Apple & Almond Bear Claw Pastries

When I decided to make these bear claw pastries from the Hummingbird Bakery 'Home Sweet Home' cookbook I didn't really check the recipe that closely and just assumed they would be fairly easy to make. However, when it actually came down to it, they were a little more tricky than first anticipated.

When thinking of pastry, I was thinking of the Danish kind but that turned out to be incorrect. The pastry here is made with milk, sugar, butter, salt, yeast, egg and flour. The mixture also had to be left to prove which was not what I was expecting.

When the dough had proved, the recipe requires it to be rolled out into quite precise rectangles. I did have to wrangle with it a bit as the dough kept springing back when I rolled it which I don't think is quite right. I also found it quite difficult to shape and seal the pastries and as a result they were all slightly different sizes. Given all this I was quite expecting a disaster when they came out of the oven but they actually looked rather better than expected, puffing up nicely and browing on top with the egg wash. 

Inside the pastry is a filling of apples, butter, sultanas, light brown sugar, cinnamon and cornflour. On top is a sprinkling of sugar and some flaked almonds which were added before baking. The finishing touch is a drizzle of icing over the top when cool. And how did they taste?...much better than expected! Kind of a bready/pastry outer with a sweet filling. Apparently these are found in traditional bakeries in America and are often eaten for breakfast with coffee. I think I could quite happily consume these for breakfast on a regular basis...but probably only if they didn't take quite so long to make! However, the bear claw finish is very cute and was achieved by cutting into the pastry along a short edge. I used scissors and cut in about a centimetre.

These pastries are my entry into this month's Alpha Bakes, hosted by Ros over at the More than Occassional Baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes. Ros is hosting this month and the letter is 'A', so this is a double whammy with apples and almonds!

Simple Simnel Cake

As I mentioned in my last post I thought I'd have a go at some simple Easter recipes this year as I won't be here for the Easter weekend...so what could be simpler than a Simple Simnel Cake.

At first glance this appears to be a somewhat unusual recipe as it's a fruit cake with marzipan baked inside and orange icing on the top along with caramelised almonds, but it was actually really tasty and it was the first time I had used this particular method to make my caramel.

This is simpler than a traditional Simnel cake as you don't have to worry about the marzipan and the balls on top amongst other things. The cake itself is very similar to these Simnel Muffins which I love and make every year. To add the marzipan to the cake, half the cake mixture was spooned into the loaf tin, then a sausage of marzipan was rolled out to the size of the tin and added on top before spooning in the remaining cake mix. The benefit of this is it prevents all the fruit sinking to the bottom!

The cake was topped with runny icing sugar, made up with orange juice, and then the caramel almonds. I have previously made caramel by dissolving sugar in water and bringing it up to a specific boiling point but this can be a tricky process. However, to make this almond caramel I used a frying pan and toasted the almonds. The almonds were then removed from the pan and 100g of caster sugar added. When heated the sugar turns to liquid caramel but it is important not to heat it up too fast otherwise it can burn. When the sugar turned to the caramel, the almonds were added back to the pan and coated in the caramel before pouring it out onto a greased baking tray where it sets hard. The recipe called for the caramel almonds to be chopped but I kept my pieces slightly larger and just broke them up. This process was all very quick and easy.

 

The recipe for this cake is from BBC GoodFood and if you'd like to try it, you can find the recipe here. I am entering this cake into this month's Calendar Cakes with the theme being Easter Extravaganza. Calendar Cakes is hosted here at Laura Loves Cakes on alternate months with Dolly Bakes. If you'd like to enter you can find all the details here.

Nigella's Apple & Cinnamon Muffins

I don't very often make muffins...I'm not sure why as I'm more than happy to eat them! However, when I saw the theme for this month's Forever Nigella was 'Packed Lunch Stars' I leafed through my Nigella cookbooks and came across this recipe for Apple and Cinnamon Muffins. The recipe is from 'Kitchen - Recipes from the heart of the home'.

