chocolate

Pancake Day 2015

- Michael 10 Comments
Cheese & Bacon Pancakes

I meant to do 2-3 different Pancake posts over the last week or so. Annoyingly I got stinkingly ill on Monday and it wrote off pretty much the whole week. Then I didn’t want to has all the pancaking making into a day and eat too many pancakes to myself in one go. So it took getting a couple of friends over for pancakes to happen. But below are two pretty awesome recipes. One sweet and one Savoury, both American style. I did a very poor job with my post last year, so to make up for it I wanted to go a bit further.


Cheese & Bacon Pancakes

Pancakes

Ingredients:
100g Mature Cheddar, Grated (extra for garnish)
2 Spring Onions, roughly chopped (one for the mixture, one for garnish)
8 Rashers Streaky Bacon, Fried until Crispy
135g/4¾oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp white sugar
130ml/4½fl oz milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
Maple Syrup (optional)
Sriracha (Optional)
Cheese Sauce (Optional)

Instructions:
1. Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar).
2. Whisk together the milk, egg and melted butter. Pour in to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Stir in the cheese and one of the spring onions.
3. Using a ladel dollop into a prepared hot pan. Frying until golden on one side and flipping over. Fry until both sides are golden and it’s cooked through.
4. Stack up on the plate, topping with the bacon, extra cheese and spring onion. Add any of the optional toppings (I just went with sriracha and allowed some bacon to get extra crispy to sprinkle on top).

Pancakes

Double Choc Pancakes

Pancakes

Ingredients:
135g/4¾oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp Cocoa Powder
130ml/4½fl oz milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
100g White Choc Chips (reserve some for garnish)
100ml Double Cream, Whipped (optional)
Maple Syrup (optional)
Ice Cream (Optional)

Instructions:
1. Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and sugar).
2. Whisk together the milk, egg and melted butter. Pour in to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Using a ladel dollop into a prepared hot pan. Frying until golden on one side and flipping over. Fry until both sides are golden and it’s cooked through.
4. Stack up on a plate, topping with whatever you are using (I used whipped cream).

Pancakes

No Bake Almond Butter Bars

- Michael 4 Comments

Following on from my last recipe post (Coconut Quinoa & Kale Salad), I’ll be keeping things relatively healthy. This, in part, is due to our oven being broken since I got home from Christmas (it has since been replaced, and upgraded!). I still had the baking urge, so I looked into some no bake recipes. The great thing about a lot of raw recipes is that they are pretty healthy. This has no sugar (just some honey), no butter (just coconut oil) and is packed full of seeds.

Almond Butter Bars

I’ve been looking for a snack to get me through the mornings lately (I’ve been so hungry of late) and these no bake almond butter bars are great. They have enough to them to tide you over but without too much fat and sugar they are (relatively) guilt free. The main thing I’d say though, is make sure you do keep them in the fridge. They get a tiny bit too gooey and sticky. They still taste great but it’s a bit messy to eat at your desk. Also nut butter, make your own. It’s so cheap and so much healthier than the store bought stuff. Ages ago I said to my friend Steph that I was going to try and do some more diabetic and gluten free friendly recipes, so here’s another for my Free From bakes.

Almond Butter Bars

Now my oven is fixed I’m going to start churning out the bakes again. I know it’s been quiet recipe wise for a few weeks now. The great news is that it actually has two shelves now. Which is going to cut down my baking time for a bunch of stuff. It’s actually a little worrying how excited I was when I saw that we had a new shelf. Things like this and new baking toys tend to get me far too overexcited.

Almond Butter Bars

Almond Butter Bars

Oh and hey, my friend Lucinda doodled me up bit of a logo which she then got printed on to stickers for me. Who wants one? They’ll be going on all of my Cake Care Packages from now on too!

Bearded-Bakery

Bearded Bakery Stickers

 

No Bake Almond Butter Bars
 
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Serves: 16 bars
Ingredients
  • 120ml cup honey
  • 60ml coconut oil
  • 60ml cup almond butter (I made my own, you can use store bought if you prefer)
  • ½ tbsp. cocoa powder
  • ¼ tsp. sea salt
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 70g chopped almonds
  • 50g cup chopped walnuts
  • 100g cup dark chocolate chips
  • 35g sunflower seeds
  • 40g pumpkin seeds
  • 50g Berries (Optional, pick the type)
  • 90g rolled oats
Instructions
  1. In a small saucepan over a low heat mix together the Honey, Oil, Almond Butter and Cocoa Powder. Keep stirring so it doesn't catch. Allow to heat for a few minutes until well mixed together.
  2. Meanwhile mix the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
  3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and combine well.
  4. In a lined dish (I used my brownie tray) press the mixture out into a square. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, cut up and serve. This will last for several days in the fridge.
 

