Cinnamon Rolls

A tasty breakfast treat: cinnamon rolls

I've always been a big believer in breakfast, possibly because I tend to wake up starving hungry most days! Anyway, whilst breakfast is undoubtedly my favourite meal of the day, I tend to most enjoy super-healthy cereals that a lot of people find boring - weetabix, porridge, muesli and the like.

 

Mr P, on the other hand, is not a fan of breakfast - possibly partly because he often has to leave for work super early in the mornings, and can't face breakfast at that time. Hence one of the recurring dilemmas of our marriage - how to bribe Mr P into breakfast (the other is the annual conundrum of how to jazz up sprouts enough for him to give then a go at Christmas).

 

So far from being a healthy and nutritious start to the day, this recipe is, frankly, a bribe. It's a way to make the breakfast so appealing (and so portable) that there are no excuses to fast until lunch. We particularly enjoy these as a Christmas morning treat with coffee, but they are equally good as lunchbox fillers or as sneaky afternoon pick-me-ups.

 

 

 

 

Cinnamon Rolls

makes 16

from Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook

 

Ingredients:

1kg (2lb) plain flour

60g (2oz) caster sugar

1 x 7g sachet fast action yeast

1 tsp salt

about 350ml (12 fl oz) lukewarm milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

30g (1oz) butter, melted

250g (8oz) raisins

1 tblsp ground cinnamon

sunflower oil for greasing

milk for glazing

 

For the glaze

100g (4.5 oz) icing sugar (Mary uses double this amount)

2 tblsp water (ditto)

1tsp vanilla extract

 

 

Method:

1. Sift the flour and half of the sugar into a bowl, then stir in the yeast and salt.

 

2. Make a well in the middle. Pour in the milk, eggs, and butter. Stir to make a sticky dough.

 

3. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic.

 

4. Knead in the raisins and half of the cinnamon. This is quite hard work, just to warn you!

 

5. To shape the buns, Mary splits the dough into 16 even sized pieces, then shaps each into a 20-25cm (8-10in strand, before flattening and proceeding as below. I find this quite difficult due to the tendency of the dough to spring back so much, so I split it in half (to make the quantity easier to manage) then roll out each piece separately, then proceed as below.

 

6. Combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon, sprinkle it over your flattened doug, and roll up tightly into spirals. If you used Mary's method, you'll need to do them individually, and if you used my method, then you'll need to do two separate 'swiss rolle' type shapes, then cut them each in half and in half twoce more to get your individual buns.

 

7. Lightly oil two baking trays and arrange the buns on the trays, covering loosely with oiled cling film. Leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

 

8. Brush the rolls with milk to glaze, then bake in a preheated oven at 190 degrees celcius (375 degrees F/ gas mark 5) for 30-40 minutes until lightly browned. Transfer to a cooling rack.

 

The cinnamon rolls will increase in size as they prove

 

9. To make the glaze, combine all of the ingredients, and brush the rolls with the glaze whilst they are still warm from the oven. I find that it's often necessary to do a second coat once the glaze has dried.

 

10. Serve the buns warm or cold. They will keep well in the freezer for about 3 months.

 

Speedy and simple spicy soup

Speedy, healthy, spicy soup

For those of you who don't know, I've just returned from a research trip to wintry Moscow. It's such an intriguing place. Snow-covered streets give it the appearance of a fairytale wonderland, flanked with startling architecture and air that seems saturated with centuries of intense history. And luckily for me, the weather was unseasonably mild for this time of year (around about -7 degrees celcius, but still not nearly as bad as it could have been).

 

Yet frankly, whilst the trip was a success, I have to say I'm relieved to be back at home. The Moscow metro system is intimidating to say the least - as the third most used metro system in the world, it feels like rush hour even in the middle of the day. And if you're unlucky enough to catch yourself down there during the actual rush hour, it's a pretty horrific sardine-like experience of pushing and shoving, made all the more frightening when you're about to enter the third trimester of your pregnancy. Plus, despite the rather spectacular thermal vest and long johns I took with me, I still managed, perhaps predictably, to pick up a cold.
 

