Tag: Desserts
Whortleberry and Coconut Roly Poly with Coconut Custard

Whortleberry and Coconut Roly Poly with Coconut Custard

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What a magnificent word is whortleberry eh? I’d never heard of it before my trip down to Devon last month when I came across a jar of whortleberry jam in a little corner shop. It sounded really weird but I’m always one for trying new flavours so I knew I had to give it a go. Flavour wise it’s a kinda cross between a blueberry and a blackberry, but it also just makes the perfect combo with coconut. I really wanted to use this stuff in a recipe but I wasn’t sure how to incorporate jam into something as fun as it’s name. Then I remembered just how much I love a good roly poly, and the name whortleberry jam roly poly was something too good to pass on.

It might seem a bit weird to have a traditional sticky British pud in summer, but I personally see no reason to put an expiration date on these beauties. I mean I kid you not when I say that I saw snow, rain and glorious sunshine within hours of each other yesterday so anything goes. Besides, this is comfort food 101 and that stuff is needed all year round so I’m bringing the roly poly into May – coconut, whortleberry, custard and all!

Recipe

Serves 8

Time:  1 hour plus extra time for cooking

Ingredients

  • 50g Coconut Oil, plus extra for greasing
  • 200g Self raising flour
  • 50g Desiccated coconut
  • ½ tbsp Vanilla bean paste
  • 50g Vegetable suet, shredded
  • 150ml Coconut milk
  • 150g Whortleberry (or blueberry) jam

For the custard

  • 250ml Coconut milk
  • 1 tbsp Vanilla bean paste
  • 50g Caster sugar
  • 3 Egg yolks
  • 10g Plain flour
  • 10g Cornflour

To serve

  • A handful of Blueberries
  • 75g Whortleberry (or blueberry) jam
  • 25g Flaked coconut

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Take a deep roasting tin and fill it with water about 2/3 full. Put this onto the bottom shelf, or base of the oven and leave in the oven.
  2. Take a sheet of foil and another of greaseproof paper and lay the paper on top of the foil. Grease the paper lightly with a little coconut oil, and set aside for later.
  3. Now it’s time make the roly-poly. Put the coconut oil, flour, desiccated coconut, and vanilla into a bowl. Cut into the oil with a round bladed knife to chop it into small lumps. Once you can’t cut it up any further, go in with your fingers and rub the oil into the flour until you have a rough bread-crumb texture. Shake the bowl from side to side every now and then to get the lumps to the top so you can rub them in.
  4. Stir the suet into the mixture. Then pour in the coconut milk and bring together with a round-bladed knife until a dough forms. If the dough is dry add some more milk – you want the dough to be a little sticky.
  5. Flour a surface (a lot) and tip out the dough. Shape into a rough square and then roll out to around 25x25cm. Don’t roll it as thin as you would pastry, and this dough is very soft and will tear easily.
  6. Spread the jam over the sheet of dough, leaving a 1cm strip at one end. Roll the dough up from the other end into a tight spiral. Pinch the non-jammy dough into the roll to seal it.
  7. Lift the roll onto the greased baking paper, making sure that the join is on the paper and not facing up. I know this part is much harder than you would expect, but I found that it’s true to it’s name and literally rolling it onto the grease-proof was the best way to get the roll off the work surface.
  8. Bring the foil and paper up around the roly-poly and fold over the top and scrunch the ends to seal the parcel. Don’t wrap the dough too tightly as it’ll need to stretch when cooking.
  9. Make sure a rack is above the tin of water in the oven and place the parcel onto the rack. Steam in the oven for at least 1 hour.
  10. Meanwhile make the custard. Put the coconut milk and vanilla into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
  11. Mix the sugar, egg yolks and two flours until fully combined. Once the milk is heated, remove the pan from the heat and mix 1/3 of the milk into the egg mixture.
  12. Whisk the mixture quickly and then pour the egg mixture into the milk. Put the pan back over a medium heat and whisk until the mixture boils and thickens. Pour into a jug and cover with cling-film to prevent a skin from forming. Set aside for later.
  13. Once the pudding is ready take it out of the oven and let it sit for a few minutes before unwrapping. When this is going on you can prep the decorations.
  14. Put the flaked coconut into a small roasting tin and roast in the oven for 3-5 minutes, or until starting to brown. Set aside for now. Take the extra jam and put into a pan. Heat gently for around 2 minutes, until it’s thinned out slightly. Put into a pipping bag with a small round nozzle.
  15. Unwrap the roly-poly and put it onto a serving plate. Arrange the extra bluberries on top of the pudding. Then pipe the thinned jam on top of the blueberries in a zig-zag and top with the flaked coconut. Serve with the custard and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Chocolate Tacos

Chocolate Tacos

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Food should be two things: fun and delicious. I know it’s cheesy but I generally think of these as the two most important factors when planning and designing my bakes. If it gets a smile or a ‘hmmhmmm’ it’s done the job! Of course ending up with something looking good is always great as well, but it’s food not a painting – if it looks bad it won’t be hanging on your wall for years reminding you how bad it looks. That said, these look flipping amazing (if I say so myself) and they’re not that hard to make – if you can make pancakes you can defo make these!

