Baking Archives - Page 12 of 14 - All That I'm Eating

Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding

April 3, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 20 Comments

Easter provides an opportunity to make things you don’t normally make; Simnel Cake, Chocolate Nests and Hot Cross Buns to name a few. If the weather is horrible it provides time to bake at leisure. This is a recipe for when you have bought or made too many hot cross buns in all the Easter excitement and they have gone a bit stale. It could also be used to disguise a less than perfect batch of homemade hot cross buns. It’s a brilliant way to make the most of this lovely, fruity spiced bun. Warm, crisp on top, gooey centre; what more could you want? You will need: 4 Hot Cross Buns, Butter for spreading and a bit extra, 1 egg and 2 egg yolks, 3 tbsp caster sugar, 410g can condensed milk, A little extra milk Marmalade (optional)

Slice the hot cross buns into four or five slices and butter on one side. I thought I’d be lucky to get three slices but four or five can be easily accomplished with a little perseverance. If you want you can put marmalade on the buttered side too for an extra citrusy zing. Put the buttered slices into an oven proof dish.

Whisk together the egg, egg yolks and sugar with until well combined. Empty the condensed milk into a saucepan and add two tbsp milk. Heat gently until almost simmering and then pour into the egg mixture whisking all the time. If you’re particularly exuberant with the whisking and subsequent calorie burning it would be rude not to reward yourself with extra pudding. Pour the custard over the bread and leave to soak in for a few minutes.

If the pudding is looking a bit parched and there’s not a drop of custard visible, pour over a little extra warmed milk. This will depend on the size of the hot cross buns you use. Put a few small knobs of butter on top of the pudding. read more

Rhubarb Sorbet and Shortbread

March 19, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 22 Comments

Rhubarb has been making a few appearances of late and there are only so many crumbles you can eat without wishing for a little variety. Rhubarb has so far featured on here as Rhubarb and Custard and Rhubarb and Blood Orange Compote. It’s been with something else; something to cushion the blow of its out and out sourness. Now is the time to embrace the wonderful cheek puckering that rhubarb provides with a decadent rhubarb sorbet.

I managed to get hold of some delicate Champagne rhubarb and set about making my sorbet. Two large sticks of rhubarb weighed around 500g which turned out to make enough sorbet for four. Discard the ends of the rhubarb before cutting into inch sized pieces. Put the chopped rhubarb in a pan with small amount of water and about 80g in total of sugar. When I make sorbet I always add a tablespoon of glucose syrup and half the sugar I think I’ll need. The glucose syrup gives it a certain texture; it sort of makes it sticky and gives a thicker mouth feel. read more

Sausage Rolls Four Ways

March 14, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 20 Comments

A good sausage roll is like a hug from an old friend. There’s something about its warmth, flaking pastry and well seasoned squidgy middle. I thought that interfering with something so simple would be a travesty but it was in fact a revelation. I like to think of them as spruced up sausage rolls or sausage rolls with attitude.

Originally I was just going to put a few caramelised onions in with the sausage meat but then I started thinking of other flavours; rosemary and fennel to start. With these new found thoughts I made a batch of eight sausage rolls, two of each of the following flavours; caramelised onion, herbs, fennel and olive. I think a nice spicy tomato chutney would have been brilliant too.

First of all make the caramelised onions. I used a whole onion, fried gently in butter for 20 minutes until soft and starting to brown then added sugar, salt and pepper. They were wonderfully sticky. While the onions are cooking; crush some fennel seeds, chop a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, parsley and chives and finely chop a few olives. read more

The Cornish Pasty

March 8, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 18 Comments

The Cornish pasty is an absolute classic. If you’re ever in Cornwall you won’t be far from one, you’ll probably smell it before you see it. Originally from humble origins the pasty is now a celebrated meat and vegetable filled pastry. For those who don’t know the pasty was the food of Cornish miners. The way it is folded over (with a thick edge of pastry on one side) meant that the miners didn’t have to put their hands in their mouths when eating. It’s a clever bit of pastry this and it got even cleverer when you had a savoury and sweet end separated by a wall of pastry. Meat and vegetables in one end and fruit or jam in the other. If I had one of these for my lunch I’d consider it pretty luxurious.

Before the pasty police come out in force and criticise my ingredients or method, I think it’s important to point out that I am not Cornish. However, my better half is half Cornish and his Grandmother a full on Kernow woman and she has passed on some of her pasty knowledge.

Making pasties is quite personal; only you know what proportions of vegetables and meat you like, how full you want your pasty to be and how big. Because of this I can provide a guide but you can change proportions at will. To make four large pasties I used: one large and one medium potato, half a swede, three small onions and 500g of skirt steak. For the pastry I used 400g of plain flour, 200g butter and enough cold water to make a dough. read more

Dark Chocolate and Hazelnut Tart with Rhubarb and Blood Orange Compote

February 11, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 23 Comments

You can’t have Valentine’s Day without a little chocolate. This tart is great because you can make it in advance and leave it in the fridge so there is no last minute pudding fretting! It’s beautifully rich and very easy to make; made even easier if you use a food blender for the pastry. If pastry is your nemesis, it used to be mine, I have a previous post that will make you feel much more relaxed about constructing this tart.

