Orange, Chocolate & Hazelnut Biscotti

...we loved baking Biscotti this week even in this heat....its fun and easy to make, can be stored in an air-tight tin and used as pudding with a coffee or as a mid-morning snack

Biscotti means bread baked twice! You have to cook it once then cut it into slices and bake again!

Its great fun to make and easy too! Make the enriched dough and add the flavouring.

To make 20 biscuits -

250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 tsp baking powder

250g caster sugar

2 medium eggs, beaten

75g roughly chopped hazelnuts

100g chocolate chips

1 large orange - zest and juice

Additional egg yolk – to glaze

Other Flavours:

Crystallised Ginger & Pistachio
White Chocolate & Cranberries
Cranberries & Orange zest – Christmas theme!
Cherries & Lemon
Almonds (and Chocolate)
Fig & Walnut
Lime & Pistachio

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan and line a large baking tray with baking parchment.

2. Mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl and add the 2 eggs slowly to make a dough. Mix in the hazelnuts, chocolate chips, orange zest and juice.

3. On a lightly floured surface, knead the mixture gently and divide into 2. Don’t worry if the dough is a little sticky! Roll into logs, each approximately 25cm long, 3cm thickness and place on the lined baking tray.

4. Take the extra egg yolk and whisk and glaze the two logs. Put into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden. It should feel like a spongy cake when you press down gently.

5. Remove from the oven, leave to cool slightly, then cut each log into 1cm thick slices. Lay the slices on the baking tray.

6. Reduce the oven temperature to 180/160c Fan and return to the oven. Bake for another 5-7 minutes, turn over and continue to bake for another 5-7 minutes until golden-brown.

7. Enjoy dunking!

Mini or a Maxi Pavlova!

... Pavlova is a firm favourite in New Zealand and Australia (and is originally from this area) as is the perfect sweet compliment after a filling Barbie!

And when we made these in our May holiday classes one of the cooks said that her Grandfather knew Anna Pavlova the Russian ballerina who this pudding was named after!

Its also incredibly easy to make, great fun to make (all children want to do the meringue test...more on that later), its gluten free, relatively cheap, you can make it the day before and you can add anything onto the Meringue nest - whatever cream, fruit or chocolate/nuts you like!

Hello and Welcome to Summer

A time of BBQ's, Fresh Fruits & Wimbledon! SO how ideal to make a Pavlova - a small or big one and if once like me you didn't cook the Pavlova on greaseproof paper and so it broke up...make it into Eton Mess!

Makes 20 mini Pavlovas -

4 medium egg whites (or 3 large) - (make sure they have been kept out of the fridge for at least 30 minutes before whipping them up)

175g of caster sugar

125g pot of crème fraiche

125g pot of whipped double cream

Icing Sugar (1-2 tbsp sieved)

Mint leaves (to decorate)

Possible Toppings:

Mango & Passion Fruit:- 1 tbsp of mango pulp & Ripe Passion Fruit Blueberries & Strawberries 
Raspberries & Milk & White Chocolate Chips
Pistachio & Fresh Mango
Fresh figs & Blackberries
Blueberries & Fresh Mango

1. Firstly, make the meringues by separating the egg white and yolk * and whisk the whites until you can put the bowl upside down over your head! Re the Meringue test - see below!

This is the best way to ensure you have enough air in your egg whites - but of course it carries a risk! When you have whisked your egg whites for around 5 minutes and the mixture doesn't look "wet" carefully turn the bowl upside down and the mixture will not fall out! You are then ready to go to the next step! (we did this at both our May classes and the cooks always remember it and no it didn't fall onto their heads!)

2. Gradually add in the sugar one spoonful at a time whisking thoroughly until the mixture is glossy.

3. Using a tablespoon put a blob of mixture on a baking sheet - making a slight smaller round indentation in the middle and repeat until all the mixture is used up. Leave a 1cm gap between each one. You can use a piping bag rather than a tablespoon - pipe the mixture directly on the baking sheet. Or to make a large Pavlova tip all the mixture out and arrange in a circle or oval and make an indentation so you create sides to your Pavlova.

4. Put the mini Pavlovas into the oven at 130 degrees (110 degrees fan) and after 45 minutes turn off the oven but leave the meringues inside with the oven door ajar (this is key to making them crispy on the outside and marshmellowy on the inside!) for a further 45 minutes. For the maxi Pavlova increase the timings to 1 hour each.

5. In the meantime mix together the crème fraiche and whipped cream and add onto each meringue. If you want this to be sweeter add in 1 tbsp of the sieved icing sugar.

5. Top with a few pieces of fruit/nuts/coulis of your choice

6. Dust with the rest of the icing sugar and a mint leaf

*As we discovered in the May classes - its best to use 3 bowls when separating the eggs - one for the yolks - one for all the egg whites and one for each time you separate the white and yolk so that if one time you spoil the egg white by breaking the yoke you don't loose all the egg whites! 

Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls (or you can call them a salad in a roll!)

...is one of the fun-est (is that a word!), communal, tasty and healthy snacks you can make!

You can put anything you like in them as long as its chopped up long and thinly - so you can add prawns, ham, duck, chicken, pork marinated in anything you like with with any vegetables you like; baby gem lettuce, carrots, peppers, cucumber, courgettes, mange tout....and you can add strips of cooled scrambled egg.

In Vietnam rice paper rolls are made in groups - get all your ingredients together and bowls of warm water ready and make together your own rice paper roll. A perfect bank holiday activity and treat! Its gluten free too!

Hello and Welcome to Spring

A time of picnics and outdoor eating and aren't these just perfect for both! If you wish to transport these rolls keep them in the fridge in an airtight container before going and then keep in a cool bag. They are best wrapped in clingfilm as it doesn't stick to the rolls.

Ingredients:

Makes 9 rolls

1 carrot (peeled)

1/4 cucumber

1 layer of rice noodles

1/5 shredded lettuce

Pieces of mint (stalks taken off)

Coriander – few sprigs

Rice paper – 9 pieces

King prawns – 250g packet (3 prawns per roll)

2 Cooked chicken breasts – cut in small pieces (chicken cook in salt, pepper and lemon juice)

You can add anything into rice paper rolls (apart from any soggy food like tomatoes). To spice them up a bit eat them with a sweet chilli dipping sauce, or soy sauce or a satay sauce consisting of; 2 tbsp of hoisin sauce, 1 tbsp peanut butter, juice 1/2 lemon and 2-3 tbsp water.

Method

1. Soak the rice noodles in boiled water for 10 mins (until soft) – then put in cold water to stop them cooking

2. Grate the carrot

3. Cut the cucumber into very thin strips

4. Shred (or tear in strips) the lettuce

5. Prepare the herbs – take off the mint stalks

6. Put a sheet of rice paper in a bowl of luke-warm water - just gently move in a circular motion until soft (one paper at a time) – then transfer to a plate

7. Lay the rice paper roll on a plate and fill with the ingredients by putting in the middle in a line the meat/fish option such as 3 prawns or some pieces of chicken. When its wrapped up you will see this part first.

8. Do not overfill - add the vegetables, herbs & rice noodles on top of the meat/fish.

9. Bring the two ends of the rice paper over the filling, then roll up the sides to create a tight parcel

8. Enjoy as they are or with any of the sauce options!

Other tasty filling combinations:

Barbecued pork with cucumber, basil and mint

Barbecued chicken with Chinese cabbage, bean sprouts, mint and coriander

Roast beef with cucumber and mint

Shredded chicken with mint and basil

Prawn, carrot, pea sprouts and mint

Roast duck, cucumber & thin pieces of orange

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