Acknowledgements

Introduction

Notes

Biscuits, bars, slices and balls

14 Ultimate Chocolate Brownie

16 Nana’s Top Hats

18 Biscotti

20 Birdie Bars

22 Almond Choc Boulders

24 Choc Chip Cookie Dough

Sandwiches

26 Caramel Slabs

28 Goji Berry Bliss Balls

30 Gran’s Rum Balls

32 Lemon Lavender Bars

34 Little Sweetheart Shortbread

Macarons

40 Fairy Bread Macarons

42 Lemon Drop Macarons

43 Reese’s Pieces Macarons

44 Salted Caramel Macarons

45 Jaffa Macarons

46 Strawberry Macarons with

White Chocolate and

Lavender Ganache

47 Perky Nana Macarons

48 Snifter Macarons

Cupcakes

54 After Dinner Mint Cupcakes

56 Cookie Monster Cupcakes

58 Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

60 Peanut Butter Jelly Cupcakes

62 Salted Caramel Cupcakes

64 Toasted Strawberry

Marshmallow Cupcakes

Donuts

70 Bounty Bar Donuts

72 Jelly Tip Donuts

74 Lemon Meringue Pie Donuts

76 Malteser and Malted

Milkshake Custard Donuts

78 Nutella Donuts

80 Salted Caramel Custard

Donuts

Cakes, tarts and pies

86 Dark Chocolate Tart

88 Baby Berry Pies

90 Carrot Cake

92 Caramel Poached Apple Tart

94 Lemon Mascarpone

Cheesecake with Limoncello

Jelly

96 Lemon Meringue Pie

98 Lemon Vanilla Angel Cake

100 Mum’s Sticky Lemon Loaf

102 Nuts About You Baby

104 Poached Pear, Lemon and

Açai Cheesecake

106 Candied Almond and Berry

Friands

108 Rocky Road Fudge Cake

110 Ruby Pear Tart

112 Salted Caramel Meringue

Cake

114 Strawberries and Cream

Cake

116 Scorched Apricot and Yoghurt

Cheesecake

118 Tart Tin’s Apple Pie

120 Sticky Ginger Date Loaves

122 Velvet Lemon Tart

Icings, sauces and garnishes

128 Berry Coulis

127 Berry Compote

129 Salted Caramel

129 Shortcrust Pastry

130 Mum’s Limoncello

130 Candied Almonds

132 Vanilla Bean Cream Custard

132 Chocolate Sauce

133 Buttercream Icing

134 Salted Caramel Candy Corn

134 Rocky Road Fudge Cake

Crumbs

136 Lemon Curd

136 Peanut Brittle

137 Butterscotch Sauce

137 Chocolate Ganache

138 Italian Meringue

140 Crème Anglaise

141 Berry Jam

141 Marshmallow Smurf Hats

Contents

4 T H E T A R T T I N / B I S C U I T S , B A R S , S L I C E S & B A L L S

I used to have these two mountain bike-mad flatmates at my house in St Clair. Every weekend these boys would head off on missions up the hills around Dunedin. I had a big jar of good old scroggin on the kitchen bench that I would munch on after a surf and it would always be gone by Monday! One week I decided to treat the flatmates to something a little easier to eat on the run, and so the Birdie Bar was born. Such a hit was the Birdie Bar, it was given a regular spot in the caravan cabinet. I like to use almonds, walnuts, apricots and cranberries for these bars, but you can use anything you have on hand.

Preheat oven to 160°C. Lightly grease and line a 38 × 25cm high-sided baking tray with baking paper.

Put dry ingredients into a bowl. Put butter and honey into a separate bowl, cover with a paper towel, and microwave in 30-second bursts until melted. Mix into the dry ingredients.

Press mixture into prepared tray as evenly as possible and bake for 15 minutes, until golden on top.

Slice into bars when cool. These will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 weeks.

Birdie Bars

Makes 20 Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 10–15 mins

330g oats

100g flour

200g mixed nuts, roughly

chopped

50g chia seeds

200g dried fruit, roughly

chopped

150g desiccated coconut

300g butter

½ cup honey

6 T H E T A R T T I N / B I S C U I T S , B A R S , S L I C E S & B A L L S

These are basically big fancy meringues that have a nougat-like chewy centre. They make a perfect easy dessert served with some fresh fruit or berries and whipped cream. These are a great way to use up egg whites leftover from another recipe.

Preheat oven to 170˚C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Wipe the inside of a mixing bowl with the lemon half. Combine egg whites and sugar in the mixing bowl and place over a small simmering saucepan of water at a low temperature. Bring them to 60°C (use a thermometer if you have one; if not, the mixture should be hot enough that you cannot hold your finger in it), stirring occasionally so mixture heats evenly. Remove from heat and whisk until mixture forms very stiff glossy peaks.

Fold in almonds and cake crumbs. Pipe or spoon tennis-ball sized rounds onto prepared tray, leaving enough space around each to allow them to increase by half.

Bake for 20 minutes. They will be wobbly in the middle but cracked and firm to the touch on the outside when you remove them from the oven. If you want them to be more crunchy and less chewy, continue to cook for another 5 minutes.

Allow to cool before storing in an airtight container, where they will keep for 2 weeks.

Makes 10 large boulders Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 20–25 mins Gluten free

Half a lemon

6 large egg whites

2½ cups icing sugar

2 handfuls sliced almonds

Handful of Rocky Road Fudge

Cake Crumbs (see page 134)

Almond Choc Boulders

These temperamental little French cookies have been the all too real nightmare for many a chef and home cook. They’re the reason that Marie Antoinette said ‘let them eat cake’, and not ‘let them eat macarons’ . . .

