The Sneaky Magpie

After a very long wait we have snow in London and I am so glad I bought the sledge. I really started to doubt that it will happen this winter but last night everything turned white and this morning we wrapped warm (I am not sure why snow makes us put on so many layers given that the few preceding days were much colder!), wax the sledge and went for a smooth ride to Richmond Park.

Freddie was very excited smiling all the way and complaining when we took him out. We climbed up a baby hill and slid down with the babe to much laughter.

Dorich House from the park side.

After coming home we had a reward in a shape of a chocolate mousse. Well, hardly a reward since we had so much fun! It is really rich and delicious and perfect with a cup of coffee.

Ingredients:

200 g the best quality chocolate you can afford/get your hands on; 70% cocoa solids

a knob of butter

2 tbsp caster sugar

300ml double cream

1tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, separated

a splash of Amaretto

a little bit of good cocoa powder for dusting

shortbread biscuits, ideally home made as the shop bought are usually pale and floury.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over hot water. Beat cream, sugar and vanilla into soft peaks. Add the egg yolks to the cream and combine, in a separate bowl beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt into stiff peaks. Fold the melted chocolate, Amaretto and gently fold in the egg whites with a metal spoon. Out to the fridge for a couple of hours. Dust with cocoa before serving. Enjoy!

This is another chocolate mousse recipe if you only have 5 minutes, a bar of chocolate and a splash of water. Great for Valentines Day if you celebrate.

After a brisk walk in Wimbledon Common with the bub and almost freezing my fingers off I  made my sourdough pizza, this time with chunky tomato and onion sauce, mozzarella and chicory, drizzled with olive oil. It has to be one of my favorite pizza toppings ever.

Fingers crossed for some snow soon, I still haven’t had a chance to use the sledge, obviously (!) and Richmond Park would be so perfect for it.

An early Christmas present arrived in a form of a tree Bundt tin. In preparation for the festive season I had a go at baking a suitable cake. Even though the tin is non-stick I didn’t quite believe it so I buttered it inside really well. Luckily the cake came out smoothly in a perfect shape. There wasn’t enough batter for the cake to rise right to the top so my cake is missing the train running at the bottom. It will be a long process to figure out the right amount of cake mixture.

I decided to bake Katie Quinn’s chocolate and Guinness cake which was delicious, not too sweet and not too malty.

I didn’t make the cream cheese icing but just covered the peaks with a bit of icing sugar. I also used a very good Dutch cocoa from Algerian Coffee Store in Soho. I went for Van Houten instead of the more classic Droste because of the tin.

I am looking for more Bundt cake recipes to try so if you know any throw them my way please!

I have a few vintage finds to share. The first comes from a charity shop – a pretty Poole Pottery milk jug. Unfortunately charity shops are charging crazy prices nowadays, the only decent one is Oxfam. I think Mary Portas is to blame for some of it, the days of great finds are long gone. I understand that they are trying to make money for good causes but charging nearly shop prices for second hand items is just cheeky, instead of spending some money I leave empty-handed most of the time. The end of rant.

I have also started to collect small plates and saucers for cake parties. These cost anything between 10p and £2.25. The cheapest came from car boot sale and the charity shops had prices from 99p up.

This mid century toast rack came form a boot fair and, I can assure you, did not cost a fortune. I love the colour and shape.

It came from my mother in law together with a couple of pillow cases. This fabric is Lucienne Day’s Calyx which I love.

I also did some real shopping in real shops! I am so used to buying things online that I never ever go inside shops anymore. All my shopping was done at Whistles and I could have bought the whole collection if I had the means. I got a pair of trousers, a couple of tops and a Kindle cover. It really is a make up bag but my Kindle sits in it perfectly and it is so stylish, way better than those purpose made dull covers. I really wonder why the choice of iPad covers is so vast and the poor Kindle is treated like a second class citizen?

This is a recipe I’ve been meaning to try for years and years but there was never a good time. We had guests for lunch and cake seemed to heavy as a dessert. It was the right time for lemon tart, at last! I guess this is a warm up to lemon meringue pie. It turned out a little overbaked on one side but that’s my oven.

Pastry recipe is the same as the apple pie but needs to be baked blind for 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius, trimmed and baked for additional 10 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius until just slightly golden.

Filling:

5 free range eggs

125ml double cream

225g caster sugar

juice and  zest of 4 unwaxed lemons

Whisk the eggs, add rest of the ingredients and mix well. Pour it in a jug. Place the case back in the oven and pour the liquid in. Bake for 30 minutes at 170 degrees, the filling should be firm but have a wobble. Take out and cool. Decorate with icing sugar. Take out of the tin as soon as it’s cooled down.

One of the reasons we bought this house was the mature apple tree in the garden. The tree is right in the middle casting huge shadow on the lawn. We have a swing hanging off one of its branches and on a hot day it is a delight to sit underneath on the grass to escape the burning sun.

