Lemon And Raspberry Muffins!

Do you hear the muffin man, the muffin man,themuffin man, do you hear the muffin mam that lives down drewry lane? Aha! I hear one singing. Hello everyone again, how are we all, oh it’s now officially the start of British summertime, and damn right it should be. This bitter cold weather that Scotland has had for the past few weeks is incredible on terms of just how cold it really is and so to finally see the clocks go forward an hour fills me with a little bit of satisfaction… So I know that the past few recipes I have posted have been quite full-on, for example the macaroons, although they are not difficult to make there are a good few steps you have to work on! These lemon amd raspberry muffins are honestly one of the most easiest recipes to follow and carry out. All you do is measure out a few dry ingredients and measure out your wet ingredients also and combine the two lightly and bake. The great thing with a muffin mix is that you are permitted to under mix the batter as when baking muffins, remember this very simple rule.. A lumpy batter makes the lightest muffins! And that’s it, I mean if you feel you would like muffins for breakfast then you simply make up the dry and wet mixes, then cover up and place in the fridge overnight. When you get up simply combine the two line the tray (or you could do this the night before also) amd preheat the oven, bob’s your uncle a batch of delicious muffins will be sitting on your dining table within 20 minutes. Oh one other thing about muffins is that you should not expect very high rises with homemade muffins, now this is not anything to do with you at all, it is do with the baking powder.. Now into a little chemistry here, when a mass-production factory make muffins by the millions they are using a very unstable baking powder know as sodium tetrachlrohexanate II (SCl4H2 II) this is the bio chemical that is industrial baking powder, it is what gives shop-bought mufffins that high rise but the most incredible dense texture, this is due to the fact that the sodium when bonded to the chlorine reacts with fat (butter or oil) the bonds don’t break leading to a huge dense, heavy muffin.. So the moral of that speech is to tell you that the will rise to the height of an un-iced cupcake….

Okay so enough of my muffin chat, I have not forgotten to wish everyone a very Happy Easter. I love this time of year when all of spring flowers and plants have arrived in the parks and gardens of peoples houses and not to metion the abundance of spring fruit and veg at this time of year, oh my how many different varieties there are.. Now how could I talk about Easter, without even mentioning CHOCOLATE!!! Oh how chocolatiers and supermarkets have some of the most fantastic chocolate sculptures and egg designs! One I do still do at Easter is Egg Painting, I love getting my not so artistic flair on and having a good old jolly painting day! Aha, it’s amazing how many you can go through at a time… So I thought I could now make a start on these fabulous muffins… (The smell when they cook is something out of this world).

INGREDIENTS:

60g butter.
200g plain flour.
150g caster sugar.
1 egg.
Approx 120ml milk.
Zest and juice of 1 lemon.
2 tsp baking powder.
1/2 tsp bicarb.
1/4 tsp salt.
150g raspberries.

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6/ around 190°C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin cases. Now, melt the butter in a small saucepan and set aside to cool slightly.

Put the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, bicarb and zest into a bowl and mix to combine..

In a measuring jug squeeze the lemon juice and add the milk until it reaches the 200ml mark (it will curdle, Don’t Panic). Add the egg and beat well to combine, then pour into the dry ingredients and briefly combine the two remembering the rule I told you earlier…

Pour the batter into the cases and bake for 25 minutes or until the top spring back when pressed lightly.

And serve these with the warm breath of the oven still lingering over them, a delicious teatime treat! If you happen to have a couple remaining the next day, pop them in the oven for a few minutes to warm then gently warm some single cream in a pan and pour over the muffins, absolute heaven…

Until the next time folks, Au Revoir,
Merci,
Ryan!

Post Update for Tomorrow!

Hello folks, this is just a little note to let you know that I am now on holiday and so for the next 2 weeks I shall be able to post fairly regularly. So this allows me to experiment more in the kitchen and I plan to start off tomorrow by baking a batch of fabulous lemon-raspberry muffins…. Oh how the smell of a batch of fresh muffins fills the house with a sense of humble, gratification, plus the best smelling air-freshener ever! So until tomorrow,

Au revoir,

Ryan.

