Recipe 52/13 - Mini Cheese and Chive Cakes

Its the time of year where party food is everywhere (and expensive) so I wanted to have a go at making my own! After flicking through a few recipe books for inspiration and only finding complicated extravagant looking options (I'd rather spend the time/ingredient money on making a whole meal or a pudding) I settled for some mini cheese and chive cakes in my go to book - '200 Cupcakes'. They looked quick, easy and all the ingredients needed where things I already had - perfect!

You will need:

200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
50g mature cheddar cheese (finely grated)
4 tbsp snipped chives
50g lightly salted butter melted)
7 tbsp milk
1 egg (beaten)

Makes 20 (I halved the recipe and found it made 6 - luckily as I only have a 6 section non-mini muffin tray!)

1. Line 20 sections of 2 x 12 section mini muffin trays with mini paper cake cases.
2. Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
3. Stir in the cheese and chives until evenly melted.
4. Whisk together the melted butter, milk and egg with a fork in a jug and add to the bowl.
5. Stir well to form a thick paste.
6. Divide the mixture between the paper cases.
7. Bake in a preheated oven - 200C for 10-12 minutes or until risen and pale golden.
8. Transfer to a wire rack.
9. Serve warm or cold.

I don't think I would serve these as party food to anyone! Mainly because they were huge... I didn't have any mini muffin trays meaning the results are just big cheese muffins, basically worse versions of cheese scones! They were a bit on the bready side in the middle - again this could be due to their size, and definitely could have done with more cheese as they didn't have much flavour.

I would love to know if cakes made with a mini muffin tray would be any better...

Recipe 52/12 - Homemade Pizza

This week I made an actual pizza from scratch! Yes even the dough... I don't have a recipe to share as the dough recipe was in a bread making manual and unless you have the exact same bread maker its not going to be very helpful! 

Its all very easy apart from moulding the dough into the pizza base, the thinner the better. Kneading a ball of dough into a flat circle should be easy right? I couldn't get mine any bigger than a thick uneven rectangular shape (my boyfriend's one was an even thicker but much neater rectangle). Maybe I needed to throw it round in the air a bit like you see proper pizza makers do. Once you've got your pizza base its just a case of adding as many yummy toppings as possible (the best bit!)

You've got to be prepared time wise to make this though, after 40 minutes in the bread maker, 10 minutes struggling to make a pizza shape, 20 minutes rising, way too much time adding toppings and then 20 minutes baking you definitely have to plan ahead or get pretty hungry waiting (it was definitely worth the wait though!) It only actually requires 15-20 minutes of your actual time, the rest of the time its in the oven or bread maker. 

So yes you can buy a pre made pizza, take it out its packet and leave it cooking for 15 minutes but this is so much tastier. The dough tastes so fresh and you don't have to be stingy with the toppings like bought ones usually are. You can buy 'empty' pizza bases to make your own pizza but they end up being a lot more expensive and whilst I did used to think these tasted good I don't think I would now I've had fresh.

If the base still tasted great when it was too thick (I thought it would ruin it and be all doughy) I bet if you could make one with a really thin base I bet it would taste amazing! Maybe next time! I definitely won't be buying a pizza again for a while...

Recipe 52/11 - Salted Chocolate Tart

I thought I was one of those people who thinks savoury and sweet should never ever be mixed together (I still won't have Sweet and Sour chicken based on this principle!) Salt and chocolate - why oh why would you ever do that? I thought this until I was in Barcelona and I tried a Salted Caramel Chocolate pudding one night (at Lonja de Tapas - I became slightly obsessed with this Tapas restaurant) and it was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. Look I even have a photo of it - it was that good!

