Pumpkin Pie

It's Halloween! So time for something pumpkiny... an American classic - Pumpkin Pie! (We grew the pumpkin ourselves :) )

Pumpkin pie
Serves: 8
Cooking temp: 180oC and 220oC
Cooking time: 25 + 50 minutes

Ingredients
750g chopped and peeled pumpkin or squash
350g packet of shortcrust pastry
140g caster sugar
25g melted butter + extra for roasting
1tsp nutmeg
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
2 eggs, beaten
175ml condensed milk
100ml double cream, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC/Gas 4. Spread out the pumpkin in a large baking tray and sprinkle with a few tablespoons of sugar. Add two knobs of butter and roast for about 20 minutes, until soft. Take out and leave to cool.
2.  Roll out the pastry until it will cover a 22cm tart tin. Press in (with an overhang in case of shrinkage) and chill for 15 minutes. Bake, with baking beans, for 15 minutes. Then remove the paper and beans and bake for another 10 until crisp. Remove and leave to cool. Increase the oven to 220oC/Gas 7.
3. Meanwhile, puree the pumpkin and push through a sieve into a small bowl(if you can be bothered, otherwise just puree well). In a larger bowl, combine the sugar and spices. Mix in the egg and melted butter, then the pumpkin puree. Stir to combine.
4. Pour into the tart shell and bake for 10 minutes, then for 40 minutes at the lower temperature of 180oC/Gas 4 until just set (with a bit of wobble).
5. Leave to cool, then whisk up the double cream and pipe into rosettes on top.
6. Serve!

Some chocolate things!

Chocolata lava cakes V2.0! Very nice but (if that's a *but*)  rich (have with ice cream or whipped cream..?) I used Gu ramekins (The ones their desserts come in that you can buy at supermarkets) which were just the right size for this.

Ingredients
250g 70% dark chocolate
300ml milk
50g unsalted butter at room temperature
25g cocoa powder
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
25g self raising flour

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Serves: 6
Cooking temp: Gas 4, 180oC

Method

1.   Preheat the oven to 180oC, Gas 4
2. Melt the chocolate in the milk over a low heat. In two small clean bowls, separate the eggs.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar, then fold in the flour, cooca powder,egg yolk, and chocolate mixture and mix well.
4. Beat the whites until they hold their shape, then spoon into the chocolate mixture and mix again with a metal spoon.
5. Pour this into 6 8cmx8cm ramekins, and place them into a large roasting dish. Fill the dish with boiling water, to a depth of 2.5cm up the side of the ramekins
6. Bake for 20 minutes, until they form a firm cracked crust (don't overbake or they'll loose the liquid centre).
7. Enjoy asap! You could dust with some icing sugar or cocoa powder to serve.
   

Eton Mess Cupcakes

I wanted to get this post in there before May ended (so far we've only missed 3 month in 2 and three-quarters years, which I think is pretty good!)

With exams ended, I decided to take advantage of the extra time I had and do some baking, which I haven't done much at uni this year (apart from the relatively easy cake pops). This was evident as I had practically none of the ingredients (my shopping trip to Sainsbury's consisted of: flour, eggs, baking powder, icing sugar, strawberries, double cream, sugar, vanilla extract) or equipment. But even so, they turned out okay:

Makes: 12 largish cupcakes

Ingredients:
140g caster sugar
140g butter
3 medium eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g flour
1 tsp baking powder
75g meringue, crushed
Punnet of strawberries (with at least 12 strawberries)
150ml double cream
60g icing sugar

Oven temperature: 180 degrees C

1. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the beaten eggs and vanilla extract and mix to combine.

2. Add the flour, baking powder and 50g of crushed meringue and stir gently together.

3. Fill the cupcake cases with the mixture. Push half a strawberry into the centre of each one. (As you can see in my photo, I just sort of placed them on top, which I wouldn't really recommend because in the oven the strawberries sort of evaporated)

4. Bake for 20 minutes. Leave to cool.

5. Meanwhile, whisk the double cream until stiff. Stir in the icing sugar. Note: my ingredients might not be enough/right ratio for the icing you want (it was quite sweet) but I tend to find recipes have too much icing so I reduced it quite a bit

6. When your cupcakes are cool, spread the icing on top and then finish with half a strawberry and distribute the rest of the crushed meringue.

Veggie sweet potato and beans burgers

As I've been decreasing the amount of meat I eat, I've had an amazing revelation (only a tiny bit of sarcasm there ;) ): there are loads of veggie recipes that are just as good/better than their meat alternatives. I'm thinking lentil bolognese, for example. I think it's because they don't pretend to be meat, they just use vegetables in a great way.

