Little Box Brownie

A Baking Blog from Melbourne, Australia

Recipe

Steamed Orange and Berry Pudding

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Thank you for stopping by Little Box Brownie. If you have been here before, welcome back! If its your first time here please have a look around and say hello.
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For todays recipe I have made a bit of an old school dessert, a boiled pudding. Which doesn’t sound like the most appetising recipe, its sounds rather lifeless and bland – a boiled pudding. I personally think of over cooked vegetables whenever the word boiled is used. But this is great, its moist and tastes like summer with hits of orange zest and berries which is wonderful when winter is in full swing. I hope you enjoy it.
Oh and if you have the time please check out Gallery 36 Magazine I have a feature profile in it. Which is very exciting as they haven’t featured a food blog in it before, but thought Little Box Brownie was perfect for their magazine, so very exciting.
 

 

 

Orange and Berry Steamed Pudding
 
150g butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp orange zest
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 cup of orange juice 
1 teaspoon baking powder
250g frozen mixed berries
 
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the zest then add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Sift in the flour and baking powder and stir through. Pour in the orange juice and stir to combine. 
Place the frozen berries in the bottom of a greased pudding bowl and pour over the cake batter. Take a piece of tin foil and a piece of baking paper sized to fit over the top of the bowl. Place them together and place a fold in them so that the pudding has room to rise if it is needed. Place the foil and paper over the pudding and tie in place with a piece if string. Place this in a big pot with a saucer in the bottom (this will stop the pudding from burning). Pour in some boiling water so it covers about 2/3 of the pudding bowl. Then place the lid on and simmer for 2 1/2 hours or until cooked. You will need to continue to top up the water with hot water from the kettle as the pudding cooks.

Chocolate tart

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I was going to see my little friend Joe and his baby sister, and thought I should take him a little something, after all he had only just celebrated his 3rd birthday. I decided upon a brownie tart, with extra chocolate chips in it just for him. Well it was a hit, he gobbled it up and declared me his new best friend:) So if your looking for a great chocolate tart to make this one will appeal to the young and old and might even make you a new best friend. Happy baking.

Sophia

 Joe’s Chocolate Brownie Tart  
Pastry
 
1 1/2 cups plain flour
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
250g butter
1 egg
 
Brownie filling
 
200g butter
150g milk chocolate
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 cup milk
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cocoa
1/2 cup walnuts (plus extra to sprinkle)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
 
Pre heat the oven to 150°C
 
Place the flour, sugar, cocoa and butter in to a food processor and pulse until combined. Then add the egg and pulse again until a dough starts to forms. Remove from the processor, and kneed on a floured surface until just smooth. Wrap it in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
 
Remove from the fridge and roll out of a floured surface until about 2mm thick, then place into 20cm tart tin. Blind bake for 15 minutes, remove the beans and place back in the oven for a further 10minutes, remove from the oven.
 
To make the brownie filling, melt the buter and chocolate in a double boiler until they combine, remove from the heat and set aside. Mean while whisk the sugar, eggs and vanilla essence together using and electric beater. Slowly pour in the cocolate and butter mixture, then add the milk while constantly beating. Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa into the mixture and stir to combine. Add the walnuts and chocolate chips, then pour into the tart case. Bake for 1 hour or until cooked.
 

Chai and Caramel Pear Tart

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Pear Tart

Are you a coffee drinker? I’m not I can’t stand the stuff. Coffee has the most amazing aroma though it really is quite deceiving, it smells so sweet and caramelised yet tastes so incredibly bitter. If I do drink it I have to add in piles of sugar and I prefer to use my sugar intake a little more wisely on something I enjoy eating….. such as cake!!! More than a few years ago I was with someone who ordered a chai tea. I remember smelling it thinking wow that smells amazing with all the Indian spices and to my surprise tasted equally as good, so from then on in I have been a chai convert, swapping my hot chocolates to a Chai tea. Sometimes though it is a bit of a hit and miss with chai as there are different forms of the tea, you can get syrups and powders, but my favourite would have to be the actual tea spices, when they are infused into the milk and some honey added. Yum its like a warm comfort drink, perfect for the winter. I have wanted to use it in my baking for ages as I see all these wonderful chai recipes on other sites so finally decided to give it a whirl in this next tart I came up with.
If you don’t feel like making the tart, as it does require a bit of time, the poached pears are amazing on there own or would be perfect with some creamed rice:)

