Recipe No. 30 - Simply Good Apple Pie

We all cheat once in a while, then I often justify it to myself in a million and one ways. For example..Im on a diet but I took the stairs instead of the lift so I am allowed to eat these crisps.

With this recipe I cheated slightly - BUT the recipe said so! I used shop bought pastry as it was so hot when I made this I really didnt want to be slaving making puff pastry. as I said the recipe stated I could use shop bought pastry!!

So this really couldnt have been simpler, I peeled and chopped the apples, combined them with sugar and lemon and then placed them in my pie dish, Rolled out the all butter pastry and laid it on the top.
It was just before the Jubilee (apologies for the late post!), and I added a little pastry crown on the top that I got the cutter for from Cake Decorating magazine :)

Simple just as the title suggested.

Then I served it with Clotted cream - YUM. It was delicious. I thought at first it might be bland as it had no other flavour than the apples lemon and sugar but it was lovely. Very British.

Recipe No. 29 - Coconut Macaroons

At work we have a brand come in occasionally called Mrs Crimbles, who make Gluten Free products. My friend loves their Coconut Macaroons and as soon as we get some in he makes a beeline for them. At the weekend he completed a charity event called Tough Mudder in which he endured a 12 mile obstacle course to raise money for charity.
I promised to make him something nice as a treat for completing it so that is how I chose this recipe!

This is literally the simplest recipe ever! the only fiddly bit is trying to get the macaroons into a neat and tidy pyramid. This didnt happen to mine - they look more 'rustic' !!

The coconut milk, beaten egg white, and sweetened shredded coconut is mixed together and left for half an hour - thats literally it!



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After that time the mixture is formed into the pyramids that the book suggested, Now whoever did the ones in the book is an absolute genius..they are small and perfectly compact! Mine were more small piles of coconut in a roughly pointed shape!

These are then baked for 25 minutes until the peaks are firm and browned.
Once they've been left to cool melt the chocolate and then drizzle over the top. Finished!



These went down really well, they weren't overly sweet and were still moist in the middle - Perfect with a cup of tea! And ignoring the waiting time in between cooling, cooking, standing time, took no more than 35minutes to make!

Recipe No.28 - Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I can't believe I haven't written this entry yet! I completely forgot!

These were a bit of a last minute bake and I wanted to try out the Stork easy mix baking liquid.

These cookies were a simple mix-it-all-together recipe so in went the flour, nuts, chocolate chunks, sugar and last but not least the Stork. I was advised that this doesn't work for cookies where you are required to roll out the dough. The stork is easy to measure out and even easier to mix in.
However the mixture is a very sloppy consistency - which as I mentioned is fine for this type of recipe.
This was spooned (dripping all over the place) onto the lined baking sheet.
15 minutes later and I pulled these out of the oven.

The nuts made a lovely crunch in the soft chewy cookie texture.

After the relative success of my first go at using the Stork Liquid I made cup cakes with it. They came out nicely and tasted like they normally do however the mixture was very sticky and runny. I do think it is a great idea and for some recipes it is easier to use but in future i'll be sticking to proper butter!!!

Recipe No.27 - Strawberry and Pistachio Tart

Strawberry and Pistachio Tart, requested by work!
This requires very little actual baking but is very time consuming.

First the pastry is made including ground pistachio's to give it a lovely nutty flavour, after 30 minutes chilling it is rolled into a circle and pricked all over with a fork. In the book it suggested pinching around the edges to give a fluted look which I attempted. Before baking it looked nice but during the baking the edges blurred slightly.

After the pastry base was cooked and cooled I hulled the strawberries and heated the raspberry jam, these are then placed on the base and the glaze brushed on, finally topping with chopped pistachios.

I didnt really enjoy making this for some reason, I think it was because it didn't involve doing very much and I kept having to stop and start waiting for it to chill, cook, cool etc.

However it did taste really nice and was good to have some fresh fruit to make me feel less guilty about eating it!

Recipe No. 26 - Simnel Cake

Happy Easter Everyone!

I've been a bit busy this week so am finally getting around to typing up about the Simnel cake I made on Monday.
Prior to actually making this cake I've never tried Simnel Cake but this blog - and the up and coming Easter weekend has given me that little push in the right direction. I don't know why I've never actually tried it as I love both fruit cake and marzipan but anyway...

