A Seasonal Pie: Apple and Blackberry Tart!

      Now you may well ask why this is called a tart, as it has a top on it and is therefore a pie, but for some reason this sort of plate pie is known as a tart here! We were regularly fed on apple tarts and custard in the autumn. Apple tarts are always a big hit with any older men at a gathering, so much so I keep a supply of foil plates to make them on if I'm asked to bring a dish to a 'do'!

An Apple and Blackberry "Tart"

      

       I love the old white and blue enamel plates for these tarts, they remind me that no matter how sophisticated we have become or so on trend with our kitchen equipment that something like enamel wear, used by our grand parents is still around and doing a great job.  

      And why didn't I put tart in the post title, well you can guess what might come up if you put "Seasonal Tart" into an internet search! 

      

      The filling for this tart I make by eye rather than by exact measurement. I do use exact quantities for the pastry, but the filling is dependent on the size of the plate, the sweetness of the apples and blackberries, all variables. Elderberries are also good with the apples.

      
      The blackberries were really good the week before last I picked a couple of tubs full and froze them the day before the rain came. And rained steadily for about 18 hours! I was very glad of them as I needed some for a cookery demonstration at GROWFest organised by GIY  in Waterford.
      Blackberries have a uniquely autumnal scent when hot, well worth the stained fingers to be transported back to childhood kitchens, warm and fuggy with just out of the oven tarts.

Pastry 

250 g plain flour 

125 g butter 

3-4tbs cold water

apples

blackberries

sugar

egg wash 

      Sieve the flour into a bowl and cut the butter into small chunks.

Add the butter to the flour and rub it in with the tips of your fingers. When the flour and butter resembles breadcrumbs add the water.  Mix with a dinner knife or wooden spoon to make a stiff dough.
      Take the pastry out onto a floured worktop and shape into a ball, cut in half and flatten into two discs. Wrap in cling-film and chill for 20-30 minutes in the fridge.

       Place a baking tray or pizza stone in the centre of the oven and pre heat the oven to 200˚C, GM 6. 

Roll out one of the pastry discs on a lightly floured work surface and line the pie plate. 

Fill with a layer of peeled and sliced apples and sprinkle with sugar, then add a layer of blackberries and some more sugar. 

Frozen Blackberries and Sliced Apples

      Repeat until the layers come just above the hight of the pie plate. Leave the edge uncovered and paint with egg wash.

      Roll out the other disc of pastry and cover the tart with it crimp the edges, decorate with pastry leaves stuck on with egg wash and paint the top with egg wash.

      Place the tart into the oven onto the hot baking tray or pizza stone and bake for 15-20 minutes. When the top is golden turn the oven down to 180˚C, GM 4 and finish baking for another 15-20 minutes.

A Slice of Autumn!

Chocolate Mousse Cake

I can’t remember where the recipe for this cake came from, but I did find it in a magazine recently. It is very rich, almost a custard!

The lettering is cut from pale green florist paste and milk chocolate modelling paste. I used royal icing for the knives & forks. 

Cake is always good especially when we have something to celebrate and the launch tomdoorley.com is!

150g (70% cocoa solids) dark chocolate broken up

150g butter cut in cubes 

75g soft brown sugar

75g golden caster sugar

2tbs double cream

1tsp vanilla extract

3 large eggs

cocoa powder

Heat the oven to 160˚C, GM 2.5. Butter and line a 20 cm square tin with baking parchment.

Put the chocolate, butter, sugars, cream and vanilla into a bowl and melt them all together with the bowl standing in a frying pan of hot water.

When melted take the bowl out of the water and add the eggs one at a time, whisking each one in with a ballon whisk, until smooth.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Place the cake tin onto a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until almost set in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin.

When cold turn out and dust the top with cocoa powder.

Serve with whipped cream and strawberries.

Eating Your Garden

 

      Ballymaloe is a special place and the festivals it holds draw a very lovely and special group of people. The Literary Festival of Food & Wine (litfest) in May is wonderfully broad in its scope with  discussions, talks, wine tastings and cookery demonstrations, involving the great and the good of the food and wine world.

      The Big Shed fills up with lots of stands for everything from seeds and crafts to craft cider & beer and food. There is even a children's corner.

      At the end of August Ballymaloe holds a smaller Garden Festival with talks, tastings and discussions. The Big Shed is also well stocked with stalls of food, seeds, crafts and drinks. There are plant stalls outside too.

     Having given a talk last year we were asked back again this year and our topic was "Eating Your Garden" with particular reference to flowers. Here are the recipes for the lavender biscuits, lavender vodka and the rose creams.

