James Martin's Caramel Apple Brioche

This is something I've been wanting to make for a long time, but have shied away from because of the whopping calorie content.  But in a fit of pre-diet carb-loading, I decided it was now or never.  It was either this or Churros y Chocolat from Thomasina Miers Mexican Food Made Easy.  This only won because I'm still a bit of a wuss when it comes to deep-fat-frying without a deep-fat-fryer.

As with all James' recipes, this involves an awful lot of butter, and lots of sugar too.  But it has fruit in it, so I figured it counts as one of my five a day.  And I eschewed the dollop of softly whipped double cream in favour of a dollop of Greek yogurt, thus saving a few calories and also helping to cut through the tooth-rotting sweetness that is basically toffee apples on sweet French Toast.

Miss A had one triangle of toast with a smear of the toffee and a freshly sliced apple but managed to swipe a second bit of the bread and ram it in her mouth before I knew where it had gone.  I've tried her with French toast before but she's always turned her nose up at it.  I think the brioche version - sans toffee sauce - might make a good compromise in future.

The brioche I used was a pre-bought, ready sliced one which is pretty lazy of me, but it's a great way to use up the end of a left over loaf whether you make your own or not.  It's something I've done before on this blog (read the post here) and it was a bit of an epically long recipe so not something I do regularly - but worth it for the treat.  I do also want to try Dan Lepard's brioche recipe on day - and that takes two days of baking!


One cheat was to use Bonne Maman Dulche de Leche rather than making my own caramel sauce.  Purely because I had a half open jar in the fridge and didn't have any double cream to hand.


My finally change to the recipe was to not peel my apples and to use Pink Ladies, leaving the skin on to give a pretty contrast to all the brown of the toast and the toffee.  The picture doesn't really do it justice, but they did look quite decorative.  I really need to work on my food photography!


Serves 2

• 4 slices plain brioche, halved
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 Pink Lady Apples, cored and quartered
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean extract
• 4 tsp soft brown sugar
• 50 ml milk
• 2 tbsp dulche de leche
• 40g butter

1. Mix the egg, milk, 2 tsp of sugar and vanilla together in a shallow bowl.
2. Heat half the butter in a frying pan.  Once foaming, dip the brioche pieces in the egg mixture and fry until lightly browned on both sides.  Put on a plate in the oven to keep warm.
3. Coat the apple in the rest of the sugar.  Put the remaining butter in the frying pan and turn the heat up.  Toss the apples in the butter until the sugar starts to caramelise.  Add in the toffee sauce and warm slightly then serve over the brioche, topped with some Greek yogurt, creme fraiche or whipped cream.

James Martin's Chocolate, Satsuma and Mint Bread

Finished loaves

Before there was Dan, there was James.  I've had a thing for him since his bandana days, having first come across him when my Grandma used to watch Ready, Steady, Cook.  She had a soft spot for him too because he's an honorary Hampshire boy, even if his roots are in Yorkshire.  She always liked local people to do well.  I like him because I have bit of a thing for big Northerners who like food and fast cars.*

One of the best things that happened after having Miss A was being able to spend long, uninterrupted Saturday mornings watching Saturday Kitchen because I was "busy breastfeeding the baby, and it's takes far longer than bottlefeeding, don't you know".  And yet, until recently, I'd never once tried one of his recipes.

A few months ago, I bought a copy of James Martin's Masterclass for a fiver and then promptly lost it when the husband decided to go on a tidying jag.  Rediscovering it the other morning when I was pottering around the spare room on the daily work conference call (I was working from home and have to go in the spare room because I have a noisy lovebird next to my desk), a quick idle flick through turned up the recipe for Chocolate, Satsuma and Mint bread which seemed a great idea as I had leftover mint from making Lorraine Pascale's Minted Lamb Burgers earlier this week.

