Go with the Grain: Festive Rice and Spelt Salad

I was invited to a friend Christmas get together where we swapped cards and presents over lunch. I am fortunate that a number of my friends also enjoy cooking so we usually operate on a bring and share lunch. I was asked to bring a salad and my first reaction was “that’s not very exciting” but then I thought why not add some Christmas colours and flavours and made it a fun festive salad, thus this salad was born.

I had no recipe in mind and instead set off browsing the shop shelves trying to decide what I considered to be festive flavours which would work in a salad. Strangely enough my first thoughts were cinnamon and cardamom and so the idea of doing a spiced rice salad was born. I then thought of adding some fruit and settled on dried cranberries and pomegranate seeds – both gorgeous red colours and very festive. Nest into the basket was some pistachios, for their wonderful mottled green colour and some spring onions for freshness and crunch. I decided to add orange zest to complement the cranberries but on my way to the shelf I passed a stand of clementines which seemed much more festive and so I used that instead. I decided to see if I could get some wild rice too to add a different texture and discovered a packet of spelt grain whose nutty flavour appealed instantly, so in it went. I then thought about some sort of dressing to combine everything together and decided on a simple mix of olive oil and a little honey to add a little sweetness and moisture while still allowing the other flavours to be the main star. I also picked up a packet of fresh mint, which I have discovered goes wonderfully with pomegranate. So armed with my colourful, albeit a little odd mix of ingredients I went home and started creating my salad.

As cardamom can be quite a strong spice I decided to add the pods to the water the grains cooked in and then fish them out afterwards to allow the flavour to subtly permeate into the grains without being overpowering. This worked well and produced a faint fragrant overtone to the grains. I have never added pomegranate seeds to a salad before, but I have seen Nigella do it a number of times and I felt quite the domestic goddess as I sprinkled them in – all shiny and jewel-like.

Once finished I wasn’t at all sure how it would taste, but in my head all the flavours went together and the gorgeous mix of glossy reds and shades of green looked so beautiful together that I was more excited than concerned.

I tried my first spoonful and couldn’t help grinning. My mouth filled with so many layers of flavour, but each came in their own wave and didn’t seem to contradict the other ingredients. The first taste was of a lightly spiced earthy grain but then the sweetness of dressing and clementine flavours appearance, which were then balanced out by my biting down on the tartness of the cranberries and a burst of earthy pomegranate juice all finished with a hint of mint and a zingy sensation. Success! It didn’t just taste good, it tasted fabulous, so fresh and vibrant and definitely festive. It got a lot of positive comments at the lunch party, not everyone liked the pomegranate seeds, but you can’t please everyone. Either way as far as salad is concerned this ones a keeper!

Festive Rice and Spelt Salad
Ingredients
100g long grain rice
100g spelt grain
100g pomegranate seeds (a fresh pre-prepared pack is ideal)
65g pistachios with shell (50g minus shell)
50g dried cranberries
2 spring onions
1 clementine, zest and juice
6 large mint leaves
4 cardamom pods
¼ tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp runny honey

Method
Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Crack the cardamom pods so that the inside seeds are exposed and add to the pan of water. Do not crush completely as you will want to fish them out later. Find out how long your spelt takes to cook (usually around 50minutes) and how long the rice takes to cook (often 12-15 minutes).
Add the spelt to the pan of boiling water and cook on a simmer. Add the rice to the same pan once the spelt has 12-15 minutes left to cook, so that both grains will be cooked and ready at the same time.
Once cooked, drain the water from the pan and cover the grains with lots of cold water to stop the cooking process and help it cool down quickly.
Meanwhile, prepare the remaining salad ingredients. Remove the pistachios from their shell and roughly chop so that some nuts are in pieces while others remain whole.
Place the dried cranberries into a small bowl and add the zest and juice from the clementine. Heat in the microwave for 30 seconds which will enable the cranberries to rehydrate, plump up and become glossy. Slice the spring onions into small pieces.
Place the cooled rice and spelt into a large serving bowl, removing the cardamom pods. Add the pistachios, orange infused cranberries, pomegranate seeds and spring onions.
Finely shred the mint and add to the bowl along with the cinnamon.
Mix the honey and olive oil together until well combined. Drizzle over the salad and mix everything together well ensuring all the ingredients are evenly distributed and covered in a little of the dressing. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serves 4 as a main or 8 as a starter. Store any leftovers in the fridge.

Aldi Christmas Goodies

Yesterday I received a lovely box full of Christmas goodies courtesy of Aldi. They asked if I would like to sample some of their new Christmas food and I was happy to accept their offer. I informed them I was a Vegetarian, as I know some mince pies and mincemeat contains animal suet, which I avoid. They promised to select a range that would be Vegetarian friendly and they didn’t disappoint! They sent a selection of their new Specially Selected range including mince pies, Christmas pudding, butter fudge, a bar of mint chocolate and an adorably cute milk chocolate reindeer. I was also delighted to find snuggled in the bottom of the box a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc wine which, due to the cold weather, arrived perfectly chilled! How generous.

