Forever Nigella #21 - Christmas Roundup

Well Christmas is over for another year...I hope it's been a good one for you! I've had the pleasure of hosting Forever Nigella for December 2012 and I've really enjoyed checking out all the delicious entries.

I kicked off this month's event with Nigella's sticky gingerbread, it seems this is a Nigella classic as many other people commented to say that they make it and it's one of their favourite gingerbread recipes. I also couldn't resist adding the little deer and trees that Nigella added on her Christmas special a couple of years ago.

Next up the first of three recipes from Sally at Recipe Junkie. Sally made this lovely looking Cranberry and Orange sauce when she found some cranberries lurking in her freezer. I love the addition of orange to this sauce and this would be absolutely delicious with the Christmas turkey.

Liana at My Sugar Coated Life created Nigella's festive Yule Log. Yule Log's have been popular this year and it's easy to see why...all that lovely chocolately sponge and ganache! This was Liana's first attempt and it turned out really well...the log rolled perfectly and she made a couple of changes to the recipe to bring out the chocolately flavour.

Another Sticky Gingerbread from Miss Flash at Food, Glorious Food. This was made from Nigella's Christmas book. Miss Flash also made a few tweaks to her recipe and served it as a pudding with lashings of custard...the perfect winter warming pud!

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Another Nigella classic next with Christmas Rocky Road from Lisa at United Cakedom. This is the first time Lisa has entered Forever Nigella but it's a great entry...and this Rocky Road also makes a perfect Christmas gift...which Lisa in fact gave to her dentist office!!

Next Rocky Road take two from Mimi at Chef Mimi Blog. Another lovely looking creation and this recipe is a holiday favourite for Mimi and she was well prepared to make it this year, ordering Amaretti biscuits back in August as they can be difficult to come by.

Christmas Pudding Cake using Nigella's chocolate cake recipe from Caroline Makes. Caroline made this after finding some hemisphere moulds in Lakeland. As Caroline isn't so keen on Christmas cake she decided to use a chocolate cake recipe and make it look like a Christmas Pudding complete with holly on top...and it turned out perfectly!

The second recipe from Sally at Recipe Junkie is this Cranberry Jam which is another great idea for using up Cranberries. As Sally says cranberries are full of pectin so they are perfect for making jam. I particularly like the ensuing uses for the jam too...Sally had a little on some homemade brioche and then also used some in a cranberry bakewell tart!

Nigella's Cranberry Cake from Jen at Blue Kitchen Bakes. Jen is a big fan of cranberries. This cake is similar to an upside down cake and I can imagine it is delicious and moist...and another great way to use up cranberries.

The final recipe from Recipe Junkie was this bubble and squeak. I've seen a few bubble and squeak creations around this Christmas but I've never made it myself. However, it seems that it is a great way to use up your Christmas dinner leftovers. It's all the leftover vegetables whizzed up in a food processor to form a chunky puree which is then fried...delicious!

This Apple Chutney from Sinea's Pantry was a lovely Christmas present for her Grandad who loves chutney. There were some modifications to the original Nigella recipe and I can only imagine that this would be delicious with cheese and biscuits and leftover cold meats.

Another lovely looking Buche de Noel from Jude at A Trifle Rushed. Everyone who's made Nigella's Buche de Noel this year has reported that it is easier to make than you might think and it also keeps for a good few days...although as Jude says it probably won't last that long! I particularly love the cute little robin on the top of this log.

We had a last gasp entry from Lucy at Super Golden Bakes who tweeted a picture of her Mini Apple Pies. This pie looks delicious...I'd quite happily devour this with a little custard! Lucy ate hers with ice cream and caramel sauce!

And finally to finish the round up we have a Buche de Noel from Forever Nigella creater Sarah at Maison Cupcake. Sarah had a particularly relaxing Christmas this year after having a new kitchen fitted in 2012 with some mod cons which made it altogether less stressful. Fortunately for us this gave her time to make and blog about this Buche de Noel on Christmas day no less...that's dedication...and she was even finished in time for Downton! :-)

Thank you to everyone who has entered Forever Nigella this month...Christmas is the perfect time for the Domestic Goddess's recipes and I look forward to trying some of these out next Christmas!

January's Forever Nigella will be hosted by Sally at Recipe Junkie...so check out her blog for more details.

Nigella's Sticky Gingerbread

With the start of December, it's now officially the Christmas season...so bring on the Christmas baking! I'm so excited to have finally made this Sticky Gingerbread...I've only been waiting a year! I just couldn't resist the little deer and the spruce trees...the perfect festive touch.



This is also a recipe from Nigella's Christmas book, so it's ideal to get the ball rolling for this month's Forever Nigella which I'm thrilled to be hosting.