I'll write up the remainder of the talk in the next blog post.

Lavender Biscuits 

 These biscuits are crisp and buttery, don't be tempted to use anything other than butter. If the dough is very soft divide it in 3, wrap it and leave it in the fridge to firm up and then roll it out.

175g soft butter

115g caster sugar

1tsp lavender flowers picked from the stalk

1tsp chopped lavender leaves

125g plain flour

100g semolina

      Set the oven to GM 4, 180˚C and grease 2 large baking trays with butter.

      Cream the butter and sugar with the lavender flowers and chopped leaves until light and fluffy.

Sift in the flour and add the semolina and beat again until it comes together in a ball.

      Flour your work surface and take out a third of the mixture and roll it out with a floured rolling pin until it is about 5 to 8mm thick.

Cut out small rounds or shapes and put them onto the trays.

Repeat with the rest of the dough and then the scraps.

Bake them in the oven for about 15 minutes until just golden.

       Leave the biscuits on the trays for 5 minutes to firm up and then transfer to racks to finish cooling.

Sprinkle extra lavender flowers onto the warm biscuits while they are cooling. Store in an airtight container, when cold, if they last that long.

 

Lavender Vodka        

Tom has a passion for trying out different flavours in Martinis and made this to bring along. He only discovered that he should have added some vinegar to preserve the colour of the lavender after he'd made the 'vodka' and the flowers had faded.

375ml good quality vodka

2tsp cider vinegar

8 lavender flower heads with long stalks

48 hours

      Pour the Vodka and cider vinegar into a 700ml bottle. Put the lavender flower heads into the bottle with the stalks sticking out and tie the stalks together.

Leave for 48 hours and strain off the vodka and bottle.

Rose Creams

Biscuits

If you find the Lavender biscuits fragile then these are even more so.

75g plain flour

60g corn flour

40g icing sugar

125g soft butter

2tbs caster sugar

      Set the oven to GM 4, 180˚C and grease 2 Swiss roll tins with butter.

      Sift the flours and icing sugar into a bowl and add the butter.

Beat together until a smooth paste has formed.

Put the caster sugar into a shallow bowl.

      Take a teaspoonful of dough on to the tip of a spatula and dip it in the sugar, then place it onto the Swiss roll tin sugar side up.

Repeat with the rest of the dough. It should make about 24 blobs.

      Bake in the hot oven for about 15 minutes until just starting to colour. Remove the tray from the oven and leave the biscuits to cool on the trays.

Rose Cream

 Petals from 3 fragrant roses

2tbs caster sugar

1tbs lemon juice

175ml cream

       Make sure there is no wildlife lurking in the rose petals and put them into a mini processor with the sugar and lemon juice, process to a purée.

Whip the cream until thick and fold in the rose purée. 

      Take two biscuits of the same size and sandwich them together with a spoonful of the rose cream.

Mint Chocolate Brownies

Brownies!

I promised to put the mint chocolate brownies on the blog and here they are!
I used Tesco "Dark Chocolate Mint Thins"  which are a bit like "After Eights" .
Both of which work really well.
I have used 100g of walnuts or pecans or grated beetroot or white chocolate chips in stead of the mints. To make various sorts of brownies.
This recipe also works perfectly with gluten free flour too.

 

Folding in the mints!

 Mint Chocolate Brownies

100 g butter

100 g dark chocolate

225 g caster sugar

100 g plain flour

1 level tsp of baking powder

2 eggs

100g wafer thin mints (After Eights)

Set the oven to GM 4, 150˚C.

Line a 20 by 30 cm baking tin with baking parchment.

Break up the dark chocolate into a bowl and add the butter. Put the bowl into a pot with 4 cm of hot water in it and put the pot onto a low heat. When the chocolate has melted, take the bowl off the heat and sift in the flour and baking powder.

Add the sugar, eggs and broken up mints. Stir them together to mix well and spoon into the baking tin and bake for 30 minutes.

Let them cool in the tin for 10 minutes and cut them into squares and finish cooling on a wire rack.

Ready for the oven.

Roll on Summer!

               I made these bread rolls today as an experiment for the Cookery Camps I'll be teaching over the Summer. They are soft 'White Dinner Rolls'. Great with soup, salads or as a breakfast roll.

 

Last of the rolls!

Sesame Bread Rolls

350g plain flour

1 sachet fast action yeast

200ml warm water

1tsp salt

2tbs olive oil

1tbs vegetable oil

beaten egg

1tbs sesame seeds

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the yeast from the sachet.

