Brown Irish soda bread - the definitive version

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Trial and error

It took me six attempts at making brown bread to figure out how to get it exactly right. I wanted chewy, dark, malty, deliciousness, and to begin with I got dry and hard as a bullet. I tried using all manner of powders and sodas, I tried all wholemeal, half wholemeal, several different types of flour, I overcooked it, undercooked it, and cooked it so that it fused itself to the baking parchment that I inadvisably used to line the tin. And after all that, this one, which takes one bowl and 20 seconds to make is the best brown bread...possibly ever. Now if only my house mates would stop eating it before its even cool!!

My main bit of wisdom to impart is this: use buttermilk. Nothing else makes it taste even nearly as good.

Ingredients:
3/4 lb of coarse wholemeal flour
1/4 lb plain white flour
1 heaped teaspoon bread soda
1 level teaspoon salt
1 level teaspoon sugar
450ml buttermilk

in a bowl combine flours, breadsoda, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add buttermilk and stir to a sloppy consistency. Pour this mixture into a well greased 1lb loaf tin. Bake in a preheated oven at gas 8/about 230 Celsius for 50 min. Remove from oven and take out of tin. Tap the bottom of the loaf. It should sound hollow. At this point I usually put it back in the loaf tin upside down and return it to the oven for another 10 mins to crisp up the bottom.

PS:
Apologies for not blogging for AGES! My cooking mojo is hiding under a rock and I dont have a decent camera. I will be back soon though. XxLola

Cinnamon & Raisin Bagels

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Boilin' the Bagels

A trip to New York is never complete without ordering a bagel from a deli. The bagel emerges toasty hot and stuffed to the gills with your chosen filling. Pastrami to the thickness of a couple of inches, topped with thin ribboned iceberg lettuce and mayo and tomato. It's a feat to try and take in that first bite.

Since I've visited New york twice, I can by no means make any claims to be an expert. The bagels there are different from the ones you get in the local Spar here. A real bagel has to be boiled, and I don't see no large vats of bubbling water beside the ovens churning out the jambons and chicken fillets. After boiling they are indeed baked as well, but the boiling gives them a chewy and slight hint of dumpling that you just can't get here.

Leaning Tower of Bagels on a Sunny Day!

I decided to make some of my own after reading Donal Skehans post on his mammoth eating holiday in Manhattan. I found a recipe for Cinnamon and Raisin Breakfast Bagels on his blog too - so that all came together nicely. Donal is a long time Irish blogger, just celebrating the release of his second cook book 'Kitchen Hero' Congrats to Donal, hope the book does fantastically!


I followed his recipe faithfully here, and now have a freezer half full of bagels, just pop them in the toaster for instant breakfast or afternoon tea. Spread with fresh butter, or cream cheese. I attempted hot cross buns last year - and failed miserably, these are much better alternative.


Enjoy!

Lemon Meringue Pie

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Guest Chef no.5 - Jane Fitzgerald

Jane Fitzgerald is a mutual friend of both Lola and mine - we met her on the first day of college also, though not over a cigarette. She's a great cook, and prepared a fabulous dinner for us and a few other friends last Saturday. The entire meal was wonderful but the piece-de-resistance was an enormous Lemon Meringue Pie, it's size was matched only by how delicious it was.

She kindly agreed to share the recipe with us below, enjoy ......

Lemon meringue pie - a 50's housewife's piece de resistance. Don't be scared off by the long recipe, it'll be well worth the effort, and isn't too laborious if you have a food blender.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
4 oz (110 g) plain flour
pinch salt
2 oz (50 g) butter, at room temperature and cut up into dice - sized cubes
1 -2 tablespoons of water

For the filling:
grated zest (see my tip below!) and juice of 2 large lemons
3 level tablespoons cornflour
2 oz (50 g) golden caster sugar
3 large egg yolks
1½ oz (40 g) butter

For the meringue:
3 large egg whites
6 oz (175 g) golden caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Serves 6.

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5, 375°F (190°C).

You will also need a 1 inch deep pie tin with sloping sides, measuring 7½ inch at the base and 9½ inch at the top. It helps if it's a nice dish as you'll be serving the pie in it.

