August 2014 - Orange & Ginger Jellies

I actually made these last weekend but didn't get around to finishing them off until tonight. I'm not really that fussed about them. I think they could have used a bit more gelatine. The sugar really didn't last long on them. They were too wet. I used blood oranges. The ginger was a bit strong. 

Urgh, I just didn't really like them. 

Orange & Ginger Jellies

250 ml Orange juice

125 ml Lemon juice

1 tbsp finely grated ginger

1/3 c (75g) caster sugar + extra to dust

4 gold-strength gelatine leaves

Oil base 10 x 18 tray. 

Bring orange & lemon juices, sugar & ginger to a boil over medium-low heat. Simmer for 5 min or until sugar dissolved. 

Soak gelatine in cold water until soft. Squeeze out and whisk into hot juice until dissolved. 

Pour in tin, chill until set. 

Cut into squares, roll in caster sugar.

Cake Decorating

I don't think I will be able to catch up on posts with all the different cakes, so one post with all of them up to now.

I wish I could have found a more rounded glass for the top.

This was supposed to be sprayed with lustre spray, well it was but it splattered out instead of a fine mist. No one else knew it wasn't supposed to be like that. I was annoyed though.

This was a decorated fruit cake that was ordered.

Maple Pecan Bundt Cake

I am designated supper maker for our Toastmasters meetings. I have made a variety of different sweets and taken a few savoury things along. I wasn't sure what to make for the meeting before last. I went through all of my magazines but nothing grabbed me so I turned to my cook books. It really is terrible, I have so many cook books but don't seem to use them any more. It is about time that I started cooking. I don't think I had ever made anything from Kitchen by Nigella. I found this wonderful looking cake. I got so many compliments for it. In fact I was told that it was the best thing I had ever made for them. I also got two orders for the cake, so it must have been good. 

I was going to wait until I made it again and was able to cut it and show the inside but I really don't have any idea on when that is going to happen so here it is now. You will just have to make it to see what the inside is like, and it is definitely worth it. 

Maple Pecan Bundt Cake

from Nigella Kitchen

Ingredients
Pecan filling

75g plain flour
30g soft unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150g pecans (or walnuts), roughly chopped
125ml maple syrup


Cake

300g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
125g soft unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
250ml crème fraîche or sour cream
1–2 teaspoons icing sugar, for decoration
Flavourless oil, for greasing
1 x 23cm bundt tin


Directions

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Using flavourless oil (or a squirt of cooking spray) grease your bundt tin, and leave upside down on newspaper for the excess oil to drain out.

Make the filling for the cake by mixing together the 75g flour and 30g butter with a fork, till you end up with the sort of mixture you’d expect when making crumble topping. Then, still using the fork, mix in the cinnamon, chopped pecans (or walnuts) and maple syrup, to form a sticky, bumpy paste. Set aside for a moment.

For the cake, measure the 300g flour, the baking powder and bicarb into a bowl.

Now, cream the butter and sugar (i.e. beat well together until light in texture and pale in colour), then beat in 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture, then 1 egg, then another tablespoonful of flour mixture followed by the second egg.

Add the rest of the flour mixture beating as you go, and then finally the crème fraîche or sour cream. You should expect to end up with a fairly firm cake batter.

Spoon just more than half the cake batter into the oiled bundt tin. Spread the mixture up the sides a little and around the funnel of the tin to create a rim. You don’t want the sticky filling to leak out to the sides of the tin.

Dollop the maple filling carefully into the dent in the cake batter, then cover the filling with the remaining batter. Smooth the top and put the tin into the oven for 40 minutes, though it’s best to check with a cake tester after 30 minutes.

Once cooked, and the cake tester comes out clean where it hits the sponge (obviously, any gooey filling will stick to the tester), let the cake cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes in its tin, then loosen the edges with a small spatula, including around the middle funnel bit, and turn the cake out onto the rack.

When the cake is cold, dust with icing sugar by pushing a teaspoonful or so through a tea strainer.

Feast - Heather Honey Chicken

It has been a long, long time since I have been compelled to blog about a recipe immediately after having finished it but I just had to tonight.

I don't often buy Feast magazine anymore. I find that so many of the recipes have stuff in them that I just cannot access. I was looking through the magazines last night when I was shopping and flicked through this issue. I noticed a few things that I would like to make and have access to all the ingredients. This is the first of those recipes.

So this dish was amazing. There is so much flavour and the meat just melted. I would use a bit less oil next time, and there will be a next time. I just loved this. The name refers to honey from heather flowers. They said in the magazine that it has a very limited availability here and to substitute manuka honey. Well, I didn't have that but I had recently bought 1 kg of local honey so, of course, used that. I think a leatherwood honey would been good. I didn't have any dijon mustard either. I had two choices a hot mustard or wholegrain. I went with the wholegrain. Although maybe a mix of the two would have been better. Oh it doesn't really matter, it was wonderful just the way it was.

Heather Honey chicken

Feast magazine - September 2014 - page 60

1.7 kg whole chicken

2 onions, cut into wedges

6 sprigs rosemary (apparently my plant is dead, I used dried)

100 ml olive oil

90 g (1/4c) manuka honey

1 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp curry powder

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Preheat oven - 180 C

Put onion & rosemary in casserole dish with a lid. Add half the oil.

Mix remaining oil, honey, mustard, curry powder & garlic. Place chicken in casserole dish & pour over honey mix.

Roast, covered, 30 minutes. Remove lid & bake further 1 hour or until cooked basting as necessary.

Let rest 10 minutes before serving.