Danish buns with Biscoff spread

You could spread anything sweet and smooth between spirals of pastry and have it be a hit.

Since 2015, I’ve had this boring habit of photographing bakes with the intention of posting them on mbakes and then forgetting about it until the next itch to create something followed. And then the cycle would continue. I have a whole backlog of posts that I couldn’t bring myself to share. It could have been the stresses of working that hindered my ability to produce something good enough for the internet, or it could have been life doing the thing that life does and taking over. But I can finally promise to post more now without boring whoever’s reading with the excuses for not sharing as frequently as I’d have liked.

So I’ll start with Dan Lepard’s Danish buns that I made and photographed a while ago, you can find the recipe for his rough Danish dough here. Roll the dough into a 30x40cm rectangle and spread with a whole jar of smooth or crunchy Biscoff spread. Do as you would for any bun recipe – roll into a log, cut, prove in a tin, optionally sprinkle with European pearl sugar and then bake at 160 C for 25 minutes, or until the top is golden. Rest for ten or so minutes in the tin before lifting one out with your fingers and shoving it in your mouth.

Love Em xx

Waffle Iron Stroopwafels {Caramel Waffles}

I made stroopwafels without a pizzelle! That’s a fancy iron made specifically for one use, aka this. That’s also a lot of money and space spent on an appliance that might only get a handful of uses. London Bakes did a far better job of justifying why its good to only have just a few kitchen gadgets when she made buckwheat waffles with roasted rhubarb (made your mouth water, didn’t it?).

The original name of these sticky Dutch crispy pancake sandwiches has wafel in it. Wa-fel. But let's just pretend it says 'waffle' okay? So if the name has a waffle in it, then why are all the recipes telling me I need a pizzelle to make the crispy wafers holding the caramel (they say its caramel but I’m convinced its toffee) in place? 

That’s when I realized there was a waffle iron sitting on top of the dryer that would definitely benefit from having the dust blown from it. Sure, they look like waffle sandwiches. But the taste has chewy dutch goodness written all over it. At this point you still might not have a frickin clue what stroopwafels are…for that I am sorry.

These pleasingly large disks are usually found packaged in two beside the tills in coffee shops. My friend used to say that Starbucks stroopwafels smelt like wet dog, she still ate them though. Maybe she enjoyed wet dog. Luckily, these are NOTHING like wet dog. I should know, I made them at 1am with 2 sloppy sharp pei’s by my side, rooting me on like the supportive fluff balls they are.They're quite large in size because they're meant to sit on top of your cup of coffee and heat up, making them a right warm treat by the time you eat it. 

And the waffle iron experiment worked a charm! At first I was like…Oh THAT’S why I need a pizzelle, these things aren’t cooking in the middle! But after you let them firm up overnight, you get a crunchy ice cream cone type texture and a deep dark toffee flavour from the filling. Yeah its sticky, but it sure as hell don’t taste like wet dog.

Overnight Cinnamon Buns

I’ve posted a cinnamon bun recipe before, it was two summers ago and at that point I was a novice to yeast (still am a novice to yeast). 

I remember, as I was slicing through the longest piece of cinnamon encrusted ‘rolly polly’ I had ever seen, being so bloody proud of myself at having managed to transform dried balls of active yeast into a pillowy soft sheet of raw dough, which was just moments away from being the best thing I’d ever made. 

These buns are much, much richer than those bite sized ones. These are the sort of buns you might sink your teeth into at a certain chain bakery. Yes, these are definitely the kind of bun you would find at Cinnabon. And yes, that is definitely a good thing. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Easy Baked Ricotta Pears With Amaretti

The thought of biting into hot fruit kinda makes me squirm. Why would you want to replace a succulent and refreshing pear with a warm soggy one? 

Ever since my mum’s gallstones started causing grief, fatty desserts have been avoided like the plague, bar a couple of occasions…

But the idea of pairing soft cheese (see what I did there?) and cinnamon together as part of a fruity, marginally healthy after dinner treats sounds way less squirm inducing. 

