Nov 14 2010

Plum, Toblerone White & Cinnamon Muffins

I have something to announce. No, I’ve not got a boyfriend, or gotten a car, or won a courtesy/good citizen award or struck the lottery. Really, nothing fancy at all. I’ve merely started running. Yes, around the neighbourhood huff and puff and sweat and go red like a beetroot I go. Truly, I’m exuding glamour and thoroughly enjoying it, NOT. But for health and fitness reasons I have decided to put my running shoes back on. For the sanity of my clothes, belt buckles and zippers, out of kindness to my poor mirror, I’ve made this big decision.

And then guess what happened after a week of running? The soles of my running shoes fell off. Right off, cleanly. And then my black and white spotted dog (one of out 5 hungry buggers) thought it would be fun to pounce on it and rip it to shreds. The story of my life. What did I think then? Ah what a joke. Even the world is bent on getting me fat!

fresh out of the oven

The pair of destroyed shoes are by now probably on its way to the recycling dump or something. No hard feelings. I’m moving on to my mama’s running shoes and let’s see if those get destroyed by my out-of-these-world feet. On the lighter side of life, I ventured into the kitchen and baked. Whoever needs rubber soles and running shoes when I can equip myself better with wooden spoons and mixing bowls? Let’s get to that then…

Ottolenghi has some serious reputation in London. And although I lived in the Hoxton/Shoreditch area, it was just too easy to wander up to Islington for a takeaway of Ottolenghi cakes, a lunch with friends or a special candlelit dinner with visiting family. I don’t think anyone ever has anything bad to say about Ottolenghi – the food is clean, honest, simple, modern and utterly delicious. I am a fan. And I know many others who are too.

Similarly, anything that comes from the Ottolenghi cookbook is rumoured to be good and never a letdown. Out of the recipes I’ve tried, it’s so far been beyond good: great, brilliant, sublime, mindblowingly reliable, success rate 100% and also fairly idiot-proof. Moreover, most of their simple baked treats can double up as a dessert course in both the looks and taste department, as this one proves with a sexy compote topping. I love getting the best of both worlds. Maybe I didn’t win the lottery, but I felt like I’d pulled out trays of sweetened gold from my oven.

I especially love making things that produce deep, dark shades of red like a good Chanel lipstick. This compote had me charmed completely. The amount of baking time for it will depend on the ripeness of your fruit. Mine was just ready to eat, firm to bite and slightly tart. Hence, I added another 15 mins to the bake time. On second thought, I should also have increased the amount of sugar for the compote as it was a little too tart for some. Nevertheless, these muffins were gone within a day.

Food in our house either gets left over forever with a poltergeist of unwillingness to eat it lingering in the house, or it disappears in a flash. Thankfully, these muffins belong to the latter group, compliments to Ottolenghi.

a plum compote that simply smells like Christmas!

And the only thing it’s missing is a lovely cuppa tea. If you’re a tea lover and fancy some good leaves, or wish to try your luck at winning a flowering tea diva set from JING Tea, don’t forget to check out my previous post here.

The original recipe calls for marzipan rather than white chocolate but I overestimated my local supermarket and the state of our pantry cupboard. The substitute of Toblerone White chocolate wasn’t so bad and it meant the muffins weren’t as sweet as I was worried they would turn out to be.

Yields 10-12 regular sized muffins.

Plum, Toblerone White (Marzipan) & Cinnamon Muffins
(Original recipe from Ottolenghi Cookbook)
Ingredients

    For the muffins:
    480g plain flour
    1 tsp baking powder
    1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
    1 tsp ground cinnamon
    a pinch of salt
    200g caster sugar
    2 free range eggs
    110g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
    280ml milk
    grated zest of 2 oranges
    120g Toblerone White (marzipan)
    icing sugar, for dusting
    Plum Compote:
    700g ripe dark red plums, stoned and cut into quarters
    60g caster sugar
    1 cinnamon stick (or 2 short ones)

Make the plum compote first. Preheat oven to 170d Celsius. Place plums in a shallow baking dish and add the sugar and cinnamon stick to it. Mix together. Place in the oven and bake for 10-20 minutes, until the plums are soft and their skin starts to separate from the flesh. Cooking time will vary significantly, depending on the ripeness of the fruit.

When cooked, remove from oven and set aside to cool. (MY NOTE: The plums might still appear fairly whole and of their initial raw colour. Mix it around and ensure that it is coated in its juices. The process of cooling will cause the plums to break down further into a compote and deepen in colour)

For the muffins:
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and salt into a bowl.

Place the sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk together. Add the milk and cooled melted butter. Whisk to combine.

Grate the marzipan or chop the Toblerone and add this to the batter, together with the orange zest. Now add 80g of plum compote (pulp & juices) and stir together. Set the rest of the compote aside for later.

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until just combined. A lumpy mixture with pockets of flour is ideal.

Line your muffin tray with paper cases and spoon in the batter, filling them all the way to the top. Bake for 25-30 minutse, until a skewer inserted comes out clean. When cool enough to handle, take the muffins out of the tins and leave on a wire rack to cool completely.

Just before serving, dust with icing sugar and top with plum compote.


Apr 1 2010

Oatmeal Cherry & Walnut Cookies and Dolly Mixture Fairy Cakes

img_3456

Two Easters ago, I baked a feast. I went so crazy there were cakes, muffins and cookies everywhere: on the tabletops, in the bedroom, in the freezer, in the fridge. It was gloriously nightmarish. A thoroughly obsessively psychotically sick affair.

Last Easter, I believe things were a little more toned down. Moderation was key.

This year, we went for a nice balance of things. Don’t they say good things come in pairs? Two’s a nice number. Well-rounded and more acceptable. In that case, this Easter, we’ve got cookies and cakes. No more than that. No more, no less. I thought we were quite clever.

On Tuesday, we had a nice little wander through the Oxford Covered Market. There’s a cake shop in there which I’ll blog a little later on about. Truly inspiring cakes and sugarcraft. And they make personalized easter eggs made to order too! In fact, H and I had our Easter eggs from there last year. They were yum. And almost too pretty to eat. It’s shops like that that make you feel like you’ve gotta bake. You leave wanting to make something of your very own, to get creative and start challenging yourself in the kitchen. I don’t suppose we really did challenge ourselves but we sure had good fun in the kitchen that day.

frostingeastercakes

Little fairy cakes topped with dolly mixture (we’ve so gotta love these sweets…so mildly flavoured and pretty to look at) for Easter cakes and a twist on the usual oatmeal raisin cookie which gives you something to talk about as well if you’ve got guests coming round for tea. I haven’t posted a recipe for the Fairy Cakes as H actually remembers this basic recipe by heart. It’s simply margarine, vanilla, flour, eggs, sugar all skillfully beaten by hand then baked at 175d Celsius until ready. Cooled, then frosted with a mix of icing sugar and water. Voila. Top them with sweets or decoration of choice. Cute as a button.

When it comes to eating cookies, dunking in a glass of cold milk is second nature. Or sometimes just eating it sans milk is pretty okay too. Dunking in hot coffee or tea seems unthinkable to me. I’ve seen my mum do it and it leaves rings of buttery-surfaced coffee in the cup. I’ve seen my mates do it and it just all looks a little drippy, a little messy. This time I tried it with this oatmeal cookie and I have a strange feeling my cookie-eating ways have been forever altered. Or at least, when it comes to oatmeal cookies. You’ve gotta dunk them in something warm. Leave the cold milk for the chocolate chip cousin. Oatmeal cookies have so gotta be dipped in a hot coffee or tea. A momentary experience of sweet bliss, as comforting as a spoonful of warm honey-laced porridge. So good.

eastercookies

Happy Easter everyone! Hoping the Easter bunny sends out much sugary love to all. Will post up some of my little Oxford visit here soon.

Oatmeal Cherry & Walnut Cookies
Ingredients

    115g unsalted butter, softened
    1 cup plain flour, sifted
    1 cup rolled oats
    1 cup/225g dark brown sugar
    1 large egg
    3/4 cup chopped walnuts
    3/4 cup glace cherries, chopped
    1/2 tsp baking powder
    1/8 tsp baking soda
    pinch of salt
    1 tsp vanilla extract
    1/2 tsp ground ginger
    1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 175d Celsius.

Cream butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, then beat.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Add oats to this and mix. Add to wet mixture of creamed butter and sugar. Mix until it is just incorporated.

Fold in cherries and walnuts. Do not overmix.

Form into 1-2 tbs balls or simply drop onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-18mins or until just golden brown.

Cooking it for longer gets these cookies a darker shade and they turn into nice crunchy cookies when kept. Cooking for 15mins leaves it nice and chewy in the middle so cook according to your preference. Leave to cool on sheets for a minute before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.


Feb 16 2010

Spiced Rhubarb Pancakes with Golden Syrup

img_2783

It’s Shrove Tuesday, ie. Pancake Day! Well it’s not like I need an excuse to have pancakes. It sorta is like a Sunday brekkie thing to have but pancakes when it’s not even mid-week is so much more indulgent and delicious. Knowing that just about the rest of England is having pancakes too (albeit the English crepe-like ones) – savoury or sweet – helps with feeling all fat and happy, and a lot less like the lone greedy chubster.

I spied some gorgeous rhubarb pancakes over at Nic’s Cherrapeno and I couldn’t help getting some rhubarb as well. I think it’s gotta be one of the prettiest pink edible things and I simply love it in a trifle or yoghurt. Thanks Nic for a lovely pancake idea. I’m really glad I made this as I love all things tart. Although the rhubarb sauce wasn’t as tart as I wanted it to be (didn’t wanna tart-out my flatmate), I thought it was a very delicious variation of the usual plain pancakes or the same old blueberry pancakes I find myself having every time.

I’d love to stay on here longer, but I gotta hit the books again. Yes I am a geek, don’t judge me. And yes the work’s starting to pile up. Third yes, I’ve turned into a granny who fights the cold with hot soups, cups of tea and blankets about my knees. Well, grannies are so in right now. You can’t fault that. Off I go, leaving you the recipe.

This recipe’s given me the fluffiest, softest pancakes ever. But it didn’t rise enough to my liking and it may have needed some rising agent like baking powder. I might have to experiment and compare with other recipes in the future. Nevertheless, they were good. Like little fluffy clouds.

img_2782

Recipe yields 8 pancakes
Rhubarb Pancakes
Ingredients

    1 cup self-raising flour
    2 tbs melted butter
    3/4 cup milk
    1 tbs sugar
    1 egg yolk
    3 egg whites, whisked to form stiff peaks
    pinch of salt
    about 1/2 cup rhubarb sauce

In a dry medium bowl, whisk egg whites to form stiff peaks.

In a separate large bowl, sift flour, sugar and salt. Make a well in the centre.

Beat lightly together the egg yolk, melted butter and milk. Pour into the well and mix gently to form a lumpy batter. Fold in egg whites, leaving some touches of egg whites intact.

In a small frying pan, heat some butter, add a ladle of batter and fry until bubbles start forming on the surface. Flip and allow the other side to cook for another minute or so. Repeat until all the batter is used up. Keep the other pancakes in a warm oven or let the hungry buggers you live with gobble them up whilst you work hard at the stove!

    img_2788

Rhubarb Sauce
Recipe can be found here, which I used for a ganache. You can use this in the pancake batter and to serve over them.