Feijoa's can be a little divisive: people tend to either love or hate them in equal measure. It is no secret that Little Miss and I love them. In a world where you can buy any kind of imported fruit and vegetables at any time of year, there is a great joy in these completely seasonal, utterly New Zealand, green treats. I'm sure if they were available all year round they wouldn't have such an appeal. Anyway, as the season comes to an end, I'm doing my best to make the most of these fabulous fruit before they disappear again for another 10 months.
This recipe makes the most of another couple of seasonal treats, the walnut and the Granny Smith apple. I've put walnuts in the pastry to add texture and a nutty flavour, and the Granny Smiths make a great tart dessert apple.
Feijoa and Granny Smith Shortcake with Walnut Pastry.
for the pastry:
300g plain flour
200g butter
100g brown sugar
1/2 cup walnuts
4 tablespoons cold water
for the filling
3 Granny Smith apples
6 to 7 medium sized feijoas
the juice of half a lemon
3 tablepoons caster sugar
3 tablespoons raw sugar - for sprinkling on top of the shortcake
Using a kitchen whizz, blend the flour, butter and brown sugar until well mixed.
The mixture will resemble crumbs. Add the walnuts, and briefly blend - you don't want to cut the walnuts up too finely.
With the motor of the kitchen whizz running, add the water and blend until it starts to come away from the sides of the bowl - as shown.
This can be made by hand: mix the dry ingredients together, rub in the butter using your fingertips. Add the finely chopped walnuts, then blend together with the water.
Either method, don't overmix! Wrap the pastry in plastic food wrap and chill for at least half an hour. The pastry will keep quite happily in the fridge for a couple of days, so it is easily made in advance.
Preheat the oven to 190deg. C.
Line a medium sized baking dish with baking paper.
Roll the pastry out before preparing the fruit as both the feijoas and apples will brown once peeled.
Roll the pastry between two large sheets of plastic food wrap. You may need to use a couple of sheets overlapped. It should be about 5 to 6mm thick once rolled.
Take the plastic wrap from the top of the pastry and invert it into the lined tin. Ease it into the corners, then trim around the top of the tin. Cover and chill in the fridge while preparing the fruit.
Peel, quarter and slice the Granny Smiths.
Prepare them one at a time and immerse in a bowl of water with the lemon juice added. This stops them going brown.
Prepare the feijoas by cutting the tops and tails off, then parring the skin off each one.
Slice into rounds, then place in a small bowl with the caster sugar to prevent browning.
Arrange the apple slices and feijoa rounds onto the chilled pastry. It doesn't have to be super neat, just squeeze them all in. Spoon the left over feijoa sugar and juice over the apple slices.
Cut the pastry that was trimmed from the tin into strips and arrange them on top.
Sprinkle with the raw sugar crystals and bake for 40 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. The pastry needs to be baked quite brown to ensure the bottom is cooked and not soggy!
We took half the pie over to share with our neighbours as a thank you for lending us their trailer. It was getting late, so our Little Miss put a dress on over her pyjamas!
We had some great friends over for tea yesterday. As is the custom in our house, I was responsible for the dessert offering. I wanted to make something seasonally appropriate for a cold winter's night. With the last of the feijoas starting to sag in the fruit bowl, I came up with this lovely warming and wintry creation. Taking inspiration from the old fashioned roly poly pudding I combined the feijoas with granny smith apples and cinnamon.
Feijoa and Apple Roly Poly Pudding
1 1/2 cups peeled and sliced feijoa flesh
1 granny smith apple, peeled and sliced
4 tablespoons caster sugar
the juice of 1 lemon
3 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
200g chilled butter
300ml cream
a dusting of ground cinnamon
Syrup:
1/2 cup apple juice
3/4 cup caster sugar
the juice of 1 lemon
Butter a 25cm round oven dish and line the bottom with baking paper if you intend to turn the pudding out to serve.
Start with the fruit: Place the prepared fruit, first measure of caster sugar, and juice of 1 lemon into a small pot. Cook over a medium-high heat stirring constantly until the fruit is cooked, pulpy and thickened. Set aside to cool.
Now prepare the dough: Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Cut the butter into small chunks. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles crumbs.
