My first Fresh From the Oven challenge was hosted by Wendy, and we made Chelsea Buns.

Chelsea buns were created at The Chelsea Bun House, an establishment which was situated on the borders of Chelsea and Pimlico, London.

The Chelsea Bun House was in business for the best part of a century; eventually closing it’s doors in 1839. At the height of its success in the 18th century it was frequented by high society, including Kings George II and III, who apparently would call in for a bun en route to the nearby Ranelagh Pleasure Gardens. The Bun House was also noted for its hot-cross buns. Legend has it that on Good Friday in 1829, 240,000 hot-cross buns were sold, and crowds of over 50,000 thronged outside the shop in anticipation of delicious buns hot from the kitchen’s ovens.

Sources disagree about the exact historic location of the Bun House – either Grovesnor Row or Jew’s Row according to what you read. Neither exist now, but in today’s Pimlico there is a Bunhouse Place, which is within strolling distance of the remains of Ranelagh Pleasure Gardens.

Chelsea buns are made from enriched bread dough, filled with dried fruit, coiled into a distinctive spiral shape, and then smothered with a sticky glaze. Sounds good? Jane Grigson in ‘English Food’says that Chelsea buns are, “the best of all buns, on account of their melting buttery sweetness.”.

Whilst I wouldn’t go so far as Grigson to say they are the best of all buns, they were rather good.  Would I bake them again? Probably not in a great hurry – too many other things would take preference.

I’ve also submitted this post to the fabulous YeastSpotting, an event I’ve missed for far too long.

Chelsea Buns

• 225g strong white bread flour
• 25g caster sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 25g softened butter (for the dough)
• 1 1/2 tsp fast action dried yeast
• 1 medium egg, beaten
• 90ml warm semi-skimmed milk
• 25g butter really softened, but not melted (for the filling)
• 65g light muscovado sugar
• 115g (4oz) dried fruit

1. Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast into a mixing bowl (I used my KitchenAid as usual). Make a well in the centre and add the softened butter, egg and milk. Mix to make a soft dough.
2. Knead until smooth.
3. Cover and prove until doubled in size.
4. Generously butter and line a 7″ square tin. Make sure it’s not a loose bottomed one, or you’ll get problems later on and loose your filling.
5. Flour your work surface, and roll out the dough, (no need to knock it back) to a rectangle measuring about 12 x 9 inches. If you get the edges as square as you can it will help to make your buns look even, but I quite like the squiffy homemade look. Well, that’s my excuse and I’m damn well sticking to it!
6. Spread the softened butter as evenly as you can over the dough. Sprinkle the sugar and the dried fruit on top, and gently press it into the butter.
7. Now, roll up the dough along the long edge, as though you were making a Swiss Roll (and don’t tell me you haven’t!) Seal the edge. I find that smoothing it down with the flat side of a paring knife can help here, but don’t get too ocd over this bit.
8. Turn the roll over so that the seal is underneath and divide the roll into 9 equal buns.
9. Place the buns, cut side down, into the buttered and lined tin, and leave to prove until the dough has doubled in size, and they have all joined together into one big Chelsea bun muddle.
10. I baked mine in a 180 degree oven, for about 15 minutes, but I’ve got a particularly hot and fast cooking oven. You know your oven better than I do, and I suspect most of you will need to set the oven slightly higher, and /or cook for a little longer. Some recipes suggest covering the buns with parchment or foil, but the fan is so strong in my oven this has never worked for me.
11. Once cooked, cool on a wire rack, and eat them as soon as you dare. Or, of course, cover them in icing first.

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The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Tiramisu is one of my favourite desserts, and one that I have to admit regularly disappoints me when eating out. All too often the tiramisu comes soggy, with the biscuits practically disintegrating in front of your eyes, when in fact the savoiardi should literally be ‘kissed’ with the top notch espresso.

Everybody knows by now that Tiramisu means “pick-me-up” in Italian, for the high energy content (eggs and sugar) and the caffeine of the strong espresso coffee, but what do we know about the history of Tiramisu?

Tiramisu is said to have its origins in Treviso (Italy), and there are quite a few stories about how it came to be created.

One story traces the tiramisu as far back as the Renaissance claiming that it was first made in honour of the visit of Grand Duke Cosimo di Medici to Tuscany. Yet another one points to the tiramisu being an adaptation of the “Zuppa Inglese” referring to the sponge cake and cream layered English Trifle.
However, experts in this area generally agree that the tiramisu as we know it today, was born in the ‘70s.
Some believe that the Tiramisu was created in the the Le Beccherie (a restaurant in Treviso). Others suggest that Tiramisu was first made in 1971 by an Italian baker named Carminantonio Iannaccone in a small bakery in Treviso, Italy.

The process of making a tiramisu is quite time consuming but it no component part is particularly difficult to do.

I’ve made a few cheeses (most frequently ricotta) before and creme fraiche, but, mascarpone was new new ground. The process though was incredibly simple and the result was so much better than any mascarpone I have ever bought in the shops – so much lighter and creamier. Another bonus was that it actually worked out cheaper than shop-bought too.

The trickiest bit? Definitely had to be the zabaglione, purely because of the fact that it takes so much whisking. Happen I should have gone for the modern route of using the electric whisk but I decided to give my arms a workout and use a balloon whisk. Somewhere deep in my subconscious mind I suppose I was weighing up the fact that calories burned in the tiramisu preparation might just mean I could eat a slightly bigger piece of the finished dish, guilt free

Would I make another tiramisu using this recipe? Oh yes, definitely – this is most certainly Heaven on a Dessert Plate.

Although before I do I am just going to have to try Tiramisu di Sergia from Tessa Kiros’ Venezia Food & Dreams, which uses sweet vermouth and amaretti biscuits.

