Apple & Strawberry Turnovers - The Perfect Quickie Snack

I made these turnovers this morning for the Bed and Breakfast guests, and honestly they were made from start to finish in 20 minutes using only four ingredients. Now how's that for a quickie?!

Quick snacks do require short cut ingredients, so as always, I use premade shop bought ready rolled puff pastry, and I use a high quality strawberry conserve. There is nothing wrong with using short cut ingredients from time to time, as long as you buy the best quality you can afford. There really is such a difference.

These turnovers are perfect for my guests who love a morning pastry, but they would work equally as well with a dollop of cream or custard for an elegant dinner party dessert. Either way, they are simply childs play to make and way too delicious not to make.

Here's how:

Ingredients

• 1 packet of ready rolled all butter puff pastry
• 1 jar of good quality strawberry conserve
• 2 tbsp of flaked almonds
• 1 apple, peeled and diced.

To Glaze:

• Some milk and brown sugar

To decorate:

• Some icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Roll out the puff pastry with the longest end neares you. Then cut it into 3. Then cut horizontal in half.
3. On each square place a teaspoon of strawberry conserve in the centre and top with a teaspoon of diced apple
4. Repeat with every remaining square.
5. Brush the edges of each pastry square with the milk and fold in half pressing down all the edges.
6. Use a fork to press down the pinched sides of the squares.
7. Brush the tops of the squares with the milk, top with a couple of flaked almonds and finish off with a sprinkle of brown sugar.
8. Place in the centre of the oven for 16-18 minutes to bake.
9. When beautifully risen and golden brown, remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
10. When cooled dust liberally with icing sugar.

So easy, there's simply no excuse!!!

Chocolate & Pear Crumble Pies - Not Just Another Mince Pie

I love a mince pie as much as the next person. But wouldn't it be nice to have a mince pie with a twist for a change. I was trying to think of alternative mince pie recipes without compromising too much on the concept, and I got to thinking of good flavour combinations.

I knew I wanted chocolate chips to make the final cut, so what goes well with chocolate? Pears!!! Chocolate and Pear go together like Simon and Garfunkel!And what also goes well with chocolate from the mincemeat family? Well dried cranberries are a good call, and there is a heavy chocolate-type flavour from dates also. Very moorish. So there you have it: chocolate chips, dried cranberries, pears, and dates make up the 'dry' mince meat ingredients. Now for the quick fix 'wet' ingredients, Some marmalade and some cream liqueur will do nicely . Oh don't forget the mixed spice.....It is Christmas after all!

I like to make my mince pies look really rustic and homemade! So instead of putting a lid on the pies, I have made a super fast crumble to top the pies with. If a crumble doesn't tickle your fancy, grab a star cookie cutter with the same diameter as the circle ring you use to cut out the pastry discs and you have really pretty star studded pies instead. Either way, they are anything but another boring mince pie.

Ingredients

• 80g of chocolate chips
• 2 pears, diced
• 35g of dried cranberries
• 3 tbsp of orange marmalade
• 1 tbsp of bailey liqueur 
• 125g chopped dates
• 1 tsp of mixed spice
• 1 ready rolled sheet of all butter shortcrust pastry

Crumble

• 25g of cold butter
• 25g of brown sugar
• 25g of ground almonds
• 25g of flaked almonds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. First make the 'mincemeat' filling. Add the following to a large bowl and stir well to combine : chocolate chips, diced pears, dried cranberries, chopped dates, mixed spice, baileys, and the marmalade.
3. Then make the crumble by rubbing the butter into the sugar and then add the ground and flaked almonds.
4. Roll out the sheet of pastry and cut out circles with a round cookie cutter. (Measure the circle cutter to make sure its a small bit bigger that the muffin tin holes.
5. Oil the muffin holes, and place one disc of pastry in each muffin hole.
6. Spoon in the mincemeat mixture and top with the crumble mixture. You can tray freeze them at this stage and just cook them from frozen for an extra five minutes.
7. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and place muffin tin on a wire rack. The liquid will be bubbling so be careful, they are very hot. Run a knife or spatula around the rim of the mince to release from the tin while the liquid is still hot. If it cools too much it will stick to the walls and be more difficult to remove without them breaking.
9. After 2-3 minutes, remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack. 
10. When ready to serve, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with cream, custard, or icecream. 

