St Patrick's Day 2017: Royal Icing Biscuits, attempting a new technique

 Lá Féile Pháraic shona daoibh!

(Law Fay-luh Faw-rick hun-na yeev)

St Patrick's Day is upon us, and I coincidentally wanted to make some biscuits, so I thought I'd make some and ice them accordingly! But a little differently this time...

Usually when I do royal icing I do the usual pipe a dam around the edge of the biscuit and flood fill it using a small greaseproof piping bag. However, I was surfing on Pinterest, and found a pin where someone had done flood 'filled' biscuits by dipping the biscuits in flood consistency icing. So I thought I'd give it a try.

I baked some nice little shortbread biscuits by mixing 1½ ounces (40 grammes) of very soft butter, 3 ounces (85 grammes) of icing sugar, 4½ ounces (125 grammes) of plain flour, with a dash of vanilla essence by hand in a mixing bowl until it became a nice soft dough. I rolled it to about a quarter inch (5 millmetres) thick, and it made 12 biscuits, four of each of the three shapes I had chosen. I baked them at 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2) for I think about 25 minutes. To be completely honest, I was doing the washing up and not watching the clock, and judged the doneness by eye and by feel: they should be a very delicate golden brown and set just around the edges. This shortbread recipe works a treat as it doesn't lose its shape and stays nice and evenly coloured.

I made some royal icing (I cheated and bought a bag of instant) and divided it into two to colour one portion green, and leave the rest white. To dip the biscuits, I scooped a spoonful of the icing out onto a plate, and dipped the biscuit face down, and used a knife to remove any excess. I dipped two of each of the four shapes into the white, and two of each into the white.

I had also made some small cone piping bags using greasproof paper, and filled them with some green and some white icing. While the dipped biscuits were still wet, I piped on the designs, using the tip of a knife to do some marbling. Now, usually I would use a cocktail stick, but I didn't have any, so I used the tip of a sharp knife, like a paring knife.

VERDICT: Personally, I actually prefer the traditional pipe and flood method: the dipping method was messy, and the icing ran incorrectly and didn't settle properly. Some of the marbling lines stuck rather than melting back into the surface, which bothered me. Maybe I just need to practise this method, or just stick to my usual pipe and flood method.

No blogs on this day in previous years.

Dessert Mashup: Millionaire's Shortbread Ice-Cream (Egg and Wheat Free)

Yes, you read that correctly: an ice-cream interpretation of the delicious combination of caramel, biscuit, and chocolate. And here she is, in all her fatteningly glorious splendour!

I'm not exactly sure how this came to mind. I like translating desserts, and last year I made a delicious tiramisù ice-cream (which I will hopefully recreate for an upcoming blog), and I thought doing a dessert mashup for millionaire's shortbread would also be delicious.

This recipe is incredible simple. I used my caramel ice-cream recipe, adding an extra few pinches of salt to give it that salted caramel flavour that's so in vogue at the moment, and swirled some broken up shortbread and chocolate syrup through it.

For the shortbread, I baked a very small batch of the traditional 1:2:3 (sugar:butter:flour) shortbread recipe, using half an ounce per part (if that makes sense...), making it very flat for crumbling.

For the chocolate sauce, I melted together one part dark chocolate to four parts golden syrup, adding in a little salt for flavour. It goes fairly firm on freezing, but is absolutely delicious served warm over the ice-cream.

To make the swirl, I filled the freezing tub as follows: layer of ice-cream, layer of crumbles, layer of ice-cream, layer of chocolate sauce, etc., until I ran out of ice-cream. Excess sauce and crumbles can be used for decorating on serving the ice-cream. I then swirled it all up with the blade of a table knife. I popped it in the freezer to freeze overnight.

As with any ice-cream, it needed to be left on the kitchen counter to temper so it was scoopable, but it is absolutely delicious. I still have some in the freezer, and I'm permitting myself a scoop every few days. I've been so good over the last two weeks: I've lost 5 and a half pounds!

February Afternoon Tea Party: 3 Recipes!

This Monday I'll be brightening up the start of your working week with pictures of what I made for my monthly Afternoon Tea Party event!

I work in a community centre which is run as a "fresh expression" of its mother church (Methodist Church Ireland); a fresh expression church "seeks to transform communities and individuals through championing and resourcing new ways of being church". Through this model, I run a lot of interesting projects from community film groups to my monthly Afternoon Tea party event, which is a social group that revolves around baking and sharing, and is usually attended by women. The aim of this event is to bring people of similar interest together and to give them a social outlet in a non-judgmental and safe environment, but it also gives those who attend a creative outlet.

