nemesis side view

A first try at the 'impossible to cook' chocolate nemesis, via the River Cafe referenced cook book. As it was taken off the interweb I can't be sure it is the original recipe. To be more accurate it is out of the Telegraph. The recipe is here on cookable.

it's about 3.5 cm high, 22cm wide, and dangerously rich

Impossible to cook? Well, clearly not, although had I tested it after the allotted time as instructed, with the palm of my hand' I would have had some thoroughly chocolatey licking to do, and probably a big hole in the moussey mass. When I do it again I shall cook it at 300C. Oh and cook it the day before, as it sets a bit. Still, on the day, or the next, few have managed to eat more than one  slice, no matter how uch they like  chocolate. 

Looks pretty good doesn't it?

quiche basics, or flan if you will

I cooked three quiches on Monday, it'll pass, and had to think a lot about the egg/milk magic that makes quiche work. It is a basic savoury custard, and even though when you put it that way it seems less tempting, bung it in a pastry shell, add a few other ingredients and stand back to watch people scoff it down.

Quiches, or mini quiches are standard fare at lots of gatherings. Make them and people imagine you are a culinary genius, and why not? Grab a packet of ready made pastry, use it to line some well buttered tart tins, shallow ones are easier, but make sure you get the pastry/filling ratio right. You can guarantee an easy exit by cutting squares of baking parchment (crumpled and flattened out again to make it sit well into the corners) to pop under the pastry. Hey, go ultra rustic and don't bother to have circles of pastry, cut it into squares and let people enjoy some toasty corners, just avoid burning them, because noone likes a charred pastry corner. Make your egg mixture, put in your other ingredients and pour it on top. Fill to just under the top of the pastry and cook.

Basic quiche filling proportions: one large egg to 100ml cream or milk

Add seasoning: pepper, salt, herbs

to vary the quiches you add some solid ingredients such as:

• roasted veg, such as peppers and onions
• cheese and ham (or bacon, cooked)
• steamed broccoli florets 
• spinach and goats cheese
• mushroom and leek

These should be cut into suitable sizes to get variety in each mouthful, and vegetables need to be almost or completely cooked beforehand.

Cook mini quiches for about 20 minutes at gas mark 6/ 200 C/ 375F, or until golden and risen.

If you don't want to use pastry, line your quiche with thin slices of courgette, making sure to line the case with baking parchment, and perhaps to make the quiche mixture a little more eggy.

cantuccini - gluten free

I'm cooking a batch of cantuccini to give as presents, with port. I couldn't decide on a pudding wine, so fell back on port. My memory of dipping these hard biscuits in alcohol is a fond, and slightly bleary one. I've made them wheat free, using Dove's Farm plain gluten free flour. I hope they turn out really hard. There is no fat in this recipe, apart from what is in the nuts.

Tasters trying this recipe part way through are mmm mmm-ing like mad. Cutting the biscuits half way through, I can see that the dough is much more crumbly than its wheat-packed compadre. The smell is great. I’m cooking the sliced dough at a slightly lower temperature. Pics follow

Here's a reminder of the recipe

Cantuccini

RECIPE

Ingredients:

325g (12oz) plain gluten free flour

300g (11oz) caster sugar

1½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. salt

200g (12oz) whole unpeeled almonds

125g ground almonds

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Around 1 coffee cup/1/2 small glass alcohol amaretto or brandy

Method:

Set your oven to Gas Mark 4 (180°C/350°F).

Prepare two baking sheets with baking parchment.

Roughly crush about a third of the almonds or chop them a bit

Mix the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and almonds.

Whisk the eggs and vanilla together and stir them into the dry ingredients, working it into a stiff dough (I use a fork). Add the alcohol bit by bit, by the end if it’s not all sticking together add a few drops of water.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and divide into two.

Roll each half into a sausage and divide again into two, so you have four pieces. I do this because it fits on my baking tray, and makes slightly smaller biscotti.

Put the sausage shaped dough on the lined trays and flatten a little – they will spread a bit, so keep them well spaced.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the logs are well risen and have almost doubled in size.

Leave the oven on.

Cut into slices about 1cm thick. Some people say they should be smaller, but I can’t cut them that small. Don’t worry about leaving space between the slices.

Put the sliced dough back and cook for around 20 minutes more, until they are lightly toasted. Let them cool before storing (or eating).

Makes lots and lots.

 

plum cake with almond flour - wheat free

This is the wheat free version of plum cake, very moist. Next time I'll pack more plums on, if I can, the cake mixture was almost invisible when it went into the oven, and then up it bubbled in the cooking. The flour mixture is half almond flour, half gluten free bread flour (1.5 cups of each), with 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder.

