Hello and welcome to my new website; I hope you enjoy it! To kick things off on my new site it was only right that I baked something; I had to have something to keep me motivated during the changeover! These orange and poppy seed biscuits are a recipe from Cathryn Dresser (former Great British Bake Off contestant) author of Let’s Bake and she has teamed up with Pyrex to create a series of baking recipes for National Baking Week from 13th to 19th October. See below for details of the giveaway to win lots of Pyrex baking goodies in time for October 13th.
White Chocolate and Blackcurrant Blondies
Ingredients
You will need (to make nine blondies):- 200g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 200g butter, melted
- 150g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 200g white chocolate buttons or chips
- 100g blackcurrants, tops and tails removed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Preheat an oven to 180C. Grease a 20cm square baking tin then line it with baking paper.
Beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla extract together until light and fluffy then beat in the melted butter. Add the butter a little at a time.
Sieve the flour and baking powder together then tip this into the egg mixture and fold it in lighlty.
Gently fold in the chocolate buttons and blackcurrants and bake for 30-35 minutes or until lightly golden brown but still gooey in the middle.
As it has been so warm recently it did feel a bit odd baking and eating these in the sunshine but they were so good. The soft, squidgy, cakey blondie mix I was really pleased with. The added white chocolate chips, some of which got caramelised in the oven, gave some texture and were a real treat. I loved using the blackcurrants in this as they gave such a distinctive flavour and wonderful colour and turned almost jam like. Next time you get your cake craving I very much recommend you try these.
Dark Chocolate, Orange and Hazelnut Brownies
Ingredients
You will need (for nine brownies):
- 100g salted butter
- 180g golden caster sugar
- 70g light muscovado sugar
- 120g dark chocolate with orange (the stuff I used had caramelised orange peel in)
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 2 eggs
- Splash vanilla extract
- 100g plain flour
- 2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 50g roughly chopped hazelnuts (mine were blanched)
Method
Line a (roughly) 20cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper. You could grease the tin but anything for a life of easier washing up. Melt the butter, sugars, chocolate and golden syrup together in a pan over a low heat until melted and well combined. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Beat the eggs and vanilla extract together then whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture. Mix the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder together then fold this into the chocolate mix. Gently mix in the hazelnuts. Pour the brownie mix into the tin then bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 25-30 minutes. Mark into pieces while still hot.I think everyone likes their brownies differently; some prefer them cakier, some want them still gooey and others will have them like fudge. The thing I like about this recipe is the corner pieces are cakier than the edge pieces which are fudgier and the (best) centre brownie which is still slightly liquid. The middle piece is my favourite and I try to take it out when it’s fresh from the oven to enjoy hot. This of course is somewhat awkward as you need all manner of kitchen implements to try and extract it; it’s like culinary Operation but well worth the effort. The chocolate is just intense enough, the orange is more of a whisper and the hazelnuts add a welcome texture. Exactly what I wanted.
Review: Maple Pecan Cupcake Recipe from Baking Mad
Ingredients
You will need (original recipe here, mine is slightly different):
- 2 eggs (I used half a goose egg)
- 125g butter
- 125g caster sugar
- 225g self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
For the icing: - 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 65g butter
- 125g icing sugar (I used the Silver Spoon Chocolate icing sugar I was sent)
- Chocolate chips to decorate (I used the Silver Spoon ones I was sent)
Method
Preheat an oven to 180C and line a cupcake tin with 12 cases. I don’t have a cupcake tin so I use silicone cupcake cases.
Place the eggs, butter, sugar, flour, vanilla and maple syrup in a bowl and mix together until smooth. I used an electric hand whisk for this.
Divide the batter between the cases then place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until baked.
Remove the cupcakes from the oven and leave to cool.
Make the icing by beating together the butter and icing sugar then add the maple syrup and beat until light and fluffy.
Malted Chocolate Biscuits
ingredients
This recipe is on page 122 of the book.
You will need (I made 8 slices):
- 100g butter
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 2 tbsp malted chocolate drink (I used just malted i.e. Horlicks)
- 225g malted milk biscuits
- 75g milk chocolate (you can also use dark)
- 25g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp milk
Method
Grease and line a cake tin; mine was an 18cm loose bottomed one.
