Sticky Toffee Pudding and Visiting In-Laws

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

Sticky Toffee Pudding! There that should give me a green light on SEO scale. Why the sudden abrupt start? Well, I’m figuring out the new plug ins to improve the SEO. Apparently they recommend using the focus keyword right out of the gate. Yeah, I won’t be making a habit out of that. It seems the equivalent of a brass band starting this off. And I don’t have the lurgy so I’m just trying it out once to see what happens. As for this plugin, the proof will be in the pudding.

Pudding you say? Well let’s get on with the reason we’re here. Food!

Treating the In-Laws:

As many of you know we’ve been working on redoing our bedroom. We had a definite deadline as my in-laws arrived this week. Down to the wire but they were pleased to know they had a guest room to stay in! We always have fun when we get together and this weekend we start it off with glassblowing. Thank goodness the weather has turned cool as it’s a very hot activity. Hopefully we’ll get some hiking in but the remnants of Florence will be blowing through next week. I really hope their holiday isn’t rained out.

My mum-in-law runs a B & B so she looks forward not to have to do anything in the kitchen. I try to treat them with meals and good desserts. I picked sticky toffee pudding as it’s a traditional pud. Turns out my mum-in-law has never had it as she tries to be good. Ah well, it’s holiday!

I did research the recipe online and for the most part it’s straight forward and relatively the same. Unless you are Martha Stewart. She made it weird. As I have the “Baking with Mary Berry” book I decided to use that. But while I was at tax class I looked her recipe up online to double check my ingredients. Wouldn’t you know it, they were two completely different recipes! The book uses dates and the online used black treacle. I mean, really. I chose the book with a little variation.

The Technique for Sticky Toffee Pudding:

I decided to use the recipe with the dates as I love that fruit. Her recipe calls for walnuts but enough of my family members really don’t like nuts in the baked goods so I just increased the dates called for.

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C

Coarsely chop the dates.

Instead of a cup of dates, I increased it to 1 1/2 cups of coarsely chopped dates to make up for the removal of the walnuts.

In the mixer, cream together 6 tablespoons of softened butter with 1 cup of lightly packed brown sugar. Then add 2 beaten eggs with a tablespoon of coffee. Mix well.

Now if you have access to self raising flour, use 1 1/2 cups of that. If you don’t, take 1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour, add 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt. Gradually add this to the mixing bowl and again mix well. A note on the flour. There are times the flour can be really drying with the ingredients. I’ve had trouble with it this week. I’m not sure if the co-op changed vendors or what but unbeknownst to me it was affecting this dish. More on that later. Add the dates and 3/4 hot water (not boiling).

Lightly grease an 8″/20cm square baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Spoon the mixture into the pan.

Bake 45-50 minutes. However, due to the flour issues, I should have checked it at 40 minutes. But you get chatting and catching up and well, life happens. Mine came out a little dry so thank goodness for the sauce.

Don’t do the sauce for the sticky toffee pudding until you are ready to serve. If you do make it ahead of time, just microwave it to make it runny.

In a small saucepan add 9 tablespoons of butter (how isn’t Mary Berry massive) with 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar. Heat on low-medium until the sugar is incorporated and dissolved in the butter. Keep stirring so it doesn’t catch on the bottom.

Add 6 tablespoons of heavy/double cream. Be careful doing this as it will sizzle and you don’t want to be splattered with hot sugar. Also add a tablespoon of brandy.

The best part!

Not going to lie, I think the best part of sticky toffee pudding is the sauce. I could just have a bowl of it. I don’t think I could handle the full on sugar rush though!

Sticky Toffee Pudding

A delicious pudding with dates and a toffee sauce

Course Dessert

Servings 8 people

Author Our Growing Paynes

Ingredients

Cake

6 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tbsp coffee
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped dates
3/4 cup hot water

Sauce

9 tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
6 tbsp heavy or double cream

Instructions

To make the cake:
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and mix well. Then add the coffee.
Gradually add the flour until well blended.
Add the dates and water.
Bake at 350F/180C for 45-50 minutes in a lightly greased 8"/20cm square baking pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper.
To make the sauce:
Melt the butter with the sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
Carefully add the cream and brandy.
Drizzle over the cake when serving.

