If Hobbits Were Vegan

Happy Happy Hobbit Anniversary to all you Tolkein lovers!

Today is a wonderful day, this day 75 years ago was the release of the first copy of The Hobbit. It's not just a literary celebration my friends, the Hobbit has grown into more then just a book. It is something that transforms imaginations, and it converts even the most stubborn realist into the realms of fantasy and wonder. Mr Tolkein's seamless weaving of worlds, keeping the fantastical world of Middle Earth entwined with very real descriptions is just beautiful. There is no sugar, no cotton wool, and it's a children's book. That is why I love it, it's not some pansy fairy tale. It's incredibly real, it helps children get acquainted with real emotions, it is painful, it is exhilarating and it's violent and it doesn't apologise for being so. As a nine year old reading this book, it was incredibly refreshing being able to feel all of that whilst still keeping that amazing imagination running alongside.

To me, it transcends the literary community, it's an ideological state of time and people idealise their simple lifestyles. Which consists of entertaining, eating, partying, exploring, eating some more and drinking. It's the essence of everything, those simple tasks, and I try my very hardest not to forget it, even when I'm tangled up in books, HTML coding and working. So, in the spirit of this ideal, the wonderful people over at 'The Hobbit Second Breakfast' had this idea, to get together at work, or at home, or out with friends and people and enjoy ten minutes, enjoying something that you have made. Well obviously it's past 11am sharp so the invitation is a little out of date, but I love the image!

I knew that I was going to make something for the occasion, it just happened that a very good friend of mine had requested some vegan cupcakes from me a few days ago, so it tied in quite nicely. Now i'm not vegan myself, so I've never really needed to bake vegan cakes before, so I was a little concerned at how the cakes would come out. I really didn't need to worry, they really aren't difficult. As I'm still riding my pride-train I thought I would write a little about it! 

Now, I did study for a few hours before I made them, to see the effects that different fats and methods had on the end product (which is, useful in any recipe, but more so here!). There is SO MUCH information out there for vegan cakes. I was literally going around in circles trying to find some half decent information that was just straightforward. I did find some little gems on Vegan awareness sites, but it kept getting tangled up animal rights arguments, and I wasn't there to read about that. I was there to read about cooking and nothing more. So iIve sifted through a lot of the controversy to give you a recipe that you can use, if you're vegan, if you have vegan friends, or if you just want to try something a little different from the rich, buttery sponges you normally get. I only needed a small amount for the commission, so this is a relatively small batch, making only six cupcakes! There are two different flavours, so go to town if you like, they're very easy! I must apologise in advance, I made entirely by eye, following the basic rules of baking, so it is in cups rather then grams *shudder*. Looking back this was a stupid decision, as I always work with scales, but it worked so I'm not going to mess.

Jess' Vegan Cupcakes

Makes 6 lovely little cupcakes

3/4 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup caster sugar, plus maybe a little extra

Just under 1/4 cup sunflower oil

Zest and juice of 1 lemon (do I need to say unwaxed? Nobody likes eating wax!)

1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

1 heaped tablespoon cocoa powder (good cocoa!)

Vanilla extract

Small carton of plain soya single cream/milk (I used cream!)

1 tub of vegan cream cheese

Salt

Decorations of choice

Optional: Gianduja bombs

- Preheat your oven to 170C regular oven/150C fan oven/gas mark 3.
- It really is a very simple mixture, sieve the flour, a pinch of salt, and just over half the sugar into a bowl. Add the 2 tsp vanilla, vinegar and oil and mix until it's a thick paste. 
- Split the mixture into two bowls, add half the zest and juice to the one mixture, and half the cocoa to the other half. 
- This is the bit where you have to sort of play it by sight, the batter needs to be runny, but not completely liquid-sloshy sort of thing. Add some soya cream to the chocolate half first, you'll need a little more in this half. And keep adding it until you get the runny batter. Then do the same with the lemon half. 
- Pour into cupcake cases (if you're using the Gianduja bombs push them into the middle of the chocolate cakes!) and bake for roughly 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on them though! They won't rise straight away, they will rise gradually over the course of the cooking time, unlike regular sponges. Don't be disheartened if they don't rise straight away like I did, they will, have faith! 
- Do the regular skewer test to make sure they're cooked all the way through (don't forget to skewer the edges of the chocolate cakes as they have truffles in the middle!) and leave them to cool a little. 
- Skewer a few extra holes in the lemon ones, mix a little of the left-over lemon juice with as much or as little sugar as you life, and spoon over the lemon cakes. 

- To make the icing is simple. Soften the vegan cream cheese with the back of a spoon, add 1 tsp vanilla, the rest of the sugar (you may have to taste to get the proportions just right, I'm a bit approximate) and split it into two bowls. - Add the rest of the cocoa powder to the one half, and whatever lemon zest you have left. You will have to add a little lemon juice to get it super lemony, but don't over-do it. It'll be too runny!
- Give a reasonably thick layer to the top and flatten it (you can pipe it, but it is a bit of a pain), then decorate it however you like. I went for chocolate buttons and sugar stars for simplicity. But go nuts.