Start by making the pastry. Sieve the flour and a pinch of salt into a large bowl. Then add the butter, cut into smallish lumps, and, using only your fingertips, lightly rub the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs. Sprinkle in some cold water – about 1 tablespoon. Knead the pastry, adding a few more drops of water until you have a smooth dough that will leave the bowl clean. Or if you're lucky enough to have a food processor, mix the butter, salt and flour together until it does the same thing, then add the water. If you have enough time, leave it wrapped up the fridge for half an hour as this makes it easier to roll out. This also gives you time to put your curlers in and do your nails for when your husband comes in from a hard day at the office.

Next, roll the pastry out to a circle about ½ inch larger all round than the rim of the tin and lay it out in the tin. Make sure not to leave any air under it, and press a fork around the entire rim so that the pastry doesn't come away from the tin as it cooks. Then prick the base all over with a fork. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove the pastry case from the oven and immediately lower the heat to gas mark 2, 300°F (150°C) for the meringue.

Now, for the filling, otherwise known as lemon curd (you can have anything left over for your toast in the morning!). Measure 10 fl oz (275 ml) cold water into a jug, and spoon the cornflour and sugar into a bowl. Add enough of the water to the cornflour to make a smooth paste, then pour the rest of the water, along with the grated lemon zest, into a small saucepan. A little tip here. If you have a hand held blender and hate zesting lemons, do this instead. Using a peeler, peel the lemons, taking care not to peel off too much pith, then put this in a hand held blender and whizz around. Hey presto - hassle free zest.

Bring the mixture in the saucepan to the boil, then pour it gradually on to the cornflour, mixing all the time until it is smooth. Now return the mixture to the saucepan and bring back to the boil, still mixing. Next, simmer very gently for about 1 minute, stirring all the time to prevent any lumps forming. Then remove the pan from the heat and beat in the egg yolks, lemon juice and, finally, the butter. Pour the lemon mixture into the pastry shell and spread it out evenly.

Finally, for the meringue, use a large, roomy bowl (or a blender) and whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Now whisk in a quarter of the sugar at a time, then spread the meringue to the very edge of the pastry rim with a spatula, so that it seals the edge completely. Use a spatula to smooth out the meringue, or add a few swirls. Cook in the oven on the centre shelf for 35 - 40 minutes, or until the meringue turns a golden beige, and is squishy on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

I prefer to serve this luke warm, and all on its own.

It's a good thing that I'm salivating as I type!

This recipe is taken (mostly) from Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery
Course and Delia Smith’s Complete Illustrated Cookery Course.

Sourdough Bread

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My new pet

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine Fiona offered to give Lu and I some of her beloved and well established sourdough starter. I put it in a big kilner jar fed it up with flour and water, nurtured it, named it Larry and finally made my first loaf, as you can see in the pictures. Once you have a healthy and bubbly starter you can keep it in the fridge and only feed it once a week (if only all pets were so easy to maintain). For more detailed and nerdish info on how to grow your own starter (I have tried and failed) check out these websites, where you will also find loads of great recipes. When you feed your starter it you will notice that its absolutely mingin. Seriously. If you are getting it right it should be a white sloppy floppy goo that has a very odd elastic snotty texture like the slime from an 80s horror film. But white. And a smell like old beer. Bleugh.

BUT its worth it because it makes bloomin' amazing bread. And it's really not all that much effort as long as you have the time to:

A: feed your starter 8 hours before you want to start making the bread

B: have another 8 hours (overnighter) to spare for the first proof

C: have another 2 hours spare for the second proof

D: 40 minutes to bake it

so.. hardly any effort at all then....

But Fiona has told me that it really shouldn't take this long and as I still haven't quite achieved that chewy, open sourdough texture after three attempts, I figure young Larry just isn't strong enough yet. I have started to feed him more regularly in the hope of building up his strength, so I'll keep you all up to date as to when his stores of bacteria have multiplied in sufficient quantities to allow him to produce the perfect loaf. The little scamp. The quest begins.

Meanwhile, our bread consumption has gone through the roof, oops, all in he name of science....