Very Easy Almond Cake (But Ultra Impressive)!

Hello there again readers, everybody’s lives busy as usual? I probably guess they are. It is now only three days until the school break for Easter begins and my goodness it should. I have been waiting for this break now for quite a few months and finally it has arrived, the rush for homework to collected in before the end of term is frustrating, but I have survived until now so three more days should be a doddle. Haha, I thought I would take a twist on the traditional simnel cake that symbolizes Easter this year and go for a more family friendly cake in the form of a simple almond sponge still consisting of the marzipan flavour, except now with the addition of the centre cut out of the cake and filled with beautiful scarlet-red raspberries and dusted with the appropriate amount of icing sugar to compliment the extremely bitter cold wind outside just now… This cake I think is a cross between complete heaven and sweet almond delight! In the title I have emphasized the sheer easiness of this cake and I am not going to lie in  the slightest, you simply have to beat a few ingredients together and bung the mix in the freestanding mixer for goodness sake, aha! as you can see I am not the type of person for endless mixing of batters and icings. The quicker that cake is in the oven and the smells is floating through the house the better! I have left this cake ingredients list as short and simple as possible, so do feel the uttermost anticipation to change and alter and add to it and please do let me know how your concoction came about and how successful it was. So off to the world of the heart of the home (kitchen), cliche I know but seriously I spend more time there than my bedroom, treasure every moment with complete satisfaction!

INGREDIENTS:

250g soft unsalted butter

250g soft marzipan ( Natural please here, and oh to soften it I give it a quick blitz in the microwave for 20 seconds).

6 eggs ( free-range for the best colour).

150g self-raising flour.

1/4 tsp almond essence (not the artificial extract, unless you want to smell like an almond farm).

1/2 tsp good-quality vanilla extract.

1/2 zest of an orange.

25cm springform cake pan or for a more patterned effect, use a fluted 25cm cake pan! I use whatever meets my eyeline form the cupboard first aha!

METHOD:

Preheat your oven to 170c/Gas Mark 3. Chop up the butter and marzipan into little cubes to make the life of a food processor or freestanding mixer easier (I guess that’s fair as it’s doing a lot for you). And pop the sugar in to and process well with the big knife blade attached ( the general blade) until smooth.

Now you can carefully add the beautiful smelling extracts and essences plus the orange zest to the machine and process again, followed by the addition of the eggs, one by one and processing after each addition. Then tip in the flour slowly, processing yet again..

Pour this glorious batter into the prepared greased tin and bake for 50 mins, but do begin to check from the 40 minute mark. The cake is ready when a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean and the cake has a golden appearance. Cool in the tin then on a wire rack.

When cool, take a cake cutter and take out a reasonable circle of the cake and eat with a few raspberries and as dollop of cream and pile high the cut out section with raspberries and dust the whole cake with icing sugar…. enjoy.

I thought I would add a picture of the hokey pokey (honeycomb) I made yesterday to the post and it follows the recipe I posted earlier

The perfect gift for anyone and oh I suggest you create your own rustic Crunchie bars!

Until next time…… Au revoir,

Ryan 🙂

 

 

 

 

Macaroons – The Parisan Extravanganza!

Hello again everyone, I hope this week so far has been good for you and you are keeping well also. These past few days have been quite busy for me, on the run up to a concert which was held last night at the City Halls in Glasgow. It went very well and it was a great chance to meet up with people I haven’t spoken to for quite a few months/years (for some) and also for making some lovely new friends. My life seems to be very unpredictable in terms of meeting new people and becoming friends with them easily. I love meeting new people, I find it so exciting to get to know someone else and even better become very good friends with them, as the old life is short I am all for living it to my uttermost potential. Now with school finally beginning to calm down a little just now, I should be able to post more often and not have the ongoing stress on my shoulders about when I’m being called for a final draft of an essay etc..

