Biscotti - Italia baking!

Italia! Coffee! Biscotti!!

EASY!!

This was a Paul Hollywood (God) recipe and was deeeeee-lish. I made orange, hazelnut and raisin, but you could make whatever flavour you like.

The method and recipe is super simple...

Ingredients:

• 250g plain flour
• 250g caster sugar
• 3 large free range happy eggs
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Flavourings of your choice - 200g nuts and 150g dried fruit as a guide. Can be substituted with lots of nuts, more fruit, chocolate chunks etc...
• Zest of an orange or a lemon (optional)

Method:

• mix the flour, baking powder and sugar together, then bind to a dough with the eggs. It will be slumpy and a bit wet, but fear not...

 Add the flavourings and knead the dough lightly so it holds the fillings in.

Plonk it (floured so you can handle it) in 2 log shapes on a baking sheet...

Bake it at 140 (fan) for 25 minutes until risen slightly and firmed. Then cool slightly and slice with a sharp, serrated knife into 1cm slices. Lay these flat on the baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes more, then turn and bake a third time for 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy!!!!

How to grease and line a tin!

A silly post, but one which will make your life easier ;)

1. Remove the base of your tin (if possible, if not draw around it on a piece of paper and remind yourself to buy some loose bottom tins). Heavy tins are usually best, I love this range from amazon...
But in an ideal world I've have all Circulon bakeware. Ah well! I digress as usual...

2. Grease the upper side of the base of the tin, then flip it over and stick it to the paper... If you have a solid bottom tin then cut out the paper and grease it.

3. Cut out the paper, then stick it onto the tin, peel it off and stick it on again the other side. Hey presto! You have a greased paper stuck to your tin :)

4. Then, grease and line the rest of your tin using strips of paper if you need. 

Around the world in (some) bakes... Iceland!

Vinarterta... Icelandic cake :)

This little beauty is an Icelandic celebration cake. It's vanilla and almond sponge (or soft cookie) layered with prune and cardamom jammy filling, and is pretty yummy!

 Here's the recipe...

It's basically like a regular cake mix, except when you get a normal cake batter like this...

...you add a cup more flour and knead it to a soft dough like this...

It's then rolled out into rounds and baked, to get these...

Then layer up! I finished mine with some almond glacé icing. The filling is as it says in the recipe, just prunes bubbled up with cardamom, a squeeze of lemon and blended. Practically a health food :)

So would I make it again? Yes, but with a few non-traditional changes I think. I wasn;t a huge fan of the prune filling, but the cake / cookie combo with a soft filling stayed fresh for ages and was a nice idea. Maybe a chocolate dough with marshmallow filling, or an almond cookie dough filled with a strawberry jam?...

Well done Iceland! Apparently this is traditionally eaten bit by bit over a long period of time, and I can see why, it really does last very well. And looks well impressive once you cut it!

Bofrot (I think. We've reached Ghana on the baking odyssey!)

An apology. I forgot to take pictures cos I was super busy!

Anyway, google informs me reliably that one of the only (not really baked but dough based!) traditional type sweet things Ghana has given to the world which I could recreate without too much hassle are balls. Balls of fried dough, sweet with a kick of nutmeg.

These balls in fact:

Nice round doughnuts with a nutmeg flavour. Would I make them again? Probably not, but only for a couple of reasons:

1. I made them a bit too big, so the insides were a bit bland. Smaller ones would have probably had a better ratio of nice crisp chewy outside to soft inside. Maybe filling them with something would work?

2. They made the kitchen smell pretty oily thanks to the frying. I don't have a fryer, if you did I'm sure this wouldn't be as much of an issue.

The recipe: Made 8 reasonably chunky sized doughnuts...

Cobbled together from a few recipes on the internet!

125ml warm water

1 tsp fast action dry yeast

50g caster sugar

about 150-200g bread flour (enough to make a soft but not runny dough)

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg (I used 1/4tsp but I would use more next time).

Method: Knead all ingredients together until smooth and elasticy (about 5 minutes by hand). It doesn't have to be too worked. Leave it to rise for about 2 hours - the sugar in the dough retards the yeast so it will rise more slowly than regular bread dough. Once risen, knock back then divide into 8-10 balls.

