Hot Apple Flan

For this month's Random Recipes Challenge set by Dom at the idyllic Belleau Kitchen we were asked to randomly pick a recipe from a new cookbook.  One of the books I received for Christmas was 80 Recipes Brasseries Bocuse.  Paul Bocuse is a French chef based in Lyon where he has five brasseries as well as his famous restaurant L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges just outside the city. The author of the book, Jean Fleury, manages the brasseries and is a protege of the famous chef.


I spent a year living and working in Lyon where I had ample time to sample the amazing food this city has to offer.  I left after 12 very well fed months and 1 stone heavier.  This book was a very much appreciated Christmas gift from one of my Lyonnaise friends.  It has been great flicking through it reminiscing about the city and its wonderful restaurants of which the Bouchons are the most famous. The tradition of bouchons came from small inns visited by silk workers who were passing through Lyon in the 17th and 18th centuries. A bouchon serves traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, such as sausages, duck pate or roast pork. The dishes are generally focused around meat and quite heavy (remember the 1 stone...). Nowadays there are around 20 officially certified traditional bouchons in Lyon.


While the five Bocuse brasseries span many different types of cuisine the Brasserie du Nord chapter of the book focuses on traditional Lyonnaise cooking served in the bouchons and it was from here that I chose my Hot Apple Flan recipe. For me, apple flan is a quintessentially French dessert yet is is something I've never previously made.  The recipe itself was pretty simple although I struggled a bit with the Pate Brise pastry. In the end I changed the quantities slightly, reducing the amount of flour used,  as I felt the one in the book wasn't working out.  I definitely rolled the pastry out too thinly too meaning it burnt slightly during cooking. I've got a bit of a fear of pastry so that is something I need to work on this year.  Despite a slighty burnt crust this flan was rather delicious - Mr CB and myself devoured it in about 10 minutes flat (I feel the 1 stone might be coming back to haunt me.....).  


The Recipe (adapted from 80 Recipes Brasseries Bocuse)


6 apple, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
30g butter, diced
30g caster sugar
apricot jam


Pastry:


100g plain flour
50g soft butter
50g icing sugar
2 egg yolks


1. Start with the pastry.  Cream the butter and icing sugar together in a food processor until pale and creamily.  Add the egg yolks and flour and blend until it comes together into a ball.  Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour. 
2.  Preheat the oven to 180c.  Roll out the chilled pastry and lay it on a loose bottomed flan tin. Arrange the apples in layers over the pastry.
3. Sprinkle the top with caster sugar and the butter. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Once cooked, warm the apricot jam and brush over the tart.

Chocolate Cake with a Twist

I love black beans, especially in home made soup with smoky bacon added to it.  Knowing they are good for you is an extra bonus too. That is actually a bit of an understatement - they are seriously good for you - high in fibre, folate, protein, antioxidants and vitamin B, along with numerous other vitamins and minerals. In fact in Brazil, one of the world's key black bean producers, they have even been given an exclusive place on the Brazilian Food Pyramid, which means they are essentially recommended as their own unique food group.


But I digress and the aim of this blog isn't to sound like a public health broadcast!  I am leading to the fact that I was intrigued to read about a chocolate cake containing black beans as one of the main ingredients on  the blog A Hippie with a Minivan. I had been toying with what to make for the We Should Cocoa January Challenge where this month Chele at Chocolate Teapot has set us the task of making something 'healthy' with chocolate. Things such as relatively healthy flapjacks sprung to mind but when I saw this recipe I knew it would fit the bill nicely.  While the cake does contain butter and sugar the black beans are the main ingredient, replacing flour, so also making it gluten free. The other bonus is this cake is so quick and easy to make.  It is best served warm with a nice dollop of creme fraiche (low fat of course....).


The recipe can be found here on A Hippie with a Minivan blog.

Danish Pastry Escargots

Whenever I am travelling somewhere by train and there is a Paul bakery I always buy one of their Escargot pastries. I love their buttery raisin filled flaky dough - especially that first bite. When I saw that this month's Teatime Treats challenge, hosted this month by the inspiring Karen at Lavender and Lovage, could include any sweet pastries and breads the Escargots immediately came to mind. The fact that I'm currently having a love in with all things Danish (The Killing, Borgen, Sarah Lund's jumper collection....) also persuaded me to give them a go. My parents bought me Bo Friberg's The Professional Pastry Chef for Christmas which has a whole section on Danish pastries. While I am most definitely no where near the standard of the book's title, I have picked up some good ideas already from this huge tome, one being the honey butter I've used in the filling.


