Matcha Madeleines

Classic madeleines are simple flavoured little French cakes, which are readily available to buy in food shops, supermarkets and bakeries all over France. The first time that I ate them was from a pack that I had bought in the local supermarket when visiting Perpignan in south-west France. Even though I had read all about madeleines and had noted the literary references courtesy of Proust and others, I really could not see what all the fuss was about. Whilst I did not dislike them, they also did not make me go “wow”. I was under-whelmed to say the least!

I was determined not to dismiss them completely, partly because I was just so seduced by their beautiful scalloped shapes and so wanted them to be something that I could be mad about. Therefore when next confronted by them in a small bakery in Matisse’s old stomping ground of Collioure, I decided to give them another try. How different these madeleines were. They were light in the mouth, but with a close crumb and most importantly they were absolutely delicious. I was hooked. On my return home, I immediately bought myself a madeleine tray and have been experimenting with different flavour combinations ever since.

At their simplest, madeleines are made from a classic genoise cake batter and as such are easily adapted to include other flavours.

 

I have recently discovered the joys of Japanese food and being a tad obsessive about such things; I purchased a number of different books and magazines on the subject and have been joyfully experimenting with the different recipes and tastes that the cuisine has to offer. One ingredient that was regularly referred to, in almost reverential terms it has to be said, was matcha green tea powder. On researching further I noted that the powder was most commonly used in desserts and in baking in Japan. Scientists and nutritionists extol the benefits of green tea and it is considered by many to be a super-food. What really intrigued me was the colour that it gave to those dishes in which it was included. It was just so GREEN! I had to get my hands on some and sample it…
 

Acquiring the powder was not as easy as I thought it would be and it was also expensive. However, it really is an ingredient with a taste unlike any that I have ever come across before or have ever used in my cooking and baking; so, to me, it was worth the money that I spent. Also, I should point out that a little does go a long way.

 

The taste is slightly bitter but not excessively so. I actually quite liked it, particularly when coupled with the white chocolate that I decorated these madeleines with. A whole new world has now opened up to me and I already have a number of ideas that I am really keen to try out. This is one of the things that I love about food and cooking – it is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that there’s nothing that could surprise you anymore, but then you discover a new ingredient or try something familiar, used in an unusual way and it re-awakens your child-like enthusiasm for cookery…and for life, once again!
 

Ingredients:

For preparing the madeleine trays/tins:
15g-25g butter, melted
Some plain flour for dusting the trays

Cake batter:

2 large eggs

65g caster sugar

Finely grated zest of half a lemon
80g plain flour

1½ tsp matcha green tea powder

55g butter melted and allowed cool to room temperature

To finish:

75g white chocolate, melted

A little matcha green tea for dusting
 

Method:

1. Generously grease two madeleine tins with melted butter and then using a sieve, dust with a little plain flour, tapping out any excess. Put the buttered tins in the fridge to allow the butter to harden.
2. Using a hand-held electric mixer, beat the eggs, caster sugar and lemon zest together in a medium sized mixing bowl, at a high speed for about five minutes or until the mixture doubles in volume and becomes paler in colour.
3. Sift the flour and green tea powder together and fold into the egg mixture using light movements but ensuring that no “pockets” of flour remain. Drizzle in the melted butter and fold into the batter thoroughly. Cover the mixing bowl with some cling film and refrigerate the batter for at lest an hour, although overnight is also ok.

4. When ready to bake the madeleines, preheat the oven to 200C/Fan Oven 180C/Gas Mark 6.

5. Spoon or pipe the madeleine batter into each indentation on the madeleine tray. The batter should three-quarters fill each indentation. Bake in the preheated oven for about 8 minutes until the madeleines are well risen with a characteristic hump in the middle. Remove from the oven and immediately tap out the madeleines onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

To finish:

6. Half dip each madeleine (at the scalloped end) into the melted white chocolate. Place on a wire cooling rack and allow to harden. I put a sheet of baking paper under the rack to catch any chocolate drips. Before the chocolate hardens completely, dust with a little green tea powder.

 
Makes 24 - 28 madeleines depending on size of moulds.

