Mega Mocha Macarons

These macarons are amazing. Truly! I have a real love-hate relationship with macarons and after doing some more research, have found a recipe that seems to work really well! Nadiya (ex Bake Off Champion) had a recipe for macarons in her cookbook "Nadiya's Kitchen", where she used a Swiss-meringue method to make the macaron shells. I decided to give this a go and finally used a stand mixer in the process. I ended up with lovely macarons. The only downside was that I ran out of baking parchment so used kitchen foil, which I'm pretty sure meant they cracked a little more than usual on top.

The filling is where these are unreal though. A kind of chocolate coffee custard, I was sceptical. However, after trying it with a little rock salt (as Nadiya suggests), these are incredible! Now the only area I was disappointed by was the colouring. I like to match the colour of my macarons to the filling, but I didn't have anything similar to brown food colouring and didn't want to add cocoa to her recipe (in case it messed up with the ratios). I'll do this next time, but for these, I turned them a variety of colours. However you colour them, these macarons are perfect as a mid-morning snack, on top of a cake, or just to eat in the evening.

These are delicious to eat straight after filling, but are even better the next day if you can wait that long.
My recipe is similar to Nadiya's, with a few amendments (e.g. not using brown food colouring). She also suggested using 70% cocoa solid dark chocolate. I only had the cheaper 55% in my cupboards and had no problem with setting/flavour :) Finally, Nadiya used espresso powder. I only had in normal instant coffee powder (Nescafe Gold Black Blend to be precise) and used that.

Makes around 30 macarons

Ingredients:

For the macaron shells:

• 175g (1 & 2/5 cups) ground almonds
• 175g (1 & 3/4 cups) icing sugar
• 4-5 egg whites (150g in total)
• Food colouring (brown if you have it)
• 200g (1 cup) caster sugar
• Gel food colouring of your choice
• 1 teaspoon of rock salt

For the filling:

• 2 egg yolks
• 100g (2/3 cup) dark chocolate (I used 55% cocoa solids)
• 150g (2/3 cup) butter
• 50g (1/4 cup and 1 tsp) soft light brown sugar
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 & 1/2 tsp instant coffee
• 1/2 tsp rock salt

Method:

1. Place the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor/high-power blender and pulse 3 times. Add 70g of the egg whites, and blitz again until the mixture is like a paste.

2. Place the remaining 80g of egg whites and caster sugar in a mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water. Use an electric whisk to beat the egg whites and sugar for 3-4 minutes. It will become white and very glossy.

3. Transfer the mixture to a stand mixer,  and whisk on the highest setting for a further 4 minutes. At this point, the mixture will be very thick and when you lift the whisk from the mixture, a thick ribbon will form that stays visible for 10 seconds.

4. Fold a third of the egg white mixture into the ground almond paste. This loosens the mix. Fold the remaining egg whites into the paste until evenly distributed.

5. Take 4 sheets of greaseproof paper, and draw circles on one side of the paper. I made half of the macarons around 3cm and the rest miniature 1cm ones, so draw these circles, leaving at least 2cm between each circle. Flip the paper over and use these to line 4 baking trays.

6. Pipe vertically onto the centre of each circle until the circle has been filled.  Once a tray has been filled, sprinkle each macaron with a little rock salt, tap the tray on the surface and set aside.

7. Leave for at least half an hour, until a "shell" is formed, meaning that when you touch the macaron, no mixture sticks to your hands.

8. Preheat the oven to 170c (150c fan)/340f/Gas mark 3.

9. Bake the 3cm macaron shells for 11-13 minutes, until they have obvious feet and look well risen. Bake the 1cm shells for around 6-7 minutes.

10. Leave to cool and prepare the filling. Chop the dark chocolate finely and place in a microwave on high power for 20-second bursts. Stir well after each burst until all of the chocolate has melted.

11. Place the coffee powder, salt water and brown sugar in a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Place the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl, and then whisk over the coffee mixture.

