Remembering those Winter Bakes
Hello everyone,
So here we are, spring has officially sprung with the hope of longer days and warmer weather carrying us through (hopefully) the last of the cold, dark days. Wishful thinking I know but it's what keeps me going anyway!
This winter proved to be an epic cold and flu season and as I only recently won the fight with my fourth and hopefully final chesty cold/flu, I've been a little behind with this post. My winter baking started back in October with the preparation of the Christmas puddings and cakes (all in my last entry). This was followed by a little break until the real baking madness began about two weeks before Christmas. As myself and himself were heading over to Bordeaux in mid-December for an early Christmas with his family, gifts for my friends and work colleagues had to be made in advance. This years gifts included Biscotti (Chocolate/almond/orange and Pistachio/cranberry) and Granola (Recipe from The World of the Happy Pear).
The biscotti was an absolute hit and handy too with it being dairy free for those lactose intolerant friends of mine. My first attempt at these was the pistachio and cranberry flavour and turned out to be a complete disaster. I was originally using a recipe from an article about the Great British Bake Off which included Paul Hollywood's recipe but as it turned out the method was lacking in some important details about the quantity of egg needed and it turned into a sloppy mess which didn't cook through and had to be thrown out. Lame!!!!! mostly because pistachio's are expensive!!!
For my second attempt I went straight to the source - paulhollywood.com - and from here it was smooth sailing all the way. As it goes it's a pretty straightforward recipe, with the basic biscotti consisting of plain white flour, baking powder, caster sugar and 2-3 eggs depending on the extra ingredients. Extra ingredients for the chocolate/almond/orange included 100g good-quality dark chocolate (I like the Tesco Swiss 72%), 50g chopped into little chunks and 50g melted, 135g blanched almonds, grated orange zest and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (plus 30g extra white flour). Extra ingredients for Pistachio/Cranberry included 220g shelled pistachios, 125g dried cranberries and grated lemon zest.
All you have to do is mix the dry ingredients together and then start to add the lightly beaten eggs a little at a time until the it comes together but is not at all sticky, therefore you probably won't need all the egg, especially with the chocolate ones as the melted chocolate adds extra moisture, so keep an eye. Next add the extra ingredients following the instructions in the recipe...pretty much just roughly chop the nuts and chuck them in with the other flavour ingredients and kneed it all together until its evenly distributed. For the chocolate/almond/orange ones add the melted chocolate first and bring together to form a smooth dough before adding the rest.
To bake, split the dough into two logs and lay out on a prepared baking tray (as in instructions) and bake for 30-35 mins. If you have the option, don't use the fan oven!! It works better. Let them cool and then cut diagonally into slices. Place back on the tray and bake again for 15 mins on each side, cool and store in an airtight container.
This recipe makes LOADS!!! It's brilliant and with a batch of choc/almond/orange and pistachio/cranberry I had enough for everyone and some left over to share at home! They're great with coffee or hot chocolate, or I've heard, they also go well with a sweet wine! I'll leave that up to you ;)
For my vegan/healthy eating friends I went for the Happy Pear granola, an odd choice for gifting I know but it was appreciated and very tasty. It's dairy and refined sugar free and can also be gluten free if you gluten free oats or to make it grain free it suggests to use quinoa flakes!
This granola is made with loads of yummy ingredients such as Oat flakes, flaked almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, desiccated coconut, honey/maple syrup or agave syrup, any mix of dried fruit you like, ground flax seeds and pretty much anything you've got lying around that might go nice, like cacao nibs or chocolate chips, freeze dried fruits or fancy goji berries and stuff. You can alter the ingredients as much as you like and bake for shorter or longer depending on how crunchy you like it. Yummy and guilt free!!
Next up came the baking for Bordeaux Christmas dinner. I brought over my traditional loaf of Fig Bread to go with starters and over there I made a Couronne de baba aux fruits frais for desert.
