Baking Brave for World Baking Day May 19th 2013 - unusual flavours was my self imposed bake off!!

I've always loved the idea of intriguing flavours in puddings/desserts - it started off with my realizing you could use certain flowers in sweet dishes, rose, violets, lavender - and it grew from there so when I heard about Baking Brave for World Baking Day I thought to myself - hey this is an open opportunity to bake something intriguing and different for a good reason - so I tried two desserts which I found on Pinterest and which most certainly tied themselves together with the unlikely savoury flavour of Stilton Cheese - yes folks you read that right Stilton Cheese - the King of British cheeses and my all time favourite cheese, I can eat a pound of said magnificence in the blink of an eye, - along with rhubarb, also a favourite of mine and a very unsung spring delight - so I did keep with my blogs mission of baking British Puddings but this time with a twist.

I invited friends along too and so far I have been joined by Anne Heflin of Carrington Lane Bakery fame - an amazing professional baker with a wonderful International Delights bakery on Etsy - you can find Anne's shop here: CARRINGTON LANE BAKERY

and Nancy Harmon Jenkins, famed writer | traveler | food authority | historian whose blog can be found here:

NANCY HARMON JENKINS

Shall we begin?

The inspiration for the tart comes from Baking Obsession HERE - So my tart comes in three stages - the walnut crust - a good foil for the Stilton as it is often paired with such as the cheese course of a smashing dinner, the creamy Stilton pie filling and a rhubarb curd for the top layer, as such it is an experiment and you may if you have the baking skills change according to your taste - this pie as done here is very mild, not so sweet and also not too Stilton-y - it is in fact quite bland which is not what I was expecting at all.

Make the crust first: This was my first time trying a walnut crust and it did come out a little oily and not as sweet as I had imagined but it would be wonderful as a savoury crust so I will leave the recipe as I made it and if you choose you can add maybe an ounce more sugar:

EASY PEASY SWEET TART CRUST:
 

Pre heat oven to 350F

Enough for one regular sized tart case 9” diameter or I used a deep, nearly 2", 71/2" diameter pie tin as I like my tarts with lots of filling

1 cup/4ozs of sifted unbleached white flour

2oz toasted ground walnuts
(I grind mine by toasting them first for about 5 minutes in a 275F oven - allow them to cool - break into small pieces and the put them in a coffee grinder with some of the flours and this stops them from getting greasy - if you grind the walnuts on their own they can get very greasy and we don't want that!!)

1/2 cup/2ozs confectioners/icing sugar

1 stick/ 4ozs butter VERY COLD

1 large egg yolk

1. Sift dry ingredients together into a medium sized bowl.
 

2. Grate the butter into the dry ingreds., and rub in until like breadcrumbs.

3. Add egg yolk and blend and squush carefully until the dough sticks together. This may take a little time but despair not it will come together - just don't let it warm up - pie crusts pastry should always be kept as cold as possible to make it flaky and divine.

4.Tear dough into big chunks…..place strategically in pie pan and start squushing to a create a smooth even covering of the entire pan…the beauty of this crust is that it does NOT shrink at all…it stays put…good crust!!

5. Bob into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
 

As you can see my pie crust is not perfect - a it lumpen and uneven but that's OK!!

Remove from the fridge and prick the pastry all over with a fork - this is to prevent bubbles forming when you bake. Next I lined the pastry with parchment paper and weighed it down with split peas - you can use beans or pie weights but don't go down the road of popcorn as I did once - you can guess at those results.

Bake for about 15 minutes, remove from the oven, genteely lift the paper and weight from the shell and bob pastry back into the oven for about another 15 minutes - don't worry when you take the weights out if the pastry looks soggy and sad - it will improve by the next time you take it out of the oven :))

Keep your eyes peeled - you want the crust to be evenly golden and not too brown on the top edges - the bottom does want to look dry though and not greasy as it does when you first remove the paper and weights - in my experience with pie crusts this time can vary from pie to pie so just do as long as you need to to get the shell looking evenly golden. Remove and allow to cool - don't put it in the fridge though as that will make it damp.

Next make the RHUBARB CURD - from a rhubarb meringue pie by Martha

I originally cut this recipe in a quarter but on reflection and if you look at the thinness of the layer of rhuabrb curd on the pie I have doubled MY recipe to this amount below...

