Butternut Squash, Pecan and Chocolate Cake

I said I would not stay quiet, and then I did just that. I am sorry, but I had a good excuse: I am pregnant!
I am really lucky and am enjoying what can be considered as an easy pregnancy so far. 

Sure, I had some morning sickness. 
I do need an enormous amount of sleep which limits the extravaganza of my social life quite a bit. 
My back hurts and at the end of the day I feel as big and heavy as an old truck with a flat tire.
But, I'm also having a blast. 

I can go for days without washing my hair and it still looks great.
I don't have most of the horrible sounding pregnancy side effects that I read about regularly.
I was able to cycle to work and back home until my 27th week of pregnancy. Since then, I've swapped cycling for a bit of walking, but I am still in pretty good shape.
Every kick and turn in my belly, however painful it may be, brings me a ridiculous amount of joy.  
 
Yes, in the end I'm one of these annoying, glowing pregnant ladies who walk around with an almost constant silly smile on their face.

Butternut squash, 

Pecans and Chocolate cake

I discovered with this cake that butternut squash are like carrot in the carrot cake. It does not bring masses of flavour to a cake, but a lovely moist texture.
This cake is simply delicious. Give it a try!

Ingredients 
For the cake

150 g pecan nuts

300 g plain flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

4 large eggs

275 g light muscovado sugar

250 ml groundnut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

250 g peeled, deseeded butternut squash, coarsely grated

100 g dark chocolate, chopped

For the chocolate icing:

200 g dark chocolate

200 ml double cream

50 g icing sugar

Method: 

1/ Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease 2 x 20cm sandwich tins and line the bases with baking paper.

2/ Bake the nuts for 8-10 minutes. Tip the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a food mixer. Mix in the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in the squash and chocolate. Chop the nuts and add to the mixture.

3/ Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool for a few minutes, then turn on to a wire rack and leave until cold.

4/ For the icing, break the chocolate into pieces in a bowl. Heat the cream and sugar, stirring, until just below simmering point. Pour the cream on to the chocolate; stir to melt. Cool, then chill the icing for 20 minutes.

5/ Sandwich the cakes with the icing. Sprinkle the top layer with a dust of icing sugar.

Recipe from Homemadebyyou.co.uk

My Best of "Picnic Food" recipes

Spring has started in full speed in London, and it is supposed to last for a while. Fingers crossed!
Time has come for picnics and party food, that you drop in a carrier bag with a bottle of Pimm's and a punnet of strawberries. 
So here you go, a little selection of my favourite picnic food recipes!

Potato and rosemary giant scone

Tomato, mozarella and olive pizza rolls

Scotch eggs

Citrus and poppy seeds cake

Caramelized pretzel brownies

Sweet muffins (base recipe and variations)

Peanut butter and chocolate chookies

Millionaire shortbread

Pretzel, French Glacé Cherry, Cranberry, Tea cake and Marshmallow Rocky Roads

Happy Easter everyone!
I'm not going home to hunt eggs with my family this year, but I'll still indulge in some chocolate (or go to my wonderful local baker and buy one of his Easter bakes).
For now, I leave you on a this recipe perfect to bake with kids during this long weekend, and wish you a great break!

Pretzel, French Glacé Cherry, Cranberry, 

Tea Cake and Marshmallow Rocky Roads  

These are rocky roads taken to the next step. I loved the mix of textures from the fondant glacé cherries, dense cranberries, crumbly tea cakes and crunchy pretzels, the chewy marshmallows, which makes it bite a surprise.

Ingredients 

125 grams soft butter 
300 grams best-quality dark chocolate (I used Valrhona chocolate) broken into pieces 
3 tablespoons golden syrup 
230 g or mix tea biscuits, chopped French Glacé Cherries, dried cranberries, broken pretzels
100 g mini marshmallows 

Method to prepare the rocky roads

1/ Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan. Scoop out about 125ml / ½ cup of this melted mixture and put to one side.

2/ Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and then bash them with a rolling pin. You are aiming for both crumbs and pieces of biscuits.

3/ Fold the biscuit pieces and crumbs into the melted chocolate mixture in the saucepan, and then add the marshmallows.

4/ Tip into a foil tray (24cm / 9 inch square); flatten as best you can with a spatula. Pour the reserved 125ml / ½ cup of melted chocolate mixture over the marshmallow mixture and smooth the top.

5/ Refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight.