This month's theme was Valentine's Day, as it was actually on that same day (Saturday February 14th), so I made a selection of Valentine themed goodies:

• Bouquet of spicy chocolate cupcakes with buttercream roses (gluten- and dairy free)
• Dark chocolate dipped strawberries (Dairy free)
• Caramel shortbread with heart-decorated chocolate topping (Wheat Free)

Spicy Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Roses (Gluten- and Dairy Free)

These were made with a nice and simple recipe, which is basically my basic sponge recipe but prepared slightly differently. Using basically the same ingredients in the similar quantities, I prepared them as follows (using the same oven temperature): 

DRY

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) of self-raising gluten-free flour (or gluten free plain flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder)
• 2 tablespoons cocoa power
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• Half a teaspoon of cinnamon
• Pinch of salt

WET

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) sunflower oil
• 3 fluid ounces (90 fluid ounces) warm strong coffee
• 3 medium eggs

I sifted the dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl, and in a jug I mixed the wet ingredients, adding the eggs in last one at a time. I beat the wet ingredients well, then added them to the dry, folding gently until well combined. This made 12 cakes, but I only used 8 for the bouquet. There are countless of tutorials online for the method, but instead of a styrofoam ball (which I could not find for love nor money) I used half a red cabbage wrapped in cling film. Did the same job!

I used a traditional buttercream, loosening with a little warm water and flavouring with a few teaspoons of cocoa powder, but instead of butter I used margarine to make it dairy free. I had to use about half a teaspoon of red gel colouring to get this colour, but my food dyes are old so maybe a brand new bottle would need less. Using a closed star tip, I made the roses by starting in the centre of the cake and spiralling out, applying consistent pressure to the bag; again, many tutorials for this technique can be found on YouTube.

These turned out beautifully, and I even managed to get my brother and his girlfriend involved when they expressed an interest in trying out the piping technique! The only issue I had is that buttercream made with margarine can sometimes split, but I think it gave the roses a slightly wild look.

Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (Dairy Free)

 

This is a simple one, and especially so when there's two 300 gramme punnets of strawberries in the reduced section in Tesco. To cover a pound (450 grammes) of strawberries, I simply melted 3 and a half ounces (100 grammes) of dark chocolate with 1 tablespoon of coconut oil in the microwave and dipped the washed and dried strawberries in. I allowed them to set for ten minutes, then gently reheated the chocolate to running consistency and re-dipped the strawberries. I also dipped some cherries and white grapes for myself to eat later with my Valentine (or, in other words, my mate Niamh who was doing nothing that evening).

Caramel Shortbread with Heart-Decorated Chocolate Topping

Using this recipe, I made a triple batch of shortbread. I made such a big batch because I had a bake sale on Thursday too, so I just made on massive batch and donated half for the sale, and kept half for myself. In addition to the milk chocolate topping, I melted some white chocolate topping at a 4:1 ratio (chocolate:sunflower oil) with 2 ounces (55 grammes) of chocolate and dropped dots of the white onto the milk. Then, using a cocktail stick, dragged the tip of the stick through the middle of each dot, making a heart shape. Simples! 

These were very successful, both at the bake sale and the Afternoon Tea Party. The day you make these, the caramel is super chewy, but over the days in storage is becomes a little more creamy and fudgy as the sugars crystalise.

All in all, I was very pleased with myself and how the event went. The women were full of chat, brought along some delights of their own, and a great time was had. I did, however, have lots of leftovers which I'm currently palming off on friends and siblings...

Strawberry Crumble Bars (Wheat Free)

Recently I've been kerbing my sweetie intake, and limiting myself to one 100 calorie helping of sweeties a day, whether that's from a few different things or in one sitting. I've been feeling wonderful since I started making myself eat at certain times of day, and eat an entire 400-500 calorie meal in one go. I feel so full, and full of energy!

But, I am still getting my baking fix through baking for other people and events: I was in charge of the Tuesday Treat this week in work, so I made these to bring in tomorrow: Strawberry Crumble Bars!

I wanted to knock up something simple that had limited post-baking-bowl-licking potential (I'm a terror for eating leftover chocolate cake mixture from bowls, and raw shortbread dough isn't as nomable because of the hit of raw flour), and I had half a jar of strawberry jam in the cupboard that needed rid of.

