1st Birthday and a recipe for Lemon Cupcakes with Limoncello Glacé Icing & a Lemon Curd Centre!

Tomorrow is my blog’s 1^st Birthday!!!

WOOHOO!!!

In the past year, I have loved sharing some of my favourite recipes and the memories that many of these dishes evoke for me. As the year progressed I found that I was becoming far more adventurous and experimental with some of the foods that I was cooking. The thing that has probably amazed me the most is that I don’t find it burdensome cooking, photographing and writing up the recipes and that it is in fact a process that I enjoy very much.

So on the eve of my blog’s birthday, I would like to thank all those who follow me, those who have commented on and those who have given me feedback about my recipes. I am truly grateful and extremely humbled whenever anyone takes time out of their busy lives to do so.

Given my celebratory mood, I wanted to bake something to mark the occasion, but was determined that it would be something special and representative of my favourite things. I didn’t have to think much about this. I love cake; I love lemon and I love daisies!!! You will see in the photos accompanying this post that I have decorated my cupcakes with individual sugar daisies that I had left over from another cake that I had baked for a christening. I think they look so beautiful delicately perched on top of these cupcakes.

 

In many ways this is a really simple cupcake… the sponge is light flavoured with finely grated lemon zest and it is topped with a simple glacé icing! I have embellished it a bit, by hollowing a little of the cooked sponge cake out of each cupcake and filling the cavity with homemade lemon curd and have also flavoured the glacé icing with the Italian lemon liqueur Limoncello - what I was trying to achieve was a really lemony cupcake and in this regard, I feel that I definitely achieved my aims.

 

What I particularly like about these cupcakes is that they are not decorated with a thick layer of buttercream icing but instead a rather restrained (but VERY flavoursome) glacé icing. I flavoured the icing with Limoncello, but if you don’t have any, just substitute some freshly squeezed lemon juice – the cupcakes will still taste fab.
 

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:
175g butter, softened

175g caster sugar

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

175g self-raising flour, sifted

Lemon Curd:

4 unwaxed lemons, juice and finely grated zest

200g caster sugar

100g butter, cut into small cubes

3 large eggs plus 1 yolk, lightly beaten

Glacé icing:

200g icing sugar

2-3tblsp Limoncello

To finish:

9 sugar daisies (optional)
 

Method:

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Place 9 cupcake cases in a cupcake/muffin tin and set aside.

2. Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, beat together until light and fluffy. Add the finely grated lemon zest and beat again to fully incorporate.

3. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the sifted flour and fold into the creamed mixture. Once all the flour has been added and fully incorporated, spoon the mixture, dividing it equally, into the prepared baking cupcake cases.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 17-20 minutes until the cupcakes are golden brown cooked through and well risen. Allow to cook for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

Lemon curd:

5. Place the lemon juice and zest, sugar and butter into a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl sitting over a pan of barely simmering water making sure that the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl.

6. Stir the mixture occasionally until the butter has melted. Add the eggs into the lemon mixture and whisk together until everything is well incorporated. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened.

7. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely (NOTE: This makes more lemon curd than you need for this recipe, but any excess can be poured into sterilised jars and stored in the fridge for 2 or 3 weeks.

Glacé icing:

8. Mix everything together to create a thickish glacé icing (about the same consistency as golden syrup). Set aside.

To finish:

9. Using a small melon baller hollow out a small cavity from the centre of each cupcake. Fill this with a teaspoonful of lemon curd and then top with some of the glacé icing. Place a sugar daisy on top and allow the icing to set.

 

Makes 9.
 

 

 

 

Almond & Pistachio Cantucci

These are such great biscuits… and so incredibly easy to make.  These are biscuits in the true sense of the word, in that they are twice baked! The word ‘biscuit’ is derived from the French and prior to that the Latin for ‘twice-baked’ (bis = twice; coquere = cooked)… And these cantucci are baked twice, firstly in a loaf and then sliced into individual biscuits and dried out in the oven.

Cantucci are a type of Italian biscuit, often dipped into sweet wine at the end of a meal. Whilst I am not claiming that an Italian would declare my version to be absolutely authentic, I can assure you that the finished biscuits are delicious.

 

As regular readers of my posts will know, I am on a bit of a pistachio crusade at the moment, eagerly trying all manner of different recipes that use this fabulously tasty, almost sweet nut. Here I have used whole pistachios along with whole blanched almonds, but to be honest you could use only pistachios or whatever other nuts you would prefer.

 

This is an incredibly simple recipe and the biscuits keep for ages. When baked for the second time, they are quite hard, but this is the way that they should be – perfect for dipping into some vin santo at the end of a meal! One piece of advice… use a large serrated knife to slice the biscuits after their first baking – it gives the cleanest cut.
 