If you’re still not sold consider this: the more cheese you add, the easier it becomes to eat a hot pear, seriously. The one I ate was practically a ricotta sandwich. 

There is something so seductive about sugary sweet cinnamon ricotta eaten entirely on its own, its a fave in the med. Find it wrapped in pastry parcels, fried, then tossed in more sugar & cinnamon in Northern Cyprus slash the confines of a terraced house in South East London and/or 1 in every 5 homes in North London. Again, not kidding. Turks eat this stuff all the time!

I knowww its nearly June and comfort food got left behind a good 4 months ago, but how can anyone pass up a cheesy pair!? 

Especially when you can rustle them up in 4 steps.

The Recipe:  Baked Ricotta Pears With Amaretti 

Adapted from BBC Good Food's Easy Baked Pears

5 ripe pears
150g ricotta
2 tbsp + 1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tbsp clear honey
2 tbsp sugar
100g amaretti biscuits

The Method:

Heat the oven to 170C. Cut the pears in half and take out the core with a teaspoon.

Place the pears on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes.

In the tub of ricotta, add sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon and mix together.

Put the biscuits in a sandwich bag and bash the life out of them, you want crumbs and rocks.

Take pears out of oven. Drizzle with 1 tbsp honey. Spoon a tsp of the ricotta mixture into the cores of each pear. Sprinkle a generous amount of amaretti over each pear.

Place back in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Drizzle with the rest of the honey. Serve warm.

Easy Baked Pears

Hope everyone had (in the words of old Oliver) a right cracking, pukka Bank Holiday weekend. My fave new Bank hols past time? Getting a £65 parking fine. Peak times.

Love Em xx

Streusel Topped Pear Loaf

Pear Loaf

I'm that sort of personwho wants to explore every single food market in England. That is me. Iprobably make most people die with cringe yet still continue to be the most judgmental character on the planet. This is what Easter holidays does to mypoor (already sizzling) brain - causes me to write nonsense that has nothing todo with a pear loaf.

Broadway Market in Hackney was where I endedup last weekend. What a thriving place. Take away the hipsters and I’llhappily drive East every weekend. Unfortunately I cannot handle the occasional stagnantwhiff of charity shop when I’m haggling for a whole coconut cream cake so maybeI’ll just turn up when I want to purchase the most beautifully stump-likeorganic pears or, equally so, a small aromatic coffee from Climpson and Sons (totally worth the £2.40 out of my friend's pocket). So what I really want tosay is, if you’re tolerant of 2013’s trendsetters and a total foodie, go toBroadway Market, there is so much to smell, taste… and gasp at.

Streusel Topped Pear Loaf 

If you’re a fan of cinnamon, fruit and cake (as separatecomponents), this loaf combines all of that together and tastes like a tea timeaccompaniment. I studied Boston’s Flour Bakery’s Banana Bread and turned it intothis delicious thing of pear beauty. The funny thing is, it was already a thingof beauty before I messed with it. So can you just imagine how darn amazingthis loaf tastes?! 

The Recipe
2 pears, grated
210g plain flour
2 eggs, large
230g golden caster sugar
2 tbsp yogurt
120g corn oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
Streusel Topping
40g rolled oats
30g dark brown soft sugar
40g cold butter, cubed
2 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

The Method

Preheat the oven to 165 C.

Whisk the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy - 4 minutes.

Slowly drizzle in the oil. Set aside.

Peel and grate the pears and quickly add them to the mixture (to avoid oxidation) followed by vanilla and yogurt. Mix until just combined.

Add in the flour, bicarb, cinnamon and salt and fold into the mixture using a metal spoon or rubber spatula. Fold until you can no longer see any white streaks.

Pour mixture into a lined loaf tin (or two) and bake for 45/55 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. But wait! Don't have a rest yet, there's still streusel to prepare.

