Category Archives: Baking

Parkin Truffles for Bonfire Night

The 5th November is one of those dates in the calendar that always brings me pangs of homesickness. Back in the UK November 5th is Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night. Guy Fawkes was arrested on November 5th 1605 after he and his colleagues planted explosives under parliament in an attempt to kill the king. Bonfires were lit around London to celebrate the failure of the plot and thus was born a celebration that continues to this day.

Although some places, such as Lewes in Sussex, still hold serious celebrations, for much of the country it is simply an excuse to gather with friends, let off a few fireworks and enjoy some hearty winter fare. November 5th is a date that always triggers food and drink related memories for me, whether it is enjoying a pint of a strong, dark winter brew in a North London pub before heading to the local park for the firework display, or the time we went to the Suffolk coast in early November and the firework party on the beach included an old tin bath full of jacket potatoes wrapped in a blanket.

In Britain, every year at this time food magazines and the recipe sections of newspapers will run articles on hearty bonfire night fare, from sausages and baked potatoes to hot chocolate and toffee apples. A popular item in these articles is parkin, a sticky gingerbread cake from the north of England made with black treacle, oats and ginger. It seemed an ideal candidate to turn into truffles to enjoy on November 5th.

I baked the parkin using a recipe for “Yorkshire Parkin” from “Oats In The North, Wheat From The South” by the Regula Ysewijn (missfoodwise.com). The initial result can sometimes seem a little dry but leave it for a few days and it almost magically becomes moister and stickier.

The parkin was then crumbled and mixed with golden syrup and butter to form the truffle centres, to which I also added some extra ginger, both ground and crystallised, to boost the flavour. These were then coated in more dark chocolate to make an excellent treat to enjoy on a cold winter night.

Parkin Truffles

8oz parkin

2oz golden syrup (or agave syrup)

1oz unsalted butter

Pinch ground ginger (optional)

0.5oz crystallised ginger, finely chopped (optional)

Salt

8oz dark chocolate

Crumble the parkin into a bowl. Melt the syrup and butter together in a small pan over medium heat.

Pour the syrup mixture over the crumbled parkin and mix well to combine. Add ground and/or crystallised ginger if required and a pinch of salt.

Melt 4oz of the dark chocolate over medium heat in a double boiler or a glass bowl over a pan of water. Add the melted chocolate to the bread and syrup mixture and stir to combine. At this point you can sneak a little taste to check if any adjustments to the seasoning is required.

When cool, place in the refrigerator for an hour or two until the mixture is firm.

Taking a teaspoon full of the mixture at a time, roll into balls to form the centres of the truffles. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then return to the fridge to firm up again.

Melt the remaining 4oz of dark chocolate for the coating in a double boiler. Dip the truffle centres in the melted chocolate to coat and place on baking parchment to set.

Yield: around 35 truffles

Bara Brith Truffles for St.David’s Day

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March 1st is the feast day of St. David, the patron saint of Wales, and in honour of my wife’s Welsh heritage we always prepare a Welsh related dish to celebrate the day, such as Welsh cakes or bara brith.

Bara brith is a spiced fruity loaf made with dried fruit, which is traditionally soaked overnight in tea to boost the flavour. It translates from the Welsh into “speckled bread”.

It’s great as it is, especially when sliced and buttered, but I thought it also made a great candidate to turn into a chocolate truffle.

I used a technique I’ve used before to turn a cake or a loaf into a truffle, making the centres with a mixture of crumbled cake, syrup and chocolate before rolling them in yet more chocolate to produce the final truffle. You can experiment with any cake you like to make your own creations – the only limit is your imagination.

The bara brith truffles were great: moist and tasty and a perfect way to celebrate St. David’s Day.

Bara Brith Truffles

8oz bara brith, crumbled (click here for recipe)

2oz agave syrup

1oz unsalted butter

Pinch of salt

4oz milk chocolate (I used Guittard 38% Organic Milk Chocolate)

6oz dark chocolate to cover (I used Ghiradelli 60%)

Place the crumbled bara brith into a bowl. Melt the agave syrup and butter together in a small pan over medium heat.