So when I stumbled across this recipe for Salted Chocolate Tart I was very happy (tart isn't quite the gooey pudding in the photo I know). The recipe even tells you to buy a ready made pastry case - not going to say no to that! It is super easy and quick to make, creates a tiny amount of washing up, you can make it in advance for something (it needs at least 4 hours in the fridge to set anyway) and it doesn't require any extravagant ingredients you will only use once. It was perfect for the week I had (I made it before I was trading at a four day Christmas Market and the thought of getting home for a slice definitely kept me going through the 10 hour days). But the best thing is for something that requires a small amount of work it was still one of the best things I have ever made! You can spend hours following some complicated baking recipe, spend another hour clearing up and the end result is quite good but probably better if you had just bought it - this seriously chocolatey tart tasted much better than some of those kind of recipes ever did.

You will need:

170ml double cream
2 tbsp whole milk (I just used normal semi-skimmed)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
50g caster sugar
150g dark chocolate with sea salt (Lindt does one but I just used dark chocolate with a pinch of salt)
35g unsalted butter (cubed)
205g sweet pastry case
pinch sea salt to scatter (just try it!)

1. Warm the cream, milk, vanilla and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat, stir until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Bring to a simmer, take off the heat.
3. Stir in the chocolate and butter until melted.
4. Leave for 2 minutes.
5. Pour into the case.
6. Set in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.
7. Scatter with sea salt just before serving with some creme fraiche on the side if liked.

It also says to try spreading the base with caramel before pouring over the chocolate (definitely trying this next time!)

Recipe 52/10 - Cheese and Potato Nests

I delved into my favourite recipe book this week - The Little Paris Kitchen - Rachel Khoo. I couldn't resist this winter staple, especially now the temperature seems to have dropped about 1000 degrees! Whenever I've tried recipes in this book before they've gone a bit wrong and never look anything like the pictures (when does that ever happen anyway though?) but I'm determined to keep trying, something about the beautiful pictures and French food always draws me back in. I loved the idea of little tartiflette nests in a muffin tin too much not to try it.

I didn't have any reblochon cheese so I used Cheddar (very French I know!) and Gruyere instead, I also didn't use a bay leaf. Good start eh? I couldn't find a 'julienne' blade anywhere so I had to slice by hand. After slicing the potatoes to about chip size I couldn't take anymore, it would have taken me all night to get to matchstick size! Even if the potatoes had been the right size there was way too much to fit in 6 muffin holes, I had to fill a dish with the rest. I also stopped at about 200g of cheese as there seemed to be way too much. Maybe this is why my recipes don't turn out right, I don't actually follow them!

 So as you can guess it didn't turn out like the picture. The potato slices were too big to form the compact nests and they needed a lot longer than 20 minutes to cook and at a higher temperature. The result was really yummy though, just more like a whole tartiflette, and if I can find a way to get the potatoes to matchstick size I will definitely try it again. Practice definitely makes perfect in this case!

You will need:

1 tbsp soft butter
500g waxy potatoes eg. Maris Peer or Charlotte
1 onion (finely chopped)
1 glove of garlic (finely chopped)
1 bay leaf
200g lardons or cubes of smoked bacon
100ml dry white wine
250g reblochon cheese (cubed)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Brush a 6-hole muffin tin with soft butter.
3. Peel the potatoes and use the julienne blade on a mandoline to make thin matchsticks (or slice by hand).
4. Put the onion, garlic, bay leaf and lardons into a large non stick frying pan.
5. Cook until the lardons are golden.
6. Add the wine and reduce until only a couple of tablespoons  of liquid remain.
7. Stir in the potato matchsticks and take off the heat.
8. Remove the bay leaf and stir in the Reblochon cubes.
9. Divide the potato mix between the 6 holes in the muffin tin and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and bubbling.

Recipe 52/9 - Fried Mozzarella Sandwich

I was looking for a quick recipe this week (I think there may be a few more of these coming up with all the Christmas fair madness at this time of year) and this looked perfect for an indulgent lunch - like french toast with cheese. I love french toast and adding the mozzarella brings it out of breakfast territory, like I need an excuse to have french toast for two meals (or eggy bread as I used to call it when I was younger)!

This is an Italian recipe though (Mozzarella in Carrozza) so it has a few differences such as dipping the bread in milk and flour. 

