Cake'n'Bake Wednesday: Mini Pumpkin Pies

I LOVE pumpkin pie! So when "Trick or Treat" was selected as the theme for our October 2012 meeting, I simply HAD to make pumpkin pie. I decided to make individually sized portions of pie for club as they are just that little bit easier to share.

I followed one of the other members' recipes for pastry, and so glad I did as it was my most successful attempt at making pastry to date! Long-term readers of the blog will know that pastry is my weakness...

Ingredients

For the pastry cases:
200g slightly salted butter, chilled and cubed.
400g plain flour
80g icing sugar
2 medium eggs, beaten

Note: you could always use store bought pastry, if you wanted to. Mary Berry said it was OK. If using store bought pastry, skip to step 3.

For the pumpkin filling:
1 large egg, plus 1 yolk
125ml double cream
200g condensed milk
220g pureed pumpkin
1tsp ground cinnamon

Makes 16 - 18 tarts, depending on the size of you pan (I made mine in a muffin pan)

1. Start by NOT preheating the oven. You want the kitchen to be as cold as possible whilst you're making the pastry. Tip the cold, cubed butter and the flour into a large mixing bowl, and rub in between your fingers until it resembles fine bread crumbs. 
2. Mix in the icing sugar by hand, then cut in the beaten egg with a knife until the mixture starts to come together to form a dough. Press the mixture together into a ball, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.
3. Whilst the pastry is in the fridge, prepare your pie filling. Start by whisking the egg and egg yolk together until light and frothy. Add the cream, condensed milk, pureed pumpkin and cinnamon and continue to whisk for 3-4 minutes, until the ingredients combined to form a custard-like consistency.
4. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4, and grease a deep muffin pan.
5. Turn the pastry out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it lightly, before rolling out as thinly as possible. Cut circles out of the pastry and place this into the muffin pan, using the end of a rolling pin to help you push the pastry into the muffin holes. Prick the pastry cases all over with a fork, then blind bake for 15 minutes.
6. Take the pastry cases from the oven, and carefully remove the foil and baking beans used for the blind bake. Fill each pastry case with 2tbsp of the pie filling, then return to the oven for another 30 minutes, until the pie filling is completely set (you can test with a cocktail stick, if you'd like to.) You'll noticed that the pie filling has risen into a dome shape - this will deflate as the pie cools. Don't worry, this happens to mine all of the time and as far as I can tell it's normal. At the very least - they still taste good!
7. Allow the pies to cool in the muffin pan, then keep refrigerated.

Happy Thoughts
x

Cake'n'Bake Wednesday: Singapore Spiral Mooncakes

In May 2012 the Cake'n'Bake theme of the month was "Around the World in 80 Bakes". Each member entered an electronic draw to get a random country, and had to bake something from that country. It was a really great month, and a theme we hope to repeat in the future (there are a lot of countries we haven't baked yet!)

The country I pulled from the electronic hat was Singapore, and for a little while I was at a loss as it seems that rather than having it's own cuisine, Singaporean food is based on a mixture of Chinese, Malai and Indian cuisine. However, I was very lucky to stumble upon a fellow baking blogger who just so happened to be from Singapore, and this is where I was first introduced to the mooncake.

I looked at as many recipes I could find for many different kinds of mooncakes, but in the end I settled on an adaptation of a recipe found on the original blog I came across: Happy Home Baking.

Thankfully there are a number of East-Asian supermarkets in my area, so I found it quite easy to get hold of some red bean paste to use for my filling, however, I was advised by a friend that this was an "acquired taste", and I really disliked it - so just go in with an open mind!

Prep time: 45 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Makes 20 mooncakes

For the filling:
400g red bean paste

For the "water" dough:
140g plain flour
10g icing sugar
50g vegetable shortening
70ml water

For the "oil" dough:
150g plain flour
80g vegetable shortening
Red, yellow and green food colouring

Flour, for dusting.

