Apricot Galette

Before I launch into the is recipe, a note on puff pastry. Puff pastry done well is a thing of beauty. The pastry is built of delicate layers of dough and butter, which expand when cooked to give a flaky, crisp texture.

The only problem is, making puff pastry from scratch is a long, long process. You need to be very patient. If you do not chill the pastry for long enough, the butter will ooze out and before you know what's happening, there's butter everywhere and the pastry is not salvageable.

You don't want that, do you? So the key is to keep the ingredients as cold as possible and work quickly whenever it's out of the fridge.

If you do notice the butter oozing out of the pastry, pop it back in the fridge and chill it a bit longer.

Of course, any sane person would avoid all this bother by buying pre-made pastry. You can get perfectly good pastry, ready to use, in any large supermarket.

But I never claimed I was sane.

So feel free to use ready made pastry in this recipe. If you have a spare day and a burning desire to make puff pastry, then I used Paul Hollywood's method, which can be found here.

But to return to the apricot galette. I made it to a Yottam Ottolenghi recipe. It was supposed to feature rosemary sprigs, but the supermarket didn't have any, so my galette was unadorned.

Ottolenghi reckoned you could get two galettes from 375g pastry. I found this not to be the case. When I tried to stretch the pastry that far it got too thin and I had to do some emergency repair work.

So I have adjusted the quantities in the recipe to take account of this and it now makes only one galette, which will serve four (greedy) people or six to eight with smaller appetites.

You will need:

375g puff pastry dough (rolled into a 19cm x 25cm rectangle)
40g ground almonds
35g light brown soft sugar, plus 1 tsp to sprinkle
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 whisked egg
2 tins apricot halves (480g drained weight)
25g unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp almond extract
25g smooth apricot jam

1. Mix together the ground almonds, sugar and lemon and sprinkle over the dough, leaving a border of 2-3cm.

2. Arrange the apricots cut side up on top of the almond mix, overlapping them slightly. Brush the empty pastry with the whisked egg.

3. Crimp the edges of the tarts by pulling the edges in, holding your thumb and index finger close together in a pinching motion on the outside edge of the pastry and pushing on the other side with your index finger. Brush with more egg wash.

4. Mix the melted butter and almond extract and brush generously over the apricots. Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the galette, cover it with cling film and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

5. Preheat the oven to 190C. Bake the galette for 40 minutes until the pastry is golden brown, then leave to cool. Heat the apricot jam with 1 tsp cold water (30 seconds in the microwave should do it). Brush it over the galette.

You can serve warm, with a bit of cream, or the next day.

Happy Baking!

Ellie
xxx

Gooey Gluten-free Chocolate Brownies

Wheat is one of the most fundamental ingredients in the vast majority of most baked goods. 

Depending on the type of baked good, you're often relying on gluten strands to make up the structure. So what if you're gluten intolerant, or coeliac?

Well, it can make things a bit tricky. If you or anyone you are baking for has this problem, you'll have to get creative. 

But I like to look at it as an opportunity to use ingredients I wouldn't usually, or use them in a different way to usual.

My boyfriend's sister is coeliac, so when I decided to bake for a family gathering, I had to get online looking for gluten free recipes.

Some of them seemed to have about 100 ingredients, all of which were obscure and not obtainable from my local supermarket.

Then I found this recipe from elizabethskitchendiary.co.uk. It's a great recipe. Rather than flour you use ground almonds and the end result is everything a chocolate brownie should be; moist, gooey and topped with a shiny crust.

So thank you, Elizabeth. These brownies are great and I'm sure coeliacs and non-coeliacs alike will enjoy them.

This recipe serves 16. 

You will need:

150g dark chocolate (check that it is gluten free!)

3 large eggs

170g unsalted butter

150g caster sugar

150g muscovado sugar

100g ground almonds

1 tsp vanilla extract

85g chopped walnuts or brazil nuts

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a large rectangular baking tin. Break up the chocolate and put it and the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water to melt. Whisk the eggs in a bowl until frothy. 

2. Add the sugars and whisk them into the eggs until fully combined, thick, dark and treacley. Make sure you are still keeping an eye on the chocolate mixture and stirring it every now and then.

3. When the chocolate mixture has melted completely, pour it into the egg mixture and stir until fully combined. 

4. Add the ground almonds, chopped nuts and vanilla extract and fold them in gently. Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on how gooey you want your brownies!