Ok so this starts out as a relatively simple fruit cake, however whilst you are filling the tin with the mixture when it reaches halfway a layer of rolled out marzipan is placed on top and then the remaining mixture added. This is baked for 30 minutes at a higher temperature and then at a lower for an hour although I think in future 50 minutes would suffice for my oven.

The cake is then left to cool for about 2-3 hours. Once cool heated apricot jam is spread on top and a layer of marzipan is added along with marzipan balls to represent the disciples. This depends on your opinions of Judas whether you add 11 or 12 balls. I went with 12 but only because it was easier to space the balls evenly. Diagonal lines are scored across the top and the cake is placed under the grill to brown the marzipan.

 Diagonal lines are scored across the top and the cake is placed under the grill to brown the marzipan.

Finished!

This cake was lovely, not too heavy and the layer of marzipan keeps the centre of the cake nice and moist.

Recipe No. 25 - Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

I....LOVE...CHEESECAKE.


Whenever I go out for dinner I can never resist a cheesecake, I can be so stuffed the thought of food makes me sick but as soon as that waiter offers me a Dessert Menu and I see a cheesecake (Lemon in particular - but i'm not fussy!) I HAVE to have it.

I especially love a baked cheesecake with a nice buttery, crumbly biscuit base. This cheesecake had 2 types of chocolate, both milk and white. First of all the digestives need to be bashed into crumbs unless you have very little stress in your life in which you can do it in a food processor. This is mixed with melted butter and pressed into the base of a spring form tin then placed in the fridge while the filling is made.

The cream cheese, sour cream and sugar are beaten together then the sugar, vanilla and eggs added and the whole gloopy mess is poured over the base and baked for approximately an hour. After that the oven is switched off and the cheesecake left inside to cool to reduce the chances of cracking across the top.

This went down really well, It wasn't exceptionally sweet although some people may find that the dark chocolate chunks are a bit too bitter in which case a chocolate with a lower cocoa content could be used. I used a 74% bar. Other than that its lovely with a nice helping of cream or creme fraiche.

Recipe No. 24 - Chocolate Fudge Hot Pot Pudding

This recipe is the ultimate comfort food when its cold outside and you can't wait to get home to something rich and gooey.

The recipe is amazingly simple, all of the ingredients are combined and added to a well greased dish.
Then this next bit seems so odd to me, coca powder and hot water are combined to make a thin, watery chocolate sauce and it is poured over the mixture.

The dish is put in a hot oven for about 35 minutes so that it is still runny at the bottom and served with ice cream or cream.. This went down so well and served slightly more than recommended - and we were not scrimping on the portions! I'd say it served about 9, 5 the first day and then I kept it in the fridge overnight. The next evening I poured a little more hot water over the sponge to keep it moist and heated it in the oven at about 180c for 15-18 minutes and it came out just as nice as the day before!

Happy Baking! xx

Recipe No. 23 - Zebra Shortbread

Shortbread strikes me as tricky, It seems easy but its all in the baking time. Not long  enough and it could be soft, too long and it will be too hard.

This looked so nice because of the stripy pattern of dark and white chocolate.
First of all the dark and white chocolate are melted and left to cool, then meanwhile the butter, sugar, flour and egg are combined. The mixture is then split in half, half is mixed with the dark chocolate and the other half combined with the white chocolate.
Both of the clumps of dough are then sandwiched in between 2 sheets of clingfilm and rolled into rectangles and chilled.
After half an hour the 2 sheets of dough are pressed together. The edges are neatened and then the rectangle is cut into 3 and they are stacked up to form one large stripy brick, this is left for another 30 minutes in the fridge

I had to cook mine in batches and the second batch was chilled for about 10 extra minutes which made all the difference, the lines between the layers were much sharper.

The brick is thinly sliced, placed on baking paper and cooked for 10 minutes. Once cooked they must be left to cool on the sheets for a few minutes before being transferred to a cooling rack.

You can see the biscuit on the right at the front is smudged whereas the on the left the lines are clearer


I will definitely bake these again as I think they were slightly under baked, another minute would probably have made them more crunchy when they had cooled.