Chocolate Ganache with Peanut & Caramel Ice Cream

This challenge was an EPIC FAIL but I still have to blog about it. It is the type of recipe I probably wont try again for a while too. It was a lot of effort so 'little' reward. OK so first thing was the ice cream...in terms of making the actual mixture to be churned, it was not very difficult and it was really tasty! I totally forgot that the the tubs for the churner need to be in the freezer for at least 12 hours prior to using it so that might have affected how the ice cream churned. However, one batch did turn out perfect.





Ganache, that turned out well. I'm a bit of a veteran at making ganache so that was easy. Plus, as long as you follow the recipe, its pretty hard to fail.



OK so this is the epic fail part...HONEYCOMB! Tried it twice and both times it was an EPIC FAIL. Rather than a crunchy honeycomb, it was more like a toffee. I don't know what happened exactly, because I did follow the instructions but my honeycomb just didn't bubble.



Anyways, it was a pretty said master chef challenge. I have posted pics anyways because some parts did work out really well. My next challenge may be delayed as I will be at Perisher this week and Melbourne for the week. I guess it will be another double challenge!!

Lemon Tart

After my not so successful attempt of Pizza, I decided to attempt another dessert. However, after watching all the episodes of week 8, there were no dessert challenges except for the Adam and Aaron cook off where they made the lemon tart for Matt Moran. So I decided to do a Baked Lemon Tart.



Using the same pastry recipe as the frangipane tart, I made the base but this time I blind baked it for a little while. For the filling, I modified Carrie's Signature Dish which was a baked lemon tart. I only modified it because of the size of the tin I had. It was a simple mixture of eggs, sugar, cream, lemon zest and lemon juice.



Anyways, in the end the tart turned out great! It was a tad sour but since I served it with some whipped cream and some fresh strawberries, you couldn't really notice.

Frangipane Tart

After such a crappy pizza I was super excited about how my tart turned out! It was my first time making shortcrust pastry so I had a feeling it wouldn't turn out but I was pleasantly surprised. It was relatively easy in terms of number of steps.

Ok so first thing, butter and flour into a food processor until they resemble bread crumbs then add 1 egg. That was easy. Then just letting it come together and I just moulded it into a log to go into the fridge.



As I was multi-tasking, the dough was put in the fridge a little longer than expected so it was VERY difficult to roll out the dough. I'm not a physically strong person so I really had to put some muscle into it. I finally managed to roll it out and put it into the tin with no tears or holes.



Ok so next step is the filling which was super easy and took no time at all. Once it was in the oven, I just kept an eye on it. I find that when I bake, timing never matched the recipe so I go by feel. End result was perfect!! Pastry was cooked, filling was set. It is delicious, simple and easy to share. Definitely making this one again.

Homemade Pizza

Hello fellow readers! Not that there are very many. Anyways, last week was a little crazy in terms of work and social outings so made 2 dishes this week. First one being the so called "basic" pizza. This was the most difficult challenge yet. Even worse than my first attempt at creme brulee.

Step 1 was to make the base...ok so I follow the instructions for the main part except for the part about the yeast. There were no instructions on how to use the dry yeast on the packaging and me thinks I killed it because my dough didn't double in size =[ The cold weather probably didn't help the situation either!!



I also made my pizza base sauce which was a cheat way of doing it. I reduced some tomatoes, added salt, pepper and mixed herbs and that's it! Pretty basic and it was yummy.



Anyways, after waiting for my dough to "prove" and noticing it didn't prove, I started to make my pizzas anyways. I made the Classic Margherita and the Pizza Bianca with Potatoes and Anchovies. Great tasting topping but not great tasting base. The toppings cooked faster than the base too which was another indication of fail dough. If I didn't make pasta for dinner as well, probably would have starved.



Overall, pretty horrible outcome. The pictures make the pizza look good but they really weren't. I am determined to try again, but probably not for a while. Next blog entry...FRANGIPANE TART!!