Making Whoopie…Carrot Cake Pies That Is

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

The amount of chocolate our kids still have from Christmas is going to keep them going for quite awhile. They would disagree completely with me, of course. As scrooge like as I was being in the chocolate department I didn’t want to forego any treats. I’m not that mean!

So what do bunnies really like? Carrots!

I did a search on Pinterest for fun easter desserts. The plethora of Peeps desserts was a bit scary. Aside from the fact none of us like Peeps, my kids aren’t little so something less sugar high inducing would do the trick. I found this Mini Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies recipe and I thought it would be fun to make. Not to mention easy! And as we’re still plugging away at our renovation of the bathroom project, well, easy is key.

I will say the overall time to make this of 18 minutes is seriously over optimistic. Give yourself an hour. There is only so fast I can go!

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C

Begin with finely grating 180g of carrot. This will give you 1 1/2 to 2 cups of shredded carrot.

In a mixer add 113g/1 stick of butter (room temperature) along with 100g/1/2 cup of packed light brown sugar and 100g/1/2 cup of white sugar.

Cream all this together for several minutes until creamy and blended well. While this is mixing mix the dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Add 250g/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the mixer. Once all the ingredients are mixed well add the grated carrot.

Using a piping bag and a large nozzle pipe out the batter into circles about an inch/2.5cm onto parchment paper. This is very sticky and they come out like wizard hats. Don’t worry about that, it will smooth out in the oven. Just tap down the real pointy peaks.

Bake 6-8 minutes until set and golden. Allow to cool for a few minutes.

While these are baking prepare the cream cheese frosting. I chose to use neufchatel cheese which has a 1/3 less fat. I know, a funny time to start worrying about calories but what can you do?

In a large bowl add 8oz/226g of the cheese and 56g/1/2 stick of butter (both at room temperature).

Using a hand mixer cream the two ingredients together for a few minutes.

Add 187g/1 1/2 cups of confectioner’s (powdered) sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix well until the frosting is smooth and light.

Pair up the mini cakes so both sides are relatively equal in size. Spread the frosting on one side and add the other to make a sandwich.

Keep the ones you don’t eat right away in the fridge. Not going to lie, these were really good. With the carrot how unhealthy can these be? Ahem. 😉

Do’s Cake and Family Traditions

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

Does tradition make things taste better? Not sure with this cake as it’s so delicious but it is very much tied into childhood memories. It was a cake my mum would make for birthday parties and special occasions and it wouldn’t last long at all. It’s really the family cake.

My mum got the recipe from our Aunt Do, who is married to our Uncle Bob. They’ve been married for over 65 years and they are literally the sweetest people you would ever meet. Do got the recipe decades ago, from a neighbour she thinks. A recipe from the mists of time! My sister did say she saw something similar in an old Fanny Farmer book called Mix in the Pan cake. Could be a variation on that.

This is a very easy cake to make and the cake itself is vegan and the icing could be made vegan without too much trouble.

Preheat the oven at 350F/175C.

In a large mixing bowl sift together 3 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 2/3 cups baking cocoa, 2tsp baking soda and 1 tsp of salt. Flatten the mixture and put 3 large holes in it.

In one hole pour 2 tsp of vanilla, in another put another 2 tsp vanilla, then spread between the three holes a cup of vegetable oil. The oil might not fit into the three holes and it will spread out, that’s ok. With a spoon or spatula mix it all together.

Next add 2 cups of cold water gradually while mixing until smooth.

In a lightly greased 13″ x 9″ pan, pour the cake batter into the pan and bake for about 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the cake is baking make the frosting. In a small saucepan add 2 1/2 tablespoons flour and 1/2 cup milk. Cook on medium low heat until the flour and milk thickens. Whisk continually while it cooks.

