Eggs Benedict

Sunday starts rather late for me.  I hate to admit it but I often don't get out of bed till way past 10am.  My weekend routine normally involves fresh coffee, morning TV and catching up on the weeks news on my iPad while thinking about what to do for the day.  Midweek breakfast usually consists of something in a bowl with milk, coffee, followed by another coffee when I get to work.  At the weekends I can spend more time doing what I love - cooking.   

Eggs Benedict is a recipe I first tired Christmas morning.  I wanted to test out my newest gadget straight away and one of the first things I thought of  was warm hollandaise sauce poured over softly poached eggs.  Replacing the normal muffin with more fancy and softer brioche and serving it with salty thick cut smoked bacon makes this a perfect breakfast/brunch dish.  

Making hollandaise can be complicated and if not careful you can end up with buttery scrambled eggs.   I came across Delia Smith's blender version when hunting through my collection of books for a recipe.  Delia recommends using a blender or food processor (I have tired both with the blender being the better option).   This is pretty much fool proof and has worked every time.  My recipe below makes enough for two people - double the amount if you like for four (2 eggs yolks).  The only issue you may have is keeping the sauce warm while you prepare everything else.  It is so quick to make I would leave it until you have cooked the bacon.

I cook my bacon in the oven, its easier and allows time to get on with other things.  Keep an eye on the brioche as it browns very quickly while it toasts due to the high butter content.    This is a very rich breakfast and isn't something you want everyday.  Butter sauce, eggs, brioche and salty bacon is the most perfect combination.  If your a veggie simply replace the bacon with asparagus.  Served Christmas morning or any morning this is a real treat.

Eggs Benedict 

serves 2 people

For the hollandaise sauce

1 egg yolk

1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar

65g unsalted butter

salt & pepper to taste

The rest

4 thick cut smoked bacon rashes

4 large eggs (fresher the better)

Large brioche loaf

Start by placing the bacon on a roasting sheet and cooking in a hot (220C fan) oven for 12 mins.  Keep an eye on it towards the end of the cooking time,  if  you like it crispy simply add an extra 5 mins.

While the bacon is cooking slice four thick pieces of brioche.  Set aside for later.

Poach the eggs however you like - I use a poacher as its easier and I like the dome effect you get.  Don't over cook them.  If you have a poacher like mine I cooked them on medium for 5 mins.

 

To make the hollandaise, put the egg yolk in a blender with salt and pepper.  Blend for 30 seconds on high.  

 

Heat the lemon juice and vinegar until steaming (use a small pan).  Turn on blender and pour slowly through the top.  My blender has a small hole in the clear stopper to allow slow pouring.  Turn off blender once you have added all the hot liquid.

 

Put the butter in the pan and melt until sizzling - Don't let it brown.  

Take bacon out the oven - it should be done by now.  Set brioche to toast.

With the blender on high slowly pour in the melted butter - a constant dribble.  When all the butter is added stop the blender.

Arrange the toasted brioche on a plate, top with bacon, top with two eggs.

Blend the hollandaise for 30 seconds before pouring over the eggs.

Serve straight away.

Enjoy.

Fudge Chocolate Brownies

Chocolate, butter, eggs, flour and sugar...such a simple mix creates one of the best and easiest chocolate hits.  I have struggled to find a chocolate brownie recipe that works for me. What I mean by works is a brownie that is dense, fudgy and as far from a cake as possible.  A brownie should be dense, but not under-cooked, sweet, but not sickly and have a real chocolate hit.  Get it right and you should end up with a shiny crisp top that hides a rich dense cake.  This recipe, I believe, is the one.  Taken from Edd Kimber 'The Boy who Bakes' I have found these brownies work perfectly.  Although relatively cheap to make these brownies do contain 300g of chocolate and if your buying the good stuff (I wouldn't even bother if not) it will be the most expensive part of the recipe.  I tend to collect chocolate, adding a bar or two with the fortnightly shopping order and then stashing it away (well away) for days when I fancy something sweet.  All the other ingredients will be things you have in the store cupboard.



