Cannellette

These English people with their cakes that taste of sand, never never, will they have tasted such a cake. Delicious, they will say – delicious –’
Her face clouded again.
‘Mr Patrick. He called it Delicious Death. My cake! I will not have my cake called that!’
‘It was a compliment really,’ said Miss Blacklock. ‘He meant it was worth dying to eat such a cake.’

Agatha Christie has always been one of my favourite mystery writers. I love her books, her characters and the movies and tv series based on the books and short stories. What better way to celebrate Agatha Christie’s 120th anniversary than with black coffee and a cake of death?

AgathaChristie.com announces that they invited queen of cakes Jane Asher to create a recipe for the Delicious Death cake inspired by Miss Marple’s 50th novel: A Murder is Announced. Below is the result. On the official site you can download a recipe booklet and enter your creation into their contest.

Delicious Death cake 

By Jane Asher

Ingredients

175g dark chocolate drops (50-55% cocoa solids)
100g softened or spreadable butter
100g golden caster sugar
5 large eggs
half a tsp vanilla extract
100g ground almonds
half a tsp baking powder


For the filling: 150ml rum, brandy or orange juice
150g raisins
55g soft dark brown sugar
6-8 glacé cherries
4-6 pieces crystallised ginger
1 tsp lemon juice

For the decoration:

175g dark chocolate drops (50-55% cocoa solids)
150ml double cream
2 tsps apricot jam
10g crystallized violet petals
10g crystallized rose petals
A small quantity of gold leaf.


Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 150C, (300F, 135C fan-assisted). Grease an 8” deep cake tin and line the bottom with baking parchment or silicone.

2. Prepare the filling: in a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients and stir over heat until the mixture is bubbling. Allow to simmer gently, while stirring, for at least two minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is thickened. Allow to cool.

3. In a small heatproof bowl, melt the chocolate drops over simmering water or in a microwave, being careful not to let it overheat. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

4. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until very pale and fluffy. Separate the eggs, setting aside the whites in a large mixing bowl, and, one by one, add 4 of the yolks to the butter/sugar mix, beating well between each one.

5. Add the melted chocolate and fold in carefully, then stir in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, mix together the ground almonds and baking powder, then stir them into the cake mix.

6. Whisk the egg whites until peaked and stiff, then fold gently into the chocolate cake mix.

7. Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin, leveling the top, and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 55-65 minutes, or until firm and well risen. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it out on to a rack to cool completely.

8. Using a serrated knife, slice the cake in half horizontally. Spread the cooled fruit filling onto one half and sandwich the two halves back together.

To decorate: put the chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl and melt them together over simmering water or in a microwave. Spread the cake all over with warmed apricot jam and place on a rack over a baking tray. Keeping back a couple of tablespoonfuls, pour the icing over the whole cake, making sure it covers the top and the sides completely, scooping up the excess from the tray with a palette knife as necessary. Add any surplus to the kept back icing. Carefully transfer the cake to a 10” cake board or pretty plate.

Once the reserved icing is firm enough to pipe, place it in a piping bag with no. 8 star nozzle and pipe a scrolling line around the top and bottom edges of the cake. Leave for two to three hours to set.

Place the violet and rose petals into a plastic bag and crush them into small flakes. Sprinkle these liberally around the chocolate scrolls. Finally, with a cocktail stick, pull off some small flakes of gold leaf and gently add them to the top of the cake.



AGATHA CHRISTIE and DELICIOUS DEATH are registered trade marks of Agatha Christie Limited (a Chorion Limited company).  All rights reserved.

The use of food in children’s literature seems to be a hot item. I must say I also find it very interesting and worth writing about. I am particularly fond of old fashioned English books and the descriptions of food eaten at various picnics you find in those. I love the descriptions of crumbly sweet scones with clotted cream and jam, small triangle sandwiches. gingerbread cookies and all those other treats.

The Village Voice blog put together a top 10 of the best food-themed children’s books. Now I must say that I don’t know half of those, but I do agree with certain worldwide favourites as Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham.

From my childhood I remember the food used in Alice in Wonderland (who does not love the teaparty at the Mad Hatter’s?) Furthermore I fondly remember the picnics in Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books and the Malory Towers books - I always wanted picnics like those!

And what about the unbirthday party in Alice in Wonderland, full of half cups of tea and buttered clocks. Somehow the Eat Me cookies never struck me as particularly interesting, I liked the Drink Me drink better as it had all those different tastes. Eat Me cookies are easier to make, though. (Heston Blumenthal proved that the Drink Me drink IS possible, however ;-)).