Chocolate Yule Log

- Michael Leave a comment
Chocolate Yule Log

Once again I should probably be apologising for a lack of Christmas posts. But you know what? I’m not going to. I’ve been that damn busy enjoying the festive period that well, I’ve not really had time to do updates. I’ve been baking plenty, but the food I’ve been making has been going straight to the plate. Since my last update I’ve also died of a hangover. This is my ghost writing this. I’m not exaggerating. My work Christmas do left me a shell of what I once was. I think it made my top 5 hangovers and possibly clinched the number one spot. Those that follow me on twitter, sorry, but I took it out on my twitter feed with some live tweeting.

Christmas Yule Log

Apparently my Cranberry & Orange loaves arrived in one piece and were devoured by the winners. I apologise for not sending out others like I said I may, but at £8.50 a pop I just couldn’t afford the postage. In the new year, you are all (well some), getting cake sent across.

Christmas Yule Log

Christmas Yule Log

I wanted to do something properly Christmassy. So who wants a Yule Log? This is basically my Chocolate Swiss Roll recipe slathered in chocolate and made to look like a log. If anyone wants to pass me some holly I’ll get it looking extra festive.

Christmas Yule Log

I’ve failed at a couple of recipes of late, and it’s annoyed me a little. I tried making a gingerbread sleigh the other day and just couldn’t get it to stick together. Not quite right anyway. Below is a fairly awful picture of what I did make, along with some pretty awesome Christmassy treats from Lindt. It didn’t stick together well and didn’t photograph well, so it doesn’t get its own post I’m afraid.

Gingerbread sleigh

 

Chocolate Yule Log
 
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Serves: 12 slices
Ingredients
  • • For the Swiss Roll:
  • • 3 large eggs
  • • 75g caster sugar
  • • 50g plain flour
  • • 25g cocoa powder
  • • For the Buttercream:
  • • 175g Good quality dark chocolate
  • • 250g Icing Sugar
  • • 225g Butter, soft
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C(180°C fan assisted) and line a swiss roll tray with paper. Whisk together the sugar and eggs for 5-10 minutes until it forms a pale, creamy mixture. The whisk should leave trails.
  2. Sieve in the flour and cocoa powder and mix well. Be careful not to knock the air out but make sure it is well combined with no clumps.
  3. Spread the mixture out evenly into the prepared pan. Using a palette knife to ease it into the corners. Place in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes (or until the cake is springy to the touch. I could have baked mine for a minute or so less).
  4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan, covered with a damp cloth. In the meantime, lay out a large piece of greaseproof paper and dust with cocoa powder. Transfer the cake to this.
  5. While it cools on the new parchment, make the buttercream. Melt the chocolate, either using a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of water, or in the microwave. Set aside and allow to return to room temperature.
  6. Sift the icing sugar in a mixer with the butter and cream together. Pour in the chocolate and cream until well mixed.
  7. Spread the buttercream over the whole cake, making sure it goes to all the corners. Carefully roll the swiss roll from the longest edge close to you, getting the roll as tight as possible.
  8. Once rolled tightly, cut off either end at a slight angle, use these to make the branches of your log.
  9. Cover the log in the remaining buttercream, using a fork afterwards to drawn the pattern of the bark. Dust with Icing Sugar to get it looking extra festive.
 

Sweet Potato Paleo Brownies

- Michael 4 Comments
Sweet Potato Brownies

First of all, I’m sorry. I’ve been really bad with baking updates the last couple of weeks. While I hope you all enjoyed my Scotland updates (you can see part 1, part 2 and part 3 here), I understand that they aren’t what you likely come to this blog for. I am warning you now that there will likely be one from my Chicago trip next week as well… featuring a lot of Pizza.

Anyway, before I get sidetracked rambling about pizza and my travels I thought it was time to do something a bit different. A week or so ago one of my closest friends put out a Facebook status declaring she wasn’t doing too good and asking someone to send her cake. So I am. She is currently doing a Paleo diet, which is something that I’m not even going to begin to pretend I’m an expert on. So she sent me across a few ideas she’d found while she herself had been doing Paleo cooking research.

Sweet Potato Brownies

I opted for Sweet Potato & Ginger Brownies. A lot of the Paleo recipes I came across asked for ingredients which I likely wouldn’t use again, unless I was to regularly do Paleo things. This meant that I wanted to be careful with what I was baking and not shell out for a heap of fancy ingredients. Being my first attempt at this sort of thing I also wanted to keep it simple. These Sweet Potato Paleo Brownies were just right. With the only slightly awkward (read: Expensive) thing I needed to buy being Coconut Flour. I opted for this recipe here.