My grandparents called round for the afternoon, perfect timing for sampling the mince pies. I was pleased to find that the pies resembled the picture on the box, prettily decorated with little stars and a sprinkling of sugar. I heated them briefly in the oven as I like my mince pies served warm. The pastry was nicely crisp, not too thick and buttery. The mincemeat was sweet, plump and contained a fantastic boozy brandy hit. This wasn’t your bog standard mincemeat either as alongside the usual raisins and currants the mix contained apple, dried cranberries and walnuts. The brandy was a little strong for my liking but my granddad said it was the best mince pie he’s tasted this year.

After dinner I tried the Christmas pudding. The first thing that pleased me was how rich and fruity it smelled and its dark glossy colour. It turned out well, although the base of mine was a little higgledy-piggledy so it didn’t sit flat, but this didn’t really detract from it. The hot pudding was soft, moist and absolutely jam packed with fruit. They hadn’t skimped on the almonds either as I had a chunk of one in almost every bite. It was a very large pudding so I’m going to use the rest to make little chocolate Christmas pudding truffles.

I haven’t tasted the other goodies yet but if they are a good as the mince pies and pudding then I’m sure they won’t disappoint. I’m going to buy more of those reindeers to give to my young cousins, they are so cute!

If you need help planning your Christmas day meal then TV chef Phil Vickery has put together an online podcast including a step-by-step Christmas day meal plan and an online video recipe of what to do with your leftovers, just click the links to view. Thanks Nadia and Aldi for the festive goodies.

Jordans Country Crisp Appreciation Society Day

Yesterday I was one of a few lucky bloggers to be invited to the first Country Crisp Appreciation Society day run by Jordans Cereals at Leiths School of Food and Wine in London. I was delighted about this as I adore cereal and have been eating Jordans products for many years. For those of you who don’t know, Jordans produce a delicious range of oat based mueslis, cereal bars, porridge oats and Country Crisp clusters. They are based in Biggleswade, in my own hometown of Bedfordshire and use only the finest natural ingredients in their cereals.

Some of the other cereal enthusiast bloggers were:
Kavita of Kavey Eats
Signe of Scandilicious
Mathilde of Mathilde’s Cuisine
The Muesli Lover
Greedy Diva
The Ginger Gourmand
Danny of Food Urchin
Maunika of Cook in a Curry

Jordans Country Crisp cereal has been around for several years, and comprises of clusters of oats and barley baked into various sized clusters. It comes in many varieties depending on what add-ins you have with it. I have always favoured the raisin one which has lovely giant chewy flame raisins mixed in with it. The crisp clusters are hugely popular and the whole Country Crisp range has now got such a fan base that Jordans have just launched a Country Crisp Appreciation Society. People can’t get enough of it and are eating it not only at breakfast but also baking with it and snacking on it straight out the box. As a result they have recently launched a honey variety which is designed with snackers in mind – bigger clusters with no add-ins to pick through, although, it does of course still taste great for breakfast.

After a meet and greet one of the two founders of Jordans, Bill Jordan himself then gave us a talk about the history and philosophy behind Jordans. He was ever so friendly and stayed to answer all our questions as we got down to some baking. Apparently it took 83 different recipes before they achieved the perfect cluster – now that’s dedication! Jordans were also the first to offer freeze fried berries in its cereal and all its oats are grown in the fields near the factory and to conservation standard.
Jordans head of taste, Kirsten, then talked us through a Country Crisp Pear and Chocolate Crumble Cake we would be baking using Jordans Chocolate Country Crisp. We were each given our own work space and ingredients and set about baking. It was a vanilla sponge cake, studded with chocolate chips, topped with a layer of Chocolate Country Crisp, sautéed sliced pears and a final sprinkle of more Country Crisp. The recipe can be found here. It produced a delicious cake and it was interesting to see how everyone’s cake turned out a little differently, even though we had all followed the same recipe. The way the pears had been sliced or the amount of Country Crisp topping made each one unique.

While our cakes were baking Kirsten talked us through the secrets to making new Country Crisp recipes. There are 3 different cluster bases, Vanilla, Nutty and Honey from which to add and create new products. Getting the clusters just right took a lot of research. Customers told Jordans they liked the big clusters but then complained that it was too much to chew if the pack only contained big clusters. Too many small clusters meant they weren’t clustery enough. Jordans have found that a mix of small, medium and large clusters is most successful. To do this they sort and grade the clusters after oven baking them to ensure every box is perfect. Even the add ins have proved problematic as high water content fruits like peaches proved too bland and the cut or shape of a nut dramatically changes the texture and mouthfeel of the cereal. It’s Kirsten’s job to taste and help develop the recipes – how fantastic a job does that sound!

