The Cake Slice June 2012: Brooklyn Blackout Cake

This cake is rich, intensely chocolaty, fudgy, moist and decedent. It’s almost black, brownie-like layers are sandwiched together with a smooth, bitter chocolate cream, before being covered in a sweet dark chocolate frosting and scattered with some reserved cake crumbs….it’s dark and mysterious and utterly divine.

This cake is too good to be simply labelled as a ‘cake.’ In my eyes this is not cake. It’s a sort of torte, gateaux, truffle, brownie, dessert, cake hybrid. It’s a dessert for serious chocolate lovers and is so rich and sophisticated that it should come with an ‘adults only’ warning.

As last Sunday was Fathers day I saved baking this until then, when I could present it to my dad over dinner. This is such a dark, moody creation, that it seemed the perfect ‘manly cake’ – no light fluffy fruity layers here!

The cake was meant to be a 9inch cake, which is then cut into 3 layers. I decided to halve this recipe and baked the cake in a 6inch tin, which worked fine, although only resulted in 2 tiers, rather than 3. Not that this mattered. I then discovered I didn’t have enough eggs to make the filling, so substituted this was a dark chocolate ganache (a decadent cream and chocolate combo) that I suspect was even more indulgent than the proposed filling.

The cake layers themselves are very moist and fudgy. Almost middle of a brownie in consistency. Their deep dark colour comes from copious amounts of cocoa powder and some hot strong coffee. The coffee seems to really enhance the chocolate flavour, without being obviously coffee. The cake layers become even more sticky and fudgy as they are stored over time.

The outer frosting was quite sweet, but this acted as a nice contrast to the rich cake and bitter chocolate ganache filling. My mum was in rhapsodies over her slice. We all agreed it was fabulous and definitely more of a dessert than an afternoon tea cake. One I’ll be sure to bake again (think I’ll stick to my ganche filling too). I strongly recommend you giving a go!

Click here to see the list of my fellow Cake Slice bakers.

Brooklyn Blackout Cake

(Recipe adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle)

Chocolate Blackout Cake

180g plain flour (I used Doves Farm plain GF)

80g cocoa powder

1½ tsp gf baking powder

1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

400g caster sugar

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

240ml buttermilk

115g butter, melted

2 tsp vanilla extract

240ml hot brewed coffee (you can use decaf)

Chocolate Filling *(see notes below for my ganche filling)

4 egg yolks

130g caster sugar

2 tbsp cornflour

1/8 tsp salt

240ml water

160m double cream

85g dark chocolate, finely chopped

1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Frosting

115g dark chocolate, chopped

155g butter, softened

190g icing sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Blackout Cake

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line two 9inch/22cm round cake tins.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the sugar and mix until all the ingredients are blended.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolk, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla extract. While mixing the dry ingredients at low speed, add the egg mixture in a steady steam. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat for 1 minute, until well blended. (It will be quite thick)

Add the hot coffee and mix gently until combined. (It will now be very liquid)

Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until starting to come away from the sides and firm to the touch. Cool the cakes in the tins before turning out.

Chocolate Filling

In the bowl, beat the egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and salt until pale, about 1 minute.

In a saucepan, combine the water and cream and bring to a boil before removing from the heat. Whisk half of the hot cream mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Pour this mixture into the remaining cream in the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil. Continue to boil, whisking, for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the chocolate until it is completely melted. Pass the filling through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Cover the surface of the pudding with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until chilled.

Chocolate Frosting

Melt the chocolate until smooth and set aside.

Beat the butter until creamy, before gradually adding in the icing sugar. Beat until it starts to form a buttercream.

Beat in the vanilla extract and the cooled chocolate, mixing until blended.

Assembly

Using a large serrated knife, cut the two chocolate cake layers in half, to create 4 layers. Set one layer aside and crumble half of it into crumbs to use as decoration later (you can eat the remaining bit).

Place one cake layer on a serving plate and spread over half of the filling. Top with another cake layer, the rest of the filling and the final cake layer. You should have a three-tiered cake at this stage.

Spread the chocolate frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Don’t worry about being too neat as its going to get covered in crumbs.

