Something Savoury: Bacon and Onion Quiche (Wheat Free)

Bonjour, mes amis! Aujourd'hui, j'ai un repas pour vous: quiche, au bacon et onion!

I did French to leaving cert when I was 17, so by now it's a little rusty. However, my delight in French cuisine has not faded.

Having said that, I've never been the world's biggest fan of quiche. I've always been fed shop-bought varieties that are somehow simultaneously gelatinous and dry. But, my companion loves to eat it as a lunch.

Quiche is something that is quite present in the lives of English (and somewhat English) people, as English cookery is actually quite heavily influenced by French and German cuisine. Seeing that English renditions of European foods tend to be quite heavy and stodgy, I assumed that it was the same for quiche.... until I saw a quiche being made by a French woman.

I have a close friend who I visit often, and her housemate it French. I saw her making a quiche for herself, and when I asked her how she was making it her response was quite simply: It's like omelette in a pastry, and the pastry it has to be made with butter, otherwise it's not good. She didn't seem to be using any scales or measurements either, except to say that you use roughly twice as much milk as egg, and the quiche that resulted looked quite tasty!

Turns out that French people also like stodge, it seems. And it also seems that quiche is quite forgiving, and doesn't need precise measurements.

Although I heard straight from the horse's mouth that the pastry has to be made with only butter, I've never been the biggest fan of all butter pastry in savoury food. It's something I associate with sweet tarts, and find way too heavy going for a savoury dish, especially something as heavy as quiche (sorry, French housemate). As such I use a shortcrust pastry made in part with sunflower oil, which I know it completely blasphemous, but hey ho.

INGREDIMENTS
To make one 9 inch (22 centimetre) quiche

For pastry,

• 10 ounces (280 grammes) white spelt flour, cold
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of sugar
• 2½ ounces (70 grammes) butter, cold
• 2½ fluid ounces (5 tablespoons, 75 millilitres) sunflower oil
• Cold water, to combine

For the filling,

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) bacon rashers cut into little pieces, or lardons
• 1 medium red onion, sliced thinly
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) medium chedder cheese, grated
• 3 medium eggs
• Half an imperial pint (1¼ cups, 285 millilitres) whole milk
• Salt and pepper, to taste

HOW-TO

First, make the pastry

• In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, salt, and sugar together. Grate in the butter, dipping it in the flour every few strokes and tossing the flour around to stop everything from sticking. Once the butter is grated in, gently rub with your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs. Alternatively, which is what I do, you can keep running handfuls of the mixture through the grater instead of rubbing with the fingertips.
• When the butter is rubbed in, add in the oil. Rub again gently, only to mix the oil through.
• Mixing with the tip of a knife, add the water gradually until it forms a nice soft dough.
• Form into a disc, wrap in cling film, and refrigerate for an hour.

Next, prepare the fillings

• In a non-stick frying pan set over the hob with the heat off, add the bacon and turn the heat onto medium.
• Once the pan has fully heated, cook the bacon until well browned and all visible fat is thoroughly cooked.
• Remove the bacon from the pan, leaving the oil it has rendered behind in the pan. Add in the onions and cook over medium heat until well browned and fragrant.
• Allow the bacon and onion to fully cool.

Then, blind bake the pastry case

• Roll out the dough on a floured surface and fit into a 9 inch (22 centimetre) straight sided pie dish. My one is ceramic, but a metal or glass one would work so much better.
• Trim the edges, and prick the base and sides all over with a fork. Put in the fridge for about half an hour. 
• While it's chilling, preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F, Gas Mk.7), with a flat baking tray in the oven on the centre shelf. Make sure the tray is large enough to accommodate your pie dish.
• Now it's time to blind bake the pastry case. Take out of the fridge, and line the whole case with a piece of tin foil, pressing it into every nook and cranny. Crumple any excess into the middle, making sure the foil is still covering all the pastry.
• Place in the oven directly on top of the preheated tray, and bake for about 15 minutes.
• After 15 minutes, remove the foil and bake for a further 8 to 10 minutes, or until the crust is lightly golden and fully cooked.

Finally, assemble and bake the quiche

• Remove the blind baked case from the oven and let stand for about 5 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4).
• Sprinkle the bacon and onion evenly on the bottom of the quiche, then top with about half the cheese.
• In a jug, beat together the eggs and milk, and season it to taste (I personally have no problem with tasting raw egg, but that's up to you).
• Pour the egg and milk mixture into the quiche, and then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
• Return to the oven, on top of the tray as before, and cook for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned and crispy, the filling is slightly puffy, and when you touch the centre it feels set and no longer liquid.
• Remove from the oven and cool for about 20 minutes before serving, to let it set a little more. Or, you can let it cool to room temperature, chill it, and serve it cold.

