Movember palmiers

Had a fancy on for some cinnamon so I thought I'd have a go at palmiers today.

Palmiers, also known as elephants ears and coeur de France, are delicate little pastries made across Europe.  Each country seems to have their own version and name but I think they look like crazy little moustaches so perfect for Movember!

Normally made with puff pastry I thought I'd have a go with rough puff

For the pastry
175g plain flour
pinch of salt
100g butter
100ml cold water

Chop the butter into small cubes and add to the flour and salt.  Pour in the water and combine to make into a ball.  Chill the pastry for about 20 minutes and roll into a rectangle about 200mm by 100mm.

Fold the bottom third into the middle, then the top third down so you end up with the three pieces on top of each other.  Give the pastry a half turn then roll out again and repeat the folding.

Repeat this process 4 times and then wrap and put back in the fridge for half an hour.

To make the cinnamon filling:
40g melted butter
60g light muscavado sugar
2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
30g flaked almonds crunched up

Mix the ingredients together

Once the pastry has chilled roll out into a rectangle about 300mm by 150mm and smooth over the cinnamon filling.  Roll the two longer sides into the middle sealing with a moistened finger to hold.

Wrap and return to the fridge for half an hour.

Slice the roll about 5mm thick and place on a baking tray.  Bake at 200c for about 20 minutes until golden and crispy.  I defy you to wait until they are cold to try!

chocolate orange muffins

One for the ladies at work today, choccy orange muffins

250g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbs cocoa powder 
50g stork
75g caster sugar
2 eggs
zest of 2 oranges
juice of 2 oranges
milk
150g plain chocolate

Melt the chocolate in a bain marie and leave to cool

Rub the margarine into the flour then stir in the sugar, cocoa powder and orange zest.

You need 250ml of liquid so measure out the orange juice and make up with milk. 

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, then add the melted chocolate

I had some crunchy chocolate cake thingies so put them in at this point.  However, on reflection, I don't think they made any difference at all.

Pour the mixture into 12 muffin cases and bake at 200c for about 20 minutes.







They smelt really chocolately and the smell was seeping out of the tin on the way to work.  Due to the plain chocolate these were drier than normal supermarket muffins (which I always fine a bit damp and gluey anyway).

lemony cake with crispy lemon topping

This is boyfriend's all-time favourite cake.  Actually, it's the only cake he'll eat.  A favourite of mine too, just try not to think too hard about all the sugar!

It's a Mary Berry recipe but I put more lemon in as I like it extra zingy

100g stork
175g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
zest of 2 lemons
juice of a lemon
milk

Beat the margarine,sugar  and lemon zest together and add eggs one by one.  Beat in the flour and baking powder.

You need 4 tablespoons of liquid so use the lemon juice and make up the difference with milk.

Pour mixture into an 18cm round greased cake tin and bake for about 35 minutes.

Whilst the cake is baking make the topping by combining:

juice of the other lemon
100g granulated sugar

Once the cake is baked, remove from oven but leave it in the tin and pour over the lemon/sugar mixture while the cake is still hot.  Leave to cool in the tin.

Make a nice cup of tea and eat cake

purple muffins

Still picking so many blackberries at the moment and there is only so much jam you need to keep you going over winter.  Last week I baked another blackberry tart but this time with windfall apples underneath rather than lemon.  Very nice, but it needs something else.  So this week I'm trying blackberry and cinnamon muffins to see if a bit of spice helps.






280g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
130g caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 tbsp plain oil
120ml milk
2 eggs
200g blackberries

combine the dry ingredients together
combine the wet ingredients (except the blackberries)
beat the wet into the dry, then stir in the blackberries
divide into 12 muffin cases and bake for about 20 minutes at 180c

blackberry tart

I picked about a kilo of blackberries at the weekend and made jam.  Went out yesterday and picked a load more so I thought I would make a blackberry tart with a tangy lemon layer.



