Butter

Ever wonder why butter is yellow in Ireland?
Many years ago I went to San Francisco to see a friend of mine.  One of the things that surprised me was the colour of Butter, it was white -it never occurred to me that butter would come in different shades.  I have since come to understand that the white butter is made from the cream of corn fed cattle.  Due to the climate in Ireland we have plenty of Omega 3 and Beta Carotene rich grass on which the cattle feed. Beta-Carotene is the good stuff that gives carrots, pumpkins and sweet potatoes their colour and is what gives butter its yellowish tinge.

• Butter - Made by churning cream with salt added for flavour. 
• Unsalted Butter - As above but without the salt
• Spreadable Butter - A little oil is added to make it easier to spread
• Ghee / Clarified Butter -This is butter that has been heated and the impurities and salt taken out.  Unlike regular butter it does not burn.  It is often used in Indian cookery.
• Dairy Spreads - Not suitable for baking
• Margarine

Sugar Paste Smoother

It may look like something from a hardware store but this is for smoothing out bumps and lumps in sugarcraft.
This one is from This ones from Kitchen Complements just off Grafton Street in Dublin

How to apply Almond Paste

This is my technique for applying the almond paste.  It may not be elegant but it is quick and effective.  The trick is to get enough icing sugar on the board so that it is not completely stuck (in which case it would tear, but will only move from the board on your encouragement).
You will need:

• A quantity of Almond Paste
• A sugar paste smoother 
• A rolling pin
• A pastry Brush
• Apricot Jam/ Marmalade 
• Icing Sugar (just enough for rolling out the almond paste)
• Wooden chopping board the size of the top of the cake.

Method

1. Dust your work surface with Icing sugar and roll out to 1cm thickness. 
2. Warm 2 tbsp of apricot jam or marmalade in the microwave and brush the top with it.
3. Place the board just above the cake so that it is centered and the top is completely covered and dislodge it from the board with a large knife.  (You shouldn't need to scrape it off it should fall off and directly onto the cake with just a little encouragement)  If that isn't the case then add a little icing to the paste and roll it out again.
4. Trim the top as you would a pie.  Brush the sides with the apricot marmalade.  Roll out the sides in manageable sections.  Apply to the sides of the cake.  Where you have a join in the sides overlap the two pieces and cut straight through the overlapped pieces and discard (or eat!) the trimmings so that you have two perfectly matching pieces.
5. Firmly rub the cake all over with the sugarpaste smoother to make sure that it sticks to the cake and that the Almond paste is one smooth solid coating.

Almond Paste

What is almond paste? Almond paste is the layer between the Icing and the Christmas Cake.  It provides a smooth even surface to ice a cake on.  I have to similes and you can pick one that makes most sense to you: 1. Its like lining paper when you're wallpapering or 2. Its like applying Smashbox Photo finish before you apply foundation.  I hate almond extract so I leave it out but it's really up to you.  This can be baked in the oven on the fruit cake without ever having to ice the cake just brush with a little egg white first.


450g Ground Almonds
450g Caster Sugar
3 Tbsp Whiskey
2 small Eggs
A few drops of Almond extract.

Method

1. Mix dry ingredients then make a hole in the middle and add the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.
2. Roll out with Icing Sugar
3. Apply to cake

Milk Chocolate Fleur de Sel Caramel Cake

Bacon and Maple syrup go well together so it made sense to me that salted caramels would taste pretty good and Cocoa Atalier in Drury Street proved that for me.  I was browsing the web looking for a recipe for making Fleur de Sel Caramels that didn't involve Karo (which is almost impossible to source in Dublin unless you order it online and have it shipped in), when I found this recipe.   You can use fleur de Sel or Maldon Sea Salt Flakes in this recipe.  The cake rose a bit funny but I trimmed it down and used the trimming and leftover frosting to make cake pops.  The cake itself is nothing shy of decadent with large quantities of butter and double cream and it lends itself well to celebrations but it also has quite an adult taste and it's very rich.  Also it takes a while to make so start with the frosting get that made before you even attempt the cake.

