Tag Archives: desserts

Vegan gluten free fairy cakes

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Filed under egg free, Gluten free cakes, Vegan cakes, Vegan gluten free

vegan gf fairycakes

My daughter loves home made cakes.  As a coeliac who’s allergic to eggs (and very fussy) she has limited choices when it comes to cake so I’m  constantly trying to create the perfect baked good for her. I’ve been experimenting with all sorts of different types of flour recently in an effort to eliminate the claggy, chalky texture that you sometimes get in gluten free cakes and I’ve really fallen in love with Kinako, made from roasted soya beans and which tastes like caramel peanuts. I’ve used it here, but you can easily omit it (I give you that option) as it’s fairly hard to get hold of. I also often add ground almonds to a gluten free cakes as they also help with the texture. I’ve included them here but if you can’t eat nuts just  omit them and make up the weight in gf flour.

These little cakes, which are sort of a cross between a fairy cake and a cupcake came about because  we have friends coming for lunch on Monday (a bank holiday) and their youngest daughter can’t eat dairy. I still wanted to treat everyone to something indulgent so I decided to try making  vegan gluten free fairy cakes with chocolate frosting. I used the recipe on the back of the Doves Farm flour packet as my starting point and added a few tweaks (the Kinako for one), plus my own icing which is based on the Hummingbird Bakery frosting recipe and is amazing. I think they turned out really well – light but moist with a beautiful caramel undertone. I think my kids liked the frosting best, but then they always do.

Ingredients:

  • 100g dairy free spread  [I recommend using ‘Pure’ sunflower spread. It tastes and bakes the best of the most commonly available dairy free spreads. Pure also do a soya and olive version but don’t get those they don’t bake well]
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or extract
  • 50g gluten free self raising flour blend (I use and recommend Doves)
  • 25g ground almonds
  • 35g Kinako flour (or omit this and just use 85g Self Raising Doves flour blend). You can buy Kinako from Souschef.com or from JapanCentre.com
  • 25g chickpea (or ‘gram) flour mixed with 4 tablespoons of water (this replaces the egg)
  • 3 tablespoons of dairy free milk. I use Koko coconut drink; you could use soya milk or almond milk. I think the Koko cooks best and you can’t taste it in the finished result.

Method:

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 fan
  2. Cream together the sugar and dairy free spread (I use a free standing mixer)
  3. Mix in the chickpea (gram) flour mixed with the water
  4. Mix in the dairy free milk and then the vanilla
  5. Mix in the flours, baking powder and ground almonds (I should tell you to sieve the flour but tbh I rarely bother)
  6. You could add some dairy free chocolate chips at this point if you fancied
  7. Half fill 12 cupcake cases with the batter
  8. Bang the baking tray down on your work surface a couple of times
  9. Cook the cakes for 18 minutes or until golden and an inserted cake tester comes out clean.

For the frosting:

Beat together (I use a free standing electric mixer with a paddle attachment but you can use a hand held electric whisk) 100g of dairy free spread (again I use Pure sunflower), 300g of icing sugar ad 40g of gluten free cocoa powder (I used Green and Blacks). If you’re using a free standing machine set it on medium slow until the mixture comes together then turn it down to slow and add 40ml of dairy free milk one tablespoon at a time. Then turn the speed up to high and beat the icing until it’s light and fluffy.

Pipe the icing onto the cooled cakes with a swirly flourish and serve.

vegan gf fairycakes 2

The Ultimate Flapjack

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Filed under Baking, chocolate, dessert, Easy recipes, Flapjacks, high tea, pudding, Sweet things, tea time treats, white chocolate

flapjack8

Delilah had another end of term music concert today and we’re always asked to make a contribution to the tea afterwards so I made some flapjacks as I didn’t have much time yesterday. I stupidly forgot to press start on the timer when I put the mixture into the oven so it got rather over-cooked and I thought it was a disaster; Mr Arabella Cooks pulled a face and said “the top is too crunchy”.  So I went along intending to put the plate of flapjack slices anonymously onto the catering table and pretend they weren’t mine. I was amazed and delighted therefore when people started asking who’d made them and could they have another one because they were delicious? I (obvs) quickly claimed them as mine and when a very sweet lady said they were the best flapjacks she’d ever tasted I promised to post the recipe. So here we are. The best flapjacks in the world (maybe; they’re also a bit Christmassy as they have cranberries in them).

