Apricot Upside-Down Cake & Mango Mousse With Raspberry Jelly

Apricot Upside-Down Cake

We have seasonally fruits coming from family and friends all the time. This time we got apricots and cherries (used some cherries for the frangipani cherry jam and some for another dessert (coming soon)) everyone had their share while I wanted to experiment with mine was double minded wanted to try apricot jam or apricot upside-down cake, put it to vote and everyone preferred the cake. I found this recipe and it sounded good and the brown sugar addition was and picture was tempting.



As i was not in the mood to go looking for a 10 in skillet, I just used my good old trustee baking pan melted the butter and sprinkled the brown sugar, arranged the apricot halves and batter, everything turned out quite good the caramel didn’t burn, I left it to cool in my sister-in-laws room (actually was my sisters were hiding it from the unexpected guests who came to visit was) and we forgot about it till after dinner when the guests left and my sister-in-law went in her room, she came back with it all the while it was cooling the cake top had really sucked the caramel making it sticky and gooey while the lower was soft and crumby served it with homemade vanilla ice cream and not a crumb was left!


Mango Mousse With Raspberry Jelly

Here I made some mango mousse with raspberry jelly for my nieces and nephews who had some friends over. They wanted something cold and with mango, as usually I made more then they needed knowing very well my family just won’t leave the kids share alone, while I was still decorating them my mama picks up a glass and just walks away not looking back or saying anything…should I have stopped her? =/

then comes my older sister demanding one for herself, I said I didn’t make any for the you’ all older lot these are for the kids she said what!?! How could you do this to us! Then comes along her son “Humza” he like my mama grabs a glass and runs away! Now how do you stop a innocent looking face?? My sister tells me serves you right! =0

Cherry Bakewell Tart

June' 09 Daring Bakers Challenge:




Another month another new challenge from DB,


This month challenge was making Bakewell/pudding tarts, Hosted/co-hosted by: Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar.
A sweet Short-crust pastry and Frangipane was mandatory in this challenge to make, while homemade jam or curd was optional.

Cherry & Mango Bakewell Tart

I like tarts a lot and had a Bakewell tart…pudding in London at a road side café on oxford I liked it and made a mental note to try making one.
The pastry was not hard to make as I have made shortcrust pastry before the main thing for me was the jam and then baking the whole thing. As I never made jam before or never saw anyone making it either.
So I decided to make cherry jam and followed the recipe/instruction from Jasmine’s Blackberry Pan Jam.

I made the pastry dough and let it to rest, then went off to make the jam, i was very excited about the cherry jam and was really trying to get it right knowing well that I can’t leave it alone so I started with the cherry pitting and then put them to cook as they were cooking it was time for prayers I lowered the heat and went for prayers, when I got back there wasn’t much juices left it had reduced and while I was away was a bit sticy other than that it was very good & tasty! So i still decided to use it, left it to cool.

while I rolled the pastry dough on a large tart pan as quickly as I could cause the dough kept on getting soft & sticky due to heat, left it in the freezer while I made the frangipane.

Assembled the whole thing and popped it in the oven, went off to make the other tart with mango topping =) checked it after 30 minutes it looked like it need a bit more baking so I gave it 5 more minutes.

Turned out quite good, didn’t have more almonds for topping so left it as it is….The mangos ones came out quite good too
My mom didn’t wanted to wait for it to cool down so she had the cherry jam frangipane right out of the oven hot with some fresh cream and she loved it, everyone was watching my mom enjoying it they all grabbed a piece each....loved it and so did I by making it. Thanks for the challenge ladies.

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges),
rolling pin
One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched,
flaked almonds


Assembling the tart:

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.
The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.
When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Jasmine’s notes:• If you cannot have nuts, you can try substituting Victoria sponge for the frangipane. It's a pretty popular popular cake, so you shouldn't have any troubles finding one in one of your cookbooks or through a Google search. That said, our dear Natalie at Gluten a Go Go has sourced some recipes and linked to them in the related alt.db thread.• You can use whichever jam you wish, but if you choose something with a lot of seeds, such as raspberry or blackberry, you should sieve them out.• The jam quantity can be anywhere from 60ml (1/4 cup) to 250ml (1cup), depending upon how “damp” and strongly flavoured your preserves are. I made it with the lesser quantity of home made strawberry jam, while Annemarie made it with the greater quantity of cherry jam; we both had fabulous results. If in doubt, just split the difference and spread 150ml (2/3cup) on the crust.

