Chocolate Pastry - Tart of Currants and Quatre epices Mousse - Sweet Melissa Sundays

A lovely chocolate piecrust to start the new year with. I thought a white chocolate mousse filling with quatre epices would go nicely with the chocolate pie crust.

SMS Chocolate Pastry

1 cup plus 2 tsp Flour
1/3 cup unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2 tb Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tb cold Unsalted Butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1/4 cup Cold Solid Vegetable Shortening
3-4 tb Ice water

In a large bowl whisk together flour, cocoa sugar & salt. Toss the butter into the flour mixture. using a pastry blend, cut the butter into the flour until it is the size of large peas.

Pinch off small pices of the shortening into the flour mixture and toss to coat. Using the pastry blender, continue cutting the butter and the shortening into the flour mixutre, until they are the size of small peas.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixutre. Pour about half of the water into the well, and, with a fork, pull the flour into the well. Continue mixing until the dough just comes together. Add more water if needed.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Gather the dough into a ball. Flatten it into a round disk, wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hr before rolling it out.

Roll out the dough to fit into the 9-inch or 10inch pie plate. Pop into the freezer for at least an hour, or or until frozen.

Preheat oven to 180C, pop the pie straight into the oven from the freezer - this stops the pastry from shrinking. Bake for 15-20min.

Quatre Epices White chocolate mousse

1/2 Cup Currants, soaked in rum overnight.

Dash of Allspice, ground
Smidgen of Cinnamon, ground
Smidgen of Nutmeg, ground
Smidgen of Cloves, ground

100ml Milk
1tsp Gelatine
4tsp Water
220ml Single Cream
200g White chocolate

Mix gelatine with water and leave to dissolve. Heat milk gently, add the four spices, then stir in gelatine mix.

Break chocolate into small pieces in a heat proof bowl. Pour over hot milk mix, stir until blended. Cool to room temperature.

Whip cream until stiff peaks form. Fold into chocolate mix.

Spread currants into baked pie shell and pour mousse over the top. Chill to set.

Enjoy!

Sad Red Strawberry Pie Re-visited

Firstly, apologies for the complete lack of blogging last month, it was a very hectic month to say the least.

The Sad Red Strawberry Pie got created when I got back from a visit to Sydney at the beginning of the year after spending some time with a wonderful and very lovely man who lives there. Life being what it is I have spent this year in New Zealand and he has spent this year in Sydney.

Visiting Sydney last week I ended up going for an unexpected job interview, and then being offered the job in Sydney, so I have decided to take it! Which means a lot of things to sort out before moving overseas in less then a month.

Last Sunday we had a wonderful lunch at the new house with a lovely bunch of folks, to finish I couldn't think of a more appropriate dessert then to make the Sad Red Strawberry Pie - to celebrate the end of sad strawberry farewells :)

Crepe Tart - Market

Here are some pictures of the lovely crepes that went into the Crepe Pie - Enjoy.

Cosy Winter Pie

I thought of this combination after stumbling across a recipe for Gajar Halwa and thought the flavours sounded delicious. A sweet wholemeal pie shell with this wonderful carrot mix and topped with a creamy rice pudding. What a delicious comforting winter pie. As I was heading to the mountain and snow this weekend I thought this would be the perfect pie to take along. Now some might argue that Gajar Halwa is not the correct name for this dish, but that is what the internet said and who am I to argue with the internet ;)

1x Pie shell (Sweet wholemeal pastry with cinnamon)

Gajar Halwa
20g Butter
4x Cardamom Pods, lightly crushed
3 Cups Carrot, grated and packed
1x Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1tsp Rosewater
4Tbs Hazelnuts, ground
1/2 tsp Nutmeg, grated

Rice Filling
400ml Milk
65g Arborio Rice
Zest of one Lemon
1x Vanilla Pod
115g Unsalted Butter, softened
50g Sugar
2x Eggs, separated.

Gajar Halwa
Melt butter and add cardamom pods, fry for a few minutes before adding the carrot.
Fry until dry and then add the milk.
Cook for 10min or until really thick and mix begins to come off the sides of the pan.
Add the hazelnuts and cook for a couple more minutes.
Remove from the heat and add the rosewater and nutmeg.

