Have a ladle ready and start adding 1 ladleful of the milk mixture at a time. As soon as some of it has evaporated, add some more, and keep doing this until there is no milk left. This can take a good 20–30 minutes.
Once the milk is finished and you have a thick risotto, take off the heat and stir in the salt, sugar and vanilla bean paste, if using. Take out the bay leaf and cinnamon stick.
Put half the mixture into a dish and leave to cool. Eat the other half with the passion fruit pulp drizzled on top.
Refrigerate the cooled rice overnight. The next day, you can make it into sweet arancini balls. See here for how to make these.
SWEET ARANCINI BALLS
Crack 2 eggs into a bowl and lightly whisk. Put 70g of breadcrumbs on a plate. Take tablespoons of the cold rice mix and make golf ball-size balls, using wet hands. If you happen to have an ice cream scoop, this is a good way to measure equal amounts of rice.
Dip the balls into the egg, then roll in the breadcrumbs and pop them on to a tray. Put them back into the fridge while you heat about 500ml of vegetable oil in a pan small enough so you can cook just 2 arancini at a time. The oil should come just halfway up the pan. You’ll know when the oil is hot enough if you drop in a bit of bread and it sizzles and floats. Carefully drop a rice ball in and fry until the outside is golden. Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot. You can warm some jam and use that as a dipping sauce, or sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar. If you have any sweet arancini balls left over, they can be frozen.
SWEET RISOTTO
CHOC CHIP PAN COOKIE
SERVES: 6 ACTIVE TIME: 10 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 45 MINUTES
The best kind of cookies are the ones that are homemade, but when I’m short of time, just divvying them up puts me off. So, I have found a way of making my cookie – cookie being the operative word – and eating it too. It’s all made in one pan and cooked slowly on the hob till you have a lovely crust but a gooey centre. I always think if you’re going to make a cookie mixture, you might as well double it up and have some ready to bake in the freezer. Simply double all the ingredients if you want to do this.
150g unsalted butter
160g brown sugar
1 medium egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
225g plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon salt
200g chocolate chips/ mini multicoloured sugar-coated chocolates
Place a small non-stick, thick-based heavy frying pan, about 23cm, on a medium to low heat. Add the butter and allow it to melt, then add the sugar and stir until it has dissolved. Take off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.
While it’s cooling, lightly beat the egg and add the vanilla and almond extracts.
Now add the flour, bicarb and salt to the mixture in the frying pan, followed by the egg mix. Stir until you have a smooth cookie batter.
Press the batter down and sprinkle over the chocolate chips. Now leave on a low heat for 15–20 minutes. If you find the bottom catches, you may find it helpful to pop a lid on the pan for 5 minutes. What you should end up with is a crisp base and gooey top.
Let it cool and set for about 15 minutes before you start eating. I like to take out slices and eat them hot with ice cream.
HANDY TIP
If you have made a double batch of batter, halve it before cooking, then roll this batch into walnut-sized balls, place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and pop in the freezer. Once frozen, transfer to a labelled freezer bag.
When you want to bake, preheat the oven to 160°C/fan 140°C, pop the frozen cookies on a lined baking tray and bake for 20–25 minutes. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes before eating.
PECAN ROUNDS WITH COFFEE CREAM
MAKES: 32 ACTIVE TIME: 40 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR
These are like scones, but not; they are like Welsh cakes, but not those either. They are a weird hybrid of the two that I like to fill with pecans and top with salted caramel and coffee cream. I always make enough to reserve half of these rounds, so I can pop them into freezer bags for another occasion.
For the rounds
450g plain flour
170g caster sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g butter
100g pecans, finely chopped
2 eggs, beaten
100g melted butter, for brushing
For the coffee cream
2 tablespoons instant coffee
1 tablespoon hot water
300ml double cream
2 tablespoons caster sugar
To serve
salted caramel
Start by making the pecan rounds. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C. Grease two baking trays and line with baking paper.
Put the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and butter into a bowl, and rub the butter in until you have breadcrumbs. Stir in the pecans.
Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, then use a palette knife to bring the dough together. Roll it out on a floured surface to a thickness of 1cm, and cut out rounds using a 6cm cutter. Collect the scraps and keep re-rolling and cutting until you have used up all the dough.
Brush the baking paper in the trays with melted butter. Place the rounds on the trays with small gaps between them and brush again with butter. Bake for 20 minutes, then take them out and leave them to cool on a rack.
Add the coffee to the hot water and leave it to cool completely. Whisk the cream and sugar to soft peaks, then add the cold coffee mixture and whisk it through quickly.
To serve, slather some salted caramel over the rounds and spoon on some of the coffee cream.
Whatever does not get eaten can be frozen.
