Chocolate Pudding Cake with Raspberries

For the one year anniversary of Belleau Kitchen's brilliant Random Recipes Challenge, Dom asked us to think back and return to the first book from which we chose a random recipe.  The first time I entered this challenge I made scones from Eat Drink Live by Fran Warde. On going back to it I had to 'randomly' hunt around a little for a baking recipe amongst the salads and other savoury options and finally came to this one for Chocolate Pudding Cake with Raspberries.  It's one of those recipes that's tucked away a little in the bottom left hand corner of the page near the crease, with no photograph - the poor relation to the other recipes on the page with their artfully styled pictures.  But I randomly made this one and what can I say but thank you Dom! Without this challenge this little beauty would probably have never seen the light of day and that would have been such a shame as it is absolutely bloody delicious.


The Recipe


250g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
200g butter
1 tspn instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbspn hot water
5 eggs
100g caster sugar
75g plain flour
150g raspberries (I used less than this)


1. Grease and line a 20cm springform tin. Preheat oven to 170c/gas mark 3.
2. Put the chocolate, butter and instant coffee in a small saucepan and heat gently until melted, smooth and glossy.  Set aside.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy.  Then add the flour and chocolate mixture and combine lightly.
4. Pour the batter into the tin. Stud the top with the raspberries and bake for around 40 mins or until the cake feels firm and is starting to shrink from the sides.


Lovely eaten warm or cold!

Rob Ryan Inspired but Amended Valentine's Cake

This is my rather belated Valentine's Cake for Mr CB.  I love my silicon heart shaped cake mould but I hardly ever use it so this was a good excuse. I made a chocolate cake using my Mum's tried and tested recipe with a simple vanilla buttercream frosting. The icing was meant to be inspired by the whimsical Rob Ryan.  I just LOVE his designs and am saving up for one of his screen prints.  I think each of his pictures is like looking at a modern day fairytale - the sentiments are just so beautiful.  So I did a sketch in the spirit of his artwork but I soon realised that Silver Spoon's Designer Red Icing Tube was just not going to cut the mustard. The tube comes with 3 different nozzles and they just weren't fine enough. A bad workman can't always blame his tools either -  my icing skills are not very good by any means.  So the icing was amended and it hopefully doesn't look too bad.   I'm going to invest in some good icing equipment and practice, practice practice.  I will then do a cake one day which is a homage to Rob Ryan!


This is also my entry for this month's Tea Time Treats Challenge hosted as ever by the lovely Kate from What Kate Baked and Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme this month is of course 'Romance'. 


The Recipe


Apologies but this is in ounces which is how I always do my basic sponge mix.


6oz butter
6oz sugar
3 eggs
5oz self raising flour
1oz cocoa powder


For the frosting see here.


1. Preheat the oven to 180c.  Grease your cake tin.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs then add the flour and cocoa.
3. Bake for around 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Apple Muffins

My sister-in-law recently bought me, for my birthday, a tin of 'Grandma's Recipe Cards'.  The Grandma in question must be a great cook as there is everything there from roasted leg of lamb to tray bake recipes.  These apple muffins are the first recipe I've tried making myself.  The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute spelt flour for the plain on the original and using cinnamon instead of mixed spice.  They are very tasty and I like the fact the apple is still in chunks. The topping is quite sweet so if I made them again I would probably leave it off and finish with mixed seeds only making them perfect for breakfast.


The Recipe


30g butter
30g demerara sugar
30g ground almonds
60g  sunflower seeds
225g spelt flour
2 tspn baking powder
75g brown sugar
1 tsp mixed spice 
2 apples, cored and cubed
1 egg
150ml soured cream
50g butter melted


1.  Preheat the oven to 190c/gas mark 5.  Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.  
2. Rub the butter into the flour, sugar and almonds until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Stir in the sunflower seeds. Leave to one side as this is for the topping.
3.  Sift the flour and baking powder together in a large bowl.  Stir in the sugar, mixed spice and apple.
4.  In another bowl mix together the wet ingredients then mix them into the bowl containing the flour. Stir together - the mixture will be quite thick and lumpy.
5.  Divide between the paper cases. Sprinkle the topping over each muffin. Bake for around 20 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Honey-roast Parsnip, Carrot & Shallot Tart

This tart is just perfect for a cold winter's day like the one most of the country is currently experiencing. I'm spending the best part of the day tucked up on the sofa watching The Killing 2 and eating comfort food. I really like the fact this tart, from one of my favourite books, the Popina Book of Baking, is wholesome and pretty healthy.  The case is made with spelt flour and I used 0% Total Greek Yoghurt in the filling but it still completely hits the spot. If you haven't got this book I really recommend you do - every recipe is a winner.


The recipe for the spelt flour can be found here. 


I basically made the tart filling by roasting some carrots, parsnips and shallots with a little honey and olive oil.  Once they were roasted I stirred in a good handful of grated strong cheddar.  I lined a tart tin with the spelt pastry dough and mixed in another handful of grated cheddar to a small pot of greek yoghurt. I spread this mixture over the base before topping with the roasted vegetables. It was then baked for about 30 minutes at 200c. Quick, easy and delicious!

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.