Sweets Cookery Class

I've mentioned before that I've been teaching my stepson Christian (14) to cook on and off for the past seven years, during which, I have discovered that my teaching skills leave a lot to be desired.

You know how when you have guests and are cooking dinner and a guest says "can I help with anything?" and if you actually give them a task, it totally throws off your timing and overall cooking mojo? (Am I the only one?) Well I'm the same with teaching cooking.

Somehow, my groove gets totally thrown off, I forget important instructions and assume that somehow my stepson understands what I mean when I say "fold" or "drizzle" or "small dice" when I haven't even shown him yet. I get exasperated (inwardly) when he forgets to let the wok smoke before adding the oil or takes 45 minutes to peel a shrimp or two.

One thing that IS fairly easy to teach though, is baking. Maybe it's because there is little in the way of mise en place to get wrong and timing is much less of a worry than when you're trying to bring the various components of a dish together at the same time.
Not ONCE while making these brownies did I feel the need to say "Let me just do this part..." and Christian was so proud of the finished product.

I had made some sea salted butter caramel ice cream the day before specifically to serve with these brownies and they do go together a treat, but each would make an indulgent little sweet all on its own.

The brownie recipe is Lulu Grimes' from the back of this month's Olive Magazine, and is one of the best I've ever had. Knowing that I was going to be serving them with the caramel ice cream, I didn't feel the need to add chocolate chips or nuts to the mix, but there's no reason you couldn't.

Do the ice cream first, so that it's set when the brownies are almost cool.

Rich Chocolate Brownies with Sea Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream
takes approx 4 hours, including cooling, makes 9 servings of each

For the ice cream:
2 cups double cream (heavy whipping cream)
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cups golden caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
3 pinches, fine sea salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter

Put the sugar in an even layer in a heavy-bottomed skillet or saucepan over a moderate heat and leave it alone until you start to see the edges melting and going golden brown. Slowly stir the sugar with a wooden spoon for a minute or so, until all of the sugar has melted and is a deep, dark golden brown and bubbling away. Add the butter, a little at a time and stir well between each addition until just combined, then pour in the cream. The caramel will seize up at this point because of the addition of the cool liquid and the pan will bubble madly, but turn down the heat a little and stir rapidly for 6-7 minutes, until the caramel has dissolved into the cream, (this is where having a 14 year old around comes in handy) then turn off the heat.

Beat the eggs well in a bowl and add the vanilla, salt and then stir in the milk. Pour the thick caramel cream into the milk, whisking well as you go, then refrigerate this mixture for a couple of hours before churning.

Use an ice cream machine to churn your ice cream base for approximately 30 minutes (follow the manufacturer's instructions) then scrape into an air tight container and pop in the freezer for an hour or so to finish firming up.

For the brownies: (Thanks again Lulu!)

100g (3.5oz) unsalted butter, chopped
200g good quality dark chocolate, chopped (We used Valrhona, but Green and Black's 85% dark would be good)
4 free-range eggs
250g golden caster sugar
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
30g cocoa

Heat the oven to 180C (350F) and line a 22cm square brownie tin* with baking parchment.
Melt the butter and chocolate together in a microwave or in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water then cool to room temperature.
Whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy.
Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then sift on the flour, baking powder and cocoa. Fold this in to give a fudgy batter and pour into your prepared brownie tin, smoothing out to create an even thickness.
Bake for 25-30 minutes**, or until the top is cracked but the middle is just set.
Cool completely before lifting out to cut.

*We used a 20cm tin because I don't have a 22cm one. This meant our brownies were a little thicker, especially around the outside, where they rose and set a little more, which we rather liked.
**Better to err on the side of undercooked if you want fudgy brownies. Cooking for too long will produce a drier, more cake-like finished product.

Serve the brownies still ever so slightly warm with a scoop of the caramel ice cream on top.

I think tomorrow I'm going to make some hazelnut praline, which I'm going to powder and sprinkle on the top.

Killer Brownies

Rosy Stems of Tart Perfection

I know I should be patient and wait for our rhubarb to be ready to pick, but we've got a good couple of weeks before we can touch it and we couldn't pick so much as one stem last year, as the plants were still babies. Drew has been very patient and Hampshire rhubarb is on sale at Waitrose right now for something like £1.30 a bunch, so I snapped some up. I had the idea to do a jelly instead of a crumble or pie and I wanted to make a stem ginger ice cream to serve with it. It turns out, my idea was a good one and what we had was a zingy, refreshing dessert that was just right for this time of year.

I went charity shop hopping yesterday and found a couple of pretty, old jelly moulds for a few quid, so I was very excited about that. I made the rhubarb compote first and refrigerated it for use in a couple of ways, including as an accompaniment to some creme brulees I made the other day, but you could make it right before making the jelly and it would work just as well, it would just take a little longer to set. You will not need all of the compote you make, but you can always keep it in the fridge or freeze it for future use.

This is a great dinner party dish because besides plating, it can all be done the day before, but it's very pretty and has lovely layers of flavour.

Rhubarb Jelly and Stem Ginger Ice Cream
Serves 8, takes approx 45 minutes plus chilling time

For the jelly:
500g (1 lb) stalks rhubarb, cut into 1" chunks
8 tbsp golden caster sugar
2 tbsp water

2 sachets powdered gelatine
100ml white wine
300ml boiling water
100ml rhubarb cordial (optional)

2- 500ml (1 pint) jelly moulds or 8 individual ones*

In a non-stick or stainless steel saucepan, sprinkle the rhubarb chunks with half of the sugar and the 2 tbsp of water. Stir gently and heat gradually over a low-medium heat. Cover the pan and let the rhubarb cook gently and undisturbed for about 5 minutes, checking with the back of a knife to check that the rhubarb is done. You want it to be very tender but not mushy. Turn off the heat and leave uncovered until you're ready to use it.

