Cider sorbet

I love ice cream and I also love flavoured water ices, like sorbet and granita. The problem about making flavoured ice at home is that you either need an ice cream machine or several hours of work to get the ice as smooth as the commercial stuff. When I made this experiment I was not lucky enough to have an ice cream machine (this has since changed), but I had read up on the old method of making dessert ice and decided to test it. I didn't have all of the ingredients for custard ice on hand, so I decided to make sorbet instead. I also did not have access to enough ice to make a salt/ice mixture for freezing, so I used the freezer compartment of my refrigerator.

I cooked up some simple sugar syrup, made from an equal volume of white sugar and water (in this case 200 ml of each). This I dumped into a saucepan and cooked until the sugar was melted. I then quickly cooled the syrup by putting the saucepan into the sink with some cold water. When the syrup was cool, I measured out 200 ml of syrup into a freezer safe bowl (the rest I bottled for later use). To this I added 150 ml of non-alcoholic pear cider and mixed it well. I then put a lid on the bowl and stuck it in the freezer.

After 90 minutes or so I took it out – the mixture had started freezing – and gave it a good stir to break up the forming ice crystals. I then returned it to the freezer. For the next three hours I would go back every 30 minutes and give it another good stir, and every time the mixture was thicker. Finally, when it had got hard to stir and was thick and felt very cold on the tongue, I spooned it into dessert glasses with lids and allowed it to freeze completely. When I taste tested it the texture was a little coarser than that of commercial sorbet, but it was very good, with a rich flavour much better than any commercial sorbet I had tasted. I decided that next time I had guests for dinner I would serve them home-made sorbet. The ice cream machine will make it much easier and less time-consuming.

If you want to try making sorbet, follow the description above and if you want a different flavour, any fruit juice or even fizzy drink works well in these proportions. For pure lemon or lime juice, you need to use less juice or the mixture will be too sour. Lemon sorbet, BTW, is a very good palate cleanser that is sometimes served between the courses of a meal to clear away the taste of the precious dish before a new one is served.

If you have an ice cream maker, made the sorbet mix and follow the instructions for freezing sorbet.

Sample recipe from Sweet Food: Cinnamon Gelato

I bet this is good – and since I have an ice-cream maker, it would be easy work to make.

Serves 8.

1 vanilla bean
550 ml (2 1/4 cups) thick cream (double cream)
550 ml (2 1/4 cups) milk
2 cinnamon sticks
6 egg yolks
100 g (1/2 cup) caster sugar

Split the vanilla bean down the middle and put it in a saucepan with the cream, milk and cinnamon sticks. Bring to the boil, remove immediately from the heat and leave to infuse for 1 hour.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until light and creamy. Pour the milk/cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture and whisk quickly to mix. Pour the custard into the saucepan and cook over very low heat (barely simmering) until it begins to thicken, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon. Do not let it boil! To test for thickness, dip the spoon into the custard, then draw a line on the back of the spoon. When the line stays and the custard does not run into it, it is ready.

Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod and mix into the custard. Strain the custard into a bowl, remove the vanilla pod and cinnamon stick and leave to cool.

To freeze, either churn in an ice-cream maker according to instructions, or pour into a freezer-proof bowl and freeze, whisking every 30 minutes, until the ice-cream is too stiff to stir. The whisking will give the ice cream a creamy texture. Once the ice cream is set, keep in the freezer until ready to serve.

Sample recipe from Sweet Food: Chocolate Mud Cake

I love a good chocolate cake, and this one looks promising:

Serves 12.

125 g (1 cup) plain flour
125 g (1 cup) self-rising flour (= 1 cup flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp salt)
60 g (1/2 cup) dark cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
625 g (2 3/4 cups) sugar
450 g dark chocolate, chopped
459 g unsalted butter
125 ml (1/2 cup) buttermilk
2 tbs oil
2 tbs instant espresso coffee granules or powder
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 160°C (315°F) or a lower temperature as instructed for a convection oven.

