Technicolor Kitchen - English version

I adore fried food, but living in an apartment I rarely feel like frying things – I try to avoid having the whole house smelling like the dinner we’d just had. Up until a couple of months ago fries had been the exception because both the hubby and I love them, but after trying Annabel’s recipe for oven fries the problem was solved – Joao told me they were even tastier than the original fried version.

I did, however, had another exception days ago when I made Gourmet Traveller’s pistachio doughnuts – I’d been meaning to make them forever. The doughnuts turned out really good and being cake doughnuts (no yeast involved) it didn’t take me too long to make them from start to finish. The problem was the rose water glaze: disappointing and too sweet, it tasted of nothing but icing sugar even after I squeezed half a lemon in it. The raspberry syrup, prior to the addition of the icing sugar, was really delicious, so I suggest you make it up to that point and dunk your doughnuts in it. Another suggestion: after photographing and eating the first doughnuts, I fried the remaining batter like small churros (instead of piping it into rings) and liked them even more: they were easier to move around in the frying pan and turned out crispier on the outside.

Pistachio doughnuts with rose water glaze
slightly adapted from the always gorgeous Australian Gourmet Traveller

Doughnuts:
75g pistachio kernels
2 ¼ cups (315g) all purpose flour
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 cup (240ml) whole milk
¼ cup (56g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 egg, lightly beaten
vegetable oil, for deep frying

Rose water glaze:
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
10 raspberries, fresh or frozen (unthawed)
1 ½ cups (210g) icing sugar, sifted
3 teaspoons rose water, or to taste

Process pistachios in a food processor until finely ground, transfer to a large bowl, add flour, sugar, baking powder, orange zest, vanilla extract and salt. Stir to combine, make a well in the centre, then add milk, butter and egg. Mix until smooth, transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 2cm-fluted nozzle, refrigerate to rest for 1 hour.
For rosewater glaze, combine sugar and 50ml water in a small saucepan, stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, add raspberries, crush them with the back of a wooden spoon, then simmer until syrupy (2-3 minutes). Strain into a heatproof bowl (discard pulp), add icing sugar, whisk until smooth, then whisk in rose water and set aside (thin with a little water to drizzling consistency if necessary.)
Preheat oil in a deep-fryer or deep-sided saucepan to 180°C/350°F. Pipe 8cm-diameter rings onto squares of lightly oiled baking paper. Slide rings, in batches, into oil and cook, turning occasionally, until puffed, golden and cooked through (3-4 minutes; be careful as hot oil may spit). Drain on absorbent paper, then, while still warm, drizzle with rose water glaze and place on a cooling rack until glaze sets. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 18-20

Hollywood is dominated by men, or better, by white men, so I am always glad to watch women deliver great work. Not many directors are women - some of them are really, really talented and responsible for masterpieces, like Jane Campion and Susanne Bier. Now Vera Farmiga, an actress I'm very fond of, has stepped into directing shoes and brings the beautiful and so sensitive "Higher Ground" - a movie that discusses religion and faith very openly and honestly; even though I don't believe in anything, I felt touched by Farmiga's movie because I was once the girl who sought answers for so many questions, the girl who thought that everything in life happened because a certain being wanted it that way. I liked the movie a lot and hope that Vera Farmiga continues to work behind the camera.

***

This cake is not the super tender type of cake I usually bake, but it's so delicious I cannot wait to buy more pistachios to make it again.

Lemon-frosted pistachio cake
from the always delicious Delicious - Australia

Cake:
¾ cup (105g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 ½ cups (195g) pistachio kernels, ground*
1 cup (100g) almond meal
1 ¼ cups (250g) granulated sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup (120ml) extra virgin olive oil
finely grated zest of 1 orange
100g unsalted butter, melted, cooled
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon rosewater

Icing:
1 cup (140g) icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
1-2 teaspoons hot water, if necessary

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
Butter and line the base of a 23cm (9in) springform cake pan with baking paper**.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and stir in the pistachio and almond. Place sugar and whole eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 4-5 minutes until thick and pale. Beat in the olive oil, zest, butter, vanilla and rosewater, then fold in the flour mixture. Spread into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly, then remove from the pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Icing: sift the icing sugar into a medium bowl and gradually add the lemon juice and enough hot water to make a smooth dropping consistency.
When the cake is cool, pour the icing over the cake, allowing some to drip down the sides. Set aside until firm, about 20 minutes.