PRESERVED LEMON TRAYBAKE
MAKES: 12 SQUARES ACTIVE TIME: 20 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR
This traybake combines salty, sweet and zesty flavours. It’s an assault on the senses but in a good way. Something a little different, but not steering too far away from the classics. While you’re making up the batter, you might like to make an extra cake for the freezer – so just double up the cake ingredients if so.
For the cake
225g unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
275g self-raising flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 large eggs
4 tablespoons whole milk
1 lemon, zest only
For the topping
2 preserved lemons
1 x 170g tin of evaporated milk
Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan 140°C. Grease and line a 30cm x 23cm traybake tin.
Put the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs, milk and zest into a mixing bowl and mix on a high speed for 2 minutes, until you have a smooth, shiny batter. Pour it into the prepared tin and level the top.
Bake in the oven for 35–40 minutes.
Discard any pips from the preserved lemons, then blitz with the evaporated milk and pass through a sieve.
While the cake is still hot, spread the salty lemony milk all over it, so it can be absorbed. After 15 minutes, remove the cake from the tin and it is ready to slice. This can be eaten cold, but is best warm.
The cake freezes well – just wrap it in foil and then tightly in clingfilm.
PRESERVED LEMON TRAYBAKE
RIPPLE ÉCLAIR POPS
MAKES: 18 ACTIVE TIME: 1 HOUR TOTAL TIME: 2 HOURS 30 MINUTES
These are like regular éclairs, but there isn’t anything regular about them. Once they’re filled with raspberry ripple cream, you stick a stick in, freeze them and then cover them in chocolate – ice lolly, meets dessert, meets pastry. A guaranteed amazing dessert ready to go in your freezer.
For the choux
125ml milk
125ml water
125g butter
150g plain flour, sieved
a pinch of salt
2 teaspoons sugar
4 medium eggs, beaten
For the filling
600ml double cream
3 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g raspberries, blended and sieved
2 tablespoons icing sugar
To finish
18 lolly sticks
600g dark chocolate, melted
100g roasted hazelnuts, chopped (optional)
Start by making the choux. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C and line two baking rays with baking paper, lightly greased.
Put the milk and water into a pan with the butter and bring to the boil. Take it off the heat, then add the flour, salt and sugar in one go and beat vigorously until you have a smooth paste. Pop it back on the heat to cook the flour out for 2 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat again and empty the dough into a bowl. Now add the eggs a little at a time. Keep mixing after each addition and it will come together. When all the eggs are used up, you should have a smooth, glossy paste. Pop it into a piping bag and snip off the corner to make a 1.5cm hole.
Slowly pipe 10cm lines of dough a couple of centimetres wide on to the baking trays, leaving a 2.5cm gap in between. Once you have done them all, reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/fan 160°C and bake them for 25 minutes.
Take them out of the oven and pierce a hole in the base of each with the back of a wooden spoon, then put them back into the oven, hole side up, to dry out. Take out after 5 minutes and leave to cool completely while you make the cream.
Whip the cream, golden syrup and vanilla to soft peaks. Mix the sieved raspberries with the icing sugar and ripple through the cream. Pop the cream into a piping bag and start to fill each éclair through the little hole, until the piping bag gets pushed out. You may have to twist the tip about to try and get as much cream into it as possible.
Lay the eclairs on a tray quite close together and top with a layer of baking paper. Pop a stick into the rounded end of each one and freeze. They will need at least an hour. Just before taking them out of the freezer, melt the chocolate. There are two ways of eating these. Dip and eat while the chocolate slowly sets. Or dip, then sprinkle the nuts over and freeze for another hour.
BLACK PEPPER CAKE
SERVES: 8–10 ACTIVE TIME: 20 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES
If we can use ginger as a spice in cake, somewhere in my mind black pepper feels acceptable too. It’s a subtly scented spice that works so well in a sticky cake like this. Try it, if only out of curiosity. This is another sponge that you can make ahead and keep in the freezer or make a couple so you have one now and one for later (double all ingredients if you’d like to do this).
75g plain flour
2 heaped teaspoons ground black pepper
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons whole milk
150g treacle
75g butter
75g light brown sugar
75ml water
1 large egg, beaten
Preheat the oven to 170°C/fan 150°C and line a 900g loaf tin.
Sift the flour and pepper into a large bowl. Mix the bicarbonate of soda and milk in a separate small bowl and set aside.
Heat the treacle, butter, sugar and water in a pan until dissolved. Let it cool a bit, then add to the dry mix and mix to a smooth, shiny batter. Add the egg and mix in well, then stir in the milk and bicarb mixture.
Spoon into the loaf tin and bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean.
BANANA TARTE TATIN WITH MALAI ICE CREAM
SERVES: 6 ACTIVE TIME: 30 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES
Malai ice cream is a subtly scented milk-based ice cream that you can find in South East Asia and often here too. This is my no-churn version – it goes really well with the sweet tatin, but will also go further, leaving enough for a few extra desserts.
