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....

St Patrick's Day 2017: Royal Icing Biscuits, attempting a new technique

 Lá Féile Pháraic shona daoibh!

(Law Fay-luh Faw-rick hun-na yeev)

St Patrick's Day is upon us, and I coincidentally wanted to make some biscuits, so I thought I'd make some and ice them accordingly! But a little differently this time...

Usually when I do royal icing I do the usual pipe a dam around the edge of the biscuit and flood fill it using a small greaseproof piping bag. However, I was surfing on Pinterest, and found a pin where someone had done flood 'filled' biscuits by dipping the biscuits in flood consistency icing. So I thought I'd give it a try.

I baked some nice little shortbread biscuits by mixing 1½ ounces (40 grammes) of very soft butter, 3 ounces (85 grammes) of icing sugar, 4½ ounces (125 grammes) of plain flour, with a dash of vanilla essence by hand in a mixing bowl until it became a nice soft dough. I rolled it to about a quarter inch (5 millmetres) thick, and it made 12 biscuits, four of each of the three shapes I had chosen. I baked them at 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2) for I think about 25 minutes. To be completely honest, I was doing the washing up and not watching the clock, and judged the doneness by eye and by feel: they should be a very delicate golden brown and set just around the edges. This shortbread recipe works a treat as it doesn't lose its shape and stays nice and evenly coloured.

I made some royal icing (I cheated and bought a bag of instant) and divided it into two to colour one portion green, and leave the rest white. To dip the biscuits, I scooped a spoonful of the icing out onto a plate, and dipped the biscuit face down, and used a knife to remove any excess. I dipped two of each of the four shapes into the white, and two of each into the white.

I had also made some small cone piping bags using greasproof paper, and filled them with some green and some white icing. While the dipped biscuits were still wet, I piped on the designs, using the tip of a knife to do some marbling. Now, usually I would use a cocktail stick, but I didn't have any, so I used the tip of a sharp knife, like a paring knife.

VERDICT: Personally, I actually prefer the traditional pipe and flood method: the dipping method was messy, and the icing ran incorrectly and didn't settle properly. Some of the marbling lines stuck rather than melting back into the surface, which bothered me. Maybe I just need to practise this method, or just stick to my usual pipe and flood method.

No blogs on this day in previous years.

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.

American Style Buttercream: Because Sometimes Cheap and Nasty Is Just What You Need

The other day, I was eating a shop bought cupcake. Sacrilege, I know, but sometimes I can't make them just like you can get from the shops. Which got me to thinking, what makes the icing on top -- and the filling within -- shop bought cakes so cheap and nasty, but so nice?

I decided to look on the back of the packets of shop bought cakes that had 'buttercream', and they predictably contained no butter in the icing: in pretty much every case, it was palm oil, or hydrogenated vegetable fat. So, I took to the internet to see if people make icing with these fairly gross ingredients.

I did a search for 'buttercream with vegetable fat' or something like that, and I was brought to the official Wilton recipe for buttercream icing: it used butter and vegetable shortening in equal quantities, and lots of vanilla essence. At first, I was skeptical, not only because vegetable fat on its own is fairly disgusting, but because the vegetable fat that was being used in the video didn't resemble anything we have here in Ireland.

In the States, it seems, vegetable fat -- or shortening -- is soft and spreadable and bright white; it beats up like butter. Here, we get blocks of hard vegetable lard; it's made of the same stuff, only in a solid brick of a thing. I had utterly convinced it wouldn't whip or be beaten well like the American style stuff.

However, I got some just to try. I softened the butter and the fat to room temperature and used them both to make some vanilla buttercream icing. And, in complete honesty, I was thoroughly impressed.

