Last weekend made some vegan desserts for a friend. This recipe was really good. Much better than I expected.
Ingredients:
Base:
350g vegan biscuits (ie Lotus Biscoff)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp maple syrup
170g margarine + extra for greasing
Filling:
2x400g can coconut milk, CHILLED!!!
200g dark chocolate
1 tbsp maple syrup
Process:
Pre-heat oven at 200C.
Crush biscuits to crumbs (I used my food processor).
Add the cocoa powder, flour, syrup and margarine to the biscuits. Mix and create a dough.
Butter with margarine the bottom of a 23cm aprox tart tin.
Spread the biscuit dough into the the tin. Press it carefully so it is thick and consistent.
Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Then let it cool, VERY IMPORTANT!!!
Make the filling. Open the coconut cans (I put them in the freezer for a bit). They should have separated the coconut water from the cococut cream. Make a hole with a knife and save the water. You can use it later for cereals or drink it directly.
Put the solid coconut cream in a bowl and move to the next step
I have been lucky to try some Jamaican Rum Cake brought from Jamaica so I decided if I could make it myself. I found some recipes online like this (my main source) and this.
Ingredients:
200g butter at room temperature + a bit for greasing
1 cup of brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp lime zest
1 cup of blended fruits: raisins, cherries, mixed fruit, etc. Pre-soak the fruits earlier with water and a bit of white rum.
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 tbsp almond liquor
1/4 cup of white rum + a bit for brushing
1/2 cup of Port wine (I dont have red label / sweet red wine)
1 cup plain flour
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp mixes spice
1 tbsp gratted nutmeg
1.5 tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup bread crumbs
3 tbsp black treacle (I dont have “browning liquid”)
Process:
Pre-heat oven at 180C. Grease a cake tin.
Cream butter and brown sugar in a bowl. Use a wooden spoon initially and then you can use this whisk. The video use an electric whisker but I think I managed a decent mixture. You want something creamy and fluffy.
In another bowl, mix the eggs, lime juice and lime zest.
Add the egg mix to the butter mix bit by bit, whisking constantly.
In another bowl, mix the blended fruit, vanilla, almond liquor, rum and Port.
And the fruit mix to the butter/egg mix bit by bit, whisking constantly.
Clean one of the bowl. Add the flour, cinnamon, mixes spice, nutmeg, baking powder and bread crumbs. Mix well.
Add the flour to the wet mix, bit by bit and mixing constantly.
Finally, add the black treacle that should bit the dark color to the cake. Mix well.
Pour the cake mix into the tin. Shake until level.
Put a small bowl with water in the oven or spray with water the oven to create extra moisture.
Bake for 1h 15m aprox. Remove from oven only when a skewer comes out clean from the center of the cake.
Once you take the cake from the oven, brush it with white rum while hot.
Leave it cool down for 1h.
The real thing:
My thing:
To be honest, although my version doesnt look like the original one, it was tasty. I think these were my errors:
I didnt soak the dry fruits so they didnt blend properly. I need to find more info about how to prepare this part properly. I think this is the reason the cake is not as “dense” as the original.
I think I over baked it. I lost track of time and it was 1h 30m I think.
The black treacle doesnt give the same black color as in the video. Or I need to put more?
Use more water in the oven. The first video didnt use any but the second did it so I though the second version was more moist and I wanted that.
Although I didnt use Jamaican rum neither Jamaican red wine, the taste was good.
I have done this dessert before but this recipe is a bit different in the process. At least I think the result was much better.
Roulade Ingredients:
6 large eggs (room temperature)
250g caster sugar
250g plain flour
1 tbsp warm water
butter and sugar for greasing
1 tray + baking paper
150g finely chopped strawberries + 20g for garnish
Mint leaves
Stock Syrup Ingredients:
50gr sugar
50gr water
Pastry Cream Ingredients:
4 medium egg yolks
65g caster sugar
15g plain flour
15g cornflour
350ml whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
Icing sugar for dusting
Chantilly Cream Ingredients:
2 tsp icing sugar
200ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla paste
Process:
Pre-heat oven at 180C
Grease the tray (30x25cm), then cut the baking paper to fit the tray. Be sure it stick properly. Grease a little bit the paper too.
Dust some flour and sugar over the baking paper. Leave a side.
Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl with an electric whisk for 15 minutes. The mix should almost triple in volume, become pale in color and thick enough that will leave a trail when lifting the whisk.
Sift the flour. Add 1/3 at the time to the egg mix and fold it nicely until all combine.
And 1 tsp of water and fold.
Pour the mixture into the tray and smooth the edges with the spatula. Make it as even as you can without touching too much the mix.
Bake for 9-10 minutes. Lightly golden and just firm to the touch.
Lay out a clean damp cloth on your work surface (so it doesnt move). Place a piece of greaseproof paper (a bit bigger than the tray) on top of the cloth. Cover a bit of the paper edges with the towel so it doesnt move. Dust some sugar on top of the paper.
Once the sponge is ready, turn it out quickly over the dusted paper (topside of the sponge down). Be careful, the try is hot!!!! Peel the paper off the sponge.
Start rolling the sponge by the longest side, at the beginning be sure it is tight, use the towel/paper, then roll all the way. Tap the roll so it flattens a bit, let it cool down with the seam in the bottom.
Prepare Stock Syrup:
Boil sugar and water. Stir for 1 minute and let it rest
Prepare Pastry Cream:
Whisk eggs and sugar until pale gold color.
Add the flour and cornflour to the egg mix, whisk until combine. Rest aside.
Place milk and vanilla in a saucepan, heat up until simmer, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.
Slowly pour half of the hot milk into the egg mix, whisking all the time. Be sure the milk is not too hot because you dont want to cook the eggs! Add the rest of the milk and whisk.
Return the whole mix to the saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute, whisking constantly so it is smooth.
Pour the cream in a bowl, dust with icing sugar and cover with cling film.
Set aside
Filling the roulade:
Unroll the sponge carefully, it should be moist and sponge to the touch.
Brush the stock syrup all over the sponge.
You can trim the sides so it is even when rolling later.
Take the pastry cream, whisk it again so it becomes creamy again. Spread 3/4 of the cream on top of the sponge and spread as much as you can over the sponge. Add the rest of the cream to cover places. Be sure you leave 2cm without cover in the side that you will finish rolling so the roll sticks and “closes”.
Spread all chopped strawberries over the cream. Tap them so they are level with the cream when rolling
Roll the longer side inwards, be sure you dont start from the side without cream! Use the paper to keep the roll tight at the very beginning, then release the paper and roll the whole sponge.
Keep the seam down. Trim the sides to be sure they show cream and strawberries.
Dust the top of the roll and with a sharp knife JUST mark the slices without cutting them.
Prepare Chantilly Cream:
Whisk in a bowl the cream, sugar and vanilla until just start making peaks. Dont over do it because we are going to pipe it!
Presentation:
Pipe a rose over each slice, add some strawberries and mint for garnish.
This is not the typical “carrot cake”. I have some memories when my mother used to make this cake. I have tried to find the recipe in her papers a couple of times but never found it (I think). So I asked a very good friend of her about this recipe and lucky enough she had it so managed to take a picture of it. And finally this weekend I decide to try.
Ingredients:
250g of sponge fingers
400ml milk
200g sugar
150gr cocunut sherred
500g peeled carrots
1 tin of 1L aprox
Process:
Boil the carrots in a sauce pan with just a 2 fingers of water. Check from time to time that there is enough water and they dont stick to the bottom. If they do, just add some water and scrap the bottom. It is the sugar from the carrots so it is good.
Once the carrots at soft enough so a fork can easily go through them, remove from the heat. Remove all the water with a sieve or strain.
Put the carrots, milk, sugar and 100g of coconut in the food processor. Mix until all combined like a cream.
In the tin, cover the bottom with a layer of sponge finger. Then add some carrot cream slowly so the fingers dont move. Press a bit with your hand so all cream gets into the sponges. Add another layer of sponge finger, add another layer of carrot cream. Add a third and final layer of sponge fingers and carrot cream.
Put the tin in the fridge for 3-4 hours.
You can remove the cake from the tin if you want to present to people. Then add the rest of the coconut on top. You can add some berries on top optionally.
Optionally, you can just spread the rest of coconut on top of the tin.
This is the resut:
It is quite tasty and really simple. The only “difficult” ingredient maybe is the coconut shreds and find the sponge fingers.
