White Chocolate and Cranberry Oatmeal Blondies – drizzle forecast ...

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I woke up this morning to a grey sky and a steady drizzle of rain. (If only Trump would share that trick that makes it stop raining on just him...) There is only one thing to shift me from this ill humour. Bring on the mood-enhancing white chocolate cranberry blondies...

These sweet treats are not quite as wicked as they sound. They contain oatmeal and dried fruit so that makes them practically breakfast. The recommended dosage for mood enhancement is two, with decent coffee.

The moggy isn't liking the rain either

For approximately 16 delicious ‘blondies’ you will need...

... to butter and base-line a 23cm square cake tin and to pre-heat your oven to 170°C

150g rolled oats (oatmeal flakes)

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

100g butter

50g crunchy peanut butter

50g cream cheese

175g Demerara sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100g white chocolate, roughly chopped

75g dried cranberries

75g white chocolate for topping (optional)



Cranberries: "We're not just for Christmas you know!"

Method
First place the rolled oats and baking powder in a food processor and blitz until you have a smooth ‘flour’.

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter, cream cheese and sugar, beating the mixture until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Then mix in the oatmeal ‘flour’.

Finally, stir in the chopped white chocolate and cranberries. Mix until just combined.

Transfer the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes until evenly golden brown.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly. Melt the remaining white chocolate and drizzle over or simply leave to cool in the tin before dusting with icing sugar and cutting into squares.

These are good slightly warm but even better if left go completely cold, so that the chocolate solidifies back into chunks. They’ll keep for up to a week (yeah right!) if sealed in an airtight container or cling wrap.

My lazy woman’s way to melt chocolate: snap the chocolate into squares and place in a Ziploc bag. Remove as much air as possible from the bag and seal. Half-fill a 1 pint measuring jug with boiling water, then carefully place the sealed bag in the water making sure the chocolate is submerged. Leave for a couple of minutes until the chocolate has melted. Remove the bag from the water and pat dry. Snip off a small corner of the bag and gently squeeze the liquid chocolate over the blondies.

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White Chocolate and Cherry Clafoutis - Simply Irresistible !

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The poet, Paul Valéry, said that a poem is never finished, only abandoned. I have that same feeling about recipes. From time to time, I can’t resist making just a tiny edit or two to an old favourite, on the hunch that it will make the dish even better.

Simply irresistible

I have revisited the first dish I ever did on Alchemy in the Kitchen - Cherry Clafoutis - and I’ve made a few edits. One was the addition of chunks of good white chocolate - for me, the missing link in the evolution of clafoutis. 

I have also come down firmly on the side of de-stoned cherries for a number of reasons:

●       multiple taste tests don’t reveal the almond flavour that the stones are supposed to impart (a touch of almond extract does it better!)

●       de-stoned cherries leak their juice into the batter and even more juice evaporates, leaving a concentrated cherry flavour

●       there is less risk of a tooth-shattering surprise.

Hungry caterpillar? No, cherry-stoner!

Unfortunately I had to buy the cherries for today’s clafoutis rather than being presented with a strange and marvellous bouquet as before.  

Life is ...

As I needed a decent amount of natural light for the photos, I made the dish this morning. Although I’m not in the habit of having dessert for breakfast, clafoutis is best eaten warm from the oven, so I had no option but to sample it there and then (good excuse eh?) and I have decided it wouldn’t be out of place at a special brunch.

For 4 servings you will need......to preheat the oven to 170°C

A little butter for greasing 4 shallow ramekin dishes

50g ground almonds
25g plain flour

½ teaspoon baking powder
a  pinch of fine table salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
50g runny honey
150mls fresh whole milk
½ teaspoon almond extract

300g ripe fresh cherries, stones removed (I prefer to leave the stalks on for presentation but take them off if you prefer).

75g good quality white chocolate, cut into 1cm chunks

Method

With the butter, lightly rub the inside of the ramekin dishes and set aside.

Measure the ground almonds and flour into a mixing bowl and add the baking powder and salt. Add the eggs and whisk to a smooth batter. Add the honey (I weigh it directly into the bowl to save on washing up) and whisk until combined. Finally whisk in the milk and almond extract to give a consistency similar to single cream.

Divide the batter evenly between 4 shallow ramekin dishes, making sure not to fill beyond the half-way mark, then divide the cherries and chocolate chunks evenly between the 4 dishes.

One for me, one for the clafoutis, one for me...

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes or until risen and golden brown.

Allow to cool slightly before dusting with icing sugar and serving with a jug of pouring cream. Mmmmm-mmmm-mmmmmmmmmm.

Note: Clafoutis sinks slightly as it cools – that’s just its nature

Note: Clafoutis vanishes quickly when cooked - that's just in its nature ...

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Brioche Pudding with Sour Cherries and White Chocolate – a crowd pleaser!

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Bread-and-Butter Pudding is one of the great mysteries of the universe. How is it that such a simple collection of ingredients - stale bread, a few eggs, a little sugar and some dairy - can make such a crowd-pleasing dessert?

I have some friends coming for dinner so I have upped the ingredients a notch to raise this dessert from ‘family favourite’ to ‘elegant afters’... Hey, who am I kidding? This dessert will never be elegant but it tastes really, really good. It is light and luscious, with a crunchy sugary almond top. What more could you ask for from a dessert!

