A Winter Pavlova + How to Poach Quince

After 17 weeks, many frustrating meal times and far too many toasted sandwiches, our new kitchen is done! At the 17 week mark we were able to put most things back in the kitchen and use it (finally!), and after a few more weeks the last finishing touches and changes were done. Now all we need is another coat of paint and the longest kitchen renovation will be officially complete! I have been immensely enjoying being back in the kitchen. Not being able to bake for 4 months was almost like torture for me! Now I am trying to spend every spare moment in there, baking all the things I have been thinking about since late February, and making the most of seasonal produce I have been so desperately wanting to cook with. 

Such seasonal produce, includes quince. Since finding some good poaching recipes last year, my enthusiasm for cooking (and eating) homemade poached quince has only increased. When June arrived, and our kitchen was still in renovation mode, I did begin to panic that I may miss quince season all together and have to wait another whole year to enjoy them. Luckily the renovation finished just in time and I have poached three lots of quince (on a new gas stove none the less!). 

Grandma's Pavlova

I have some stored in the fridge, with extra poaching liquid to use for whatever takes my fancy. Though served with ice cream and a drizzle of poaching syrup makes a nice simple dessert, and topping pancakes with them turn lazy weekend breakfasts into thoroughly gourmet affairs. 

After the publication of Country Style’s Heirloom Recipe Cookbook, in which my Grandma’s pavlova recipe was featured, I decided to go back to this favourite family recipe and give it a Winter twist. I also was keen to see how a familiar recipe fared in our new oven! Every oven seems to be different and it takes a little while to adjust. I am finding I’m needing to turn the recommended temperatures down at least 10 degrees in our new oven, and for this recipe I ended up baking the pavlova at 110 degrees Celsius (after the initial pre-heating). I have left the oven temperature in the recipe the same as my Grandma’s original recipe, however if you can smell the pavlova cooking too quickly (it will start to smell like the beginning stages of caramel/burning sugar), turn the temperature down accordingly. 

Country Style's Heirloom Recipes cookbook

Note: Both the poached quince and the pavlova base can be made in advance. The pavlova can be cooked the night before and left in the oven overnight to cool. 

Poached Quince

Poached Quince

Ingredients: 

6 Quince 

900g white sugar

1.2L water

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 cinnamon quills 

Method: 

Peel the quince and cut into quarters, removing the cores. Wrap the peel and cores in muslin. In a large pot place the quince and the muslin containing the cores and peel. Add the sugar and water, and cook covered over low heat, allowing the water to simmer, for 1 hour. 

After one hour check the quince by pricking a couple with a fork to check how tender they have become. The quince should become quite tender and soft, however remain whole and not break up. If the quince are not tender enough keep them on the heat, checking again after twenty minutes or so. This process should take between 1-2 hours total. 

Once the quince have become tender, add the vanilla bean paste and cinnamon quills to the pot. Gently stir everything together, then turn off the heat and leave to cool with the lid on. 

Once the quince have begun to cool, sterilise a couple of medium/large jars, by washing them in hot soapy water then placing in the oven for 20 minutes on a low temperature. Transfer the quince into each jar, then cover with as much poaching liquid as will fit. You may want an additional jar to store any remaining poaching liquid. Store in the fridge for up to a month. 

Mascarpone Cream

Winter Pavlova

Ingredients: 

4 egg whites

125g caster sugar

125g golden caster sugar 

1 tsp white vinegar 

1 tsp vanilla bean paste 

20g cornflour 

To decorate: 

200g mascarpone (I used Pepe Saya) 

150ml thickened cream

1 tsp vanilla extract 

35g icing sugar

8 quarters of poached quince, approx. 

Poaching liquid, to serve

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a large baking tray with baking paper, and trace a circle approx. 26 cm in diameter (I used a dinner plate). 

In a clean dry bowl, beat the egg whites for 5-6 minutes, whilst gradually adding the sugar. Add the vinegar and vanilla and beat until the mixture is stiff and glossy. 

Sift cornflour over the mixture, and gently fold to combine. 

Place mixture onto the tray in the middle of the drawn circle. Push the mixture around to form a circle, leaving a small border around the edges. Try to keep the edges a little higher than the middle so any filling can sit comfortably in the middle later. 

Turn the oven down to 125 degrees Celsius, and cook undisturbed for 1.5 hours. 

After 1.5 hours, turn the oven off and leave the pavlova to cool completely in the oven (or overnight). 

Just before you are ready to serve the pavlova, place the mascarpone in a medium sized bowl and whip until it has thickened and soft peaks form. Gradually add the cream, vanilla and icing sugar until all ingredients have combined and stiff peaks form. 

