Speculaas Biscuits! (spiced biscuits from Scandinavia)

Hello again everyone, how are we are feeling? Good I hope. Well I’m feeling very well after just devouring two handmade Devonshire scones with wild strawberry jam and a pizza delivery, which I do not feel in any way embarrassed about. Well we have to allow ourselves a little ease and luxury ever so often. Now this post isn’t going to be as story like, like the past few but these biscuits are just absolutely fab for this time of year, dipped in a hot chocolate and you have complete satisfaction. Traditionally these biscuits would have candied peel added to them for added texture, but I absolutely detest the taste of candied peel and not to mention it’s nobly grains of sand texture! Honestly it’s just a complete no no in my baking cupboard, and so because I don’t like it one bit I’m not going to add it to the ingredients, but If you are a fan of pee, add 2 tbsp finely chopped to the mix in the first stage. These are beautiful little spiced biscuits from the Scandinavian part of the world which really do make your household smell incredible at this time of year and now Halloween is out of the way, speaking of which HAPPY HALLOWEEN READERS!, we can begin to prepare for all of the festive delights coming our way, oh yum. Now to prevent me blabbering on here, I’m going to cut this post short and get straight to it:

INGREDIENTS:

100g plain flour.

1 tsp cinnamon.

1/2 tsp ground ginger.

1/2 tsp ground freshly grated nutmeg (such a wonderful festive spice)

1 tbsp whole milk.

1/2 tsp baking powder.

1/2 tsp salt.

50g soft light brown sugar.

75g butter.

flaked almonds to garnish on top.

METHOD:

Line a baking sheet with baking paper and preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, spices, sugar, salt, baking powder, butter and milk until you bring it to a soft dough with your hands.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to a thickness of 0.5cm and then take a cookie cutter and cut out the shapes you want, before placing on the prepared tray and sprinkling delicately with the flaked almonds, then popping in the oven to bake for 15-18 minutes.

Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before eating and storing in an airtight jar for up to 4 days.

Enjoy,

Merci,

Ryan!

 

Winter Warming Toffee Apple and Pecan Pudding!

Hello again everyone, how are we all feeling? Not cold I hope, our central heating takes literally five hours to reach a reasonable temperature were my hands have just enough circulated blood inside them to be able to type. Well it’s not that drastic but It is extremely cold outside in the wet and windy Scotland. Fortunately, the clocks went backwards one hour yesterday and allowed everyone using GMT+0 time to have one hour extra in there beds, now that’s always seen as a plus. Although the sleeping side of this clockwork mechanism is great, the food time side is well not so in tune with me yet.. I find that I am ready to eat dinner at five thirty pm as usual, but then on the hand the clock states four thirty pm. Enough of my time troubles, and onto something a little bit more related to the subject of this blog. My perfect evening spent indoors at a time like this during the year, would be sitting by the warmth of a coal-burning fire, feeding the hearth with wood and watching a spectacle of orange and yellow sparks fly up through the chimney and illuminate the sky and fill the atmosphere with the scent of winter. Whilst playing a selection of pieces of music and last but never the least, devouring into a bowl of one of the most quintessential wintery puddings you will ever eat, served with lashings of lukewarm single cream, oh yum indeed. This pudding never fails to impress those who devour a bowl down in less than 30 seconds. I think the richness and oomph of weight it carries, provides the Xmas touch so here goes:

INGREDIENTS:

Toffee Sauce;

300ml double cream.

75g butter.

100g light brown soft sugar.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

75g pecan nuts, roughly chopped.

Sponge:

125g butter, soft, extra for greasing.

125g light brown soft sugar.

2 eggs.

125g self-raising powder.

250g Bramley apples, peeled and diced.

METHOD;

For the toffee sauce, place all the ingredients into a saucepan, except the pecans, and stir over a low heat until the mixture has completely melted, then boil for 2 minutes. Set aside.

For the sponge, cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl with a hand-held electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add half of the beaten eggs and beat well, then add the remaining eggs plus a heaped tablespoon of the flour. Beat until smooth.

