SUMMER PUDDING

It has been ages since we published a post here, but we have been sticking to really simple recipes since covid. And days are so busy with work...

Still, we did this for a weekend meal by the seasid and it came out really well (despite we used mostly frozen fruit) so we thought we would post it. Summer pudding is one of my favourite desserts. When we lived in London I used to buy individual summer puddings - one of the many many things I miss from London while living in the USA. 

You need: 

- 1 kg of frozen berries 

- ideally this is done with red currants, but since we could not find them here we added 200g of cape gooseberries (cut in half) for acidity.

 - 175 g sugar

- 2 tbsp of water

- a small loaf of stale white bread (without the crust)

Put the sugar and water in a pan and cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes until the mixture becomes transparent. Add the fruit and cook it all for another couple of minutes until the fruit is soft. Remove some of the juice with a ladle and set it aside. Let it all cool down. 

Line a pudding bowl with cling film and then with the bread (using a combination of squares and triangles).  Tip the fruit in it. Cover it with more bread (cut a circle with four squares of bread of the same dimensions as the top of the bowl). Cover the pudding with the cling film. Put a small plate on top of it and a couple of heavy cans on top of the plate - leave it in the fridge overnight. 

When you are going to serve it, put a deep plate on top of the pudding and turn it upside down (get rid of the cling film). Pour a bit of the left-over juice on top and serve it with cream. 

COCONUT FLAPJACKS

This recipe is for Dane, who had not eaten flapjacks before I made them. For those of you who are not British, flapjacks are a staple treat in the UK. For some reason they have a reputation of being on the healthy side, which is insane if you look at the amount of butter and syrup they have. But certainly better than a frosted cake. 

You need: 

- 200 g butter

- 6 tablespoons golden syrup. If you cannot get golden syrup just try a combination of corn syrup and brown sugar.

- 320 g oats

- 3 tablespoons shredded coconut

- 2 tablespoons dried cranberries (chopped thinly)

- 2 tablespoons linseed 

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees (350 F). Combine all the ingredients but the butter and syrup in a bowl. Separately put the butter and syrup in a pan and heat it until the butter melts (best way to do this is greasing the spoon a little bit with a flavourless vegetable oil first). Add the butter and syrup to the dry ingredients, mix, and put it all in a tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden. 

When you take the tray off the oven, score them into squares with a sharp knife. As soon as they get cold you can cut them along the knife marks.  

You can substitute the coconut and cranberries but any other dried fruit you fancy. But you may want to keep the linseed, as it gives the flapjacks a really nice crunch.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

These are always a winner, even amongst Americans who, let's face it, are so much better than us (N.B.- this is a 'European inclusive us' not a 'British nationalistic us') at chocolate chip cookies. The original recipe is from Mary Berry for cookies three ways, but the chocolate ones are by far the most popular 'chez nous' - and we have altered the recipe a tiny bit to make them less sweet over time.

You need:
175 soft butter
175 plain flour
55 g of sugar (the original recipe calls for more, but they come out too sweet for my taste)
75 semolina
70 g dark chocolate chips (or less if you follow the original recipe and do not like the bitter taste of dark chocolate)

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees, Mix all the ingredients but the chocolate in a food processor (pulse it). Then mix the chocolate chips by hand. Make little balls with the dough, put them on a lined baking tray, press them down with your fingers to flatten them and bake for 12 minutes.

If you want softer cookies replace the semolina with plain flour and add a teaspoon of corn starch.

MINT AND STRAWBERRY ICE LOLLIES

I have been given a silicone ice lolly mould, which is such an improvement on the traditional hard plastic ones. There are countless combinations of fruit purees and yogurts that make nice lollies. One of my favourite ones is this:

- Make fresh mint tea by pouring boiling water over mint leaves (I use 'hierbabuena' which is slightly more delicate and floral than mint, simply because I grow it, which is easy because it grows abundantly and anywhere). Take out the leaves. Add a squeeze of honey and let it cool down.
- Separately mash the strawberries with a potato masher.
- Pour a bit of the strawberries on each lolly mould. Fill them in with the mint tea and let them freeze for 4-5 hours.

