Kiddylicious Gingerbread House

I have always been fascinated with gingerbread houses.

They just look so beautiful, mysterious and fantastical. So, as mentioned in my post on Christmas Gingerbread Cookies (23^rd November 2013), I was determined that I would make one this year! And here it is!!!

I used exactly the same recipe (but doubled the quantity) that I used for the Gingerbread Cookies and it really worked a treat. I was delighted with how it turned out.

I created a template for the different parts of my house and cut them out in cardboard (an old cereal box was used) as I wanted something fairly rigid to cut around to create the walls and roof of my house. I rolled the dough to about ¾cm which is slightly thicker than I normally would for smaller cookies as I wanted to ensure that the house would not collapse when I later assembled it. I cooked the pieces for about 15 minutes until they were just beginning to brown around the edges and let them cool completely on the baking sheets before I attempted to remove them.
 

I would advise decorating each piece individually and let the icing dry BEFORE you assemble the house. I used a large quantity of the icing recipe that I gave in my Gingerbread Cookies recipe. And I basically let my imagination run riot. I wanted to create something that was over-the-top but was still beautiful and looked delicious. And if I say so myself, I think I did! My children loved it, although they wanted to start eating it immediately. The various pieces are then joined together using more of the icing.

 

In addition to decorating with icing, you can also “glue” on all sorts of foodstuffs like nuts or cereal with little blobs of icing. I recently discovered the Kiddylicious range and think their products are so tasty, so I decided that I would use them. A  packet of Kiddylicious Fruit Wriggles counts as 1 of your child's 5-a-day, so this was also an added attraction. In particular, I liked their authentic fruit taste. I used the Apple Fruit Wriggles to replicate a thatched roof and some of the Strawberry & Banana Smoothie Melts as bricks on my house. I loved the effect that was achieved.

 

Making the house was not difficult, but I will admit that it was time consuming… But I think that it was worth it, because of the look of amazement on my gang’s faces when I unveiled it to them! Of all the things that I cook and bake, I don’t think any have ever elicited the same reaction!!! It may sound a bit daft, but I am really proud of what I managed to achieve at my first attempt.
 

 

 

Lemon Posset & Blueberry Compote with Shortbread Fingers

This has to be one of the simplest desserts to make and the combination of lemon and blueberry is sublime! Other soft fruits could be used for the compote and even though I haven’t tried it yet, I think raspberries might be particularly good. The deep pink of a raspberry compote against the pale lemon of the posset would look so elegant.

I have come across recipes for possets which use other citrus fruits. Personally, I think that you need to use a fruit that is quite tart and bitter so in my own mind I have ruled out the use of sweet oranges. However, when available in January and February, Seville oranges could work very well. I have yet to do more experimenting with other citrus fruits, but will report back when I do.

This is the type of dessert that looks like it should be quite complicated to make, but truthfully, it is incredibly simple and it has worked, without fail, every time that I have made it. I love it!

Despite being so simple to make and using very few ingredients, this is a very rich dessert. I caution you to serve small portions. The first time that I made it, I presented it in tumbler-sized glasses. Although delectable, it was too much. Since then I have served it in large shot glasses or have only one-third filled the tumbler-sized glasses.

 

I like to serve this posset with a couple of shortbread biscuits on the side. I really like the marriage of the rich and creamy posset with the crumbly, buttery crunch that the shortbread provides.

 

Possets are desserts steeped in tradition and history. Originally a posset was a beverage made from hot milk and honey to which wine or ale was added. It was very popular in the Middle Ages throughout the British Isles. The dessert evolved over time into the chilled, thickened cream - based dessert that we are familiar with today.

 

Lady Macbeth used a poisoned posset to knock out the guards keeping watch outside Duncan’s quarters in Macbeth but I promise you, if you like lemons and blueberries you will love this dessert.

 

Ingredients:

500ml double cream

150g caster sugar

75ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

Zest of three lemons

Blueberry compote:

250g fresh blueberries

100g caster sugar

Method:

1. Put the cream into a medium sized saucepan. Bring the cream to the boil and then stir in the lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar. Bring back to the boil, stirring constantly and allow simmer for two minutes.

2. Remove the saucepan from the heat and pass the cream and lemon mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl and allow to cool for about twenty minutes. Pour evenly into 8-10 small glasses and leave to cool completely.

