Rustic Peach ‘n Plum Summer Galette … moorish summer tart

“I think that you’ve got to make something that pleases you and hope that other people feel the same way.”
Thomas Keller

Rustic Peach 'n Plum Summer GaletteAh summer! With fruit and colour in equal abundance, what more can one ask for! Yet with the Indian summer comes stuff I don’t need! Power cuts, high temperatures and no time to bake! Then 2 days ago, the monsoons appeared, schools reopened, and I got a tiny breather. The first thing I did was to roll out a Rustic Peach ‘n Plum Summer Galette.Whats not to love about a season that offers crumbles, crisps, sorbets, fro yos, cheesecakes, mousse, ice creams, panna cottas, coolers, sangrias, chutneys, preserves, … and so much more! HAPPINESS! And then there are galettes, moorish in every way, full of rustic appeal! A simple free form pastry filled with fresh seasonal fruit has got to be one of my favourite summer desserts {among a slew of others!} There is SO MUCH you can do with stone fruit, it’s amazing! This year the quality has been exceptionally good. I looked at the peaches and wondered if they were ripe enough to peel; I really wanted to see if I could slip ‘them off‘. The fruit was perfect and for the first time in years I looked at a bowl of perfectly peeled peaches. Plums next and success again! I have a friend, an old lady, who spoils me silly constantly sending me stuff from chocolates to tangerines, and everything in between. Her grandson is quite fond of my baking so I try and bake him a little something when he visits from Moscow where he works. He’s visiting these days and this was for him!Made one for him, and then had some fruit left, so made one for us too! Got me high fives from the family. The peach monster said it was ‘really really nice‘, and so did the dieting diva. “Pie, pie, pie“, she screamed, “I want more!The pastry was nice and crisp despite all the fresh fruit it held. The cornmeal added a touch of texture and crispness. It’s a good tart to make. Serve it warm if you like, though we loved it cold!

A few more rustic tarts on PAB …
Strawberry Galette with Vanilla Scented Frangipane
Savoury Spinach, Tomato & Cheese Galette
Mini Peach, Cherry & Blueberry Galettes
Peach & Plum Galette
Fresh Fig Galette with Vanilla Scented Frangipane

Monthly Mingle is the brainchild of the lovely Meeta @ Whats For Lunch Honey, and this month it celebrates Barbara’s spirit at the wonderful Jeanne @ Cook Sister with a Taste of Yellow. I am sending this to the MM for July 2012.

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Recipe: Rustic Peach ‘n Plum Summer Galette

Summary: A rustic dessert bursting with flavour and colour, full of all the fruity goodness that summer offers baked into a simple free form tart.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:

  • Pastry
  • 150g {1 1/2 cups} plain flour
  • 25g {1/4 cup} cornmeal
  • 100g unsalted butter, chilled, cubed
  • 25g {1/8 cup} vanilla sugar {or plain}
  • 2-3 tbsp ice cold water
  • Filling
  • 450g fruit {net weight, peeled, pitted, chopped}, 5-6 peaches, 4-5 plums
  • 50g {1/2 cup} vanilla sugar
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 1tbsp Kirsch {optional}
  • 1/4 tsp almond essence
  • 2 tsp plain flour
  • 2 tbsp marmalade
  • Topping:
  • 15ml {1 tbsp} cold milk
  • Turbinado/demerera sugar for sprinkling
  • 1-2 tbsp honey
  • Slivered pistachios/almonds for garnish

Method:

