Wednesday, 25 December 2019

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas 2019, everybody!


From everyone in the Sweetie Pie household to every one of my readers, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous new year!

I've sadly in bed with flu, but I managed to muster my strength to get up and make this Yule Log for my friend Alex's birthday and go to his party for a little while on the 21st. I made this using my Swiss roll recipe, replacing half the cornflour with cocoa powder, filling and coating with a chocolate fudge icing, and topping it off with some M&M holly berries and paper leaves.

I didn't get better pictures because I had to go home before they ate it, but I hope they enjoyed it!

See you all in 2020 with more cookery experimentations, photos, and hopefully videos!

Love,
Sweetie Pie xxx

Sunday, 15 December 2019

"Ikea Daim Cake": Chocolate, Caramel, and Almond Cake

Looking for a Yuletide dessert that's not a fruit cake? Why not try this decadent Nordic confection, that can commonly be seen in your local Ikea?


Yes, today I will be sharing how you can make your own Daim cake! If you have an Ikea next door, then you have this fabulous cake within walking distance, but for those of us who live 100 miles away from the nearest Ikea shop (which, incidentally, is the only one in Ireland), we can make it whenever we like with this recipe!

For those of you who have never seen an Ikea before, it's a Swedish chain of homeware shops all across Europe and the USA. Coincidentally, it was St Lucy's Day on the Friday, which is a feast day commonly celebrated in Sweden! Maybe I should have made this for that occasion...

This cake bares a striking resemblance to the Esterházy torta I made earlier in the year: almond meringue layers sandwiching and enrobed in a rich filling made of egg yolk custard and butter. The only difference is an Esterházy torta doesn't have a chocolatey coating.


Having a dark chocolate layer, dotted with little crunchy pieces of slightly bitter caramel, gives the relentless butteriness and sweetness some much needed relief, which I think is missing in the Esterházy torta. But knowing what I know now, I might have another go at that cake as well.

I'm not going to lie, there is a tremendous amount of making in this cake. It has four different components: the dacquoise layers made of egg white, sugar, and toasted almonds; the vanilla mousseline made of egg yolk custard and unsalted butter; the crunchy caramel made of boiled sugar and salted butter; and the chocolate glaze, which is the simplest component.

For ease of reading, I have all the different components' ingredients and methods listed separately. Also, I've slightly updated it as I wish I had made my meringue layers a bit thicker.


TO MAKE DAIM CAKE

For the cake

4 egg whites
4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar
4 ounces (115 grammes) ground almonds
Decent pinch of salt
Optional: Almond and vanilla essence, to taste


  • In a dry frying pan, toast the ground almonds over medium heat very well until they are a deep, nutty brown. Allow to cool.
  • Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and line the bottom of an un-greased 8 inch (20 centimetre) sandwich tin.
  • In a mixing bowl, whip whites to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar while whipping to make stiff meringue. 
  • Fold in the toasted almonds, salt, and essences. The trick is to be gentle, but quick.
  • Bake the meringue 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. It will dip slightly in the middle, but that's okay. 
  • Cool for 10 minutes before loosening from the edges with a knife and turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the cream

3 egg yolks 
(you can add all 4 leftover egg yolks if you like, but technically it does only need 3)
3 teaspoons (15 millilitres) cornflour
3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) whole milk
(for added richness, you can replace a quarter of the milk with evaporated milk)
3 ounces (85 grammes) unsalted butter, soft
1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
Salt, to taste


  • Mix yolks, sugar, and cornflour in a small saucepan until pale and creamy. Gradually mix in the milk until smooth. 
  • Cook over medium heat, mixing all the time with a balloon whisk or rubber spatula, until it comes to the boil and thickens rapidly.
  • Pour into a shallow bowl, cover the surface with greaseproof paper, and cool completely to room temperature. Once it's cool, pull off the greaseproof paper and scrape off any custard that is stuck to it, putting it back in the bowl with the rest of the custard.
  • After cooling, place the butter in a mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whip very well until pale, then gradually whip in the custard, little by little. Once completely mixed in, flavour with vanilla and season with salt.


For the "Daim" pieces

1½ ounces (45 grammes) salted butter
1½ ounces (45 grammes) golden syrup
1½ ounces (45 grammes) brown sugar
Two pinches of baking soda


  • Fill the kitchen sink with about 2 inches (4 centimetres) of cold water.
  • Cook all the ingredients, except for the baking soda, in a saucepan over medium heat, swirling the pan to mix the ingredients. Avoid the temptation to stir! 
  • Cook the mixture to 150C, swirling very frequently to prevent the mixture from catching on the base of the pan. Once it reaches temperature, immediately remove from the heat and dip the bottom of the saucepan in the cold water to halt the cooking.
  • Add the baking soda and swirl again to mix: it will puff ever so slightly, then pour onto a greased flat oven tray, or a marble slab. 
  • When cool, crunch into small sprinkle sized pieces by hand, or by rolling over it in a plastic bag using a rolling pin.


For the chocolate coating

4 ounces (115 grammes) milk chocolate
2 ounces (55 grammes) dark chocolate
3 tablespoons (15 millilitres) sunflower oil
Pinch of salt

  • Heat the chocolates and oil together in a jug in the microwave on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Season with salt.
  • Alternatively, melt the chocolate and oil in a double boiler.
  • Allow to cool and thicken slightly.


