Dark chocolate berry cake

from The Guardian

By mixing a bold berry preserve into a simple icing, this dark chocolate cake gets a complex and impressive finish.

100g unsalted butter, cold is fine
125g dark chocolate
50g golden syrup
50ml natural yoghurt
175g light soft brown sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
250g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
50g cocoa
a jar of berry preserve, like blackcurrant or raspberry
150g icing sugar

Cover the base and sides of a 20cm round cake tin with non-stick baking paper or foil, and heat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/gas 4. Melt the butter, 125g chocolate and golden syrup gently. Remove from the heat, beat in turn the yoghurt, sugar, vanilla and eggs until smooth. Measure the flours, baking powder, soda and cocoa into another bowl, and toss to combine. Then sift this into the chocolate butter mixture and whisk until smooth. Pour into the tin and bake for 50 minutes. To ice, melt 75g chocolate and beat in 75g preserve. Add the icing sugar and beat with enough water to make a thick creamy icing. Spit the cake, fill generously with more preserve then reassemble and spread the icing over the top.

If you have any questions about the recipe just ask over on our forum

Fresh ginger coffee cake

from The Guardian

The sharp peppery kick of fresh ginger root is a stupendous pairing with coffee. Do add finely chopped glace ginger or dried apricots to make it fruitier, if you like.

175g unsalted butter
75ml milk
1 tbsp ground coffee, not instant
2cm piece root ginger, finely grated
2 large eggs
225g caster sugar
100ml sunflower oil
100g chopped pistachios
275g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
200g cream cheese
finely grated zest of one lemon and 2 tsp juice
175g icing sugar

Line the base and sides of a 22cm square deep tray bake or cake tin with non-stick paper, and heat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/gas 4. Melt 50g butter then remove from the heat, stir in the milk, coffee and ginger and leave 5 minutes. Whisk the eggs and sugar until foamy and pale then beat in the oil and coffee mixture. Stir in 75g pistachios then fold in the flour and baking powder. Spoon into the tin and bake for about 30 – 35 minutes or until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Leave to cool then beat the remaining 125g butter until smooth and light then beat in the cream cheese, zest and juice. Stir in the icing sugar then beat well until smooth and light. Spread thickly over the top of the cold cake and decorate with the remaining pistachios.

If you have any questions about the recipe just ask over on our forum

Finding flavour in coffee

I drank my first real coffee in Italy. It was back in 1979, I was 15, in Milan on my own, sitting in the grand apartment of Anna Piaggi and Vern Lambert in Via San Martino. Books and beautiful objects seemed to fill every shelf and table, and watercolour illustrations by Antonio Lopez were set out on Anna’s dining room table. And on a tray tucked close to the edge of the table were tiny cups of espresso.

Now up to this point I’d only dabbled at coffee drinking. Back in Melbourne, Mum had her small jar of Nescafe, and sometimes I’d put a quarter teaspoon in a cup with lots of milk and boiling water, which turned the milk beige, and the flavour slightly caramel. I still enjoy Nescafe but I don’t think of it as coffee.

So when Vern asked, “you do drink coffee, don’t you?” I said yes. Thinking that the appearance of confidence would hide the fact that I was young and unsophisticated. And I worried that if I said no I wouldn’t get the chance to drink it again, ever. The first mouthful, after saying no to sugar, was the most extreme thing I’d ever swallowed. I crossed a line into gastronomic adulthood, and there was no turning back. (more…)

Red naan

from the Guardian

Easy to make, and the plain flour makes the naan soft and tender.

400g plain flour, extra if needed
100g wholemeal flour, or more plain flour
1 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
1 tsp each of salt and sugar
1 tbsp tandoori paste, or chopped fresh coriander
1 tin chopped tomatoes
50ml yoghurt
sunflower oil and finely crushed garlic
cumin, fennel or kalonji seeds

Place the flour in a bowl, toss through the yeast, salt and sugar then stir in the tandoori paste, tomatoes and yoghurt. Mix to a soft sticky dough, adding a dash of water or extra flour if needed, then leave 10 minutes. Oil a patch of worktop, knead the dough briefly for 10 seconds then leave 10 minutes. Repeat the action twice more at 10 minute intervals then leave for 90 minutes. Divide into 5 – 6 pieces and pat into rough tear-drop shapes with lots of flour. Get the frying pan hot over a moderate heat then slap one on. Cook for a minute then mix 50ml oil with the garlic and seeds and drizzle a few tsp of the garlic oil on the bread. When bubbles puff up, after another minute or so, flip the bread and cook until the oiled surface is brown. Flip it back over and cook another minute then move to a hot oven for 5 minutes while you cook the rest.

If you have any questions about the recipe just ask over on our forum

Whoopie pies in Sainsbury’s Magazine June issue

chocolate whoopieThere are very few recipe that push my addiction buttons, but I can – hand on heart – admit to eating most of the whoopie pies I made and tested for Sainsbury’s Magazine’s June issue, alongside a mountain of meringues, pavlova, blueberry cream pies and floating islands.

A whoopie pie is made of two soft tender “biscuits” made by spooning a simple cake mixture onto a baking tray so that it spreads very slightly. Then these are sandwiched together with a marshmallow butter cream. I wanted to make them without resorting to food colourings and give them just a little simplicity and natural vigour. So I’ve chucked out the food dye and used bold fresh flavours: raspberry preserve, vanilla beans, fresh lemon and orange zest, dried apricots, sour cherries, passionfruit, toasted almonds. And chocolate, a very rich chocolate. There are recipes for making vanilla and chocolate whoopies, raspberry ruffle, lemon or orange cream, apricot and almond (my favourite), hazelnut and black cherry, and passionfruit.

The meringue feature is good too, I don’t think I’ve ever baked so many meringues over a week. There’s a simple meringue recipe, with flavours like double chocolate, lemon sherbert and pistachio sundae. Miniature rose meringues with strawberries, an almond maple pavlova filled with fresh cherries, poached lemon meringues with roasted nectarines, and a blueberry cocoa meringue pie with a dark chocolate shortcrust.

Almost all of the recipes written went into the issue, except for one that was a little bit trickier and took too much space. In the magazine I used melted marshmallows to make the buttercream, but it is possible to get creative and make your own with sheets of gelatine and a few other ingredients.

Marshmallow buttercream

This will keep quite well in the refrigerator for week or so, and cake be returned to a creamy state by warming it very gently until it begins to soften. If you melt it too much just let it cool slightly then, just when it’s half-set, whisk it again until creamy.

2 small sheets gelatine (or one large sheet)
1 egg white
50g caster sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
75g unsalted butter, very soft
25g icing sugar

1. Cut the gelatine into squares and leave to soften in 50ml warm water.

2. Place the egg white and caster sugar in a saucepan and heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is very hot. Remove from the heat, pour into a bowl and add the gelatine and golden syrup then stir until smooth.

3. Chill until it’s just set at the edges. Beat with an electric whisk for 4 – 5 minutes until thick, white and creamy. Leave covered at room temperature till you need it.

4. Warm it very slightly then beat it well until creamy again, adding a few teaspoons boiling water to help soften it.

5. Finally, beat in the butter and icing sugar until creamy then use immediately. If it firms just warm it slightly and beat again.

For vanilla marshmallow: whisk in the seeds from a vanilla pod at the end with the butter.

For chocolate marshmallow: add 25g cocoa and an extra tablespoon of caster sugar in with the golden syrup.

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