Rice Filling
The day before...
Pour the milk into a saucepan, add rice, lemon zest and vanilla pod.
Bring to the boil, stirring.
Lower the heat and cook gently, uncovered for about 45minuites or until the rice has absorbed the milk.
Remove from heat, remove vanilla pod.
Cover the pan and leave in a cool place overnight.
The next day
Beat butter and 25g sugar together until light and fluffy, add yolks.
Mash the rice with a fork and beat into the creamed mixture.
Whisk egg whites until stiff, beat in remaining sugar and fold into the rice mix.

Assembling the pie.
Spread the Gajar Halwa over the base of the tart shell.
Pour over the rice mix and level the surface.
Bake at 180C for 30-35min until filling is set and puffed.

Cinnamon Cherry and Ginger Mousse Tart

Another delightfully winter pie, delicious dark chocolate pie case with tangy spiced cinnamon cherries topped with an intense ginger infused mousse. Perfect for a cosy night in with a chilled glass of mead.

There may look to be quite a few ingredients but it creates a earthy, tangy slightly sweet cherry mix which compliments the lightly sweet, creamy ginger mousse beautifully.

1x Chocolate pie shell, 20x5cm, baked and brushed with melted dark chocolate.

3 Cups Cherries (Sweet)
3Tbs Port
3Tbs Water
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 Star Anise
2 Cloves
Pinch Salt
6 Twists Pepper (from grinder)
1Tbs Treacle
1tsp Red wine Vinegar
1tsp Rosewater
1tsp gelatin/agar

4cm piece Ginger root, peeled and grated.
300ml Cream
1tsp Ginger powder
1Cinnamon Stick
2Tbs Sugar
2 Eggs, separated

Day One
Combine cherries, port, water, cinnamon, star anise and cloves in a saucepan, simmer gently for 10min.
Add salt, pepper, treacle and vinegar, simmer for a further 5min.
Whisk in rosewater and chill over night.

Combine cream, ginger root and ginger powder in a saucepan and heat very gently for 20min.
Pour into a glass jar with a cinnamon stick and chill overnight to infuse.

Day Two
Drain the liquid from the cherries into a saucepan and heat gently, dissolve gelatin and then add cherries. Leave to cool.
When cool pour into pie shell and chill for an hour.

Pour the ginger infused cream through a sieve, add egg yolks and beat until light and fluffy.
Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, add one tablespoon of sugar at a time and beat until smooth and glossy.
Fold egg whites through ginger cream 1/3 at a time.
Pour onto chilled cherry mix and chill for a further few hours or overnight.

Feijoa and Rosewater Custard Pie

This delicious little pie has been in the pie book waiting for two things, firstly for Feijoa's to be in season, and secondly for me to overcome my fear of making custard from scratch! The last few times I attempted custard, I seemed to somehow end up with sweet scrambled eggs, not ideal.

While spending a wonderful long Queens Birthday weekend in Martinborough, I discovered a Feijoa tree hiding in the back garden. This brought back delightful memories of my grandparents Feijoa tree by the vegetable garden and eating feijoas until I felt ill. I made sure to pop enough fruit for a pie in a bag and took them home with me.

What could be a more wonderful comforting pie for the first day of winter then Feijoa and Rosewater Custard Pie.

1x Pie Shell, par-cooked, 21cm
1/4 Lemon, juiced
1 Cup Feijoa pulp, diced
1Tbs Honey
1Tbs Rosewater
2Tbs Cornflour

300ml Cream
150ml Milk
2 Eggs
2 Egg Yolks
100g Sugar
55g Flour
1tsp Vanilla Extract
3Tbs Rosewater

Squeeze lemon into a bowl to toss the feijoa pulp in as you are scooping it out to stop it going brown.
Mix in honey, rosewater and cornflour.
Spread mix onto pie shell.
Heat cream and milk in a saucepan, do not allow to boil. Beat eggs, yolks and sugar until sugar has dissolved and mix is light and lemon coloured. Mix in flour, then whisk in the hot cream. Tip mix back into saucepan. Heat gently, still stirring.
Heat for 2-3min until mix begins to thicken, stirring all the time.
Remove from heat and add vanilla and rosewater.
Tip custard onto feijoa mix and spread evenly.
Bake at 180C for 45min.

