Gaufres Flamandes

Flemish Waffles

Makes about 40 to 50 waffles, depending on size

For the gaufres (waffles):

250g plain flour

20g golden caster sugar

2 eggs

75g butter, softened 

100ml milk

2.5ml vanilla extract

7.5g sachet dry yeast

tiny pinch of salt

For the filling:

125g butter

250g dark brown soft unrefined cane sugar

Method:

Warm the milk until it is tepid. Add the caster sugar, vanilla and yeast.

Pour the flour into a large bowl and make a well.  Gradually add the milk mixture, kneading to avoid lumps. Add the pinch of salt, eggs and soft butter. Knead several minutes to form a nice ball of dough. Cover with a clean cloth and let stand for 2 hours at room temperature.

While the dough is resting, prepare the filling: Whip the softened butter with the brown sugar until you obtain a homogeneous cream and set to one side.

Kneed the dough, adding a little more flour if too sticky, to a smooth dough.  flatten out and cut with a sharp knife into 40 to 50 pieces.  Roll in floured hands to form balls.

Dough balls and split waffles

Heat your waffle iron. Take balls of the dough and place them on the bottom plate of your waffle iron. Close and cook for two minutes.  Remove the cooked waffles and cook the next batch. While those are cooking, split each cooked waffle in half with a sharp knife, ready for filling.  Repeat the process until the dough is gone.

Fill each waffle with the paste of the butter and brown sugar, or use another filling - I find Biscoff crunchy spread works very well.  Press down firmly.

Indulge as you see fit.

Tower of waffles filled with Biscoff crunchy spread

Quince Marmalade

Roll over Seville orange and make way for quince.  My new favourite ingredient for marmalade is not new at all.  It was the principle constituent in the original marmalades.

The resulting marmalade is cheek-tinglingly tasty.  Here's my recipe for about 24 x 190ml jars:

Ingredients

2.4kg quinces

600g lemons

1.5 litres water

2.5kg sugar

Method

Halve the lemons lengthways and slice as thick as you like the shreds in your 
marmalade, then place in the jam pan with the water. 

Quarter the quinces, remove the cores and slice like the lemons. Put the slices in 
the jam pan and put the cores, tied up in muslin, in the pan as well. 

Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes.

Remove the bag of cores, squeeze the pectin rich liquid out of it in to the jam pan. 

Add the sugar and boil to setting point.  

This shouldn't take too long. Test by placing a spoonful onto a cold plate (keep a 
few handy in the freezer in advance) and after a minute, push it with a finger. If the 
surface wrinkles then it is done.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. This allows the 
marmalade to begin to set so that the fruit and rind doesn't settle too much when 
poured into the jars. 

Sterilise clean jars and lids by placing in an oven at 130°C for ten minutes. 

Pour into the jars and put the lids on. 

Nutella Bread and Butter Pudding

Serves four and fits in a 12cm X 18cm gratin dish. Double-up if needed for a larger dish. 

Ingredients 

4 slices of dry, medium sliced, white bread

Softened butter

Nutella

150ml milk

15g caster sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

1 tsp demerara sugar

Method

Make two sandwiches of the bread, buttered on the outside and just Nutella on the inside, thickly spread.

Cut off the crusts and cut each‎ sandwich into four triangles then arrange in a buttered gratin dish. 

‎Beat together the milk, egg, caster sugar and vanilla extract. 

Pour over the sandwiches. 

Sprinkle with demerara sugar. 

Bake for 20 to 35 minutes, until golden brown on top, at 160C (fan oven)

White & Dark Chocolate chip Banana Muffins

‎Makes 24 muffins (halve all quantities for 12 and keep same cooking time)

Ingredients

400g plain flour

100g wholemeal flour

200g caster sugar

1tsp sodium bicarbonate

2tsp baking powder

250ml rapeseed, sunflower or vegetable oil

4 eggs

6 over ripe bananas

200g dark chocolate chips

100g white chocolate chips
(US conversions below)

Method

In a large bowl: Mix together the two flours, sodium bicarb, baking powder and sugar. 

Beat the oil and eggs together and add to the dry mix. 

Mash the bananas and add the bowl.

Mix. 

Fold in the chocolate chips. 

Divide the mix between muffin cases in a muffin tin.

Bake at 200C / 180C fan / Gas 6 for about 20 minutes. 

Leave to cool. 

