Deep Dish Doughnut Peach Pie

I baked a "farewell summer" pie – I am that sad. I used really sweet, short & fat peaches because their harvest stops at summer’s end. I thought this would make the pie sentimental, especially for summer, because thats completely normal. I bagged 6 of these for £1.86 in the Turkish Food Centre! I went to WholeFoods where they were charging 2 for £1. The choice was simple. Summer, it was nice while it sort of lasted.

Easy Peasy Lemon Tarts

What’s better than making custard in a saucepan? Sorry: two saucepans, a sieve, a freestanding mixer and a chopping board if we’re feeling fancy enough to scrape the seeds of a £4 vanilla pod?

Making custard in the oven. With one mixer and four ingredients, thats including the extra flavouring .

And since you only really ever attempt the gruelling custard making task when the sweet liquid occupies some sort of tart (Birds is perfectly acceptable for everything else, don’t let anybody tell you different), we cant exactly omit the ice water bowl, floured worktop and god knows whatever else it takes to actually make pastry all short and buttery instead of soggy bottomed and too-stiff-to-chew (in my case anyway).

But here’s an idea, pastry, how about propping up in my kitchen when I’m in the mood to spend an extra hour by the sink, perhaps when mother hasn’t just had a gallstone the size of an egg yanked out of her? The surgeon said it was like giving birth.

Back to more food blog appropriate dilemmas: tart bases: digestive bases, in particular. This blog is full of them. See this time…not forgetting the first time. Pretty much never looked back after that last time. Just look at this tart disaster, ain’t nobody got time for that.

A grown up and ‘mouldable’ digestive base uses a ratio of 1:2 butter to crushed rubble biscuit, basically, the greasier the easier. I used little disposable trays after seeing this pin and falling in love, so it was harder to get cleaner edges*. But who’s complaining, there are less awkward shaped whisks and bowls to be hand washed!

Back to custard. Three 18cm tarts equal six lemons, so that’s two lemons for every one tart. That’s a damn lot of tang for one tongue; so you can just imagine how much these new age tart's pack a feisty punch. But the creaminess from the baked custard foundation helps to cut through the citrus, every bite you’ll find yourself falling into a trap of sweet, sweet addiction.

*you can avoid this completely by using a tart tin.

Easy Peasy Lemon Tarts

Adapted fom From The Kitchen's Ultimate Lemon Tart

Ingredients

Filling
7 eggs

3 egg yolks

350ml double cream

1 + 1/3 cup caster sugar 

400ml lemon juice (6 lemons)

Base

500g digestive biscuits 

250g unsalted butter, melted 

The Method:

Heat the oven to 200 degree C | 400 F. 

For the crust, place the digestive biscuits in a food processor and blitz to make fine crumbs. Gently pour in the melted butter and sugar whilst still blitzing. Press into 4 | 18cm foil cases or a 23cm | 9 inch pastry case. Chill for 10 minutes. 

Bake the crumb crust for 10 minutes or until browned. Set aside.

Reduce oven temperature to 180 degree C.  

Make the filling. Juice lemons and set aside. Whisk the eggs and sugar together for 5 minutes, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture turns a pale yellow. Slowly add the cream until incorporated and then the lemon juice. The mixture will be abundant, mix until completely incorporated. Skim all of the froth from the custard with a spoon. Discard this, or place in ramekins and bake separately for 20 minutes

Place the pie case/s in the oven with the racks coming out of the oven so that you can easily pour the filling into the case/s. Transfer the filling into two jugs, slowly pour the filling into the pies whilst they are on the oven rack. Bake for 30 minutes for smaller tarts, or 45 minutes for one large tart.

Leave to cool in the case/s on a wire rack for at least half an hour, before transferring to the refrigerator for 1 hour to set completely. The tarts will keep for 4 days in the refrigerator.

A word about Google + comments... If you were thinking about switching over, well, you shouldn't because you will regret it! I switched back in July, and received a few emails from readers telling me they were unable to comment without a gmail account. Those cheeky google marketing boffins, aye?! For the sake of my sanity, I have completely switched over to Disqus, which means that everyone who has commented between now and July, I am really sorry but your comment has been lost!

Love Em xx

Fig and Mint Frangipane Crostata

When I was seven or so I used to look like the Michelin man. In the jollier days, our family would pack our bags once/twice a year and jet off to Northern Cyprus. That’s the other half yet to adopt McDonalds, where produce is rich and capital struggles, but that’s a story best told on Wiki. A lot of their tiny population make ends meet by harvesting fruits and vegetables and selling it off to traders.