     

Valentine's Day Jammy Dodgers

I was extremely pleased with these biscuits which I made to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day on 14^th February. The shortbread was beautifully crisp and delicately flavoured with lemon zest, which set off the raspberry jam centres of the biscuits just perfectly. These are seriously tasty biscuits and are easily adapted so that they do not have to be made for Valentine’s Day only. I have made the same biscuits with letters of the alphabet cut out of them to represent the initial letters of recipient’s names;- particularly popular for birthday parties.

I particularly like the raspberry and lemon combination but you could rework these flavours by including spices such as ginger, nutmeg or cinnamon in the biscuit dough and sandwich them together using different flavoured jams, curds or marmalades. Although I haven’t as yet tried it, I think that some ground ginger added to the dough would be especially delicious, and the finished biscuits sandwiched together with some homemade lemon curd. As with many of the recipes that I give, I recommend that you try the basic recipe first of all and then subsequently adapt it to reflect your own tastes.

Do try to use a good quality jam with a high fruit content as you really want the fruit flavour to shine through. Although you don’t absolutely have to sieve any seeds out of the jam, I really do think that it makes a difference to the finished biscuit and, as it only takes a few minutes, I advise you to do so.

Even though I am a fan of the commercially produced Jammie Dodgers with their cherry flavoured centres, these biscuits are truly wonderful and a world removed from any mass-produced versions that you could buy.

The filled biscuits were still crisp the day after I made them, so their keeping qualities appear to be very good. Honestly though, this isn’t really an issue as these biscuits are usually wolfed down very quickly by my gang… but this is what cooking and baking should be all about…feeding and creating delicious food and tasty treats for the people you love!

For me cooking and baking is a way of expressing my love for those people closest to me and I get so much pleasure from seeing those I care about enjoy the foods I make; and never more so than on St. Valentine’s Day!

 

Ingredients:

225g butter, softened
125g icing sugar

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

2 large egg yolks

300g plain flour

For the centre of the biscuits:

115g raspberry jam

To finish:

Some icing sugar to sprinkle over finished biscuits
 

Method:

1. Using a hand-held electric mixer, cream the butter, icing sugar and lemon zest together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and mix together to fully incorporate them. Using a wooden spoon mix in the flour, to form a soft dough.
2. Tip out the dough onto a lightly floured work-surface and knead briefly to bring together into a ball. Flatten the ball slightly, wrap in cling-film and refrigerate for at least an hour so that the dough has a chance to firm up.

3. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/ Gas Mark 4. Line two or three large baking trays with non-stick baking parchment and set aside.

4. Thinly roll out the chilled dough on a lightly floured work-surface to a thickness of about 5mm. Use a 6cm – 8cm round cookie cutter to stamp out circles from the dough. Put half of the circles, as they are, on the lined baking trays. Using a small heart shaped cookie cutter, stamp out heart shapes from the centre of the remainder of the circles. Place these on the baking trays also.

5. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes until just beginning to colour at the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking trays for about 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

To finish:

6. Put the jam in a very small saucepan and heat gently until it becomes a little runnier. Pass the heated jam through a wire sieve into a small, clean bowl and set aside to cool. Discard any seeds from the raspberry jam which have collected in the sieve.

7. Sprinkle icing sugar evenly over the top of the biscuits with the hearts cut out of them.

8. Put a dollop of jam in the centre of the underside (the side that was against the parchment on the baking trays) of the circular biscuits and sandwich together carefully with the icing sugar dredged biscuits uppermost.

Makes 12-16 sandwiched biscuits depending on the size of the cutters used.     

Steamed Marmalade Pudding

This is the type of dish that is just perfect when you yearn for something warm and reassuringly comforting to eat after a hearty meal on a cold, wintry day. Steamed puddings have the reputation of being quite heavy to eat, but this one is surprising light and wonderful eaten with some lightly whipped cream.

I know that I have recently posted a number of recipes using marmalade, but the reasons for this are two-fold; firstly, I was extremely pleased with the marmalade that I recently made and as I have explained previously, I may have been a little over-exuberant with the quantities that I made, so recipes such as this one are a wonderful excuse to use some of it up and also showcase the versatility of this wonderful preserve.