To assemble the cake
  • Cut the cake in half (very carefully: it's quite thin and sandwich them together with the cream. 
  • Flat ice the cake with a generous amount of cream. Any leftover cream can be used for other projects. 
  • Take about three tablespoons of the chocolate coating and spread on top of the cake and sprinkle with Daim crunchies. Don't let it drip down the sides.
  • Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. This allows the crunchies to stick to the cake without running off with the rest of the glaze
  • Use the remaining glaze, reheating gently if needed, to glaze the entire cake. Chill completely for 2 hours before serving.

Monday, 9 December 2019

Super Fluffy Nougat Bars, and How Not to Temper Chocolate

Looking for a super sweet treat? Why not try your hand at the super fluffy nougat that you'd find in a Mars of Milky Way bar!


I won't lie: nougat isn't the easiest of sweets to make. It involves working with egg whites which are fragile and finicky, and working with boiling sugar syrup, which is also fragile and finicky. But the results are just like what you find in a nougat bar like a Snickers, and it's worth all the effort!

This is my first foray into making nougat, so it can only continue to improve! I actually wanted to learn how to make this kind of fluffy nougat so I could recreate on of my childhood classics, the strawberry Milky Way, which is no longer available in Ireland. So, watch this space for further nougat flavours!

But not only did I learn how to make this kind of nougat, but I finally started my journey with tempering chocolate, which went quite well. However, if you're going to try tempering chocolate, here are some little tips for you:

  1. Don't temper chocolate in small batches! It should be done with at least 300 grammes (11 ounces) of chocolate.
  2. Don't temper assorted chocolate! Stick to one kind of chocolate. Milk with milk, dark with dark, and white with white. The different chocolates need different tempering temperatures.
I used the Supervalu website directions on tempering, which worked perfectly well for me. I now just have to work out how to get rid of the streakiness, but that was probably caused by mixing chocolate.



INGREDIMENTS

2 cups (1 pound, 455 grammes) caster sugar
1 cup (12 ounces, 340 grammes) golden syrup, or golden corn syrup/glucose syrup
½ cup (4 fluid ounces, 120 millilitres) water
2 medium egg whites, room temperature
Up to ½ teaspoon salt, to taste
1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) vanilla essence

To coat
18 ounces (510 grammes) milk chocolate, tempered


METHOD
  • Put the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment, or into a large heatproof mixing bowl and use an electric hand whisk.
  • In a medium saucepan, cook the sugar, syrup, and water, stirring as little as possible; you can swirl the pan, though. As soon as the mixture begins to boil, whip the whites to medium peaks. 
  • Once the syrup reaches 120°C (248°F), take about a ¼ cup of the hot syrup and drizzle it into the whites while whipping to make a fluffy meringue with stiff peaks. Stop the mixer while you cook the rest of the syrup.
  • Cook the remaining syrup up to 140°C (284°F), and then drizzle very, very, very slowly into the meringue while whipping. It'll go through some phases: first, it'll be like a big fluffy meringue, then it'll become something that is much stiffer, but still fluffy. Eventually, it'll be quite frosting-like. 
  • Near the end of the whipping process, flavour the nougat with the vanilla and season with salt to taste.
  • Once fully whipped, press into a 4 by 9 inch (10 by 23 centimetre) mould for thick sweets, or a 10 inch (23 centimetre) square mould for thin sweets, and set for at least 4 hours.
  • Cut into fingers (I got about 16 thin sweets because I used a larger square mould, but the smaller mould will get 8 thick fingers), and dip in tempered chocolate.

Saturday, 7 December 2019

A December Disaster! You Should Probably Service Your Oven......

So, on Thursday night the element in my oven went to the Big Electric Element in the Sky: my oven no longer produces heat!

Because my oven is out of action for a week or so, I can't upload any of the planned recipes until it's fixed as they were all cakes and biscuits. As such, I'll have to focus on stove top or non-cook recipes until then.

This actually gives me the opportunity to look at some ideas for sweets that I've been playing with.... watch this space!

Thanks for your patience!
Sweetie Pie xxx

Sunday, 1 December 2019

Slow Cooker Mulled Wine: Happy Advent! (Metric Measurements)

Happy Advent 2019!


As 2019 draws to a close, my sister and I put up my Christmas tree. Contrary to Sweetie Pie's image, the everyday me very much likes skulls and darkness... so I have a black Christmas tree with Star Wars baubles and skully tinsel.

As part of our celebrations, I made us some deliciously festive mulled wine that was made super simple with my slow cooker! The long slow heating infuses the wine with all the delicious wintry flavours, giving a rich deep flavour.

This recipe is a twist on the good old punch formula, which you can read more about here if you haven't already!


INGREDIMENTS

700 millilitres fruity red wine
200 millilitres sweet sherry
50 grammes brown sugar
1 orange
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
6 whole cloves

METHOD
  • Slice half of the orange into thin strips, then squeeze the other half into the pot of a slow cooker. Add in the slices, cutting any really big slices in half, and the spices, snapping the cinnamon sticks.
  • Add in the rest of the ingredients, stir well, and heat on low for about two hours, or until as hot as a nice cup of tea. Stir the wine once every so often to make sure the sugar dissolves.
  • Ladle into glass mugs, or normal mugs, making sure

Thursday, 28 November 2019

Tarte au Chocolat (Metric Measurements)


Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!

During the holiday season, we love to indulge; and there is nothing more indulgent than this French style chocolate tart, or tarte au chocolat. I've made a chocolate fudge tart in the past, which is an American style sticky sweet treat. But if you'd prefer the darker, more intense European experience of a dark chocolate baked ganache, this is for you!



I like to decorate mine with frozen berries for that frosty, wintry look. However, this can also be dusted with cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice for that quintessential Thanksgiving flavour.

