Cakes & Bakes: Blueberry pie

It’s been almost six months since I last posted a pie recipe on Cakes & Bakes. I’ve righted that wrong this week with a blueberry pie.

My recipe is a hodgepodge of three others. The blueberry pie filling is from my vintage 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook, Dinner for Two; the sweet pastry is from Dorie Granspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours and the crème Anglaise is from that catering college staple, Ceserani & Kinton’s Practical Cookery.

Much as I enjoyed this bake, if I were to make another blueberry pie, I’d do it a little differently.

Firstly, the blueberry pie filling was WAAAAY too sweet for my taste. Perhaps it wouldn’t have tasted so sweet if the pastry I’d used had been just a plain shortcrust.

Secondly, the filling recipe calls for ½ teaspoon of cinnamon; Justin liked it, but it just didn’t work for me.

Thirdly (and lastly), I had my first slice with crème Anglaise and my second (not straight after, obviously 🙂 ) with double cream. I much preferred the latter version.

Perhaps I’ll test my 3rd portion with vanilla ice cream – all in the name of research on behalf of our readers, of course!

Blueberry pie

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Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Ingredients

For the pastry

400 g/14oz plain flour
120 g/4oz icing sugar
pinch of salt
250 g/9oz very cold butter
2 egg yolks

For the filling

125 g/4½oz caster sugar
30 g/1oz plain flour
½tsp teaspoon ground cinnamon
375 g/13oz blueberries
2 tbs butter

For the crème anglaise

300 ml/½pt milk
25 g/1oz caster sugar
2 egg yolks
2-3 drops vanilla extract I used ¼tsp vanilla bean paste

Instructions

For the pastry

Put the flour, icing sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine
Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut in coarsely - you'll have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pea-size pieces and that's just fine
Stir the eggs, just to break them up, and add it them little at a time, pulsing after each addition
When the eggs are in, process in long pulses - about 10 seconds each - until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds
Just before your pastry reaches this clumpy stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change, so listen out
Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Very lightly and sparingly - make that very, very lightly and sparingly - knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing
Butter the pie dish and press the dough evenly along the bottom and up the sides of the dish and over the rim. Don't be stingy - you want a crust with a little heft because you want to be able to both taste and feel it. Also, don't be too heavy-handed - you want to press the crust in so that the pieces cling to one another and knit together when baked, but you don't want to press so hard that the crust loses its crumbly shortbread-ish texture
Freeze the pastry for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking
Preheat the oven to 175ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 4
Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminium foil and fit the foil tightly against the pastry
Bake the pastry for 25 minutes, then carefully remove the foil. If the pastry has puffed up, press it down gently with the back of a spoon
Bake for another 3 to 5 minutes. Allow to cool before adding the pie filling

For the filling

Combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon
Stir in the blueberries
Turn into pastry-lined pie dish and dot with butter
Roll out the remaining piece of pastry into a round and, using the rolling pin, carefully lower the pastry over the filling
Press the pastry lid into the pastry bottom either with your thumbs or a fork. Trim the excess and brush the top with a little milk
Bake at 175ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 4 for 25-30 minutes or until crust is brown and juice just begins to bubble through slits in the crust

For the crème anglaise

Boil the milk in a medium-sized saucepan. Allow to cool a little
Mix yolks, sugar and vanilla in a basin before adding to the milk
Put the saucepan back on a low heat and stir with a whisk or wooden spoon until the desired thickness. Do NOT boil
Pass through a fine sieve into a serving jug

Keyword blueberries, blueberry, fruit pie, pastry, pie

Cakes & Bakes: Double espresso brazil nut cake

We’ve been enjoying a very successful British summer of sport so far with Andy Murray winning Wimbledon (and Heather Watson the mixed doubles), Danny Willett taking the golf US Masters title and Chris Froome dominating the Tour de France. The England cricket team has been performing well, Lewis Hamilton leads the Formula One championship… and our Olympic prospects are looking bright.

What could we incorporate into this week’s Cakes & Bakes to mark the start of the afore mentioned Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro? Why, Brazil nuts of course!

I trawled all my cook books and the internet and eventually found Dan Lepard’s double espresso Brazil nut cake recipe in the Guardian website’s food & drink section. If you’re a fan of coffee & walnut cake, you’ll love this!

His instructions call for a coffee water icing but I found a chocolate filling that I fancied (from my Little Books of Delight: Chocolate Cakes), so I combined the two together. I also added some whole and chopped Brazil nuts to garnish the top. Serve it with a double espresso, what else?!

Click here to save this double espresso brazil nut cake recipe to Pinterest for later!