Pretty colours

The book itself professes on the front cover to "Make Your Home Cooking Easier".  This recipe may have been easy, but it had me on tenterhooks for a while.  It starts out with a basic bread dough, although only uses 200ml of water to 500g of flour which made a very dense and unyielding dough.  Having fully subscribed to Lorraine Pascale's mantra of 'the wetter, the better' (although you do have to have a limit!), this seemed entirely the wrong thing to do.  He even comments in his basic white bread recipe that 'where most people go wrong is in not making the mixture wet enough and so the finished bread ends up too doughy and dry'.  Curious.

Looking at his recipe for basic white bread, I noticed that he only uses 250ml water to 500g flour for that too.  And uses double the yeast that most other bakers use (2x7g sachets of easy yeast rather than one or 25g of fresh).  But he doesn't explain why.  And this is why I love Short and Sweet so much because Dan takes the time to explain why more yeast would make a difference (I should run downstairs and look this up right now! although I do know that you should only use half the yeast if you plan to leave the dough to rise overnight in the fridge)

Anyhow, scepticism over my very doughy dough aside, it doubled in size as predicted within the hour.  And then came the near disaster.  The recipe states "carefully mix the chocolate chips, mint leaves and satsumas in by hand".  All well and good.  Except it does nothing to prepare you for the slimy mess that ensues when you try to work tinned satsumas into such heavy dough.  Although it does explain why he used less liquid in the dough because suddenly, my work surface was swimming in juice.

Slimy work surface

I'd left my oranges to drain in a sieve for about ten minutes, but in my mind, they weren't quite dry enough.  If I was making this again, I'd definitely pop them onto some kitchen paper to remove some of the additional moisture.  I'd also try and have the sense to work the dry ingredients thoroughly into the dough first and then prod the satsuma bits in later.

As it was, my dough ripped with each attempt to ensnare the chocolate and orange and juice was leaking everywhere.  At one point, I was fully prepared to just sling it all in the bin and write it off as a waste of ingredients, but it seemed a shame to waste all the chocolate chips.

I finally managed to get them onto the tray, vaguely shaped and floured.  They rose beautifully for the second rise, were baked and came out actually looking like the ones in the book.  I was disappointed that the lighting in my kitchen was so poor again today as the photos don't do them justice.

Of course, Miss A who is addicted to home made bread (see sconegate) absolutely loved it.  So did I.  The husband took a bite and screwed up his face.  "I don't like that" he said.  "Why?" "Well I don't like it.  You don't like red wine but you don't give a reason why."  "Erm, because it gives me a stinking hangover and I don't like the tannins in most reds.  Plus you NEVER share so I don't get the chance to ever form a proper opinion"  He couldn't come up with a suitable reason for not liking the bread until I revealed it had mint in it.  "Ah, that's it" says he.

Just about salvaged for the final rise

It didn't stop him from eating the whole slice, nor did it later stop him from polishing off a quarter of the loaf before tea because he'd missed  lunch.  So it's obviously not that bad.  Just nicely different.

In fact, I really enjoyed the orange and mint combination.  If you get a mouthful with both flavours at the same time, it's really refreshing and zingy and works well with the bitterness of the dark chocolate.  I will definitely be making this again next time I have some spare mint.  And I like that it makes two loaves so one can (hopefully) go in the freezer.

And, for the first time in months, I've managed to use a baking recipe from somewhere other than Short and Sweet and actually enjoy it.  I need to do more of this!

Recipe - makes two smallish loaves

• 500g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
• 8g salt
• 40g caster sugar
• 50g butter, diced and softened
• 25g fresh yeast or 2x7g fast action yeast
• 200g dark chocolate chips or dark chocolate chopped into small pieces
• 10 mint leaves, roughly chopped
• 1x250g satsumas or mandarin oranges, drained and lightly dried with kitchen paper

