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Tag Archives: sweets

Middle Eastern Sherbet Berry Balls

These are super easy sweet bites that need no cooking! Make them small as I did for an after dinner treat or bigger and they could double as a light dessert.

I used frozen blackberries, but raspberries or strawberries would be great too.

The “sherbet” part comes from sprinkling them with freeze dried raspberry powder. If you can’t get hold of any, they are equally delicious just rolled in coconut or chopped nuts. Or you could even roll in more chocolate, grated!

Ingredients

40g dark chocolate

100g frozen berries slightly thawed

80g rolled oats

1 tablespoon golden syrup

40g coconut oil

60g shredded coconut

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Freeze dried raspberry powder

Ground pistachios (optional)

Method

Take the chocolate and chop into squares or small pieces. Place in a ziplock bag and bash using a mallet or similar into chocolate rubble.

Place the berries, oats, golden syrup, coconut oil, 40g of the coconut, sesame seeds and chocolate in a food processor and process until smooth. Transfer mixture to a bowl. Cover with cling wrap. Place in the fridge for several hours or until mixture is stiff enough to roll into balls.

Roll large teaspoon portions of mixture into balls. Roll in remaining coconut to lightly coat.

Sprinkle with freeze dried raspberry powder for the sherbet effect.

If using, sprinkle some ground pistachios over as well. It’s nice to do a few this way.

You will need to store these in the fridge. They should keep in an airtight container for a week or more.

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Raspberry and Macadamia Nougat

 

It’s Christmas and I have been meaning to make nougat as a festive treat for ages. I had  even bought the rice paper earlier in the year and started researching recipes. I finally decided to have a go this week.

I found a great Jamie Oliver recipe – see here for the original – and so I’ve used this as the basis for my nougat. I flavoured mine with freeze-dried raspberries and macadamias. I did add a little red food colour to the mixture to get a really raspberry effect.

The day that I made the nougat was 36 degrees C and high humidity. That’s Christmas in Sydney for you! The nougat didn’t set as hard as I would have liked and was difficult to slice. The flavour was fine however!

Here is Jamie’s recipe with my flavour additions.

Ingredients
Rice paper sheets
2 tablespoons glucose syrup
250 g caster sugar
150 g clear honey
2 large free-range egg whites
A handful of freeze dried raspberries
A handful of chopped macadamias
A drop or 2 of red food colouring

Method
Line a 23cm x 23cm baking tin with rice paper sheets. You will have to trim them to size.

Put the glucose, sugar, honey and 100ml of water in a saucepan along with a thermometer and set it over a medium heat.

Add the egg whites to a mixer fitted with a balloon whisk. When the sugar reaches 130ºC, beat the whites on high speed until frothy.

Once the sugar reaches 143ºC, remove it from the heat and pour gradually onto the eggs. Whisk on a high speed for 8 to 10 minutes, until the eggs start to hold their shape and the mixture is firm.

Turn off the mixer and stir in the freeze dried raspberries, chopped macadamias and a little food colouring to taste. I think some pink streaks are nice.

Spoon the nougat into the lined tin, levelling the top with an oiled knife. Put more sheets of rice paper cut to size over the top, then a board, weigh it down with something heavy and leave overnight.

The next day, remove the nougat from the tin, trimming any excess paper, and slice it into squares or fingers. I decorated my nougat with more whole freeze dried raspberries and freeze dried raspberry powder.

Store it in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

 

 

Tie Dye Marshmallows

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I love marshmallows, and when I discovered how simple they are to make, they have become part of my sweet treats repertoire. They’re dead easy to make, the only tricky bits are heating the sugar, glucose and water to the right temperature, and then pouring the hot mixture onto the beaten egg whites.

I recently found an image on Pinterest of bright multi-coloured tie dye marshmallows. I liked the concept, but went for a softer coloured version. My go-to recipe for marshmallows is Jamie Oliver’s great recipe from his book Comfort Food.

I was keen to get a whole lot of colours going, so opted for a basic vanilla flavour using vanilla paste. In my previous post, see here, I made lovely rosewater flavoured pink marshmallows. My problem was, with so many colours, what flavour to choose? So vanilla seemed the best choice.

This is Jamie’s recipe adapted for tie dye colours.

Ingredients

50g cornflour

5g icing sugar

50g liquid glucose syrup

450g caster sugar

10 sheet gelatin

2 large free-range egg whites

1 tsp vanilla paste

A few drops each of different food colourings

Method

This is a precise recipe, so make sure you read through the method carefully before you start, get all your ingredients weighed out and get your equipment ready to go. Sift the cornflour and icing sugar into a bowl. Finely sift half the mixture over a deep baking tray (20cm x 30 cm) and set the other half aside in the sieve until later.

Mix the liquid glucose syrup and caster sugar together in a pan over a low heat with 250ml of cold water. Heat gently, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved and you have a clear syrup.

Meanwhile, soak the gelatine leaves in a small pan with 125ml of water.

Once the sugar syrup is clear, turn up the heat, pop in a sugar thermometer and allow the syrup to boil vigorously (please don’t stir it). When it reaches 110ºC, place the gelatine pan over a medium heat and stir until dissolved.

Whisk the egg whites in a free-standing electric mixer until you have stiff peaks.

Once your syrup has reached 122ºC, very carefully and slowly pour it down the sides of the bowl of the moving mixer, then pour in the dissolved gelatine.

Add the vanilla paste to the mixer bowl, then continue to whisk for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the mixture has significantly increased in volume, but is thick and still pourable.

Have several bowls (one for each colour) ready, with a few drops of your chosen colours in each bowl. Once the marshmallow is whisked, pour into each of the bowls. Mix the colours through the marshmallow. You’ll need to work quickly, as the marshmallow will start to set.

Then pour each marshmallow mixture into the prepared tray. You can use your creativity here, in the way you place the colours. I used a skewer to swirl the colours together. You can smooth the top if you like, with a palette knife, but I like the rough effect. Sift over the remaining mixed cornflour and icing sugar and leave to set for two to three hours. Cut into squares and store in grease proof  paper in a tin. Keeps well for a week or two or three!

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