Baking Panettone

This is very easy...a little time consuming but so worth the effort....

You'll need
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1 tablespoon dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
5 tablespoons caster sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
500 gr plain flour
1/3 cup currants
1/3 cup sultanas
1/4 cup candied orange peel
1 tablespoon icing sugar

Preheat oven to 170c

In a medium bowl, combine yeast, water and caster sugar, then stir and cover and let stand for 10 minutes until it starts to foam. In another bowl, combine yoghurt, eggs, vanilla, zest and salt and mix together, then add to the yeast mixture. Let it sit for about 10 minutes until it foams and bubbles

Stir in the flour, a little at a time until a dough starts to form into a manageable ball. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 to 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary, until dough is soft and pliable, but not sticky

Place the ball of dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover with a tea towel.

It'll take about an hour for the dough to double it's size

Lightly grease a round 20cm cake tin and place two layers of baking paper in the bottom, then in a small bowl, mix the dried fruit with the icing sugar. Punch down the dough, transfer to a floured surface again and knead in the fruit

Put the dough into the cake tin and let is rise again...for about half an hour

Then bake for about 35-40 minutes,

Delicious with a good coffee for breakfast or afternoon tea.

The original recipe had the oven at 180 deg and a baking time of 45 minutes. I tried it a little lower as my oven is fan forced. I also tested the Panettone after 35 minutes and it was fine, although some of the fruit on the top was a little crispy, as you can see.

Christmas Menu 2010 #4 - Ice Cream Cones

A lot of work goes into a magazine cover, because it's meant to be so gorgeous and enticing you won't be able to leave the shop without it.

...and so it is with Delicious. The December issue, featuring Valli Little's White Christmas Ice Cream Cones, is a vision befitting the Magazine's 100th Edition!

But when deciding to attempt something you see on the cover of a mag you should always remember what effort has gone into the photograph to get it looking the way it does. Believe me there is a LOT OF STYLING & ZSHUZING!!!

I decided to make Valli's Ice Cream Cones for our pre-Christmas get together...and here's the result. Certainly not a disaster by any stretch, but not as "sharp and precise" as Valli's.

Not bad though

Valli makes them sound very simple and while they weren't hard, they were fiddly and a little frustrating, but hey, I'll be better next time....and there will be a next time.

Here are Valli's instructions, I'll tell you what I learned at the end.

Makes 8

125 gr mixed glace fruits
1/3 cup sherry
125 gr dark chocolate
1.25 litres vanilla ice cream, softened
2/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted and chopped

Finely chop fruits and place in bowl with sherry and let soak overnight
To prepare paper moulds, cut eight 30cmx20cm sheets of baking paper. Trim 8 sheets of plain A-4 paper into the same size
Lay baking paper sheet over a sheet of regular paper and bring top right corners into the middle of the paper and then roll to form a cone shape. secure with sticky tape...repeat with the remaining sheets of paper and place in 8 champagne flutes or slim wine glasses.

Finely chop or grate chocolate, drain the fruits and discard the liquid...fold into softened ice cream with the almonds and chocolate then scoop the mixture into the cones, packing down ice cream tightly to get it into the point. Put in freezer overnight

To serve, remove tape and unwrap the paper. Invert cones onto serving plates.

Here's what I did...I bought myself some poly cones from a craft shop to help me with the shape and size thinking it would make it a little easier to get the "mould" right...the thing is though, the baking paper and poly cones don't like each other and are extremely slippery to handle.

Sticky tape doesn't take a firm grip on the baking paper either....and remember, don't put a piece of tape near the top of the cove because it'll be extremely difficult to remove and keep the "point" in tact when you want to serve them

If you use berries, as I did rather than dried fruit, chop the berries up as they can get stuck at the point end of the cone, preventing ice-cream getting all the way down.

I also mixed in some grated white chocolate and thickened cream (about half a cup) into the ice cream with the berries.

Here they are in the freezer.....

...and here's the end result.

I put a drop of green food colouring in the last batch to give them a different look....

So there you have it. Definitely worth the effort...but do a trial run before you attempt this for a big night...and make sure you do it AT LEAST A DAY or more in advance.

Christmas Menu #2 - Potato Pancakes

I've had a lot on my mind lately, what with getting Number 3 renovated and cleaning up Number 10. Now, my thoughts have well and truly turned to food. Specifically, Christmas food!

Image-Cuisine.com.au

On the Saturday before Christmas, MONT's daughters and their husbands and little ones descend on Number 10 for dinner. It's a night I always look forward to and I like to go all out and do something special.

Back in December 2006, I saw this Stephanie Alexander recipe in in the Age food supplement, Epicure, so I thought I'd give it a try. I was not disappointed and have been making them ever since.

There's only one thing with these though: don't let the mixture sit around for too long because the potato discolours.

Potato Pancakes:

500 grams waxy potatoes
1 egg
2 tablespoons potato flour
pinch salt
oil for frying

Peel the potatoes and roughly chop (do them in a few batches to avoid discolouration), then put in a blender and blend until smooth. You may need to shake the blender around a bit if lumps of spud get stuck in the bottom beneath the blades. Then add the egg, flour and salt and blend again.

Heat a non stick pan, add the oil and drop spoonfuls of the mix in and fry for a couple of minutes on each side. The little pancakes should be nicely browned and quite crisp on the edges.

Drain on kitchen paper, cool and then add whatever topping you like. I usually use cream cheese, smoked salmon, prawns, avocado...or whatever takes your fancy

You can make these pancakes the day before and refrigerate them, then reheat in a moderate oven for a few minutes before allowing them to cool a little and adding the topping.

Thanks Stephanie, I love these and so does everyone else.