We then got the opportunity to get creative and mix our own Country Crisp cereal using the oaty crisp clusters as a base and a fantastic array of add-in ingredients. I chose pecans, hazelnuts, giant flame raisins, pumpkin and sesame seeds, natural apple and apricot pieces and flaked coconut. I then went back and added a handful of dark chocolate curls – being curls they just melted in the mouth, and even sprinkled in a generous amount of cinnamon for an extra warming Christmassy scent. I was so excited by this as I absolutely adore cinnamon with nuts and chocolate, plus its meant to be very good for controlling blood pressure. Once our cereals were mixed we were then presented with our very own personalized country crisp cereal box complete with our picture and a short character description! How cool is that!!

I had a bowlful of the cereal this morning and it was divine. Nutty with crisp oaty clusters, chewy raisins, creamy coconut and the warming scent and flavour of cinnamon. If you live in the Bedfordshire area and fancy creating your own cereal mix then you can visit their shop in Biggleswade to stock up on all the raw ingredients they use in their own cereals or simply just pick up one of their ready made mixes from the shelves. I have visited the shop many times (it also sells a great assortment of herbs, spices and other gifty things) and found out yesterday that the lovely lady who runs it is actually Bill Jordans Mum!

It was a fantastic morning and we left with a bag full of our lovely goodies – pear chocolate crisp cake, personalized cereal and box and a couple of boxes of the Country Crisp cereal. Thank you so much to everyone at Jordans and Wild Card for arranging the day and it was great to meet so many cereal enthusiasts.

Movie Themed Banana Birthday Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a close friend’s birthday. We have known each other since we were 9 years old and she is a very special friend to me. There have been many times when we have rung each other in tears over some life drama, and yet we always seem to end our conversations with laughter. She is one of those true friends who I can be truly myself with, without fear of causing offence or being judged. The kind of friend who drops everything to share some popcorn and a rented film when I need cheering up or an impromptu home cooked dinner in celebration of some good news. Thank you J for being such a good friend.

Like me, J has recently graduated from University and is trying to get into the film/tv industry as a producer. As it was her birthday I wanted to bake her some cupcakes themed towards the film industry. I cut some squares and stars out of black fondant and attempted to make them look like clapperboards and Hollywood stars using small bits of white fondant. I planned to try and get her name onto the star but it wouldn’t fit so instead I used her initial JL. I actually think that makes quite a good logo – so J when you’re rich and famous with your own production company – remember me!

I made banana cupcakes as J loves bananas and topped them with a simple vanilla buttercream as I wanted the decorations to stand out. J was thrilled with the cupcakes and we spent a fun/silly hour with a camera animating the cupcakes trying to run away from us without being eaten! Hehehe.

Banana Movie Cupcakes

Ingredients
100g butter
100g light soft brown sugar
2 eggs
180g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 mashed bananas (200g peeled weight)

Vanilla Buttercream
150g butter
300g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tbsp milk

Method
Preheat oven to 170C. Line a muffin tin with cupcake cases.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing until well incorporated.
Mash the bananas until you have a lumpy puree. Add to the bowl along with the flour and baking power. Beat until combined.
Divide the mixture between the paper cases and bake for 22 minutes. They should be risen and springy to the touch.
Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.
Meanwhile, make the buttercream. Beat the butter until soft and creamy. Sift the icing sugar into a separate bowl to remove any lumps. Beat the icing sugar into the soft butter, a quarter at a time. Make sure it’s well mixed before adding the next batch.
Add the vanilla and 1-2 tablespoons of milk to achieve a soft pipeable consistency.
Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large tube nozzle. Pipe swirls of buttercream on top of the cooled cakes and top with the decoration of your choice.
Makes 12 cupcakes

Sweet Potato Cake Cheesecake

After my experiments with the sweet potato cakes I was left with quite a lot of leftover cake and decided to try baking it into a cheesecake to give it a new lease of life. This may sound odd, but I was inspired by my trip to Chicago in the summer, where I saw a carrot cake cheesecake. This involved a thin carrot cake base, topped with cheesecake and another round of carrot cake. I didn’t actually taste it (I went for an Oreo cheesecake) but the idea has stuck with me.

For my cheesecake I crumbled some of the sweet potato cake and pressed it into the base of my tin, in place of the usual biscuit base. I then made a basic vanilla cheesecake mix, and cut the remaining cake into 1cm cubes. I stirred most of the cake cubes into the cheesecake mix and used the rest to top the cheesecake.
I was really excited to see how the cheesecake would look when I sliced into it and after an impatient wait for it to cool I had my first slice. The cheesecake was very incredibly smooth and creamy and the cake base was soft but held together well. Most of the middle cake cubes had drifted towards the surface but they had stayed fully submerged and although soft, were still different enough to add their own texture. The top cake cubes had turned a lovely golden brown and gone ever so slightly chewy. The little pieces of pecan nut I had used on top of the sweet potato cake were given a light toasting and added their own toasty nut flavour when you happened upon one.

