When a Failure Becomes a Success! Old-Fashioned Toffee

Sometimes, things go horribly wrong in the kitchen. It happens to all of us. But other times, things look like they're about to go horribly wrong before you put your Lateral Thinking cap on. I bring to you the results of such an occasion: Old-Fashioned Toffee!

I was making some gingerbread men and popped my usual equal weights of butter, sugar, and golden syrup into a pan. I then completely forgot about it as I got distracted by checking addresses for wedding invitations. Once I got back, it was cooked to firm ball stage; far too cooked to use in gingerbread men. I got quite upset about it, until I embraced the failure and decided to cook it even further to make a hard-crack snappy toffee out of it.

I mixed a little bicarbonate of soda into it to make it more brittle and light, and then sprinkled some chopped walnuts over the top. I had some left over from making the Esterhazy torta.

So, I present to you my accidental recipe for old-fashioned toffee! This, of course, is written as if you're actually making toffee and not salvaging the remains of some syrup for gingerbread!

INGREDIMENTS

4 ounces (115 grammes) salted butter

4 ounces (115 grammes) golden syrup

4 ounces (115 grammes) soft brown sugar

1 level teaspoon (5 millilitres) bicarbonate of soda

Optional: chopped nuts, to decorate

METHOD

• Lightly oil a large flat baking sheet, and sieve the bicarbonate of soda into a small cup. Set aside.
• In a saucepan over medium-low heat, heat the butter, syrup, and sugar until the butter is melted and the sugar dissolves.
• Increase the heat to medium high and boil for about 10 minutes until it reaches the hard-crack stage, or 146 to 154°C (295 to 309°F) on a sugar thermometer.
• As soon as it reaches temperature, remove from the heat and quickly stir in the bicarbonate of soda: it should puff up slightly, but not too much. Pour out onto the flat baking sheet and sprinkle with nuts, if using. If you want even pieces, score the toffee while it's still warm.
• Leave to cool completely, about 1 hour, before breaking along the score lines, or hitting firmly with the end of a rolling pin to break into shards.

Halloween 2016: Maple Peacle Tarts (Wheat Free)

Continuing in the vein of Halloween treats, here is a tasty American style morsel for you: maple peacle tarts!

Yes, before you correct me, I know it's a pecan, not a peacle. But, this recipe combines the powers of a maple pecan pie, and a treacle tart. It's a bit of a Transatlantic experience.

Here in Ireland, maple syrup is incredibly expensive, as I discussed in my post on a full sized maple pecan pie. Luckily though, maple flavoured golden syrup is a thing! I prefer using it because it has a stronger--albeit synthetic--flavour, whereas natural maple syrup's flavour is much more subtle

As you can see in the picture, I used the wrong kind of cutter for the tarts: I tried to be all artsy and use a flower shaped cutter, but it meant that the filling overflowed. Take it from me: do traditional cases with a round cutter.

This recipe could very easily be adapted for the good American Thanksgiving celebration coming u in November, as I understand maple pecan tart is something eaten at a holiday family meal in the States. Or it could be eaten pretty much anytime!

FREE FROM

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

CONTAINS
☒ Eggs
☒ Dairy (dairy substitutes can be found in italics)
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products


INGREDIMENTS
For 12 tarts

For the pastry

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) white spelt flour
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter, at room temperature, or margarine
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) icing sugar
• Cold water, to bind

For the filling

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) maple flavoured golden syrup
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) ground almonds
• 1 medium egg
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) chopped pecan nuts
• Zest of half a lemon
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) lemon juice
• 12 full pecan nut halves

METHOD

• Make the dough according to the instructions found here. Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap in cling film, and chill for an hour.
• When chilled, preheat your oven to 180ºC (350ºF, Gas Mk. 4)
• Roll out the dough to an eighth of an inch (3 millilitres) thick, and cut into 3 inch (8 centimetre) rounds. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with the rounds, and prick the bases with a fork. Crumple up squares of tin foil to fill each case, and cook for 15 minutes, or until golden.
• While the cases are baking, prepare the filling. Mix all the filling ingredients except for the nuts in a mixing bowl until smooth.
• When the cases are cooked, remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 150ºC (325ºF, Gas Mk. 2). Remove the tin boil balls, and divide the chopped nuts between the cases. Divide the batter between the cases, filling almost to the top, and place a pecan half in each tart.
• Tap gently on the work surface, and return to the oven for a further 20 to 25 minutes, or until the centres have set and they are golden and crusty on the top.
• Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

These tarts are super sweet, in true Halloween treat fashion! Enjoy with caution. These will keep in an airtight container for up to a week, if they last that long.

