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Blogmas Day Eighteen: Cranberry Cake

honeyanddough

December 18, 2014

James and I are starting a new tradition this year. We’re calling it Stuffing Wars. The premise is simple. We each pick three stuffing recipes and then argue about which two to make. Blood will be spilt, tears will be shed, decisions will be made, to proclaim a winner. All I know is that my (winning, obviously) stuffing recipe is going to have fresh cranberries in it.

Although, I bought some cranberries to covertly try out some stuffings before the big day and got side tracked into making this cranberry cake. You can find the recipe over on The Kitchn by clicking here. It’s brilliant.

Blogmas Day Seventeen: Cranberry Vodka

honeyanddough

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December 17, 2014

I’ve never been a big fan of vodka. It has the flavour profile of nothing with a splash of regret. Yet there always seems to be a bottle of it in the cupboard under our stairs. I try and use it up by flavouring it with anything seasonal I can get my grubby paws on. This cranberry vodka is so pretty and festive. And you only need three things.

Sterilise a 1ltr preserving jar and set to one side. In a large saucepan add 200gr caster sugar with a splash of water and put over a high heat. Bring to a gentle simmer and add in 300gr fresh cranberries that have been washed. Stir and turn them over through the sugar until the skins start to split a little. You want to keep them as whole as possible and definitely don’t want them to cook down into mush. Pour into your sterilised jar and pour in 500ml vodka. Shake well and it’ll be good to go in about a week.

Blogmas Day Sixteen: Fig & Chocolate Baklava

honeyanddough

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December 16, 2014

I love bringing food back when you go on holiday. Extra points when it has a bonus rude name.

One of the best things to bring back is baklava; sheets of sugar soaked crisp fill pastry studded with nuts. I could eat an entire box. No shame. With no holiday on the horizon until March, I will have to satisfy myself with this baklava instead.

Ingredients

12 sheets of filo pastry
125gr butter, melted
100gr chopped nuts (I used almonds and walnuts)
20gr dried cranberries
150gr ready to eat dried figs, chopped
40gr dark chocolate, chopped
200gr caster sugar
160ml water
3 cardamom pods
1tsp rose water

Method

1, Preheat your oven to 180o/c and paint the inside of your 7inch by 11inch cake tin with butter.
2, Mix the nuts, cranberries, figs and chocolate together in a small bowl and set to one side.
3, Place a sheet of fill pastry into the bottom of your tin. Brush this with butter and lay on another sheet again, brushing this with butter. Repeat until you have five layers.
4, Scatter some of the mixed nut evenly over the top and lay down another sheet. Coat this with butter. Repeat until all the nut mix has been used.
If you have any remaining fill sheets, lay these on top, coating with butter.
5, Score triangles into the top of the baklava and then bake for 15-20minutes or until golden and crisp on top.
6, While this is baking, make the syrup. Place the sugar, water and crushed cardamom pods into a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Continue to simmer this until it has reduced to a syrup, like very runny honey. Remove from the heat and stir in the rosewater.
7, When the baklava is fully cooked, remove from the oven and leave in the tin. Pour over the sugar syrup and leave until cool. Using the triangles you cut earlier in the top layers as a guideline, slice into small pieces before serving.

I’m entering this into We Should Cocoa, the theme being figs. You can read all about We Should Cocoa and how to enter by clicking here.

Blogmas Day Fifteen: Chocolate Port Sauce

honeyanddough

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December 15, 2014

I wrote over 300 blog posts on Corner Cottage Bakery and it was kind of hard to leave that all behind when starting Honey & Dough. Not only were there some of my favourite recipes on there, there were also those little stories and bits of narrative that sway away from the “I had some apples, so made an apple pie” kind of blogging.

This recipe was about how I went to Iceland and basically ate all the things. I brought back some chocolate and decided to carry on the theme of excess by making this beautiful Chocolate and Port sauce. I had to reshare this one.

Ingredients

300gr chocolate (45%)
200ml double cream
4tbsp ruby port

1. First, bring the cream up to a gentle simmer in a small milk pan. Remove from the heat and stir in the port.
2. With the pan still off the heat, add in the chocolate and stir a couple of times.

3. Leave this to sit for a couple of minutes before stirring into a smooth chocolatey sauce. Give it a quick taste. You might want to add in more port, I like my sauce to have a super boozy kick here.
4. Pour into some sterilised jars, tiny ones would be cute if you are doing gifts.
5. It will set when cool so reheat before serving.