Vanilla Scots Tablet

I have recently been spending so much time hanging out with my new pash (which is ice-cream, if you haven't noticed already) that I've been neglecting my other fields of confectionery expertise; and while packing to moving into my new house, I was reacquainted with my sugar thermometer.

Even though the thermometer itself is banjaxed and I could seriously do with getting a new one, it put my mind back in the frame of sugarcraft. So I though of something I could make.



When I worked in Thorntons they sold bags of butter tablet, which is a kind of crumbly butter sweet somewhere between fudge and hard toffee. It has the texture of a Kendal Mint Cake, if you've ever eaten on of those. It's delicious and melts in the mouth way too easily to maintain any sense of decent portion control.

I used to make a recipe for vanilla fudge from a cookery book when I was little which in retrospect was more like tablet than fudge, and the basic difference is only how long you beat it and how soon after cooking you beat it. Tablet it brittle and grainy because the sugar is agitated more leading to more solid crystalisation.

Tablet looks nice if broken into pieces by hand, sort of rustically like shown. It you want, you can score it into pieces before it's fully set so it snaps easily into little squares.

So, less talk more cooking!

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

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS

This is a large quantity that will make about 1¼ pounds (570 grammes) of fudge, but I've found it can be easily halved or even quartered. Just be really careful when making small batches because it can burn or crystallise easily.

• 1 pound (450 grammes) caster sugar
• 4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres) milk
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) of vanilla essence

HOW-TO

• Prepare an 8 inch (20 centimeter) square tin by either greasing it lightly or lining it with non-stick baking paper. You could also use a silicone baking tin, which needs no greasing or lining.
• In a heavy-based large saucepan, heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted.
• Pour the sugar into the middle of the pan so that it forms a little mountain in the middle, then gently bring in the milk mixture from the edges. Your aim here is to get as little sugar as possible on the edges of the pan, as this can cause your fudge to go grainy.
• Stir the mixture over medium-low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved. Using a pastry brush dipped in hot water, wash the sugar crystals from the side of the pan. Alternatively, you can just pop the lid on the pan for a minute to allow the steam to wash it all away instead.
• Once the sugar has dissolved and there is no evidence of sugar crystals left, bring the mixture to the boil and once boiling clip a sugar thermometre to the side of the pan. Cook over medium-high heat until the whole thing reaches 118°C (245°F).
• At this point, unlike fudge where you don't stir at all on pain of hard crumbly fudge, you keep stirring every so often.
• While the fudge is cooking, fill your sink or wash basin with about 2 inches (5 centimetres) of cold water.
• Once the fudge has reached temperature, take the pan from the heat and dip the bottom in the cold water to stop cooking immediately.
• Add the vanilla essence and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until creamy and opaque. Move quickly! Unlike soft fudge, it WILL seize into a completely solid mass if you don't pour it into the container as soon as it turns opaque.
• Pour into your prepared tin and allow to cool at room temperature overnight.

I like the dotted effect that the vanilla pod leaves! I actually made some vanilla sugar by dumping a vanilla pod whose seeds I'd used in my stracciatella ice-cream into a jar of caster sugar. The vanilla pod fascination continues...

THIS TIME LASTE YEAR: Mini Blueberry Cheesecakes

Stracciatella Ice-Cream (Egg- and Wheat Free)

Here's the second half of my ice-cream adventures, started last week.

The few weeks ago Lidl was flogging off a load of vanilla pods because they didn't sell well. As such I was picking up double packs of vanilla pods for €1.75 each, as opposed to the usual €6-per-pod craic that Tesco and Dunnes subscribe to. Vanilla pods are very useful for making really natural tasting custard, ice-cream, homemade vanilla essence and spiced rum.

However, immediately after buying them I began packing to move house and baking was not high on my list of priorities. As such I forgot about them, until I unpacked last week.

I decided to make myself some nice proper vanilla ice-cream using vanilla pods instead of essence, and it was fantastic. In its raw form the flavour isn't very strong, but as it freezes overnight the flavour intensifies and in the morning I had SUPER VANILLA ice-cream. It was very tasty, 'was' being the operative word in the sentence.

I now have a load of vanilla sugar brewing away in the press, using the leftover pods when I scraped the seeds out, which is great way of using up the pods instead of throwing them out.

Expect a lot of vanilla themed recipes over the coming weeks.

