Verdict: Chocolate cherry fudge

There was (some) method to the madness - I had intended this batch of fudge to be Lonnie's birthday present (it was his birthday earlier in the week, but I'll be seeing him later today) and I didn't want to mention it yesterday on the off-chance that he saw it. But since I'll see him in about an hour's time, I think it's safe to announce it now...

Anyway, the fudge. As I suspected, the 50ml of Kirsch was a little too much, and it was barely set; outrageously soft really. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make it rather difficult to handle. As far as alcohol content goes, I think it's nicely balanced - it's obviously alcoholic, but not overpoweringly so. But the big problem is that I am but a novice in fudge-making - it's gone grainy. It turns out that making fudge is rather a subtle art; the texture of fudge comes from very carefully controlled sugar crystal size. Too big, and the fudge becomes grainy and gritty. Too small and it's not really fudge. I just found quite a good guide here, so I might give it another go at some point in the future. For now, I think it's a failure, but not a bad failure - the fudge is still edible and is (just about) recognisable as fudge. But the recipe definitely shows promise (it's got a good taste, just not quite the right texture), so hopefully at some point in the future, I'll get it right!

Chocolate cherry fudge

Before I get into this post, I think there's something I should tell you: I don't like fudge. Never have - I've always found it too sweet, too rich and somewhat sickly. But I also note that this puts me very much in the minority. I've given (shop-bought) fudge as presents to people in the past and it has always gone down inordinately well. So, if for no other reason than that, I feel I should probably expand my repertoire of desserts into the realm of fudge. Plus, it's an additional excuse to play with hot sugar. So anyway, here's the recipe.

Chocolate Cherry Fudge
Ingredients

• 300ml Milk
  
• 350g Soft brown sugar
• 60g Dark chocolate
  
• 2 tbsp Golden syrup
• 75g Butter
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 50ml Kirsch
• 100g Glacé cherries
  

Method

1. Put the milk, sugar, chocolate, golden syrup and butter into a saucepan and heat gently until all the ingredients have melted or dissolved.
2. Bring to the boil and heat to 115C (soft ball stage).
3. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes until the temperature is down to about 60C.
4. Beat the vanilla extract and the kirsch in with a wooden spoon.
   
5. Chop up the glacé cherries and place in the bottom of a well-greased cake tin.
6. Pour the fudge over the cherries and allow to set at room temperature.

Here's the fudge in the tins setting. I probably could (and should) have fit it into a single tin.

I have slight doubts about it, particularly as I think 50ml of kirsch might be a bit too much liquid, but we shall see. Hopefully it will set!

Verdict: Basic white bread

It was a little dense. I suspect underproving - I actually thought that I should leave it a bit longer, but got impatient. But never mind. It was very much recognisably bread, with a beautiful crust and wonderful spongey interior. Despite being a bit heavy, it tasted pretty awesome. There are definitely the makings of a great loaf here, so next time I'll try not to be so impatient!

The staff of life

First off, An Engineer's Cookbook is not dead - far from it in fact. I realise that it's been quite a long time since the last post, but I've kinda been busy and not baking.

Back at the beginning of May, I bought a copy of the River Cottage Handbook No. 3: Bread by Daniel Stevens. Whether or not you like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall or River Cottage really doesn't matter - if you are interested in baking bread, even if it's purely on a hypothetical level, you should buy this book. It's beautifully written and illustrated with the most wonderful photos (as are all of the River Cottage books). His enthusiasm for bread and baking really comes through in the writing and I found it a tremendously entertaining book. Yes, I read it for fun. It's a really good instructional book as well, but mostly I like it for its entertainment value.

Now I've had a chance to try baking my first loaf since reading it...

Basic White Bread
Ingredients

• 500g Strong white flour
• 300g Water
• 10g Salt
• 5g Dried yeast
• 10g Light olive oil
  

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients into a rough dough.
2. Tip out onto a large, clean work surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Test by stretching the dough into a thin membrane - According to the handbook, you should be able to stretch it out thin enough to see daylight through it with strong white flour (though I didn't quite manage this).
3. Shape into a round and return to the mixing bowl. Place the whole bowl into a black bin bag, folding the end over and tucking it under the bowl to seal.
4. Leave in a warmish place and allow to rise until the dough roughly doubles in size.
5. Uncover and tip onto the lightly-floured work surface and squash all over using your fingertips to deflate the dough.
6. (Optional) Shape into a round, return to the mixing bowl/bag and allow to rise again. Deflate the dough again.
7. Place the baking tray in the middle of the oven, a roasting tray in the bottom of the oven and pre-heat oven to its maximum temperature.
8. Divide the dough into two equal parts. Shape into rounds, flour lightly and leave on a board to rest for 10-15 minutes.
   