LEMON AND CONDENSED MILK CAKE

And yet another lemon cake, this one with condensed milk, which gives it a really nice texture, and it means it lasts easily for two or three days.
You need:
- a small can of condensed milk (397g)
- five eggs
- 250 g flour
- two teaspoons of baking powder
- half a teaspoon of salt
- a teaspoon of vanilla essence
- 140 g sugar
- zest of two and a half lemons
- two tablespoons of lemon juice
- 275 g butter (room temperature)

Preheat the oven at 170 degrees.
Grease and flour the tin (we use a bundt cake one, but it will work no matter the shape).
Beat together the sugar with the butter with an electric whisk. Then add the eggs (one by one). Add the condensed milk, followed by the vanilla essence, lemon zest and lemon juice.  Separately mix the flour, baking powder and salt  (it helps if you sift it, but again, no big deal if you don't). Mix the flour mixture with the rest of the ingredients (folding it). Bake for 50 minutes to an hour.

LEMON BISCUITS

Still having too many lemons - so here goes another simple and really delicious recipe with them. It takes no time at all  - I made these for some guests who were coming for coffee just forty minutes before they arrived and I still had spare time.

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees.

You need:

-210 g plain flour

- 115 g butter (room temperature)

- one egg

- zest of a lemon

- juice of half a lemon

- half a teaspoon of baking powder

- half a teaspoon of salt 

- one egg

- a teaspoon of vanilla essence

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Separately mix the butter and sugar, beat well, then add the egg, and then add the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla essence. Add the flour mixture, mixing it all well. Put spoonfuls of the mixture on an oven tray covered with baking paper. Bake for 13-15 minutes.

If you want to make these even nicer make a simple glaze with 100 g of powdered sugar and around five tablespoons of lemon juice, just mixing it all well (it helps if you sift the powdered sugar, but don't bother if you are in a rush). Just pour the glazing with a spoon over the biscuits when they are cold (I cannot stand glazing, which is after all pure sugar, so I put as little as possible and don't bother about making them pretty - in fact the more uneven they are the more home-made they look) 

LEMON MOUSSE

We are on a lemon recipes roll. This one is incredibly simple.  You just need:
- a jar of lemon curd (either make it with our recipe http://www.mumandsons.com/2015_05_03_archive.html or buy a good quality one)
- 2 egg whites
- 200 ml double cream
- 100 gr sugar (I do not like this -or anything else- too sugary, but you can add more sugar if you have a sweet tooth)

Whip the egg whites. Add the sugar (one spoonful at a time) while you keep whipping so that you get a meringue like consistency.  Separately whip the cream to soft peaks.  Add one spoonful of egg whites to the lemon curd and mix well. Then fold in carefully the rest of the eggs whites. Finally fold in the whipped cream. Pour the mixture into individual glasses, cover with cling film and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Take it off the fridge for 20 minutes before you are going to eat it. You can decorate it with blueberries, raspberries, lemon zest or mint.

LEMON MUFFINS

And yet one more recipe with lemons. You need:
- 300 g plain flour
- a pinch of salt
- one and a half teaspoons of baking powder
- half a teaspoon of bicarb.
- 200 g sugar
- 2 eggs
- zest and juice of one and a half lemons
- 85 ml milk
- 115 gr butter (melted)

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients but the sugar (flour, salt, baking powder and bicarb). Then mix separately the sugar, eggs, zest and juice of lemons, butter and milk. Combine both sets of ingredients loosely with a fork (do not over mix them). Put the mixture into muffin cases (10 very big ones or 12 normal ones) and bake for 25 minutes.