This amount of rhubarb curd was too little for the flavour of the cream part of the pie so the recipe below is for double the amount I made. 

RHUBARB CURD - worthwhile to make on it's own - I would double this recipe if you were making this just as stand alone curd.
 

1lb rhubarb cut into small pieces

1. Put into the jug of a blender and use the highest setting to make the rhubarb into a sauce - you may have to add a little bit and a little bit of water as you go and keep pushing the rhubarb down - you want to add as little water as possible so you don't, literally, water the flavour down. Then drain the 'sauce' through say a coffee filter until you get 8 fluid ounces of rhubarb juice.
 

6ozs/3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch/flour

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons/1 oz butter

2. Whisk the cornstarch/flour, sugar and salt together in a bowl and then whisk them into the juice.

3. Put into a saucepan and gently heat until boiling and boil for about 1 minute until it clears and starts to thicken.

4. Put egg yolks in a bowl and slowly whisk the hot rhubarb into it until evenly blended.

5. Add butter to rhubarb mix and whisk until blended - now put aside to cool.

My rhubarb curd ended up very orange as you can see in the pan above because I used the fantastic yolks from Farmetta Farm eggs :)
 

STILTON CREAM PART: this has a very nice consistency and could be made as a cheesecake without the stilton but maybe add in 2 more ounces of sour cream
 

2ozs Stilton cheese - you can use any blue cheese but I find  lot of blue cheese soapy - I LOVE Stilton - it's tangy and complex and creamy - and it keeps in more within the realm of a British Pudding 
 

4oz cream cheese
 

1/2 cup/3ozs sugar (you could add another ounce if you want this a bit more sweet which I think it could have done with)
 

2ozs sour cream
 

2 fluid ounces half and half
 

a goodly grating of nutmeg if you are of the nutmeg persuasion as I am
 

1 whole egg 
 

1. Blend all the above together in a food processor or blender so there are no lumps - that's it.

2. Pour into your pre baked pie shell:

3. Bob into the 350F oven for about 30 minutes until you can jiggle the pie and it only moves a very very little - you don't want it to be baked too hard or it won't be creamy but you do want the top to be able to hold up the rhubarb curd for the next part:
 

4. Pour the cooled rhubarb curd over the top and bob back into the oven for about another 20 minutes until the rhubarb is set - again jiggle the pie a little and you can tell - this part will vary from oven to oven and rhubarb to rhubarb and pie to pie so you just need to keep  baking until ti's set - if need be and the crust is browning too much make a tent of foil to cover and stop the crust from browning.
 

Ta dah - you have a Stilton and Rhubarb Pie for World Baking Day 2013.

I liked this pie but not half as much as I'd hoped - it needs a lot of tweaking to get it to the flavour I had in my mind of how it tasted but do let me know if you make it for a sophisticated mellow dessert after a divine heavy on the flavours dinner party.
 

I did also make Stilton Ice Cream from this recipe at Serious Eats but again it just didn't hit the spot and I wish I'd kept my Stilton to eat with some good Samuel Smiths Yorkshire Cider and crackers!!

Now here are some more intriguingly flavoured desserts for World Baking Day 2013:

ANCHO CHILI AND CHOCOLATE MACARONS

from Carrington Lane Bakery in Maine

 

Click HERE for the lovely recipe 

and.....

Spiced Olive Oil Cake with Quinces and Candied Ginger
by famed cook book author Nancy Harmon Jenkins of Maine and Italy - used with permission - thank you Nancy :)

 Recipe link HERE

 There'll be more recipes added as they come through today and tomorrow -

and from Sally in London:
STICKY PRUNE CAKE a la fabulous Cranks 

 Sally's Recipe:
 CAKE: 
125g/4ozs  prunes, pitted
2 eggs
½/4oz cup raw sugar
100ml/4 fl ozs vegetable oil
100ml/4 fl ozs buttermilk
1 cup/5ozs  wholemeal plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
½ tsp mixed spice

thick yoghurt or cream to serve

TOPPING:
¼/2ozs cup raw sugar
1 tbsp buttermilk
1 tbsp molasses/honey
a few drops of vanilla essence/extract

Preheat oven to 180 C/360F 

.