Advantages

• It is very stable: it's not prone to curdling or splitting like traditional buttercream made with only butter. It also holds its shape very, very well, which makes it perfect for piping
• The combination of vegetable fat and butter is quite bland: it doesn't have as strong a buttery taste, which makes it easier to flavour. You don't need as much essence, powder, or what-have-you.
• It's cheaper: a pound of butter is about €2.40, whereas a pound of vegetable fat is half the price at €1.20. So, if you mix them in equal quantities, you save 60c per pound.
• It whips up really quickly: the vegetable fat catches more air bubbles and makes something akin to whipped cream icing, but it doesn't go off like cream does. It'd make a nice filling for fondant fancies or the like.
• It's pale, therefore easy to dye.

Disadvantages

• The butter and fat take a lot of beating to come together. You need to work them a lot with a wooden spoon and a strong wrist, or with an electric beater. HOWEVER, if going the electric option, use it to mix the butter and fat only until beaten, otherwise....
• It whips up really quickly: if you use an electric beater to mix in the icing sugar, you will end up with something that's more like whipped cream than buttercream. So when adding the icing sugar, switch to a wooden spoon.
• It's a little more greasy in mouthfeel than traditional all butter icing, and doesn't have the smoothness of butter.
• It's fairly bland if you don't add enough flavouring, because it lacks the richness of the butter. You might want to add a baseline of vanilla essence in underneath whatever flavour you're adding in.

Long story short: Make sure the butter and fat are well and tempered to room temperature. Mix the butter and fat together really well on their own first. Don't over mix once you add the icing sugar. Add vanilla essence no matter what flavour you're making it for more depth. Forgive it its slightly greasy mouthfeel.

American Style Cookie Dough Ice-Cream (No Churn, No Cook, Egg Free)

It's May, which means in Ireland it's finally summer! And nothing says summer like some lovely, rich, ice-cream!

I was inspired to make some cookie dough ice-cream because I've been trying out some American style stuff recently, and also my brother and sister really like it. But, I had some challenges. (And also, I've been feeling quite sorry for myself over the past few days, as this time last year was a time where my companion and I were enjoying his birthday, so I wanted something to challenge me and take my mind off it.)

The thing is raw cookie dough is pretty, well, raw tasting. There is a very distinctive taste off raw flour: it's quite acidic, and burns a little bit; raw bicarbonate of soda tastes like soap; and raw egg is a bit of a no-no in frozen things. So, I did some research about how to make edible 'raw' cookie dough, that's actually been cooked.

After looking around a few blogs, I was particularly inspired by Ann Reardon's approach to making a roux-style cookie dough. So, I cooked the dough in a saucepan to get rid of the raw taste, but I used my own recipe, just scaling it down.

So here is the final thing! It's pretty much just my go-to ice-cream base with some 'raw' cookie dough in it. But it's pretty tasty!

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

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

INGREDIMENTS

For the ice cream base.

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

For the cookie dough,

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) light brown sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) milk
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) milk chocolate chips, or milk chocolate cut into small pieces

HOW-TO
First, make the cookie dough:

• Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper, or use a silicone tray.
• Mix the milk, sugar, butter, and vanilla essence together in a small saucepan. Heat together over low heat until the butter and sugar have melted, but don't boil.
• Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once. Stir until completely mixed with no lumps of flour remaining.
• Return to medium heat and cook until it becomes a thick paste. While still hot, thinly spread out on the tray and allow to cool completely.
• When the dough is cool, mix with the chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) to make a cookie dough. Congratulations! You now have edible raw cookie dough.

Then, make the ice-cream:

• Using an electric hand mixer, beat the cream and condensed milk together until light and a soft-peak consistency. It wants to look like a soft whipped cream. For best results, put the bowl and the beaters in the freezer for about 15 minutes beforehand.
• Pour a third of the mixture into a 2 pint (560 millilitre; 2½ US cup) container, then break up about a third of the cookie dough over the top. Mix a little to distribute the dough chunks.
• Repeat with the remaining two thirds of ice-cream and dough, finishing with a sprinkle of dough.
• Cover with the container's lid -- or clingfilm, directly touching the ice-cream's surface -- and freeze for 4 to 6 hours.
• Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.

