recipe | The Kate Tin

Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée Tarts

by Kate | Aug 26, 2021 | 2 comments

Crème Brûlée is everyone’s favourite dessert. And what’s not to love about it? Hearing the sugar crack when you plunge your spoon through the caramelized toffee on top is sheer bliss. The silky smooth custard, the hint of real vanilla; these are all things that make crème brûlée a classic that you shouldn’t really mess with. Which is exactly why I’m about to change it! I have a killer crème brûlée recipe but have always felt the dessert needs short, buttery pastry to complete it – so I encased the custard filling in it to make tarts. The result is pure heaven! Find the recipe below…

Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée Tarts

Serves 4

SWEET PASTRY

250g cake flour

60g demerara icing sugar, sifted

120g salted butter, coarsely chopped

3 large egg yolks

FILLING

185ml fresh cream

1 x The Kate Tin Gourmet Vanilla Bean, split

2 large egg yolks

40g Natura Sugars Golden Caster Sugar + extra, to top

For the pastry, blitz the cake flour and icing sugar in a food processor to combine, then add the butter and continue blitzing until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the 3 egg yolks and blitz until just combined. Tip out the pastry onto a clean work surface and bring the pastry together with your hands to form a ball. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 180C (or 160C for fan-assisted ovens). Roll out the pastry on a lightly flour-dusted work surface to 0,5cm thickness and line 4 fluted, loose-bottomed tart tins (10cm-diameters) with the pastry. Trim the edges with a sharp knife and refrigerate to rest, 1 hour. Once the pastry case has chilled, line it with baking paper, fill with baking beans or pulses, and blind-bake in the preheated oven, 8 –10 minutes, until crisp and light brown and crispy. Remove from oven, take out the baking beans and discard the baking paper used for the blind baking. Return the pastry case to the oven to bake, a further 8 –10 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack. For the brûlée, lower the oven temperature to 140C (120C for fan-assisted ovens). In a small saucepan, heat the fresh cream along with the split vanilla pod and seeds to just below boiling point. Cream the 2 egg yolks and castor sugar together in a medium bowl. In a steady stream, pour the warm vanilla cream into the egg mixture while whisking continuously. Strain the mixture through a sieve, discard the bits and divide the filling among the baked pastry cases. Bake, 35 – 40 minutes, until set and the centre wobbles slightly. Remove the tartlets from their tins and allow to cool down to room temperature. Store the tartlets in the fridge until needed. They can keep for 2 days in the fridge. Sprinkle a layer of sugar over each tartlet and brûlée them, using a kitchen blowtorch.

TIP: If a kitchen blowtorch is not available, preheat the oven’s grill and place the tartlets underneath the grill for a couple of seconds to caramelise.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones

by Kate | Jan 6, 2018 | 2 comments

This post for cookie ice cream cones is sponsored by Natura Sugars

What if the ice cream cone was AS delicious as the ice cream that was in it?! I present to you… the cookie ice cream cone! It’s both delicious AND portable and pure genius. I get asked the question ‘Cup or Cone?’ at least twice a week. Yes, I eat ice cream twice a week, at least, don’t judge! But never in a cone, thanks. I go for the cup every time. Why? Because I really don’t like the taste of the waffle cone. It’s too sweet, artificial tasting and is a total waste of calories. It could be so much better and so I set to work!

You could use pretty much any cookie recipe to make these cookie ice cream cones but you’re going to want to use mine, trust me. It’s the best chocolate chip cookie recipe in the world – and I’ve tried A LOT! But what takes the cookie to a whole ‘nother level is the sugar I’ve used. Natura Sugars has this sandy, voluptuous soft brown sugar that is fudgey and gives these babies a chewiness on the inside but leaves the edges crispy crunchy – in my opinion, what every cookie should be!

While they may look like a challenge, these cones are really easy to make. Simply whip up the cookie dough, then roll it into big balls. Next, use a rolling pin to roll them really thin and bake! While they’re still hot shape them around a normal ice cream cone which has been covered in foil (in my opinion, that’s the only use for them, really) and allow to cool! I like to stuff the bottom of my cones with a marshmallow to stop drips, and coating the inside of the cookie ice cream cone with melted chocolate would be pretty amazing too – or try this chocolate ice cap sauce!

