarons are usually presented sandwiched together in pairs and can be filled with chocolate ganache, buttercream or jam. They can be made in a range of flavours but the traditional flavours are vanilla, raspberry, pistachio and chocolate.

I really love macarons… I mean I really I REALLY LOVE MACARONS! I love their appearance; I love their adaptability and how easy it is to incorporate different flavours but most of all I love the feeling you have when you eat one…a feeling of doing something slightly naughty and of giving in to a self-indulgence that cannot be resisted.

Although very few ingredients are used in the making of macarons, they are notoriously difficult to make and to perfect. I love a culinary challenge and about a year ago I became more than a little obsessive about making macarons. I think I have cracked it and after many failed attempts, I am now able to churn out batch after batch of consistently good macarons. Once you get used to making them and are able to achieve consistent results, you can then really start experimenting with flavours.

The recipe that I give here is for Clementine Macarons. I recently purchased a large crate of clementines and I know quite a few of my recent posts have included recipes using clementines, but let me reassure you, these are delicious. You can of course, use other citrus fruits… but given that it is Christmas, I think that these are very apt.

There is nothing more delightful than seeing the look on someone’s face when you present them with a selection of home-made macarons in a range of beautiful flavours and colours. There is something so decadent and luxurious about them and in case you hadn’t already guessed… I LOVE MACARONS!

Ingredients:

Macaron shells:
90g egg whites
30g caster sugar
200g icing sugar
110g ground almonds

Finely grated zest of 1 clementine

Few drops of orange food colouring (gel colouring)

Clementine buttercream:

100g butter, softened

250g icing sugar

1-2 tsp lemon juice

3-4 tsp clementine juice

3 tsp clementine zest
 

Method:

1. Prepare your baking sheets. Draw about 40 round circles (about 4cms in diameter) on two sheets of non-stick baking parchment and place on two baking trays, ensuring that the side that you drew the circles on is on the side against the baking tray – you should still be able to see the circles through the baking parchment.
2. Put the icing sugar and ground almonds into a food processor and pulse to grind the nuts to a fine powder. Pass this mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl and set aside. Discard any large lumps of nut that are retained in the sieve.
3. Using a hand held electric mix, whisk the egg whites until they have reached the soft peak stage.
4. Add the caster sugar and whisk until the mixture is standing in firm peaks. Stop once you have reached this stage, because over beating will result in macaron shells that are too dry. Add a couple of drops of orange gel colouring and whisk the mixture briefly to incorporate the colouring.
5. Add the nuts and sugar mixture to the meringue along with the clementine zest and fold into the meringue with a spatula, using firm folding strokes. Make sure everything is well incorporated. The meringue will slacken as the nuts are folded in. It will take about 40-50 strokes to achieve the correct consistency. It should be a softly flowing consistence that does not retain any peaks, but will still hold its shape without spreading everywhere.

6. Place the macaron mixture into a disposable piping bag fitted with a ½ cm plain round nozzle and pipe out rounds of the mixture using the pre-drawn circles as guides. Let the piped macarons sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to dry out their shells a little.

7. Pre-heat the oven to 140C/Fan Oven 120C/Gas Mark 1. Place the macarons in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow cool. Remove the baked macarons from the baking parchment. If you are not filling the macarons immediately they can be stored in an air tight tin until they are required.

8. To fill the macarons, pipe or spoon a teaspoon of buttercream onto the underside of one macaron and sandwich together with another macaron.

To make the clementine buttercream:

9. Using a hand-held electric mixer cream the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add the clementine and lemon juices along with the clementine zest and beta again to fully incorporate. Use to sandwich the macarons together in pairs.
 

Makes 20-24 macarons (sandwiched together).