And Voila! Really light, tasty cupcakes with very little effort! If you're curious, the Gianduja (jahn-DOO-yuh if you're feeling Italian, zhahn-DOO-yuh if you're feeling British) bombs I bought are from Hotel Chocolat and are 70% dark chocolates filled with an incredibly smooth praline paste. They are absolutely gorgeous, and if you haven't tried them before I highly highly recommended it! 

But there you have it, a simple recipe for Vegan cupcakes, useful to have around, just in case there is someone who is lactose intolerant, allergic to eggs or...is Vegan I guess. Enjoy, my Hobbits of the world

Peace

JR

The Wanderer Has Returned

The wanderer has returned from a saunter around Europe! I am full of both vitality and sadness in equal tow.

Just a little background, I have been away for six weeks altogether, and I have visited ten countries, and sixteen cities in that time. I have eaten and witnessed so many cuisines across Europe that I don't even know where to start, so chances are you'll be reading through one of my future posts and hearing "This one time, in Slovenia..." and so on. Minus the flute. Well, I sat at my laptop for several hours over the past few days and have written nothing but babble and tat (I am aware that this is still leaking into my writing today) but I'm still getting back into the swing of things, so bear with me while I remember how to tie my apron strings.

There was many a time when I thought "I really must make this when I get home", but alas, there were so many things it has formed a bit of a backlog of tryouts in my brain. That's the problem with inspiration, it can be so very inconvenient. To help separate my thoughts I went back to my usuals, Tastespotting, Foodgawker, Allrecipes and Pinterest, but I decided sod it (I didn't say sod, but for the purpose of politeness I'm going to say I did). And I left for the kitchen. I made something incredibly simple. Porridge, that's all I made, handful of oats, a few glugs of water, a few glugs of milk, raisins, bananas and brown sugar. And I was so happy to be home for that minute. Apparently, oats haven't crossed the channel to the mainland in a big way, and I really did miss the taste.

I know it doesn't seem like much right now. But hey, I'm a normal person, I don't always want to freeze ice cream in the shape of a train and I don't have the patience, or skill, to make cake pops. When I want cake, I want a lump of something that resembles a cake, and tastes amazing. And that's it. Sometimes with a little bell and maybe a few whistles.

Peace

JR

Shiny Happy Cashews

I love flicking through cookbooks, it really is one of my favourite past times, it may sound really depressing, but it's really quite inspiring. It's my version of leafing breezily through a chick mag...or porn, depending on how sordid your life is. I have a few favourites that I've learnt the basics from; Pastry from Michel Roux, comfort food from James Martin, and all the classic British-ness from Constance Spry's giant brick and the good ol' Delia collection. Yet, no matter how many times I peruse those well-battered pages, I still manage to get myself into a bit of an excitement at the thought of buying a new bit of cooking equipment recommended by the authors.

I will readily admit that I am so easily led by kitchenware suggestions in cookbooks. I'm not sure if it's just the idea of a new toy to play with, or whether I like to think that i'm more adventurous then I actually am. Either way I just watch myself as if my consciousness and common sense were removed from the scene and i'm witnessing a comedic, gullable character ponder over how much I really need a knife shaped like a hand so I can karate-chop my vegetables (yes, it really >exists<). 

This whole thing stemmed from this crappy weather in England at the moment. Because it's been raining so damn much I can't do the normal summery events, like frolicking in fields of daisies - my back garden - or have a barbecue. Thus I have been resigned to sitting in my window reading cookbooks all day, catching the brief glimpses of sunshine between the parting clouds and hoarding the vitamin D like a bear scoffing salmon, ready for a winter of hibernation. So because of this, I've had a lot of time on my hands to read. 


I'm sorry, I'm getting distracted here! Back to the post for today. Seeing as it has been raining, and it has been really muggy and humid, my appetite has pretty much entirely gone. The only thing I've really wanted is cashew nuts, a cashew nut that's had something special done to it. A warning, from henceforth there will be a lot of talk of my nuts. I dare you to keep a straight face...

Shiny Honey Cashews

2 handfuls nuts/about 400g (I used cashews because they're awesome, but pecans, hazelnuts...whatever, they all work)

160g (ish) sugar

1 tblsp honey

80ml (ish) water

- Put the honey, sugar and water into a pan and heat until it starts to gently boil on the hob (not too high on the heat!), this'll take about two or three minutes maximum. Make sure it's not too runny and the liquid has reduced slightly. The first time I made these I put it in too early and my nuts almost got scorched after a too lengthy cooking.
- Stir in the nuts and stir them constantly for about five minutes, until the water has all evaporated off and the nuts are covered in thick honey goo.
-When it looks sorta like caramel you're sorted, pour them out onto a covered baking sheet and spread them apart from each other pretty pronto, the caramel will be completely cold in about 3 minutes and you'll have to snap them apart (doesn't make them taste any different, they just become a little...spiky?)
- Let them cool.
- Scoff.

