Leftover Bread and Jam Pudding

Got some leftover bread? Why not make some bread pudding!

Making bread pudding is very simple: all you need is stale bread, eggs, milk, and sugar. However, you can add other things to jazz it up with some butter, or even some jam.

To make this pudding, which served four, I used 4 slices of white bread (actually, I used up the last of my pink bread), enough strawberry jam to make sandwiches, 2 medium eggs, 3 fluid ounces (85 millilitres) each of milk and whipping cream, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. To top it off before cooking, I also used about 1 tablespoon of butter.

Make 2 sandwiches with the bread and jam and cut each into quarters (I broke up two of the quarters to line the dish because it wasn't long enough for all the sandwiches), and then arrange in the dish, which should be well buttered. In a jug, mix together the eggs, cream, milk, and sugar very well. Strain over the sandwiches and allow the whole confection to soak for at least 2 hours, or better, overnight in the fridge.

When you want to cook it, dot the top with butter and sprinkle with coarse Demerara sugar. Bake in a preheated 180C oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until nicely puffed and well browned. I served this with a little whipping cream that I mixed with some raspberry jam for flavour.

This is a delicious and simple weeknight dessert, and one of my all time favourite desserts. It tastes like a lovely squishy croissant served with cream!

Happy St. Valentine's Day! Strawberry Creme Hearts

Happy St Valentine's Day! Want a cute but simple treat for your valentine? Or something sweet to nibble on after dinner? Well here are some super cute strawberry creme hearts!

I remember making peppermint cremes as a kid and never having much success: the traditional recipe is a pound of sugar with an egg white and maybe a little golden syrup and Bob's your uncle, a soft malleable fondant that can be shaped into whatever you like (usually little balls pressed on with a fork). However, it never turned out so simply. The fondant was either too sticky, or too dry, and had no dimension to it other than unrelenting sweetness.

For me, the missing ingredient was always a little bit of fat to keep everything held together and to break up the sugariness. Also the vagueness of "one egg white" meant you could only make loads of it or none at all.

I've developed a simple recipe that uses only three base ingredients: icing sugar, vegetable shortening, and syrup. Not a single egg white in sight! I use glucose syrup, but white corn syrup is a perfect substitute.

INGREDIMENTS

1 tablespoon (15 grammes) white vegetable shortening

1 ounce (30 grammes) glucose syrup, or white corn syrup

4 ounces (115 grammes) sifted icing sugar

A few drops of cold water, for mixing

Salt for seasoning

Strawberry essence, to taste

Pink food colouring

Cornflour, for dusting

METHOD

• In a mixing bowl, mix the vegetable shortening and glucose syrup until creamy. 
• Stir in the icing sugar, then add in water drop by drop until you have a nice dough. It should be stiff, but not dry. 
• Knead in your flavour essences, colouring, and salt until it tastes and looks exactly how you like. You'll be surprised by how much salt you need to season it.
• Dusting your work surface with a little cornflour, you can either roll out and cut shapes like I did, or you could model it like clay.
• Allow the sweets to set for at least 2 hours, ideally 8 hours.

Rich Tea Biscuits (Dairy- and Egg Free, with Wheat Free Option)

Is there anything quite as deliciously dunkable as a rich tea biscuit? Well, now you can make them at home!

Here in Ireland and the British Isles, these biscuits are readily available in every super market as a biscuit barrel staple; supermarkets even have their own brand versions of this crispy, plain treat. Not too fatty, not too sweet, with the perfect level of firm snap to withstand a thorough soaking in a hot cup of tea.

Essentially, a rich tea is a flat, thin, crunchy scone; it was almost exactly the same ingredients, and in nearly exactly the same proportions. If you look at the nutritional information on a pack of rich teas, you'll see that they're generally 15% fat and 20% sugar, and mostly flour. A scone is generally 25% fat and 15% sugar.

I've made this using self-raising wheat flour, and with spelt flour with added raising agents. I've noticed the ones made using shop-bought self-raising flour work the best, because it has just the right proportion of raising agents. However, I've included a recipe for homemade self-raising flour.

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY
Requires a light touch with dough

TIME

About an hour

RECIPE RATING

Intermediate

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

Ingredients for about 14 to 16 biscuits, depending on size

5 ounces (140 grammes) self raising flour*

Good pinch of salt

1 ounce (30 grammes) caster sugar

1 ounces (30 grammes) very cold margarine, or butter if you like

Water to bind, about 1 to 2 tablespoons

* - If you want to make your own self-raising flour, sieve 1 teaspoon of baking powder into every 4 ounces (115 grammes) of plain white spelt or wheat flour

