The idea from mojewypieki.com again. I wasn’t stunned initially, as I’m not crazy about peanut butter myself. I like it on a toast every now and then, but I kept on thinking about it and finally yesterday I got around to making doughnuts. Mum and Dad are still here, so most of the 19 doughnut batch was filled with plum conserve, those with peanut butter I shared with Andy- Lisa said it would be quite his thing.

For the doughnuts I used 450 g of plain flour, 180 ml of warm milk, 2 whole eggs and 1 yolk, 60 g of melted butter, 60 of sugar- 20 g of which was vanilla sugar and 20 g of fresh yeast. A splash of vodka was added as well, to prevent the dough from soaking too much oil. Zaczyn was made, then added to the remaining ingredients, kitchen aid worked it all nicely for a few minutes, then it proved for over an hour. Knocked down, rolled out, doughnuts cut out and left to prove again.

Now, I need to think of a method which will allow me to transfer the risen, light as clouds dough from the surface onto the oil.  Everytime I do it, lots of air escapes and the ready doughnuts are not that as round and perfect as I’d like them to be.  Mum suggests greasing the surface rather than flouring it. I might give that a go.

Now, the peanut butter cream is surprisingly awesome. 125 g of smooth peanut butter, same amount of mascarpone, 100 ml of double cream, 50 g of icing sugar( the recipe suggested 80 g, I thought it was far too much and I was right) and a splash of vodka. All beaten with my birthday present- a hand mixer from Kitchen Aid.  It turned out good enough to actually dip the doughnuts filled with it in it, that’s what I was doing, that’s Andy was doing.

Finished with a drizzle of chocolate and a few chopped nuts. Really yummy.

Santa’s brought me a book, a super posh, velvet covered book with recipes from Laduree. I’ve been to Laduree once, back in the times when I thought that making macarons requires a PhD in pastry and nobody as amateur as myself will ever be able to make them.  That was a good 4-5 years ago, with Moka, who took us there and treated us to some superb pieces of patisserie   I’d love to do that tour again, now that I’m so much more confident. Might need someone to restrain me from licking the shop windows though.

I’ve marked a couple of must- do recipes from that book. Last night I asked Lisa if they fancied a pizza and beer sort of evening with Andy, they did, so obviously we needed a dessert.  Chocolate mousse was made, easy, delicious and quick.  If all the recipes work the way the mousse did, £17 well spent by Santa.

150 g of good quality dark chocolate was chopped and melted with 40 g of butter, then cooled to room temperature. 4 eggs separated, the whites whipped with 40 g of sugar, the yolks gently beaten. That was a new and different thing to do for me- beaten yolks went in bit by bit to the whipped whites, then  about 1/4 of those went into the chocolate and butter mixture to loosen it. Having done that all of the chocolate got chucked into the whites, gently incorporated  with a whisk. Then into the pipping bag with a star tip, 30 mins on the fridge and then ready to pipe into the serving dishes. It’s been enjoyed. And will be made again. 🙂

Inspired by the current series of Masterchef.  One of my favourite flavour combinations, a must try! I looked for a recipe online, found a few, didn’t completely follow any. Followed my gut and my taste. For 4 panna cottas I used 250 ml of double cream and 150 ml of milk, which I heated up with a tsp of vanilla sugar and about 3 heaped tsps of nutella. Possibly a bit more, as I kept on adding and tasting, but roughly that. 1,5 leaf of gelatine managed to set it just right. Chilled in the fridge since last night, to be enjoyed this evening after sushi. Very good, potential for a Christmas dessert.

Hard to believe, but with all my baking experience I’ve never before baked a meringue ( what??!!).  I’ve had a delicious raspberry Pavlova made by Alice in summer, absolutely loved it, but until last weekend I wasn’t tempted to make one.  Until I cocked up a batch of lemon macaroons that I wanted to take to Louise and James’s.  The batter was so overmixed and runny that I knew right away there would be no macaroons. But I still baked 2 giant ones, thinking- maybe a Pavlova-like kinda dessert of some sorts? The next day however I chucked those 2 giant macaroons, as I didn’t want to risk my reputation by experimenting on those 2 innocent souls and I baked 2 proper ones.  Good tactical move, as on Saturday, after a nice chicken dinner we built a lemon Pavlova, layered with whipped cream, fresh raspberries and raspberry coulis. Pretty much the whole thing went on the spot.  I liked it enough to look through more meringue recipes and I’ll be attempting  a small dacquise this weekend. A bit of a higher shelf, but hey, it’s good to be ambitious.

