Iced Fingers

This is by far my favorite bun!

You can make these super fancy by cutting them in half and pipe whipped cream on the bottom layer, then a thin layer of strawberry jam on the top layer and sandwich them together and BOOM you have amazingness in a bite..

Makes 20

This is what you need;
The recipe for Norwegian buns (posted 12.10.13)
200g icing sugar
1tsp water
3 drops of lemon juice.

Lets bake people!

Start by sifting the flour and  cardamom into a bowl, add yest on one side and sugar and salt on the other.
Add 1/4 of the milk into a saucepan together with the butter, stir until the butter has melted and set to one side.
Mix the remaining milk into the melted butter, mix all the dry ingredients together then make a whole in the middle of the bowl, pour in the milk mixture.
Knead in the bowl until the dough feels manageable, pour out on a lightly floured surface and get stuck in kneading to build up as much gluten as you can, this should take about 10 minutes. Put the dough back into a lightly floured bowl and cover with clingfilm, leave to rise until twice it’s original size.
Preheat your oven at 200 fan, gas mark 5.
When it’s risen divide into 20 little fingers and let them rise on the baking tray.
Now bake in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes until golden brown.

• Icing
  In a bowl, add the icing sugar and lemon juice then slowly add the water and stir at the same time, you want a really thick consistency.

When the buns are done and properly cooled, take a pallet knife and spread a nice, thick layer of icing.

Tuck in x

 

Chocolate Cake

This is not just any ordinary chocolate cake, triple chocolate cake with ombré icing BUT with less sugar so you can have two pieces…

This is what you need:
For the bottom layer you need half of the recipe the brownies 05.11.13

For the other two layers you need the recipe from 18.10.13. I only used 50f of the sugar from this recipe. Now divide the mixture into 2 bowls and add 50g white chocolate chunks in one bowl, then 50g of milk chocolate chunks, 2 tbsp cocoa powder and 2 tbsp of milk.

For the butter cream you need:
450g icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla paste
1 pinch of salt
2 eggs
450g unsalted butter
Pink food colouring
Green food colouring
Purple food colouring
Follow the recipes as normal and bake in the middle of the oven and set to one side to cool.
Now get 7 bowls and put 1 large tbsp butter cream in 6 of them and then leave the rest in the last bowl. So you put 2 and 2 bowls together so you have 3 pairs, in one of the bowls you put 10 drops and in the other you put 5 drops and mix well. You should end up with 2 shades of each colour, now if the cake has cooled start putting it together.
Brownie layer first and put a thin layer of butter cream, continue with the milk chocolate layer and finish with the white chocolate layer. Spread a thin layer of icing all around the sides and the rest on the top. Transfer the coloured icing into 6 piping bags and put them in the order you want. Start at the bottom and pipe a little blob of butter cream and with a pallet knife drag the butter cream around the cake and continue until your on the top.

And you have a showstopper of a cake!!!

Brownies

Bonfire night, a perfect night to make some triple chocolate brownies and watch the fireworks in your PJ’s.

Makes 15 large ones…

This is what you need:

250g unsalted butter
450g Sugar
6 medium eggs
200g self-raising flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla paste
1/2 tsp salt
300g mixed chocolate chunks (white, milk, dark)
1 roasting tin

Start by greasing your tin with butter and line it with grease proof paper, then preheat your oven to 180 fan, gas mark 4-5.
In a heatproof bowl over simmering water, melt 50g of the chocolate chunks with 50g of the butter and set to one side to cool. Put the remaining butter, vanilla paste and the sugar into a bowl and whisk until fluffy, by now the melted chocolate should have cooled so add this to the mixture, start adding your eggs one by one until fully incorporated. Sift your flour, cocoa powder and salt into the bowl and then fold in with a metal spoon, now for the final stage, add the chocolate chunks and roughly mix. Pour into the greased tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 35-40 minuted.

Let the brownies cool for about 15-20 minutes before cutting them up to little pieces of heaven.

Sponge Cake

Something so simple as sponge cake can be hard to get perfect. This is a great basic recipe where you can add loads of flavors, on Thursday I will post a great recipe using this base recipe.

