Sharpie Al

So it turns out that biscotti are easy to make, and much cheaper than shop bought (but that’s no surprise, of course).

They are also miniature crumb factories. Seriously.

Recipe from BBC Food.

This week I’ve been commissioned to bake up a storm for the 4th Annual Clean Conference. The recipe I settled on was a classic gingerbread with a Clean Change twist.

Baked goods in honour of improved communications? Yes please.

(Of course if you’re after food for thought without the calories, just go to the conference)..

After trying a few different versions of rocky road, I’ve settled on this as my favourite, which has just the right ratio of rock to road..

Ingredients: 300g good quality plain chocolate, 125g butter, 4 tablespoons golden syrup, 100g Rich Tea biscuits, 100g marshmallows (and extra for the top, if you like), 100g almonds.

Method: melt the butter, golden syrup and chocolate together in a pan on a super low heat. Low as you like. Once melted, stir in the broken biscuits, followed by the nuts and finally the marshmallows. Pour the mix into an 8 inch square tin (either a lined tin, or a silicone tray, which doesn’t need to be lined). Pop in the fridge until set. Leave overnight if you can bear it, then cut into 16 squares, or more if you like. It’s pretty rich.

A note on substitutions: I think as long as there’s 300g of *rockiness* in this edible highway, substitutes are a fine idea. Any type of nut could be used, or raisins, or even different types of sweets. For a fancy version of rocky road, marshmallows could be substituted with cubes of nougat. Sounds like a snack of dreams. 

Claire Ptak’s The Whoopie Pie Book is the newest recipe book on my baking shelf. I have long since ceased to have any actual shelf space for books, but life is far too short to give too much thought to keeping one’s shelves in apple pie order.

And now to the butterscotch blondies, which are every mouthful the baked hussy they sound..

Ingredients: 350g unsalted butter, 320g plain flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1.5 tsp sea salt, 3 eggs, 400g dark brown sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 200g butterscotch chocolate chopped into small pieces (I used Green & Black’s).

Method: melt the butter gently and put to one side. Mix the flour, baking power and salt then set that aside, too. Whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla. I used a hand mixer and splattered eggs all the way up the right sleeve of my cardigan, so be warned. When the mix is slightly frothy fold in the dry ingredients and finally the chopped butterscotch chocolate. Feel free to have a couple of cubes of chocolate at this point, just for quality assurance purposes. Pour the mixture into a lined or silicone tray and pop into an oven set to 160C for about 35 minutes.

Once out the oven and cooled, cut the blondies into 16 pieces, or however many you like. These go particularly well with a cup of coffee. While you’re at it, take a look at Claire Ptak’s east London cake company Violet. It’s a gem.

Despite my absolutely not being worthy, Gran has given me her recipe box. I thought I’d start off with something Charlotte-proof, and Chocolate Refrigertor (sic) Cake seemed a good idea. I left out the cherries, walnuts and rum, and used 4 ounces of raisins.

In the words of Gran: Ye gods and little fishes! It turned out so sweet, I had to preserve its chocolate modesty between a pair of austerity digestives before taking a photo. With this sweet treat, it’s all about portion control. Tiny cubes with coffee are fine. 

A couple of weeks ago my mum gave me a recipe for duchesse petits fours. They sounded pretty fancy, but the way I made them they turned out to be really simple, slightly messy, crunchy sugar cookies, which go very well with coffee (and Sherlock).

Ingredients: 4 oz butter, 7 oz caster sugar, 10 oz plain flour, 2 separated eggs, 1 teaspoon baking powder.

Method: Cream the butter and three quarters of the sugar, then mix in the egg yolks (keep the egg whites aside). Stir in the baking powder and flour to make a smooth dough. I needed to add a couple of splashes of milk to bind the mix. Once the mix is a smooth dough, dollop spoon sized amounts on a baking tray and press down a little. Glaze with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Pop in the oven, set to 180C for about 20 minutes, or until golden. I turned the tray round half way through so they were evenly golden.

These bite size sugar treats can be topped with an almond before they go in the oven, but I didn’t have any in the cupboard, and frankly, I wasn’t going to let a lack of finishing touches stand in the way of making a batch of duchesse petits fours. Oh no.

The recipe for this banana loaf came from the very excellent visual recipe by Vernelle Noel.

I used about half a cup of sugar instead of the full cup.

After a post Christmas bake-break, I’m well and truly back to baking. Last night I made these choc chip cookies, although I used half of the following quantities, which made 14 decent sized cookies, crispy on the perimeter, chewy at the epicentre. That’s right, the epicentre.

Ingredients: 1 1/3 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 cup butter, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup light brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 cup choc chips.

Method: cream the butter and all the sugar. Add the egg and vanilla, then mix in the flour and baking powder. Finally stir in the choc chips. At this point I also ate some of the choc chips. Blob well spaced spoonfuls onto a baking tray and pop into the oven set to about 180C for 8-10 minutes.

Recipe an approximation of the choc chip cookie recipe from Field Guide to Cookies (2008) by Anita Chu. It’s a good ‘un. 

I’ve tried several rice pudding recipes in recent times, and none of them have been quite right. Until yesterday. I had a good look through all my cookbooks, combined several recipes, and didn’t consult the interwebs once. True story.

There are a million ways of making rice pud. This is my new favourite, which *should* serve 4. Ahem.

Ingredients: 75g pudding rice, 3/4 litre of whole milk, 60g caster sugar, a knob of butter, fresh ground nutmeg.

Method: heat the milk gently then add the rinsed pudding rice. Keep heating the rice and milk for a while, say about seven minutes. Next add the sugar and butter. Keep on a low temperature and stir gently but without ceasing for about another ten minutes (I had a book in my free hand, and don’t regret a thing).

Now this is the baked part: pour the milk and rice mixture into a dish and pop in the oven set to about 150C. If this seems low, it’s because it is. This is also when the magic happens. Check the pud at half hour intervals to give it a stir. Mine was just how I like it after an hour (stirred just once halfway through). Billowing goldenness on top, discernably individual grains of rice, and sweet cream to boot. If you wanted a firmer rice pud, an extra hour would’ve been just the ticket.

This year one of my favourite parts of Christmas was all the baking. My mum put in her order for Christmas Day, and from the crack of noon on Christmas Eve I was baking up a storm in my postage stamp sized bakery of a flat. First tea, and later whiskey in the early hours, plus the right kind of Christmas music. The perfect start to festivities.