9. Shape the loaves as required (I shaped them as rounds again) and coat with flour.
   
10. Place on a floured board, cover with plastic bags and leave to prove until roughly doubled in size.
11. Slash the tops of the loaves with a sharp knife.
12. Transfer the loaves to the baking tray in the oven. Put a slosh of boiling water from the kettle in the roasting tray at the bottom of the oven.
13. After 10 minutes, take a look and reduce the oven temperature to ~210C/Gas Mark 6. Bake until done - roughly 40mins total.
    
14. Remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool before slicing.

In the end, I decided my dough looked too dry at the end of step 1, so I actually used 340g of water instead of 300g. I think I used too much, as my dough was too wet and just generally a right pain to work with. But the handbook is extremely instructive and insightful - particularly the recommendation to pause in the kneading every few minutes and shape the dough into a round. He's right too; it really does tame unruly dough! I also used about 7g yeast instead of 5g, so I'll have to hope you can't taste it in the final loaf...

Here's my dough after kneading (at the start of step 3):
And now in the mixing bowl. Pretty, no?
The shaped loaves, ready for the final proving (end of step 9):And a really bad shot of them after 10 minutes in the oven (step 13):And now (drum roll please) here we have it... the finished loaves!I think they look really amazing, personally. I should have made the cuts a bit deeper I think, but otherwise, they look marvellous. How do they taste? Well, I'll let you know as soon as they've cooled down...

Another batch of cookies

Verdict: Guinness gingerbread cake

In the end, I was bothered enough to make custard, but not patient enough. In cooking off the custard to thicken it, I heated it a little bit too quickly and ended up scrambling the eggs. D'oh! Never mind - Instant custard to the rescue!

Anyway, the cake: Pretty good actually. I liked the slight bitterness from the Guinness and the overall flavour was really good. Texture was just like a moist sponge cake really, and the crust was beautifully crisp but not hard, so all in all a decent success I'd say. Pity about the custard...

Guinness gingerbread cake

Salva, Kenny and I are having Noel and Helen over for lunch in a bit. We agreed to share out cooking between the three of us - so Kenny is doing a starter, Salva is doing the main (a paella which smells fantastic and is making me so hungry!) and I'm doing the dessert. I've been wanting to try out a recipe I saw for Guinness Gingerbread, so I thought this would be a good opportunity. The recipe is quite American, so I've adapted it slightly...

Guinness Gingerbread Cake
Ingredients

• 160ml Guinness
• 240g Plain flour
• 2 tbsp Cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
• (Generous) 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• (Generous) 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Large dash of ground nutmeg
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 90g Caster sugar
• 85g Dark soft brown sugar
• 115g Honey
• 180ml (=145g) Light olive oil
  

Method

1. Bring the Guinness to a simmer and then remove from the heat.
2. Whisk the eggs, vanilla extract, sugar (both caster and brown) and honey together in a large mixing bowl.
3. Whisk the olive oil in to the mixture.
4. Add the Guinness and the remaining dry ingredients a little at a time, alternating dry ingredients and stout, whisking gently.
5. Pour into a lined cake tin and bake at 180C/Gas mark 4 for 50-60 minutes. Check with a skewer.

Here's the cake fresh out of the oven:
And removed from the tin:
I was planning to serve this up with Crème Anglaise (a light custard) too:
Crème Anglaise
Ingredients

• 290ml Milk
• Few drops of vanilla extract
• 2 Egg yolks
• 1 tbsp Caster sugar
  

Method

1. Heat the milk and bring slowly to the boil.
2. Beat the egg yolks in a bowl with the sugar.
3. Pour the milk onto the egg yolks, stirring steadily. Mix well and return to the pan.
4. Stir over a low heat until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Do not boil.
   