~ * ^ _ ^ * ~

INGREDIMENTS

Pastry
180 grammes plain flour
120 grammes unsalted butter (or a mix of butter and margarine), soft
20 grammes icing sugar
Optional: a beaten egg

Filling
250 grammes plain chocolate, 50 to 60% cocoa
200 millilitres whole milk
50 millilitres evaporated milk, or double cream
25 grammes butter
1 medium egg, roughly 55 grammes
Frozen or fresh raspberries, to decorate


METHOD


First, bake the pastry
  • Preheat the oven to 180C, and make sure the shelf is in the middle
  • Make a crumbly shortbread by rubbing all the pastry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Press the crumbly mixture into a 25 centimetre round tart tin. Keep the pastry case thin, about 2 or 3 millilitres thick, so if there is leftover dough you can make it into a biscuit or something.
  • Dock the pastry all over with a fork, bottom and sides, to make sure the pastry doesn't bubble.
  • Line the pastry with foil or baking paper and fill with pastry weights, like dried beans or coins. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the lining and cook for a further 10 minutes.
  • If there are any dock holes in the pastry case that go through the bottom after baking, brush the pastry case with the beaten egg and pop back in the oven for about a minute.
  • Allow the case to cool completely before filling.

Then, make the filling
  • Preheat the oven to 150C. Break the chocolate up in a heatproof bowl. 
  • In a saucepan heat the milk, evaporated milk (or cream), and butter to boiling point. Pour the hot milk mix over the chocolate and leave to stand for 3 minutes. 
  • Whisk the chocolate mix until completely smooth. In a small bowl, beat the egg and add in a small amount of the hot chocolate mixture, whisking all the time. This tempers the egg so that it won't scramble.
  • Add the egg back into the main chocolate mixture and stir well. Pour the filling into the case through a strainer to remove most of the bubbles. If there are any big bubbles on the surface after a gently wiggle, pop them with the corner of a piece of kitchen paper.
  • Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. When ready, it should have a skin over the whole surface and have a gentle wiggle under the surface.
  • Allow to cool completely before putting in the fridge for at least 4 hours to chill thoroughly.
  • Before serving, allow to come to room temperature. This tart is best served with whipped cream and sour berries like raspberries, cherries, or blackberries.

Wednesday, 20 November 2019

Dessert Mashup: Phish Food Cake (Chocolate, Caramel, and Marshmallow Layer Cake)

Looking for a show-stopping dessert for your party table! Try this decadent chocolate, caramel and marshmallow layer cake: the Phish Food gateau!


I like to take inspiration from unusual places, and this time it's from a flavour of ice-cream! Phish Food flavoured Ben and Jerry's is a chocolate ice-cream with little chocolate fishies, a marshmallowy swirl, and a caramelly swirl. I thought it'd be great to interpret his in cake form.

This cake was a big hit at the opening of the play my husband was in this week, and was devoured in minutes. I wish I had got some better pictures, but maybe I'll make another one of these in the future to get better pictures.

 

INGREDIMENTS

For the cake

7½ ounces (210 grammes) white spelt flour, or gluten free flour
1½ ounces (40 grammes) cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
3 medium eggs
9 ounces (250 grammes) caster sugar, divided in two
3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) sunflower oil
3 ounces (85 grammes) butter, at room temperature, or margarine
6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) buttermilk, or milk alternative mixed with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar; or dairy-free yoghurt thinned down with water to buttermilk consistency
2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence


For the filling

3 ounces (85 grammes) dulce de leche, homemade or shop bought
1½ ounces (40 grammes) salted butter


For the marshmallow topping

1 egg white
1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) water
1 ounce (30 grammes) glucose syrup, or white corn syrup
3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
A few drops of lemon juice
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt


For the choco fudge icing

8 ounces (225 grammes) plain chocolate, about 45-50% cocoa
4 ounces (115 grammes) salted butter
6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) whole milk
2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) evaporated milk, or just use all whole milk instead
8 ounces (225 grammes) caster sugar


METHOD

  • Bake the cake according to these directions.
  • Make the filling by beating the caramel and butter together. Set aside
  • Make the choco fudge icing by boiling the milks and sugar together for about 5 minutes or until it reaches 105C (220F) on a sugar thermometer. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate and butter until smooth and melted. Allow to cool for about an hour, or until spreadable.
  • Make the marshmallow topping: mix all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl. Gently heat over simmering water until the sugar dissolves and it’s hot to the touch. Take it off the heat and whip it with an electric hand mixer for a full 7 minutes, until it is marshmallowy light and cool to the touch. For extra accuracy, you can use a thermometer to check the temperature of the egg white syrup, which should reach 70C (160F) before whipping.
  • Trim the cake dome, slice in half and sandwich with the caramel filling. Ice the sides with the choco fudge icing, and pipe a decorative border around the edge of the top.
  • Either pipe or dollop the marshmallow icing onto the top of the cake, keeping within the border.
  • As an extra touch, you can dust some cocoa powder on the top through a fish shaped stencil. I made one out of the cardboard from a cereal box.

Friday, 18 October 2019

"Marvellous Creations" Muddie Buddies [BACK-DATED]

Looking for a delicious snack for your party entertaining! Try this American style treat with an English twist: "Marvellous Creations" Muddie Buddies!



Muddie Buddies, also known as Puppy Chow, is a Mid-Western American treat which involves coating Chex cereal in melted chocolate (and often peanut butter) and dusting the whole thing in icing sugar. Sometimes, other sweets are mixed in to make a themed puppy chow, like M&Ms or Andes Mints. The origin of this sweet treat isn't known for sure, but Chex cereal was invented in the late 1930s so it's a fairly recent creation.

