Bill Granger's Butterscotch Madeleines

I've been meaning to make some madeleines (little French cakes) for ages. The reason I hadn't made them was because I was too mean to buy the tin! And madeleines are just not madeleines unless they're baked in a special tin with scallop-shaped indentations.

Well, last year I finally bought the tin in a French supermarket - I spotted it as I was perusing the bakeware shelves, yes I know, call me odd but one of my pleasures in France is a good old mooch along the aisles of Super U. It wasn't expensive, about  4 euros I think, so I duly brought it home and it sat in the garage, where I keep my overflow of baking tins, unused.
Recently I was sorting out a pile of  recipe notes when I came across Bill Granger's recipe for butterscotch madeleines. Bill Granger is a laid back Australian food writer, tv chef and restaurateur known for his fuss-free, but tasty, cooking. The madeleine recipe must have caught my eye at some time and I'd jotted it down on a scrappy bit of paper. One to try when I have the tin I thought. So no excuses now - I had the tin and I had the recipe too.
Madelines are quite simple and quick to make, but don't skint on greasing and flouring the tin for each batch - I thought I could get away with it for the second batch as the tin is non-stick. They were ok but had a much better finish and slipped out of the tin more easily if freshly buttered and floured each time. The buttersctoch flavour is quite delicate so I enhanced the finished sponges with an extra squidge of golden syrup for yummy stickiness. They were delicious - perfect for a light summery cake or dessert with fresh raspberries and cream - be warned though they are very moreish so make plenty.

Makes about 20
Takes about 40 mins


100g unsalted butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 large eggs
60g caster sugar
75g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

1 Preheat the oven to 170C, fan 150C, gas 3. Melt the butter in a small pan. Remove from the heat and stir in the golden syrup. Leave to cool.

2 Grease a madeleine tray with a little extra melted butter and dust with flour, shaking off the excess.

3 In a large mixing bowl whisk the eggs, sugar and a pinch of salt until pale and fluffy. (Use an electric mixer for this, the mixture needs to be thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk is lifted). Sift in the flour and baking powder, then pour in the cooled butter and syrup mixture. Gently fold everything together until just combined - be careful not to overwork the mixture.

4 Spoon the mixture into the prepared tray, filling each shell about two-thirds full. Bake for 8-10 mins until lightly golden and springy to the touch. Remove the madeleines from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Best eaten within a day of making or can be frozen.

This recipe is from Bill's Basics by Bill Granger, published by Quadrille

Chorizo, Feta and Spinach Pie

I'm not a huge fan of silicone bakeware and kitchen utensils.
I bought a potato masher that just skidded over the surface of a pan of potatoes and took a huge amount of effort to make not-very-smooth mash. I replaced it with a metal one which glides through the potatoes like a knife through butter - much more efficient.
I then tried a silicone piping bag. It was quite large and I filled it with buttercream to pipe a big batch of cupcakes. The more I squeezed the bag the longer it seemed to stretch and hardly any icing came out of the nozzle - exhausting and had to transfer it all to a few disposable piping bags and it was much, much easier to pipe. A silicone spatula is about the only utensil I've found useful. I can't get to grips with silicone cake moulds either - just doesn't seem right to me and pastry is so much crisper when cooked in a tin.
So, for this tasty chorizo, feta and spinach pie, it's no surprise that I've resorted to my tried and trusted metal flan tin. Filo pastry is often described a low-fat alternative to other pastries, but I have to say it tastes so much nicer and bakes much crisper and flakier when brushed with generous amounts of melted butter! If you've never used filo pastry before, keep it well covered with cling film or a damp tea towel to prevent it drying out and only remove one sheet at a time as you work with it. You won't need a whole pack for this pie but any leftovers can be well wrapped and frozen for up to 1 month.

Makes one 23cm diameter pie
Serves 5-6
Takes about 1 hour

250g chorizo cooking sausages
200g spinach, rinsed and large stalks removed
200g soft cheese (can be low-fat)
200g feta cheese, crumbled
3tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Freshly ground pepper
5 sheets filo pastry (approx 100g)
50g butter, melted
2tbsp pine nuts

1 Heat the oven to 200C, fan 180C, gas 6. Place the sausages in a baking tin and cook in the oven for 10-15 mins until browned and cooked through. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly.

2 While the sausages are cooking, place the spinach in a metal colander. Stand it in the sink and pour over a kettle full of boiling water until the spinach has wilted. Leave to drain and cool slightly
.
3 Place the soft cheese in a bowl with the feta, parsley and plenty of freshly ground pepper. There's no need to season with salt as the feta and sausages are quite salty. When the spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze it in your hands to remove as much moisture as possible. Place the spinach on a chopping board and roughly chop. Add to the bowl and stir well to mix.

4 Line a 23cm diameter loose-bottomed flan tin with one sheet of the filo pastry, allowing the excess to hang over the sides. Brush the pastry with melted butter then place another sheet of pastry on the top, laying it at a slightly different angle to the first one. Brush with melted butter and place a third sheet of pastry on the top. Spread the cheese and spinach over the pastry, cut the sausages into pieces and scatter over the top, pressing them slightly into the cheese mixture. Fold the overhanging pastry over the filling and brush with melted butter. Ruffle the remaining two sheets of pastry, place on top of the pie and brush with the remaining butter.

5 Place the flan tin on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 10 mins. Scatter the pine nuts over the top and bake for a further 5 mins until the pastry is crisp and golden and the pine nuts are toasted (I added the pine nuts at the beginning and they did get a bit dark which is why I've suggested adding them after 10 mins). Serve warm or cold.