The orange and spices from the sweet potato cake had permeated into the cheesecake itself and given it a lightly spiced flavour of its own. Quite unusual on first bite but addictively good. The whole thing reminded me a bit of bready and butter pudding, only with much more creamy filling. Just divine. So if you have a bit of leftover cake lingering in a tin, don’t throw it out – turn it into a delicious cake cheesecake instead. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Sweet Potato Cake Cheesecake
(Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson)
Ingredients
400-500g sweet potato cake (or cake of your choice)
50g butter
600g cream cheese
150g caster sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Have a deep 8inch/20cm springform tin close at hand.
Weigh out 150g of the sweet potato cake and crumble it into fine pieces using your fingers. Melt the butter and pour it over the top of the cake crumbs. Mix together briefly and then press into the base of the tin. Press down well so that they form a flat base. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and beat again, followed by the egg yolks, eggs and vanilla.
Cut the remaining sweet potato cake into 1cm cubes. Lightly stir three quarters of the cake cubes through the cream cheese mixture. Do not over mix or the cake will start to break apart.
Pour the cheesecake mix into the springform tin. Scatter the remaining quarter of the cake cubes over the top of the cheesecake and press down so they are partially submerged.
Boil the kettle. Wrap the tin in a large sheet of foil and place it inside a deep baking tray. Place the tin in the oven and pour the boiling water into the baking tin, so that it comes half way up the sides of the cheesecake tin. Make sure your foil comes above the water level.
Bake for 55 minutes. Test if the cheesecake is done by giving it a gentle shake. If the centre ripples and looks very runny, then give it 5 minutes more. However, a gently wobble in the centre is fine as the cheesecake will continue to cook after you have taken it out of the oven.
Take the cheesecake out of the oven and baking tray. Remove the foil and place the whole tin on a cooling wire to cool.
When cool, place in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours to ensure it is sufficiently set.
When ready to serve, run a hot knife around the inside edge of the tin to release the cheesecake. Remove the tin collar and serve.
Serves 10-12
Makes one 8inch/20cm cheesecake

Bettys Traditional Christmas Pudding

I can’t believe it is the beginning of December tomorrow! November has just flown by. I saw the Christmas Coco Cola advert last night. You know it’s nearly Christmas when that appears on the TV, and even though I’m not a coca cola fan I love the advert – it always makes me feel festive and brings back memories of excited anticipation of Christmas approaching when I was younger. What do any of you associate with the start of Christmas? Putting up your tree, a song or on the radio or a bite of your first mince pie? I personally began feeling rather festive when I backed my Christmas cake last weekend. If you haven’t baked yours yet, don’t worry there is still time.

This year I decided to also make a Christmas pudding, something I have never attempted before. For those of you who may not know, a Christmas pudding is a sort of cross between a Christmas cake and mincemeat (the kind found in mice pies not bolognaise!). Your soak your fruits in alcohol before using them, like a Christmas cake, but you then mix these into a spiced cake batter than contains suet, like mincemeat (vegetable suet). The mix is then placed into a pudding basin and part boiled, part steamed in a pan of water for several hours. This produces a very moist and soft pudding, that has all the flavours of Christmas cake only slightly more spongy and less densely fruited. The pudding is kept for several weeks to allow the flavour to mature and develop. Then on Christmas day the pudding is heated, doused in Brandy and set alight. The lights are quickly turned down and people ‘ohhh’ and ‘arrrrh’ as wispy blue flames dance around the pudding giving a spectacular end to the Christmas meal.

Last week I saw this recipe for a Christmas pudding in a supplement given away with the newspaper. It’s based (apparently) on the Christmas puddings they sell in Bettys of Taylors and Harrogate. I have always been impressed with their bread and cakes whenever I have visited and the pudding sounded quite straightforward so I decided to give it a go. The pudding does require 5 hours of boiling/steaming, but don’t let that put you off. As long as you check the water level a couple of times during cooking, it can be left to its own devises. The actually making of the pudding is very quick and easy.

Obviously I haven’t tasted it yet, but it looks very moist and smells very traditional, warming spices, boozy fruits and a hint of citrus. It doesn’t look all that appetising before you cook it, but it transforms into a lovely looking pudding after its steam session. It’s currently wrapped up tight and hidden away under the stairs until its big reveal on Christmas Day. I’ll try and catch a shot of it on fire to show you later. It’s just occurred to me how odd it sounds to want to purposely set food on fire!

I nearly forgot, don’t forget to give your Christmas cake its weekly feed of one tablespoon of your chosen booze. It appreciates some festive spirit too *groan* couldn’t resist!