Dissolve the salt in the warm water and add to the flour and yeast. Add the olive oil and mix it all together to make a dough.

Knead the dough on the table, dust the table with flour if the dough is sticky.

Knead the dough until smooth and springy.

Coat the dough in the vegetable oil and place in the bowl. Cover the bowl with cling film and put in a warm place for 30-45 minutes until doubled in size.

Grease a Swiss roll tin.

Take the dough out and knead again until springy. Divide into 8 or 9 pieces and shape them into rolls, place them onto a Swiss roll tin, leaving space in between them.

Cover with cling film and a tea towel and put them back into the warm place for 30 minutes, until they get bigger and start to touch each other.

Heat the oven to 220˚C, GM 7.

Take the tea towel and film off the rolls, brush the rolls with egg wash and sprinkle on the sesame seeds.

Bake in the hot oven for 20-25 minutes.They will be golden and will sound hollow when wrapped with a knuckle underneath. Cool on a wire rack.

Raspberry Tray Bake

Feral raspberries put to good use!

     When we moved to our house ten years ago this week, the previous owners bequeathed us a couple of rows of Autumn fruiting raspberries, 3 apple trees, 3 gooseberry bushes, assorted current bushes and a wigwam of scarlet runner beans. There was lawn and other flower/ shrub beds too.
     I've managed to keep the lawn under control just, but the beds produce more brambles than they should, I'm not sure I'm a flower/ shrub woman.

     The fruit though I have tried to keep looked after. This year though the brambles engulfed the red & white currants and we missed the black currants, but we did manage to harvest most of the gooseberries.
     The raspberries are just loving this late sunshine. They have gone rather wild, feral really! But they do produce lots of fruit most of which I freeze and then make into jam. Some though do make it into baking
Half an hour in the rather wild raspberry patch yields a liter tub of these delicious berries, some scratches and a few nettle stings. It is all worth it though for this delicious cake.

Raspberry Tray Bake
This is adapted from The Aga Book by Mary Berry.
The one in the picture is a double quantity made in the large roasting tin.

2 eggs
125g soft butter
125g caster sugar
2tbs milk
175g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
100g raspberries

Line a deep Swiss roll tin or roasting tin 20cm x 30cm approx with baking parchment. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C, GM 5.
Put the eggs, butter, sugar and milk into a mixing bowl.
Sift in the flour and baking powder. Mix well until thoroughly combined. About two minutes in a mixer.
Fold in the raspberries and spread the mixture out evenly in the lined tin. 
Put the tin into the oven for about 20 minutes until the top is golden and springs back when poked with a finger.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes and then remove to finish cooling.

Raspberry Butter-cream Icing
100g soft butter
200g icing sugar
4-6 raspberries
extra raspberries to decorate

Put the butter in to a mixing bowl and sift in the icing sugar. Beat together until light and fluffy. Add the raspberries one at a time until you achieve the desired colour.
Spread the icing over the top of the cooled cake and decorate with more raspberries.

Happy Halloween!

I’ve been doing more baking and learning to ice cakes at a Wilton class in Brennan’s in Cork http://www.brenco.ie/cookschool.html . I’ve also tutored a couple of back to basics classes and a bread baking demonstration at Brennan’s too.

One thing I discovered was a new respect for fresh yeast, which I hadn’t used for some time. I also found a Canadian extra strong flour with which I made the thinnest pizza bases I’ve ever made. I was a bit slow with the camera and they got eaten before I had a chance to record them.

The poppy seed loaves were a big hit with the family particularly as I'd made some crab apple jelly.

Tea brack is an old family favourite for Halloween and a great thing to have in store for callers in at this time of year. The muesli flapjacks are also great to put into a school lunch box for days when extra energy is needed for sports or just to make it home. Sometimes I just use a mixture of porridge and seeds instead of muesli for people who don’t like dried fruit.

The back to basics class were treated to a pot of colcannon as the class was just before Halloween too.

White bread loaves topped with poppy seeds.

White Bread Dough

150 ml boiling water

250 ml cold water                                     

20g fresh yeast or 2 level tsp dried yeast

1 tsp sugar                                             

2 tsp salt                                            

700 g strong white flour

4tbs oil

Mix together the boiling and cold water to make hand hot water.

Mix the yeast and sugar in a cup and pour in some of the warm water, stir and leave in a warm place to froth, for about 10 minutes. Add the salt to the rest of the water and keep warm.

Weigh out the flour and sift it into a bowl.

