Nectarine pie

Maybe its just me but I am finding this months alpha bakes a tricky one. I saw the letter  'N' and though 'oh that's fine'. But then I actually thought about it. And though some more. In the end I enlisted the help of M who thought and thought and eventually came up with nectarines.

I decided to try the nectarines in a pie. I was a little worried as I had not heard of nectarine pie, maybe there was a good reason for that!

Actually it was a very nice tasting pie, lovely buttery short pastry, plenty of vanilla and sweet juicy nectarines  The only issue was that the nectarines did not break down as an apple or pear does. I think if you were to try this I would roast the nectarines with a little vanilla first before adding them to the pie. I think this would encourage them to break down more so that the filling of the pie would be oozy and sticky.

Nectarine pie

makes 2 mini ones with pastry left over

100g plain flour
1/2 tbsp icing sugar
60g butter
1/2 an egg yolk
1 tbsp ice cold water
3 nectarines
vanilla paste or pod

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Mix together the flour and icing sugar. Add the butter in small cubes and then rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the egg yolk and water, and use a round edged knife to bring the mix together. If it is a little dry add a a touch more of the egg yolk or ice cold water until you have a soft, not sticky dough. It is a good idea at this point to refrigerate the dough for a short while to make it easier to work with. I wrapped mine tightly in clingfilm and chilled for 30 minutes.

Roll out the pastry and line your pie dish. Fill with chopped and peeled nectarine chunks (pre roasted for a softer filling) and vanilla seeds or paste. 

Arrange strips of pastry in a lattice on the top and pinch to seal. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden.

Serve warm with cream, clotted cream or ice cream

Another good thing about this pie was that there was not a soggy bottom in sight, Marry Berry would have been proud.

I am going to make some sort of Apple pie soon (ish), so will post pastry amounts and techniques for a large pie then.

Chocolate orange marble cake

Hi, just a quick post today its been a busy busy week. Still have a few posts waiting to be finished and up loaded!

I wanted a nice simple cake to enjoy with a cuppa after work and this fits the bill perfectly.

For the recipe just follow my vanilla and chocolate marble cake recipe, here. Once you have divided the batter simply add the zest of a grated orange and juice from half the orange to the vanilla batter.

I do not think this cake needs any icing it is fantastically moist and just the thing for when you want a delicious but simple cake.

Chocolate melting moments

I was not entirely sure what to make this week and so asked M for some inspiration. After a moment of thought his face lit up and h said 'posh biscuits'. What is a posh biscuit I hear you ask, or maybe you don't, maybe unlike me you already knew. I worked out he meant something that was not an american style cookie. 

So after a little thought I came up with these. A two tone vanilla and chocolate melting moment sandwiched together with a white chocolate ganache.

I was going to pipe swirls but was short on time and my butter was a little hard so I piped little fingers instead.

Chocolate melting moments

I made 24 little sandwiched fingers but it depends on how you pipe the mixture.

For the vanilla biscuits

62g butter

14g icing sugar

tsp vanilla paste (or extract)

14g cornflour

62g plain flour

For the chocolate biscuits

62g butter

14g icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla paste (or extract)

14g cornflour

52g plain flour

10g cocoa powder

For the ganache

80ml of double cream

100g white chocolate, broken up

Prepare the ganache by gently heating the cream to boiling point, pour over the chocolate and leave for a couple of minutes. Stir briskly with a fork, the chocolate should be all melted and smooth. If any lumps of chocolate remain that do not go away after stirring stand the bowl in a little hot water and stir again. Leave the ganache to cool and thicken, first on the work top and as it cools you can move it to the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.

To make the vanilla biscuits beat the butter sugar and vanilla together until very soft, ~ 5 minutes. It needs to be very soft so it is pipeable.

Add in the flour and cornflour and, using a spoon, bring the dough together.

Using a star nozzle pipe either swirls or fingers onto the prepared baking sheets. If you are finding it hard to pipe the butter is probably a little hard and you will need to beat it for longer next time. 

Make the chocolate biscuits in the same way, adding the cocoa along with the flours.

Pop the trays in the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes to help the butter firm up. This prevents the biscuits spreading and keeps the piped shape nice and sharp after baking.

Bake the biscuits for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden. 

Remove from the baking sheets and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Pair up the biscuits with a friend of a similar size. 

Give the ganache a quick whisk with a fork. With a piping bag and star nozzle, or a spoon ( I used a nozzle, these were 'posh' biscuits remember ..) place ganache along one biscuit of each pair sandwiching the second on top. 

