Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

White Chocolate

Cupcakes & A White Chocolate Malteser Cake – Good Food Channel

There was more than a little cloud of icing sugar in my kitchen this weekend as I busily baked and decorated cakes for the school Christmas fair. Luckily, I’d already had a warm-up, creating some Christmas recipes for the Good Food Channel earlier in November, which provided me with the perfect template for the cake stall and a spot of Christmas baking.

If you’re looking for a festive twist on Christmas cupcakes, then you might enjoy my Mince Pie Cupcakes – made with a vanilla sponge, mincemeat and a luxurious brandy butter icing. You can decorate them with sprinkles, coloured sugar or some retro-picks, as seen here.

Mince Pie Cupcakes

Mince Pie Cupcakes for the Good Food Channel – {Recipe here}

A tiny bit more of a challenge, but not much, are these Profiterole Cupcakes. If you’re not quite up for a ‘Bake Off’ style choux pastry challenge – you could cheat by leaving out the choux pastry step and buying some profiteroles to go on the top. Although I have to say, even though I’ve only made choux pastry once before, it is much easier than you might think, so I’d say have a go at the whole recipe.

Christmas Pudding Cupcakes

Profiterole Cupcakes for the Good Food Channel – {Recipe here}

Finally, if you are up for a spot of Christmas baking and are looking for a Christmas showstopper, this White Chocolate Malteser Cake is actually a simple sponge cake, covered in white chocolate butter cream and topped with white chocolate Maltesers, which makes an impressive centrepiece or star prize for the Christmas raffle! For a little twist, you can also spread a little raspberry jam or lemon curd in between the layers before icing. Then all you need to do is have fun eating the little Malteser balls as they roll off!

White Chocolate Malteser Cake

White Chocolate Malteser Cake for the GoodFood Channel – {Recipe here}

Happy Baking!

Have you come across any festive cupcakes yet this year worth bookmarking? Let me know in the comments box below.

More Festive Ideas –

A Nut-Free Christmas Pudding and Nut-Free Mince Pies for the Good Food Channel

Pierniczki – Polish Spiced Christmas Cookies

Christmas Spiced Cranberry and Plum Chutney

Raspberry and White Chocolate Traybake by Sarah at Maison Cupcake

Gingerbread Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting by A Spoonful of Sugar

Ren Behan is a freelance contributor to the Good Food Channel – styling, photos and recipes author’s own and reflect commissioned content. 

White Chocolate and Blackcurrant No-Churn Easy Ice Cream

Could it be that I have found the perfect ice cream recipe? You don’t need an expensive ice cream machine. You don’t need to make a custard base with egg yolks and sugar. All you need is a can of condensed milk and some double cream and you pretty much have it right there. It’s no secret that you can make ice cream using condensed milk as a base and there are many recipes on-line and a couple of different quantities and methods that you can try. Once you know that you just need two ingredients to start with, the fun part kicks in when it comes to flavouring.

I am grateful to Kavey over at Kavey Eats for challenging us to use condensed milk as a base. Firstly, because there has been a can of condensed milk sitting in my cupboard for some time. I can’t even remember what I originally bought it for, but it definitely wasn’t ice cream. Luckily, it was still in date, but it’s easy enough to pick up at the shops. I used the full fat version, but you can buy lighter versions now, too. Secondly, I now know exactly how easy it is to make no-churn ice cream at home and the end result was very delicious. Perfectly creamy with a nice crunch from the chopped up chocolate.

The most challenging bit of my recipe is making a blackcurrant or forest fruit puree. Only in as much as you have to whizz it or blend it, then pass it through a sieve. But you could use any coulis, or you could leave the blackcurrant out altogether and just go for white chocolate. Or, you could follow my cherry compote recipe and blitz that down, too for a cherry ripple and white chocolate version. You chose.

I used one can of condensed milk (there didn’t seem to be any point in using half as for the BBC Good Food recipe, here) because what do you do with the rest of it? And I used four small pots (600ml in total) of double cream. But I have seen that whipping cream (or heavy cream in the US) works well, too. Blackcurrants are in season, but sadly I couldn’t find any yet, so I used frozen berries.

Print

White Chocolate and Blackcurrant No-Churn Easy Ice Cream

Prep

Total

Ingredients

  • 250g fresh or frozen blackcurrants or forest berries
  • 600ml double cream
  • 397g can of condensed milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or the seeds of one vanilla pod
  • 100g white chocolate (I used Green and Blacks Vanilla), finely chopped or grated

Instructions

  1. Firstly, make the blackcurrant coulis/puree. Place the blackcurrants in a pan and add a tablespoon of water. Boil for just a minute or two, until the fruit begins to breakdown and soften slightly. Take off the heat. Using a hand blender or a stick blender, whizz the blackcurrants into a puree. Then, pass the blackcurrants through a fine sieve, pushing down with the back of a metal spoon, so that you have a smooth puree. Discard anything in the sieve. Leave the coulis/puree to one side to cool.
  2. For the ice cream, pour the can of condensed milk and double cream into a bowl. Add the vanilla extract or scrape in some vanilla seeds from the pod (by cutting it in half lengthways and using the tip of a knife to scrape them out). Use an electric hand whisk to beat the condensed milk, cream and vanilla until the mixture is quite thick for four-five minutes. It should be as thick as buttercream.
  3. Add the finely chopped or grated white chocolate and your cooled blackcurrant coulis/puree to the creamy mixture. Stir together lightly. Pour the mixture into a freezeable container or loaf tin, cover and leave overnight. There is no need to stir the mixture at all while it is freezing. Before serving, leave it to stand for twenty minutes or so, until you can easily scoop it.

