BrownievilleGirl

ALL LOVED UP!

2012-02-14T07:12:00.000Z

It's that time of year again - and I was trying to remember my most romantic meal. Hands down it has to be breakfast in bed, the fact that your loved one is willing to leave the warm nest extra early to make you feel cherished - what can be better??

What foods do I associate with romance? Chocolate, berries, cream and for some strange reason lavender (go figure!!) all come to mind. I decided to stick with the first three on my list (and actually replaced the cream (not so good first thing) with some luscious greek yogurt. So how do I get my chocolate fix at breakfast time? Well I'm perfectly capable of diving into a chocolate cake at any time of the day or night, but I imagine that there are more normal people than me out there (?), so I decided to experiment with my favourite pancakes; I added some cocoa powder to the batter (yuk!), then some chocolate chips went in (see the hardships I go through?!) but the texture wasn't wonderful, then the trusty Nutella came out - and yummmmmm, perhaps not the prettiest thing to come out of the kitchen, but man oh man were they delicious! And how romantic to delicately nibble (yeah right) some chocolate pancakes, oozing with creamy yogurt and tangy raspberries - just a pity you have to get up and bring the kids to school!

Katie fForde's publishers at Ramdom house wrote me a very complementary e-mail (I'll do anything for a compliment!!) and asked me if I would let you know about a competition they are running to coincide with the publication of her new novel Recipe for Love. Just click on her facebook page for details.

I am of course linking this with the lovely Kate and Karen's Tea Time Treats Challenge because pancakes aren't just for breakfast!!

Loved Up Pancakes

Make up one batch of this pancake batter
Add one large tbsp of Nutella (I had to heat mine, the kitchen was very chilly that early in the morning!)
Fry in butter.
Cut into heart shapes, if you are so inclined.
Serve with a dollop of greek yogurt and your favourite berries.
If it's not a driving day throw a bottle of fizz in there too :-)))

Happy St. Valentine's Day.

"NEW YEAR. NEW YOU?"

2012-02-11T14:11:00.000Z

Don't you just love a gift that you can benefit from for ages after your birthday/Christmas/any special occasion? Well, I've already told you about the fantastic gift my boys gave me for my birthday last year - masterclasses with Michelin chef Oliver Dunne, and January brought the next class I'd chosen - "New Year, New You?" - just up my alley at the moment!

It should be said at this stage that Olivers main concession to healthy eating was managing without his usual use of pounds of butter and replacing them with a whole bottle of olive oil!!! That said the food was utterly delicious, if I could eat like this all the time I'd happily swear off sugar for life.

Pumpkin and Ginger Soup

This soup tasted so good, that I went out and bought the ingredients the next day and made up a batch (my attempt and the recipe are at the end of this post)

Stir-Fried Duck with Carrots, Sugar Snaps and Orange

This dish also works well with pork and would be perfect to throw together after work - although I can't imagine being able to chop the carrots as well as this!

Salmon with Sweet & Sour Peppers, Olive & Basil Crushed Potatoes

This was probably my favourite dish of the evening - those peppers are to die for, and the potatoes are beyond delicious, there are olives, shallots, basil and lemon juice in there - my mouth is watering at the memory!!

Fillet of Pork, Crushed Carrot and Swede, Chilli Wedge

I learned something new when Oliver was making this dish - what are generally called turnips in Ireland are swedes to the rest of the world! - you live and you learn!! I felt this dish needed a sauce (maybe I'm not totally getting into the New Year New You vibe!!!!). See how pink the pork is? Delicious!

Beef Fillet with Potato Fondant, Tomato & Tarragon Dressing

These fondant potatoes were a total revelation - instead of frying them up to their oxters (technical term!!) in butter, these were cooked in a frying pan of water with a knob of butter and a splash of olive oil, and they actually taste just as good (well very nearly) as the real thing.

Now for my offering - I substituted the pumpkin with butternut squash and the soup went down a treat!

Butternut Squash and Ginger Soup

1kg               butternut squash, peeled and diced into small pieces
1 tbsp           olive oil
1 knob          ginger - about the size of your thumb
4 tbsp           white wine
750ml            chicken stock (from a cube is fine)
100ml            milk
pinch             sugar
                     salt to taste
1 tsp              Greek yogurt (per bowl)

Put the oil in a heavy based saucepan and add the squash, ginger and season.
Cook on a low heat with the lid on until the squash is soft
When it is soft, remove the lid and reduce until the liquid has evaporated.
Add the white wine and simmer, then add the stock and milk.
Bring back to the boil and then simmer for five minutes.
Blend until smooth - this takes longer than you expect to get a really silkey texture.
Serve with a spoon of Greek yogurt.

Enjoy.

LIGHT AND RANDOM CHOCOLATE CAKE

2012-01-28T18:29:00.001Z

Remember back in school, there was always a "cool" gang? They always had the coolest shoes, their socks were always casually half mast and they had boys signatures on their school bags (I went to an all girl school with a strict uniform code - it was hard to be individual!!!!) - well recently all the "cool" bloggers have been baking up a storm from Dan Lepard's new book Short and Sweet, and I have to admit that I was feeling a bit left out (tragic I know!!!!). Well, all is right with the world and I can still aspire to the "cool" club, my son bought me his book for Christmas :-)).

Dom over at Belleau Kitchen challenged us to randomly choose a recipe from one of our new Christmas books and blog about it - nice one! Then I thought my luck was really in when the book opened at The alchemist's chocolate cake which has half the fat and quarter of the carbs of a normal uniced chocolate cake, relying on blended tinned pears to provide the moisture and texture, and therefore being perfect for Chele's We Should Cocoa Challenge which this month involved chocolate bakes and healthy in the same sentence! I think I'm a bit late on Chele's challenge but am going to chance my arm!!!

The link to Dan's recipe is here, but I have to say that unless I were under doctor's orders I'd just have a small slice of a normal cake instead.

LOVELY AND LIGHT LUNCH

2012-01-14T11:13:00.000Z

As you know I am one of the millions who start every new year with the intention of ending it weighing alot less - some years it happens, more years not! This year is no exception, and I felt it was a sign that this might be "the year" when the people at Low Low challenged me to give a Come Dine With Me meal to some friends and ask them to score the experience. (Although there is a flaw in their plan - who's friends wouldn't score them 10!!).

I invited some of my reducing friends (they'll be delighted with that title!) to lunch and set out to plan my menu. I wanted to try out the Low Low products, as I have been a fan of their packets of grated cheddar cheese for ages and have been known to devour a tub of the Cracked Black Pepper Cheddar Spread with a packet of crisps (but those days are gone - I promise!!!). They had sent me some recipe ideas and I opted to try out their Carrot, Courgette, Pecan and Cheese muffins to go with a starter of Carrot, Cardamon and Cumin Soup (I made these carrots (using less butter) and then added stock and blitzed). The muffins were great with the soup, although next time I make them I'll omit the nuts and add some grilled (or fried depending on the will power) bacon or ham.

For the main course I served monkfish baked with some home made sunblushed tomatoes and preserved lemons and served that with Stuffed Tomatoes with Rice, I got this recipe from a Slimming World leaflet, toyed with it a bit and it is excellent - the highlight of the meal in my opinion. The fact that you soak the rice in the tomato juices for such a long time gives you a lovely soft textured result. This will be a regular visitor to our dinner table from now on - maybe with some olive oil drizzled over (when I'm skinny and can do such things!!).

The other vegetable I served was a Low Low recipe for Cheesy Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms - now if this had been the real deal and I were serving them to strangers who would rate my meal, I might have left these out, they weren't a huge success, they tasted fine but laked severely in the looks department.

For dessert I served these cupcakes which were popular, and I think it was O.K. that after such a virtuous meal we indulged in some Baileys in our coffee.

Stuffed Tomatoes With Rice

adapted from a Slimming World Recipe

4 large firm tomatoes (I used beef tomatoes)

2 garlic cloves - grated

50g/2oz risotto rice (uncooked)

6 tbsp finely chopped basil (keep some to decorate)

3 tbsp grated cheddar cheese (I used Low Low)

salt and black pepper

Cut the top off the tomatoes and set aside to use as lids.

Scoop out the pulp from the tomatoes and chop finely, put in a bowl.

Stir the rice, garlic, basil into the tomato pulp and leave aside at room temperature for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Add the basil and cheese to the rice mixture and stuff the tomatoes.

Transfer to a baking dish and top with the lids.

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft and the rice is cooked through.

P.S. They scored me 10 (surprise, surprise) but refused a chance of international stardom citing bad hair days when I wanted to take their picture for the blog!

GET AHEAD FOR CHRISTMAS 2012!!!!!!!!

2011-12-31T13:28:00.001Z

I'm afraid that I'm going to use the "R" word - I know I won't be popular, but it's for your own good!!! Most of us make resolutions (there I've said it!!) about being more organised - and I'm giving you an easy way to get the warm fuzzy feeling - prepare the fruit for next year's Christmas cake this week, imagine how organised and "Suzie Homemakerish" you'll feel - so what if you don't keep to the healthy eating regime or if you don't manage to hit the gym every day - you still know that your Christmas cake is getting more delicious by the day!

Why am I so evangelical about this year long soak for the fruits - once again I managed to forget about the fruit that I had left to soak for a whole year (my last find was a jar of raisins that had been soaking in dark rum for a very, very long time - scrumptious) - and I have to say that the result was the richest moistest cake ever (well equal place with Nigella's chocolate Christmas cake).

I urge you to pop over to The Pink Whisk's recipe for boozy fruit for your Christmas Cake where you will find the directions for this cake elixir. It makes so much sense to prepare the fruits at this time - you probably have many of the fruits and the booze in the cupboard, what better way could you have to use them up?

I want to thank you all for your support during 2011 and to wish you the very best for 2012.

CHOCOLATE REALLY DOES WORK IN THIS CHRISTMAS CAKE!

2011-12-23T05:58:00.000Z

How long does it take to make a tradition? Some Christmas traditions come to us through our parents and grandparents, some probably from the idealised versions we see on T.V. (do families really decorate the tree together while humming carols and sipping hot chocolate - or is the general experience more like mine, where I whine about doing it, hint for help but get told that I'm the "artistic one"!!!!!! Baah Humbug) but what about the traditions we make ourselves? I reckon that Nigella's Chocolate Christmas Cake is fast becoming a tradition here in Brownieville - Christmas wouldn't be quite the same without it sitting under the dome on the cake stand. Regular Christmas visitors have been known to ask for it (they don't know about the puddings!!!!!!).

It is really easy to throw together, being what my mother would call a boiled cake - most of the ingredients are heated together in a pot (which means there is no need to soak the fruit) then you add a few more and bake. I will admit that there is all the faffing about having to line the tin, but other that that is's "wham bam thank you mam"

The cake has a beautifully moist texture, the chocolate and orange flavours are subtle and actually add to the Christmassyness (!) of the cake. It should be eaten within 2 weeks (no problem I promise!!) so is prefect for the last minute merchants amongst us!! Please don't worry about all the prunes in there, nobody will notice, and think of all the good it will be doing to their tummies after the Christmas stodge!!

When I saw that Choclette has challenged us to include orange to a chocolate bake for this month's We Should Cocoa, it was a shoe in for this cake!

Chocolate Christmas Cake

adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe

350g stoned prunes, chopped

250g raising

175g currants

175g butter

175g dark sugar

225g honey

75ml coffee liqueur

50ml hazelnut liqueur

1 orange, juiced and zested

3 mandarin orange, juiced and zested (if large just use 2)

1 tsp mixed spice

2 tbsp cocoa powder (sifted)

3 eggs, beaten

150g flour

75g ground hazelnuts (or almonds)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bread (bicarbonate of) soda

Double line and butter a 20cm x 9cm deep round cake tin. When filled I also tie a couple of layers of newspapers around the outside - belt and braces!!

Put the flour, ground nuts, baking powder and bread (bicarbonate of) soda in a bowl and set aside.

Put the remaining ingredients (except the eggs) in a large saucepan and gently bring to boiling point, stirring regularly.

Allow to simmer for 10 minutes and set aside for 30 (or longer if it's handier)

While it's cooling I prepare the tin.

Add the beaten egg and the dry ingredients, combine well.

Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for approx 2 hours.

You want a texture less gooey than a brownie but more so than a normal cake.

Put the cake tin on a wire rack and allow to cool.

Eat immediately if you wish, but it will keep for about 2 weeks, depending on your will power!!!

ANYONE HAVE A CURE FOR "TOOMUCHTODOITIS"?

2011-12-10T07:50:00.001Z

I have been missing in action - sorry guys, I'm suffering from a very bad case of "waywaywaytoomuchtodoitis" which along with a chest infection has kinda floored me. Luckily I managed to make the Christmas puddings before the malaise hit!

I have mentioned the importance of Christmas Puddings in Brownieville on a previous post - every year I make an obscene number (getting larger each year), every year I plan to pass on a couple as presents, and every year a certain person manages to demolish the lot (you are soooo mean - it's NOT me!!!).

Brownieville Man (for it is he!!) is probably the most generous person I know, he is always up first to pay the bill when we go to restaurants with friends, ditto when we go out for drinks (although we don't do that very often any more - old age?) BUT when it comes to my Christmas Puddings, he is just short of weighing them before he heads out, in case I offer some to visitors during the day!!!!!! It is the truest demonstration of his abiding love for his sons that he allows them (almost) free access to the pudding tin!!!

This pudding recipe comes from my paternal grandmother, via my mother, with many changes en route. It is very, very easy - all it needs is time steaming away, and if you have a good sized steamer that holds plenty of water, you can just leave it without a thought! Actually the shopping is the hardest part - just make sure that you use good fruit and that you don't use the tub of prechopped candied peel - it does make a difference to cut it yourself.

By the way, our resident pudding expert says that all the stuff about puddings maturing is codswallop, and the fresher the better - just in case you have some time to throw this lot together.

Finally, on Christmas day, just reheat by steaming for a couple of hours (do NOT use the micro, my Mum learned that one to her cost!!) then pour some Vodka over and set alight - enjoy the "oohs and aaaghs" - you deserve them! (Vodka gives a longer burning time than Brandy).

It tastes unbeliveably good at this stage - use good eggs and
then pick to your hearts content!!!!

Granny's Christmas Pudding

1 lb            bread crumbs - preferably made from a stale batch (or any good) loaf
1 lb            sultanas
1 lb            raisins
1/2 lb         currants
1 lb            brown sugar
1/4 lb         freshly chopped mixed peel
1/4 lb         chopped glace cherries
1/2 lb         melted butter
1/2 lb         sifted plain flour
2 tbsp        mixed spice
2 tbsp        cinnamon
1/2             nutmeg - grated
5                eggs
200 ml       Guinness (more as needed)
100ml        Whiskey
100ml         Brandy

Combine all the dry ingredients in a very large bowl, and mix.
Add the eggs, butter and alcohol and mix well - get all family members to help. They can stir clockwise 3 times and on each turn wish for "Health" then "Wealth" and finally "Happiness"
Cover with cling film (touching the mixture) and leave to absorb the flavours for at least 24 hours.
Spoon into your pudding basins - I just use plastic ones with lids, I put some greaseproof paper on top of the mixture and then pop on the lid.
Steam (in a steamer, or in a large pot with an upturned saucer in the bottom) for 7 hours.

This recipe makes one 3lb and one 2lb pudding.

I've made 10 puddings so far - I think that there are 6 left!! But this year I have one aside to give to a wonderful friend - and "himself" will help me wrap it (metaphorically that is!!!)

I am entering my Pudding recipe for Vanessa's Let's Make Christmas Challenge (her book is at the top of my Christmas List!)

RANDOM NO CROUTON RECIPE

2011-11-29T20:01:00.002Z

This month Dom and Jac * have teamed up to challenge us to pick a random veggie soup recipe and prepare it for your enjoyment (and ours of course!). Dom has allowed us to choose our own method of randomising (?) our recipe, so I decided I would choose the first book to hand and cook the first soup recipe for which I had all the ingredients in stock.

I have been using Catherine Fulvio's Family Kitchen alot recently and her Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup and Tomato Soup looked delicious but there are pepper allergies in this house so I made her Tomato soup all on it's own, and combined it with her Soda Focaccia, and all I can say is it was the easiest, tastiest lunch I have had in ages. The sundried tomatoes in the soup really intensify the flavour - skrummy stuff.

*Dom and Jac - don't present a children's TV show!! They write two excellent blogs - really worth visiting if you haven't already done so.

Tomato Soup
from Catherine Fulvio

extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced
2 sundried tomatoes, chopped
1 potato, peeled and chopped
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
300ml vegetable stock
2 tsp chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper

Fry the garlic and sundried tomatoes in some olive oil for a minute.
Stir in the potato, tomatoes and stock and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the potato is cooked through.
Add the basil and remove from the heat.
Puree the soup and taste for seasoning.
Add more stock if needed.

