Saturday's festive catering: part 4

Part 4

(You can read part 1 here, part 2 here and part 3 here.)

Now the catering was all done I could leave the kitchen (admittedly in a dreadful state) and spend some time with our guests. We variously enjoyed cheese and biscuits and soup and bread and other savoury snacks as well as some mulled wine that Matt had made (not for expectant types) or soft drinks or tea. And then I remembered the mince pies, or the pastry at least. I am currently in possession of a large quantity of cooking apples so was planning on making a mixture of mince pies, apple pies and mince meat + apple pies. (I had prepared the apple earlier in the day by peeling chopping and whizzing in the microwave for a few minutes. The mincemeat was not home made this would just be one ask too many.) Once I had rolled out the pastry (by now there was a bit more space as the chocolate on the biscuit had set and they were all stacked up) there was a further delay in proceedings because I couldn't find my round cutters. After emptying the baking tin cupboard (again) and finding they weren't there I had a search through various other drawers and cupboards. I eventually found them (I say eventually but in reality it probably only took about 5 minutes, but it was a very frustrating 5 minutes) and used my newly discovered trick of dipping the cutter in flour before cutting 12 pastry discs to fit in my fairy cake tin. I also cut 12 little stars to go on top of the pies.

I don't know a lot about pastry but what I have learnt is that if you want to avoid a soggy bottom you should blind bake. What I learnt today is that blind baking tiny pastry cases in a fairy cake tin is not very easy. They sort of “grew” so that there wasn't much space for the filling so I took the executive decision to sort of reshape the partly baked cases with a measuring spoon (it has a nice, smooth spherical aspect to it). I added the fillings, topped with the stars, put them in the oven and returned to spend more time with our guests (this after all was the main aim of the day).

I had had enough of the kitchen now so delegated to Matt the important task of taking the pies out of the oven when they were ready. This was risky:

* Matt gets easily distracted

* The light in the oven is broken

* I think that the thermostat is not working perfectly which might explain why the biscuits were done in super quick (in fact quite a few things about the oven are broken, we might get a new one depending on the financial situation in the new year, or maybe I could get an oven manufacturer to sponsor me!)

But Matt, did a good job - they looked just right.

Time was flying by and some of our guests soon had to leave, but not before we had had the ceremonial first eating of the Bûche de Noel. I didn't partake of the first round but I was assured by those who did that it was very good. I would wait until later in the evening to find out for myself.

I did however fancy a mince pie. Unfortunately, despite careful greasing of the tin they proved somewhat difficult to remove, but with a bit of digging with a teaspoon they mostly came out in tact (thanks again to Matt). The weird semi blind baking / reshaping didn't seem to do too much (if any) harm and they tasted pretty nice. (I must say that I am start to enjoy the whole home made pastry thing; it seems to give a bit of kudos amongst other bakers too!) Sorry, I neglected to take a photo but I have plenty of witnesses to attest to the mince pies' existence.

After a bit more savoury snacking ('tis after all the season for my favourite wafer and processed cheese ball shaped snack) I decided that it was time to try the Bûche for myself. I wasn't disappointed and I'm not usually a big cream fan. I had been concerned about how to store the leftovers but it didn't seem that this was going to be much of a problem. It would certainly be gone in another 24 hours. And I must say that the cherries were a wise addition, it added a nice fruity dimension.

So after all that I had sort of achieved 50% of what I had hoped to bake:

* Cheese straws: none made. These would have to be done for another occasion.

* Mince pies: 12 made. Including some apple pies and mixed mincemeat and apple pies.

* Celebrity chef (the one who does all the “science”) inspired gingerbread Christmas tree: not made. But there were a whole lot of chocolate decorated multi-spice biscuits. The full on tree will have to wait for another year when I either have more time or am more organised.

* Brandy snaps: none made. Probably no bad thing, I would probably have made a ghastly mess.