1. Grease and line a 9” sandwich/cake tin.

2. Place prunes in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer until tender. Drain and chop.

3. Place eggs, sugar and oil into a large bowl and whisk ‘til smooth and creamy.

4. Sift dry ingredients and add. Beat well. Stir in prunes and buttermilk.

5. Pour mixture into prepared cake tin and bake for 30-45 minutes until skewer inserted in the middle comes out cleanly.

Topping:
Place sugar, buttermilk, molasses and vanilla essence in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until sugar has dissolved, stirring frequently. Prick warm cake all over with a skewer. Spoon topping over cake and cool completely in a pan.

.......and here's a wonderful Pie-in-process - well the recipe is in process from Elizabeth Loonan in New York - this is her first attempt and the recipe needs tweaking - thus no recipe link here but hopefully I'll be able to give it you when the perfection is complete!!:

Bacon Bourbon Apple Pie, in honor of World "BACON" Day - ha ha tongue in cheek Betty!

Elizabeth's crust looks PERFECT!!!!! These baconlicious photographs were taken by Elizabeth's talented husband Antonio M. Rosario

HAPPY WORLD BAKING DAY 2013 - what did you bake today??

Fragrant Quince and Ginger Cake for Thankies!

Quince and Ginger Cake with Poached Quince and delicious Quince 'sauce'

If there were indeed such a thing as a runcible spoon I might perchance know it's whereabouts!

First we begin with the preparing of the Quince - an oddsome looking large pear shaped article which needs must be poached for a goodly amount of time in order to surrender it's roseate bloom and delightful taste which, for me, is very reminiscent of papaya. Quince were frequently (and should still be I think) used to perfume one's linen's in olden times - you can snuggle them in there and they will permeate your delicates with the most enticing aroma which is hard to describe - my whole house smelled of quince as I was given an amazingly generous amount of Maine quince to play with by the ever lovely rug weaver Sara Hotchkiss - thank you Sarah!!

To begin with you need to remove the fuzzy bloom from the quince by washing and then cut the quince in half - I tried a couple of different ways to remove the hard and pithy centres and found the best was with a potato peeler - I dug in around the centres and slowly prized the middles - pips and all - out - this can be quite hard and you must be careful not to slip and hurt your lovely hands.

Next I cut the halves into random cubes about 1/2" squarish as above - now the quince are ready for their poaching.

INGREDIENTS:

4 large quince cut up as directed above

(I used a recipe that called for 21ozs of quince which I dutifully acquired only to find it was WAY too much for this one recipe although it is nice to have some leftover to have on it's own or with the cake as I did but still that was way too much - I ended up using 8oz of the quince after it had been poached actually in the cake)

4oz sugar

4oz honey

Juice of half a lemon

Zest of one whole lemon

2 teaspoons of ground ginger

1 teaspoon cardamom

20 fluid ounces water

Place all above ingredients into a large pan, bring to a boil and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours until the quince is rosy pink and soft but not mushy. Drain the quince reserving the liquid. Put liquid back in the pan and reduce until thick, fragrant and syrupy.

4ozs crystallized ginger cut into small pieces

Juice of half a lemon

4 fluid ounces water

Put all above ingredients into a small pan and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Drain ginger and reserve liquid - combine with quince liquid and save for later.

The Cake: As with all cakes have the ingredients at room temperature

5 1/2 oz softened butter - I always use salted

9oz white flour unbleached

Good pinch of salt

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cardamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

6 1/2 oz sugar

3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk whisked together

3 1/2 oz creme fraiche or sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract

1. Pre-heat oven to 325F

2. Grease an 8" round spring form pan with butter, line with parchment paper and regrease lightly with butter.

3. Sift flour, salt, spices and baking powder into a bowl.

4. In a separate bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

5. Add the whisked eggs bit by bit (maybe in about 6-7 goes) beating well between each addition to avoid curdling of the mixture.

6. Mix in a few tablespoons of the flour mix, the creme fraiche/sour cream and vanilla until well blended.

7. Fold in the rest of the flour, then the poached quince (8ozs weighed) and then fold in the poached ginger.

Folding in the quince and ginger to the cake batter.

8. Spoon (runcible or otherwise) mixture into the prepared tin and bob into the pre heated oven for about 1 and a quarter hours - check for doneness after one hour by inserting a skewer/toothpick which should come out clean - if not bob back in for another 15 minutes or until ready. If cake is browning too much at one hour mark cover with a hat of aluminium foil.

9. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven pierce the top a few times and spread the poaching liquid over to make a glaze.

10. Leave to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes then remove, take off the paper and leave to cool completely on a rack.

Here is the cake with it's uncooked friends and bereft of the addition of a side of cooked quince and poaching liquid.

If you cannot find or do not want to bother with quince I feel quite sure you could do the same recipe with poached pears - of course the regular pears wouldn't take anything like as long to poach and you would probably poach them in halves instead of smaller pieces as I think they might turn to mush - here's some pear poaching info from the ever wonderful David Lebovitz.

Again this is a cake that improves with age so you could happily make this a couple of days before Thanksgiving and save yourself a little bit of work on the day - keep in an airtight container until ready to eat!

Happy Baking - do let me know if you try this.

A neighbourhood reprieve and Quince Frangipane Tart for Thanksgiving!

'Ello, 'Ello!!!

YEA!!! These beauties were saved from the table this Thanksgiving by my lovely neighbour Rita, she was planning on having them for dinner but decided they were just too friendly and gorgeous to say "goodbye" to....good on ya Rita, they are a lovely rafter or gang (correct group name!) of turkey's.... just look at those faces!! Their colours are beautiful...pink, blue and red...very handsome...

...and below is one of their witty and ever so sweetly noisy companions, they make a little trilling sound...a guinea fowl, aren't their faces adorable...they really do look like clowns with serious stage make-up and funny little hair do's.

In celebration of their reprieve I made a quince frangipane tart...it's rather like the Bakewell tart I did a while ago, in fact VERY like it with basically the addition of grated quince. I actually found these quince at Hannaford's. They were incredibly underripe...very green... but they did have a good smell which apparently is indicative of the possibility that they may indeed ripen. I waited until they were as yellow as I think they were ever going to get, and they smelled quite fragrantly of pineapple. Quince must be cooked in order to be eaten, they are mealy and astringent when raw, if you poach them they turn a delicate pink.

Here is the recipe:

QUINCE AND FRANGIPANE TART
Tart shell from Martha, a pate brisee...extremely reliable, very good, stays crisp, I've added more sugar than the recipe says and it's a good addition. The recipe here is for one 8-9" shallow pie but I made two small tarts with the same amount.

1 1/4 cups of white flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 stick (4ozs) butter I always use salted, VERY cold
1/8 to 1/4 cup ice cold water

1. Sift the flour

2. Grate the butter into the flour.

3. Gently work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal.

4. Add some of the water and test to see if it comes together, if not keep adding water until the dough will squush into a non-sticky ball.

5. Put into the fridge to rest whilst you make the filling.

The frangipane:
3 1/2 ozs almonds, toasted

3 1/2 ozs butter softened

1 3/4 ozs white flour unbleached

3 1/2 ozs white sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon each vanilla and almond extract/essence

2 ripe quince - peeled, cored and grated

Some apricot preserves....the amount depends on your tastebuds

SET OVEN TO 400F

1. When the almonds have cooled after toasting grind them either in a coffee grinder in small batches with some of the flour in each batch to stop the nuts becoming oily or do all the almonds and all the flour in a food processor until fine.

2. Add the sugar and extracts.

3. Mix in the softened butter very well.

4. Add the beaten eggs and mix.

5. Mix in the grated quince and set mixture aside.

NEXT: Roll out the pastry and line your chosen case/s - dock/prick small holes in the pastry with a fork  so it doesn't puff up during baking, line with some parchment paper and fill with beans or pie weights - blind/pre-bake the pieshell for about 12 minutes in a 400F oven.

Allow the pieshell to cool and spread the desired amount of apricot preserves over the bottom...I like just a smattering to give a little tang to the tart...you may have more if you like, I give you permission to do so!! Tee hee.

NOW: Spread the frangipane on top of the preserves and spread evenly.

Bake in a 400F oven for about 30 minutes or until the whole top of the tart is golden brown and the mixture is obviously set.

Allow the tart to cool, it definitely tastes best at room temperature.


The quince adds a very unusual but not strange delicate, almost perfumey taste to the tart...something you haven't quite tasted before but yet it is somehow familiar. Well worth hunting around for this odd combination of apple and pear shaped fruit, which are only available at this time of the year.

HAPPY BAKING AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING

YEA FOR THE NEIGHBOURHOOD TURKEYS AND RITA!!!!