Hot Cross Bun Bread

January is a great time for a clear out and my baking cupboard is no different. This came about as I found a nearly full bag of strong bread flour and a load of packets of dried fruit with a little bit left in each. I have a bad habit of forgetting about them, buying new ones and then the vicious cycle starts. I do the same with packets of lentils but there are less opportunities to bake with them.

                                             

Anyway bread is amazing to make because you can whack anything into it. Really – just give it a whirl. I’ve used up nuts, seeds, almost used up brown sugar by shoving them in dough and baking the result. Bread is hard to get wrong. Yes you need to knead it but it really doesn’t take that long and you experience the fabulous result (well not me as I’m off gluten but you go crazy).

Ingredients

20g dried active yeast

1 tsp sugar

850g strong bread flour

5g salt

2 tbsp caster sugar

Dried fruit – sultanas, raisins, candied peel (I think I probably had about 200g in the end but it can take more)

1 tbsp mixed spice

600ml warm water (200ml boiling water and 400ml cold water)

1 egg, beaten

1. Take 200ml of the water and put 1 tsp of sugar in. The sprinkle the yeast on top, mix and leave for about 10 minutes. A massive foamy top will develop which means the yeast is getting excited about making bread.
2. Put the flour, salt, caster sugar, dried fruit and spice in a bowl and mix well.
3. Add the yeast mixture and the rest of the water. Mix well to make your dough and use your favourite kneading method. One here uses dough hooks andthis one takes a while but requires very little labour from you.
4. Once you’re at the second proving stage (the second time you leave it to double in size) either leave the dough as one big loaf or you can make two loaves by proving in loaf tins.
5. Before baking, brush the top with beaten egg and then put in an oven heated to 180°C/GM 4. For one big one about 45 minutes should do, for the smaller loaves about 35 minutes.
6. Obviously, as with all bread, it’s best eaten warm from the oven but it seemed to work well toasted as well.

Enthusiasm Flapjacks

Sometimes I need to clear out stuff from my baking shelves so flapjacks are an ideal way to use up ingredients. The quantities below are a guide so feel free to experiment. 

The name comes from the most wonderful Lorna who, when I lived with her, used to make Enthusiasm Soup. So called because you put everything you've got into it.   

Ingredients

250g butter

200g brown sugar (or any sugar)

Good dollop of golden syrup or honey

200-300g mixture of dried fruit, nuts, seeds
400-500g oats 

1.    Preheat the oven to 180°C/GM4.

2.    Melt the butter in a large saucepan. While melting add the sugar and syrup/honey. Mix it all together.

3.    Take off the heat and add the fruit/nut/seed mixture and stir well. Then add the oats, stirring again. You don't want a wet mixture at the end just enough to coat everything to create a sticky mess.

4.    Line a large tin and tip the mixture in, smoothing out before putting in the oven for 20 minutes.

5.    Cool and cut into desired sized pieces. Let it cool properly as the butter need to solidify a bit at bind it all together.

 

Upside Down Nectarine Cake

I’m in great pain. My legs hurt but not as much as The Thew’s – probably because he runs faster than me and is officially the fastest Woodrow. I’m the slowest but it’s a role I fill bravely and with style! The Brentwood half marathon felt like a good idea at the time but I did have a couple of glasses of champagne inside me along with a glass of wine when I agreed to do it. Most things start to seem like a good idea at that point. The worrying thing is that I have a harder half marathon in less than two weeks when I go to Ireland to see my family. Once again it seemed like a good idea at the time to combine a boozy family trip to Connemara with a race. Thinking back I was probably drunk. 

However alcohol cannot explain why on Sunday evening, in pain from the half marathon I just ran, I signed up for a 100km walk. That’s explained by friendship which is a much better reason. My good friend Lorna has a friend who has cancer and she’s doing the walk to raise money for research into cancer. Lorna is one of those amazing people who will fight any battle to the maximum that she believes is worth fighting – she’s like a super hero on the side of all that is right and just. If she could shrink into a space ship, like Dennis Quaid in Innerspace, and fight cancer head on inside bodies she’d be doing it. Because she can’t, and because she’s one lady who won’t sit idly by, she’s going to walk 100km. Because she’s my friend, and it’s important to her, I’m walking it too.  