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

METHOD

• Line a one or two baking trays with non-stick baking paper, and preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F, Gas Mk.2).
• In a large mixing bowl, sieve the flour (and baking powder, if using), salt, and sugar. Rub in the margarine, or butter, until you have a very fine mixture.
• Gradually add the water, bringing the dough together with your hand. Add just enough water to bring the dough together into a stiff ball.
• Wrap the dough in cling film, or place in an airtight container, and allow to rest in the fridge for an hour to relax the gluten and set the margarine.
• Roll the dough out as thin as you dare on a floured work surface, making sure the turn the dough frequently as you roll so it doesn't pull back against the rolling pin. Cut 3 inch (7.5 centimetre) circles with a glass or biscuit cutter and prick each biscuit with a fork.
• Lie them gently on the baking trays, about half an inch (1 centimetre) apart, and bake in the centre of the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until the biscuits are completely dry and a light golden brown.
• Transfer the biscuits from the tray to a wire rack to cool to room temperature before eating. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Recipe Revision: Sweet Biscuits, or "Sugar Cookie", and Sandwich Biscuits

When I first started this blog, I did a series where I shared a bunch of recipes based on what I made for a bake sale in our church. In it I shared a recipe for some delicious orange bourbons and coconut custard cream biscuits which are a simple sandwiches of plain (or chocolate) shortcake biscuits and buttercream filling. And since then, I've not made a huge amount of biscuits; I thought that needed remedying!

I'm not really a biscuits person now that I'm an adult: I loved biscuits when I was a kid, but now I prefer cake or pastries, and if I ever eat a biscuit it's a savoury one with cheese on top. At the absolute most, I'll have a digestive or a rich tea to dip in my tea. I don't know when my delight in biscuits began to disappear, but I've not properly baked a biscuit in about 3 years.

Now that the weather is starting to cool down from the viciously volcanic heat we've been suffering from since the middle of June, I'm being once again tempted into the kitchen. I wanted to ease myself back into the spirit of baking with something nice and simple, and also something a little different from the usual pace of cakes, pastries, and desserts that I've settled into over the past two or so years.

So I made a batch of biscuits using the recipe I used in the aforementioned bourbon and custard cream recipes: it immediately showed how out of practise I was! They were lumpy, bumpy, uneven, flavourless and lost their shape in the oven. I needed to address this loss of skill immediately!

The two main issues I encountered were that a) I used unsalted butter, which has become by go-to butter since I had the "why bakers use unsalted butter" revelation earlier last year, and b) egg yolks are not all made equal, and neither are all batches of flour.

So, in this recipe revision, I specify the use of salted butter in order to have good flavour, and also using beaten egg instead of just the yolk. Because every homebaker knows the annoyance of having a spare egg white hanging around in the back of the fridge, but also this recipe could need more or less egg depending on the dryness of the flour and the softness of the butter, similar to how you use water in pastry.

INGREDIENTS

6 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar

6 ounces (115 grammes) salted butter, room temperature
1 medium egg*, beaten
3 ounces (55 grammes) cornflour

9 ounces (170 grammes) plain white spelt flour

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence, or almond essence

* - in Ireland, a medium egg weighs between 1¾ and 2 ounces (50 to 55 grammes)

To make the lemon sandwiches

Add 1 teaspoon of lemon zest to the dough, with the butter and sugar
½ ounce (15 grammes) unsalted butter
½ ounce (15 grammes) lemon curd
3 ounces (85 grammes) icing sugar
About a teaspoon (5 millilitres) lemon juice


To make chocolate nougat sandwiches

Replace half the cornflour in the dough with cocoa powder
½ ounce (15 grammes) unsalted butter
½ ounce (15 grammes) chocolate hazelnut spread
3 ounces (85 grammes) icing sugar
Up to 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) milk, to mix

METHOD

• In a mixing bowl using a wooden spoon, cream the butter and sugar together until well combined. It will be a challenge at first because the butter is cool and hard, but persevere!
• Beat in the egg until the mixture is light and creamy. After the egg, mix in the vanilla essence, or almond essence if using.
• Sieve in the cornflour and flour, and work in gently with the wooden spoon. Turn out onto a well floured work surface and gently, gently work into a smooth dough.
• Wrap the dough in some cling film and flatten into a disc about half an inch (1 centimetre) thick. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour, preferably 2 hours.
• Once chilled, roll the mixture out to roughly an eighth of an inch (3 millimetres) and cut out shapes. You can re-roll the trimmings once before you'll need to chill it for about 20 minutes for a break to re-roll it again.
• Pop the cut outs on a cutting board and pop in the fridge while you preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F, Gas Mk.3).
• Line two baking trays with non-stick paper, or grease lightly with oil, and put the cut outs on the trays about half an inch (1 centimetre) apart. Decorate the tops of half the biscuits to make the tops, and then prick the remaining biscuits with a fork or cocktail stick. You can prick them all instead of decorating, if you prefer.
• Bake the biscuits for 10 to 12 minutes, turning the trays around halfway through baking, until the biscuits begin to turn golden around the edges. This is obviously harder to tell on chocolate biscuits, so to test chocolate biscuits they should look dry and the edges should feel slightly crusty.
• Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make sandwiches

• Make a simple buttercream with the filling ingredients, either lemon or nougat, and pipe a little on each bottom biscuit and sandwich with a top biscuit. When sandwiching, make sure the tops of every biscuit are facing outwards, with the filling on the flat bottom side.
• Allow to set for about an hour before eating. These are best eaten after several hours of sitting, but it's not necessary.