3. When completely cool, cover and refrigerate until chilled.

Blueberry compote:

4. Place the sugar in a small, heavy based saucepan and heat over a high heat until the sugar begins to melt. Do not allow the sugar to caramelise too much, but once all the sugar has melted add the all the blueberries and mix with a wooden spoon.

5. Reduce the heat under the saucepan and keep stirring. Some of the sugar may seize but as the blueberries release their juices everything will become liquid again. Just keep stirring. After a couple of minutes you will have a lovely rich blueberry compote. Set aside to cool completely. Once cooled, cover and refrigerate.

To serve:

6. Spoon a layer of blueberry compote on top of each lemon posset to cover completely in an even layer.

7. Serve with shortbread biscuits. I made shortbread finger using my basic shortbread recipe rolling out the dough to about half a centimetre thick and cutting into fingers before baking in a preheated oven for approximately 15 minutes.

Serves 8-10.
 

Cornflake Cookies

Like so many other people, one of the first things that I ever made were Rice Krispie buns. They are so simple to make – you melt some chocolate, pour in some Rice Krispies, mix like mad so every little puffed grain of rice gets generously coated in the chocolate and then scoop into paper cases and set aside until the chocolate hardens! They are practically mandatory fare at children’s’ parties throughout Ireland and no birthday party is complete without them!
 
I was fairly young when it struck me that I didn’t have to confine the culinary possibilities of this delicacy to Rice Krispies only – other breakfast cereals could be used in their place!!! In my humble opinion there is nothing like the taste of chocolate Cornflake buns. I love them… and yes - I still make them regularly!
 

I love the crunch of the flaked corn which is almost exaggerated by being coated in chocolate. I find them so much more satisfying than their puffed rice counterparts. I should also declare that chocolate snobbery is matter-less when making Cornflake buns; I hold my head in shame and will admit to you that I regularly use chocolate flavoured cake covering and not some exclusive chocolate! 70% minimum cocoa solids have no place here… and if I am being honest, I don’t think anyone will ever be able to change my mind on this, because one bite of the “fake” chocolate versions transports me back to when I was a child and makes me recall so many happy times.

 
I was recently reminiscing about foods and dishes that I used to like to eat when I was younger and was reminded of this personal fondness for chocolate Cornflake buns. I began to wonder how else one could use Cornflakes in cooking and baking. There are a number of possibilities which I am keen to try out, but for now, the recipe that I present here is for Cornflake Cookies.
 
These are really lovely and are so crumbly and light. They are incredible simple to make and keep very well for a few days if stored in an air tight tin. I like to stud each individual biscuit with half a glacé cherry just prior to baking but if you are not a fan, just leave them out. The cookies will still be delicious with their crunchy coating of cornflakes.
 
This is a great recipe to get children the children involved with. Little hands are great at rolling small balls of dough! Pernickety as it sounds, for the biscuits pictured, I actually weighed out uniform amounts of dough before rolling. Each ball weighed exactly 16g. Anyone who knows me will find it highly amusing that I did this because I normally have no patience for doing these things.

Ingredients:

100g butter, softened

75g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

1tsp vanilla paste

150g self-raising flour

50g cornflakes, lightly crushed

9-10 glacé cherries, halved

Method:

1. Using an electric hand-held whisk cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla paste. Using a wooden spoon work in the flour until everything comes together to form a dough. Refrigerate the dough for half an hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan Oven 170C/Gas Mark 5. Line two large baking trays with non-stick baking parchment and leave aside.

3. Divide the mixture into 18-20 even sized balls. Spread out the crushed cornflakes on a plate and gently press one side of the dough balls into the cornflakes flattening the balls slightly as you do so.

4. Place the dough balls, cornflake side facing upwards on the parchment lined trays, leaving space between each one as they do expand during baking. Press a cherry half on top of each cookie.

5. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow cool on the baking trays for about five minutes before removing to wire racks to finish cooling completely.
  
Makes 18-20 cookies.

 

Maltesers Cake

I am quite fussy about what I want from a chocolate cake. I like a chocolate cake that has quite a dense crumb but is still quite light. I like them to be moist but not damp and most importantly I like them to taste of chocolate! Chocolate cakes are often too sickly sweet or, at the other end of the spectrum, are often far too bitter. What I have been looking for is a good basic chocolate cake that can be used as the basis for the various celebration cakes that I am called on to bake from time-to-time. I have baked scores of chocolate cakes over the years, but never quite achieved the taste/texture/chocolate combination that I was looking for.