NB

Dividing between the muffin cases is probably the trickiest step. I've tried using serving spoons, scooping with little pudding moulds or ramekins, but, inevitably, ‎you often get some mix glooping onto the tray instead of falling neatly into the muffin cases. This mix usually fills your average muffin cases to about a centimetre from the top. 

You can use all one type of chocolate chip in this recipe or all plain flour. I originally introduced the wholemeal flour because I didn't have quite enough plain, but it ‎gives a nice nutty note to the taste.

US / Imperial units:

Bake at 400F

14oz plain flour

3½oz wholemeal flour

7oz caster sugar

1tsp sodium bicarbonate

2tsp baking powder

9fl oz rapeseed, sunflower or vegetable oil

4 eggs

6 over ripe bananas

7oz dark chocolate chips

3½oz white chocolate chips

The method is shown in this video:

Admittedly, this video shows me taking the short-cut of using self raising flour (cake flour) with works quite well, but they rise a little less.

‎https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TizuS0qs7ao

Stollen Recipe

Stollen

Ingredients 1

500g strong white bread flour

100g caster sugar

1 sachet fast action yeast

10g salt

150g soft butter

250ml full fat milk

Ingredients 2

2 tsp mixed spice

grated zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp cardamom seeds

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

30ml amaretto

100g blanched almonds

200g raisins / currants

125g mixed peel

1/2 tub glace cherries

Ingredients 3

225g melted butter

400g marzipan

Ingredients 4

25g melted butter

icing sugar

Method

• Mix ingredients 1 to a dough.
• Mix ingredients 2 in a bowl then place the dough on top.
• Kneed the dried fruit and spices into the dough.
• Cling film and leave to double in size.
• On a lightly floured top: form the dough into a 16 inch square.
• Brush the top with melted butter (ingredients 3).
• Form the marzipan into a 16 inch by 10 inch rectangle.
• Place in the middle of the dough with a 3 inch border, top and bottom.
• Roll the dough up from bottom to top.
• Cut the rolled dough into 3 equal lengths.
• Leave to rise for an hour.
• Bake the loaves for 45 minutes at 170 C fan / Gas 5 / 190 C conventional.
• Brush with melted butter and dust with icing sugar.
• Leave to cool.
  
  

Baked Creamy Egg in a Crispy Cup

This is a quick and tasty way to cook egg. It's similar to cottage eggs, where the egg is baked in a ramekin without a bread lining, which is still delicious, but you have baked-on egg to contend with when washing up.

Ingredients (per egg)

1 egg

1 slice of bread

butter

2 tsp double cream

1 grind of salt

1 grind of black pepper

Method

Cut the crusts off the slice of bread and roll flat with a rolling pin.

Spread with butter.

Push the bread, butter side down, into a ramekin dish or a muffin tin.

As you push the bread down, folds of bread will form.  You can just press these to the edges.

If you make any holes in the bread as you press it into the tin, rip off a little bread from the top and press it down over the hole.

Crack in one egg.

Season with salt and pepper.

Add the cream.

Bake for 15 minutes at 180 C.

Serve.

My kids love these.  Some eat them with their fingers, some eat them with a spoon, before eating the bread cup.  Come to think of it, I love these with a salad for a lunch or light dinner.

You could vary the seasoning of the egg to your personal taste.  Perhaps some finely chopped parsley or smoked paprika.

Quick Flammekuchen, tarte flambee

I believe tarte flambée, or flammekuchen, is a dish from the Alsace region.  Traditionally a thin leavened bread topped with crème fraîche, onions and bacon lardons, then baked in a wood fired oven.

This quick recipe I improvised one lunch time when there was not much in the fridge for lunch, save for an open pack of ham, crème fraîche and a small onion that my son had brought back from a gardening club at school.  Traditionally, I assume the bread would be leavened with yeast, but this quick version uses self-raising flour.

For the base

Self raising flour, a heap the size of a tennis ball.
Pinch of salt
Half a teaspoon dried mixed herbs
A glug of garlic infused oil, say about 2 tsp
Enough cold water to make a soft dough.

Don't worry if you add a little too much water and the dough is sticky, just add a little more flour until the dough stops sticking to your hands as you work it.
Roll out the dough to an oval or oblong shape to a few millimeters thick.

For the topping

Spoon on a tablespoon or two of crème fraîche and spread evenly with the back of the spoon. Sprinkle with a chopped shallot or small onion. Chop up ham and scatter on top, or use bacon lardons.

Bake at 180 - 200 C for about 10 minutes.