The revival of Queens of Tarts...

So ladies, it’s been a little quiet on the baking front of late hasn't it? We’ve all been busy over the summer, but with the Great British Bake Off finished for another year, it’s time for the Queens of Tarts revival!

And so I put to you our latest baking challenge... CHOUX PASTRY

Choux pastry is a very light pastry dough, which apparently was first invented in 1540. Over the years that followed, the recipe of became known as pâte à popelin and was used to make popelins – which are small cakes in the shape of a woman’s breasts. Later on in the eighteenth century, a patissier called Avice, used the light pastry dough to create sweet filled buns, which (inadvertently) resembled cabbages. And so, thanks to Avice and his sweet cabbage buns, we now enjoy all sorts of choux pastry treats.*

Crisp, puffed up choux pastry is light and airy due to the high water content in the mixture. The water, which creates steam during the baking process, forces the pastry outwards, giving the pastry shell a crispy cavity which can be filled with sweet or savoury fillings to make scrumptious snacks and puddings.

From éclairs and profiteroles to fancy swans and croque-en-bouche show-stoppers, choux pastry is often filled with a soft cream filling, and topped with chocolate or a fruit glaze.

So without further ado.. dust down your aprons, pre-heat your ovens, BAKE!

*Extra points for those who remembered their high-school French, choux = cabbage!

Hummingbird Bakery Classic Brownies

Well, off for a uni gathering in Bath this weekend so thought I'd do a little bake for the troops - as i'd missed all of their birthdays due to galavanting around India and determinned by January purse strings, I thought I'd treat them to a birthday esque bake!!! And what else is a winner other than the Classic hummingbird bakery brownie?!
Pressure on though as my sister in law has baked these on many occasions and they never fail!

Ingredients
- 200g Dark Chocolate roughly chopped
- 175g Unsalted Butter
- 325g Caster Sugar
- 130g Plain Flour
- 3 Eggs
- Icing Sugar

a 33 x 23 x 5cm Baking tray lined with greaseproof paper

Method

1. Prehead the over to 170 degrees
2. Line the tin with greaseproof paper
3. Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and leave until melted and smooth
4. I gave it a little stir to combine the remaining butter and chocolate together to ensure it was fully mixed and smooth
5. Remove the Chocolate mixture from the heat and add the sugar - still until all incorporated.
6. Now add the flour and still well - ensuring all are coated and combined.
7.Whist the eggs and add to the mixture and stir until thick and smooth - i found that the mixture became glossy in appearance
8. Once all combined and mixed - spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tray and bake in the oven for approximately 30-35 mintues.

The recipe advised that around the 30minute mark  to check the brownie to ensure that the edges didn't become overcooked as they can become crunchy and hard. I found that 35minutes was perfect time, - flaky on the top and a soft centre (as desired) and removed from the oven and left to cool.
Once cooled i cut them up into small brownie size squares - obviously could do any size porton, but i felt the smaller brownie is always a winner as they are gloriously chocolately!
Once cooled and cut i dusted with icing sugar.

The recipe suggests that 12 are made, however as i cut mine into smaller squares I had more than 12, so set some aside for the Uni gals, and guess what - the office feeder strikes again!! I brought the rest into work - this time the Birmingham office!
Feedback - squidgy on the inside, flaky and a crunch on the outside, and a nice chocolatey flavour.

I will definitely make them again, and perhaps even attempt to rival the sister in law with them!!

Cornflake tart - nostalgic bake

As this month is nostalgic bake topic.. I opted for a cornflake tart!

For me this is steeped in memory because it is a bake that I use to have at school.. was a perk to a school lunch.. That and cowboy pie!!! It just connotes happy school memories, and as something that I haven't really seen elsewhere, it has complete school days association.

I obviously had an idea of the recipe, but searched the internet for one as the cookery books I had at home didn't have a recipe in. The recipe I used is from www.allrecipes.co.uk.

