Lamb filo cigars

I am sitting in this small and friendly Moroccan cafe in Central London with very intimate and small seating area with all Moroccan furniture. Everyone who orders anything, asks for the bowl of chilli to be passed on to them. One bowl of chilli exchanged 4 tables as I sat there tucking into my falafel salad with this chilli sauce. The heat of the chilli and the spices made everything taste so much better.

The chilli sauce was infact Harissa. I have fallen in love with this fiery sauce since then and have so far tried it in  burgers and as a rub on fish. This sauce is not native to Morocco, but was introduced to this region by the neighbouring Tunisia and Algeria. It is a hot dried chilli paste with added flavours of garlic, cumin and coriander. I am trying to find some African dried chillies and then will aim to post the recipe of home-made Harissa paste soon.

Lamb filo cigars

This recipe is adapted from The Food of Morocco featuring a good dose of Moroccan food history and beautiful pictures. The recipes are very authentic as well. Three things attracted me to this recipe; the use of harissa, incorporating a raw egg in the mince filling and the addition of saffron.

Ingredients:

Olive oil 1tbsp

Onion 1 (small and finely chopped)

Minced lamb 350gm

Garlic paste 1tsp

Ground cumin 1tsp

Ground ginger 1/2tsp

Paprika 1/2tsp

Salt 1/2tsp

Ground cinnamon 1/2tsp

Saffron thread 1 pinch (soaked in a little warm water)

Harissa paste 1tsp

Green coriander (chopped) 2tbsp

Mint (chopped) 1tbsp

Egg 1

Filo sheets 8-12

Butter (melted) 90gm

Sesame seeds 1tbsp (optional)

Method:

•  Let's first make the filling. Fry the onion in the olive oil until translucent and soft.
• Add the lamb with garlic and cook till it is nicely browned breaking any lumps. This takes about 5-7 minutes. 
• Next add all the spices, saffron, salt and stir it for about 3 minutes, followed by the coriander and mint. Cook for one minute and leave to cool. 
• When the mixture has cooled, break the egg and mix well. Leave aside.

• You will need 8-12 sheets of filo and how you cut them depends on the size of your sheets. For each cigar you need one sheet of filo pastry measuring about 14cm wide and 30cm long. I had to cut my filo sheet in half lengthways to get that size.
• Place a strip of filo on the work surface with the narrow end facing you and brush with melted butter.
• Spread the filling making sure you leave atleast 1cm from the edges of the pastry. I used about 1tbsp of filling each.
• First fold the narrow end over the filing, then fold in the sides and roll into a thin and tight cigar shape.
• Place the rolls seam side down on the baking tray. Brush with some more butter and sprinkle with some sesame seeds (optional).
• Bake in a pre-heated oven 180C (160C fan) for about 20-30 minutes till light brown.

 Tips: 

• Cover filo pastry with a moist kitchen towel to prevent them from drying out.
• Try different fillings. A vegetarian option would be a mixture of feta, mint and spinach. 

Related posts: 

• Are you brave enough to attempt filo pastry from scratch? Have a look at lovely Lauren's post here.
• Vegetarian version of filo cigars. And something seasonal with asparagus.
• Or why not try a sweeter version. 

Enjoy!

Chocolate,caramel and pistachio tartlets

Sometimes I find recipes for the ingredients I buy, rather than the other way round. I have always been disappointed with the caramel sauces available to buy until I read Rebecca's tweet (author of 366 recipe challenge) about the Confiture de Caramel. I just couldn't resist ordering it.

I would think this is the same as Dulce de Leche or Confiture de Lait, but I am quite challenged in linguistics department, specially when it comes to French, so please correct me if I am wrong. This caramel sauce (or jam) is slightly salted as well so it is in keeping with the latest salted caramel craze. Remember that Nigella's picture covered in this lovely stuff which caused quite a stir.

Now I had to come up with a recipe quick to stop my self and specially my other half from polishing the whole jar, with nothing but a teaspoon. Something that I used to do quite often with peanut butter as a child.

