Creme Brulee

Alas, no photos here.

I've always loved creme brulee, and will always order it if given as an option on a dessert menu, but funnily enough I had never made it. Since my Easter cake recipe left me with 5 yolks, I googled recipes that would use 5 yolks exactly and this one came up. It was very simple, only I made 6 rather than 4 as it seemed a less gluttonous size...oh, and I hadn't read that part of the recipe. I didn't have a blow torch, so I improvised with the lighter we use for the hobs on our stove. It worked well enough.

Here's the recipe for my own records, from here, should I end up with 5 yolks and a lot of cream again:

Ingredients
2 cartons double cream, 1
large (284ml) plus 1 small
(142ml)
100ml full-fat milk
1 vanilla pod
5 large egg yolks
50g golden caster sugar, plus
extra for the topping

1. Preheat the oven to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. Sit four
175ml ramekins in a deep roasting tin at least 7.5cm deep (or a large
deep cake tin), one that will enable a baking tray to sit well above the
ramekins when laid across the top of the tin. Pour the two cartons of
cream into a medium pan with the milk. Lay the vanilla pod on a board
and slice lengthways through the middle with a sharp knife to split it in
two. Use the tip of the knife to scrape out all the tiny seeds into the
cream mixture. Drop the vanilla pod in as well, and set aside.
2. Put the egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk for 1
minute with an electric hand whisk until paler in colour and a bit fluffy.
Put the pan with the cream on a medium heat and bring almost to the
boil. As soon as you see bubbles appear round the edge, take the pan off the heat.
3. Pour the hot cream into the beaten egg yolks, stirring with a wire
whisk as you do so, and scraping out the seeds from the pan. Set a
fine sieve over a large wide jug or bowl and pour the hot ixture through
to strain it, encouraging any stray vanilla seeds through at the end.
Using a big spoon, scoop off all the pale foam that is sitting on the top
of the liquid (this will be several spoonfuls) and discard. Give the
mixture a stir.
4. Pour in enough hot water (from the tap is fine) into the roasting tin
to come about 1.5cm up the sides of the ramekins. Pour the hot
cream into the ramekins so you fill them up right to the top – it’s easier
to spoon in the last little bit. Put them in the oven and lay a baking
sheet over the top of the tin so it sits well above the ramekins and
completely covers them, but not the whole tin, leaving a small gap at
one side to allow air to circulate. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the
mixture is softly set. To check, gently sway the roasting tin and if the
crème brûlées are ready, they will wobble a bit like a jelly in the
middle. Don’t let them get too firm.
5. Lift the ramekins out of the roasting tin with oven gloves and set
them on a wire rack to cool for a couple of minutes only, then put in
the fridge to cool completely. This can be done overnight without
affecting the texture.
6. When ready to serve, wipe round the top edge of the dishes,
sprinkle 1½ tsp of caster sugar over each ramekin and spread it out
with the back of a spoon to completely cover (Anne Willan’s tip for an
even layer). Spray with a little water using a fine spray (the sort you
buy in a craft shop) to just dampen the sugar – then use a blow torch to caramelise it. Hold the flame just above the sugar and keep moving
it round and round until caramelised. Serve when the brûlée is firm, or
within an hour or two.

Frostbitten Raspberry Cake

Easter has come! I can consume sugar once more!

Maybe not in such intense proportions as just prior to Lent, but I can certainly have a slice of this baby:

I figured to get my sugar kick this Easter I should make a bit of an effort, so went for a recipe I spotted on Pinterest, found here. Mine sure isn't as pretty, but it is the first time I've ever used marscapone and the first time I ever made a white chocolate buttercream AND the first time I've made a "Russian Sponge", something which is nearly meringue in texture by first appearance as there is no fat in it at all - no butter, no yolks, nothin'.

The whole thing is a bit of a faff, something you'll see if you look at the recipe, and I was too busy checking the recipe to take photos at the same time (as I usually use a tablet device to take them, the same tablet that had the recipe on it) so it's just the finished item that you get to see. Poor you.

I did improvise somewhat:

• I baked two layers rather than three and just slicing one in half to make three layers. It seemed to work well enough for us. 
• I boiled off the booze in the liquer syrup (had to use cherry brandy rather than raspberry liquer) so that social services wouldn't come round and ask why I was drugging my 2 year old.
• I used lemon juice rather than water in the raspberry compote, because that's what I do with raspberry coulis
• I added even more fresh raspberries than the recipe requested, because there was room to do so and I had them
• I didn't use gelatin in the mascarpone filling
• I didn't manage to pipe much of the mascarpone filling as mine was too stiff - I burst the ziplock piping bag and ended up using a variety of kitchen utensils to get the darned stuff on the cake. 

Also, the decorations...
"Is that...rosemary...on the cake?!!" my husband asked.

"Yes," I answered, trying to sound like I knew what I was doing. I mean, technically it is edible. "You do get rosemary in cakes, you know," I said, bluffing. Thankfully, my son had my back.

"Yes, you do!" he nodded as he scarfed down his slice.

"Um...ok..." was all my husband could say.

So yeah, maybe leave it off if you make this.

Oh, and when I asked him to look at my creation in the fridge, he said "um, did you know a bunch of them fell off the side?"

"They are artfully placed there, I'll have you know" I answered. Hmph. 

When I had it on Easter day I wasn't too crazy about it, as it was fridge cold and hard to slice. But today I had another sampling at a more pleasant springtime room temperature, and it was much improved. Nice and light and real refreshing. 

If you do make this, wait for a special occasion. As you can see, there are a LOT of directions: 

Frostbitten Raspberry Cake

Author: Julia Frey of Vikalinka

Ingredients

For the Cake

Eggs, room temperature 5 large

Sugar 1 cup

Vanilla 2 tsp.

Flour 1 cup

For the Syrup (for soaking the sponge layers)

Raspberry liqueur ¼ cup

Simple syrup 1/4 cup

For the Mascarpone Cream

Mascarpone 250 gr/ 1 cup

Whipping Cream 250 ml/ 1 cup

Icing Sugar ¼ cup

Vanilla 2 tsp.

For the Raspberry Compote

Raspberries, fresh or frozen (I used frozen)1½ cups

Sugar ½ cup

Lemon juice 2 tbsp.

Fresh Raspberries 1 cup

For the White Chocolate Buttercream

White Chocolate, chopped (not chocolate chips) 5 oz/150 gr

Whipping/Double Cream ¼ cup

Unsalted Butter, softened 4 tbsp.

For decoration

Rosemary sprig1

Raspberries ¼ cup

Icing sugar for dusting

Instructions

For the Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.

2. Grease 3 8" cake pans and line them with parchment paper. (Russian sponge is very delicate so it's important to

use parchment paper for easy removal.)

3. Crack 5 eggs at room temperature to a bowl of a stand mixer and add sugar and vanilla, beat at high speed for 5

minutes until the mixture is pale and triples in volume.

4. Fold in flour through a sifter in 56 additions blending it in gently after each addition. Your goal is to keep the

volume of the egg mixture so be very careful in this step of the process.

5. Divide your cake batter among 3 pans and bake for 2530 minutes until cake tester or tooth pick comes out

clean and the cakes have risen to the top of the pan. (I baked 2 layers and then 1 later).

6. Cool for 10 minutes and then run a knife around the edges of your pans to release the cakes and flip them over

on a wire rack to cool completely.

7. (After your cakes have cooled you can individually wrap them in plastic wrap for later use. You can bake you

sponge layers a day ahead.)

For Raspberry Compote

1. Combine 1½ cups of raspberries and sugar with water in a small saucepan and cook on low heat until thick and

mixture coats the back of a spoon. It will take about 15 minutes.

2. Remove from heat and process in a food processor or a blender until smooth.

3. Push through a fine sieve to get rid of the seeds.

4. Combine the compote with fresh raspberries and set aside.

For the Mascarpone Cream

1. Combine mascarpone, whipping cream, sugar and vanilla 

2. Whip until you can pipe it. 

For the Syrup

1. Combine raspberry liqueur with simple syrup (water and sugar mixed in equal parts).

2. Drizzle over the cake layers. (Russian sponge really benefits from being drizzled with a flavoured syrup since

there is no fat mixed into the batter and it can taste on the dry side without the syrup.)

How to assemble the cake

1. Load your mascarpone cream in a large piping bag with a plain round tip.

2. Pipe a border around the first drizzled with syrup layer, it will keep your raspberry compote from leaking out of

the sides.

3. Fill with half of your raspberry compote. ( It won't cover the entire layer, the berries will be spread sparsely.)

4. Then pipe in the mascarpone cream in the empty spaces and smooth it out with a spatula. You shouldn't have

any gaps.

5. Top with another layer and repeat the process.

6. Finish with the third layer.

For the White Chocolate Buttercream

1. Heat ¼ cream in a saucepan until it just simmers but not boiling.

2. Take off the heat and pour over chopped white chocolate in a medium sized bowl.

3. Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then stir until chocolate is melted into the cream.

4. Cool for 10 minutes and then start whipping in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. (Hand mixer works better

here because of the small amount).

5. Mix for 10 minutes until light and fluffy, then start adding softened butter by a tablespoon, mix well until entirely

incorporated into the frosting after each addition. (You will have enough frosting for a thin layer around the cake.

If you like more frosting on your cake simply double the recipe but it will make a very sweet cake.)

6. Spread ½ of the buttercream over the cake and let it chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

7. Coat your chilled cake with the other half of the frosting and decorate with rosemary and raspberries.

ANZAC biscuits

ANZAC biscuits? What are those? I get asked this whenever I make these. Admittedly, it has been just a little shy of a decade since I last made a batch, but I did used to make them fairly frequently. The story I've been told is that these were the cookies sent over to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the war, as they were simple and travelled well.

They are meant to be brittle, worthy of breaking a tooth, but I prefer them chewy. I messed up and didn't make them that way this time, but if you are in America and can get good coconut, these can be truly divine. They look deceptively boring, just appearing to be a plain oatmeal cookie, but when you bite in you get a hit of coconut and you realise just how more-ish these can be.

Another good thing about them is that you don't use any eggs, so no salmonella worries with the dough. Not that this has ever stopped me from eating raw cookie dough.

Oh, and one last tip: when adding sugar, don't mistake a jar of bulgar wheat for a jar of demerara sugar. Trust me on this.

Ahem.

One other nice thing about this recipe is that everything gets thrown into a bowl and mixed together at once. So here we have brown sugar, flour, baking soda, coconut, oats, and a dollop of golden syrup.

Then on went some melted butter.

Then it was mixed.

Err, it seemed a bit dry. So then I actually looked at the recipe and realized I was meant to add a couple tablespoons of water. That made it better.

Then it was rolled into sizeable balls and put in to bake. I can only really fit two trays in my oven at a time, so I crowded them in closer together than perhaps I should have in order to save time.

They flattened out, and I also realized I had overbaked them. Oops.

Not perfect shapes, to be sure. Nevertheless, I brought them to the playground after school and quickly found myself surrounded by children willing to eat them and thus take them off my hands (and a few parents too, of course).

I might try making them into bars next time, as I think that might help prevent overbaking and would also take less oven space. But here is the recipe for them as out of my Mrs Beeton cookbook (and why these are in a "Mrs Beeton" cookbook when she wrote her recipes prior to the war is a question for the publishers at Marks and Spencer):

Ingredients:

75g rolled oats

100g plain flour

150g sugar (I use brown sugar)

50g coconut

100g melted butter

1Tbsp golden sryup

1 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

2 Tbsp water

Method:

Preheat oven to 160C. Line two baking sheets. 

Combine ingredients and mix well, then roll into balls and place on sheets. Bake for at least 10 min, more if needed but make sure you don't overbake. 

Strawberry Almond Shortbread

The very first time I remember baking something myself from scratch was from a children's cookbook. The cookies were meant to be butter cookies with a jam centre, and I had visions in my head of something like a jammie dodger, or the jam-centred biscuits that always went before any others out of an old fashioned tin of butter cookies. I made sure to get the exact ingredients the recipe required, sending my mother out for "sugar free jam" as the recipe specified (a effort to make the recipe healthier, my mother later explained).

I was thoroughly disappointed with the results. The jam had not magically become taffy-like, the cookies tasted of almond rather than vanilla and were fat rather than elegantly thin. Everyone else liked them, and I made them again, thinking that somehow I had just got the recipe wrong, but I only got the same results. My childhood tastes tended to prefer the machine made, super processed factory cookies to homemade ones it seemed.

When I saw a photo of these cookies here, I was reminded of that recipe, but my adult self thought this type of recipe was worth giving another shot. This time I went in knowing that the jam would retain its general state and that cookies would taste of almonds, ending up crumbly rather than crispy.

The base was a simply shortbread, so I put butter and sugar into the food processor with some almond extract.

And it magically turned it into this in seconds.

Then in went some flour...

And a few seconds later I magically had cookie dough!

I chilled it a little bit, though perhaps not enough given how much some of my cookies flattened out, then rolled it into balls.

And put my big ol' thumbprint in the middle of 'em.

Then on each of them went a dollop of jam. I didn't have any raspberry jam to hand, but Costco strawberry jam did the job nicely.

A few minutes later they came out slightly more disc-like than I had anticipated.

When in doubt, just drizzle on some glaze in a fancy schmantsy kind of way, and you're good to go.

