Sunday bakes - 'bribing people to like me' buns

It's been a while since I made some choux pastry and so this weekend I cracked out my wooden spoon and gave it another shot. 

This time instead of the usual chocolate topping I wanted to try something a bit brighter and opted for a speedy raspberry jam. 

They went down pretty well in the office, I might make another batch ready for project 'make my boyfriend's parents like me'. 

Ingredients
Pastry
200ml cold water
4tsp caster sugar
3oz margarine
4oz plain flour
3 beaten eggs

Cream
500ml cream whisked to stiff peaks with a little raspberry-ripple flavour

Jam
100g frozen raspberries
5tbsp caster sugar

Method
Put the water, margarine and sugar into a saucepan and heat until the margarine melts. Pour the flour into the saucepan in one go and stir vigorously until the dough has a slight gloss and is in one consistent ball off the sides of the saucepan. Put the dough into a bowl and leave to cool for ten minutes before slowly beating in the eggs, little by little. Once the dough is combined pour into a piping bag and pipe into balls on a sheet of baking paper. Tap the tray a little to knock out any bubbles of air. Pre-heat the oven to 180 and place a tray of water in the bottom of the oven to build up steam. Once the oven is at temperature put the buns in and bake for 25 minutes, when they will have puffed up and become golden brown. 

Put the raspberries in a saucepan and heat, one they start to breakdown add the sugar and continue to heat. Breakup any lumps of raspberry left and reduce the mixture until it is sticky and thick. 

Once the buns are done leave until thoroughly cool, snip a small hole in the side, pour the cream into a piping bag and fill the buns one by one. 

Top with the jam and definitely wait before trying one, because the jam will essentially be molten hot sugar. You will burn your mouth. 

Sunday bakes - 'Mothers' day' macaroons

Mothers' day is a lovely day, we get to spend it with our family, do family-friendly activities and there are copious amounts of spring flowers.

This year my mum, my godmother and I had a picnic at Standen, one of my favourite national trust properties. As a child I had a friend that lived in one of the on-site cottages so we used to play in the beautiful gardens.

I made a big picnic and slightly over did it on the baked goods but one of the things I made that went down the best was the raspberry ripple macaroons. 

Ingredients

6oz icing sugar

5.5 oz ground almonds

120 ml egg whites – about 4 eggs

5.5 oz granulated sugar

1 tbsp raspberry puree

50ml water

Filling

4 oz butter

8oz icing sugar

A few drops of raspberry ripple cupcake flavouring

Food colouring -  add to your desired colour level

Method

Sift the ground almonds to get out any large lumps and put it into a food blender with half of the egg whites and the icing sugar. Blitz with about 15 pulses.

Put the water in a saucepan and add the granulated sugar, heat until it reaches a gentle boil. Use a sugar thermometer to measure and it will be ready when it reaches 110°. Whisk up the rest of the egg whites in a clean bowl. It would be easier to do this with a kitchen aid style mixer because once the egg whites are beaten to soft peaks slowly start to add in the sugar syrup, with the whisk on high. The mix will become smooth and glossy, keep whisking until it is cool.

Fold in the almond mixture, take care not to over fold. A pattern of mixture poured over the top should sink back into the rest of the mixture within 30 seconds. Fold in the raspberry puree at the same time. The mixture will turn a dusky pink but add in more food colouring if you want a darker colour.

Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe onto sheets of baking paper. I found the technique that works the best is to draw a circle of about 2cm diameter and then hold the bag in the centre and squeeze out a dome of mixture. This seemed to be the best way to make sure the circles are even. 

Leave the mixture out for at least 30 minutes at room temperature so that the circles form a skin then bake at 170° for 14 minutes. 

 Whisk the butter and the icing sugar to make the butter cream and add the flavouring and colouring to taste.

Sandwich two of the cooled macaroons together with the buttercream filling and serve with a cup of tea and family laughs.

Thank you Mum for another wonderful year. 

Sunday bakes - 'cure my cold' crumble

Very belated Happy New Year to you all.

Last year was a long and tiring year and Turner and I are exhausted!

In addition I have a horrid cold so I’m afraid I've been really lax with the blog and my Sunday baking. But my decorations are down and a year of bad luck has been avoided. So, as we say every year, next year will be better. 

 

Number one on the 2015 agenda is shaking this cold, which actually works quite well for number two, being healthy. It’s citrus fruits and vitamin C all round, starting with oranges and grapefruits and lemon tea.

So for today’s Sunday bake I am doing a fruit crumble from the piles of frozen berries in my freezer.

It doesn’t sound very glamorous but it is honestly delicious. 

Ingredients

1 mug of raw oats

1 tbsp of glace ginger

2 tbsp sliced raw almonds

2 tbsp cinnamon

2 tsp honey

175grams frozen cherries

175grams frozen raspberries

½ an eating apple

100ml diet ginger beer

Method

Spread the oats, almonds, ginger, cinnamon and honey on a baking tray and roast in the oven on a low heat until the oats are golden brown. 

Put the berries into a saucepan with the diet ginger beer and cook on a low heat until the liquid starts to turn into a syrup and then add the apple, sliced. Cook until the apple is a little softened but still has a little bite.

The topping will have gone crispy where the honey pooled and you can snap the topping into crunchy fragments. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit and eat while it is still hot.

I’m not going to say it’s a ‘healthy’ dessert because sugar is still sugar but it’s a healthier dessert, full of fruit and oats.