beesteas

World Baking Day 19th May: Bakewell Tart Biscuits

beesloveteas — Sun, 12 May 2013 16:34:19 +0000

Sunday 19th May is World Baking Day, a celebration of one of the best activities in the world. This year, World Baking Day wants to encourage as many people as possible to ‘Bake Brave’ and try making something outside of their comfort zone. 100 ambassadors were asked to donate a recipe, which have all been ranked on a difficulty scale from 1 to 100. People can visit the website, choose a baking level and have a try at making something different. It is a fantastic campaign, therefore you can imagine my delight at being asked to be an ambassador for this year’s World Baking Day!With an open brief , I decided to combine one of my favourite bakes with one of my favourite desserts, making Bakewell Tart Biscuits. Head over to the World Baking Day website to take a look at the recipe (level 15). These follow on from my Bakewell Flapjacks which I made last year – the combination of almond and jam is just too irresistible to miss! I would recommend looking at the rest of the recipes on the website (sponsored by Stork), and taking part in the ‘Bake Brave’ challenge this week. I am going to stretch myself and try either the Chocolate Brownie Meringue Cake (level 91) or the Treacle Tart (level 71) – enjoy

Cranberry and Milk Chocolate Florentines

beesloveteas — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:34:22 +0000

I love making Florentines, however I do not make them enough to give them real justice. They are a very versatile bake, as you can pretty much put anything that you like in them. The usual culprits are nuts, dried fruit and seeds, all coated in dark chocolate. However, after making cranberry mince pies last year, I have wanted to bake with cranberries again. They go so well with milk chocolate, so putting these two together seemed the best option!Ingredients (makes roughly 20)
50g unsalted butter
50g golden syrup
50g caster sugar
50g plain flour
75g dried cranberries
50g flaked almonds
25g sunflower seeds
25g mixed peel
175g milk chocolate

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper. Put the butter, golden syrup and sugar in a medium-size saucepan, and place over a low heat until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the flour, cranberries, flaked almonds, sunflower seeds and mixed peel. Mix well to get the mixture fully combined. Place heaped teaspoons of the mixture on the baking trays, spacing them well apart. Use the back of a spoon to flatten them slightly.Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until they have turned golden brown. Leave to cool for 5 minutes then carefully transfer to a wire rack, using a spatula to lift them. If you only have one baking tray, make them in batches – however keep mixing the mixture in the pan so that it does not stick together.Once all the Florentines are cooled, break the milk chocolate into a heat-proof bowl and place over a pan of barely simmering water (ensuring that the base of the bowl is not touching the water). Use a brush or the back of a spoon to cover the base of the Florentines with the melted chocolate. The Florentines will still be fragile so handle carefully. Also, do not worry if they have a few holes in them, the chocolate will fill those gaps. Leave them to cool upside-down on the wire racks.These are a delicious afternoon snack, or as dessert with some ice-cream and a glass of wine – enjoy

Tea Time Treats: English Madeleines

beesloveteas — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 17:57:06 +0000

If there is one thing that we Brits do well, it is tea time treats. Embedded deep in our society, tea time really defines our way of life – afternoon tea is now more popular than ever, not just in the UK but worldwide. Gone are the days when ladies of society took tea together as a form of etiquette, but even now with our hectic schedules we still stop for a cuppa and a treat. Cakes, tarts, cupcakes, biscuits – anything counts, which is what inspired me to make these little gems. The recipe below is adapted from the queen of cakes, Mary Berry (who else!), however as I do not have any darole moulds, I chose to make little squares instead.Ingredients
100g butter (softened)
100g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 – 6 tbsp strawberry jam (seedless)
75g desiccated coconut

Preheat the oven to 180C, and grease and line an 8 inch square tin. Cream the butter and sugar together, and mix in the vanilla extract and eggs (one at a time). Fold in the flour and baking powder until just combined, then pour the mixture into the tin. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool completely before removing from the tin. Once it is cool, cut off the edges so that you have a straight square. Cut the cake into 16 even squares. Put the jam in a small saucepan and gently heat until it is runny. Spread the desiccated coconut on a large plate for coating. Use a fork to hold each madeleine at the bottom, and brush the sides and top of the madeleines with the jam. Roll them around in the desiccated coconut until all coated. Carefully set on a plate and they are ready to eat straight away.If you are hosting an afternoon, these would make a lovely addition, perhaps with some Bakewell flapjacks and a slice of lemon and raspberry tart? Enjoy

Hotel Chocolat Zebra Beastie Egg and Cookies

beesloveteas — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 18:00:35 +0000