Using a metal spoon, fold in the remaining flour until combined. Fold in the apples.

Spoon half the toffee sauce into a buttered 1¾pt/1L pudding basin, and scatter over half the pecans. Spoon the apple sponge into the basin and level the surface with the back of a spoon.

Cut a disc of non-stick baking parchment to neatly fit the top of the sponge. Cut a square of foil to make a lid for the basin, butter it and fold a pleat along the centre. Top the sponge with the baking paper circle and cover the basin with the foil lid tightly.

Place a jam jar lid into a deep saucepan and set the covered pudding basin on top. Pour boiling water into the saucepan so that it reaches halfway up the sides of the basin. Cover the saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and leave to cook for 2½ hours or until the sponge is golden-brown, risen and springy to the touch.

Remove the foil lid and baking parchment. Loosen the sides of the pudding from the basin and invert it onto a serving plate with a lip. Heat the remaining toffee sauce in a pan. Spoon a little over the sponge and serve the rest alongside with the remaining nuts.

Enjoy,

Merci,

Ryan!

 

Parents Evenings :/

Hello again, my fellow bloggers and passers by, how are we all feeling? Good, bad, worse, drained. I could say effectively that I am of the latter two mentioned after spending over 9 hours inside a school building, an educational prison more like. Parents evenings do not deserve to be in my life, with all the reports that are seemingly endless from every single teacher we visited. As you can probably guess, I’m not feeling in the best of moods just now so I’m not even going to bother typing out a recipe for you tonight, just simply leave you with a couple of easily readable flowing paragraphs. Although today I have been wondering about a good old cup of tea, since I left the house and so I’m sitting here dictating this piece of writing for you under the comfort of a new Ikea purchase (reindeer throw) and with a cup of ordinary English breakfast tea although I may set a poll up for this post as I would love to see what types of tea fit the bill for you and maybe an exchange of tea if possible! Although, a soothing cup of camomile goodness with slip down a treat right now but unfortunately that is not in my possession. I’ll just have to sip my rather dull cup of Twining’s solemnly to ones self. 

Enough about tea already, otherwise I may just turn into a leaf of it myself after all, most of my physical and mental energy has been used up on concentration and focus throughout the course of today. So a few weeks past, I decided to set up a membership for a new magazine, not one on how to get abs, which really won’t happen by reading a load of glossy nonsense on celebrities such as Mohammed Ali and all of them who can fundamentally pay a rather expensive sum of money on a personal trainer, as you don’t believe for a second that somebody worth millions will believe or even as far as follow the quick way to achieve abs in less than 6 weeks. No, spare me the agonizing pain of that gumbo-jumbo, and provide me with a magazine that is in some ways informative, gives you more and more cookery ideas as you progress through them, and best of all it’s all in French, leading to an improvement in your language skills! What more could you ask for other than the magazine itself which is called Bon Appetit by the way.  I love the charismatic tone of the writing within as it doesn’t just give you a brief summary of the ingredients and then a method with a totally air-brushed image of supposedly what it should look like. No this magazine is not bog-standard, it provides an in depth story behind every recipe and explains to you where the dish originates from and where the recipes were created/thought up. Just the sheer thought of reading the magazine or the article in general, fills me a real sense of happiness as you as the reader feel very much involved with whats going on and the surrounding story that is being told.

Primarily, what I’m trying to get across to you is that you should really consider purchasing a copy or even a subscription (what I did) of this magazine and I am positively, 100% satisfied you will enjoy it thoroughly! You don’t have to even for a second consider buying a copy of it in French, if you cannot accurately read the language as they do sell it in plain English too. But In my opinion I get more of a sense of satisfaction out of reading the magazine in a foreign language and being able to have the ability to construct and use that knowledge/new language you have learned elsewhere in the world. And so I will leave you with a quick note on parents evenings and that is never, ever attend if possible…

Enjoy the rest of the week and I’ll be sure to post a recipe tomorrow.

