Ingredients:
8 egg whites
450g Golden Caster Sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
400ml whipping or double cream
Jar of morello cherries or a tin of black cherry pie filling
Two tablespoons of Amaretto, cherry brandy or kirsch.
100g toasted flaked almonds
Dark chocolate shaved into curls
Preheat oven to 220ยบ C. Place a sheet of baking paper on two large baking tray and draw 3 circles roughly 7inches.
Beat your egg whites until they are stiff and add your sugar slowly one tablespoon at a time and beat until stiff peaks form.
Sift the cocoa powder into the meringue and fold through carefully with the vanilla extract and vinegar. The vinegar makes the meringue chewy.
5. Shape the meringue onto the three circles on the baking parchment placed on the baking trays. Smear a little meringue on the corner of each piece of parchment to stick it to the tray. Place meringues into oven and immediately turn temperature down to 120 degrees. Bake for 90 minutes then turn off oven, do not remove meringues until oven is cool.
Drain the cherries into a colander with a bowl underneath it to catch the syrup. Give the cherries a shake to make sure the syrup drains out of them. You will want the cherries quite dry so give them a bit of time to drain.
Pour the cherry syrup and one tablespoon of the booze into a saucepan and over medium heat reduce it down to a honey-like consistency (about 5-10 minutes). If you over-reduce you can add a little bit of water and whisk through to make it more liquid again. Set aside. You don't need to do this if using the cherry pie filling.
Beat the cream until stiff peaks form. With a silicone spatula spread half of the cream over the bottom meringue, place cherries on the cream along with half of the flaked almonds. Sprinkle half of the chocolate shavings over the meringue.
Repeat with the second and third layers. Spread the remaining cream over it along with the cherries, nuts and chocolate shavings. Top with the chocolate curls and a fine dusting of cocoa powder. Dribble the reduced cherry syrup over the entire pavlova or the sauce from the pie filling let down with some of the booze.
Saturday, 27 April 2013
Friday, 26 April 2013
Rainbow Cheesecake
I just had to make this as soon as I saw a post on Facebook of a rainbow baked cheesecake! So I dug out my favourite calorific recipe by Jamie Oliver for his New York Cheesecake; Nipped to the supermarket and loaded my basket with 900g of cream cheese! YES 900g!!! and got straight into the kitchen!
The recipe doesn't really matter as long as its a standard 23cm baked cheesecake recipe.
Ingredients
250g digestive biscuits, crushed or any biscuit of your choice I like a ginger nut, Hobnob, Oreo cookie or chocolate digestive for a change. Whatever you fancy really.
150g Butter melted
115g Caster Sugar
3tbs Cornflour
900g of Full Fat Cream Cheese
2 Large Eggs
115ml Double Cream
1/2tsp Vanilla Extract
Food colouring paste NOT liquid food colour!!
Red
Blue
Green
Yellow
Pink
Purple.
Or any colours of your choice. It would be nice to split the mix into two colours and dye half the mix one colour and leave the other plain and have a pretty striped cake or make half chocolate and that will give you a zebra effect.
Mix crushed biscuits and butter and press into your 23cm springform cake tin. Bake at 200 in a hot oven or ten minutes and then leave to cool slightly.
Turn oven down to 180.
Beat the cream cheese and sugar until fluffy with a hand mixer and then add the eggs and beat again, and then slowly add the double cream and vanilla until thoroughly mixed and fluffy.
Split mixture equally as possible into six bowls. Then dye each bowl of batter a different colour.
Pour your first colour of choice onto the biscuit crumb base of the tin. I started with red. Give the pan a little shake so the batter covers the bottom evenly. Then pour your next colour into the centre. Do not shake this time but take the next colour and pour into the centre again. And repeat until all the batter is used and in concentric circles. Place on a baking tray and bake for 45minutes.
You should still have a slight wobble in the centre. Allow to cool and then refrigerate for a min of three hours or overnight.
To serve cut with a hot knife and marvel at how brilliant you are. Serve with fresh berries and creme fraiche. Delish!!
Tip to release from the tin run a table knife or pallet knife under a hot tap and dry off as then release the cake from the edges of the tin by running the knife around the sides before releasing from the springform tin.
The recipe doesn't really matter as long as its a standard 23cm baked cheesecake recipe.
Ingredients
250g digestive biscuits, crushed or any biscuit of your choice I like a ginger nut, Hobnob, Oreo cookie or chocolate digestive for a change. Whatever you fancy really.