Brush a deep 23 cm (8 1/2 inch) square cake pan with melted butter or oil. Line the pan with baking paper, extending at least 2 cm (4/5 inch) above the rim.

Sift the flours, cocoa and baking soda into a large bowl. Mix in the sugar and make a well in the centre. Put 250 g chocolate and 250 g butter and 185 ml (3/4 cup) water in a saucepan and melt over low heat, stirring constantly. Gradually stir this mixture into the dry ingredients using a large spoon.

Whisk together the buttermilk, oil, coffee and eggs and add to the mixture, stirring until smooth. Pour into the pan and bake for 1 hour 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the pan, the turn out onto a serving dish, upside down.

Combine the remaining chocolate and butter in a small pan and melt over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Cool to room temperature, stirring often, until it is thick enough to spread. Spread the icing over the cake. Allow the icing to set slightly before serving.

Sample recipe from The Big Ready Steady Cook Book: Chocolate roulade with cherry sauce

Creator: Lesley Waters
Found on page 185

Serves 6-8

3 eggs
100 g (4 oz) caster sugar
50 g (2 oz) plain flour
25 g (1 oz) cocoa
300 ml (10 fl.oz) double cream (whipping cream)
4 tbs Kirsch
100 g (4 oz) good quality plain chocolate, melted
425 g tin (can) stoned black cherries, drained and juice reserved
Fresh mint sprigs and icing sugar, to decorate

Heat oven to 200°C (400°F). Whip together the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy. Sift together the flour and cocoa and gently fold into the egg/sugar mixture with a metal tablespoon. Pour the batter into a lined Swiss roll tin (jelly roll tin) and bake for 8-10 minutes until risen and just firm to the touch. Cool in the tin for a few minutes and turn out onto a wire rack.

Whip the cream until thick enough to for soft peaks, then stir in half the Kirsch.

Melt the chocolate over a water-bath and spoon a tablespoon of it into a greaseproof paper piping bag (you can make one from rolled-up baking paper) and pipe swirls of chocolate onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. Place in the refrigerator to set.

Mix the remaining chocolate and Kirsch along with 2 tbs of cherry juice. Pour into a jug and keep warm.

Spread the cake with the whipped cream mixture. Spoon the cherries over the cream and then roll up the cake lengthways, peeling away the paper as you go. Transfer to a serving plate, decorate with the icing sugar, mint leaves and chocolate shapes and serve with the warm sauce.

Sample recipe from Salads: Hot orange salad

It doesn’t say what this salad is supposed to be served with, but since the dressing includes both sugar and spice I rather think it’s meant to be a dessert. I can also imagine it as being good with roast pork, duck and chicken.

Serves 1-2.

1-2 oranges

Dressing:
75 ml water
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs vinegar
3-5 cloves

Peel the orange(s) and cut into thin slices (the photo shows the orange with the rind cut off, making pentagonal slices).
Mix together sugar, water, vinegar and cloves in a saucepan. Heat and let it simmer for a few minutes (i.e. cook until the sugar is melted). Pour over the orange slices and serve immediately.

Sample recipe from Mexican Cooking: Plantanos

In the foreword to the recipe the author mentions that the genuine dish is made with plantains and that lard is popular for frying them in. The recipe as given, however, calls for bananas, butter and baking. It looks quite good, and should I choose to make it the recipe of the week, I think I would try both options. The lard might be a problem, but I know I can get plantains.

4 servings:

4 bananas (should ideally be still green at the ends so they will retain some firmness when cooked)
60 g sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbs butter

This is obviously an intuitive recipe: the only instructions given are to bake the above ingredients at 160°C for 15 minutes. However, there is a photo which gives clues, so by playing Sherlock I have arrived at the following recipe: peel the bananas and cut in half, crosswise and again lengthwise. Arrange tightly together in an oven pan or casserole dish, cut side up. Dot with butter and bake as instructed above. Remove from oven, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon before serving.