Infact I may even adopt this style of writing more in the future if you like?

Merci, mes amis,

Ryan!

 

Exploding Bonfire Toffee!!

Hello again folks, how are we all doing? Good, I hope so! I thought I would go for a colorful font today to bring a new lease of life to the post itself. As the title suggest, we are ever nearing up towards Guy Fawkes Night and with all the wonderful displays of fireworks soon to be illuminating up our atmosphere, I thought, why not come up with a little delicate surprise to tingle your taste buds, just as much as the firework displays will too! This Treacle (Bonfire, fiery part) toffee is a true British classic and I was lucky to come across this almost medieval recipe in a very old cookbook I saw at a visit to Stirling Castle last year. I do warn you though, that is really is quite jaw-breaking in terms of sweetness, but the intense strength of the oozy black treacle easily overcomes that. Obviously you don’t need to make this toffee just for Bonfire night, but it does add a little special touch to the whole extravagant event. I am really just giving you the basic recipe here, but I have found very good variations you can use such as, add a touch of grated root ginger (for warmth and heat, these nights usually are freezing if you live in Scotland) or you could try some some fleur de sel (french sea salt, fairly expensive) to add a slight sophistication to your toffee.

As you all know very well, I am really not one for using fancy kitchen gadgetry when dealing with boiling sugars, but in this scenario I do advise using one. You really won’t achieve the smooth, warm, melting qualities a good toffee has without it, I do apologize in advance for having to go out and purchase a new one if necessary, or if you have to rummage through every kitchen cabinet to eventually come to the conclusion that you husband threw it out many moons ago. So to make life that little bit easier for you I have drawn up three of the cheapest, most cost effective sugar thermometers I could find on the web and have provided you with links and prices, I will list the one that I have too if that helps in any way.

1. http://www.amazon.co.uk/DIGIFLEX-Digital-Thermometer-Cooking-Probe/dp/B0045UZ7ZO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1382376975&sr=8-4&keywords=sugar+thermometer This is the thermometer I own, as you can use it for everything from meats to sugar craft . it is relatively cheap also at just £5.49 on Amazon. Digital.

Digital is always going to be more accurate and safer than traditional!

2. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sugar-Confectionery-Thermometer-Stainless-Tala/dp/B000EUKOJS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382377150&sr=8-2&keywords=sugar+thermometer Specially designed for sugar and jam making purposes only! Traditional. £5.83

3. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Craft-Cooking-Thermometer-Stainless/dp/B0001IX0DA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382377219&sr=8-1&keywords=sugar+thermometer designed for all culinary temperatures. Traditional. £4.99

Personally I would go for No.1 due to the fact that it has served me very well!

INGREDIENTS:

75g golden syrup.

75g black treacle.

150g light brown soft sugar.

75g butter, unsalted or salted in this case.

1/4 tsp cream of tartar.

METHOD:

I would use a foil roasting tray to make this toffee to save washing up and prevent any toffee sticking to the pan.

Place all of the ingredients into a medium saucepan and then place over a medium heat and stir occasionally until the butter has melted and the sugar has completely dissolved. Do not skimp on this step!

When the mixture has combined smoothly, turn up the heat and rapidly boil the mixture until it reaches 140C/285F. Remove from the heat and pour carefully onto the tray, avoiding skin splashes.

Wait until the toffee is cool enough to handle, but elastic enough so that a finger pressed in the top leaves a slight indent (about 15-20 minutes depending on the room temperature). Partially cut the toffee into even pieces with an oiled knife. When it has cooled completely, break along these lines. Alternatively let the toffee cool completely, then break into shards with a toffee hammer or rolling pin.

Store in an airtight container, with a piece of parchment paper, between each toffee piece to prevent sticking.

Enjoy, under the sparkling sky or in the comfort of your own home!

Merci,

Ryan!

 

Spaghetti Vongole!

