Basic

Sticky Toffee Pudding Tray Bake

Autumn is just around the corner, so why not prepare by making yourself a tray of this sticky toffee pudding tray bake?

This is the perfect recipe to make when you have a little extra time, not loads just enough to make dinner and cake, y’know? It’s a quick tray bake cake, packed with dates and sultanas, then topped with a pecan caramel sauce. You can enjoy this fresh from the oven or the day after, reheated. Either way, it’ll taste good!

The addition of pecans isn’t all that traditional or important but I like the taste and texture they add, so feel free to skip these if you don’t like or can’t have nuts.

Without any further ado, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Sticky Toffee Pudding:

150g Sultanas.

300g Stoned dates, chopped small.

2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda.

50g Butter.

400g Light brown sugar.

4 Eggs.

400g Self raising flour.

Caramel Sauce:

50g Butter.

350ml Double cream.

400g Light brown sugar.

50-100g Pecans.

Method:

Before you get started on any element of the recipe, it’s best to do some prep work first. Start by preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, line your 9×13 baking tray, boil the kettle and weigh up your ingredients.

Start by working on the sticky toffee pudding, place the chopped stoned dates, sultanas and bicarbonate of soda into a small/medium bowl, then pour enough boiling water in to cover the contents of the bowl (You place the fruit and bicarbonate into the water to help soften the skin, making it not so chewy and easier to digest, so it’s an important step. Don’t skip it).

Place the butter and light brown sugar into a mixing bowl and beat until they are combined. They won’t be light and fluffy; the ratios aren’t correct for this to work.

Once combined, add your eggs one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. You will notice that the consistency of the cake batter becomes much more liquid like, this is completely normal.

Next, it’s time to add the flour, but first you’ll want to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, this is to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully worked in.

Now you can add the flour, passing through a sieve first. Mix in on medium-high speed.

Drain the water out of the fruit and then add the fruit into the mixture and fold/mix it in until its well distributed.

You can then take your cake batter and add it all to the prepared 9×13 cake tray, levelling it out using a small cranked/offset palette knife. Then place into your preheated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean when inserted).

Once the cake has around 5-10 minutes baking remaining, it’s the perfect time to make the caramel sauce. To start on the sauce, you’ll want to get a small-medium saucepan and place in the butter, double cream, light brown sugar and pecans. Place it on the hob over a medium-high heat. Stirring occasionally until everything is melted and started to combine, then you can start stirring continuously until you have a smooth (and nutty sauce).

Once the cake is out the oven, pour over the hot caramel sauce. Spreading it out as best you can using a silicon spatula, you can enjoy this now while it’s warm or enjoy the following day either cold or reheated.

That’s all for this week guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back next week with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below!

How To Make Traditional Bread Pudding

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

I know this may not be for everybody but today I’ll be showing you how to make traditional bread pudding.

My traditional bread pudding contains light brown sugar, eggs, ground mixed spice and ground cinnamon alongside an abundance of dried fruit (currants, raisins, sultanas, mixed peel and glace cherries). This is one of the things whenever I make it, it doesn’t last very long.

You don’t need an awful lot of ingredients and if you have some day old (or stale) bread, you’re ready. Using day old/stale bread allows it to absorb more of the milk, which only makes this taste better- it’s moist.

I got 12 very generous portions from my 9×13 tin, but if you cut it differently, you may get more or less pieces from the bake, depending how you slice it. If you’re using a 9×13 inch tin, make sure its deep sided, otherwise it’s a waste of time.

If you like bread pudding, this recipe might be for you. I know that depending on where you are from in the UK, your take on bread pudding may vary. I’m from Birmingham and traditionally its quite light but mines a little darker from the spices and sugar I use.

Now you’ve got your bowl ready, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

1kg Bread (day old/stale white bread), chopped.

1,200ml Whole milk.

400g Raisins

300g Currants.

300g Sultanas

100g Mixed peel.

100g Glace cherries.

2 tbsp Ground mixed spice.

4 Egg.

280g Light brown sugar (plus additional for sprinkling on top before baking).

