Jumping Jack Potato & Bread Puddings

Yesterday was my first My Secret Kitchen tasting, I was thrilled to share some of the products with fellow foodies.
To demonstrate the versatility I made three of the Beer Bread mixes up in different guises I made a Jumping Jack Chilli Jam Bread, A Wild Garlic Bread and a sweet Cherry Bakewell cake. There were some leftovers so today I made a batch of these Jumping Jack Potato & Bread Puddings.

Makes 20 bread puddings

Olive oil for brushing

4 thick slices of My Secret Kitchen Original Beer Bread  (day old is better). 
20g butter, softened
4 eggs
125ml milk
25g parmesan, grated
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tbsp My Secret Kitchen Jumping Jack Chili Jam
300g baby potatoes, cooked & cubed
10 sprigs of thyme


Preheat oven to 180ºC. Cut 20cm squares of non-stick baking paper, brush each square with olive oil and press each square into lightly greased muffin tin. 
Spread the slices of Beer Bread with butter and cut into rough pieces.  Whisk the eggs, milk, Parmesan, salt and pepper together. Add 2 tablespoons of the Jumping Jack Chilli Jam, reserving the rest for later.  Mix together the cubes of bread and potatoe and arrange in the paper cases and pour over equal amounts of egg mixture. Top with the reserved Jumping Jack Chilli Jam and thyme sprigs and bake for 40 minutes or until golden.

Chewy Peanut Butter Brownies

In my mind Brownies had to be Chocolate, well I guess until recently I have never really given the brownie much thought, just that I liked them. A few weeks ago I heard someone talking about Peanut Butter Brownies, umm I thought and why not give them a try, after all I like Brownies & I love peanut butter.

I googled the recipe and came across this one on all recipes.com

The measurements for the recipe are in cups, I just love the simplicity of baking from an american recipe.

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter { I used crunchy, but the choice is yours }

1/3 Cup Soft Margarine

2/3 Cup White Sugar

1/2 Cup light Brown Sugar or Light Muscavado

2 Eggs

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Cup Plain Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C ). Grease a 9x9 inch square baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together peanut butter and margarine. 
3. Gradually blend in the brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla; mix until fluffy. 
4. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture until well blended.
5. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in preheated oven, or until the top springs back when touched. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes until the sides shrink from the edge of the pan and turn onto a wire cooling rack until, and cut into 16 squares.

These brownies are beautiful, but I felt something was missing, don't mis-understand me they tasted great, but they could taste better & the needed something on the top to decorate them slightly.

2nd Batch

Whilst I was in the kitchen this morning Paul made a 2nd batch and added 50g chopped salted peanuts & 2 tbsp of MSK Maple Caramel Sauce.

Lorraine Pascale Dream Like Shortbread

Has anyone watched the Great British Bake Off for Comic relief this week. I have always loved cooking, especially baking & it is great to see the nation so enthused with the baking bug. 

The show is addictive and I can't quite put my finger on why? for me one of the reasons is the great presenting duo of Mary Berry & Paul Hollywood, don't you just love Paul Hollywoods eyes, how lovely is to the competitors & he can bake he ticks all the boxes.

On Monday the first challenge was Shortbread which is one of my favourites, so this afternoon after baking cookies for Abi I decided to make some using the Lorraine Pascale Dreamlike Shortbread.

Ingredients

• 130g/4½oz butter, softened
• 60g/2½oz caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
• 130g/4½oz plain flour ( substitute up to 30g flour for custard powder for a creamier taste )
• 60g/2½oz rice flour
• pinch salt

Preparation method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale and fluffy. Add the plain flour, rice flour and salt, and stir well until the mixture is smooth and uniform. (I find it easiest to keep pressing the mixture against the side of the bowl to mix it.)
2. Bring the mixture together and press into a 20cm/8in loose-bottomed cake tin, smoothing it with the back of a spoon. Crimp the edges by pressing with the tips of two fingers, then score into eight pieces with a knife and prick each triangle three times with a fork. Put in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.
3. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.
4. Remove the shortbread from the fridge and bake in the oven for 30–35 minutes, or until pale golden-brown.
5. Remove the shortbread from the oven and sprinkle over some caster sugar. Leave to 
   cool in the tin for a few minutes before removing it from the tin and cooling on a wire rack.
   
