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Apple Caramel Cake

Posted on August 15, 2022 by The quirk and the cool

While this cake may seem a bit complicated – making caramel, toasting nuts, it’s actually quite straightforward!

What makes the cake do-able is because it’s all made in a food processor! Which doesn’t mean you couldn’t make it in an electric mixer. You would just need to finely chop the nuts first, by hand or in a processor.

It’s an upsidedown cake, the caramel apples on the base become the top. The cake is nutty, with a distinct caramel flavour and a hint of spice. It’s incredibly moist and keeps well too.

Ingredients

2 apples

Caramel

100g caster sugar

40g butter

Cake

100g mixed nuts

125g butter

75g raw sugar

75g brown sugar

3 large free-range eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

125mls buttermilk

150g self raising flour

1/2teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.

Grease a 20cm or 22cm springform tin, depending on what size you want your cake. Mine was baked in a 20cm tin. Line the base with baking paper.

Peel and core one apple and half of the other one. Cut into thin slices.

To make the caramel, melt the sugar slowly in a heavy based saucepan. Once the caramel has melted and turned a toffee or tea colour, take off the heat and very carefully add the butter in pieces. Stir the caramel but be careful as it will splutter a bit. Once the butter is added beat the mix mixture well for a minute.

Pour the caramel over the baking paper lined base of the tin. Place the apple slices over the caramel in an overlapping circle.

For the cake, toast the mixed nuts in a frying pan for a couple of minutes over a medium heat. Cool for a few minutes, then place in a food processor and blitz until roughly chopped.

Add the butter and sugars to the food processor and mix until amalgamated. Add the remaining half apple cut into pieces, and all the other ingredients to the bowl. Process for a couple of minutes until everything is amalgamated. You made need to scrape the bowl down part way through the process.

Spoon the mixture on top of the apples and caramel.

Bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Carefully turn out the cake. Remember this is an upsidedown cake so the bottom is the top! If the apple come out a bit higgledy piggledy, just rearrange as necessary. Don’t worry it’s meant to be a rustic cake!

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Sourdough Cinny Scrolls

Posted on August 6, 2021 by The quirk and the cool

I love sourdough and I love cinnamon scrolls so I have been keen to develop a cinnamon scrolls recipe using the great flavours of sourdough.

It’s been a labour of love, with lots of trial and error, but my latest version is really good and I’m very happy!

Like any sourdough recipe, it takes a bit of time, but those gorgeous soft brioche style scrolls are well worth the extra time!

The scrolls are filled with a butter brown sugar cinnamon mixture and sit in some gooey caramel while baking. Once baked the tops glazed with golden syrup and finally, when cool, drizzled with lemon icing.

Ingredients

Dough

400g strong flour

200g sourdough starter

8g salt

50g caster sugar

3 free range eggs, at room temperature

100g tepid milk

100g unsalted butter

Caramel Sauce

75g unsalted butter

125g light brown sugar

50g maple syrup

Cinnamon Filling

150g light brown sugar

1 heaped tablespoon ground cinnamon

100g unsalted butter, very soft

Golden Syrup Glaze

2 tablespoons golden syrup heated to use as glaze

Lemon Icing

Juice of 1/4 lemon

200g icing sugar or enough icing sugar to make a dripping icing

Method

In a large bowl add all the dough ingredients except the butter. Mix to a rough dough, cover and leave for 30 minutes to autolyse.

Using a dough hook of an electric mixer, knead the dough for about 10 minutes or until smooth and silky.

Now add butter, in small pieces, which needs to be very soft. You can soften the butter in the microwave. Mix using the dough hook until the mixture is smooth and elastic. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave to prove somewhere warm for 4 hours. The dough should have risen slightly.

To make the caramel, melt the butter, brown sugar and maple syrup in a small saucepan over a low heat.

