Chocolate Pastries

Chocolate Pastries are SO easy to make.  They are pretty much like Pain-Au-Chocolats.  All you need is roll-out puff pastry and some good quality chocolate.  I made these with Jus-Roll "all butter" puff pastry and a bar of Lindt dark 70% chocolate, which is the darkest I can go and it goes perfectly with the pastry.  Don't forget to have icing sugar handy to dust, and some milk and a pastry brush handy.

First off, put your oven on at Gas 7 / 220C/ 425F.  Our oven can only acommodate one tray per shelf, so I baked one tray at the top and one tray in the middle of the oven, so be sure to adjust your shelves like so.  Next, get two baking trays and line them with greaseproof paper.

Okay, so roll out your puff pastry.  We used leftovers from making the Bakewell Pudding (see blog contents) so this was handy.  Don't roll it out too thin or the pastry won't puff up as much.  Cut your pastry into 3.5" or 9cm squares and set aside.  Take your bar of chocolate and break it up into small pieces.  You don't need to chop it up tiny with a knife, but its handy to have small squareish pieces!

Fold one of your pastry squares in half and open up tp see the crease.  Place some chocolate pieces in the centre of one half, leaving about 1cm around the outer edges.  Brush these outer edges with a little milk, fold over the other half of the square and press down the edges of the pastry with a fork to seal it.  It doesn't matter if you poke a hole in the top of the pastry by accident! :o)

Place all your little pastries onto the baking trays giving plenty of room for the pastry to puff out.  I managed to fit in around 4 per tray.  Brush the top of each one with a little milk, then pop them in the oven for 15 - 18 minutes until golden and puffed.  I usually take out the top tray, and move the tray from the middle shelf onto the top for another 3 minutes to brown them off.

Put them onto a cooling tray and dust with icing sugar.  Leave to cool a little bit before eating - the chocolate inside will be quite hot so you don't want to burn your tongue :o)  Enjoy!

Bakewell Pudding!

Okay, Raspberry Bakewell Pudding.....its SOOOOO nice! ;oD  So, here's the recipe - it's from the Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain book :o)

Ingredients:
1 loose-bottomed flan time with a diameter of 25cm
1 packet puff pastry
4 - 5 tablespoons seedless raspberry jam
150g (5oz) fresh raspberries
100g (just under 4oz) unsalted butter
100g (just under 4oz) caster sugar
5 eggs
150g (5oz) ground almonds
a few drops of almond essence or extract (I used about 2 cap-fuls)
icing sugar and clotted cream to serve (a good creamy vanilla ices cream is just fine!)

Instructions!

Preheat your oven to 190C/Gas 5.  Roll out the pastry and line your flan tin.  We buttered ours and it worked fine, our was non-stick so you can decide which to do :o)  Leave your excess pastry hanging over the edges of the tin, and trim once the tart is assembled.

Carefully spread the raspberry jam on the pastry base.  Take 3 or 4 spoonfuls of raspberries and crush them slightly before placing them evenly over the jam.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.  Gradually add the eggs one at a time, followed by a good spoonful of the ground almonds .  Repeat alternating eggs and almonds until they have all been used up.  Add a few drops of almond essence/extract (I LOVE almonds, so I used the cap of the bottle.  2 capfuls were just right!).  Pour this mixture into the pastry case and grntly spread the mixture evenly with a palette knife.  You can trim off the excess pastry now or once cooked - it's up to you.  We trimmed it before it went into the oven, and used the remainders to make "Chocolate Pastries" (see blog contents).  Bake your tart on the middle shelf of the oven for 35-45 minutes, until lightly browned on top.

Dust with icing sugar and serve with clotted cream, cream or ice cream!  Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm!!

Top Tip:  Multitask your Bakewell Pudding with Sunday Roast!  When we made this, we were having a Sunday Roast.  We decided to make the Bakewell Pudding first thing, and set it on a cooling tray whilst the Sunday Roast was being made.  We left it in the tin, and after the oven was finished with and turned off, we put the tart back into the oven on a low shelf and took the ice cream out of the freezer while we ate the roast dinner.  After dinner, we took dessert out of the oven, out of the tin (loose-bottomed tins are ideal for this kind of dessert!), dusted with icing sugar, and served with soft ice cream.  MMmm Mmmm MMmm! ;oD

Birthday Cake!