For the best part of these holidays, I’d climb in my Granddad’s rusty blue van and in under 10 minutes we’d arrive at his corner of Cyprus land. There were hundreds of vine trees all perfectly aligned for as far as my eyes could see. It was so easy to get myself lost in the vibrant greens that I almost didn’t mind getting my kankles stuck in mud whilst trudging towards the vine leaf drooping closest to the ground.

Also, have you ever tried eating a raw vine leaf? My mouth would stop at nothing.

On another day I’d climb the ladders resting on the loquat trees and pick bucket-fulls of marvelously yellow and catatonically flavoursome ovals with my step nan. Her land was denser than Granddads. The leaves were darker green and the loquat bearing trees were sky high. If I were to go back, 10 years later, I’d probably be in for a sizeable shock.

I was never taken to where the fig trees grew, which was a shame really, because I was such a fig fiend. I was emotionally connected to them, right down to the shape of the fruit, they kind of look like the Michelin man’s teardrops – overly plump at the bottom. The under-ripe green figs had the best flavour; the centers were always lusciously pink and the taste fresher. The pulp and goo of the fig's core, although cringe worthy, was the perfect consistency.

Poking mint leaves into the crostata’s folds gives it an added Mediterranean kick, and what’s a crostata without frangipane? What’s a dessert without frangipane, or a breakfast?  Almonds, sweet scented roasted figs and refreshing mint piled together on flaky rich pastry dough: it’s also simple to put together. All it takes is smearing the butter into the flour with the palm of your hand, no ice water on the side, no need for a marble work top, just pliable pastry that comes together really easily.

Ingredients

Adapted from Flour Bakery's Roasted Pear and Cranberry Crostata 

Pâte Brisée II
140g plain flour
2 tsp (15g) caster sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
128g cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 egg yolk
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp (30ml) cold milk
2 tbsp granulated, demarara or sanding sugar

Frangipane:
50g ground almonds
56g unsalted butter, softened
50g caster sugar
1 egg
2 tsp plain flour
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of sea salt

Filling:
9 ripe figs, quartered
1 tbsp juice
5 mint leafs

Crostata serves 8/10 

Note: For better pastry, make it a day in advance and leave to firm up in the fridge.

Note II: Green figs are hard to come by in England, but if you can get some, then definitely use these instead of their ripe counterpart. 

Method:

Start with the pâte brisée II. In the bowl of stand mixer with paddle attachment, or normal bowl, stir together flour, sugar and salt. Scatter cubes of cold butter over the top and mix for 50 seconds until you have walnut sized pieces of butter and flour.

In a cup, stir together milk and egg. Pour the egg straight into flour mixture and mix until everything has just started to come together; about 30 seconds.

Put the mixture atop a clean surface and gather into a mound. Then, using your palms, slide your hand across the surface of the dough until all of the butter is smeared into the flour, but you can still see thin streaks of butter. Scrape each part of the dough with your palms twice until eventually, everything comes together. Wrap the dough in cling film and flatten into a disk. Place in the fridge for 4-24 hours.

Prepare the frangipane. In a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or a spoon), cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add ground almonds and mix for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. On low speed, add the egg, then the flour, vanilla & salt. Set aside.

Cut the figs in half, and then in half again to produce little quarters. Add them all into a bowl with the lemon juice and stir to coat. Set aside.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. On a floured surface, roll out the dough into a circle 10 inches in diameter and place on the baking sheet. Using a spoon, evenly spread the frangipane in the middle of the dough about 7 inches in diameter, making sure to leave 3 inches around the edges completely uncovered.

Place all of the cut figs into the frangipane in a decorative way. Take one side of the crostata and fold the 3 inch boarder up and over the fruit. Take another piece adjacent to the fold you just made, and fold that over. You should end up with 7 pleats. Squash the mint leafs between the figs, making sure they're well spaced. Refrigerate the crostata for 30/60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Generously brush the crostata pastry with the beaten egg, then evenly sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, or until the sides are completely golden. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for an hour. Remove the mint leaves once cooled.

The crostata will keep for 2 days.

Hang on a minute, isn't that a galette? Or a crostata? What's the difference?! Somebody.

Anybody? 

Love Em xx

Tres Leches {Three Milk} Cake

Lets talk about milk.