5. Strain into a chilled bowl.
6. Add the vanilla extract and stir in.

I'm not actually certain I can be bothered to make the custard - we'll see!

Flapjacks

Summer is here! I'm going punting with friends later and I'm bringing the sweet snacks. Flapjacks are awesome, so I thought I'd make a batch. They're based on this recipe for sloejacks, which is absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend the original recipe, though I'll warn you that when I made it, the sloejacks did end up rather alcoholic!

Anyway, back to the flapjacks!

Flapjacks
Ingredients

• 190g Oats
• 150g Butter
• 115g Caster sugar
• 100g Almonds, coarsely chopped
  

Method

1. Melt the butter and mix with the other ingredients.
2. Tip into a shallow, greased baking tray and bake at 180C/Gas mark 4 for 20 minutes.
3. Allow to cool slightly before removing from the tray.
   

Simple, innit? Here's the finished article:

Verdict: Chocolate and nut brownies

Oh my word! These turned out really, really well. I'm not a massive fan of brownies in general, but even I thought these were good. Cakey, slightly gooey, very chocolatey, rich and not overpoweringly sweet. And Anita seemed to like them too :D.

Brownies!

Anita comes back to Oxford tomorrow, so I thought I'd bake her something to welcome her back. I think I've done cookies for too many occasions already this year, so I thought I'd try doing something different and slightly more elaborate. Time to give brownies a go methinks!

Chocolate and Nut Brownies
Ingredients

• 25g Hazelnuts, very roughly chopped
  
• 25g Almonds, very roughly chopped
• 60g Caster sugar
  
• 110g Plain chocolate (50% cocoa)
• 125g Better quality plain chocolate (72% cocoa), roughly chopped
  
• 110g Butter
• 110g Plain flour
• 210g Soft brown sugar
• 2 Eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp Baking powder (I didn't actually have baking powder, so I used a roughly 2:1 ratio cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda mixture)
  

Method

1. Dissolve the caster sugar in a little hot water and heat in a saucepan to ~160C (This is above the Hard Crack stage but below Caramel - I think if you dare, heating it all the way to Caramel will give a better result, but I really didn't fancy overheating it and having to start again) and then remove from the heat.
2. Stir in the chopped nuts and set aside.
3. Melt the 50% cocoa chocolate and butter in a double boiler.
4. Remove from the heat and sift in the flour, brown sugar and baking powder.
5. Once cool enough, beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
6. Stir in the chopped chocolate and the caramelised nuts.
7. Pour into two greased sandwich cake tins and bake at 180C/Gas Mark 4 for ~25 mins.
8. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin.

Here they are straight from the oven:


And a photo taken without flash:I think they look pretty darned good personally! As I removed them from the tin, I snaffled a little bit of the dough that had stuck to the base and had a sneaky taste too - the mixture is really, really good! I think the brown sugar lends a really nice depth to the flavour and it is rather chocolatey too, which I gather is the main point of brownies (though I must confess, I've never really understood why people like them quite as much as they seem to). Anyway, hopefully the nuts will work too and hopefully Anita will like them!

Verdict: An Elizabeth David chocolate cake

I can see why this particular chocolate cake has passed into the realm of legends. It was absolutely fantastic; moist, soft, light and chocolatey. The texture is wonderful - a real melt in your mouth cake. Sweetness is nicely balanced and the almond just sits there in the background and really complements the chocolate. A really fabulous easy cake recipe that will quickly become a personal favourite I think!

An Elizabeth David chocolate cake

It's Helen's birthday tomorrow. Time for me to try my hand at (a version of) the legendary Elizabeth David Flourless Chocolate Cake. Countless variations of this are available online, but here is the variant that I used. I would have added a shot of rum and a spoonful of strong, black coffee to the mix in step 2, but I had no rum and my coffee making stuff was in the lab.

An Elizabeth David Chocolate Cake
Ingredients

• 200g Dark chocolate
• 150g Caster sugar
• 150g Butter
• 100g Ground almonds
  
• 5 Eggs, separated
  

Method

1. Put the chocolate, sugar and butter in a double boiler and melt together.
2. Stir in the ground almonds.
3. Beat in the egg yolks.
4. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the chocolate mixture.
5. Pour into a cake tin and bake for 45 minutes at 180C/Gas Mark 4.
6. Allow to cool fully before removing from tin.