* Yule log: 1 Bûche de Noel made. Very nice it was too. So nice I'm going to make another at my mum and dad's house, mainly because it's the best thing I can come up with to use the other half tin of chestnut purée. Apparently mum has the right sized swiss roll tin so I will finally find out what one of these looks like. But I'm going to put a bit more of my own twist on it next time so maybe it really can be called a “bouche (mouth) de Noel”.

Saturday's festive catering: part 3

Part 3

(you can find part 1 here, and part 2 here)

After a day mostly spent in the kitchen with a brief trip out to buy cream, and an not insubstantial amount of time spent chatting my festive catering now amounted to:

* some chilled short crust pastry (destined for mince pies)

* some undecorated multi-spice biscuits

* a big pan of unblended soup

* a bowl of sugar and eggs

I was now on a mission to make my Bûche de Noel, this would require focus and I must reveal that I was rather neglectful of visitors 3 and 4. After a quick hello I left them in Matt's capable hands, I could hear one of my favourite board games being played so had no concerns. I finally whisked up the sugar and eggs, for quite a while on the highest setting of the electric whisk. Then I carefully added the self raising flour (65g) and cocoa powder (40g). In a most unusual display of care I actually sifted these into the egg / sugar mixture – I don't know why but it seemed particularly important not lose all the air that I had whisked in. When it came to pour the mixture into the tin (you haven't missed an ingredient, this is a fat free sponge) it looked basically like a chocolate mousse.

While this baked (at 220ºC for 10minutes) I started the filling. I whisked 150ml of cream. In another bowl I whisked (this recipe uses a lot of bowls and a lot of whisking) half of the tin of chestnut purée (I did cut a corner here as the recipe said you were supposed to sieve this but this just seemed crazy) with 3 tablespoons of hot milk, 1 tablespoon of hot coffee (you're supposed to use coffee essence but I don't have any and there was a little bit of coffee left in a cafetiere that Matt had made for himself earlier) and 50g of caster sugar. You're also supposed to put brandy in but not being sure of the alcohol consumption practices of our expected (and possibly expectant) guests I left this out. Then you fold the cream into the rest of it. And that's the filling.

The next bit of the recipe seemed like it was going to be the tricky bit. You have to take the sponge out of the oven and immediately turn it out, remove the greaseproof paper and roll it up (the cake, not the paper). I prepared for this operation by covering a board in icing sugar to turn the sponge out onto. The sponge turn out subsequently resulted in an icing sugar bomb effect all over the work surface. It wasn't until I later re-read the recipe that I realised you were supposed to use caster sugar, which would probably have made considerably less mess. I worked quickly but the sponge rolling was entirely unsuccessful, despite following the recipe's tip of scoring where the first roll would go. I ended up with three separate pieces of sponge that sort of fitted together. You then have to leave it to cool before adding the filling.

I used this pause to decorate the biscuits. Time pressures meant that I needed to keep this simple. I melted some plain chocolate and used this to drizzle over the holly leaf shapes. We had reached the ominous 5 o'clock when I was actually expecting people to arrive. I had a lot of melted chocolate left and decided that I would cover the Christmas tree shapes with this and then put on a few silver balls. The timing was bad because just as my haphazard decorating was going on Matt's auntie who is an expert cake decorator arrived. But I was not to be deterred. After greeting our new guests I returned to the Bûche. But it was still not cool and despite my impatience I knew better than to put a cream based filling in a hot cake.

So I went back to the biscuits. I melted some white chocolate and used this to drizzle over the angels / fairies (to which I then added a bit of pink sprinkly sugar stuff) and to cover the snowmen (to which I then added some multi-coloured hundreds and thousands). Every spare work surface was now covered with festive biscuits covered in chocolate that needed to set.

