A MeMe About Me

Elle of Feeding my Enthusiasms has tagged me for a Meme.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Select five people to tag - mine are:
1) A Slice of Cherry Pie – Julia
2) Chunterings – Carolyn
3) A Sweet Tart – Pixie
4) Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried - Naomi
5) Green Gourmet Giraffe - Johanna

Next, send them an e-mail or let them know by commenting on their blog that they have been tagged. They are then encouraged to select 5 different bloggers and to tag them.Here are the things to blog about and my answers:

What were you doing 10 years ago?
10 years ago I was in the final year of prep school and feeling quite grown up to be one of the oldest in the school. The next term I became the youngest in the high school and felt very small and overwhelmed.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
I was in my second year of university and had just secured my placement job for September. This left me feeling thrilled at having got a job and also terrified about a year doing a ‘real’ job. I was also beginning to revise for my summer exams.

Five snacks you enjoy:
1) Apples – there is something so satisfying about biting into a crisp fresh apple. The crunch sound as you bite into it and the sweet refreshing juice that fills your mouth.
2) Dried fruit – prunes, apricots, mango and apples in particular. I love there intense flavour and sticky chewiness.
3) A slice of fresh bread, either a soft chewy white with jam or nutella or a dense flavoursome rye with cream cheese. Mmmmm
4) Cake and lots of it. I have yet to find a cake I do not like, although carrot cake is a particular favourite.
5) Rice crackers with seaweed or spices – I love there saltiness and crunchiness.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1) Buy a nice, but not over the top house and design by dream kitchen with walk in pantry, big oven, double fridge, lots of space and kitchen gadgets galore.
2) Set up my own little cake and bake shop – a dream I someday hope to make a reality.
3) Visit some foodie countries and samples different cuisines and cultures.
4) Give some of it to my family to do with as they wished
5) Buy copious amounts of kitchen gadgets.

Five bad habits:
1) Putting off things I don’t want to do, telling myself I will do them tomorrow.
2) Eating too many cakes or cookies after baking them – just to make sure they are ok.
3) Being lazy with the washing up – sometimes it sits there for 2-3 days before I do it all in one go – yes I know I’m awful!
4) Not keeping in regular contact with old friends.
5) Adding recipes to my ‘must try’ pile and then not making them for months, if not years.

Five things you like doing:
1) Baking - what a surprise!
2) Reading/buying cookery books – surprise number two!
3) Browsing round kitchen shops, I could spend hours getting lost in these.
4) Going for a walk in new places – I love exploring new places, wandering what’s round the next corner or clump of rocks. A light breeze, beautiful scenery and only the sheep for company.
5) Blogging and reading other food blogs – they are such a source of inspiration and allow you to dip into other cultures and learn about foods I might not otherwise have known existed.

Five things you would never wear again:
1) A pair of shocking pink silk trousers – they were a birthday present from a relative and I wore them to a school disco and remember feeling embarrassed even then.
2) A set of Barbie hair ties when I was too old for Barbie and ashamed to be wearing them – I remember tucking my hair into the back of my jumper and hoping no one would see.
3) A pair of scarlet shiny sandals with about a 1inch heal. They were my first set of heals when I was about 9 and I remember feeling so grown up in them and wanting to wear them everywhere.
4) A red net tutu, a red and silver knitted poncho and a set of red fairy wings. My friends and I decided to dress up as different coloured fairies on the last day of sixth form. We thought it was cool at the time but looking at the photos now I can’t believe I ever stepped outside my bedroom door, let along the house looking like that.
5) A pink, bright blue and lime green T-shirt in a floral pattern. Truly truly awful.

Five favorite toys:
1) My laptop – I would be lost without it
2) My camera – I still don’t understand how they work but I love how they can capture a moment in time and allow you to look back to times and places which otherwise might be forgotten.
3) The oven – not a toy as such but without it I would be a very unhappy person
4) My little KA car – its given me independence, warmth and an extra hour at home in the evenings compared to catching the bus.
5) My baking tins and moulds

Celebrating Apple & Spice with Spiced Apple Cake

It’s my blogs first birthday and what better way to celebrate a year of Apple & Spice than with a Spiced Apple Cake!

