Cola and Cherry Cookies

 

Baking is seriously good for my soul I think.  It had been nearly a month since I last got a chance (or the energy) to bake something and once I managed to get myself into the kitchen and under way with this bake it felt wonderful.  I have not felt so great in quite a while.  There has been a lot of serious de-motivation going on.  Very serious.  Which then leads to brooding and lack of doing anything.  Not good.  So!  Nothing like a baking challenge to get your groove back, even if just some of it.

Well, being the second Thursday of the month, it is time for the Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge!  The ingredients: Cola and Cherry.

Okay, so this time it wasn't entirely new territory for me.  I have done something with cola before, but not cherry.  However, I remember it being a very popular combination.  A lot of the cola recipes I saw back when I did the Float Cupcakes were cola and cherry.  And of course it is a flavour sold by Coca-Cola.  So I was up for the task of creating something with the flavours.

Since I have made cola cakes previously, I did not feel like doing that again for this challenge.  I wanted to do biscuits!  But how to combine the two flavours?  Why, by making sandwich biscuits.  I decided I wanted to make something similar to my Pink Freens, with a layer of flavoured fondant icing sandwiched between two biscuits.  I knew flavouring icing with jam worked rather well so that would be the cherry bit.  The biscuits would then be cola flavoured.  And since these would be coming out close to Valentine's Day, I figured I could add a little holiday twist by punching a heart shaped hole in the top for the pink fondant to be seen through.

Having made a decision I went looking for ways to make cola cookies.  My initial thought was to find a sugar cookie recipe that I could add the cola flavouring to (either in the form of actual coca-cola, or cola syrup).  Really though, this was overcomplicating things.  I did find a few recipes that involved boiling cola down into a syrup for flavouring but a lot of them recommended using Mexican coke, which has cane sugar in it for its sweetener and I wasn't sure how to go about acquiring that.  Plus there seemed to be mixed reviews on just how cola flavoured the final result was.  Ideally, I wanted something that made use of the cola syrup I already had (though in the end I had to buy a new one anyway since it was out of date) and used a good quantity of it because last time I used it the flavour did not come through very strongly.  And that is exactly what I found over at Sweet Hope Cookies!  Even better was the fact that this dough would not require any chilling time!  I love dough I can use immediately.

It was an amazing dough!  It came together wonderfully after a little trial and error with ingredient amounts (since I was halving the recipe and some ingredient amounts did not halve very easily).  It wasn't too sticky or too dry, it rolled great and it cut great.  It barely spread during baking and the end result was a cookie bursting with cola flavour!  

The fondant bit took a little longer to get right as I wasn't sure how much jam I needed to make a really nice, cherry flavour.  So I kept having the fiancé test it until he was satisfied.  Really I think it depends on the quality of your jam and how strong you want the flavour.  So the instructions in the recipe are to keep going until you are happy with the taste.  Of course, if you have access to cherry extract it will probably make you life much easier.

All in all, I thought these came out really well!  The fiancé calls them indulgent because they are quite thick biscuits but are not too hard or too soft and do not skimp on the fondant.  Plus they taste like cherry cola, which is what I was aiming for.

Recipe - makes about 18


Cookies - adapted from Sweet Hope Cookies

• 400g/14oz plain flour
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 1/3 tsp baking powder
• 115g/4oz butter
• 85g/3oz granulated sugar
• 85g/3oz light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 60ml/2fl.oz cola syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line some baking trays with greaseproof paper (I ended up with about 5 lots of 8 cookies per tray but only own 2 trays of which I can cook one at a time so...tray number is up to you).
2. Sift the plain flour, salt and baking powder together into a bowl and set aside.
3. Beat the butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy.
4. Add the egg and mix in until incorporated.
5. Add the vanilla extract and the cola syrup and beat until well blended.
6. Add the flour mixture a little at a time, beating well after each addition.  Towards the end you may need to use your hands to bring it all together into a nice smooth dough.
7. Sprinkle a clean surface with a little flour and roll out the dough to 0.5cm/0.25inches thick.  Use a 6.5cm/2.5inch circular cookie cutter to cut out an even number of circles.
8. For half the circles, use a small, heart shaped cutter to cut shapes out of the centre.
9. Transfer cookies to the prepared trays and bake for about 12 minutes.  
10. Allow to cool on the trays before transferring to a wire rack.