The above has very little to do with my baking this week apart from forgetting about baking because of the run, then realising I had some nectarines to use up and that I had the ingredients for a sponge. I’m awful at turning out upside down cakes so was happy this one worked! You can use any soft fruit here really but I think it’s worth the extra time to do a nice pattern in the top. 

Ingredients

Topping

50g butter

75g caster sugar

5 nectarines, chopped (I did slices – 6 per nectarine – but you could just half them if you prefer) 

Cake

150g butter

150g caster sugar

3 large eggs

60 ml milk

1 tsp vanilla

150g self-raising flour 

1.    Preheat an oven to 180°C/GM4.

2.    Use the 50g of butter to coat the bottom of a tin – I used 23” but you can use any size really. Make sure it’s kind of evenly spread and grease the sides lightly. Sprinkle the 75g of sugar over the butter. Then arrange your fruit on it.

3.    Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs one at a time mixing well.

4.    Put in half the flour, mix, then mix in the milk and vanilla, then mix in the last of the flour.

5.    Cover the fruit with the batter and bake for about 35 minutes, testing to check it’s cooked. If you’ve used a smaller sized tin you may need another few minutes.

6.    You can serve this hot or cold so either cool completely, or if serving hot, leave for about 10 minutes before turning the tin upside down on a plate and hoping it comes out well!

Chocolate, Fruit and Nut Bars

 

 

Why couldn’t my mum be from the Maldives? I hear it’s the flattest country in the world. Very flat, no big hills, level. But no. Ireland it is and not just any old part – Connemara with its hills, bogs and lashing of rain. Now on a good day Connemara is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s also good on a bad day when you’re in a car or a pub. When it’s not good would be when you’re running for two miles up a fairly hefty gradient knowing that it’s only the start of the half marathon, or so I imagine. Soon I won’t have to imagine and will actually be experiencing this joyous event for myself. 

 

For some reason I agreed with The Thew when he said that when visiting my family we should time it so we could do the Connemarathon. Ok I agreed to half but still, the course looks brutal. This now means that I have to actually train for it. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have to train for a normal one but it would be so much easier training for one in say the Maldives, than building hill training into my regime and thinking about waterproof clothing. I’m not the biggest fan of running at the best of times so I’ve decided to try and be a bit healthier so I have less of me to drag around the course.

  

So I’m afraid that today’s recipe is fairly healthy (although the dried fruit has a ton of sugar in so not that great – yay!) However it’s very easy and doesn’t involve putting the oven on. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while as The Thew eats a lot of Nakd bars and I think that they are dry and horrible. However when looking at the ingredients the bars should be moist so I decided to try them myself. I’m guessing that Nakd have to dry theirs out more in the cold pressing process they use so that they stay more rigid and can be packed easily. These bars retain the juiciness of the dried fruit used and are fairly sweet with the cocoa adding a nice touch of chocolate.  I actually enjoy these and they have gone down well in the office. Also gluten and dairy free, along with being vegan!

 

Ingredients

290g dried dates (stoned)

175g cashew nuts (not roasted or salted)

100g flame raisins (so I didn't use flame raisins once. You can read what happened here)

10-30g good quality cocoa powder (it’s more to taste and depends on how chocolately you want it. You can always add more so start low and just add more if you think it needs it.) 

 

1.    Whizz the cashews buts in a food processor until they are in tiny pieces.

2.    Add the rest of the ingredients and whizz into a mush. You’ll see what I mean.

3.    Turn out into a silicon or lined tray. I used a 20cm x 20cm silicon tray so something of similar dimension. Smooth out with the back of a spoon.

4.    Cover the top with baking paper and top with heavy books. Ideally the first book would roughly fit the dimensions of the tin to give an even press. Put it in the fridge for anything from 3 – 48 hours.