Line a large baking pan with baking paper. I use 22cm x23cm (9 inch x 13 inch) pan. Spoon the caramel sauce over the base. You don’t have to use all the sauce – the more you use the gooier the scrolls will be. I sometimes only use half the caramel for a less gooey bottom.

Remove the proven dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured board. Using floured hands, gently stretch the dough to a rough rectangle, slightly less than the size of your pan.

For the cinnamon filling, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together.

Spread the very soft butter all over the dough rectangle. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon over the butter.

Now roll up the dough along the long side, as carefully as you can, as the dough is very soft.

Cut the long roll into 12 even pieces. Place the pieces into the baking pan, cut side up, on top of the caramel sauce, packing them in snugly together.

Put the pan into a large plastic bag to prove. Leave at room temperature for an hour then place into the fridge overnight or for 8-12 hours. Or, if you wanted to prove more quickly, leave in a warm place for 2 hours. I recommend the fridge prove as it really improves the flavour.

Half an hour before baking, preheat the oven to 160 degrees C fan or 180 degrees C non fan forced. Add a pan of water to the bottom of the oven to create steam for baking.

Take the pan out of the plastic bag and place the scrolls in the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the tops of the scrolls are golden brown but not burnt.

Once baked, remove from the oven. Brush the tops of the scrolls with the warmed golden syrup.

To make the lemon icing, mix the lemon juice with the icing sugar. You may need more or less icing sugar – use enough to make an icing of dripping consistency.

One the scrolls are quite cool, drizzle the lemon icing over the tops of the scrolls.

Remove the scrolls from the pan and peel off the baking paper. The scrolls will be sticky with the caramel sauce underneath.

Best eaten on the day while the scrolls are gooey. They can be microwaved gently the next day if you have any left over!

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Little Ginger Caramel Cheesecakes

Posted on February 22, 2018 by The quirk and the cool

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31CFED5D-F980-41F1-9953-28FE10746308Cheesecake! A big favourite, but an indulgence I enjoy in moderation, as it’s SO moreish I can eat too much…

So mini cheesecakes are the perfect sweet treat to end a meal or a as little pick me-up at afternoon tea time.

The recipe is my go-to recipe for baked cheesecake, blogged here many times. I substituted mascarpone for cream cheese, for no other reason than I had some in the fridge and thought it would go well in cheesecake!

I added crystallized ginger to my little cheesecakes as well as ginger caramel, but plain caramel would be fine too.

To serve, I put some chunks of fresh pineapple on the top of each little cheesecake. This complemented the ginger flavour beautifully!

Ingredients

Crumb Crust
230g sweet biscuits (half plain, half ginger nut)
1/2 level teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 level teaspoon cinnamon
85g butter

Mascarpone Filling
500g mascarpone
2/3 cup sugar
1 tbls ginger or plain caramel or dulche de leche (jar or tin is fine, don’t bother making it)
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 free-range eggs
6 pieces crystallized ginger (a small handful), chopped finely  + extra for decorating

Pineapple chunks to decorate

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C or 170 degrees fan-forced.

Butter individual molds with a removable base, see photo. If you don’t have these molds, you could use ordinary muffin or cupcake  molds. You would just need to be careful easing them out of the molds.

I filled 8 of my removable bottom molds. You would fill at least 8 or even 10 ordinary muffin molds.

Crush biscuits very finely in a food processor and add the nutmeg and cinnamon. Melt butter in a saucepan, remove from heat and quickly stir in the biscuit crumbs.

Press firmly into greased molds, covering the bases with a good layer of biscuit crumb.

Put mascarpone, sugar and caramel in the food processor and mix well. Add eggs one at a time, whizzing after each addition.  Stir in the crystallized ginger pieces.

Pour mixture into the individual molds on top of the biscuit crumb bases.  Fill each mold to about 3/4 full.  Place in the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes until the cheesecake is just set. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely.

Carefully remove each cheesecake from its mold. Store in refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight to completely firm up.

