Archive for the ‘Sweet Stuff’ Category
Friday, August 10th, 2012
I’ve had a bit of an obsession with the idea of American pie since watching Twin Peaks in my yoof. Something about that classic diner environment and Special Agent Dale Cooper’s palpable enjoyment of those perfect slices of pie really captured my imagination. The diner’s waitress, played by Madchen Amick, may have also had something to do with it.
We got fully immersed into the pie thang whilst we were out in the States, and this recipe is in particular inspired by a visit to Mission Pie that was just down the road from our apartment in San Francisco. In the UK we’re used to the idea of eating something like this as a pudding, but out in the states, pie is basically a snack. Something you’d have in the afternoon with a coffee, and it’s usually served at room temperature with some whipped cream.
Both rhubarb and strawberries are bang in season, and there’s something about the combination of the two that really works. The filling almost fizzes on your tongue like a sherbert sweet. The lattice top looks cool, but the pie works just as well with a solid lid, so don’t be put off by the fiddly bit.
Ingredients
For the pastry
340g plain flour
20g caster sugar
8g salt
240g cold unsalted butter
100ml ice cold water
For the filling
600g strawberries
300g rhubarb
Juice of one orange
Juice of one lemon
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
140g caster sugar
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Tags: America, Cream, Ice Cream, Lattice, Lemon juice, Orange Juice, Pastry, Pie, Pod, Rhubarb, San Francisco, Strawberry, Vanilla
Posted in Recipes, Sweet Stuff, Travel | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 28th, 2012
It’s been roasting in London for the last week or so, but as Brits, we all know that the blazing orb in the sky’s days are numbered. But while it is doing us the honour of hanging around, I’ve been trying to make the most of it. An when it is hot, I like to eat simple stuff that’s easy to make. I can’t be bothered to fanny around in a hot kitchen preparing fancy stuff, so this Alphonso Mango frozen yoghurt is right up my strasse.
The Alphonso Mango season is short and almost at an end, and if you’ve not tried them before, it really is worth making the effort and tracking some down. Almost incomparable to a regular mango, they are sweeter, richer, and intensely perfumed. Truly amazing. Over the season from April to May, the streets of Tooting are sponsored by that sweet, almost sickly smell. They’re not cheap though (a box of 6 will set you back around £9), but I probably only eat them a couple of times a year, so it’s no biggie.
I used to eat this simply as the Cristal Champagne of yoghurts, but having seen a similar recipe on Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals, I thought I’d give it a freeze to see how it turned out. Very well is the answer. The mangoes are really sweet, so you don’t need to add any sugar, in fact the opposite. I add the juice of a lime to sharpen it up a bit and really bring out the mango’s flavour.
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Tags: Alphonso, Desert, Frozen Yoghurt, greek, India, Lime, Low Fat, mango, Mint, Natural, perfumed, Sweet, Yoghurt
Posted in Dinner, Sweet Stuff | 2 Comments »
Friday, March 2nd, 2012
I’ve got a lot of love for Wales. Most of my family holidays in the 80s were spent in Snowdonia, and whilst I’d love to be able to tell you about some formative experience of eating Welsh Cakes fresh from a village bakery, the truth of the matter is my family were more likely to be found destroying a pack of Mr Kipling country slices. But I’ve moved on from the UK’s favourite fictional baker, and in honour of St David’s day yesterday, I’m celebrating with Wales’ answer to the scone.
The Welsh Cakes you get in the shops tend to be rather rubbery, but in my mind the key to a good one is a crunchy crust and a fluffy, crumbly inside. Usually they are made with currants, but I prefer bigger and juicer raisins, soaked over night in a wee bit of booze. Not exactly traditional, but there you go.