The tree produced a huge amount of fruit this year, at some point I was making a large pot of apple sauce every day but it all came to an end. I also made a lot of apple pies, they are so easy to make and so delicious with some cream, custard or served warm with vanilla ice cream.  A slice of apple pie was my favorite treat when I used to live in Holland and believe me, the Dutch are masters at making it. They spice it with cinnamon, add raisins and even pistachios. They serve it with whipped cream. It is best when accompanied by coffee verkeerd and a couple of magazines in a brown café.

I tried to recreate the cake last year but it wasn’t the same. I decided that I will never make it as it should be so a simple pastry case with apple-y goodness inside will be my go-to recipe.

Apple pie

Pastry:

125g butter

100g icing sugar

a pinch of salt

225g plain flour

zest of 1/2 lemon

2 large egg yolks

2 tbsp cold milk

Cream butter, salt and sugar, rub in the flour, lemon zest and egg yolks till it looks like bread crumbs, add the cold milk and combine . Wrap it in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 1h. Yep, same recipe as the frangipane tarts but halved.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease a pie tin.

Filling:

7 apples, mine are (I think) a cox kind

a knob of butter

2 tbsp sugar – depends on what apples you use so taste it please

1 tsp ground cinnamon

a handful of raisins

a handful of pistachios

Slice apples into small slices, put in a pan with a dash of water and the butter, sugar and cinnamon. Cook for about 15 minutes, the apples should keep their shape but be soft. Add raisins and pistachios. Leave to cool.

Roll out your pastry and line the pie tin. Put the apples inside and with the remaining pastry either cover the whole pie and make a hole or, like me, make strips and cross them. Make sure the ends are pinched together. Give the pie an egg wash and a sprinkling of sugar. Bake for 45min-1h or until the top is golden brown.

NB. If you fancy, take few apple halves, peel and core them and slice them thinly but not completely so they keep together and put them on the top underneath the strips.

NNB. If you are ever in Amsterdam the best apple pie is at Café Winkel. What you want is appeltaart met slaagroom.  

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Freddie’s Christening and afterward everyone came over to our house for a little tea party. I had great fun baking small cakes which really are so easy to make. My only disappointment was the red velvet cake which wasn’t red and the icing was terribly sweet. It was made according to The Hummingbird Bakery recipe which sponge is nice rich and moist, mine wasn’t. I always skip the icing with red velvet as it gives me a mega sugar rush but I thought the cake has got to be finished and white chocolate icing split. Anyway, I won’t be sharing the red velvet recipe here.

However the small cakes came out very well.

Fig and frangipane tarts

Pastry:

250g butter

200g icing sugar

a pinch of salt

510g plain flour

zest of 1/2 lemon

4 large egg yolks

4 tbsp cold milk

Cream butter, salt and sugar, rub in the flour, lemon zest and egg yolks till it looks like bread crumbs, add the cold milk and combine. Don’t overwork it though otherwise it will shrink when baking (I actually was so terrified not to overwork it that mostly it was way too short, I finally mastered it). Wrap it in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 1h.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease 12 small pastry tins. Bake for around 8 minutes.

In the meantime prepare the frangipane.

285g of ground almonds

55g flour

255g butter

255g sugar

2 large eggs

1 vanilla pod or 1tsp vanilla extract

10 ripe figs for the topping.

Mix all the ingredients together. You can put it to the fridge for 1h to firm up but I don’t think it is necessary.

Fill the shells with frangipane and put 4 quarters of figs in each. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Chocolate and Nutella mini loaves

4 eggs

100g sugar

100g flour

80g cocoa

185g melted butter

small jar of Nutella

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and great 8-10 small loaf tins.

Beat eggs and sugar until light and creamy, add flour and cocoa, mix well, add the melted butter and combine. Place a spoon of batter into the tin, a spoon of Nutella and cover with a spoon of batter. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean. When cool sprinkle with cocoa or eat warm with a dollop of cream. Delicious!

Raspberry friands

175g melted butter

225g icing sugar

100g flour

125g ground pistachios (traditionally it would be almonds but I love the crunch of pistachios, Lebanese supermarkets sell great quality ground nuts or just wizz up the whole pistachios and leave a bit of larger pieces)

6 egg whites (perfect when you are making pastry shells!)

12 raspebrries

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Butter 12 hole muffin tin.

Combine all the dry ingredients and create a well, pour lightly beaten egg whites and melted butter into the well and mix together, don’t overdo it, it should be gooey and elastic. Pour into the tin, make them about 3/4 full. Place a raspberry in each. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden. When cool sprinkle with icing sugar.

I decided to make a new series about cakes, I will be practicing all the classic cakes recipes and sharing my tips. There are few kinds I never ever did before like choux pastry, lemon meringue pie or macaroons, now is the time to do it.

The first cake is a very simple loaf, fast to make and delicious to have with your afternoon tea.

Ingredients:

200g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

150g unsalted butter, softened

zest of 2 lemons

2 tbsp lemon juice

150 granulated sugar

4 eggs

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and butter or line with parchment paper a small loaf tin, I used 20 x 10 cm.

Cream the butter and lemon zest and add the sugar, keep creaming till it’s nice, smooth and pale. Add the eggs, one by one, each with a spoon of flour to avoid curdling. Stir in the rest of the flour until combined and fold in the lemon juice.

