Cake Thursday!

The office where my husband Declan works have introduced a lovely little practice of bringing in homebaking every Thursday. They take it in turns to bring in a cake as per the rota, and by all accounts they take their baking responsibilities very seriously. They even have a mini fridge too so they can keep everything fresh until coffee time in the afternoon. I think it is a great idea, more people should be doing things like it.
So it was Declan's turn this week. He had been toying around with a few ideas, but decided on this little fruit tart. I had made it before and brought it into school. It was a popular one, and most of it can be made in advance, only assembly required in the morning.
Declan is a very capable cook, and I know it sounds funny, but a great recipe follower. (Not everyone is!) He is faithful to the instructions and the results are always exactly as they are supposed to look in the picture. He has great patience for time consuming recipes. He makes the tastiest and smoothest mashed potato, I am convinced it is because of how long he perseveres with the masher, but he won't give away his secret!

Anyway, apart from the strawberry topping, there are two stages to this recipe, neither take that long.

Declan doubled the ingredients below to make one large strawberry pie and six small ones topped with raspberries and blueberries. But the recipe below is for one big one.

First make the pastry. I use my old reliable recipe that goes into the food processor.

200g plain flour
100g cold butter diced
1 beaten egg.

I whizz up te flour and butter until crumbly and then while still mixing, pour in the beaten egg until it forms a dough. Stop the machine as soon as it comes together.

Roll out the dough onto a floured board and line greased and floured tin with about 1/2 cm thick pastry.

Chill the pastry in the tin in the fridge while you make the patisserie cream.

You will need
5 large or 6 medium egg yolks
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 T cornflour
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 t cognac
1 T butter
1 T double cream

First put the sugar and yolks into a mixer and beat until the mixture is very pale and thick. It needs about 4--5 minutes in the mixer. You could use an electric hand whisk or indeed a balloon whisk, but good luck with the arm muscles!!

In the meantime, heat the milk in a saucepan until just below boiling point.
Into the sugar and egg mixture, add the cornflour and mix on low speed. Keep on low and gradually add the hot, so as not to cook the eggs. When all the milk is added, return the mixture to a saucepan and cook on a low to medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture gets really thick, like thick yoghurt. If it starts to curdle, just take a whixk and beat furiously until it becomes smooth!

When thickened, remove from the heat and add the vanilla, cognac, butter and cream, and stir to combine.
Pass the mixture through a sieve into a bowl and cover with cling film so that it is directly on the surface of the patisserie cream. This stops it from forming a skin.
Cool and then chill in the fridge until you are ready to use it,

In the meantime, bake the pastry blind.
I do this by covering the pastry with parchment, (you could use foil either) making sure it goes up the sides, and fill with dry chick peas.

Bake at 180c for 20 minutes then remove the paper and beans, prick the base a few times with a fork and continue to bake for a further 5 minutes. This crisps up the pastry and makes it light golden brown.
Take it out and cool.

To assemble, pour the cream mixture into the pastry shell and top with berries. You don't need sugar.

Then heat a few tablespoons of apricot jam in a pan with a teaspoon of water until it is liquidy, and brush onto the tart and fruit with a pastry brush to glaze.

Great for summer dinner parties and of course office coffee breaks!

Just before I go, I want to fill you in on Daniel's recipe for Strawberry Shortbread.

We were in my parents house last week one of the really sunny days, and Dad had the BBQ going. Daniel threw on a few shortbread biscuits.

Robyn was in charge of strawberries, Daniel did the biscuits and cream and I was on wash up. Nice!

Strawberry Shortbread

In a food proccessor put
75g plain flour
50g cold butter
25g sugar

Blitz until a dough forms, roll out, cut into fingers and bake at 180c on a lined tin for about 8 minutes until light golden.

Serve with strawberries (sugared) and cream.

Yum!!

A busy week. Lemon meringue bites, carrot cake buns, brown bread, roasted squash spaghetti & peanut butter cookies.

Our kitchen has been busy this week. Dinners have been mainly the old stand-bys from before, but I have one new one, courtesy of the Good Mood Food blog, I promise you will like it!  

I have a few baking bits and bobs to post too, things I have been baking for a while, but have not gotten around to putting on the blog. 

Brown bread.  

This is not soda bread, but a nutty wheaten loaf, easy to make and quick to cook. Just make sure you have buttermilk in the fridge, it makes all the difference.

First add the dry ingredients to the bowl. This is where you can add whatever takes your fancy. Bran is nice too and wheatgerm with honey is lovely. Experiment, it won't make any difference to the success of the bread, it will just customise the flavour.