Fresh from the oven

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl, then add the sugar, butter and yeast.  Pour in the water, a little at a time and begin to mix by hand until you have a dough that is sticky but pliable.  Try not to make the dough too stiff as this will result in a hard loaf of bread once cooked.  Add a little more warm water, if needed, to ensure that the dough remains pliable.
2. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and knead for ten minutes, then mould into a ball and place in the bowl.  Cover with a clean, damp tea towel and set aside to rest somewhere warm for 1 hour or until it has risen and doubled in size.
3. Knock the dough back lightly and tip it out on to a floured work surface.  Knead in the chocolate and mint leaves until evenly distributed.  Carefully work in the satsuma pieces.
4. Divide the dough into two equal portions.  Shape into a rugby ball shape and flatten slightly.  Place the loaves on a floured baking sheet with the folds in the dough underneath.  Sprinkle with flour, then score the top with a sharp knife and place somewhere warm for another hour to double in size again.
5. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220c/200c fan/ Gas 7.
6. Bake the loaves in the oven for 25 minutes.  They are cooked when the base of each loaf sounds hollow when you tap it.  Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

*I would just like to add, that they have to be reasonably good looking too.  I can't stand Jonny Vegas.

James Martin's Easter Biscuits

A few weeks back, the Mothership put in a request for Miss A to forgo her weekly gingerbread baking ritual in favour of making Easter biscuits. Not being a fan of anything containing dried grapes I only agreed because a) it would count towards the blog and b) I'd score brownie points on the home made gift front.   I selected a recipe by the lovely James Martin.

Like most biscuits, the recipe is really simple to follow. I must admit that I missed the instruction to only put in the yolk of a egg and not the whole thing.  But with my sous-chef being in charge of egg-related activities there's no way I'd've gotten a separated egg anyway!

I had to add another 50g flour to compensate.  The egg white is used to stick the sugar to the biscuits part way through baking. Luckily I had a spare one kicking around from another recipe that I'd been wondering what to do with.

Because of the extra liquid from the egg, I also didn't need the milk that James recommends.  I guess for thriftiness, following the original recipe is best so that you don't have to waste an extra egg yolk by using a whole egg in the mix and needing a white for the glazing part.

 As my mum doesn't like mixed peel I left that out and replaced it with extra currants. If I'd been making them for me I'd've gone with a chocolate and ginger combo like yesterday's buns or maybe sour cherry and apricot. There's always another time I guess.

I would also say that whoever wrote the recipe must've used tiny cutters.  We used a large round fluted cutter and a butterfly cutter and managed twelve biscuits.  The recipe specifies 20-25 biscuits so do consider this if you need to share them around with family and friends.

They've not been taste tested yet as we are all fit to burst after a huge tea of meatballs and spaghetti and  birthday cake (on separate plates!) but they've passed the eagle-eyed sight test of my mother, the ex professional chef.

If she likes them then I guess that's another tradition to add to my list.  Apparently her grandma used to make them for her as a child. Who knows why the tradition petered out but I'm happy to re-instigate it for Miss A.

Updated 8th April 2012 - Well the biscuits got the Mothership's seal of approval.  She said they were nicely spiced and they had a nice soft texture without being too crunchy.  I think if I made them again I'd probably zest an orange and a lemon into the mix to replace the candied peel.  And even I enjoyed mine despite not being a fan of squashed fly biscuits.


Ingredients

• 110g/4oz caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
• 110g/4oz butter, softened at room temperature
• 1 free-range egg, separated
• 225g/8oz plain flour, sieved
• good pinch mixed spice
• 55g/2oz currants
• 30g/1oz candied peel
• 3 tbsp milk

1. Preheat the oven 160C/325F/Gas 3. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk until well combined.
3. Fold the flour into the mixture, then stir in the mixed spice, currants and candied peel. Stir in enough milk to form a stiff dough.
4. Roll the dough out onto a floured surface and cut out the biscuits with a fluted cutter. Place onto the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
5. Remove the biscuits from the oven, brush with the reserved egg white, sprinkle with sugar and return to the oven for 5-10 minutes, or until pale golden-brown.
6. Remove the biscuits from the tray and set aside to cool on a wire rack.

