Cinnamon & Raisin Bagels

These bagels are really tasty and keep very well. The crumb is light but with that slight chewiness that you should get with bagels. The cinnamon and raisin combination is a classic marriage of two flavours that are just made for each other.

Often when I cook or bake, the challenge that I privately set myself is to produce something that is tastier and well…just better than that which you could purchase in the supermarket or local shop. These bagels definitely achieve this and I will be making them again and again. They are perfect breakfast fare, split in half and smeared with good Irish butter and preserves or my favourite – toasted and then slathered… and I mean SLATHERED in butter which begins to melt seductively into the spicy sweetness of the hot bagel.

Homemade yeasted breads tend to go stale quicker than their mass-produced, processed counterparts which are packed full of preservatives to extend shelf-life. However, the keeping qualities of these bagels are great. They are lovely eaten shortly after being baked, but were every bit as tasty a couple of days later when I toasted them. To be honest, I had to hide the bagels because the rest of my gang kept eating them. If I had given them free-reign, how quickly they did or did not go stale would not have been an issue, because there would have been none left!

 

I was nervous about poaching the bagels, thinking that they would deflate on being scooped out of the water and set aside whilst I got on with poaching the others, but they didn’t. These are really far easier to make than I imagined and I am so thrilled with the results. I now feel enthused and excited about developing new flavour combinations and already have a few ideas of some that I would like to try out. I shall of course keep you updated!

Bagels are ring shaped yeasted breads about the size of a ring doughnut, which are boiled for a short time before being baked in the oven. The boiling of the bagels produces the chewy crumb characteristic of the bagel. Bagels gained widespread popularity in the United States and they are now commonly eaten in many countries. Bagels may be savoury, topped with seeds and/or flavoured with onions or spices or may be sweet like the recipe that I give here.

 

Ingredients:

500g strong white flour, plus a little extra for kneading

2 heaped tblsp caster sugar
1tsp salt
2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon

1 x 7g sachet of fast action yeast

125g raisins

300ml warm water

1tblsp bicarbonate of soda

A little beaten egg for glazing
 

Method:

1. Put the flour, sugar, salt , cinnamon, yeast and raisins into a large bowl. Add the warm water and mix to a rough dough using your hands or a wooden spoon.

2. Tip out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead the dough for about ten minutes until it is smooth and elastic.
3. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking parchment and set aside.
4. Place the dough on a lightly oiled bowl and cover with some cling film. Leave in a warm place for about an hour to prove by which time it should have doubled in size.

5. Tip the dough out onto the work surface and shape into ten evenly sized balls.  Place on the prepared baking trays and cover again with lightly oiled cling film. Allow to rise again for about 30 minutes. Remove the cling film and using your forefinger or the handle of a wooden spoon make a hole in the centre of each bagel. I swirl the dough around my finger to create a hole about 4cms in diameter.

6. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4.

7. Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. When it is bubbling away, add the bicarbonate of soda. Carefully pop a couple of bagels at a time into the water and allow to bubble away for about 90 seconds – they will puff up! Turn them over in the water after about 45 seconds.

8. Carefully remove and drain well on some absorbent kitchen roll and then place bake onto the lined baking trays. Repeat this process for the remaining bagels.
9. Brush the boiled bagels with a little beaten egg. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes by which time they should be a rich golden brown colour. 

  

Makes 10.

Boiled Fruitcake with Guinness & Marmalade - A Cake for Nollaig na mBan

The Feast of Epiphany or Little Christmas as it was colloquially known was traditionally celebrated in a unique way in Ireland. The 6^th January was known as Nollaig na mBan or Women’s Christmas and was a day when Irish men took on all the household duties for the day, giving the women a chance to rest presumably after all the hard work they did for the other 364 days of the year. Although this tradition has largely died out, you sometimes hear it referred to and it is still practiced in some parts of Ireland, particularly south-west Munster.

In the past, women would get together on this day and would have delicious things to eat and perhaps a few drinks. I think that it is a lovely tradition and whilst it may not be widely celebrated anymore, it is something peculiarly Irish and something that we should not forget. Many countries have special foods that they serve at Epiphany, so I started thinking about what I would make to serve at Nollaig na mBan.

I love a rich fruit cake, but they can be time-consuming to make with all the weighing of ingredients, the soaking of fruit and the long time it takes to bake them slowly in the oven and then mature them, feeding them every few days with alcohol. However, I decided that I did want to make a fruit cake and one that tasted rich and fruity but just didn’t take quite so long to produce.

A boiled fruitcake seemed like a good option. For this cake the fruit, sugar and butter are simmered in liquid. This can be tea, orange juice or even water but I decided to use Guinness. I love the slightly bitter taste that the stout lends to the finished cake and the way that the fruit plumps as it simmers away in the beer.