I made a chocolate cake for my boyfriend's Mum last week.  At first I thought it was going to be too sweet, but I had been eating chocolate BEFORE I made the cake.  No, not the cake mix!!! ;oD  Now, this recipe was the first I have tried out of a book I got for Christmas- a book dedicated to cooking chocolate things! It's called "Chocolate" by Jane Price.

It was suggested that "perhaps Siobhan can make a cake.." followed by "...well...she likes chocolate" after being asked what sort of cake!  Said recipe was "Devils Food Cake" although I altered it slightly from the book.  I decided to make a chocolate sandwich-cake with raspberry jam in the middle - no cream because of cetain people with cholesterol issues.  Of course, this doesn't apply to chocolate at all...!!! ;oD  Anyway, instead of cream was jam in the middle, and instead of icing, I made chocolate ganache which was really just a bar of cooking chocolate (dark) melted with some butter, drizzled over the top and left to dry and harden.  Before the ganache hardened, I put some little shop-bought suger-icing flowers to decorate, and on presentation, a group of fresh raspberries on the top, surrounding the candle!  The only criticism I gave it was that there should have been more jam in the middle.

Now I know what it tastes like, I know that more jam will NOT make it too sweet at all! :o)

THE CAKE:

280g (10oz / 2 and a quarter cups) self raising flour

85g (3oz / 2 thirds of a cup) unsweetened cocoa powder

345g (12oz / 1 and a half cups) caster (fine) sugar 

3 eggs at room temperature, lightly beaten

150g (5.5oz) unsalted butter, softened

icing sugar to dust

Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F / Gas 4.  Grease a 9.5inch round cake tin and line the base with baking paper.  Sift flour and cocoa into a large bowl.  Add sugar, eggs, butter and 250ml (9 fl oz / 1 cup) water.  Using electric beaters, beat on low speed for 1 minute.  Increase the speed to high and beat for a further 4 minutes.  Pour into tin and bake for around 55 minutes or untila skewer comes out clean when poked into the centre of the cake.  Leave in the tim for 20 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

THE GANACHE

225g (8oz / 2 thirds of a cup) chopped dark chocolate

70g (2.5oz) unsalted butter

Put chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl.  Half fill a sausepan with water and bring to the boil.  Sit the bowl over the pan, DON'T LET THE BOWL TOUCH THE WATER.  Allow to stand, stirring ocasionally until the chocolate has melted.  Set aside to cool slightly before spreading it over the top of the cake.

TOP TIP: GIVE YOURSELF MORE TIME IF YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT SIZE CAKE TIN!

I discovered that I didn't have a cake tin large enough, so I used a smaller one, which was 8 inches in diameter, but it was quite deep - around 4 inches.  In this size tin, the cake will take longer to bake - give it 1 and a half hours or thereabouts.  Mine was ready in 1 hour 40 mins before the skewer came out clean.

A Special Cake!

It was my parent's Golden Wedding Anniversary last week.  Mum made a cake, and we both made little fondant roses to make a posey to go on the top.  The cake was a fruitcake, like Christmas cake.  Mum iced it with pale yellow Royal Icing, and piped around the base with "Golden" icing.  This turned out to be "too yellow" for Mum, so we made some paler yellow, pink and white roses with fondant.

The technique I got came from a book I had for Christmas called "Sweet Temptations" which is a brilliant book.  Its really easy.  Although, I do have a friend who likes to cut large daisies out of fondant and fold the petals up and over each other which looks REALLY easy, I don't have one and there wasn't time to get one so I had to do it this way.  I'm afraid I didn't take photos of the process, so you'll have to take my word for it!

I found this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzp3XfhUpQ4 This is the way I did it.

My friend has a daisy-cutter, and does it this way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4SfgfnzzXk it looks SO easy!

Wondering what that sheen is on the icing?  That's edible shimmer.  You can buy it in tubes from good kitchen departments and stores, just get a clean paintbrush and brush it on, you get a lovely satin shimmer to your work, and it often makes it look even better than it did before! :o)  Yummy!