1. Start by preparing the filling: measure the red bean paste into 20g portions and roll these into balls in your hands. Place on a lined baking sheet in the fridge until ready to use.
2. Next prepare the water dough. Sieve the flour and icing sugar into a mixing bowl then rub in the shortening until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in enough of the water to form a soft, pliable dough and then cover this with clingfilm and put in the fridge to set slightly, whilst you prepare the oil dough.
3. For the oil dough, sieve the flour into a bowl and then mix the shortening into it by hand, until you get a soft dough (which I found to be similar in texture to a soft playdough!). Divide this dough into 3 equal pieces, and colour these red, yellow and green (respectively). Note: you could use any combination of colours you like here. Roll each dough out into a roughly equal sized rectangle and place to one side.
4. Take the water dough from the fridge and knead on a lightly floured surface until it too resembles playdough in texture and pliability.  This is where the instructions get a bit confusing, so bear with me! I've posted a step-by-step photo collage below should you need it! Roll this out into a large rectangle and then place the three coloured doughs in the centre of this, overlapping each colour slightly. Fold the edges of the water dough (the white dough) over the coloured dough, then cover with cling film and place in the fridge to rest for 20 minutes.
5. After 20 minutes, place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out until completely flat. Starting at one of the shorter ends, roll the dough into a tight "Swiss roll" style log, and trim the ends. (I hope you're still following!) Cut the dough into 20 slices.
6. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and line a flat baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
7. For each mooncake, take a slice of the spiral dough (which looks super pretty at this stage, might I add!)  and flatten it into a circular disk with your fingers. Place one of the red bean paste balls into the centre of the disk and wrap the dough around it, gently pinching the ends to seal. Place the mooncakes seam side down onto a lined baking sheet and repeat the process until all 20 mooncakes have been made.
8. Bake the mooncakes for 10 minutes, then removed from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes before returning to the oven to bake for a final 10 minutes. The mooncakes will be fairly squidgy when they leave the oven, so allow them to cool on the baking tray for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Happy Thoughts
x

Chicken, Bacon and Leek Pie

Just after I moved house and finished unpacking I had a real hankering for pie, so whipped up this tasty treat. I don't usually post savoury recipes to the blog, but this IS a bake so I thought it would be good to share.

This pie is fairly quick and very simple, and have I mentioned yet that it's really tasty? It's really tasty. The photos really don't do this justice! I cheated and used ready-to-roll pastry, but you guys already know that pastry is my baking weakness, right!? One day I will have a go at making my own puff pastry, and you'll be the first to know when I do, but for now, ready-to-roll works perfectly.

Ingredients: 
1 large chicken breast
2 rashers of bacon
half a leek
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tsps cornflour
150ml chicken stock
Pinch of black pepper
1/2 packet of ready to roll puff pastry

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Serves: 2

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5 (approx 190 degrees) and take your pastry out of the fridge.
2. Chop the chicken and bacon into chunks, and finely slice the leek.
3. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and stir fry the chicken until slightly golden, add the bacon and leek to the frying pan, stirring until the bacon is cooked and the leek has softened. Add the cornflour to the pan and stir well to coat all of the pieces. Slowly stir in the chicken stock, then allow the mixture to simmer for 5 minute until it reduces and thickens. Season with the pepper then pour this into a pie dish.
4. Roll out the pastry to around 6mm thick, then lay this over the top of the pie filling, tucking in the edges to seal. Cut two slits in the top to allow the steam to escape, then brush with a little milk.
5. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown and crispy on top. All the pie to cool for a few minutes before serving (I had mine with mash, roast carrots and parsnips, and minted green beans. It was gooood!)

Happy Thoughts
x

Cake'n'Bake Wednesday: Lamb and Apple Pie

April 2012 was Easter themed for Cake'n'Bake Club, and I wanted to have a bash at something savoury.  I've always been a bit rubbish at pastry, so thought I'd take the opportunity to get in some practise with a yummy pie. The recipe is based on The Hairy Bikers' Gloucester Squab Pie

Ingredients:

For the filling:

450g diced lamb
2tbsp plain flour
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion
650ml hot lamb stock
1/2 tsp mixed spice
salt and pepper to taste
2 sprigs of fresh mint
2 bramley apples

For the pastry:

300g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)
pinch of salt
75g vegetable shortening, cut into cubes
75g butter, cut into cubes
1 medium sized egg
1 tbsp cold water

Prep Time: 45-60 minutes
Cook time: 120-150 minutes
Makes 8-10 slices

1. The filling is cooked for at least an hour and a half before the pastry lid is added, so best to start with that. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5. 
2. Coat the diced lamb with the plain flour. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and stir fry the lamb until just golden, then place the lamb to one side in a casserole dish.
3. Peel and chop the onion, then return the pan to the heat and fry the onions until they start to turn translucent. Add the onions, lamb stock, mixed spice, salt and pepper to the lamb in the casserole dish, then roughly tear the mint leaves and add these. Stir well, cover, then place in the oven for 1.5-2 hours, stirring occasionally,  until the meat has cooked and the sauce has thickened. (Don't add the apples at this stage - we will come back to them!)
4. Whilst the casserole is cooking, prepare your pastry. Tip the flour and salt into a large bowl, then rub in the shortening and butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre.
5. Lightly whisk the egg and water, then pour most of this into the well made in the flour and fat mixture - you'll want to reserve a little bit of this to use as a glaze. Stir the mixture until it comes together to form a dough, then knead the dough for a few minutes on a lightly floured surface. Shape the dough into a round, wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge until ready to use (make sure this is at least 30 minutes so the pastry is nicely chilled!)
6. Once the casserole is cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool whilst you peel, core and slice the apples. Carefully pour half of the casserole into a large pie dish, then layer the slice apples on top of this. Pour the remaining casserole on top of the apple layer and set to one side whilst you roll out you pastry. Increase the heat of the oven to gas mark 6.
7. Unwrap the pastry and roll out to around 3 inches large than the dish you are using. Cut a 1 inch circle from the edge of this, and place the around the rim of your pie dish to use as a support. Cover this in egg wash, then place the pastry over the whole dish. Trim and flute the edges, then glaze the top of the pie with the remaining egg mixture. Cut a small cross in the middle of the pastry to allow the steam to escape, then bake in the centre of the oven for 25 - 30 minutes until golden brown all over.