I found the recipe for the actual pastry online but combined it with this gorgeous honey butter. I also took Bo's tip of soaking the raisins in water beforehand to make them plumper. I'm glad I've made these but boy they took some work. The kneading, the rolling, the chilling, the rerolling, the rechilling ... And did I mention THE BUTTER!! There are some things in life it's best not to know and the amount of butter in these is as obscene as a Bunga Bunga party's guest list. But like Berlusconi himself probably thought, life's short so you have to have a few indulgences. Would I make them again? I'm glad I've made them once but unlikely to again - see life's too short point, especially when Paul can do all the hard work.


The Recipe


For the pastry:
450g plain flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom
50 g fresh yeast
250 ml milk
1 egg, beaten
300g butter, sliced (I used 250g as I just couldn't bring myself to use more than one packet!)
a few handfuls of raisins soaked in water


For the honey butter:
170g unsalted butter
55g light brown sugar
80ml honey
120ml half and half (I forgot to buy cream so I missed out this ingredient) and added a splash of milk instead.


To make the pastry:


1. Preheat the oven to 230c/gas mark 8. Sift together the flour, salt, sugar and cardamom. Mix the yeast with a little of the milk until it is creamy and stir into the flour with the remaining milk and the egg. Mix to a dough and knead until smooth and shiny.
2. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle about 60cm x 30cmx 1 cm thick. Place the sliced butter over the centre strip of the dough, leaving a gap around the edges. Fold over one side of the dough to cover the butter, then fold over the other side. Chill the dough for 15 minutes. Roll out to the same size again, repeat the folding and chill for another 15 mins. Repeat the process once more. Finally put the dough in a floured plastic bag and leave to rest for 15 minutes before using.
3. Roll out the pastry to a rectangle about 40 x 15 cm. Spread with the honey butter filling (to make the honey butter just melt all ingredients together in a small pan until they come to the boil, then remove from heat) and sprinkle over the raisins. Press raisins in with a rolling pin. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the butter.
4. Roll up from the short end to make a swiss roll shape. Cut into 14 slices and place on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Leave in a warm place for 15 minutes. Bake for about 10—15 minutes until golden.
5. Brush the cooked pastries with more honey butter.

Raspberry & Buttermilk Pancakes

Happy New Year!  With January comes resolutions of healthy eating, more exercise etc etc.  I don't generally believe in diets - I think life is all about balance - balancing on your toes on the edge of the scales generally gives you a lower weight reading.  


That of course isn't what I really mean.  I generally watch what I eat in the week, trying to err on the side of healthy, while indulging more at the weekend. However after Christmas I did feel I wanted to kick start myself back into a healthy eating mode so I dug out an old book about GI recipes.  I don't really see GI food as a diet as such but a general way of eating quite healthily.  Since first reading the book several years ago I've probably adopted some GI ways of eating without even realising, such as always buying brown rice and occasionally using wholewheat pasta (it just doesn't taste as good though) among other things. 


So this week I'll be cooking recipes from this book and I thought I'd start it with these delicious  pancakes.  I was surprised to find the recipe on which I've based them in amongst the others but apparently buttermilk is low in fat and the rest of the ingredients are pretty healthily.  I even swapped the sweetener listed in the ingredients for Agave Nectar so it contains even less sugar than listed.  I did use less buttermilk than in the recipe so I didn't have to buy 2 tubs. I made up the difference with normal milk.  I also added some raspberries into the mixture which gave a lovely fruity hit when eating them.  


This is my entry into this month's Breakfast Club Challenge which is being hosted this month by Food, Je t'aimee.  The theme this month is January Detox and in light of the fact these pancakes are a pretty healthy option I thought they would fit nicely.


The Repice (Adapted from Living the GI Diet)


240g wholemeal flour
1 tbpn baking powder
1 tspn agave nectar
300ml buttermilk
150ml milk
2 eggs
2 tbspns rapeseed oil
150g raspberries


1.  Mix together the flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl whisk together all the other ingredients except the raspberries. Then whisk into the dry ingredients. Fold in the raspberries, saving a few to add to the cooked pancakes.
2. Heat a little rapeseed oil in a frying pan. Add dollops of the mixture. Wait until bubbles appear on the surface of the pancakes then turn over and cook for another couple of minutes.
3. Serve with the remaining fresh raspberries and a drizzle of honey.

