Lay the table » Puddings

Tea and biscuits ice cream

Becs — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:52:10 +0000

Tea, one of the best things to come out of Britain. A cup of tea is a remedy for almost anything – a bad day at work, splitting up with a boyfriend, being poorly. I’m also a big fan of elevenses, a sneaky biscuit (or three), dunking it in my tea and savouring the flavour.

When I saw Mowielicious’ magazine I finally got hold of his cornflake condensed milk ice cream recipe I’d be dying to try. It was absolutely divine, and the thing that I really enjoyed most was the malty flavour that had infused into the milk. I started thinking about malted milk biscuits…mmm malted milks. Tasty, apart from the 3 second dunking rule. Any longer than that and it ends up at the bottom of the cup and you inevitably forget about it and end up with grainy biscuit crumbs in your mouth as you drink the last dregs of tea. I wanted the malted milk softness and taste after it’s been dipped in tea, not as biscuity bites in the icecream. Could this be done? What the hell, I was up for an experiment anyway.

My first batch was a total disaster. Luckily I’d bought myself a double pack of malted milks! In the first batch, I warmed the milk, added the tea bags and the biscuits (a whole pack) straight away. It ended up as bit malty mess and the tea bags barely brewed the tea. I tried to strain it sans success and then ended up slopping it all over the kitchen floor. Clean up, wipe down, try again.

Luckily this time it worked! I left the tea bags in the warmed milk and just put 5 biscuits in once the tea had brewed and I strained it without problems. I love the flavour – you get a little tea aftertaste mixed with malty biscuit flavours. Of course, you could bits of malted milk if you wanted crunch, just leave it to freeze for 2 hours and then add crumbled biscuit. I of course used Yorkshire’s finest brew, Yorkshire Tea but you can use whatever brand of teabag you prefer!

This recipe is adapted from Mowielicious’ Cornflake ice recipe.

Ingredients

5 malted milk biscuits
4 tea bags
500ml milk
100ml condensed milk
300ml double cream
½tsp nutmeg

Instructions

Warm the milk in the pan but don’t boil, add the nutmeg and teabags and brew for 6 minutes (we want it to be almost stewed to give it the flavour). Then remove the tea bags.
Take the pan off the heat. Break the biscuits into a few pieces and add to the milk. Stir well until they’ve dissolved. Leave for 15 mins.
Strain through a muslin in a sieve into a bowl. Stir mixutre occasionally until nearly all the milk mixture has gone through. Leave the mixture to cool.
Mix the condensed milk and cream with the malty tea milk mixture until well mixed.
Place the mixture into your icecream maker and follow your icecream maker’s instructions (I put mine in for 30 minutes). Box and freezer for at least 4 hours. Stir after 2 hours.

Steamed syrup sponge pudding

Becs — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:27:24 +0000

On a Sunday, I love nothing better than a roast beef supper followed by an indulgent slice of steamed syrup sponge pudding topped with custard. A great British favourite that’s simple to make but tastes divine.

For this recipe you will need a steamer. Use the biggest basket and make sure it is deep enough to hold your pudding bowl.

1hr 45mins – Prep time: 15mins – Cooking time: 1 ½hrs

{Serves: 6}

Ingredients

4oz caster sugar
4oz margarine, room temperature
4oz self raising flour, sieved
2 large eggs, room temperature
6 tbsp golden syrup
1tsp vanilla essence
1/2tsp baking powder

You’ll also need…

A glass bowl, about 16cm diameter
A steamer
Parchment paper
String

Instructions

Lightly grease the glass bowl with some oil or butter. Then add the golden syrup to the bowl.
In a mixing bowl, whisk sugar, eggs and vanilla essence until frothy and light.
Bit by bit, add the flour, baking powder and margarine into the batter, until smooth and creamy.
Scoop the batter gently into the glass bowl.
Take a piece of parchment paper and create a pleat in the middle of it (this allows for air expansion when the pudding cooks). Place over the top of the bowl. Then add a layer of foil over the top of the parchment.
Take the string, and wrap it around the top of the bowl, tying the foil and parchment to the bowl. Trim any excess off with scissors.
Place in the steamer and cook for 1½ hours. Take care when removing it!
Cut off string and remove parchment and foil. Place a plate on top of the bowl, then invert. The pudding will slide out easily.
Serve with custard, or ice cream, or both!

Christmas pudding fruit cake

Becs — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:31:04 +0000

These little fruit cakes are great to share and look gorgeous. It was so much fun to make these and the smells from the kitchen really warmed the house with rich spicy scent of Christmas.

Tools

I used these Kitchen Craft mini pudding bowls to make my puddings, which makes about 8 from the mixture. I also used a small holly cutter, like the smallest one from these Holly Shaped Cookie Cutters to cut the leaves. You’ll also need a large round pastry cutter, sharp pair of small scissors and a cake tester.

