Recipes from MasterChef's Emilia Jackson's First, Cream the Butter and Sugar

Welcome to First, Cream the Butter and Sugar, from MasterChef's Emilia Jackson - the ultimate guide for everyone who loves cake. Whether you're here for the only choc chip cookie recipe you'll ever need, or you're setting your sights on conquering an opera cake, a raspberry passionfruit tart or becoming a choux-master, Emelia Jackson has done the homework on behalf of us all.

There's something beautiful about a flourless chocolate cake - rich and decadent, with a crisp, meringue-like cracked top, and yet so simple to make. This one is surprisingly light (think a hybrid of chocolate mousse, chocolate fondant and chocolate cake). The fact that the cake rises up before collapsing back down and cracking means that you can't mess it up and the more cracked it is, the more character the cake has. I sometimes like to pile raspberries or macerated strawberries into the ditch left in the centre of the cake and dust it with a light coating of cocoa powder for extra bitterness. Serve the cake with Vanilla chantilly cream (see below) or ice cream.

Ingredients

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C. Line a 23cm spring-form cake tin with baking paper.

2. Combine the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water to melt together until liquid and glossy. (You can also melt this in the microwave in 30-second intervals on medium.) Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg yolks, brown sugar, cocoa, salt and vanilla until light, voluminous and aerated. Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture.

4. Wash and dry the whisk attachment and whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. Slowly rain in the caster sugar and continue whisking until a meringue has formed. The meringue should be of medium thickness - don't overwhisk it or it will cause the batter to deflate.

5. Fold one-third of the meringue through the chocolate mixture, followed by the remaining meringue. Be careful not to overmix and deflate the cake batter.

6. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake the cake for 45 minutes. It will rise up and appear glossy on the surface before deflating when it's removed from the oven. This cracked look is all part of the cake. Allow the cake to cool completely in the tin before trying to remove it. I like to set it in the fridge for a good two to four hours once it's cooled to allow that fudgy centre to set, ensuring you get beautiful clean slices.

Mix it up!

Add one of the following flavourings when you're whisking the egg yolks:

Makes 1 23cm cake.

This is an enriched chantilly - the thick cream has a higher percentage of fat than the thickened cream, which makes for a really thick and stable chantilly cream.

Ingredients

Method

1. Simply combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and whisk by hand until thickened. The cream can split quite easily due to the high fat content, so be careful not to overwhisk it.

Makes about 400ml.

This is my take on the alfajores cookie that we all know and love but can't pronounce with any level of confidence. It's essentially a sandwich cookie consisting of two vanilla shortbread cookies held together with a thick slather of dulce de leche. Dulce de leche is a milk caramel that is readily available in supermarkets. You can make it yourself at home, but why not take the easy route and buy the stuff? Any leftovers can be eaten with a spoon, directly from the jar.

Ingredients

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicone baking mats.

2. Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, egg yolks, vanilla, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and mix to combine, scraping down the side of the bowl and the beater to ensure there are no large streaks of butter that will affect the finished cookies.

3. Put the plain flour and cornflour in a large bowl and give them a good whisk to combine and work out any lumps. Add the mixture to the butter mixture and stir until it comes together into a nice soft dough.

4. Tip the dough out onto your lightly floured bench and divide it in half. Roll out the dough to about 3mm thick (remembering that the cookies will rise in the oven) and cut out rounds using a 4cm cutter (a fluted cutter gives a nice effect, too). Transfer the cookies to the baking trays, leaving space for spreading.

5. Bake the cookies in batches for 15-17 minutes or until they are golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool completely.

6. Spoon the dulce de leche into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe it onto half of the cookies. Sandwich with the rest of the cookies and dust with icing sugar.

Mix it up!

You can substitute the dulce de leche with any jam you love or a chocolate hazelnut spread (such as Nutella).

Makes 22.

I had never had a home-made crumpet until Jock Zonfrillo made them on MasterChef Australia. Intrigued, I went home that night and made them straight away. Home-made crumpets, eaten while still warm, are a work of art. Serve them smothered in so much butter and honey that it drips down your chin as you eat them.

Ingredients

Method

1. Combine 100ml of the warm milk in a bowl with the yeast and sugar. Set aside until the yeast has activated and bubbles appear in the milk, about five to seven minutes.

