Recipe for Chaussons au Anana – Pineapple Turnovers

When Dan and I were in Taiwan we really loved eating pineapple cakes. They were often super fresh with cooked down pineapple fillings surrounded by a shortbread crust. As Lunar New Year was coming up, Dan wanted to make pineapple cakes (a traditional Lunar New Year treat in Singapore and Taiwan) but also incorporate croissants or some kind of laminated pastry. 

Dan recently came across a pineapple jam filling from a Singaporean Chef named Violet Oon. This recipe involves stewing the pineapples with cinnamon and cloves, something very different from Dan’s previous iterations. We had some puff pastry in the freezer and thus, Dan’s need to combine different elements was satisfied through making a pineapple turnover, or a Chausson au Anana.

Outside ChiaTe – this pineapple cake had a blend of
pineapple and mashed winter melon

SunnyHills Pineapple cakes – this one was 100% pineapple

Ingredients

*Makes 8 large pastries or 18 medium sized ones.

• One large ripe pineapple – approximately 750g of pineapple pieces
• Pack of frozen puff pastry – made with butter (thawed)
• Small beaten egg
• 150g Sugar
• Cinnamon stick
• 5 cloves *but 10 would be better

Directions

1. Chop up pineapple (we used a food processor to quickly chop up in a 10 pulses).
2. In a medium sized pot, put in the pineapple, cinnamon stick, sugar and cloves. Cook at medium heat for 20-25 minutes until the liquid is mostly boiled off.
3. While the pineapple filling is still warm, extract the cinnamon stick and cloves and allow the filling to cool down (about 1 hour).
4. Preheat the oven to 400F.
5. Beat a small egg in a bowl.
6. Slice up a “sheet” of puff pastry using a ruler. Depending on the size you want to make, you can either make large 5 inch squares or 3.3″ squares.
7. Place the pineapple filling in the middle of each square. For small squares about use about 1.5 tablespoons of filling. For larger squares about 3 heaping tablespoons.
8. Brush the edges with the beaten egg wash.
9. Fold one side over diagonally so you end up with a triangle shape.
10. Use a fork to crimp the edges. 
11. Place the pastries on a prepared baking sheet with parchment paper.  You will likely need two baking trays.
12. Brush the top with the beaten egg and generously sprinkle sugar on the top of each turnover.
13. Put baking sheets into the oven – one on the top rack and one on the bottom rack. Bake for 15 minutes. Rotate trays and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.
14. Eat and enjoy! Take photos as necessary.

Side profile of the Maple Miso Loaf

I love that there is ample time spent rubbing the orange zest (or lemon if that is what you have) with the sugar so it becomes infused with the orange flavour.

Sugar and orange zest rubbed together

Before the bake

Maple Miso Loaf Recipe

4 ounces/113 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for the pan
1 ¾ cups/238 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup/150 grams granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
finely grated zest of 1 orange or tangerine
¼ cup/70 grams white or yellow miso
¼ cup/60 milliliters pure maple syrup (I used dark)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
⅓ cup/80 milliliters buttermilk (well shaken before measuring)
¼ cup/80 grams orange marmalade or apricot jam (for the glaze, optional)

Directions

Let’s continue following along with Cook the Book Fridays and cooking from Dorie Greenspan’s “Every Day Dorie”. This week’s was a Cheesecake. We had the option of using mandarin, tangerine or another citrus if we couldn’t find tangerines. I loved how quick it was for this cheesecake to come together. I must admit that I have never made a tangerine or mandarin flavour cheesecake before so this was a first. I was a bit sad that the cheesecake dropped a bit as it cooled in the oven and then the fridge (over 8 hours) but overall the cheesecake came out of the pan so well. I loved that the cheese cake was so simple. The flavour came mainly from the zesting of the mandarins into sugar and then slowly whisking together cream cheese, ricotta and eggs. 

A slight layer of melted honey is slathered on top to give the cheesecake a shiny glaze. As you can see this cheesecake was quite large! Good thing there are many neighbours around us to help us eat all the food we experiment and create! We gave away a solid half of the cheesecake as Dorie says it feeds up to 16 servings! 

Go check out the Cook the Book Fridays page to see how everyone else did! If you want to make this yourself, check out Dorie’s cookbook “Every Day Dorie” from amazon, chapters or wherever cookbooks can be purchased. 

oh and before I forget here is a picture of the short ribs I made a few months ago for Cook the Book fridays and forgot to post it!!