Fondant Filling:  

• 200g/oz ready-to-roll fondant icing
• Smooth, seedless cherry jam
• Lots of icing sugar

This is a bit of a trial and error bit.  It really depends on your jam and if you are happy with the flavour.

1. Knead the icing on a clean surface dusted with icing sugar until it is nice and soft and easy to mould.
2. Put 2-3 tbsp jam into a saucepan and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until it has thickened.  Allow to cool slightly.
3. Flatten the icing out slightly, place the jam in the centre and add 2 tbsp icing sugar.
4. Fold up and knead to spread the jam throughout the icing.  Add more icing sugar if necessary to make the icing less sticky.  You want to get back to how it was before you added the jam.
5. Taste the icing.  If you think it needs more flavour, repeat steps 2-4 until you are happy with the result.
6. Roll out the fondant to just less than 0.5cm/0.25inches.  Cut out circles using a 6.5cm/2.5inch cutter.
7. Turn the biscuit circles without the holes in upside down. 
8. Place a fondant circle on top of each biscuit and then cover with a holed one.  Squeeze together gently to bind the cookies and icing so they do not fall apart.

 

Chocolate and Marshmallow Brownies

So it's a brand new year and thus begins a brand new set of dessert challenges over at Lady Behind the Curtain.  There are certainly some interesting ones coming up, that's for sure (bacon and maple?!).  Anyway, this month starts us off with something fairly simple: chocolate pudding (or cocoa) and marshmallows.  Admittedly, I was not entirely sure what it meant by 'chocolate pudding' so I opted for the cocoa option.

I decided I to kill two birds with one stone with this bake.  Not only would it be my challenge bake but it would also be the bake that I would give to my friend Jess when I saw her on Saturday.  I know Jess likes brownies so that seemed like an ideal choice for both categories.  What did we do Saturday?  Well, we went to see The Lion King in Edinburgh!  It was so cool!  All the costumes and singing.  I was grinning like an idiot throughout the whole thing.  Jess also brought along the other part of my Christmas present which was a handmade doll of one of my characters.  It's amazing!  It has bendy hands and removable clothes and is just wonderful!  So I felt extra guilty as I did a very stupid thing and forgot to bring the brownies with me!  They were made and bagged up and everything.  I just didn't take them out of the fridge and put them in my bag in the morning.  I only realised when I was sitting in Kirkcaldy station waiting for the train.  Very stupid of me indeed!  So I posted them to her first thing Monday morning and she got to enjoy them Tuesday instead.  Better late than never I suppose.

The idea for these was sparked by the idea of hot-chocolate, since cocoa and marshmallows invokes that image.  So I could make chocolate brownies and have marshmallows on top.  But when I think hot-chocolate, I also think cream.  The classic image comes with a lovely swirl of cream on top of the drink upon which the marshmallows sit.  But I didn't want to put cream on the brownies but there should be something to represent it.  That's when I stumbled across Love and Olive Oil's Peppermint Bark Brownies (thank you Pinterest), with their layer of white chocolate on top.  That would be perfect!  Plus the brownie recipe itself looked to be a good one to work with, with a little tweaking so it wasn't peppermint of course.

Now, someone out there may remember that I am not a brownie aficionado.  I do not like them and hence have not really baked them.  I did make one attempt at blondies last year but ended up with something more akin to cakes due to making a mistake with my choice of flour.  This meant I was a little apprehensive going in to this bake, and throughout as I had no idea what each stage should look like.  However, there didn't seem to be any disasters and when the brownies came out and were cut up I thought they looked right (very compacted and moist looking).  

Turns out they taste really good too.  The fiancé says I always bake well with chocolate and that all the parts melded together well.  And I got very excitable texts from Jess saying how yummy they are and that she had already eaten a number of them.

