Strawberry ice cream

We made this ages ago, but I forgot to publish the post, oops!

300ml double cream
200ml milk
200g strawberries
2 tbsp maple syrup or honey

Wash, hull, and chop the strawberries. Crush with a hand blender, food processor, or potato masher. Sieve to remove the pips.

Mix the cream, milk and maple syrup or honey. Then mix in the strawberries.

Pour into an ice cream machine and leave to churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. For our machine it takes about 20 minutes to create a thick, yet soft ice cream.

Delicious!

V is for Vacation {Recipe: Christmas pudding}

We're off on our vacation today, so this and the rest of the advent posts have been pre-written and will appear as if by magic while I am far away from a computer!

We will be having a French Christmas this year, with family in north Brittany. Oui! I have packed all the essentials: Christmas pudding, brussels sprouts, mince pies, pigs in blankets. How do the French survive without these annual delicacies? (To be fair, they do feast on fruits de mer, foie gras, and a strange ice-cream concoction which they go ga-ga over for dessert, so they've got their own flavours to gloat over.)

I made my Christmas pudding, as is traditional, on stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before advent. I can't wait to try it!

My Christmas pudding
Serves 8-10

90g self-raising flour
125g chilled butter
30g flaked almonds
125g carrot, grated
250g raisins
125g currants
125g sultanas
125g breadcrumbs
60g Italian mixed peel
90g light muscovado sugar
Zest and juice of a lemon
A whole nutmeg (you'll use half)
2 eggs, beaten
75ml brandy

Grate the butter into the flour and rub together to a breadcrumb texture. Add the almonds, carrot, raisins, currants, sultanas, breadcrumbs, mixed peel, sugar, and lemon zest. Grate in half of the nutmeg. Mix these ingredients together. Add the lemon juice and eggs, and mix well until fully combined.

Butter a 1.25-litre (2-pint) ceramic pudding bowl, or several smaller bowls (this year I used a 1-litre bowl and two mini pudding moulds). If using a large bowl, cut out a circle of baking parchment to fit in the top of the bowl, butter it well, and place it in the bowl. (This helps the pudding to stay together when you are releasing it from the bowl.) Spoon in the pudding mixture almost to the top. Flatten the surface, pressing down well.


Cut out a circle of baking paper and a circle of foil, each two inches bigger than the diameter of the bowl. Butter the baking paper. Make a pleat in the middle of both the baking paper and the foil. Lay the baking paper buttered side down over the bowl, and the foil on top. Tie them tightly with string under the rim of the bowl.

Put the bowl in a steamer or in a pan of simmering water which comes halfway up the side of the bowl. You now have two options:

1. Steam the pudding fully, for 8-9 hours. Afterwards, remove the foil and baking paper. Pierce several holes in the pudding with a skewer and pour over the brandy. Cover the bowl. with clingfilm. Store in a dark place. On the day of eating, replace the clingfilm and pierce it several times. Microwave on full power for 5 minutes, stand for 3 minutes, microwave on low/defrost for 7 minutes, and stand for 5 minutes before unmoulding.

2. Steam the pudding for 6 hours. Afterwards, remove the foil and baking paper. Pierce several holes in the pudding with a skewer and pour over the brandy. Then put on fresh baking paper and foil, buttered and pleated as before. Store in a dark place. On the day of eating, steam the pudding for 2-3 hours, then rest for 3-4 minutes before unmoulding.

Whichever method you use, you must make sure that you keep topping up the steamer/pan with boiling water.

Serve the pudding with traditional brandy butter, custard, or (my favourite) extra thick cream.

Flourless chocolate cake

Good morning!

Our curry night on Wednesday was lots of fun. Twelve people filled our living room with noise, joy, and spices. For pudding, we had a flourless chocolate cake which I made that afternoon.

It may have looked like a sunken volcano crater, but it tasted dense, moist, and delicious.

Here's the recipe. Note, it's not health food!

Laura x

Flourless chocolate cake

Takes 1 hour 20 minutes (30 minutes prep, 50 minutes baking, plus cooling)

Serves 12

400g dark chocolate (I used Tesco Everyday Value)

100g soft light brown sugar

6 medium eggs at room temperature

1 tbsp Cointreau

1 tsp ground cinnamon

300ml extra thick double cream

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and base line a 23cm (9 inch) cake tin.

Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water. Stir occasionally until melted.

