I recently received, completely out of the blue, an interesting surprise – six extract pastes by Taylor & Colledge, the chaps who make the wonderful vanilla grinder (and other superb vanilla products) I wrote about earlier.
This new range of extract pastes consists of Lavender, Coconut, Almond, Lemon
and Peppermint plus Vanilla Bean with Seeds (yippee!) With the exception of vanilla none of the
pastes are sweetened which is a good thing as they won’t unbalance the sweetness
of any recipe you might be using and they can be used for savoury dishes!
I thought I’d firstly try one basic recipe with 6 variations
and it didn't take me long to come up with ice cream! This is because I know a way of making truly
luscious no-churn ice cream with no machine, hardly any time or effort and no
need to mash the stuff as it freezes. Using this “genius” recipe I have made
numerous delicious ices and desserts and have sold them to acclaim in high end
restaurants so please don’t think that it's in any way a compromise. This is, of course, the recipe I used today to make the
following ice creams ...
If you are observant you may notice that several of these contain
alcohol. This is for two reasons; 1) I
like it and, more importantly 2) adding alcohol is one way of making sure your
homemade ice cream is soft, creamy, scoopable and with a good mouth feel. There
are alternatives such as flavoured syrups and other sugary additions all of
which I go into in details in my ice cream eBook which actually costs less than
a carton of ice cream!
Anyhoo, I enjoyed testing the ice creams so much I thought I
ought to try another recipe, I made shortbread.
Genius Shortbread Recipe
Genius Shortbread Recipe
Basically shortbread is one part sugar, two
parts butter, and three parts flour so I decided to work in imperial first and
then convert to metric. So 2 oz sugar, 4
oz butter, 6 oz flour =
55g caster sugar
110g soft butter
175g plain flour
plus any other flavourings
110g soft butter
175g plain flour
plus any other flavourings
~ Preheat oven to 190ºC/375ºF/170ºC
fan/gas 5.
~ Cream together the sugar and butter till light (both colour and texture) and fluffy.
~ Stir or slowly whisk in the flour and flavourings. The dough barely comes together but works when you give it a little gentle help with your hands.
~ Roll out on a lightly floured board to about 1cm thick and cut into shapes.
~ Chill in the fridge for a few minutes if you have time and space – if not, no worries!
~ Bake till pale golden brown – about 15 minutes.
~ Cool on a wire rack.
~ Cream together the sugar and butter till light (both colour and texture) and fluffy.
~ Stir or slowly whisk in the flour and flavourings. The dough barely comes together but works when you give it a little gentle help with your hands.
~ Roll out on a lightly floured board to about 1cm thick and cut into shapes.
~ Chill in the fridge for a few minutes if you have time and space – if not, no worries!
~ Bake till pale golden brown – about 15 minutes.
~ Cool on a wire rack.
This made 14 shortbreads which I cut into different shapes
so that I could tell which was which!
My Thoughts and Findings ...
Firstly I think in all cases you might need a little more extract
than it says on the packet so, as always, it is important to taste as you
go.
The pastes are not soluble as I found out when trying to
make mint tea and I think this is due to the use of gum tragacanth, which is
insoluble, as a thickener. So whilst good for baking the pastes may not be perfect for other
uses. Tragacanth does seem to be much used in cake decorating as a stabiliser so
probably if you fancy some tasty icing these pastes would be ideal.
On the plus side both tragacanth and xanthan gum contribute
to a rich, smooth texture which is certainly a boon when making ice cream or
other creamy desserts, frostings and fillings.
Vanilla
This was
as lovely as all Taylor & Colledge’s excellent vanilla products are. The ice cream was good and the shortbreads tasted just how shortbread should; my real
man thought they were more like Danish Butter Cookies but nothing wrong with
that!
Other ideas for vanilla ... are almost endless, at least in
the sweet department!
Lavender
I don’t personally feel that lavender is a very foodie
flavour although I have used it before in ice cream which was well received by
posh customers!
When adding lavender to baked goods, cupcakes for instance, it is useful to bear in mind that honey is a great compliment.
Coconut
Naturally, because of my lovely past life in the islands,
when I think of coconut I automatically think of rum but it wouldn’t mix in. Sad!
I’m going to try a little in my Moose Milk next
time it’s a cold night (this evening for instance).
Add a modicum to rice; I was thinking savoury to go with
curries and so on but probably it’d be good in rice pudding too!
Peppermint
In addition to baking try mixing some into softened butter to
serve on peas or new potatoes.
Almond
This has a good almond flavour which would go really well,
as almonds do with cherries. Here is a recipe for Cherry Clafouti and although I've never thought of flavouring the batter before I think next
time I might add some of this paste.
Lemon
For me this one is both a little artificial tasting and also
a bit surplus to requirements. I always have fresh lemons to hand and imagine
anyone interested in cooking will do too. Having said that if you haven’t got fresh
this would be a good substitute for a background lemon taste but I don’t think
it is pure enough to play a major role in a dish.
These pastes are new on the market and may not, yet, be easy to get hold of although I see that Amazon.co.uk are expecting some in soon.