* if you’re grinding the pistachios at home, add part of the flour to the food processor to avoid turning the nuts into a paste

** I used a regular 23cm (9in) cake pan (no removable bottom); I cooled the cake in the pan over a wire rack for 25 minutes, then carefully inverted in onto a plate, removed the paper, then inverted it again (top side up) onto the rack to cool completely

Serves 6-8

I might love baking cookies but I usually shy away from rolled out kind – yes, I’m lazy and yes, I’ve turned several rolled out cookie recipes into slice and bake cookies out of sheer laziness. Not a very nice thing to admit, I know, but true. So months ago, on a cool day – which because of the temperatures we’ve been having here lately seems even more distant – I decided to make roll out cookies, and the combo almond and rosewater seemed perfect: not only because I thought it would taste delicious (and it was, indeed) but also because all those almond pieces dispersed throughout the dough would definitely stop me from turning the cookies into the slice and bake kind. :D

Almond and rosewater shortbread
slightly adapted from the always beautiful Australian Gourmet Traveller

120g whole almonds
220g unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup + ½ tablespoon (75g) icing sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons rosewater
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons Amaretto
330g all purpose flour
3½ teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt

Assembling:
2-3 tablespoons rosewater, or to taste
1½ cups (210g) icing sugar, for rolling the cookies

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Spread almonds on an oven tray and roast, stirring occasionally, until golden (5-6 minutes). Cool completely, then coarsely chop and set aside.
Beat butter, icing sugar, vanilla and rosewater in an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in the yolk, then Amaretto, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Sift in flour, baking powder and salt, add almonds and stir to form a stiff dough, then turn onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper. Roll out dough between two pieces of lightly floured baking paper to 1.5cm-thick. Cut into your desired shape using any 5cm (2in) diameter cutter and place onto prepared sheets. Reroll scraps once. Bake until light golden on the edges (18-20 minutes), cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then sprinkle with rosewater. Carefully roll the warm cookies in the icing sugar, then cool over a wire rack.
Cookies will keep, stored in an airtight container, for 1 week (dust with icing sugar between layers).

Makes about 60

The first time I saw Leonardo DiCaprio was in his – and mine – teenage years: I’d rented "This Boy's Life" expecting to watch another great performance by Robert DeNiro (back in the day when he was a wonderful actor) but what really took me by storm was this boy’s performance, this boy I’d never heard of before, whose face or name I did not recognize (that was way before the whole “Romeo and Juliet” hysteria). I started to pay attention to that talented boy and I wasn’t the only one: after "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" everyone was talking about Leonardo, and I knew for sure that he would become one of the greatest. Ever since, he’s portrayed several fantastic characters and I’ve become a huge fan – that is why I watched "J. Edgar" last night (spoilers below for the ones who haven’t watched the movie yet).

Let’s forget, at least for 5 minutes, the bizarre makeup – it really pisses me off that the minute the movie is mentioned everyone starts talking about the makeup and how bad it looked; yes, it looked awful, but I cannot understand how people can focus on that – and only that – while both DiCaprio and the always fantastic Judi Dench kick some serious ass onscreen – I mean, really? Give me a break.
The way DiCaprio moves around, always holding so much within – especially around his mother – made me claustrophobic; it must be so hard to hide your true essence all the time, so tiring. We all have been there somewhere in our lives, haven’t we? The herculean effort to please our parents, the fear of disappointing them. Throughout the film we see his need to hide behind a façade and the responsibility that comes with it; the power his mother had over him and how he reacts to that – the scene where she tells him that she’d rather have a dead son than a homosexual son and then insists on teaching him how to dance brought tears to my eyes: only a talented actor could portray feelings like those without being exaggerated or sappy, and that kind of subtlety is really hard to find. I haven’t watched "Moneyball" yet but to me Brad Pitt stole DiCaprio’s Oscar nomination – in my world Pitt would never, EVER, be superior to DiCaprio.