Scatter the saved cake crumbs over the top of the cake (sides too if you wish)

Serve immediately or store at room temperature for up to 3 days. The cake becomes even more moist and fudgy over time.

Notes:

* I halved this recipe and baked the cakes in 2 x 6inch tins. These made cakes a little too thin for cutting in half so my cake was only two-tiered instead of three.

* I didn’t have enough eggs to make the filling so I made a simple chocolate ganache using 160ml hot double cream, poured over 85g dark chocolate and stirred until smooth. Leave the ganache to cool and thicken before using – divine!

Coffee Swirl Cake with Choc Chips

I had three egg whites sitting in the fridge needed to find a purpose and hit that old problem – what can I make with them? The things that instantly spring to mind are pavlova and macarons, but not being a meringue fan these didn’t appeal. A quick sort through my recipe archives and I discovered the perfect recipe – a buttermilk loaf cake made using 3 egg whites – perfect!

Rather than stick with a vanilla cake, I decided to incorporate a little coffee and turn it into a vanilla coffee swirl cake. As I didn’t intend to frost the cake I also scattered in some dark chocolate chips and pecans, plus a little extra sprinkled on top. I love this combination in a cake, the chocolate turns all soft and melty and the nuts become nicely toasted.

During baking, the top of the cake forms a dark, slightly chewy crust, while the middle stays soft and tender. At first I was a little worried I had over baked it, but the cake inside was fine and I loved the contrast between the toasted chewy top and the moist crumb within. The crumb texture is quite close, probably due to the eggs whites and buttermilk, but the cake is not heavy or dense, and in fact it’s all too easy to eat.

I loved how each slice was slightly different, depending where in the vanilla-coffee swirl it was cut. The chocolate chips and pecans added little hits of texture and flavour when you happened to bite into one and worked well with the coffee. A great way to use up leftover egg whites!

This cake is also my entry to this months We Should Cocoa. A chocolate challenge event created by Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog and Chele of Chocolate Teapot. Each month they challenge bakers to get create with chocolate plus a mystery ingredient, which this month is…Coffee!  This month’s challenge is being hosted by Lucy of The Kitchen Maid. I’ve been meaning to participate in this event for months, so now I’ve finally done it! Click here for more info on how to take part.

Coffee Swirl Cake with Choc Chips

Cake
100g butter
200g caster sugar
3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
180g buckwheat flour*

60g brown rice flour*
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp xanthan gum
220ml buttermilk

2½ tsp instant coffee granules

4 tsp hot milk

Topping & Centre Sprinkles
50g chopped nuts – I used pecans

70g dark chocolate chips

Method
Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line the base and sides of a 9x5 inch loaf tin.
Mix all the sprinkle ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Dissolve the coffee in the hot milk and set aside.
Start by whisking the egg whites until they becoming opaque and fluffy, but don’t yet hold a peak.
In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg white and vanilla and mix gently.
Sift over half the flours and the xanthan gum and fold in gently, followed by buttermilk and then the remaining flour along with the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.
Pour half of the batter into the loaf tin and scatter over half the sprinkle mix.
Add the coffee mixture to the remaining batter and mix briefly to combine. Spread the coffee batter into the tin and top with the rest of the sprinkle mix.

Use a tablespoon to delve down to the bottom of the tin and make one folding motion, so that some of the vanilla batter from the base of the tin comes to the surface and swirls with the coffee batter. Do this once more at the other end of the tin. Do not over mix.
Place the tin on a baking tray and bake for 50-55 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely before slicing to reveal the swirls of vanilla and coffee cake.
Eat and enjoy.

Store in an airtight container or freeze in slices on day of baking

* Note: This cake also works with 240g of ‘normal’ wheat flour or a combination of your own GF flour mix without any problems

Rose & Rhubarb Ripple Frozen Yogurt

Last weekend I was waist high in nettles, foraging for rhubarb. There is a field near my grandmothers house which last year we discovered was abundant in wild rhubarb and so on a recent visit we set off to discover if it had appeared again this year. At first we were disappointed as we could find no signs of the tall pink stems and bushy green leaves, only a vast patch of weeds, grass and nettles. I was all for admitting defeat but my grandmother declared “it must be in there somewhere” and proceeded to stomp her way through the nettles. Sure enough, she found some young tender stalks fighting their way through the weeds to the surface.