Tip the gelatine and remaining sugar into a heat-proof measuring jug and pour over the 300 ml of the boiling water and stir well to dissolve. If the gelatine isn't dissolving completely, pop the just into a small pan of barely simmering water and stir for a few minutes until completely clear.
Add the rhubarb cordial (if using. If not, add 100ml more water) and the white wine and stir into 500ml of the rhubarb compote in a bowl. Taste the mixture for sweetness, adding more sugar if necessary, but be careful not to make it too sweet.
Spoon the mixture into the jelly moulds and refrigerate until set firm. Depending on whether you started out with warm or cold compote, this could take up to 5 hours.

To serve the jelly, dip the moulds in a bowl full of boiling water for a few seconds before turning out onto a plate. It should be firm enough that when you cut a wedge, it should just about stand up.

For the ice cream:
2 large, free-range eggs
1 free range egg yolk
400ml double cream (heavy whipping cream)
200 ml whole milk
3/4 cup golden caster sugar
syrup from a jar of stem ginger
3 large knobs of stem ginger, one finely grated, two diced about 4mm(3/16")

Beat the eggs, egg yolk and sugar together well, until very pale and fluffy.
Drizzle in the ginger syrup while the machine is still running, then the cream and milk on a lower speed.

Pour the mixture into the canister of your ice cream machine and churn until 99% set (about half an hour, follow the manufacturer's instructions)
When the mixture is almost there, add in the grated ginger and churn for a further minute or two, then add the chopped ginger and give it one more minute.

Scrape into a clean, airtight container and allow to finish setting in the freezer for an hour or so.


Turn the jelly out onto a plate and cut carefully with a knife dipped in hot water.
Scoop (or if you're fancy, make a quenelle) your ice cream onto small plates and garnish with extra long langue du chat cookies or vanilla tuille cookies.

And I will sit and eat mine while I'm waiting for my lovely red veggie to grow....


Any day now, any day.

*If you you don't have jelly moulds, you could just as easily make the jelly in pretty glasses and put the scoop of ice cream on top.

Rhubarb Jelly

Honey, Ice Creamed the Pistachios.

Is that not the cheesiest blog title ever?Last year, my lovely and delectable husband decided that 'we' should get an ice cream machine. This was at the beginning of a serious effort on my part to cut down on the sweets and lose a bit of weight for summer so I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the whole idea. As is usually the case when Drew sets his mind on something, he beat me down (figuratively) and we ordered our machine and a recipe book from Amazon. So excited was my hubby to try some recipes that I thought he might make something in the kitchen more daring than a cheese crisp. As it turns out, Drew's plan for the ice cream machine was place orders with me when he fancied trying a flavour. He still has yet to make so much as a scoopful, which is fine with me, as I'm ridiculously territorial about my kitchen.

Despite having to be careful to restrict myself to one small scoop, I'm so thrilled that Drew convinced me to buy that machine, because it has been so much fun experimenting with different flavours. Last year's best successes were rhubarb crumble and custard and variations on sea salted caramel and pralines.

Our machine has put away for much of the winter for obvious reasons but was brought out the other day to make this delightfully light and subtle ice cream made with thyme blossom honey and pistachios. The slightest hint of orange flower water enhances the subtle flavour of the honey without being old lady floral.

While lovely by itself, it struck me today that it might be lovely with the banana and chocolate cake I made the other day and I was so right. As a dessert they were a lovely pairing, which I would serve as a finish to a summer dinner, perhaps with the cake still a little warm.

Pistachio Honey Ice Cream
Makes approx 8 servings, takes 2 hours including churning

45oml (15oz) double cream (heavy whipping cream)
300ml (10oz) whole milk
2 tbsp orange flower water
5 tbsp good honey
100g (3.5oz) golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 egg yolks
100g shelled, unsalted pistachios
boiling water

Put the honey in a small bowl over a pan of barely simmering water with the orange flower water and the milk and warm, stirring until all the honey has dissolved into the milk.
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together well in another bowl until pale and foamy, then whisk in the cream. Pour the warm honey/milk mixture into the egg/cream mixture, whisking all the while until well combined (Make sure your milk and honey mixture isn't hot, as it will scramble the eggs. yuck.)
Pop the bowl of cream mixture in the fridge for an hour or so until very cool.

While your custard is cooling, begin to prepare your pistachios. Put them into a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow them to soak in the hot water for at least an hour so that they plump up and become soft and the liquid is cooled. Tip them into a wire sieve and rinse well, shuffling them around the sieve will help loosen the skins. The rough skins should peel away very easily with your fingers and you should end up with plump green kernels about 50% heavier than when you weighed them to start with.
Chop the pistachios so that there is a good mixture of very finely chopped pieces and larger chunks and set aside.

When your custard has cooled, pour it into an ice cream machine* and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions (probably about 35 minutes) and once ready, add the pistachio pieces and churn for a further couple of minutes to make sure the nuts are well combined.

Scoop into a clean**, airtight container and pop in the freezer to finish setting.

*If you do not have an ice cream machine, you can still make this ice cream by putting the container in the freezer and removing every half hour to whisk well. Electric beaters come in handy for this, as the harder the ice cream gets, the harder it will be to whisk. Keep the beaters in the freezer between whiskings so that you don't indroduce warmth to the mixture.

The more you whisk while it freezes, the better, as it will help prevent large ice crystals from forming and will introduce more air, which makes a lighter, creamier product.

**I keep an airtight container that I ONLY use for ice cream. Butter fat absorbs odours like kitty litter, so if you've used a container previously to hold a curry or Bolognese sauce, anything left behind will be absorbed into the ice cream.
Honey-Pistachio Ice Cream