Homemade Marshmallows

Marshmallows are a currency in our house.  Far be it from me to fib about bribing my child with sugar-filled products in order to get her to co-operate.  She knows the tariff for various activities like not messing around at the tea table (grapes and blueberries for pudding), tidying up (two bedtime stories instead of one) and probably the worst bribe of all, a marshmallow if she has her hair brushed.

Depending on her mood, hair brushing is somewhere on the scale between tedious and an all out nervous breakdown from the perspective of her parents.  Some days, we can get away with telling her she'll look beautiful like Lizzie (her favourite nursery nurse) and her hair is done without too much fuss.  Other days, one of her toys or one of the dogs will do her hair - she believes absolutely that inanimate objects and beings without opposable thumbs are capable of wielding a hairbrush, clips and bobbles - and the unlucky parent just about manages to get through the ordeal without reaching for something alcoholic.

So near, but yet so far...

On rare occasions, however, we do have to resort to all out bribery.  This usually happens when we've got somewhere to go and not much slippage in the itinerary for getting out of the door.  Bargaining starts before breakfast with the usual promises of 'beautiful Lizzie hair' or a list of animals or wooden jigsaw dinosaurs that she might like to have do her hair, but it's like she has a sixth sense that time is tight and she has a melt down at the mere thought of having her hair done.

I let her brush my hair and put conditioner in it.  This still doesn't persuade her to have her own done.  She sits rigidly with her head against the back of a chair and refuses to move, tears and snot coursing down her face.  A pile of unsuitable animals build up on the floor.  She doesn't want to look like any of her nursery teachers or her best friend Charlotte.  I threaten to have her hair cut off so she looks like a boy (which is what my mum did to me when I was small because I used to do this - and my hair is a hundred times worse to tame than Miss A's).  Even this doesn't work.  And her hair is so cute when it's done that I can't bring myself to follow through on the cutting threat.

And so I offer up a 'Marshie'.  And not just any marshie, but a pink marshie.  The snot covered child crawls onto my lap, smearing my top with snot (I've learned not to get myself ready to go out until the hair battle is over) and she reluctantly lets me tame her Cheerio and milk encrusted hair into bunches or a pony tail.  Eyes dry, we head into the kitchen to find the marshie pot.

So today's recipe of choice came about when I read about one of my fellow blogger's joy at being able to make her own marshmallows.  The recipe comes from the Eat Like a Girl blog and I knew that I just had to give it a go.  With a huge pile of 'marshie' you can even make your own shapes as Nelly of Nelly's Cupcakes did - melting a snowman into her hot chocolate.  What a fab, wintry idea.

Niamh gives you some of the science behind the actual marshmallow recipe.  Basically, marshmallows contain Italian meringue with some gelatine and flavouring thrown in.  The only downside to the recipe is that it's more descriptive than exact science and this meant that I had a bit of a disaster.  When whipping the meringue with the gelatine, the instruction is to "...continue to whisk until the marshmallow mixture holds its shape. Don’t over whisk or your marshmallow will lose fluffiness".  I was a bit worried about over whisking and consequently stopped whipping too early.  All looked well in the tray and it set well but sadly, the gelatine separated out.

The top bit tasted lovely although it was a little too wobbly - because it lacked the full amount of gelatine.  I then re-read Nelly's post and remembered she'd pointed out the length of time you need to whip it for.  Ah well.  Whilst Miss A announced that the top bit was "'licious" she decided the bottom "cheese bit is stinky winky" so it went in the bin.  But I'll try again another time when I have the house to myself and can put the mixer on for more than five seconds.

You can find the original recipe here.

Soft Raspberry Coconut Ice and Lemon Christmas Biscuits

Now, when I cook during the day, I have a battle on my hands to try and not have a very cute and inquisitive small person help me out.  A while back, I thought it might be fun to make some gingerbread with her.  She's pretty smart (although I may be biased as her mother and because I don't know any other 21 month olds in person, she may be well behind) but she can crack an egg without getting shell into the bowl and she knows all of the kitchen equipment and that things need to go into the oven to bake (huge tantrum last time we made Rice Krispie cakes as mummy wouldn't cook them - they sat in a cold oven for half an hour in the end, just to keep the peace).