For 6 servings you will need...

... to pre-heat the oven to 170°C at step 3

25g butter, at room temperature, to butter 6 ramekins or individual pie dishes

350g brioche, cut into slices about 1cm thick, then cut into triangles

120g good quality white chocolate, roughly chopped

60g dried sour cherries (dried cranberries can be substituted)

375mls fresh milk

180mls fresh cream

75g runny honey

3 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

60g almonds, roughly chopped

Icing sugar for dusting

Whipped cream or ice cream to serve 

1                 Butter six ramekins or individual pie dishes. Arrange a layer of brioche triangles in the base of each. Scatter the sour cherries and the chopped white chocolate over this layer. Cover with another layer of brioche.

2                 Pour the cream and milk into a jug then add the honey. (The easiest way to weigh the honey is to put the jug on weighing scales and add the honey directly into the jug). Add the beaten eggs and lemon zest and stir until all the ingredients are well combined. Divide this raw custard between the dishes and scatter the chopped almonds over the top. Cover loosely with cling film and leave in the fridge for several hours or overnight for the brioche to absorb the mixture and for the lemony vanilla flavours to meld.

3                 When you are ready to cook the brioche pudding, pre-heat the oven to 170°C and boil a kettle of water. Meanwhile, dust the puddings with a generous layer of icing sugar. When the water has boiled, place the puddings in a roasting tin then transfer the tin to the oven. Carefully add enough boiling water to come about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. This helps distribute the heat evenly and avoids the eggs overcooking.

4                 Bake the puddings for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately with whipped cream or good vanilla ice cream. (While at their best straight out of the oven, these have been known to make an excellent breakfast.) 

Variations: This dessert is also really good with French bread, or croissants. Vary the flavours by adding different dried fruits and flavouring the egg mixture with spices (I love dried apricot and cardamom; or candied orange peel and fresh ginger).

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Irish Coffee Mousse - Worth the Caffeine!

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Phew - it was just a dream! Now, Irish Coffee Mousse is a proper pick-me-up!

I’d been sent some Really Good Organic Coffee from Café de Cuba to sample. I don’t often drink coffee – remember the coffee-grinds-on-the-ceiling incident?  So when I drink coffee, it has to be WTC* – Worth The Caffeine. This was WTC, and the hint of vanilla and chocolate got me thinking about dessert in general, and coffee desserts in particular. The obvious coffee dessert is tiramisu - cue wibble wobble flashback sequence...

Years ago I had a friend who would sometimes mind my house when my beloved and I went on holiday. His specialty was an incredible tiramisu. He always made an enormous bowl of the stuff to welcome us home. I liked tiramisu but after the ninth helping it was more of a ‘put-me-down’ than a ‘pick-me-up’. You really can have too much of a good thing. Groan. Eventually, we had to confess that we donated his tiramisu to more appreciative diners.

Ok, we're back in the present day. It was all a bad dream.

So not tiramisu then. Something light... Something easy... Something that wouldn’t involve a trip to the market. Coffee and walnut... ? Done that. Irish coffee... ? Too early in the morning to be quaffing Irish coffee. But the idea had potential...

My mother makes a gorgeous fruit mousse. Drop the fruit, add some strong coffee, a little white chocolate to emphasise the vanilla, a shot of Irish whiskey, a swirl of cream on top... Irish Coffee Mousse. Sigh!

Drop the fruit, add some strong coffee, white chocolate, a shot of Irish Whiskey ...

For 4 - 6 servings you will need...

200mls evaporated milk, chilled (place in the freezer for an hour-and-a-half)
4 tablespoons dark brown sugar
100mls strong coffee (I used 40g Really Good Organic Coffee grounds for this amount)
4 leaves of gelatine and a little cold water to sponge
50mls Irish whiskey
100g white chocolate, grated

Whipped cream to decorate

1                 Brew the strong coffee and place in a measuring jug along with the whiskey. Meanwhile, sponge the gelatine by placing it in a bowl and covering it with cold water. After a few minutes it will soften. Remove from the bowl and squeeze any excess moisture out of the gelatine. Place it in the hot coffee and stir until completely dissolved. Leave to cool, stirring occasionally. You are looking for the moment when the mixture starts to thicken to a syrup-like consistency as it starts to gel. If you add the coffee mixture before this stage, you'll end up with coffee pannacotta, which is not the texture we're going for.

2                 Whisk the chilled evaporated milk with the brown sugar until it thickens and forms soft peaks when you lift out the whisk.

3                 As soon as the coffee mixture starts to gel, whisk it into the evaporated milk until combined, light and fluffy. Divide the grated chocolate between pretty glasses or coffee cups and top with the mousse and a swirl of cream. This amount makes 4 large portions or 6 more dainty portions.

You could use a cream liqueur in place of the whiskey if you prefer. You could also use decaf and replace the whiskey with an extra 50mls of coffee and a teaspoon of vanilla extract if you prefer a more innocent dessert. I've also made this with low-fat evaporated milk for an even more guilt-free experience.

Cheers!

Café de Cuba has also introduced a decaf, and Cha - a range of organic teas from the Himalayas. I've tried Spring Mint (organic green tea and mint) and Golden Mango and was pleasantly surprised.

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