Most people love brownies, but have you ever heard of mochi brownies? I tend to think of Brownie and Mochi = Brochis! But first you might be asking, what is mochi? Mochi is a form of sticky rice cake that is made from Japanese short grain rice called “mochigome”. Mochigome is a chewy, sticky rice that is actually naturally sweeter than regular rice. You can have mochi either savoury or sweet and with different fillings inside. In this particular recipe, the mochi flour is used to make these brownies extra chewy. The best way to describe these particular chocolate mochi brownies are that they are full of decadent chocolate and chewy goodness. The recipe is from Kaori Becker’s new cookbook “Mochi Magic”. 

Now if you never had mochi before then you should certainly get her book! The best thing is that I have been given permission to share with you this recipe for Chocolate Mochi Brownies! I would highly encourage you to use mochiko flour if possible. Initially when I made a few recipes from the book I wasn’t able to source mochiko so I used a Korean style of ground rice flour that seemed to match what we were looking for (finely ground rice flour). In chatting with Kaori through instagram she indicated that this would be a good substitute or glutinous rice flour could do the trick as well; though taste would be different. 

Kaori herself describes these brownies as “Crispy on the outside and ooey-gooey mochi-licious on the inside, these brownies come together quickly and pack a serious chocolate punch!”

Chocolate Mochi Brownies (makes 10 pieces)

Ingredients 

• 3 cups mochiko
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cup brown sugar 
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate 

Excerpted from Mochi Magic by Kaori Becker. Copyright © 2020 Published by Storey Publishing. Reproduced by arrangement from the author Kaori Becker. All rights reserved.

We realized that the inside of the cake was not pictured so we could make it whatever flavour we wanted (especially if we were going to eat it). I LOVE chocolate so I decided to go with a chocolate cake as the main cake, with strawberry frosting. To make the chocolate cake, we split our batter into two 9 inch round chocolate cake pans (9inch by 2 inch). 

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients

• 240g (1 cup) a double shot of espresso diluted with hot water until it fills one cup
• 60g (6 Tbsp) dark chocolate (chopped)
• 388g (1 3/4 cup) sugar
• 236g (1 1/2 cup) cake flour
• 180g (1 cup) dutch processed cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 120g (1/2 cup) olive oil
• 240g (1 cup) buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions for Chocolate Cake

1. Preheat oven to 325F (160C). Line the bottom of both cake pans with parchment paper (cut out approximately 9inch circles so they fit exactly) and butter the sides of the pan. 
2. Pull a double shot of espresso and dilute with hot water until you get 1 cup. In a large bowl pour the hot coffee over the dark chocolate. Wait one minute and then start to whisk the chocolate so that it has melts completely.
3. In another bowl, mix together sugar, cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. In the bowl of a stand-up mixer whisk together the egg, olive oil, buttermilk and vanilla together.
5. While the mixer is still mixing at medium speed, slowly add the chocolate coffee mixture.
6. Slowly add in all the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Mix until the batter just comes together. The batter may appear lumpy but try not to over mix.
7. Split the batter into the two cake pans. Bake both pans for approximately 40 minutes. Check that the cakes are done by inserting a toothpick into the middle of the cake. When it comes out clean the cakes are done.
8. Allow the cakes to cool completely.
9. After they have cooled for an hour, run a knife around the edge of each pan. Then gently flip each cake out. Set the cakes aside to cool completely. 

Ingredients

• 188g (1 1/4 cup) white chocolate
• 150g (2/3 cup) whipping cream
• 2 Tbsp water
• 84g (1/3 cup) sugar
• 1 Tbsp white corn syrup
• 188g (3/4 cup) unsalted room temperature butter
• 2.5 Tbsp ground freeze dried strawberries

Red Chocolate Dripping

Ingredients

• 70g (1/2 cup) white chocolate
• 95g (1/4 cup) whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon of water
• 30g (1 1/2 tablespoons) white corn syrup
• 1/8 of teaspoon of red powdered color food dye

Directions

1. Melt white chocolate in large bowl over boiling water.
2. In a separate small pot, heat whipping cream, water, and corn syrup until near boiling.
3. Slowly pour the hot cream over the white chocolate while mixing with a spatula.
4. Keep stirring with a spatula until smooth.
5. Add the red food dye in parts so that the colour is even.
6. Take out a large baking pan and put a cookie cooling rack on top of the pan. This is to catch any drippings.
7. Take the cake out of the freezer and place it on the cookie cooling rack.
8. Transfer the chocolate mixture into a large measuring cup so that it is easier to pour.
9. Slowly add more melted chocolate so that it starts to drip over the edges of the cake.

