Mocha Toffee Macarons

Daring Bakers' Challenge October 2015 

I had a full story prepared for today, about which recipes I tried for this challenge and how many times I failed and why, but I am not sure that you would be very interested and passionately reading about it, because I am quite certain that you had your own macaron or other baking disaster story to tell. Mine is simply about determination and all I can say is that if you really want to do it, you will find a way or the recipe that will turn you into a baking wizard and make everything effortlessly easy. My magic came from here.

Blog-checking lines: For the month of October we got to take on one of many bakers' deepest, darkest kitchen nightmares: macarons. Our talented bakers Korena from Korena in the Kitchen and Rachael from pizzarossa made the intimidating task of mastering these French beauties a breeze

Mocha Toffee Macarons

• 200 grams icing sugar
• 110 grams ground almond 
• ¾ teaspoon instant espresso powder
• 15 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
• 90 grams egg whites (about 3 eggs)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 25 grams granulated sugar

For the filling:

• 60 grams icing sugar
• 70 grams unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons toffee (or caramel) sauce ( I used store bought)

1. Pulse powdered sugar, almond flour, espresso powder and chocolate in a food processor until well combined. Set aside.
2. Whip egg whites and vanilla to a nice bubbly foam.
3. Gradually add the granulated sugar to the egg whites, continuing to beat until you have a glossy meringue that just barely holds stiff peaks.
4. Fold the almond mix into the whipped egg whites until well combined. (It'll be a very sticky, very slow-flowing, thick mass).
5. Using a  round tip pipe the macaron onto two baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
6. If your macarons keep a little tip in the center, get your finger wet with a little bit of cold water and push the tip down.
7. Let the macarons sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
8. Heat the oven to 140 C/280F
9. Bake the macarons for 15 to 20 minutes, switching positions of the baking sheets halfway through.
10. Once baked, leave the macarons in the oven, turn the oven off and open the oven door. After 15 minutes, take the macarons out.

For the filling:

1. Beat powdered sugar, butter and toffee  together until you have a smooth cream.
2. Match the macarons into pairs by size.
3. Put a dollop of toffee buttercream on one shell and put the second shell on the top

My observations: 

-  almost everyone recommends a large round tip pipe, I succeeded only when switched to a smaller size which gave me better control of the amount of the batter I used and the shape of  the macarons.  

- tap the tray against the table to get rid of the extra air in the macarons and leave them for even longer than 30 minutes before baking if necessary, they need to form the skin and become dull in colour.

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Sunday Morning Serenity

 milk the feeling 

and

Plum and Hazelnut Crumble Cakes

It's Wednesday, it's pouring down with rain outside and I am trying to convince myself that we won't need milk today and that that leftover piece of bread is just what we need for dinner tonight. 

And I wish it was Sunday again and I can wake up into a sunny day with the prospect of grabbing my boots and jacket as soon as I get up and head to Blackheath farmers market. That's almost become our little -give our Sunday morning a boost- routine: farmers market first, coffee and pastry (or even cake sometimes) at our favourite French boulangerie next, then a walk around the village square, or in the park. It gives us inspiration and builds up a kind of energy that often lasts for days... although taking a few pictures keeps that feeling going.

From these weird and wonderful outings we have, my Monday-Morning-Beginning-of-the-Week bakes are almost always inspired by the array of cakes and pastries of the boulangerie, or the smell of organic and freshness from the markets. Well, this week, the market won (I had a slice of Opera cake and to make something like that was way too technical for my liking). Instead, I opted for a "free style" bake, little cakes that are more in-keeping with the spirit of the food market.

Plum and Hazelnut Crumble Cakes

90 gm  softened butter

225 gm  sugar

an orange, finely grated rind

2 eggs

50 ml  milk

100 gm flour

80 gm ground  hazelnut

1 tsp  baking powder

300 gm  ricotta

1 egg yolk

2  plums, thinly sliced

20 gm  hazelnuts, chopped

  

 Preheat oven to 180C. Beat 80 gm butter, 165 gm sugar and orange rind in an electric mixer until pale and creamy (3-4 minutes), then add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.Add milk and beat to combine. Stir in flour, ground hazelnuts and baking powder, then spoon into 6 buttered and floured 165 ml-capacity metal moulds, or baking dishes of your choice. Smooth tops and set aside.