  1. Fruit filling
  2. Place the fruit in a bowl, add in the remaining ingredients {except flour} and leave to macerate for about 30 minutes in the fridge.
  3. Drain out the juices and reserve the fruit in a large bowl. Place juice in a non reactive pan over low heat and reduce it till it becomes thick and syrupy. Add back to fruit in bowl with the flour and mix well. Chill until required.
  4. Pastry
  5. Combine flour, cornmeal and sugar in the bowl of your processor and pulse 2-3 times. Add chilled butter and pulse 4-5 times, or until mixture resembles coarse meal. With the processor running, slowing pour the chilled water through the chute, processing until the dough begins to clump up. {It should stay together when pinched with the fingertips}
  6. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, and quickly pull together to form a ball, flatten, wrap in film and chill for about 30 minutes or more if the weather is warm.
  7. Assemble
  8. Place the pastry on a large sheet of parchment paper. Starting at the center of the dough, roll out, forming a 14-15-inch wide circle.
  9. Brush about an 8-9″ circle  in the centre with the marmalade .{This will prevent the pastry from going soggy with the fruit juices}
  10. Turn the prepared fruit filling over the marmalade keeping it within the inner circle, leaving a 2-inch border.
  11. Gently fold the border over the filling, overlapping where necessary and pressing gently to adhere the folds, using a touch of water if necessary. Place tray in freezer until the oven preheats.
  12. Preheat the oven to 200C.
  13. Before popping the galette into the oven, brush the overlapping sides of the pastry with cold milk and sprinkle turbinado sugar over it.
  14. Bake for about 30-35 minutes till the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbly. {Tent the top if the pastry browns too fast}
  15. Remove to cooling rack, and brush the visible fruit portion with honey, and top with slivered pistachios, almonds etc.
  16. Cool for at least 30 minutes to allow the pastry to firm up before serving. {Cutting it too quickly will cause the dough to crack}. We had it cold with a drizzle of single cream.

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Baking | Stone Fruit Crisps {Gluten Free} … Have a Happy 4th!

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
Albert Einstein

It’s been a summer of discontent here in North India, Gurgaon specifically as we’ve been subjected to the worse power cuts ever in a summer that’s been the worst in 33 years. The temperature touched 43-45C the whole of last week, and we went without power for 48 hours! It took a protest that blocked roads for hours to get heard. Meanwhile, everything in the fridge obviously threatened to spoil! One good thing … the stone fruit got perfectly ‘ripe for dessert’;  hence these Stone Fruit Crisps!

Crisps are wonderful light and easy to make desserts that celebrate seasonal fruit. They have a streusel like topping which is baked ‘crisp’ and gives way to soft cooked fruit below! Crisps usually have oats, butter and brown sugar … and mine went gluten free! I love fruit bakes and something as quick as this is amazing! 2 days sans oven was enough to drive the baker in me mad! Even if I didn’t have the energy to bake, just the thought of perishables spoiling got to me. Exhausted with extreme heat, I found myself cooking up most of the stuff in my freezer! So we had good food all the time, and coolers too! Did I forget to tell you that the summer vacation got extended due to high temperatures? Yes, that happened too, so no respite for Mama!

I made a delicious Chicken keema with baingan {mince with eggplant} … strange combination but its what I had on hand, and it came out finger licking good. Incidentally I made it twice on one day as it got polished off the first time around, and I had more mince in the freezer {and no electricity of course!}.

I made summer coolers, many summer cooler … a strawberry mango punch, aam ka panna {Indian mango cooler}, a bel cooler {wood apple cooler which was definitely prettier than tastier}, a watermelon cooler. Anything that threatened to expire was tirelessly salvaged! To kill myself further, I even took pictures!

Then came …… another jar of HOT red harissa and some very reduced fat KFC style burgers! Sometimes one can hardly believe all the work that gets done when there is no electricity!! {In case you are wondering, we don’t use electricity for the stove. We use a gas supplied through a cylinder … so that is is probably a good thing!}

Oh and I made a Quark & Cherry Verrines too … no bake stuff!!Then sometime yesterday we had power restored and the kids looked so relieved, as did the poor dog in a fur coat. She was the first to race for the air conditioner, and slept the whole day through! So did the teens. It’s uncanny to think that as kids we lived through this as an accepted normal situation! Not a whimper, no backup yet happy go luck! Anyway,  woke up this morning and my load of of stone fruit were ripe, ripe for dessert, so I set to work on something quick. While mixing the fruit I was curious to see if I could make the bake gluten free, so I tossed in some almond meal instead of plain flour to absorb the extra moisture. In the topping as well, I skipped the flour and added some almond meal. It’s always fascinating to see fruit crumbles and crisps bubble over the fruit juices! The crisp was delicious, bowl scraping good! Beautiful flavours!