Let it cool. In a medium bowl add 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 1/2 cup of butter and 1 tsp of vanilla. Add the cooled flour milk mixture. If you want this vegan use vegetable shortening and a milk alternative like almond milk.

Using an electric hand mixer, beat on med high until it is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add any food colouring and beat for another minute or so. Spread on the cake.

I tried, quickly, to do a shamrock as a design. If you squint you might be able to see it!

This is so good that it will definitely continue as a family tradition. I probably should ask Aunt Do if she has any other recipes to pass down! 😉

The Sinfulness of Chocolate

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Our Growing Paynes

Chocolate is a veg, right? I mean it starts as a plant so it should count as part of our five a day. Just like wine is fruit because it comes from grapes. Hands up from those that are with me on this. Anyone?

Because I completely forgot to do a birthday cake for our daughter earlier in the year I decided to make up for it when we celebrated a bunch of family birthdays a few weeks ago. You know, she never said a word. Once the lightbulb went off I felt really guilty. A familiar feeling, I’m sure, for many parents. Our daughter is a massive fan of chocolate, particularly dark chocolate I decided to go for a chocolate cake with ganache and raspberries. Unsurprisingly, she was on board with this idea.

After doing a bit of research online and realising the recipes are pretty basic, making me wonder why I haven’t made it before, I used this guide from Add a Pinch to create my dessert. I also made a chocolate cake as a base for this. The difference between the glaze and the filling are the ratio between the cream and chocolate. This is not a low calorie treat!

I did the filling first. In a saucepan, gently heat a 1 cup/8oz of heavy or double cream with 2 tablespoons/1oz of butter. Don’t boil or scald but heat until the butter is melted.

In a large bowl add 2 cups/11oz of white chocolate. Pour the cream mixture over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted and everything has blended together. If you would like you can also add a couple of tablespoons of flavouring, I didn’t to this stage because of the other flavours that I was putting together.

Chill until it has a thick spreadable consistency. Spread on the first layer of the cake and add a layer of fresh raspberries.

For the glaze, redo the cream and butter. Pour it over a cup/6oz of dark chocolate along with 2 tablespoons/1-2oz of spiced rum and a pinch of salt. Mix well. This will be very liquid so it will need to be chilled a bit so it doesn’t completely run off the cake when you pour it on.

Top with more fresh raspberries and serve. I have to say this was a hit. This will definitely be made again!

Marshmallow Fondant and Exterminate!

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

We just had a very busy few days with celebrating Father’s Day and my son’s birthday. We did a small family gathering on Saturday and our friends have a tradition of hosting a BBQ at a local lake. It was perfect before the kids are off on their summer adventures of camp and making the rounds with the grandparents.

My husband and I also got bikes! Turns out the kids were thrilled as they love the bike paths round here so we’ll have plenty of fun with this family activity. Though could someone please, please invent a more comfortable bike seat? Yikes. We’re lucky that there are many places to bike round town. This town used to be a hub for the railways, even building the steam locos here. When the rails were pulled up the lines became trails for bikes and walking. Miles of them!

As some of you know we are fans of Dr Who and I wanted to do a Dalek cake for my son. The thing is store bought fondant is, to put it mildly, awful tasting. Not something you can really truthfully call edible. While watching the Great British Bakeoff awhile ago we saw one of the contestants make a marshmallow fondant. Of course the recipe wasn’t disclosed, probably something about editing and not enough time! Excuses, excuses.

Thank goodness for the intertubes. There are a few versions on how to make the marshmallow fondant. I decided to go with the Wilton version as it was pretty simple. When you have loads going on, simple is best! Wilton is a cake decorating brand stateside.

The fondant needs to be started the day before.

In a large microwavable bowl add 16oz of good quality marshmallows and a couple of tablespoons of water. Microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring each time, until the marshmallow has melted.