I can’t believe its been a whole year since my first cautious steps into blogging. I can still remember the thrill of that first comment – learning that someone had actually read what I had written. My enjoyment of blogging has continued to grow and I have YOU, the readers and fellow bloggers to thank for that. You have given me great friendship, encouragement, valued feedback and welcomed me into a new culinary community. So thank you and if you feel like joining in the celebration you can bake an apple cake or simply eat an apple – I’ll be happy either way.

Spiced Apple Cake
This cake is fantastically moist as it uses 3 large apples in the batter, some pureed and some diced, resulting in little pockets of appley goodness. I used cooking apples which ensured a prominent apple flavour while the accompanying mix of sugar and spices kept it sweet and flavoursome. A scattering of chopped walnuts provided a nice contrast to the soft apple. The surface of the cake cracked slightly when baking but it turned out beautifully flat and golden brown.
Ingredients
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice
¼ tsp nutmeg
120g butter
100g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Bramley apple
55g walnuts

For the apple puree
2 Bramley apples
150ml water
100g caster sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease an 8-9 inch spring form pan and line the base with greaseproof paper.
Start by preparing the apple puree. Peel and core the two cooking apples and dice into small chunks.
Place in a pan with the water and cook until softened and breaking down.
Mash the apple with a potato masher until you have a smoothish puree. Add the caster sugar and stir in well.
Allow to cook for 5 minute more and then remove from the heat and allow to cool while you prepare the cake batter.
For the cake, beat the butter and soft brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating them in well.
Peel and core and last cooking apple and either coarsely grate or finely dice it. Add to the egg mixture (don’t worry if it curdles) along with the cooled apple puree.
Scatter the flour, baking powder, bicarb and spices over the surface of the batter and fold into the mixture.
Chop the walnuts and stir though the apple batter. Give everything a quick beat to ensure its all incorporated and then pour it into the prepared tin.
Bake for 50-55 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch.
Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before releasing from the tin and leaving to cool.
Serve warm or cold for afternoon tea. Ice cream, cream or custard turn it into a delicious dessert.

Double Heart Chocolate Cakes

As its Valentines Day this week I wanted to make a heart inspired treat for the Monday Munchers in honour of the occasion. I decided to make small heart cakes with the help of my fantastic heart shaped silicon muffin mould. I knew I was going to make them chocolate flavoured and I wanted to top them with some kind of heart decoration but I was unsure what to do. I went trawling through online cake dec shops for inspiration and found a heart shaped chocolate mould; two days later it landed on my doormat.

Even though I was planning to make dark chocolate cakes, I still wanted to include some red into the equation. I hit upon the idea of dying a little white chocolate red and streaking it over the chocolate moulds before filling them with white chocolate. I was unsure if it would work but I was really pleased with how they turned out, more pink than red, but they definitely stood out against the dark chocolate background.

The cakes were quick and simple to produce and were adored at work, although they did receive a few of groans from some of the men who had forgotten Valentines Day was so close. (I feel I should be thanked really or else they might have had some angry wives and girlfriends on their hands.) A small word of advice though, don’t be tempted to remove the cakes from the mould until they are almost completely cold. I tried, and my first one turned out more of a molehill than a heart – they are very fragile when warm.

If you don’t have a heart shaped mould you could always make cupcakes or bake a sheet of sponge and then stamp hearts out using a cookie cutter.