     Process ricotta, egg yolk and 40 gm sugar in a food processor until smooth, divide among moulds. Top with plum slices and set aside.

     Combine chopped hazelnuts with remaining butter and sugar in a small bowl, rub together then scatter over plums. Bake until risen and golden and a skewer comes out clean (25-30 minutes). Cool cakes in moulds for 5 -10 minutes, run a small knife around sides of moulds and carefully remove cakes. Cool on a wire rack. Cakes will keep for up to 3 days stored in an airtight container.

Recipe adapted from Gourmet traveller.

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Orange Juice, Pine Nut Bundt Cake #BundtBakers

aka the Tuscan Pine Nut Cake

Oh boy, I am a little bit rusty! Not blogging for awhile took its toll and I have been constantly second guessing and questioning everything I do. And just as I thought  that I was getting a grip on things, it was time to prepare a post for my #BundtBakers group and I realised that I forgot the rules and procedures we all follow.

I have our October host Laura from the inventful Baking in pyjamas, who set us a task of baking a bundt cake with beverage, to thank for this small adventure:)

Initially I was keen to use tea, because I have been meaning to give it a go for quite some time, but I couldn't make my mind up, should I tried this with that, what if I combine that with... endless combinations that brought endless confusion and eventually brought the end of the idea. To experiment you have to be clear minded, which I obviously wasn't. So, in a situation like this, stick to what you know best, reach for a reliable recipe and religiously follow it. Success guaranteed.

Having said that, I still managed to add something extra, something special - the best tasting home made orange preserve ever- that I bought at the local festival of fruit, (apricot festival to be precise) in a small Greek village Portaria, back in June. I wish I bought more than a jar.

Orange Juice, Pine Nut Bundt Cake

fills 11 cups bundt cake tin or 26 cm standard round tin 

I used half of the measure, enough for two small tins

100 g pine nuts,roughly chopped

250 g soft  unsalted butter

250 g sugar ( I used about 200 g)

1tbsp orange zest

3 eggs, lightly beaten

300 g self-raising flour

100 g candied fruit ( I used orange preserve and strawberries)

250 ml orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350F/gas 4

Lightly grease a baking tin and sprinkle with flour, shake the extra flour off.

bake the pine nuts in the oven for few  minutes until they get lightly golden in colour.

Beat the butter, sugar and orange zest until pale and creamy, add the eggs a little bit at the time, then fold in the flour, pine nuts, candied fruit and orange juice in two batches.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake. Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it onto a wire rack to cool completely.

We had  it with crème fresh and a slice of preserved orange.

I am sure that you would like to see what the rest of the Bundt Bakers came up with: 

• Amarula Chai Latte Bundt from I Sugar Coat It!
• Apple Cider Bundt Cake from That's My Home
• Apple Cider Bundt cake w/ Caramelized Apples from The Freshman Cook
• Apple Cider Bundt Cake from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Apple Cider Pound Cake from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Apple Juice Spice Bundt with Caramel Apple Glaze from Our Good Life
• Apple Spice Latte Bundt from Living the Gourmet
• Black Forest Hot Chocolate Bundt from Baking in Pyjamas
• Cava Bundt Cake from La mejor manera de hacer ...
• Chai Bundt Cake from Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Chocolate Chai Bundt Cake from Basic n Delicious
• Chocolate Expresso Bundt Cake from La Cocina de Caro
• Dark 'n Stormy Bundt Cake from Eat, Drink, and Be Mighty
• Earl Grey Bundt Cake with Milk and Honey Glaze from Brooklyn Homemaker
• Hot Chocolate Bundt Cake from Recipes, Food and Cooking
• Margarita Bundt Cake with Candied Limes from How to Philosophize with Cake
• Mexican Hot Chocolate Rose Cake from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Milo and Condensed Milk Bundt Cake from Passion Kneaded
• Mojito Bundt Cake from BakingYummies
• Orange Juice Pine Nut Bundt Cake from A Kingdom for a Cake
• Pacharan & Apple Bundlettes from I love Bundt Cakes
• Poison Apple Bundt (Guinness & Angry Orchard) from The Crumby Cupcake
• Pumpkin Coffee Bundt Cake from Los Chatos Chefs
• Pumpkin Spice Latte Bundt Cake from Liv for Cake
• Red Wine Chocolate Bundt Cake from Brunch with Joy
• Root Beer Bundt Cake with Rumchata Root Beer Frosting from From Gate to Plate
• Root Beer Float Bundt from Food Lust People Love
• Tiramisu Bundt Cake from Patty's Cake
• Vanilla Chai Honey Latte Bundt from Tartacadabra
• White Chocolate and Espresso Bundt Cake with Coffee Glaze from Taking On Magazines
• White Russian Mini Bundt Cakes from Magnolia Days