Spread the mascarpone cream into the centre of the pavlova. Drain the quince of syrup and sit them on top of the cream. 

Serve with the quince poaching liquid. 

Winter Pavlova with Poached Quince

Reference:  Jamie Magazine, Issue 63 November 2015 p.31. 

ANZAC Biscuits Revisited

I have posted a fairly similar version of this recipe before. It is one of my favourite recipes from my Grandma’s collection, and often I adapt it to suit what types of ingredients we have or to try some new ingredient I have found. 

More recently, I wanted to play with the ingredients to alter to final texture of the biscuit. The type of sugar you use will determine whether these ANZAC biscuits are crisp and crunchy or softer and chewier. I like to try gain some kind of middle ground between these two opposites, by using a combination of caster sugar and raw sugar. If you like a more chewy biscuit use a combination of caster and brown sugar. 

I also found coconut chips in a deli a while back, and they are great in this recipe. The bigger chunks of coconut give the biscuits a litter more substance and highlight the coconut amongst all the other ingredients just that much more. Any coconut will do, but it’s nice to try something different every once in a while! 

I am posting this recipe again, not just because of my adventures in experimenting with it. It is of course ANZAC Day tomorrow, and a very significant one at that. I’ve said before that the main way I tend to mark these kind of significant holidays or events is with food. Not to lessen the significance of the occasion, but to mark it in my own way. I’m not one, especially on this occasion, for immersing myself in it all too much. Being a modern history major and the relative of some who have served and are currently serving, often makes the connection of the day a little too overwhelming for me. 

So I bake, look through family photos and reflect on the lives of those to whom this Day has real significance. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup raw sugar

3/4 cup coconut chips

1 tbsp golden syrup

110 g unsalted butter

1 tsp bi-carb soda

2 tbsp warm water 

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius and line three large baking trays with baking paper. 

Mix the oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a large bowl. Melt the golden syrup and butter on a medium-low heat, then mix the bi-carb soda and warm water together and add to the butter. The butter mixture should froth a little. 

Take the butter mixture off the heat and add to the dry ingredients and mix together. 

Place teaspoon sized balls of the mixture on the trays, leaving room for the biscuits to spread. Bake for 10 - 20 minutes, or until golden. 

Makes approx. 32 biscuits.

Raspberry & Rose Pavlova (Gluten Free) + Christmas 2014

This year for Christmas I baked a lot! We don’t have a big family, so we decided to make food the focus for Christmas Day. While the heat and humidity of our Sydney Summer provided a few challenges to my baking efforts, I really enjoyed having the time to bake and cook whatever I wanted, with Christmas being the ‘excuse.’ 

I made four batches of gingerbread, using this recipe, which remains my favourite. A made a gingerbread house, with varying levels of success. I was concerned about is structural soundness, however after just over a week of standing upright and remaining standing once a meat mallet was taken to it, I feel these concerns were slightly unfounded! Mostly, I would have liked it to look prettier, however for my first ever attempt, it’s probably not so bad. 

A few tarts were made as well. All of them stemmed from using up lovely summer fruits that we had bought. Using the same case and filling recipe as the white cherry tart I made in my last post, I used raspberries and peaches, which was so good, then just plain raspberry, then I used up the last of the Christmas cherries to make a cherry tart for New Years Eve. I also just made a plum upside-down cake to use up the last of the plums. It’s safe to say that this holiday season has not been short of cake and sweet treats! 

Peach & Raspberry Tart

Cherry Tart for New Years Eve

On Christmas morning I had prepared some of Sophie Hansen’s Buttermilk Jam Scrolls, which we ate with tea and some lovely fresh fruits. For Christmas Day lunch my Mum made a glazed ham, turkey wellington and a pear and goats curd salad. I made my favourite Summer Iced Tea. For dessert I created an Epic Pavlova. I call it epic as it was just something I thought I would try and see if it worked. And it ended up being the best pavlova I have ever made! I changed some of the ingredients from my Grandma’s original recipe, after looking at lots of other pavlova recipes. I wanted it to look a little festive, so I decided to decorate it with mostly red berries, and was particularly excited when I found red currants in the green grocer (first time I had ever seen them!). 

Breakfast

Christmas Lunch

Dessert!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to take many photos of the pavlova, as when I was assembling it, the Christmas Day weather began to turn bad. Thus there was no good light to shoot in. The shots I got were taken at a doorway to the balcony, door open to get as much natural light in as possible, rain coming down just beyond where the pavlova sat! 