Some tips to make sure your macarons are a success:

• The finer you can get your icing sugar and almond mixture, the

better the macaron finish will be.

• Adding lemon juice while whipping the egg whites helps you to

achieve stiff peaks – you can also use cream of tartar, which is

also acidic.

• Pour the sugar into the whipping egg whites in an even slow

stream – too fast and your eggs will cook and go runny.

• Powdered flavourings or pastes are better than essences, which

will make your macarons too wet and stop them drying out

properly on the tray.

• Banging the tray of macarons on the bench removes any trapped

air – if there are air bubbles the macrons will crack as they cook.

• Your timing when combining the hot liquid sugar and egg whites

needs to be very exact as if the sugar is not the right temperature

when you pour it into the egg whites at soft peak stage your

meringue won’t work.

• If you don’t have a thermometer, check the temperature of your

sugar by using a fork to drop a small amount of it into a cup of

water – if it forms a small firm ball it is at the right temperature.

• You must fold the mixture at least 50 times to reach a consistency

that will spread nicely and create macarons that are smooth on

top – the mixture should be like lava as it drops off the spoon.

• The drying stage will take longer in humid conditions, in some

cases overnight.

There are many ways to mess them up but if you follow some simple

rules then before you know it you will be an expert, inventing crazy

new flavours to impress your friends.

Macarons

Lightly flour a baking tray.

Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl.

Put milk, sugar and vanilla into a small saucepan over a low heat and gently warm. Test with your finger – if it’s too hot it will kill the yeast but too cold and it will take forever for your dough to rise. If you have a thermometer, it should be between 20° and 30°C.

Stir yeast in. Sit the saucepan somewhere warm until the yeast begins to bubble, about 15 minutes.

If you have a kitchen mixer with a dough hook, put that on. If not, use a fork to slowly mix milk into flour, followed by egg yolks and finally butter. Knead in the mixer or on a lightly floured bench until the dough goes from dimpled to smooth. This will take a good 10 minutes.

Cover the dough with a clean tea towel and let it rest somewhere warm until it doubles in size. This will take about 2 hours, depending on the room temperature.

Once doubled, portion into small balls, a third of the size you want your donuts to be.

Place the balls on prepared tray and let prove for at least an hour, until puffed up to double their size. Cover with plastic wrap if your kitchen is cold.

Heat oil in a deep-fryer or a large, deep frying pan until it reaches 180°C. Two at a time, carefully place donuts into oil and cook until golden all over, about 1½ minutes.

Put second measure of sugar in a bowl and roll the donuts in it while still hot. Leave to cool.

When cool, make a hole in the middle of the donuts using the handle of a wooden spoon or with your finger.

Combine salted caramel and vanilla bean cream custard. Pipe into donuts to fill.

Drizzle donuts in molten salted caramel and dust with icing sugar.

Makes 12 small or 6 large donuts Prep time: 2½ hours Cook time: 3 mins

Donuts

4½ cups flour

1 tsp salt

1½ cups milk

½ cup caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla essence

4 tsp dry instant yeast

4 egg yolks

120g butter, melted

Lard or canola oil for deep

frying

4 tsp caster sugar

Filling

10 tbsp of 1 portion Salted

Caramel (see page 129),

rest for topping

½ portion Vanilla Bean Cream

Custard (see page 132)

Topping

Salted Caramel (see page 129),

to drizzle

Icing sugar to dust

Salted Caramel Custard Donuts

1 4 T H E T A R T T I N / C A K E S , T A R T S & P I E S

When baking with pears, I love to use pears from Earnscleugh Orchards Cooperative. Stan Randle sells his pears at the market alongside Tart Tin and I reckon his Beurré Bosc pears can’t be beaten.

This beautiful little tart is more than a little eye catching. The longer and slower you poach the pears in the mulled wine the more depth you can create in the dessert. You can either save the poaching liquor to use in another dessert or sip away as you’re cooking!

Preheat oven to 170°C. Lightly grease and flour a 23cm tart tin.

Put all mulled wine poached pear ingredients into a small saucepan over medium heat and poach slowly for at least one hour, until soft to touch.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool in the mulled wine mixture.

Roll out pastry on a floured bench to about 3mm in thickness. Line tin with pastry, press into edges with fingers then crimp off excess. Line with baking paper and blind bake until golden around edges. This should take about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and remove blind-baking material and baking paper.

Brush with egg wash and continue to bake for 5 minutes, until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin on a rack.

Remove the cooled pears from the wine, reserving the wine if you wish, and pat pears dry with a clean cloth. Thinly slice the pears.

Fill the cooled tart case three-quarters full with the vanilla bean cream custard.

Fan the pears over the cream, and garnish with fresh fruit.

Serve tart at room temperature, ideally with a cold glass of New Zealand Gewürztraminer.

This will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 days. Bring it to room temperature to serve.

Makes one 23cm tart Prep time: 40 mins Cook time: 1 hour

Mulled wine poached pears

4 large whole pears, peeled

3 cups red wine

1 cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

1 tsp vanilla extract or seeds

from half a vanilla pod

1 cup orange juice

3 black peppercorns

1 portion Shortcrust pastry

(see page 129)

1 egg, beaten, for egg wash

1 portion Vanilla Bean Cream

Custard (see page 132)

Ruby Pear Tart

$39.99247 x 194 mm, approx 140 pp, flexibind, colour photography throughout

ISBN: 978 0 947503 50 5

Stock No: 6242

Published: October 2017