This Quick Fig Bread recipe is one of my favourites. It's not in any way, shape or form a healthy or light recipe but goes beautifully with Foie Gras and is super for breakfast with some nut butter if you're in need of an energy packed brekkie.
Taken from The Ballymaloe Bread Book by Tim Allen the recipe includes; Plain flour, rye flour, wholemeal flour, bran, light brown sugar, baking powder, bread soda, instant espresso powder, unsweetened cocoa powder, salt, dried figs, currants, buttermilk, sour cream, melted butter, an egg and treacle. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl, combine the wet ingredients in a jug and stir well until frothy, pour into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until well combined, transfer into an oiled loaf tin and bake for about 1 hour 20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin and enjoy!
This Couronne de baba aux fruits frais turned out really well!!...second time around. This is one of those times when you just can't beat your own kitchen. Baking in someone else's kitchen needs soooo much more preparation than at home, then add in the extra difficulty of everything being in a different language.
After heading over to the giant supermarket for ingredients we got back to the apartment to find that we had no weighing scales so had to head back and try to find one, which we did. Then, when we got back again I realised we had no sieve for the flour! Lame! Not too keen to go back to the supermarket for a third time, I substituted with a fairly fine colander which took ages to sift the flour because it kept getting stuck in the holes but did work in the end.
The big language problem came with the yeast - the recipe asks for levure de bière, which I translated as brewers yeast. Before heading over to France I went on a quest to find this illusive brewer's yeast, which I found in a health food shop and paid a small fortune for. Delighted with myself, I brought it over to France to use in this recipe. I followed the recipe exactly, left the baba to rise in a warm place for the correct amount of time, put it in the oven and what did I get?? A lovely Couronne shaped pancake. The yeast did not work at all, not even a little bit! In the bin it went.
At this stage it was mid-afternoon and the Couronne was for our Christmas dinner that evening, so, as you can imagine, panic started to set in! Lucky for me, himself and his mother are much calmer people than me and managed to calm me down, went and borrowed some extra eggs from the neighbours and reminded me that I had bought extra ordinary fast-acting yeast in the supermarket that morning and so, after my mini meltdown was complete (what would my baking days be without at least one drama!?) I began again. This time it worked!! Thank God!! The yeast worked perfectly, and the dough rose beautifully both before and during baking. Then it was just a matter of making the syrup while the Couronne was cooling. This was made from caster sugar, orange zest, dark rum and vanilla extract.
When fully cooled the syrup was then poured over the Couronne several times, letting it soak in for about 10-15 minutes before drenching it again. This is the one thing that I would do differently next time. When I made the individual babas for the first time (see previous post) the cooled babas were steeped in the syrup for an hour, turning them over half way through to make sure the liquid was evenly soaked through. I should have done the same with this Couronne as, while it tasted very nice, it wasn't quite moist enough. Luckily I had enough of the syrup left that we were able to pour extra over our slices of cake after serving and then pour the rest on the remaining Couronne, which got better and better as the days went on. I decorated the baba with a mixture of red and blueberries, a dusting of icing sugar and a sprig of fresh mint.
I was also very proud that I managed to bring a whole, fully decorated Christmas cake as hand luggage all the way over to Bordeaux! My almost mother-in-law was so nice about it, making a big fuss of the 'unveiling' and although it's a much heavier kind of desert than they would usually eat over there, they all said it was lovely and even shared it with neighbours in the building! - A repayment for the eggs we had to borrow the day before!!
I have to say, I really love decorating the Christmas cake and although I admit, I do use ready rolled icing (heaven forbid!!), I do put a lot of effort and time into the design and I was particularly proud of the two this year.
Bordeaux Christmas Cake -
Dublin Christmas Cake -
After a lovely quiet few days of Christmas celebrations we headed home to celebrate Irish style - visiting family, kids giddy from the excitement of Santa Claus arriving, gift and sweet wrappers everywhere and me and mammy in the kitchen cooking up a storm with a wooden spoon in one hand and a glass of Prosecco in the other! I love it!