Chocolate, caramel and pistachio tartlets

The recipe I've chosen is an alteration from Martha Stewart's book Pies and Tarts. This book is  another one of my favourites by her, but it is not featured as much on the blog as I don't really trust my cup measuring skills, and I am afraid that unless I measure every thing meticulously in grams and mil litres,the recipe might turn out to be a disaster for anyone who tries it. Here I have tried to measure everything before using it but I bet there is an easier and more reliable way to do this conversion business. 

I've used pistachios here as it is goes well with chocolate besides the usual almonds and hazelnuts but you can try this recipe with either of these. 

Recipe: (makes 12)

For chocolate pastry:

Plain flour 150gm

Cocoa powder (Dutch processed) 25gm

Caster sugar 50gm

Butter 60gm

Egg (large) 1

Fleur de sel 1/4tsp

Filling:

Confiture de caramel (dulce de leche) 125gm

Dark chocolate (chopped) 50gm

Double cream 1/2 cup (120ml)

Butter (soft) 2 tbsp

Pistachios (roasted and chopped) 100gm

Fleur de sel (for sprinkling)

Method:

Let's make the pastry first as it needs chilling for an hour to make this sticky pastry a bit easy to roll.

Combine all the dry ingredients. Add in the butter and rub it in till the whole mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.

Add the egg and mix enough till the mixture just comes together. Resist the temptation of over kneading.

Wrap it in cling film and rest the dough in the fridge for atleast one hour. 

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface. Ideally I could have rolled it thinner to a about 1/2cm thick, but I was a bit apprehensive of working with the sticky chocolate pastry for the first time, hence stopped at 3/4cm.

I used a mini tartlet pan and a cutter which was slightly bigger than the diameter of the tartlet cases.

Cut out the pastry and fit it in the tartlet cases. Put this in the freezer for another half an hour. This will stop the sides from shrinking.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C (160C-fan). Pierce the shells all over with the fork and bake for about 12 minutes. Leave to cool.

Roast the pistachios gently in a pan or in the oven and then chop them in a food processor.

Sieve the chopped nuts so that you have both fine and coarse types. I used  the well processed layer to line the tart cases and the coarse nuts on the top. You can easily avoid this complication and just use coarse nuts at the bottom for a slight more texture.

Melt butter and then add chocolate and stir till melted. Add in cream, a gentle stir and let it cool slightly before adding in the caramel.

Use a teaspoon of finely chopped pistachios to line the cases. Spoon the filling and sprinkle with the coarsely chopped pistachios and a fleur de sel.

Refrigerate for as long as you can resist. Ideally, 3 hours.

Enjoy!

Related posts:

How to make your own dulce de leche 5 ways!

David Lebovitz's ducle de leche Brownies

The recipe girl's Pumpkin toffee pie 

Maison's cupcakes Dime bar dulce de leche cupcakes

Jubilicious Union Jack flag cake

Recently, I showed you a picture on twitter and facebook of my second Jubilee cake.

I've been obsessed with making a vertical layer cake for ages. This is a variation of that concept, inspired by I am baker and her faith cake. 

So that was the cross part sorted, now the question was how to cut it into diagonal sections to make it look like a Union Jack. A few diagrams letter, I came up with this concept and here I will try and explain it. I wasn't sure I'd be able to execute it but it worked out pretty well in the end. If I would ever make it again, I will of course try and make it look a bit more neat and keep the proportions of the cross in check.

Step by step:

Things you'll need:

Blue layer: I made two 8 inch blue Victoria sponges using 4 eggs. So I ended up with 4 layers which were then stacked together into two, and frozen overnight.

Red layer: I made a 9 inch 3 eggs victoria sponge. I will later cut it into a 8 inch round and use the scraps to fill the middle part.

Butter cream

White and yellow sugar paste

Royal icing coloured blue and red

Method:

You are starting with two stacks of blue cakes and one red cake. 

I used a wire as a guide to where I needed to cut to make it into a cone. Mark the centre of the cake and try to aim at the edge of the bottom layer of the cake. Now if you cut along this plane, you will end up with two cones. Use a thin bladed knife and try to keep the knife in the centre whilst rotating the cake.

You will end up with a hole in one layer but it doesn't matter as you will stack the layers back again and then cut out the centre of the cake.

Cover both layers with buttercream and one with jam and stack them back together.

Repeat the process with the second blue cake.

If you are still with me on this, then well done!

