Jamaican Buttermilk, Apple and Ginger Cake – resistance is futile !

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An oldie, but a goodie

When the virtue of patience was being dished out, I was too darned impatient to wait in line. If only I’d known...

... You see, the thing with Jamaican Ginger Cake is, that while it takes under an hour from start to finish, it is best wrapped and left for 24 hours for the flavours to develop.

All those spices smell so good. I know from experience that I will probably unwrap a little corner to take a peak - just to make sure the Alchemy is working... (I’ve been know to dig up seeds to see if they have started developing roots yet...).

Before you know it, I’ll be cutting a wee slice - just a taste - and that tiny taste will call for another... the irresistible warmth of the spices... the tender sticky crumb and I’ll never learn just how good it can be when I include that missing ingredient, patience!

Up the ginger quotient by increasing the amount of allspice and fresh ginger to taste. A little finely chopped stem ginger stirred into the batter also heats things up a bit.

Will I be able to resist this time? We’ll see...

For one irresistible 1 x 2lb loaf you will need...

... to preheat the oven to 160˚C

Ingredients

a little butter for greasing a 2lb loaf tin

225g plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon of ground allspice* (not mixed spice!)

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon fine table salt 

100g treacle

100g golden syrup

100g dark brown sugar

100g butter

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

125mls buttermilk**

150g unsweetened stewed apple***

1 egg, beaten 

Method

Grease and baseline a 2lb loaf tin (or line with a loaf tin liner).

Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ground spices and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Weigh the treacle and golden syrup directly into a medium saucepan and add the sugar, butter, fresh ginger and vanilla extract and place over a low heat just until the butter has melted into the other ingredients. Remove from the heat immediately – at no point should it simmer or boil.

Meanwhile, mix together the buttermilk, stewed apple and beaten egg. Add this mixture to the flour mixture in the bowl and stir with a whisk until combined into a thick batter.

Melt, mix, stir, pour - it's that simple !

Add the warm mixture from the saucepan and whisk until combined into a smooth, fairly runny batter. Pour into the prepared loaf tin and transfer to the preheated oven.

Bake for 40 minutes or until well risen and the surface bounces back when lightly pressed. A cocktail stick inserted in the middle should come out clean, with no crumbs clinging. (Replace in the oven for a further 5 minutes if necessary and test again.)

Leave in the tin until completely cold, then remove from the tin and wrap in a layer of baking paper, then in cling film. Leave for at least 24 hours for the flavours to develop before cutting into thick slices and devouring with a decent cup of tea or coffee.

It is not the most beautiful cake in the world, but a dusting of icing sugar works wonders against the dark crumb of the cake, or you could drizzle with a water icing made according to the instructions on the packet.

 

Not the most beautiful cake in the world. A dusting of icing sugar works wonders !

*Allspice is a gorgeous warm aromatic dried berry – also called Jamaican Pepper – I grind the berries as I need them as they have a longer shelf life than ready ground – and there is the bonus of the lovely aroma they release when crushed.

Mixed spice is ... um... a mixture of spices.

**If you don’t have buttermilk, simply use the same amount of fresh milk to which you have added a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

***For the stewed apple, simply peel, core and slice a large Bramley apple or similar (prepared weight approximately 200g. Place the flesh of the apple in a small saucepan with 2 tablespoons of water, apple juice or cider. Place over a medium heat. Cover and allow the apple to steam in its own juices – stirring occasionally - for about 15 minutes or until completely soft and the slices of apple can be easily mashed with a fork. Mash to a reasonably smooth puree and leave to cool before using as above.

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Mixed... Spice Up Your Life

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I've been filling the kitchen with the rich warm smell of Mixed Spice a lot lately. It is the baking equivalent of a big fat hug. Mixed Spice is a blend of warm sweet spices which has been used in British and Irish cookery since the early to mid-19th Century. It was widely used by the time The Lancet of January 3, 1852, did a study, calling out more than half the sample group of grocers tested, for adulterating the blend with "farinaceous matter" including sago, wheat and potato flour, among other things. It noted at the time that the adulteration of Mixed Spice was linked to its high value. It features in a lot of Christmas baking, and has become an essential ingredient in Hot Cross Buns (which have been around a few centuries longer).

