Category: Eggs

Busy girl’s no churn ice cream

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As the mercury soars past 40C its time for ice cream.

Ready for simplicity? Here it is.  Take one quantity of ultimate cream cheese frosting and freeze it. That’s it. I promise you. The secret to this is the air – because it contains meringue and therefore air it is a mousse and so when you freeze it, it will still be soft.

I must admit to a certain feeling of satisfaction when I make one technique actually evolve into two or even three dishes. I guess its the elegant economy of it. Whatever it is…its really time saving and economical as you can whip up some frosting , double it up and freeze half for ice cream

Improvs & Ideas

Add whole fruit or my fave – chopped up pieces of crystallised ginger.

Italian Chocolate, Nut & Orange Christmas Cake

rich, moist, nutty, cinnamony , orangy ……..  this is one of my all time favourite cakes

I have been making this cake for a few years now and have tinkered around with the original Anna Del Conte recipe and I hope the grand dame wont mind as I think my method adds a touch more body and is very easy, provided you do have an electric whisk or failing that bionic arms as it involves making a meringue. If you do not the cake will not fail, it will just be more dense and “fudgy”. The method is fun and involves blitzing up dark chocolate into chocolate “crumbs” which then melt into the cake as it bakes. Here I’ve served it with white chocolate ice cream.

Continue reading “Italian Chocolate, Nut & Orange Christmas Cake”

“Torta Pasqualina” – Italian Easter Egg & Spinach Tart

a great pie that doesn’t need Easter as an excuse to be made

This is my take on the Italian Easter pie “torta pasqualina”.  It involves that holy trinity of ingredients: Spinach, cheese and eggs and when they combine in a goodly (Godly?) ratio the result is divine indeed. The secret to any spinach recipe is to flavour it well (here nutmeg, fresh thyme, garlic and onions) else the result tastes like grass cuttings. If the truth be told this particular pie used up a load of leftovers and I added and combined until I liked the texture of the filling.  After messing around with the eggs “popping” out of their little indents and a surfeit of egg white which then needed to be scooped off and combined with the rest of the mixture (tedious), I have “re-engineered” and come up with what i think is a faster and more idiot proof method that also guarantees a lighter fluffier filling.

For those of you who are still pastry averse fear not – Just buy filo pastry and let it flop over the edges, brush with a little olive oil between layers and tuck the overhang over the pie (to be continued…)

Traditionally the pie has a pastry lid and then lattice work but i have just put lattice pastry over the filling that i topped with cheese as its a little lighter. Continue reading ““Torta Pasqualina” – Italian Easter Egg & Spinach Tart”