What I think I love most about Gizzi's book is her take on recipes, a perfect example being this Sticky Banoffee Pudding, what an inspired idea of combining banoffee pie and sticky toffee pudding, clearly the woman is a genius! If you are intrigued by the lovely Gizzi then you should definitely take a peak at the video below, where she talks about her style of cooking and her favourite recipes in the book.
Which reminds me I really should make one of those for Good Mood Food! Now that you have a full grasp of what Gizzi is all about I think it's high time we getting cracking with one of her recipes. I chose this recipe basically because not only does it look delicious, but because it combines two of my favourite desserts, simple really! :) Also don't forget to give me your questions for Ms. Erskine in the comments below or on twitter and facebook.
Gizzi Erskine's Sticky Banoffee Pudding This is my boyfriend Dean’s recipe. While he is a fantastic cook, he is so lazy he never cooks for me, except for this. And my God, does it make up for it! The banana is terrific with the toffeeish dates and keeps the pudding really moist.
Serves 6 Preparation time 15 minutes Cooking time 40 minutes 250g dates, stoned and chopped 250ml hot black tea, made with 1 teabag 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 85g softened unsalted butter, plus extra butter for greasing 175g caster sugar 2 large free-range eggs, beaten 175g self-raising fl our, sieved 3 bananas, roughly mashed 1 teaspoon ground mixed spice vanilla ice cream, or clotted cream, to serve
For the sauce 100g light muscovado sugar 100g unsalted butter 150ml double cream
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4 and butter a 22cm baking dish. Place the dates in a small pan and cover with the hot tea. Bring to the boil and cook for 3–4 minutes, until the dates have softened, then stir in the bicarbonate of soda. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the eggs, one at a time. Fold in the fl our, banana, mixed spice and the date mixture and pour into the baking dish. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the top is springy and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre. While the pudding is cooking, make the sauce. Put the muscovado sugar, butter and cream into a pan, place over a low heat and melt until the sugar has dissolved. Then whack the heat up and simmer for 3–4 minutes, or until the sauce is a light toffee colour. Serve the pudding with the warm sauce and a big scoop of vanilla ice cream or clotted cream. Or remove the bananas from the ingredients and you’ve got a classic sticky toffee pudding!
(Taken from Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic by Gizzi Erskine published by Virgin Books, price £20)
All this snow is not good for the diet. The cold weather seems to always make me crave serious comfort food so I do have to apologise for posting another seriously delicious, seriously sweet recipe! Most of yesterday was spent very busily building a snowman in my friends back garden, so there wasn't much time for cooking. Dinner last night was a quick carbonara, thrown together using the bacon I was gifted by the lads at Truly Irish our stand neighbours at the RDS, who gave me a great selection of pork products to try out! A big pasta dish and a great movie made the perfect snowy evening in!
Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookies I don't think there is any question that the Americans know how to create the most overindulgent desserts, and this one ticks all the boxes. These were created by an American chain of restaurants and have something of a cult following in the US. Put simply, it's cookie dough piled into individual serving dishes and baked at high heat, so you get a set top and edges but a ridiculously gooey interior. When they are pulled out of the hot oven, a big dollop of vanilla ice cream is plonked on top to melt and mingle with hot, soft cookie. Makes four individual portions.