6/ Cut into 24 fingers and dust with icing sugar by pushing it gently through a tea strainer or small sieve.

Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson's rocky road recipe

The Outrageous Chocolate Cake: chocolate & meringue mousse, brownies

Superfood, raw food, GI rating, detox...I' m not going to talk to you about any of these today. 
This recipe is one of these which ambition is to break all the rules of reason, and pack as much indulgence and flavour as possible in one single cake. 
To all chocolate lovers in the world, I want to say : this one is a winner. 
It's naughty. Worse, it's outrageous.

But my dear, it's so good.

My ultimate Chocolate Cake: 

A chocolate & meringue mousse on top of a brownie base

Chocolate brownie base

Ingredients

250g good quality cocoa chocolate (I used Valrhona)
250g unsalted butter
300g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs, plus 1 extra egg yolk, lightly beaten
60g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
60g good quality cocoa powder 

Method: 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180deg C, and line the bottom of a loose base cake tin with baking parchment and butter up the parchment and tin.

2. Set a bowl over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water, and add 200g of the chocolate, broken into pieces. Allow to melt, stirring occasionally, and then remove from the heat immediately.

3. Meanwhile, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, and break the rest of the chocolate into chips.

4. With the mixer still running, gradually add the eggs, beating well between each addition to ensure it's thoroughly incorporated before pouring in any more. Leave mixing on a high speed for five minutes until the batter has a silky sheen, and has increased in volume.

5. Remove the bowl from the mixer, and gently fold in the melted chocolate and chocolate chips with a metal spoon, followed by the sifted flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder.

6. Spoon the mixture into the tin, and bake for 30 minutes. Test with a skewer; it should come out sticky, but not coated with raw mixture. If it does, put it back into the oven for another 3 minutes, then test again.

7. When the brownies are ready, remove the tin from the oven and place it in a cool place (I put mine out in the garden) to cool completely. Once cold, cover the sides left free of the tin with a large string of cling film all around (optional, but it will prevent the mousse from sticking to the sides of the tin)

Chocolate and meringue mousse

Ingredients

250g good quality cocoa chocolate 

6 eggs

1 or 2 supermarket bought meringue nests (optional), broken into coarse pieces + 1 for decoration

a pinch of salt

Method: 

1/ Set a medium bowl over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water, and add the chocolate, broken into pieces. Allow to melt, stirring occasionally, and then remove from the heat. Leave to cool while you do the next step.

2/ Separate the eggs and place the whites and a pinch of salt in a big bowl (or in the clean bowl of a baking mixer). With an electric whisk,  whisk the white until firm. 

3/ Add the egg yolks to the melted chocolate one at a time and mix well between each addition with a wooden spoon.

4/ Fold very gently and carefully the whisked egg whites a little at a time in the chocolate mixture, making sure you don't break the white not to loose the air within the whites and get a light mousse texture. Once all the whites have been folded, fold in the meringue pieces carefully. Pour and level the mousse over the cooled down brownie base, and transfer to the fridge to set for at least 3 hours. 

5/ Loosen the cake tin sides and bottom, carefully peel the cling film from the sides. Loosen the brownie from the cake tin base with a pallet knife and transfer to a cake stand.

Decorate the top of the cake with broken meringue nest pieces.

Chocolate brownie recipe from Felicity Cloake

Poached pears and spiced chocolate sauce

You may have to choose between cheese and dessert when you go to a restaurant, but at home, it's always cheese and dessert.
Nothing surprising here, really. We're not a land of cheese and baguette makers to then just leave them to go to waste and get stale on the counter. 
Christmas will feature the usual cheese platter of local delicacies such as Cancoillotte, Morbier, Comté and Munster, but it's for dessert that we go all out.

We've adopted the Provence originated tradition of the Christmas's 13 desserts. Yes, 13 desserts (although we don't stick to the list of 13 "official" desserts)
Amongst them, the inevitable chocolate mousse (my dad and grandpa's favourite and a Christmas tradition that goes back to generations in my family), têtes de chocolat (chocolate heads) and Billiotte biscuits from Montbeliard's Christmas market, some muffins, several homemade cakes and tarts, one or two British specialties (this year it will be a magnificent Dundee cake from our local bakery in Nunhead), and a fruit salad or poached pears.

Speaking of poached pears, they are a perfect addition to a Christmas dessert table and will accompany any cake or chocolate dessert to perfection.