Speculaas: Dutch Style Spice Biscuits (Wheat Free)

Have you ever gone to a café and got a little spice and caramel scented crispy biscuit on the side of your saucer? Well, you don't need to go to a café to get this delicious morsels any longer, because now you can make them at home!

I present to you: Speculaas biscuits! Well, at least my take on them anyway.

Yesterday was my second anniversary with my wonderful companion, and three days ago marked one year until our wedding, so I presented him with some lovely handmade presents. I made him a paintbrush roll from some vibrant neon pink and chocolate brown flock curtain fabric that I found in a bargain bucket in my local fabric shop, and I made him a jar of these lovely, thin, crispy Speculaas biscuits.

These aren't 100% authentic to the original Dutch recipe because they don't have the same amount of spices, and they aren't 100% authentic to the shop bought brands either because they have too many spices. Normally, the shop bought ones tend only to have cinnamon (and occasionally ginger) in them, and the traditional biscuits have white pepper, ground aniseed, ground mace, and ground nutmeg.

I decided to add the aniseed and pepper as optional ingredients to the spice mix, but I generally speaking don't have mace or nutmeg around. If however you don't have access to all these spices, just use shop bought mixed ground spice, like Goodall's.

Another reason that these aren't 100% authentic is that I roll the dough out and cut out the individual biscuits: the traditional ones and the shop bought ones are moulded by having the dough pressed into a wooden or silicone mould. I hope in the future to experiment with using or making moulds

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY
Requires making roll-out cookie dough

TIME

About 2 hours, mostly chilling in the fridge

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

Spice Mix

4 teaspoons (20 millilitres) ground cinnamon

3 teaspoons (15 millilitres) ground ginger

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) coriander

1/2 teaspoon (3 millilitres) cloves

Optional: 1/2 teaspoon (3 millilitres) ground white or black pepper

Optional: 1/4 teaspoon (1 millilitre) ground aniseed

Dough

8 ounces (225 grammes) plain white spelt flour

½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) baking soda

Pinch of salt

3 ounces (85 grammes) dark brown sugar

3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar

4 ounces (115 grammes) very cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

A few drops almond essence

2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) cold milk

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

METHOD

This recipe is best prepared in a food processor, but you can do it by hand.

To make in a food processor

• In a mixing bowl, sieve together the spice mix, flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
• In a food processor, blend together the cold butter, the sugars, and the essences until mixed but still cold.
• Add in the dry ingredients and blend until you have a dry mixture that looks like sand.
• Add in half the milk and pulse the machine in short bursts to combine. If you need more milk, add it a teaspoon at a time: you don't need a lot of milk to combine the mixture.
• Once you have a crumbly yet chunky mixture, turn the mixture onto a floured surface and bring together with your hands into a ball.
• Wrap the ball in some cling film and flatten into a disc and chill completely in the fridge for at least an hour.

To prepare by hand

• In a mixing bowl, sieve together the spice mix, flour, salt, and baking soda. Add in the sugars and break up the big lumps of brown sugar with your finger tips. Rub the sugars and dry ingredients until it's completely mixed.
• Add in the cold butter and rub into the dry ingredients as if you were making pastry. Rub until it's completely sandy.
• Add in the essences and then add half the milk and continue to rub, adding more milk gradually if you need it, until you have a nice dough. Don't add too much milk: just enough to bind it together.
• Once you have a crumbly yet chunky mixture, turn the mixture onto a floured surface and bring together with your hands into a ball.
• Wrap the ball in some cling film and flatten into a disc and chill completely in the fridge for at least an hour.

Then, make the biscuits

• Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F, Gas Mark 2½). Line one or two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
• Take the dough from the fridge and work a little with your hands to make it malleable. Roll out to an ⅛ inch (3 millimetre) thickness and cut out shapes using whatever shape you want.
• Place the biscuits on the baking sheets about half an inch (1 centimetre) apart, and place in the centre of the preheated oven for 15 to 17 minutes, or until the biscuits are dry and a delicious tan brown colour.
• Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before munching down with a cup of coffee. The Dutch are great at coffee.

STORAGE
Keep in an airtight container for up two a fortnight.

Kiwi Curd, or Any Curd for that Matter (Volume Measurements, not Weight)

Remember when for World Goth Day when I did the Madeira cake with eyes? In that recipe, I mentioned that my friend Aimée's original memory of eating that kind of cake as a kid was that it was kiwi flavoured filling, not strawberry. I also promised that I would update you with a kiwi filling recipe, and here it is!

Confession time: I hate kiwi fruits. They taste like under ripe strawberries, and when they're puréed they look like green frogspawn. They probably taste like frogspawn too, but I've never eaten frogspawn so I have no frame of reference.

But there are people in this world who like kiwi fruit and if you do you'll enjoy this recipe, which is very simple. Like most of my recipes, this is a simple ratio:

To make the curd base

2 parts fruit purée : 1 part sugar

In volume (fluid ounces, millilitres, etc.)

Once you make the base mixture, you'll need to thicken it with some cornflour.

