Bakewell Tarts

I love a bit of nostalgia and I remember eating these Mini Bakewell Tarts when I was growing up, they were a favourite in our house on baking day.

The pastry is thin and crispy and a teaspoon of quality raspberry jam is placed in the base topped with a delicious almond frangipane filling and a scattering of flaked almonds. Ice them if you wish after they are baked and cooled.

Some time ago Aldi was selling Cotswold MaizeBite Flour and this makes the most delicious golden crispy pastry - here at Kitchen Delights we give this product 10/10.

I made the pastry and frangipane in the Thermomix, no surprise there then!  I'm still happy with my ridiculously expensive purchase. After reading countless reviews about similar machines I'd still say put your money into a Thermie, which means you won't get buyers regret, or carry on using your trusted food processor or mixer.  That said, there are some fabulous multifunction/multicookers around at the moment and these look like interesting pieces of kitchen kit, some are getting really good reviews and must be worth taking a look at.  I for one would love to know how well they perform.

You may also like:
Iced Bakewell Tart
Raspberry Bakewell Cake
Raspberry and Almond Cake

Conventional Recipe and Thermomix Method in Italics.

Makes: 12

You will need: a large deep bun tray or if shallow will make 18 small tarts.

Pastry
150g plain flour
75g butter, cut into cubes
35g icing sugar
1 egg beaten, you may only need 2 tbsps
to bring the mixture together

Frangipane
100g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
3 large eggs
100g ground almonds
1 tsp almond extract

Filling and Topping
Raspberry Jam
a few flaked almonds

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
2. Add the flour, butter and icing sugar into the bowl of a food processor, whiz until the mixture is the consistency of breadcrumbs. Add the beaten egg and pulse until the dough starts to come together. Knead lightly, Wrap in clingwrap and chill for approximately 30 minutes.
Weigh all the pastry ingredients to the bowl 25 Secs/Speed 4. Remove from the bowl, wrap in clingwrap and chill for 30 minutes.
3. For the frangipane, place the butter and sugar into the food processor and blend until soft. Add the eggs and whiz again. Add the ground almonds, flour and almond extract and mix briefly.
Weigh the ingredients into the bowl TM 1 min/Speed 3.
4. Roll the pastry out thinly and cut out 12 x 8cm circles. Line the tin with the pastry rounds. Place a teaspoon of raspberry jam into each pastry circle and top with the frangipane mixture. Sprinkle over a few flaked almonds.
5. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the tin from the oven and cool for a while on a wire rack.

Tear and Share Granary Bread Rolls Recipe

I'm experimenting with the Thermomix TM5 and comparing it to my other kitchen gadgets, halving the quantities in a bread recipe was this weeks project.  It's certainly a great machine for mixing and kneading the dough but if you're contemplating buying one please be aware that you can't leave the machine unattended whilst it's mixing dough because it will move and bounce around from time to time.  I've got a sturdy food mixer that will make dough without moving, although I wouldn't leave it unattended, whilst my bread machine just gets on with it.

The Thermomix takes 6 minutes to knead and achieve the windowpane test.  My food mixer 10 minutes or so and the bread machine 2 hours 20 minutes but that does include the first prove.

If I was to give them a score for the finished product it would be Thermomix 10, bread machine 9 and food mixer 8.

Here we go with the Thermie by simply throwing everything into the bowl.........

The finished dough......

After the first prove I rolled them into 7 even balls to create the sunburst......

The proved and decorated rolls......

Thermomix Recipe: with conventional method in italics
½ tsp easy blend yeast
150g strong white bread flour
100g strong malted bread flour
½ tsp sea salt
½ tbsp runny honey
75ml water
75ml milk
Sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds for decoration

1. Mix the water and milk together and warm to lukewarm.  Place the wet and dry ingredients into the jug.
Place the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl, add the water and milk mixture heated to lukewarm.
2. TM Setting Knead/6 minutes.
Fit the dough hook and knead for 10 minutes.
3. Turn the dough out into a greased bowl and leave covered to rise until double in size.
4. Remove the dough from the bowl and cut into 7 pieces and shape into rolls.
5. Place them onto either a greased, floured or lined baking tray and arrange them into a sunburst shape. Cover and leave to prove until double in size.
6. Preheat the oven to 220C/Fan 200C.
7. Brush the rolls with water and scatter over sesame seeds to the outer rolls. The middle roll may be decorated with sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
8. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown.
9. Place the rolls onto a wire rack to cool.