Boozy Lemoncello Jelly Shots

With party season fast approaching, here's a recipe I came across in Lorraine Pascale's Fast Fresh Simple cookbook. These are amazing (and addictive <hic>) jelly shots. They bring me back to my college days of vodka jello shots; however these have a sophicated playfulness about them. I brought them as a gift to a dinner party I was recently attending and they went down a storm. So much so that I decided to share the recipe with everyone. 

Lorraine Pascale is my new girl cook crush. She makes everything seem effortless and simple; while putting an wonderful twist on classics. Such great twists that time and again I'm saying to myself "Class!! Why didn't I think of that!!! " .If you are in look of a new muse and haven't read her books yet, then start dropping some hints for Christmas.

Now on with the recipe

Ingredients

• 7-8  6.5 x 11.5cm leaves of gelatin
• 7 medium lemons or 5 big lemons
• 135 pack of lemon jelly
• 350 ml of water
• 150ml of lemoncello
• 1 tbsp of caster sugar

Method

1. Put the kettle on to boil. 
2. Then put the gelatin leaves into a small, wide bowl, cover them with cold water and set aside to soften.
3. Cut the lemons in half lengthways and, using a spoon, scoop out the juicy flesh. It takes a bit of wiggling and getting squirted by the juice, but you will get there!
4. Set each lemon shell half, cut side up, on a large tray or put each one in the hole of a 12-hole muffin tin. If you have 14 shells, then nestle the remaining two on top in between the others and they should sit still.
5. Next, break up the lemon jelly a bit and put it into a heatproof measuring jug, then pour over enough hot water and limoncello to reach 500ml in the jug.
6. Pick up the gelatin leaves – they will feel all soft. 
7. Gently squeeze out as much liquid as you can from them, discard the bowl of water and then put the soft gelatin leaves into the jelly and hot water. 
8. Stir constantly until it dissolves.
9.  Then stir in the sugar until dissolved.
10. Use the jelly to fill each lemon shell right up to the very top so it is almost overflowing. 
11. Let them cool down for about 5 minutes then whack them in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up. They will set I the fridge also, but allow double the time.
12. Once they are firm, remove them from the fridge or freezer. 
13. Then, using a sharp, non-serrated knife, cut them in half, straight down, lengthways, and there you have it!

These are a wonderful way to finish a dinner party or a completely awesome addition to a party table, but make sure to tell your guests they are alcoholic.

You can leave out the lemoncello and just use water for child friendly versions for birthday parties.

Recipe taken from Lorraine Pascale "Fast, Fresh & Simple" 

Cheats Gold Star Chocolate Chip Cake

I baked this cake to mark my daughters six month 'birthday' last month. I was up against the clock with work in the B&B, and had told my family to drop by for cake, so I adapted my Quick Blueberry & Apple Cake (http://serenasmediumrare.blogspot.ie/2013/04/quick-apple-blueberry-almond-cake.html) recipe to made a super fast and easy chocolate 'birthday' cake. My little cheat in the process came in the form of pre-made butter cream frosting courtesy of Better Crocker - a lifesaver in last minute baking dilemmas. The frosting tasted great also which was a surprise. I would use it again in a bind hands down! 

This recipe is for your basic chocolate sponge, and in fact I use the same ingredients and quantities for my breakfast muffins for the B&B. How you wish to decorate the cake is totally up to you. I took the lazy approach with Dr Oetker edible gold glitter spray, Betty Crocker buttercream frosting, and Milky Way Chocolate stars. If anything else, its great practice for the actual '1st Birthday' cake. If you want to be super indulgent, double the recipe, bake 2 sponges and sandwich them together with chocolate buttercream frosting..........now that's a cake I'll be baking in the future...

Anyway, here's how I made the chocolate cake. It's seriously simple and yet impressive to look at, people would think you had been slaving for hours.

