Saturday, May 23, 2015

On The Move

The "This is not my home" kitchen is on the move.

Hopefully normal service will be restored shortly, but currently the fridge is blocking the back door and the washing machine won't fit under the counter...

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Cinnamon (Maple) Pecan Twists - Home Sweet Home Bake Along (26/100)


Not really a recipe - more, as a former housemate used to say, "co-ordinated packet opening." (That was her approach to dinner parties, which is a pretty clever one, really)



Maple always goes well with pecans, so I added about a 1/4 teaspoon of maple flavour (I bought it in the USA when I was last over there, I'm not sure you can get it over here, sorry) to the pecan mixture.


500g of puff pastry does make a *lot* of twists - I used 3 trays, and was still squeezing them onto the trays. Next time I would probably make less pastry, but maybe a little more of the pecan mixture.


Like cheese straws, but sweet, these are flaky and crispy, and quite nice, and were a nice altenative to "real" baking. I'm not really sure why they needed to spend 10-15 minutes in the freezer, but they dutifully did. They still unravelled in the oven!



Ingredients
500g puff pastry
40g pecan nuts, finely chopped
50g soft light brown sugar (I had run out, I used dark brown, I liked it)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
(1/4 tsp maple flavouring)
1 large egg

#HomeSweetHomeBakeAlong



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Monday, May 04, 2015

Chocolate Hazelnut Buns - Home Sweet Home Bake Along (25/100)


Now these were rather good! Sticky, sweet and indulgent - perfect bank holiday tea food.


These nicely rounded off a barbeque and part 3 of The Hobbit (the only part I have ever seen) with The Fair Physiologist, The Pure Mathematician in Exile, Little Boy Red and The Aerospace Godfather.


I can neither confirm nor deny that they also served as the starter.


This is one I will be aiming to bake again. So far I have come to the conclusion that many of the recipes in this book very easily fit into two categories, "bake again" and "don't bother"!


For an extra chocolate-hazelnut kick, I substituted half of the butter in the filling with chocolate-hazelnut spread (Nutella) - yum!


These are best eaten fresh and warm on the day they are baked, but if there are leftovers (haha) a quick 15-20 seconds in the microwave (per bun) the next day, is almost as good.


A word of warning: If you eat these in front of a 10 month old who is not allowed anything so sweet and sticky, he will pull the most pitiful looks and repeatedly point at your plate, giving you the worst guilt trip ever. Just saying.



Ingredients: 
Dough: 
300ml lukewarm whole milk
25g caster sugar
1+1/2 tsp dried active yeast (that's 1 tsp "quick" yeast or "fast-action")
500g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
85g unsalted butter, cubed
Filling: 
50g unsalted butter, softened (I substituted 25g of butter for 25g of Nutella)
100g caster sugar
100g finely chopped hazelnuts (I just whizzed whole nuts in a coffee grinder until I had something resembling chopped nuts)
25g cocoa powder
1 large egg, beaten (for glazing before the oven - I didn't bother, the buns are hidden under so much sugary glaze that this didn't seem necessary, but if you weren't making the sugary glaze, might be worth it)
Glaze: (optional)
50g unsalted butter, softened
300g icing sugar, sifted
125g full-fat cream cheese


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