Tag Archives: butter

Spicy Cheese Crackers

27 Dec

I really dont like the crackers that you can get at the stores. They taste like they are full of chemicals. And when the process of making crackers is so very simple, its a wonder that we buy them at all. This past Christmas, I was going to dinner at Jobby’s house. I wanted to bring some lovely but simple things, as I had been immersed in cooking these last few days. I decided on a raspberry-gooseberry fool, which is just whipped cream, scented with vanilla and a touch of icing sugar, folded into cooled stewed raspberries and gooseberries. That sweet tart cool creamy combination is beautiful – and it takes minutes to make.

I knew Jobby would probably make her wonderful hummus. So crackers were a good addition – and they are delicious enough to eat on their own. Unfortunately I did not get a photograph because Nana chowed down more than half before we even left the house! But suffice to say, these crackers are wonderful – such a complex blend of flavour. You could spice them up with anything you like, but I used chili powder, mustard seeds, and English mustard powder. The combination is divine, spicy and cheese-y all at the same time. The crackers are crisp and flaky and can be cut into rounds, squares, or whatever your heart desires. Poke a few holes in them, pop them in a hot oven, and watch them brown up and puff a little. Beautiful.

These crackers will keep, in an air tight box, for about a week, but if you have a Nana around the house they wont last!

Makes about 100 crackers, depending on how you cut them

  • 1 cup bread flour (OO flour)
  • 1 cup polenta
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1 1/2 tsp English mustard powder
  • 1 cup cheese – cheddar/parmesan mix
  • 3 tbsp cold butter
  • 1 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 190 C (375F).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, polenta, salt, baking soda, chili powder, mustard seeds and English mustard powder. Toss to combine.

Grate the cheese over the flour mixture, and stir well.

Grate over the cold butter, and stir again, gently.

Pour over the buttermilk, and combine. Turn the dough out onto a working surface and knead, gently until it all comes together.

Form the dough into a ball, and refrigerate, covered for about half an hour.

Once the dough has rested and cooled, divide it into quarters.

You can now roll the dough out very thin, and cut it into shapes, or roll the dough into a log, and slice very thinly.

Arrange on the baking sheet, and using the tines of a fork, poke a few holes in each cracker. This is optional, but it will help keep the crackers flat and less puffy.

Bake for about 8 – 10 minutes, or until the crackers are golden and cheesy.

Let cool for at least 10 minutes before gobbling up!

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Suji (Semolina) Cake 2

19 Nov

HappySo, I was thinking about the suji cake I made earlier this month. It was quite delectable, and very rustic. Nubbly bits of almonds gave it texture and a deliciously different crumb. It was the suji cake of my memory and my childhood… But there were a few things about it that annoyed. First and foremost, you really had to make this cake with forethought. No popping a few ingredients together, and quickly baking in the oven. The butter and suji had to be left for a while to get acquainted, which is fine if you have the time, but if you really want suji cake right here, right now, could be a bit frustrating.

There was another suji cake of my memory that was slightly smoother, more pudding-y, with the same gorgeous scent, and since I havent been well, and have not had much to do, I decided to try and see if I could come close to making it. I succeeded quite well with this cake, and it took about 20 minutes to put together, and a further 20 – 30 minutes in a hot oven to bake. Easy and quick, this is a different suji cake, but just as comforting, just as golden, and just as open to interpretation – may be even more so.

I used vanilla to scent this cake, but you could certainly go with cinnamon, some almond essence, the grated rind of an orange or lemon… Go with what comforts you, and get semolina that is as fine as possible… and yet, not floury. You want the texture and the bite of the semolina in this cake. Its a big part of what makes it so unique.

If the previous cake was a bit intimidating, start with this one. Its a pleasure to make, and a joy to smell baking in the oven. Its a fantastic little cake to offer friends who are dropping by for tea. It creates happy happy memories, even when you might be struggling with a cold, or tiredness, or just the regular woes of the world. A little sifted icing sugar, or a simple glaze, or a smear of buttercream elevates this cake, but its so good it doesnt really need it. As you can tell from the photo – I was so greedy for a taste, I sliced it straight out of the pan, without waiting to sift any icing sugar on my bit.

This little golden cake seems to say, for that one glorious instant, its OK. Just have some cake, and be happy.