Ingredients:
- 55g Unsalted Butter
- 25g Dark brown sugar
- 115g Golden Syrup
- 85g Cornflakes
- 1 pinch of salt (I ommitted this)
- Pastry recipe/ready to use shortcut pastry
- 100g Strawberry Jam

Tart Tin

Method:
1. I rolled out the pastry and lined the greased tart tin with it - trimming the edges. I lined it with baking parchment and filled it with baking beans and placed in the oven for 20mins at 200 degrees.

2. Whilst the pastry was baking, I got to work on the ingredients. I melted the butter in the pan, and added the sugar until it had combined and disolved in the butter. I then added the golden syrup, constantly stirring.

3. I removed the pastry from the oven and removed the baking parchment to allow the pastry to become golden brown and baked for a further 5 minutes.
4. I removed the mixture from the heat and poured in the cornflakes and combining them with the mixture, ensuring that all the cornflakes are coated in the mixture. Once all coated - I put the jam on the base and spread out evenly. The recipe suggests that the jam should be warmed, however i find that warming jam makes it too liquidy, so I felt the the heat from the pastry would be enough to warm the jam without it becoming to liquidy.
Once the jam was spread out evenly, I added the cornflake mixture - spreading it out evenly across the top.
I popped the tart in the oven for 5 minutes and allowed to cool once removed.

This recipe was super easy and quick, I did wonder if the tart would taste the same or come close to the flavour profile of the one I use to have at school... and it did!! Amazing!!! The taste is just as i remember. I opted for it without custard - the classic lumpy custard at school wasn't a firm favourite, so i stuck to it plain.
Obviously it's quite a sweet tasting dessert so the custard is good to help the flavouring.

Again - the office feeder strikes again - as I am in the Birmingham branch a different group of tasters to trial it on.. and the feedback was a resounding success. Flavour, consistency, and pastry all worked well together.
What I did notice that having made it the day before, the jam had obviously set better even after it had cooled, but I think that it would need to be eaten on the same day or at a push the day after due to the heavy consitency of the cornflakes - as it's a slightly wet mixture.

Katherine's lime and raspberry meringue pie

So, a tad behind schedule but May bake complete.. I decided to make individual pies rather than one large one.
After a bit of research I combined a recipe from BBC Good Food online.. Lemon and Raspberry Meringue pie http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10881/lemon-and-raspberry-meringue-tart and Delia's fail safe meringue recipe http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/meringues.html
The recipe suggests one uses lemon curd, but I had some lime curd in that I'd only used a little of, so thought I'd change the lemon to lime (waste not want not!!!)

Ingredients (tweaked)
Filling
1 jar of lime curd (411g)
2 whole eggs and the 2 yolks from the egg white mixture
250g of fresh raspberries
Pastry bases

Meringue
3 Egg Whites
125g Caster Sugar
Topping
Raspberries from the punnet used in the filling
Zest of 1 lime

Method
So firstly, getting to grips with the pastry base. I used 8 ready made pastry cases on this occasion.. Purely again because I had them in stock to use.
I preheated the oven to 190 degrees and put the pie cases on a lined baking tray.

I scattered 6 raspberries on each of the 8 pastry cases, and got to work on the filling.

Firstly I prepared the egg whites for the meringue and used the egg yolk for the filling. With the egg yolks I added two whole eggs and beat them together.
I emptied the lime curd into a non stick sauce pan and added the beaten egg mixture together and put the mixture on a low heat to simmer for 10 minutes or so. I ensured I constantly stirred the mixture as advised to ensure the mixture thickened accordingly. It took a little longer than 10 minutes..about 15 minutes to thicken. But once thickened I decanted into a glass bowl and covered with cling film and left to cool (I left the mixture to cool whilst I got to work on the meringues and completed house chores, so a good 45 minutes at least!).
Whilst the mixture was cooling I got to work on the meringue. For this is opted for Delia Smith's classic, fail safe meringue recipe. I used the egg whites that I had separated earlier and added them to the 125g of caster sugar. I used my mixer to whisk the meringue to soft peaks. To check the meringue is ready I did the old trick of putting it over my head.. Thankfully a success as I had washed my hair!!