Make the streusel topping by adding all the ingredients except the butter into a small bowl. Combine, then add the butter and using your fingers or a knife, make a crumbly mixture.

As soon as the streusel is made, quickly take the loaf out of the oven (after 20 or so minutes in the oven) and evenly sprinkle the streusel on top. Return back to the oven for the remaining time.

Once baked, let cool in the tin for ten minutes and turn out - then enjoy!

1 slice never seems adequate

A pear a day...

Love Em xx

Not So Good For You Granola

On the odd occasion where I will rise from my bed in the morning, granola is my morning saviour. It does this magical thing.  It stops me (and hopefully the general public) from letting off countless and embarrassingly LOUD rumbles from my stomach – at least until lunchtime.

Granola with Raspberries & Yoghurt in a Japanese Blossom Bowl

That’s why I like granola. But there is a lot of granola that I don’t like, take for example M & S granola, the oats like to suck up the moisture in the berry yoghurt in this one, making it a vomit inducing experience in your already sensitive morning mouth. Why can’t they just put it in separate containers? I have also had this sort of thing in Eat and so far Costa has proved to be the only retailer meeting my snobbish granola demands. But at £2 per measly pot, and a ridiculous yoghurt to granola ratio it was only years until I had to make my own. But I warn you now, this stuff is buzz light years away from low calorie, good for you tastes-of-poo granola. It contains a WHOLE jar of honey and a WHOLE tube of maple syrup and I suppose that’s why I’m finding it extremely difficult to type this with a bowl in one hand…

The other great thing about my breakfast granola? It lasts for 1 month. That’s 1 month without a rumbling tummy for those early risers. 

The Recipe
500g rolled oats
100g pumpkin seeds
100g (or optional amount) sesame seeds
150g flaked almonds
425g clear honey
180g maple syrup
120g light brown Tate and Lyle sugar
1 tbsp desiccated coconut
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt

Special equipment
2 large round tins with sides (like a roasting tin)

Enamel Wash Bowl 

The Method

Preheat oven to 180 C.

In a large bowl combine the oats, sesame & pumpkin seeds, almonds, salt and coconut. Set aside.

In a small saucepan on medium heat, add the maple syrup, honey and oil. Stir until warm.

Pour the warmed syrup directly onto the oats and stir with a spoon until everything is coated.

Next, divide the mixture into two and pour into the large round tins. Spread the granola out evenly for an even bake.

Bake for 45 minutes, making sure to stir the granola every 10/15 minutes whilst in the oven to help form 'clumps', if the granola appears a little dry now is the time to add a little extra oil to the mix.

Set aside to cool. Transfer back into a huge bowl much like this one and enjoy for 1 month.

PS, I promise this is a granola post and not a raspberry one!

Love Em xx

Traditional Turkish Cypriot Lokma

Lokma

Now that we're in February it's no shock to anyone that the days are finally getting just a tad bit longer. Food bloggers will jump for joy at the extra hour or so that has landed on their doorstep and/or window ledge because its arrival means sharing more tarts, muffins, cakes or even a lobster. So why is it that come pre spring, my cameras contents is as dry as Ghandis flip flop?! But it's not the end of the world and the clock still moves forward regardless of one or seven less posts a month (I hate university).

A few weeks back me and mum transformed our kitchen into a Turkish bakery. She's a good few years out of practice so it was nice to bring those skills up a notch. Generally, Turkish sweets are soaked in sugar syrup, it's this component that gives these sweets their own unique and worldly flavour, right next to its Asian counterparts. Absolutely everything including fried pastries, gets plopped or covered in a huge saucepan of sugar, water and cinnamon stick then left to soak for ten minutes until the finished product is wet, slightly sticky and nothing short of bloody glorious.

Our minefield of goods were all lovely, but I thought I'd turn to this particular recipe for the blog because its bite size.  Just one wouldn't hurt.

