A blueberry twist on Eton Mess

Sometimes the best desserts are a combination of serendipity, history and inspiration. Unexpected visitors brightened the day pre-Christmas but upset the cooking schedule. I had promised to bring a berry dessert to a family get-together and decided to make a blueberry cheesecake.
By the time the visitors left it was too late to bake a cheesecake so I decided to try a blueberry version of something resembling Eton Mess instead.
I recently discovered a vanilla bean grinder at my local supermarket - a bit like a bottle of peppercorns that is also a grinder but this one contained vanilla pods/beans - so this recipe proved a good one for putting the grinder to use.
This recipe was enough for about 8-10 people but it can easily be reduced for a smaller number.

Ingredients:
1 punnet of blueberries
1 punnet strawberries
1 punnet raspberries
250g creme fraiche
250g mascapone
2 tablespoons caster sugar
vanilla bean (grated) or vanilla extract (about 1 teaspoon)
1 packet of chocolate ripple biscuits (a crisp shortbready type of commercial biscuit - 1 packet = about 200-250g)

Method:
Crush biscuits (can be done in a blender but I prefer the rougher texture obtained by crushing them with a rolling pin or similar after placing them inside a folded piece of baking paper)
Wash berries. Hull and slice strawberries (keeping a few aside for decorating the top of the completed dessert).
Mix creme fraiche, mascapone and caster sugar well. Add a sprinkling of ground vanilla bean (see above) or teaspoon of vanilla essence (or to taste). Combine well - a good brisk stir will help make the creamy mixture light and fluffy.

Now comes the fun bit. I combined the ingredients in a large glass bowl (salad dish) but they could also be layered in individual dishes/glasses instead, in the following order:
Place 1/4 of the crushed biscuits in the bottom of the large bowl (or small bowls/glasses)
Top with 1/3 of the berries, then 1/3 of the creamy mix.
Repeat as above, ending with the last 1/4 of the crushed biscuits.
Swirl the top biscuit and creamy layers together slightly and top with a few whole berries.
Refrigerate.

The dessert is delicious on the day it is made but even better the next day, when the tastes and textures have had a chance to meld a bit more.

Beautiful following a barbeque on a hot summer's night.

PS Next time I make it I'll try to take a photo before it's all gone!

Choc Chip Cookies

Baking together is one of the pleasure of family life and I have fond memories of my older and younger children gathered around the kitchen bench taking turns stirring the ingredients for this recipe and turning lumps of biscuit dough into balls.

The size of the balls varied a lot - some favour very big biscuits, others lots of small ones - but this is one recipe that is always a hit, whether cooked till crisp (my choice) or removed from the oven when lightly browned and still slightly squishy (tops with the younger members of the family).

Many of their friends have tucked in to a box of these biscuits at bring-a-plate functions and the box always seems to come home empty.

Choc Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

125g butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
185g chocolate chips

(My favourite is a mix of dark chocolate bits, milk chocolate bits and some dark chocolate buttons but any mix will do, although most need to be the smaller choc bits rather than buttons to aid even mixing).

Method: 

Cream butter and sugars, add vanilla essence. Add egg and beat well (mixture should become paler). Mix in sifted flour and salt. Add choc chips and mix well.

Shape teaspoons of mixture into small balls (about the size of a walnut). Place on a lightly greased tray, leaving room between the balls to allow for spreading (so about 12 on a typical small tray, 15 on a larger one). Bake in a moderate oven for 12 minutes. Makes about 36-40 biscuits.

(The spoons of mixture my children use end up more like golf balls than walnuts and need to be placed further apart on the tray as they spread while cooking - and they never seem to end up with more than about 24-30 biscuits).

Whatever the size, the biscuits are ready when the tops are lightly browned. The biscuits become crisper when they cool down so do not need cooking till crisp. Experiment with cooking time to find your favourite degree of doneness. Experimenting when cooking is half the fun - the other half is eating the results.

PS I'll try to add a photo next time I make a batch.

Mrs Resak's Almond Crescents

WHEN I was growing up in Melbourne's western suburbs in the 1950s many of my neighbours were European refugees.
My house was opposite a railway line, just near the railway station.
My best friend Kathleen (or Katti) lived on the opposite side of the tracks.
Kathleen was Hungarian. Her parents were in the Hungarian Resistance and fled for their lives ahead of the Russian invasion by skiing across the border, leaving Kathleen and her brother behind with their grandmother.
Kathleen and I met at primary school in about 1960 when she and her brother were finally reunited with their parents in Australia.
Another neighbour was Maurice Chevalier. When he arrived in Australia the press mobbed him, thinking he was the famous French singer.
He wasn't a singer - but he was very French. We would stand gobsmacked when he came home from work and swept his wife Eileen into a very European embrace. Our parents did nothing like that.
Eileen was Australian but had studied French and they had probably met at the Alliance Francaise.
Eileen was the link between the Australian-born women in the neighbourhood and the new arrivals, most of whom spoke little or no English.
They would move into a group of houses on the other side of the railway line, live there for a few months and then leave. I have often wondered since if the houses were owned or rented by some sort of group that worked with refugees to help them settle in to their new country.
One year a group of refugees arrived just before Christmas.
I was too young to know much about where they had come from but I remember they seemed very sad.
Eileen Chevalier organised a morning tea so the refugee women could meet some of their neighbours.
They didn't speak much French either but they understood she wanted them to ``bring a plate''.
When they arrived at the morning tea, one woman introduced herself shyly as ``Mrs Resak'' (at least that was what her name sounded like to me). She brought a plate of small almond crescents, smothered in vanilla-flavoured icing sugar.
They were the most exotic biscuits I had ever eaten - light shortbreads that melted in my mouth.
Mrs Resak wrote out the recipe for me and Eileen translated it into English. The ingredients were given in grams but Eileen converted them to ounces.
I have made the crescents most Christmases since then and and always think of Mrs Resak when I do. I never met her again.
I hope you enjoy the crescents as much as my family do.

Mrs Resak's Almond Crescents
Ingredients110g (4 oz) plain flour
50g (1 3/4 oz) almond meal
95g (3 1/3 oz) butter
35g (1 1/3 oz) sugar

Method Mix all the ingredients together by hand, squeezing the mixture through your fingers.
Form into small crescents or ``Napoleon's hat'' shapes.
Bake in a slow oven 160C (325F) until pale brown, about 15 minutes.
While still warm, not hot, roll in vanilla-flavoured icing sugar.

Mrs Resak's vanilla-flavoured icing sugar
Mix two packets of vanilla (or vanillin) sugar with 225g (8oz) icing sugar.
Note: This makes a huge quantity, and vanilla sugar is expensive. So I usually shake a few teaspoons of vanilla sugar (from the spice section of the supermarket) in about a cup of icing sugar.
That makes enough vanilla sugar for a batch of crescents.