Pear Sorbetto with Maple Walnut Brittle

It is Easter weekend but hardly spring like. It is two steps forward and one step back with our snowy weather. Yesterday the snow was melting and the water was running. Today there are big soft snowflakes gently falling to cover the accomplishments of yesterday's sunshine.

Such is life on the prairies. Spring will be here when it is ready. Until then we have to make lemonade... er... I mean... pear sorbetto. I used BC pears that I put away in my freezer from last season. This dessert was prepared for a dinner guest with a lot of dietary restrictions. I like a little crunch with my meal and this Maple Walnut Brittle is satisfying.

Maple Walnut Brittle

1/4 c. cane sugar
1/4 c. dark maple syrup
1/4 c. light corn syrup
3/4 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Prepare a baking pan by lining with parchment paper.

Melt sugar and syrups over medium heat until it reaches 300F (hard crack stage). Add walnuts and vanilla and stir. Add baking soda and mix thoroughly. Pour onto prepared baking sheet spreading as thinly as possible, and cool. Break into small irregular pieces.

Pear Sorbetto      adapted from Jamie Oliver

1/4 c cane sugar

1/4 c water

2 c. soft pears, peeled, quartered and cores removed

juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

1 tbsp. vodka, or to taste

Bring sugar and water to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Add pears and, unless they're super soft, continue to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, leave to one side for 5 minutes, then add the lemon juice (minus the pips) and zest. Pour everything into a food processor and whiz to a purée, then push the mixture through a coarse sieve into the dish in which you want to serve it.

Add the vodka, stir, and taste. The vodka shouldn't be overbearing or too powerful – it should be subtle and should work well with the pears. However, different brands do vary in strength and flavour, so add to taste. Be careful though, if you use too much alcohol the sorbet won't freeze. Put the dish into the freezer and whisk it up with a fork every half-hour – you'll see it becoming pale in colour. After a couple of hours it will be ready. The texture should be nice and scoopable. Delicious served with delicate crunchy biscuits.

PS This sorbet will last in the freezer for a couple of days – after that it will crystallize.

Easy Milk Chocolate Fudge

I make a lot of Saskatoon Berry & White Chocolate Scones for the Market. Last time I ran out and placed my order, I mistakenly ordered 4 - 5 kg boxes of milk chocolate rather than white chocolate. Now I have all this in my pantry.

This is creamy and rich just like fudge should be and just in time for your Christmas baking. If you have any other favourite recipes for milk chocolate I would love to get your ideas. Just leave a comment here.

Milk Chocolate Fudge

Gourmet  | February 2007

    1 1/2 pound fine-quality milk chocolate, chopped

    6 tbsp unsalted butter

    22 oz  sweetened condensed milk (2 cans)

    1 teaspoon salt

Line bottom of an 9 x 13 inch baking pan with parchment paper or wax paper.

Heat all ingredients in a metal bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally, until smooth.

Pour into baking pan and chill, uncovered, until firm, about 4 hours. Run a knife around edges of pan and invert fudge onto a work surface. Remove parchment and cut fudge into 1-inch squares. Serve chilled.  (I cooled this at room temperature overnight. It is much easier to cut and remove from the parchment paper when chilled)

White Chocolate Bark with Dried Cranberries and Pistachio

 

 

This is my first bit of Christmas baking.  Well, it is so easy.  I used couverture white chocolate, melted it gently and folded in chopped dried cranberries and chopped salted pistachio nuts.  You don't have to be too exact on the measurements.  I felt that I had way too many cranberries and nuts so I just added another layer of melted white chocolate.  It takes a long time to set up.  I left it over night.  It looks delicious and also tastes delicious.

I have packaged it for the Christmas Market.

Candied Miniature Carrots

My garden took second seat to the Farmer's Market this summer.  That almost does not seem right, does it.  I did use herbs from my little garden in the salads and dips I made for the market, but mostly the garden was for my own use.

I planted the carrots and did not thin the planting.  Now that it is fall, it is time to dig up everything.  To my delight I had a lot of these tiny little carrots!  I have always wanted to make candied carrots for decorating carrot cupcakes iced with cream cheese frosting.

Each carrot is between 1 and 2 inches long.  I washed and cleaned them and then I painstakingly peeled each little one.  I think I have about 3 dozen.

The first step is to blanch them in salted water.  This is necessary so that the cell structure will change and accept the sugar in replacement for the water in the carrot.  But you don't want to cook them either.  This is truly 'cooking by braille'.  I guessed at a short blanching time and drained them and then shocked them in ice water.