5.    Remove from the tin and cut into whatever size pieces you want.



Granola Bars

I may have a slight allergy to gluten. Obviously this is a nightmare for someone who bakes but I can't really deny anymore that I feel much better by cutting gluten out. Damn you gluten!!!!! The Thew is going to be beside himself with the news as he eats ridiculously well and avoids gluten whenever possible, telling me to do the same so I will feel better. He has this annoying habit of being right about things that I don't want him to be right about. Of course sometimes I'm right but have promised not to gloat about that latest incident so putting on my blog would contravene that. 

The Thew used to love the Pret Power Bars they used to do years ago and for some reason I thought I would take it upon myself to recreate them at home rather than just let him buy them. They turned out really well but I didn’t make them for a while (I think because he gave up gluten and this was before gluten free oats were widely available) and lost my recipe. So this week I decided to give it another go. I have used gluten free oats so these bad boys are 'healthy' for a given value when you consider the sugar and butter content. Oh yes! 

The ingredients below are a bit of a guide. The moisture adding ingreidents are needed but you can up the honey or syrup depending on what you like, the same goes for additional fruit and seeds (or nuts if you like those – I’m funny about the food I like nuts to infiltrate). Use what you like best. I always found this a great way to use up any leftover packets of random ingredients. If you have some nuts or odds and sods of dried fruit just whack them in. You can add desiccated coconut, flaked almonds - whatever. Up the oats and reduce the fruit if you want something more flap jack like and less granola bar. The oats are the base for you to customise – just make sure the mixture remains damp. 

Ingredients

250g butter

100g sugar (I use dark or light brown but use what you have)

100g golden syrup

100g honey

300g oats

100g seeds (I had pumpkin, sesame and sunflower but whatever you like. You could use nuts instead)

100g raisins or sultanas

200g other dried fruit (I used cranberries and blueberries but apricots, apple, whatever) 

1.    Preheat oven to 180°C/GM 4 and line a large tin with baking paper. I use a big roasting tin.

2.    Put the butter, sugar, syrup and honey in a saucepan. Heat gently until it's all melted and mixed together.

3.    Chuck all the other ingredients in and mix well.

4.    Turn out into the tin, even out and cook for 20 to 25 minutes (be careful as the fruit can burn on top).

5.    Cool and cut into pieces.

Blueberry and Ricotta Cake

Ode to an Air Conditioning Unit 

Tucked away

Out of the way

Hidden

The machine waits for use

 

Autumns cool

Winters cold rule

Spring

Summer but no heat wave 

 

Heat begins

Summer then wins

Hot

Time to get the machine 

 

Movement; light

Moved in plain sight

On

Working and whirring away 

 

Heat banished

Sauna vanished

Sleep

The machine performs well 

Ingredients

220g plain flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

135g butter, softened

250g caster sugar

300g ricotta

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g blueberries 

1.    Preheat the oven to 180°C/GM4 and line a loaf tin. I have those pre-made up ones from Lakeland and they are such a time saver.

2.    Mix the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt together. Leave to one side as you don’t need it for a while.

3.    Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then mix the ricotta in. (In this weather softening butter is so quick as you just leave it out for 30 minutes. This means you spend less time make the cake as it gets fluffy really quickly).

4.    Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well, then add the vanilla. Scrap down the sides as you go so everything gets mixed in.

5.    Add the dry ingredients about a third at a time, mixing until just combined, and then fold in the blueberries.

6.    Put in the lined tin and bake for 1 hr to 1 hr 10 mins, turning the oven down to 170°C/GM3 after 30 mins. Check it’s cooked with a skewer and if it’s clean take out and cool.  

N.B. This does make a generous amount of batter and it doesn’t rise that much. I used my 9” x 5” loaf tin and it basically goes almost to the top. If you have a smaller tin then you could always put some of the batter into cupcake cases and put in for the first 30 minutes or so.

Rhubarb and Custard Tart

I won the lottery! Four numbers between four of us. Not quite the big time but heading in the right direction. My good friend Rachel has been managing our little syndicate for years now and every now and again some money will enter my account when we have a bit of cash to pay out. I have to do nothing, as my direct debit for my lines goes over automatically, so it make the small amounts feel like a little treat. Normally I do nothing about it but this time I thought I should get something with the money as I fancied treating myself. But what to get? Most of the shops a short distance from my work sell electronics or home ware. Therefore home ware was going to be the theme.  

