American Waffles with Blueberry Compote

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New_IMG_9796I love Belgian Waffles – those thick, square yeasty ones.

Sadly, I can’t really make those in my little waffle iron at home, as that one is for the thinner German ones. Still, I wanted to try out a waffle receipe with yeast anyway, as yeasty waffles are also quite American (I think!) and the waffles there are not really sweet and actually, often eaten with chicken.

As you know, I’m always one for sweet rather than savory though, so I opted to serve them with blueberry compote, quickly made from frozen blueberries.

Please note, that the waffle dough  has to rest overnight, so you’ll need to make it in the evening ahead of your waffle brunch!

For the waffles you’ll need:

  • 21 g OR ½ a cube of fresh yeast
  • 125 ml water at room temperature
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 485 ml warm milk
  • 120 g melted butter
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • 235 g white flour*
  • 50 g wholemeal flour*
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

*of course, you can also just use 285g plain flour instead of the plain/wholemeal flour combo, if you prefer

For the blueberry compote you’ll need:

  • 2 cups frozen blueberries
  • 3 tbsp water
  • 2 ½ tbsp honey
  • ¼  tsp ground cinnamon

In the evening, mix together the yeast, water and sugar in a big bowl (about 3l capacity) and set aside for 5 minutes.
Add milk, butter, salt and flour and mix everything together with an electric whisk. Cover the bowl with cling film and let it sit on the kitchen counter overnight, for the batter to rise and (at least) double in size.

In the morning, start with the compote:  pour 1 cup of the blueberries into a pot with the water, honey and cinnamon. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.  Now that the blueberries are soft, mash them against the pan with a potato masher or wooden spoon. Add the remaining blueberries and on a low heat, warm them through for about 5 minutes.

For the waffles, mix the eggs and bicarb of soda and fold them in the risen batter.

Warm up your waffle iron and get baking (as per manufacturers instructions).

If you fancy, add a dusting of icing sugar…

Easter Cookies

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It’s hard to believe it’s almost Easter, thanks to the ongoing sub-zero temperatures and snow in front of my window, that makes it feel more like Christmas.

That’s no reason though, to not try to get into a more spring like mood, at least indoors, for example with the help of some springtime decorations. And when it comes to decorations, why not go for edible ones, such as these Easter cookies. You won’t even need special Easter cookie cutters for them,  any round cookie cutter can – with the help of icing – make some cute Easter chicks…

For about 24 cookies you’ll need:

  • 90g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • ½ tsp almond OR vanilla extract
  • 200g flour (plus extra for rolling out the dough)
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 250g icing sugar
  • 1 egg white
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tube of ready-made black icing

Mix the flour with the baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together until the mix is fluffy and pale in colour. Add the egg and almond or vanilla extract and whisk again, then mix the dry ingredients in to the wet.

Using your hands bring the dough together to form a ball. Wrap it in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas mark 4 and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.

Sprinkle your work surface with flour, flatten the dough ball on it and dust it’s surface with flour as well before rolling it out to the thickness of about half a centimeter. Using a round cookie cutter of around 6cm cut the cookies out and transfer them to the baking sheets. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes (one sheet at the time) until the cookies are lightly golden.

Cool on a rack whilst making the icing by mixing the icing sugar, egg white and lemon juice (do this slowly with a fork, or the icing sugar will fly everywhere). Set 2 tablespoons of the icing aside, which will be used for the eyes.

Add yellow food colouring to the rest of the icing. Then set 2 tablespoons of the yellow icing aside and mix that with some red food colouring to make some orange icing for the peak and feet.

Using a (palette) knife ice all cookies with the yellow icing and let it dry, before piping on the white eyes, followed by the orange peak and feet. If you don’t have a piping bag with a fine tip, you can fold some baking parchment into a cone, leaving a small opening at the pointy end of it. Finally, add black pupils on to the white eyes, with the ready-made black icing and there you have it: a bunch of spring chickens – Happy Easter!

Yoghurt Mousse and Frozen Berry Pots

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Defrosting my freezer the other night, I came across some raspberries, which I needed to use up.

Not that this is a hard thing to do. I always like to have some frozen berries, when fresh ones are not in season so that I can still have berries with my breakfast – or at any other time of the day for that matter. They are great just as an accompaniment for pancakes, stirred in porridge or with yoghurt and granola.

In this easy receipe they make up a fruity layer between yoghurt mousse, which sits on a biscuit base, similar to the base of some cheesecakes. The little pots of this combo make a great brunch dessert, enjoyed after some Eggs Benedict or such likes. Of course, you could always also just go straight to dessert…

For 8 small pots you’ll need:

  • 40g butter
  • 100g plus another 2 -3 for the topping, crunchy oat biscuits (Hobnobs work best in the UK)
  • 400g plain yoghurt
  • 3-4 Tbsp honey
  • 3-4 Tbsp vanilla infused sugar (if you don’t have that you can go for the same amount of sugar and add 1 tsp vanilla essence)
  • 200g whipping cream
  • 300g frozen raspberries
  • 4 Tbsp crushed hazelnuts (optional)

For the biscuit base, crush the biscuits until you have fine crumbs. I find the best way to do this is to put the biscuits in a freezer bag and bash that bag with a rolling pin.