Makes 1 9-inch cake

  • 1 3/4 stick (12 tbsp) butter, slightly softened
  • 3/4 cup icing (powdered) sugar plus an additional / optional 1/4 cup for sifting over cake if you wish
  • 5 eggs separated – 5 yolks plus 4 whites (the extra white can be discarded or saved for a future use)
  • 1 tbsp sour cream
  • 1 tbsp vanilla essence (or 1 vanilla bean scraped – or in fact, and flavouring that seems to catch your fancy)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 cup fine semolina
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup ground almonds

Preheat your oven to 175C (350F). Butter a 9-inch cake tin, and line with baking paper. Butter that too, and set the cake tin aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter until soft and slightly fluffy. Add 3/4 cup icing sugar, and cream well. It will look like the beginning of buttercream. I decided to use icing sugar in this recipe because I wanted the softness of the cake to be highlighted. The fineness of the icing sugar really helped.

Add the 5 egg yolks, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition until fully incorporated, before you add the next. This cake, while quite quick and easy, also relies on a slow and gentle process of addition of each ingredient. I used a stand mixer, and as I added each egg yolk only after I separated it from its white. This gave the batter a period of slow steady incorporation of each yolk before the next was added.

Once all five yolks have been added, you should have a gloriously golden batter. Add the sour cream and vanilla essence, pausing to combine after each addition.

In a measuring cup, combine the salt, semolina and baking powder, and stir with a fork to combine. Add to the egg-butter-sugar mixture in a slow steady stream, beating with a stand mixer or electric beaters all the while, on medium low. Keep beating for about a minute, and then add the ground almonds in a steady stream, beating all the while.

Once the mixture has been well combined, set it aside for at least ten minutes or so.

Clean your beaters, and in a clean bowl, whisk the 4 egg whites until they hold firm peaks. If you turn the bowl upside down, and the egg whites stay, then they are ready – though I would not suggest you do this unless youre sure, or you have extra egg whites to work with!

Once the batter has sat for the requisite time, fold in the beaten egg whites, in three batches, combining extremely well. You need to make sure the batter is fully incorporated. The egg whites will lighten the colour and texture of the mixture. You shouldnt beat them into the batter, but you dont need to be timid about mixing them in firmly with a spatula.

Turn out the batter into your prepared tin, and bake for 20 – 30 minutes, or until the cake is firm to the touch, and a tester inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Let cool for five minutes in the pan, and then turn out onto a cake rack, and turn right side up again. Cover with sifted icing sugar if you like.

A warm slice of this cake will ease just about anything that ails you 🙂 Enjoy.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

White Chocolate Shortbread

11 Nov

I am in full on cookie baking mode. I just put about 200 Starry Starry Night cookies into the freezer, waiting to be baked tomorrow, and I decided to sit and think about what other kind of cookie I could make. I love shortbread – full, rich, simple and classic, but I wanted to give it a twist. As I looked in my store cupboard, I realised I had about a kilogram of Valrhona white chocolate waiting to be made into something fabulous.

I wanted to make white chocolate chip cookies, and I still may do that, but I wondered if there was a way to get white chocolate into a shortbread without making a shortbread with white chocolate chips. I wanted the white chocolate to be in every bite, to permeate the shortbread – to live in its essence 🙂 So I thought about it some more, and looked at the ingredients list – pretty simple, really. Butter, sugar, flour. Vanilla for additional flavour if needed, and a touch of salt. Thats it.

Well, I thought, if I were to add white chocolate, I could bring the sugar content down. But how to add the chocolate without melting it? Melting the chocolate and adding it to shortbread would, I thought, mess with the essential crumby-ness of this classic biscuit. It would make a nice cookie, but it wasnt what I wanted. I was still thinking about the sugar though, and then it came to me… Could I somehow crumb the white chocolate so that it was mixed in with the flour? I could blitz with my immersion blender – and lo! It worked!

This cookie is astoundingly good. Its surprising too – white chocolate just oozes out of its very heartbeat – but you dont see it when you bite into the cookie, so it taste is unexpected and wonderful. Crispy, rich, scented with vanilla and white chocolate, this cookie is so much more wicked than it looks. Enjoy it very soon, with someone you love very much 😉

Makes 8 triangles from a 9 or 10 inch pan

  • Approx 1 cup (5 oz/150 g) good quality white chocolate (I used Valrhona disks – otherwise, use a good chocolate bar and roughly chop), cold from the fridge
  • 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup (8 tbsp) butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla

Place white chocolate, flour and salt in a large bowl. Using your hands, mix together until all the white chocolate is completely covered in flour. This is important for the next step, so please dont skip it!

If you are using a food processor or blender, place the flour chocolate mixture into the machine, and pulse lightly until the white chocolate has crumbed and completely integrated into the flour. If you are using an immersion blender, as I did, place the blender into the flour chocolate mixture, and pulse quickly. Move the bowl around, until all the chocolate has been incorporated into the flour. Set aside in the refrigerator while you prepare the butter mixture.

In a stand mixture, or using a hand held mixer, cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. This usually takes about a minute or two. Add the light brown sugar and cream until it is incorporated into the butter. Add vanilla and mix again.

