Raspberry Swirl Marshmallow: Sweet NZ Round-Up

To start the first month of the year, Sweet NZ has kicked off with sweet entries. Here are the entries, rounded up randomly. The sweets are ranged from Malaysian's to Italian's, classic Kiwi's and of course, they are all homemades!

Thank you for your submissions! The next Sweet NZ will be hosted by our lovely Shirleen of Sugar and Spice.

My first entry was Plum Ice Cream. Celebrate Summer feast from the orchard.

Alessandra of Alessandra Zecchini blog whipped up Castagnaccio and it is gluten-free! How lucky I am!

Castagnaccio by Alessandra Zecchini

Barbara of Winos and Foodies, sent me Sago and Gula Melaka from Brisbane, Australia.

Sago with Gula Melaka by Barbara

Frances of I Love Bake Club whipped up One-Pot Chocolate Deadline Cupcakes. I am thinking of drizzling them with dark chocolate ganache and sprinkled with crumbs of Ferrero Rocher, eaten with beaming ruby red raspberry sauce! What a deadline!

One-Pot Chocolate Deadline Cupcakes by Frances

And who are not tempted to dip her fingers on that lovely lemon curd! Carmella Lee of Easy Food Hacks goes fruity here with her Sable Bretton Galette with Summer Berries.

Sable Bretton Galette with Summer Berries by Carmella

Susan of Couscous & Consciousness brought the best out of plums in Rosy Plum Crumbles which she made also for her Cookbook Sunday projects. I think this will go well with my Plum Ice cream. Now I'm drooling!

Rosy Plum Crumble by Susan

Emma of My Darling Lemon Thyme whipped up dairy-free coconut ice cream and made this dairy-free chocolate sauce to go with it. How good it is! In fact, I am making myself coconut palm sugar flavoured with pandan leaves and vanilla this afternoon (it is Monday the 30th when I am writing this) and will serve it with Emma's dairy-free chocolate sauce. I can believe the taste will be superb!

Dairy-Free Chocolate Sauce by Emma

These classic Kiwi sweets are always a winner on every occasion and are always great wrapped as presents. Bridget of After Taste made Russian Fudge for our sweet treat this month. And who can resist!

Russian Fudge by Bridget

Mel of The Tree House Kitchen brought us a dish of Prune and Apricot Clafoutis together with a plate of 70 Percent Chocolate and Ginger Cookies. Oh double yum!!

Prune and Apricot Clafoutis by Mel

70% Chocolate and Ginger Cookies by Mel

My second submission for the event is Raspberry Swirl Marshmallow. Ever since I saw it on Donna Hay's Magazine, I had wanted to make it. I need a good reason to do it, though, because my children are not familiar with candies which is based on sugar cooking. The early years of training, I suppose, since I had never introduced them with lollies or sugary candies. So, when I made them, they just pinch a bit and that's it. None of them likes it as much as they like my homemade Ferrero Rocher, Indonesian sweets from my childhood Klepon, Rosewater Cheesecake, and the ultimate Almond Dark Chocolate Cookies that always successfully make their eyes sparkling. 

However, I managed to wrap the marshmallow and presented them to our good friends, who happened to visit us that day, and bring them home with them. So, nothing is wasted. 

Raspberry Swirl Marshmallow
by Donna Hay Magazine, Issue 54, 2011
www.donnahay.com


250g raspberries
80g icing sugar
11/2 Tbs gelatine powder
125ml water
385g caster sugar
160ml light corn syrup
60ml water, extra

Cook the raspberries by putting them in a saucepan with icing sugar over medium heat, crushing them while stirring, to boil for 10-15 minutes until thicken and produce that lovely red syrup. Using fresh raspberries will give you extra scent and that lovely fresh flavour I find. Remove and press through sieve. Seeds discarded. Set aside.

Make the marshmallow. Put the gelatine and water in a mixer bowl, stir well. Leave it to swell for 5 minutes.

Combine sugar, corn syrup and extra water in a saucepan, cook on high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring to boil and use your candy thermometer to measure the heat to 120C. Since I haven't got a thermometer, I just use an old school way. To drop the sugar mixture in a cup of cold water and test if it is at soft ball stage, then it is done. 

