White Chocolate & Peanut Butter Blondies

I put together this recipe just over a week ago, and after trying the result realised that I needed to reduce the sugar content even more. White chocolate is so much sweeter than the 70% dark chocolate I use in my brownies. Somehow the batch seemed to disappear without too much trouble, but yesterday I made a second batch and so now I am sharing my revised recipe with you.

I need chocolate!

For this recipe you will need;
250g of white chocolate
175g of unsalted butter
350g of caster sugar
100g of crunchy peanut butter
150g of Self Raising flour
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon of salt
140g of salted peanuts

As with my brownie recipe click here for the recipe, prepare a baking tin and switch on the oven. Melt the chocolate, butter and peanut butter in a pan over a pot of water that is barely simmering. White chocolate is trickier to melt but the addition of butter and peanut butter makes it unlikely that you will get into difficulty. When the ingredients are melted, allow to cool for 5 minutes before whisking really well to produce an even glossy consistency. Whisk in the sugar, then the 4 eggs. Whisk in the flour, salt and finally stir in the salted peanuts. Pour the whole into the prepared baking tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. A bamboo skewer should come out with still a little of the mix adhering to it, in order for the centre to be gooey.

Altering the original

Notes:
I find this mixture requires a little longer to cook, but keep an eye on them.

Chocolate Brownies

My daughter makes the best brownies I know, well that at least is what I have always thought and I get her to make a batch occasionally when she visits.This means that in the last nine years I have not made brownies, so you can imagine my surprise when I telephoned her to ask her for the recipe, "But it's your recipe" she said. I had completely forgotten that when she set off to university I equipped her with some of what I considered essential recipes, brownies being one of them.

She sent me the recipe via text, very modern, and I have tweaked it so that she and I will continue to make different brownies to each other.

For this recipe you will need;
250g of chocolate (70%)
250g of unsalted butter
400g of caster sugar
4 medium eggs
140g of S.R.flour
120g of walnuts pieces
100g of white chocolate chips
100g of dried sour cherries
50ml of seriously strong fresh espresso coffee
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Begin by placing the butter and chocolate (not the white chocolate chips) in a large bowl over a small amount of simmering water. Switch off the heat and leave for 10 minutes until the chocolate is completely melted while you line a baking tin with baking parchment; I use one that measure 30cm by 20cm by 5cm.
Set the oven to 180C
When the chocolate butter mix is fully melted allow it to cool for 10 minutes before stirring in the sugar and mixing thoroughly, beat in the eggs and coffee. It's important at this point to keep mixing until you have a smooth even consistency. Stir in the flour and salt and again beat to achieve a smooth consistency before you finally add in the nuts, cherries and white chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared baking tin and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Test the brownies at 30 minutes by pushing a toothpick or wooden skewer into the centre, unlike the test for when a cake is cooked the stick should come out slightly glistening with the mix. You need to judge just how wet the stick can be and this will only happen with experience, too wet, i.e. too much mix on the stick and the centre will be seriously wet when the brownies have cooled, no real hardship, what you need to avoid is the stick coming out completely dry, this will mean your brownies will taste delicious but not have the yielding texture that they should. Divide and cut the brownies while still a little warm.

Notes:
Clearly you can bring your own variation to this recipe, you can vary the nuts and dried fruit, but essentially this is a good recipe for a basic brownie, producing 18 brownies in all.

Peach Leaf Pannacotta

It was about 20 years ago that I first made peach leaf ice cream, amazed to discover that these simple long mid green leaves render up a bitter almond flavour, not unlike that of a good amaretto biscuit. The other day I thought the same technique of steeping peach leaves in scalded milk would work as a flavour for pannacotta. Now I far prefer making pannacotta with a mix of milk and double cream, I think it produces a lighter end product with a delicate texture, especially if you disregard the instruction on the packets of gelatin or vegetarian gelling agent and put in 75% of the recommended amount, in this case 3 rather than the recommended 4 sheets of gelatin. I also think it's far easier to pour the pannacotta into small serving bowls so that you can top them with whatever you wish thus avoiding the task of unmoulding them. 

Happy to welcome Martinique, bringing the number up to 131

For this recipe you will need;

300ml of double cream
300ml of full fat milk
7 peach leaves
3 gelatin leaves (4 being recommended to set 600ml)
30gm of sugar
A pinch of salt

Bring the milk to just under the boil in a small saucepan and place in the washed peach leaves, I have my own peach tree so I know the leaves have not been sprayed with any insecticide but do check. Allow the leaves to steep in the hot milk for 10 minutes, you may need to experiment with the timing but I find 10 minutes produces a subtle flavour avoiding too much bitterness. I add the sugar and salt at this point and taste to see what I think. Sweetening the mix allows you a more accurate sense of whether or not you need to put the leaves back in for a few minutes more. Bring the milk back up to scalding, just under a boil, and add the gelatin leaves (or vegetarian gelling agent) having soaked the leaves in cold water for a couple of minutes. Stir to ensure the gelatin completely dissolves, add the cream, stir well and share between 4 dessert bowls, leaving enough room to place a small amount of topping on each just prior to serving.

