Tuesday 10 June 2014

Invention Kitchen - Raspberry and Lemon Ricotta Tart with a Coconut Shortbread Base

Things are looking decidedly summery at the moment and I’ve not come up with a new recipe in a very long time. I was browsing recipes when I cam across a lemon marscapone tart topped with strawberries and my mind began doing it’s thing, matching flavours and ideas. This is what I came up with and by god it’s good!

For the shortbread base:
6oz butter (room temp)
2oz sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
15oz flour
1 tablespoon coconut oil
8oz desiccated coconut
1 large egg

For the filling:
1 pack of ricotta (usually 250g)
4 oz cream cheese
3 tablespoons honey
Zest of one lemon
Juice of half a lemon
A couple of packs of raspberries

To make the base preheat the oven to 160C or gas mark 3. Grease a loose-bottomed tart tin with coconut oil. Coconut oil usually comes in jars and goes solid in the fridge. Heat some up in a pan and it will quickly melt. Use melted oil for the shortbread too. Put all the ingredients (except the egg) in a food processor/mixer and mix until well combined, then crack in the egg and mix again until you have a ball of shortbread mixture. Roll out to the thickness of a £1 coin and line your tin. If you have any leftover mixture you can freeze it and make biscuits another day. This mixture isn’t overly sweet though so you may want to dip your biscuits in milk chocolate to give them that something extra. Bake your case blind for about 30 mins. Take out and allow to cool completely.

Make sure you remove the case and place on your plate/stand before you put the filling in. To make the filling mix all the ingredients together with a whisk. It won’t take long to combine but it will be very loose, so once you’ve poured it in put in the refrigerator for 24 hours

Just before serving decorate with the fresh raspberries. Perfect for a summer party or after a barbeque!


Thursday 28 November 2013

Invention Kitchen - Spangly Christmas Biscuits

Spicy, chewy, chocolately, spangly. Everything you want for Christmas. I made these as gingery as possible, so that kids wouldn’t like them. Unfortunately however, several kids tried them, and all loved them. Never mind. You’ll just have to hide them. They keep well in an airtight container, so make in advance and get out at a Christmas gathering and wow everyone!

Makes about 15

Ingredients:

4oz butter
1 ½ tablespoons golden syrup
3oz caster sugar
3 ½ oz plain flour
5 oz oats
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1 ½ tablespoons chopped stem ginger
1 egg, beaten
200g white chocolate
edible glitter

Method:

Preheat oven at 180C/Gas mark 4 and line a couple of baking trays with parchment.

Melt the butter and syrup together and set aside

Combine the dry ingredients and mix. Pour in the butter and syrup until well combined, then add the stem ginger and egg and stir.

Put a heaped teaspoon onto the baking tray for each biscuit. Make sure you leave plenty room as they will spread. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Take out of the oven and leave to cool completely before peeling the paper off.


Melt the chocolate. Dip the biscuits halfway or drizzle the chocolate over half the biscuit. Put on parchment (you can turn the parchment you already used over) on a baking tray. Sprinkle the edible glitter over the chocolate halves of the biscuits and put the trays in the fridge until the chocolate is set.