An Indulgent Bread and Butter Pudding

It's been a slow start to 2014 in many ways. Not a lot of walking, though to be fair, given the weather of the last few months it would have been more squelching than walking. Did a walk in January and that's been it so far this year. Thought I had blogged it but apparently not. Ooops... Guess I'll have to post it next.

Not much serious cooking either for one reason or another. At least nothing I've wanted to blog about... Still, feeling like I might be getting a bit of mojo back there. Thank you someone for the prod!

So bread and butter pudding. Classic British pudding. On the one hand it can be a great way to make something from some bread that's gone past it's best. On the other hand it can be made much more indulgent with a bit if planning.

These ingredients are for 1 pint (600ml) dish.

Brioche Fingers - 6
Orange marmalade
Raisins / Sultanas
Milk - 175mls
Double cream - 50mls
Eggs - 2
Caster Sugar - 12g
All Spice
Butter


Slice the brioche fingers in 2 and put a thin layer of marmalade on each one.
Grease the dish with butter and layer the brioche into the dish scattering some of the raisins / sultanas in as you go. Add a generous pinch of all spice (or nutmeg if you prefer) over the top.

Next make the custard. beat 2 eggs with the sugar in a bowl. Then add the milk and cream to a pan and heat the mix so it scalds (don't burn it). Add this mix to the egg /sugar mix slowly mixing as you go. This custard can then be poured over the bread. Preferably give it time to soak into the brioche (I left it for a couple of hours), otherwise just scatter a bit more caster sugar over the top now.

Put into an oven at 180C for about 35 mins (take out when nice and golden on top).

Serve hot. I poured over some more double creme (with a little vanilla extract) but ice cream or more custard would work well too.


Sorry there aren't any photos. Trust me though - it was delicious!

A simple supper...

A couple of weeks ago a friend came round for dinner and a catch up. No pictures as it seemed a bit rude to be taking pictures of the food whilst cooking and generally having a good chinwag. The meal was delicious though (even if I do say so myself) and on that basis I will at least talk about the meal.

I wanted to do something which I could prepare while waiting for my friend to arrive and which would then be quick and easy to make whilst being sociable and starting on the wine.  

A leaf through the recipe books for some ideas and I came up with this:

Chicken and Mozzarella wrapped in Parma Ham, mashed potato and a Tarragon Beurre Blanc.

Mashed potato: take some nice floury potatoes (not waxy ones). Cut up into small pieces and place in a pan of water. Add some salt and bring to the boil. Then allow to simmer until the potatoes are just starting to break up. At this point, drain the water and add a a splash of milk, small knob of butter and some pepper and then mash it all together with your weapon of choice. I tend to use a fork if the potatoes are soft enough as, frankly, a proper masher is a pain to clean afterwards. Just make sure you’ve got rid of the lumps!

The main part of the meal is simplicity itself - take a chicken breast, put some generous slices of mozzarella on top and wrap the lot up with some Parma ham. Put this onto a baking tray and cook in the oven for 25 minutes (200C).

Tarragon Beurre Blanc sauce - finely chop 2 challots and place in a saucepan with 4 tablespoons of vermouth (or dry white wine) and 2½ tablespoons white wine vinegar. Bring the liquid to the boil and keep boiling and stirring until the liquid has almost gone. At this point turn the heat right down and then take 250g of cold butter and add it a chunk at a time. Put each chunk of butter into the pan and keep whisking. Add the next chunk just before the previous one has completely melted. The idea is to create an emulsion of butter and the remaining liquid. When all the butter is incorporated sieve out the challots and add 1-2 tablespoons of chopped tarragon. Be careful with the temperature as too cold and the butter won’t melt, too hot and the butter will separate (cool it down with an ice cube).

Place the mash and chicken on the plate and pour the sauce over the top. Thoroughly enjoyed by the pair of us with a good dry Muscat.

Date and Walnut loaf (with added chocolatiness)

Confession time - I’ve changed a Mary Berry recipe! I hear sharp intakes of breath up and down the land as I type this, but, I’m baking it so what the hell. Like many (I suspect) amateur foodies I have a collection of cookbooks. Sometimes I will actually follow the recipe, but, more often than not I will go fiddling with it in some way. In other words I use them for ideas and inspiration.

This bake started off as the Date and Chocolate Loaf in the Mary Berry Baking Bible (ISBN 978-1-846-07785-2) but I decided to substitute Brazil nuts for Walnuts (well date and walnut is a classic combination) as well as adding some extra demerara sugar to the mix for a bit more toffee richness.

Anyway - how to make it. Stone and chop the dates and then place them in a bowl with the boiling water and leave them to soak. While they are soaking break up the chocolate and melt this gently in a ban marie along with the butter.

Next break up the walnuts - easiest way I’ve found to do this is to put them in some strong foil and just give them a quick bashing with a rolling pin. Keep a small amount back to sprinkle on top of the cake.

Now (once your chocolate has all melted) it’s time to bring stuff together. In a bowl mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarb. Beat the egg into the milk and then stir this into the dry ingredients well. Continue mixing while adding the nuts, dates (and the water they soaked in) and chocolate/butter mix.

