Pavlova

This one is all down to my mum :) she's the Pavlova expert and taught me this

WARNING long cooking time! 3hrs if possible and even better leave overnight.

The secret is to use 1 medium egg white to 2oz sugar (1oz caster and 1oz icing)

For a small Pavlova use 3 eggs, slightly larger 4 eggs, the one in the pic is a smaller one and was about 10" across, depends how thick you want your meringue.

• 3 eggs or 4 eggs
• 3oz (85g) or 4oz (110g)caster sugar
• 3oz (85g) or 4oz (110g) icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vinegar  (leave out if you want the meringue fluffy inside not chewy)
• 1 teaspoon cornflour  (leave out if you want the meringue fluffy inside not chewy)
• 1 284ml carton double cream
• 1 punnet strawberries (can use any fruit you choose, good ones are passion fruit, pomegranate, kiwi, raspberry, blackberries etc)

Seperate the whites from the egg yolks, the whites only are needed for this, you can use the yolks to make chocolate fondants ;)
Add the 3 or 4 egg whites to a bowl or stand mixer and add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice (means you can beat the eggs as much as you want), whisk on a high setting until they form soft peaks and are very white with minute bubbles. The best way to tell they are done (my mum always did this when she taught baking at my primary school) is tip the bowl upside down (preferably over someone's head) if they start to slide they are not done.
Once they are ready start to whisk in the caster sugar only, 1oz at a time, whisking for a long time after each addition to make sure the sugar is properly combines and dissolved. Once all the caster sugar is combined, stop whisking and use a metal spoon to fold in the icing sugar.
Then whilst folding add the teaspoon of vinegar (makes the meringue a little chewy) and the teaspoon of cornflour (for crisp breakable meringue don't add these).
Put the oven on at 100 degrees, the aim is to dry the meringue out, not cook it.
Place a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray, using about 2/3rds of the mixture spoon onto the baking sheet and flatten out to form a round shape about 8-10" in diameter (small) or 10-12" (large). The using the remaining mixture spoon round blobs next to each other so that they join up to form a circle all around the edge, giving you a high border. You can use a skewer into the centre of each one to pull a point out for decoration. If you're feeling creative heart shapes are pretty easy too!
Place the baking sheet in the oven for as long as you have got! 1hr minimum and preferably 3-4hrs. If the meringue seems to be going golden brown then prop the oven door open using a wooden spoon to cool the over more. After 3hrs turn the oven off and leave overnight if possible.

Next whip up the cream using a whisk until stiff and forms peaks. Chop up half of the strawberries and put into bowl with cream and mix. Put cream and strawberry mix into centre of meringue.

Chop leftover strawberries lengthways and arrange on top as decoration.

Serve and enjoy!

Chocolate fondants

This is a Gordon Ramsey recipe with some tweeking as always - the first bit is the basic chocolate fondant recipe, the second part is me messing around putting different flavoured centres into them :)

• 50g melted butter , for brushing
• cocoa powder , for dusting
• 200g good-quality dark chocolate , chopped into small pieces
• 200g butter , in small pieces
• 200g golden caster sugar
• 4 eggs and 4 yolks
• 200g plain flour

Use Darioles or pudding moulds, melt the butter and brush over the inside of the moulds to cover. Place moulds in fridge and let butter set. Bring out and brush another layer of butter over the inside. Then put a teaspoon of cocoa powder inside each mould and cover top with cling film or kitchen roll and shake to cover all of inside with powder. Tip out excess and leave moulds on one side till later.

Place chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of water and leave to melt, remove from heat and stir until smooth, leave to cool for 10 mins.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale and the whisk leaves a trail. Sift the flour into the eggs, then beat together.

Pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture in thirds, beating well between each addition, until all the chocolate is added and the mixture is completely combined to a loose cake batter.

Tip the fondant batter into a jug, then evenly divide between the moulds.

Either carry on like this for normal chocolate fondants or follow the instructions in italics to add flavoured centres.

I hvae recently tried a number of flavoured centres and all are amazing :) I have used peanut butter, raspberry liqueur truffles (the best) and After Eight mints. Basically the peanut butter and truffles ones are best done from chilled, take a large teaspoon of either and try and mould into a ball in your hand, quickly, then push it into the centre of the mixture in the mould. The After Eight mints chop into 4 smaller sqaures and stack on top of one another and push into the mixture.

The fondants can now be frozen for up to a month and cooked from frozen or chill for at least 20 mins or up to the night before. To bake from frozen, simply carry on as stated, adding 5 mins more to the cooking time.

Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Place the fondants on a baking tray, then cook for 10-12 mins until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of their moulds. Remove from the oven, then leave to sit for 1 min before turning out.

Loosen the fondants by moving the tops very gently so they come away from the sides, easing them out of the moulds.

Serve with cream or ice-cream.

Danny's Truffles

This is Danny's truffle recipe from New Year's Eve which I have been playing around with.

• 50ml Baileys (or any alcohol, have done it with Chambord, Tia Maria)
• 250g white chocolate (can also use dark or milk chocolate)
• 60g creme fraiche
• 35g butter
• 35g icing sugar
• optional extras can include fruit coulis e.g. I use raspberry coulis if making chambord truffles

Soften the chocolate on the hob, then then stir in the butter and creme fraiche.

Slowly sieve the icing sugar and pour in the alcohol, alternating the two.

Cool the mixture in the fridge, then shape into small balls, to use as fondant centres, stop here, to use as trufles roll in icing sugar, cocoa powder or grated chocolate.

Garden week of 6th March

Big changes afoot this year in the garden, 3 new beds added, the one nearest the front on the photo which is going to have some grit dug into it and be a dedicated kitchen and medicinal herb bed (for colds and flu before you all comment!), the low bed at the back of the garden in front of the new big greenhouse is for squash and courgettes so they don't wipe out everything else! And there is a deep trough down the side of the greenhouse that I am going to use for potatoes instead of the tubs.

Dug topsoil into all the beds this weekend to give them a bit more body this year, heard a tip that root veg grow better with a bit of resistance as they have to search further for water, so trying it out!

Planting is still going well, starting on the March seedlings tonight. Have a wide variety of plants now growing on a 2 weeks stagger so hopefully they are all going to mature at different times. Fingers acrossed anyway