Loganberry ripple ice cream with chocolate wafers

Until my electrical ice cream machine with built-in freezer magically turns up, home-making proper ice cream is on hold. Hand churning for 6 hours does produce smooth ice cream but the risk of crystallisation is high. Plus, who has a spare 6 hours to spend patiently waiting by the freezer? 

True, you can whip together some condensed milk and double cream and call it ice cream, but it doesn't deliver on richness, achieved only from the egg yolks in traditional ice cream. I think you can get away with using store bought ice cream in a recipe and still call it homemade because a lot of love went into making those chocolate wafers and the tart loganberry compote or whatever else it is your adding to pimp it up a bit.  Not too long ago I baked off chocolate chip cookies from the freezer, then chopped them up into chunks whilst warm and folded them through honeycomb ice cream followed by a generous ladle of store-bought chocolate fudge sauce and yes, I think my use of chocolate chip cookies rendered that dessert homemade. Power to the cheaters, I say. 

We picked the loganberries at a picking farm we found on the way back from Camber Sands beach. I'm not gonna lie, I did feel like the only way to get rid of 500g worth of berries was to reserve some for snacking and then reduce the rest down into a sauce with a longer life span. After eating your weight in berries whilst picking them, who wants to continue eating them raw when they get home?! The only option is to bung them into a gorgeous pie or ice cream, anything summery will do the trick.

I've used the chocolate wafer recipe from last month’s peanut butter pie because they're the closest I've come to recreating an Oreo cookie, which I think pairs really well with really sweet ice cream. If your berries are sweet rather than tart then add a couple tablespoons extra sugar to the compote.  

Loganberry ripple ice cream with chocolate wafers

Ingredients

• 2x500g tubs good quality vanilla ice cream

For the loganberry compote

• 450g loganberries (or tart raspberries)
• 80g caster sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon

For the wafer base

• 295g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 75g cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp fine salt 
• 225g butter, softened plus 100g , melted 
• 100g caster sugar
• 25g light brown sugar
• 3 tbsp honey

Method

1. Start with the compote. Put the loganberries, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves then simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes until the juices have reduced and it starts to look jammy. Set aside to cool, then pour in a clean jar and refrigerate until needed. It will last for 3 days in the fridge. 
2. To make the wafers, sieve the flour, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl then set aside. Cream the softened butter, sugars and honey with an electric whisk for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Fold in the dry ingredients, take care not to over mix. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour. 
3. Preheat the oven to 180 C / 160 F and line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper. Generously dust a clean work surface with flour and roll the dough ¾ inch thick, the dough will be sticky, so keep rotating and adding more flour as needed. Stamp out 3cm rounds with a round cutter then carefully transfer to the lined baking trays. Bake the wafers for 10 minutes, until firm to the touch – they shouldn’t have any colour on them. Leave to cool on a wire rack. 
4. Meanwhile, take the ice cream out of the freezer and leave to soften for 10 minutes. Transfer to a freezer safe shallow container and dollop 6 tablespoons of the compote over the ice cream, then use a knife or toothpick to ripple the compote through the ice cream. Close the container and put it back in the freezer for 15 minutes. 
5. Sandwich 1 scoop of ice cream between wafers or place 1 scoop on top of each wafer and serve immediately. Or cover the sandwiches well and place back in freezer. Lasts for 3 weeks in the freezer. 

This post is sponsored by Waitrose, as part of their #TasteofSummer campaign. Make sure to get involved by hash tagging your summer treats on social media!

Yeasted Almond and Sea Salt Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie

Inside our flat there is a seven-foot tree held in position by the ceiling. This year we chose a sparing selection of fancy shmancy £4-a-pop John Lewis decorations instead of 100 glittery baubles from the Pound Land.  The tree is leaning slightly to the left, but I suppose that’s what happens when you invest in something real. 

Baking cookies in a cake tin won’t add a touch of all spice to a Christmas baking repertoire, but it does add a barely cooked doughy middle to the modest sized batch this recipe yields. I think that adding some ground cloves or cinnamon, or a warming combination of both elevated with some fresh nutmeg, could work beautifully, especially if you’re finally in the festive spirit (festive spirit = continuous spice trip in the month of December). Let’s not forget that cookies are a bribe the kids might use on Santa so he doesn’t disappoint them with a lump of coal.  Not to be ageist, but the heaps of sea salt, whole nuts and bitter chocolate in this cookie tray bake are all adultly ingredients too.

