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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Fresh and Smoked Salmon & Leek Pithiviers – a posh word for pie!

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Pithivier - a posh word for pie!

A self-catering break can be a real challenge for a cook. Blunt knives and bockety pans are par for the course on a hired narrow boat, canal barge or holiday cottage and the kid behind the counter of the local corner shop will look at you oddly if you ask for anything out of the ordinary… pesto for instance.

Funnily enough, rather than putting me off cooking, the quest to produce something delicious using the simplest of ingredients, the most basic of tools, and a minimum of effort shakes me out of a rut. It reminds me to cook the style of food that is close to my heart - easy, quick and tasty.

Pithiviers fit the bill – a Pithivier is a posh word for a little puff pastry pie, filled with a sweet or savoury filling. I’ve gone for a fresh and smoked salmon and leek filling. They are perfect for lunch or dinner, hot or cold, and a delight on a picnic.

Here I have used ready-prepared puff pastry. If you have the will and wherewithal to rustle up perfect puff pastry from scratch in self-catering, you are a better person than I am.

For 4 little pies of puff pastry perfection you will need…

For the filling…

40g butter

175g young leeks, finely shredded

2 tablespoons mascarpone

1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

300g fresh salmon, diced into 1cm cubes

100g smoked salmon, shredded

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the shell…

A little plain flour for rolling out the pastry

450g all-butter puff pastry (ready-rolled is best if your kitchen utensils are limited)

1 egg beaten

Method

First melt the butter over a medium heat in a large frying pan. Add the shredded leeks and stir until coated in the melted butter. Reduce the heat, cover with a lid and cook gently without colouring for about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Put the mascarpone, and the lemon juice and zest in a large mixing bowl and give it a quick whisk with a fork. Mix in the rest of the filling ingredients (including the leeks once they are completely cool) until coated in the mascarpone. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

Mix...

Meanwhile on a work surface lightly dusted with flour, roll out the puff pastry to a thickness of a 1 euro coin - approximately 3mm. (If you are using ready rolled pastry just unfurl it.)

Cut out 4 circles approximately 12cm in diameter and 4 circles approximately 16cm in diameter. (The larger circles are the important ones from a presentation point of view so if you need to reroll any scraps to make up your circles use them for the smaller circles which will be underneath and hidden.) 

Pile...

Divide the salmon mixture into 4 even portions and pile a portion in the centre of each of the smaller pastry circles, leaving a margin of about 2cm all the way around. Brush each margin with a little of the beaten egg. Cover each with a large pastry circle, pressing around the edges to ensure a good seal. Trim away any excess overlapping pastry to leave a neat edge. 

Trim...

Using a small sharp knife make a small hole in the centre of each pie to let steam escape while they cook.  It is traditional to score the surface of each pie with semi-circular lines radiating out from the centre.

Score...

Refrigerate the Pithiviers until needed.

When you are ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 180°C (fan). Place the pies on a non-stick baking tray or one lined with baking paper and brush with beaten egg before baking in the pre-heated oven for about 25-30 minutes or until risen and golden.

Share...

Serve hot or cold with a salad.

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Orange, Cardamom & Coriander Madeleines – It's not what you've got, it's how you use it!

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For Café Europe - a cultural initiative held as part of Austria’s EU presidency in 2006 - Ireland offered scones, and France offered the Madeleine. While very different products, scones and Madeleines have some things in common – flour, sugar, butter, and social ambition. While both had relatively humble beginnings, they were adopted by high society – the scone becoming an essential part of ‘Afternoon Tea’, made fashionable by a rather peckish Anna Duchess of Bedford in the mid-nineteenth Century. The Madeleine (according to one account) was already a favourite at Versailles, adopted by the Court of Louis XV a century earlier. Both got a little lift from the invention of baking powder. There the similarity ends. Perhaps it's a lesson in "It's not what you've got, it's how you use it!"

In Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust’s narrator famously has a foodgasm brought on by the Madeleine. He doesn’t mention scones.

