Category: Baking
Cheesy Garlic Focaccia

Cheesy Garlic Focaccia

By | | Comments 0 Comment

I’ve always had this unhealthy obsession with garlic bread. When I was at Primary School, every year they’d have this hot-rods competition where you’d be given a block of wood and four wheels and you’d have to make them into something that could be raced down a ramp. One year I basically baked and varnished a loaf of garlic bread and stuck it on top of the wood. It was very weird, but hey, I did win the originality prize that year!

With my bread racing days behind me, now I just eat my garlic bread, and this is one of the best! Focaccia is a very soft Italian bread which is a perfect base for garlic bread as it’s soft and easy to share. The dough requires a lot of water to get this soft, open structure to it, so it can be petty hard to work with. Rather than kneading the dough on a work top I’ve found that kneading it in a bowl makes everything a lot easier, and also means that you don’t waste as much dough from it being suck on the table!

In most garlic breads the garlic isn’t actually in the bread, but is rather a garlic butter that’s sandwiched in between slices of the bread, or is spread on the top. In this one I’ve put a little garlic into the dough itself, but to give it more of a garlic hit I’ve also spread it with garlic butter when it’s warm out of the oven! You also don’t have to use cheese if you don’t want it, it’s completely personal preference, but I find that it gives the whole thing a delicious tang on the top!

Recipe

Makes 1 loaf

Time: 1 hour, plus proving time

Ingredients

  • 500g Strong white bread flour
  • 10g Salt
  • 14g Yeast
  • 2tbsp Olive oil
  • 1 tbsp Garlic paste
  • 400ml Warm (but not hot!) water
  • 1 Large egg, beaten
  • 50g Strong cheddar cheese, grated
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 50g Unsalted butter

Method

  1. Put the flour into a bowl. Then add the salt and yeast on opposite sides of the bowl, followed by the oil, garlic paste and the water. Mix everything together with your fingers until a dough starts to form. Then knead/stretch the dough in the bowl for 10 minutes until smooth and stretchy.
  2. Tip the dough into another, lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Leave to rise for about an hour until doubled in size.
  3. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Punch the risen dough down in the bowl to knock it back. Then pour/tip the dough onto the lined tin and shape it into a rough rectangle. Oil a piece of cling film and then cover the loaf, oil side down, and leave to rise for another hour.
  4. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Use your fingers to punch holes into the loaf and then brush the bread with the beaten egg. Bake the loaf in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until a soft crust has formed.
  5. Take the bread out of the oven and then sprinkle with the grated cheese. Then pop the loaf back into the oven to bake for 5-10 minutes, until golden brown and baked through.
  6. To make the garlic butter crush or finely chop the garlic. Then add it to the butter and mix until the butter is soft and the garlic is mixed through.
  7. Whilst the bread is still warm, slice the loaf into strips and brush each strip on both sides with the butter. Enjoy!

 

Why not try…

If you love cheese, and really love cheesy garlic bread, you can take this to the next level by adding mozzarella. About 5 minutes before the bread’s done, when you put on the cheddar in step 5, slice the bread into strips almost all the way through, but leave a little space at the end so it’s still all joined together. Then slice the bread the other way so you get criss-cross squares of bread. Take a ball of mozzarella and tear it up, and then push the cheese into the gaps between the bread slices. Top with the cheddar and put back in the oven until melted!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Mirror Glaze Chocolate Gateau  

Mirror Glaze Chocolate Gateau  

By | | Comments 0 Comment

I’m back to what I really love making – complex patisserie! Being the massive baking nerd that I am I love making things like this that take ages but look really cool once finished. This gateau is mirror glazed, which is a kind of icing that has a gorgeous reflective finish. I always find something really elegant about mirror glazed things and when done right they can look really professional. They also have this deceptive, exterior simplicity to them which is broken when they’re cut into and all the layers, colour and textures pour out, like the doors being opened to a vibrant party.

The trick when making something like this is just to take your time and to not rush any of the steps. I actually made this one over three days, partly because I was a bit busy and so I was making elements whenever I had some free time. This meant that I could leave each element to set completely which was really useful for when it came to assembling, although it would also be possible to make this in a single day if you wanted to.