Lemon meringue cake with “Happy Birthday” cake topper from Justine Ma

Join me in celebrating hubby’s birthday today!  I am impressed myself that I baked this cake! I decided that this year I would bake Dan a cake (last year I made profiteroles-by hand)! Now, not just any cake, but a cake from Duchess Bake Shop’s Cookbook. At some point in my food resolutions (Food Resolutions 2016) I had set out to cook through Duchess’ cookbook! Well, it has been a few years now and while I have made plenty of items from the cookbook I have yet to blog them all. About 2 years ago I made the Duke (chocolate) cake from Duchess’ cookbook for Dan’s birthday, so I felt that I would be able to tackle their lemon meringue cake.

ingredients for lemon cream – in my wheel thrown bowls

The making of the lemon meringue cake – meringue being added to the cake base

Monday morning I made the lemon cream. Instead of using the double boiler method listed in the book, I used the Vitamix on the hot soup function. This helped to speed up cooking and waiting time. Just make sure to cook the mixture to at least 170F before adding in the butter. You can use the same method I used here in my Vitamix Blender Lemon Cream Pie.

I found prepping everything first worked best (salted caramel, lemon cream, lemon syrup). That way, once the cakes are cooled, assembly is a breeze.

Lemon cake out of the oven. You only need to put a parchment paper circle on the bottom. No need to oil or butter pan. One thing to note about my cake. I actually ended up using two 9″ pans as I could not for the life of me find the 8″ pans that was needed. As I had purchased two pans already last time when I was making the Duke cake, I did the same procedure here and baked two lemon cakes. The upside in doing this is that I don’t have to worry about how to cut the cake perfectly in half – horizontally!  Once the cakes were cooled, I brushed on the lemon syrup. Because I used two cakes, I used the bottom of the cakes as the insides of my cake.

Then a little more than half a cup of salted caramel was poured onto the cake – the half that you have determined to be the bottom of the cake.

Since I had made my salted caramel the day before, I heated it up in the microwave for about 20 seconds. This ensured that the salted caramel was still spreadable but not so hot that it would leak everywhere. An inch or so was left around the edges so that no spillage would occur.

Lastly, the lemon cream was layered onto the cake. Then I popped on the top part of the cake, wrapped the entire thing in saran wrap and set it in the freezer.

The next day – which was this morning (Tuesday), I iced the cake with meringue. This has to be done fresh and it is important to work quickly as the meringue has to be caramelized to be set. This was the part where I think I got a bit nervous! Even though I work with meringue often, I don’t often use it for icing a cake. Trying to make the meringue go on straight on the cake while being worried about being too fussy with the meringue was a real concern! You can’t fiddle with the meringue too long, otherwise it starts to lose its shape and fall.

Another view of the lemon meringue cake. This time with the cake topper lower & catching the afternoon light.

Will I make this Duchess cake again? For sure. It was certainly easier to put together compared to my experience with the Duke. I do eventually want to find an 8′ cake pan, but for now it works fine using the two cake pans. There are also more than enough ingredients to fill the cake and meringue to cover the cake. I just need to work more on my meringue “icing” skills.

A 4 Tier of Blueberry macarons

Originally for these macaron shells, I was aiming for more of a pastel purple shell. Instead, they came out slightly on the dark purple side. Looks like I was a bit heavy handed on the purple gel food colouring. I had just bought it and was super excited to use it.

If you have been following along with me on my macaron journey, the recipe for these is pretty much the same one I have been using for the past 7 years! Wow, can you believe it? I have been baking macarons & blogging about them for so long already! Despite moving 3 times in the past 7 years, including across several provinces, the recipe has stood the test of finicky ovens and humidity! There are some tweaks here and there, but ultimately it is the same exact recipe. Oven baking times may differ slightly but that is because of aforementioned finicky oven.

almond meal and icing sugar mixed together.

