Apparently it is World Chocolate Day today, I didn’t know that when I baked this beauty in the morning.  The recipe comes from “Tea with Bea” book and is one of my most expensive bakes so far. 1 kg pack of Valrhona chocolate got delivered yesterday, ours for only £35, but it seems that at 66% of cocoa it’s perfect for me, not too sweet and not too bitter.  In fact, it might be the best brownie I’ve ever eaten. 🙂

Recipe and method not too complicated. 250 g of this posh chocolate got covered by 250 g of hot, melted butter and got stirred into velvet by Izzie.

In the bowl of kitchen aid I had 250 g of caster and brown sugars,  4 eggs and a pinch of salt, all briefly mixed. Melted chocolate and butter in, plus 250 g of plain flour. All that went into a prepared lined baking tray and then 30 g each of pecan and hazelnuts on top, gently pressed in. Peanut butter, crunchy, here and there as well as salted caramel spread- Bea’s recipe called for dulce de leche, but Florek couldn’t find it in Sainsbury’s. Also, some posh form coconut was to be added, expensive on Amazon and not a favourite anyway, so skipped. 🙂

The brownie baked in 180 degrees for the first 10 minutes and then another 15 in 160 degrees. Once out of the oven for 10 minutes, it then went into a freezer for an hour. And then I could taste it and liked it so much, that I called Florek to tell him about it.  He was home 3 hours later to share the enthusiasm.

Thumbs up!

I’ve been  looking at Bea Vo’s posts on FB,  mostly at her cupcakes and getting irritated- ok, she is a pro, but how on earth does one make a butter cream THAT smooth and beautiful looking?  I remember Bea very fondly, she used to be a pastry chef in Ubon at the time I worked there. Now she owns 2 restaurants and has quite a name in the industry. I asked her yesterday how to make such awesome butter cream, she replied the recipe is in the book. “Tea with Bea” has been ordered and will come next week, I’ve done some research in the meantime and learnt one thing morning- that super soft butter does wonders to the texture.  I made a few cupcakes as Lisa and Andreia were to come in the afternoon.

The cupcakes themselves were not the most amazing ones I’ve ever made, so no recipe here, but the coffee butter cream I’ve made to top them with is the beginning of new, exciting skill I’ll learn in cake baking. Looking forward to the book and more cake decorating. 🙂

Focaccia had to be made and it will be made again, as it’s not very complicated, but it will not be served as a starter before pasta dish, it will be served as a main course, with maybe some parma ham on the side and some wine, unless there are friends over. Neither Florek nor I could keep our hands off it, which resulted in lack of enthusiasm for pesto.

Paul Hollywood’s recipe, with a touch of Jamie Oliver- 250 g of strong bread flour, 50 g of which was a fine semolina, that was the Jamie bit. 14 g of fresh yeast, Hollywood likes dry stuff, I don’t. 1 tbsp of olive oil, a good pinch of salt. 200 ml of cold water. All this worked in kitchen aid, left to prove till doubled in size. Knocked down, flattened out in the tin generously greased with olive oil. Proved again for about 40 minutes.  Then olive oil on, a nice drizzle, sea salt, fresh rosemary, kalamata olives and cherry tomatoes. Tiny bit of grated parmesan. 220 degrees, 20 minutes.

I love the crust, I love the saltiness of it. It will be done again, maybe with some friends, as perfect for sharing.

The idea from mojewypieki.com. Lots of work, but ended up with macarons that looked better than they tasted. I didn’t fill them in with nutella, as the recipe suggested, as they’d be far too sweet, mascarpone and lemon curd filling instead was used. First ever go at the royal icing, I only needed it for the eyes, made far too much, but now I know how to make it.  For the tongues- halved chocolate eggs.

Happy 3rd birthday Kiddo. 🙂

I have to say I’m blown away by this one, I will not try to be modest, it really is one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever made.  I saw a recipe on mojewypieki.com, but did not follow it all the way, the glaze on top is Gregg Wallace’s toffee sauce, with a pinch of sea salt.  I only had one slice of the cake- Lisa is bringing her mum over for coffee later, but I know it will not last beyond tomorrow evening. Which is fine, because the next in line in black forest cake, Florek’s request for his birthday followed by our wedding the day after.  I also have duck ragu slow cooking on the stove, lots happening in Oluta’s kitchen.

So the cake itself sits on a base made of 125 g of crushed digestive biscuits blitzed with 40 g of melted, salted butter. Salted butter really makes a difference here, I love it.  Having visited Polish deli yesterday I was able to use some great quality quark cheese, still lots left. I used 350 g of the cheese, 60 ml of double cream, 3 whole eggs, 4 tbsps of vanilla sugar ( Dorota’s recipe called for more, I thought white chocolate will do the job nicely), 100 g of melted white chocolate and a splash of vanilla extract- all this worked by kitchen aid, not for too long. According to Dorota, too much air in the cheesecake makes it rise too much in the oven.  I poured it onto the base, secured it additionally by some alu foil and baked it for about an hour in 160 degrees- in a water bath.