These also have the benefit of being personalise-able to your hearts content which automatically makes them good in my books. Serve them on a tray like this, or serve the shells with a variety of toppings for people to decorate themselves. The plus side of using chocolate as a base is that it’ll go with pretty much anything so get creative, think fruit, nuts, sauces, sweets, ice creams and anything else you could possibly want!

Recipe

Makes 5

Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients

For the shells

  • 50g Plain flour
  • 30g Caster sugar
  • 20g Brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp Cocoa powder
  • Large pinch of salt
  • 1 Large egg white
  • 1 tbsp Melted butter
  • 30ml Whole milk
  • A few drops of vanilla extract

For the filling

  • 50g Milk chocolate, melted
  • 100g Chopped hazelnuts
  • A few scoops of Chocolate ice cream
  • Double cream (or squirty cream)
  • Fresh fruit (I went for bananas and strawberries)

Method

  1. Begin by making the taco shells. Put the flour, sugars, cocoa and salt into a large bowl and whisk together.
  2. In another bowl put the egg white, melted butter, milk and vanilla and whisk together.
  3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk to make a smooth batter.
  4. Place a small frying pan over a medium heat. Lightly oil and then add about 1 tbsp batter to the pan. Smooth the mixture around the pan to make an even layer.
  5. Cook for a couple of minutes and then flip the taco over and cook for another couple of minutes on the other side.
  6. Cover a rolling pin in cling film. Take the taco shell out of the pan and carefully fold it over the rolling pin. Hold it in shape for about 10 seconds and then leave to cool whilst you repeat with the rest of the mixture.
  7. Once all your mixture is used up melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water.
  8. Dip the edge of one of the tacos in the melted chocolate and then dip the edge into a bowl of the chopped hazelnuts. Leave on a plate to set.
  9. When ready to serve put a couple of scoops of ice cream into each taco. Top with some squirty cream, fresh fruit, chopped nuts and any of the left over melted chocolate!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Easy Chocolate Pudding with Chocolate Custard

Easy Chocolate Pudding with Chocolate Custard

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From an easy main to an easy dessert, I love making complicated things but there are those times when you just need something you can throw together without thinking about it. Being a student I’m truly experiencing the struggles of little money, little space and little time, so that’s when something like this becomes a godsend. This can be made in the oven or a microwave and so it’s the perfect last-minute, ‘I need chocolate cake now’ kind of dessert.

Of course no good fudgy sponge cake is complete without a good dollop of custard. For this one I’ve used custard powder. Whilst I think fresh custard made with eggs is always a lot nicer, you can’t deny the ease and speed at which you can make custard with a powder mix, so in the interest of preserving your sanity this custard recipe is as quick and as easy as you could want it to be! By extension though, if you don’t want to bother making custard at all, or if you don’t have a hob at your disposal you can use packet custard and then either add cocoa powder to it or just leave it as a vanilla custard.

Recipe

Serves  8

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

For the sponge

  • 180g Butter
  • 80g Light brown sugar
  • 50g Cocoa powder
  • 3 Large eggs
  • 2 tbsp Whole milk
  • 175g Self raising flour

For the custard

  • 400ml Milk
  • 5 tbsp Custard powder
  • 5 tbsp Light brown sugar
  • 25g Cocoa powder

To serve

  • Fresh berries (e.g blueberries, strawberries or raspberries)
  • Ice cream or Sorbet (I recommend raspberry sorbet with this!)

Method

  1. Take a 1L pudding bowl and butter the inside (this can be any kind of bowl but just make sure it’s not metal as it’ll be going into the microwave).
  2. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat until smooth. Add the cocoa powder to the mix and then stir until combined.
  3. Add the eggs and milk to the batter and whisk them in, followed by the flour to get a pourable mixture.
  4. Pour the mixture into the greased pudding bowl and cover loosely with clingfilm. Then microwave for 4 ½ minutes on high heat until cooked through. Check the pudding with a skewer to make sure the centre’s not raw, and then leave the pudding to rest for a few minutes.
  5. Meanwhile make the custard. Put the milk into a pan and bring to the boil.
  6. Put the custard powder, sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl and whisk together. Pour a little of the milk onto the mixture and whisk in to make a smooth paste. Then slowly pour the rest of the warm milk into the mixture, whisking constantly, until combined.
  7. Pour the custard mix back into the pan and then cook whilst whisking over a medium heat until the mixture thickens.
  8. Turn the pudding out onto a plate and then pour some of the custard over the top. Serve slices of the pudding with the rest of the custard, fresh berries and sorbet/ice-cream!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Apple Puddle Pudding

Apple Puddle Pudding

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We all get those moments where nothing can make you feel better…apart from a particular kind of food. It might be dairy milk chocolate for a break-up, mac and cheese for an essay deadline, or a whole tray of brownies for that night in when you just didn’t want to see another human being for the rest of your life – good comfort food is a really important thing in my books. So, whilst you probably shouldn’t live purely on comfort food (unfortunately) it’s always handy to have a few go-to pick-me-up recipes in your back pocket just in case you need them.