THIS TIME IN 2015: Battenberg Birthday Cake (Wheat and Dairy Free)
THIS TIME IN 2014: Minty Mint Brownies of Mintiness, with Marbled Glaze (Wheat Free)
THIS TIME IN 2013: How to Use and Abuse Royal Icing, and Wholemeal Gingerbread (Wheat Free)

Happee Birthdaee, Daddee: Coffee and Vanilla Gâteau (Wheat Free, with a Dairy Free Option)

The 16th was my father's birthday, but his celebrations were a little late this year because he and Mum went away to Kerry for a little birthday holiday. We all gathered yesterday instead to enjoy a Sunday lunch, and celebratory cake: coffee and vanilla cake.

I will admit, when you've been the primary birthday cake baker for over 10 years (which is over 50 cakes) you start to run out of ideas. For a few years I experimented with novelty cakes, making them funny shapes or giving them themed decorations, but after a while I realised I prefered good old traditional gateau style cakes.

The members of my family always want the same kind of cake, too: my mother an orange or lemon cake; my oldest brother a coffee cake; my older brother a chocolatey chocolate cake with chocolate on top; my father also coffee cake (or sometimes the very vague request of 'brown cake'); and my sister cheesecake. This year having a (now ex-)boyfriend to make a cake for was very refreshing, especially seeing as his favourite cake was Battenberg, which was a challenge I relished.

These very predictable requests make things quite, well, boring after a while. Usually now though I try and shake things up my adding in an extra flavour. For example, my oldest brother's usual coffee cake became an orange mocha cake, and my mother's usual lemon drizzle cake became a zingy lemon layer cake with lemon infused white chocolate icing. Needless to say, I have become very good at making layer cakes.

The unfortunate thing about this time of year in this country, is that is gets impractically cold in the kitchen: things curdle, split, and set too quickly if you haven't had the central heating on for the weeks (or months) before making the cake. That is what sadly made this cake so hard to make.

I went with the usual coffee cake as requested, and made a coffee infused white chocolate icing, but because the kitchen was so cold it kept separating. Two batches ended up being re-purposed as a mutant coffee fudge, and I soon realised a melted chocolate icing was not going to work.

Enter the saviour: traditional, staple buttercream icing. I don't tend to work with buttercream often because, even though it's an old favourite, it can be very tempramental if the atmospheric factors aren't all perfect. This time, though, it really worked and everything was saved. However, I will impress the importance of all the ingredients needed to make the buttercream being at least room temperature. Put your butter somewhere warm, or heat it on defrost in the microwave, and don't use hot coffee.

FREE FROM

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

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy (use substitute in italics for dairy free)
☒ Gluten
☒ Eggs
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:

For the sponge cake:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 ounces (30 grammes) cornflour
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) baking powder
• 3 medium egg
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) melted butter or margarine
• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) strong black coffee
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Optional: 1 tablespoon of ground coffee, for extra flavour and visual impact

For the buttercream filling and icing:

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) very soft butter, or margarine
• 12 ounces (340 grammes) icing sugar, sieved
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) very strong black coffee at room temperature, or 2 teaspoons of espresso powder dissolved in 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) of hot water, allowed to cool
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Chocolate or coloured sprinkles, to decorate

HOW-TO:

To make the cake,

• Preheat the oven to 170ºC (325ºF/Gas Mk. 3) and grease and flour an 8 inch (20 centimetre) round tin.
• Make the cake batter following this recipe, substituting the oil for melted butter and the milk for coffee (as in the ingredients listed above). If using ground coffee, sieve in with the flours.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown and springy to the touch.
• Remove from the oven, run a knife around the edge to loosen from the tin, then allow to cool completely in the tin.