   
   When I bake this recipe I usually make individual biscuits, to do this I layout a sheet of cling film & roll the dough into a sausage & wrap loosely in the cling film and roll out the sausage and chill for 20 minutes.
   
   
   After listening to some of Mary Berrys comments she was talking about adding some cornflour, so today when I was making the shortbread I substituted 30g of the flour for 30g Custard Powder. This gave a creamier vanilla taste with the same light texture.

Lorraine Pascale's "Big yummy double Choc Chip Cookies"

Lorraine Pascale's "Big yummy double Choc Chip Cookies"

My daughter  is studying hard for her 'A' levels as well as doing extra shifts at her part time job these past few weeks, on her way out to work this afternoon she asked if I would bake her some cookies to dunk in milk  and so I thought I'd bake her one of her favorites Lorraine Pascale's "Big yummy double Choc Chip Cookies"


This recipe comes from Lorraine's "Baking Made Easy" book that was released to coincide with her TV series.  I came across Lorraine's programme completely by chance as a repeat on one of the food channels last year and instantly fell in love with her cooking style and the relaxed way in which she presents her show. So purchasing her books was a must.

I love cookery books with lots of pictures, Lorraine's books always achieve an excellent balance, but also in the instructions for these cookies she tells you that ' the tops will crack' I love these  thoughtfully little notes.

The recipe states this makes eight large American-style cookies, but as you can see I got over a dozen large cookies from the recipe.

Big yummy double choc chip cookies
By Lorraine Pascale

110g butter
200g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
seeds of 1 vanilla pod or 2 drops of vanilla extract
165g plain
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
30g cocoa powder
100g milk chocolate chips
100g dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5/190°C and line your baking trays.

Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together until combined. Add in the egg and vanilla and
mix well. It might look like the mixture has curdled but just give it a good mix and it will come good.

Add the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder and mix until the dough comes together. (It will be quite stiff)

Add the chocolate chips and mash everything together with a wooden spoon.

Divide the mixture into balls and space evenly on your trays. Bake in the oven for between 10-12 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray, they will be very soft but will harden up.

Welsh Cakes

Over the last couple of weeks I have heard a couple of people talking about Welsh Cakes, Until then I had never heard of these little regional treats. Well with the wonders of google I found a recipe and have just made my first batch of welsh cakes.
I did a little research into the history of Welsh Cakes.

A Brief History of Welsh Cakes

“A griddle-bread, circular with deckle edges about 50-70mm diameter, 10-15mm deep. Flavour and texture: Close soft, texture, rich flavour.

Pice ar y maen (Welsh for ‘cakes on the stone’, where they are also known as cacennau cri) have become so well known outside their native area that they are simply termed Welsh cakes. They are a Welsh variant on the theme of flat griddle-breads and scones found throughout western and northern Britain.  The recipe now used, leavened with baking powder, cannot date much before the mid-nineteenth century when this ingredient was first introduced. They were known in Glamorgan at the end of that century and they were baked either on a griddle or in a Dutch oven, a three-sided tin over that was placed directly before the flames of the kitchen fire (Tibbott, 1976). They are still very popular and widely made.” Quoted from the Taste of Britain by Laura Mason and Catherine Brown

Ingredients

• 225g/8oz Self-raising Flour, sieved
  1/4 tsp Mixed Spice
• 110g/4oz  Salted butter
• 1 Egg
• 50g Sultanas
• Splash of Milk
• 85g/3oz Caster sugar
• extra butter, for greasing

Preparation method

1. Rub the fat into the sieved flour to make breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, dried fruit and then the egg. Mix to combine, then form a ball of dough, using a splash of milk if needed.
2. Roll out the pastry until it is a 5mm/¼in thick and cut into rounds with a 7.5-10cm/3-4in fluted 
   cutter.
3. You now need a bakestone or a heavy iron griddle. Rub it with butter and wipe the excess away. Put it on to a direct heat and wait until it heats up, place the Welsh cakes on the griddle, turning once. They need about 2-3 minutes each side. Each side needs to be caramel brown before turning although some people I know like them almost burnt.
4. Remove from the pan and dust with caster sugar while still warm. Some people leave out the dried fruit, and split them when cool and sandwich them together with jam.
   
