Two 'New' Petits Fours
‘New’? Yes, I’m using those quotation marks to introduce a bit of leeway for the slight inaccuracy in my use of the word.
I wanted to find an alternative to the fruit, jelly, chocolate, caramel or truffle elements of my petits fours offerings. Something a little further down Cake Avenue perhaps. I happened upon this recipe. The name Nathan Outlaw would have many thinking first of his splendid skills with all things fishing and cooking but it’s hardly surprising to see a top chef wanting to explore more than one area of food and to show us some diversity.
These squares of slightly soggy delight used up more of the ale bought for our Christmas puddings. A few figs went missing from the ‘Winter’ compote we have over the season. Together with plump sultanas they both greedily soaked up the heated booze.
Mrs Cheoff does a lot more cake baking than me so this effort gave me valuable experience in the ‘knowing when it’s done’ department. All I can say is that my decision to start cooling while the surface was still springy gave fine results. There is squish in the soft fruit but the sponge also remains pillowy light.
The ale brings an insistent hint of adult content to each bite. That gets balanced by a fruity, nutty sweetness which matches perfectly with an after dinner coffee.
Cut into cuboids - see, I know when a cube isn’t a cube - these freeze well and will warm nicely in the oven, wrapped in foil.
Mission accomplished for the cakey bakey business. And a welcome new addition to my petit four family.
Whiskey sours/Amaretto sours
So. Now for the new one which isn’t truly new. You have seen it before on my dishes of sweets. At least you should have since I began making Daniel Clifford’s ‘Whiskey sours’. First cooked when I got hold of his career-spanning volume ‘OUT of my TREE’ soon after publication. Stunning recipes throughout that book but this particular one is also to be found here on the Great British Chefs website.
Christmas 2020 saw me rethink things. Fully intending to stick to the recipe again, I was distracted by thoughts of those who would be Covid-restricted from being with us. Which meant that one now-established tradition would also be absent. Our son’s partner eases the pain of beating us at all the family games by plying us with lashings of Amaretto sours. In the proper liquid form. Sadly not this year.
The upshot was my notion to create a jellied reminder of her treat. Make the Whiskey version by all means but by substituting Disaronno Amaretto (other Amarettos are available) for the Jack Daniel’s you have a thing of chewy, mouth-puckering beauty in another flavour profile.
Christmas treats
Our very sweet ‘sour’ cocktail maker was the first to get a small batch of my latest ‘new’ efforts in amongst her bags of Christmas goodies. I have since had formal written confirmation that they were well received!
I admit to wobbling just a little but at present I am still on course to make one more petit four completely new to this household. Look for ‘Fisherman’s Friend meringues’ on the GBChefs site and you might understand my trepidation and excitement.
More challenge for the taste buds? I should say so.
*EDIT*
It’s January! Merry New 2021, everybody!