Frosting:
275g Sugar
500ml Double Cream
.5 tsp Fleur de Sel
450g Milk Chocolate
250g Dark Chocolate
250g Unsalted Butter

Cake:

200g Flour
75g Cocoa
1.5tsp baking soda
.5tsp Fleur de Sel
200g Butter
250g soft brown Sugar
100g Sugar
4 Eggs
75g Dark Chocolate Melted and Cooled
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
350ml Buttermilk

Method:

1. Frosting:  Over a medium-low heat, in a heavy bottomed saucepan mix stir sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves then remove your wooden spoon from the pot and leave on the heat to caramelise.  As soon as it does remove from the heat and add the double cream, add salt.  Pour mix over broken chocolate and stir until smooth.  Chill in the fridge for an hour.  Remove from the fridge and using an electric whisk beat in the butter.  Refridgerate for a further hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 170C grease and line two sandwich tins
3. Sieve flour baking soda cocoa and fleur de sel together. 
4. Cream Butter and Sugar together. Add Eggs one at time mixing thoroughly between each egg.  Add Vanilla & Melted chocolate and mix thoroughly.   
5. Add a third of the flour mix, half the buttermilk, another third of the flour mix, another half of the buttermilk and the final third of the flour mix, stirring well with each addition.  Divide the mixture between the two sandwich tins and bake for 25 mins.  Leave to cool for 10mins in the tin before turning out onto a cooling rack.
6. Sandwich together using frosting and smooth the remainder of the frosting over the top and sides of the cake.  Sprinkle with fleur de sel so people get a hint of what's inside.

Fleur de Sel Salted Caramel Cookie

If you like the taste of caramel you will love these!  They really set your taste buds exploding.  Essentially you make caramel and then mix the rest of the ingredients in to form a cookie.  I made an extra batch of the caramel at the end and drizzled the cookies with it and then drizzled them with chocolate before finally sprinkling with a little fleur de sel at the end.  Fleur de Sel can be replaced by Sea Salt.  I would suggest that you bake these so that they retain their chewyness otherwise they can be a bit on the hard side.

Caramel:
200g Sugar
3 tbsp Water (or just barely enough to help dissolve the sugar)
4 Tbsp Double Cream


Cookie:
275g Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Fleur de Sel
225g Butter
100g Sugar
1 Egg
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Method

1. In a stand mixer cream butter and sugar together. 
2. Caramel:  Over a medium-low heat, in a heavy bottomed saucepan mix stir sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves then remove your wooden spoon from the pot and leave on the heat to caramelise.  As soon as it does remove from the heat and add a spoonful of the butter and sugar mix and the double cream.
3. Beat the egg and vanilla well into the butter and sugar mix.
4. Pour the Caramel into the butter-sugar-egg mix slowly mixing thoroughly as you pour.
5. In another bowl sift Flour Baking Soda and Fleur de Sel.  Add a spoonful mix well and then add the balance to the wet ingredients.
6. Allow to cool and roll to salami width.  Wrap in cling film and chill for 1 hour in the fridge.
7. Preheat oven to 170C
8. Cut into half cm slices bake for 8-10mins.  Allow to cool (beware of sugar burns)
9. Decorate by drizzling with chocolate caramel and a sprinkling of fleur de sel.

Biscuits / Cookies - Whats the difference?

Nowadays the words Biscuits and Cookies are fairly interchangeable and you will tend to use one or the other depending on what side of the Atlantic you're from.

From my understanding Biscuits were originally a means of using up leftover bread dough (therefore they would often be yeast based) sugar and fruit was then added where available and thus the biscuit was born.  Biscuits as we know them today are usually crisp baked goods of a variety of shapes and sizes.  You can even find savoury biscuits ideal for serving with cheese or soup.  Biscuits found in the Southern States of American are much closer to a plain scone.

Cookies came by way of the Dutch (from the word Kuchen) and were originally soft baked (a very popular choice to this day).

Sugars & Syrups

Sugars

White/Granulated Sugar - White sugar made from sugar cane or sugar beets.  If a recipe in this blog looks for sugar this is the sugar it is referring to unless it states otherwise.

