Hi there! I hope that you are all having a great holiday season, and best wishes for a prosperous and happy 2016!
Please enjoy this delicious raspberry loaf cake with lemon glaze - it's moist, easy and tastes amazing!
Recipe adapted from: Liv for Cake
Ingredients - 11 x 21 cm (4 x 8 inch) loaf
85g butter
210g white sugar
2 eggs
30g almond meal
105g flour
1/4 tsp bicarb soda
1/4 tsp salt
65g sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp lemon juice
2/3 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (I used frozen)
Ingredients - glaze
250g icing sugar
4 tbsp lemon juice (or more if you want a more runny glaze)
Method - cake
1. Preheat the oven to 175C (350F).
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. One at a time, beat the eggs into the butter mixture.
4. Mix the almond meal, flour, bicarb soda and salt together.
5. Mix half the flour into the batter, then all of the sour cream, then the rest of the flour.
6. Add the vanilla essence, lemon zest and lemon juice to the batter and mix until combined.
7. Finally, gently fold the raspberries into the batter.
8. Line a loaf tin with baking paper and pour the batter in, spreading it evenly with a spatula.
9. Bake in the preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs.
10. Cool the cake in the tin for a few minutes, then take it out and cool completely on a wire rack.
Method - glaze
1. Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together until smooth and of a pourable consistency.
2. When the cake is cool, drizzle the glaze over the top.
Enjoy!
Who loves Nutella? I do, and I hope you all do too!
This Nutella/vanilla swirl loaf is super easy to make - and it's moist, delicious and of course full of (and covered in) Nutella. I baked this for a family dinner and it was very well received.
It's quick and simple so this is one to keep in your repertoire and whip up when you're in a bind!
Recipe adapted from: Taming Twins
Ingredients - 11 x 21 cm (4 x 8 inch) loaf
225g butter
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
225g flour
2 tsp baking powder
200g Nutella
Ingredients - topping
100g Nutella
75g hazelnuts
Method
1. Preheat your oven to 160C (320F).
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between additions. Mix in the vanilla essence.
4. Fold the flour and baking powder into the mixture gently.
5. Take one third of the batter out of the bowl and set aside. With the remaining two thirds, add the 200g Nutella and mix until smooth and combined.
6. Line a 22 x 12cm loaf tin with baking paper.
7. Pour the vanilla batter into your lined loaf tin, try and keep it on one side of the tin. Then pour the Nutella batter onto the other side and swirl them around with a knife. Don't swirl too much because you don't want the colours to get too muddy and messy.
8. Bake the cake for about 50-60 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs. While the cake is baking, you can toast your hazelnuts in a frying pan to give them more flavour and crunch!
9. When your cake's done, let it cool in the tin.
10. When cool, place your cake on a serving plate and spread the 100g Nutella over the top. If your Nutella's a bit stiff, microwave it for a few seconds in a microwave safe bowl to make it a bit more runny.
11. Roughly chop the hazelnuts and sprinkle them over the top.
Enjoy!
Oh my gosh, these garlic knots are absolutely delicious, and pretty easy to make! Prepare yourself for extreme garlic action - the bread is soft, very garlicky and beautiful too.
If you don't want garlic, you could always put cinnamon and sugar on them and they'd be just as nice!
Recipe adapted from: King Arthur Flour
Ingredients - bread
270g plain flour
230g bread flour
1 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp dry instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
225g water
Ingredients - garlic glaze
45g butter
4 cloves garlic
Method
1. Mix the dry ingredients (everything except the olive oil and water) in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment.
2. Microwave the water until it's lukewarm.
3. Add the olive oil and lukewarm water to the dry ingredients, mix with the dough hook until smooth and combined. If the dough is too dry, add a touch more water - if it's too wet, add a bit more flour. Knead the dough in the mixer (or by hand) for a few minutes, until nice and elastic.
4. Lightly grease the bowl with olive oil then place the dough in to rise for about an hour, covered with cling wrap. The dough should about double in size.
5. Once the dough has risen, punch it down and roll it out on a floured surface into a large rectangle.
6. Cut the rectangle into about 16 strips (along the long side, so you have 16 short strips).
7. Roll each strip into a round rope and then fold it into a knot. See this link for some helpful pictures! It's actually pretty simple to achieve.