Serves 4 200g butter, softened 200g light brown sugar, packed 1 large egg 1 tsp vanilla extract 200g plain flour 1 tsp baking soda 120g good-quality milk chocolate chips Vanilla ice cream, to serve
Pre-heat the oven to 260°C/Gas Mark 9. In a mixing bowl, using a electric hand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until it is light and pale. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat through. Add in the flour and baking soda, little by little, until you have a stiff dough. Using a spatula, stir through the chocolate chips until evenly combined. Divide the cookie dough among four large six-inch ramekins and place in the oven on a baking sheet. Bake for seven to 10 minutes but keep an eye on them, you want them to puff up and become golden brown around the sides and just about set in the middle. Remove them from the oven and serve straight away with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Grand Marnier: blended cognacs with orange essence
Speaking of tradition, it's as good as written law around here that when there are fresh, local strawberries on hand there must also be strawberry shortcake. So, we had back to back shortcake. The second time 'round though I needed it to be an easily transported dessert to bring to a party. Cake form seemed like the perfect way to go, all assembled and easy to head out with. Playing on the orange tones of my first orange-rosemary shortcake, I incorporated some Grand Marnier to lend a sweet citrus flavor to the whipped cream. Also, instead of a plain vanilla bean cake, I made a rustic cornmeal cake to add pleasant texture and sweetness from the fresh milled corn.
Cornmeal cake with Grand Marnier vegan whipped cream and fresh berries
One note though, as pretty as it is to have the green tops on the strawberries topping this cake, it's a total suckers move and I implore you to resist it! I can't tell you how many ways in which I should have known better, but the beauty of the berries with the tops still on conspired to drag me down as I opted, thoughtlessly, for aesthetics over eating. A choice that meant I later had to sit, shamefaced, as my friends picked berries out of the mess of whipped cream to remove the tops, which of course they couldn't enjoyably eat. Sigh.
Strawberry rhubarb pie with cornmeal pâte sucrée
I tried to make it up to them though with my favorite pie, strawberry rhubarb. Following the thought about cornmeal and strawberries, which worked so well in the cornmeal shortcake, I made a tender pâte sucrée with cornmeal and coconut oil instead of margarine or oil. The coconut was a very mild flavor influence on the end result and worked surprisingly well in the crust which was wonderfully flaky, light and tenderly sweet against the tart fruit filling.
Fresh strawberry jam filled rambutan mochi with Thai basil sauce and strawberry powder
Last year I served my strawberry rhubarb pie with basil ice cream, but this year my basil is not incredibly bountiful. My lemon verbena could swallow up the yard, but the basil is sort of a no-go. It's sad. There is enough to work smaller projects with though, so I made a dessert that caught my eye in Johnny Iuzzini's Dessert FourPlay a couple months ago. In the original version, Iuzzini fills strawberry mochi with strawberry rhubarb compote and serves it with basil fluid gel. I took some liberties to make the dessert a little faster to assemble and different in flavor, pairing my fresh strawberry jam filling with a freeze-dried rambutan mochi (reasoning that if I find an affinity between strawberries and lychees, rambutans would work as well) and serving it with Thai basil sauce. My mochi technique could use some work (I blame the leakage on my imperfect motor control with a hand still swollen from carpal tunnel release surgery) but overall, I adored this light little dessert and its intriguing Southeast Asian flavors.
Chocolate spiced baby banana pudding with strawberries
A more straightforward, classic pairing between strawberries and chocolate was something I noticed had fallen by the wayside this season. I guess I've been taking my chocolate pretty straight these days and have been in a particular rut with the super dry, dark and lovely 84% Theo single origin bar from Ghana. So good. But I digress. Feeling that these amazing strawberries could make chocolate even more magical, I whipped up a very random pudding of organic baby bananas, dark chocolate, anise, chilies, cinnamon, nutmeg and espresso salt, sweetened with date syrup and topped with fresh berries. It was meant as a quick treat of no consequence but was so good, I'm pledged to make it again and actually write down every element of the recipe since several friends have proclaimed it's one of the best things ever, period.
Breakfast with berries and nibs
After finally getting my strawberry and chocolate fix, I realized that I'd sort of been enjoying the two together all along in my breakfast bowl. Homemade cocoa nib granola with fresh berries isn't quite chocolate dipped strawberries, but it's more than satisfying at seven am.
Almond crust mini tarts with fresh fruit, nibs and lemon verbena
Thinking about how nicely nibs complemented strawberries, I sprinkled a few Taza chocolate covered nibs into my mini tarts. They provided a nice bittersweet crunch against the fruit and buttery almond crust.