So onto a lighter topic of Parisian Pâtisserie, Macaroons. These light up the shop windows of almost every bakery in Paris, The macaroon is one of the many sweet ‘crazes’ sweeping across the globe currently. They consist of two circular discs of meringue  (typically coloured) sandwiched together with crème pâtissière (in Paris) or the more British or American filling is lightly whipped unsweetened double cream! Which is equally as delicious as the crème pâtissière, although it is very hard to achieve the perfect piping consistency with this, so usually cream is my filling of choice. I love macaroons when their colour is so enhancing and eye-catching, don’t make the mistake and make the colour of your mix to light as during cooking sometimes then meringue can leave unfolded white spots there, so we try to avoid this worry by adding a very vibrant array of colours.  The finished macaroons are simply sandwiched together and place in a pretty white box (to enhance the colour even more) and then tied with a hand tied bow. Voila! You have the perfect gift for that special someone or well deserving friend! So enough of me blabbering on, lets get to the recipe and I shall let you experiment!

INGREDIENTS:

125g icing sugar.

125g ground almonds.

40g egg whites. ( I advise you invest in a good set of digital scales when measuring out precise measures ).

2 tbsp water.

110g caster sugar.

50g egg whites.

Food colouring (optional) you could keep these white for a wedding for example.

150ml double cream.

Piping bag (for the macaroons).

METHOD:

Preheat your oven to 170c/Gas Mark 5. Line a largish baking tray with parchment.

Put the icing sugar, ground almonds and the 40g egg whites into a bowl and mix together until a thick paste is achieved.

Now take a small pan and add to that, the caster sugar and the water. Place onto the heat and bring to boil and let it thicken to a syrup. That would read around the 115c mark on a sugar thermometer.

I would now begin to make a start on the meringue itself. Firstly whisk the 50g egg whites in a free-standing mixer or using some elbow grease. Once a medium-stiff peak is formed pour in the hot sugar syrup, whisking continuously until the mixture resembles a stiff a shiny pile of snow! Add your colouring of choice now and carefully spoon the meringue mixture onto the paste and mix together again to bring it back to it’s shiny self again:).

You are now ready to start piping, begin by filling the piping bag with the mix. I find this easiest when you place the bag into a pint glass and fold the bag over the rim of the glass and then fill, unfold, twist and pipe! simple. Okay so piping isn’t the easiest of skills to do so if you are fairly new piper, then I would recommend you draw the circles using a cutter so you have a guide to pipe with.

Pipe circles 4cm big will do and 2cm apart is great! Piping usually leaves a tip where you flicked the bag away, this is prone to burning during cooking so we slam the tin on the work surface 1-2 times to flatten them down.

Leave them to sit for 30 mins to form a skin and then bake for 12-15 mins with the oven door ever so slightly ajar to allow the excess build up of steam to escape. Leave the macaroons to cool on the parchment.

Sandwich them together with the cream and box up! They keep in the fridge for a couple of days.

Until next time readers, Au revoir,

Merci, Ryan!

Quick post about the next!

Hello everyone, I hope we are all well and happy. I just thought I would let you know that I have a concert tomorrow evening so I can’t make a promise that I will post but I will absolutely on Wednesday and It shall be a little French baking classic, so until then have a lovely Tuesday!

Au revoir,

Ryan!

Tuscan Fries!