Treacle Tarts, without Breadcrumbs (Wheat Free)

Last autumn, I tried my hand at making a treacle tart, but I shook it up by adding some apple to it to make something that was somewhat toffee apple inspired. I was delicious, but very much an experiment. I was going to try the recipe again, but then I just... forgot about it. Until this week, when my companion's mother invited me round for tea, and requested in jest some treacle tarts as payment for her company. So, here they are!

However, these are a little different to traditional treacle tarts, insofar as they don't use breadcrumbs. I used breadcrumbs the last time, and found it a little squishy, and I wanted something with a little more firmness. Also, I don't eat bread so I find buying bread just to make breadcrumbs is sort of backwards. So, I researched what I could use instead, on many a baking forum, and one forum user suggested ground almonds.

They turned out really well, and my companion's family liked them (so I think they think I'm good girlthing material for their child/sibling), the mother comparing them to something like a gingerbread tart. Generally speaking, treacle tart isn't spiced, but I like to add a little bit to mine just for flavour.

FREE FROM

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

CONTAINS
☒ Eggs
☒ Dairy
☒ Gluten
☒ Nuts
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS

For four 4 inch (10 centimetre) tarts, or one 7 inch (18 centimetre) round tart

For the pastry:

• 1 ounce icing sugar
• 2 ounces butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
• 3 ounces spelt flour
• 1 ounce cornflour
• 1 tablespoon cold milk/water

For the filling:

• 1 ounce treacle
• 5 ounces golden syrup
• 4 ounces ground almonds
• 1 medium egg
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• ½ teaspoon ginger
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon 

HOW-TO

• Preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F, Gas Mk.4).
• Put the butter, sugar, flour and cornflour in a mixing bowl and rub together with your fingertips into a crumble.
• Mix in about a tablespoon of milk (or water), mixing with your hand, until you get a nice smooth, pliable dough.  Roll out to a ¼ inch (0.5 centimetre) thickness.
• This amount will line one 7 inch round tart tin, or 4 four-inch tarts, and you don’t need to grease them. Cut out rounds to fit the individual cases, or press into a round tart tin, using the rolling pin to trim the excess falling over the edges.
• Gently heat the treacle and syrup together until warm and runny, either in a saucepan over low heat, or in a heatproof jug in the microwave for about a minute on medium power.
• Remove from heat, and stir in the ground almonds, spices, lemon zest and juice and mix thoroughly. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, so the almonds can soak.
• Once cool enough to touch add the egg and beat immediately until smooth and pourable. Divide the filling among the individual pastry cases, if using, or pour into the large pastry case.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes for four individual tarts, or 25 to 30 minutes for one large tart.
• Allow to cool completely in the tin before removing. The pastry will slightly shrink, making it easier to remove.

NOTES

You can use any leftover dough to decorate the tarts. Traditionally, treacle tarts are decorated with a lattice pattern, the weaves sometimes being twisted. I used some cut outs because I didn’t have enough left over dough to make lattices.

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog
THIS TIME IN 2013: Gingerbread of the Gingeriest Proportions (Wheat Free)

Experiment: Syrup Sponge Pudding in the Microwave! (Wheat-, Egg-, and Dairy Free)

Happy Monday all! I think we all need an injection of happiness at the start of the week, and what better way to blast the Monday blues than with a quick microwave sponge pudding!

I during my first few years away from home I would buy the tinned syrup sponge puddings from the shop (back when I could eat wheat) and my brother and I would share one after dinner when it was just the two of us living together. But my delight in microwavable sponge puddings started when as a child my mother would quickly whip up microwave syrup puddings to feed six of us after dinner sometimes for a treat. She followed a recipe that she found in a massive "Microwave Cookbook", that was released in the early nineties when people believed that the microwave would revolutionise cooking.