As you can imagine this was an extremely sticky enterprise. Better than superglue! Add 1 1/2 pounds of confectioner’s sugar. You will need an additional half pound of the sugar set aside for the kneading.

Now if you know what you are going to do and know you just need one colour, add your colourant at this step. It will be much easier to incorporate. However, I was still figuring out how I was going to decorate this cake. Start incorporating the sugar into the melted marshmallow. If you want any flavouring this is the step you add it. I added a teaspoon or so of vanilla. Once the sugar is incorporated tip the mixture out on a greased counter. And when I say greased, I mean greased. I used vegetable shortening. Not only do you need to grease the counter you need to grease your hands as well. Sounds messy but trust me, it is much needed.

Knead like you would knead bread adding in the extra half pound of the sugar a bit at a time. You may not need all of the sugar. I had about an eighth of a cup left after the fondant came together in a smooth ball.

Store in an airtight container or bag and place in the fridge overnight. In the morning let it come to room temperature. Add the colourant and then knead until the colour is uniform throughout. Be patient as this can take awhile and be careful of your wrists as it is a bit of a workout.

I layered the cake and shaped it. Then coated it with buttercream.

Roll out the fondant until about 1/8″/.3cm thick. Drap the fondant over the cake. The mistake I made here was not to keep the fondant cool enough. So it began to rip as I was doing this. And because it came into contact with the buttercream I couldn’t roll it up again and chill it. So the Dalek looked a bit injured.

For the grey parts I used rice crispy treats and gum paste. I also found edible adhesive. That was a cool find I must say.

The cool thing about this is I managed to keep this a surprise from my son. So when I brought it out after the lunch he was very surprised. That was the best. And it is wonderful, despite him growing so fast, he still loves stuff like this.

Victorian Sponge and a Fabulous Trip

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

There is something really surreal about being in London in the morning and the Hannafords grocery store in NH at night on the same day. It messes with your head. But we had an amazing trip. The weather was just gorgeous, we even got a bit of a tan! I didn’t blog as much I as planned because I forgot the cord for my camera. Like most people I always forget something. At least it wasn’t something major like a passport.

A few years ago I had tried to make a Victorian Sponge and it failed. The middle wouldn’t cook and it was heavy, basically the opposite of what it should be. I wasn’t sure if my technique was off or the flour was just different enough. So it was on my list to make it while visiting my in-laws. My MIL makes a fabulous Victorian Sponge. My son is a fan so I wanted to get this figured out.

My MIL is a great teacher as it came out perfect! Enough that I will be trying this here at home with our flour.

The cookery book she had is called The Dairy Book of Home Cookery. No idea who wrote it as it didn’t indicate. Which is weird.

If at all possible use a hand mixer rather than the big mixers as you need to be delicate with the batter. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Prepare two 7in/18cm tins by greasing with butter. Cut out circles of parchment paper to line the bottom of the tins.

In a mixing bowl add 4oz of caster sugar and 4 oz of softened butter. Cream the two ingredients together with the hand mixer.

Now this is where I went a bit wrong the first time I made this. I was about to move on to the next step when my MIL said I wasn’t close! Keep mixing. And be patient. It needs to be pale in colour and fluffy.

Weigh out 4 oz of self raising flour. Take a tablespoon of flour to the mixture and add an egg.

Mix well and repeat this step with another egg.

Sift the remaining flour in and gently fold it into the egg and butter mixture.

You want to keep it airy as you do this step, don’t crush the fluffiness! Divide the batter between the two tins.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until it is golden brown and is springy to the touch.

Cool for a few minutes then turn out on cooling racks. Once it is cool spread jam of your choice onto one of the cakes and top with the other cake. We used my Mil’s amazing rhubarb and ginger jam. I’ll have to try to recreate it. Delicious! Sift powdered sugar on top.

Serve when ready. Add a cup of tea and enjoy!

