Individual Black Forest Gateau

Great British Chefs is a really good website that we often use for inspiration when trying to think of new ideas. Often you can use websites like this to find new flavour combinations and techniques and use them in your own way. However when we came across this recipe for individual Black Forest Gateau which looked so complex and time consuming, we didn't think it needed tampering with at all. There are lots of techniques and components that we have never heard of before so it was a bit of a challenge. It was very time consuming, but the end product was really rich, chocolatey and very tasty.

Latvian Honey Cake

Latvian Honey Cake

This delightfully different cake recipe was given to me by a lady on my Bettys cookery course. She was Latvian and very forthcoming with her country's recipes and techniques, even bringing a finished cake for us all to sample and a handout. This additional 'bonus' recipe is actually one of the most interesting and delicious recipes to come out of the course and it proves that sometimes it is the unexpected sources which bring us inspiration. This cake is so easy to make and looks spectacular- a leaning tower of honey.

Paris Brest

The Paris Brest is a relatively simple French pastry treat made using a ring of choux pastry filled with a praline flavoured cream. Following the success of our Tarte Tatin, we have continued our education of pastry making by focusing on choux. In some ways this is a more simple kind of pastry because you don't need a delicate touch or certain technique when handling it. But because it is cooked twice, once in a pan and then in the oven, it is a slightly tricky process which relies on a certain level of concentration! Our effort was far from perfect but we think we know where we went wrong, so hopefully next time will be better. For now though, this was very tasty and did look the part.

Apple and Pumpkin Cake - A Halloween Treat

Apple and Pumpkin Cake

This recipe is perfect for Halloween festivities as it uses two of the traditional robust Autumn flavours. I took it from a wonderful book bought for us by my dad and it is really great for finding comfort food inspiration. Tom Norrington's - Just Like Mother Used to Make.

Quark "Ruff Puff" Corned Beef and Sweet Potato Pasties

Pastry is something which eludes many people but if certain rules are followed it is incredibly easy to make at home and a far superior product, plus rolling pastry is very cathartic and a job I would very tentatively part with.

Ruff Puff Pastry

Things to consider;
1) Handle it lightly
2) Keep it cool
3) Bake it in a hot oven

Cool hands, a cold working surface and cool liquid make the best pastry. This is why we are constantly reminded to use only the finger-tips when combining the ingredients together as these are the coolest part of our hands. You don't want to get the dough stuck to your warm palms! Adding liquid should be gradual as common sense should tell you, you can always add more but you can't take it out. A classic mistake is to try adding more flour to bring it back from sticky death which is a recipe for disaster.

A Very Slow-Cooked Oxtail Pie

This one was two days in the making (everybody knows a good curry tastes a thousand times better the following day!) Couple this with the fact that a good pie is my single favourite food, I was sure I would be on to a winner with this one - and I was. Steak pies are a very common thing, but I wanted to spruce it up a little and I did this by using oxtail as the main ingredient. This is a cheap ingredient (one tail cost me about 6 quid) which, if cooked in the right way, is unbelievably full of flavour. It has definitely grown in popularity recently - I guess this is due to its cost during this terrible financial crisis we are in! Whatever the reason, this is a great ingredient and I think this way of cooking and serving it really does make for something pretty delicious.

Plum, Pistachio and Cardamom Cake

Today at work we had a "cake bake" to raise money for a local charity. Staff brought in their best efforts and we all bought those sweet treats which tickled our fancies! I was a little daunted by this, mainly because Liz was not here to help me. I am not much of a baker, and it is usually Liz who rules the roost when it comes to cakes. I decided to give it a go though. I decided to stick to a simple cake recipe but spruce it up with an interesting flavour combination. I hoped that the flavour would then cover up any flaws in my baking technique! I started with the idea of using cardamom. This is mainly due to the amazing flavour it gave in Liz's blueberry tart. I then wanted to use a seasonal fruit and I chose plums for their combination of sweet and sour. To add a richness to the cake I then opted to add pistachio. So here it is, my "Plum, Pistachio and Cardamom Cake". (Just to let you know, this was the first cake to completely sell out at work.)

Instant Homemade Bread

 

About 2 years ago, during our time living in South Korea, we were introduced to the concept of "primal living". This is a way of living designed by Mark Sisson based on the more widely known "paleo" diet. The Primal Blueprint was created to offer a general way of living in order to be more healthy. The main focus is on weight loss but it does cover all apsects of health including exercise and how to prevent disease through diet.  Don't get us wrong, we are not a blog designed to convince you to diet and constantly watch what you are eating. I'm sure you can tell that by some of our posts so far! But we have been taking note of some of what Mark says and we do feel it is a very simple and effective way of looking at the kind of foods we eat. One main crux to his argument is that we should remove any kind of grain from our diet. So this means no bread, pasta or biscuits! Trust me on this, by simply cutting grains out altogether for just a couple of weeks will make an amazing difference to how you feel. We do enjoy eating bread though, but this imitation comes pretty close to satisfying our appetite.

Lemon Curd Roulade

Lemon Roulade

 

This recipe is a flourless Lemon Roll taken from the previously showcased cookbook accompanying the Great British Bake Off series; ''How to Bake''. This light lemon sponge is best eaten within 24 hours to avoid the cream seeping into the sponge and creating a soggy bottom.

The key to this recipe is to ensure the cake is served chilled as this allows the curd and cream to solidify and act as a cement.

Lemon and White Chocolate Souffle

For Liz's birthday meal, I of course had to come up with a tasty dessert. We have a surplus of lemon curd in the fridge following Liz's exploits last week - I wanted to create a dessert that could use this in a refined and spectacular way. Whenever the word souffle is mentioned on TV, magazines or cookbooks, it is met with trepidation. However, after my unorthdox aubergine souffle last week, I thought a more conventional chocolate version must be relatively simple.