I couldn’t let her battle alone and so I edged my way into the jungle too and soon we were plucking the shiny stalks by the armful. I only got stung three times, which if you could have seen the forest of nettles you would know was quite an achievement!

Rhubarb and strawberries are a fabulous combination and I wanted to keep things fresh and so simply stewed them gently to create a delicious fruity compote. It was so delicious I ate it for three days straight with yoghurt, porridge or cereal for breakfast. It was such a pretty colour, swirled into the yoghurt, that I decided to use the rest of the batch to create some rippled frozen yogurt.

I wanted to flavour the yogurt with something too as plain frozen yogurt can be a bit bland. I decided to add some sweet rose syrup as I think the light perfumed floral notes work really well with summer fruits. This is not the same as rose water, it is a sweet rose infused syrup that you can get in oriental supermarkets or ethnic sections in supermarkets. I got this particular one in Tesco. I think its meant to be used for making rose flavoured desserts and milky drinks but I love adding it to other things. Its such a vibrant pink colour, that it adds a gorgeous blushed pink colour to the yogurt. I also added a little Pimms, not enough to add any noticeable taste, but as I’ve read that adding a small amount of alcohol to your ice cream will help prevent it from freezing quite so solid.

Once churned, swirled and softly frozen it made for a delicious dessert. It was very light and milky, no where near as thick or creamy as ice cream but very refreshing. The yogurt maintained its slight yogurt tang, while the delicate floral flavour of the rose was there too. The rhubarb fruity mixture added a lovely flavour, although I think I would have preferred the rhubarb more broken down. I’d left it quite chunky for the compote but this meant it went a bit icy when frozen. Next time I’ll stew it for longer to get smaller strands.

Light, refreshing, fruity and delicious. The perfect summer afternoon treat. We just need the warm weather to go with it now!

Rose & Rhubarb Ripple Frozen Yogurt

Rhubarb

250g rhubarb

100g strawberries

50g blueberries

6 tbsp caster sugar

Rose Yogurt

750g low fat natural yogurt

4 tbsp sweet rose syrup (not rose water, see note below)

2 tbsp Pimms (or other fruity alcohol)

Method

Start by making the rhubarb compote. Wash and trim the rhubarb and strawberries and cut into 2cm sticks. Place into a saucepan along the with blueberries and scatter over the sugar. Leave to macerate for half an hour, which will help the fruit release its juices.

Once the juices have been released. heat gently, stirring occasionally until the fruit is soft and completely broken down. Taste and add more sugar if it’s too tart/sour for you.

Allow to cool to room temperature and then place in the fridge to use later.

Meanwhile, mix the yogurt, rose syrup and Pimms together to combine (the alcohol will help keep it from setting so solid, you can’t really taste it).

Churn in an ice cream machine until thick and softly frozen and pour into a freezeable container. If you don’t have an ice cream machine, just place the mix straight into a freezeable container and freeze for 3 hours. Take it out and give it a mix every hour to help achieve even freezing.

Once ready, pour the chilled rhubarb mixture over the top of the softly frozen yogurt and swirl it thought the yoghurt to create a ripple effect. Don’t over mix.

Return to the freezer for another 2 hours before serving.

If made far in advance, remove the yoghurt from the freezer half an hour before serving, to allow it to soften slightly.

Notes:

You can use 400g of any softly cooked soft fruits, peaches, raspberries, cherries, apricots etc

You can find bottles of rose syrup in oriental supermarkets or ethnic sections in supermarkets

Jubilee Cheesecake

I hope everyone enjoyed the Jubilee weekend. I managed to see my parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister and brother over the course of the 4 days, so it was a lovely family occasion.

My family is a very foodie family, not everyone enjoys cooking it, but we all certainly enjoy eating it and so there is always a selection of delicious food (homemade of course) to enjoy while we all catch up with each others news.