Now, I know this treat is served normally at Christmas, but I think it'd be good for any large gathering, including birthdays or Halloween!

As for the "Marvellous Creations", you ask? That's where England comes into it! Cadbury has a Dairy Milk chocolate bar that has popping candy, cherry jelly beans, and coloured crispy shelled chocolates. I thought combining these two things together would make for a delicious mix and it did!



We can't get Chex in Ireland, so I used chocolate frosted Shreddies (Aldi's knock off finest!). I mixed 4 ounces (115 grammes) of these Shreddies and tossed them in 8 ounces (225 grammes) melted plain chocolate and about a tablespoon (15 millilitres) of popping candy. I mixed together 1 ounces (30 grammes) each of icing sugar and cocoa powder, and tossed the cereal until each individual piece was coated. I allowed it to set for about an hour.

I mixed small portions of the snack mix with crispy M&Ms, a variety of pink jelly beans, and sprinkled extra popping candy on top. It was lovely!

I feel that if this were tossed in icing sugar alone it would be too sweet, but if that's what you're used to knock yourself out!

Saturday, 5 October 2019

Thailand Trip: October 24th to November 5th

My husband and I are going on our delayed honeymoon to Thailand from October 24th to November 5th! I cannot wait, and it's going to be the trip of a lifetime. I'll be taking a break from blogging from the middle of October to the middle of November. But once I'm back, I'll have so much to write about!

I'm slightly disappointed to be abroad for Halloween, and missing out on lots of Halloween baking recipes, but I'll be having a very different kind of celebration this year!

Take care <3

Monday, 30 September 2019

Make Ahead Dinners #1: Mini Meatloaf

Here is my first ever installment in my newest venture: sharing my tips and tricks for make ahead dinners that are easy to prepare and are suitable for home freezing. From meatloaf to fish pie to falafel, I have a lot in store!

So, you looking for a make ahead dinner that's comforting and warming? How about some meatloaf, but in mini form for easy storage and reheating?


As we move closer to the winter months, we're all looking for that lovely, warming comfort food to get us through the darkening evenings. Sometimes, after a long day of work or studies, we don't really feel like cooking. But, instead of reaching for that pack of instant noodles or that TV dinner, you could spend an hour of two on a Sunday afternoon when you have some spare time prepping meals for the week. Meatloaf if a good one for minimum input and maximum output! Making mini loaves means you can freeze them, and then just take one at a time out of the freezer for whenever you want them.

I love meatloaf, despite the fact that in this country it's really not popular: it's definitely an American thing. Here in Ireland, mince normally finds itself in cottage pie, burgers, pasties, lasagne, or pasta sauce, but I've never seen an Irish family eat meatloaf. The only people I've seen eat meatloaf are the American people on the telly.



So, one day I decided to make it and it was utterly delicious! I used Chef John Mitzewich's recipe on his zombie meatloaf video at first, but after a few times I tweaked it to have a nice memorable formula: 1 pound of mince, 1 ounce of breadcrumbs, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of milk, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Now, I add in some aromatic vegetables for extra flavour, but that's the basic formula to make deliciously moist meatloaves every time. I really enjoy making meatloaf with lamb, but you can go with the more traditional beef and pork mince.

This recipe can be made into one big meatloaf in a 1 pound (455 gramme) loaf tin, or into mini ones using a muffin tin, which is what I did. Or, you could even make into balls by hand and braise in tomato sauce; I believe in America meatloaf is often braised in tomato sauce.

My husband, who was raised in the English Midlands, says that they look and taste like faggots (which is an English dish of little loaves of breadcrumbs, herbs, and pork mince and liver). So, if you want lamb faggots, this recipe could work for you!

INGREDIMENTS

1 ounce (30 grammes) unsalted butter or oil
1 small red onion, or a 5-inch (12 centimetres) piece of leek, chopped finely
1 medium carrot, chopped finely
1 ounce (30 grammes) breadcrumbs, or ground almonds for a a gluten free version
1 medium egg

1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) milk
1 pound (455 grammes) lamb mince (preferably 85/15 lean to fat)*
1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) salt
½ teaspoon (2 millilitres) black pepper
Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) mint sauce

* You can use any meat you want, but if you're not using lamb you can swap this out for another seasoning, like Worcestershire sauce or horseradish

METHOD
  • In a frying pan, sweat the onion (or leek) and the carrot in the butter (or oil) until soft, and then let cool down to room temperature.
  • Preheat the oven to 160C (320F).
  • I a large, roomy mixing bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, egg, and milk. Allow to sit for 20 minutes until the breadcrumbs are completely soaked.
  • Add in the cooked vegetables and the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly with a gentle touch.
  • Press the mixture into a loaf tin, or divide the mixture 5 or 6 holes on a muffin tin (depending on how big you want the mini loaves), then bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for about an hour for the whole loaf, for 25 to 30 minutes for the mini loaves. I use a meat thermometre so I cook the loaves to an internal temperature of 65C.
  • If you're making mini loaves, remove the tin from the oven and raise the temperature to 200C (400F). Take the loaves out of the muffin tin and sit them on a flat tray, and bake for a further 5 minutes until nicely browned.
  • Serve with mashed potato, steamed vegetables, and plenty of gravy.

Tuesday, 10 September 2019

Traditional Amish Whoopie Pies: The Secret Is Revealed.....

Today's offering is these deliciously soft and squishy chocolate whoopie pies with their traditional whipped buttercream filling! And these cakes really taught me a huge lesson.