5. Leave the brownies to cool in the tin before slicing them up into 16 squares.

There you go, a decadent treat whether you eat gluten or not!

Happy baking,

Ellie

xxx

Courgette Cake

The other week I acquired 12 courgettes through no fault of my own.

I ordered a load of shopping from one of these supermarket delivery services. I was sorely disappointed. Not only did I not get the aubergines I ordered, but I also got 12 courgettes rather than the two I wanted.

"Big deal," you're thinking. "You got 12 courgettes for the price of two. That's a win."

Well yes, but I really hate waste. Food waste in particular. It's pretty much one of the seven deadly sins in my eyes.

So I determined to use every one of those courgettes. I made courgette risotto, roasted courgette, courgette hummus and courgetti spaghetti.

All my courgette creations were a success, except the courgette hummus, which was like eating a swamp.

But I still had one courgette and I was sick of savoury courgette recipes.

So I looked up courgette cake recipes, decided to make courgette cupcakes. Then realised I threw my cupcake tray away after it warped, so I decided to make cake instead.

It's not going to win any beauty contests, but it did not taste like a swamp, which is always what I look for in a cake. This serves four to six.

You will need:

1 egg
1 medium sized courgette
1 tbsp raisins
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp sunflower oil
75g plain flour
15g light soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
5-6 inch loose based cake tin

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Grate the courgette and squeeze as much moisture out of it as you can. Then squeeze some more.

2. Whisk the egg, oil, milk and vanilla extract together. Fold in the courgette.

3. Stir in the flour, baking powder and sugar.

4. Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and risen and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

It is moist, tasty and one of your five a day. Next time I might sweeten it up a bit more with a bit of lime or lemon icing.

Happy baking,

Ellie
xxx

Peach Melba Squares

Every time I attend a bake sale, or any other event where multiple people have brought bakes goods, I look around for the cake that I wish I had baked.

Sometimes, if I'm lucky, it's the one I did bake. But this is rare and far more often I creep away with a slice of someone else's cake and try to work out how they made it.

We recently had a bake sale at work, to raise money for charity. I bought what turned out to be a peach melba square, a traybake with the taste and moist texture of frangipane and was studded with peach slices and raspberries oozing juice into the sponge.

Luckily, this time I didn't have to guess the recipe, because one of the editors, whose wife made the bake in question, directed me to the recipe.

It was really easy to make and cuts into about 15 pieces easily. What's not to like?

You will need:

250g unsalted butter

300g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 large eggs

200g self-raising flour

50g ground almonds

1 tin of peach slices in juice, drained

100g raspberries

handful flaked almonds

1 tbsp icing sugar

pinch of salt

small roasting tin, about 30x20cm, greased and lined with baking parchment

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Cube the butter and put it in a saucepan over a low heat to melt. 

2. Once melted, let the butter cool for five minutes and then add the sugar, vanilla and eggs and stir well to combine. Fold in the flour, salt and almonds and stir until smooth.

3. Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and lay the peach slices on top, evenly spaced. Scatter over the raspberries and flaked almonds - do not be tempted to press the fruit into the mixture slightly as it rises when baked and may cover the fruit.

4. Bake the traybake for 1 hour, covering with foil after 30 to 40 minutes to prevent too much browning.

5. Cool the traybake in the tin for 30 minutes and then lift out and slice into squares. Dust liberally with icing sugar before serving.

I forgot to dust this slice with icing sugar before I ate it. Sorry about that.

Happy baking!

Ellie
xxx

Goat's Cheese and Caramelised Onion Pizza

The pizza recipe I am about to share with you came about almost by accident.

It was invented in an attempt to use up an old jar of caramelised onion chutney, but it was so good, I had to buy another jar of chutney to make it again.

I was making pizzas for a party I was having a few days before my birthday.

The theme of the party was togas, so I thought it was only fitting that I should make pizzas. I had planned to make the pizza dough from scratch, but managed to go out for a run without my keys, meaning I was locked out of the flat until my long-suffering flatmate returned in the evening.

Luckily my long-suffering boyfriend was on hand to help and I ended up going to his house for a while. But without access to the kitchen for several hours, it was obvious I wasn't going to have time to make pizza dough.

So we bought six plain pizza bases at the supermarket and topped them with passata and various other things - roasted veg, artichoke hearts, posh ham, salami, feta - you get the idea.

But the triumph of the evening was the caramelised onion and cheese pizza, which was also sprinkled with walnuts.

