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Flour-less Chocolate Cake

Posted: 01 March '10 by Niall

As another weekend drew to a close, I thought that Kelly and I deserved a treat before getting back to the daily grind. When it comes to treats in our house, that means chocolate.

Here’s a recipe for a rich, moist chocolate cake.. And it’s easy. Three ingredients, that’s all!

It’s also a flour-less cake, making it suitable for coeliacs.

You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6Image 7

Ingredients

• 450g of dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 150g of unsalted butter – and a little more for greasing the cake dish
• 5 large eggs, separated

I’d also recommend some whipped cream and/or some ice-cream to serve with the cake – it’s so chocolate-y that you’ll need it!

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 375F/190C.
2. Take a saucepan, half fill it with water, and put it on a medium heat.
3. Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set it over the saucepan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water, stirring the mixture as it melts.
4. Remove the chocolate mixture from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
5. Butter the cake dish and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
6. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two large bowls.
7. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed and the whipped egg-whites do not move as you tilt the bowl (you’ll see that Kelly bravely volunteered for the age-old test for telling whether egg-whites are ready – if you can hold the bowl upside-down over your head without getting covered, they’re ready!).
8. In the other bowl beat the egg yolks together.
9. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate, stirring lightly until the chocolate and egg yolks have mixed together.
10. Using a metal spoon, fold in some of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, followed by the remaining egg-whites when this first amount has been thoroughly folded in. When folding use light, circular motions with the spoon – do not mix – the idea is to keep air in the mixture. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
11. Pour your cake batter into prepared cake dish. The batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way up the sides.
12. Bake for 25 minutes -the top of the cake should have a firm crust, like the top of a brownie.
13. Remove the cake dish from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes or so before trying to slice or un-mould the cake.
14. Serve with cream and/or ice-cream.

Enjoy!

Tags: chocolate, coeliac, dessert

Categories: Biscuits and Cakes > Dessert Course > Featured Post > Recipes

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Pancakes – How do you eat yours?

Posted: 17 February '10 by Niall

Yesterday was “Pancake Day”, the last day before Lent and a day to celebrate all of those guilty pleasures that might soon be denied us: butter, flour, milk, and eggs.

I have to admit, I was never the biggest fan of pancakes, a result of too many gluey, flavourless versions bought in convenience stores. Crepes were the only exception, especially those bought from the French Crepe stall in St. George’s Market – delicious! But Pancake Day isn’t about crepes – I was after the fluffy, sweet, bready pancakes that you see on American TV.

I came across this recipe in an old cookbook – welcome to pancake heaven!

All that remains is to decide what to have on yours..

You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4

Ingredients

• 135g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 130ml milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly), plus a little more for cooking

To serve: real maple syrup

Method

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl or jug, lightly whisk together the milk and egg, then whisk in the melted butter.
3. Pour the milk mixture into the flour and, using a fork, beat until you have a smooth batter. Any lumps will soon disappear with a little mixing.
4. Now for the important bit – Let the batter stand for a few minutes.
5. Grease a non-stick frying pan with a little butter and place over a medium heat.
6. When the pan gets up to temperature add a ladle of batter. It will seem very thick but this is how it should be.
7. Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over (or toss it, if you’re feeling brave!) and cook until both sides are a nice golden brown and the pancake has risen to about 1cm thick.
8. Repeat until all the batter is used up. You can keep the pancakes warm in a low oven.
9. To serve, drizzle some maple syrup over your pancake stack and tuck in.

Enjoy!

Other information

• You can try separating the egg-yolk from the white, mixing the egg into the batter, but whisking the whites into stiff peaks before folding the batter into the egg-whites for a lighter, souffle-like consistency.
• After you’ve made the batter allow it to rest – this resting period allows the gluten in the flour to relax so the pancakes will be tender, and lets the baking powder form bubbles in the batter.
• After the batter rests, do not stir it or you will deflate all the bubbles.

Tags: Pancake Day, recipe, Shrove Tuesday

Categories: Dessert Course > Featured Post > Recipes

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Panettone bread and butter pudding

Posted: 15 February '10 by Niall

We had some Panettone left over after Christmas and with “waste not, want not” being our motto for the new year, I was wondering what I could do to make the most of the bread.

Panettone is a type of bread from Milan in Italy, made with candied orange, lemon zest, and raisins, and is traditionally eaten over the Christmas holidays. Although it was quite rare to see in Northern Ireland until recently, more and more delicatessens stock them now.

I love all of those old-fashioned, school-dinner type of desserts and I thought that the Panettone would be perfect for an Italian bread and butter pudding. I saw this recipe on TV a couple of years ago – Giorgio Locatelli added some grappa-soaked sultanas for a nice, boozy edge to the dessert – and who am I to change his recipe!

You can see more photos hereImageImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6Image 7Image 8

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

For the Panettone

• Panettone, cut into thick slices and buttered
• 75g sultanas
• A little icing sugar
• Some dark Moscovado sugar
• A little jam (I used apricot preserve)
• Some Grappa (optional)

For the custard

• 570ml/1 pint milk
• 55ml/2fl oz single cream
• 1 vanilla pod
• 4 eggs, yolks only
• 30g/1oz caster sugar
• 2 level tsp cornflour

You’ll also need a large saucepan, a whisk, a wooden spoon, and a good deep oven-proof dish.