This recipe is really easy, it just required a little attention, you really do have to look after it otherwise it'll burn. It's also quite versatile, you can add spices to the mixture at the start, cinnamon works particularly well, a good pinch of cayenne does too. I hope you enjoy them! I'm wishing for sunshine for the whole UK so I can get a little more creative.

Peace

JR

Interrailing and Cherry Bakewells

The past week and a bit has been full of surprises for me. The official end of my Canadian application has fallen through, thank you very much IEC for losing my application. Although a bit of an inconvenience, it's actually turned out to be a positive thing, surprisingly. So instead of travelling one country, I've decided to travel thirty. Yes, The Damson Tree is hitting Europe for six weeks to gain some awesome knowledge to drop on you. Wow, that really sounded like an advert, apologies. 

A photograph I took on my camera phone last time I went to Prague...one of the many places i'm going back to!

But onwards! I won't dwell on the personal bit too much here because I've got some other sexy things to talk about today, but I thought I'd let you know there will be a bit of a change to the way I'm blogging over the latter parts of the Summer. So if you have any requests or questions, best to send them now before the 25th July! 




The reason I gave a bit of a heads up about the travelling, is partly because of the changes, but also because of the choice of recipe i'm giving you today. I thought I'd choose something that embodies all of my English-ness before I go. So I guess I should just dive right in. It's super simple to make!

Jess' Almost-Bakewell Cake

175g caster sugar

175g butter

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

140g self raising flour

80g ground almonds

Small handful of cherries, stoned and halved

Half a regular pot of cherry jam (I used Wilkins & Son's Ltd. Black Cherry Jam), warmed

10 Tblsp Icing Sugar

2 shots of Disaronno Amaretto (if you have it laying around, don't go out especially for it)

- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C (fan)/gas mark 4 and line yourself a nice, reasonably sized square tin! These are going to be rich little almond-jammy squares not big hunks of cake!
- Cream the butter and the sugar together real quick until relatively fluffy, add in the vanilla and then the eggs in one by one, mixing in between.

- Add in the sifted flour and stir lightly in until almost fully incorporated.
- Stir in the almonds and one shot of Disaronno. 

- Spread a thin layer of the mixture across the bottom of the square tin and chuck a few of the fresh cherries onto the top, followed by big spoonfuls of the warmed jam.

- Roughly cover all the cherries and the jam in the rest of the mixture and pop in the oven for 25-30 minutes. You'll probably be closer to 30 minutes, but keep an eye on it because it can catch like a bitch in under a minute!
- Leave it to cool for five minutes in the tin, then pull it out onto a wire rack, keeping the greaseproof/silicone mat attached for now.
- This bit is entirely optional now, if you like it plain, you're very welcome to keep it plain and it'll taste lovely, but if you like it with a little icing on top, make the icing.
- Mix the icing sugar with the Disaronno (add a little at a time to stop it from getting too runny), if by the end of it it's still thick, add half teaspoons of water until it's relatively thin, you're not looking for a massive thick layer, just a thin drizzle really. 

- Pour it over your cooled cake and leave it to set for half an hour until you cut it up into little squares. Have a cup of tea, have a sit down, watch an episode of Futurama, you know, chill out.

And that's about it really, you can decorate it with whatever you like, I happened to have made some sugar cherry blossoms which fit quite nicely with it, but it's entirely up to you.

Peace

JR

Stockett and Marbles

Just a quick one to drop by and update you on my exploits of late. I would stay longer, but I'm watching Tideland and it's awfully engrossing! A few weeks ago it was my friend's birthday, and of course I couldn't let this momentous occasion pass by without a little celebratory cake. Now this wonderful gentlemen was my first honeycomb customer, so I knew what sort of thing to go for. Caramel everything.

I started off with the basic choices, what kind of flavour do I want from this cake? I knew I wanted caramel somewhere in the cake, without it being sickly, so I went for a vanilla sponge. To get the lovely sweet caramel-goodness I chose a sort of random recipe. It might need a bit of an explanation to make much sense. Don't worry, it won't be my usual ramblings I promise!

If you have ever read the book "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett you'll know all about Minny and her infamous cooking skills. Well, the caramel sauce I made was from a collection of recipes Mrs Stockett released after a massive spike of interest amongst the food-blogging community. I'm so glad she did, it's little additions like this that make me smile, much like when I found out that some valiant fellow had spent hours upon hours making a Lord of the Rings online recipe scrapbook (It's here by the way, you know you want to look). But yes, this wonderful woman, in full style created a classic southern caramel sauce, which I used...and may have eaten much of when I was icing this cake. It was freaking delicious. And well, I added the honeycomb because I love making honeycomb at the moment, it's my new favourite fad.

