Recipe of the week from Sweet Food: Saffron Spice Cake

I chose this recipe because my mother recently came back from the Canary Islands and brought me more saffron than I use in about 5 years of cooking, plus I already had some.



Serves 8.

250 ml (1 cup) freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tbs finely grated orange zest
1/4 tsp saffron threads
3 eggs
155 g (1 1/4 cups) icing sugar
250 g (2 cups) self-rising flour (or 2 cups plain flour plus 3 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt)
370 g (3 2/3 cups) ground almonds (almond flour)
125 g unsalted butter, melted
Icing sugar, extra, to dust
Thick (double) cream, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), or 160°C if you have a convection oven (or as indicated by manufacturer or your experience).

Lightly grease a 22 cm round cake pan and line the base with baking paper. Mix orange juice, zest and saffron in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Lower the temperature and simmer for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let cool.

Beat the eggs and icing sugar until light and creamy. Fold in the sifted flour, almonds, orange juice mixture and butter until barely mixed and smooth. Spoon into the cake pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Before serving, dust with a little icing sugar and serve with whipped cream.



Recipe review:

I started by making the ground almonds since I could not find any in any supermarket. I used my handy little electric coffee grinder and ground a little at a time and sifted it to get an even size of almond granules.

There was more dough than I thought there would be, and I ended up using two baking pans, one 20 cm and another 18 cm in diameter, and got two luscious cakes. The baking time was about 45 minutes at 160°C in my convection oven. That temperature was a too hot, as evidenced by the cakes rising a bit too much in the middle.

The cake itself is a lovely pale saffron colour, with a dense texture and a nice orage flavour with undertones of saffron, which is good because too much saffron in food tastes somewhat medicinal to me.



Book verdict:

If you enjoy food porn and great desserts, buy it. It is full of all sorts of desserts, and the three I made during the week were all good.

Sample recipe from Sweet Food: Pineapple Upside-down Cake

Serves 6-8.

20 g unsalted butter, melted
2 tbs firmly packed soft brown sugar
440 g can pineapple rings in natural juice
90 g unsalted butter, softened
125 g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
125 g (1 cup) self-rising flour (= 1 cup plain flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp salt)

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease a 20 cm (8 inch) ring pan and pour in the melted butter to coat the base. Sprinkle in the brown sugar. Drain the pineapple and reserve 80 ml (1/3 cup) of the juice. Cut the pineapple rings in half and arrange them on the base.

Beat the softened butter and the sugar together until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla essence and mix well. fold in the flour alternating with the pineapple juice (the recipe recommends using a metal spoon, but I use the beater on my mixer at the slowest speed). Spoon or pour the batter evenly over the pineapple and smooth the surface. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Review:
I made this cake on Sunday, and it’s very good: moist but still light as a cloud and tastes great. Although there is pineapple juice in the batter, the cake doesn’t have a pineapple flavour. This may be due to me having used cheap canned pineapple with less flavourful juice than the more expensive stuff. Whatever the reason, the cake is still good. Another time I might use condensed pineapple juice.

I don’t have a ring pan, so I used a regular cake pan and baked the cake a little longer than the recipe suggests. I only needed 5 1/2 pineapple rings to cover the base.

Sample recipe from Sweet Food: Chocolate Mud Cake

I love a good chocolate cake, and this one looks promising:

Serves 12.

125 g (1 cup) plain flour
125 g (1 cup) self-rising flour (= 1 cup flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp salt)
60 g (1/2 cup) dark cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
625 g (2 3/4 cups) sugar
450 g dark chocolate, chopped
459 g unsalted butter
125 ml (1/2 cup) buttermilk
2 tbs oil
2 tbs instant espresso coffee granules or powder
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 160°C (315°F) or a lower temperature as instructed for a convection oven.

Brush a deep 23 cm (8 1/2 inch) square cake pan with melted butter or oil. Line the pan with baking paper, extending at least 2 cm (4/5 inch) above the rim.