Quick Chicken with Garlic Beans and Chorizo

Given the number of times I've mocked the husband for eating baked beans with just about everything (and worse than that he eats COLD baked beans with just about everything), I thought he might have had a dig at me tonight when I sat down to a pile of 'baked beans' with a chicken breast jauntily perched on the top.  Thankfully Mike Dilger was on the telly (the wildlife bloke from the One Show) so I managed to get away without comment.

But these were no ordinary baked beans.  Nor were they Branston Beans which I insist we have instead of those insipid Heinz things.  These were James Martin's posh beans.

I love this recipe as it is full of simple ingredients, it was really easy to cook - save for the fiddly chopping of shallots - and it was bloody tasty.  It's the kind of thing that I can imagine French peasants sitting down to with a huge crusty loaf, slathered in unsalted butter and plenty of wine to wash it all down with.

Posh beans under chicken

Of course, I'm still trying to be good so this treat came at the expense of having anything on the side.  It's something I will make time and again now for a quick lunch (without the chicken).  I'm now planning it as the side to whatever crusty loaves I get round to baking when time permits and I've put in enough miles to justify such an indulgence.  I do have some leftover beans in the fridge which I'll probably have for lunch with a jacket potato tomorrow.  Sadly the 'freshly baked' bread they serve at work is generally stale after it's been sliced and left sitting out for hours on end so that's not an option.

Anyhow the blog is supposed to be short this week as I'm back at work which is why I love that this recipe was so quick.  I managed to cook two separate dinners and do lunches in about 25 minutes (the husband had ham, egg and chips).

The recipe is from James Martin's Masterclass.

Recipe - Serves 4

• 25ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 4x175g boneless chicken breasts with the skin on (I only had skinless)
• 1 bulb of garlic, cut in half cross ways
• 250g raw chorizo, diced
• 2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 sprigs of rosemary (don't like it, didn't use it)
• 1x300g can haricot beans, drained and rinsed
• 150ml chicken stock
• 25g butter
• 25g flat leaf parsley, chopped (I used Garden Gourmet)
• Salt and black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.
2. Place a large frying pan over a high heat and pour in half the olive oil.  Season the chicken breasts well with salt and pepper, add to the pan and fry on each side for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.  Place on a baking tray, add the halves of garlic bulb and drizzle with the pan juices, then bake in the oven for 12 minutes or until cooked through.
3. While the chicken is cooking, place the pan back over the heat, add the remaining oil and the chorizo and fry for 2-3 minutes.  Add the shallots, rosemary, beans and stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
4. Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to rest, then remove the garlic and squeeze out the flesh from the inside.  Chop the flesh well with a knife and add to the beans.  Stir in the butter an dparsley and season well with salt and pepper.
5. Spoon the beans on to individual plates with the chicken sliced on the top (you can see from the pic I was too lazy for this bit), drizzle with the pan juices and serve.

James Martin: Lime Basil Chicken

Sometimes the best laid plans never go smoothly.  And where Currys is involved, best not even bother planning at all.

As regular readers will know, my dishwasher decided to blow up the week before Christmas.  I hummed and ha-ahed for a bit over where to buy one from given my previous experience with Currys and my fridge and cooker but in the end got suckered in by their post-Christmas deals.  Sucker being the operative word.

Here it is, 8.15pm and it's still not been delivered.  Because the numpty driving the van managed to get it stuck in someone's driveway so they have had to send out a crew with a smaller van to offload the items and then continue the delivery.  And despite the call centre being able to speak to the drivers, they can't tell them to not waste their time by coming to my house.  I expressed my frustration that Miss A will be in bed and my dogs will go mental, as is their wont when anyone comes into the house after dark.  But Currys didn't care.  So I am dishwasherless (the husband doesn't count) and in a little while I'm going to have to get a little bit grumpy.