So, for 2 small meringue discs I used 3 egg whites, which kitchen aid whipped with 120 g of sugar, a tsp of yuzu juice, which I happened to have, 1 tsp of potato starch and a pinch of salt.Also, a tiny drop of yellow food colouring went in.  Baked in 180 degrees for about 5 minutes and then reduced to 140 and baked for roughly 40 minutes, left to cool in the oven.

Hopefully a start to more meringue baking.

I was in the mood for some cherries in kirsch and chocolate combo, but I had no cherries in kirsch. Didn’t particularly fancy getting a jar of them from Food Fanatics at a cost of £50 000, so I pulled out the remaining cherries from my freezer and soaked them in cherry vodka over night. Some research’s got to be done about how to do that right, so that they were boozy and intense in flavour, as mine were not. But I still made these little desserts to follow braised ox cheeks this evening.

Base- biscuits and melted butter, pressed into the rings, then the cherries minus the liquid. The mousse, tried and tested recipe. For 5 mousses I used 160 ml of double cream, in half of that amount I melted 65 g of dark chocolate and cooled it. Then whipped one egg white with 4 tsps of vanilla sugar. Loosened the cool chocolate with the remaining cream, then gently combined with the whipped egg white.  Filled the rings and to finish the desserts I topped them up with a spoonful of jelly made of that cherry juice, vodka and half a gelatine leaf.  Simple, tasty, good looking.

Pink version of the lovely chocolate bombs, from mojewypieki.com. Simplified, as the ones in Dorota’s version had some kind of raspberry jelly inside, I just opted for fresh raspberries, easier and delicious.  I made them yesterday, hoping to finish a sushi lunch I was making for Ewa, with a nice, pink accent. Tick! 🙂

Also, Dorota’s  Genoise sponge sounds like a massive project, I don’t bother with warming up the eggs and all that. Those from the fridge work just as well.  So, the sponge- 2 whole eggs whipped by the KA with 50 g of sugar, then 40 g of plain flour and 16 g of potato starch gently incorporated. Finally 13 g of melted and cooled butter. Baked for about 12 minutes in 170 degrees. Whatever I didn’t use of that sponge, Izzie delt with straight away. 🙂

For the mousse I used 500 g of frozen raspberries, which I quickly heated up with a bit less than 100 g of sugar and a good splash of lemon juice. 3,5 gelatine leaves soaked, while 250ml of cream was being whipped.  The gelatine into the hot, sieved berries, cooled outside pretty quickly, then into the cream. That easy. The mousse went into my sophisticated silicone moulds from China, 3 quid, but very nice to handle. A fresh raspberry into each one, then a ring of sponge and into the freezer overnight.

The glaze was a bit of a gamble, as I only had half of white chocolate the recipe asked for, but still went ahead with it. It worked fine, but the taste is not amazing in any way, it complements the mousse nicely, but next time I’ll add a splash of booze maybe. So, ideally 175 g of white chocolate, broken, goes into a pan of 150 g of melted sugar with 75g of water, to that 100 ml of condensed milk, some red food colourant and finally 10 g of powdered gelatine, soaked in a small amount of water. I hardly ever use powdered gelatine, but I keep some for such occasions.  Last thing to do, after a good stir of the whole thing it passing it through a sieve. It keeps nicely, sets, obviously, but 30 seconds in the microwave brings it back to the runny state.

Nice dessert, I like it a lot, next time it will be chocolate again in those moulds. And some booze. Chocolate and Cointreau maybe. To be continued.

My Brother From Another Mother Darek is visiting from the land of Poland, along with his lovely wife Beata.  Food is a touch more sophisticated  and always followed by dessert, rather than just a cup of tea.  A dupa rosnie, as they say in Poland. 🙂

After the success of green tea ice cream from mojewypieki.com, followed by the success of the not that great batch of that very flavour, which I then turned into strawberry ice cream, by just chucking lots of strawberry coulis into it and finding it rather lovely, I made lemon meringue ice cream.  Recipe as before, 200 g of sweetened condensed milk, 200 ml of double cream whipped into creamy dream by kitchen aid, a juice of 1 lemon and a zest of it added, plus about 2 tsps of lemon curd. I didn’t want that lemon flavour to  be shy,  so I think next time it might be yuzu. Finally, 2 crushed in meringues, next time I’ll double it, it makes a great little texture contrast on the palate.

