Hot Cross Muffins

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With Easter just a few days away I couldn't resist finally having a go at making some hot cross buns. I decided to put a little twist on them and within a few minutes had discovered hot cross muffins. They consist of the same yeasted dough but are baked in muffin tins and therefor a little smaller than the usual buns. The dough is pretty sticky so I suggested either using a bread machine or a stand mixed with a dough hook attachment. I ended up using quite a lot more flour to get the dough to a workable consistency when kneading in the raisins and currants and they still turned out great so don't worry about using extra, just don't overdo it. The recipe claims to make 9 but I ended up with about 16 muffins.

Recipe adapted from BBCGoodFood
You will need-

• 450g strong white bread flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 7g sachet of dried yeast
• 50g butter, cubed and at room temperature
• 2tsp mixed spice
• 50g golden caster sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 275ml milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 200g of your favourite dried fruit, I used raisins and currents
• 2tbsp plain flour
• Golden syrup for glazing

Place the flour, salt, yeast, butter, mixed spice, sugar, lemon zest, milk & eggs into your bread machine or mixer. Turn on the bread machine onto the dough setting. If using a mixer knead for around 5 minutes or until the dough is soft, smooth and springs back when you press it with a finger dipped in flour before covering the bowl with a tea towel leaving it in a warm place to rise for an hour.

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured work surface. Deflate it and then press it out into a large circle. Place your dried fruits into the middle and then lift and fold the dough from around the edges over till its all covered. Knead the dough to help distribute the fruit and then cut through it with a knife a few times before kneading again. This is the messy bit so use extra flour here if the dough is really sticky.

Prepare your muffin tin by lining it with muffin cases or squares of greaseproof paper and then roll the dough into 12 balls. You may get more than this out of the mixture so have a few more cases ready just in case. Place them in the muffin tin and cover with a tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place for around 30 minutes. Toward the end of the rising preheat your oven to 180C.

To make the crosses mix the 2tbsp plain flour with 5-6 tsp of cold water and mix into a paste. Fill a piping bag (or a sandwich bag and snip the corner). When the muffins are ready pipe crosses on them and then bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

When they come out of the oven, brush with a little golden syrup to glaze and leave to cool slightly before tucking in. They will keep for a few days in an airtight box.

Enjoy x

An Ottolenghi Feast

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If you didn't know already (I do go on about it quite a lot) I'm a huge fan of Yotam Ottolenghi. Every since we got Plenty as a wedding gift I have been cooking lots of his recipes. For Christmas I finally got The Cookbook, Ottolenghi's first book and ever since I have been eager to make some of the savoury treats in there. As you have seen on here, I have already baked quite a lot of the sweet treats like the macarons, blueberry crumble & plum, marzipan & cinnamon muffins and pistachio & ginger biscotti. Also, his Quesadilla & Potato Tart Tartin are serious favourites in our house. I have been planning on making some more of his salads and sharing plates for a long while now and finally the opportunity arose for my mother in law's birthday. I have to apologies for the poor photos, I was a little too busy planning and cooking and completely forgot to bring my camera along. To go along with the dishes my brother in law Dan, slow roasted a delicious shoulder of lamb which literally fell of the bone and was so unbelievably tender.

A bit of a hybrid of 2 recipes, quinoa & arborio rice with spices, currents, pinenuts & fresh mint and parsley

Roasted new potatoes with cherry tomatoes, olives, lemon, sage & parsley. (the original recipe called for Jerusalem artichokes which I didn't have)

Chargrilled courgette, asparagus & halloumi with roasted tomatoes, rocket and basil oil

The star of the show, burnt aubergine dip with cucumber, garlic, pomegranate & parsley

 I made the dip, basil oil and rice dish a day ahead along with the cake which I forgot to photograph (a gluten free rhubarb & lemon cake) and then with Tim's help, cracked out the other two dishes after work this afternoon. Looking at these photos is making me want seconds. Luckily I have enough for my lunch tomorrow. The aubergine dip recipe is from Plenty and the rest are in The Cookbook, the rice dish being a mix of the Camargue red rice and quinoa on page 76 and filling from the stuffed vine leaves on page 86 (which was inspired by my friend Steph's creation)

Avocado & Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich

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I have always been a massive fan of cheese on toast but fairly recently discovered the phenomenon that is a grilled cheese sandwich- Our friends over the pond really do get somethings very right. Up until now I haven't really delved much further than some nice mature cheddar and a bit of chilli sauce between my bread but this weekend I took it up by about 5 notches with the addition of crispy bacon and avocado.

To make a grilled cheese sandwich you need a griddle pan ideally but a frying pan will work too. 2 slices of bread, 3/4 rashers of cooked dry cured, smoked pancetta bacon, 1/2 avocado sliced, mature cheddar & chilli sauce. Heat your pan on a high heat then either butter or brush oil onto the outsides (not the sides the fillings go in) Build up your sandwich and then place onto the pan. Cook for a few minutes on each side or until the cheese starts to ooze. Placing the butter or oil on your bread ensures you get that lovely golden & crispy outside.

Some days you really have to give in to your cravings and go all out.