400g course wholemeal flour

100g plain white flour sifted

75ish g mixed seeds.  I use poppy, sesame, pumpkin and sunflower. 

50g wheatgerm (optional)

1 rounded t bicarb soda sifted

1 t salt

Stir and and make a well in the centre into which you add;

1 T treacle

400ml buttermilk

1 beaten egg

2 T sunflower oil

Mix into a fairly wet mixture and pour into a well buttered loaf tin (13 x 23cm)

Bake at 200c for about 50 minutes, check it and put back for 5-10 minutes depending on your oven. It should sound hollow when you tap the bottom.

Cool on a wire rack.

This freezes well too, so if you are the only brown bread lover in your family you could freeze half and use half. It does keep well, up to a week in the bread bin, but you will be toasting it after about 4 days!!

Roast Squash Spaghetti

This recipe is from the Good Mood Food book. I envy his photography, this picture is a bit messy looking, but it is a yummy dish. He has a great blog (check it out) but I am a cook book fanatic so had to buy the hard copy!

A lot of his food is very tasty looking and healthy too, but the kids were not crazy about the sound of some of them. I am determined to prove them wrong!

This one was a major hit, notwithstanding the fact that I oversalted the spaghetti, but I will know not to the next time!

Ingredients are highlighted green.

First, chop up a butternut squash. I chopped it into large dice, about the size of half a cherry tomato.

Add the squash into a roasting dish or tin with a punnet of cherry tomatoes, a handful of bacon bits or pancetta lardons 

(you can get small packs of bacon bits in the cooked meats section ot the supermarket. Lidl do a very cheap two pack. They freeze well too)

Add in a glug of olive oil, about a tablespoon, a tablespoon of honey, salt. pepper, 1 t hot chili powder and 1 t cinnamon, 

Toss everything around in the dish and roast at 220c for about 30 minutes. 

15 from the end, put on the spaghetti in lightly salted water. (The dish is salty so don't go overboard like I did!)

When the spaghetti is cooked, drain it and pop it into the dish of veg, which should now be cooked. You want the squash to be a bit mushy on the outside to coat the spaghetti.

Serve with chopped fresh basil.

I didn't have any but it was very nice with freshly grated parmesan.  I would say this would be a lovely vegetarian dish, maybe you could substitute the bacon with feta or halloumi cheese. 

Next, 

Lemon Meringue Bites.

I am really proud of these, although the recipe is someone else's, It was all my idea to make them tiny finger sized, and they worked really well. A nice size to have with a cuppa, and easy to transport.

 

I made a few tartlet sized ones to use up the pastry as my mini muffin tin only holds twelve at a time and I could not be bothered doing batches. We had these for dessert, and I gave the others to friends, so everyone was happy.

First, make the pastry in the food processor. Mix 200g plain flour and 100g cold diced butter until fine like peas, and add a beaten egg. Whizz until it forms a dough and immediately stop,

Roll out the dough on a floured board and cut into circles a bit bigger than the muffin holders.

Chill the pastry and preheat the oven to 180c.

While it is chilling, make the lemon curd.

This is a Barefoot Contessa recipe (hence the cup measures) and it truly could not be easier.

First. in a mixer, put;

1 cup caster sugar and 125g soft butter

Cream these together and add'

4 yolks and 4 whole eggs (keep the whites aside in a bowl for later)

Mix until incorporated and add pinch of salt and 3/4 cup of lemon juice and 1/4 cup of zest. (about 4 lemons)

It will look curdled at this stage, but don't panic, it will come together over the heat.

In a saucepan on a medium heat, pour the mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth and creamy.

Set aside to cool.

While it is cooling bake the little pastry cases blind 

(cover with foil discs and fill with dry beans like chick peas)

 It will take about 5-10 minutes until the pastry is dried out and light golden in colour.

Leave the oven on.

Take out and cool.

Next, make the meringue.

Whip up the 4 room temp egg whites with a pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp cream of tarter (Bextarter) until fluffy, then gradually add 1/2 cup of caster sugar while it is whipping until the whites hold stiff peaks and are glossy. 

Now to assemble!!

Fill the cool cases with curd, about a teaspoon and a half depending on the size of the cases,

Pipe or spoon the whipped meringue on top making sure it is stippled, so it browns.

Cook for literally 4-5 minutes, watching closely so it does not over cook,

The meringue will be still white and soft inside but the edges will have browned. 

These are so worth the effort. You can have the cases and curd done well in advance, so it'd be good for a party. If you want to make one whole pie, just use a 23 cm tin and blind bake for 20 minutes. Then fill the case with the curd and top with all meringue.