Tiramisu

PREPARATION TIME:

Tiramisu is made up of several components which can be made separately and ahead of time and put together the day before serving.
Making tiramisu from scratch requires about 2 to 3 days (including refrigeration) from when you start making the mascarpone to the time the tiramisu is served. So this challenge requires some prior planning.

Please read the instructions as you need to begin making the mascarpone at least a day in advance.
The zabaglione & pastry cream also need 4 hours to an overnight for chilling, as does the main dessert. The flavours mature after an overnight rest, and the dessert can be kept refrigerated for 2-3 days.
Once assembled, the tiramisu can be frozen till you need to serve it, in case you are not serving it immediately.

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED:

• A double boiler (a stainless steel bowl that fits inside a large saucepan/ pot without touching the bottom will do)
• Two or three large mixing bowls
• Whisk
• A medium sized heavy bottomed pan
• Fine meshed strainer (to remove lumps from pastry cream, if any)
• Electric mixer, hand held
• Serving dish (or dishes) of choice (8″ by 8″ should be fine)
• Spatula for folding and spoons as required
• Plastic wrap/ clingfilm
• Baking sheets
• Parchment paper or nonstick liners
• Pastry bag (can be disposable)
• Plain 3/4″ pastry bag tip or cut the end of pastry bag to this size (If you don’t have a pastry bag and/or tips, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off)
• Oven
• Cooling rack
• Thin-bladed spatula for removing ladyfinger biscuits from the baking sheets
• Instant-read thermometer (optional)
• Strainer
• Cheesecloth or cotton napkin for draining mascarpone
• Fine-mesh strainer for shaking cocoa powder on tiramisu

TIRAMISU

(Recipe source: Carminantonio’s Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007 )
This recipe makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
For the zabaglione:
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar/50gms
1/4 cup/60ml Marsala wine (or port or coffee)
1/4 teaspoon/ 1.25ml vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

For the vanilla pastry cream:
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1 tablespoon/8gms all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup/175ml whole milk

For the whipped cream:
1 cup/235ml chilled heavy cream (we used 25%)
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract

To assemble the tiramisu:
2 cups/470ml brewed espresso, warmed
1 teaspoon/5ml rum extract (optional)
1/2 cup/110gms sugar
1/3 cup/75gms mascarpone cheese
36 savoiardi/ ladyfinger biscuits (you may use less)
2 tablespoons/30gms unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:
For the zabaglione:
Heat water in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, place a pot with about an inch of water in it on the stove. Place a heat-proof bowl in the pot making sure the bottom does not touch the water.
In a large mixing bowl (or stainless steel mixing bowl), mix together the egg yolks, sugar, the Marsala (or espresso/ coffee), vanilla extract and lemon zest. Whisk together until the yolks are fully blended and the mixture looks smooth.
Transfer the mixture to the top of a double boiler or place your bowl over the pan/ pot with simmering water. Cook the egg mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 8 minutes or until it resembles thick custard. It may bubble a bit as it reaches that consistency.
Let cool to room temperature and transfer the zabaglione to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the pastry cream:
Mix together the sugar, flour, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. To this add the egg yolk and half the milk. Whisk until smooth.
Now place the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling.
Add the remaining milk a little at a time, still stirring constantly. After about 12 minutes the mixture will be thick, free of lumps and beginning to bubble. (If you have a few lumps, don’t worry. You can push the cream through a fine-mesh strainer.)
Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the whipped cream:
Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer or immersion blender until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Set aside.

To assemble the tiramisu:
Have ready a rectangular serving dish (about 8″ by 8″ should do) or one of your choice.
Mix together the warm espresso, rum extract and sugar in a shallow dish, whisking to mix well. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese with a spoon to break down the lumps and make it smooth. This will make it easier to fold. Add the prepared and chilled zabaglione and pastry cream, blending until just combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Set this cream mixture aside.

Now to start assembling the tiramisu.
Workings quickly, dip 12 of the ladyfingers in the sweetened espresso, about 1 second per side. They should be moist but not soggy. Immediately transfer each ladyfinger to the platter, placing them side by side in a single row. You may break a lady finger into two, if necessary, to ensure the base of your dish is completely covered.
Spoon one-third of the cream mixture on top of the ladyfingers, then use a rubber spatula or spreading knife to cover the top evenly, all the way to the edges.
Repeat to create 2 more layers, using 12 ladyfingers and the cream mixture for each layer. Clean any spilled cream mixture; cover carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate the tiramisu overnight.
To serve, carefully remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle the tiramisu with cocoa powder using a fine-mesh strainer or decorate as you please. Cut into individual portions and serve.

MASCARPONE CHEESE

(Source: Vera’s Recipe for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese)
This recipe makes 12oz/ 340gm of mascarpone cheese

Ingredients:
474ml (approx. 500ml)/ 2 cups whipping (36 %) pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized), preferably organic cream (between 25% to 36% cream will do)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Method:

Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. If you do not have a thermometer, wait until small bubbles keep trying to push up to the surface.
It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.
Vera’s notes: The first time I made mascarpone I had all doubts if it’d been cooked enough, because of its custard-like texture. Have no fear, it will firm up beautifully in the fridge, and will yet remain lusciously creamy.
Keep refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 days.

LADYFINGERS/ SAVOIARDI BISCUITS
(Source: Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home)
This recipe makes approximately 24 big ladyfingers or 45 small (2 1/2″ to 3″ long) ladyfingers.

Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated
6 tablespoons /75gms granulated sugar
3/4 cup/95gms cake flour, sifted (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp corn starch)
6 tablespoons /50gms confectioner’s sugar,

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C) degrees, then lightly brush 2 baking sheets with oil or softened butter and line with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites using a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add granulate sugar and continue beating until the egg whites become stiff again, glossy and smooth.
In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork and fold them into the meringue, using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over this mixture and fold gently until just mixed. It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding. Otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy.
Fit a pastry bag with a plain tip (or just snip the end off; you could also use a Ziploc bag) and fill with the batter. Pipe the batter into 5″ long and 3/4″ wide strips leaving about 1″ space in between the strips.
Sprinkle half the confectioner’s sugar over the ladyfingers and wait for 5 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Now sprinkle the remaining sugar. This helps to give the ladyfingers their characteristic crispness.
Hold the parchment paper in place with your thumb and lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess sprinkled sugar.
Bake the ladyfingers for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets and bake for another 5 minutes or so until the puff up, turn lightly golden brown and are still soft.
Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes and then remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and cool on a rack.
Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

N.B Recipe copied directly from the Daring Bakers challenge directions.

Since they invented Tiramisu, I’m in no position to tell the Italians what to do. But if they’re looking for a motto, as far as I’m concerned, they might want to consider: Mascarpone, Espresso, and Chocolate. (David Lebovitz)

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After taking a couple of months break from the Daring Bakers (due to work commitments & having a domain change) I am glad to say I’m back in the group of participants; and what a lovely challenge I returned too.

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

Nanaimo (for those of you not in the know, it is pronounced Nah-nye-Moh) are one of Canada’s best known confectionary treats.

The City of Nanaimo, British Columbia lays claim to these squares, claiming on their website that it all began when a Nanaimo housewife entered a recipe for chocolate squares in a magazine contest some 35 years ago.

The challenge couldn’t really have been easier, perfect for easing me back into the swing of Daring Baker life.

Nanaimo bars are a no bake chocolatey treat. All Nanaimo Bars begin with a base layer of a combination of cocoa powder, chopped nuts, coconut and graham cracker crumbs held together with melted butter. Once this mixture is pressed into a square pan and chilled it is then covered with a rich layer of custardy buttercream and topped with melted chocolate. I added a layer of peanut butter to one of my batches too, giving a resulting flavour not all that dissimilar to Reeses peanut butter cups.

The vital part of the butter-cream is the dried custard powder, which was the invention of Englishman Alfred Bird. He invented this powder because his wife loved homemade custard but was allergic to eggs. Alan Davidson in his “The Oxford Companion to Food” goes on to say that this powder is not, in fact, a dried form of real custard but is just cornflour (cornstarch) and sugar that has been coloured and flavoured. When the dried custard powder is used in this buttercream it adds a lovely flavour and it also turns the cream a soft yellow shade – or at least it once did, Birds now it seems have removed some of the colourants from the powder which is all well and good in terms of making our food more natural but it doesn’t bode well for the colouring of these bars.

Much I would have liked to go down the gluten free route for making the graham crackers I just couldn’t locate some of the flours locally, so I ended up using whole wheat pastry flour and very well it worked too. However, if anyone knows of a UK source for sorghum flour I would love to hear about it so as I can try the gluten free version too. It only occurred after making them that I could have tried using gluten free white flour but I presume that would have changed things far too much.

The use of a square pan ends up making quite a few bars and because they’re so rich you’ll want to cut them small. Plus, cutting them small has the added benefit of making you think you’re not consuming any calories of note and therefore you can eat that second helping, and trust me, you’ll want to.

Nanaimo Bars

Preparation time:

• Graham Wafers: 30 to 45 minutes total active prep, 2 ½ hours to overnight and 45 minutes inactive prep.
• Nanaimo Bars: 30 minutes.

Equipment required:

• Food Processor
• Bowls
• Parchment paper or silpats
• Cookie sheets
• Double boiler or pot and heatproof bowl
• 8 by 8 inch square pan
• Hand mixer or stand mixer (You may use a wooden spoon, but this makes it much easier!)
• Saucepan

For Gluten-Free Graham Wafers

• 1 cup (138 g) (4.9 ounces) Sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
• 3/4 cup (100 g) (3.5 ounces) Tapioca Starch/Flour
• 1/2 cup (65 g) (2.3 ounces) Sorghum Flour
• 1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
• 1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon (4 mL ) Kosher Salt
• 7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
• 1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
• 5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
• 2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract

1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.
2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.
7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.
9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.

Nanaimo Bars

Bottom Layer:

• 1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
• 1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
• 5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
• 1 Large Egg, Beaten
• 1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
• 1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
• 1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

Middle Layer:

• 1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
• 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream (double cream)
• 2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
• 2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

Top Layer:

• 4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
• 2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

Additional Information:

• These bars freeze very well, so don’t be afraid to pop some into the freezer.
• The graham wafers may be kept in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
• If making the graham crackers with wheat, replace the gluten-free flours (tapioca starch, sweet rice flour, and sorghum flour) with 2 ½ cups plus 2 tbsp of all-purpose wheat flour, or wheat pastry flour. Watch the wheat-based graham wafers very closely in the oven, as they bake faster than the gluten-free ones, sometimes only 12 minutes.
• For the Nanaimo Bars, if making with wheat, replace the gluten-free graham wafer crumbs with equal parts wheat graham wafer crumbs!

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The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Cupcakes may seem to be the flavour of the moment but us foodies are always on the hunt for the next best thing, we are it seems a people intent on the next sensation, pundits, food enthusiasts and bloggers alike have all wondered what this sensation might be. More than a few have suggested that French-style macaroons (called macarons in France) might supplant the cupcake. This may or may not come to pass, but the basic premise of the French macaroon is a delectable patisserie item.

When I was a child any reference to macaroons meant a cookie made primarily of coconut, which I by the way hated. However European macaroons are based on either ground almonds or almond paste, combined with sugar and egg whites. The texture can run from chewy, crunchy or a combination of the two. Frequently, two macaroons are sandwiched together with ganache, buttercream or jam, which can cause the cookies to become more chewy.