These muffins are perfect for a packed lunch...they're a little sweet treat but they're also healthier than a regular muffin as they're not laiden with sugar. The apples give them a natural sweetness so they'll be a hit with the kids. Nigella describes them as a 'wholesome treat' which is exactly what you want to find in your packed lunch. These muffins were also made with spelt flour which is a first for me as I've never used it. For those of you like me who aren't very au fait with spelt, it's a non-wheat flour that gives a slightly nutty flavour.

The muffins were really moist and had a lovely hint of cinnamon. The tops were sprinkled with an (unblanched) almond, sugar and cinnamon rubble and there were also almonds in the muffin batter which gave them a contrasting texture. I think the optimal time for eating these is the day after making as the flavour had developed a little...but don't leave it too long to eat them as after a couple of days the apple made them a little too moist! Nigella also suggests they can be eaten warm or if you make a batch and wish to freeze them then they'll last for around 2 months...perfect for busy mums! :-)

As I mentioned this was my first time using spelt, it was also my first time using Tulip muffin cases...I loved the results, the muffins look so pretty and professional...just like you'd see in a cafe!

 

Why not check out this month's Forever Nigella, the theme is 'Packed Lunch Stars'. This month's guest host is Working London Mummy and the creator of Forever Nigella is Sarah over at Maison Cupcake.


Ingredients

2 eating apples
250g spelt flour (or you can use plain flour)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
125g light brown sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)
125ml honey
60ml natural yogurt (not set)
125ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
75g unblanched almonds

Heat your oven to 200c/180c fan/gas 6 and choose your muffin wrappers and line the muffin tin, this recipe makes 12.

Peel the apples and then cut into small 1cm cubes. Next weigh out the flour, baking powder and a teaspoon on cinnamon into a bowl. In a seperate bowl measure out the brown sugar, honey, yogurt, vegetable oil and eggs and mix together.

Chop the almonds (I used a mini food processor but it gave quite varying sizes of almond). Add half of the almonds to the flour and pop the other half in another small bowl. Add a teaspoon of cinnamon and 4 teaspoons of sugar to the small bowl of almonds...this is the 'rubble' topping for sprinkling on top of the muffins.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and then fold gently. Next add the chopped apple and combine. Spoon or use an ice cream scoop to divide the batter between the 12 muffin cases and then sprinkle the almond, sugar and cinnamon topping over each one.

Bake for around 20 minutes. The finished product should be risen and golden. Once removed from the oven leave in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring the muffins to a cooling rack.

Three Tier Multi-Colour Macaroon Cake

If you have a friend or family member who likes cake but who also likes macaroons and you can't decide which to make them...why not give them both in this three tier multi-colour macaroon cake. You can choose any colour of macaroon you like, I quite fancy making another one with a rainbow of macaroons and it looks quite impressive without being too difficult!

This cake is based on a design by the cake decorator Zoe Clark, she made hers with 4 tiers and with a slightly different shade of yellowy/peach on the extra tier.

To make the macaroons I used the Italian meringue method, which I have been reliably informed is the best method. The first batch I made were the pink ones, I think the egg whites may have been slightly overbeaten in this batch as the mixture was very stiff and I couldn't get rid of the peaks. However, with a bit of practice the peach and yellow macaroons came out a lot better. You can find recipes for macaroons on the internet and in many recipe books but here are my top tips for macaroon making.

Top tips for making macaroons:

1. When heating your sugar and water make sure you use a heavy based saucepan and have a thermometre on hand as the temperatures need to be very precise.
2. Mark out circles on your greaseproof paper using a circular cutter as a guide to give your macaroons a uniform size. Don't forget to turn your paper over to use it, otherwise the pencil will come off on the macaroons!
3. To pipe, don't try to go round in a circle. Just hold the nozzle still and pipe, the shape will form on it's own. When you reach the edges of your circle template, stop putting pressure on the piping bag and quickly swirl the nozzle to avoid a peak. This can be achieved with a flick of the wrist.
4. When you have finished piping your macaroons, tap the tray on the counter top to get rid of any ridges or peaks.
5. Once piped, leave your macaroons for around 30 minutes before putting them in the oven. They should form a skin over the top.
6. Finally, whilst cooking your macaroon should grow in size and a little foot should develop around the base of each macaroon as you can see above.