Showing posts with label Butter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Butter. Show all posts

Brownies...


So, brownies: overdone? maybe. Well I'm quite particular when it comes to brownies; not too soggy, not too dry, crispy edge etc. So, where better to turn than trusty Nigel Slater for a recipe. He gets this kind of thing. And I can safely say he gets it right again. This is where I'm going to turn for brownies from now on.

Ingredients:
• 300g Caster Sugar
• 250g Butter
• 250g Dark Chocolate
• 3 Eggs & 1 Yolk
• 60g Plain flour
• 60g Cocoa Powder
• Half teaspoon Baking Powder

Method:
• Preheat oven to 180°C and line a 22cm square tin.
• Beat butter and sugar together throughly.
• Break the chocolate up and melt 200g of it, set aside to cool slightly. Chop the remaining.
• Gradually beat in the eggs into the butter and sugar, then mix in all the chocolate.
• Fold in the sifted dry ingredients, then pour into the tin.
• Bake for 30 minutes until slightly risen and a skewer comes out slightly less than clean. Cool before cutting up.
Read more

Welsh Cakes...

Well, St. David's day is approaching, so it seems a good time to put these on the blog.

I had always been told you couldn't make good Welsh Cakes without a cast iron griddle, but thought it was worth a go anyway. Turns out it was. I'm sure they could be slightly improved on a griddle but with some patience in the heaviest pan you've got it's worth a go.

In case you don't know, which if you don't live in Wales you might not, Welsh Cakes are similar to a fruit scone but rolled flatter and cooked on a griddle rather than in the oven. They tend to be a bit moister too, dusted with sugar and really moreish.

For something like this you can rely on Delia, so that's where I turned for a simple recipe.

Ingredients:
• 8oz Self-Raising Flour
• 4oz Butter
• 3oz Mixed Dried Fruit/Sultanas
• 3oz Caster Sugar
• 1 Egg
• half-teaspoon Mixed Spice

Method:
• Sift the flour, 2oz sugar and spice together and then mix in the fruit.
• Rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Beat the egg and slowly mix in, drawing the dry mix in to the centre, to form a smooth dough. You can add a small splash of milk if it's a bit crumbly, but not too much as you don't want it sticky.
• Roll out on a floured surface to about 5mm thick, cut into rounds.
• Heat a heavy frying pan (or griddle) on a medium heat, with a little oil rubbed over it to grease.
• When the pan's hot, put 3 or 4 of the rounds in and cook gently for about 3 minutes each side. They'll slightly puff up, but you'll barely notice it.
• Keep an eye on them as you don't want them charred (although some people prefer that in Wales), when they're done, pop them out, toss in the remaining sugar and cool on a rack.

(Makes at least 20. When you get on a roll, you can have some cooking, whilst you roll and cut the others)


Notes:
• Done-ness is up to you. I like to keep the centre still slightly moist, but some people will like it more thoroughly cooked. Whatever happens each will be a bit different as the pan will vary in temperature, their thicknesses will be different and you'll probably not time the cooking to the second.
Read more

Flan Pâtissier...

Every time we’ve been to France recently there’s been some irrational obsession and anticipation about having a slice of ‘flan’. This is usually followed by the inevitable, equally irrational over-eating of said ‘flan’. In an attempt to meet this need the rest of the year, I have done some searching for the ‘flan’ recipe online, but with only that one word to go on, the results were variable. Then I spotted this box of flan mix in a French supermarket, which surely was going to be the answer to our need for flan the year round. It was worth a gamble for €1.15.

As it happens, when we got it home I realised that the box simply contains cornflour, vanilla flavouring and colouring. You have to add milk, sugar and, if you want to improve the flavour, an egg (On that note, make sure you add the sugar – long story); so really we already had everything we needed in the cupboard.

It was obvious really, but now I know it’s called Flan Pâtissier as I’ve seen it on the box, and a quick google reveals loads of authentic, egg-based recipes I can try, so look out for flan version 2 in the future.