Sift the flours, cocoa and baking soda into a large bowl. Mix in the sugar and make a well in the centre. Put 250 g chocolate and 250 g butter and 185 ml (3/4 cup) water in a saucepan and melt over low heat, stirring constantly. Gradually stir this mixture into the dry ingredients using a large spoon.

Whisk together the buttermilk, oil, coffee and eggs and add to the mixture, stirring until smooth. Pour into the pan and bake for 1 hour 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the pan, the turn out onto a serving dish, upside down.

Combine the remaining chocolate and butter in a small pan and melt over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Cool to room temperature, stirring often, until it is thick enough to spread. Spread the icing over the cake. Allow the icing to set slightly before serving.

Recipe of the week from Hollt og gott: Banana bread

It may seem a bit mundane to choose banana bread, but I have been looking for a good recipe for it for years. The recipes I have tried have either been too sweet, not sweet enough, too crumbly or didn’t have enough banana flavour.



3 ripe bananas
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup chopped nuts (may be left out)

Mix together flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. Peel and mash the bananas thoroughly. Lightly whip the eggs until well mixed and just beginning to froth. Mix in the mashed bananas and then the dry mix, little by little until well mixed. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at medium temperature (I used about 160°C but 175°C would be suitable for a non-convection oven). Ready in about 1 hour. When a pin inserted into the thickest part of the loaf comes out clean or only slightly sticky, the loaf is fully baked.

Notes and review:

I made the recipe exactly as instructed. For nuts I used walnuts, but pecans would also be good and possibly hazelnuts.

The bread/cake has just the right amount of sweetness and a nice, tasty banana flavour. It is nicely moist, but not too much, and tastes great either plain or slathered with butter. I think I may finally have found the right banana bread recipe for me.

The cookbook itself has maybe about a dozen recipes I would like to try. I will probably end up culling this book, but will copy down the interesting recipes first.

Sample recipe from The Big Ready Steady Cook Book: Chocolate roulade with cherry sauce

Creator: Lesley Waters
Found on page 185

Serves 6-8

3 eggs
100 g (4 oz) caster sugar
50 g (2 oz) plain flour
25 g (1 oz) cocoa
300 ml (10 fl.oz) double cream (whipping cream)
4 tbs Kirsch
100 g (4 oz) good quality plain chocolate, melted
425 g tin (can) stoned black cherries, drained and juice reserved
Fresh mint sprigs and icing sugar, to decorate

Heat oven to 200°C (400°F). Whip together the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy. Sift together the flour and cocoa and gently fold into the egg/sugar mixture with a metal tablespoon. Pour the batter into a lined Swiss roll tin (jelly roll tin) and bake for 8-10 minutes until risen and just firm to the touch. Cool in the tin for a few minutes and turn out onto a wire rack.

Whip the cream until thick enough to for soft peaks, then stir in half the Kirsch.

Melt the chocolate over a water-bath and spoon a tablespoon of it into a greaseproof paper piping bag (you can make one from rolled-up baking paper) and pipe swirls of chocolate onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. Place in the refrigerator to set.

Mix the remaining chocolate and Kirsch along with 2 tbs of cherry juice. Pour into a jug and keep warm.

Spread the cake with the whipped cream mixture. Spoon the cherries over the cream and then roll up the cake lengthways, peeling away the paper as you go. Transfer to a serving plate, decorate with the icing sugar, mint leaves and chocolate shapes and serve with the warm sauce.

Tried and tested: Chocolate brownies

This recipe originally came from the 1943 edition of The Good Housekeeping Cookbook. I have used it often and it never fails to receive the thumbs up from anyone who likes brownies.