Almond strawberry cheesecake
Almonds are a natural complement to strawberries. Their rich sweetness and lightly bitter edge are perfect against tart berry notes. And there's a reason why strawberry cheesecake is so popular; sweet tangy cheese has its richness both cut slightly and complemented by each bite of berry. So, an almond crusted and amaretto spiked cheesecake topped with fresh strawberries glazed with hot strawberry syrup and sprinkled with almond slices seemed like just the thing.
Whole wheat English muffin with farmer's cheese and strawberry rhubarb jam
I've had a lot of semi-successful vegan cheese-ish substances around lately as I've been experimenting to find one that really suits me. None of them are perfect, but with a good amount of fiddling, they've all turned into tasty additions to desserts and ice cream bases. The mixture that I turned into cheesecake was also spun off into a nice mellow farmer's cheese that went wonderfully with fresh strawberry rhubarb jam (again from the Joy of Jams, but with much less sugar than called for).
bagels fresh out of the oven
In fact, I made several jams from the new book: plain strawberry, strawberry rhubarb and strawberry kiwi. With such deliciously fresh tasting jams are hanging around the house, it seemed pretty much obvious that I needed to make a delicious delivery mechanism for them. So when King Aurthur flour had a free-shipping deal, I refilled my stock of organic high gluten flour and made a batch of bagels from the Bread Baker's Apprentice, some coated into sesame seeds and some streaked with pasilla chili powder and topped with chili lime Hawaiian sea salt.
Brunch at Dara's with everyone's delicious contributions: homemade bagels and jam, fennel seitan, chicory in tahini garlic sauce, roasted potatoes, beet orzo and melon with mint
Toasted and spread equally with fresh made jam and strawberry cream cheese, these were a delicious promise that the joy of strawberries in season can last as long as the jars of jam do, even if we've only got another week or two to enjoy them fresh.
This recipe is probably the closest one to the way I like my Chocolate Chip Cookies to be, I adpated it from this recipe from the King Arthur Flour website and it seems to be pretty foolproof. The cookies are crunchy and chewy all at the same time, which, in my books is a winner!
Chocolate Chip Cookies The best way to get nice even cookies is to use an medium sized ice cream scoop. Using one means, not only will you get proffesional looking cookies, but it totally simplifies the spooning out process! Also if you can't get your hands on chocolate chips, just break up some good quality chocolate bars and they will do the trick.
Makes 8-10 cookies 140g/5oz brown sugar 140g/5oz granulated sugar 225g/8oz butter 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract 1 large egg 240g/8½oz plain flour 340g/12oz chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 4. Grease two large baking trays or line with baking parchment. In a large mixing bowl, with a wooden spoon, beat the sugars, salt, vanilla extract, and butter until they are smooth and combined. Add the egg and beat again, until thoroughly mixed through. Mix in the flour and when the dough begins to form, add the chocolate chips and mix again lightly, until everything is combined. Using an medium sized ice cream scoop or a large dessertspoon, spoon the dough onto the prepared baking trays, leaving about 2 inches between them as the cookies will spread out as they cook. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are a nice golden brown with the middle remaining slightly pale. Enjoy the cookies old school style, a little warm with a nice cool glass of milk! JUMANJI!
We arrived in Cannes for a holiday last week, I came armed with a copy of Elizabeth David's French country cooking and Sofie my girlfriend with a copy of "The Notebook" (yes the soppy love story, the big screen version of which she has seen way too many times to count), so as you can imagine we have fairly different agendas on this summer holiday! I think it's always important to have a sniff around the local food market as a way of getting your bearings when you first arrive at a new place. It's been something that is engrained on my mind from an early age after hours of traipsing behind my parents on every family holiday, my dad busy comparing prices to the fruit and veg at home, while my mom being a bit more practical would be eyeing up a nice piece of meat for dinner. Needless to say it didn't take me very long to tire of reading by the pool and after a long drive the wrong way into Cannes and a fight with the GPS who I thought might be more interesting if we changed the language to French, we discovered the most beautiful French food market.