THIS TIME IN 2016: American Style Chocolate Chip Muffins (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2015: Treacle Tarts, without Breadcrumbs (Wheat Free)

No blog from this time in 2014

THIS TIME IN 2013: Gingerbread of the Gingeriest Proportions (Wheat Free)

Chocolate Muffins with Cream Cheese Icing (Wheat Free with Dairy Free Option)

I hope everyone has been keeping well in my absence! I moved to Galway recently to return to university, and unfortunately where I live I once again have no oven!

Luckily for me, my lovely companion allows me to use his oven and his kitchen for baking projects, and he's also started getting involved himself. He's come to rather enjoy baking, which is great: I always love introducing people to it.

I showed him how to make chocolate chip cookies, ginger cake, and American style pancakes, and the other day he said it'd be nice to try making some chocolate cakes with cream cheese icing. I was happy to oblige.

Using this as an excuse, I decided to have a bit of experiment: I decided to try a different style of chocolate cake, using a melted mixture rather than a whipped mixture. However, the result was a little dense for my liking, so I thought I would alter it a little to make it a beaten mixture with a few flourishes.

FREE FROM

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

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

INGREDIMENTS

For 12 standard fairy cakes

• 7 ounces (200 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 medium eggs
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter, or margarine
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) golden syrup
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar
• 4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) water

For the icing:

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) butter, softened or margarine
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) cream cheese, room temperature, or lactose free cream cheese
• 12 ounces (340 grammes) icing sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Chocolate sprinkles, chocolate shavings, or cocoa powder, for decoration

HOW-TO

First off, make the cakes

• Preheat your oven to 170ºC (325ºF/Gas Mk. 3), and line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cake cases.
• In a saucepan, heat together the syrup, cocoa powder and water. Once the mixture is fully blended and there are no lumps of cocoa left, bring it to a simmer then immediately remove it from the heat. Allow to cool.
• In a mixing bowl, cream the soft butter and the sugar together until very light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, making sure that the first egg is fully mixed in before adding the second.
• Mix the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, and baking powder together in another bowl, and sieve half this mixture into the butter mixture. Fold through gently.
• Add in the cooled cocoa syrup, fold in thoroughly, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Fold gently until fully combined.
• Divide among the 12 cake cases and bake in the centre of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until risen and springy to the touch.
• Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before icing.

Now, make the icing

• In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together well with a wooden spoon. Do not be tempted to use an electric mixer for this because you'll get icing soup.
• Once the butter and cream cheese are smoothly blended together, add in the sifted icing sugar about a third at a time, folding in a mixing with the wooden spoon between additions until nice and smooth.
• Spread the icing on top of the cakes, or you can pipe it on too.
• Sprinkle on the topping of your choice.

Another Cautionary Tale on the Dangers of Novelty Cakes: Super Goth Birthday Cake

Like what I said in my previous cautionary tale of novelty baking, I’ve never been one for crafting novelty cakes of any kind really. But following on from my enforced sedate celebrations of World Goth Day, I made up for it on returning to my Homeland my making a birthday cake for one of my closest friends.

My friend Caroline and I met in art college in 2008, and we've been good friends ever since. She likes dragons and heavy metal and black clothes, like I do, and in celebration of our shared gothy interests I decided to do something very, very different: a purple cake with black icing.

However, black icing is incredibly difficult to make and work with. The purple cake was simply a matter of adding some violet food colouring to my usual sponge cake recipe, but the icing was a completely different story altogether: you need a Hell of a lot of black food colouring.

In fact, I actually didn't have enough black colour. Even starting with buttercream icing that I had made using 80% dark chocolate to get a good, dark base, an entire tube of Dr Oetker gel still wasn't enough to get it jet black. I then had to start adding other colours from my inventory.

Eventually, I had used black, blue, green, and red to get it as dark as I needed. And using that amount of colouring has some unfortunate side effects: staining of the mouth, tongue, and teeth, and digestive upset.

Next time, I think I may just glaze the finished iced cake with black mirror glaze or something. But I don't think I'll be working with completely black icing anymore!

