Birthday baking & brioche at last!

 

When I started this blog, I noted that one of the things I would really like to be able to make is brioche. But yeast and I have a rocky relationship at the best of times – one that involves it ceasing to work whenever I am within a 1m radius of it. Needless to say, this has limited the extend of my experimentation to things which do not require yeast.

My OH, on the other hand, has a thriving mastery of bread (and yeast risen goodies), and as it was his birthday we invited a load of friends over for the evening, and made all the baked goods in the world. One of these were The Hairy Bikers’ Craquelin (or Belgian Brioche) – which involves a cointreau-soaked sugar cube in the middle of a brioche bun. And can I just say: OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM! Seriously, these little beauties are utterly delicious, and far easier to make than I imagined. 

Craquelin/Belgian Brioche (12)

• 125ml whole milk (we used semi-skimmed)
• 2tbs caster sugar, plus 1 tsp
• 7g dried yeast (fast acting)
• Sunflower oil, for greasing
• 500g plain flour
• 1 tsp sea salt
• finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 4 medium eggs, beaten
• 175g butter, softened
• 2 tbs cointreau (or orange juice for non-boozy version)
• 12 sugar cubes (they suggest white, but we used brown and it worked)
• 1 egg yolk, for glaze

1. Pour the milk into a small pan and stir in the teaspoon of sugar. Heat over a low temperature until the milk is just warm, remove from the heat and pour into a bowl.. Stir in the yeast and leave for 10 minutes until the surface is froathy.
2. Grease a 12-hole muffin tin with the oil.
3. Sift the flour into a bowl and stir in the salt, the remaining 2tsp of sugar, and the zest. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the yeast-milk. Pour the beaten eggs in, then stir thoroughly with a wooden spoon until a soft dough is formed. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 mins until smooth. Start to kneed in the butter a tablespoon at a time, kneading until totally incorporated. Should take ~10 mins.
4. Clean the surface and your hands, flour the surface and knead the dough for another 10 mins. Form the dough into a ball and place in a big, well-oiled bowl. Cover loosely with oiled cling-film. Leave in a warm place for 1.5hrs or until doubled in size.
5. Pour the liqueur into a saucer and dip the sugar cubes into it so they absorb the liquid. Place the dough back of the floured surface and punch it firmly to knock it back. Knead again for 1 min. Divide the dough into 12. Roll 1 piece into a ball, and then holding it in the palm of one hand flatten it with the other.Place one of the soaked sugar cubes in the middle, and press the edges together to completely seal it. Repeat for all 12.
6. Place the 12 balls into the greased muffin tin, seal-side down. Glaze the tops with the egg yoke. Cover with oiled cling-film and leave in a warm place for 45 mins to rise. Pre-heat the oven to 220c. Bake the buns in the middle of the oven for 10 mins, then reduce the temp to 180c and cook for 10 mins more. They should be golden and well-risen.
7. Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack for 10 mins. Serve warm or cold.

 

Foodie Penpals April 2013

This month’s package comes from the lovely Steph – thanks, it’s fab! Check out her blog – it’s awesome 🙂

Lovely dark chocolate

chocolate and spice tea

slim-line popcorn (my snack today)

a pot of porridge oats

freeze dried raspberries (had some in porridge this morning with some vanilla)

home-made vanilla essence (very subtle)

a miniture of Cointreau

Rose water

baking powder.

I have designs on the porridge oats, chocolate and Cointreau for over-indulgent porridge at the weekend…

Notable absence – sorry!

Hey all!

I have been pretty absent recently. Sorry about this – I’ve been working on my new blog. I’ve set myself the challenge of loosing 12lb in advance of our holiday in September. I’d like to be able to not spend the whole time looking like a sweaty whale! 

My plan is to do a bit more baking, now that the diet is mostly on-track – maybe work on a few ‘healthy’ recipes. I got a jar of hazelnut butter on the cheap today, and I’m quite keen to try it out in some brownies or similar 🙂 Suggestions very welcome!

Interestingthymes blogiversary – 1 year old today!

Interestingthymes and theyuppiebaker are 1 year old today – huzzah! Coming on up on 4,000 blog views, too 🙂 Thank you to all my followers and casual viewers for your interest and kind comments, it has really meant a lot to me.

The past year has had its ups and downs, but one year on I have had a lovely Easter break with my lovely partner, doing practical stuff, spending time with friends, and recharging. Perfect.