Hello again everyone, I hope that your are all keeping well and fine. This week has been rather busy and I do sincerely appologise for the two posts I have managed to fit in. Today I thought I would venture over to my Italian style of cooking and make a sort of French/Italian chip, commonly known in Italy as Tuscan Fries. These are simply potatoes (unpeeled for ease) and oh for me cut using a chip cutter because it would seem and endless waste of time, cutting potato after potato! They are then fried in the most beautiful scented oil frangranced with rosemary, thyme (you can never have to much, literally), sage and oh not to mention a whole bulb of unpeeled garlic cloves! Ah just the mere thought of it just now is making my tummy rumble with excitement! I had a bit of an Italian style cooking weekend, well first of all I made the fries on Friday and then an italian licorice pudding yesterday using the most fabulous, bittersweet licorice pellets from Calibria. The pellets I used are called Amarelli Rossano and are the most intense of the lot. So there has been for a few weeks now a lot of building work going on in my hometown of Glasgow around about the city centre, where they are now about to open the Buchanan Quarter soon which will consist of some fantastic American stores such as Forever 21 and the fabulous chocolatier Hôtel Chocolat will be opening there in the early summer. So anyone wishing to taste some of Britain’s finest chocolates, Glasgow is the place to come to aha! Now let us carry on with these utterly Italian chips! INGREDIENTS: 1kg waxy potatoes, such as Maris Pipers or Charlottes, (although I have found that regular baking potatoes do the job nicely). 1.5L Corn Oil or any other flavourless cooking oil. 1 bulb garlic with all of the cloves removed and not peeled! 1 small bunch each of Rosemary, Thyme and Sage. METHOD: Cut the potatoes using a chip cutter for even sizing and ease of preparation or just a knife and your hand for guidelines. Pour the oil into a large pan and add the chips. Now apply heat and bring the oil to the boil. Cold oil? I hear you wonder, well I have learned this from Nigella and yes it works and it is great as I hate working with large vats of hot oil. I actually think it makes better tasting Non-Greasy chips all the time. Once the oil has reached a rolling boil keep the oil at around a temperature of about 150-160°c and NEVER LEAVE THE PAN UNATTENED, NOT EVEN FOR A SECOND! Leave that to cook for about 15 mins, while you prepare the herbs and garlic the after 15 mins pop in the garlic and watch incase it burns and then cook for a further 5 mins. After this carefully add the herbs and stand well back from the pan as, any living organism such as herbs and plants when in contact with a hot substance suddenly kill off there cells and die. Just be carefull, as I made the mistake of hanging over the pan on Friday. When ready, transport them from the sunshine yellow oil and place on some kitchen towel for the extra oil to be absorbed! Serve sprinkled with the herbs and garlic along with a generous pinch of sea slat flakes (Maldon for preference). Merci beaucoup, and until next time, Au Revoir, Hello again everyone, I hope that your are all keeping well and fine. This week has been rather busy and I do sincerely appologise for the two posts I have managed to fit in. Today I thought I would venture over to my Italian style of cooking and make a sort of French/Italian chip, commonly known in Italy as Tuscan Fries. These are simply potatoes (unpeeled for ease) and oh for me cut using a chip cutter because it would seem and endless waste of time, cutting potato after potato! They are then fried in the most beautiful scented oil frangranced with rosemary, thyme (you can never have to much, literally), sage and oh not to mention a whole bulb of unpeeled garlic cloves! Ah just the mere thought of it just now is making my tummy rumble with excitement! I had a bit of an Italian style cooking weekend, well first of all I made the fries on Friday and then an italian licorice pudding yesterday using the most fabulous, bittersweet licorice pellets from Calibria. The pellets I used are called Amarelli Rossano and are the most intense of the lot. So there has been for a few weeks now a lot of building work going on in my hometown of Glasgow around about the city centre, where they are now about to open the Buchanan Quarter soon which will consist of some fantastic American stores such as Forever 21 and the fabulous chocolatier Hôtel Chocolat will be opening there in the early summer. So anyone wishing to taste some of Britain’s finest chocolates, Glasgow is the place to come to aha! Now let us carry on with these utterly Italian chips! INGREDIENTS: 1kg waxy potatoes, such as Maris Pipers or Charlottes, (although I have found that regular baking potatoes do the job nicely). 1.5L Corn Oil or any other flavourless cooking oil. 1 bulb garlic with all of the cloves removed and not peeled! 1 small bunch each of Rosemary, Thyme and Sage. METHOD: Cut the potatoes using a chip cutter for even sizing and ease of preparation or just a knife and your hand for guidelines. Pour the oil into a large pan and add the chips. Now apply heat and bring the oil to the boil. Cold oil? I hear you wonder, well I have learned this from Nigella and yes it works and it is great as I hate working with large vats of hot oil. I actually think it makes better tasting Non-Greasy chips all the time. Once the oil has reached a rolling boil keep the oil at around a temperature of about 150-160°c and NEVER LEAVE THE PAN UNATTENED, NOT EVEN FOR A SECOND! Leave that to cook for about 15 mins, while you prepare the herbs and garlic the after 15 mins pop in the garlic and watch incase it burns and then cook for a further 5 mins. After this carefully add the herbs and stand well back from the pan as, any living organism such as herbs and plants when in contact with a hot substance suddenly kill off there cells and die. Just be carefull, as I made the mistake of hanging over the pan on Friday. When ready, transport them from the sunshine yellow oil and place on some kitchen towel for the extra oil to be absorbed! Serve sprinkled with the herbs and garlic along with a generous pinch of sea slat flakes (Maldon for preference). Merci beaucoup, and until next time, Au Revoir, Ryan! Ryan!