But I just managed to find a space to work on (the now cool Bûche). I “unrolled” it, spread the filling all over and re-“rolled” (stack would be more accurate). The filling sort of spilt out of the ends but it didn't look too awful. I whisked another 300ml of cream (the fact that it is a fatless sponge is clearly no message about the lipid content of the recipe as a whole) to cover the top with – this would hopefully make it look rather more Christmassy. Now I did deviate from the recipe a little. I just had a feeling that it would be improved by something a little fruity so halved some glacé cherries and attached these to the cream at one end of the log (I didn't want to cover it in cherries as I know that they're not to everyone's taste).

Then I dusted with cocoa powder (back to the recipe). I was rather pleased with the effect but thought that it would look even better with a supplementary dusting of icing sugar (recipe deviation) – it did. The scene was completed by the application of the plastic Christmas figurines (holly, father Christmas, reindeer) that Barbara, my mother-in-law, had kindly picked up for me (don't fret I have paid her back). For a first attempt it looked good but, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

To be continued.......

(This would be a really far too long blog if I don't split it up; you are after all getting multiple recipes.)

Saturday's festive catering: part 2

Part 2

(You can find part 1 here.)

So far my festive catering amounted to a large number of (undecorated) gingerbread (well, multiple spiced) biscuits and a lump of pastry.

Now I really was going to need to get on with the Yule log. First thing was to choose a recipe. I found a few ranging from the very chocolatey to the less chocolatey (I would be interested to know the link between chocolate and Christmas, the best I can make up is that it's a high calorie food to set you up with energy for the winter); with anywhere between 4 and 6 eggs. I eventually settled on a less chocolatey option with 4 eggs. The main reason I chose this one was that it used whole eggs – I didn't have to do any egg separation which is an operation I generally try to avoid. It's ok when it's just one egg (as in the pastry above) but becomes too risky when you've to separate lots of eggs and even riskier when you don't have a good supply of spare eggs.

Other reasons this was the best choice recipe:

* It was titled Bûche de Noel which sounded way more exciting than Yule log. For a while I thought that this translated as “mouth of Christmas” but wasn't convinced this is the right spelling for “mouth”. A quick check in the mini French dictionary confirmed that this is the case; bûche translating as “log” so not really being that much more exciting after all. (For reference mouth is “bouche”, which might be a culinary delight awaiting invention.)

* It used chestnut purée in the filling and I have had a tin of this sat in the cupboard for quite some time.

I measured the sugar (100g) and cracked in the eggs and my thoughts turned to decoration. I needed some small plastic Christmas things to go on top of the bûche. My best bet would be Barbara, my mother-in-law. Although a quick phone call revealed that she didn't own any she was conveniently just finishing “work” (at a charity shop so it should really be called “volunteer”). The convenient thing about this is that it is just next door to the most comprehensive catering shop in Plymouth and she kindly agreed to pick a few things up for me. Then I decided that I'd better go out and get some cream, and then by the time I got back (I had to go to the 2^nd nearest corner shop because the first one didn't have the right sort of cream) I needed some lunch, and then (after a little bit of cheese on toast expertly prepared by Matt) a visitor arrived. It was just before 2pm and I was under the impression that no-one was going to be arriving until at least 5pm. I had based my entire kitchen schedule on no-one arriving until at least 5pm. Nothing was ready for this first visitor but Matt came to the rescue and made some more cheese on toast. And then at about half past two the next visitor arrived (along with some lovely flowers for yours truly).

Since I hadn't really made a start on the “Bûche” I decided I should put this on pause to focus on the “proper” food and get the soup done. This was quite easy to do with sporadic conversation as it doesn't require too much concentration (I make a lot of soup). 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery, 4 leeks and 2 potatoes, all into a big pan with a little bit of olive oil and sweated off. Then after a bit of chatting I added enough hot water to cover it all and then chatted some more until the veggies were nice and soft. Then I poured in some red lentils (I suppose about 2 cupfuls) for thickening and protein and let it all cook a bit more while I chatted a bit more. (Matt would blend and serve later.)