More recipes:
How to make finger rolls
Fougasse
Apricot Couronne
Red Onion Focaccia

Raspberry Bakewell Cake Recipe

This cake is the perfect rainy day bake, it's easy to make, cuts well and can be frozen in slices.
I love a cake that can be eaten as dessert too and a dollop of either cream or creme fraiche on the side is the perfect accompaniment.

This cake looks pretty even before it gets to the baking stage. I decided to gently press the raspberries into the batter just in case they sank but guess what not one single raspberry sank. If you make this cake I'd definitely recommend stirring a few raspberries through the batter before baking.

The cake can be made successfully in one bowl using the all in one method if you wish to save time or made in a food processor by mixing everything but the fresh raspberries and flaked almonds together until blended.  On this occasion I used the Thermomix and I've included the method for this too.

You will need: 20cm springform buttered and lined with baking parchment.

150 g butter, softened
150 g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp almond extract
50 ml milk at room temperature
150 g self-raising flour
150 g ground almonds
150 g fresh raspberries
25 g flaked almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
2. Cream the butter until soft using a food mixer. Add the sugar to the bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Whisk the eggs and the almond extract together then gradually add the eggs beating all the time. Beat in the milk.
3. Add the flour and ground almonds to the batter and gently fold in. Add the raspberries and fold in carefully trying not to break them up too much.
4. Pour the cake batter into the tin, then scatter over the flaked almonds. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.
5. Remove the cake from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool.  Dust with icing sugar.

Thermomix method:

1. Place room temperature butter and caster sugar into the bowl. Cream together 20 Sec/Speed 4.
2. Add the eggs, almond extract, milk, self raising flour and ground almonds mix 20 Sec/Speed 5.
3. Scrape down the mixture in the bowl.
4. Mix 20 Sec/Speed 5.
5. Pour the batter into a mixing bowl, add the flaked almonds and raspberries and gently combine.
6. Continue using the conventional method from 4. above.

You may also like:
Raspberry, Almond and Custard Cake
The Perfect Raspberry and Almond Cake
Fresh Raspberry and Almond Traybake
Raspberry, Chocolate and Almond Cake
Bakewell Tart

How to Make Finger Rolls - Recipe

Finger Rolls or are they Bridge Rolls?  Either way they are very light and tender due to the milk content. We ate ours with sausages, lightly fried red onions and a good squeeze of sauce.

Everything is in the jug of the TM5 waiting to be mixed into dough

The finished dough after 6 minutes kneading

Dough prior to proving

Shaped finger rolls

Fresh from the oven

Conventional Recipe Using a Stand Mixer

Makes: 12
1 egg
milk
1 tsp dried instant yeast
500g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
40g butter cut into small pieces

1. Place the flour, salt, caster sugar and dried instant yeast into the bowl of a mixer, add the butter and mix to fine breadcrumbs.
2. Beat the egg and make up to 300ml with room temperature milk. Add the dough hook and pour the beaten egg and milk mixture into the bowl and knead 10 minutes.
3. Oil a large bowl and add the dough, lightly coat the dough with olive oil.
4. Take a large piece of oiled clingfilm and place over the top of the bowl. Leave the dough in a warm place until doubled in size.
5.  Remove the dough and cut into twelve equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and then into fingers 13cm long.
6. Place the fingers on a large floured tray 1cm apart. Cover loosely with oiled clingfilm and rise until almost double in size.
7. Preheat the oven to 220ºCFan/200ºC dust the rolls lightly with flour.
8. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
9. Remove to a cooling rack and dust again lightly with flour.