Serve and enjoy.

TIME FOR A TEA TIME TREAT

2011-11-26T09:38:00.000Z

There's a new challenge on the blogging block, and I love a good challenge, so I was delighted when two exceptional bloggers came together to invite us to tea .... well to Tea Time Treats, and this month Karen has invited us to prepare something delicious using ginger, happy days - my all time favourite ingredient (along with all my other favourite ingredients!!!), not so happy days - I am really trying to cut down on the goodies so I can really pig out in December!!!!

So now my challenge was to make something delicious containing ginger BUT also something that I wouldn't devour (yes, that is the state of my will power these days) ........... it had to be dried fruit, loved by all the family but not by me!!!

I turned to Lilly Higgins' Make Bake Love (it's just so pretty) and decided to play around with her Tea Brack recipe, obviously adding some ginger in there, but I also simplified it by using a luxury fruit mix rather than the individual fruits she suggested - it went down a treat, and was just the stop gap needed before the Christmas Pudding Season started (the consumption of Christmas puddings in this house is a story for another day!).

Tea Brack
adapted from Lilly Higgins' Make Bake Love

300ml           hot strong tea
360g             luxury fruit mix
100g             chopped stoned dried dates
1                   egg
225g             self raising flour
150g             brown sugar
3 tbsp           Cointreau or your favourite alcohol
1 1/2 tsp       mixed spice
1 tsp             ginger
2                   knobs of crystallised ginger

Preferably the day before, but for as long as possible - soak the fruit in the tea.

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line a loaf tin with parchment paper or butter it.

Add the ginger, beaten egg, flour and sugar to the fruit and mix well.
Add the Cointreau and spices and mix again.
Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours - until a skewer (or stick of dry spaghetti) comes out clean.
When perfect remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes.
Remove from tin and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy

Thanks to Kate and Karen for this fun idea.

For my Irish readers - I was invited to this years Taste of Christmas, a huge improvement on last year's event, plenty of stalls, delicious food from some excellent restaurants, including the wonderful Bon Appetite (where I did the masterclass!!). I went to the first of the Masterchef shows and although it had a few glitches, and a bit of nervousness it was quite good. It would have been very good had the audience been given copies of the recipes being cooked and if Nick had lightened up on plugging his book and restaurant!!
Well worth a visit, to get you in the Christmas mood.

WITH APPLE OR WITHOUT??

2011-11-23T22:43:00.000Z

It looks burned, doesn't it? Actually it didn't taste burned .... maybe it is the dark chocolate - very, very dark chocolate!!

I was watching a re-run of Nigella's kitchen, and her Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding just called to me, then I thought that it would be a good idea to incorporate it with Chele's  ingredient for this month's We Should Cocoa challenge. Like many fellow bloggers, I had fretted as to how I could add apple to a chocolate recipe, but I thought that some apple through this pudding would be delicious. Unfortunately Brownieville Boy #2 spotted me adding the apple, and wasn't too enthusiastic! So I compromised and added apple to just half of the pudding - and I have to say that the non-apple half was just a fraction nicer.

The pudding was light and fluffy, and deliciously creamy (despite containing only 125ml of cream) I would recommend that you give it a try.

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

250g    stale bread, cut into 3cm cubes
100g    chocolate chips, or chopped chocolate
3          eggs
40g      light brown sugar
30ml    dark rum
125ml cream
500ml full fat milk
4 tsp    demerara sugar
1          apple (optional)

butter a pie dish (about 1.5 lt)
preheat oven to 170 C

Place the bread cubes, chopped chocolate and chopped apple in the dish, toss but make sure there aren't too many chocolate pieces on the top (to prevent the burned look!!)
Whisk the eggs, light brown sugar, rum, cream and milk together.
Pour over the bread and press the cubes down to make sure they are well soaked.
Leave to soak for at least 20 minutes.
When ready to cook, sprinkle with the demerara sugar and place in the oven for 40-50 minutes.
Allow the pudding to cool slightly before serving.
Enjoy.

PAINT IT PURPLE

2011-11-11T22:35:00.000Z

A number of years ago, a good friend told me that she had been the victim of domestic violence - she had suffered for years in silence, I think that the worst part for her was the isolation, being unable to talk about her experience. I am so proud of her that she had the courage to leave the awful situation she was in, and was and am delighted to help in any way I possibly can (although truth be told since my sister's death she has been the one doing all the helping!).

The Pixel Project were in contact with me recently, I am delighted to be able to participate in their "Paint It Purple" Cupcake Online Recipe Gallery which is a campaign to to raise awareness and funds for the cause to end violence against women (VAW) in communities worldwide. They do this work using social media and new technologies. We can help by baking and photographing a cupcake for their website and writing a bit about their wonderful work.

Coincidentally I had recently baked Lavender Cupcakes from the wonderful "Red Velvet, Chocolate Heartache" by Harry Eastwood - talk about predestined!! They were absolutely delicious, the lavender flavour was present but subtle (I had feared a soapy taste, nothing could be further from the reality). The courgette on the other hand was completely unrecognisable!  The nicest possible way to get one of your "five a day"!!!

Lavender Cupcakes
adapted from Red Velvet, Chocolate Heartache

For the cupcakes

2            eggs
160g      lavender sugar
220g      grated peeled courgette
1 tsp      vanilla extract
100g      rice flour
120g      ground almonds
2 tsp      baking powder
1/4 tsp   salt

For the icing

140g      icing sugar sifted
3 tbsp    blueberry juice

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line a 12 hole muffin tray with papers

Using an electric whisk, beat the eggs and sugar until pale and frothy (this will take about 5 minutes)
Add the grated courgette and the vanilla extract and whisk again.
Fold in the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt, and combine.
Using an ice cream scoop divide the mixture evenly between the muffin cases.
Bake for 20 minutes, until risen and a skewer comes out clean.
Remove to a wire rack to cool.
Prepare the icing by adding the juice to the icing sugar - stir well to combine.
When the cupcakes are cold spread the icing over the top.
You can decorate with some lavender flowers if you have some available.

Enjoy.

BROWNIES 20 AND A REVIEW.

2011-11-05T12:16:00.000Z

I have mentioned Lilly Higgins new book Make Bake Love on a recent post and promised to do a review - over at her blog Stuff I Make, Bake, Love Lilly was saying that her book is sold out on Amazon, I'm not at all surprised! It is an excellent book, packed full of doable (is that a word??) delicious recipes - with a few aspirational ones in there for good measure. I was absolutely delighted to recieve a review copy. The photography is wonderful, you just want to reach in and grab a bite, there is an excellent balance of unusual flavours (Plum and Cardamom Cupcakes -delicious!) and old favourites. The recipes seem to be well tested (I'm pretty sure I read that Lilly worked as an instructor at Ballymaloe Cookery School) and thought out.

I think that you can often judge a baking book by it's bread section and having made most of the breads from this book (I left out a couple of the yeast ones!!) I have to say that it really stands up - the Health Loaf being a particular favourite here. If I have any criticism of the book, and it is very slight, it is that there are a couple of recipes in there that are just variations of a previous recipe - the Blueberry muffins are very like the Red Berry and White Chocolate Muffins, but that really is nitpicking. All in all, I loved this book (I really enjoy when fellow bloggers make the step over to writing cookery books successfully) and I can't wait for her next one!

I've been having a great time over the past couple of weeks baking up a storm trying out loads of the recipes, one has already become a firm family favourite and I've made it several times!

These are the Rum and Raisin Cupcakes - totally addictive! I have a confession to make here - the deliciousness of these cupcakes might be helped by the fact that I used raisins that have been soaking in rum for 2 years - yes, you did read that correctly!!! I bought a bottle of dark rum especially to make Rum Raisin ice cream, left the raisins to soak in the rum in a big jar, and promptly forgot all about them - for two years! I recommend you do the same!

Even as a non-lover of dried fruit, I'm a huge fan of these cupcakes - I very generously give my raisins away (!) but the sponge retains the sweet, mellow flavour from the fruit.

Health Loaf - it's great to feel virtuous eating bread this delicious!

The Spiced Sultana Bread was a doddle to throw together, and scored really high on the taste to effort ratio!

I played around with Lilly's Honey Oat Bread, and used bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent instead of yeast (how lazy am I??). Tasted great though!

I'm going to have to try the Seed Loaf again, as I don't think I did the recipe justice - the yeast thing is still my problem area!!!

I have blogged about the Blueberry (Blackberry) Muffins here.

Rocky Road Brownies - oh my!!! Scrumptious stuff!!

Plum and Cardamom Cupcakes had to be at the top of the "to try" list - I just love anything containing cardamom! I tried making these as Lilly did with the plums just halved, but found them to have a better texture when I chopped up the fruit.

I added some chocolate chips to Lilly's Hazelnut Shortbread and they were devoured in no time!

From all the recipes I have tried I most want to share the Rocky Road Brownie one - I have been neglecting my brownie section of late, and these belong well up on the list! Lilly says that you have to have both pink and white marshmallows in a Rocky Road - I beg to disagree!!!!!

Rocky Road Brownies

adapted from Lilly Higgins, Make Bake Love

For the Brownies

200g dark chocolate (I used 50%)

250g icing sugar, sieved*

200g softened butter

3 eggs

110g plain flour

For the Topping

200g chocolate, chopped - just use your favourite

100g toasted nuts - I used hazelnuts and almonds

70g digestive biscuits**, broken up

80g marshmallows

Preheat oven to 170 C

Line a 23cm x 33cm baking pan with parchment paper.

For the Brownies

Melt the chocolate in a microwave or in a bowl over simmering water.

Beat the icing sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. (* I think that the icing sugar is too messy to work with - flies all over the place if you are not very careful, so I would use caster sugar in future)

Add the eggs one by one, mixing well between each addition.

Beat in the flour until just combined.

Slowly pour the melted chocolate into this mixture and combine well, without over mixing.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes, but start checking at 20 - over cooked brownies are so disappointing!

For the Topping

Mix the nuts, biscuit rubble(**I used less than Lilly recommended) and marshmallows together, next time I'll add some broken up Maltesers or Chrunchie Bars to the mix. Keep the chopped chocolate to one side.

When about 5 minutes away from being cooked, remove the brownies from the oven.

Scatter the biscuit mixture over the brownies, and then scatter the chocolate over this.

Return the brownies to the oven for 3 - 5 minutes, until the chocolate has melted sligthly and melded into the topping ingredients.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin on a wire rack for 20 minutes.

Best enjoyed while still slightly warm.....mmmmmmm!

Pop over to The Sporadic Cook, Julie's wonderful blog - you might find it interesting!

MASTERCLASS WITH A MASTER

2011-11-03T20:55:00.000Z

This year I recieved one of the best and most thoughtful birthday gifts ever from my boys - I have to admit that I might not be the easiest person in the world to buy for! But this year they excelled themselves - they bought me four masterclasses in Bon Appetit Restaurant with the talented Michelin starred chef Oliver Dunne. The first of these was titled "Dinner Party Dazzlers", and it was a fantastic evening - full of doable tips and ideas, Oliver's main aim was to teach us that entertaining at home need not be stressful - just about everything can be prepared in advance, he didn't want us slaving away in the kitchen while our guests were enjoying drinks without us!!!

Probably the best part of the evening were the tips and the foodie gossip - I don't think he could be described as his ex-boss Gordon Ramsey's biggest fan!!!!!

A few of the pointers:

For really excellent balsamic vinegar without the huge price - buy a cheap bottle, reduce it by 3/4 in a large saucepan, and you have deep, sweet, delicious stuff, which makes a perfect dressing combined with olive oil, dijon mustard and salt. The reduced balsamic vinegar is great for presentation, a few dots on a plate really dresses it up.

Always cut chicken to check if it is done - pressing it will never give a difinitive answer and you are far better off having a little nick in the bird than having poisoned guests!!

Always have your pan good and hot before you add butter/oil.

When melting butter, chop it into small cubes - otherwise the outside will have burned before the center is melted.

Speaking of butter - use about four times more than you usually do to have proper restaurant tasting food!

Use icing sugar when making chantilli cream - much better texture.

Oliver seasons with salt at every step - he said that he rarely uses pepper.

Roasted Quail with Chorizo, Red Onion and Balsamic Dressing

Warm Goats Cheese and Caramelised Shallot Tart

Breast of Chicken, Tart Fine of Onions and Creamed Wild Mushrooms

Smoked Haddock, New Potato, Soft Poached Egg & Mustard Beurre Blanc

Apple Tart Fine with Chantilly Cream & Butterscotch

Hot Chocolate Fondant with Vanilla Cream

The kitchen prepared samples of most of the dishes Oliver showed us and they tasted just as good as they look!! I'm really looking forward to the next lesson.

FANTASTICLY FIZZY

2011-11-01T15:39:00.001Z

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween, and that there aren't too many sugar hangovers out there!!! I have to admit to an addiction to sugary, fizzy children's sweeties - so you can imagine that I just love this time of year :-)

You can imagine with this addiction of mine (!) that I was delighted when Swizzels Matlow contacted me about a new range of sweets they are introducing to the market - the highlight being (for me anyway) some Scooby Doo (like Love Heart sherbet ) sweets - yahoo!! The kids (Brownieville Boy #4 and the Princess) were beside themselves when a box filled with these fizzy sweets, Scooby Doo jellys and some fizzy chewy bars as well as a really cute Scooby Doo toy arrived in the post. They were so anxious to dive in that they took the photos for the blog themselves!!

I managed to save the packet of jellys and used them to decorate this year's Halloween Treat - we live in the country so unfortunately don't have any trick or treaters - but this lime traybake went down well with all the family, some of whom nabbed the jellys from other people's slices when they weren't looking!!! The sponge was lovely and light but with that gorgeous lime tang combined with the buttery softness - and then the sweet/sour topping made the perfect combination.

The recipe is from Mary Berry and you can find it over at Baking Mad a site full of cake recipes that I'm really enjoying at the moment. The only change I made was to add 1/2 tsp of lime essence to the batter. I used a 8"x8" brownie tin but actually think a bigger tin would be better, for a flatter sponge and therefore a higher sponge to glaze ratio - I just love a lime glaze, almost reminds me of sherbets (yummm!).

HAGGIS?? REALLY?? HAGGIS??

2011-10-30T23:32:00.000Z

This month's Random Recipe Challenge was "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours", whereby Dom paired us up and another blogger gets to choose the recipe we'll cook (have a look at Dom's instructions, it's too difficult to explain!!!).

I was incredibly lucky to be allocated Lou, from Please Do Not Feed the Animals, a seriously wonderful blog. Lou is the sort of person that I think I shouldn't like (she has a highly satisfying career, is an outstanding baker, has a husband who cooks up a storm, her kids could grace any add campaign, they are beyond gorgeous) but jealousy aside, she is a pure pet! On top of all those wonderful attributes Lou is also Physic - well how else do you explain a woman from Scotland choosing what I'm sure is the only haggis recipe in my whole collection - yes you read correctly - Haggis!!!!!

Lou did offer to post me over some haggis (see what I mean, such a nice person) but I thought I'd seen some in M&S and reckoned I'd have no problem - ha, it's impossible to source haggis in Ireland. I decided to go ahead with the recipe anyway and I reckoned that black pudding would make a good substitute (with deepest apologies to all the haggis fans out there!!), so I went ahead and cooked "Haggis, potato, bacon and apple fry-up" without the haggis.

I should have mentioned before now that my chosen book was The Really Helpful Cookbook by Ruth Watson, this is actually an excellent book - but this recipe is obviously a filler - I'd guess that she made a dinner from left-overs the night before she submitted the book and had to throw an extra recipe in there, and in it went! If some evening you have some left over haggis (or black pudding) and potatoes in the fridge, with some bacon in there too and some apples in the fruit bowl - you could try this, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

There is no point in giving you the recipe - you just fry up some onions, garlic, potatoes (black pudding if using) in some olive oil and add some crisp apple for the last two minutes - serve with some haggis (if you have some) - easy as that.

I'M SUCH A WUSS!!!

2011-10-26T22:44:00.000+01:00

I have been looking forward to this month's We Should Cocoa challenge - each month I have willed Choclette or Chele to nominate chilli as the companion in our monthly chocolate challenge, and it's come - and what did I do? I chickened out - and just used Lindt Chilli Chocolate. I didn't risk chopping up some hot, hot, hot chilli and mixing it in there - I'm such a wuss!!!!

That said these mini chocolate pots, from Catherine Fulvio's wonderful book Catherine's Family Kitchen were delicious - I used chilli chocolate instead of the plain and omitted the Baileys Irish Cream (something told me that chilli and Baileys might not be the best combination possible!!!!) The chilli chocolate gave a very slight kick to the back of your mouth - subtle and simply yummy.