My favourite recipe for chocolate chip cookies is the New York Times adaptation of Jacques Torres’ recipe, which is made with bread flour. Since discovering it, all of my cookies have had bread flour in them because it gives a chew, and a slight sturdiness on the outside that is difficult to forget. 

To amplify the bread-like flavour I used yeast as the raising agent and chilled the tray overnight, maturing the fermentation like this created a surprisingly subtle yeastiness. Bicarbonate of soda is fine to use as a replacement, but I’m sick of accidentally adding too much bicarbonate and ending up with a batch of soapy baked goods. Using fast acting yeast eliminates all possibilities of that, and it creates a crispy and crackly top layer caused from the swollen air pockets that rise to the top of the cookie overnight. Yeast and bicarbonate of soda both produce carbon dioxide that helps the cookie rise in the oven, but I much prefer the characteristics of bread in my cookies instead of, say, Imperial Leather.

Yeasted Almond and Sea Salt Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie

Makes 8 large pieces or 16 slithers.

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter
• 125g light brown sugar
• 2 pinches sea salt
• 1 tsp coffee extract or brewed coffee
• 1 egg
• 200g strong bread flour
• ½ tsp fast action yeast
• 100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 50g almonds, roughly chopped

Method

1. In a small saucepan brown the butter on medium heat. Let the butter sizzle in the pan for a few minutes, keep an eye on it as it burns really quickly, you’ll know it’s browned when it starts to smell nutty. Pour the butter in a large bowl and leave to cool slightly. Add the sugar, salt and coffee extract to the butter and stir to combine then crack in the egg and briefly whisk.
2. In a separate bowl stir together the flour and yeast and add to the butter mixture. The mixture will be a little wet. Fold through the chocolate and almonds. Dump the dough into an 8-inch round cake tin and use the back of a spoon to gently press into the tin. Tightly wrap the tin in cling film and leave in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight. Once you're ready to serve the cookie, preheat the oven to 200˚C/fan 180˚C/gas 6 and bake for 18 minutes, or 14 minutes for a gooey middle. Cookie lasts for 3 days if covered.

Waitrose might have nailed gingerbread this Christmas, but they also have a lovely collection of chocolate cake recipes on their website. I made their ganache covered red-velvet-like layer cake and filled it with tangy freeze-dried strawberries, which was dense and hit all the right choco-spots. You can find the recipe here, along with lots more chocolatey goodness.

Love Em xx

Pistachio & Chocolate Biscotti + A Giveaway

mbakes turned three last month! We’re nearly out of the annoying toddler stage and hopefully; the recipes aren’t as clumsy anymore. Pair the diabolical explosions of sugar I used to post back in ’12 + 13 with my nighttime flash photography, and it makes me want to cry and murder every cupcake on the planet. 

Aaaaand then there’s Jane Hornby, she’s been writing recipes professionally for 15 years and her new baking book What To Bake & How To Bake It came out recently. If you have years of recipe writing under your belt and a whole book containing mostly quintessentially British recipes within, that’s enough to draw me in. The glorious book might be aimed at the amateur baker, but there's no harm in adding a collection of stable recipes to your collection (15 years = stable recipes, okay?). WTB&HTBI felt genuine, much more so than a book by a celebrity chef, whose home economist likely thought up/tested the recipes and then stuck a coy image of said celeb chef on the front cover to push the sale of copies, isn’t that annoying? 

What’s the USP, I hear you ask? (You’re not asking this), it might be the photography, which kind of reminds me of Ikea. Each recipe (there’s 50 of them, including pumpkin pie and JAFFA marble cake) comes with beautiful overhead step-by-step photographs from start to finish.  This recipe for pistachio chocolate chip biscotti is an adaptation from the pistachio and fig version in the book, every recipe in here is meant to be simple, so I chose the simplest of the lot, to see how good Jane’s ‘simple’ was, and my oh my, Jane’s simple is simply delicious, crunchy and not at all eggy. 

