Vanilla Panna Cotta with a vanilla infused red wine and strawberry reduction

I reduced the sugar and preferred it, but rest of family liked it sweet. I used rose wine instead of red wine. This worked in small silicone moulds - made 6 and in ramekins - made 4.

Easy to make ahead.

Ingredients 

Cream - 2 cups

• Sugar, plus 3 Tbsp - 1/4 cup
• Vanilla beans - both split in half, seeds scraped from one - 1
• Vanilla paste - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 1 Tbsp
• Powdered gelatine mixed with 90ml cold water - 2 tsp
• Punnet strawberries - 125 g
• Red wine - 1/2 cup

Method

1. Gently heat the cream and 1/2 cup of sugar in a pot until all the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract and 1 vanilla bean along with the seeds scraped from it. Cover with a lid and leave to infuse for at least 20 minutes. Remove bean, return the cream to the heat and warm. 

2. Lightly oil 8 custard cups - use a neutral oil as you don’t want to taste it. 

3. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a large bowl and gently combine. Leave for 5 minutes.

4. Pour the warmed cream over the gelatin and combine thoroughly until the gelatin has dissolved. Strain the mix through a sieve. Divide the mixture between the greased bowls and refrigerate until set. This will usually take up to 3 hours but you can leave for a couple of days. Dip the custard cups in a bowl of boiling water, being careful to not get any water on the panna cotta. This makes it easier to release the panna cotta from the bowl. Gently turn out onto the serving bowl or plate.

5. In a pot heat the red wine, 6 Tbsp of sugar and remaining vanilla bean until boiling. Begin to reduce the wine until half its original quantity, remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool completely - make sure you leave nothing behind. It should be a syrup like consistency. 

6. Rinse, hull and slice the strawberries and add to the syrup. Let stand for a few minutes to infuse then spoon over the released panna cotta.

Tip: If you are pressed for time, simply serve in wine glasses.

PER SERVE Energy 261Kj • Protein 4g • Total Fat 25g • Saturated Fat 15g • Carbohydrates 15g • Sugars 15g • Sodium 19mg

Dietary and nutritional info supplied by NZ Nutrition Foundation.

Keto Lemon Tart

Yummy, quick to make and can be made in advance (then put together close to eating).
Makes 8 of my mini tart tins. Great with cream.

Coconut Chocolate Pudding - Keto

Eating Keto leaves me craving treats in the evening.  I'm also struggling to eat enough fat during the day. The treats don't have to be sweet, but they need to be tasty. I'm experimenting with 'fat bombs' but am also aware that I want to reduce my dairy intake a bit.
When I made this I was thinking it was going to be a mousse consistency. It's not, but it's really rich and chocolaty.

Ingredients

• 400mls coconut milk (1 can)
• 2 egg yolks
• 85 gms dark chocolate with a minimum of 70% cocoa solids
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Add coconut milk and egg yolks to a sauce pan and stir to combine. Place over medium low heat and let simmer while stirring for 10 minutes.
2. Break the chocolate into small pieces and add to a bowl.
3. Add the vanilla and pour the coconut milk on top. Let stand for a while so that the chocolate melts.
4. Whisk the batter and pour into glasses.

Net carbs: (7 g)

Fat: (22 g)

Protein: (3 g)

kcal: 234

Keto Blueberry Cheesecakes

A super easy dessert made very quickly. I made it in a 6 section muffin silicon mould. It was a hit with all of the family and the recommendation was to have it with cream.  

Ingredients

30g Almond Flour                               

30g Dedicated Coconut

2 tsp (5g) Psyllium powder

25g Butter

1 pkt Weight Watches or Aeroplane jelly

250ml hot water (not boiling as this is dangerous in the nutri-bullet)

125g Philledelphia Creamed Cheese

1 handful blueberries

Instructions 

Combine almond flour, coconut, psyllium husk and butter. Microwave for 30sec until it can mix together well. 

Press into greased moulds with the back of a teaspoon. Put the mould onto something rigid so that it's easier to handle when full.

Put jelly and water into nutri-bullet container and stir until jelly dissolves.

 Warm creamed cheese in microwave for 30sec and add into nutri-bullet with blueberries. Whizz up and pour over base.

Refrigerate overnight.

Macros for 1

Net carbs 5.5
Prot 5.5
Fat 21
Kcal 237.5

Key Lime Pie

Isabella says...
“This is one of my favorite recipes. It took a few times to get it right.
I use malt biscuits instead of wheat meal.”
This is not traditional key lime pie because it has the meringue on top...a bit like a lemon meringue pie.


Our picture is not as pretty as the one from the recipe below...but its really yum! It's also great the next day after being in the fridge.

200g wheatmeal biscuits
1/4 cup ground almonds
100g butter, melted
4 eggs, separated
395g can condensed milk
Finely grated rind and juice of 4 limes
4 tablespoons Chelsea Caster Sugar

Step 1: Preheat oven to 170°C. Line base of a 20cm springform tin with baking paper.
Step 2: Process biscuits until fine crumbs. Add almonds and melted butter, process until combined. Press mixture firmly into the base and 3cm up sides of tin. Refrigerate.
Step 3: Separate egg yolks, and whisk with sweetened condensed milk.  Stir in lime juice.  Pour into biscuit base and bake for 5 minutes. 
Step 4: Whisk egg whites until soft peaks form.  Sprinkle in sugar and whisk until peaks are glossy.   Pipe onto into milky mixture.  
Step 4: Bake for 40-45 mins or until set. Cool. Serve with extra lime slices.