This gingerbread is full of gorgeous flavours including fresh and ground ginger, cinnamon, ground gloves, black treacle and golden syrup. Not only does it taste delicious but it will also fill your house with the wonderful aroma of Christmas.

This is a really easy recipe, all you need to do is melt all the ingredients listed above in a saucepan, along with some dark muscovado sugar and some butter. Once it's all melted together, milk, eggs and some bicarb of soda dissolved in warm water is added and the whole thing bubbles up a little. This mixture is then poured into a bowl containing flour which all gets mixed together...et voila!

It's a very runny batter but that just adds to the lovely sticky nature of this bake. It's soft and light when baked and all the spices come through a treat! Nigella also suggests a frosting of 175g icing sugar, a tablespoon of lemon juice and one of warm water if you're going to make this for a bake sale or some such thing...although she prefers the simplicity of the un-iced version.

If you're making any festive Nigella recipes this month then do enter them into Forever Nigella #21. As mentioned I'm hosting this month but the home of Forever Nigella is at Maison Cupcake. We'd love to see your creations both sweet and savoury!

Ingredients

250g butter
200g golden syrup
200g black treacle
125g dark muscovado
2 tsp finely grated ginger
1 tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp bicarb of soda, dissolved in 30 mls warm water (2 tbsp of water)
250ml full fat milk
2 eggs, beaten
300g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 170c/150c fan/gas 3 and prepare a 20 x 30cm baking tray by lining it with baking paper.

Sift the flour into a large bowl ready for later.

Next melt the following in a medium sized saucepan: butter, sugar, golden syrup, black treacle, cinnamon, cloves and the fresh and ground ginger. When this mixture has melted take it off the heat and add the milk, bicarb of soda with water and the beaten eggs.

These wet ingredients can then be poured on to the flour and the whole mixture should then be beaten until well combined. I ended up with quite a few pockets of flour which I had to beat out. The mixture will be extremely runny but don't fear this is how it is supposed to be. Pour it into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes. Mine only took 45 minutes, you don't want to overbake otherwise the gingerbread may lose it's stickiness.

When ready, remove from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack to cool. This recipe will cut into about 20 squares and will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight tin. You can also freeze it for  up to 3 months should you so wish.

* Adapted from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson

Forever Nigella #21 - Christmas

Welcome to Forever Nigella. I'm thrilled to be hosting this month...and the theme is Christmas! Nigella even has a whole book devoted to the subject.

The home of Forever Nigella is at Maison Cupcake. Creator Sarah describes Forever Nigella as 'the only regular blogging event to share your culinary moments dabbling with the domestic goddess'. So be your creation sweet or savoury we'd love it if you could join us for this month's challenge. This may be Laura Loves Cakes but you are most welcome to enter absolutely any Christmassy Nigella recipe...even your Christmas lunch if the recipe came from the domestic goddess herself!

Why not dig out all of your Nigella cookbooks and magazine recipes or check out some online sources and join in with this month's challenge.

Forever Nigella Rules

Forever Nigella #21 is being hosted by Laura of Laura Loves Cakes. This month’s challenge is to prepare and blog any Nigella Lawson recipe which is suitable for Christmas. Forever Nigella is organised by Sarah at Maison Cupcake.

1. Blog your entry by Sunday 30th December 2012:

a) the current Forever Nigella badge
b) a link to this announcement post
c) a link to the Forever Nigella page at Maison Cupcake:
http://blog.maisoncupcake.com/forever-nigella

n.b. posts must have been published since the announcement post. Archived posts need to be re-published afresh if you wish to submit.

2. Remember copyright.

You must NOT reproduce Nigella’s recipes verbatim. Tell us which book it is from and/or link to it online. If you’ve adapted the recipe in some way i.e. changed at least two ingredients or amended the method then it’s ok to publish the a recipe in your post but you MUST write directions in your own words.

3. Submit your post

Use the linky tool or email me at lauralovescakes@yahoo.co.uk cc’ed to sarah AT maisoncupcake DOT com.

The Forever Nigella page shows a list of online Nigella resources, future hosts and links to past themes and round ups.

Tweet your post: #forevernigella @MaisonCupcake @Lauralovesbakes

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.

Nigella's Forgotten Meringue

This really could be one of the simplest sweet treats you ever eat...what could be easier than whipping up meringue, spreading it in a tin and then leaving it overnight in the oven...completely forgotten!