Poached pears 

and spiced chocolate sauce

These lovely poached pears taste like Christmas, spice and all things nice.
I didn't want the delicious spiced syrup made to poach the pears to go to waste, so I incorporated it in the chocolate sauce (optional if the pears are an accompaniment rather that the main dessert). 
The spiced syrup gives the chocolate a lovely twist, and the end result is magnificent.

Ingredients (for 2 poached pears)

For the pears poached in spiced syrup:
2 pears, ripe but firm
300 ml water
200g caster sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon (or a cinnamon stick)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3 whole cloves
1 dried fig (optional)

For the chocolate sauce:
150 to 200g good quality cooking chocolate (I used Valrhona chocolate)

Method

1/ In a medium sized casserole, add all the syrup ingredients, mix well, and bring slowly to a boil. In the meantime, peal the pears whole, leaving the stems on (which will make them easy to handle and also look pretty)

2/ Dip the pears into the syrup, and simmer for approx 25 min, turning them around delicately from time to time if they are not totally immersed, to make sure they cook evenly. Once cooked, take them out of the syrup and transfer to a plate to cool. (If you're making them in advance, cover the plate with cling film once cold and keep them in the refrigerator. Take them out 20min before serving to slowly bring them at room temperature)


3/ Bring the syrup back to the boil and let reduce and thicken for a further 10 to 15 mins. Take the fig out (and either eat it or cut it in quarters to serve as a decoration with the pears)

4/ Before serving, place the chocolate bracken into pieces into a small glass bowl set over a small pan of simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water or the chocolate will burn). Leave to melt and mix with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of the spiced syrup (adapt the quantity depending of how thick you would like your chocolate sauce to be). Pour the sauce into a saucer, and bring it to the table so your guests can pour it on their poached pear as desired.

This recipe is dedicated to Christine, who every year puts so much effort, time and love in welcoming us to a fantastic Christmas feast.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cheesecake Tartlets

Greek yoghurt? I love it. It's thick, creamy, with that lovely acidity that lifts it up. 

In the UK, one of my favourite brands of Greek yoghurt is Fage Total Greek Yoghurt, and in particular the Fat free 0% Greek yoghurt, which has a texture very close to the full fat version, without the fat. (I sometimes find that fat free yoghurts are too acidic or too runny)
Although I kind of knew that you can cook / bake many thinks with yoghurt, I used to just eat it for breakfast with cereals or for pudding with fruits and a drizzle of honey. I guess I just lacked inspiration.

When I just came back from Greece, with the delicious taste of local Greek yoghurts still on my tongue and my mind full of new Greek recipes, and I got invited to the launch of the Total Greek Yoghurt recipe book, I saw it as a sign of the Greek gods themselves.

Sophie Michell revisits some Greek classics like pastichio and experiments with desserts, sauces and dips, using Greek yoghurt in many different ways.
I tested for you the peanut butter and chocolate tartlets recipe from the book, in which I swapped the full fat yoghurt with my usual fat free one. It's very easy to make, looks cool, and tastes very nice!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate 

Cheesecake Tartlets

Ingredients, for 4 little tartlets
5 or 6 Chocolate bourbons
20-25g butter
40g peanut butter
40g cream cheese
30g fat free Total Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp icing sugar 
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 or 2 squares dark chocolate, to decorate

How to make the peanut butter and chocolate tarlets
1/ Process the chocolat bourbon biscuits in a food processor until they form fine crumbs

2/ Melt the butter and mix thoroughly with the biscuit crumbs and press onto the base of tartlers tins. Place in the fridge for 1hour to set hard, or in the freezer for 15min.

3/ In a bowl, mix the peanut butter until smooth. Add the cream cheese and mix until smooth. Add the Greek yoghurt and mix until smooth. Add the vanilla extract, the sifted icing sugar, and mix until smooth. 

4/ Pipe or spoon the peanut butter mixture onto the tartlet bases, and grate dark chocolate on top for decoration. Place in the fridge to set for an hour. Eat the same day.

  Total Greek Yoghurt recipe book, recipes by Sophie Michell

I was offered Total Greek Yoghurt recipe book but wasn't commissioned to write up a review about it. Unless stated otherwise, the content of my blog in not sponsored.

Chocolate Recipes: my Best of!

I used to think that to get the most delicious dish, using the best recipe mattered more than using the best ingredients. 
I was wrong.
When I actually did the test, I was stunned to see how an ingredient as simple as flour in bread and butter in a biscuit can make all the difference in the end dish.

