Eclairs

An absolute mess. You could call them 'rustic', if you're being kind!

Éclairs! The first time I tried them, they were a bit of a disaster. I went into the kitchen and dug out the baking utensils, imagining crispy fresh choux pastry filled to bursting with rich, smooth vanilla crème, topped with a sinfully decadent glossy chocolate sauce, powdered with icing sugar. What I got was... not that. I was disappointed and temped to throw them away before anyone had the chance to witness my failure. However, guilt and an aversion to waste kept me from doing so. -Well, that, and my mother, who happened to see, and convinced me that they'd taste ok- and they did. They may not have been exactly what I'd been envisioning, (far from it) but they still tasted great! They looked ok too, which was far more than I was expecting.
Recently I tried them again, this time used Sorted's recipe for dark chocolate and ginger éclairs, which you can find here. However, to the crème patisserie I made minor changes. Sorted uses seven egg yolks in their ginger crème patisserie, which I was reluctant to do, simply because I knew the whites would just eventually be disposed of. Seven egg whites is a lot, and aside from making meringue based desserts etc., I couldn't recall many recipes that used egg whites- and I did not want to make macarons again. (Also, two egg whites makes plenty macarons, seven would make enough to feed an army!)
I also topped mine with a glossy ginger-chocolate sauce, rather than melted chocolate, because I prefer my sweet choux desserts to be topped with sauce, rather than chocolate that will set and harden.

Piping skills need work!

DARK CHOCOLATE GINGER ECLAIRS
So here we go; you can find the original recipe here.

GINGER CREME PATISSERIE RECIPE
To be completely honest, you can barely call it a recipe, its more of a simple variation. The recipe belongs very much to SortedFood. All I did was use whole eggs rather than separated, and use custard powder rather than corn flour for that lovely rich colour. You can use corn flour if you don't have custard powder.
INGREDIENTS
500ml Whole milk
1tsp Vanilla extract
1 Piece fresh ginger grated
75g Caster sugar
25g Plain flour
4tsp Custard powder
3 Whole eggs

The method I used is exactly the same, simply use the three whole eggs instead of the seven egg yolks, and substitute the corn flour with custard powder if you have it.

CHOCOLATE SAUCE
100g Dark chocolate
25g Butter
1tbsp Golden syrup
2tbsp Stem ginger syrup

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients in a pot and heat gently, stirring, until melted. Pour into an icing bag, snip off the end, and drizzle onto the éclairs.
2. Top the éclairs with chopped stem ginger pieces.

Chocolate Orange Pudding

This is a self-saucing pudding, which is basically a sponge cake-like batter into which a sauce is poured- but not mixed in- before baking. During the baking process, the sponge rises and the sauce remains in the bottom of the pan, hence the name. This recipe is a chocolate orange self saucing pudding, a delicious, warming dessert with a light yet rich chocolate orange sponge, and a fabulous chocolate orange sauce. It is best served hot straight from the oven with a dusting of icing sugar, and a side scoop of vanilla ice-cream, which makes it a wonderfully warming and satisfying winter dessert.

CHOCOLATE ORANGE PUDDING
INGREDIENTS:
300ml Milk
75g Dark chocolate
1/2tsp Vanilla extract
100g Caster sugar
100g Butter
150g Self-raising flour
2tbsp Cocoa
Grated rind of an orange
Icing sugar, to dust

FOR THE SAUCE:
3tbsp cocoa powder
50g Light muscovado sugar
150ml Freshly squeezed orange juice
150ml Boiling water

METHOD:

1. Lightly grease an 850ml ovenproof dish.
2. Break up the dark chocolate and add into the pan with the milk and orange rind. heat gently, stirring, until the chocolate melts. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
3. Beat together the caster sugar and butter in a pan until pale and fluffy. Sieve in the flour and cocoa powder. Pour in the chocolate milk mixture and beat until smooth, then pour the mixture into the prepared dish.
4. For the sauce, mix together the sugar and coca powder. Add a little boiling water to make a smooth paste, then stir in the rest of the boiling water and orange juice.
5. Carefully pour the sauce over the pudding mixture but do not mix in.
6. Place the dish on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 40 minutes on Gas Mark 4 until the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Leave to stand for approximately 5 minutes, then dust with icing sugar.
7. Serve immediately, with ice-cream if you wish.