An examination of similar recipes suggests that the sugar and cinnamon should be sprinkled on before baking, which I completely agree with.

Other suggestions include serving warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, using them to make a banana split, or flambéing in strong rum.

Alternatively, fry them in the butter until they are soft, sprinkle on the sugar and cinnamon near the end of the frying time and let the sugar caramelise slightly before serving warm.

Recipe of the week from The Spice Cookbook: Pear and Apple Betty

This may not be a very original choice, but I am posting from my parents’ house where I'm spending the weekend. I needed to find a dish my mother could eat. She requested a dessert, but she’s on a low oxalate diet which means she’s not allowed, among other things, to eat citrus zest or anything with orange juice in it, and it seems most of the dessert recipes in the book contain some (this one does too, but in such a small amount that it will be okay to leave it out). It also needed to be something that was fairly quick and easy to assemble, so I chose this.

3 firm ripe fresh pears
3 tart fresh apples

1 cup lightly crumbed corn flakes
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp lemon zest (I will either leave it out or substitute with a dash of lemon juice)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs butter

Wash, pare and slice the fruit. Arrange 1/4 of the slices in a buttered 1 litre (1 quart) baking dish. Combine the remaining ingredients - except the butter - and sprinkle 1/4 of this over the fruit slices. Dot with 1/2 tbs butter. Repeat until you have 4 layers.

Bake at 175°C (350°F) for 60 to 90 minutes or until fruit is tender.

Serve with whipped cream, sour cream or hard sauce*.



*Brandy hard sauce:
We will be having whipped cream with the Betty, but since hard sauce is suggested, I decided to include a recipe.

There are 3 recipes for hard sauce in the book – I have chosen to show the one I would serve to my mother, taking into account that she’s not supposed to eat citrus zest, which is an ingredient in the other two recipes.

2/3 cup (1 1/3 sticks) butter
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
2 tbs brandy
Ground nutmeg

Mix butter and nutmeg together and add alternating dashes of brandy and sugar, stirring well in between, until all the brandy and sugar has been added. Mix until fluffy and serve over plum puddings or warm fruit desserts. Garnish with additional nutmeg.

--
Edit:



Alterations:
Just looking at the three average apples and three large pears I bought made it clear that using all those fruit would be enough dessert for 8-10 persons, so I cut the recipe down by half. The apples were very tart, like lemons in fact, so that did away with the need for the lemon zest that I wasn’t going to use anyway.
Since the apples were so tart, I used one apple and two pears. If I had been able to get tart yellow apples, which are not as mouth-puckering as green ones, I would have used 1 1/2 of each.

Half the recipe of crumble mix didn’t look like enough, so I made a full recipe, which turned out to be just right. A full recipe of butter was clearly too little, so I used a bit more, perhaps 3-4 tbs.

One problem I had was that the pear slices were almost overcooked when the apple slices were still too hard, so it is necessary to make sure that the fruit are at about the same stage of ripeness.


Review and notes:
Apple Betty is a classic dessert, and for a good reason. It is delicious and a beginner cook would find it difficult to mess up. Making it with the addition of pears is a lovely variation on the classic recipe. The different flavours of the very tart apples and sweet pears I used gave the dessert an extra flavour dimension and ensured that it didn’t become oversweet like it could easily have been with just pears or the with mildly tart cooking apples that are so often used in apple desserts. The fruit flavour was rich and not overly sweet. It was good with whipped cream, would have been better with crème fraiche, and very good with vanilla sauce or vanilla ice cream. It is good warm, but better cold.

This turned out to be one of those dishes with recipes that are not only very easy to change with good results, but you actually only need to follow the recipe the first time you make them. I know that the next time I make this (and I will, having got the parental seal of approval) I will not follow a recipe, I will just throw the ingredients together, in the sure knowledge that it will turn out good.