I still want to buy value for money ingredients, but there are now a few items I don't compromise on anymore: butter (I don't ever use margarine), olive oil, jam, etc and of course chocolate. 
Chocolate is, of all ingredients, one that must be of good quality, or whatever you bake (or cook) with it will just taste average, at best.

 My favourite brands so far are Nestlé dessert (which I import from France), Meunier (available at least at Sainsbury's), and for top quality: Valrhona.

Speaking of chocolate, here is a selection of my favourite recipes so far: 

My "Best Of" Chocolate Recipes

(click on the title to view the recipe)

 Death by Chocolate

Chocolate and raspberry tart

Caramel pretzel-encrusted brownies

Guinness and chocolate cake

Beetroot and chocolate brownies

Hugh Fearnley Witthingstall's Beetroot and Chocolate Brownies

Why on earth would you add beetroots to your brownies?
Well, for many good reasons really: 

- If you're on a diet, you should know that they bulk your brownies up without adding anything bad for you, which makes each portion a little less rich. (oui, oui!)

- If you love trying new things without compromising on taste, you should give a shot to this not-so-usual pairing, which doesn't make your brownies taste strange in any way.

- If your main goal is to bake cakes as moist as possible, then beets (like carrots and courgettes) should be your friends.

- If you just want to experience the joy of seeing the faces of your friends, family members and colleagues loving your brownies, and being so surprised when you tell them that there are beetroots in them: go for it, it's worth it!

Hugh Fearnley Witthingstall's 

Beetroot and chocolate brownies

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, cut into cubes

250g good quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces

3 medium eggs

250g caster sugar

A pinch of salt

150g self-raising flour (wholemeal ideally but white works well too)

250g beetroot, boiled until tender, cooled, peeled and grated (I used sous-vide Sainsbury's beetroots, and drained the water)

100g chocolate, of any colour, for the decoration

How to make the beetroot and chocolate brownies 

1/ Grease a shallow baking tin, approximately 20 x 25cm, and line the base with baking parchment

2/ Put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Set the oven at 180°C/Gas Mark 4 and put the bowl in it for a few minutes until the chocolate and butter start to melt. Stir, then put back in to the oven for a few more minutes to melt completely. Of course, you could melt them together in the traditional way, over a pan of hot water, but you might as well make the most of the warming oven

3/ Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl until combined then beat in the melted chocolate and butter until smooth. Combine the salt with the flour, sift them over the chocolate mixture, then gently fold in with a large metal spoon. Fold in the grated beetroot – be careful not to over-mix or it will make the brownies tough

4/ Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes; when the brownies are done, a knife or skewer inserted in the centre should come out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Don’t be tempted to overcook them or they will be dry

5/ Remove the tin from the oven and leave on a wire rack to cool before cutting in to squares.

Recipe adapted from River Cottage

Nigella's Guinness and Chocolate Cake

"Celebrity Chef" is a strange concept I discovered in the UK (Since I left France, this has also massively taken off in France). Over here, chefs are (almost) as much super stars as singers or actors. 
The press follows their private lives as much (if not more) as their cooking. 
Jamie Oliver shares photos of his kids and his private life everyday on Instagram, and we feel almost close to him for that. It's part of being a Celebrity Chef.
And it's not for her cooking skills that poor Nigella Lawson recently got even more famous.
Let me tell you; British people have a thing for their chefs, and I think I might be becoming like them.

One of my big dreams of the moment is to (finally) get a table at Le Gavroche and meet Michel Roux Jr. (I did get a chance to meet him briefly at a foodie festival last summer but I was so shy and impressed that I didn't even speak to him, when I'd normally have a million questions for the man!)

In the meantime, we should gossip less, and bake more!

Nigella's Guinness and Chocolate Cake

No, this cake doesn't taste of Guinness. It tastes of marvelous and deep dark chocolate, and it's moist and light.

And it's beautiful and delicious. 

And I find it so cool to bake a cake with Guinness in it.

Ingredients: 

for the cake

250 ml Guinness

250 grams unsalted butter

75 grams cocoa powder

400 grams caster sugar

142 ml sour cream

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

275 grams plain flour

2 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

for the topping

300 grams cream cheese

150 grams icing sugar

125 ml double cream (or whipping cream)

Method to make the Guinness and chocolate cake: 

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line a 23cm / 9 inch springform tin.
2. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
3. Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
4. When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsifted icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
5. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

 Recipe by Nigella Lawson