Happy Easter!

Mandy and Maddy have been busy in the kitchen, rustling up some Easter treats using the LuvaBerry Freeze-dry Range.

These chocolate treats are easy to make and taste so good! You can and store in the fridge for nibbling over the long weekend.

 

You will neeed

200g packet of white marshmallows

1 tablespoon of water

50g unsalted butter

200g dark chocolate

1 cup of LuvaBerry whole Freeze-dry Strawberries

½ cup pistachios

½ cup cranberries

LuvaBerry Strawberry Dust

Steps

Put all dry ingredients into a bowl: pistachios, cranberries and whole pieces of LuvaBerry freeze-dry strawberries

Combine marshmallows and water in a saucepan over a low heat. Stir constantly until melted

Remove from heat

Add in chopped up dark chocolate and stir until melted

Use a silicone mould that is easy to pull off once set  or line a slice tin or a muffin tin

Pour in melted chocolate mix thoroughly.

Either using the back of a spoon put into a slice tin ready for setting or as we did spoon into silicone muffin tins.

Allow to set for a min 2 hours, overnight is ideal.

When finished dust with Luvaberry Strawberry dust

Slice in half or into pieces as a nice accompaniment to a cheese platter or serve with coffee

Let us know how you go by posting videos and and photos of your creations.

The amazing Lucy made these tasty treats and shared them with us on Instagram. Check out her Instagram feed for a sneak peak into her life as a mum with twins.

Strawberry macaron shell

140g almond meal

150g pure icing sugar

10g strawberry dust

55g egg whites

150g caster sugar

37ml water

Pink gel food colouring

55g egg whites

 

Strawberry cheesecake filling

60g unsalted butter, room temperature

10g strawberry dust

80g icing sugar mixture

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

100g cream cheese, softened

 

To make the shells: Put the almond meal and icing sugar into a food processor and process for about 30 seconds, just to make it extra fine. Pour them into a large bowl with the strawberry dust. Add the first lot of egg whites and a few drops of food colouring. Mix it all together and if you like, add more food colouring until desired colour is reached. Cover until needed. 

 

Put the second lot of egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment (or hand mixer). Prepare a piping bag and 2 cookie sheets with baking paper, or use silicone macaron mats. 

 

Put the caster sugar and water into a small saucepan. Bring to a slow boil over low/medium heat. Once it reaches around 90०c, start whisking the egg whites (on their own in the separate bowl) until thicker and a bit foamy, about a minute. Remove sugar syrup from stove once the temperature is over 100०c. Put beaters on medium speed and slowly pour syrup into the foamy egg whites to make the meringue. Once all added, turn the speed to high for about 2 minutes. Check the consistency and scrape down any syrup from the sides or bottom. Put it back on medium for about a minute. Check the consistency again. It should be less stiff than a regular meringue mixture, but still hold peaks, and it should have cooled down to about 40-50०c. Pour 1/3 of the meringue into the pink almond meal/icing sugar mixture. Mix it all together until colour and texture is even, you can be a bit rough with it at this stage. Add the rest of the meringue mixture and fold it in more gently. Once all mixed together push the mixture up against the sides of the bowl and fold back into the centre. Do that for roughly a minute, until the texture resembles lava. Just tip the bowl from side to side to see how it moves. 

 

Put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe onto your cookie sheets. If you’re not using a template count to the same number each time you pipe a shell, so they end up roughly the same size. Once you’ve piped out all of the mixture, tap each tray on the bench about 10 times; this releases any air bubbles that will cause your shells to be hollow in the middle. Turn on your oven to 150०c (fan-forced). Leave your shells on the bench to dry for about 15-30 minutes. After 15 minutes touch the surface of a few macarons to check if they stick to your finger, if they do, leave them 10 more minutes. They need to form a skin and so your finger should only leave a small imprint in your shell, not remove any mixture with it. 

 

While they are drying out, make your strawberry cheesecake filling: In the bowl of your electric stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter until smooth. Add the icing sugar, strawberry dust and vanilla extract. Beat until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the cream cheese in two parts, scraping down the bowl in between. Beat until the mixture is smooth. Place in the fridge until needed.