Boeuf Bourguingnon! :) The 1960s Classic Is Back In Fashion!

Hello again everyone, I hope you are all keeping well and dandy. These past few days have been slightly strange in terms of my baking and cooking regime. I have been up to my ears in homework and revision for various tests and I just feel like school is now becoming a chore and that it is just a black hole of depressed teachers and education! Haha, now this just me letting you know my views on current education standards, but as far as school is concerned, I would rather just curl up on the sofa and learn my education from the TV. Now I know that it is Spring (well sort of in Scotland) and I do recall myself telling you that I am all for the clean, fresh Spring recipes but I do have to tell you about this little classic so you have it in your cookery repertoire, up your sleeve for any occasion where this would fit nicely. There is quite a history towards this French classic, It came around during the 1960s and almost all French bistros would be serving this in abundance. It has attracted so much attention as it consists of very simple flavours mixed together to form something absolutely fantastic. The dish is known worldwide and nearly every chef in the whole of France has there own recipe for this dish. I have concocted  mine from many and have came to the conclusion that it is subtly flavoured but packs a punch! at the same time.

It is really a big pot of beef stew but honestly this heavy winter classic is fabulous with warmed baguette and maybe a small side of green salad just to lighten it up at this time of year. It consists of beef, bacon, potatoes, small onions, mushrooms and carrots all bung in a pan and simmered with a little stock, to soon be enlightened with a warm, comforting, bowl of delight. Trust me once you have made this only once, you will be making and adapting this over and over again. For a good 10 or so years this dish was basically put on the back boiler of everyones kitchen stoves (metaphorically speaking of course) as most people were discovering the world of kitchen gastronomy. But it is back in fashion now and why not bring it out again by making it yourself. This is a little off topic but I can’t resist telling you that I have discovered a chocolate of all chocolates from Hotel Chocolat. It is there Aztec Chilli Dark Chocolate and oh my it is amazing! I tell you this once you have had just 1 piece you won’t stop until the whole bar is demolished:). A great chocolate company  I regularly purchase from is the Patrick Rodger chocolatier in Paris. The delivery is expensive, but come on this is the chocolate from one of the worlds most renowned chocolatiers. So Back to the beef and the slow, simmering pot of stew :

INGREDIENTS:

900g braising steak, cut in 5cm squares (approx).

3 tbsp olive oil.

1 medium onion, sliced.

1 heaped tbsp plain flour.

425ml good red wine or a dry French cider.

2 cloves garlic, chopped.

1 bay leaf.

2 sprigs fresh thyme.

350g shallots.

260g or 2 x 130g cubetti de pancetta.