Happy Thoughts
x

Sage and Onion Sausage Rolls

I actually feel a little guilty about posting this recipe, as it's a complete cheat. These sausage rolls are so quick and simple, but no one would ever know that because of the way the taste!

Ingredients:
1 medium onion
8-10 sage leaves
A pinch of black pepper
350g pack of good quality sausage meat
1 pack of ready rolled puff pastry
A little beaten egg, to glaze

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 25-30 minutes
Makes two large sausage rolls

1. Remove the pastry from the fridge, line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and pre-heat your oven to gas mark 5.
2. Quarter the onion and pop this into the blender with the sage leaves and pepper, then blend until very finely chopped.
3. Tip your sausage meat out into a bowl, the tip on the sage and onion. Mix these together by hand until the sage and onion is evenly distributed.
4. Unwrap the pastry sheet, and cut this in half. Place half of the sausage meat down the centre of each pastry sheet, and wrap or plait the two edges of the pastry around the sausage meat to seal it in - make sure there are no gaps, you don't want all the lovely juices escaping! 
5. Brush the sausage rolls with the beaten egg, then pop them in the oven for 25 -30minutes, until golden brown all over.
6. Once cooked, allow the sausage rolls to cool slightly before cutting into slices. Serve hot or cold - they are good either way!

Happy Thoughts
x

A Star is Born

Disney Classic # 35 - Hercules

I decided fairly early on that I wanted to make baklava for Hercules, mostly because I love the stuff and can't get enough of it!! However, a few days before we were due to watch Hercules, disaster struck. Regular readers of this blogs will know that I've been quite ill over the last year, and true to form when I was due to be baking baklava for Hercules, I ended up really quite sick. But, this time round I didn't have to cancel Disney Night or postpone the blog, because Angel came to the rescue and offered to bake and blog for me this time round!! Yay!

Although I wasn't well enough to eat the baklava, it got good reviews from everyone else and looked amazing! (I will definitely be trying this recipe out for myself!) So now I'm going to hand over to Angel, who used his Mum's baklava cake recipe:

Ingredients:


4 eggs
3/4 mug of self-rising flour
125g of butter(melted)
1 1/4 mugs of sugar
500g filo pastry (2 packets)
1 tea spoon of cinnamon
1 tea spoon of Vanilla extract or if you have it, powdered vanilla
2 mugs of chopped walnuts

For the syrup:

750g sugar
750ml water
1 table spoon lemon juice

Preparation:

First, preheat your oven to 160degrees C.

To start you need to put the eggs, flour, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and walnuts in a bowl and mix them. Next, you need to melt the butter and get your baking tray out, after it's been melted, use a glazing brush (or whatever it's called) and cover the bottom and the sides of the tray. Then you take half of your filo pastry sheets and one by one you layer them on the bottom of the baking tray. Each time you place one sheet, you have to glaze it with the butter, until you have half of the filo pastry as the base. Next you add the filling over the base sheets. Finally you repeat what you did with the first half of the filo sheets and layer them on top of each other, one by one, making sure you "glaze" with butter before you add the next, do the same for the last sheet and then put the whole thing in the oven and bake for about 30-45mins or until the filo pastry on the top turns golden.
Syrup:

To make the syrup add the water, sugar and lemon juice together and simmer until it becomes a syrup-like consistency. You need to then use half of the syrup when the baklava leaves the oven. Let it stand for 2 hours and then pour the rest on to it. For best results wait until the baklava has cooled and then refrigerate. It will be at it's tastiest after a couple of days in the fridge.

