Week 47 – Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie

Right folks this week's bake requires some explanation and it is part one of a baking trilogy which will see me through the next couple of weeks of the baking challenge. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

This time of year is a special one for myself and my old group of university friends because our annual holiday of Thank St Andrews It's Christmas Day (TSAICD) is coming up. I know, I know it's not a well recognised holiday, for some reason you don’t get the day off work and it doesn't appear in old fashioned paper diaries but it is very special.

When I was in my first year at the University of St Andrews I had a tight knit group of friends, including my long term flat mate, best bud and wife (not in traditional sense) Elizabeth who is American. While studying at St Andrews they very kindly give you a day off from lectures on St Andrews day which is the 30th of November. This nicely comes around at the same sort time of year as Thanksgiving and with a homesick American in our group it was only fair that we had some sort of gluttonous eating fest to celebrate the time of year. We also wanted to have an opportunity to exchange secret Santa gifts and start the process of decorating our student halls with a hideously tacky (and sometimes homemade) Christmas decorations.

So this time nine years ago, as keen Freshers we came up with the ingenious way of celebrating all three holidays in one and TSAICD was born. We had a fantastic meal with Thanksgiving and Christmas favourites a plenty, we ate, we drank and we were very merry.

The wonderful tradition continued every year for our four years of University, with the number of friends embracing the holiday increasing year on year. We even managed to continue the TSAICD tradition for several years after we all went our separate ways to be grown ups in the real world. Sadly we haven't managed it every year but its still a super special time for all of us. We have a ten year reunion planned for 2014 which I am already looking forward to.

Anyway, this long winded story has led to this week's bake. I wanted to dedicate a bake to each of the key elements of our special holiday so this week was for the Thanksgiving, next week will be something Scottish for the St Andrews element and the week after will be a Christmas bake.

So, finally what you have patiently read all this way for, the recipe!! Courtesy of The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book I made the classic Thanksgiving fave, Pecan Pie (with added chocolate chunks):-

Ingredients

Pastry ingredients: 

• 110g unsalted butter 
• 225g plain flour 
• 80g caster sugar 
• 1 large egg

Pie Filling Ingredients:

• 110g unsalted butter
• 226g light brown sugar 
• 110g golden syrup 
• 3 large eggs 
• 260g pecans chopped (save some as halves to decorate the top) 
• 85g dark chocolate chunks

One 23cm (9inch) loose-bottomed tart tin

Method

1. Using a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and flour on a low speed until crumb-like in consistency. Add the sugar and then the egg, mixing gently just to incorporate. Alternatively, place the butter and flour in a separate bowl and rub together using your fingertips, then stir in the sugar, followed by the egg.
2. When the dough starts to form, take it out of the bowl and knead gently on a floured work surface to bring it together. Wrap the pastry in cling film and place in the fridge to rest for 20-30 minutes.
3. Once the pastry has rested roll it out on a lightly floured worktop so that is about 5mm (1/4 inch) thick and large enough to fit your tin.
4. Line the tart tin with the pastry, gently pressing it down into the base and sides of the tin. Using a sharp knife, cut away any excess pastry so that is it level with the edge of the tin, then prick the base of the pastry a few times with the point of the knife. Put the pastry case back into the fridge to rest for 20-30 minutes.
5. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 150 degrees centigrade (300F, Gas mark 2) and place a baking sheet in the oven to heat up.
6. Once the pastry case has rested, line it with baking parchment and fill with baking beans and place in the oven to bake blind (this just means without any filling) for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the beans, along with the parchment, and bake the pie case for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool while you make the filling.
7. In a sauce pan over a low heat, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup together. Once melted, set aside to cool. Whisk together the eggs in a bowl, just to break them up, then pour the melted ingredients into the eggs, stirring continuously until everything is combined.
8. Scatter the chopped pecans and chocolate chips over the base of the tart case and pour the liquid filling on top and decorate with pecan halves.
9. Place the pie carefully on to the hot baking sheet (this will help to pie to bake evenly). Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 140 degrees centigrade (275F, Gas mark 1), and then bake for another 20 minutes. When cooked the pie filling should be set, with a very slight wobble in the centre.