Creme brulee

Creme brulee is an indulgence at the end of a meal. Or at the beginning of the day, if you have some left over and you are fridge raiding. It's a baked custard with a cristallised sugar lid, so you break through the crisp dark caramel into the soft and creamy custard, and when you put a spoonful in your mouth you get the ultra smooth vanilla flavour against the almost bitter shards of sugar.

It's not hard to make, just needs a little thinking ahead. And if you have a blow torch, involves the pleasure of playing with fire.

It's one of Kitty's favourites, taken from the BBC website, and already mentioned in a previous post. She does it, without vanilla pods and all that scraping, she just uses a natural vanilla essence. It uses a mixture of milk and cream, which makes it a little bit lighter.


You'll use a roasting tin, or similar, four large ramekins and a blow torch (or grill).


Ingredients

450ml/16fl oz double cream

50ml/2 fl oz whole milk

a few drops vanilla extract

5 free-range eggs

75g/2½ oz caster sugar, plus 40g/1½ oz more, for the topping

Method

• Set the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.
• Separate the egg yolks and egg whites. Only the yolks are used in this recipe, so you can use the egg whites for another dish or freeze them for future use.
• Pour the caster sugar into the bowl with the yolks. Whisk together the egg yolks and the caster sugar until they start to get paler, and are well combined, the mixture will thicken a little.
• Pour the cream and the milk into a saucepan, put on a medium heat and bring to just below a boil.
• Stir in the vanilla extract and simmer.
• Pour the cream and milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Stir thoroughly for a minute or two to mix everything together and make sure the sugar is completely dissolved.
• Ladle the brûlée mixture into ramekins, or any little heatproof pots.
• Put the crème brûlées into a deep baking tray and pour hot water into the tray. It should come about halfway up the pots. This is a bain marie.
• Put the baking tray and contents into the preheated oven and cook for about 30-35 minutes. They need to be firm, but will have a little wobble.
• Allow to cool, then chill. Chilling them will make the caramel work better. If you can’t wait just go to the next step.
• For the topping, sprinkle the rest of the sugar on top of the brûlées – if you do it in two stages you’ll get a stronger crust. Heat the surface with a mini-blowtorch until it forms a layer of caramel.

When you're ready - eat.

Lemon almond biscuit crisps

Lemon and almond biscuits

I like a thin crisp biscuit, and I love lemon. These biscuits hit the mark, crisp, buttery with a lemon tang and the almond makes them slightly chewy.

It’s important to get the temperature right, since overcooking will reduce the lemon flavour. The biscuits should remain very pale. So it’s worth checking them after ten minutes, and turning the heat down if they are browning round the edge – the most colour they should have is the lightest shade of tan around the edge.

I use wheat free flour, but the recipe works fine with plain flour, you may need slightly less liquid.

Recipe

Ingredients

160 g softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

zest from 3 lemons

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ cup ground almonds

1.5 cups plain flour

If you don’t have a cup, use an average sized mug.

Method

Line two baking trays with baking parchment, set oven to Gas Mark 3/325F/170C

·         Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

·         Add the egg and beat in well, followed by the lemon zest, juice and ground almonds, beating all the time.

·         Add the flour in batches, beating as you do, until blended.

·         You can either cover the bowl and chill, or put the dough onto some baking parchment and roll into a sausage shape. Leave the mixture in the fridge for about two hours, until it is nice and firm.

·         If you’ve made a sausage shape, cut thin slices with a very sharp knife, and put them onto the baking parchment lined tray. If you’ve left the mixture in a bowl, use two teaspoons and drop a small amount of the mixture onto the baking parchment, squashing each with a fork dipped in water. Leave enough space for the mixture to spread a little.

·         Bake at 180C for 10-15 minutes, or until golden around the edge. Transfer them to wire racks.

The biscuits will crisp up as they cool.

chocolate fridge cake

I made some of this over Christmas, in case we got peckish. Hahahahhahahahaha! It was delicious, if I say so myself. And I used salted butter, which I like. I'm not a purist about chocolate though. Oh and I used non wheat biscuits, made with almond flour, and I mixed up the nuts, so my version had almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts.

I made it chunky, which meant it was hard to cut, so remember a small and flat version will facilitate the eating. Not that you'll need any help.

I like it if the two chocolates aren't so mixed up. If you're feeling lazy, just use a few more biscuits and make the milk chocolate one with nuts already in it.