This happily coincided with my thinking about what to bake this week. I bought some rhubarb last week but wasn’t feeling the whole rhubarbness so made caramel cupcakes. However it’s still in my fridge and pretty much begging me to do something with it. I love rhubarb and there were always a few plants at the end of the garden while growing up so it was used liberally. I don’t think it’s used enough as its slight tartness is welcome, even if you have to slather it in sugar to make it palatable. Surely that’s a plus? So I thought ‘rhubarb’, then I thought ‘custard’, but I don’t want a crumble – what about a tart?!!! 

So below is the culmination of my thought process, matched with winning the lottery and deciding to treat myself to a loose bottomed flan tin. My case split, and half the custard drained out while baking, but it rocked. I used a 25cm tin but you could use one slightly smaller, although I had custart left. It’s a really simple recipe and I’d say that you could use the custard as a base for any fruit tart that you like. Soft fruit would work well and I wouldn’t bother with roasting first. 

Ingredients

400g rhubarb

100g caster sugar

A vanilla pod if you have it but I chucked in some extract

350g short crust pastry (I used the ready roll but it just broke apart. I think the readymade block would be better and just roll it out yourself or buy a readymade tart case!)

75g soft butter

150g caster sugar

300ml double cream

3 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

1.    Preheat the oven to GM5/190°C.

2.    Chop up the rhubarb into chunks. About 3 - 4cm long and if it’s chunky cut in half lengthways. Cover with the caster sugar, drizzle on the vanilla extract, cover with foil and put in the oven for 15 minutes until soft. (Mine went completely mushy but it worked). Then leave it covered until you need it.

3.    If baking your case then roll out the pastry and line a buttered flan tin with it. Ideally loose bottomed but if you don’t mind prising the first bit out in a messy way then any tart style tin will do. Blind bake (so a large piece of baking paper down, cover with a load of lentils chucked on top to stop the pastry rising. Some people have specialist baking beads but screw that – lentils do) for 15 minutes then lift the baking paper out, with the lentils, and bake for about 7 minutes until the case is hard and starting to colour.

4.    If not baking your case, and you’ve bought one, then skip step 3 and feel smug.

5.    Turn the oven down to GM3/160°C. Put the soft butter (make sure it’s really soft), sugar, cream, eggs and vanilla in a bowl and whisk together. Custard done! See so simple.

6.     Drain the rhubarb, keeping the liquid as you could serve with some of this and cream. Fill half the case with custard, dot the fruit around, then fill the case with the rest of the custard. If you feel like it save some fruit to lay on top to look impressive. I didn’t do this!

7.    Bake for 35 minutes with a baking tray on the bottom of the oven to catch any stray custard.

8.    Fully cool before serving. 

N.B. You will have some pastry and possibly some custard left. So cut out rounds of the pastry, line a cup cake tin with them, adding the custard. Bake for 15 minutes and cool.

Chelsea Buns or Why I Can't be Bothered

Oh I can’t be bothered. It’s been that kind of week really. Everything has been an effort and a pain. I think part of it was that I was sort of ill for a few days. Nothing bad enough for me to stay in bed and watch my box set of Mad Men but enough to make everything a chore. I’ve also pulled something in my leg and am having to actively try and fix it in time for my 10km run on Saturday (tomorrow). What feels like hours of rolling on a roller and tennis ball haven’t helped my general feelings of botheredness.  

However the weekend is upon me and I’m very much looking forward to it (apart from the 10km run). I’ll be making cake pops for my wondrous and beautiful Goddaughter’s 7^th birthday and then, pampering her and some of her friends alongside her Godmother of Fabulousness (she has two the lucky thing!) There are going to be four of us acting as beauticians and it’s going to be lots of fun.

So in the general theme of this week I can’t be bothered to write up the recipe for these Chelsea Buns. I wasn’t 100% happy and it all seems like too much of a chore. I’m going trashy next week which I think will be more exciting.