Double Heart Chocolate Cakes
For the cake
115g self raising flour
115g caster sugar
115g margarine
2 eggs
½ tsp baking powder
70g dark chocolate

For the icing
100g dark chocolate
20g butter
½ tbsp honey or golden syrup

For the chocolate hearts
100g white chocolate
40g extra white chocolate
Red food dye

To make the chocolate hearts
Melt the 40g of white chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds.
When molten, add 2 drops of red food dye and stir to produce a pretty pink colour.
Transfer the melted pink chocolate into a piping bag fitted with a small plain piping nozzle and pipe zigzag streaks across your chocolate mould. Allow to dry in the air for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the remaining 100g of white chocolate.
Then pipe or spoon the chocolate over the set pink chocolate zigzags and set aside to harden. (I left mine overnight)
Don’t be tempted to put them in the fridge to speed up the process as this can cause the chocolate to ‘bloom’ (have white speckled patches) due to the temperature change.
When completely set, tap out and store in an airtight container until required.

To make the cakes
Preheat the oven to 170C
Weight out all the ingredients, expect the chocolate, into a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy.
Melt the dark chocolate and then quickly beat into the cake batter. The batter will become quite thick as the chocolate firms up, but don’t try to thin down with milk as the batter becomes soft once in the oven and the chocolate softens.
Spoon tablespoons of the batter into a prepared mould or muffin cases.
Bake in the oven o 15-18 minutes until risen and springy to the touch.
Allow to cool before removing from the tin.

To make the icing
Melt the chocolate, butter and honey or syrup in a small saucepan over a gently heat until molten.
Stir until amalgamated and then leave to cool for 5-10 minutes until it forms a spreadable consistency.
Then spread the cooled cakes with the icing and top with a chocolate heart.
Makes 12 cakes

This is also my entry to Zorra’s Valentines Day event.

Update: The round-up is now up - Part 1 and Part 2

Red Pepper Black Bean Dip

I made this for a quick dinner last week when I got home hungry and tired and all I wanted to do was sit on the sofa with some comfort food. I really fancied beans on toast but a quick hunt revealed no baked beans, so I decided to improvise and created this warm red pepper beany dip.

I cooked the beans briefly to help them soften up as I wanted to mash them with a potato masher to reduce the amount of washing up. I also added a spoonful of peanut butter, which I admit sounds a little odd, but in my mind I was making a sort of houmous and the peanut butter was the stand in for tahini. I added a roasted skinned red pepper from a jar and a few sun dried tomatoes for flavour. Then it was just mash mash mash and in 10-15 minutes dinner was ready.

The dip was surprisingly creamy and I really enjoyed eating it while it was still slightly warm. The peanut butter added a slight nuttiness that worked well with the beans without tasting odd. I chose to eat it with some florets of broccoli, carrot sticks and chili flavour plantain crisps, which are those banana chip looking discs in the picture. I had never had plantain crisps before but I spotted them at the shops and my curiosity got the better of me. They came in two flavours, plain and chili and I chose the chili and boy did they pack a punch, but they were perfect for dipping.

The leftover beany dip was great the following day spread onto a tortilla with some crisp lettuce, salad and grated cheese. (Sorry for the quality of the pictures but it was dark and I was hungry.

Red Pepper Black Bean Dip
Ingredients
1 can black eyed beans
1 roasted, skinned red pepper from a jar
1 tbsp sun dried tomato paste
½ tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 tbsp olive oil
150ml water
Assorted crudités for dipping

Method
Drain and rinse the beans and place into a sauce pan along with the water. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes until the beans are soft.
Remove the beans from the heat. Add the red pepper, tomato paste, oil and peanut butter.
Mash everything together using a potato masher until relatively smooth, but a few lumps remain.
Spoon into a serving dish and serve with as assortment of vegetable sticks, crisps and bread for dipping.
Store any leftovers in the fridge.
Makes around 1 cup.

Blueberry Frangipane Tart

Over the weekend I was having a sort through my freezer and found some frozen blueberries and a block of pastry and decided to use them to make a tart for the Monday Munchers.

An almond frangipane was my tart of choice, for not only do blueberry and almonds go well together but the tart is also easy to make and does not need refrigerating meaning it could sit happily on the desk at work.