Method:

Before you get into making the bread pudding, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by getting your oven preheated to 180˚c/350˚f, weighing up your ingredients and lining your 9×13 inch tray with some parchment/greaseproof.

To start on the actual bread pudding, place all the chopped bread into the largest mixing bowl you have, then add in the milk and combine the two using your hands. It may take about 5-7 minutes to get them well combined, once done it should be quite mushy and sloppy (I know, not the best words to use but it’s honestly what it’s like).

Once that has been achieved, you can then add in the raisins, currants, sultanas, mixed peel, glace cherries and ground mixed spice. Then mmix all of those ingredients in by hand, this doesn’t take too long but you want them to be equally distributed between in the mixture.

Add in all your eggs and light brown sugar, then mix it in again until they are fully worked in and you can’t see a trace of a single ingredient, if you do, continue mixing until you can’t.

Take your lined 9×13 inch cake tin and pour the bread pudding mixture into the tray and level it out so it bakes evenly.

Sprinkle over a small amount of light brown sugar, this is to add a crunchy top, so feel free to leave it out if you don’t want it.

Place into the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes, you will know once it’s done as the top will look perfectly crunchy and will be firm to the touch.

Allow to cool down completely before slicing up, its best enjoyed cold on its own. Well, that’s how I choose to enjoy it personally.

Coffee and Walnut Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’m showing you how to make a simple but classic coffee and walnut cake, this is always a winner when made. What are you waiting for?

I know it’s not officially the start of Autumn (unless you follow meteorological season) until later in the month but as soon as August end and September starts, it’s basically autumn… Don’t even come for me.

A coffee and walnut cake may not be the most seasonal cake, especially seeing as its made all year round by most but the colours that make up the cake are for me seasonal… I’ll be honest, this cake isn’t my favourite but I know others who enjoy it.

If you haven’t tried this cake before, I’ll tell you a little about it. It’s a sponge cake that is flavoured with coffee and has walnuts in it, filled and topped with coffee flavoured buttercream and an optional finish is to pipe rosettes on top and top them with some more walnuts.

Almost 3 years ago, I made this cake in cupcake form. I’ll link the coffee and walnut cupcake recipe, if you’re interest in it.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Coffee:

15g Instant coffee.

45ml Boiling water.

Cake:

175g Butter.

175g Plain flour.

3 Eggs.

2-3 tbsp coffee mixture.

75g Walnuts, chopped.

Buttercream:

200g Butter.

450g Icing sugar.

2-3 tbsp coffee mixture.

Methods:

Coffee:

To make the coffee mixture, you’ll want to add the instant coffee into a bowl and boil the kettle of water until its boiled.

Into the bowl with the instant coffee, add in the boiling water and give it a good mix until the coffee is fully dissolved in the water. Set aside until cool enough to use.

Cake:

To start on the cake batter, you’ll want to get yourself a mixing bowl and into it place the butter and sugar. Beat the two together on a medium-high speed until they are very well combined.

Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl, this is to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in earlier on.

Now you can start adding your eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Don’t add the eggs too quickly, otherwise you may scramble the mixture.

Next, you can add in the coffee mixture and mix it in just until its incorporated. If the mixture scrambles here, don’t worry too much, the dry ingredients will fix it.

Give the bowl a good scrape down, again this is just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in.

Add the dry ingredients into the bowl, passing them through a sieve first. Doing this removes any lumps in the dry mix and helps to create a lighter cake texture. Mix on a low-medium speed until the dry ingredients have been fully worked in.

Once the dry ingredients are fully incorporated, add in the chopped walnuts and mix until they are fully incorporated.

Split the cake batter between your 2 x 6-inch cake tins and level it out using a cranked/offset palette knife. You can then place the cake tins into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (or until a tester when inserted comes out clean).

Buttercream:

To make the buttercream it’s easy. Place your butter into a mixing bowl and beat it until its lighter and fluffier in both colour and consistency.

Then add half of your icing sugar and beat it well until its fully incorporated, repeat with the other half of the icing sugar. Add in the vanilla and give it a good mix until it’s fully incorporated.