The Marché Forville is a massive covered market specialising in fruit, vegetables, fish and flowers and takes place every day except Monday's when it becomes the home to a spectacular antique market. The place literally crawls with activity. Big beefy stall holders eyeing up potential customers and of course the many well endowed Cote D'azur ladies, savvy French shoppers in the know, picking up up pieces of fish to inspect every inch of it, bronzed grannies beating their way through the crowds filling those distinctly French wheely bags to the brim with the best the market has to offer and then of course the tourists who like ourselves are busy snapping photos and taking it all in. You can't leave a place like this without a paper bag heavy with the summers finest fruit.
Baked Peaches with Vanilla Sugar Stoned summer fruits are whack bang in season at the moment and there are lots and lots of different recipes you can use to make the most of them, however I think keeping things simple brings out the natural juicy flavours and leaves you with far less washing up to do. A win win situation I think you'll agree! If you can't get vanilla sugar you can quite easily make a homemade batch by popping a vanilla pod in a jar filled with caster sugar. Or alternatively just use caster sugar and a splash of good quality vanilla extract.
Serves 4 8 peaches, halved with stones removed 3 tablespoons of vanilla sugar 2 tablespoons of water Vanilla ice cream to serve
Preheat the oven to 200oC/Gas Mark 6. Arrange the peaches in a non stick baking tray and sprinkle over the water. Dust each peach with a little of the vanilla sugar until each one is nicely coated. Place the peaches into the oven for around an hour or until the fruit is tender when pierced with a knife. Serve the peaches with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Happy Pancake Tuesday! I hope you have your batter ready! If not find the recipe in the post below. This caramel apple sauce is perfect for pancakes and ideal to jazz up pancake Tuesday. I'm in Stockholm and away from the kitchen this week so have a few pancakes on me.
Caramel Apple Sauce I originally made this to go with pancakes but it works so well as part of other desserts like waffles, ice cream, and even my American style oaty pancakes!
75g of butter. 5 tablespoons of golden syrup. 3 golden delicious apples, peeled and cored. 1 tablespoon of caster sugar. 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder.
In a small sauce pan bring the butter and golden syrup to the boil. Allow to simmer and bubble for approximately 4-5 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Set aside. Chop the apples into chunky slices. Melt a knob of butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat and add the apples slices. Sprinkle over the cinnamon and caster sugar, toss to combine. Fry the apples, tossing every now and then until you get a nice golden colour on all sides and they have become soft (About 3-4 minutes either side). When the apples are ready, add them to the butter and golden syrup sauce and stir gently to combine. Serve the sauce with homemade pancakes and some sneaky vanilla ice cream!
After a fairly busy weekend the majority of my worldly belongings have been moved into our new house! The bad news we got today however is that it's going to take a whopping 25 days to get broadband installed in the house because there hasn't been a line there since 1994. So a life of robbing other peoples internet is what's on the cards for the next 25 days. Which isn't a bad thing really, I mean I would get far more things done if I wasn't drooling over my new favourite food blog What Katie Ate and talking crap on twitter. The truth is that I will probably far more focused now on cooking in the kitchen without my laptop keys getting covered in flour, corners nearly being singed and screen getting a lovely smattering of grease.
We should really talk about the kitchen, it is a bit of a work in progress but there is lots and lots of light and space so in the next few days I'll be adding a few touches to make it perfect and then you most definitely will be due a photo or two. Very exciting stuff! The other advantage this new lovely house has is a big back garden, which at the moment looks like an overgrown jungle, but with a bit of work, by next spring will make the perfect little vegetable garden! Right enough new house talk how about a recipe?