Serve cold, with chunks of pineapple on top of each cheesecake, and extra slivers of crystallized ginger. You could drizzle a little warmed caramel over the top too, for a truly caramel experience!

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Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Posted on September 17, 2016 by The quirk and the cool

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These are great! They combine two great methods of biscuit making to create a thick, buttery, chocolately sweet treat. The recipe is more shortbread than cookie, creaming butter and sugar, and adding flour.There’s no egg, as there would be in traditional chocolate chip cookie. Add a handful of chocolate chips and the shortbread dough steps over into cookie territory.

The recipe is based on a post from “The View from Great Island”, see here. My version is minus peanut butter, and with my own variations. If you’re over  thin and crispy cookies, or soft and chewy, making a nice dense shortbread make sense.

If you want to zhush up these cookies, try mixing in a tablespoon or two of caramel filling when you cream the butter.  Something like dulche de leche is great. And sprinkle some sea salt on to the cookie rounds before baking.

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Ingredients

220g butter at room temperature

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

300g plain flour

75g icing sugar

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (dark or milk)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Cream the butter using an electric mixer until the butter is soft and whipped, Add the vanilla extract. Mix the dry ingredients together and add to the butter and mix until the dough just comes together. Stir in the chocolate chips, making sure not to overmix the dough.

Turn the dough out onto greaseproof paper. Divide the dough into two, for easier handling.  You need to gently shape each dough portion to form them into a log shape. Each log will be about 15- 20cms in length and the diameter will be about what you would expect form a round cookie…ie 8-10 cms. But the size of the logs is really whatever size you want your cookies to be!

You may need to work it with your hands if it is too crumbly. Roll them up in the greaseproof paper, carefully making the log the shape, Twist both ends of the logs securely.

Refrigerate for  one to two hours until the logs are really firm.

Cut the logs into 1 cm slices with a very sharp knife, I find that a serrated knife works well. Some will be more even shaped than others, and the ends of the logs will be smaller.

Place the cookie slices on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. You may need 2 baking sheets depending on how many cookies you are baking. I usually get 20-22 good sized cookies from the dough quantity. Bake for about 12-14 minutes, until the cookies are light golden and look like shortbread.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.

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Pecan Maple Sticky Buns

Posted on September 5, 2015 by The quirk and the cool

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Here is another venture into the world of sticky buns, cinnamon scrolls and brown sugar sweet treats. I love my bread making, and I am pretty keen on making enriched dough at the moment.

This recipe is my take on Sticky Buns from the Great British Bakeoff and the inimitable James Morton’s Cinnamon Buns.

It’s an enriched dough filled with brown sugar, butter and cinnamon, and topped with MORE brown sugar, butter, maple syrup and pecans!

James Morton cooks his buns in a casserole dish or pot such as a Le Creuset, as the heavy sided baking dish creates softer buns. He’s right – it’s the way to go for beautiful soft unctuous buns, so I recommend you try this baking method. Whatever you bake your buns in, make sure that the dish or pan has a rim, as the topping might flow over during cooking.

Ingredients

Dough

250g plain white flour

250g strong white flour

8g table salt

7g instant yeast

100g sourdough starter (optional)

50g caster sugar

280g milk, warmed until tepid

1 free-range egg, at room temperature

50g unsalted butter

Filling

50g unsalted butter

75g brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Topping

100g butter (salt reduced or salted is fine for that “salted caramel” flavour)

2 tbs maple syrup

100g pecan pieces (walnuts work just as well)

Method

Place the flour, salt, yeast,  sourdough starter if using, sugar, tepid milk, egg and cinnamon into a large bowl and mix them together by hand or you can use an electric mixer with a dough hook. Knead by hand or in the mixer about for 10 minutes.

Melt the butter and add to your dough. Mix it in by hand or use a machine until completely combined. Cover the bowl (I use a disposable shower cap but cling film is fine) and leave the dough to rest for 60-90 minutes at room temperature, or overnight in the fridge, until it has grown to roughly double its original size.

Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out into a big, long rectangle. The rectangle should be about 20cm wide and up to a metre long. Melt the butter and brush over dough. Sprinkle the dough all over with brown sugar and then cinnamon.

Roll up the dough along its long edge into as tight a cylinder you can get, but be careful as the dough is quite fragile. Slice this cylinder into 6-9 roughly equal pieces using a knife.

For the topping, process the butter, brown sugar and maple syrup until thoroughly mixed in food processor. Grease a large lidded casserole dish and spread the mixture evenly over the base of the dish. Scatter the chopped nuts over the base of the dish and gently press in.

Arrange the buns cut end down in the casserole dish. Place the lid on the casserole and leave to rise for another hour at room temperature, then check to see that buns have risen.

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30 minutes before baking, preheat your oven to 180 degrees C fan forced. Put the lid back on the casserole and place in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes with the lid on and 10 minutes with the lid off.

Remove from the oven and run a knife around the inside of the dish to loosen the buns.

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Leave for 3-4 minutes for the bubbling to subside – no longer as the caramel will set.

Carefully invert the dish onto a plate with a rim, again to stop the topping spilling over. Lift off the baking dish. The buns will be sitting up beautifully covered in the lovely caramel topping!

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Caramelised Quince and Almond Cake

Posted on July 19, 2014 by The quirk and the cool


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Berry, Apple, Golden Syrup and Oat Flapjacks

Posted on May 28, 2014 by The quirk and the cool

IMG_2186I found a recipe for flapjacks while surfing the internet for “tray bakes”. As a food etymologist I was intrigued by the name, not overly used in Australia. We tend to talk more of “slices”.

The following recipe is very loosely based on one of my finds, Blackberry and apple oaty flapjacks: http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/511747/blackberry-and-apple-oaty-flapjacks.

My traybake turned out more of a tart as it was quite soft. I think the apple makes it soft, so you could try less apple to firm it up or cook it for longer.

My next incarnation of the flapjack will be apple-free and I’ll make the berries into jam before cooking. Watch this space!

Ingredients

1 large or 2 small apples, peeled and chopped

200g  rolled  oats

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbs store bought caramel

200g fresh or frozen mixed berries

2 tbs golden syrup

Crumble topping:

60g rolled oats

1 tbs butter cut into small pieces

1 tbs golden syrup

Handful of flaked almonds

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a medium sized baking tin. I used a flan mold for something different.

Place the chopped apple in a saucepan with enough water to cover.  Put on the lid and cook until soft.  Drain the water and puree or mash the apple.

Mix the oats and the cinnamon in a large bowl, add the apple and caramel and combine well.

Spread the oat mixture Into the base of the tin or flan and spread out into an even layer.

Scatter the mixed berries on top of the oat mixture, having cut in half any larger berries such as strawberries.  Drizzle the golden syrup over the berries.

To make the crumble topping, combine oats, butter and extra golden syrup.

Spoon the crumble mixture over the berries, lastly scattering the flaked almonds.

Press down slightly to stick the layers together. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the flapjack is golden brown and the berry juices are bubbling.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely before cutting into pieces.

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Butter Cookies – Caramel, Chocolate Caramel and Stem Ginger

Posted on March 2, 2014 by The quirk and the cool

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These butter cookies are based on Annabel Langbein’s Cookie Sampler recipe. I previously made a three flavour sampler and this time used the same basic recipe with some different twists.

The beauty of Annabel’s recipe is that has no egg and uses condensed milk as well as sugar. The resulting dough is easy to shape, freezes well and the cookies keep for a couple  of weeks. The cooked biscuits freeze well too.