If you can not get hold of Feijoa's I suppose this would work with apples, but the fragrant feijoa and aromatic rosewater compliment each other beautifully, this is one of my most delicious pies of the year, I will be making it again very soon...

Chocolate Hazelnut Pavlova Pie

The Pavlova pie has been in the pie notebook for a little while, and was yet to inspire me to do anything further then a quick idea on a page. However this week when I got sent some secret family recipes by my mother, one of which was for pavlova I was suddenly fill of new idea's around the Pavlova pie. I have come up with two versions, a luxurious chocolate hazelnut pavlova pie and also a traditional kiwi inspired pie, the latter will need to wait until kiwifruit and strawberries are back in season!

1x Pie Shell, par-baked (28 x 5cm - I used chocolate sweet short pastry)

Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache
160ml Cream
200gm Dark Chocolate, in small pieces

Cherry Filling
1/2 C Dried Cherries, soaked overnight in 1/4C Kirsch Liqueur
1/2 C Morello Cherries
1tsp Gelatin/Agar
1tsp Vanilla Essence

Pavlova
8 Egg Whites
12Tbs Castor Sugar
2tsp Vinegar
2Dsp Warm Water
140g Hazelnuts, roasted and crushed in mortar and pestle

Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache

Heat cream gently until small bubbles appear on the outside of the pan, do not boil. Pour over chocolate pieces and Frangelico and whisk until melted. Chill.

When cool whip ganache for three minutes, until light and fluffy. Chill.

Cherry Filling
Put dried cherries and Kirsch into a small saucepan with morello cherries and 1/4C water, heat until liquid looks syrupy. Put gelatin/agar into a small bowl and tip out some cherry juice from the pan to dissolve gelatin/agar, tip back into pan with vanilla. Chill.

Pavlova
Beat egg whites till stiff (90sec) add vinegar and water, beat till mixed in. Add sugar 1Tbs at a time, beat for 2min. Fold in hazelnuts.

Tip Pavlova mix into par-baked pie shell, spread evenly leaving a hollow for the filling when cooked. Bake at 150C for 10min, then turn stove off completely for 1hr.
When cool spread Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache around the inside of the pavlova, leaving a pavlova border and a hollow for the Cherry Filling. Chill for 2hrs. Pour Cherry Filling into the centre of the pie. Chill.

The pie didn't have enough pavlova for my liking , as I wanted a layer on the sides and base, so I have doubled the quantity of pavlova. I made a rather large pie, so feel free to adjust the quantity for smaller pies!

Dark Chocolate, Coffee Bean and Caramelised Walnut Tart

1x 21cm Pie Shell, parbaked

200ml Cream

220g Dark Chocolate, in small pieces

2Tbs Liqueur (I used Irish Cream, Whisky or Frangelico would also work well in this one)
1x Shot Espresso
4Tbs Coffee Beans, roasted
1 Egg

2 Tbs Flour
30g Walnut pieces, finely chopped
30g Butter, melted
30g Sugar, brown

1/3C Walnut halves

1Dsp Sugar

Heat cream gently until small bubbles appear on the outside of the pan, do not boil. Pour over chocolate pieces and whisk until melted, add liqueur and espresso. Chill.

When cool whip ganache for two minutes, add egg and whip for two more minutes.

Grind coffee beans and add to ganache with the flour. Fold through.

Mix the walnut pieces, butter and brown sugar to a paste and brush in pie shell, bake at 180C for 10min.

Pour chocolate mix into pie shell and bake at 130C for 20min.

While pie is in the oven put walnuts in a non-stick pan and sprinkle with the sugar, cook until glossy and golden, 4 to 5 minutes, shaking the pan continuously. Set aside.

After 20min carefully pull pie out and arrange walnuts decoratively over the pie.