Now, I now I've made whoopie pies before, but this time it's different. Sometimes an old dog can learn new tricks, and sometimes a metric person can be surprised by American cups. For my entire cooking career, I have measured baking ingredients in mass (weight) measurements: pounds, ounces, kilos and grammes have been part of my everyday kitchen practise. In my opinion, the accuracy of measuring things in weight makes the recipes easily repeatable with the same results every time.... in theory.

I've always been put off cups because the idea of having to dirty a cup when one could just measure all the ingredients in the same bowl on a scale makes no sense to me. Also, every cup of flour -- no matter how carefully you try to measure the cup exactly the same way every time -- weighs differently. An Australian cup is different to an American cup, and what do you do if you don't have a set of cups?


For all of these reasons, I have spent my entire baking career avoiding them. However, from personal experience, translating or converting cup measurements to weight measurements can fail absolutely miserably.

When I decided to make these whoopie pies, I found a traditional Amish recipe and, of course, it was measured in cups. I made the recipe using cups, and it worked perfectly! As I was scooping the cups of ingredients I was weighing them exactly. Having noted how much each cup of each ingredient weighed, I noted it for perfectly replicable results! Or, so I thought.

When I made them again using my painstakingly measured weights, they were an absolute failure. I was so confused: surely, it should have worked perfectly? I did it again with the cups, again measuring the weights of the cups, and even though this times most of the weights were completely different it still turned out perfectly like the first time.

So my main take away is: if the recipe is designed for cups, use cups. And if the recipe is designed for grammes, use grammes.


I believe now, after this wonderfully humbling experiment, that weights are not the be all and end all, and that recipes should be made using the measurements they were designed with. I'm just glad I had a set of measuring cups!

For those who are interested in making these beauties, I used Family Favourite's recipe Traditional Amish Chocolate Whoopie Pies to make these. They are moist, soft, sweet, and deeply chocolatey. The addition of egg white in the icing makes it super light and fluffy. I heartily recommend this recipe! If you want plain vanilla cakes, I have discovered that simply replacing the cocoa powder cup for cup with flour works a charm.

Saturday, 7 September 2019

Let's Go To The Circus! A Cupcake Design

At 28 years old, I had never (as far as I could remember) been to a circus. So my husband took me to the one that was in town this week and I had a blast! All the performers were incredible acrobats, and the clown was very sweet.

I was inspired by my time at the circus to make these cute themed cupcakes! Chocolate cakes with a mildly peanutty buttercream, topped off with a mini candy floss!


I know that circuses don't have animals anymore, but I still associate elephants and camels and that old timey sense of wonder at amazing spectacles! And because of elephants, I thought of peanuts.... thus peanut butter. Also, while at the circus I had some candy floss; yumyum!

INGREDIENTS
12 chocolate cupcakes, in pink or blue cases
6 ounces (170 grammes) salted butter
3 fluid ounces (105 millilitres) condensed milk
3 ounces (85 grammes) smooth peanut butter
12 ounces (340 grammes) icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
A few drops of almond essence
6 paper straws with pink stripes
A tub of candy floss, pink and blue
Pink and blue sprinkles

METHOD
  • Make a buttercream icing with the butter, condensed milk, peanut butter, icing sugar, vanilla and almond essences. 
  • Use the icing to pipe swirls on top of the cakes, and sprinkle with the blue and pink sprinkles.
  • Cut the straws in half and use each half as a stick for the candy flosses: wrap pieces of candy floss around the straws and gently squeeze to secure. Keep the candy flosses in an airtight container until serving.
  • Decorate the cakes with the mini candy flosses immediately before serving, not in advance, otherwise the candy flosses will melt.

Sunday, 25 August 2019

Sweetie Pie's Perfectly Pink Summer Punch: An Easy Formula! (Cup Measurements)

Summer time is prime time for entertaining! I have a social circle who really enjoy socialising around card and board games, so to end my summer holiday in style I had a games party with pizza. And what party would be complete without a delicious party drink?


As a wedding gift, a good friend of mine gave me two garden flamingos -- a pink one and a black one -- which my husband decided to name Bert and Ernie, for some strange reason. It was even stranger considering the fact that he actually didn't know who "Bert and Ernie" were. So, in honour of their arrival, everything in the party was flamingo themed, including the punch.


I don't normally provide alcoholic drinks at social occasions because a) it's expensive, and b) sometimes people have no self control. However, we're all getting older now, and some of my more enthusiastic friends have calmed down with their imbibing as they've aged...

However, you can stretch a spirit a long way if you make yourself a nice party punch! Punch is a Caribbean drink that's made by mixing rum in specific ratios with other liquids. It's easily remembered with this traditional rhyme:

1 part sour
2 parts sweet
3 parts strong (alcohol, traditionally rum)
4 parts weak (mixer, traditionally water)


This ratio will produce a punch that's 9% alcohol volume. However, I don't want to get by guests completely plastered so I use 6 parts of mixer to make the overall volume 7.5%. To make it even weaker, use 2 parts strong and 6 parts weak to make the overall volume 5%.

Sour is exactly what it says on the tin: a sour liquid, like lemon or lime juice. You could also use grapefruit juice.

Sweet is a simple syrup or sweet fruit juice. You could use shop-bought syrups or squashes, but make sure to dilute them so they're not overwhelming. Some recipes even use a sweet liqueur here, like Framboise or Grand Marnier.

Strong is obviously the main alcoholic element, most frequently a spirit: whiskey, rum, vodka, you name it. Preferably this element is 30-35.7% alcohol volume, but you can use a weaker alcohol if you don't want your punch too strong.