At this point you can add your coffee mixture, roughly a tablespoon at a time, you will want to add the right amount so not only the flavour is there but the consistency doesn’t change too much. That’s why I recommend using 2-3 tablespoons, you can vary the amount.

Once you’ve made the buttercream, you can use it or store it in the fridge for a few days.

Assembly:

Take your cooled cakes out of the tins and set aside while you transfer the buttercream from the bowl into a piping bag. Using a piping bag is my personal preference, feel free to spread it out on the cake using a cranked/offset palette knife, whichever method works for you.

Take your first layer of cake and pipe or spread over a generous amount of the coffee buttercream, then layer the second layer of cake on top, pressing down slightly to secure it in place. Then on top of that, you can pipe or spread out the buttercream and add walnuts (oh and I added chocolate sprinkles purely for decoration but this is completely optional).

You can decorate this cake however you like, I just went with my typical look on the cake.

Blueberry Pie Recipe

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Summer may be coming to end, don’t fret, I have recipe which is perfect for the end of the season. Today I’ll be sharing with you how to make a blueberry pie!

This recipe can be made all year around, seeing as most supermarkets stock frozen blueberries in the frozen foods section but if blueberries are in season, use fresh or frozen either works well (the ones I used were bought fresh then frozen).

Earlier in the week I uploaded a video to YouTube and a blog post showing you how to make my pastry recipe, honestly, it’s the best one, it doesn’t require any strange ingredients or special equipment if you don’t have it. I’ll link it here. I recommend that you use my recipe but you can use your own if you want, I don’t control you.

When it comes to pies, personally, I like to have more pastry on top, I know that some people like it whereas others don’t. Instead of putting a pastry lid on this pie I decided to place some cut out stars on top of pie, so you have the element of pastry there but not fully, if that makes sense.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Pastry:

Here is how to make the pastry.

Blueberry Filling:

750g Blueberries (fresh or frozen, dust with plain flour).

100ml Water.

30g Plain flour.

A pinch of salt.

¼ tsp Ground cinnamon.

100g Granulated white sugar.

Method:

Before you get into the baking/pie making, you’ll want to do some prep. Start by making your pastry, weighing up the ingredients, preheating the oven to 180˚c/350˚f and preparing any equipment you may need to use.

To start on the blueberry pie filing, get yourself a medium sized saucepan and into it, place the water, flour, salt, ground cinnamon and sugar, then give it all a good mix until its well incorporated.

You can then add in the blueberries and mix them in the mixture until they are well coated, then transfer the saucepan onto the hob over a medium heat and cook the mixture until it’s a clear filling, you don’t want to see a trace of any ingredient, the mixture will have thickened (this is normal and what you’re looking for).

Allow that to cool while you sort the pastry out.

Take your pastry and roll it out until it’s just slightly bigger than the pie dish you are using (mine was 8 inch). Drape it over your tin, pressing the dough into the tin, just to fit the shape, trim away any excess from the edge.

Don’t forget to dock the bottom of your pastry, this is just to prevent the base rising while baking.

You can then fill the pastry case with the blueberry filling you made and allow to cool for a little while. It should be thicker as it cools, so you may or may not need to level it out with your wooden spoon or spatula. Set aside in the fridge for a bit while you make the topping.

For the cut outs of dough, take the remaining dough and roll it out to the same thickness as your pie crust and cut out as many as possible. Once you have them cut out, you can then start to place them on top of the pie filling. I started on the outside and worked my way in but feel free to start in the centre and work your way out, whichever way works best for you.

Egg wash the edge of the pastry and the cut outs in the middle of the pie, sprinkle some light brown sugar over the cut outs, just to add colour and texture.

Place in your preheated oven and bake for around 40 minutes but I recommended checking it at 35 minutes and checking every 5 minutes as it may need extra time. One thing to remember is that all ovens are different, so use the time as a rough guide.

Once it’s out of the oven, allow it to cool down fully before you try cutting it, otherwise it could get messy. Enjoy with a scoop of ice cream or with some whipped cream.

How To Make Shortcrust Pastry

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today, I’ll be showing you how to make a recipe staple – shortcrust pastry. If you want to make a sweet pie or tart, this is the recipe for you.