Moving on a little, to another wonderful cake. What a surprise! I can't help myself I'm sorry, I'm determined to either create the perfect super cake, or give myself diabetes. Could swing either way. This cracking little cake was actually a bit of a time filler, I was actually making a lasagne at the time, and whilst waiting for the behemoth dish I made of it, I decided to make something sweet. I actually ended up making a batch of oatie butter biscuits from my Women's Institute cookbook as well as the marble cake, but I sort of ate them all before taking a decent photograph, my apologies.

Marble cake is one of those cakes that is incredibly dependent on the ingredients you use. I know I say this about most of the things I make, but this one really, really is. Too many afternoons I have spent, frustrated that my baking has turned out badly, or even worse, boring. Too many afternoons I have spent mourning the failures of marble cakes. Until I started using good ingredients - cue the uplifting key change to minor to encourage hope and optimism.

But I really can't stress this enough. Please, please, use nice vanilla and nice cocoa. I think the mindset is that because it's got twice the amount of flavours, that you can get away with using half the quality ingredients. I'm sorry my lovelies, it just doesn't work like that, you can't cover up half-arsed attempts with this cake. It's quite rare that it will turn out bad, but it will taste so much better if you spent an extra pound or two on cocoa powder and vanilla extract. Plus, on top of investing in good quality stuff, you won't need to use quite so much of it to get the flavour, and the flavour you do get, won't taste like chalk, or sugar. 

Sorry, apologies for the rant.

I'm not going to lie, part of the reason I chose this topic today was to show off some of my new photographs. I've really been trying hard recently to up my game in some food styling and whatnot, to keep up with the other wonderful bloggers out there, but also to try and help convey my love for the beauty of food. I'm not quite there yet but I thought it might be nice to see my transition from the rubbish old ones I took on my phone, to the ones taken with a pretty DSLR.

I think that's enough from me today, I will be back over the next few days with a new recipe for you guys to try!

Peace
JR

Method to the Madness

I will wager that at some point in your life you will have at least half a dozen egg whites at your disposal. It will sneak up on you, like if you decide to make home-made custard and you forget you only need the yolks, or mayonnaise. In my case, it was aioli that was the culprit. That damn aioli was the bane of my life for the half an hour it took to blend and thicken, it was not my friend. Especially when I realised that I had six egg whites left over and a house that doesn't really jump at the idea of meringues. Well, I thought, it's been a while since I've made them, maybe everyone will have a change of heart. Surprise surprise, they did. And that's the story how meringues were redeemed as a valid pudding choice. 

 

Before making them, I had this idealised vision in my head of these beautiful mounds of dolloped off-white, swirled with pink dye or cocoa, or delicately swirled into little peaks, ready to be sandwiched together with rich vanilla cream. And although this is a perfectly valid (and delicious) way of thinking when preceding a meringue bake, it might not be the most productive. Just a warning to bear in mind how fickle these things can be. I am the first person to be over-ambitious when it comes to cooking, and too many times my cooking has fallen short of my baking smugness. You do have to respect the actions and reactions of eggs and sugar, both individually and together, and think about how ingredients affect each other to get it just right.

It's very, very easy to pop onto a cooking website, or look in a book and pluck out a recipe to cook. It's easy to even look at a few different recipes and compare them. It's also easy to get tangled up in the Italian-French-Swiss debate, and I think this is the point where most people's troubles begin. 

All you really need to know for today is that there are three different types of making meringue, French, Swiss and Italian. French is the most popular meringue method, and it's probably the one you made in school, it involves whipping egg whites with sugar and baking. The Italian method is cooking the sugar into a syrup and pouring it over the egg whites to slowly cook it. And the Swiss method is where the egg whites are warmed up and slowly whisk until it turns into marshmallow-ey goodness and bake it. 

It really depends what sort of meringue you are looking for as to what recipe you should follow. If you like a meringue with a crisp outer shell and a chewy centre, this is the meringue for you! This recipe is the love child of Delia Smith and Yotem Ottolenghi.

Perfect Crisp-Chewy Meringues

4 egg whites

100g caster sugar

110g icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

- Preheat the oven to 150C/130C (fan oven)/ Gas mark 2 and line a big flat baking sheet. 

- Whisk the egg whites on low until they're frothy and bubbly (this takes around 2 minutes).

- Turn it up to medium and whisk until the mixture is at soft peaks, add the vanilla, then start adding the sugar slowly a tablespoon at a time. Keep mixing!

- After all the caster sugar is mixed in, sift in the icing sugar and fold in until the mixture holds it's peaks and is beautiful and glossy.

- Pipe or dollop it onto the baking sheet and immediately turn down the heat to 100C/80C (fan oven)/gas mark 1/4. 

- Bake them for about half an hour, test them (give one a bit of a poke to see how easily it cracks), turn it down to the lowest your oven goes and leave them for about an hour. Turn the oven off, leave the door shut and take them out once the oven is completely cold. 

And there you have it, for your meringue needs!

Peace
JR

Cross-Season Confit

Today's post is quite befitting of this abysmal weather we're having in the UK right now. It embraces the constant reminder that humans are mere pawns and slaves to the weather, dwarfed by Mother Nature's awesome power. I actually really wanted to write about this last Winter, but I never got my hands on any nice duck so I didn't really have the chance. Well, there's, my not-so-discreet secret given right away.