The tart came together in a very short time. I used the blueberries from frozen and loved how they created little pools of inky purple in the batter as they thawed, baked and bubbled. I added a layer of jam under the fruit and frangipane (I used the rhubarb and plum jam I made the day before but any jam would work well.) It has the duel purpose of adding flavour but also helps to seal the pastry and prevents it from going soggy. The frangipane was soft and moist with a wonderful almond flavour that worked well with the blueberries, themselves having intensified in flavour during baking.

The tart was well received at work and made a nice change from the usual cakes or cookies I take in. I am sure you could use any kind of fresh or frozen berry in place of the blueberries and even flavour the frangipane too, chocolate or orange springs to mind but have fun and experiment.

Blueberry Frangipane Tart
Ingredients
250g shortcrust pastry (homemade or shop bought)
100g frozen blueberries
100g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g ground almonds
½ tsp almond essence
3 tbsp jam of your choice (I used my rhubarb and plum jam)

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C and place a baking tray into the oven to heat up.
Roll out the pastry until around 4 mm thick. Line a 23cm round tart tin with the pastry and set to one side.
Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and fluffy. Then add the eggs, beating well until incorporated.
Stir in the ground almonds and the almond essence.
Spread your jam of choice over the base of the pastry case. Scatter over the frozen blueberries and drop spoonfuls of the frangipane mixture over the top and spread gently to form a smooth surface.
Place the tart tin onto the hot baking tray and bake for 10 minutes before reducing the oven temperature to 160C and continuing to bake for a further 20-25 minutes until the tart is slightly puffed and golden brown.
Brush the surface of the tart with a little warmed apricot jam and leave to cool before removing from the tin and serving.
Serves 8 - 12

Plum & Rhubarb Jam

What do you do when you have an excess of fruit? Make pies? Crumbles? Freeze it? Give it away? I make jam. I usually always make my own jam as I believe you simply cannot but as good a jam as homemade, no matter how expensive. I admit you can get some nicely flavoured ones, but on the whole I generally find they are too sweet and can start to crystalise a month after opening. I like to taste and see the fruit in my jam and be able to identify the fruits by its taste. Plus there is something satisfying about making your own jam, it’s very traditional and the aroma of a steaming pot of bubbling fruit is one I associate with my mum and grandmother.

Anywho, I came home on Friday with a mountain of plumbs and some seasonal rhubarb (it was local Yorkshire rhubarb too) that was left over from a project at work and set about jamming. I always like to add lemon juice when making jam as not only does it aid the gelling process but I think it helps enhance the flavour of the fruit. I also work on a ratio of two parts fruit to one part sugar, as I think using equal quantities of fruit and sugar is unnecessary unless you want a really thickly set jam. I also decided to add some brown sugar along with the usual white as brown sugar has a caramel taste to it that tastes sweeter than white sugar, meaning you need less of it to achieve the same level of sweetness.

I considered adding a bit of chopped stem ginger or vanilla into the mix, as these both go well with rhubarb, but in the end I decided to leave it simple. (Strawberry and rhubarb make a delicious combination in the summer.)

The jam was easy to make and I was able to potter around tidying up while it happily bubbled away. I love its pretty pink colour and how you can see the fine strands of rhubarb in the finished jam.

Plum & Rhubarb Jam
Ingredients
1.1kg plums
400g rhubarb
Juice of 1 lemon
150ml water
250g soft brown sugar
500g granulated sugar

Method
Wash the plums and rhubarb and cut into 2cm chunks. Place into a large pan along with the lemon juice and water.
Place the lid slightly ajar and bring the mixture to a boil. Allow to cook for 15minutes, stirring every so often to prevent the fruit from sticking to the base of the pan.
After 15minutes the fruit should be soft, broken down and pink in colour. Reduce the heat to a simmer and stir in the sugars. Continue to stir for 5 minutes to ensure the sugar is well incorporated and has not sunk to the bottom of the pan.
Leave to cook for 40-45 minutes stirring every so often.
Meanwhile place 6 jam jars and their lids onto a baking tray and place in a cold oven. Then heat the oven to 120C to sterilise the jars. The oven must be cold when you put them in otherwise you run the risk of them shattering.
When the jam begins to look thickened and glossy, place a spoonful onto a saucer and place in the fridge for a couple of minutes. Then run your finger through the jam on the saucer and if it crinkles then the jam is ready.
Remove from the heat and ladle into the hot jars. Immediately screw on the lids with the help of rubber gloves. As the hot jam cools in the sealed jar it will form a vacuum and seal the jar. You will often here a ‘pop’ as the seal indent in the top of the lids is sucked back in.
Store in a cool dark place and once opened, keep in the fridge.
Makes 5-6 jars.