Ingredients:

300g plain flour
200g caster sugar
50g whole blanched almonds

50g whole pistachios (unsalted)

1 lemon, juice and finely grated zest

3 large eggs, lightly beaten
 

Method:

1. Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking parchment and set aside.

2. Place the flour, caster sugar, nuts and lemon zest in a large bowl and mix together so that everything is well incorporated. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the lemon juice and eggs.

3. Use a wooden spoon to mix everything together. The dough will be quite soft, but don’t worry about this. Turn out on to a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly. Form into a log shape about 8cms x 20cms and place on the prepared baking tray. Allow to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4.  Bake the biscuit log for 15-20 minutes until a light golden brown colour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 160C/Fan Oven 140C/Gas Mark 2.

5. Remove the log from the baking tray and slice width-ways into thin slices about 1cm thick. Place on the baking tray and bake for a further 15 minutes, making sure that they do not colour too much.

6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
 

Makes 20-24 biscuits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raspberry & Pistachio Bakewell Tart

Raspberries are one of my favourite fruits – they have a sweet flavour but with an underlying tartness that I find particularly appealing. It is this quality that makes raspberries the perfect fruit for making into jams and jellies which require large proportions of added sugar. Raspberries can stand up to this sugar onslaught and still retain their distinctive flavour.

Although I love a traditional Bakewell Tart, with almond sponge/frangipane and raspberry jam, I decided that I wanted to try something a little bit different, but something that did not dramatically change the essential characteristics of a Bakewell Tart. The one thing that I was absolutely sure of was that I wanted my version to retain the raspberry element of a traditional Bakewell.

I initially toyed with the idea of making a hazelnut frangipane as raspberries and hazelnut go so well together, but to be honest, the decision had already been made for me by virtue of the fact that a large tin of pistachio paste that I had ordered online last week had been delivered the previous day. A Raspberry & Pistachio Bakewell Tart it would be!

I have made many recipes using pistachios which I have ground myself; whilst the taste has been fabulous they have always had a slightly muddy green colour, mainly because skinning pistachios is one of those thankless and frustrating tasks that just drive me crazy. The only way to achieve that beautiful pure green pistachio colour when they are ground is to ensure that not a trace of their papery brown skins remain. I researched this subject and what emerged is that all the top pastry chefs seem to use pistachio paste in cakes and desserts that require both the intensity of flavour and for the green colour to shine through. The skins are removed and a beautiful green paste is created. Although pistachio paste is not cheap, its colour and taste are amazing. It can be stored for quite a long time after it is opened, so I decided that I would take the plunge and bought a 1 kilo tin of the stuff – I think it’s a fairly good bet that I will be posting quite a few pistachio recipes over the coming weeks!

Anyway, back to my Bakewell… I was really pleased with how the tart turned out and there was no doubt about how delicious it was. It is true how the old saying goes… it IS impossible to invent a new wheel… because I was convinced that I had come up with a rather quirky take on a traditional Bakewell, but there are actually many similar versions to mine out there! Having said that; this one IS really good and the marriage of raspberry and pistachio together is sublime!

 

Ingredients:

Pastry:

200g plain flour

1 heaped tblsp of icing sugar

120g butter, chilled and diced

1 large egg yolk

1-2tblsp cold water

Pistachio Frangipane:

150g butter

150g caster sugar

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

150g ground almonds

65g pistachio paste

25g plain flour

To finish:

4tblsp good quality raspberry jam

150g fresh raspberries
 

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 and sprinkle in the water. 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, knead briefly and shape into a ball. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to rest.

3. Preheat oven to 180C/ Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Grease a 3cm deep, 23cm round fluted tart tin with a removable base) with a little butter. Place a large baking tray in the oven to heat up.

4. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough in a circle large enough to fit into the prepared tin. Use to line the bottom and sides of the tin, trimming it to the top edge of the tin. Set aside.

Filling:

5. Place the butter and caster sugar in a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually add in the eggs, beating well after each addition to ensure that they are fully incorporated. Mix in the ground almonds, followed by the pistachio paste and flour. Set aside.

To finish:

6. Using a small palette knife spread the raspberry jam in an even layer over the base of the pastry. Spread the pistachio frangipane evenly on top of the jam, making sure that you go out to the sides of the tart. Arrange the fresh raspberries on top of the pistachio frangipane, but don’t push them in too far or they will disappear into the tart as it bakes – merely perch them gently on top.

7. Bake in the preheated oven on top of the heated baking tray for 15 minutes and then reduce the heat down to 160C/Fan oven 140C/Gas Mark 2 and cook for another 25-30 minutes until the frangipane is just cooked and slightly risen. Check the tart about half way through the cooking time and if it is browning a little too quickly, cover with a little tin foil – shiny side turned upwards – to protect it).

8. Remove from oven and allow to cool before serving. The tart can be served chilled or as I prefer, at room temperature.
 