I made a heavy sugar syrup of water and sugar.  I boiled the miniature carrots in this syrup for two or three minutes and turned off the heat.  I let them sit in the sugar syrup for 2 days.  After 2 days, I added another 1/2 cup of sugar and heated them again.  When the new sugar was dissolved and the syrup was bubbling, I turned off the heat and let them sit in the sugar syrup for 3 days.  During this time the water in the carrots is being replaced with sugar through osmosis.

After this, I warmed them so the sugar syrup was thin.  I removed the little carrots and dried them on a cake rack for one day.  Now they are arranged in layers separated by parchment paper in an airtight container.  I will keep them in my cold room until I use them in two weeks for my cupcakes at the market.

Everyone is asking how they taste!  That did not even cross my mind!  I was only thinking of appearances.  So I just ate one.  It tastes faintly of carrot in a jellied candy kind of way.  The green part was just as candied as the orange part.  Very pleasant.

Rhubarb Turkish Delight

You are so lucky that rhubarb season is coming to an end.  I am sure you have seen more of rhubarb than you ever thought possible!  I have been having fun with it.

I have adapted a recipe from The British Larder.  If you have not been on her website, you really must.  She is a truly inspired chef and is opening her very own restaurant in Suffolk, England soon.

I love this sweet!  It turned out a little softer than I would like but I was too afraid to overcook the mixture.  I know the recipe says to boil until it reaches 112C.  After taking candy and chocolate making classes from Jean Pierre Wybauw, I know that it isn't all about temperature.  I would love to find a recipe, or perhaps adapt this recipe, so I can use the refractometer to measure the doneness of the sugar syrup.

I would prefer to err on the side of softness rather than hardness when it comes to a delicate sweet like this.  I will definitely be making this again!  I used my rhubarb simple syrup and it was perfect.

When I was studying home economics at university, I learned that if a gelatin is allowed to set at a higher temperature (say room temperature) rather than a lower temperature (such as the refrigerator), the resultant jelly would be firmer and maintain that firmness better at room temperature.  Hence, the suggestion not to let this set in the refrigerator.  See Cooks Notes below.

Rhubarb Turkish Delight                     adapted from The British Larder

2 cups of rhubarb simple syrup
1 envelope of gelatin powder
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
1/4 + 1/4 cup of water
2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 4 tablespoons of icing sugar

Line the bottom and sides of a standard loaf pan with plastic wrap.  Sift the cornstarch with the icing sugar and set aside.

Soften the gelatin powder in 1/4 cup of warm water.  Let it bloom until fully hydrated.  At the same time, dissolve the cornstarch in 1/4 cup of cold water.  Mix to make a slurry.

Put the rhubarb simple syrup in a non-reactive pot.  Add the softened gelatin and the cornstarch mixture.  Stir to blend completely.

Heat over medium high heat for about 15 - 20 minutes, approximately 112C.

Remove from the heat and cool slightly.  Then pour into the prepared pan.  Let sit 12 hours at room temperature.  Do not refrigerate.

Remove the jellied mixture from the pan and place on a cutting board that has been liberally dusted with the cornstarch and icing sugar mixture.  Dust the top of the jellied mixture, as well.  With a clean, sharp knife cut into desired shapes and sizes.  Carefully toss the jellied candy in the cornstarch and icing sugar mixture.  Place on parchment paper to dry.

Do not store in the refrigerator.  Store in a tightly closed container in a cold room.  This will keep up to 3 months.

Cooks Notes:
Temperature. With a definite concentration and time for setting, solidification occurs only with a definite temperature. For a high solidifying temperature a high concentration of gelatin is required. The slower a gelatin solution is cooled, the higher the temperature at which it solidifies. A gelatin solution may be cooled down, by packing ice around its container, to a temperature below that at which setting would occur if a longer time is allowed. On the other hand, gelatin solutions may be mixed and left standing for 2 or 3 hours at room temperature. If they are then put in ice or the refrigerator they set quite rapidly and as if gel nuclei might have started to form while standing at room temperature. At low temperatures all gelatins become firmer. At high temperatures they are liquid, for no gel occurs at temperatures above 35°C. with any concentration of gelatin. With the same concentration one gel may set at 10°C, another at 12°, still another at 14° to 16°C, and others require lower temperatures for setting. The gelatins that set at higher temperatures show jellies of greater firmness than those that set at low temperatures. The ones requiring lower temperatures than 10°C. to set do not serve very well, for they also soften at a low temperature.

Burnt Orange Pecan caramels...perfect for Christmas

We had almost tornado strength winds (at least is seemed like that to me!) and driving rain the night before last.  The winds were still strong yesterday, as well.  I dragged all of the wrought iron patio furniture into the safety of the shop.  And my little Weber barbecue, too.  When I turned around the the wind was whipping the pool cover off.