I left the meringue whilst I spooned about 2 tablespoons of the cooled lime curd mixture onto the raspberry and pastry cases. Once all the lime curd mixture sufficiently filled the cases I spooned on about 2 tablespoons of meringue onto the mixture and created soft peaks with the back of the spoon.

The pies were ready to go in the oven, so I put them in the oven for 10 minutes at 190 degrees and then turned the oven down to 150 degrees thereafter.
Once golden brown I turned the oven off and left the meringues in the oven until cooled as advised by Delia.

Once cooled, I sprinkled the lime zest and a raspberry on top for aesthetics rather than taste.

I cut into the pie, and it was the perfect meringue - slightly guey on the inside, with a perfect cracking on top.

Taste test - as I'm not the biggest meringue pie fan, I was again, the office feeder and took these into work.
The feedback - resounding success! Meringue cooked well - crispy on the outside and Slightly guey on the inside as i had tested. The taste combination of  raspberry and lemon was apparently quite fresh and light, and the flavours complimented one another.

I would use this recipe again as it was easier than I had thought.. But I would probably play around with the flavour combinations.

June Baking Challenge

So, June is my baking challenge month, and I’ve been keeping this one under my hat for a while. I’m not sure it suits the current glorious weather that we are basking in (when not at our desks) but I’ve decided to stick with it.

June’s theme is nostalgia; more specifically – a favourite bake from school/childhood.

We can all look back and remember things from our childhood – Polly Pocket, Pogs, the collectable Kellogg’s cereal bicycle wheel adornments, dandelion and burdock, and the racoons on Saturday mornings before Live & Kicking – which all connote fond and happy memories, but I feel that there is something quite special about a food memory.

For me a food memory has the ability to take me back to that time, right there to that scene, like you’ve gone back in time and reliving it all over again – the smell, taste – everything! So, get your thinking caps on girls and get your nostalgic taste buds moving... feel free to add your memory and why you’ve chosen it.

Happy Baking!

Lemon Zest Cheesecake

Well, this was March/April's bake - 'Cheesecake' and I was on a cheeky trip to India, I decided to forego this challenge. However, I had bought cream cheese in the hope that I'd have time to make it before departure, unfortunately not, hence why I decided to forego the challenge.

However, as I had the cream cheese sitting in the back of my fridge, and still very much in date, I had a moment of cheesecake inspiration and decided to see if I could work in any ingredients I had at home and just step up to the challenge!
So - with the lemons, mint, digestive biscuits and vanilla essence I had in - my culinary juices started flowing and I stumbled on a very basic cheesecake - Lemon zest!! So, I searched the web for a basic cheesecake recipe - and found one in the shape of James Martin on the BBC Good Food website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lemoncheesecake_65665

Ingredients:

Base:

10 Digestive Biscuits - crushed

75g Butter, melted (using a little on the base of the tin)

1 tbsp Honey

Filling:

700g/1 1/2 lb Mascarpone Cheese*

2 Lemons - juice and zest

200g/7oz Caster Sugar

4 tbsp Icing Sugar

Mint to garnish

Notes:

- I used Full Fat Cream Cheese as opposed to mascarpone cheese as that's what I had in

- I used 2 1/2 lemons - juice and zest

- I ommitted the Icing Sugar - as I needed to replenish my stock - so I added 1 tsp of vanilla essence instead

Method:

First of all, I measured a circular piece of baking parchment out to fit comfortably in the base of the tin (23cm tin), then I measured out all my ingredients, and got to work on the base.

Whilst the butter was melting in the pan on a low heat, I put the digestive biscuits in a sandwich bag, and covered with a tea towel, and used a rolling pin to crush the biscuits into the desired specification - crumbs!