Baking 'blind' with baking beans, you can use rice or lentils instead if you don't have baking beans

Thanksgiving goodness! Can you see the slight wobble in the middle? 

Yummmm

The recipe does take quite a while because the pastry has to chill out for a bit but the end result was a sticky, wobbly, pecan Thanksgiving treat. I have always wondered how you make the gooey filling of a pecan pie, and now I know it really is quite straightforward. You really only need a tiny slice because its soooooo sugary and I think it is definitely best served with some cream or ice cream to help wash it down.

The only thing that could have improved the baking experience would have been to have one of my friend Elizabeth’s Autumn/Winter musical playlists on in the background.

Happy TSAICD everyone, xx Linds xx

P.S I also made two birthday cakes for Free Cakes For Kids this past week, heart shaped cakes with pink sponge inside for twins Sophia and Olivia who were turning 9. Happy Birthday girls.

Week 46 - Cornbread Muffins

It was 'bring your mum to the baking challenge' this week. A savoury tasty treat was on the menu with ingredients flown in from across the pond!

My mum was visiting this past weekend because I was singing in a choir concert on Saturday night, and seeing as I had her around I thought it was about time for some mother/daughter baking. My mum had arrived with bagfuls of baking supplies from her latest trip to America - my parents have a holiday home there which is great for me because I can put in orders for food/sweeties/chocolates/clothes and other uniquely American goodies all the time.

This time she brought me back two gems: proper corn meal (for corn bread/corn muffins) and marshmallow fluff (for several whoopie pie recipes that I want to try). We decided to go for a classic tex/mex staple - corn bread muffins. I had a few recipes to choose from but in the end we just went for the one on the back of the wonderfully-named Alabama King Corn Meal packet. Now because it is an American product the measures are in American 'cups', so you might want to go back to week 31 for a link to converting cups to mls/grams.

Ingredients

2 eggs

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup water

½ cup milk or buttermilk (we used milk but I would recommend buttermilk so that it makes the texture a bit richer)

2 cups Alabama King Corn Meal

2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar, optional (we would strongly recommend adding the sugar as the muffins really need it to counteract the saltiness)

Method

1. Heat the oven to 450F (I converted this to 230C) and grease a cast iron skillet, baking pan or muffin pan (I decided to put paper baking cases into the muffin tin so they wouldn’t stick which turned out to be a bit of a mistake, the paper stuck to the muffins so I think we have eaten quite a few bits of paper now!! So I would recommend that you do as the recipe says and just put the batter straight into the hot tins!). Put them in the oven to heat.
2. Beat eggs in a mixing bowl, add the remaining ingredients in the order listed above, stir in until well blended.
3. Pour batter into the hot pan and bake for 20-25 mins or until golden brown. The mix makes about 8-12 muffins.

The end results were crumbly, salty, sweet, grainy muffins which were a cross between a muffin and a light bread. I decided to make chilli for dinner and they were the perfect, if somewhat filling accompaniment to our dinner. They were slightly on the dry side but I think that could be improved by using buttermilk and avoiding the paper cases which might have dried them out a bit. I would also like to try some of the other recipes I have found because they include some more interesting flavours like cumin and cheddar cheese.

Lovely with chilli

Mum dons the marigolds!

It was really lovely to bake with my Mum, I haven’t really done it since I was a child! She is also a really good sous chef and helpful because she’s just a good mum – and does all the washing up and tidying and organising without even thinking! Mum was also my first taste tester - with all her American experience of cornbread it was a relief that she thought the muffins came out well.