Mini Chocolate Pots
adapted from Catherine Fulvio's Family Kitchen

100g        chilli chocolate
50g          butter
1              egg
1              egg yolk
2 tbsp       caster sugar
1 tbsp       ground almonds

Preheat oven to 180 C
Butter 4 or 5 espresso cups

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water
In another bowl whisk the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy
Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture
Add in the almonds
Pour the mixture into the prepared cups (up to 3/4 level) and pop into the oven
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes - they still need to be gooey in the middle.
Serve - but be careful not to burn your tongue!!

A GOOD MORNING!

2011-10-21T20:11:00.000+01:00

Over at the delicious What Kate Baked, Kate has challenged us to bake something tasty for her Autumnal Baking Challenge - and the fruit that screams Autumn to me are blackberries, those delicious fruits that shout "pick me, pick me" as I try to maintain some pace on my (occasional) morning walks - I'm ashamed to tell you how many times I give up on the idea of exercise and sucumb to the call of the purple orb (actually to the call of the tart/crumble/jam that will be their final destination!!).

I came home this morning with the last of the blackberries (only a few shrivelled specimens left on the bushes now) and found Lilly Higgins' new book Make Bake Love waiting for me - I have been following Lilly's blog Stuff I Make Bake Love for ages (do take a look, you'll love it) - and what could I do but combine the morning's haul and make something from the book using my precious berries.

There are many delicious recipes to choose from (I'll do a review soon - no problem finding recipes everyone will love!) but I alighted on her Blueberry Muffins - and even if I say it myself (!) it was a great decision - the muffins are light in texture but are brim full of flavour, and the blackberries were a fantastic replacement for the blueberries.

Blackberry Muffins

225g       plain flour
1 tbsp     baking powder
75g         Demerara Sugar (I used more as the blackberries were quite sharp)
1             large egg
150ml     milk
40ml       sunflower oil
1 tsp       vanilla extract
150g       blackberries

Preheat oven to 190 C
Fill a muffin tin with 12 paper cases (I actually got 11 good sized muffins from the mix)

Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.
Pour the milk, oil, vanilla extract into a jug, add the egg and whisk.
Pour this mixture into the flour and mix gently, remember lumps are good!
Gently fold in the blackberries.
Divide the mixture between the paper cases and pop into the preheated oven.
Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until golden and risen, and a skewer comes out clean.
Remove the muffins from the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.

APPLEY, SPICEY, YUMMY!

2011-10-20T07:18:00.000+01:00

The Cake Slice Bakers have a new book, it is The Cake Book by Tish Boyle, and it is wonderful - I can't wait to get my teeth into it (literally!), some really interesting recipes in there, along with new versions of old favourites.

This month's recipe is perfectly seasonal, and offered the ideal recipe to use up the last of the apples from my mother's trees - they went to a good home, this cake is delicious, brim full of spices. I'm not the biggest fan of cooked apple, when you can have crisp, crunchy and fresh apple why would you choose to have soft, sweet and tangy apple - that's not making a great argument is it?

I had to abandon the recommended Cream Cheese Maple Frosting when my cream cheese didn't pass muster - I went back to the drawing board and just added some maple syrup to some sieved icing sugar - it matched perfectly.

Apple Cake with Maple Frosting

1 1/2 cups (181g)     plain flour
1 tsp                         baking powder
1 tsp                         ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp                      ground ginger
1/4 tsp                      ground cloves
1/4 tsp                      bread (bicarbonate of) soda
1/4 tsp                      salt
1/2 cup (113g)          softened butter
1 cup (217g)             light brown sugar
1 tsp                         vanilla extract
2                             large eggs
2/3 cup (160ml)        buttermilk
2 cups (120g)            peeled and chopped (1/2 inch pieces) Granny Smith apple (about 2 apples)
1/2 cup  (57g)           coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)
Grease bottom and sides of a 9" square baking tin, and dust with flour.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, cannamon, cloves, ginger, bread soda and salt together in a medium bowl - set aside.
Using the paddle attachment of an electric mixer beat the butter at a medium speed until creamy.
Gradually add the sugar and beat until light and creamy.
Add the vanilla extract and then the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition - remembering to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl as needed.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions - mix well until blended.
Stir in the apples and nuts and combine by hand.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean.
Cool the cake completely in the tin on a wire rack.

Enjoy.

EUREKA!

2011-10-18T22:24:00.001+01:00

Eureka! I've found it, I've found the perfect chocolate cake recipe! It's delicious, it's impressive and it's way, way less work than it looks, and did I mention it's delicious?

Two layers of chocolate sponge, two layers of creamy white chocolate and a layer of creamy dark chocolate topped by a thick layer of milk chocolate ganache - heaven in a slice.

The cake itself is just a normal chocolate sponge which you slice in two (easier than baking two seperate sponges), next drizzle over some syrup and then you melt white chocolate in one bowl, dark chocolate in another - add cream to both, slap them on cover with a simple ganache - bish bash bosh - cake perfection!

Triple-Layer Chocolate Truffle Cake
from the wonderful Avoca Cafe Cookbook 2

Sponge

4            small eggs (I used 3 large)
100g       caster sugar
75g         self-raising flour
25g         cocoa

Syrup

75ml        milk
20ml        brandy
20ml        honey

Chocolate Layers

225g         white chocolate
300ml        double cream

110g          dark chocolate
300ml        double cream

Ganache
75ml         cream
350g         milk chocolate

Preheat oven to 180 C
Butter and line a 23cm springform cake tin

Sponge
Whisk the eggs and sugar together until thick and pale
Sieve the flour and cocoa and fold into the egg mixture.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Syrup

Put the milk, brandy and honey in a small pan and heat gently.

Assembly (first step)

When the sponge has cooled, remove it from the tin.
Line the tin with cling film (use plenty)
Cut the sponge in two across its depth
Place half the cake back in the lined tin and brush with the syrup

Filling

Melt the white chocolate with 50ml of cream in a pan over simmering water.
In another bowl melt the dark chocolate with 50ml of cream.
Allow to cool slightly.
Whip 250ml double cream and add the melted white chocolate mixture.
Whip the other 250ml cream and add the dark chocolate.

Assembly (part two!)

Spread half the white chocolate on the sponge in the tin.
Follow with the dark chocolate mixture.
Finish with the other half of the white chocolate mixture.
Brush the other half of the sponge with the syrup and place on top.
Cover the cake with the cling film and place in the fridge to set overnight.

To Finish

Combine the milk chocolate and cream and heat gently to melt the chocolate.
Remove the cake from the tin and spread the chocolate ganache over the top and sides.

Sit back and wait for the praise!

A RANDOM BAKE!

2011-10-01T10:27:00.001+01:00

The P.R. fairies must know that I need some cheering up, as I recieved a number of exciting packages over that past few weeks - Catherine Fulvio's new book (loving it so far), some yummy Skooby Dooby Doo sweeties (had to fight the kids to get near them!!) and a beautiful baking kit from Avon.

The "Avon Breast Cancer Crusade Baking Set", is part of Avon's fund raising for Breast Cancer charities, it is such a fun way to gather money for a cause that is very dear to my heart, that I am really pleased to encourage you all to participate. The pretty kits are available from Avon representatives or online here. The reason I am so enthusiastic about this crusade is that so many people we know recieve the dreaded diagnosis of cancer, yet so many of them come through to lead full and happy lives - how can we resist putting our hands in our pockets for such a worthy cause. My mother has had two battles with breast cancer, and while it was not an easy time, it is just a memory now - and how much better is it to have memories of a cancer battle rather than memories of a loved one?

When I gathered all of my magazine cuttings and scribbled recipes in order to choose this months Belleau Kitchen Random Recipe Challenge I was feeling all enthusiastic - for once I was guarenteed a recipe that I'd just love - I wouldn't have cut out the recipes otherwise - right????? Well actually I had forgotten that mid diet I often cut out recipes that promise fantastic flavours with hardly any fat/sugar, but which usually are all promise and no delivery! Well, of course it was one of these pages that emerged from my stash - but as you know I am an honest person (!) so that is what I baked. And I have to say "Thanks Dom" because there is no way I would have baked these little cupcakes other than because I was challenged to do so, and they are lovely - moist texture and tasty (although next time I'll add extra cocoa powder).

The light cupcakes were the perfect opportunity to use the sweet little silicone cupcake holders which come in the Avon kit (along with a pink ribbon and a heart shaped cookie cutter), and then it occured to me that I could send off a half batch of the cakes to my friends sister, who is currently undergoing chemo for breast cancer. How perfectly whole and fitting is that? I know that when Mum was going through her treatment she found it very difficult to be enthusiastic about food, but sometimes a little something sweet would be enough to get her through - so I hope that the cupcakes I sent over were of some small help. Vanessa over at Prepped (she has just published a cook book - it's at the top of my wish list, looks fantastic) has decided to continue with her wonderful, heartwarming challenge Random Bakes of Kindness and these little confections are my offering - I hope it's not too cheeky to submit one lot of baking to two challenges!!!!

If you are watching the scales, I would recommend these cupcakes - they aren't huge, but they are full of flavour and I think one (or maybe two!) would be enough to keep you on the straight and narrow!

Raspberry and Chocolate Cupcakes
from a Slimming World recipe

2            eggs
6 tbsp      caster sugar
1oz/28g    low fat margarine* (I used LowLow)
2oz/57g    self raising flour - sifted
1.5 tbsp    cocoa powder - sifted
1 tsp         vanilla extract
32            fresh raspberries **

Preheat oven to 180 C
Prepare 8 cupcake cases

Whisk the eggs, sugar and margarine* until pale and creamy.
Add the vanilla extract.
Fold in the flour and cocoa powder gently.
Place 3 raspberries** in the base of each paper/silicone cupcake holder.
Divide the cake mixture over the raspberries.
Bake 15-20 minutes until firm and springy to the touch.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Enjoy!!

* This is the first time that I've used margarine in baking and it was fine - if you don't have any in the house I'm sure butter would work just as well and at only 28g it couldn't do too much harm to the diet!!

** I used frozen raspberries and while the cupcakes were delicious I think they would be even better had I used fresh.

BROWNIES 19

2011-09-25T21:35:00.001+01:00

Here in blogland we have a very significant event approaching, Chele's and Choclette's baby has reached the ripe old age of ONE! Yes, the wonderful We Should Cocoa has come of age - not bad when they have to decide on different ingredients to challenge us to team up with chocolate every month - some have been more difficult than others (you know what they were Choclette!!!!!).

This month Chele has asked us to bake something for the birthday celebration, and what could Brownieville Girl bake but some brownies - these were my maiden voyage in my new oven - and I probably underestimated the amount of time they needed - the center was maybe a teeny weeny bit too squidgy - but that said they were just delicious.

Walnut Brownies
adapted from Rachel Allen's BAKE

175g               70% Cocoa Chocolate
175g               Butter cubed
25g                 Good Cocoa Powder sifted
3                     large eggs
1 tsp               vanilla extract
225g               light brown sugar
100g               plain flour, sifted
50g                 walnuts - to place on each brownie

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line a 20cm x 20cm tin with parchment paper

Melt the chocolate, butter and cocoa powder together in a bowl over simmering water.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
In a separate large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract for at least 2 minutes, while still whipping add the chocolate mixture and continue to whisk until combined.
Add the flour and fold through with a metal spoon.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and place the walnuts on top.
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until dry on top but still slightly fudgy in the middle.
Remove from the tin and allow to cool in the tin.
When cool cut into squares and serve.

Enjoy.

A CAKE TO DIG INTO!

2011-09-21T10:54:00.001+01:00

For the final bake from Lauren Chattman's "Cake keeper Cakes" The Cake Slice Bakers have decided to each bake a cake that we have been drooling over during the past year of baking from the book. I have to admit that I'm not too sorry to be moving onto another book - although there were some gems in there (particularly the Cranberry Cake) but I actually think that every cake in a recipe book should be delicious, and more importantly (because we all have different tastes) well tested - in different types of ovens by different people - I think that that's what you are paying for when you buy a book, testing, testing and then some more testing.

O.K. I'll get off my high horse now and tell you which cake I decided to go with, there were a number in contention - Espresso-Hazelnut Bundt Cake, Mississippi Mud Cake with Espresso-Bourbon Glaze and Peanut Butter and Jelly Crumb Cake to name a few - but I went with Nutella Swirl Pound Cake (with a bit of encouragement from my Nutella mad son!!!).

This cake has good and bad points - the bad point became very obvious when I took out a knife to cut it - the knife went so far and no further - I had to take out the big guns (!) to make it the whole way thought. The Nutella had sunk towards the bottom (as it does in the photo in the book) and hardened - really hardened! I know that I'm still on a learning curve with my new oven but I don't know what I could have done to prevent this happening - I wonder if I used about half the quantity of Nutella and put tiny amounts through the batter?

As for the good points - this cake is delicious, worth the risk to your dentistry!!! The texture of the cake part is perfect and it tastes buttery and scrumptious - well worth playing around with.

Nutella Swirl Pound Cake

4                 large eggs
2 tsp            vanilla extract
1.5 cups       plain flour
3/4 tsp         baking powder
1/4 tsp         salt
1 cup (8oz) softened butter
1 400g jar     Nutella

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line a 9"x5" loaf tin with parchment paper

Combine the eggs and vanilla and beat lightly.
In a separate bowl sift in the flour baking powder and salt.
In another bowl beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, remembering to scrape down the sides regularly.
Add the egg slowly whilst the beater is running at medium-slow speed.
Turn the beater down to slow and add the flour slowly a 1/2 cup at a time.
Scrape 1/3 of the mixture into your prepared tin, then 1/2 the Nutella, followed by another 1/3 of the cake mixture then the other 1/2 of the Nutella and finally the remaining 1/3 of the mixture. Run a knife blade through the batter to create marbling.
Bake the cake until golden and a skewer comes out clean - about 1 hour 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes.
After this time all it to cool completely on a wire rack.
Slice (with a good knife!!) and serve.

Enjoy.

If you are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers have a look at Katie at Apple and Spice for all the details.

I would like to thank you all for your beautiful and kind comments on my last post - I cannot tell you how much I appreciate them.

WITH SO MUCH GRATITUDE

2011-09-06T10:40:00.000+01:00

It's been six months, six long, slow, heavy months since my sister, friend, confidant, rock, comrade-in-arms, died. Six months when every little thing takes twice the energy it used to. Six months when sometimes I catch myself laughing, and I wonder why and how. Six months when sadness is my constant companion.

But it has also been six months when my relationship with her children has blossomed - I love those kids with all my heart. Their successes are mine too, they make me so proud, they are beyond wonderful.

It has also been six months of getting to know my sister's dear friends, they say that you get the friends you deserve, and in my sister's case this is certainly true. Her friends are wonderful, kind and good people (and great craic too!!). Sadly Pauline has had to head back to the States, we miss her kind and strong presence, her stories of my sister when she lived in New York, her companionship and understanding, her cooking!! Clare has been my rock, she has helped from the very beginning in the most practical ways, she sees something that needs to be done, and just does it - no questions asked, no praise looked for. And finally Fiona who gave my sister such joy, (she would return from coffee with Fiona and regale me with all the funny anecdotes - for hours!!!). Fiona brings a wave of good will with her wherever she goes, she is a powerhouse of enthusiasm and kindness, she has enveloped my niece and nephews in her warmth and love, she has brought my sister's fun side back into their lives.

The Random Bakes Of Kindness from my last post reminded me of all the people to whom I owe so much gratitude. I want to take this opportunity to say thanks a million to you all, and particularly to Clare and Fiona.

To Fiona, thank you, thank you for giving them a wonderful holiday, a fun filled time when they were too busy to be sad. Thank you for sharing your beautiful daughter, giving my precious Princess a much needed older sister. Thank you for cheering us up, time and time again. Thank you for showering the Princess with kindness (!). Thank you for seeing each child's individual strengths and fostering them. Thank you for your time, for M's time and for bringing C into my life. Thank you for the coffee mornings - our chance to regroup, to reminisce, to chat, to organise. Thank you for being there - always.

To Clare, thank you for your support, your hugs (you give the best hugs!), your understanding, your always being on my side. Thank you for all your hospitality to the kids - they always return from your home snuggled in your love and caring - and that bit happier. Thank you for your generosity in everything you do. Thank you for washing away our anguish (!). Thank you for sharing your (gorgeous) family, your energy, your enthusiasm, your hard work, your warmth. Thank you too for our coffee mornings - you know how much they mean to both myself and Mum.

These women deserve so much more than cake - but it's a start!!!

