The Baking Beardy

Eating my way through Dublin

bakingbeardy — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:09:17 +0000

It’s funny – one of the big attractions of London is that you can find pretty much everything, including to eat. But in some ways, that can work against you – London is so big, that unless I’m specifically seeking out a good restaurant I’ve heard about or meeting a friend, I’m unlikely to come across a cute little bagel place or an amazing Mexican restaurant if it’s not right near my home or office!

Dublin is small, but one of the things I love about it is that after 5 years, you do get to know it well and know what’s good, what’s bad, what’s authentic, what’s not! Although when I come back to visit, I’m constantly surprised as how much Dublin has changed – some for the better (I can so get behind the increase in baking shops and American-style pizzeria), some for the worse (always sad to see a favoured coffee shop having gone out of business) and some quite humorously (the recent explosion in burrito bars. When I started college in 2005, there were juice bars everywhere, and now they all seem to have been replaced by burritos. I’m a lover of Mexican food, so I consider it a change for the better, but it is a bit overkill.)

I headed back to Ireland in June with Beardy Boyfriend, Beardy Bestie Fran and some English friends for the weekend. I was excited to be participating in the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon (with a time of 1 hour, 19 minutes!), which I assumed gave me carte blanche to eat whatever I wanted for the weekend.

I was pretty determined to find some of the places that I loved and see what had changed.

I’m posting some foodie photos of my trip through Dublin – try not to let your mouth water…

This is itsabagel in Arnotts in city centre- my onion bagel is toasted just the way I like it.

Some cute kitchen goodies from Stock

There aren’t enough good breakfast places in London. Lemon, which specialises in all day breakfast, manages to serve everything from a maple syrup-drenched crepe (top left) to my toast and bacon and cheese omelette. My friend Nina described this as her favourite toast of all time, which is saying something.

The cookbook selection at Hodges Figgis – Dublin’s most famous bookshop (it even warrants a mention in Ulysses)

My favourite guacamole on the face of the earth: Dublin’s Acapulco. I have no idea what it makes it so delicious (probably nothing good for you), but I used to come there ALL the time for lunch, when the Nachos Supreme was half price. And it was great to be able to bring my friends back.

It was absolutely gorgeous to be home – do you like to eat in Dublin? Any recommendations?

Foodies Festival Clapham Common

bakingbeardy — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:56:11 +0000

Anyone who reads my blog knows that I’m a bit gung-ho for attending foodie events – I may have gone a wee bit overboard at the Manchester Cake and Bake Show. But I found the Foodies Festival in Clapham Common to be an unusually great experience – rather than at most baking shows, where I find demonstrations to be difficult to get into and my primary focus tends to be on shopping, this one was unusually well-organised for a festival. Probably because the weather was absolutely beautiful, and they had a large beer section, so plenty of people attending were there primarily to relax (rather than bone up on tips regarding truffle making and cake decorating!), which made the festival a very fun atmosphere!

We were the first people to arrive on Saturday morning – since we live near Clapham Common, it was fairly easy to arrive on time – we (and the about 20 people behind us who were also queuing for workshops). Interestingly, rather than releasing tickets throughout the day, they offered tickets for morning and early afternoon features at 10am, while late afternoon tickets were released at 1pm. The idea was probably to keep people like myself and Beardy Boyfriend from snatching them all up, but I did notice that by about 4pm on Saturday, attendance at features had fallen off sharply.

As you can see above, the queue started early! The first workshop we headed to was a demonstration by amazing artisan chocolatier Fiona Sciolti of Sciolti Chocolates. I’ve made truffles several times myself, but I really loved the idea of infusing the truffles with natural ingredients, rather than simply flavouring them, so it was definitely the session I was incredibly excited to see.

She makes handcrafted, hand decorated artisan chocolates, but I liked that she was also willing to give tips for home chocolateurs. She was infusing her truffles with this mint and licorice tea (which she makes herself!) and she gave us some tips on straining.