• Line a fairly deep tart tin or cake tin with a rich shortcrust pastry, and bake blind so the pastry is cooked before adding the filling
• Beat the egg, sugar, 250ml of milk and the packet mix together in a bowl/jug
• Meanwhile bring the rest of the milk to the boil slowly, stirring all the time so it doesnt catch.
• When it has boiled, por it over the egg mixture and stir together thoroughly
• Return to the pan and simmer for 1-2 minutes until the custard begins to thicken up
• Pour into the crust and bake for around 40 minutes at 180°C until the crust is well browned.
• Cool for at least 2 hours in the fridge before slicing and serving.

Notes:
• A rich pastry can be made quickly by combining 8oz of plain flour, with 3oz of butter to resemble breadcrumbs. Then bind the mixture with an egg and a little milk. It can be sweetened with 2 or 3 spoons of icing sugar.
• Curiously the box recipe does not call for pastry, but says you can butter the dish and dust with flour. This does work, and it holds together fine, but really you want pastry!
Read more

Peanut Butter & White Choc Brownies...

This is one of a few things that I made for my birthday. These mini brownies (or blondies) were ideal to take into work to share around. For us it was a given that we'd like them, peanut butter being something of a favourite. To me, the end result is not so much like a brownie, but is a very tasty, dense mini cake with the perfect contrast of salty and sweet from the peanut butter and white chocolate respectively. Moreish.

• Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar together. Beat in the egg and vanilla essence.
• Sift the flour and baking powders and add to the mixture with the chocolate chipe to form a dough.
• Spread into a square tin and bake at 170°C for 25 minutes until golden brown.
• Cool in the tin before slicing.

Notes:
• Taken from
Rachel Allen's Bake
Read more

Viennese Whirls...



I recently decided to 'resurrect' these biscuits. They follow a family recipe of my aunt's and I'd not had them for years.

Forget Mr. Kipling's, and make your own very quickly and very easily. These are seriously simple, but so tasty.

• Preheat oven to 150°C
• In a food processor (or by hand) mix 6 oz butter and 2 oz icing sugar until creamy.
• Blend in 6 oz self raising flour and 2 oz custard powder.
• Spoon into small teaspoon-sized blobs onto a baking sheet and press down with a fork to flatten/pattern (or use a piping bag for a swirl if you'd prefer a true 'whirl').
• Bake for 10-15 minutes until slightly golden.
• Leave to cool for around half an hour.

Filling:
• Beat together butter and icing sugar (about a 1:4 ratio) until creamy.
• Spread generous blob of icing on a biscuit.
• Spoon a little jam onto the centre of that and sandwich another biscuit on top.
• To finish dust with a little icing sugar.

Notes:
• If you dont have custard powder you can also use a mixture of cornflour, vanilla essence and yellow colouring as this what custard powder is made from anyway.
• If the jam is quite sticky, blast it in the microwave for 10 seconds or so to loosen up.
Read more

Traybake...

We've been wondering how I've had this blog going for the best part of a year and not yet posted this recipe? It's one of my family signature snacks, so it was always going to end up on here. The truth is that I think I simply hadn't made it in that time; you might say it was taking a bit of a break, but this time it certainly came back with a bang. One of the best batches ever made.

There are tonnes of chocolate and bicuit based fridge-set traybake (just 'traybake' for short) recipes out there, they all offer something slightly different. I've experimented with various additions and quantities in developing this over the years and settled roughly at the recipe you'll see below. It's a development of my Grandma's recipe, which has been a staple at many a family get together and always eagerly looked forward to. You can muck around with it, but please (for mine and my Grandma's sake) don't switch the biscuits for Ginger Nuts and don't add marshmallows. That's not traybake.

...well, go on muck around if you must. That's what baking's about, but keep it quiet.

• Melt the butter and chocolate in a pan over a very low heat. Keep an eye on it, stirring often.
• Meanwhile, crush the biscuits and hazelnuts in a mixing bowl with the end of a rolling pin. You want a good variety of biscuit piece sizes, ranging from around 1p coins to dust. If you want my opinion it's best at around 25% larger pieces, the remainder as dust. You just need to crack the hazelnuts.
• Add the fruit and coconut to the bowl and stir through.
• Drizzle the condensed milk over the mix then pour in the chocolate and stir thoroughly.
• Press down flat in a 20 x 20cm tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate until set.
• When it is set, cut into squares or if you want, melt a further 4oz of chocolate and spread over the top and set before cutting.