Another time I will:
- cut the fruit into smaller pieces
- not mix the cornflakes into the sugar and other flavourings but sprinkle them separately, as they simply separate from the sugar and if you’re not careful, some layers will have more sugar and some more cornflakes
- use twice as much nutmeg, as I could barely taste it.

I would also like to see how it tastes with demerara or light brown sugar instead of white sugar.

Recipe from Moroccan Cooking: Fried Moroccan bread with cinnamon

…otherwise known as Cinnamon French Toast. But who am I to argue with the authors? If they want to call it Moroccan, they can. (BTW, French toast isn’t necessarily French, the dish being a logical invention in any culture where bread is baked, as a way of using up a stale loaf. Therefore it could have arisen independently in Morocco, but it is more likely that it was brought over by the French).

When I was a child and my mother was undecided as to what to serve for lunch or dinner, I would often suggest French toast – only we called it “Poor Knights” and ate it with rhubarb jam and sometimes whipped cream as well. I make it occasionally myself as a brunch dish (without jam or cream), but I have never tried the cinnamon variety.

Servings: 4-6.
Time: 15 minutes to prepare, 10 minutes to cook.

1/2 white baguette (French stick, French loaf)
1-2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (it says “imitation vanilla” in the book – I don’t see why I can’t use the real thing if I have it)
Butter
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 tbs ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Cut baguette diagonally into 2 cm thick slices. In a bowl, beat the eggs until well mixed and then mix in milk and vanilla. In a shallow bowl (I suggest a soup dish), mix sugar and spices. Melt some butter in a frying pan. Dip slices of bread into egg/milk mixture and fry until crisp and golden on both sides. Place for a moment on absorbent paper to drain and while it is still hot, dip into the sugar/spice mixture. Keep adding butter to the pan as needed.

The book suggests coffee as a good accompaniment.

Recipe from Chocolate: Winter Sun

This is an ice cream cake that I would like to try, for example as a dessert after Easter dinner.

Meringue layer:
2 egg whites
80 g sugar
1/3 tsp vinegar
About 50 g almonds, chopped
70 g Síríus Konsúm chocolate, finely chopped

Whip the egg whites until stiff, add the sugar and vinegar and whip until the sugar has melted. Fold in the almonds and chocolate. Line a deep spring mold with baking paper, smooth the meringue into the bottom and bake at 110°C for about 40 minutes. Cool.

Ice cream:
2 egg yolks
1 egg
50 g sugar
250 ml cream, whipped
1 tsp vanilla essence
200 g Síríus milk chocolate with hazelnuts (use Cadbury's with hazelnuts as a substitute), chopped

Whip together the eggs and sugar and fold in the whipped cream and vanilla. Then fold in the chocolate. Pour custard on top of the meringue, smooth the top and freeze, preferably overnight.

Sauce:
1 tbs golden syrup
100 g Síríus Konsúm chocolate
100 g Síríus milk chocolate
300 ml cream

Heat the cream in saucepan over low heat, add the chocolate with the syrup and melt well together. Simmer gently for about 3 minutes. Serve with the cake.

This ice cream cake can be stored for a long time in the freezer. Remove from the freezer and let it stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes before it is to be served.

Recipe from Chocolate: Gourmet Oven-pan

This is a kind of brownie, with pecan nuts and caramel sauce. The name could have been more original.

8-9 tbs butter
250 g Síríus Konsúm chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
300 ml sugar
150 ml flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
100 ml brown sugar
2 tbs cream
150 ml pecan nuts, coarsely chopped

Belt 100 g of the chocolate and 4-5 tbs of butter together in a Bain Marie. Whip the eggs until thick and frothy, add the sugar and mix well. Add the flour and salt, then the melted chocolate and the vanilla. Pour into a brownie pan (about 25 cm in diameter) or a small oven pan and bake at 175°C for 15 minutes.

To make caramel, put 4 tbs of butter and the brown sugar into a saucepan and heat to boiling. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool a little before adding the cream.