According to The Lancet, it should - at the very least - contain allspice, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. It can, in addition - contain caraway seed, cayenne pepper, coriander seed, mace and nutmeg.

Here is the combination I use:

1 tablespoon allspice berries

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon coriander seed

1 teaspoon ground ginger

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until you have a fine lump-free powder. Place in a small glass spice jar, and store with the rest of your spices, in a cool dry dark place. 

Essential in Hot Cross Buns (click on link for recipe) and Clootie Dumpling.

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The 12th bite of Christmas ... the 12 Grapes of Luck #12BitesOfChristmas

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One of your five a day and it isn't even breakfast time yet! What a great start to 2020!

The 12th bite of Christmas (12 bites in reality) is vegetarian, healthy and somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Less a recipe and more a ritual, it is an old Spanish custom guaranteed to bring good luck and prosperity (mostly to grape farmers, I imagine) in the coming year.

You will need...

seedless white grapes – 12 per person

church bells to ring 12 strokes at midnight on New Year’s Eve (Big Ben will do the trick)

Someone who knows the Heimlich Manoeuvre on standby in case someone tries to inhale rather than swallow their portion of grapes

You will also need 12 wishes (or the same one 12 times)

The timing of this ‘recipe’ is critical so give out the grapes in advance, 12 per person (if they peel them, it makes life easier)

Count down to midnight, then consume one grape for each stroke of the bell - it isn't as easy as it sounds.

It’s a bit of fun, and a healthy start to the New Year.  Have a good one!

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The 11th bite of Christmas ... Strawberry Marshmallow Santas #12BitesOfChristmas

Pin It The 11th bite is one of the cutest, and the simplest ...

Ho ho ho - Merry Christmas!!!

… and more an artist’s impression of Santa Claus rendered in good things rather than a recipe.  Below is how I did it. You may prefer to look at the photo and figure out your own unique strawberry Santa. 

To produce these ones, I used...

Large ripe strawberries

Marshmallows for the face

Bits of liquorice for the eyes and nose

Desiccated coconut for the beard

Whipped cream for the face, beard, pompom (and 'gluing' the bits of Santa together)

Blueberries for the boots – cut them into quarters.

Cut the bottoms off a punnet of large ripe strawberries, so that they have a flat base to stand on.

Slice off the pointy end, about 1/3 of the way from the tip. This will form the hat.

Sit the fat end of the strawberry on a plate. Pipe a little whipped cream onto the upturned face of the strawberry. Top with half a marshmallow – cut it if necessary so that it is about the same size as the upturned face of the strawberry. Press it into place. Add a little more whipped cream on top and place a strawberry ‘hat’ on top. Pipe cream onto the marshmallow ‘face’, giving an impression of a beard.

Sprinkle the beard with desiccated coconut, then press the bits of liquorice into place for the eyes and nose.

Place two quarter blueberries at the base of the strawberry so that they look like shiny boots. (They won't stay there when the Santa is picked up, but they look great until the moment of eating and people tend to collect them up and eat them). 

Pipe a little whipped cream on top of the hat to form a pompom.

Repeat until someone hands you a glass of wine and offers to take over. Merry Christmas!!!

Hmmm - some you win, some you lose - the one on the left looks more like Santa's dog!!!

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The 10th bite of Christmas ... Mini Chocolate Malteser Cupcakes #12BitesOfChristmas

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For the 10th bite of Christmas, I've have made for you...

Mini but magical! Mmmmmmmmm!

... Mini Chocolate Malteser Cupcakes!

I and my siblings have inherited a sixth-sense from our da: the ability to sniff out a gram of chocolate at fifty paces. It’s been useful over the years, tracking down lost boxes of Bournville and missing multi-packs of Flake that my mother had put “somewhere safe” and then forgotten. At this stage, we know every chocolate hidey hole in my parents’ home and, although we are by no means chocoholics, if someone mentions the magic word, chocolate of one description or another can be uncovered within minutes.

Only... I seem to be losing my touch. I was all set to make a savoury dish for today’s post. The text was written and I was assembling the ingredients when I was ambushed by a giant bag of Maltesers which leapt out of the cupboard at me.  Somehow, this bag of temptation had remained hidden. Perhaps the packaging is sniff-proof. Now what am I going to do?