From one favorite to another: Nigella Lawson. I’m a huge, huge fan. And if you make these cookies – which are as simple and easy as they’re addictively delicious – you’ll understand why I like her so much. :)

Chewy macaroons
from the always gorgeous and delicious Feast: Food to Celebrate Life

2 cups (200g) almond meal
1 cup (200g) superfine sugar – I used granulated
¼ teaspoon finely ground cardamom
2 egg whites
1-2 tablespoons rosewater
about 28 whole blanched almonds

Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F and line two baking sheets with baking parchment*.
Mix together the ground almonds, sugar, ground cardamom and egg whites and knead with your hands or use the flat beater in a freestanding mixer until you have a coherent paste – the dough is very thick, that is why I recommend using the mixer.

Sprinkle some rose water onto your hands and roll the dough into little balls, about the size of smallish walnuts. Place onto prepared sheets 2.5cm (1in) apart and squish them down slightly so they are no longer balls but fat patties – sprinkle more rose water on your palms throughout the process of rolling the dough balls. Stud the center of each disc with a blanched almond and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden at the edges. Cool completely on the baking sheets over a wire rack.
When cooled, store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

* some of the cookies stuck to the paper – I think foil would be a better alternative here

Makes about 28 – I made the exact recipe above, used 1 leveled tablespoon of dough per cookie and got 24

When I was 10 years old I got the Arena album as a gift from a cousin I deeply love. I used to listen to it nonstop, 24/7. I still have the album but since I no longer have a record player I bought the CD a while ago – I love listening to it while I drive to/from work. So good.
The CD version has two bonus tracks, but unfortunately “Girls on Film” and “Rio” are songs I never cared about (and still don’t).

Like one of my all time favorite albums, this recipe has a bonus, too, but in this case it’s a really good one: you get a delicious, fresh tart for dessert and also yummy slice and bake cookies with the leftover pastry. The cookies are so good you might consider postpone making the tart and stick to the pastry alone. :)

Strawberry and rose hazelnut tart
slightly adapted from the always stunning and delicious Australian Gourmet Traveller

Spiced hazelnut pastry:
¾ cup + ½ tablespoon (176g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (148g) icing sugar, sifted
finely grated zest of 1 orange
3 egg yolks
1 ¾ cups + ½ tablespoons (250g) all purpose flour
¾ cup (75g) hazelnut meal (finely ground hazelnuts)
¾ cup (75g) almond meal (finely ground almonds)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder

Filling:
700g strawberries, hulled and coarsely chopped
1/3 cup + ½ tablespoon (72g) superfine sugar*
¼ cup (30g) corn starch
finely grated zest and juice of ½ orange
3 teaspoons rosewater
seeds of 1 vanilla bean
heavy cream, for brushing
icing sugar, for dusting
crème fraîche, to serve

Start by making the spiced hazelnut pastry: beat butter, icing sugar and orange zest in an electric mixer until creamy, add yolks and beat to combine. Add remaining ingredients and mix until just combined. Form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (2-3 hours).
Roll two-thirds of hazelnut pastry to 3mm-thick between two large pieces of lightly floured baking paper and line a lightly buttered 24cm (9in) diameter tart pan with a removable bottom. Trim edges, prick pastry all over with a fork and freeze until firm (15 minutes). Roll out remaining dough on a lightly floured piece of baking paper to a rough 24cm-long rectangle, place on an oven tray and refrigerate between the paper pieces until firm (15-20 minutes).
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Combine strawberries, sugar, corn starch, zest, juice and vanilla seeds in a bowl and fill pastry case.
Remove the pastry rectangle from the fridge, remove the paper piece on the top and cut the pastry into your favorite shapes using a cookie cutter (mine was a drop shaped cutter about 3cm long). Place them randomly over strawberry mixture, leaving some of the filling uncovered**. Brush pastry with heavy cream, place tart pan onto a baking sheet and bake until crisp and golden (35-40 minutes), cool completely in the pan over a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve with crème fraîche.

* after tasting the tart I though the filling needed a bit more sugar – have a taste of your strawberries and adjust the sugar amount accordingly to their sweetness

** I gathered up the pastry leftover pieces and made slice and bake cookies with the remaining pastry – they tasted delicious!