I think my hopes were too high for this as it wasn't as good as I was expecting, I guess mozzarella doesn't have much flavour. With cheddar instead and maybe some slices of tomato thrown in I think this would be better! 

You will need:

about 4tbsp milk
4 thick slices country bread
2 large slices mozzarella
plain flour (to dust)
salt
3 eggs beaten (I only needed 1!)
olive oil (for shallow frying)

Serves 2

1. Pour the milk into a bowl.
2. Dip the slices of bread into the milk for a few seconds, but do not soak them - they don't want to be too wet.
3. Place a slice of mozzarella on two of the bread slices.
4. Place the other two slices of bread on top of the cheese to make the sandwiches.
5. Dip both sandwiches first into some flour seasoned with salt, then into the beaten eggs and leave for the mixture to be absorbed on both sides.
6. Pour enough oil into a frying pan to cover the base generously and heat gently.
7. Shallow-fry the sandwiches in the hot olive oil until golden, about 5 minutes per side.
8. Serve immediately.

Recipe 52/8 - Chocolate Bourbons

I couldn't resist this recipe, who wouldn't want to make their own versions of the classic biscuit? 

They were pretty fun and easy to make, a great weekend baking recipe! I gave up trying to make them all the same size, so I just made a variety of sizes. The recipe doesn't make very many (only 12 biscuits) so they might not be around for very long!

You will need:

60g unsalted butter

65g light brown soft sugar

110g plain flour

25g cocoa

2 tbsp double cream

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

granulated sugar

Filling:

25g unsalted butter

40g icing sugar

1/2 tbsp cocoa

1/2 tbsp double cream (I found it needed a bit more than this)

1. Preheat the oven to 170C

2. In a food processor, blitz unsalted butter, light brown soft sugar, plain flour, cocoa, double cream, bicarbonate of soda and salt.

3. Knead lightly to bring together.

4. Roll out to 0.5cm thick, cut into about 24 rectangles (5cm x 2.5cm).

5. Punch in the trademark indents with the base of a wooden skewer (I used a fork)

6. Sprinkle with granulated sugar.

7. Chill for 20 minutes.

8. Bake for 10 minutes, cool on a wire rack.

9. For the filling, beat together unsalted butter, icing sugar, cocoa and double cream. 

10. Sandwich a little between two biscuits (makes 12).

They definitely look homemade and sadly don't taste as good as the real thing! The icing sugar in the filling makes them a bit more sickly, a creamier filling would be better. As biscuits though they are still yummy!

Recipe 52/7 - Chachouka

I thought this looked like the perfect warming autumn recipe now the clocks have gone back and it gets dark so early (completely forgot about this last Sunday, I was one very confused person who even had to google 'what time is it!'). I wasn't sure how this would turn out... will eggs, pepper and spices go well together? Yes they do! The smoked paprika and cumin gave it a really great taste and it smelt amazing. The recipe describes it as a 'lovely, lazy supper' which it is, it does take a while though, but mainly just involves a lot of stirring! 

You will need:

3tbsp olive oil
1tsp cumin seeds (I only had ground cumin)
1 large onion (halved and finely sliced)
1 garlic clove (crushed)
1 red pepper (cored, deseeded and finely sliced)
1 yellow pepper (cored, deseeded and finely sliced)
1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika
pinch of saffron strands
400g tin plum tomatoes (roughly chopped, any stalky ends and skin removed)
4 eggs
sea salt and ground black pepper

1.  Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan (preferably ovenproof) over a medium heat.
2. Add the cumin seeds and let them fry gently for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the onion and cook gently for 8-10 minutes, or until soft and golden.
4. Add the garlic and peppers and continue to cook over a low heat for at least 20 minutes, stirring often, until the peppers are soft and wilted.
5. Add the paprika, crumble in the saffron.
6. Add the tomatoes with their juice and some salt and pepper.
7. Cook gently, stirring from time to time, for 10-15 minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 180C.
9. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
10. If your frying pan isn't ovenproof, transfer the mixture to a baking dish.
11. Make 4 hollows in the surface and carefully break an egg into each one.
12. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
13. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the egg white is set and the yolk still runny.