To thicken with cornflour:

8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres) of base mixture : 1 to 1½ tablespoons (15 to 22 millilitres) cornflour

Now, I do understand the obvious issue here: how many kiwi fruits/strawberries/raspberries etc. are in 8 fluid ounces of purée? Well, that might be a question for Google, but what I do is I buy the fruit, purée it, and then work with what I have with respect to the ratio. That's the beauty of ratios, and why I love using them in the kitchen.

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY
No baking required, but uses stove top cooking

TIME

About an hour

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres) kiwi fruit purée, smoothly blended, I think I used 6 peeled fruit to make this much purée

Zest and juice of 1 lime

4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres) caster sugar

1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 millilitres) cornflour

Pinch of salt

Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 grammes) unsalted butter

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

METHOD

• In a saucepan, heat together the fruit purée, lime juice and zest, and sugar over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and comes to a simmer.
• In a small cup, mix together the cornflour with a few tablespoons of water to make a slurry. When the purée is simmering, gradually add in the cornflour and mix until it comes to a thickness you like: you can add all the cornflour to make it more like a jelly when it sets, or add less to make it more like a loose jam.
• If you want a little extra richness, take off the heat and then mix in the butter until it has completely emulsified into the curd.
• Pour into a wide shallow bowl, allow to cool slightly before covering with cling film - making sure that the cling film touches the surface of the curd - and allowing to cool completely before chilling until set, which will take about 4 hours.

STORAGE

Keep in the fridge in an airtight container and use within a week.

Madeira Cake, Two Ways! A Traditional English Tea Time Treat

👻 ❤ HAPPY WORLD GOTH DAY EVERYONE! ❤ 👻

I had had another recipe planned for today, but unfortunately it went horribly wrong and went into the bin. Oh well, these things happen! I can't get it right all the time. However, a cake with eyes is spooky enough to qualify for a Goth cake....

So you hopefully have seen my most recent pride and joy—the Polish style loaf cake with eyes—and it relies on using a nice firm cake like a Madeira or Pound cake. As such, I thought I'd share with you my preferred recipe for a nice close-textured but surprisingly light cake.

It is commonly believed that Madeira cake is an invention of Portugal, where the Madeira Islands are: old wives tales will tell you that England imported the confection from their longest standing ally during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. However, this is incorrect: Madeira cake is simple an eggier version of a traditional English pound cake, and got its name because it was frequently served as an accompaniment to Madeira wine at afternoon tea.

Madeira cake can be made in two ways: using a meringue base, or by creaming the butter. Either way works, but if you're going to use the creamed method I strongly recommend using margarine: it emulsifies a lot better than butter.

This cake can be made into a loaf cake, or this amount will also fit in an 8 inch (22 centimetre) round deep tin. If you make a round cake, split it in half, and make it into a sandwich with strawberry jam and cream, you'll make a wonderful Victoria Sandwich. Just remember to dust with icing sugar!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY

Requires gradually adding ingredients while whisking

TIME

Roughly 1½ hours

RECIPE RATING

Intermediate

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

2 medium (US Large) eggs, at room temperature

4 ounces (115 grammes, half a cup) unsalted butter or block margarine, at room temperature. For a cake with more moisture, you can replace a quarter of the butter with sunflower oil

6 ounces (170 grammes, three-quarters of a cup) caster sugar

6 ounces (170 grammes, one-and-a-half cups) plain white spelt flour

1½ teaspoons (7 mililitres) baking powder

3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres, one-third cup plus one tablespoon) milk

Pinch of salt

METHOD

• Grease and flour a 2 pound (900 gramme) loaf tin very well and dust it with flour. If you like, you can line the bottom with non-stick baking paper. Preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F, Gas Mk.3).
• Prepare the cake to one of the methods below, and put the mixture into the loaf tin. Smooth out the top as best you can, and bake on the centre shelf for 45 minutes to an hour. Check for doneness after 45 minutes, but no sooner.
• Once cooked, allow to cool slightly on a wire rack in the tin for about 15 minutes before turning out of the tin and returning to the wire rack to cool completely.

Method 1: Meringue Based Method (Traditional)

One of the earliest published recipes was by Eliza Acton in her Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845), which stated:

"A Good Madeira Cake: Whisk four fresh eggs until they are as light as possible, then, continuing still to whisk them, throw by slow degrees the following ingredients in the order in which they are written: six ounces of dry pounded and sifted sugar; six of flour, also dried and sifted; four ounces of butter just dissolved, but not heated; the rind of a fresh lemon; and the instant before the cake is moulded beat well in the third of a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda: bake an hour in a moderate oven."

This recipe makes a cake that's very heavy on the eggs, and the problem with eggy cakes is that if they don't rise properly they can taste like omelette. Also, I personally find it easier to whisk eggs to full capacity if they're separated first, then mixed back together: whisking whole eggs alone can take an age, as the fat in the yolks interferes with the aeration of the protein in the whites.

Below, is my adaptation of the traditional recipe. You'll probably have noticed I quite frequently do meringue- or sabayon based sponge cakes, because getting full and proper aeration in a creamed butter mixture can take a lot of practise.