Now a children’s book recipe you CAN make and take with you on a picnic…

Hot Dogs
-From Roald Dahl’s Even more revolting recipes
Makes 8

Ingredients
1 packet of bread dough mix
8 sausages 
8 rashers of bacon (optional) 
Tomato ketchup 
Mustard 
1 egg yolk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6. Make bread dough according to packet instructions.

2. While the dough is rising, cook the sausages in the oven. If you are using the bacon, wrap it around the sausages before cooking. When they are light brown (about 15 mins) take them out and allow to cool.

3. When the dough has doubled in size, weigh out 8 70g pieces. Roll each piece of dough to a 12 cm wide circle. Place the sausage in the middle of the dough and spread with the mustard and ketchup. Carefully roll it up, keeping it quite tight, and fold the sides in so that there is no chance to escape. Do the same with the rest of the sausages. Place in the roasting tin. Brush with the egg yok and allow to rise again.

4. When they have doubled in size again (20-30 mins) place in oven and cook for about 20-25 mins or until golden. Allow to cool for 5 mins before eating - tge waiting is the difficult part of the recipe. Set an alarm clock and eat as soon as the bell goes.

As an answer to my cupcake dilemma from last week, I noticed a cupcake recipe in the saturday magazine of our newspaper.

Gwen Thomas, an American woman living in Amsterdam, bakes cupcakes to order for us Dutch people who just don’t seem to grasp the concept of a cupcake (even though we do appreciate a good cupcake.

The article mentions that most Dutch people indeed seem to think that a cupcake is a decorated muffin. To prove us wrong Gwen shows the journalist interviewing her a picture from the book I’m just here for more food written by Alton Brown. This shows that cupcakes do not have a “hat” and that the airbubbles inside a cupcake are all the same size, while those in a muffin differ in size.

For Gwen it turned out to be difficult to make cupcakes according to Martha Stewards recipe without all the American ingredients, so she decided to experiment with Dutch ingredients and she changed her weighing method: instead of cups she started weighing with scales, just like we do ;-)

The recipe she shared with the newspaper was a recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes, made with her own vanilla extract (vanilla pods which have been floating in vodka since the 24th of may):

Gwen’s Vanilla Cupcakes

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(adapted from Martha Steward’s “Billy’s Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes”) 

Ingredients

• 98,5 grams of butter
• 6 grams of vanilla extract 
• 174 grams of sugar 
• 113 grams of milk 
• 186 grams of all purpose flour 
• one eighth teaspoon of salt 
• 10 grams of double acting baking powder 
• 2 egg whites 

For the frosting

• 85 grams of soft butter 
• 140 grams of powdered sugar 
• milk 
• 1 drop of vanilla extract 
• food colouring 

Method
1. Preheat oven to 175-180 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.
2. Mix the butter with an electric whisk, slowly add the sugar and keep whisking until the mixture goes white. Stir the vanilla in the milk.
3. Sieve the American flour, the salt and baking powder three times. Alternately add the flour mixture in three parts and the milk in two parts to the butter and mix well. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
4. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until you get soft peaks, it does not need to stiffen up. Fold the egg whites through the batter.
5. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full.
6. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.
7. For the frosting: mix the sugar in portions with the butter. Add the vanilla and food colouring, if desired. If necessary add some milk to make the frosting thinner. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake.

As a Dutch girl I never completely understood the difference between muffins and cupcakes.

When I was a child we would simply call whatever we were baking “little cakes” and happily decorated them with some icing and Smarties (M&Ms without peanuts). The icing was simple: just sugar and water mixed until smooth - I’d never heard of, seen nor had the buttercream variety until I saw them on American tv shows. I also believe that I always used the terms muffin and cupcake interchangeably…

Nowadays in the Netherlands we have muffins, usually those are bigger and mushroom shaped vanilla or chocolate cakes (or even marbled!). In my favourite coffee place (which closed down, unfortunately) they also sold muffins filled with nuts and oats and dried fruit, very yummy! Then we can buy a box with a cake mix to make small cakes which are called Fairy cakes or Princess cakes: delicate vanilla flavoured small cakes decorated with glittery candy and pink icing and all of a sudden these also popped up, everywhere, called cupcakes: 

If I understand it correctly, and please, do correct me if I’m wrong, cupcakes are these small, light cakes topped with (buttercream) frosting and muffins are bigger, more dense and often also contain nuts or chocolate chips or raisins and oats and don’t have frosting. 