Notes:
• The condensed milk is a 397ml can so you want about 200ml. It keeps for a week or so (maybe longer??) in a container in the fridge so you can make another batch.
Read more

Hazelnut Cake...

This cake is divine. I saw it and wanted it immediately. But... we didn't have enought hazelnuts so had to wait. It's taken directly from Rachel Allen's Bake, with no modification besides the decorating (although i found it more practical to do things in a different order). There's no flour, just ground hazelnuts so the end result is moist, whilst the whipped egg whites keep it light. Sorry this photo is so boring, it doesn't to the cake justice really (see it in a different guise) but believe me* it tastes good.

Ingredients:
• 200g Hazelnuts
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 100g Butter
• 5 Eggs, separated
• 175g Caster Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Method:
• Preheat oven to 170°C and line a tin with baking paper.
• Grind the hazelnuts on the food processor until finely ground; blend in the baking powder, cinnamon and butter to a coarse paste.
• In a bowl, whisk the egg whites thoroughly until you have stiff peaks.
• In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until moussey, then add the hazelnut mixture.
• Fold the whites into the hazelnut mix in 3 stages.
• Pour into the tin and bake for 55-60 minutes until the edges are coming away from the pan.
• It is suggested you don't open the oven during cooking until close to the end of the time.
• Cool for approximately 10 minutes in the tin before turning out to cool fully.
• Decorate with a little buttercream icing and chopped hazelnuts.

Notes:
* Don't take my word for it. I made this for a cake competition and came away with 'Best Tasting'.
Read more

Grandma's Fruit Loaf...

This recipe of my Grandma's produces you a lovely moist, yet light fruit loaf with a subtle caramel/malt-y flavour. It's the ultimate fruit loaf. Well, if Grandma makes it that is. If anyone else tries you end up with something acceptable, but the magic isn't quite there. This is my latest attempt and was pretty decent considering I didn't have the 'secret' ingredient in.

The original recipe is for 2 loaves, which is why I accidentally photographed 2 eggs.

• Melt butter, sugar and half a cup of water in a pan over a medium heat.
• Add the fruit and leave to cool.
• Combine flour and nuts with 2 tablespoons of Horlicks (secret ingredient), then fold in the flour and the egg (beaten).
• Bake for about 1 hour at 150-160°C. You may want to cover the top half way so the fruit doesn't burn.

Read more

Easter Pudding...

I spotted this idea in an M&S magazine that was lying around. We didn't make it for Easter, but rather the week after when they were selling Hot Cross Buns off cheaply. It is essentially a bread and butter pudding, with the addition of some chopped apple. At any other time of the year you could make this with fruit buns or fruit loaf of course, there's no reason for it to be Hot Cross Buns.

Ingredients:
• 12 Hot Cross Buns
• 400ml Double Cream/Single Cream/Milk blend (depending on how rich you want it)
• 2 or 3 Eggs
• 50g Demerara Sugar
• 3 small dessert Apples
• Butter

Method:
• Slice and butter the buns, arrange in a greased tray so the tops are showing.
• Chop the apples into cubes and spread liberally amongst the buns.
• Beat the eggs and stir in the milk/cream. Pour over the buns.
• Sprinkle sugar generously over the top.
• Bake for 30 minutes at 170°C until the custard is set.

(Serves 12)

Notes:
• The original recipe added pears, we only had apples in at the time.
• I added some vanilla syrup (the stuff you'd add to coffee) drizzled over then buns. I can't prove this made it tastier, but it seemed a good idea if you have somehting like that around.
Read more

Crumble Topped Fruit Muffins...

I seem to make so many cupcake/muffins at the moment. Well, unfortunately here's another. In my defence I started out intending to make this in tray cake format, then at the last minute decided I'd rather portion it up.

The idea is simple, based upon a classic fruit crumble dessert, but turned into a cake. You can try any tasty fruit you like, just make sure there's plenty of them. Having made these with 4 or 5 blackberries per cake I'd say it could easily handle twice that number, or maybe even some cubed apple too. Chunks of rhubarb would be nice.