Serves 8-10.
 

Pistachio, Walnut & Almond Baklava

I absolutely love the Great British Bake Off (GBBO) – a baking competition which is televised on BBC1. The 5^th series of the programme reached its climax last night with three finalists vying to be this year’s baking champion. For anyone who has not seen it yet or is waiting to watch the repeat, I won’t reveal who the winner is… but watch it… it was hugely entertaining.

 

In last week’s semi-final, the remaining four contestants were challenged to bake their own versions of baklava. One of the offerings particularly intrigued me as it was made with a ‘breakfast’ filling which used toasted muesli and other ingredients more associated with the first meal of the day. Watching the programme definitely inspired me to make my own baklava, but I decided that for my first attempt, I would keep to the more familiar versions.

 

It has been many years since I have eaten baklava and my overriding memory was that it was very sweet and tasted predominantly of rosewater. Now; here is the thing… I really am not a great fan of recipes that incorporate the flower waters, extracts or essences. I think that the problem I find is that the taste of the particular flower, whether it be lavender, rose or hibiscus tends to overpower everything else. To be quite honest, often the smell of dishes where flowers have been used reminds me of soap, perfume or other beauty products; not something that I want to eat! But there is no denying it; the flavour of flowers is very on trend in the restaurant world these days!

 

After watching GBBO last week, I really wanted to bake my own baklava, but decided that any flower flavouring I used would be quite subtle and that I would avoid using rosewater. I carried out some research by reading a number of different baklava recipes contained in some of my cookbooks and also looked online at a variety of alternative baklava recipes and found that although rosewater is regularly used it is by no means mandatory.

 

The recipe that I give here is based in part on a couple of the recipes shown on GBBO but also largely on one by Mark Hix in his wonderful book Mark Hix on Baking.

 

I have used pistachios, walnuts and almonds as my nuts of choice for the filling of my baklava and these tasted wonderful. I ground the nuts in a food processor and would definitely recommend that you do the same rather than buy nuts already ground, as these would be too powdery – what you want is for them to retain a bit of texture! Once baked the baklava is soaked in a syrup which serves to hold everything together once cooled. I decided to confront my flower flavour issues and used a little orange flower water to flavour the syrup. I didn’t go overboard with it and I will admit that I really liked what it brought to the finished pastries!

 

Finally, unlike the contestants in last week’s GBBO, I did not make my own filo pastry. I used store-bought filo and found that it worked a treat, although it is a little temperamental to handle (you must cover any pastry you are not working on with a clean damp cloth to prevent it from drying up and becoming unworkable).

 

This baklava is buttery rich and very sweet, but there is something a little addictive about it which leaves you wanting more. It keeps its crunch for an incredibly long time if stored in an airtight container.
 

Ingredients:

225g butter, melted
16 sheets of filo pastry
125g pistachios, coarsely ground
50g walnuts, coarsely ground
50g almonds, coarsely ground

1tblsp granulated sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground cardamom

Syrup:

300g granulated sugar

275ml water

½ lemon, juice only

2tblsp orange flower water
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Grease a 18cm x 25-28cm non stick baking tray/dish with deep sides with a little butter and line with on-stick baking parchment.

2. Place the nuts, a tablespoon of granulated sugar and the ground spices in a bowl and mix together to ensure that everything is evenly distributed. Set aside.

3. Take a sheet of the filo pastry and place on the baking parchment in the lined baking tray/dish. Brush liberally with butter and fold over any excess pastry and brush this with butter too. Place another sheet of filo on top of the buttered layer and then butter the new layer with butter. Continue doing this until you have used half up half the filo pastry. N.B. Make sure you cover the unused filo pastry with a clean damp clothe when you are not using it to prevent it drying up.

4. Sprinkle the nut/spice mixture over the buttered filo pastry, reserving 2 or 3 tablespoons for later.

5. Place another layer of filo pastry over the sprinkled nuts and repeat the buttering and layering process that you used before. Butter the uppermost layer of filo and using a sharp knife cut the baklava into small squares or triangles.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes and then reduce the heat to 150C/Fan Oven 130C/Gas Mark 2 and bake for a further25-30 minutes until the pastry is a deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly while you make the syrup.

Syrup:

7. Place all the ingredients for the syrup in a medium sized saucepan over a moderate heat until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat and bring up to the boil. Immediately reduce the heat so that the mixture is simmering briskly. Allow to cook for about 15 minutes until the liquid has reduced by over a half and has become quite syrupy.

To finish:

8. Sprinkle the reserved nuts over the baked baklava. Pour the hot syrup slowly over the top of the baklava and set aside and allow to cool completely and to give the syrup a chance to soak in completely. The baklava can be served when completely cooled.
 

Makes 20-24 small squares.