I had a good bowl of curd left and the kids had it on toast the next morning. I also folded some of it into whipped cream and served it with raspberries as a dessert the following night. That was also yummy.

Ok so what's next.

Carrot Cake Buns.

This is just a Carrot cake recipe in bun sizes, but almost across the board the buns are more popular as they are easier to eat!

First prepare by grating the carrot, zesting and juicing the oranges and chopping the nuts and the whole process will be much quicker.

In a mixer, or with an electric hand whisk, cream together;

285g soft butter

285g light brown sugar

Then add one at a time;

5 egg yolks (reserve the whites)

zest and juice of one orange  

Then add and mix gently with a wooden spoon;

170g self raising flour sifted

1 heaped t baking powder

115g ground almonds

115g roughly chopped pecans

285g grated carrot

1/2 t cinnamon

1 t mixed spice

1/2 t ground ginger

(You can mess around with the spices according to your taste, but they are fairly subtle, so don't be worried that they will overpower the mixture.)

When mixed well, beat the egg whites until stiff peak stage and fold into the cake mixture. 

If you are baking as one cake, put into a 20cm square tin or two loaf tins and bake at 180c for 50 mins. Check with a skewer after 45 to be sure.

If you are making cupcakes they only need about 12-15 mins max. Again, check at 12 as ovens do vary.

These cupcakes freeze very well. Defrost overnight, and they taste as if they are almost freshly baked.

The icing is only gorgeous!!!

Mix 100g mascarpone cheese, 100g Philadelphia, 85g icing sugar and 1 lemon (juice and zest.)

Please do not be tempted to get low fat cheese, i did once and it was an unmitigated disaster. I curdled badly and tasted awful. Never again! If you are in for a penny in for a few pounds I say!!

Ice when the cake is cold or it will melt.

Ok. Last one!!

Peanut Butter Cookies a la Daniel.

These are from my first cookbook, called Kitchen Wizard, a truly spectacular little book that is alas out of print.

I am calling my cookery school after it, and will be boring you with all those details in the not too distant future, but now, on the the cookies!!

Preheat the oven to 180c

Line a cookie sheet with parchment

In a mixer, or in a bowl with a wooden spoon, cream together

125g soft butter

125g peanut butter

125g soft brown sugar

125g granulated sugar

Mix until light and fluffy and add 

1 egg 

1/2 t vanilla

Sift in 150g self raising flour. 

The dough will be soft and you need to make little balls of dough gently in your hand and place them on the tray.

Leave space between them as they will spread out a bit.

Dip a fork into water and use to flatten the dough balls into little discs.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until light golden, (we let some of ours go a little too dark and they were bitter)

Cool on a wire rack.

Now!!! I am all tuckered out after that mammoth post. But it feels like I have covered this weeks highlights.

Talk to y'all soon!

Waffles for Breakfast

My mother gave me her waffle iron about ten years ago that she had been given by her good friend Diane. It came from America in the late seventies I think, and it is still the most dependable piece of kitchen equipment I have (with the exception of course of my Kitchenaid!) It is not electric, you have to sit it on the hob and turn it over from time to time. It has a thermometer, but as I am sure you can see by the picture above, it is illegible, so I have to guess when the heat is right. Often the first batch stick a little, but they cook fine and the kids always step in to do a taste test on the basis that they are not pretty enough to be served to guests!

Indeed we had guests last night, hence the big breakfast. The kids always use the opportunity to request pancakes or waffles, often together. Not the best for the waistline!

I use the mixer for this recipe, and go by american cup measures as it is much, much quicker.

The recipe says 6 teaspoons of baking powder, this is not a mistake! It needs a fair bit of raising agent to be spongy and bouncy.

Into the mixer put:

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups of milk

3/4 cup melted butter

3 1/2 cups of flour

6 t baking powder

1 t salt

Beat them together until smooth and there are no lumps. You can leave to stand for hours, actually it it supposed to improve the mixture, but I always make it just before cooking them. 

If you don't have a mixer, use an electric hand held mixer or just a balloon whisk. The mixture comes together fairly quickly, so it is not too labour intensive.

Heat up the waffle iron on a high heat, I butter mine a little first, and then use a heaped ice-cream scoop for each waffle mould. Then I tilt it around a little so the batter spreads and cook on a high heat for a few minutes before turning it over. You can check by opening the iron and lifting the waffles with a knife to check if they are golden brown.

As there is no sugar in the recipe, the waffles can be savoury or sweet. They go really well with scrambled egg and bacon or bacon and maple syrup. 