The yeast is ready when it has a head like a pint of stout, pour the yeast into the flour and rinse out the cup with some of the warm water and pour into the flour. Add the rest of the water and 3 tablespoons of oil.

Flours vary in the amount of water they need, you may need more or less.

Mix the water in and knead the dough, either in a mixer with a dough hook or by hand. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth and springy. This could take up to 10 minutes by hand or about 5 in a mixer.

Pour in a tablespoon of oil to the bowl, put the dough back into the bowl and smear it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic and leave to rise. The time taken to rise depends on temperature, one and a half to two hours somewhere warm or all day somewhere cooler.

When the dough has doubled in size and has a domed top it is ready to use.

Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes.

Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes.

Grease the inside of two 1kg loaf tins. (22cmx11cmx6.5cm)

Cut the dough into two pieces and put them into the greased loaf tins.

Cover with a tea towel and let rise for 30 minutes to 1 hour till coming to the top of the tins.

Put the oven on to heat up to 220˚C, GM 7

Brush with egg wash and sprinkle on poppy or sesame seeds. With a sharp knife cut a line down the centre of the loaf about 1cm into the dough.

Bake in the hot oven for 20 minutes and then turn the heat down to 180˚C, GM 4 for another 20 minutes.

Remove the loaves from the tin and put them onto the oven rack to crisp the out side of the loaves for 5-8 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Licking lips!

Milk Loaves/Rolls

You can replace 2/3rds of the water with milk and the oil with 50g of butter, rubbed into the flour before you add the yeast and liquid. Instead of making two loaves after the first proofing divide the dough into 12-18 balls of dough and put them on a greased roasting tin. Let them rise for 20-30 minutes and bake for 20-30 minutes in the hot oven.

Tea Brack

375g mixed dried fruit

200g brown sugar

225ml hot strong tea

275g self raising flour

1 egg

Put the mixed dried fruit and sugar into a large bowl and cover with the tea. Stir well and leave over night.

Preheat the oven to 180˚C, GM4. Grease and line a 1kg loaf tin.

Sift the flour into the bowl with the soaked fruit and stir well add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour*.

When done, turn the brack out onto a wire rack to cool.

When cold serve sliced and buttered.

*To test for doneness push a skewer into the centre of the brack and if it comes out clean the brack is ready. If the skewer is sticky with batter leave in the oven for another 5-10 minutes and test again.

Colcannon                                                              

600g potatoes

1 bunch or bag of curly kale

1 bunch of scallions

100 ml milk

70g butter

salt and pepper

Peel and wash the potatoes. Put them in a pot and cover with water and a good pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and cook until a knife goes into the centre of a potato easily.

Meanwhile wash the kale and remove the central stalks, cut the leaves into narrow ribbons. Put these into the top of a steamer and put 2 cm of water into the bottom and bring to the boil and steam for 4-5 minutes. Or steam them over the potatoes.

Cut the roots off the scallions and cut them into half centimetre lengths. Put these into a small saucepan with the milk a pinch of salt and some pepper.

Bring to the boil.

When the potatoes are cooked drain off the water and mash them in the pot with half the butter and some pepper. Beat in the milk and scallions and then add the kale, stir it in well.

Pile the colcannon on to a plate and shape into a mountain, make a hollow in the top and put in the rest of the butter.

For good luck coins are added to colcannon, but do wrap them in foil first.

 

Muesli Flapjacks.

 Muesli Flapjacks

6dsp sunflower oil

3dsp golden syrup

110g soft brown sugar

225g muesli

2dsp sunflower seeds

Set the oven to GM 4/350˚F/180˚C.

Line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment.

Put the oil, syrup and the sugar into a saucepan and warm on a low heat.

Mix with a wooden spoon and when the sugar has melted add the muesli and sunflower seeds. Mix them in well and pour the contents of the saucepan on to the Swiss roll tin. Spread the mixture out well and smooth down with a spatula or the back of a spoon.

Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. When they are done the edges will have darkened a bit, take the tin out of the oven and mark the flapjacks into squares and leave to cool in the tin. When they are cold take them out of the tin and break into pieces along the marked lines.

 

Spanish Sunshine!

Liquid Salad

The E-coli outbreak in Germany last week had even rational people like me looking warily at the organic Spanish cucumber in my kitchen. I did eat it, though I washed and peeled it. Very tasty it was too.

I was surprised to find someone at a school fete refusing any sandwiches that contained salad. This was on last Friday when most salad had been given the all clear. Some times we can be too cautious, or maybe she doesn’t like salad. I do not know, but I do hope this will make us all more aware of hygiene and food preparation.