RECIPE

Ingredients

250g digestive biscuits

150g milk chocolate

150g dark chocolate

100g butter

big spoonful of golden syrup (or honey – makes it more sticky)

100g walnuts

50g hazelnuts

Method

o    line an 20cm/8" cake tin or 2 margarine containers with greaseproof paper

o    break up digestive biscuits - I like to smash them in a plastic bag, to contain the crumbs

o    roughly chop the nuts

o    put broken biscuits and chopped nuts into the lined tin

o    melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, with the butter and syrup

o    stir to combine, allow to cool a bit  and pour over the biscuit mixture

o    press in to make sure all the gaps are filled

o    leave to cool

Eat

Goes well with a stiff black coffee.

Remember not to pour hot mixture into a plastic container - you'll end up throwing it away, or eating plastic.

If you don't have greaseproof paper butter the tin or container liberally, refrigerate and when completely set it should pop out like an enormous chocolate ice cube, without the ice.

easy chocolate cake - wheat free

I've come up with another recipe for chocolate cake. It seems to satisfy chocolate lovers, and me. It's moist, but not too moist and it's got texture. It's a little bit chewy, not soft and melting, in case that's what you're looking for. If you can eat wheat you can substitute ordinary plain flour for the gluten free flour. 

you don't need chocolate for this, just cocoa powder

this cake doesn't need icing, and is great with ice cream and/or cream. It's also wonderful on it's own.

ingredients

50g cocoa powder

50g gluten free plain flower

100g ground almonds*

125g margarine or butter

150g castor sugar

4 eggs

2tsp baking powder

few drops of vanilla essence

*you can make the ground the almonds yourself, which I prefer, with their skins on, it gives a bit more texture

prepare a 9" cake tin, lining the base with baking parchment and buttering the sides

method

• sift the dry ingredients together, or break up any lumps by stirring them together thoroughtly using a whisk
  
• beat the margarine and sugar together until smooth, or light and fluffy, if you're over 50
  
• add eggs one by one, beating them in as you go
  
• add a few drops of vanilla essence
  
• stir in the dry ingredients until well mixed
  
• pour into prepared, lined tin
  

bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes at gas mark 7 then 10 minutes at gas mark 4 - the cake is ready when a skewer stuck into it comes out clean

photo to follow

CHOCOLATE CAKE

any fan of chocolate wants to know how to make a marvellous chocolate cake...

I'm not that big on chocolate, however, since I feel I need some treats cake looms large on my cookery horizon. Wheat free flour is expensive and you run out all the time, it's also mostly rice flour as far as I can make out, so I keep rice flour around and mix it with other ingredients, making my own flour combinations. 

Gluten has some magic property that means it holds sugar and fat very well. It's a winning combination that most of us like the feel of, in the mouth. So, when you're making food without gluten you need to load up with something moisturising in another way - with cake that means icing, or syrups, or in this case a glorious ganache.

That's ganache that rhymes with panache - please don't start throwing in an accent at the end. Not that I'm pernickety.

That is ganache, not Ganesh. Ganache is a chocolate cream filling, Ganesh is an elephant faced Hindu god, not suitable as a cake filling, although I think he looks like he's enjoyed a few cakes.

RECIPE

chocolate cake

50g cornmeal

50g rice flour

100g ground almonds

heaped teaspoon baking powder

5 eggs

150g castor sugar

150g margarine or butter

50g dark chocolate (best use a chocolate with over 50% cocoa solids)

line cake tin - this is enough to make a sponge type sandwich cake using two 9" tins, or two 8" tins, if you want it to come out fatter

weigh out dry ingredients (cornmeal/flour/almonds) and set aside, stirring in the baking powder

melt marg (or butter) over low heat, adding chocolate broken into pieces into it, stir until chocolate and fat are mixed together and set aside to cool

whisk eggs using an electric whisk for one minute, slowly add sugar, making a thick frothy cream, which usually takes another minute

stir in the chocolate/marg mixture - use a spatula or metal spoon, and don't stir so much that you reduce the volume of the eggy froth

follow the chocolate mixture witht ej dry ingredeients, stirring in in the smae way, keeping the volume as high as possible

pour into the cake tins and cook at gas mark 6 for 20 minutes

the cake is cooked whe you stick a skewer in in, and it comes out clean

cool slowly on a rack in the tin - the cake is slightly delicate, so don't hurry to take it out of the tin

take one cake out of it's tin and put on a serving plate

spread the chocolate ganache liberally over this cake, so that it doesn't quite reach the edges