Bettys Traditional Christmas Pudding
Ingredients
230g raisins
50g currants
75g sultanas
50g glace cherries
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
100ml Brandy
15g flaked almonds
25g chopped hazelnuts (my addition)
50g vegetable suet
30g wholemeal breadcrumbs
50g plain flour
90g light soft brown sugar
½ tsp mixed spice
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Method
The day before, place all the dried fruits into a bowl. Grate the orange and lemon zest over the top and pour in the Brandy. Give everything a good stir, cover the bowl with clingfilm and set aside for 24 hours to allow the fruits to plump up and absorb some of the Brandy.
The next day, place all the remaining ingredients into a large bowl. Add the soaked fruits, scraping in any leftover juices. Mix together lightly with a wooden spoon until everything is evenly combined.
Place a small disc of parchment paper in the base of a 1½ pint pudding basin. Fill the basin with the pudding mix, pressing down lightly. Place another disc of parchment on top and cover the top of the basin with a sheet of foil. Fold a little crease into the middle of the foil to allow it to rise with the steam.
Tie a long strip of string around the top rim of the pudding and then secure it over the top of the basin from one side to the other to form a string handle. (This will help you retrieve the pudding from the pan later without burning yourself).
Place a trivet or small unturned saucer in the base of a deep saucepan – it must be wide enough to hold your pudding.
Place the pudding on the upturned saucer, boil the kettle and fill the pan with the hot water until it reached half way up the side of the pudding basin.
Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover with the lid and leave to simmer gently for 5 hours. It does not need to boil rapidly.
Every 2 hours lid the lid of the pan to check the water level. Add more boiling water if it’s looking low.
Once the 5 hours is up, lift the pudding out of the pan with the help of the string handle. Place on a cooling rack, remove the foil and leave until cool. Leave it in the basin and with the parchment disc still on top. Once cooled, wrap tightly in clingfilm and store in a cool dark place until required, the longer the better.
On Christmas Day, steam the pudding again for 2 hours to heat through thoroughly. Turn out onto a serving plate that has a rim. Carefully warm a ladleful of Brandy until it ignites and quickly pour it over the pudding to flambé. Take it to the table and serve with Brandy butter or custard once the flames have extinguished. Alternatively, heat the Brandy in a pan, pour it over the pudding and set light to it with a lighter.
Makes 1 pudding, to serve 6 – 8 people

Daring Bakers November 09 Challenge: Chestnut Ricotta Filled Cannoli

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

Cannoli are known as Italian-American pastries, although the origin of cannoli dates back to Sicily, specifically Palermo, where it was prepared during Carnevale season, and according to lore, as a symbol of fertility. The cannoli is a fried, tube-shaped pastry shell that is faintly flavoured with an interesting combination of cocoa powder, cinnamon and Marsala wine. Once fried they are filled with a creamy sweetened ricotta cheese and usually accompanied by chocolate, candied fruit and/or nuts. However, there is no reason why cannoli can’t also be filled with pastry creams, mousses, whipped cream, ice cream. Wine may sound an off ingredient to add to a dough but it is not only added for flavour, but also to relax the gluten in the dough which makes it easier to work with.

We were allowed to flavour our ricotta filling any way we wished and I decided to add chestnut puree to mine, as I love the flavour of chestnuts and they feel suitable festive for this time of year. The chestnut ricotta turned out very light and plesently creamy. It a very fresh young cheese meaning it wasn’t too rich which was ideal when paired with the fried dough. The chestnut flavour tasted wonderful against the faintly cinnamon cocoa flavoured dough and I also topped the cannoli with a few dark chocolate chips to finish.
Once the cannoli dough is made and rested it is rolled out until very thin before squares or circles are cut out and rolled around special cannoli moulds and then deep fried. I didn’t have any cannoli moulds, nor could I find any in the two kitchen shops I visited. I decided to try improvising my own by using the middle thick cardboard tube from the end of my clingfilm. It seemed the right sort of size and very study and I was able to get four good tubes from it. I felt quite pleased with my ingenuity and hoped it would work. I wrapped my dough around the tubes and dropped them into the hot oil. They dropped to the bottom of the pan then rose to the surface and started to sizzle – hurrah it worked – or so I thought. The dough stayed around the tubes for about 5 seconds before suddenly puffing up and springing free from the tubes into weirdly shaped blobs. Well darn. Strangely enough they also puffed up and became hollow, like very fragile fried profiterole shells. I’ve no idea why this happened but it did offer me a solution of how to fill my cannoli so it wasn’t a total loss.

I also fried the offcuts in little strips which I sandwiched together with more of the chestnut ricotta. These worked really well as they were easier to eat than my cannoli puffs. I enjoyed this challenge as I have never made…well attempted to make my own cannoli before. Both the cannoli shells and the chestnut ricotta filling were delicious. I’ll give it another go when I find some proper cannoli moulds. Thanks Lisa for choosing such a fun challenge. Click here to see Lisa’s perfect looking cannoli and for a list of other Daring Bakers.

