Chocolate Mousse and Tuile biscuits

After a stressful day with a broken washing machine, some chocolate was required!

This Mousse recipe is from a little book I received today from Sarah Moss - Thank you Sarah x

The Tuile biscuits are a Leiths recipe and this is the first time I have made them.

Mousse Ingredients

100g of milk chocolate 
2 eggs (separated)
70 ml double cream

Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water then stir in the egg yolks and allow to cool slightly.

Whip the cream in one bowl to soft peaks, and beat the egg yolk in another bowl until stiff.

Fold the cream into the chocolate, and then fold in the egg whites. spooon into Ramekin dishes or other suitable dish / glass and chill for 2 - 4 hours. This is a lovely light bubbly mousse and the amounts above gave me enough for 6 ramekin sized mousses.

Next job was the tuiles, and for something so simple looking they were very fiddly!

Ingredients 

55g of butter (melted)
2 egg white
115g caster sugar
55g plain flour

1. Heat oven to 190/ 170 fan/ Gas 5
2. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment each cut into 4 squares - don't be tempted to use greaseproof because some brands of that still stick to the tuiles.
3. allow butter to cool to room temp, beat the egg whites with a fork to break them up a little then stir in the sugar. Stir in the butter and finally add the flour. This will give you a batter type mixture.
4. Spread the batter into very thin rounds or thin strips on the baking paper ( I did strips, dropped a half teaspoon of batter on to the baking sheet then spread it down with a palette knife.)
5. Bake for 5 - 7 mins or until lightly browned. lift the biscuits using the  paper and drape over a rolling pin to give a curved shape. Leave to cool then gently remove baking parchment.

and Enjoy!!

Chocolate Macaroons

This is a lovely biscuit, Much simpler than the french style Macaroons, but just as tasty!

Can't remember where this recipe came from as I have it scrawled on a piece of paper in my recipe book.

Preheat oven to 180/ 160 fan/ gas 4

Line a large baking sheet with baking paper

Weigh 100g of ground almonds into a bowl then sift in 125g icing sugar and 1 Tbsp Cocoa powder and stir.
Whisk 2 egg whites until stiff then fold gently into other ingredients. If you have a pipng bag fill it with the mixture with a plain nozzle fitted or if you don't have a pipng bag, fill a food bag and snip off the corner. Pipe 24 small blolbs about 3cm across, leaving a little space between each for them to spread. Wet your finger then use it to gently smooth the surface of each blob, and then leave to dry out for 15 minutes.

Bake for 15-20 mins until Macaroons feel firm and peel easily from the paper. Leave to cool on the paper and then peel off.

For the filling gently melt 50g dark chocolate until smooth, then stir in 2 tbsp of warm milk.leave to cool slightly then use to sandwich 2 macaroons together.

Vanilla Shortbread

I love this recipe, maybe a little bit too much!!

The recipe comes from BBC Good Food, and always turns out a good result.


http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1172/vanilla-shortbread-dough

They have neglected to include cooking times and temperatures though, but I bake at 180/gas  4/fan 160 for about 11 mins.

A tip I have for ensuring an even thickness for all biscuits, and therefore a good bake  is to roll out the dough using guides at the side, I use 2 hard plastic drinking straws, and rolling the rolling pin along these with the dough in between works very well.

Here is a picture of my Shortbread, with my usual liberal dusting of icing sugar!

A great use for this Shortbread is as a gift, who wouldn't want to receive a jar of delicious Shortbread? Yum!

Starting with the basics - Victoria Sandwich

If you can make a good Victoria sandwich you can always have a recipe to fall back on as it is a real crowd pleaser. A Victoria sandwich can also be adapted with different flavour combinations, but following the same simple method.

The method I use is the all in one method shown to me by my Mother-in-law. I find it quick and easy to use and I seem to get great results.

The first thing I do is decide on the size of cake I want, if I am using  20cm sandwich tins I use four eggs.

from this point it is very easy!

1. Heat oven to 180/ fan 160, gas mark 4
2. Weigh the eggs in their shells and remember the weight ( for cake below mine were 216g)
3. Weigh out the same amount of butter (at room temp), same amount of self raising flour and the same amount of Caster sugar. Add 1 tsp of baking powder. You can then decide if you'd like to add a little flavour, I would usually add either 1 tsp Vanilla extract or the grated zest of a lemon.
4. Place all ingredients in a bowl and beat until smooth
5. I grease my 2 sandwich tins with butter and then shake flour over the surface to make them extra non stick.  If I can give you a tip about your tins, never use them for anything other than baking, I have had many tins ruined by making Sausagemeat stuffing in them!
6. Split the mix between the 2 tins and smooth out tops with a palette knife.
7. Bake for about 20 mins until golden. You can test if they are ready by either seeing if cake springs back when pressed lightly or insert a skewer or cocktail stick and if it comes out clean, the cake is done. Turn out on to a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
8. For the filling gently warm 3-4 tbsps of Strawberry jam,adding 6 strawberries which have been sliced. spread this onto bottom layer of cake and leave to cool.  You can then use a buttercream icing, but I prefer fresh cream, so I whip 200 mls of double cream until it holds its shape well, then I pipe it on to give a nice finish. Place top layer of cake gently on top and then finish with a dusting of icing sugar, and Enjoy!

Strawberry Cake with piped White Chocolate Buttercream icing

Forgot to photograph this cake at home, but here is a picture of my lovely friend Christine with the cake I made for her birthday. The Cake itself was a victoria sponge made with the all in one method, but with the addition of 250g of finely chopped strawberries mixed through before baking the filling between the two layers was strawberry jam and sliced strawberries. For the icing I made a white chocolate buttercream, this was a good consistency for piping, but I think I paid the price for not sifting the sugar as the nozzle was blocked a couple of times. This was really my first attempt at piping after getting new piping bags and nozzles for Christmas, and I was reasonably pleased with it. I covered the whole cake with a layer of icing, then piped flowers on the top and covered sides with grated white chocolate. I sliced four slices into a whole strawberry, then fanned it out a little to use for decoration. The final touch was to use my icing sugar sifter with a little added edible gold glitter to make it just a little more special. Happy Birthday Christine!

Hi, I've started my blog to inspire myself to try out even more recipes this coming year : ). I will use my blog to record what I have made, successes and disasters! Also I will review as many recipes as I can and try to provide hints and tips along the way.