Make a well in the centre and pour in the cream. Using a table knife, fold the mixture together, taking care not to over-mix.
Turn the mixture out onto a large sheet of baking paper.
Place another sheet over the top and roll the dough out to measure approximately 25 x 40cm. Place into the fridge and chill for about 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180deg. C.
Prepare the syrup: Combine the apple juice, second measure of caster sugar and juice from the second lemon in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil and cook for about 5 minutes.
Assemble the pudding: Take the dough from the fridge and spread the cooled fruit mixture evenly over it.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and roll from the long edge.
Cut into 5 cm slices and place, cut side up, into the buttered oven dish.
Leave small gaps in between the rolls to allow for rising.
Pour the hot syrup over the pudding and bake for 50 minutes until the dough is well risen and the pudding is golden brown.
Once cooked leave the pudding to rest for 15 minutes before turning out onto a serving dish. I browned the top using a blow torch. The pudding can be served in the baking dish if you prefer. We served ours with vanilla ice cream.
Our Little Miss has been eating through our box of feijoas so quickly, we've had to hold some back. We're not sure how she manages to eat so many without getting a tummy ache!
Here's the next instalment of Feijoa fabulousness.
Feijoa and Coconut Shortcake
3/4 cup dark cane sugar
150g butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup thread coconut
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
4 large feijoas
the juice from half a lemon
1 tablespoon coffee sugar or any other large granule brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 180deg. C and line a 20cm square baking dish.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat thoroughly after each addition.
Fold in the coconut, followed by the sifted flour, baking powder and cinnamon.
Spread two-thirds of the mixture into the baking dish.
Set aside the remainder and prepare the feijoas.
Squeeze the lemon juice into a small bowl.
Peel and slice the feijoas
into chunks one at a time.
Immediately place into the lemon juice to prevent them from browning.
Spoon the feijoa
chunks onto the cake mixture taking care to leave the juice in the bowl.
Little Miss drank the left over juice and declared it delicious.
Now spoon lumps of the remaining cake mixture over the feijoas
.
Leave gaps in the mixture so the feijoas
can be seen.
Sprinkle over the coffee sugar and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until well risen and a skewer inserted into the mixture comes out clean.
This is a lovely moist cake that can be eaten alone or with cream or yoghurt. We made this for a get together with our Plunket buddies; then took the remainder up to the farm to share with our family. Happy days!
We love feijoas! Well, Little Miss and I love feijoas. Thanks so much to our friend Catherine for the glorious box she delivered to our door, we are enjoying a glut of the glorious fruit. Just like the brussel sprout, the feijoa seems to attract either a love or hate reaction from its consumers. Little Miss will eat them all day long given half the chance, but she told me her school friends are very suspicious of her lunch box staple and consider them to smell funny. Her teacher told her she was a special girl for liking feijoas. Maybe she doesn't like them much either.
Given our bounty, and its short shelf life, we have been pulling out all the feijoa possibilities this week.
Sticky Date and Feijoa Pudding with Caramel Sauce
200g pitted dates
1 cup water
1 teaspoon baking soda
125 butter
1/2 cup dark cane sugar
1 x 395g can of condensed milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
6 feijoas - don't peel and chop them until the remainder of the mixture is ready as they brown quickly.
Caramel Sauce
30g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
300ml cream
Preheat the oven to 180deg. C and grease a large oven dish.
Combine the dates and water in a saucepan and cook until pulpy. Remove from the heat and add the soda. It will fluff up a bit, then settle back down.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the condensed milk and beat again.
Then beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Peel and chop the feijoas
.
They turn brown quickly once exposed to the air, so stir them into the mixture as soon as they are prepared.
Fold the dates into the feijoa mixture, followed by the sifted flour and baking powder.
Place the pudding batter into the large greased oven dish and bake for approximately 45 minutes.
My dish was a little small as the following picture will demonstrate!
While the pudding is baking make the sauce: combine the butter, sugar and cream in a small pot and summer for 10 minutes, taking care not to let it catch on the bottom of the pot. Set aside until the pudding is cooked.
This is a delicious pudding that serves 6 to 8 diners depending on the generosity of the serving size.
