Category Archives: Food
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Granola
Credit: Middle Class Handbook
This is sheer brilliance, courtesy of Middle Class Handbook. Mental note to self: Must try Lizi’s Granola, if it’s even more evolved than Dorset Cereals.
Cake that’s worth the wait
Good news! I made my husband the ultra-British coffee and walnut cake that I had promised! Even better, it was actually really good, thanks to a recipe from Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Kitchen cookbook!
Her version is very simple, particularly since all of the ingredients go straight into the food processor and are blitzed.
The “coffee” ingredient she recommends is instant espresso powder, which I didn’t even know existed, but was easy to find in our nearest grocery store.
After exactly 25 minutes, they were ready.
I waited 10 minutes as instructed before moving the cakes to the cooling racks. The cakes just eased out of the pans, as if on cue. It was amazing.
The frosting was also very simple to make (powdered sugar, butter and instant espresso powder in a little bit of boiling water) but was easily the best buttercream frosting recipe I’ve ever made. I was exceedingly proud of how pretty this cake turned out – just look!
I’ll definitely make it again in non-birthday circumstances. I can easily see this turning into my go-to cake to bake! Note: if you’re making the cake for kids, you can always tone down the caffeine quotient by replacing the 4 teaspoons of instant espresso powder with 2 teaspoons of instant coffee granules. (Or you can just serve it first thing in the morning and call it breakfast).
COFFEE AND WALNUT LAYER CAKE
For the sponge
1/2 cup walnuts (pieces)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (soft (plus some for greasing))
1 1/3 cups plain flour
4 teaspoon(s) instant espresso powder
2.5 teaspoon(s) baking powder
½ teaspoon(s) baking soda
4 medium egg(s)
2 tablespoon(s) milk
For the buttercream frosting
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
2.5 teaspoon(s) instant espresso powder, dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water
approximately 10 walnut halves
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the 2 8-inch round cake pans and line the base of each with parchment paper.
Put the walnut pieces and sugar into a food processor and blitz to a fine nutty powder.
Add the 2 sticks of butter, flour, 4 teaspoons espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda and eggs and process to a smooth batter.
Add the milk, pouring it down the funnel with the motor still running, or just pulsing, to loosen the cake mixture: it should be a soft, dropping consistency, so add more milk if you need to. (If you are making this by hand, bash the nuts to a rubbly powder with a rolling pin and mix with the dry ingredients; then cream the butter and sugar together, and beat in some dry ingredients and eggs alternately and, finally, the milk.)
Divide the mixture between the 2 cake pans and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until the sponge has risen and feels springy to the touch.
Cool the cakes in their tins on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, before turning them out onto the rack and peeling off the parchment paper.
When the sponges are cool, you can make the buttercream.
To make the frosting:
Pulse the powdered sugar in the food processor until it is lump free, then add the butter and process to make a smooth icing.
Dissolve the instant espresso powder in 1 tablespoon boiling water and add it while still hot to the processor, pulsing to blend into the buttercream.
If you are doing this by hand, sieve the icing sugar and beat it into the butter with a wooden spoon. Then beat in the hot coffee liquid.
Place 1 sponge upside down on your cake stand or serving plate.
Spread with about half the icing; then place on it the second sponge, right side up (i.e. so the 2 flat sides of the sponges meet in the middle) and cover the top with the remaining icing in a ramshackle swirly pattern.
This cake is all about old-fashioned, rustic charm, so don’t worry unduly: however the frosting goes on is fine. similarly, don’t fret about some buttercream oozing out around the middle: that’s what makes it look so inviting.
Gently press the walnut halves into the top of the icing all around the edge of the circle about 1/2 inch apart.
Cuts into 8 generous slices.
Blythe and her blueberry muffins
I realize that Gwyneth Paltrow is not actually British, but she’s British enough (married to a Brit, raising two half-Brit sprogs, speaking in that often strange, Madonna-esque English).
I bought her cookbook “My Father’s Daughter” last year and every once in a while, I will dip into it and have been rather successful. Her father’s pancake recipe is legendary in our house. I like her best stir-fried chicken recipe and her ten-hour chicken recipe. She’s got some great simple pasta dishes. But there’s one recipe I’ve eyed from the start – her mother Blythe Danner’s blueberry muffin recipe – and I finally made it on Saturday.
It’s a basic muffin recipe. You mix dry ingredients in one bowl. Wet ingredients in another bowl. Mix them together and then fold in the blueberries. It was straightforward, except the results were more like a drop scone batter than a cake batter.
And the final results:
Not very pretty, and not like the photos in the book, but it was as she described. Tart and sweet. It tasted wholesome and even a little nutritious. The kids actually ate around the blueberries (which were the tart component) and the cat wouldn’t leave us alone once the muffins came out of the oven. She didn’t eat them but lingered like she had hoped a piece of muffin might be in her future (as it turned out, I did offer her some and she smelled it longingly but didn’t go for it.)
Here’s the recipe:
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 organic large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tsp granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine salt
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with papers.
Whisk the butter, eggs and milk together in a bowl. In another bowl whisk together the flour, the 3/4 cup of sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold in the blueberries. Divide among the muffin cups and sprinkle the muffins with the remaining teaspoon of sugar. Bake until a toothpick tests clean and the muffins are golden brown, 25-30 minutes. Best to eat these warm.
Yield: 1 dozen muffins. Active preparation time: 15 minutes. Total preparation time: 45 minutes.