Recipe - adapted from Love and Olive Oil

Makes 18

Brownies:

• 115g/4oz milk chocolate
• 115g/4oz dark chocolate
• 115g/4oz butter
• 85g/3oz plain flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 125g/4.5oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 

Topping:

• 170g/6oz white chocolate
• 1.5 tbsp vegetable margarine / vegetable shortening (I used Stork)
• 150g/5oz small marshmallows

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line a 20cm/8inch square cake tin with baking parchment, making sure to leave a slight overhang so you can lift it out later.
2. Break up the chocolate and cut the butter into cubes.
3. Place a medium sized glass bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (without letting the bowl touch the water) and melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring occasionally.
4. Meanwhile, sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a small bowl and put to one side.
5. When the chocolate and butter are completely melted, whisk them until smooth and remove from the heat
6. Whisk the sugar into the chocolate mix until it has dissolved and the mixture has cooled slightly.
7. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and whisk until just combined.
8. Add the flour mix and gently fold in using a rubber spatula until incorporated.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
10. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
11. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
12. Melt the white chocolate and margarine/shortening together in a glass bowl placed over a pan of gently simmering water.  Be careful not to overheat it so stir once in a while to keep the temperature down.
13. Remove from the heat before completely melted and stir until it finishes melting.
14. Spread over the top of the cooled brownies in a thin, even layer.
15. Decorate with marshmallows.
16. Chill in the fridge overnight.
17. Remove the brownies from the pan and use a large knife to cut them into 9 squares.  Cut each of these squares in half diagonally so that you end up with 18 triangles.

Pear, Raisin and Maple Squares

It's Lady Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge time again and this month's ingredients were pears and maple.  How exciting, more ingredients I have never used before, let alone in combination!

Now, I am wondering if I am developing a habit when it comes to these challenges.  Just like last time, I ended up making two different things: one that I was not happy with and therefore does not get to grace the blog and then a second which is absolutely adored by everyone who gets to eat it.  It is madness.  Hopefully, this will not become a regular thing.  It can be a bit exhausting, as well as disappointing for a perfectionist like me.

Admittedly, this month's failure was still edible and did taste good according to my guinea pigs.  The problem was the textures didn't gel.  With both recipes, I was substituting a lot of ingredients.  So the original recipe I had found the recipe was for apple cookies.  Now, as you know by now, being British, when I hear the word 'cookie' I think crunchy, not soft.  So I was expecting a crunchy, crumbly biscuit filled with pear and drizzled in a maple syrup glaze.  What I ended up with was soft cakes with chunks of hard pear in and drizzled with the glaze.  It did not work and I was annoyed.  Even though they got eaten and were enjoyed, the texture thing was something everyone agreed on so it was out.  It wasn't getting used and I needed to come up with something else instead.

Now, the magazine I was using for the ghost cookies was still sitting out during this dilemma.  So I decided to flick through it idly and brood.  Along the way I stumbled across a recipe for apple, raisin and honey squares.  It did not look too complicated and there were oats involved so it was more likely to yield the crumbly, crunchy texture I was after.  Dare I try and mess with the recipe?  Yes I dared!  I like that I am getting confident enough to do such things.  So out went the apple and honey, in went the pears and maple syrup.  I also decided to spice up with crust on the squares with some spices that compliment both of the challenge ingredients: ginger, cardamom and a little nutmeg.

The result?  Fantastic!  They came out so well and everyone loved them.  That was more like it.  And I even got a lovely written review from one of the lovely teachers are Markinch Primary which arrived inside the tin I had sent them in:

"Your latest creation was FAB!  I'm not a fan of ginger but loved it in these cakes.  The buttery outside was really moreish - consistency was soft, moist and crumbly - lovely!  The pear and fruit was gorgeous.  I ate up all the crumbs in the tin. 10/10 Thank you."

Isn't that just so lovely?  Plus it tells you everything you need to know about how they taste, which is better than me just telling you. 

Recipe - inspired by Rachel Allen and the Kerrygold Community Recipe e-book via Baking Heaven Summer 2012

Makes about 25

• 225g/8oz self-raising flour
• 225g/8oz porridge oats
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1.5 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 225g/8oz butter
• 225g/8oz caster sugar
• 90ml/3fl.oz maple syrup
• 2 dessert pears (about 185g/6.5oz)
• 115g/4oz raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line a 23cm/9inch square cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Peel, core and finely chop up the pears.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, porridge oats, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, nutmeg and cardamom.
4. Put the butter, caster sugar and 2 tablespoons worth of the maple syrup  into a saucepan and melt over a medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent it from getting too hot.
5. Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour the mixture into the dry ingredients and mix to combine.
6. Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface.
7. Mix together the pears, raisins and remaining maple syrup and then distribute evenly over the oat mixture in the tin.
8. Cover with the remaining oat mixture and smooth over.
9. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to rest in the tin for 10-15 minutes.
11. Remove from the tin and cut into 25 squares before placing them on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Pumpkin Sandwich Cakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

It's the second Thursday of the month so it's time for the Lady Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge.  This month's ingredients were pumpkin and cream cheese.

