Category Archives: Confectionery

May 15, 2013

Birthday Party!

So, guess what?

You’re right, I have no way to know if you’re guessing or not, and this is a pointless exercise. But still, guess!

That’s right (she said, hearing your guess through the powers of the internet) – it’s my birthday today! Guess what else? Oh OK, we won’t go through that again – it’s my 30th birthday. I have been rocking around on this planet for 30 years and as I type, I’m swinging between casual acceptance, frank disbelief and what can only be described as stomach clenching panic, at a rather alarming rate.

The casual acceptance part is like ‘Yep, it’s just a number. Plus, life is awesome, and you’re not one of those people who’s set any kind of “life targets” that you now feel like you should scrimmage around and get accomplished in the next twenty minutes. Well done. Let’s party.’

The frank disbelief is like ‘Whaaaaaaaaat? I’m just getting started! It can’t possibly have been 30 years.’

The stomach clenching panic is like ‘DEATH IS COMING.’

So, now you know. Your humble writer is 30 years old on this very day, and as you read this she is probably doing some awesome bouldering. If you’re not familiar with it, bouldering is indoor climbing without ropes or helmets or any of that carry on. The G man and I started doing this in the last couple of months, and even though some weeks I’m really scared of climbing to the top of the walls and/or falling off while I’m doing it (which to be honest I think is probably natural, and I try not to give myself a hard time about it), most of the time I love it, and I feel like a spider monkey. The best parts are where you lose your footing and haul yourself back up with your arms – that makes a person feel BADASS, no doubt about it. I’m already getting people to prod the new muscles in my forearms, which I am disproportionately proud of.

Anyway, that is part of my birthday plan. The whole picture looks like this:

10am or thereabouts: wake up without the aid of an alarm clock and relish being at home, in bed, on a work day.

11am: have a long, leisurely shower. Sing ‘Caledonia’, ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ and ‘Life on Mars’ at top of lungs. Sing any other songs that pop into head, also at top of lungs.

12 noon – 1pm: climb to the top of walls and jump back down again like bouldering rock star legend.

2pm: arrive at astonishingly awesome parents’ house, where astonishingly awesome siblings will also be arriving forthwith. Drink bourbon. Laugh until face hurts. Eat food that I have had no hand in preparing, and will have no hand in cleaning up after. Possibly play enthusiastic if amateurish guitar and sing at top of lungs some more.

11pm: arrive back at my flat, escorted by ever-patient G man. Watch a film with dinosaurs or aliens in it. Sleep the sleep of the just.

Doesn’t that sound great?

While I’m off doing that, I thought I’d give you some birthday party pictures to peruse. The week before last, I threw a birthday party for my beloved Thursday Sister Miss Pig. We had banners, paper plates, wine and more snacks than you could shake a stick at – the works. I took a whole bunch of photos, and today I’d like to share them all with you – after this big bunch of words at the top of the post, you deserve them.

Things started off very civilised.

I made some exciting things for us to eat. First of all, blue cheese and walnut sandwich cracker guys:

The recipe for these is here – Stilton and Walnut Crackers. I Scottished it up by using Strathdon Blue for the crackers, and the filling was some Skinny Crowdie with a splash of cream, a sprinkling of blue cheese and some minced spring onion. Delicious.

Then, sticking with the cheese theme, I made these Homemade Goldfish Crackers.

I used a sharp Cornish Cruncher cheese for these – this cheese is great just on its own, but adds a mega flavour boost to the crackers. They didn’t turn out as crunchy as goldfish crackers, instead being more puffy and pastry-ish, but they hit the spot. I also make them in heart and flower shapes, because those are the shapes that Miss Pig likes (and because I don’t have a fish shaped cutter, of course).

The last savoury joy was these sourdough grissini, of which I was extraordinarily proud. They earned me a proposal of sorts when I took the leftovers into work – that good. My sourdough starter Louie is still going strong, almost 18 months on. He did me proud.