Serves 10

Pretty much like Bryan Singer really needs a great movie to go back to the good old days, this panna cotta requires something delicious to be served with – and before you all go “oh, there she comes with roasted strawberries again”, I added rosewater to them this time, just to make things a bit different. :)

Vanilla panna cotta with rosewater roasted strawberries
from here and here

Panna cotta:
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon gelatin powder
2 cups (480ml) single or pouring cream
1/3 cup (47g) icing sugar, sifted
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Rosewater roasted strawberries:
16 strawberries, hulled and halved
1/3 cup (67g) caster sugar
½ tablespoon rosewater

Make the panna cotta: place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle over the gelatin. Stand for 5 minutes or until the gelatin absorbs the water. Place the cream in a saucepan over medium heat with the sugar, vanilla bean and seeds. Stir occasionally, allowing the cream to come to the boil. Add the gelatin and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or just until gelatin is dissolved. Pass mixture through a fine sieve and allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set.
Now, the roasted strawberries: Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F; place the strawberries in a small baking dish (do not use a shallow dish because the juices will bubble away in the oven) and sprinkle with the sugar and rosewater. Mix well and roast for 10-15 minutes or until the strawberries are soft and syrupy. Remove and set aside to cool completely.
Serve the panna cotta in the glasses, topped with the strawberries – this panna cotta is not firm enough to be unmolded.

Serves 6

I finally watched “Alice in Wonderland”, but can’t say I liked it... I found it too busy, hysterical, even for Burton.

The highlights of the movie to me were Alan Rickman as the Blue Caterpillar – gotta love that man’s voice – and Helena Bonham Carter; even though I used rather fair roses in these cupcakes I find the Red Queen and her obsession for red roses much more fun. :)

Vanilla cupcakes with rosewater icing
from Donna Hay magazine

250g unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups + 2 tablespoons (274g) caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, or 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
4 eggs
2 ¼ cups + 2 tablespoons (335g) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup (240ml) whole milk

Rosewater icing:
1 cup + 1 ½ tablespoons (218g) caster sugar
¼ cup (60ml) water
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon rosewater
3 egg whites
2-3 drops rose pink food coloring
24 sugared flower cake decorations or crystallized rose petals*, to top the cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla seeds/paste in the bowl o an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well. Sift over the flour and baking powder and beat until combined. Fold through the milk and spoon the mixture into two 12-hole ½ cup capacity muffin pans lined with paper cases. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool on wire racks.
To make the rosewater icing, place the sugar, water, cream of tartar and rosewater in a saucepan over high heat and stir just until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil – at this point, do not stir – reduce the heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, place the egg whites in the large bowl of an electric mixer and beat until soft peaks form. While the motor is running, gradually add the sugar mixture to the whites and beat until slightly cooler, thick and glossy. Stir in the food coloring until well combined.
Spread the icing over the cupcakes with a palette knife and top with a sugared flower decoration/crystallized rose petal.

*to crystallize the petals: place an egg white in a small bowl and beat it lightly with a fork. Brush the clean, dry petals with the egg white and cover with caster sugar, shaking to remove any excess. Set aside to dry. Make sure you use unsprayed flowers

Makes 24 – I got 5 cupcakes making ¼ of the cake recipe above, using 1/3 cup (80ml) capacity muffin pans and 1/3 of the icing recipe

I should be ashamed for calling this a recipe, but the result is so good I had to share it with you; not to mention that after almost five days of Carnival (and food, and booze) I was in desperate need of something fresh.

Watermelon salad with rose and mint syrup
from Australian Gourmet Traveller

500g watermelon flesh
2/3 cup (133g) caster sugar
¼ cup (loosely packed) mint leaves
2 teaspoons rosewater

Combine sugar and ¼ cup (60ml) water in a small saucepan and stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Add mint and rosewater, remove from heat, cool completely and strain, discarding solids. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

To serve, using a melon baller, scoop watermelon into balls and divide among serving bowls. Drizzle with rose and mint syrup and serve immediately.

Serves 6

There was a birthday celebration at home yesterday, but not mine nor Joao’s – this very blog turned 3!

I cannot believe it’s been that long – so many posts, recipes and photos... Not to mention the wonderful people I’ve met, virtually or personally, because of the blog. The comments and emails I get from you make me really happy and willing to improve my skills and learn more. Thank you for keeping me company all this time! You're the best!