Then I noticed that the colours of my little ceramic pots and bubbling juices were white, blue and red, so what better time to post this but now! Happy 4th of July to my readers from the US! Have a wonderful day.

Rustle up a crumble if you have 10 minutes, else stay cool and try this Summer Fruit Jelly that I created for Del Monte. You can find the recipe on their website here. It was fun and was made by my lad! Simple as can be yet stunning to look at, and delicious beyond expectation {if I may say so}!!

[print_this]Recipe: Stone Fruit Crisp

Summary: An easy, quick dessert baked with seasonal stone fruit. It’s quick to make and full of flavour… a summer classic with stone fruit which is gluten free too!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • Filling
  • 700g mixed stone fruit {6-8 peaches, 4-5 plums, handful of cherries, maybe two
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 20g demerera sugar
  • 20g almond meal
  • 1 tbsp Kirsch {optional}
  • Crisp topping
  • 20g almond meal
  • 20g demerera sugar
  • 60g rolled oats
  • 60g unsalted butter, chilled, cubed

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Place 6 ramekins on a baking sheet.
  2. Filling
  3. Stone the peaches and plums, chop with skin and place in a big non reactive/glass bowl.
  4. Add the remaining ingredients and toss well to mix. Divide between 6 ramekins, pressing down gently to level out.
  5. Crisp Topping
  6. Place all ingredients in bowl and food processor and pulse briefly in short intervals until a breadcrumb like mix is achieved.
  7. Divide the topping between the ramekins to cover the surface. Gently press into place.
  8. Bake for 30 minutes until bubbly and golden brown on top. If the top begins to get too brown, tent with a sheet of aluminum foil.
  9. Serve warm or at room temperature. We are happy to have them chilled too!
  10. Note: For gluten free baking, please ensure the oats are from a gluten free source.

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Lamb & Purslane Pide

” You should eat delicious things while you can still eat them,
go to wonderful places while you still can…”
Nora Ephron

Chomp, chomp, chomp.Ooooh, this is good“, declared Mr PAB between bites. Then gesturing wildly he said, “This MUST go on the blog. It’s GOOD!” So with recommendation, hot off the press oven, here are Lamb and Purslane Pides, or simply put Turkish Flatbread Pizza!What is purslane? It is an annual succulent, found in North India in the hot summer months, is funnily considered a weed in America {LOL}, and cooked extensively through much of Europe, Middle East, Asia and Mexico! It is known as kulfa saag here, and was the only green other than spinach that I could find to replace the chard! It worked a charm …  and went undetected by the ‘green hating‘ terrible teens!It’s been ages since I cooked lamb mince. By healthy choice I’ve switched over th chicken mince but the lamb murmur has been growing stronger of late. My SIL is a great lamb lover and mentioned that she prefers lamb to chicken any day. I was listening. Then the other day, a meeting with someone from BBC GF and she mentioned her undying love for lamb too. Now I was all ears!“Next kebabs will be have to be lamb“, I thought as I got mince from the butcher. However, this morning I lost my inclination to make kebabs. I wanted something on dough, something baked, something quick! I recollected the Turkish pides with sumac I had made long ago and googling got me to a Lamb & Chard Pide recipe on BBC GF!

Pides, local pita bread, are delicious flatbread pizzas topped with different ingredients from Turkeys rich cuisine. You have specialty Turkish pide restaurants across Turkey which sell different avatars of this flatbread. It is popular street food there as well. Regional variations in the shape, baking technique, and topped materials create distinctive styles for each region which include chicken, beef, cheese, potatoes, garlic and many other ingredients.

