Jasmine Green Tea Macarons

Valentine's Day can be a bit brash sometimes. That's ok.

Walking into a card shop is a barrage of red and bears holding hearts. Barry White has infiltrated adverts. Blogs are full of red, pink and heart shaped sprinkles. Celebrating love in any way is always a winner.

I didn't have the heart (sorry...) to break out the red food colouring for these. I love how delicate they look, how light and how pure. Like love. Uncomplicated love.

Macaron Recipe from Annie Eats

Ganache Recipe

Ingredients

200gr white chocolate
180ml double cream
1 jasmine green tea bag emptied out (around 1tbsp of loose tea)

Method

1, Melt the white chocolate in a bain marie and set to one side.
2, In a small pan, stir 120ml of the cream with the tea and stir over a medium heat until it comes to a gentle boil. Remove from the heat and strain the cream through a fine sieve into the still warm melted chocolate.
3, Add in the rest of the cream and stir gently to combine. When smooth, cover and leave in a cool place (fridge on a hot day, open window on a cool day) until it becomes softly set. Using a silicone spatula, beat the ganache until it lightens in colour, it should be the texture of peanut butter and perfect for piping or spreading.

We Should Cocoa: Rhubarb, Ginger & Whiskey Hand Pies

This month's We Should Cocoa ginger challenge is hosted by Jen from Blue Kitchen Bakes. Last month's low/no sugar round up for We Should Cocoa's healthy start to the year can be found here on Choclette's blog. Don't forget to check out Choclette and Chele's blogs.

Have you seen the influx in childhood favourites and classics made adult? You know the ones.

Want to know a secret? I feel let down if they don't contains disturbing amount of chili or alcohol. I'm talking filthy boozy ice creams and cauliflower cheese with mountains of Cajun seasoning. Because, if they didn't have heat or an alcoholic content, then they'd just be vamped up and perfectly child safe.

These small hand sized pies are flakey and buttery. With a semi sweet rhubarb and defined whiskey taste. Simply replace the whiskey with a splash of water if you're not down with it. 

Rhubarb Filling

280gr fresh rhubarb

25ml (1 UK measure) whiskey

1 chunk of ginger in syrup, grated finely

3tbsp ginger syrup from the jar or honey

Pastry 

170gr plain flour
1tbsp granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
120gr cold butter, cut into chunks
60ml ice cold water (plus extra)

Other ingredients

Nutella for the filling (optional)

1 egg yolk mixed with 1tbsp ice cold water and a small pinch of salt (egg wash)

Icing sugar (for serving)

Method

1, Make the rhubarb filling first. Preheat oven to 200o/c and cut the rhubarb into bite sized chunks and place in an oven proof dish.

2, Add the whiskey, grated ginger and ginger syrup/honey and stir until everything is evenly combined.

3, Roast, uncovered, for 15 minutes or until the rhubarb is soft and beginning to caramelise. 

4, Gently stir and set this aside and leave to cool completely before using. You will need to strain the syrup off too, just let it sit in a sieve over a bowl for a couple of minutes.

5, Make the pastry by sifting the flour into a large bowl with the salt. Toss in the butter and using your fingertips, rub it into the flour until you have a shaggy and lumpy consistency. This will make the pastry light and flaky.

6, Using a butter knife, add in the cold water, a tablespoon at a time and using a cutting motion, bring the pastry together. You want a soft but not sticky dough.

7, Preheat your oven to 190o/c and line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper. Roll out your dough to around 3mm thick. Stamp out 12 rounds, approximately 7.5cm in diameter. You might have some dough left over.

8, Divide the cooled rhubarb between the pastry discs, heaping it to one side. Top with a little Nutella if using. Dampen the edges around the filling with a little egg wash and fold the unfilled side over the top to form a semi circle. Crimp the edges with a fork, brush with the egg wash and place on the prepared baking sheets.

9, Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is golden and crisp.

10, Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Ginger Doughnuts

When you've had a rubbish couple of weeks, when your fringe is too long to do anything with, when the car won't start (because she is a diva in cold weather), when you just can't do any more studying, when you havent managed to go for a run for a good week and one of your cats has taken to waiting until 2am to sing the "song of her people" at the bottom of the stairs...

... Just throw in the towel for a while, and come and deep fry some things with me.

I'll always be here for you with a deep frying pan of hot oil at the ready.

It's ok to feel a bit blue. You can eat doughnuts and hang out with your cat. More whiskers the better.

Makes around 12 with doughnut holes

Ingredients

Doughnuts

1tbsp fast action yeast (around 1 x 7gr sachet)
25gr soft brown sugar
1tsp ginger powder
25gr butter
250ml milk
1 egg
300gr plain flour (plus extra for dusting)

Glaze

75gr icing sugar
1inch lump of stem ginger in syrup, grated finely
2tsp of stem ginger syrup from the jar
Water

Method

1, In a large bowl, add the yeast, sugar and ginger powder.
2, In a small saucepan, gently melt the butter and add in the milk. Bring this to a lukewarm temperature.
3, Stir the melted butter and milk into the yeast, sugar and ginger.
4, Beat in the egg.
5, Sift in the flour. Stir this until the batter is thick and has a soft elasticity to it.
6, Cover with clingfilm and pop in a warm place for between an hour and two or until doubled in size.
7, Scoop out your dough onto a floured surface and fold it over a couple of times using a dough scraper (or your hands - prepare to get sticky) and dust with a little more flour to stop it sticking. The dough is quite soft but it should hold. If your dough is unmanagably soft, chuck a bit more flour on it and gently knead in.
8, Roll out the dough, or pat it out with your hands until it is about 2.5cm thick. Cut out your doughnuts in whatever size or shape you want. Use a smaller cutter to stamp out the centre.
9, You can reroll the dough to make more doughnuts - space them out on a lined baking sheet, cover with clingfilm and then put them back in the warm place for 30mins to an hour until they have risen up again.