The frosting is a whole other issue: I never ever made this type of spreadable frosting. I always made the sugar-mixed-with-water type which hardened as it cooled down. How do you make the buttercream frosting? It unnerves me, because I have the feeling it is pretty easy, but it’s somehow still a daunting prospect.

What is your (or THE) definition of a muffin and a cupcake?  Please share your favourite recipes for muffins and / or cupcakes and frosting with me! 

It has been too hot for any “real” cooking the past week, which explains the lack of posting. We have been eating easy dishes, reheating leftovers or freezer stock or went for takeout. This was actually our dinner from last Sunday: retro shrimp salad! Easy as anything. The recipe is my mother in law’s and has been in the family for ages. 

Retro Shrimp Salad
for 4 people

Ingredients
500 gr of small cooked shrimps, Crangon Crangon they are called, so Wikipedia tells me.
2,5 tablespoons of mayonnaise (I use yoghurt mayonnaise, it is lighter, you can mix 2 tbsp of mayonnaise with half a tbsp of yoghurt for the same effect)
lemon juice, a squeeze to taste
freshly chopped chives, to taste but I like LOTS of it
a pinch of dried garlic powder or a bit of finely chopped fresh garlic
sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

To serve: little gem lettuce and slices of toasted bread

Method
1. Mix the mayonnaise with the salt and pepper, garlic powder, lemon juice and chives, taste to check the seasoning and stir in the prawns.

2. Serve with toasted bread and little gem lettuce. 

Fuss free cooking - ideal for hot weather. 

Belgian waffles are amazing. Especially the variety with the crispy pearl sugar which gives the soft, slightly chewy waffle a nice crunch. I always wanted to recreate them myself, but never found a recipe that sounded easy enough. I think I found it this time!

Note that the batter has to rest for 30 minutes in total!

Liege style waffles (Belgian waffles with pearl sugar)

35 min | 30 min prep | Serves 4

Ingredients

1 (1/4 ounce) package yeast
1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
3 eggs
1 cup softened butter
1 cup pearl sugar

Method 
1. Mix yeast, water, sugar and salt, and let develop for 15 minutes.
2. Place flour into a large bowl. Make a well, pour in yeast mixture, and begin to knead.
3. Continue to knead, add eggs, one at a time, and add soft butter, 2 tablespoons each addition, mixing well.
4. Let dough rest in bowl until doubled.
5. Gently mix in pearl sugar.
6. Let rest for 15 minutes.
7. Heat waffle iron. When hot, butter waffle iron, pour in 3 tablespoons dough per waffle.
8. Cook for 3-5 minutes, until waffles lightly brown on top.Serve warm or room temperature.

Enjoy!

I remember my father really loves these with warm cherries and some cream. :-)

Many things count as comforting. For me it ranges from a tasty cup of coffee (and I am very picky) to reading books with titles like “Enquire Within About Everyting 1890” (with the dazzling remark printed on the cover: over one million copies sold). I am not kidding - I spent some lovely evenings leafing through it, stumbling across sensible advice as:

376. Beat a Carpet on the wrong side first; and then more gently on the right side. Beware of using sticks with sharp points, which may tear the carpet.

It may sound silly and obvious, but I completely understand the need for a book like this. Another one, just for the sake of it:

1792. Why does milk turn sour during thunderstorms? - Because, in an electric condition of the atmosphere, ozone is generated. Ozone is oxygen in a state of great intensity; and oxygen is a general acidifier of many organic substances. Milk may be prevented from becoming sour by boiling it, or bringing it nearly to boiling point, for, as the old proverb says, “Milk boiled is milk spoiled.” Heating the milk expels the oxygen.

Wonderful!

Other times just watching an episode of one of my favourite tv series (or a newly discovered one) can be just the type of comfort I need.

One of my “guilty pleasures” when it comes to comfort reading is The Babysitter’s Club series. I really like the comic books by Raina Telgemeier released last year.

Sometimes, though, you actually have to get your hands dirty to satisfy your comfort-cravings. And as one of my ultimate comfort foods are scones: here’s a nice recipe that I have to try soon - they look so delicious!