Put the butter, golden syrup and malted drink into a saucepan and heat gently until the mixture is well combined. I find when the butter melts at first it looks a bit separated but keep stirring and it will come together and be thick and glossy.
Bash up the malted milk biscuits until you have crumbs then mix these into the butter mixture.
Press the mixture down well in the cake tin.
Boozy Hot Chocolate with Nutmeg Marshmallows
Ingredients
You will need (for two hot chocolates):
- 60g 70% dark chocolate
- 50ml rum, whisky or Cointreau
- 225ml whole milk
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- Vegetable oil
- 8 sheets of gelatine
- 2 egg whites
- 450g unrefined caster sugar
- Nutmeg
Method
Sift the icing sugar and cornflour together. Rub a tin lightly with the vegetable oil then dust with the cornflour sugar mix.
Put the caster sugar in a pan with 200ml water and bring to the boil. Boil until it reaches 127C on a sugar thermometer.
While you wait for the sugar to boil put the gelatine sheets into 150ml water.
When the sugar syrup is ready add the gelatine with the soaking water and mix well. Grate around 1/2 tsp nutmeg into the syrup.
Whisk the egg whites in an electric mixer until stiff then continue to whisk them while you pour in the hot sugar syrup. Keep whisking until the marshmallow is stiff.
Millionaire’s Tart
Ingredients
You will need (for a 20cm tart):
For the pastry –
- 220g plain flour
- 120g butter (I used salted)
- Cold water
- 1 can dulce de leche
For the chocolate topping –
- 200g high cocoa chocolate
- 150ml double cream
- 25g salted butter
- Sea salt, I really like Cornish Sea Salt for this as I think it has a lovely clean flavour
I was so impressed with how my pastry case turned out I felt I needed to provide evidence that I had made it myself!
Method
Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour until you have a breadcrumb texture then bring the mixture together into a dough using a little cold water.
Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface then roll out and line a 20cm tart tin.
Cut or roll off the excess and prick the base with a fork.
Coffee and Chocolate Shortbread
Kopi sent me some coffee and instead of making a mug of coffee and telling you about it I wanted to mix it up in something tasty! I like the idea of Kopi coffee; you sign up and get a different coffee sent to you each month. I was sent Sumatra Aceh Organic and it was deep and smooth with a little hint of bitterness but not too much. It formed a distinct crema layer on top with no effort on my part; I’ve been told a good crema is the sign of a good coffee.
Ingredients
You will need (for 12 fingers):- 180g plain flour
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 50g caster sugar
- 150g softened butter
- 40g dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 10g ground coffee
Method
Preheat your oven to 160C and grease a baking dish; I’ve used round, square and rectangular for this mixture before and all work well.
Spelt and Dark Chocolate Pancakes with Yoghurt and Honey
Ingredients
You will need (for around 16 pancakes):
- 200g spelt flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 40g caster sugar
- 20g melted butter, plus extra for cooking
- 1 egg
- 275ml milk
- 40g dark chocolate chips
- Yoghurt with honey to serve
Method
Start by sieving the flour, baking powder and sugar into a large bowl.
In a separate bowl mix together the melted butter, egg and milk until well combined. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture and add the chocolate chips. Give everything a good stir to make sure it is well incorporated.
Heat a little knob of butter in a frying pan until it just starts to foam and then drop the pancake mixture in using around 2 tbsp of the batter for each pancake.
Fry the pancakes until they are golden brown before flipping them over and cooking the other side. Don’t be tempted to flip too early as you could end up with miserable looking pancake.
Banoffee and Chocolate Chelsea Buns
I have wanted to try making an enriched dough for a while so this was a perfect excuse. Mix together the flour, caster sugar and yeast in a bowl or mixer. Make a well in the centre and add the warm milk, egg and butter. Turn the mixer on or start to mix with your hands. Once mixed, knead the dough until it is nice and stretchy. Cover and leave in a warm place for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size.
Remove the dough from the bowl and knock some of the air out. Divide the dough into two pieces and roll each piece out into a long rectangle. As you can see from the above picture an actual rectangle was hard for me to achieve but a bit of a jaunty angle here and there never harmed anyone. Spread a few spoons of the dulche de leche along the bottom two thirds of the long edge of the dough. Take half the banana and squeeze this onto the caramel towards the bottom edge of the dough. Top with half the chocolate chips.