My favourite is what you are looking at above; berries and maple syrup. A close second is a good dessert option; strawberries and banana with a little ice cream.

But you can let your imagination go wild on something like this. The kids have come up with some interesting combos in the past!

I know waffle irons are not a common household appliance that most kitchens have, but if you have one lurking somewhere, get it out and try it.

You can buy electric ones, but I have no idea what they are like. 

Storecupboard stand-by; Tuna fish cakes.

Tinned tuna is not one of my favourite ingredients. It is ok in a wrap or in a pasta salad, but as a dinner option it is not something I ever really turn to. 

But my mind has been changed by these tuna  burgers. They are an amalgam of two recipes I found on the internet and the availability of ingredients in my fridge! Everyone liked them including me which was the biggest surprise, so they were deemed post-worthy!

(I leave a bag of breadcrumbs in the freezer and use them from frozen, it means I always have them when needed.)

I have no pictures, but they just look like regular fish cakes, you will have to trust me!

Tuna Cakes

In a bowl put

2 tins of tuna 

1 generous cup of breadcrumbs

1/2 cup of finely chopped scallions (about 8 scallions)

1/2 cup of finely chopped red pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

1 egg

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2T sweet chili sauce

Salt

Chopped chives (They are only for colour, so are optional)

I think that was it. (It was a bit like Georges Marvellous Medicine, in that I threw anything that looked like it would help!

I mixed these well with a fork, to break the tuna up well and made them into patties. A half and hour in the fridge would make them a little more robust when frying, but I fried them straight away, so just treat them gently and you should be fine.

Put a small layer of sunflower oil in the pan (about 3 T should do it) and fry for a minute or two on each side, or until golden brown. They cook quickly so do this at the last minute when you have everything else done. 

I served them with mashed potato, but a nice crunchy salad and tomato chutney or salsa would have been nice too.

Weekday Barbeque

Our family are barbeque fans. Not sure I know many people who aren't. But when the weather gets anything above arctic, we take out the barbeque and cook al fresco.
There is something about the casual and relaxed style of cooking that appeals to us. Declan takes up his position at the BBQ completing the Holy Trinity of Man, Fire & Meat. He is a pro, even my Dad says so. The torch has been handed down.

This is a picture of last nights dinner. It was a little chilly but still sunny and I was really craving some sunny flavours. The meat consisted of homemade chicken burgers. (recipe is in an older post) and sausages. I made potato wedges and guacamole and put together a tomato salad and a plate of leaves. The two sauces are lime mayo and sundried tomato mayo.

The guacamole is just two avocados mashed with a mixture of lemon juice and lime juice and a little salt.

The wedges are chopped and coated well in olive oil and sprinkled with salt. They are lovely with some rosemary sprigs scattered on them, but my rosemary plant was decimated in the snow and frost, so I had to forego that addition. You bake them at 200 c for about 20-30 minutes in a baking tray. You need to move them around a few times while cooking to stop them sticking and to brown all over.

The mayonnaises are just mayo with lime juice and the other is mixed with Sacla sundried tomato paste. This is also a lovely dip for crisps and crudites.

I chopped the baby tomatoes and sprinkled them with salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil.

Nothing complicated there at all. It is the ultimate fast food. The burgers freeze well so I would suggest making double the amount any time you are making them and freezing half.

The kids ate everything. Daniel was not convinced about the advocado but put some on his burger to try it. Went down well. I don't add chili to my guacamole, I love it as it is. This would put the kids off, they are still a little nervous of anything too hot.

I will post a list of salads to serve at a barbeque soon, there are a few real reliables, and they keep well, so they are not wasteful.

Jammie Dodgers!

So two posts in one day!
But these had to make an appearance. They are too much fun to be ignored!
I had band practice tonight, and the gang had been generous enough to offer themselves as tasters for new recipes, so I felt it important to run these by them before publishing the recipe to the world!

The dough is so easy, I felt guilty taking credit for having done any work.
You put 150g plain flour 50g icing sugar and 100g soft butter into the food processor and blitz until it forms a dough. This takes a few minutes so be patient. Stop the machine AS SOON as the dough comes together. You could toughen the mixture if you keep whizzing it. Take the dough out and with your hands mould it into a smooth disc. You want to get rid of any crumbliness at this stage. Wrap in cling film and put it into the fridge for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, put some parchment onto a cookie sheet and preheat the oven to 190 c.
Then make the jam.
You could just use jam, but trust me, this is totally worth it.

In a saucepan, put 200g raspberry or strawberry jam (it's got to be red!)
and 2 T creme de cassis liquer, and 1 t vanilla essence.
Simmer for 8 minutes until melted and thick. Stir it every few minutes.