The only bit I couldn't get right was the egg yolk - mine were definitely not runny!

Studio Inspiration

Tidied and cleaned my studio today... still doesn't quite look like any of these!

 

Images from Pinterest

Recipe 52/6 - Sticky Gingerbread

I love ginger cake, ginger biscuits... anything involving ginger! I love sticky toffee pudding. So when I saw this recipe for Sticky Gingerbread which sounded like a combination of the two I had to make it! 

Sometimes when I have a ridiculously long list of things to do, just stepping back and doing something else for an hour or two really helps to focus and de-stress me - and a bit of weekend baking can be the best thing! This recipe was perfect for this - relaxed and slow (basically just a lot of measuring out and mixing) I hate recipes where you have to try and get so many bits ready at the same time it stresses you out even more.

It was pretty time consuming as there are so many ingredients and it did create a mountain of washing up (you might want to avoid making this if you don't have a dishwasher...) But the smells of ginger, golden syrup and lemon when I was making it made it so worth it. It says the cake is best stored for 3-4 days before eating but I think I'm going to go and have a sneaky slice now...

You will need:

100g golden syrup

100g black treacle

75g unsalted butter

75g light soft brown or muscovado sugar

150g plain flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground mixed spice

1/2 tsp ground cinnammon

1 egg (lightly beaten)

75ml milk

finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

75g-100g finely chopped preserved stem ginger in syrup (drained)

to finish (optional)

50g icing sugar (sifted) - I think 50g was way too much but whenever I use icing sugar most of it ends up on me...

1tbsp lemon juice or water

50g whole stem ginger (2 pieces)

equipment

loaf tin (approx 20-10cm) lightly greased, base and long sides lined with baking parchment 

1. Preheat the oven to 170C

2. Put the golden syrup, treacle, butter and sugar into a small saucepan.

3. Place over a gentle heat and stir until the butter has melted and the ingredients are evenly blended.

4. Set aside to cool.

5. Sift the flour, ground ginger, mixed spice and cinnamon into a medium mixing bowl.

6. Make a well in the centre and add the cooled treacle mixture, egg, milk and lemon zest.

7. Using a wooden spoon, beat well until the mixture is smooth and glossy.

8. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in 1tbsp hot water.

9. Add to the mixture with the chopped ginger and mix thoroughly to create a pourable batter.

10. Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until the cake is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

11. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.

12. When cold, mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice or water and drizzle over the cake, then top with slivers of stem ginger (mine were more like chunks!)

This cake is best stored for 3-4 days before eating. It keeps well for 2 weeks and freezes beautifully. 

Recipe 52/5 - Portobello Mushrooms with Cheese in Tomato Sauce

I found this recipe in a magazine but it looked like it could end up being a bit basic so I did cheat and make a few changes! I added some sausages... me have a meat free meal? I don't think so! 

It was really quick and easy to make and the result was really delicious, surprising when it only had such basic ingredients. If you love mushrooms like I do and you want something really quick this is a great recipe!

300g passata (I used a tomato pasta sauce instead)
4 large portobello mushrooms (peeled)
200g taleggio (sliced - I used cheddar instead)
1 tbsp thyme leaves
1 ciabatta roll (torn into small cubes)
2 tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Pour the passata into an ovenproof dish.
3. Place the mushrooms on the passata, stalks facing up.
4. Top with the sliced cheese and scatter with thyme leaves.
5. Toss the ciabatta cubes with the oil and scatter over the dish.
6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until golden.

Recipe 52/4 - Cheese and Ham Pie

This week I decided to choose a recipe that has been on my pin board for a long long time. It looked simple and I am a big pastry fan!

It was really easy to make and I had some fun making the cheese and ham tower! The result was very tasty, if a bit basic, but I will definitely be making this a regular!