Ingredients (makes around 25)
500 g Self-raising flour / 500 g flour with 2.5 tsp baking powder
250 cold, unsalted butter
90g caster sugar
1.5 tsp of allspice
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Tags: All Spice, Butter, Cakes, Egg, Flour, Orange Zest, Rasins, Rum, St David's Day, Welsh
Posted in Recipes, Snack, Sweet Stuff | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
Whilst road tripping in the Deep South of the US last year, we got pretty excited about the Southern food. And when you look at the evidence, there’s a lot to like. Barbecue, shrimp & grits, shrimp boils, fried pickles and green tomatoes, boiled peanuts, fried chicken, corn bread. Not the kind of thing to be writing about when you’re hungry like I am now.
Anyway, one of the many memorable meals we had was at a place called Dante’s in New Orleans. I mentioned it before in this post, but as an ‘amuse bouche‘ we were given something called a spoon bread. A close relative to corn bread, it had a softer, spongier texture, was deeper in colour due to the inclusion of molasses and as the name suggests, was eaten with a spoon. It was totally sweet and delicious, a bit like eating a desert before you’ve even started your meal, and I thought it was great. I asked our waitress if I could have the recipe, and before we left the chef handed it over, of which this is a slightly re-worked version.
Like they did at Dante’s, I baked mine in cast iron corn bread skillets (16 x 3 cm) that we picked up from the Lodge factory store whilst we were over there. But you could bake them in any oven proof dish, or do mini ones in a muffin tins.
A couple of notes before we begin, I’ve switch the molasses in the recipe for black treacle for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I find that molasses has a slightly bitter aftertaste which I personally don’t like, and secondly black treacle is easier to get hold of. Similarly, if you can’t get your hands on stone ground grits, just use polenta. Finally, the original recipe also calls for buttermilk. Again, this isn’t that readily available in the UK, but you can just switch this up for plain low fat yoghurt.
Ingredients (makes 2)
1 large egg
250ml butter milk / low fat plain yoghurt
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Tags: Baking, Bread, Brunch, Cooking, Corn, Dante's, Desert, Lodge, New Orleans, Southern, Spoon
Posted in Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Reviews, Sweet Stuff, Travel | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
So given my general writing uselessness over the past couple of months, I’ve got some catching up to do. So, here is the first of two quick fire posts of places I wanted to give a special biggup to that we visited in New York back in October. Jesus. That seems like an awfully long time ago.
The first of these is Four & Twenty Blackbirds in Gwanus, Brooklyn. Now, as I’m sure you know, ‘pie’ is an American institution. It’s an old school love affair that has outlived cupcakes, macarons, whoopie pies and whatever sweet thang is currently de rigueur. The Yanks love it, and the queue outside Four & Twenty proves the legend above the door, ‘this must be where pies go when they die’.
Run by two sisters who cut their teeth working at their family’s restaurant in South Dakota, before slinging pies from their apartment in Crown Heights, NY, they set up Four & Twenty almost two years ago, and have been rammed ever since. There’s nothing particularly unusual about the place itself. It’s got all the trademarks of your typical hipster cafe. Bare brick walls, stripped back wood, tattooed serving staff etc, but it has a really welcoming, homely vibe. I guess you could describe it as pie in atmosphere form.
The pie on the other hand is unusual. And in a good way. We tried a selection including the plum crumble, brown butter pumpkin and the salty honey. All the pies are hand made, and come with the same crust, which is totally the right combination of tenderness and crumble, with a great buttery flavour. The plum crumble was amazing. Sweet and crunchy with a tart punch of local plums, all smoothed out with some lightly sweetened whipped cream. The pumpkin was everything a pumpkin pie should be. Dense, deep, moist, pumpkin-ey custard filling spiked with cinnamon and the surprise addition of a nutty richness supplied by the brown butter. And finally, and I have to be honest my least favourite, the salty honey. Richer than Daddy Warbucks, the custard filling was packed with butter and honey, set off with a generous sprinkling of salt crystals on the surface. It wasn’t in any way bad, but just too much for me.
I’m not going to lie to you, Four & Twenty isn’t exactly in what you’d describe as a ‘handy mid-town location’ but Gwanus and neighbouring Red Hook are areas on the up and up and well worth a look around, and I’m telling you, the pie alone makes the trek a no brainer. Special Agent Dale Cooper would be a very happy man.
Tags: America, Brooklyn, Brown Butter Pumpkin, Butter, Crust, Dale Cooper, Four & Twenty Blackbirds, Gwanus, Honey Pie, Love Affair, New York, Old School, Pie, Plum Crumble, Salted Honey, Sisters
Posted in Opinion, Sweet Stuff, Travel | 1 Comment »
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
Like Hot Cross Buns at Easter, one of the things that make Christmas for me are mince pies. I love them. So when my mate Luke who co-runs clothing label Percival asked if I fancied making some for late night shopping evenings at their new pop up in Covent Garden, I was all over it like a cheap suit.
This recipe is a bit of a remix. Inspired by and finished like the mighty Eccles Cakes of St John, the filling is simpler than traditional mincemeat, but the spices, currants, muscavado sugar and rum pack a treacle-like punch, and instead of beef suet, or that horrible veg substitute, I use frozen, grated butter, so the veggies can chow too. I’d recommend making the filling a good couple of weeks before you make your pies. Over time the flavour gets better and better, and if you keep it cool it will last for ages.
This recipe will make 24 or more mincers. I make them in muffin trays with 6 x 3 dimples which gives them a meat pie like appearance after they’re baked.
Ingredients
For the pastry
480g Plain white (pastry) flour
25g Caster sugar
10g Salt
340g Unsalted butter, cold
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Tags: Allspice, Butter, Christmas, Clothing, Currants, eccles Cake, Mince Pie, Nutmeg, Pastry, Percival, Pop Up, St John, Sweet, Treat
Posted in Recipes, Snack, Sweet Stuff | 2 Comments »
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
The classic French fruit tart has to be one of my favourite deserts. The combination of the sweet, crumbly pastry, the vanilla spiked crème pâtissière and the sharp fruit tick all the boxes for me. I know it’s more of a Summer dish, but I got hold of some late season British raspberries the other day, and decided to make it as part of a ‘welcome home’ lunch at my folk’s house.
The other great thing about this recipe is that once all the elements are made, it’s an assembly job. So you can make everything in advance, then throw it all together a the last minute and lap up the applause like it ain’t no thang. NB. As with most pastry, it’s good to let the pâte sucrée rest in a fridge for at least a few hours, both after making it and after lining the tart mold as this should stop the case shrinking when it’s being baked off.
Ingredients (makes 27cm tart / 8 slices)
For the pâte sucrée
145g All purpose flour
60g Icing sugar
65g Unsalted butter
50g Egg yolks
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Tags: Bake, case, Classic, crème pâtissière, Custard, Desert, French, Pastry, pâte sucrée, Raspberries, Sweet, Tart, Tarte aux framboises, tin, Vanilla
Posted in Recipes, Sweet Stuff | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Last week felt like a pretty quiet one compared to the previous 16. I kind of got the feeling that our tutors were taking it easy on us as next week is graduation when we’ll be making pretty much everything we’ve made on the course. But in one week. That’s right. One frikkin’ week. We’re going to be busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest.
The earlier part of the week, we spent prepping and making ‘baked custards’ of the world. France was repped by the crème brûlée and crème caramel, Italy by the panna cotta, and the good ol’ US of A by a rather tasty baked cheesecake. But where was the British custard tart I ask you? Nowhere. A bloody outrage!
The above was the pre-cursor to the plated deserts section of the course, which we were led through by Frank and Juliette, both of whom have worked as pastry chefs at some pretty fancy places. And it showed.
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Tags: Baked Custards, Cheesecake, Chocolate Mousse, Creme Brulee, Creme Caramel, Deserts, Frangipane, Ice Cream, Pain Perdu, Pancakes, Panna Cotta, Plated Deserts, poached Pears, Sabayon, Sable Breton, Sorbet
Posted in Opinion, Sweet Stuff, Travel | No Comments »