So as soon as I had an opportunity, I made it again, making the dough myself and managing not to lock myself out this time.

It is really good. Tom (aforementioned long-suffering boyfriend) and I ate it in the park with roasted vegetables.

Although taking the pizza to work and then microwaving it made the base a bit soft and soggy, I can assure you it is very crisp when eaten straight out of the oven. Just be careful not to burn yourself!

The topped pizza also freezes well, if slid into the freezer on a plate or baking tray. When it's solid just take it off the plate or tray and clingfilm it.

The dough recipe makes enough for two small pizzas, but the topping makes enough for one, so double it if you're topping both pizzas at once.

You will need:

For the dough:
225g strong white bread flour
half a tsp dried active yeast
half a tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
125ml warm water
base of 8 inch cake tin or baking tray that is 8 inches across

For the topping:
3 tbsp passata
3 tbsp caramelised onion chutney
180g soft fresh goat's cheese (preferably without a rind)
handful of walnuts, roughly chopped

1. Mix the yeast into the water, cover and leave for five minutes, then stir to dissolve. Mix the salt and flour together in a large bowl and make a well in the middle.

2. When the yeast has dissolved, stir the olive oil into the water and pour it into the well. Stir just enough flour into the liquid ingredients to make a paste, then cover and leave for 20 minutes.

3. Mix the rest of the flour into the liquid ingredients, then turn out onto a clean, lightly floured work surface and knead for about five minutes until smooth and elastic. Put in an oiled bowl, clingfilm the bowl and leave for one and a half to two hours until doubled in size.

4. Knock back the dough by pressing on it lightly until it deflates, then knead again until smooth. Roll it into a ball and put it back in the bowl. Cover and leave for 30 minutes to an hour until risen again.

5. Preheat the oven to 230C. Divide the dough into two equal parts and roll one part out until 8 inches across.

6. Put the rolled out dough on the baking tray or cake tin base and put the passata on top, spreading with the back of a spoon. Do the same with the chutney and then break up the goat's cheese and sprinkle it over the pizza.

7. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes depending on your oven and how crisp you like your pizza. Five minutes before the pizza finishes cooking, sprinkle the walnuts over.

8. Eat with roasted veg or a nice green salad.

This is so tasty, and such a simple recipe too. Just don't lock yourself out while making the dough.

Happy baking,

Ellie
xxx

Soft American Pretzels

I recently went to America with my boyfriend, Tom. We stayed with his sister in Long Beach for a week, then flew to Minneapolis for a long weekend with his cousin, then to San Francisco before we went back to LA to fly home.

It was the trip of a lifetime. We went whale watching, watched the sun set over the Hollywood sign, walked along Venice Beach, went to Golden Gate Park and I would recommend LA, Minneapolis and San Francisco to anyone taking a trip to the US.

San Francisco was perhaps my favourite destination of the three, because it was easy to get around without a car (LA wasn't), but wasn't freezing cold (Minneapolis was).

When we took our trip to Golden Gate Park, we stopped at one point for a pretzel and coffee. The pretzels were the soft kind with a golden crust and almost immediately I decided that pretzels should the first thing I bake when I got back to the UK.

Eventually, the sad day of our return to the UK came. We boarded a plane and 11 hours later we were landing on the tarmac at Heathrow on a grey Saturday afternoon.

For the next week I couldn't even think about baking. I was so tired I didn't know what to do with myself.

But after a lot of sleep I was ready and so at the weekend I got to it and made pretzels.

As you can see I need to work on the shaping part, but apart from that they are pretty good. Soft, chewy, golden brown and shiny, just also fat and swollen.

I also made some cinnamon-sugar dusted pretzels, but the sugar kind of formed a crust, so next time I would brush the pretzels with melted butter after baking and then dust with cinnamon-sugar.

You will need:

For the dough:
2 tsp dried yeast
350ml lukewarm water
500g strong white bread flour
1 and a half tsp salt

For the topping:
1 beaten egg to glaze
either sea salt flakes to sprinkle
or 2 tbsp melted butter, 1 tbsp caster sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon

1. Sprinkle the yeast into 100ml of the water. Leave for 5 minutes and then stir until the yeast dissolves.

2. Mix together the flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour in the yeast and water mixture and stir in just enough of the flour to make a paste. Cover with a tea towel and leave for 20 minutes until it has risen slightly.