Pour the syrup mixture over the crumbled bara brith and mix well to combine. Add a pinch of salt.

Melt the milk chocolate over medium heat in a double boiler or a glass bowl over a pan of water. Add the melted chocolate to the bara brith and syrup mixture and stir until combined.

When cool, place in the refrigerator for an hour or two until the mixture is firm.

Taking a teaspoon full of the mixture at a time, roll into balls to form the centres of the truffles. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then return to the fridge to firm up again.

Melt the dark chocolate for the coating in a double boiler. Dip the truffle centres in the melted chocolate to coat and place on baking parchment to set before enjoying.

Cream Tea Truffles with Scones, Strawberries and Clotted Cream

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Summer has definitely arrived. Here in the South the days are long and both the temperature and the humidity levels are firmly in the 90s.

Across the pond the last couple of weeks have seen the tennis at Wimbledon when my thoughts automatically turn to the vast amount of strawberries and cream that would have been consumed during the two weeks of the Championships, washed down with copious amounts of champagne and Pimm’s.

Strawberry season is long gone in the South but I can still temporarily transport myself back to the English summertime with a traditional cream tea of scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream.

Like many English food traditions the exact origins of the cream tea are lost in time and the south western counties of Devon and Cornwall both argue that their versions are true and original. They even disagree on whether the jam or the cream should go on the scone first (cream first in Devon, jam first in Cornwall).

For the uninitiated, clotted cream is another creation of south west England, a delicious spreadable cream, rich in fat, made by gently heating full fat cow’s milk and then skimming off the thick creamy crust that forms on top as it cools. It is commercially available in the UK but can be hard to find in the USA. Luckily you can make at home with a little patience.

Scones, strawberry jam, clotted cream. A wonderful trinity of delicious ingredients and when thinking about cream teas I couldn’t resist the thought of transforming them into a bite sized treat. The English summer in a single truffle.

First you need to assemble your ingredients. For scones, my go-to recipe is this one from River Cottage. River Cottage is also the recipe source for the jam I make every strawberry season, from their excellent book, “The River Cottage Preserves Handbook”.

You can make your own clotted cream by gently heating cream and scraping off the thick crust that forms on top as it cools. The key is gently heating it without boiling it, so it can be done in a low oven, a slow cooker or on a stove top in a double boiler. I went the double boiler route, using this recipe for guidance.

It is then simply a case of combining the scones, strawberries and clotted cream with chocolate to give you a delicious taste of summer.

Cream Tea Truffles with Scones, Strawberries and Clotted Cream

3oz scone

2oz clotted cream

2oz strawberry jam

3oz white chocolate

6oz milk chocolate (to coat)

Crumble the scone into a bowl. Add the strawberry jam and clotted cream and stir to combine.

Gently melt the white chocolate over medium heat in a double boiler or a glass bowl over a pan of water. Once melted add it to the scone / jam / cream mixture and stir together. When cool, place in the refrigerator until the mixture is firm.

Taking a teaspoon full of the mixture at a time, roll into balls to form the centres of the truffles. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then return to the fridge to firm up again.

Melt the milk chocolate for the coating in a double boiler. Dip the truffle centres in the melted chocolate to coat and place on baking parchment to set before enjoying.

Yield: 18 truffles

Bara Brith for St.David’s Day

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As my wife originates from Wales I try to cook up something Welsh related on March 1st every year to celebrate the feast day of St.David. Last year it was Welsh cakes; this year I turned to another famous baked item from Wales: bara brith.

Bara brith translates from the Welsh into “speckled bread”, a fruity loaf made with dried fruit and mixed spices. The fruit is traditionally steeped in tea overnight to enhance the flavour, and the loaf is typically served sliced and buttered with a cup of tea.