Ingredients

• 200g self raising flour
• 25g of cocoa powder
• 100g of chocolate chips
• 165g of caster sugar
• 125ml of milk
• 125g butter, melted 
• 2 large eggs

Decoration

• 1 12oz carton of Better Crocker buttercream frosting
• 10 mini bags of milky way gold stars
• 1 can of gold food glitter spray

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees and line a spring form tin
2. In a food mixer, add all the  dry cake ingredients first and stir to combine
3. Add  the eggs, butter, milk and vanilla extract to a jug and whisk to combine.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined (do not over whisk)
5. Scrape it into the cake tin and level it out evenly.
6. Bake in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes.
7. Check that the cake is fully baked with a skewer before removing from the oven (Insert skewer to centre of cake if it comes out clean it's done, if not bake for a further 5 mins and try again)
8. Leave to cool on a wire rack before decorating.
9. Using a spatula, spread the buttercream out evenly over the cake.
10. Dot the chocolate stars in a uniform fashion all over the cake.
11. Spray the whole cake lightly with the gold spray. (optional of course, but in for a shilling, in for a pound)

Easter Chocolate Bark

I had my little niece over this afternoon and we went 'barking mad', making up all sorts of chocolate bark concoctions.

These barks are childsplay to make and can be made to suit grown-up tastes or also can be made using any type of sweets and candy that kiddies love. I found that marshmallows went down a treat with the little one!!!!

There really is nothing to this recipe; simply melt the chocolate and sprinkle over the ingredients you fancy. We chose for this particular outing to do a kiddies version and a more sophisticated version.

Marshmallow & Candy Bark





Ingredients

• 30g of mini marshmallows
• 1 packet of Nestle Smarties
• 1 small packet of Cabury's Mini Eggs
• 1 Cabury's Crunchie bar, crushed.
• 250g of plain chocolate.

Method

1. Break up the chocolate and put in a heat proof bowl, which is over some simmering water. Allow to melt fully.
2. Get a baking tray and rub some oil dipped in kitchen towel.
3. Then line the tray with baking parchment and rub the parchment paper with some of the kitchen towel soaked in oil
4. Stir the marshmallows into the chocolate then pour the chocolate out over the tray evenly distributing it.
5. (This is where the kiddies come in) Scatter the chocolate with the desired candy treats.
6. Place the baking tray in the fridge for 1 hour to firm up, or if (like me) you are terribly impatient, place in the freezer for 20 minutes.
7. The idea of the bark is to look a bit rustic and messy, so cut shards in at uneven angles for that homemade look.
8. The chocolate bark will keep up to 3 days in an air tight container in the fridge; though I severely doubt they would last 3 hours.

Sweet Cranberry & Pistachio White Chocolate Bark

This more sophisticated bark is more for the adult audience and would be ideal to serve to guests with coffee at the end of a dinner party. The method is the same as outlined above, just substitute the white chocolate for the dark chocolate and omit the marshmallows and candies and instead use 1/2 cup of sweet dried cranberries and 1/2 cup of peeled chopped pistachio nuts.

You can experiment with whatever flavours you wish, using perhaps mint chocolate instead of plain chocolate; using cut up pieces of your favourite chocolate bars, any dried fruits or you could just go for full on nutty mode with nothing but nuts. The combinations and choices are endless.

Apple, Apricot & Cinnamon Swirls

If I'm ever stuck for a sweet baked treat in the morning for my guests and time is not on my side, these apple pastry swirls are a life saver!!!! Made with minimum effort but allowing for maximum taste they are a winner every time, and can be made even in the most stressful of kitchens.

This is another example how utterly versatile ready rolled puff pastry is..... helping us create the perfect breakfast treat. Guests have been really impressed with these bite size pieces of pleasure, and its almost shameful to admit how easy they are, and that they didn't take me hours of slaving in the kitchen.....opps...my secret's out!

