Recipe: Cranberry Glazed Ring Doughnuts

Words cannot describe how delicious these doughnuts are… every time I make them, they are devoured by the hungry hoards at home within minutes. The doughnuts themselves are light with a slightly chewy crumb and are surprisingly easy to make. All that is required is the weighing out of the ingredients, a little mixing and some kneading. The finished doughnuts can be coated in cinnamon sugar or if you fancy going all out – as I have done - you can glaze them.

With the festive season rapidly approaching, I decided to make a simple icing using seasonal fresh cranberries. The resulting colour is stunning and is achieved without ANY artificial colouring… it’s all completely down to the cranberries!

NOTE: Unlike a lot of recipes using yeast, plain flour rather than strong bread flour is used.

INGREDIENTS:

Doughnuts:

450g plain flour

30g caster sugar

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

½ tsp salt

75g butter cubed

15g fresh yeast (or 7g dried yeast)

225ml water

Vegetable oil for deep-frying

Cranberry Glaze:

150g fresh (or frozen cranberries)

25g caster sugar

100ml water

1tsp liquid glucose

250g – 300g icing sugar

Alternative: Cinnamon Sugar

50g caster sugar

1tsp ground cinnamon

METHOD:

Doughnuts:

1. Place the flour, caster sugar, lemon zest and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir everything with your hands to distribute evenly. Add the butter and rub into the flour using your fingertips. Crumble in the fresh yeast (or sprinkle in the fresh yeast) and mix everything with your hands again to distribute. Add the water and mix with your hands to form a soft dough.
2. Turn the dough out onto a clean work-surface and knead for ten minutes until the dough is smooth and springs back when lightly poked with your finger. Form into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and set aside to rise for about an hour or until doubled in size.
3. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knock back. Roll out until it is about 1cm thick. Using a 8-10cm plain pastry cutter, cut out rounds from the dough. Use a smaller cutter (about 2cms in diameter) to stamp out centres. Gather together any off-cuts and repeat until all the dough has been used up. Place onto a large baking tray lined with some non-stick baking parchment. Cover loosely with some lightly oiled cling film and set aside to rise again for approximately 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
4. Heat some vegetable oil in a deep-fat fryer. Once it has reached 170C, fry the doughnuts in batches for about 4 minutes, turning them over half-way through so that both sides are a deep golden brown colour and the doughnuts have puffed up.
5. Remove with a slotted spoon and allow to drain on some absorbent kitchen paper. Roll in Cinnamon Sugar or top with the Cranberry Glaze.

Cranberry Glaze:

1. Place the cranberries, caster sugar and water in a small saucepan over a moderate heat and bring up to simmering point. After a couple of minutes you will hear the cranberries popping and releasing their juices. Allow to cook for a further 3-4 minutes until the cranberries have broken down and a jammy consistency has been achieved.
2. Pass the cranberry mixture through a sieve into a clean mixing bowl and discard any solids that are collected in the sieve.
3. Mix in the liquid glucose followed by the icing sugar using a small whisk to create a smooth, but not too runny icing (NOTE: you may not need all the icing sugar).
4. Dip one side of each cooked and cooled doughnut into the glaze and set aside (glaze-side up) to set.

Cinnamon Sugar:

1. Mix the caster sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle into the bottom of a large flat bowl.
2. Toss the cooked doughnuts in the sugar immediately whilst still warm.

Makes 16 doughnuts (Glaze recipe makes enough to cover 16 doughnuts).



Recipe: Mincemeat Shortcake Bars

For me, Christmas is not Christmas without mince pies and from mid November onwards I jump at any excuse to make a batch or two. I love nothing more than sitting in front of a turf fire nibbling on mince pies and drinking hot tea. Whilst I love traditional mince pies, I’m always on the lookout for new recipes using mincemeat that evoke all the flavours of Christmas but are a little different.

I often make these shortcake bars and they always seem to go down a treat with unexpected visitors during the festive period. Because of the use of self-raising flour, the pastry has a softer texture when baked than that used in conventional mince pies but it makes a nice change and people really seem to like them.

