One for my Dad

My dad regularly tells me that he is the biggest fan of my blog.  Apparently he makes my little sister read it to him and my mum in a silly voice whenever she’s visiting.  Which is kind of nice.  I’m glad he hasn’t found my sweary, ranty twitter account yet though as I think that would probably make him much less proud of me.

Anyway – this one is for him, because the things that I baked are coming North with me later tonight .

Nutella Twist Bread

I saw a picture of this on the internet a while ago, in the guise of a gluten free recipe and although I really loved the idea behind it I wasn’t so sold on the actual recipe.  So I used the dough recipe from my cinnamon buns instead.

Once the dough had proved and been knocked back, I cut it in half and rolled each piece out flat before spreading it thinly with Nutella (other branded chocolate spreads are available)

I then rolled the dough and chocolate squares up into sausages, transferred them to a baking tray and popped them in the fridge for half an hour.

When the half hour was up, I took a sharp knife and starting about an inch away from one end cut down the middle of the dough sausage.  I then twisted these over so the freshly cut chocolate layers were facing up.

The two sides were twisted together carefully.  I squidged down the ends to hold them together and then pushed the uncooked loaf in from each end to make it shorter and fatter.

The dough then proved again, before being washed down with an egg wash and baked at 180 for 20 minutes.

Oh and I made a quick set of these as well, as The Very Tolerant Boyfriend is slightly intolerant to chocolate

 Half of each have gone off to work with The Very Tolerant Boyfriend and the other half are in the back of the car to come up to Shropshire with us later on.  Wonder if my dad is actually going to enjoy them or just make polite faces….

Taking on Pinterest #359

I quite like (minor understatement) pinterest for inspiration and ideas.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it goes horribly wrong (the balloons, embroidery thread and starch Easter egg idea does NOT work in case you were wondering and there was starch everywhere for weeks afterwards).  I kind of thought that this would be another of those Pinterest disasters, but much to my surprise it worked out perfectly.  So I present chocolate balloon bowls.

The concept is quite simple, blow up some balloons to the desired size.  Melt some chocolate and allow it to cool slightly.  Dip the bottom of the balloons in the chocolate and allow to cool while standing on a piece of baking parchment.  Burst the balloons and pull the rubber away from the inside of the bowl and TAH DAH chocolate bowls.

I used two bars of chocolate to make four bowls.  There is quite a bit of wastage as you need to be able to dip freely without smearing against the glass bowl the chocolate has been melted in.  I also put a couple of coats of chocolate on the balloons, this could probably be negated it I had allowed the chocolate to temper more.  I popped them in the fridge for an hour to cool.

The tips for this one are to run your hands under a cold tap before handling the bowls and to touch them as little as possible – they melt fast. 

I served them with an Eton Mess inside, but fresh fruit would probably have been healthier.

and only slightly rustic looking

Sweet Treats

As I may have mentioned at some point I quite enjoy playing with fire and blow torches.  Although I liked the crème brulee we made on holiday last year I do prefer a non-baked version.  So I made these up for Valentine’s day dessert (I know it was ages ago, I’ve been busy).   

·         600ml/1 pint double cream

·         ½ vanilla pod split lengthways

·         6 large free-range egg yolks

·         2 tbsp caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

Take the double cream and pour into a non-stick saucepan.  Heat gently and at the same time, cut the vanilla pod in half and scrape the seeds out and deposit into the pan along with the rest of the pod.  Keep this over a medium heat until almost boiling.

Beat the eggs and sugar together until combined, but do not over beat.  The mixture should not become light and fluffy.

Pour the warm cream mixture over the eggs and stir in until combined.

Return to a low heat and cook until the mixture has thickened.  Stir constantly and do not allow to boil.

Test to see if the custard is ready by running your finger through the custard on the back of a spoon. If the custard stays apart, it is ready. Remove the large vanilla pods at this point

Pour the custard into ramekins and put in the fridge overnight.  When you are ready to serve, scatter caster sugar over the top before caramelising with a blow torch.

You can do lots of different things with this basic recipe.  In the summer I like to add some fresh raspberries to the bottom of the ramekins before pouring in the custard and if you wanted to make them chocolate crème brulee you can melt in 80g of plain chocolate to the cream before you add it to the eggs.

Pizza night

It's been ages since I last blogged, mainly because I have been on a miserable diet and haven't made anything nice to write about as a result.  I'm still on the miserable diet of dust, but tonight I offered to make the Very Tolerant Boyfriend homemade pizza as a treat.

I miss making bread, so making a pizza dough kind of made up for that.  This recipe makes enough dough for two large pizza or four smaller ones.

Pizza Dough

• 300g wholemeal flour
• 200g plain white flour
• 7g yeast
• 325ml warm water
• tblsp sugar
• pinch of sea salt
• slug of olive oil

Sieve the flour together, place in a bowl and create a well in the middle of the flour.  Combine the water, yeast, sugar, salt and oil and mix well.  Pour a little of the water into the well in the middle of the flour and start to mix in adding more water as you go.  I usually use the dough hooks on my hand whisk to bring the dough together.  Once it's completely combined, tip from the bowl and knead until smooth and springy.

Return to the bowl, cover and place in a warm place to rise.  When the dough has doubled in size, knock it back, cover and return to the warm to rise again.

