Comfort | The Mindfulness Kitchen

Almond, Blood Orange and Raspberry Cake

By Emma Hawkins | March 7, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

Blood oranges are the delicious ingredient that I think is about to flood the food world and hit the mainstream. They have a very unusual flavour – sort of the classic orange taste with a fruity kick similar to strawberries in the background. This makes it a perfect partner for almonds and raspberries, which when all mixed into a cake tastes delicious! They also have an incredible natural pink colour – this icing is just blood orange juice and icing sugar, no food colouring!

Depending on the size of orange you use the mixture has the potential to end up very wet. If this happens there’s a chance the cake could take too long to cook and end up burnt on the outside and raw in the middle. Therefore, if this happens, I’d recommend adding a couple more tbsp of flour to the mixture to thicken it up – it’s not really the done thing in the world of baking but it works for me. If you’re unsure if your mixture is too wet or not you can check it using the v test. Take a blob of mixture on the wooden spoon you’ve been mixing with and sharply shake the spoon once to drop the mixture off it. If the mixture hanging off the spoon is a v shape it’s ready!

Recipe

Makes 1 cake

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

250g Butter
200g Caster sugar
60g Clear honey
4 Large eggs
140g Greek Yoghurt
1 tsp Almond extract
250g Self-raising flour
100g Ground Almonds
1tsp Baking powder
200g Frozen raspberries
Zest of 3 Bood oranges
Juice of 2 Blood oranges

To decorate:

1 Blood orange
200g Icing sugar
A sprinkle of Freeze dried raspberries
25g Flaked almonds

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Take a rectangular pound cake tin and line with butter and baking paper.
Put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and creamy. Add the honey, eggs, yoghurt, and almond extract and whisk together to combine.
Sift in the flour, ground almonds, and baking powder and whisk into the mixture until smooth.
Add the orange juice, zest and the raspberries into the mixture and fold with a spatula to combine.
Pour the batter into the lined tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for around 55 minutes, until it’s risen, starting to brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Take the cake out of the tin and leave to cool completely.
Meanwhile make the icing. Cut the blood orange in half and juice one of the halves, setting the other to one side for later.
Put the icing sugar into a bowl and pour in the juice. Stir to make a smooth icing.
When the cake is completely cooled drizzle the icing over the cake. Slice the remaining 1/2 orange into chunks and arrange then on top of the cake. Finish with a sprinkle with the freeze dried raspberries and flaked almonds. Serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie

By Emma Hawkins | March 4, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

My bakes never last very long in my house. Leave something on the kitchen table and it seems to disappear within a day or two, and this cinnamon roll apple pie is no exception! This style of pie crust is becoming a bit of a food trend, flooding every kind of social media. My sister knows I’m a big fan of cinnamon rolls and apple pie so I first saw the idea when my she tagged me in a post on it, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make my own!

Instead of making (or buying) a dough for the crust – as you would if you were making cinnamon rolls – I’m using a shop-bought shortcrust here for two reasons, 1) it’s more sturdy and therefore a better container for the apple filling, and 2) it’s a lot quicker and easier to work with, and will therefore help you get a tight roll which should make the pie more aesthetically appealing. This also means that it’s not too tricky or time consuming to make, so if you want to make something that looks cool but doesn’t require too much culinary nous this is a good one to try.

I was experimenting on this one a bit which is why it doesn’t look very neat, but I’ve now worked out how to make it look better. Originally I tried to roll the little rolls together into one sheet (as above) but this didn’t work as the individual rolls didn’t fuse together. Therefore I’d recommend doing what I ended up doing next – roll each little roll out to the thickness you want it to be (about 1/2 the thickness of a pound coin) and then line the tin with these flat discs, overlapping and pressing adjacent rolls together so they fuse when cooking and so there’s no gaps. That said though, even if it doesn’t look completely neat it’s guaranteed to taste good so don’t worry!