Double espresso brazil nut cake

Dan Lepard

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Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Servings 8

Ingredients

For the cake

100 ml/3½fl oz milk
2 level tsps instant coffee
1 tbsp fine-ground roasted coffee beans
175 g/7oz butter softened
100 g/4oz light soft brown sugar
100 g/4oz caster sugar
2 eggs
100 g/4oz plain flour
100 g/4oz spelt rye or wholemeal flour
2 level tsps baking powder
75 g/3oz brazil nuts finely chopped

For the chocolate cream filling

100 g/4oz butter
25 g/1oz cornflour
25 g/1oz cocoa powder
300 ml/½pt milk
50 g/2oz dark chocolate
100 g/4oz caster sugar
8 whole brazil nuts
10 g/⅓oz chopped brazil nuts

Instructions

For the cake

Butter two 20cm Victoria sponge tins and line the bases with discs of non-stick baking paper
Combine the milk, instant coffee and ground coffee in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and leave until warm
Beat the butter, brown sugar and caster sugar together until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs, one at a time
Beat in the coffee mixture until evenly combined
Sift the two flours and baking powder together two or three times, then beat this through with the chopped brazil nuts
Divide the mixture equally between the tins, heat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4 and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes
Remove from the cake tins and cool completely on a wire rack

For the filling

Cream the butter until light and fluffy
Mix the cornflour and cocoa with enough milk to make a smooth paste
Put the chocolate and remaining milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil
Pour on to the cornflour and cocoa mixture
Return to the pan and simmer for at least 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the sugar and continue to simmer until the mixture reaches the consistency of a thick custard
Cool, then gradually beat the custard into the butter
Use some of the filling to sandwich the two cake layers together before using the rest to cover the top and sides
Decorate with the whole and chopped brazil nuts

double espresso brazil nut cake ingredients

Keyword brazil nuts, cake, chocolate cake, coffee cake, layer cake

Cakes & Bakes: Apricot dartois

I’ve been looking at a tin of apricots in our store cupboard for about 2 years. Every time I opened the door it whispered, “use me, use me”, but I always reached for something else. But not this week – it was finally the apricots’ time!

I decided on a recipe from Michel Roux’s Desserts: A Lifelong Passion and made an apricot dartois.

Dartois is traditionally two layers of puff pastry with a sandwiched layer of frangipane or jam. It can occasionally contain a savoury filling.

It’s quite a simple recipe – especially if you’re using ready-made puff pastry – and the pastry cutting is very straightforward too. Don’t be put off by the precision! The amount of frangipane made in the given recipe is HUGE! I halved the recipe (what’s half of 5 eggs? I just used 3 medium-sized ones) it still made half a kilo of the stuff. I set aside the 150 grams needed for the recipe, then portioned up the rest into small lidded tubs and froze it all for use at a later date.

The resulting dartois is very attractive and very delicious. I don’t think it would look out of place in a French pâtisserie’s shop window!

I used tinned apricots, but peaches, pears, plums or figs also work really well. If you’ve got fresh fruit, you can easily poach it beforehand in syrup.

Serve warm or cold with a fruit coulis, cream or ice cream.

Apricot dartois

Michel Roux

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Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Ingredients

For the frangipane [Makes 1.15kg/2lbs 10oz. I halved the recipe and still had enough for 3 portions]

250 g/9oz butter at room temperature
500 g/1lb 2oz 'tant pour tant' equal quantities of ground almonds and icing sugar sifted together
50 g/2oz plain flour
5 eggs
50 ml/2 fl oz rum optional

For the dartois

1 500g pack of ready-made puff pastry or you could make your own
150 g/5oz frangipane (ingredients above)
eggwash 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 soup spoon of milk and a pinch of salt
1 tin apricot halves drained (or you could poach your own)
Icing sugar for dusting

Instructions

For the frangipane

Beat the butter until very soft
Still beating, add the tant pour tant and flour
Add the eggs - one at a time - beating well between each addition until the frangipane is light an homogeneous
Stir in the rum