Hello again folks, how are we doing? Good I hope! Firstly I thought I would tell you about my very first experience with the American, Autumnal classic; pumpkin pie.. Oh no it is definitely not for me, it fitted in between a soft mushy mashed potato and extremely sweet cinnamon custard (i.e. this pie is a big no no). Honestly it was such a disappointment for me as I was so looking forward to experimenting with it and then sharing my tips and ideas with you all, but no the god of baking has put a dome over me and said that pumpkin pie is for Americans and not Brits! Well the weather here in Scotland in general has been a bit all over the place really, the start of the week was just a gentle cool breeze and by today it’s pouring down. Fortunately, this means that I can go into the kitchen and stand over a pot of bubbling spaghetti vongole. Oh folks, you don’t know how much I love seafood and pasta. Really, I believe that more people should get to know seafood more, in my opinion it’s down to the fact of there appearance. Brown fossils, pink spirals, weird eyes and curly tails, they don’t sound too appealing even to me but you have to trust me they are one of the most amazing sources of flavour and natural sweetness on the planet. I had Alaskan king prawns in Edinburgh a few months back and they were served tossed through pasta with fresh red chilli and basil. Oh lord, were they good, the point I’m trying to get across here is that there are tons and kilotons of seafood out there in our big blue planet, but we choose to cast our eyes aside and shop at your local Tesco’s and end up with a bag of £2 value chicken wings from chickens put through horrendous living conditions and fattened beyond there natural limits. Vegetarian? Me? No way, I’m just hoping that more and more people are going to explore the natural world we live in, terms of food I mean and help to support local producers and fisherman, for what they sell is platinum on the flavour spectrum.

Phew, that was a mouthful, anyway back to the spaghetti, now I do believe that when you make this pasta dish there are a few simple rules that you should abide by. Not cooking rules, but rules for you to abide by at your own free will of course. As with any Italian food/supper I create I always love to have some sort of Italian classics on in background to lighten the atmosphere and take away any fears of the proposed dish you decide to cook. Rule two is a little more harder to come by for some people, if you are feeling nervous in the kitchen, then that will show in your cooking, you need to be relaxed. Not so relaxed that your best friend Claire phones you and end up talking to her for an hour while your roast beef is becoming a block of charcoal, no just that you need to flow with the cooking, the kitchen is after all the place of savior were you feel safe and free from stress. Please don’t make that mistake and let it enter, as it may never leave!

So Spaghetti vongole! well what is it I hear you ask? An Italian classic pasta dish with seafood, mainly clams and sometimes prawns if your not keen, but it’s not traditional. It also features one of my most recent and favourite discoveries, hence why I decided to write this post, and that is anchovy paste. It may seem absolutely vile, but this lends a smoky, dark, amber resonance to any pasta dish and makes it exquisite. Without further ado, let us enter Florence through the kitchen…

INGREDIENTS:
500g Very small clams, please, please, please purchase these from a fishmonger! Much fresher and lends a sweeter flavour.

3 tbsp Olive oil.

2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped.

1 tsp anchovy paste.

2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley (I always use flat leaf, for future reference).

400g Italian chopped tomatoes.

salt and freshly ground black pepper.

400g dried spaghetti.

METHOD:

Scrub the clams thoroughly, discarding any that still remain open after being given a sharp tap.

Take a  saucepan with a lid, and pop in the clams along with 2 tbsp of water and place over a high heat with the lid on for about 3-4 until all of the clams have opened again. If some do not open after 5 minutes, discard.

Remove the clam flesh from the shells and dip them quickly into their cooking water to rinse off any sand. Strain the clam juices from the pan through a sieve lined with muslin and save the liquid.

Heat the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and fry until it begins to colour slightly (you don’t want it to burn), then add the anchovy paste and parsley, stir fry for 30 seconds.

Add the chopped tomatoes and the clam juices. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Cook the spaghetti, using packet instructions, until tender but with a slight bite.

Combine the pasta and clams together. Sprinkle with more parsley and serve in a big bowl for everyone to help themselves.

Enjoy,

Merci,

Ryan!

 

 

 

 

Italy’s Classic Ciabatta Loaf!