Success! Gluten Free Mint Choc Chip Brownies

Some of you may know that I recently tried to bake some gluten free cookies for a work colleague without much success. They were dry, thin, brittle and quite bland in taste. Not really on the yummy scale. But, as the saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. I was determined to find a way to produce a gluten, or at least wheat free, treat that he could enjoy.

I decided to steer away from cookies and try something softer and more cake like. I know there are quite a few flourless cake recipes around, but I wanted to make something that he wouldn’t normally be able to eat. It was while I was flicking through a cookery book that I happened upon a recipe for lemon polenta cake and a little light bulb in my head lit up – ohh I could use cornmeal in place of the flour, that might work. I decided to make some brownies to find out.

The batter came together well and looked just like a standard brownie mix. I made them extra dark by adding a couple of tablespoons of Dutch process cocoa powder along with the melted chocolate into the mix. I also threw in some mint chocolate baking chips that were given to me by a good friend. I loved how dark and glossy the batter looked, and from licking the bowl I could tell it was good.

During baking the brownies rose up, but then deflated on cooling. They gave off the most wonderful chocolate smell with a hint of mint. They had a shiny crackled surface and once sliced revealed a soft, fudgey interior, almost inky black in colour thanks to the cocoa powder. I had a little nibble and they tasted yummy and really packed a punch with the mint flavour. I was amazed at how much flavour the little minty chips added. So with crossed fingers I packed them up and took them to work for the Monday Munchers.

They were received extremely well at work, with people loving their intense dark colour and strong minty flavour. I didn’t tell them they were gluten free until after people had began munching. When I told them, the look on their faces was one of utter amazement and one girl even admitted she wouldn’t have tried them if she had known (I think I put her off with the bad batch of cookies). More importantly I was then able to offer them to the guy on the wheat free diet and he described them as ‘ace’ which really made me smile. So at last a success – hurrah!

Gluten Free Minty Choc Chip Brownies
Ingredients
140g butter
100g dark chocolate
180g caster sugar
2 eggs
15g Dutch process cocoa powder
85g fine cornmeal (polenta)
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
70g mint chocolate baking chips

Method
Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease and line the base and sides of a square 8inch baking tin.
Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar followed by the cocoa powder.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, until the mixture is airy and glossy.
Sprinkle over the cornmeal and the bicarb and mix in well.
Finally fold in the mint chips and pour into the baking tin.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until risen and a skewer inserted comes out sticky but not wet from raw batter.
Allow to cool in the tin (it will sink slightly but that’s ok).
Remove from the tin and slice into 9 squares.
Store in an airtight container until required.

Note: Replacing the cornmeal with plain flour works just as well and using standard cocoa powder and a bar of mint chocolate would be fine.

Daring Bakers January Challenge – Lemon Meringue Pie(s)

This month’s culinary challenge was chosen by Jen from The Canadian Baker and I was thrilled when she announced it was to be lemon meringue pie. I love lemon meringue pie and but haven’t eaten one for a number of years. Just thinking of the tangy lemon filling topped with clouds of sweet fluffy meringue takes me right back to my childhood. After dinner on Sundays, my mother would always produce a special homemade dessert and lemon meringue pie was one of my favourites. Unfortunately we didn’t have it all that often as my siblings refused to eat any form of dessert that didn’t include the word ‘chocolate.’ So I was delighted at this months challenge yet also slightly daunted, would I be able to recreate a dish that lived up to my childhood memories?