Recipe

Serves 8

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

For the crust

2 tbsp Ground cinnamon
80g Light brown sugar
2 packs of ready rolled shortcrust pastry (I used Jus-Rol)
60g Butter
Flour for dusting
1 Egg, beaten

For the filling

6 Medium sized Bramley apples
140g Caster sugar
½ tsp Ground cinnamon
3 tbsp Flour

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.
Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and set to one side. Lay out the pastry on your surface. Spread over the butter and then sprinkle over the cinnamon sugar mix so that it covers the whole sheet of pastry in an even layer.
Roll the pastry up from the short end, like a swiss roll, to make a tightly rolled log. Wrap the roll in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile begin to prep the filling. Peel, core and slice the apples and then wrap them in layers of kitchen roll and set to one side, (this will help to take some of the moisture out of the fruit so you don’t end up with soggy bottom pastry).
Put the sugar, cinnamon and flour for the filling into a bowl, mix and set aside for later.
Take the pastry out of the fridge and put it onto a chopping board. Take a sharp knife and slice the roll into discs about the thickness of a pound coin.
Lightly flour a surface. Then take one of the discs and use a rolling pin to flatten it into a thinner disc, about half the thickness it was before. Repeat with 2/3 of the discs.
Take these discs and line the tin with them, starting from the centre of the base and working up the sides of the tin until you have a little overhang. Press the discs together so that they fuse and there’s no gaps.
Put the apples into the bowl of sugar, cinnamon and flour. Mix everything together and then tip this into the pie case.
Cover your work surface with a sheet of clingfilm and arrange the rest of the pastry rolls on it in a round shape, making sure they’re close together. Cover these with another layer of clingfilm (this will make it easier to work with them) and then roll over them with a rolling pin to merge them into a single sheet. You want this sheet to be about 1 cm wider than the pie tin do that it comes into contact with the overhanging pastry.
Brush the edge of the pie with a little water. Then take off one of the layers of clingfilm and flip the pastry sheet onto the top of the pie. Then take the other sheet of clingfilm off the pastry sheet.
Take a knife and use it at a 45˚ angle to cut off the extra pastry around the edge. Then crimp the edge of the pie to seal everything by pinching the pastry between your thumb and first finger on one hand and your first finger on the other.
Brush the top of the pie with the beaten egg to glaze and then bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and crisp.
Leave to cool slightly before serving with cream, custard or ice cream!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Chicken and Bacon Pasta Bake

By Emma Hawkins | February 28, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

I’m heading towards the end of another term at art school and this one has just flown by. Having the time this year to paint, draw and bake as and when I want is a great experience and it’s sad to think I only have a few more months of it left, not to mention the incredible people I’m going to be leaving behind. Next year I’m going on to Uni and the proper student ‘living on a budget and working in a tiny kitchen’ experience that comes with it. When I get there I won’t have the money, time, or equipment to be knocking up a four tiered celebration cake each week (unfortunately) so I thought I’d start developing some quick, student-friendly meals to get me into the spirit of it all.

From what my friends have been telling me pasta is the main staple food for most students, and so a pasta bake was the first thing that came to mind when I thought of student cooking. Stuffed with cheap vegetables and meat, this pasta bake is a really easy, nutritionally sound meal to indulge on. It’s also easily adaptable for any dietary requirements, and can be frozen, so if you make too much just whop the rest in the freezer for another day. I find that a big bowl of cheesy pasta is sometimes all I need to get through a horrible essay, and this will defo do the job!

Recipe

Serves 6

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

350g Pasta
1 tbsp Vegetable oil
3 Chicken thigh fillets
8 Bacon rashers
1 White onion
1 Yellow pepper
1 Red pepper
2 Garlic cloves
1 tbsp Tomato puree
1/2 tsp Mixed herbs
800g Chopped tomatoes
100ml Single cream
2 Handfuls of baby spinach
150g Grated cheddar
1 Ball of mozerella
1 Handful fo Basil