Christmas toppers for gifts

Hi again folks!  Right, have you saved all your bits and pieces from Christmas?  Well, this blog will be about creating beaded "toppers" which can easily be arranged and glued on the top of Christmas gifts instead of bows.  I think it would make gifts look extra special, even more so if the gift is of the size of, say, a bracelet or watch, a bangle or a necklace.

Okay, so its very straightforward.  Over Christmas out crackers are usually ones with interesting patterns (which I salvage and flatten the card for use in Christmas Cards), and little beady bits and ribbons.  Its these beady bits and ribbons which I make the toppers out of, and once you see how simple this is, I bet this year you will be looking in the shops for crackers with little bits you can save and recycle yourself! ;o)

First off, I unwind the beady bits.  Usually its a piece of thin wire with a bead at either end.  Be careful with some of these because the beads can pop off if they have just been glued on the end.  Unless you know how to re-attach them, you may be throwing some beads away.

Next, I twist them together by taking both beads in my fingers, and twisting the wire to create a "stem".   Then I simply take a couple of twists and ttist those together to make a little bouquet, if you will.

The next thing is to hide the wire twist.  Now, along with my crackers came these neat little ribbon bits.  I simply unwind 1 pieces of ribbon - different colours but going together nicely - and I tie each one individually around the wire.  Try to uncrinkle the ribbon as much as you can so you can cover as much of the wire as you can.  Then that's pretty much it - all that's left to do is arrange the ribbin in a way which looks quite nice - I usually go with the "bouguet" look, tucking the ribbon behind the beads, making sure the knots in the ribbon are at the back of the entire piece.  Glue in place and then you're ready to attach more to it, or jus tpop onto a specal gift.  Here are some more photos of what I have done with others.  Have fun! :o)

 

BRRRRRRRR!!!! Knit something warm!

Brrr!!  It's so cold outside isn't it?  I don't know about you, but I hate the cold!  I'm not a big fan of snow, as I prefer to look at it whilst drinking a hot chocolate, rather than go out and play in it (well, yes I used to make snowmen when I was little but that was then....this is now...!!).

Anyway, I have discovered KNITTING, and I am SO incredibly addicted to it!!  I have knitted lots of scarves and I thought I would post some up so that, if you are feeling chilly, looking at these will make you feel warm, and / or if you want to know what certain stitches might look like, here are the results! :o)

First off, I knitted in moss stitch and this was the result:

And I LOVED making the tassles!! :o)  You can look us moss stitch anywhere but I am pretty sure its K1 P1 every row, but you have to remember to Knit the Pearls and Pearl and Knits on the next row.   I used 4 balls for this one.

If you use the same pattern and Knit the Knits and Purl and Purls, you will end up with a rib stitch, like this one:

Now, you might not be able to see the ribbing as such, but the wool seems to constrict and get closer together when you do a rib, so if you want to do a rib stitch and be able to see the knit and the purl lines, be sure to add a couple more purls which will make it wider, yes, but you will be able to see the ribbing.  I used 4 balls for this one too.

Next up is this one:

Now, the pattern for this one is here: http://knitting.designedlykristi.com/freepatterns/DKlavishscarf.pdf and mine looks different because I put more stitches onto the needles to make a slightly wider scarf, therefore not as long as the one on the pattern.  I am kind of regretting making it as wide as I did, but it's all experience, isn't it? :o)  I used ONE ball of wool for this one - the pattern is for one ball but as I said, I began with more stitches therefore its wider and consequentially shorter.  And yes, you have large holes running down the sides where you thread the ribbon - or whatever you like - and create tassels with them too!

The final one I made was this one:

I made the pattern up myself.  Its K2 P2 (wide rib) and remember to Knit the Knits and Purl and Purls!!  Do this for about 10 rows.

THEN switch to:

Row 1: K3 P3

Row 2: K1 P1

And do that for about 10 rows.  Alternate this pattern and be sure to start and end each row with a knit stitch for a nice border.  This pattern also means that your scarf will be slightly wavy! :o)  4 balls used for this one too.  I also began and ended with the wide rib just to make it look more symmetrical I guess!

I love using chunky needles for these scarves, but anyone can use whatever they like.  I like to use chunky wool too, I find it so much more therapeutic! :o)

Hope you have your Christmas crafting leftovers from crackers and cards......my next blog will be of a Christmas theme.  I know, Christmas is just over, but in the crafting world, it's always Christmas! ;oD