1/2 cup (100 g) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
60 g baking chocolate (the darker, the better), melted and lightly cooled
3/4 cup flour, sifted
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup chopped nuts or whole raisins (I have used both walnuts and hazelnuts with good results and I think macadamias or pecans would be good too. 50/50 nuts and white chocolate chips would be good too)

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Beat the butter until it is light and creamy. Gradually add the sugar. Add the eggs and melted chocolate and mix well. gradually add the flour mixture. Fold in the nuts/raisins. Pour batter into a small, greased oven pan and bake at 170°C for 30-35 minutes, or until the cake feels firm when the middle is pressed lightly with a finger.

Remove from the oven and immediately cut into serving-size squares.

Icing sugar may be sprinkled over the squares for an extra touch of sweetness.

Sample recipe from cookbook of the week: Jammy Devils

These look simple and easy and I’m sure kids would love to make them:

100 g unsalted butter
75 g caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
200 g flour
3-4 large tbs jam

Heat the oven to 180°C while you prepare the dough:

Cream together butter and sugar and add the egg, a little at a time, mixing well in between. Add the flour, little by little, until you have a soft dough. Stir in a generous tablespoon of jam to make a ripple effect.

Put about a dessertspoonful (2 tsp) of the dough into small muffin cups or muffin tray. Pat down gently and place a dollop of jam on top of each devil.

Bake in the top part of the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden on top.

Attributed to Nobby Nobbs’ mom.

Sample recipe from The Spice Cookbook: Saffron-lemon tea bread

There are so many mouthwatering recipes in this book that it is going to be hard to narrow my choices down.

I have used saffron to flavour rice, in paellas and most recently in mashed potatoes, but never in baking. This looks like an interesting recipe.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 tsp soda
1/8 tsp saffron, powdered
2 tsp lemon zest
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs (large)
3/4 cup water
2 tbs fresh lemon juice

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix shortening, baking soda, saffron and lemon zest. Add sugar, a little at a time, stirring well to mix. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix water and lemon juice and add gradually to the batter, alternating with the flour mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Beat batter for 30 seconds after all the ingredients are in.

Pour batter into a well greased loaf pan, 23 by 13 by 7 cm (9 by 5 by 3 inches) and bake for 1 hour at 175°C (350° F). Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes, then remove the loaf from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

Serve with softened cream cheese or butter for spreading.

Recipe of the week from Chocolate: Petits Madeleines au Chocolat

Originally posted on September 25th, 2007, as a sample recipe from the book.

A chocolate variation of the little cakes that sent Proust into raptures.

200 g flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
240 g sugar
100 g Síríus Konsúm chocolate or dark, sweet-bitter baking chocolate
finely grated rind of one orange
4 eggs
200 g sweet butter, melted
1 tbs baking cocoa

Mix all the ingredients except the melted butter until you have a smooth mass. Gently stir in the butter. Put one heaping teaspoon of dough into each shell of a Madeleine pan, smooth down and bake at 180°C for 10-12 minutes (less if you're using a pan with really tiny shells).


Not very nice looking, but they taste heavenly!

Edit:

The Madeleine tin I have is for making miniatures, meaning that a whole recipe would be many times too much, so I made half a recipe. Half a recipe was still too much, but because the baking time is so short (10-12 minutes) I decided I could probably use up the dough before the baking powder stopped working. I was right: I baked three rounds of 20 cakes each, and each round lifted beautifully. I could have baked two more rounds from that half recipe, but I didn’t feel like continuing. I must admit I did eat some of the raw dough, which is yummy and has the flavour and consistency of soft orange-chocolate fudge.

Since I have not made or even eaten Madeleines before, I can not say if these are like the genuine article, but they didn’t turn out looking like the picture in the book, or indeed any of the photos I found by googling. I spite of generous greasing of the tin and the cakes sliding out of it when I turned the tin over and shook it, the cakes did not have the distinct shell-like fluting of the sample in the photo. The colour was right, though. The cakes are spongy, airy, light and fluffy, like good sponge cakes should be, but the shell pattern is indistinct. If anyone has a suggestion as to why they tuned out looking like this, I would appreciate a comment.

