Showing posts with label cranberry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cranberry. Show all posts

White Chocolate Chip Fruity Brioche Muffins

Perhaps I should call them Bruffins or something? Start a new mash-up trend! Mash-up’s are fun, but what makes a mash-up? This is brioche made in a muffin tin and therefore looks like a muffin. It also has common muffin ingredients like the chocolate chips and dried fruit. Works for me as a mash-up, however, I will still call it a Chocolate Chip Fruity Brioche Muffin. No, bruffins here! Or worse Muioche’s … not even sure how one would pronounce that.

Also I am sure somewhere out there in the foodie world someone else has made brioche in their muffin pan/tin way before me. In this world of food it’s hard to be completely original.

Inspiration comes from everywhere. A recipe I found in a magazine a couple years ago inspired these brioche muffins. As I become a more confident baker I am able to change and adapt recipes to suit my tastes and needs.

 It was this recipe clipping and my recent baking day with my friend Jen, fellow baker and blogger, that encouraged me to make these deliciously light, chocolaty, and fruity brioche muffins!

They were loved and enjoyed by everyone who tried one, which was me, my daughters, me, one of the neighbors, and me again…. Sweetbreads are dangerous in this house!

To bring the danger to yours here’s how I made them. I used a stand mixer, but you don’t need one.


White Chocolate Chip Fruity Brioche Muffins

100g mixed dried fruit; cranberries, cherries, blueberries, strawberries
1-2 tsp vodka (or juice)
500g ‘00’ flour, sifted
100g golden caster sugar
2 x7g sachets fast action yeast
pinch of salt
200ml milk, gently warmed
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g unsalted butter, very soft and cubed
100g white chocolate chips
100g white chocolate, melted

Soak the dried fruit in vodka or juice and set aside. Sift the flour directly in the stand mixer bowl or in a large bowl and add the sugar, yeast, and a pinch of salt. Be sure to put the salt and yeast on separate sides of the bowl. Salt can kill the yeast.
In a jug combine the milk, which should be warm to the touch you don’t want it too hot as it too could kill the yeast, too cold and it won’t work either, gently whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. Attach the dough hook and start mixing on low. Slowly add the liquid mixture. Use a wooden spoon to first bring the mixture together before kneading by hand. Mix in the mixer for 10 minutes, knead for about 10 minutes give or take a few minutes. It should be soft and stringy.
While the mixer is still running or while you’re kneading slowly add the butter cube by cube. Make sure each cube is completely incorporated before adding the next. The dough should look glossy. Place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a clean damp towel and leave to rise for one hour or until doubled in size.

Lightly grease each muffin indent with butter. Once the dough has risen gently knock it back, still in the bowl, by pressing your fist into it. Dust the counter top with a little bit of flour before turning out the dough onto the surface and give it another knock or two before folding in the dried fruit and chocolate chips.
Divide the dough into 12 pieces and using your fingertips fold each dough piece into a little ball before dropping into the prepared muffin tin/pan indents. Cover again with a clean damp towel, I used shot glasses to prop up the towel so it wasn't resting directly on the pan. Leave for an hour a little more or less until the dough has doubled in size.

Heats the oven to 190C, once heated bake the brioche muffins for 20-25 minutes until toasty brown on the top. They should feel slightly hollow when tapped.

Melt the white chocolate in your preferred melting method, either in a heatproof bowl over simmering water or in the microwave, be sure to check in 5 or 10 second intervals. Gently spoon the melted chocolate over the cooled brioche muffins.



notes: this recipe is adapted from Jamie Magazine issue 44 December 2013. 
These Brioche Muffins have been entered in these challenges:
Bready Steady Go – hosted by Jen's Food with Utterly Scrummy 
Recipe Clippings – with Farmersgirl Kitchen
ABC Bakes – hosted by Caroline Makes with the more than occasional baker (brought to us by the letter 'B'. B is for Brioche) 




February Round Up: The Going On's and Happenings on United Cakedom

This month started out with flapjacks! I added some chocolate covered cranberries I had picked up at Home Sense. I love that store. It’s dangerous every time I go in there because I always come out with something. They have you backed into a corner because if you find something you like, the chances of them being there when you go back can be slim to none!


