A funny name which translates to something like almond paste.
This stuff is delicious, it’s like a pastry creme version marzipan, the recipe uses almonds which is what gives it that marzipany taste.
Here’s the recipe;
Ingredients (makes about 1kg)
1 block of butter (250g)
Either vanilla flavour, essence, extract or a fresh pod
200g caster sugar
6 medium eggs, or 5 large
250g ground almonds
Equipment
Mixing bowl
Whisk, an electric one will make your life a lot easier, you can get one for a fiver in most supermarkets
Microwave if you need to soften butter
Spatula
Prep (5-10 minutes)
The whole things a lot quicker and easier if you get the butter nice and soft (warm) first. A microwave is ideal for this but don’t turn it into liquid, it should still hold its shape but if you put your finger in it it’ll go right through. If you don’t have a microwave just put it somewhere warm (airing cupboard) for 39 minutes first.
Now you need to cream (mix) the butter, sugar and vanilla so put it all in a mixing bowl and whisk away until its light, smooth and sugary vanilla heaven.
Crack one of the eggs into the bowl and whisk for another minute or so until the egg is fully incorporated to the mix.
Repeat step 3 until you have no eggs left. Now put the whisk away.
Sprinkle enough ground almonds to fully cover the top of the mixture in the bowl and fold it in with a spatula. When it’s mixed do the same until the ground almonds are all gone.
That’s it!
What happens if you eat lots of almonds?
You will run out of almonds.
Frangipane, or frangipani, is like an almond (marzipan flavoured) pastry cream that you can use to pipe in or on to things or just as a pie/tart filling, you can pretty much turn it into a cake by adding some flour.
Enjoy! I’ll be following this up with a recipe you can use frangipani in.
Lemon tart (should) go down well pretty much anywhere, anytime.
This is a request from @michaelsmeatham on the Facebook page, so on to the recipe.
Ingredients (makes 1 large tart, 16 portions, or 8 large)
500g shortcrust pastry
8-10 eggs
5-8 lemons (8 is pretty intense)
250-350g caster sugar depending on your sweet tooth
200-300ml double cream
Flour to roll pastry
Equipmemt
Rolling pin
A quiche/tart dish, around 23-28cm
Tin foil
Baking beans, or rice etc. (Dry and weighty)
Mixing bowl
Whisk
Prep and cooking (45-90 minutes)
If you haven’t already, masker some shortcrust pastry.
Heat oven to about 160°c fan (gas 4)
Roll it out to about 1-1.3cm thickness, put in pastry case and blind bake for 15-20 minutes, I’ll upload a guide on blind baking on my next day off.
While the case is in the oven get the filling ready by putting the eggs, sugar and cream in a mixing bowl and mix well, you can add a few extra egg yolks if you want it to make it a bit richer.
Now zest the lemons into the mix, how many is up to you, when zesting try not to get the piff (white part under the skin and before the fruit) as it makes it more bitter, we want sweetness.
Juice the desired amount of lemon juice, add and mix well. Lemon juice really adds sharpness, so you want enough to counteract the sugar but not incapacitate your mouth. At the end of it it’s all down to personal taste.
When the case is ready turn the oven down to 140-150°c fan (gas 3). Pour the mixture in and bake for about 49 minutes, I set a timer every 10 minutes to check to adjust heat/turn it round if needed.
Voila! Ideally you want to chill it before eating, but some things can’t be helped.
You saucy tart
Maybe not so saucy, or at least until you cook it, but a joy to eat nonetheless.
You can cut the recipe in half for a smaller tart, or you could use a cupcake/muffin tray to make mini tarts.
Having a look at the supermarkets, the price seems to range from about £2.50-£4, that’s for a regular (8 slice) tart, about 400-450g which is close enough to half the size of the above recipe.
Costing the recipe (I used tesco online for prices) the above recipe will set you back about £4.25 or about 26p a serving, giving you twice as much for the same (similar) price, and its homemade(!)