Caster Sugar - A finer ground granulated sugar

Soft Brown Sugar - Fine slightly sticky unrefined sugar with molasses (3.5%)

Muscavado  Sugar - Dark and sticky unrefined sugar with a strong molasses flavour (6.5%) also know as Barbados Sugar

Demerara Sugar - Natural Brown Sugar the crystal are light brown in colour and quite large.  Also know as Turbinado Sugar

Icing Sugar - White Sugar ground down to a powder

Maple Sugar - Sap of a maple tree is reduced down gently until it reaches a crystalline state

Cinnamon Sugar - Equal quantities of cinnamon and demerara sugar

Vanilla Sugar - Vanilla sugar is a scented sugar that can be used anywhere instead of vanilla essence or extract and sugar. It makes a nice present for a foodie friend.  In mainland Europe where a recipe calls for a sachet of vanilla sugar they are referring to an 8g Sachet of Vanilla Sugar which can be replaced with 1tsp of Vanilla Extract and a tsp of caster sugar.

Syrups

Honey - A natural syrup made by Bees which has differing flavours according to age, location and the flowers from which the nectar was gathered to make the honey. 

Maple Syrup - A reduction of the sap of a maple tree which is graded according to when in the season it is tapped

Golden Syrup - A byproduct of the sugar refining process.

Corn Syrup - A sweet syrup derived from corn freely available in the states and a pain to buy in Ireland.  Available in Light and Dark (added molasses and caramel colour) forms.  It's used to prevent crystallisation of sugar

Sugar Syrup - 11/4 Sugar +1/3 syrup as an alternative to Corn Syrup

Salt

Chemically speaking salt as we know it is NaCl (Sodium Chloride) added to which are anti-caking ingredients to stop the salt clumping together.  If you wonder does it make that much difference in terms of baking I would suggest that you make two batches of cake batter one with salted and the other with unsalted butter see for yourself.  Baking with unsalted butter allows you to control the amount of salt.

Sea Salt - Made from evaporated seawater, available as a fine ground or Salt Flakes (Maldon)

Kosher Salt - Large Crystals, the salt itself is not Kosher but it is used to make meat Kosher.

Fleur de Sel - A mild salt made from salt marshes in France it literally means the flower of salt.

Table Salt

Smoked Salt - Salt that has been smoked with a view to adding a smokey flavour to food.

According to the progressivebaker.com 

More than adding flavor, salt begins to affect your baked goods from the moment it's

added to the dough.

Here are some things you should know about what salt does in your baked goods.

• Salt slows down all the chemical reactions that are happening in the dough, including calming fermentation activity to a steadier level.
• Salt also makes the dough a little stronger and tighter.
• Salt impacts the shelf life of baked goods, but its effects depend on weather conditions. Salt is hydroscopic, which means it absorbs water. Consequently, in humid climates, it will trap moisture from the air, making a crisp crust soggy, and therefore shortening shelf life. In dry climates, however, the salt helps hold water in the bread longer, inhibiting staling, and thus extending the bread's shelf life.
• Salt, of course, adds flavor to baked goods. It also potentiates the flavor of other ingredients, including butter and flour.
• Salt comes in several forms, including fine, course, sea salt and Kosher salt. All provide the same effect. In fact, in blind taste tests, people were not able to distinguish a difference in the bread's taste based on the type of salt used.

Cake Pops

Mouthfuls of cake and frosting on sticks dipped in chocolate and covered with sprinkles really easy to make but there is a knack to it.  These are perfect for kids parties and celebrations where people would rather not be seen to over indulge.

Cake
Frosting (either shop bought or homemade)
Sprinkles
Chocolate

Other things you will need:
Lollipop sticks (I used bamboo skewer,s hacksawed them at a length I was happy with and sanded the tip)
A container deep enough that you can dip the cake pops in and completely immerse them without having to swirl them around Mugs or glasses are good.
Styrofoam or oasis (used for flower arranging) covered in aluminium foil.