1hr 50mins (45 mins unattended) + prep night before (20 mins) – Prep time: 30mins – Cooking time: 1hr

Ingredients

25oz mixed fruit
11oz Plain Flour
8oz Butter
8oz Dark Brown Sugar
3oz Ground Almonds
3oz Glace Cherries – halved or quartered
2oz Candied peel, diced finely
3 Large Eggs
1 Lemon – juice & rind
1 Orange – juice & Rind
10tbsp favourite alcohol, I used amareto but you can use more traditional rum or brandy
1 tbsp Black Treacle (warmed – stand tin in basin of v.hot water)
1tbsp apricot jam
3/4 tspn Mixed spice
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate Of soda
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 tsp Glycerine
1/2 pack marzipan
Good pinch of Salt
A little bit of flowerpaste or roll out icing
Red and green food colouring

Instructions

Oven temp: 140°C/275°F/Gas Mark 1

Soak fruit, candied peel and cherries in lemon & orange rind and juice in a large bowl. Add 3 tbsp alcohol, then cover and leave, preferably OVERNIGHT.
Roll out the flowerpaste and split in two. Make one half green, roll out and cut out small holly leaves (two per pudding). Make the other half red and make holly berries (two per pudding). Leave to harden, preferably overnight.
Grease the tins and line the bottoms with greaseproof paper.
Sieve flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk eggs.
Cream butter, sugar, treacle then add vanilla essence and glycerine, gradually add eggs with a little flour to stop curdling.
Fold in remaining flour, then ground almonds, add fruit and mix thoroughly.
Turn into prepared tins and smooth tops with wet knuckles.
Bake on the lower middle shelf for 45 mins – 1 hr. Keep testing with a testing spike should come out clean.
Remove from oven and leave to cool in tin. Then turn out and remove greaseproof paper. I pricked the tops with a toothpick and poured 1tbsp alcohol onto each cake.
Roll out 3mm thick piece of marzipan and cut out circles using the pastry cutter.
Using the scissors, cut a wobbly edge to create drips. Using the rolling pin, roll out the marzipan topping to spread the drips out more, then stick on by brushing apricot jam onto the marzipan and positioning on top of the pudding.
Take the hardened holly and gently poke one end into the centre of the pudding top, and stick the holly berries around their bases using a little more apricot jam.

Apple Daim bar cheesecake

Becs — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:07:21 +0000

This was inspired by Creative Review’s tweet about Bailey’s cheesecake which is an adaptation of a Nigella Lawson recipe. I liked the idea of using Daim bar in the base, but I quite fancied cheesecake with apple as I’d never tried it. In fact, this is the first cheesecake I’ve ever made!

3hr 30mins – Prep time: 30mins – Cooking time: 1hr – Cooling time: 2hrs

{Serves: 3-4}

Ingredients

Cheesecake base

125g Oat biscuits (I used Hob Nobs)
125g Digestive biscuits
80g butter
3 Daim bars
1/2tsp cinammon
pinch of salt

Cheesecake mixture

500g mascarpone cheese
100g soft cream cheese
3 eggs
125g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1tsp vanilla essence)

Apple mixture

4tsp light brown sugar
1tbsp butter
1 bramley apple, peeled and sliced into 1cm pieces
1tsp cinammon

Instructions

Oven temp: 160°C /320°F

Make the apple mixture. Melt the butter on a low heat in the saucepan and add the apple. Mix together and allow to cook for 1 minute before adding 2tsp light brown sugar.
Cover and allow to cook gently for 3-4 minutes when the apples will go soft. Stir in the cinnamon and remaining sugar. Leave to cool.
Make the cheesecake base. Take the Daim bars, put in a plastic bag and beat with a rolling pin until the Daim bars are in rough pieces.
Then add the biscuits to the bag and beat again until everything is in fine crumbs but not dust.
Melt the butter and combine with the biscuit crumbs in a medium size mixing bowl.
Add the cinnamon and salt and mix well.
In a 23cm springform pan, press the biscuit mixture down evenly in the bottom of the pan. Place in the fridge to chill.
Make the cheesecake mixture. In a large mixing bowl mix add the mascarpone cheese and soft cream cheese. Add each egg one at a time whisking until the mixture is smooth. Then whisk in the vanilla and caster sugar.
Add about half of the apple mixture to the cheesecake mixture and fold in.
Remove cheesecake base from the fridge and pour mixture on top.
By hand, gently add the remaining apple on top, then push into the mixture with a spoon
Place in the oven for about 50-60 mins or until the top is just browning.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2 hours. Store in the fridge. Serve with a dusting of cinnamon.

Pineapple Meringue

Becs — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:01:37 +0000

This is a recipe that’s been handed down from my grandma, I’ve adapted it a little bit and used individual ramekins but you can also use a larger dish and serve it as one dish.

1hr 40mins – Prep time: 20 mins – Cooking time: 1hr – 1 1/2hrs

{Serves: 3-4}

Ingredients

Sauce

1oz plain unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
2 tsp caster sugar
1 small tin of pineapple rings (roughly 140g)
1/2 pint milk
2 dessert spoon plain flour

Meringue

4oz caster sugar
2 egg whites

Instructions

Oven temp: 120°C /250°F

Seperate pineapple rings from juice. Save juice for later. Chop up pineapple into small slices.
Heat milk until warm, but not boiling
In a seperate pan, melt the butter on a low heat. Mix flour in slowly whisking out any lumps. Cook for a further minute or so until the mixture goes like bread crumbs when whisked to make a roux.
Add the juice to the milk and stir. The total liquid should be 1/2 pint. If there’s not enough, add more milk.
Stir milk/pineapple juice mixture slowly into the roux whisking to prevent lumps. Stir in sugar and egg yolk.
Heat for a further 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens. Stir in pineapple slices.
Divide mixture between 3 or 4 ramekins.
Whisk egg whites and sugar together until stiff peaks form.
Divide meringue between dishes and smooth out with a spoon.
Put ramekins on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 1-1 1/2 hours until meringue is hard on top and has gently browned on top.
Serve with vanilla ice-cream if desired.