Ingredients:

  • 400g oats (I used regular porridge oats)
  • 200g golden syrup
  • 200g light muscovado sugar
  • 200g unsalted butter
  • Grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
  • 3 tablespoons of dessicated coconut
  • 100g dried cranberries
  • 100g raisins
  • 80g white chocolate, melted
  • 80g dark chocolate, melted (or some of the chocolate sauce from my pumpkin pie recipe)

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees (fan); grease and line a baking tin (I used a 7 inch square tin but I think it was a bit too small; either an 8 or 9 inch square or something rectangular would work well)
  2. Melt the butter, golden syrup and sugar together in a large saucepan.
  3. Take off the heat and stir in the oats, coconut, lemon zest, cranberries and raisins. Mix it all together well and make sure all the oats are coated with the melted butter and sugars.
  4. Pour into the prepared tin and pat it down (I started with a metal spoon but in the end just used my hands).
  5. Bake – you have two options here. If you like your flapjacks squidgy and soft, cook it for 25 minutes. If you like them crunchy, cook it for 40 minutes.
  6. When cooked, remove from the oven, allow to cool in the tin for 20 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.
  7. Again you have two options here. You can either wait until the flapjack is completely cool and drizzle the white and dark chocolate (or chocolate sauce) over the top as per my picture above, and then cut it into squares, OR cut the flapjacks into squares before it cools completely (as it’s easier to cut then), push the squares together to form one big square, drizzle the chocolate over and then separate them while the chocolate cools and hardens. Dead yummy!

 

Chocolate, Chai Spiced Pumpkin Pie with an Oreo cookie crust

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Filed under Chai spice, chocolate, Chocolate pumpkin pie, dessert, Dinner party pudding, No bake pumpkin pie, pudding, Pumpkin pie, Sweet things, Thanksgiving

pumpkin pie 4

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I went to my first ever Thanksgiving dinner party, cooked and hosted by a lovely American friend. Apparently Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas in the States and they make as much effort with this meal as we do our Christmas food. Traditional Thanksgiving dinner consists of roast turkey, sprouts with bacon, creamed sweetcorn, mashed sweet potato with lots of cinnamon in it, cranberry sauce, carrots, stuffing and gravy. It’s similar to our Christmas meal but much, much sweeter.  For dessert they have pumpkin pie. More orange puree. I had volunteered to make the dessert for last night’s dinner but I just couldn’t face a traditional pumpkin pie because I can’t stand the taste of pumpkin, so I created this riff on the original. I added chocolate and salt to the crust and filling and chai spices to the filling. The Americans add ginger, cinnamon and cloves to their pie so chai was a good fit (although I did leave out the cardamom). I used Nigella Lawson’s salted Oreo crust (from her new book) instead of pastry because I wanted something with more depth and texture as a foil for the blandness of the pumpkin. And because I was using a biscuit crust I didn’t want to have to cook it, so it’s actually really easy to make and no baking involved.

For maximum wow factor serve it, as I did, with the chocolate sauce (recipe below) and some caramel and chocolate chip ice cream (I’m posting the recipe for that in the near future, but in the meantime you could happily just soften some top quality vanilla ice cream, drizzle in some dulce de Leche or tinned Carnation Caramel and throw in some dark chocolate chopped up into very small pieces, run a fork through it to get a marbled effect from the caramel and freeze until ready to serve).

It was delicious and even my highly sceptical non pumpkin loving friend (not the American I hasten to add) said, in a very surprised voice “I like it!”

Ingredients

For the crust:

  • 2 packets of Oreo biscuits
  • 50g dark chocolate
  • 50g soft unsalted butter
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of smoked sea salt flakes (add them whole, not crumbled; you could happily use regular sea salt flakes, just don’t use table salt)

For the filling:

  • 1 can of Libby’s pumpkin puree (Waitrose stock it)
  • 100 grams dark chocolate  with min. 70% cocoa solids
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste (I’ve recently discovered this. They all use it on Bake Off; you can just use vanilla extract but the paste has a deeper flavour)
  • 4 teaspoons of cocoa powder, sieved
  • 2 tablespoons of caramel (Dulce de Leche or Carnation is fine)
  •  70g dark brown muscovado sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of butter
  • ¾ teaspoon smoked (or regular) sea salt flakes
  • 3 teaspoons or 15g  cornflour
  •  40 ml full fat milk
  •  300 ml double cream
  • 1 chai teabag (I used Tea Pigs; their spices are whole so it was easy to take out the cardamom)
  • 1 sachet of  ‘Drink me chai’ Chai Latte powder

Method (for the crust):

  1. Break up the biscuits and put them into a food processor with the chocolate (also broken up) then blitz them together until you have crumbs.
  2. Add the butter and salt and blitz again until the mixture starts to clump together.
  3. Press the mixture into a large, round fluted tart tin and pat down on the bottom and up the sides of the tin with your hands and the back of a spoon (I used a bit of both), so that the base and sides are evenly lined and smooth. Put into the fridge to chill and harden for at least 1 hour (2 hours if your fridge is full).

