Tag: nuts

Addictive Pistachio Panna Cotta with Raspberry Sauce… colourful dessert you will love

Pistachio Panna Cotta with Raspberry Sauce … a gently set, smooth, soft no gelatine panna cotta, with pistachios really adding Spring feels. The bright, vibrant raspberries add just the right tang to every spoon of this dessert. You could use a strawberry sauce too or perhaps a deep saffron jelly to top it.

Hello Spring. There’s an energy in the air and everything feels lighter already. It’s a welcome break from a long, cold winter, though it’s turning out to be a very short Spring. We barely had two weeks of below 20C temperatures and now we’re well into the 30’s, a sign that summer is well on it’s way.

I had some pistachios left over from an earlier collaboration with the USDA and had been waiting to make a pistachio panna cotta for a bit. The set is never easy to get when you go the no gelatine way. It’s also not the same as a jiggly, smooth, jelly like classic gelatine panna cotta set because of differing properties of the plant based setting agent, agar agar. This is the brand I use. The good thing about using agar agar is that you can adjust the quantities, reheat the mixture and begin again if the set is not to your liking.

I reached this panna cotta set after several attempts. Even if the classic panna cotta jiggle was missing, the taste of this Pistachio Panna Cotta with raspberry sauce was sublime. Smooth, soft, gentle, rich, delicious, indulgent … pistachios can offer so much to a simple dessert, it’s amazing!

One look at the collage above, and you can easily tell that pistachio is one of my favourite ingredients in desserts. It’s also so absolutely versatile as a topping, a garnish for a pop of colour. Pistachios pair beautifully with some of my favourite flavours – saffron, strawberries, chocolate, rose, orange, mangoes, apricots, cherries, plums, vanilla too. And of course with raspberries like in the Pistachio Panna Cotta!

Do tag me on Instagram at Passionate About Baking if you make this, or any other recipe from the blog. I’d love to see it!

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Pistachio Panna Cotta with Raspberry Sauce

I love using natural colours of ingredients in desserts and this pistachio panna cotta is one of my new favourites. The #nogelatine dessert is as simple as can be, and requires just 4 ingredients.
Makes 4 X 150g servings
Course Dessert
Cuisine Indian, Italian
Keyword agar agar, chocolate, cream, eggfree, eggless, gluten free, no bake, vegetarian
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 5 minutes
Setting 8 hours
Total Time 9 hours 5 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Pistachio panna cotta

  • 300 g cream 25% fat
  • 2 1/4 tsp agar agar
  • 100 g milk
  • 75 g castor sugar
  • 200 g pistachios blanched/peeled

Raspberry sauce

  • 85 g frozen raspberries
  • 25 g sugar
  • 1/8 tsp agar agar

Instructions

Pistachio panna cotta

  • Whisk together the cream, milk, sugar and agar agar in a heavy bottom saucepan. Simmer stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes to activate the agar agar.
  • Add the pistachios and blend until smooth.
  • Pour into molds and refrigerate to set overnight. If you are using silicon molds, you can place them in the freezer until frozen, then demold and leave in the fridge for 2-3 hours to defrost.

Raspberry sauce

  • Simmer together until soft and slightly thick.
  • Strain and use.

Video

Recipes with Pistachio
Spring Recipes
Desserts with Berries
Indian Inspired Desserts
Eggless Desserts
Panna Cotta Recipes

Thick, Chewy Granola Bars … you left us smitten!

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A visit to Smitten Kitten always leaves me enamoured and charmed. Deb’s always got something that holds my attention. It’s often simple comfort food. Beautiful brownies, awesome cakes, or then something as simple as these thick, chewy granola bars. The beauty of her posts is the passion she does them with. She bakes from scratch, her commentary is engaging, and her posts have brilliant photographs. These granola bars, adapted from King Arthur Flour, had her readers, including me, quite smitten. For me, the bars scored a 10/10 in every aspect – health, taste, looks, versatility. Above all they were kid friendly too… very Ten in 10!