Allow the jam to cool completely, it should be cool by the time the cookies are baked.

Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out on a floured board. Cut into circles and in half of the cut outs, make a circle hole in the middle. I used a piping nozzle, but be inventive, I bet you have something in the kitchen with a lid that is the right size!

Bake on the lined tray for 8 minutes. Make sure the cookies are all more or less the same thickness or some will go darker quicker. Cool on a wire rack and dust the holed ones with icing sugar. Put a blob of jam into the middle only. They are very sweet, so don't go nuts with the jam, just enough to peep out of the holes.
I'd bet good money on lemon curd being nice in these too!

I challenge you to find a child that would turn one of these down. I am actually sorry I didn't do these for Robyn's party. But I liked them myself, so I don't need an excuse.
These were a recipe from Nevin Maguire, and Irish chef who is excellent, but his book is  quite.....I don't know how to explain it, a little ordinary considering the recipes are lovely. I think he is underselling himself, maybe he needs a new book designer. It needs a little edge! I got the book as a pressie, and I have not cooked anything from it. It just is not calling to me!! I am though making an effort to try a few out and give it a proper chance. i have asked the kids to pick a recipe each to cook this week, I will report back!!

Chickpea burgers

We had a Mother Hubbard day yesterday, nothing in the fridge. No standbys and I was really not in the humour for macaroni cheese!
I adapted a chick pea burger recipe that I had made before, using what was in the fridge and the cupboard.
The kids were not crazy about them, they said it was the pine nuts, but they gave them a go, and that'll do me.

I used:

1 tin of chickpeas
125g pine nuts
6 spring onions finely chopped
1 carrot grated
1 apple peeled, cored and grated
2 T tomato puree
1T wholgrain mustard
1 T peanut butter
1 T tandoori curry paste
1 egg beaten
1 cup breadcrumbs

In a dry hot pan, toast the pine nuts until starting to brown and set aside.
Mash the chickpeas with a fork and mix with the pine nuts and the rest of the ingredients. Chill for about 15 mins. Dip them in breadcrumbs before frying for about 2 mins per side in sunflower oil.

We had them with baby leaves and tomatoes. If I had any potatoes I would have made potato wedges, but alas the cupboard was bare!

Seed Bread; Brown and White.

I went through a patch where I didn't buy bread, I just made my own, but the last time I bought yeast, it was Hovis instant dried yeast and the bread made from it was totally tasteless so I was waiting until I got nicer yeast and got out of the habit!

I used to be intimidated by yeast bread making. My mother always made her own brown bread and our neighbour when we were kids taught me how to make her own white soda bread so these we not a mystery. But when I did start using yeast, I was so gobsmacked at how easy and quick it was and how amazing the results are, I was hooked.

This recipe is a multi-purpose recipe, I use it for pizza bases and you can do any type of bread with it. This idea of cooking bread in rolls came from an artisan bakery I was in one time in Cork, but I have seen all the famous chefs do a version.

These quantities make the two loaves in the picture. if you use 20cm tins. Although a bigger tin works too, it just makes the rolls a little wider and shorter.


You will need

1kg strong white flour
1Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
3 7g sachets of instant yeast or I use Allinson's dried active yeast. (go by quantities and instructions on the tin)
600ml blood warm water

Mix the flour and salt together with your hand and make a well in the centre
Add in most of the water, the sugar, and the yeast and stir it with your hand (leave one hand out of the mixing process, you'll need one hand that is not covered in dough.) Add the water as you need, until the all the flour has been picked up and you have a dough. Put onto the worktop with a sprinkling of flour and knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough is pliable and elastic and has a silky texture.

Put into an oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size. (30 - 45 mins)

Preaheat to oven to 200 c
Punch the dough to deflate it, and knead again for a couple of minutes.
Then divide the dough into 16 pieces and form each piece into a rough roll shape.
Place eight into each cake tin (floured) with one in the centre and seven surrounding it.
Leave aside to prove covered by a teatowel.

When risen a little again, brush the rolls with beaten egg and sprinkle with seeds.
I used poppy, sesame. sunflower and pumpkin seeds here.
You could also add herbs, cheese, bacon, or really any flavouring you fancy here.


Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes at 200c keeping an eye on it. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.




This time, I replaced quarter the white flour with strong brown flour. I put 500g white in one bowl and 250g white and 250g brown into another bowl.  I made two mixtures, using half the rest of the ingredients in each and continued as above. It means I have half brown and half white in each wheel of rolls.

This is a great recipe for school lunches and it freezes really well covered in cling film