Apple Filo tarts

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Sunday paper-thin treats

I had a yen to make Parisian apple tartlets like these, but unfortunately, once again I couldn't find any ready made puff pasty in the whole of the Dublin 7 area (ok, I tried 3 shops and gave up). You may remember that we had a similar problem back in August when we were making the Beef and Guiness pie, and I actually had to go to effort of making my own! It turned out ok, but as all my tv cooking heroes (Nigel, Nigela, and Jamie) say, its not worth making your own puff, as the bought stuff is always going to be better. Anyway, Its a Sunday afternoon, and the less palaver involved the better.

Once again to the rescue came our local middle eastern shop Alauras. It stocks frozen filo, which can be used to make baklava (I will have to try it one of these days) and Lucy's famous home made jambons, (another improvised recipe which called for puff pastry but had to settle for filo) Using frozen ready made pastry means that these tarts are so quick and easy to make, and if you actually use puff pastry then you don't have to bother with all the brushing of melted butter. Just pop the sugar and apple on top of the pastry, and bake!

On reflection, I think I would actually prefer the filo version. These tarts were crunchy, melty, delicious. Perfect with a cup of coffee and the Sunday papers!

Ingredients:

Frozen filo pastry, defrosted

4 oz butter

1 large apple (2 small) such as coxs or braeburn

2 oz brown sugar

ground cinnamon

Start by melting half of the butter in a pan. Brush 6 individual tartlet cases with some of the butter. (If you don't have cases, you can just layer the pastry up in tart-sized squares on a buttered baking tray. This is what you would do if you were using puff pastry, too)

Layer the pastry, one sheet a a time into the cases, brushing each of the pastry sheets with the melted butter as you go. There should be 5 or 6 layers of pastry in each tart. Press the pastry in to the tins and leave the excess corners sticking out (I think they look lovely like that). Brush the top layer of pastry all over with the butter. Sprinkle some of the brown sugar into each of the buttered pastry cases.

Peel and core the apple, cut into quarters and slice very thinly. Arrange the apple slices in a fan shape in each of the pastry cases, and sprinkle with the remaining brown sugar and a pinch of cinnamon on each. Cut the remaining butter into tiny cubes and sprinkle these over the apple and sugar.

Bake for about 15 minutes in a preheated oven at about 180c. You want the apple to be cooked and tender, the sugar melted, but the pastry not over cooked or burned.

Rhubarb & Almond Cake

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A la Daily Spud I've been reading The Daily Spud for over a year now. It's where I learned of the heavenly combination of spud and harissa, and it's where I got the recipe for this super lovely cake. It's a perfect combination of almondy sweet sponge and tart rhubarb. I made it for my parents and then made it again the following weekend for our dinner party. Set out in the middle of the table it looks like we're having a kids party - great.
Here's the spuds version I followed the recipe to the letter but I'll re-write the recipe anyways

180g butter
180 g ground almonds
180g self raising flour
180g of caster sugar (so far so easy to remember)
360g rhubarb cut in good fine chunks
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 egg
1 egg yolk
Icing sugar for looking fancy at the end

Grease a 20cm loose bottomed round tin, and line the sides with baking parchment and pre-heat your oven to gas mark 5. In a pan melt the butter. In a large bowl, sift the flour and then mix in the almonds, ground cinnamon and sugar. Combine your egg and the egg yolk. Pour the melted butter over the flour and mix, then add in the egg. When you mix all of this together, you'll get a thick ball of cake batter- don't be alarmed this is the plan.

Spread half of this over the bottom of your tin. Then toss in the rhubarb.
Add the rest of the cake mixture on top. You may need to do some subtle squishing here and there to ensure you cover as much of the fruit as you can, but a few little bits sticking out here and there is fine. Bake for an hour until the top is a rich golden brown colour. We served this with cream, but would be divine with some nice vanilla ice-cream especially if it was still warm from the oven.... Writing this is making me a little sad that it's all gone nowThat is pretty much our entire crop of red-currants on top of that cake!! Stupid slugs

Goats Cheese & Red Pepper Tartlet

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Refined pie

When feeding 14, a big beef pie is all very well, but we were aware that there would be more sensitive ladies present. So for our two gorgeous blond vegetarians, I whipped together this little beauty. Hey presto - pies for all!

