As I type this, I've just finished the very last piece of candied pineapple I bought yesterday. I planned to eke it out over the week but then I sat down to watch a Korean drama with my mom just now and munched my way through the entire box. Sigh. Candied fruit won't make you fat, right ?
Speaking of candied fruit, there's some mixed peel in today's recipe. No, I didn't make it myself, but I did make the ricotta cheese it called for. I also threw in some yogurt cheese because I was on a cheese making roll and I didn't want to have any leftovers sitting in the fridge.
I know a lot of people hate candied fruit (or peel) with a vengeance, and here's the thing: I'm not one of them. I love candied fruit (or peel). Maraschino cherries ? I eat them by the handful. Candied peel ? No problem. This probably explains the pineapple problem I had today. When I was in Chiangmai, Thailand for a holiday, I bought and ate so much candied and dried mango, I probably didn't need to eat any more sugared fruit for the entire year. But then of course I bought several packs of them to bring home. Thailand has the best dried mangoes, I tell you. And you can eat all you want - fruit is good for you ! Heh.
Do try to make your own cheese. And by cheese, I mean ricotta. I haven't seen rennet anywhere here so I won't be making mozzarella any time soon.. Which is good news for my thighs. But the ricotta - I tried store bought out of a tub and I thought it was pretty meh. But I tried a spoonful of the homemade and it blew my mind. I loved the tang and the silkiness you just can't get from the weird stuff you find in the supermarket. Unless of course you're lucky enough to live next to an Italian deli. If you do, please send me some cheese.
Feel free to omit the yogurt cheese and replace it with more ricotta. The pie tastes awesome either way. I mean, it is chocolate and cheese. And they are, oh, just about two of my favorite things in the whole wide world.
For the crust:
225g plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
50g caster sugar
115g unsalted butter
4 tbsp orange juice
For the filling:
2 egg yolks
115g caster sugar
250g ricotta cheese (I made my own, you can refer Here or see how below)
250g yogurt cheese (see how to make below)
Finely grated rind of 1 orange (use the juice for the crust)
6 tbsp dark chocolate chips
4 tbsp mixed (candied) chopped peel
1. Sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl. Stir in the sugar. Rub in the butter using your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the orange juice to form a firm dough, adding more juice if necessary to bind the dough.
2. Preheat the oven to 200C. Roll out three quarters of the dough on a lightly floured surface and line a 9 inch loose bottomed tart pan. Reserve the trimmings and add to the remaining quarter of dough.
3. Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork and bake it in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until it is dry and you can smell a chocolatey-orangey fragrance permeating the air. Remove from the oven and leave to cool while you make the filling.
4. For the filling, place the ricotta, yogurt cheese and sugar in a food processor. Blend until smooth, then blend in the yolks one at a time. By hand, stir in the orange rind, chocolate chips and mixed peel. Pour into the baked tart shell and level the surface.
5. Roll the remaining dough and cut out strips. Arrange the strips in a lattice pattern on the filling, making sure to press the edges so they adhere to the sides of the tart.
6. Bake for 15 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 180C and bake fore 25-30 minutes more, until golden brown and firm. It'll puff up a little, but settle as it cools. Remove from the oven and cool completely in the pan before serving.
To make yogurt cheese:
4 cups of natural yogurt
You'll need a strainer and some cheesecloth. I didn't have any cheesecloth so I just used some coffee strainers.
Line the strainer with the cheesecloth. Pour in the yogurt and wrap it up using the cloth. Place some weights on it (not the kind you used to workout, maybe some plates or bowls) and set it over a large bowl to catch the liquid that drains out. Leave it in the fridge for at least 2 hours (overnight is okay too). The longer you drain it, the thicker the yogurt cheese. This recipe will yield 2 1/2 to 3 cups of yogurt cheese, depending on how long you drain it.
To make your own ricotta:
2 1/2 cups of whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup white vinegar
Pinch of salt
This is easy ! Pour the milk and cream into a heavy based saucepan and heat it till it reaches 200F. Then take it off the heat, and stirring clockwise, pour in the vinegar and salt. Clamp the lid on and let sit for 12 minutes. When you open it, curds will have formed. Line a strainer with cheesecloth (like the setup for making yogurt cheese) and remove the curds with a slotted spoon, and gently place them in the cheesecloth lined strainer. Wrap it up with the cloth and weight it down, placing the strainer over a bowl. Leave to drain at least an hour or overnight. Tada, your own homemade ricotta. It's magical stuff.
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