Bake for 50 minutes or until the top is golden and the knife (or wooden skewer) comes out clean. Let the cake cool down.

To decorate the cake make a quick warm icing by combining 4 tbsp of icing sugar with a squeeze of lemon juice over low heat. Take the cake out of the tin and ice immediately. Decorate with lavender or violets, yellow and purple look great together.

The cake should be moist with a nice lemony tang.

I am pretty lucky to have well established blackberries in my back garden, there are at least two varieties – early and late ones. The bushes are taking over so we need to keep cutting them down, they even started to climb over my green house taking away valuable sun light. The early brambles are ripe and every day I pick a punnet or two but last evening we strolled down the Wimbledon Common and managed to pick 1kg of the delicious berries.

I ate a lot of the fresh berries with sugar and cream but there was so much of it and I didn’t want to make jam so I had to bake.

The first cake was to celebrate summer that never was, or it happened back in April and now we have autumn (maybe this is why the blackberries are so early?). I made a classic Victoria sponge with strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.

The recipe is very standard:

225g softened unsalted butter

225g sugar

4 large eggs

225g flour

3 tsps baking powder

zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and butter 2 small tins.

Cream butter and sugar and add the eggs one by one. Stir in the dry ingredients and lemon zest, mix and place in tins. Bake for 20 minutes or until nice and golden and the knife comes out clean.

For the cream whip 300ml double cream with 2 tbsp of sugar, juice of 1 lemon and a tsp of vanilla extract.

Heat up about 150g of strawberry jam. When warm take off the heat and add your fruit – about 250-300g.

When the sponge is cool take the less attractive one and even out the top with a knife so it’s pretty even. Put a layer of jam and fruit and then a layer of cream. Place the nicer looking sponge on top and dust with icing sugar.

This morning looking at the colander full of fruit I decided to make muffins. I never made muffins before, the only things I knew about muffin dough is that you are not supposed to stir it too much. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, I have swapped yogurt for double cream and blueberries for blackberries.

The muffins came out fluffy and there was a very summery-sweet fruit smell filling up the kitchen when they came out of the over.

I will be back to the Common this evening for some more.

Hubby has been working awfully long hours lately and the baby goes to bed at 19.00 so I have nice long evening to myself. Not that I don’t miss my husband…or the little bug.

Today I was pottering round the kitchen preparing a summery salad and cherry clafoutis. Here are the recipes:

Salad:

Roast 5 beetroots with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and fresh thyme for 30 min in 180 degrees Celsius. Boil few new potatoes. Wash salad leaves. Boil 4 eggs. Beetroots and potatoes are dressed with mayonnaise, creme fraiche, lemon juice, salt, pepper and a bunch of chopped dill.

Clafoutis:

The recipe is from Skye Gyngell’s book My Favorite Ingredients.

40g butter

600g cherries

zest of one lemon

100g sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

In a saucepan melt the butter till bubbly but not brown, add cherries, sugar, cinnamon and lemon and cook for 10-15 minutes till the cherries are soft and the juice nice and sticky. Pour 2/3 of the cherries into your baking dish and reserve the rest for later.

2 eggs

3 tbsp sugar

100ml cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

75g ground almonds

75g sifter flour

pinch of salt

Cream egg yolks and sugar till pale and fluffy, add cream, vanilla, flour and almonds. Beat up the egg whites with a pinch of salt to soft peaks and gently fold it in. Cover the cherries and bake for 20min in 200 degrees Celsius. I added some flaked almonds on the top for an extra crunch.

Let it cool for 5 minutes and serve with the cherry sauce.

May I add I did not eat the whole dessert myself!

And there is some visual entertainment too. As you know I like a good TV drama. The Kennedys failed terribly, it is so dull I couldn’t bare to watch it even though I only caught the 3rd episode. But I was in for a real treat – Mildred Pierce. Kate Winslet is excellent, there is a real nasty character, a sneaky character, amazing production design of my favorite era, captivating plot and great costumes. What not to like?

The River Cottage gang inspired me to try this jam recipe. I am surrounded by those yellow beauties but most of them grow along the A3 and I don’t fancy petrol infused jam so I went for a stroll in Wimbledon Common. I needed 100 heads, it started very well with 50 heads in one spot but then as I progressed into the woods they became more and more scarce. I decided I only needed 70, the rest would be easily picked in my own garden. I was about to finish my loop when I came across a lot of the flowers and my jam making looked more promising.

Last Christmas my mother-in-law got me a jam making set and a recipe book, I was very eager to try it all out.

Dandelion doesn’t have enough pectin to set on its own so the first step is to make a stock. This included an over ripe pear, a couple of oranges, a lemon, an apple, some grapes and half of the dandelion petals. It simmered for about an hour and then got strained. What you end up with is yellowy cloudy liquid.

Then you add 750g of sugar and cook it till it starts to set. Add rest of the petals and cook bit more. It was bit too sweet for my liking but don’t judge the taste when the jam is hot. I think next time I would reduce the amount of sugar by 100-150g.

The jam is definitely an interesting one and it looks beautiful. What I am really looking forward to later this year is all the brambles the Common has got to offer!