For the pastry:

4 oz flour

2 oz butter

tbsp cold water

For the filling;

1 red pepper

1 small packet soft goats cheese

3 eggs

2 fl oz cream

chives

Make the pastry: sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles soft bread crumbs. Then add the water and bring it all together using your hands to form a dough. Roll this out on a floured surface and press into a greased pie dish (this will only make enough pastry for a small dish so if you want to make a big tart double the quantities).

Cover the pastry with a piece of greaseproof paper and fill this with baking beans. bake at 180c for about 20 mins, or until the pastry has gone opaque and a bit crusty, but not brown. Then take away the paper and beans and bake for a further 5-10 mins. Don't let the edges brown too much. Remove from the oven.

While the crust is baking, half the red pepper and remove the seeds and the core. Place, skin side up, under a hot grill until the skin has charred all over. Allow to cool and peel the charred skin from the flesh. It should come away easily, but if you are having difficulty, put the hot peppers in a plastic bag and leave them to cool for 10 mins. This should help the skin to come away easier.

Slice the peppers into strips and arrange on the baked pastry shell. Fleck the shell with dollops of the cheese (be generous), and sprinkle over the chopped chives. Beat the eggs and cream, add a little salt and pepper to this and pour it in to the pastry shell. Bake this in your preheated oven at 200c for about 20 mins, or until it is puffy and golden.

Fruit Scones

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The original and best

I haven't made scones in years and I got a serous nostalgia kick putting these beauties together. Have them with butter and strawberry jam (and cream if you want to be extra decadent!)

Fruit Scones

500g self raising flour

100g butter

60g caster sugar

250ml milk

pinch of salt

75g raisins or sultanas

Sift the flour and salt together into a bowl. Rub in the butter using your fingers until all incorporated. Add sugar and raisins and mix. Using your hands, add in the milk until you have a soft dough that is not too wet. You should be able to pick it up without your hands getting too gooey.

Roll out the dough to about an inch thickness on a floured surface. using a biscuit cutter (or a glass) dipped in flour, cut out as many scones as you can. Then gather together the offcuts, roll them out again and cut out more scones until you have no dough left. This recipe should make about 8 medium sized ones. Place the scones on a well greased baking tray, brush the tops with some extra milk and sprinkle them with some extra sugar if you like. Bake in a preheated oven (gas 7/220 degrees centigrade) for 15 mins. They will be golden brown and well risen. Best served warm with a lovely cup of tea.

Banana and Pecan Bran Muffins

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Breakfast of Champions

Lucy bought me these coloured silicone muffin cases for my birthday, so I decided to test them out! This is the best muffin recipe ever: really easy and you don't need to many rich ingredients. There is no butter in them so they are cheap, too. You can substitute the banana and pecan for whatever takes your fancy. I have done marzipan and cherry, apple and cinnamon, blueberry, chocolate buttons, etc etc etc. In may we did carrot cake muffins with lovely cream cheese icing, its all the same basic recipe. However, these were particularly good for breakfast.

190 g Self Raising flour
150 g Sugar
pinch salt tsp
baking powder
80ml Vegetable oil
1 egg
80 ml milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 ripe Banana

1 handfull pecan nuts

1 double handfull of bran or wheatgerm

for icing

1 cup icing sugar

tbsp water

(I know the measurements are a bit mad, but don't worry, it doesn't need to be exact)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the banana, mushed a bit and broken into little bits. add all the wet ingredients. stir until everything is mixed in. Voila!

Seriously, thats it!

Preheat oven to gas 6, about 250 degrees. Line a muffin/bun tray with paper cases (i'm using the lovely new silicone ones here), spoon in the mixture until its about 3/4 of the way filling each case. bake for 15-20 mins or until nice and golden.

Mix a tiny amount of water into the icing sugar, and when the muffins are cold, drizzle the icing over them.

Onion and Dill bread

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Swedish Bready-dilly-insecty goodness

We have a lovely Dill plant growing out back, so this was the perfect way to use some of it up and make delicious bread. There were a LOT of bugs on the dill, and I'm sure on or two of them must have gotten past me, even though I gave it a good wash. However, nobody cared because On our taste scale of 1-10 (1 being McDonalds, 10 being michelin star deliciousness) Lucy reckoned this got a 9, which is the highest yet, but secretly I would give it an 11. Yes it was bloody delicious and disappeared very quickly. Especially perfect with the left over cream cheese spread on it and some nice smoked salmon.