Well, I was seriously considering not taking part this month.  I had no experience with either of the ingredients and had no idea what I would make and who would be willing to eat it.  Pumpkin seems to be a very American thing to bake with and is not very common over here in the UK (from what I've experienced anyway).  You can't get it in canned form in the supermarket, only in fruit form, and I really didn't feel like trying to scrape out the filling from one of those.  However, leave it to Pinterest to start giving me inspiration.  Just opening up the Food and Drink section started yielding several different pumpkin recipes as early as the start of September.  Clearly the stuff is even more popular over in the states than I initially thought.  But with so many options just staring me in the face I decided I would have to give something a go.  As to who would eat it, I figured if I could get them made before the autumn half term started, I could give whatever I made to the lovely ladies at Markinch Primary School via the fiancé's mum.

I originally planned to make pumpkin fudge because it sounded really interesting to do.   Plus I want to try making more confectionery. However, I attempted it three times and all three times I failed.  The first batch burnt; the second seemed to be working until I added the final ingredient and it turned into this crumbly powder; and the final batch, whilst better than the other two, just didn't have the texture of fudge.  It was rather disappointing and I ended up with saucepans with burnt, failed fudge adhered to their bases.  It took several days to clean them all completely, which made dinner tricky since we only own 3 large-ish pots.  Really I've been needing a proper, heavy based pot for confectionery making.  Good thing I got to go to Ikea at the weekend and acquire a lovely cast iron casserole pan for half the cost one that size would usually cost then.  I cannot wait to test it out.

Sorry, I got a little sidetracked there.  So I scrapped the fudge idea and went looking for something else I could do.  I liked the idea of biscuits but I like to make crunchy biscuits and adding wet pumpkin to it would likely not yield such a thing.  Then it hit me: whoopie pies!  They seem to get classed as biscuits (or a 'cakey cookie') but I'm leaning more on the side that they are cakes.  Cookies are not cakey.  Cake is cakey!  Hence why I've called these sandwich cakes, despite the recipe I was using referring to them as cookies.

After the fudge disasters, this recipe ended up being really simple.  I ended up getting canned pumpkin from a seller on Amazon (who provide excellent service by the way).  The batter turned out nicely though it was a bit of a pain to get onto the trays.  I went to the trouble of smoothing them all over to make sure they came out nice and even on top, since reviews in the original recipe had complained of lumpiness.  I also made a decision to try and make them look pumpkin-like.  It was a complete experiment and I did not know if it would work.  I tested one by drawing the lines into the uncooked mixture first, putting in a clove stalk and then baking.  That worked okay but making the lines was quite fiddly.  So then I tried drawing them in after by running the sharp end of a skewer through the top just after they came out the oven.  It also worked but looked quite messy.  Finally I realised that since they were still quite soft when they came out the oven, I could just press the skewer into the top to make the pattern.  It worked really well and with the little clove stalks they made quite adorable pumpkins.

As for the filling, cream cheese was very easy to work with and pipes really nicely.  I ended up with double the amount I needed though.  Maybe the baker of the original recipe is just really generous with their filling?  Ah well, I saved the leftovers and used it in another batch later in the week since I needed to use up the remaining pumpkin too.

These went down really well with everyone who tried them.  I admit I was surprised since it is a bit of an out-there flavour combination but I guess the fact that it is so unbelievably popular in America should have tipped me off. 