I know it might not be the quickest recipe to make, but it'll be one of the most rewarding in taste and reaction. If you've ever had confit de canard on holiday in France you'll know how amazing, how satisfying it is. How it sets off every single Umami-detecting cell in your body and delivers only a cloud of comfort and serenity upon it's consumption. The reason I chose to write about this wonder today is partially because of the heavy rain beating at my window, but also because I've had an unusually high amount of visitors from Australia and New Zealand over the past month or so, and I know you guys are heading into the (slightly) colder months.

Don't worry my little friend, you won't be eaten today!

As I gave away, my post today is about Duck Confit, streamers, whistles and all that to be fired at will. I am aware that most of my blog is dedicated to lovely sweet treats, and I really don't pay attention to the massive world of savoury cooking. I noticed it more when I was searching by 'category' on my very own site and noticed I had only fifteen posts with savoury content, out of just over fifty posts. Most of those were merely additions to sweet posts too, so I feel it time to get my savoury on and get some meaty goodness flowing through my humble little blog.


 

Time for a few basics before I dive in with the recipe. Confit is the French word for preserve, not that difficult to grasp really, but I thought I'd stay simple to begin. The traditional way of making it is to slightly cure the meat with salt (as well as other ingredients for taste such as garlic, rosemary or thyme) to preserve   it for long winters, for special occasions or for just mighty fine eating. The salt draws much of the water out of the meat, reducing the chance of bacteria, and actually killing some common strains of bacteria altogether. To stop you getting ill. Isn't that clever, thanks alot sodium you old dog!

Then salt is then washed off and it's then slowly roasted in duck fat slowly over a long period of time - anything from three to ten hours - until the meat is tender and delicious. After everything has cooled the whole thing it's usually followed by being submerged in a clay pot or a jar of some description and covered with fat. Before the invention of fridges it could keep in a cool place for anything up to 8 months. Gotta love the classic 'canning' mind set of our neighbours. 

This is by no means my recipe, i'm not French, not even a far descendant - as far as I know at least - so I thought I would take a wonderful Frenchman's knowledge, and spread the joy to some more people. Instead of, you know, Anglicising the whole thing and taking it away from where it really came from. A need for good food, all year round. Oh! For the record, it's Raymond Blanc's recipe...slightly edited by me.

Confit Duck Legs

4 large duck/goose/chicken/turkey legs (at around 200g each, don't worry about them all being perfect!)

30g rock salt

1 tblsp black peppercorns, crushed

5 garlic cloves, all peeled and sliced up (optional: + 2 unpeeled, but bashed around a little, cloves)

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

800g duck fat (you can get this stuff in bigger bulk from butchers) 

2 bay leaves

- Lay the duck (i'm just going to say duck all the way through this, but substitute it with whatever you're using) on a tray, rub on the salt, garlic and thyme. Cover it in cling film and leave it in the fridge overnight to chill and let the salt do it's preserving thing. It needs to be at least overnight, it really can't be rushed unfortunately.
- Before you start the next step, get a casserole pot (not too wide), and preheat the oven to 120C/100C fan oven/gas mark 1 (I know it's not an equal conversion, just trust me here!).
-  Take the duck out of it's cling film prison and wash off the marinade completely, and pat it dry. If you want to be doubly sure there's not too much salt in it, you can wash it again and dab it dry. 
-  Put the duck legs, with the duck fat into the casserole pot with the bay leaves and, if you're using it, the bashed garlic. Heat it up til the fat is almost simmering and then transfer it to the preheated oven. Cook for about 3 hours. 
- Poke it a bit with a stick of some degree to see if it's tender, if it is, remove with a slotted spoon, pop it in a ceramic dish/or a Kilner jar with an airtight lid and let them cool for an hour. If you're serving them on the same day, crisp them skin side down in a pan with a little duck fat for about 5 minutes. If you're not, wait until the fat has completely cooled, strain it, and pour it over the duck in the jar/ceramic dish until it covers it completely. 
- The beauty of this recipe is that it will last for months and months in the fridge or even in a cool pantry, it actually tastes better after it has been left for at least a few weeks.  And as long as the fat covers the top of the duck it will be lovely and will keep for a very long time. 

It can be served in the winter with a tonne of lovely garlicky lentils or beans, a pile of buttery mash, or it can be eaten in the summer with a leafy salad. Rocket salad and sweet potatoes go really nicely with a super crispy duck skin. It's awesome, it's versatile, it's not really that taxing to make, and it is actually amazing tasting. A good backup for dinner parties too (do people still have those nowadays?).

I'm not going to lie, the last time I made this, I was far too cold and hungry to take a photo, so here is somebody else's lovely picture instead. Thanks to Chrystian Guy on Flickr for letting me use it! 

With the warmest of hugs to my down-under neighbours, my drizzly UK friends and for anyone who likes duck. 