While mammy took care of the main course (turkey, ham and a beautiful nut loaf for my sister in law) I got stuck into the deserts and treats. I did, also contribute to the mains with some roasted spiced butternut squash and my traditional homemade cranberry sauce...full of booze! Mary Berry would approve I'm sure!
M y pièce de résistance this year was a Blackberry and Bay Poached Pear Pavlova. The recipe was from the Delicious. The Collector's Edition Christmas magazine and although it took two days to make, Holy God it was incredible!!
Day one is for poaching the pears and making the pavlova base.
The Pavlova base is super basic - 5 eggs whites, 300g caster sugar - beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then, still whisking, add the sugar one spoonful at a time until it's all gone. You know it's ready when you can hold the bowl upside down over your head and it doesn't fall out! (Yep, I do this every time ). Spoon the mixture into a circle on a baking tray covered with baking paper and draw up the sides with the back of a spoon to make a volcano shape with a dip in the middle. Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC/180ºC Fan, when fully heated, put the pavlova in and immediately turn the oven down to 130ºC/110ºC Fan and bake for 2-2 1/2 hours, turn off the oven, don't open the door and leave to cool completely (around 4 hours).
For the pears, you need 250ml sloe gin, ruby port or damson vodka - I used ruby port - 200g frozen blackberries, 400ml water, 60g caster sugar, 2 bay leaves and 4 slightly underripe conference pears. Gently heat all the ingredients except the pears in a deep, narrow pan until the sugar dissolves. Peel the pears, leaving the stalks attached and remove the core. A nice tip they give in the recipe is to rub the pears with a clean tea towel to get rid of any rough edges. Put the pears in the poaching liquid, simmering gently, for 20 mins, turning occasionally, until tender. Then take them off the heat, place a circle of baking paper on the surface of the liquid and leave to cool and then chill overnight.
The next day, take the pears out and set aside. Strain the liquid into a pan, reserve the blackberries for later and discard the bay leaves. Set the pan over a high heat and reduce the liquid until there is about 150ml left, then blend half the liquid with the blackberries until smooth. Set this and the remaining poaching liquid aside until you're ready to serve.
When you are ready to serve, whip some fresh cream to soft peaks and swirl in the blended blackberry syrup to create a marbled effect. spoon into the hollow of your meringue volcano, top with your pears, sliced - I sliced mine into 4 slices, almost all the way through so they were still attached at the stalk and fanned out. Drizzle over the reserved poaching syrup and serve.
This was such a big hit, just don't put the cream on too soon or it'll go a bit soggy! I'll definitely be making it again and not just for Christmas!
Other things I baked over the winter season included my first gingerbread which I made into a wreath - the trickiest part of the whole construction was actually stopping my family from eating all the gingerbread figures before I could stick them on!!! There were some serious warnings going around. I think I lost about 10 - 15 gingerbread figures to the hungry lot before I could finish. Thankfully I had made loads extra in case one of the batches was a mess.
Of course I also made macarons...lots and lots of macarons!! Hazelnut praline and chocolate coconut. They went to family at Christmas, January birthdays and 'welcome to the world baby Lochlann' gifts to the new mammy and daddy. I love, love, love using my mammy's oven to bake macarons! They always turn out so well, it's unbelievable the difference between the exact same recipe baked in our terrible, terrible oven in our old place!! Thanks mammy :)
Lastly for today, I also attempted my first banana bread, a nice, healthy alternative to the delicious but supper rich fig bread earlier. This one is by Deliciously Ella and it's a banana and raisin loaf using oats, bananas, raisins, apple puree, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla powder (I couldn't get any so I used vanilla extract using double the amount of extract to the amount of powder suggested in the recipe) and cinnamon.
That's it for now (about time, I know!!). The end of January brought some serious diet time which is why I haven't been baking all that much the last month or so but sure we've got Mother's Day coming up and then it's no time to Easter so I'll be busy in the kitchen again soon I promise.
Thanks for reading.
L x