This is also perfect if you tend to forget to check the bakes in your oven as I occasionally do, as there's no checking required. You literally turn the oven off as soon as the meringue goes in. The resulting meringue is more like marshmallow and then if that wasn't enough it's topped with cream and luscious summer fruits. I did enjoy these little puds but they are very soft, almost wobbly in their marshmallowy-ness and maybe it would have been nice to have a bit of variation in the texture but still delicious and some of the other tasters really enjoyed them!

You can either cut your marshmallowy meringue into 12 squares or if you prefer a more dainty offering then you could go for 16. The great thing about these is that you can also choose whatever fruit you like to top the meringues...I'm quite partial to raspberries so next time I might use them instead.

 

 

As this is a lovely light, summery treat I'm entering it into this month's Forever Nigella event which is run by Sarah at Maison Cupcake and this month is hosted by Homemade by Fleur. I think you could quite easily serve the more refined smaller squares as part of an afternoon tea.

Ingredients

6 egg whites

1/2 tsp salt

250g caster sugar, plus 2 teaspoons

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1tsp vanilla extract

Butter for greasing

250ml double cream

2 passionfruits

175g blackberries

175g strawberries

This really is one of the easiest things to make. Just preheat the oven to 220c/200c fan/gas 7. Then all you need to do is whisk the egg whites with the salt until they start to form soft peaks. Then add in the sugar bit by bit and then the cream of tartar and vanilla. Continue whisking until the egg whites are stiff and glossy.

The original recipe didn't state a size for the tin but it suggests a swiss roll tin and I had one that was 32x18 cm which worked well. The only thing I didn't like were the slightly sloping sides making the side squares slightly irregular, so I therefore cut these off to make straight edges when I took it out of the tin the next day. So... when you've prepared your meringue and tin, spoon the meringue into it and spread evenly.

That's the hardwork over, as soon as you put it in the oven, turn it off immediately and then just leave overnight. The next day when you're ready to serve whip up the double cream until thickened but still soft. Then spread it over the meringue in the tin and dot with the seeds and pulp from the two passionfruits (the original recipe said 4 but it depends how much you like them!). I then cut my meringue up into squares and removed from the tin before adding the fruit. It cuts nicely into 12 pieces but if you wanted them smaller it could easily do 16. So the final step is just quartering the strawberries and tossing them in 2 tsp of sugar. Finally, scatter the strawberries and blackberries over each square and serve!

* Original recipe from www.nigella.com

Nigella's Maple & Pecan Bundt Cake

This lovely Maple & Pecan Bundt cake marks my first exploration into Bundts!

My reasons for making this were threefold:

1. As my inaugral entry to the Forever Nigella blog challenge
2. In honour of my recent trip to Canada as it includes a good helping of maple syrup
3. Because I have never made a bundt before, and fellow blogger @Dolly Bakes can often be heard singing 'I like big bundts' on twitter...and I have to say I often end up singing it all day!! Many apologies if you now spend the rest of today with this tune in your head!!!

The Forever Nigella challenge gives you a lot of freedom to pick a recipe. The only stipulation is that your recipe must come from the Domestic Goddess herself. So this maple and pecan bundt comes from 'Kitchen' by Nigella. This challenge is hosted by Maison Cupcake.

This recipe was really simple to make and the filling really lifted the sponge. A rather moreish cake which is ideal with a cup of tea! Your friends will also marvel at the impressive bundt moulding on the turned out cake! I did however, have to buy my rather expensive Nordic Ware bundt tin...but it is an investment for the future, as it really is a top quality tin...and there was absolutely no sticking!

Altogether now... 'I like big bundts and I cannot lie...when a baker walks in...'

Maple and pecan filling:

75g plain flour
30g unsalted butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon
150g pecans, chopped
125ml maple syrup

For the sponge:

300g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarb of soda
125g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
250ml creme fraiche
Icing sugar for dusting

I preheated the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4 before using Wilton Cake Release to grease my 23cm bundt tin.

This was simple to make, it was just a case of making up the filling to start by mixing the flour and butter with a fork to make a crumble like mixture. To this was added the cinnamon, maple syrup and chopped nuts, before mixing again to make a sticky, nutty paste.

To make the sponge to surround the filling, weigh the flour, baking powder and bicarb of soda into a bowl. In a seperate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar to a light and fluffy texture. To this add a spoon of the flour mix, then an egg, another spoonful of flour and then the second egg, mixing as you go. Add the remaining flour and beat, before adding the creme fraiche. This will make a fairly stiff cake mixture.

Put half of the cake mix into the bundt tin and push it up the sides to make a little trough for the maple and pecan filling. Carefully add the filling in the trough and then add the remainder of the cake mix on top and gently spread it out using the back of a spoon. The cake should be baked for 40 minutes but mine was ready in 30 minutes.

Once out of the oven, cool the bundt in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out...et voila!