Shortbread

Shortbread was simpler than i thought it would be.  They were slightly overdone, but that wasn't my fault - i had left tara to take them out of the oven while i ran an errand for her!  I was going to have them with nigella's lemon cream recipe, but somehow we had run out of double cream even though its all i seem to buy these days.  But they were lovely on their own.

- Cream 100g soft butter and 50g icing sugar in a food processor, then add 100g flour, 50g cornflour and a pinch of salt, and process again.
- Remove and mould into a cylinder shape.
- Cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge for 20 mins.
- When firm, slice into 1/2 cm discs and cook in the oven on a baking tray for 20-30 mins, removing when the top is dry.

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Baked caramel apples

A simple pudding for tara and i to have while watching Mad Men.

- Core 2 cooking apples, and stuff with 40g butter and 40g sugar.
- Put in a roasting tin, add 60ml calvados/brandy and the juice of 1/2 lemon, and cook for 50 mins at 180C.
- Remove the apples, and pour the juices into a saucepan.
- Heat up and reduce on the hob to a thick syrup, then add 1-2 tablespoons single cream, and pour this sauce over the apples.


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Pavlova

This was much more successful, although still not perfect.  I hadn't realised quite how simple it was to make pavlova - just whisk eggs and cream and add passion fruits.  Being somewhat suspect of nigella's timings (my oven seems to cook things faster than hers), i didn't cook it for the 1 1/4 hours she suggests, but i think this time, she may be right, as mine wasn't fully cooked through, even though it looked great on the outside.


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Pistachio crescents

100 recipes left to go!  Shame the pistachio crescents were not more of a highlight - they were dry, crumbly and just a bit tasteless.  Nigella says cook for 25 mins, but after 15 mins, they were overcooked, so i have suggested 15 mins on a lower temperature.  To try and make them less dry i have suggested a bit more butter, and to add a bit more taste, a drop of almond essence.

- Toast 75g shelled pistachios and grind in a processor.
- Beat 75g butter with a wooden spoon until creamy, then add15g icing sugar and keep beating.
- Add 45g plain flour, 3 drops almond essence and a pinch of salt, and stir well together.
- Beat in the ground pistachios - it will mix and come together eventually.
- Roll a tablespoon of mixture in your hands, and form into a crescent.
- Bake for 15 mins at 150C, removing when the tops are firm, then sprinkle with icing sugar.

We had these with a delicious Nespresso coffee - yes, we cracked and got one! The coffee is just too good, particularly the milk frother which makes that creamy flat white style milk.
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Banana custard

Yet another custard, and yet another method.  This method always seemed in danger of curdling despite lots of stirring on a very gentle heat.  She has a perfectly good recipe for custard, here, which you can then pour over bananas.

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Zabaione

Another one of nigella's creamy puddings that she loves.  A lot of them are disappointing, but this one was great. Tara had cooked some rhubarb in the oven, so i added some rhubarb juice which worked well.  Whisking by hand seemed to have no effect, and the eggs only started to froth up with the whisk on turbo.  The glasses might be half full either because its possible to make it even more foamy, or because i got loads on the new floor with the extreme whisking.

- Put a bowl over a pan of boiling water and in that bowl whisk together 2 egg yolks and 25g caster sugar.
- Keep whisking while the water below simmers, until the mixture becomes thick and pale.
- Slowly add 60ml marsala, whisking continuously until you have a foamy mixture, then add to 2 glasses.

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Apple and walnut crumble

Here's charlie serving up the apple and walnut crumble, which we had with the tokai, pictured, given to us by emily and andrew.  Seeing as they were over for dinner as well, it seemed only fair!  tokai has to be my favourite dessert wine - this one was a very good 5 puttonyos (scale of 1-6)  I've just checked this on wikipedia and there's no entry for Puttonyos!  A quick 15 min break and i've now written one.