Remove the flour mixture from the fridge, and add to the butter mixture, adding it in a few batches. The dough will come together quickly.

Butter a spring form pan or a tart pan (about 9 – 10 inches across), and place the dough in the centre. Using your hands, quickly push the dough so that it covers the entire bottom of the pan. Score wedges with a sharp knife (I cut it into 8 pizza wedges – you could do it however you wish), and poke holes in it with the tines of a fork.

Refrigerate the prepared dough for at least an hour, or overnight.

Once youre ready to bake the shortbread, preheat the oven to 175C (350F). Bake the shortbread for about 25 – 35 minutes. Check after about 15 minutes, and if its browning too fast, cover with a little aluminum foil to prevent it from burning. After about 25 minutes check again – it should be crumbly and firm to the touch.

Cool, in the pan, on a rack for about ten minutes. Re-score and re-hole if you feel the shortbread needs it! After about ten minutes, cut the shortbread through with an offset spatula or sharp knife, and allow to cool for a further ten to fifteen minutes. Serve immediately and enjoy!

If you have any leftover, cover and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Vanilla White Chocolate Pudding

31 Oct

This week has been a week of baking, cookies and cakes… I havent posted for days, and I am feeling a little bit out of sorts – still adjusting to being home, seeing old friends, re-establishing ties. And the sweet week of readjustment (accompanied by 3 major bundt cakes and cookies) is about to end – tomorrow comes meetings, work and the usual immersion in daily life. Bills to pay, people to see…

So tonight, I decided, after a lovely dinner with Pingaling, to treat myself. This pudding is so luscious, so creamy and smooth, so soft and silken and unctuous, that you can spread it all over yourself and bathe in it. It is like being enveloped in love and hugs and vanilla and sugar and sweetness. Its easy to make (about 20 minutes or less in terms of actual work time) and it is amazingly adaptable – brilliant either warm or cold.

It would be a phenomenal base for a white chocolate ice cream (just cool in the fridge overnight, and pop into your ice cream maker!). It makes a brilliant accompaniment to any manner of cake, pie, pastry or crumble. It would be stunning as the filling for a deep dark chocolate cake or ginger cake (that could be iced with whipped cream!). Served with fruits (particularly berries), this is a dream. And thinned out with a little more milk or cream, its a surprising and delightful custard.

But somehow, tonight, all I wanted was a bowl of this pudding, and a few of Adi’s crisp haunting vanilla cookies. The worries and pressures of tomorrow can wait. Tonight is a good night 🙂

Makes about 3 1/2 cups

  • 2 1/2 cups whole milk (though you can make it with low fat milk, it loses a bit in the richness – and of course you could add some cream but that is going just a tad overboard!)
  • 1 vanilla pod, split and scraped and/or 1 tbsp (or to taste) vanilla essence
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 egg yolks
  • Pinch of salt (I use Maldon or fleur de sel because I love the sudden pops of salty in all that sugary smoothness)
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 – 1/2 cup (a few good ounces) white chocolate, chopped
  • 2 tbsp butter

Pour the milk into a medium saucepan, and split the vanilla pod. Scrape the beans into the milk, and pop the pod in there too.

Heat the milk over your lowest heat, until it just starts to steam and bubble around the edges. This might take a while, so be patient, and busy yourself with other things while it is happening.

Once the milk is just at the point of boiling, take off heat, and cover for 5 minutes to let the vanilla bean steep. If you are not using vanilla bean, allow the milk to cool down for about five minutes while you prepare the eggs.

Crack the eggs into a medium bowl and add the egg yolks. Set the whites aside for another use. Add the salt and sugar, and begin to whisk. Let me just take a moment and state that I use light brown sugar in this recipe because I adore the slight caramel tones that the light brown brings to the flavour profile. However, if you prefer a very pristine pale pudding, without the caramel-y notes, feel free to use white caster sugar.

Whisk until the sugar has completely dissolved into the eggs.

Once the milk has cooled for 5 minutes or so, fish out the vanilla pod (if using), and whisk in the white chocolate. Whisk well to ensure that all the chocolate is completely melted (it should do this relatively quickly). Add a tablespoon or so of vanilla essence at this point and taste. You should have very strong vanilla and white chocolate notes. They should complement each other, but also be distinct. Adjust if you like.

Whisk about a third of the hot milk into the eggs, and continually whisking, add the egg-milk mixture back into the saucepan.

Put the pudding over very low heat and whisk constantly until it begins to thicken and steam and tiny bubbles begin to pop onto the surface. Whisk in the butter.