Pumpkin & Date Scones

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(from Mix & Bake by Belinda Jeffery)

Ingredients

3 cups (450g) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarb/baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
120g cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
200g chopped pitted dates (not medjool, they’re far too moist and sticky for this)
1 cup cold cooked mashed pumpkin (I used butternut)
3/4 cup buttermilk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper, then very lightly dust it with flour and set aside.
2. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking/bicab soda and salt into a large bowl and use a balloon whisk to whisk it together. Add the butter and rub it in with your fingertips till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir together the buttermilk and cooked cold mashed pumpkin and set aside for now.
3. Add the dates to the bowl and toss them through to coat them in the flour mixture, then make a well in the centre of the bowl and pour in the pumpkin/buttermilk mix. Stir it together till barely combined, then tip it onto a well-floured chopping board and lightly knead till the mixture comes together (not till the batter is smooth - just till it holds together and doesn’t have any unmixed bits).
4. Pat the dough into a round about 4cm thick, then dip a scone cutter (or glass tumbler) into some flour and stamp out your scone shapes. Alternately, you can cut the round into triangular wedges or pat it into a cylinder and just cut off rounds.
5. Carefully sit the scones closely together on the baking tray, using up all your dough (press the scraps together rather than kneading them). Either dust the tops with flour or give them a milk or egg wash, then bake for 20 minutes or till cooked through and golden. Once they’re done, remove them from the oven and wrap in a clean tea towel for 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool.
6. Serve whilst warm with some salted butter, or store in an airtight container for up to three days. Cold scones can be reheated in a microwave or toaster oven to make them warm and soft again.

One of my favourite foods is quiche. It is filling, easy to make, easy to take somewhere (for a picknick or a party) and - very important - easy to keep (and it gets even better when it’s kept in the fridge for a day or so). This is a lighter version, not because I am such a health freak, but because this version just tastes better, in my opinion. I never had a lot of quiche in my life. It was not something my mother made often. My first memory after a long time without quiche was during the first sailing trip I took with my boyfriend and his family. My sister in law, an excellent cook, made a quiche and some other things for a nice picknick on the water. It was a lovely thing to eat on the water with the wind blowing through my hair.

Quiche Lorrainne

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Ready-made pastry or use this recipe from Rachel allen:

1. Put the flour, butter and a pinch of salt in a food processor and process briefly.
2. Add half the beaten egg and continue to process. (You might add a little more egg, but not too much as the mixture should be just moist enough to come together.) If making the pastry by hand, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs then, using your hands, add just enough egg to bring it together.
3. With your hands, flatten out the ball of dough until it is about 2cm thick, then wrap it in cling film or place it in a plastic bag and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or, if you are pushed for time, in the freezer for 10–15 minutes, before using.
4. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
5. Line a 19cm high-sided tart tin with the shortcrust pastry and cover the base with baking parchment. Fill the tin with baking beans and bake blind for 10-15 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment for the last five minutes of baking for a golden crust.

Filling

175 g bacon
50 g Cheddar (crumbled)
50 g Gruyere (grated)
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tbsp chopped chives
2 onions, peeled and chopped
3 eggs
250 g sour cream
some oil to cook the bacon and sweat the onion
nutmeg, freshly ground black pepper and salt for seasoning

Method

1. First cook the bacon in a little oil until crisp. Drain it and set it aside.
2. Gently sweat the onions in the same oil until softened and also set aside.
3. Meanwhile, whisk the three eggs in a bowl, add the cream, herbs, cheeses, bacon and onions. Mix well and season with salt, nutmeg and black pepper.
4. Pour the filling into the pastry base and return to the oven to bake for 30–40 minutes, or until the centre has set.

Since I first made this recipe last year I adapted it a bit, here are some nice variations and tips:

• use 1 leek and 1 onion for more varied veggies. This next bit of information made my life a lot easier: to clean the leek, chop it in half and then carve those pieces lengthwise so you can fold them open, this way you can wash them more easily and you’ll also clean inside.
• add some diced cherry tomatoes
• use little cubes of ham (boiled) for a lighter and less salty version (lovely combined with the leek)
• add a pinch of curry powder (or more to taste)
• add some (smoked mild) paprika powder or some grated chilli flakes for a kick
• make it the day before you want to eat it, it firms up a bit and the flavours enhance - it tastes even better the day after!

Macarons are funny things. They look lovely and vibrant and very homemade. So homemade, in fact, you are tricked into thinking they must be easy - or at least doable - to make in the comfort of your own home. Alas, baking macarons is a very scientific process and you need to measure the temperatures very carefully to get that lovely, slightly chewy yet airy texture.