There are three kinds of breadstick there – sesame seed, poppy seed and salt, pepper, garlic, chili and fennel. Oh yes. Add a bit of humus and you’re golden. You can find the recipe for Sourdough Grissini on YeastSpotting.

I also made some sweet items for us. First up, a batch of brigadeiros, which you can read a blog post about here. The original recipe is here.

They’re fudgy, chocolatey truffles, which are so much lighter than your usual chocolate truffle while still delivering a rich flavour. They’re a little trickier and more time consuming to make than normal truffles, too, but worth the effort. People make a face when they eat these – a GOOD face.

Next I made some little tartlets which I’m struggling to name – they’re somewhere between jam tarts and meringue pies, except the meringue is soft, more like marshmallow. This is because I freestyled it, by whipping up an unspecified amount of egg white with enough sugar to make a glossy meringue that stood up in peaks. I eyeballed it, and then piped it over the baked jam tarts and used my cook’s blowtorch to cook and colour the surface of them. Then I sort of looked away when someone took the first bite out of one in case the marshmalloweringue exploded everywhere, instantly sticking everything in the room to everything else in the room. When there were no cries of alarm I looked back – turns out that they were soft and pillowy but not excessively sticky and definitely not explosive. Phew – bullet dodged.

The other great thing about these is that they represent my first successful attempt at wheat free pastry – are you excited about this? Because I *definitely* am. I’ll blog it properly on my next attempt, but for now suffice to say it was light and crisp and did not crumble into ash in our mouths, which is always the fear when you make wheat free pastry and biscuits. Also I made the tartlets flower-shaped, and I loved the end result. They’re so pretty! The jam was rhubarb and ginger, from a jar (shoosh, I made the pastry, what more do you want? Jam on it? Oh…).

The piece de resistance was these wee pig cupcakes, which were inspired by an idea in the book Cupcakes, Cookies and Pie – Oh My!

Check out the colour difference in those photos. THE LEVELS! MY EYES!

The ears and noses are mini marshmallows – to do the ears you snip some marshmallows diagonally to form those sweet wee triangles, and then you wedge them into the icing. The cakes are Devil’s Food Cake (my go-to chocolate cake recipe) and the icing is a vanilla buttercream, tinted pink. The eyes are reversed chocolate chips, and the smiles are drawn on with an icing pen after the icing has set a little.

I was heard to remark that I thought they looked a bit like I made them at nursery – I still feel that way. It’s not a criticism, necessarily, but they do look like a project you might do with your kids. However, given that I don’t have any of those, I get to do this fun stuff myself. Miss Pig, as her name suggests, likes pigs – when I happened across the pigs idea in that book, it was a no-brainer.

The night progressed in the way that these nights do…

Wine was consumed…

Sparklers were lit…

Things were knocked over…

We laughed, and listened to 80s tunes, and ate until we couldn’t eat any more. We took photographs of all the food with our phones:

It was a simply lovely party. When everyone went home I had a one-woman dance party round my flat until it was really silly late – and when I say dance party, I really mean it. That thing about dancing like nobody’s watching? That.

Looking over these photos and writing this post was an absolute joy – it’s been a long while since I took on a big kitchen project like this, and having everything work out so successfully was reassuring and pleasing in equal measures.

So, while I’m off enjoying my birthday (30? Really??), I hope you’ve enjoyed checking out our birthday party. I can recommend throwing one, complete with paper cups and a disposable tablecloth. You’ll have a great time.

Baking to excess is optional.

14 comments | tags: birthday cake, birthday party, party food, pigs | posted in Bread, Cake, Chocolates, Confectionery, Dessert, Other people's recipes, Pastry, Snacks

April 24, 2013

Easy Fig Treats

By Rock Salt

You know what is easier than writing a blog post about making these crunchy, chewy fig treats? Only one thing – making them.

Alright I suppose that technically NOT making them or writing a blog post about them would be easier. No need to be a spoilsport.

