Egg free, butter free sponge cake (vegan)

Now here's a surprise.

I made this as an experiment, as I have had a few people asking me about egg free cakes. The recipe I found trawling the internet sound alike it would produce an inedible lump (or a 'pile of flour' as a friend suggested :)).

But this emerged from the oven...

Alarming. It actually tasted nice! The texture was fab, and the flavour not bad at all. See notes afterwards for how I'll change it next time, but here's the plain old cake recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup water
•  6 tablespoons oil (neutral flavoured, meaning vegetable, sunflower or groundnut)
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method: mix all ingredients and whisk for a few seconds until smooth and non-lumpy. Place into two 20cm greased sandwich tins and bake at 175 (degrees C, fan assisted) for 20 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean. I cooled it then sandwiched it with jam (my home made jam which is a little runny, hence the artistic dribbling!)

Well, I have to say this was a revelation. My tips would be for future baking:

1. I think (so long as vegans weren't eating it!) I would use melted butter instead of the oil to give extra richness.

2. Milk would, again, in my view improve the depth of flavour in the place of water.

3. Normal flavourings could be added e.g. lemon zest, a couple of good tablespoons of cocoa powder, etc. 

Could also be adapted to make a gluten free dairy free effort by substituting gluten free flour blend for the plain flour, and ensuring you use gluten free baking powder. Although that would then be a vegan, gluten free cake which would blow my mind... This has unnerved me as I usually think anything made without copious amounts of butter and egg and gluten would taste pants. And if anyone makes it successfully using sugar substitute and gluten free flour I will indeed accuse you of witchcraft...!

JB

Bagels. The best bagels this side of NYC*

* I have no evidence for this. But they're bloody good. And easy!!! Do it!! For breakfast (ideally in bed delivered by an equally delicious partner of your choice) they take some beating.

A recent trip to the USA reignited my love of bagels - proper, chewy, soft, malty bagels, not the imitation things supermarkets here sell, which truly aren't bagels in my eyes! So for those if you who want to taste a proper bagel... Here's the recipe!

• 450-500g strong white bread flour
• 1 level teaspoon dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon malt extract (from holland and Barrett. Or use honey)
• 1 teaspoon salt (1 1/2 if using coarse salt)
• About 250ml warm water

Plonk ingredients together and make a dough. It should be quite firm and not at all sticky and after kneading for about 5-10 mins will look like a thing of smooth, satiny, slightly tense beauty.

Now the first bit of magic... Oil a bowl, plop the dough in and cling film it, then stick it in the fridge overnight. Or for however long you like. Then the next day (or whenever you want bagely goodness), remove from the fridge and make bagely shapes; either roll a sausage then loop it together or make a ball and poke a hole. Whichever way, make the hole a lot bigger than you thought you needed to, and put the bagels on an oiled baking sheet (or Teflon sheet). Cover with cling again and leave for an hour or so at room temp to puff up a bit more. This long fermentation time helps to develop flavour.

Now magic part number two... Being a large pan of water to the boil and add another spoon of malt extract and a teaspoon or so if bicarbonate of soda. Plop each bagel in for a minute, flip over, then drain and plop back onto the baking tray. Sprinkle with poppy seeds (or pumpkin, linseed etc if you like) and bake for 15 mins as hot as your oven will go.

Bloody lovely! Apologies for brief posting, trying to blog on the sly on my phone ;)

Little jars of sunshine... kind of!

Lilt Marmalade

OK, newsflash: I do not like marmalade. I am certainly well known as eating pretty much anything, and could spend 20 years on death row trying to decide what the heck my last ever meal would be. But, generally speaking, I have three issues:

• Offal on it's own; in pies, paté, etc it's delicious. Kidneys on their own taste like the smell f a school dissection class to me despite my best efforts to overcome my repulsion, it still stands.
• Rice pudding: Kinda getting better now,  I can eat home made and tinned without too much of an issue. But it would never be my first choice (and Mr B LOVES it so I've been a bit swayed by his passion for stodgy custardy pud).
• Orange marmalade. Lime, yes, lemon, yes, orange not to much. It's just soooo bitter and tastes weird. But recent attempts to get myself on side with marmalade have lead to this post...