Makes 20 Slices

This recipe works well on its own too, therefore bake mine in a bread tin then slice it up and dunk it in my coffee.

This is what you need;
250 self-raising flour
75g butter
150g sugar
3 eggs
1tbsp vanilla paste
2tsp baking powder
1/2 Granny Smith apple

Start by preheating your oven to 175 degrees, gas mark 4,grease your tin with a thin layer of butter then coat it with fine breadcrumbs. By adding the breadcrumbs you get a really nice crust on the cake which makes such a difference.
In a bowl, whisk butter, vanilla paste and sugar until you have a light colour then start adding the eggs, one by one until fully incorporated. Chop the apple into super small pieces, this will add sweetness and moisture to the cake and set to one side. Now sift your flour and baking powder in 3 parts into the batter be careful so you don’t beat out the air of the eggs, now fold in the apples with a metal spoon. Transfer into your tin as soon as possible, if you leave it for too long it can cause the cake to sink in the middle, bake in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes.

Cookies

This is an amazing recipe where you can experiment by adding flavors, here are my top 5.

Makes 20

This is what you need:

• Base Dough

225g butter
300g self-raising flour
1 pinch of salt
1 tbsp vanilla paste
1tsp Baking Soda
2 eggs
200g caster sugar

Start by preheating your oven to 150 degrees, gas mark 3, then in a bowl start by whisking the sugar, butter and vanilla paste gradually add the eggs one by one, whisk until you have a thick paste.
Sift your dry ingredients, if you do a chocolate base remove 2 tbsp flour and add 2 tbsp cocoa powder, into the bowl. Start mixing it all together, if you want to add chocolate chunks or cranberries this is your que. Now for uniform cookies I measure mine, I used 40g of dough for each of these cookies, roll into a ball and put on a grease proof baking trey or paper and bake in the middle of the oven for 9 minutes. Leave them to cool for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.

• White chocolate / cranberry

60g of white chocolate chunks
75g of dried cranberries

• Chocolate chunk caramel melt

60g of milk chocolate chunks
20 smashed up pieces of caramel chocolate (smash one by one square and put on the top of your dough ball)

• Chocolate chunk / peanut butter

30g milk chocolate chunk30g dark (70%) chocolate chunks
20 1/2 tsp smooth peanut butter (make a little whole in the top of the dough ball and fill with peanut butter)

• White Chocolate heaven

200g of white chocolate (make your dough ball then push one square of white chocolate into the ball and keep rolling)

• White / Milk chocolate peace cookies

half and half dough of chocolate and white chocolate dough (weigh out 20g of each and put next to each other then roll)

Now stack them up and take a big bite!

Curry Pies

Thursday is always Curry night, so today I thought I’d mix my two favorite things; The Chinese Dim Sum classic, Curry Pie, and a Vegetarian Indian curry.

Makes 12

This is what you need:

• Short Crust Pastry

250g Self-raising flour
125g very cold and cubed butter
1 pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
4tbsp ice water

• Curry filling

1 finely diced onion
2 chopped garlic cloves
2cm grated ginger
2 baby potatoes
2 tbsp flour
2tbsp curry powder (now you can choose mild, medium or hot depending on how much you can take)
1/2 tsp of coriander powder, cumin, chili, paprika powder
1tsp turmeric
1/2 cup water
12 tsp mango chutney
1 beaten egg.

Start by making your pastry as it has to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and add the butter, using your finger tips only rub the butter into the flour to create a crumb like consistency. Once you have a mix that feels like soft breadcrumbs add the water and the egg and start mixing with your fingers. Once incorporated into a dough put it in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour but will sleep happily in your fridge for 1-24 hours.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, gas mark 5, and start making your curry.
Start by dicing onion, garlic potato and meat substitute, I use Soy pieces.
Add to a lightly oiled pan together with the ginger and fry until the onions has softened then add all the spices and the flour and mix well. Start adding the water slowly and you should end up with a really thick curry. Put to one side to cool.