Likewise with my dinner plans for today.  I'd decided that I was going to do something radical and make Chicken and Rice for the husband (chicken breast baked with Schwarz Chargrilled Chicken Seasoning, a packet of Uncle Ben's rice, gravy and two bits of bread and butter - his favourite dinner) and I was going to try the Cod and Chorizo stew from Waitrose Kitchen which I discovered via the lovely Kate Selwood's blog.

Suggesting changing Chicken and Rice night to the husband is tantamount to sacrilege.  I quickly backed down and suggested chicken curry.  We settled on Chicken Tikka with Frying Pan Naan which is normally a weekend only thing as it takes so much pre-preparation.  Hmmm...  And I'd already started writing the pre-ramble for the Chorizo stew recipe too.  Best laid plans and all that...

Step forward the lovely James Martin.  *Swoon*  Along with Nick Knowles and Chris Jarvis (CBeebies Presenter), James is one of my guilty crushes.  It's something about the combination of the Yorkshire accent, the love of fast cars and the way he handles a deep fat fryer.  If I lived with a man who could cook (properly I mean), especially one who probably secretly deep fries butter, I would be the size of a blue whale.

On a foray into town yesterday to look for an A4 desk diary - how hard are they to find in a little hick town like what I live in??? - I mistakenly wandered into Waterstones.  Having lovingly leafed through the Primrose Bakery book and The Boy Who Bakes, I tore myself away at Miss A's behest to feed the ducks, knowing that it was a bad move to buy yet another baking book when I'm supposed to be trying to be healthier for the next few months (and shift about 24lbs!).

Next stop on the diary hunt, WH Smiths where they had James Martin's Masterclass for a fiver down from £20.  Bargain.  Handed my money over and then realised that I was probably better off buying one  of the baking books given the cardiac-arrest-inducing recipes Mr Martin peddles.  Would I find anything in there that I could eat whilst on a diet?

The answer is yes.  There are probably two recipes I can get away with although I'm currently obsessed with his Club Sandwich with Bacon Mayonnaise recipe.  Mmmmm.  Bacon Mayo....  Luckily, the recipe I chose also fitted in with tonight's Indian theme and comes in at under 500 cals with a 75g (uncooked weight) serving of basmati rice.  Result.

Lime basil chicken with apple and mango chutney

Sadly, only the one picture as I raced to get everything pre-prepped this afternoon just in case Currys might actually deliver in the allotted time slot.  Silly me.

It is really tasty (although the husband didn't like it) and it's beautifully moist thanks to the marinade.  The huge amount of basil makes it smell like it's marinating in posh pesto, but when you actually taste it, the Indian influences do come through.  The ginger was hard to taste even after I doubled the quantity, but this may be because I used Garden Gourmet rather than fresh.

It would work really well in home-made tortillas of the Dan Lepard variety with some salad and a little coriander mayo and I'm sure it would be good popped on skewers and on to the barbecue.  If we ever get any sunshine this year!

Recipe

• 4 x 175g skinless and boneless chicken  breasts
• 75g basil leaves
• 25g coriander leaves
• 1oz mint leaves
• 1 green chilli, chopped
• 2 tbsp peeled and chopped root ginger
• 2 tbsp veg oil
• 2 tbsp plain yogurt
• Salt

1. Slice the chicken breasts into 4 pieces, place in a owl and set aside.
2. Place the fresh herbs in a blender along with the chilli, ginger, vegetable oil and yoghurt and puree to a smooth paste.  Season with salt to taste and pour over the chicken pieces, stirring them in the marinade to coat evenly, then cover the bowl and leave in the fridge for 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6
4. Remove from the fridge and lay the chicken pieces on a baking tray.  Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until cooked through.
5. Remove from the oven and serve with lime wedges and sprigs of watercress.

Spring Rolls

James Martin from BBC Good Food Mag a little while back.

In one word - disappointing.

In two words - don't bother.

Sorry for the short and sweet blog.  More fun to be had tomorrow mastering basic white bread with the help of Mr Lepard.

Very disappointing and tasteless spring rolls