Slow-Roasted Tomato and Fromage Blanc Tart

When I first decided I was going to make this tart, it was gong to be an authentic Italian artichoke and ricotta affair.

But due to the unfortunate combination of narrow-minded French supermarkets (its always a challenge to find things like ricotta), my slight fear of artichokes (a lot of work for small quantities of edible things) and my pea-sized attention span- the tart got a bit of a (what I like to call) make-over.

And joy to the world it did, it turned out to be delicious- just perfect to eat late on a hot summers night on a terrace overlooking the French countryside. Jealous yet? Well don't be! This is possibly on of the easiest things in the world to make, and as for the backdrop, I'm sure your creative little noggins can find a way to impress-ify your surroundings with unnecessary adjectives and (the tiniest) of white lies, like I do.

So here's to a tart...

Slow-Roasted Tomato and Fromage Blanc Tart

Ingredients-

Good splash of olive oil

550g of tomatoes

3/4 teaspoon of salt, divided

1/2 cup of fresh parsley leaves, minced

2 tablespoons of dried herb mix (optional)

3 large cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

1 large egg

500g of fromage blanc

20 strokes of nutmeg

1 tablespoon of garlic butter (or an egg for glazing the pastry)

1/2 cup of grated parmesan

Freshly ground black pepper

1 package of prepared puff pastry (of course you can make it yourself, but it takes a very long time)

Method-

Preheat your oven to 160°C.

Find a medium sized dish suitable for baking, place your tomatoes inside, then give them a good slosh of olive oil and roll them around until coated on each surface.

Cut the garlic cloves into enough wedges to put one each in your tomatoes (I think I needed around 6 chunks). Make a cut in the top of each of the tomatoes and shove in the garlic chunks (vvvv satisfying feeling) then if you so please, sprinkle a tad of the dried herbs in little holes too.

Bake for at least an hour, or as long as possible before they start to burn.

In a pie tin, or casserole dish (or whatever else tickles your fancy for the shape of the pie), place a sheet of baking paper, and then press in the dough. With a knife, make lots of small incisions in the base to let out the hot air when baking. Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the pastry is a light golden colour.

Grab a large mixing bowl, and add 1 egg, the fromage blanc, the nutmeg, the parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the tomatoes and the flour (only if you think it needs thickening) then give it a good stir and pour into the pastry. Melt the garlic butter (or lightly whisk an egg) and coat the pastry you can see with the butter (or obviously the egg).

Increase the oven temperature to 180°C bake for 40 minutes or so or until the middle is set (you can test this my giving the pan a bit of a shake and seeing if the middle still wobbles).

Killer Caramel Slice

Yesterday was just one of those days where all I wanted to do was cook.

I was in the mood for paying attention to details, for challenging recipes... and for something so deadly-sweet that not even I could finish the whole thing (well in one go anyway.. After a 5 minute breather I was back with a vengeance).

So when I was flicking through my 'dream team' collection of recipes, this Sticky Gooey Creamy recipe tickled my fancy solely because they were called 'Break Up Bars' and that's bound to signal an intense hit of comforting delight. Now I'm not going through a break up, BUT for all the times that I have and I DIDN'T know these bars existed/almost instantly block my arteries, I say- MAKE UP FOR LOST TIME!

A 'Break Up Bar' is in reality what Aussies call a Caramel Slice, or what I suppose Americans or Brits call Millionaires Shortbread (that's what I've seen it called on other blogs), but is a bit more souped up. Whatever the name, quite frankly its one of gods gifts to my mouth.

I have to admit I felt a little bit of apprehension before making this, because to say that my mum is the Queen of the caramel slice is a massive understatement. Amongst our family and friends she holds a legacy of making enormous quantities every Christmas, and I'm yet to see a remaining slice, regardless of the double layer of caramel.

But from the start, I could tell this recipe was a winner. Why?

N°1- Shortbread includes melted caramels.

N°2- Caramel is not just made with condensed milk, it also includes butter, golden syrup and mounds of dark brown sugar.

Killer Caramel Slice

Ingredients-

Shortbread-

2 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 cup of corn flour

1/2 cup of castor sugar

255g of room temperature butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces

1/2 of teaspoon salt

2/3 cup of caramels or toffees

2 tablespoons of cream

2 or so tablespoons of chilled water

Caramel Layer-

400g can of sweetened condensed milk

2 cups of packed dark brown sugar

225g of unsalted butter, cut into smallish cubes

6 tablespoons golden syrup

1/2 teaspoons of salt

1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Layer-

• 60g of butter, cut into smallish pieces
• 150g of dark chocolate, broken into single squares

Method-

Shortbread-

Preheat oven to 170°C and line a slice tin with baking paper that hangs over the edges.