These delectable French cookies are notoriously hard to master. Have a tootle around various food blogs, cookery websites and you will see many an attempt to find the perfect technique. Which one is right? Which captures the perfect essence of macaroons? The answer is all of them and none of them. Macaroons are highly subjective, the subject of passionate debate in the food world. Do what works for you and you should be happy with the end result. 

We had a lot of scope with this challenge, we could choose our own fillings, our own flavourings, our own colourings but we just had to stick to the method laid out by our hosts.

I’d just had a large bag of cobnuts delivered and thought this to be a great opportunity to get using them. Kentish cobnuts are a type of hazelnut. Most of the hazelnuts grown in Britain are of the named variety Kentish Cob, which was introduced in the early 19th century. Cobnuts are marketed fresh, not dried like most other nuts such as walnuts and almonds and consequently they can usually only be bought when in season, typically from about the middle of August through to October, although stored nuts may be kept until Christmas. At the beginning of the season the husks are green and the kernels particularly juicy. Nuts harvested later on have brown shells and husks, and the full flavour of the kernel has developed. 

The cobnuts grow in a papery husk, and then are contained within a relatively hard shell. As you can see my cobnuts were late season and had taken on that lovely ‘nut’ brown colouring.

Trust me peeling and shelling hundreds of these is hard work, but the taste, well that makes up for it. They are delicious.

I was slightly daunted by this challenge, although not overly complex they are a precision timing event. The last time I made macarons I didn’t cook them long enough and they turned out too chewy and sticky. I was determined this wouldn’t happen this time around so I baked them for perhaps slightly too long instead as they turned a darkish shade of hazel brown but they had the desired texture and I rather like the colour, even though it is unconventional to let macarons brown.

I had intended to use half cobnuts to half ground almonds as per the Daring Bakers note that as almonds are drier than other nuts and help again with that all-important texture. However I didn’t have any almonds to hand and I wasn’t putting off the baking for another day so I could go shopping. All cobnuts it was and with no ill effects at all.

Cobnut macarons instantly lead me onto thinking of chocolate fillings and of course what could be better than Nutella? A hazlenut chocolate spread, but a home made version – perfect right? The recipe for the nutella comes from The Secrets of Baking: Simple Techniques for Sophisticated Desserts  (Sherry Yard) and is I have to say even better than shop bought Nutella.

The macarons went down a storm, slightly crunchy on sinking your teeth into the cookie, but yielding a chewiness and creamy centre. They were devoured within the day.

Thank you Daring Bakers for the challenge, it was most enjoyable

Macarons

• 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 2 cups ground cobnuts
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 5 egg whites, at room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 90C or the equivalent. 
2. Combine the icing sugar and ground cobnuts in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of icing sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery. 
3. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks. 
4. Sift a third of the ground nut mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients. 
5. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc  style bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter. 
6. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper). 
7. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. 
8. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 190C or the equivalent. 
9. Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
10. Cool on a rack before filling. 

‘Nutella’ Spread

• 1lb milk chocolate 
• 1lb bittersweet chocolate 
• 2 cups double cream 
• 1 cup hazelnuts (or cobnuts)
• 1 tbsp hazelnut or vegetable oil. 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C or the equivalent. 
2. Place the nuts on a baking tray and toast until they are golden brown (about 12 mins). 
3. Remove from the oven and remove the skins if present. 
4. Transfer the hot nuts to a food processor and blitz to a fine paste, using the pulse function for around 2 mins. 
5. Turn the processor onto steady speed and drizzle in the oil, when all the oil is in stop the machine and scrape down the sides. 
6. Process again for about 15 seconds. 
7. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a heat proof bowl. 
8. Bring the cream to the boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. 
9. Once at the boil immediately pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and leave for 2 minutes. 
10. Gently stir the mixture with a spatula until the chocolate is throughly melted. 
11. Fold in the hazelnut mixture and allow to cool slightly before using.

NB The nut spread can be stored in the refrigerator but needs to be brought to room temperature again before attempting to spread as it sets hard.

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Somehow World Bread Baking Day escaped my event planning this year and as such I’ve rushed to create something for it. It is too good an event to miss out completely. 

So I have compiled a photo gallery (just click the links to go to the appropriate blog post) of some of my most recent bakes. I do hope this is ok.

King Arthur’s Burger Buns

Hazel Maizel Bread

Chestnut Bread

Cabernet Grape Flour Bread & Farmhouse White 

Cheats Sourdough

Ivy Honey Malt House Bread

River Cottage Focaccia

Hope you see something that inspires you to get bread baking, it is so much fun and so rewarding, not to mention how much better for you it is than most store bought bread – for some bread truths & horrors look here.

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Don’t get me wrong I love a challenge, and sure, isn’t that why I joined the Daring Bakers? This months challenge though nearly tipped my challenge enjoyment level over the edge, it wasn’t difficult as such but just such a palaver. I spread the challenge over two days (very unlike me) to try and give myself more time and be more organised; but alas it was not to be, the kitchen still looked like a whirlwind had just passed through. To top it all I didn’t even really enjoy eating the finished challenge bake enough to feel it sated my initial stress.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners’ and Gingerbread Makers’ Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.

Simple ingredients make this elegant Hungarian cake, but the process is rather complicated, you really do have to be patient, organized, thorough, oh and did I mention patient. A kitchen with plenty of workspace helps too! However I do want to stress it is not difficult, just complicated! The two are very different – here you have plenty of stages to complete, but none of them overly taxing.

We had free-reign with the cakes flavourings so I went for a coconut enhanced sponge with white chocolate and Amarula liqueur buttercream.