A nutritional collection of butterfat globules extracted from cows. We chug down 5 billion litre’s every year in the UK and apparently, that’s nuffin’ compared to India, the biggest consumers on the planet.

I hate milk. It makes me feel sick, before I knew that milk and me had issues, I used to think I was carrying a 10-year-old invisible fetus that just wouldn’t give. Three milk cake made by a milk misogynist? I’ll be damned if this bitch thinks its okay to keep on blogging.

Genuine reason people: my sister moved out last week, so she had first call on which cake was coming out of the oven. You know, the one that she was never gonna cook fish fingers in ever again. Big, big changes.

Tres Leches, she insisted. What the crap is that? A few pins later and I am partially informed about the cakes of the world and wanting to know how those all around the globe utilize their milk. 

This cake is an authentic, Mexican after dinner dessert, pure tradition at its height. Tres Leches simply means three milks, a plain light sponge is soaked (DRENCHED) in all three of these milks with a touch of vanilla. The cake is then coated in sweet cream. Tres leches cake has lactose written all over it, as well as sweetness, and apparently, it’s the best cake ever.

This cake can be turned on its head, flavour wise. Think coconut. Think chocolate tres leches. Think espresso or pumpkin for the autumn, ginger and cinnamon on Christmas day and a berry coulis filling next week. I think my sister was mostly excited about the milky goodness, so I stuck with authenticity. I didn’t taste it, how could I?

Tres Leches {Three Milk} Cake

Adapted from Patis Mexican Table's Pastel de Tres Leches

Ingredients

For the cake

• 9 eggs, separated 
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups plain flour

For the milk syrup

• 3/4 tin (340g) evaporated milk
• 1 tin (397g) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup semi skim milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Topping:

• 1200ml double cream
• A bunch of pretty roses: I used roses on the cake purely for decoration. If you wanted, though, you could make them edible by crystallising with egg whites and sugar.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line two 6 inch cake tins with parchment paper.
2. Pour all of the egg whites into the bowl of a freestanding mixer fixed with a whisk, or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, and whisk on high speed for 4 minutes until stiff peaks form. Whilst whisking, slowly add all of the sugar until the mixture is glossy.
3. If using a stand mixer, transfer the whites into a large bowl and set aside. Add the egg yolks to the used mixer bowl and whisk on high speed for 3 minutes until fluffy and pale. Pour in the vanilla and whisk to combine. Carefully fold the egg yolks into the egg white mixture, then fold in the flour until well combined.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tins and bake for 22 - 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Turn the cakes out of the pan and leave to cool on a wire rack, then transfer each cake on a large plate.
5. In a large jug, stir together the evaporated, condensed, and liquid milk. Slice both cakes horizontally to make four layers. Pierce the cakes in several places with a fork and slowly pour the milk over each cake. Wait a couple of minutes after each pour, the cakes will hold all of the milk so keep pouring! Refrigerate the cakes for at least 2 hours to set.
6. Whip the cream until soft peaks form using an electric whisk or freestanding mixer.
7. Add 3 large tablespoons of cream between each layer and spread to the sides, then place cakes on top of each other. Cover the sides with cream and decorate with pretty roses then serve. Store in the fridge, the cake will keep for 3 days.

It's finally August! Where are we all going on holiday?! My cookbook giveaway ends in 5 days, head over here if you fancy entering! 

PS. It was so, sosososososo hot when I photographed this badboy - hence the extremely obvious stains on the doily, hellooooo milky drippings.

Love Em xx

I am really sorry but all comments for this post have been lost in Blogger's system/archive/brain somewhere and I cant retrieve them! Please forgive me x

Brioche au Chocolat

I’m clueless and confused when it comes to bread. Honestly now, why do people eat toast all the time? 

Sliced Hovis with a slither of butter, maybe some chopped mild cheddar tossed on top to make it dull as dishwater. Seriously, what’s the deal with the toasted fortified bread?!

Its my family’s morning fuel, but I usually settle for milk chocolate cooking chips. The weekly shop is few and far between at home , but the instant coffee, milk and sliced bread never runs low. *

I wish the amenities had a bit more excitement injected into them. I wish my home was in Belgium and my made up brother would panic whenever we had a shortage of chocolate, resulting in him popping to the off license to pick up a slab for our brioche au chocolat in the morning. Obviously there would always be proofing brioche dough in the fridge without fail. 

Can you imagine? Chocolate custard savoury bread for breakfast. All-the-time. 

