I'm so excited to join with some other foodie bloggers in the Mum and The Chef Challenge this month.
Katrina from Windsor Deli in Melbourne and Mish Lilley who is working on a series of her own cookbooks - came up with the idea of this challenge once a fortnight or to take a seasonal fresh ingredient and put your spin on it.
Challenge One was Rhubarb and Two was Asparagus. You can see their ideas here and here.
So now I'm joining the blog party and I have been playing with cherries.
1. a bokeh of cherries?, 2. Nothing says summer like cherries with a side of bokeh., 3. cherry kiss, 4. Cherrish the moment HBW~
My recipe is an original with bits and pieces borrowed from different spots :) The creme filling comes from a friends passionfruit slice recipe.
This made for such a delicious but surprisingly quite light dessert.
Ingredients
Shortcrust Bisuits
- 225gms plain flour
- 30g vanilla sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 110 gms unsalted butter, cold
- 2 eggs
- 1-2 tbspn cold water
Cream Filling
- 100gm packet of vanilla pudding mix
- 300ml cream
- 200ml milk
Cherries
- 200gm fresh cherries
- 2 full tablespoons of vanilla sugar
- Juice of Half a lemon
To serve
- Melted dark chocolate
- Icing sugar
- Extra fresh cherries
Method
To make the biscuits bases *
- Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
- Lightly beat egg yolks and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, just add enough to form a slightly sticky dough.
- Form the dough into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes
- Roll out onto a lightly floured surface.
- Using a star cutter** cut two stars per person.
- Bake for 15 minutes in a moderate oven. Leave to cool.
To make the creme filling
- Beat the pudding mix cream and milk until it resembles whipped cream.
- Place in the fridge for 10 minutes
To make the cherry filling
- Remove the stalks and pits from your cherries and place in a small saucepan.
- Add the sugar and lemon juice.
- Stir on a low heat until cherries are softened slightly and the sugar is dissolved.
- Leave to cool
To stack
- Turn your biscuits face down and drizzle with melted dark chocolate.
- Pile some of the creme filling on top of a biscuit
- Add some cherries
- Pop your top on ( chocolate side down
- Swirl some of the cherry jus left in the bottom of your pot on your plate
- Dust with icing sugar and decorate with a couple of fresh cherries
* If you wanted to you could cheat and buy a good quality shortcrust pastry - If I'm short on time I use Careme Vanilla Bean Shortcrust Pastry - found in good delis - like Ferry Rd Markets at Southport.
**This recipe made 12 biscuits - I used the cutter from a star christmas tree - the second largest one
Check out some of the other Mum and Chefs too
Stay tuned for another version of this in our Christmas recipes too later in the month. Thanks Katrina and Mish for a great challenge :)
Tamar x
