Chocolate and chestnut cake

This is quite a bitter cake, perfect for an after dinner treat. It has quite a moussey texture thanks to the folded egg whites

INGREDIENTS
400g whole cooked chestnuts
250g dark chocolate
150g unsalted butter
2 eggs, separated

100g dark chocolate
one orange - zest and juice
icing sugar, to taste
double cream, to taste




It's nearly Christmas already?!

CAKE
Pulse the chestnuts until you have a fine crumb.
Melt the chocolate over a ban marie, and add the butter.




Melted chocolate.

Once melted, leave the chocolate/butter mixture to cool.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and add to the chocolate/butter liquid.
Whisk the egg whites.
Combine the chestnuts with your chocolate mixture, and beat in two tablespoons of the egg whites.
Gently fold the mixture into the rest of the egg whites.




The mixture.

Pour into two lined cake tins and leave to bake for half an hour.
The finished product should have a crumb when a skewer is inserted.

ICING
Melt the chocolate and add orange zest as well as the juice of an orange. I used clementines as I didn't have any oranges, but their flavour was not intense enough to cut through the orange.
Add icing sugar to taste. The cake is bitter, as is dark chocolate, so you need some sweetness!
Add double cream to thin the mixture, and dilute the intensity of the bitterness.

Spread onto the cake.

Serve a slice of cake with crème fraîche.

Mini Carrot Cakes

Everybody loves Raymond? Everybody loves carrot cake. These gems are light and dairy-free (discounting the topping) and healthy enough to be a gym snack. Well, not quite. But nearly.







Fresh from the oven

The cakes were lining two by two hurrah, hurrah

CARROT CAKE
one and a half medium-sized carrots, peeled and grated

caster sugar

rapeseed oil

olive oil

raisins (soaked overnight in whisky)

orange zest

orange juice

plain flour

baking powder

 

CREAM CHEESE ICING
cream cheese

unsalted butter, softened (optional)

icing sugar

orange zest

 





One half with filling, the other half not...
 



Mix together the oil, sugar, flour and baking powder.

Once fully combined, add the orange juice, zest and raisins.

Fold in the grated carrots.

Pour into a greased baking tins, and cook at 180C for 35 minutes, or until a skewer can be inserted cleanly.

When baked, leave to cool in their tins for 5-10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

When the cakes get to room temperature, cut them in half using a serrated knife.

 



Assembled

For the topping, if you're using butter, cream it with the sugar first, then add the orange zest and cream cheese.

If not using butter, gently fold the sugar and orange zest into the cream cheese.

 

Fill the cakes with the topping when they completely cool down - you don't want the icing to melt!

Serve with a cup of tea.







All together now...say cheese!







Tarte au citron Meyer

Tarte au citron is a classic French tart filled with a tangy lemon custard. I used Meyer lemons which are a cross between a lemon and a mandarin. They are quite sweet in comparison to other lemons, yet still quite tangy.

A nice even bake :-)

175g 00 flour (this flour is very fine, so makes the pastry more crumbly, it's fine to use normal plain flour though too)
140g unsalted butter, diced
30g soft brown sugar
25g icing sugar
zest of one lemon

5 eggs
160ml double cream
the zest and juice of 3 Meyer lemons
100g caster sugar

Sieve the sugar and flour, and mix with the zest of one lemon.
Add the cold butter and rub until you achieve a crumble mixture. As there is a lot of butter in this pastry, it shouldn't need any liquid. If you do add liquid, the consequence is that the pastry will not be as crumbly when cooked.
Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for 15 minutes to harden up.

Preheat the oven to 200C and butter a tart case.
Roll the pastry to less than a 1 centimetre thickness, and roll over the tart case.
prick the pastry case and blind bake it in the oven for 20 minutes. Instead of using baking beans, you can use baking paper with a similar sized cake tin on top.
Whilst the cake is cooking, whisk the eggs until they increase in size by about one and a half.
Add the sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice to the eggs, but continue whisking.
When thoroughly combined, pour in the double cream, and whisk again. You can add milk if you want a thinner mixture.
Pour into the tart case and bake for about half an hour, or until the filling is a little wobbly.

Serve cold with a spoonful of clotted cream.


You could

• decorate with candied lemons
• spread the base with lemon curd or melted dark chocolate, and cover with the filling mixture
• use tangerines instead of lemons

Orange and Armagnac Scones

Orange and armagnac scones

Ideal as a Christmas Eve treat

Tasty!

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons of armagnac

10 tablespoons of raisins

the zest of two large Valencian oranges

235g plain flour

55g unsalted butter

35g muscovado sugar (caster is fine but muscovado gives a toffee-like flavour)

a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

milk (at least 120 ml)

a beaten egg

Method:

The night before you want* (*aim) to eat the scones, leave the raisins to soak in a cup of armagnac.

The following day, preheat a fan oven to 200°C and grease a baking sheet with a knob of salted butter.

In a reasonably sized bowl, rub together the flour and butter until you have a crumble like mixture.

Mix the sugar and the zest into the flour/butter.

Take the raisins out of the armagnac and gently pat dry- you don't want to squeeze out all of the juice, but you want to get rid of most of it.

Stir the raisins into the mixture, and once thoroughly combined, add the milk slowly.

Whilst you add the milk, continue mixing the scone dough. I use my hands, but its fine to use a spoon.

You want to achieve a soft dough and slightly sticky dough.

On a floured surface, gently tip out the scone mixture.

Roll the dough to an even thickness and use the cutters to press out shapes. Circle cutters are traditionally used, but for a minimalist scone I would suggest square cutters.

On your buttered tray, lay your scone shapes evenly spaced.

Brush your scones with the beaten egg, and bake in the oven for about 14 minutes- or until they have risen and the tops are golden.

Serve warm with marmalade and cream.

Alternatively...

change the unsalted butter and raisins for salted butter, and served with an espresso chantilly

swap the raisins and sugar for manchego and rosemary