Cook for a further 15min or until set.

I decorated my tart with a sesame glaze, pure indulgence!

Apple, Walnut & Frangipane Tart

What is more Autumn then juicy apples and fresh walnuts. Every day when I walk outside there are walnuts everywhere to be collected from my wonderful walnut tree, what a better use for walnuts then adding them to a lovely frangipane mix and topping with tasty apples.

1x Pie Shell, biscuit shell below or sweet short.
1/2 cup dates, chopped
1tsp baking soda
350g Blanched Almonds, ground
300g Butter, Unsalted
300g Caster Sugar
3x Eggs
1/2 Cup Walnuts, chopped
1x Apple, sliced thinly

Soak dates in baking soda and 1 cup boiling water for 30min.
Whisk butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Fold in almonds and eggs until smooth, stir in the walnuts.
Freeze half of the frangipane mix for another pie.
Spread drained dates over pie base.
Fill pie shell with frangipane mix and decorate with apple slices.
Bake for 1hr at 180C, or until golden.
Remove from oven and brush apple slices with apricot jam or honey.
(If using biscuit pie shell, bake with a tray underneath as you will get butter leaking out of the pie)

Biscuit Pie Shell
220g plain biscuits, crushed (I used girl guide)
75g Butter, softened
1x Egg
1 tsp Cinnamon
Zest 1 Lemon

Mix biscuits, butter, egg, cinnamon and zest together.
Press evenly into 21cm pie dish, bake at 180C for 6min.

Chocolate Mousse & Orange Blossom Tart

What could be a more appropriate pie for an easter baking competition at work then chocolate. I thought a dense dark chocolate mousse would go deliciously with tangy marmalade and fragrant orange blossom water. The judges must have agreed as they gave it first place!

Ingredients

1x Pie Shell, I used 21cm

2-3 Tbs Orange Marmalade

300g Dark Chocolate

3 Eggs, separated

pinch Salt
1/2 tsp Orange Blossom Water

100g Dark Chocolate, coarsely grated

Bake pie shell for 15min at 180C until golden, while warm spread marmalade over pie base.
Melt 300g chocolate over bain marie until 80% melted, remove from heat and stir until all melted.
Whip egg whites until soft peaks form, add salt and whip until smooth and glossy with stiff peaks.
Add a scoop of egg whites to the melted chocolate and fold in.
Add the egg yolks to the melted chocolate.
Continue folding the egg whites into the melted chocolate until all gone.
Add the orange blossom water to the mix.Cool, then add the grated chocolate.
Pour into pie shell and refrigerate overnight to set.

Chocolate, Banana Meringue Pie

A twist on the traditional banoffee pie, my love of chocolate combined with banana's, strawberries and topped with luscious meringue.

1x Pie Shell
100g Cream
200g dark Chocolate, broken into pieces.
2x Bananas, sliced
1 handful of Strawberries, sliced
Cinnamon
Brown Sugar
4x Egg whites
4 Tbs Sugar

Heat cream and pour over chocolate in a bowl, stir until chocolate is melted, cool.
Whip chocolate ganache until light, spread in pie shell.
Place sliced banana and strawberries on chocolate ganache, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
Whip egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks, spread over pie.
Bake for 10min at 220C or until meringue is golden.

Lemon and Sugar Crepe Pie

Page 3 in the pie idea notebook. I love crepes with lemon and sugar, so the challenge of making a pie version of that was a pleasure! This may seem like a lot of effort, but it did not take long at all, I made it during one of my weeks where I am out every night, one step at a time. The crepes can be made a day or so ahead, the pie dish can be lined with pastry and frozen a week before hand. Then all that remains is making the filling and assembling the pie.