Chestnut Ricotta Filled Cannoli
Cannoli Dough

250g plain flour

28g caster sugar

1 tsp cocoa powder

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

3 tbsp vegetable or olive oil

1 tsp white wine vinegar

60ml sweet Marsala (or any white wine)

1 egg white

2 litres vegetable oil or any neutral oil for frying

Ricotta Filling

500g ricotta cheese, drained

50g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

110g chestnut puree

35g dark chocolate chips

Method – Cannoli

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.
Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until very thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that). Cut out 3 to 5-inch circles (that will fit around your moulds). Roll the cut out circle into an oval, rolling it larger and thinner if it’s shrunk a little.
Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes (You only have to do this once, as the oil from the deep fry will keep them oiled). Roll a dough oval from the long side (If square, position like a diamond, and place tube/form on the corner closest to you, then roll) around each tube/form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap. (Avoid getting egg white on the tube, or the pastry will stick to it.) Press well to seal. Set aside to let the egg white seal dry a little.
In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches, or if using an electric deep-fryer, follow the manufacturer's directions. Heat the oil to 190C on a deep fry thermometer, or until a small piece of the dough or bread cube placed in the oil sizzles and browns in 1 minute. Have ready a tray or sheet pan lined with paper towels or paper bags.
Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.
Lift a cannoli tube with a wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, out of the oil. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a cloth and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven glove or towel. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.
Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

For the Ricotta Filling

Line a sieve with a cheesecloth or sheet of kitchen roll. Place the ricotta in the sieve, over a bowl, and cover with a saucer. Weight it down with a heavy can, and let the ricotta drain in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Once drained, beat the ricotta until smooth and creamy (mine didn’t go smooth, but it was creamy). Beat in the icing sugar, vanilla and chestnut puree and mix until smooth. Cover and chill until required.

To Assemble

Fill a pastry bag with the ricotta cream. Insert the tip in the cannoli shell and squeeze gently until the shell is half filled. Turn the shell and fill the other side. You can also use a teaspoon to do this, although it’s messier and will take longer.
Press or dip the ends of the cannoli in the chocolate chips. Dust with a little extra icing sugar and serve straight away.
Leftover cannoli can be kept in an airtight container lined with kitchen roll. Do not fill the cannoli until required or else they will go soft.
Makes 22-24 cannoli
NOTE: The canolli shells can also be baked at 220C for 7-10 minutes until golden. However, they won’t be as nicely blistered compared to if they had been fried.

Festive Christmas Cake

Sorry for the delay in posting the next stage of the Christmas cake, things have been a bit hectic these last few days, but rest assured your soaking boozy fruit base won’t have come to any harm. The fruit should be plump, glossy and juicy by now and perfect for stirring into your Christmas cake mix to give a rich, moist texture and flavour. Peel off the clingfilm and inhale the fruits sweet, boozy, citrusy aroma, ahhh…it’s just heavenly.

When you have added the fruit to the cake mix just run a finger around the fruit bowl and taste the syrupy residue, it’s divine. The harsh raw note of the alcohol has mellowed and taken on the flavour of the fruits. The juices have become sweet and sticky while a wonderful rich fruity citrus flavour seems to explode in your mouth. It was hard to resist the urge to start eating the raw mix.

The cake mix is very easy to put together and contains its own Christmassy flavours of black treacle and an assortment of spices. This year I added ginger and cloves to help complement my choice of fruits. When you come to add the soaked fruit, you may think there is not enough cake mix for the amount of fruit, but a Christmas cake such as this is very densely fruited. Just think of it as the fruit being held together with cake, rather than it being a cake containing fruit.When spooning the cake mix into the tin it’s a good idea to create a little hollow or dip in the centre of the cake, this compensates for the cakes normal doming effect during baking and means you should end up with more of a flat surface on which to decorate later – we don’t want to have to cut off and waste any more of the cake than necessary!

During baking the cake will fill your kitchen with wafts of warm Christmas smells that linger pleasantly for several hours. Once baked, the cake is given its first ‘feed’ of some more Cointreau before being wrapped up tight. The cake will now be fed once a week until it’s time to decorate it just before Christmas. This ensures it continues to develop in flavour and stays moist – no chance of dry stale fruitcake here!