2. Add the remaining warm milk, flour, salt and baking powder and whisk until smooth. This is more of a batter than a dough, so don't be alarmed by how runny it is. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for 45 minutes or until the mixture is foamy (it won't double in volume like traditional doughs).

3. The trick to making perfect crumpets is really in the cooking. I start on a high heat to establish the bubbles and then reduce it to low to allow the crumpet to cook through without burning the base. It does take some practice to figure out what works best.

4. Place a greased frying pan over high heat. Spray the insides of eight 7cm ring moulds with oil and place them in the hot pan. Gently spoon the crumpet batter into the moulds, being careful not to deflate too much of the air in the batter, and immediately reduce the heat to low. Cook for four to five minutes or until bubbles appear in the crumpets and the tops are dry - much like when you cook a pancake.

5. Remove the moulds, flip the crumpets and cook for 30-60 seconds or until the tops are a really light golden brown. Remove from the pan. Serve warm.

Makes 8.

Many moons ago, I ran a little pastry stand at a local monthly market. It was always a rewarding day, filled with the excitement of meeting new people, trying products from local producers and generally having a great time. These tarts were my most popular product, inspired by my all-time favourite Snickers bar.

Ingredients

Method

1. For the peanut caramel, put the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar first melts, and then begins to caramelise. Continue cooking and stirring until the caramel reaches an evenly dark golden brown. Add the cream and butter (be careful - it can splatter!) and stir until melted together and emulsified. Remove from the heat and stir in the peanuts and salt. Pour the caramel into the baked tart shells and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or until set.

2. For the chocolate cream, whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until just combined. Pour the milk and 100ml of the cream into a saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat. Pour the hot milk and cream onto the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and whisk over low heat until the custard thickens slightly or reaches 75C on a sugar thermometer.

3. Meanwhile, microwave the dark chocolate on medium in 30-second bursts until completely melted. Pour the chocolate over the thickened custard and stir until combined. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

4. Finally, whisk the remaining 200ml cream to soft peaks and fold it through the cooled chocolate custard.

5. Spread the chocolate cream over the peanut caramel. Chill the tarts in the fridge for one to two hours for the chocolate cream to firm up.

6. Serve the tarts sprinkled with chopped peanuts and sea salt flakes.

Makes 10 7cm tarts.

I love pairing a chocolate tart shell with richer fillings - fluffy mousses, chocolate or coffee pastry creams and custards, as well as the traditional flavour combinations of chocolate and salted caramel or chocolate and berries. A chocolate pastry shell looks impressive but it also adds a beautiful bitterness that can only be found in good-quality cocoa powder.

Ingredients

Method

1. Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter, icing sugar, egg yolks and salt together until evenly combined and smooth - you don't want aeration here, just a nice cohesive mass. Be sure to scrape down the side of the bowl to ensure the mixture is evenly combined.

2. Add the flour and cocoa and mix until the ingredients come together into a soft dough.

3. Turn the dough out of the bowl and use your hands to bring it together into a ball. Flatten the pastry into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for one to two hours (preferably overnight).

4. Put the chilled pastry on your lightly floured bench and massage it into a pliable, workable dough. Roll out the pastry until it's 3mm thick and about 5cm larger than the tin or tins (just a guesstimate works here - don't go getting out a ruler!). Trim away any uneven edges to reduce tearing, and reserve any left-over pastry. Drape the pastry over your rolling pin, gently lower it into the tin and press it into the edges.

5. Put the pastry in the fridge to chill for a further 15-20 minutes before baking.

6. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line the pastry with baking paper and weigh it down with baking weights or rice.

7. Bake the pastry for 35-45 minutes for a 30cm tart shell, 30-35 minutes for two 23cm tart shells or eight to 12 minutes for mini tart shells, removing the paper and weights halfway through cooking. You want the pastry to look completely dried out - it will be hard to see any colour changes in the chocolate pastry, so dryness is key.

8. If you find any little holes in your pastry case, fill them with some of the left-over pastry and return the pastry to the oven for two minutes - if you don't, the filling will leak out of the shell.

9. Finally, egg wash the hot pastry - whisk the egg yolk with two tablespoons water and evenly brush it over the surface. The residual heat will cook the egg wash and seal the pastry. Allow the pastry to cool completely before filling.

Makes one 30cm tart shell, two 23cm tart shells, 10 8cm mini tart shells or 10 7cm mini tart shells.