I had to make them soon because I identified with the immense possibilities and substitutions at every level that Deb offered. If you didn’t have this, then you could use that, that, or that. The recipe below is what I did with what was available in my larder. Do check Deb’s post for more  options! Almost everything was optional, and the recipe can be tailored to suit individual tastes. How often do you find something so good?

In her words … This is probably the most flexible recipe I’ve posted. When it comes to granola, what you’re looking for is a basic proportion of chunky (nuts, dried fruit) to sticky (syrups, sugar, butter or oils) and from there, you can really go to town. The vanilla is optional. The cinnamon is optional. You can use no dried fruit or you can use all dried fruit in your 2 to 3 cup mix. You can toss in things like puffed rice cereal or flax seeds. In the comments, I’d love to hear what mix you came up with and how you liked it. I can only imagine the possibilities.

I loved how the bars came out. Made a couple of errors, the primary one getting anxious to see how they baked and urging them to jump out of the tin while very warm. I put them right back instantly realising my folly, and saved the bars. They won’t stick to the paper, so leave them be. Let them sit for at least 20 minutes, and then if you still want to, take them out, lining paper and all, let them cool on the rack. Cut them up only when they are cold. They behave beautifully!
I also added something that the kids didn’t take to very well. I read someone had sprinkled sea salt on top, and I was very taken in by the idea. So I added a light sprinkling of sea salt on top. While it was a good idea for adults, the kids became very iffy about it. It seemed to take the snack monster joy away from them. I really should have experimented with just a 1/4 or 1/2 surface wth the sprinkling. 
Thought hard as I didn’t want the kids to have these bars sans enjoyment. Suddenly, I had a flash of brilliance … chocolate would bring the mojo back! Chocolate makes everything better and I just knew it would fix this problem too. Woohoo… it sure did. I coated the sea salt topped bars with melted dark chocolate, and let it set in the fridge for a bit. I won the kids back! They were smitten!

Thick, Chewy Granola Bars
Recipe minimally adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour

Of note: The original recipe calls for something called “sticky bun sugar” which can be made at home with sugar, butter and corn syrup. It is for this reason that corn syrup is listed within one ingredient but also separately, and I used all butter rather than two different fats. Whether the corn syrup can be entirely replaced with honey or maple syrup or the butter can be entirely replaced with a healthier oil is worth auditioning, I just didn’t. Yet. I can tell you this: as is, this is the best granola bar I’ve ever eaten.

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups quick rolled oats
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup oat flour (or 1/3 cup oats, processed till finely ground in a food processor or blender)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 to 3 cups dried fruits and nuts
1/3 cup peanut butter
6 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons light corn syrup (see note above)
1 tablespoon water

Method:

Preheat the oven to180°C. Line an 7″ x 11″ x 2″ pan in one direction with parchment paper, allowing it to go up the opposing sides. Lightly grease the parchment paper and the exposed pan, or coat with a non-stick spray.
Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit and nuts. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted butter, syrup or honey, and water. Toss the wet ingredients with the dry until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Spread in the prepared pan, pressing them in firmly to ensure they are molded to the shape of the pan.
Bake the bars for 30 to 40 minutes, until they’re brown around the edges — don’t be afraid to get a little color on them. They’ll still seem soft and almost underbaked in the center when you take them out but do not worry, they’ll set completely once they cool.
Cool the bars in their pan completely on a cooling rack. (Alternately, after about 20 minutes you can use your parchment “sling” to lift and remove the bars, and place them in their paper on the rack to cool the rest of the way.)
Once cool, a serrated knife (or bench knife) to cut the bars into squares. To store, wrap the bars individually in plastic or stack them in an airtight container. In humid weather, it’s best to store bars in the refrigerator. They also freeze well.
Suggestions: Dried cranberries, apricots, pecans, sunflower seeds, coconut, walnuts, sesame seeds, pepitas, dried pples or even chocolate chips. My mix: 1/2 cup wheat germ, 1 cup dried cherries, 1 cup walnuts, 1/2 cup pecans and 1/2 cup dried unsweetened coconut flakes.
 

♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

Just a quick reminder about our special BloggerAid initiative for Haiti

H2Ope for Haiti raffle is open until Sunday March 7th. A huge thank you to all who have already purchased their tickets to win any of the fabulous prizes donated such as an i-Pod Shuffle, artwork, autographed cookbooks from authors such as David Lebovitz, and so much more!!!!. We appreciate your generous contribution. A list of prizes is available on the here.

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Posted by Deeba @ PAB

APPLE CRISP … still nostalgic about London & FBC!

“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
Henry David Thoreau

This is a beautiful season. … festive warmth, mulled spices, apples, nuts, dried fruit…add to it memories of a great trip to London, and it’s all magic. I fell in love with Autumn when it arrived, and thought that was my most favourite season. Now that December is happily upon us, I think I love it even more than Autumn. It’s the season to be jolly!

This is a short crisp post about the apple crisp I made on my return from the UK last week. I am busy these days. Food, fun, festivities … and family! Apologies for the lack of posts but have been a little caught up ever since I got back from the Food Blogger Connect in London. The daughter appearing for her final examinations doesn’t seem to make things easier of course.


I got back to baking pretty soon when I returned. I came back and the son fell to my feet begging me for ‘dessert‘! ‘We haven’t had ‘dessert’ for four days, Mama’, he hollered. Chocolate in bars obviously doesn’t qualify for dessert any more, so I set to make the easiest thing I could in limited time. It had to be a fruit based dessert, and the only fruit at home were apples…

… so I zeroed in on a crisp! Just had to add some ‘London nostalgia’ to my dessert. What I decided to use was the Linswood ‘Milled nut flour‘ from the enviable goodie bag that we got at the FBC ’09.


The bags were organised by no other than fabulous Beth of Dirty Kitchen Secrets, and would have left you drooling! The Linswood site is worth a stop over because it’s brimming with a wonderful array of super foods as well as recipe ideas! Thank you Beth … I do love my goodie bag to bits!! That’s what inspired my CRISP!!


What’s the difference between grunts, slumps, buckles, cobblers, crisps, crunches, pandowdies, and brown betties?
All of these quick and simple desserts are made of fruit topped with a biscuit dough or a crumbly mixture of flour, butter, and sugar.
If biscuit dough is dropped by the spoonful on top of the fruit, it makes a lumpy, “cobbled” surface–like a street paved with round stones–and so the dish is a COBBLER.
Traditionally, if the biscuit is stirred into the fruit during cooking, it’s a PANDOWDY.
To be a CRISP, a CRUMBLE, or a CRUNCH, the fruit must be topped with some variation of a butter, sugar, and flour topping.
Typically, a CRUMBLE has flour, sugar, butter, and oatmeal; a CRISP has flour, sugar, butter and nuts; and a CRUNCH has sugar, butter, and breadcrumbs. There are also cake-like (instead of biscuit-like) variations, which include BROWN BETTIES and BUCKLES.
Some of the funny names, which date back to early American cooking, have a British influence (you know, the people who created BUBBLE and SQUEAK). SLUMPS and GRUNTS, for example, both have a large biscuit over the fruit. But a SLUMP is cooked uncovered, so it slumps on the serving plate, and a GRUNT is covered, which steams the biscuit topping and lets the fruit gurgle–or grunt–while cooking.

Food Network Kitchens


APPLE CRISP
Serves 8
Ingredients:
6-8 firm apples; (crisp ones, a bit tart are fine)
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsps vanilla sugar or regular
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup black dried grapes or raisins
Topping
2 heaped tbsps plain flour
2 tbsps brown sugar

2 heaped tbsps milled organic seeds
1/4 cup butter; chilled
1/2 cup rolled oats

Method:
Core,peel and dice apples. Toss them with lemon juice immediately after all have been chopped or they turn brown.
Mix in the dried black grapes, walnuts, cinnamon & sugar.
Put into 8 individual ramekins or a shallow pie dish (9” or 23cm or 1L), and press lightly into place.