I would have got some photos of the inside of the cake too, to show off the lovely purple interior, however we all got so carried away with eating it that I forgot! Sometimes these things are better off enjoyed in the moment, I suppose.

The next major birthday I'll have to cater for will by my sister's in early August. She usually goes for cheesecake, or super chocolate cake. Like I've said in many blogs past, trying to come up with new ideas for birthday cakes gets very tedious!

American Style Chocolate Chip Muffins (Wheat Free)

It's good to be back in this kitchen.

Recently I've been adhering to clean eating principles in my every day diet. Essentially, the adage of clean eating is "Real food doesn't have ingredients, real food is ingredients"; it's overly simplified, but the concept is eating as much whole food as possible, with a few rules:

• Eat as many vegetables complex carbs as you can.
• Eat things with as few ingredients as possible: avoid overly processed food
• All meat must be lean: fish, white meat, lean beef/pork, vegetarian alternatives
• Avoid straight up milk and hard cheese: butter (in moderation), buttermilk, and soft cheeses are allowed.
• Fruit is allowed, but only in conjunction with protein: simple carbohydrate metabolises as complex carbohydrate when combined with protein (and protein doesn't just mean meat, it can be nuts or yoghurt).
• Fat and oil are allowed, but only in pure form: for example, olive oil, coconut oil, butter, etc.
• Refined sugar and artificial sweeteners are a no-no: natural alternatives like honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and agave syrup can be used instead.

Now, obviously, these are guidelines: it's impossible for someone with depression to make such radical changes overnight when getting up in the morning and washing your hair more than once a week seem like insurmountable struggles. So, I do my best and try not to give myself a hard time when I slip up. In my opinion, changing one's diet and using natural supplements is better than being sedated with pharmaceuticals.

So recently I've been doing simple things, like swapping white flour produce for wholemeal, making my own sauces, drinking more water, bringing lunch to work with me instead of buying things on the go, and other small changes. Lots of little changes over time turn into big changes.

So I took my cinnamon roll recipe and slightly altered it to make some scones and some muffins. They turned out quite nicely!

Because I had to make them at my mother's house -- on account of my own oven being banjaxed -- I made them in the evening. So, I asked my brother to take some photos of them the next day in daylight. This request was taken quite literally! Now, they look like photographs taken of 'wild chocolate muffins in their natural habitat'...

FREE FROM

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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Dairy
☒ Eggs

INGREDIMENTS

For eight medium sized scones

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (3 millitres) bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) sunflower oil
• 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) buttermilk
• 2 medium eggs
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 or 4 ounces (85 to 115 grammes) chopped chocolate, or chocolate chips

If using unsalted butter, add 2 pinches of salt.

METHOD

• Line a 12 hole muffin tin with large paper cases. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF, Gas Mk.4).
• In a mixing bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar together until blended. Using a sieve will get rid of any lumps in the baking soda and baking powder. Add the chocolate and toss to coat the chips in flour.
• In a jug, mix together the oil, buttermilk, and eggs until fully blended. Make a well in the dry ingredients, and add in the liquid.
• Mix gently with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until it's blended. Don't overmix or the muffins will be tough; if you see the odd patch of flour, it's grand.
• Divide the mixture between the 12 cases, filling about 3/4 full. Bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes.
• After baking, cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before eating. They're best straight from the oven, but they do keep well in an airtight box for up to a week.

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

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog

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

Lime and Coconut Cake Truffles

In her last dying throes, my oven produced a batch of completely spread out, flat as a pancake, and pale vanilla fairy cakes. Until recently, the recipe I used for the cakes would have worked perfectly every single time, but this time they were a disaster. It was then that I decided to pack up all my baking equipment and move it to my mother's house until such time as the oven could be fixed, or replaced.

But the question remained: what do I do with the leftover disastercakes? Do I throw them out? Feed them to the ducks? Or, recycle them? That's when the concept of using them to make something else sprung to mind...

I decided to have another go at the good old favourite of the 50s American housewife: cake truffles. These may be more known to people as cake pops, which are simply cake truffles mounted on sticks. These are a good way to use up any failed/slightly stale/grand once you pick the mould off (not really, obviously) cakes that you have lying around.