Here is the recipe for my pavlova. I used up some of the remaining egg yolks to make the frangipane fruit tarts (substitute one whole egg for two yolks), otherwise you could make some gingerbread or maybe some custard. The quantities for the fruit to decorate are just guides, as you can put as little or as much as you would like, there are no rules! Lots of different fruits are great for pavlova, however I would stick to things that complement rosewater for this recipe. 

I made the pavlova layers on Christmas Eve and left them to cool in the oven overnight, and assembled just before serving on Christmas Day. 

Raspberry & Rose Pavlova

Ingredients for the Pavlova: 

8 egg whites 

500 g caster sugar

2 tsp raspberry vinegar 

1 tsp rosewater 

40g cornflour

To Decorate: 

450 ml cream 

1 tbsp rosewater 

1-2 punnet raspberries

1 punnet blueberries

seeds from 1-2 pomegranates

1 punnet red currants 

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line two large baking trays with baking paper, and trace a circle on each, approx. 26 cm in diameter (I used a dinner plate). 

In a clean dry bowl, beat the egg whites for 5-6 minutes, whilst gradually adding the sugar. Add the raspberry vinegar and rosewater and beat until the mixture is stiff and glossy. 

Sift cornflour over the mixture, and gently fold to combine. 

Place half the mixture on one tray, using the circle as a guide. Push the mixture around to form a circle, leaving a small border around the edges. Repeat with the remaining mixture on the other tray. 

Turn the oven down to 125 degrees Celsius, and cook undisturbed for 1.5 hours. 

After 1.5 hours, turn the oven off and leave the pavlova layers to cool completely in the oven. 

When ready to assemble the pavlova, whip the cream and rosewater together. Spread half over one of the pavlovas and sprinkle with half the pomegranate seeds, half the raspberries and half the blueberries. Place the remaining pavlova shell on top. Fill the top layer with the remaining cream, and berries, using the red currants to form a border around the fruit on the top layer. 

What did you make during the festive season? Let me know in the comments below!

For more recipes showcasing the best of rose, check out my eBook Baking with Rose by clicking the link below!

My Grandma's Pavlova (Gluten Free)

In my last post I talked about the concepts of fressing and heirloom baking. This recipe is my ultimate recipe from my heirloom collection and I think fits very nicely into the idea of fressing as it is so enjoyable to eat. This was the dish I got excited about every time we went to my Grandparent’s for dinner. I would be desperately disappointed if it wasn’t the dessert of choice for that evening, and would ask my Grandma in a sad voice ‘but why didn’t you make a pavlova?’ as if the world had now come to an end. 

If I was in luck and pavlova was made for dessert, before (or sometimes during) dinner I would reach up onto the bench and pick off little bits of the meringue that had formed little peaks on the edges of the pavlova. I always remember being served my piece of pavlova on its own or only with ice cream. There probably was other fruit to go with it, I was just to picky to want it sitting on my piece. 

This recipe makes a crisp meringue and despite my childhood fussiness, does go well with cream and fruit. I have left this out of the recipe, purely because I wanted to make it as I remembered it. However, feel free to top the pavlova with some freshly whipped cream and fruit (such as passionfruit, raspberries, strawberries, banana, blueberries etc), just before serving. 

Ingredients: 

x4 egg whites 

250g caster sugar 

1 tsp vinegar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

20 g cornflour 

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a large baking tray with baking paper. 

Whisk the egg whites with a mixer on a medium to high speed, and gradually add the sugar. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick, glossy and holds its peak. This process should take around 5 minutes. Whisk in the vanilla and the vinegar once this process is almost complete. 

Once the mixture is holding its peak and the sugar has dissolved, sift in the cornflour and gently fold in with a metal spoon or a spatula. 

Gently spoon the mixture in to the centre the prepared baking tray and smooth out until you have a circular shape. Keep the edges of the circle high and don’t smooth out too far. The circle should be around 24-26cm in diameter. It isn’t necessary to be overly precise, you just don’t want a really flat pavlova! 

Turn the oven down to 125 degrees Celsius, and bake the pavlova for 1 hour 30 minutes, no longer. Once the cooking time has elapsed, turn the oven off and leave the pavlova in the oven to cool. You can remove the pavlova immediately but be prepared for it to crack and sink a little (this will also depend on the weather, Summer may be the ultimate time to eat a pavlova, however the humidity does not do baking it any favours!). 

Originally Posted July 16, 2014.

How to Make Traditional Australian ANZAC Biscuits

Just a short post today, I’ve been trying to update the site and am finding my lack of IT knowledge very unhelpful! Luckily, these biscuits are easy to make, and don’t require any technical IT knowledge or technical baking knowledge for that matter. 