I use a normal cupcake tray to make these. Now, roll out your dough  to £1 coin thickness then cut out 12x12cm circles and the 12x9cm circles (lids) using pastry cutters. Now place the 12cm circles in the tray making little baskets then fill them with curry and top with a tsp of mango chutney.
Beat the egg and egg wash the edges and then put the lids on and crimp down the sides and egg wash the tops. Score a little hole on the top so the steam can be let out.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes until golden.

Let them cool for a bit and dunk in some pickled mango…. And maybe even a cheeky beer.

Puff Pastry

Puff pastry is not only amazingly nice but very versatile so you can make a little spread.

Makes 1kg dough.

This is what you need:

5g salt
250ml ice water
75g butter (to be melted)
400g cold butter
500g strong bread flour

(50g chopped dark chocolate + 1 beaten egg with 1tbsp of water) and a ruler….

Goodness ahoy, let’s bake!

Start by melting your butter and put to one side, sift the flour then add the salt. Once the butter has gone cold add it to the flour on one side and add the water on the other. Now it’s essential that you don’t overwork this dough, so mix everything together with your finger tips until you have formed a dough, this can take some time but believe me that it’s worth the wait! Now but your dough to one side and take the butter out, take some baking parchment out and pound out the butter between the sheets to a 15cmx15cm square. The butter should be as soft as the dough and easily bent, but not warm, if it gets warm then put it in the fridge for a few minutes. Roll out your dough to a 30cmx30cm square and put the butter rectangular in the middle and fold over the corns, so it looks like a square envelop.
Now start the layering, do this by rolling out the dough into a 30cm x 50cm rectangle, then fold in thirds, starting by folding the right side 2rds in then fold the left side over the dough and turn the dough 1/4 and repeat the process 6-10 times, making sure the that butter doesn’t escape roll carefully and don’t force the dough, lightly dust with flour as you go along so it’s not sticky.
Leave in the fridge for a minimum of 5 hours, if you can leave it in there for 12-15 hours.

12 hours later and you should have an amazingly smooth dough.
So the quickest and tastiest thing to do with this dough is quick Chocolate Croissants…

I will post a real croissant recipe on a later date but this is a delicious cheat..

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Roll the pastry out 15  cm x 100cm should be just thinner than a £1 coin, cut the edges off so you have a straight edges.
Cut out 12.5 cm rectangles, then cut diagonally across so you get 2 triangles, stretch it out a bit or use a rolling pin to make it 1/3 bigger. Make a 1cm cut in the middle of the bottom and fold out the edges, then put 1tsp of chopped chocolate then roll down then round the edges so you get a croissant shaped croissant 🙂
Brush with water beaten egg and bake in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes.

Now, just wolf it down

Double love biscuits

Makes 20 big ones….

Vanilla jammy dodgers just isn’t enough, lets put a chocolate layer on this!

This is what you need:

200g Self-raising flour
100g butter
50g caster sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla paste
1tsp corn flour
(make this dough again and add 2 heaped tsp of cocoa powder)
150g of raspberry or strawberry jam.

Let’s get baking!
Start by whisking the butter, sugar and vanilla paste, add the egg and whisk until you get an even mixture. Sift the flour and the corn flour (when you do the chocolate dough just add the cocoa powder at this stage).
Knead the dough until combined, don’t worry if it’s a bit sticky, wrap in cling film and let it chill in the fridge for about 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, on a lightly floured surface knead the dough adding flour as you go along until the dough is smooth, make sure not to overwork the dough as the butter will melt and you will have to add flour for the rest of the day 🙂
Roll your chocolate dough out to around 0.5cm and use a 7cm cutter, I used a lid, and make 20 circles. Then take your vanilla dough and use the same cutter then place a small heart shaped cutter, or any other shape works too, in the middle.
Bake the biscuits in the middle of the oven for about 17 minutes.

Once they have cooled start putting the biscuits together,  put 1 tsp jam on the chocolate base and then chuck the lid on and voilà, you have a red heat in the middle of an epic biscuit!

This is a definite dunker so get your tea brewing.

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Strawberry cheesecake as a cupcake, 2 maybe 3 mouthfuls of heaven!

Makes 20

So try and not taste everything as you won’t end up with that many cupcakes….