I love pastry, be it shortcrust or puff. I really feel sorry for people who are (genuinely) gluten intolerant, I know these days gluten free food is everywhere but let’s be honest, it’s not the same. Especially when it comes to shortcrust pastry, that said i do have a good recipe for a gluten free shortcrust pastry which i will post at a later date.
This recipe for shortcrust pastry is great for pies and tarts or quiches. And don’t worry! Pastry isn’t scary, (ok making puff pastry can be and not to mention pointless to make, but shortcrust pastry is fine), it really doesn’t take much time at all.
The main thing to remember is DON’T work the pastry too much when mixing, this will tighten the gluten and the shortcrust pastry will go hard and tough as opposed to soft and crumbly, as shortcrust should be.
Ingredients (makes about 800g of shortcrust pastry)
500g plain flour
250g butter or lard
1 egg yolk
Salt
Water
Equipment
Mixing bowl
Scales
Hands
Cling film
Fridge
A sieve (not essential)
Prep (35+ minutes)
Start by sifting the flour into the mixing bowl and add the butter, to make things easier you can cut the butter into cubes or just warm it in the microwave until it’s nice and soft (not liquid).
Rub the flour and butter together with the salt, if you’re not sure what rubbing is it’s pretty self explanatory, it’s basically rubbing 😂 just pinch it all together with your fingertips until it looks sort of like golden breadcrumbs.
Add the egg yolk and mix until the fully incorporated.
Now start to add a bit of water at a time (don’t overdo it). This part is kind of down to intuition but keep adding water and mixing until you get a consistency you’re happy with, the less water you use the more crumbly the pastry will be, but make sure you adad enough to hold it enough to be able to roll out.
When you’ve made the shortcrust dough and you’re happy with the consistency wrap it in cling film so it’s air tight.
Put it in the fridge and leave it in there (chill) for at least 30 minutes to let the butter cool down. Use within 3 days, can be frozen for about 6 months.
Go make some pie, or something that involves shortcrust pastry.
Cut the cost of pastry
While making this pastry works out at nearly equal to the price you’d pay for pre-made shortcrust from the shop, this contains actual butter whereas shop made uses margarine.
So onto costing, this pastry costs £1.10 to make 500g, but if you replace the butter with margarine it cuts the cost to as little as 40-50p/500g!
I personally prefer using real butter, but if you’re looking to save cash it can be handy and it still tastes delicious, just not quite as crumbly as it would be with butter.
Don’t know about you but I love pancakes in any (edible) shape or form.
Over the years I’ve found all the variations of a pancake I’ve seen essentially boil down to 2 types, fluffy American style pancakes (scotch pancakes) or crepes (thin pancakes).
Fluffy American Pancakes / scotch pancakes (5 minutes)
150-200g self raising flour, the more you use the thicker/stodgier the pancake will be
200ml milk (any kind but I find the higher fat content the better i.e blue milk)
1 or 2 tbsp of sugar, granulated is fine.
1 egg, 2 if you want them more cakey
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp oil
Oil/butter for frying
(Optional) pinch of salt/pepper
Equipment
Frying pan; if it’s not non stick or a well seasoned iron pan you won’t have a fun time here, you don’t want pancakes cooked to the pan, ideally you want a crepe pan but not everyone has one lying around 🙄
Hob, to heat pan for pancakes
Measuring jug, preferably 2 litre
Scales
A whisk or a fork, whisk is easier
Not essential but a sieve is handy
Prep and Cooking
If you’re using an electric hob set it to 4 or 5 and put the pan on to warm it up while you prepare the pancake batter, if it’s gas it should only take 20-30 seconds to heat before cooking.
Sieve the flour and baking powder into the measuring jug, you don’t have to sift it but the pancake batter will be lumpy; this means to get rid of the dry lumps you will have to mix it a lot more meaning the gluten will tighten up more. It doesn’t really matter but if you want a soft fluffy pancake you want to mix it as little as possible.