Work Trifle

Not really baking but exciting none the less. A company came to present to us at work and left us a Swiss roll (it had some vital symbolic importance to the meeting which was lost on me as I wasn’t in it). I casually mentioned that you could make trifle with it and the plan went from there. All you need for trifle is the basic ingredients, hot water and a fridge so you can make it at work!

It’s not the best trifle in the world but with a bit of practise I think making trifle at work could seriously kick off.

Ingredients

Swiss roll
Jelly – we did two layers but you don’t need to
Fruit – if you have it. My work is nice and we get it for free.
Custard – ready made of course
Whipped cream – from a can
Flake

1.    Cut the Swiss roll up and put a layer of it in the bottom of your container. See what you have around the office to use. Chuck some fruit on top.

2.    Make the jelly as per instructions and pour jelly over the Swiss roll (and fruit). Let it set. I think that strawberry is best for this layer as it works well with cake.

3.    Now we added another layer of jelly at this point but you don’t have to. If I do it again like this I’d put the fruit in this layer. If you do pour on top, making sure the mixture if fairly cold so it doesn’t melt the first layer, and let set.

4.    Put custard on the top and let it set a bit (we didn’t as we wanted to eat it but probably worth it).

5.    Decorate with squirty cream and flake.

Bread and Butter Pudding with Hot Cross Buns

I've never made bread and butter pudding but thought that an Easter twist on it would be a nice dessert when The Thew’s family came around on Easter Sunday. I would recommend buying the hot cross buns as you want ones that are fairly robust to absorb the custard.
 
Ingredients
8 hot cross buns
Butter
450ml double cream
450ml full fat milk
4 egg yolks
1 full egg
Nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp caster sugar
Sultanas
Zest of an orange
Demerara sugar to top

1.    Preheat the oven to 160°C/GM 3.

2.    Slice the buns in half and spread with butter. Then arrange them in a dish slightly overlapping.

3.    Sprinkle with some sultanas and orange zest. I didn't weigh the sultanas as it was just a scattering to boost the fruit content.

4.    To make the custard heat the cream and milk together in a pan to just below boiling point.

5.    While that is going on whisk the egg yolks and egg together with the caster sugar. Then add the vanilla extract and a grating of nutmeg.

6.    Once the milk is hot pour into the egg mixture while constantly whisking. It will be a thin custard so don't panic that it’s not thick. Then pour the custard over the buns and leave for 20 minutes or so to soak in.

7.    Sprinkle Demerara sugar over the top and pop into the oven for 45 minutes.

8.    Serve with more custard!

Hot Cross Buns

Sometimes making an effort is worth it. Sometimes it’s not. A specific example would be taking time over making your fringe look nice just before going outside into gale force winds. Not worth it. Training in the gym for weeks so you can keep some dignity during a brutal 10km course (that actually was 11.2km) is. Well kind of. It’s all a matter of balance and what is important to you.

 

Baking falls into this. It’s one of those things where the end product takes longer to make than to be consumed. I’m basically a feeder (I blame my Irish heritage and the compulsion this gives me to force food on people) so I don’t mind that everything disappears. In fact I’d panic if it didn’t! An interesting take on this time to make vs. time to consume was in ‘Rant’ by Chuck Palahnuik (well worth a read but prepared to have to read it about three times and then go on forums to work out what the hell just happened). The main characters mother is annoyed by how quickly her food is demolished without full appreciation of the taste, so she starts putting thumb taks, balls of tin foil and cherry pips in her food. People learn to chew carefully, take their time and ultimate appreciate the taste more. Now it’s not something I’m going to start doing but it makes you think about how all the traditions around those cakes that have a ‘prize’ baked in for the ‘lucky’ person who finds it in their piece got started.

 

Baking is full of tradition and the ones surrounding hot cross buns are huge. Take one on a ship to stop a shipwreck and hang one in your kitchen to stop fires. There are lots more but you can go on Wikipedia for that, let’s get on to the recipe. These are great and so light compared to the ones in the supermarket. I’m going to be honest though. They can feel like a lot of effort because of the crosses. Don’t ask me why but that extra step feels like forever to me. I think it’s because I don’t like piping bags so I use short crust pastry instead. However over the years I have found it to be less stressful and messy and the end result is pretty much the same – a cross on top of a bun! So these are more effort than picking them up on your weekly shop but the lightly spiced soft buns make up for it as far as I’m concerned.