I put a nice sprinkling of crumble on top of each cake before baking, which, once the cake mixture had risen around it, turned out to be barely noticeable. Next time I'll thoroughly top it off with crumble.

• Make a basic sponge muffin mixture by creaming butter and sugar, adding eggs and folding in self raising four (150g of each and 3 eggs).
• Spoon this into muffin cases, about two-thirds full.
• Drop several blackberries/fruit chunks on top and press into the batter.
• Make a crumble mix with the plain and wholemeal flour blend, remaining sugar, oats and cinnamon (other spices are good too). Blend in the butter gradually; you need it to just begin coming together and form lumps, but not quite become dough.
• Sprinkle generously on top of muffins.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180°C

(Makes 12)

Notes:
• You might need more butter than the 50g in the ingredients for crumble, I didn't weigh it out so took a guess.
Read more

Quiche...

I'd been wanting to make a quiche for quite a long time, but just never got around to it. Well, finally did it and the result was really tasty. Obviously you can add whatever you fancy to the basic mixture, I added chunks of feta cheese, peppers and tomatoes which proved a very tasty combination of sweet and salty.

Ingredients:
6 Eggs
150ml Single Cream
200g Plain Flour
100g Butter
Cold Water
100g Cheese

• To make the pastry, blend the flour and butter together then combine to a soft dough with a little cold water. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Roll out to 3-4mm thick and use to line a 20cm tart tray.
• Blind bake the pastry case for 10-15 minutes at 180°C (weighed down with pulses or similar)
• Whilst the pastry is baking, fry seom chopped onions and any other vegetables you want in the filling for a few minutes until softened.
• Remove the pastry from the oven and sprinkle a little grated cheese in the base along with the vegetables and fillings.
• Beat the eggs and cream together, season, then pour into the pastry case.
• Top with the remaining grated cheese then bake for 30 minutes at 180°C until golden on top and egg is set.

(serves 6)

Read more

Peaches & Cream Cupcakes...

These are taken from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. They're quite a moist cake, with sweet mouthfulls of peach.

Ingredients:
120g Plain Flour
140g Caster Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
40g Butter
120ml Milk
1 Egg
Vanilla Extract
400g Peach slices

• Beat the flour, sugar, baking powder and butter together in a mixer until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Beat the egg and milk together with a little vanilla essence, then pour in gradually, mixing until smooth.
• Fill paper cases two-thirds full and top with a couple of peach slices in each.
• Bake in a preheated oven (170°C) for 20 minutes.
• Cool and decorate with buttercream icing, sprinkled with a little brown sugar.

Notes:
• Icing: 250g Icing Sugar, 80g Butter, 25ml Milk, vanilla essence
• Makes 12


Read more

Banana, Honey & Oat Muffins...

I think this was defintiely one of those 'inspired' cooking moments. We had the obligatory blackening bananas hanging around waiting to be 'caked', but I didn't fancy the usual go-to banana cake this time. So, I thought muffins would be a good idea. Somehow I came up with oats and honey; the result was a moist, yet light, incredibly tasty muffin with a hint of coarse oaty texture. Perfect any time of day.

Ingredients:
5oz Butter
4oz Sugar
2 Eggs
2 Bananas
2 tsp Honey
7oz Flour
Handful of Oats

• Cream butter and sugar in a food processor.
• Mash the banana, honey and eggs together in a bowl to make your wet mixture.
• Add to the food processor.
• Quickly combine the oats and flour to the mixture.
• Place into muffin cases, sprinkle a few extra oats on top and bake for 20-25 mins until golden brown and spongy to touch.
• Turn out onto a cooling rack and whilst cooling drizzle a little warmed honey (10 seconds in microwave) on top of each muffin.

(Makes 12)
Read more

Flapjacks...

Butter. Sugar. Oats. Syrup. So simple, yet so good. Flapjacks have always been quite legendary in my family. We tend to know this as ‘Dad’s Flapjacks’ recipe, though I’m not entirely sure why. It could be because Dad likes them just like this or maybe it’s his recipe. Best if it remains a mystery.