Unfortunately I do not own a thermometer (besides the one you use to determine if you have a fever) so I have not yet tried to make these myself. If you feel more adventurous and courageous: here you find a recipe to try making them yourself: (Note: I have not tried this recipe, as far as I know, making macarons is a hit and miss type of thing. They will work out brilliantly one time and the exact same recipe will fail completely another time. So try at your own risk ;-))

Macarons

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Ingredients

225 grams icing sugar 125 grams ground almonds 110 grams egg whites (about 4), aged overnight at room temperature 30 grams granulated sugar

Procedure

1. On three pieces of parchment, use a pencil to draw 1-inch (2.5 cm) circles about 2 inches apart. Flip each sheet over and place each sheet on a baking sheet. [Note: You only have to draw circles on the parchment paper if you want absolutely even-sized macarons. If you’re skilled with piping and don’t mind eyeballing the amount of batter per cookie, skip this step.]
2. Push almond flour through a tamis or sieve, and sift icing sugar. Mix the almonds and icing sugar in a bowl and set aside. If the mixture is not dry, spread on a baking sheet, and heat in oven at the lowest setting until dry.
3. In a large clean, dry bowl whip egg whites with salt on medium speed until foamy. Increase the speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar. Continue to whip to stiff peaks—the whites should be firm and shiny.
4. With a flexible spatula, gently fold in icing sugar mixture into egg whites until completely incorporated. The mixture should be shiny and ‘flow like magma.’ When small peaks dissolve to a flat surface, stop mixing.
5. Fit a piping bag with a 3/8-inch (1 cm) round tip. Pipe the batter onto the baking sheets, in the previously drawn circles. Tap the underside of the baking sheet to remove air bubbles. Let dry at room temperature for 1 or 2 hours to allow skins to form.
6. Bake, in a 160C/325F oven for 10 to 11 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to keep the oven door slightly ajar, and rotate the baking sheet after 5 minutes for even baking.
7. Remove macarons from oven and transfer parchment to a cooling rack. When cool, slide a metal offset spatula or pairing knife underneath the macaron to remove from parchment.
8. Pair macarons of similar size, and pipe about 1/2 tsp of the filling onto one of the macarons. Sandwich macarons, and refrigerate to allow flavors to blend together. Bring back to room temperature before serving.

Bitter Sweet Chocolate Cream Ganache

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- makes about 2 cups (550 grams) -

Ingredients

8 ounces (230 grams) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Valrhona Guanaja, finely chopped
1 cup (250 grams) heavy cream
4 tablespoons (2 ounces; 60 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Procedure

1. Place the chocolate in a bowl that’s large enough to hold the ingredients and keep it close at hand. Bring the cream to a full boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. While the cream is coming to the boil, work the butter with a rubber spatula until it is very soft and creamy. Keep the butter aside for the moment.
2. While the cream is at the boil, remove the pan from the heat and, working with the rubber spatula, gently stir the cream into the chocolate. Start stirring in the center of the mixture and work your way out in widening concentric circles. Continue to stir—without creating bubbles—until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Leave the bowl on the counter for a minute or two to cool the mixture down a little before adding the butter.
3. Add the butter to the mixture in two additions, mixing with the spatula from the center of the mixture out in widening concentric circles. When the butter is fully incorporated, the ganache should be smooth and glossy. depending on what you’re making with the ganache, you can use it now, leave it on the counter to set to a spreadable or pipeable consistency (a process that could take over an hour, depending on your room’s temperature) or chill it in the refrigerator, stirring now and then. (If the ganache chills too much and becomes too firm, you can give it a very quick zap in the microwave to bring it back to the desired consistency, or just let it stand at room temperature.)

In Paris they are immensely popular. In the Netherlands they are steadily starting to pop up in different pâtisseries and even in some regular shops.I first got interested in them after reading Lucy Knisley’s French Milk and Paris Journal - look for a wonderful collection of macarons drawn here and some more in detail here. According to Wikipedia:

A macaron is a confectionery whose name is derived from an Italian word “maccarone” or “maccherone”. This word is itself derived from ammaccare, meaning crush or beat, used here in reference to the almond paste which is the principal ingredient. It is meringue-based: made from a mixture of egg whites, almond flour, and both granulated and confectionery sugar. The macaron as it is known today was called the “Gerbet” or the “Paris macaron” and is the creation of Pierre Desfontaines of the French pâtisserie Ladurée, it is composed of two almond meringue disks filled with a layer of buttercream, jam, or ganache filling.