Here are the links to Annabel’s recipe and my previous cookie sampler:

http://www.annabel-langbein.com/annabel/blog/one-clever-cookie/
https://thequirkandthecool.com/2013/08/14/cookie-sampler/

Basic Recipe

Ingredients

250 gms butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
A few drops of vanilla extract
21/4 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

Flavourings of your choice (see below)

Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Line 2 oven trays with baking paper.
Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla, then stir in the flour and baking powder.
To make Cookie Sampler, divide dough into 3 portions. Mix flavourings (see below) into each portion.
Chill mixture for 15 minutes. Roll into walnut-sized balls, place on baking trays and flatten slightly. Decorate according to instructions for different flavourings. Bake until lightly golden and set (about 15- 20 minutes).
Allow to cool for 10 minutes on the tray then transfer to a rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container or jar.

Caramel Cookies

IMG_8181Mix in a couple of tablespoons of dulce de leche or other thick caramel spread into 1/3 of the dough. Once you have formed the walnut sized balls, place half a teaspoon of caramel in the centre of each ball.

Chocolate Caramel Cookies

IMG_8179Mix in 2 tablespoons of Dutch cocoa and 2 tablespoons of dulce de leche or caramel spread into 1/3 of the dough; add a handful of dark or milk chocolate bits to the mixture.

Stem Ginger Cookies

IMG_8229Add 2 teaspoons of ground ginger to 1/3 of the dough. Finely chop a handful of stem ginger (about 10 pieces), or pulse in the food processor with the dough. Once you have formed the walnut sized balls, place a sliver of stem ginger on the top of each cookie.

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Caramelised Figs

Posted on February 2, 2014 by The quirk and the cool

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This recipe is based on something from Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course. The caramelisation of the figs comes from creating a toffee syrup and adding butter and balsamic vinegar.

Ingredients

4 firm black figs – for 2 people or 1 very greedy person!

2 tbs Icing sugar

2 tbls balsamic vinegar

4 tbs caster sugar

20 gms butter, divided into knobs

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C.

Place figs in a bowl and sprinkle with icing sugar. Drizzle over 1tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Roll the figs in the icing sugar and balsamic to make sure they are well covered.

Melt the caster sugar in an oven proof dish or frying pan over a low heat. The sugar will melt and turn a deep caramel colour. Be careful not to stir the sugar as it will crystallize.

Add the knobs of butter, stirring carefully to amalgamate. Add the other tablespoon of balsamic and 1 tablespoon of water. Carefully taste – the sauce is hot – and add a little more vinegar if the sauce needs more piquancy, or a little more water if the sauce is too thick.

Add the figs and gently baste with the liquid.

Place the dish in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Baste the figs a couple of times during cooking.

Serve warm or at room temperature with thick cream. I like Jersey cream – it’s very thick and has a rich smooth taste.

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White Chocolate and Caramel Pecan Cookies with Sea Salt

Posted on May 21, 2013 by The quirk and the cool

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Take a basic cookie dough and add white chocolate chunks, caramel sugared pecans, add a piece of two of caramel or vanilla fudge, bake, and finish with sea salt.
This is my tweaking of the classic chocolate chip recipe to satisfy my current obsession with salted caramel!
The resulting cookie has a lovely caramel flavour created from the melting of the white chocolate during baking.

Ingredients
150 gms butter
1 cup dark muscovado sugar or dark brown sugar
1 egg
I/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of sea salt
100 gms white chocolate chopped into chunks
1 or 2 small pieces of caramel or vanilla fudge, roughly chopped
Caramel Pecans
1 tablespoon white sugar
50 gms pecans
Pinch sea salt

Method
Cream butter and sugar in a food processor until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract, process swell. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and add to mixture, processing until smooth.
Stir in white chocolate chunks and fudge chunks.
Make caramel pecans by heating the sugar in a small frying pan until dissolved. Add pecans and cook until sugar syrup just starts to turn a golden caramel colour. Remove the pecans from the pan, scatter with sea salt. When cool roughly chop and add to cookie mixture.
Drop rounded spoonfuls onto baking trays lined with baking paper.  Sprinkle sea salt to taste over the top of each cookie. Bake for 15- 20 minutes depending on the size of the cookies.

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