As well as my previously mentioned éclairs, my mum contributed a delicious vanilla cheesecake which we decorated together with blueberries and strawberries to resemble the Union Jack flag. This is a baked vanilla cheesecake with a layer of sour cream on top, added just before baking, to give it a slight tang. The cheesecake itself is baked in a bain-marie or water bath to ensure it stays fabulous smooth and creamy.

I don’t have many photos of it as we were all too eager to tuck in, but quite a considerable amount of it disappeared! It was a Nigella Lawson recipe and it seemed particularly fitting for the occasion as Nigella calls it a London cheesecake. GF biscuits were used for the base which meant I could enjoy it too. It was absolutely divine, velvety smooth and creamy.

My sister really outdid herself by baking a red, white and blue Union Jack puff pastry flag. She used roasted red peppers and tomatoes for the red, sliced feta cheese for the white and then some sliced new potatoes that she boiled in water, tinted blue with food dye as you couldn’t think of a savoury blue food. Talk about inventive! It looked stunning, well done C!

Unfortunately it wasn’t GF, but the whole thing got eaten so I assume it tasted good.

Jubilee Cheesecake

(Recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson)

Biscuit Base

150g gluten free digestive/tea biscuits

75g unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake

600g cream cheese (check its GF)

150g caster sugar

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

1½ tablespoons vanilla extract (yes really!)

1½ tablespoons lemon juice

Topping

145ml tub sour cream

1 tablespoon caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

Blueberries and strawberries to decorate

Method

Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until they are like crumbs, then add the butter and pulse again. Line the bottom of an 8inch/20cm springform tin and pressing the buttery biscuits into the base and press down firmly.

Put the tin in the fridge to set. Preheat the oven to 180C.

Beat the cream cheese gently until it's smooth, then add in the sugar. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks, then finally the vanilla and lemon juice. Fill the kettle and bring to the boil.

Warp the outside on the tin, base and up and sides, with one large sheet of strong foil. Repeat to ensure it is watertight. This will protect the cheesecake from the water as it is cooked in its water bath. Place the tin into a roasting dish.

Pour the cream cheese filling onto the chilled biscuit base. Pour hot water from the recently boiled kettle into the roasting tin, around the cheesecake, so that the water comes half way up the sides. It should not come over the top edges of your foil wrapping.

Carefully place into the oven and cook for 50 minutes, while you prefer the sour cream topping. After 50 minutes the cheesecake should be set on top, but still be soft and wobbly in the centre.

For the sour cream, whisk together the sour cream, sugar and vanilla and pour over the baked cheesecake. Put the cheesecake back in the oven for a further 10 minutes to set the topping.

Once baked, remove the wrapped cheesecake from the water bath and unwrap the foil. A little condensation/water on the foil is ok. Transfer the cheesecake, still in its tin, to a rack to cool.

When it's cooled down completely, place in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours, although preferably overnight.

When ready to serve, run a sharp knife around the edge of the tin before unmoulding and transferring to a serving plate. Try heating the knife in hot water first to get a clean cut.

Decorate with berries or anything else you wish.

Makes 1 x 8inch cheesecake

GF Éclairs with Raspberry Crème Patisserie & White Chocolate - perfect for the Jubilee

I’m not doing anything special for the Jubilee, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a few red, white and blue themed treats to share with the family. I decided I wanted to try making some gluten free éclairs, something I have been putting off attempting for several months, as I was really unsure how they would turn out. I’d heard reports that some people had made some quite successful GF choux pastry and decided it was time I gave it a go myself.

I wanted to do something a bit different to traditional éclairs and so made a raspberry crème patisserie for the filling which I infused with Chambord, a fabulous French black raspberry liqueur combined with notes of citrus peel, honey and vanilla. I love its ruby red colour. I also added some good quality raspberry conserve for added flavour. This is richer, creamier and oh so much more indulgent than simply filling with some whipped cream, but it’s defiantly worth the extra effort for a special occasion. I could have (and did) eaten quite a bit of it by the spoonful – quality testing of course.