Festive Christmas Cake Base
Ingredients

225g plain flour
1½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
40g ground almonds
40g balanced almonds
165g light soft brown sugar
165g butter
1 tbsp black treacle
3 eggs
1 batch pre-soaked festive fruit mix (click to see)

Feeding
2 tbsp Cointreau (orange liqueur)

Method
Grease and line base and sides of a deep 8inch/20cm tin with greaseproof paper, allowing the paper to rise an inch above the rim of the tin.Pre heat the oven to 140C.In a large bowl add the flour, mixed spice, ground almonds, sugar, butter, treacle and eggs and mix together well using an electric mixer.Roughly chop the blanched almonds and add to the mix along with your pre-soaked boozy fruits.
Fold everything together using a spatula, making sure the fruit is evenly distributed.Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, pressing down gently and smoothing the surface. Create a shallow dip in the centre of the cake mix to compensate for the cake doming in the oven. The dip should result in a flat surface when baked.Bake the cake for 2 hours and 50 minutes. (After 2 hours you can quickly cover the tin with foil if it is becoming too brown before baking for a further 50 minutes).Check the cake with a skewer, which should come out clean. Leave to cool for an hour in the tin.Measure out the Cointreau into a small bowl and prick the top of the cake all over with the skewer. Evenly drizzle over the Cointreau using a teaspoon.Allow the cake to cool completely before removing it from the tin but leaving the greaseproof paper on.Wrap it up well in clingfilm and leave in a cool dark place to mature for several weeks. ‘Feed’ the cake with an extra tablespoon of Cointreau once a week until required or ready to marzipan and ice just before Christmas.
Makes enough for an 8inch/20cm circular Christmas cake


Here is what I have been up to recently – my graduation! When I first started Uni I wasn’t sure it was really for me and a little part of me that never imaged I would actually get to wear the graduation robe - it felt like such an achievement to know I succeeded and it was a great day.

Stir Up Sunday - Festive Fruit Cake Mix

Today is stir up Sunday which means its time to dust off your pudding basins and hunt out your dried fruit as today is the traditional day to make your Christmas pudding and Christmas Cake. It’s called ‘stir up’ for the obvious reasons that you stir together your fruit mixes and it’s always held on the last Sunday before the start of Advent (next week) to acknowledge the start of the festive food preparations. This then gives your cakes and puddings four weeks to mature, develop in flavour and be ‘fed’ with Brandy or other spirits to give them that characteristic richness, moistness and boozy flavour.

Every year I bake the same Christmas cake recipe that I have tailored to suit my families tastes, but this year I felt like doing something a bit different and by simply changing some of the fruits included and the tray of soaking liqueur I’m hoping to end up with a different twist on my much loved classic. Below is the fruit base for the Christmas cake I’m baking this year but click here to see last years more traditional cake mix. The baking of the cake is to come!

I prepared and soaked the fruit for my Christmas cake yesterday, in readiness for baking today and I will be preparing my Christmas pudding mix today. It’s a fun festive tradition and I just love the colours and festive aromas you encounter along the way. Baking your own is so satisfying and rewarding that I encourage everyone to start up and stir up!

Festive Fruit Cake Mix
Ingredients
100g dried cranberries
75g glace cherries
175g dates
85g dried apricots
175g dried figs
½ Bramley apple
100g raisins
40g glace stem ginger
Zest of an orange
Zest of a lemon
2 tbsp Cointreau (orange liqueur)

Method
In a large mixing bowl place the cranberries and raisins. Quarter the cherries and add to the bowl.
Use a pair of scissors to chop the figs, apricots and dates into small pieces, similar in size to the quartered cherries.
Peel, core and dice the apple into ½ cm cubes. Finely chop the glace stem ginger.
Grate over the zest of the orange and lemon and drizzle over the Cointreau.
Give everything a good stir before covering with cling film and leaving to soak, plump up and macerate overnight.
Makes enough for an 8inch circular Christmas cake

The Cake Slice November 09: Burnt Sugar Cake

This months winning cake was a burnt sugar cake. The name alone instantly makes me think of bonfire night and sticky toffee apples. Burnt sugar cake encompasses all the scent and flavour of a deep golden caramel (burnt sugar) however, it is not called ‘caramel cake’ as this is often a white cake with caramel frosting, whereas this burnt sugar cake makes use of a golden caramel syrup which is infused into both the frosting and cake batter to give an intense flavour and aroma, the perfect cake for autumn.

I’ll let you in on a secret, I’m not a great fan of caramel. I don’t mind a little paired with other things but caramel on its own is just too sickly sweet for my liking and this cake sounded very very sweet. In order to tone down the caramel element, I decided to add a cinnamon spiced apple filling to my cake as apple and caramel are great flavour pairings. I used a sharp Bramley apple which helped combat the sweetness and made the finished cake taste rather like an apple tart tatin, only in cake form.

For the apple filling I lightly cooked the Bramley apple slices in a little butter until just beginning to soften before scattering over some cinnamon sugar which gave them a lovely bronzed look and made them smell wonderful.