VARIATIONS:

• For a chocolate pudding, omit the orange rind, and replace the 150ml of orange juice with 150ml of boiling water.
• For a mocha pudding, add in 1tbsp of instant coffee to the cocoa powder and sugar in step 4, before mixing to a paste with boiling water.

Gingerbread Biscuits

Biscuits are pretty great. Sweet or savoury, biscuits are wonderful to snack on, whether its with your morning cuppa, afternoon coffee, or bedtime hot chocolate. Of all biscuits, gingerbread is a firm favourite of mine. The spice of the ginger with the dark flavour of treacle and the sweet syrup combine to make this deliciously moreish biscuit.

GINGERBREAD BISCUITS
INGREDIENTS:
300g/10oz Self-raising flour
Pinch salt
6tsp Ginger powder
100g/4oz Caster sugar
50g/2oz Butter
2tbsp Golden syrup
2tbsp Black treacle
4tbsp Milk

Glace icing, glace cherries, raisins or chocolate drops to decorate, if one so wishes.

METHOD:

1. Heat oven to Gas Mark 3 (160C/325F)
2. Place flour, salt, and ginger in bowl.
3. Heat sugar, butter, golden syrup and treacle in a pot until melted.
4. Add to the dry ingredients
5. Add milk and mix to a firm consistency. Knead lightly with hands.
6. Roll out dough and cut into shapes. Place on a baking tray. Add decorations if you wish.
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes until done.
8. Allow to cool slightly, then place on a wire rack. Biscuits made with syrup are often soft when they come out of the oven, but will crispen on standing.  
9. Decorate with glace icing if you wish.

Crazy Days

Whoa! Its been a crazy two weeks! Where do I even start?!
Well, my mother (who was extremely ill) was hospitalised for two weeks, so, being the eldest around, all duties fell to me. and let me tell ya, being a mother is NOT easy. Add to that hospital runs, and studies, ungodly early mornings, and terrifyingly late nights... Blehh. I've barely had a moment to sit, let alone type up anything. For the first time in my life, I found myself watching Bake Off through half-closed eyes at 3am, thinking, 'when's this gonna end...' and counting down the minutes. Which is sad, because the last two episodes were darn interesting!
On the plus side, having to do majority of the cooking chores means I have heaps of recipes to share. On the negative, I've not had time to bake much. BUT, due to the celebration of Eid, I did make a delicious blueberry cheesecake, and a coffee-chocolate cheesecake, both of which were a hit. So those recipes are going to be coming up. There's also a cucumber, lime, and mint sorbette, which is refreshingly cool and summery, and vanilla Victoria sponge cake slices which looked 'rustic' (think: absolute mess) but tasted yummy. (I finally purchased vanilla bean paste, and let me tell you, the buttercream icing is absolutely DREAMY!) There's chocolate éclairs, a chocolate orange pudding which was delicious, chocolate orange cupcakes which were a disaster, though the mousse topping was delicious... Yeah, I think that's all. But for now, here's me dropping off in front of the screen, so I'm off to bed.

Oh, look! Its only half past one in the morning! An early night for a change. That is surprising!

Coffee & Pecan Cupcakes

Cupcake!

 So! The Recipe! Well. I packed up all the cupcakes and sent them off... And then I made some more. Because I wanted cupcakes and there were none left. And guess what? This time, I made the coffee chocolate crème before I began with the cupcakes, and it thickened and set beautifully! And these cupcakes were much, much more yummier! For the first batch of cupcakes, I used the step-by-step Butter-and-sugar, then eggs, then flour and flavours method, but for the second batch, I used the all in one method, and I was done so much quicker. Also, For the first batch, because the crème did not set enough (I lack patience), I mixed in extra blitzed nuts. Today, I didn't bother, because there was no need. I did, however, add extra into the cake mixture to balance the coffee, and to make up for the lack of nuts in the crème. I also used a Philadelphia/cream icing for the top today, which is much smoother, and tasted better (I think, anyway), so I'll mention that recipe, however, if you do want to use the mascarpone-cream frosting recipe, head over to my Tiramisu cupcakes post, and you'll find that recipe there.
(Also, the coffee-chocolate crème recipe and idea is shamelessly stolen from the episode of Sweets Made Simple by Kitty Hope and Mark Greenwood) (I have no regrets.)