We are meeting to reminisce and cry and laugh today, and I am bringing some muffins along. September is not just back to school time, but also back to some sort of eating properly time - slimming clubs have more start-ups in September than in January. With this in mind I borrowed Rits's Applesauce Muffin Recipe, (made a few very small changes) cooked up a batch, and am bringing them along. Some guilt free treats for some people who need cheering up.

Rita's Applesauce Oat Muffins

1 cup                   oats
1 cup                   skimmed milk
1 cup                   whole wheat flour
1/2 cup                brown sugar*
1/2 cup                applesauce (I made this with 3 small apples a tsp cinnamon and a tiny amount of water)
2                          egg whites
2 tsp                    baking powder
1/2 tsp                 bread (bicarbonate of) soda
1/2 tsp                 salt
1                         curly wurly bar (similar to heath bar)
2 tsp                   cinnamon
1 tsp                   sugar

Makes 12 muffins

Soak oats in the milk for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 180 C
Line muffin tins
Combine the oat mixture with the applesauce and egg whites and mix.
In a seperate bowl measure out the dry ingredients (including 1 tsp cinnamon) and mix.
Chop up the curly wurly bar and add to the bowl.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine - without mixing too much to avoide tough muffins.
Spoon into the prepared muffin cases.

Combine one spoon of sugar with a spoon of cinnamon and scatter ofver the muffins before you pop them into the oven (I forgot this part - but won't next time!)

Bake the muffins for 17 - 25 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
Remove from the pan and cool.

*To make these even more healthy - next time I think I'll add a super ripe banana instead of the sugar.

These muffins - while not the prettiest to come out of my oven are really tasty and well worth a go. Thanks Rita at Sage Cuisine.

RANDOM BAKES OF KINDNESS

2011-09-03T11:57:00.000+01:00

It's back to school time here in Ireland - and it made me think "who dreads going back more - the kids or the teachers??" At least the kids have all their friends to sweeten the pill, but the poor teachers, back to the grindstone after 2/3 months of freedom!!!!

Vanessa has introduced a wonderful new challenge called Random Bakes Of Kindness (what a genius idea!) whereby you gift a batch of your baked beauties (!) to someone who goes the extra mile in your life. I decided the the teachers at my niece and nephew's school would be the ideal recipients for a "first day back at school cheer me up" - they have been so good to the kids over the past few months, keeping their school lives as even and calm as possible. Who better to receive an injection of sugar (and thanks) with their morning coffee.

I was up with the birds on the day they were going back, and so decided to whip up Coby's Banana and Yogurt Muffins - Coby has a fantastic blog (which she shares with a great group of bloggers) you'll be delighted when you visit - it's a font of ideas and mouth watering recipes and photos, but most of all it's a beautifully written blog - you share in all their lives. I whipped up the muffins when I got up, and they were still warm when I popped them into a tin for the kids to bring to school. Brownieville Princess and Boy #4 weren't too anxious to bring in the gift, so I dropped it into the office on my way out - and seemingly they went down a storm - some warm, fairly low fat goodies on the first day back to school - I hope they brought a few smiles to the staff room!!

The recipe is over on The Clayton's Blog - the only change I made was to use peach instead of passionfruit yoghurt, and sunflower instead of olive oil, they were light, fluffy and brim full of flavour.

Thanks a million to Vanessa for this excellent idea - it is really good to spend time thinking of all the people in your life that you need to be grateful to - there are so many.

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

2011-08-25T11:11:00.000+01:00

This month's We Should Cocoa challenge was to create something lovely using both rose and chocolate. Choclette really does like to keep us on our toes!!

My first thoughts were to team the rose with some white chocolate - there is something so delicate about a rose (and rose water) that I immediately thought to pair it with the subtle vanilla sweetness of some good white chocolate. White billowy meringues, perhaps? But then life got in the way (as it does), I was getting short on time and I needed a kid friendly, throw it all together type bake.

The kids are not great fans of white chocolate - milk chocolate gets the vote every time! So I decided to play around with one of my stock recipes - add some rose water and see what happens!!

I had a hit and a miss - the cake was very popular, the hint of rose being very subtle, gave an extra dimension (just a little something that stopped you wolfing down a slice and encouraged you to nibble it thoughtfully), it married very well with the milk chocolate, one flavour not overpowering the other. The icing on the other hand was not popular (even with me!!) Firstly the cake was sweet enough and did not need the extra sweet injection of the icing. Secondly the rose and orange flavours (which I thought would be fantastic together) just didn't jell, and thirdly it was all just too much when combined. Luckily I only iced a small section of the cake - so there was plenty of happy munching!!

Chocolate Rose Cake

200g               butter
200g               caster sugar
200g               milk chocolate
250g               self raising flour
1.5 tsp            rose water
3                    eggs, beaten.

Prepare a 24x33cm (13x10inch) tin by lining with baking parchment paper
Preheat oven to 180 C

Melt the butter and 75g of the chocolate.
Add the sugar and combine.
Gently stir in the flour.
Chop up the remaining 125g of chocolate and add to the batter.
Add the eggs, stirring gently.
Pour into the shallow tin.
Bake for 20 - 30 minutes.

Icing (though I wouldn't bother!)

100g     icing sugar, sieved
1 tsp     rosewater
orange juice to get to correct texture.

Combine.

Enjoy!

CAKE SLICE BAKERS

2011-08-21T17:02:00.000+01:00

After a long absence, and with apologies to my fellow Cake Slice Bakers, I am back for the penultimate cake from Lauren Chattman's "Cake Keeper Cakes", this month the bakers voted for her Hungarian Coffee Cake (aka Monkey Bread) - a coffee free cake (I'm always caught!!) rich in cinnamon (well my version was anyway!) and fun to make.

I was excited to bake my first "Monkey Bread", but found this cake to taste much more like scones coated in a buttery, sweet cinnamon glaze - delicious, but not what I had expected, and not really pull-apartable!

We really enjoyed this cake on the day it was made, but it doesn't belong in a book with "keeper" in the title as on the second day (like scones) the cake had dried out and lost it's lovely soft texture - nice but not nearly as nice as on day one. This cake would be perfect for a coffee morning with a gang of friends - just make sure you invite enough to eat it all in one go!!!!

The recipe as I made it:

Hungarian Coffee Free Coffee Cake

Topping

1/2 cup (110g)    butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup                light brown sugar

Cake

1/2 cup               granulated sugar
3 tsp                  ground cinnamon
9 tbsp (117g)     chilled butter - actually frozen is best.
3 cups                plain flour
1 tbsp                caster sugar
1 tbsp                 baking powder
3/4 tsp                bread (bicarbonate of) soda
3/4 tsp                salt
1 cup                  buttermilk (maybe more)
1/4 cup               pecan nuts

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F
Butter and flour a non-stick bundt cake tin

Whisk the melted butter together with the light brown sugar and put to one side.
Combine the granulated sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon in a plastic bag.
Grate the frozen butter with a coarse grater.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt,2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tbsp caster sugar in a large bowl.
Add the grated butter and combine with a spoon.
Stir in the buttermilk, adding more if necessary to combine.
Scoop up small balls of dough (slightly smaller than a golf ball) and toss in the sugar cinnamon mixture.
Layer the balls of dough in the bundt tin, scattering in the chopped pecan nuts as you go.
When all the balls of sugared dough are in the tin, pour the cooled butter and sugar mixture over them.
Bake in the oven for 35 - 40 minutes or until firm to the touch.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin on a cake rack for 10 - 15 minutes.
Invert onto a serving plate and serve at once.

Enjoy.

A CLEAN(ISH) CONSCIENCE

2011-08-17T18:15:00.000+01:00

I have an admission ........ I cheated ........ but then I felt so guilty that I uncheated - I hope that Dom can forgive me - but at least I did the right thing in the end!!!

You see it was like this .... Dom over at Belleau Kitchen had challenged us to randomly choose a cookery book from the shelf/pile and then to choose a random recipe from said book and then to cook/bake it - no messing. Wellllllllllllll, I closed my eyes and grabbed Nigella Lawson's "Kitchen" - so far, so good (I had neglected this book and was pleased to give it a go), but then I randomly chose her Marmalade Pudding Cake - yuk, I really don't like marmalade, nobody in the house eats that type of cake. I decided it would be a total waste (I don't like marmalade), it would end up uneaten in the bin (I don't like marmalade)- I just couldn't do it (I don't like marmalade).

I closed the book, closed my eyes and fanned through the pages and came to .....Indian Roast potatoes ...... Result ...... I love potatoes (well I know stereotypes are often untrue, but I AM Irish) and I love spice ..... Happy Days, Indian Roast potatoes it was.

They were a perfect choice, you just chop up your unpeeled potatoes into cubes and toss them in a plastic bag to which you have added oil and spices (turmeric, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, nigella seeds, black mustard seeds, chilli powder) some garlic, lime juice and salt - toss the potatoes about until fully coated, roast for an hour and then serve with a chopped red onion as garnish. I played about with the spices (just a bit) left out the raw onion - and they were delicious, and really popular.

BUT I just couldn't do it ..... I couldn't pretend that they were my random choice ..... I had to bite the bullet .... I just had to .... didn't I?...... I had to ..... my conscience demanded it!!!!!!!!

So Marmalade Pudding Cake it was, on the plus side it was easy to throw together, you just dump everything in the food processor, a quick whizz and it's ready to go in the oven, stress free really.

As for the result, well - I thought it was OK. (which isn't bad as (you might not know but) I'm not that fond of marmalade!!), Brownieville Man loved it and Brownieville Physical Magician (aka my friend Amo, who gives me life saving massages) ate 5 slices in one sitting (slight exaggeration!!). All in all - worth giving a go.

Marmalade Pudding Cake

250g           soft butter (plus some to butter the dish)
75g             caster sugar
75g             light brown muscovado sugar
150g           marmalade, plus 75g marmalade for the glaze*
225g           plain flour
1/2 tsp        bread (bicarbonate of) soda
1 tsp           baking powder
4                 eggs
1                 orange - zested and juiced. (keep half the juice for the glaze)

* I used a jar of three fruit marmalade that I had left over from a Christmas hamper recieved the year before last!!!

Preheat oven to 180 C
Butter a 24cm sq Pyrex (or actually any) ovenproof dish

Prepare the glaze by putting 75g of marmalade and the juice of half the orange in a small pan and put to the side to heat later.
Put all the remaining ingredients into the food processor, and whizz.
Pour the batter into the prepared dish.
Bake for about 30 minutes, although could take 40 minutes.
Check it is done by inserting a piece of raw spaghetti to see if it comes out clean (if there is batter on it - it needs more time)
Heat the glaze over a medium heat, when melted, pour over the hot cake.
Serve while still warm with cream or custard.

Enjoy (if you like marmalade!!!)

VIRTUOUS BUT GOOD!

2011-08-06T14:51:00.000+01:00

I promise I haven't had a blow to the head (!!) but I had a yen for some healthy, bright, crunchy food - something that yelled "summer" - a salad obviously, but not a claggy mayonnaise laden one, something much fresher.

Never one to do things by halves, I went the whole hog with this one - not even a smidgen of oil in there, but brim full of flavour - try it - you'll forgive me the virtuousness!!!

Carrot and Coriander Salad

6        organic carrots
2        handfuls of coriander
2        limes juiced

Grate the carrots - you really do need to go with organic ones, they have a much stronger flavour.
Chop the coriander stems very finely and the leaves roughly.
Combine them both, and add the lime juice to taste.
Allow flavours to combine for a half hour or so.
Enjoy.

MESSED UP MUFFINS

2011-07-16T23:04:00.000+01:00

I haven't blogged in ages, and now I have to come back with an unmitigated failure! These apricot and chocolate muffins were just nasty, the actual muffins were rubbery and the apricots therein had an unpleasant jammy texture.

When I read Chele's challenge for this month's We Should Cocoa, I feared that I would be unable to source any fresh apricots, but as luck would have it there were some delicious specimens in the shop the very next day. Murphy's law being what it is, everyone who visited over the next couple of days, spotted them, and said "you never see fresh apricots, may I take one?" and the punnet disappeared in no time!!!! Fortunately I managed to get the last of the apricots the next time I went shopping, and even more fortunately (or not when you consider the way the muffins turned out!!) I managed to hide three of them to use for the challenge.

I won't bother giving you the recipe* - why would I when this recipe is a million times better. As for the apricots - they are just so nice when fresh and ripe (and so hard to locate) that I will stick to dried or tinned for my baking in future. I have a lovely recipe for an apricot tart which uses tinned apricots - I must bake and blog it soon.

As I tell the kids, your mistakes are just as important as your successes, so I'll put this one down to furthering my culinary education! They did look nice though!!

*All I'll say is that Ms Smith isn't totally infallible.

SCONE IN NO TIME!!

2011-06-24T13:09:00.000+01:00

The newest Brownievillers on the block have been raving about the delicious scones with raspberries they had when they were visiting my sister in Galway recently, I just knew they had this one right - like having the jam inside the scone - nice one!!!

This month's We Should Cocoa Challenge was to create something delicious with both chocolate and strawberries - wonderful timing, our local strawberries are just perfect at the moment, deep dark red and brim full of flavour (I actually find it hard to use them in a recipe - I just want to gobble them up straight from the carton!!) I decided to try my hand at some scones, with nuggets of strawberry and grated white chocolate within - figured it would please the little ones anyway!!

As regular readers will know, I have been striving to find the perfect scone recipe for some time - I have finally decided the the two things necessary for really good scones are: frozen butter and slightly sour cream! You might think I'm mad (join the queue!!) but try it and see - I'd love to know how you get on.

It is much easier to cut scones into these shapes then the usual rounds - no rerolling of the dough!

The scones turned out really well, the soft sweet nuggets of strawberry were just about prefect - no jam necessary! The chocolate on the other hand didn't really have any impact on the taste - next time I plan to use chunks of chocolate (similar in size to the strawberry pieces) - but these were so nummy, that there will definitely be a next time!

Strawberry and White Chocolate Scones

adapted from the Avoca recipe

450g/1lb self raising flour

pinch baking powder

pinch salt

50g/2 oz caster sugar

110g/4oz frozen butter (I keep a few weighted out butter blocks in the freezer for when the scone mood strikes!)

1 egg, beaten

50ml/2fl oz cream (I think it's best if slightly sour)

200ml/7fl oz milk (more if necessary)

10 medium strawberries

100g/4 oz white chocolate (grated or chopped into chunks)

1 egg - to make the glaze

Preheat oven to 180 C

Sieve the flour into a large bowl.

Add the salt, sugar and baking powder.

Grate the frozen butter into the flour - I use the large grate size on my box grater.

Add the chocolate and mix gently with your hand.

Add the egg, cream and most of the milk.

Mix well until it has a soft texture - it's important that it's not too moist.

Add more milk if necessary.

Gently add the strawberries.

Gather the mixture into a ball and place on a floured surface.

Press out into a rectangle shape about 2.5cm/1 inch thick.

Cut into your preferred shapes - keeping everything to a similar size.

Make your glaze with a beaten egg and a tiny amount of water, and brush over the scones.

Transfer to a greased/lined baking sheet.

Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes, or until well browned.

Enjoy.

GOOD FOR THE SOLE!

2011-06-19T09:42:00.000+01:00

Dom over at the wonderful Belleau Kitchen has challenged us to cook a random recipe from our most recent cook book - great idea, how many of us buy/receive a new cookbook, devour the recipes and pictures and then cast it aside for the old reliables (kinda have to put my hand up on that one!) - Thanks Dom.

I was having a really hard time remembering which was my most recent acquisition (cook book wise) - I knew that I hadn't bought anything recently, but was it as far back as Christmas? - couldn't be, but then I couldn't remember anything more recent - it was really bugging me!! But then the Lovely Louise came to my rescue, and gave me a "cheer you up" present of "The Food of France" (a journey for food lovers) by Maria Villegas and Sarah Randell. This is a delightful book, brim full of interesting, doable recipes and mouthwatering pictures. (Thanks Lou xxx)

My luck was in when I opened the book, I actually had most of the ingredients (and just left out the ones I didn't have) - I thought I was just opening it to write my shopping list!! My luck was still in when we tasted the dish - delicious, delicious, delicious! I was told that it was "better than any restaurant" (what an ego booster!). This dish would be perfect for a dinner party, it's really impressive and really easy, what more can you ask!

I have to say that the quality of the fish and prawns is really important here - the sauce is light and the fish has to be as fresh as possible. As always my local fish shop (Connollys) came up trumps, not only was the fish delicious, but Kieran actually peeled the prawns for me!

I served the Sole Normande with samphire, which I tossed in the creamy sauce over a high heat for a couple of minutes - it was just perfect. Asparagus or green beans would also to good accompaniments, anything green with a bit of crunch, actually.