Secondly, whereas once marmalade was a staple at the breakfast table in the British Isles – something tasty to spread on warm toast, its popularity has waned, to be replaced by a whole range of other foods, such as chocolate and hazelnut spreads, sugary mass-produced cereals, breakfast bars and other such things.

I have always loved marmalade and would hate to think that it is viewed merely as a culinary curiosity of yesteryear. Therefore, I make a batch of marmalade each year when the Seville oranges come into the shops and I also rejoice in some of the heart-warming and delicious recipes that use it. I am determined that marmalade shall retain a position of prominence in my household at the very least.

Although marmalade can be time-consuming to make, it is not difficult to do and everyone should try making it at least once. When they are in season, Seville oranges are relatively inexpensive; so, if you like the taste of marmalade, producing your own really does make sense. If care is taken when bottling the preserve, it can be stored for many months in a cool, dark cupboard.

The great thing about steamed puddings is that the cooking times do not have to be as precise as they are with baking and an extra half hour really doesn’t make much of a difference, as the steam in which they cook prevents them from overcooking or drying out. Whilst you can never go wrong serving pouring custard with any steamed pudding, I think that this one benefits from being served with lightly whipped cream. If preferred you can also serve with a dollop of crème fraîche; the slight acidity of which complements the faint bitterness of the Seville orange marmalade.

As seems to be my habit, I have included a splash of alcohol in the pudding batter with the inclusion of some Cointreau – an orange flavoured liqueur for which I have a great fondness. As usual, feel free to omit the Cointreau, substituting it for more orange juice.

 

Ingredients:

100g marmalade
100g butter plus a little extra for greasing
100g caster sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
100g self-raising flour, sifted

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

2tblsp orange juice

1tblsp Cointreau

Method:

1. Generously grease a 500ml capacity pudding bowl with some butter and spoon the marmalade into the bottom. Set aside.
2. Using a hand-held electric mixer, cream the butter and caster sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs gradually, mixing well after each addition Add in the finely grated orange zest. Next add the self-raising flour and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Finally mix through the orange juice and Cointreau.
3. Spoon the batter into the pudding bowl on top of the marmalade and smooth the top using the back of a metal spoon.
4. Place a pleated sheet of non-stick baking parchment followed by a pleated sheet of tin foil and secure around the top of the pudding bowl with tightly tied string.
5. Steam for approximately 2 hours. I use an electric steamer, but you can also steam it using more traditional methods, placed on an old upturned saucer in a covered saucepan of simmering water which needs to come half-way up the sides of the pudding bowl. Make sure to keep an eye on the water levels though and top up as required to keep the water levels fairly constant. Let sit in the bowl for about five minutes and then upturn onto a serving dish.

 

Serves 4. 
   

Marmalade Cake

There are certain cakes that just do it for me and this is one. It is beautifully moist, keeps very well and is full of the delicious flavour of orange due to the inclusion of the fresh orange juice and zest and the marmalade. Speaking of which, this cake is a great excuse to use a little of the Seville orange marmalade that I recently made – not that I really needed an excuse to bake this cake!

This recipe is based on one that I came across in the Peyton & Byrne – British Baking book that I recently acquired. As with many recipes that I uncover within the pages of my embarrassingly large cookery book collection, I have tweaked this one slightly. I have used blood oranges because they are what I had to hand, but I admit that I also found the slight pink hue that the blood orange juice gave to the finished cake was particularly appealing and very pretty looking.

Blood oranges just look so beautiful when cut in half horizontally to reveal their exotic interior. In the aforementioned book, Oliver Peyton comments that British baking is often accused of being predominately brown coloured. There is probably a certain truth in this and it is one of the reasons why I readily embrace all opportunities to introduce fresh and zingy colours and flavours to the foods I prepare. Rather than blood oranges you could of course use standard sweet oranges.

 

I used a coarse cut marmalade because I love the taste and texture of it, but you could use fine cut or one with no peel at all. Even if you are not normally a fan of coarse cut varieties, I urge you try one here because it really does add that little something extra.