Next cut the 9 inch cake to 8 inch size. Put all the scraps into a bowl and add enough butter cream to make it moist and this is something similar to making cake pops.

Put the blue cake with the hole (top of the cone) facing upwards and spread with some buttercream. Stack the red cake on top followed by the blue cake with the hole (top of the cone) facing downwards. You are basically trying to imitate the shapes of the crosses on the Union Jack here.

Still awake? Now let's make the vertical part of the red cross.

You have to cut a cylinder in the middle. Is that the correct geometric term? To do that, use a shot glass or a herb container which has the same diameter as the depth of the middle red layer. I made a mistake here and as a result the vertical part of the cross is much wider than the horizontal part. I really should have paid more attention in the Mathematics lectures.

Use a knife to cut out the marked area and try and avoid eating all that cake. Fill the hole with the red cake crumbs. Pushing them in very gently to compact them a bit. Now do a crumb coating and rest it in the fridge for at least an hour. Seriously you will need that hour to relax and clean all the crumb mess you have just created.

While you are relaxing with that cup of tea, make the crown. I thinks the photos are quite self explanatory here and hence I will not bore you with the step by step. I have used this method as described in Mich Turner's Cake Masterclass book.

Now the last few bits. Do another coating of buttercream .

Roll your sugar paste, making sure it is big enough to cover the whole cake. Use a smoother if you like. I am still working on coating a cake so apologies for the uneven finish.

I've used the royal icing to pipe pearls on the sides and some more decorations at the top and then put the crown on top fixing it with some royal icing.

I wasn't so much interested in decorating it, then cutting it in the morning to see what it looked from inside.

A slightly deformed Union Jack! I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoyed planning and executing it. If you end up making it then please let me know how it goes. Clearly I am delusional to think that anyone would be mad enough to try it. 

Enjoy!

Competition:

I am sending it again to lovely Fleur's way. She is running a Jubilee bake competition sponsored by Appliances online. Can't wait to see her round up. Here's another one I like from the Times which has got some fabulous baking ideas to get you in the mood.

Union Jack Jubilee battenburg

I have also been bitten by the Jubilee baking bug. Usually I either try and avoid any kind of themed bakes, as by the time I find out about them, the week or challenge in question has actually ended. But if you live in the UK, then you really can't miss the Jubilee fever.

Union Jack Jubilee cake:

This recipe is adapted from the BBC Goodfood website. It is basically a Victoria sponge coloured blue and then cut and layered with butter icing and a good quality jam. I have used a 4 large eggs recipe instead of the original 3 eggs as suggested in the recipe. As I have used the all in one method, I also added one teaspoon of baking powder.

Tips: 

• The best tip is to freeze the cake between cutting and layering it into triangles as otherwise you would be left with a lot of cake mess and crumbs.

•  This cake uses a lot of colour so it is best to use the concentrated paste. I have used the Wilton Royal blue mixed with a little purple to make a darker shade of blue. 

• Wear gloves when using colour paste! 

Method:

First line a 20cm square tin with baking paper  and preheat the oven to 180C (fan 160).

I used all in one method and ended up using 2 teaspoon of blue colour and 1/2 tsp of purple.

Bake the cake for 25 minutes and let it cool in the tin. When the cake is cooled, wrap it well in double layers of baking paper and freeze overnight or at least 4 hours.

Divide the cake in half and layer one piece on top of the other and trim the edges.

Separate the two layers and cut them in half again.

Cut each long rectangular piece into triangles. If the cake starts to become soft in-between cuttings then chill them in freezer again. I did this on a very hot day and had to chill it twice. 

Prepare your favourite buttercream recipe and slightly warm a good quality jam.

Spread each triangle with buttercream and one layer with jam as well.

Sandwich them together. Join two squares with another layer of buttercream-jam-buttercream, keeping the Union Jack pattern in mind.

Chill the two rectangular layers in the fridge for at least half and hour.

Spread the bottom rectangle with the buttercream then jam and one side of the top layer with buttercream and sandwich them together. Align them as best as you can, wrap in cling film and chill to let the buttercream set for at least 1 hour.

Roll sugar paste into a rectangle long enough to cover the battenburg. Spread a little jam on all four sides of the assembled cake and place it on the sugar paste. Join the seams at the bottom and spread some sprinkles on top.