Shortbread Hearts

There are certain must-buy items for me on any trip to Ikea - candles, serviettes, a toilet brush, coat hangers and a couple of wine glasses. And then while I'm there a plate of meatballs and chips in the cafe always goes down well too. But of course there are always impulse buys such as a set of three heart-shaped boxes which found their way into my trolley on my lastest visit! Why I bought them I don't really know but I thought they'd look lovely with some some heart-shaped biscuits for Valentine's day. Hence this reason for this recipe. It's very easy and if you've got flour, butter, sugar and an egg in your kitchen you can get baking straightaway and be eating them within the hour. Serve them for a romantic dessert with a dollop of creme fraiche, raspberries and passion fruit or for a biscuit decorate with a drizzle of melted white chocolate and a few silver ball cake decorations. Dr Oetker's new Soft Silver Pearls are much easier on the teeth than traditional ones but they do contain beef gelatine so no good for vegetarians.

Makes 8 x 9cm hearts and 15 x 5cm hearts
Takes about 1 hour

175g plain flour
100g butter
75g caster sugar
1 small egg

1 Place the flour in a bowl. Add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. If you prefer to use a food processor, pulse the flour and butter together to form crumbs.
2 Stir in the sugar and egg and mix to form a dough. In a food processor add the sugar and egg just pulse until the mixture forms a dough. Knead lightly on a floured surface until smooth, wrap in cling film and chill for 20 mins.
3 Heat the oven to 200C, fan 180C, gas 6. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Roll out half the dough at a time on a lightly floured surface to the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut out heart shapes using a cutter (I made two different sizes but you can make all the same size depending on the cutter you have), re-rolling the trimmings until all the mixture is used.
4 Bake for 8-12 mins, depending on size, until pale golden. Leave for a few mins until firm then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve with creme fraiche, raspberries and passion fruit with a dusting of icing sugar or drizzle with melted white chocolate and decorate with silver balls. The biscuits will keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container.

Very Easy Banana Muffins

A useful recipe to help with my mission to cut down on food wastage by using up those past-their-best bananas sitting in the fruit bowl that clearly no one is going to eat. In fact ripe bananas have a sweeter stronger flavour so are perfect for baking. Obviously this is not a recipe for hubby-who-hates bananas but the rest of us enjoyed them, especially warm from the oven when the tops of the muffins have a lovely crunch to them. Unlike other muffins, which are best eaten on the same day, the banana in this mixture helps to keep them moist for a good couple of days. For the lightest muffins don't over mix them, add the wet ingredients to the dry and just lightly mix together, it will still look a bit lumpy but that's fine. Then get them in to the muffin cases and into the oven asap. Very straightforward, very easy and very delicious.

Makes 11
Takes about 40 mins
75g butter
250g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
A good grating of nutmeg
115g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
125ml milk
1tsp vanilla extract
2 large bananas

1 Preheat the oven to 190C, Fan 170C, gas 5. Line 11 holes of a muffin tin with paper muffin cases. Melt the butter in a small pan or in the microwave then set aside to cool slightly.
2 Sift the flour into a bowl with the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the nutmeg and stir in the sugar.
3 In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, vanilla and melted butter. Mash the bananas with a fork or potato masher. Add to the flour and spices and pour in the egg mixture. Stir lightly until just mixed but still lumpy. Spoon into the muffin cases, filling them about two-thirds full, and bake for 20-25 mins until well risen and springy to the touch. They'll keep for 2 days or can be frozen.
For an easy banoffee pudding, peel off the paper cases and serve the muffins with warmed toffee sauce sauce (dulche de leche) and cream.

Apple, Blackberry and Coconut Tart

Where have the last few months gone? I had every intention of posting lovely festive tarts and pies in November and December and then got bogged down with work deadlines, three birthdays in the family, oh and that event called Christmas. So here we are in 2013 ready to start again.
This year I'm on a mission to reduce our family's food wastage, not that we do waste much actually, but we can always improve. So with that in mind this tart came about after a last minute call from friends to come over for dinner on New Year's day, and me offering to bring a pud. It was my challenge to create a dessert from ingredients I had in the house. Nigel Slater always finds something interesting in his fridge (always beautifully wrapped in brown paper) to create a delicious supper so I thought I'd give it a go too.
I had some ready-rolled puff pastry in the freezer, a few apples and half a jar of Tiptree blackberry jelly (bought on visit to the Tiptree Jam tearooms in Tiptree, Essex, earlier in the year). I wanted to add a frangipane layer (almond, egg and sugar mixture) but didn't have enough almonds so mixed in some coconut to make up the quantity. And the result was, as Nige would say, rather good! We enjoyed it with creme friache but a scoop of ice cream or lashings of custard would also go down well.

Serves 6
Takes 35-40 mins
50g butter, softened
50g golden caster sugar
1 egg
25g ground almonds
25g desiccated coconut
1tbsp plain flour
320g sheet ready-rolled puff pastry
3tbsp blackberry jelly
3 eating apples, such as Cox's, cored and sliced
2tbsp flaked almonds

1 Preheat the oven to 200C, Fan 180C, Gas 6. Beat together the butter and sugar until soft and creamy. Beat in the egg then stir in the ground almonds, coconut and flour.

2 Unroll the sheet of pastry onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Spread the blackberry jelly over the pastry allowing a 1cm border around the edges.

3 Place the almond mixture, in spoonfuls, over the jelly and spread out lightly. Arrange the apple slices over the almond mixture and sprinkle over the flaked almonds. Fold the pastry border over to make an edge.

4 Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins until the topping is golden, the apples are tender and the pastry is cooked. Cut into squares and serve warm or cold.