And to be honest, looks like a carrot “tiramisu” 🙂 And although it is a nice cake somehow it is not what I have in my memory. Anyway, I will keep this recipe.
I like a lot “atun en escabeche” but it is really difficult to find. And to make it, quite expensive… So during a conversation, a friend of mine, mentioned “pollo en escabeche” as vey tasty dish with similar flavour to “atun en escabeche”. So I decided to give it a go and find a recipe. This one looked very good.
Ingredients:
400g chicken breast
1 big onion sliced
2 large carrots sliced
3 cloves of garlic
1 glass of white wine
1 bay leaf
15 pepper corns
1 glass of vinegar (white wine, apple, etc)
1 glass of water
salt + pepper
Process
Salt and pepper the chicken breasts.
Fry the chicken in a hot pan until golden outside. Put apart.
In the same pan, add the onions, carrots and garlic. Fry until soften, aprox 4-5 minutes.
Add glass of wine, bay leaf and pepper corns. Keep the high heat so the alcohol evaporates.
Then add the glass of vinegar and water.
Add the chicken back in.
Cook at high heat for 15 minutes so the liquid evaporates a bit and the chicken absorbs some juice.
Remove from the heat and pout the content of the pan into a glass dish.
After the positive experience with Babka, I wanted to try Brioche. I did all kneading by hand. All videos I have seen use a machine. It took me 1h aprox to do all kneading and adding the butter but it was so worth it to see that I was able to achieve a dough that stopped being sticky, smooth and glossy.
Ingredients:
500g strong white flour
12g fine sea salt
30g caster sugar
8g dry yeast
6 eggs (1 egg aprox 50g)
250g softened unsalted butter. Chopped in small cubes.
1 egg yolk for glazing
Process:
Put flour, salt and sugar in a bowl and mix. Then add the yeast and mix well.
In another bowl, break all eggs, whisk them and then add them to the flour making a well in the center.
Mix all ingredientes with one hand, once it comes together, tip the dough on the work surface. Dont add any flour!
Use one hand for kneading and the other for the scraper.
With the heel of your hand, push the dough into the table and stretch and tear until it stops being sticky. Use the scrapper to get the dough together and clean your dirty hand. Aprox 10 minutes.
Let the dough rest 5 minutes
Now, add slowly the butter to the dough in small batches. I did 6 batches… So stretch the dough a bit and add some cubes of butter, try to “integrate” them in the dough with your dirty hand. Always keep the clean hand with the scraper. Then start to stretch/tear the dough. It will become a bit “wet” with the butter but will come together again, and will not stick to the surface after some minutes. It is amazing to see that happening. Repeat the process until all butter is added in the dough.
At the end, the dough should no sticky to the table, should be glossy, smooth and elastic.
Put the dough back in bowl. Cover and leave at room temperature for 2h or until has doubled in size.
Knock back the dough, cover again and put back in the fridge until next day.
Next day, line a tin with baking paper or grease it. I used a big tin. You can divide the dough in two if you have smaller tins.
Take the dough and divide in 3 pieces. Aprox 360g each. Round each piece gently. Then roll each piece a bit longer than your tin.
Time for the “plait”. Join the three ends together, then plait by lifting the middle strand and putting the right strand in the middle. The “lift” strand moves to the right and release it. Now lift again the middle strand, take the left strand and put in the middle. The “light” strand moves to the left side and release. Repeat again the same process, lift middle, move right, lift middle, move left. Until you dont have more to braid. Pinch the ends.
Place the brioche in the tin and leave to rise for 2h aprox or reaches the top of the tin.
Pre-heat the oven at 180C.
Glaze the brioche with the egg yolk.
Put the brioche in the oven and lightly spritz the oven with a water spray.
Bake for 20 minutes. Then remove from the tin and bake another 5 minutes or until golden brown.
Take from the oven and let it cool for a couple of minutes (if you can)
And really happy with the result!
As mentioned earlier, I was quite surprised that I managed again to tame an enriched dough. Still I can improve it:
I did 4 strands but I have realized that 3 is better and easier to braid…..
Prepare the stock syrup. In a sauce pan, boil the water + sugar. Remove from heat.
Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water
Heat up the stock syrup and add the softened gelatine. Mix well.
