weekly_food_challenge | Entries tagged with treats

Mood: hungry

So glad I've been able to join in with the challenge this week - I kept planning to every time a new challenge was posted, but things have been busy and I've not got round to it. But, yes, it's December, the theme is PIES, so obviously I made mince pies.

I've been making these every year for about 8 or 9 years. I make both the mince meat and the pastry myself and both recipes are pretty simple. Boozy mincemeat recipe is here, and unbelievably easy mince pies (pastry) recipe is here. I can recommend being liberal with the booze in the mincemeat recipe. For the pastry recipe, I pretty much make it as per the recipe - lots of people in the comments seem to add some water/an egg/some milk to the pastry so they can roll it out. Yes, it is a little bit faffy to press the pastry into the tins, but I would venture no more faffy than rolling out and cutting pastry, then lining each hole of the tin. Plus it is worth it for very buttery, short pastry. The thing that I do slightly differently is that I use a muffin tin and make 12 large deep-filled mince pies, rather than 18 smaller ones. I also don't weigh out the mincemeat, I just fill each pie up with as much filling as possible.

Icing sugar is also optional. I've found that friends and family actually like the 'rustic' look of these mince pies. They're not going to win any awards for presentation, but they taste damn good.

miss_s_b

You will need:

Some mathematical ability
A freezer and some ice lolly moulds
Some gin
Some tonic
Some caster sugar
A lime

Method:

Work out the total volume of your ice lolly moulds.
Cut your lime into fine wedges - I get 16 out of 1 lime - and put one wedge in each hole of the ice lolly mould.
Make a mixture in a jug that is 1/4 gin and 3/4 tonic to about 95% of the volume of your ice lolly moulds - for instance, if the moulds are a litre total, you want to make about 950ml G&T; this leaves room for the lime wedges and the sugar. Don't make it any ginnier than this or it won't set properly.
Add sugar to the tune of 10g per 100ml liquid, and stir till it's dissolved and the fizz has gone out of the tonic.
Put into the moulds and freeze overnight.

miss_s_b

What do you want when it's hot? Something cold, yummy, that isn't too much of a faff to cook, and won't leave you feeling all bloated and eurgh. This is just the ticket, based on a Diana Henry recipe.

You will need:

Two smallish saucepans, and a hob to heat them on.
A blender that can cope with warm things.
A sieve and a wooden spoon.
An ice cream machine, OR an ice cream attachment for Kenwood Chef or Magimix or similar, OR a freezer and a lot of elbow grease.
A freezer, and a suitable storage container (we keep the containers from bought ice cream).
(at least) 6 limes
Probably a bottle of shop bought lime juice.
300g sugar
2 x 300ml water.
60g fresh basil (yes, you read that right. Yes, that's a lot of basil).

Method:

Make a simple syrup with your first 300ml of water and the 300g sugar - heat the water and dissolve the sugar in it.
Zest and juice your limes. Top up the lime juice to 300ml from the bottle, or juice extra fresh limes and then throw away the skins if you're feeling extravagant.
Add the lime zest to your simple syrup, bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 2 minutes.
Leave the zesty syrup to cool for a bit - it doesn't need to be completely cold, but no more than hand hot.
While it's cooling, bring your second 300ml of water to the boil, and once it's properly boiling, dunk the basil leaves into it for 10 seconds, then pour them into the sieve and run cold water over them. This blanching is not strictly NECESSARY for flavour, so you can leave this step out if you're feeling lazy, but it means you get a nicer colour in the finished sorbet. Once the basil leaves are properly cold, drop them into the blender and wash the sieve.
Put the zesty syrup and the 300ml of lime juice into the blender too, and then blend.
Pass the resulting glop through the washed sieve into your ice cream machine - you may need the wooden spoon to help things along here, but if you do, be gentle - and then follow the instructions on the machine OR pass it through the sieve into your freezer-safe container, and prepare to take it out and reblend it every couple of hours (at least 3 times or it'll go all crystally and manky). Ice cream machine really is a lot easier.

This works really well as a palate cleanser if the heatwave doesn't last. It's also nice in a G&T.

el_staplador

This is a really quick, easy, adaptable recipe for date and nut balls. I used this recipe, varied according to what happened to be in the cupboard. (There's a whole lot of Iftar recipes here if anyone else is looking for ideas.)