Meanwhile, using an electric hand whisk, beat the eggs and sugar together for 10 minutes, until somewhat thickened.

Add the Cointreau and ground cinnamon to the chocolate and stir. Then pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture, stirring all the time. (Be careful here, because if you pour too quickly and/or don't stir, the eggs will curdle.) Mix thoroughly.

Stir the cream a few times with a spoon to loosen it a little. Add the cream to the chocolate mixture and fold in thoroughly.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin (it will sink quite a lot), then remove from the tin when cold. (I didn't manage to release it from the base of the tin, since inverting it would have destroyed the top.)

Cut into slices and serve with fresh fruit and cream or yoghurt.

From craving to creation

I was craving panettone yesterday morning, so, encouraged by my lovely husband, I decided to make one. I used a cheat's recipe which I found online, since none of my baking books, not even my trusty Mary Berry Bible, include one. It turned out so yummy that I didn't even take a photo! It was really fun kneading the dough although I had to use a lot more flour than the recipe specified. Anyway, I'll certainly make it, and never buy it, again.

A brief history of the last few months

Here are a few things I've been up to recently:

My first macarons

Chocolate cake for Nick's birthday

I think he liked it!

Many flavours of jam

My first iced cake with sugar flowers

Christmas pudding making

The finished product

Delicious rhubarb and blueberry
crumble

My Christmas cake fruit

After baking....

and after icing. 

I'm quite pleased with all my efforts!

Apple crumble

For me, apple crumble speaks loud and clear of crisp autumn days, red leaves rustling on the ground, and the comfort of a warm home. I made one yesterday and it perfectly evoked all that I love about autumn.

Apple crumble - serves 8-10
175g butter
200g plain flour
100g demerara (or golden caster) sugar
200g oats
12 small or 8 medium eating apples
75g sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
Handful flaked almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Cube the butter into small pieces. 
3. Tip the butter, flour, and demerara sugar into a food processor. Pulse until well mixed into a breadcrumb texture. Add the oats and mix together.
4. Peel, core, and chop the apples. (To do this, I peel them fully, then slice off each side in turn. No messing around with corers for me!)
5. Place the apples in a large baking dish and sprinkle over the sugar and the cinnamon. Use your hands to make sure it is well mixed.
6. Spread the crumble topping over the apples right to the edges. Scatter flaked almonds over the top.
7. Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes, until the topping is golden.
8. Serve with cream, crème fraiche, or (my favourite) custard.

I adapted this recipe from one found online. I use more oats because, well, I like an oaty topping. This recipe makes quite a large quantity of topping. Any that is left over can be frozen in a box or bag and used for future crumbles. I used 5 small eating apples and about two-fifths of the topping, and my crumble was big enough to feed 4-5 people. You can't really go wrong: if you have too many apples, just make the apple layer thicker; if too much topping, just freeze the remainder.

Easy as apple pie

Mum gave me some cooking apples from her garden and I decided to make an apple pie with them. Being a bit short on time, I did not use a recipe, but just went with the flow. It turned out great and it was so easy (if a little bit labour-intensive with all the peeling and coring).

Apple pie - serves 6-8

3 small cooking apples

250g plain flour

125g butter

5 tbsp water

8-10 tbsp caster sugar

An 8-inch pie dish

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place a baking sheet in the oven to preheat.
2. Make the pastry. Melt the butter over a low heat with the water. Mix together the plain flour and 5 or 6 tablespoons of caster sugar. Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture and stir well to combine. 
3. Leave the pastry to rest while you prepare the apples. Peel, core, and slice the apples (about 0.5 to 1 cm thick).
4. Roll out the pastry to about 0.5 cm thick. Use a large area with a generous sprinkling of plain flour on the board and the rolling pin. Cut out a circle an inch bigger than the pie dish. Carefully roll the pastry circle onto the rolling pin, and roll over the dish to cover the base and sides. Keep the remaining pastry for the pie top.
5. Fill the pastry case with the chopped apples, and sprinkle with 3 or 4 tablespoons of caster sugar.
6. Gather together the remaining pastry and re-roll to a 0.5 cm thick, round shape. Roll the pastry onto the rolling pin, and roll over the pie dish to cover the apples. Slice off the pastry overhang. Pinch together the two pastry layers to seal.
7. Make three small slits in the top of the pie to let steam escape. Make shapes to decorate the pie with the pastry offcuts if desired.
8. Sprinkle with sugar or brush with milk if desired (I did not do this and it turned out fine).
9. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes.
10. Serve with cream, vanilla ice-cream or custard.