Sprinkle the pecan nuts over the half-baked cake and pour the caramel over it. Bake for 15 minutes more. Sprinkle the chopped chocolate over the hot cake. Cool and cut into small pieces.

Recipe from Quick Dishes: Grapefruit with brown sugar and nuts

Prep time: 10 minutes
1-2 servings

1/2 – 1 grapefruit (I recommend pink grapefruit)
8-10 hazelnuts or almonds
1/2 tbs brown sugar

Set oven temperature at 250°C (480°F). Cut the grapefruit in half crosswise. Loosen the grape meat from the membranes with a grape knife or grape spoon. Coarsely chop the nuts. Sprinkle nuts and brown sugar over the fruit halves. Bake in the oven for a few minutes until the surface begins to brown.

*
Having tried two different varieties of baked grapefruit last weekend (both with meringue), I recommend removing all the flesh from the fruit, removing and discarding the membranes, mixing the flesh with the nuts and sugar and putting it back in the halves. It may not look as good, but makes less of a mess when you eat it.

Baked grapefruit

the recipe

Recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook: Zabaglione

Makes 6 portions.

8 egg yolks
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup Marsala wine

Mix ingredients together in the top part of a double boiler* and cook over rapidly boiling water, whisking constantly until mixture doubles in bulk and thickens.

Remove from heat and continue whisking for about a minute.

Pour mixture warm over fresh berries, serve by itself in tall glasses, or chill and use as a sauce for berries.

*If you haven't got a double boiler, do what I do: use a bowl that fits tightly into the mouth of a cooking pot so that little or no steam can escape, and hold it tight with an oven mitt-clad hand while whisking with the other hand.

--
If I make this, how can I use the egg whites, besides making a ton of meringue?
Suggestions welcome.

Recipe of the week: Strawberries Romanoff (liqueur-marinated strawberries)

Named for the Russian royal family, so it is at least 90+ years old, quite a bit older if this website has the story right (check out the variations they give).

This is a classic dessert dish that can be found in a number of different variations and seems to be quite popular – at least considering that I got more than 50 thousand hits when I googled it.



Original recipe: (as it is in the book – I make no claims to its being the authentic original recipe)

Serves: 4 persons.
Prep time: Under 15 minutes.
Standing time: 30-40 minutes.

1/2 kg (1 lb) fresh strawberries
2 tbs sugar
200 ml (approx. 4/5 cup) freshly pressed orange juice
3-4 tbs Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur (e.g. Cointreau or Curaçao)
100-200 ml (2/5-4/5 cups) whipping cream

Wash the strawberries and reserve 4 large ones. Hull the rest. Cut the hulled berries into slices, sprinkle with sugar and divide between four tall dessert glasses or highball glasses.

Mix together orange juice and liqueur and pour over the strawberries. Cover and refrigerate for 30-40 minutes.




Whip the cream until it is thickened but not stiff and top the dessert with it. Decorate with the whole berries and serve.

Review:
I only made 1/4 recipe, which was enough for two small dessert glasses.

After 1 hour and 30 minutes, which is about triple the marinating time given in the recipe, the tastes of Grand Marnier, orange juice and strawberries had not blended well. There was a strong, almost raw taste of cognac that didn't at all go with the rest of the ingredients. I also thought the dessert could do with a touch more sweetness, so I added a teaspoon of sugar to the other glass, lightly bruising the strawberry slices when I stirred in the sugar. Then I gave it an hour more to marinate.

After the extra hour the taste at first seemed the same, but when I stirred up the mixture and tasted it again, it became evident that the cause of the overly strong cognac taste was that it had begin to separate and the Grand Marnier had floated to the top while the orange juice sank to the bottom. Stirring melded the flavours and the result was quite good: not too strong a cognac flavour like the previous serving, and a little sweeter. Quite good, in fact. There did seem to be an awful lot of marinating liquid left in the glass when I had finished the strawberries – another time I would reduce the liquid.