Melt the butter on the hob, then stir in the biscuit crumbs and spread the mixture between your 8 dessert pots/glasses and press it down with the back of a teaspoon. Leave to set in the fridge for half an hour.

For the mousse, start by whipping up the cream so it holds it’s shape. Now, in a larger bowl, whisk the honey and vanilla sugar into the yoghurt. If you have a sweet tooth go for 4 tablespoons of each, the honey as well as the sugar – otherwise start with 3 tablespoons and add more if desired.

Carefully fold the whipped cream under the sweetened yoghurt and using a piping bag, pipe half of the mousse on top of your cooled down biscuit bases. Add a layer of frozen berries and then pipe on the rest of the mousse to cover the berries.

Break the extra biscuits down to crumbs and sprinkle those on top of the mousse. And/or, for extra crunch, roast small hazelnut pieces in a non-stick pan for a few minutes and, once they have cooled down, add them to the crumbs, as a final finishing touch.

You can eat the desserts straight away “semi-freddo style”  (though I’d suggest even then to wait about an hour for the raspberries to defrost a little) or transfer the pots back to the fridge, where they will keep for up to 24 hours.

 

 

Lemon Drizzle Cake

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Anyone for some lemon cake?

Apparently, someone in my circle of London friends always is.
At least that’s what I’ll assume as this lemon cake seems to be one of my most popular cakes here and whenever I make it, people compliment me for it.

To be honest, I don’t quite actually quite know why, as it is just a basic lemon cake, which isn’t very exciting really but then again, I guess, it’s the simplicity of it that everyone likes: the light lemon flavor and the crunchy sugar topping.

What I like most about it, is that the making is very simple too, which is always a plus…

For the cake you will need:

  • 275g flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 225g unsalted butter or margarine
  • 225g sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 4 tbsp milk
  • grated rind of 2 lemons
  • pinch of salt

For the cake topping you’ll need:

  • 175g sugar, if you want it crunchy go for granulated sugar
  • juice of 2 lemons

Preheat the oven to gas mark 3 and prepare a deep baking tin (mine is about 20 x 30 cm and the type that’s great for pasta bakes or tiramisu) by brushing it lightly with oil and lining it with baking paper.

Mix the flour and baking powder in one bowl. In another one, mix the butter/margarine, eggs and sugar, as well as the pinch of salt and lemon rind with an electric whisk until combined. Then add the baking powder enriched flour and milk and whisk again until the dough is smooth, which won’t take long at all (2-3 mins).

Pour the dough in your tin and level it with a spatula, then bake it for 40 – 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. 

Cool the cake down in the tin, on a wire rack, but while it is still a little warm, use a toothpick to prick a few holes in the cake. Mix the sugar into the lemon juice and slowly drizzle it over the cake, letting some of it getting soaked up, so that it will infuse the cake with the lemony syrup but the crunchy sugar will stay on top.

Enjoy when it’s completely cooled down and the topping has set.

Drop Scones with White Chocolate & Summer Berries

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Near my office, there’s a new bakery that I often walk past in the mornings. The other day I stopped to get myself a little something sweet and the “Strawberry and White Chocolate Drop Scones” caught my eye and what a good choice that was! Sweet white chocolate drops and juicy strawberries liven up a chewy on the inside but crispy on the outside scone. It only took one and I was addicted. And rather than spending £2 a scone at said bakery on this new habit of mine, I decided to see if I could make them myself and I am glad to say, I can.

The receipe is easy, quick to do and doesn’t even require many ingredients. The resulting scones might not win a beauty contest but I can ensure you, that there will still be plenty of people who will happily eat them out of your hands…

For 12 scones you’ll need:

  • 1 cup plain flour
  • ½ cup wholemeal flour (or plain if you prefer)
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 ½ cup frozen summer berries 
  • ½ cup white chocolate chips
  • 2 tsp baking powder

  • a pinch of salt

  • 1 cup heavy cream

  • 2 tbsp butter, melted

  • 2 tbsp (preferably granulated) sugar

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and prepare a baking sheet by lightly greasing it or lining it with baking parchment.

In a bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, sugar and salt, then add the chocolate chips.
Mix the frozen berries in, followed by the cream.

If you find that everything is nicely mixed already, then you can just drop 12 big spoonfuls of the dough on a your tray. Most likely though, it is not, in which case turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead everything together by hand. This should happen quickly as it is only to combine all ingredients. Shape the dough into 2 rolls and cut each in 6 pieces, which you then spread out on your tray.

Brush each scone with some melted butter and sprinkle them with the sugar and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until the scones start to brown.

Leave them to cool – first on the tray, then on a wire rack – and eat them the same day.