Once well mixed pour it into a lined 2lb loaf tin and then sprinkle the top with the left over nuts and plenty of demerara sugar. Place in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about an hour and 10 minutes in my oven. Once a skewer comes out clean remove from oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack.

Ingredients:

150 grams stoned dates

150 mls boiling water

150 gram plain chocolate (use a good one 70% + cocoa solids)

40 grams butter

150 grams walnuts

225 grams plain flour

40 grams caster sugar

10 grams demerara sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 large egg

150 mls milk

My only other comment (word of caution?) is that with all the demerera sprinkled over it the top gets quite a crunchy glaze. Tastes lovely when eaten but makes it quite hard to slice as the top breaks up a bit under the knife. Doesn't necessarily look so pretty when sliced. However, it was unanimously declared delicious and 10 hungry walkers can't all be wrong can they?

Finally, I'm going to enter this for Alphabakes. Hosted this month by Caroline of Caroline Makes... (as well as Ros The more than occasional baker) the letter is D. D for Dates.

An Honest Tarte Tartin...

The end result!

Something from Tuesday evening - Why a Tarte Tartin I hear you ask. Well, having seen the contestants on Celebrity Masterchef last week make a bit of a hash of it I uttered the words beloved of insurance companies everywhere…”How hard can it be?”

After all, caramel, apples, pastry, oven...nothing to it is there?

Well the answer to the question is not as hard as some of them made it look, but, not quite as easy as I thought it would be either…

To start off we need to make some caramel. Fine thinks I. Frying pan, 3 tablespoons or so of water and then add 150g caster sugar. Mix the sugar into the water and then gently heat until the mixture starts to caramelise. Mistake number 1: If you are going to add cinnamon, don’t do it now as the mix instantly turns a caramel colour and you can’t tell what the sugar is doing… Anyway, unable to see what it was doing I kept it on the heat stirring it to try and see when it got to the right consistency. What happened - the sugar crystalized all of a sudden. I assumed I had let it get a bit too dry so added some apple brandy to the pan and most of the sugar did seem to dissolve again. Mistake number 2 and disaster averted (a point to which I will return).

At this point off the heat and add the slices of apple to the pan. I suspect that apples such as Cox’s or Granny Smith would probably work best but I used what I happened to have (Mistake number 3), a mix of 2 overly ripe Braeburns and 2 Pink Ladies. In hindsight something a little less juicy would have been better. Try to arrange the apple slices neatly as they will be seen remember! (Mistake number 4).

Once done add the pastry on top of the apples. I used puff pastry from the supermarket but you can use shortcrust or even make your own if you are feeling daring! Once the pastry is in place put it in the oven (190C for 30 mins or until the pastry is golden).

So, at this point I’m feeling fairly smug; caramel rescued, cinnamon to go with the apples and a boozy little kick from the apple brandy. Sounds good to me anyway. So, having got it in the oven in the nick of time I could sit down and watch Great British Bake Off (I promise I don’t just watch cookery shows). First thing they have to make: Tarte Tartin! OK, lets see how they do? Some of them looked divine, others...not quite so sure. That said I’m not feeling quite so smug anymore as Paul Hollywood explains to one of the contestants that the reason their sugar crystalized is because they were stirring it. Apparently you just give an initial stir to mix the sugar and water, after that leave it alone!

You stand accused of stirring the sugar...How do you plead? Guilty M’Lud…

Anyway, 30 minutes is up and I get it out of the oven. Pastry looks nicely looked, certainly smells good. Get a plate over the pan and quickly turn it over...and dribble hot, runny caramel over the worktop. Could have been worse - could have been my foot and at least all this caramel (which I presume has come from the juicy apples) has dissolved all the sugar. The other problem is that this liquid is now turing what was a nice crispy top into a soggy bottom!

So why am I blogging this? Well, I’m not a professional chef and I don’t claim to be perfect in a kitchen. Secondly, you can learn from my mistakes. Thirdly, despite the above, it tasted great - lovely caramel apples, cinnamon and a bit of warmth off the brandy. So what if the pastry had gone a bit soggy, I still enjoyed it!

So, what would I do differently next time?

• Add the cinnamon later…
• Don’t stir the sugar…
• Less juicy apples and, having done a bit more reading, slice them the day before so they then can dry out a bit in the fridge. yes they will discolour but you won’t see that once cooked in the caramel...
• Arrange the apples nicely...

Bakewell Muffins

I'm putting this post up as a friend has asked for the recipe. Unfortunately, I haven't made these for a while (and a diet means I'm unlikely to in the near future) so no photos, but, hopefully the explanation will be clear enough.