 



One of the nicer aspects of the Moscow metro

So, despite the general success of the trip, I was ready to come home, and more than ready for a bit of comfort food. However, after my trip to the midwife today, when my comment about suddenly feeling pretty darn hungry all the time was met with a snarky reply of "Well remember you're not actually eating for two you know", I ended up making a bit of a point with my super-healthy lunch. And you know what? It was bloody lovely, and was super simple to make, in around half an hour. Here's the recipe...

 

 

Speedy and simple spicy soup (vegan)

(serves 4)

 

Ingredients:

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 scotch bonnet chilli, finely chopped

1 large carrot, peeled and sliced

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into small (1cm) cubes

1 cup of red split lentils, rinsed well

handful of mushrooms , roughly chopped

1 red pepper, roughly chopped

2 pints vegetable stock

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

 

 

Method:

1. Fry the onion and chilli in a tablespoon of rapeseed oil in a large saucepan until the onion is translucent.

 

2. Stir in the carrot, potato, mushrooms and lentils, fry for a minute or two and then add the stock.

 

3. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the lentils and vegetables are tender.

 

4. Add in the tin of tomatoes, bring back to a simmer, and then serve whilst still hot.

 

 

This will make your tummy smile inside, will clear your sinuses like a dream and will leave you with an afterglow of satisfying smugness at its healthy, tasty goodness. Delicious!

 

 

Welcome... to the Crystal Maze!



Aztec zone

So, although I realise my posting has been more than a little sporadic of late, I hope that this sweet little treat will make up for the radio silence. And let me tell you this. It’s a mega treat. Because, it’s that time of year again – Mr P’s birthday!

Those of you with good memories will recall that last year’s birthday celebrations provided my decorating pal Mel and I the perfect opportunity to get creative with a surprise cake based on the Plants Vs Zombies computer game, which completely blew him away. This year, we gave him a bit of a say in the creative process – to decide either the theme or the flavour. After much serious deliberation (or perhaps it was a gut reaction, since he’s been very busy applying for jobs at the moment), Mr P declared that he’d like a chocolate fudge cake.

I am utterly indebted to the marvellous Lindy’s cakes for the recipe I used – you can find their original recipe post here. Flavour-wise, Mel and I agreed that this is probably the best cake we’ve ever made. And as you probably know, I’m not a major chocolate fan, and she doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth at all, so that says a lot about the recipe. Presumably the deliciousness of the cake is inversely proportional to its  healthiness, seeing as it contains roughly a bucket of butter, chocolate and sugar and a comparative sprinkling of flour. But who am I to argue with perfection?! This cake is super moist, and stays moist very well, and is sure to go down well for any occasion.

Crystal Maze cake

 

Medieval zone

Richard O'Brien in sugarpaste form

 

As for the theme, it’s based around one of Mr P’s favourite TV shows from childhood, The Crystal Maze. I haven’t seen any other Crystal Maze cakes online, so it felt like a very original project. There are four separate 5” square cakes, each representing one of the four challenge regions from the original show – Aztec, industrial, futuristic and medieval. The research process consisted of spending two hours of my life (that I am well aware I will never get back) watching old episodes online, whilst screaming at the screen and genuinely wondering if the contestants came from another species altogether. If you don’t value your sanity, knock yourself out here.  

The industrial zone

The futuristic zone

 

Super moist rich chocolate fudge cake

Recipe from Lindy’s cakes
This makes 4 x 5” square cakes; for one 8” round cake, just halve the quantities given below.

Ingredients:

450g (16oz) unsalted butter

450g (16oz) good quality chocolate

2 tablespoon (30ml) instant coffee granules

450g (1lb) caster sugar

450g (1lb) light soft brown sugar

300ml (10 fl oz) water

8 large free range eggs

70ml (2.2fl oz) rapeseed oil (Lindy uses veg oil, but I think rapeseed is less detectable, and healthier too!)