And finally, weak is your diluting mixer: soft drink, tea, or even sparkling or still water. Some very adventurous people even use a weak alcohol here, like beer or cider. That's a but too alcoholic for me.


Sweetie Pie's Perfectly Pink Summer Punch

1 cup (240 millilitres) lime juice, bottled is fine
1 cup (240 millilitres) concentrated cherry syrup or squash, like this one
1 cup (240 millilitres) water, to dilute the syrup
3 cups (720 millilitres) mint vodka*, or strong peppermint schnapps (must be 30% alcohol)
6 cups (1440 millilitres) lemon lime soft drink, or cola
Ice, to serve

METHOD
  • In a punch bowl or large pitcher, mix together the lime juice, cherry syrup, water, and vodka. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.
  • Immediately before serving, add 3 cups of ice and the lemon lime drink. Use a ladle to serve if it's in a bowl.
  • Using these ratios the punch will be roughly 7.5%. Reducing the soft drink to 4 cups will yield a 9% drink.
*  I make mint vodka myself by dissolving 100 grammes (3.5 ounces) of clear mint sweets in 500 millilitres (17.5 fluid ounces) of vodka or about 24 hours, stirring occasionally. 

Feel free to experiments with flavours! What about something with blackberries and Jaegermeister for a spooky magical purple? Or keep it tropical fresh with lemon, orange, and grapefruit juice with rum? Whatever the occasion, this recipe is easily adaptable to your taste and event.

Saturday, 10 August 2019

Tangzhong Cinnamon Rolls: Further Experiments

In my further bread experiments, I've discovered that tangzhong dough works very well for making cinnamon rolls!


I wrote up a cinnamon rolls recipe about two years ago using a traditional bread dough method, but I thought it'd be nice to update it with my recent discovery of the Tangzhong method.

In my previous blog on the topic, I said that it was an Asian method (which makes sense, being called tangzhong), however from further research I discovered that its origins are to be found in Eastern Europe, particularly Austria and Russia. In German, it's called kochstück and was originally used to prevent spelt bread from drying out in the oven. So, it's doubly appropriate I should use it on this blog, which has a focus on making things with spelt flour!

 

This made some mega fluffy cinnamon rolls, but I will warn that they dough is so soft and stretchy that it's difficult to get a nice tight roll. But the crumb is so unbelievably fluffy that that won't bother you.To make the dough, I used 1 pound (450 grammes) strong flour, at least 11.5% protein, 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) water, the same amount of milk, two ¼ ounce (7 gramme) packs of dried yeast, 2 ounce (55 grammes) salted butter, and 2 tablespoon (30 grammes) sugar.

In the future, I'll be looking into ways to knead this style of dough without a machine, because I rely on my newly acquired stand mixer to knead this very sticky style of bread. There are masters who know the ancient ways of kneading high hydration dough, so I'll turn to them for assistance....

Wednesday, 31 July 2019

Bread That's Still Fresh Tomorrow: Tangzhong Method

Ah, bread... such a simple, simple pleasure. In some parts of the world, access to bread is a human right, and I can see why!


However, sometimes homemade bread doesn't live up to expectations for a variety of reasons: it's dry, it's dense, it's doughy, or sometimes it simply doesn't last for more than a day before going stale. That's not a problem if you have lots of people in your house to eat the bread, but if not even the biggest bread lover couldn't (or if they could, shouldn't) eat an entire loaf of bread in one day. 

So, I took to the internet to do some research on how to keep my bread fresher for longer and lasts for three days without having to become bird food. And it's all to do with the relationship between the flour and the water.

Now, for some science

In the breadmaking world, people talk about dough hydration percentage. Sounds fancy, but all that really means is if you have a bread dough that has 1000 grammes of flour, and 500 grammes of water, that dough has a 50% hydration, because there is half as much water as flour. The higher the percentage of hydration, the chewier and sturdier the texture of the dough after baking, and the fresher it stays for longer. The lower the percentage, the quicker it goes stale. 

Doughs that have a higher hydration percentage need flour with more gluten, so an 80% hydration dough would need strong bread flour that has a high percentage of protein on the label, more than 11%. Lower hydration dough, however, can be made using regular plain or all purpose flour which makes them much more accessible for beginners or occasional bakers who might only have plain flour at home.

Regular beginner's bread doughs often have roughly 60-65% hydration, or a pound of flour (455 grammes) to about half a pint of water or milk (285 millilitres). That's how my Mum taught me, and it's easy to handle. Often very experienced or artisan breadmakers can use bread doughs that have up to 80% hydration, like sourdough, which has great keeping qualities and a delicious chewy texture. However, this kind of dough needs particular handling techniques that take a long time to master that would absolutely frustrate and discourage a beginner. I've tried, and failed, and cried over way too many wasted loaves of bread.


Is there a compromise?

To have a dough with a nice high percentage hydration but can be easily handled, you need to trap some of the water. Introducing a method that's very popular in East Asian countries: the tangzhong.

This method takes a small amount of the flour used in your recipe to make a paste with some of the water. This paste traps the water in the starch of the flour, which has two advantages: the water isn't all in your dough, making it hard to handle; and the water is trapped which makes it harder to escape, keeping the bread moister for longer!

Now, that's some massive oversimplification: the real technical reason has way more longer words in it like gelatinisation and other words I couldn't spell out loud from memory. But all you need to know is that it works very well.