First, buy dried figs and dessicated coconut. Those are the only two ingredients, which is more than you can say for most snacks. Next, throw the figs into a food processor. Make sure to take out any stems – I didn’t do this the first time, not realising that ‘ready to eat’ actually meant ‘not really ready to eat until you’ve gone through and removed any stems’, and while it doesn’t stop you enjoying the snacks it is a bit of a pain – like watermelon seeds are, you know? If you’re home alone, especially home alone in a house with a porch, rocking chair and back garden, you could just spit them out, giving yourself points for distance, but otherwise I’d suggest just taking them out of the equation altogether.

Process the figs until you get a thick, sticky paste, like this:

Appetising, no?

OK, no – net YET. In fact it looks a little like a Golgothan. But we won’t talk about that.

Next, sprinkle a surface with coconut – you can toast the coconut if you prefer, though it does add an extra step. Scoop the fig paste into small portions; if you have a tiny scoop, great. If not, get all lo-fi and just use your hands. Roll the paste into a ball, then roll in the coconut to cover. You’re done!

Before you know it you’ll have rows of the beauties, like this:

Now wash your hands, cos they’ll be covered in fig paste.

I dare say you could add to these – some dates in with the figs might be good, or a splash of vanilla extract, or what about a big spoonful of cocoa powder? The fruit is naturally very sweet, and they have a great crackly texture from the seeds that is really satisfying, though you do run the risk of finding them in your teeth hours later. This is a snack that keeps on giving… They are chewy and a bit fudgey at room temperature – I stored some of mine that way for a week and they were still good. I figured, dried figs don’t need to be refrigerated, they should still be fine after they’re processed, right? If you’re not sure, or prefer a firmer texture, you can always keep them in the fridge.

It seems to me that these would be a good stand-by snack, and they’re probably pretty ace for an energy boost what with the natural sugar in the figs. They also count towards your five a day – two dried figs is one portion, so depending what size you make the treats you only need one or two to count towards your optimum fruit and veg intake.

These treats are raw, free from the most common allergens (nut, wheat, dairy, soy and egg, to name but five), contain only natural ingredients, are vegan friendly and take less than ten minutes to make. What are you waiting for?

5 comments | tags: figs, natural, paleo, raw | posted in Confectionery, Dairy free, Gluten free, Healthy, Original recipes, Snacks, Vegan, Vegetarian

February 13, 2013

Grown Up Refrigerator Cake

By Rock Salt

The first thing to say is this: I habitually misspell ‘refrigerator’. The abbreviation is ‘fridge’, right? (I had to go and look this up in a sudden fit of uncertainty but, yes, it is). So, why is the abbreviation ‘fridge’ when the word *doesn’t have a d in it*? I have never and will never understand it, and I think Something should be Done.

So, anyway, however you spell it, refri(d)gerator cake is an excellent bit of baking to undertake if you’re a smidgen short on time. It’s extraordinarily flexible, and you can add all your favourite things to it. There is no baking involved, and it can’t fail. There will be no sinking as it cools; no curdling in the pot; no burning, smoking, scorching or any other oven mishaps. The following recipe is very loose, and it’s more of a technique than anything, but I’m sure you’ll get the gist.

I made this as part of my drive to be making and baking in ways that are easier, quicker and create as few dishes as possible. It really fit the bill. It takes hardly any time to put together; the longest part of the process is waiting for it to chill, which you can do overnight while you’re probably otherwise engaged with sleep.

My own refrigerator cake was an attempt to replicate one of my favourite chocolate bars past: the Cadbury’s Fuse. The Fuse was around in the 90s, and was discontinued in 2006, much to the chagrin of many. It was a solid chocolate bar with raisins, nuts, biscuits and crunchy cereal through it – very delicious. So I tried to redo this, using some ingredients from my last Foodie Penpals parcel as two of the main components. Here’s the result:

It’s awfully yellow, isn’t it? I’m still making friends with my new camera, and still not using appropriate extra lighting in the kitchen when I take photos in the evenings. Thankfully the nights are getting noticeably lighter now – it’s light past 4pm now, what a treat!