Having this sugar syrup ready, turn the mixer on low speed and drizzle the mixture into the gelatine mixture until it is all in. Increase the speed and keep whipping up for 4-6 minutes until the marshmallow is formed, that when the mixture is fluffy, white and light. When it begins to cool down while whipping, turn the mixer off and pour or spoon the marshmallow into a prepared tin which is greased and lined with baking paper, measured 20cm x 30cm. On top of the mixture, spread or drizzle the raspberry mixture and make a swirl by using a skewer.

Cover with plastic wrap and leave it in room temperature, for 4 hours or until set. Remove from the tin and cut into square, rectangles, triangles, whatever you like really. Never put them in the fridge though.

Makes 25.

Cezanne's Secret Admirer Here

It's moody and it's still life more than food photography. But that's what my 365 Project is about. Today is supposed to have 20 photos, but I missed a day when I heard the distracting news about Mum. 

Anyway, I took all of these photos with iPad2 camera and post-processed them on several photo & video applications available on iTunes, and shared them on instagram and Flickr.

Why iPad2? Reading many thumb-downs on iPad2 camera reviews everywhere, I want to make a prove to at least myself, that although it only has 0.92mp, I still can do something about it rather than complaining and whining for higher resolution on a tablet PC. 

I haven't really printed out the photos that I took just yet, but I don't think it matters. So, my project is on moody light, inspired by many still life paintings produced either modern times or Renaissance's. I'm a secret admirer of Cezanne. Don't tell anyone!

These are the 365 Project on moody light from Day 1 - Day 19

  

  

  

  

  

  

Have a great weekend!!

Sweet New Zealand January 2012

Happy New Sweet Year!

January is going to be sweet, indeed. I'm taking the baton from Bron to host Sweet New Zealand, originally created by our very own author and creative blogger, Alessandra Zecchini. Have a look at December's sweet round-up Bron had collected last year.

 

1. This event is open to all Kiwi food bloggers living in New Zealand or overseas. It is also open for expats living in New Zealand.
2. Send me anything sweet, as many submissions as you like.
3. Your entry must mention "Sweet New Zealand" and linked to the original page Alessandra Zecchini had initiated. You may attach the badge with the size to your liking on your post.
4. Submit your entry/ies to arfi.binsted@gmailDOTcom, with your Name, Blog Name and Link, your Post Link, and a 500pxls resized photo, please. I will still receive the latest submission until on the 30th January 2012, then I'll publish the round-up hopefully on the 1st of February 2012.
5. Hoping to see many great Summery entries!!

Although our weather hasn't given much an improvement for summertime, we can't wait to scream for ice cream. Since plums are abundant in our orchard, wasted by birds and rain, we picked them the other day just enough to make ice cream and sorbet. At least, some are not going to be wasted.

Before Christmas time, my beloved bought me an ice cream maker. A small one. I haven't used any ice cream maker before, so this is my first try out. 

It went okay, though some features mentioned on the manufacturers manual instructions don't actually work. The ice cream did not freeze in 20 minutes, for instance, but it has to be frozen  overnight after being churned. 

Here is my entry for Sweet New Zealand.

Plum Ice Cream

500g blood plums

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

a little water

Cook plums with sugar and a little water until blistered and tender. Remove from the heat. Add in vanilla extract. Strained through sieve and discard the stones. Set aside.

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup vanilla caster sugar (I always have it handy, homemade and store in a separate jar)

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar. Put on top of a saucepan of simmering water. Keep whisking until double in volume and thicker, and the egg mixture is warmed through. Remove from the heat. Set aside to cool and then keep in the fridge.

300ml fresh cream

Whisk until fluffy and smooth. Whisk in the cooled egg mixture, and then plum, mix until well-combined. Pour into the ice cream bowl and churn.

You need to consult your ice cream maker manual on how long you should churn. I still have to put mine in the freezer overnight after being churned.

Have a blast January!