10, In a deep frying pan, heat about 4-5cm of hot oil to 180o/c. Do a test doughnut (or doughnut hole). It should bubble, float and go golden within 30-45 seconds. Carefully flip it over to brown on the other side, remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
11, Cook all the doughnuts and leave to cool slightly before dipping them in the glaze.

12, To make the glaze, add the icing sugar, syrup and grated stem ginger into a small bowl. Add a tablespoon of water and mix. Keep adding water until you reach your desired consistecy - I like my glaze quite thin but it's purely on your preference.

We Should Cocoa: Cocoa Dukkah

This month, We Should Cocoa is ringing in the new year with a sugar free challenge hosted by Choclette. You can read all about We Should Cocoa and the rules on Choclette and Chele's blogs. Last month's Christmassy cinnamon challenge, can be found here.

I have a spice rack. Like a normal person.

Then I have a whole bunch of other herbs and spices that don't fit on the spice rack and just sort of hang around in a basket. Now the point of a spice rack is to store and display your spices so you know what you have, what you need and what you don't.

The problem with a spice "basket" is that you duplicate. Or triplicate. Or have half open packets of paprika which explode like a spore flinging funghi. I also tend to bulk buy my spices from a local Indian cash and carry so as well as the spice rack and the spice "basket" there are bags of whole spices lurking in the back of our cupboards.

It has to stop.

So as part of my to-do list blitz, I did a spice audit. Threw out that jar of marjoram that I swear has moved house with us. Moved house with us twice. Coughed and choked in a paprika cloud. Refilled the jars from the cupboard bags of spices. I had a small crowd of duplicate spices so set about using them up.

Dukkah is an Egyptian dry spice and nut mixture that is served as a side dish with bread and oil for dipping. It is heady with spices and I first had it sprinkled on soup. Any leftovers can be stored in an airtight container and used on roasted vegetables, meats and baked into bread. This is not an authentic recipe (mainly because I stuck cocoa in it...) You can read more about dukkah here.

Ingredients

40gr whole almonds
35gr pumpkin seeds
5gr coriander seeds
5gr cumin seeds
3gr fennel seeds
1/2tsp rock salt
1/2tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1tbsp dried mint
2tbsp cocoa powder

Method
1, In a dry frying pan, toast the almonds and pumpkin seeds until the pumpkin seeds start to split and pop and the almonds start to darken. Tip them into a large mortar and pestle.
2, Repeat the process with the coriander, cumin and fennel seeds until they start to brown gently and smell aromatic. Add these into your mortar and pestle.
3, Add in the salt and pepper and gently start to pound it all together. You want a kind of gravelly texture. Aim for some largish chunks of almonds. Alternatively, you can quickly pulse all the toasted ingredients in a blender.
4, Stir through the mint and cocoa powder and serve with plenty of bread and dipping oil.

(I also made flatbread, but I'm not 100% happy with the recipe. If anyone has a good one, a link popped in the comment box would be most appreciated!)

Snowflake Swiss Roll

This should be called Snowflake Swiss Roll 4.0. I've had a few issues making the detailing on it...

First, my silicone sheet didn't fit in my Swiss tin roll and slowly flattened spilling cake batter on the floor of my oven. Secondly, the detailing stuck to the paper when I peeled it back. Third time round, the stencil slipped and I had an unappealing blue smear down my tin. It made it more frustrating, that my Tiger Swiss Roll came out brilliantly first time.

Fourth time is definitely a charm for this one!

Ingredients

Swiss Roll
3 eggs
80gr caster sugar
80gr self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 drops of blue food gel colouring

Filling
150ml double cream, whipped to medium stuff peaks
Jam (optional)

Method

1, Preheat your oven to 200o/c and line your Swiss roll tin with grease proof paper.
2, Beat your eggs and sugar together until very pale and fluffy, this should take a good three to five minutes in a stand mixer.
3, Gently fold through the flour until well combined.
4, Remove about three tablespoons of the batter and in a separate bowl, colour it blue.
5, Place your stencil on the lined baking sheet and quickly spread a thin layer over it using a pastry brush. I used the snowflake stencil from the pack of these cake stencils. Try not to go over the same part twice or the batter will seep under the stencil. Peel off the stencil. Alternatively you could pipe/paint the snowflake on if you don't have a stencil.

6, Place the lined, snowflake adorned Swiss roll tin in the freezer for five minutes.
7, When the batter has set on the paper, give the rest of the batter a quick fold over and pour directly into the tin, take care smoothing it out over the detailing.
8, Bake for 7 minutes or until lightly golden brown and springy to the touch.
9, You need to work quickly on this part. Before you remove it from the oven had a glass of warm water and pastry brush to hand. Tear off two more sheets of grease proof and place one on your counter top. Take the Swiss roll out of the oven and invert onto the countertop.
10, Brush the water generously all over the top of the great proof paper. This creates a little steam that will help you lift off the paper with the detailing attached to the cake rather than the paper.
11, Slowly peel the paper back. It will still be quite warm. You might lose a little detailing, don't worry.

12, Place the second sheet of paper on top and turn it back over so the detailing is on the bottom. Roll up the Swiss roll from the long side and leave to cool completely.
13, When you're ready to fill the roll, gently unroll, remove the middle piece did grease proof paper and spread the cream (and jam) inside. Re-roll and serve.