To celebrate three years, Phaidon have kindly offered two copies of What To Bake & How To Bake It for me to giveaway. To enter, follow the instructions on the rafflecopter below. You can only enter if you live in the UK, don’t hate me!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pistachio & Chocolate Biscotti

Ingredients

• 200g unrefined caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting and rolling
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• Zest of 1 orange 


• 100g shelled pistachios 
• 100g dark chocolate chips

Method

1. Grease and line a large baking tray with baking parchment. Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F. 
2. Put the sugar and eggs in a large bowl and whisk for 1 minute, until the mixture is frothy and pale, then whisk in the melted butter. 
3. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt then dump over the eggs. Use a spatula to fold together to make a dough. Add the zest, nuts and chocolate and stir into the dough using the spatula. 
4. Scatter a generous amount of flour on the work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Split the dough in two and dust each one with more flour. Shape and lightly pat each piece into an 8-10 inch sausage, taking care not to overwork. Gently lift each piece onto the baking tray, bake for 30 minutes then leave to cool on a wire rack and reduce the oven to 160 C / 320 F.
5. Use a serrated knife to slice into 1cm pieces, then spread the cookies on the lined baking tray and bake for another 30 minutes, turning them over half way through baking so both sides are golden. Cool the biscotti on a rack, or eat warm, they'll last for 2 weeks in a cookie jar.

Love Em xx

Chocolate Meringue Cake

Okay, I underestimated the ‘working blogger’ and I overestimated my capabilities as a human being, it seems I was born lazy.  

Mum and I have been scrolling through range cookers from Argos, to replace our clumsy, tepid oven. Ours is a baker’s nightmare - it’s so inaccurate that even oven thermometers are confused by it. Sponge cakes come out with domed tops or they barely rise, and beating butter and sugar until the mixer's on the verge of combustion or a new bag of flour doesn’t always work. Most of the layered cakes on here were lucky escapes (face palm). 

Homemade meringue has always made me feel a bit uneasy because it always comes out just a bit too eggy to stomach. But last week I had a thought, what if I add meringue on top of a cake, purposefully over-baking it by baking the meringue for as long as the dense chocolate cake that will be at the bottom? Perhaps the secret to abolishing the raw egg aftertaste was to over-bake it. It seems, my incompetent oven could finally be put to good use.

By the time the cake is such that a skewer inserted won't be all gooey from the mucus of an egg, you’re left with a crunchy and weightless meringue topping. There’s nothing marshmallow-y about this one, but if that’s what you’re after (and I’m not judging) top the cake with meringue 20 minutes in to the cake’s baking time. 

Chocolate Meringue Cake

Ingredients

Chocolate swirl meringue

• 4 egg whites
• 225g golden caster sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 30g cocoa powder

Chocolate cake

• 200g dark chocolate
• 300g unsalted butter, softened
• 300g light brown sugar
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp coffee extract
• 150g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

Cream filling

• 300ml cream
• Pinch of salt
• Cream of tarter
• A few pomegranate seeds

Lasts for three days if covered. 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C and line two 6” round cake tins with baking paper.
2. Start by whisking the egg whites until froth appears, then slowly add in the sugar whilst whisking. Keep whisking until thick and glossy, then add the cornflour and mix to combine. Spoon two heaped tablespoons into a small bowl and sift over the cocoa, then whisk to combine – don’t worry if the mixture deflates. Set both bowls aside and make the cakes.
3. Melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water then set aside to cool. Cream the butter and sugar until pale. Whilst creaming, slowly add in the eggs. If the mixture curdles add a tablespoon of the flour, then add the rest of the eggs. Pour in the melted chocolate and coffee extract and stir through. Fold in the flour and baking powder and equally divide the mixture among the pans. Spoon the white meringue over the tops of each raw cake, using the spoon to roughly level the tops. Spoon small blobs of the chocolate meringue all over then take a cocktail stick and swirl both meringues together.
4. Bake for 40/50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle is a little damp. The tops will crack in the middle as they bake and then collapse slightly when cooling. Whip the cream with the salt and tarter to soft peaks, then sandwich the cakes together with the cream and pomegranate seeds. Use a spatula to smooth the sides of the cake and serve. 

I was contacted by Argos to talk ovens. I grew up with this brand, and we use them to buy many, many things (thank god for the store card). 

Love Em 

Malteser Doughnuts Recipe

Aloha! This week I'm bringing doughnuts over to Destination Femme... But they're not any ol' nuts, oh no...

This doughnut is the breakfast of champions, inspired by Justin Gellatly's basic dough recipe, there is enriched dough, cream, chocolate and it’s all deep fried in fat for an extra kick of flavour. Another round of indulgence is met when the whole thing gets bathed in sugar and malt powder. I’m not suggesting you eat this regularly, but if you feel like eating one more granola bar made with what is essentially sawdust is going to tip you over the edge, a day spent in the kitchen baking these doughnuts might help!

Click here for the Malteser Doughnuts recipe.

Love Em xx

Nigella's Nutella cake

I feel like I should rename this blog ‘mbakes with chocolate’. 