Here's what it will look like once you have sliced the edges:

Challenge:

I'm entering this into Homemade by Fleur Jubilee bake competition which is sponsored by the Appliances online. Check out the link for some gorgeous entries.

Also look at this lovely battenburg which resembles a Union Jack more closely and is just perfect:

Cafe retro's blog http://caferetro.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/jubilee-union-jack-battenberg/

Your feedback, good or bad is always welcome.

Individual Bakewell tarts

When I landed in this country almost 10 years ago, my husband thought the best way to introduce me to this land was through it's food. In that first few weeks, we had a lot of British food and treats like M&S marshmallow tea cakes, apple crumble with custard, Victoria sponge and of course Bakewell tart.

I am not very good at acquiring new tastes, and as my husband would tell you, I resist it with all my might to begin with, and then gradually start liking the item in question. The same thing happened to the Bakewell tart. The strong almond essence reminded me of the taste of bitter almonds, and if you have been unlucky to have tasted one, you would detest anything that reminds you of it. 

Ten years later, and after many frequent appearances at workplace common rooms and little nibbles, I can just about enjoy it. I made this on my husband's request as he was craving these on his low carbohydrate diet. Little did I realise, he didn't really want the original Bakewell tart but something similar to the Cherry Bakewell by Mr Kipling. 

Jubilee celebrations are just round the corner and this will be a great addition to your Jubilee tea party.

Bakewell tart

“Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.” 

Mark Twain

The legend has it that in 1860, Mrs Graeves of Rutland Arms (formely known as the White Horse Inn), ordered her cook to make a strawberry tart. The inexperienced cook's error resulted in the origin of this delicious treat. I am not quite sure what the error was. Did the cook forget to put the jam on  the top and spread it at the bottom or forget to use the eggs and almonds in the pastry and hence spread that on the top? In any case, which ever legend or version you believe, I would have liked to know this anonymous person's name, and rightly attribute the recipe to this cook. 

Then there is Bakewell pudding and Bakewell tart. As far as I have learnt, the tart is made with short crust pastry and the pudding with puff pastry.

I've used the sweet short crust pastry recipe by Dan Lepard. There were many different variations of the filling but I went with the Hairy Biker's version as after all, they came up with the recipe after baking it themselves in Bakewell. Also it is much lighter as there is no butter in the filling.

Pastry: (makes 12-14 small tarts. I used half of the dough to make 8, and froze the rest for later use.)

Plain flour 250g 

Icing sugar 50g

Pinch of salt

Butter (unsalted) 150g

2 egg yolks

Ice-cold water 30ml

Filling: (enough for 8 tarts)

Ground almonds 200gm

Caster sugar 90gm

Eggs 4

Almond essence 1/4tsp

Flaked almonds 25gm

Raspberry jam 3tbsp

Topping:(optional)

Icing sugar 200gm

warm water 1-2tbsp

Almond essence 1/2 tsp

Glace cherries

Method:

Pastry: 

• Mix flour with salt and sugar and then rub the butter into the pastry. 

• Add the yolks and water and knead to a soft dough. Rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before using. 

 

• Roll the pastry about 1/2cm thick on a well floured surface, large enough to fill the tart cases. Line the cases and then chill it in the freezer for 20 minutes. Dan Lepard suggests this to stop the pastry slipping from the sides of the tin. 

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C (fan 160C). 

• Line the pastry with baking parchment and fill with dried beans or baking beans and blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove the beans and paper and bake for another 5 minutes. Leave to cool. 

•  Reduce the oven temperature to 160C(140C). 

Filling: 

• Mix the sugar and ground almonds together.  

• Add the lightly beaten eggs and almond essence. 

• Spread a generous layer of raspberry jam on the pastry bases. 

• Pour in the almond mixture and top with the flaked almonds. 

• Bake for 25-30 minutes, till brown on top and cooked through. 

Topping (optional)

I would have left it at that but I was requested to generously ice it and make it more almondy so I mixed icing sugar with some almond essence and some warm water to make a running consistency and coated some with this topping, with a cherry on top. I personally prefer the less sweeter version.