So glad my MIL helped me with this because this is definitely a treat we love. 🙂

Tips: If the batter comes out a little dry because of the flour add a little milk. For different flavours add a teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract.

Bakewell Tart and Delicious Traditions

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

Another season down and on to feeding the creative side of my brain! I managed to end the tax season in my typical fashion of coming down with a really bad cold. So much for hitting the ground running. I am finally catching up with everything. Unfortunately bills and things have to have a higher priority than blogging. Boo.

Part of my inspiration this year for blogging is to bake or cook dishes that have a bit of family tradition. I place a great deal of value on having a connection with the past as we go forward with the new generations. I don’t like history forgotten.

A few weeks ago I asked my dad what treats his mum cooked or baked when he was growing up. My Grandma is someone I’d love to go back in time and spend a day baking with. She was incredibly smart and the ultimate multi-tasker. I sometimes think she would read, watch telly, and do the cross word at the same time because her brain needed the high end exercise. She passed away when I was very young but I have wonderful memories of her.

My dad responded with a list of things she would make like amazing homemade bread, sponge cake, and bramley apple pies. She would also make bakewell tarts. As this has been on my list for awhile I thought that would be a great place to start.

The recipe I used was from the Baking with Mary Berry baking book my sister gave me for my birthday. It is actually pretty straight forward.

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C.

In a mixing bowl add 1 1/2 cups of flour and 6 tablespoons of cold butter. You will see this is not for the faint of heart when it comes to butter!

Using a pastry fork blend the butter and flour until well blended. You want it to look like small bread crumbs. I found it weird that no salt was in the recipe. It wasn’t too bad but next time I make it I would add about 1/4 tsp of salt.

The next step is to add a bit of cold water at a time until the pastry comes together. This part is hard to explain as you don’t want it too dry or too wet. So keep adding until is just comes together. This step always brings me back to when my dad taught me how to make pastry. He learned from my Grandma. I was an adult when he taught me but it was still fun standing side by side learning from him.

Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

In a saucepan, melt 9 tablespoons (see what I mean?) and add 1/2 cup of sugar. Cook for a minute or so. Remove from the heat and let cool for a few minutes.

A one large egg, beaten, 3/4 cup of rice flour, and 1/2 tsp of almond extract. Mix well.

Set aside. Grease a tart pan that has a loose bottom. The recipe called for 7 1/2in/19cm diameter pan. I don’t have one of those but I have a rectangle one roughly the same area size. Roll out the pastry and lightly press into the pan.

Trim the excess and set aside. Spread raspberry jam on the bottom of the pastry. I kept it a bit too thin this time round but I will put more in.

Pour in the filling and then cut the excess pastry in to strips and place them in a criss cross pattern. Brush with milk.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes until golden brown and the filling is set.

If you would like dust it with icing sugar.

This isn’t overly complicated and is worth the effort to make. The almond and raspberry flavours are a great pairing. I hope I did my Grandma proud. 🙂

Pear and Gooseberry Cake

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

Oh, just two more weeks of tax season and then I can get back to blogging more regularly. Can’t wait! Yesterday I didn’t have time to blog because I was baking and cooking up a storm. It felt so good to be up and moving about.

The PT is working really well. I went back to Pilates and last week after doing a forearm plank suddenly my shoulder felt fixed. Figured out the bicep tendon had been flipped out of it’s groove for months. Geez, if I had known doing planks would help I would have done that a lot sooner! It’s wonderful not to feel old and infirm. Can’t tell you how excited I am about this!

For St Patrick’s Day I usually cook something Irish. Go figure, right? As a treat I found a Pear and Gooseberry Cake with a Black Currant Compote in The Irish Isle by Sharon O’Connor.

It can be tricky to find ripe pears and because I only decided to do this on the day, the pears were pretty hard. I microwaved them for a bit to soften them a little. They were still on the firm side after baking but it was balanced with the softer gooseberries.