Rustic Apple and Blackberry Galettes These are one of my favorite little autumnal (yes I said autumnal, it rolls off the tongue doesn't it!) desserts, because they are really easy and make you look like a baking genius, when, realistically all you do is make some pastry and fill it with apples and blackberries. No messing around with blind baking, pie tins, or fancy latticing here, this is a no fuss dessert which you have to serve with cream or, even better, a soft scoop of vanilla ice cream!
Serves 4 Pastry: 250g of plain flour 3 tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 140g of chilled butter, cut into pieces 1 large egg yolk 3 tablespoons of cold water
Filling: 250g of blackberries 250g of cooking apples, peeled and sliced thinly 4 tablespoons of light brown sugar A good squeeze of lemon juice 1 egg whisked together with a drop of milk to brush on the galettes
Add the flour, sugar, salt and butter to a mixing bowl. Using your fingertips, combine the dry ingredients with the butter, until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. This can take time, but don't worry the mixture will come together. Add the egg yolk and water and form the dough using your hands. Press the dough into a sausage shape and cover it in clingfilm, place in the fridge to chill for at least 30-40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 190oC/Gas mark 5. Mix together the blackberries, apples, sugar, and lemon juice in a bowl and set aside. Split the dough in four and roll each quarter out into 6"/15cm circles on a floured work surface with a rolling pin. Transfer the rounds to a baking sheet with a non stick surface. Add a handful of the blackberry apple mix to the centre of each pastry circle and fold the sides of the pastry up and over the sides of the fruit mix. Brush with the pastry with egg wash and place in the oven to bake for 20-30 minutes. Allow to cool before serving with a dollop of thick, cool whipped cream and dust with a little icing sugar.
As a nice way to finish off the Leila Lindholm week here on the blog, Lorraine from New Holland publishing organised a phone interview with the lady herself! I was very excited on Thursday morning to be able to call the lovely Leila, to have a quick chat about baking, the muffin mafia and of course her next book! Enjoy!
So you grew up in a family with a mix of cultures, tell me a little about the kind of food you had growing up, did you find you learned a lot about Morroccan cooking when you were growing up? I grew up with my mother and I only met my father when I was 24 so I didn't really grow up in a Morroccan culture at all, but my dad is from Morrocco.
From most of Swedes I talk to, they don't exactly rave about Swedish cuisine, but what you consider the most typical Swedish dish? It's pretty much like Swedish meatballs and we have a special kind of sausage called Falun sauasage that we eat and I think quite a lot of international food aswell as I remember we went to restauarants at least once a week to have dinner when I grew up.
I read you studied cooking, was that in Sweden? I studied a restaurant course in Stockholm and I started when I was 16 and finished when I was 19. When you finish the course you work in restaurants straight away.
I was very excited to read in your book about the muffin mafia, a baking group you started with your grandmother when you were younger, can you tell me a little about the members? It was great, it was actually something me and my grandma's neighbour made up, because I used to run over to her house and she taught me how to bake and we baked like cakes and cupcakes and muffins. Then she decided that we could become pen pals and send recipes to each other and it was me and Aunt Elsa, then her friends up in the north of Sweden, they were a bunch of old ladies in their 60's and we would send recipes to each other. But I was the boss, the mafia boss!
What were some of the first dishes you learned to cook? I think probably something simple like sausage and macoroni, or actually it was like grilled sandwiches! I used to with my best friend go to her place after to school and make all kinds of grilled sandwhiches with pineapple, really tacky sandwiches, with ketchup and pineapple and stuff on them and a lot of cheese!
You have an extremely successful career in Sweden, what would you consider your big break? Well actually I had two kind of big breaks, the first when I was 24, I was chosen Female Swedish Chef Of The Year and that was a big break because I started getting into the media and got attention from the media. I started doing interviews in the press and that was back in 1999. Then the second big break came in 2004 when I was chosen TV chef of the year and then also it was a milestone in a sense as it was my big break in the tv business, and I started getting more possibilities with my cooking shows. I started on one of the biggest morning shows here in Sweden and when I won the award I got asked to do my own cooking series and then after this it's been quite a successful story!