Well... we all know that mini cupcakes have no calories right? J... 

These mini bites are in the oven as I type and the house smells like a chocolate beacon. Any minute now there will be a knock at the door and I will find my six chocolate-seeking siblings standing there...

These little cakes exist in two states - they are warm and melty from the oven, mmmmmm. However, when completely cooled the Maltesers re-solidify providing a delicious crunchy contrast. You must try both states at least twice!

For approximately 36 irresistible little chocolate bites you will need...

... mini-muffin trays and paper liners (or non-stick mini-muffin trays)

150g butter at room temperature

150g caster sugar
3 eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
100g plain flour
50g good quality cocoa powder
6g baking powder
approximately 36 Maltesers (+ a few extra as some might fall into your mouth accidentally)

a little icing sugar for dusting, (or see note below*)

Pre-heat your fan oven to 160°C and line the muffin tins with mini-muffin papers 

I pipe the mixture in for convenience but a spoon will do just as well.

1.                  In a mixing bowl, beat the butter together with the sugar until lighter in colour and fluffy (3 – 5 minutes using an electric mixer). Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing very well between additions. (If you add the egg too fast the mixture will curdle and result in a heavier cake – not the end of the world, but if you exercise patience this can be avoided).

2.                  When the eggs have been combined with the butter/sugar mixture, add the vanilla extract and sprinkle in the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder and continue beating until these dry ingredients are incorporated into the mixture.

3.                  Half-fill each mini-muffin cup, and gently press a Malteser into the centre of each. You want to leave a little of the mixture beneath each Malteser to cushion it from the heat. Fill each mini-muffin cup to about two-thirds full, concealing the Malteser in the centre of each cup. Transfer to the preheated oven.

4.                  Bake for 11 - 13 minutes or until well risen. To test for doneness, prod lightly with a finger. The mixture will spring back if it is cooked. If your finger sinks into the mixture, give the cakes another minute or two in the oven and test again.

5.                  Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Leave to cool before dusting with icing sugar or compounding the sin with chocolate frosting - see note (and link) below*

Mmmmmaltesers - one is never enough!

*If there had been more chocolate in the house, I would have frosted these with this chocolate honey truffle frosting or a ganache, or dipped them in good quality melted chocolate. I dusted them with icing sugar and it was enough to elicit a satisfied “Mmmmm... these are ammmmmmazing” from my taste tester.

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The 9th bite of Christmas is Buttermilk Buckwheat Blini #12BitesOfChristmas

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The 9th bite of Christmas elicits cries of Твоё здоровье! [Tvoyo zdorov'ye!]

Твоё здоровье!

Blini - bite-sized buckwheat buttermilk pancakes - are one of those things that need to be cooked at home, and eaten more or less straight from the frying pan. An amazing alchemy transforms a little flour, milk, egg and not much more into little puffs of air, barely contain within a cake of buckwheat bubbles. Make sure you weigh them down with a decent topping or they might just float away!

So light, they practically levitate - mind they don't float away!!!

Makes about 35 – 45 depending on how big or little you make them.

150ml fresh milk

100mls buttermilk

50g buckwheat flour

50g wholemeal wheat flour

50g strong white flour (bread flour)

1 teaspoon fast action dried yeast

1 teaspoon honey

2 eggs, at room temperature (separated)

½ teaspoon of fine table salt

A little olive oil or butter for cooking

... and whatever topping you decide to adorn them with.

Start the batter a couple of hours before you need it.

These little pancakes can be cooked in advance then reheated in a low oven or in a frying pan.

Heat the fresh milk and buttermilk together in a pan to about 35°C (approximately 95°F) – if you don’t have a thermometer, this is when the milk feels neither hot nor cold if you stick a (clean) finger in to test it.

Next, mix the buckwheat, wholemeal, and strong flours together in a mixing bowl, and add the yeast, stir in the milk and the honey and mix well to combine. Add the egg yolks and salt and again mix to combine. Cover and leave the yeast to perform its alchemy for about an hour or until the mixture has thickened slightly and is surfaced with bubbles.