Notes

Leave overnight to freeze

Recipe by Ren Behan

As mentioned, I am linking this post up to the Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream challenge over at Kavey Eats, using consended milk as the base.

IceCreamChallenge_thumb

Also, Choclette over at Chocolate Log Blog is hosting We Should Cocoa with a theme of blackcurrants, so I hope the white chocolate and blackcurrant coulis fits here.

Finally, I am linking this up to Sporting Snacks, too, hosted by me!

Hope you get to try this over the summer-time. Let’s hope it encourages the sunshine to come out!

What’s your flavour ice cream flavour combination? Have you ever tried making your own?

 

Chocolate Snowflakes and Fairy Cakes

I love following food blogs and one of the very best things about the explosion of food blogging is the wealth of inspiration from all over the world, with individual perspectives, styles and ideas. Whilst I don’t usually use or buy silcone baking moulds, when I saw these peppermint snowflake chocolates on one of my favourite American blogs, Baked by Rachel, I had to try making them.  This is definitely a recipe and a task to bookmark for next year, as these chocolates would make beautiful gifts and there are endless variations and possibilities.

I made these at my friend Jessica’s house and we made the peppermint bark to Rachel’s recipe (she has step-by-step photos on an older post here), but then experimented by adding orange oil to plain chocolate and sprinkling a few hazelnuts over the top. By just making one layer, they obviously turn out thinner too. Dark chocolate and pistachio would work well and perhaps white chocolate with rose petals or lavender flecks too. They came out of the moulds really easily and they tasted delicious!

I managed to find my ‘snowflake silicone mold tray’ on Amazon.co.uk but I am sure you could find them in many independent cookery shops, particularly at this time of the year.

I also made little chocolate cupcakes in the moulds too, which made the perfect after-school snack for the kids. If you have some silicone moulds handy, you might even have time to try making these yourselves before Christmas. Let me know if you do!

Today I’m looking forward to being a guest again on Nick Coffer’s Weekend Kitchen where I will be talking about a traditional Polish Christmas, with wild mushroom soup, pierogi (filled dumplings) and a baked Polish cheesecake. Tune in or listen on iplayer if you can!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

Easter is such a lovely time of year and it is made even better by this glorious weather. Not that you really want to be stuck in your kitchen, but if the urge takes you, here are some easy ideas for decorating Easter cupcakes.

These are white chocolate chip cupcakes filled with seedless raspberry jam, but you could use a chocolate recipe and just use mini eggs, Easter chicks and hundreds and thousands to decorate. Once baked, I used a teaspoon to scoop a bit of cake out from the middle and filled them with the jam, but lemon curd works really well too with white chocolate.
Easter Cupcakes
Easter Cupcakes
Print

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 12

Tasty cupcakes to make and decorate over Easter, filled with jam or lemon curd.

Ingredients

  • For the cupcakes
  • 375 g self-raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 120ml milk
  • 120ml vegetable or rapeseed oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or extract
  • 115g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
  • 225g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 50g seedless jam or lemon curd
  • For the white chocolate buttercream
  • 50g white chocolate
  • 125g unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 250g icing sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of milk

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160 fan/gas 5 and line a twelve-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
  2. Sieve the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl and leave to one side.
  3. Measure out the milk, oil and vanilla in a jug and also leave to one side.
  4. Whisk the butter and sugar in a mixer until very pale and creamy.
  5. Add the eggs one at a time and mix.
  6. Add the flour mix and milk/oil mix alternately to the mixer until it is combined - be careful not to over mix.Spoon into the paper cases.
  7. Bake for 20 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
  8. Once cooled, using a small spoon, scoop out a hole in the centre of the cupcakes and fill with jam or lemon curd.
  9. For the Buttercream
  10. Melt the white chocolate in a bowl in the microwave (for 30 seconds) or in a bowl over a pan of gently bubbling water. Leave to cool slightly.
  11. In a stand mixer, beat the butter until pale.
  12. Add the icing sugar a little at a time and beat again until smooth.
  13. Pour in the white chocolate a mix well.
  14. Add two tablespoons of milk to loosen the mixture a little if it is too thick.
  15. Pipe your buttercream onto your cooled cakes or spread on with a spatula. Decorate with chocolate mini eggs, chicks and hundreds and thousands.