This is my recipe for shortcrust pastry, its’s quick and easy, what’s not to like?

If you have ever made a pie and followed a recipe, just for it to go wrong and it can really put you off making pastry again – believe me, I’ve been there. This is the must use recipe for all bakers to have in their recipe collection.

The key with pastry is to keep it cool, you really don’t it to warm up too much, this is where issues can start to occur. If like me you have warm hands, I recommend that you use a food processor, this will ensure that you don’t warm up the butter too much. Oh and one final tip is to ensure that once the pastry is made, wrap in cling film/plastic wrap.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

1 Egg (large is possible, medium will work)

90g Granulated white sugar.

225g Butter, cold.

375g Plain flour.

A pinch of salt.

Method:

Before you get into making the pastry, you’ll want to do some prep. Start by weighing up all your ingredients and getting any equipment you may intend on using.

To start on the pastry, get yourself a small bowl and place in the egg and sugar. Give them a very good mix, mostly until they are fully incorporated. You will know once you’ve achieved this as the mixture won’t be granular in any way, this may take a few minutes to achieve. Set aside once done.

Into your food processor place the plain flour, salt and butter, then pulse until all the ingredients have combined. You will know once the butter has been incorporated as the mixture will have a slightly yellow-ish tint to it.

Next, you can add the sugar/egg mixture that you made earlier. Once it’s all been added, you can then pulse it again until the sugar/egg micture is fully incorporated and a dough has started to form, you can them stop and continue kneading the dough on a floured surface.

The pastry should be smooth once done, you can then wrap it in cling film and place it in the fridge to chill for about an hour or overnight.

There’s not much else to say about this recipe, it’s really that simple. You only need a handful of ingredients and a little time then you have a pastry recipe that has never failed me before.

Black Forest Gateau (2019 Update)

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today, I’ll be showing you how to make a black forest gateau. This is a classic that will always go down a treat.

If you have ever visited my Instagram or watched my YouTube channel, you will know that this cake is something I make several times a year, in one shape or another.

This cake happens to be my mom’s favourite, so each year for her birthday, I’ll make one. Each year I’m trying to make it different to the last because who wants the same cake year after year? I know I don’t and I don’t like others to either.

You may remember that last year I made a black forest cakewhich was rectangular in it’s shape. That was the biggest difference I had made to the cake since I started to make them 6 years ago… Other black forest cakes I’ve made including black forest cake (2017 recipe), black forest cake (2018 recipe)and black forest cupcakes(check them out).

Anyway, I’m rambling now. Let’s get started, shall we?

Cake:

375g Butter.

375g Granulated white sugar.

5 Eggs.

325g Plain flour.

3 tsp Baking powder.

50g Cocoa powder.

Filling & Coating:

600ml Double cream.

100g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Cherry jam (I usually use homemade but this time I used M&S cherry jam).

Decoration:

300-350g Dark/milk chocolate, grated or curled.

Whipped cream (for the rosettes).

Maraschino/fresh cherries (whichever you like or is available).

Method:

Before you get started on the baking, you’ll want to do some prep work. Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weigh up your ingredients and prepare your tins if needed.

To start on the cake batter, place your butter and sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat them together until they are lighter and fluffier in consistency and colour.

Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl and start adding your egg. Add your eggs one at time, beating well in-between each addition. Make sure that when you’re adding your eggs, the mixture doesn’t scramble. If it does, don’t stress too much. Just add a small amount of your weighed out flour.

Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, this is to incorporate any bits from earlier on that may not have been fully worked in.

Place all your dry ingredients into a bowl and mix them together, then pass them through a sieve just to make sure there aren’t any lumps. I sieve my dry ingredients directly into the mixing bowl.

Mix the dry ingredients in over a low-medium speed. Make sure that they are fully incorporated then you can then turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl.

Transfer the cake batter into the prepared tins and spread it out as evenly as possible. I used a small cranked/offset spatula to get it as level and smooth as possible but use whichever utensil may work best for you.

Place the tins into your preheated oven and bake for around 30-35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. The time will depend on your oven, so the time may need to be adjusted.