Clandestine Cake Club & A Saturday in Cambridge

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This Saturday I went along to my first Clandestine Cake Club which was hosted by Miss Sue Flay at La Tasca in Cambridge. It was great fun, and lovely meeting new people as well as trying some amazing cakes. Unfortunately I only managed 4 slices before ending up in the biggest sugar coma. The theme was show stopper cakes and they sure were. I ended up making another Dan Lepard recipe, a coconut milk layer cake with meringue buttercream icing which I was pretty pleased with. I just wish I had added a little more lime. It is a cake I have been baking at work so I had managed to get a little practice in with the icing. It was great meeting Lynn, the founder of the Clandestine Cake Club who came along to join us for the event. Miss Sue Flay is planning some more events for the year so if you would like to find out more details check out the Clandestine Cake Club website

After the event, Victoria, Jo & myself headed off for a G&T in the sun. We ended up on the wall outside Kings College soaking up the rays and people watching. It was the perfect thing to get my out of my sugar coma. We have been so lucky with the weather the last week or so and I am dreading it getting cold again. Days like that really make me appreciate how beautiful Cambridge is and how lucky I am to live where I do. (The last picture is just for Jo, this 'chap' was posing for everyone for about 15minutes)

 

Placke, Fried Dough recipe

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For as long as I can remember my mum used to make these placke as a special treat on the weekends. They are fantastic eaten sweet or savoury but my favourite is with a big dollop of jam. They would be great served with a poached egg on top or just with some yogurt. 

You can make these with left over pizza or bread dough or even shop bought, ready made doughs like pizza or the Pilsbury bread doughs work really well. As there is just two of us in our house, whenever I make pizza I always have lots of leftover dough. I keep it in the fridge and then just break off little golf ball sized piece. You need to place a pan over a medium high heat with a tablespoon or so of rapeseed or sunflower oil and when its nice and hot stretch your dough out quite thinly and then place them in the pan. They take just a few minutes to cook on each side. You want them to be golden brown on the outside so keep an eye of them so they don't burn. Before serving them sit them on some kitchen paper to soak up the oil and then serve warm with your favourite toppings.

 Ok, I admit they're not the healthiest of breakfasts but the combination of the crispy outside with the lovely spongy inside is irresistable. I can't guarantee that you won't end up making these a little too often.

Review- La Tasca, Cambridge

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Last week I was invited by the manager of La Tasca in Cambridge to come and sample their new menu. The last time I had been to La Tasca must have been at least 3, if not 4 years ago. The last time I had felt like everything seemed to taste the same, all in a tomato sauce and reheated rather than cooked from fresh. Well I have to say, it looks like La Tasca has completely changed their game. Kevin, the manager informed my that they have changed 80% of the menu and updated many of their other dishes. As well as this they have gone from just a handful of suppliers to around 45 in an attempt to source the best ingredients. I noticed on the menu that their paellas are cooked to order and they ask that you allow a minimum of 20 minutes when ordering them which gave me hope that they had made a big effort to make things better.
I also noticed that they have made a huge effort with gluten free dishes. They even serve a gluten free beer. A couple of my family members are wheat intolerant so its something I always keep my eye on with new places that I go to.
We started off the meal with a jug of of their traditional sangria and one of their sharing platters. My previous experiences of sangria have been of a very sickly and sweet drink that gives you an instant headache but I was very happy to discover a lovely light and refreshing drink which I could of happily drunk all night. Out of 1 jug we managed to get about 6 glasses and didn't end up stumbling out of the restaurant afterwards.
The sharing platter Tabla Espanola consisted of sliced chorizo, salchicohn, serrano ham, mixed olives, Manchego cheese & Spanish ciabatta which was a bit of a cross between ciabatta and a baguette. It was a nice start to the meal with good quality ingredients although it did fill me up quite a lot before the tapas so perhaps next time I would share this between more people or just choose a couple of items from the nibbles menu.

We then went on to choose our tapas dishes. We were recommended 3 each but everything on the menu sounded great and we found it really tricky choosing. We decided on Empanadas which were filled with spicy mince beef & regato cheese. These were devoured first and definitely something we want to have again.

We also chose the chorizo to see if whether the quality of the sausage had improved. With it being just grilled there was no hiding. The chorizo was lovely and tender and a really nice flavour, and thankfully not swimming in oil or a sauce.

Another favourite was the 3 bean and mint salad. Lovely and refreshing along with some of the slightly heavier choices. This is something I will be attempting to make at home. It is a mixture of kidney, borlotti & cannellini beans with chickpeas in a mint dressing. Another thing I would definitely order again.

For our 4th option we chose the slow cooked pork belly, another new item on the menu. This was lovely and tender and fell apart. It was a good quality piece of meat with not too much fat on. This was served on a tomato & bean sauce which accompanied it very nicely. Even Tim, who is a bit picky when it comes to meat loved it.

The lemon chicken was our 5th choice. It's a mixture of chicken breasts and Mediterranean vegetables that have been pan fried with lemon and served with a sticky lemon glaze. This was another lovely refreshing dish although probably my least favourite, although Tim really liked it, I'm just not a huge fan of chicken breast.