You need to keep your nerve here. Too long, and you get sweet, expensive, useless scrambled eggs. Too soon, and it doesnt thicken enough. Do remember though, that pudding does thicken substantially as it cools down. Its a balancing act, but I rather take off too soon than too late! You can always give it a little more heat if it does not set up as you would like it to.

Hopefully, you will have rinsed the bowl you whisked the eggs and sugar in. Place a sieve over this bowl, and pour the pudding through, to ensure a beautiful smoothness.

You now have a difficult choice. You could eat some pudding immediately (who am I kidding, I always do! Cook’s treat) … or place greaseproof paper over the surface of the pudding and refrigerate for about 2 hours or so until it has cooled and thickened completely.

Enjoy in a myriad of ways… and be comforted 🙂

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pink Vanilla Cupcakes + Frosting!

28 Sep

Cupcakes!So I promise, this will be the last of the pink party smushed fairy postings … at least for this round! 😉 I loved the chocolate cake with that incredible white chocolate frosting, and we are still munching on (and sharing) the pink heart cookies. But the cupcakes were really special. M ordered the cupcake paper cups from Wilton – little pink flower cups. And I baked about 60 cupcakes – half were decorated with glitter and sprinkles and hearts and gumpaste/royal icing flowers ordered from a professional bake shop online. The other half were left iced for the children at the party to decorate – and they did a wonderful job! I love projects that get young people involved with and thinking about the food that they eat – even if its just from an aesthetic point of view.

Most of the decorations and the food colouring came from India Tree. Who knew beet food colouring could produce such gorgeous shades of pink – soft and pastel, natural and beautiful. The recipe for the cupcakes was adapted from a Meyer Lemon Raspberry Cupcake recipe by Amy Berman from the Vanilla Bakeshop. And the frosting was a basic garden variety confectioners frosting, but I made sure to use organic ingredients. I figure if we are going to feed young ones such rich foods, might as well make them free from pesticides and hormones and the like.

This recipe makes about 25 – 30 cupcakes. To double, I made two separate batches because baking is such a specific art – you dont want to mess up the measurements, and sometimes when you double a recipe, it just doesnt take as well. Please do try and use vanilla pods if you can – they imbue the cupcakes with such a pure vanilla scent and flavour. Nothing else comes close. I doubled the vanilla hit by adding vanilla essence as well. If you really cant find vanilla pods, double the amount of vanilla essence.

The cupcakes will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container or in the fridge. After that, theyre still edible, but may start to wilt a little. 😉 Enjoy!!!

Vanilla Cupcake

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter at room temperature
  • 2 cups light brown sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean, about 3/4th scraped plus 1 – 2 tbsp vanilla essence
  • 5 large eggs, separated
  • 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 175C (350F) and line your cupcake tin with paper cupcake cups.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. The butter and sugar really need to combine well – it needs to look like a thickish cream.

Add the vanillas and beat well. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Mix together the flours, baking powder and salt. You can sift if you like (this makes a much finer crumb) but its not totally necessary. Add to the butter mixture and beat well. You will have quite a thick dough. Add all the sour cream and beat again. Set aside.

In a clean bowl, with a clean whisk, or cleaned beaters, whisk the egg whites until they are shiny and hold stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the dough.

Drop by heaping tablespoons into your cupcake cups. You should get about 25 – 30.

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. I would check at 20 minutes, but it took me the full 25 to bake them.

Let the cupcakes cool in the tins.

Pink Vanilla Frosting

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
  • 4 cups confectioner’s or icing sugar, sifted
  • 1 – 2 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 vanilla bean, scraped
  • 4 tbsp heavy cream or milk
  • India Tree food colouring (red for preference 😉 )

With an electric mixer, beat the butter until it is smooth and creamy.

Sift 1 cup of confectioner’s sugar onto the butter, and beat it in on low speed. Repeat for the additional 3 cups of sugar.

Measure in the vanillas and 2 tbsp of cream, and beat well. If the consistency is to your liking, start adding food colouring, otherwise keep adding cream, 1 tablespoon at a time. I would imagine you would need the entire amount of cream, but I leave it up to you (and the heat, humidity and elevation of your kitchen!).

Beat in the food colouring 1 drop at a time. I made 2 batches of frosting and coloured them slightly differently so I had some contrast in the icing.

Beat for at least 3 – 5 minutes. What you will find is that the frosting gets a really light and fluffy, yet thick and solid consistency. I cant explain it, but frosting that has not been beaten for as long just has a different feel to it. The food colour is incorporated totally, and the frosting is very whipped if you beat it for long enough.

Once the frosting is of your desired consistency, fill a pastry bag and ice your cooled cupcakes.

If you dont have a pastry bag, do as I did. Fill a small plastic ziploc bag about 1/3rd full with frosting and cut the tip off one corner. You can use this as a makeshift bag, though be careful. The heat of your hands will start melting the icing quickly.