People wish for a lot of things, sometimes I wish I were an elf serving Santa all year round– this is probably more likely than brioche au chocolat becoming an amenity in suburban London.

To bide the time between now and my wish becoming reality, I have made this brioche as a one off. For one day (which went far too quickly) we had brioche au chocolat for lunch and dinner; the ‘pastries’ are the perfect balance of sweet and savoury. 

The brioche is rich and crumbly and far from cakey. The custard adds softness to the texture, but the sugar hit will mainly stem from the chocolate – which is dark – making this the ultimate ‘must eat’ (everyday). 

Lets all agree to make brioche the best thing since sliced bread.

* My sister walked through the kitchen after I wrote this post and said "Hmmm what should I have on my peasant toast?"  She admitted that she thought it sounded 'uppety'. As in: snobby. As in: who the hell eats brioche everyday? If I offended anyone in this post, sorry! I simply hate toast, I dont have anything against anyone who chows down on the stuff! 

The Recipe: Brioche Au Chocolate

Adapted from Joanne Chang's Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery

For the brioche:
315g plain flour
340g bread flour
28g active dried yeast
82g sugar (granulated or caster)
1 tbsp salt
120g cold water
310g unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
5 medium eggs + 1 for egg wash

Note: This recipe will make 2 lots of dough, Chang strongly suggests not halving the recipe as you wont have enough in the mixer to get the appropriate incorporation when mixing. See the method notes for what to do with the 2nd half of brioche dough.

Note II : I dont think you can make successful brioche without a stand mixer, unless you fancy a dead arm. I think it could work in a bread maker by setting to 'knead' each time.

For the pastry cream:
300g milk
100g sugar
10g plain flour
20g cornflour
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

150g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

The Method:

Note: Read this recipe through before diving in, just to get an idea of timings: I made the brioche and custard at night, then I let the brioche prove overnight and the custard set in the fridge. Then, in the morning I put together the prepared pastries then set them aside to prove again. I had fresh brioche at 5pm that day. 

The Brioche:
Weigh out all of the dry ingredients in a freestanding mixer with a dough hook attached. Mix the ingredients together until everything is combined. Add the eggs and beat on low speed for 4 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl, then carry on mixing for 4 minutes (dough will be stiff and dry). 

With the mixer on low, add a cube of butter at a time, mixing after each piece so that it combines with the dough. Continue to mix on low for 10 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl. If necessary, break the dough up with your hands to help incorporate the butter - there are some places the mixer can't reach!

Once the butter is all mixed in, turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 15 minutes. The dough will become shiny and soft. Then turn the mixer up to medium-high speed and beat for one minute. The dough should 'slap' the sides of the bowl at this point, and when you pull it, it will stretch. If not, add a couple tablespoons bread flour and continue to beat for a few minutes longer.

Place the dough in a bowl and cover the surface with clingfilm. Let the dough proof in the fridge for 6 hours/overnight.

The Pastry Cream:
In a medium saucepan, bring the milk up to just boiling and then remove from the heat.

In a small bowl, stir together the salt, flour, cornflour and sugar.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks until well blended. Slowly whisk in the flour mixture until a thick paste forms.

Very slowly add the hot milk to the paste, whisking constantly to make sure the egg doesn't scramble. 

Return the new mixture to the saucepan (on medium heat) and whisk constantly for 3 minutes, or until the mixture thickens and starts to boil. As soon as it starts to boil, whisk for 10 seconds and immediately take off the heat.

Pass the custard through a fine sieve directly into a bowl. Gently stir in vanilla extract. 

Cover the surface of the custard with clingfilm. Once cooled, set aside in the fridge. 

Brioche au Chocolat: 

Line 2 baking trays with baking parchment.

Remove the dough from the fridge and divide in two pieces. Place the second half in the freezer - where it will keep for one week. *

On a floured surfaced, roll the dough out into a rectangle that is about 20 x 10 inches, with the long side facing you.

Spread the pastry cream over the entire surface of the dough. Sprinkle the chopped chocolate over the bottom half.

Carefully fold the top half of the dough over the bottom half and gently seal the edges together using your fingertips.

Using a sharp knife cut the dough into 2 x 10 inch rectangles. To do this, make a small incision at the top of the dough every 2 inches, so you know where to cut. You should end up with 10/12 pastries.

Using both hands, transfer each pastry to the baking trays, spacing them 4 cm apart. Lightly cover with clingfilm and leave to prove for 2 hours in a warm spot.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

In a small bowl or cup whisk together the remaining egg. Take a pastry brush and lightly coat each pastry with the egg.