INGREDIMENTS
Makes 20 small truffles

For the truffles,

• 9 ounces (250 grammes) crumbled vanilla sponge cake
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) thick coconut milk
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) desiccated coconut
• Zest of 1 lime
• Juice of half a lime

For the glaze,

• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) icing sugar
• Juice of half a lime
• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) white chocolate, chopped into pieces
• Sprinkles of your choice

HOW-TO

• In a mixing bowl, mix all of the truffle ingredients until it becomes a soft paste. You may need to use your hands. Divide into 20 equally sized pieces and roll into balls. Refridgerate for about 10 minutes.
• Line a baking tray with non-stick paper, or better, a silicone mat.
• To make the glaze, mix the lime juice with water to make 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) worth of liquid. Put the diluted lime juice, icing sugar, and broken white chocolate together in a heatproof bowl and set over a pot of simmering water. Stir continuously until melted. Don't be tempted to do this in the microwave: your chocolate will seize.
• Take the cooled truffles and dip them in the glaze, rolling around until completely coated. Gently scoop up with a fork, tapping the fork on the bowl to let the excess glaze drip off. Put the glazed truffle on the lined tray. Sprinkle with whatever decorations you like while the glaze is still wet.
• Put the truffles in the fridge to set for about an hour, then move them to little paper cases for serving.

These are nice and zingy, with a subtle hit of coconutty richness, and the unexpected lime flavour in the glaze worked quite well: it seemed to be the favourite aspect of those who tried them out...

Kitchen Experiment: Maple Pecan Pie

I hope everyone has got great plans for the weekend! I have anyway: a good friend of mine is down visiting from Roscommon for the World Power Lifting Championships that are on in Limerick, of all places. While she is down, we're taking the opportunity to have a mini Halloween house decorating party! We will be doing a bit of baking, and hanging up pound shop tat, and watching Tim Burton movies till our eyes come out.

As I promised in my last post, the first after a long compassionate break, I am going to let you in on the process that I followed for my most recent concoction: maple pecan pie!

Sunday was Thanksgiving in Canada, and my Canadian work colleague invited my brother and I to celebrate with his wife and a few friends. They had a variety of food, and it was really lovely to experience what is traditionally eaten as part of dinner, and also to be part of their pre-dinner tradition of introducing ourselves in turn to the guests at the table, and saying one thing we're thankful for. I'd love to do that before every meal anymore.

They had turkey (of course), roasted root vegetables, steamed broccoli, mashed sweet potato with maple syrup and walnuts, and stuffing. For dessert, other guests had brought apple pie and cinnamon rolls, and I brought my offering of a tart (snicker).

I did a bit of research as to what kinds of desserts are popular for eating after a Thanksgiving meal. Most of my research turned up results about Thanksgiving in the States, but my colleague assured me they eat pretty much the same things in Canada. I was originally thinking of doing a pumpkin pie, but pumpkins weren't on sale yet when I had to make something to bring.

This was a complete experiment: I'd never made a pie like this before. I read a few recipes online, and checked a few in my numerous cookbooks, and most of the recipes were the same. They all followed the basic formula of one 9 inch (22 centimetre) pie shell, filled with a mixture of 3 medium eggs, 6 ounces (170 grammes) brown sugar, 3 ounces (85 grammes) melted butter, 4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) of maple or corn syrup, and about 5 ounces (140 grammes) chopped pecan nuts. Some recipes asked for the filling to be thickened with a little flour, and some asked for more syrup.

However, there was always one things on which the various recipes I read could not agree: was the crust blind baked or not.

So, I followed the recipe from one of the cookbooks I had which asked for the raw pastry and filling to be cooked at the same time. This meant cooking the pie at 200ºC (400ºF, Gas Mk.6) for the first half of cooking, then at 150ºC (300ºF, Gas Mk.2) for the second half. 

I made a nice buttery pastry case, using a traditional shortbread crust like I did on my treacle tarts that I made a few months back. I then filled it with chopped pecan nuts, and poured in the filling. I cooked it as instructed. The result looked wonderful, but on eating it was revealed that it had gone soggy in the middle. It still tasted epic, though.

After cooking, I then laid some whole pecans on top, glazed them with extra maple syrup, then gave it another 10 minutes to set them into place; worked a treat. Although, this recipe was very heavy on my bottle of maple syrup, which my brother had bought while on his travels in Ontario last month.

Conclusion

Next time I make it, which will probably be tonight, I think I'll make a few adjustments

• I will blind bake the crust so that it doesn't go soggy.
• I won't use my pure maple syrup, but will instead use my maple flavoured golden syrup; the pure stuff is expensive, and this recipe needs a lot, so I'll only use it for glazing.
• Following on from one of the recipe that suggested thickening with flour, and taking inspiration also from my treacle tart recipe, I might try adding some ground almonds to the filling to make it a little firmer and not as gooey.