Ingredients

Buns

250ml milk

75g butter

100g caster sugar

2 x 7g sachets fast acting yeast

2 large eggs

450g strong white flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

2 tsp mixed spice

Pinch of salt

150g mixed dried fruit

1 egg, beaten (in addition to the ones above)

Short crust

200g plain flour

100g butter

Pinch salt

1 egg

1.    Put the butter and milk in a saucepan and gently heat. You just want it warm so don't boil. I haven't put these down as ingredients but you can chuck a couple if cardamom pods and a clove in to infuse in the milk mix. I'm not certain it makes a difference but you feel fairly smug. Try some orange peel as well.

2.    Take out anything you added to the milk mixture and measure out 60ml. Add a 1 tbsp of caster sugar and the yeast to it, then just to one side.

3.    Add the flour, rest of the sugar, spices and salt to a bowl and mix well. Make a well in the middle.

4.    Beat the 2 large eggs into the left over milk mixture then mix in the yeast mixture. Add most of it into the flour mix. Now this is where you get your dough hooks out. (You can knead by hand but I really can’t ever be bothered). Mix for about a minute. It is a damp-ish dough but don't over add on the liquid.

5.    Add the dried fruit and knead with your dough hooks for about 5 minutes. You want the dough shiny and pulling away from the side of the bowl.

6.    Cover with cling film double size in a warm place (I can’t tell you the joy I had when I saw our flat for the first time and saw it had an airing cupboard).

7.    Then make the short crust or look up a recipe for the flour paste version. Flour, salt and butter in a food processor until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add most of the egg, pulse, add more egg if it needs it but you want it to just come together. Put in the fridge for about 15 minutes and then roll out thin and cut out strips. Done! (You’ll only need about a 1/3 of this so save the rest for making jam tarts or just freeze until you need).

8.    Take your doubled in size dough and knead for 2 minutes. Then divide into buns about 45g in weight (I do weigh them but I’m weird). Put them on an oiled baking tray leaving space between them and wash with beaten egg, placing a short crust pastry cross on top.

9.    Leave to rise somewhere warm for about an hour and pre-heat the oven to 190°C/GM5.

10.  Once they’ve risen again put in the oven. After 5 minutes turn the heat to 180°C/GM4 for another 10. I find that these like to burn quickly so just watch them. Then let them cool and eat with butter.

Sultana Scones

When I decided to make these I realised I have no go to recipe for scones. I looked online but none seemed to be right as they all used self-raising flour so I went back to basics. My mum bought me a massive recipe book when I went to university. One of those 1,000 recipes ones but there is nothing I’ve ever looked for in there that I haven’t found. It didn’t fail me this time either so with a few tweaks here is the recipe.

So the main thing with scones is that you want a ridge around the middle which means that they rip in half ready to be slathered with jam and cream. These went down well but then anything that I tend to give my work colleagues tends to disappear fairly quickly. I think that the combination of thick dough and a fairly small cutter gives the best scones as you get great height but not a huge scone that makes you feel full just by looking at it! Plus they look like something you’d get at a posh afternoon tea.

Ingredients
450g plain flour
2 tbsp baking powder (yes tablespoon – you want the suckers to rise)
100g butter cubed
100g sultanas
4 tbsp caster sugar
2 large eggs (keep a little to one side to brush on top of the dough)
150ml milk

1.    Preheat oven to 220°/GM7.

2.    Mix the flour and baking powder and rub in the butter. Use tip of fingers – you know you’re doing it right if the palms of your hands stay clean. (I’m sure you could bung it in a food processor). You want it to go breakcrumby.

3.    Add the sultanas and sugar missing in.

4.    Make a well in the centre and add the eggs beating together in the well. You could beat them in a bowl but that’s just more washing up. Add about half the milk and then mix together. Start with a palette knife and then get your hands in. Add more milk if the dough needs it. You’ll probably not need it all.

5.    When it’s all come together turn out on a floured surface and knead until smooth. This is an important part so make sure you do it for 2 or 3 minutes.