For decoration I wanted to tray and replicate the English flag, but thought this would probably be a little difficult to do on top of an éclair. Instead I simply coated the tops with melted white chocolate, piped on alternating lines of red and blue icing and then lightly dragged a cocktail stick through the lines to create a feather effect. This worked well and I loved the result with its curves of red, white and blue.

For some reason my choux pastry batter turned out a little too soft, meaning I had to add extra flour, which then created a few lumps in the batter. Drat. I carried on regardless and the resulting little choux pastry éclairs were quite tasty, if not perfectly formed. They did puff slightly in the oven and create the desired little hollows in the centre, but the space was not big enough to fill generously with the crème patisserie.. No one wants a stingy filled éclair and so I simply sandwiched two éclairs together, which allowed lots of delicious creamy filling. Crisis averted!

They looked so pretty set out on their plates. The GF buns themselves were fine, a little thick perhaps as they didn’t rise as they should have, but by no means gummy or gritty. The raspberry crème patisserie was divine, so indulgent and yet surprisingly light and airy. It wasn’t overly sweet, which I liked and is definitely worth the extra effort. The top coating of white chocolate added a nice hit of sweetness and went well with the raspberry filling. All in all delicious, although I need to work on my GF choux pastry. I used to make them all the time before having to go GF. Anyone have any GF choux tips?

Whatever you’re doing – I hope you have a wonderful Jubilee weekend!

GF Éclairs with Raspberry Crème Patisserie & White Chocolate

Pate a Choux

150 ml water
60g unsalted butter
¼ tsp salt
10g caster sugar
100g gluten free plain flour
3 eggs

MethodPreheat the oven to 220C. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicon paper.
Combine the water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stir occasionally. Once boiling, remove from the heat and pour in the flour. Immediately beat vigorously to incorporate the flour and prevent lumps from forming until it forms a thick dough.
Return the dough to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Transfer to a bowl and beat for 1 minute to cool slightly.
Add 1 egg and beat in well. The dough will break up into lumps and look shiny, but this is normal. Keep beating and it will come back together.
Repeat the process until you have incorporated all the eggs.
Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large round nozzle. Pipe the choux about 1 inch-part on the baking sheets. Pipe out a short, fairly fat line of choux, about 2 inches long.

Spray a fine mist of water over the whole tray before placing in the oven. (The steam helps them puff up before a crust can form)
Bake at 220C for 10 minutes, until lightly golden.
Lower the temperature to 180C and continue baking until browned and dry, about 15 minutes more. The lower second tray may need a couple of minutes longer. Transfer to a cooling wire to cool.
Store in an airtight box until required.

Makes about 20-24 éclairs

Crème Patisserie
250ml whole milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
15g cornflour
50g caster sugar
2 large egg yolks
30g unsalted butter
200ml double cream
1 tbsp Chambord (Black raspberry liqueur)
2 tbsp raspberry conserve

Tiny amount pink food gel

Method
Pour the milk into a sauce pan and heat until steaming and near to boiling point.
Meanwhile, in another bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together. When the milk is ready, gently and slowly pour the heated milk down the side of the bowl into the egg mixture, whisking all the time.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over a low heat until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, stirring constantly. Do not let it boil.
Remove from heat and pass through a fine sieve into a clean bowl. Beat in the vanilla. Allow to cool for ten minutes stirring occasionally.
Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the pastry cream a piece at a time until smooth.
Cover the cream with clingfilm, pressing it directly onto the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Chill in the fridge until completely cold.

When cold, whisk the cream until it forms stiff peaks, add the raspberry liqueur and whisk again to combine. Fold the cream into the pastry cream and beat in the raspberry conserve. Add a tiny pinprick of pink food gel to give it a pink blush, don’t overdo it though as you want it to look natural.

Refrigerate until ready to use.

To Decorate

80g white chocolate

2 x 40g icing sugar

Red and blue food dye

Method

Melt the white chocolate in a small bowl.

Divide the icing sugar into two separate small bowls. Mix into a stiff glace icing using 2 drops of water.

Colour each of the icings with red and blue food dye.

Place the dyed icings into small paper piping bags, made from rolled squares of greaseproof paper. Cut the ends off to create a small piping hole.