110g dark gilled mushrooms,cut into chunks.

Salt flakes and fresh black pepper.

METHOD:

Pop a large hob-proof casserole dish on the heat and heat 1 and a quarter tablespoons of the oil to sizzling point. Now sear the beef very well until a dark, brown, rich colour is achieved. Take a slotted spoon and place the browned beef onto a plate to rest.

Add the onions to the pan and brown slightly also. Now add the beef back to the pan along with the spoonful of flour and stir to soak up all the juices. Now gradually add the dry cider or red wine and stir constantly.Add the chopped garlic, herbs and seasoning, and clamp a lid on tightly and slowly cook on  a very very very low heat for at least 2 hours.

Now using a bit more of the olive oil, fry the shallots and pancetta in small pan and add to the casserole along with the mushrooms. Then clamp on the tight lid again and cook for a further hour. Serve with some boiled new potatoes and a simple green salad on the side.

Bon appetite, Until next time (in which the recipe will be a bit fancy) but I am not giving anything away,

Merci Beaucoup!

Ryan! 🙂

Sorry For The Post Delay….

Hello folks, firstly I would like to appologise for the not posting in a while few days! I have multiple tests and homework to go through so I will be making up for it tomorrow with a lovely post on a french classic bouef burgingnon! so until tomorrow have a fab evening 🙂

Thanks,

Ryan 🙂

Yogurt Pot Cake Nigella :) The Awakening of Spring..

Hello again readers, I have emerged from the never-ending world of homework and tests, and with me I bring a fabulous cake from the goddess of all cooking in it’s entirety Miss Lawson! This Cake speaks of Spring and Summer in abundance, it fills the kitchen with the subtle scent of vanilla (the quintessential smell of Italian baking). I really get into the spirit of Italian cooking when making this cake, firstly I dedicate a play-list of music to it and then I begin with the method and weighing out of ingredients, but just to mention that there is no measurements for this cake. The great thing is you just use your handy yoghurt pot to weigh out the sunshine ingredients. Oh how I dream of just escaping Scotland right now and going to France or Italy to experience a better way of eating and just general way of life. Well the picturesque Spring-like weather has not  yet reached Scotland, and so we are still living in the cold, miserable, murky atmosphere. Anyway there is always good food and dining to bring joy to peoples faces and enlighten your world and make life seem that little bit easier.

This cake has the texture of Spring air, a crisp crumb, followed by a very delicate interior lightened by the use of lightly whipped snowy clouds of egg whites and not flour. The vanilla adds a slight comforting note to the final cake, and this is then contrasted by the sharp zing of lemon zest and the acidic tang of fresh live yoghurt. It is one the traditional cakes of Italy and almost everywhere you go in Italy you are destined to find one. Everyone has a different recipe past down from generation to generation and this beautiful cake goes by it’s more Italian of names Ciambella! The shape of the Ciambella is somewhat like a doughnut, and is baked in a savarin tin which gives this cake a wonderful dome-like appearance when cut into. Haha, this cake makes me think of the dome on top of the Vatican, which gives an even more Italian feel. So get on your apron or not and tune into so Italian classics and whip up a fabulous summery cake to lighten up the faces of even the hardest people to please:)

INGREDIENTS:

1 small pot of yoghurt.

1 pot-full of vegetable or sunflower oil.

3 eggs, separated.

2 pot-fulls of caster sugar.

2 cap-fulls of vanilla extract.

half the zest of 1 lemon.

1 pot-full of conflour or potato starch (to be more Italian).

Icing sugar to dust.

METHOD:

Whisk the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl of a free-standing mixer and then set aside.

Pop the oven onto a moderate heat.

To another bowl add the egg yolks,yoghurt and sugar, and whisk using the free-standing mixer until thick and glossy and well combined. Now add the cornflour or potato starch and vanilla followed by the lemon zest. Whisk until a thick ‘playdough’ consistency is achieved.