For the filling:

  1. Melt the chocolate (broken up into small pieces) in a bain marie or in the microwave.
  2. In a food processor whizz together the pumpkin puree, muscovado sugar, caramel, butter, salt, cocoa powder and vanilla.
  3. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and stir in the melted chocolate.
  4. Slake the cornflour – put it into into a cup and stir in the milk until smooth.
  5. Pour the cream into a heavy-based saucepan, open the chai teabag (take out the cardamom pod) and add the spices to the pan, along with 3 teaspoons of the Chai Latte powder. Heat the cream and spices gently for a few minutes.
  6. Add the cornflour and milk mixture to the cream and stir until the liquid is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (if you run your finger down it, the two sides of the parting stay put).
  7. Take the thickened cream off the heat and sieve it directly into the pumpkin and chocolate mixture. Stir gently to combine. Taste it and add more Chai Latte or cocoa powder if desired.
  8. You want the mixture cool enough so it won’t melt the biscuit base when poured in so you could put a piece of damp baking parchment over the top of it to stop a skin forming and cool it down in the fridge if necessary. Otherwise just pour or spoon it into the set biscuit crust.
  9. Put pie into the fridge overnight to set.
  10. Take the pie out of the fridge about 5 minutes before you want to serve it – un-mould it by pushing the bottom up and out of the fluted ring (or stand it on something sturdy but smaller in circumference and gently push the fluted ring down and leave the base on).
  11. You can serve it as is, or with a dusting of sieved icing sugar, or as I did, with a squiggle of chocolate sauce over the top and lots more chocolate sauce over the ice cream. To make the chocolate sauce, melt 100g plain chocolate with 50ml whipping cream, add a very generous squeeze of golden syrup, a tablespoon of condensed milk, a scant tablespoon of butter and a pinch of salt and stir together. Taste and add more syrup/condensed milk if desired. To achieve the perfect consistency for drizzling/squeezing over your pie you may need to add some milk to thin it – use your judgement.

As mentioned above, it goes exceedingly well with choc chip caramel ice cream too and makes for an utterly divine pud! Very yummy indeed.

slice of pie 1

Gluten free white chocolate blondies with dark chocolate chunks

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Filed under Baking, chocolate, desserts, egg free, Egg free desserts, Gluten free, tea time treats, white chocolate

blondie

It’s late, I’m tired, I’ve been to Manchester and back to today and have only just finished working, but I promised someone I’d blog this very tasty blondie by tomorrow and at ten o’clock tomorrow morning I’m going to deepest, darkest Devon with no wifi or phone signal (the reality of this is just sinking in..) so it’s now or never. As you know the daughter has coeliac disease; she’s a very fussy eater; she likes chocolate (no fussiness with that foodstuff – what a shocker) and she’s also allergic to eggs. I’ve developed a blondie recipe that she can eat and actually doesn’t taste like it’s gluten AND egg free (it’s not crumbly and it has a decent rise) so here it is. (I made it with my new miracle egg replacer discovery – whipped chick pea brine, but I’ll give you directions for using the real thing too). It’s yum. When I left this morning the whole cake was intact as per the photo above; on my return this evening there were a few crumbs left. Mr Arabella Cooks and three lively children had demolished almost all of it (and I’ve just polished the rest off).

blondie 3_edited-1blondie 4

Ingredients:

  • 1 x 150g bar of gluten free white cooking chocolate (I use Green and Blacks) broken up.
  • 200g unsalted butter, cut up into small chunks
  • 150g of caster sugar
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt
  • 150g of gluten free plain flour (I use Doves)
  • 50g of gluten free BREAD flour (it has xanthan gum added to it which helps to bind your bake)
  • Half a bar of dark gluten free cooking chocolate (I use Green and Blacks)
  • 200 ml of milk (full fat)
  • 9 tablespoons of aquafaba (the liquid left when you drain a can of chickpeas), whipped to stiff peaks OR 3 large eggs

Method:

