Milk & Milo

This month in Taste magazine there were some amazing looking sweets as usual, but I was especially excited to try and make the milk and milo tart. I love the taste of milo like many people but I had never made a dessert using milo, so I decided to give this one a go.

The tart itself and the filling is not really a tricky task, however the process is quite lengthy due to the need for chilling the pastry, the filling and then the final tart. So this recipe does call for some time and patience but the final result is definitely worth it. If you are short of both of these things you could make the tart into little individual tarts which would minimise the chilling time of the final tarts. This milk and milo tart is sure to impress your friends and family at any event so give it a go!

It's your turn now!

Milk and Milo tart

375ml milk
50g milo
6 egg yolks
50g cornflour
2tbs caster sugar
50g milk chocolate, finely chopped
300ml thickened cream
1 1/2 tbs icing sugar mixture
Milo, extra, to serve

Chocolate pastry
225g plain flour
60g icing sugar
30g dark cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
150g unsalted butter, chilled, chopped
2 egg yolks

For the pastry, process the flour, sugar, cocoa and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add yolks and process until dough just starts to come together. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until just smooth. Shape into a disk. Cover with plastic and place in fridge for 45 minutes to rest.
Roll out pastry on a sheet of baking paper to a 4mm- thick disc. Line a round 24cm fluted tart tin, with removable base, with pastry. Trim excess. Place in fridge for 1 hr to rest.
Preheat oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan forced. Line pastry with baking paper and fill with pastry weights or rice. Bake for 12 minutes, remove paper and bake for another 10-12 minutes or until cooked through and crisp. Set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, stir milk and milo in a saucepan and bring just to the boil. Stir egg yolks, cornflour and sugar in a bowl. Slowly add the hot milk mixture to the yolk mixture, stirring constantly until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until very thick and smooth. Stir in chocolate until melted. Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic. Set aside to cool for 1 hour and then chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
Whisk cream and icing sugar until firm peaks form. Use a ballon whisk to fold 2/3 cup of cream mixture through the chocolate mixture until well combined. Spread over pastry. Dollop and gently swirl remaining cream mixture over tart. Place in the fridge for 2-3 hours or until firm. Sprinkle with extra milo to serve.

Enjoy! 

Eat sweet, be sweet :)

Recipe from Taste Magazine  

White Chocolate and Pistachio Macarons

I have been making macarons for a few years now and I had never made pistachio flavoured ones before. I researched some recipes for fillings and found mostly butter-creams and I prefer filling macarons with ganache, so I adapted a few of the recipes in order to make a white chocolate and pistachio ganache.

The pistachios I used to make the ganache initially were in shells, so after shelling them the skin still remained which didn't allow the natural green colour of the pistachio to come through when made into butter to mix in the ganache. I added green food colouring to the ganache purely for presentation reasons, however it is not necessary if you don't want to.

Macarons are tricky, but with some practice you'll have the technique in no time!

It's your turn!

Italian meringue macarons

150g caster sugar

37g water

55g egg whites

1g egg white powder

150g almond meal

150 icing sugar

55g egg whites

Green food colouring 

White chocolate and pistachio ganache

400g white chocolate

200ml pouring cream 

60g pistachios, shelled 

Green food colouring (if needed) 

Put the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and boil until it reaches 118°C. Add food colouring. 

When it is getting close to the temperature put 55g of egg whites and the egg white powder into an electric whisker and whisk until frothy.

Once the sugar syrup has reached the right temperature add it to the egg whites in a steady stream while whisking. Continue whisking until warm, about 8 minutes.

Put the almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor and process to a fine powder, then sift into a large bowl.

Add the extra egg whites to the dry ingredients and then add the meringue and use a large spatula to fold them through until combined.

Continue mixing until the mixture fall of the spatula slowly.

Transfer mixture into a piping bag with a 7mm round nozzle, pipe 3cm-diameter rounds of mixture onto heavy baking-paper-lined oven trays. Set the trays aside for 30-60 minutes or until a light skin has formed and the shells are not sticky to touch.

Bake the shells in a pre-heated oven of 135°C for 15 minutes, until they have a firm outer shell.

Carefully remove shells from the tray after 2 minutes and set them aside to cool.

Place the pistachios in a food processor and grind until they form a paste. 

Place chocolate in a bowl. Heat the cream and pistachio paste in a saucepan. Pour over chocolate and mix well until melted and combined. 

Allow the ganache to cool and become firm enough to pipe.

Fill a piping bag with a 1cm round nozzle with the ganache and pipe onto the flat side of half the macaron shells. Top with the remaining macaron shells. 

Enjoy! 

Eat sweet, be sweet :)

Macaron recipe from Adriano Zumbo