hallowe'en lime 'n' choc spiders

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk

Whoo! Hallowe'en is upon us, we've decorated the flat, Nick's carved a pumpkin, and I've made cupcake spiders :) I love the pairing of lime and chocolate, and it works beautifully on what is essentially a red velvet cupcake made using yogurt instead of buttermilk (purely because I'm more likely to have yogurt than buttermilk). The minimum cupcake batter produces 12 cupcakes, while the rest of the recipe is to make 6 spiders. I made just 2 spiders (the only difference in recipe quantities needed being the dark chocolate under "Additional") and covered the remaining cupcakes in the remaining frosting for extra treats. Hopefully the recipe will make sense - here it is!

Hallowe'en lime 'n' choc spiders - makes 12 cupcakes, for 6 or 2 spiders, with plain cupcakes leftover 
Ingredients
Red Velvet Batter (from Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook) - will make 12 cupcakes
60g (just over ½ stick) butter, softened
150g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp cocoa powder
½ tsp vanilla extract
120ml (1/2 cup) plain yogurt / buttermilk
150g (1 cup) plain flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1½ tsp white wine vinegar
optional: 20ml (1tbsp & 1tsp) red food colouring (artificial, as natural will lose its colour on baking)

Lime & Chocolate Buttercream
175g (1½ cups) soft butter
300g (1 2/3 cup confectioner's) icing sugar
zest of 1 lime,
3 tbsp lime juice (from 2 limes, or 1 lime and bottled lime juice)
50g (6 tbsp) cocoa powder

Additional
300g (10-11oz) dark chocolate (100g, 3½ oz if you're only making 2 spiders)
smidge (<1 square) white chocolate - you just need some shards chopped off it for the eyes
150g (5oz) chocolate sprinkles (75g, 2½ oz for 2 spiders)
1-3 tbsp red jam (raspberry/cherry/strawberry)

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C (375°F, Gas Mark 3) and line a muffin pan with 12 cases.
Whisk the butter and sugar till light and fluffy, then slowly add the egg while beating.
Mix the cocoa powder with the flour and the food colouring with the yogurt/buttermilk, if using.
Alternately add the yogurt/buttermilk and flour to the butter/sugar/egg mix until both are fully incorporated, then beat until the batter is smooth and even. Add the salt, soda and vinegar, incorporate into the batter and immediately divide between the cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until the centre is springy and the cakes have a slight fizzing sound. Cool on a wire rack.

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk
While the cakes are baking, prepare the chocolate legs and eyes: melt the dark chocolate over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, allow to cool slightly to firm up a bit so it holds its shape, then pipe eight "L" shapes and 2 eyes per spider cupcake, on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. In the centre of each of the eyes, place a shaving of white chocolate, and cover the legs in chocolate sprinkles while still wet. You can let these cool at room temperature, but as the chocolate is mostly covered with sprinkles (and so it doesn't matter if the chocolate doesn't set shiny), you can speed the process up by placing them in the fridge.

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk
While the cakes are cooling, prepare the buttercream by combining the butter and icing sugar at a low speed until incorporated, then increase the speed until light and fluffy. Add the zest and juice, mixing until combined. Take 1/4 cup (60ml, 4 tbsp) of this mixture and gently swirl in the jam to create a marbled effect, the amount of jam depends on how runny you want it - I used 1 tbsp jam to 1/4 cup buttercream and it was quite solid, if you want it to splurge out when you cut the spider, use 3 tbsp jam, or use just jam, (i.e. don't use buttercream inside at all).

To the rest of the buttercream, add the cocoa powder and blend to incorporate.
© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk
Once the cakes are cool, remove the liner paper and turn them upside down. Cut out a circle from what is now the top of the cakes and hollow out a small hole to make space for the filling. Place about half a tablespoon of the marbled jam/buttercream mix into each cake and replace the lids. Cover with the chocolate buttercream. I found the easiest way to do this was to start by placing a dollop of the chocolate buttercream on top of the cupcake and smooth it towards the base using a palette knife. Top the cakes with sprinkles.