Mixed spice is a peculiarly British blend that seems to have no direct equivalent in the States. The closest thing in the USA is pumpkin pie spice but that is usually too heavy on the cinnamon for my liking, so I mix my own blend from allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, coriander and ginger.

This is a relatively simple recipe. It just needs a little forward planning to soak the fruit in tea the day before you plan to bake it.

Enjoy, and have a happy St.David’s Day, or dydd gŵyl dewi hapus.

Bara Brith

Based on this recipe

1lb dried mixed fruit (I used a 50/50 mix of sundried raisins and golden raisins)

9oz brown sugar

10 fl.oz. warm black tea (I made a strong brew of English Breakfast Tea)

2 tsp mixed spice (see recipe below)

1lb self raising flour

1 egg, beaten

Mix the fruit and the sugar with the tea and leave to steep overnight.

The following day, preheat the oven to 325F.

Sieve the flour into the fruit and tea mix and then add the mixed spice and the egg. Mix well.

Pour the mix into a loaf tin lined with parchment paper.

Put in the oven and bake for around 70-75 minutes. The bara brith is done when a skewer stuck into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

Mixed Spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground nutmeg

0.5 tsp ground mace

0.25 tsp ground ginger

0.25 tsp ground coriander

0.25 tsp ground cloves

Mix the spices together until thoroughly blended. Store in a sealed container. As well as using in this recipe this is a versatile mix that can also be used in other British baking recipes like fruit cake and hot cross buns.

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“Apple Cider & Cheddar Sourdough Tear-and-Share Bread”

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It is not usually a good thing to have something lurking about your kitchen for years on end, quietly fermenting, but when the item is question is a sourdough starter it is a wonderful thing indeed. It requires a little care and attention and regular feeding but pays back time and time again, adding that gorgeous sour tang to breads and pizza dough.

My starter is a relative youngster, which will celebrate its 5th birthday later this year. I sometimes use it to make”real” sourdough bread, without the need for added yeast, but that takes a little forward planning, so often, when feeding time rolls around, I take the cup of unfed sourdough starter that would otherwise be discarded and use it to add a delicious sour dough note to a conventionally made dough. Usually that is just a loaf or a batch of pizza dough but occasionally I feel like doing something different.

As I write this we’re in the middle of that cold post-Christmas stretch of January when spring seems so far away. I’m cooking a lot of soups and stews and wanted something a little different on the bread front to go with a batch of soup. Months ago I’d jotted down an idea for adding cheddar and cider to bread and now seemed like an ideal time to experiment. When I say cider, I always mean what is known as “hard cider” in the USA, i.e. the one with alcohol in it.

The recipe is similar to one I use for making regular bread but instead of water I used cider, a bottle of homemade from 2012 which was still surprisingly good, and I added a generous amount of grated cheddar. This will work best with a strong and/or aged cheddar. I used one that was a bit like me: aged and English.

The dough came together easily in a mixer with a dough hook and after rising it was simply a case of dividing and shaping it into rolls and arranging them in a skillet to rise again before cooking.

I was delighted with the result. The bread was soft and delicious with both the cider and cheese coming through in the final bread but in a subtle way. It was tasty enough to eat by itself, but even better with butter or a hunk of cheese, and it made a great accompaniment to home made soup.

Apple Cider & Cheddar Sourdough Tear-and-Share Bread

1 cup unfed sourdough starter

1 cup cider

1 tsp salt

1 tsp instant yeast

2.5 cups all purpose flour

2 cups grated cheddar

Put all the ingredients in a bowl. I use a stand mixer with a dough hook but you could do it by hand of you prefer. Knead for 6-7 minutes until the dough is smooth.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and leave until it has doubled in size. Don’t worry if it takes a while: my dough took about 4 hours.

Place the risen dough on a lightly floured surface. Gently deflate it and then and divide and shape into 7 equal sized rolls. Line an ovenproof skillet with baking parchment and arrange the rolls into a “daisy” pattern as shown below. Make sure the rolls are touching each other.