Instructions

• Set out a sheet of non-stick baking paper, and sieve the flour, baking powder, and salt out onto the paper. Set aside for later.
• In a a heatproof bowl over warm water, or in a jug in the microwave on the "Defrost" setting, heat together the milk and butter until melted, but not hot. Stir in half of the sugar, and set aside to cool completely.
• Separate the egg, and put the whites into a large mixing bowl. Stir the yolks into the melted butter mixture.
• Whisk the eggs to soft peaks, and then gradually add in the remaining sugar to make a stiff meringue.
• Take a spoon of the meringue and stir it into the melted butter to lighten it, then add that mixture back into the mixing bowl. Fold through gently but quickly with a metal spoon.
• Pour the flour back into the sieve, and sieve it into the bowl. Fold again gently but thoroughly until you have a batter of soft-dropping consistency

Method 2: Creamed Butter Method (Modern)

Every baker started with a good old pound cake recipe: quarter pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and self-raising flour mixed together with an electric mixer. The all in one method is very good for beginners, but runs the risk of being uneven or over-mixed, and the longer method of creaming the butter and sugar together and adding the egg gradually runs of the risk of splitting or curdling.

I personally have found the best way to avoid curdling of the butter and eggs is to use margarine, not butter: margarine contains emulsifiers that help bind the eggs and butter together. Also, when adding the egg, it's best to focus the beaters only on the area where the eggs are until it's completely emulsified, before running the beater around the whole bowl.

Instructions

• Set out a sheet of non-stick baking paper, and sieve the flour, baking powder, and salt out onto the paper. Set aside for later.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together very well for a full two to three minutes, until light and fluffy.
• Beat the eggs together in a jug, and add the egg to the butter mixture in 4 additions, beating well after each. As I explained earlier: focus your beaters on the butter surrounding the egg until completely mixed before running the beater around the whole bowl to mix the whole thing together.
• Sieve in a third of the flour and fold in gently but quickly until mixed. Fold in half the milk in the same way. Alternate the rest of the flour and milk, finishing with the flour.

THIS TIME IN 2017: Happy World Goth Day! (Goth Fairy Cakes)
THIS TIME IN 2015: Super Moist and Rich Chocolate Cake
THIS TIME IN 2013: Coconut Custard Creams (Wheat Free)
There were no blogs at this time in 2014 nor 2016.

First Attempt at Whoopie Pies (Wheat Free with a Dairy Free Option)

 There is now a new and improved post about Whoopie Pies here.

Today, I present to you a recipe several months in the making! Behold my own take on the American classic, Whoopie Pies!

About two or three years ago, I got a new cookery book for my birthday, which is a typical gift for me. This book, simply entitled Whoopie Pies introduced me properly to a confection that I had only heard of by name once or twice. I tried a recipe or two from the book, but wasn't a hundred percent happy with how they turned out and, as such, the book is still gathering dust on my bookshelf. 

Then a few months ago I was watching a programme on Food Network, and I saw the cook make some chocolate whoopie pies. It had been quite some time since I had last tried them and I thought Heck, why not give them another go? Seeing as the cook described them as a "mixture between a cupcake and a sandwich cookie", that's the kind of approach I took: I tried merging my basic sponge cake recipe and my chocolate chip cookie recipe together, but the results were disappointingly flat and crispy.

The real breakthrough came when I merged my basic sponge recipe with a basic scone recipe, and replacing the butter with oil: it made a very fluid mixture that puffed up nicely, but didn't spread out too much during baking. The result is a cake that has all the fluffiness and sweetness of a sponge cake, but the sturdiness of a biscuit. However, I'll probably work on this recipe in the future, because I generally am not a fan of the fact that this only uses brown sugar: I don't want my plain vanilla whoopie pies to be brown!

These lovely little sandwiches go slightly sticky on the crust the longer they stay in storage, which is ideal: I have it on good, American authority that a whoopie pie should somewhat stick to your fingers. 

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY

Requires mixing and spooning out runny batter

TIME

About 2 hours

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

For 12 to 14 sandwiches (24 to 28 total cakes)

8 ounces (225 grammes, 1.8 US cups) plain white spelt flour

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) baking powder

¼ teaspoon (1 millilitre) salt

6 ounces (170 grammes, 1 US cup) brown sugar

4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres, ½ US cup) sunflower oil

1 medium (US large) egg

6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) buttermilk, or plain soya yoghurt

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

About 1 pound (455 grammes) icing filling of your choice: butter cream, ganache, marshmallow fluff, etc.

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F, Gas Mk.3), and grease and flour two flat baking trays.
• In a large mixing bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Make a well in the centre.
• In a jug, beat together the buttermilk, egg, oil, and vanilla essence until smooth. Pour into the well in the dry ingredients then, using a balloon whisk or electric mixer, mix together until there are no streaks of flour and the mixture is smooth and consistent.
• Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture on the baking trays, about an inch (2 centimetres) apart, using the tip of the spoon to smooth the dollops into rounds. Tap the trays sharply on the work surface to flatten out the pies. I got about 6 on each tray.
• Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven when the pies spring back when touched lightly with a finger.
• Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before transferring from the trays to wire cooling racks to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining mixture.
• Pair the cakes together according to size, then sandwich together with about two tablespoons of filling. Set in the fridge for about half an hour before serving.