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving Bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest Board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient.

A lovely girl Ana whom I met and made a friend at the festival,( first from the right on both pictures) and her friends were selling the local home made produce and performing the national folklore dances to keep the festival's tradition going.

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Dolce Milanese

about green sultanas
and the Italian take on a lardy cake

I mentioned in my previous post that I started exploring a little book of buns from all over the world and a few recipes really stood out for me. This is the first one that I tested and it will remain known in our household as the recipe that made me use sultanas. For as far as I can remember I  picked them out, the lot - sultanas , raisins, currents and everything else that even remotely resembles them. 
To my big surprise one day I just bought a bag of green sultanas in the local Turkish shop. I cant explain why, they just looked different, long and thin, juicy and beautifully green.. I was simply drawn to them and then I forgot about them and they spent a good few months in the cupboard waiting for the right moment to show me what they've got .
While I was reading the recipe and later while I was making them I couldn't help it but think that they reminded me of something I previously saw or made, just couldn't remember what; until I saw Paul Hollywood making a lardy cake. That was it..  stylish Italian recreation of a lardy cake, with one "little" twist - butter, instead of lard. Or it's all just my way of seeing it? My English friends disapprove of my view. Well, one way or another, we all loved them.  But I still see them as an Italian version of  English lardy cake made with Turkish green sultana. 

Dolce Milanese 

500g sultana or raisins
 soaked over night ( water reserved)

Dough:

205 g flour
1 tsp dry yeast
2 tbsp sugar
150 g cup of sultana's water
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp rum or brandy
1 tbsp orange zest
100 g butter

Glaze:
1 egg
1 tbsp water


Soak the sultanas in plenty of water and leave overnight. Drain them and reserve the water in separate cup. Put the flour in a bowl, sprinkle over with dry yeast and cover with warm reserved sultana water. Cover with a little bit of flour and leave to rest for 1 hour.
Add the salt, rum and orange zest and bring everything together in a ball; knead for about 10 minutes, then add the butter, bit by bit while kneading until all the butter is incorporated. Allow to rest for 6 hours.
Roll the dough into a rectangle about 5 mm thick, scatter a third of the soaked sultanas over it, fold one of the long sides into the middle of the dough, then do the same with the other side so they meet ( see below).
Now roll it out to widen it into a rectangle and scatter over another third of sultanas, fold and roll again, then repeat once more. Pinch the edges together and flip it over so it is seam side down. Allow it to rest for 20 minutes.
Cut the dough into 2 long strips then cut each strip into 10 pieces, place in the baking sheet, cover and allow to rest for another 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F.

Mix the ingredients for the glaze together and brush the buns before putting them in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Cover them with some aluminium foil towards the end if they are getting too brown.
Allow them to cool completely before serving.