Chai and Pear Caramel Tart
 
Pastry
150g butter
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg
1 tablespoon water 
 
Pears
5 small pears  (all the same size)
3 cups water
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons chai tea (I used T2)
 
Caramel
50g butter
390g sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 tbsp golden syrup 
 
Topping
1/2 cup thickened cream
50g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
Bouquet garni of chai*
1 cup plain flour
1 egg
 
pre heat oven to 170C
 
To make the pastry, place the butter, flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg into a food processor and pulse until fine breadcrumbs form. Then add the egg and water, pulse until a dough starts to form. Turn onto a floured surface and knead gently until smooth. Place in cling wrap and put in the refrigerator for 30mins (now is the ideal time to start the pears). Remove from the fridge and roll out until about 2mm thick, turn into a 25cm lined round tin and blind bake for 10 mins. Remove the beans and bake for another 10mins. set aside
 
Peel the pears and then place into a saucepan with the water, sugar and chai. Let this simmer for about 30minutes on a medium heat or until the pears are soft. Remove from the heat and set aside. 
 
To make the caramel place the butter, condensed milk and golden syrup into a saucepan, and on a medium heat boil until the mixture becomes golden brown. Make sure you constantly stir otherwise it will stick to the bottom and burn.
 
To make the topping, Place the cream, butter, sugar, golden syrup and the bouquet of chai into a saucepan and slowly simmer until the ingredients combine, and the chai infuses into the mixture. Remove from the heat and remove the bouquet. Stir in the flour and the egg until well combined.
 
To assemble, pour the caramel into the tart case, then place the pears in so they are evenly spaced. Pour in the topping and bake for 45 mins or until cooked.

*chai tea wrapped in muslin and tied with string, you could also use two chai teabags.

Pear and Chai Tart

Salted Carmel and Chocolate Macaroons

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These little baby’s are my arch rival, I just can’t make a perfect macaroon to save my life. This next recipe is as good as its going to get, they’re a little bit bumpy, but these baby’s have feet, whoooooohoooooo, finally they have feet, no not the type of feet there going to get up and walk out on me but a little bubble foot like all good macaroons should.
Every time I try to make them something goes astray, it probably has something to do with my inability to follow the instructions, after the first three batches you would think I would learn but sadly no. I was telling one of my most loyal readers that I just couldn’t make them, and the next thing I know she had bought me a cookbook on Macaroons (Thanks G) So after reading through that I have learn’t a few secrets and worked out a recipe that some how miraculously worked. The secret is italian meringue and man oh man do I love the Italians for this one. If you make macaroons with an italian meringue, by pouring hot liquid sugar into the egg whites rather that using sugar straight out of the packet, it works. Well it works for me and as the saying goes if it can work for me it can work for you.
I did read that chocolate macaroons are the hardest and trust me to want chocolate ones, but really who can resist chocolate?

Chocolate Macaroons
 
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
4 egg whites
1 3/4 cups almond meal
1  cups icing sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
 
Caramel Sauce
 
1 1/2 cups of sugar
50ml water
60ml cream
60ml golden syrup
125g butter
1 teaspoon sea salt
 
Pre heat the oven to 160C
 
Place the sugar and water into a saucepan and heat until the sugar melts and boil for about 4 minutes, brush the sugar down from the sides with a wet brush so the sugar doesn’t crystallise.
 
In and electric mixer beat the egg whites until they form peaks, slowly add the hot sugar syrup while constantly whisking. Whisk until the mixture is glossy.
 
Sift the icing sugar, cocoa and almond meal in to a bowl then slowly fold this into the meringue mixture a little at a time. Place into a piping bag with a 1cm nozzle and pipe 2.5cm rounds onto a lined baking tray. Set these aside until the the tops of the macaroons are firm to touch approximately 30mins.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the macaroon bases are firm.
 
To make the caramel filling, Place the sugar and water into a saucepan on a medium heat, stir until the sugar dissolves and it starts to boil. Let it boil until the syrup turns a golden colour. Then remove from the heat and stir in the cream, golden syrup, butter and salt. Be careful not to burn yourself as the mixture will bubble up and let off steam. Leave the caramel for 10mins to cool slightly and spoon onto the macaroons.
 
Makes 12