And here is the finished cake! As you can see, it's fallen somewhat on cooling, though I did expect that. But it looks pretty good I think. I might even dust it with icing sugar if I have any...

Verdict: Malteser cheescake

Two thumbs up! The cheesecake was lovely - well balanced, fairly light and sweet but not sickly. I think it could have done with more Maltesers personally, but it was certainly a success. Salva even asked me to marry him after trying it...

The continuing cheesecake adventures

So now I've bought more cheese, and this time it's even the right type. The cheesecake is finished, so here it is, in all its glory:
And here with some bonus moody lighting too:And also removed from the cake tin:As you can see, it's turned out quite thin. I think I used to do this in a smaller cake tin. Oh well, next time I'll just double the quantities (o:.

Tune in tomorrow for the final part of the ongoing saga of the cheesecake. Part three: this time it gets eaten...

Maltesers and garlic? Funny combination...

I promised my labmates quite some time ago that I'd make them cheesecake. Since Inés is leaving Oxford soon and James and Salva are off to Austria just before she goes, now seemed like a sensible time for me to make it. Unfortunately, just as I was about to start making the filling, I discovered that instead of buying cream cheese, I'd managed to buy cream cheese with garlic and herbs. I decided that that probably wouldn't go terribly well with the rest of the cheesecake, so I'll have to go get some cream cheese tomorrow and finish it then. Anyway, in the meantime, here's the recipe as I intend it to be.

Malteser Cheesecake
Ingredients

• 10 Digestive biscuits
• 20 Maltesers for the base
  
• 70g Butter
• 200g Soft cheese
• 90g Caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
  
• 150ml Double cream
• 10 Maltesers to decorate
  

Method

1. Crush the digestive biscuits and Maltesers for the base.
2. Melt the butter and mix with the crushed biscuit/malteser mix. Press firmly into a lined loose-bottomed cake tin and refrigerate to set.
3. Cream the cheese, sugar and vanilla together.
4. Whip the double cream in a separate bowl then fold into the cheese mixture.
5. Spoon over the biscuit base and decorate with crushed Maltesers.
6. Refrigerate until set.

The base is done at least:Stay tuned for the next installment of the exciting adventures of cheesecake!

Verdict: Chocolate and Almond Cake

Well, I said I wasn't going to stay for the marathon, but I am a weak-minded fool and so ended up staying for the entirety of it (though I was asleep for pretty much all of the last film). But anyway, the cake: Dry mostly. I think not enough butter, and I don't think I let it down enough with the milk. Also fairly dense, but that's to be expected, given how much flour I swapped out for cocoa powder. Not nearly enough almond, but there would have been more if I'd had any more. But overall, an edible cake at least, though not one that will win any awards.

Chocolate and Almond Cake

It's Imogen's birthday tomorrow and she's celebrating with a Lord of the Rings marathon tonight. I'm not staying for the actual marathon, so I thought I'd better turn up at the start of proceedings - but I've also just come back from a bike ride. So with about two hours to shower, get ready and bake a cake (including cooling time), I decided that now is probably not the time to go and do any zany experiments. So I'm baking a variation on a standard sponge instead.

Chocolate and Almond Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:

• 120g Butter
• 50g Soft brown sugar
• 70g Caster sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp Almond essence
• 1tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• 80g Self-raising flour
• 50g Cocoa powder
• 40g Blanched almonds (there would have been more, but I ran out)
• Dash of milk

For the topping

• 110g Dark chocolate
• 15g Butter
• 2tbsp Water
  
• Blanched almonds to decorate
  

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Beat in the eggs, vanilla essence and almond essence.
3. Sift the bicarbonate of soda, flour and cocoa powder into the mixture and fold in.
4. Let the cake mixture down to dropping consistency with milk.
5. Pour into a lined cake tin and bake at 180C/Gas Mark 4 for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
6. Remove to a wire rack to cool.
7. In a bowl, melt the chocolate, butter and water over a double boiler.
8. Spread over the cooled cake and decorate with almonds. Allow to set.