- Cover 25g raisins/sultanas with 3 tablespoons of marsala that has been gently warmed.
- Sieve 100g flour into a bowl and rub in 50g butter, cut into small cubes.
- Add 60g finely chopped walnuts and then stir in 45g brown sugar.
- Store in a cool place, while peeling, coring and slicing 2 cooking apples.
- Heat the apples in a saucepan together with 1 tablespoon of sugar and add the marsala soaked raisins.
- Cook with the lid for 5 mins until soft.
- Put the apples in a pie dish, cover with the crumble mixture and cook for 25 mins at 190C.

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Lemon ice-cream

I made this yesterday and we had most of it last night with fiona and j, together with an apple and orange cake that tara made for tea.  The rest of it - as you can see, not much! - we had with the poire belle helene.  I have my new ice-cream maker for xmas, but this recipe didn't even need it.  If you don't have an ice-cream maker, then this is the perfect ice-cream to make.

- Add the zest of 2 lemons to the juice of 3 lemons, and combine with 170g icing sugar.
- Leave to steep for 20-30 mins.
- Whip 420ml double cream with 3 tablespoons iced water, till soft peaks, then whisk into the lemon juice.
- Put into a container and freeze - no stirring, required.


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Poire belle helene

Not the greatest photo ever, but the light was difficult and my food styling needs some work.  In fact, i think with better food styling, this could have got me through to a quarter final place in Masterchef!  It's on every night at the moment, and some of the offerings at the quarter final stage are not that great.  this dessert tasted great and it shows some cooking ability which is what they look for - homemade ice-cream, poached pears, chocolate sauce and crystallised violets.  Problem is that no doubt all of the contestants could cook this with their eyes shut in the comfort of their own home, let alone with a recipe to follow!  any way, one can only dream...

- Peel, halve and core 4 pears, then pour over the juice of a lemon to stop them discolouring.
- Put 300ml water 100g caster sugar and a vanilla pod/essence in a pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins.
- Add the pears, cut side down, cover the pears in the syrup and simmer with a lid on, for a further 10 mins.
- Turn the pears over and simmer for a further 10 mins until the pears are soft, then allow to cool.
- To make the chocolate sauce, melt 200g dark chocolate in a pan, with 120ml coffee and 90g caster sugar.
- When melted, add 120ml double cream, and when hot, pour into a jug.
- Serve the pears with vanilla ice-cream, some syrup poured over, the chocolate sauce and crystallised violets.
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White tiramisu

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Rhubarb ice-cream

Wow - delicious!  Once again it proves the rule that anything tasty can be even tastier by just putting it in an ice-cream maker.  The mixture itself was good, and as ice-cream, even better.  We were going to have it with the rhubarb jelly below, but it took too long to set, so we just had it by itself.

As with most ice-creams, you just make a custard with eggs, sugar and cream, then add the fruit, and put in the magic ice-cream machine!

- Cook 1 kg rhubarb in a dish with 300g sugar, covered with foil, for 45-60mins at 190C.
- Drain, keeping the juice, and beat the fruit with a fork until smooth.
- Beat 2 egg yolks with 45g sugar.
- Heat 280ml single cream to just before boiling point, and add to the egg yolks.
- Put the mixture on a low heat and stir constantly, until it thickens to a custard.
- Plunge the whole pan into cold water, to cool it down, keeping stirring.
- When its cool, stir in the rhubarb pulp, then add 280ml double cream (lightly whipped).
- Add sugar to taste, one tablespoon at a time.
- Add vanilla before putting in the ice-cream maker.

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Rhubarb and muscat jelly

Tara took this picture, in one of our newly purchased, antique champagne glasses from chapel market in islington.  It tasted great with the muscat and the rhubarb working well together.

- Chop 1kg rhubarb into 2-3cm chunks and put in an oven dish.
- Sprinkle over 340g sugar, the zest and juice of an orange (blood if possible).
- Add 500ml water, cover with foil and bake for 1 hour at 190C.
- Strain into a jug, and add enough muscat to make it up to 900ml (using about 200ml).
- Lightly oil a 2 pint jelly mould in a flavourless oil, like groundnut.
- Soak 8 gelatine leaves in cold water until softened.
- Heat up 2 ladlefuls of the syrup in a saucepan, and before it boils, take off the heat and add the gelatine.
- Whisk these in, and when they've dissolved, add back into the rest of the syrup.
- Pour into the jelly mould and place in the fridge to set.