COFFEE AND PECAN CUPCAKES
Makes approximately 18

INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE CAKE:
4oz Baking butter
4oz Caster sugar
4oz Self-Raising Flour
1tsp Baking powder
3oz Pecans, Blitzed
3tsp Instant coffee, dissolved in 2tsp boiling water
2oz Grated dark chocolate
2tsp Vanilla extract

FOR THE COFFEE CREME:
4tbsp Coffee and Chicory essence
3tbsp Cold water
2tbsp Light soft brown sugar
100g Milk chocolate, broken into pieces.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
142ml Double/whipping cream
140g Philadelphia
1tsp Vanilla extract
Icing sugar to sweeten.

METHOD:
FOR THE COFFEE CREME:

1. Place coffee and chicory in a small saucepan. Add in the water and sugar and bring to a boil, stirring. lower the heat and let simmer for 1 minute.
2. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate, whisking until melted and well combined.
3. Let it cool slightly, and then place into the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, until thickened and set slightly.

FOR THE CAKE:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, chocolate and pecans. Add in butter, eggs, vanilla extract and coffee, and beat on high speed for 2-3 minutes, until well combined.
2. Divide into cupcake cases, putting in enough batter so that they're 3/4 full.
3. Bake on Gas Mark 5 (Moderately hot) for 15-18 minutes, until they have risen well and the skewer comes out clean.
4. Leave to cool.
5. Once cooled, carefully cut a circle into the top of each cake. Lift out gently and place a spoonful of crème into each, replacing with the cut out cake. Press in gently. (It may ooze out a little, but that doesn't matter, it'll get covered with the frosting.)

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:

1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and stir gently until combined. Whisk in medium/high speed until thickened. It will still have a slightly soft consistency. Do not over whip, as it may split.
2. Place in a piping bag with a star nozzle, and pipe over each cupcake.
3. Decorate cupcakes with whole pecans, dust with cocoa, or leave plain. It's up to you, really, whatever suits your fancy.

This process may seem slightly lengthy, but its worth it, I swear. The whole process, took me two hours- more or less- from start to finish, including clean up, breakfast, and various other chores. Making the frosting whilst the cakes are cooking saves time, and the best thing is, you don't need to let the cakes cool completely before filling them with the crème, and by the time you're done doing that, they're cooled enough for the frosting, because the crème is chilled enough to cool the cupcake.
I think cupcakes make such wonderful wedding favours, don't you?

They remind me of 99p flake ice-cream cones for some reason.

(My blogger is messing up again. It's not letting me add any pictures. I'll try again later. However, you can find picures on my Instagram page, @emmyjay19 , and on my twitter page, @MyraJay7 if you wish.)
EDIT: Ok, pictures working again.

Cupcakes...

My father requested that I make cupcakes for him to share with his work colleagues. Well, of course I jumped at the opportunity to try out a new recipe... but then I was stumped. What flavours should I go for? What should go in the middle? What should they be topped with? I don't want to do something dull and boring, because, to be honest, baking generic, dull things is tedious and mind-numbingly boring, and extremely off putting. If I want to make something, I want it to be exciting! It has to be original, new, different, wonderful!... otherwise what's the point?
... I think I'm going to go with coffee and pecan.
Yes, yes, that's quite generic and so normal, quite a classic, I know, I know. But I have to take into consideration the recipients of said cupcakes, while they're not old, shrivelled up dried prunes that enjoy nothing more that looking down their noses at all thing experimental and new, they're probably not going to appreciate something crazy such as black pepper and honey, or earl grey and orange. And my father finds the colour of red velvet absolutely repulsive. same goes for blue velvet, purple, or green. He's not a fan of strange, or vibrant coloured food. (He once told me that the brown colour of chocolate ice-cream was off-putting, and therefore made it look unpalatable. I was left bemused and temporarily speechless.) But. Generic though the flavour combinations may be, I guarantee you my cupcakes will be opposite. (Fingers firmly crossed!)
I plan on making them tomorrow. For the cupcakes, I intend to loosely follow the recipe for the tiramisu cupcakes, adding into it ground pecans. After the cakes are done, I shall cut of some of the top and add a filling of coffee and chocolate crème. And as for the topping, well, I've not decided yet. Maybe I'll go for a mascarpone frosting, or a white chocolate frosting with a dash of coffee, topped with the classic pecan half? hmm. I don't want to add so much coffee so as to overbalance the taste of pecan, but then again, if its a coffee cupcake, it should really taste of coffee. I don't know. I'll wing it when the time comes!
So hopes on line for tomorrow! I shall post my results. And pictures...