I tried to continue my food preparation whilst not being too antisocial, but came to a bit of an impasse when I came to prepare the tin for the log. The recipe said I needed a 23 x 33cm swiss roll tin. I had a baking tray that was slightly thinner and longer and found some sort of tin that was a bit shorter. I had no idea if this tin was a swiss roll tin. I wouldn't know a swiss roll tin if it hit me in the face. I think this tin must have come from my granny. I was facing a quandary that (in the absence of a hotline to a certain baking doyenne) would best be solved by a call to my mum (also a baking doyenne in her own way). She recommended that I use the slightly shorter tin that may or may not be a swiss roll tin. I lined this and then the next guests arrived, I think it was just before 4pm. This was getting silly. I still had a bowl of sugar and eggs sat on the side, and was expecting a serious arrival of guests in an hour.

To be continued.......

(This would be a really far too long blog if I don't split it up; you are after all getting multiple recipes.)

Saturday's festive catering: part 1

Matt had arranged a bit of a pre-Christmas gathering for his friends and family. It was unclear to me just how many friends and family would be attending (I was expecting somewhere between 3 and 20), so catering arrangements were a little tricky but it seemed like a good occasion for me to get on with some festive baking.

I had a long list of all the things that I wanted to make:

* Cheese straws

* Mince pies

* Celebrity chef (the one who does all the “science”) inspired gingerbread Christmas tree

* Brandy snaps

* Yule log

In addition we needed something slightly more nourishing to feed ourselves (and our guests if they chose to partake) so additionally needed:

* Soup – I had four leeks in the fridge destined for this

* Bread – to go with the soup. Matt would be responsible for this via the bread machine

* Cheese – courtesy of the supermarket.

I had intended to make the gingerbread tree the night before the gathering but to be honest after a tiring day at work and once I had been to the supermarket (for the above cheese – I even bought some pregnancy unfriendly types for the occasion, which in my current condition is quite a taunt to my palette – and some other supplies) I didn't really feel like spending the estimated 3 hours in the kitchen. And let's face it these time estimates in recipes are always inadequate. Instead I spent some quality time with the TV on Friday night (Matt was at his work night out so I had my choice entirely).

But Saturday would be a busy day in the kitchen. I started with the mince pies. Well, the pastry anyway. The recipe I used today was 100g butter rubbed into 200g plain flour and then 25g icing sugar and an egg yolk stirred through (I am now left with one egg white). For some reason I decided not to use the food processor for this, maybe because I thought I might need it for something else later, but it was pretty quick anyway and I put the pastry ball away in the fridge to chill until mince pies were called for.

Going by the rule of “do the most difficult thing first” I should have really started getting on with the Yule log now. Instead I decided to make some gingerbread. Not the fancy tree, just some plain biscuits. The last time I made gingerbread I wasn't entirely satisfied with the outcome so I used a different recipe today. This one required you to melt 100g brown sugar (I used the dark & soft type) with 125g butter (I used unsalted but am really not convinced of the necessity of this) and 4 tablespoons of golden syrup (very difficult to measure). You then stir that all into the dry ingredients of 325g plain flour, 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and 2 teaspoons of ground ginger. I was unhappy about this level of spicing so also added a generous sprinkle of cinnamon and a bit of ground nutmeg – hopefully this would make them taste even more festive. I mixed it all up but it seemed really sloppy. I took the risk of adding a little more (1 tablespoon) flour and the mixture seemed to improve a bit. I rolled it out to an estimated 0.5cm in preparation of cutting.

Proceedings were now delayed slightly while I emptied the baking tin cupboard (yes, I realise I am very fortunate to have a whole cupboard of baking tins) to find the festive cookie cutters. They were obviously right at the back but I did find lots of things that I had forgotten that I had in the process. Proceedings were then delayed slightly further as I realised that I needed to give the cutters a bit of a clean before they could be used and I decided that I may as well do a load of dishes at the same time.