Here's the cake fresh from the oven:
And here's the finished article:
I think the cake looks quite dense and the chocolate top hasn't set yet, but it's about 25 minutes walk to Imogen's and I'm already late, so I'd better get going...

Verdict: Coffee and Walnut Cake

In a word: Terrible.

This was, in my opinion, an abject failure. The cake was dense (unsurprising given how much nut and how little flour/raising agents were in the mixture), but most of all tasted of pretty much nothing. The coffee was just not noticeable in any way. The sandwich layer had far too much butter in and the cake tasted greasy. I thought it was absolutely dire, personally. Other people present at the party thought it was better, some even claiming to like it, but I'm sure they were just being polite. I sure as hell won't be baking that cake again!

Not your boring sponge: Part the Second

Time to finish off the cake!

Coffee and Walnut Cake Continued
Ingredients
For the sandwich layer:

• 50g/2oz Butter
• 1 Egg yolk (left over from the cake)
• 125g/4oz Caster sugar
• 50g/2oz Walnuts, finely chopped
• 60ml/2fl oz Strong black coffee
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

For the top:

• 120g/4oz Icing sugar
• 60ml/2fl oz Strong black coffee
• Walnut halves to decorate

Method

1. Cream the butter in a bowl then beat in the other sandwich layer ingredients
2. Cut the cooled cake in half horizontally and spread the sandwich layer mixture on the lower half before replacing the upper half
3. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in the coffee
4. Add water gradually until the icing reaches a spreadable consistency
5. Spread the icing over the top of the cake using a warm palette knife and allow to set
6. Decorate the top with the walnut halves

Here is the end product:

I'm really not sure about this cake. The icing was ridiculously runny (unsurprising given the coffee:sugar ratio) so ended up as more of a glaze than anything else. And the sandwich layer also turned out much more liquidy than I expected. We shall see, but I suspect this might be one of the less successful cakes...

Not your boring sponge: Part the First

Lindsey's birthday falls in the Easter break this year, so she wouldn't be able to celebrate with Oxford friends on her actual birthday (a predicament I can sympathise with). Thus, she's having her celebration tomorrow instead and I decided to bake her a cake in lieu of a present. Now, I have pretty much always thought that sponge cakes are fairly boring. Nice, but very boring. So I thought I'd try something different. She said she wanted a coffee cake, so I did almost resort to making a sponge and adding instant coffee. But luckily, I stumbled across a more interesting recipe that I could adapt. So here's the cakey bit of the cake. Sandwich filling (yes it will be a sandwich cake, but I don't have sandwich cake tins - in a perfect world, I would have baked it for ~25 mins at 200C/Gas Mark 6 in shallow sandwich tins) and maybe also icing will follow in a subsequent post...

Coffee and Walnut Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:

• 5 Eggs, separated
• 125g/4 1/2oz Caster sugar
• 125g/4 1/2oz Soft dark brown sugar
• 250g/9oz Walnuts, finely chopped
• 2 tsp Instant coffee, crushed
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
• 100g/3 1/2oz Plain flour

Method

1. Mix four of the egg yolks with the caster sugar and soft dark brown sugar in a bowl
2. Stir in the chopped walnuts, the instant coffee and the vanilla extract
3. Stir in the flour, a little at a time
4. Whisk the (five) egg whites in a separate bowl until they form stiff peaks. Fold gently into the cake mixture
5. Pour into a lined loose-bottomed cake tin and bake at 170C/Gas Mark 3-4 for an hour, or until a skewer comes out clean
6. Remove from the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack

I was amazed when I took it out of the oven first time around - it looked absolutely gorgeous, so I thought I had better take a photo before poking a hole in the top with a skewer:

And here's the finished cake:

Incidentally, if anyone is wondering why the holes in the top of the cake are quite so large, it's because I don't have skewers and I've been using chopsticks to test my cakes! (Actually, a much bigger problem at the moment is that I don't have a mixing bowl. I've been making my cakes in saucepans mostly!).

One day, an orange tree and a cacao tree will be bred together and chocolate oranges will grow on trees

It's Frances' birthday party this evening. Frances, as those of you who know her can attest, appreciates good food. So in lieu of a present, I thought I'd bake a cake for her. I have used the recipe from Videojug for this cake.