UPDATE:
I decided to get an early start today; make the cakes, then pop to Asda while they cool for mascarpone and cream... so I prepped my ingredients, and put the butter and sugar in the Kenwood to cream... and then discovered I had no cupcake cases left, except garish pink ones with hearts and heels that are truly an eyesore. So a trip to Asda for five ingredients turned into an hour long trip that resulted in us coming back with half the week's shopping, and many other things besides.
Anyway, the cakes are done and cool, (and taste yummy according to my mother) and I'm just waiting for the crème to chill and set slightly, so I can finish filling and decorating the cupcakes. I'm sorely tempted to put the damn thing in the quick freeze, it's taking that long. I knew I should have done that first!
Aw hell, I'm putting it in the quick freeze. Fingers crossed it doesn't form ice crystals and turn into a gelato-sorbette hybrid.


UPDATE (LATER STILL..)
Whooooo they taste great! And they look pretty darn good too. I made 20 for my father's colleagues, as requested, and there were a few extra besides, which are all gone now. (Majority were scoffed by my younger siblings as soon as they returned from school.) All that's left to do is pack them up into individual cupcake boxes to be sent off tomorrow, but I've left that bit for morning, because I find that the cupcakes tend to absorb the smell of cardboard if left in the boxes too long.
Overall, they're a pretty darn good take on the classic coffee and walnut cake, if the reactions (and empty plates) are anything to go by. My momma has already requested that I make more so she can 'enjoy them with her cuppa.' I shall post the recipe tomorrow. Or whenever I can. Which will hopefully be soon...

Paprika, Parsley & Cheese Chilli Plaited Loaf

 

There it is, all finished now.

I love bread. Whenever I go to the supermarket, I always spend ages at the bread counter, looking at, and gaining inspiration from all the flavours of the rolls and twists and buns. Mmm. More than that, I love making bread at home, experimenting with sweet and savoury flavours. The only thing about bread is that it is quite time consuming; not the individual parts of the process, but the process as a whole, the waiting, mainly. So I don't make it as often as I'd like. But after all the hype about bread this week, yes, I am talking about Bake-off, I really wanted to make bread. And so I did. Paprika, parsley and cheese chilli bread. The lovely smell permeates the house, and it tastes absolutely wonderful. I realised, when I was watching Bake-off, that I do the exact thing I accuse my mother of doing, which is just throwing in amounts of ingredients, seemingly at random. It's like those old fashioned cookbooks, before the concept of standardised measuring cups and spoons was brought about courtesy of Fannie Farmer (yes, I watch far too many repeats of QI); 'take a goodly pinch of spice...', But I do the exact same thing when I'm cooking or baking a recipe I am familiar with. So today, when making this bread, I endeavoured to measure the amounts of ingredients so that I may write up this recipe accurately.  I ran out of parsley though, fresh and dried, which was irksome. And then there wasn't enough mature cheddar, so I used some Red Leicester as well. And also, I think it still needed more chilli, although last time I made it, it was far too chilli, (and the taste of chilli develops with each passing day) to the point that on the third day, you could not warm it without the scent of chilli permeating the air, making your throat itch and your eyes sting, and giving you a raw cough for the rest of the day... anyway. I use Paul Hollywood's basic bloomer recipe (I always feel a bit weird typing 'Paul Hollywood's Bloomer' into Google...), adjusting it to suit whichever bread I want to make. So here we go: (The name's a bit of a mouthful, sorry, I'm working on it) (or not. It's going to stick once this thing is published...)