Now take a third of the egg whites and liberally beat into the summery sunshine batter and then gently fold in the rest of the egg whites and pour slowly into a savarin tin and bake for 30-35 mins in the oven.

When cooled take out of the tin and dredge with icing sugar until complete satisfaction is accomplished.

Enjoy, until next time,

Ryan!

 

 

 

Updated Quiche Lorraine recipe!

Hello folks, I hope you are all well and fine! It’s not entirely fair to say that it has been the most busiest of weekends, buying friends birthday presents and baking as the title of this post suggests quiche lorraine. Oh how the smells of a baking quiche can make even the most detesting of people convert to the quiche 🙂 Okay so it isn’t really the most adventurous of bakes but the quiche opens windows of opportunity to experiment with many other exciting flavours such as caramelised red onion and mature cheddar cheese or even with the addition of some beautiful ruby red cherry tomatoes (Italian of course!). On my travels today I stopped off at my local cheesemongers and purchased a fabulous loaf of exquiste French rye bread, followed by an over-sized slab of Comté. Delicious! I don’t know if you feel the same way as me but everytime I purchase birthday presents I always buy something that I, myself would want and so resisting the temptation to not buy it for me is just to much. I give in to easily to certain edible products haha!

I Can feel the warm spring-like breeze whistle through the branches as I have been out and about this week. I was in Edinburgh three days ago for a concert and the sun was gleaming all day long, even past 5pm and that’s when I realised that spring has officialy arrived Hooray!!! I have been praying for this weather to arrive a long time! I do hope this year we experience a long period of summer sunshine, inorder for us to get the bbq’s out or even better: take a blanket, a few friends and some great picnic food to a local park for a good afternoon of pleasant relaxation. I must sound like a weather reporter sometimes but summer brings joy to lots of peoples faces and allows them to drop the weight off their shoulders and absorb the warming rays:) Tomorrow I plan to run for a while in the morning inorder to burn off tonights heap load of carbs and butter aha! Then I plan to spend the rest of my day writing! Oh the joys of living in such a lovely world! So I know already in previous posts I gave you a recipe for quiche lorraine but the filling was incased in such a terrible pastry. The pastry I am about to teach how to make will transform the overall texture and flavour of the final dish, but I must stress to you before I begin, you must not use a butter substitute! It will leak an incredible amount of oil and you will be left with the soggiest pastry base ever imaginable. So I suggest to you strongly that you purchase high quality butter for pastry as it will crisp up the base not liquify it! And oh I might as well tell you this too, that a filling for quiche lorraine is traditionally cream, eggs and bacon, absolutely nothing else otherwise you are venturing into other quiche territory!

INGREDIENTS:
For the pastry:

90g soft butter.
180g plain flour.
2 egg yolks.
2 tablespoons icy water.
1 tsp salt.
Good pinch of sugar.

For the filling:

150g lardons (smoked) or cubetti de pancetta.
4 eggs plus 2 egg yolks ( save the whites to brush the pastry).
300ml fresh double cream.
Salt and Pepper.

METHOD:

Make the pastry by beating the butter, sugar and salt together in a bowl until creamy. Then add the flour, egg yolks, and icy water and then mix to a clump of dough. Press lighty on a floured surface and wrap in cling film, then refridgerate for at least 1 hour or better overnight.

When ready to prepare heat the oven to Gas 4 180°c and roll out the pastry between two sheets of baking paper and mould into the flan tin. Then brush with the spare egg whites from the filling and and place into the fridge to chill while preparing the filling.

Make the filling by frying the lardons in a little sunflower oil until crispy, drain on a piece of kitchen towel while you whisk the eggs and cream along with the seasoning together in a bowl.

Add the lardons to the base of the tart and pour over the egg and cream mixture then bake in the oven for 30-45 mins until golden brown in colour and set in the middle.

Serve warm with a green peppery salad tossed in lemon juice and olive oil.

Enjoy! Or should I say Bon Appètite! Merci,Ryan!