A Spoonful of Sugar

For some time now, I've been trying to acquire a copy of Alice Medrich's "Chocolate and The Art of Low-Fat Desserts" (a mouthful of a title, if I ever heard one!), but with no success. Renee has baked several very tempting recipes from the book and they all look incredible.

After searching fruitlessly for a cheap copy of the cookbook today, I noticed that Amazon.com had quite a large excerpt from the book online which I immediately pounced upon. The Chocolate Pound Cake seemed like the perfect cake to start with and in a happy coincidence, I'd just bought some buttermilk for another cake.

The batter was very easy to prepare; there were a few moments where I did worry a little though. The butter and sugar didn't cream together as normal due to the small amount of butter in the recipe. Instead, it looked like fine crumbs of butter/sugar. However, once all the egg had been added the mixture looked pretty normal, albeit a bit thick. The mixture did curdle quite spectacularly after the first portion of buttermilk was added but it did recover by the time I finished with the batter.

Alas, it all went awry in the baking. I think I must have set the shelf in my oven one notch too low as when I opened the door after 50 minutes baking there was a thick crust on top and squidgy liquid below. I tried out Renee's tea-towel trick for a flat top to the loaf and that did seem to work, but I can't help wondering if that also extended the cooking time needed. And then when I went to take it out of the tin (after cooking it longer, until a skewer came out almost clean; and letting it rest for 10 mins), it came out in pieces. One very large piece with all the crust, a large chunk from one end and then the rest was stuck in the middle of the tin. I haven't been this upset about a cake in a long time.... After throwing a hissy fit, I patted the two large chunks together and left them to cool down. I rather morosely ate the rest of the cake that was stuck to the pan - very yummy indeed.

The cake really was very good. The chocolate flavour was intense and we have devoured the rest of the loaf (which did stuck together again after cooling). It's especially good with whipped cream! I'd definitely try making the cake again, but perhaps divide it into muffin tins for the ultimate chocolate cupcake - just imagine some ganache swirled on top!!

My gorgeous niece Maria was one year old on Monday. On Sunday she had her first birthday party at her grandparents house, complete with jelly and ice-cream! As my contribution to the festivities, I offered to make her birthday cake....

Maria absolutely adores bananas, so her mum asked me if it would be possible to make a banana cake. And indeed it was! I didn't have any banana cake recipes, only banana bread or loaves which didn't seem very suitable. So I did some searching around on the web and found a recipe from the much loved Edmunds Cookbook of New Zealand. So, for a week my kitchen became home to a very large bunch of bananas ripening to their very blackest and sweetest state.

The cake baked to a very moist and dense consistency, no doubt due to the incredibly large amount of bananas it contained. Happily the banana taste was still really pronounced after baking!! This cake would make a fantastic tea-time cake with just a simple glace icing on top, but it's also pretty fabulous when filled with buttercream and iced slightly more elaborately.

I'm happy to say that the cake was a huge hit with everyone, especially Maria! She ate up every last bite (unlike the last slice of cake she had, where she smushed it into the carpet) and proclaimed loudly that it was "nana!"

Colleys Supper Rooms describe themselves as a unique dining experience rather than a mere restaurant; having dined there last night with Dave and friends I would have to agree! The first unusual aspect comes when you are informed that you should arrive at 7:30pm for the meal to begin at 7:45pm sharp! You are required to leave equally sharply, by 11:30pm. It sounded a tad scary (or even draconian), but it was bound to be interesting at the very least....

The Supper Rooms look very mysterious from the outside with their firmly closed blinds, however, once you enter the inner sanctum you find yourself in a world of dark, sumptuous Victorian reds, complete with flocked wallpaper and oil paintings. The lace-covered tables positively groan under the sheer weight of silverware laid out upon them. It was only at this point that I realised that we would be having a six course meal!!

After being seated in a cosy little dining room with four tables (the dining area was divided into small rooms giving a very intimate feel to the evening) we gratefully accepted glasses of Colley's punch (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) from our Victorian-attired waitress. I must say that I'm still bemused as to why the aprons were pink rather than white (I'm a little picky)! The head waitress then described the evenings menu to us (yes, that's right - no written menus!) and reassured us that we didn't need to remember all the dishes as they would be presented to us so that we could make an informed decision.

We were first invited to visit a cold hors d'oeuvre table on which a selection of vegetable salads, fish mousses and couscous salad was available. I have to be honest and say that this was not a great start to the meal. It would have been very helpful to have little cards stating what each dish was as I mistook fish mousse for pate and thus did not indulge. I was assured that this did not represent the quality of the food to come though.

A basket of fresh breads arrived just before the soup course was presented to us: Cream of Cauliflower and Cheddar with Toasted Almonds. This was served in a tureen and I wound up playing "mother" to the table. The soup was fantastic - like cauliflower cheese but better! Very smooth and velvety. I felt much more positive about the evening after this....

Shortly after our soup plates were cleared two waiters came and displayed our two options for the next course. First came a beautifully presented slice of Quiche Lorraine and then an Onion Bhajee with Mint Raita. I opted for the bhajee and Dave chose the quiche to see how well it compared to mine! Alas, the quiche turned out to be average. The onion bhajee on the other hand was quite nice. Not quite as spicy as I like them, but I wouldn't expect it to be very spicy in a non-Indian restaurant. Still, very acceptable. The mint raita was particularly good - thick, not runny.