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Feta Cheese Tutmanik

Bulgarian cross between bread and Serbian "sour dough" turned into buns

dedicated to Nadyia, the lovely, humble winner of  The Great British Bake Off 2015

This post jumped the queue. I have been exploring the The book of buns lately and after making one baking trip from my kitchen to Morocco and another one to Italy (hopefully those posts won't stay in my drafts forever, like a few others I deleted yesterday), I almost reached the end of the book when I found myself looking into a picture of Tutmanik, a popular Bulgarian bread recipe. I remember eating it a long time ago and thinking about it as a very inventive way of blending a regular bread recipe with Serbian sour dough. The sour dough I am talking about is actually not a Serbian speciality, it's well known and spread through out the region (original name - "kiselo testo") and it should not be mistaken for a variety of wild yeast starter, although it sounds like it's the same thing. This dough is made with regular yeast but has a distinctive taste due to its extended proofing time and is very often turned into buns, we make a version of them called "penjurlije", which I adored when I was little. I however, haven't made or seen anything that resembles this simply great way of using the dough in a form of Tutmanik - baked like bread, all puffed up and layered, filled with feta cheese and sprinkled with red paprika flakes. For me Tutmanik (and my beloved penjurlije) tells a story about originality and tradition and at the same time represents the very best of what the Balkans have to offer to the world of baking.

Feta Cheese Tutmanik (Tootmanik)

Dough:
450 g plain flour
4 g dry yeast, (or 10 g fresh)
250g warm milk
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp soft butter ( or lard)

Filling:
1 egg
250 g feta cheese, crumbled
4 tbsp melted butter

 ground paprika for topping

small baking pan ( about 15 x 15 cm, not bigger than 20x20 cm)


Put the flour into a bowl and sprinkle yeast in the middle, pour on the milk; close the well with flour and leave to rest for about 1 hour.
Add the salt, mix and knead for about 10 minutes, add the butter and knead for another 10 minutes, cover and allow to rest for 2 hours.
Mix the egg with the feta cheese, melt the butter and allow to cool.

Turn the dough onto a surface and divide into 9 equal pieces, about 85 - 90 g each. Leave it to rest for 10 minutes, then roll each piece into 10x10 cm square, then brush with melted butter. Top with another square brushed with butter and put the third square piece on the top without brushing it with butter.
Do the same with the rest of the pieces. Roll each stuck into a rectangular the size of your baking tin and place it in the prepared tin ( see pictures below). Brush it with melted butter and spread over half the feta cheese mixture. Repeat with the next 3 pieces of dough and place that stuck on the top of the cheese mixture. Brush with melted butter and spread it with the other half of the cheese mixture. Put the third 3 piece dough stack on the top. With hands, push down all around the outside edge , between the dough and the pan, so that you seal in the cheese. Really pull down the top layer  and stick it well under the rest of the dough to prevent creating a "hat" on the top of the dough.
Cover and leave to rest for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 230 C/450F and just before baking, brush the top with melted butter or egg glaze and sprinkle some paprika on if you like ( and which I highly recommend).
Turn the oven down to 200C/400F as soon as you put the tin in and bake for  about 35 minutes.
Remove from the oven, transfer to a cooling rack and cut only when it's warm. Serve with soup or salad .

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Irish Soda Bread

#Daring Bakes' Challenge September 2015

I'd made Irish soda bread before, but honestly never thought much of it before. It was just a quick bread, something I would whip up when I am in a rush. But, our Daring Bakers host for September, Meredith from the Poco Loco Olsons challenged us to experiment with soda bread and gave me a good reason to reconsider my views on it. Only instead of experimenting with different flavours, I decided to go back to roots and find out as much as possible about this Irish baking pride and joy. 

After pages and pages of internet research I hit the jack pot when I stumbled upon the website of The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, full of information about the history and preparation  of traditional soda bread  as created by their ancestors. 

What caught my intention was not the ingredients list, as this is pretty known and contains just flour, buttermilk, salt and baking soda, but the method of baking it. Traditionally they used a bastible pot, a variation of an ancient way of baking known to me from my own culture as sac. You have to try goods baked under the hot coal to know the difference. If nothing else would convert me to like this bread more, this fact would have. As I discovered, even covered with a heavy pan made a difference, as well as wrapping the baked bread with a damp tea towel. Worth every crumb! (Thanks Meredith !)