I had run out of citrus peel when making this cake and didn’t fancy going to the supermarket just to get a tub of “mixed peel”, so ever experimental, I added two tablespoons of marmalade with coarse cut peel in it and this was a revelation. It added a lovely citrus fruity element to the cake.

Like most fruit cakes, this one benefits from being wrapped in greaseproof paper and tin foil and being stored for a couple of days before being consumed, but it still tasted delicious if eaten once it has cooled after baking. As with so many things that I like to eat, I think that this cake is lovely spread with butter and served with a good cup of tea.
 

I think that it is a very fitting cake for Nollaig na mBan!

Ingredients:

200g sultanas
175g raisins
100g glacé cherries, halved
100g dark brown muscovado sugar

75g caster sugar

125g butter

2tblsp marmalade (with coarse cut peel)

1 egg

300ml Guinness

350g plain flour

1tsp mixed spice

1tsp bicarbonate of soda
 

Method:

1. Put the Guinness, dried fruit, glacé cherries, sugars and butter into a medium sized saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes stirring regularly and then remove from the heat and allow to cool.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 160C/Fan Oven 140C/Gas Mark 3. Line a deep, round 23cm cake tin with a double thickness of non-stick baking paper and set aside.
3. Sieve the flour, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda together and add to the cooled boiled fruit mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon ensuring that there are no little pockets of flour. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 1½ hours covering the top of the tin with tin foil for the final half hour of baking to ensure that the cake does not burn. Test the cake by inserting a thin skewer into the centre of the cake after 1¼ to see whether it is cooked. If the skewer comes out clean it is ready, if it doesn’t, give it a further 15 minutes in the oven.
4. Remove from the oven and let cool in the tin for ten minutes, before removing from the tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Serves 10-12.

Galette des Rois - A Cake for Epiphany

Galette de Rois or King Cake, as it is sometimes known, is traditionally made to celebrate the Feast of Epiphany on 6^th January each year. The cake which originally hails from France, is made up of a frangipane-like almond cream sandwiched between two layers of buttery puff pastry.  Given my love of all things almondy, I am surprised that I have never actually made a Galette de Rois before… but I will definitely be baking it again.

It is surprisingly easy to make, which is another plus point with me because although I love spending time in the kitchen cooking, baking and developing new recipes, the reality is that life with three children is hectic and it is often difficult to find the time to indulge my culinary passions.

There are many customs associated with Galette de Rois; in France a small figurine or trinket is often baked inside the cake and whoever finds it is declared “king” for the day. Traditionally, a dried broad bean or le feve was used but over time the use of specially made porcelain trinkets became popular. Convention has it that the Galette is apportioned according to the number of people who are going to eat it, plus one extra slice which was given to the first peasant or poor person who passed by on the Feast of Epiphany.

 

This is a really lovely cake cum pastry. The filling is moist and sweet and the pastry is flaky and buttery – what more could you ask for?

 

Some recipes suggest adding dark rum to the almond cream, but I used Amaretto instead to really emphasize the almond flavour. Partly because I was stuck for time but mainly because I wasn’t in the humour for the whole palaver associated with making a homemade version, I used shop-bought all-butter puff pastry.

I was really delighted with how the Galette turned out and not for the first time in my gastronomic adventures I marvelled at how something so simple, could just taste so good!

Ingredients:

125g caster sugar
125g butter, softened
125g ground almonds
1 level tblsp plain flour
3 large eggs

1tblsp Amaretto

500g puff pastry

Egg wash:

1 egg yolk

1 tblsp milk
 

Method:

1. Line a large baking tray with some non-stick baking parchment.
2. Place the sugar and butter in a mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer cream together until light and fluffy. Add the ground almonds and flour and beat to fully incorporate. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well before adding the next. Finally mix in the Amaretto. Set aside.
Egg wash:
3. Mix the egg yolk and milk together in a small bowl.
To finish:

4. Divide the puff pastry in half and using a rolling pin, roll out each piece until it is about ½cm thick. From each piece cut out a circle approximately 25cms in diameter.

5. Place one circle on the prepared baking tray. Spoon the almond cream into the centre of the circle and using the back of a spoon, spread out evenly, leaving a 5cm border clear around the edge of the circle.

6. Brush some egg wash on the pastry border and carefully lift the other pastry circle on top. Seal the edges of the two circles together to fully enclose the filling.

7. Chill the Galette by refrigerating it for an hour.

8. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4.

9. Remove the Galette from the fridge and brush with the top with the remaining egg wash. Using a small, sharp knife cut the edges into a scallop pattern. Then, using the tip of the knife, score the top of the pastry into a sunray type pattern.

10. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes until a rich, golden colour.

11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving.
 

Serves 8.

