Jen, Author at Little Whisk

Ginger and Lime Pound Cake

The original pound cakes were so called because they contained a pound each of flour, sugar, butter and eggs. It was made popular in the 18th century, as it was an easy recipe to remember (especially useful for poorer people who were unable to read). Nowadays the pound cake has evolved slightly, but providing you use equal amounts of the main ingredients, it can still be called a pound cake.

This cake has a warming ginger flavour but I’ve added lime zest and a lime icing to lift it away from the classic Christmas ginger flavour which we have all had so much of in the last few weeks. I’ve also given it a good soak in a ginger flavoured rum we have at home to make it extra moist and tasty. I’m aware ginger flavoured rum isn’t something that is in everyone’s cupboard so a standard rum will also do the trick or just add more of the syrup from the stem ginger jar.

Ginger and Lime pound cake

150g unsalted butter, softened
150g soft dark brown sugar
150g self raising flour
3 eggs
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking powder
the zest of 2 limes

Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan oven). Grease a 2 lb loaf tin with butter and line the base with baking paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder and ground ginger in to a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and the sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until fully incorporated (add a spoonful of the flour mixture with each egg to stop the mixture curdling). Then finally fold in the flour mix and the lime zest until the mixture is smooth. Pour the batter in to the prepared tin. Bake in the oven for approx 40 minutes.

Rum syrup

50g caster sugar
75ml of water
1 bulb of stem ginger
1 tsp of syrup from the stem ginger jar
25ml of rum

Make the syrup whilst the cake is baking. Dice the stem ginger in to small pieces. Pop in a saucepan with the syrup from the jar and the sugar and the water. Heat slowly until the sugar is all dissolved and then bring to the boil. Take off the heat once the syrup is boiling and then add the rum. Leave in the saucepan to cool until needed.

Remove the cake from the oven when it is risen and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the tin and place on a wire rack (it’s handy to have some foil underneath the rack to catch any drips from the syrup). Using a skewer or a cake tester, make a few small holes all over the top of the cake to help the syrup through. Take a pastry brush and brush the syrup all over the top of the cake. Leave the pieces of stem ginger in the saucepan for now (for decoration). Use all of the syrup – it can take a while but will be worth it in the end!

Once all the syrup has been brushed on to the cake, leave to cool.

Lime Icing

75g icing sugar
1 tbsp lime juice
1-2 tsp of water
zest of 1 lime

Sift the icing sugar in to a bowl. Add the lime juice and half of the zest and whisk together. At this point, add a teaspoon of water and whisk. You can add more water if you want a runnier consistency, but I found this runny enough.

If the cake is cool, leave over the wire rack and spoon over the icing, allowing it to drip down the sides. Finish by sprinkling the remaining lime zest and the ginger stem (from the syrup) over the top. Transfer to a serving plate.

Bacon and Cheese Twists

These are based on pastry twists called “Sacristains” we made at patisserie school. In French Patisseries, there can be a lot of left over puff pastry trimmings after making a particular dessert. If you have ever made puff pastry from scratch you will understand why they wouldn’t want to throw the trimmings away! Instead they layer the trimmings on top of each other and roll them out. The layers won’t be as precise as when first made, which makes them perfect for making Sacristains. At school we made sweet Sacristains with cinnamon and almonds, but you can really put whatever you like in them – bacon and cheese is a very good choice though!

Bacon & Cheese Twists

1 pack of ready made puff pastry (about 375g)
I pack of streaky bacon
65g mature cheddar cheese
35g parmesan cheese
a good pinch of English mustard powder
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grate both of the cheeses and mix together in a bowl. Roll out the pastry to a thin rectangle the width of a pound coin. Beat the egg lightly and brush a thin layer over the pastry. Spread out the cheese evenly over the top of the pastry. Press the cheese in to the pastry gently using the rolling pin. Sprinkle the mustard powder over the top.

Split each rasher of bacon in two lengthways (the bacon I had separated naturally down the middle but use a sharp knife if it’s not playing). Lay each piece of bacon along the pastry with a small gap in between each slice.

Using a sharp knife, cut the pastry in between each piece of bacon. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Pick up a slice of pastry and twist it round a couple of times, then place on the baking tray. Repeat this with the rest of the pastry. Leave a gap in between each twist on the baking tray as they will puff up – you may need 2 baking trays.

Brush a thin layer of egg wash on to the exposed pastry on the twists. Then pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes. These are best when they are still warm from the oven but can be eaten cold as well.