She also suggested a way of making truffles through piping, which I hadn’t even thought of! Really creative, though -

After the event, I tried to convince her that she should write a book – I’d love to see a cookbook of natural truffle recipes.. There were a couple of great shops as well – are those Oreo rings not the cutest thing ever? I so need one to identify me as a “super baking blogger”

Thanks, CrispyCandy! I think you have my future jewellery needs sorted. As a long term fan of the Hummingbird Bakery, it was nice to see their mobile van in person.

I love Titchy Kitch, and I was super excited to discover that they had a cooking club – unfortunately, it’s for children age 4 and up. I’m probably a bit old to get away with joining….but isn’t it tempting?

The Cake and Bake Tent was a new thing in the Foodie Festival, and I will admit – it was pretty clear that they were still working out the kinks. The originally scheduled speaker was Lindy Smith, but she was unable to attend, so we were lucky to enough to get Fiona Pearce subbing in. I found her really interesting and I loved a lot of her ideas (particularly to stamp fondant with stamps glazed with food colouring.) Already excited to try it!

Finally, we checked out the Barbeque Area, which was going a bit of a workshop as to how you can make things other than meat on your grill. We whipped together a quick flatbread to bake on the grill – and if I say so myself, my curry flatbread was pretty delicious.

Really easy to slap on the grill while eating!

I definitely enjoyed the Foodies Festival, although the Cake and Bake Tent definitely has more work to be done. Also, a large part of what made it an enjoyable day was the weather, so that’s definitely something to keep in mind.

Dark Chocolate Almond Truffles

bakingbeardy — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 12:28:49 +0000

These truffles are so easy to make and yet sophisticated, it feels like cheating. They’re just so easy to make – and to me, chocolate almond has always been the most elegant flavour – is that just me?

I created this for the Duncan Hines Spring Bake competition – but it was too good to keep to myself….

Dark Chocolate Almond Truffles (adapted from Cookies and Cups)

Ingredients:

2 cups of buttercream icing (I’m pro-homemade frosting.)

1 packet Duncan Hines chocolate almond powder (or a teaspoon of almond

12 ounces dark chocolate

1/2 cup ground almonds

Melt the dark chocolate. Mix chocolate almond powder (or almond extract) into buttercream frosting.

Mix in melted chocolate. Stick in the fridge and allow them to cool for about an hour. Taking about a tablespoon or two of dough at a time, roll ball of chocolate in ground almonds.

Little but delicious – perfect for a little dark chocolate hit when needed!

Cooking with Flowers and Dandelion Cookies

bakingbeardy — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 13:15:05 +0000

I’m at a natural disadvantage with this cookbook – I live in Britain! While in the US, there are a variety of beautiful and easily available flowers, the weather in the UK makes it a bit more difficult to find any kind of nice flower – as a result, my options were limited. The book provides recipes for elderflowers, tulips, herb flowers – but due to my limited garden facilities, dandelions were the obvious choice (weeds, schmeeds….)

As I’ve come to expect from the lovely Quirk Books, it’s a cookbook which totally focuses on one thing – creative uses of flowers. I admit that my experience with flowers is rather limited: just some use of rosewater and maybe candied flowers as decoration. So I was pretty much the perfect audience for Cooking with Flowers - a complete flower novice!

The book is interesting not only as a cookbook, but discussing how herbs and flowers have been historically been used to flavour and decorate food. I found it really useful, and necessary to have some tips on safely using the flowers. It’s a wonderfully seasonal book – perfect for the gorgeous summer that we’re having! Would definitely recommend if you’re interested in expanding your use of flowers or going more natural in your food production.

Dandelion Cookies (from Cooking with Flowers)

Ingredients:

113g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

225g (1 cup) granulated sugar

2 tablespoons black treacle

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 egg

156g (1 1/4 cup) plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 1/3 cup oats

1 cup dandelion petals

Separating the dandelion petals from their stalks is probably the most difficult part and I’d recommend reading the book tips in order to do so safely (and deliciously), but you want to have about a cup of petals once you’ve prepped them.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in treacle, vanilla extract and eggs.

