Lemon Ice Cream Meringue Pie

This is from the Puddings and Desserts section and is labelled "easy for kids" but I think they would need to be quite old to deal with all the different stages of this recipe.  It's a 2 day job!  The end result was really very nice - possibly best as a Summer dessert.  The base was crushed cornflakes, then lemon ice cream topped with little meringues.  David loved it and had 2 helpings - we'll probably be having this for dessert for the next few nights! 

Lemon Ice Cream Meringue Pie

I found it a little tricky to remove the dish from the flan case but once the first piece was cut it got easier.  Definitely important to leave in the fridge for a while to "come to" before attempting to serve.

Palm Leaves

I had some left over puff pastry in the freezer so did an easy recipe today, Palm Leaves.  A great way to use pastry trimmings - I used the Bake-Off tip of adding some cinnamon to the caster sugar whilst rolling out and if I had drizzled icing on the top they were almost Danish Pastries!  They were lovely and crispy and very nice with a cup of coffee for a mid-afternoon snack, although mine were a bit smaller than the recipe because I didn't really have enough pastry to make them full size.



Palm Leaves from left over pastry

Have spent the last 5 days either on the allotment or in the garden so it was a nice change to do some baking.....

Blueberry Bakewell Tarts

This week's challenge was a Best of Bake-Off - Blueberry Bakewell Tarts.  There are 3 parts to this recipe - making the blueberry jam, sweet dessert pastry and finally frangipane.  Rolling out the pastry between 2 pieces of cling film certainly made it more manageable, but it was quite tricky to line the muffin tins with it because first you have to cut a round base then strips to line the sides, then seal the join.  As the sides are cut at only 1cm deep I think it would be possible to cut a larger circle and line the tin with one piece.  I've got some left over pastry so will have a go.

Blueberry Bakewell Tarts

I tried these tarts out on David and my friend Caroline who came for a coffee this morning and we all agreed they are extremely nice and more-ish!

Simnel Cake

Have never made an Easter cake before so it seemed appropriate to do this one at this time of the year.  Basically it is just a fruit cake with marzipan, it stays nice and moist because there is a layer of marzipan in the middle which is cooked and just seems to disappear into the cake.

Simnel Cake

Traditionally this cake was made by young girls in service in large houses to take home to their mothers on Mothering Sunday.  These days it is decorated with balls of marzipan to represent the 11 disciples and is eaten on Easter Day.  We have been eating a slice every day over the last few days - very enjoyable!

Beef and Red Wine Pie

Beef & Red Wine Pie

This weekend's challenge was shortcrust pastry made into Beef and Red Wine Pie.  It took 2 days because the recipe said the pie filling was best cooked the day before - I made sure the gravy was reduced and thickened enough to coat the meat, this is very important otherwise the pie could have a soggy bottom.

I decided to do the pastry in the food processor - so quick and easy - it turned out very well and because I cooked the pie on the floor of the roasting oven in my Aga the base wasn't soggy.  I used half butter and half Trex (white fat) and this makes superb pastry.  We both enjoyed the pie - it was much better than anything you could buy and well worth the effort!

Cheese & Onion Tear and Share Loaf

This is a "Best of the Bake-Off" recipe so I made it yesterday morning to have with soup for lunch.  It took over 3 hours so lunch was late! (Not the first time this week - Easter Sunday Lunch was late too because we forgot about putting the clocks forward.....)  It was a bit fiddly to make - had to do 19 small dough balls each filled with prepared onions and grated cheese then arrange them in a honeycomb structure.  However, the end result was pretty good, a pity there was only the 2 of us to share it - served as an accompaniment it would feed 8.  We felt that the onions for the filling would have been more appetising with a little colour - next time I will brown them.



Cheese & Onion Tear and Share Loaf

I used fresh yeast from Sainsbury's in-store bakery - as a guide you need twice as much fresh yeast than if you were using a 7g packet of easy blend, say 15g.  Recipe says allow to cool completely - we ate them warm and they were fine.  Bread-making was the perfect thing to do on a very cold and windy Bank Holiday Monday.