PS. Please forgive the awful quality of these trendy insta pics, I've only had time to bake in the evenings and then off out again the morning so the Canon had no place here.

The recipe

Makes about 30 bite sized Lokmas 

Dough
14g active dried yeast
2 cups warm water
2 cups plain flour
1 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp salt
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Sugar syrup
3 cups white sugar
5 cups water
1 stick cinnamon

Note: Make the process a touch too traditional and use a standard drinking glass to measure the ingredients instead of measuring cups, works wonders I promise!

The Method:

Start with the sugar syrup - add the sugar, water and cinnamon stick to a large saucepan and leave on a medium high heat whilst you make the dough batter.

Add the warm water and yeast to a large bowl and stir until the yeast dissolves.

Add the flour, corn flour and salt to the mix and whisk until incorporated - about 3 minutes.

Cover the batter with a clean tea towel and let rest for 30 minutes to an hour until the batter had doubled in size. You can put it in the fridge if you want.

In the mean time add vegetable oil to a medium sized saucepan and heat until boiling point.

Now for the messy part. Using your hand grab some of the proved dough and squeeze until a small amount appears between your thumb and forefinger. Grab that slightly rounded bit of dough with a teaspoon and plop it into the hot oil.

The balls needs about half a minute each side, or until golden brown.

Once cooked, immediately immerse the balls in the sugar syrup and leave in their for as long as you want. Obviously, the more you leave the balls in there the more sweet and delicious they become!

Transfer the balls into a large bowl that has been lined with paper towels.

EAT when warm for the best Lokma experience.

Here are some other late night Turkish bits I've been instagramming:

Ricotta Borek

Aubergine Karni Yarik

Love Em xx

Best of 2012

Salted Caramel Macarons 

There is just less than 24 hours of 2012 left and many will soon be blurring out their words, and it might sound a bit like: “Aaaah, what a year it’s been”. As I listen to one of my doggy woggy’s semi silently bark whilst what I can only describe as a dream festered in a deep sleep it becomes apparent that 365 days is not adequate. I want more days and long nights in my years dammit, more time to convince myself to stop being lazy and do productive things and more time to conquer those productive things.

But then something happened - I came across the fabulous likes of Poires, Londonbakes & the Cake Hunter blogging about their best of 2012. The right thing to do was to obviously follow in their inspirational bloggy footsteps, so I gathered mine and then realised, well, that I am chatting absolute shit. This has been a long year and 365 are aplenty. 

To think that I was gently heating milk for the Miette cake THIS year is also mental.

Here are the blog’s top five recipes of 2012 from the most popular descending. If you followed, subscribed, commented or just read a measly snippet of my poorly written blog with the occasional improving piece of photography then thank you. Thank you thank you thank you! You are what keeps me baking, snapping and sharing. 

That’s pretty deserving of a very happy New Year to all of my cyber sisters and brothers. 

1. Hot Milk Cake

2. Turkish Sini Gatmer

3. Muhallebi

4. Miette Double Chocolate Cupcakes

5. Raspberry and Apple Crumble

Love Em xx

Candied cinnamon-spiced pecans

Candied Pecans 

Christmas is coming! Whose already watched Home Alone? I have. Last night. Bless little Kevin.
After my reunion with warm, spicy candied nuts (of all kinds) at Winter Wonderland in London a couple of weeks ago, you guessed it, I was obsessed. I would spend long nights lulling over their sweet deliciousness, the way you would bite into each nut to find this textured and salty surprise. The way that would happen and it not actually be a factory made M&M, was beyond me.

Then I came across Smitten Kitchen's Sugar and Spice Candied Nuts. Have you ever done that thing where you've eaten something really good then googled it straight away? The photos inspired me, the paprika...not so much, that belongs on chicken. 

So it came around to my birthday and seeing as its not permitted to bake your own birthday cake, nuts had to suffice. Don't be surprised at how ridiculously simple pecans, or any nut for that matter, is to candy. It. 