150g Butter melted
115g Caster Sugar
3tbs Cornflour
900g of Full Fat Cream Cheese
2 Large Eggs
115ml Double Cream
1/2tsp Vanilla Extract
Food colouring paste NOT liquid food colour!!
Red
Blue
Green
Yellow
Pink
Purple.
Or any colours of your choice. It would be nice to split the mix into two colours and dye half the mix one colour and leave the other plain and have a pretty striped cake or make half chocolate and that will give you a zebra effect.
Mix crushed biscuits and butter and press into your 23cm springform cake tin. Bake at 200 in a hot oven or ten minutes and then leave to cool slightly.
Turn oven down to 180.
Beat the cream cheese and sugar until fluffy with a hand mixer and then add the eggs and beat again, and then slowly add the double cream and vanilla until thoroughly mixed and fluffy.
Split mixture equally as possible into six bowls. Then dye each bowl of batter a different colour.
Pour your first colour of choice onto the biscuit crumb base of the tin. I started with red. Give the pan a little shake so the batter covers the bottom evenly. Then pour your next colour into the centre. Do not shake this time but take the next colour and pour into the centre again. And repeat until all the batter is used and in concentric circles. Place on a baking tray and bake for 45minutes.
You should still have a slight wobble in the centre. Allow to cool and then refrigerate for a min of three hours or overnight.
To serve cut with a hot knife and marvel at how brilliant you are. Serve with fresh berries and creme fraiche. Delish!!
Tip to release from the tin run a table knife or pallet knife under a hot tap and dry off as then release the cake from the edges of the tin by running the knife around the sides before releasing from the springform tin.
Sunday, 10 February 2013
American Pancakes
This delicious, spongey, warm stack of beautiful pancakes anointed with amber, sweet, sticky maple syrup! What can beat this as a lovely Sunday morning breakfast? I love these! I love making them for when people stay over at the weekend! I serve them with butter, maple syrup and lots of fresh berries like raspberries and blueberries! Recipes is straight from Nigella! Never fails and always impresses! Make, eat, share and enjoy!
Ingredients
225 gram(s) plain flour
1 tablespoon(s) baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon(s) white sugar
2 large egg(s) (beaten)
30 gram(s) butter (melted and cooled)
300 ml milk
I'm lazy so I chuck everything into my blender and whizz for a few seconds until smooth but you can easily put all the ingredients in a bowl and give it a good whisk by hand. It's really not difficult.
I always use a large 2pt measure jug for the mixture making it easier to handle. I also have two squares of kitchen paper. One for under the jug to catch any drips of batter and the second dipped in a little oil to degrease the pan in between batches of the pancakes.
Get a nice large frying pan hot and oiled. Then dollop tablespoons of mixture about three or four depending on size of pan and wait for little air bubbles to appear on the surface of the pancakes. They are ready to turn when they are drier around the edges and have a nice even coverage of air holes across the top. Turnover and cook for a few more seconds and then pop on a plate. Swipe the hot pan which your oiled paper towel and repeat until all the mixture is used up.
Utter scrumptious!!!
Ingredients
225 gram(s) plain flour
1 tablespoon(s) baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon(s) white sugar
2 large egg(s) (beaten)
30 gram(s) butter (melted and cooled)
300 ml milk
I'm lazy so I chuck everything into my blender and whizz for a few seconds until smooth but you can easily put all the ingredients in a bowl and give it a good whisk by hand. It's really not difficult.
I always use a large 2pt measure jug for the mixture making it easier to handle. I also have two squares of kitchen paper. One for under the jug to catch any drips of batter and the second dipped in a little oil to degrease the pan in between batches of the pancakes.
Get a nice large frying pan hot and oiled. Then dollop tablespoons of mixture about three or four depending on size of pan and wait for little air bubbles to appear on the surface of the pancakes. They are ready to turn when they are drier around the edges and have a nice even coverage of air holes across the top. Turnover and cook for a few more seconds and then pop on a plate. Swipe the hot pan which your oiled paper towel and repeat until all the mixture is used up.
Utter scrumptious!!!
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
Red Velvet Cupcakes
I've been bored laid up at home recovering and frustrated as I'm starting a new diet this week to shed these unwanted pounds! I've stumbled across the fabulous Brown Eyed Baker and had to make her Red Velvet Cupcakes. She's adapted the recipe from the Humming Bird Bakery and they totally hit the spot. I didn't have any buttermilk and can't get out to the shops to collect so I used natural yogurt to fantastic results! They are topped with a simple butter cream and are a beautiful colour. Simple and perfectly formed. These will definitely be going on our menu when we open up our dream Cafe/deli. Enjoy!!