Brownies, a dessert developed in the United States, are flat baked squares that due to the lack of baking powder stays dense and fudge like.  There are many variations - plain, with nuts, with frosting, with extra chocolate chips, with cream, with ice cream (yum) and not forgetting no chocolate at all (the blondie)

Not overworking the flour is the key to the perfect dense brownie.  If you mix to hard during the flour stage you will develop the gluten and the result with be more of a cake instead of the dense 'almost, yet not' uncooked dessert seen above.

Quick and easy to make I think Edd's recipe is my favourite brownie so far.  Try it and see what you think.



Chocolate Fudge Brownies
By Edd Kimber (The Boy who Bakes)

180g plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
300g dark chocolate (70% solids)
200g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
220g light brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract


Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan).  Grease and line a 23x33cm baking tin.

Sift the flour, cocoa and salt in to a bowl and set aside.

In a bowl set over simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate, carefully mix once or twice until completely smooth (about 5 mins)

 

Off the heat, whisk in the sugars. 

 

Then add the eggs and vanilla extract.

Carefully fold, don't whisk, in the flour.  Try not to over-mix, you should be able to do it in 10 good folds.  The odd bit of unmixed flour wont matter (note: the image below does need a bit more mixing!)

 

Pour in to the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 mins.  

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.  Carefully remove when cold and using a sharp knife, cut in to squares - What size? Whatever you feel like.

 


Enjoy.

Raspberry and Nectarine Crumble Cake

The warm weather has made me think about cakes suitable for eating on sunny days, perhaps by the riverside, most definitely with friends.  A cake that is light and easy to handle yet tasty and filling.  I have always liked the idea of 'tray-bakes' and this recipe could be consider as an American Coffee Cake, although it does not contain any coffee.  Light vanilla scented sponge kept moist by fresh fruits and topped with a slightly crunchy crumble topping.  I have made this cake a number of times because its relatively quick, always works and tastes great with whatever fruit you decide to put in it.  I consider this a good seasonal cake, it works with a variety of fruits - apples, peaches, plums, rhubarb and pear.  

I have made this cake as a tray-bake (this recipe) but it also works perfectly in a 25cm round loose bottom tin.  I find the square tin easier to divide in to sharable portions, it is also easier to pack in to boxes to take outside.  

Making the sponge is far easier with a stand mixer but you could make it by hand.  The large amount of egg will more than likely result in a curdle, even with electric mixer, so making sure all ingredients are at room temperature and adding a spoonful of flour to the mix as you add the eggs with reduce the risk of splitting.   Even if this does happen don't worry too much, the baking powder will support the slightly reduced air from the eggs.  A good point to remember when caking making is to mix hard as you can UNTIL you add the flour, then fold in and try not to over mix.  Working the flour causes gluten to be released resulting in a heavy cake.  As soon as you add the flour in to this mixture switch to a folding action with a large spoon.  I have been known to allow the machine to fold in the flour, and this will more than likely work well, but with cake making I always try a little bit harder.

Originally I wanted to make this cake with fresh peaches, then along came the idea of adding raspberries, but when I went to my local 'fruit & veg shop' they only had nectarines.  A quick search on my iPhone confirmed what I was thinking - nectarines are from the same family as peaches and have a similar flavour, they also make an excellent sub.   This cake is perfect eaten warm from the oven with some double cream or even better served cold at a picnic.

Raspberry and Nectarine Crumble Cake

For the cake

170g plain flour

170g caster sugar

170g softened unsalted butter

3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk

For the crumble top

110g plain flour
4 tbsp brown sugar (or caster if not)
85g cold unsalted butter

Fruit filling
3 nectarines
1 punnet of raspberries
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 190C (170C fan), butter and line a 23cm square tin.  As you see in the image I over-lined the tin to make removal easier later.

Remove the stones from the nectarines by scoring around the whole fruit then twisting in your hands.  Remove the stone and slice each half in to 1/4, then again in to 1/8s.  Place in a bowl and sprinkle with the sugar and vanilla, leave while you make the rest of the cake.