Sift in dry ingredients.

Mix in oats and dandelion petals.

Place on lined baking sheet.

Bake at 170C for about 12 minutes – the cookies should be browned, but still chewy.

The cookies were delicious, and I’d definitely be eager to try the rest of the flower recipes in the cookbook!

I received a free copy of Cooking with Flowers to review, courtesy of Quirk Books, but all opinions are my own.

Milk Chocolate Caramel Kiss Cookies

bakingbeardy — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 15:40:35 +0000

Hershey Kisses have been becoming way more edgy lately. Is it just me who remembers this? When I was a kid, I remember when Hershey Hugs were introduced – I was absolutely delighted. But now, they’ve been getting more eccentric: cherry cordial, mint creme, and the elusive Caramel Kiss.

I found the Caramel Kiss when I was cruising Target with my sister (as you know, I do when I’m in the US – my sister, who lives in Washington State, only moans slightly about being dragged to a place which she finds extremely uninteresting since she can visit it whenever she wants.)

Are they not beautiful? They have a lovely succulent caramel sauce inside of them. I was torn about what to do with these – brownie? Cupcake? But at the end, I decided it was a cookie – a chewy cookie made of milk chocolate (since the Kisses are milk chocolate) that you would bite into and fall in love with. Unfortunately, the first step in my plan was waylaid due to the difficulty of finding a milk chocolate cookie. You wouldn’t think that would be so hard, but apparently, there seems to be some kind of consensus that cookies should be made with cocoa powder (which is dark chocolate) rather than milk chocolate.

Ridiculous.

So after an extensive search of every cookbook I have (which took quite a long time – thus why this is a bag of Christmas-themed candies!), I found an amazing milk chocolate cookie recipe from Flour to adapt.

And the caramel deliciousness went from there.

Milk Chocolate Caramel Kiss Cookies (adapted from Flour)

Ingredients:

140g (2/3 cup) granulated sugar

150g (2/3 cup) light brown sugar

185g (3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

210g (1 1/2 cups) plain flour

About 1/2 of a bag of Hershey Kiss Caramels

There is some bicarbonate of soda in the photo, but I found that adding it made the cookies balloon a bit, so I’d recommend leaving it out.

Cream butter and sugars together. Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract.

Melt the chocolate and sift in dry ingredients.

Place the dough in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Sandwich the Caramel Kiss in about two tablespoons of cookie dough.

Place on a lined baking sheet (greased probably won’t do it – much better to line the sheet).

Bake at 180C for about fifteen minutes.

The cookies will be quite brown on the edges, but still chewy in the centre. When you bite into it, it has an amazing caramel centre.

It’s an amazing milk chocolate with a delicious central hit of caramel. Amazing – a great use of the caramel Kisses!

Star Trek and Chocolate Truffle Cookies

bakingbeardy — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 10:32:48 +0000

I suppose I’m not the typical person you would think of when it comes to being a massive Trekkie (apparently baking nerdiness and being a massive science fiction fan are a bit mutually exclusive) – but I saw my first episode of The Next Generation when I was about four years old. The character of Q really intrigued me (my uncle had a hard time explaining the concept of an omnipotent alien to me) and I just loved the idea of a universe full of aliens with different viewpoints and experiences. I was rather obsessed for the majority of my childhood! So when the new JJ Abrams re-boot was launched, I was fairly excited.

Luckily, this movie was made for people like me – people who have loved Star Trek for yours and followed it devotedly. While the first Abrams movie contained a few references for long-time fans, this movie contains quite a few references to past Trek characters and plotlines. While it certainly made it more interesting for people like me, I think the movie can be enjoyed on the simple level of an action movie, without any of the connections that I delighted in.