Ingredients

• 1 sheet of ready rolled puff pastry (room temperature)
• 1 cooking apple
• 2-3 tbsp of apricot conserve
• 3 tbsp of brown sugar
• 2 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp of buttermilk (or beaten egg)
• Icing sugar to decorate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Line a baking tray with baking parchment
3. Allow your puff pastry to come to room temperature. (If you try to roll it straight from the fridge, it will crack)
4. Unroll the sheet of pastry.
5. Place the apricot conserve in a dish and microwave for 30 seconds.
6. Brush the entire surface of the pastry with the melted conserve.
7. Grate the cooking apple over the conserve and redistribute to ensure an even spread
8. Scatter with the brown sugar and the cinnamon. 
9. From the longest side, roll the pastry as if your rolling a swiss roll.
10. Cut into bite size pieces.
11. Brush with the buttermilk and spread out on the baking tray as they tend to double in size.
12. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
13. Remove from the oven when they are golden and bubbling and cool on a wire rack.
14. Once cooled sieve icing sugar over each swirl.

These are not only a breakfast treat, but also can be turned into a delicious dessert after a traditional Sunday roast. Simply make the swirls larger and serve with some creamy custard.

Chocolate Puff Pastry Balls

I made these little sweet treats this morning for my guests, as many of them have been with us now for a few days and I wanted to bake something different for them from the muffins I've been making daily.
The little pastries actually just took minutes to prepare, and only 20 minutes to cook in the oven. I'm almost embarrassed at how easy they are to make, and calling it 'baking' I think is probably a stretch!!!

Nonetheless they are soooo good. I normally do not eat any of my breakfast baking when doing B&B (if I did I'd wobble continuously), but I could not resist these little puppies this morning. They were gobbled up in minutes, will have to make double next time.
These balls are being served as a sweet breakfast treat, however it would be a great idea also to tart them up a little and serve them hot from the oven with some vanilla ice-cream as an easy dinner party dessert.

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 1 sheet of ready made puff pastry (defrosted if frozen)
• 12 tsps of chocolate hazelnut spread (i.e. Nutella)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp of oil 
• Icing sugar to dust

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
2. Cut the puff pastry sheet in 12 even squares
3. Brush a mini muffin tray with oil
4. Place each square in each greased muffin hole
5. Place one teaspoon of the chocolate spread in the centre.
6. Fold down all the corners of the pastry.
7. Brush with the beaten egg
8. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes
9. Cool on a wire rack and then dust with icing sugar. (do not put the sugar on too early or the heat will melt it)

Instant Low Fat Berry Frozen Yogurt

First off, may I apologise profusely for my lack of blogging lately. It has been manic to say the least, but finishing up in work tomorrow to open the doors of Sika Lodge for the summer, so hopefully will have a bit more time to give to the blogging now that I’m not juggling as much.

May I say what amazing weather we’ve been blessed with these past few weeks. We’ve had many BBQs, notably my Happy Sea Beam http://serenasmediumrare.blogspot.com/2011/07/happy-bbq-sea-bream.htm and My butterflied chicken http://serenasmediumrare.blogspot.com/2012/03/bbq-whole-chicken.htmlrecipes, classics on the blog!

With glorious weather comes a time for salads, great when trying to stay trim. Also the temptation for ice-cream and whipped ice-cream cones with chocolate flakes also increases; which isn’t easy when one is trying to diet! But we should enjoy ice cream this weather, without the guilt!!

 Yesterday evening I dusted off my Magimix processor and threw a 500ml carton of low fat natural yogurt into it with 400gs of frozen mixed summer fruits, and whizzed up both ingredients for 5 minutes, and there I had it……Instant Low Fat Frozen Berry Yogurt. Delicious! It was slightly creamy and soft, which could have been eaten just there and then, but I put it into a lunch box container and covered it in the freezer for an hour to harden a little. This is certainly a guilt free treat for the summer!!!

So….to recap:

·         500ml of low fat yogurt

·         400g of frozen berries

1.       Whizz both together in a food processor for 5 minutes, stiring if a frozen berry get stuck in the processor and then whizz again. Put in a freezer proof container, cover and freeze until required.

2.       Put in a wine glass and decorate with a sprig of mint.

How easy is that!!!!!!

Note: This is a slight bite bitter, so you wont need to scoff much to get that sweet hit you were looking for, but if you want to sweeten it up a little, I’d add a tablespoon of honey before whizzing in the processor!!!!!