  1. Pre heat the oven to 180 (160 fan) degrees
  2. Grease and line a square 18cm/7 inch cake tin with baking parchment
  3. Melt the chocolate and the butter together in a large bowl over a small saucepan with a small amount of water in it, on a low heat. White chocolate (which isn’t really chocolate) does not react well to being heated too quickly or too much so watch it.
  4. Whisk your aquafaba to stiff peaks with a hand held or free standing mixer; if using eggs, whisk them to soft peaks then add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat until it looks like mousse.
  5. (With aquafaba): Mix the flours, sugar, salt and baking powder together in another bowl.
  6. Make a well in the centre and add the melted chocolate and butter mixture. Stir to combine.
  7. Fold in the whipped aquafaba using a metal spoon (you want to try and retain as much air as you can; it’s difficult as the aquafaba collapses more easily than real eggs).
  8. You want a nice ‘dropping consistency’ batter, so now add as much of the milk as you need to achieve this.
  9. Add the dark chocolate chips to the batter and stir. Add the batter to the prepared tin.
  10. Bake. In my oven it took 45-50 minutes to cook. All ovens vary so test it with a cake skewer at 25 minutes in and then every 5 minutes until it’s done. It’s OK for this to be a bit gooey in the middle – the best brownie/blondies are; it’s better for them to be under than over baked, but you don’t want too much floury taste left (esp as it’s gluten free flour) so make sure it’s got a good colour on the top and is done sufficiently.
  11. Remove from the oven; allow to cool in the tin then remove very gently and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
  12. If you’re using real eggs to make this:
    1. You’ve melted the butter and white choc; you’ve whisked the eggs and added the sugar.
    2. Add the butter and choc to the eggs and keep whisking.
    3. Add the flours and baking powder directly to the egg and chocolate mixture and fold it in.
    4. You shouldn’t need to use the milk if you’re using eggs, but if your batter is too thick, add a little to loosen it
    5. Stir in the chopped up dark chocolate
    6. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake in the oven. I didn’t use eggs so couldn’t say for sure how long to cook it for but I’d say between 25 and 35 minutes; check it after 25 minutes as above..

Enjoy x

blondie 2

Chocolate cake in a cup

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Filed under Baking, cake, chocolate, dessert, Dinner party pudding, easy puddings, Easy recipes, mug cake

mug cake 1

I love making mug cakes. I love how easy they are – no weighing, melting or creaming, just measuring and adding spoonfuls into a cup. Last night Mr Arabella Cooks and I fancied a quick dessert after our evening roast so I knocked one of these up. We stood with our noses pressed against the microwave door oohing and ahhhing at the magic of the rapidly rising pud and it’s gorgeously thick, intensely chocolatey smell. When they work these are as good as any fancy restaurant or dinner party fondant.  Overcook them however and they are disgusting – like rubbery cardboard. Every microwave oven (bizarrely) cooks differently, so you might have to make a couple before you discover the exact time it takes to achieve mug cake perfection in your own oven. My first attempt last night didn’t work.  The recipe I used called for far too long in the oven. The second one, though, after a few tweaks, was utterly gorgeous.

They don’t photograph terribly well. The feature picture here is essentially just a mug. Sorry about that. But cooked perfectly they taste divine. So get a dozen or so eggs in, find someone to sample the ones that don’t work (our two year old is very handy in that regard) and enjoy the research.

Serves two (or 1 greedy person)

Equipment:

  • A mug
  • Some measuring spoons (these are a really useful thing to have in your kitchen; dessert spoons all differ in size so to be really accurate you need these)

Ingredients:

  • 4 tablespoons of plain flour
  • 4 tablespoons of sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 3 tablespoons of milk
  • 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil or melted butter (I use oil)
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla essence
  • a  handful of dark chocolate pieces (I used Dr. Oetker dark chocolate chunks; chop up a small bar of chocolate if you don’t have any chips or chunks to hand)
  • Optional – a teaspoonful of peanut butter

Method

  1. Put the dry ingredients into the mug and stir with a fork
  2. Add the milk, oil or butter and vanilla. Stir to combine
  3. Add the egg and stir until you have a smooth, glossy batter with no pockets of flour
  4. Stir in the chocolate pieces and if you’re going to use it put the teaspoon of peanut butter into the middle of the batter and scrape in the peanut butter using another teaspoon
  5. Put the mug into the microwave. In mine, which is 900W, it takes exactly 1 minutes and 30 seconds to achieve fondant nirvana.
  6. Let it cool slightly, then either eat it straight from the mug or run a palette knife around the edge and tip it out gently onto two plates. There should be a natural break in the middle where it’s still gooey, giving you two perfect melting middle chocolate fondant puddings. It’s delicious with ice cream, especially my raspberry ripple. Yum!