Then Sainsbury’s set me their panna cotta mix to try out. I decided to infuse the milk and double cream with black pepper and topped it with caramelized peaches and a drizzle of caramel sauce. It was delicious and inspired by an ice cream I had at an innocent (smoothie) event I attended a couple years ago.


For Valentine’s Day I made a no-bake Chocolate Cherry Tart! It was rich and delicious… one thin slice is all anyone could manage in one sitting. So no one had to worry about pits I used a Cherry Pitter from OXO Good Grips that they sent me to use.


I also received a copy of Deliciously Decorated by Charlotte White to review. The book is full of great decorating tips and tricks! The Giacomo Casanova: Venetian Romance design was my inspiration for these cupcakes:


Other things that inspire me are books!! This month I made Silky’s Pop Cakes inspired by The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton. My girls really enjoyed eating something they read about from the book we've been reading before bed.


Speaking of my girls my littlest one turned 5 in the middle of the month and she requested a turquoise butterfly cake. I did my best and she was happy with the result!


February is full of birthdays including my friend Cathy who turned 30! She has a love of Lucky Charms and so as a special birthday treat I made her Lucky Charm Bark! I think she was pretty happy with it! I tried some too and it was pretty tasty, but mostly I loved the colors!


And last but not least I wrote my first Five on Friday in months! I hope to be better at keeping it up and it becomes a regular thing. I brought it back with five pans and tools that I bought, but have yet to use! I get all these great ideas and I buy things I NEED to make said great idea. However, things don’t always go to plan! Does this happen to you too?


That’s all for February!! March is going to be a bit book heavy as I've been doing a lot of reading! There are reviews and cake and brownies and much more!  

Chocolate Covered Cranberry Flapjacks {not pancakes, but chewy granola bars}

If I were asked how to describe a flapjack I would say it was a chewy granola bar. However if a flapjack is baked for a bit longer it ceases to be flapjack any more it becomes a granola bar.

Granola Bars are usually baked longer and are crunchy, but where I come from we have chewy granola bars. Which are flapjacks.

When I was a young girl in America I loved a chewy chocolate chip granola bar. It was probably more like a chocolate candy bar, but you know. We didn't call them flapjacks because in America “flapjacks” are a slang term or sort of nickname for pancakes.

However I no longer think of flapjacks as pancakes. It’s one of the few words that I have adopted since living in the UK.

There are very few words I have adopted; I still say sidewalk, garbage, zucchini and pants. That last one does get me in trouble occasionally. My girls are at the age where things like “pants” or “knickers” are funny. So, I have started to get giggles when I tell them to get dressed and pick out a pair of pants.

No idea why some words have changed and some haven’t I say “chips” for both crisps and French fries to which my husband understands in context. If I say “We’re having fish and chips for dinner” he knows I mean French fries and if I say I want chips and dip he knows I mean crisps. Sometimes he does clarify just to be sure.

No matter if these are called flapjacks or chewy granola bars they are still chewy and they are still good. So, you should make them and eat them.


Chocolate Covered Cranberry Flapjacks

250g butter
200g golden caster sugar
50g demerara sugar
175g golden syrup
500g jumbo oats
200g of chocolate covered dried cranberries

Heat the oven to 180C/350F and line and grease a 20 or 23 cm (8 or 9 inch) square pan or whatever size you have.
Heat the butter, both sugars, and golden syrup in a medium saucepan until the butter is melted don’t let it boil too much if the butter is almost melted take off the heat and stir it until the butter is completely melted.
Add the jumbo oats and stir to coat.
Fold in the chocolate covered cranberries.
Pour into the prepared pan and press down. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes remember if you bake them too long they are granola bars, not flapjacks.
Remember they set as they cool so even if they are looking a bit soft it’s okay. Score before they cool completely.


If you like this post you may like these:






notes: I made these with dark, milk, and white chocolate covered dried cranberries I found at a TK Max if you don’t have chocolate covered cranberries substitute with chocolate chips and dried cranberries in any combination of weight you want to add up to about 200g combined. I looked for a flapjack recipe online and in my library of cookbooks this recipe is a mix of what I found. I didn't use just one recipe. 

Creamy Cranberry Pie with a Pretzel Crust

This is an awkward post to write. The pie looks beautiful and it tastes good. However it’s not what I was expecting.

Expectations can make or break anything.

If there is a movie that has great reviews saying it’s the funniest movie in a decade; naturally the expectations will be high for a hilarious movie. Once the movie has been viewed and there was only a laugh here or there, disappointment will inevitably follow.