Well I can definitely see that! So who do you find you get the biggest reaction from your books, what kind of people? It's definitely women, but also mothers and kids, they love the baking show. I have heard from so many parents that their kids are watching the baking show on DVD's, they don't want to watch Disney movies, they just want to watch my baking show which is a little funny!
What are some of your favourite dishes to cook apart from baking? I love to do barbeques, so that's what I am really looking forward to this summer, we have a lot of snow right now, but I can't wait to start doing barbeques, that's what I really love! Doing meat like sirloin steak, lamb legs, whole salmon, I can't wait!
In every picture I have seen of you, you always look incredibly happy, are there any dishes that really frustrate you to make? I like to cook everything but sometimes there are dishes which are challenging when, of course, even for me, sometimes things don't work or like the Bearnaise sauce doesn't turn out, thats annoying. Also it's quite common, I'm sure you are familiar with this, when you have plan in your mind and it just doesn't work out when you cook it!
From what I have read you have a big interest in styling as well as cooking, how did that get started? Well I think for me I have always been interested in aesthetic stuff, interior designs, and beautiful things so I collect beautiful things and it came from there. I love to create beautiful things and it's a huge passion I have a craving, I have to do it!
When I was in Sweden I picked up your fantastic magazine Leila's Country Living but I heard it has stopped, will you be working on new issues of it in the future? Maybe in the future but right now I decided not to because I have just had a baby, and I decided to try two issues first in 2009, to make sure it went well because I have no experience in the magazine world. Then I realised that it is so hard to juggle the tv shows, and the book and the magazine.
I was in a book shop in Dublin yesterday and spotted your book "A Piece of Cake", I didn't realise it had been released here aswell as the UK, are you hoping to come over here and break this market? That would be fantastic to work more abroad, but this is my first cookbook to be released outside Sweden, it has been released in The Netherlands, USA, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and in Italy so it's quite exciting to see where it's going to take my work. It's been nine months since I had my baby so I am starting to get back into work mode and we are starting to record season 3 of my baking show in about two weeks. I was also asked by the Discovery channel to do a couple of shows but that was when I just had by baby and it was a food travel show and it wasn't possible to travel.
I'm guessing since the success of your books and tv shows in Sweden, and even with a new baby life has become a lot busier, how has your cooking habits changed? They haven't really, I kind of cook the same stuff I cook in my shows!
Have you had any major on-air or off-air disasters when cooking on tv? No but sometimes in the studio its very hot so in like the spring time sometimes when you work with cake and chocolate and ice cream they melt, so that can be a bit of a disaster!
I am a huge fan of cookbooks, have you got a big collection of books yourself, is there any you just couldn't live without? No I'm greedy I have to have them all! I have about over 100 books, but my favourites are from Martha Stewart and of course Jamie Oliver, his books are very fresh and beautiful!
You worked with Jamie's photographer, David Loftus on one of your books, what was he like to work with? He was fun, he is a fantastic photographer, and it was great, we had done a couple of jobs for Delicious magazine in the UK, and some Swedish magazines also.
Do you have some favourite cookbooks from Swedish food writers? There is a food writer called Anna Bergenstrom, she makes beautiful food, she is like the Swedish Julia Child, a legend!
What do you think the success of a good cook book relies on? Good recipes, and recipies that work, and also that they are easy and they work for normal people. Of course the photography and styling is very important but also when you work with the text to make all the corrections in a book is so important so they are well worked through and very exact, so you are guaranteed the recipe is good.