Once the butter had melted, I used a pastry brush to lightly coat the base of the tin, and placed the baking parchment on top.

Now with the melted butter, I added the digestive biscuit crumbs and the honey, and combine together. Once all fully combined, I poured the base mixture into the prelined tin (the recipe recommends a spring form tin, which I have lent out, so I had to use a basic tin - although I'd highly recommend a spring form tin!!) and smoothed out to the edges. Once complete, I popped it in the fridge to chill.

Whilst the base is chilling, I got to work on the filling - combining the cream cheese, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla essence and caster sugar together. The recipe recommends not over mixing, so I ensured I mixed the ingredients together in a slow manner. Once all combined I poured the mixture over the chilled base and spread it out evenly using the back of a tablespoon and pallette knife. I placed it in the fridge to chill.

The recipe recommends at lea\st 2 hours - I let it chill overnight.

Now for the removal of the cheesecake from the tin! This is where the spring form tin would have come in useful! I used a hot cloth as recommended to loosen the edges - which it did, but as the tin I was using was a loose base, I had to push the base up - yes you can imagine the trauma!!

I managed to remove it in one swoop, however it did cause a little loss of 'edging' - which as you can see from the image below - made it appear a very rustic looking cheesecake.

I added a sprig of mint to garnish, and the cheesecake is complete.

Taste test.. as not an avid fan of cheesecakes, I passed the tasting mantel to my colleagues at work - and the 2 regulars are in fact great cheesecake fans (pressure is on).

Result:
The general consensus was very pleasing! 9 and 10's out of 10 - with feedback such as - just the right amount of lemon, and not too overpowering, as lemon can be somewhat bitter in some cases. The ommition of the icing sugar also seemed to make a difference, with one of the tasters saying it wasn't as 'sugary and overly sweet' as lot of cheesecakes can be.
The only critique was that the base could be thicker. I did think that when the recipe stated 10 digestive biscuits, that it was quite little, so if i was to ammend this recipe, I'd double the quanitity of biscuits because the cheesecake topping is so thick.

For saying it was a last minute step up to the plate and embrace the cheesecake challenge with a very rushed search for a recipe based on the ingredients at home, i'm very pleased with the results.

Hannah's Chocolate Meringue Pie

When you mention 'Meringue Pie', most people will think of lemon meringue pie, which is a classic. I'm not a big fan of said classic, and so went for a lesser known chocolate meringue pie. I was a bit hesitant with this month's bake, due to my complete lack of experience with using meringue, but it was actually quite a simple dessert to make. I also wouldn't like to use the word cheat when it came to my pastry case, i'm not sure of a more suitable word, but cheat seems a bit mean.

Ingredients
Filling

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons cocoa
• 3 tablespoons corn flour
• 2 cups milk
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pie shell

Meringue

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 6 tablespoons sugar

Instructions
In a saucepan I mixed the sugar, cocoa, corn flour and salt; whilst gradually adding milk. This cooked over a medium-high heat until it bubbled and thickened. This needed to be stirred constantly, which i found out after ignoring it for a few seconds and returned to a thick, lumpy mixture. I reduced the heat and stirred it for quite a while until the mixture was smooth again. The mixture was remove from heat and I stirred about 1 cup of the hot filling into the egg yolks, returned it to the saucepan and brought it to a gentle boil for approx 2 minutes. I then removed the pan from the heat and stirred in the vanilla, before pouring the hot filling in to the pie crust.

For the meringue, I used my electric hand whisk to beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks formed. I then gradually added the sugar and continued to beat until stiff and glossy. I spread this evenly over the filling, and made sure to go right to the edges to seal the meringue and minimise leaks/explosions. This then went in the oven at 150c (fan) for 12-15 minutes.

I have to say that it did look pretty impressive and the smell of the pie was really yummy! The chocolate mixture was very similar to that of chocolate custard, but wasn't overly sweet and went really well with the meringue.

Chocolate filling

End Result