Recipe

Serves 10

Time: 3 1/2 hours plus lots of chilling

Ingredients

For the Brownie

  • 55g Butter
  • 70g Dark chocolate
  • 1 Medium egg
  • 70g Caster sugar
  • 15g Plain flour

For the Jelly

  • 200g Frozen Strawberries
  • 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
  • 50g Caster sugar
  • 2 1/2 Leaves of Gelatine

For the Crispy layer

  • 100g Cornflakes
  • 50g Milk chocolate

For the Mousse

  • 3 1/2 Leaves of Gelatine
  • 175g Milk chocolate
  • 175g Dark chocolate
  • 220ml Milk
  • 350ml Double cream

For the Glaze

  • 150ml Double cream
  • 135g Caster sugar
  • 60g Cocoa powder
  • 3 Leaves of Gelatine

To Decorate

  • 2 Fresh strawberries

Method

  1. Begin by making the brownie. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Grease and line a 12.5 cm round tin with butter and baking paper.
  2. Put the butter and chocolate into a glass bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and leave to melt.
  3. In another bowl whisk the eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Pour in the chocolate mixture and stir together until smooth. Add the flour and mix it in until everything is combined.
  4. Pour the brownie mixture into the lined tin and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until a crispy top has formed and the cake is still a little gooey. Take the cake out of the tin and then leave it to cool until needed.
  5. To make the jelly put the strawberries, lemon juice and sugar into a pan and bring to the boil. Then leave to simmer until the sugar has dissolved and the strawberries have become a mush (about 15 minutes).
  6. In another bowl leave the gelatine to soak in some cold water for 5 minutes, until it’s soft and flexible.
  7. Blend the strawberry mix into a puree with a hand blender and then add the gelatine to the warm mixture. Stir until the gelatine is completely dissolved and then leave to cool.
  8. Line a 12.5 cm round tin with cling film and then pour the cooled jelly mix into the tin. Leave to set in the fridge for at least 3 hours or until needed.
  9. Next make the crispy layer. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.
  10. Pour the melted chocolate into a bowl with the cornflakes and mix everything together until the flakes are completely coated in the chocolate.
  11. Line a 12.5 cm round tin with clingfilm again like you did with the jelly, and then tip the cornflake mixture into the tin. Even the layer out with a spoon so that it’s relatively flat. Then leave to cool/set and leave to one side until needed.
  12. When everything’s ready (the brownie, jelly and crispy layer) you’re ready to make the mousse. Put the gelatine into a bowl with some cold water and leave to soak.
  13. Finely chop the chocolate until it’s the texture of a broken up ice cream flake. Then transfer the chocolate to a bowl.
  14. Heat the milk in a pan until it reaches a boil. Take the pan off the heat, squeeze the gelatine to remove excess water and then stir it into the milk until dissolved. Then pour the warm milk over the chocolate to melt it and stir to make sure it’s smooth. Set aside to cool.
  15. Pour the cream into a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form. When the chocolate mix is completely cool, fold the whipped cream into the mixture until the colour is even and the mixture is smooth.
  16. Line a 17.5 cm tin with clingfilm. Pour a little of the mousse mixture into the lined tin so that it just covers the base. Leave the tin in the fridge for 30 minutes to set this layer.
  17. Once set, carefully place the jelly layer in the centre of the entremet. Then top the jelly layer with the brownie and then the crispy layer. Pour the rest of the mousse over the layers so that they’re completely covered. Then leave everything in the fridge to set for at least 4 hours, or better overnight.
  18. When ready make the glaze. Put the cream, sugar, cocoa and 150ml water into a pan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to the boil and then leave for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool slightly.
  19. Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water for about 5 minutes, until flexible. Squeeze out the excess water and then add the gelatine to the glaze and stir to dissolve.
  20. Cool the glaze down to 38˚C and then it’s ready to use. This can take a while so I’ve found that transferring it into another bowl and whisking it every so often will help! Sieve the glaze to make it super smooth.
  21. Unmould your gateau and place it on a wire rack with a large roasting tin underneath to catch the excess glaze that will drip off. Then pour the glaze over the cake so it evenly covers the gateau. Leave the gateau for 30 minutes to allow the glaze to set slightly.
  22. Quarter your strawberries and then place them around the top of the gateau. Serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Rhubarb and Custard Cruffins

Rhubarb and Custard Cruffins

By | | Comments 0 Comment

If I’m being honest, cruffins to me sounds more like a dodgy disease than a bake, but thankfully it’s not. It’s actually a delish fusion of a flaky croissant and a muffin, resulting in a kinda cruffin lovechild if you will. The croissant dough is shaped and then baked in a muffin tin, and then these pastries are traditionally filled with all sorts of custards, creams and jams.