So, the rough recipe for this particular cake:

handful seedless raisins
two handfuls chocolate puffed rice cereal (by which I mean Coco Pops)
four chocolate covered fudge bars (by which I mean Cadbury’s fudge), cut into small pieces
ten almonds (ideally delicious cinnamon and cocoa glazed almonds), chopped
100g fruity dark chocolate
100g standard plain chocolate (from the baking aisle)
200g milk chocolate
100g unsalted butter

Start off with the baking dish you’re going to use – I used a 7″ square tin. Put your filling ingredients in the dish and mix around, to see how they look. Imagine cutting the slab into bits, and how much of each ingredient would be in one of those bits. Add more of anything you’d like more of – the above amounts will make for a very chocolatey snack, so you could increase the other ingredients to make it more like a classic Fuse, which was more cereal/raisin/fudge/nut than chocolate.

Once you’re happy with the proportions, melt the chocolate and butter together (I always use the microwave) and make sure they’re well combined. Then, tip the fillings out of the baking dish and into the bowl or jug you used to melt the chocolate, and mix again.

Line your now-empty baking tin with greaseproof paper, to make it easier to remove the finished cake. Pour the chocolate mixture back into the tin, and allow to cool to room temperature before putting it in the fridge overnight to set, then slicing into squares.

Other ingredients you might like to add include:

other dried fruits like blueberries or cherries
candied orange slices
broken up banana chips
macadamias, pistachios or pecans – or any other kind of nut
popcorn – caramel or maybe even salted would work
marshmallows
broken biscuits
spices like cinnamon, chili or pepper
white chocolate chips (these might be best sprinkled over the top)

You can also monkey with the proportions of dark and milk chocolate, or use only one, and reduce the amount of butter. These proportions gave quite a soft, melty end result, so next time I’d probably go more chocolate, less butter. It’s the kind of recipe you make your own, and make often.

Probably best not to use all of these variations at once – moderation is key, yes?

6 comments | tags: no-bake, refrigerator cake | posted in Chocolates, Confectionery, Gluten free, Original recipes, Vegetarian

October 22, 2012

Boozeberry Jam

By Rock Salt

Do you remember when I made blueberry gin cordial? And took it to a music festival and fell in a ditch? Well, what do you think became of the blueberries once they were fished out of the gin (and I was fished out of the ditch)? I made them into jam, of course!

Now, one of the first rules of booze is this: if you have a drink that contains pieces of fruit, don’t eat the fruit. Never eat the fruit. That innocent fruit has been soaking up more booze than a Scot at a wedding (I speak from personal experience), and is now utterly lethal. If you eat that fruit, it’s like having a tequila slammer you can chew. Never, ever eat the fruit.

That said, I couldn’t possibly have thrown these gorgeous, boozy blueberries in the bin. Look at them – so plump and purple. Dangerous little jewels, they were, and all the more dangerous for looking so tempting. They smelled glorious, too – sweet and full of juniper. It took absolutely no stretch of the imagination to see that they would be the perfect jam fodder. They were also puggled (or, if you have a less imaginative language than Scots on your side, drunk) enough to keep in that jar, in the fridge, for a couple of weeks without any further preserving. I did think I heard some singing from them but I may have been imagining it.

I added some fresh, non-boozy blueberries to them, to boost the amount of end product and to temper the alcohol levels. I put all the berries in a pot with a generous measure of that old favourite, jam sugar, and simmered until the berries had started to burst and release lots of dark indigo juice. Once this had happened, I poured the contents of the pot into jug and blitzed with a stick blender until mostly smooth, with occasional unexploded blueberries. I returned to the pot and simmered until thick and very syrupy, then poured into a clean jar to cool down.

I would like to give you the proper recipe for the jam, but I’ve had ‘lost envelope syndrome’ again and don’t know exactly what I put in there… However, here is my best guess to make one 500ml jar:

450g blueberries from gin cordial
150g fresh blueberries
1 tbsp blueberry gin cordial (or plain gin, or water)
1 cup jam sugar

Put all the ingredients in a large pot over a medium heat and cook, stirring often, until greatly reduced and very liquid, about ten minutes.