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Almond and Orange Blossom Cake

It was Marni's 5 month birthday and it was fern's birthday week, so of course, a birthday cake!  And as you can see, i also put my new icing kit to the test, bought for me by fern for xmas - it's trickier than it should be - maybe i made the icing too thick.  It and the cake tasted great though.

- Grease a 21cm cake tin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper.
- Cream together 225g soft butter and 225g sugar.
- Beat 4 eggs and gradually add them to the creamed butter, beating continuously, and adding 50g plain flour as you go.
- When the eggs and flour are incorporated, stir in 180g ground almonds, then add 1 teaspoon almond essence, zest of an orange, the juice of 1/2 an orange and 2 tablespoons orange-flower water.
- Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour at 180C, covering with foil after 40 mins if it looks like burning.

Happy birthday fern and marni!
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Hazelnut cake

Clare and some friends of hers came round to the house for tea before going off to Matt, Dan and Ginny's xmas party, so i made this hazelnut cake - although we did already have the remnants of tara's delicious banana cake and our night nanny's homemade mince pies she brought round the other day.  This recipe requires such a lot of egg whites that i would never make it again unless i happened to have loads of egg whites left over.

- Whisk 8 egg whites with 1/2 teaspoon salt until stiff peaks.
- Mix 285g ground hazelnuts with 300g caster sugar and fold this into the egg whites and add zest 1 orange or lemon.
- Gradually sift 85g flour into the mixture, folding it as you go.
- Put the mixture into a 20cm cake tin and bake for 50 mins at 175C or until a skewer comes out clean.

I think i slightly overdid mine, even though i knocked off 10 mins from nigella's 1 hour time.  It did have a lovely chewy texture from all those egg whites, and its nice to use ground hazelnuts which give a much nuttier flavour than almonds.  It's quite a plain cake, so i made a quick raspberry sauce to go with it.



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Quick custard

Nigella has 2 recipes for custard and this is the quick foolproof custard.  Although actually i found the previous method nigella used easier, mainly because i couldn't seem to thicken the custard without putting it back on the heat.

- Heat 600ml double cream with the seeds of a vanilla pod and the empty pod until boiling point.
- Whisk together 5 egg yolks, 1 teaspoon cornflower, and 2 tablespoons sugar.
- As the cream boils, pour onto the egg mixture, whisking continously for about 10 mins until thick.

I gave up whisking after about 10 mins, and just put it back on the hob for a couple of mins, stirring constantly.  It made delicious custard (i think the double cream helps!) which went perfectly with the bakewell tart.

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Bakewell tart

This is the first bakewell tart i've ever made, and it won't be the last.  Having been to Bakewell only a couple of days before - we took marni on her first walking trip to peak district - and seen but not tasted the "tarts", i thought i'd give this a go. Simpler than i imagined, although the bottom of the tart wasn't quite as done as it could have been, even though the top was definitely done.  Nigella doesn't bake the pastry blind first, so i cooked it at a lower temperature than nigella says and at the bottom of the oven but to avail.  i think a quick 10 mins baking the pastry first before adding the topping would help.

- For the pastry, put 175g flour, 130g cold butter (cubed), 30g ground almonds, 65g icing sugar and 1 egg yolk in a processor and blend.
- Slowly add tiny amounts of ice cold water while still processing until the mixture starts to clump together.
- Bring together by hand into a ball, cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge for 20 mins.
- Beat together 3 eggs and 125g sugar, stir in 125g of melted butter and then add 125g ground almonds.
- Roll out the pastry to line a 20-26cm quiche tin.  I would then bake it for 10 mins at 190C before adding the topping.
- Spread 3 tablespoons raspberry jam on the bottom, then top with 300g raspberries.
- Pour the mixture on top of that, sprinkle with 15g flaked almonds and bake for 35-45 mins at 190C.