Ingredients for Purple Murple Macaron Shells

225g icing sugar

125g almond meal

5g albumen

28g berry sugar (extra fine sugar)

100g aged egg whites

2 drops Wilton purple gel food colouring 

Notes:

• Make your own berry sugar by processing regular sugar in a food processor until the sugar crystals are super fine. Keep any extra sugar in an air tight container for future baking. 
• Keep almond meal in the fridge when you are not using it to prevent it from going rancid. A few hours before baking, take the almond meal out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature. 
• Egg whites need to be aged for 2 days in an airtight container.  I place my egg whites in a draft free place on the kitchen counter. Keep the egg yolks in the fridge for the buttercream.
• Pre-measure all ingredients before starting. In fact, do this for ALL recipes!  
• Kitchen tools: 
• kitchen scale (approx. $20 on amazon or Canadian tire)
• food processor (helpful to grind the almond meal and icing sugar together)
• sifter
• spatula (at least 2)
• hand mixer or stand mixer
• piping bag and tip
• large upright cup (helps to hold up piping bag)
• silicon mats or parchment paper
• heavy duty baking sheets (or stack two baking sheets together; this prevents macarons from burning). 

Directions for Purple Murple Macaron Shells

1. Measure all ingredients. Set up the piping bag for the macarons with a round piping tip (I use a Wilton 2A or Ateco 804 piping tip). Line baking sheets with silicon mats or parchment paper. If you are worried about piping macarons too large, use a smaller piping tip. 
   

   ingredients for making the macaron shell

2. Process the almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor until it is well mixed together. Use a spoon to occasionally move the ingredients around before processing again. I have mine set on the finest setting. 
   

   processing of almond meal and icing sugar

3. Sift the icing sugar-almond meal mixture through a sifter to ensure there are no clumps. Place a bowl underneath.
   

   Sifting of the icing sugar and almond meal after processing.

4. Measure out 100g of egg whites and place in the bowl of the stand-up mixer with the whisk attachment.  Slowly whisk at low speed until little bubbles form. Once the bubbles form, add in the mixture of berry sugar and albumen. Then turn the mixer to medium speed (e.g. 4 on the Kitchen Aid).
   

   adding in the albumen and extra fine sugar to the whipping egg whites.

5. Continue to whisk the egg whites until “soft peaks” form. To check, stop and tilt the head of the Kitchen Aid back or stop and lift the tip of the whisk into the mixture to see if a small “bird’s peak forms”. If you see a peak form, then you are done whisking the egg whites. If it looks drippy/wet as you lift up, keep whisking until the “soft peaks” form – off the whisk.  Add in the two drops of Wilton Leaf purple food colouring with a toothpick.
6. Slowly incorporate the almond meal sugar mixture by sifting 2 tablespoons at a time into the meringue. Mix in a clockwise direction. This step is probably one of the most crucial steps in making macarons – also known as the macaronage process. Sift 2 tablespoons of the almond -sugar mixture into the whipped egg whites after each step. Mix in a clockwise direction.
   1st part= 16 turns
   2nd part = 11 turns
   3rd part = 14 turns
   4th part = 11 turns
   5th part = 11 turns
   6th part = 23 turns
7. Give a few more turns to the batter scooping through it with your spatula. Once the macaron batter feels and looks like magma (flows slowly) you are ready to transfer it to the prepared piping bag. When you transfer the macaron batter to the piping bag you are also “mixing it”.
8. Pipe out small circles. Hold the piping bag vertically. Pipe straight down and then do a quick circular movement to the right to finish piping one shell. I pipe across the length of my tray. I typically pipe 18-20 macaron shells per tray. How many shells you pipe on a tray will depend on how big you make each shell. Before piping the next sheet, firmly rap the tray on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles inside the shells. This is called “tamping”. Use a toothpick to gently poke any bubbles.
   
   here’s an example of me piping & tamping. These were for chocolate macarons but the idea is the same.  
   
   Continue to pipe the rest of the trays. 5 shells on the first row, then 4, then 5, then 4. For this particular video above, I ended up piping smaller macarons for each row.

   Let the piped macarons sit for at least 60 minutes until a skin forms and is dry to the touch (this is an important step).

9. Preheat the oven to 280-290F. Allow the oven to come to the correct temperature. This may take 30 minutes. Using an oven thermometer will be helpful. Depending on your oven you may be baking anywhere from 280F to 290F. Currently I am baking each tray of my macarons at 290F for 20 minutes. Once the macarons are done baking allow the shells to cool on their tray before you gently peel them off. Lift under the mat and then push up to gently release each macaron shell. The bottoms should be nice and smooth.
   