200ml (6.8 fl oz) sour cream/natural yoghurt/Crème fraiche

250g (9 oz) self raising flour

250g (9 oz) plain flour

100g (4oz) cocoa powder

1 teaspoon (5ml) bicarbonate of soda

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees celsius (315 degrees F, gas mark 2-3) and line your tin/tins with baking parchment. I also like to line the outside of the tins with a few layers of newspaper as it helps the cakes to rise with a more even, rather than domed top (even though it adds to the cooking time a little). This is more important if you’re decorating with sugarpaste, but if you’re going for a more rustic look, then it’s not such a big deal.

 

2. Add the butter, chocolate, coffee, sugar and water to a pan and slowly melt together over a low heat. I know the idea of adding the chocolate and water rings alarm bells, but you just have to keep the faith here. Once these ingredients have melted together, melted allow to cool.

 

3. Add the beaten eggs, oil and sour cream to the chocolate mix and stir well.

 

4.Sift all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.

 

5. Pour the chocolatey liquid mixture into well and stir in the dry ingredients, mixing well until thoroughly combined.

 

6. Pour the cake mixture into your tins and bake for about 1hr 30mins (1 hour 45mins-2hrs for an 8” round) or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

 

7. Place the tin on a cooling rack, and leave the cake to cool inside it.

 

To finish and decorate:

This cake is so rich and moist that it doesn’t really need to be cut and sandwiched with buttercream. In fact, it tastes so rich and moist that even without any topping you it still tastes great.

A chocolate ganache might be overkill on a cake like this, but I think a vanilla or chocolate buttercream, or even a cream cheese frosting would work pretty well on top. In my case, I made some mild chocolate buttercream (not very chocolatey and not particularly sweet) – just enough to create a crumb layer on top. Then I covered the cakes with a layer of sugarpaste and finished with sugarpaste decorations.

German Christmas Biscuits (1)

Christmas comes but once a year, so you might as well make the festive season last!

 

For me, the most important part of the Christmas festivities is the feasting, and I love having the excuse to make lots of delicious goodies for my nearest and dearest. This year the bake-fest started early, with a marathon session of biscuit-baking, using recipes from the splendid Dr Oetker: German Baking Today. All in all, my German friend Mel, and I spent about 9 hours in her kitchen on an ueber-efficient production line of jollity, making batch after batch of biscuits.

 

As well as being one of the simplest of the recipes, I have to say that these delicious little nuggets were my favourites. Sweet and spiced in equal measure, they really say "Christmas is coming"...

 

Spicy glazed biscuits

 

Ingredients:

For the biscuits

250g/9oz plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

160g/5.5oz sugar

1tsp grated lemon zest

pinch salt

1 egg (medium)

1 pinch each ginger, cardamom, cloves, allspice, white pepper (all ground)

3-4 tblsp milk

25g/1oz ground almonds

25g/1oz finely chopped candied lemon peel

 

For the glaze

175g/6oz icing sugar

2 tblsp hot water

 

Method:

 

1. Mix together the flour and baking powder in a bowl, then add the sugar, lemon, salt, egg, spices, milk, almonds and mix together thoroughly.

 

2. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until very smooth. Divide the dough into two rolls, about 25cm/10in long. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. I made four, smaller rolls, so that I could take one out a time later without them warming up too much.

 

3. Line a baking sheet with parchment and preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius (Gas mark 4).

 

4. Reshape the rolls if they have gone flat on the bootom, then cut into slices approxiately 1cm in width. Arrange the biscuit coins onto the baking sheet, and bake for approximately 15 minutes.

 

5. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

 

6. For the glaze, mix together the icing sugar and hot water to make a thick, spreadale glaze, and coat the biscuits, allowing it to set completely.

 

P...p...p...pick up a penguin!

One of the great things about being known as a fan of baking and cake decorating, is that I fairly often get asked by friends to make cakes for special occasions in their families. I always love it when this happens - there's only so much sugarpaste Mr P and I can eat, so having a good excuse for an artistic project for somebody else is always welcome.

 

Most recently, I was asked to create a small wedding cake as a surpise for a friend's sister- and brother-in law. I was told that the bride and groom were both big fans of cocktails, and that the wedding invitations had been sent out on reproductions of the title pages of Penguin romantic classics. What a great brief, eh?

 

Penguin cake topper

 

So the final product was a strawberry daiquiri-flavoured cake (lime and rum sponge sandwiched with home-made strawberry jam and strawberry and rum buttercream). With the help of my trusty pal Mel (who is experienced in the subject of sugarpaste penguins!) it was decorated with detailing from one of the book covers, and a penguin bride and groom cake topper.

 

 



Penguin wedding cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The summer saw a couple of other good projects to get my teeth into. Mr P's Nan celebrated her 80th birthday in August with a big family get-together, so we decided to make up a batch of cupcakes to keep all of the guests satisfied. As well as a traditional lemon flavoured batch, we came up with a very popular cupcake flavour - tea and biscuits! This was done by brewing a tea bag in a dah of warm milk, and adding the milk together with just a smidgin of cocoa powder to a fairly standard sponge mix. Simple and effective! This left us with plenty of energy to focus on decorating all of the cupcakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, last but not least, a friend of mine recently wanted to surprise her Mum, 'Dove', with a celebration cake for her 60th birthday. As her mother had somehow managed to sleuth out each and every one of her other birthday surprises, I was especially happy to be involved in this. And happily, the first she knew of it was when the cake turned up in front of her at the end of the evening!

 

 

 

Spicy green tomato and apple jam

A couple of weeks ago, Mr P and I stumbled across a rather wonderful community market garden, literally just around the corner from our flat. Quite an unexpected find, since this little oasis of freshly grown veg is situated in a plot of formerly derelict land directly behind the local co-op.

 

This presents a marvellous opportunity for us, since, despite having a fair-sized garden plot of our own, neither of us is known for our green-fingered prowess. More specifically, we're widely known as "the cactus people", because although we love plants, the only ones we've been able to successfully keep alive for any length of time are our growing family of cacti and succulents, lovingly named Cacky, Steve, Eccy Thump, Ecklefecken, Teddy, Spike, and Pineapple. Now, I realise I'm at risk of sounding unhinged and rambly. So let's get back to the point. The point is, our first trip to the community garden saw us come away with a veritable feast of scrumptious goodies to try, and this included a sad little bunch of green tomatoes that nobody seemed sure what to do with, but which resulted in a cry of "Green Tomato Chutney!" from yours truly.

 

In fact, after a flick through Mel's new book, "The Australian Women's Weekly Pickles and Chutneys", I decided to branch out a little and try out their green tomato and apple jam. Having had a sneaky test already (of course) I can advise it is entirely delicious in every way and would highly recommend that you give it a go.

 

This will make delightful stocking fillers this Christmas... if it lasts that long!

 

Spicy Green Tomato and Apple Jam, makes about 750ml

I've reproduced the ingredients from The Australian Women's Weekly Pickles and Chutneys below, with my adaptations in brackets, and my own instructions.

 

Ingredients:

3 large apples (600g), peeled

5 medium green tomatoes (500g), peeled, chopped (my tomatoes were of varying sizes, some to small to effectively peel, so I left the skins on and the jam didn't seem any the worse for it. I also had to add in a couple of red tomatoes to make up the weight)

250ml water

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 cinnamon stick

550g sugar, approximately

 

Method:

 

1. Chop the apples and combine in a saucepan with the tomatoes, water, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Bring to the boil, then simmer, covered, for about 30 minuted until fruits are soft. Discard the cinnamon stick.

 

2. Tip the fruit mixture into a measuring jug and make a note of the amount. Then return the fruit mixture to the pan and measure out the same amound of sugar in the jug. Add this to the fruit mixture in the pan and then stir over a gently heat, without boiling, until the sugar is dissolved.

 

3. Bring the mixture to the boil, and boil it, uncovered for about 15 minutes without stirring, until the jam sets when tested. See this post for how to test for setting point.

 

4. Pour the hot jam directly into hot, sterilised jars and seal them whilst hot.

 

5. Decorate with festive ribbon, and Bob's your uncle!

 

 

 

 

 

Extra special chocolate layer cake

As a rather lazy baker, I tend to prefer recipes that call for few ingredients and simple instructions. So if I had read the recipe fully before starting this chocolatey scrumpster, then if I'm honest, I may well not have bothered. But that would have been a major loss.

Although this cake takes a little extra time and care than your average chocolate layer cake, it's really very much worth it. this cake is perfect or a social occasion, and it really shows that you care. It's rich but light, moist, delicious, and you can taste that extra bit of care and attention that go into it. Plus, it freezes like a dream, so if you're feeling inspired, you can make a double batch and have one on standby. Not bad, eh?!

The sponge recipe itself is adapted from the Chocolate Layer Cake recipe in Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery. I have written the ingredients as listed in the book, and put my adaptations in brackets afterwards. Although the book recommends sandwiching the cake with chocolate or vanilla buttercream, I decided to be a little naugtier, and decided to go for a thick and delicious ganache instead. The plus points of the ganache are that it travels well if you're taking the cake to a party, and as mentioned earlier, it freezes and defrosts rather wonderfully, as long as you wrap it tightly in clingflim first.

 

Extra Special Chocolate Layer Cake

 

Ingredients:

 

For the sponge:

230g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids (I used 200g of 50% cocoa solids)

170g unsalted butter, softened

350g light soft brown sugar

3 large eggs, separated, 370g plain flour, sifted

1.5 tsp baking powder

1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda

0.5 tsp salt

500ml semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature (I soya milk, and only 400ml because my chocolate had a lower percentage of cocoa solids than the original recipe recommended)

2tsp vanilla extract

 

For the ganache:

200ml double cream

250g dark chocolate, 50% cocoa solids

25g butter

 

Method:

 

1. For the sponge, break the chocolate into pieces and melt over a bain-marie, or in a microwave on a low setting. Set aside to cool slightly.

 

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth.

 

3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks for several mminuted and then slowly add into the creamed butter and sugar, mixing well. Then slowly add in the cooled, melted chocolate to this mixture, continuing to beat well.

 

4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. In a jug, add the vanilla to the milk. Add one third of the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and beat well, then pour in a third of the milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all of the flour and milk are incorporated.

 

5. In a clean, grease-free bowl, whisk the egg whites with and electric whisk until sot peaks start to form. Then carefully fold the egg whites into the main batter using a metal spoon.

 

Note: You need to do this carefully so you don't knock all of the air out of your whipped egg whites. The best way to do so, is by gently using a figure-of-eight motion to fold in the egg whites.

 

6. Divide the mixture evenly between two lined 20cm (8-inch) cake tins. You'll need fairly deep tins for this.

 

7. Bake for about 30mins in an overn preheated to 190 degrees celcius (170 degrees celcius fan/gas mark 5).

 

8. When the cakes are ready, leave them to cool in their tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to continue cooling.

 

9. Once the cakes are completely cool, you can sandwich them together and cover in ganache. Add the butter and milk to a saucepan and heat, stirring continuously. When the mixture begins to bubble, remove from the heat. Stir in the chocolate, broken into pieces, and keep stirring until the chocolate has completely melted in.

 

10. Let the ganache cool for about 5 minutes, so that it starts to thicken slightly and is easier to handle. Use a long palette knife to spread a layer of ganache over each of the cake layers. Allow it to soak in slightly, and when it is safe to handle, sandwish the cakes together, ganache sides together. Finally, cover the top and sides of the cake in the remaining ganache and allow to cool and set.

 

 

 

This makes a really rather maginificent and quite grown-up celebration cake that is guaranteed to go down a treat! I have baked this to celebrate my friends' recent engagement, to feed hungry housewarming attendees, and as a 'welcome home' cake. It's genuinely perfect for all occasions!