SOLE NORMANDE

12             prawns (shrimp) (I used more)
500ml        white wine
12             shucked oysters (I didn't have any, so left them out)
12             small button mushrooms (mine weren't particularly small, so I sliced them)
4              sole fillets (I used small, skinned whole Dover Sole)
250ml       cream (I used much less, about 120 ml)
1               truffle, thinly sliced (another ingredient I left out!)
1 tbsp       chopped parsley (the only ingredient I omitted, that I will add next time)

Put the wine in a deep frying pan (I used a wok) and bring to the boil.
Add the oysters (if using) and poach for 2-3 minutes, remove from the wine with a slotted spoon and keep warm.
Add the peeled and deveined prawns to the bubbling wine and cook until pink and cooked through, about 3 minutes. Lift out and keep warm.
Poach the mushrooms for 5 minutes or until cooked through, remove and keep warm.
Place the sole carefully into the poaching liquid, and cook for about 5 minutes (depends on the size of your fish) until just cooked through - remove the fish and put to one side.
Add the cream to the poaching liquid and bring to the boil, boil until reduced by half and thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon (I didn't reduce it by this much, as I was after a lighter texture)
Season with salt and pepper (be careful with the salt if you are serving with samphire, which is very salty)
Put the sole on a serving dish, scatter with the prawns, oysters (if using), mushrooms, and truffle (again, if using) and parsley and serve while it's still hot!

Enjoy.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER?

2011-06-04T12:19:00.000+01:00

The wonderful Chele over at The Chocolate Teapot challenged us to come up with our best roulade recipe (containing chocolate of course!) for last month's We Should Cocoa - the (wonderful) round up is on Choclette's blog (well worth a visit).

My late sister was the queen of roulades (my son once ate an entire one of her roulades in minutes flat - they were that good!! (luckily she had made quite a few on that occasion!)), as I could never compete (as if I would want to!!) I thought that I would go down the meringue roulade route for a change.

I had made the Strawberry meringue roulade from the Avoca Cafe Cookbook some time ago and decided that with a bit of tweaking it would be just the thing. I pretty much followed their recipe, but added grated white chocolate (going from fine in the cream to very coarse in the meringue) and it worked a treat. I was conscious that the chocolate could take a sweet dessert over the edge, so added an additional egg white, and I think it did the trick. The white chocolate element wasn't too powerful, but it did add a wonderful deep vanilla hit - a perfect summer dessert!

When the meringue came out of the oven I wondered if I would be able to roll it!!

I was tempted to serve it as a (flat) pavlova!!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Meringue Roulade

5 large egg whites

225g caster sugar (I think golden is best)

250ml whipped cream

200g white chocolate

2 punnets raspberries

Line a 30x20cm swiss roll tin with parchment paper

Preheat oven to 150 C

Grate half the chocolate with a fine grater, the other half with a coarse one.

Beat the egg whites and half the sugar to snowy peaks (electric beater and clean bowl essential!)

Gradually add the remaining sugar, continuing to whisk for 10 minutes, until it forms stiff peaks.

Fold in the coarsely grated white chocolate carefully.

Spread the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 hour.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin.

Turn out onto a fresh sheet of baking parchment (or a clean tea towel) and carefully peel of the lining paper.

Spread over the cream (which you have whipped and folded in the finely grated chocolate to) and scatter the raspberries all over.

Roll up as best you can - doesn't really matter how good you are at this, it tastes so good you will be forgiven!!!

Enjoy!

CUPCAKES FOR A PRINCESS!

2011-05-20T14:43:00.001+01:00

Really and truly this should be the best written, wittiest and most informative blog on the blogsphere ...... well if the amount of time I spend planning posts were anything to go by anyway!!!! When I can't sleep at night, I lay there and plan all sorts of wonderfulness to amuse and entertain you all - then life gets in the way and I don't even cook!!

Brownieville Princess was anxious to bake the other day (one of the many "I'm bored" moments - all new to me, a particular female trait I gather!!) Anyway with Dom's challenge in mind, I let her loose in the "cook book room" (I don't actually have a "cook book room", but I do have a room full of cook books!) to source a sweet treat - she lighted upon "Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery", and chose the Chocolate Cupcakes. These cupcakes would be great for icing as they remain nice and flat to accept whatever topping you wish .... unfortunately our impatience didn't allow the cupcakes to cool enough to ice ..... they were demolished in no time... at least I got to take a photo!!

Although they went down well with the children, I felt that they was a bit too much faffing about for what were very ordinary buns, nice but not really worth the effort - that said, the raw mixture was absolutely delicious!!

Chocolate Cupcakes

115g             dark chocolate
85g                butter
175g              soft brown sugar
2                    large eggs - separated
185g              plain flour, sifted
3/4 tsp           baking powder
3/4 tsp           bread (bicarbonate of) soda
250g              milk - room temp
1 tsp              vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 C/375 F
Line 16 cupcake holders

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth.
In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with clean beaters, and when you have done this for several minutes add the yolk to the butter and sugar and beat well.
Add the melted chocolate to this mixture and beat well.
In another bowl (see what I mean about the faffing!!) combine the flour, baking powder and bread soda.
Add the vanilla extract to the milk.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and beat well.
Pour in 1/3 of the milk and beat again .... repeat these steps until everything combined.
In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture carefully, keeping as much air in there as you can.
Fill the prepared cupcake cases to 2/3 full and bake for about 20 minutes (depends on the size of your bun tray)
Insert a skewer to see if cooked through.
Allow to cool in their tin for 10 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.

The book says that they keep well .... I wouldn't know!!

BROWNIES 18

2011-04-27T23:03:00.000+01:00

I think it's time to introduce you to the new members of the Brownieville world. You already know me, my other half (Brownieville Man) my taste testers supreme Brownieville Boys #1 and #2 (although brownieville boy #2 would prefer to be referred to as "the talented one" or "the brilliant one" or even "the handsome one"!!! ) The new members of the team are Brownieville Brother-in-Law (BVBIL), Brownieville Boy #3 (not very interested in anything other than football!!) Brownieville Boy #4 (another fantastic taste tester) and Brownieville Princess (who will keep me baking or else!!!!!).*

Dom over at Belleau Kitchen has challenged us to bake a random recipe from our first ever cook book - well my first ever cook book was "Look I Can Cook" (the orange omelet being a particular favourite!) but that book has gone the same way as my youth and disappeared forever!!!!! I imagine that I share Delia's "Complete Illustrated Cookery Course" with many others as my first cookbook that I still possess, so cheating a little I asked Brownieville Princess to choose a recipe for us to bake - she wasn't impressed that there were no cupcakes or muffins, and compromised with Delia's "American Brownies"..

I have to say that BVP chose well - these are good brownies, rich, chocolaty and squidgy. These little treats head straight to near the top of the list, I'm thinking second or third place - I made a double quantity and they lasted about 10 minutes (I am cooking for alot of people these days) not bad going!!

*Brownieville Sister #2, Brownieville BIL #2, and Brownieville Boys #5 and #6, and Brownieville Baby should also be mentioned!

American Brownies

110g             Butter
50g               Plain Chocolate (I used 80%)
2                   Eggs, beaten
225g             Granulated Sugar
50g               Sifted Flour
1 tsp             Baking Powder
110g            Chopped Nuts (I left these out BVP is not a fan)

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line a 7 x 11 tin with baking paper

Melt the butter and chocolate over a double boiler.
Stir the other ingredients into the butter and chocolate mixture.
Mix well and then pour into the prepared tin spreading out evenly.
Bake for 30 minutes (mine took 45!) until the mixture shows signs of shrinking away from the sides and the centre feels springy.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then divide into small pieces (it's rich!) and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Doubles well ..... Enjoy!

SIMPLE SAMBO

2011-04-19T09:08:00.002+01:00

This is a sandwich combination that my late sister (oh, how I hate the past tense) introduced me to - and I have been addicted ever since. I haven't had much of an appetite over the past weeks, but recently I remembered how much she loved these panini and have been indulging in one most days - they can only be described as tasty, but really intensely deliciously tasty!

Goats cheese is lower fat than most other cheeses, if you roast your own tomatoes (I just bung some in the oven when it is heating up for, and cooling down from, other dishes - a day or two of this popping in and out of the oven leaves perfect sun (!) dried tomatoes), they need just a splash of oil - making this a healthy and delicious lunch.

Best Ever Panini

Ciabatta Bread
Goats Cheese (I like the cheese from a log)
Sunblushed Tomatoes
Black Olives

Make your sandwich and toast!
I sometimes use this combination on an open toasted sandwich using brown bread instead of the ciabatta - even healthier!

2011-04-05T18:56:00.000+01:00

I have been blessed with the two best sisters anyone could wish for, we have always been incredibly close and supportive of each other. My nearest sister (in both age and geography) has always been very enthusiastic about this blog, and has often mentioned how she loves when I personalise the posts, mentioning different family events and occasions. She told me that when the blog started that I sounded like quite the alcholic!! (not bad for someone who has about two drinks a week!)

It is with the heaviest possible heart that I speak about her recent death in this post - she was such a huge part of my life that this tragic event cannot go unmentioned. She was always the most generous of people and even at this time she has given me the most precious of gifts - to be allowed to share in the care and nurturing of her three wonderful young children - they were the center of her world, and I just hope I can do half as good a job as she would have.

EAT MORE GREENS!

2011-03-05T11:24:00.000Z

With sincere (?) apologies to my chocoholic readers (you know who you are .... Dom and Chele) I'm back with more veggies. Years ago (when the boys were small and I was obsessed with nutrition) I read a wonderful book by Andrew Weil called "8 Weeks To Optimum Health" - a few of his recommendations have stuck with me through the years:  Have a "news fast" every so often (no radio or TV news and skip the newspapers) - very calming. Buy yourself flowers regularly - they lift your spirits. Eat broccoli - it is brim full of goodness - so here goes!

I have been dipping in and out of Ellie Krieger's "The Food You Crave" recently, and when I saw a recipe for "Dirty Broccoli" - I just had to try it!!! Not sure where the dirty bit came from but the recipe is excellent - tasty, interesting and healthy. Ellie describes the dish as delectable, and she's right!

"Dirty" Broccoli

1                bunch broccoli

2 tbsp        olive oil (I used slightly less)
2               garlic cloves, minced (I used 3)
3 tbsp        wholemeal breadcrumbs
1/4 tsp       dried oregano
1/4 tsp       salt
1/4 tsp       pepper

Divide the broccoli into spears and steam until cooked to your taste.

While the broccoli is steaming heat the oil on a large pan or wok, adding the garlic while the oil is still cold, cook it for about a minute.
Add the breadcrumbs, oregano and seasonings and stir until the mixture is toasted and golden.
Combine the broccoli and the crunchy breadcrumbs and serve.

Enjoy.

EAT YOUR GREENS

2011-03-02T08:41:00.000Z

I think it's time to redress the balance - what about some nice healthy vegetables after all the recent breads and cakes?? And what nicer vegetable to turn to than vibrant, mineral rich cabbage. One of my very favourite (I never seem to make enough!!) and this is an easy, tasty way to prepare it. Although perhaps not an obvious pairing I think that orange goes really well with irony (is that a word?) deep green cabbage - the slightly tart, slightly sweet orange seems to bring out the intense greenness of the vegetable.

This is a handy dish for dinner parties as you can prepare the (orange and garlic) oil and cabbage before time and then just stir fry them together at the last minute.

Garlic and Orange Cabbage

1 head             Dark Green Cabbage
1                     Orange (Zest and Juice)
1                     Large Clove Garlic
2 tsp                Olive Oil
1 tsp                Butter

Heat the oil and butter in a wok or large pan to medium high.
While it is coming up to temperature grate in the garlic and orange zest.
Allow to sizzle but do not allow the garlic to burn.
Add the cabbage and toss in the flavoured oil.
After a minute or so, add half the orange juice.
Cook until it is to your taste - about 4 minutes is enough for me. You might need to add more of the juice.
Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Enjoy.

A GAME OF TWO HALVES!!

2011-02-27T18:34:00.000Z

Dom over at Belleau Kitchen has come up with a genius challenge, whereby we are to choose an untried recipe from our cook books and give it a go. To be more specific he asks us to take all our cookbooks from the shelf, choose one at random and then select a recipe from it again at random and being the brain-box he is, he has called it Random Recipes Challenge. I would need to call in a moving company to make a pile of my cook-books (!) so instead I chose a selection of books that are untried either because they are new or because I bought them and promptly forgot them.

I was hoping for some nice cup-cakes or perhaps a wonderful new vegetable dish or even a practical mid-week dinner idea, instead I opened the page to the dreaded yeast bread. Regular readers will know that I have a "thing" about yeast breads, all the kneading looking for spongy/springy textures - all that fuss when you can just throw a lovely soda bread together in no time, why bother!!!

The book chosen was "Bake" by Rachel Allen, and the recipe was for her "White Yeast Bread", which in itself was a problem as we much prefer brown bread. I decided to compromise slightly and replace 200g of the strong white flour with wholemeal.

I'm afraid to say that yet again I failed in an attempt to have a perfect yeast loaf emerge from my kitchen. The bread tasted fine, no better than one you'd buy in a supermarket, I think it would be best described as blah!! This is a Link to Rachel's recipe.

As luck would have it, soon after making this bread, Rhylesgranny over at Tea and Wheaten posted her recipe for Honeyed Porridge Bread, which also is a yeast bread. Her directions are so clear and simple that I felt confident enough to give it a go (and get that yeast "monkey" off my back!!!!). This bread was so delicious (and easy to make) that I made it two days in a row!!

Thank You Rhylesgranny!

I want to thank Dom for this wonderful challenge (a step towards world domination perhaps!!!), not least because it indirectly brought me to try the Porridge bread - and of course a big thank you to Rhylesgranny too. Looking forward to next month!

CHOCOLATE TEA BRACK

2011-02-24T19:17:00.000Z

You know the way that sometimes a recipe just comes to you - you wonder if x and y would be a good combination, throw a recipe together and bing bang boosh - perfection, it just works like magic, the work of the cake fairies. Well this recipe wasn't like that at all !!!!!!!!!!! It took a number of attempts to get it right, although all edible (Brownieville Man enjoyed the judging process) they just weren't wonderful, not blog worthy. I think that the main problem was that two of the ingredients (tea and dried fruit) are two of the few foods/drinks that I don't really like. But I battled on, and have been assured that this is a good one - and nice and easy too.

Choclette over at Chocolate Log Blog asked us to come up with something delicious which contains both chocolate and tea for this month's We Should Cocoa challenge. Originally I thought I might use a fruit tea (which I love) but then thought that might be cheating (and that would never do!) so I decided that I would go with ordinary everyday tea (I use Barry's tea because my Mother told me that it was the best in the world (!) and I've bought it ever since!).

This is a tea brack (tea bread) with a pleasant chocolaty back taste, using the cocoa almost as a spice rather than a full on flavour (one of the mistakes of an earlier edition) and is perfect for an after dinner treat with a nice cup of tea, or an afternoon tea, or a morning coffee .... versatile cake!

It is worthwhile soaking the fruit for 24 hours, and if you have any dried fruit lurking in your cupboards from Christmas, this brack would be a perfect way to use it, as the long soak will revive it to plump moistness. The choice of fruit is totally up to you, I have used sultanas, raisins, figs, and cranberries all to good effect.

Tea Brack with Cocoa

150g           soft brown sugar
300 ml        strong hot tea
400g           dried fruit (I recommend a combination of sultanas, raisins and cranberries)
50 ml          orange liqueur (or brandy) or use extra tea.
150g           wholemeal flour
75g             white flour
2 tbsp          cocoa powder, sifted
1.5 tsp        baking powder
1                 large egg

the day before

Add the sugar to the hot tea and stir until dissolved.
Add the fruit and alcohol and leave to soak for about 24 hours.

when ready to bake

Preheat oven to 170 C
Line a large loaf tin with parchment paper

Add the flours, sifted cocoa, baking powder and the beaten egg to the fruit mixture, and mix well.
Pour this mixture into the prepared tin.
Bake for about 1 hour, test before this time with a skewer, it should come out clean.
Allow to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes.
Then remove to cool totally on a wire rack.

The publishers of a new foodie magazine Baked and Delicious have contacted me to ask if I would let you know about their new publication - looks good to me!

CAKE NIRVANA

2011-02-20T10:08:00.001Z

I have an admission to make, I adore coffee cake so when the Cake Slice Bakers selected the Coffee-Heath Bar Crunch Cake from Cake Keeper Cakes by Laura Chattman, (after I initially read it as Coffee Health Cake and jumped for joy!!!!), I despaired for my healthy eating plan!! I knew that I would have to play around with the recipe or, as the only coffee cake lover in the house, every time I walked into the kitchen I would be tempted by the delicious cake in the corner, seductively calling "eat me, eat me, you know you want to"!!!!!!