These are lovely short, crumbly, melty biscuits that pair really nicely with the creamy ganache. I hope I succeeded in my quest for posh biscuits, judging by M's reaction I did just that!

Cinnamon swirl loaf

Argghh, everything getting on top of me since coming back from holiday, have not been able to bake much , let along blog about it. A broken washing machine and flooded kitchen meant I could not get to my oven even if I wanted to. Still I have a couple of things I made before my holidays so now seems a good time to tell you about them.

One of them is a yummy cinnamon swirl loaf.


This is another recipe from The Great British bake off: how to turn everyday bakes into showstoppers.

This is a yummy bread that is good by itself, toasted and, my personal favourite, toasted and topped with sliced banana. It is perfect for breakfast but just as good as that got in from work snack before dinner!

It is not too difficult to make and just requires a little forward planning to allow the bread to rise.

Cinnamon swirl loaf

Makes one loaf

500g white bread flour
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsps caster sugar
7g sachet fast action yeast or 15g fresh yeast (I actually used the dried stuff that needs activating to no ill affect)
125ml milk
50g butter
1 large egg at room temperature

For the filling

50g caster sugar
tsp plain flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Mix together the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl, if using dried yeast stir it in. If using fresh yeast stir it into 7 tablespoons of the measured milk.

Gently heat the milk (either all or the remaining) with 125ml water and the butter until lukewarm an the butter melted. Remove from the heat and beat in the egg with a fork until combined, add to the flour mix, along with the fresh yeast if using.

Work the ingredients together with an electric mixer on low until a soft dough is formed. Turn on to a ightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and pliable. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with cligfilm, leave to rise in a warm place for an hour or so until double in size.

To prepare the tin, cut  strip of baking paper the same width of your tin and long enough to cover the two short sides. Lightly grease the tin and then line with the paper.

Punch down the dough then pat into a rectangle about 2 cm thick, cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for 5 minutes. 

Roll out the dough to a rectangle as wide as the length of your tin and 48cm long. Keep the sides as straight as you can. 

Brush the dough liberally with milk, mix the filling ingredients and sprinkle evenly over the dough leaving a 1cm border at one short end.

Roll up the dough nice and tightly from the short end without the clear border, pinch the seam to seal it. 

Lift the rolled dough into the tin, folding the ends under to make it neat. 

Slip the dough into a plastic bag, inflate the bag slightly then tie the ends. Leave the loaf for about an hour again until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Take the dough from the bag and brush with milk. Bake in the preheated oven for ~35 minutes until golden brown, It should sound hollow when tapped on the base. If it does not sound hollow return to the oven (straight on shelf not back in the tin) for a further 5 minutes. 

Transfer the loaf to a wire rack and rub with a knob of butter to create a shiny top. 

This bread will last up to 5 days in an airtight tin, ours did not make it past day 3!

Pumpkin and poppy seed crispbreads

Phew scraping in by the skin of my teeth with a final, slightly more inventive, alpha bakes entry.

I made these to go with my lunches during the week. Me and M had one each to sample them and straight out he offered to pay me to bake a batch just for him. They are delicious and have a very satisfying crunch.

I have adapted a couple of recipes to make a mismatch.

Pumpkin and poppy seed crispbreads

makes 24

60g plain flour
110g wholegrain spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
40g butter
115g 2% fat greek yoghurt
2 tablepoons milk
30g pumpkin seeds
15g poppy seed
1 egg
extra pumpkin seeds for decoration

Mix the flours and baking powder in a bowl, rub the butter in with your fingertips util the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Lightly whisk the yoghurt and milk together with a fork. Add the yoghurt mix and the seeds to the bowl, mix together, then bring the dough together with your hands.

Divide the dough into two and wrap tightly in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN, and line two baking sheets with baking parchment. 

Take a piece of dough and divide it into twelve even pieces, pat into a rough oblong. Flour a surface, cover a piece of the dough with the clingfilm used to wrap the dough, and roll out as thin as possible.

Transfer the pieces to the baking parchment, glaze with beaten egg and sprinkle on a couple more pumpkin seeds.

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden. Leave to cool on a wire rack and then store in an airtight tin. 

I can confirm that these are exceedingly moreish, they are excellent as a nibble with a glass of wine and are a lovely accompaniment to soup, I cannot wait to try them with hummus.