In a smallish saucepan, boil some water, then place a metal or glass bowl in the water.

Add the caramels, 30g of butter and the cream. Stir to combine when melting, and watch that it doesn't get too hot to burn the caramel.

While the caramel is melting, grab a large bowl and combine the dry ingredients.

Add 225g of butter and rub until the mix resembles bread crumbs and starts to hold together like dough.

Add water if necessary to form a dough that will hold.

Once the caramel mix is liquid-y enough to spread into dough (doesn't have to be runny and can still have chunks), pour onto dough and knead until spread through. Press the shortbread into the tin, until even and then bake for around 30 minutes, then set aside to cool.

Caramel Layer-

Place a medium sized saucepan on a medium heat and add all the of ingredients, stirring until all of the sugar dissolves.

Increase heat to high and bring the mixture to the boil, stirring constantly. If you have a candy thermometer, cook until it reaches 115°C, if you don't (I didn't so don't stress) cook for around 15 or so minutes at boiling point.

Pour over the cooled shortbread and put in the fridge to partially set before adding chocolate layer.

Chocolate Layer-

In a microwave safe bowl, add the butter and chocolate, and set to cook for around 3 minutes (or until there are no chunks left), stirring every minute to prevent burning.

Pour over the partially set caramel, then put in fridge for another 3 hours at minimum before serving.

Greek Sesame Ring Biscuits, or Koulouria for purists

If you didn't know it already, I'm Greek.

Not fully, wholly. I can't speak Greek AT ALL (sound mildly disabled when I try), my parents let me out after dark, are divorced, and maybe once a year my Dad will go to Church. So don't go thinking all classic on me.

In fact, I think one of the only 'Greek' things I inherited (other than my fiesty-ness and appetite) is the 'food thing' if I can put it to you so broadly. I mean the love of fresh markets, of preparing the food, of setting the table, and fussing over who sits where ect. WELL, that and Greek desserts.

I reckon they have it pretty much down to a T in that department. Quite frankly, amongst Halva, Baklava, Loukoumades, Bougatsa and the endless almond bikkie combo's, I'm happily lost and never want to be found.

This little recipe is a simple (in all senses, to make and to eat) biscuit that goes great with a strong black coffee in the arvo, like they'd have it in Greece.

PS. Keep checking back in the next month for more Greek recipes, as I'm jetting off to Patmos, a small (and almost impossibly beautiful) Greek island for a month, where I'm certain to attack my grandma's old recipe books and discover some local dishes to share with you.

Greek Sesame Ring Biscuits (Koulouria)

Ingredients-

180 grams of butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup (plus a bit more for dusting) of castor sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp of vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of bi-carb soda

2 1/2 cups of regular flour

1/4 cup of orange juice

1 tablespoon of grated orange rind

1 hand full of sesame seeds (plus extra for the tops)

1/4 cup of milk

Method-

Preheat your oven to 190°C and line 2 trays with baking paper.

In a medium sized bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add one egg and vanilla extract and continue to beat until combined.

Add the bi-carb soda, baking powder and a handful of sesame seeds, then half of the flour and stir with a metal spoon. Add the orange juice and rind, then the other half of the flour. At this point its easier if you ditch the spoon and work the mixture with your hands to combine properly and form a pliable dough.

Grab walnut sized pieces of the dough and roll on a lightly floured surface until they are 15 cm long. Bring the ends together and pinch to seal, then place onto the trays.

In a small bowl, combine the second egg and milk to create an egg wash. Brush over the biscuits with a pastry brush then sprinkle the tops with extra sugar and sesame seeds and bake for 15-20 minutes. Leave to cool before transferring because they can be a bit fragile and break when still warm.

American Burger Buns (for those who really know how to love an obscene burger)

I have long been on a mission to find the best burger available in Australia, and possibly even the world.

It all started when I moved one street down from a fairly un-exciting looking Taxi-stop, and then, one fate-full morning (after one atrociously alcoholic night) I decided that a burger was the best thing so soothe my aching self. That was more than just a burger, that was a miracle, that was the big bang, that was the first seed planted.

Afterwards came the trendy burger joints with aoli and onion jams, then I came to appreciate the delights of burger with the lot- beetroot, eggs, pineapple, even god give me fried tomatoes, or baked beans.

The adventure went on to continue in my home, with differently spiced meatballs, homemade tomato sauces, and then finally came the bun. You needn't bother with a 'burger' if your putting your patty in between ciabatta or baguette. That is a crock. You need a good, honest, light, white, slightly sweet seeded bun. And here it is-

American Burger Buns

Ingredients-

2 cups of regular flour

1 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of yeast

2 eggs

1/2 cup of natural, unsugared yoghurt

1/4 cup of canola oil

1 tablespoon of milk

1 tablespoon of water

1/4 cup of sesame seeds

Method-

In a medium sized bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients.

In a smaller separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and the oil.

Warm the yoghurt in the microwave (don't let it get too hot) then add the yeast and leave it to foam for 5-10 minutes.

Stir the oil mixture and the yoghurt into the dry ingredients and mix until all is well incorporated. Rest for 15 minutes.

Lightly flour a bench, then knead the dough until its smooth. Don't worry if its quite sticky, that's normal.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea-towel and leave to double in size (around 30 minutes).

Divide the dough into 4-6 rolls, depending on desired size, then place on a lined baking tray and leave them to rest for a further 15 minutes.

Shape the rolls again if necessary (they should be disc-like).

Leave the rolls for another 30 minutes and then mix together the milk and water and brush the tops of each roll. Sprinkle with sesame seeds then bake for 20 minutes at 200°C.

Gaga Cherry Pie

Summer has just arrived in France, and despite all of the grey, wet weather that has come with it, the cherry trees are being deliciously contrary and still given me loads of branches bending to breaking-point with fat, blood-red cherries.

What more inspiration could I need?

Not much it turns out, only the vaguely subliminal cherry messages that I've discovered on practically every Lady Gaga song I've been listening to of late (OK yes I did buy the album, and I do listen to it non stop, ie. in the bath, when getting dressed, when doing exercise bike, when cooking).

So here is to American cherry pies, to Lady Gaga, and to rebellious cherry trees giving me hope when it snowed in Spring and hailed in Summer.

GAGA Cherry Pie

Ingredients-

Crust-

2 1/2 cups of regular flour

1 tablespoons of sugar

3/4 teaspoons of salt

1 cup of unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes

5 tablespoons (and possibly more) of water, chilled

Filling-

1 cup and one tablespoon of castor sugar

3 tablespoons of cornflour

1/4 teaspoon of salt

5 cups of cherries, pitted

3 tablespoons of lemon juice (less if you are using naturally sour cherries)

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 teaspoon of unsalted butter

1 tablespoon of milk

Method-

Crust-

In a large bow, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the butter, and begin to rub in between fingers, until the two come together and resemble crumbs (this takes a bit of time and effort but don't give up!).

Add the water, little by little, and knead a little to make the dough form properly (ie. uniform colour, no lumps etc.)

Gather the dough together and divide into 2 balls, then flatten into discs, wrap in plastic-wrap and pop them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Note that dough can be made two days in advance and stored this way.

When ready to assemble the pie, leave the dough for 5 minutes to soften slightly (but not too much because that makes it harder) and roll out one disc with a pin and place in a 30cm pie dish (preferably glass). Bake the pastry shell (with loading if you are that way inclined) for 10 or so minutes then remove to fill.

Filling-

Preheat oven to 180°C.

In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients except for 1 tablespoon of castor sugar (kept for the top). Stir in the cherries, vanilla essence and lemon juice then set aside.

Fill the pre-baked pie dough with above mixture.

Roll out the second dough disc and cut into a pattern of your choice. For a classic look, cut the disc into long strips and lay over the filling. I chose to cut out hearts because I'm a lover and not a... lattice-er.

Before putting in the oven, brush the top (whether it be lattice or hearts) with the milk, and sprinkle with the saved tablespoon of castor sugar.

Bake for around an hour, depending on the strength of the oven, covering the top with foil if it starts to brown too much.

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Isn't it funny how we wait and dream and obsess about the upcoming holidays, then when they arrive we realise we really don't have much to do? I mean, I always said school was a waste of time, BUT now I can see the wisdom in my words, it kills off a good part of your day when you'd otherwise be twiddling your thumbs.

Take yesterday for example, I got so bored that when I was doing laps of the house, and passed the oven, I decided I'd give that bad boy a good clean. Nobody told me how disgusting ovens can get! I thought it was just a hot box where you put things, and then took them out again, no harm done. WRONG.

So anyway, after I'd finished, I thought I may as well take advantage of the newly vanilla-fresh oven and bake something. And considering I'd already finished most of the cookies in the pantry on one of my boredom laps, I thought a fresh batch would be just the thing.

I chose this recipe because I am on a quest of sorts to convince my French host family that peanut butter IS the most delicious thing in the world, and that the salty-sweet combination is possibly God's greatest gift to my taste-buds. They just say that its 'so Anglo' but hey, can't blame me for that.