If reviews hadn't been seen previous to viewing the same hypothetical movie, the laughs may have been the same, but as there were no expectations there wouldn't be any disappointment.

I wanted this pie to be more cranberry and less cream cheesey. There was a lack of tartness that I was expecting from the cranberries to balance out the cream cheese and whipping cream.

It could have been because I used homemade cranberry sauce or it could just be the recipe? Plus the recipe for the filling made way too much. Almost enough for a whole other pie!


I saw the recipe in a Better Home and Gardens magazine I picked up when I was in America and immediately knew I wanted to make it. It looked like the perfect addition to any Thanksgiving dessert menu. My expectations were high being a Better Home and Gardens recipe as my sister swears by them.

Saying that this isn't a bad pie, it is definitely creamy so it delivers on the title. It also reminds me more of a cranberry cheesecake than that of a cranberry pie.


Plus, the salty pretzel crust is amazing and it does help balance the sweet creaminess of the pie.

It’s not bad! I just wanted it to be something different!

The recipe is available on the Better Home and Gardens site here, if you are interested in making it for your holiday season. Hey, you never know after reading this your expectations may be extremely low and therefore it will taste pretty darn good.

If I were to tweak it I would start by possibly halving all the ingredients. Then I think I would eliminate the sugar from the pie filling. The reason being that there is a lot of sugar in the homemade cranberry sauce and I don’t know that the pie actually needed it.



notes: If you are interested in this recipe in grams and milliliters instead of ounces and cups let me know I did convert it! 

Cranberries! Cranberries! Cranberries! {sauce, butter, sugared}


The only time I have used cranberries in my baking was for granola bars and I think once in cookies. They aren't a berry I tend to think of very much. I thought now, with Thanksgiving and then Christmas around the corner, it would be as good as time as any to change that.

Here are 3 ways I used fresh cranberries in preparation for my holiday dinners! 


Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving without a side of cranberry sauce. When I was young, the very look of the stuff put me off even wanting to try it. It was a weird red jelly like subsistence that came from a can. And even weirder people ate it with turkey. My younger self thought that very odd. Since I have started cooking my own Thanksgiving dinners I have understood better what the side dish could really add to a turkey dinner! Or to a turkey sandwich... umnum! 

I thought this Thanksgiving I would try making my own cranberry sauce from scratch. It is a very simple process and the cranberries themselves contain enough pectin to thicken without having to add any gelatin.


Cranberry Sauce

454g fresh cranberries
400g sugar
450ml water

Wash and rinse the cranberries removing any smooshie cranberries or stems.
Weigh out the sugar and add the water into a medium saucepan and heat on a low/medium heat. Stir occasionally until the sugar dissolves.
Add the cranberries. Turn up the heat slightly and watch as the cranberries start to burst! Once they are all burst and the sauce is slightly thickened, then take off the heat and chill for at least 3 hours. I jarred the sauce in 4 old jam jars. It makes quite a bit, but all the more to share with friends and family! Or just half the recipe!



Instead of offering a side of cranberry sauce with your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner why not offer a slice of cranberry butter! It works great on any dinner roll or spread on turkey! Or even better for those leftover turkey sandwiches! 

This cranberry butter makes a great gift too! If you don’t think you will need as much as this recipe please feel free to half it. It will keep in the fridge for a week and frozen for about 6 months as long as it’s properly wrapped and stored.

Cranberry Butter

250g unsalted butter
150g cranberry sauce

Beat the butter and cranberry sauce together for a few minutes until fully combined. It may look like it won’t come together, but keep beating it, it will come together!


Another way to use fresh cranberries is to make them all sugary! It works as a great way to top pies and cakes and other baked treats!! This is a little sticky and I used light corn syrup, which isn’t readily available in the UK. If you have a big Tescos near you that has a world food section, they sell it there. It’s where I found mine. You could try using golden syrup, but it has a yellowy tint, so not 100% sure how it would work?

Sugared Cranberries

cranberries
light corn syrup
sugar, granulated

The amount of each depends on how many you need or want for the baked treat you are making.
Lightly brush with a pastry brush a cranberry with the corn syrup and then immediately roll in the sugar. Set aside or unto your baked good!


Up next week Creamy Cranberry Pie! 