Back to the food preparation, I chose the cutters I wanted – holly leaves, Christmas tress (still thinking about my original plan), angels / fairies (depending on your preference) and snowmen (I could also have had Father Christmas, reindeer and candy canes but decided that less is more in terms of biscuit forms) – and set to cutting out the biscuits. Now comes the best thing that I learnt all day....

Dip the cutter in flour before cutting. I have never done this before but it was specifically mentioned in the recipe. I can't believe I have never done this before, the festive shapes just dropped out, none of that annoying getting stuck in the cutter and poking to try to to remove it. If you've never done this before you should try it. It really was a revelation.

Anyway 4 angels / fairies, 4 trees, 4 snowmen, and numerous easily cut holly leaves later (as well as a nondescript shape made with the leftover dough) I baked the biscuits at 170ºC for just 7 minutes. The recipe said 9-10 minutes but I didn't want to risk them being too tough, especially after I had added that extra flour. The trick here is not to worry that they are still softish when they come out of the oven. I removed them onto a cooling tray, where they “solidified”. They could have some festive decoration added later.

To be continued.......

(This would be a really far too long blog if I don't split it up; you are after all getting multiple recipes.)

Wednesday's cocktail muffins

I had yet again failed to meet the customary work based requirement of bringing in something nice to eat. The occasion this time was my birthday, and the excuse was a very busy week. Things still hadn't really settled down but I was determined to provide something tasty for our team meeting. The previous evening a friend had come round for dinner and I'd done our now almost classic curry (mushroom, chickpea, sweet potato) and had finished it off with half a tin of coconut milk. So now I had half a tin of coconut milk left over. In my experience there are very few things to do with half a tin of coconut milk.

I had a concept in mind.... a kind of pina colada in cake form. I would need to achieve this before work so time being limited I would stick with muffins as the cake form, I know what I'm doing here. I didn't have a precise recipe but there are lots for sort of fruity muffins which I felt fairly confident that I could adapt.

The usual muffin method applied:

1. Mix the dry ingredients: 280g self raising flour, ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, ½ teaspoon salt, 100g caster or granulated sugar.

2. Mix the wet ingredients: 1 egg (beaten), half a 400ml tin of coconut milk (approx – it might have been slightly less), 100g tinned pineapple (chopped up into little bits with kitchen scissors – try not to add too much more liquid or it'll all get rather soggy!), 90ml vegetable oil

3. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients: it should look like a lumpy batter, not a smooth dough

4. Transfer to muffin tin and bake: this gave me an opportunity to use the new muffin cases that my mum had bought me for my birthday. She knows how to spoil her little girl – I will only ever buy for myself the plain white ones and recently have been using cupcake cases (rather than muffin cases) which are the wrong shape for my tin but I bought them by accident and refuse to let them go to waste. I finished off by sprinkling a little bit of desiccated coconut over the tops (we have a lot of desiccated coconut for some reason so I'm always pleased to find an outlet.

5. Bake at 190ºC for about 25minutes (until they look golden and pass the skewer test).

I took a risk in taking these to work without conducting a taste test myself. Even Matt, my husband, didn't do a taste test. I was doing well for time so just in case I also made some mincemeat muffins too and some nutty gingerbread ones that I made made whilst waiting for our visitor the previous evening. The pina colada muffins went down particularly well with the female contingent of the team (80%, but 85% of the meeting attendees) and I was assured that they performed both in terms of flavour and texture.

I got to try one myself later that evening as I took all the leftover muffins to our last dancing class of the season, and it really was rather good. Again, it was the ladies who were most forward in testing out my new creation – I suppose it is a fairly feminine flavour of muffin but I'm sure that men would get a lot of enjoyment out of them too if they could overcome their bravado. The others were enjoyed too, in class or at the pub at our end of term gathering. I'd recommend you give mincemeat muffins a go if you would like to serve home-made mince pies but can't be bothered with the pastry. And I think I'll be trying out some more cocktail based muffins as the season demands. These ones could even perhaps have a slosh of coconut liqueur added to them on future occasions.