12. Whilst whisking put the heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk for 4-5 minutes. The mixture will thicken slightly.

13. Take off the heat and whilst whisking, pour over the butter and melted chocolate. Keep whisking until fully incorporated. If you want to fill the macarons as soon as possible, once cool, place the filling in the fridge to firm up enough to be able to pipe (this will take around 45 minutes). Otherwise, leave it out at room temperature, as if left too long in the fridge, it will become too firm to be able to pipe.

14. To fill the macarons, flip half so that their bases are facing the air. Fill a piping bag with the filling and pipe some filling on each flipped half. Lightly press on top another macaron shell.

15. Leave overnight for the best macarons. Enjoy!

Dairy-Free Whole Lemon Cake with Coconut Lemon Curd

One of my closest friends passed her PhD this week and she just loves lemons. Therefore for the celebrations, I made the lemon-iest cake I could. Two layers of whole lemon cake, sandwiched with a homemade lemon curd and frosted with lemon buttercream. Everything is dairy-free, and the coconut lemon curd turned out fantastic! It took around 4 hours from start to finish, but I was happy with the result. If you like lemons, you're going to love this cake ;)

Makes one 20cm cake (easily serves 15-20)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 unwaxed lemon
• 275g (1 & 1/3 cups) dairy-free butter/shortening - softened
• 275g (1 & 2/5 cups) caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 275g (2 & 1/5 cups) self-raising flour

For the coconut lemon curd:

• 3 lemons, zest and juice
• 150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
• 75g (2/5 cup) coconut oil
• 3 eggs, beaten

For the lemon buttercream:

• 150g (2/3 cup) dairy-free butter/shortening, softened
• 300g (3 cups) icing sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Yellow food colouring (I used a concentrated gel)

For the candied lemon:

• 2 unwaxed lemons
• 45g (3 tbsp) granulated sugar (and around 30g extra for dusting)
• 100ml (2/5 cup) water

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan)/350f/gas mark 4. Grease the base and sides of two 20cm loose-bottomed cake tins and dust with flour.

2. Place the lemons in a pan of simmering water and cook for around 20 minutes, until a knife can easily be pressed into the lemon.

3. Remove the lemon from the pan, leave to cool for a few minutes, and then cut in half. Remove any pips. Place the remainder of the cooked lemon (including any peel) into a food processor/high power blender and blitz until a fairly fine puree. Set aside whilst you prepare the cake batter.

4. Cream the butter with the caster sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy and no sugar crystals can be seen.

5. Add the eggs and two tablespoons of the flour. Beat in until all of the egg has been incorporated.

6. Sift over the remaining flour and add the pureed lemon. Fold in until evenly distributed then split between the two cake tins.

7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the sides of the cake are coming away from the tin and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool.

8. To make the coconut lemon curd, put the lemon zest, juice, coconut oil and sugar in a heatproof bowl, and place this over a pan of simmering water (make sure the base of the bowl does NOT touch the water). Stir occasionally until all of the coconut oil has melted.

9. Slowly pour in the eggs, whisking constantly. Keep whisking for around 10 minutes until the curd has thickened to a point where it coats the back of a wooden spoon. At this point remove from the heat, pour into a bowl/jar and set aside to cool completely.

10. To make the candied lemon, cut 2-3mm slices of lemon (using a serrated knife is best). Place in a pan with the sugar and water and bring to a boil. Cook for 20-30 minutes, until the pith (the white section under the yellow zest), has become see-through. Drain and dust each lemon slice in granulated sugar. Set aside to dry.

11. To make the lemon buttercream, beat the dairy-free butter (or a shortening such as Trex) until it is very soft. Add the icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and beat. If the mixture is too dry to pick up all of the icing sugar, add more lemon juice, a teaspoon at a time. Beat until smooth and thick enough to pipe. Split into three bowls. Leave two natural, and colour the other a strong yellow.

