12 Days of Christmas Baking - Roomborstplaat

Anna De Baar has lived in Australia for many years but grew up in the Netherlands and remembers making this rich fudge every Christmas with her family. Anna grows beautiful organic vegetables on her farm just out of Orange and is also a wonderful baker. If in Orange this weekend, come and see her and her produce at this Saturday's farmers market.

Roomborstplaat

A traditional Dutch treat for Saint Nicolaas (5 December) and Christmas.

Ingredients
200 g caster sugar
80 ml/4 tbsp fresh cream
25 g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla paste or other flavouring, (see below)

Roomborstplaat is best made using little moulds, but it can also be made using a 20 cm spring form without the base, small silicon moulds or without any mould at all.

Rinse the moulds with cold water and place them on a sheet of baking paper. Also rinse silicon moulds if using them. Put the cream, butter and sugar in a saucepan and slowly heat to boiling point while stirring. Let the mixture simmer gently and keep stirring. Regularly let the mixture run of the spoon and turn off the heat when the last drop of mixture hangs from the spoon like a thin thread, approximately 10 minutes. Stir vigorously now to cool down the mixture. Keep stirring mixture from the sides and the bottom back into mass. The mixture is ready to pour into the moulds when it begins to firm a little and starts to sound a bit rough on the bottom of the pan.

Press the moulds firmly onto the baking paper and fill them quickly before the mixture firms up too much to pour. It should be smooth on top. If not using any moulds, just pour the mixture straight onto the baking paper. Let the roomborstplaat cool down and firm up further (20 - 30 minutes). Then move the moulds back and forth a bit to loosen them from the paper. Turn the moulds over to dry the other side. After another 30 minutes turn out roomborstplaat. Cut into pieces if necessary and serve.

The trick with this recipe is to get the mixture quite cool, but still liquid enough to pour. If you pour too soon it will not firm up properly. If you wait to long it no longer pours. Should the latter be the case, then slightly reheat the mixture while stirring.

Notes

• Add 1 tsp of instant coffee or 2tsp of pure cacao to the sugar for mocca or chocolate.
• Add a few drops of essence to the hot mixture for vanilla, rum or other preferred flavours.
• Roomborstplaat can be kept for several days in an airtight container. In hot weather it is best kept in the fridge.