I didn't make many alterations, I just reduced the coffee from 1 tbsp to 1 scant tsp, and then added a heaped tbsp of cocoa, added chopped dark chocolate to the batter and replaced the plain flour in the topping for whole meal - and I have to say that this cake is just magic. The melted toffee bars on top have alternating textures, from soft and chewy to light and crunchy - so very, very moreish. Luckily so, as it was polished off in no time (before I had a chance to add more inches to my hips!!).

Chocolate and Coffee-Curly Wurly Bar Crunch Cake

For the strusel topping

4              Curly Wurly Bars (my replacement for the Heath Bars) from the fridge.
1.5 tbsp    packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp      wholemeal flour
1 tbsp      softened butter

For the cake

1.5 cups    plain flour
1 tsp         instant espresso coffee powder
1.5 tbsp    cocoa powder - Green and Black is good
1.5 tsp      baking powder
4 oz          softened butter
1 cup        packed light brown sugar
1              large egg
1              large egg yolk
1.5 tsp     vanilla extract
1 cup        milk
2oz           dark chocolate - chopped finely

Preheat the oven to 180 C
Grease and line the bottom of a 9" round springform tin.

To make the topping

Chop up the toffee and chocolate bars.
Place the butter, flour and sugar in a bowl and combine with your fingers to resemble crumble topping,
Add the bars and leave in the fridge until the cake is ready.

To make the cake

Combine the flour, coffee powder, sifted cocoa and baking powder in a mixing bowl.
In another bowl combine the butter and sugar and cream until light and fluffy.
Slowly mix in the eggs and vanilla.
Keeping the mixer on low speed add 1/3 of the flour mixture and the 1/2 the milk, repeat until everything is combined being sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl regularly.
Add the chopped chocolate pieces and combine.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out.
Scatter the topping evenly over the cake.
Bake until the cake is golden and a skewer comes out clean - about 45 - 55 min
Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
Then remove to the wire rack to cool completely.
Serve on it's own or with your favourite accompaniment.

Enjoy.

SAINTLY SOUP

2011-02-19T00:58:00.000Z

Jacqueline over at Tinned Tomatoes has challenged us to create a soup or dressing which is luxurious and creamy for this months No Croutons Required. I have to admit that I was more in a frugal and low fat humour when the time came to make my soup - so here goes ... my attempt at a creamy, luxurious, frugal, low fat/carb soup ...... oxymoron, you might think - but just try it and I think you'll be convinced!!

Although I try to keep most of our food local and seasonal - sometimes I yearn for the fresh flavours of summer. When I found asparagus for 89c in my local Aldi, I had to leave my principles at the door and buy an obscene amount of the stuff!!!! As I had so much I felt that I could be extravagant when snapping the stems, then when I saw the amount of asparagus going in the compost, I realized that I had to do something with it (well most of it - I discarded the very woody ends) and this soup is the result. That was the luxurious and the frugal parts of the equation, now for the creamy and low fat/carb part! Cream cheese was the answer the very low fat type - I have used it before in soups and it always does the business, so here is my contribution to this month's No Croutons Required.

Asparagus Soup

1         Large Onion
           The stem part (minus the very woody ends) from 4 bunches of asparagus - I kept the first 4"/10cm for another recipe and used the rest of the stem for this soup.
            Vegetable Stock - enough to just cover the vegetables in the pot
1tbsp   Extra low fat cream cheese

Chop the onion and the asparagus spears, put in a pot and cover with vegetable stock (I used Marigold).
Bring to a simmer and cook until tender.
When tender remove from the heat and add the cheese.
Blitz until smooth.
Serve with a dollop of low fat yogurt and freshly milled pepper.

Enjoy.

HAPPY ST. VALENTINE'S DAY

2011-02-14T15:18:00.002Z

Shakespeare might think that music is the food of love, but I must be very pedestrian because my motto is "If food be the food of love, eat on"!!!!!

I associate chocolate and Champagne with romance - probably because I love both, and any excuse!! This year I wanted to make a nod to the day that's in it - despite my ongoing efforts to shed a few pounds. To this end I searched out Ellie Krieger's book The Food You Crave - Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life (I bought it late last year and then forgot all about it - anyone else ever do that?!). She had a lovely sounding recipe for Triple Chocolate Cookies and I thought that they would do the trick - we'd get the chocolate hit and my poor hips wouldn't become an increasing target!!

They are delicious - darkly chocolaty with an interesting (in a good way) texture, which is helped rather than hindered by the whole wheat flour. My only problem was that Ellie said that the recipe made 24 cookies - I could only etch out 14!! I know that I am probably failing on the "portion size" module of my diet education - but dividing the mixture into 24 would have made TINY cookies, anyway these morsels are not quite as low in calories as I might wish (!) but they have it all taste wise. I have (of course) played around with the recipe, and this is how I made them:

Triple Chocolate Cookies

1/2 stick (2oz)        butter, softened
1/2 cup                   packed brown sugar
1/4 cup                   flavourless oil (I used sunflower)
1 large                    egg
1 tsp                      vanilla extract
1/2 cup                  whole wheat flour
1/4 cup                  cocoa powder
1 oz                       dark chocolate (about 70%) - chopped*
1 oz                       milk chocolate - chopped*

Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

Mash the butter and sugars together until well combined.
Add the oil and the egg and beat until creamy.
Add the vanilla and combine.
Sift the flour and cocoa into the butter mixture (just add in any flour that doesn't go through the sieve)
Mix until fully combined.
Add the chocolate and mix well.
Place teaspoons of the mixture on the baking sheet, leaving space between the cookies. (I made mine in two batches)
Bake until they are set - about 12 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack.
When cool, hide away in a tin - they are way too tempting to leave sitting around!

* I just used 2oz dark chocolate (which actually only makes these Double Choc - oops!!)

Enjoy.

VEGETARIANS - LOOK AWAY!

2011-02-11T18:07:00.001Z

I was away on my annual "Girls Weekend" recently - it's just the best thing. We spend a weekend eating good food (and plenty of it!!) and drinking fizzy wine, but most importantly chatting. Actually it has been called the "you're great ... no you're great .... no you're great ... we're all great" weekend. The cheapest, and funnest (!) therapy of all time.

When we were taking a break from telling each other how great we are (seriously!) the conversation turned to food, and special occasion food to be exact. I was telling the girls about my favourite special occasion meal, and they asked me why it wasn't on the blog - good question. This to rectify my glaring omission!

I first saw this recipe on T.V. and I'm pretty sure it is a Jamie Oliver dish, although it has probably evolved a fair bit over the years. It's definitely a special occasion dish as the fillet (tenderloin) of beef is so expensive - but it is always popular, it's easy to carve and the left-overs are just heavenly. Another advantage is that if you are cooking for a large number of people the meat will have different levels of "doneness", the thin end will be well done whereas the Chateaubriand will be rare, with medium meat in the middle. If you are cooking for a smaller number of people you can use a smaller fillet (or perhaps two pieces of fillet one that you cook to well done and the other to rare), the herbs, mushrooms and parma ham, impart a wonderful subtle flavour the the tender moist meat - it's the business!

Special Roast Fillet of Beef

This is the recipe for 6 people - but it's easily increased/decreased

1 Fillet (tenderloin) of beef - about 3lbs/1.2kg *

20 Slices of Parma Ham (more if you are cooking a large joint)

2           large garlic cloves
15g       dried porcini mushrooms
200g     mushrooms
3 tbsp   butter
1/2       lemon - juiced
2 tbsp   chopped rosemary and thyme (amount when chopped nice and small)
2 tbsp     olive oil
2           glasses of red wine

Preheat oven to 200 C

Soak the porcini mushrooms in boiling water (for at least 1/2 hour)
Heat a large frying pan and add 1 tbsp oil - sear the meat on all sides and leave aside.
Add the rest of the oil to the pan and add the sliced fresh mushrooms and the chopped garlic - cook until tender and add the soaked procini mushrooms which you have also chopped up finely.
Add about 200ml of the soaking water and simmer until it has reduced by half.
Add the lemon juice.
Lay the parma ham out on some greaseproof paper - you want a large sheet of ham (without holes) big enough to wrap the meat.
Spread the mushroom mixture over the ham.
Pat the herbs into the meat and then place on the sheet of ham and mushrooms.
Wrap the beef with the parma ham and tie with strings.
Place the beef in a roasting tray and roast for about 40 - 50 minutes.
Halfway through the cooking time add the wine to the baking tray.
When the meat is done remove it to a serving plate and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes.
Simmer the pan juices and serve as gravy.

Enjoy.

LAZY BAKERS TREAT

2011-02-03T18:37:00.000Z

Sometimes you need something sweet and tasty, but really don't fancy the whole rigmarole of taking out mixers and beaters and whisks - let me be honest here - sometimes I want to have my cake and eat it, without having put much work into the process!!!

This cake is just what the doctor (that very strange doctor that lives in my imagination and tells me to eat all the chocolate I wish!!!!) ordered. Like Nigella's Guinness Cake this is a "one pot wonder", all you need is a scales, a large pot a baking tin and you're in business.

It started life out as the Birthday Cake in Nigella Lawson's "How to Eat", and although I still make the original, the one I make more often is this evolved version below. I have reduced the fat, by using a light condensed milk and by omitting the ganache (or sometimes just using 1/4 of the specified amount) - then I have replaced some of that fat (!) by adding chocolate chunks (and sometimes roasted hazelnuts). I no longer faff about with splitting the cake in half and sandwiching with ganache - not really in the spirit of my lazy inner self!!

Although I usually make the plain, uniced version - for special occasions I whip out the icing! This cake was made for a very special occasion - my sister's significant birthday!! Her little angel (he was so good he was given a "star stamp" at play school .... awwwwww!) helped me to decorate it with a delightful crater pattern, even going so far as to eat all the removed ganache - that's dedication!!

I don't usually need much help in the creating craters dept!!

Dress Up or Downable Chocolate Cake

225g      self-raising flour
40g        cocoa
200g      caster sugar
100g      butter
100ml    just boiled water
200g      light condensed milk
200g      dark chocolate (about 70% cocoa) - broken into pieces
50g        chopped roasted hazelnuts (optional)
2            large eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 180 C
Prepare a 20cm springform tin by buttering it and lining the bottom with parchment paper.

Put the sugar, butter, boiled water, condensed milk and 100g of chocolate into a large pot and put on a medium heat until melted, stir until glossy and smooth.
Remove from the heat and stir in the sieved flour and cocoa.
Finally add the eggs and mix well. (Do not forget this part - if you do the result is disastrous!!!!)
Add the remaining 100g chocolate chunks and the nuts (if using).
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 45 minutes.
This cake needs to cook like a brownie - firm on top but still slightly gooey in the center.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes.
After this time remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.

If you wish to make a ganache for the top just heat 100ml double cream and then add 100g chopped chocolate, stir until amalgamated and pour over the cooled cake.

This is my contribution to Forever Nigella # 2 - seduced by chocolate over at Maison Cupcake.

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY

2011-01-26T22:48:00.000Z

Happy Australia day to each and all especially everyone "down under". To celebrate the day I decided to take Mr. P. over at delicious delicious delicious up on his challenge to recreate the Lamington - that essentially Australian sweet treat.

Mr. P. often decorates his (wonderful) Lamington photos with cute little Kewpies, so I have called Homer in to help me with my offering - I had to take the photos quickly in case he started drooling all over them!!!!! mmmmmmmm......cake............mmmmmmmmmmmm!

I used this recipe for the cake (replacing 2 tbsp of flour with 2 tbsp of cocoa, reducing the coffee to 1/2 tsp and adding 75g of chocolate chunks). Then I made a chestnut icing and finally sprinkled them with dessicated coconut. These little treats were really tasty*, the icing had a subtle nutty flavour with combined well with both the chocolate and coconut. I have to say that the icing was really good and wasn't too sweet - result!! Here is the recipe, I made quite a small quantity - enough to spread between two flan type cakes, but it is easily doubled or trebled.

Chestnut Icing

50g             butter - softened
30g             unsweetened chestnut puree
50g             icing sugar

Beat the butter until light and fluffy.
Add the chestnut and combine well.
Add the icing sugar - beat on slow to begin - then up the speed and beat for 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

* I only tasted a morsel and just for blogging purposes!!!!

IS IT A CAKE, IS IT A BAR?

2011-01-21T12:04:00.000Z

It's The Cake Slice Bakers post time again - seems to have rolled around really quickly this month for some reason. I actually made this "cake" during the Christmas holidays - and brought it down to my sister's house. I can't actually remember the exact occasion now (old age hitting?!!) but I do remember that I had to grab a corner as I was leaving so I could report on the taste to you guys - you can thank me in flowers!!!!!!!!

The reason I write "cake" is that the finished article while delicious, was nearer a traybake type bar than a cake - to be blunt, it was flat - not quite as flat as a pancake (!) but far too flat for a cake. If I make it again (and I think I will) I intend to make double the cake mixture in the same size tin - should result in a more worthwhile eating experience!

I thought that the cake was delicious, and the fact that it used ground digestive biscuits (graham crackers in the States) in place of most of the flour (only .25 cup of flour in the recipe) made it really interesting. The cake had a lovely grainy texture and wasn't too sweet - which was a good job because the frosting certainly made up for that! The chocolate chips married well with the biscuity flavour of the cake, with a bit of fiddling this could be great.

Once again my stockpiling trips to Harvey Nicks paid dividends, as Marshmallow Fluff was called for in the frosting, and I haven't seen it anywhere else here in Ireland. I made a half quantity of the frosting (I always find that there is too much icing/frosting in recipes - must be the fact that I don't have a sweet tooth!!!!!) and this was plenty. I chose to ice my cake with the frosting rather than dollop it on each slice as stipulated in the recipe, this made it easier to transport and I just prefer it that way!

Here's the recipe (as I made it) it's worth a try!

Chocolate Chip Snacking Cake
adapted from Lauren Chattman's "Cake Keeper Cakes"

CAKE

1 cup            ground digestive biscuits
.25 cup         plain flour
1 tsp             baking powder
.25 tsp          salt
6 tbsp/3oz    butter
.25 cup         sugar
1                   large egg
1                   large egg yolk
1 tsp             vanilla extract
.25 cup         milk
.5 cup           chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate chopped up)

FROSTING

.25 cup/1 oz butter
.25 cup         icing sugar
.25 cup         Marshmallow Fluff
.5 tsp            vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F
Grease an 8"/20cm cake tin and dust with flour.

Combine the biscuit crumbs, flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl.
Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy and light (about 3 minutes), remember to scrape down the sides as you go.
Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla with the mixer turned down to low - beat until smooth.
Keeping the mixer on low add 1/3 the flour mixture then 1/2 the milk, repeat, ending with the flour until well combined - again remember to scrape down the sides as you go.
Stir in the chocolate chips/pieces with a spoon.
Spoon the batter into the cake tin and smooth out.
Bake until a skewer comes out clean - about 35 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.
Cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the frosting -
Beat the butter until creamy and smooth.
Add the sugar slowly with the mixer on low (otherwise you will be breathing in a sugar cloud!!).
Stir in the vanilla and Marshmallow Fluff and beat until smooth.

When completely cooled spread the frosting on the cake and serve.

Enjoy.

A BIT OF WHAT YOU FANCY!

2011-01-16T19:02:00.000Z

OK that's enough of all that healthy eating! Anyway my grandfather always said that "a little of what you fancy does you good"!!

Brownieville Boy #1, had some friends coming over to spend the night and taste the delights of the local night-life, so I reckoned that the food should be good just in case the nightlife wasn't! What's the first thing you think to bake for four (male) burly college students ...... cupcakes of course!!!!

As you know I have been doing some baking from the gorgeous Eric Lanlard's Home Bake (why do I feel compelled to mention how handsome he is every time I write his name??????), having been lucky enough to have been sent a review copy by the publishers. I followed his recipe for vanilla cupcakes, with a cream cheese vanilla icing - and they didn't offend any macho sensibilities!!!!!

I also made the chocolate cheesecake - changing some of the cheeses (using up all those pre-Christmas purchases!), this was truly a revelation - probably one of the best desserts that have come out of my kitchen! It would have been perfection served with a raspberry coulis and some Barbados Cream or ice-cream.

Here is a rundown of some of the other delights from the book!

This is the Apple Crumble Sponge - perfect when you don't want something too elaborate. I served this with three other desserts - perfect for the non-chocoholics amongst us. (not me obviously!!)

The vanilla cupcakes were well received, although I didn't think they were quite as good as the Hummingbird ones.

These Blondies with Peanut Butter were delicious, this is all that was left after I left them out to cool and then popped out to the shops for some milk!

Wholemeal courgette and seed muffins - despite overcooking these dreadfully (it's your fault - I lost track of time reading everyone's blogs!!) these were tasty, and would be perfect for a virtuous lunch time treat.