Hello again folks, how are we all doing? Good I hope! Well, this evening I thought I would push the boat out a little and show you in a few simple steps, the process of creating the rivalry of the French baguette, the Ciabatta. It is such a simple loaf to master, but by the end of the first bite of this Italian creation you succumb to it. I put it down to the complexity of flavours within, created by the sponge starter used before the final addition of flour is added. Don’t worry this sponge is not a daily fed one, although I do advise that you put a rainy day aside for making the bread as there is a lot of proving to be done, but the end result it utterly spectacular! Now to stop me from rambling on about the loaf for (n) amount of hours, I’m just going to cut this post short and provide you with the recipe and necessary guidance to create the loaf. Note: if you wish to create this loaves starter tonight for making it tomorrow, it is perfectly fine as long as you keep the starter in a reasonably warm room (ideal temperature = 20-40C).

INGREDIENTS:

400g strong white flour (i.e white bread flour).

7g instant yeast.

300ml water.

30ml olive oil, plus extra for oiling.

7g salt.

semolina flour for flouring.

METHOD:

Firstly, combine 200g of the flour, 4g of the yeast with 150ml of the water in a bowl. Beat together until you get a thick batter.

Oil a clean work surface and knead for 5 minutes.

Cover in the bowl and leave to prove for at least 6 hours, at room temperature.

Tip the mixture into a food mixer with the dough hook attached and then add the remaining flour, yeast, oil and half of the water.

Dissolve the salt in the last of the water and very gradually drip feed in into the dough, mixing for 6-10minutes until stringy and soft and elastic.

Tip the dough into an oiled 1 litre square tupperware tub and seal the lid.

Leave to prove until the dough has swollen up to 3/4 of the way up the tub.

Mix and equal amount of flour and semolina flour together and use this to flour the worktop. tip the dough ever so carefully onto the worktop and then divide in two and stretch gently to the required shape.

Preheat the oven to Gas 7 / 220C.

Quickly and carefully, place the dough onto a floured baking tray, then prove for another 30 minutes, before placing in the oven to bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy, because I know you all will…

Merci,

Ryan!

 

 

 

Chorizo and Mozzarella Sandwich!

Hello again folks, I hope we are all doing very well! Ah test season over and now time to sit back, relax and spend an hour or so writing to you all.. Life doesn’t get any better. I was feeling rather famished earlier on considering I had just spent the entire hour previous visiting many shops with my friend on a little food expenditure. So when I returned home barely able to put the key in the door due to the intense pain rambling on in my stomach, I knew I just had to have something quick and simple, but also warming and comforting, to compliment the surreal bitter-coldness outside In Glasgow right now! Goodness knows why this sudden burst of cold air has arrived, but anyway back to the point, I call this my man sandwich, due to the fact that it contains both a hell of a lot of meat and cheese, but served in a long baguette also. Now I am not saying that women cannot not enjoy this sandwich (not in the slightest), but a portion this size could feed only one of me haha! I love the real flavour contrast between the hot, spicy heat from the chorizo and then the real warmth and mellow sweetness of the cheese, urgh sandwich heaven in my life! Oh I must also say this before I forget, a few evenings ago I went to see a performance of Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, and my oh my, it has to have been the greatest and most spiritually and mentally fascinating performance I have ever been too! The hairs on the back of my neck shot up like bullets being fired from a revolver when the Dies Irae was sung. I do suggest a visit to the opera to see that performed if you ever get the chance, as it really was a fabulous evening alongside, some Debussy preludes played on the piano by a wonderful Russian pianist (who’s name I can’t remember clearly), apologies for that!

INGREDIENTS:

10 Circles of Chorizo!

1 Ball of Mozzarella, torn up!

Few twists of black pepper.

Salt flakes.

Young baby spinach leaves.

1 baguette.

METHOD:
In a dry frying pan place the chorizo on a heat through for about 4-5 until the golden, red oils release.

Then place torn shreds of mozzarella on top of the chorizo and let it melt down slowly.