 

So, keep your eyes peeled for an updated version! I will be beavering away on making a more perfect version of this. Although, if the feedback I got from the Thanksgiving guests is anything to go by, this one was pretty darn good!

THIS TIME IN 2014: Orange Chocolate Fudge
THIS TIME IN 2013: No-Churn No-Cook Strawberry Cheesecake Ice-Cream (EGG FREE, WHEAT FREE)

Sausage Rolls (Wheat Free)

For the afternoon tea party this month, I tried making something that I've never ever done before: puff pastry! I decided to use the puff pastry to make some delicious sausage rolls.

Now, sausage rolls made with normal shortcrust pastry are also delicious, but I thought I'd challenge myself. The idea of a picnic conjures up sausage rolls and pork pies in my mind (I knew there was Englishness hiding in there somewhere), so I decided to use it as an opportunity to try something new.

Puff pastry, admittedly, is a little time consuming and fussy. Traditionally, you make a shortcrust pastry, saving some of the butter, and then you sandwich the pastry with the butter, folding and re-rolling repeatedly to make thousands of layers of pastry and butter. This makes it puff and go super flaky on cooking in an extremely hot oven. The only challenge is that everything has to be ice cold, meaning that between each step you have to chill the dough, then fold and re-roll, then chill, and so forth. It takes forever.

So, some enterprising soul somewhere in history came up with rough puff pastry, which is a little bit of a cheat. You use a traditional shortcrust pastry recipe but you prepare it differently. You only rub the flour in halfway, and only mix in the water half way, and then tip it all out on the surface to begin your rolling and folding, freezing for 15 minutes after every third turn and roll. Of course, it's very messy to start with because it's crumbly and uneven, but as you progress it sorts itself out.

Now, I'm not going to outline the process in my recipe, I am, however, going to link you to a great video that shows it in good detail. I've linked it so that it starts where the method is explained, because I use slightly different ingredients.

So, let's get started!

INGREDIMENTS

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) very cold butter, cubed
• 2 to 3 fluid ounces (60 to 90 millilitres) cold water
• Generous pinch of salt
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) sausages of your choice
• Milk for glazing and sticking

METHOD

• Make the pastry using the flour, butter, salt, and water following the method in this video. The pastry needs about 90 minutes to 2 hours to make, so give yourself plenty of time.
• Preheat your oven to 220°C (450°F, Gas Mk.7).
• Skin the sausages and place the meat into a bowl. Mix it with about 2 teaspoons of water to make a manageable paste.
• Flour you work surface and roll the pastry into a long oblong about 1/4 inch in thickness, making the short end about 5 inches (12 centimetres) wide. The length of the oblong will depend on a few things, but make sure the width and thickness are right.
• Brush the pastry with milk and then put the sausage meat in an even line, spanning the length of the oblong.
• Fold the pastry over the meat, and crimp with a fork to make a big sausage roll. Cut the sausage roll into 20 little pieces, or 16 larger pieces is you want bigger rolls. 
• Place the rolls on an ungreased baking sheet and brush them with some milk for a nice gold brown finish. Place in the centre of the very hot preheated oven.
• Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown and puffed. Serve rolls straight from the oven, or allow to cool on a wire rack.

Of course, sausage rolls are very, very high in fat, so enjoy sparingly!

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: No blog due to going abroad

Low Effort Tray Bake Sponge (Wheat and Dairy Free)

The last few weeks have been unbelievably busy for me. Between work and members of family being ill (and courting a young boy thing) I've been up the walls, and my usual sponge cake recipe is quite bitty and requires a few delicate steps. So, I decided to give a one-step mix a go, and it turned out quite successfully!

The texture is a bit different: it's still light and fluffy, but the crumb is nice and firm, which makes cutting it very, very easy. I was running a youth group today, so I knocked up a nice jam sponge tray bake with chocolate glaze. Each year at Easter, I break all my chocolate eggs into a box and use them for baking with; my mother hates it.

I used the exact same measurements for my usual go-to sponge recipe, but I simply doubled the liquid and used only oil instead of a combination of oil and butter. Instead of cross referencing, though, I'll write it up for you. This is the basic recipe, which is dairy free, but if you combine it with a buttercream for chocolate icing it will obviously no longer be dairy free.