Once fully baked, allow them to cool completely. Then you can level and trim them in whichever way the cakes may need.

Whip up a batch of the whipped cream, placing the double cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract into your mixing bowl and whip until it reaches a firm/stiff peak. Try not to over mix at this stage as it will ruin the cream.

It’s at this point you can simple syrup your cakes if you decide to do it. I chose to do it on this cake, to help keep it moist and fresh.

Take your board/plate/cake stand and spread a small amount of the whipped cream onto it and gently press a layer of the cake on top of it. Repeat this stage with the next layer of cake but for the final layer keep it plain.

Next, you’ll want to do a crumb coat using a small amount of the whipped cream. This is to lock in the crumbs that now won’t ruin your final coat of whipped cream. Once crumb coated, place in the fridge for 30-45 minutes until slightly firmed up.

Once it’s firmed slightly, apply a generous final coat, here is the perfect time to use a most of the whipped cream up (reserve a small amount for the rosettes).

Now that you crumb coat is done, you’ll want to coat the outside of the cake with the grated chocolate (use whatever you have or prefer). Make sure you use a good amount of the chocolate on the finishing. Once fully coated, place in the fridge for 30-45 minutes.

To finish the cake, you’ll want to pipe out rosettes on top, I piped rosettes all around the edge, alternating between some taller ones and some shorter ones. Top each of the rosettes with a maraschino cherry.

You may remember that earlier in the post, I mentioned about making the cake different each year. There is no difference now and to prevent food waste, I used up some choux buns that I had left over (click here for my standard profiterole recipe) and filled them with some of the whipped cream and cherry jam, then finished them with a drizzle of dark chocolate.

Place on top of the cake and refrigerate until needed. I promise this caeke will always go down a charm – make it for yourself and share with your friends and family!

White Chocolate Cookies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’ll be showing you how to make a batch of white chocolate cookies. A baking staple, made simple.

These cookies are great, especially seeing as they can be made and completed in under 60 minutes, because when you’re craving a cookie, you don’t want to wait ages for them. I’m just being honest…

I’ll be honest, when it comes to white chocolate, I can take it or leave it BUT in these cookies, it works super well! Adding vanilla extract to the dough really helps to flavour the dough and enhance the white chocolate.

As with all my recipes, before you get started, you’ll want to do some prep work. Get your ingredients measured/weighed up, prepare your tin (if you want to, I didn’t but you know your tin) and get any equipment you may need ready. Taking these few extra steps can lower the chance of making a mistake.

Let’s get started, shall we?

150g Butter.

150g Granulated sugar.

150g Light brown sugar.

2 Eggs.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

350g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

¼ tsp Salt.

100g White chocolate cho[s (for in the cookies).

Additional white chocolate chips (for the tops of the cookies).

Method:

Before you get into making the cookies, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up your ingredients, line your baking trays (if you do this, I occasionally do this) and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f. Get any equipment you need ready at this point also.

Into your mixing bowl of choice, add your butter, light brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix on a medium/high speed until they are well combined.

You can then add in your eggs one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. You can add in your vanilla extract at this stage as well, either in with the eggs or at the end, either way will work well, it just needs to be incorporated.

Next, you’ll want to add in the plain flour, baking powder and salt. Make sure that you pass them through a sieve first, to remove any lumps that may be in the dry mix.

Add in the white chocolate chips, then mix on a low/slow speed just until a dough has formed, try your best not to over-mix at this stage.

Give the bowl a quick scrape down just to incorporate any bits that didn’t get fully incorporated in on the first mix.

Take your cookie scoop and scoop two balls of dough for each cookie, roll them together and then place onto a baking tray, then squash down using your hand and round off using a large enough round cookie cutter to help them be more rounded and that will help them bake rounder.

Repeat the above step with the remainder of your cookie dough, until you have no dough remaining.

Bake the cookies off in your preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are a golden-brown colour. Be-aware that these cookies spread while baking.

Once out of the oven place additional chocolate chips on top of each cookie. Then allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooking rack to cool fully.

