Friday Pie Day Faux Pas: Not So Bakewell Tart

Once upon a Friday Pie-Day, a beautiful bakewell tart was born...

Yet somehow, somewhere, I managed to screw it up.

*sigh* Let me explain...

With the amount of baking I attempt these days, I'm all too aware of the amount of butter, sugar and flour I usually go through. So I'm always trying to find healthy substitutes.

Sometimes this is very successful (like this sugar and butter free apple cake and this butter and flour free chocolate cake).

But other times, it just turns out gross.

I was SO disappointed with this because it looks so pretty! The flavour wasn't too bad actually but there was just something wrong about the texture. Very wrong.

Let's take stock - the only 'odd' ingredients were cornmeal flour and er, tofu. Now I'm not pointing fingers but I suspect it may have been the tofu.

I had trouble letting go though - I hate throwing food out, especially pies! So I sliced the rest and tubbed it up, so that I could mull it over and decide its fate in the morning.

It probably wasn't the best idea to try a slice at 7am but I took a bite, spat it out...and promptly chucked the lot in the bin.

The moral of this story? Don't try to make a bakewell tart healthy.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie-Day adventures.

Fancy a laugh at my other Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas? Continue reading this post..

A Pretty Healthy Banana Coconut Choc Cookie

I was left in a bit of a panic this week about what to make for Aikido last night. I managed to have two baking disasters in quick succession and was left on Monday evening with no cakes prepared. (Those disaster stories will be saved for another day)

There's only been one or two weeks where I have turned up with no cakes, my head hung in shame. That's twice over the course of about 8 months as I think I started this whole baking for post-training frenzy back in September or October. So that's too bad a record but I just feel like I let everyone down now if I turn up empty-handed!

My baking disasters had left me with no sugar and no butter to use, but luckily, I happened to have the ingredients for these soft banana coconut choc cookies. They only takes about 10-15 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to bake (for normal people that is - add in the time I usually waste faffing around and the actual time is at least 2 or 3 times that). And another plus? These are pretty healthy! So I suggest you use this as your fail-safe recipe for when Baking Goes Wrong...

This makes 25 decent sized cookies. I could only find milk chocolate but dark chocolate is better for baking with and healthier too.

Pretty Healthy Banana Coconut Choc Cookies

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Makes about 25:

350g bananas (about 3-4)
200g ground almonds
170g dark chocolate, broken into tiny chunks
150g porridge oats
100g dessicated coconut
50ml olive oil
1 tsp baking powder
Half tsp cinnamon
Bit of salt

1) Mash up bananas with oil and vanilla.
2) In another bowl, mix the oats with the almonds, coconut, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
3) Carefully stir in the banana mixture, then fold in the chocolate.
4) Create round shapes and place on a lined baking tray, a small distance apart (they won't spread much).
5) Bake at 180 degrees C for about 15 minutes.

Make extra, cos these will go REALLY quickly!

Other healthy baking recipes you might enjoy.

More Hungry Jenny cakes and cookies! Continue reading this post..

Three Things to do with Beef

Beef is one of my favourite meats, but I don't cook with it alot as I never really know what to do with it. So to get my beef fix at home, I usually end up buying minced beef and frying it up with random veg. But that's getting a little boring and never looks particularly pretty.

It makes me a little sad though that I hardly have any beef recipes on here so I've been making the effort to sort this issue out...

So here are some more colourful recipes which I hope you'll want to try out instead of any boring mince recipes I may post up that won't look as exciting!

Asian Steak Strips and Butterbean Salad (above)

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For 2:

2 steak fillets
200g butterbeans
Large handful of spinach and watercress
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp veggie oil
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp hoisin sauce
Touch of ginger, grated
Salt and pepper

1) