Nourished

Patisserie

Baking

Primrose Bakery Christmas… by Martha Swift

It’s not an entirely Christmas book, but is that necessarily a bad thing? There’s a broad range of recipes, with lots of combinations I think would be popular throughout the year. However, I think with baking books particularly, it’s useful to see exactly what’s in the book, to avoid duplication elsewhere. It breaks down as follows:

Cupcakes: tea and digestives cupcakes; Crunchie cupcakes; Malteser cupcakes; Toblerone cupcakes; pink lemonade cupcakes; Liquorice Allsorts cupcakes; rum and raisin cupcakes; apple crumble and custard cupcakes; blueberry cupcakes (shown in the photograph); cinnamon cupcakes; Irish coffee cupcakes; eggnog cupcakes; s’mores cupcakes; Maraschino cherry cupcakes; red bean cupcakes; bread and butter cupcakes

Large Cakes: rainbow cake; salted caramel cheesecake; apple and butterscotch yule log; chocolate and coconut layer cake; Christmas Pavlova wreath; pineapple and coconut cake; pain d’epices bundt cake; Christmas pudding cake with mulled wine icing; Jaffa Cake cake; clementine cake with Greek yoghurt icing; chocolate and white chocolate roulade; marjolaine cake; walnut streusel cake

Cookies: chocolate caramel cookies; triple chocolate cookies; mince pie cookies; Oreo chocolate chip cookies; Smarties cookies; spice Christmas or Linzer cookies; Fresh mint shortbread biscuits; brandy snaps; Earl Grey almond and white chocolate biscotti; ginger sparkle cookies; raspberry and pistachio thumbprint cookies; Speculoos biscuit tree decoration; Speculoos cookie butter; gingerbread sausage dogs

Loaves and Slices: sticky toffee loaf; natural red velvet load; spiced fruit loaf; rocky road slice; salted caramel brownies; cheesecake brownie; Florentine blondie; orange marmalade slice; cherry ripe slice; pumpkin slice; pistachio and raspberry loaf

Pies and Tarts: Christmas trifle with caramelised peaches; banoffee pie; chocolate peanut butter pie; chocolate marshmallow pie; mint and white chocolate pie; dark chocolate and fresh mint truffle tart; Boston cream pie

Free From: GF vanilla cupcakes; GF quinoa cupcakes; chocolate vegan layer cake; GF honey and almond cake; GF spiced honey loaf

Edible Gifts: caramelised nuts; savoury nut mix; sweet and salty popcorn; mint coconut ice; salted caramel truffles; Christmas pudding rum balls; peanut butter and banana dog cupcakes (yes, for dogs!!); dog Christmas cake (again, for dogs!!); meringues; tutti frutti nougat; popcorn baubles; gingerbread house; caramel apples

 

You can buy a copy here >

Baking

French Apple Tart…

Another weekend, another tart.  This time Ina Garten‘s apple tart.  Another incredibly simple recipe, this one is a combination of apple slices and puff pastry.  If the quantity of sugar looks a little daunting, I have to say, it did all absorb into the apples, and didn’t taste too sweet.  Total prep time is minimal if you use shop bought puff pastry – I think I had the whole thing in the oven within ten minutes!

Ingredients

for the pastry
300g plain flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
170g cold unsalted butter, diced
150g ice water

for the apples

4 Granny Smith apples
150g sugar
55g cold unsalted butter, small-diced
½ cup apricot jelly or warm sieved apricot jam (see note)
2 tablespoons Calvados, rum, or water

Method:

  • For the pastry, place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and pulse 10 to 12 times, until the butter is in small bits the size of peas. With the motor running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
  • Preheat the oven to 200ºC  and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
  • Roll the dough slightly larger than 10 x 14 inches. Using a ruler and a small knife, trim the edges. Place the dough on the prepared sheet pan and refrigerate while you prepare the apples.
  • Peel the apples and cut them in half through the stem. Remove the stems and cores with a sharp knife and a melon baller. Slice the apples crosswise in ¼-inch-thick slices. Place overlapping slices of apples diagonally down the middle of the tart and continue making diagonal rows on both sides of the first row until the pastry is covered with apple slices. (I tend not to use the apple ends in order to make the arrangement beautiful.) Sprinkle with the full ½ cup sugar and dot with the butter.
  • Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the pastry is browned and the edges of the apples start to brown. Rotate the pan once during cooking. If the pastry puffs up in one area, cut a little slit with a knife to let the air out. Don’t worry! The apple juices will burn in the pan but the tart will be fine! When the tart’s done, heat the apricot jelly together with the Calvados and brush the apples and the pastry completely with the preserve mixture. Loosen the tart with a metal spatula so it doesn’t stick to the paper. Allow to cool and serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes:
  • Judging the diagonal line is a little harder than it appears – I score a faint line along the edge of the chopping board to ensure you get the first line in correctly.  The others are then a little easier to judge…
  • Even if you’re not keen on Calvados, do use if for the glaze – the smell is ridiculous, your kitchen will smell fantastic!  You could also scent some creme fraiche with Calvados too…
  • Ina is keen to point out more than once that you should take the apples to the point of slightly blackening them – it’s this additional caramelisation with adds to the flavour – don’t be afraid – keep an keen eye on them, but push it a tiny bit further than you think.  I did rotate mine several times, but the colour was still darker on one side than on the other – looking at my photo, it’s possible that I had more butter on one side of the tart than on the other – try to ensure it’s evenly spread
Core the apples with a melon baller, and nick out the root
Scatter the apples slices with sugar and butter
The tart, glazed with apricot preserve and calvados

Book Review

The Artisan Marshmallow… by Paige Couture

Cover-mashmallowThe joy of a single-subject cookbook is that it gives your the broadest range of recipes, and this single tome on marshmallows should keep most marshmallow fans happy for ages.

It’s broken down into the following sections (and examples):

  • Easy (classic vanilla; honey and almond marshmallow cake; mocha latte; liquorice allsorts; peppermint…)
  • Fruity (apple, cinnamon and rose marshmallows; double raspberry marshmallows; fresh ginger and lemon…)
  • Swirly (peanut, salted caramel swirl; apple, spice and chocolate hazelnut swirl; honey and peanut butter swirl…)
  • Cutesy (chocolate honeycomb; jam doughnut; filled chocolate; gingerbread with almond praline; orange blossom…)
  • Boosey (B52; Cointreau and honey, with pine nut praline; cranberry cosmopolitan; gin with a lemon twist…)
  • Hipstery-y (chai; chocolate and chilli; liquorice twists; coconut, lemongrass and palm sugar muffins…)
  • Variety (choc peanut wagon wheels; citrus roulette with chocolate ganache; cosmopolitan rocky road…)

Beautifully shot, lots of variety, helpful technique tips, lots of ideas to inspire future efforts

Baking

Pain Perdu, Pineapple and Coconut

We haven’t been to Marcus Wareing’s eponymous restaurant since it was re-branded.  It’s a little art-deco jewel-box of a restaurant, but the atmosphere seemed just as hushed at lunchtime as before… Still.  The food was good, and I was particularly enamoured with this dish – a little chef’s joke…  The pineapple tastes of coconut, which initially confuses the senses, especially as you try to work out how… I pressed the waitress, it’s clearly compressed, because of the texture, but what with? And then of course it struck me – Malibu – the scent led me by my nose to my teenage years.  Malibu.  When was the last time you tasted Malibu?  Well, rest assured, in this dish it’s absolutely delicious, as long as you like coconut and pineapple.

The plate comprised Malibu compressed pineapple, a coconut ice-cream, coconut curd, toasted brioche cubes, and coconut meringue.  I wasn’t terribly fond of the coconut curd, so I thought I would experiment with a coconut-milk creme patisserie (in the Thermomix)…  For the coconut meringues I used the Meringue Girls recipe, which I’ve made often before. It’s a very clever little dessert – you can prepare all the elements well in advance (perhaps with the exception of toasting the brioche), and then assemble when you’re ready.  You see.  I make sweeping statements like that.  Yes, it’s a clever dessert, and easy,  if you own a chamber vacuum sealer and a Thermomix.  I’m still posting it, because someone out there will…

As the recipes are quite long, you can find them listed in the Plating section.  The pineapple was cubed (as accurately as your patience will allow), and popped into a vacuum pack bag – I included 40ml of Malibu, and compressed under full pressure.  I left it in the fridge for 48 hours to absorb the flavour.  The compression will also change the texture of the pineapple, making it denser, and less fibrous (it effectively changes the cell structure of the fruit – it’s also an amazing technique to use on watermelon, for example).

To Plate:

Malibu compressed pineapple
Coconut meringues
Coconut-milk creme patisserie
Coconut cream ice-cream
Brioche cubes, dipped in egg and fried in a little butter

Notes:

  • The coconut version of the creme patisserie worked incredibly well – I used 300g of coconut milk, and upped the flour to 45g, but that was because I included 20g of Malibu, and also wanted to be able to pipe the cream into quite firm ‘peaks’…  The coconut flavour was subtle, but discernible, and the texture was exactly like the normal version.  I didn’t refrigerate it, but did whisk through some more malibu before piping onto the plates.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Baking

Coconut Milk Creme Patisserie

231d6-p1010309I use the standard Creme Patisserie recipe on the blog a lot, but in a recent recipe (which contained a coconut curd), I thought I might make a coconut milk variation – after all the fat content of coconut milk is quite high, and the consistency can be similar to milk.  I altered the recipe slightly, but that was because I included 30ml of Malibu, and an increased quantity of flour – I wanted to be able to pipe the creme pat into quite stiff peaks on the plate, for a specific dessert.
Ingredients:

300g coconut milk 60g unrefined caster sugar
30g unsalted good quality butter
30 ml Malibu 45g plain flour
3 free range egg yolks
the seeds from 1 vanilla pod
pinch of salt

Method:

Put all the ingredients into the Thermomix bowl and cook for 7 minutes at 90C, speed 4.

Give it a quick whizz at the end to ensure it’s smooth, then pour into a bowl and cover with cling film until it’s cool.
 
Yes – that’s it!  Keep it in your fridge until you require it.

Oh. And if you’re stupid enough to stick in a block of quite cool butter, do put the lid on properly and start the machine quite slowly.

Recipe

Chocolate Delice

I realise that I don’t usually pay homage to a chef when making a recipe, but the legendary Monsieur Blanc is no ordinary chef!  Nearly as important to my culinary journey as the Roux Brothers, Raymond is completely self-taught, and his Manoir aux Quat’Saisons has held two Michelin stars since 1985 – no mean feat.  As well as sharing my birthday, Raymond is a most amusing and very brave man – he served both his first and second wife a croquembouche on their wedding day…

This delice was featured on Kitchen Secrets, a most enlightening look at a number of dishes and techniques.  Every time I see an episode, I note another little detail.  You can see this particular recipe on You Tube, which certainly shows you how simple it can be.

Ingredients

For the base
100g/3½oz toasted hazelnuts
100g/3½oz caramelised sugar pieces
150g /5¼oz bran flakes, slightly crushed

For the delice
140ml/5fl oz full-fat milk
325ml/11½fl oz double cream
2 free-range eggs
340g/12oz good-quality dark chocolate, minimum 60 per cent cocoa solids, roughly chopped

For the caramel hazelnuts
125g/4½oz caster sugar
8 hazelnuts, shells removed, lightly toasted in a dry frying pan

For the coffee foam
200ml/7¼fl oz strong black espresso coffee
1 sheet gelatine, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, drained

To serve
2-3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp freshly ground coffee beans

Preparation method

  • For the base, blend the hazelnuts and caramelised sugar pieces in a food processor until you have a smooth paste. Heat the paste in a small pan on a gentle heat until warmed through.
  • Place the bran flakes and warmed praline paste into a mixing bowl and scrunch them together, using your hands, until the bran flakes have broken down and been incorporated into the paste.
  • Line a baking tray with a sheet of greaseproof paper, then transfer the praline mixture onto it. Cover the praline mixture with a second sheet of greaseproof paper, then roll the mixture out until it measures at least 14cm x 20cm/5½in x 8in and is 0.5cm/¼in thick.
  • Remove the top sheet of greaseproof paper, then push a 14cm x 20cm x 3cm/5½in x 8in x 1¼in rectangular pastry frame down onto the praline mixture and trim off any excess. (NB: The excess praline mixture can be pressed into any gaps in the mould, if necessary.)
  • Cover the mould with greaseproof paper and chill the praline in the fridge for 30 minutes, or until set.
  • Meanwhile, for the delice, heat the milk and cream in a saucepan and heat gently over a medium heat until it just reaches boiling point.
  • Meanwhile, whisk the eggs in a bowl.
  • As the milk and cream mixture comes to the boil, pour it over the eggs, then whisk the mixture constantly until smooth and thick.
  • Stir in the chopped chocolate and whisk again until the chocolate has melted and the custard is smooth.
  • Remove the base from the fridge and pour in the chocolate delice to fill the mould. Gently tap the sides of the mould to release any trapped air bubbles, then smooth the surface using a palette knife. Chill in the fridge for 6-12 hours, or until completely set.
  • Meanwhile, for the caramel hazelnuts, heat the caster sugar in a pan over a low heat, stirring occasionally until golden-brown and caramelised. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly. (NB: The caramel is cool enough when a cocktail stick dragged across its surface leaves an imprinted trail.)
  • Spear each hazelnut onto a cocktail stick, then dip the hazelnuts into the caramel until coated. Stick a little adhesive putty onto the underside of a shelf or cupboard above a worksurface and secure the cocktail stick into the putty, so that the caramel drips off the hazelnut and creates a tail. (NB: Place a baking tray or sheets of greaseproof paper underneath the hazelnuts to catch any caramel that drips.)
  • Set the caramel hazelnuts aside to cool and harden for at least 30 minutes.
  • For the coffee foam, just before serving, heat half of the coffee in a pan until just hot but not boiling.
  • Squeeze the gelatine sheet dry, then add it to the hot coffee and continue to warm until the gelatine has completely dissolved.
  • Pour the remaining cold coffee into a bowl, then add the hot coffee mixture to it. Whisk well until the mixture starts to foam.
  • To serve, heat the outside of the mould using a chefs’ blow torch to loosen the base of the delice. Carefully remove the pastry frame from the delice.
  • Heat the top of the delice very quickly using a chefs’ blow torch to make the surface glossy. Dust the delice with some of the cocoa powder and ground coffee beans.
  • Smear a teaspoonful of the coffee foam across the width of six to eight serving plates. Plunge the blade of a knife into boiling water to heat the metal, then slice the delice into six to eight pieces and place one onto each smear of foam, at an angle. Rest a caramel hazelnut against each slice. Dust each serving with the remaining cocoa powder.

Whisk the mixture constantly until smooth and thick

Stir in the chopped chocolate and whisk again until the chocolate has melted and the custard is smooth

It will look like this, leaving ribbons on itself…
Pour in the chocolate delice to fill the mould (I didn’t have a rectangular mould to hand)
Watch your caramel, it’s cool enough when a cocktail stick dragged across its surface leaves an imprinted trail
The finished article – a gigantic slice of chocolate delice – I’d recommend a slice about half the size

Baking

Frangipane Tarts

Pistachio frangipane, with figs

There’s something about the scent of frangipane which has haunted me for decades. We have relatives on the French side of the Swiss-France border, and on our very first visit, we had a plum and frangipane tart. The memory has stuck with me for twenty years – served at room temperature – the tart was luscious, creamy, delicately scented – just adorable.

Spotting some nectarines which needed using up, I thought it would make a delicious variation.  A quick trawl through some of my favourite chefs revealed a recipe on the BBC site by Angela Hartnett…

That first tart was consumed by the multitudes in my household within twenty-four hours.

Luckily, the quantity of frangipane in the recipe allowed me to make two tarts – so the second tart was a plum and frangipane one…  The plums hold up better than the nectarines, though surprisingly they do make the mixture more moist (I would have assumed the nectarines would offer up more water).  The scent load is also greater with the plums.

Having everything to hand, the second tart only took about 10 minutes to prepare, so well worth keeping some frangipane in your fridge (bring it back to room temperature, and give it a quick re-fluffing with a fork – et voila – instant tart…).

The next time I made a bakewell tart, and then another for my chum Sarah… And then we moved on to pistachio and fig tarts, with a further tart for another chum, Nicole…

Once you have the basic frangipane recipe in your back-pocket, the possibilities are endless :0)

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
375g/13¼oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
15g/½oz sugar
225g/8oz unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
1 free-range egg
4 tbsp ice-cold water
For the frangipane:
200g/7¼oz unsalted butter
200g/7¼oz caster sugar
2 free-range eggs
200g/7¼oz ground almonds
For the tart filling:
5-6 ripe plums, each cut into eighths, stones removed
To serve:
icing sugar, for dusting
whipped cream or crème fraîche

Method:
  • For the pastry, sieve the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Tip the cubed butter into the bowl. Rub the butter and the flour between your thumb and fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
  • In a jug or small bowl, beat the egg together with four tablespoons of ice-cold water. Pour into the flour mixture.
  • Slowly bring the ingredients together with your hands to form a dough, being careful not to overwork it.
  • Knead the dough lightly on a clean, floured work surface, then wrap it in cling film and refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes.
  • For the frangipane, beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Crack the eggs into the bowl one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the ground almonds and mix well until combined. Set aside.
  • Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Dust the work surface with flour and roll the chilled dough out thinly. Use it to line one large 25cm/10in tart ring or 6-8 individual tartlet rings 8cm/3¼in in diameter. Trim away any excess.
  • Spoon the frangipane into the tart case so that it comes about halfway up the sides. Smooth over the surface with a spatula and cover the frangipane evenly with the plums.
  • Bake for 30-40 minutes (15-25 minutes for the tartlets), or until the pastry is crisp and golden-brown and the fruit is tender.
  • Remove the tart(s) from the oven. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm with whipped cream or crème fraîche.
Notes:
  • I used a pre-rolled pastry sheet made by Marie – it’s the best I’ve used, comes in a circle, and is rolled super-fine!  Because it’s so fine, I always brush it with beaten egg and allow to dry in the fridge, before putting any filling in
  • Don’t push your figs too far into the batter, it will rise up around them.  For maximum visual effect, just lightly lodge them in

Lay the fruit in a pattern of your choosing – you can see from the plum chart that I chose a different layout that time

Fig and pistachio frangipane

Nectarine and frangipane

Plum and frangipane

Bakewell Tart: spread jam  spread a layer of frangipane, and top with almonds halfway through cooking #simples