For the ice cream
1 x 397g tin of condensed milk
500ml double cream
5 cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed
For the banana tarte tatin
1 x 500g block of puff pastry
100g brown sugar
75g butter
30–50g chopped hazelnuts
4 or maybe 5 bananas, sliced into 2cm coins
Make the ice cream first. Put the condensed milk, cream and crushed cardamom seeds into a bowl. Whip until thick and at soft peak stage, then transfer to a freezer-safe tub and level the top. Place inside a ziplock bag and freeze.
Now on to the tarte tatin. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C and have a 23cm oven-safe pan at the ready.
Roll out the pastry to a 1cm thickness, then cut out a circle about 2cm wider than your pan. Pop it on a baking tray and leave it in the fridge while you make the caramel.
Put the sugar and butter into the pan, and when the sugar dissolves, turn up the heat and allow the caramel to get dark and thicken. Lift the pan and give it all a little swirl occasionally. The main thing is to watch it until it is a deep caramel colour, because once it gets to that point it can burn quickly. Take off the heat and sprinkle on the hazelnuts.
Add the bananas to the caramel, then lay the pastry on top and gently lift and tuck it around the sides of the pan, being careful of the hot caramel. Cut a slit in the top for the steam to escape, and bake for 25–30 minutes.
Let it stand for at least 20 minutes after it comes out of the oven. Then turn it over on to a serving plate and serve with the ice cream.
BANANA TARTE TATIN WITH MALAI ICE CREAM
CARAMELIZED BISCUIT TRAYBAKE
MAKES: 18 SQUARES ACTIVE TIME: 40 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 2 HOURS
From the moment I first made these cinnamon goodies I have been addicted. They are delicious, and there is nothing better than incorporating warm cinnamon flavours into a cake. These can be cut into squares and frozen, so you don’t have to eat them all at once unless you really want to.
For the cake
250g unsalted butter
250g soft dark brown sugar
100g caramelized biscuit smooth spread
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
5 medium eggs
300g plain flour, sifted
For the topping
200g white chocolate
200ml double cream
150g crunchy caramelized biscuits, crushed
Preheat the oven to 170°C/fan 150°C. Grease and line a 33cm x 24cm rectangular brownie tray.
Put the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and whisk until the mixture is light and pale and fluffy. Add the biscuit spread, cinnamon and salt, and mix well.
Add the eggs one at a time, stirring each one in, then fold in the flour until you have an even, smooth, shiny batter. Spread it in the brownie tray and level the top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, then take out and leave to cool completely in the tray.
Meanwhile make the topping. Put the white chocolate into a bowl. Heat the cream in a pan until it just comes to the boil, then take off the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for half a minute … don’t be tempted to stir just yet. When the chocolate starts to melt, stir until the mixture is silky smooth.
Stir in the crushed biscuits, then spread all over the cooled cake. Once the topping has set, lift the cake out of the tray, using the paper to help you, and cut it into squares.
CARAMELIZED BISCUIT TRAYBAKE
CHOCOLATE AND ORANGE BLOSSOM BAKLAVA
MAKES: 16 ACTIVE TIME: 40 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 2 HOURS
I had always imagined that baklava would be very sweet, like Indian sweets, and I wasn’t wrong – it is sweet, but there’s something about the crunchy, sticky pastry and nuts that makes you forget. This is my favourite combination of chocolate and orange, and I like to eat it the way we did in Turkey, with lashings of clotted cream on top.
300g mixed nuts
3 tablespoons golden syrup
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 orange, zest only (save the ju
ice for the syrup)
200g butter
2 x 270g packs of filo pastry
2 x 140g pots of clotted cream
For the syrup
250g caster sugar
50g honey
3 teaspoons orange blossom water
orange juice, freshly squeezed and topped with water to make 200ml of liquid
4 cardamom pods, crushed
Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan 140°C. Grease a square 21cm cake tin.
In a food processor, blitz the nuts until ground to small, even pieces. Stir in the syrup, salt, cocoa powder and orange zest and put to one side.
Melt the butter, then open your first pack of filo pastry. Cut the sheets in half so you have a pile of squares. Place your cake tin on top and trim the pastry with a sharp knife so it is the same size as the base of the tin.
Brush a square of pastry with butter and lay it in the base of the cake tin, then do the same to every single square until you have all that pastry inside the tin. Press the pastry down firmly every time you put in a square. Put the nuts on top and press down again to create an even layer.
Open the second pack of pastry and, again, cut it in half and trim the edges to fit the tin. Layer each piece one on top of the other as before, brushing with melted butter, and pressing down. If there’s any butter left over, just pour it on top.
With the pastry still in the tin, use a sharp knife to cut out the squares, making sure to get all the way to the bottom layer. Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 130°C/fan 110°C and bake for a further 45 minutes.
Time to Eat Page 15