12. To assemble the cake, level the top of each cake with a serrated knife. Place a tablespoon of buttercream on the cake board/serving plate, and top with the first sponge. Press down lightly. Top the sponge with half of the coconut lemon curd and smooth evenly over the sponge.

13. Top with the second sponge, again pressing down lightly. Use one of the no-food-colouring bowls of buttercream to spread a thin layer of buttercream on the top and sides of the cake. This acts as a crumb coat and helps to give a smarter finish. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up.

14. Use a palette knife to spread the remaining white buttercream over the top and sides of the cake. Place a 1M (large flower) nozzle into a piping bag and fill with the yellow buttercream. Pipe half of the buttercream on the sides of the cake, piping small lines of yellow at different heights around the cake. Use a palette knife to smooth over these piped lines. This gives my attempt at an ombre/watercolour look.

15. Pipe the remaining buttercream around the rim on the top of the cake. Hold the piping bag vertically, and then pipe up and across to make a ribbon-like effect.

16. Place the candied lemon on the cake. I used some of mine to spell out Dr. and her name, and I placed the remaining slices on the sides of the cake :)

17. Enjoy!

Venison and Haggis Mini Pies

These are a real winter warmer. Miniature pies, perfect to take on your travels or to have at home for lunch. I travelled to Scotland in November and fell in love with the earthy spiciness of haggis. It's sold in most big supermarkets in the UK and works beautifully with wild venison and mushrooms. The pastry is fun to make - hot water crust pastry is very simple to make and gives a very sturdy, but melt in the mouth pastry (think the pastry in a pork pie).

These are really delicious pies, so if you can get a hold of venison and haggis, try them out :)

Makes 12 individual pies

Ingredients:

For the filling:

• 200g finely diced venison (around 1cm cubes)
• 150g haggis (cook the haggis whole per the packet instructions, then weigh out)
• 75g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
• 3-4 dried wild mushrooms
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp oil (or spray oil), for greasing the pan
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp chopped rosemary

For the pastry:

• 300g plain flour
• 60g strong white bread flour
• 75g butter, chopped
• 90g lard, chopped
• 150ml hot water
• 1 & 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg yolk, for brushing

Method:

1. Prepare the filling by placing the dried wild mushrooms in a bowl and covering with hot water. Leave to steep for 5 minutes, then drain (keep the liquid) and finely chop.

2. Dust the venison in the flour. Heat the oil in saucepan and fry the venison for 1-2 minutes, until browned on all sides. Pour into a bowl and set aside.

3. Fry the chopped shallots in the pan for 5-10 minutes, until really soft. If the shallots start to stick, pour a splash of the liquid from the rehydrated mushrooms into the pan.

4. Tip in the garlic and the chestnut mushrooms. Cook for a further 5 minutes until softened.

5. Crumble in the cooked haggis and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the haggis has started to colour. Pour into a large mixing bowl.

6. Add the venison to the haggis/onion/mushroom mixture and mix well. Add the chopped rosemary and season with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool fully.

7. Preheat your oven to 200c (180c fan)/400f/gas mark 6. Grease the base and sides of a 12 hole muffin tray or, as I used, a 12-hole individual cake tin (from Lakeland).

7. To make the pastry, place the butter, lard, water and salt into a saucepan and bring to the boil.

8. Meanwhile, sift together the plain and strong white bread flour. Once the butter and lard have melted and the mixture is bubbling, make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the liquid.

9. Use a spoon (and then when cool enough, your hands) to bring the dough together. It will cool down to be touchable/malleable within a minute.  Once all of the flour has been incorporated, you are ready to roll out the dough.

10. Dust your surface lightly with flour (either plain or strong white bread flour would be fine). Place 2/3 of the dough onto the surface and roll out until it is 2-3mm thick. Use a round cutter (mine was 10cm) to cut out 12 circles. This dough can be re-rolled numerous times - just try to work as quick as you can so that the dough doesn't cool down too much (it becomes harder to handle when it is cold).