Recipe - adapted from Land O' Lakes

Makes about 18

Cakes:

• 280g/10oz plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• Whole cloves
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 200g/7oz light brown sugar
• 170g/6oz canned pumpkin
• 60ml/2fl.oz milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Orange food gel (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line 2-3 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Remove the buds from the whole cloves, setting the stalks aside, and then crush the buds.  You want make about 1/8 teaspoon of crushed cloves.
3. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, crushed cloves, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
4. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.
5. Add in the pumpkin, milk, egg and vanilla extract and beat together until well mixed.
6. Add the flour mixture, and food gel if using, and beat until smooth.
7. Drop level tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the trays, spaced well apart.  Try and have an even number on each tray.  Use a spoon to make sure the dough is shaped into a neat circular mound.  Use a wet finger to smooth over the tops of each mound.
8. Bake for 9-10 minutes until set (a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean).  I would recommend baking them one tray at a time since you have to do the 'decoration' straight from the oven and if they cool too much it won't work.
9. Immediately after removing a tray from the oven, use the side of a bamboo skewer to press eight lines that point towards the centre into the top of each of the cakes.  Place a clove stalk into the centre top of half of them.
10. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Filling: 

• 200g/7oz cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
• 30g/1oz butter
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp milk
• 600g/21oz icing sugar, plus extra for dusting

1. Combine the cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, vanilla extract and milk in a bowl and beat until the mixture is well combined and smooth.
2. Add a the icing sugar in four parts, beating well after each addition until it is nice and creamy.
3. Spoon the filling into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe generous swirl on the underside of the cakes that do not have stalks in.
4. Top each one with a stalked top piece.
5. Dust with icing sugar.

Apple and Cinnamon Turnovers

It is time for the Lady Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge again and this month's ingredients were apple and cinnamon!

I decided I wanted to try something a bit different this time around.  I've used apples and cinnamon plenty of times before in cakes so I didn't really want to go that route.  This is meant to be a challenge after all.  So I decided to raid my books and see what I could find.

I admit, the first thing that did come to mind was apple strudel.  I knew the fiancé loved strudel and I've not made it before due to not really doing much with pastry in the past.  I even went and looked up how to do it, including how to do the pastry from scratch.  However it is rather complicated.  Strudel pastry is apparently very tricky to make and few people do it.  I saw them doing it on the Great British Bake Off last year and all that stretching looks scary!  Really, I just wouldn't have time, especially with this post-grad course and the fact that I already have an assignment to do which is due in next week.  So strudel was out but I was now determined to do something with pastry.  I needed to do something out of my comfort zone and working with pastry would definitely be that.  If I ever want a chance of getting on the GBBO, then I'll need to be able to bake all types of pastry.  It is probably the most used thing on that show.  It took some trawling, but I eventually stumbled on apple and cinnamon turnovers in the lovely baking book the fiancé had got me for Christmas but that I have so far not used.  

The turnovers themselves looked to be quite a simple recipe.  The challenge came from the pastry because I decided I was going to make my own.  This was my first attempt ever to make puff pastry!  Well, actually, it ended up being my first AND second.  My first try failed pretty quickly.  I brought it out of the fridge after its first resting period and went about rolling it into a rectangle, only to have all my butter start oozing out from every inch possible.  It just kept coming and coming and I ended up with a mush of butter and pastry.  Not good.  But at least it happened early and not an hour down the line.  So I started again.  I used butter straight from the fridge this time, rather than letting it soften first, and made sure it was really well sealed in its pastry envelope.  When it came to rolling out, there was still a little that managed to escape but it was nowhere near the amount of the first try.  After it had had a few rests and re-rolls it was less trouble.  I was quite pleased.

The book I was using was great.  It explains things rather neatly and all the recipes are quite short and to the point.  However, in the list of ingredients for the turnovers it said '3 apples'.  Just '3 apples'.  There was no indication as to size, weight or type.  So I guessed.  I got Bramley apples, since they are the standard cooking apple over here.  I also decided to just get 2 since they are rather big.  Turns out even that was way too much.  I only used about half the apple filling that I made.  Hence I'll be adjusting the ingredients in the write up.  I made sure to measure how much apple there was before and after making up the pastries, so you'll get a weight.