Coconut essence is lovely stuff, it smells like a Bounty Bar in a bottle.  For those of you not in the know a bounty bar has a very sweet and slighty chewy coconut filling covered with milk chocolate (sold in a blue wrapper) or dark chocolate (sold in a red wrapper) and is one of the few chocolates to come wrapped in two individual halves. If I want ‘trashy’ chocolate I really do enjoy these.

The fruitiness of the coconut worked really well alongside the Amarula – Amarula is originally a Zimbabwean cream liqueur which was manufactured in South Africa, It is made with sugar, cream and the fruit of the African Marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea) which is also locally called the Elephant tree or the Marriage Tree. Amarula is far too sweet and sickly for me to drink, even over ice, but in baking it becomes a lovely fruity background note.

Image Courtesy of Google Images

Pairing the fruity liqueur with white chocolate probably wasn’t the wisest choice I’ve ever made as it made the buttercream even sweeter and rather too rich, a dark (minimum 70% cocoa solids) chocolate would have been a much better choice and perhaps more enjoyable.

The caramel was very simple to make, caramel no longer holds any fear over me now, in fact I rather enjoy it. I did succumb to using my sugar thermometer to judge when it was ready to pour though I did find it a little too sharp in lemony flavour, so (not that there will be a next time) should this ever have to be repeated I would advise the amount of lemon juice be cut down by half. Maybe I just had strong lemons? 

I decided to skip decorating the sides of the cake with nuts as we are not huge fans of lots of nuts on cakes, the few hazelnuts nestling under the caramel discs were quiet enough for us.

My family really enjoyed the torte, so maybe I was just overwhelmed by the process of baking it and by the point of eating was actually too fed up of thinking about it to fully enjoy it.

The Recipe:

Sponge Layers:

• 6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups (162g) icing sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon (5ml) coconut essence
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour (or 95g plain flour + 17g cornflour sifted together)
• pinch of salt

The sponge layers can be prepared in advance and stored interleaved with parchment and well-wrapped in the fridge overnight.

1. Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 200C or the equivalent.
2. Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Using the bottom of a 9″ (23cm) springform tin as a template and a dark pencil or a pen, trace a circle on each of the papers, and turn them over (the circle should be visible from the other side, so that the graphite or ink doesn’t touch the cake batter.)
3. Beat the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the icing sugar, and the coconut in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don’t have a mixer.)
4. 4.In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 2/3 cup (81g) of icing sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour.
5. Line one of the baking sheets with a circle-marked paper. Using a small offset spatula, spread about 3/4cup of the batter in an even layer, filling in the traced circle on one baking sheet. Bake on the top rack for 5 minutes, until the cake springs back when pressed gently in the centre and the edges are lightly browned. While this cake bakes, repeat the process on the other baking sheet, placing it on the centre rack. When the first cake is done, move the second cake to the top rack. Invert the first cake onto a flat surface and carefully peel off the paper. Slide the cake layer back onto the paper and let stand until cool. Rinse the baking sheet under cold running water to cool, and dry it before lining with another parchment. Continue with the remaining papers and batter to make a total of six layers. Completely cool the layers. Using an 8″ springform pan bottom or plate as a template, trim each cake layer into a neat round. (A small serrated knife is best for this task.)

Buttercream:

• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup (200g) caster sugar
• 4oz (110g) white chocolate
• 2 tablespoons Amarula
• 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons (250g) unsalted butter, at room temperature.

This can be prepared in advance and kept chilled until required.

1. Prepare a double-boiler: quarter-fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and thickened, about five minutes. You can use a balloon whisk or electric hand mixer for this.
3. Fit bowl over the boiling water in the saucepan (water should not touch bowl) and lower the heat to a brisk simmer. Cook the egg mixture, whisking constantly, for 2-3 minutes until you see it starting to thicken a bit. Whisk in the finely chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, for a further 2-3 minutes.
4. Scrape the chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. It should be quite thick and sticky in consistency.
5. When cool, beat in the amarula and soft butter, a small piece (about 2 tablespoons/30g) at a time. An electric hand mixer is great here, but it is possible to beat the butter in with a spatula if it is soft enough. You should end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. Chill while you make the caramel topping.

Caramel:

• 1 cup (200g) caster sugar
• 12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
• 8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grapeseed, rice bran, sunflower)

1. Choose the best-looking cake layer for the caramel top. To make the caramel topping: Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. Place the reserved cake layer on the paper. Score the cake into 12 equal wedges. Lightly oil a thin, sharp knife and an offset metal spatula.
2. Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel.
3. The top layer is perhaps the hardest part of the whole cake so make sure you have a oiled, hot offset spatula ready. It helps if the cake layer hasn’t just been taken out of the refrigerator. Immediately pour all of the hot caramel over the cake layer. You will have some leftover most probably but more is better than less and you can always make nice toffee pattern using the extra to decorate. Using the offset spatula, quickly spread the caramel evenly to the edge of the cake layer. Let cool until beginning to set, about 30 seconds. Using the tip of the hot oiled knife (keep re-oiling this with a pastry brush between cutting), cut through the scored marks to divide the caramel layer into 12 equal wedges. Cool another minute or so, then use the edge of the knife to completely cut and separate the wedges using one firm slice movement (rather than rocking back and forth which may produce toffee strands). Cool completely.

Finishing Touches:

• 12 whole hazelnuts, peeled and toasted

1. Divide the buttercream into six equal parts.
2. Place a dab of chocolate buttercream on the middle of a 7 1/2” cardboard round and top with one cake layer. Spread the layer with one part of the chocolate icing. Repeat with 4 more cake layers. Spread the remaining icing on the sides of the cake.
3. Propping a hazelnut under each wedge so that it sits at an angle, arrange the wedges on top of the cake in a spoke pattern. If you have any leftover buttercream, you can pipe rosettes under each hazelnut or a large rosette in the centre of the cake. Refrigerate the cake under a cake dome until the icing is set, about 2 hours. Let slices come to room temperature for the best possible flavour.