Peace
JR

Cinnamon Sunshine

I once read a really important article, noting that a blogger should never apologise for prolonged or even a moderate absence. In most cases it's not a bloggers job to blog, have people read and enjoy, they gain no money and most are in a situation where they need some sort of income, like me. But still, I find myself realising that I may have broken this rule on numerous occasions since I began blogging in 2006. I don't know if it's particularly to the few of you that are my regular readers, or more of a conscious cuss at myself for not writing as much as I think I should be writing. Either way I still do it, a constant reminder that I am no longer a student, and I miss no longer continuously writing in some form or other. 

Today, I am going to keep to this rule and say that I have simply been busy frolicking around in the sunshine to stay inside and write on my laptop. Okay, that's kind of a lie, i'm relatively fair-skinned so I had keep bobbing in and out to stop myself from burning. Which kind of happened anyway. But still!  

My post today is about summer, it's about bold flavours, gallivanting around eating ice cream, enjoying the heat and not shivering when you get out of the shower. If you're reading from somewhere exotic this doesn't really apply, but there's something massively satisfying about getting out of the shower, and not making a mad dash to your towel for warmth.

A few weeks ago I had a bit of craziness for cinnamon. A really massive, heady craving for it. I made my cinnamon popcorn but, while it was glorious, it did not sate my lust. So as I was peering through the masses of submissions on Foodgawker, I came across the beauty of cinnamon pull-apart bread. Oh my.

I'm going to include this recipe today for you with a little note. I literally picked the first recipe I found that looked about right. I tweaked it a little bit as I was making it because it turned out a little different then it was described. When I first started researching cinnamon bread I was under the impression that it was going to be floppy and pretty much like a soft-baked pretzel. If you are looking for that kind of recipe, this is not it! It's utterly delectable in it's own right, soft and light bread and more like a traditional cinnamon bun/brioche.

Cinnamon Bun Pull-Apart Bread
makes 8 mini loaves/buns or one full loaf.

450g plain flour

50g caster sugar

1 sachet active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

50g unsalted butter

115ml whole milk

2 medium eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:

2 tablespoons butter

Ground Cinnamon

Ground nutmeg

Caster Sugar

NB: If you've ever made bread before, the process of making the dough is very similar!

- Activate the yeast by emptying the yeast into a little bowl and adding a few tablespoons of warm water (not too hot!). Leave it for a few minutes to activate!
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 350g of the flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Set aside to chill out for a bit. Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl and leave to the side too.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter and mix it together with the milk. Take it off the heat and add the vanilla. Leave it to cool a little!
- Pour the slightly cooled mixture into the dry ingredients and mix in well. If you have a mixer with dough hooks, use it now, it'll make it a little easier. Add the eggs in one by one, it'll be a little bit soupy, but keep mixing, it'll come together.
- Add the last remaining bit of flour and mix again until it comes together in a sticky dough. If it's still really runny, it doesn't hurt to add a little more flour, just don't go too crazy. It needs to be sticky!
- Grease a separate bowl, scrape all the dough from one bowl to the greased one, cover in cling film and leave it to rise for about an hour somewhere warm. Until it's doubled in size.
- While it's rising prepare the filling, melt the butter in a pan. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C (fan).
- Get the dough out of the greased bowl, knead it a little and deflate the dough. On a lightly floured service, roll out the dough until it's about 1cm thick. Leave it for 5 minutes to rise a little, and then brush on the melted butter. 
- Sprinkle lots of cinnamon, a little nutmeg and lots and lots of sugar! 
- If you want cinnamon buns, roll it up length-ways and cut it about 1" thick, so you get the classic swirl, if you want pull-apart bread, cut it into squares and pile upright into a greased loaf tin (or mini ones if you have them like me).
- Bake for about 20 minutes for a mini loaf  or buns, 30-40 minutes for a full loaf. 

While this bread it lovely and light, it does need to be eaten on the day you make it. It'll still last until the next day really, but it's perfect on the first day. Please, now. Go and gorge yourself on all the bready goodness. I hope you enjoy this summery treat.

Peace
JR

Princess of Battenberg

Today is yet another sweet post to add to my humble collection. "What a change from your usual repertoire  JR" I hear you say? Well I say to you, "Oh stop it, you!" with a bashful blush. I will alleviate the sweet tooth problem I've been having next post but today is about one of my favourite cakes. Battenberg! You have these little lovebirds to thank for this glorious creation:

Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine.

        


Well, I question the choice they may, or may not, have had in their matrimonial bliss, but I am grateful all the same. Queen Victoria thought it would be ace to throw them a badass Wedding party and include reams of this incredibly addictive cake. The chefs of the royal household decided to honour Queen Victoria's German heritage with a typically 'German' style of almond sponge, which was popular at the time. They, then, dyed it pink and yellow and sandwiched it together in a checkerboard pattern to represent the equal merging of two households, and wrapped it all securely together in marzipan. I have no idea whether the marzipan is meant to represent the security of the growing English empire, or whether it was just damn tasty, I'm just speculating over here.