But back to this recipe. Stracciatella is basically chocolate chip vanilla ice-cream in Italy, and it made by drizzling melted chocolate into the churn while it it running. On contact with the ice-cream, the chocolate freezes and shatters in the blades of the churn, leading to ice-cream that is packed full of tiny chocolate shards. In the absence of an ice-cream churn, I turn to what I refer to as StraCHEATella (smirk), where I basically smash a Flake bar and use the crumbled goodness to simulate the chips.

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

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Cocoa (yes, I thought I'd contain it because I was allergic to cocoa for a time)

INGREDIMENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres, 1 US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content
• 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) condensed milk
• 1 vanilla pod or 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt
• 1 Flake bar

HOW-TO

• On a chopping board, split the vanilla pod down the middle and scrape out the seeds with the blunt side of the knife.
• In a large mixing bowl, pour the condensed milk and stir in the salt and vanilla pod seeds (or the vanilla essence). Pour in the cream, while stirring, then stir until it is all combined.
• Using an electric hand mixer, whisk until it is light and a soft-peak consistency. You want to to look and feel like mousse, basically.
• Pour into a 2 pint (560 millilitre, 2½ US cup) pudding mould with a lid (or you can use a loaf tin and cover with cling film) and smooth out the surface. Cover and freeze for 6 hours, preferably overnight.
• Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.

This would ice-cream is very tasty when used in making an affogato, an Italian dessert where a single scoop of (traditionally) vanilla ice-cream is put into a cappucino mug, a double shot of espresso is poured over, and the whole lot is dusted with a little cocoa powder.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Fruit and Nut Flapjacks

Coffee Ice-Cream (Egg- and Wheat Free)

Training and gallavanting, and back in business!!

I have returned to life from my little escape (as explained in my last post), I thought I'd return to making some ice-cream. It seems only right because the weather has been in excess of 18 degrees everyday for about a week and looks like it's not changing for a while! At the same time as I made this coffee ice-cream, I also made some really nice stracciatella ice-cream, which will be following this post.

This is a really, really simple dessert that only needs about 10 minutes of active preparation and an overnight sleep in the freezer. Minimal effort ice-cream, the best thing evar.

However, there is one very important thing to remember with this ice-cream: you must use coffee powder, not granules. The coffee powder is added directly to the mix and is not dissolved in water first, therefore the granules would just remain in big clumps and not mix into the ice-cream fully. That would be less than pleasant.

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

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres, 1 US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content
• 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) condensed milk
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) instant coffee powder
• Pinch of salt
• Optional: 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground cinnamon

HOW-TO

• In a large mixing bowl, pour the condensed milk and stir in the coffee powder and salt. Pour in the cream, while stirring, then stir until it is all combined.
• Using an electric hand mixer, whisk until it is light and a soft-peak consistency. You want to to look and feel like mousse, basically.
• Pour into a 2 pint (560 millilitre, 2½ US cup) pudding mould with a lid (or you can use a loaf tin and cover with cling film) and smooth out the surface. Cover and freeze for 6 hours, preferably overnight.
• Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

STILL ALIVE AND IN DUBLIN!

So yeah, Galway to Dublin!

When I returned home from Galway last week I decided that Galway is where I want to go and live my life because it is awesome! However, on making this realisation, returning home made me horrendously depressed, the kind "what is the point of being alive because I have no control of my life" kinda depressed.

So, as soon as I touched back in Limerick I started making plans to escape again, and luckily a friend in Carrick-on-Shannon provided me with that excuse by inviting me to a house warming dinner.

I planned a mini holiday around Dublin and the Midlands to visit all my friends who live in those parts, which was a lovely escape, but yesterday I hit a real crisis point where I just cried and cried and felt awful. So, I turned to my usual get-out-sad-free card: the Samaritans.

A lovely woman called Trish, having heard my whole story, suggested that I talk to myself as if I were talking to a young person in my line of work who was having the same issues. As such, I managed to clarify to myself that my home situation was abusive, and as a young professional with an income and savings I should just make a break for it and escape.

I've been looking for youth work jobs in Galway since and one has sprung up in Foróige that I will be applying for to ensure that I have a good reason to leave before I do.

This is just an update to let everyone know what's happening, and that I haven't fallen off the radar complety!

Thank you for your support,
Sweetie-Pie xx