Hot chocolate mousse and raspberry ripple ice cream

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Filed under chocolate, desserts, easy puddings, hot choclate mousse, Ice cream, raspberries

hot choc mousse fiddled twice

It’s dessert week on Bake Off tonight and in honour of that I’m posting my hot chocolate mousse recipe. And because it’s so utterly delicious it will knock your socks off. And because it’s really REALLY easy to make.

Ingredients for chocolate mousse (serves 4):

  • 125g plain cooking chocolate
  • 35g unsalted butter (softened)
  • 3 eggs (separated)
  • 40g caster sugar

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 c (fan).

  1. Break chocolate up into small pieces and put into a mixing bowl with the butter and melt over the pan of barely simmering water.
  2. Remove from the heat, add the egg yolks and stir well.
  3. Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, then gradually whisk in the sugar until glossy and stiff (like a meringue).
  4. Fold the meringue gently into the chocolate mixture and pour into oven-proof tea cups or ramekins. Chill in the fridge until time to cook (at least 20 minutes).
  5. When ready take the mousses out of the fridge and place them on a baking tray. Bake them at 180c for 8 minutes until the mousse has risen to the brim of the moulds and is beginning to firm up on the sides but still gooey in the middle. Serve immediately before they collapse.

Ingredients for raspberry ripple ice cream:

  • 200g raspberries
  • 3 tablespoons of icing sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  • Ice cream in an ice cream maker:
    • 200g double cream
    • 200g full cream milk
    • 150g caster sugar
    • Pinch salt
  • Ice cream without an ice cream maker:
    • 600ml double cream
    • Half a 397ml can of condensed milk
    • 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

  1. Make the coulis – put the raspberries, icing sugar and lemon juice into a blender and whizz to a smooth sauce consistency. Pass through a sieve to remove the pips.
  2. Make the ice cream:
    1. In an ice cream maker: mix together the milk, cream, salt and sugar in a jug. Pour into a cooled down ice cream maker bowl and churn for 30 minutes or until thick.
    2. Without an ice cream maker: whisk the 600ml of double cream, tsp of vanilla and condensed milk until it’s very stiff. Line a loaf tin with cling film.
    3. For both methods once cream is churned/thick:  In either your loaf tin or a shallow plastic tub, add a layer of the cream, add a layer of the coulis, add another layer of cream and another layer of coulis, then a final layer of cream and the rest of the coulis on top. Use a knife or metal pronged stick to ripple the coulis around and through the cream, leaving a lovely swirly pattern on the top (this photo is of some blackcurrant ripple I made recently but you get the idea).

rippled ice cream

Serve the mousses straight away with a scoop or slice of raspberry ripple, which is nice with some chopped pistachios and honeycomb on top (you can make your own or just chop up a Crunchie bar if you can’t be bothered). I made this in the second round of Masterchef for the past winners (without the pistachios and honeycomb) and they and Greg all declared it yum!

hot chocolate mousse with rasp ripple iced cream

(Wonderful photo by Blanche Hughes, who has many more brilliant photos and recipes on her blog: Blanched. Check it out. x)

Easy lemon curd mousse with lemon arlettes

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Filed under Arlettes, Baking, dessert, Dinner party pudding, Easy recipes, Lemon curd

mousse sharp

On tonight’s Bake Off the technical challenge was a biscuit called an Arlette which involves making a sort of puff pastry from scratch. Whilst on holiday in Devon two weeks ago I saw a Rose Prince dessert in a newspaper magazine which I thought sounded easy to make and tasty. I thereby unwittingly made these very same biscuits. (Well, sort of, anyway). I had no idea they were called Arlettes; I thought they were more of a Palmier (shows how much I know). Of course I didn’t make my own puff pastry and I suspect Paul and Mary would have issues with my thickness (and not having any cinnamon in them) but nevertheless they were delicious and went beautifully with the gorgeous lemon mousse, so, with a small amount of alteration, here they are. (Serves 4 – 6 depending on the size of your ramekins).