 

Ingredients:

150g butter
130g caster sugar

70g light brown muscovado sugar

Finely grated zest of 2 blood oranges

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

75g Seville orange marmalade

2 tblsp blood orange juice

Pinch of salt

175g self-raising flour, sieved

Icing:

150g icing sugar

4-6 tblsp blood orange juice

 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Line a 900g loaf tin with non-stick baking parchment and set aside.
2. Using a hand-held electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar and orange together until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs gradually, beating well after each addition. Add the marmalade, orange juice and salt and mix together well to fully incorporate.

3. Add the sieved flour and fold in to the egg mixture thoroughly to create the cake batter. Spoon into the prepared tin and smooth the surface with a spatula or the back of a metal spoon.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 45 minutes until the cake is springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Do not check on the cake until at least 30-35 minutes of baking time have elapsed as the cake is liable to sink in the middle due to the inclusion of the marmalade.

5. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then remove to finish cooling on a wire rack. Once cooled, the cake can be iced.

Icing:

6. Mix the icing sugar and orange juice together in a small bowl and then pour evenly over the top of the cooled cake, letting it drip naturally down the sides of the cake.

Cuts into 8-10 generous slices.

     

Apple Dumplings

This is such a lovely dessert and although comforting and heart-warming to eat it is not too rich nor is it too sweet.

The premise of this recipe is so simple; the apple is peeled and cored, stuffed with fruit, nuts or whatever takes your fancy, is then wrapped in a snug blanket of shortcrust pastry and baked in the oven until golden brown and the apple is cooked through.
 
I still had some of my homemade mincemeat left over from Christmas so decided to use that to stuff my apples. I also added a good glug of Amaretto as its almond flavour really complements the flavour of the mincemeat, and…well… basically because I love it! You could use an apple flavoured brandy instead. Also, if you are not a fan of mincemeat or dried fruits, you could stuff the apples with a mixture of brown sugar, cake crumbs, chopped marzipan or nuts. Basically anything that takes your fancy. I would recommend that whatever you choose should have some substance to it and not be too liquid or inclined to melt in the heat of the oven, but essentially this is a recipe where you can use up those ingredients that  you have lurking at the back of the kitchen cupboard. As such, it is one that appeals to me greatly.

I love mincemeat and thought that it added just the right amount of sweetness in this recipe, whilst still allowing the flavour of the apples to shine through. All too often we can fall into the trap of thinking that complicated cooking is better cooking – this is not necessarily the case. What is important is using the ingredients that you have to hand and cooking them well to produce great tasting dishes. Yes, I love dramatic dishes and particularly love the challenge of cooking technically demanding dishes, but they have to taste delicious or what is the point?

 

I served my dumplings with clotted cream, but ice-cream or custard would work equally well.

      

Ingredients:

4 medium sized cooking apples, peeled and cored
Pastry:
200g plain flour
1tblsp icing sugar

120g butter, chilled and diced

1 large egg yolk

1-2tblsp water

Filling:

75g mincemeat

3tblsp Amaretto

To finish:

1 egg, lightly beaten
 

Method:

Pastry:
1. Sift the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Rub in the diced butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk, sprinkle in the water and using a fork, or your hands mix until the mixture comes together to form a dough.
2. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work-surface and knead briefly and shape into a ball. Wrap the dough in cling-film and place in the fridge for about half an hour to rest.

To prepare the apples:

3. Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan Oven 180C/Gas Mark 6. Line a baking tray with a sheet of non-stick baking parchment and set aside.

4. Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out thinly using a rolling pin. Cut out four pastry squares, large enough to encase each apple completely.

5. Mix the Amaretto through the mincemeat in a small bowl.

6. Place each apple in the centre of each of the squares and spoon the mincemeat mixture evenly between the cored out centres of the apples. Brush the edges of each pastry square with a little water and draw up, pressing the pastry edges together to completely encase each apple. Turn the apples over so that the joins are on the bottom and place evenly spaced apart on the lined baking tray.

7. Cut a small hole in the middle of the pastry at the top of each apple. Brush with a little of the beaten egg and use any pastry off-cuts to decorate with leaves if desired.

8. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 35 minutes until golden brown all over.

9. Remove form the oven and serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, a little clotted cream or if you want to really up the comfort stakes….some warm home-made custard!

Serves 4.