This is a recipe that my Grandma made often, and I copied down when I was about 11. They are a nice combination between chewy and crisp, and work well with either caster sugar, golden caster sugar, and I have also tried brown sugar as well. It doesn’t matter what type of coconut you use. Desiccated is more traditional, however shredded or flakes are really nice to use as well. 

This recipe is really easy to make and can be easily doubled if you need lots of biscuits for a event or party. I made them for the bake sale I did last year with Confessions of a Glutton and they were probably the easiest and least time consuming thing I made. 

So as ANZAC Day isn’t too far away, try making these instead of buying the packet ones and I think you’ll really notice the difference! 

Ingredients: 

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup plain flour

1 cup sugar (caster or golden caster)

3/4 cup coconut (desiccated, shredded or flakes)

1 tbsp golden syrup

100 g unsalted butter

1 tsp bi-carb soda

2 tbsp warm water 

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius and line two large baking trays with baking paper. 

Mix the oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a large bowl. Melt the golden syrup and butter on a medium-low heat, then mix the bi-carb soda and warm water together and add to the butter. The butter mixture should froth a little. 

Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients and mix together. 

Place teaspoon sized balls of the mixture on the trays, leaving room for the biscuits to spread. Bake for 10 - 20 minutes, until golden. 

Makes approx. 32 biscuits.

Originally Posted April 6, 2014.

Grandma's Shortbread Biscuits

This recipe is very special to me. That might sound strange as it really just comprises three ingredients, but this is probably my favourite thing that my Grandma used to make. I have great memories of making these with her and of course, eating them! The last time I remember she made them was for my twenty-first birthday. I called her and told her that I was having an afternoon tea for my birthday, and she asked whether she could provide any food for it. I immediately said no, as my Mum and I had been busy organising all the things we would need and probably didn’t need anything else. I instinctively felt bad saying no, as I knew Grandma probably wanted to bring something. My Grandma always brought food to everything, that was the way she contributed to things. A couple of days later I suddenly realised that I definitely DID want Grandma to bake something for my birthday! No birthday, and certainly not one that was an afternoon tea, would be complete without shortbread! I rang her up, and asked if she would bake some and she was happy too. I’m so glad she did as, though we all still had a few years left together at that stage, it was, I realised after she died, the last time she ever made my favourite shortbread for me.

This recipe for shortbread is quite easy but, the temperature of the butter will determine how crumbly the dough becomes. I find that butter at around room temperature is best. My Grandma never iced her shortbread, she always cut a red glacé cherry in half and placed it in the centre of the biscuit before baking. They are very nice this way, and quite festive for Christmas time. But of course, I could never only make them at Christmas! 

Shortbread the way Grandma used to make them.

Ingredients: 

160 g unsalted butter  

60 g caster sugar 

250 g plain flour

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees Celsius and line two large baking trays with baking paper.

Place the larger quantity of butter and the sugar into a food processor and pulse until combined. 

Add the plain flour, and pulse until the dough looks like the breadcrumbs. At this stage, if the dough does not start to come together well, add the extra butter and pulse until it is combined and the dough comes together. 

Tip the dough out onto a floured work surface. The dough may still look crumbly at this stage, but once brought together with your hands, and rolled out with a rolling pin, it will become a more consistent dough. Shortbread is a dryer dough than others so don’t worry if the edges of your dough are particularly brittle.

Once the dough is rolled out, cut out shapes with biscuit cutters. To ensure the shapes don’t break when you transfer them to a baking tray, slide a spatula under the biscuits to help lift them to the tray. 

Space biscuits evenly on the trays and bake for about 20 minutes. If your oven, like mine, doesn’t cook evenly on each tray, you might like to swap the trays over or turn them around half way through the cooking time to ensure the biscuits cook more evenly. 

Cool on trays or wire racks. 

The quantity this recipe yields is dependent on the size of biscuit cutters you use. When I used this recipe for the biscuits I made in the photo above, the recipe made twenty-two biscuits. 

Shortbread are lovely on their own, or once cooled you can ice them. When I first started icing biscuits, I used the royal icing that can be bought in a packed at the supermarket. It is quite good to use if you are just starting out and one packet will ice more than one batch of shortbread. If you want a more smooth and glossy finish of icing however, the packet mix royal icing isn’t the one to use. For such a finish it is best to make your own royal icing. I have been using the recipe from ‘Sweet Bake Shop’* and have found it to be fantastic.

*Sweet Bake Shop website has now changed (last checked 10/10/14). Website previously contained recipes and instructions. The website now represents the evolution of Sweet Bake Shop, which is now an actual store front in Vancouver, Canada. The website no longer contains recipes, however there are some video tutorials by Sweet Bake Shop owner Tessa. 

Originally Posted January 8, 2014.