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The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

For the first time ever I’m late posting my Daring Bakers entry (sorry folks)! We had the option to make either the Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies or the Milan Cookies, or even both if we were feeling ultra daring. I wasn’t and went for the marshmallow cookies only. I have however, bookmarked the Milan Cookies to make another day as they sound and look superb.

I chose the chocolate covered marshmallow cookies simply because they reminded me so much of my much beloved Tunnock’s Tea Cake; the difference only being that with these cookies the marshmallow is gelatine based and in a Tunnock’s it isn’t.

What’s not to love about a buttery biscuit base, creamy gooey marshmallow and silky chocolate? As always home made is better, especially when home made is so simple too.

I knew the cookie base would be easy enough, just basic almost shortbread style cookie dough and you can’t really go wrong with a chocolate glaze but marshmallows? I really did think they’d be a little tricky but I had to problems at all.  A sugar thermometer is a vital piece of kit for this though and a free standing mixer such as my much loved KitchenAid is beneficial too, although the process could be completed by hand with very minimal effort. Light corn syrup was specified in the recipe but that is really difficult to obtain in the UK so after deliberating between using golden syrup or agave syrup I plumed for the light agave syrup and it worked wonderfully.

For the chocolate coating I used milk chocolate, in order to satisfy my craving for this to be as like my childhood memories of Tunnock’s Teacakes as possible this was the only route open to me. Dark chocolate would work wonderfully well too, giving a more ‘grown up’ taste. White chocolate I think would be sickly sweet and is best avoided here.

I only turned half the cookies into marshmallow cookies, saving the rest to be nibbled with a cup of tea as a pick me up throughout the day (not all in the same day I dare add).

So I suppose the ultimate question is did the cookies live up to past memories/expectations? Well they passed with flying colours, a crisper yet more meltingly tender biscuit base and a softer, lighter mallow; oh yes a recipe to file for frequent use indeed.

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The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

April Challenge? Well it can mean only one thing, Daring Bakers time again!

What a lovely challenge we had: Cheesecake! The difference here was that we had free reign, given a basic recipe for a baked cheesecake and then let loose with only our imagination to limit us (oh and that funny little notion of time, cost and availability too).

The real challenge this month is to take this basic recipe and play with it. Make it unique. Make a showstopper of a dessert. Add flavor, sauces, decorations – dress it up and show it off. To be clear, I’m allowing for almost any flavor modification within the basic recipe (alcohol, lemon juice, vanilla), changes for dietary needs, and you can also experiment with the crust (graham crackers not essential). And then what you do on top – you have free reign here.

I just love cheesecakes (baked or unbaked) and over the years have made many of them, from simple affairs to the more complex creations, but I do prefer a simpler version myself. With this in mind I set about devising my dish, I wanted something relatively simple in flavour but attractive

I started my action plan with the base, Graham crackers simply weren’t an option for me due to lack of availability and I desperately wanted something different to a digestive biscuit base – the common biscuit for all cheesecakes in the UK or so it seems; reliable but just that little bit boring. What about chocolate? Good idea but how? What about using cookies as the base but without crumbling them into melted butter to form a traditional base? What would work well? Crumbly or chewy? Sweet or slightly savoury? In the end I decided on World Peace Cookies, a truly amazing cookie however you look at it – chewy but with a delectable crumble, sweet but salty with a deep chocolate bitterness too and above all that studded with chunks of gorgeous chocolate, which when served at room temperature remains slightly molten and oozy. 

A natural train of thought then just took over, and I began to scribble notes in a furious fashion.  Salty chocolate cookie = need for individual creamy gently cheesecakes, caramel sauce or and chocolate sauce, to compliment and for presentation, salty caramel toffees; and so a dish was born.

So to break it down a bit, here’s what I did.

The cheesecakes were flavoured simply with vanilla, scraped from two pods. The pods I buy come via my organic vegetable supplier and are shipped from Uganda. The vanilla is grown by a small women’s cooperative and because of Riverford’s no airfreighting policy is driven through Kenya to Mombasa before being shipped to the UK. The vanilla orchid is a climber needing a supporting trellis and partial shade provided by a cover crop of papaya or bananas. Each flower must be hand pollinated to produce a bean which is picked about 9 months later. Growing is only half the job; the beans are then cured using a three-month process of alternate sunning and sweating in a woollen blanket. It is this long process of producing useable pods that results in vanilla being the second most expensive spice to buy after saffron.

Image Courtesy of Google Images.

I decided to make the cheesecakes in a decorative mould, a rose shaped muffin pan which my lovely Israeli friend Francesca had sent me a while ago, it worked delightfully well although it is essential to let the cakes cool down completely before very gently unfolding them. The addition of the vanilla seeds gave a lovely speckled appearance which worked well against the deep, dark biscuits.

The cheesecake was baked very slowly in a bain marie which (despite it’s lack of a biscuit base) helped it keep a wonderfully soft, luscious textured, almost mousse like  belly, which remained to have a slight wobble as it was forked up.

The caramels were slightly time consuming and required constant watching but were easy enough to do.  I used a recipe from a previous Daring Bakers challenge but this time instead of allowing free form shapes to be used I set the caramels in a silicone mini cake mould. When they were nearly cool I studded them with pink salt and a sugar crystals. There is something very addictive about sweet but salty caramels, it didn’t take long for them all to be devoured at all.

For the finishing touch, the sauces! The caramel one is from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook (Yotam Ottolenghi and Sam Tamimi), the recipe can be found here and the chocolate sauce recipe can be found here. Both were utterly delicious, but don’t do what I did – refridgerate them and then forget to get them out ready for dessert, solid sauce anyone? Once back to a runny consistancy they really highlighted the flavours of the dish and brought the dessert together well. To draw the squiggly presentation lines I used squeezy bottles, a God send to the home or professional kitchen.