 

Other related recipe links:

Ellen's baking blog: http://www.bakerspantry.co.uk/bakingblog/bakers-in-bakewell-love-bakewell-tarts/

Nelly's Cupcakes http://www.nellyscupcakes.co.uk/2011/10/weekly-bake-off-bakewell-bonanza.html

The Caked Crusader http://thecakedcrusader.blogspot.co.uk/2007/10/cherry-bakewell-tarts.html

Enjoy!

Baked Falafel

How many times have you heard American TV make a reference to this popular street food in their shows? I personally have lost count! I don't remember the first time I tasted falafel but it certainly wasn't love at first bite or sight for that matter. I didn't like the look of shrivelled oily balls that looked burnt in heavy supermarket packaging. 

My husband used to work near the Marble Arch and that opened up his world to the Mediterranean foods on Edgware road and his lunch included things like falafel wraps, kibbeh and shawarma, while I sulked in my office over a soggy sandwich or a half cold bowl of soup. As if he wasn't tired of travelling there everyday on an hour long tube journey, he used to take me there for lunch on some weekends. Now having falafel freshly fried for you as a starter with many dips was a completely different experience. This is how my love affair with the Middle Eastern food and this particular treat started.

Falafel

Needless to say the origin is disputed, although most sources point to Egypt where it is also called Ta'amia. It is a popular street food that is made with chickpeas and fava/broad beans. The recipes differ from region to region and include different proportions of fava beans and chickpeas, or just chickpeas.

Many recipes call for tinned chickpeas and you will find that the end mixture is quite watery and can break easily when frying or baking. Traditionally, it is made with soaking dried chickpeas and fava beans overnight and then grinding them up with spices and herbs. I also found that most recipes called for only tinned chickpeas without any mention of broad/fava beans. I couldn't find any dried fava/broad beans in any superstore and hence resorted to fresh frozen broad beans. 

This recipe is adapted from The Arab Table by May Bsisu. I love this book, mainly because it is properly researched with details of traditions and stories about Arab food; their origin, uses and authentic recipes.

Ingredients: (see tips for substitutions)

Dried chickpeas 300gm (soaked overnight)

Broad beans (tinned or frozen) 200gm

Garlic 6 cloves

White Onion (medium)1 

Parsley (small bunch) 1

Green Coriander (small bunch) 1

Ground Coriander 1/2 tsp

Ground Allspice 1/2 tsp

Ground Cumin 1 tsp

Cayenne Pepper 1/2 tsp

Ground Cinnamon 1/2 tsp

Salt 1 tbsp

Black Pepper 1/2 tsp

Baking soda 1 tsp

Baking powder 1 tsp

Method:

Soak the chickpeas overnight.

Drain the water next morning and let them get as dry as possible before use.

Thaw frozen broad/fava beans or use equal measure tinned broad beans.

Pulse the beans in the food processor and you might have to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times with a wooden spoon. You are aiming for something that feels like cooked couscous or similar to fresh bread crumbs.

Add the onion, garlic and herbs. Grind till they are well incorporated and finely chopped.

Throw in all the spices, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate and pulse one last time.

Rest the mixture for 2 hours for the flavours to develop.

Shape them into balls. Here size doesn't really matter but I aimed for something a little bigger than 1 inch.

Pre-heat the oven to 220C (200C fan assisted). Line a tray with baking paper. Spread the balls on the sheet and bake for about 25 minutes. Till they are nice and brown.

Or......

Dare I say, fry them for the best taste. It takes about 5 minutes in medium hot oil.

You can see the difference between the final texture of fried (top) and baked (bottom) falafels in this picture. They taste absolutely delicious both ways.

Tips:

• Use chilli pepper instead of cayenne and skip allspice, but these are bith easily available in most local supermarkets.
• I freeze them after making balls and leave them to thaw overnight in the refrigerator before baking or frying them.
• I will try to find dried fava/broad beans in Middle eastern shops which will again need soaking overnight before being used.
• You can serve it as a salad for a low carb lunch over a bed of fresh leaves, with olives, red onion, tomatoes and feta.
• You can use the tinned chickpeas and broad beans for convenience but remember the mixture the mixture becomes squidgy and might fall apart while frying so best bake it and reduce the salt in the recipe to compensate for the salted water in the tinned beans.

