Verdict: Peach, apple and grapefruit crumble

Pretty good really. I had been worried that it wouldn't be sweet enough, but the sweetness was pretty nicely balanced. The grapefruit worked really well and the peach was lovely - though I probably should have cut the apples a bit smaller; the apple peel was a little disconcerting. The overall flavour was excellent, I thought. The crumble top was a little bit mushy, but not too bad. Some seeds and oats would probably have helped that - and I probably shouldn't have made it quite so fine. But actually, it was quite a success!

Crumble!

I love crumble, absolutely love it, so I thought I'd bake one. I popped down to the Co-Op earlier to buy some fruit, so the choice was a bit limited, but hopefully it'll work. The peaches aren't really ripe, but I'm hoping it won't matter too much...

Peach, Apple and Grapefruit Crumble
Ingredients

• 2 Peaches
  
• 1 Red grapefruit
• 2 Apples
• ~1tbsp Cinnamon
• ~1tsp Nutmeg
• 60g Honey
  
• 170g Plain flour
• 110g Butter
  
• 55g Caster sugar

Method

1. Segment the grapefruit, slice the peaches and apples and line the base of an ovenproof dish with them.
2. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. Drizzle the honey over the fruit.
4. Rub the butter into the flour to the texture of coarse breadcrumbs.
5. Mix the sugar with the flour/butter and sprinkle over the fruit.
6. Bake a 200C/Gas Mark 6 for ~45-60mins until hot and golden.

As you can see, I'm not good at segmenting grapefruit!
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo with just the fruit before I covered it with the honey, cinnamon and nutmeg, but the colours were amazing! Anyway, here's a photo just before the crumble top went on.
Ready for the oven.Fresh from the oven. Once again though, the photo really doesn't do it justice!

Chocolate rum truffles

I like truffles. In case you haven't noticed already. I think they make marvellous presents and no one in their right minds doesn't like them (unless of course they're allergic). And so I thought I'd make some for Anita, and as I'm visiting Lizzie next week, I'll bring her some too. Time to make a double-batch!

Chocolate Rum Truffles
Ingredients

• 400g Dark chocolate (50% cocoa)
• 300ml Double cream
• 1tbsp Vanilla extract (yes, that is a tablespoon)
• 1 1/2 tbsp Dark rum
• Cocoa powder
• Icing sugar
• Chopped hazelnuts
  
• 100g Very dark chocolate (85% cocoa)
• 100g Very dark chocolate with orange oil
  

Method

1. Scald the cream and pour over the 50% chocolate
2. Stir until the chocolate has all melted and the mixture is homogenous (microwave with care for 10 seconds at a time if necessary)
3. Add the vanilla and rum and mix well
4. Refrigerate to set
5. Form into truffles and return to fridge
6. Cover with cinnamon, icing sugar, chopped hazelnuts, melted high-cocoa chocolate or combinations of these
   
7. Refrigerate until set
   

Unsurprisingly, you can't really taste the vanilla or the rum in the ganache - I was being somewhat cautious with the quantities, so if you want to be able to taste them, you'll have to add more. As always, I am sure it took longer than last time to make them! Don't underestimate how much time truffles will suck up...

A birthday torte

It was David's birthday yesterday. Tonight is his birthday celebration meal thing and, as I have started doing of late, I thought I'd bake him something in lieu of a present. This is particularly good for Dave, as we have a long-standing agreement that for each birthday, we would look for a present for the other, but not buy anything if we couldn't find something suitable. But I think a baked dessert will fit the bill nicely!

I also found myself in Sainsbury's last night, where I found a nice, cheap, loose-bottomed flan ring - something that I've been after for some time now (I also found a sifting thing (not a sieve, but similar) for 15p, which I thought was worth a punt!), so I thought this would be a good opportunity to christen it. So, for this birthday, Dave is getting a birthday chocolate torte.

Birthday Chocolate Torte
Ingredients
For the shortcrust pastry:

• 170g plain flour
• 85g butter
• Very cold water

For the filling:

• 140g Plain chocolate
• 170g Butter
• 340g Caster sugar
• 95g Plain flour
• 6 Eggs

For the topping:

• 80g Plain chocolate (I would have made more topping, but I ran out of chocolate!)
• 10g Butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp Water

Method

1. Sift the flour for the pastry into a large bowl
2. Rub in the butter for the pastry to coarse breadcrumb-like texture
3. Add 2 tablespoons of very cold water. Mix to a firm dough, adding more water if necessary, but it should not be too damp
4. Wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 mins
5. Roll out and line a flan case. Trim off excess, and prick the base all over with a fork. Line the base with baking parchment and weigh down with baking beans and bake at 200C/Gas Mark 6 for 20 minutes. Remove the baking beans and parchment then bake for another 10 minutes until lightly golden
6. Allow to cool in the tin
7. Whisk the flour for the filling, sugar and eggs together in a large bowl
   
8. Melt the chocolate and butter for the filling and stir in
9. Bake at 180C/Gas Mark 4 for 30-40 minutes until the filling is just set
10. Allow to cool on a wire rack
11. Melt the chocolate, butter and water for the topping together in a bowl and mix well
12. Spread over the cooled torte
13. Refrigerate to set
    

Ready to roll (end of step 4)!The finished case ready for the oven (midway through step 5).The flan case fresh from the oven (end of step 5). Oops, I forgot that the pastry shrinks on baking - you're supposed to leave a little edge around the top of the flan ring when trimming. Oh well. I also think I was a little overly ambitious with how dry my pastry was, which is probably why I ended up with cracks in the sides. I'm going to line them (on the outside) with baking parchment and hope for the best...
Ready to go into the oven. I think it looks pretty darned good!
Quite a lot of leftover filling though. I could have halved the quantities and it would have been sufficient.
So I tipped a bit into a bowl and microwaved it for 2 minutes. Not really very appetising, I must say.It looks a bit better when spooned out though. I think the filling isn't quite right personally - based on this, I think not enough chocolate, too much sugar and definitely too much egg. But reasonable at least.The remainder of the filling got tipped into a sandwich tin and stuck at the bottom of the oven with the main torte.Here's the torte fresh from the oven (end of step 9).And here is the (almost) finished torte about to go into the fridge (end of step 12).

Verdict: ANZAC biscuits

These things are amazing! They're so simple, and they just taste so good. And in case you didn't believe me that the photo didn't do it justice, I went and grabbed my camera instead of using my phone to prove it!

ANZAC biscuits

If you've not tried ANZAC biscuits before, then you're missing out. I came across them about two years ago in shop-bought form and immediately decided that they're magical things. Time to try baking them myself! I've used this recipe from the BBC Good Food website, though the variations between different recipes are rather minor.

ANZAC Biscuits
Ingredients

• 85g Dessicated coconut
• 85g Oats
• 100g Plain flour
• 100g Caster sugar
• 100g Butter
• 1tbsp Golden syrup
• 1tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• 1tbsp Boiling water
  

Method

1. Mix the coconut, oats, flour and sugar in a bowl.
2. Melt the butter and stir in the golden syrup.
3. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the boiling water and add to the butter.
4. Mix the bicarbonate of soda solution with the butter/golden syrup mix.
5. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix, adding water if necessary.
6. Spoon out onto a tray and bake at 180C/Gas Mark 4 for 10-12 minutes until golden.
7. Allow to cool on a wire rack - or better yet, enjoy straight from the oven!
   

As you can see, my mixture is rather dry - I wasn't sure what the consistency was supposed to be like, so I thought I can always add more water later. It seems okay though. This is the first batch about to go into the oven - just under half of the mixture.And straight from the oven (The photo really doesn't do it justice!).