These are the Double Chocolate Marshmallow Muffins (I can't find any photos of the finished article - sorry) - bit too sweet for my taste, but this didn't bother Brownieville Boy #2!

Eric's Roasted Banana Muffins were out of this world - so intensely Bananay (!) Roasting the bananas added a real depth of flavour.

The Chocolate and Orange Chocolate Cake was well received, although didn't reach the dizzy heights of praise that Nigella's did!!

I have blogged about these addictive Malteser Squares before - I'm just glad that there are none of these beauties in the house now as they would spell the death knell for any healthy eating aspirations!!!

The cheesecake was delicious rich and chocolaty without being excessively sweet. I have to 'fess up I only had a small portion - honestly!

Chocolate Cheesecake

adapted from Eirc Lanlard's Home Bake

Base

125g/4.5oz melted butter

250g/9oz chocolate bourbon biscuits (chocolate digestives will work too)

Filling

100g medium fat cream cheese

250g mascarpone cheese

250g ricotta cheese

75g golden caster sugar

3 large eggs

40g coco powder, sifted

100g good quality dark chocolate melted

Preheat oven to 180 C

Prepare a 20cm/8" springform cake tin by greasing with butter and lining the bottom with parchment paper.

Prepare the base by crushing the biscuits and adding the melted butter.

Press evenly into the prepared tin.

Refrigerate for a half an hour.

Prepare the filling by placing the cheeses and sugar into a food processor, blend until smooth.

Add the eggs and give mixture a whizz.

Next add the cocoa and blend again.

Finally add the melted chocolate (which you have allowed to cool a bit) and whizz until fully combined.

Pour the mixture onto the base in the tin.

Smooth the surface and place in the preheated oven - it's really important to place the tin on a baking sheet as there will be leakage!!

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the centre has a slight wobble.

Cool in the turned off oven for 1 hour.

Take out of the oven and cool, then chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Enjoy!

SOUPER SOUP (sorry!!!)

2011-01-15T16:51:00.000Z

I have at last embraced the whole January thing - as in "eat more healthily", "lose those lbs/kg gathered over Christmas(/last year!)", "be a bit more frugal" you know where I'm going. My new year's resolutions have a fairly elastic starting date (it gets more elastic with every cake I bake/see!), but Brownieville Boy #1's return to school after the holidays, became the first day of the new, improved me!

This month's No Croutons Required challenge was to prepare a veggie soup or salad with rice - I had some chestnut puree in the fridge, which had to be used and I decided to go the obvious route with it and make a chestnut and mushroom soup - I added some risotto rice (which made the soup lovely and substantial), it made a tasty, filling dish - low in fat, but full of flavour .... result!! Just what the doctor/dietitian/resolution watchdog ordered.

Healthy meal - tick
Used up the leftovers - tick

The chestnuts are nearly finished, you'll be glad to know!!!

Mushroom and Chestnut Soup

500g          mushrooms
1                large onion
1 tsp          olive oil
1 tbsp        chestnut puree
1 ltr           mushroom/veg stock (I buy porcini stock cubes every time I go to Italy)
1 tbsp        dried porcini mushrooms - crumbled.
2 tbsp        risotto rice

Gently fry the onions in the oil, until they begin to soften.
Add the mushrooms, which you have chopped up (finely if you don't want to puree the soup later).
Meanwhile make up your stock and add the dried porcini mushrooms.
When the mushrooms have cooked down add the chestnut puree and the rice, stir well.
Add the stock and porcini mushrooms.
Allow to simmer until the rice is cooked.
Blitz - I use a hand held blitzer.
Serve and enjoy.

BROWNIES 17

2011-01-09T20:29:00.000Z

I'm feeling very grateful towards Chele this month, she nominated leftovers as this month's ingredient for the We Should Cocoa challenge - this really made me put my thinking cap on! (and helped with my resolution to waste less food!!).

There were plenty of options available to me - copious amounts of sprouts (!), about a tonne of strawberry "Roses", scraps of pastry, a half can of chestnut puree and half a pack of vacuum packed chestnuts (from Christmas dinner's sprouts, chestnuts and pancetta), to name a few - I decided to go with the chestnuts, and then for some reason grated them before I looked up any recipes (go figure!!!).

Of course any recipes I read used whole chestnuts (typical!), so I had to improvise and decided to use the grated chestnuts as a flour substitute. I hadn't made brownies for a while, so brownies it was - I played around with my favourite brownie recipes and this is the result.

Even if I say it myself - they were gorgeous! Moist with a fudgy centre, deeply chocolaty with a lovely nutty back note, lovely crispy top - these lads are going to the top of the brownie league table.

Chestnut Brownies

375g        caster sugar
4              eggs
100g        cocoa (good quality)
200g        butter
1 tsp        vanilla extract
100g       grated (cooked) chestnuts
1 tbsp      self raising flour
1 tsp        baking powder

Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F
Prepare a 9"/23cm brownie tin (I line mine with parchment paper)

Beat eggs and sugar together until light, fluffy and doubled in volume.
Melt the butter and then add the sieved cocoa - make sure there are no lumps.
Add the butter and cocoa to the eggs and sugar, stir well.
Add the vanilla.
Add the grated chestnuts, flour and baking powder, combine well.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
Bake for 40 - 50 minutes.
Remove from the oven when it is cooked at the edges but still nice and slightly wobbly in the centre.
Allow to cool for 20 minutes in the tin, then remove to a wire rack.

HAPPY WOMEN'S CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

2011-01-06T10:36:00.000Z

Happy Little Christmas everyone. Time to kick back and enjoy the last hurrah. I am a firm believer in squeezing the last ounce of Christmasness out of the festivities and today is the last little allowable squeeze.

Today (6th January) is known as Little Christmas or Women's Christmas, and the custom was that the women were rewarded for all their hard work during Christmas by a day when all the work was done for them ...nice! Now I have to admit that this tradition has not been fully embraced by my family, actually it seems to have been fairly well neglected by modern day Ireland, but maybe it's time for a revival!!

I have decided to have a little review of some of the baking indulgences of the past couple of weeks, which nicely coincides with the Forever Nigella challenge over at Maison Cupcake whereby Sarah challenges us to bake/cook a Nigella recipe (without printing the recipe) with a changing theme (this month's is "seasonal Nigella")

These little puddini bonbons are prefect for using up any leftover Christmas pudding, great option if you don't live in a house with Christmas Pudding piggies!!!!

I actually had to buy a small pudding to make these sweets (which is quite something when you consider that I made EIGHT puddings, none of which I gave away!!!!!!!!!!), they were very popular, the sherry, chocolate and pudding made a wonderful flavour combination.

These Christmas Chocolate Biscuits were incredibly easy to throw together, actually the most bothersome part was the glaze which I wouldn't even add next time I make them. You just put some butter, sugar, cocoa, flour and bread soda in the processor - whizz and bake. Easy.

P.S. Aren't the Christmas tree sprinkles cute!

The piece de rèsistance Nigella's "Incredibly Easy Chocolate Fruit Cake" according to Brownieville Man the best Christmas cake of all time. There is just a hint of cocoa in this boiled fruit cake, which is moist and almost pudding like. The fact that it is a boiled cake means that it can be made a week or so before Christmas, great for the unprepared amongst us!!

Hope you enjoyed my Nigella Christmas roundup, I'm off to sit on the couch, eat cookies and paint my nails!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT IS IN THAT CHOCOLATE CAKE?

2011-01-03T12:44:00.000Z

I have been having a wonderful time reading all your blogs recently, I'm particularly enjoying reading everyone's resolutions, well enjoying and feeling guilty at the same time (I'm going to have to get my act together and at least pretend that I'm going to try to be a better/thinner/healthier/fitter person in 2011).

Unfortunately, nobody has resolved to try baking more with unusual ingredients, because if you had - this would be the cake for you!! Now before you say "YUKK" - you just have to try it (I sound like your mother don't I??!!) it is moist, rich and chocolaty, AND as it contains a vegetable it is allowed in your new year's healthy eating plan.

Coby over at The Clayton's Blog , baked this cake recently and loved it, this was recommendation enough for me, so I added it to a recent cooking/baking marathon, it was very popular, but nobody guessed that there was a potato in there! I do have some history with strange additions to my cakes, the most successful being the kidney bean containing Flourless Chocolate Cake. It can only be onward and upward from here - chocolate cake with cabbage anyone?!

Chocolate Potato Cake

145g                  plain flour
3/4 tsp               bread (bicarbonate of) soda
1/4 tsp               salt
190g                  caster sugar
2 tbsp                cocoa powder (I'll use 3 tbsp next time)
1x 60g               potato (peeled weight)
250ml                sour cream (I used Greek yogurt)
60g                    butter - room temperature
1                        egg - room temperature
1 tsp                  vanilla extract
165g                  dark chocolate, chopped.

Ganache*

125g                  dark chocolate (I used 70%)
60g                     butter
25ml                   water

Preheat oven to 180 C
Butter and flour a 20cm round tin or an equivalent bundt tin.

Place the flour, bread (bicarb) soda, salt, cocoa, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and whizz.
Grate the potato and add to the flour.
Add the sour cream (yogurt), butter, egg and vanilla and process well, scraping the sides down regularly.
Add the chopped chocolate and pulse to combine.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake 35 - 40 minutes (until a skewer comes out clean)
When ready allow to cool in the tin on a wire rack for 20 minutes.
Turn out of the tin to the wire rack to cool completely.

Make the ganache by placing the chocolate, butter and water in a pan over a low heat and melt until a smooth glossy sauce. (*this is half the original quantity of ganache, but it was enough to cover the cake, so unless you want left-overs this is plenty).
Allow to cool slightly and then pour over the cake (put something under the cake to catch the drips).
Leave to cool totally and then serve.

Enjoy!

LIGHTEN UP THOSE CHRISTMAS DESSERTS

2010-12-30T22:57:00.000Z

Plenty of cooking and baking over the past week, but very little photography I'm afraid to admit. This dessert was a revelation from my newest cookery book (heavily hinted for!) A Year At Avoca. If you are all mince pied out, this is the answer to your prayers! This Mincemeat Roulade with Brandy Cream has all the fruity, boozy Christmas flavours but is light and seconds are no problem!!

The recipe calls for a jar of Avoca Home Made Mincemeat (of course!) but I had a jar of Nigella's (well my) Cranberry Mincemeat in the fridge and I used this - any good boozy mincemeat would do.

Mincemeat Roulade with Brandy Cream

5                    eggs, seperated
250g              caster sugar (golden gives a nicer flavour)
1 tsp              vanilla extract
225g              good mincemeat
100g              self-raising flour - twice sifted.

Brandy Cream

250ml            double cream
2 tbsp            brandy
2 tbsp             icing sugar

Preheat oven to 160 C
Line a swiss roll tin (35x25cm approx.) with parchment paper.

Whisk the egg whites (with a pinch of salt) until  they form stiff peaks - set aside.
Beat the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer for about 8 minutes until it is thick and creamy and doubled in volume.
Fold the mincemeat and the flour through the egg yolk mixtrue using a large metal spoon.
Then carefully fold the whisked eggwhite through.
Pour into the prepared tin, and pop into the oven.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown and firm in the centre.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
When cool make the brandy cream.

Brandy Cream

Whisk the cream, brandy and icing sugar together until it is thick.

Place a large sheet of greaseproof paper on a work surface, dust liberally with icing sugar.
Tip the cooled roulade onto the paper and remove the baking parchment.
Spread the roulade with the brandy cream, evenly over the entire surface.
Roll up the roulade, using the greaseproof paper to help you.
Manoeuvre the roulade onto your serving plate on its final bend of the rolling process.

Enjoy.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year, here's to 2011 being a great one!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

2010-12-25T08:21:00.000Z

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Wishing you all a happy, peaceful, and calorie laden (!) day.

CHOCOLATE CHRISTMAS CAKE

2010-12-23T14:50:00.000Z

This month's We Should Cocoa Challenge, is to create something delicious with both cocoa and dates. Chocolate yummmm, dates - not so much!!!!! Actually when Choclette suggested this months challenge, I thoughts it was incredibly coincidental as I had just bought some medjool dates the previous day. Those dates had been intended for Brownieville Man to nibble on, but they now had to be redirected towards the baking cupboard!

As a non dried fruit eater (except for dried cranberries for some strange reason!) I fretted about this one a little bit. I have been enjoying Eric Lanlard's Home Bake, and had marked his Chocolate and Orange Christmas Cake as one to try. I wondered if I could substitute some of the raisins and sultanas in this cake for some of my dates - worth a try!!

The cake turned out to be a beautifully moist, rich confection. Judging by the length of time it spent in the cake tin, it went down very well with the taste testers here! Actually the only comment was that it was delicious, but perhaps a little bit too chocolaty (I didn't think that was possible!!)

Chocolate and Orange Christmas Cake
adapted from Home Bake by Eric Lanlard

150g/5oz       raisins
150g/5oz         sultanas
100g /4oz        dates - stoned and chopped
100ml/3.5oz    orange liqueur (plus some for soaking)
200g/7oz         butter, softened
100g/3.5oz      soft dark brown sugar
50g/2oz           molasses sugar
3                      large eggs
150g/5oz          plain flour
175g/6oz          really good dark chocolate, broken into pieces.
1 tsp                 ground mixed spice
1/2 tsp              cinnamon
1/2 tsp              freshly grated nutmeg
1                      lemon (juice only)
100g/3.5oz       chopped candied peel
75g/3oz            roasted hazelnuts. (I didn't bother with these)

The day before baking soak the fruits in half the orange liqueur, leaving them to plump up overnight.

Preheat the oven to 150 C
Prepare a 20cm/8" tin spring form tin, by greasing and lining with a double layer of parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugars together using an electric whisk (I use the kitchen aid) until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, whisking all the time. (if the mixture splits add a small amount of the flour)
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Allow to cool slightly.
Add the cooled melted chocolate to the egg and sugar mixture.
Sift in the flour and spices, and fold in until everything is combined.
Now add in the lemon juice and the remaining orange liqueur.
Finally add the soaked fruits, nuts and candied peel, mixing well.
Spoon the mix into the prepared tin, level the surface and cover with a piece of baking paper.
Bake for 2-2.5 hours, test that a skewer comes out clean to see when done.
Cool the cake in its tin on a wire rack.
Remove from its tin and feed with some more liqueur.
Wrap up in clingfilm (feeding from time to time) until ready to indulge!

Enjoy.

BACK ON TRACK!

2010-12-20T06:31:00.000Z

This is the latest selection from The Cake Slice Bakers, this year we are baking from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chatman, and I have to say that it is a misnomer - there is no way you will be able to keep this cake - it will be gobbled up in no time!!!

This is a fantastic recipe - the tart ruby cranberry nuggets spread through the sweet soft cake add up to sweet perfection!! I loved the streusel on top, the crunch contrasting nicely with lightness of the cake. All is forgiven Lauren!

I made the Cranberry Cake on the first day of the recent snow, and couldn't resist trying to take a photo of the cake+snow+cake keeper - but I wasn't willing to get my toes cold, so just took the photo from the back door!!!!!

Cranberry Cake

Streusel

1 cup            sliced almonds
2 tbsp           melted butter
2 tbsp           packed light brown sugar

Cake

2 cups          plain flour
1 tsp            baking powder
1/4 tsp         salt
3                  large eggs
2 cups          granulated sugar
3/4 cup/
6oz              butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp            vanilla extract
12 oz           cranberries (I used frozen)

Preheat oven to 150 C
Line or butter a 10" round springform tin.

Streusel

Combine the butter, almonds and sugar, Use your fingers to form large crumbs.
Set aside.

Cake

Beat the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl, until light and at least doubled in volume - this will take about 5 minutes.
Turn the mixer to low and add the melted butter slowly, turn up the mixer to medium and beat for another 2 minutes.
Add the vanilla.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
Gently fold the flour mixture into the batter, 2 tbsp at a time.
Fold in the cranberries.
Place the batter into the prepared tin, and sprinkle with the streusel.
Bake the cake until a skewer (I use uncooked spaghetti) comes out clean.
The recipe specifies 60 - 70 minutes, mine took about 90 minutes.
When cooked remove tin to a wire rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Then take the cake out of the tin and cool completely on the wire rack.

If you are very lucky this cake will keep for up to 5 days (not in my house though!!)

Pretty from any angle

HAM FOR THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

2010-12-18T09:54:00.000Z

Jain over at Food For Thought has a wonderful blog with three elements that I love - Food (of course), Books (nearly as good) and Great Photography (and I mean great). She reviews a book, picking out any foodie vignettes, then she cooks/bakes these dishes and photographs them (often in her magnificent Californian garden). She has asked her readers to review their favourite Christmas books, and throw a bit of cooking in there too - no better woman!