Once the chocolate legs and eyes have set completely, gently remove them from the paper and position on the spider bodies, pushing the legs into the body to keep them in place.

Tah-dah!

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk

pumpkin spice latte pie cups

© Nick Loven

I consider myself a confident baker, I really do. There's nothing I wouldn't attempt, and it's rare that something goes irrevocably, depressingly wrong. The last time it did was when I learnt to make naan bread 3 months ago and even then it didn't turn out horrendous, and since then I've learned to do it well, so all's good there.

Four years ago when The Great British Bake-Off started, I applied to be on the series and will admit I was hurt when I didn't get called back. But as the series have gone on, I've realised more that my current comfort zones are only really applicable around cakes and biscuits, and that just doesn't cut it in the GBBO world. And another thing, every week there's a challenge that the bakers have no advanced warning of, and they're given only the most basic of instructions to complete the bakes with. This series there was a good 70% of these technical challenges that I would have been lost on for one reason or another. This disturbs me.

In a bid to not only increase my handiness with all sorts of baking but to gain experience and knowledge with a lot more of these unknowns, I've bought Michel Suas' Advanced Bread and Pastry, a bible in all things baking. It's a hefty 1000-page textbook with minimal food-porn-pictures, just lots and lots of words. The breads section alone covers 120 pages before it even gives you any formulas (base recipes), and the book jumps about in such a way that to gain anything out of the formulas, reading the pre-amble really is not optional. So over the next few weeks/months I'll be basing my recipes around the formulas and techniques found within my new best friend, and see how we get on.

With that, on to today's bake - pumpkin spice latte pie-ettes. Pie cups, if you will. Ohhhh yesss.

On this year's Big Canadian Adventrue, Nick and I fell in love with the pumpkin spice latte's available just about everywhere, and got to starting the day, pre-hike, with one of these. The pumpkins are also ripe and ready at the allotment so I thought this would be a nice tie-in for seasonal baking, although I'll admit that the pumpkins I eventually used were shop-bought. These are essentially mini pumpkin pies with the spices kicked up a notch and caffeinated, with a meringue topping, but (and I'll admit this straight away) these are fiddly and faffy, especially the way I did them. But they're so worth it. I mean, just look at how cute they are!

© Nick Loven

First, you'll need pumpkin puree, which in the UK is not that easy to get hold of, and quite expensive. There should be some in supermarkets now, look/ask for tinned/canned pumpkin. For a cheaper but more fiddly alternative, if you can get hold of pumpkins now you can make your own. If pumpkins are unavailable, butternut squash works too. I used 2 small/medium pumpkins, weighing a total of 2.6kg, and got about 500g/ml puree from them - plenty for lots of baking! De-seed and chop them up to roughly 10cm chunks and roast them (no oil/salt/anything) in the top of an oven at 180°C (350°F, Gas Mark 4) for 35 minutes, then decrease the temperature to 160°C  (310°F, Gas mark 2-3) and move them to the centre of the oven for another hour, adding a little (~100ml, just under 1/2 cup) water to the tray. Once cooled, remove the skin and liquidise in a blender / with a stick blender / using a whisk, without the water in the bottom of the tray. The consistency should be like baby food, if it's much more liquid than that then simmer it in a pan until reduced, just bear in mind that when cooled it'll be thicker than when warm so be careful not to over-reduce it in the pan. Pour into sterilised jars (boiling water, dry in a cool oven) and seal. It'll keep for about a week in the fridge.