You can enjoy them while they are warm or allow them to cool down completely and enjoy with a glass of milk or a mug of tea/coffee.

Vanilla Sprinkle Cookies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’ll be showing you how to make a batch of my vanilla sprinkle cookies. They are quick and easy to make – what’s not to love?

This recipe is perfect if you’re in a rush and don’t have the time to be in the kitchen for over an hour or if you want to bake with your kids, this is the quickest (and tastiest option).

I have opted to flavour mine with vanilla, mostly because it’s a flavour enjoyed by most but it can be fully customised to suit you (or whoever else may be eating them) and the sprinkles were just standard rainbow sprinkles.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

150g Butter.

150g Granulated sugar.

150g Light brown sugar.

2 Eggs.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

350g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

¼ tsp Salt.

50g Rainbow sprinkles (for in the cookies).

Additional rainbow sprinkles for the top of the cookies (added before baking).

Method:

Before you get into making the cookies, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, line your baking trays (if you do this) and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f. Get any equipment you need ready at this point also.

Into your mixing bowl of choice, add your butter, light brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix on a medium/high speed until they are well combined.

Once they are all combined, give the bowl a scrape down to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in.

Next, you’ll want to add in the plain flour, baking powder and salt. Make sure that you pass them through a sieve first, to remove any lumps that may be in the dry mix. Add in the rainbow sprinkles, then mix on a low/slow speed just until a dough has formed, try your best not to over-mix at this stage.

Give the bowl a quick scrape down just to incorporate any bits that didn’t get fully incorporated in on the first mix.

Take your cookie scoop and scoop two balls of dough for each cookie. Dip the top of eat cookie dough ball into the rainbow sprinkles and place onto a baking tray, then squash down using your hand and round off using a large enough round cookie cutter to help them be more rounded and bake rounder.

Repeat the above step with the remainder of your cookie dough.

Bake the cookies off in your preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are a golden brown colour. Be-aware that these cookies spread while baking.

Once out of the oven, allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooking rack to cool fully.

Once cooled (or slightly warm), pour yourself a glass of milk and enjoy with the cookies.

Strawberry and Cream Profiteroles

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

The weather has finally started to pick up, so why not enjoy a batch of homemade strawberry and cream profiteroles?

This recipe and flavour combination will hit the spot, strawberry and cream is a match made in heaven combination, that’s for sure.

The base is a choux bun, many people get put off by making it from scratch as it’s pretty easy to go wrong but if you use my recipe, you’ll get the perfect choux every time (I promise)!

The strawberry jam used as a filling is homemade (a video will be coming soon on how to make a couple types of jam and other sauces/preserves) and the whipped cream is sweetened to make it taste even better.

As with all my recipes, before you get started, you’ll want to do some prep work. Get your ingredients measured/weighed up, prepare your baking tray (if you want to, I didn’t line mine with greaseproof paper but feel free to do with yours)and get any equipment you may need ready. Taking these few extra steps can lower the chance of making a mistake.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Choux Pastry:

300ml Water.

125g Butter.

150g Plain flour.

4 Eggs.

Pinch of salt

Filling & Topping:

500ml Double cream.

50g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

300g Strawberry jam (homemade or shop bought).

Large strawberries, halved (as many as you need).

Method:

Before you get into making the choux pastry, you’ll want to do some prep. Preheat your oven to 200˚c/390˚f, weigh/measure up your ingredients and prepare your baking trays (as well as any other equipment you’ll need) and get ready to start.

To make the choux pastry, place the water, butter and salt into a medium saucepan and place over a medium heat until its melted, stirring them together well.

Remove from the heat and add in the flour, mixing in the flour in until its full incorporated. Return to the heat and continuously stir it to cook the flour out. You’ll know once the flour is cooked out as the bottom of your pan will have a layer of the flour/pastry there, once you’ve achieved this, take it off the heat and transfer to a mixing bowl.

Mix the choux pastry on a high speed to cool it down. This takes a couple of minutes to achieve.

Once you can touch the bottom of you bowl, start to add your eggs. A little at a time until you reach a stage where the pastry takes between 3-5 seconds to fall from the beater – the amount of egg you need may depend, you may need more or less.