LEMON CURD PAVLOVAS

Made this for Easter, partly because I have a surplus of lemons (a problem I never thought I would have!) and partly because they resemble eggs. They could not be easier to make:

For the mini pavlovas you need 

four egg whites
250 gr sugar
a pinch of salt
one tsp of cornflour
250 ml double cream

Whisk the egg whites with the salt for a few minutes (with an electric mixer or by hand) until they form hard peaks. Add the sugar - one spoonful at a time while you keep whisking. Sprinkle the cornflour on top and fold them carefully over the egg whites. Put dollops of this on a piece of baking paper. Bake them on a preheated over at 180 degrees. As soon as you put the egg whites in the oven turn it down to 150 degrees and leave them for 35 minutes. Then just open the door of the oven and let it cool down completely.

For the lemon curd follow our recipe here:http://www.mumandsons.com/2015_05_03_archive.html 

To assemble them: whip the cream until you get soft peaks. Put a spoonful of cream on top of each merengue and top it up with a teaspoonful of lemon curd.

TORRIJAS

Long time since I last posted here, but setting up in a new country has taken a while.

These are called 'torrijas', an Easter dessert that is eaten all over Spain, and they are divine. Nobody in my family (by which I mean no women, because men did not cook - surprise!) made them when I was little, but once every year la señora Paca in my village would make big trays of these and give us one. They are perfect for  Easter, because they feel properly sinful after all that Lent restraint.  Think of them like the much better version of French toast: made with delicately flavoured milk, fluffy not mushy, and with a hint of honey at the very end.

You need:
Stale bread (proper crusty bread) cut in thick slices - it really has to be stale, so buy it, cut it and leave it in a cupboard for a couple of days.
250 ml milk
150 ml sugar
peel of a lemon
a cinnamon stick
a teaspoon of vanilla essence
two eggs, beaten
two tablespoon of honey
Unflavoured oil (sunflower or alike) - a very generous amount
150 ml water

Start by preparing the flavoured milk the night before you are going to make these: just bring to the boil the milk, cinnamon stick, lemon peel, 50 g of sugar and vanilla; put it in a sealed container and let it cool down (in the fridge) over night.

Heat the oil in a frying pan (over medium heat). Soak the bread properly into the flavoured milk (the bread should absorb as much milk as possible), then coat the bread with the beaten egg and fry until they are golden on both sides. Don't bother putting them on kitchen paper when you take them out of the pan to get rid of excess oil: you only eat these once a year, so 'excess' is the whole point of them.

You can prepare the honey syrup  by just combining the water, 100 ml sugar and honey and boiling it  for 15 minutes over low heat. The nicer way to do this (and indeed most other syrups) is to prepare a caramel with the sugar, honey and a teaspoon of water (just put it over low heat and wait without stirring until it becomes golden), then add carefully the rest of the water and boil for 8-10 minutes. You can also add a teaspoon of whisky or cognac to the water and caramel (before you boil it), which obviously makes the syrup even better. Let the syrup cool down a little and pour over the torrijas.

These are eaten at room temperature.

FLAVOURED MILK MOUSSE

This is the easiest dessert I know - but you need a siphon ( which you can get for 25 quid). You can also serve it on its own, with berries on the side, with tuiles or beside any simple cake.

You need
- 400 ml single cream
- 100 ml milk (if you like a denser consistency just use 500 ml single cream)
- a stick of cinnamon
- peel of a lemon
- three table spoons of sugar

Heat all the ingredients together until it is about to boil. Take if off the heat, let it cool down and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. Just before you are going to serve it, strain the mixture  though a colander, put it in the siphon, add two charges of air and serve. I normally put some powdered cinnamon and candied lemon peel on top of it, but it is purely for decoration, so no need to bother.

Kids enjoy being how the siphon works, but be very careful if you let them use itas it works with pressure, so you need to manipulate it with extreme care.

ECLAIRS - PETISUS

In my village these are called 'petisus' with an accent in the 'u'. I suppose this comes from the french 'petit-choux' as they are little bits of choux pastry filled with cream, but where I come from we are not good at languages, so 'petisus' it is. Our local bakery sells them with three types of icing: dark chocolate, white chocolate and caramel. And pretty much any celebration in the village happens with a big tray of these, so they epitomise happiness to me.