What are your plans for you next book, will you stick with baking or will you concentrate on any other specific aspects of food? It's actually going to be a follow up to "A Piece of Cake" and I made it with the intention of making two books and I wanted to do one book with sweet stuff and another with more savoury stuff, and it's called "One More Slice" and I bake pizza, pasta, and a lot of sour dough bread recipes, and also there is sweets too. There is a chapter called Cheesecake and another called brownies and blondies, and Ice cream too! So it's all the good stuff that didn't make it in the first book! I had so much material that I wanted to do two books!
After all this unhealthy food, do you ever really feel like a good healthy salad? Absolutely I have to eat quite healthy to make sure I don't kill myself and keep in shape! But sometimes it's nice, there is always room for birthday cakes, and there is always celebrations where you are supposed to bake, it's just tradition. Also bread is a matter of when you eat it, if you have it at breakfast it is not as dangerous as eating it in the evening time!
What do you think of food blogging, would you ever consider doing it yourself? Yes, it's most definitely in my future, but in my case I have been so busy with other stuff. I had a blog for 2 years and even though I wasn't active like the way you are, I wrote something at least once a week. But it is quite demanding if you want to write a good blog with a lot of content so it's hard work and for me write now it's difficult to find the time. But the food blogs are great and it's really fun to read them. So for me it's just a matter of time right now!
Ok one last question, and I'm sure you have been asked this question a million times, but what would be your death row meal? It's a little bit of a depressing question and I would say sweets, but I am very into shellfish and seafood and oysters and a glass Chablis wine!
Leila's book "A Piece Of Cake" is in Irish and UK bookshops now or you can order online here. www.leila.se
I have mentioned Leila Lindholm on this blog quite a few times at this stage, she is my baking hero, plus I think I might have a little bit of a crush on her! Leila is from Sweden and I was given a present of her book "A Piece Of Cake" in Swedish last year by Sofie's dad. I have been hooked on her delicious recipes ever since. She has been in the kitchen since the age of three helping her grandmother and still remembers the first batch of muffins she ever cooked. I love hearing about those sort of stories when you read other cooks books, it gives a much more interesting sense of where the recipes come from.
Leila is extremely successful in her native Sweden and has released 3 cookbooks there, including my favourite "A Piece Of Cake". I speak a good bit of Swedish, enough to read a cookbook, and having worked over there in a restaurant, my Swedish food vocab is pretty up to scratch, so I have worked my way through a good few recipes in the book. However I recently got sent a copy of her book in English, as it has just been released in the UK and it has rekindled my love for her recipes. The ones without pictures, which I may have skipped over in Swedish, I am now salivating over and reading properly! It's all very exciting, so I have decided this is going to be Leila Lindholm week here on the blog, featuring a recipe everyday from her fab book "A Piece Of Cake". The first recipe I have chosen for today is these fantastic Peanut Butter Cupcakes". As you might have noticed I have a bit of a weakness for cupcakes and I have been meaning to try these ones in particular for so long! Enjoy!
Leila Lindholm's Peanut Butter Cupcakes There are loads of delicious frostings you can use to ice your cupcakes, and there are no limits to how you decorate them. This frosting is as tasty as it is simple to make.
Makes 12 cakes 3 organic eggs 225g caster sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar 50g unsalted butter 100ml sour cream 2 tablespoons baking powder 2 tablespoons cold coffee 210g plain flour 4 tablespoons good quality cocoa powder 1 pinch of salt 100g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) 150g salted peanuts and extra for decoration
For the peanut butter frosting: 100g soft peanut butter 240g icing sugar 4 tablespoons good quality cocoa powder 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar 150g cream cheese 1 tablespoon warm coffee
Preheat the oven to 175oC/350oF/Gas Mark 4. Beat together the eggs, butter and vanilla sugar until pale and fluffy. Mellt the butter, add the sour cream and coffee and blend with the egg mixture. Mix together the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt and carefully fold into the mixture. Chop the chocolate coarsely and melt it in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Add the the mixture. Put paper cases in a muffin tin. Chop the peanuts and add them to the paper cases, layering them with the cake batter until two-thirds full. Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Leave to cool. Stir the peanut butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla sugar and cream cheese until creamy. Stir in the coffee. Spread the frosting on top of the cakes and decorate with extra peanuts.