NOTES

• For chocolate whoopie pies: Replace an eighth of the flour with cocoa powder, and sieve in with the other dry ingredients.

• For red velvet whoopie pies: Replace a tablespoon (30 millilitres) of the flour with cocoa powder and sieve with the dry ingredients, and add red food colouring to the wet ingredients to get the shade you want.

• For pumpkin spice whoopie pies: Add in 1 or 2 tablespoons (15 or 30 millilitres) to taste of your favourite pumpkin spice or mixed spice blend, and sieve in with the other dry ingredients.

• For coffee whoopie pies: Add 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) of instant espresso powder, and sieve in with the other dry ingredients

THIS TIME IN 2017: Hot Cross Bunnies: a Cutesy Twist on a Traditional Favourite (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2016: Buttermilk Scones (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2015: April Afternoon Tea Party: Bollywood Part Two!

THIS TIME IN 2013: Black Forest Gâteau: a Retro Classic? (Wheat Free)

There was no blog on this day in 2014.

Modern Simnel Cake 2.0: "Can any cake be a Simnel cake? Or must it be fruit cake?" (Wheat Free with Dairy Free Option)

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Happy Easter all, and to celebrate here is a delicious carrot cake with super luscious cream cheese icing, decorated with cake truffles made from leftover cake and icing.

Last year, I did a raspberry and almond cake for Easter, taking inspiration from the original marzipan element of the traditional Simnel cake, but fashioning little marzipan icons for each Apostle. This year, however, the only thing Simnel-y about this cake is mixed spice in the carrot cake. And, of course, the decoration.

No-one can agree on the origin of the word Simnel, but what most people agree on is that it's made of a fruit cake with a marzipan filling and topping, and has 11 marzipan decorations on top to represent the Disciples of Christ, without Judas.

So, in reality, any kind of cake can be a Simnel cake as long as it has the 11 disciples on top: for example, this is a fairly run of the mill carrot cake with cream cheese icing, but because of its decoration, it has Easter significance.

This time, the Disciples are represented by cake truffles which I made out of crumbling the sliced-off dome of the carrot cake and some icing. Usually, the eleven decorations are just arranged on top as if it's normal, but seeing an uneven number arranged like it's nothing very irritating. So, this time I decided to make a point of the missing Disciple to give it some evenness, and also I feel it gives its greater weight and significance.

The icing I used in this recipe was a little bit of an experiment, and before I share it with you I want to do some fine tuning. When I demonstrate it in a video, I will share the updated recipe. For now, just use whatever cream cheese icing you like.

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY

Requires mixing, cake slicing, and layering

TIME

About 2 hours

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

For one deep 8 inch (21 centimetre) round cake

8 ounces (225 grammes) white spelt flour

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) baking powder

2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) ground mixed spice
¼ teaspoon (2 millilitres) salt

8 ounces (225 grammes) finely grated carrots
Zest of half an orange

4 medium (US Large) eggs

6 ounces (170 grammes) light brown sugar

4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) sunflower oil

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

Optional: 3 ounces (85 grammes) raisins
Optional: 3 ounces (85 grammes) chopped walnuts

To decorate
1 pound (455 grammes) cream cheese icing, of your choice (see below for my recipe)
Icing sugar
Ground mixed spice

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

FREE FROM

Wheat, yeast, dairy

CONTAINS

Eggs, spelt, nuts (unless you omit them), refined sugar

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

METHOD

• In a mixing bowl, sieve in the flour, baking powder, mixed spice, and salt. Stir in the carrots and orange zest, and the raisins and nuts if using, and toss through the flour.
• In a wide jug, beat the eggs with the brown sugar with an electric hand mixer for a full five minutes, until doubled in size and pale, and when you lift the beaters you can leave a trail of mixture on the surface.
• With the mixer running, gradually add in the sunflower oil and mix in well. Beat in the vanilla essence.
• Make a well in the centre of the flour and carrots mixture and pour in the whipped eggs and sugar mix. Gently fold the whole thing together with a metal spoon or rubber spatula.
• Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until a cocktail stick stuck in the centre comes out completely clean.
• Allow the cake to cool completely before cutting off the dome and slicing in half horizontally.

To decorate

• Crumble the cake dome until very fine and mix with just enough icing to make a dough like texture. Roll the mixture into 11 balls, and chill for an hour until set.
• Fill and ice the cake with the remaining icing (my cake was only one layer because I made a smaller cake). Place the cake truffles on top, using the lid of a cola bottle to replace the twelfth ball.
• Dust the tops of the balls with icing sugar, and then mixed spice for visual contrast. Remove the cola bottle lid, and chill for an hour. Allow to temper to room temperature for half an hour before serving.