Makes: 8 smallish patties 


Ingredients:
- 2 small sweet potatoes
- 400g kidney beans
- 1 small onion
-  2.5 tsp of cumin
- 1 tsp of paprika

Also:
- rolls
- avocadoes and tomatoes for slicing and serving with the patties
- salsa
- cheese

 1. Chop the sweet potato up. Microwave on High for 10 minutes (or 2x5, moving them around halfway) until soft. Or, bake for 45-60 minutes at 200 degrees C until tender (I've had this discussion with people: apparently baking is far superior, but hey, life is only so long)

 2. Mash the kidney beans in a bowl. Mix in the chopped onion.



3. Add the sweet potato and mash that up with the beans and onion. Then add the spices and any seasoning you like.

  

4. Mould the mixture into 8 patties. Fry little on both sides for 4 minutes each. You will have to do this in batches unless you have a huge pan. Or you can bake for 35 minutes at 200 degrees C. 

5. Create your burgers using avocao, tomato, salsa, cheese, or anything else you like the sound of!

Cheese Scones

Made my first cheese scones today! They were so nice, and really easy to make.

(Yeah, I don't really go for the here's-my-whole-life-story-before-I-get-to-the-recipe thing)

Makes: 8 scones

Ingredients:
450g self-raising flour
115g soft margarine
140g good quality mature cheddar cheese (if you want the scones to taste their best!)
Seasoning
1 egg
150ml milk
1 tsp  mustard

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C/ gas mark 6

2. Add the flour and margarine and combine until it resembles fine crumbs

3. Reserve 25g of the cheese. Grate the rest in and season

4. Beat the egg, 125ml of the milk and mustard together. Gradually stir into the flour until it forms a smooth, soft dough.

5. Flour a surface and lightly knead the dough. Break the dough into eight pieces and shape (however you want. I did mine roundish because I'm not particularly original).
 
6. Arrange them on a baking sheet, leaving some space for rising.

7. Brush the rest of the milk on the scones and sprinkle the cheese over.

8. Bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden brown.

Passionfruit and lime cheesecakes

I love cheesecake. These were the first I made for myself (usually Louise makes them for me because she's lovely like that). They were so light and smooth: I think it might have been the whipped cream, which makes they quite airy. Also, I've written 'makes 8' but I don't know if it was the size of my ramekins, or the expansion of the mixture, but I had some left over so you may be able to make more than 8.

Makes: 8

Ingredients:
- 200g of digestive biscuits
- 50g butter, melted
- 200g condensed milk
- 200g full-fat cream cheese
- 200ml double cream
- 1 lime, finely grated zest and juice
- 115g passionfruit curd

1. Crush the biscuits by putting them in a freezer bag and whacking with a rolling pin. Mix with the melted butter. Press the biscuit base into 8 ramekins. Leave in the fridge to cool.

2. Spoon the condensed milk, full-fat cream cheese, cream and lime zest and juice into a mixer/bowl and whisk until thick and smooth. This is very satisfying, although it takes a while to get there!

3. Mix in 3/4 of the curd and mix/fold in depending on the effect you want. Spoon into the ramekins and cool.

4. Spoon or pipe the rest of the curd on top, and you could sprinkle some of the zest over if you have any left.

Pulled pork rolls with apple sauce

*** Photos coming when we do them again and remember to take the photos ***

This took a while and resulted in a lot of washing up because I made every part of them, but obviously that's not necessary

Makes:
8 rolls
pork for 4 (with left-overs, depending on appetite size)
apple sauce for 4

Ingredients:
Pork:
-1 shoulder of pork
- fennel seeds
- thyme
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 100ml stock
- 100ml apple juice/ cider

Apple sauce:
- 650g apples
- 100ml water (the recipe I followed said 350ml and it was way to watery. Even 100ml might be too much, but I just seized mine at the end and the apple juice was really nice)
- 75g sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon

Rolls:
- 500g flour
- one sachet/7g yeast
- 2 tsp salt
- 1.5 tsp caster sugar
- 300ml lukewarm water
- 3 tbsp olive oil

1. Slow-cooked pulled pork
Rub the thyme and fennel seeds (and any other seasoning) into the pork and brown in the slow-cooker pan.

2. Add 100ml of stock and 100ml of apple juice/ apple cider to the pan.
Cook on High for 4-5 hours, Medium 6-7 hours, Low 8 hours. Remove pork from the pan and pull apart with two forks

3. Make rolls
Put flour and dry ingredients in a bowl and mix. Make a well in the middle and add the wet ingredients. Stir until combined.

4. Remove and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead for 10 mins until smooth and elastic. Do not add too much extra flour or it will make the bread too dense. Leave to prove for 1 hr in a lightly oiled, covered bowl in a warm place.

5. Knead the dough again for 10 minutes. Then divide into 8 pieces. Form roll shapes. Leave to prove for another hour. Preheat oven to 220C, gas mark 9

6. Bake rolls for 10-15 minutes. When they're done they should feel hollow when tapped. Cover with a towel to absorb excess moisture and leave to cool.

7. Make apple sauce
Peel, core and chop the apples

8. Add to the pan with the water, sugar and cinnamon. Simmer until the apples are soft and mushy. Cream into a smooth sauce, or leave it chunky if you prefer.

9. Serve the pork in the rolls with the apple sauce and some rocket/salad leaves

Cake Pops!

