Swirly Lemon Curd and Chocolate Buns

I have been meaning to make these buns since @donalskehan posted a version on his blog a number of months ago. Sweet dough flattened and spread with a filling of your choice before rolling, slicing, baking and eating. The original version uses a cinnamon butter as a filling but amazingly one of my friends doesn't like cinnamon so I had a look in my cupboard and came up with a lemon curd and chopped dark chocolate filling which was luscious and sinful. I love lemon curd and dark chocolate so this was a win win combination for me and my friend!

Ingredients

200ml milk

2oz butter

7g dried yeast

2oz sugar

375g cream flour

pinch of salt

4 tbsp brown sugar

1 egg beaten

For the filling;

100g lemon curd

100g dark chocolate, chopped

Method

Melt the butter over a low heat before adding the milk

When this is lukewarm remove from the heat and add the yeast, the 2oz of sugar and salt

Slowly add the flour until the mixture forms a dough, turn onto floured surface and knead for 3 minutes

Leave to rise in a greased bowl, covered, for 45 minutes

When dough has risen roll out into a rectangular shape

Spread the lemon curd on top and sprinkle over the chocolate

From the long side roll the dough to form a swiss roll shape before slicing into 12 pieces.
Place in muffin cases, brush tops with beaten egg and sprinkle over the brown sugar
Bake in a preheated 220 degree oven for 10 minutes or until they are golden on top
Leave to cool on wire racks

These delightful buns are best eaten on the day they are made but if you do have any leftover just give them a quick reheat in the microwave for a couple of seconds to freshen up the dough before enjoying with a nice cup of coffee and sharing with friends.

And the winner is.....

Thank you all so much for entering my competition and for all the lovely comments! 55 entries altogether which was fabulous! So after a row between the boys about who was picking the number and with an independent observer present the winner is @michaeltwomeybutcher ! Send me on your address so I can post your prize! :-)

Makes one feel posh dipping biscotti in espresso!

Its a well known fact among my friends that I love all things posh. Fancy candles that I never light, fresh coffee, a pineapple in my fruit bowl* and 80% cocoa chocolate in my press! Of course I am writing this in jest with my tongue firmly in my cheek but I do love a bit of posh! My hubs knowing me inside out recently bought me a lovely stove top coffee pot and I am enjoying brewing my daily coffee with it, always love to have something nice with it and what could be more authentic than a biscotti. There seems to be a huge amount of recipes on the world wide web for them but Nigella never lets me down so I used her lovely recipe from Feast.

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 100g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• few drops almond essence
• 125g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 50g blanched almonds
• 75g dark chocolate chips (Obviously I used high % cocoa chocolate and chopped it up!)

  

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Whisk egg and sugar till it falls in ribbons from whisk
Beat in vanilla and almond essence
Fold in flour, salt and baking powder slowly in batches
Fold in almonds and chocolate
Pat dough into a log like shape and place on baking parchment on baking tray

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden
Leave cool for 5 minutes then slice diagonally
Place back in oven on parchment for 10 minutes then turn and bake for further 5 minutes
Cool on wire rack
Make coffee and dunk!



I felt very sophisticated sitting at my breakfast bar drinking my coffee and nibbling my biscotti. Try the recipe and you can feel posh too!

*are pineapples posh?? :-)

Little competition to say thank you!

I am a bit of a twitter addict. Actually replace bit with huge. I love the interaction, the fun and the humour of all my twitter pals. I was inspired by all the foodie tweeters to start my own blog and I love to see my stats and am amazed by how widespread my readers are! Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, Australia, America and Russia all regularly dip in! I love finding new things to bake and write about and I love reading other blogs and getting inspiration from them. I have had almost 5000 hits and to celebrate am having a little giveaway. Most of us are Jamie Oliver fans and I have a copy of his new book "Jamies Great Britain" and a little surprise to give away. To enter just leave a comment below, tweet me or facebook me by Sunday 6th November and I will enter you into the hat. Will get one of the kids to pick out the winner so there will be no cheating! Thank you all for your fabulous company and for all the lovely comments I have received!

Spooky Halloween Chocolate Velvet Cupcakes!

I have confessed before about my love of cookery books, am always happy when I have a lovely new one to look through and a cup of coffee in my hand, throw in a slice of cake and I may as well be in heaven! The Great British Bake Off arrived during the week and what a gorgeous book it is, loads of stuff in it that I want to make and eat. Isaac (3) thinks that John our postman is brilliant as he is always bringing parcels to us, he has not quite grasped the whole middle man situation as of yet! Well I hope wherever you are that you have just as generous a postman as we do!