Do try it and let me know how it goes. I'd love to hear from you.

I'm entering this in @KarenBurnsBooth May's Herbs on Saturday challenge. Have a look there for some more delicious herby recipes.

Rhubarb Custard and Crumble cake

The very first time I heard of rhubarb, I couldn't help but chuckle. My sister's name is "Rubab" which means a musical instrument in Arabic. Had she been brought up in this country, her friends would have had a field day with her name.

Rhubarb is infact a vegetable with toxic leaves which are inedible as they contain oxalic acid. Good source of vitamin B1, calcium and potassium. It needs to be cooked before consumption and also requires to be sweetened.

Rhubarb custard and crumble cake

There is nothing better than a warm Rhubarb crumble to beat these blustery rainy days....Or is there?

I was in a mood to bake with something I hadn't used as an ingredient before and also wanted to do a bit of experimenting. Crumble would have been a good idea, considering the weather we've had lately but I was in the mood for some cake. Googling rhubarb cake recipes led me to BBC goodfood website and this amazing recipe with currently 88 ratings and five stars. Now surely, that can't be bad.

Now the experimenting part.....

I wish my stove came with a Save As button like Word has. That way I could experiment with my cooking and not fear ruining my dinner. Jarod Kintz

So how do I take this recipe to another level? The Flavour Thesaurus and the constant thought of warm crumble helped me come up with a crumble topping including almonds;and substituting the sugar whilst cooking rhubarb with rose syrup gave it an additional depth of flavour.

Ingredients:

For cake:

Use this recipe but substitute sugar with 50ml rose syrup for roasting rhubarb. If using sugar, try adding a tablespoon of rosewater as it goes really well with rhubarb.

Crumble topping:

I always use the ratio of 1 part flour to half that of sugar and butter. Sometimes I replace a small part of flour with ground almonds, rolled oats or dessicated coconuts. The Flavour Thesaurus suggested almonds went well with rhubarb and hence I've used them here. I like using demerera sugar in my crumble mix for extra crunch.

Plain flour 75gm

Ground almonds 25gm

Demerera sugar 50gm

Butter 50gm

Method:

For the rhubarb:

• Cut rhubarb in finger length pieces, put them in a roasting tin and drizzle the rose syrup on top.


• Cover with foil and roast at 200C (180C) for 15 minutes and an additional 5 minutes after removing the foil until soft.

For cake:

• Butter the base and sides of a 23cm loose bottom spring form tin and then line with baking paper.


• Reserve 3tbsp custard and put all the remaining ingredients till well incorporated. I mixed in the stand mixer for 5 minutes on medium setting.


• Layer a third of mixture and top it with one third of rhubarb. Continue this process and finish with a rhubarb layer. Spoon the remaining custard on top.

• Make the crumble by mixing everything with your hands and then spread it on the top of the cake.


• I needed to bake it much longer than the original recipe. I needed good 1 hour and 20 minutes (60 without and 20 with foil). Reading the reviews, a lot of people had the same issue.

This cake went down a treat with my friends and my son's nursery teachers. I am submitting it to lovely Urvashi Simple and in season May link up. Another great idea by fellow food blogger Ren Behan.

Enjoy it with that much needed cup of warm drink!

Maltesers - two in one cake

When you really want something, the universe always conspires in your favor.

Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I have somehow managed to look at this photo every day for the past 3 weeks and avoided giving in to baking it. Then, it all started! First my sister revealed her desperate attempts to find a decent refrigerator cake recipe. My friend shared a recipe of maltesers tiffin cake after revealing an obsession with maltesers, and then my child happened to pick up a share bag of maltesers from the array of chocolates at the corner shop. That's it! I had seen enough signs.

You have to thank Forrest Mars for creating this 'lighter way to enjoy chocolate' in 1936. They were initially called 'energy balls' but were soon renamed maltesers. How they are made, is a closely guarded secret, but there are plenty of odd and funny speculations around.

Maltesers-two in one chocolate cake

The base is a plain chocolate cake from the BBC Good Food 2012 calendar but the top layer is my version of the refrigerator cake (or tiffin cake) layer with maltesers, walnuts, digestives and ofcourse chocolate. 