Crepe Pie

1x Pie shell, in cake tin or deep pie dish
9x Crepes
4 Tbs Caster Sugar
3 Eggs, Seperated
3 Tbs Lemon Curd
zest 1 Lemon, keep lemon for juice
250g Mascarpone

Bake pie shell for 15min at 180C, let cool.
Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, add sugar and beat until stiff.
In a separate bowl beat mascarpone until light and creamy, beat in egg yolks, lemon curd and zest.
Fold egg whites into mascarpone mix 1/3 at a time. Chill for 30min before using.
Spread a layer of mousse into base of pie shell, top with a crepe and a squeeze of lemon.
Repeat layers of mousse, crepes and lemon juice until all used up, or top of pie shell is reached.
Finish with a crepe (I leave the best looking one for the top) and sprinkle with demarera sugar, caramelize sugar with a blow torch or with a spoon (heat a large metal spoon over a gas flame and run the back of the spoon over the sugar. Be careful, the spoon can get very hot)
Leave in the fridge to set, at least a few hours, overnight works well.

I made this without the squeeze of lemon between the layers and felt that it needed a little more tart lemon flavour.

Crepes

2 C Standard Flour
2 Eggs
2 C Milk
1 tsp Cinnamon (Feel free to adjust to taste, ditto with vanilla)
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 Tbs Sugar
Extra milk

If making these for crepe pie aim to use a pan that will give you crepes to snugly fit the diameter of the pie shell, excess pieces can be trimmed.

Mix all ingredients together, it will need extra milk to make a thin batter (appx 1/4-1/2 cup)
Heat a pan and melt a small slice of butter before adding crepe batter and swirling around to fill pan.
Should make about 12 crepes, these can be kept for a few days or frozen.

Tropical Pie

A fruity little number that is refreshing on a light summers evening.

1x Pie Shell
3Tbs Passionfruit Curd
2 cups Fruit, chopped (Plums, Nectarines, Berries, Peaches, Bananas, Melon)
4x Egg Whites
2 Tbs Sugar
1/2 cup coconut, thread

Mix fruit with passionfruit curd, spread in pre-baked pie shell.
Whip egg whites with sugar until stiff peaks form, fold in coconut thread.
Spread onto pie and bake for 10min at 200C or until golden.

Plum & Chocolate Mousse Pie

The weather has chilled this week, Autumn is well on the way. Plums are ample and I thought 5-spice would work wonderfully with plums and apples paired with dark chocolate mousse.

1 x Pie Shell
8 x Plums (I used Omega), chopped
1 x Apple, chopped
1 tsp 5-spice powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Sugar (any type)
1 x Vanilla Pod, seeds
200g 70%+ Chocolate, broken into pieces
2 x Egg Yolks
Pinch Salt
4 x Egg Whites
2 tsp Castor Sugar

Mix plums, apples, 5-spice, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla in an oven dish. Bake at 180C until soft (20min)
Melt chocolate in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water, remove when 80% melted and stir till all chocolate is melted.
Whisk egg whites, when stiff add sugar and whisk until smooth.
Whisk in egg yolks and salt to melted chocolate. Add 1/3 egg whites and mix well.
Carefully fold in remaining egg whites.
Spread cooled plum mix into base of pie. Top with chocolate mousse and grate lemon zest/chocolate over pie! Chill for an hour or overnight to set mousse.

Feel free to vary the amount of fruit and mousse depending on the size of your pie, I used a 21cm pie shell.

Sad Red Strawberry Tart

After spending a weekend with a lovely man in Sydney I was returning home to Wellington, feeling rather bewildered and sad. I started thinking of strawberries, so fresh and romantic - crushed with the sadness of being apart....

1 x Pie Shell
150g Dark Chocolate
100g Cream
2 Cups Fresh Strawberries, chopped
1 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar
2 Tbs Fresh Mint, chopped
1 Tbs Icing Sugar
2 Tbs Kirsch Liquor

Bake the pie shell for 15min at 180 C
Crush strawberries, balsamic, mint, icing sugar, and kirsch together.
Leave to mingle for 30min.
Melt chocolate and cream together. Smooth into pie shell to cover base and sides, refrigerate until set.
Drain strawberry mix in a sieve, retain liquid.
Spread strawberries over the pie base.
Reduce liquid to a syrup. Drizzle over tart.
Grate dark chocolate and sprinkle fresh mint over top of tart.

Enjoy with friends and a nice glass of wine!