Monte Carlos

These biscuits were first described to me by a good friend who had travelled to visit relatives living in Australia. She was very fortunate to have an Australian sister-in-law who loved baking and did a lot of it whilst she was over visiting.

On relaying tales of her travels in the Southern Hemisphere, Maria mentioned these biscuits to me and given that I love the combination of coconut and raspberry, I was determined to make them. After some tweaking, but still remaining true to the essential characteristics of Monte Carlo biscuits, this is the recipe that I came up with. The vanilla buttercream and raspberry jam taste so wonderful with the crumbly coconut biscuits – they are a real treat! I also like the biscuits on their own and in fact they remind me in flavour terms of Jacob’s Polo biscuits which are popular here in Ireland.

 

Having carried out some research I am unable to determine where the biscuits got their name from, but being prone to regular romanticised musings on such things, I like to believe that they were named after the French principality made famous by the Grimaldis and the very glamorous Grace Kelly.

 

The unfilled biscuits keep well for up to a week if stored in an air-tight tin.

 

Ingredients:

185g butter, softened
110g light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla paste/extract

185g self-raising flour

110g plain flour

40g desiccated coconut

Vanilla buttercream:

50g butter, softened

100g icing sugar

½ tsp vanilla paste/extract

1 tsp milk

To finish:

60g raspberry jam
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Line two large baking trays with non-stick baking parchment.

2. Place the butter, brown sugar together in a large mixing bowl and then, using a hand-held electric mixer beat together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla paste/extract and beat again to incorporate.
3. Sieve the plain and self-raising flours together and then add the desiccated coconut. Work the flours and coconut into the creamed egg and butter mixture using a wooden spoon. Do not add all of the flour mixture at once but rather do it in two/three stages as it is much easier to do.
4. Roll rounded teaspoons of the mixture in your hands to create an oval shape. Place on the prepared baking sheets about 4cms apart and flatten slightly with your palms until they are about ¾cm thick. Gently rough the surface of each biscuit with a fork.

5. Bake biscuits in the preheated oven for about 14-15 minutes until just beginning to colour at the edges. Remove from the oven and let sit for about five minutes before removing from the baking trays. Allow to cool completely on wire racks.

Vanilla buttercream:

6. Using a hand-held electric mixer beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla paste/extract together until smooth. Add the milk and beat well to fully incorporate.

To finish:

7. Sandwich pairs of the biscuits together with a layer of vanilla buttercream and a layer of raspberry jam.

Makes 25 sandwiched biscuits.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Upside-down Pineapple Cake

There is something about retro cakes that is so appealing. Victoria sponges, Battenberg Cakes, little Butterfly Cakes with their delicate sponge wings, Black Forest Gateau; the list goes on and on.

Without a doubt, one of my favourite cakes is pineapple upside-down sponge where tinned pineapple and glacé cherries are placed in a buttered and sugared cake tin, a light sponge is spooned on top and after baking the cake is upturned so that the pineapple and cherries are on the top of the cake. It just looks so kitsch and almost a little obvious and vulgar, but it tastes so delicious.

 

I recommend serving this cake as a dessert, warm from the oven with loads of thick pouring custard. You could serve it with cream, but this is one time when I really believe it should be custard and nothing else.

 

I just love the look of impossibly red glacé cherries sitting in the middle of a perfectly round pineapple ring sitting atop a light and fluffy sponge. You could of course use natural un-dyed natural glacé cherries and fresh pineapple which you prepare yourself, but to be honest, I feel that this would be missing the whole point of this cake cum pudding.

 

The recipe I give below is based on one which I have been using for years and which originally came from BBC Good Food Magazine. It is incredibly simple to make and relatively quick to bake. As a variation, and something that I am quite fond of doing, you can add a couple of tablespoons of desiccated coconut to the cake batter prior to spooning on top of the pineapple before baking.

Ingredients:

Sugar topping:
50g butter, softened
50g light muscovado sugar
7 pineapple rings in syrup, drained

7 glacé cherries

Cake batter:

100g butter, softened

100g caster sugar

100g self-raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

1tsp vanilla paste or extract

2 large eggs

2 tblsp milk 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4.
Topping:
2. Using a hand-held electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Spread this mixture over the bottom of a 20cm round cake tin (do not use one with a removable base).
3. Arrange the pineapple rings on top and place a glacé cherry in the centre of each pineapple ring.

Cake batter:

4. Using a hand-held electric beater, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, add in the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla paste/extract.

5. Sieve the flour and baking powder together and fold into the creamed mixture. Mix in the milk – the batter should have a soft dropping consistency.

6. Spoon into the tin on top of the pineapple and smooth it out with a palette knife or the back of a spoon to level the surface. Bake for approximately 35 minutes until the sponge is golden and springy to the touch. Remove from oven and leave to cool for five minutes before turning out on to a plate. Serve warm with custard.
 

Serves 6.