These are actually based off a recipe in one of my grandma's old cookery books, but the recipe in her book used blackcurrant jam. These are a very basic Scots shortbread mixture (1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, 3 parts flour) with jam and a few oats sprinkled on top; not really recipe worthy stuff to be honest. But I'll include the recipe anyway!

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) icing sugar
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter, room temperature
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) cornflour
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) rolled oats
• About 6 tablespoons (90 millilitres) strawberry jam, or jam of your choice
• Caster sugar for sprinkling

METHOD

• Preheat your oven to 170°C (325°F, Gas Mk.3, or moderate). Lightly dust a wide loaf tin with flour.
• In a mixing bowl, beat together the icing sugar and butter until smooth and creamy. Work in the flour with a wooden spoon, or by hand if it's too stiff for the spoon. It will be very crumbly, but that's what you want.
• Divide the crumbly mixture in three (roughly 4 ounces (115 grammes) each), and press two thirds of the mixture into the tin. Stir the oats into the remaining third.
• Spread the jam on top of the shortbread base evenly. Sprinkle the oaty crumble over the top.
• Place the tin in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the crumble is a pale golden colour.
• Remove from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack. Sprinkle a little caster sugar over the top while still warm, and score into 12 pieces in the tin while still warm. Allow to cool completely in the tin.
• Once cold, remove carefully from tin, and then cut along the scored lines with a sharp knife.

These were a lovely sticky sweet treat; I had a nibble off one my brother was eating (he now shares an office space with me). You can use any jam you want, I just happened to have strawberry in the cupboard, but I can imagine these would be lovely with raspberry jam.

Salted Caramel Shortbread (Wheat Free)

So, today I decided to try out a classic: Millionaire's Shortbread! I don't usually go in for making plain and simple classics, but this week I got a serious hankering for some delicious caramel shortbread.

Recently I've been making a lot of condensed milk (using a new technique which I will share at a later date) and using it to make hot chocolate on these cold winter nights, and as such I used it to make some lovely buttery caramel for my shortbread. To shake it up a little, though, I sprinkled some coarse sea-salt on the top of the chocolate.

I made a small batch using a loaf tin, which is the recipe I will share with you.

INGREDIMENTS
Makes 1 4x7 inch (10x18 centimeter) rectangle, which cuts into roughly 18 pieces

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) spelt flour

• 1 ounces (30 grammes) cornflour or rice flour

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter, at room temperature

• 1 ounces (30 grammes) icing sugar

For the caramel topping

• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) caster sugar

• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) butter

• 3 ounces (85 millilitres) condensed milk

• Pinch of salt

For chocolate topping

• One 3½ ounce bar (100 grammes) dark or milk chocolate

• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) sunflower oil

• Coarse sea salt

HOW-TO

• Preheat your oven to 160°C (320°F, Gas Mk.2½, or very moderate) and line the sides of a loaf tin.

• In a mixing bowl, beat the living daylights out of the butter until soft and creamy. Use a wooden spoon: it needs more elbow grease, but you have much more control over how soft you make your butter.

• Pour in the icing sugar, and cream until light and fluffy. Sieve in the flours and salt and mix until the flour is combined. It will look crumbly, but this is exactly how you want it.

• Press the dough evenly into the sandwich tin, smoothing the top with a spoon, and prick all over with a fork or skewer, and bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until set but still soft.

• On removing from the oven, put on a wire rack and allow to cool in the tin completely.

Now, make the caramel:

• In a small saucepan, melt the sugar and butter gently together over low heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, add in the condensed milk and salt.
• Once fully melted and combined, bring to a rapid boil and cook for about 2 or 3 minutes until thickened.

• Pour in on top of the shortbread. Allow to cool to room temperature before setting for about 30 minutes to an hour or until cool to touch.

Finish off with chocolate glaze:

• Once set, prepare the chocolate glaze. Melt the chocolate and oil together either in the microwave on "Defrost", or in a bowl over simmering water.

• Pour the chocolate over the top of the caramel, and allow to cool to room temperature before allowing to set in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
• When fully set, remove from the tin and cut into square, chocolate side down, with a sharp knife.

And there you are! Delicious caramel shortbread. The caramel is soft and chewy, and the coarse salt gives little savoury bursts among the sweetness.

Lemon Meringue Tarts (Wheat Free)

My mother has been essentially locked in her office for the last week working feverishly on her Master's essays and assignments. I decided to make her a treat for finishing a successful week's work, and she does so love things that taste of citrus.

I thought I'd crack out the four-hole Yorkshire pudding tin that I inherited a few years back. It was in a box of things that my Grandma had left for my Mum and we received it when my Grandda died. About four years ago I claimed it as my own and assimilated it into my vast collection of cooking tins.