Decorate the cupcakes with sparkles and glitter and hearts and flowers immediately. Let everything set for about 30 minutes before refrigerating or serving.

Enjoy!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pink Heart Cookies

24 Sep

cookieSo I was sitting in the kitchen this morning, minding my own business when this very pink fairy flew in through the window. She had glitter dust all over her wings, sparkles in her hair, and she had the most annoying whiny buzzy sound … So I smushed her. And she exploded. And the entire kitchen was filled with pink glazed sugar cookies, bedecked with hearts and sparkle and glitter. This is what happens, apparently, when a pink fairy explodes.

Actually, I spent most of the morning baking these cookies (I tripled the recipe so I ended up with about 100 biscuits) and most of the afternoon glazing them. These are not quick work if you want to roll out the dough and then cut patterns out with a cookie cutter. They are however quite simple if you want them for easy log slices – if you want to roll the dough into logs about 2 – 3 inches thick and then just slice rounds and bake. Either way, they are very very delicious – crumbly and yet sturdy, very buttery and not too sweet. I based the cookie on Cook’s Illustrated Sugar Cookie – but I used my hands rather than a stand mixer. It worked out fine.

I used royal icing to glaze the cookies – a basic confectioner’s sugar and water mixture with the addition of meringue powder (basically freeze dried egg whites). The addition of the egg whites makes the glaze harden extremely well. If you have access to meringue powder, use it – there is a huge difference. You can also make royal icing with egg whites, but since they are raw, and I am making the cookies for a children’s birthday party, I decided to go with the powder.

I used the India Tree dye – and as you can see from the image – it was gorgeous! Very easy to work with, very strong colour, and an almost imperceptible taste. I love this stuff, and I love that I can bake wildly colourful cakes and cookies for young people, and not worry about poisoning them with too much food dye. Decorating these cookies by hand took a lot of time and work – but they are so pretty, it was worth it!

Sugar Cookie

This cookie is basically much like the basis for a sweet tart shell – butter (so much butter!), superfine sugar (which gives a more tender cookie and a finer crumb), a touch of salt, flour, vanilla and cream cheese. Thats it. You have to be quite gentle with the dough, and once it comes together, you shouldnt really handle it a lot. Its very very tender. I made the dough the night before, refrigerated it well wrapped, and baked the next morning.

This should yield you about 30 – 40 cookies

  • 2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 16 tbsp butter (2 sticks) – at room temperature. It should be soft, but not totally giving, if you know what I mean. You want it to still hold its shape – so take it out of the fridge about half an hour before you mean to use it, and dont leave it in the heat.
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 2 heaping tbsp cream cheese

If you are baking immediately, preheat your oven to 170C (375F).

Whizz the light brown sugar in a food processor or with your immersion blender so that the sugar becomes superfine. Its not 100% neccessary but it does make a difference in the finished product.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt.

Using your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture. You want flakes of butter to be completely incorporated into the flour – it should look like oatmeal. Do this as quickly as possible, but also as completely as possible. When you are happy with the mixture, use your whisk to just combine everything together again.

Pour over the vanilla and cream cheese, and again using your hands, quickly and evenly work these two ingredients into the mixture. You will see that they bind the flakes together and you will have an extremely soft dough.

Take the dough out of the bowl, and on a clean surface, knead a couple of times, using the palm of your hand to smear the dough away from you. This will lengthen the butter flakes within the dough.

Roll the dough into a ball, and divide into two.

If you are making slice cookies, fashion each half into a log, and wrap well with parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes before slicing and baking. These also freeze bloody well, so you can always have a fresh baked cookie to hand!

If you are making cookie cutter cookies, wrap each half in parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 20 minutes.

Take dough out of fridge, and centre each half between two sheets of parchment paper, about the length of a jelly roll pan. Using a rolling pin and light movements, roll out the dough between the sheets, to about 1/4 – 1/8th inch thick, and refrigerate again. If you are working in an extremely hot climate, you can freeze the rolled out dough for a few minutes so it is quite stiff.

Place the parchment on a flat surface, and gently peel the top layer of parchment off the dough. Use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the dough, and gently transfer the cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Any scraps, you can re roll and recut into cookies, but make sure you rest the re rolled dough in the fridge or freezer before cutting cookies out of it!

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the edges just begin to brown (I burnt one lot, by the way, and they were DELICIOUS!).

Cool on a rack before glazing.

Royal Icing

  • 2 cups confectioner’s (icing) sugar
  • 2 tbsp meringue powder
  • 3 – 5 tbsp warm water
  • 3 – 7 drops of food colouring (I chose red – because PINK is our theme – of course!)