FREE FROM

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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:

Dry

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cornflour
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) baking powder
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar

Wet

• 2 medium eggs
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) sunflower oil
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) water
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

METHOD

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). Grease a loaf tin and set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, sieve together the dry ingredients. Take a spoonful of the dry mixture and use it to dust the inside of the greased tin. Tip the excess back into the bowl.
• In a jug or smaller bowl, open the eggs and add in the oil, water, and vanilla essence. Beat with a fork until fully combined and pale.
• Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture, and pour in the wet mixture. Using a balloon whisk or the same fork, mix the wet and dry together until you have a nice smooth batter.
• Pour the batter into the tin, and bake in the centre rack of the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. You will know it's done when it's springy to the touch, and a cocktail stick of knife poked into the middle comes out clean.
• Once cooked, take from the oven and cool in tin for about ten minutes to firm up a little, then take out of the tin to cool fully.

Like my regular sponge recipe, this can be shaken up to change the flavour. You could use coffee instead of water to make coffee cake, or almond essence instead of vanilla, you could add in some grated lemon zest and use lemon juice instead of the water, use brown sugar instead of white to make it toffee flavour, you could swap some of the cornflour for cocoa powder to make it chocolatey. It's really very versatile.

I split mine in half and filled it with raspberry jam, then topped it off with a simple chocolate glaze and sprinkles. My youth group enjoyed it anyway!

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog
THIS TIME IN 2013: Buttercream Icing: the King of all Icings

February Afternoon Tea Party: 3 Recipes!

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

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

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

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

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

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

DRY

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

WET

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

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

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

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

Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (Dairy Free)

 

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

Caramel Shortbread with Heart-Decorated Chocolate Topping

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

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

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

Mini Black Forest Cheesecakes (Wheat Free)

As I mentioned in my last post, Sunday just passed was my 482nd birthday, give or take, and I celebrated it in true Sweetie Pie style: with lots of different kinds of cake. I already wrote about my birthday strawberry cream gateau, so today I'm writing about my latest cheesecake experiment: the black forest cheesecake.

The idea for this just sprung into my mind when I was trying to devise some nice Valentine desserts, and also I just like merging dessert ideas. This one is fairly simple: chocolate biscuit base, vanilla filling with cherry jam, topped off with chocolate glaze and a fresh cherry.

 I was originally thinking I'd put glacé cherries and cream swirls on top, to make it extra retro kitschy, but fresh berries were on offer in Dunnes stores so I bought a pack of strawberries and cherries for a fiver. Next time I make these, I'll use glacé cherries; and I will also not take them out of the oven five minutes early (whoops....)

Yes, these sunk a little bit in the middle, unfortunately. I removed the tray from the oven a few minutes too early and it shocked the mixture. But I fixed it with chocolate glaze and a cherry, in the true spirit of my mother's teaching, who told me as a child to fix sunken cakes by "covering them in custard".

The chocolate glaze was also a little firm, in retrospect. I should have used butter in addition to sunflower oil; I have included the altered glaze recipe. All in all, there are many ways I could have made these even more awesome than they already are.

INGREDIMENTS
For 12 muffin case sized cheesecakes

For the base:

• 1 ounce (30 grammes) icing sugar
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter, at room temperature
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) cocoa powder

For the cheesecake mixture:

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 medium eggs, separated
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) whipping cream, or plain yogurt
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence, or the seeds of 1 vanilla pod
• Pinch of salt
• 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) cherry jam, or mixed fruit jam

For decoration:

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) dark chocolate
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) sunflower oil
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter
• 12 fresh or glacé (candied) cherries

METHOD

• Preheat your oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2, or very moderate). Line a 12 indent muffin tin with large cake cases (muffin cases).
• Make the base by mixing the butter and icing sugar together with a wooden spoon, then work in the flour and cocoa until it becomes crumbly. Divide the crumble between the 12 cases and press down gently with the back of a teaspoon.
• Prepare the cheesecake filling using this recipe, omitting the coconut milk, replacing the lime zest and juice with the whipping cream (or yogurt), and adding the vanilla with the cheese mixture before mixing with the egg whites.
• Put a tablespoon of cherry jam in the centre of each cake atop the biscuit base, and then divide the mixture between the cases, making sure to cover the cherry jam.
• Bake the cakes in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until set around the edges but still slightly jiggly in the centre. Remove from the oven and cool completely in the tin on a wire rack.
• Once cooled, make the topping by melting the chocolate, butter and oil in a bowl over simmering water, or in the microwave for 1 minutes intervals on the "Defrost" setting. Once melted, pour about 2 teaspoons of the topping onto each cake. Swirl the cake around the coat the entire surface.
• Put a cherry on the top of each cake, sitting it into the chocolate. Put in the fridge to cool and set for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

This is actually a recipe I hope to make a how-to video of sometime soon, so keep your eyes peeled! I like the daintiness of the cherry on top, but overall the dessert is quite tasty.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Raspberry Ice-Cream (Egg- and Wheat Free)

Orange Mocha Gâteau (Wheat Free)

This week's unusual cake concoction is: orange mocha gateau! I know a gateau has a specific definition, but I think cake is not an appropriate word for such a confection.