For this rendition of a classic, I used both orange and lemon juice for extra zing.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (unless you use gluten-free oats)
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Eggs
☒ Dairy (check italics for alternatives)

INGREDIMENTS

For pastry:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes)  cornflour
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter or margarine
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• Pinch of salt

For curd filling:

• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) lemon juice (or a mixture of lemon and orange)
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 3 teaspoons (15 millilitres) cornflour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter or just leave this out
• Pinch of salt

For meringue:

• 1 egg white
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt

HOW-TO

For pastry case(s):

• In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter or margarine until soft and creamy, then beat in the sugar and zest.
• Sieve in the flours and salt and mix with a wooden spoon until a soft dough is formed. Gather with your hands, make into a disc approximately 1 inch (2.5 centimetres) thick and pop in the fridge for an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). You will need an 8 inch (20 centimetre) tart tin or a Yorkshire pudding tin with four 4 inch (10 centimetre) holes. There is no need to grease them.
• Roll the dough out to about a quarter inch (.5 centimetre) thick and cut 5 inch (12 centimetre) rounds to line each Yorkshire pudding hole. Alternatively, drape the rolled pastry into the large tart tin and gently press in, using the rolling pin to roll over the edges of the tin and cut off the excess.
• Prick the case(s) all over with a fork and blind bake. To blind bake, line the case(s) with some scrunched up baking paper and fill with some coins; this stops the shell from rising too much.
• Bake for about 15 minutes, remove the paper and coins, then return to the oven to cook for a further 5 to 10 minutes or until a gentle golden brown colour.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before preparing the curd.

For the curd:

• In a saucepan, blend the cornflour, egg yolk and about 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) of the juice into a smooth paste. Add the rest of the juice and the sugar and stir until evenly combined.
• Cook gently over a medium flame, mixing all the time with a whisk or rubber spatula, until it has thickened up into the consistency of... well, lemon curd. I don't really know how to describe it: a very gloopy, thick gel I suppose.
• Take from the heat and stir in the butter.
• Fill the pastry up to about an eighth inch (.3 centimetre) from the top of the shell(s).

For the meringue:

• In a heatproof glass or metal mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients until evenly combined.
• Put the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form.
• Remove from the heat and continue beating until stiff peaks are formed.
• Cover the filled tart(s) with the meringue using either a piping bag fitted with a star tip, or just pile it in and smooth it out with a fork for texture.
  
  

I don't have any photographs yet of the cut open tart to show off the layered effect, but I will update you all very soon!

There was no blog this time last year.

Viennese Whirls (Wheat Free)

I've been in a bit of a baking funk these last few weeks. I suffer badly from mood swings, and sometimes I get stuck in ruts for weeks at a time, and my baking and pretty much everything else suffers for it.

But do you know what is guaranteed to make me feel instantly better? Afternoon tea treats. Even just looking at them makes me instantaneously joyous. As such I recently went to the shop and coveted the Mr Kipling section. I love Mr Kipling cakes so much, especially the French Fancies, but unfortunately he doesn't make gluten free versions because he's a dietist!

So, I thought I'd see if I could make my own versions of his classics! This is a recipe for the basic biscuit of the Viennese Whirls. The Mr Kipling version is sandwiched with chewy jam and buttercream, but when you make them yourself you can sandwich them with anything you like, including my most recent pash orange chocolate spread.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Dairy (use ingredients in italics for a dairy-free version)
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter or block margarine
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) icing sugar
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour or gluten-free plain flour with xanthan gum
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cornflour
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of water, if needed

HOW TO

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). Line one or two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
• In a mixing bowl, beat the butter or margarine until smooth and creamy, then beat in the icing sugar.
• Add in the cornflour, and beat again until smooth. Add in the spelt flour, and beat until
  it becomes a thick mixture.
•  If the mixture looks too thick to pipe, add a teaspoon or so of water and mix again, however add no more than 2 teaspoons of water in total.
• Using a ½ inch (1 centimeter) closed star nozzle, pipe little rosettes, about an inch (2½ centimeters) apart. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
• Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before either eating or sandwiching with jam, if wanted.

And there you have it! Go on, give this recipe a whirl! (cue, badum-dum-tsh!)

Minty Millionaire's Shortbread (Wheat Free)

This is post number 40, woo! If anyone has any ideas for post number 50, I'd be happy to know...