The idea was for a muffin which played upon the idea of a Bakewell Tart or Pudding. i.e. an almond and raspberry muffin. The basic almond muffin was based upon a recipe off the WWW but I can't remember where I found it now to credit it. Sorry. Anyway, here is the recipe:


Ingredients:
(for 12 muffins)

250g plain flour
120g granulated sugar
100g ground almonds
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
250mls milk
90 mls corn oil
2 tsp almond essence
1 egg
~3 tbsp raspberry jam
100g white chocolate

Method:

1) Mix together the flour, sugar, almonds, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
2) In a separate bowl beat the egg and stir in the milk, almond flavoring and corn oil. Mix well.
3) Combine the wet and dry ingredients until evenly mixed.
4) Line a muffin tray with paper cases. Use half the mix to cover the bottom of each muffin case.
5) Put a small blob of raspberry jam in the middle of each muffin case on top of the mix that is already there. About a ½ tsp per muffin.
6) Use the rest of the muffin mix to fill the cases ensuring the jam is covered.
7) Put in a preheated oven at 200C for 20-25 minutes.
8) Place on a rack to cool.
9) When cool they are read for the topping. Place the chocolate in a ban marie and gently melt. Once melted put a blob on each muffin and spread evenly over the top. Allow the chocolate to cool and set again.
10) Eat and enjoy!


Hopefully I've not offended any Bakewell Tart or Pudding purists. This isn't meant to be "authentic", merely a really good muffin that has been inspired by the real thing.

Strawberry and mint swirls.

Simple, quick and easy to make these are a great summer snack / party food.

Inspired by the Lemon and Pistachio Pinwheels in Marian Keyes' Saved by Cake (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saved-Cake-Marian-Keyes/dp/071815889X) these are sweet yet somehow refreshing with the mint.

Ingredients:
Ready made puff pastry - 1 sheet (this is supposed to be quick and simple and, frankly, you can buy some really good ready made pastry).
Strawberry jam - 2 tablespoons
Mint, finely chopped - 1 teaspoon.

Method:

Mix the strawberry jam and the mint.
Thinly spread this mix over the sheet of puff pastry.
Roll the sheet of pasty up and then slice up. Make the slices about 1cm thick.
Place the slices on a baking tray and out in the oven at 210C for 20 minutes.

Job done. I said they were easy! Ignoring the cooking time, making them takes about 5 minutes. The only cautionary note I will add is not to add too much filling - if you do it just oozes out and is prone to catching if you are not careful.

Orange Madeleines

Madeleines, for anyone who doesn't know, are small, light sponges baked in shell shaped moulds. A French patisserie classic they are wonderfully light, moreish and a delight at any time.

The traditional madeleine is made with vanilla but I have a couple of variations that also work well. I can't remember where I got my original recipe from (and I suspect it is probably a mix of several recipes) but here it is with the variations below.

I will add some photos tomorrow when I have time to take them.



Ingredients:
110G Butter (unsalted)
130G Plain flour
1/2tsp Baking powder
1/8tsp Salt (omit if you have used salted butter)
3 Eggs
120G Caster sugar
1tsp Vanilla extract

Madeleine pan - sorry, but, you do need the pan to get the shell shapes.


Method:

Cream the butter and sugar.
Add the vanilla and eggs and mix well until light and fluffy.
Keep mixing and add the dry ingredients.
Mix thoroughly and add the mixture to a well buttered madeleine pan.
There is enough mixture to make 24 madeleines.
Put the tray in the oven. 190C for 13 minutes.


These are at their best on the day they are baked but will keep OK for a couple of days in an airtight container.




Variations:
Orange Madeleines:
Swap the vanilla extract for orange extract and also add the zest from a medium orange (zest it finely!).

Lemon and poppy seed madeleines:
Swap the vanilla extract for lemon extract and also add the zest of a lemon (finely zested) and 2 teaspoons of poppy seeds.

A Croque-Madame…

Croque-Madame

...my take on a French classic. The croque-madame is one of many variants of the traditional croque-monsieur, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich (typically with a béchamel on top). 

Now, my version isn’t exactly grilled...or a sandwich...I suppose if I was going to get cheffy about it I would call it a deconstructed croque-madame as I have taken the elements and put them together my way. Whatever you want to call it, it is also the most decadent and indulgent breakfast going!

The first thing to do it get a béchamel going. For this dish I keep it really simple. Large knob of butter and a tablespoon of flour to make a roux and while stirring slowly add milk until you get a thick but pourable sauce. Pinch of black pepper and the sauce is done. Keep it on a very low heat to keep it warm and give it an occasional stir while making the rest of the dish. Do keep an eye on the sauce though as you may well need to add a dash more milk at some point to save it thickening up too much (which is what happened to me with this one).

Next up is the toast. Take a couple of slices of thick white bread (possibly the only time I will recommend using a sliced white), cut the crusts off and butter it liberally on both sides. Get a hot frying pan and fry off the bread on both slides. It needs to be hot to get the bread nice and crispy. Remember “croque” comes from “croquer” - “to crunch” so it needs to be crispy!

Put the toast on a oven proof plate, put some sliced ham on top of the toast along with a little bit of grated cheese and then put this in the oven at 100C to keep it hot and start melting the cheese.

Back to the frying pan. Add a little vegetable oil and then fry a couple of eggs. If you like your yolks runny (and, frankly, is there any other way) fry them until they are just cooked.

Quickly get the plate out of the oven (turn the oven up to 200C at this point) and put the eggs on top of the cheese and ham. Then pour the béchamel over the top and put back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Out of the oven and serve. Pure indulgence on a breakfast plate.