6.    Roll the dough out until it’s about 2.5cm thick. Cut out with a 5cm cutter, rerolling when you run out of space. You should get 20-28 scones from it.

7.    Place on a baking tray – non-stick is best – but if not grease the tray. Brush the tops with eggs and cook for about 10 minutes (give it another couple if you think they need it). Make sure you scoff one down while hot and then think about serving the rest to other people.

This has to be dedicated to Jess who bought clotted cream for the ones I brought to work.

 

Florentines

Never go to the gym before baking! Seriously. If you do arm exercises before whisking the crap out of something it’s going to hurt. It’s a long boring story but I now go to the same gym as my husband. The Thew is very serious about keeping fit and has a few fairly intense challenges to complete this year so I’m in supportive wife mode; joining him for some training runs and now going to the gym with him. He seems to like the company and is actually very good at being motivating as long as he thinks you’re working hard. Anyway this Monday morning there were some medicine ball lifts and my arms now hurt – a lot.

To be honest I didn’t really think about the work involved in making the Florentines I had decided to try out this week. It's only baking after all. I’d asked around my office what I should make and someone mentioned them. I remembered that someone else who had missed out on my mega baking last week liked them so it made sense to give them a go. Florentines are one of those things that I'm surprised that I like. Candied peel and glace cherries aren’t general the ingredients in these days of cupcakes that do it for people but when you bake them in a caramel type sauce ... well it’s just a thing of beauty.

If you’re going to make these – and I do recommend it, even after the pain – then maybe prepare some of the ingredients beforehand. There is some chopping which is fairly boring. I did mine the night before watching ‘Man vs Food’. Also the sauce needs to be smooth which is where the whisking comes in – quite a bit in my case! I'm not sure an electric one would work, you just need to whisk the heck out of it with a balloon whisk. If I’m honest I think this is one of those recipes you’ve got to make a few times but the bonus is that I think regardless of how it goes you’ll enjoy what you end up with. Sadly The Thew wasn’t in supportive husband mode as he declared they looked like little puddles of cat sick when they came out of the oven. He did amend that later once they were finished but quite frankly the damage was done as far as I was concerned!

Ingredients

100g blanched almonds, chopped into a variety of sizes (I’m going to try this with flaked almonds next time)
100g chopped candied peel (you could find whole stuff and chop it yourself but I have no idea where you would buy it in the normal world)
40g glace cherries, chopped
25g butter
90g caster sugar
15g plain flour
150ml double cream
Melted chocolate – white, milk and/or dark (about 200 - 225g in total)

1.    Preheat the oven to 190°/GM5. Find a non-stick baking tray. I’d tell you to grease a regular one but who has time? Just use a non-stick and it will be fine.

2.    Put the butter and sugar into a saucepan and melt them. It will be a fairly robust melt that foams and stays fairly solid when mixed (or maybe I did it wrong!) Add the flour and mix like a white sauce. It made a sandy sort of mixture but I think it’s meant to go into a ball. I don’t think it matters much but I will be trying these again as you don't want the sugar/butter to burn but you need to leave it on long enough to melt.

3.    Take off the heat and add the cream whisking to make a smooth sauce. This is where the mega whisking comes in. As the cream hits the hot mixture it cools it and it goes lumpy. Just chuck back on a low heat and whisk like crazy. Or be less impatient and put a little cream in at a time so it doesn't make it cold quickly.

4.    Once smooth put the fruit and almonds in and mix together. See not that bad really!

5.    Then put heaped teaspoon fulls on the tray leaving a healthy gap as these suckers spread. Flatten them out a little bit. Bake for 9-11 minutes – it depends on your oven but you want the edges to go golden brown.

6.    Take out and leave to cool for about 5 minutes before taking off the tray and cooling completely.

7.    Now melt whatever chocolate you want. Once melted use a pastry brush to add layers of chocolate to the flat side until it’s nice and thick. I put them in the fridge in between layers as I’m impatient. Some would finish the chocolate with a squiggly pattern but my hands were so covered in chocolate I just gave up.

This makes 25 - 30. When I try these again I'll refine the recipe if I learn anything new.