Notes:
I served these with a compote of rhubarb and raspberry. My early strawberries have finished and my late ones have yet to fruit. My rhubarb is still going strong and since I have it in a flower bed I like how the leaves look but thinning out three stalks was sufficient to make a small mount of topping with 200gm of raspberries, the last of the early variety grown here. I stew the rhubarb with a little sugar for a few minutes until softened then pour in the raspberries but don't stir them until the rhubarb has cooled completely, This way the raspberries remain reasonably intact when served.       

Pasta with Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Rather surprisingly I have had to harvest my purple sprouting broccoli today. It seems no time at all since I planted out the little brassica plants but the weather has been ideal and now they are in danger of going over. When it comes to cooking a vegetable where you want it to play a leading part and not simply a supporting role, I find creating a pasta dish works well. I used a shape called messicani for this but any favourite pasta will do. The subtle flavour of fennel comes through, if it were later in the summer I would use fresh seeds from my fennel plants but dried fennel works perfectly well.

Saint Lucia brings the number up to 128, you are very welcome!

Maldives is very welcome, making it 129

Bringing the number up to 130, Somalia, welcome!

To make this recipe (serves 2) you will need;
300 to 400g of fresh purple sprouting broccoli
2 small onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
200g of dried pasta, cooked according to the manufacturer's instruction
a tablespoon of salt for the pasta cooking water
1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon of chilli (see note)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 tablespoon of unsalted butter


Begin by bringing a large amount of water up to the boil, add the salt and cook the broccoli for only 2 minutes, remove the broccoli and keep the water for cooking the pasta.
In a large saute pan place the oil, butter and add the chopped garlic, fennel seeds and chilli, gently cook over a low heat for a couple of minutes while you chop the onions. Add the onions and continue to cook until the onions are translucent. about 3 to 4 minutes. Cut up the stalk part of the broccoli and add. Continue cooking on a gentle heat while you cook the pasta. As soon as the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the pan containing the cooked vegetables along with the floret part of the broccoli. Stir in the black pepper and toss the pasta to completely combine with the vegetables. Serve immediately with some grated Parmesan.

Notes:
I use Aleppo pepper, which is also called Pul Biber, it's available at Melbury & Appleton, it has a rich fruity flavour and a mild heat.
The water is well salted in order to cook the pasta and broccoli so the finished dish should not require extra salt but as always check at the last minute and adjust the seasoning if you believe it needs it.

2 Day Retarded Sourdough

I have been baking and enjoying my basic recipe for white sourdough for a long time now, I have tweaked it from time to time, taken a break while I baked sourdough with gruel, sourdough with beer and yet I always come back to my basic recipe. I didn't think it could be improved and yet as often happens, circumstances brought about an opportunity to alter my process and the result is something I shall always do from now on. I am very good at putting things in my freezer, imagine my joy when I realised I actually had a second freezer in the cellar I had forgotten about. Sadly I am extremely poor at taking anything back out of the freezer(s), consequently both freezers are now  full. I have been baking a batch of bread on average about once a week, freezing one loaf and eating the other, having no room for the second loaf I decided to leave half the dough in the fridge in a plastic container for a couple of days to await baking. The result is the dough retarded for a couple of days develops an even greater depth of flavour along with a slightly deeper colour, producing a loaf with a nice open texture and a great crust. I did add a tablespoon of molasses to the original dough thinking it might just need a little extra food whilst in hibernation in the fridge.

For this bread you will need; click here for the recipe plus a tablespoon of molasses added at the main dough mixing stage. At the point where the dough is ready to be shaped into loaves, having been stretched and folded 3 or 4 times, place all or half of it into the fridge in a large, lidded plastic box (the dough does continue to grow a little) and keep for 2 days before baking. I found shaping the cold dough from the fridge and placing it into a well floured banneton before going to bed, meant that the following morning, about 8 hours later, the loaf was ready to bake, having returned to room temperature and almost doubled in size. I would say my kitchen is still on the cool side and you would have to adjust how long you leave the shaped loaf before baking according to the ambient temperature. Since baking with wild yeast is always a case of observing and moving on to the next stage when the time is right, this shouldn't really be an issue.

Notes:
I must empty the freezers!