Here in Ireland, we have something that is mysteriously yet appropriately named 'Millionaire's Shortbread'. I understand that in other countries it is called caramel shortbread, but it's basically a shortbread base topped with a caramel layer then glazed with chocolate; a far cry from the usual shortbread, which is traditionally associated with poor Scottish folk who couldn't afford fancy ingredients.

It's quite a simple recipe, ingredients and cooking wise, but it's not so easy when it comes to cutting it up as all those three layers have different levels of cutting tolerance. I've found the best way around this is to take the shortbread out of the tin and turn it all upside down - chocolate side facing the cutting surface - on a piece of non-stick paper. This is also made a million times (pardon the pun) easier if the shortbread is pre-cut before layering with the soft caramel layer and chocolate glaze.

For this particular one also, keeping with the minty theme, I marbled the chocolate: milk chocolate and green tinted white chocolate. Remember, though, when colouring chocolate you must not use a water based colour: use an alcohol- or oil-based colour so the chocolate doesn't seize up and go all lumpy and disgusting. I use Sugarflair paste/gel food colours, and they work perfectly.

So, onto the making of said delight!

INGREDIMENTS

Makes 1 8 inch (20 centimeter) round biscuit

For the biscuit base

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white or wholemeal spelt flour
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) cornflour or rice flour
• Pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)
• ½ ounce (15 grammes) cocoa powder
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter, at room temperature
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar

For the caramel topping

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) caster sugar
• 2 fluid ounces (55 millilitres) cream (or just use milk if you don't have any cream)
• 2 fluid ounces (55 millilitres) milk
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter
• ½ teaspoon (2½ millilitres)  vanilla essence
• ½ teaspoon (2½ millilitres)  peppermint essence
• A few drops green colour

For chocolate topping

• One 3½ ounce bar (100 grammes) milk chocolate
• Half a 3½ ounce bar (100 grammes) white chocolate
• 1¼ ounces in weight (35 grammes) sunflower oil
• Green paste/gel food colouring

HOW-TO

• Preheat your oven to 160°C (320°F, Gas Mk.2½, or very moderate) and line the bottom of an 8 inch (20 centimeter) round sandwich tin, preferably with a loose bottom.
• Sieve together the flours, cocoa and salt, if using, onto a piece of grease-proof paper. Set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, beat the living daylights out of the butter until soft and creamy. Use a wooden spoon: it needs more elbow grease, but you have much more control over how soft you make your butter.
• Pour in the caster sugar, and cream until light and fluffy. Then add the dry ingredients and mix until the flour is combined; you may need to use your hands as the dough gets very stiff.
• Press the dough evenly into the sandwich tin and prick all over with a fork or skewer, making sure the holes go right to the bottom of the tin. Score into 12 or 16 equal wedges, depending on how big you want them.
• Bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes, until thoroughly cooked and dry. It seems like a ridiculous amount of time, but shortbread isn't so much baked as it is cured.
• On removing from the oven, cut the shortbread in the tin along the score lines to make it easier to cut later. Allow to cool in the tin for about 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and cool completely before breaking into wedges.

Now, to reassemble the shortbread

• Clean the sandwich tin and re-line, bottom and sides, with non-stick baking paper. If your tin doesn't have a loose bottom, make two thin strips of paper and run them along the bottom and up the sides of the tin, underneath the lining. This will give you handles to lift out your biscuit with once you've caramelled and chocolated it.
• Reassemble the shortbread in the tin, butting it all in and making sure the wedges are in the correct order.
• Prepare the caramel layer using this recipe (yes, it's technically a fudge layer) and the above ingredients. Once you have beaten the caramel mixture, pour in on top of the shortbread. Allow to cool to room temperature before setting for at least 3 hours in the fridge, preferably overnight.
• Once set, prepare the chocolate glaze. Put the chocolates in separate bowls, and add about 1 ounce (25 grammes) of the oil to the milk chocolate, then the rest to the white chocolate. Melt the chocolates either in the microwave or conventionally. Mix a little green into the white chocolate to get a delicate minty shade.
• Using a tablespoon, drizzle a spoonful of each chocolate alternately on top of the caramel layer, not worrying to much about how they land. When all the chocolate is used up, gently tilt the tin all around to level out the surface and get the topping over the whole biscuit. Allow to set completely in the fridge.

To cut, as I mentioned before, turn the whole lot out chocolate side down and cut along the pre-cut wedges. It's much easier this way! This will keep best at room temperature in an airtight tin, but you can keep it also in said airtight tin in the fridge.