I’d been meaning to bake these cupcakes for months – was intrigued by the addition of mayo to the batter, instead of butter – but thought they deserved a special occasion; this is certainly one. :D

Chocolate-mayonnaise cupcakes with raspberry cream
cupcakes from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey, frosting from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes

Cupcakes:
1 cup (140g) all purpose flour
1/3 cup + ½ tablespoon (33g) cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
1 large egg
½ cup mayonnaise (not low-fat)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cups (160ml) boiling water

Raspberry cream:
112g (4oz) unsweetened frozen raspberries, thawed, with the juices
1 cup (240ml) heavy cream
¼ cup (50g) caster sugar
1 teaspoon rosewater

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 180°C/350°F. Line one standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper cupcake liners*.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, combine the sugar and egg and beat with an electric mixer set at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the mayonnaise and vanilla just until combined. Reduce the speed to medium and beat in half the flour mixture until just combined. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add half the boiling water and beat at very low speed just until the batter is smooth, 5-10 seconds. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat just until combined, 5-10 seconds longer. Beat in the remaining water – the batter will be somewhat thin.

Divide batter among the prepared cupcake cups, filling them about 2/3 full. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18 to 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Make the raspberry cream: put the raspberries and their juices in a small non-reactive saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, mashing the berries with a large spoon, until they give up all their juices, 6-8 minutes. Let cool, then strain through a sieve to remove the seeds. Add the sugar and rosewater and stir until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.
In a chilled bowl, with chilled beaters, whip the cream until stiff. Fold in the raspberry purée.

When the cupcakes are completely cool, frost them generously with the raspberry cream and serve.

* I used 1/3-cup (80ml) capacity pans

Makes 12

I hadn’t used one of my favorite books in quite a while and looking at its cover I knew exactly what recipe to choose from it. Yes, strawberries again – I’ve warned you, remember? :D

This cake is so pretty I’d an eye on it since buying the book, but I ended up making other cakes from it and all of a sudden the strawberry season was gone. I would not make the same mistake this time, oh, no!

It is, indeed, a beautiful dessert and it tastes wonderful, but it’s really unstable and difficult to slice (even after 5 hours in the fridge, more than the recipe calls for). There was some filling and cream left, so combined them with some cake scraps to make a trifle:

Sky-high strawberry shortcake
from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes

Cake:
5 tablespoons (70g) unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup (150g) caster sugar*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 ½ cups (210g) all purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup (160ml) buttermilk

Fresh strawberry filling:
4 cups strawberries, small if possible
2 teaspoons rosewater
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup (100g) caster sugar*

Whipped cream:
1 ½ cups (360ml) heavy cream
2 tablespoons caster sugar*

Garnish:
a few whole strawberries, sliced in half if desired, leaves on

Start by baking the cake: preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Grease the bottoms and sides of three 15cm (6in) round cake pans. Line the bottom of each with a round of parchment or baking paper and grease the paper.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating well after each addition.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the batter, alternating with the buttermilk, in 2 or 3 additions. Beat well. Divide the batter among the three prepared pans.

Bake the cake layers for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans for 10 minutes then invert onto wire racks, carefully peel off the paper and allow to cool completely – I removed the paper after the cakes were completely cool.

Now, the filling: wash and hull the berries and slice into pieces about the thickness of a nickel. Place in a bowl and add the rosewater, vanilla and sugar. Stir to coat them well, cover the bowl, and let the berries macerate at room temperature until they exude their juices, about 1 hour.

Whip the cream: in a large chilled bowl, with chilled beaters, whip the cream with the sugar until stiff – there will be about 3 cups.

Assembling the cake: place one cake layer, flat side up, on a small cake stand or serving plate. Top with 3/4 cup of the fresh strawberry filling, spooning it over the entire layer and making sure any juices go onto the cake layer and not the plate, if possible. Top this with 1 cup of the whipped cream, spreading it evenly over the berries. Repeat with the second cake layer and another ¾ cup filling and 1 cup whipped cream. Top with the final cake layer flat side up. Cover with the last of the whipped cream and garnish with the whole berries. For best flavor, cover the dessert with a cake dome or loose plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours before slicing. Serve with the remaining strawberry filling on the side.