I am very excited to let you know, that this lil' old blog is a now a finalist in the years Irish Blog Awards and will be competing on Saturday night to become the best Irish Food and Drink Blog! It is my first year to make the list of finalists after 4 years blogging! There are some great food blogs in the mix, including two previous winners! You can check out the other finalists here:
Ice Cream Ireland
The Beer Nut
The Daily Spud
The Grapes of Sloth
The Good Mood Food Blog
Keep your fingers crossed for Saturday night! I promise that if I win, I will take the trophy everywhere in true Kathy Griffin style! Big shout out to the peeps who make it all happen at the Blog Awards and of course Damo! :)
A few things have been going on in the Irish blogging world since my little blogging break, and even though I might be a bit late on some of the news I thought it was high time I mentioned them here.
The biggest news of course is the release of the Murphy's Ice Cream book which is a really impressive collection of recipe's- lots of research, lots of tips and tricks, and some really great pictures! I think the lads really chose the best time to release it too, with Ireland's attempt at a summer coming thick and fast. If you want to pick up a copy you can do so through their blog IcecreamIreland.
The other food bloggie related news is that, Deb from The Humble Housewife, has moved on up to an even better and bigger blog which is located right here @ Tast.ie. It's already full of posts so head over and take a peak!
A few months ago, I posted about my Basil plant which was thriving at the time- since then it has been through a lot- Sofie left all the windows open one very cold day and it looked very worse for wear by the time I came home and saved it! However two months later, and despite a plague of green fly and some sort of growing fungus on the stems- it is still alive and well. Which is a hell of a lot better then the rest of my herbs. The lemon balm, mint, chives and coriander all had to be re potted and moved inside after going slightly black on the edges.
The move seems to have done the trick, with all the plants thriving, except for a few stray little flies which seem to mainly hang around the mint. Anyone have any idea why? Answers on a postcard or in the comments section below. I've now planted, bay, lavender and a brand new rosemary plant in the remaining pots, so I'll just have to wait and see if they survive the balcony.
Is there anyone else out there growing a herb garden this summer? Got any tips or advice?
I have never seen a better reaction from one item of food in all the time I have been cooking. When a plate of cupcakes enter a room, eyes light up, people make strange noises, and adults are quickly reduced to children when they have to make their selection!
If the Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies and Cream Cupcakes were a bit too rich and heavy for you, you may be more interested in these regular cupcakes. This is the recipe we used and is really easy to throw together.
Basic Cupcake Recipe This recipe again comes from aunt Erica, and is adapted from her fairy cake recipe. If you are making these to decorate with kids, and want to limit the time it takes to put everything together, it may be easier to make the cupcakes ahead of time.
Makes approximately 8 cupcakes. 175g of self raising flour. 110g of caster sugar. 1 teaspoon of baking powder. 110g of soft margarine or butter.
2 large eggs. 50ml of water/milk.
For the butter cream frosting: 170g of softened butter. 225g of icing sugar.
Preheat the oven to 180oC and line a cupcake tray with paper cases. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients. Make a well in the center of the bowl and break in the 2 eggs and add the butter in small pieces. Using an electric hand mixer beat all the ingredients together until combined. Add in half the milk/water and beat again until combined. You are looking for the batter to be light and creamy. Add the rest of the liquid if you need it- you may not. Divide the batter evenly into the paper cases and place in an oven for 15-20 minutes or until firm and light brown on top. Allow to cool on a wire rack before applying the frosting. In a bowl beat the butter and add the icing sugar bit by bit until it is all incorporated. At this point you can separate the frosting into a few different bowls and stir through different food colourings. Spoon the frosting into an icing bag and ice away! Let your imagination go wild!