3. Mix in the flour and stir in the remaining water as needed to form a soft, sticky dough.

4. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until stretchy and malleable. Put in a clean bowl and cover with clingfilm and leave to rise for 1 and a half to 2 hours or until doubled in size.

5. Knock back the dough by lightly pressing it down with floured knuckles until it deflates. Leave to rest for 10 minutes and then divide into eight equally sized pieces. Roll these into balls by cupping your hand around them and rolling it around until they form smooth balls. Then turn your balls into ovals by putting one hand on each side and rolling until they form ovals.

6. Roll the ovals into long strips by putting two fingers on each end and rolling back and forth while gently pushing outwards until you have a 40cm long strip. Take both ends and make a loop, then cross the ends over twice and bring them down to rest on the middle of the dough. Press them into the middle of the dough strip and put the shaped pretzels on a lightly floured baking sheet and leave to rise for half an hour.

7. Preheat the oven to 220C, then brush the pretzels with beaten egg. If using salt, sprinkle it over, but if using sugar then wait until the pretzels finish baking and then brush with butter and sprinkle with the mixed cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until shiny and golden brown.

And you're done. Shiny, happy pretzels to enjoy with a coffee or beer while you pretend you are sitting in Golden Gate Park and shed bitter, salty tears over the grey British weather.

Keep baking,

Ellie
xxx

Sweet Italian Easter Bread

You join me after a busy Easter weekend. Despite the British weather doing its best to put a dampener on things (literally), it was a fun-filled eggstravaganza.

Sorry about that pun.

Anyway, I hope you had a great time too, if you celebrate Easter. And also if you don’t.

My family isn't religious, but I'm a great believer in tradition, especially when it involves me getting two extra days off work. So this Easter I got stuck in painting eggs.

Here are the eggs I painted – the three at the front. I'm most pleased with the one decorated with cherry blossom, but I quite like the minimalism of the black one too.

Before I painted the eggs I had to make small holes in them and blow out the contents, a very laborious process. I also had to thread ribbon through them with a needle that wasn't long enough, which led to me smashing one of them in rage.

By now you’re probably thinking; enough already, get to the baking!

Alright, alright! So I really, really hate wasting food. So I wanted to do something with the contents of the eggs I had painstakingly removed from their delicate shells. An enriched bread was one option.

I could have made hot cross buns, the traditional British fare for Easter. But instead I decided to made Colomba di Pasqua, an Italian bread similar to panettone, eaten at Easter.

Here is my bread. I know it’s usually shaped like a dove, but who really has a dove shaped mould? I certainly don’t.

I made my Colomba di Pasqua to Paul Hollywood’s recipe. The dough is easier to make in a standing mixer as it’s very sticky but you can make it without one and I did. This will serve 8-10 people.

You will need:

For the bread:
400g strong white bread flour
7g salt
40g caster sugar
10g easy bake yeast
120ml lukewarm milk
4 eggs, lightly whisked
100g unsalted butter, softened and cubed
grated zest of 2 lemons and 1 orange
juice of half a lemon
100g flaked almonds
100g mixed candied peel
100g dried cranberries
23cm round cake tin, greased and lined

For the topping:
2 egg whites
25g caster sugar
25g ground almonds
50g flaked almonds

1. Put the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other side.

2. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk and eggs. Mix in with a spoon until it begins to form a dough, then knead with your hands. Add the butter one piece at a time and knead it in.

3. Knead the dough for around 10 minutes until it becomes elastic but is no longer sticky. Roll into a ball and leave in the mixing bowl, covered with cling film. Leave to rise for an hour.

4. Knead the peel, cranberries, zest and lemon juice. Put into the prepared tin and place inside a large plastic bag – I often use a bin bag.

5. Leave to rise for 3 hours until it reaches the top of the tin. When it has nearly finished rising, preheat the oven to 200C.

6. Bake the bread for 20 minutes. While it is baking, mix together the egg whites, ground almonds and sugar for the topping.

7. Take out the bread, spread the topping over it and sprinkle the flaked almonds and a little sugar on top.

8. Lower the oven to 180C and bake for another 20 minutes. If it is browning too rapidly and looks like it may catch on top, cover in foil.

9. Leave the bread to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then place on a rack to cool completely.

And there you have it. The bread is soft but has an amazing crunchy crust on top and the sour burst of the cranberries stops it from feeling too sweet. You need to have a while to make it as the proving takes a long time, but it’s really not that hard.

Happy baking!

Ellie
xxx