Annemarie’s notes:• The excess shortcrust can be rolled out and cut into cookie-shapes (heck, it’s pretty darned close to a shortbread dough).

Sweet shortcrust pastry
Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film
225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water


Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.
Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.
Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Jasmine’s notes:• I make this using vanilla salt and vanilla sugar.• If you wish, you can substitute the seeds of one vanilla bean, one teaspoon of vanilla paste or one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the almond extract

Frangipane
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula
125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.
Annemarie’s notes:• Add another five minutes or more if you're grinding your own almonds or if you're mixing by hand (Heaven help you).

Mango Epidemic: 3

Mango Ice Cream

I have made ice cream before and quite enjoyed it; usually the flavors are what my 8 years old niece wants & likes, we made old fashioned vanilla ice cream, vanilla with chocolate chip, pistachio (mama’s favorite) and now Mango Ice Cream. Kids loved it and enjoyed it and fought over it, my little tasters who follow me like Mary’s lamb just didn’t wanted to share with anyone plus they didn’t let me take more photos, you can see the sad angry look on my 1 1/2 years old niece, and she certainly did not want me to take her pic! =)

Chocolate Brigadiers

When i had gone to London for a vacation i had these little chocolate candies by the name of “Chocolate Brigadiers”. Did a little research and found out that these sweets are made with condensed milk and chocolate belong to that category of Brazilian "Docinhos (Brazilian Sweets)." They are Brazils favorites and must have in birthday’s parties, are named after Brigadeiro Eduardo Gomes, a very famous Brazilin Air Force commander from the forties.

So here i made some with different coatings, jimmies, pistachios, coconut, coco powder and stuffed some with dates and pistachios.

Recipe:

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 stick of butter or margarine (you can use only 1 Tbsp and it will still work out)
2 heaping Tbsp of Nestlé Quick or 1 Tbsp of Quick and 1 of Hershey's Cocoa.

In a heavy saucepan mix chocolate with condensed milk and add the margarine. Cook in low heat stirring constantly until you can see the bottom of the pan and the mixture leaving side when you tilt. Continue to stir for another two minutes. Pour onto a plate and let cool completely before you form the little balls
Butter your hands slightly to form the little balls. Roll the balls in chocolate powder or jimmies or any other coating you like. enjoy! =)

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Mango Epidemic: 2

Hazelnut Tart with Mango Mousse

Here is my second from the Mango Epidemic series, I have made tarts before but I wanted to make something with nuts, so I came across a recipe in dessertfirst I liked it so though to try it,

I used hazelnuts instead of macadamias nuts blended everything in the processor I used a bit more sugar then the recipe calls for, made the tart a day before and refrigerated it ‘cause it’s so hot here everything just melts and it’s really hard to handle pastry dough. Then next day after baking the tart shells blind I made the mango mousse with fresh mango puree and fresh dairy cream, filled the shells and let them set all the time my little niece was following me around like Mary’s little lamb, she helped me sprinkle the grounded nuts on top of the tarts. As always I usually give the first try to my mom, she is not much of a mango mousse or hazelnuts fan but in this case she says she loved it. =)

Mango Epidemic

White Chocolate Panna Cotta with mango sauce And Mango Panna Cotta with Kiwi Salsa

My favorite fruit is Mango, and there were so many mangoes coming from our mango orchard and many different varieties so I had this idea to try and make different varieties of desserts that I haven’t made before so here is the first one.
White Chocolate Panna Cotta with mango Salsa & Sauce and Mango Panna Cotta with Kiwi Salsa
I had fun making them and enjoyed watching my family eating them beside family I usually give to others so I would know if what my family say is true and beside that I usually have lots of critics.
I made the chocolate panna cotta first and it was very easy to do so as I left them to set I noticed that it didn’t set so well and made a mental note to add more gelatin or give more time to set, they tasted very good smooth and rich.

The mango panna cotta set very nicely and was smooth and refreshing, tasted great and I have the empty glasses to prove nothing was left! =)