I brought some to a friend, then carried the rest with me to pick up the kids from school. On the way back, we ran into my colleague who was scanning the shelves of our local Sainsbury's for something to put on a plate for guests coming round, so she got the other half of the batch (minus the ones my family consumed). She served them up later, only half pretending they were hers, but was forced to confess when they asked for the recipe!

So here it is, in all its simplicity (originally taken from Better Homes and Gardens, but found on this website):

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup jam
sugar for sprinkling
1 cup powdered sugar
3 to 4 teaspoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

Directions:

1. Mix butter, sugar, and extract together until well blended. Add flour and mix until combined. Cover and chill for 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/ 180C. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on lined cookie sheets. Using your thumb, press an indentation into the center of each ball. Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of the jam into each indentation and then sprinkle with sugar. Bake about 10 minutes or until edges are light brown. Cool on cookie sheets for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to wire racks to finish cooling.

3. For icing, in a medium bowl combine powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon water and 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract. Add enough of the remaining water to make a drizzling consistency. Drizzle cookies with icing.

Lime Bars

Well, after the lacklustre "lemon brownies" I decided to go with a more reliable citrus bar. Lidl had a special deal on limes, so I picked up a bag and got out a recipe for lime bars that I had made a while back. 

Lemon bars are not often seen here in Scotland, as much as they are a staple in American cafes, and certainly no one here had ever seen a lime version of these citrus treats. I failed at first when describing it to my colleagues as the laden tin was presented.

"They're lime bars," I said confidently.

"What? Lion bars? What are lion bars?"

"Ha ha, no, not lion bars, LIME bars!"

"Oh. What are lime bars?"

"Um...Kind of a shortbread base with a lime topping. Kind of a gooey topping, sort of a custard but not really. They're crusty on top. Gooey but crusty"

"Uh...thanks..."

"No, really! It's kind of like a lime curd topping! With a shortbread base! They're good!"

"Great."

Of course, ultimately, they were home made goodies so people ate them. And darn it, they liked them too.

And for the record, the last time I made these for a separate group, I was told they were the best dessert bars one person had ever eaten ever and they demanded the recipe. So there. 

Here's the recipe I used here, also copied and pasted below.

Gather Up:Cookie Crust

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 /2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 cups flour
Pinch kosher salt

Lime Topping4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons flour
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons lime zest
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9 x 13 inch cake pan.

To make the crust, combine the butter and confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium high speed for 2 to 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the flour and the salt, and mix another minute until well combined.

Pat the dough out to an even thickness over the bottom of the pan, and then gently push up and build an edge all around. (This will prevent the filling from seeping down underneath the crust when it is added later.)

Bake the crust for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden. Remove and let cool completely on a rack.

To make the topping, whisk together the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the flour and whisk until just combined. Whisk in the lime juice and the zest.

Pour the lime topping over the cooled crust and return to the 350 degree oven. Bake for an additional 25 minutes until the filling is set.

Remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Generously dust with confectioners’ sugar and cut into squares. Bars will keep 2-3 days at room temperature.

Lemon Brownies...that are lemony but not like brownies

I've been on Pinterest again. I was looking to try something new, something different, and I saw a recipe I'd pinned ages ago for some "lemon brownies". Clicking on it, the link was outdated and broken, but I googled a bit more and found a separate recipe.

"These should be great!" I thought. "They'll be chewy and fudgy like a brownie, but with the zest of lemon flavour! Crusty on the outside, chewy in the middle! They'll be heavenly!"

Errrrm...no...they weren't. At least, I don't think so as I didn't technically eat any, but I did poke and prod and sniff them quite a bit. The good news is, my non-discerning family like them. They basically were just heavy, syrupy, slightly rubbery lemon bricks. They were not chewy in the right way. They were not pleasingly crusty. They were not what I would call "lemon brownies". I'm not saying that lemon brownies don't exist somewhere out there in the ether, it's just that this recipe wasn't them.

I didn't melt the butter, I just cut the room temperature butter into the flour and sugar.

And in a separate bowl went eggs, lemon juice and zest. Then they met each other in the big bowl. At first it was ugly.

But then it looked nice and cake battery.

So into the tin it went.

My assistant was given the task of cleaning the bowl.

And the mix came out of the oven looking like this. Not particularly brownie looking - just looked like a normal thin tray bake.

I mixed a glaze in a separate bowl, but it seemed too runny to me

Indeed, when I put it on, it just sat on the top. I had to wait a good few hours for it to set at all.

And when I finally attacked it, it looked like this. 