You will notice the pastry become looser as you add your eggs, this is normal, it should be a nice pipe-able consistency. Place the pastry into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain tip piping nozzle.

Place the pastry into a piping bag with a 1cm plain tip nozzle and pipe out small amounts on the prepared baking tray, you should be able to get about 15 onto a standard tray. Press down any peaks using your finger which has been dipped into some water, then egg wash each of the choux buns to get a perfect golden brown on top.

Place in the oven at 200˚c/390˚f and bake for 20 minutes, then open the oven door to remove the steam that’s built up, then place back in the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes then remove from the oven.

Allow the choux buns to cool for a few minutes on the baking tray before transferring to a cooling rack to cool down completely.

Once your choux buns are cooled, you can fill them with your whipped cream and strawberry jam then pipe an amount of whipped cream onto the top of each profiterole and once you have done that, top each of them with a strawberry halve. If possible, add the whipped cream and strawberry finishing before serving (purely for freshness).

Cherry Bakewell Blondies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

This weeks recipe is for cherry bakewell blondies. If you are unsure or don’t think you’ll like these, trust me. Add these to your list of things to do this weekend, they’ll go down a real treat.

This recipe has been one I’ve worked on for a while, who’d have thought that white chocolate would be so hard, huh? The one thing I did learn in college was about how temperamental white chocolate is. It isn’t really chocolate as it doesn’t contain cocoa solids but we are using it anyway.

The moral of the story, take extra care with white chocolate. It’s super temperamental.

Another thing to remember is, these aren’t brownies. The ratio of butter to sugar is completely different, so they will have different texture/mouthfeel. To be honest, these blondies are more on the cakey side, slightly dense but more cakey, for sure.

I’m using store bought cherry Bakewell’s as they are pretty readily available here in the UK but if you’re outside of the UK you may have a hard time getting these. Feel free to use the next best thing, something like individual frangipane tarts would work pretty well.

Let’s get started shall we?

Ingredients:

200g White chocolate (bars of chocolate if possible, not chocolate chips).

130g Butter.

160g Granulated sugar.

190g Plain flour.

½ tsp Salt.

3 Eggs.

2 tsp Vanilla extract.

60g Cherry jam.

Sliced almonds (as many or as few as you’d like).

Method:

Before you get into making the blondies, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, line your 8 inch square tin and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and get any equipment you intend on using.

Into a bowl, place your butter and white chocolate and melt them over a bain-marie, keep the heat at a medium and no higher (you can also use a microwave on 15 second burst, this isn’t the best method as it can get the chocolate too hot, which isn’t ideal), take extra effort not to get the mixture too hot.

Once the butter and chocolate are melted, add in your sugar straight away and whisk it in until fully incorporated.

Then you can add in your eggs, one at a time. Beating well in-between each addition, the mixture shouldn’t scramble (if this happens, start over).

Next you can add in the plain flour and salt, you’re best to incorporate them using a silicon spatula, this is what I find the best to work with. Once you can’t see a trace of the flour/salt, stop mixing, you don’t want to overmix the batter.

Finally, before you’re done, add in the vanilla and stir that in until fully incorporated.

Pour the blondie batter into your lined 8 inch square cake tin and level it out using your silicon spatula.

Get your cherry jam and add around 5 dollops and swirl it around the tin using a butter knife (you can add a few more dollops if you feel it needs it, I did).

Sprinkle over some sliced almonds, the amount depends on your preference, I went with a fair few but alter it to suit you.

Place into your preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, before removing from the oven to add in the cherry Bakewell’s (I used 5 which had been chopped into quarters), you may need to push them in towards the edge. Place it back in the oven and bake for a further 10-15 minutes or until a tester when inserted comes out clean.

Once baked and out of the oven, allow to cool fully before you try to cut them.

Now they are fully cooled, you can cut them into slices. From this I get 8 generous portions. From the one side, I cut it 4 equal times, then once down the centre, so I get 8 portions. You can cut them however you like, so you get more or less portions, it’s up to you.

Basic

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