Pineapple and grapefruit marmalade (AKA Lilt marmalade)

This sounded like a good idea to me. Fruity enough to not be actually too marmalade-y, and home made is always better than shop bought (except some stuff. Like ketchup.)

The results were pretty good; sweet and tangy but nice and tropical. Let's see if we still like it after 5 jars!

Ingredients

• 3 grapefruits (I used ruby)
• 700ml water
• 900g granulated sugar
• 1 small lemon
• 2 tins (450g ish) crushed pineapple in juice

Method

• First, peel the grapefruit (after washing in warm water to remove any wax) and shred it finely.

• Your kitchen will smell amazing already! Then, juice the grapefruit and put in a huge pan with the peel. Keep the pith and pips and put it in a muslin bag (or a piece of old cloth) and splosh it in. Then, add the water.
• Boil for 1 1/2 hours (ish) - maybe a bit less if you've shredded the peel really finely.
• Then, add the pineapple and juice and boil for another half an hour or so.
• At this point, fish out the bag and let it and your mixture cool until you can pick it up, then squeeeeeeeze it into the mixture; this adds pectin from the seeds and pith which will help your marmalade to set.
• While the bag is cooling, warm the sugar in the oven at about 75 or 80 degrees.
• Once you've squeezed the bag out and chucked it away, add the sugar, juice of the lemon, and bring it to the boil gently, stirring occasionally. Then boil the heck out of it for a good 15 minutes minimum (it can take a good while to reach setting point, keep checking. Here's how; put a plate in the freezer for a few mins and keep dripping a bit of your mixture onto the plate. it's at 'setting point' when you can see the marmalade wrinkle as you push the blob with your finger).
• Spoon into sterilised jars (washed in warm water then 10 mins at 140 degrees in the oven) and seal. This recipe makes 5 x 450g (ish) jars.

Chocolate chip cheesecakes

What a beautiful alliterative name. These are so good they make my heart hurt. And my arteries. Ah well, sometimes you just have to combine as many cardiac disease causing agents as possible, and let me tell you this is the way to go...

Adapted from a recipe in the Metro I found reporting on a book called (imaginatively) "cheesecake". A quick google came up with this one which I am sure it was referring to:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cheesecake-Hannah-Miles/dp/1849753520

Anyway, here is the recipe in all it's beautiful glory...

Chocolate chip cheesecakes

 Ingredients:
    Base
    50g salted pretzels
    100g oreo cookies
    70g butter

    Topping
    250g ricotta cheese
    250g full fat soft cheese (I know, I know. Just this once)
    2 medium eggs from happy hens
    200g condensed milk (the food of the gods)
    seeds from a vanilla pod
    150g choccy chips or chunks, whichever you like (I used dark and white 50:50)
   




Method

• Crush / bash the pretzels and Oreos until fine dust is formed. Dust which would be the soil of my dream garden.
• Melt the butter and mix together to make soil with the cookie crumbs.
• Press into the bottoms of a 12 hole muffin tin (greased and non-stick) - I used my Circulon one which is my second favourite kitchen item ever - it's totes amaze.
• Set aside and make the filling by whisking the ricotta and soft cheese together with the condensed milk until schmooth. Then add the vanilla seeds and eggs and whisk again.
• Add about 3/4 of the chocolate chips and stir through, then divide the mixture between the 12 bases - you'll probe have some left over (remember these will puff up a little while in the oven so don't fill it right the way to the brim). Put any leftover topping in a ramekin and bake alongside the cheesecakes so act as a chef's perk.
• Bake at 170 degrees C for 20 mins or until very slightly browned and there is a slight wibble wobble in the middle of the cheesecakes.
• Remove from the oven and sprinkle the rest of the chocolate chips on op while still nice and hot, so they meant a bit into the topping.
• Cool in the tin and refrigerate for a good hour or two before popping out. Demolish. Feel the most satisfying food guilt ever.