Start by making the pastry. Blend 50g cold butter with 100g plain flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add 15g caster sugar and 25g chopped, toasted hazelnuts and then bring the pastry together with one small egg. Persevere it will get there in the end but you can add a little cold water if you think it needs it. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill in the fridge for half an hour. I would recommend making the pastry when you’re as sure as you can be that the phone won’t ring and the doorbell won’t go because otherwise there’ll be pastry all over the place. read more

Candy Beetroot and Goat’s Cheese Tart

December 18, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 13 Comments

It’s almost Christmas and that means indulgence and overeating. A candy beetroot and goat’s cheese tart is the perfect thing to have as a light meal amidst all the festive frivolities. Candy beetroot can’t fail to be eye-catching; pink and white circles which look like a humbug. Beetroot are fantastic at this time of year adding colour to an otherwise mostly green and white season. Whichever beetroot you have it is excellent with goat’s cheese and particularly delicious with caramelised onions.

Start by roasting the beetroot, boiling the beetroot will result in it turning pink and not retaining its wonderful stripes. Drizzle over a little oil before roasting and roast for an hour at 180C to 200C. While the beetroot roasts, caramelise the onions. Slice an onion and put into a pan over a low heat with a little butter. Leave to cook slowly for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Taste after 20 minutes to see if they need a little sugar or vinegar and season. While all this is taking place, prepare your pastry. For my rich shortcrust pastry recipe click here. read more

Quince and Apple Pie and a Pastry Lesson

October 1, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 15 Comments

Pastry has to be, without doubt, the best cradle, blanket or hat for any rich, sumptuous bed of fruit, meat or vegetables. It is that crunch, that warmth and that way it crumbles which makes it just so. I thought of pastry as my nemesis. Stupid stuff that was invariably delicious when prepared by anyone but myself. All this was to change when I met Jane.

Jane makes an awful lot of pastry. She is Jane of Jane’s Kitchen and prepares a marvellous amount of amazing pastry each week for different farmers’ markets around the area. There are trout and caper parcels, Moroccan mountains, seasonal fruit tarts and some classic pies. Best of all Jane uses as many ingredients as possible from the farmers’ market.
A few weeks ago I asked Jane if she would be kind enough to share some of her pastry knowledge with a complete and utter pastry dunce – me. She was more than happy to share her wisdom and I can now pass on this wisdom to anyone else who counts themselves as a pastry novice. read more

Damson and Apple Crumble

September 18, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 15 Comments

Crumble is the food I turn to when the evenings start getting darker and it starts getting cooler. Especially this damson and apple crumble. The way the sweet, slightly tart fruit of choice bubbles and seeps through the crunchy, crumbly, biscuity top is a sure fire way to warm you from inside to out. What I love about crumble is that it’s so versatile; the fruit is whatever fruit you can get your hands on. I think that a person’s crumble is as unique as their fingerprint. Some crumbles are like a great wave of shortbread on top of the fruit, some are all big and little bits scattered willy nilly all over the place, some add extra sugar on the top, some add nuts and some add oats. Whatever your crumble style, it’s your own. Recently I bought some damson jam out of politeness at a local market. I don’t even like jam. When I got home I wondered what on earth I was going to do with it. I got some crusty white bread, some soft unsalted butter and a dollop of the damson jam and it was a revelation. I’m ashamed to say that the loaf and jar were consumed in one sitting. What have I been missing out on all these years? It turns out I do like jam but was left wondering where damsons had been all my life. When I noticed some lovely damsons outside my local greengrocer I just had to have them – I’d run out of jam for one thing. They were crying out to be made into a crumble. As I didn’t have that many of them I added an apple to make it go a bit further and add a little sweetness. This damson and apple crumble was absolutely fantastic. The damsons add such richness and gorgeous colour, the apple is just detectable in the background giving it a lovely homely feel. This crumble had extra caramelised bits on the edges of the dish and peeling them off and chewing them has to be one of the most enjoyable things there is. If you’ve not had damsons before or are unsure how to deal with them then I urge you to give this a try. Crumble is such a tried and tested favourite, how could it go wrong?

Top Tips

Just like the crumbliness of your crumble is rather personal, so is what you choose to serve the crumble with. Cream, custard or ice cream? If you go for cream is it single, double, Gold Top or clotted? If custard, ready made or home made? If ice cream should it be vanilla with or without vanilla seeds or should it be clotted cream ice cream? It’s all very complicated and someone will always be upset no matter which you choose. I always opt for cream because I can stir it all together in the bowl and pretend I’m 8 years old again. read more

Lemon Drizzle Cake

September 9, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 19 Comments

There have been cakes in my past which I tried either when I was too young to appreciate them or they were a mass produced poor version of what is actually a beautiful cake. An example of this is carrot cake. What I thought carrot cake tasted like was nothing compared to when I made one for myself; it wasn’t dry it was moist, it wasn’t boring it was luscious and the icing is by far my favourite of all icing.

Another cake I had always ignored was lemon drizzle cake. Ones that I had tried were too sticky, not lemony or had so much icing you could have waded through it. This was my unshakable opinion and I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole, until I made it myself. read more

Easter Biscuits

April 24, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 19 Comments

A good biscuit is an excellent thing. Golden brown, buttery and crisp makes a good biscuit for me. I discovered this recipe when rifling through recipes with my Nana. It seems fitting to make Easter biscuits at this time of year! They are so easy to make, wonderfully simple and have lovely subtle flavours. read more