Chocolate and Orange Cake
Ingredients

For the cake:

• 380g Dark chocolate
• 240g Butter
• 100ml Orange juice
• Zest of one orange
• 5 Eggs
• 100g Caster sugar
• 1 tbsp Vanilla extract
• 100g Plain flour

For the top:

• 200g Dark chocolate
• 150ml Double cream

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas mark 3.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter over a double boiler and add the orange juice and zest.
3. Whip the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together in a separate bowl and continue to whip until volume doubles.
4. Add the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture and fold in until smooth and homogenous
5. Sift the flour and fold into the mixture
6. Pour into a cake tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. Check that it is cooked with a wooden skewer.
7. Turn cake out onto a wire rack and allow to cool.
8. Scald the cream and pour over the chocolate to make a ganache.
9. Spread the ganache over the top of the (cool) cake and allow to set.

When I did this, it actually took a *lot* longer than 25 minutes. At 25 minutes, it was still liquid. In reality, it took about 1 hour 10 mins in the oven. Here it is straight out of the oven (after step 6):
And here's the finished article:I think it looks pretty good, personally. Now, I'd better get down to the party before it's over!

Verdict: Almond and Crab Apple Jelly Torte

Well... it was delicious!
The torte was wonderful - sweet but not sickly, chewy but not too tough, soft but not ridiculously so. The only problems with it were not enough crab apple jelly - though the tartness and the flavour of the jelly was perfect to offset the very sweet almond paste - and the flan case was overcooked at the edge, so became somewhat dry and crunchy. But definitely a success!

Seafood and fruit? Crazy talk!

I'm off to Lindsey's for tea this afternoon and I said I'd bake something and bring it with me. I also tried crab apple jelly for the first time recently and think it is marvellous stuff. So I thought I'd try an experiment - I have adapted a recipe for a raspberry and almond torte from Rouxbe as an experiment. We'll see how it turns out! In the mean time, here's the recipe I used:

Almond and Crab Apple Jelly Torte

Ingredients

• 1 Pre-made medium flan case (yes, yes, I'm lazy and don't have a flan ring)
• 145g Ground almonds
• 130g Caster sugar
• 115g Butter
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Almond Essence
  
• 50g Crab apple jelly

Method

1. Cream the sugar, butter and almond essence together with a fork until fluffy.
2. Beat the eggs in one at a time.
3. Fold in the ground almonds.
4. Spread the crab apple jelly over the base of the flan case.
5. Spoon the almond mixture into the case and spread out into an even layer to the edge of the case.
6. Bake at 180C/Gas Mark 4 for 50-60 minutes until golden brown and cooked through to the centre.
7. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

It turned out that the flan case was much too small. I scraped the bottom of the case thinner and compressed it as much as I could when spreading on the crab apple jelly, but only about 2/3rds of the almond mixture would fit in the case. As an experiment, I poured the rest into a baking tray and stuck it in the oven below the torte to see what would happen. I gave it about 25 minutes and then pulled it out.
It actually turned out surprisingly well. Once I broke off the burnt bits around the edges (which actually isn't as much as the photo would suggest), the remaining biscuit was wonderfully almondy, sweet and chewy. Slightly oily, but then it is mostly almond, so that's to be expected I guess. But really a heck of a lot better than I expected!

The torte itself looks like it may have been less successful:
I'd forgotten that, being a smaller torte than the recipe suggested, it would take less time in the oven. Luckily, I checked it after 40 minutes or so, and the top was rather dark, so I thought it best to take it out of the oven. The hole in the top was from me poking it with a chopstick to try to check if it was done - but then I still don't actually know, as the almondy batter probably wasn't that sticky to begin with, so might not stick to a skewer. We shall see what it tastes like!

Conversion of units - useful website

Just a useful website that I found:
Online cooking converter
It converts between imperial and metric which is handy but nothing more than Google calculator will do for you. But more usefully, it has densities of common ingredients built in, so when you come across an American recipe that tells you to use 1 1/2 cups of ground almonds, you can go to it and find out that really it means 130g.