Knock it back for a second time, divide into pieces (I made two large pizzas) and roll into a circle on a floured surface.  Transfer to a pizza tray or stone, and brush with olive oil.  Then smear on some tomato puree, before adding some tomato sauce made from a tin of tomatoes and some garlic reduced down to a thick sauce.

After that it's just whatever toppings you want.

I stuck with things that we had in the fridge, so some diced venison and pork sausages left over from the weekend, some sliced bacon, onion, red peppers, some slices of chorizo, olives and handfuls of grated mature cheddar, all topped with ground black pepper.  Another favourite, if I'm actually eating, is chicken, sweetcorn with cheese, drizzled with sweet chilli sauce.

Cook for 15-20 minutes, at 180 degrees, slice and serve.

Fortunately it freezes well too, as I think I might have made too much for the Tolerant Boyfriend to eat on his own.

Nothing says Christmas like being a bit of a hypocrite

It's fairly well documented, that I don't really like Christmas.  Pretty much everyone knows this.  When I mentioned to my friend Tom that I was making a Christmas cake, he was genuinely shocked - you hate Christmas, he argued, Aliens have taken over your body haven't they?  I don't hate it, I just find that it goes on WAY too long.  

Christmas things are in the shops at the beginning of August.  If it started at the beginning of December I could probably cope a lot better.

Anyway, this year I am looking forward to Christmas marginally more than usual.  The Very Tolerant Boyfriend and I are spending it together at home with no guests, which helps.  And he loves Christmas and, you know, I want him to be happy.

So I agreed to make a Christmas cake.  I've never done this before.  I've helped my mother as a small child, but in the last decade and a half, I can confidently say that I have not participated in the production of one of these items.  Obviously I had absolutely no idea how to make it and I did have a quick think about outsourcing it to my little sister; but apparently she was all busy getting married or some such nonsense.  So I had a google and came up with this recipe

Ingredients 

  
450 g currants

175 g sultanas
175 g raisins
50 g glace cherries, chopped
50 g candied fruit, chopped
1/2 cup brandy
225 g flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (fresh)
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
225 g butter
225 g soft brown sugar, the gooey sort
4 large eggs
50 g chopped almonds
1 tablespoon treaclelemon, rind of
orange, rind of
orange, juice of 


*Soak all the fruit, peel and nuts over night in the brandy and orange juice.  Stir regularly.
*Pre heat the oven to 140C*line an 8 inch tin 
*Sift the flour salt and spices into a large mixing bowl.
*In a separate bowl cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture's fluffy.
*Beat the eggs and add them a little at a time.
*Fold in the flour and spices. 
*Stir in the fruit that has been soaking along with any excess liquid.
*Mix in the treacle.
*Spoon into the cake tin and spread out evenly.
*Cover the cake with a double square of greaseproof paper with a small hole in the top. 
*Bake the cake on the lower shelf for 4& 1/4- 3/4 hours

So after you've cooked it for nearly FIVE hours, you want to take a wooden skewer and poke holes in it (once it has cooled).  Then you wrap it in a double layer of baking parchment - I added a layer of tin foil too - and then pop it in a air tight container.

Then you need to feed the cake.  You're meant to drizzle a couple of teaspoons of brandy over the cake once a week for the next month or so.  I might have got a little bit carried away at this point.  I was sloshing on the brandy/rum/whisky every few days.  I am now seriously concerned that someone might have some cake and then try and drive.

But to look on the bright side, I do have an incredibly moist and rich looking fruit cake.  

When it came to icing the Very Tolerant Boyfriend had purchased some cake decorations, but afterwards I found a polar bear cupcake on Pinterest, which I thought I could up-scale to a full sized cake,

And it worked ok, I think.

We used the decorations that had been bought to create a random wintery scene at the front of the cake board.

All in all I am quite pleased with out effort, but I'll let you know how it tastes when I cut it open and feed it to our friends tomorrow night.

Steak Porn

As a treat, for nearly making it through the year without either of us dying, the Very Tolerant Boyfriend and I decided to treat ourselves to some utterly epic steaks.  Steaks of such beauty and magnitude that they would (and did) make grown men weep.

It had been a really beautiful day, bright and crisp.  We’d walked into town for a spot of lunch, picked up a few Christmas presents and then had half an hour to before meeting some friends to see an exhibition and have some cake.  As we were too far away from our usual butchers to get there and back in time, we ventured into Source in St Nicks; I’ve really only ever been in there for lunch before but their deli butchers is amazing.  The guy who served us was really knowledgeable about the meat, and didn’t try and push us towards the most expensive cut.

After opting for some T-bones (we didn’t listen to the butcher’s advice) we stood watching them  and a small crowd gathered around us to admire them.  The other butchers stopped their work to marvel.  It really sounds like I’m making this up, but I’m not. They were cut very thick, which is is the only way to eat steak and Source's meat is all aged for at least 28 days.

Anyway, when we finally got the beautiful steaks home, we left them out for an hour to bring them up to room temperature and marinated them in a measure of whisky and a measure of balsamic vinegar for an hour.  The steaks were so big that when we came to cook them, we had to use a separate griddle pan for each one.  We cooked them for five minutes on each side, turning them only once.  Mine was done to perfection, but the Very Tolerant Boyfriend’s which was slightly bigger might have benefited from another minute in the pan.

Served with baked sweet potatoes and sweet chilli broccoli.