 

INGREDIENTS:

Pastry:

240g self-raising flour

15g icing sugar

125g cold butter, cubed

1 large egg, lightly beaten

30ml cold water

1 jar (approximately 400g or so) mincemeat

2tbsp brandy

To finish:

2tbsp caster sugar

 

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to Fan Oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4.
2. Line a 30cm x 20cm traybake tin with non-stick baking parchment and set aside.

3. Place the flour and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and add the cubed butter. Rub the butter into the flour using the tips of your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre and add the egg and water. Mix everything together using a fork until it comes together.

4. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly and shape into a ball.

5. Divide the dough in half. Press one half of the dough into the bottom of the prepared tin flattening it out with your fingers or the back of a metal spoon to create a level surface.

6. Mix the mincemeat and brandy together in a small bowl and then spoon onto the pastry in the traybake tin, spreading it out evenly.

7. Roll the other half of the dough between two sheets of flour non-stick baking parchment paper into a rectangle the same size as the tin (i.e. 30cms x 20cms).

8. Remove the top sheet of parchment paper and lift the rolled out pastry on the other sheet of parchment, flip it over to cover the mincemeat filling. Tuck in the edges of the pastry making sure that the filling is covered.

9. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until light golden brown. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the caster sugar. Set aside to cool before cutting into 16 bars.

 

Makes 16 bars.

 

Recipe: Beetroot Cupcakes with Orange & Poppy Seed Icing

We are all so used to carrots being used in baking and whilst Carrot Cake is definitely one of my favourites, I wanted to try something a little different, so I decided to experiment a little by replacing beetroot in my standard Carrot Cupcakes recipe. I felt that a cream cheese icing would clash with the earthy sweet and very distinct flavour of the beetroot, so finished these cupcakes with a simple orange glacé icing and a sprinkling of poppy seeds.

The cupcake batter is quite a deep purple colour prior to baking but this mellows a bit in the heat of the oven. However the beetroot flavour remains wonderfully intense. These cupcakes are incredibly easy to make and a must for anyone who loves beetroot!

Beetroot Cupcakes ingredients

INGREDIENTS:

Cupcakes:

200g self-raising flour, sifted

175g light muscovado sugar

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp mixed spice

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

2 large eggs, lightly whisked

150ml sunflower oil

200g beetroots, peeled and grated

Icing:

150g icing sugar

Juice of ½ orange

1 tblsp poppy seeds

METHOD:

Prior to baking

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases.
2. Place the flour, sugar, spices, bicarbonate of soda and orange zest in a large mixing bowl and mix briefly with a wooden spoon to combine all the ingredients.
3. Add the lightly whisked eggs, sunflower oil and grated beetroot and mix together until thoroughly combined. Divide the mixture between the cases and bake for approximately 20 minutes until the cupcakes are well risen and a thin skewer inserted into the centre of one comes out clean.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes before transferring the cupcakes to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Icing:

1. Place the icing sugar in a small mixing bowl and add enough orange juice to create an icing with a fluid consistency, but don’t make it too runny. Drizzle some of the icing over each cupcake and scatter over some poppy seeds before the icing sets.

Makes 12 Cupcakes.

The finished Beetroot Cupcakes

 

Chocolate Chip Madeleines

Madeleines are classic French cakes which are incredibly easy to make, look beautiful in their simplicity and taste delicious. Made using a classic genoise mixture, these little sponge cakes have a light and airy texture and are perfect to nibble on with a cup of tea. In fact, they are not unlike the fairy cakes or ‘buns’ that many Irish children grew up eating at birthday parties and on special occasions – cupcakes are only a recent enough phenomenon in Ireland and one that we have borrowed from across the Atlantic. My grandmother who greatly influenced my love of cooking and baking would have considered cupcakes frivolous and completely over-the-top, but I think that she would have approved of the more restrained madeleines!

 

Although traditionally baked in a specialist madeleine tin with shell-shaped indentations, you can also bake them in muffin tins. Madeleine tins are widely available and relatively inexpensive to buy, so are worth getting so that you can enjoy these little cakes in their full glory.

 

Usually simply flavoured with just a hint of lemon or vanilla, the basic recipe is easily adapted to include other ingredients such a spices, nuts, dried fruit etc. Here I have added chocolate chips to the basic batter but feel free to leave these out and experiment using different ingredients.