Open the baguette and place the cheesy-meat onto the roll and then wilt the spinach in the pan for a few seconds before tumbling onto the sandwich and demolishing, forgetting about manners aha!

Enjoy the all-mighty meal!!

Ryan!

 

 

Orange and Almond Cake No.2!

Hello again folks, how are we all, good I hope? Well it has been quite a busy few days of this week so far, history and chemistry assessments, general school work alongside homework and music theory exercises which I would rather not even mention! Just the mere thought of theory makes me want to suddenly drop whatever I’m doing and pull my hair out and scream, (not that extreme, but it can get that way hah!). So I have named this orange and almond cake No.2 for a reason and that simply is the fact that, I have written a recipe for a lemon and almond cake before, except this is made it a much more interesting way, in which the oranges are gently simmered for just under an hour, until the are yielding all of there wonderful orange juices. This makes for an extra moist finish to the cake and oh my you just have to go back for another slice! I’m not going to ramble on for ages tonight and just get straight to the point. Off to the kitchen we briskly walk to..

INGREDIENTS:

2 Medium oranges.

6 Eggs.

225g Caster sugar.

250g Ground almonds.

4 tbsp Flaked almonds.

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas 4. Grease a loose-bottomed cake tin with butter.

Gently simmer the oranges in a saucepan of water for around 45-50 minutes, or until very, very soft. Remove from the heat and leave the fruit to cool in the water.

Drain away the water, and roughly chop up the oranges, throwing away pips.

Blend 450g of the orange fruit in a food processor until you reach a smooth puree. Add the sugar, eggs, and ground almonds. Blend until smooth.

Spoon the mix into the tin and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, then cover lightly with foil and bake again for another 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Remove and cool, before releasing the cake tin spring!

Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and a few shavings of orange zest… or make up a simple caramel and do the same!

Merci,

Ryan!

 

 

Dark Cherry and Hazelnut Biscotti!!

Hello everyone again, I’m truly sorry for not publishing in a while due to my absolutely fabulous experience of a lifetime, a never to be missed opportunity on my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Qualifier Expedition. Hmm.. let me just think (did I really just say that to you?), oh not that was possibly one of the worst walking/camping trips I have ever gone through in my entire lifetime so far! Seriously, I just thought it was a never ending tough challenge and i was so overwhelmed when I arrived home last night, believe me, I never thought in a longtime that I would ever love a warm shower and a soft bed as much as I did at 5pm yesterday… After recovery from that experience, I thought it would a nice idea to do a a little domestic therapy, in terms of baking and so therefore it had to be something that reflected upon the season that it is currently in Scotland and that is Autumn and so therefore it had to be charismatic, calming and darkening. Hard to choose a perfect recipe but it had to be a dark cherry (dried) and hazelnut biscotti. There we have it a recipe for when you come home from a country work or the distant land of the workplace, this is the recipe for you! Best enjoyed with a sharp strong espresso..,.

INGREDIENTS:

250g Plain flour.

250g Caster sugar.

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder.

3 Eggs, lightly beaten.

250g Dried black cherries (use normal red ones if you can’t source the others).

125g Shelled Hazelnut’s (left whole, shelled weight).

1 Lemon, zest only.

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 150C / Gas 2. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

Mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl until well combined.

Whisk in half of the beaten eggs. Gradually add the rest of the egg, a little at a time, until the mix starts to become a dough. NB (you may not need all of the egg).

Add the cherries, hazelnuts and lemon zest and mix well.

Divide the dough into six equal portions. Roll each portion into a sausage shape about 3cm, using your hands. Gently flatten each portion of dough with the palm of your hand.

Place on the tray leaving space between each of them, then bake them for 15–20 minutes.

Using a serrated knife, cut 5cm thick slices from the dough on the diagonal. Arrange the slices onto the lined baking tray and return them to the oven for a further 6-8 minutes.

Turn the biscotti over and continue to bake for 6-8 minutes, or until crisp and golden-brown. Set aside to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy folks,

Merci,

Ryan!