PAPRIKA, PARSLEY AND CHEESE CHILLI PLAITED LOAF:

Mise.

(Makes two loaves)
INGREDIENTS
500g Strong white bread flour
7g Instant yeast
10g Crushed sea salt
320ml Warm water
40ml Olive oil
150g Grated mature cheddar
2tsp Paprika
1tsp Ground red chilli flakes, or alternatively, 2tsp chilli grind
1tsp Freshly ground black pepper
Large handful fresh cleaned parsley, chopped

METHOD

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with 4tsp sugar. Cover and set aside until doubled in size.
2. Mix together the rest of the ingredients. Pour in the water/yeast mixture and mix until you get a soft, sticky dough.
3. Flour a clean work surface. Tip out dough and knead until it becomes stretchy, smooth, and elastic. Alternatively, you can place all the ingredients in an electric mixer with the dough hook attachment, and let it do for 7-10 minutes on a medium speed. (That's what I did. I'm lazy.)
4. Place in a well oiled bowl, Clingfilm, and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
5. Once doubled, knock back, tip onto a floured surface, and split into two. Split each half into three. Roll the pieces of dough to make plait strands, then plait, and place onto an oiled and floured baking tray, making sure to tuck both ends underneath. Brush with milk, sprinkle with sea salt and chilli flakes, then cover lightly and leave to prove once again until doubled in size.
6. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5. Place a tray filled with boiling water on the bottom shelf of the oven. Bake bread on the middle shelf of the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes until almost done, then turn up the heat, and bake until the top is golden brown. Remove from oven, transfer onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool slightly before cutting.

Slightly messy plaiting, but that's allowed when its just for
home, right?

Proved and ready to bake.

 (Sorry for the messy layout. The editing on this thing, plus sketchy wifi, is driving me crazy.)

Rosemary & Sea Salt Focaccia

Finally got round to the focaccia recipe I mentioned earlier. So, here it is! Have at it!

ROSEMARY & SEASALT FOCACCIA
INGREDIENTS:
1tbsp dried yeast
425g/ 15oz Strong White Bread Flour, plus extra for dusting
2tsp finely crushed Sea Salt
Leaves from 5-7 Rosemary sprigs, two-thirds finely chopped
90ml/ 3floz Olive Oil, plus extra for greasing
1/4tsp freshly ground black pepper
Sea Salt, to sprinkle

METHOD:

1. Sprinkle yeast over 4tbsp warm water. Leave for 5 minutes, stirring once.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour with the salt and make a well in the centre.
3. Add the rosemary, 4tbsp olive oil, yeast, pepper, and 240ml/ 8floz lukewarm water.
4. Gradually draw in the flour and work it into the other ingredients to form a smooth dough. The dough should be soft and sticky. do not be tempted to add more flour to dry it out.
5. Sprinkle the dough with flour and knead for 5-7 minutes on a floured surface. When ready, the dough will be very smooth and elastic. Place in an oiled bowl.
6. Cover with a damp tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place for for one- one and a half hours until doubled in size.

   

   Ready for the oven!

7. Place the dough on a floured work surface and knock out the air. Cover with a dry tea towel and let it rest for 5 minutes. Brush a 38x23cm tin with oil.
8. Transfer the dough to the tin. With your hands, flatten the dough to fill the tin evenly.
9. Cover with a tea towel and  leave to rise in a warm place for 35-40 minutes until puffed. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 6 (200C/400F). Scatter the reserved rosemary leaves on top.
10. With your fingers, poke the dough all over to make deep dimples. Pour spoonfuls of the remaining oil all over the dough and sprinkle with Sea Salt.
11. Bake on the top shelf for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned. Transfer to a wire rack. Let cool slightly, cut and enjoy.

The smell of freshly baked bread is one of the best in the world!

This recipe is courtesy of the DK Step-By-Step Baking recipe book, an amazing book by Caroline Bretherton, which consists of hundreds of easy recipes. Do yourself a favour and purchase it. I swear you wont regret it!