Next time I'm back on board and will be making fortune cookies for Mulan!
Happy Thoughts
x

What Makes a Monster and What Makes a Man

Disney Classic # 34 - The Hunchback of Notre Dame

You're probably all thinking "what the fudge is an Elephant's Foot and why would I want to eat it?" Also, "are there even any elephants in Hunchback??" Well, no. But there's this chain of bakeries in Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire called Birds, and they sell these cakes/pastries called Elephant's Feet. The pastries are some sort of choux buns, filled with fresh cream and topped with chocolate sauce, a bit like a giant profiterole, but much firmer, and the shape of them is bulky and blobby, (hence the name Elephant's Foot)

How does this relate to Hunchback? Well, I figured the moral of the story is not to be deceived by appearances, and that it's what on the inside that counts. I figured Elephants Feet fit here as they don't look amazing, but they are really tasty. Plus choux pastry is French... so it works for me!

Nom!

I couldn't find a recipe for "Elephant's Foot cake" so I took a logical guess and searched for a choux pastry recipe. Well, the cakes ended up not quite being Elephant's Feet- the pastry was far too soft, but they were still really really tasty. It's like I invented a new cake... and I name them Quasi's. Anyways, my Quasi's were based on recipes found here and here.

A real-life Elephant's Foot from Birds

Prep time: 15mins      Cook time: 25-30 mins     Serves: 6

Ingredients:

75ml water
75ml milk
50g unsalted butter
65g strong white (or bread) flour
2 medium eggs
350ml double cream
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g milk chocolate
100g icing sugar
1tsp coca powder

1. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to gas mark 6.
2. Place the milk, water and butter into a large saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted. Bring to the boil until the mixture is bubbling vigorously, then remove from heat.
3. Tip all of the flour into the pan and quickly beat into the mixture, until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Leave to cool slightly.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Beat the eggs into the pastry mixture a little at a time until the pastry is smooth and glossy.
5. Put the pastry mixture into a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle. Pipe circles onto the prepared baking tray, leaving space between each for the mixture to spread/rise. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 mins, until golden brown and crisp on the outside.
6. Remove from the oven and cut a slit in the side of each bun. Leave to cool on a wire wrack.
7. Once the pastries have cooled, prepare the cream filling. Whip 300ml of the double cream with 1tbsp of caster sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Once the cream is firm, place it into a piping bag. Place the nozzle of the piping bag into the slit you made in the choux bun and pipe cream into the middle.
8. Heat the remaining 50ml of cream in the microwave for 30 seconds, then break the chocolate into it. Stir until all of the chocolate has melted, then add the icing sugar and cocoa powder and beat until smooth. Spread around a tablespoon of the chocolate sauce onto each bun, then place in the fridge to set for 5 minutes.
9. Serve straight from the fridge and enjoy ^_^

Next time it's Hercules, another favourite of mine (and one of the greatest to sing along to, too!) I'm going to cook up some lovely baklava!
Happy Thoughts
x

Pocahontas, That Tree's Talking to Me

Disney Classic # 33 - Pocahontas

Not particularly attractive, but very tasty!

For Pocahontas I'd decided I wanted to attempt a Native American recipe, possibly something corn-based (corn is the "gold" that Pocahontas' tribe has and Governor Radcliffe wants...) so I ran a google search for "Native American desserts" to see what came up. For a while I was really keen on making these sweet hominy chimichangas, however I could not find hominy for sale in the UK for love nor money. And I found the same with other recipes I came across, each seemed to have one key ingredient that I couldn't get my hands on unless I imported it from the US (at a seemingly high cost!)

So, I had to go with the back up plan of pumpkin pie. Not that I'm complaining, I love pumpkin. (And don't underestimate how difficult it is to find pumpkin in the UK outside of October!!) Pumpkin pie was suggested way back in November - when Mike was feeling nostalgic for his time in America and craving pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving he suggested that we have a pumpkin pie for Pocahontas, creating a link through the story of Thanksgiving Day. (From what I understand it, the American Indians and the Pilgrims decided to be best friends and all sat down together to have a big feast of turkey and pumpkin pie and it DOES relate to Pocahontas somehow, honest!)

So pumpkin pie it is!

I got this recipe from BBC Good Foods 101 Tempting Desserts, and followed it pretty much to the letter.

Prep/cook time: A long time!! Approx 3.5-4 hours (although a lot of this time is baking/cooling time so you can do other things too!)


Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

1 small green pumpkin (or a 425g tinned pumpkin, or 425g pureed pumpkin)
500g pack ready made shortcrust pastry
2 large eggs
2 egg yolks
250ml double cream
397g can condensed milk
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground mixed spice

For the topping:
50g butter
25g chopped pecan pieces
25g chopped walnut pieces
85g light brown sugar

To serve:
200ml double cream
1tbsp icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6.
2. Remove the stalk and stem of the pumpkin and chop it in half. Remove the seeds from the middle and then chop into roughly 1 inch slices, leaving the skin on. Place these into a roasting tin and bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
3. Once cool enough to handle, peel the skin from the pumpkin flesh and place the flesh into a blender. Blend to a smooth paste and leave to cool completely.
4. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6, and grease a pie/flan dish.
5. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and use this to line the pie dish. Trim the edges and press a pattern into the top edge. Place in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
6. Prick the pastry base all over with a fork, then cover with greaseproof paper. place some baking beans or uncooked rice on top of the greaseproof paper to weigh it down. Bake for 12 minutes then remove from oven.
7. Reduce the heat of the oven to gas mark 4.
8. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and egg yolks until frothy. Add the cream, the condensed milk, 425g tinned/pureed pumpkin, cinnamon and mixed spice and whisk thoroughly. Pour the mixture into the pastry case and bake for 50 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 2 hours.
10. Melt the butter over a low heat, then stir in the chopped nuts and sugar. Spoon this mixture over the pie. Cover the edges of the pastry with foil, then place the pie under the grill for 2-3 minutes, until the topping is bubbling.
11. Remove from the grill and allow to cool a little before placing the pie in the fridge to chill. Refrigerate until serving.
12. To serve, whip the cream in a large bowl with the icing sugar and vanilla extract. Spoon or pipe onto the pie and enjoy ^_^

Next time it's the Hunchback of Notredame (which I love and think is completely under-rated!!) and I'll be serving up some choux pastries.

Happy Thoughts
x




Still I Think He's Rather Tasty

Disney Classic # 31 - Aladdin

Coming up with a dessert for Aladdin was an absolute nightmare!! I couldn't think of any images or themes from the movie to base the cake on, so I was relying on my favourite fallback idea of where the story takes place. But where does Aladdin take place? We all know Aladdin from the series of "Arabian Nights" stories, right? However - the story of Aladdin wasn't actually included in the original Arabian Nights, it was added in by the Frenchman who was translating the stories from Arabic into French. So where did Aladdin originate? Well, the internet tells me that the original story quite specifically takes place in China, and Aladdin is Chinese. However, Aladdin's China is mostly desert-land, the characters seem to practice Middle-Eastern culture rather than Chinese, and they follow the Muslim faith.

So, I found myself looking for an Arabic, French, Chinese, Middle-Eastern dessert recipe - that shouldn't be too difficult, right!?

Anyways, by sheer dumb luck I did manage to find a dessert. My friend Sarah very kindly bought my other half Alex a Turkish recipe book for Christmas and as I was sat flicking through it I came across a recipe called "Sultan's Turban" - HAHA! I've got it! Jasmine's daddy is the Sultan, and he wears a turban, as does Aladdin/Prince Ali when he's about to marry Jasmine (and thus become Sultan), so Sultan's Turbans fit wonderfully. (For those of you wondering - they are a nutty, cinnamon-y type of pastry dish)

Beats stale bread any day!

I found this recipe in the Love Food everyday Turkish recipe book, although I did mess with the quantities a bit! A couple of things to note about this recipe: The recipe in the book is in 5 steps, but I found it a bit confusing and had to re-read it a few times and carefully analyse the photo before I felt confident to give it a go. I decided in my version below to split the pastry-handling part into multiple very small steps, in hope that makes the process easier to understand! Secondly, the pastries in the book use a full pastry sheet per turban, I only used half (I didn't realise there were only 6 sheets in a packet until it was too late! haha!) so mine are a lot smaller than they are supposed to me. However, my friends and I decided that this was fine, as if they were twice the size they would have been much too big!

Prep time: 30 mins           Cook time: 45 mins       Serves: 10

Ingredients:

150g granulated sugar
125ml water
1tbsp lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
125g chopped walnuts
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 sheets filo pastry
175g unsalted butter

1. Start by making the syrup: heat the sugar and the water in a saucepan over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice, cinnamon stick and cloves and boil without stirring for around 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and strain, discarding the cinnamon stick and the cloves. Place to one side for later.
2. Whilst the syrup is boiling, prepare the filling. Place the walnuts, caster sugar and ground cinnamon into a blender a give them a quick blitz, until the walnuts are very finely chopped (but not pureed!!)  Place to one side.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a gentle heat, removing from heat as soon as it has all melted. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
4. Slice the filo pastry sheets in half, so that you have almost square pieces.
5. Place one sheet of filo pastry on the work surface, with the long edge (if there is one) towards you. Brush the filo sheet lightly with the melted butter.
6. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of filling across the lower third of the pastry, making sure to leave a 3 cm margin at the bottom of the pastry, and 1 cm on either side.
7. Fold the bottom edge of the pastry (the 3cm margin you left previously) over the filling, and place a piece of doweling or a skewer where the folded edge meets the rest of the pastry.
8. Roll the pastry over the dowelling and seal the end with a little melted butter. (It took me a while to get me head around this step... you basically lift the part of the pastry containing the filling up and over the dowel, and then lift the part containing the dowel up and over the filling, until you use up all of the pastry sheet.)
9. Crumple the pastry towards the centre of the dowel until it is almost half it's original length.
10. Slide the dowel out of the pastry, then and seal the ends.
11. Roll the now sausage like pastry into a flat coil, sealing the ends with a little butter, and place onto the greased baking sheet.
12. Repeat the process with the remaining pastry.
13. Bake the pastries (you may need to do this in batches) for 25-30 minutes, until crisp and golden.
14. Pour the syrup over the pastries, and allow them to cool before serving.