I cooked my turnovers in two batches.  The first batch I made came out really well.  The filling did leak slightly and the egg wash was a little patchy but overall I was happy.  There were no soggy bottoms!  Pretty good for a first attempt at puff pastry.  It's such a shame I burnt the second batch.  This is evidence that I should not multi-task.  Or at least, not do so in a room that isn't the kitchen or adjoining living room.  I have a tendency to forget about things if I leave the room.  I thought I was being productive when I decided to put away all the laundry and change the bed linen whilst the turnovers cooked.  But I forgot about them and lost track of time.  When I went back into the living room, I noted it was hot.  I then walked into the kitchen to open the window, wondered why the oven was on and then realised!  The poor things had been in half an hour longer than they should have been and were ruined.  I was so disappointed.  I cannot wait for my new oven timer to arrive.  Then even if I do forget by going out the room I'll still get a noisy reminder.

The ones that didn't burn apparently tasted yummy though.  The fiancé did think the pastry was a little thick but also said they tasted very like the strudels he would get at the market in Edinburgh at Christmas.  The cinnamon went really nicely with the apples and there were layers in my pastry!  I'll have to find time to make them again in the future, and not burn half the batch next time. 

Recipe - adapted from The Art of French Baking 
Makes 6 pastries


Puff Pastry:
This takes 2-3 hours to do since you have to roll out, fold and rest the pastry several times in order to get the layers in.

• 200g/7oz plan flour, plus extra for dusting
• Pinch of salt
• 100ml/3.5fl.oz ice-cold water
• 100g/3.5fl.oz butter

1. Sift the flour into a bowl and mix in the salt.
2. Add most of the water and mix in until you get a smooth and elastic dough.  Add more water if necessary.
3. Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out the dough into a square that is about 1.5cm/0.75inch thick.
4. Cut the butter into cubes and place into the centre of the pastry square.
5. Fold the corners over into the centre so the butter is completely enclosed within a pastry envelope.  Make sure there are no gaps.
6. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
7. Remove from the fridge and roll out into a long rectangle that is 5mm/0.25inch thick.  Try not to let any butter escape from inside (don't panic if a little comes out though).
8. Fold the short ends of the rectangle so they overlap each other in the centre to make a rectangle with three layers.  Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 at least seven more times.  You can do it more times if you want.  The more times you repeat the steps, the more layers your pastry should have.
10. Now the pastry is done so chill it in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

Apple and Cinnamon Turnovers:

• 170g/6oz apple (about 1 large Bramley apple)
• 60g/2oz caster sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 400g/14oz puff pastry
• 1 egg yolk 
• Water

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7 and grease two baking trays with butter.
2. Peel and core the apple and then cut it into 1cm/0.5inch cubes.  Put in a medium bowl.
3. Add the cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of the caster sugar to the apple and stir to coat them.
4. Lightly dust a surface with flour and roll out the puff pastry as thinly as possible.  Ideally you want to be able to cut all your turnovers from this one sheet and not have to re-roll (though I didn't quite manage it).
5. Use a 12cm/5inch circle cookie cutter, or trace around a bowl with a similar diameter, and cut out six circles of pastry.  If you want, you can also cut small, decorative shapes out of the leftovers (I made a heart for each one).
6. Place a heaped tablespoon of the spiced apple on top of each circle, ever so slightly off centre.
7. Moisten the edges of the pastry with water, fold in half to make a crescent shape and press the edges together to seal them.  If it tears in places, patch the gaps with leftover pastry.  If you made decorations then attach them to the crescents with water.  Place the pastries on the trays.
8. Beat the egg yolk and then brush the pastries with it to glaze them.
9. Sprinkle over the remaining sugar.
10. Bake for 30 minutes.

Peach Melba Ice Cream

I have been aware of various blog baking challenges existing for a few months now.  However I've not felt entirely keen on trying to sign up to any.  This is mainly down to their rules or how they work.  For example, baking a specific recipe and it being compulsory to take part in so many of the challenges each year.  As much as I would like my blog to get more traffic, I felt these kind of things were really restrictive.  What if I didn't like the sound of the recipe?  Or didn't have anyone that could eat it and therefore it would go to waste?  Or I just didn't have time to take part because my schedule got unexpectedly busy?  Then the challenge would feel like a chore and not something fun, which is what baking is for me.