Makes 12 cupcakes prep time: 15 minutes cook time: 20 minutes total time: 35 minutes.
INGREDIENTS:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup caster sugar
1 egg
2½ tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons red food coloring
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup natural yogurt / buttermilk
1 cup + 2 tablespoons self raising flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1½ teaspoons distilled white vinegar
1. Preheat oven to 200c and line a cupcake pan with cases.
2. On medium-high speed, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to high and add the egg. Scrape down the bowl and beat until well incorporated.
3. In a separate small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, vanilla extract and red food coloring to make a thick paste. Add to the batter and mix on medium speed until completely combined. You may need to stop the mixer to scrape the bottom of the bowl, making sure that all the batter gets colour.
4. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add half of the buttermilk or yogurt (if using). Add half of the flour and mix until combined. Scrape the bowl and repeat the process with the remaining yogurt and flour. Beat on high until smooth.
5. Again, reduce the mixer speed to low and add the salt, baking soda and vinegar. Turn to high and beat for another couple of minutes until completely combined and smooth.
6. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a thin knife or skewer inserted into the center of the largest cupcake comes out clean.
7. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove cupcakes from the pan and place them on a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
*Note: This recipe can be doubled to make an 8 or 9-inch layer cake.
Credits: (Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker, originally from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)
Makes 12 cupcakes prep time: 15 minutes cook time: 20 minutes total time: 35 minutes.
INGREDIENTS:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup caster sugar
1 egg
2½ tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons red food coloring
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup natural yogurt / buttermilk
1 cup + 2 tablespoons self raising flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1½ teaspoons distilled white vinegar
1. Preheat oven to 200c and line a cupcake pan with cases.
2. On medium-high speed, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to high and add the egg. Scrape down the bowl and beat until well incorporated.
3. In a separate small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, vanilla extract and red food coloring to make a thick paste. Add to the batter and mix on medium speed until completely combined. You may need to stop the mixer to scrape the bottom of the bowl, making sure that all the batter gets colour.
4. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add half of the buttermilk or yogurt (if using). Add half of the flour and mix until combined. Scrape the bowl and repeat the process with the remaining yogurt and flour. Beat on high until smooth.
5. Again, reduce the mixer speed to low and add the salt, baking soda and vinegar. Turn to high and beat for another couple of minutes until completely combined and smooth.
6. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a thin knife or skewer inserted into the center of the largest cupcake comes out clean.
7. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove cupcakes from the pan and place them on a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
*Note: This recipe can be doubled to make an 8 or 9-inch layer cake.
Credits: (Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker, originally from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)
Saturday, 19 January 2013
Chubby Hubby truffles
Oh my god!!! You have got to make these! I found them on my favourite website the Brown Eyed Baker and this has got to be the best recipe I have ever made! The fact I'm going on a massive weight loss diet means I can't make these for myself but I have friends over in a few weeks and I'll be making these for them! I cannot WAIT!!!
INGREDIENTS:
1½ cups pretzel pieces
½ cup smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
Pinch salt
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 cup milk chocolate broken up and melted.
DIRECTIONS:
1. Put the pretzel pieces into a resealable plastic bag and crush into very small bits (a rolling pin works great for this).
2. In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar and salt. Stir until all of the ingredients are completely blended and smooth. Add the pretzel bits to the peanut butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the powdered sugar and mix until completely combined.
3. Line a small baking sheet with wax paper. Using a small cookie scoop, or about 2 teaspoons worth of peanut butter mixture, gently shape into a ball with your fingertips. Place the ball on the wax paper-lined cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining peanut butter mixture. Place the baking sheet into the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes.
4. When ready to dip the truffles, microwave the chocolate in a small bowl at 50% power in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until completely melted and smooth.
5. Working one at a time, dip one peanut butter-pretzel ball into the melted chocolate and use a fork to roll it around, ensuring that it is completely coated with chocolate. Let any extra chocolate drip off and place back on the wax paper-lined sheet. Repeat with all of the peanut butter-pretzel balls.