Mock "Cream Cheese" Icing

I made a cream cheese icing that doesn't actually have any cream cheese in, instead it had yoghurt. I find here in Ireland cream cheese varies so much in quality that it's unreliable: some days it whips up beautifully, and other days it turns to water.

To make this mock "cream cheese" icing, I melted together 4 ounces (115 grammes) each of Greek yoghurt and sugar and then simmered it for one minute (it will split slightly, but don't worry: you'll be whipping it later and won't notice it much). I removed it from the heat before adding in 8 ounces (225 grammes) of white chocolate and 4 ounces (115 grammes) of unsalted butter, in small pieces. I returned to pan to very low heat and cooked very gently, stirring all the time, until it was smooth and flowing. I then added a full quarter teaspoon of coarse salt and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to give it that salty sourness associated with cream cheese icing.

I then allowed to cool and thicken, stirring every so often, until it reached a spreadable consistency. I lightly whipped mine with a hand mixer for a lighter texture, but this is optional. This icing is stable at room temperature.

THIS TIME IN 2017: College Classes are Over! Hoorah! (Chocolate Butter Cake with Simple Fudge Icing)
THIS TIME IN 2013: Different Sponge Cake Flavours (no April Fool, it's after 12pm)
There were no blogs on this day in 2014, 2015, or 2016

Recipe Revision: Maple Pecan Pie (Options to make a Wheat- and Dairy Free Version)

November is a bit of a non-month here in Ireland, traditionally: you know how January is a bit of a non-month at the start of the year? Well, November is the traditional Celtic January. In England, there's bonfire night on the 5th; in America, there's Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday; but here, it's just the waiting period between Hallowe'en and Christmas, with no real identity of its own.

As such, it's kind of difficult to come up with any nice and interesting baking projects. The only event  I feel is worth baking for in November is my Dad's birthday, on the 16th, which is obviously specific to my family with no widespread relevance, like any other family birthday. So only things you can really do is to capitalise on Thanksgiving, which is not a native festival here, but it is gaining popularity, particularly the Black Friday sales.

Which is exactly what I've done here: I've taken a traditionally American and Canadian treat and done a local version using ingredients commonly available in Ireland. There's no corn syrup here: in this recipe, I use golden syrup, and maple flavoured golden syrup. In my previous maple pecan pie attempt a few years ago, I tried using actual maple syrup, but I personally prefer the taste of maple flavoured golden syrup: it has a stronger, albeit slightly synthetic, smoky flavour.

This recipe uses the exact same ingredient ratios as the chocolate fudge tart I made in May, but the chocolate has simply been replaced with syrup: it makes for a sticky sweet treat, with just enough egg to set the middle into a gloriously sticky custard filling, chock full of roasty toasty pecan nuts. It's a truly decadent treat, to be enjoyed in small doses with ice- or whipped cream.

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY

Requires mixing (and pastry making skills if you're making your own pastry case)

TIME

About 2 hours

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

Makes one 8 inch (20 centimetre) deep dish pie, weighing roughly 2¼ pounds (1 kilogram)

One 8" (20 centimetre) deep pie crust

3 ounces (85 grammes) golden syrup

3 ounces (85 grammes) maple syrup, or maple flavoured golden syrup

4 ounces (115 grammes) unsalted butter, or margarine

1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) lemon or orange juice

6 ounces (170 grammes) soft light brown sugar

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence

2 medium (US Large) eggs, beaten

6 to 8 ounces (170 to 225 grammes) pecan nuts, toasted

Optional: 1 shot (35 millilitres) spiced rum

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

FREE FROM

Nuts, wheat (if you make your own pastry), yeast

CONTAINS

Gluten, dairy (italics show alternatives), eggs, refined sugar,

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

METHOD

• If you're making your own pie crust, blind bake it and allow it to cool. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4)
• In a small saucepan, heat together the syrups, butter, and lemon juice only until the butter is melted, stirring occasionally. 
• Remove from the heat and mix in the sugar and vanilla essence, and rum if using. Allow to cool slightly before adding the eggs.
• Using a balloon whisk, vigorously beat in the eggs until the mixture is smooth.
• Scatter three-quarters of the nuts on the base of the pie crust. Pour in the filling, then add enough nuts to nearly fill the pie crust completely; this pie doesn't rise much, if at all. Make sure to poke down the nuts so they are all covered in syrup.
• Bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until the centre is puffed up and no longer liquidy; a little jiggly is okay. If the pastry is browning too quickly, over with a large piece of tin foil.
• Once cooked, remove from the oven and cool completely in the pie dish on a wire rack. If you want to remove the pie from the tin to serve, chill overnight before unmoulding.

STORAGE

As with all things made with pastry, this is best enjoyed within 3 days of eating, kept in an airtight container at room temperature. However, it can keep in an airtight container for up to a week in the fridge.

2-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

Bonjour, mes amis! Encore, un dessert Français: mousse au chocolat!

I absolutely love chocolate mousse! It has such a pleasing texture, and feels really indulgent, despite its lightness. What I love more about it is that it only uses two ingredients.