Ingredients for the lemon Arlettes:

  • 1 block or sheet of all butter puff pastry (blocks are usually 375g and sheets 320g)
  • The zest of 3 lemons, grated (Prince says 2 but I think they needed a bit more lemonyness)
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 1 egg, beaten

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200C

  1. Unroll your sheet of pastry, or roll out the pastry to ¼ cm thickness if you have a block. (Prince says ½ cm but I’m thinking about Paul and Mary here).
  2. Scatter 2/3 of the lemon zest and a generous tablespoon of sugar onto both sides of your pastry  – you can do this by putting half (of your two thirds) of the sugar and zest onto a piece of baking parchment, placing your pastry on that and then scattering the remaining half of your two thirds of lemon and zest on top of the pastry. (Sounds complicated; really isn’t).
  3. Roll up the pastry (from the short end) into a log shape, wrap it tightly in baking paper and chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins (or 10 mins in the freezer).
  4. Unwrap and cut the pastry roll into thin slices.
  5. Gently roll the slices even thinner using a rolling pin.
  6. Place the slices on a baking sheet covered with baking paper covered in half of the res of your zest and sugar.
  7. Brush them with beaten egg and then dust their tops with the remaining lemon zest and sugar.
  8. Bake until golden – about 10-15 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for a minute or two then cool completely on a rack.

Ingredients for the lemon curd mousse

  • 1 jar of the best lemon curd you can afford (about 320g. You could make your own, but then the recipe wouldn’t be ‘easy’)
  • 300g double cream, whipped
  • The zest of 1 lemon, pared (if you can. I find this very tricky. But it does look nicer if the peel is pared not grated. Though grated will of course be fine).

Method:

Fold the lemon curd into the whipped cream until the two are amalgamated, then spoon or pour it into pretty ramekins. Scatter the pared zest on the top and chill until needed. Serve with the beautiful Arlettes. Simple as. Yums! (ps your Arlettes should look thinner than mine!)

mousses 3

Blackberry ice cream

Posted
Filed under Autumn fruits, blackberries, Egg free desserts, Gluten free desserts, Ice cream

ice cream mix smartfixed

There are a lot of blackberry bushes at the back of my house. I’ve been eyeing up some early ripeners every time I get in and out of the car and this evening the children and I just couldn’t resist picking the first crop of big juicy berries. They were huge! I’ve wanted to make a blackberry ice cream for ages so set to as soon as we got back indoors. I used my preferred basic ice cream recipe. It’s a very straightforward formula – cold cream, cold milk, sugar, flavouring (vanilla, chocolate etc), churned in an ice cream maker (I use a Gaggia).  It makes a light and smooth ice (like an Italian gelato) which pairs exceptionally well with fruit. Actually it pairs well with anything, as it’s quite a basic background (I was going to say bland, but actually it’s not).  The chocolate version is dense and rich and moreish and the chocolate chip and salted caramel is one of my friend’s favourite ice creams (and Mr Arabella Cooks’ too). I’ll post that recipe in the near future, but for now, here is my magnificent, intense berry tang of a blackberry gelato. It’s lush.

Recipe

  • 500g blackberries
  • Caster sugar
  • Cassis (a blackcurrant liqueur. You can do without it if you don’t have any or don’t want to splash out on a bottle. I do use it all the time though so find it pays for itself, really. Makes a nice cocktail too)
  • Lemon juice (a good squeeze)
  • 200ml double cream
  • 200ml full fat milk
  • 130g caster sugar

Method:

  1.  Make a blackberry coulis: tip the blackberries into a pan (any will do – saute, saucepan or frying pan) with a good glug of cassis, a hard squeeze of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of water and about 2 tablespoons of caster sugar. Cook on a medium heat till it bubbles a bit then simmer it gently until the berries break down and the sauce thickens a bit. About 4 or 5 minutes.
  2. Sieve the coulis into a jug, to remove the pips. Press down hard to get all the lovely sauce from the fruit and don’t forget to scrape the underside of the sieve. Leave to cool.

ice cream coulis

3. Make sure your ice cream maker is either cooled down if it has an internal cooling unit, or your bowl is chilled from the freezer if it doesn’t. (You can make this very easily without an ice cream maker if you don’t have one – just mix a can of condensed milk with 600ml of double cream and a bit of vanilla essence and whisk until it’s very, very thick. Mix the coulis into the cream, then put it into a loaf tin lined with clingflim and freeze. It won’t be quite as good as a churned version but thoroughly delicious all the same).