For 24 foodgasm-inducing Madeleines you will need…

… 2 x 12-hole Madeleine tins (you’ll get away with 1, just let it cool between bakes)

150g butter

3 eggs

130g caster sugar

a teaspoon of finely grated orange zest

1 teaspoon coriander seed, finely ground

the seeds from 2 fat green cardamom pods, finely ground

¼ tsp salt

130g plain flour

¾ tsp baking powder

a little extra flour for dusting the cake tins

Icing sugar for dusting over the finished cakes

Method

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over a medium to high heat (use a light-coloured saucepan such as stainless steel if possible as it allows you to see the colour change in the butter that indicates it has reached the right point). Once melted, let it continue to foam and splutter, swirling occasionally to make sure it is heating evenly. As the foaming and spluttering dies down, the butter will continue to darken from yellow, to golden, to toasty brown. The butter will also begin to smell a little nutty. The milk solids in the butter will separate out and sink to the bottom. Remove the pan from the hob and pour into a heatproof bowl or jug to cool to room temperature, leaving as much of the milk solid residue behind as possible (If you leave the melted butter in the pan, it will continue to cook in the residual heat and may burn).

Remove 2 tablespoons of the melted butter right away – you’ll need this to brush the cake tins later – cover and keep it at room temperature so that it remains liquid.

Put the eggs in a large bowl and add the sugar. Whisk until pale, pale yellow and has thickened to the ‘ribbon’ stage – the whisk will leave a trail as you move it through the mixture and when you lift the whisk, the batter will fall in a ribbon and stay on the surface for a couple of moments before slowly disappearing back into the mixture.

From top left to right, you can see the colour change as you whisk the batter

Add the salt, orange zest and ground spices.  Trickle in the cooled butter, whisking all the while until incorporated into the batter.

Add the baking powder to the flour and sift about one-third onto the surface of the batter. Using a metal spoon such as a dessertspoon, gently fold the flour into the batter. Repeat twice more until you have folded all the flour into the mixture.

Cover with cling film, pressing down lightly so that it is in contact with the surface of the batter.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour or overnight if possible.

When ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

Brush the Madeleine tins lightly with the reserved melted butter and sprinkle lightly with flour, tapping off the excess. Divide the batter evenly between the tins filling no more than about three-quarters full (an ice cream scoop or piping bag is good for even portioning). Don’t bother to spread the batter out to the edges - gravity will do the work for you.

Don't bother spreading the batter to the edges - gravity will do the work for you!

Transfer to the pre-heated oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until risen and golden and spring back under the touch of a finger. If the God of Madeleines has been kind, they should have formed a ‘dromedary’ hump (which I always thought was a defect, but turns out to be Madeleine perfection – who knew!). 

A ‘dromedary hump’ is desirable...

Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for a minute or so before tipping gently out of their shells onto a wire rack to cool. They freeze marvelously and are restored to oven-fresh magnificence after about 12 seconds in the microwave. If you are going to freeze them do so now, without their sugar dusting.

If they are to be eaten now, once cool, dust with icing sugar and consume with a decent cup of tea or a glass of sticky dessert wine.

You could also dip them in good dark chocolate or white chocolate.

A bit of quality control… baker's privilege ...

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Spiced Apple and Almond Cobbler – Tempting!

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"Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits."

-Samuel Butler

Mmmm, I do love Autumn. It is the season when some of my favourite fruits are at their best: plums and damsons, blackberries, apples – all delicious in a pie, or its even easier, lazier cousin, the cobbler. Today, I’ve gone for spiced apple and almond version.

You’ll notice the slightly unusual ‘cake tin’ I’ve used – a 24cm frying pan. If you don’t have an ovenproof non-stick frying pan, you can cook the filling in a regular non-stick frying pan then turn it into a lightly buttered baking dish of similar proportions and spoon the almond batter on top. 

Anyway, first to the recipe…

To conjure up a delicious Autumnal cobbler for 8 you will need…

For the filling

750g apples, prepared weight (peeled, cored and each cut into 8 wedges) Drop the prepared apple wedges into a bowl of cold water with a little lemon juice added, until ready to use. This stops them going brown.

30g butter

50g Demerara sugar, or brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 whole cloves, ground to a powder using a pestle and mortar (or your imagination)

1½ teaspoons cornflour

a little cold water

For the Topping

150g plain flour

100g butter, cubed

75g ground almonds

50g Demerara sugar, or brown sugar

2½ teaspoons baking powder

½  teaspoon almond extract

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

a pinch of salt

175mls milk

2 tablespoons slivered almonds

icing sugar to dust

First prepare the filling: Melt the butter over a medium heat in a non-stick frying pan suitable for use both on the hob and in the oven, and large enough to contain all the apples.