T

Ingredients:

Cake layer:

Butter (salted) 175gm

Soft brown sugar 200gm

Eggs (large) 2

Flour (self-raising) 140gm

Cocoa powder 50gm

Malteser layer

Dark chocolate 200gm

Digestive biscuits 75gm (crushed)

Golden syrup 2tbsp

Walnut pieces 50gm

Maltesers 100gm

Method:

For cake: 

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C (160 fan), gas mark 4.
• Grease the base and line a 20cm square tin with parchment paper.
• Melt the butter and allow to cool.
• Add all the remaining ingredients and mix well.
• Put the mixture in the tin and bake for 30-35 minutes till the skewer comes out just clean.
• Allow to cool completely in the tin. 

For malteser layer: 

• Bash the digestives in a plastic bag to your heart's content.
• Melt the chocolate with golden syrup and butter in a pan over slow heat. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.
• Mix in the crushed digestives and nuts.
• Crush half the maltesers and fold in the chocolate mixture.
• Add the remaining maltesers and give it one final, gentle turn.
• Spread the mixture over the cooled chocolate cake and leave to set in the tin.
• Once completely set, run a palette knife around the edges and gently remove it out if the tin.
• Cut in squares and serve. 

Or pack it in your tiffin for sharing with friends at work.

Bagels

Why would someone come up with the idea of a bread with a hole in it and then decide to put it in boiling water before baking?

This centuries old method was based on practicality as it was easier to thread bagels together for transport or put them on a stake. Boiling gives it a protective sheen which made it last longer than traditional bread. Don't even get me started on the origin of this lovely chewy bread. For a change, I would like to find something with an undisputed origin. In the meanwhile read here if you want to believe in the King's stirrup theory.

Bread is something I haven't had much success with. I believe I might have been using the wrong sort of yeast and not kneading or proofing it enough. Now anyone with children would know that you can't possibly knead dough in peace for anything longer than 2 minutes without being interrupted for one thing or the other. 

Enter-Dan Lepard and his unique kneading and resting method. You can see this step by step method on my pizza post. My fellow food bloggers @evernanajules and @lilmssquirrel have been raving about his tortillas and pita recipes. I was browsing the book on my laptop and I just stopped and stared at the bagel picture. Now we all know he can bake, but he most certainly can also make his recipes even more appealing with his photography.

Bagels go down very well in this household even when they come in their stogy form with over wrapping from a certain famous brand. The other main reason for baking them was to adorn them with the left over passion fruit curd and of course cream cheese. The recipe seemed very easy and the tips with the recipe meant that I could rest the dough overnight and then have them ready to bake without much stress or preparation in the morning.

I used half the yeast as suggested in the original recipe and rested it overnight in the fridge for a more chewier texture. If you want fluffy-have bread. 

Ingredients :

Strong white flour 500g

Fast action yeast 1/2 tsp

Salt 2 tsp

Sugar 1tbsp

Water (warm)275ml 

White wine vinegar 1tbsp

For dipping:

Brown sugar (or malt extract)50g 

Boiling water about 2 litres

Method:

Combine all the dry ingredients and then add water and vinegar. Knead as described in the pizza dough post link which basically involves gentle kneading with 10 minutes rest in between. This process is repeated for 2 more times. 

I rested it overnight in the fridge and in the morning divided the dough in 10 balls and rested for 40 minutes. 

Pre-heat the oven to 220C (200C fan assisted). Boil the water with added sugar.

Poke finger in the middle of the risen dough and stretch it to make about an inch and a half big hole.

Drop one or two in the boiling water giving each side about a minute in the boiling water. 

Oil the baking tray and place the bagels on it. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

This is indeed the start of my bagel experiments and next on the list cinnamon raisin bagels.

Enjoy!

Related posts:

 http://366recipechallenge.planetsquirrel.co.uk/2012/01/dan-lepards-bagels.html

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/05/cinnamon-raisin-bagels/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/sep/15/recipes.foodanddrink1

I am adding this post to the AlphaBakes. The letter this month is B. This is a blogging challenge hosted by Caroline Makes and The more than occasional baker based on Alphabets chosen each month using a random letter generator.