Add the raspberry puree to the pan, whisk for 30sec, remove from heat and let it cool down.
Pour the glaze into the base of the plastic moulds.
Put in the fridge.
Ingredients for bavarois cream filling:
125g raspberry puree
50ml milk
2 egg yolks
15g caster sugar
1.5 gelatine leaves
75ml double cream
Process:
Heat lightly the raspberry and milk in a saucepan
In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar
Pour the boiling milk into the egg mix and whisk well.
Return the mix to the heat and stir for a minute or less. Doesnt have to thicken up!
Add the gelatine, mix well.
Remove from heat and sieve the mix, leave it to cool down.
Whisk the cream to soft picks
Fold the soft picks into the raspberry cream.
Pour the cream into the moulds and put back in the bridge for 30 minutes.
Presentation. Take the moulds from the bridge, to unmould, put the moulds into hot water for a couple of seconds. Then with a sharp knife, make a cut on the base of the mould. Decorate with some mint leaves, cream and fresh red berries.
This is a enriched dough that I tried some time ago but I wanted to test again. I find this kind of dough quite challenge as it is very messy kneading by hand, but, this time, somehow I managed to get a dough that was smooth, glossy and elastic! It took 45m aprox I think. This is a video to give an idea (although it uses a hand mixer…. I can’t find one with kneading by hand.)
Ingredients for dough
275 strong white flour
6g salt
30g caster sugar
2 medium eggs (75g)
100g milk
4g dry yeast (8g if fresh)
100g butter
Ingredients for filling:
100g dark chocolate
50g butter
1 egg
50g caster sugar
15g cocoa powder
eggs wash + flour for dusting
Ingredients for sugar glaze:
100g sugar
80g water
Process:
Put all ingredients apart from butter in a bowl. Mix all until combined
Tip the dough into a table, without flour, using a scraper with one hand and kneading with the other for 5 minutes. Very important, use one hand for kneading so at least one hand is “clean” and it uses the scrapper. Let the dough rest for 1 minute.
Add 1/3 of butter each time and knead until fully combined all butter. This can take a LONG time if doing by hand. I used constantly the scrapper because it was very messy and sticky the dough. Be patience and dont use flour, the dough, surprisingly will start forming gluten because the kneading and will be smooth and stop being so sticky.
Once the dough is smooth, glossy and elastic, put it in a bowl and let it prove until double in size. Cover it during that time.
Knock the dough and put back into the bowl and keep it in the fridge overnight.
Next day
Prepare two tins of 20-25cm long. Line them with baking paper.
Remove dough from the bridge. Place it in a lightly floured surface.
Prepare the chocolate filling. Melt the butter and chocolate at “bain marie”
In another bowl, mix egg, sugar and cocoa powder. Whisk until you get a smooth paste.
Add melted chocolate to the paste. Whisk until well combined. Keep in mind you will have to “spread” this mix in the dough, so you dont want something two “hard”.
With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle of aprox 40x45cm.
Spread the chocolate mix evenly over the dough. Leave 1-2 cm free in the edge nearest to you as we will seal the dough there.
Start rolling the dough from the farthest edge from you. Create a tight roll, moving towards you. The seal of the dough should be under side and the smooth side facing up.
Dust lightly the top of your dough and with a sharp knife, cut the dough in half lengthways to show the inner layers
Each half will be a babka. Form a U shape with each one. Staring with the right side, bring this over the left and place down, then repeat, bringing the right side over the left to form a basic plait.
Place each babka into a tin and let it prove for 1h (ie: put in a oven with ligh on and some boiling water to make humid)
Preheat the oven at 180C.
Eggwash the babkas and bake for 28-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Prepare the sugar glaze. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan at medium heat. Stir until sugar is disolved. Bring the mix to the boil, leave it to simmer for a couple of minutes until thickens a bit. Remove from the heat and leave to one side.
Remove the babkas from oven and brush with sugar glaze. This is very important to make the babka moist inside.
Let is cool down in the tin.
In general I was quite happy with the result.
Some improvements/mistakes:
My sacket of yeast was already open so I think it “lost” it strength because my dough and babka didnt really prove….
My chocolate spread was a bit too hard and couldnt spread properly, maybe adding a bit more egg to make it a bit more runny?