It came together fairly quickly. I did a quick rise dough, and by the time the dough was rising, the lamb was ready. Baked quick, crisp and nice, the lamb pides were wolfed down faster than the time I took to make them… not a crumb remained!The recipe suggestion was to drizzle pom molasses over it. I didn’t have any but I did have a fresh plum prune sauce I developed for Del Monte. To that, I added some red harissa that I had made last week. It was H O T! 10 red chilies, more fresh red chilies = fiery HOT! That said, it’s almost gone and I am ready to make my next jar! The lamb offered subtle, gentle flavours, lilted further by the cottage cheese and bell pepper. The pickled peppers added some zest, and a drizzle of plum chili sauce brought out a delicious complexity of flavours … all pairing beautifully together!I loved how quickly and beautifully the meal came together. Of course we had the much dreaded power cut halfway through, so I baked a couple on a heavy griddle pan covered with a lid over low heat …. and there was no reason to complain {pictured above}. So there you, if it’s too hot to turn on the oven OR you suffer power cuts like we have all summer, these cook up crisp beautiful on the stove top too!

I had some dough left over, so made some chicken, red harissa and plum sauce pides the next afternoon for the kids. Gone in minutes! They are filling yet light enough for a summer meal. Pair with a green salad, maybechilled summer cooler … and you have a meal!Bon appetit! Afiyet olsun!

And as I leave I wish to thank Lifezing for interviewing me. It was an honour and I loved doing it.
Catch it, with a whole lot of colour here

In conversation with Deeba Rajpal From Passionate About Baking

[print_this]Recipe:  Lamb & Purslane Pides

Summary: Turkish flatbread pizza with lamb and  seasonal greens.The lamb offered subtle, gentle flavours, lilted further by the cottage cheese and bell pepper. the pickled peppers added some zest, and a drizzle of plum chili sauce brought out a delicious complexity of flavours. {Makes 10 pides}.  Adapted minimally from BBC Good Food.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:

  • Quick pizza dough
  • 410g plain flour
  • 110gm whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 tbsp yeast
  • 30ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 380ml warm water
  • Lamb Purslane Mince
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 5-6 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 500gm lean lamb, minced
  • 2-3 tsp roasted cumin powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 2-3 bay leaves
  • 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling
  • 1  large bunch purslane {Indian kulfa saag, or chard}
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • Toppings
  • 150gm cottage cheese, cubed, tossed in olive oil
  • Plum Sauce
  • Red Harissa or chili sauce
  • Pickled peppers
  • 150gm mozzarella

Method:

  1. Quick dough
  2. Place both flours, salt and garlic in bowl of food processor and process for a minute in short burst.
  3. Add remaining ingredients and mix.
  4. Knead for 2-3 minutes to get a smooth pliable dough.
  5. Transfer to an oiled bowl, and leave covered in a warm place for about 15 minutes. Store in fridge after its been doubled if you intend to use it later.
  6. Mince
  7. Heat 2-3 tbsp olive oil in a pan. Sweat onions and garlic in this for 4-5 minutes until light pink, add bay leaves and mince and roast well on high heat. Season with cumin, cinnamon and salt. Cook open on medium high for about 10-15 minutes until the mince is cooked, becomes brownish and no liquid remains.
  8. Add 1 tbsp of the plum sauce and 1-2 tsp of hot chili sauce {as per taste/optional}, followed by greens. Sauté for a minute or two until the greens begin to wilt. Take off heat, add bell pepper and mix well. Cool.
  9. Assemble
  10. Preheat the oven to 225C. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, or sprinkle a pizza stone with cornmeal.
  11. Divide into 2, and then into 5-6 parts each. Make balls, toss lightly in flour and roll out to an oblong shape, stretching one corner to get a tear drop like base.
  12. Top with cooked mince, pickled peppers, cottage cheese and sprinkle with mozzarella.
  13. Bake at 250C for about 20 minutes, until golden brown and puffy. Drizzle with EVOO and serve with a plum chili sauce, or pom molasses…or as is!

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Coffee Vanilla Chocolate Chip Battenberg … Daring Bakers go ROYALE!

“A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.”
Benjamin Franklin

“My tongue is smiling”, ‘Only good can come out of this”…. some of my favourite food quotes tumbled through my head as I mixed the batter. I was up early looking at the pile of sweet home made butter. The time had come for the Daring Bakers Batternberg, the Queen of Englands favourite cake. My take for her birthday celebrations – Coffee Vanilla Chocolate Chip Batterberg! It was delicious; pretty too, but an uphill task given the terrible weather!!