Whisk the egg whites in a bowl to a soft peak (when you lift the whisk from the bowl, it should draw the mixture into soft mountains that flop over gently at the top). Fold* the whisked egg whites gently into the mixture, until well-combined (*see note at the end of this post). Then heat a little olive oil or butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. When the pan is hot enough, carefully wipe away any excess fat with a wad of kitchen paper, setting it aside to wipe the pan out between batches.

Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot pan, adjusting the temperature if necessary to stop them burning. I use a tablespoon, barely filling it to the top of the bowl. Make them larger if you wish.

Clockwise from top left: From raw batter to little pillows of air getting a tan

Once the top of the pancakes are pitted with a rash of burst bubbles, turn them over and continue cooking for a further minute. Once cooked, place on a heat proof dish and keep warm in a gentle oven until ready to serve, or leave to go cold for reheating later.

When ready to serve, slather with a little sour cream or cream cheese, top with a little hot-smoked or cold-smoked fish and some dill/chives/caviar. Or top with whatever you normally put on pancakes – sweet or savoury.

Eat several, reflecting as you chew, that life isn’t half bad.

Твоё здоровье!

*To fold egg white into the mixture first of all stir about one-third of the egg white into the mixture to slacken it a little then taking a spatula or a large metal spoon in your dominant hand, cut through the centre of the batter. Move the spatula or spoon across the bottom of the bowl, and back up the side and across the top bringing some of the mixture from bottom to top. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Keep folding the mixture and turning the bowl until the ingredients are incorporated into the batter. Folding avoids overworking the batter keeping it light and airy.

This one's for Santa...

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The 7th bite of Christmas to nibble round the tree is... a double dozen of magnificent mini mince pies #12BitesOfChristmas

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The 7^th bite of Christmas is great with a cup of tea…

 And technically, you only need two ingredients...

·        pastry

(The one I’ve used is the well-behaved sweet crust pastry from the Bakewell Tart recipe in Alchemy: Simple Ingredients… Magical Food. It is a buttery, crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth pastry I tend to use for all sweet tarts and pies – if you are following the recipe, I’ve substituted vanilla extract for the almond extract mentioned - but you can always use a commercial pastry if buttery, crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth is not your thing.

·        mincemeat

I’ve used the mincemeat recipe I put on the blog a few weeks ago (on this occasion I left out the almonds and increased the walnuts according, and I left out the cranberries and doubled the amount of mixed peel for a satisfyingly orangey note.) The actual work involved in making the mincemeat is minimal, however you will need a little time to let it cook gently – preferably make it the day before at the very least to give the flavours time to meld. Or you can buy it.

You will also need mini muffin tins – I have two x 12 hole tins  - this recipe makes 24; a 6cm round cutter; and a cutter just big enough to cut out circles to make the lids– or shaped cutters like I’ve used

 For 24 magnificent mini mince pies, you will need...
...to preheat the oven to 180°C when ready to bake

470g short crust pastry (see introduction above)

250g mincemeat (homemade or commercial)

a little milk to stick down the lids and glaze (optional)

a little icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Roll out the pastry to a thickness of about 3mm – the thickness of a euro or a pound coin. Using the 6cm round cutter, stamp out 24 rounds of pastry and use to line the mini muffin tins.

Re-roll the scraps if needed...

Stamp out 24 lids using a smaller round cutter and or shaped cutters just big enough to reach right to the edges of the muffin tin holes – stars are very Christmassy. You may need to gather up the scraps of pastry and reform into a smooth ball before re-rolling and cutting out the rest of the tops. No biggie.

Divide the mincemeat between the pastry cups – they will take a small teaspoon of the filling – don’t be overgenerous or the filling will burst out of the pies during cooking.

Don't be overgenerous with the filling or it will burst out of its pastry shell...

Cover the filled cups with a pastry lid moistened with a little water – or milk if using. (Lightly brushing the lids with milk will help to brown them). Chill for about 30 minutes then bake in a pre-heated oven for between 12 and 15 minutes or until evenly golden brown.

Remove from the tins and leave to cool on cooling tray. Dust with icing sugar.

Mince Pies ... Hygge Heaven!!!

They are delicious at room temperature or gently heated and served with vanilla ice cream, or a little brandy cream or brandy butter.

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