Lemon and Raspberry Millefeuille

Millefeuille are available in every patisserie in Paris and I was looking forward to making them at pastry school. So you can imagine my disappointment when they were not on the course. However after making them myself I can see why we didn’t spend precious school time on them. They are so easy to make, especially if you buy the puff pastry ready made.

These millefeuille have a layer of raspberry and a layer of lemon crème pâtissière. Be warned, there is no tidy way to eat a millefeuille!

Raspberry Crème Pâtissière

250g raspberries
2 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
30g cornflour

First of all, heat the raspberries in a saucepan with a tablespoon of water. Stir gently until the raspberries have broken down and become a liquid. Remove from the heat and pass the liquid through a sieve to remove all the seeds. Place the raspberry purée back in to the saucepan and turn the heat up to a medium heat.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, with the sugar and the cornflour.

Once the raspberry purée is starting to steam, pour a small amount in to the egg mixture and whisk together very quickly. This will help loosen the egg mixture and gently heat it through, reducing the whisk of scrambling the eggs.

Pour the whole mixture into the saucepan, put on a high heat and whisk constantly. The mixture will start to thicken. You need to be careful not to allow any part of the bottom to burn. The easiest way to do this is to keep rotating the pan with one hand and whisk in different directions with the other.

When the mixture is thick and glossy, remove from the heat and pour in to a clean bowl straight away. Leave to cool.

Lemon Crème Pâtissière, you will need…

150ml milk (I use semi skimmed)
2 egg yolks
30g sugar
20g cornflour
zest of 2 lemons
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Pop the milk in a saucepan and put over a low heat. Meanwhile, whisk all the other ingredients together in a separate bowl.

When the milk is starting to steam, pour a small amount in to the egg mixture and whisk. Then (just like with the raspberry crème pat) pour the whole mixture in to the saucepan, turn the heat up to max and whisk continuously. Once the mixture is thick, pour in to a clean bowl and leave to cool.

You can cool both of these in the fridge, but cover with cling film and make sure the film is touching the crème pat to stop a skin forming and to stop condensation developing.

For the pastry, you will need…

Ready rolled puff pastry, approx 300g
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Prepare a baking tray with baking paper. Unroll the pastry. With a clean ruler, measure and cut out 12 rectangles, 9 cm long and 5 cm wide. Place on to the baking tray and space the pastry out.

With a pastry brush, brush a thin layer of egg wash over the top of each piece of pastry and allow to dry. Take another sheet of baking paper and put on top of the pastry. Then place another baking tray on top. This stops the pastry rising too much.

Bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

To assemble the millefeuille, fill two piping bags with the crème pâtissèrie. I used a 12mm round nozzle for both. Lay out 4 pieces of pastry and pipe circles of the raspberry crème pat on each piece (I did 8 circles on each one).

Take four more pieces of pastry and add a layer on top of the raspberry crème pat.

Then pipe circles of lemon crème pat on top of these. Finally adding the top layer of pastry.

To finish, dust with icing sugar and serve straight away.

Chocolate and Passion Fruit Tart

Chocolate and passion fruit together are one of my favourite combinations. For this tart, the chocolate and passion fruit filling are swirled together and encased by a chocolate pastry. The tart is delicious on its own or can be accompanied by some pouring cream.

Chocolate Pastry

175g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
50g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g butter
1 egg

In a food processor, mix the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and butter. Be careful not to over mix. Pulse a few times until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and pulse until it comes together in to a ball. Take the pastry, pat it down in to a flat disc shape and wrap in cling film. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Grease a 23cm loose bottomed tart tin by brushing a thin layer of butter all over. Take your chilled pastry and roll out between 2 sheets of cling film . Once the pastry is about the thickness of a pound coin, pop in to the tin. Press the pastry in to the sides all the way around then pop back in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes. Leave the pastry hanging over the edges – it will be trimmed later.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C and place a baking tray in the oven to heat up. When the pastry has chilled, take out of the fridge and prick the bottom all over with a fork. Cover the pastry with baking paper and fill with baking beans (or rice, lentils etc). Bake on the preheated tray for 15 minutes. Take the beans out and trim the edges using a sharp knife. Place back in the oven without the paper or baking beans for another 10 minutes until the pastry is crisp. Once baked, leave in the tin and cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate & Passion fruit filling

8 passion fruits
185g butter
5 eggs
5 egg yolks
375g caster sugar
25g cornflour
100g dark chocolate

Scrape the insides out of all the passion fruits in to a large saucepan. Add the butter and about half the sugar and pop on a low heat. Keep on the low heat and slowly melt the butter and dissolve the sugar with the passion fruit.