I must also admit something to you, blog readers... I bought supermarket cakes this weekend!!!! I know, I know how could I after 46 weeks of baking!? It sort of felt like cheating on your other half but I had good reason. I was sooooo tired after singing all day on Saturday and had a group of girlfriends coming over for a brew on Sunday. Now ordinarily I would have done a double bake and made them some sweet treats but there just wasn’t the time (or the energy) to do it. The lesson from this is... drum roll please... I THINK IT'S OK TO BUY READY MADE CAKES!!! Now that I have baked so many things I would always prefer to make things from scratch but if you don’t want to, or don’t have time, it’s OK, bakers buy cakes too!

Happy baking (or cake buying...) 

xx Linds xx

Week 45 – Movember Moustache Biscuits

My workplace is a charitable place which is lovely but it means that we get quite a lot of department or ‘all staff’ emails about our colleagues’ latest charitable exploits. Last week two emails caught my attention, one which reminded me it was the start of Movember (‘an annual, month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer and other male cancers; and associated charities’ – thank you Wikipedia!!) and that a significant proportion of the men in the office would be sporting dodgy ‘mo’s’ for the month. The other was from our big boss Greg to say that his girlfriend Kasia was doing her bit for Movember by asking for sponsorship to go out running every day in November wearing a LARGE black stick on moustache! http://www.justgiving.com/Kasia-Czaplewska 

As many of you will know I was never going to commit to an exercise regime to raise money or awareness of a worthwhile cause but I can bake for it!!

This week myself and my baking buddies Nic and Karlie set about baking and decorating Moustache biscuits to sell in the office. BBC Good Food of course came up with a goods and provided us with an easy recipe to get started on the ‘mo’s’!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3468/basic-biscuit-dough

Ingredients

• 250g butter, softened

• 140g caster sugar

• 1 egg yolk

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 300g plain flour (or 250g flour and 50g cocoa for chocolate biscuits)

Method

Mix 250g softened butter and 140g caster sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon, then add 1 egg yolk and 2 tsp vanilla extract and briefly beat to combine. Sift over 300g plain flour and stir until the mixture is well combined – you might need to get your hands in at the end to give everything a really good mix and press the dough together. The recipe actually stopped at that stage and we had to kind of guess the next steps!!

Roll out the dough and cut into biscuits shapes using moustache cutters (I bought a set of five from Lakeland, they are fantastic! But you could use other cutters of your choice obviously). Bake at 180 degrees for approximately 12-15 minutes. Ours took slightly longer but I think we were just a bit worried that they still looked a bit squidgy but they crisped up once they were out of the oven and cooled.

My lovely colleagues with their colourful moustaches!!

Some more colleagues....

Some more colleagues....

And some more colleagues....

Bakers and decorators Karlie, Nic, me and Dave

We made two individual batches of the dough, one plain and one chocolate. The plain dough was easier to work with and seemed to bake better, we were forced to eat lots of the chocolate mo’s ourselves because they broke in the oven or just after we took them out!!

We had a great time decorating the moustaches with icing, sprinkles, edible glitter and icing pens. The results weren’t exactly what you would call professional quality but we had loads of fun and a good catch up while we were doing it.

Most importantly the moustaches went down a treat with my generous, charitably minded colleagues and lots of them posed for photos with their new ‘taches before scoffing them.

This week’s bake let me combine some of my favourite things, baking, catching up with some of my best girl friends and doing something good for charity, all in all it was a perfect bake in my mind!

Have a tasty week x Linds x

P.S. I also made my fourth cake for Free Cakes for Kids Edinburgh, it was a Sonic the Hedgehog cake for a wee boy called Drakeo who was turning six. I got to meet Drakeo when I delivered it and he was so pleased with the cake he gave me a hug which was just lovely and made the 3 hours of baking and decorating worth it.   

Week 44 – Earl Grey Cupcakes

This week I returned to my sweet tooth roots and used a recipe from my new baking book from The Hummingbird Bakery; ‘Cake Days’. On Friday it was my lovely colleague Eketerina’s birthday and seeing as though she had to work on her birthday I gave her free reign to choose whichever cake she would like (as long as it was from the Cake Days book... I was so keen to try it out!).  From the 231 pages of recipes Ekaterina kindly chose a straightforward bake as she knew how busy I was with work this week. All my colleagues are super supportive and interested in my baking challenge so it was no trouble at all to get baking on a school night to help her celebrate her special day.