So, the takeaway is

Higher Hydration: 65%<
Needs strong (bread) flour with more protein
Makes bread that has a chewy texture
Can have big air pockets, depending on how it's proofed
Sticky dough which needs specific handling techniques
Almost has a life of its own
Makes bread that keeps longer

Lower Hydration: >65%
Can be made using plain (all-purpose) flour
Make tender, soft bread
Has a more cake-like texture
Easy to handle dough that's good for beginners
Quite a forgiving dough that doesn't need special treatment
Can stale quickly if not eaten or frozen immediately

Tangzhong Method
Traps some of the water in a cooked flour-water paste
Results in a dough which is a happy middle ground between low and high hydration properties



So, for my delicious loaf of white bread that's in the pictures, I used 1 pound (455 grammes) of strong bread flour, 12 fluid ounces (340 millilitres), one quarter-ounce (7 gramme) sachet of dried yeast, 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter or oil, 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) salt, and two teaspoons (10 millilitres) sugar.

One pound is 16 ounces, which means 12 fluid ounces of water is 75% of the flour measurement. If you use more or less flour, the water must be scaled to always be 75% of the flour.

Take 1 ounce (30 grammes) of the pre-measured flour and cook it with 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) of the pre-measured water and cook it into a paste in a saucepan over medium-low heat and allow to cool with cling film directly touching the surface to prevent a skin. The paste should be thick and translucent. Notice that the ratio of flour to water is 1:6, and also that half of the overall water is being trapped in the paste. 

Make the bread as usual, adding in the paste and the remaining ingredients. It will take longer to knead and sometimes get a little sticky, but don't be tempted to add a load more flour to knead it easier. You can use plain flour for dusting.

Bake as normal and cool as normal and you'll be presented with some of the most deliciously impossibly soft and fluffy bread you've ever eaten. Just like from the Chinese bakery!

This method can be used to make cinnamon rolls and other kinds of bread treats like dinner rolls, hot dog buns, or hamburger buns. You can use milk in the dough, but always make sure you make the flour paste with water; it just works better that way.


For more information on tangzhong method dough, please read through my sources and explore what the world wide web has to offer on the subject!

SOURCES

Saturday, 27 July 2019

Brownie Ice-Cream Cake [BACK-DATED]

Happy birthday to my dearest husband! (Still doesn't feel real saying that...) To celebrate, we're having a delicious ice-cream cake with a brownie base!


Simon absolutely loves hot brownies with ice-cream on top, so this year I thought I'd mash the two concepts together by making an ice-cream cake. However, I learnt a few things in the process.

I made this by cooking up an 8 inch (20 centimetre) fudgy chocolate brownie and popping it in a deep 8 inch tin lined with non-stick paper. I emptied about 2 pints of good quality vanilla ice-cream on top of it and froze the whole confection together. However, this led to a rock solid base. So, in future renditions, I'll probably freeze the ice-cream into a cake shape independently of the base, then pop the two together for serving so the base is soft enough to cut without the ice-cream thawing too much.


I decorated the top with swirls of whipping cream, vanilla filled wafer rolls, and a dusting of drinking chocolate powder for visual interest! It was greatly enjoyed, but the next one will be better with the added steps.

Wednesday, 24 July 2019

Sweetie Pie's Perfect Scones! Part 2: Written Recipe


After experimenting over the course of a few days (which you can read all about here) I found what I consider to be the perfect scone: light and fluffy with pale sides and a brown top, with only a little hit of sweetness. I like my scones very plain.

To get the consistency of texture, the dough has to be worked through properly. This is tricky with something like scones, which need to be handled as little as possible before baking so they don't get tough. The way around this is to add some extra starch to reduce the overall amount of gluten in the flour. With a higher percentage of starch, the scones are lighter, fluffier, and easier to work with.

Split these beauties in half and enjoy with jam, butter, or cream. Or maybe all of the above, if you're feeling indulgent....

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY
Very simple! 

TIME
1 hour

RECIPE RATING
Easy!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

6 ounces (170 grammes) white plain flour: spelt or wheat
2 ounces (55 grammes) cornflour
1 tablespoon baking powder, or 1 teaspoon of baking powder with 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda for Irish style scones
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 ounces (55 grammes) butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons (28 grammes) caster sugar
4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres) milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon juice, if using baking soda
Eggwash, made with an egg and a pinch of salt, or you can use milk to omit the egg


METHOD
  • Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and preheat a flat baking tray also.
  • Sieve the flours, baking powder (and baking soda, if using), and salt twice, making sure to hold the sieve high. I like to sieve the mixture out onto a piece of baking paper, then back into the mixing bowl.
  • In a mixing bowl, rub the sieved ingredients with the butter until it's like fine breadcrumbs. It doesn't matter what temperature the butter is, as long as it's very well rubbed in. Stir in the sugar.
  • Add the milk (and lemon juice, if using baking soda) and mix quickly and throroughly with a metal spoon until just mixed.
  • Turn out onto a floured work surface and chaff six times: chaffing is the process of flattening the dough by hand, folding in half, turning through 90 degrees, and then repeating. This is a much gentler process than kneading.
  • Cut out scones using a cutter, shape the dough into a rectangle and cut squares, or shape into a round and cut into wedges. You can gather the remaining dough and re-roll, but the second rolling won't be as even as the first.
  • Sprinkle flour onto the preheated tray and arrange the scones about half an inch apart from each other: if they're a little huddled together, they will rise straighter. Eggwash the tops, making sure it doesn't dribble down the sides. If you like, you can baste the tops with eggwash another two times during cooking for an even richer colour. You can also sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar or salt.
  • Bake near the top of the oven for 15 minutes. This can depend on the size of the scones: when they've risen high and have turned a rich brown on top, they're ready.