Kiwi Pavlova

When we have a visitor staying from overseas there a few things that we feel it is our kiwi duty to expose visitors to. Feijoa will be one of them, pineapple lumps, L&P. Another will be the world famous Kiwi Pavlova.

Interestingly a previous visitor from Canada's description of Pavlova was part of the inspiration for the name of this blog - 'Sugar Pie'. It was not a complimentary description in the context it was used, needless to say I was less than impressed.

Of course with this recipe using so many egg whites I will be forced to make something that uses egg yolks soon...it might just have to be creme brûlée!

MUM'S PAVLOVA

4 egg whites 

1 and half teaspoons vinegar
pinch salt 

1 and half teaspoons cornflour
1 cup sugar

1. Beat egg whites and salt for 3 minutes.
2. Add sugar gradually and beat til sugar blends in.
3. Fold in vinegar and cornflour.
4. Place on baking paper on tray. Don't spread much.
5. Bake for 1 and half hours at 130 (leave oven on all the time)

I usually double the recipe and only give it an extra 10 minutes.
20cm diameter uncooked finishes up as 25cm cooked.

Sour Cream Plum Cake

Another summer recipe which uses up the plentiful summer fruit before it gets wasted.

This cake is very dense but really nice with greek yoghurt - warm or cold.

Plums work well. I also tried figs, but hey did not have the tart tang which the plums had.



Ingredients

• 185g butter
• 300g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 250g flour
• 3tsp baking powder
• 45g ground almonds
• 340g sour cream
• 1tsp almond essence

Method

Cream the butter and sugar well.

Beat in the eggs one at a time and add the essence.

Sift in the dry ingredients add the sour cream and gently fold everything together.

Spoon the mixture into a 20cms cake tin.

Place stoned plum halves cut on top cut side up. The number of plums needed will depend on their size. Alternatively use any other stone fruit or rhubarb, feijoas etc.

Another alternative is to sprinkle a mix of raw sugar and ground ginger on top.

Bake in a moderate oven for 50 minutes.

Leave to cool in Tin

Store in an airtight container

Mini Pavlovas - spiked with Yuzu

Mini Pavlovas

This is a family friendly dessert that everyone is bound to love. We make big pavlovas lots and making individual pavs was a bit of an experiment - it worked well!


Its really important to beat the egg white and sugar mixture for a long time - up to 10 minutes to make sure the sugar is totally dissolved. You can test it by rubbing a little bit of mixture between your fingers to see if there is any grit - sugar.



Yuzu is an Asian citrus with a really intense tart flavour. We had a packed of freezed dried Yuzu juice flakes which we had purchased at Sous Chef. You could also use other freeze dried fruits to add of extra bit of flavour. 
We mixed the Yuzu in with the pavlova mixture right at the end and it turned out really well. The tart flavour was balanced well with the sweetness of the sugar.

- Isabella


Ingredients
1 cup Caster sugar
5 Eggs, approx 4 eggs, for 150ml of egg whites
2 Tbsp Cornflour
2 tsp White vinegar
Freeze dried Yuzu or other fruit- optional 

1½ cups Double cream
1 to dust Icing sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150C.

2. Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until stiff peaks form. 

3. Gradually add the sugar, whisking well until stiff and glossy.

4. Add the cornflour and vinegar and whisk to combine.

5. Spoon 1/2 cup of the mixture at a time onto baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper. (Or...Cut a small hole in a corner of a snap lock bag and spoon in the mixture, use it as a piping bag to pipe it on the baking paper tray)

6. Reduce oven to 120C, place the trays in the oven and bake for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and allow the pavlovas to cool completely in the oven.

7. Spoon cream over the pavlovas, top with raspberries and dust with icing sugar to serve.


Tip: You can store leftover pavlovas in an airtight container for 3-4 days.

Di-Nana's Pavlova

This one is a family favourite - Isabella.

This recipe comes from my Nana who I call Di-Nana - her name is Diana.
We make this because of our ongoing supply of eggs, laid by our chickens.
We tried something different in the picture and made it a different shape from the usual one. It has been decorated by edible flowers from my garden.

The pavlova recipe comes from my original Wild Yeast and Sugar Pie blog.

MUM'S PAVLOVA

4 egg whites 

1 and half teaspoons vinegar
pinch salt 

1 and half teaspoons cornflour
1 cup sugar

1. Beat egg whites and salt for 3 minutes.
2. Add sugar gradually and beat til sugar blends in.
3. Fold in vinegar and cornflour.
4. Place on baking paper on tray. Don't spread much.
5. Bake for 1 and half hours at 130 (leave oven on all the time)

I usually double the recipe and only give it an extra 10 minutes.
20cm diameter uncooked finishes up as 25cm cooked.