Sift the confectioner’s sugar into a medium bowl. You dont have to do this, and it usually turns out fine, but this just makes sure there are no lumps!

Add the meringue powder, and stir to combine. Add 3 tbsp of water, and whisk well. You can whisk with a balloon whisk or with an electric whisk, but you really want to combine the mixture until the icing is thick, and forms gentle peaks. Add more water if you need it – I like quite a liquidy glaze – dont worry, with the addition of the meringue powder, it hardens!

Add food colouring, a drop at a time, and whisk well to combine, until the royal icing is tinted to your desire.

Do note that I added a drop of vanilla to the icing – it made it taste quite good, but it did change the colour from light pink to darker pink.

cookieAssembly

  • Sugar Cookies
  • Royal Icing
  • Decorations – I used sanding sugar, pink and silver glitter, sparkling sugar, and sugar hearts – optional – you might want the beautiful elegance of a glazed cookie – but I was looking for exploding fairy pink!

You need to work systematically when icing these cookies.

Arrange the un-iced cookies in a tray lined with parchment paper. Have next to you the royal icing in a bowl, covered with a tea cloth (to keep it liquid), a mug, half filled with warm water, a tea spoon, and whatever decorations you want to use.

Ice 4 – 6 cookies at a time by taking a teaspoon of icing, and pouring it over a cookie, using the back of the spoon to smooth the icing over.

Once up to 6 cookies have been iced, decorate them with your sparkly sugary delights. Then go on to the next 6. The reason you do this is so that the icing does not harden before you can decorate it.

Add more water to the royal icing if it becomes too stiff – but do this literally half a teaspoon at a time – you will be amazed how it reacts to just a few drops of water.

Let the icing harden for at least 2 hours before packing the cookies into an air tight container. They can be refrigerated for up to 3 days before serving.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Best Blondies

31 Aug

utter perfectionThis is my 100th post! Hooray! I never thought I had the discipline or the strength of purpose to actually commit to sit down and write a recipe a day, no matter what is happening or where I am. I have to say, I am impressed with myself 😉 Long may it continue 🙂 Today, in celebration of this personal milestone, I decided to try a new recipe. I love blondies. I am not so hot on brownies to be honest. They are too overwhelming – that mix between fudgy and crusty, and intense intense chocolate. I dont know what it is, but I like chocolate in almost all ways, but brownies are probably 100th on the list (keeping with the 100th theme!)

But blondies are another story entirely. Studded with chocolate, but not overwhelmed by fudge dough, blondies are chic brownies – brownies with an edge. I used Callebut white and milk chocolate here. Chopped it into chunks and mixed it with a caramelised vanilla batter. It baked shiny and crispy, with edges that were brown and crunchy, but with interiors that were the best of melted chocolate and soft vanilla cookies. Sooo good. Delicious, delectable, and amazingly easy. It took me about 20 minutes to put everything together, and another 20 – 25 to bake. Do not overbake these! They need to be cooked (and when you stick a knife in, they can be squishy, but not liquid), but if you overbake, they will get stone hard and yucky.

I adapted these blondies from a recipe on the Cook’s Illustrated website. I dont do nuts with my sweet baked goods (well on very rare occasions, but thats the exception rather than the rule). I dont know by, but its true. By the by, I also dislike chocolate and orange or lemon. Just does not do it for me. We each have our own tastes, and especially in brownies or blondies, I am a no nuts kind of person. Oh and in carrot cake, but thats another story. Anyway! The Cook’s Illustrated recipe required 1 cup of toasted pecans for these blondies. If you like nuts, toast some pecans (or walnuts or cashews, go crazy with it) and substitute the nuts for 1 cup of chocolate. Otherwise, do as I do, and revel in both milk and white chocolate 🙂

The other major thing I did was I let the butter burn a little as I melted it. I remembered the recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies ever, and how the butter, burnt to a dark brown, added a depth of flavour to the cookies. Well, I didnt burn the butter to that extent, but I let it get a little toasty. Just a hint of light brown colour. It worked really well in the finished product – the blondies had a deep caramelised flavour that came from the union of slightly burnt butter, light brown sugar, vanilla and eggs. Sublime.

This recipe will fit into a 14″ x 8″ pan. Make sure that you double line the pan with aluminum foil, and allow some foil overhang. This lets you lift out the cooled blondies easily. Also, butter that foil to within an inch of its life! With all that caramelisation going on, you want to be able to lift the blondies out easily, and buttering well really does help.