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients-

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

¼ teaspoon of salt

½ cup of unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ cup of creamy peanut butter

½ cup of castor sugar

1/3 cup of dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 egg

½ cup of rolled oats

1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

Method-

Preheat your oven to 180°C and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

In a medium sized bowl, place the butter, peanut butter, both the sugars and vanilla extract, then cream on medium speed with a beater for around about 3 minutes or until well combined and creamy.

Add the egg and continue to beat.

Take out the beaters, and sift half of the flour into the wet mixture, stirring with a spoon or getting your hands dirty if that's more your style (its definitely mine). Once the flour is fully incorporated, add the other half with the baking soda and salt and stir/squish to combine.

Add the oats and chocolate chips and again mix until everything looks evenly distributed.

Using a tablespoon, scoop the dough and then roll them into ball-ish shapes and place on trays.

Bake for 10 or so minutes.

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

I think I must subconsciously want to kill myself. Because every recipe that I look at and think ' I WANT/NEED/MUST cook that!' is a a sugar-butter-caramel (slash chocolate, peanut butter or cheesecake) minefield. I literally had to add a folder to my bookmarks dedicated to-

'things I want to cook- SWEET TOOTH'

So when this old Daring Bakers Challenge recipe kept re-appearing on basically every blog I was looking at, I took it as an omen. I would make, and eat practically the entire cake.

I have to admit I made this cake in an absolute rush, so I didn't have the time to take much care. And on top of that, my kitchen here in my host family is a little bit limited in the way of cake tins, decorating tools, ect.

But if I had had the time and the tools, this cake would have been MAGNIFICENT. It tasted that way regardless.

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

Ingredients-

Cake-

125 grams of unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups of granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt

1/3 cup of caramel syrup (see recipe below if you'd like to home-make it)

2 eggs, at room temperature

Splash of vanilla extract

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 cup of milk, at room temperature

Caramel Sauce-

2 cups of sugar

1/2 cup of water

1 cup of water (for “stopping” the caramelization process)

Caramelized Butter Frosting-

150 grams of unsalted butter

450 grams of icing sugar, sifted

4-6 tablespoons of heavy cream

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup

Kosher salt to taste

Method-

Cake-

This cake can be presented many ways, I chose to

(attempt) to layer it,

which didn't work too well because I didn't have the

appropriate cake tins.

So depending on how you'd like to present it,

butter the appropriate tins (note that it makes enough

mixture for one 20 cm Cake tin.

Preheat oven to 180 °C

In a large bowl cream butter (with a beater or by hand

if you're made of tougher stuff)

until smooth, then add the sugar, salt and cream

and continue to beat until light

and fluffy.

Keep the beating and slowly incorporate

the caramel syrup.

Increase the speed and add the vanilla essence, then the

eggs, one at a time, making

sure that you beat well after each addition.

Scrape down the bowl and beat again for 1 or 2

minutes to insure all of the

mixture is uniform and fluffy.

Turning the mixer onto the slowest speed, sift in 1/3 of the

flour and baking powder,

then add 1/3 of the milk and combine well.

Repeat with the remaining quantities.

Pour the mixture into prepared tin/s and bake for

around 30 minutes

or until the sides of the cake have pulled

away from the tin.

Cool cake completely before trying to

transfer them

onto a plate, because it tears easily.

Caramel Sauce-

I didn't make my caramel sauce, I used a bought one, which worked fine.

If you choose to do this instead,

look for a very thick, real caramel,

a can dulce de leche would work really well too,

because mine lacked that good, dense texture

In a small stainless steel saucepan, mix together the sugar and the first quantity of water.

With a wet pastry brush down any sugar crystals that may have formed,

then turn the heat on to the highest.

Do not stir from now on!

Continue to let cook on highest heat until it is lightly smoking and

a dark caramally/amber colour is acheived.

Very (and I repeat very!) carefully pour the second quantity of water into the mixture.

WATCH OUT! ITS HOT AND WILL SPIT AT YOU.

Turn the heat to medium and then whisk until the texture is,

well... Caramelly.. You shouldn't need a description for that :)

Caramelized Butter Frosting-

In a small saucepan, cook butter until brown (be careful not to burn it).

Remove from heat and pour through a seive into a large bowl. Leave to cool.

When cooled, add the icing sugar a little at a time and beat.

When the mix starts to look too chunky, add a little of the cream or caramel syrup.

Repeat these steps until all of the sugar had been incorporated

and the mix is smooth. Add salt to taste.

Before icing cake ensure that it is completely 100% cooled,

because I never EVER can be that patient and my cakes suffer because of it...