To decorate the cake,

• Put the butter in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer until very soft and light.
• Add in the icing sugar in three additions, alternating with the 2 tablespoons of coffee and finishing with icing sugar. Make sure to beat well between additions. If the buttercream starts to split, it means it's too cold. This, however, can be easily fixed with a hair dryer.
• Cut the cake into two layers, using the top of the cake as the bottom layer. Fix the bottom layer to a plate or cake board with a little smear of icing, then fill the cake with a third of the buttercream. Put the top layer on, upside down, meaning that the flat bottom of the cake is now on top.
• Use the remaining buttercream to ice the cake (putting a crumb coat on first), and if you like you can use some to pipe decorations around the top and bottom edge.
• If you like, you can add some colour with sprinkles: I put a little splash in the centre.
• Allow to set for at least an hour before serving.

This was actually a very tasty confection, and a lot lighter and more delicate because it was only lightly flavoured with coffee, as opposed to being super coffee-tastic. This keeps well for up to a week in an airtight container.

Gingerbread House Part II: Baking and Assembly

Assuming that you have read Part I of my gingerbread construction saga, this is how I made the templates into a reality. As I said, I used regular white card to make the templates of the walls and chimney. At this point, no template exists for the roof, as I drafted that with paper after I assembled the gingerbread walls.

The house pattern includes:

• 2 side walls,
• 1 front/back wall,
• 1 front/back chimney,
• 1 top of chimney, and
• 1 side of chimney.

I made a batch of gingerbread dough using the method in this recipe, and the following ingredients:

• 1 ounce (30 grammes) treacle
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter, or margarine, at room temperature
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) light brown sugar
• 1 medium egg
• 9 ounces (250 grammes) spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch of salt

Unlike the original recipe, I use all spelt flour and no cornflour. The cornflour makes the gingerbread crumbly: nice texture to eating, but not as structurally sound. I divided the dough into two discs, wrapped them in cling film, and refrigerated them overnight. This is important, as it makes the dough good for handling, and not too sticky.

The next day, I sprinkled my work surface with flour and rolled out the dough to a thickness of a quarter inch (5 millimetres). I then cut out the pieces by laying them on the dough and cutting around them with a pizza wheel. I flipped the Front/Back template over to get the back of the house, and did the same with the triangular chimney template. I had to re-roll the dough once or twice, I think.

As pictured below, I cut a door and two jaunty windows out of the front part of the house, and two more windows out of the back. I filled them up with crushed boiled sweets, which then melted to create stained glass windows. This is a great little trick.

Once they were cooked, I allowed them to cool completely before moving them so the windows didn't get destroyed. Once all the pieces were cooked, the construction began! I used some royal icing (to my shame, I used the instant kind) and dyed half of it a cement grey colour, and the other half orange. I put the icing in two disposable icing bags, and cut a wide opening (about 5 millilitres) on the dark one, and a narrow opening (about 2 millilitres) on the orange one.

I stood the back of the house up, glued the sides on, and used cans to keep everything in place while it was setting. After the icing was set, I put the back of the house flat on the board, ends of the walls pointing up, so I could safely glue the front of the house on without destroying the delicate windows or the sides of the doorway.

I had bought a load of Smarties, jelly beans, and pretzel sticks from the shop, and I stuck them all on with the dark royal icing before adding flourishes with the orange icing. This was really just a going with the flow creative experience: I didn't plan what it would look like, I just go absorbed in it. I also did the chimney, as you can see.

Once everything was fused together, I draped a piece of paper over the pitched roof and drew a template for the roof slates. I made the roof slates out of dark chocolate, and decorated them with orange royal icing. To make the scalloped edges, I first piped the outline with royal icing, which I broke off when the roof slates were set. I stuck the roof slates on with the dark icing, using more cans to prop them up so they wouldn't slide off the roof while the icing was setting. 

I then stuck on the chimney piece; I was convinced it would go right through the roof, but the chocolate was surprisingly strong. I then did some more flourishes with the orange icing, making a roof cap tiles effect.