The flavour is heavenly: chocolate with a hint of vanilla (the chocolate contains vanilla) and orange, and not too sweet. I get the feeling they would be lovely dipped in vanilla sauce. I think the recipe would make a nice cake, topped with fresh strawberries and Zabaglione or whipped cream.


You can just barely see some fluting at the edges, otherwise it's just an oblong lump.

Recipe from Chocolate: Winter Sun

This is an ice cream cake that I would like to try, for example as a dessert after Easter dinner.

Meringue layer:
2 egg whites
80 g sugar
1/3 tsp vinegar
About 50 g almonds, chopped
70 g Síríus Konsúm chocolate, finely chopped

Whip the egg whites until stiff, add the sugar and vinegar and whip until the sugar has melted. Fold in the almonds and chocolate. Line a deep spring mold with baking paper, smooth the meringue into the bottom and bake at 110°C for about 40 minutes. Cool.

Ice cream:
2 egg yolks
1 egg
50 g sugar
250 ml cream, whipped
1 tsp vanilla essence
200 g Síríus milk chocolate with hazelnuts (use Cadbury's with hazelnuts as a substitute), chopped

Whip together the eggs and sugar and fold in the whipped cream and vanilla. Then fold in the chocolate. Pour custard on top of the meringue, smooth the top and freeze, preferably overnight.

Sauce:
1 tbs golden syrup
100 g Síríus Konsúm chocolate
100 g Síríus milk chocolate
300 ml cream

Heat the cream in saucepan over low heat, add the chocolate with the syrup and melt well together. Simmer gently for about 3 minutes. Serve with the cake.

This ice cream cake can be stored for a long time in the freezer. Remove from the freezer and let it stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes before it is to be served.

Recipe from Chocolate: Gourmet Oven-pan

This is a kind of brownie, with pecan nuts and caramel sauce. The name could have been more original.

8-9 tbs butter
250 g Síríus Konsúm chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
300 ml sugar
150 ml flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
100 ml brown sugar
2 tbs cream
150 ml pecan nuts, coarsely chopped

Belt 100 g of the chocolate and 4-5 tbs of butter together in a Bain Marie. Whip the eggs until thick and frothy, add the sugar and mix well. Add the flour and salt, then the melted chocolate and the vanilla. Pour into a brownie pan (about 25 cm in diameter) or a small oven pan and bake at 175°C for 15 minutes.

To make caramel, put 4 tbs of butter and the brown sugar into a saucepan and heat to boiling. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool a little before adding the cream.

Sprinkle the pecan nuts over the half-baked cake and pour the caramel over it. Bake for 15 minutes more. Sprinkle the chopped chocolate over the hot cake. Cool and cut into small pieces.

Recipe from Chocolate: Caramel Bomb

The Icelandic slang word bomba is derived from the English word 'bomb', and coincidentally it is also the Italian word for the same thing. As well as referring to a sexy woman, a small bomb and a shocking piece of news, it also refers to any dessert with a high calorie count, possibly because of its ability to keep people eating until they feel like exploding.

Cake layers:
5 eggs
400 ml sugar
400 ml corn flakes, crushed
300 ml almonds, chopped
250 g Síríus Konsúm chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Whip together eggs and sugar until smooth and light. Fold in the dry ingredients (I suggest mixing them all together first). Divide between three medium sized (20-22 cm in diameter) round cake tins at 175°-200°C for 20-30 minutes.

Caramel:
250 ml cream
150 ml sugar
3 tbs golden syrup
2 tbs butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
400 ml cream for whipping

Put the 250 ml cream, sugar and syrup in a saucepan and simmer until the mixture thickens and takes on a light golden colour (20-30 minutes). Stir occasionally. Stir in the butter and vanilla. Cool (stick the bottom of the pan into a cold water-bath). Whip the cream.
Pour 1/3 of the caramel on top of one cake layer and top with half the whipped cream. Put another cake layer on top and repeat. Put the third cake layer on top and pour the rest of the caramel over it and allow it to dribble down the sides of the cake.