Whilst rhubarb and custard are a great classic combo, custard will go with pretty much anything so don’t feel as though you have to go with this particular pairing. My Dad really hates rhubarb and he won’t go near the stuff, so if you’re likewise averted to rhubarb you can use any other fruit jam you like.  I’d recommend going for something with a bit of bite, like a lemon curd or a raspberry jam rather than a strawberry or cherry jam, as otherwise things can get a bit sweet. Likewise, if you don’t like custard, whipped cream works really well to! If you do use cream though make sure you chill them in the fridge when not needed, and eat them within 2-3 days.

Recipe

Makes 8

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • Butter for greasing
  • 350g Ready-to-roll Croissant pastry (see mince pie croissants recipe if you’d like to make your own dough!)
  • 175ml Whole milk
  • 1 tsp Vanilla bean paste
  • 2 Egg yolks
  • 30g Caster sugar
  • 25ml Double cream
  • 13g Custard powder
  • 2 tbsp Rhubarb jam
  • Icing sugar to dust

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Grease 6 hole in a 12-hole muffin tin with butter.
  2. Unroll the croissant dough on a worktop and cut the dough into three, equally sized rectangles. Then cut each of these strips diagonally to make two right-angled triangles from each rectangle.
  3. Lay them so the long side is facing you. Then roll up the triangle along the long side to make a tight coil with a flat base. Then take a knife and cut the roll in half from the top to about half way down the roll. Then stand the dough up on it’s flat edge and twist the two tails round eachother, pressing them into the dough at the end to join it together. Then put the cruffin into a hole in the greased muffin tin. (This process can be seen in the photo at the top of the post).
  4. Break the egg into a bowl and beat with a fork. Then brush the pastry with the beaten egg to glaze. Bake in the oven for 15-17 minutes until crisp and golden. Then leave them to cool on a wire rack until needed.
  5. Now make the custard filling. Put the milk and vanilla into a pan and bring to the boil.
  6. Meanwhile put the egg yolks, sugar, cream, and custard powder into a bowl and whisk together to make a smooth paste. Pour the hot milk over the egg mixture, whisking constantly until combined. Then put the mix back into the pan and pop back on the heat, still whisking constantly. Continue to whisk until the mixture thickens. Then pour the custard into a bowl and leave to cool.
  7. When the cruffins and custard have cooled down you’re ready to start filling! Spoon the jam and custard into a two separate piping bags with small round nozzles. Then pipe a little of the jam into the middle of each cruffin, followed by some of the custard.
  8. Dust with icing sugar and serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Sumac and Pistachio Meringues with Pomegranate

Sumac and Pistachio Meringues with Pomegranate

By | | Comments 0 Comment

Those of you who follow my Instagram will know that I had an incredible meal at The Vanilla Pod restaurant in Lynton a few weeks ago. When I was there one of the specials was a sumac meringue with rhubarb and pistachios. Whilst I went for a different, but equally delicious feta cheesecake for dessert (which I’ll be adapting and re-creating soon!), I knew this was something I wanted to try out for myself when I got home.

Sumac is a tangy spice used in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking. Traditionally it’s used in savoury food, but the combo of the sumac with the sweet meringue and the pistachios is to die for (no exaggeration). This is also super easy to make, the hardest bit is just the meringues and the trick with them is just to make sure everything is spotlessly clean before you start and to whisk for a really long time. So if you’ve got something coming up which you want a cool, inventive dessert for, this is the one for you! These meringues will also store for a really long time in an air tight tin, so if you have some left over egg whites from something else you can whip them up and then bung them in a box till you need them.

Recipe

Serves 8

Time: 45 minutes, plus cooking time

Ingredients

  • 4 Large egg whites (130g)
  • 260g (Double the weight of your egg whites) Caster sugar
  • 40g Salted pistachios, roughly chopped, plus extra to garnish
  • 2 tbsp Sumac
  • 400ml Double cream
  • A handful of Pomegranate seeds
  • 100g Fresh raspberries