We all loved the dessert, and the ultimate compliment: I’d be willing to pay for a dessert like that, and, if it was a restaurant I’d be rebooking right now. A blushing me was very happy indeed

The Original Recipe:
Crust:

• 2 cups/180 g graham cracker crumbs
• 1 stick/4 oz butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons/24 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cheesecake:

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For the non Italian readers on this blog, the title means “What are we having with the bread?” A lovely expression which shows just how much the Italians value their bread. Maybe it’s a tourist or restaurant thing, or maybe I’m just an old romantic but I envisage a basket full of bread on the dining table in every Italian home around meal time; maybe I’m correct in my thinking? I mean Giorgio Locatelli in his wonderful book detailing mostly Northern Italian food Made in Italy: Food & Stories states that bread is such a big part of the meal for Italians.

Giorgio goes on to say that very little bread is baked in home kitchens over in Italy as the tradition of a local baker lives on; something I’ve witnessed (and my waistline suffered for) on my travels to that beautiful land. I wish it were the same here in England, maybe it’s easy to find artisan breads in big cities but alas it isn’t here in my rural location; hence if I want good bread I have to bake it.

So why am I telling you this? Is this a bread related post? Strictly speaking it isn’t, it’s actually the post about March’s Daring Bakers Challenge which is based around pasta! However, since it’s an Italian meal, how could I not bake some fresh bread to serve alongside it? I went for ciabatta, simply because it’s one of my favourite breads, it would more than likely make Giorgio (and many other Italians) laugh to read that as there are so many other delightful Italian breads out there and ciabatta was originally the bread of the poor; once the ‘best loaves’ had been made the remaining dough was shaped into a slipper and then baked — giving ciabatta its trademark shape.

I used my old tried and tested favourite recipe, but there are lots out there and I normally love to experiment, this time however for ease I wanted a recipe I knew would work out well.  I made some plain and some studded with black olives which worked really well and allowed for everyone to get bread of their preferred ‘flavour’.

Baking is a beautiful thing to do, soft, warm and gorgeous dough, a truly amazing smell as the bread rises and then the smell becomes something truly outstanding as the dough cooks; your family will love you for the joy you bring with your beautiful bread; and above all the process of combining yeast, flour, water, salt (and maybe a few other goodies depending on the bread) is totally magical – if you haven’t baked bread, get in the kitchen and do it! Now, that is an order!

So back to the Daring Bakers Challenge!

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

As per my usual routine I didn’t stick purely to the recipes written by the Daring Bakers Hosts, instead after gaining their permission I did something rather unusual – I made patterned pasta!

There are hundreds of different shapes and varieties of pasta in Italy, with each type being particular to a region or town, some so local that you will find them only in one or maybe two villages; yet some are so famous they are know the whole world over — how amazing is that? Pasta is the Italian staple, even Garibaldi, when he liberated Naples in 1860 vowed that pasta would be the force that would unite Italy! The choosing of pasta is almost an art form, each pasta has a sauce it is linked to and this again differs from region to region. The whole subject fascinates me.

It’s a fair while since my trusty pasta machine has been out in use and I was beginning to feel bad about that, so handy this challenge came up I promise I did also roll the pasta as much as I could by hand but in the end I couldn’t resist the use of this lovely kitchen toy.

I used organic stone ground Tipo 00 flour, which I always keep well stocked up with, it’s such a versatile flour and one I always feel a need to have on hand, in fact if I run out it’s a cause for concern. I love it’s creamy colour when compared with other flours, although I have noticed that some of the non organic ones are much whiter.

I couldn’t get any spinach from either my local organic store or my vegetable box supplier, so I substituted with watercress; it worked perfectly. I used the recipe specified by the Hosts to make a basic pasta dough – I needed to add another egg though as I’d bought my eggs from a local farm and to get the desired weight I needed the extra egg, obviously they were rather small, I did get a bonus of a double yolker though which improved the colour of my dough no end.  As nice as the recipe was I prefer Giorgio’s it is much richer and silkier. 

I love the fontina di farina stage of pasta making it makes me feel all childlike again, simply cracking the eggs into a fountain of flour and mixing/kneading away to form a lovely smooth ball of dough; it’s a fabulous thing to do, another almost magical culinary task. It is a little messy, tricky at times and sometimes it feels like you’ll never get there but do persevere — if it really won’t come together wet your hands but don’t add water to the dough and continue working. Please don’t resort to a food mixer unless you really have to, this is too much fun to miss out on.

Once the dough is smooth, silky and rested, rolling it out isn’t so tricky, but you get to a point (or at least I did) where a pasta machine is a great asset,  you need to get to a point where the dough is nearly see through, by that I mean if you put your hand underneath the dough you can just see it.

Now you can start to make the patterned dough, simply pluck off some nice watercress leaves (or spinach of course), leaving the stem if it is very delicate and lay them on the rolled out pasta before folding the dough back over itself and passing through the pasta machine again; very pretty don’t you think?

Note the rather inquisitive Murphy poking his head up at the unit! Can I help?

Once you have a nice long piece of dough you can then cut them into lasagne sheets and hang them up to dry, not necessarily like I did I hasten to add

The ragu recipe used was up to us, I oh so surprisingly chose Giorgio Locatelli’s recipe from, you’ve guessed it, Made in Italy: Food & Stories. It’s my families favourite version so what choice did I have? It’s also pretty quick to prepare and takes very kindly to incredibly long, slow cooking – I left it in the slow oven compartment of the range for the whole day and by that I mean it was in for a good 10 hours the day (giving the house a gorgeous scent) before we wanted to eat the lasagne, the flavours deepen and intensify for being left overnight. No photo unfortunately as I forgot, just take my word for it, it looked and smelt gorgeous. I used the hosts recipe for the béchamel. 