Ingredients
20 large dates (the ones sold in a block for baking are fine)
1/4 cup nuts (I used walnuts)
1 tbsp sultanas

Equipment
Sharp knife (not so vital if you have a blender)
Microwave (or you can use the hob, in which case you also need a pan)
Microwaveable plate
Microwaveable bowl (I used a pudding basin)
Spoon

1. If you don't have a blender, chop the dates fairly thoroughly. Chop the nuts too, separately.

2. Toast the nuts for a couple of minutes on a plate in the microwave. Keep an eye on them and shake them around half way through.

3. Put the chopped dates in the pudding basin and microwave for about 30 seconds - this is just enough to warm them through and make them sticky.

4. Add the toasted nuts and the sultanas, mix well, and, when it all comes together into a glorious sticky lump, roll it into little balls.

If you don't have a microwave, then you can toast the nuts and warm the dates in a pan on the stove. It looks like you can throw all sorts of things in to vary the nuts, and I can see myself making these a lot - take them hiking, for snacks at work, etc, etc.

miss_s_b

Mood: happy

If you click through to embiggen you can probably see the recipe. I don't bother with all the creaming of the butter and sugar and gradual adding of egg and crap, I just use the all in one method:

Stick the Breville on to preheat.

Grab:
50g softened butter
50g caster sugar
50g self-raising flour
1 egg
Vanilla Extract

Stick it in an appropriate vessel, whap it till smooth, divide it up between the depressions in the Breville (you need to do this bit quite quickly so the bottoms don't burn), close the lid, leave for 3 minutes, remove from Breville, eat.

This is an easy thing to do when drunk and craving cake, as you can probably tell from the formatting of this entry. Am tempted to go make another set...

Variations: You need to use quite strongly flavoured things to make a difference to these. Ones I have tried and liked include zest of one lime, some cinnamon, and some ginger. I wouldn;t use much of anything liquid.

el_staplador

('peer-nitch-ki' - Polish gingerbread hearts). This is one of the in-laws' family recipes, and, like many family recipes, it's somewhat idiosyncratic. I reproduce the recipe as we received it, complete with measurements in two different systems (three if you count teaspoons) and frankly terrifying instructions, under the cut, but here's what I think you should actually do:

Ingredients
1kg strong white flour
400g clear honey
225g butter, diced
225g granulated sugar
3 large eggs, gently beaten
2 heaped teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger
1 heaped teaspoon mixed spice

Equipment
Deep mixing bowl
Sturdy table knife
Bowl and kettle
Saucepan
Something to beat the eggs in
Teaspoon
Large pastry board (or use the work surface if that's what you usually do)
Rolling pin
Heart-shaped cutter
Baking sheets
Oven

Method

Preheat oven to 170degC.

Place the flour into a bowl and make a well. Stand the jar of honey in a bowl of hot water to warm the honey a little. This makes it easier to tip it into a pan and heat (carefully!) until it boils.

Pour the boiling honey into the flour and stir with the blade of a knife. When it's reasonably well mixed, add the butter and keep stirring. Then add the sugar, still stirring, followed by the eggs and the bicarb. Finally, add the spices and mix again.

It is at this point that I consider that you are safe to tip the whole lot out onto a board. There will be some residual heat, but at least you won't be frantically chasing dribbles of boiling honey across a flat surface. Draw it all together and knead for 10 minutes or so until smooth. Cut a piece off to see if little bubbles are beginning to form; if they aren't, knead for a little longer.

Roll out to about 1cm thickness (I have to do it slightly thinner due to the limitations of the cutter, but do it too thin and they don't rise properly) and cut out with a heart-shaped cutter. Place on a baking tray, leaving about 1cm between them, and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

They rise rather than spread, and should end up slightly convex.

What I actually did was scale the quantities down by 15% to allow for the fact that the jar of honey was 340g - all except the eggs. This of course made for a less stiff dough, which was considerably easier to knead, so I might continue to do that in future. Even with reduced quantities, I ended up with well over 50 of the things. Fortunately they keep very well.

Also I think I accidentally used caster sugar, which doesn't seem to have made a huge amount of difference.