There was nothing I could do.  But the story has a happy ending.  The winds died down last night.  This morning I surveyed the damage with the pool cover.  Turns out the cord holding it was still in one piece.  It had a ratchet type of thingy to keep it taut.  So I loosened it, pulled the pool cover back on and gradually cranked the ratchet to tighten it all up.  The winds may be back but it is just one day at a time, right?  Now back to cooking...

A byproduct from making your own candied orange peel and candied fruit is left over sugar syrup.  This syrup is flavoured with the fruits and it is very tasty.  I didn't want to waste it, so I experimented.  Because I used corn syrup in my process, the sugar syrup will not boil to the hard ball stage and make lollipops without burning first.  Corn syrup is great for preventing crystallization and makes a nice smooth sugar product.  Adding the corn syrup prolongs shelf life for the candied products.  Girl Gone Grits makes lollipops with her sugar syrup but she doesn't use corn syrup when making the candied orange peel and I thank her for planting the seed for me to use the orange flavoured syrup.

Options would be toffee, taffy and caramels.  Because I really didn't know the amount of sugar in my syrup, the traditional recipes were not that helpful.  So I threw in a cup of butter and continued the simmer.  I took it until I thought if I simmered any further it would have too much of a burnt flavour.  But it was still too soft for toffee so my next goal was to make caramels.  I added a teaspoon of good quality vanilla extract and a cup of chopped pecans.

                                                                    I poured the syrup into a pan hoping it would somewhat harden.  It did but was still too sticky.  The solution was to wrap each caramel in a piece of waxed paper.  This makes it easier to store and easier to eat.

Don't you love the holly in the picture?  I clipped it from shrubs in my garden.

Candied fruits

I have been on a mission to learn how to make candied fruits like I have seen in Paris and the Amalfi coast.  Whole little fruits are candied and make a nice gift for special occasions.  The process takes about 16 days in which time the sugar concentration of the syrup is increased slightly every day.

It is essentially a process of osmosis.  The water of the fruit is removed and replaced with sugar.  This renders the fruit preserved and will have a shelf life of up to a year without refrigeration.

I use a refractometer to measure the sugar concentration.  And the instructions I am following are in Jean-Pierre Wybauw's book 'Fine Chocolates-Great Experience'.

I have used Florida lemons and oranges, Meyer lemons (see picture of whole fruit) and California mandarins.  Ideally, you find small fruits and candy them whole.  Strawberries, sekel pears, miniature oranges, and pineapple rings are a few of the popular fruits used.  So far, I only have sliced Florida lemons ready.  I sliced the Meyer lemons thicker and it didn't work as well as the thinly sliced Florida lemons.  The mandarins didn't work as well as the navel organges.  I think they have a lot more water in them. 

Making Your Own Candied Citrus Peel

It is very easy to make your own candied peel.  Orange, lemon and grapefruit work the best.  Limes tend to turn a dark colour and are unattractive when candied.

This is my recipe after trying several different recipes and adapting them to what I think makes a good candied peel.

The corn syrup in this recipe prevents the large sugar crystals from forming while the completed peel cools.  I squeeze the juice first so nothing is wasted.  Then I cut the orange halves into quarters and then remove the flesh and pithy part.  Then cut into strips.

These are finished by tossing in fine granulated sugar.  Use this peel in recipes that call for chopped candied citrus peel.  Or if you want to dress them and serve as a candy, dip in tempered dark chocolate.

Candied Citrus Peel

peel of 3 oranges, 2 grapefruit or 6 lemons
1 c granulated white sugar
3 T corn syrup
3/4 c water

1.     Remove the inner flesh and white pithy part from the peel.  The white part tends to make the peel bitter.  Cut the cleaned peel into strips.

2.     Blanch the peel in salted boiling water for 15-20 minutes. Empty and blanch again in fresh water for 15 minutes.  Blanching serves two purposes.  Firstly, it tenderizes and takes away bitterness.  And secondly, it changes the cellular structure so that the sugar will be accepted into the peel.

3.     Bring the sugar, corn syrup and water to a boil.  Add the blanched peel.  Simmer until the peel is translucent.  This will take about 30 minutes.  Remove from heat and let sit overnight in the sugar syrup.

4.     The next day, reheat the sugar syrup before removing the peel.  Drain the peel on a rack and let sit for a day to dry.
5.     Toss the peel in granulated sugar.  It is now ready to use or it can be dipped in tempered chocolate.

Last Day of Chocolate Making Class - Butter Truffles with Vanilla

Last day is always bittersweet, pardon the chocolate pun, isn't it?  So sad to leave the school, all the new friends and our wonderful teacher but on the other hand, my feet are killing me and I have eaten so much chocolate that I won't be able to face the 5 pounds I am taking home with me.