Dairy-Free Pannacotta

I am not really good at staying away from dairy products, as much as I have to. I still love nibbling my favourite cheese Camembert, or spooning a dollop of Mascarpone on a bowl of freshly picked orange juice macerated strawberries. I still like enjoying homemade cappuccino with heaps of milk foam on top and love devouring over creme brulee as my favourite desserts on a special occassion. All of those are too good to be substituted with dairy-free ingredients, if I have to be frank, but they are not without consequences that I have to deal with afterwards. If they are in any way substituted, I cannot find a parallel satisfaction I can get from dairy products counterparts.

Sometimes the consequence is so ugly that makes me promise myself right to the bone not to go back to the previous diets (although I often don't keep).

The older, the wiser I am (says me). If I want to live longer and healthy, please Arfi, don't break your own promises. If dairy-free products can keep me enjoy the world much longer and watch my kids grow up, then stick with them. It is a long-term conduct of well-being, I suppose. And (perhaps) self-discipline.

So, yes. I have to switch my palate to another direction my body tells it's safe to consume. Perhaps with a little adjustment, I will be alright.

I am sure I am not the only one.

The good news is, I am a bit lucky that I can find a lot of gluten-free and dairy-free baking substitutes at our local (Pukekohe, The Heart of Franklin, that is) specialty store, 'N Tolerance. They have Milk Alternatives, Soy Condensed Milk, as well as other baking substitutes you find on the website. Besides, you can just find milk substitutes at ordinary groceries, such as 'Pak n Save. Coconut milk and coconut cream are also widely available at local groceries or Asian shops. I don't think I would be able to complain anymore.

It's now the matter of being creative.

I have been experimenting on these products for such a long time to make pannacotta, not that I am paid to say these things, but just as you know. Soy milk and Rice milk are equally good. Almond milk will give slightly richer texture with nutty flavour more than the previous mentioned. But when you make pannacotta, you will need something quite thicker than milk. Therefore, I use coconut cream.



Dairy-Free Vanilla Rice Milk and Coconut Cream Pannacotta

Allison of Pease Pudding sent me a jar of agar-agar weeks ago (thanks, Alli!) and I use it to make this dairy-free pannacotta. The result will be a firmer texture of pannacotta, not as wobbly as a jelly would be like. I have been familiar cooking with agar-agar because this is what we mostly use to cook desserts in Indonesia, like Casablanca Pudding I made years ago, although nowadays gelatine has been introduced and been used widely. We enjoy this pannacotta with blueberry compote.


The interesting thing about agar-agar is that you can cook it with the other ingredients without the need to soak it in liquid firsthand. If you have some mixture left on your saucepan, it will slide away easily when you rinse it in cold water.

400ml coconut cream
100ml rice milk
1 Tbs agar-agar powder
1 vanilla bean, split and scrapped
1/2 cup caster sugar

Whisk all the ingredients in a large saucepan until well-blended. Boil on high heat until bubbly and then on low heat to simmer until the mixture is thicken. Discard the vanilla bean. Pour the mixture into prepared glasses. Let cool and then transfer into the fridge. Serve with your favourite topping.



Happy Holidays!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Crackle Biscuits

What is so attractive about cracked biscuits? They are photogenic if you ask me.


These biscuits are my gluten-free version. I use milk chocolate for that what I only can find in my pantry, therefore, less sugar is used. 

This is my entry for Sweet New Zealand, initiated by Alessandra Zecchini and now hosted by Bron Marshall for a sweet December treat.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Crackle Biscuits


1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1 Cup white rice flour
2 Tbs cornflour
1/2 tsp Guar gum
1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
250g milk chocolate
60g margarine
1/4 cup caster sugar (use more if you want it sweeter and crispier) 
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
icing sugar to coat





Preheat the oven to 200C. Line baking trays with baking paper.


Sift the flours, gum, baking powder and salt together in a bowl, set aside. Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl which sits on top of a pot of simmering water. Let cool.


Beat eggs and sugar until thick, add in vanilla essence, beat again. Add in chocolate and butter mixture. Mix well. Fold in flour mix. Mix well. Let cool in the fridge until hardened and easier to work on.


Roll into little marbles, roll into a bowl of icing sugar. Arrange the coated balls on trays, and bake for more or less 12-15 minutes or until firm when touched. Let cool on trays for 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.


Keep them in an airtight jars. Makes 20.