• Melt butter, sugar and syrup in a large saucepan over a low heat.
• Stir in the oats thoroughly.
• Press into a large tin lined with baking paper.
• Bake for 10-15 minutes at 160°C.
• Cool in the tin, before turning out and cutting into slices.

Notes:
• All sorts can be added to the mixture as you wish. Particularly good is Cornflakes.

• If I use cheap (value) oats I up the quantity to 14oz.

• Do not overcook or they will be dry and hard. Stop cooking as soon as the edges are golden brown, the centre will firm up once it is taken out of the oven.
Read more

ChocNut Squares...

Make. These.
I discovered these on Eat and Be Happy, another blog I've been reading. I couldn't resist the temptation of peanut butter and chocolate and promptly gave them a go myself. I had to adapt the recipe from cups into grams, and in so doing made a few modifications to the overall process. This included changing the base from a syrupy krispies to classic chocolate krispies base.

These need some refrigeration to set and are best kept in the fridge as the chocolate topping and peanut butter centre are so good when set and fudgey. As an alternative, you could substitute the fudge topping for straightforward chocolate like a caramel shortbread. I think the crackling of a thick chocolate topping as you bite into a square would seriously add to the eating experience.

• Melt the milk chocolate and 1 tbsp syrup. Stir into the rice krispies and press into the bottom of a lined 20 x 20cm tin.
• Set aside to harden.
• Meanwhile, melt 150g dark chocolate and the peanut butter in a pan over a low heat.
• Pour this over the rice krispie mixture and spread evenly. Place in the fridge to cool.
• After an hour of chilling, make the fudge topping.
• Melt the rest of the dark chocolate, the butter and 2 tbsp syrup in a pan over a low heat. Stir in the cocoa powder once melted.
• Allow to cool slightly in the pan for 5 minutes, then pour into the tin and spread over the top.
• Cool for a further hour until set, then turn out and cut into squares.

Notes:
• Makes about 25 squares
• Best kept refrigerated.
Read more

Lemon Sponge Fingers...

I've been featuring a lot of cakes recently, so hopefully you have a sweet tooth. These don't need a lot saying about them, it's just a simple lemon cake cut into small pieces.

• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs, gradually with a little flour if necessary
• Fold in the flour and 1 lemon's juice.
• Pour into a 20 x 20cm tin and bake at 170°C for 25 minutes.
• Turn out and cool on a rack.
• Meanwhile, mix your icing with the other lemon's juice and the icing sugar to a consistency that will spread easily, but not run off the cake.
• Ice the cooled cake and sprinkle the top with zest from your lemons.
• Cut into 'finger' slices.
Read more

Chicken & Leek Pasties...

I was looking for something different to make for lunch and came across a Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe for these pasties. I didn't follow the recipe as such, but went along with the idea of it and was pleased with the results.

Pastry:
• Blend the flour and butter until they resemble breadcrumbs and bind together with cold water to form a dough.
• Roll the dough out to 5mm thick, fold back into a square, re-roll and repeat for or 5 times. This gives you a slightly flaky pastry.
• Chill the dough for an hour or so and meanwhile make the filling.

Filling:
• Chop the leek and onion and fry gently in some oil.
• Meanwhile, trim and chop the chicken into fairly small pieces that will cook relatively qucikly (1cm cubes); add to the frying pan and cook until beginning to brown.
• Whilst this is going on dice the potatoes and boil separately, until quite soft.
• When both are ready combine in the pan and mix together quite roughly to break up the potatoes and combine all the flavours. Season with salt & pepper.
• Set aside to cool.

Assembly:
• Rollout the pastry to 3-4mm thick and cut out 20-22cm diameter rounds
• Place a heap of the filling on one half of each. Brush some milk or egg around the edge of the circle then fold over and crimp together with your fingers.
• Place on a baking tray, brush with beaten egg and cook at 190°C for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Notes:
• Add some chopped smoked bacon to improve flavours.

Read more

Bakewell Slices...

A classic cake slice, so much nicer when you make it yourself with the hint of real almonds, rather than the fake strong almond essence flavouring.