This was intensely fun, and took quite a lot of time. I'd say from start to finish took about 4 or 5 hours. It was so worth it, even if I didn't end up entering it into the competition. It did however get pride of place on the counter top in the gallery coffee dock...

THIS TIME IN 2014: Salted Caramel Shortbread (Wheat Free)
THIS TIME IN 2013: No blog

Gingerbread House Part I: Drafting the Template

Right. I will explain the entire process of making the gingerbread house from start to finish, from sketching to adding the last little flourishes.

First of all, I took to my sketchbook to do a few doodles about what I'd like my gingerbread house to look like. This is the first step I take for pretty much anything, even birthday cakes. I start drawing and let my imagination take me in whatever direction it pleases.

Here are the pages of my sketchbook that I dedicated to my design:

On the left are some generic putting-ideas-down drawings (including some designs for a completely different gingerbread skeleton idea I had based on the teddies holding sweets biscuits I did for my Picnic Afternoon Tea Party). 

On the right is a more concrete concept for the front of the house, showing the front of the house and one side of the chimney.

These two pages are some actual teasing out how it will be made sketches. My first concept for the roof slates was to make two royal icing run outs (plaques), but then I decided to use dark chocolate decorated with royal icing instead.

The next step was to turn the sketches, doodles, and scribbles into reality. To do this, I traced the drawing that I did of the front of the house onto some card, and used that to guide me in making the other parts of the template: the two walls and the individual parts of the chimney.

I used a ruler to measure the two sides of the front of the house and used the measurements to judge the height of the two walls. I then I chose how deep I'd make the house (I decided about 4 inches (10 centimetres) would be enough) and used this to measure the width of the walls. I used a similar process to design the chimney templates.

I designed the roof template after I had baked and assembled the walls of the house. Once I had assembled the house with royal icing, I folded a piece of paper in half and draped it over where I would like the roof to be, and traced around where the gingerbread touched the paper. I then extended the edges by about about half an inch (a centimetre) to give the roof a nice overhang.

To make sure I knew how to put it together, I drew little guidelines and indicators on the edges of the templates. This way I'd know which way around everything had to be.

I apologise for not having more pictures to show you the process in detail! I was so busy doing the actual project that I didn't think ahead to writing about it. But, when I get round to making my Christmas gingerbread house, I'll be a little more thorough.

For how to bake and assemble the house, keep an eye on Monday's upload CLICK HERE!

THIS TIME IN 2014: Spelt Doughnuts Video Tutorial!

THIS TIME IN 2013: Confectionery Failures and New Job (thus Temporary Pause in Blogging)!

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)

Something Savoury: Tomato Soup with Cheese Buns (Wheat-, Dairy-, and Egg Free)

I know that my blog is about baking nice sweet things to eat and be happy about, but when I'm not baking up sugary delights I'm using my other culinary skills to make meals for myself (and occasionally my companion). This time, I made some nice tomato soup with little cheese buns to dip in.

Every so often, I do a grocery shop, but then my life gets busy and I end up with vegetables in my fridge that are still in date, but a little bit too sad to serve in their own right with a meal. So, I turn them into soup, generally speaking, and usually tomato soup (or sometimes carrot and coriander).

This soup, however, is a little different to most recipes you'll see as is contains no added dairy, sugar, or flour (for thickening), but is still rich and creamy. I achieve this by using passata instead of fresh or tinned tomatoes, as it is already rich and thick, adding an apple for sweetness and texture, and a touch of rice for thickening. Sounds mad, but it works a treat!

The buns are also incredibly simple and are ready in less than half an hour, and are very easily customised. You can add some chopped spring onions, herbs, or spices if you wish.

