From the recent “Good Food”.

175 g of self raising flour, 1,1/2 tbsp of baking powder, 50 g of polenta( I didn’t have any, I used corn flower), finely grated zest of 2 lemons, 50 g of ground almonds and 140 g of caster sugar all mixed in a bowl, 2 whole eggs cracked in with 75 ml of rapeseed oil and 25 ml of natural yoghurt. All this roughly mixed, but not overmixed went to the tin with baking parchment and nicely baked for around 40 mins in 180 degrees ( 4). In the meantime, juice from those 2 lemons alongside 85 g of sugar and 75 ml of water was all boiled and reduced down to a nice syrup.

When the cake baked and cooled slightly, I made lots of little holes and spooned over all the syrup into them and all over the cake. It is moist, springy, lemony and enjoyable.

Very simple and tasty dessert. First I toasted the chopped pecans, it’s quite extraordinary how much flavour it brings out of the nuts. Then I whipped the cream with some vanilla paste and lemon juice, tossed in a crushed meringue nest, a good handful of blueberries,some chopped dark chocolate and stuck it all into the rings. Once again blow torch was at hand to help me get them out, but I didn’t overdo it like last time. I topped the thing with some blueberries and nuts and served. While eating it I was already thinking, something sharp like strawberry would be even better, more contrast. the texture is there, brilliant, but it needs more contrast and maybe a coulis or something. To be continued- on Saturday.

Nice one. A Valentine dessert I found in Good Food online. I even asked The Chief how to top a cold mousse with hot chocolate and end up with lovely topping, that lets out this crunchy sound when hit with a spoon.

I used 125 g of peeled and chopped ripe pears, which I cooked off with some lemon juice and a splash of Cointreau- the recipe called for Poire William liquor, I had none, and sugar. I threw a leaf of softened gelatine and cooled it outside. In the meantime I whipped up 150 ml of double cream,not too much, still quite runny, them folded in the chilled and pureed pears. Last thing to do was melting some white chocolate and topping the mousse up, once safely in the rings.  They stayed in the fridge for nearly 3 hours, I used the blow torch to loosen them out of the rings, a bit too much, as they melted a bit. Very tasty though, I’m pleased.

A green tea sponge cake has been on my mind for a while, today, on my day off I got cracking. The idea came from The Chief, who made a GT tiramisu a few months ago, I thought I’d see if my mom’s sponge recipe with the addition of GT would work or not. The Chief suggested infusing the GT powder with a bit of hot milk, so it doesn’t lose the flavour. For the sponge I whipped 4 egg whites with a glass of sugar- my mom’s measurements :-), kept on adding the egg yolks, then the GT infusion, which took about 1,5 tea spoons of the GT powder and about 30ml of hot milk. Then I folded in 4 tbsp of plain flour, 2 tbsp of potato flour and 1 tsp of baking powder. All this baked in 180 degrees for about 30 mins, until the cake came off the sides of the tin. Then left to cool and sliced in half.

The cream was a bit of a challenge. I cooked budyń plus a spoonful of plain flour, cooled it and whizzed with 1/3 of a margarine. The taste was not amazing, so I threw a banana in and some vanilla paste and was then quite satisfied, so in it went, I saved some for the top, although I think white chocolate would do nicely too. I finished it off with toasted hazelnuts and flaked almonds. Next time a touch more GT powder, the colour is ok, but it could do with more flavour. Texture- spot on.  🙂