Cover and leave to rise again for about 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Just before putting the dough in the oven give the top of the bread a quick spritz of water from a spray bottle to help get a golden crust. Cook until golden brown on top and the base sounds hollow when you give it a tap, about 40 minutes.

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Beer Infused Pumpkin Bread Truffles

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This idea came to me as I was trying to think of a little something to take along to a Halloween party.

Every year as Halloween approaches the beer shelves in local stores seem to groan under the weight of an ever increasing selection of pumpkin beers. One local brewpub even serves a draught version straight out of a giant pumpkin.

I have to confess that I’m not a huge fan of drinking pumpkin beer as it comes but I thought it would make a great ingredient in pumpkin bread, adding moisture and flavour. I could then use the beery bread as the basis for an autumnal chocolate treat.

I used this recipe to make the pumpkin bread although you could simplify things by just buying some. I tweaked the recipe a bit. I had an abundance of butternut squash from my CSA box so roasted that and used it instead of pumpkin puree, and I reduced the amount of cinnamon used as I can find it overwhelming in many desserts at this time of year. It is easy to adjust the cinnamon and other flavourings as you make the truffles to get just the right amount of pumpkin spice goodness.

Luckily I didn’t need all the bread for the truffle recipe and enjoyed a few slices for breakfast this week. A recipe I will definitely be making again.

Beer Infused Pumpkin Bread Truffles

8oz pumpkin bread

2oz agave syrup

1oz unsalted butter

0.5 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Salt

8oz dark chocolate

Nutmeg (optional)

Crumble the pumpkin bread into a bowl. Melt the agave syrup and butter together in a small pan over medium heat.

Pour the syrup mixture over the crumbled bread and mix well to combine. Add cinnamon if required and a pinch of salt.

Melt 4oz of the dark chocolate over medium heat in a double boiler or a glass bowl over a pan of water. Add the melted chocolate to the bread and syrup mixture and stir to combine. At this point you can sneak a little taste to check if any adjustments to the seasoning is required.

When cool, place in the refrigerator for an hour or two until the mixture is firm.

Taking a teaspoon full of the mixture at a time, roll into balls to form the centres of the truffles. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then return to the fridge to firm up again.

Melt the remaining 4oz of dark chocolate for the coating in a double boiler. Dip the truffle centres in the melted chocolate to coat and place on baking parchment to set.

You can enjoy them as they are or sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg or whatever takes your fancy to get another burst of flavour.

Yield: 25 truffles

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Blueberry and Mascarpone Tart with a Pecan Crust

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Oliver Farm is located about 150 miles south of Atlanta and has been owned and operated by the same family for five generations. In recent years they have started producing cold pressed oils from pecans, sunflowers and peanuts, as well as pecan flour.

I discovered them at a local farmers market and picked up a bag of their pecan flour as well as a bottle of pecan oil. They sat in my kitchen for a while as I pondered what to make with them, before I came up with the genius idea of checking out the recipe suggestions on the Oliver’s own website. A few caught my eye but I was particularly intrigued by the “pecan pat-in crust” recipe which used both the oil and the flour and seemed both simple and versatile.

Having made my crust the next question was what to fill it with. Luckily, our CSA box from Riverview Farms has been supplying us with an abundance of blueberries in recent weeks so I combined the sweet berries with a rich creamy filling of eggs, mascarpone and vanilla to complement the pecan crust.

The result is a tasty and eye catching dessert that is quick and easy to make.