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.
Boil a pan of water over a high heat. Add the pasta and boil until it’s just cooked, but still has a bite. Leave to sit in the water until needed.
Next pour the oil into a large saucepan and put over a medium heat. Cut the chicken into chunks with kitchen scissors and fry in the oil until it’s cooked on all sides. Take the chicken out of the pan and leave on a plate for now.
Then put the grill on full heat and cook the bacon under it. Cook the bacon until it’s nice and crispy, turning it over half way through cooking.
Peel and finely chop the onion and then add it to the pan you cooked the chicken in. Fry the onion until it begins to caramelise.
Meanwhile deseed and chop the pepper, and then chop the garlic. Add these two the pan with the onion and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the tomato puree, herbs, chopped tomatoes, and the cooked chicken to the pan and leave to simmer for 10 minutes until the sauce starts to reduce.
Add the cream and spinach to the pan, mix to combine, and then set to one side. Drain the pasta from the water and then add the pasta to the pan with the tomatoes. Stir everything together and then tip it all into a large oven proof dish.
Sprinkle over the grated cheddar. Then tear the mozzarella into chunks and place this over the top of the pasta bake.
Put the dish in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and then serve with garlic bread and a side salad!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Billionaires Freakshake Cheesecake

By Emma Hawkins | February 25, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

The other day I was milling around on Pinterest, as you do, and I stumbled across something that’s becoming a bit of a new food trend – the freakshake. For those who don’t know it’s basically a milkshake in a funky jar, topped with tonnes of tasty treats such as brownies, waffles, popcorn, cream etc. I almost got diabetes just looking at it, and so naturally I decided to do a spin off of my own.

For some reason I’ve never made a cheesecake before, so I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to go for it. Hence the billionaires freakshake cheesecake was born- a stunning vanilla cheesecake topped with every indulgent treat out there, with a general theme of the flavours of billionaires shortbread thrown in. This is insanely good for a night in/movie night/house party, but as those don’t come around every day it’s understandable that this might look a bit over-the-top for the every day household. Therefore I’ve included a list of alternative ways of topping the basic cheesecake at the bottom of the post, as the simple vanilla base is a delicious canvas for any flavour of cheesecake.

This takes very little effort or skill to make, but it does need time to set, so I’d recommend making this the day before you need it and leaving it to chill overnight. That way you can be sure that it’ll be set for when you want to serve it, and you won’t end up with cheesecake flopping all over your kitchen worktop.

Recipe

Serves 12

Time: 45 minutes plus chilling

Ingredients

For the Base:

100g Butter
300g Digestive biscuits

For the Filling:

1 tbsp Vanilla bean paste
550g Soft cheese
75g Icing sugar
250ml Double crem

For the Topping:

100ml Double cream
100g Milk chocolate
1 Box mini millionaire shortbreads
1 Box of mini brownies
100g Raspberries
100g Strawberries
3 Crunchies
1 Bag of twirl bites
A handful of Caramel popcorn

Method

Begin by making the base. Put the butter into a pan and melt over a medium heat.
Then take the biscuits, put them into a large bowl and break them up into crumbs with the back of a rolling pin. Pour the butter into the bowl and then mix it all together until the biscuits begin to clump together.
Take a 21cm cake tin and line it with butter and cling film. Tip in the crushed biscuit mix and smooth it over with the back of a spoon to make a compact layer of even thickness. Put this into the fridge whilst you make the next layer.
Put the vanilla and cream cheese into a bowl and whisk together until the cream cheese begins to soften. Add the icing sugar and double cream and mix again until smooth and the mixture starts to thicken.
Pour the creamy mixture onto the biscuit base. Smooth it over with a spoon or palette knife to make an even layer and then put back into the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours (better overnight).
When the basic cheesecake is ready begin prepping the toppings. Put the cream into a bowl and whisk it until it forms soft peaks. Put this into a piping bag with a star shaped nozzle and leave in the fridge until needed.
Then put the chocolate into a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and leave to melt. Then transfer it to another piping bag with a small round nozzle and get ready to start decorating!
Begin by stacking up the larger elements of your decoration, such as the millionaires shortbread and brownies, in the centre of the cheesecake. Then place the fruit, popcorn and chocolates in and around these to build up the stack. Cut some of the shortbread bites and chocolates into quarters and sprinkle them over the cheesecake to top it off. Finish the decorating by piping the cream into any gaps and then drizzle over the chocolate.
Serve and enjoy!