Alterations that suit my tastebuds:
Increase the sugar to 3 tbs (for a whole recipe), or reduce the liquid by 1/4. Marinate for 2 hours minimum. Stir up the mixture before adding the cream and then serve immediately.




--

Here's another good recipe that pairs strawberries and Grand Marnier: Drunken Strawberries:
Inject whole strawberries with Grand Marnier or other liqueur of your choice (go in under the hull so the hole will not be seen), dip in melted chocolate and cool for at least 2 hours before serving. Will keep for up to 24 hours.

Recipe from Summer Food: Rhubarb tart

Prep time: about 20 minutes.
Baking time: about 15 minutes.
Oven temperature: 225°C, centre of the oven.

2-3 plates deep-frozen puff pastry
500 g rhubarb
75-100 ml sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tbs cornstarch
2 egg whites
100 g icing sugar

Let the puff pastry thaw in the refrigerator. Wash the rhubarb and cut into small pieces.

Put the rhubarb into a round cake pan or pie dish and sprinkle with sugar. Put the dish in an oven and turn the oven up to 225°C and let the dish stand in the oven until the oven has reached full heat, or until the rhubarb is soft. Drain the rhubarb, KEEPING THE LIQUID. Wash the dish. Keep the oven hot.

Arrange the cold puff pastry pieces in a roughly round shape, overlapping them slightly. Reserve a strip of pastry to line the sides of the pie. Roll out into a round shape, about the size of the pie dish/cake pan, and line the bottom of the pan with it. Line the sides of the pan with the remaining pastry.

To make the meringue, whip the egg whites until stiff and whip in the icing sugar. Brush some egg yolk onto the pastry. Put the rhubarb into the dish. Stir the corn-flour into the rhubarb juice and drizzle over the rhubarb. Smooth the meringue over the top of the rhubarb, but not completely to the edges (allow about 5 cm of rhubarb to show along the edge). Bake as indicated above.

Serve warm with whipped cream.

Temptation

Indian recipe: Badam Kheer (creamed almond; Uttar Pradesh)

4 cups milk
1 cup cream
1 tbs ghee
1 cup almonds, skinless
6 tbs sugar
1/8 tsp saffron strands
2 tbs boiling water
1/4 tsp ground cardamom

Garnish (optional):
Flaked almonds
Edible silver leaf

Put milk, cream and ghee into a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. When it starts to boil, turn the heat to the lowest temperature that will keep it simmering and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

If you need to remove the skins for the almonds you must blanch them (I buy them skinless so I can skip this step): Put them in a small saucepan with some water and cook for 2-3 minutes, drain and plunge into cold water. The skins will then slip off quite easily.

Slice the almonds very thin, using a vegetable peeler. If they are soft from being blanched this is easier to do. Alternatively, grind the almonds in an electric blender. Add almonds and sugar to the milk and cook, stirring. Pound saffron strands in a mortar and pestle, dissolve in the boiling water and add to the milk. Continue cooking until it is the consistency of custard. Remove from the heat, stir in the cardamom and pour into a dessert dish. Cover and chill before serving. If you like, you can garnish the pudding with a few flaked almonds and silver leaf.

Recipe of the week: Birds' Nests

I decided to make the Birds' Nests for various reasons, not the least of which is that I have never made pastries topped with glazed fruit before, and I love them. It is also by far the fiddliest of the 6 recipes. You can get excellent ones from the Danish bakery which is located a couple of streets away from where I live: little bowls of pastry filled with vanilla custard and topped with glazed strawberries. I have a clipped recipe somewhere for those, but the Birds' Nests will be good practice. As to the other recipes, I have put them on my To Do list, especially the Napoleons which I want to make for my mother (who loves them) the next time she visits me.

Results:
Written as each stage was completed.