If cookie ice cream cones are not your thing, you could also shape them into cookie ice cream bowls by draping the hot cookie over a glass or muffin tin. All that’s left is to pile in the ice cream, sprinkles and sauce – and invite some friends around for an ice cream par-tay!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones

Makes 12

200g salted butter, softened

340g Natura Sugars Soft Brown Sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp milk

1 large egg

300g cake flour

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g The Kate Tin Dark Baking Chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 200°C (or 180°C fan-forced). Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and cream for 8-10 minutes until pale, creamy and light. Add the vanilla, milk and egg. Add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and chopped chocolate and mix to combine. Roll out golf-ball size balls of the cookie batter between two squares of baking paper until 2-3mm thin then place onto a baking tray, leaving enough room for spreading. It’s easiest to bake two at a time. Bake for 14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown but the centre should still be chewy. While still hot, turn the cookie over and wrap it around a waffle cone wrapped in foil and hold it in place for a few seconds until it starts to firm up. Repeat with the remaining dough. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

TIP This cookie dough freezes very well so make a huge batch, roll into balls and freeze in a ziplock bag. Then simply bake them from frozen!

WATCH HOW TO MAKE THEM HERE:

Salted Caramel Baguette

by Kate | Aug 25, 2017 | 0 comments

This Salted Caramel Baguette recipe, from famous pastry chef, Chrisophe Adam of L’Eclair de Genie fame, is something a little different. In fact, it’s so genius that I’m jealous that I didn’t think of it first! It starts with a dark caramel which is turned into caramel water and then used to make the bread dough. The result is a chewy, crusty bread with faint toffee/salted caramel flavour that’s not sweet. It is ridiculously moreish. On cold days, I love to bake bread! This is one of my favourites and so is this. Baking bread not only fills the house with the most wonderful smell, but being in front of the warm oven gives me that snuggly feeling. There is nothing more satisfactory than pulling your own bread out the oven. Nothing except devouring said fresh, handmade loaf with ridiculous amounts of butter, that is. I urge you to give this salted caramel baguette a try – it may seem daunting, but with a little practice, you’ll hopefully find bread-baking as therapeutic as I do!

SALTED CARAMEL BAGUETTE

Makes 2 loaves

Caramel water:

100g white sugar

400ml water

Salted Caramel Baguette Dough:

300ml caramel water, cooled

5g active dry yeast

350g strong bread flour

1 tsp fine salt

Salted butter, to serve

Start by making the caramel water; place the sugar in a small saucepan with enough water to wet the sugar and give it the consistency of wet sand. Place the saucepan over medium heat and allow the sugar to caramelize to 160 degrees celcius (if you don’t have a sugar thermometer, it should start smoking slightly and be quite dark). Carefully pour in the rest of the water and allow it to dissolve. Set aside to cool completely.

To make the salted caramel baguette dough, place the cooled caramel water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook (you could also do this by hand). Add the yeast and mix to dissolve completely. Add the flour and salt and mix until a sticky dough forms – it will be stickier than what feels comfortable but hang in there. Knead for 8 minutes or until the dough is smooth (it will still be sticky, that’s okay). Cover the bowl with a plastic bag or clingwrap and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Remove the dough from the bowl and knock it down by kneading it gently. Divide the dough into two balls. Using your palms, press each ball out into a rectangle about 10cm wide. Roll the rectangle up lengthwise, pressing the edges down with your palm each time, to form a sausage. Roll the sausage back and forth to form a baguette about 25cm long. Place on a floured baking sheet, cover again and allow to double in size. Preheat your oven to it’s highest setting, 250 degrees Celcius is ideal. Bake the baguette for 13-15 minutes or until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to cool slightly then devour it with lashings of salted butter.

TIP If it’s a cold day, turn your oven into a prover by setting the temperature to 50 degrees celcius. Place an oven dish of water in the bottom to create humidity then allow your dough to rise inside.

Image of a salted caramel baguette broken in half on a dark blue background served with a bowl of butter

Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée Tarts

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones

Salted Caramel Baguette

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