Attempt #50: Best-ever fruit crumble…is in savouring it with family and friends

This attempt was more of an attempt to taste a JO recipe baked by a friend and her hubs. It was their 1^st attempt at a JO dessert and while they felt that the crumble topping didn’t seem to be caramelizing as perfect as it should be, it was perfectly delicious to the rest of us. There are many variations of apple crumble but the best-est will be home made with love and served with friends.

A principal fruit of friendship, is the ease and discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. We know diseases of stoppings, and suffocations, are the most dangerous in the body; and it is not much otherwise in the mind; you may take sarza to open the liver, steel to open the spleen, flowers of sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the brain; but no receipt openeth the heart, but a true friend; to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession

-          - Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Serves 6

Ingredients

·         For the crumble

• 225 g plain flour
• 90 g caster sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 115 g unsalted butter

·         For the filling

• 100 g sugar
• 100 ml water
• 4 nice ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
• 5 pieces stem ginger in syrup, finely chopped
• juice and zest of plus extra for serving 1

Method

Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, salt and ginger.

Cut the cold butter into chunks and rub it into the flour mix with your hands until you get a mixture that looks a bit like fine breadcrumbs. This is the crumble topping.

To make the filling, boil the water and sugar together, then carefully drop in the pear chunks and simmer gently for a couple of minutes.

Add the chopped ginger and the lime zest and juice to the pan and stir. Spoon the mixture into one large ovenproof dish or four small ones.

Sprinkle the crumble topping over the top of the fruit, piling it high in the middle of the dish and leaving space at the edge for the caramel to bubble up.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until the pears are cooked and bubbling and the crumble is golden on top. Serve with custard or a dollop of crème fraîche with lime zest grated over, if you like.

Tip: This crumble will work well with apples instead, if you prefer.

Attempt #46: Sesame Seed Toffee Snaps

Before attempting this recipe, I would not have known that making this sweet caramel munchy would be this simple.

However, while it may be simple, it can get a little tad tricky if this is your first attempt. The tricky part lies in the process of cooking the sugar syrup and the spreading of the sesame seed caramel.

The result:

 

Overall, pretty awesome munchy to go with ice-cream or hot chocolate or tea or coffee or pudding or just on its own. Pretty much anything. J

The nuttiness of the sesame seeds tames the sweetness a bit. Plus, by making this on our own, we can manage the amount of sugar being used.

 

Ingredients:

1lb sugar

7oz pack of sesame seeds

Method:

Put your sugar and 8-10 tablespoons of water into a pan on medium heat. Sue a spoon to stir together - a few times until it comes to the boil and it will become a syrup. Carry on cooking until light golden (but dont stir too much or sugar crystal will form in your syrup.

When the syrup reaches a light golden color, pour in the sesame seeds. Swirl the pan around a bit so that the seeds get coated, but remember not to stir. Continue to cook until the color is dark golden. Immediately pour out onto a silpat (or a nonstick pan that has been oiled). Use a palette knife to spread it out until it is ~¼" in thickness...or even thinner, if you can. Let it sit and cool for ~15 minutes. Now you one big slab of brittle ready to break into shards and bits.

 

Attempt #12: Banana Pancakes

Since I have tried mostly main course recipes, I thought why not try a dessert recipe.

And banana pancake sounds so simple and the photo of Jamie’s banana pancake looks so mouthwatering. Unfortunately, this is my first time making pancakes (if you are thinking how can a 35 year old mom not made pancakes before, well, the daddy usually does it for the kids and the mommy steals a share *grin*). And this attempt reminds me that I still have a long way to go before I can be a good cook. The drama unfolds...

Here’s Jamie’s rendition of the banana pancake:

 

Drumroll....

 

Here’s mine:

I tried to make it look as pretty as possible. The crème fraîche helps beautify the dish but here’s what it looks like when each ingredients/ items are on its own.

The pancake:

Lesson learnt: The size of your pancake is the size of your pan! Reminder to myself. Use a smaller pan! Else it looks like a 'roti canai' (a type of indian-influenced flat bread)!

 

The banana:

It doesn’t turn golden as it is supposed to be as described in Jamie’s recipe. It came out from the pan looking limpy, mushy and saggy. L

I am sure I did not do much justice to jamie’s recipe. Click here for his actual recipe.