This book, which I still have, is marvelous: it instructs how to use the microwave to basically cook anything, from whole chickens to baked custards to boiled sugar sweets. It's really fascinating, but little did the authors know that the domestic microwave one day would only be used for heating up leftovers and making pop-in-the-bag popcorn.

But over the last few years the microwave in a mug cake has been coming back into fashion, which is a 20 year old concept. The idea is you mix the ingredients directly in the mug then bung it in the microwave for anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes, depending on the recipe, and then eat what is usually a bland, chewy and overly sweet dry cake; I have never found a satisfying recipe.

 Recently I've been experimenting with the vegan cake recipe that I use, and using it to make sponge-in-a-mug cakes, but I've been putting things in the bottom of the mug before adding the cake mixture: golden syrup, chocolate sauce, and jam for example. I cook them in my 800W microwave oven for 2 minutes 30 seconds, let it stand after cooking for 1 minute, and they nice and moist and fluffy, not dry and over-zapped.

Two things to bear in mind, though:

1. The cake will rise a little out of the mug as the steam escapes from underneath, but once you take it out of the microwave it will sink back down again.
2. The cake will look a little underdone when you take it out of the microwave, but as you let it stand outside after cooking it will finish cooking in its own heat. This is what keeps it moist.

FREE FROM

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

CONTAINS
☒ Cocoa
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS

For one mug cake

• 1 or 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 millilitres) golden syrup, chocolate sauce, or jam
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes; 1/3 cup) spelt flour, or gluten free flour blend
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes; 3 tablespoons) white sugar
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres; 2 tablespoons) sunflower oil. Alternatively, you can melt 1½ ounces of butter for extra flavour
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres; 4 tablepsoons) warm water
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

METHOD

• Pour you desired topping in the bottom of the mug, and set aside.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients with a fork until well combined. Add in the oil, water, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Don't overmix: if you still see the off clump of flour it's fine.
• Pour the cake mixture into the mug carefully, being sure not to displace the syrup.
• Cook in the microwave for 2 minutes 30 seconds on 800W (or use this handy website to check for your time and wattage); once cooked, allow to stand for 1 minute.
• Remove from oven and eat while warm.

If you want to save on washing up, you could also just mix all the cake ingredients in the mug, cook it, then put the syrup on top.

Recipe Mashup: Apple Treacle Tart (Wheat Free)

Sometimes one can get a little bored in this kitchen of doing the same things, and that leads to experimentation. Sometimes experiments go very wrong, sometimes they work perfectly: this was a bit of both. So readers, I present to you the apple treacle tart!

This evolved over quite a thought process. I was trying to think of ways to make the concept of a toffee apple into a dessert, and see where that inspiration led me. I thought of toffee apple pudding, which is fairly standard, but then was led onto the concept of mixing together an apple tart and a treacle tart.

For those of you who don't know, a treacle tart is a British traditional tart made with a shortcrust case filled with a mixture of breadcrumbs, golden syrup, treacle and lemon zest; some versions include an egg,which is the one I know.

I thought I'd spruce it up by adding some apple slices on the top, thus introducing the toffee apple aspect. It tasted lovely, but the only issue was that the apples cooked too dry, and the filling was still a little unset in the middle, which led to big problems cutting the tart, There's nothing more annoying than an unset tart when it comes to cutting as it's just messy.

But, my brother and his guest really enjoyed eating it after dinner, and then the leftovers were promptly eaten by everyone else as well. So it wasn't a total disaster.

I wish I had more photos of it when it was cut, but I don't want to be that person who sacrifices sitting down and enjoying a meal with family for taking super stylish photos and bugging the Hell out of everyone.

I will be making another attempt at this recipe in the week to share properly. This is the recipe I used for this attempt, and it will be tweaked in further attempts:


For crust:
2 ounces (55 grammes) icing sugar
4 ounces (115 grammes) butter
4 ounces (115 grammes) spelt flour
2 ounces (55 grammes) cornflour
Pinch of salt

For filling:
4 ounces (115 grammes) breadcrumbs
5 ounces (140 grammes) golden syrup
1 ounce (30 grammes) treacle
1 medium egg
Pinch of salt
1 medium eating apple, sliced finely

Stay tuned for further attempts. I won't include the full recipe and method because it was a trial run.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: On Holiday until Next Monday