Sunday the 18th was my brother's 30th birthday, and every year my brother asks for one of two same things: either cheesecake, or coffee cake. There's nothing better than a classic coffee cake when the time is right, but sometimes I do get a little tired of eating the same cake every year. This time, I thought I'd shake things up a little.

Recently I was a frequent sipper at a local café in Limerick city called "The Cellar Door", but it unfortunately closed down just before Christmas due to circumstances out of their hands. One thing they served, which I always enjoyed, was hot chocolate made with Terry's orange chocolate bars, blended with steamed milk. Orange and chocolate are a wonderful combination to me. The woman who co-owned the business tried mixing it with a shot of espresso, and a beautiful thing was created. Despite the fact that the hot chocolate with the added double shot of espresso is €4.80 ($5.60, or £3.70), I buy one every time and I nurse it.

I had come across the concept of orange flavoured coffee before; when I was a little girl, my father had found these sachets of flavoured coffees: orange, raspberry, and mint. He used them to show me how to use a coffee filter machine, and to introduce me to coffee; at the time, I thought it was gross, but later in life I revisited the idea, and at first invented my Coffee Raspberry slices. I had never really got back around to something orange coffee flavoured, but I thought this would be the perfect opportunity, but with the added goodness of a dash of cocoa.

Now, unfortunately, this recipe is not free from very much, but substituting all the butter and milk chocolate products for margarine and dairy free chocolate alternatives will make it dairy free.

Also, this recipe makes a four layered cake. My one in the photos has three layers, but that was due to an error I made: I didn't run the knife flush against the side of one of the tins, meaning one cake came out with the sides cut at an angle. The only way I could fix it was by cutting it in half and using only the full side. Although unfortunate, it meant I had a lot of extra cake and some filling icing left over... yum!

FREE FROM

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

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

INGREDIMENTS:

For two 8 inch (20 centimetre) round sandwich cakes:

• 4 medium eggs, room temperature
• 4 ounces caster sugar
• 2 ounces soft brown sugar
• 2 ounces weight of sunflower oil
• 2 ounces butter, or block margarine, or extra sunflower oil
• 2 fluid ounces espresso, or 2 fluid ounces of boiling water mixed with 3-4 teaspoons of instant coffee granules
• 6 ounces white spelt flour
• 2 ounces cornflour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon ground coffee
• Pinch of salt
• Grated zest of 1 large orange

For coffee cream filling

• 6 ounces white chocolate, or dairy-free white chocolate
• 3 ounces butter, or margarine
• 3 fluid ounces espresso, or strong coffee prepared as above
• 9 ounces icing sugar, sifted

For orange chocolate fudge icing:

• 9 ounces milk chocolate, or dark chocolate
• 3 ounces butter, or block margarine
• Juice of 2 large oranges
• 6 ounces caster sugar
  
  

METHOD

First, bake the cakes:

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). Grease and flour two 8 or 9 inch (20 or 22 centimetre) round sandwich tins.
• Make the cake mixture according to this recipe, using the coffee in place of the water and adding the orange zest with the eggs at the beginning. Keep your orange to juice later. Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in the centre of your oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cocktail stick or knife comes out clean when poked into the middle of the cakes. You made need to rearrange your oven shelves to get both in near the oven's centre.
• Once cooked, run a knife around the edge to loosen the cakes, then leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out and cooling on a wire rack.

While cake is cooling, prepare the icing and filling.

For the icing:

• For the chocolate icing, juice the zested orange and the second orange into a small measuring jug. Top the orange juice up with water to make 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) of liquid altogether.
• Pour the diluted orange juice and the sugar into a saucepan and heat together gently until the sugar has melted. Bring to the boil, then simmer for two minutes. Keep an eye on the clock!
• After two minutes, remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate and butter, or margarine, and stir until melted or almost melted.
• Return to the heat and cook for another minute, stirring continuously, until you have a smooth, shiny mixture. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature before chilling in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, or until thick and spreadable.