Each region of Italy has its favourite ragu, sometimes mixing the types of meats used, sometimes using one meat only; in Toscana (Tuscany) for example they like to add chicken livers to their ragu. However, he admits that you can use whatever meats you prefer and adapt the recipe to include what you have e.g. he thinks Parmesan cheese goes better with pork than Pecorino, but if that is all you have go ahead and use it. My personal favourites for ragu are wild boar or wild hare (oh how it makes me salivate to think of those beautiful meals I have eaten in Roma and Umbria), not something I can easily get here so I stuck to coarsely minced beef.

I wanted to make both a traditional baked lasagne as the hosts requested and a free fall one (having seen a gorgeous one while reading through the pasta chapter in Giorgio’s book). As per Giorgio’s guidelines I made up the lasagne for baking the morning that I wanted to cook it, this allows the pasta and sauces to gel together, giving a firmer result — an essential in Italy, especially if he is right in saying that:

Kids will cry in Italy if you give them lasagne al forno that doesn’t stand up straight on the plate. If it falls over they say: “What’s wrong; it’s all floppy?”

Oh I so hope I did this classic dish justice! 

I had some lovely home made ricotta sat in the fridge so decided to use that instead of the béchamel in the free fall lasagne, layering up the ragu, pasta and cheese until I’d four layers of goodness. I drizzled a little extra ragu and ricotta around the plate before serving. Please excuse the photo, it tasted oh so much better than it looked I promise  

The creaminess and coolness of the fresh ricotta worked really well against the strong flavours of the ragu and I was surprised at how much the flavour of the watercress came through in the pasta too.

Both versions of the lasagne were a complete success, for ease the baked lasagne will be more frequently cooked but for entertaining I’ll return to the free fall variety too. I know you can’t see it from the photo but it really did look very cheffy and interesting.

Quite a busy day all told in the kitchen, isn’t this just the perfect way to chill out afterwards, lol?

The recipes not linked to here will be able to be found on the host’s blog sites.  I’m deliberately sending you there as they all have amazing sites that you need to see!

I also need to say a big thank you both to the hosts for the fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable challenge, and to my dad for his photographic work — taking the pics of me in action!

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Frugal food seems to be making something of a come back at the moment, whether that is down to our current economic downturn or because of the increased number of celebrity chefs using unusual (and often) cheaper cuts of meat, etc. I’m not sure; most likely it is a combination of the two things. 

Over on Violet’s Pantry (the food forum I spend far too much time visiting) we’re having a wee bit of a challenge - you have to cook something for under £5.00 GBP but it has have one ingredient in it that you wouldn’t normally consider using. Now I love a challenge and certainly wasn’t about to let this one slide by without my participation. I decided to take the challenge one step further though – restaurant style food on the budget! I too the £5.00 to mean a meal for two people, so that gave me a little more leeway. 

Sunday night seemed the perfect time to complete the challenge as we were having guests; this could of course just be my crazy logic and I’m sure many of you are shouting out that you’d need a trial run first to test everything out especially as the dish was new! I wanted the adrenalin rush you get from last minute plating up and presentation; the kind seen to be experienced by the contestants of MasterChef while working in the professional kitchen.

I struggled to work out the cost of everything exactly as my vegetables were a part of my weekly vegetable box but the meat was a bargain and the wine a Christmas present still not opened.  Should my estimations be correct I suspect it cost about £2 a head; not bad going at all?  Who would have thought you could eat so well on a budget? Mind you I’m blowing the budget tonight with fillet steak in truffle sauce, read all about it here later in the week  

My previously never used ingredient was silverside of beef. The menu: Braised silverside of beef in a red wine reduction served with buttered carrots and parsnip batons in a stack, braised button mushrooms and piped creamy mash.

I got my inspiration for the meal from Maze (Jason Atherton) which is an amazing cookery book based on the dishes Atherton serves at this Michelin stared restaurant of the same name. If you only get hold of a copy of this book to drool over the photography it will be money well spent, but do look past all the restaurant flair too in order to find some relatively simple to put together taste sensations.

The recipe for the beef can be found at this link (scroll to page 10) and simply replace the ox cheek with steaks of silverside, or you could of course use cheeks if you prefer. After such long, slow cooking the meat was meltingly tender, although it did keep its shape – that was my main worry, I desperately didn’t want the meat the break up and just become a stew and my luck maintained. The addition of button mushrooms gave for another taste and a ‘firm’ texture component which worked really well against the softness of the meat and potatoes.  As for the red wine reduction, oh my goodness, I could have just spooned it into me; pure sauce heaven.

Mashed potatoes are the obvious choice with a dish like this, you need something capable of soaking up a little of the jus, for presentation purposes either a quenelle of ultra smooth potato or Duchess potatoes work best as they are eye catching. I went for Duchess potatoes because I absolutely adore the crunch you get on the outer layer of the potato; you’ve probably noticed as you’ve visited here, that 9 times out of 10 that I serve mashed spuds I pop them in the oven to crisp the top layer up. My top tips for glorious mash are:

1. To cook the potatoes in their skins as they remain fluffier and absorb less water.
2. To use a ricer to guarantee no lumps, or mash and then pass through a course sieve.
3. To add melted butter and beat in with a spurtle, but a wooden spoon would do, just be gentle.
4. For 1kg of potatoes I add approx. 250ml double cream; if the potatoes are hot I add cold cream and vice versa.

For the carrot and parsnip stack I simply parboiled the vegetable batons until just tender and then sautéed them in a little butter and brown sugar until glistening and heated through before serving. 

So what did our guests think of it? It was a resounding success, everyone commented on how well presented it was, how delicious it was and they went back for seconds too!!!!!!

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