The lemon pie involves three separate components that are all prepared and then assembled together and baked. A pastry crust, a lemon filling and a meringue topping. We were free to choose the size of the pies we made and I decided to make miniature ones using a muffin tin, rather than a traditional large pie.

The crust came together well and I was able to stamp out my 12 pastry rounds from the first rolling, which was good as it meant I didn’t overwork the dough by having to re-roll it. However, I only used about two-thirds of the pastry and so I rolled the excess into a ball and froze it for future use.

The lemon curd filling involved a little more work, but this was down to the work involved rather than it being difficult. The recipe called for 180ml of lemon juice but I ended up with just under 150ml after juicing my bag of 4 lemons and so had to go with that. It didn’t seem to affect the lemon flavour too much, which was still very prominent. A word of advice when it comes to grating/juicing lemons. If you wash them or have wet hands then remember to dry them before attempting to slice them, or you may suffer the consequences. I attempted to cut a wet lemon in half using a big sharp knife and…well lets just say I ended up cutting something else – ouch! As I made miniature pies I also ended up with too much lemon curd (can you see a pattern emerging?) but I was more than happy about this, as the curd was so wonderfully tangy and bursting with citrus twang that I could quite happily have stood there and eaten the lot on its own, but instead I chose to bottle it and I now have now have a lovely jar of homemade lemon curd in the fridge – yum!

The topping was quick and easy to prepare and I ended up with an absolute mountain of meringue. If you want to make little pies I suggest you halve the meringue recipe below.

I was delighted with how the pies turned out. They stuck slightly to the sides of the tin but I found running a greased knife around the edge before attempting to remove them from the tin helped. I think they look very cute and just the right size for sharing around easily. My pastry could probably have done with a little extra cooking as it wasn’t that crisp, but the meringue topping was lovely and fluffy, their airy bubbles dissolve on your tongue in a matter of moments. My favourite part of the pie, by far, was the lemon curd filling – oh it’s just dreamy! Silky smooth, yet thick so that it coats your tongue and tingles your taste buds with a burst of tangy lemoniness that made me swoon. I think next time I may forgo the meringue and just add extra filling, I can’t praise it enough, I’m salivating just thinking about it. All in all the pies lived up to my childhood memories, although my mum still holds the edge when it comes to pastry. Thanks Jen for choosing such a divine pie.

Check out the Daring Bakers Blog Roll to read about fellow Bakers pies.

Lemon Meringue Pie
Makes one 10inch pie or lots of mini ones

For the pastry crust
165g cold butter
275g plain flour
50g caster sugar
¼ tsp salt
80ml cold water

For the lemon curd filling
475ml water
150g caster sugar
40g cornflour
5 egg yolks
55g butter
180ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest (around 1 lemon)
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the meringue topping
5 egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla extract
120g caster sugar

For the pastry
Make sure all ingredients are as cold as possible. Using a food processor or pastry cutter and a large bowl, combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt. Process or cut in until the mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together. Sprinkle with water, let rest 30 seconds and then either process very briefly or cut in with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter, just until the dough begins to stick together and come away from the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and press together to form a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes.
Allow the dough to warm slightly to room temperature if it is too hard to roll. On a lightly floured board (or countertop) roll the disk to a thickness of ⅛ inch (.3 cm). Cut a circle about 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the pie plate and transfer the pastry into the plate by folding it in half or by rolling it onto the rolling pin. Turn the pastry under, leaving an edge that hangs over the plate about ½ inch (1.2 cm). Flute decoratively. Chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the crust with foil and fill with metal pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before filling.

For the lemon curd
Bring the water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Remove from the heat and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the mixture gradually to the hot water, whisking until completely incorporated.
Return to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. The mixture will be very thick. Add about 1 cup (240 mL) of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Whisking vigorously, add the warmed yolks to the pot and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until incorporated. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla, stirring until combined. Pour into the prepared crust. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the surface, and cool to room temperature.