So I cannot tell you how excited I was when I stumbled across The Lady Behind The Curtain's Dessert Challenge.  It sounded so wonderfully simple.  Each month you're challenged to bake something that includes two particular ingredients, and it has to be a dessert.  That's it.  Oh, and it can't have been on your blog before.  What's the fun in doing something you've already done?  Plus, there's no obligation.  If the ingredients aren't your cup of tea then no worries, just sit the month out.  I loved the sound of it so I had to sign up.

And that's what today's post centres around.  This is my first entry into the Dessert Challenge.  This month's ingredients: peaches and cream.  Admittedly, I was actually considering not doing it this month as I had no idea what I would do with those ingredients.  I am not that keen on peaches and pretty much everyone else I know was on holiday or I wouldn't see until after the post was due to go out.  It wasn't until Thursday last week that it hit me that I could make ice cream with it.  That way, even if the fiancé and I decided it wasn't our kind of thing, the stuff would keep and we could serve it up to someone who would like it at a later date.  It even turned out that my lovely ice cream book that I got for practically nothing at The Works had a recipe for peaches ice cream too, although I ended up mixing it together with the recipe for plum ice cream because, as always, I wanted a custard base.

I decided to add a little something extra to the recipe as well and put a raspberry ripple through it, which was inspired by the dessert Peach Melba (ice cream, peaches and raspberry sauce).  I used the same method as I had done with the blueberry ripple (though messed with the amounts slightly) and actually got an even better syrup than last time.  This one stayed syrupy even after sitting on the side for several hours whilst I waited for the ice cream to firm up.  I was quite pleased.  Maybe I slightly overcooked it last time?

Really, my only problem with this, again, was that my ice cream maker wouldn't freeze the mixture as it churned.  The kitchen wasn't even hot this time so I'm now wondering if the freezer isn't cold enough.  We adjusted the temperature for the fridge a couple of weeks ago because it kept freezing everything on the bottom shelf, but it seems that gauge is also connected to the freezer so it's now less cold in there too.  Still freezes things fine but apparently isn't so good for the ice cream maker's bowl, which is rather annoying.  So I had to do it the old fashioned way again and consequently ended up with a few ice crystals in my ice cream.  Oh well.

Despite the ever so slight crunch, it is still yummy.  The fiancé calls it refreshing because whilst it is creamy it is also juicy thanks to all the peach purée.  The peach and raspberry go really well together too.  All in all, a fairly successful recipe that will get eaten by us.

Recipe - makes 0.6L

Peach Ice Cream - adapted from Best Ever Recipes Ice Cream

• 400g/14oz tin peach halves in light syrup
• 65g/2.5oz caster sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 150ml/5fl.oz whole milk
• 150ml/5fl.oz double cream

Raspberry Ripple:

• 150g/5oz raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 3 tbsp water 

1. Put the peaches and syrup in a saucepan, along with 40g/1.5oz of the caster sugar.  Heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.  Set aside to cool.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and remaining 25g/1oz caster sugar until the mixture is pale in colour and resembles mousse.
3. Put the cream and milk in a saucepan and heat until it just starts bubbling around the edges.
4. Slowly pour the cream mixture over the egg mousse, whisking as you do so.
5. Transfer back into the pan and place over a gentle heat.
6. Cook the mixture to a custard, stirring the whole time without letting it boil.  You either want the mixture to reach a temperature of 76°C/170°F or so it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
7. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl.
8. Once the peaches are cooled, blend them into a purée and add them to the custard.  Stir until they are fully combined then put the mixture in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.
9. Once the mixture has chilled, churn according to ice cream maker's instructions.
10. Meanwhile, make the ripple by combining the raspberries, sugar and water in a saucepan.
11. Cook over a medium heat until the fruit has broken down, stirring regularly to prevent burning.
12. Pour the mixture through a sieve into a clean pan to remove the seeds.  Press down on anything left in the sieve with a spoon to get as much liquid out as possible.
13. Return the new pan to the heat and bring to a boil.  Cook the mixture until it reduces to a thick syrup.  Set aside to cool.
14. Once the ice cream has churned but is still soft, put a third into a freezer safe container.  Drizzle on half the ripple syrup.
15. Repeat with a second third of the ice cream and the rest of the syrup, then top with the last of the ice cream.
16. Use a fork or butter knife to ripple the two mixtures together.
17. Put in the freezer and freeze overnight.

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