Preheat the oven to 375F/190C.

This is a cake not made with a mixer. In a bowl mix together 1 3/4 cups of self rising flour, pinch of salt, and a teaspoon of ground ginger.

Cut in 4oz of cold butter into the flour mixture. You want to mix the butter in well enough that it looks like bread crumbs.

Add in the two pears, chopped and about 1 1/2 cups of gooseberries. The recipe calls for 3 cups but that would be way too much and put out the cake out of balance. Mix well. Add a 1/2 cup of sugar.

Add 2 beaten eggs and 1/2 a cup of milk. Mix and then spread out into a 9 x 13″ pan.

Sprinkle with brown sugar and bake for 25-30 minutes.

While the cake is baking put a cup or so of black currants in a small saucepan. Add about a 1/2 a cup of water. Bring it to a simmer. Gradually add brown sugar until you get the balance of sweet and tart you like. Just don’t make it thick like jam. I kept it on the tart side because my husband loves the flavour of the black currants.

This is a very moist cake with a lovely sweet and tart flavour to it. I do apologise for the last picture. My camera was being wonky, I think because the batteries weren’t charged properly. I have to say it’s nice that it is so light later now, I’m back to being able to use natural light again.

Sugar Crust with Crème Pâtissièrere

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

It’s back to reality after the holidays, kids back to school (they weren’t too thrilled!) and we’re back to work. All the build up for the holidays and poof it’s gone in a blink of an eye. We spend a lot of that “spring” cleaning. It feels good to start the year off without clutter. I’d like to know where it all comes from, seriously I think it multiplies. I hate the clear outs but I love the results. It motivates me to try new things and let the creativity flow.

For Christmas my husband and I try to be creative and feed our hobbies for gifts. We don’t need stuff per se. The Great British Bake Off has lit a bit of a fire under us to branch out in the baking arena and I knew we were going to bake through the break. I found a fluted tart pan with the removable bottom for my husband. Imagine my surprise when I opened the same gift from him! Luckily we got two different sizes. Great minds!

Have you ever wanted to bake something and you follow recipes and it comes out completely differently? Boy did that happen to me. I wanted to make tarte au citron that Mary Berry does. I started everything and realised I didn’t have all the ingredients. You’d think I was new at this. So I thought well the set lemon tart is a set lemon tart so I used Julia Child. I ended up with a strange lemon flavoured whipped meringue tart. Tasted good but definitely not what I was going for. So I need to get the ingredients for the tarte au citron and try it again! But I did like the sugar crust so I made it again and decided to use Julia Child’s crème pâtissière. I could eat bowls of that!

For the crust I used Mary Berry’s recipe for the crust. It’s not difficult but it is very fiddly. The sugar weakens the structure. You also want to keep the butter cold through this process.

In a food processor add 6oz of flour, 3 1/2 oz of butter cubed, and 1oz of icing sugar.

Pulse until well blended. Add one egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of cold water to the food processor.

Pulse again to blend. Now her recipe says it would come together in clumps. So far it hasn’t done that for me but when you test it you want the mixture to stick together when pressed.

Tip out onto to the counter and press the mixture together firmly until the pastry comes together in a ball. The trick is to not overwork the crust and make it tough.

Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. Lightly grease the tart pan. Now the directions state to lay out parchment paper and to place the bottom of the tart on the paper. Draw a circle that is an inch and a half bigger than the tart bottom. This is to give you a guide when rolling out the pastry. I made this crust twice this week and tried it the first time and didn’t do it the second. For me it didn’t make a difference but if it helps you go for it. Flour the bottom and the paper and place the pastry in the centre.

Flatten out the pastry out then roll. This is where the swearing begins. Did I mention it is fiddly? Keep the rolling pin floured because it will stick! This is the most frustrating part of the whole process.

Carefully fold the pastry in on itself so the bottom shows. Drop it into the tart frame.