Next time we're watching the Lion King, and I'll be handing over the ropes to my friend Mike! (Although I will still be making a small contribution...) We're working on the idea of "slimy, yet satisfying". ^_^

Happy Thoughts
x

Try the Grey Stuff, it's Delicious!

Disney Classic # 30 - Beauty and the Beast

Please excuse the smudge on the side of the mousse bowl! I didn't notice it at the time!!

Beauty and the Beast is my absolute all time favourite Disney movie ever. I love it! And I'm not just saying that, like the Disney Historians do on the bonus features... I mean it is my absolute all time favourite ever! I dressed as Belle at my 21st birthday party, and when I met Belle and Prince Adam at Disneyland Paris in 2009 I gushed:

Me - "OhmygoshI'msogladIgottomeetyouyou'remyfavouriteandtoday'smylastdayandIdidn'tthinkI'dgettoseeyoubutIdidandnowmyholidayandmylifearecompletebecauseyou'rethebestandIloveyousososomuch!!"
Belle - *smiles awkwardly* "You're wearing yellow, like me!"

It was the best day ever.


True story - I was wearing yellow!


Anyways, to honour my absolute all time favourite Disney movie ever, I'm decided to try to recreate my absolute all time favourite pudding ever. Which I just so happened to eat in Disneyland Paris. Which is in France, just like Beauty and the Beast. (Just in case you needed further justification!)

The dessert was the most delicious, beautiful, lovely tasting pudding in my whole life - a chocolate tart with white chocolate mousse, and that's what I tried to recreate this week!

The white chocolate mousse turned out especially tasty.

Now regular readers of this blog will know that I absolutely love my BBC Good Foods 101 Cakes and Bakes recipe book. I love it so much in fact, that I decided to buy it's younger sister, 101 Tempting Desserts, and that's where I found the recipe for the chocolate tart. I borrowed the white chocolate mousse from this recipe (which sounds delicious in it's own right!!)


Tarte au Chocolat

Prep time: 45 mins               Cook time: 25 mins (plus 2 hours to set)      Serves: 12-16

Ingredients:

For the pastry:
200g plain flour
100g ground almond
170g butter, cubed
50g golden caster sugar
2 egg yolks

For the filling:
200g dark chocolate
2 egg whites
100g golden caster sugar
145ml double cream

Note: the recipe in the book said to make the pastry in a blender. I thought, ummm, that sounds weird, but tried it anyways as I trust Good Food wholeheartedly. I was very wrong, and ended up with a complete pastry fail! It was far too crumbly to roll so I ended up pressing it into the dish and that made it uneven as a nightmare to get out. In future I will always make pastry the old fashioned way - rubbing in.

1. Place the flour, butter and ground almond into a bowl and rub between your fingers until they resemble breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, egg yolk and a tbsp of cold water and mix with a knife until the ingredients bind together to make a dough. (If you're having trouble making the ingredients bind with the knife, just get your hinds involved, but be careful not to over-work it!)
2. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. (If you're making the white chocolate mousse, now's a good time to start melting your white chocolate... see recipe below!)
3. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, and use it to line a flan dish. Bake blind (covered in foil and weighed down with rice/baking beads) for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and the beads and bake for a further 7-10 minutes, until crispy and golden. Set to one side to cool. (Now's a good time to make the mousse, if you plan to do so!)
4. Once the pastry is cool, prepare the filling. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, then set to one side.
5. In another bowl, place the egg whites and the sugar, and place this over the pan of simmering water. Whisk for 5 minutes until really thick and glossy, then remove from the heat and whisk for a further 2 minutes.
6. Gently pour the chocolate and the cream into the bowl of egg/sugar, and fold in until all the ingredients combine. Pour the filling into the pastry case, and then put in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours.
7. Cut into slices and serve!

White Chocolate Mousse

Honestly... I don't know how I missed that smudge!