For the meringuePreheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually, beating until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. Pile onto the cooled pie, bringing the meringue all the way over to the edge of the crust to seal it completely. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack.
Serve within 6 hours to avoid a soggy crust, although it’s still delicious eaten the following day too.

Spiced Cauliflower Soup

It’s turned extremely windy here in the last 24 hours, so much so that yesterday they closed the motorway to high sided vehicles after 11, yes 11 were blown over due to the strong winds. Leaves and little bits of grit are being blown into whirlwinds and it’s hard to even walk in a straight line so I decided to stay indoors and make some soup for lunch.

I had a big head of cauliflower in the fridge, not a vegetable I use all that often but it was an impulse buy. They are an amazing vegetable, held together in florets, similar to broccoli, but their heads are a series of tightly wound spirals, all clumped together in little clusters. I always used to think they looked like trees. The cauliflower was to be the star of the soup and I chose to add a small mix of spices into the equation to give it extra warmth and flavour. I was careful not to add too much as I wanted the delicate flavour of the cauliflower to be the main component. However, if you want more of a spicy kick then feel free to add more.

When pureed, the cauliflower made the soup wonderfully smooth and creamy. It was quite thick and had a rich and comforting feel. The light cauliflower flavour shone through, followed by subtle warmth on the back of your tongue from the spices. Just what you need on a dull day.

Spiced Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion
1 clove garlic
1 large or 2 small potatoes
1 large head cauliflower (around 550g)
2 pints vegetable stock
1 tsp sweet paprika (not the strong smoky kind)
1 tsp curry powder
½ tsp cumin

Method
Peel and dice the onion while you gently heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and put the lid on to allow it to sweat.
Peel and dice the potatoes and mince the garlic. Stir into the pan of sweated onions and replace the lid again.
Cook for 5 minutes then break the cauliflower into florets and add to the other veg.
Sprinkle over the spices and add the stock.
Bring the pan to the boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer and allow to cook for 20minutes.
Then remove from the heat allow to sit for 10 minutes to cool slightly before liquidizing.
Sprinkle with a few extra spices and serve in warmed bowls with bread or crackers for dipping.

Giganti-Hugeous Crisp Cookie Thins

I wanted to try and make some wheat free cookies for one of my work mates who is on a wheat free diet. Rather than using an existing wheat free cookie recipe I decided to try and replace the wheat flour in a standard cookie recipe with a wheat and gluten free flour I had picked up at the supermarket.

The cookie dough came together well and seemed to be of a good texture and consistency and I was feeling relatively confidant they would turn out ok. I added some chopped chocolate orange chunks for flavour and spooned small teaspoonfuls out onto a baking sheet. The recipe said the cookies would spread so I left quite a bit of room in between each one. When the baking time was up I opened the oven door to find the cookies hadn’t spread a little, but had melted into huge thin flat cookies that were merging together. Eppp!

I tried again, placing fewer spoonfuls on each sheet and leaving plenty of room. The second batch turned out better, they were still huge but at least they did look vaguely cookie shaped. The texture of the cookies was very crisp and crumbly. They were also quite brittle and had a slightly gritty texture from the rice flour that was part of the mix. I was quite disappointed in their flavour, they were sweet yet had quite a savoury note to them.

I took them to work anyway where they received mixed responses. Some people hated them while others quite liked their unusual texture. It was decided that they resembled more of a French langue de chat biscuits than a soft chocolate chip cookie but they would make quite good cookies to serve with deserts. So they were a successful (sort of) but not really as a soft and chewy cookie. I’ll have to try again another time.

Crisp Cookie Thins
(Recipe adapted from Waitrose.com)
Ingredients
100g butter
50g soft light brown sugar
50g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
125g wheat and gluten free flour (or ordinary plain flour)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g chocolate orange, chopped

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Place the butter and sugars into a bowl and beat together until fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and egg and then sift over the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
Fold in the flour followed by the chocolate.
Drop teaspoons of cookie mixture onto the baking tray leaving A LOT of space between each one.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden around the edges.
Transfer to a cooling wrack straight away and leave to cool.
Make 16 cookies.