The plot is fairly simple: Enterprise captain, the human James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and half human, half Vulcan Mr Spock (Zachary Quinto) set out to hunt down terrorist John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) – who has committed a terrorist attack in London – (non Londoners out there might not be aware of the frequency in which London is destroyed in action movies – almost as if American filmmakers consider that they want to blow up somewhere recognisable – and preferably English speaking – but not anywhere in America. Thus London is the destination of choice). Their trek takes them to the Klingon homeworld (identified here as Kronos) and action ensues. I’d say that this is a must-see for Trekkies (or science-fiction fans), but that even if you’re not a strong fan of the United Federation of Planets, it’s still enjoyable as an action movie.

As all Trek fans know, the home of Starfleet (the exploratory force that Kirk and Spock and their crew serve in) is San Francisco, so I was determined to make an authentic San Francisco treat – to me, there’s nothing more San Fransico than Ghirardelli. As a result, I thought a Ghirardelli chocolate recipe would be ideal!

Chocolate Truffle Cookies with Sea Salt (from Ghiradelli)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup semi-sweet dark chocolate

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup chocolate chips

Melt the 1 1/2 cup of chocolate with unsalted butter over low heat. Cream together sugar and eggs. Mix in the melted chocolate and butter.

Sift in dry ingredients and mix in chocolate chips.

Scoop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake at 180C for about 8 to 10 minutes – the cookies will still be soft and chewy in the centre!

And a delicious reminder of San Francisco!

Star Trek Into Darkness is in theatres now…

Peanut Butter Sandwiches

bakingbeardy — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 13:58:12 +0000

I am one of life’s planners. I like to have things organised. Every week, I make a food plan for dinner before plotting out my shopping list. Then I make a plan as to what I’m baking and make a giant grocery list. Sad? Maybe. But there’s so many things in life that we can’t control, that I’m not going to tear myself up over the few things I can.

This was a rare act of spontaneity for me. I saw it, I wanted it, I jumped up and baked it. I had all the ingredients in my kitchen, so I figured: what the hell. I want – I’m making it!

The recipe comes from Picky Palate, so I’ll pass you over to her for the directions (it looks complicated, but is incredibly easy and delicious.)

Peanut Butter Sandwiches (from Picky Palate)

Ingredients:

Milk chocolate (would suggest about 400g)

Graham Crackers (about 8 small graham cracker squares per 400g chocolate)

Peanut butter (half of a small jar would do)

You can click over to see Pick Palate’s instructions, or see my journey through photos…

They’re both delicious and incredibly easy, so check this recipe out!

Lemon Zested Madeleines

bakingbeardy — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 14:35:32 +0000

As you might have noticed, I have gone gung-ho into madeleines. In fact, I think it’s going to be a regular feature on my blog for awhile: the quest to find a madeleine which satisfies Beardy Boyfriend. The original madeleines was criticised as being just a little too bland – Beardy Boyfriend broadly hinted that I give the lemon madeleine the next go. This one was given a higher rating, but Beardy Boyfriend expressed disappointment that these little cakes were best when warm and freshly removed from the oven – meaning that he ate 9/10s of the pan when fresh and the next morning, decided the remaining 10% were not as nice (and yet ate them all, obviously.) These would be absolutely lovely to serve with coffee after a meal if you’re having friends over. I’d prep beforehand and just pop them into the oven while eating dinner – it’s such an easy recipe and the credit you’ll be given will far, far outweigh the baking!

Lemon Zested Madeleines (from We Love Madeleines)

Ingredients:

170g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter

4 eggs

A pinch (1/8 teaspoon) sea salt

130g (2/3 cup) granulated sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

90g (3/4 cup) plain flour

Brown the butter over low heat on the stove.

Add the pinch of salt into eggs and whisk briskly until the egg mixture has double or tripled in size.

Gradually mix in butter and granulated sugar.

Fold in lemon zest, vanilla extract and flour. Line a madeleine or mini-madeleine pan with butter and flour.

Bake at 180C for twelve minutes, or until the madeleines brown.

How delicious do these look? A must for lemon fans!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes from Ms Cupcake

bakingbeardy — Thu, 30 May 2013 19:04:21 +0000

I am a bit ashamed of my interest in this recipe. I absolutely, positively love the frosting. I could eat this mint chocolate chip frosting with a spoon!