This cake has grand beginnings. It was actually created as a wedding cake for royalty. The first Battenberg cake was made to celebrate the marriage of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Victoria, to husband Prince Louis of Battenberg. It’s traditionally flavoured with almond and has the signature Battenberg markings, that is, the yellow and pink squares, said to represent the four princes of Battenberg. The strips of sponge are glued together using jam (normally apricot) and the whole cake is covered in marzipan. Sometimes the edges are crimped and the top is patterned with a knife. This traditional Battenberg recipe comes from Mary Berry’s “Baking Bible”.

Flavours danced in my head, the possibilities seemed endless but the incessantly high temperatures and rampant power cuts held me back … until 4 days ago. The time had come as it was a now or never. Vanilla and peach, coffee walnut, cherry vanilla, dark cherry chocolate, chocolate orange, vanilla pistachio … the colours now dancing too.

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

So many choices, so much more confusion! We have a mini Queen of England at home, the dieting diva who has a strong dislike for walnuts and pistachios much to my dismay. The newly turned 13 teen is simpler to handle in food matters as he is more adventurous with his palette. MasterChef helps! Thankfully coffee is something we all agree on, so coffee was in!Pairings? The teens love for dark chocolate {last wished for in this Dark Chocolate Cherry Mousse Cake} had my flavours were sorted out. Next? Covering the Battenberg! India is not a marzipan country, and with the heat these days {45C feeling like 47C}, it’s a bother to make from scratch. In fact, you could easily bake the Battenberg on the sidewalk! I chose the plastique as I have wanted to try it ever since I spied it on sweet Allesios blog Recipe Taster ages ago.The time had come for plastique adventure; thats when the cookie crumbled! It was the hottest day of the season, a hot wind blasting its way through the city … and then a massive 7 hour power cut!  Oh, the HORRID HEAT! “If it hadn’t been your birthday, your Majesty, wild horses couldn’t have dragged me to make a Battenberg, buttercream, chocolate plastique and all, given the conditions.”How my buttercream curdled and wept! The plastique behaved beautifully for a while. I LOVED IT; then I hated it. The camera was now thrown away! Rolled the plastique out to line the cake. That was the easy bit. A blast of hot summer wind and contact with buttercream kind of paved it’s plastic-y fate. Everything flowed and disintegrated in different directions. I patched up what I could and shoved it into a fridge already under stress.I tried to pretty it up and camouflage the tattered edges with cocoa, and dunked a plastique rose on top {beautiful tutorial here for chocolate roses}. The stalk wilted in the heat, but at least I managed something. It tasted darned good though, so here you are – Coffee Vanilla Chocolate Chip Batterberg thanks to Mandy …. and her Majesty of course!About the cake Mandy said, “It’s an all in one cake method, so very simple, quick and very few dirty dishes! Although there are specialised Battenberg cake tins available, you don’t need one. This can be baked in a square baking tin and a divide made with foil to separate the two batters. This recipe really is all about simplicity.” TRUE!

Thank you Mandy, and thank you as always Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice for hosting this fab kitchen!! Do stop by here to see the delightful Battenbergs our other daring bakers have squared up!!

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Recipe: Coffee Vanilla Chocolate Chip Batterberg

Summary: A simple, stunning and delicious traditional British cake. Adapted from Coffee and Walnut Battenberg from Mary Berry on the BBC Food website

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Serves: 8+
Ingredients:

  • Cake
  • ¾ cup / 175gm unsalted butter, softened & cut in cubes
  • ¾ cup / 175gm caster sugar
  • 1¼ cups / 175gm self-raising flour {see notes on how to make your own}
  • 3 large eggs, room temp
  • ½ cup / 65gm ground almonds {or ground rice}
  • 3/4 tsp  baking powder
  • 3 tsp / 15 ml milk
  • ½ tsp / 2½ ml vanilla extract
  • 1½ tsp / 7 gm instant coffee powder
  • 3 Tbsp / 25gm mini dark chocolate chips
  • Coffee Buttercream
  • ½ cup / 115gm  unsalted butter
  • 2 cups / 225gm powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp / 2 gm instant coffee
  • 1½ tsp milk or cream
  • Dark Chocolate Plastique To Finish
  • 200gm Good Quality Dark Chocolate (70% Cocoa content)
  • ¼ cup / 60ml Light Corn Syrup / Glucose Syrup