Nigella's Festive Rocky Road

Christmas isn't really Christmas without some overly indulgent Nigella recipe.  When I was young and growing up in the middle of the Lincolnshire countryside we used to spend Christmas Eve on rotation at the house of one of three families in the village.  One of these was the house of my best friend from Primary School and the highlight was the fact I knew her Mum would make a Rocky Road Log.  It was so delicious and I used to always sneak back to the table for a second helping.  What I find weird about Rocky Road is that I love the glace cherries contained in it but can't bear them normally.


I've always meant to enter the Forever Nigella challenges hosted by Maison Cupcake but never got round to it. When I saw the Christmas challenge however I knew straight away what Nigella recipe I would make - her festive version of Rocky Road.  Of course it's not quite as good as the one of my memory but a very close second.


Here is the link to the recipe on nigella.com.

Christmas Ale Fruit Loaf

I was given Home Baked by Eric Lanlard a few months ago and have finally got round to making one of his cakes. I've done the recipe for his Ale Fruit loaf but in the spirit of the season I used Harvey's Christmas Ale instead of a regular one.  The recipe also lists wholemeal self-raising flour as an ingredient.  As I didn't have any in the cupboard I used wholemeal spelt flour and added a teaspoon of baking powder to the mixture.  I do love fruit cake and Wensleydale cheese - I think that is my Yorkshire roots coming out - and this cake is perfect for that combination.  Did you know by the way that Wensleydale cheese production almost had to finish in the 1990s due to such low sales.  It was however featured in the Wallace & Gromit animations and sales shot up saving this lovely cheese which was originally created by French Cistercian monks who settled in Wensleydale in the 14th century.  In his book Eric also suggests serving it toasted and buttered with raspberry jam which would be delicious too. Either way this is a great cake for eating in front of the TV on those days between Christmas and NY just as it's getting dark outside and it's all cosy inside (or while typing up a blog post....).


This cake is also my entry into December's Tea Time Treats, a monthly baking challenge hosted alternatively by What Kate Baked and Lavender and Lovage.  The theme this month is, of course, Christmas and is being hosted by the fab Kate.

The Recipe (my version)


390g mixed dried fruit (out of interest can someone tell me why Sainsbury's normal mixed dried fruit is £1.54 for 300g and their luxury dried fruit £1.53 for the same amount?!)
1 x bottle (250ml) ale
100g soft brown sugar
85g self raising flour
100g wholemeal spelt flour
1 tspn baking powder
3 tsp's ground mixed spice
2 eggs, beaten


1. This is the easiest cake ever to make.  Firstly, the day before you want to make the cake, place the dried fruit in a saucepan with the beer and heat gently.  Place in a bowl, cover and leave overnight to soak.
2. The next day preheat the oven to 40c/gas mark 1.  Grease and line a loaf tin.
3.  Put the soaked dried fruit and all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Place in the loaf tin and cook.  The original recipe says to cook for 1 1/4 hours but mine took more like 1 1/2 hours.  Cool in the tin before turning out.  


According to Eric, you should wrap the loaf in cling film and it will keep in a cool, dry place for up to 6 weeks.

Walnut Air Kisses

This weekend's baking didn't quite go plan. Ive been burning the proverbial candle a lot this week which has meant I've barely been at home. We had invited our neighbours round for some Christmas drinks on Sunday. I had plans to make various things for it but let's just say Saturday night's party put pay to that idea. I did however decide to make Walnut and Chocolate Kisses which I found in a book I got given last year called 'Cooking for Christmas'.


To cut a long story short I ended up resembling  one of those annoying Come Dine with Me contestants who rush round finishing their cooking and getting changed as the guests are ringing the doorbell. These biscuits are meant to be sandwiched with a rich chocolate ganache then topped with melted dark choc and half a walnut. My ganache just went horribly wrong - probably because I was rushing but also I think as I veered away from using Lindt chocolate for one that was on offer. Lesson learnt. So these ended up with no chocolate kiss filling and are just walnut biscuits but quite nice ones at that. I will make them again properly with the filling. I wasn't even going to post them but one our friends said how much he liked them so I changed my mind. Apologies for the poor quality photos - I had to quickly snap them on my phone. I've renamed because they really can't be called proper Chocolate & Walnut Kisses so when is a kiss not a kiss? When it's an air kiss of course. And as I live in London I know a lot about those .......


Ps wish I could claim to have made the mince pies but ( hangs head in shame) they are shop bought.


The Recipe

OK here's the thing I don't have the recipe on me! Oh dear. To be posted later.....