My little helper on another occasion

This now means that if I so much as pick up a spoon, she immediately demands 'Abbeeeeee help' or 'Abbeeeeee's turn' and has a right old strop if I have to say no (she still doesn't get the concept of hot pans).  I'd decided weeks ago that we'd make Christmas biscuits today ready for the arrival of my mother and the rest of the family tomorrow.  But yesterday, I came to rue that decision...

If you read yesterday's blog, you will know that we went to visit my Father-in-Law on the Isle of Wight.  When I wrote the blog, I hinted that the visit is more than a little stressful.  But inquisitive toddler-child took things to a whole new level of stress.

Before I continue, I'd just like to point out that I'm a good mother and I'm hoping that all mothers of toddlers have experienced similar near disaster.  Please don't go ringing social services after reading this.  Things happen when toddlers are let loose in strange places.

I often wonder about the confessional nature of this blog and if I'll ever get myself into trouble.  Should I just button it and talk about the food?  I find the waffley bit at the start somewhat cathartic to write, but if I EVER start to sound like Liz Jones of the Daily Fail, please, someone tell me and I'll just talk about food!

Pre-bake biscuits

Back to yesterday's near disaster.  Abigail has a fascination with knobs and buttons.  Again my fault as I let her turn on the washing machine.  Which means I often used to suddenly hear our dishwasher spring to life by itself (before it blew up the other day) and I have to watch my oven like a hawk when it's on as she likes to change the temperature.

So we're at the F-I-L's house.  He has an electric oven and stove with a million knobs on the front.  He unpacked his hamper goodies on top of said oven.  A while later, I said I thought I could smell burning.  Someone who shall remain nameless, had obviously turned one of the hob rings on and set fire to the packet of biscuits for cheese.

I'm just grateful that we'd not decided to go out and play in the garden or he may not have had a house to come back to!  The husband had warned him that this might happen and unpacking the hamper there was a daft idea.  As we only see F-I-L twice a year, I really don't think he was prepared for the whirling dervish that is our daughter and it'll probably take those six months for him to recuperate from the stress of our visit.

Abigail's finished biscuits - decorated all by herself

So this morning, I was a little reticent at letting Abigail near anything that might cause further disaster. But then I felt a bit bad so we made both Christmas biscuits and Soft Raspberry Coconut Ice.  She made the biscuit mixture herself, I rolled, she cut, I baked, she decorated.  Then we started on the coconut ice, but sadly, Mr Tumble is far more fun than mummy faffing about trying to figure out 3/4 of the recipe quantities as we didn't have enough coconut.  

And this is the bit where I finally talk about the recipes!

I chose the biscuit recipe after scouring practically every baking book I own for a Christmas biscuit recipe that didn't involve ginger, oranges or boiled sweets.  Fussy mother who doesn't like ginger, fussy me who's not a fan of orangey things (except Jaffa cakes although I wish they still did the lemon and lime ones) and couldn't face the idea of the mess I might make with the boiled sweets.  

I found the recipe in The Great Big Cookie Book.  It's one of those books I picked up for a fiver in a cheap bookshop and thought "This will be really useful and I'll use it all the time"  I bought it in 2003 when I bought my first house and this is the first time I've used it.

The biscuits are very shortbready although crunchier due to the thinness of the roll (3mm).  I went for all out lemon flavour with lemon icing but in all honesty they really don't taste that festive.  Far more summery if you ask me.  But nice.  And so beautifully decorated by my gorgeous girl.  The only thing that disappointed me was a) they lost their shape a bit when cooking and b) the recommended glaze had raw egg white in which I obviously can't use with a 21 month old so I just used good old lemon glace icing.

Christmas Biscuits

• 175g unsalted butter
• 300g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1tsp vanilla essence (I used lemon essence)
• grated rind of 1 lemon
• pinch of salt
• 300g plain flour

• 125g icing sugar
• juice of half a lemon

1. With an electric mixer, cream the butter until soft.  Add the sugar gradually and continue beating until light and fluffy.
2. Using a wooden spoon, slowly mix in the whole egg and the egg yolk.  And the vanilla essence, lemon rind and salt.  Stir to mix well.
3. Sift the flour over the mixture and stir to blend.  Gather the dough into a ball, wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 190c/375F/Gas 5.  On a floured surface, roll out until about 3mm thick.
5. Stamp out shapes or rounds with flowered cookie cutters.
6. Bake for about eight minutes until lightly coloured.  Transfer to awire rack and leave to cool completely before decorating.
7. Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice to a consistency that coats the back of a spoon.  Use to coat the biscuits and then decorate with sweets.