8. Place the knots on baking trays lined with baking paper or silicone mats with a fair amount of space in between.
9. Cover the knots with cling wrap or a tea towel and let them rise for another hour. While they're rising, preheat the oven to 175C (350F).
10. Bake the knots for 15-18 minutes. They should be golden brown but still soft! While they're baking, make your garlic glaze.
11. Melt the butter for the glaze, then chop the garlic finely and mix it into the butter.
12. When the knots come out of the oven, brush them generously with the garlic glaze. The reason you don't bake them with the garlic on is because the garlic would burn!
14. These knots are best eaten warm, so enjoy them ASAP! You can also reheat them in the microwave to soften them if you have any left the next day.
Enjoy!
Ladies and gentlemen, I've found a new favourite choc chip cookie recipe! It's very versatile - I like to make the dough into a large log then chop it up pretty thinly. When baked, this gives the edges a nice crunch and chewiness while the middle stays softer.
In addition to dark chocolate chips, sometimes I add white chocolate chips, pecans or hazelnuts to spice things up a bit.
Recipe adapted from: Not Without Salt
Ingredients
225g butter
55g white sugar
55g raw sugar (or Turbinado)
340g brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
455g flour
1 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
2 tsp salt plus extra for sprinkling
450g dark chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C (360F). Cream the butter and all sugars until light and fluffy.
2. Beat eggs into the mixture one at a time until incorporated, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Beat in the vanilla essence.
4. Add the flour, bicarb soda and salt to the bowl, mix gently until fully combined - don't overmix.
5. Finally, add the chocolate chips! If you're adding nuts, or anything else, fold these in as well.
6. Place tablespoons of dough on baking trays covered with baking paper or silicone mats. Alternatively, roll portions of dough into logs and let them chill in the freezer until hardened, then chop into slices.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. You want the middle to still be soft so don't over bake them!
8. Allow the cookies to cool a bit and then enjoy! They're amazing when they're warm.
I attended the Decadent Chocolate Biscuits class at Savour Chocolate School a few months ago, which was an amazing experience. I went back recently to go to their Macarons class.
I learnt some great techniques for both macarons and fillings - previously I only used the 'French method' for macarons, which involves folding icing sugar and almond meal into beaten egg whites, but now I know a method which creates a much sturdier macaron!
We made six flavours all together - bergamot cream, salted caramel, peanut brittle, passionfruit lime cheesecake, coffee hazelnut and these really cute burger macarons (ganache 'patty', white chocolate 'cheese' and raspberry jam 'tomato sauce').
This is the salted caramel macaron - dusted with demerara sugar and filled with an amazing caramel.
This is the peanut brittle - my favourite! Filled with chopped brittle and brittle-infused ganache (that actually tasted like peanut brittle!) We splashed these with red-tinted cocoa butter which was really fun.
Next up is the passionfruit lime cheesecake. I'm not a huge cheesecake person but my brother loved this. The filling was a tart passionfruit lime jam surrounded by fluffy cream cheese buttercream.
This is the bergamot cream macaron - the biscuit itself was infused with tea and the bergamot cream filling was smooth and a bit tart. I'd never used bergamot before but it tastes kind of like lemon, but different.
These brownies are dense, fudgy, flourless and gluten free! (Reviewers have said that they are so good that they can't believe it's gluten free...) They also have a great tang from the use of brown sugar in the batter.
Recipe adapted from: Haigh's Chocolate
Ingredients - 21 x 31 cm (8 x 12 inch) brownie tin
200g dark chocolate
267g butter
4 eggs
250g brown sugar
250g white sugar
133g hazelnut meal
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
34g cocoa powder
Method
1. Start by preheating your oven to 175C (350F). Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave, mix to combine them and set aside.
2. Whisk the eggs with the brown sugar and white sugar until slightly lightened in colour. Don't beat this too hard as you want the brownies to be fudgy, not fluffy!
3. Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and whisk until combined.
4. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, mix the hazelnut meal, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder into the batter. Mine turns out to be a spreadable consistency so don't be worried if it's not runny.
5. Line your 20cm x 30cm brownie tin with baking paper and spread the batter evenly into the tin.
6. Bake for 50 minutes - an inserted toothpick should come out with a few crumbs.
7. Let the brownies cool in the tin then put them in the refrigerator and chill for a while so they'll be easier to cut (I leave mine in the fridge overnight).
8. Cut into the size of your choice and enjoy!