For the filling:

• Melt together the butter, or margarine, white chocolate, and coffee together gently. You can do this in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave in an appropriate bowl for 1 minute intervals on "Defrost", stirring after each interval.
• Once the chocolate mixture is smooth and combined, add in the icing sugar and beat until creamy and there is not a lump in sight. Allow to cool to room temperature before chilling in the fridge for at least 15 minutes, or until it is a soft and spreadable consistency, but still only holds soft peaks when dropped from a spoon.

To assemble:

• Cut the domes off both cakes (if they have domes), then slice each cake in half horizontally. Decide how you will assemble the layers, making sure the bottom layer of one cake, bottom side up, is on the top of the pile to make a flat top.
• Attach your bottom layer to its platter with a tiny smear of the filling. Spoon one third of the filling onto the bottom layer, spread out with a palette knife (or butter knife) until it's about half an inch (1 centimetre) from the edge.
• Pop the next layer on top, pressing it gently to secure it. Spoon another third of the filling on top and spread as before. Repeat with the last third of filling, and top off with a cake layer. Allow to sit in the fridge for about 10 minutes to firm a little.
• Spread about a third of the icing on top of the cake, making a swirling zig-zag pattern for decorative effect, then ice the sides with the remaining icing. 
• If you always spread on the icing only and never allow the knife to touch the cakes' crusts, then you ideally don't need a crumb coat. If you get the odd crumb in, it's not the end of the world, but if you want absolute perfection crumb coat the whole thing first, set in the fridge for about 10 minutes, then ice completely.
• Once the cake is completely iced, decorated how you like with sprinkles, coffee beans, or fine strips of orange zest (like I used), then chill the cake for about 30 minutes to firm up. It should be served and stored at room temperature, however, so let it sit on the counter (or hidden in a cupboard) for about 20 minutes before serving.

And there you have it! Something nice for your next big birthday bash.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Ginger Ale (No Brewing Required)

Chocolate Brownie Icing

Over the course of my bakery days, I had tried a lot of recipes for chocolate fudge icing, which can double function as glaze. As a child I had a book called "I Can Cook", which was a little paper back book with about 16 pages of easy recipes, one of which was a chocolate fudge icing. It was basically chocolate, butter, sugar and milk, but it required making a simple syrup with the milk and sugar, and it used an inordinate quantity of sugar and milk. It makes a lovely sticky sweet fudgy icing that sets beautifully thick for spreading, but I don't think it really works well as a brownie glaze.

I then watched a great video (in German) about how to make American style chocolate cake, and in it she included a recipe for "Schokocreme", which is basically chocolate fudge icing. It is super, super, too rich, as it uses equal quantities of chocolate and butter. Here in Ireland, the commonest form of butter is salted, meaning the finished icing was quite salty as well. I then put my thinking cap on to see if I could find a middle ground between too much sugar and too much butter.

So, I tried a few variations on a theme, until I settled on this quite effective recipe:

• 4 parts chocolate (dark, milk, or white)
• 2 parts icing sugar
• 2 parts butter (or margarine)
• 1 part milk (or coffee works too)

To make, simply melt the butter, sugar, and milk together in a microwave safe bowl on 1 minute bursts on "Defrost", or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water; once melted, beat in the sugar. What's that I hear you say? Is that it? Yes. Yes it is.

For a tray of brownies, which is roughly a 10 inch (25 centimetre) square in my case, 4 ounces of chocolate, 2 ounces each of butter and sugar, and 1 fluid ounce of coffee works really well for me to pour on top of the brownies while they're still hot, and then the whole batch cools down together. This means that the frosting fuses nicely to the cake surface, preventing the set icing from peeling off in layers, which can sometime happen when hot icing is poured onto cold cake.

This makes a nice mixture that's both pourable as a glaze when hot (which I use for topping brownies, as pictured), and spreadable as an icing when cold. Also, you can use it as a whipped filling if you beat it when it is fully cold.

While its wet, you can sprinkle things into it and they set into it perfectly. This icing works really well also as a piped icing for fairy cakes, due to its decadent nature.

It has a slightly soft, impressionable texture when set, and is great for decorating tray bakes. This seems to work equally well with dark, milk or white chocolate, whereas other recipes I've tried in the past really don't work with white chocolate, given its high fat content.