 

When the shells are dry, put them in the oven for 15 minutes, swapping the trays over halfway through so they are evenly cooked. Before removing from the oven ensure they’re no longer soft by trying to lift one off the tray, if it comes freely then they are ready, if it won’t budge, leave another 2 minutes. Keep doing this until ready. They should take anywhere between 15-25 minutes. The cooking process is tricky, so don’t leave them alone for very long! Check on them every few minutes if needed.

 

Remove to a cooling rack. Take your cheesecake filling out of the fridge and check the consistency. You want your filling to be quite stiff, but soft enough to pipe. A filling that is too soft won’t hold up when you push the shells together. Match up shells to similar sizes and lay out on the bench. Pipe your filling onto one shell, leaving about 5mm around the edge, then gently push and twist the other shell onto it. Put into a container and wrap the container tightly and securely in cling wrap or similar – moisture is not their friend!

 

These taste best a day or 2 after you’ve made them, and will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks if wrapped securely. Enjoy!

 

Earlier this year we spotted the wonderful Zoe on Instagram, she’s always creating beautiful things so check out her page!

We reached out to Zoe and asked if she’d kindly like to get creative with some freeze-dry products & the results were amazing. It’s taken us WAY too long to share these recipes but we promise the wait was worth it… first up, Strawberry Dust Sponge with Blueberry White Chocolate Chantilly.

 

 

 

Strawberry Dust Sponge w Blueberry White Chocolate Chantilly

Strawberry Sponge

100g Plain Flour (You can totally use GF flour here.)

15g Strawberry Dust (You could use any freeze dried dust)
½ tsp Baking Powder

4 Eggs

120 Caster Sugar

75 Melted Butter (that’s cooled slightly) (You can also use DF butter)

• Preheat the oven to 180*c
• Place the Eggs and Caster Sugar in your electric mixer. Mixing on the highest speed for 15 minutes. It will have tripled in volume, thickened and be pale in colour. 
• Sift the Flour, Strawberry Dust and Baking Powder into your thickened mix. Gently fold through ideally with a metal spoon that has some holes. Lastly add the cooled Melted Butter and fold through until combined. 
• I suggest putting a ring of baking parchment around the edge of the tins, some Butter on the sides of the tins will allow it to stick. Divide the batter between to round tins. Don’t tap the tins to make smooth on top, use a palette knife, we want to keep as much air in as possible. 
• Bake for 16-18 minutes. It will be done when its springy to the touch and slightly golden on top. Once baked remove carefully from the tin and allow to cool completely. 

Blueberry White Chocolate Chantilly

500g Cream

150g White Chocolate

20g Blueberry Dust (You can use any free dried dust here too)

• Gently heat 200g of the Cream to just below boiling point.
• Add the White Chocolate and stir until its all melted. 
• Add this mixture to the Cream and Blueberry Dust. Allow to cool completely.
• Once cooled, whip until soft peaks form. 

Assembly

100g Sugar Syrup

• To make this you simply add 100g Caster Sugar and 100g Water. Heat until the Sugar is dissolved.

Extra Freeze Dried Fruit 

• Slice your cakes in half. You will then have 4 layers.
• Alternate between Cake, Sugar Syrup, Blueberry White Chocolate Chantilly and a sprinkling of Freeze Dried fruits between the layers as well. 
• Once you get to the final layer. Spread the rest of the Blueberry White Chocolate Chantilly on top. Clean the side with a palette knife or the flat side of a Dough Scraper. This gives us the naked cake look. Sprinkle some Freeze Dried Fruit on top. Enjoy. If not eating straight away it can be stored in the fridge & also freezes extremely well for those late night treats. 

Meet the Maker

We’ve pinched this little blurb about Zoe from this Facebook post from the Three Mills Bakery in Canberra.

From the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Zoe joined the Three Mills Bakery family this year as their in-house chef and gluten free expert. She has also been collaborating on the Beyond Bread & Butter cook book.

Zoe has worked in prominent restaurants and establishments such as 3 hatted Attica in Melbourne and 2 Michelin star ‘Core by Clare Smyth’ in London. We sat down for a chat about food and life.