Bake in the oven for 35/40 minutes. Let cool on the trays for 20 minutes. They are best served within four hours of baking and will stay fresh for one day.

*For the unused half of dough, you can simply defrost, place in a loaf tin, let proof for 2 hours & bake for 35 minutes for a brioche loaf.

Delicious brioche aside, its damn hot in London at the moment. Me and my boyfriend took a last minute trip to Camber Sands to escape the stodgy city air. The beach was completely untouched, so natural that I had to share it with you. How have you been coping with the heat? 

Love Em xx

I am really sorry but all comments for this post have been lost in Blogger's system/archive/brain somewhere and I cant retrieve them! Please forgive me x

Peanut Butter Crack Brownies & Shortlisted for the Cosmopolitan Awards!

I was finishing up my last bits at work on Monday when it got to 6pm and I remembered something.

I opened a new window, tapped into Twitter and nervously scrolled through to find that tweet. The one with that link that would take me to the Cosmopolitan Blogger Awards 2013 Shortlist.

As I pressed the link, my stomach sank. It sank further when I saw a blank page. 

Oh god. Oh god.

 I made a quick scurry to the loo’s moments later to see if the link worked best near toilet facilities (obviously this had to be an option in my desperate state). 

A few taps later and I was prancing around the workshop, jeans at my thighs, jumping like a loon with Nat (she had no idea what was going on). I had been shortlisted again!!!! Er. Mah. GAAAAHD.

Who better to thank than the person reading this right now? Seriously, thank you so much!

If you would like to, you can vote for me here by heading to the 'Best Food Blogger' category, voting closes on 31^st August so there is no rush, but I would be super grateful if you did! (Eventually....)


Orrrrrrrr you could just click on the picture on the right ;)

To celebrate I have made something close to crack. I couldn’t think of a better way to emanate my excitement and show thanks to you all. Really I couldn’t. Luckily this stuff wont kill if you get hooked, you might gain a few but hey – see them as happy pounds.

This brownie/rice crispie cake on steroids is jam-packed with every single confection known to man – it’s salty too so it's right on trend.

The recipe uses a brownie packet mix, but only because there is so much going on that I defy you to taste the difference.

Here’s why you can use packaged brownie mix without losing your credentials as a foodie; the crack brownie contains: 

smooth peanut butter
double stuffed Oreos
rice crispies
chocolate
peanut butter cups

And whatever the heck you put in the brownie itself. In my case:

marshmallows
white chocolate
crunchy biscuits.

To continue the celebrations (I don’t go out much), I will be hosting a special little giveaway next week! So keep posted, I reckon you’ll like this one :)

The Recipe:

Adapted from Cookies & Cups Peanut Butter Cup Crack Brownies 

1 brownie mix, boxed or homemade
230g bag mini peanut butter cups
1 packet 'Extra Stuff' Oreos
1 + 1/2 cup rice crispies
1 + 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips or bars
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 tbsp / 15g butter, un/salted

Makes 20 bars 

Note: Grab the most indulgent looking Brownie mix i.e. the one that says ‘Indulgent Brownie Mix’ so people don’t think your skimping on quality even though it only cost you £1.78 – the price of a good chocolate bar. If you’re still not sold, have a look here and here for sole brownie gooooo-oooo-ooodness.  

The Method:

Start by making brownies in a lined rectangular pan according to directions and roughly chopping Oreos and peanut butter cups.

Take the brownies out of the oven 5 minutes before the required baking time and sprinkle chopped peanut butter cups & Oreos over the top. Return to the oven to complete baking.

Once brownies are baked, remove from oven and immediately spread the melted peanut butter cups & Oreos around the entire surface of the brownie using a spatula.

Evenly spread half a cup of peanut butter on top of the chocolate layer and set aside.

In a large microwaveable bowl add the remaining peanut butter, milk chocolate chips and butter and microwave in 30 second bursts until just melted, making sure to stir each time.

Pour in rice crispies and stir until combined. Evenly spread over the brownie. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to set. The brownies will last for up to 5 days.

We managed to raise £370 for Race For Life! And I crossed the finished line! Wooohooo. Thank you to all those who sponsored us, Blackheath, you nearly killed me but it was for the worthiest of causes so I'll let you off.

Love Em xx

I am really sorry but all comments for this post have been lost in Blogger's system/archive/brain somewhere and I cant retrieve them! Please forgive me x