   
   

   
   

   This is the recipe that I used and it was very easy to make up, but I don't have a griddle so I made my Welsh Cakes in my Paella pan, and I found there is a very fine timing between Caramel brown and burnt when using the Paella pan and frying in butter, but they tasted fabulous served warm with Homemade Strawberry jam.
   
   

I've been published

I recently submitted a recipe to the lovely ladies at My Secret Kitchen and it has been published on the MSK Blog, how exciting for them to share the recipe.

Apple Cup Cake with Canella Buttercream

Makes 12 cup cakes

Thanks to Lisa Lovell for the inspiration for these cup cakes and Katie Lang for her baking expertise in putting it all together 

For the apple cup cakes:

115g unsalted butter, softened

175g caster sugar

3 medium eggs

1 packet My Secret Kitchen Original Beer Bread Mix

1/2 tsp My Secret Kitchen Vanilla Pudding Spice

1 medium cooking apple, peeled and chopped into small dice

For the canella buttercream:

150g unsalted butter, softened

250g icing sugar

2 tsp My Secret Kitchen Vanilla Pudding Spice

To garnish:

Fudge or toffee pieces

Drizzle of My Secret Kitchen Maple Caramel Sauce

Preheat oven 190C, line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases.

Cream the butter and the sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time while mixing.  Add the Beer Bread Mix in 3 parts along with the Vanilla Pudding Spices, folding each part in carefully until combined.  Fold in the cubed apple.  Divide the batter equally amongst the 12 muffin cases and bake for 15 - 18 minutes until golden.  Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the buttercream by creaming together the butter, icing sugar and Vanilla Pudding Spices until smooth and creamy.

Pipe the buttercream onto each cupcake, drizzle with Maple Caramel Sauce and garnish with fudge pieces.  For an added touch, hollow out a small part of the centre of the cup cake and fill with apple puree and Maple Caramel Sauce before icing.

Pineapple & Cherry Ring cake

Pineapple & Cherry Ring cake


Pre-heat oven gas mark 4 Elec 350°F / 180°C


This cooks in a Kugelhopf pan 


Ingredients
432g can of crushed pineapple
200g Glace Cherries, Chopped
225g Self Raising flour
100g Butter
1 Egg
100g demerara Sugar
50g Icing Sugar
15g Crystallised Pineapple

• Prepare the pan by greasing & flouring 
• Drain pineapple, reserve juice, 
• Chop 175g cherries saving 4 whole cherries for decoration
• Sieve flour, add the butter and rub in butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Beat egg 
• Add sugar, crushed pineapple, chopped Cherries, egg & 60ml pineapple juice to rubbed in mixture. Stir Well to a soft sticky consistency.
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared Kugelhopf pan.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for 50 - 55 minutes.
• cool in the tin for 5 minutes and remove and cool on a wire rack.
• Icing ~ Sieve icing sugar into a clean bowl, beat in 15ml of pineapple juice & drizzle over the cooled cake, cut the remaining 4 cherries in half and use to decorate with the crystallised pineapple.

Cherry Bakewell Loaf ~ My Secret Kitchen

Cherry Bakewell Bread

1 My Secret Kitchen Original Beer Bread Mix

50g ground almonds

50g caster sugar

50ml veg oil

2 tsp almond essence

100ml lemonade

100g glace cherries

125g icing sugar

20ml cold water

Preheat oven 190c and line a 1lb loaf tin.

Empty the bread mix into a bowl and add the ground almonds and sugar and stir together. 

