Irish Foodies October Cookalong: Autumn Fruit - Blackberry Jam & Apple & Blackberry Tart

The latest Irish Foodies cookalong theme was Autumn fruit.  It didn't take me long to decide that I wanted to use blackberries as my main ingredient, so all that I needed to do was to find some nice juicy specimens ripe for the picking.  I was on blackberry watch every day as I power walked around the village but they refused to turn form red to black.  I think they knew I was waching.  If I'm not mistaken I saw them painting eachother up with a scarlet lipstick one morning in an effort to dupe me. 

Fear not, last Sunday my hushand and I drove to Newbridge House & Demesne and went in search of some viable candidates.  We were a little disappointed to find the same story here.  Lots of red berries and only a handful of ripe beauties.  The hubs got stuck in and was determined to harvest enough for the pot of blackberry jam I had promised him.  He fearlessly climbed in among the brambles and other than the odd swear word when the thorny branches got the better of him he plucked away until he had filled his little bag.

The next day I sailed into unchartered waters and set about making my very 1st jam.  I was under the impression it was a long and complicated process.  I was very, very wrong.  It took just a few minutes and the help of my trusty sugar thermometer, and then Bob's your uncle I had a lovely jar of jam.  Simlpes!  Having researched some recipes online I decided to live life on the wild side and just chuck a few things into the pot and hope for the best.  The result was a really delicious jam.  I will definitely be making my own in future and snubbing supermarket offerings.

Here is my recipe, I hope you enjoy it.

Blackberry Jam

2 cups (measuring cup size) of Blackberries, washed
2 cups (measuring cup size) of Sugar
2tbsp Lemon Juice
2 small Apples, washed, peeled and diced.

1.  Place the blackberries in a large bowl and crush roughly or blitz in a food processor.

2.  Transfer the blackberries to a saucepan and add the remaining ingredients. 
3.  Set over a medium heat and stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. 

4.  Allow to simmer until the temperature on the sugar thermometer reaches 'jam'.
5.  While still hot pour into the hot sterilised jar, place a wax circle on top and seal the jar. 
6.  Store in a cool, dark place and refrigerate once opened.

The apples in the recipe provide natural pectin to help set the jam.

I had a few blackberrys left over so thought the hubs would appreciate a nice apple and blackberry tart.  I decided to try out a new recipe and had a Catherine Leyden one to hand so gave that a bash.  I was very glad I did.  It was such a simple recipe and I had the pastry whipped up in minutes.  It uses a technique I have seen before but had quite forgotten but makes such complete sense.  Grate the cold butter!  I can't believe I banished this from my memory.  This is genius.  Grating the butter leaves long strands of cold 'fat' that can be easily distributed throughout the flour, and because they butter is so fine there is no need to over work the mixture to incorporate it.  I will most definitely be doing this again to take the stress out of pastry making.  The tart was a huge success, and the pastry just perfect, exactly the texture my mams used to be.  Enjoy!

Apple & Blackberry Tart

225g/8oz Plain Flour
125g/4oz Butter, make sure it is cold and not room temperature
150ml/ 0.25 Pint Cold Water (approximately)
4 Large Cooking Apples (peeled, cored and sliced)
100g/3.5oz Blackberries
Sugar to sweeten apples

1.   Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
2.   Sieve the flour into a bowl.
3.   Grate the cold butter into the flour. (You may need a little flour on your fingers to do this)

4.   Using a knife, mix the grated butter into the flour.
5.   Slowly add the water and mix to a soft dough with the knife.

6.   Turn onto a floured board and knead lightly.  (If you feel your pastry has become warm from kneading place it into the freezer, wrapped in cling film, for 10 minutes)

7.   Roll out half of the pastry to the size of an oven proof plate.

9.   Arrange the apples on the pastry, leaving a 1cm edge.  Sprinkle each layer with sugar.

10. Scatter the blackberries on top of the apple.

11. Roll the remaining pastry out to a size sufficient to cover the apples. 
12. Dampen the edge of teh base pastry with cold water to seal.
13. Press the top pastry over the apples to make the tart.  Seal the edges by using the back of a knife to form a crust.  Press around the edge with the tines of a fork.

14. Pierce the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape and bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes.

