Madelines...

These delightful petit fours secs are traditionally baked in shell shaped trays, not owning one of these, I heeded Rachel Khoo's advice and used a shallow muffin tray. I found the 'genoise' batter to be quite different  from anything I had ever baked and was a little baffled as to how that thick, stiff mix could come out a light and plump little cake. But, I held my faith in Julia Childs recipe, crossed my fingers and sat by the oven.... Voila! They had the trademark peaks all perky and proud and beautifully golden in colour. 


For Madelines Version 2.0 try piping a little lemon curd into their centres through the bottom when just out of the oven. A metal nozzle on the piping bag will pierce the madelines easily.  

Ingredients...


A Julia Child recipe
Makes 12 (in muffin tray)

(all at room temperature)

2 eggs (beaten)

2/3 cup cugar

1 cup flour (plus a tsp for dusting)

140g butter (plus extra for greasing)

pinch salt

1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Grated zest of half a lemon
3 drops of lemon juice
* I added a sneaky tsp of baking powder to the flour and sugar.


Lightly grease a shallow muffin tray with butter then dust with flour (refrigerate if kitchen is quite warm).
Combine flour and sugar and 3/4 of the beaten eggs. Beat vigorously with a wooden spoon to a heavy cream. If too stiff, add a drop or two of the egg mix. Set aside while you melt your butter in a saucepan until lightly browned. Now, beat remaining egg and cooled butter into the batter. Stir in salt, vanilla, zest and juice. Cover and leave in fridge for at least 1 hour.
Set your oven to 190 C. Spoon one heaped tbsp into each mould.
Bake for about 15 minutes.


Leave to cool in tray for 5 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with a cup of tea.




For a super quick and easy curd, whip this up while you've got the madeline batter in the fridge...


A Rachel Khoo recipe
Ingredients...


Zest and juice of one lemon
pinch salt
40g sugar
45g butter
2 egg yolks (whisked)


Put the zest, juice, salt, sugar and butter into a saucepan and heat gently until sugar and butter have melted. Remove from heat. Add the egg yolks, give it a good whisk. Put back on a low heat and continue whisking until curd turns thick, (don't let boil). Leave in the fridge for at least an hour, but preferably over night. Make sure to seal the curd with cling film touching the surface.




*Thanks to Rachel Khoo for the inspiration. Her BBC show, The Little Paris Kitchen, is worth a watch.

Lemon meringue pie...

I was always quite apprehensive to make this humble wee pie. Its main component, lemon curd.. always managed to turn good intentions into a baking fiasco... knocking my confidence with its ever so stubborn, runny consistency.
Last week, we had a few friends around for dinner, and  
eager to conquer this dessert classic, I settled on making a Lemon Meringue Pie.

I began with the sweet short pastry...

225g flour
125g butter (chilled and cubed)
Pinch salt
25g icing sugar (or castor)
1 egg yolk
Cold water to mix

Combine flour and sugar with a whisk. Work in the butter using your finger tips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add yolk and the cold water a tablespoon at a time, mixing to a stiff dough. You shouldn't need more than 3 tablespoons. Shape dough into a flat disc and leave in refrigerator for at least half an hour.

I set my oven to 200 C and with a great deal of optimism and clear instructions, I set to work on the filling...

2 tbsp cornflour
100g castor sugar
zest of 2 lemons
125ml lemon juice
200ml water
85g butter
3 yolks & 1 whole egg (beaten)

*Make sure to keep the whites for later!

Once ovens at 200 C, roll out and blind bake pastry for 10 - 12 minutes, remove blind baking material and put back in for a further 5 - 7 minutes.

Combine flour, sugar and zest in saucepan with a whisk. Add the water and juice to pan and simmer on medium heat. Once thick and smooth, add your butter and beaten eggs. Stir vigorously until thick, smooth, glossy and so on!

Keep curd in saucepan until your meringue is good to go. Set oven to 180 C...

4 egg whites (room temperature)
100g castor sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
dash of vinegar or lemon juice

Beat whites until stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted out of bowl.
Add half the sugar, a tablespoon at a time. Beat just enough to dissolve the sugar.
Add the cornflour, rest of the sugar and vinegar or lemon juice. Once glossy and thick enough to hold shape, stop beating or your meringue could go beyond the point of repair!

Put your curd back on the heat, give it a quick whisk and pour into the pastry case. Now you can pipe or simply plop your meringue atop and finish with some fancy looking flicks and swirls.

In the oven at 180 C for 18-20 minutes... take out when the meringue looks like the impressive pictures we've all seen before... back when we thought "why does mine never look like that".

I conquered the lemon meringue pie. But as it was served up and eaten in its entirety in one evening, there were no photos taken. All I have to show for it is this very realistic drawing...

Lemon poppy seed pound cake...

Andrew & I have just returned from our Christmas holiday... and after 10 days of gorging ourselves on fried Dutch delights and Belgian waffles and chocolates, I thought this light and lemony pound cake would be the perfect detox!






































Here's how it went...

4 tbsp milk
3 large eggs
2 tbsp vanilla essence
Freshly squeezed juice from 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
3/4 cup sugar
160g butter
2 tbsp poppy seeds


Set your oven to 180 C, grease and line your tin (I used a standard loaf tin but wish I had a bundt cake mould...)
In a jug, whisk together the milk, eggs, lemon juice and vanilla essence. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a larger bowl, combine the sugar and zest, then add the butter. Mix until light and fluffy. Okay, now add the flour mix and egg mix alternately in thirds. Lastly, fold in the poppy seeds and turn into the prepared tin.
Bake for 40-50 minutes. If the top begins to brown before it's ready, lightly cover it with some tin foil.
Voila.

Just my cup a' tea...

 

Growing up, there was always a fresh pot of Earl Grey sitting on our breakfast table. Dressed in its Sunday best, the all familiar mustard tea cosy. I suppose it's because of this, that it is still my drink of choice. To me, a cup of tea is a comforting, calming and cherished ritual. Essentially, it's like a hug in a cup. So you can imagine how over the moon I was to discover this. An Earl Grey Tea Loaf.

May I recommend this recipe to all fellow tea drinkers.  A delicate and fragrant loaf topped with a zesty lemon drizzle. I mixed it up a little, adding a tsp of Blue Lady tea, and I'm sure this recipe could be experimented with even more. Instead of a drizzle, you could incorporate some lemon (or orange) rind into the mix. I think I'll try using chai tea next time..

 

 The ingredients...

2 tbsp of loose Earl Grey tea 

(or 3 bags with tea leaves taken out)

60 ml boiled water

80ml milk

150g butter

150g sugar

2 eggs

200g flour

1 tsp baking powder

Lemon drizzle ...

230g icing sugar

Juice and rind on half a lemon

Oven at 170 C 

Steep your tea leaves in boiling water for about 5 minutes and then add to the cold milk. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy and beat in the eggs. Sift the flour and baking powder together and add half of this to the butter mix, then half of the tea. Combine and repeat. Pour the batter into a greased loaf tin and bake for about 40 minutes. Test with a knife, it should come out clean. Don't fret if it's still not cooked in the centre, just cover the loaf with tin foil so the top doesn't burn and keep baking until it's done. If opting for the drizzle, do so once cooled. x