Alternatives:

For all of the following make the cheesecake as written in steps 1-5. Then take 300ml of double cream and whisk to soft peaks. Tip this onto the cheesecake and smooth out with a palette knife to make an even layer and then top with the following –

Berry Bonanza Cheesecake – Scatter over a handful each of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries and garnish with fresh mint!

Banoffee Cheesecake – Slice two bananas into discs about the thickness of a pound coin. Drizzle a little lemon juice over the banana slices so they don’t brown over time. Arrange these slices on top of the cheesecake. Put a little salted caramel sauce into a piping bag with a small round nozzle and drizzle the cheesecake with it. Serve!

Lemon Meringue Cheesecake – Take a lemon and cut into into very thin discs. Put 100ml of water into a pan and add the lemon slices. Boil for 2 minutes and then drain the lemon and set them to one side. Put 100g of sugar and water into a pan and bring to the boil, whilst stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Then stop stirring and add the lemon slices. Leave to simmer, but not boil, for about 1 hour. Take out of the pan using tongs and leave to set on a lined baking tray. Take some small meringues and either arrange them around the edge of the cheesecake or crush and sprinkle them over the cheesecake, depending on the size of them. Decorated with your candid lemon and finish with a drizzle of lemon curd.

Amaretto Cheesecake – Crush some amaretto biscuits and sprinkle them over the cheesecake. Sprinkle over some toasted flaked almonds and finish with a dusting of icing sugar.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Spiced Plum Creme Brulee

By Emma Hawkins | February 21, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

It’s the middle of the week and so here’s a little comfort food recipe to brighten the day. Call me pretentious, but whatever the weather I can never say no to a well made crème brulee. For me a sweet set custard with a crunchy caramel top is heaven in a ramekin. So, as always when making my own recipe, I’ve decided to take the classic and customise it a bit.

Since I was little fresh fruit and custard has been a staple comfort food dessert. Chop up some bananas/peaches/plums, whop a bit of custard on them and I’m happy. So it makes sense that when some spiced plums are popped into the bottom of a ramekin and then toped with custard and baked, it creates a stunningly tasty pot of goodness that brings back memories of sitting on the sofa with the flu, wrapped in a blanket and watching Disney.

(Note: If you don’t have a blowtorch you can caramelise the sugar under the grill. Be careful with this though as it can burn very easily (as I’ve done a bit in these ones))

Recipe

Serves 5

Time: 30 minutes prep time, 40 minutes cooking time

Ingredients

4 Plums
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ginger
350ml Double cream
1 tbsp Vanilla bean paste
70g Caster sugar
4 Egg yolks

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 150˚C.
Begin by preparing the plums. Cut the plums in half and remove the stones. Then cut them into eighths. Pat the segments down with kitchen roll to remove any excess moisture, (this is important as too much moisture from the plums will cause the custard to split).
Then put the segments into a bowl and sprinkle over the cinnamon and ginger. Stir around in the bowl to coat in the spices and then leave to one side for now.
Put the cream and vanilla into a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Then reduce the heat and simmer for a couple more minutes.
Take a heatproof bowl and put the sugar and egg yolks into it. The whisk them until pale and fluffy (I use a hand whisk, but an electric whisk can also be used here).
Pour the cream slowly over the egg mixture, whisking continuously as you do so until it’s all incorporated.
Put a sieve over a jug and strain the mixture through it.
Share the plums out between 5 ramekins, making a little layer of them in the bottom of each ramekin.
Pour the crème brulee mix over the top so that it comes 2/3 up the sides of the ramekins.
Take a large roasting tin and put the crème brulees into it. Rest this on the middle oven shelf and then pour hot water into the tin so it comes ½ way up the sides of the ramekins.
Push the tin fully into the oven, cover with a baking tray, leaving a gap at one side of the tin to allow steam to escape, and bake for 40-45 minutes. You want them to be mostly set with a little wobble in the middle.
Take the tin out of the oven and remove the ramekins from the water to chill.
You can keep these cooled, set custards in the fridge for up to 3 days, until needed.
When ready to serve sprinkle 1tsp of caster sugar over the each crème brulee. Then take a blowtorch (or put under the grill) and heat lightly to caramelise.
Leave the caramel to set slightly before serving!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x