6. Return the baking sheet to the refrigerator and again chill for at least 30 minutes. Garnish with a drizzle of melted peanut butter and crushed pretzels, if desired. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
INGREDIENTS:
1½ cups pretzel pieces
½ cup smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
Pinch salt
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 cup milk chocolate broken up and melted.
DIRECTIONS:
1. Put the pretzel pieces into a resealable plastic bag and crush into very small bits (a rolling pin works great for this).
2. In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar and salt. Stir until all of the ingredients are completely blended and smooth. Add the pretzel bits to the peanut butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the powdered sugar and mix until completely combined.
3. Line a small baking sheet with wax paper. Using a small cookie scoop, or about 2 teaspoons worth of peanut butter mixture, gently shape into a ball with your fingertips. Place the ball on the wax paper-lined cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining peanut butter mixture. Place the baking sheet into the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes.
4. When ready to dip the truffles, microwave the chocolate in a small bowl at 50% power in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until completely melted and smooth.
5. Working one at a time, dip one peanut butter-pretzel ball into the melted chocolate and use a fork to roll it around, ensuring that it is completely coated with chocolate. Let any extra chocolate drip off and place back on the wax paper-lined sheet. Repeat with all of the peanut butter-pretzel balls.
6. Return the baking sheet to the refrigerator and again chill for at least 30 minutes. Garnish with a drizzle of melted peanut butter and crushed pretzels, if desired. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Friday, 18 January 2013
Red Pepper Soup
Another gem from Sandra to grace the pages of my lonely blog. This is healthy and delicious and as always super fast!
Three red peppers deseeded and chopped into 6
Six tomatoes quartered
One red onion peeled and quartered
1tbsp Garlic oil
Water
Vegetable stock cube
Place all veg in a roasting tin and toss in the garlic oil and pop into a hot oven at 200c and roast for 30 mins.
Once roasted pop into a saucepan and cover with water and add the stock cube. Bring to boil and blitz with a hand blender.
Eat it whilst its yummy and hot! Really delish and another winner from the kitchen of the beautiful and talented Mrs F! Love you xxx
Three red peppers deseeded and chopped into 6
Six tomatoes quartered
One red onion peeled and quartered
1tbsp Garlic oil
Water
Vegetable stock cube
Place all veg in a roasting tin and toss in the garlic oil and pop into a hot oven at 200c and roast for 30 mins.
Once roasted pop into a saucepan and cover with water and add the stock cube. Bring to boil and blitz with a hand blender.
Eat it whilst its yummy and hot! Really delish and another winner from the kitchen of the beautiful and talented Mrs F! Love you xxx
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Dilly Campbell's infamous Tex-Mex Dip
I've mentioned my obsession with this divine dip before and Dilly and I met up just before Christmas and she was as always fabulous enough to have written it down for me again! I've now carved this recipe in every place possible so I never lose it again! I can't wait to make this for movie night and munch through a large bag of tortillas.
Ingredients
2 avocados
2tbsp lemon juice
Salt & Pepper
Chop the avocados and mix in a bowl with the lemon juice. Set to one side
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 packet of Fajita seasoning
Mix all together in a separate bowl and set to one side.
1 tin refried beans
1 jar Hot Tomato salsa
1/2 bunch of spring onions chopped finely.
3 fresh tomatoes diced small
1 jar black sliced pitted olives, drained
100g grated cheddar
Layer all the above ingredients in an ovenproof dish as below:
1. Refried beans
2. Avocados
3. Sour cream, Mayo mix
4. Fresh tomatoes
5. Spring onions
6. Salsa
7. Black sliced olives
8. Cheese
Pop in the oven and back until the cheese is crusty and melted. Serve with Nachos, Tortilla chips or Tacos.
Ingredients
2 avocados
2tbsp lemon juice
Salt & Pepper
Chop the avocados and mix in a bowl with the lemon juice. Set to one side
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 packet of Fajita seasoning
Mix all together in a separate bowl and set to one side.
1 tin refried beans
1 jar Hot Tomato salsa
1/2 bunch of spring onions chopped finely.
3 fresh tomatoes diced small
1 jar black sliced pitted olives, drained
100g grated cheddar
Layer all the above ingredients in an ovenproof dish as below:
1. Refried beans
2. Avocados
3. Sour cream, Mayo mix
4. Fresh tomatoes
5. Spring onions
6. Salsa
7. Black sliced olives
8. Cheese
Pop in the oven and back until the cheese is crusty and melted. Serve with Nachos, Tortilla chips or Tacos.
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