Passion fruit Curd Cupcakes with White Chocolate Icing

I have been buying a lot of passion fruits lately to try and create a cake for my first Clandestine Cake Club meeting. The theme for this meeting is Not your usual 5-a-day. Needless to say, my shopping bill has been reflecting the cost of bulk buying this glorious fruit. This led to the hunt of frozen passion fruit purée as suggested in Rose's Heavenly Cakes. I bought passion fruit purée from Amazon and expected it to be half diluted and full of preservatives, but I am surprised to find that the only additive is 10% sugar.

Rose Levy Beranbaum also has a very decadent passion fruit cake recipe which uses passion fruit curd. I find lemon curd sometimes too tangy even for my taste, by which I mean a teenager who used to live off tamarind pods, but this passion fruit curd is the right balance of sweetness, sharpness and butteriness.

Please read about the history and uses of this fragrant fruit on my Passion fruit roulade post if you like. 

Passion fruit curd cupcakes with white chocolate icing

Cupcakes

I have used a basic cupcake recipe from Mich Turner's Cake Masterclass book, although I am still in search of a good basic cupcake recipe. These cupcakes are easy to bake but I don't like the fact that they collapse quite a bit after baking. Nevertheless, the texture and taste was good.

Passion fruit curd

I have come up with this recipe after trying 3 different ones. I like this one because of the combination of egg yolk and eggs for some more richness. Adding butter at the end also keeps the buttery taste well and truly intact. 

Introducing.....my favourite icing!

This White chocolate frosting is Rose Levy Beranbaum's brainchild which combines white chocolate, crème fraiche and cream cheese for that sweet tangy taste which goes quite well with this cupcake. The sweetness comes from the white chocolate and hence no icing sugar is required. Do buy the best white chocolate you can afford.

Ingredients:

For Passion Fruit curd (makes one small jar)

Passion fruit purée 125ml (or same amount of juice from approximately 9 fresh passion fruits)

Granulated sugar 60gm

Butter(cut in cubes) 60 gm 

Eggs (large) 2

Egg yolks 2

For cupcakes (makes 12)

Flour (self raising) 115gm

Butter (unsalted) 100gm

Golden caster sugar 100gm

Seeds from  1 Vanilla pod 

Milk 1tbsp

Eggs (large) 2

For White chocolate icing (covers 12 cupcakes)

White chocolate 200gm

Crème fraiche 20gm

Butter(unsalted) 80gm

Cream cheese 225gm

Vanilla bean paste (or extract) 1/2tsp

Method:

For curd: 

1. Mix sugar and passion fruit purée and in a heat proof bowl and set it over a pan of simmering water.
2. Whisk the eggs and egg yolks and gradually add to the bowl, stirring constantly.
3. Continue stirring till the mixture thickens and looks like thick custard.
4. Take it off the heat and gently stir in cold butter.
5. Pour in sterilised jar and this will keep in the fridge for two weeks. 

For cupcakes: 

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C (160C-fan assisted).
• Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature.
• Line a muffin tin with paper cases.
• Mix everything together in a bowl with electric whisk for about 10 minutes or 5 minutes in stand mixer on medium speed.
• Fill the cases 2/3 full.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until nice and golden on top and spring back when pressed. 

For icing: 

• Melt the white chocolate in microwave or over a pan of simmering water.
• Mix all the other ingredients together until combined.
• Beat in the white chocolate and mix well. 

Assembly: 

• Fit an icing bag with small round tip or filling nozzle. 
• Pour in the curd, keeping the tip of the bag pinched with a food bag clip or twisted to stop it from pouring out.
• Push it down the middle and fill the cupcakes with the curd.
• Fit a star (1M) nozzle to another piping bag and fill it with white chocolate frosting.
• Starting at the edges, swirl the icing, creating a mound.
• For a variation, I have just filled the cupcake with the curd and created a mound on the top with some dusting of icing sugar. 

Tips and suggestions: 

• I extracted about 125ml juice after straining the pulp from 9 passion fruits, but you might need more or less depending of their size.
• I have frozen the rest of the purée in ice cube trays and then transferred into a freezer bag, ready to be thawed and used as I please.
• Some recipes used passion fruit seeds as well and you could add the pulp and seeds after adding butter for some crunchiness.
• This amount of white chocolate icing is enough to fill and cover an 8 inch cake as well.

 I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!