Fudge Tart - Super Secret Official School Recipe

Now I have to be honest, I don't remember ever eating this at school. I did spend some of my school years in Norway so I don't know if that was the fudge tart window, but I missed it. I was asked by a friend recently to make them one as I love a bit of baking but I really didn't know where to start. There's lots of recipes on the internet so I tried some and all failed. Then I remembered I knew someone who worked in a school so I asked them and they sent me the official recipe. Now I can't say where I got this from as it feels like it's a super secret recipe that shouldn't be shared, but I am of course going to share it anyway but not give away my source. 

I will admit that I bought the pastry, I can make all kinds of pastry easily apart from shortcrust. No idea why, I'm just a bit rubbish at it and if Mary Berry buys hers, then I'm gonna be doing that too, thanks. This is the only element that needs baking, the rest is just on the hob, whisking and setting so it's really easy. The whisking part takes a long time so it's best if you have a stand mixer but if you don't just prepare to stand there for 10-15 minutes.

Let's get into it. 

Now this says it makes 20 school portions, I just used a tart dish and another time I used a medium baking tray with sides about an inch high and that worked fine. But you could always make double the mix and freeze it for a quick dessert. 

This is the tart in a baking tray compared to an official tart dish

Ingredients:

• Pack of shortcrust pastry or make some if you're fancy.
• 40g semi-skimmed milk powder, this was very important apparently and to not use standard milk. I found this in the long life milk aisle and was really cheap and will also be a good back up as we're always running out of milk. 
• 500ml water.
• 200g butter, it did say margarine but I just couldn't do it... I'm a butter all the way girl.
• 100g plain flour.
• 150g caster sugar.
• 10ml vanilla extract.
• 1 square chocolate for grating. 

Method:

1. Line the dish/baking tray with the pastry and crimp edges, I used baking paper for the baking tray but not for the tart dish. Prick all over with a fork and bake blind in the oven at gas mark 4/180°c degrees/350f until golden. Leave to cool.
2. Reconstitute the milk powder with some of the water, I used about half and heat it in a saucepan with the butter until almost boiling. 
3. Add the flour to the rest of the water and milk until thick and smooth. 
4. Add the sugar to the milk and butter and dissolve.
5. Now add the flour mix slowly whilst whisking continuously. You want it to be almost spreadable before setting.
6. Flavour with the vanilla extract. 
7. Pour this mix into your mixing bowl and whisk on a high speed until cool. This took as I said about 10-15minutes as I had a glass bowl it took a while for the bowl to cool completely. 
8. This will get thick and delicious quite quickly so it will be hard to not pour this directly into your mouth. 
   
   
9. Chuck the mix into your cooled pastry and smooth out with a silicon spatula. 
10. Grate the chocolate over the top and chill for 30 minutes. 
11. Devour and go back to childhood. 

look at it... 

Pin It Now!

Vanilla Cupcakes With Nutella Buttercream

This weekend I was in the mood for some proper baking, the snow is still hanging around and the thought of baking made me feel a bit warmer! I love baking for others but sometimes it's nice to have something to gorge on yourself, and it's what sundays are made for isn't it. 

We've been talking about baking with Nutella at work the last week or so, and we all looooove Nutella so I literally couldn't shift it from my mind and just knew I had to do something about it. I think it was the thought of eating a cupcake that tasted like a Ferrero Rocher was too much of a good idea to ignore.

I also thought it would be a great excuse to try out a new cupcake recipe, I was getting a bit bored of my standard one as it wasn't coming out as moist as I wanted and whenever I've seen Cake Boss I've noticed that the batter is a lot runnier than mine so thought I should experiment with a batter that was more wet. Whenever I think of amazing cupcakes I think Hummingbird Bakery, I bought the Cake Days book last year and hadn't got round to trying any of the cupcake recipes yet so I decided to try of their bog standard Vanilla Cupcakes recipe. As you can see I decorate them in two ways...mainly because I realised I was running out of the buttercream when I did the big style above, but I think the ones underneath do actually look like a Ferrero Rocher...

I thought it would be better to keep the cupcake vanilla and have the buttercream as the Nutella part, but I couldn't resist adding some Norwegian chocolate with pieces of hazlenuts to it, which I stumbled upon this morning so thought it was fate! I was fully in the baking zone today I even made a point of using some of my super girly baking accessories, pink cupcake spoon measures and heart cup measures too.  I got some really funky cupcakes cases as part of my secret santa present at work, animal print ones! Love them, so thought leopard was the natural choice for this session, of course.