EVERYTHING has chocolate, I’m sorry if you’re getting sick of it. Am I trying to assert my femininity by using it? Dear god I hope not. 

Sometimes, just sometimes, I have visions of rubbing chocolate into the pores of my face and I fear it may actually be cheaper than my Lancome ‘Tient Idole Ultra’ (what?) – which makes it all the more feasible and non-weird. 

I polished off a poor man’s Magnum and a crème egg half an hour before falling into sleep induced coma yesterday. It may or may not have been my lowest point, albeit the moment I forgot how to write a good sentence.

This cake is definitely an ode to Easter, it would be perfect as an alternative to simnel cake or hot cross buns if you’re gluten intolerant, but I’d risk it for a bite of these fried hot cross donuts. 

The Nutella cake is very rich in flavour and every scant forkful is as decadent as the next. Perfect reasoning for massively underexposing the photographs! You can can taste the darkness, yes?

This is a proper adult’s cake, by the way. We gave a hefty slice to my eight year old cousin and I could almost feel her dismay when she clocked on to the (sweet) bitterness. Oh, to be young.  Happy Easter!  

Beetroot Crème Egg Brownies

In October I spoke about brownie baking being at the top of my list of things to do when I should actually be doing something else. I’ve been doing quite well, then, considering those salted caramel fudge brownies were the last I blogged about. 

Fast-forward seven months and a dissertation due in May. 

Behold crème egg brownies. 

With not a single word written and three other projects to hand in, if I don’t over indulge in the teeny stresses of student life on my blog, I fear there *might* be internal chaos. 

Tell a lie, I distinctly remember blagging on about my dissertation “idea” to two very patient ladies at the London Coffee Festival last weekend. They gave me such a good piece of advice that I’m going to share it with you even if pointless university degrees are not your thing: narrow your focus!! I suppose that could be interpreted into some sort of life lesson, too?

Taking that on board, here’s me trying to un-narrow my baking repertoire by adding a vegetable to brownies. And here’s me again trying to un-narrow my waistline by adding a vegetable to brownies. And heres me again topping each brownie portion with half a crème egg…. 

It’s Easter soon and therefore completely relevant and not weird, okay? 

Let me just round this off by saying that beetroot and crème eggs go REALLY well together. Admittedly, grated beetroot folded into a brownie and then topped with an overly sweet (and therefore only acceptable at Easter time slash all year) confection is a far cry from perfect – think savoury chunks that, better welcomed in a summer salad. 

But if you puree the beety goodness it isn’t so nuanced. Its there, but the only thing hitting you in the face with flavour will be the caramelized fondant from the crème egg. 

Beetroot Crème Egg Brownies

Adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Chocolate & Beetroot Brownies 

9 crème eggs 

150g unsalted butter

100g coconut oil

250g dark chocolate

3 eggs

200g golden caster sugar

200g self raising flour

250g boiled and pureed beetroot (I used a hand blender)

Note: The beetroot overpowers (in a good way!) any rich butteryness you might expect from an all butter brownie so I chose to add coconut oil for a healthy balance. Because the fats are melted together in the recipe, using all coconut oil and no butter would work perfectly, as would using butter.  

Line a rectangular brownie pan with parchment paper or foil, grease, and preheat the oven to 180 C. Carefully slice crème eggs in half lengthways, using the indent on the chocolate as a guide. Place the butter, oil and chocolate into a medium bow and microwave on the lowest setting for 2 minutes, stopping and stirring every 30 seconds, set aside once fully melted. In a large bowl whisk the eggs and sugar until frothy, then pour in the chocolate mixture and stir until combined.Sift over the flour and fold, then the pureed beetroot. Pour the batter into the pan and dot with the halved creme eggs. Bake for 25 minutes until slightly risen and firm to the touch. Cool completely in the pan, slice up and serve.

PS, tips on how not to procrastinate are more than welcome!! 

Love Em xx

Chocolate Rum Éclairs

Éclairs always remind me of our “female” family gets togethers. Auntie A is on her way round, then maybe auntie B will follow suit an hour or so later and she’ll bring the custard tarts from Tesco’s whilst we might provide the fresh cream and jam doughnuts from Morrison’s. Auntie A will be pouring the stovetop Turkish Tea into our tiny glass vessels in abundance and there will always be a whiff of brewed cloves to be smelt in the air. 

There’s nothing wrong with sharing and enjoying something sweet and mass packaged whilst having a good old moan from time to time, don’t you think? 

