Coffee & Walnut Loaf Cake

As far as I am concerned, there is nothing to beat a good cup of tea. I absolutely love it… when you are feeling down or a little bit off-form, a cup of tea can make everything seem a little bit better. Regular readers will know that I love to have something a little indulgent to nibble on with my cup of tea and although I do like biscuits, nothing beats a slice of homemade cake! Now lemon cakes are my all-time favourite, but you might be surprised to hear, given that I am not a coffee drinker that I have always had a real soft spot for Coffee & Walnut Cake. It has been ages since I made one, but I had a real yearning for one recently, so out came the mixing bowl and cake tins!

My grandmother used to make the most divine sponge cake filled with coffee-flavoured buttercream and topped with walnuts which she arranged in a decorative pattern on top of the cake. I absolutely loved it. I distinctly remember her making it when ‘special’ guests were invited. They would be served finger-cut sandwiches, buttered brown soda bread with smoked salmon and capers (very posh… or so I thought as a 9 or 10 year old), homemade shortbread and then finally the Coffee & Walnut Sponge Cake would be served on fine china plates and eaten with dessert forks!!! There was just something so ‘grown-up’ about this cake.

Interestingly, my grandmother didn’t use coffee to flavour her cake, but instead used a coffee flavouring called Camp, which in fact was made out of chicory, which had previously gained recognition as being a coffee substitute during the Second World War. Also, the walnuts were merely used as decoration on top of the cake and weren’t included in the sponge and she always baked the cake in round sponge cake tins.

Now, I love walnuts… I mean… I REALLY love walnuts and delight in their nutty texture against the soft crumb of the sponge cake, so in my version, I have included them in the cake batter. Also, I prefer to bake my cake in a loaf tin which when cool, I then split and fill with a coffee-flavoured buttercream icing before topping off the cake with coffee-flavoured glacé icing and some whole walnuts. Perhaps the most significant difference between my cake and my grandmother’s is that I do use actual coffee to flavour it (well - coffee aficionados might dispute this) but I use espresso coffee powder, which works an absolute treat and gives that coffee ‘hit’ without all the palaver involved in grinding my own beans and brewing a pot just to make this cake!

This is a great cake and after a little tweaking over the past couple of weeks, I think that I have struck the right balance between the slight tannic bitterness of the walnuts and the roasted coffee flavour. Coffee and walnuts are a wonderful combination and particularly so in this cake!

Ingredients:

175g butter
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten

150g plain flour

100g self-raising flour

4 heaped tsp of espresso coffee powder dissolved in 25ml boiling water (allowed to cool)

25ml milk

100g walnuts roughly chopped

Buttercream filling:

60g butter, softened

120g icing sugar, sifted

2 heaped tsp of espresso coffee powder dissolve in 1tblsp boiling water (allowed to cool)

Glacé icing:

1 tsp espresso coffee powder dissolved in 2tsp boiling water

100g icing sugar

To finish:

6-8 walnuts
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160C/Fan Oven 140C/Gas Mark 2. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin and set aside.

2. Place the butter and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl and beat together using a hand held electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs making sure that they are fully incorporated before adding more.

3. Sieve the two flours together and fold into the creamed mixture before adding the cooled coffee and the milk. Mix together until the coffee and milk are mixed through completely, but try not to over-mix as this will result in a heavier cake. Finally, add the chopped walnuts and mix through until well distributed.

4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface with a small spatula or the back of a spoon. Bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or until the cake is well risen and a thin skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

5. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before removing from the tin and placing on a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

6. When the cake is cool slice it through the centre horizontally and filly with the coffee buttercream.

Buttercream filling:

7. Place all the ingredients in a medium sized bowl and beat together using a hand-held electric mixer until light and fluffy. Spread on to the cut side of the bottom half of the cake and replace the top half, sandwiching the filling in between the two layers.

Glacé icing:

8. Place all the ingredients in a small Pyrex bowl and mix together to create a lump-free slightly runny icing. Pour this evenly over the top of the filled cake and allow to naturally dribble down the sides of the cake.

To finish:

9. Arrange the walnuts on top of the cake.

Serves 8-10.

My Lovely Baps!

I am a fairly confident and experimental home cook and definitely more so in the past couple of years since I appeared on MasterChef Ireland and started writing this blog. For me, cooking is very much about making food that others enjoy eating; otherwise, what’s the point? Given all the new and exciting things that I have been experimenting with cooking and baking, I find it amazing that one of the things that my children particularly love are the baps that I have made a number of times recently. As soon as they emerge from the oven my three are hovering around, wanting to know when they can eat them! I barely had enough time to photograph them for the pics to accompany this post before they gobbled them all down.

 

Don’t, get me wrong, I’m delighted that they love them… but in comparison to some of the sometimes exotic and challenging things that I make, these are… well… quite plain. This got me thinking; so often we think that things that are complex are somehow better and really, this is so far from the truth. Too often when we go to restaurants, we seem more impressed by dishes that contain a number of technical processes rather than dishes that are simply cooked well and taste wonderful. We are swayed by how something looks rather than whether it is delicious. Surely the best cooks are those that can make something wonderful out of the most humble of ingredients?

 

These baps are made with flour, yeast, a little salt and butter and some milk/water – very simple, but they taste wonderful. They are soft and billowy and light in the mouth but without being dry. I love a bap split with some freshly grilled bacon and a splodge of tomato ketchup… real comfort food and a very tasty snack! 