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

A couple of weeks ago I received an invitation from the lovely Clare Kleinedler (An American in Ireland) to join her and some other Irish foodies for an evening of vegan food.  I had dinner arrangements made for the night in question but a quick chat with Mr. Boo and he said he would cancel our reservation and treat me another night, he's good like that you know.  Also in attendance at the soiree were Kristin (Dinner du Jour), Aoife (Adventures in Veg) and Aoife (I Can Has Cook?).  Clare made some really delicious canapes to start, followed by pizza topped with pistachio cheese, roasted cherry tomatoes and caramelised onions, served with roasted butternut squash salad. Aoife (Adventures in Veg) made some delicious vegan chocolate cupcakes that were happily devoured by all.  Everything was completely NOM.  We spent a lovely evening munching, chatting and laughing.  It was really great to get to know some of the ladies behind the blogs I spend my evenings reading (I seriously need to be more productive with my time).  A big thank you to Clare for hosting such a lovely evening and also to Kristin, Aoife and Aoife for the wonderful company.

Clare insisted we were to bring nowt but ourselves but I thought I would bring a little sweet treat with me.  I was also anxious and curious to try my hand at a vegan recipe as I have never consciously cooked or baked anything vegan.  For some reason I got myself into a bit of a fluster thinking it would be a very complicated affair but after a little research I was pleasantly surprised to find with a couple of simple substitutions it would be a piece of cake (ahem, apologies for that awful pun but you see, I just couldn't help myself).

Anyhoo, I decided to rustle up a batch of my blue ribbon (more to come on this) peanut butter button cookies, minus the button naturally as milk chocolate would negate the vegan qualities.  Here is the original recipe in case you missed it, and below is the adapted version. Enjoy!

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
(makes approximately 24)

165g/6oz Creamy Peanut Butter
55g/2oz Vegan Margarine
210g/7.5oz Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
3tbsp Water
1tbsp Vanilla Extract
210g/7.5oz Plain Flour
¾ tsp Baking Soda
¾ tsp Salt

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.

2. Combine the peanut butter, margarine, brown sugar, water and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended.

3. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt(this recipe had a sweet but salty flavour, if you feel you will not like the combination of sugar and salt I would omit the salt at this stage) in a separate bowl. Add to the creamed mixture at low speed with an electric mixer and mix just until blended.

4.  If you feel the dough is a little dry at this stage add some water a tablespoon at a time until you have a consistency you are happy to work with.

5. Drop dough by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls 2-inches apart onto the prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly in a crisscross pattern with the tines of a fork.

6. Bake one baking sheet at a time for 12 minutes, or until set and just beginning to brown (or divide dough into 2 and freeze 1 batch and bake 1).

7. Cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet.

8. Remove cookies to cooling racks or wax paper to cool completely.

When baked, these cookies had a slightly different texture from the original recipe.  They were slightly denser and didn't spread as much but they tasted just as delicious.

Roma Pizza & Pasta Flour (Farina Tipo "00")

The other day whilst I was very busy beavering away at some important task or other I decided to allow myself 30 seconds to check Twitter for updates.  A little tweet from Damien Mulley informed any Irish Foodies who might be interested in receiving some Pizza & Pasta Flour from Roma that they need only send an email for their wish to be granted.  Being a lover of all things pizza and pasta related I thought to myself sure why not, and hit send.

A couple of days later the lovely Adam from Roma sent a little parcel my way.  When I openend the door to the postman it was like Christmas, there he was brandishing 2 lovely parcels for me, 1 from Roma and the other, my Amazon order.  When I opened the parcel it contained the flour as promised and also some Roma pasta, a lovely little storage tin and a recipe card containing recipes for calzone and ravioli.  I had great intentions to make the calzones last Friday but then 'stuff' cropped up and there was no time for that, a very busy bank holiday followed chock full of eating out and entertaining at home so that was the weekend gone. 

When I woke on Tuesday I was more than a little tired and possibly a little grumpy, but with only myself and my shadow in the house I can neither confirm or deny that.  Things started to look a little brighter when I opened the fridge, there staring back at me was a pack of parma ham.  We had a little chat and the general consensus was that the ham was prepared to sacrifice itself for the good of mankind and the love of pizza.  Now, I know what yiz are all thinking.  Pizza. For dinner. Of a Tuesday.  I know, I know but I was tired, I'm weak and I love pizza so I gave in to temptation.

As I hadn't planned on having pizza I hadn't removed my sourdough starter from the freezer and so needed a quick fix recipe for a thin and crispy base.  A little googling yielded the recipe I used.  It is quite similar to the original pizza recipe I posted a few weeks back, in it's texture.  The main difference between the 2 is obviously the inclusion of yeast in this one.  It did however have the advantage of a thin crispy outer crust.  Mr Boo ate the lot, my ahem little tummy could only manage 3/4's of mine, but it was yum and great if you need a quick fix recipe that doesn't require forward planning as is the case with the sourdough recipe. 