The cake in the accompanying photo in the book is garnished with blueberries and physalis (Cape Gooseberries).

Recipe update: Orange Cake from The Silver Palate Cookbook

Originally posted September 6, 2007, as part of the lead-up to the Silver Palate Cookbook recipe of the week.

If this is the cake I think it is, it is absolutely delicious. Even if it isn't, it's probably delicious anyway.

8 tbs (1 stick) sweet (unsalted) butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, separated
Grated zest of 2 oranges
1 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup fresh orange juice

Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Grease a 25-cm (10-inch) Bundt pan.

Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar, beating until light. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, and the orange zest.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to the batter little by little, alternating with the orange juice.

Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the batter.

Pour batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the sides of the cake shrink away from the edges of the pan and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then unmold onto a rack and drizzle with orange glaze while warm. Cool before serving.



Orange glaze:
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Put sugar and juice together in a small saucepan and simmer gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until a light syrup forms.

Edit, September 25, 2007:

I made the cake yesterday. It is the cake I thought it was. Someone once brought one to work and I loved it then and love it still. This recipe is going in my blue notebook where I write down my keeper recipes.



There are quite a lot of steps in making it: zest and squeeze the oranges, separate the eggs, beat the butter, beat in the egg yolks, mix dry ingredients together and mix in little by little with the orange juice, whip the whites and fold in, bake. But it is worth it!

The only Bundt pan I have is a miniature, so I used a small spring pan instead and baked it a little longer than the recipe calls for. The orange juice was rather weak, so I added a dash of Grand Marnier to the syrup to make the orange flavour stronger. The cake is very light and the orange taste is mild and lovely, and it is not too sweet. Probably not a cake to serve to kids, but the members of my, um, handicrafts club would love it.

Another time I would probably:
a) use a little more zest to get a stronger orange flavour,
b) make two smaller cakes in round molds, and
c) double the amount of syrup so there was enough for both cakes.

Recipes 5 & 6: Chocolate-Nut Roll & Chocolate Roll with Daim Filling

Chocolate-Nut Roll
Time: about 35 minutes + cooling time. Makes 1 roll.

Roll:
3 eggs
150 ml sugar
50 g ground hazelnuts
100 ml flour
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

Whip together the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix together the flour, cocoa and baking powder and stir into the egg mixture. Mix well and then fold in the nuts. Cover a cookie sheet with baking paper and smooth the batter into a single solid layer on top. Bake at 250 °C for about 5 minutes, or until firm. Turn over onto a sugar-sprinkled piece of baking paper and peel off the top layer of paper. Let cool under a damp tea towel.

Filling:
100 g dark chocolate
100 ml whipping cream
50-75 ml sugar
2 tbs finely chopped preserved orange peel

Melt the chocolate and sugar in the cream over a water bath. Begin with 50 ml sugar and then add more if you want it sweeter. Cool a little. Smooth filling over the cake layer and sprinkle the orange peel on top.

Roll up the cake and pack into baking paper and refrigerate.

Decoration:
Ca. 50 g white chocolate
A couple of drops of cooking oil
Hazelnut flakes

Melt the chocolate with the oil over a water bath. Take out the roll. Make a cone from baking paper, put in some melted chocolate, cut off the tip of the cone and let the chocolate leak out of the bag onto the roll in a zig-zag pattern and sprinkle the hazelnut flakes over it before the chocolate stiffens.

Chocolate Roll with Daim Filling
Time: about 35 minutes + cooling time.

Roll:
2 eggs
150 ml sugar
100 ml flour
50 ml cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

Follow the instructions for making the previous cake.

Filling:
100 g butter, soft
200 ml icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 coarsely crushed double Daim candy bar

Mix together the filling ingredients and smooth over the cake. Roll up and cool for a couple of hours.

Decoration:
About 50 g dark chocolate
2 tbs chocolate sprinkes

Follow the instructions for making the previous decoration.