Dry the apples in a clean tea towel and add to the pan. Cook gently for about 6 minutes, turning occasionally, until beginning to soften. Add the sugar, cinnamon, and cloves and continue cooking until the sugar has melted and all the apples are coated with the mixture.

Mix the cornflour with just enough water to make a runny paste. Stir this into the apple mixture until any juices that have escaped into the pan have thickened up. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside while you make the topping.

Sugar and spice and all things nice...

For the Almond Batter you will need…

… to pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.

Put the batter ingredients - except the milk, slivered almonds and icing sugar -into a food processor and pulse until combined into a crumbly mixture like fine breadcrumbs. (If you don’t have a food processor, place the flour and butter in a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix until just combined.)

Add the milk and pulse (or mix) until it comes together into a thick but smooth mixture.

Dollop large spoonfuls of batter onto the surface of the apple mixture. Sprinkle evenly with the slivered almonds, and place in the pre-heated oven. Bake for about 25 minutes or until risen and golden brown.

Remove from the oven and dust with a little icing sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature with good vanilla ice cream.

Dolloping...

Come and get it!

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Almond, Orange and Apricot Buttermilk Scones – Would it be rude to eat three?

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The scone, so beloved of the British Isles, is thought to be about a thousand years old. There is a town in Scotland called Scone. It is tempting to believe that that's where the scone got its name from but there are other contenders from as far afield as Germany and The Netherlands.

The scone as we know it can only date from the mid 19^th century with the appearance of baking powder and baking soda. These culinary equivalents of the Wonderbra gave what must have been quite a flat and boring mass a bit of a lift. Since then, the scone hasn’t looked back and no teashop worth its salt would be without this stalwart of Afternoon Tea (or breakfast, or anytime with a cuppa really).

I’m not crazy about sultana scones and one of my young nieces shares this foible. If she gets a sultana scone, she picks out all the fruit, saving the ‘good’ plump sultanas for a better life (!!!) and eating the ‘bad’ smaller ones before demolishing the denuded quick bread.

I prefer more interesting fruit in my scones and I’ve gone with a buttermilk version simply because, for the first time in my life, I’ve run out of baking powder. The result is Almond, Orange and Apricot Buttermilk Scones. My taste tester said “Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! Would it be rude to eat three?” Of course not!

For approximately 10 dainty (5cm) scones you’ll need...

... to pre-heat your oven to 190°C 

250g plain flour

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (bread soda)

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

the zest of an orange, finely grated

50g butter, cold from the fridge, cut into small pieces

30g honey (or caster sugar if you prefer)

1 egg yolk

110mls buttermilk* (approximately)

½ teaspoon almond extract

50g ready-to-eat dried apricots, snipped into sultana-sized pieces

Method 

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, salt and orange zest.

 

Add the butter, and “rub it in” to the flour by taking large pinches of the mixture and crumbling between your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the honey (I weigh it directly into the bowl).

Grate! I love orange zest!

 

Combine the egg yolk with the buttermilk and almond extract and add just enough of this mixture to the flour mixture so that there is no dry flour left (you may not need to add it all).

Finally mix in the apricot pieces and turn the dough onto a lightly-floured work surface. (The dough can quickly be prepared in a stand mixer too.)

Handle the dough as little as possible to keep the butter cold for a better rise. Knead very lightly then pat the dough out into a round of about 2cm high. Stamp into rounds using a lightly floured 5cm scone cutter. (Try to avoid twisting as you stamp out the rounds as this will cause them to rise unevenly, like mine... old habits die hard). Gather up any scraps, re-form into a round and continue stamping out scone shapes until you’ve used up the dough.

Place on a non-stick baking sheet and brush with a little beaten egg or milk to glaze. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes or until well risen and golden brown.

Oven-ready in about 5 minutes flat! Tummy-ready in about 20!

 

Serve warm with butter and/or jam and a decent cup of tea or coffee - best served on the day of baking but can be frozen and refreshed in a hot oven. Cherry jam goes fantastically well with these. 

Rude to eat three? Why, it's practically mandatory!

 

Tip:

* If you don’t have buttermilk, use whole milk and add a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

 

This recipe can easily be increased. Double everything except the cooking time.

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