Pass the passsion fruit mixture through a sieve into a bowl to remove all the passion fruit seeds.

Chop the chocolate in to small pieces with a sharp knife. Leave in a bowl until needed later.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining sugar together. Whisk in the cornflour. Finally, whisk in the eggs one at a time.

Put the passion fruit mixture back in the saucepan. Pour a small amount in to the egg mix and whisk together (this helps to heat the egg mix and hopefully stop the eggs cooking too quickly and scrambling). Pour all the egg mix in to the saucepan, turn up the heat and whisk continuously for a few minutes. You need to be careful not to burn the bottom so keep scraping round the sides with the whisk and move the pan around to reach all the base. After a couple of minutes the mixture will thicken considerably. Once it is thick and glossy, pour in to a jug.

This mixture makes about a litre. Pour around 400ml on to the chocolate and whisk together. The chocolate will melt in seconds as the mixture is so hot.

Finally, pour the passion fruit filling in to the cooled pastry case. Dollop spoonfuls of the chocolate mix all over the top and use a skewer to swirl the 2 mixes together. Pop in the fridge for at least a couple of hours to chill down and set, remove the tart from the tin and then dig in!

Mulled Wine Marshmallows

It’s…. be…….ginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!

As soon as bonfire night is done and dusted, it is officially time to start cracking out the mulled wine and what better way to have mulled wine than in soft marshmallow form.

If you’ve never made marshmallows, it really isn’t as complicated as it sounds, but you will need a sugar thermometer to get it right. They are so different from shop bought marshmallows, they are light, fluffy and can still be used to toast or pop in a hot chocolate. These have a light pink hue naturally from the mulled wine but you could always pop in food colouring if you wanted a more vibrant pink.

Mulled Wine Marshmallows

100ml mulled wine
1 x 12g sachet of powdered gelatin
40g icing sugar
30g cornflour
300g caster sugar
100ml glucose syrup
100ml water

Sieve the icing sugar and cornflour in to a bowl and mix together.

Prepare an 8 inch square tin by brushing with a small amount of vegetable oil. Line the tin with baking paper. Dust some of the icing sugar and cornflour mix over the baking paper to create a thin layer in the base of the tin. Leave to one side.

In a mixer, pour in the mulled wine and the powdered gelatin and leave to “bloom”. This will allow the gelatin to absorb the liquid, meaning it will dissolve more easily and evenly when you add the hot sugar syrup later on. Attach a balloon whisk to the mixer.

In a pan, pour in the water, glucose and caster sugar and start to heat gently. Allow the sugar to dissolve fully then increase the heat. (The sugar should be fully dissolved before the mixture starts to boil. If it boils before the sugar is dissolved, just take off the heat and let the residual heat in the pan dissolve the sugar). Pop in your sugar thermometer. Keep the mixture boiling (without stirring) until the sugar syrup reaches 112 – 116 degrees (soft ball stage).

Once it reaches this temperature, turn the mixer on to the lowest speed. Very carefully pour in the sugar syrup in to the mulled wine and gelatin mixture. Once all the sugar syrup has been poured in, gradually increase the speed of the mixer until it is on top speed. Whisk on top speed for approximately 10 – 15 minutes.

While you are waiting, get a silicone spatula and grease very lightly with oil. This will help you when you turn out the marshmallow in to the tin.

Once the marshmallow has been whisked for 10-15 minutes, the bowl will feel much cooler and the mixture will have increased in size and turned much paler in colour. Stop whisking and pour the marshmallow in to the prepared tin. Use the greased spatula to scrape out all the mix in to the tin. Encourage the marshmallow in to the corners of the tin with the spatula and flatten the top slightly. Leave to set for 3 or 4 hours.

Once set, dust some more of the icing sugar and cornflour mixture on to a board and turn out the marshmallow. Peel off the baking paper. Run a large sharp knife under hot water (this helps to cut smoothly through the mallow) and cut the marshmallow in to cubes. Use the remaining icing sugar and cornflour mix to dust all the sides of the marshmallow cubes so they stop sticking to each other.

These can be eaten straight away, toasted over a fire, melted in a hot chocolate or stored in an air tight container for up to two weeks.