1.
I began yesterday by making some pastries. It didn't start well: I nearly burnt them. Marzipan pastry should ideally only be baked to a light golden colour, retaining a chewy, almost raw, centre inside a crisp shell, but I ended up with brown ones. Fortunately they don't smell burnt and are not hard through. This is entirely due to a little bit of carelessness on my part: I started doing the washing-up while the pastry was baking and lost track of the time. This wouldn't have mattered so much if I had a regular oven, but I have a temperamental convection oven where seconds can decide whether baked products will turn out just right or too much. I lowered the temperature to 180°C, as you don't need quite as high temperatures when using a convection oven, but forgot the time and at 13 1/2 minutes the pastries were darker than they should have been, meaning that 12 minutes at that temperature would probably have been about right. Lesson learned for next time.

2.
Next time being today: I only made a half recipe yesterday, but I wanted to do this just right, so today I made another half-recipe of pastries. As yesterday's pastries were a bit larger than the recipe states and also somewhat uneven in size, I made circles of the right size on the baking paper with a pair of compasses and piped the dough inside the circles to get even sized pastries. These turned out much better, although they were unevenly coloured, which I blame on the convection oven. Since the dark patches were on the sides this could not be fixed by turning the cookie sheet around in the oven. Just as well they will be covered with icing and chocolate.

A pastry base:

3.
The butter icing had a somewhat raw sugar taste when ready, so I added a little vanilla which gave it a smoother taste. It was still too sweet for my tastebuds, but I figure the chocolate will temper the sweetness.

4.
The chocolate stage went well for the most part, except the chocolate didn't hold very well onto the icing so there were little pockets of white icing showing through here and there. I tried redipping one pastry, but then part of the previous coat of chocolate slipped off, so I didn't bother with the rest. I quickly had 19 pastries covered and cooling in the refrigerator.

4.
I ended up using canned mixed fruit in light syrup to top the pastries. Unfortunately there were only 2 cocktail cherries in the entire can, so 17 pastries only have whitish, orange and yellow fruit pieces on them (pears, peaches, pineapple) but no splash of red to give them a bit of ooomph, but this is only an experiment so it will do for now.
I had my usual problem with the gelatine: I thought it would never gel, but when it finally did it happened so rapidly that I had problems getting it to cover the last few pastry toppings evenly, but it worked even if it was a bit bubbly from my vigorous whisking.

These are not the prettiest pastries I have ever made but all in all I think they turned out rather well for an amateur's first attempt. Of course the taste test is left. I'm off to visit some friends to get a final judgement.

6.
My friends pronounced the pastries "very good", and I agree. They are a bit oversweet with preserved fruit and we agreed that fresh strawberries and darker chocolate would improve them. You really only can eat two or three in one sitting, and I strongly recommend serving coffee with them to counteract their sweetness.

7.
Now for how I would change the recipe for future use. Firstly, I would make the rim of the nests from piped pastry, not icing, and make them a bit deeper. Then I would cover the rim in chocolate and fill the nests, not with icing, but with custard or vanilla pudding, top with fresh strawberries or peach slices and cover with a glaze made from sugar syrup rather than fruit juice. They could still be called Birds' Nests, since the shape would be retained.

Recipes 5 & 6: Chocolate-Nut Roll & Chocolate Roll with Daim Filling

Chocolate-Nut Roll
Time: about 35 minutes + cooling time. Makes 1 roll.

Roll:
3 eggs
150 ml sugar
50 g ground hazelnuts
100 ml flour
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

Whip together the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix together the flour, cocoa and baking powder and stir into the egg mixture. Mix well and then fold in the nuts. Cover a cookie sheet with baking paper and smooth the batter into a single solid layer on top. Bake at 250 °C for about 5 minutes, or until firm. Turn over onto a sugar-sprinkled piece of baking paper and peel off the top layer of paper. Let cool under a damp tea towel.