Happy Easter!

Christmas Tiramisu Trifle

There’s something about Christmas that makes me want to eat cinnamon and ginger and basically anything sweet.  This week, I happened to be looking for some inspiration for a dish that I could take along to a pot-luck ‘Crimble’ party.

I have a huge trifle bowl from Pampered Chef, which rarely makes an appearance, but I decided that whatever came along with me to the party, this bowl would be filled with something very tasty indeed.

Torn between making a Tiramisu or a trifle, I let the ingredients in my cupboard dictate. I didn’t have any savoiardi/sponge finger biscuits, but what I did have was a couple of packets of ginger snap biscuits (the ones you would usually dunk in a cup of tea or coffee) and a dark and sultry bottle of Tia Maria on my shelf and so my little brain began to tick.

It’s always a little bit dangerous to try and mess around with a classic, particularly an Italian institution such as Tiramisu.  A quick search on the Internet (to see whether I was really crazy) revealed some interesting variations.  There was a Nigella version which called for Baileys Irish Cream and in her new book, Kitchen, she uses Frangelico, a hazelnut liqueur. 

What really grabbed my attention was an Italian menu I came across offering a “Tiramisu di Natale” for dessert.   It was described as being made with ginger biscuits, pears and liqueur.  It didn’t say which liqueur and in fact, the truly authentic Italian version would call for Marsala, a sweet wine, a bit like a sweet sherry.  Sadly, the menu was old, so I couldn’t call for a recipe. 

Undeterred, I set aboutmaking my own creation. I didn’t use pears (since my friend Chris is fruit-averse) but I’m sure the recipe would work really well with either poached pears or else tinned pears chopped up and added to each layer. You could also try using Ginger Cake instead of biscuits and perhaps Ginger Wine instead of Tia Maria.

My monstrous creation could easily serve 8-10 people, if not more.  Having been chilled in the fridge overnight, on the pot-luck evening it served myself, Monika and Chris with a smidgen left over for our hubbies.  We were firmly in the “lifetime on the hips” territory but it was well worth it.  We promised Chris we’d join her running club in the New Year to compensate!

Please give this one a go over Christmas, or serve it at a New year’s Eve party and let me know how you get on. It may not be authentic in terms of its ingredients, but it is made to a traditional method shown to me by my Italian brother-in-law, Alberto, many years ago. It is also light set, rather than being firm, since it has half the amount of Mascarpone and uses double cream, but its gooey nature truly means it melts in your mouth with an explosion of Christmassy flavour.

You won’t be disappointed!

PS Since this recipe calls for raw eggs and liqueuer it is unfortunately not suitable for kiddies or pregnant ladies.



Christmas Tiramisu with Ginger Biscuits, Cinnamon & Tia Maria


Ingredients:


6 large free-range eggs – yolks and whites separated

200g caster sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon powder

250g tub Mascarpone (Italian cream cheese)

250 ml double cream

250ml espresso coffee

250 ml Tia Maria (or other liqueur of your choice)

2 packets Ginger Snap Biscuits or Ginger Cake

100 g Grated White chocolate for sprinkling on top

and/or edible glitter from a cake shop


You will also need four large bowls and a large trifle dish or bowl


The ingredients will combine better at room temperature.


Method:


In your first bowl, whisk the eggs yolks and caster sugar together with an electric whisk for around 7 minutes until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add your tablespoon of cinnamon and mix again.  Then add in the tub of Mascarpone and mix until there are no lumps. 


In your second bowl, whip the double cream until it is quite firm but not over-whipped – around the soft peak stage.  Fold your whipped cream into the egg and Mascaprone mixture. 


In your third bowl and with a clean whisk, beat your egg whites until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed.  With a metal spoon, fold the egg whites into your egg, Mascarpone and cream mixture.


Now you are ready to assemble.


In your fourth bowl, combine the espresso coffee and Tia Maria (the coffee can be slightly warm).


Spoon a small amount of your creamy mixture into the bottom of your trifle bowl.


Dip your ginger biscuits or cake into the coffee and liqueur mixture and arrange on top of the creamy mixture to make your first layer.  It is better to soak a few biscuits at a time as you need them otherwise they will go too soggy to handle.


Then spoon some more creamy mixture on top and repeat the process of layering.  If you are using fruit, spoon this on top of the biscuits or cake.


Keep layering until you have used all the mixture. Since I was using a glass trifle bowl. I layered some of the biscuits around the edge of the bowl rather than flat so that you can seem them.  If you run out of coffee and liqueur mixture make up a bit more – it really depends on how much of the liquid your biscuits are soaking up!


Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 24 hours.  This will set the mixture slightly but it will still be quite loose so it is better to serve this in a bowl.


Grate some white chocolate over the top and dust with edible glitter for a real ‘Chistmassy’ finish.


Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and thank you so much for reading my blog! There are lot’s more recipes and posts planned for the New Year.