Bake along with bake off- Pistachio salambos

Arghh what a crazy crazy couple of weeks. I have been away with work, not even managed to watch last weeks bake off let alone try and bake along with it. I think I will have to cut my losses (nothing from sweet dough week and nothing from whatever was last week) and bake along with whatever the theme is tomorrow, and I do not even know what that may be.

These little pistachio delights I made for the week the contestants made petit fours. If my memory serves me right in the trailer for the bake off I am yet to watch I  am sure the contestants were making some sort of choux based delight for the technical challenge so these  do kind of fit!

They are a mini choux bun, filled with orange blossom cream, dipped in caramel and chopped pistachios. They are truly delicious.

Pistachio salambos

makes 12 mini

1 egg, beaten
25g butter
33g plain flour
15g pistachios, finely chopped
60g caster sugar
75ml  double cream
few drops of orange blossom water

Fold a sheet of greaseproof paper in half, open out, and sift the flour onto it.

Put the butter and 60ml water into a pan and heat gently until the butter has melted. Quickly bring to the boil and add the flour all in one go. Take the pan from the heat and beat the mixture with a wooden spoon, as you beat it will turn into a smooth dough. 

Put the pan back over a low heat, and beat gently for a minute more until the  dough comes away fro the sides of the pan to make a smooth glossy ball. 

Tip the dough into a mixing bowl and leave until barely warm. 

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C FAN.

Using and electric whisk gradually add the egg, beating well after each addition. The dough needs to be shiny and stiff, it should just fall from a spoon if lightly shaken. You may not need all the egg, do not make the dough too loose or it will spread out not puff up in the oven.

Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a narrow plain nozzle and pipe 12 small mounds equal in size, onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper, spacing them well apart. Bake for 20 minutes.

Open the oven door to release steam, turn the temperature down to 180C/160C FAN and bake for a further 5 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden.

Make a small whole in the side of each choux ball to let out the steam and return to the oven for a final five minutes. Transfer the choux buns to a wire rack to cool.

Make the caramel by dissolving the sugar in one tablespoon of water. increase the heat and gently bubble until the caramel turns a deep golden. Dip the top of the choux buns into the caramel followed by the pistachios.(If the caramel begins to set before you have dipped all the buns gently warm over a low heat) Set aside to set.

Whip the cream and a few drops of orange blossom extract together until stiff enough to hold a peak. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a narrow nozzle and pipe through the steam hole. 

These need to be eaten as soon as possible once they are filled. I filled a couple to eat straight away and kept the others unfilled , with the cream in the fridge, and ate over the past couple of days. They were their absolute best the day they were made but perfectly yummy the following days.

Bake along with bake off - Victoria sponge

Apologies for the lack of posts of late, I had a couple of epic disasters (who forgets to put fat in a cake?!) then went away.

I am back now and hope that all baking disasters are firmly behind me, especially as I had the idea of baking along with The Great British Bake Off each week.I will only be doing one of the challenges each week, not the signature, technical and showstopper, I do not think my waistline would thank me for that!

The first week was cake and so I decided to do my signature victoria sponge. As Mary said she wanted no plain and boring jam sponges, I made mine a lemon and raspberry victoria sponge. It is a lemon and vanilla sponge filled with lemon curd, raspberries and vanilla chantilly cream.

Lemon and raspberry victoria sponge

3 eggs, weighed with shells, room temperature
Same weight of butter
Same weight of sugar
Same weight of self raising flour
Tsp vanilla paste
zest of lemon
Tsp baking powder

Lemon curd
Raspberries
Single cream
1/2 tsp vanilla paste

Grease and line the base of two 20cm loose bottomed cake tins. Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy then beat in the vanilla, lemon zest and eggs for a further minute. Add the flour and baking powder and beat until just combined. Do not overbeat

Divide the mixture equally between the tins and bake for. 25-30 mutes until golden and springy.

Leave to cool in the tins for 15 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cakes are cool sandwich them together with plenty of lemon curd, vanilla cream and fresh raspberries.

Confession time. This cake tastes absolutely beautiful, I urge you to try it but there were a couple of niggles, these would hopefully not have seen me kicked off the bake off but I certainly would not be winning star baker!

Firstly in true bake off style I dropped my cake. Not onto the floor but a couple of inches onto the worktop, while it was still in the tin. My beautiful risen cake now had a little dip in it. I simply turned it over hoping the filling would hide it...

Secondly I have a super hot oven and have accepted that the edges of my cake will brown. I know Paul and Mary are not fans of this, who was it who grated off their dark edges last year?

Dark edges!

All said this was a yummy cake and I am 100% happy with my efforts!

Bread next week, always and interesting one!

Strawberry shortcakes

Summer is here and I seem to have been panic eating strawberries before it goes away again! Its no hardship really as I love strawberries and the British ones are in in the shops with abundance just now.

If you pop over to Edd Kimber's blog you will find a recipe for strawberry shortcakes which is just divine.

A couple of notes. His recipe states that the given quantities make 6-8, I divided by four to make two and they were massive. I am very glad I did no divide by three to make two, they would have been the size of my head! Secondly he cuts them out, I just heaped two high round dollops on to a baking sheets.

I also had mine with creme friache as opposed to cream, not that I have anything against cream I just fancied something a little sharper on this occasion. I can confirm it is a delicious tweak.

All in all  lovely summer dessert..

Victoria sponge

Ever have a day where you bake something that is not especially complicated, perhaps something you have made many a time before, and it is much more fantastic than usual? More fantastic perhaps than the effort put in?

I was asked for a victoria sponge, and I do enjoy a classic cake so I readily complied. I had raspberry jam in the fridge so decided, in a bold move that would have me cast out of the WI, to buy a pot of double cream and I was all set to go.

I have made various victoria sponges before but can honestly say hand on heart that this was the most delicious. I feel a bit of a fraud saying this as I did not do anything special, in fact my mind was on so many other things, that it should, in all fairness, have been a disaster.

Instead I was rewarded with a super soft, delicate sponge with a quite wondrous crumb structure. I filled it with sharp raspberry jam and softly whipped cream loaded with plenty of vanilla.

I am all for new baking techniques and flavour combinations but once in a while its good to remember why a classic is so awarded a place in the classic hall of fame.

Victoria sponge (raspberry and vanilla)

170g butter
1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
170g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
170g self raising flour
2 level tsp baking powder

100g raspberry jam
100ml of double cream
1 tsp vanilla paste/seeds from one vanilla pod

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Grease and line the base of a 20cm springform tin.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together until very light and creamy, ~5 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl after each addition. Add the flour and baking powder to the bowl and fold in with a spatula until there is no visible flour remaining.

Pour into the prepared cake tin and level with a spatula. Bake in the preheated oven for ~30 minutes.  Rotate the tin 2/3 of the way through cooking, especially if your oven has hot spots (like mine). Do not slam the oven door if you do not want your cake to sink! 

When the cake is golden and springy to the touch, remove from the oven and allow to cool for ~10 minutes in the tin. Release the cake from the tin and allow to completely coll on a wire rack. 

Using a sharp serrated knife cut the cake into two layers. At this point you can choose what to sandwich the layers with if you do not fancy jam and cream.

Add the vanilla to the cream and beat until it is softly whipped. Spread the jam onto one layer of the cake then spread with the vanilla cream. Gently place the second layer of cake on top. Gently dust with icing sugar, if you wish.