In celebration of those gallant Spanish farmers I think we all should all go out of our way to help them along by eating Gazpacho at least once a week for the summer. So here is my take on this Spanish Classic. It may not be authentic but it is an original ‘vegetable’ smoothie and a great way to get some of your five a day.

Interestingly only the garlic and scallions are vegetables in this mix, all the other ‘vegetables’ are the fruits of their plants.

Gazpacho                                    

3 cloves of garlic

600g vine ripened tomatoes

1 a green pepper

½ a red pepper

1 a cucumber

4 scallions

1 thick slice of white bread no crusts

1tbs of sherry vinegar

4tbs olive oil

salt & pepper

½ -1 chilli

Some extra virgin olive oil for serving.

1 hard boiled egg

Peel the garlic and put into a blender with a good pinch of salt.

Halve the tomatoes, remove the green cores.

Remove the seeds and membrane from the peppers and cut into 3cm pieces.

Wash and peel the cucumber, cut it in half lengthways and remove the seeds from the centre.

Chop the scallions and finely chop the chilli if you are using it.

Add half the chopped vegetables to the blender with half the bread.

Put the lid on and blend to a smooth puree.

Pour the contents of the blender into a large jug.

Put the rest of the vegetables and breadcrumbs into the blender and blend to a smooth puree.

Pour into the jug with the first batch and mix well.

Stir in the vinegar and olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

If the tomatoes are not ripe enough add a little sugar.

Leave for a couple of hours in the fridge to allow the flavours to develop before serving.

Just before serving stir the contents of the jug really well and thin with some iced water if it is very thick.

Very finely dice some red and green pepper.

Peel the hard boiled egg and grate it

Pour the Gazpacho into soup bowls, sprinkle on some of the red and green pepper dice, grated egg and trickle over a little of the best extra virgin olive oil you can get.

Serves about 6

Sweet Treat

I made these spicy flapjacks to bring to the same school fete and promised the recipe to some friends. I had a great time using up some half finished packets of muesli and topping them up with rolled oats. 

One of the muesli's was a spicy granola from http://www.greensaffron.com/ , but it needed a little help.

These are more of a chewy muesli bar than a tooth shattering crisp flapjack. They provide great energy on a long walk or bike ride and are fine with a cuppa and a friend to chat to.

Spicy Flapjacks

4 cardamom pods

1tsp coriander seed

½ tsp grated nutmeg

6tbs sunflower oil

3tbs honey

160 g soft brown sugar

330 g Muesli or a combination of rolled oats, nuts seeds and dried fruit

Set the oven to GM 3/330˚F/170˚C.

Line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment.

Put the cardamom pods into a mortar and pestle and lightly crush to release the seeds, remove the green husks and add the coriander seed. Crush all the seeds with the pestle.

Put the crushed spices and grated nutmeg into a saucepan and add the oil, honey and the sugar.

Warm the saucepan on a low heat. Mix with a wooden spoon and when the sugar has melted and is beginning to bubble add the muesli.

Mix in the muesli well and pour the contents of the saucepan on to the Swiss roll tin. Spread the mixture out well and smooth down with a spatula or the back of a spoon.

Bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes. When they are done the edges will have darkened a bit, take the tin out of the oven and put on a wire rack to cool. 

While they are still hot mark into bars and leave to cool in the tin. When they are cold take them out of the tin.

Hot Cross Buns!

I made these today and the seem to be going down rather well! I went out for an hour and when I came back only seven of the twelve remained. They are quite delicious!

Hot Crossless Bun

I made half the dough with fruit and half with chocolate chips. I left the dried fruit / chocolate chips out and after the first rising divided the dough in half and added fruit to one half and chocolate to the other, gave each a good knead. Then I divided each half in six and laid them on a buttered Swiss roll tin to prove. When they had all joined up and were well risen I baked them, but I forgot to cut the crosses in them before baking. Happy Easter!

1 sachet fast action yeast                           300 ml hand hot milk

500 g strong white flour                           1 tsp salt

1 tsp mixed spice                                    50 g sugar

100 g mixed dried fruit or milk & dark chocolate chips                          

 50 g soft butter                                        1dsp oil

Glaze

2 tbs sugar                                             2 tbs milk

The temperature of the milk is correct when you can hold your little finger in it and count to 10 and it feels the same as your finger, neither to hot or to cold.

