Great British Bake Off Challenge - Week 5; 'Alternative Ingredients'

The first thing that sprang to mind when I heard that the initial bake of week 5 was sugar free cake was beetroot chocolate cake so lets ignore the fact that I said in my cheesecake post I'd be making a polenta cake, shall we? 

Mind you, a polenta cake may have been more sensible and my kitchen may not look like a crime scene if I had stuck to that plan, but ohhhh well. 

Beetroot added to cake sounds disgusting but is actually probably one of my favourite methods because when done well it yields a wonderfully sticky, moist and fudgey texture to a chocolate cake. This cake is no different however the lack of sugar means that it tastes rather... uhm, earthy. Whilst there is some definite sweetness to the taste it's not overwhelming and if your taste buds are tuned to sweetness like most peoples are when presented with a slice of cake then you'll probably dislike this quite a lot. I am in two minds whether I like it or not. I mean, I don't dislike it, but I wouldn't go crazy over making it again in this form. I'd happily make another beetroot cake! 

The ganache and strawberries really save this cake even though the ganache definitely defeats the object of not using refined sugar. Whilst we're tentatively on the subject of what you can legitimately use in a sugar free cake, I think we need to have a brief discussion about how a) what you bake on the show should probably be edible and b) how a cake is a sweet item, and not a savoury one, so not including any sugar at all would not yield a cake at the end. Yes, honey, maple syrup and agave syrup are all still sugars but then so are fruits (fructose) and natural sweeteners such as Xylitol and stevia. I saw the challenge as more of a 'Don't make a cake using your traditional grain sugars' rather than 'Don't use any sweet ingredients at all'. 

Anyway. 

Once again, I've slightly adapted a recipe I've found online, this time it's from The Wholesome Cook. 

3 cups self raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarb of soda

6 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

1 cup of raw grated beetroot

2/3 cup of olive oil

2/3 cup of honey

1 1/3 cup of cold water

2 tbsp vanilla extract 

250g dark chocolate

275ml double cream

Oven temp: 150 degrees fan. Line a spring release tin with greaseproof paper.

Combine all the dry ingredients with the beetroot and mix well. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients and combine with the dry. Fold in gentley with a wooden spoon. 

Transfer to the pre-pared tin and bake for 30 - 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

To make the ganache put the double cream in a glass bowl over a bain marie until warm (don't boil it). Add the chocolate and remove from the heat, stir until all melted. Chill in the fridge for two hours or until set enough to spread on the cake. 

(Not quite) Thursday Feasts #2 - Swirled Rocky Road

Just imagine it's Thursday not Sunday, k? If you read my last post, I'm sure you'll understand why Thursday Feasts has taken a little while to get off the ground. But it's back and it's back for good!

Rocky road, or as it was known in our family, 'fridge cake' was one of my favourite foods growing up. I have great memories of not only making it but the delight of realising one of my parents had made it - it was the only thing my Dad ever 'baked'! I have wonderful memories of making this in a loaf tin and slicing a 'slice' off for my breakfast whilst my parents weren't looking ;) Not the healthiest start to the day but man does it hit the spot. The recipe is so simple but utterly delicious and it's such a quick make that you don't really have an excuse not to.

I pulled the base recipe for this from the BBC food website, but adapted it a little for myself. It also takes inspiration from a rocky road sold in my uni town by a local cafe. 

Swirled Rocky Road

Ingredients:

• 100g/4½oz soft unsalted butter
  
• 300g/10½oz best-quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces
  
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
  
• 150g/7¼oz chocolate digestive biscuits (roughly crushed)
  
• 100g malteasers (roughly crushed)
  
• 50g glace cherries (roughly chopped)
  
• 75g mini marshmallows
  
• 3 tbsp peanut butter if desired

Method:

1. Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup in either a glass bowl over a saucepan of hot water on the stove or in the microwave (if microwaving, stir the syrup in once the butter and chocolate have melted and make sure you heat it in 30 seconds bursts, stirring in between to ensure it doesn't burn).
   
2. Stir in the roughly crushed digestives, malteasers and cherries until all are coated. If you're adding peanut butter, stir 1 of the tablespoons in now. The mixture should be rough but still quite fluid. If you have just coated the biscuits and cherries with little chocolate/butter/syrup left, you'll need to add more.
   