This is such a versatile recipe; you could experiment with different flavours, boiled lemons? Strawberries? Blueberries? Or why not add some textures, i.e. flaked alonds?

Gooey Raspberry Brownies

'Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday deeeeear.....Serena's Medium Rare....Happy birthday to me'

What better way to celebrate one year of food blogging than to make some totally awesome chocolate brownies and share them with all my buddies!!!!!

I don't normally indulge in confectionery baking, but I thought this would be a special occasion. I do love marrying chocolate with other ingredients such as berries and other fruit.....and liquor, which is why I decided to make raspberry chocolate brownies. They are completely sinful, but sure, what the heck!!!

Ingredients

• 300g golden caster sugar
• 225g butter
• 225g  good quality chocolate
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 75g of self rising flour
• 1 punnet of fresh raspberries
• Icing sugar, for dusting
• 4 medium eggs

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Get saucepan and fill up to 1 quarter with water and simmer.
3. Put chocolate and butter in a bowl and over the water to melt. (Do not let the water touch the bottom of the bowl.
4. Beat the eggs and add into a bowl with the sugar.
5. Whisk with electric whisk until light and fluffy (2 mins)
6. Add the vanilla to the chocolate and stir the mixture
7. Allow the chocolate to cool slightly and gently pour into the eggs.
8. Whisk again for a minute.
9. Sift the flour into the chocolate egg mixture and fold in with a metal spoon to combine
10. Finally gently (so the raspberries stay whole), fold in the raspberries to the mixture.
11. Line a 11x4 rectangular baking tin with baking paper.
12. Add the mixture and tap the tin twice on the counter top to settle the mixture
13. Bake for 22-25 minutes.
14. Make sure there's still a wobble in the cake when taking it from the oven (nothing worse that dried out brownies)
15. Let the brownie cake cool in the tin.
16. Cut with cold, and the brownie should still have a softness in the middle.
17. Serve with a scoop of ice cream and extra raspberries.

If you serving these brownies as a dinner party dessert, make the brownies ahead and after cutting them before serving, put the cut brownies in the microwave for 60 seconds to heat up.

The Best Irish Coffee

With Paddy’s Day rolling closer this weekend, what better way to raise your glasses and say ‘Sláinte!!’ than with an indulgent Irish Coffee!!!

This is a tried and tested plain and simple recipe for the best way to prepare an Irish Coffee!

Wherever you are in the world and whatever nationality you are, I wish you a Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh.

I hope you will enjoy the day with family and friends and perhaps raise a glass of the black stuff!!!

Serves 2

Ingredients

·         Irish Whiskey, 2 Irish size shots

·         Cream, 100mls softly whipped

·         Brown Sugar, 2 tbsp

·         Freshly brewed strong coffee (I used Nespresso)

Method

1.       Pour the whiskey into a heat proof glass (preheated) and stir in the sugar.

2.       Top with the coffee and stir well.

3.       With the back of a spoon, pour in the cream, and sprinkle with chocolate powder.

4.       Drink with a smile on your face and heat in your belly!!!

Mille-Feuille

Mille-feuille is a French cream bun made consisting of mainly cream and pastry. I have a quick cheat version that is a doddle to prepare and once assembled, looks amazingly impressive. It’s so pretty its near criminal to bite into it.

Serves 4

Ingredients

·          2 sheets of readymade puff pastry

·          400ml of cream

·          200g of mixed berries (fresh not frozen)I’m using raspberries and blueberries

·          4 tbsp of strawberry jam

·          20g icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1.       Preheat oven to 200 degrees

2.       Half the sheets vertically

3.       Place the sheets of puff pastry on two oven trays

4.       Prick the pastry with a fork

5.       Bake in the oven for 20 minutes

6.       Place on a cooling rack

7.       Whip the cream

8.       To prepare, place on square of pastry on the serving plate.

9.       Dollop some cream on the pastry, creating a hollow in the centre.

10.   Place a few berries in the hollow area, and top with another pastry layer, spread more cream on the layer and top with more berries.

11.   Spread a layer of jam on another sheet of pastry, and place that piece of pastry, jam-side down on the cream and berries.

12.   Top that tier of pastry with a final smear of cream and berries and dust with icing sugar.