I hope you have all had a restful Easter weekend, and here’s to lots more baking in year 2!

Theyuppiebaker x

Foodie Penpals March 2013

 

My foodie Penpal package from the lovely Louise – thank you! All the tea is now gone (and lovely it was too – much more subtle than Twinings’ version), and the chocolate eggs have also been opened – perhaps unsurprisingly…

Simnel Cake and Spring are here!

 

Spring is here! At last! There has been sun, and bird song, and walking, repotting of plants!

Not only that, there has been Simnel Cake making! We’re having a quiet long weekend, with a couple of friends popping over for lunch on Easter Sunday. So I thought I’d take the chance to make a traditional Easter cake – the Simnel Cake.

Simnel cakes have been known since at least the medieval times. They would be eaten on the middle Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday (also known as Refreshment Sunday, Mothering Sunday, Sunday of the Five Loaves, and Simnel Sunday), when the forty day fast would be relaxed. More recently, they became a Mothering Sunday tradition, when young girls in service would make one to be taken home to their mothers on their day off. The word simnel probably derived from the Latin word simila, meaning fine, wheaten flour. (taken from Wikipedia).

Simnel Cake

Ingredients

• 100g/4oz red or natural glacé cherries

• 225g/8oz softened butter

• 225g/8oz light muscovado sugar

• 4 large free-range eggs

• 225g/8oz self-raising flour

• 225g/8oz sultanas

• 100g/4oz currants

• 50g/2oz chopped candied peel

• 2 lemons, zest only

• 2 level tsp ground mixed spice

For the filling and topping

• 450g/1lb golden marzipan

• 2 tbsp apricot jam

• 1 large free-range egg, beaten, to glaze

To decorate

• 1 free-range egg white

• organic primroses (or alternatively other edible spring flowers)

• handful caster sugar

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2. Grease a 20cm/8in deep round cake tin and then line the base and sides with baking parchment.

2. Cut the cherries into quarters, put in a sieve and rinse under running water. Drain well and then dry thoroughly on kitchen paper.

3. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, to prevent them from curdling. Sift in the flour and mix it in a little at a time. Stir the fruit, peel, zest and mixed spice thoroughly into the mixture. Place half the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface.

4. Take one-third of the marzipan and roll it out to a circle the size of the tin and then place the circle on top of the cake mixture. Spoon the remaining cake mixture on top and level the surface.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for about 2½ hours until well-risen, evenly brown and firm to the touch. Cover with foil after one hour if the top is browning too quickly. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack.

6. When the cake is cool, warm the apricot jam in a small saucepan. Brush the top of the cake with a little of the jam and roll out half of the remaining marzipan to fit the top of the cake. Press firmly on the top and crimp the edges to decorate. Mark a criss-cross pattern on the marzipan with a sharp knife. Form the remaining marzipan into 11 balls.

7. Brush the marzipan with beaten egg and arrange the marzipan balls around the edge of the cake. Brush the tops of the balls with beaten egg, too, and then place the cake under a hot grill to turn the marzipan golden-brown.

Caramelised Pear and Cardamom Cupcakes with Dulce de Lech Mascarpone Icing

Hello all! Very sorry for the radio silence of late – I recently started a new (and much better!) job, which has kinda drawn all my focus, of late. Will do better in the coming months 🙂

So, recently I’ve been all about the innovation. I entered the Hummingbird Bakery Cupcake Challenge*, which had about 1000 entries in all – impressive stuff! There were lots of gorgeous looking and sounding cupcakes for the judges to choose from (they haven’t posted the winners names yet, and given that it’s now a month since the comp closed I’m thinking I wasn’t a finalist).

What bugged me, however, were the number of people posting recipes which weren’t innovative in any way, given that that was the focus of the competition – lemon drizzle, key lime pie, chocolate etc etc They’ve either been popular flavours for a long time, or are a recent ‘internet sensation’ – bacon and maple-syrup cupcakes? Who HASN’T seen them? So in a comp which is specifically looking for something new, why post something which has been done to death already (this is especially true of those posting cupcakes with popcorn and salted caramel as if it were something totally out-there)? Or even do something old in a new way, or with a twist – Blackberry, chocolate and port cupcakes – why the heck not?! I don’t mind the ‘internet sensation’ bakery ideas, in fact I totally love quite a few of them, but I hate that there were people submitting them as if they came up with the original idea.