Sift the flour into a bowl and sprinkle in the sugar, the salt, the spice, dried fruit, the sachet of fast action yeast and the butter cut up. Mix the contents of the bowl round gently and make a well in the centre.

Pour in the warm milk and mix them in well to make a soft dough.

Knead the dough with a dough hook in a mixer or by hand on a floured surface until it is smooth and springy.

Shape the dough into a ball and smear it with the oil and put into a bowl to rise covered with a plastic bag or a damp cloth.

When the dough has doubled in size, about one hour depending on temperature. Turn the dough out on to a floured surface and divide it in to 12 pieces. Shape these into round balls and place them on a buttered baking tray. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave somewhere warm to rise for 20-30 minutes.                                            

Buttered Hot Cross Bun

When they have been rising for about 10-15 minutes set the oven to GM 6/400˚F/200˚C and uncover the buns mark a cross on each bun with a knife and cover them up again until the oven has reached its temperature.

Bake the buns for 15-20 minutes until golden and they sound hollow when tapped underneath.

Boil the sugar and the milk until syrupy and brush over the buns while they are still hot, giving them two coats. This gives them a nice shine. Cool the buns on a wire rack and eat the same day.                                        

Adventures in Chocolate

We have been experimenting with chocolate and other flavours to see how they work together. This was in the run up to Valentine’s day.

I love game and had some venison medallions in the freezer, I wanted to keep them simple, but give them a twist. Then I remembered the amazing Willie’s Cacao from http://www.willieschocolateshop.com/willies-cacao-chocolate-shop.html  we were given for Christmas. It is one of the special single bean and country of origin, 100% cocoa and very dark and intense.

I just gave the venison medallions 2-3 minutes each side on a very hot pan and then put them to rest in the bottom oven. I added a splash of red wine to the pan and reduced it to a spoonful and then added a splash of hot water and brought it to the boil and let it reduce to about 3 tablespoonfuls. I added 20 grams of the chocolate in pieces and let it melt in the gravy, with the pan off the heat.

To serve with it I made a creamy, chicory and blue cheese gratin.

When the venison and chocolate sauce was on the plate with the creamy chicory I wondered if I’d made a big mistake. I hadn’t really thought this through.

The first mouthful of venison and chocolate was delicious. The second mouthful of chicory was delicious, but the third of chicory and chocolate was also delicious!

Somehow these two bitter elements had a complementary effect on each other that seemed to be helped by the cream. I may have found something, but I’m not sure chicory and chocolate sauce will take off.

Another flavour that always goes well with chocolate is orange.

Last night I was treated to a “Jaffa” pudding, an orange flavoured sponge pudding baked with a chocolate bottom that became it’s top and served with a marmalade sauce.

It was rich and the bitter dark chocolate with the sponge gave it a very un-sweet taste.

We also add orange zest to our hot chocolate pots giving them quite a zesty zing.

The best flavour I find I like with chocolate is coffee, a recent trial mocha bread & butter pudding went down really well. It still needs a little work.

The Mocha cake below will have to do for now. For Valentine’s day I cut out heart shapes with a cookie cutter and iced each of them. I works just as well to decorate the whole cake and let the icing set and cut it into fingers.

Mocha Cake

40 g cocoa powder

3 tbs espresso coffee

175 g soft butter                        

175 g caster sugar                       

175 g self-raising flour

1 level tsp baking powder

3 eggs

Set the oven to GM 4/350˚F/180˚C, line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment.

Mix the cocoa powder with the espresso.

Cut up the butter and put into a mixing bowl with the sugar and the eggs. Sift in the flour and baking powder.

Beat together the contents of the bowl until smooth and creamy.

Stir in the cocoa and espresso.

Pour the mixture into the Swiss roll tin and bake for 20-30 minutes in the centre of the oven.

When the cake is done it will spring back when gently poked with a finger. Take it out of the oven and turn on to a wire rack and peel off the paper. Leave to cool!

Cover the cake with the mocha icing and decorate with the white chocolate icing.

Mocha Satin Icing

115 g milk chocolate

50 g soft butter

3 tbs coffee

175 g sifted icing sugar

Put the chocolate, butter and coffee into a bowl over a pot of hot water and melt them together.

Beat in the icing sugar.

Leave to cool a little and pour over the cake.

White Chocolate Icing

60 g white chocolate

25 g soft butter

2 dsp milk

85 g sifted icing sugar

Put the chocolate, butter and milk in a bowl and put the bowl over a pot of simmering water and melt them together.

Beat in the icing sugar.

Leave to cool a little and pour over the cake.