Most of our teatime favourites have one thing in common and that’s sweetened whipped cream, with added gelatin to help thicken and plump things up a bit and worryingly prolong its shelf life.

Sickening, really, how processed cream can taste so damn good.

But it’s the beginning of April, dissertation deadline is looming so I’m steering clear of processed cream, hoping it will promote– a ‘can do’ attitude (still cant do). 

The filling in these éclairs isn’t made with coconut milk residue. Make them with a cream with the highest fat content you can find, sugar and a touch of rum to round off the sweetness. It’ll take you back to the best bitching session you’ve ever had with your family.

Chocolate and Coconut Cake with Dulce De Leche and Cashews

A tremendous weight of guilt has been following me around this week because of how dormant mbakes has been recently. Mama and me have just moved into the most spacious flat to ever grace the industrial beast of Bexley known as Slade Green. Moving the contents of a three bedroom house into a flat is not easy, so this ugly cake (which carries with it the most indulgent pairings) was made for the woman who carried flat packs, heavy duty black bags and my ever growing and pointless collection of kitchen ‘bits’ to the second floor. 

And it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Waitrose, who offered to help me put together a cakey so and so for Mother’s Day. They’ve also put together a collection of lovely sweet recipes, Sophie literally turned their Victoria sponge into a berry tree and it was beautiful, I’m positive her mum would have been proud!

This was the last cake I made and shot beside a huge Victorian sized window (tear). The house itself was literally falling apart, unlike this squeaky clean and cream one. The photos oh here might be darker from now on, but behind it all, I think we’ll be much happier. 

If anyone has any tips for shooting in low light I’d be so grateful! 

I’ve had this hazelnut and dulce de leche quadruple layer chocolate cake indexed from the Aussy Delicious magazine for a good year now, but I was pretty sick of hazelnuts after baking this flourless chocolate cake for the fifth time. So I scattered in a good handful of sweet coconut and it added chewiness and taste to the cake likened to a Bounty bar. 

Yes it is just another chocolate cake, but it is positively spruced up with creamy cashews, generous spreads of dulce de leche and a very buttery chocolate icing. Just promise you’ll do a better job at decorating it for Mother’s Day. 

Chocolate and Coconut Cake with Dulce De Leche and Cashews 

For the cake

230g dark chocolate 

170g unsalted butter, softened 
350g light brown sugar 
3 eggs, separated

500ml buttermilk 
1 tsp vanilla extract
375g plain flour 
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder

100g sweetened shredded coconut, plus extra for sprinkling on top

Icing 

200g dark chocolate 
225g unsalted butter, softened
250g icing sugar

Topping
170g dark chocolate

411g dulce de leche (1 ½ tins)
100g cashew nuts

Note: This recipe actually yields 4 cake layers, I may have muffed up the top layer (hence the slightly questionable appearance) so I had to chuck the top cake. Whatever you do, do not put the widest cake layer at the top because the chocolate will drip all over the place, not all seductively over each layer as it should. 

Make the cakes. Preheat oven to 170 C and line two 7” or 8" cake pans with baking paper, or 4 sandwich tins. Melt chocolate over double boiler and set aside. Beat butter and sugar until pale. Add the yolks one by one, then stir through melted chocolate. In a jug, pour vanilla into buttermilk and stir. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and fluff up with a fork. Add the dry ingredients and buttermilk to the chocolate mixture in thirds, alternating between the two.  Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, fold them into the chocolate mixture and divide the batter among the pans. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean or bake for 25 minutes if using sandwich tins. Let the cakes cool in their tins for 20 minutes then invert on to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Make the icing. Melt 200g chocolate over double boiler. Beat butter and icing sugar in a freestanding mixture on high speed until light and fluffy. Pour the melted chocolate in whilst the mixer is still running and mix until fully incorporated. 

Melt the rest of the chocolate (170g) over a double boiler. 

Assemble the cake. Split the cakes horizontally using a serrated knife and brush away the crumbs. Place the first layer on a cake plate and spread a quarter of the chocolate icing on top, then spread a quarter of the dulce de leche over the icing. Place the second layer on top and repeat, then do the same with the third layer. Place the last cake on top and spread with the melted chocolate, letting it drip to the sides. Sprinkle with cashews and leftover coconut then serve. Lasts for 3 days if kept covered. 

Thank you to mum, Russell, aunties, uncle and cousins for helping us move.

What will you be baking on Mother's Day?
Love Em xx