Method:

  1. Cake
  2. Preheat oven to moderate 180°C
  3. Grease an 8”/20cm square baking tin with butter
  4. Line the tin with parchment paper, creating a divide in the middle with the parchment (or foil) – Tip: See photos or watch video above for detailed instructions
  5. Whisk together dry ingredients (except chocolate chips and coffee) and combine with the wet ingredients in a large bowl (except vanilla and milk) and beat together just until the ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth
  6. Spoon half the mixture into a separate bowl and stir in the vanilla, 1½ teaspoons milk and chocolate chips.
  7. Spoon the chocolate mixture into the one side of the prepared baking tin
  8. Dissolve the coffee in the remaining 1½ teaspoon milk and add to the remaining batter, stir until just combined
  9. Spoon the coffee batter into the other half of the prepared baking tin
  10. Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is in each corner
  11. Bake for 25-30mins until the cake is well risen, springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (it should shrink away from the sides of the pan)
  12. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack
  13. Because it’s such a thick batter I find that if you spread the batter so that it’s higher at the edges, when it bakes it helps rise without as much of a curved surface
  14. Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife
  15. Cut each sponge in half length ways so that you are left with four long strips of sponge
  16. Neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is as neat and even as possible.
  17. Coffee Buttercream
  18. Combine the buttercream ingredients together and mix until combined.
  19. Dark Chocolate Plastique
  20. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, stir occasionally. {I used the microwave}
  21. Once completely melted, remove from heat and allow to cool a bit
  22. Stir in corn syrup / glucose syrup, it will seize up almost immediately, just keep stirring until mixed and it comes away from the side of the bowl
  23. Transfer chocolate into a seal-able bag, spread the chocolate out then seal the bag. Leave overnight or refrigerate for about 2 hours until completely firm
  24. Turn out from the bag and knead on a surface dusted with powdered sugar, at first it will just break , but as you knead, it will warm up and start to become pliable
  25. Knead until it’s pliable enough to roll out or mould, 5 – 10mins
  26. To Finish
  27. Spread a thin layer of buttercream onto the strips of cake to stick the cake together in a checkered pattern
  28. Dust a large flat surface with icing sugar then roll the plastique in an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and long enough to completely wrap the cake
  29. Spread the top of the cake with a thin layer of buttercream
  30. Place the cake on the plastique, buttercream side down
  31. Spread buttercream onto the remaining three sides
  32. Press the plastique around the cake, making sure the join is either neatly in the one corner, or will be underneath the cake once turned over
  33. Carefully flip the cake over so that the seam is under the cake and score the top of the cake with a knife, you can also crimp the top corners with your fingers to decorate
  34. Neaten the ends of the cake and remove excess plastique by trimming off a small bit of cake on both ends to reveal the pattern.
  35. Note: How to make your own self raising flour: 1 cup Self Raising Flour = 1 cup / 115g All Purpose Flour + 1 ½ tsp Baking Powder + ¼ tsp Salt (omit salt if there is salt in the recipe) sifted together

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Macaron à la Peaches et Crème … Vacation Macs!

“A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.”
Robert Orben

It’s been literally a mac-vacation for me, a vacation I dislike as it keeps me away from a challenge I love with a vengeance. I’m back on board to get in with the fun and beautiful Mac Attack Jamie and I host each month. This time our call was for Vacation Macs … and how better could I get there with my mac-a-vacations … Macaron à la Peaches et Crème {pardon my French please}The flavours are reminiscent of one of the best vacations we enjoyed a few years ago in the Himalayas. We’ve had some other fabulous ones include Goa, Sydney, Hong Kong, Gangtok … but the one the now threatening to be quite terrible just turned 13‘ teen remembers every single day is this one at Ramgarh. Nothing like the serenity of the Himalayas to unwind!