When ready to cook, put veg or sunflower oil (or any other tasteless oil, by which I mean flavourless as opposed to one with an unsavoury outlook on life) to a depth of about 2-3 cm in a pan. Gently heat until a little pinch of the dough bubbles when plopped in, then lower the balls 3 or 4 at a time on a slotted spoon into the oil, Let it fry for 2-3 minutes, then turn over so it puffs evenly and browns all over. They will need about 6-8 minutes for each one if you make 10 out of this mixture. 

Drain on paper, dust with icing sugar and serve warm.

So... apologies to anyone who loves these, I don't think I did them justice! BUT it has given me confidence that I could one day make a decent doughnut. Deep fried dough, mmm!!

Next stop... Iceland! Til next time...

JB x

Around the world in a good few bakes... Iranian bread (Noon Barbari)

So, this week has brought me to... Iran!

Now, when I think of Iran I think of... umm... it used to be known as Persia, and they probably like rosewater?!

Pretty rubbish knowledge. Soz Iran. So I did a quick search and came up with a few fun facts. Basically, I am hugely ignorant, and Iranian food sounds amazing. Nuts, spices, rosewater (yay), orange blossom water, dried fruits and other such wonders abound. Also, there are a number of traditional breads which include this one. Any country which loves their spices and bread is good with me, so here goes... Apologies to anyone with and Iranian connections who may be offended by my attempt at this traditional bread!

Noon Barbari is, as far as I can gather, a traditional flatbread which has a couple of USPs. Firstly, it had these (four?) grooves in it, and second it is glazed with a funny mixture of baking powder, water and flour boiled together before being baked (Roomal), which gives it a fab crust and also a slightly browner appearance that you might expect.

Ingredients:

• First stage: 1 1/2 tsp dried yeast, 1 1/2 tsp honey, 1 1/3 cups lukewarm water, 1 1/4 cups bread flour. Whisk together until a bubbly batter is formed. then leave it 20 minutes til it's frothy and spongy looking...

• Next, add 1 tsp salt and 2 cups more flour, along with 1/2 tsp baking powder, and knead or dough-hook for 10 mins. It may be sloppy - keep going and it will come together! It did need a good 10 minutes to become workable. 

Rise for an hour...

Knock back gently, then I let it rise again for about half an hour while I made the Roomal...

• Roomal: 1/2 tsp flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 cup water - plop it in a jug, microwave for a minute until it boils for a bit, give it a whisk and then leave it to cool. It looks weird. Roomal done.
• Next... shapey shapey... I made four ovaly things, then dipping fingers into the glaze brush it all over and make four grooves along the shapes...

Lastly, sprinkle with nigella seeds...

And finally, BAKE! (a la Sue off GBBO) for 20 mins at 200 degrees C. This is what I ended up with...

Overall, it is a yummy bread. I have no real idea how close I may be to an actual traditional Noon Barbari, but it is light and fluffy with a chewy, crispy crust. Apparently it is eaten with crumbled feta style cheese and nuts. I indeed did eat one for dinner with crumbled, warmed feta, roasted peppers, roasted tomatoes and thyme. And it was ruddy delicious. Iran, excellent work :)

Next... Ghana. Better get researching!

JB x

Tasting menu at The Grainstore, Edinburgh *

* well... This menu was cooked for our lovely friends Mr and Mrs M and us by Mrs M's cousin Sean (used to work in The starred Balmoral) at The Grainstore in Edinburgh. He's amazingly talented, and also upsettingly young. This guy HAS to be destined for special foodie things, the venison dish was pretty much the best plate of food I've ever eaten and in my humble little opinion, was better than the Michelin starred restaurants I've had the pleasure of eating in. Word on the street is that he's going to be cooking in some pop ups in London over the coming months... If you get the chance you should definitely check it out.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves - it was every bit as good as it looked (oh, and the wine flight was gorgeous, the restaurant has a wonderful Sommelier with a beautiful voice who I could listen to all day...!)

Canapés...

 

 Gazpacho :)

Scallops with peas and bacon

Sea bass with piccalilli... GORGEOUS!

Smoked aubergine cannelloni. Outrageously tasty.

                                 Venison with beetroot, chocolate, red berries. INCREDIBLE.

                                                   Casual dessert - chocolate terrine...

 Strawberries and champagne :)

There was also a cheese course but in my over-excitement I forgot a pic :)

DEE-LISH food from an incredible young chef = happy me!!

JB x