For 1 pan of totally delectable blondies, you will need:

  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 12 tbsp butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted, slightly burnt, and then cooled + 1 tbsp for buttering
  • 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 – 6 tsp vanilla essence
  • 2 cups best quality chocolate, chopped, chunks or if you have to, chips (I used 1 cup Callebaut white + 1 cup milk chocolate, chopped)

Preheat your oven to 175C. Prepare your baking pan. Line a 14″ x 8 ” pan (at least 2 – 3″ deep), with double layer of aluminum foil. Allow some overhang, and push it well into the corners. Use 1 tbsp of butter and butter the foil extremely well. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Use a fork to mix well together. Set aside.

Melt butter in a saucepan, and allow to burn just a little bit. You want it to foam, subside, and then just start turning light brown. Take off heat and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, in another small bowl, whisk together 2 eggs and 4 – 6 tsp of vanilla. You will know how much vanilla to use, depending on the quality of the vanilla you have. Your judgement is important here, but remember you want a strong vanilla taste. Its the main flavour of the blondie, and you want it to come out well. Set aside the eggs and vanilla.

In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar. Add the egg mixture and whisk well. You will have a glossy, shiny, almost caramel like batter. Taste for vanilla and adjust if need be.

Fold the flour in gently, in three parts. Dont overmix. Fold in the chocolate (or the chocolate and pecans if you are so inclined). Using a spatula or wooden spoon, coax the batter into the baking pan. Spread it around to make sure that the entire pan is filled. It may not look like much, but heat is magic – it will puff up the batter and create a phenomenal blondie.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 20 – 25 minutes, checking a few minutes before hand to make sure they have not overbaked. The top will be shiny, slightly cracked, and light brown. A toothpick stuck into the blondie will come out with crumbs sticking to it – but if it comes out covered in batter, it needs more time.

yummmOnce done, take out of oven and allow to cool in pan for at least 20 minutes or so. Use the aluminum foil to remove the blondies from the pan, and cut into squares. The tops will be crisp and crackly, the bottoms will be golden and the centres will be squishy and vanilla-y and bursting with melted chocolate. Serve with vanilla ice cream if you want to be overly decadent.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Perfect Dinner

30 Aug

Tonight, after all the celebrations, birthdays, feasts, intricate foods and menus, we had the perfect late summer dinner. Simple, direct, earthy, satisfying. Tasting exactly of the vegetable and fruit that were served because almost nothing was done to them except to cook them lightly and serve them with love. A feast for the senses, and pleasure for the palate.

Artichokes, steamed in the microwave – a methodology of MZ’s which worked well, and produced succulent artichokes in 15 minutes. Served with a sparkling bright yellow lemon butter sauce.

with lemon butter sauce

The lemon butter sauce was made by whisking together a melted stick of butter, 2 tbsp olive oil, some salt, and the juice of half a lemon. We ate the artichokes with our hands, sharing a paring knife when we got to the heart, to get the prickly bits out. The bowl of lemon butter was communal. Truly a family meal.

Finished by the most beautiful, ripe, sweet, honeyed cantaloupe. Cut into chunks.

Perfect summer taste

Unadorned, tasting of summer sun. So sweet, so succulent. M said it was the most perfect cantaloupe she had ever tasted. I agreed. I didnt think it could get any better than that. But then…

and cantaloupe

Vanilla ice cream and cantaloupe. Have you ever tried it? Unbelievable mind blowing perfection.

The simplest of meals… The most perfect combination. How gorgeous.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Apple Berry Crumble

18 Aug

Its been a wonderful day of baby bliss and cooking – it was rainy outside today, so we had soup for lunch – a gorgeous mixed vegetable soup – butternut, asparagus, carrot, tomato, and green bean, simmered lightly, and then blitzed in the blender. And with it, four cheese grilled cheese sandwiches, on gorgeous brown bread, with a smear of mayo and mustard. Four cheese might sound overwhelming, but it really isnt if you use only little bits. I used all four because I was trying to use up ends of cheese – so we had brie, with the rinds cut off, which made the sandwiches silky and melty smooth, parmesan for its nuttiness, cheddar for its cheesy-ness, and Laughing Cow, because it was there! A little salt and pepper, and grilled them over a slow fire. Delicious.

For dinner, an angel hair pasta with spinach, zucchini, tomato, mushrooms, sliced garlic, white wine and sour cream. And for dessert, an apple berry crumble made with literally a handful of berries left over from a berry fest, and some gorgeous Braeburn apples. The berries tinged the apples red, and added a sweet berry tartness to the crumble. Perfection.

This crumble will serve six. Adjust as needed. Wonderful warm with cream, and leftovers make a great breakfast, with a bit of milk or yogurt poured over 🙂

  • 4 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 – 1 cup mixed berries (we had blackberries, raspberries and blueberries)
  • 2 tsp + 1 tbsp granulated light brown sugar
  • 1 + 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp flour
  • 1/2 – 1 cup steel cut oats
  • 1/2 stick (approx 4 tbsp) cold butter, grated
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 170 C

Peel, core and chop the apples, and place them in a glass or metal baking pan. You can use a pie pan but I like those smallish rectangular pans. Sprinkle lemon juice over.