That vacation filled in perfectly with our call this month. Our best macarons reminiscent of that ideal vacation or that perfect holiday spot. Mountains, seaside, tiny hamlet lost in the countryside, large, bustling city teeming with restaurants and museums, these are our inspiration. With the best vacation that comes to mind, from that thought, memory or distant dream, create a fabulous Vacation Macaron!

We stayed at a beautiful heritage cottage surrounded by peach trees and since it was peak summer, we walked by peach trees plucking fresh, juicy fruit right off the tree. This is where my lad became a peach monster and developed a deep love for the fruit.Summer is for stone fruit is my chant. I just cannot have enough of these delicious fruit that are reaching us in the foothills of the Himalayas; better quality and quantity every year! This summer I have had a field day with stone fruit…Apricot Peach Sorbet, Dark Chocolate Cherry Mousse Cake, Mini Quark Vanilla Cheesecakes with Balsamic Cherries, Black Forest Cake, Oatmeal Peach Apricot Mango Smoothie {yet to post}, Dark Chocolate Cherry Wholewheat Cakelets {yet to post} … and my fridge is full of cherries, peaches, mangoes and apricots!I have also been developing some food recipes for Del Monte for their website World Foody. The peach ice cream above is one I made last week from their canned peaches, beautiful cling peaches with a fabulous deep flavour. Will let you know when the recipe is up on the website; until then it’s Macaron à la Peaches et Crème!The macaron shells were going to be perfect, something deep within me said to me when I was done folding the macaronage. BUT … in my hurry to beat the power cut, I switched on the upper element instead of the lower one, so my feet popped out with the thermal shock and the skins developed a ‘peach‘ blush. It was too late to salvage the batch, and the little macronage left proved my feeling right! Aaaargh! And did I tell you that at 45C ice-cream melts SO FAST? I was RACING!I used the several times tried and tested David Lebovitz recipe that lives in my head. It never goes wrong if you mix the macronage correctly and let it rest! However, a little more advice follows …

Do you want to join us making MACARONS?

If you do, you are most welcome to join us  for this challenge, or the next. You can find all the information at our dedicated macaron blog MacTweets. We generally post the round-up by the end of every month, following which a new challenge is posted!

… these cookies are fiddly creatures and are dependent on way too many things. egg whites {aged or not}, almond meal,oven temperature, room temperature, humidity levels, the hand that mixes them, the way you pipe them out … and above all, lady luck!

Before I get onto the recipe, I’d like to thank Chillibreeze for interviewing me. You can read it here if you like.I’d also like to thank the Financial Times, Times of India, for including me so generously in their feature ‘Gurgaon is Blogging & How‘ on Business Street, 21st June, 2012. Last but not the least, thank you Javelin Warrior for adding my Dark Chocolate Cherry Mousse Cake in your delicious Friday Food Fetish.

Thank you all! I feel really honoured.

Monthly Mingle is the brainchild of the lovely Meeta @ Whats For Lunch Honey, and this month it celebrates Barbara’s spirit at the wonderful Jeanne @ Cook Sister with a Taste of Yellow. I am sending this to the MM for July 2012.

[print_this]Recipe: Macaron à la Peaches et Crème

Summary: Vanilla macarons sandwiched with a home made low fat peach & cream ice cream. Perfect for those hot summer days!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes {plus resting time}
Ingredients:

  • Vanilla Macarons
  • {recipe adapted from David Lebovitz}
  • 1 egg white {35gm} {I didn’t age mine}
  • 2 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar {I used granulated vanilla sugar}
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup almond meal
  • 1/4 tsp egg white powder
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder
  • Peach ice cream for filling

Method:

  1. Run the powdered sugar, almond meal, vanilla bean powder and egg white powder in blender until well blended. Sift into a bowl.
  2. Beat the egg white until foamy, then add the granulated sugar and beat for approximately 2 minutes until stiff peaks form.
  3. Fold in 1/4 of the dry mix until no streaks remain, then add the remainder of the dry mix and gently fold in until you get a lava like batter. {Donot overfold}
  4. Place into a piping bag and pipe circles onto parchment paper.
  5. Tap the trays sharply to get rid of air bubbles and allow to rest for 30-45 minutes.
  6. Bake in double trays at 140C for 12-15 minutes, until the shells are firm and no longer jiggly. {My oven uses just the lower element for baking, so I place the double trays towards the top of the oven}
  7. Cool and sandwich with softened ice cream. Store in freezer and serve directly from there.