Coat the top of the éclairs with the melted white chocolate. Immediately pipe on alternating colours of the red and blue icings, in thin lines across the width of the éclair.

While everything is still soft, drag the point of a cocktail stick down the length of the éclair and up the other side, to create a feather effect.

Leave to set before filling with the raspberry crème patisserie and eating.

Homemade Maple Almond Butter

When in Los Angeles a couple of months ago I picked up a sample sachet of maple almond butter. I adore peanut butter, but had never tried other types of nut butter before and I was intrigued. I’m not always a huge fan of maple syrup, as I find sometimes the flavour can be quite overpowering and so at the time I only bought the sample sachet in order to give it a try. How I wish I’d bought a huge jar of it – it was delicious. Not too sweet and wonderfully creamy and nutty, with a slightly coarse texture. I hunted for something similar in the shops here, but to no avail. I could find plain almond nut butter in a health food shop (at an axtausionate price), but no flavoured ones.

After a little pondering I decided the best thing to do would be to make some myself. It turns out that making your own nut butter is surprisingly easy and much tastier and fresher than simply buying a jar. I’m a homemade nut butter convert!

I roasted my almonds first before grinding them, to really enhance their natural nuttiness and help release some of the natural oils from the nuts. I also left the skin on, as I wanted it to be a relatively healthy nut butter, despite its added maple syrup.

The nuts blitzed into a wonderfully fine breadcrumb-like texture. Neither crunchy nor smooth, but just coarse enough to left you know it was packed with fresh nuts. The almond skin gave it a lovely earthy rich almond brown colour too.

The almond aroma was quite intense, the scent of toasted nuts wafting up at me each time I opened the lid of the mixer. I knew it would taste good before I even tried it. I only added a little maple syrup, which gave it a subtle sweetness with just a hint of maple lingering in the background. A delicious combination with the almond.

This recipe only makes a small amount, but its best eaten fresh. Plus this way you get the opportunity to experiment with other flavours. I’m thinking of maybe something with cinnamon next time…possibly pecans…?

Do try making your own nut butter, it tastes fabulous, is cheaper than supermarkets and probably healthier too (depending on what you put in there!)

Maple Almond Butter

Ingredients150g whole almonds, skin on

½ tbsp rapeseed oil

½ - 1tbsp pure maple syrup

½ tsp sea salt

MethodPreheat the oven to 200C.

Lay the almonds out in a single layer on a baking tray. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes, then give them a toss and mix up, before returning to the oven for a further 3 minutes. When they start to crack, smell toasted and are a golden brown colour, they are done.

Leave the nuts to cool for 20 minutes.

Blitz the nuts and salt in a small food processor until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. This will take several minutes and you may need to scrape down the sides once or twice.

Add the rapeseed oil and the maple syrup to taste. Blitz again to create a creamy spreadable consistency. Add more maple syrup to taste.

The nut butter will be slightly coarse in texture, not crunchy or smooth. Blitz for longer if you want a smooth butter and add a few more nuts at the end if you want to create a crunchy texture.

Transfer the nut butter to a small airtight container and eat within 2 weeks.

Red, White & Blue Crisps!

With the Queens Jubilee only a matter of days away the country seems in full patriotic swing. Posters and food packaging is being adored with the English flag and people are organising street parties up and down the country. I myself intend to try and bake something along the red, white and blue theme, ideas are being formed…

On a recent shopping excursion I spotted some new patriotic crisps from Tyrrells. They have gone one step further by making not only their packaging, red, white and blue, but also the crisps inside!!

Fear not – they have not dyed their crisps – but used naturally red, white and blue varieties of English potatoes in order to create some iconic and eye catching crisps! How cool is that!!

The English varieties used are Highland Burgundy Red, White Lady Claire and Salad Blue. There are also a few beetroot crisps snuck in for extra an extra red boost. I’m sure the queen would highly approve!

I found the crisps to be quite thickly cut which gave them a wonderful crunch and meant you could actually taste the difference between the different potato varieties. The beetroot ones were also deliciously sweet.