* I used vanilla infused sugar

Serves 8-10

Searching for something good on TV last night I stopped zapping when I saw Giovanni Ribisi. It was a drama movie and I was pretty surprised – in a very good way – by his performance... Let’s be honest: it’s not easy to stand out working next to the marvelous Ms. Blanchett. :D

Whether it’s a heavy drama or a light comedy – who can forget Frank Buffay Jr.? – Giovanni Ribisi is always a joy to watch, like marshmallows are a joy to make (and eat).

My inspiration was this recipe but I did not want to use egg whites and adapted a Donna Hay recipe instead.

Rosewater marshmallows
adapted from Donna Hay magazine

2 tablespoons powdered gelatin
½ cup (120ml) warm water
330g caster sugar
½ cup + 1 ½ tablespoons glucose syrup
1/3 cup (80ml) water, extra
1 tablespoon rosewater
1-2 drops pink food coloring

For rolling the marshmallows:
¾ cup (105g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon corn starch, sifted

Lightly oil a 20cm (8in) square cake pan and line with non-stick baking paper.

Place the gelatin and warm water in the bowl of an electric mixer, stir well to combine and set aside. Place the sugar, glucose and extra water in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil and cook without stirring for 5-6 minutes or until soft ball stage (115ºC/240ºF) on a sugar thermometer.

With the mixer running at high speed, gradually add the hot syrup to the gelatin mixture. Add the rosewater, the food coloring and beat for 10 minutes or until thick and fluffy. Pour into prepared pan, cover with lightly greased non-stick baking paper and refrigerate overnight (I used regular baking paper and oiled it very well).

Place the icing sugar and corn starch in a bowl and stir to combine. Turn the marshmallow onto a surface lightly dusted with a little of the icing sugar mixture and carefully remove the paper. Cut into squares with a lightly oiled knife.

Dust with remaining icing sugar mixture and store in an airtight container.

Makes 36

Can you resist heart-shaped food? I thought so - neither can I. It’s like watching a child eating ice cream or a very sticky chocolate cupcake and NOT do anything about it. :D

The recipe comes from DH magazine #36 – the only change I made was to use rosewater instead of orange blossom water.

Rose water meringue hearts
adapted from Donna Hay magazine

150ml egg whites (4-5 egg whites)
220g caster sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
½ teaspoon rose water

Preheat the oven to 120ºC/248ºF. Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until stiff peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, vinegar and rose water and beat until the mixture is thick and glossy – press a little of the mixture between your fingertips; when you no longer feel the sugar granules, the mixture is ready.
Place a lightly greased 6cm heart shaped cookie cutter on a baking sheet lined with non-stick baking paper (if using regular baking paper, brush it with oil).
Spoon the meringue mixture inside the cutter and smooth over the top.
Carefully remove the cutter, clean it, brush it again with oil and repeat the process.
Bake for 25 minutes or until crisp, turn the oven off and allow to cool in it for 30 minutes.

Makes 10 – I halved the recipe, used a 5cm (2in) cutter and still got 10

Thank you for so many great ideas and suggestions on the lavender marshmallows – I knew you would help me out. I’ll keep you posted about my lavender experiments. :D

Once again, flowers – this time, roses paired with a flavor that comes from an orchid... It almost feels like spring.

Vanilla and rosewater madeleines
from Donna Hay magazine

2 eggs
75g caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
75g all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
80g butter, melted

Rosewater icing:
160g confectioners’ sugar, sifted
40ml boiling water
¼ teaspoon rosewater

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla seeds in a bowl and whisk to combine. Sift over the flour and baking powder and whisk to combine. Add the butter and whisk until combined. Spoon the mixture into a 12-hole greased madeleine pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool on a wire rack – they were easily removed from the pan once cold.

To make the icing, place the confectioners’ sugar, water and rosewater in a bowl and mix to combine – or add the water gradually and check for icing consistency.
Place the rack of cooled madeleines over a baking tray and spoon over the icing and allow to set – I found it easier to quickly dunk the madeleines in the icing; I let them dry and then repeated the process so the icing would be thicker.

Makes 12 – I got 9 like the ones on the photos and 15 smaller ones