Reserve 6 of the glace cherries and chop the rest in half and add to the dry ingredients and mix. 

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the vegetable oil, almond essence and lemonade. 

Mix thoroughly and quickly before putting in to the loaf tin and bake for 25 - 30 minutes. 

Make the icing by mixing the icing sugar with the water. When the loaf is cool, top with the icing and the reserved whole cherries.

This recipe came from the My secret Kitchen blog and I've now made it twice and it is absolutely beautiful, even after a week this was still beautifully fresh and luscious.

Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls

Total Time:

Prep Time:

Cook Time:

1 hrs 10 mins

1 hrs

10 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast
• 1 cup warm milk
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup margarine
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 4 cups flour

FILLING

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1/3 cup margarine, softened

ICING

• 8 tablespoons margarine
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. 1
   For the rolls, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl.
2. 2
   Add sugar, margarine salt, eggs, and flour, mix well.
3. 3
   Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour.
4. 4
   Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
5. 5
   Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, until it is approx 21 inches long by 16 inches wide.
6. 6
   It should be approx 1/4 thick.
7. 7
   Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
8. 8
   To make filling, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
9. 9
   Spread the softened margarine over the surface of the dough, then sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the surface.
10. 10
    Working carefully, from the long edge, roll the dough down to the bottom edge.
11. 11
    Cut the dough into 1 3/4 inch slices, and place in a lightly greased baking pan.
12. 12
    Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown.
13. 13
    While the rolls are baking combine the icing ingredients.
14. 14
    Beat well with an electric mixer until fluffy.
15. 15
    When the rolls are done, spread generously with icing.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/cinnabon-cinnamon-rolls-76864#ixzz1xJRbIb3O

Steph's Chocolate Caramel Tarts

Chocolate Caramel Tarts

Tarts:

110g plain flour

1/2tsp baking powder

90g des. coconut

95g soft brown sugar

125g melted butter

1tsp vanilla

1) Mix all together and push into holes of mini muffin tins. Bake for 12 mins or until crisp 


and golden (180 deg)

Caramel filling - I just use carnation ready made caramel condensed milk 

2) Spoon into the cases and bake for further 5-8 minutes.

3) Cool for ten mins in tin, then remove to wire rack to cool

Chocolate topping:

200g dark choc - chopped

30 butter, cubed

4) Combine in bain marie and mix well, spread over top of caramel


The ideal pan for these is from Lakeland Mini Morsel pan

Jubilee Cupcakes

Jubilee Cupcakes
Chocolate cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream

The cupcakes are made from my favourite Chocolate Cupcake recipe which produces 16 very moist cupcakes.
Preheat Oven 170  °C/ 375 °F / Gas Mark 5


115g Good quality dark Chocolate
85g Unsalted Butter at Room temperature
2 large Eggs at Room temperature, Separated
175g Soft brown sugar
185g Plain Flour, Sifted
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
3/4 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
Pinch of salt
250ml Semi skimmed milk at Room temperature
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Bean Paste.

• Break the chocolate into pieces & melt, leave to cool
• In a large bowl cream together the butter & sugar until the mixture is pale & smooth, which should take approx 4 minutes.
• In a separate bowl and with clean beaters beat the egg yolks for a couple of minutes.
• Add the egg yolks slowly to the creamed butter mixture and beat well.
• Next add the cooled melted chocolate to the mixture & beat well.
• In a separate bowl combine the flour, Baking Powder, Bicarbonate of Soda & salt.
• Put the milk into a jug and add the vanilla Bean paste.
• Add 1/3 of the flour mix to the chocolate mixture and beat well, pour in 1/3 of the milk and beat well, repeating until all of the ingredients are mixed well together.
• In a clean bowl bowl with clean beaters, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks, carefully fold into the batter using a metal spoon taking care not to beat the air out of the light mixture.
• using an ice cream scoop fill the cupcake cases 2/3rd's full
• Bang the tray firmly once on the worktop to ensure there are no large air pockets in the cakes & then place in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes
• Do not open the oven until the timer sounds, check the cupcakes by inserting a cocktail stick into the centre of the cakes, if the stick comes out clean the cakes are ready, any moisture or stickiness on the cocktail stick and the cakes need returning to the oven.
• Cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then place on a wire cooling rack until completely cool.