 

I've kept most of the cakes for work but we did have to test one or two at home...to make sure they were baked properly naturally...my brother even said it was the best cupcake he's ever had so that wasn't a bad compliment after my first go with the new recipe. Mondays are never brilliant either are they...so a completely indulgent cupcake should help start the day off.

Ingredients

240g plain flour
280g caster sugar
1tbsp baking powder (yep a whole tablespoon...I was scared too)
pinch of salt
80g unsalted butter, softened
240ml milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large family bar of chocolate with hazelnuts



Method

1. Using a hand-held or free-standing mixer with paddle attachments, slowly beat together the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until the ingredients are well mixed in and resemble fine breadcrumbs.
2. Mix together the milk, vanilla essence and eggs by hand in a measuring jug.  With the mixer still on a low speed, pour three-quarters of the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all ingredients are fully incorporated.  Add the rest of the milk mixture and beat again, now on a medium speeds, until the batter is smooth.
3. Spoon the batter into the cases, up to about two-thirds full.  If there is any batter left over, it can be used to fill up more cases, mine made 24 in the end.
4. Drop in a cube of the chocolate on top of the cake, or a dollop of Nutella if you prefer.
5. Pop into the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the sponges feel springy when you touch them.  Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutella Buttercream Ingredients

¾ cup Nutella

¼ cup butter, softened

2-3 cups icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons whipping cream

1/2 bag chopped roasted hazelnuts

Method

1. Beat Nutella and butter.  Add icing sugar, vanilla and whipping cream.
You can adjust the thickness with the cream or icing sugar.  
2. Fill into a piping bag and pipe high onto the cupcakes and top with the chopped hazelnuts
3. Eat! Nom!

I also got to use my new cupcake carrier that I got for Christmas finally! Of course I made so many I had to put some in a normal tin as well but they're so convenient I'm tempted to get another one :)

On a side note, as much as I love the snow I can't wait for spring to come, it always makes me want to make scones and cakes with cream! I know you can make them all year...but it just tastes nicer in the spring doesn't it :)

Pin It Now!

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Recipe

I think we can all agree it's been a pretty horrific weekend news wise, being half Norwegian myself I find myself really glued to the news and in shock at what the world has come to. While I'm not saying doughnuts make the world a happier place...but it's a nice bit of escapism for a couple of hours and for a little while you can concentrate on something happy.

I found this American recipe that uses cup measures...usually I try to convert them, but I have some nice heart shaped cup measures so I thought I would stick with it. It makes quite a big batch so you might want to halve it if you want to just try it out.

Recipe:

• 2 cups scalded full fat milk (I shamefully didn't know what this meant, but has since found out it is when you heat it until boiling...scalding hot...
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoons yeast (use fresh if you can, just double the weight of it as it does rise better, I would have used it but I tried to freeze mine but when I defrosted it, it turned to sludge in the fridge - not very nom)
• 4 free range eggs, beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 7 cups sifted plain flour
• oil - I used vegetable

Glaze

• 3 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla sugar/extract
• 1/2 cup cold water

Method

1. Melt butter in the hot milk, add 1 teaspoon of the sugar and then the salt. Leave to cool.
2. Beat in yeast, nutmeg, eggs sugar and 3 cups of the sifted flour.
3. Add the rest of the flour the dough should be sticky, I found I had to add a little extra flour but be careful and only add a bit at a time to avoid it going dry.
4. Knead the dough for five minutes and leave to proof somewhere warm for 1 - 1 1/2 hours.
5. Roll out the dough and cut into shapes, leave to rise again for about 45 minutes.
6. Using a sugar thermometer if you don't have a deep fat fryer like me, heat the oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, maybe just under, they say it should be hotter but for me they came out very dark so I turned it down.
7. I then cut holes in the doughnuts as the middle can go a bit doughy. I then cooked then for 1 - 2 minutes or until brown and flip and the same on the other side.
8. Scoop out and leave to cool.
9. Mix the glaze ingredients together, you can always add extra flavours to these if you want, I went for the original one to begin with maybe next time I'll be more experimental.
10. Dip the doughnuts in the glaze so the whole thing is covered, it will look very white to begin with but it does drip down to a glazed look.
11. Leave for a minute to set then eat. Nom!

Pin It Now!