I acknowledge that it can be hard to come up with something new and original – and even professional bakers and chefs have to draw their inspiration from somewhere. I hold my hands up to the fact that my entry drew inspiration from all over the the place, and it’s by no means perfect, but it’s mine* (as far as a thorough trawl of the internet can tell). 

Caramelised Pear and Cardamom Cupcakes with Dulce de Lech Mascarpone Icing

• First, make the caramelised pears:

Caramelised Pear Ingredients:

2 ripe pears, peeled, cored and quartered

50g unsalted butter

30g caster sugar

Seeds of 10 cardamom pods

Directions:

1 In a heavy bottomed frying pan melt together the butter and sugar on a low temperature until completely liquid and smooth, then turn the temperature up to medium.

2 Add the cardamom seeds and wait until the butter mixture starts to caramelise.

3 Turn the temperature down slightly, and add the pears to the pan, round side down.

4 Cook the pears for about 25 minutes, occasionally basting the pears in the syrup mixture, until the pears are tender and have taken up the colour from the syrup.

5 Remove the pears from the pan, and set aside the syrup mixture for later.

6. Dice the pears into small chunks and leave to cool while preparing the cupcake batter.

• Second, make the cupcakes.

Cupcake Ingredients:

75 g ground almonds
50 g S/R white flour
1 pinch salt
5 ml baking powder
125 g unsalted butter
125 g caster sugar
1 egg
5 ml vanilla extract
125 ml milk

Diced caramelised pear pieces

Directions:
1 Cream together the butter and sugar until white and fluffy.
2 Add egg and beat well.
3 Sift together flour, almonds, baking powder and salt.
4 Mix milk with vanilla extract.
5 Mix in the flour and milk alternatively into the egg, starting and ending with the flour.
6 Put 12 paper cases in a 12-part cupcake tray, and fill with the batter.
7 Bake at 180°C until golden and the cakes are springy – about 30 minutes.
8 Transfer to a wire wrack to cool completely.

• While the cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting.

Frosting Ingredients: 
60g soft unsalted butter

150g mascarpone cheese

80g icing sugar

a tablespoon of lemon juice

4 tablespoons dulce de lech

the retained cardamom syrup

Directions:

1 Cream the butter until light and fluffy, add the mascarpone and mix to cream.

2 Sift the icing sugar over the creamed mascarpone mix and gently fold it in. Mix in a bit of lemon juice, to lighten the flavour slightly.

3 Chill the mascarpone mixture for 30 minutes.

4 Mix together the dulce de lech with a few tablespoons of the cardamom syrup (avoiding the seeds)

5 Take the mascarpone mixture from the fridge and mix through a few tablespoons of the dulce de lech mixture until it reaches a nice marbled effect.

• When the cupcakes are completely cool, then cover with the mascarpone frosting using an icing bag, and drizzle with more of the dulce de lech if desired. 

 

(*Here’s the boring legal bit: as I entered this recipe into a competition it is now the intellectual property of The Hummingbird Bakery – but I don’t think they’d be d*ckish enough to have a go at me for posting it on my blog, given that I can be 99% certain I didn’t win the comp, and I posted it way after the closing date. Any issues, I’m sure they’ll let me know…)

Foodie Penpal Package – February 2013

Foodie Penpals return!: January 2013

 

A new year, a new foodie penpal package!

January’s package is from the lovely Alena 🙂 This package has an eastern European twist:

• Polish fudge and boiled sweets
• Eastern European bbq powder
• Chai tea
• Smoked garlic
• Vanilla essence
• Bombay mix
• tinned lobster (!)

The fudge is rapidly disappearing and I have designs on the spice mix for this weekend 🙂 Thanks Alena!

If you’re interested in joining our little roaming band of food pioneers then I suggest you rock on over to http://thisisrocksalt.com/foodie-penpals and speak to the lovely Carol Ann Grady, our beloved Euro Foodie Penpals leader. If you are in the USA, then take a gander at www.theleangreenbean.com/foodie-penpals – where it all started 

And this is going to keep me awake at night for the next couple of weeks…

Cupcake competition: http://cupcakechallenge.stylist-apps.com/ (closing date; 13.02.13)

The Hummingbird Bakery will make your cupcake and sell it for 2 months! Awesome!

Mind is currently wandering from rosemary, to blackberry, and to cardamom, maybe by way of pear…