Blueberry and Mascarpone Tart with a Pecan Crust

For the crust (taken from this recipe for “Pecan Pat-In Crust” at oliverfarm.com)

1 cup pecan halves

0.5 cup pecan flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons of pecan oil (or substitute vegetable oil)

For the filling

1 egg

8oz Mascarpone

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

A few drops of Vanilla Extract

8oz Blueberries

Preheat your oven to 350F and position rack in the middle of the oven. Place the pecans, flour and sugar in a food processor and pulse until they are coarsely ground. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and pulse again briefly. Then check to see if the mix is sticking together. If it isn’t, add a little more oil and blitz again in the food processor. Once the ingredients are combined put the mixture into a pie dish and use your fingers to press it evenly across the bottom and up the side of the dish. This quantity will fill a 9″ pie plate, or you can do as I did and use two 4″ cases to make two smaller tarts. Bake for around 10 minutes until the crust is dry to the touch and starting to colour a little. Remove the oven and set aside to cool.

For the mascarpone layer, separate an egg and then beat the yolk with the tablespoon of powdered sugar. Stir in the mascarpone and a few drops of vanilla extract. Beat the egg white until stiff and then fold into the mascarpone mixture. Spread this on the pecan crust and place in the fridge to set.

Finally, arrange the blueberries on top of the tart. Keep chilled until you are ready to enjoy.

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Sourdough Pancakes with Serviceberry Syrup

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When I lived in Britain I had a pretty good grasp of plants that I could forage for locally: wild garlic and hops in the spring, blackberries in late summer, sloes in the autumn.

Moving to Georgia meant a different seasonal calendar as well as new, unfamiliar plants. One fruit that was totally new to me was the serviceberry, also known as the juneberry or saskatoon berry. I first heard about them through the work of Concrete Jungle, an Atlanta based non profit that harvests fruit and nuts from thousands of untended trees around the city and donates them to the poor and hungry. Their map of food sources in the area shows an abundance of serviceberry trees around the city. Last year I stumbled upon a solitary tree on public property in my neighbourhood and tried these delicious, sweet little purple-red berries for myself. This year I managed to pick a few cups of berries to experiment with whilst leaving plenty for other foragers and the local birdlife.

I turned my haul of serviceberries into a gorgeous bright purple syrup that paired beautifully with a stack of sourdough pancakes but would also be great on waffles, or stirred into oatmeal.

Serviceberry Syrup

4 cups serviceberries

1 cup water

1 cup granulated sugar

Add the water to the serviceberries in a saucepan and crush. I used a potato masher.

Slowly bring to the boil over medium-high heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool a little and then strain through a jelly bag or muslin. This yields about 1 cup of juice.

Add 1 cup of sugar to the cup of juice and heat over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and the sauce has thickened a little. Do not let it boil.

Once it is cool pour it into a jar or bottle and it will keep in the fridge for two months.

To enjoy my syrup I whipped up a batch of sourdough pancakes. My go-to pancake recipe is this one from kingarthurflour.com which calls for sourdough starter and the preparation of an overnight sponge, so it takes a little planning. I found it worked perfectly for me as I left the berries to strain overnight whilst the sourdough batter bubbled and worked its magic. If you have less time on your hands this is a great alternative recipe.

Once you have a stack of freshly cooked pancakes, drizzle generously with syrup and enjoy.

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Sticky Toffee Pudding Truffles

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Sticky toffee pudding is considered to be a British classic. A sponge cake studded with chopped dates and drizzled with toffee sauce, it is a staple on many dessert menus across the pond.

It is in fact a relatively recent invention, with a number of claims and counter claims as to who exactly came up with the recipe. It first came to prominence in the 1970s at the Sharrow Bay hotel in the Lake District, who declare their version to be the original. According to this article by English chef Simon Hopkinson their recipe may have actually come from a Mrs.Martin of Lancashire whose recipe appeared in the 1971 book “The Good Food Guide Dinner Party Book”, and there is conjecture that she received the recipe some years earlier from a Canadian source. Another Lake District location, the Village Shop in Cartmel, also claims to be the birthplace of the pudding.

Whatever the origins of sticky toffee pudding, I thought it was a perfect candidate for turning into a bite sized truffle. Obviously I needed to start by making a sticky toffee pudding. Thankfully there are no shortage of recipes; it seems that almost every British chef or food writer has at some point published their own version. I opted for this version from Nigel Slater.