Old School Post Of The Month - Angel Layer Cake

As far as I can remember, angel layer cake was always my favourite cake. I'm not sure if it was the name, the colours or the taste, but I loved it.

I've searched for a little while for a good recipe but actually haven't found any that are just like the classic version, everyone wants to add different flavours but by tradition is it just a vanilla cake, so don't be tempted to ruin it by adding anything else. Keep it simple people!

I did have one worry though, usually I'm not too into the artificial flavour, but with this cake one of the best bits about it, is that it is a bit artificial...am I right? So I was worried that by making it good...I would make it bad!

Right so let's get into it!

Ingredients:

• 225g butter at room temperature (a good quality one)
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 large free range eggs
• 225g plain flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp whole milk
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 85g icing sugar
• 35g butter again, keep this aside for the buttercream
• pink and yellow food colouring

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees (celcius).
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Break in two eggs, half of the flour, baking powder and vanilla (sifted), whisk, and repeat with the other half. Now add the milk and whisk into the mix.
4. Take a third of the mixture into a seperate bowl and add either the pink or yellow food colouring until you get the desired depth, remember, it's 'angel' cake, so don't make it too strong.
5. Take another third in another bowl and mix in the other colour.
6. Now grease and line a loaf time, three if you have them.
7. Divide the mixtures into the tins and bake in the oven for about 25-35 minutes. Check with a skewer to make sure its cooked perfectly.
8. Leave to cool
9. Once cool make the buttercream by whisking together the butter and icing sugar, you can add some more vanilla extract to this for an extra kick of gorgeous if you want - I did.
10. Level the three layers and stack with a layer of buttercream between the layers. 
11. Slice and eat. Nom!

Pin It Now!

Fairground Toffee Apples

It's that time of year again where the air is filled with candy floss, anything fried! and of course, toffee apples! I remember this being the one sweet item I wanted to buy from a fairground...even now, I feel a bit cheated if I go to one and don't manage to get one. So I thought it was about time I finally found out how to make my own, and it was really simple! They're a great little extra for a childrens party..adults one too!



 Ingredients

• 225 g demerara sugar
• 115 ml water
• 0.5 tsp vinegar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 25 g butter
• 6 sweet apples - I just think these are better than sour ones, all about the sweet!
• Ice lolly sticks
• Red food colouring

 Now you'll need a sugar thermometer here, these are easily and cheaply bought, if not your nan will almost definitely have one. They did a lot of jam making etc back in the day.

How You Do It

1. Dissolve the sugar in the water over a medium heat. When dissolved, stir in the vinegar, butter and golden syrup. Bring to a boil and cook without stirring until it reaches hard-crack stage (138C)You can test this by dropping a small drop into a glass of water and seeing if it forms a ball. This should take around 10 minutes boiling time.  Now add the red food colouring.

2. While this is cooking, stick the lolly sticks in each of the apples, when the toffee is ready dip each one into the toffee and spin it round to make sure it's covered, you may need to use a spoon to pour it on the top parts of the apple.

3. Leave to harden on a lightly oiled tray before serving. This is the point where you can add some sprinkles etc if you want to jazz them up a bit but sometimes plain is best.  Make them look really professional by wrapping them in cellophane when cool and tying them up with some ribbon.


Eat! Nom! Pin It Now!

The Ultimate Brownie Recipe

So I'm trying to get my old recipes back online so here is the first one. My brownie recipe is one adapted from a great one I found with a few adjustments. This is easily the thing I get asked to make the most so it must be good...so here it is for you to have a go with yourself. They are foolproof and come out gorgeous every.single.time.



Ingredients:

100g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
75g light brown sugar (soft)
200g dark chocolate
1 tbsp golden syrup
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Grease and line your baking tin, I recommend a square one as it's not easy to cut them from a round tin.
2. Place the butter, sugars, chocolate and syrup in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat gently until it's all melted and smooth, stirring continuously. Remove from the heat and pour into a bowl to cool. You can speed up this process by placing the bowl in a sink filled with some water.
3. Turn on oven to 180 degrees. Beat together eggs and vanilla extract, then whisk in the cooled chocolate mix.
4. Sieve together the flour, cocoa and baking powder and fold carefully into the chocolate mix. It's best to use a metal spoon or a spatula.
5. Now spoon the mixture into your greased tins and bake for 30-60 mintues. I find mine take an hour but it depend how deep your tin is.
6. Leave to cool, cut, eat. Nom! Pin It Now!