Birthdays and coffee walnut cake
First things first, a very happy birthday to my lovely husband (who hates to be blogged about so will refrain from saying any more here).
Well, except one thing. The cake.
I find it so challenging each year to move seamlessly from Halloween to his birthday. No matter how much I prep ahead of time, there’s always the issue of the cake (which I simply cannot bake, after a long night of trick-or-treating and merriment making!).
Here’s the goal:
Coffee and walnut cake
It’s his favorite cake in the whole world. So very British that I just can’t buy it off the shelf. It’s nothing like American coffee cake, all streuseled and cinnamon-specked. Pillsbury has no idea WTH this cake is and neither do any of our local bakeries and so I usually go with his second favorite cake in America: A fruit basket cake (a buttermilk cake filled with fresh strawberries and bananas in whipped cream). No less delicious, I might add.
But this year, oh this year. I’m going to attempt the coffee and walnut cake. Yes, it will be late. But I hope it will be worth the wait!
If it is, I’ll post the recipe I used – I’m debating between BBC and Delia Smith right now. If it’s not, well, let’s never discuss this matter again (and will bribe a baker friend next year, perhaps, willing to make a cake on Halloween night).
Brits and the Triple D
With my British sister-in-law in town these past few days, we’ve been eating out a fair bit. Today she led us to Dad’s Kitchen in Sacramento, which I’ve driven past a million times but never tried.
The reason for her pick? It was on “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.” Yes, Brits get Guy Fieri on the Food Network UK channel and she’s taught me a thing or two about the Triple D. She knew about this website Flavortownusa.com, which maps out all of the eateries that have been featured on the show. She and her husband have been to a few across the U.S. on previous visits and have yet to be disappointed.
Dad’s Kitchen was good. We ordered Dad’s Burger and The Hot Blonde (both which were featured on the show), along with fries and jumbo onion rings, drizzled with a balsamic vinegar reduction and a shred of parmesan.
And as we left, our waiter told us that they’ve already served two Brits today…
Toad in the hole
When fall begins to assert itself, we love nothing more than a comforting dish like Toad in the Hole. We made some last week, just as the weather started to cool.
Don’t worry. No toads were harmed in the making of this meal. The origins of Toad in the Hole are here.
If you’ve ever had a Bullock’s popover (does anyone remember the department store Bullock’s and their delicious popovers, which were basically Yorkshire puddings?), imagine this done big, studded with British bangers (translation: sausages). My husband uses the Yorkshire pudding recipe from Nigella Lawson’s Feast cookbook as the base for the Toad in the Hole:
1 1/3 cups 2% milk
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
Packet of British bangers
Whisk the milk, eggs and salt well and let stand for 15 minutes, then whisk in the flour and let stand again until you need it. Cook at 450 degrees. Put the muffin tin in the oven to heat up for a good 10-15 minutes, with vegetable oil at the bottom. Add British bangers (we cut ours in half). When the pan and oil has been heated, pour in the yorkshire pudding batter and cook for 15-20 minutes or until they have puffed up gloriously.
Scotch Egg Challenge winners
The Ship in Wandsworth was the eggstraordinary site for last night’s 2012 Scotch Egg Challenge.
I followed the challenge last year and blogged last year’s winner. This year, I got a blow by blow account of the event, thanks to Twitter and #ScotchEggChallenge.
And without further ado, the winners …
Mmm … the winning Scotch egg. Photo credit: Bladebone Inn
1st Place: The Bladebone Inn, near Reading. Berkshire
2nd Place: The Hinds Head, Bray, Berkshire
3rd Place: The Drapers Arms, Islington
Congrats to the winners and all who participated last night. Eggcellent work!
Frosties
Photo credit: consumeropinionreviews.blogspot.com
I don’t know about you, but I am fascinated when I see brands in other countries that we as Americans know and love. It’s a strange yet familiar sight. Case in point: Frosties.
You know it as Frosted Flakes, but Brits recognize it as Frosties and I do think that the name “Frosties” is a much more cheerful, albeit more American cheerleader name for the cereal. By comparison, Frosted Flakes sounds almost clinical. Don’t you think?
And if you were wondering, their Tiger also is called Tony and yes, he also thinks “they’re grrreat!”
Man flu and sausage rolls
My husband’s been down with a mean case of the man flu this week. Sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head and feverish, he is a walking (albeit overdramatic) Nyquil ad and make me want to swim in a sea of Purell.
But before the cold bug bit this week, he did some baking: a ginormous sausage roll. Typically sausage rolls are bite-sized British morsels, but this was supersized, making it a kind of pork pie-esque puff pastry loaf. The kids chowed down despite their love-hate relationship with minced meat, as did I, despite the fact that our chef became deathly ill the next day.
Here’s the recipe courtesy of Delia Smith.
The secret to good fish and chips
Photo credit: The Independent
Sorry, America, your chips suck.
Too many fish and chip shops in the U.S. rely on limp, frozen, thick-cut fries and they try to pawn them off quietly, blanketed underneath a fine piece of crisp, beer-battered fish. It’s a travesty that is happening in too many so-called London fish and chip shops that are a dime-a-dozen in the U.S.
But there is a secret to good fish and chips and you don’t need to have British-grown spuds to succeed. Just double fry the chips! It makes a world of difference and the Brits know it!
Check out The Independent’s guide to perfect chips every time – at home!
BRITRISH.COM 