Coffee and Walnut Streusel Cake

Hi
Thought I'd share my latest baking effort. A Coffee & Walnut Streusel cake. You can't tell from the picture, but it is a ring cake. The recipe was from the March issue of Australian Good Taste, so you'll be able to get the recipe from the Taste website soon. The Streusel part came from a layer of crumbled shortbreads and candied walnuts through the middle and on top. Next time I'll probably be a bit more heavy handed with the middle layer as I thought it kind of melted into the cake a bit. The funny part was that I had just picked up my new Kitchenaid Hand Beaters from Myer (to match my growing collection!) and was so excited to get home and bake something. Anyway, I get all the ingredients out only to discover the recipe came from a whole collection of melt and mix cakes!! No beaters required...bummer! On any other day this would be a great discovery I suppose. I will have to make some cupcakes or something to give them a test run. I was also dissapointed to discover that the Australian Good Taste home cook competition only applied to recipes from the June and July issues of the mag. Oh well, means more recipes to try I suppose :)

I sent half the cake off with my husband for a work morning tea and kept the other half for a visit from Louise and Xavier. We both managed to enjoy our cake and coffee while the little ones played. Oh and Bree thanks for the tip on the Bodum double walled latte glasses! For some reason, the same nespresso coffees seemed to taste nicer out of those glasses!

Anyway, take care and happy cooking!

Toni

Baked Ricotta Tart with Polenta and Parmesan Pastry and Grilled Vegetables

Hi
A friend recently asked how come I don't blog my food anymore, so when I posted this pic on facebook someone asked me for this recipe recently, it prompted me to get started again.

Now that Sophie is able to sit on her own and play, I seem to have a little more time to get stuff done.

So, here is the recipe for this vegetable tart (if you can call it a recipe). It all actually came from discovering this lovely bunch of baby leeks at the supermarket and thinking wow...what can I make with those?? I had seen the recipe for the pastry in a magazine at the doctors and suddenly the idea just came about. The filling I used was just made up on the spot. It was supposed to be a mixture of mascapone, goats cheese and lemon juice (served cold), but I am actually not 100% sure if I really love goats cheese, so I didn't want to waste $12 on cheese if it was a fail. I bought ricotta and danish fetta instead and when I tasted the mixture I suddenly remembered that ricotta is extremely bland on its own and cold. So, I added an egg and wacked it in the oven. Pretty happy with the result. Not sure if it was a proper baked ricotta tart...but anyhoo.

Pastry
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup fine polenta
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan
125 g butter
salt
1 egg
1-2 tablespoons cold water

Pulse dry ingredients with butter in a food processor (or if you're really keen, by hand). Add egg with machine running and then gradually add the water until it comes into a ball. Gently bring together into a ball and wrap in cling wrap and rest in the fridge for 20-30 mins.
Roll out and put into lightly greased tin (I used a long square flan tin with a removeable base and there was enough pastry left for probably another one). Put baking paper over the top and weight down with dry rice or pie weights and blind bake for 13 mins at 180ish.

Add filling and then bake again for another 15-20 mins or until filling is just set on top. If I made this pastry again, I would probably use a tad less polenta. The polenta gave it this lovely crisp/crunchy texture...but maybe just a tad too much, so I'd take a tablespoon out and see how that went.

Filling
1 tub ricotta cheese
probably 50g danish fetta crumbled
Heaped tablespoon of sour cream (not sure if this made any difference or not)
bit of lemon rind
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper
1 egg.

Top with a mixture of your favourite vegetables in season which have been grilled. I used baby leeks (which were first caramelised in a saucepan until tender first), asparagus (same treatment as leeks), finely sliced zuchinni's and roasted capsicum. I also intended to top with pumpkin chips (peeled strips of pumpkin fried off until crisp), but they didn't happen.

Perhaps I'll try the recipe again with the original idea of mascapone (250g) and goats cheese (120g) and chives.... or maybe you will and tell me which is better??

Oh and just on a side note, I also prepared 21 days worth of Sophie's vegetables at the same time, just in case you were thinking that Sophie was missing out!

Happy cooking!

Toni