375g puff pastry
1 egg (beaten)
50g mature cheddar (grated)
150g gruyere or similar (grated)
700g good quality cooked ham (sliced thin)

I ran out of ham way before 700g but the beauty of this recipe is you can do as many or as little layers as you want.

béchamel sauce (or cheat like I did by buying a ready made cheese sauce)
25g butter
25g flour
150ml milk
50ml double cream
salt, pepper, nutmeg

1. On a lightly floured surface, roll out half the pastry to a rough circle, about 24cm wide.
2. Roll out another circle about 26cm wide, cover this one and keep it cold.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C. 
4. Place the first pastry circle in a contained dish, brush the edges with beaten egg and put a spoonful of Béchamel in the centre of the circle.
5. Spread this over the the pastry with a pallet knife or the back of a spoon to within 3-4cm of the edges.
6. Sprinkle over a little cheese, followed by some ham.
7. Repeat these layers until all the ham, cheese and Béchamel have been used up.
8. Cover the filling with the other sheet of pastry and press down firmly around the edges to seal.
9. Trim the edges neatly, brush with beaten egg and score the top with the point of a knife to decorate.
10. Make a little hole in the centre of the top of the pie to let out steam.
11. Bake at 200C for 30 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180C and cook for another 15 minutes.

Recipe 52/3 - Red Velvet Cupcakes

As you might have seen, my Asos Marketplace Boutique was one year old on Thursday so it seemed like the perfect excuse to bake some 'Birthday' cupcakes for this weeks' Recipe 52! While flicking through my '200 Cupcakes' book (I swear everyone has this book) I came across the recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes. 

I've never actually tried a Red Velvet cupcake or cake before but I've heard that they are yummy so I thought this was a good opportunity to try them... although baking something when you have no idea what the outcome is supposed to taste like isn't the best idea! Especially when the ingredients are as weird as this recipe - beetroot, cream cheese, vinegar.. really? 

It looked even weirder when you start mixing all the ingredients together, like some strange experiment not something I wanted to eat. I was almost reluctant to try one when they were done, worried there would be chunks of beetroot in it! But they were delicious, really light and didn't have that dry sponge you sometimes get with cupcakes. I couldn't taste any beetroot or vinegar, and that frosting is amazing. I would never have guessed cream cheese and icing sugar would make something so addictive! Mine were more brown than red (any tips for getting that red colour?) and my icing was too runny so they didn't look anything like the recipe picture (but they never do!)

Makes 12

150g self-raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100ml buttermilk
1 teaspoon vinegar
50g lightly salted butter (softened)
100g caster sugar
1 egg
50g raw beetroot (peeled and finely grated)

Frosting

I added too much cream cheese which meant I had to use a lot of icing sugar to make it less runny. I ended up with enough frosting for about 50 cupcakes!

200g full-fat cream cheese
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
300g icing sugar

1. Line a 12-section muffin tray with paper muffin cases.
2. Combine the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
3. Mix together the buttermilk and vinegar in a jug.
4. Beat together the butter and caster sugar in a separate bowl until pale and creamy.
5. Beat in the egg and the beetroot.
6. Sift half the flour mixture into the bowl and stir in gently with a large metal spoon.
7. Stir in half the buttermilk mixture.
8. Sift and stir in the remaining flour mixture then the remaining liquid.
9. Divide the muffin mixture between the paper cases.
10. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20-25 minutes or until risen and just firm to the touch.
11. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
12. Beat the cream cheese with a wooden spoon in a bowl until softened.
13. Beat in the vanilla extract and icing sugar until smooth.
14. Swirl over the tops of the cakes.

Boutique Birthday!

My Asos Boutique is one year old today!

£1 off everything to celebrate with promo code 'BIRTHDAY'

https://marketplace.asos.com/boutique/tangerine-dreams

Win a pair of Monopoly earrings

We all have a favourite playing piece when we play Monopoly. To enter just head over to Instagram (tdjewellery), follow me and repost this photo with your favourite Monopoly piece as a caption. Don’t forget to tag @tdjewellery. Winner will receive their favourite playing piece as earrings. Competition ends 07/10.