Autumn Spiced Cookies

I promised you a recipe for halloween... so here it is! These cookies are quick and simple to whip up, and great to give out to trick or treaters! These cookies are autumnal in flavour due to the spices, and the pumpkin seeds give a lovely crunch!

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 12-15 minutes
Makes 14 cookies

Ingredients
75g margarine
90g golden granulated sugar
50g golden syrup
1tsp vanilla extract
100g self raising flour
3tsp mixed spice
50g pumpkin seeds
50g white chocolate chips

1) pre-heat the oven to 180 and line a baking tray with grease proof paper
2) cream the margarine and sugar, then add the golden syrup and vanilla extract and continue the beat until combined.
3) fold in half of the flour and all of the mixed spice. Stir through the chocolate chips and pumpkin seeds, then add the rest of the flour to the dough.
4) split the dough into 14 pieces and roll into a rough ball in your hand. Place on the baking tray making sure you leave at least an inch between each, and pop in the oven until golden brown.
5) allow the cookies to firm up on the tray for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack to cool
Note, when you take the cookies from the oven they'll still be super gooey! Don't worry,  they will set as they cool :-)

I'll return to weekly posts in December, but until then, my friends -

Happy thoughts
X

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

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




Don't Try to Reason with a Headless Man

Disney Classic # 11 - The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

Ichabod and Mr Toad (particularly the Ichabod part) have been favourites of mine since childhood. This feature consists of two really rather good shorts - Disney's adaptation The Wind in the Willows, and their adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
For the cake I decided to try something a little more technical. One of the reasons I started this "challenge" was because I enjoy making novelty cakes and love trawling the pictures in cake decorating books of cakes in fantastical shapes. It amazes me what some bakers are able to do with a bit of cake and a good idea! Now that we're moving out of the uncharted territory (films I hadn't seen/don't really remember) and into the much loved movies of my childhood, I imagine that there will be a fair few more novelty cakes popping up.

Anyway, returning to Ichabod and Mr. Toad... As this was a double-feature I decided to place focus on my favourite of the two features for my inspiration for this week's cake. Whilst a lot of food features in the movie (Ichabod is constantly eating!) I decided instead to base my cake on a prominent image of the film: the Headless Horseman's flaming jack-o-lantern head, which he throws at his victims in exchange for their own head! I had thought about making this cake pumpkin flavoured, but decided against this, firstly because pumpkins aren't in season right now, secondly because I'm not sure if the texture/consistency of pumpkin cake lends itself to be easily carved, and finally because I'm not sure if the flavour would go too well with the icing. I do think it's best when trying something a bit out of the norm to focus either on experimenting with flavour OR experimenting with appearance, you don't want to do too much!!

Our Horseman was not best pleased when he found out Ichabod had eaten all of the cake

As with the majority of novelty cakes I make, the sponge inside is a simple but delicious vanilla sponge - the recipe my mum passed down to me. I'm not sure where it originated, it's just permanently ingrained into my brain from years of use. The design of the cake is based on a cake which appears in Debbie Brown's 50 Easy Party Cakes. (Mouse House, pg 40)

Prep time: 30-40 minutes (significantly longer if you colour your own icing!) Cook time: 2 hours 30mins Serves: 12

Ingredients:

500g margarine
500g caster sugar
500g self raising flour
4 large eggs
1tbsp vanilla essence
700g ready to roll/fondant icing
Orange food colouring (I use Sugarflair Gel Paste Colouring as it gives a more vibrant colour)
Black food colouring
Red food colouring
Yellow food colouring
4 tbsp granulated sugar
75g butter
125g icing sugar
Strawberry jam

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and line a round oven-proof/Pyrex bowl with foil.
2. In a very large bowl, beat together the margarine and caster sugar until creamy.
3. Sift in around a quarter of the flour and fold into the margarine mixture. add one egg to the mixture and beat until combined. Repeat this process until all on the eggs and flour are incorporated into the mixture. Add the vanilla essence and mix well.
4. Separate the mixture into 3 bowls. Using the food colourings, turn one bowl of cake mixture red, one orange and one yellow.
5. Using half of the total cake mixture, layer the different colours into the lined Pyrex bowl. Run a bamboo skewer through the bowl to create swirls.
6. Bake the cake until firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. For me this took 1 hour 15 mins, but it depends on the size of the dish you are using (mine is small but deep). My advice is to check the cake after 45 mins, and then every 10-15 mins from then onwards.
7. Whilst the cakes are baking, prepare the icing and the sugars for decorating. Colour the ready to roll icing orange by using a toothpick to place a small amount of orange food dye onto the icing and kneading it through until the colour is even. Start off using a small amount of dye and then add more as necessary.
8. To make the "ash": place 2 tbsp granulated sugar into a food bag, 1 tbsp into a second, and 1tbsp into the third. Add a small drop of black food colouring to the bag with the most sugar and tie the bag off. Rub gently between your hands until all of the sugar is evenly coated and gray in colour. Repeat this process with the other two bags, making one red and one orange. Put these to one side until ready to use.
9. Once the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, gently remove the cake from the Pyrex bowl and allow to cool on a wire wrack.
10. Wash, dry and re-line the Pyrex bowl and repeat steps 5-7 for the second layer.
11. Once both cakes have completely cooled, make the buttercream. Beat the butter until soft and then sift in the icing sugar.
12. Cut the top of both cakes level, and spread a thin layer of jam on one of the layers. Place the other layer, flat side down, on top of the first layer, so that they create a ball shape.
13. Using a serrated knife, cut 1cm ridges/grooves around the cake to create a pumpkin shape. cover the cake in a thin layer of butter cream (this is to keep the ready to roll icing in place.)
14. Using icing sugar to prevent the icing from sticking, roll out the orange icing and cover the cake. Gently press the icing into the grooves with the side of your hand, and trim any excess icing from the bottom of the cake.
15. Mix a little of the black food dye with a drop of vanilla essence and carefully paint the face onto your jack-o-lantern.
16. Mix the grey, red and orange sugars together to look like ash and burning embers, sprinkle this around the base of the cake. (this is optional, but I like the way it looks, and it covers any rough patches at the bottom of the cake...)
17. Slice and serve!

Next time we'll be watching Cinderella, and I'll be taking on the iconic castle in cake form!

Happy Thoughts
x