Prep time: 20 mins        Cook time: none (but 2 hours chill time)        Serves: 12-16

Ingredients:
400g white chocolate
2 egg whites
2 tbsp caster sugar
180ml double cream

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Place to one side to cool slightly, but not set.
2. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, add the sugar then whisk again until smooth and glossy.
3. I a large bowl, whip the double cream until thick and pillowy, but not quite peaking. Fold the melted chocolate into the cream with a spatula, then add the egg whites and continue to fold until all combine.
4. Place the mousse in a serving dish/serving dishes, and place in the fridge for at lease 2 hours, until set.
5. Serve on it's own, or as an accompaniment to the chocolate tart!

Soo much chocolaty goodness! It didn't quite reach the standards of the Disneyland dessert, but then I'm not a Parisian pastry chef! It was a pretty good effort, and I'd definitely make these again!

We're well and truly in the Disney Golden Age of my childhood now, and next week we're watching Aladdin. I'll be making some Sultan's Turbans to go with the movie!
Happy Thoughts
x

Oo-de-lally

Disney Classic # 21 - Robin Hood

Robin Hood was another of the films that I struggled to come up with a dessert idea for. Quite often when I'm struggling for ideas I fall back on the location that the film is set - it's often a fail safe method!

I wasn't able to find any Sherwood Forest cake, but I did come across the next best thing - Nottingham Pudding. I'd never heard of Nottingham Pudding, but on doing some research I found out that the pudding dates back to medieval times, when it was originally served as a side dish to savory main courses. Since then the dish has evolved and became more commonly served as a dessert.

I had toyed with the idea of making some target practice cupcakes, with little cocktail-stick arrows pointing out of them, however, the Nottingham Pudding had started to grow on me, and made the cupcakes seem a bit of a boring option in comparison!

I experimented and played around with the recipes I found. Most of the recipes I found suggested using one apple per person, stuffing the apple with the spiced butter, and covering with the batter before baking. However, I decided against using whole apples and opted to slice mine instead. There were a few reasons for this - first of all that I didn't know how many people would be coming so I wasn't sure how many apples I'd need; secondly because I thought a whole bramley apple (which are rather on the large side) might be a bit much for one person; thirdly because there are normally between 5-8 of us, and I don't have a baking dish big enough to fit that many apples; and finally because I was dubious about whether the 30 minutes needed to cook the batter would be enough to bake the apples thoroughly and make them soft.

So instead I decided to slice the apples and soften them in the spiced butter before adding the batter and baking. I think it worked out fairly well, we ended up with a pudding that was soft apple and caramel on the bottom, and crispy pudding on top, and everyone seemed to enjoy it - especially with lashings of custard!

However... on the day of baking I had a horrible feeling that this would all go very wrong - a medieval recipe that I've never tried before but am adapting anyway... and I was worried we'd end up dessert-less. Well, when I was sick my Mum came to visit and we watched Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals. Jamie made some jam tarts which reminded us of my Mum's favourite cakes that we always used to bake together when I was little, a kind of jam and sponge tart that my mum called Maids of Honour. Anyways, feeling a little nostalgic, and uncertain about the Nottingham Pudding, I decided to honour Maid Marian by making some delectable Maids of Honour tarts as a back up plan. (Plus I don't like apple... so this way I get to share some of the baked treats!)

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm... cake!

Below are the recipes for my version of a Nottingham Pudding, based on recipes found here, here and here. For the Maids of Honour I used my mum's old recipe, but decided to try it with Jamie Oliver's idea of layering the jam and sponge, as described here.

Nottingham Pudding

Prep time: 45 mins          Cook time: 45 mins         Serves: 8-10

Ingredients:

75g plain flour
1 medium egg
85ml milk
40ml water
pinch salt
3 large bramley/cooking apples (mine came to 838g)
75g butter (plus a pinch of salt if you are using unsalted butter)
50g dark brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground mixed spice
2 tbsp lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 7, and grease and line a baking tin
2. Prepare the batter mixture. Sift the flour into a bowl and create a well in the centre. Add the egg, milk water and salt to the flour and beat until smooth (this takes about 2 minutes with an electric beater, or about 5-7 minutes by hand.) Put the batter in the fridge to rest whilst you prepare the apples.
3. Peel, core and slice the apples and place these into a bowl. Pour the lemon juice over the apples.
4. In a large pan over a low heat, gently melt the butter. Add the sugar, salt, cinnamon and spices and stir until syrupy. Add the sliced apples and lemon juice to the pan and stir well, ensuring all of the apples are coated in the syrup. Cover the pan and leave to cook over a low heat for 10 mins, stirring occasionally, until the apples start to soften.
5. Take the batter from the fridge and beat quickly with a fork until smooth again (it may have separated slightly in the fridge, this is normal)
6. Place the softened apples and the syrup into the baking tin, and cover evenly with the batter. Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins, until golden brown and crispy around the edges.
7. Cut into slices and serve immediately.