10. At this point you can choose to place the macaron shells in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer to be filled with buttercream for another day. Otherwise, continue on with matching shells together in order to fill them with the chocolate buttercream.

Blueberry Buttercream Recipe

• 80g castor (caster) sugar (superfine sugar)
• 25g water
• 1 whole egg (~60g)
• 1 egg yolk
• 180g soft unsalted butter (cut into cubes)
• 2 tablespoons of finely processed freeze dried blueberries

1. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small pot.  Place candy thermometer on the side of the pot. Heat the sugar to 250F(120C. Do not touch the solution, but allow the sugar solution to slowly bubble on its own.
   
2. In another bowl or the bowl of your stand up mixer whisk the eggs and egg yolks until it lightens in colour.
   
3. Once the hot sugar mixture reaches 250F slow down the whisking speed of the eggs, and immediately pour the hot sugar mixture into the egg mixture. Increase to a higher whisking speed (8 on my KitchenAid). Continue whisking until the mixture has cooled down completely (approximately 10-15 minutes). It will look glossy, white and meringue like (see video below). 

   

4. Keep whisking the meringue until it has cooled (10-15 minutes). Meanwhile in a separate bowl, whisk the butter until it has thickened. It will lighten a bit in colour. Once the meringue has cooled, slowly add in the whisked butter a tablespoon at a time. Continue whisking until the buttercream is smooth. If it looks like it is curdling, that is okay! Keep whisking and the buttercream will come back together. 
5. Place the freeze dried blueberries into a food processor. Blitz until you have a fine powder. You can find freeze dried fruits in the snack aisle of most health food stores, in camping stores or online.
   
6. Add the freeze dried blueberries into the buttercream mixture. Whisk until combined. Using a spatula stir the blueberry buttercream a few times to deflate air pockets. Then, transfer the blueberry buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a tip.
   
7. Set up your macaron shells so each shell has a partner shell that matches it in size.
   
8. Pipe a small mound of blueberry buttercream onto each half macaron shell. Assemble the macarons by placing the tops on the macaron and gently push together until the buttercream mound flattens.
   
9. Store the macarons in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 days. 2 hours before serving, bring them out of the fridge as they are best enjoyed at room temperature.
   

Well, there you have it! My complete recipe for purple murple macarons filled with a blueberry buttercream. You can certainly use fruit jams instead of freeze dried blueberries but I find that this often results in a wet buttercream. So use caution and just had a touch. 

Oatmeal Cookies. For me, cookies aren’t the same unless they have chocolate – thus oatmeal must always be followed with chocolate! Looking back at the blog I do have an oatmeal, chocolate chip & raisin recipe from 2010(!) and a recipe for Oatmeal & Raisin Cookies using canola oil from 2012. However, the recipe that I have been testing and creating over the past year(s) I realize is not even on the blog. This never even occurred to me until a friend asked me for my recipe recently!

So, without further ado here is my latest oatmeal and chocolate cookie recipe.

Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies

Directions for Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies

I love how these cookies, eaten while still warm from the oven are crispy and still have a nice chew to them. Feel free to play with different variations of chocolate additions. I can assure you that each one tastes perfectly amazing. Try a mixture of chocolate chip with dark chocolate chocolate chunks, chocolate wafers and skor or even a mixture of chocolate chip, dark chocolate squares and a chopped skor bar! Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

While the dough is in the fridge, assemble your ingredients for making the blender lemon cream. You will need the following ingredients and a thermometer:


Ingredients for Blender Lemon Cream

• 100g (less than 1/2 cup) sugar
• 2 tablespoons of lemon zest (approx. one large lemon)
• 90g lemon juice 
• 2 large eggs
• 150g (less than 3/4 cup) unsalted butter- cubed; room temperature

Directions:

1. Place the lemon zest and sugar in a bowl. Gently rub the lemon zest into the sugar to make lemon sugar.
   
   
2. Transfer the lemon sugar into the Vitamix or a high powered blender and blend for a few seconds. Just enough until it combines together.
   
3. Add in the eggs; blitz for a few seconds. Then add in the lemon juice.
   
4. Switch to the hot soup function on the Vitamix and blend until the mixtures reaches a temperature of 167F. This will take approximately 5-7 minutes. Use a digital thermometer to check the temperature periodically. You will know it is done when the mixture has thickened. Once the mixture reaches 167F, slowly add in the cubed butter. When combined, place the entire container in the fridge to cool.
   