You need:
For the pastry:
- 65 ml milk
- 70 g plain flour
- 70 g butter
- 3 eggs
- a pinch of salt

For the cream: 
- 540 ml milk
- 60 ml cream
- 4 egg yokes
- 50 gr corn flour
- 120 sugar
- a teaspoon of vanilla extract

For the icing:
- 150 ml double crem
- 200 g dark chocolate

Start with the cream. Heat 400 ml of milk, the cream and vanilla extract until it is about to boil. Separately mix the rest of the milk with the corn flour and disolve it well. Mix the egg yokes and sugar beating well until they get frothy. Mix the egg mixture with the cornflour mixture, still mixing it well. Finally, add the warm milk to the eggs and cornflour mixture. Put it all back in a pan over low heat (while you keep stirring it) until becomes thick. Take it off the heat, put it in a piping bag and put it in the fridge until it gets cold (you can do this the night before you are going to make the petisus) 

Heat the oven at 180 degrees. Put a tray with water in the lowest part of the oven so that the oven produces steam.

Put the butter and the milk in a pan over low heat until the butter is melted. Add the flour and salt (all in one go) and beat well with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and wait for 10 minutes so that the mixture cools down. Beat 2 eggs and add them in little bits (you may not need all of it) Put the mixture into a pipping bag.

Pipe little strips of the mixture on a tray covered with silicone. Push down any peaks by patting them carefully with a wet finger. Beat the remaining egg and paint each blob with the egg wash. Bake for 22 minutes. make a little cut at the side of each strip as you take them out of the oven.

Finally make the icing by putting the chocolate and cream in a pan over low heat until the chocolate dissolves and you get a glossy mixture (around three minutes)

Pipe the cream into each strip of choux pastry and coat each one with the chocolate. 

Wait for 20 minutes or so until the chocolate gets hard and eat. 

PLUM TART

These are so simple, and yet so handy when you parents in law decide to come for tea unannounced and you have not bought any cake. All you need is:

- A sheet of puff pastry
- 3 plums
- 8 teaspoons of brown sugar
- one egg

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
Cut the puff pastry in 8 squares. Cut two 'L's inside each square alongside the borders. Flip each 'cut border' to the other side . Beat an egg and paint the borders of the pastry. Cut the plums in slices and arrange them inside each square. Sprinkle a teaspoon of brown sugar on top of each tart. Bake for 20 minutes (watch them carefully as they burn easily... as you can see with one of them in the picture!)

CHOUQUETTES

While this year I am working this week, for many years I used to spend a few days at the beginning of August in France. Nothing reminds me more of La Republique than going to a bakery early in the morning to buy croissants and chouquettes - vive La France! While making croissants in a pain in... the neck, making chouquettes is very easy indeed.
You need:
- 65 ml milk
- 70 g plain flour
- 70 g butter
- 3 eggs
- 150 g pearl sugar 

Heat the oven at 180 degrees. Put a tray with water in the lowest part of the oven so that the oven produces steam.

Put the butter and the milk  in a pan over low heat until the butter is melted. Add the flour (all in one go) and beat well with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and wait for 10 minutes so that the mixture cools down. Beat 2 eggs in  little bits) and put the mixture into a pipping bag.

Pipe little blobs of the mixture on a tray covered with silicone. Push down any peaks by patting them carefully with a wet finger. 

Beat the remaining egg and paint each blob with the egg wash. Sprinkle the blobs with plenty of pearl sugar. Put the tray with the chouquettes into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Delicieux. 

SWISS BUNS - BOLLOS SUIZOS

I am being told these are called Swiss buns in Spain because they were the signature bun of the famous Swiss Cafe in Madrid. But they are eaten all over Spain. A milky coffee (cafe con leche) with a  suizo is a breakfast that you can have perching around the counter of many Spanish 'bares'. In my village this is done at around 10 am while you read the newspapers and listen to the gossip of the day.