11. Lightly press the circles into the muffin/cake tins - try to get the pastry to reach the top of each mould. If you get any rips, don't stress. Simply take some of the dough scraps and use this to fill the rip.

12. Fill the pies with the filling, leaving a few mm at the top for the lid to sit.

13. Roll out the remaining dough to 2-3mm thickness, and then cut into 3mm thick ribbons. Per pie, make nine of these ribbons, each around 5cm. Make a weave pattern (with three going horizontal and three vertical), and press lightly to secure. 

14. If you are using the individual loose-bottomed sandwich tin like me, use a spare base as a template to cut around the weaved design. If you are using a muffin tray, make a 5cm cardboard template and use this. Transfer the trimmed weaved top to each pie.

15. Use any remaining strips to neatly surround the top of the pie (acting like a border). Press down lightly to seal. Brush the top of each pie with a little of the beaten egg yolk.

16. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the pies are golden. Leave to cool for around 5-10 minutes before taking out of their moulds and serving. 

17. Enjoy!

Sloe Gin

We made our first batch of sloe gin last September and left it to mature until early January (yesterday in fact!). Sloe gin sounds fancy, but it really was simple to make. I live in an area where sloe berries are easy to find, but if you don't, come Autumn, go looking at farmer's markets/online. Some supermarkets even seem to be stocking them! If you are foraging, the best sloes to use are ones picked after the first frosty night of the year. 

This gin takes around three months to make, but requires very little day-to-day effort. If you decant the finished product into small bottles, it's also an excellent gift at Christmas time.

Sloe berries

This recipe makes around 1 litre of sloe gin. It tastes delicious without tonic, but remember, it's very potent!

Makes 1 litre

Ingredients:

• 1 litre of quality gin
• 450g sloe berries
• 225g caster sugar
• 1 x 1 litre sterilized bottle

Method:

1. Rinse the sloe berries really well, then prick each berry multiple times with a needle/fork. This is time consuming but worth the effort.

2. Place the berries in the bottle and top with the gin and the sugar. Close the bottle and shake to start dissolving the sugar.

3. Place in a dark, cool room/cupboard, and shake every day for around a week. Then shake the bottle once a week for at least two months.

4. When you're ready to drink the sloe gin, filter the gin through a sieve lined with a clean tea towel. Pour into a clean bottle, or multiple smaller bottles and seal.

5. Enjoy!

Smoked Chorizo Jam

Happy New Year everyone!! 2018 is going to rock! :) I made this jam to add to our cheese board at Christmas, and let me tell you, it's amazing! Spicy and smoky from the chorizo sausage, with a little maple syrup for a sweet kick. It's delicious alongside cheese, or just on toast/as a sandwich, and makes a wonderful addition to any hamper. This recipe makes around 300g of jam, which is enough to fill one 450g jam jar.

Ingredients:

• 250g (one sausage/9 oz) smoked chorizo, chopped into 1-2cm cubes
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped (or crushed)
• 40g (3 tbsp) light soft brown sugar
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 50ml (3 tbsp + 1 tsp) strong black coffee (I used instant, but you could use espresso coffee)

Method:

1. Place a saucepan over a medium heat, and fry the chorizo for 4-5 minutes, stirring regularly, until it has crisped in the corners and is beginning to golden in the corners.

2. Move the chorizo from of the pan into a bowl, leaving as much of the chorizo oil in the pan as possible. Fry the onion in this oil for 10-15 minutes on a low heat, until the onion has become very soft.

3. Add the garlic clove, brown sugar, maple syrup, vinegar and coffee and stir through. Leave to simmer for 25-30 minutes (stirring every 5 minutes or so to prevent sticking) until the mixture has become very thick and syrupy.

4. Leave to cool for 10 minutes. Pour into a food processor/high powered blender and pulse briefly. I kept mine fairly chunky, but you could make it finer if you like (I wouldn't recommend pureeing it, however).

5. Leave to cool then pour into the sterilized jam jar. This will keep for up to a month in the fridge.

6. Enjoy!