This is what you need:

170g self-raising  flour
170g soft butter
150g Caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla paste
1 heap tsp baking soda
3 eggs
10 chopped strawberries

Cream cheese frosting:
200g cream cheese (keep cold until last minute)
400g icing sugar
100g soft butter
1/2 egg white

Decorations:
15 digestive biscuits, crumbed up(I used shop bought this time, but recipe will be up soon)
10 strawberries, cut in half so you have one half on each cupcake

Start by putting your cupcake forms in your cupcake tray and put your oven on 180 degrees, let’s get baking!

Measuring up your flour, add the baking powder and sift into a bowl. Add the butter, vanilla paste and sugar and mix well, then start adding the eggs, i recommend adding them one at the time to increase the fluffiness of your cupcakes
Fill your cupcake cases up with 2/3rds don’t worry if it’s slightly more as the fruit bulks it all up, bake in the middle of the oven for 15-20 min, you know it’s done when you your knife comes out clean when you cut into the cupcake.

Whilst these are cooling cut your strawberries and bash up your biscuits, I put them in a sandwich bag and use a rolling pin to make them into crumbs, set to one side.

Make the icing:
Soften the butter then add the cream cheese, incorporate this with the butter then gradually add the icing sugar. If you add everything in one go you will end up with a snow covered kitchen and buttered cream cheese, not ideal 🙂
Now, to make the frosting a bit lighter add half an egg white and whisk until you can see air bubbles in frosting.

Ensemble:

Before you put the frosting in a piping bag, take some red food coloring and run along the inside corner of the piping bag, I used a Wilton P6 tip for this to create that American cup cake look. Sprinkle biscuit crumbs over the frosting and put a strawberry on the side.

Now all you need to do is EAT.

Enjoy xo

Custard Buns with Coconut Icing (Skolebrød)

This is a classic Norwegian bun that goes down a treat every time, guaranteed!
(Makes 12 heavenly buns)

This is what you need:

650g Self-raising flour
90g caster sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 tbsp cardamom
1 Sachet fast action yest
100g butter
360ml whole milk

For the custard:

6 egg yolks
1tbsp vanilla paste
1tbsp cornflour
50g caster sugar
610ml whole milk

Icing:
1egg white
5 drops of lemon juice
2tbsp water
250g confectionery sugar
1cup on dessicated coconut

LET’S BAKE!
Start by sifting the flour and  cardamom into a bowl, add yest on one side and sugar and salt on the other.
Add 1/4 of the milk into a saucepan together with the butter, stir until the butter has melted and set to one side.
Mix the remaining milk into the melted butter, mix all the dry ingredients together then make a whole in the middle of the bowl, pour in the milk mixture.
Knead in the bowl until the dough feels manageable, pour out on a lightly floured surface and get stuck in kneading to build up as much gluten as you can, this should take about 10 minutes. Put the dough back into a lightly floured bowl and cover with clingfilm, leave to rise until twice it’s original size.
Start making the custard, start by adding the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla paste and cornflour into a bowl and mix vigorously until combined. Heat up the milk until simmering, pour the milk slowly into the bowl whilst stirring, once half the milk has been combined but the milk back on the stove on low heat. Start poring the the egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan whilst stirring but make sure it doesn’t start to boil, stir until the custard goes really thick, set to side.
Preheat your oven to 250 or gas mark 7, punch your dough down (once finished proving) and divide the dough into 12 and make round balls and then flatten them out, time to prove for a second time, cover with clingfilm but make sure the the buns have space to raise. After 1 hour they should have grown about twice their size, using your thumb create a dent in the bun, now you can make a big dent if you LOVE custard or a smaller one if you’re not that keen. Add the custard and bake the buns in the middle of the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Ice Ice Icing time, add all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk with a fork, the consistency should be really thick, it should struggle to slide off a spoon. Put the coconut into a bowl and set aside.
Once the buns has cooled cover the bun in icing around the custard (i love icing so I just chuck it on all over) then dip the iced side into the coconut, now the only thing left to do is stuffing your face in this goodness !

Enjoy