Revisiting travels - Advocaatje

The day after we cycled to Damme and back from Brugge, we went for a wander to find a couple of places, but in our usual way, we ended up somewhere other than where we were aiming for and found ourselves back at the ring road and the line of 4 old windmills up against the canal.  It was high time to eat lunch, so we found a little bakery and selected some bits and pieces and went and sat on the hill beside one of the windmills.  The following is something I've never come across before, and unless I can convince Simon's baker cousin to start making them, I doubt I'll see them ever again.

Called Advocaatje, this was a truely delectable piece of baking goodness (and I don't mean that in the healthy sense of the word!).  Wrapped in an almond icing, and topped with a shallow pool of some sort of advocaat based liquid, surrounded by whipped cream.  The whole thing was fairly well refrigerated, which was very nice, making the sponge (details to come) not too spongy and the cream not too soft or messy.

Turn it around and you can see, along with my teeth marks, the full strata of this little beauty....

So the base is a meringue, topped with (I think) whipped cream, then a layer of sponge cake and finally that generous dose of advocaat flavoured liquid - I can't honestly call it an icing, it was too runny for that, and had to be eaten carefully to prevent it running out and down the sides!  The combination of flavours - the sweet of the meringue, the fattiness of the cream, the alcoholic sharpness of the topping were all beautifully balanced, especially once wrapped in the almond icing.  Amazing.  Not even vaguely healthful, but what an experience!

Apple & Feijoa Crumble Recipe

On a whim, I made Apple & Feijoa Crumble tonight. Seeing as I didn't use a recipe, I figure I'd better record how I made it so I know for next time! It tasted great - the fruit wasn't too sweet, in fact it was a little on the pleasantly tart side, balanced by the crumble topping. We will do this again.

Makes 2 generous serves

Stewed Fruit
2 apples (I used braeburn)
4 feijoas
2 Tb castor sugar

Crumble
3 Tb rolled oats
3 Tb flour
3 Tb brown sugar
3 Tb ground almonds
I'd guess about 40g butter, maybe a little less.

1. Peel, quarter & core the apples. Slice into 3mm widths then halve each sliced quarter.
   
2. Place in a small pan with the castor sugar and about 2Tb water.
3. Heat, stir, cook until tender but chunks are still intact rather than completely stewed down.
4. Halve the feijoas and scoop the flesh out with a teaspoon, cutting into quarters before adding to the saucepan of apple.
5. Cook for about 3 more minutes (or thereabouts). Remove from the heat. If there is a lot of liquid, I'd probably drain some off, but mine was good.
6. Spoon evenly into 2 large ramekins, no more than 2/3s full.
7. And make the crumble! Mix all the ingredients except the butter.
8. Grate half the butter in to the mix. Rub in (I used a wire pastry rubber-doofer thing (what are they called???) because my hands are usually so warm I melt the butter in seconds - not good!).
   
9. Grate the rest of the butter in and continue to rub in - judge the quantity based on the consistency of the crumble (as it happens I put too much butter in and had to add a Tb more of each ingredient - originally I'd only used 2Tb of each!!! This is how I cook though).
10. Crumble the crumble (!) on to the cooled fruit, pat down gently, just gently!
11. Cook at 160 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes, or until the topping is golden & delicious (and a bit of fruit juice is starting to bubble up through the crumble).
12. Serve with pouring cream (or yoghurt, vanilla ice-cream, custard... whatever you prefer).

Nom nom nom. :-)

Pairing Chocolate Brownie with Wine: My Verdict

I wanted a wine to accompany a pre-dinner snack of a Chocolate Brownie.  The brownie contained walnuts, so it consisted of strong chocolate and walnut flavours.

I decided to try the brownie with 3 different wines:

• Framingham Marlborough Classic Riesling 2006
• Sandeman Founders Reserve Port
• Tuatara Pinot Noir 2003

The Brownie is good in its own right as are all of the wines, with the exclusion of the Pinot Noir (it was already open and even when I had it yesterday (or was it the day before?) it was tasting that it was a smidgen past it).

The Port overpowered the brownie and really accentuated the alcohol.  This was not a good match.

The Pinot Noir just didn't have the right balance, although to be fair it may be due to the state of this one being below par.

The Riesling and brownie were the best match although there was a very slight bitterness that came with the match.  In terms of a a superb fit, it wasn't quite there, and a Sticky would probably be better.

So, it wasn’t exactly a comprehensive analysis and obviously more brownie and wine is required!

Poaching the Pears

I really do need to organise my photo uploads a little better! Tonight I've uploaded photos that I've then discovered are already on my flickr page, and now I've just found photos of the pears in the process of being poached. You know, the ones I blogged about last night in their final form!

So anyway, here they are actually poaching away, smelling delicious and looking wonderful in all their spicey goodness!

Poached Pears with Ganache & Peach Sorbet

I have the house to myself today so I'm catching up on a few things, sadly its mostly housework, but I'm also sorting back through a few photos. Well, I'm a little astonished to discover that I have not yet blogged about the most delicious dessert I made back in April! I'm pretty sure this was the evening we had friends around for dinner and I can't really remember what else I cooked, but I do remember this dessert!

For ages I had been wanting to learn how to poach pears, so I finally decided to give it a go. I have to say, the absolutely worst part of this whole process - coring the damn things out while keeping the stalks intact! What a mission! I got there eventually though and then proceeded to poach the pears in a delicious spicey sugar syrup. I've served them with a chocolate ganache I'd made earlier and then softened in the microwave for serving, and a homemade peach sorbet. Delicious! And really very easy!

I belatedly found some pics of the pears actually poaching.

Chocolate Fondue

Friends invited us around last weekend for a celebratory dessert and sticky wine and to bestow wonderful birthday treats upon me. With impeccable timing, a package had arrived at their home from France and Simon and I were fortunate enough to share the spoils!



The Fondue was as rich, thick and delicious as it appeared (and deceptively more alcoholic than it appeared!) and the fruit and marshmallows luscious and completely irresistible. Divine and highly recommended! (Oh - needless to say the fruit was locally purchased, not shipped from France!)