To make the crumble topping, pulse together the flour, butter and sugar in a food processor.  If doing by hand just rub between your fingers to bring together.  Don't over do it, you want breadcrumbs.  Set aside.

 

To make the cake, put the butter and sugar in to a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle and beat until pale - about 2 mins on high.

 

Slowly add in the beaten egg (to which you have added the vanilla extract), half way stop and mix in one tablespoon of flour.  Add the remaining egg while beating on high speed.

Sift in the flour and baking powder, fold the mixture carefully with a large spoon.  Fold in the milk.

 

Transfer the mixture to the lined tin and spread out carefully, place the nectarines on top and dot around the raspberries.  Cover with the crumble top and bake in the oven for 50 minutes.

 

     

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes in the tin before removing the cake and placing on a rack to cool.  If you like, dust with icing sugar.

Serve warm with cream or cold later.  This cake freezes well.

Enjoy.

Cupcakes - Cherry Coke & Bounty

I was recently tasked with the job of creating cupcakes for a friends birthday party (I say tasked, it was me who suggested it...)  The party was staged in an old fashioned bowling alley and this lead to the theme of rock' n' roll.  I carefully thought about what flavour cakes to make and then I remembered seeing a recipe for Coca Cola cooked Ham from Nigella Lawson, further research led me to another recipe from the 'Coke Queen' herself called Coca Cola Cupcakes.  Using this recipe as a basis I wondered if I could simply use cherry coke instead of regular and embellish the tops with something cherry flavoured, then top with her coke flavoured icing?  I hunted around the internet (as you do) and came across a number of recipes for cherry coke cupcakes, some looked great, others a little dull.  I was inspired by a recipe I saw on 'Katie Cakes' and with some minor adapting to the frosting my cherry coke cupcake was born.

The second flavour is simply based on me asking my friend what she would like.  Coconut and chocolate is a favourite, so along came the 'Bounty' Cupcake.  For all those not from the UK (possible US??) a Bounty bar is basically a nugget of dense coconut covered in milk chocolate,  very yum - if you like coconut.  I had a number of ideas on how to make this cake.  Idea one, chocolate sponge, topped with coconut frosting.  Idea two, white sponge containing coconut topped with chocolate frosting and a dusting of coconut.  Finally I decided on white sponge with coconut covered in  vanilla frosting dipped in molten chocolate, sprinkled with coconut, inspired by Martha Stewart's 'Hi-Hat Cupcakes'. 

I have tried to balance the complexity of these cupcakes so you would want to make them, what I mean by this is that the coconut sponge takes a second to whizz up while the frosting is the more complex part and the coca cola sponge is a little more technical compared to the easy frosting on top.  

Here are the recipes for both cakes.  Nigella supplies both the recipe for the white coconut cakes and the coke (with various changes made by me).  Martha supplies the hi-top frosting and coating and I invented the cherry frosting myself based on 'Kates' quantities.



Coconut 'Bounty' Cupcakes
inspired by Martha Stewart & Nigella, messed around by me.

Makes 12 large cupcakes

For the cakes
125g soft butter
125g caster sugar
125g plain flour
2 eggs
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
30g desiccated coconut (I used sweetened) 
4 tbsp room temp milk

For the frosting
3 large egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tarter
1/4 cup cold water
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

For the chocolate coating
340g plain chocolate (70%)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp desiccated coconut for sprinkling

Pre-heat oven to 200C (180C fan) and place 12 cupcake (or muffin) cases in a tin.

For the very easy cake mix simply place all the ingredients, apart from the milk, in to a food processor.  Whizz for 20 seconds or until combined.  Through the shoot add 1 tbsp at a time of milk and pulse.  If doing this by hand just put it all in a bowl and mix.

 

Divide between the cases.  Half an ice cream scoop seemed to be the perfect amount,  you should get 12, any less and you have put too much in.

 

Bake for 17 mins, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins, then transfer to wire cooling rack and leave to go completely cold.

To make the frosting, first put the egg whites, water and cream of tarter in the bowl of a freestanding mixer fitted with the whisk attachement   Turn on and whisk for 1 minute to break up the eggs.