Pastry base:
(Requires 150g flour and 75g butter)
• Blend the butter and flour to the breadcrumb stage, then bind with a little cold water, milk or beaten egg, whichever you prefer. You can sweeten the pastry a little with some icing sugar if you like but it's not necessary.
• To keep things simple I pressed this dough mixture into 2 greased 20cm sandwich tins to approx 3mm thickness. You can of course roll it out and line the tin that way for slightly better results!
• Spread jam over the pastry and bake at 170°C for 5-10 minutes until it is beginning to harden slightly.
• Remove from the oven and cool in the tins.

Cake:
• Beat butter and sugar until creamed and fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs and fold in the flour and ground almonds.
• Pour/spread over the jam tarts to no more than 1cm deep.
• Sprinkle flaked almonds over the top then bake at 170°C for 20-30 minutes until golden on top.
• Cool in the tins slightly then remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
• Mix the icing sugar with a little water until the consistency is just runny enough to drizzle over the tarts.

Notes:
• Makes 2 x 20cm tarts, 8-10 slices per tart. Could use a 22cm square tin or individual tarts.
• Raspberry or blackcurrant jam is best
Read more

Black Bottom Cupcakes...

We received the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook for Christmas, and so with a friend's birthday on 1st January it seemed the ideal occasion to try something out. I chose these Black Bottom Cupcakes. The idea is simple, chocolate cake topped with a blob of cheesecake. They look tasty and are tasty... although I think I will make some modifications next time to make them even tastier!

Cake:
190g Plain Flour
120g Caster Sugar
2 tbsp Cocoa
½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
40ml Sunflower Oil
125ml Water
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
(the recipe also lists 1½ tsp White vinegar, but I can't remember using that so am guessing I didn't!)

Cheesecake:
250g Cream cheese
60g Caster Sugar
1 Egg
½tsp Vanilla Extract
100g Milk Chocolate Chips

Icing:
250g Icing Sugar
80g Butter
25ml Milk
Drop of Vanilla Extract

• Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarb together, then add the oil, vinegar, vanilla and water.
• Spoon the mixture into muffin cases to about 2/3 full.
• To make the cheesecake bit, beat all the ingredients except the chocolate in a bowl with an electric whisk on a medium speed until light and fluffy (roughly the consistency of loose whipped cream). Stir in the chocolate chips gently.
• Spoon on top of the cake mixture and bake in a preheated oven (170°C) for about 20 minutes (until the cheesecake topping is slightly golden at the edges.
• Whilst the cakes cool, beat the icing ingredients together until pale and fluffy.
• Decorate the cakes and dust with cocoa or chocolate shavings.

•Notes:
• Officially this mixture makes 12. For me the cake mix made 9 and the cheescake about 18, so next time I shoudl probably have a bit less cake and a bit more cheesecake per muffin and it'll be about 12!
• Also, the recipe calls for 140g cream cheese, I couldn't get this to thicken up without the extra 100g.
Read more

Mince Pies (from scratch)...

Mince Pies are Christmas essentials. There's loads of choice out there in the shops; deep fill, luxury, shortcrust, puff, lattice, big, small... However, they just aren't ever quite the same as ones you make yourself. This year I felt inspired to give homemade mincemeat a go, and turned to Delia for a recipe.

I was pleasanty surprised how simple it is, and so tasty too! Everyone should give it a go, you'll never look back.

Mincemeat: I followed Delia's recipe, except using pre-ground nutmeg as I couldn't get hold of fresh. Can't see this being a problem.
I've got some thoughts for variation below though.
This recipe makes LOADS of mince pies, so you'll have them coming out of your ears.

Pastry:
200g Plain Flour
100g Butter
1 Egg
2tbsp Icing Sugar

• Blend (by hand or mixer) the flour, icing sugar and butter to the breadcrumb stage.
• Add the egg to bind it together.
• Chill for an hour or so then roll out, cut into rounds and line a tart tin.
• Fill with a small teaspoon of mincemeat and top with smaller circles or christmassy shapes.
• Bake in a preheated oven (180°C) for 15-20 mins until golden brown.
• Cool on a rack and dust with icing sugar.
(makes at least 20)

Notes:
Potential variation ideas for the mincemeat...
• Add cranberries, should sharpen it up a bit.
• Add chopped dried apricot and use Amaretto liquer instead of brandy.
Read more