I don't really do much baking at uni, mainly because I don't want to buy all the ingredients I personally won't use for much else (like flour, or eggs). However, after seeing a post online about cake pops I really felt like I needed to make them, and as you can use a cake mix and pre-made icing
they seemed fairly simple to do.



Makes: 45. Roughly. Depending on how big you make them and how many you eat along the way :)

Ingredients:

Stylish Red Velvet:

1 x red velvet cake mix
1 x cream cheese icing tub
500g of dark chocolate
Gold sprinkles and gold dust

Cake pops are great because you can theme them depending on the event (e.g. Valentines Day, Christmas) and you can make them as fun or stylish as you want! For this post I'm just going to show what I did to make my first cake pops (as a present for a friend). But I may post photos of any cake pops I make in the future if they turn out well!

1. Make the cake following the instructions. Cake mixes are great to use because they're quick, and will probably give you a good consistency. Leave until cool.
2. Crumble until resembling.... crumbs. Add a whole tub of cream cheese icing and stir until combined.
3. Take a small handful of the mixture and roll into a ball. Mine were about meatball-sized, as you can see from the photo! Your hands will probably get quite sticky now. Continue until you've used all the mixture.
4. Leave to cool for at least 2 hours, in the fridge or freezer. They should be firm at the end.

 
 

5. Melt the dark chocolate over a pan of steaming water. Dip your cake pops into the chocolate and use a spoon to completely cover. Whilst the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle or cover in the gold dust. Place on a train lined with baking paper.
6. Repeat for all the cake pops. Leave to cool in the fridge until the chocolate is solid.
7. Choose the nicest ones and put them in an elegant box!

Ginger Cups with Chocolate Ganache

So Louise and I have been a bit busy with work and stuff, which means we missed out on a blog post in February :(

Here's our ginger and chocolate ganache cookie-things. We used left-over gingerbread from the gingerbread house that had been frozen (it was fine to use when it warmed up!) so check out that post for the recipe.

Ingredients:
- gingerbread
- 300g good quality dark chocolate
- 300ml double cream
- crystalised ginger (1/2 pieces per cookie-thing)

Makes: 12 cookies

1. Roll out the gingerbread to the thickness of 1/2 cm. Use a cookie cutter to cut circles of gingerbread, and press into a cupcake tray, to make cups of gingerbread.

2. Chop the crystalised ginger and place in the bottom of the gingerbread cups.

3. Cook at Gas 4/180 degrees C for 12 minutes. Leave to cool.

4. Meanwhile, make the chocolate ganache. Take 300ml of cream and heat until almost boiling. Break the dark chocolate into pieces. Remove cream from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir. Leave to cool/thicken.

5. Place two teaspoons of ganache in the ginger cups. Leave to cool. Add a nice little touch on top like a ginger heart!

6. Delicious!!

Alfajores

Alfajores are a kind of cookie sandwich found in South America (In particular Argentina); but I had them first in Peru. They were so good I had to come home and make some when procrastinating revision! The cornflour makes the biscuit extremely light and crumbly, offsetting the caramel perfectly ...

Alfajores
Prep time: 20 minutes plus chilling
Cooking time: 12 minutes
Cooking temp: Gas 4, 180 C

Ingredients
125g cornflour
 105g plain white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
113g unsalted butter, room temp.
67g white granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 tbsp lemon juice *
1/2 tbsp cold water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Can of Dulche de Leche (caramel)
OR make if yourself using my standard recipe:
150g butter
150g dark muscavado
Can of condensed milk
(this will make wayy too much but there are plenty of other uses)

Method

1. Place the dry ingredients (flours, baking powders) in a bowl and combine briefly 
2. In a mixer/blender, whisk the butter and sugar to a cream, then add the yolks, lemon juice, water and vanilla extract. Whisk.
3. Add the flour mixture to this slowly until you have a smooth dough that just comes together
4. knead it into a nice ball, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate.
5.   Preheat the oven, and line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
6. Meanwhile, make the caramel :
7. Heat the butter and sugar together until it's all melted. Add the condensed milk. Mix until it lightens and is well combined, but doesn't boil. Done. (You can pour it into a bowl at this point for storage).**
8. Roll out the pasty on a floured surface until it's slightly thinner than your little finger. It cracks quite easily at the edges but also patches up well. Stamp out 24 rounds with a crinkled edged round cutter, about 2.5 inches across.
9. Space them out well over the two sheets (they spread a bit) and bake in two batches. Turn them round at 6 minutes.
10. Take them out when still pale but firm underneath. Leave to cool slightly (they're pretty crumbly when hot) and then remove to a baking sheet to cool completely
11. When cold, use a teaspoon to spread a blob of caramel over the underside of one biscuit, and press another one against it to make a cookie sandwich. Repeat 12 times
12. Enjoy! Make again 10 more times to use up your caramel...

* You can use 1 tbsp Pisco or Brandy instead of lemon juice as the liquid
** I see quite a few people online sharing their caramel-making tips: all seem to involve boiling sugar for several hours on a low heat. Every time I make my caramel I get lazier; it took me about 10 minutes. Still came out fine.