Blender Lemon Cream Pie Assembly

1. Because you are working with gluten free ingredients, the pie dough will stick more compared to using flour. The best stress and mess free method is to first lay down a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter. Then, sprinkle the rice flour (which you can get from most major grocery stores) on the surface and roll the pie dough out on top of the plastic wrap. To figure out how thin you should roll the pie dough, flip over your pie dish to estimate. There should be approximately an inch or two bigger than the pie dish. We rolled our pie dough out to a thickness of around half an inch.
   
2. To transfer the pie dough to the pie dish, slide the saran wrap onto a flat cutting board. Place your buttered pie dish, in the center, on top of the rolled out pie dough .
   
3. Flip it all over and your pie dough should now gently fall into the pie dish. Take off the cutting board and using the the palm of your hand gently flatten the pie dough into the dish. Use a knife to cut away any excess pie dough from the edges.
   
4. Make the edges of your pie. I typically struggle with this part, so if it doesn’t look perfect don’t worry too much about it! You get better with practice. Essentially, you want to gently push down the edges of the dough and make a ridge. Afterwards, use a fork to make some vents on the bottom of the pie. Because we made this recipe several times prior to blogging this recipe, the picture below is Dan’s work of art! My work on the pie edge is more rustic as you can see in the first photo on this blog post.
   
5. This pie crust needs to be blind baked first as there is no other baking needed after the lemon cream is poured into the crust. To blind bake the crust, lay parchment paper on top of the crust. Then pour baking beans on top to weigh it down.
   
6. Bake at 375F for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
   
7. Once the gluten free pie shell has cooled, take the lemon cream filling from the fridge, and blitz in the Vitamix for a few seconds. Then pour the filling into the shell. Refrigerate overnight for best results.
   
8. The next day, feel free to sprinkle a bit of icing sugar on top of your blender lemon cream pie or leave it plain.
   
9. Cut a slice out and enjoy with your favourite breakfast er.. dessert drink.
   

All right, so there you have it! Vitamix blender lemon cream pie with a gluten free crust. Dan and I really ascribe to trying to make our kitchen tools multi-functional and using the blender this way definitely helps. Any high-powered blender that can blend until the inside heats up will work, the key part is to get the filling to the right temperature. I used to do a make-shift double-boiler by putting a glass bowl on top of a pot of simmering water but I usually ended up burning myself from the steam and the filling took significantly longer than seven minutes to make! Using the blender is not only faster but less chance of burning myself.

In case you were wondering if this was too sour for kids, this lemon cream pie was highly enjoyed by our friends’ three kids, they loved the creamy lemony filling a lot! No one noticed that the crust was even gluten free. I do hope you enjoy making this pie tart as much as we have.

‘Tis the season to bring sweet treats to your place of work, christmas functions or to a friend’s place. Today’s blog post is for those that want to make an impressive and easy but equally tasty dessert. These chocolate meringue kisses, like macarons, uses egg whites. You still end up making a meringue, but they are less finicky compared to macarons. 


To start all you need is 4 ingredients, one kitchen appliance (stand up mixer or hand mixer) and one piping bag fitted with a tip. 

Ingredients

• (57 g) 2 egg whites
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 33g 72% dark chocolate callets 

Directions

1. Using a knife chop your chocolate callets as fine as possible. 
   
   
2. In a mixing bowl start to whip the egg whites at a low speed. Add in the cream of tartar. Once soft peaks form, gradually add in the icing sugar and whip at high speed (10 on my Kitchen Aid) until a glossy and stiff meringue forms.
   
3. Turn the mixer off. Add in the chopped chocolate all at once and using a spatula gently mix the chocolate into the meringue.
   
4. Prepare a piping bag fitted with a star tip nozzle. Gently transfer the chocolate meringue mixture into the piping bag. If you don’t have a piping bag use a large plastic ziplock freezer bag fitted with the star tip. You may have to split the chocolate meringue mixture in half depending on the size of your ziplock bag. Fill the piping bag or ziplock bag with the meringue mixer and gather at the top in preparation for piping.
   
5. Line two baking sheets with silicon mats or parchment paper. Pipe the chocolate meringue kisses leaving about 2.5 inches between each meringue kiss.
   
6. Bake both trays in a preheated 200F oven for 30 to 45 minutes. Then turn off the oven, leaving the door ajar and allow the chocolate meringue kisses to sit in the oven for another 2 hours. This helps to dry out the meringues; resulting in that melt in your mouth sensation.