 

Add the sugar and place the bowl over a pan of simmering water, whisk for 3 minutes until the sugar dissolves.  If you rub some of the mix between your fingers every so often you can check for gritty sugar.

Then place back on the mixer and whisk on high for 7 minutes - this is technically called a '7-minute Frosting'.   Add the vanilla extract near the end of the 7 minutes and allow to beat in.

Place in a piping bag fitted with a 1/4 round tip and carefully pipe the frosting on to the cupcakes.  Martha has a video to show how to do this but I will try and explain:

1. Start in the centre, pipe out to the side and round the edge of the cupcake.

2. When you complete the circle start to build upwards, making another circle only smaller, spiral upwards until you make reach the top.

3. To make the 'peak' simply push down before pulling straight up and you should get peaks.

I found this difficult at first but you get better as you go along.  If you make a massive error simply remove the frosting and try again.

You should have more than enough frosting to cover all 12 cakes.

Then place them carefully in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour - you could also put them in the freezer if necessary.


While they are chilling make the chocolate coating.  Break up all the chocolate in to a heat proof bowl, add the oil and set over the same hot water you had for the frosting.  Carefully melt the chocolate.  Then pour in to a suitable container - it needs to be deep and wide enough to take the full frosting on the cake.

 

It is VERY important that your cakes are chilled and the chocolate not too hot, I used my coffee thermometer to check the temp of the chocolate and only attempted the dipping when the chocolate was 34C.

When you are ready to dip simply take a cake, invert and plunge, don't worry they wont fall off!  Carefully remove from the chocolate and allow excess to drip off.  

Place on a cooling rack and sprinkle with coconut before the chocolate sets.

Unfortunately you will be left with rather a lot of melted chocolate, unavoidable if you want to 'dip'.  You could pour back in a pan, add milk and cream, sugar and vanilla to make hot chocolate, there should be enough for at least two cupfuls.  Or get some ready made brownie pieces, strawberries and other fruits and dip away...

Store the cakes in the fridge until ready to eat, they should last about 3 days but best eaten on the day made.

Enjoy.



Cherry Coke Cupcakes
inspired by Nigella Lawson, messed around by me.

Makes 12 large cupcakes

For the cakes
200g plain flour
250g caster sugar
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
125ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
125g unsalted butter
2 tbsp cocoa powder
175ml cherry coke


For the cherry scented frosting
125g soft butter
500g icing sugar
50ml milk
cherry syrup (made from 300ml of cherry juice in a carton simmered for 10 minutes)

For the cola frosting
60g icing sugar
8g butter
12ml cherry coke
1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

12 cherry flavoured cola bottles

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with cases.
To make the cake batter,  mix the flour, sugar, bicarb and salt in a large bowl.

    

Beat the egg, buttermilk and vanilla in a jug.

In a saucepan, over a medium heat, melt together the cola, butter and cocoa. 

When fully melted pour in to the flour mix and whisk, then add in the milk mixture.  You will have a very runny batter.  I poured the batter in to a jug and filled the 12 cases, you could just pour it from the mixing bowl but I am a tidy cook and that just would not do.

 

     

Bake for 30 minutes, then remove and allow to completely cool.

To make the cherry frosting.  First I reduced, by simmering, 300ml of cherry juice I found in the supermarket in the drinks section.  Simmer slowly for 10/15 minutes until you are left with 4 tablespoons full.  Leave to cool.

In a mixer, fitter with the paddle, mix the butter.  Add in tablespoons of the icing sugar while mixing slowly.  Add a dash of milk every 4 spoonfuls.   When you have added all the sugar, mix in the cherry syrup.  You should have a light pink butter icing ready to pipe on the cooled cakes.

 

I used a star attachment to pipe, like the bounty cakes, mounds of icing ready to top with the final glaze.

To make the glaze (not this is a small amount of glaze as you barely use it).  In a pan melt the butter in to the cola and cocoa.  When melted take off the heat and whisk in the icing sugar, followed by the vanilla extract.

 

Drizzle a small amount on top of each cake and top with a cherry flavoured fizzy cola bottle.

Enjoy.