4. Mix together the milk, cream and sugar in a separate jug or bowl, then pour it slowly into the cooled coulis.

ice cream mix

5) Pour the delicious mixture into your ice cream maker and churn until thick. Then transfer to a tub and freeze until you can no longer resist eating large spoonfuls whilst standing at the freezer with the door open (yes I do). Yumbles.!ice cream last

Gluten free mocha chocolate ice box cake

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Filed under cake, chocolate, dessert, Gluten free, mocha, pudding, Sweet things

cake 3

A friend of mine is poorly so I made her a cake. This is a spectacularly easy way of making an impressive and delicious gluten free dessert, but it can be gluten free or gluten containing in the blink of an eye. It just depends what kind of biscuits you use. It’s based on the principle of an Italian tiramisu – flavoured whipped cream layered with biscuits. You put it in the fridge overnight and it hardens the cream and softens the biscuits (into ‘sponge’) et voila: cake/pudding/breakfast/whatever. Top it with something delicious and yum to the max, frankly.

Ingredients:

  • 4 packets of Maryland double choc chip cookies (if you don’t need to go down the gluten free route) or 5 packets of gluten free double chocolate chip biscuits (Kent of Fraser or Doves are good) to make it gluten free.
  • 600ml double cream
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 50/60ml of cold espresso coffee
  • 1 teaspoon of good vanilla essence
  • 350g mascarpone
  • 2 tablespoons of cocoa or cacao powder
  • Optional extra if not making for children: (60 mls Kahlua)

Method:

  1. In a large bowl, whisk together the cream, mascarpone, sugar, cocoa/cacao, cold espresso and vanilla (and Kahlua if using), until it forms firm peaks.
  2. Take a high sided, loose bottom cake tin (you don’t need it to be springform) and put a layer of biscuits on the bottom. You’ll need to break some to make the jigsaw of biscuits fit with as few gaps as possible (it takes practice; by the last layer I was brilliant at it).
  3. Spread a thin layer of the cream mixture over the biscuits. Put another layer of biscuits on top (again assembling it like a jigsaw) followed by another layer of cream and so on until you have run out of biscuits and cream/come to the top of the tin. You should end up with around 5 layers, with the top layer being cream.
  4. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate overnight (or all day if making in the morning to serve at night. It needs at least 6 hours).
  5. When ready, take it out of the fridge and run a small sharp knife around the outside of the cake and push the bottom up and out (I used Mr AC to help me with this). On the top I put some caramel and Belgian chocolate popcorn (for texture and flavour) and then shaved some Lindt Swiss Classic Double Milk chocolate bar (which is my current favourite cake decorating secret) with a vegetable peeler on top of that. I should mention though that the Lindt chocolate is not gluten free (my friend didn’t need a gf option) so if you can’t have gluten use something else to decorate).
  6. Serve cold, in wedges.
  7. Store it in the fridge and eat quickly as it won’t keep for very long (no matter though as you’ll want to eat it all immediately anyway because it’s Y U M!).

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Father’s Day tea: Nana Christine’s cheese scones; strawberry and brown sugar pavlova

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Filed under Baking, desserts, high tea, pavlova, scones, strawberries

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I went out last night for the third evening in a row. As it was Father’s Day today I used the opportunity to make it up to my forbearing husband by making him some very nice things to eat. I did my best ever roast chicken for lunch (thyme butter in-between the breast meat and skin, and half a lemon in the cavity; duck fat roast potatoes) and in the afternoon we had high tea with grandparents: cheese scones and a brown sugar, chestnut and strawberry pavlova.

The Nana Christine in the title is my sister’s mother in law. She is an amazing baker and her cheese scones are delicious. The secret, she says, is not to roll out the dough with a rolling pin but simply flatten it using the heel of your hand. This helps the scones rise on their own and keeps them light. It definitely works – I’ve made them time and time again and they always turn out beautifully. They have a high proportion of cheese in the mix which I think is also key. I’m often disappointed by how un-cheesy a cheese scone can be. I also add a sprinkle of finely grated cheese on top of each scone. I think it looks appealing and makes them taste even better. My two year old was going to eat these so I didn’t add any cayenne pepper, but it’s customary to do so and makes them taste a little ‘tingly’, which I like, so I’m putting it into the recipe as an optional extra.

The pavlova is a Mary Cadogan recipe which I tweaked only very slightly.  It was absolutely divine and my best pavlova ever (I do say “This is my best ever”  rather often; “You say that every time you cook something” replies my husband; but this time, honestly, it was the truth). The brown sugar gives the meringue a gorgeous caramel flavour and the cornflour and vinegar give it a fabulously gooey middle. I am trying very hard not to go back to the fridge and polish off the whole lot.