That was until I made this cake. I am delighted with it. It IS rich, but is deliciously chocolatey and relatively easy to bake.

Over the years I have found that the way to achieve an intensely chocolate taste is to use both cocoa powder and melted chocolate when making the cake batter. You could use a chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa solids (i.e. 70%), but I find that it makes a very rich cake, which doesn’t tend to appeal to children. I like to use Cadbury’s Bourneville, which gives me the balance that I am looking for.

The addition of golden syrup gives added sweetness, but more importantly it helps create a moist cake.

I toyed with the idea of covering the cake with a chocolate ganache, but again I felt that this might be too rich. Instead I opted for a fudgy, chocolate buttercream, which I think works very well.

Once the cake is sandwiched together and iced, you can then decorate however the fancy takes you. To be honest, Maltesers were on special offer in the supermarket, so I bought a large box and spent a happy quarter of an hour studding my cake with them. Of course the basic cake could be decorated in a number of different ways; using different sweets… let your imagination run riot!

Ingredients:

200g butter

210g light muscovado sugar

140g golden syrup

4 eggs, separated

300ml milk

300g plain flour

60g cocoa powder

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

200g dark chocolate

Fudge icing:

175g dark chocolate

250g unsalted butter

275g icing sugar

1tsp vanilla paste

To finish:

1 x 450g box of Maltesers

 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Grease and base-line 3 x 20cm round sandwich tins with removable bases.

2. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and leave aside to cool slightly. Cream the butter, sugar and golden syrup together until light and creamy. Add the egg yolks and mix well together to incorporate.

3. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder together and add to the butter and eggs mixture in three lots, mixing well after each addition. Slowly mix in the milk. Next add in the cooled melted chocolate and mix well.

4. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form and then fold in gentle to the batter.

5. Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and smooth the surfaces. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about ten minutes before removing completely from the tins and allow to cool completely on wire cooling racks.

When completely cool sandwich together with the fudge icing.

Fudge icing:

6. Melt the chocolate in a bowl sitting over a simmering pan of water. Set aside to cool slightly.

7. In a separate bowl beat the butter until it is very soft and creamy. Sift the icing sugar into the butter and slowly beat into the butter mixture. Add the vanilla paste and melted chocolate and mix again until all the ingredients are well incorporated.

8. Use two thirds of the icing to sandwich the cakes together and then use a small palette knife to smoothly spread the remaining icing over the sides and top of the cake.

To finish:

9. This is the fun bit. Basically all you need to do is gently press the Maltesers into the icing to completely cover the cake!

 

 Serves 8-10.
 

Pear & Ginger Chutney

This spicy chutney is another great preserve that can be made now and will have matured just in time to use over the festive season.

As this chutney matures, the pears mellow but still remain beautifully fruity.

 

It is such a useful preserve to have in the store-cupboard. It is delicious with cheese and I love to eat it with a strong cheddar, but it really comes into its own when served with a blue cheese such as the Irish Cashel Blue or Bellingham Blue, an English Stilton or a French Roquefort – with a few pickled walnuts on the side or a couple of thinly cut slices of fresh pear – HEAVEN! Pears and blue cheese go so well together and is one of my favourite food pairings.

 

You do not need to confine the use of this chutney to being just an accompaniment to cheese. I regularly add a couple of tablespoons to my homemade beef stew and sometimes a little does wonders to perk up gravy. I also like to smear a thin layer of it into a blind-baked pastry case before filling with some sweated onions and streaky bacon, a savoury egg custard and sprinkling with some cheese before baking in the oven.

 

Chutneys are great to give as gifts. I like to make a variety of chutneys, jams and pickles during the autumn and package them up in little baskets along with some homemade gingerbread and fudge as gifts to give at Christmas.

 

There is nothing difficult about making this chutney… the only slightly tedious bit is the chopping of all the fruit and vegetables, but you are then rewarded with the most beautiful jars of delectable chutney at the end.