So, with a little scepticism I set out to make Early Grey cup cakes. I wasn’t convinced that you would be able to taste the tea but how wrong I was!!

Ingredients

• 3 Earl Grey teabags
• 3 tbsp just-boiled water
• 80g unsalted butter, softened
• 280g caster sugar
• 240g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 200ml whole milk
• 2 large eggs

Frosting

• 50ml (1 ¾ fl oz) whole milk
• 500g (1lb 2oz) icing sugar (this seemed like a ridiculously large amount of icing sugar to use for a few cupcakes but I went with it anyway)
• 160g (5 ½ oz) unsalted butter, softened

Method

One or two 12-hole deep muffin tins

1. Place the teabags in a bowl and add the just-boiled water, then leave to brew for 30 minutes ( I was worried that the taste wouldn’t be strong enough so I actually left the tea bags to brew for about an hour and a half!).
2. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F), Gas mark 5, and line a muffin tin with muffin cases. Use a hand-held electric whisk or freestanding electric mixer with paddle attachment to mix the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt on a low speed until the texture of fine breadcrumbs.
3. Pour the milk into a jug, add the eggs and whisk by hand. Add the brewed tea, squeezing every last drop from the teabags into the milk mixture, then set the teabags aside for the frosting.
4. Pour three-quarters of the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed to combine. Then mix on a medium speed until smooth and thick. Scrape the sides of the bowl, add the remaining milk mixture and beat until all the ingredients have come together and the batter is smooth (the batter was quite runny which made me worry that I had missed a dry ingredient but it turned out OK! It made 16 cupcakes so there was a spare one to try before I gave them to the birthday girl! ;).
5. Divide the batter between the paper cases, filling each two-thirds full. If there is batter left over, spoon it into more cases in a separate tin. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes (mine took about 22-24 mins but that is probably because our oven runs a bit cool) or until risen and springy to the touch, then leave to cool slightly in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool fully.
6. While the cupcakes are cooking, place the used teabags in a small bowl with the milk for the frosting and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Remove the teabags and give them a good squeeze to extract maximum flavour.
7. Using the electric whisk or freestanding mixer with paddle attachment, whisk the icing sugar with the butter on a low speed until no large lumps of butter remain and the mixture is still powdery. Pour in the tea-infused milk while mixing slowly, then increase the speed to high and whisk until soft and fluffy (again the frosting mix way a bit runnier than I expected but it did manage to stay on top of the cakes).
8. Divide the frosting between the cold cupcakes, smoothing the tops and swirling with a palette knife.

 

Variations

Peppermint tea cupcakes: Make as above but use 3 peppermint teabags instead of Earl Grey.

Fruit tea cupcakes: Make as above, but with 3 fruit teabags of your choice, such as summer fruits, mixed berry, strawberry or raspberry, and top the frosted cupcakes with fruit to match, such as summer berries or slices of fresh strawberry.

I am pleased to say I was proven wrong, both the cupcakes and the icing really did taste of Earl Grey tea! It was a subtle, aromatic flavour but it was definitely there and quite frankly I think it was one of my favourite types of cup cake! It was also a fave of my husband Dave who took the time to phone me on my morning commute to ask if he could have another one! I was however right about the quantity of the icing, it was far too much, I only used about half of it so the remaining half is stored in the fridge waiting for me to make a second batch. 

When I took them into the office I got the highest praise possible from one of my other colleagues Nuala who said that not only were the cupcakes good but in fact “the best cupcake she has ever tasted” - what more could an aspiring baker ask for!?

Most importantly the birthday girl enjoyed her bake and hopefully it cheered up her during a busy Friday at work.

Happy Birthday Ekaterina!

Have a yummy cake filled week xx Linds xx