There are two reasons I am delighted to write this post, firstly just love Alice Taylor's "The Night Before Christmas" and secondly I wanted to introduce any non-Nigella disciples (?!) to her Ham in Cola, which is the nicest way to cook ham ... ever. I would even be so bold as to recommend it as a way to cook your Christmas Ham.

The Night Before Christmas is a quaint book about a child's Christmas in a backwater* in the south of Ireland in the 1940s. Alice Taylor remembers with incredible clarity all the details of her childhood Christmases; heading off with her siblings to cut holly to decorate the house, helping her mother pluck the geese for Christmas dinner, hilariously helping a neighbour clean her chimney, waiting for Santy to arrive and the excitement of finding a school bag and a doll on Christmas morning.

Food (obviously) plays a huge part in Alice's Christmas memories - buying muscatel raisins for the Christmas cakes, the excitement of receiving a box of fancy chocolates from a cousin who had returned from abroad for the holidays, goose cooked on the bastable over the fire and of course the ham (which they started eating at breakfast time on Christmas morning)

"When we had the kitchen to ourselves, our first priority was to settle down to attack the big ham in the centre of the table. This was the ham that had matured up the chimney and hung off the meat hook from the ceiling; my mother had boiled and baked it in a shroud of breadcrumbs and honey, and now all her loving care paid dividends because it was beautifully moist and tender"

Moist and tender but not huge!

I was introduced to this book through my book-club a few years ago, and I now read it every Christmas - it is the most wonderful "get in the Christmas mood" aid ever (along with a carol service or a kiddies Nativity play, tearing up at the thought!!). When you have spent the day queueing for parking spaces, queueing at shopping tills, queueing, queueing queueing, it is wonderful to come home and escape to a Christmas filled with simple pleasures and NO shopping!!!

*My only issue with the book is that it is set in the 1940s when there was electricity here in Ireland (I have asked someone I know who was a child then about their childhood Christmases, their memories would be of a far more modern type experience, none the less magical for that though!) Alice's memories seem to be of of an older time (there were some far flung pockets around the country that took an age to get "the electric") and are (for the reader anyway) more magical and nostalgic for that.

Now onto the ham, this is a wonderful way to cook it, it has been my method of choice since I bought How To Eat 100 years ago! I have toyed with other methods over the years but like a faithful Labrador I always return!!!

Ham in Cola

2kg              mild-cure gammon*
2 litre           Coke (minus 2 tbsp for glaze)**
1                  onion
1 or 2           bayleaves (my addition)

100g            fresh breadcrumbs
100g            dark muscovado sugar
1 tbsp          mustard powder
2 tbsp          Dijon mustard
2 tbsp          Coke

* You can alter the recipe for smaller joints, less Coke and cooking time.
**The Coke must be full sugar, but can be any cheap brand.

Place the gammon (raw ham), chopped onion, and bay leaves in an appropriately sized pot, cover with the Coke.
Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. A 2kg joint needs to be simmered like this for 2 1/2 hours, smaller joints will need less time, but I would err on the side of over rather than undercooking a ham.
Before the ham is finished boiling preheat the oven to 210 C.
Prepare a roasting tin for the ham by lining it with tinfoil (very important if you don't want to spend 3 hours cleaning it afterwards!!)
When ready remove the ham from the pot to the prepared tin and allow to cool slightly (or completely if you want to preprepare the dish to this stage*)
Remove the skin, leaving a layer of fat.
Mix the breadcrumbs, sugar (I used honey this time), and the mustards to a paste, add the Coke a little at a time to bring the paste to a spreadable consistency (you don't want it runny).
Cover the fat side of the ham with the paste (and of course cook it fat side up).
Cook in the hot oven for 10-15 minutes. (I often roast mine at a slightly lower temperature for longer as we like our ham quite dry)
*If you are cooking the ham from cold it will need 30/40 minutes at 180 C.

Enjoy!

CHRISTMAS SNOW

2010-12-16T19:54:00.000Z

Jacqueline over at Tinned Tomatoes has given us a break from cooking this month and has asked for seasonal photos to be submitted for the No Croutons Required challenge.

Boy oh boy did I have an embarrassment of riches (quantity not quality I'm afraid) when deciding which photo from the recent snowy weather to submit.

It snowed so often that each morning everything was virginal white again (wish there were an equivalent to make the house look spotless - no work required!)

I took this photo when I was ~~walking~~ slipping and sliding down to the bus (suffering from cabin fever!!)

CHOCOLATE AND SNOW

2010-12-12T23:28:00.000Z

What better way to spend a day confined to the house than by baking a cake!! I was (happily for the most part - once I got some eggs!) snowed in this week, and so of course hit the baking supplies.

This is the promised Flourless Chocolate Cake from Itsa Cookbook - it was just perfect with a mug of hot chocolate or coffee. The top was crusty and cratered, the middle rich, squidgy and delicious.

This is my submission for the Snow Day Bake Off over at A Slice Of Cherry Pie.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

240g              butter
270g              dark chocolate
6                    eggs, separated
250g              sugar
120g              ground almonds
100g              milk or dark chocolate, chopped (optional but good!)

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line a springform tin with baking paper or butter and flour it.
I used a 22cm tin

Melt the butter and 270g chocolate in a bowl over a pot of simmering water.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until thick and light in colour.
Add the melted chocolate mixture and combine.
Fold in the ground almonds.
Beat the egg whites until light and frothy (soft peak stage)
Stir one spoon of egg white into the chocolate vigorously.
Carefully fold the rest of the egg white in, keeping as much air in the mixture as you can.
Add the extra chocolate if you fancy.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for about 40 minutes (mine took longer). The edges should be set but the middle should still be soft.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin.

Enjoy!

PANFORTE

2010-12-11T11:59:00.000Z

At this time of year I love to pull out my (growing) pile of Christmas Cook Books and Cooking Magazines - I'm not really sure why because Christmas is the one time of the year when I cook primarily the old tried and tested recipes - but I can always be inspired. During this years "Mega Cookbook Fest" I realized that I have never made Panforte (I've never actually tasted it for that matter), so I have decided to rectify this.

I wasn't completely grabbed by any of the recipes I have, they all have good elements, so I decided to pick the best bits, add one or two ideas of my own, and hay presto ..... I present to you Brownieville Panforte!! (with sincere apologies to all Italian readers!)

I decided that some cranberries were needed in there, for colour as well as for their welcome tartness. A small glug of alcohol is nicely seasonal, I thought the chocolate covered candied orange was a great idea (borrowed) and of course you have to have a bit of cocoa in there.

The end result is like a Christmas flavoured, nutty, fruity toffee - can't be bad!
I am submitting this recipe to The Most Wanted Yule Blog Bake Off, and they have asked for step by step photos ( made me way more organised than usual!)

I started off by toasting the hazelnuts, although I only used 125g in the Panforte, I always toast a whole bag full and store any left over in the freezer - handy for next time!

Combine the blanched almonds, chocolate covered candied peel, figs, hazelnuts and cranberries.

Put butter, honey and sugar together into a small pan on a medium heat. Allow to bubble away nicely for 3 -4 minutes.

All the ingredients in waiting!

Add the flour, cocoa and spices to the fruit and nut mixture.

Pour the butter, honey and sugar bubbling mixture into the nut and fruit and stir well.

Press firmly into am 8"/20cm baking tin which you have lined with baking paper and buttered well (this is really important as it is such a sticky mixture)

I tried making a snowflake template to decorate the cake, showing you why my only creative outlet is cooking!!!

                                                                Much better!

Panforte

125g                          blanched almonds
125g                          hazelnuts (roasted and skinned)
125g                          cranberries
150g                          chocolate covered candied orange*
50g                            chopped figs
1 tsp                          cinnamon
1/4 tsp                       ground cloves
1/2 tsp                       mixed spice
Pinch                         nutmeg
Pinch                         white pepper
2 tbsp                        sherry (or orange liqueur)
70g                            plain flour
2 tbsp                        cocoa
30g                            butter
150g                          honey
150g                          sugar (I used golden caster sugar)

Prepare an 8"/20 cm tin with parchment paper and plenty of butter
Preheat the oven to 170 C

Combine the nuts and fruits in a bowl.
Add the flour, cocoa and spices and mix well.
Bring the butter, honey and sugar to a bubble in a small saucepan on a medium heat.
Allow to bubble away for a few minutes.
Add this hot mixture to the fruit and nuts and stir well.
Now add the alcohol and stir again you will need your hands towards the end of mixing.
Press firmly into the prepared tin.
Bake for about 30 minutes - it is ready when the top of the cake starts to bubble.
Allow the cake to cook completely in the tin.
Decorate with icing sugar.
It will keep for a good while if kept in an airtight tin.

*Any candied fruit/peed would be fine

This is my entry for the Most Wanted Yule Blog Bake Off Challenge which is being held by vouchercodes.co.uk.

Enjoy!

ITSA WONDERFUL!

2010-12-08T16:49:00.000Z

My favourite newspaper of the week is The Irish Times on a Saturday. I immediately turn to Roisin Ingle's article which is usually amusing and always thought provoking. Second comes Domini Kemp's "Taste" - excellent recipes with an always interesting introduction, then the book reviews and finally the actual news section!

I read about The Cookbook Club in the Irish Times and filed it away for a time when I was available to go to Dublin on a first Monday of the month - the idea is that you go to a restaurant where the meal has been cooked from a particular cookbook (choices of 3 starters, 3 mains and 3 desserts) and the author will circulate for a chat - fantastic idea (and as it turned out a fantastic evening).

After a couple of months when I would have loved to have attended but couldn't I was able to go this month - Yahoo!! All the planets were in configuration for this visit (!) as a couple of days after I had booked for the club a review copy of the featured cookbook arrived from the publishers - Yahoo x 100!!

Domini Kemp's (yeah!) Itsa Cookbook, is a well written (very relaxed) book, with fantastic photos by Joanne Murphy (I wish I had 1/80th of her talent!!), the recipes are easy to follow (although tin sizes are left out of some of the baked recipes, which could make timings a bit difficult) and tasty, plenty of everyday ideas with some special occasion ones too.

Now if I were a totally together blogger (person even) I would have taken beautiful photos of the dishes served at the cookbook club - and actually in my imagination I did so, but in reality I forgot to turn the flash on (in a basement restaurant!!!) so the photos leave alot to be desired, and it was such a good idea! But I can tell you that the food was excellent, the company was fantastic too. I met an old (obviously not in age Ruth!) school pal, whom I haven't seen in about ten years!, and some new friends too (fellow bloggers from Texas, now living in Dublin), along with the wonderful Amo who came with me, which all added up to one of the best evenings of the year.

I have (of course) also cooked a number of dishes from the book, and they all turned out well, the flourless chocolate cake being a particular favourite.

The crab cakes were delicious and light, they are made with Carr's Water Biscuits (crackers) and tasted light and intensely crabby (if that's a word!).

The Granola Goodness Bars went down well, Brownieville Boy #1, has been taking them to college with him (excellent breakfast on the run!)

Grandmother McGrath's Soda Bread - I was afraid that this bread would be too sweet (there is both honey and brown sugar in the recipe) but it turned out very well - another for the repertoire!

The Rich Flourless Chocolate Cake - need I say more!!

Actually this one deserves a post on it's own, will put it up very soon.

Pea, Mint and Roast Garlic Soup - sent my poor son outside to get this photo!! But it really was what was needed on that cold, snowy day. (I left out the cream from this soup, and I think it was excellent without - the roast garlic adds alot to the flavour)

Purple Sprouting Broccoli with Lemon and Hazelnuts - I used tenderstem broccoli for this recipe and it is already a firm favourite.

Irish Rarebit -I haven't had Welsh Rarebit but I think the difference (other than using Irish cheddar) is the brown soda toast!!

Tastes good though.

Coriander Chicken - I marinaded four chicken breasts, then cooked two and put the other two (still in their marinade) in the freezer. The frozen ones were even better than the fresh when I used them!!

NOW PLEASE SQUINT AND YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO MAKE OUT THE DISHES!!!!

The Crabcakes with lemon and caper salsa were delicious.

The kind gentleman sitting opposite took a photo of his soup for me, and what's more gave me a taste - excellent.

Even with my low standards the photo of Amo's Buffalo mozzarella, black olive and grape salad isn't worth showing - but it tasted wonderful.

Sharon who writes Gunternation kindly took a photo of her Blackened Salmon - she said it was excellent.

My Duck Dal Supper served with moong dal, was probably the dish of the evening - looking forward to trying this soon.

The Pasta Salad with Sage, Sweet Potato and Hulloumi was much appreciated by my veggie friend.

At long last I realized my mistake!! This is the Ginger and Blackberry Pudding - what an excellent combination. When I make this (looking forward to blackberry season already!) I will use less sugar and more blackberries

Sharon was again called upon to photograph her meal!!!!

She enjoyed the Fig Tart with Apricot Jam.

These Mini Molten Chocolate Cakes (served with a caramel ice-cream) were very popular.

This Broad Bean Hummus is an excellent standby to have in the fridge at this (or any) time of year - it is good and healthy, with a good flavour kick and a hint of summer!!

I made a half quantity, as follows:

Broad Bean Hummus

250g Broad Beans (I used frozen)

5 garlic cloves

100ml water

good dash olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp chopped mint

salt and pepper

Simmer the garlic in the water for a few minutes, add the frozen beans and simmer until warmed through.

Discard half of the water.

Add the lemon juice, mint and olive oil.
Blend with a stick blender, adding a small amount of water if necessary.
Season and chill.
Delicious served with sourdough toast.

This will last for a few days in the fridge.

Enjoy.

Domini's book is available here at a reduced price!

POTATOES - THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF DINNER!

2010-12-02T15:37:00.000Z

When I wrote the review of the new Leon Cookbook, I was asked to give more details of the POTATOES LEON-AISE, and of course I am more than happy to oblige. This dish was very well received at Sunday lunch, with a lovely crispy top layer covering a soft, delicious center - although I nearly gave them to my vegetarian brother in law!!! When I was putting the vegetable dishes on the center of the table, I wondered why I had made so many roasties, then realized just before he served himself ... phew!!

I loved the fact that the potatoes were not peeled, so much more healthy, and speaking of healthy the original recipe calls for 80ml of olive oil, I think that this is too much, particularly if you are using home made chicken stock (which I recommend if you have some in the freezer).

I was afraid that the lemon might jar with the bland (in a good way) potatoes, but this didn't happen - they seemed to just melt into the dish, adding a pleasant background flavour, rather than pockets of bitterness, but you do need to slice them as thinly as possible.

Potatoes Leon-Aise

1.3 kg              potatoes (I used red skinned Roosters)
2                      large onions
1                      bulb garlic
1/2                   lemon
5                      fresh bay leaves
80ml                olive oil (I would use 30ml if using fresh stock, 50ml if using bullion)
650ml              chicken stock
                       salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F

Wash potatoes well and slice thinly - no need to peel.
Slice the garlic thinly.
Slice the lemon as finely as possible.
Drizzle with the oil.
Toss everything except the stock into a baking tray and season.
Arrange as snugly as possible and flatten as well as you can.
Pour in the stock - it should come halfway up the potatoes.
Bake in the oven for about 1 hour, or until soft and yielding to a sharp knife.

Enjoy.

P.S. The leftovers (when added to leftover veggies) made a delicious soup.

THANKSGIVING BURGER OF SORTS!

2010-11-30T23:17:00.001Z

The super-talented Kim over at Stirring the Pot, issued a challenge - to create a Thanksgiving Dinner in a burger. Well I must be the least qualified person to participate. My only experience of Thanksgiving comes from watching cheesy movies and T.V. programmes set at this most fraught of times (at least it is always fraught on the screen) - from this extensive research I reckon that a Thanksgiving burger should contain ... 1. Turkey 2. Cranberries 3. Sweet Potatoes/Yams 4. Marshmallows 5. A side order of American Football on the T..V.

Well I put my foot down at adding marshmallows to a burger - a step too far I think!!! I have taken the easy way out with this one - I bought some Ceddar with cranberries (actually should have bought the Wensleydale with cranberries - much nicer), moulded the minced turkey breast around it and fried them up (in a tiny amount of oil), I served this with a cranberry mayonnaise and some crispy roasted sweet potato wedges. We ate the burgers while watching Rugby on the telly (well sameish shaped ball!!).

The burgers were really tasty, the cheese kept the turkey from drying up too much and added that kick of flavour that they needed. The cranberry mayonnaise (just some cranberries and a tiny amount of redcurrant jelly added to shop bought mayo) was yummy, adding a pleasant astringent element to the meal (no need for vinegar). The sweet potato wedges were much nicer than the usual potato wedges, the sweetness allowing them to get more crispy.

Thanks Kim, I enjoyed getting my thinking cap on - not that I came up with any great ideas - but I had fun!