The man after which this cake was named actually went on to change his last name to Mountbatten (sound vaguely familiar?), but the cake remained untouched, in all it's glory. The history is really that simple, it's not entirely English, it's not entirely German, but it's a lovely entanglement of the two. I like that, the harmony.

The reason I speak about Battenberg cake is because I found a packet of golden marzipan in my cupboard from Christmas the other day (shameful that I missed it, I know) and felt I had to use it sooner rather then later. In all honesty, unless I get specific requests or have a mega-craving, that's how most of my baking endeavours begin. So, in short, I made a huge Battenberg cake; but me being me, I chose to make at least one tweak.

It was my first time at covering a cake so be kind, I was actually reasonably proud that it went on without too much effort. A small victory for novice bakers everywhere!

I was actually reading a few of my older posts today and I'd realised what a bore I'd been over the past couple of months. I seem to have lost my flourish-ey style of waffling. I'm not if that's entirely a bad thing, I know it can annoy some people, but I felt like I'd lost a little bit of myself by curbing the useless rambling. Oh the irony after that post. I hope I've not put you from returning if it's your first visit to my little emporium.

Bright, light, almond-ey goodness. Use good marzipan and your life will be complete. Also, as a parting note I'd like to introduce my little mini-bakery. I was so proud putting these little bags together today, I even made the stickers myself. So I thought I'd share it with you, my devoted readers:

I think that's a nice point to end on. So I think I'm going to go. Have a nice evening!

Peace

JR

A Sweet History of Nearly Everything

I realised yesterday after checking through my blog for a recipe - yeah, I forget recipes quite easily - that I never ended up writing about confectionery. I wrote this entire post about my love for my new sugar thermometer, which has now been christened, and I made no attempt at a follow up. Not that any of you guys will have remembered, but apologies all the same. I was originally going to write about the wonders of marshmallows, but I decided that I wasn't having a marshmallow week, I was having a honeycomb week. 

Apart from being a really lovely word (is it odd to notice that?), it's a pretty damn tasty thing to eat, and eat it I could, until I was sick. Well, yeah, I found a little while ago it's actually surprisingly easy to make, you just need to work speedily to get it perfect. A little background first, I promise it'll be quick.

The basics of  sugar:
Sugar is created from a plant known as sugar cane, it's big, it's grassy, and it can pass for a mighty fine looking Windows wallpaper.

It's speculated that the grass originated in New Guinea around 2500 years ago, and spread throughout Eastern Asia not long after that. They sort of chilled and enjoyed it's various uses and it spread further and further West through to the Middle East. Fast forward a few decades and Spain was controlling a number of plantations throughout the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where the high rainfall and warm temperatures were perfect for the cane to grow. Then, in short, everybody sort of exploded with a desperate need for sugar and all hell broke loose, the French grew sugar beets to help alleviate their dependence on Spanish and English imports, and it was refined from a greenish sap-like liquid, to a brownish sugar 'loaf' and eventually into the varieties that you can find today in shops. This is, however, all down to those lovely guys over in the Middle East, who helped to build the sugar trade ridiculously in the early times, and gave us the root word for our English word 'sugar' from their shakara. Thanks dudes.

The cinder toffee/honeycomb history is sort of fuzzy, there's not many records on where exactly it began, but there are a number of books noting it's popularity in the early 1900s, especially with children. Other then that there's not much to tell, so I won't bore you.

Short-ish and sweet, there are so many stories, of cruelty, slavery, genocide and everything which should be told as well, it hasn't been all plain sailing for the sugar trade. But, those stories shall not be told today. Today is about peace, and sweets.

So onwards to my recipe for the day. I, in no way, made this recipe, all the kudos has to go to James Martin, his 'Desserts' book is nothing short of genius on a page. You need a sugar thermometer to make this, there's no way around it i'm afraid.

Sweet, Sweet Honeycomb 

James Martin's Cinder Toffee Honeycomb

Makes a good few handfuls of honeycomb - and several missing teeth

400g caster sugar

100ml runny honey (you sort've need good quality honey, it's important!)

2tblsp liquid glucose (SilverSpoon sell a tube of this in Sainsbury's if you can't find it)

Oil for greasing

1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Optional: chocolate of some description.

- Place the honey, sugar and glucose in a heavy pan with 100ml water. Put it on a high heat and bring to 160C/325F (or to light caramel stage).
- Grease a big, I mean BIG baking tray while it's boiling. 
- You need to work very quickly here because you're working with bicarb. Add it to the mixture and whisk  in with super speedy hand. And pour it onto the greased tray.
- Don't freak out, it'll bubble like crazy, but leave it, don't touch! Leave it to cool completely on the tray, break it up and enjoy.
- If you're gonna dip it in chocolate, melt it over a double boiler and dip away. If you're gonna do this, use dark, not  milk, come on, we're not animals here. Milk is sweet sweet overload, dark goes much better. Trust me on this.
- Now you can use it however you want, ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate, by itself, with fruit. It's relatively versatile. So go nuts with your sweety treat.