The calamares were our last choice but because Tim doesn't eat fish they were all mine. They were perfectly cooked, no rubber bands in sight and in a nice light batter. Unfortunately I couldn't quite finish this dish all on my own.

For pudding I had been planning on trying their churros but by this point we were so full we went for the lighter option of the strawberry & lemon sorbet which was a great end to the meal.

I really was pleasantly surprised by this meal as I had written off La Tasca a few years ago. We both thoroughly enjoyed our meal and are already planning a trip back to try some of the other tasty sounding dishes. I am already kicking myself for not trying some of the other things on the menu.

The food is very reasonably priced with tapas dishes ranging between £2.95 and £5.95 and Paella between £8.95 and £11.95.

Salted Peanut & Caramel Macarons

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I have been eager to have a go at making macarons for a long time, but was always really put off by all the horror stories I had heard and read. Today is my only day off this week so I decided to grab the bull by the horns and jump in to making macarons head first! I did a bunch of research last night reading Deepa's and The Pink Whisk's blogs as well as my Ottolenghi cookbook. I decided that I wanted to try the filling in Ottolenghi's book but with the method from The Pink Whisk. I had read in many places that I should age my egg whites so I left them overnight to do their thing. I had to use my tiny food processor which meant blitzing together ground almonds & icing sugar in 2 parts. I ended up with some quite sold lumps of the mixture which I had to break with my fingers so I sifted it twice and left it in a bowl. As this was my first go I tried to be as careful as I could when it came to the folding but I think I did overdo it a bit. I had drawn circles on my greaseproof paper for the piping but I came to realise really early on that they were way too big.

They spread quite a lot and looked a little too flat for my liking but I carried on and sprinkled them with the peanuts (stupidly the whole lot instead of just half) and left them for 30 minutes for the outsides to set. My oven is ridiculously hot so I heated to 130 ready to get baking. Once they went in I kneeling on the floor infront of my oven, shining a torch in checking for the precious 'feet'. When it got halfway through cooking and I decided to turn the tray, knowing how unevenly my oven cooks that was when I discovered disaster! My macarons had spread so much they were touching and to add insult to injury had cracked like mad. I finished cooking them as I still wanted a taste. Whilst they finished off baking I did a little more research and decided that
1. I had piped them too big
2. I had over mixed
3. My oven was too hot, hence the cracking.
I really didn't want to give up there as I had the feeling that otherwise I probably wouldn't attempt them again in the future so I washed everything up and started again using Ottolenghi's recipe.

 

This time around I didn't have aged eggs so just got going with some I had bought the previous day. These seemed to work fine and as you can see from the following photos I had a much better result the 2nd time around. I'm so glad I didn't give up! I don't think that the Pink Whisk's recipe is wrong I just think that I had learnt my lesson a little from round 1. I piped them a lot smaller, Ottolenghi recommends no bigger than a £2 coin and also left a lot of space in between. The recipe called for a lot more peanuts and caramel than I used so I have reduced the quantities in my recipe.

To make 12 you will need-

Recipe adapted from Ottolenghi The Cookbook

• 60g egg whites from free range eggs (around 2 eggs worth)
• 40g caster sugar
• 60g ground almonds
• 110g icing sugar
• 10g roasted peanuts, roughly chopped

For the filling

• 15g roasted peanuts
• 50g dulce de leche/caramel made from condensed milk
• A pinch of salt

Pour your egg white and caster sugar into a clean bowl of a stand mixer (or use an electric hand whisk) and whisk on the highest speed until you have a thick but not dry meringue.

Next, sift together the ground almonds & icing sugar into a separate bowl. Add a third of the meringue into it and fold it in really gently until it is all mixed together and then added another third and kept folding and adding till you have used it all up. Fold till you have a 'smooth and glossy' consistency but be really careful not to overdo it as it will cause them to spread lots and be really flat. 

Dot a little of the mixture in the corners of your baking tray to hold the paper down and then using a piping bag with a large round attachment pipe your small circles. (I actually just used my bag with no attachment as mine were all too small. You could also use a sandwich bag with a corner snipped off)

Bang the tray down a couple of times to make the macarons spread and smooth out a little and then sprinkle half of them with the chopped peanuts. Leave to one side for 15 minutes so that they get a little skin over them. Whilst that is happening preheat your oven to 140C fan assisted. If your oven is really hot reduce it further. I baked mine at 120C and for a few minutes longer than instructed.

If baking at 140C bake for around 12 minutes. To check if they're done use a palette knife to check if they easily lift off the paper. If they don't cook for a little long, just be careful not to over cook them though.

Once they're ready remove them from the oven and leave to cool completely. To make the filling just combine the peanuts and caramel together and then add the salt to taste. You want there to be a good balance of salt and sweet.

When the macarons are cool pipe or spoon on a pea-sized amount onto the macaron halves that don't have the peanuts on then place the tops on and gently press them together. Leave them to set for a few hours if you can manage it or just dig in straight away like I did!

I was ao pleased with this batch, that I baked another lot that afternoon to use up the caramel and ensure I had plenty for mothers day. I am feeling really excited about trying out some other flavour combinations very soon!