I came across the idea of apple puddle pudding in a food magazine the other day, and I thought it sounded so warming and cuddly that I thought I’d make my own version. Another way cooking de-stresses me when I’m, well, stressed, is if it’s hands on. There’s something about really getting stuck into what your making that can zone you out from all the worry and make you focus on the task in hand. And this is exactly what you do when making these dumplings. Roll your sleeves up, get stuck in, and get messy. This can turn out pretty sweet, so make sure you serve it with lots of clotted cream or vanilla ice-cream to balance it out!

(For more comforting recipes have a look at the ‘comforting’ section under ‘something that’s…’ in the top bar!)

Recipe

Serves 6

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 75g Unsalted butter
  • 200g Light brown sugar
  • 60g Golden syrup
  • 2 tbsp Lemon juice
  • 3 Large Bramley apples (or 4 dessert apples)
  • Clotted cream to serve

For the Dumplings

  • 200g Self raising flour
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • Pinch of Ground cinnamon
  • 100g Cold Butter
  • 4 1/2 tbsp Milk

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.
  2. Put the butter, sugar, syrup, lemon juice, and 125ml water into a pan and bring to a simmer.
  3. Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples and then add them to the pan. Leave to cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until they soften. Then pour the apples and the juice into an oven-proof baking dish about 20x30cm.
  4. Next make the dumplings. Put the flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl and mix together.
  5. Add the butter to the mixture and rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Slowly add the milk, stirring with a round-bladed knife until the mixture starts to clump together.
  6. Use your hands to bring the dough together and then divide the dough into 12 balls. Arrange the dumplings over the apples, leaving little gaps between the balls, and then sprinkle with a little extra brown sugar.
  7. Bake the dumplings in the oven for around 25 minutes, until puffed up and golden brown. Leave to cool a little before serving with lots of cream or ice cream!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Amaretti Stuffed Peaches with Lemon Cream

Amaretti Stuffed Peaches with Lemon Cream

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As it’s world mental health awareness day today I wanted to make a recipe that’s perfect for all states of mind. For me cooking is that relaxing, creative outlet for all my anxiety, anger and so on and I think lots of people similarly find that it’s a great de-stress activity. There’s also something very communal about making something you can share with others, and most of all making something that is tasty to eat. However there are times when the thought of going into the kitchen is not appealing and whilst I know it’d help me feel better, everything I can think of to cook feels too complicated. Bring on the stuffed fruit!

I’ve never been much of a fan of stuffing fruit for desserts; I generally prefer to stuff desserts with fruit. But if you want a quick, delicious dessert that is super easy to throw together and very hard to get wrong then I seriously recommend these! By crushing up some amaretti biscuits you can make a really flavoursome stuffing for these peaches in seconds, and it also works really well in plums, nectarines and apples so you can work with whatever fruit is in season. I realise that amaretti biscuits may be a little pricey and niche for the average student/household, so if you don’t have any amaretti biscuits around you could use a selection of nuts instead.

Recipe

Serves 3

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

For the peaches

  • 3 Peaches
  • 30g Ground almonds
  • 20g Chopped almonds or hazelnuts
  • 20g Crushed amaretti biscuits
  • Zest of ½ a Lemon
  • 1 tbsp Caster sugar
  • 1 Small egg
  • A few drops of rosewater
  • A few drops of Vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp Amaretto (optional)
  • 250ml Apple juice

For the cream

  • 250ml Double cream
  • Zest of ½ an Lemon
  • 2 tbsp Icing sugar
  • 1 tsp Orange blossom water

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Slice the peaches in half and then take out the stones. Put the peach halves into a deep gratin dish or roasting tin in a single layer.
  2. In a bowl mix together the ground almonds, chopped almonds, crushed amaretti biscuits, lemon zest, sugar, egg, rosewater and vanilla until combined.
  3. Spoon this mixture into the space in the peaches where the stones were, making a little mound.
  4. Mix the apple juice and the amaretto in a bowl and then pour this around the peaches.
  5. Then bake the peaches in the oven for 30-40 minutes until soft and slightly caramelised (the time will vary depending on the peaches ripeness).
  6. Now make the cream. Gently whip the cream with a hand whisk until soft peaks form. Then add the lemon zest, sugar and orange blossom water and fold in gently to combine.
  7. Serve the warm peaches with the cream and little of the poaching juices!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x