January 2010

If I had actually paid better attention when I was going through the magazines I never would have made the Coconut cream tartlets from the January 2005 magazine as there were so many other great things to make for dessert in later magazines. I had not, of course, made a firm decision when I first went through choosing recipes that I would only make one dessert a month. It had crossed my mind but it wasn't until after I made those tartlets that I decided that I definitely had to put limits on the desserts.

Now all this lamenting about not doing a dessert this time around is for two reasons. Firstly just look at the picture of Valli Little's Mangomisu on the front cover of issue 89, how could any one not want to make that? The second reason is that what I ended up making was a bit of a disaster.... I actually made this on 26th January, Australia Day. It was a public holiday and I had the day off work so I decided it would be nice to make a little bit of an effort and make a special breakfast. The first recipe that I had marked as a possible to make in this issue was Jamie Oliver's Homemade Cinnamon & Lemon Crumpets with Raspberries and Honey. I love crumpets, they are wonderful for breakfast drizzled with honey or smeared with jam. This recipe had them topped with ricotta mixed with raspberries and honey...yum. I had attempted to make crumpets before using a Delia Smith recipe and it was a bit of a disaster. I had hoped that Jamie wouldn't let me down, unfortunately it was a disaster too.

I am not really sure what happened. I couldn't find my egg rings, I moved 7 months ago and there is still a bit of kitchen stuff in boxes but there is also a lot of stuff shoved in random places. I am sure they are around somewhere but they would not come out of hiding on Tuesday morning. The lack of the rings was the reason for for the dreadful shape of them. Although in reality that doesn't really worry me too much. The main problem was that they didn't cook properly. I am not sure if I made them too thick or if it was a problem with not having the correct temperature. Very few holes formed on top and they didn't cook through. I did eat two but they were a bit doughy and quite yeasty. Not very enjoyable at all. Since it was so disappointing I will not be typing out the long recipe. I will however give the ricotta topping as that was very nice. I used the rest of it on some toasted fruit loaf.

• 250 g fresh ricotta
• Zest 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp honey, plus extra to drizzle
• 3 large handfuls fresh raspberries (I used some frozen mixed berries)

Method:

• In a small bowl mix the ricotta, zest and honey.
  
• In another small bowl mash half the raspberries.
  
• Gently fold the mashed raspberries through the ricotta being careful not to over mix as you want a rippled effect.
  
• Sprinkle with the remain raspberries when serving.