Sweet Potato Brownies

Plenty of the Paleo recipes call for sweet potato or avocado, often both. They help replace a lot of the flour, butter and chocolate, the avocado being naturally oily and also creamy. The sweet potato being good to bake and help hold things together. A few other recipes that use these sorts of things can be found here.

Sweet Potato Brownies

Oh yeah and the big news? I’m moving to London at the start of October.

5.0 from 1 reviews
Sweet Potato Paleo Brownies
 
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Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1 Large Sweet Potato (approx. 2 cups once mashed)
  • 3 Eggs
  • 57g Butter
  • 60ml Honey
  • 3 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
  • 3 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 75g Dark Chocolate, chopped roughly.
Instructions
  1. Peel and dice the sweet potato. Place in a pan of boiling water and boil until tender.
  2. Mash the potatoes until smooth.
  3. Preheat the oven to 180 °C(160 °C fan assisted) prepare and line a 9x13 inch brownie tin.
  4. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the potato, butter, honey and vanilla.
  5. Add the dry ingredients and mix well, then stir in the chocolate.
  6. Pour into the prepared tin and spread into the corners.
  7. Place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (a tooth pick inserted into the middle should come out clean).
  8. Remove from the oven and place on a rack, only removing from the pan once cooled.
 

 

 

Chocolate Swiss Roll

- Michael 2 Comments

Chocolate Swiss Roll with Buttercream filling & Salted Caramel

So the Great British Bake Off has started up, and there is totally a guy stealing my vibe coughIaincough. Now a great many of you pestered me last year about applying, my friend Matt even said he was going to send in my application for me. I didn’t, and I am glad I didn’t. Yes, I can bake, but what I bake is all relatively niche and just the very first episode of this years highlighted a few things to me. I am not experienced at a great many of the more traditional techniques and bakes which are seen as “standard” things to bake.

Swiss Roll 01

My first example of this, the Swiss roll. I haven’t really considered making one before, and it wasn’t until they did last week that I thought; “You know what? I’m gonna give that a go.” So I’m starting with a simple one. None of the faff that some of those entrants attempted (I assume in a desperate attempt to be “impressive” in the season opener), but simply a standard chocolate Swiss roll. I’ve even gone and bought a new tray and everything.

Swiss Roll 03

I am pretty pleased with how it turned out for a first attempt. It cracked a tiny bit while I rolled it, partly due to rushing it and partly due to (ever so slightly) overbaking. It still held very well and rolled properly in about 95% of it. I’ve a decent amount of Salted Caramel leftover so I think I’m going to try again later in the week. I’m also tempted to give some of the biscuits a go from this week’s episode. I’ve made Caramel before on the blog but wanted to go for the saltier kind this time around.

Swiss Roll 04

 

Chocolate Swiss Roll
 
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Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • For the Caramel:
  • 200g granulated sugar
  • 90g salted butter
  • 120ml heavy cream
  • Salt to taste
  • For the Swiss Roll:
  • 3 large eggs
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 50g plain flour
  • 25g cocoa powder, plus extra to dust
  • For the Buttercream
  • 75g butter, at room temperature
  • 125g icing sugar
Instructions
  1. Start with the caramel, preferably the night before. In a medium saucepan over medium heat melt the sugar. Stirring with a rubber spatula. Lumps will form but keep melting and stirring until it becomes a see through syrup. Be careful not to let it burn.
  2. Add in the butter, it will bubble at this point so be careful. Stir until it completely melts and combines.
  3. Pour the cream in slowly, again, it will bubble. Mix and boil until it reduces slightly. Be careful not to let it catch. Remove from the heat and pour into a bowl. This will last in an air tight container for a couple of weeks in the fridge.
  4. For the Swiss Roll. Preheat the oven to 200°C(180°C fan assisted) and line a swiss roll tray with paper. Whisk together the sugar and eggs for 5-10 minutes until it forms a pale, creamy mixture. The whisk should leave trails.
  5. Sieve in the flour and cocoa powder and mix well. Be careful not to knock the air out but make sure it is well combined with no clumps.
  6. Spread the mixture out evenly into the prepared pan. Using a palette knife to ease it into the corners. Place in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes (or until the cake is springy to the touch. I could have baked mine for a minute or so less).
  7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan, covered with a damp cloth. In the meantime, lay out a large piece of greaseproof paper and dust with cocoa powder. Transfer the cake to this.
  8. While it cools on the new parchment, make the buttercream. Cream the butter until smooth and add the icing sugar. Beat until combined.
  9. Using a palette knife evenly spread the buttercream onto the cooled cake. Top with the caramel, again smooth evenly.
  10. Using the greaseproof paper, slowly roll it up.