Here is the full recipe of a brown soda bread, as given on the Society's website: 

  

Brown Soda Bread

• 3 cups (12 oz) of wheat flour
• 1 cup (4 oz) of white flour (do not use self-rising as it already contains baking powder and salt)
• 14 ounces of buttermilk (pour in a bit at a time until the dough is moist)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.

2 ounces of butter if you want to deviate a bit.

Note: I used 500 g of eight grains wholemeal flour and 400 g of buttermilk, 1 tsp of salt and 1 1/2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda, no butter. 

Method:

Preheat the oven to 425 F. degrees.  Lightly grease and flour a cake pan.  In a large bowl sieve and combine all the dry ingredients. Rub in the butter until the flour is crumbly.

Add the buttermilk to form a sticky dough.  Place on floured surface and lightly knead (too much allows the gas to escape)

Shape into a round flat shape in a round cake pan and cut a cross in the top of the dough.

Cover the pan with another pan and bake for 30 minutes (this simulates the bastible pot).  Remove cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

The bottom of the bread will have a hollow sound when tapped to show it is done.

Cover the bread in a tea towel and lightly sprinkle water on the cloth to keep the bread moist.

Let cool and you are ready to have a buttered slice with a nice cup of tea or coffee.

P.s It works with soups too:)

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What a different world

Mum's cornbread story

I don't think that there is enough appreciation in the world for that little piece of technology called Skype (luckily I am not posting this on the day it globally went down). My parents not only bought a laptop few years ago and learned how to use Skype at the age of 74 but got so attached that my Mum would give up her entire house before she would let go of that small box that is neatly stored in the corner of their bedroom. It prolongs my life, she often says.

We rendezvous every morning before the day unfolds, and again in the evening, sometimes just to say good night, sometimes to chat over a Skype coffee. She prefers the evenings.. loves my daily reports of who, what, when and where...always asking me questions and secretly looks over my shoulder hoping to catch a detail on the table behind me or a glimpse of what is going on in the kitchen. And  there is no way that I can bake something and not show it to her first, Mum sees it first, the Nikon second.

When I showed her this ancient cornbread made with cornflour and hot water, the words started pouring out :

"What a different world! - my mother used to wrap me up in a blanket at 3 o'clock in the morning and take me with her to queue up at the Red Cross point, for a few slices of that bread after the war. I used to hate it. I longed for a white loaf, we called Somun (Turkish) that smelt divine and was such a rarity that the few times we magically got it, we would pretend that we were eating some kind of precious delicate cheese and take a bite of our regular bread and then a small bite of Somun together.
Some time later, after the war, when we had actual flour, mainly wholemeal, which was mixed with cornflour, my grandmother used to bake bread one or twice a week with wild yeast.
When school began I had a classmate from a very privileged background that would come to visit and play with me from time to time. She looked like an angel, blond and very thin, picky about what she eats... but one day, she was hungry. My grandmother tore off a piece of that bread, spread some lard over it and sprinkled it with salt and ground paprika. Apparently, my friend hadn't had such a good snack in a long time. Her mum was first astonished that she ate outside of the house at all, but even more that she kept talking about it, so she asked me what sort of bread her daughter had. To show her, my mother baked a loaf, wrapped it nicely in a clean, starched-then-ironed linen cloth and sent it  to their house - Do you remember how Nana used to make the starch with flour?-  Anyway, to say thank you, my friend's mum would send a warm white bread loaf in return.  I can still smell it.. when I close my eyes.

And you, sitting in the middle of London having almost every possible bread of the world at your disposal are blogging about this bread? What a different world! "

What a different world Cornbread

200 g cornflour or polenta
100 -150 ml hot water
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp oil
100 g sweet corn from can (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180 C and  place a 24 cm round cake mould, or a deep baking dish of your choice to get hot
Put the cornflour, salt and sugar in a bowl and combine well, then start adding hot water until you get a bit runny but still compact almost thick paste looking dough. Stir the sweet corn in (if using and pour into the baking tray. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until it gets golden brown on the top. Do the toothpick check if you are not sure.

It can be served warm or cold and agrees very well with feta cheese and pickles.

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