Maids of Honour

Prep time: 20 mins       Cook time: 20 mins      Makes 12 tarts

Ingredients:

125g plain flour

55g butter

pinch of salt

2-3tbsp water

100g margarine

100g caster sugar
1 medium egg
100g self-raising flour
50g ground almonds
100g mixed-fruit jam (raspberry also tastes great!)

1. Cut the butter into cubes and place in a large bowl with the plain flour and the pinch of salt. Rub the flour, butter and salt together between your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Using a cutlery knife, stir in the water a little at a time, using just enough to make the mixture form a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for 10 minutes, whilst you prepare the fillings.
3. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 and grease a bun tray. (Make sure to grease the tray really well so you can remove the tarts easily!)
4. In a large bowl, mix together the margarine and caster sugar until smooth and creamy, then beat in the egg. Add the almond to the mixture and sift in the flour. beat well until all of the ingredients have combine to a thick, stiff batter.
5. Place the jam into a small bowl and beat for about a minute to soften it. put the jam and sponge mixture to one side.
6. Take the pastry dough from the fridge and generously dust your work surface with flour. Roll out the pastry and cut 12 circles from the dough. Gently place these circles into the bun tray, pressing them lightly into shape.
7. Spoon 1/2 tsp of jam into each pastry case, followed by 1/2 tsp of sponge mixture, and another 1/2 tsp jam. Finish by topping the last layer of jam with another 1tsp of sponge mixture on each tart. (tip - try not to let the jam or sponge mixture flow over the sides of the pastry case!)
8. Bake the tarts in the oven for 20 minutes, until golden brown on top. Leave to cool in the tray for 5 minutes, and then carefully remove each tart using a tablespoon. Dust with icing sugar to serve.
9. The tarts taste great warm or cold - which means you should eat one straight from the oven and save one for later!! ^_^ (Tip - if you're going to eat the tarts warm, give the jam around 5-10 minutes to cool first, or you may burn your mouth!)

Next week we'll be watching The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and filling our rumbly tumblies with a delicious honey cake.

Happy Thoughts
x

The one that Started it All

Disney Classic # 1 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

I think that I may have trouble finding recipes and coming up with ideas for some of the Disney movies, but with Snow White there was no such trouble - I immediately knew it just *had* to be Apple Pie ^_^

Thing is, I don't actually like Apple Pie, and I've never made it before. But still... no doubt in my mind that Snow White would like an apple pie...

Yep, old Snowie definitely loves the pie

I found a recipe here, but I changed it slightly to better suit my needs. So here it is!

Ingredients:

3 large cooking apples (around 900g)

2 small unwaxed lemons

1 tsp ground cinnamon

100g caster sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1 egg, lightly beaten

750g ready made shortcrust pastry

Flour for dusting

Butter for greasing

Prep time: 30 mins    
Cook time: 50-60mins     
Serves: 6-8

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 then grease your pie dish with the butter.
2. Finely grate the zest of both lemons, and then juice them. Put this to one side.
3. Peel, core and quarter the apples, and then slice them thickly into a bowl. Sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest and juice, and mix well with hands
4. Lightly dust the work surface with flour, then roll out 2/3rds of the pastry to around 0.5cm thick. Gently place the pastry into the pie dish, being careful not to tear it as you press it into the sides of the dish. Trim the edges, leaving around a 1cm overlap around the top of the dish. Brush the rim of the pastry with beaten egg.
5. Mix the apple mixture again and then place this on top of pastry base
6. Roll out the rest of the pastry, again until 0.5cm thick. Place the pastry over the top of the apple mixture, and trim the edges, again leaving a 1cm overlap. using your thumb and forefinger, crimp the edges of the pastry together to seal. Decorate the top of the pie with the remaining pastry as desired, using a little bit of the egg to "stick" pieces together.
7. Brush the pastry with the egg wash, then dredge with caster sugar. Cut three slits into the to of the pie to allow steam to escape.
8. Bake the pie for 50-60mins until the pastry is golden brown and the fruit is tender. (To check the tenderness of the fruit, pop a knife into one of the slits previously made, the knife should slide easily though the fruit inside the pie.) 

The pie is best served immediately, with either ice-cream or custard. I'm told it's also pretty tasty cold!

Next time: It's Pinocchio!! I'm planning a Pleasure Island inspired feast for naughty boys! Beer flavoured cake and chocolate cigars - a pretty big challenge but I'm sure it will be worth it!

Happy thoughts

x