Add the sugar and salt/pepper if using then pour in the milk and oil and mix gently until the flour is fully mixed, it shouldn’t take much just check round the edges on the bottom of the jug.
Add the egg(s) and whisk heavily for 5-10 seconds until the egg is fully incorporated into the pancake batter.
Take the pan to a medium low heat (around 3 on an electric hob, small flame on a gas hob)
For each pancake use about 1/2 tsp of oil or 10g of butter, chuck it in the pan and swirl it about then put the pan on the heat and don’t move it again.
Add the desired amount of pancake batter to the pan, just pour it straight from the jug, the more you use the bigger the of the pancake will be but I’d say about 50-80g per pancake is about right.
Don’t disturb the pan and wait until bubbles start to come through most of the pancake batter, flip the pancake and cook the other side for the same sort of time the first side took (each side usually takes about 30-60 seconds each side for a 50-80g pancake)
Eat teh pancakes 👍
Summary
Mix all the ingredients in a measuring jug
Heat a pan to medium low, add butter or oil
Add pancake batter and leave to cook until bubbles start coming through the batter, flip and and cook the other side.
Pancakes are delicious.
Crepes; thin pancakes (5 minutes)
Ingredients (makes 4-6 pancakes)
Chocolate crepe, with a strange houseplant garnish
100g plain flour
200ml milk
1 – 2 tsp sugar
1 egg
1 tsp oil
Oil/butter for frying
(Optional) Salt/pepper
Equipment
Same as above
Prep and cooking
Heat the pan to a medium high heat while you prepare the pancake batter.
Sieve the flour into a measuring jug and and the milk, sugar, oil and salt/pepper (if using), mix gently so the flour is fully incorporated.
Add the egg and whisk heavily for 5-10 seconds.
Heat some oil/butter in the pan and swirl it about.
Take a ladleful of pancake batter, you don’t want loads as crepes are supposed to be paper thin, I find about 50ml (double shot) works well in a 25-28cm pan. This part is quite tricky as the pancake batter cooks so quickly, take the pan off the heat and tilt it at about a 40° angle and pour the pancake batter round the top edge of the pan. You need to try and cover the whole surface with the pancake batter. I still struggle with this sometimes so if you’ve got any tips please say in the comments below!
When you see the edges start to brown a little underneath flip the pancake and cook the other side for a similar amount of time.
Serve, eat, repeat.
Summary
Mix all the ingredients in a measuring jug
Heat a pan to medium high, add butter or oil
Add pancake batter and leave to cook until the bottom edges start to brown a little, flip and and cook the other side.
Pancakes are delicious.
Have your pan and eat it. Uh..cakes.
So there you have it, plenty of precious pancakes, use them wisely!
Personally I think there’s a lot to like about pancakes, for one they’re cheap as anything, with current supermarket prices they only cost about 5p each! Thought this might come in handy with pancake day around the corner.
Caviar blinis, proppa posh!
They also work great as a base for canapés, if you want to make blinis then just use the scotch pancake recipe but use a tablespoon of batter per pancake then you can put what you like on them (smoked salmon and cream cheeezzz 👍)
They’re also pretty diverse on the whole (pancakes). You can add any spices or herbs to savoury pancakes (smoked paprika is nice).
When it comes to savoury pancakes the combinations can be endless, cheese is always a firm favourite with me. I find you can use the pancake batter like you would an omelette mix.
And of course, how can anyone forget the possibilities with sweet pancakes? Icecream, fruit, syrup, honey, cream, apple crumble… you name it add a pancake and it’ll be even better (maybe not everything but you get the idea).
Where did pancakes come from?
Everyone love pancakes! ‘The Pancake Bakery’ by Pieter Aertsen. c 1508 Image from https://wikimedia.org
Apparently they were invented by the romans around the 1st century who would make a batter of flour, eggs, milk and spices. Market salesmen would sell them hot (crazy to think it’s been going on that long!) and they would sweeten them with honey rather than syrup.
Recipes and Stuff 