I hope you enjoy making it, it is actually really fun to make, and really easy once you have the tools. I've honestly never bothered to try another recipe for it because it's already perfect for me! I hope it is for you guys too.

Peace

JR

Popping Visas

My life is actually quite exciting at the moment. I am in the process of acquiring a visa so I can go work and live in Canada for a year. It's been a bit of a long and arduous journey so far, and it's not quite finished yet. I'm still waiting on the vital decision of whether or not they actually want me. I won't go on about it too much because personal stuff isn't why I set up this little blog, but a big move like this is going to change my perspective on food (and life...obviously).

I've never been to North America, I've never been to South America either, but you know what I mean. Having not been I really don't know what to expect, I have only small insights from Canadian/American food blogs and TV really. In simple English, I know very little about American food, and even less about Canadian food.

My mini rant is relevant I promise, it made me think of all the North American imports we have over here in the UK. Some ones I like, cupcakes, maple syrup and barbecued everything, and some I don't like so much, corn dogs, and clam chowder. So for my lunch the other day I decided to wave my own little flag towards the West, in honour of my hopefully imminent departure.

I know the tagging may look a little odd at the moment, but I noticed a few sneaky people stealing some pictures so I felt it necessary to add my little mark.

The reason I chose to use this little picture today? Because it is my own little homage to the US - Ben & Jerry's 'Oh My Apple Pie', with home-made shortbread (the recipe of which is here) and chocolate bark. 

The realisation that i'm leaving most of my possessions behind did sort of dawn on me earlier too. I'm not a hoarder by any means, but I do have a lot of cookbooks, and any free or bored moment I flick through my mini library and i'll always find something interesting to read about. I can't exactly lug this huge s.o.b collection around with me, so I figured out a way that I can keep all of my recipes along with me. Last year, both my sister and my best friend bought me recipe keepers for Christmas - oh, how well they know me. So i've decided, i'm going to take each of my favourite recipes and collate them all into this behemoth of a book. Like a bible, except factual. I'm not going to lie, in an entirely geeky way, i'm quite excited to get it all together.

If you follow 'The Damson Tree' on Facebook, you may have seen I hosted a competition not too long ago. The prize was to win the top 5 flavours of popcorn, submitted and voted by all my lovely readers. To do a little follow-up on it, the winner was Cinnamon-Sugar, and it looks a little something like this:

I'll be honest, most popcorn photographs look very similar to me, unless they have something really distinctive like toffee, chilli or chocolate. I could be masquerading salted popcorn, i'm not, but I could if I was feeling somewhat rebellious. I thought i'd share with you the basics of making popcorn. It's not exactly difficult to do, but you can refine it with a few tips. You can use this for any flavour really, the tips still work. If you're making salted or savoury popcorn you need to switcheroo the order you put the ingredients in a little! If you put the salt in the oil before everything else, it helps to distribute it more evenly, but you have to alter it slightly for sugar, because it burns to the pan quite easily, and nobody likes the smell of burn in their kitchen.

Cinnamon-Sugar Popcorn

Feeds two little 'uns, one greedy person or two people capable of sharing.

50g Popcorn kernels (about 2 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons mild tasting oil (either sunflower or vegetable oil works well, but whatever you have in the cupboard will do really)

50g golden caster sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Although the amount of ingredients isn't huge, you need a bit of space, so use a heavy bottomed medium saucepan for this recipe!

- Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a little bowl to start with and keep to hand by your pan.
- Add the oil to the pan and spread around evenly, put the heat on medium-high. Drop two or three kernels into the oil, give it a bit of a swirl around to get it coated and pop the lid on. When all of the kernels pop take the pan off the heat for a moment, take the popcorn out and put aside for a cook's snack.
- Put the rest of the kernels into the bottom of the pan and coat evenly in oil, making sure they're all in a level layer at the bottom. Put the lid on and pop it back on the heat.

- The kernels will pop quite quickly so don't run off to make a brew or anything. 

- After about a quarter of the kernels have popped, chuck a teaspoon of the mixed sugar into the pan and shake (holding the lid down still!). Because you can't open the lid to look, just count to ten after the first kernels have started to pop and it should be enough, but use your common sense, if you've only heard one or two kernels pop, wait a little bit longer.
- Turn the heat down to low-medium heat and after another quarter of the kernels have popped, chuck another teaspoon in, and shake shake shake.
- After the third quarter, add one more teaspoon and shake well again. Turn the heat down to just above low heat, it helps to reduce the risk of the sugar sticking. 

- It's difficult to judge sometimes when your kernels have all popped, the best advice I can give is to wait until the time between each pop is longer than three seconds, and it should be done. Add whatever is left of your sugar and shake well to coat.

Well there you go my dears. Serve in a stylish bowl and watch some del Toro and have yourself a wild evening. Hooray.

Peace

JR