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27 May 2013

Zombie Egg


I saw this idea somewhere online, thought I'd try :) So here I present to you, In the true spirit of Easter, the zombie egg:


20 May 2013

Recipe for butter


A few months ago I discovered the recipe for butter in one of the "Fabulous Baker Brothers" shows. You won't believe it. I couldn't believe it. You have to try it :)



Ingredients:

  • Double cream
  • Mixer



  1. Pour the cream into the mixer bowl.
  2. Turn on the mixer.
  3. Leave the room.
  4. Come back 5 minutes later.
  5. You have butter.

Told you! :D The butter will separate from the cream and you'll have a lot of leftover buttermilk, but all you need to do is fish out the butter, put it in a bowl of cold water and knead it a bit to wash out the buttermilk. Then form it in the shape you want or put it in a butter mould and put it in the fridge to harden. If you want salted butter, add a bit of salt to the cream beforehand. :) All I need to do now is to master the art of making cream from milk and I'm sorted for the apocalypse :) Minus the mixer... and the rest of the food...



13 May 2013

Fudge and nuts cake


This cake never fails to impress. The sweetness of the fudge sauce is perfectly broken by the nuts. Perfect for any occasion. Although the cooking time for the fudge sauce is quite long, the preparation time is really minimal, so you have more time to yourself :)




Ingredients:
  • 200g plain flour
  • 100g of unsalted butter (at room temperature) or margarine
  • 50g sugar
  • 2 yolks
  • 2 cans of condensed milk
  • Almond flakes
  • pistachios (unsalted)
  1. Take the two cans of condensed milk (unopened). See that warning on the label which tells you not to boil them? Ignore it. Put both cans in a pot of cold water (so that they are fully submerged) and heat them on low heat until the water starts simmering. Cover the pot and leave it simmering for 2-5 hours. The longer you leave it, the thicker it will be - so it's up to your liking. I prefer when it's not too thick, so I usually give it about 2-3 hours, but you can boil it for up to 4-5 for a much thicker sauce. If the water evaporates too much, just boil some more in a kettle and re-fill the pot. Once the time has passed, carefully remove the cans from the pot and leave them to cool completely. Once they're cool, you can open the cans - the milk inside will have turned into fudge sauce! :) In Poland we call it 'kajmak' (kay-muck).
  2. Take all the other ingredients and knead them into a uniform pastry. Wrap it in cling film and leave it in a fridge for about 30 minutes to firm up. Then roll it out very thinly in a parchment paper lined cake tin (either round or square). The pastry is quite fragile, so I usually put it straight in the tin and use a glass/my fingers to roll it out. Make a few incisions so that the air has a way to escape and bake it in a pre-heated oven at 170C until golden - should take about 20-30 minutes depending on how thick you made it and how good your oven is. Take it out of the oven and let it cool. It's quite fragile, so be careful if you want to move it out of the tin, as it will break.
  3. Spread the fudge sauce on the cake base and sprinkle the nuts on top.



Here's another one I made earlier, where I cooked the condensed milk for a bit shorter.