You need:
- 320 g bread flour
- 3 eggs
- 8 g dry yeast - though I have recently discovered fresh yeast, that you can buy in Amazon (and freeze) or at some supermarkets in the UK. It is a fantastic ingredient for baking. The proportion is 10g fresh yeast to 4g dry yeast. 
- 75 g butter
- 75 g sugar
- 3 eggs
- a pinch of salt

Heat the milk, butter and 55 g of sugar until the butter has melted and the whole mixture is warm. Add the yeast, mix well and wait for 3 minutes. Then add two of the eggs. And finally the flour and salt. Knead the mixture, put it in a bowl and let it rest (and rise) for 1.30 or 2 hours until it doubles its size.

Cut the mixture into 8 bits (around 50 g each) and shape them as little buns. Put them on a baking tray (with baking paper or silicone mat underneath) cover them with a tea towel and let them rest for 1.30 hours.

Preheat the oven at 210 degrees.Make a cut with a sharp knife half way through the buns, paint them with the remaining egg, damp the remaining 20 g of sugar with a few drops of water and sprinkle the wet sugar on each bun. Lower the temperature of the oven to 190 and bake for 12 minutes.

 

PROFITEROLES

These are sinful: you can get fatter by just looking at the picture; and so very difficult to resist. But they are just great for a party.

You need:
- 65 ml milk
- 70 g plain flour
- 70 g butter
- 2 eggs
- half a teaspoon of salt
-400 gr double cream
- half a teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150 gr dark chocolate

Heat the oven at 180 degrees. Put a tray with water in the lowest part of the oven so that the oven produces steam.

Put the butter and the milk  in a pan over low heat until the butter is melted. Add the flour and salt (all in one go) and beat well with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and wait for 10 minutes so that the mixture cools down. Beat the eggs in (in little bits) and put the mixture into a pipping bag.

Pipe little blobs of the mixture on a tray covered with silicone. Push down any peaks by patting them carefully with a wet finger. Put the tray with the profiteroles into the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

When you take them out cut a little hole with a skewer or a tooth pick on the base of each profiterol and let them cool down on a rack.

Whip 275 gr of cream with the vanilla extract until you get a hard peak consistency. Put the mixture into a pipping bag and pipe the cream into each profiterol.

Finally, melt the remaining cream with the chocolate over a bain marie or in the microwave (check every 15 seconds). Pour the sauce over the profiteroles.

They are much easier to make than they seem.

LADY FINGERS - BIZCOCHOS DE SOLETILLA

These light little things are called bizcochos de soletilla. It is what elegant ladies eat with hot chocolate in Spain. As far as chocolate is concerned the Spanish population is divided in two: posh ladies who drink hot chocolate in the afternoon, served in fine china and with 'soletillas' on the side; and everybody else who drinks hot chocolate in the morning in normal cups with fried churros (see our recipe). I know what you are thinking, but elegant men eat churros and that seems to be fine.

After 382 posts in this blog I am sure you already know that I am more churros than soletillas. But still, I loved soletillas when I was growing up. In my village there was a really good bakery (Pasteleria Frias) which actually still exists. They used to make soletillas and sold them on strips of baking paper. Eating these with a cup of hot chocolate or a glass of milk seemed the height of sophistication at the time - little did I know then that they can be made cheaply and in almost no time!

You need:
- 2 eggs
- 60 g self raising flour
- 50 g sugar
- a teaspoon of vanilla essence
- half a teaspoon of baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- two tablespoons of icing sugar

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
Mix the egg yolks with the sugar and beat well. Add the vanilla essence. Separately whisk the egg whites with the salt until they are stiff. Fold the whites into the yolks mixture.  Then sift the flour and fold it into the mixture. Pipe the mixture into 6 cm strips on a sheet of baking paper. Dust the strips with the icing sugar just before getting them into the oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes (the precise timing depends on your oven, but they should be pale)

WELSH CAKES

I was asked to come up with a Spanish version of Welsh Cakes after I attended a London Welsh Rugby lunch last Saturday to raise funds for Inspiring Girls. You can see the welsh cakes that were served there on my instagram. And the BBC report on Inspiring Girls sponsoring the London Welsh Women's Rugby team with Lotus here (via twitter): https://mobile.twitter.com/londonwelshwrfc/status/971824330718969859.