Lydia's Pumpkin Spice Latte Pie Cups, makes 8
Ingredients
Pastry (of the Pâte Sucrée variety) - this will actually make enough for ~30 cups I think, but is the minimum pastry quantity to make with a whole egg
1 egg
7½ oz (200g, 1 1/3 cup) bread flour
3 oz (80g, just under ½cup ) confectioner's / icing sugar
¼ tsp baking powder
3 6/8 oz (100g, 1 stick) butter, chilled
1 1/8 oz (30g) ground almonds / almond flour
butter for greasing, 
8 espresso cups - preferably flat-bottomed and straight up. 
Greaseproof paper (baking parchment) and baking beans / any dried beans, for lining and blind baking the pastry cases.


Filling
1 egg
6 oz (170g) pumpkin puree (see above)
3/8 oz (125g, 3/4 cup) light brown soft sugar or light brown muscovado sugar
1tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp cloves
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp salt
2tsp espresso powder
3/8 oz (125g, ½ cup) evaporated milk
14g (1tbsp) butter, melted

Caramel, and Caramel Sauce
1 3/4 oz (50g, 1/4 cup) caster sugar
4 tbsp (60ml, 1/4 cup) evaporated milk

Meringue topping
4 egg whites (~150g, 5 1/4 oz), at room temperature
5 1/4 oz (150g, 3/4 cup) caster sugar
1 tsp espresso powder
1 tsp caramel sauce (above)
candy or meat thermometer

Method
To make the pastry cases, sift the flour with the sugar and baking powder. Add the butter and blend in using an electric whisk / standing mixer on slow, or cut in with a knife or pastry cutter, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs - this is known as mealy pastry (as opposed to flaky pastry in which the butter is less worked in, leaving larger chunks), and if the butter isn't worked in enough then a wet filling like used here will soak through and make the cases soggy.

Add the eggs and continue mixing until the dough begins to come together, then add the ground almonds and mix until the dough comes together. Bring it together to a ball and wrap in cling film (saran wrap) and refrigerate for 4 hours (according to Michel Suas. The minumum for pastry tends to be 30 minutes to 1 hour, but I've tried this pastry with less time in the fridge and it's just too soft to roll before 4 hours. Painful but true).

Roll the pastry to 1.5-2mm thick, cut out circles to fit the bottom of the cups, and strips approx 3-4cm / 1.5 inches thick and long enough to cover the circumference of the circle with just under 1cm overlap. As a simple rule, multiply the diameter by 3 and add a bit more, for espresso cups you'll be looking at somewhere in the region of 18-24cm. Refrigerate again for 30 minutes. All the refrigeration will help with lining of the cups and help to prevent the pastry from shrinking away from the cups and losing it's shape.

Grease the cups lightly with butter and place the pastry circles in the bottom of the cups, and line the sides with the strips. Press the overlaps together firmly to meld them together, and use your fingertip (no nails!) or something smooth-ended (I used a small rolling pin I have for rolled fondant work) to make sure the base pastry and side pastry are fully joined. Gently prick all over with a fork and line with baking parchment. Return to the fridge, place a baking sheet in the oven and pre-heat to 160°C (310°F, Gas mark 2-3).


© Nick Loven
For cup handles, cut strips of pastry ~ 1cm wide by 4-5cm long, drape over a wooden spoon handle on a baking tray. Wrap remaining pastry in cling film and refrigerate for another recipe for up to 2 days, or freeze for longer periods. When the oven is up to temperature, fill the lined cups with the beans, and bake together with the handles, until the pastry is golden, ~ 7 minutes for the handles, ~ 20 for the cups. Remove from the oven, and after a few minutes remove the beans and lining, and tip the pastry cases out of the cups - they may need a bit of upturned slamming and jiggling. Cool.

For the filling, drop the oven temperature to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mark 2), keeping the baking tray inside. Break up the egg with a fork, stir in the pumpkin, sugar, spices, salt and espresso powder and stir until mixed. Mix in the evaporated milk and melted butter until smooth, being careful not to incorporate any air. Place the pastry caes back in the espresso cups and fill to about half a centimetre below the rims, Bake on the preheated tray for about 30-35 minutes, until the centres of the pies are only just set. Allow to cool, then they should come away from the cups easily.