Filling:
100 g dark chocolate
100 ml whipping cream
50-75 ml sugar
2 tbs finely chopped preserved orange peel

Melt the chocolate and sugar in the cream over a water bath. Begin with 50 ml sugar and then add more if you want it sweeter. Cool a little. Smooth filling over the cake layer and sprinkle the orange peel on top.

Roll up the cake and pack into baking paper and refrigerate.

Decoration:
Ca. 50 g white chocolate
A couple of drops of cooking oil
Hazelnut flakes

Melt the chocolate with the oil over a water bath. Take out the roll. Make a cone from baking paper, put in some melted chocolate, cut off the tip of the cone and let the chocolate leak out of the bag onto the roll in a zig-zag pattern and sprinkle the hazelnut flakes over it before the chocolate stiffens.

Chocolate Roll with Daim Filling
Time: about 35 minutes + cooling time.

Roll:
2 eggs
150 ml sugar
100 ml flour
50 ml cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

Follow the instructions for making the previous cake.

Filling:
100 g butter, soft
200 ml icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 coarsely crushed double Daim candy bar

Mix together the filling ingredients and smooth over the cake. Roll up and cool for a couple of hours.

Decoration:
About 50 g dark chocolate
2 tbs chocolate sprinkes

Follow the instructions for making the previous decoration.

Recipes 3 & 4: French Waffles & Napoleons

French Waffles
Time: about 35 minutes. Makes about 20 pieces (or more if you make them smaller)

1 package frozen puff pastry (one packet contains 425 g), or make the same amount from scratch
Granulated sugar

Thaw out the puff pastry and roll out each sheet until it has about doubled in size. Use cookie cutters or a glass to cut out round pieces, about 7 cm in diameter (or smaller). Sprinkle sugar on top of some wax paper and lay the dough pieces on top of the sugar and roll out each piece until slightly oblong (I would just press down on them with my hand). Only one side should be sugared.
Cover a cookie sheet with baking paper and put the dough pieces on the baking paper with the sugared side up. Prick each piece well with a fork. Bake at 200°C for about 10 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack.

Coffee filling:
100 g butter, soft
75 g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
50 g chocolate, grated
1 sheet gelatine (3/4 tsp)
100 ml strong coffee, warm

Soak the gelatine in cold water. Meanwhile, mix together the butter and sugar in a mixer. Add the egg yolk and grated chocolate. Melt the gelatine in the warm coffee. Cool. When the coffee-gelatine begins to set add it to the butter-sugar-egg-chocolate mixture a little at a time.

Smooth a layer of creme on half the waffles and sandwich them together with the rest of the waffles. Allow to set before serving.

Excellent with coffee.


Napoleons
Time: about 45 minutes. Makes about 15.

1 package frozen puff pastry (one packet contains 425 g), or make the same amount from scratch

Thaw the puff pastry. Cut each sheet into three even-sized pieces. Put them on a cookie sheet and bake on the center rung of the oven for about 20 minutes (the original recipe gives no temperature, but my guess is 180°C). Cool on a cooling rack.

Creme:
2 eggs
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs cornflour
250 ml milk
1/2 vanilla pod

Slice the vanilla pod down the middle and scrape out the seeds. Whip together the eggs, vanilla seeds, sugar and cornflour. Put the vanilla pod in the milk and warm to the boiling point in a saucepan. Remove the vanilla pod and whisk the milk into the egg mixture. Pour the creme back into the saucepan and warm up to the boiling point, whisking constantly. Cool.

Glaze:
150 g icing sugar
1 tbs rum or water

Topping:
Raspberry marmalade or jam
250 ml whipping cream

To make the glaze, stir together the icing sugar and rum/water. Split each pastry puff horizontally into two about equally thick pieces. Put a thin layer of marmalade on the bottom piece of each pastry. Add a spoonful of creme and top with the other piece of the same pastry. Add a thin layer of glaze on top of each pastry. Whip the cream, put in a pastry bag with a fluting nozzle and decorate the pastries.