Ms Cupcake is my local bakery in Brixton. It’s hard to find cakes in Brixton (it’s an eclectic area, but not a necessarily cake-friendly one!), and I fully admit that I buy their amazing mint chocolate chip cupcakes for the frosting. So when I realised that they were releasing a cookbook of their popular cupcakes, cookies and other treats, I was unbelievably excited!

If you’re not familiar with Ms Cupcake, you might not know that they only make vegan cupcakes. If you’re a a fan of vegan treats, then I’m sure you’d be very interested in this cookbook (because delicious vegan cupcakes are hard to find), but I’d even recommend this if you’re not a vegan baker, simply because the flavours are incredibly rich and delicious – and let’s be honest: we should probably all work on cutting down on dairy. Accordingly, when I baked, I took the lazy substitution (I used regular butter rather than non-dairy margarine.) Some of the ingredients may be difficult to find for those who aren’t experienced vegan bakers, but there are some lovely recipes – definitely worth the ingredient hunt!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (from Ms Cupcake)

Ingredients:

200ml milk (or soya milk, if vegan)

20ml cider vinegar

200g caster sugar

80ml rapeseed oil or canola oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon mint extract

170g self raising flour

30g cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Combine milk and cider vinegar. Allow to sit for about ten minutes (milk will start to curdle.)

Mix together sugar and rapeseed oil. Mix in vanilla and mix extracts, as well as milk. Sift in dry ingredients.

Line muffin tins with cupcake liners. Fill about 3/4 of the tin. Bake at 180C for about ten minutes (or until you can put a fork in it and come up clean) – allow to cool overnight

Ingredients (frosting):

75g unsalted butter (or dairy-free margarine if vegan)

75g vegetable shortening

750g icing sugar

60ml milk (if vegan, soya milk)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon mint extract

A couple drops of green gel food colouring (not liquid. Gel.)

Cream together shortening and unsalted butter. Gradually mix in icing sugar and milk, as well as vanilla extract, mint extract and green food colouring.

Pipe onto the cupcakes. And if there’s any left over…..

Pipe and eat. This icing is so good! I added little chocolate chips on the top (as Ms Cupcake does) to decorate.

So delicious – the book would be worth it for these cupcakes alone!

I was given a free copy of this book to review, but all opinions are my own.

Salt and Pepper Cookies from Baked

bakingbeardy — Mon, 27 May 2013 10:59:47 +0000

I’ve previously mentioned that I was obsessed with the Baked cookbook (it is amazing – I’m constantly browsing it for new recipes to try). It’s addictive. I’m sorry – it is absolutely, totally addictive.

I’m loving these sophisticated Oreos. The Baked gentlemen decided to recreate these cookies in a slightly less process, trans-fat filled way, and it was absolutely delicious (I may or may not have ended up eating a whole packet myself) – these would be a really lovely cookie to serve at a wedding shower, baby shower or party, I think!

Salt and Pepper Chocolate Cookies (adapted from Baked)

Ingredients (cookies):

1 3/4 cup icing sugar

1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter

3 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 ounces dark chocolate

1/4 cup cocoa powder

3 1/2 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons white pepper

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon fleur de sel

Cream together butter and sugars. Mix in egg yolks and vanilla.

Sift in dry ingredients.

Refrigerate overnight. The next day, roll out cookie dough.

I used my pastry cookie cutter (given to me by a work colleague, who bought it for 50p!) and it made very lovely, even cookies. Bake at 170C for about ten minutes (or until the sides have browned.) Allow to cool overnight.

Ingredients (filling):

5 ounces vegetable shortening

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (cut into chunks)

3 1/4 cups icing sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/t teaspoon run extract

Beat together unsalted butter and vegetable shortening.

Gradually mix in icing sugar, vanilla extract and rum extract until fully combined.

Spoon a layer of filling in between two cookies (and yes, it really does taste like Oreo filling!)