Thanks to Cafe Nilson for the recipe.

Ingredients: 1 sachet fast

acting dried yeast
500g strong white flour1 red onion, sauted
125 ml warm water
1 big bunch fresh dill, chopped
100g cream cheese
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1 egg

Mix the flour, salt & yeast in a bowl and add the egg, creamcheese, cooked onions, chopped Dill and oil. Mix first using a paddle, then add the water in a slow stream, using a mixer with a dough hook to mix everything together. If there is still flour left at the bottom of the bowl add a very small amount more water, if its too sticky add more flour. Leave the dough hook on to knead the dough for 4-5 mins (or kneak it using elbow grease for 10-15mins) or until you have a smooth, elastic consistency. Oil the bowl and put the dough in, cover with oiled clingfilm.

Leave in a warm place to rise for

1 hour. Knock the

dough back and shape into 5 or 6 equal sized balls. Oil a big round cake tin with a heavy bottom, and put the dough balls inside in a circle. leave to rise again for 45 mins until the dough has

risen to the brim of the tin.

Bake at gas 7/250 C for 40 mns or so, or until its browned and the bottom sounds hollow when you tap it. Resist the urge to cut this until its cooled down as you will squish it! Most delicious thing ever

Lucy and the Bread

Carrot Muffin Cupcakes

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Have you see the Muffin Ladies?

190 g Self Raising flour
150 g Sugar
pinch salt tsp
baking powder
80ml Vegetable oil
1 egg
80 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 small carrots, grated
1 handful sultanas
8 Dates
1 big handful pecan nuts
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to gas 6/200c Line a bun tray with bun cases or (like we did) squares of baking parchment. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar and spices in a bowl. In a measuring jug, combine the egg, milk and oil. Whisk and pour in to the flour mixture.


Mix up and add all the other ingredients. using a teaspoon, transfer the mix into the prepared cases. bake for 20 mins.

To make the icing combine 200g low fat cream cheese with 2 tbsps honey. Wait until the buns are cold, then swirl the icing on top of them. Enjoy!

If you leave out the spices, fruit and carrot, you have a basic muffin recipe, to which you can add fruit such a blueberrys, raspberrys etc. Also good is to substitute brown sugar for the sugar, add some rolled oats or bran, some chopped apple and cinnemon and you will have the perfect breakfast muffin. We will post some photos and a proper recipe for this soon!

Easy Half & Half Bread

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Beautiful Bakers


This recipe comes straight off the bag of flour - they should know! It's a good straight forward recipe, I have used a combination of white and wholemeal flour, this seems to get a good balance. All wholemeal can make it very dense. I always use a food processor with a dough hook. If you have one of these it makes making bread really easy and quick. If not, you'll get nice big muscles from kneading.


1/2 lb/225g strong white flour
1/2 lb/225g strong wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp sugar
10z/25g butter
1 sachet fast acting dried yeast
300ml/1/2 pint warm water
Olive Oil

Sieve flour, salt and sugar into a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingers. Stir in the fast acting yeast and and then add the water. If you are using a food processor with dough hook, just turn it on for 3-5 mins until the dough has all gathered together and is silky and pliable. If you are kneading, knead it until it gets to this stage.

Pour some oil on the dough to coat it and the bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise on a radiator for 1/2 and hour. Knock the dough down (sooo satisfying!) then put in into an oiled bread tin. Cover again and leave to rise on the radiator until it is higher than the top of the tin (about another 1/2 and hour)

Pop your loaf into the oven and bake on gas 8/230c for half an hour. The loaf should have a nice hollow sound when tapped on the bottom. Let it cool a bit before you slice it, it's hard to do when that freshly baked bread smell is filling your kitchen, but resist or you'll have a bit of a sticky mess on your bread knife.

Sprinkle with some poppy seeds before baking, or add some chopped olives, nuts or seeds, to make some interesting variations on this yummy loaf.