carefully place the other cake on top, lining the two cakes up, gently setlling it down, until the ganache spreads to the edges of the cake. dust the top of the cake with icing sugar

eat

for the chocolate cream ganache

tips:

make once the cake has cooled

don't be in a hurry

double cream

100g dark chocolate

small cup of milk

vanilla essence (optional)

break the chocolate into pieces and melt over boiling water

heat the milk to just under boiling point

pour the hot milk into the melted chocolate, beating while you poor. the chocolate may get stiff and grainy, keep beating and stirring until you get a glossy mixture. you can add a few drops of vanilla at any point - beating them in too

set to one side to cool - don't let chocolate mixture get cold

whip the cream until it makes soft peaks. I prefer to do this with a mechanised hand whisk. If you use an electric whisk keep checking the consistency, so it doesn't get too dry. Once it's whipped fold in the cooled chocolate mixture. keep folding it in until the cream is all the same chocolate-y colour.

if your ganache seems a little runny, put it in the fridge for a while

when you have a ganache you can spread with a knife you know it's ready to use...

alternatives and subsitutions

for this chocolate cake you could use cocoa powder in place of some of the flour, it'll flavour and colour the cake well too. 

I'll get back to this later

wheat free apple lemon cake

As part of my new regime I am not eating wheat. It's annoying, but it seems to be helping my breathing, so I am giving it a go.

I've already cooked quite a bit without wheat, for family and friends, so at least it hasn't been a shock to the cooking system. I do buy gluten free flour, for convenience, but it's quite expensive, and I resent the price difference, so I've now bought a large bag of fine cornflour and a matching bag of rice flour. I already had a bag of grits, or polenta flour, not sure why, as I hate polenta. I love lemon cake, so I came up with this recipe.

I'm about to go on about my logic for putting this recipe together. I'm no Heston B and it may be seriously flawed, in scientific terms. You might do me a favour by not reading this bit, in case I expose my ignorance, also you may not find it useful or interesting. You'll make up your own mind, whatever I write. The demerara sugar is intended to open up what's likely to be a close-textured cake. Another way would be to separate the eggs and whip the whites up, this might result in a cake that doesn't keep well at all. The topping/puree is a way of giving moisture to would be a very dry cake otherwise.  

I think I've spent enough time exposing my internal debate. The point of the recipe is to make something tasty to eat. So now I'll just knuckle under.

apple lemon cake

topping:

1 cup/mugful apple puree

3 tbsp dark brown sugar

zest of one lemon

1 cox's apple

handful of coarse cornmeal

cake:

100g rice flour

100g fine cornmeal

200g demerara sugar

200g margarine or butter

juice of one lemon

3 eggs

1tsp baking powder

• line your cake tin with non-stick baking paper
  

• set oven to gas mark 5 /375 F / 190 C moderately hot
  

• 9"/20cm round cake tin or a 10"/23cm long loaf-type cake tin
  

• put the apple puree in a pan over a low heat, stir in three heaped spoonfuls of dark brown sugar, stir until the mixture bubbles, take off the heat and add the zest of one lemon. 
  
• set aside to cool
  

• while apple puree mixture is cooling 
  
• wash one cox's apple, remove core and cut into thin slices
  

• pour apple puree mixture into lined tin, spreading to cover base
  
• sprinkle some coarse polenta evenly
  
• spread sliced apple evenly over the apple puree mixture
  

• beat the fat and sugar together until blended
  
• add the eggs and beat together until blended
  
• add the flours and baking powder and beat until blended
  
• beat in the juice from one lemon
  

• pour the cake mixture into the lined tin
  
• spread mixture out to make it level

• put mixture into preheated oven, cook for 40minutes
  

• insert skewer/sharp knife into cake - if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked
  

• leave to cool on rack for 10 minutes
• turn out the cake onto a plate - for safety, put the plate over the cake and turn it holding the plate and tin in a kind of sandwich
• lift the tin off and gently lift the baking parchment off - have a knife or spatula handy and ease any topping sticking to the paper back onto the cake

• eat hot or cold 

If you cook much you'll do what we all do. You read a recipe and decide to give it a go. You know you haven't got all the ingredients, so you think you'll just substitute a few things. Feel free, not that you need my permission. I'll be doing the same, and it's my recipe! I've already thought of a few changes... ...

use more apple - it'll make it wetter, and slices will fall apart more: live dangerously

forget the apple - you could use jam, thin it a bit with water and still use the coarse cornmeal, I wouldn't forego the lemon zest

use lemon curd - with or without the apple, still use the cornmeal