I don't want to upset the Brexit ultras ( oh well...) but it turns out Sheffield University researchers are looking into an influx of Spanish migrants into the Welsh copper mines 4,000 years ago, which means that perhaps Wales and Spain are not so far apart as one might initially have thought...and perhaps there is a bit of Spain as it happens in welsh cakes...fancy that.

Anyway, going back to the recipe, this one is a Delia recipe adapted to Mediterranean flavours as it has orange zest and orange blossom water. I do not want to disrespect the original recipe, but this is very very good...

You need:
- 225g self raising flour
- one teaspoon mixed spice
- 110 g butter
- 75 gr sugar
- 100 g sultanas
- 1 egg
- zest of an orange
- a teaspoon and a half of orange blossom water

Sift the flour and mixed spice. Add the sugar. Then add the butter cut into little squares. Rub the flour and sugar with the butter with your finger tips until you get the consistency of bread crumbs. Add the zest of the orange, the sultanas and the egg and blossom water and mix it all well with your hands (try not to touch it too much). Extend the dough over a floured surface with a rolling pin and cut rounds with a cutter. Fry them on a pan (no need for butter or oil) until they are golden (3 minutes on each side). You can sprinkle some sugar on top while they are still hot, but they are really good without sugar too. They lasted literally 4 minutes in my kitchen before my three monsters ate them all...

TURRON ICE - CREAM

This is a very easy ice cream for Christmas time, though you can eat it throughout the whole year. Turron is an almond and honey nougat that we eat in Spain during Christmas. 'In the beginning' there was only turron duro (hard as a stone) and turron bland (sweet as honey). Then came the 'egg yolk' turron (which I detest) and the chocolate one (which I love-love-love) And then many other fancy ones (mostly terrible) that you can now find in most spanish shops.

For this recipe you need:
- one 'tableta' of turron blando (300 gr)
- 400 ml cream -  preferably double cream. I sometimes use single cream, which is frankly stupid, as the turron has so many calories (don't even look at the label or you will have a shock!)  that saving a few calories on the cream is just pointless. And yet I still do this…madness I know. )
- a tablespoon of honey
- two egg yokes.

Cut the turron into little pieces. Heat the cream with the turron over very low heat until it dissolves (do not let it boil). Separately whisk the egg yokes and the honey until you get a pale fluffy mixture. Then add the turron and cream mixture to it, little by little, while you are still whisking so that you get a thick cream consistency. Freeze it in an ice-maker machine or just in a container in the freezer (stirring it a couple of times so that you do not get any crystals in the ice cream) Take it out of the freezer 15 minutes before you are going to serve it.

POACHED QUINCE

This is one of my regular Autumn 'dinner party desserts'. It has an Arabic feel and it never fails to please.  You need:

- 2 quinces (enough for 8 people)
- a tub of greek yogurt
- two tablespoons of honey
- 4 tablespoons of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of orange blossom water
- a handful of shelled (unsalted) pistachios (chopped)
- half a tablespoon of pink pepper
- 2 tablespoons of pomegranate seeds
- two tablespoons of lemon juice
- water

Peel and quarter the quinces, getting rid of the core. Put them and the lemon juice in a pan with water (just enough to cover them) over medium heat. Once the water is boiling let it all simmer for 40 minutes more or less until the quinces are soft. Take the quinces off the liquid and reserve them.

Separately put one glass and a half of the water where you have boiled the quinces on a sauce pan. Add the pepper, sugar and orange blossom water. Heat it and let it all simmer for 20-25 minutes until it reduces in volume by two thirds. Once it is ready put it aside and let it cool down.

When you are going to serve this dish just put a quarter of a quince in a bowl. Add a kernel of greek yogurt beside the quince. Drizzle two tablespoons of syrup and a teaspoon of honey on top of the quince and yogurt. And sprinkle the pistachios and pomegranate seeds on top. That is all.