For those who are not fans of raw egg, however, I've got bad news for you: one of those ingredients is indeed raw egg. At its simplest, chocolate mousse is made by mixing melted chocolate with whipped egg, at a ratio of an ounce (30 grammes) of chocolate per egg. Mousse can also be made with the addition of butter and cream, but I find that makes it unnecessarily laden with calories. Give it a go if you like!

This is such a simple treat that it's a great one to do with children as one of their first forays into the kitchen.

INGREDIMENTS
For four servings of mousse

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) your favourite milk or dark chocolate
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

METHOD

• In a heatproof bowl, melt the chocolate gently over simmering water or in the microwave until fully melted.
• Working very quickly, beat the egg yolks into the warm chocolate, beating vigorously so that the egg yolks don't cook.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites to firm peaks. Take about a third of the egg white mixture and mix it fully into the warm chocolate.
• Pour the chocolate mixture gently into the rest of the egg whites, and fold through gently until there are no streaks of egg white left.
• Divide the mixture between four ramekins, tumblers, or other kind of serving vessel. Chill for at least 4 hours before serving chilled.

THIS TIME IN 2015: Experiments in Homemade Soft Drinks: Raspberry Lemonade and Orange Cream Soda
No blogs on this day in 2016, 2014, nor 2013

Success, at Last! Hazelnut Ice Cream (No Churn, Egg Free)

Mögen Sie Haselnuss-Eis? Ich mag!

I'm sure throughout the four years that I have been blogging, and you have all been reading and supporting, I have mentioned my trips to Germany often. In 2008 and 2012, I visited North and East Germany, travelling to Lübeck, Ratzeburg, Magdeburg, Hamburg, Leipzig, Berlin, Bernburg, and many other villages in the mountains whose names I never knew. Both times were to visit my good friend who I met in secondary school, whom I've known ever since.

I will admit it has been way, way, way too long since I was in Germany, and I often find myself missing it dearly. My companion and I hope to go over this year for the Christmas markets in Berlin, and I want to promise myself that from hereon in I'll go at least once every two years. Hell, if I could afford to, I'd divide my year between living in Ireland and living in Germany.

There are many flavours of Germany I miss—from their delicious meat dishes, like hamburgers and sausages, to their incredible doughnuts and cream cakes—but of all of them it's the ice cream I miss the most.

When I was last in Germany, I was in Berlin on what was possibly one of the worst holidays I've ever had: I went with my companion at the time, and our relationship was cracking. It wasn't long after we returned that our partnership dissolved. We both wanted very different things out of life, and we especially wanted very different things from that holiday!

The only thing that made that holiday bearable was the ice-cream: at pretty much every corner in Berlin was an ice-cream stand that sold scoopable ice-cream of many flavours. Not only was it delicious, but it was also very cheap: even in the capital, which was more expensive on the whole, a cone with a scoop of ice-cream was €1.50, and each additional scoop ranged between 80c and €1. Here in Ireland, ice-cream parlours charge a hefty €2.60 per scoop!

When I was there, I always got any nut flavoured ice-cream—hazelnut and pistachio are particularly tasty—or coconut; and also a German speciality, Waldmeister!

Since then, I have tried to recreate some of my favourite flavours, but to no avail. Nut flavoured ice-cream always alluded me, until now! This is my take on a no-churn hazelnut flavoured ice-cream, that isn't Nutella.

I still have to work on getting my Waldmeister ice-cream right. Keep your eye out for any upcoming attempts!

INGREDIMENTS

Makes about 2 UK pints (1 litre) of ice cream

• 16 UK fluid ounces (455 millilitres) whipping cream, about 35% fat, plus extra if needed
• 12 UK fluid ounces (340 millilitres) condensed milk, cold
• 3 to 6 ounces (85 to 170 grammes) hazelnuts, to taste
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Generous pinch of salt
• Roughly chopped hazelnuts, to decorate

METHOD

• In a food processor, or with a large plastic bag and a rolling pin, crush the hazelnuts to a fine powder. 3 ounces (85 grammes) will give you a mild nutty flavour, whereas the full 6 ounces (170 grammes) will produce an intense nutty flavour. Grind as much as you think you'd like.
• In a dry frying pan, gently toast the ground hazelnuts over medium heat. Cook only until the nuts become fragrant and take a little bit of colour. Be careful, because nuts burn easily.
• Pour the hazelnuts into a medium saucepan, and add the whipping cream and salt. Place the saucepan over medium low heat, and bring to boiling point. Once it begins to boil, remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before chilling for at least 2 hours to steep. The cream needs to be good and properly cold.
• Strain the cream through a fine sieve to remove the ground hazelnuts; discard the ground hazelnuts. In the process of straining, you may lose some cream, as such you might need to top the cream level back up to 16 fluid ounces (455 millilitres).
• In a large bowl, beat the infused cream, condensed milk, and vanilla essence together until it becomes light and moussey.
• Pour into a 2 pint (1 litre) container and decorate the top with hazelnuts, if you like. Freeze overnight.

THIS TIME IN 2013: Jammie Dodgers (or Linzer Biscuits) (Wheat Free)

No blogs on this day in 2014, 2015, nor 2016.