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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (unless you use gluten-free flour)
☒ Refined sugar products


INGREDIMENTS

For the soup

• 1 pound (450 grammes) carrots
• ½ a white onion, or a small red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium sized dessert apple, such as a Gala or a Pink Lady
• 1 carton (500 grammes) passata
• 1½ to 2 pints (850 millilitres to 1 litre) water
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) uncooked Basmati rice
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) dried basil
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) dried parsley
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) paprika
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) olive oil, for cooking
• Salt and black pepper

For 8 mini buns, or 4 medium buns,

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cornflour
• 1½ teaspoons (7 millilitres) baking powder
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) caster sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter, at room temperature, or block margarine for those who can't eat dairy
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) mature cheddar cheese, grated
• 2 to 3 fluid ounces (60 to 90 millilitres) water, at room temperature
• Salt and black pepper
• Optional: a beaten egg to wash the scones before baking, if you can eat egg

METHOD

To make the soup,

• First, prepare and cut all the vegetables for the soup. Peel and cut the carrots roughly into small pieces, no bigger than half an inch (1 centimetre) big; peel and quarter the apple (cutting top to bottom), cut out the core in each quarter, cut in half again, then chop into pieces no bigger than an inch (2½ centimetres); peel and finely cut the onion into small pieces; and press the garlic, or if you don't have a garlic press, cut into teeny tiny pieces.
• Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, and add in the onion with a generous pinch of salt and stir. The salt will make the onion release all the juices, and when it has gone moist reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for about 5 minutes; this is called "sweating".
• After sweating the onions, increase the heat to medium again, remove the lid and add in the garlic and uncooked rice, cooking for a minute or two while stirring until each grain of rice is shiny and a little translucent. Adding the garlic at the start would be risky, as the garlic can easily burn and make the soup bitter.
• Then, add the carrots, apples, herbs, and paprika, cooking for another minute or two while stirring. Pour enough water over the top to cover the vegetables: you may not need the whole 2 pints (1 litre) now, but keep onto whatever water is left as you'll need it later.
• Bring the mixture to an active simmer, lots of little bubbles as opposed to lots of big bubbles, and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the vegetables are very tender and the rice has fallen to pieces.
• Once the vegetables and rice are cooked, add in the passata and stir to mix fully.
•  Remove from the heat, and then blend the soup. If you have an immersion blender, this is super easy as you just pop it into the saucepan and whizz until to soup is smooth. I, however, only have a regular blender: I filled the blender jug about a third full at a time (because the soup is hot), covered the blender leaving the middle of the lid out to let steam escape, and then blended until smooth, covering the hole with a tea towel to prevent splashing. I then poured the blended soup into a  3½ pint (2 litre) measuring jug to return to the saucepan after the whole soup was blended.
• Return the blended soup to the hob to heat and season. It's wise to season the soup at the temperature it will be eaten, to make sure the seasoning is accurate. Add salt and pepper to taste: it should be rich and creamy, but still a little tart.

To make the buns,

• Preheat the oven to 200ºC (400ºF, Gas Mk.6), and lightly grease a flat baking tray.
• Sieve the flour, cornflour, baking powder, sugar, and a pinch of salt and black pepper into a mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles something like fine breadcrumbs.
• Add the grated cheese and stir until each strand of cheese is tossed in the flour. Add the water, a little at a time, mixing until it comes together in a soft and slightly sticky dough.
• Flour your hands and break the dough into 4 or 8 pieces, to your preference, rolling into balls.
• Place on the baking tray, about an inch or two (2½ to 5 centimetres) apart. Brush with milk or beaten egg, if you can eat those.
• Bake for 10 to 15 minutes (depending on size), until they are puffed up and pale brown on top. Serve warm or at room temperature.

This soup keeps for up to 5 days in the fridge, but also freezes exceptionally well. The buns can keep for up to a week in an airtight container, but are best enjoyed on the day they're made.

THIS TIME IN 2014: Quick Pizza Base (Wheat-, Dairy-, Egg-, and Yeast Free)

THIS TIME IN 2013: Chewy Caramel