Carefully press the pastry into the flutes. A trick that is mentioned is to use spare pastry to press in the pastry without poking holes into it. That works somewhat. You can also use a knuckle. Just keep the nails away! Allow a bit of overhang as the pastry will shrink when blind baking.

Use a fork to dimple the base without poking completely through. Chill for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven at 400F/200C. When ready to bake line the pastry with tin foil and fill with dry beans.

Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove the tin foil and the beans. Trim the excess pastry off the edge. Bake again until it is golden brown and cooked through. Unfortunately I got sucked into Star Wars. I was getting my geek on! So I was just a few minutes late in getting back to the oven. So it browned a little too much!

Set the pastry aside to cool. On to the crème pâtissière! This isn’t difficult but you need a bit of elbow grease with the whisk. I added a bit more milk to Julia Child’s recipe because I didn’t want it to be overly thick but yet have it set.

Using a mixer gradually mix in a cup of granulated sugar into 5 egg yolks. Keep beating until the mixture forms pale yellow ribbons.

Gradually and slowly pour 2 1/4 cup of milk that has been brought to the boil. You need to do this slowly because you don’t want to scramble the eggs with the hot milk. Add the mixture into a large saucepan and put it over medium heat. Keep whisking while it comes to a boil. It will get thick before it gets smooth again.

Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat and whisk it for a couple of more minutes to cook the flour. Remove from the heat.

Add a tablespoon of butter and 1 1/2 tablespoons of vanilla extract.

Mix well and let it cool. Once it is cool enough spoon it into the pastry crust. Let it set in the fridge until it is time to serve. Slice fruit of your choice. We had some lovely strawberries to use up. Dust with icing sugar.

Not going to lie, this was delicious. With dishes like this I won’t bother with resolutions to lose weight! I mean, who am I kidding. 🙂

Irish Apple Cake

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

Usually when our anniversary rolls round we are up to our ears in some house project. If we were smart we’d do a trip or something fun like we did a few years ago. But then again the list won’t take care of itself!

A big project is to redo the wrap around porch which means pulling up boards and lay new ones down as we go. When most of it was done it was time to get in a skip to get the trash removed. Silly me, I thought we could work on our foyer and walk in closet. Might as well fill the skip up!

What was I thinking? Granted it will cross two more projects off the list. But we’re tired! In the days leading up to our anniversary my husband took a few days off to make a dent in the projects. When our anniversary rolled round we hit a wall where my husband had to handle things as I was unable to. I felt guilty! So I thought I should bake him a treat. It was the least I could do.

Given that we went apple picking and we have a ton of apples I had to pick something that would use some up. I have a great book called “Irish Traditional Cooking” by Darina Allen. In it is a recipe for Irish Apple Cake. I mostly followed it.

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C.

In a medium sized bowl add 2 cups of flour, 1/3 tsp baking powder, and 8 T of butter. You want the butter at room temperature so you can blend the ingredients. With a pastry fork or your hands work the ingredients together until it looks like breadcrumbs or small beads.

Mix in half a cup of sugar then add one beaten egg.

You will need 1/2 to 2/3 cup of milk. Gradually add a little bit of milk at a time until the dough is soft and incorporated. This dough will be a pain to work with as it is wet and sticky. Flour your hands and rolling pin to work with it.

Grease a 9″ spring form pan. Roll out half of the dough and place it in the bottom of the pan.

There is a good chance you’ll have to patch holes with this so don’t be discouraged. Press the dough up the sides a bit. Slice a couple of apples and layer them round the middle. Sprinkle brown sugar over the apples.

Roll out the rest of the dough and place over the apples. Brush with a beaten egg.

Bake for 40 minutes or so until the dough is cooked and a nice golden colour.

Good luck waiting until this cools. Slice and serve.

My husband did appreciate this with a cup of tea when he got a chance to take a break and sit for awhile. 🙂

Our Growing Paynes

A journey about cooking, traveling, gardening, and crafting.

Tag Archives: dessert