From The Great Big Cookie Book by Hilaire Walden

Pretty pink coconut ice

I picked out Dan Lepard's coconut ice the other day as it's one of the first things I ever remember cooking with my mum.  We used to make all kinds of sweets when I was little as she was forever manning stalls at fetes and fayres as Brown Owl or to help out at my school.

Back then we used condensed milk and icing sugar - she showed me the recipe book the other day but I can't remember for the life of me what it's called.  Dan's recipe, however uses marscapone and fresh raspberries.  

I had a little tub of pureed raspberries from my garden in the freezer so they worked really well as they had far more taste than shop-bought ones have at this time of year.  It lends a really fresh taste to the coconut ice.  You don't really notice it at first but as the tooth-tingling sweetness disappears, suddenly you're left with the taste of summer dancing on your tongue.  

Coconut ice

It's also very soft.  I remember the coconut ice my mum used to make could often feel like you were going to crack a tooth when you bit into it.  But this is like diving into a Bounty bar.  Beautiful.  

Sadly it doesn't say how long it keeps, but judging by the flavour, I figure this is immaterial as nobody will leave it hanging round long enough to find out when it's past it's best.  As always, highly recommended and will be a great gift for the visitors over Christmas. 

I also didn't have quite enough coconut and my tin was slightly too big for the original recipe, but I was saved (once again) by Lakeland's amazing foil lined parchment.  Honestly, this is brilliant stuff and every baker should own some.  It allowed me to fashion a container within my tin to just over half the size of the tin and happily retained its shape once the coconut ice was pressed in without the divider falling flat and the contents tipping everywhere.

Soft Raspberry Coconut Ice

For the white mixture

• 250g icing sugar
• 100g marscapone
• 150g desiccated coconut

For the raspberry mixture

• 50g fresh raspberries
• 50g marscapone
• 250g icing sugar
• 200g desiccated coconut

1. Line an 18cm sqaure tin with non-stick baking paper.  
2. Make the white ice first by beating half the sugar with the marscapone until you have a smooth runny paste.  Stir in the coconut and remaining sugar, mix well then press into the bottom of the tin.  
3. Pack the mixture well and smooth the top.
4. Squish the raspberries with the marscapone and half the sugar until smooth.  Then stir in the coconut followed by the last of the sugar.  Spread this carefully  over the white ice until you have it even, then press it down firmly with a spatula and your figers.
5. Loosely cover the tin, with the top of the ice exposed to the air slightly, and leave overnight somewhere cool to firm.  The following day, lift out of the tin by lining paper and cut into pieces.

From Short and Sweet by Dan Lepard

Chocolate Nutella and Sea Salt Fudge

The idea behind this blog was that I'd spend my time working through some of the piles of recipe books that I already own and actually make use of them.  Nearly three months in and having become a regular on Twitter, I've now been seduced by one too many food blogs and find myself obsessing about some of the recipes that I see there; the cookery books are now gathering dust in the corner.

Heart attack in a bowl

Yesterday during a bit of blind panic about edible gifts, I happened across a recipe for Chocolate Nutella and Seasalt Fudge on the Tasty Kitchen blog.  I love fudge and if someone ever wanted to give me an edible gift, it's exactly what they should choose.

If they really wanted to please me, they should bring the tooth-rottingly sweet Scottish tablet.  I adore that stuff.  My teeth and my blood sugar don't.

To really make fudge though, you need a sugar thermometer.  It saves all the faff of trying to work out just when the sugar reaches soft ball stage by dropping blobs of hot fudge into cups of cold water.  However, it's essential to buy a decent one.  I bought my first (and only so far) from eBay.  I picked a good vendor with high ratings.  I read reviews on other websites about the thermometer I chose - it was a glass thermometer inside a protective glass tube.  I used it to make my very first batch of jam - it worked perfectly and I had no need for the wrinkle test.  I decided to make Baileys fudge for a gift and the darn thing shattered into my pan of beautiful fudge.

What a waste of good ingredients.  I did think about trying to sieve the bits out but thought I'd be faced with a lawsuit.