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Food Event | Wine Tasting … a wine for every season at Four Seasons!

“If your heart is warm with happiness, you’ll need a glass – if sorrow chills your heart, have two!”
Hannu Lehmusvuori

Put together a bunch of food and lifestyle bloggers {read  eight ladies and a lad} with a few bottles of good wine, a connoisseur who is surprisingly refreshing and great company … and suddenly a searingly HOT afternoon quite unbearable at 45C becomes animated FUN! We were hosted by Four Seasons for a Wine & Food Pairing session at the quaint and charming Fres Co in the heart of New Delhi.

Whether it is the sprightliness of a fresh spring morning, the joyous warmth of a glorious summer afternoon, the tingling nip of a crisp autumn twilight or the biting chill of an icy winter night, to everything there is a season. And to every season, there is an experience. An experience captured by Four Seasons selection of the finest Indian wines.

Photo courtesy Sangeeta

We walked in hot and bothered, complaining about the unbearable Indian summer. Purba, the lady with the funny bone, had us in splits, her one liners completely justifying her humor and satire blog A-musing. With her came the only ‘cat’ among the pigeons, Prateik aka Snow Leopard …  it was the pigeons day out as the sweet fellow lent us his ear and we chattered voraciously!The lovely Shamita Sinha, Miss Earth Universe and a wine connoisseur, a truly passionate wine lover, held our rapt attention for the next two hours. What followed was animated discussions, unraveling the magic of Four Seasons, understanding their philosophy, exploring Baramati virtually where they host their vineyards, and how FS is inspired by French wines  … all this through swirls and sips of different wines from the Four Seasons range paired perfectly with delicious grub.We began with a still Rosé wine, Mr PABs favourite summer wine, Blush as the attractive salmon pink wine is aptly called. It was crisp, light and refreshing, a beautiful accompaniment for light summer fare … perfect! We’ve been looking for a good Rosé after the fabulous one that Mr PAB got back from France. After a couple of really disappointing local ones, Blush really stood out.Next up was a still white wine Chenin Blanc, then a still red wine Merlot. We missed tasting the Barrique Reserve, but that was OK. Forks were beginning to fall every now and then, the happy gathering cheered on! Shamita talked us through the old school of thought, wine at room temperature and how the concept came to be in temperatures of 13-14C Europe of the past … and how that just didn’t work especially here at 40C! Times have changed so the rules have to go, basic guidelines lead the way, fusion cuisine is in … ultimately your palette is your guide and best friend.Dry vs Sweet, Red vs White, food pairings and fusion food pairings, the richness of the cuisine and the intensity of the wine, light summer fare with light summer wine, Indian cuisine and wine pairings, the tanins, the blush, colours from red to straw to white, the health benefits of drinking wine in moderation, antioxidants and also the ‘yeast’ monster at play here too … yes we talked!

Photo courtesy Sangeeta

Photo courtesy Anupama

It was wonderful to meet Sushmita, Sangeeta and Anupama for the first time, bloggers who loved the wine as much as the company. Rekha and Rituparna were there too in fine form, enthusiastic and bubbly as ever. It was a wonderful afternoon get together of high spirited women and a lad; we had a giggly good time. We got a heads up on the nuances of everything wine we could ask for from the very unassuming, down to Earth, warm and affable Shamita.Thank you Four Seasons for having us over, for introducing us that hot afternoon to your beautiful range of wines and the inspired story behind it. Our incessant chatter and involved conversation might have told you that we enjoyed the afternoon immensely, wines and all, right down to the last drop!

Thank you Ashu for organising the meet, and Jyoti for co-ordinating it this end.

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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India


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