For the dartois

On a lightly floured work surface, roll 225g/8oz of the pastry into a 27cm x 12cm/11" x 5" rectangle
Roll this pastry around the rolling pin, then unroll it on to a baking sheet lightly dampened with cold water. Prick the pastry with a fork
Using a spoon, spread the frangipane along the length of the pastry leaving a clear 2cm/¾" border on either side
Brush these pastry borders with egg-wash
Pat dry the apricots and arrange them on the frangipane
Roll out the remaining pastry into a 27cm x 13cm/11" x 5½" rectangle
Fold the pastry in half lengthways without applying pressure
Make incisions down the length of the pastry about every 4mm/⅙" with the heel of a chef's knife, leaving a 2cm/¾" strip intact on the two outside edges
Unfold the pastry into its original shape and drape it over the rolling pin and unroll it on to the apricot-filled rectangle
Lightly press the edges together with your fingertips and refrigerate the dartois for 30 minutes
Preheat the oven to 175ºC/345ºF/gas mark 4
Using a chef's knife, trim off about 3mm/⅛" in pastry along the length of the rectangle
Delicately and sparingly brush the top of the pastry with egg wash
Liberally brush the sides with more egg wash
With the tip of a small, sharp knife, make light, diagonal incisions in the borders, then along the edges
Bake for 25 minutes. Increase the temperature to 195ºC/380ºF/gas mark 6, dust the dartois with icing sugar and return it to the oven for 1-2 minutes, or place it under a hot salamander/grill for a few seconds until beautifully glazed

Roux recommends serving it with a little jug of red fruit coulis. I prefer it with pouring cream.

Adapted from Desserts: A Lifelong Passion

Keyword apricot, dartois, frangipane, pastry

Cakes & Bakes: Peanut butter baked cheesecake

It’s Justin’s 50^th birthday today so, of course, I had to make him a birthday cake.

I made a peanut butter baked cheesecake – seeing as cheesecake is his favourite kind of cake, and he’s quite partial to peanut butter too.

I also wanted to try out a tip that I found on the internet this week. Apparently, instead of using a Wilton Bake Even Strip (which helps keep your cake level and prevent a cracked top), you can wrap the sides of the tin with a wet cloth or tea towel.

It worked pretty well, there was a slight bulge to one side of the top which I put down to the overlap of the cloth. Next time I’ll use a cloth cut down to fit the circumference exactly. So long as the cloth is very wet, it won’t burn in the oven. Elasticated cloth, or nylon/polyester fabric probably wouldn’t work very well in the heat of an oven; stick with cotton or linen.

The plain chocolate digestive biscuits gave just that bit of extra depth of flavour over plain digestives, and baking the base for 10 minutes gave it a ‘biscuity’ taste and texture.

I used mascarpone, but you can use Philadelphia or any other plain, full-fat cream cheese.

The results were delicious – a rich, indulgent treat.

There’s only one slice left – that must mean that the birthday boy approves!

Peanut butter baked cheesecake

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Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 6

Ingredients

For the base

150 g/5oz plain chocolate digestive biscuits
30 g/1oz butter melted

For the filling

250 g/9oz mascarpone cheese
2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
100 g/3½oz caster sugar
150 g/3oz crunchy peanut butter
60 ml/2fl oz soured cream
½ tbsp cornflour

For the topping

125 g/4½oz soured cream
50 g/2oz dark chocolate
15 g/½oz caster sugar
3 tbsp mixed chopped toasted nuts optional

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/325°F/as mark 3
Grease & line and 22cm diameter spring form tin

For the base

Using a food processor, grind the plain chocolate digestives into fine crumbs
Add in the melted butter and combine well
Tip the mixture into the prepared tin pressing down firmly & evenly using a cold metal spoon to form a level base
Put the base into the oven for 10 minutes, when cool put it into the fridge to set

For the filling

After washing out the processor bowl, use it to combine the mascarpone, eggs, yolk, sugar, peanut butter, soured cream and cornflour to a smooth consistency
Pour the mixture into the over the base and bake for 30-40 minutes until just set
Allow to cool for half an hour on a wire rack before putting the tin into the fridge to chill

For the topping

In a small saucepan, gently warm the soured cream, chocolate and sugar stirring to form a smooth sauce
Pour the mixture on top of the cold cheesecake and allow it to set in the fridge
When cooled & set, run a sharp knife around the edge of the tin before easing the cake carefully
Finish with a sprinkling of mixed chopped toasted nuts (optional)

Keyword baked cheesecake, cake, cheesecake, nuts, peanut butter, peanuts

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: dessert

Cakes & Bakes: Blueberry pie

Blueberry pie

Ingredients

For the pastry

For the filling

For the crème anglaise

Instructions

For the pastry

For the filling

For the crème anglaise

Cakes & Bakes: Double espresso brazil nut cake

Double espresso brazil nut cake

Ingredients

For the cake

For the chocolate cream filling

Instructions

For the cake

For the filling

Cakes & Bakes: Apricot dartois

Apricot dartois

Ingredients

For the frangipane [Makes 1.15kg/2lbs 10oz. I halved the recipe and still had enough for 3 portions]

For the dartois

Instructions

For the frangipane

For the dartois

Cakes & Bakes: Peanut butter baked cheesecake

Peanut butter baked cheesecake

Ingredients

For the base

For the filling

For the topping

Instructions

For the base

For the filling

For the topping