And this also counted as Marni's 10 week old birthday cake - been to Bakewell and had a bakewell tart cooked for her - she's ticking them off.

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Real custard

I've never made custard the proper way before, and this was so easy, i don't why we use packet custard.  There's no more to it than using packet custard anyway.

- Slowly heat 500ml single cream or half milk, half cream, in a pan with the seeds of 1 vanilla pod in it, and also adding the empty pod. Before it boils, take off the heat and leave to infuse for 10-20 mins
- Whisk 5 egg yolks with 40g sugar until creamy, then slowly add the cream, whisking continuosly.
- Put back on the heat for 5-10 mins, whisking or stirring all the time, until its at the thickness you like.



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Clementine Cake

Having accidentally made Queen of Puddings instead of this clementine cake a few weeks ago, i thought i'd make this now for Marni's 5 week birthday.  Actually, i made the chocolate pudding for marni's 5 week birthday, but it was so awful, i made this as well!  This was more like it - if Marni could eat as well as suck, she would have loved it.

- Boil 4-5 whole clementines in a pan for 2 hours, then drain, cut each in half and remove the pips.
- Pulp everything in a processor.
- Beat 6 eggs and add 225g sugar, 250g ground almonds, and 1 teaspoon baking powder.
- Mix well and add the pulped clementines.
- Pour the mixture into a buttered/lined 20cm tin and cook for 1 hour at 190C.
- You may need to cover the top after 40 mins to stop it burning.

Nigella calls it the easiest cake she knows, but you wouldn't know it to taste it - delicious.  By the way, that's 50 recipes down - a pretty good start if i say so myself - deserves a glass of champagne!

Seven Minute Steamed Chocolate Pudding

Easily the worst thing i've cooked so far.  It's cooked in a microwave, which rang alarm bells immediately, and seeing as we don't have one at home, i thought i'd better cook it at wittering, where surprisingly, there is one.  The ingredient list sounded nice, but putting everything in a bowl and then into a microwave for 7 mins, sounded dodgy - and it was.  I didn't have any clingfilm so i used baking parchment, which is maybe the reason it didn't work - however, i'm not going to try it again to find out!

- Grate 250g dark chocolate into a food processor and process together with 120g of butter and 100g brown sugar until combined.
- Add 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, 125ml double cream, 40g flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 3 eggs and process until smooth.
- Put into a buttered pudding basin, cover with clingfilm and cook at 100% for 5 mins in a microwave.
- Pierce clingfilm, cover with a plate and let stand for 10 mins.

Good luck!

Quinces Poached in Muscat

Quinces aren't around outside november/december, so i had to grab my chance this year to cook with them and am i glad i did - they were truly amazing.  As you can see from the picture, the quinces go from rock-hard and white/lemon in colour, to a soft gorgeous pink and taste delicious.

- Fill a bowl of water with cold water and a squirt of lemon juice to put the quinces in and stop them turning brown.
- Peel 4 quinces, quarter and core them, putting them into the water and keeping the peelings/cores.
- Add 700ml muscat, 300ml water, 500g sugar, 1 stick of cinnamon, 2 bay leaves, 4 cloves, 3 cardamon pods and 6 peppercorns to a pan and bring to the boil.
- Put the peelings and quinces in an ovenproof dish, pour over the wine, cover and cook at 150C for 2 1/2 hours.
- Remove from the dish, strain the syrup into a saucepan, and reduce for a few mins.
- Serve the quinces with the syrup poured over them.

Nigella warns about over reducing the syrup and creating quince toffee, which of course, i did!  In fact, the syrup i was left after 2 1/2 hours in the oven, didn't need reducing at all once it had cooled a bit.  I do however now have quince jelly which is delicious on toast.  So i suggest taking half the syrup out, to have with the quinces, and creating quince jelly with the rest.  You can always increase the quantities for the syrup to have more of both.