They are only lightly flavoured with sea salt, so are bound to suit everyone’s tastes. I’m going to buy another bag for the family gathering next weekend, I can imagine them looking great on the table amongst all the other food. Found in Waitrose, but also from Selfridges, Harvey Nichols or Fortnum & Masons if you happen to be in London.

Apple & Cinnamon Buns – Cookbook Review

No Meat, No Dairy, No Gluten, Just Flavour…and Goodness. This is the title of the cookery book by Wendy Horne that I was recently sent to review. Being both vegetarian and coeliac it captured my attention as it is quite rare to find a vegetarian friendly gluten free cookbook. A number of coeliacs I know also can’t tolerate dairy, so the fact this book encompassed all three was great. It is probably worth a mention thought that it’s vegetarian friendly, but not vegan friendly, as even though no dairy products are used, the recipes do contain eggs.

My first impression of the book was a little sceptical. The pictures on the front looked a bit dull and dated and inside the recipes are simply set out with no photos or pictures. However, I know it’s rather clichéd but as the saying goes ‘you should never judge a book by its cover’ as while flicking through the book I kept coming across delicious sounding dishes and have ended up with lots of tags stuck out the top for recipes I want to try. It was lovely having the pick of the entire book without the need to - ignore the chicken or work out a suitable flour substitute as I usually have to.

The recipes are split into soups, salads, main courses, terrines, potatoes, puddings & cakes and odds & ends such as chutneys. While trying to decide which recipe to make first it was a toss up between some little lentil pies or these apple & cinnamon buns. The buns won out in the end! The recipe intrigued me as:

1)      it was made entirely in a food processor

2)      it contained raw blitzed apple puree in the batter, not cooked like most recipes call and…

3)      it was apple and cinnamon – how could I resist!?

I followed the recipe to the letter, even using the requested dairy free Pure spread as I fortunately had some in the fridge after recently making a dairy free cake for a friend. The little buns contain apple in two forms. A large amount is blitzed into the cake batter and then some more finely chopped chunks are stirred in at the end. The recipe just stated ‘apple’ rather than specifying cooking or eating apples and so I decided to use a Bramley cooking apple in the blitzed up batter and a sweeter red eating apple for the little chunks. This worked well and resulted in a tart fresh tasting apple flavour to the cake while any little chunks bitten into were sweet and pleasant. I left the skin on the chunks of apple too, as the little red flecks looked pretty when you took a bite.

The cakes were incredibly light and moist and scattered with tiny air pockets throughout. The cinnamon flavour was quite pronounced which I adored and was the perfect pairing for the apple.

All the fresh pureed apple meant by the following morning the buns had come away from their cases and had developed a sticky top surface, becoming even more moist and tender, just like a good ginger cake. I had one slightly warmed with custard for pudding and it was gorgeous.

I’m sure the recipe would work well with other fruit too, maybe a firm pear and ginger combo, or fresh cranberry and orange zest…? No one would ever guess they were gluten and dairy free! I can’t wait to bake something else from the book, I think those little lentil pies are next on the list.

Apple & Cinnamon Buns

Recipe from No Meat, No Dairy, No Gluten, Just Flavour and Goodness by Wendy Horne

Ingredients

110g Pure dairy free spread

110g golden caster sugar

¼ tsp xanthan gum

175g gluten free plain flour (I used Doves Farm Plain)

2 eggs

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp cinnamon

50g ground almonds

175g apple, peeled and chopped (I used Bramley)

50g apple, peeled and finely diced (I used unpeeled red eating apple)

Method

Heat the oven to 160C and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases.

In a food processor, whiz the pure dairy free spread and sugar together until smooth.

Add half the flour and mix briefly. Add the eggs, blitz again and then add the rest of the flour, cinnamon and the xanthan gum.

Add the large amount of chopped apple and blitz until mostly broken down and only little flecks remain.

Add the almonds, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and blitz to incorporate.

Add the diced apple and pulse once to combine, you don’t want to break the apple up though.

Divide the mixture between the 12 muffin cases, about 1½ tbsp of mix in each.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes (mine took 24 minutes)

Once baked, leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack until cold.

Makes 12