Method

  1. To get set up pre-heat the oven to 140˚C and line two baking trays with baking paper. Then wash a metal or glass bowl and two electric whisk beaters with lots of soap and warm water to make sure they’re spotless (any fat on these utensils will stop the meringue for puffing up).
  2. Weigh the egg whites into your bowl and note down the weight. Then, using an electric whisk, whisk the egg whites until they hit a stiff peak. Now add the sugar, 1tbsp at a time, to get a stiff meringue (about 8 minutes), you want to add in double the weight of the egg whites in sugar.
  3. Add the chopped pistachios and 1 tbsp of the sumac, and then carefully fold them into the meringue with a large metal spoon or spatula.
  4. Now spoon the mixture into 8 small mounds on your lined baking sheets. Take a spoon and make them into wells by pushing the meringue up the sides slightly.
  5. Sprinkle the meingues with a little more sumac and then bake in the oven for an hour, until crispy but still white. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues to cool in it. When cool the meringues will store in an air tight tin for up to 3 weeks.
  6. When ready to serve, whip the cream with a whisk until it just holds its shape. Crush half the raspberries, and then mix them into the cream to get a ripple and then dollop it into the wells of the meringues. Scatter the pomegranate seeds over the cream and finish with the rest of the fresh raspberries, a few chopped pistachios, and a sprinkle of sumac.

Thanks fore reading!

Emma x
Cornish Pasties

Cornish Pasties

By | | Comments 0 Comment

So back into the south for some inspiration this week. It’s kind of a necessity to eat a pasty at some point when you’re in the West-country, and though there’s dozens of kinds out there for the picking, a good old Cornish pasty will always be my favourite. When I think of pasties I think of wandering barefoot along the beach with a warm, slightly over-flowing pasty in hand. Flakes of buttery pastry flying into your face in the wind, and shooing off seagulls left, right and centre. This might not paint the most relaxing experience of dining there is, but it’s rough, rustic and nostalgic which is what I love most about it.

I know that quite often people hate pasties because they’re thought of being greasy and stodgy. These homemade ones are a lot cleaner than you’d think, and the rough-puff pastry is way lighter than the stuff you find on traditional pasties.  The key is to make sure you season the filling A LOT as it’ll totally transform the flavour of the pasty and make it really moreish. Traditionally beef skirt is used to fill a pasty as it releases gorgeous juices that taste amazing. That said, beef skirt is almost impossible to find in a local supermarket, so if you can’t find it I’d recommend using frying steak, escalopes or any cut of beef that’s relatively thin.

Recipe

Makes 6

Time: 90 minutes, plus chilling

Ingredients

For the pastry

  • 450g Strong bread flour
  • Large pinch of salt
  • 100g Cold, unsalted block butter
  • 100g Cold lard
  • 200ml Cold water

For the filling

  • 200g Potatoes
  • 1 Small onion
  • 100g Swede (1 small)
  • 200g Lean beef skirt (or frying steak if you can’t find beef skirt)
  • Salt and pepper to season
  • 1 Beaten egg

Method

  1. Begin by making the pastry. Put the flour and salt into a large bowl. Then take the chilled blocks of lard and butter and grate them into the butter. I’d recommend giving everything a little mix regularly as you do the grating so that the fats can be coated in flour, this will stop them all re-forming into a lump when you mix it all together.
  2. Then take a round-bladed knife and mix the fat into the flour so it’s all coated. Pour the cold water into the bowl and continue to mix to form a soft dough.
  3. Tip the dough out onto a surface and knead a little to bring the dough together into a ball. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  4. Now prep the filling. Peel the potatoes, onions and swede. Then chop the potato into chunks, about the thickness of a £1 coin. Then finely chop the onion, and chop the swede into chunks the same size as the potato.
  5. Now prep the meat. Using a sharp knife remove any gristle from the meat, but leave the fat as it’ll add great flavour to the pasty. Then chop the meat into chunks about the same size as the potato.
  6. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.
  7. Split the pastry into 6 and then roll each one out to a 14cm diameter circle. Using a plate as a stencil can be helpful here to get a neat circle.
  8. Distribute the onions between the pastry discs, spreading them in a semi-circle over one half of the dough, leaving a 1 cm boarder around the edge for sealing. Sprinkle over a little salt and pepper. Then top with a layer of swede, then meat and finally potato, seasoning a little between each layer.
  9. Take a cup of water and dip your finger into it. Then moisten the rim of the pastry circle with your finger. Fold the unfilled half of the pastry over the filling and use the edge of your hand to gently seal the pastry.
  10. Now it’s time for the crimping that’ll keep the pastry together. Working from right to left fold the pastry over itself and then press down. Repeat along the seam of the pasty to make a rope pattern until you reach the end.
  11. Put the pasties onto a baking tray and brush with the beaten egg. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown, then reduce the oven temperature to 160˚C and continue to bake for 15 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave the pasties to cool/keep cooking in the oven for another 30 minutes. Serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x