Ginger Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

Now biscotti is usualyy eaten with a cup of coffee however I think they go just as well with a good cuppa.
The reason for the ginger is to use up the ginger preserve I put in my pumpkin pie at Halloween but you can put almost anything in yours. Nuts are especially good. This is what I started with:

• 4 oz plain flour
• 1.5 oz cocoa powder
• 1.5 tsps baking powder
• 0.25 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 oz walnuts
• 1 oz chopped dark chocolate
• 5 oz ginger preserve (or 4 oz sugar and 1 oz of stem/crystallized ginger)

Start by putting all the dry ingredients into a bowl. That’s the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, chocolate and nuts (and sugar).

If using ginger preserve whisk this together with the eggs.

Otherwise just add the 2 eggs one by one with the vanilla essence to the dry ingredients to form a dough. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough into a flat mound and place on a baking tray. Then bake at gas mark 4 for 25 mins.

It should then be baked through making it easy to cut into half inch slices. Wait 10 minutes for it to cool before cutting into it to make it easier to handle. While you wait cool down the oven to gas mark 3.

Place the slices on their side and put back in the oven for 20 mins, turning the slices over halfway through.

Once done take them out the oven and place on a wire rack to cool down completely. Each slice should dry out and once cooled should be crunchy and dippable into hot coffee.

Baked Yeast Doughnuts

Now that I had a very nice and great value for money cake plate, I decided to bake up something sweet to serve upon it. Given that I had recently acquired a mini doughnut tray from a charity shop for a mere 50 pence, it was about time I used it.

I got the recipe from my other cake related subscription Cake Decorating magazine.

To make your own you'll need:

350 g strong white flour

400ml lukewarm milk

1 egg

50 g unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp salt

1 packet (7 g) dried yeast

50 g fine granulated sugar

Flavouring i.e. pinch of nutmeg or cinammon or a dash of vanilla

Mix the sugar and the egg together and whip for 1 minute until light and fluffy while heating the milk to body temperature.

 

Add the milk, yeast, flavouring and salt to the eggy mixture. Then slowly add the flour until it forms a dough.

Knead the dough until it is soft and smooth then place in a bowl and in a warm place to prove till it has doubled in size.

 

Once risen, knock the air out of the dough and shape into doughnuts or place dough in doughnut ring tray. Leave to prove again for 20 mins on top of your warming oven which should be set at 230 degrees C.

 

Then bake for 5-8 mins until slightly golden. Better to undercook then overcook so they remain soft and un-bagel like. Take out of the overn ans whilst hot dip in melted butter and then caster sugar flavoured with or without cinammon. Serve on a cake plate but more importantly eat whilst still warm.

 

 

Rose Creme Brulee and Pistachio Cupcakes

I have come to notice that a lot of men like creme brulee but they don't like afternoon tea. In my attempt to tempt men to the table at 3pm for a spot of tea and cake I rustled up these sophisticated and gentle'manly' cupcakes.

For the creme brulee, you will need:

• 300ml double cream
• 75 ml of full fat milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 3 tbsp of caster sugar
• A few drops of rose extract or rosewater
• Demerera sugar for the top

Heat oven to 140C/120C fan/gas 1. Put the cream and milk into a pan and heat to boiling point. Add a few drops, to taste, of the rose flavouring, cover and leave to infuse for 10 mins. Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks and 3 tbsp of sugar together until pale and thick. Pour the boiling cream onto the mixture. Stir well, then pour into a square tin. Place the tin in a bain marie and cook in the oven for about 20 mins or until just set. Leave to cool. Once cooled divide into equal portions for the number of cupcakes you have to be topped. Baking your brulee in a square tin makes this part easier.

For 12 cupcakes, you will need:

• 140g butter
• 140g caster sugar
• 140g self-raising flour
• 2 eggs
• 100g pistachios

Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases. Put all the pistachios into a food processor with about half the sugar, then whizz until very finely chopped. Tip into a large mixing bowl with the remaining sugar, butter, eggs, flour and milk and beat until smooth. Divide between cases, then bake on a low shelf for 22-25 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

 

 

My cupcake cases are a little smaller than usual so I managed 16 cupcakes. You may notice that there are only 14 in the picture above but that’s because I tasted a couple to make sure they were good enough for the next bit. Scoop each allocated section of brulee on top of each and spread.

Now for the fun part, blowtorch at the ready and your demerera sugar. Sprinkle the topped cakes with the sugar then melt with the blowtorch till it caramelises. Don’t be afraid of a little charring, it adds to the gorgeous smoky flavour. When still molten drop a few pistachios on top if you have any left.

High Tea by the High Seas

As I mentioned earlier I recently celebrated my birthday and there was only one place to do it this summer .... at the Olympics (wearing my new knickers). The only tickets I could get on the day were for the sailing down in Weymouth and Portland. A long drive from London but thankfully the weather made it worth it.

With all good birthdays there is always cake although this year was slightly different as it was the first time since being a child that it was bought ready-made.

I know, I know... not what you want to hear from a cake blogger but there is a reason for this. I had to choose between cake or scotch eggs and as you can't buy pork free scotch eggs there was only one way to get around the dilemma. I did add a twist by using cute little quail eggs.

You'll need:
12 quail eggs
250g sausage meat (I used chicken mince flavoured with dried herbs and paprika)
2 spring onions
Panko breadcrumbs
Flour, for dusting
1 hen's egg

First, boil your quail eggs for 2 mins. No more, no less. It's important to get the timing right. When the time is up plunge them into cold water to stop them cooking and to cool them so they can be peeled.

 Be gentle with them as they can be delicate.

Next take each egg and with a teaspoon of the sausagemeat, begin to mould the meat so that it surrounds the egg completely. Once this has been done for all the eggs you'll be ready to breadcrumb.

In three different bowls, put flour, beaten hen's egg and breadcrumbs. Place the sausagemeat covered eggs first in the flour, then the egg and finally the breadcrumbs. If you like a crunchier coating place in the egg and breadcrumbs again before semi-shallow frying for 4-6 mins.

These were enjoyed with a beetroot relish carried to the venue in a little jam jar. Followed by the birthday cake with a cup of tea.