Teacakes

"When we opened Arras, we re-created these chocolatey goodies from the UK for our petit fours tray. They’ll keep for 4–5 days [at room temperature], but I doubt they’ll last that long." At Arras, these are brushed with edible paint and dusted with strawberry powder.

Credit: Alan Benson

• makes

  30

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

250 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped

Biscuit base

130 g plain flour

55 g (¼ cup) pure icing sugar

90 g cold unsalted butter, chopped

2 egg yolks, lightly whisked

Strawberry marshmallow

110 g (½ cup) caster sugar, plus 2 tbs extra

1 (5g) titanium-strength gelatine leaf (see Note)

250 g frozen defrosted strawberries or over-ripe fresh strawberries, hulled

1 tbs glucose syrup (see Note)

1 egg white

Instructions

To make biscuit dough, process flour, icing sugar, butter and a pinch of salt in a food processor until mixture resembles crumbs. Add egg yolks and process until mixture just comes together. Shape into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 200C. Roll out biscuit dough until 4 mm thick. Using a 4 cm round pastry cutter, cut out 30 rounds and place on 2 lined oven trays. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Set biscuits aside to cool.

Meanwhile, to make marshmallow, place 2 tbs sugar and 2 tbs water in a small pan over medium heat. Stir to dissolve sugar, then remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes. Soak gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes to soften. Drain and lightly squeeze.

Blend strawberries and syrup in a blender until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve. Add gelatine and stir to dissolve. Set aside to cool.

Place 110 g sugar, glucose and 1 tbs water in a saucepan over low heat and stir to dissolve sugar. Increase heat to high and cook for 10 minutes or until syrup reaches 121C on a sugar thermometer.

Using an electric mixer, whisk egg white to soft peaks. With mixer running, gradually add sugar syrup in a thin stream. Whisk for 4 minutes or until combined. Add strawberry mixture and whisk until mixture cools.

Place marshmallow mixture in a piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm nozzle and pipe meringue onto each biscuit. Set aside in a cool, dry place for 30 minutes or until firm.

Place chocolate in a small heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water) and stir until melted. Turn off heat, keeping bowl over water. Gently push the prongs of a fork into side of marshmallow (not too deep or fork will be difficult to remove) and dip into chocolate to coat. Use a teaspoon to spoon chocolate over the teacake at the same time, if necessary.

Gently shake teacakes to remove excess chocolate, then place on a lined oven tray until chocolate has set.

Note

Titanium-strength gelatine weighs 5 g per leaf. You can substitute bronze (1.5 g) or gold (2 g) leaves so long as the final weight matches the requirements. Gelatine leaves are from delis.

Glucose syrup is available from supermarkets.

As seen in Feast Magazine, Issue 15, pg98

Photography by Alan Benson

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.