Method

1. In a bowl break up a cake with your hands until it forms crumbs.
2. Add a couple of tablespoons of frosting and stir up the mix until it forms a dough (you'd be surprised how little frosting it takes
3. Chill the mix in the fridge for 30mins
4. Take a tablespoon of the mix and roll into a ball about the size of a walnut.  
5. Melt two pieces of chocolate in a microwave (30 seconds then stir and repeat until chocolate is fully melted) in a saucer or small bowl.  Dip 1cm of the lollipop stick in the melted chocolate and then insert it into the ball place on a plate and repeat until all cake/frosting mix is used.  Chill for 30 mins
6. Melt the rest of the chocolate using the microwave method.  Dip the cake pop directly into the chocolate so that it is completely covered. Do not swirl the cake pop because you run the risk of loosing it.  Pick up the cake pop out of the chocolate and let the excess run off.  Turn the pop until the final chocolately dribbles stop running.
7. While the chocolate is still wet shake on sprinkles (I've used chocolate vermicelli, chocolate flakes and small white chocolate chips in the pic above).
8. Place in styrofoam or oasis to dry.

Brandy Butter / Whiskey Butter

This is essentially alcoholic butter icing served with Christmas Pudding or Mince Pies.

Butter
Icing Sugar
Brandy / Whiskey / Whisky

Beat Icing into butter until the butter will take no more icing sugar the add a generous jigger of alcohol and beat again.  Chill in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

How to grease and flour a tin

1. Using a piece of greaseproof paper, kitchen roll or indeed a butter wrapper rub a piece of butter or margarine around the inside of a cake tin ensuring that get into all the corners.
2. Add a teaspoon of flour to the tin and rotate the tin until all the greased parts now have a little layer of flour.

Baked Apples

I used to think that the seeds in apples when they were baked became soft and wrinkly and juicy - it turns out that was just the sultanas.  Sinfully easy dessert to make.   But you'll need an apple corer. Choose a filling from the options below or just bake them as they are drizzled with honey, maple syrup or golden syrup.  I've chosen Bramley apples because they soften in the process but  I do like my apples quite tart so be warned.

1 Bramley Apple per person

Filling options:

• Fill with Mincemeat
• 1tsp of Chopped Nuts (Pecans, Walnuts, Almonds), 1tsp of Sultanas, 1tsp of soft brown sugar, 1tsp butter (per apple)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175C.
2. Wash and core apples and place in a greased oven proof dish.
3. Fill core of apple and bake for 30 mins.
4. Serve warm with Custard, Cream or Ice-Cream

Apple Corer

This is a metal tube with a serrated end that you plunge into the middle of an apple to take out the core.  It has no other purpose.  The only time that I have found it a necessary piece of kit is in making baked apples, because you can usually quite easily remove the core with a paring knife.

Mince pies

In this recipe I use a jar of Mincemeat in a simple shortcrust pastry base.  Shop bought pastry is fine but nothing beats the homemade stuff.  This is something really simple that can be done with kids or let them do on their own.  You will need Bun tin, Cookie Cutters - either two circular cutters one larger than the other for the top and bottom of the tart, or a circle for the bottom and a star shape for the top.  If you are using a circular top make sure to leave a slit or hole to let the steam out.


Shortcrust pastry 
Milk or egg for glazing
Icing Sugar
Mincemeat


Method

1. Preheat the Oven to 170C, Grease the tin
2. Cut the Top and the bottom of each pie to make sure you have the same amount of tops and bottoms (I have mis-counted before)
3. Place the bases in the tin.  Fill each with 1 generous tsp of mincemeat and cover with the top. 
4. Brush with milk or egg
5. Bake in the oven for 10-15mins until golden brown. 
6. Sprinkle with Icing Sugar and serve warm or cold with brandy/whiskey butter, cream or custard.

What is Suet?

Suet is a hard white fat used for; Christmas pudding, certain pastries and mincemeat.  It is found around the kidneys and other offal of beef, pork or lamb.  It has a much higher melting point than other fats which lends certain properties in terms of cooking or baking that cannot be replicated by butter or lard.  There is a brand of Suet called Atora that also provides a vegetarian alternative.