Method

Method – The custard:

1. Take a knife and slice the vanilla pod down the length of the pod
   Place the pod in a second saucepan, making sure to get all of the small black seeds from the blade of the knife in there as well.
2. Add the milk and cream to the saucepan and bring the lot to simmering point over a low heat.
3. Remove the vanilla pod.
4. Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour together in a bowl until well blended.
5. Pour the hot milk and cream on to the eggs and sugar, whisking all the time with a balloon whisk.
6. Return to the pan, and over a low heat gently stir with a wooden spoon. You’ll know when the custard is thick enough when a clear line remains when you run your finger down the back of the custard-covered spoon

Method – The bread and butter pudding:

1. If you are using Grappa to soak the sultanas then place the dried fruit in a bowl and cover with the grappa – you could do this the day beforehand to get the most flavour into the fruit.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C
3. Cut the panettone into thick wedges and butter each side.
4. Arrange the wedges around a casserole dish, working around the circumference and finally lining the centre of the dish with the edges pointing upwards.
5. Sprinkle the sultanas across the panettone.
6. Pour the custard into the casserole dish, until the custard almost covers the panettone leaving only a centimetre of each point showing.
7. Take your egg-wash brush and dip it into the apricot preserve (or whatever you are using) and brush the points of the panettone that are showing.
8. Sprinkle the moscavado sugar over the apricot jam.
9. Place the bread and butter pudding into the oven for about 45 minutes. When cooked, it will have a slight golden crust on top but will still be slightly wobbly inside, and the moscovado sugar will be sticky and toffee-like.
10. Spoon the dessert into a bowl and pour a little double-cream over the dish to serve.

Enjoy!

Other information

Grappa is a fiery Italian brandy of between 37.5% and 60% alcohol by volume.

Tags: recipe

Categories: Dessert Course > Featured Post > Recipes

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Easy Raspberry Tart

Posted: 05 November '09 by Kelly

Niall and I went to my mum and dad’s house for some Hallowe’en celebrations at the weekend.  Everyone was bringing a dish and I decided to make a dessert. This raspberry tart was delicious and surprisingly easy to make.

You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2

Ingredients:

• 220g (1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
• 300g fresh raspberries
• 50g unsalted butter
• 500g mascarpone cheese
• 150ml of cream, lightly whipped
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Method:

1. To make a raspberry syrup, put the caster sugar in a pan with 60ml (¼ cup) of water and stir over low heat to dissolve the sugar.
2. Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Cook until golden, then remove from the heat. Mash 100g of the raspberries and stir into the syrup. Leave to cool.
3. To make the base blitz a packet of shortbread biscuits (around 500g) in a food processor. Heat up 50g of unsalted butter in a pot and add the shortbread, stir until butter has mixed well with shortbread.
4. Take out of the pot and add mixture to a cake tin. Make the base as thick or thin as you want and then pat the mixture down tightly and place in fridge to set for around 30 minutes.
5. Mix together the mascarpone, cream and vanilla bean paste and spoon on top of the shortbread base. Arrange the rest of the raspberries on top and drizzle with the raspberry syrup.

Enjoy

Tags: Dessert, Raspberry cake, raspberry tart

Categories: Biscuits and Cakes > Dessert Course > Featured Post

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How to make apple crumble with custard

Posted: 30 October '09 by Niall

Ah, school dinners..

While I’m not one for desserts, I have a deep-seated love of jam roly-poly, spotted dick, apple crumble, and the rest of those stodgy, custard-covered, rib-lining sweets.

Here’s one of our favourites – apple crumble with homemade custard. The “homemade” part is important – none of that tinned gloop or coloured cornflour here! And you can certainly taste the difference.

You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6Image 7

Ingredients:

For the crumble:

• 300g/101/2oz plain flour, sieved
• A pinch of salt
• 175g/6oz unrefined brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
• 200g/7oz unsalted butter, cubed at room temperature
• Knob of butter for greasing

For the apple filling:

• 450g/1lb apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm/1/2inch pieces
• 50g/2oz unrefined brown sugar
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 pinch of ground cinnamon

For the custard:

• 570ml/1 pint milk
• 55ml/2fl oz single cream
• 1 vanilla pod
• 4 eggs, yolks only
• 30g/1oz caster sugar
• 2 level tsp cornflour

You’ll also need a large saucepan, a whisk, a wooden spoon, and a good deep oven-proof dish.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Place the flour and the brown sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Taking a few cubes of butter at a time rub into the flour mixture. Keep rubbing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Place the apples in a big saucepan and put a drop of water – it will help the fruit to start breaking down. Place over a low heat
4. When the fruit starts to break down, add the cinnamon and the white sugar
5. Let the apples simmer, stirring occasionally – be careful though – while you want the apples to start to break down, you don’t want a puree. You still want some nice pieces of fruit in there.
6. When you’re happy with the consistency, remove the saucepan from the heat and spoon the mixture into an oven-proof dish
7. Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the top, so that there is a good inch of the crust over the whole dish
8. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture bubbling
9. Take a knife and slice the vanilla pod down the length of the pod
10. Place the pod in a second saucepan, making sure to get all of the small black seeds from the blade of the knife in there as well
11. Add the milk and cream to the saucepan and bring the lot to simmering point over a low heat
12. Remove the vanilla pod
13. Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour together in a bowl until well blended
14. Pour the hot milk and cream on to the eggs and sugar, whisking all the time with a balloon whisk
15. Return to the pan, and over a low heat gently stir with a wooden spoon. You’ll know when the custard is thick enough when a clear line remains when you run your finger down the back of the custard-covered spoon
16. Spoon a serving of the apple crumble into a bowl and pour some of the custard over the top – heaven!

Tags: dessert, recipe, recipes

Categories: Dessert Course > Featured Post > Recipes

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