Chocolate is never something that should be done on the cheap; one of my mandatory life rules is to only enjoy good quality chocolate. So obviously I was thrilled when the lovely people at Hotel Chocolat offered to send me one of their Easter eggs to review. Every Christmas, I usually devour my way through one of their chocolate slabs, trying to make it last as long as possible (which I have found is impossible).The milk chocolate Zebra Beastie Egg lives up to the Hotel Chocolat reputation. The milky texture is divine, very creamy and unstoppably moreish. The beautiful pattern and presentation makes it a prime target for devouring, but also makes a lovely gift for someone special. The Beastie Egg comes with 6 praline and Salted Caramel mini eggs – sound like heaven? The mini eggs feel solid but completely dissolve in your mouth with a lovely bitter-sweet contrast between the praline and Salted Caramel. For those who are too full for dessert but need something sweet, these mini eggs are perfect. Hotel Chocolat offer a range of Salted Caramel products which I have never tried before, but will definitely be putting into my next order.Having been given some amazing quality chocolate, I could not resist the urge to bake with it. Many of you may be gasping in horror, but I just cannot help myself. After nibbling away at a chunk of the Zebra egg (and a few of the mini eggs), I decided to devote the rest to some cookies, who doesn’t love cookies?! I found a recipe from BBC Good Food which I adapted slightly to incorporate more of this wonderful chocolate – hopefully the lovely people at Hotel Chocolat can forgive for putting their egg to alternative use!Ingredients (makes around 18 cookies)

100g butter (softened)
100g light brown soft sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract
225g plain flour
140g milk chocolate
100g white chocolate

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Put the butter and sugars in a bowl and cream together with a wooden spoon. Melt half of the milk chocolate in the microwave, and then mix it into the cookie dough along with the egg, vanilla extract and flour. Chop the white chocolate and the remaining milk chocolate into chunks, and mix into the dough.Use a tablespoon or an ice-cream scooper to drop balls of the cookie dough onto the baking tray (with space between them to spread). Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, or until they turn pale golden brown and are still soft to touch. Leave them to cool on the tray, then carefully transfer to a wire rack with a spatula. Repeat until all the dough is cooked.If you are looking to get someone (or yourself) a unique Easter egg this year, definitely order a Zebra Beastie Egg from Hotel Chocolat, or treat yourself to one of their other delicious offerings – enjoy

Homemade Chocolate Easter Eggs

beesloveteas — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:53:28 +0000

Only a few weeks until Easter weekend and the shops are full of Easter eggs and goodies to delight us (however, I imagine a nightmare for those who have given up chocolate for Lent). A few weeks ago, I was approached by DotComGiftShop, a lovely online boutique selling a range of beautiful gifts and items for the home. The lovely group there have listed Bee’s Teas on their list of favourite cake blogs, and they also kindly sent me an Easter egg mould to review. I’ve never made my own Easter eggs before so I was thrill to have a go.

After reading many articles on how to make Easter eggs, I opted to make some dark chocolate eggs with white chocolate decorations (and of course, chocolate fillings). I did attempt to temper the chocolate but it was not very successful without a chocolate thermometer. The mould from DotComGiftShop was very easy to use – the shapes looked great, the egg halves popped out easily and the mould was very easy to clean. For anyone looking to make their own Easter eggs this year, I would definitely recommend using this mould.Ingredients (makes 3 small eggs)

200g good quality dark chocolate (minimum 70%)
A few chunks of white chocolate (roughly 25g)
Fillings (optional)

Chop the dark chocolate into equal chunks, and place a few chunks side. Put two-thirds of the chocolate in a bowl, and place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Once it has all melted, remove from the heat, add the rest of the dark chocolate chunks and mix until all melted. Put half a tablespoon in each mould and use a brush to ‘paint’ the chocolate around the sides, ensuring that the chocolate does not collect in a pool at the bottom of each mould. Leave to set for 5 minutes, then place in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes. Repeat these steps twice more, re-warming the chocolate whenever it gets hard. Once done, place in the fridge for an hour. If you have any remaining melted chocolate, use it in other moulds to create fillings for the Easter eggs (I made chocolate roses and buttons).After an hour, remove the moulds from the fridge and carefully use a sharp knife to even the edges. Place them back in the fridge for another hour. Once ready, turn half of the eggs on their backs and put the fillings in the empty shells. Melt the remaining chunks of dark chocolate in the microwave, and using either a piping bag or a brush, run the melted chocolate along the edges and place the other halves on top. Put back into the fridge to set for 30 minutes.If you want to decorate the outside of the Easter eggs, melt some white chocolate, put it in a piping bag and outline the designs on the eggs. Leave them to set and then they are ready to enjoy. You could also decorate with coloured icing sugar to make them more playful – perfect for a children’s Easter egg hunt.Please do visit the DotComGiftShop website to see what other lovely bakeware they have in stock – enjoy