Coffee and Walnut Slice

Christmas, officially over, and then some

I heard on the radio today, this is officially the most depressing day of the year. Jarvis Cocker said it, so I believe him. It's something to do with how far Christmas is away, how much debt we're in, how many new years resolutions we've all broken, and the rubbish weather. I also saw this christmas tree a few days ago, just dumped outside my flat, waiting for the binmen, and it made me sad.

I got the idea for this recipe from a programme I watched on the BBC called "Delia; through the decades" it was awesome, and totally cheered me up. I am always quoting Delia Smith in the kitchen. If my boyfriend asks me a question, its normally answered by, "well delia says..." WWDD is my mantra, what would delia do? Which is totally corny, but I don't care.


Ingredients
for the sponge cake...
1 tbsp coffee 2 tbsps boiling water
75g toasted and finely chopped walnuts
175g Self raising wholemeal flour
175g softened butter
175g light brown sugar
1.5 tsps baking powder
3 Large Eggs

for the Syrup...
1tbsp coffee
60ml boiling water
50g demerara sugar

for the filling/topping...
1 tbsp coffee
1 tbsp caster sugar
25og Mascarpone
200g soft cheese
a few handfuls of chopped walnut

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Make the sponge by creaming the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and keep mixing. I use an electric hand whisk, but a wooden spoon is just as good , you just need some elbow grease! Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and combine. Fold in the hot coffee and finely chopped walnuts. At this point I used a loaf tin to put the mixture in, (I just bought a new one, so I wanted to take it for a whirl) but you can use 2 cake tins instead. Bake for 30mins for the cake tins, and about 35-40mins for the loaf tin.

While the cake is baking make the syrup and the filling. Dissolve the coffee in hot water with the sugar, and stir vigorously until dissolved. For the filling put all the ingredients in a bowl (apart from the walnuts) and beat with a wooden spoon or electric whisk. Put this in the fridge until needed.

When the cake is baked, take out the oven and prick all over with a skewer. Feed the cake with the syrup (like you would with a christmas cake) I found this made a real difference to the moistness of the cake. I was a little worried it would make it over poweringly-coffee-like, but it was perfect. Leave to cool in the tin completely. When I turned it out, I cut the loaf in half length ways, and filled it with a layer of the filling. After sandwiching together, I finished with the topping and a handful of chopped walnuts.


First slice, was beautiful

Banana and Cinnamon Muffins

I'm so pleased the snow has gone! It was awesome at first. I had 2 and a half snow days off from work, staying inside drinking hot chocolate. After a while though, you do get kind of bored, and the road outside our flat was perilious. This weekend I'm making banana and cinnamon muffins! I needed something to bake that the boyfriend can put in his lunch box for work. (Well that was the request any way!)

Dinosaur cake cases


I've adapted the recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook that I received for Christmas (thanks mum and dad).

Ingredients

350g plain wholewheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1 1/2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
2 tsps ground cinnamon
1 tsp grated nutmeg
160g caster sugar
375ml buttermilk
1 egg
70g unsalted butter, melted
400g mashed bananas

pre heat the oven to 170 degrees. Put the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl, mix. Measure out the buttermilk into a jug, and add the egg, then whisk to combine. Slowly pour this into the dry ingredients, mixing as you go. You could use an electric whisk on slow, but you don't want to over beat the mixture. A wooden spoon is just fine! Pour in the melted butter and mix til combined. Followed by the mashed up bananas. Mashing the bananas was incredibly satisfying by the way!

Spoon the mixture into muffin cases, and sprinkle with some demerara sugar and cinnamon. bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.

The sugar on top, gave it a nice crunch


This one was "chefs treat"

These did work really well, and were moist and banana-ry. Hopefully they'll go down well in the lunch box tomorrow.

Dark Chocolate and Cream Cheese Brownies

First week back at work after Christmas, so I thought I'd bake something incredibly chocolately and gooey. Brownies! Earlier this week Manchester had about 48 hours of heavy snow, and temperatures of -10, so I think some serious chocolate action is deserved.

Walking to work, in the snow


More Siberia than Salford


I've had a go at baking brownies a few times and have never mastered the gooey-centre, just a slab of chocolate cake. (don't get me wrong a giant slab of chocolate cake is still nice!) This time I added another egg to my usual brownie recipe. success! they worked really well.

Dark Chocolate and Cream Cheese Brownies

Ingredients

125g Dark chocolate
125g unsalted butter
2 Large eggs
200g caster sugar
75g plain flour
200g cold cream cheese (full fat, you might as well)

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees and line and grease a brownie tin

Melt the chocolate and butter in a large bowl over a pan of boiling water. While this is melting beat the eggs and sugar in a seperate bowl. Once the chocolate has melted take it off the heat and let it cool slightly.

mmm, shiny chocolate

Once you've given the molten chocolate a chance to cool down, pour the eggy-sugar mixture into the bowl and beat until combined, followed by the flour. Pour about half into the brownie tin and smooth down with a spatula. At this point you need to create a cream cheese centre to the brownie. Make sure its really cold first, blast it in the freezer for 5 minuttes, then you can slice it and layer it on the brownie mixture. Finish by pouring the rest of the chocolate brownie mixture to cover the cream cheese.


I wanted to eat these straight away!


Bake for 20 minutes. By this time it should have a dry cracked surface, but when pressed with your finger have some give. Cut into squares, and lift out once cooled. Makes 8-10.


sweet gooey chocolate centre, with salty cream cheese, great combo

Success! They worked really well. I wouldn't mind a few of these with a coffee if I was snowed in!