To stick the handles to the cups, first prepare a large bowl of ice cold water. Make caramel by dissolving the sugar in 2tbsp water, then heating the sugar over a high heat in a heavy pan (not non-stick - that'll cause the sugar to crystallise). It's important not to stir or shake the sugar as this will cause it to crystallise. At most, turn the pan gently if one side is becoming more "done" than the other, but shaking will also cause crystallisation. Once bubbling calms down and the sugar takes on a caramelised appearance and smell, take the pan off the heat and place into the ice-cold water to stop the caramel cooking. Immediately dip the pastry handle tips in the caramel and attach them to the cups. Return the caramel to the hob to re-melt it, again, again avoiding stirring it. Once melted, stir in the evaporated milk a little at a time with a rubber spatula to create a caramel sauce. Keep at room temperature until ready to use.

To make the meringue topping, combine the sugar and egg whites in a stainless steel bowl that has been thoroughly cleaned (I use boiling water) to remove any traces of fat which will hinder the egg whites from expanding. Heat over a pan of boiling water while whisking by hand to avoid scrambling. When the eggs reach 71°C (160°F) or 49°C (120°F) if the eggs are pasteurised. Once they've reached temperature, whisk with an electric mixer / whisk, or continue whisking by hand, until you reach the stiff peak stage - peaks of meringue will stand on their own. Gently fold in the caramel sauce and espresso powder, and top the pumpkin cups either with dollops of meringue, or pipe it on. Drizzle the caramel sauce over the top, collapse in an exhausted heap and when you come-to, devour with a steaming cup of coffee. Or tea. All good.

© Nick Loven

ginger overload cookies

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk

Here's another of my favouritest favourite recipes that I've been keeping close to my chest till now. It has hands-down been the most-baked recipe by me over the last 12 years, and when I started baking it in halls at uni I found myself with more knocks on my door from friends who just happened to be passing by for a hello and do I have any cookies? I sometimes wonder how many of them were actual friends. But I guess baking brings people together so one can't, and shan't complain.

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk
Ever since I was a kid, my favourite spice has been ginger. I'm addicted to it and must admit that whenever a recipe calls for it, I triple it and add a smidge more, just to be "safe". When pre-uni, my mum handed me a newspaper clipping with a ginger cookie recipe, I immediately fell in love with it and set about tweaking it to get the right consistency and ginger kick. I of course tripled the ginger component of the recipe, then doubled from there, and added in some ginger in other forms for good measure, stopping once I realised the cookies were making us all a little bit high. It's quite lucky that close to where my parents live the Sainsbury's shut down and a cash and carry (wholesale spice and all things Indian) took its place, filled with the good old smells of India and the spices therein, and massive bags of ginger (and cinnamon, cardamom, star anise - all my favourite things). I get my ginger in 500g bags, so this recipe doesn't make a dent, otherwise expect to use close to or over a full teeny poxy little jar you get in most of the main supermarkets.


Lydia's Insanely Addictive and Slightly Psychedelic Ginger Overload Cookies 
I got 18 cookies out of this batch. Such a comfy, neat number :)
Ingredients
240g (1 generous cup) caster sugar
100g butter (just under 1 stick) or baking margarine like stork (I always use the marg option for this recipe)
1 egg
2 tbsp golden syrup (you can also use corn syrup or honey if you can't get golden syrup)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3-4tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp shredded fresh ginger (optional)
2 pieces of ginger in syrup (optional, approximately 25g, 1oz), diced relatively small - about 3-4mm chunks
1tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
240g (1 1/2 genorous cups) plain flour

Method
Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mark 2) and line a cookie sheet with baking paper, or grease with oil/butter, if necessary (the sheet I use is smooth enough not to require this step, so you might be able to get away with missing this out).