To prepare crumble:
Mix milled flour, plain flour and sugar with a spoon in a dry bowl.
Put in cold butter cut into pieces and work with finger tips to make a breadcrumbs like texture.
Now toss in the oats lightly with a spoon.
Assemble:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Put this crumble over the apple mixture, pressing down gently to cover the top & seal the fruit in.
Bake till top light brown and stewed apple juice begins to appear on edges/about 30minutes. If the top begins to brown too quickly, cover with foil until done.
Serve with either a dollop of whipped cream, or vanilla ice-cream.
Note: Warm in microwave if need be before serving.
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Thank you for stopping by!
Posted by Deeba @ PAB

OLIVE OIL BROWNIES with ROASTED ALMONDS…Mmmmm delicious!

“Chocolate is the only aroma-therapy I need.”
Jasmine Heiler
There was nothing for the kids school snack box, so I thought I’d do a batch of sandwiches. Of course, the teen vetoed my idea & looked decidedly deadpan at the very suggestion. Why do I bother asking? That set me thinking. Rummaging through my blog, I decided to make a batch of these olive oil brownies for them the next morning. Lined everything up on the counter, roasted the almonds, & wound up for the night. Was up early the next morning, as sleep abandoned me for some insane reason, & hit the kitchen. These brownies are a breeze to make, though they took longer than I estimated to cool down, thanks to an extended summer with high temperatures here. They did crumble a bit at the corners as I portioned them up too soon since it was time for the kids to leave. The slices would have looked neater if I had chilled them before cutting them up. They were delicious nevertheless, & are a fabulous healthy way to satisfy that chocolate craving.
If you are looking for butter laden, rich, dense brownies then these are not for you. But, if indulgence & counting calories are your kind of conflicting inclination, then these are right up your alley!! A long time ago I found these inviting Olive Oil Brownies by Sabra @ Cookbook Catchall. The recipe that comes from Faith Heller Willinger’s cookbook, Adventures of an Italian Food Lover is a twist on the traditional brownie in butter terms. The first time I made them, they were an entry for Equal Opportunity Kitchen who were doing their second round of their very successful first event Tried, Tested & True. I won a prize for these ♥ blush ♥, and am truly happy to be posting these again. I’ve used roasted almonds instead of pistachios this time around, & have stuck to my addition of some oats. The other change this time around is the addition of a teaspoon of baking powder. Take a look … they’ve got a beautiful crust, & are slightly, yet delightfully chewy within.
OLIVE OIL BROWNIES with ROASTED ALMONDS
Ingredients:
Dark / bitter chocolate – 100gms (melted; I melt it in the m/w)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 1/3 cup
Flour – 1/2 cup
Rolled Oats – 1/4 cup
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Sea salt – 1/4 teaspoon
Eggs – 2; at room temperature
Castor sugar – 2/3 cup (I used granulated)
Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon
Roasted almonds – 2/3 cup; chopped (save some to sprinkle on top if you like)

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 175C. Line a 7 X 11″ (or 8 X 8″) baking pan with lightly oiled and floured parchment paper that overhangs the pan on two sides (this aids in removal later).
    Whisk the oil into the melted chocolate. Leave to cool.
  • Whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, salt and nuts together in a bowl.
  • In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until pale, thickened and billowy, about five minutes. Fold in the vanilla and the cooled chocolate mixture, then fold in the flour & nut mixture, stirring just until everything is combined. Pour into the prepared pan and distribute evenly.
  • Bake for 22-26 minutes (note from the Traveler’s Lunchbox: I would recommend checking earlier to avoid over-baking – mine were just on the verge after 22 minutes). The top will be dry and crackly, though a toothpick inserted in the center should emerge still a little wet.
  • Cool completely, then cut into squares with a sharp knife held firmly, because of the almonds. Serve plain, or with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for extra indulgence.

♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

Posted by Deeba @ PAB
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