Roma's Pizza and Pasta flour feels slightly different to regulair plain or cream flour.  When I looked at it in the bowl it looked a little 'fluffier' (sorry, that's the only word I can think of to describe it) to me so naturally I wanted to stick my hands in to investigate further.  As I lifted the flour in each hand and allowed it to fall back into the bowl it felt much softer than regular flour.  The flour mixed to form a nice elastic dough and the base when cooked was crisp around the edges and light and airy under the toppings.  I will definitely use this flour again when making pizza and will see how it compares when used to make my favourite sourdough base.  I am also looking forward to making some ravioli with it.

*Roma Pasta & Pizza Flour (Farina Tipo "00") is available from Dunnes Stores and Superquinn.

Thin and Crispy Pizza Base
(yields 3 x 11" bases)

•500g Roma Pizza & Pasta Flour (Farina Tipo "00")
•4 tbsp Olive Oil
•1 tsp Salt
•300 ml lukewarm Water
•2 tsp (1 x 7g sachet) Dried Yeast
•1/2 tsp Sugar 

 
1.  Place the flour in a large bowl.
2.  Mix the yeast with the sugar and 50ml of the lukewarm water and stir, allow to sit for 10 minutes until it develops a nice foam on top.

3.  Add the olive oil and salt to the flour.

4.  Now add the yeast mix to the flour, oil and salt and add the rest of the lukewarm water (250 ml). Mix with your hands and knead until you have a smooth dough.

5.  Cover the dough with a clean, dry tea towel and let it sit for an hour.

6.  Once the dough has risen preheat your oven to 250C/481F/Gas Mark 9.
7.  Break off 1/3 of the dough and roll it with a rolling pin until you are happy with the depth of the dough (mine was approximately 5mm).

8.  Place onto a floured baking sheet and dress with sauce and toppings of your choice.

9.  Place into the preheated oven and bake for between 10 and 20 minutes (depending on how thick you roll your base you will need to adjust cooking times, my 5mm base was ready after 10 minutes so check at regular intervals after 10 minutes).
10. Enjoy!

Ciabatta

I have mentioned in a previous post that Mr. Boo and myself had a dinner party on Saturday night. I usually put all of my efforts into preparing the main body of the meal from scratch and extras like bread and dips and nibbles tend to be store bought but this time I decided to do it all myself.

For starters we served Moules Mariniere so I wanted bread that would be nice for mopping up the sauce once all of the lovely mussels had been devoured. I decided ciabatta would do the job and I wasn’t disappointed, it was perfect.

The following recipe yielded 3 ciabatta loaves. We managed to get through them between dinner, breakfast and parcels happily taken home by our guests. You may want to divide the recipe or simply make the full amount and freeze dough or baked loaves for a later date.

Ciabatta

30g/1oz Fresh Yeast, or 3 x 7g sachets Dried Yeast
30g/1oz Honey
625ml/just over 1 pint of Tepid Water
1kg/2.25lb Plain Flour
30g/1oz Salt
6tbsp Olive Oil
Extra Flour and some Semolina for dusting

1. Dissolve the yeast and honey in half the tepid water.

2. Place the flour and salt in a very large bowl and make a well in the centre.

3. Pour the dissolved yeast mixture into the well. With your fingers and working from the centre outwards start to incorporate some of the dry ingredients into the yeast mixture.

4. Pour in the remaining tepid water and gradually incorporate all of the flour until you have a most dough. (If you feel the consistency is not quite right feel free to add some more water/flour a little at a time until you achieve a nice dough)

5. Knead the dough for approx 5 minutes until it is nice and elastic. (If your bowl is not big enough to knead in flour a work surface and tip the dough on to that)

6. Flour your hands and the top of the dough and shape it into a nice ball (place back in the bowl if you removed it). Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm, draught free area (I use the airing cupboard) for 45 minutes to prove.

7. After 45 minutes the dough should have doubled in size. Knock it back (knead to remove all of the air).

8. Add the olive oil and knead once again to incorporate throughout the dough.

9. Split the dough into 3 equal parts and roll each piece into a 25cm/10” roll. Flatten the length of each roll with the heel of your hand.

10. Dust 2 or 3 baking sheets (depending on their size you may only need 2) with flour and semolina. Place the dough rolls onto the baking sheets. Dust the dough with flour and semolina and score each one approximately 5 times.

11. It is now time for the dough’s 2nd prove so once again leave in a warm/ draught free place for 45 minutes.

12. Preheat the oven to 225C/425F/Gas Mark 7.

13. Once the bread has proved for the 45 minutes place in the preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes.

14. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about ½ an hour before eating.