 

Ingredients:

1kg pears, peeled cored and cut into 2cm cubes

450g onions, peeled and finely chopped

450g tomatoes, preferably peeled and sliced

250g raisins

2 balls of preserved stem ginger cut into tiny cubes

8 peppercorns

700g demerara sugar

1tsp cayenne pepper

1tsp ground ginger

2tsp salt

750ml cider vinegar

Method:

1. Place all the fruit and vegetables in a large heavy based saucepan over a gentle heat until some of their water is released and they are just starting to simmer.  Do not cover the saucepan.  Tie the peppercorns in a small piece of muslin and pop into the saucepan with the fruit and vegetables. Add the rest of the ingredients and allow to simmer at a very low heat for 2-2½ hours. Make sure to stir the chutney regularly to avoid it catching on the bottom of the saucepan.

2. When ready the chutney should be thick and most of the liquid will have evaporated, but don’t over-reduce it as the chutney will continue thickening as it cools. Remove the little muslin pouch of peppercorns and spoon the chutney into warm sterilised jars and seal with vinegar proof lids. Store in a cool dark place for at least a month before opening. The chutney can be stored for up to6 months unopened, but once opened it should be stored in the fridge and consumed within 6 weeks.

 

Makes approximately 2.5kg.
 

Pecan Pie - A Thanksgiving Day Treat!

Thanksgiving Day is an annual American public holiday that dates back to colonial times. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November and is essentially a celebration where people give thanks for what they have.
 
Although the matter is disputed, many historians trace the origins of the holiday back to the harvest celebrations that early pilgrims held in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621 and the subsequent celebrations two years later where they gave thanks when rain came after a lengthy drought.
 
As with so many holidays, there are specific foods and culinary rituals associated with the festivities. A typical Thanksgiving Day dinner consists of roast turkey with all the trimmings including stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce. Pumpkin pies are also traditionally served, but many other pies can also be included as part of the Thanksgiving feast.

I love pies. Fruit pies are delicious but I am also partial to a whole range of other pies both sweet and savoury.
 
Many years ago I lived and worked in America for a short time and I loved the apple pie and the chocolate chip pie that were served in the restaurant where I worked. Both were heavenly but more made even more luscious by the fact that they were always served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream which began to slowly melt with the residual heat of the pies.

Another pie I came to quite late, but which is now a firm favourite of mine, is pecan pie. This is the pie that I present here to mark Thanksgiving Day. The recipe is based on one contained in the Great British Bake Off cookbook. I have baked it many times and have tweaked it here and there. Yes… it is sweet, but to be honest, that’s kind of the point. It is so tasty and I find it almost impossible to limit myself to just one slice. All too often pies do not keep for any length of time and need to be eaten on the day that they are made. I have found that this recipe bucks that trend and is every bit as good a couple of days later.
 

Ingredients:

Pastry:

200g plain flour

1tblsp icing sugar

120g butter, chilled and diced

1 large egg yolk

1-2tblsp water

Filling:

100g unsalted butter, diced

125g muscovado sugar

85g maple syrup

85g golden syrup

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

½ tsp vanilla paste

200g pecans

Method:

Make pastry:

1. Sift the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and sprinkle in the water and using a fork mix until the mixture comes together to form a dough.

2. Tip out on a lightly floured work-surface and knead briefly and shape into a ball. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for about half an hour to rest.

Blind-bake pastry:

3. Preheat oven to 190C/Fan Oven 170C/Gas Mark 5. Grease a 5cm deep, 23cm round, fluted pie dish with a removable base, with a little butter. Using a rolling pin, roll out the pastry dough until large enough to fit into your pie dish to cover the base and the sides. Cover the pastry with a sheet of crumpled baking parchment and then fill with baking beans. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove the baking beans and parchment paper and cook for a further five minutes.

4. Remove the blind-baked pastry from the oven and set aside to partially cool while you make the pie filling.

5. Turn oven down to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4.

Make the filling:

6. Put the butter, sugar, maple syrup, golden syrup in a medium sized saucepan and melt gently over a low heat giving it an occasional stir. Once melted increase the heat and bring to the boil. Allow bubble for one minute and then remove from the heat and put to the side for ten minutes to cool down a little.

7. When cooled down add the eggs and vanilla paste and mix together well. Reserve a few nuts for decoration, but roughly chop the rest. Add the chopped nuts to the sugar and syrup mixture in the saucepan. Mix well and pour into the blind-baked pastry case. Place the whole pecans in concentric circles on top of the pie and then place in the oven to bake for approximately 30-35 minutes.

8. Remove from the oven and allow cool.

 

Serves 8-10.