Is. So. Bloody. Easy.

To top it off - helllooooo homemade-gifts-for-Christmas-o'clock! Doesn't get much better really, and they will bring your 'giftees' right back to the fireplace and/or Deptford market.

Candied cinnamon-spiced pecans

Ingredients

• 300g pecans,
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp cinnamon 
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C / 180 F and line a baking sheet with foil or baking parchment. Whisk the egg white with 1 tablespoon cold water until frothy and bubbly, but not completely stiff. Stir in sugar, cinnamon, salt and vanilla then add the pecans and mix until all of the the pecans are evenly covered in the mixture.
2. Spread the pecans in an even layer on the baking tray and bake for 30 minutes, stirring half way through. Leave to cool on the tray and then serve. Lasts for 1-2 weeks at room temperature if stored in an airtight jar or container. 

What have you candied for Christmas? Love Em xx

PS, this is what our Christmas looks like:

Spiced Chocolate Cupcakes with Gingerbread Buttercream

Who has started their Christmas baking test-runs yet? Does anybody even do tests for such things? If you’re an inexperienced cook and you’re having the ol’ lot over, I’m guessing you’ve currently got a test-run turkey in the oven. That’s perfect because it’s a Sunday as well, just replacin’ the chicken for a turk really.  Here are my Christmas test run cupcakes, in unnecessarily copious amounts of pictures that I wish to share with you. Yes. You obviously wanted to look at every single picture I took that day. Obviously.

I’d otherwise slate the test-runner…what’s the point? Do you not have anything better to do with your time? Just chance it! But alas, I have become one of those weird test-run people. And boy, AM I GLAD. This chocolate cupcake slightly resembled a brownie (now would be a good time to mention that it was still delicious)! It was by no stretch of the word a light and fluffy cupcake, but a  kind of dense and dry topped brownie! Crossing THAT one off my Christmas baking list… next time I’ll go for a bitta stout in my liner, maybe even a bitta treacle, plus A LOT more spice in the batter. Don’t be afraid to be generous with the festive spices in a chocolate cake, it has a tendency to be masked by the intense flavours of chocolate you see.

Some good news – the buttercream was lovely, spicy and not too sweet. Rich, coming from a crusting buttercream recipe aye. But with a distinct lack of vanilla extract, and TONS of cinnamon and ginger, there is just this amazing balance of sweetness. The spices really do cut through all of that icing sugar! Still, I’ve got my eye on a mascarpone frosting, who knows how many more test-run’s my kitchen will see before the big day! 

The Recipe:                                   Makes aproximately 16 cupcakes 

The Cakes

100g dark chocolate, minimum 50%

4 eggs

100g self raising flour

2 and a half tsp cocoa powder

pinch of salt

225g caster sugar

175g soft butter

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Quertar tsp cinnamon
Quarter tsp ginger (optional)

The Buttercream

300g icing sugar

150g unsalted butter, soft

1 and a half tsp ginger 

2 tsp ground cinnamon 

1 tsp milk

The Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tray.

Over a ban-marie, heat the butter and chocolate together till melted.

Take off the heat, add all of the sugar, mix together and then set aside to cool.

With a whisk, mix for 3 minutes until slightly fluffy, add the eggs in one at a time.

Fold all of the dry ingredients (including the spices if you wish) until just incorporated.

Lastly fold in the vanilla. Fill the cupcake liners two thirds full and bake for 25 minutes.

For the frosting, beat the butter in the bowl of a freestanding mixer for half a minute.

Add the icing sugar bit by bit, lastly the spices until well incorporated.

Pipe and frost. I used a small french tip for these cupcakes.  

Expect a *possible* birthday cake  on the blog this week, as I'll be turning the big 20 on Wednesday. But let's not mention that again, just comment below and make me feel sane by telling me you also had a Christmas baking test-run today, please! Love Em xx