Rather than ganaches, we made truffles today.

We piped, formed and enrobed truffles.  We made a fabuous Mediterranean flavour which had pureed raisins that were plumped in port.  They were by far my favourite flavour of the entire class.  So Yummy!  I will be making them again.

At the end of the day, we were all awarded with our certificates!  It is definitely something I will be hanging in my kitchen.

Butter Truffles with Vanilla   adapted from recipe by Jean-Pierre      Wybauw


350 gm heavy cream
2 vanilla pods, split and seeds scraped into cream
130 gm butter
80 gm invert sugar (or honey)
500 gm tempered dark chocolate


Bring the cream with the split vanilla bean pods and seeds, invert sugar and butter to the boil.


Let it infuse until the cream cools to room temperature.  Pour the mixture through a sieve (to remove vanilla bean) into the tempered chocolate, mix well.  Be sure the butter chocolate mixture crystallizes before piping into shapes.


Dip in tempered dark chocolate and finish by rolling in granulated sugar.  These could also be finished by rolling in powdered chocolate rather than granulated sugar.



Good bye, Orlando!  Sorry I missed you, Mickey!  Sad I didn't get to the Salvadore Dali museum in St. Petersburg   :(             But, we did have a fabuous Cuban dinner at Padrino's!

Second Day in Chocolate Making Class

I wish I could post more pics but they would only be of interest to me, I'm sure!  It was another packed day of making molded chocolates - make the chocolate shape, fill with ganache, cap off, remove from mold, and, the best part, EAT!  Yum.

We had a demonstration on making liquid centres, as in liqueurs.  And a demo on what I call, sandwiches.  Two wafers of chocolate filled with a lovely ganache.  And the top layer is decorated with a transfer sheet.

We had another demo on filling chocolate cups and capping and decorating.  Beautiful!





We made a chocolate with Gianduja base (hazelnut chocolate puree with crisps) and an anisette ganache.  Then this delectable delight was dipped in milk chocolate and decorated with a flourish of dark chocolate.  I didn't get a pic of the totally finished product.  I'll have to remember to do that tomorrow before we eat them all.


And we filled our dark chocolate molds with a chocolate ginger ganache, capped them, and turned them out of the mold.  Piece of cake!  These are the actual chocolates made by moi!  Woo hoo!

Chocolate Ginger Ganache

500 g  cream
100 g  glucose
100 g  butter
15 - 20 g  grated ginger
700 g  dark chocolate

Boil the cream, glucose and butter.  Add the grated ginger and let infuse until lukewarm.
Pour through a sieve and pour it over the tempered dark chocolate.  Mix well.

Pour the ganache into a frame.  Set until the ganache has crystallized and is firm.

Put a layer of dark chocolate on the bottom side after it has become firm.  Cut into desired pieces and dip in chocolate.  Decorate. 

Amid all of this tasty testing, we learned the science of sugar, chocolate, fat, crystallization and more on tempering.  Tempering all of a sudden is the easiest thing we are doing.  Funny how that works!

First Day at Belgian Candy Making class in Orlando - Mocha Ganache

I was so nervous to attend this class because it is the first chef level class I have taken.  But I should not have wasted my time with worry.  It is very comfortable and there are students of different interests.

The instructor is Chef Jean-Pierre Wybauw from Belgium - world class bonbon maker.

Today we learned about tempering chocolate and were told that it has nothing to do with 'temperature'.  That was news to all of us but he uses his two thermometers, ie. his eyes, to judge the chocolate.  Since I had never taken a chocolate class, I didn't have any unlearning to do as many of the students did.

We made three ganaches - mocha, praline and ginger chocolate.  We rolled them and cut one with a 'guitar'.  The praline is hand cut with a form.

We also had a demonstration on molded chocolate.

Now, he said, we will pick up the pace tomorrow.  Oh, did I mention, our class was from 3 - 10pm with only a couple of 5 minute breaks!

Delice Mocca Ganache  adapted from a recipe by Jean-Pierre Wybauw


400 g  whipping cream
50 g glucose (corn syrup)
40 g finely ground coffee
60 g honey
1200 g milk chocolate
200 g butter

Bring cream, corn syrup, honey and coffee to the boil and add butter.  When butter has melted, cool to the same temperature as the tempered chocolate (approx room temp is ok).  You can strain if you want to remove the coffee bits.


Add tempered chocolate.  Spread the chocolate out on a parchment lined frame.


After hardening (at room temp), cover the slab with a thin layer of dark chocolate.  Let that harden at room temperature.

Unmold and cut into desired shapes.  Dip into dark chocolate.  Garnish.