3. **Optional** If you add the marshmallows in when the mixture is still hot from being melted, they too will melt and dissolve into your rocky road. Either chill in the fridge for ten minutes or leave the mixture for half an hour to cool if you want to make sure that your marshmallows remain whole. If you don't have time, then only stir a small amount of them into the mix and put the rest aside.
   
4. Line a square dish with tin foil as smoothly as possible. Pour the mixture into the tin. Using a teaspoon, swirl the remaining peanut butter through the top layer of the mix. It should create a lovely yellow marbling pattern. Push the remaining marshmallows into the top and refrigerate until solid. Serve by cutting it into chunks with a big knife.

The wonderful thing about this is that you can really go wild with your imagination and put whatever you want in it, as long as it's crunchy and you like the taste! If you don't like malteasers, then why not try M+Ms or fudge pieces? If you are allergic to peanut butter, why not try swirling caramel across the top or even a green coloured peppermint sauce? Your imagination and tastes are the limit here. 

One of the best versions of this I tasted had white chocolate malteasers, digestives and mars bar chunks in... Just throwing that out there.

Weekend bake; 'healthier' chocolate chip cookies

I love cookies and baking them but they're not exactly the healthiest of bakes!

However I recently discovered the wonderful 'Chocolate Covered Katie' blog which has loads of gluten free, healthier, diet, often vegan/vegetarian recipes you can use to make healthier versions of your favourite treats. It's a wonderful website and she has so many great ideas that you'd be a fool to not read through it.

I made her no bake mocha chocolate chip cookies, which honestly are gorgeous! I baked mine as I don't like raw cookies at 160 degrees for about 8 minutes (as I made very small ones) - I was a little skeptical that they wouldn't really work but they are the perfect oaty cookie. Mine are a little powdery as I put too much cocoa in but other than that, they're a definite repeat make! Next time however I'll cut the cocoa powder in half. I also used real sugar as it's all we keep in.

Definitely check her site out, and if you fancy a healthy sweet fix then make these cookies! Unfortunately my memory card reader has gone walkies so no pictures :( Normal service will be resumed soon, I promise!

Baking bonanza

Had a bit of a baking splurge these last few days, hence the absence and lack of posts! Firstly, my Dad wanted me to make him some soft centre cupcakes to take back to work with him and then my sister requested I make a few desserts for the BBQ she held yesterday. Finally I  made a sausage pie for dinner today and some lovely little fruit pastries with the left over bits.

Boozey ganache centred cupcakes boxed up and ready to go. I got the recipe from the recipe section of the Baileys GB facebook page and adapted it slightly as I wanted a chocolate sponge and I didn't actually have any Baileys in. Instead I used 'Amarula cream' which my sister brought back from Sweden for us (more info here, if you can you should definitely get some as it's lovely!) which made it sweeter and fruitier than the original recipe would've but overall, very tasty. Poured slightly too much in which is why the buttercream was too runny; obviously if you made this measuring out your liqueur would be advisable.

Next I made a selection of muffins. My favourite, lemon and poppy seed (from this post) and some chocolate ones from a general google search. Apologies for the lack of recipe link there! I used some of the remaining ganache to fill the centres of the chocolate muffins, and put a teaspoon of lemon curd into the centres of the lemon and poppy seed ones. It's definitely how I'm going to make them from now on, as the gooey centre gives them a lovely texture and a great surprise for those who don't know how you've made them! It's also really simple, all you do is spoon a small amount of mixture into the muffin case, put a spoonful of curd/ganache on top, and then cover it with more mixture. Yum!

Lastly, my fruit tarts. So easy, so simple, so tasty! Just get some ready rolled puff pastry (cheating I know, but I don't have the time to make my own), lay it on a baking sheet in rectangles and spread some jam on it. Slice up the fruits you have - I used strawberries and nectarines -, add a pastry border to hold it all in, egg wash the exposed pastry and sprinkle with a little icing sugar! They're really summery and can be made to your own individual taste. Probably would be better with sweet pastry but for a quick throw together dessert if you're making something with puff pastry in the first place they're great. As you can see the pastry doesn't really rise very much as the ingredients are quite heavy but it doesn't really matter. Just make sure it's browned underneath.

I also made a 'cheesecake' but that went, uhm, a bit wrong and is probably best not mentioned...

What do you use your left over pastry for? Do you know of a better substitute to Baileys? And why did we get it as a gift from Sweden when it's an African drink? Mysterious.