After it cooled I generously poured toffee sauce all over- 150 g of double cream, 75 g of brown sugar, 25 g of salted butter and a pinch of sea salt, all heated up. Finished with chopped, roasted peanuts. 10 out of 10, standing ovation and sending myself some flowers. 🙂

…known as” Porzeczkowiec” on mojewypieki, where I first spotted it.  I love everything that contains blackcurrants and I happened to have a jar of  currant  jam in the pantry, so I made it yesterday. To be fair, I started the day before yesterday, I’ve made the sponge as in the recipe, totally cocked it up, wasted the time and ingredients, chucked it and yesterday made it my way. I made the sponge the way I always make it, the Bozena way( 4 eggs, 4 tbsps of plain flour, 2 tbsps of potato starch, 1 tsp of baking powder, a glass of sugar, 2 tbsps of cocoa). And it worked, as always. I cut the sponge in half, lightly drizzled cassis liqueur all over it( can’t really taste in, but it’s light and moist). Half of the 450g jar of blackcurrant jam went on the bottom layer. Then the Philadelphia layer; 200 g of soft butter with 5 tbsps of icing sugar and about 400 g of Philly and whipped into a yummy, calorific goodness. Onto the jam. The second sponge, jam. Then 500 ml of double cream- this is the big tray of cake, half of it is going to Ewa’s tomorrow- 2 tbsps of icing sugar, some vanilla paste and 4 tbsps of mascarpone whipped again. Neatly onto the jam, lots of grated chocolate on top.

Lovely cake, light and luxurious, no idea how calorific, but I’m not losing sleep over these things normally.  Will be made again.

…with a smear of ganache and a ganache centre. Originally I thought I’d make orange and cocoa shells and orange filling, but my orange shells turned out nearly perfect this afternoon, so I just filled them in and they’re disappearing rather quickly.  Simple filling- mascarpone, orange curd (Waitrose) and orange zest. Kept on adding the curd to make the filling citrusy and quite sharp. The little ganache addition in the centre is a nice surprise for the palate. Thumbs up.

According to Dorota from mojewypieki. com, these were the taste of our childhood. Only having made and tasted them I understood what she meant.  The filling reminded me of “warm ice cream” sort of treat we used to get as kids, a super sweet meringue served in a cone.  Ptysie today had about 50 ml of blackcurrant juice/puree added to the Italian meringue, good call, otherwise they’d be far too sweet.

Choux pastry according to Dorota’s recipe turned out to be quite thick, difficult to squeeze through the piping bag, but still rose in the oven and turned out alright.  The filling; Italian meringue made with 120 g of sugar, a splash of water, 50 ml of blackcurrant juice for the sugar syrup and 2 egg whites and 20 g of sugar for the meringue. It holds rather well the next day. Ptysie are light and pleasant, but I think I’d like that filling to have a bit more character.  Nice though. 🙂

I wanted to bake macarons again and looked to Macarons & more website for a flavour inspiration.  A chap called Tim Kinnaird took part in Masterchef a few years ago, reached the final but did not win. His macarons  are still remembered, but now he runs his own company, inspiring guy! One of the flavours he sells is salted caramel, my new favourite. I thought chocolate shells would be better and reduce the sweetness a bit, so I baked them replacing 40 g of icing sugar with cocoa. The filling was wild and random, yet successful- I blitzed about 2tbsps of mascarpone, 1 tbsp of Philadelphia, 3 tsps of salted caramel spread- roughly and just a tsp of peanut butter. And it tastes pretty damn good. A smear of salted caramel on top and a sprinkle of toasted nuts. Thumbs up.

I might have found the ultimate gingerbread recipe. It’s moist, not too sweet, rich and delicious, all I have to do when making it next time is double the amount of ginger, both fresh and ground.

The recipe is from bbcgoodfood.com. 140 g of Medjool dates, pitted, chopped and soaked in 125 ml of boiling water for about 30 minutes, then blitzed into a paste with the liquid and all.

75 ml of oil( I used vegetable), 75 g of black treacle, 50 ml of maple syrup and a tsp of freshly grated ginger( moooooooore needed!!), all well mixed together.

In the bowl of kitchen aid 250 g of plain flour, 50 g of muscovado sugar, 1 tsp of bicarb soda, 1 tsp of ground ginger ( more needed, or perhaps mine is a bit out of date, it is down the sink now) and 1,5 tsp of cinnamon, a lot, as always.  Finally 175 ml of buttermilk and 1 whole egg complete the list of ingredients. They all make quite a runny batter, which bakes for about 40 minutes in 140 degrees. The author of the recipe is right, when the cake is wrapped in foil overnight, it’s even better the next day, sticky and moist. Yum.