This week I am in need of some serious comfort food. The only thing I found myself wanting was some good chocolate chip cookies so I dragged myself into the kitchen to whip up a batch. Chocolate is always comforting but there's something especially comforting about a stack of chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk, don't you think?

The nice thing about these cookies is the crispy exterior and the almost truffle-textured interior that is also slightly chewy. This texture is achieved by the use of two kinds of sugar: the white (granulated) sugar creates the crisp exterior and the brown sugar aids in making the cookie chewy by absorbing (and retaining) plenty of moisture.

The cookie dough is very sturdy. I whipped up the batter on Tuesday afternoon, measured the cookies out on Wednesday morning, and finally baked them on Wednesday afternoon. The cookies are in fact better if you bake the dough from a thoroughly chilled state. You could probably keep the dough in the fridge for just under a week and bake fresh cookies every day if you wanted to! Freezing the shaped dough would also work, I'd defrost it in the fridge overnight before baking. If you wanted to get really fancy, you could roll the dough into a cylinder and then cut off cookies as and when you wanted to bake. I've never managed this successfully - maybe I need a magic knife from one of those TV infomercials that will Cut Anything!

Quiche Lorraine is one of our favourite extravagent dinners. We only eat it a few times a year due to its fattening qualities (just look at the ingredient list!). I could undoubtably lighten it, but quiche is one of those dishes that I feel should be done properly or not at all. A good quiche should have a voluptuous and rich custard that wobbles slightly when cut into. This is best achieved with copious amounts of cream and a minimum of eggs.

My recipe isn't authentic; the original Quiche Lorraine did not contain any Gruyere or other cheese. I've eaten absolutely authentic Quiche Lorraine before which was very nice, but not as voluptuous and rich as those made with plenty of cheese. I'm quite prepared to sacrifice authenticity for yumminess.

The nice thing about quiche is that you can put as much or as little effort into making it as you want. You could lovingly make your own pastry and mess around with rolling it out, or you could buy some readymade pre-rolled shortcrust pastry and use that instead. And when it comes to the filling, you could buy packets of bacon and snip them up, or you could just buy a nice pack of ready-cut lardons and cook those instead. So much easier, and it tastes just as good as one that has been utterly slaved over.

A nice addition would be sauteed onions - I believe this would then be a Quiche Alsacienne - or just omit the bacon and use a mixture of lightly sauteed vegetables for a nice vegetarian quiche.

This month's edition of "Is My Blog Burning" is hosted by Donna of There's A Chef In My Kitchen. This months theme is wines and spirits which is perfect timing as I've just decanted my home-made strawberry liqueur!

I really wanted to showcase the wonderful flavour of the liqueur (intense strawberry and burnt caramel flavour), so the first thing that sprang to mind was scenting and flavouring a crème brûlée with some to create a very adult version of strawberries and cream. Unfortunately the rest of my brain kicked in at this point and I ended up almost drowning in ideas ranging from boozy trifles to layers of strawberry and white chocolate mousse.... Eventually I came full circle last night and settled upon the crème brûlée.

The liqueur flavour was very subtle, just gently scented and flavoured which worked perfectly with the explosions of flavour from the sliced berries. The berries managed to soak up quite a lot of additional flavour from the liqueur (I felt obliged to taste them before macerating them, and afterwards too!) so they were particularly good. Unfortunately the berries all floated to the top once the custard was poured in which spoilt the look a little; next time I'd be tempted to halve the sugar and weigh down the berries with a spoonful of strawberry conserve. All in all, a successful experiment!

I promised that I'd post a picture of the finished Strawberry Liqueur and here it is. Apologies for the dreadful photo; I found it very hard to capture the true colour of the liqueur (its a much darker red than shown). The original recipe can be found here. I'd be interested to hear if anyone's tried similar recipes (or even this one) with a vodka base. We've had the same bottle of vodka lurking around for years and I should really do something with it....

Tablet is a traditional Scottish sweet which dates back to the early 18th century. If you've never had it before then you've been missing out for years! The texture is hard to describe; I'd say its somewhat like slightly grainy and crumbly fudge with a rich buttery and caramel flavour. To really understand it you'll simply have to try it for yourself....

And on that subject I must point out that making tablet is actually quite nerve-wracking and fairly dangerous. It's certainly the most dangerous thing I can remember ever doing in the kitchen. You're required to boil and then simmer a pan full of molten sugar. The mixture will be simmering at approx 116C. Not that much higher than water, you might be thinking. True! But the sugar will stick fast to your skin and give very nasty burns. So, wear long sleeved tops (no naked chefs here!) and farm your children out for the day. They'll thank you when they come home to a mountain of sugary goodness! (Telling them to stay out the kitchen won't work; the smell is simply too enticing.)

With that said, I can now reminisce in good conscience. I grew up on tablet. I don't mean it was a staple part of my diet though! I would always look forward to the summer as it was always sold at local fairs and my Granny's next-door-neighbour Nettie (who clearly loved sugar as much as I do) would often make huge batches, especially if her grandchildren were visiting. My brother and I would run round to her backdoor and get a paperbag full of tablet for ourselves which we'd savour for hours. This would simultaneously horrify mum and the dentist. When I went to highschool I found that the dinner ladies would make up a batch every month and sell it from the tuck shop. Bliss!

Despite this deep-rooted love for tablet, I'd never made it before. Until yesterday that is. I'm still not sure why I suddenly decided to make some but I did and it turned out pretty well! Dave loved it and his taste testers at work seem to like it too.