Home Baking by Jo Wheatley {book review & rocky road}

She's done it again! It's only been a year since Jo Wheatley's first book hit the stands and already we have a lovely second installment of Home Baking!!

After reading Jo's books, blog, and following her on other social media sites I can't help but love her down-to-earth personality and family style baking. Following her progress from her win on the GBBO it's hard not to feel like I know her personally as she lets us into her life and kitchen.

I would particularly recommend Home Baking to anyone who may feel a bit unsure about baking in general. Jo's approach is so reassuring and comforting as she assures us that anyone can bake! Saying that there is plenty here for the experienced baker as well.

The book is broken down into ten chapters starting with Biscuits, Bars, and Cookies; Bread and Scones; Cakes; Baking with Children; Crumbles, Tarts, and Pithiviers; Quiches, Pasties, Pies and Savoury Puddings; Quick and Simple Special Occasions; Supper Bakes; and Teatime Treats!

Here is a list of the recipes I can't wait to try:

Oaty Fruit Squares
Blueberry Brioche Rolls
Cheesy Tear and Share
Potato Bread
Parmesan and Pesto Fantail Loaf
Banana, Pecan, and Butterscotch Cake
Lime and Coconut Tray Bake
Lemon, White Chocolate, and Macadamia Bombs
Cheesy Mini Ketchup Scones
Apricot Frangipane
Chicken and Mango Empanadas
Basic Scones
Rocky Road (recipe below)
Apple Turnovers
Fruit and Nut Brownies
Tempura Mustard Sausages
Valentine's Salted Caramel Chocolate Pots
Mince Bakewell Tart
Banoffee Eclairs (pictured)

The list above is massive, but I was looking for something quick and simple for our bank holiday weekend and the Rocky Road was just what we needed. It's such a versatile recipe here is how I made it with Jo's guidance...

Rocky Road: 
400g milk chocolate, chopped
handful of mini marshmallows
3 broken biscuits; digestives or anything you have hanging round
handful of Rice Krispies

Other fillings: *what I used
*Maltesers
Chocolate Bars: Mars, Snickers etc...
Turkish Delight
Rolos, *Galaxy Caramel bites, Munchies. Revels
Dried Fruits: apricos, *cranberries, mango, sour cherries, blueberries

Line a 23cm/8in deep, square baking tin before melting the chocolate in your preferred method. In a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water or carefully in the microwave in 10-second bursts. Stir until smooth and leave to cool slightly.
In a big bowl, if your melting bowl isn't big enough, place your marshmallows, broken biscuits, Rice Krispies, and chosen fillings (chop into bite-sized pieces if they aren't already). Carefully pour the chocolate over the fillings and gently stir until coated. Spoon mixture into prepared tin and chill until solid. Cut into squares with a knife warmed in hot water.


Every time I make Rocky Road I acquire new friends. Fact. It's so easy I get embarrassed with the praise I get for making it. I can't wait to try some more of Jo's gorgeous looking recipes! What have you already made? I would love to know what to try next!


notes: like last time Home Baking is only available at Sainsbury's (£8, RRP £16.99) in store or online! For recipes and competitions follow Jo on Facebook and her site Jo's Blue Aga! She's also on Twitter (@JoanneWheatley) and if you tweet her a picture of anything you bake from her books, she is very likely to re-tweet or reply (this is from my own experience). A Passion for Baking, Jo's first book is also a great addition to any book shelf, last time I was in Sainsbury's they had a great price on it! It is now also available (in a  sparkling new cover!) in all good bookshops! My review on A Passion for Baking!

True Blood Martini!! {weekend baking w/Janet}


Martini: 

6 ounces vodka
2 ounces triple sec or flavored orange liqueur
8 ounces fresh squeezed blood orange juice (2.5 blood oranges)
8 ounces cranberry juice 

Shake ingredients, with ice, until well mixed.  Pour into martini glasses. Garnish with a blood orange slice, if desired. Makes about 6 servings.
 
I added a TRUE Blood label to my carafe.


This series on HBO is terrible. The acting is bad, so bad it's almost comedic. Actually, it IS funny, so that's why my friend and I watch it. The martini's have made the series even more enjoyable! ;) 
The HBO series is based on Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series. The series is a good, easy, entertaining read, but as usual the book is better then the movie. I mean the books are better then the series! . ~Janet