Tiramisu trifle

My new recipe for this weekend was Tiramisu Trifle from a BBC Good Food book. Things I learnt while making this recipe:

1. Mascarpone mixed with custard tastes really good.
2. Sponge fingers soak up liquid a lot quicker than you would think. I put about 8 in the coffee/amaretto at the same time and by the time I got to lifting the last one out it was totally soggy.
3. Amaretto is pretty strong, especially when disguised by other tastes.

Anyway, it turned out pretty well - at least, I enjoyed it and my parents seemed to. Nick wasn't so keen though!


Tiramisu trifle
500g mascarpone mixed with 500g fresh custard
90g chopped dark chocolate
175g sponge fingers
175ml amaretto mixed with 300ml strong black coffee
Mixed nuts and/or cocoa powder

1. Dip one third of the sponge fingers into the coffee mixture one by one, and lay them in a trifle dish. They should be soft but not soggy (leave a bit of bite in them).
2. Top with one third of the mascarpone mixture and one third of the chocolate.
3. Repeat twice to use up all the ingredients.
4. Top with mixed nuts and/or a sprinkling of cocoa powder.

Takes about 15 minutes, tastes great.

Creme brulee

For a while now I have been on a mission to cook a perfect creme brulee. My first two attempts were not great. The taste was fine, but the texture was gloopy, thin, and all wrong. However, I now believe I have found a foolproof recipe. I'm now thinking about other flavours I could make. Chocolate? Cardamom? Coffee? Citrus?

(The side benefit of making creme brulee or any kind of custard is that there are eggs whites left over, and egg whites mean... pavlova!)

Pavlova, painting, and chicken en croute

This weekend, I achieved Goal #29: Make a perfect pavlova (perfection is hard to define, but I thought it was really, really good). Having attempted twice before to make a fluffy, marshmallowy meringue that does not go all gloopy and flat when cooked, this time I managed to get it just right. Here's how.

Pavlova - serves 6-8
3 large eggs, very fresh and at room temperature
160g caster sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
1 dessertspoon vinegar (white or malt)
300ml whipped cream
A bit of custard or yoghurt (optional)
Fresh fruit

Preheat oven to 180C.
Separate the eggs (use the yolks for creme brulee, custard, or lemon curd).
Using an electric handwhisk, whisk the eggs on the fastest speed for 5 minutes.
With the whisk still running, add the sugar a teaspoon at a time for a marshmallowy texture, or all at once for a hard meringue.
Reduce the whisk speed to the slowest setting. Add the vinegar and sift in the cornflour, and gently whisk in.
On a tray lined with greaseproof paper, blob the meringue mixture into a large circle, oblong, or individual shapes. Make a dip in the middle to hold the cream filling.
Put the meringue in the oven and reduce the temperature to 130C. Bake for one hour. Turn off the oven but leave the meringue inside until completely cool.
Just before serving, top the meringue with whipped cream mixed with a bit of custard or yoghurt if you like, and fresh fruit.

My other completed task this weekend was painting the radiators in our hallway and kitchen (#49). They look much better now. Once I've finished painting the woodwork in our hallway, it will finally be finished!

I made a new recipe as part of Goal #32: chicken en croute. It wasn't that tasty though. I think it would be nicer to stuff the chicken with boursin or herby cream cheese or goats cheese mixed with sun-dried tomatoes. We used left-over stuffing as a topping for baked chicken breasts the next day, and added some marjoram which improved the flavour. Using corn-fed chicken and/or seasoning the chicken really well would probably make a real difference too.

Things I've done this weekend

1. Made a pavlova for the first time.
2. Made dumplings for the first time.
3. Made a roman blind for the first time.

Conclusion: all three very good both in terms of fun had and end results.

Photographic evidence of the pavolva:

My meringue ended up like one large slab, but because I whipped the cream well and mixed a small pot of custard in with it, it stayed on top nicely. 

Pavolva recipe:

Whisk 4 medium egg whites until firm.

Add 200g caster sugar bit by bit.

Spoon onto a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for 1 hour at 140 degrees.

Turn the oven off and leave it in there until cool.

Add the topping just before serving: 300ml double cream, whipped until thick then mixed with a small pot of custard, and topped with fruit.