Pour the contents of the pot into a tall, glass jug (do *not* use a plastic one) and blend with stick blender – or place in a blender jug and process, but check what your blender’s maximum temperature capacity is.

Return to medium heat and simmer, stirring infrequently, for another ten minutes, until thickened and jammy, Remember that it will thicken as it cools. Pour into a glass jar to cool before storing in the fridge.

The resulting jam combines the sweet-tart flavour of blueberries with the sugary taste of a cordial, plus the mildly astringant, floral fragrance of a good gin. It’s unlike any mass-produced jam or marmalade, and it’s probably not for kids… Even though you do cook out the alcohol, I can’t help but feel that some remains in the end result. Toast and jam for breakfast might be ill-advised with this particular jam.

In light of the development of this recipe, I will revise my wisdom about boozy fruit thusly:

Never eat the fruit, unless you turn it into jam first. And even then, don’t eat it for breakfast.

14 comments | tags: cooking, jam, preserving | posted in Condiments, Confectionery, Dairy free, Original recipes, Snacks, Vegan, Vegetarian

October 3, 2012

Gluten Free Chocolate and Coconut Cupcakes

By Rock Salt

Once again, I have taken on the dark art of gluten free baking, and emerged triumphant. These are soft, sweet cakes with a good coconut hit to the sponge. If anything, though, I’m most pleased with the decoration – little coconut squares that were so quick to make, and have the potential to be great cake toppers with a little more work. I kept them quite rustic this time but I’m sure they could be polished off and maybe even further decorated with icing pens… It’s a project to work on. Here’s a shot of them, so that you know what I’m talking about:

These cakes were for another leaving do (there have been oh, so many of those) and I made a batch of 30 to share around the office. There were a few leftover that got taken to the pub, but they all got snapped up in the end. Everyone seemed pretty taken with them, and some kind words were said. I won’t repeat them, because I am far too modest…

Here’s the recipe:

400g margarine
400g sugar
400g wheat free, self-raising flour (I use Dove’s Farm brand)
4 eggs
75g toasted coconut
400g coconut milk
1 tbsp vanilla

If you have read my blog before, you will probably know what I’m about to say. That’s right – use the all in one method. Put all the ingredients in a bowl, and mix with an electric mixer until just combined. Do not over mix them – a few wee lumps of margarine are fine, they’ll sort themselves out in the oven.

Distribute the cake mix between 30 cupcake cases and bake at 170C for twenty minutes, rotating half way through to make sure of an even bake and rise.

Top with your favourite chocolate icing. The one I used was a standard chocolate buttercream, with enough milk whipped through it to make a soft, fudgy frosting. It was very sweet, and stayed soft after icing. You could use a ganache, instead, with either plain or milk chocolate, or you could stick with a nice firm buttercream, or even just a drizzle of melted chocolate over the top would do the trick.

To make the coconut squares:

100g icing sugar
100g coconut
2 tbsp hot water
1 tsbp liquid glucose

Mix the coconut and icing sugar in a bowl. Add the water and glucose, and stir well. You should have a very thick, sticky paste. If it is runny, add more icing sugar and coconut. You can also add a pinch of salt if you would like it to be less sweet.

Turn the paste out of the bowl onto a cutting board or square of greaseproof paper, and shape into a six-inch square. Use a spoon to straighten up the edges and smooth down the top. Press down firmly, and try to get the thickness as even as you can. The idea is to compress the coconut as much as you can, so it’s easy to slice up later.

Leave the square to rest for several hours or overnight. It will be firm and dry to the touch. Slice into one-inch squares – you’ll have five left over in case any break or aren’t a great shape. Apply to the top of your cakes while the icing/frosting/topping is still wet.

The glucose helps bind everything together – I might be tempted to add a little more next time, but it is very sweet so I didn’t want to overdo it. If you use dark chocolate in your icing this will balance out the sweetness nicely.