Chocolate Truffles: Take 2

Rehearsals are over, now it's time for the real thing. This time, I took a bit more care over things and got the amounts of cream much closer to what I had been intending previously. Seeing how the milk chocolate truffles from the last batch turned out so much softer than the plain chocolate ones, I did adapt the amounts of cream slightly to how much cocoa was in the chocolate. So, eventually, here's what I used:

Extra dark chocolate truffles
100g 75% cocoa plain chocolate
~85ml cream

Dark chocolate truffles
200g 50% cocoa plain chocolate
~150ml cream

Milk chocolate truffles
100g 21% cocoa milk chocolate
~65ml cream

When it came to the extra dark chocolate truffles, I was worried about the cream not being hot enough to melt the chocolate, so I melted the chocolate first. Unfortunately, me being an idiot, I forgot to let the scalded cream cool before I added it to the molten chocolate - and so it split. I learned my lesson though - for the milk chocolate truffles, I just added the hot cream to the chocolate and then stuck it in the microwave for 10 seconds when not all of the chocolate melted. That worked much better.

The formed but not coated truffles:So after nearly four hours of work, here is the finished product!As you can see, some are dusted (the extra-dark chocolate truffles were a bit more bitter, so the dusting has had icing sugar added, hence the difference in colour), some rolled in chopped hazelnuts, some coated in chocolate and some rolled in chopped hazelnuts and coated in chocolate. I must say, it looks a lot more promising than the previous batch, though I didn't try any of the finished truffles. I did try a bit of each ganache, and even the split extra dark chocolate one tasted pretty good. I just hope Stéphanie likes them! I think I may have made one slight mistake though... I'm not sure the gift box I bought is big enough!

I think a dash of rum added to the ganache would be really nice, though I left it out as I don't know if Stéphanie drinks. I did think maybe a dash of vanilla or hazelnut extract in the ganache would go well too, but I thought I'd not experiment with this batch - perhaps I'll try it next time. I also thought that using chocolate orange to coat the truffles might be a nice change from the plain chocolate coating. So many possibilities!

Chocolate Truffles: Take 1

I'm going to visit my friend Stéphanie in Paris next weekend. Unfortunately for me, I don't believe she drinks (or if she does, she doesn't drink much), so my usual failsafe of bringing a bottle of my homemade gin infusions isn't going to work. After a bit of thinking, I eventually decided that I'd bring her some homemade chocolate truffles and possibly also some honeycomb (cinder toffee). The one slight snag is that I've never made truffles before. As I didn't want the possibility of making a hash of it the night before I left, I thought I'd better do a test batch.

Not Massively Successful Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients

• 100g dark chocolate
• 100g milk chocolate
• 300ml double cream
• Chopped hazelnuts
• Cocoa powder
• Ground cinnamon
• Ground nutmeg
  

Method

1. Chop the chocolate (separately) into small pieces.
2. Heat the cream in a saucepan to scalding point (just before it boils - when the cream starts making a hissing sound when you scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon)
3. Pour half of the cream over each portion of chocolate and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth - this is a ganache.
4. Refrigerate until the ganaches set.
5. Scoop and form into small balls with teaspoons and hands.
6. Refrigerate the truffles for another 15 minutes to let them set properly.
   
7. Roll the formed truffles in the toppings (nuts, cocoa, sugar and cinnamon) either individually or in mixtures to coat the outside of each truffle and prevent them from sticking.
8. Alternatively, melt some chocolate over a water bath and coat the truffles in the melted chocolate. Make sure the truffles are cool before being chocolate coated, or they go rather soft! Allow to set on a Teflon baking sheet.

It's just as well I did a test batch - my quantities are completely wrong! I used about twice as much cream as I had intended to. Oops. As a result, the milk chocolate truffles are unbelievably (and unworkably) soft. The dark chocolate truffles are difficult to work with, but just about manageable - these actually turned out okay, but the milk chocolate ones were a complete disaster.

Here are the ganaches just before refrigerating them:
And here are the ganaches straight out of the fridge:Just after forming, but before dusting:
And the finished truffles:
The milk chocolate truffles were so unbelievably soft that the only way that they could possibly be eaten was if they were coated in chocolate, so I didn't even try to dust any of them. As you can see, I didn't even finish coating all of them - it was a real uphill struggle. Anyway, the dark chocolate truffles were much better and seem to be salvagable.

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!