White Chocolate Buttercream

175g White Chocolate

22g Unsalted Butter at room temperature

1 tablespoon Semi skimmed Milk

1 teaspoon vanilla bean Paste

250g Sieved icing Sugar

• Break the chocolate into pieces & melt, leave to cool
• In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, milk, vanilla together, slowly add the sieved icing sugar and beat until thick and creamy.
• Add the cooled melted chocolate and continue beating until you achieve the thickness for icing cupcakes, this should be stiff & spreadable.

If you are colouring icing i would suggest you use colouring paste added to the mixture with a cocktail stick, less is more, you don't want bright lurid coloured cupcakes.

Cake Pops ~ Jubilee

Jubilee cake pops 



Getting Started With Cake Pops 

Supplies book

The best i have found is one by Molly Bakes called cake pops, this is cheapest on Amazon. Isbn 9780224095228

Molly bakes also has a website and a facebook page, the designs and possibilites are endless. http://www.mollybakes.co.uk/

Cake sticks from ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170720590575?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_500wt_922

Cake pop bags from ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110768860988#ht_560wt_922

Bag ties from ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330637962559?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_706wt_689

Candy melts for dipping - the cheapest i have found is hobbycraft at £2.99 a bag and they come in approx 10 different colours, most are vanilla flavoured but the also do mint choc and peanut butter.

Chocolate cake - these are like truffles

55g cocoa powder

250ml boiling water

120g unsalted butter, softened plus extra for greasing

200g caster sugar

200g self raising flower

1teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs at room temperature

Put the cocoa in a jug and pour in the boiling water and stir until fully combined and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven 190c gas mk5

For the next step either lightly grease and flour a 25cm round cake tin or i use the silicone cup cake cases as this reduces the cooking time, recipe make about 20 cupcakes, mixture filled 2/3rds of case.

Cream the butter and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.

Mix the vanilla into the creamed butter mix.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well. If the mixture starts to split add a sppon of the flour mixture as you start to mix each egg.

Pour in the dry ingredients and gently beat until combined.

Fold in the cooled cocoa mixture and mix until the colour is even.

Pour into the tin or cases and bake

Whole cake 45 - 60 minutes

Individual cakes 27- 30 minutes

Test using a cocktail stick or knife if the cocktail stick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, then they are cooked.

Cool in the tin for 20 minutes and turn out onto a cooling rack.

Chocolate frosting

120g unsalted butter, softened

200g icing sugar sifted

100g chocolate melted and cooled.

Cream the butter, gradually add the icing sugar and then the cooled chocolate until light and fluffy. Refrigerate for 30minutes before using.

Making the balls

Crumble all of the cake mixture into fine crumbs, add the frosting a tablespoon at a time and mix, keep adding and mixing untill you have a fudge like texture.

Wrap the mixture in cling film and chill for 1 hour.

Rolling the balls

Break off small amounts of the chilled mixture and roll into balls, i make approx 30. 

Place on a baking sheet covkered with greaseproof.

Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Putting the sticks in

Remove the tray of balls from the fridge

Melt the candy melts

Dip approx 1" of the stick in the melted candy melts and push one stick into each ball.

When finished chill for at least 10 minutes.

Covering the balls & decorating.

Re-melt the bowl of candy melts and add 2 teaspoons of cooking oil and stir well.

You can melt the candy melts as many times as you need.

Dip each cake pop into the candy melts and completely cover them decorate with sprinkles now if your using them, i dont dip in the sprinkles but just drop a few onto the cake pop, i then stand them to dry in the side holes of my metal collander and when completely dry after about 20 minutes i bag them and store them in the fridge.

There shelf life is 10 days stored in the fridge, or a week if stored at ambient temperatures but they seldom last 7 days in this house