The finished fudge

And there ended the fudge making.  Hopefully Santa has listened to my pleas for a digital thermometer because I really want to give some of Dan Lepard's sweet recipes - especially his beautiful fruit jellies as illustrated by the lovely Sadia, blogger at bakingelements.com 

But this recipe appealed because even though it's more of a truffle-style fudge than a true fudge, there's no need to heat it precisely.  You just stick all of the ingredients over a bain marie, mix til melted and refrigerate.  Simples.

It really is as easy as that.  It helps if your toddler doesn't decide to wake up and scream the house down just as you're pouring the fudge into the tin so mine was a little rustic looking.  It also definitely needs the salt to cut through the sweetness.  Because my expensive Next salt mill broke a while back (Next household gadgets are rubbish - our kettle and toaster broke and the colour has come off of our bread bin) the only sea salt I had was in one of those shop-bought mills where you can't take the lid off to refill it so I had to grind it to get it out.  The salt was finer than I would've liked so it looked a little snowy on the top, but it was definitely needed.

I was also pleased that the delicate nutty flavour came through in the aftertaste.  I actually used Sainsburys own Belgian hazelnut spread which I've found doesn't have that nasty plasticky taste that Ferrero hazlenut and cocoa products have.

It makes a fair few pieces.  I didn't count but at least 64 if you cut it into inch squares.  Just be wary of oversampling!

• 1 tbsp butter for greasing
• 1 can (375g) sweetened condenced milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 200g high quality chocolate, chopped into small pieces
• 300g Nutella at room temperature (although I prefer Sainsburys Belgian Chocolate and Hazlenut Spread)
• 3 tbsp softened unsalted butter cut into cubes
• ½ tsp sea salt 

1. Grease the bottom and sides of an 20cm square tin with butter. Line the pan with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overlap on the sides.
2. In a medium glass or stainless steel bowl, stir together sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, bittersweet chocolate chips, Nutella, and butter.
3. Form a double-boiler by setting the bowl over a medium pot of gently simmering water. The water level should be low enough that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir until the chocolate chips are melted and the mixture is smooth, 5 to 7 minutes.
4. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan, spread the top smooth with a spatula, and sprinkle with sea salt. Refrigerate until the fudge is firm, at least 2 hours.
5. Once the fudge is chilled, run a knife under hot water, dry it off, and run it around the edges of the pan to loosen the fudge. Using the overhanging parchment paper, lift the fudge out. Peel off the parchment paper. Cut the fudge into 3/4-inch squares. Store in the fridge in an airtight container or wrapped well in plastic wrap and foil.

Dan Lepard's Macarons

I've not had such a successful week with recipes this week.  Today's semi disaster was one of my own making so please do try the recipe if I ever get round to posting it.

I've read many of Dan Lepard's recipes online and although I've only tried one of his recipes before, it worked really well so he's up there in my list of favourite cooks.  I bought his latest book - Short and Sweet - after seeing people raving about it on Twitter.  Amazon are currently selling it for just £8.99 - RRP is £25 - so I 'treated' myself, even though I'm meant to be making the most of my existing piles of books.

It really is a feast for the greedy baker.  The recipes are short and sweet and prefixed by stories about where the recipe came from, explanations about the science behind the bake or tips on how to achieve perfection.  I can't wait to try out lots of recipes.  The plan is to make banana fudge cookies with Miss A over the weekend.  And then I found his chocolate marble crumble cake....  Need to find a really good reason to make this!!  Still it's my birthday soon so I will have a huge bake in two weekend's time - no bags of cheap Tesco doughnuts for me!

Anyway, back to the macarons.  I've wanted to try making these for ages.  Everyone bangs on about how difficult they are and yet, how wonderful they are.  They're one of those things that set you apart from the rest of the baking crowd.  If you can make them, you've pretty much made it.  I'm sure I remember watching Lisa Faulkner fail at this on 'Sleb MasterChef when she was in the semi-final in France so I am in good company at the moment.

Dan's recipe made it look so simple.  Some recipes for macarons are so long winded, I've nodded off or my mind has wandered by step 7 of 22.  Maybe that's why Holly Bell from GBBO made such perfect macarons - she has the time and patience that I don't.

There was no faffing around processing the ground almonds into a fine dust.  And yet, my macaron mixture had a bit of a rustic feel to it so I wasn't convinced.  I really wanted to add food colouring but as it was my first attempt and Dan made no mention of it, I followed the recipe to the letter.