For the pastry:

150g plain flour
75g butter
1 tbsp icing sugar
water to mix


rub the butter into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs.  Sprinkle in the icing sugar then add water to form a soft pastry.  Grease a 22cm round loose-bottomed tart/flan tin and line with the pastry.  Cover with grease-proof paper, fill with baking beans and blind bake at 180c for about 15 minutes.  Remove the beans and paper, and bake for a further 10 minutes or so until the pastry is cooked and golden brown.

I always line the tin with the pastry but don't trim until after it has blind baked for 15 minutes.  I find if you trim with a bread knife you end up with a nice clean finish.

For the lemon filing:

140ml water
1 lemon (juice and zest)
15g cornflour
1 egg yolk
small knob of butter
55g caster sugar

Put the cornflour in a jug with a couple of spoonfulls of water.  Bring the remainder of the water to the boil with lemon zest and pour this over the cornflour.  Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, add the lemon juice and boil until thick.  Add the sugar and butter and beat until smooth.  When the mixture has cooled down slightly, beat in the egg yolk.  Pour this into the cooked pastry case.

Once the lemon filing has set, arrange the blackberries on top then prepare the blackberry jelly.

For the blackberry jelly:

About 100g blackberries (I used the squashy and small ones that were leftover)
enough water to just stop the blackberries from burning
a table spoon of sugar
6g gelatine

Boil the blackberries with the water and sugar.  Strain to remove all the pips and pulp, then measure out the liquid.  You need 200ml of liquid in total so add more water as necessary.  Bring this back to the boil, sprinkle over the gelatine and whisk until combined.  Allow to cool then pour onto the tart over the blackberries.  Allow to set - takes about 1 1/2 hours in the fridge - and sprinkle with a little icing sugar.

Serve with a cup of tea and a sunny day

owl cake

A leaving cake for someone at work who likes owls.  It was either that or a lemon cake but the owl won the day. 

I made a three layer cake - two chocolate and one vanilla.  To make the chocolate I used my trusty very chocolate cake recipe in 2 20cm loose bottomed tins.  For the single vanilla layer

115g stork
115g caster sugar
2 eggs
115g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

cream the stork and sugar together.  Add the eggs, then beat in the flour and baking powder.  Bake in a 20cm round tin for approx 25 minutes until perfectly done.

I had a slight accident with one of the chocolate layers and actually cracked it in half as I moved it.  Never mind, made up some ganache with 150ml of double cream and 150g of plain chocolate.  With all the skill of a plasterer I smoothed it over and layer up the cake - chocolate cake, ganache, vanilla, ganache, chocolate, with an extra coating of ganache all over to help the icing to stick.  Using ready-made chocolate fondant icing I covered the cake and decorated in a rather 'angry bird' owl fashion.  Not too bad for a first attempt I think. 

krantz cake

Currently my absolute favourite cookbook is Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi.  It's a beautiful book full of splendid recipes and fascinating pictures.  Everything savoury I've tried so far has been truely delicious so I was keen to try the chocolate krantz cake which is a yeasted cake. 

The only real problem I had was my dough wasn't rising fast enough in fridge and I needed to get some sleep so left it out in the warm for a little while to speed things along.  This meant that the dough was very soft and more difficult to work with.  Also, it meant I didn't get the twists quite as defined and even.

However, it worked. Quite a lot of faffing about a challenge, great fun making it, and really seriously tasty.

Recipe is quite long so here it is:

(click on recipe if you actually want to be able to read it)

chocolate krantz cake

I decided to make one chocolate krantz and one cinnamon so made half the chocolate filling and then the cinnamon filling as described.  Not really keen on walnuts -I always think they are a bit disappointing.  All that work trying to crack them open, most of them end up in tiny pieces (on the floor, on the dog, down your top) and when you do eventually get one of the little bastards out whole, they taste a bit musty.  I know, buy them really shelled but I still find those plump little nutty brains don't taste a nice as they say they're going to!  So I used almonds instead which I do like.  I think the combination of the almonds, cinnamon and syrup gives the loaf a taste and texture rather reminiscent of baklava.  Everyone who tried both actually said the cinnamon was the best.  One comment was 'seriously delicious'.

Thanks Mr Ottolenghi!

cinnamon krantz cake

geraniums are looking good too!