Cheese scones Ingredients (makes 16):

  • 285g self raising flour
  • 85g butter (cold)
  • 230g mature cheddar, grated, plus a little extra for the top
  • 180ml milk
  • salt and pepper
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 C (fan)

  1. Mix the flour with the cayenne pepper if you’re going to use it (you can sift them together; you don’t need to sift if you’re not going to add the cayenne)
  2. Cut the butter into cubes and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs
  3. Add a pinch of salt and a twist or two of black pepper
  4. Stir in the cheese with a metal fork, so that it’s completely coated with flour. You don’t want the cheese to melt so don’t use your hands.
  5. Add the milk slowly and mix into a stiff dough with a knife or fork. You may not need all the milk; you may find you need a teeny bit more. You need to use you judgement here –  you want a stiff, not gooey dough, but one that you can work with and won’t fall apart.
  6. Turn the dough out on to a floured surface and knead it lightly.
  7. Flatten out the dough with the heel of your hand, to about 3cm high. No lower or the scones won’t rise enough.
  8. Use a round cookie cutter (mine is 6cm diameter), cut out your scones and place on baking parchment on a metal baking tray. (When you have cut as many as you can, knead the remaining dough together again and repeat…)
  9. Glaze them with milk and sprinkle some grated cheese on top of each scone pavlova 5
  10. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until they are a deep golden colour.
  11. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack, or just eat them immediately, with a large swipe of salted butter. Y U M!

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Variation: To make fruit scones replace the cheese with 55g of sugar (golden caster is nice) and 55g sultanas (and obvs leave out the salt, pepper and cayenne too). Add the sugar and sultanas after you’ve rubbed in the butter; dip your cookie cutter in flour before cutting out each scone (to stop it sticking); don’t twist the cutter but bang your hand on the top and then pull it out cleanly; bake near them in a slightly hotter oven – 200C, for 10-15 minutes until golden. You could also use a mixture of milk and lightly beaten egg (about 100ml of milk and 2 medium eggs; reserve a little of the egg to glaze the top of the scones before baking).

Strawberry and brown sugar pavlova

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Ingredients:

For the pavlova

  • 2 tsp vinegar, any type but not malt. I used white wine vinegar.
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 heaped tsp cornflour
  • 4 large egg whites
  • 100g light muscovado/light brown sugar
  • 100g golden caster sugar
  • 25g whole (not blanched) hazelnuts bashed up a bit (I whizzed mine in my mini blender for a few seconds; you don’t want crumbs but slightly broken up is nice)

For the topping:

  • 600g strawberries
  • 3 tbsp cassis (blackcurrant liquer)
  • 3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
  • A tablespoon of icing sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
  • About 600ml of double cream
  • Some toasted flaked almonds (roughly 30g; buy flaked almonds and put them onto a baking sheet in the oven until you can smell them – about 5 mins or so, and they are slightly darkened)

Method:

For the pavlova

  1. Preheat the oven to 140C/fan 120C. Cut off a piece of baking parchment to fit your baking sheet; using a pencil draw round a 20cm cake tin onto the baking parchment; turn the parchment over (so you don’t get pencil on your pavlova).
  2. Add the vinegar and vanilla essence to the cornflour, gradually, to make a paste.
  3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff. I used a freestanding electric mixer but you can easily use a hand held electric whisk.
  4. Gradually whisk in the sugars, adding a little paste with each addition, until a thick marshmallowy meringue is formed. Don’t overwhisk your egg whites or the mixture will become grainy and you’ll knock all the air out. It will still taste great but won’t be quite as high (I actually over whisked mine a little, and it was still delicious, so don’t get too hung up about it).
  5. Spread it out in the circle on the baking sheet, swirling the knife (a palette knife is a good implement to use) to make peaks.
  6. Scatter over the hazelnuts
  7. Bake for 1 hour, then turn off the oven and leave it to cool. (I made mine the night before and left it in the oven overnight).

For the topping:

  1. Make a coulis by whizzing up 100g strawberries and a tablespoon of icing sugar with a hand blender, in the small bowl of a food processor or in a mini blender. Sieve the sauce into a bowl and add the cassis and pomegranate molasses.
  2. Whip the cream with the caster sugar, softly. (It is absolutely essential not to overwhip the cream). Top and slice half the strawberries and fold them into the cream.
  3. Swirl 3 tbsp of the coulis through the lightly whipped cream.
  4. Put the pavlova onto a large, flat plate. Spoon over the cream, scatter on the remaining strawberries (I left some whole, halved some with their tops still on and topped and halved the rest) and the toasted flaked almonds and drizzle with the sauce. Serve to some very lucky people indeed. Yummmmm!

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