Rustic macarons - not quite Laudree standard!

Except the bit where it said to use BAKING paper.  In my haste to get the bake done whilst the child was asleep and the husband was out, I picked up greaseproof instead - not realising my error until I'd piped my macarons.  And despite all my pleading to the high priestess of baking, they stuck.  The lovely Sadia (aka @bakingelements) gave me some top tips on how to fix it but sadly they were pretty much beyond redemption by this point.

And to be honest, I was so underwhelmed by my first taste of macaron (even though it didn't have 'feet') that personally, I won't be in a hurry to make them again.  It's just a glorified almond flavoured meringue. Or am I missing something?  I'm not a meringue fan.  I'd rather have something with a bit of substance - like cake.  They look very pretty (mine didn't) - especially the Laudree ones (someone at work was given a box recently and they looked like precious jewels) but in all honesty, they're not for me.

When I make them again, I will use Dan's recipe again as the failure was mine, not his recipe.  Do buy the book, it's worth the money just for a good bedtime read, let alone the joy of actually baking from it.  In fact, I think it's my new favourite book.  Bring on the banana fudge cookies!

Chocolate Mint Truffles

Bah humbug!  Christmas.  I'm so over it already and it's only October!  I used to love Christmas as my birthday is just a few days before so when I was a kid, it was just one long round of presents and fun.  But of course, as you get older, your family dwindles, old faces leave and unless there are new additions to the family, Christmas can lose its sparkle to the point of becoming a tedious chore of filling the coffers of big corporations.

Now we have Miss Abigail, Christmas is starting to have a little sheen to it again and I'm *trying to make an effort* to make it a bit more meaningful - ie not surfing doing all my shopping on Amazon on my birthday because I can't be doing with the crowds at Cribbs Causeway.

As part of the grand plan, the 'rents and my lovely Grandad have been invited to Christmas dinner (although they're staying for three days - oh the new recipes I'll get through!) and I'm again going to make edible gifts for friends and family rather than spending a fortune in Thorntons.

The first contribution to the effort has been Gordon Ramsay's mint and chocolate truffles.  I had some mint left over from the mojito cupcakes and some cream I'd bought for a tarte au citron that never saw the light of day last weekend so it seemed the perfect recipe to try.

Rustic looking truffles

Sceptic that I am, I wasn't convinced that the mint flavour would cut through the very strong chocolate because although the kitchen smelt lovely and minty, the cream tasted of...well....cream even after steeping the mint in it for the recommended six minutes.  I also nearly didn't put the honey in as I am not a fan - preferring maple syrup wherever I can get away with it - but as I said a few days ago, The Sweary One is a multi-Michelin starred chef and I'm just a slummy mummy/business analyst/wannabee cakery owner (although I still think he needs advice on how to put spice in his banana oat muffins!).

Sticking faithfully to the recipe was quite clearly the right thing to do because once the chocolate has been cleared from the palate, the mint gives a lovely little after-kick.  So much nicer than recipes that use peppermint flavouring.  In fact, I would consider using mint-steeped cream to flavour frosting for any future bakings of the mojito cupcakes from yesterday - I feel some experimenting coming on shortly.

The only issue I encountered was that the mixture took a long time to set and I ended up freezing it for ten minutes to get it to a workable consistency.  And why is it that I spend my life with cold hands and wearing gloves when it's virtually summer outside, yet whenever I make pastry or truffles, my  palms are sweatier than a politician submitting an expense claim?  Someone should invent chillable gloves for chefs that keep your hands at a suitable temperature...

I always roll my truffles in Green and Blacks Hot Chocolate Mix which lends a lovely, sweet, slightly crunchy texture to the outside - I find cocoa dusted truffles a little too bitter for my liking.  In some ways, I guess it's the modern take on using vermicelli.  Although vermicelli is so retro, it's probably the fashionable choice for truffle coating, but I'm not that 'down with the kids' of the chocolate world.

They are now hidden in the freezer, ready to be defrosted and packaged nearer the big day.  Not sure how many people will actually get any as they may...erm...disappear over the coming weeks...

Anyhoo, the recipe is over on the Tesco Real Food website and has come from Christmas with Gordon which hasn't yet been published as I write.