Thermomix TM5 Method

Makes: 12
1 egg
milk
1 tsp dried instant yeast
500g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
40g butter cut into small pieces

1.   Mix the flour, salt, caster sugar and dried instant yeast 5 Secs/Speed 8.
2.   Add the butter and chop - Turbo/1sec/3 times.
3.   Beat the egg and make up to 300ml with room temperature milk. Pour the beaten egg and milk mixture into the jug and knead 6 minutes.
4.   Oil a large bowl and add the dough, lightly coat the dough with olive oil.
5.   Take a large piece of oiled clingfilm and place over the top of the bowl. Leave the dough in a warm place until doubled in size.
6.   Remove the dough and cut into twelve equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and then into fingers 13cm long.
7.   Place the fingers on a large floured tray 1cm apart. Cover loosely with oiled clingfilm and rise until almost double in size.
8.   Preheat the oven to 220ºCFan/200ºC dust the rolls lightly with flour.
9.   Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
10. Remove to a cooling rack and dust again lightly with flour.

Note: To make in a bread machine place the ingredients in the bread pan according to the manufacturers instructions.

You may also like:
Fougasse
Easy Bread Rolls
Goat's Cheese and Rosemary Buns

Mixed Vegetable Bake Thermomix TM5

I recreated this tasty vegetable bake, which was one of the dishes made at the Thermomix TM5 demo by Marta the demonstrator, it has a bechamel sauce and is topped with a parsley and Parmesan breadcrumb mix.

The vegetables are cooked in a vessel called a Varoma which fits on top of the jug. Unfortunately I loaded them up incorrectly, obviously the vegetables which take the longest to cook should be at the base.

The vegetables took 20 minutes to cook, they don't want to be cooked completely because they are baked in the oven later.

The bechamel sauce looks a little strange at this stage -  this is the fat and flour cooked and mixed together before adding milk.

The milk is added before it is cooked through and whizzed to make a smooth sauce. Or make using the all in one method which takes even less time.

Making flavoured breadcrumbs (I used the ends of the loaf), garlic, parsley and Parmesan.

The vegetable bake is topped with the bechamel sauce and flavoured breadcrumbs before cooking for 20 minutes or so.

On this occasion there isn't a recipe because it's the one used in the demo but you can easily make this dish in the conventional way.

Back soon!

New In My Kitchen The Thermomix TM5

Over the years I've juiced and whizzed fruit with varying successes and if you, like me, love gadgets then you too no doubt will have worked your way through a plethora of gadgetry. I've now sent the juicer to the charity shop, it has sat unused in the cupboard for ages, mainly because I feel that we should be eating the fibrous stuff the juicer spews out and not throwing it away. I bought my juicer many years ago and it was only used at weekends - I've enjoyed every single drink we made but not enjoyed cleaning five separate parts, or the dreaded filter which hubby was employed to scrupulously clean.

I've been blending drinks too over the years but my new kitchen toy really does make fast work of the task. Those pesky redcurrant seeds will take a little longer to blitz and I found adding another 30 seconds to the blend time did the trick. So in 'Thermie talk' here's the method: Chop 5 Sec/Speed 5 - Blend 1 Min/Speed 10 - Add more water if necessary Blend 20 Sec/Speed 3.

In my freezer there always seems to be frozen fruit coated in ice that I haven't used up quickly enough and these are perfect to use and saves adding too many ice cubes.

My drink is made from frozen blackcurrants and redcurrants (from my garden), a peeled orange (chopped), 1 x quartered apple (Braeburn always taste lovely) and a little water to loosen the mixture and thin down the drink.

I struggle with green smoothies and drinks and to date they aren't on my agenda for blitzing and I can't comment on these, but I've used a variety of fruits over the past few weeks and find that adding an orange to lots of blended drinks makes a huge difference to the flavour.

I'm definitely not going to wax lyrical about how living off fruit drinks and smoothies will change my life in 2016 - I try to blend a few times a week, when I fancy a refreshing drink or need to use up the last of the fruit bowl.

Well, I'm loving my new present from hubby and whizzing up things in seconds, come on what's not to love!

Pop over to my Pinterest Board for amazing drinks, smoothies and juices.

Back soon.