 

I love the buttery taste of madeleines and in particular like to brown the butter to the beurre noisette stage as this gives the finished cakes taste a deeper, more buttery flavour. If you are worried that you might burn the butter when browning it, you can use just plain melted butter instead; the madeleines will still taste wonderful!

 

It is really important to prepare your tin properly by brushing each indentation with some melted butter before lightly dusting with some flour, shaking out any excess. There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to remove the cakes once baked! If you have prepared your tin correctly, you should be able to remove the madeleines all in one go by giving the tin a sharp tap. Secondly, make sure to allow the batter to rest in the fridge for at least two hours (or ideally overnight) before baking. This hardens up the melted butter and creates a stiffer batter which for some reason seems to produce a lighter result. I don’t know why this works, but it just does!

 

This recipe produces 24 large or 36 small madeleines, so you may need to cook the mixture in batches if you don’t own a number of tins. (Note: the batter will keep for a couple of days in the fridge).

 

Ingredients:

To prepare the madeleine tins/moulds:
A little melted butter

2tblsp plain flour

Madeleines:

120g butter

3 large eggs at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

130g caster sugar

175g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

75g chocolate chips (milk or dark chocolate)
 

Method:

To prepare:

1. Brush the madeleine moulds with melted butter and then dust with flour, tapping out any excess. Place in the fridge while you make the cake batter.

Madeleines:

2. Place the butter in a small saucepan over a moderate heat. Allow the butter to melt and start bubbling but make sure to keep a close eye on it as it can burn very quickly. The butter will start to turn a light golden brown and will begin to darken. Remove immediately it has turned a rich golden brown colour and has a ‘nutty’ aroma. Pour into a small bowl and allow to cool slightly.

3. Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer beat together until light and fluffy and doubled in volume. Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold into the egg mixture.

4. Pour in the butter in a steady stream and fold in gently. Finally add the chocolate chips and also fold in. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for at least two hours, but overnight is preferable.

To bake the madeleines:

5. Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan Oven 180C/Gas Mark 6. Three quarters fill each madeleine ‘hole’ in the tin with the chilled cake batter. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the madeleines are well risen and golden brown.

6. Allow to cool in the tin for five minutes before tapping out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely. These are lovely eaten warm, but are also delicious cooled.

Makes 24 madeleines (or 36 mini madeleines).

 

 

Oat & Apple Muffins

I love baking and really enjoy the techniques and processes involved but sometimes I just want to make something that is easy to prepare and ready to eat in the least amount of time possible. This has to be one of the easiest and quickest recipes and is one that I use on a regular basis as it produces lovely light but moist muffins.

 

Muffins are lovely served for breakfast and these ones are particularly nice as they don’t contain an excessive amount of sugar. In fact, much of their sweetness comes from the diced apple which is included. You can, of course, use other fruits in season. Pears work particularly well and when I use them I also like to add a few chopped walnuts or pecans in addition to the oats. Chopped fresh strawberries are also delicious and make a wonderful summertime muffin.

 

The key thing when making these is not to over-mix the batter as the resulting muffins will be dense and heavy. Combine everything just enough to ensure that you don’t have any large pockets of dry flour and remember that the batter is meant to look a little lumpy.

 

Although the baked muffins are delicious when eaten cold, I recommend eating them whilst they are still warm as they are absolutely sensational.

 

Ingredients:

150g self-raising flour, sifted
35g porridge oats
60g light brown muscovado sugar

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and diced into 1cm cubes

180ml natural Greek style yoghurt

1 large egg, lightly beaten

50g butter, melted

To finish:

25g porridge oats 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Place paper cases in 9 holes of a cupcake tin and set aside.
2. Place the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the porridge oats and sugar. Mix together so that everything is well distributed. Add the cubed apples and mix again. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add yoghurt , egg and melted butter. Do not over-mix.

3. Divide the mixture evenly between the 9 paper cases and sprinkle some oats on the top of each muffin.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until the muffins are golden brown and a thin skewer inserted into the centre of one comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving warm.
 

Makes 9.