Mix in the berries, with your hand or a spoon, making sure that the berries are completely mixed up with the apples. Sprinkle over 2 tsp light brown sugar (or more if your apples arent that sweet), 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tbsp flour. Again using your hands or a spoon, mix well. The flour will thicken the juices of the apples and berries as they cook so you have a thick luscious crumble, instead of a juicy wet one! Ensure that the berry apple mixture is arranged in an even layer in the baking pan.

In a small bowl, mix together 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, the oats, grated butter, and salt. Using your fingers, work the butter into the oats. The mixture will resemble sandy gravel. This is what you want. Taste – if it needs more cinnamon, more sugar, more butter, add.

Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the apple berry mixture, and bake in the oven for 45 minutes – 1 hour. Serve warm or cold.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

11 Aug

perfect happy memoryI wrote in an earlier post about my late father’s love of white buttered toaste with a sprinkle of sugar. He ate it as a treat, even though he could have most any gourmet food he wished. This taught me that food is about memory as much as it is about taste… And one of my earliest memories is staying over at an Aunt’s house, one sharp sparkling autumn day, with my sister. We woke up in the morning, and she offered us cinnamon toast. We had never had it before (I think I was probably 6 to my sisters 4 years), and eagerly accepted.

What a taste. What an amazing combination. White toast, crispy and warm, melting butter, crackling sugar … and cinnamon. Its a dark scent, almost woody and powdery. Hits of spiciness, sweetness, flowers. Its not a description that comes easily, but when you taste cinnamon, especially for the first time, its as if your taste buds wake up. I have always loved the scent and taste of cinnamon, and its warming fragrance brings memory of autumn, cider, Christmas. When I sat down to write about the actual taste of cinnamon, I realised this is another taste which is intricately wrapped in memory for me.

So today, on the first day of the Ramadan, after an exceedingly hot, busy day, I wanted comfort. Food that is a combination of memory and laughter, and wonderful easy taste. I turned to this recipe for cinnamon sugar cookies which I think I have been making as long as I can remember cooking. These cookies are really delicious, quick to put together, and delightful to give away. The recipe makes a very soft dough. Dont over beat it or you will get tough cookies. Just let it sit, in its creamy buttery sugary-ness, and handle with care when you dip in cinnamon sugar.

Enjoy with much love, and the memory of warmth during the cold…

Makes about 32 cookies, depending on how big or small you want them!

  • 3 tbsp fine granulated white sugar
  • 1 – 2 tbsp cinnamon (depending on how deeply cinnamon you like your cookies – I always use 2 tbsp!)
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar – a mix of dark brown, light brown, and white (I use 1/2 cup of each)
  • 1 cup / 2 sticks butter, slightly softened
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups pastry flour
  • 1 scant tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 160C.

Mix the 3 tbsp sugar and cinnamon in a little bowl, and set aside. Make sure you combine thoroughly – the sugar will be a dark brown when done. You will roll the cookie dough in this just before baking.

In a stand mixer bowl, combine your three sugars. I usually beat the sugars together to ensure they are combined well. If you dont have a stand mixture, use electric beaters.

Once the sugars are combined, add the butter, cut into chunks. Let your mixer beat the sugar and butter together until very well combined. This could take a few minutes. Just have some patience.

Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until completely combined. The mixture will be a little soft and fluid. Let it sit for a few minutes minutes. This gives the butter and sugars time to melt into each other.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl, and little by little, mix into the butter sugar mixture. I use a spoon or spatula at this point as I dont want to over mix the cookies! A tender cookie is one which is allowed to come together of its own accord! Again, let sit for a few minutes before moving on to the next step.

Line baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Using a tablespoon, measure out spoon sized pieces of dough (you can make bigger or smaller, according to your preference – this is just how I like to do it!). I usually get about 8 cookies to a sheet.

Using your thumb, drop the dough straight into the sugar/cinnamon mixture, and gently roll it around to coat it completely. Place on baking tray, and pat down gently, so it is not a ball shape, but a little flatter.

Bake for about 15 – 18 minutes. The cookies will rise, and then fall. They are done when they have turned a slightly darker shade of brown.

Let cool in trays for at least 5 minutes before cooling completely on racks.

You will have a wonderfully soft cookie with a crispy crunchy crust. Perfect balance.

Share! These are too good not to – and you can make sure other people will make wonderful cinnamon memories too 🙂

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries