Bats!

Success! It worked - Frances didn't run away! And I got a bat in each book too!

So what are you waiting for? Go and order yourself a copy of Fly By Night (or Die Herrin der Worte), Verdigris Deep and Gullstruck Island and immerse yourself in a wonderful world of fantasy!

Cookies revisited

I'm off to meet up with my friend Frances for a pint in a minute. Frances, for those who don't know, is the author of the wonderful books Fly By Night, Verdigris Deep (US title: Well Witched) and Gullstruck Island (US title: The Lost Conspiracy). If you're fluent in German, Fly By Night has also been translated into German and is titled Die Herrin der Worte. Now, when I asked her to sign my copy of Fly By Night, she hid under a table. Since I'm planning on asking her to sign my copies of both Verdigris Deep and Gullstruck Island tonight, I thought I'd better bring her a peace offering.

I also bought a new set of scales last weekend - this time, electronic digital ones. Hopefully it'll mean a bit more accuracy with weighing out (though the fact that it's precise to 1 gram means I get a bit obsessive with weighing things out exactly) and maybe fewer incidents where I misread the scales.

So here we go, another batch of cookies, this time made with the correct amount of flour. The recipe can be found here. I'd run out of suitable chocolate, so instead there's about half of a plain chocolate Chocolate Orange in there instead. Purely out of interest, I decided to weigh how much chocolate and almonds I put in (normally I do this by eye). It turns out I used about 60g chocolate and 50g almonds, so a bit more than the recipe suggests.If you've not already read them, go and get yourself a copy of Frances' books. They are great!

On one... on two... on three... Ooooooooooooooooh!

It was my birthday just before Christmas. To my brother's big surprise, pretty much everything I had on the list of things I wanted was cookware. But one thing that I wanted but didn't get at the time was a sugar thermometer. Last night, I had a very late birthday party... and Ann gave me a sugar thermometer (o:. I've wanted to try learning basic sugar work for a while, and had got a ladle specially to try to make sugar bowls... and thought there's no time like the present!
As you can see, it was a reasonable first attempt. The bowl was somewhat uneven, but definitely recognisable as a sugar basket. While I was at it, I thought I'd try spun sugar too. Probably less successful (I'm not entirely sure how much to let the caramel cool first), but also a reasonable success. I think with a bit of practice, I might be able to make neat bowls!

Sugar Baskets

1. Dissolve 100g caster sugar in 100ml water in a clean small saucepan, heating gently.
2. Once all the sugar is dissolved, boil and heat to Caramel point (about 174 C).
3. Stop heating and allow to cool until the syrup becomes thick and about the viscosity of thick honey.
4. Wipe the back of a ladle with a sheet of kitchen towel dipped in cooking oil.
5. Drop a stream of the syrup from a spoon over the back of the ladle, working it in a criss-cross lattice.
6. Allow the sugar to cool for 30 seconds.
7. Use a sharp knife to trim the excess sugar from the rim of the ladle.
8. Gently twist the bowl away from the ladle.

Spun Sugar
Done as above but instead of forming over the back of a ladle, flick the stream quickly back and forth, catching the fine strands over the handle of a wooden spoon.

This method is based largely on this webpage: http://cooking4chumps.com/Skills%20Sugar%20Work.html. Having done it, I'm not convinced you need so much water to begin with - it all boils off and so I think you could probably halve the amount of water and it would just speed things up.

One thing I did appreciate though - having Teflon baking sheet over the table where you're doing it makes cleaning up a heck of a lot easier!

Not quite the best cookies in the world

I make the best cookies in the world. It's a bold claim, I know, but I think it's justified. I'm going to Helen's tonight to play cards, so I thought I'd bake a quick batch of cookies and bring them along. In my haste, things went slightly awry. I realised after I put it in the oven that I weighed out way too much flour (nearly twice what should have gone in), but never mind. I thought the mixture looked unusually thick - I even let it down with a bit of milk. As a result, the cookies didn't really spread out like they normally do and ended up raising up a bit like a cake. I'm sure they'll still be edible, even if they're not as good as they normally are. But I must make absolutely clear, this is not a batch of the greatest cookies in the world. But anyway, here's the recipe as it should have been made.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:

• 40g Butter
  
• 40g Caster sugar
• 40g Soft brown sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp Almond essence
• 75g Self-raising flour
• 50g Dark chocolate
• 25g Whole blanched almonds

Method

1. Cream the butter and both types of sugar together with a fork.
2. Add the egg and almond essence and beat until smooth.
3. Chop up the chocolate into small pieces (much better than shop-bought chocolate chips!).
4. Sift the flour into the mixture and add the chocolate and the almonds to the mixture. Fold in with a wooden spoon.
5. Spoon onto greased baking trays spaced well apart and bake in a preheated oven at 190C/Gas Mark 5 for 10-12 minutes until golden.
6. They will be somewhat soft while they are still hot - use a fish slice or a spatula to remove them from the tray before they cool (otherwise they stick like anything!) and put them on a wire rack to cool... or better still, eat them while they're hot!

As you can see, they still look (just about) like cookies. They're a little hard, a little dry and I bet they'll be a little bland too, but that's to be expected if you add too much flour. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

Verdict: The Illegitimate Lovechild...

It turned out pretty darned well actually. The cake was lovely and moist, not too rich and not greasy either. I think it could have done with a little more sugar in the cake mix, but not everyone agreed - the majority thought it was fine as is. It definitely could have done with more Nutella - I think in the sandwich layer rather than in the cake mixture though. The Nutella was barely noticeable. Similarly, the nutmeg was completely overpowered by chocolate, but I daresay it probably still helped with the overall flavour even if it couldn't be tasted directly. One thing I would probably change for next time is the Kirsch actually - I think a bit of sugar in the Kirsch to sweeten the cherries would have helped quite a bit. It probably wouldn't have been an issue if the cherries had been tinned in syrup, but these were just a little too overpowering!
All in all, a good start to the baking year!

The illegitimate lovechild of a Black Forest gateau and a jar of Nutella

So it was Chris, Inés and James' birthdays recently. We're going to go and celebrate this fact on Saturday, but I thought I'd bake them a cake for Friday so that it can be enjoyed in the lab with more people around. I decided that a Victoria sponge was too boring and a true Black Forest Gateau was impossible to get just right. So I decided to experiment.

The Illegitimate Lovechild of a Black Forest Gateau and a Jar of Nutella
Ingredients:
For the cake:

• 1 Tin of pitted black cherries (in fruit juice)
• 100ml of Kirsch
  
• 150g Caster sugar
• 150g Butter
• 5 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
• A few drops of almond essence
• A pinch of nutmeg
• 125g Self-raising flour
• 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 25g Cocoa powder
• 150g Dark chocolate (fairly low-grade cooking stuff)
• Nutella

For the topping:

• 110g Dark chocolate
• 15g Butter
• 2 tbps Water
  

Method:

1. Drain the cherries and leave to soak in the Kirsch.
2. Cream the sugar and butter together.
3. Beat the eggs and incorporate into the butter/sugar mixture a little at a time. Add the vanilla and almond essence.
   
4. Sift in the nutmeg, flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda, folding in with a wooden spoon.
5. Melt the chocolate with a heaped teaspoon of Nutella in a bowl over hot water, taking care not to let the chocolate split.
6. Stir the melted chocolate into the cake mixture.
7. Pour the cake mixture into a lined 20cm cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 170C/Gas Mark 3 for 50-55 minutes.
8. Check the cake is cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre. It should come out clean.
9. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
10. When cool, cut the cake in two horizontally.
11. Sprinkle what remains of the kirsch that has not been absorbed by the cherries onto the inner surfaces of the half-cakes.
12. Break up the cherries and place on top of the lower half of the cake, keeping a few back for the top of the finished cake.
13. Spread Nutella onto the upper half of the cake and sandwich together.
    
14. Make the topping: Melt the dark chocolate, butter and water in a bowl over hot water.
15. Cover the top of the cake with the topping and place the reserved cherries. Allow to set.

The cake fresh from the oven (i.e. just after step 9):
And the finished cake:
It seems like it's turned out pretty well. The cake feels quite oily, but it's been quite a while since the last time I baked an actual cake, so I'm hoping that this translates to it being moist rather than unpleasantly greasy. I'll update you on how it tastes once it's been eaten!