So, what are baps?  Well, they are large round, slightly flattened bread rolls with a soft crust and an aerated, yielding crumb achieved by the addition of a little butter to the dough.  The liquid used is a mixture of water and milk which results in a lovely tender crumb. Baps are regularly sold filled with meats and salads as ‘sandwiches’, but they can also be eaten on their own. Baps are not unlike Waterford Blaa (see my recipe here) a regional bread historically made in counties Waterford, Wexford and parts of Kilkenny in Ireland. However baps tend to be flatter and more disc-shaped whereas blaas are rounder.

This dough is quite sticky to work with at first, but don’t let this alarm you… keep working the dough by kneading and stretching it and it will come together in a beautifully soft and silky ball.
 

Ingredients:

300g strong white bread flour, plus a little extra for dusting
150g strong wholemeal bread flour

5g fine sea salt

50g butter, cubed

12g fresh yeast

5g sugar

150ml milk

150ml water
 

Method:

1. Place both the flours in a large mixing bowl and add the salt, mixing it through with your hands so that it is well distributed.

2. Add the butter and rub into the flour until it is broken down and well combined. Crumble in the yeast and mix through the flour to distribute. Make a well in the centre and add the milk and water. Bring together with your hands to form a slightly sticky dough and then turn out onto a clean work-surface.

3. Knead for approximately 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and silky and no longer sticky. Place the dough into a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling-film. Leave to rise for about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

4. Line a large baking tray (2 if smaller) with non-stick baking parchment and set aside.

5. Tip the dough out onto a clean work-surface and knock out the air in the dough. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions (I weigh mine using my electronic scales for the sake of uniformity). Form each portion into a ball and then flatten them with a rolling pin or the palm of your hand until they are about 3cms thick. Place each bap on the prepared baking tray, spacing them well apart so that they have room to expand.

6. Dust with a little flour and cover with cling-film and allow to rise for 45-60 minutes, until doubled in size.

7. Just before baking preheat the oven to 200C/Fan Oven 180C/Gas Mark 6. Dust the risen baps with a little more flour and bake in the preheated oven for 17-20 minutes until they are a pale golden colour (do not allow them to brown too much). Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving.

Makes 8.

 

Baked Lemon Cheesecake

If you love lemons, you HAVE to make this cheesecake. I know that I seem to say this every time I post a lemon recipe… but really words cannot describe how delicious this particular cheesecake is!

 

The cheesecake consists of a biscuit crumb base, topped with a surprisingly light cheesecake filling and then a candied lemon layer finishing it off. The cheesecake is baked rather than set with gelatine (or other setting agent) but it tastes so fresh and whilst rich, is not heavy or dense – you’d almost be fooled into thinking that it was one of the set varieties.

 

I was bemoaning how miserable January can be – and believe me last week really felt like the most tedious of weeks where everything was such an ordeal - but when faced with a dessert like this, you cannot help but feel positive, hopeful and optimistic. This is what I love about citrus fruits… they tend to be at their best (in this part of the world anyway) when the weather is its coldest and most bleak.

 

The great thing about lemons in particular, is that they cut through the richness of the dishes in which they are used and, in something like this cheesecake, which really focuses on the lemon flavour, they impart a zingy quality which makes them seem ‘lighter’ to eat. Having said this, a LOT of cream cheese and sugar is included, but this is allowable every now-and-again as a treat.

 

Whilst the cheesecake would be lovely on its own, without the candied lemon topping, I really think that it emphasises and celebrates the flavour of the lemon and looks so beautiful glistening on top of the cheesecake. The key to making the topping is to slice the lemons into thin slices using a sharp knife. If preferred, you could place fresh raspberries or strawberries on top instead… but I urge you to try the candied topping because it is seriously delicious!

 

This is a very straightforward recipe and success is easy to achieve, so do have a go at making it. You could use other citrus fruits, but for me, nothing beats lemons!
 

Ingredients:

Base:
200g digestive biscuits

75g butter, melted

Filling:

600g cream cheese (full-fat)

250g caster sugar

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

150g yoghurt (I used Glenisk Natural Yoghurt)

Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

Juice of 1 lemon

50g plain flour, sieved

Topping:

2 lemons, thinly sliced

125g caster sugar

125ml water
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 120C/Fan Oven 100C/Gas Mark ¼. Grease the base and sides of a 20cm round springform tin with butter and line the base with a circle of non-stick baking parchment. Set aside.

Base:

2. Place the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash into crumbs using a rolling pin (you can also use a food processor to do this). Place the biscuit crumbs into a small mixing bowl and pour on the melted butter. Mix with a wooden spoon so that all the crumbs are coated in butter and then press into the bottom of the prepared tin, levelling the surface with the back of a metal spoon. Place in the fridge to harden up while you make the filling.

Filling:

3. Place the cream cheese and caster sugar into a medium sized mixing bowl and beat together using a hand-held electric mixer. Once incorporated, add the eggs, mixing them in thoroughly, but avoid over-mixing as this can cause the cheesecake to crack when it is baked.

4. Add the yoghurt, lemon zest and juice and mix these in and finally add the flour, making sure that it is also fully incorporated.

5. Pour the mixture on top of the chilled base and gently shake the tin from side-to-side to even it out. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. It should still seem wobbly in the centre. Leave in the switched off oven for another hour and then remove and allow to cool completely. Chill until ready to serve.

Topping:

6. Place the lemon slices in a small saucepan and barely cover them with boiling water. Allow to bubble for 1 minute and then drain and plunge the lemon slices into cold water to refresh.

7. Place the caster sugar and 125ml water into a small saucepan, place over a moderate heat, let the sugar dissolve and bring to the boil. Reduce heat so that the syrup is just gently simmering.

8. Drain the lemon slices and place into the syrup. All to simmer for 30 minutes and then allow to cool in the syrup.

To serve:

9. Arrange the cooled candied lemon slices on top of the chilled cheesecake and serve cut into slices.
 

Serves 10-12.