( Boiling honey! )

ewt

In my house it isn't quite properly Christmas until someone has made shortbread. The recipe is one my mother got off the back of the Canada Corn Starch box, decades ago -- or maybe her mother did.

Equipment needed:
-bowl
-flour sifter or sieve
-I use a thing called a "pastry cutter" (which wikipedia calls a pastry blender, but I was definitely taught cutter because it's for cutting in), but you can mix this with a fork or mixer or something instead
-cookie cutters, or just cut up the dough with a knife (optional)
-rolling pin or wine bottle or something (optional)
-baking tray
-oven

( shortbread with four ingredients, count 'em, four )

miss_s_b

Both of these are quite rich, and the nut and white chocolate one is pretty filling - almost a meal in itself. They're really great at this time of year when it's getting chilly and you want a warm treat.

Equipment required:

A microwave
A pint mug
A fork
A 1 tbsp and a 1 tsp measuring spoon
A weighing scale if you can't guestimate 30g butter

( click here for White Chocolate and Hazelnut )

( click here for Extra Rich Dark Chocolate )

matgb

OK, so it's "Treats" at the moment, and

miss_s_b insists I post my new ice cream method here.

Backstory: my ice cream maker is broken and I can't afford to fix it, and I had a cupboard with some ingredients that needed using, so I googled. I have adapted this from multiple articles.

Ingredients:
600ml Double Cream (USians: I believe "heavy cream")
1 tin Condensed Milk (sweetened)—the 14oz tin now sold in metric
Flavouring (eg: 2 tsp vanilla essence)

Put the cream and the milk in a mixing bowl and whisk, preferably with an electric whisk but a hand whisk will do, it'll just take an age. When soft peaks are beginning to form, add in your flavouring and whisk a bit more, making sure that you've got any edge bits incorporated nicely.

Pour into either 2 1-litre tubs or one bigger tub, put in the freezer for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight. Enjoy.

You might find it needs to be removed from the freezer a bit before serving up as it might go very solid.

Variants: Nestle make a 'caramel' condensed milk, use that and, if you want, add a teaspoon or 2 of salt for salted caramel. Any other oil base or highly concentrated flavouring, it's important the water content is low.

This works because condensed milk and double cream are very low in water content, so you don't get ice crystals or similar. Jennie didn't like my salted caramel that I made last night, which, y'know, more for me...

miss_s_b

Mood: accomplished

OK, so, I had 800g of Rhubarb, a bottle of champagne we got free at Christmas, and a jar of Opies' stem ginger in syrup to kill. This is what I did:

Firstly, cut the rhubarb into 1cm chunks, and threw it in a big pan with 300g sugar, 600ml water, and all the syrup from the jar of stem ginger. Bring it to the boil and then let it simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the rhubarb lumps are tender and the liquid is pink and rhubarby. You now have some nice tender rhubarb chunks and a lot of pink, sweet, rhubarb-with-a-hint-of-gingery liquid, and can move on to the actual recipes:
( Rhubarb Fizz Jellies )
( Rhubarb and Ginger Muffins )
( Rhubarb Bucks' Fizz/Mimosas - with picture )
( Rhubarb Gin Cocktail )

So there we go, four nice easy recipes to use up some store cupboard staples. I think I might have to send some of the muffins to school with daughter, though...

miss_s_b

OK, it's not that goth to eat flapjacks in the first place, but this is darker than your average flapjack.

(In the method bit, I have actually noted all the places I would wash my hands when making this. Thorough hand washing is ingrained in me from having worked in a commercial kitchen; there are some people that think I go a bit over the top with this, so I wanted to know what you all think. Maybe you think I don't wash my hands enough! Do comment!)

( Recipe under the cut )

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Weekly Food Challenge

A challenge for cooks every Wednesday

Entries tagged with treats

Challenge 63: PIES! - Mince Pies

Hand held foods: Gin and tonic ice lollies

Challenge #48: hot weather comfort food - Lime and Basil Sorbet

Challenge 42: Iftar - dates ladoo

Challenge #27 - Breville Cakes

Anything but turkey: pierniczki

Shortbread -- Challenge #25: Anything But Turkey

Challenge #22: Chocolate: 2 different Molten Middle Mug Cake recipes

Easy ice cream-no churn, no machine

Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb - 4 recipes for challenge 17

Goth Flapjack

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