A caramel syrup is required to add into the cake batter and frosting, and although this can sound rather daunting, it was quite simple. The sugar is first melted into a golden sugar goo, before boiling water is added and the goo turns into a glossy caramel syrup. I had never made a caramel where you add boiling water after the sugar has melted, but it worked well and resulted in a lump free syrup. My only advice would be to stand back when you add the boiling water, as the molten sugar is a lot hotter than the water and it foams up a bit as the temperatures collide, but it soon settles down again. It turned out crystal clear and such a deep amber colour that it almost looked red.

I didn’t have the right sized circular cake tins the recipe called for and so I baked my cake in two 8½ inch square tins instead. I was happy about this and everything was going well until I went to check on the cakes about half way through their baking time and that was when I saw DISASTER HAD STRUCK! One of the cake tins had a loose bottomed base and was rather ancient. It seems the base was no longer secure as the batter had gone soft and gooey in the heat of the oven and started to ooze its way out of the base and all over the bottom of the oven! I don’t mean a little bit, I mean over half the mixture was now burning into gloopy mound on the base of the oven. ARGGG! I quickly wrenched open the oven door and scooped the molten mass out onto a baking tray before it could start smoking and wrapped the dripping cake tin in foil, stuck it onto another baking tray and put it back in the oven and hoped for the best. All the door opening meant my other cake layer sank slightly in the middle… it was not going well. I ended up with one very thin cake layer and one cake layer with a dip in the middle.

I decided to make the best of it and assembled my cakes, being thankful of the apple filling which did wonders to hide the dip in one of the cakes. I filled and iced the cake with the caramel frosting and amazingly, considering the disaster that occurred, I don’t think it turned out too badly. As it had such an autumnal feel to it, I gathered some russet autumn leaves from the garden to scatter around the plate. Whew.

The cake itself was very pleasant, light and moist with a subtle caramel flavour which went wonderfully with the spiced apple. It tasted even better the second day once the apple juices had been absorbed into the cake. However, I found the frosting to be far too sweet. I think next time I would use a different one as all I could taste was sugar. I enjoyed making this cake despite its rather eventful baking session, afterall, life would be dull without a little excitement (although I could have done without having to scrub the oven!) Click here to see what my fellow Cake Slice bakers thought.

Burnt Sugar Cake
(Recipe from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott)
For the Cake
360g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
225ml milk
200g butter
370g caster sugar (I used 300g)
4 eggs
110ml Burnt Sugar Syrup (below)

For the Burnt Sugar Syrup
225g caster sugar
225ml boiling water

For the Burnt Sugar Frosting
375g icing sugar
110ml Burnt Sugar Syrup (above)
50g butter
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 – 3 tbsp evaporated milk or normal milk

For the Apple Filling (my own addition)
1 Bramley apple
20g butter
1 tbsp caster sugar
½ tsp cinnamon

Method – Burnt Sugar Syrup
Heat the sugar in a cast iron skillet or another heavy bottomed pan with high sides. Heat over a medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar melts into a clear brown caramel syrup. It should be the colour of tea. Gradually add the boiling water, pouring it down the sides of the pan so that if the syrup foams and bubbles up, you should be protected.
Continue cooking, stirring often, until the water combines with the syrup and turns a handsome brown syrup. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Store the cooled syrup in a sealed jar if not using straight away.

Method - Cake
Heat the oven to 180C. Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and stir with a fork to mix well. Stir the vanilla into the milk.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and the sugar with an electric mixer at high speed for 2 – 3 minutes, until they are well combined. Stop now and then to scrape the bowl down. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well each time. Pour in 110ml of the burnt sugar syrup and beat well. Add a third of the flour mixture and about half of the milk, beating at a low speed, until just incorporated. Mix in another third of the flour and the rest of the milk. Finally, add the remaining flour.
Divide the batter between the cake pans and bake at 180C for 20 to 25 minutes until the cakes are golden brown, spring back when touched gently in the centre and begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Let the cakes cool in the pans on a wire rack for15 minutes. Turn out the cakes into the wire rack to cool completely.

Method – Burnt Sugar Frosting
In a large bowl, combine the icing sugar, the burnt sugar syrup, butter and vanilla. Beat with a mixer at medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl now and then to bring the ingredients together. Add 2 tablespoons of the milk and continue beating until the frosting is thick, soft, smooth and easy to spread. Add a little more sugar if it is thin, and a little more milk if it is too thick.

Method – Spiced Apple Filling
Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Peel, quarter and core the Bramley apple and cut into ½ cm slices. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the apple slices. Cook for 1-2 minutes until just beginning to soften. Carefully turn over onto the uncooked side and scatter over the cinnamon sugar. Cook for 1 minute more before removing from the heat and leaving the apple to cool in the pan before using.

To Assemble
Place one layer, top side down, on a cake stand or serving plate. Scoop a third of the frosting onto the cake and spread to the edges. Gently arrange the cooked apple slices evenly over the top cover with the second cake layer. Frost the sides of the cake, and then the top until it is evenly covered.
Makes one 9 inch round cake