Errr...not so great. That said, my family has happily demolished them so just not my thing maybe.

I got my recipe here, and have just copied and pasted it below too. But still I wonder...do lemon brownies really exist somewhere???

Ingredients

For the Brownie

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 eggs, large
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

For the tart lemon glaze

• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 8 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1 cup icing sugar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease an 8×8 inch baking dish with butter and set aside.
3. Zest and juice two lemons and set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, sugar, salt, and softened butter until combined.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice until combined.
6. Pour it into the flour mixture and beat for 2 mins at medium speed until smooth and creamy.
7. Pour into baking dish and bake for 23-25 mins, should turn golden around the edges.
8. Allow to cool completely before glazing. Do not overbake, or the bars will dry.
9. Filter the powdered sugar and whisk with lemon zest and juice.
10. Spread the glaze over the brownies with a rubber spatula and let glaze set.
11. Cut into bars and serve.

Spinach, Artichoke, and Bacon Quiche

Quiche and I have a bit of a troubled past.

Years ago, when my mother was feeling adventurous in the kitchen she prepared a quiche for our Sunday dinner. As my parents murmured happy noises while they demolished their portions, I stared at mine, willing it to become something non-eggy. My grimaces offended my mother, and she gave me firm instructions just to EAT IT.

Well, being a good girl, I did as I was told, but my stomach had other ideas and my mother lived to regret her instructions to me. For years, it was a running joke, with "mmm..quiche!" being uttered whenever we were in its presence in a cafe, with mocking looks in my direction. Truthfully, I didn't eat it again for at least another ten years.

But then, one day I stepped into a Parisian patisserie and I decided quiche needed another shot. I ordered a simple miniature quiche lorraine and was bowled over by it. My tastebuds had decided to grow up, it seems (though not completely - I still detest eggs cooked on their own).

Fast forward a few years, when I went to Michigan to visit my husband's family. We were served what my aunt-in-law called "spinach pie" but what I would simply call quiche. I loved it, as did my husband, and I immediately asked her for the recipe and have used it repeatedly since when I want a meal that is simple and easy to make in advance then heat up later. It also travels well, so is handy for pot-luck affairs.

I've adapted it a bit over the years, and this time decided to add in a new element I hadn't tried before: artichoke hearts. It was my husband's idea, as we had a jar languishing in the cupboard, and it seemed a good one, bringing to mind the American restaurant starter staple: spinach and artichoke dip.

The filling is easy to prepare: frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed), a handful of artichoke hearts, a chopped onion, a couple tablespoons of flour, lots of swiss cheese (emmental in this case), salt, pepper, nutmeg, milk, and three eggs. I just put them all in a bowl...

Then mixed them into this unappetizing looking combination.

I had Pepperidge farm pre-made pie crust recommended to me, but we have no such thing here, so I just made a simple shortcrust pastry from my Joy of Cooking recipe, using a combination of butter and vegetable shortening. I know vegetable shortening is the new Satan, but it ensures good pastry, so I still use it. I put it into my prized pyrex pie dish - pyrex really is the ideal material for cooking pie crusts.

Because I wasn't baking for any vegetarians, I put some raw smoked bacon bits in the bottom.

Then on went the filling in one big splodge.

And for a nice brown cheesy top, I added some freshly grated parmesan.

The excess pastry was just folded back over and smooshed together.

Then, the better part of an hour later, using the fan setting with the emphasis on the bottom heat to prevent a soggy bottom, out it came in all its golden glory. I did this early on in the day, then reheated it slightly for our dinner, serving it alongside salad (not pictured).

I'm surprised I haven't posted this before - it is easy to throw together and for this reason makes a fairly regular appearance around this house, in spite of my childhood trauma. 

I promise it tastes better than it looks in my rubbish photo here.


Spinach, Artichoke, and Bacon Quiche

1 pie crust (either bought or half of this recipe which, again, I am surprised I haven't posted yet)

8 oz swiss cheese
2 Tbsp plain flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
plenty of pepper and nutmeg
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and liquid squeezed out
1 onion, finely chopped
handful of artichoke hearts
2-3 Tbsp smoked bacon bits
Parmesan cheese for topping

Preheat oven to 350F/180C

1. Prepare pie crust (whether it means making pastry or removing plastic from it)
2. Mix together all ingredients except Parmesan and bacon
3. Scatter bacon bits evenly in bottom of pie crust
4. Dump mixture on top and spread to even it out
5. Top with freshly grated parmesan, as much or as little as you like
6. Put on bottom rack of oven and bake for 50-60 minutes.