These are best eaten the day they are made, but they freeze very well. Freeze any leftovers on the day of baking for best results.

Sweetie Pie's Perfect Scones! Part 1: Experiments


Ah, the humble scone. So many varieties, so many styles, and so many shades of deliciousness. And as such, so many challenges.

What somebody considers a perfect scone is polarising and subjective. I'm sure we can all agree that a Victoria sponge should be light, fluffy and sweet. I'm sure we can all agree that a piece of shortbread should be sandy and buttery. But, I'm not sure we will all agree on what we like about scones.

From my observation here in Ireland, there are three main families of scones: ones eaten in England, ones eaten in America, and the ones that every Nana knows how to make here at home.


  • English scones are more cake-like: sweet, light and fluffy, and are usually quite small. The ingredients are typically cold, and the butter is rubbed in fully to make them fluffy.
  • American scones are like giant chunks of sweetened shortcrust pastry: the butter is left in small pieces in the dough and not rubbed in fully, and everything is ice cold, making them flaky more so than fluffy. There is also a very high percentage of butter.
  • Irish scones are more like sweetened buns of soda bread: bready, not very sweet, and rough on the outside. They are very plain, and often quite dense.


My personal preference is an English style scone: light, fluffy, breaks apart easily for buttering, and is usually small. Achieving this without using shop bought self-raising flour nor butt-tonnes of baking powder is quite a challenge, though.

I did four experiments in the kitchen, which will be presented to you in note form with elaboration as needed. Every single recipe added the ingredients in the same order: butter rubbed into flour and raising agent, sugar added, followed by the liquid mixed in quickly with a knife before finishing the mixing on the work surface. Every mixture was rolled to an inch thick (2.5 centimetres) and baked at 200°C (400°F) for 15 minutes.

NOTE: Chaffing is a procedure where the dough is folded and flattened repeatedly. It's often used for delicate pastries that shouldn't be handled much, and is also used in traditional bread making for doughs which are very wet.



 
From the top to the bottom: Batch 1, Batch 2, Batch 3, and Batch 4

Batch 1

8oz flour
2 tsps b powder
Pinch of salt
2oz butter, cold, or margarine
1oz sugar
4floz milk


Mixed in the machine. Not chaffed. Broke when baking: poor crust colour. Eggwashed once.

I got a Kenwood mixer as a wedding gift, and tried making scones in it. Would not recommend!


~ * ^ _ ^ * ~


Batch 2

8oz flour
1 tablespoon b powder
Pinch of salt
2oz butter, cold, or margarine
1oz sugar
4floz milk, slightly warm
1 tsp lemon juice

 

Lemon juice mixed with milk at the last second before adding to dough. Mixed by hand, chaffed four times. Cut into wedges. Rose nicely, but cracked on top slightly and caught too much colour on the sides. Eggwashed once.


~ * ^ _ ^ * ~


Batch 3

4oz flour
1/4 tsp b powder
1/4 tsp b soda
Pinch of salt
1oz butter, cold, or margarine
1 tablespoon sugar
2floz milk, slightly warm
1/2 tsp lemon juice



Lemon juice mixed with milk at the last second before adding to dough. Mixed by hand, chaffed four times. Cut into rounds. Rose sideways, and coloured too much. Crust too thick. Distinct taste of b soda, though not overwhelming. Egg washed once before cooking, and again a minute before finished in oven


~ * ^ _ ^ * ~

It was at this point that I nearly gave up and realised why I've never done a scone recipe on this blog before. It seems my tastes in scones are very specific! I delved back into the history of my blog and found that I had, in fact, done a scone recipe. It was a quick mention in a recipe I'd done for tomato soup, and I remember eating those scones and thinking they were delicious. Turns out, the issue I was having with overworking the flour was very easily solved by adding in cornflour. The addition of extra starch reduced the overall amount of gluten, and meant that the dough could be easily and thoroughly mixed without exercising the gluten too much. Turns out I was trying to reinvent the wheel.

~ * ^ _ ^ * ~


Batch 4

3oz flour, with 1oz cornflour
1/2 tsp b powder
1/4 tsp b soda
Pinch of salt
1oz butter, cold, or margarine
2 teaspoons sugar
2floz milk, slightly warm
1/2 tsp lemon juice

 

Lemon juice mixed with milk at the last second before adding to dough. Mixed by hand, chaffed five times: withstood chaffing more because of high starch content. Cut into fluted rounds. Rose well -- cleanest cut ones rose the best. Coloured nicely: sides nice and pale, and top well browned. Distinct taste of b soda, though not overwhelming. Eggwashed three times: once before baking, once halfway through -- turning the tray through 180 -- and again a minute before finished in oven.


~ * ^ _ ^ * ~


Batch 5

3oz flour, with 1oz cornflour
1.5 tsps baking powder
Pinch of salt
1oz butter, cold, or margarine
1 tablespoon sugar
2floz milk, slightly warm
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Made in exactly the same way as Batch 4. No noticeable visual difference. Slightly fluffier, lacking the characteristic moisture and flavour of b soda. Suitable substitute for those who dislike b soda.


So, I can conclusively say, that cornflour is the magic ingredient. Whether you use baking soda or powder doesn't seem to matter that much, but what does it that the overall gluten is reduced by adding starch. Read all about the final recipe here!

It's been a while! Happy 9th Anniversary!

  It's been a while. The past two years have been a helluva a ride. This year is gonna hold some big changes for this blog. I'm comp...