Chocolate muffins are always a big hit here with adults and kids alike so when I spotted the recipe for Chocolate Velvet Cupcakes I decided that I would try them. I have never used melted chocolate in a cupcake recipe before its usually cocoa powder however I don't think there is any going back after trying these!

Ingredients (makes 12)

• 175ml semi skimmed milk
• 150g self raising flour, sieved
• 125g caster sugar
• 100g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
• 60g unsalted butter
• 1 large egg, room temperature, beaten
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Place cupcake cases in a 12 hole muffin tin

Heat milk, chopped chocolate and one third of the sugar in a saucepan over a low heat

Remove from heat as soon as it is melted and give it a good stir to combine

Beat the butter until creamy

Add sugar and vanilla and beat till light and fluffy

Gradually add the beaten egg

Next add a third of the flour and stir, followed by a third of the melted chocolate mixture and so on until everything is in the one bowl.

Fill the cases with a ice cream scoop

Bake for 15-18 minutes until well risen

Leave to cool for two minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack



Buttercream Icing

When i make buttercream icing I never really measure anything but just combine in a bowl until I achieve the taste and texture I am looking for so all measurements here are approximate and to my taste.

100g butter

100g icing sugar

1 tbsp cocoa powder, sieved

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy

Add the cocoa powder and beat to combine

At this stage you can smear the cupcake with the buttercream or else level of the top of them and pipe it on. I used a Wilton 1m nozzle to decorate mine. I started off on the outside of the cake and worked inwards to the middle then piped another swirl on top of this. I used little plastic Halloween figures to top some of them which the kids absolutely loved and I left the rest plain. Totally delicious and most definitely on the "make again" list!



Rainy Day Cookies

 After my adventures in macarons last week I had my fill of sieving almonds. Six batches of them in seven days is enough for even Pierre Herme I would think. I love making cookies as they are so easy to throw together and the kids absolutely love helping me with them. Miserable wet day in Clara so its always handy to do something like this with the boys when they cant get out to work of their energy on the trampoline. Its always nice to have a treat as a bribe to help make the job of eating their dinner a little more attractive, I know some people frown upon using treats in such a way but bribery is most definitely my favourite type of parenting!

Ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• 125g margarine
• 125g brown sugar
• 50g chocolate chips
• 50g white chocolate
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp cocoa (sieved)
• 1 egg

Method

Grease a baking tray and preheat oven to 180 degrees
Beat the margarine, peanut butter, brown sugar and cocoa in a bowl until well blended
Add the egg and mix well
Gently stir in flour and chocolate chips until mixture forms a dough
Roll dough into walnut size balls and press down onto baking tray
Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on your oven
Cool on a wire rack before drizzling with melted white chocolate

So apart from the usual rows about who got to stir the mixture for longer than the other a lovely afternoon was had by all. Wont be long till there is another little pair of hands looking to help but for today she was happy to hang onto my leg!

Apprenticeship in Laduree here I come!!

After my first batch of macarons yesterday did not quite go to plan I decided to give them another go with a different recipe, a new spatula, a new piping bag and a new nozzle! Of course it wasn't just these new implements that helped it was the fabulous folding motion that I have perfected from watching online tutorials! I read and watched so many things online yesterday I actually dreamt about macarons last night. Yes I know I am quite sad! This recipe came from Delicious Magazine and I am thrilled with the results.

Ingredients

• 175g icing sugar
• 125g ground almonds
• 3 large egg whites
• 75g caster sugar
• food colouring of your choice

For the filling

• 150g butter, softened
• 75g icing sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees
Whizz the almonds and icing sugar together in a processor till really finely ground then sieve into a bowl.
Whisk the egg whites with pinch of salt till soft peaks form, gradually add in caster sugar until thick and glossy. Add drop or two of food colouring at this stage.
Fold half the almond mixture into the meringue and mix well.
Add the remainder and cut/fold until it is shiny and falls like a ribbon from spatula.

Spoon into a piping bag with a plain nozzle.
Mark out parchment on baking sheets with 3cm circles to guide you as you pipe mixture.
Once piped bang the sheets quite sharply against counter tops to get rid of excess air.
Leave trays to sit for 15 minutes or so to allow a skin to form before baking.

Bake for 15 minutes.
Transfer parchment to a wire rack and allow to cool.
Meanwhile beat the butter until creamy then beat in the icing sugar. You can then add a drop or two of colouring to this as well if you wish. Sandwich the macarons together using this mixture.


Well I have to say I impressed myself with these little beauties! The 8 year old declared them the nicest things he has ever tasted and the dog is in danger of canine diabetes (if there is such a thing) from the amount of spilled icing sugar he licked up from the floor. If anyone can guide me in the direction of a macaron book I would be delighted as I think my adventures in macarons are only starting!