Having produced my pudding and separate toffee sauce it was then a case of combining them with some chocolate to form the truffle centres and then coat them in yet more chocolate to finish. I was delighted with the result. The dark chocolate coating balanced with the sweetness of the centre to make a delicious treat.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Truffles

4oz toffee pudding (from this recipe)

4oz toffee sauce (from this recipe)

4oz milk chocolate

6oz dark chocolate

Melt the milk chocolate over medium heat in a double boiler or a glass bowl over a pan of water.

Crumble the pudding and place in a bowl. Add the toffee sauce and the melted milk chocolate and stir to combine. When cool, place in the refrigerator until the mixture is firm.

Taking a teaspoon full of the mixture at a time, roll into balls to form the centres of the truffles. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then return to the fridge to firm up again.

Melt the dark chocolate for the coating in a double boiler. Dip the truffle centres in the melted chocolate to coat and place on baking parchment to set before savouring this bite sized British classic.

Crème Fraiche Drop Biscuits

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“Biscuit” is probably one of the better known words which has a completely different meaning on one side of the Atlantic from the other. Back in England, biscuit brands such as Rich Tea, Digestives, Hob Nobs and Custard Creams are crunchy baked products, which Americans would call cookies and which are incredibly popular, especially when dunked into a cup of tea.

In the States on the other hand, biscuits are soft, flaky and scone-like and are commonly eaten for breakfast. Here in the South, they are particularly loved and even though they are traditionally made with just a few ingredients (flour, buttermilk, lard or butter, baking powder and/or soda and a little salt), there is much debate over exactly which combinations of ingredients and techniques produce the best biscuit. I’ve tried quite a few biscuit recipes over the years before settling on a couple of reliable options which I regularly return to.

I’m a fan of this recipe from Leite’s Culinaria which uses just self rising flour, butter and buttermilk but produces great results. Many Southerners swear by the legendary White Lily self rising flour which is already blended with leavening and salt, making the job even easier.

An even simpler but still very tasty biscuit recipe is the one for “Miracle Drop Biscuits” from Sheri Castle’s excellent book “The New Southern Garden Cookbook“. It uses just self rising flour, heavy cream and a little butter. The recipe calls for minimal handling of the dough so they are hand shaped rather than rolled and cut, which results in a slightly craggy appearance but they are none the worse for that.

I decided to experiment with the miracle drop biscuit recipe, replacing the heavy cream with home made crème fraiche. More commonly found in Europe than here in the States it is a thick, rich, slightly sour cream that is a versatile ingredient in the kitchen. Over here it can be hard to find and quite pricey when you do come across it but it is simple to make by adding 2 or 3 tablespoons of buttermilk to a cup of heavy cream and just leaving it at room temperature for a few hours until it thickens and develops a characteristic sour flavour. It can then be kept in the fridge for a week or so.

With the added tang from the buttermilk in the crème fraiche I thought it would add another layer of flavour to the drop biscuits, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Crème Fraiche Drop Biscuits

Adapted from Sheri Castle

2 cups self rising flour (I used White Lily)

1 cup home made crème fraiche

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 475F.

Mix flour and crème fraiche together in a bowl and stir to make a soft dough.

Divide the dough by hand into 6 equal parts and place on a baking tray.

Brush the tops with melted butter and bake until golden, 12-15 minutes.

Serve warm.

Brit In The South

A Blog from the Deep South with a British Twist

Category Archives: Baking

Parkin Truffles for Bonfire Night

Bara Brith Truffles for St.David’s Day

Cream Tea Truffles with Scones, Strawberries and Clotted Cream

Bara Brith for St.David’s Day

“Apple Cider & Cheddar Sourdough Tear-and-Share Bread”

Beer Infused Pumpkin Bread Truffles

Blueberry and Mascarpone Tart with a Pecan Crust

Sourdough Pancakes with Serviceberry Syrup

Sticky Toffee Pudding Truffles

Crème Fraiche Drop Biscuits