This evening however we had tarte tatin, so I made vanilla ice cream, which turned out to be good enough for Darek to lick the dish off, the first ever ice cream that went within one evening.  Again, 200 g of condensed milk, 200 ml of the cream, lots of vanilla paste. Raging freaking success. 🙂

The genius, that is Dorota, the creator of mojewypieki.com has hit again. Sometimes she posts stuff that I have one look at and I know I must make it. Her Delice Au Cassis was one of them. I love blackcurrants and I happen to have quite a stash of them in the freezer, so there was no excuse, had to make it.

Genoise sponge to start with; 2 whole eggs in room temperature beaten into pale fluffiness with 62 g of sugar, 13 g of melted and cooled butter added slowly alongside 62 g of plain flour. All combined gently and baked for about 25 minutes in 175 degrees. When cooled, sliced in half horizontally and moistened with creme de cassis liqueur.

The mousse. So good, so light, fruity and intense, I love it. 200 g of blackcurrants quickly cooked with a splash of water, passed through a sieve. 3 gelatine leaves soaked well and then added to the sieved puree, that needed warming up in order to make gelatine work.

Then Italian meringue, like for the macaroons. 95 g of sugar with 20 ml of water made me a nice sugar syrup, that cooked until in reached 118 degrees, then it was slowly added to a meringue made in the KA out of 2 egg whites and 15 g of sugar. The meringue was worked for about 5 minutes until cool, then the puree+ gelatine went in and also 75 ml of whipped cream.  All this onto the sponge and into the fridge.

The final, stunning, touch, was a cassis jelly. 75 ml of creme de cassis gently warmed up, 1 soaked gelatine leaf added, 15 g of sugar and that’s that. Once cold and about to start setting- onto the set mousse.

Absolutely love it. Five stars! 🙂

Another great one from mojewypieki.com. Not too complicated, a little patience essential though, with all the waiting to layers to set. But I managed, in spite of being famous for my lack of this very virtue. Lisa and Andy came for dinner, it was eaten, enjoyed and will be made again.

First,  a nice chocolate sponge. 50 g of dark chocolate, melted, 2  eggs, whites whipped well, yolks waiting on the side. 50 g of soft butter creamed with 50 g of sugar. Chocolate poured in, yolks one by one added. A touch of salt, 50 g of plain flour, 1/2 tsp of baking powder all in. It baked in 180 degrees for about 12 minutes in my super clean oven- a lovely chap came over on Friday and for 50 quid turned my oven into a shiny, sparkling beauty. 🙂

The white chocolate mousse part is the one for the patient people. 180 ml of milk warmed up with vanilla paste, 300 g of broken white chocolate in, all stirred till dissolved. 2,5 gelatine leaves to keep it together. I didn’t wait long enough for it all to set enough to be poured out, so I ended up pouring what escaped from the tin onto the plate back, sounds complicated, yes, but it is doable. Once that’s done and safely setting, the strawberry layer goes on top. About 600-700 g of strawberries blitzed and warmed up, so that a strawberry jelly, dry, as in the packet could nicely dissolve. Once cooled, strawberry mixture goes on top and rests in the fridge till the next day.

It’s a great looking dessert, tastes fresh and lovely, eats easily, in spite of 300 g of white chocolate. Very happy with it.

I never make ice cream. I don’t have the machine, but I was really impressed when Aska brought hers over last year and whipped up a batch of awesome blueberry and lime ice cream. And then I stumbled upon this recipe on mojewypieki.com and straight away went to the kitchen. I had all I needed and 10 minutes later the ice cream mixture was shoved into the freezer. So easy. 200 g of sweetened condensed milk, 200 ml of double cream whipped together till thick. About 2 tbsps of matcha added, but it’s good to add and taste, as not everyone likes it that much. I do, so I kept on adding. Florek’s just said it’s very rich, but that didn’t stop him finishing his bowl.

The strawberries underneath are from Hayles Farm, not far off Winchcombe, we picked them ourselves. I had to clean 3 pairs of shoes from all the mud afterwards, but they taste far better than the ones from supermarket.  Yummy. 🙂