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk
Cream the sugar and the butter until very light and creamy.
Add the egg and the syrup, and beat to combine. Tip: if you heat up your tablespoon in hot water before loading the syrup on / scooping the syrup out (and between the two loadings required) then it'll slide off the spoon more easily and you'll be sure to get closer to the full amount into the recipe!

If using (and if not then you'd better have a good reason), shred the fresh ginger, on a fine grater if possible, working against the grain to avoid ending up with long fibres in your finished cookies. Add this (and any juice that separated out from the ginger) together with the diced ginger-in-syrup balls into the wet mix.

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk
Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the wet (in one go is ok), and blend with the mixer or by hand to combine. The final mixture will be slightly wet - too wet and sticky to knead but firm enough to maintain its shape when spooned out.

Spoon onto the cookie sheet in 2tbsp-volume balls, roughly 45g per ball, or about the size of a golf ball. Leave about 3 inches around them for spreading, the final cookies will be about 5 inches in diameter. Don't flatten them, they'll do that all by themselves (they're just, like, totally laid back, dude).

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk
Bake on the highest shelf for 10-15 minutes. Mine took 12 minutes and it's a very fine line between being underdone and overbaked, you're looking for a light golden colour and a nice cracked top, still squidgy in the middle but that will quickly form a skin and firm up a little once cooling. I err on the side of underdone as it loses it's chewiness when overdone, plus I have no qualms with raw cookie dough (also, you can always chuck them back in to bake a little longer, but you can't un-bake them. This tip brought to you by captain obvious). Any overdone / burnt ones do pair shockingly well with white chocolate buttercream, or any frosting (see this page) you might have leftover in the fridge from a previous baking expedition though, so panic not, fearless baking adventurer.

Allow them to firm up a little on the sheet, for about 2 minutes, before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling, with the aid of a fish slice pushing down on the sheet and easing it under the cookie in a gentle side-to-side motion (but not too slow otherwise the cookie will start to cool and stick to the tool) to avoid deforming the still warm and oh-so-soft cookies.


Once cool enough to handle, dig in! These are most excellent dunked in ice cold milk or a delicious, hot coffee, before slurping the liquid out of the crumb. Om-nom.

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk

Andi's amazing apple bundt

© Nick Loven

Baking fans, I'M BACK! and boy do I have some treats for you! (yes I do). We've had a fantastic holiday, but yes, I have seriously missed the recipe invention and baking (and the scoffing). I'm a bit behind on the thought process and the baking (having plenty of self-raising flour but no plain), so this week I'm presenting to you a bit of a cheat - a recipe that comes from a dear friend who made us feel very welcome in Seattle, with a disastrously moreish apple bundt cake. If you can make it last, this cake only improves with age (and long car journeys).

Andi's Amazing Apple Bundt Cake
Ingredients
Filling
2 cups (480ml) braeburn or gala apples, peeled and diced (diced volume)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Batter
2 cups (16oz, 450g) granulated sugar
1 cup (240ml) vegetable oil
1/4 cup (60ml) orange juice
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups (450g) plain flour 1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (240ml, roughly 150-200g) chopped nuts (optional) - I think hazelnuts, walnuts or even brazil nuts would work best with this recipe

Decoration
1/4 cup (roughly 45g) icing / confectioner's sugar, to dust

© Nick Loven

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C, Gas mark 4) and grease the bundt pan.
Toss the filling ingredients (diced apples in the sugar and cinnamon) together and put to one side.
Beat the sugar, oil, orange juice, eggs and vanilla extract at high speed till smooth.
Sift the remaining, dry ingredients together, and mix into the wet (in the mixer is fine, or fold it in). Fold in the nuts, if using.
Pour half of the batter into the pan and top with the apple-sugar-cinnamon mixture. Top with the rest of the batter and bake for 55-60 minutes until springy and golden. Rest for a few minutes in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack while still hot. Allow to cool completely before topping in a gorgeous snowstorm of icing sugar


Thanks Andi! xx


© Nick Loven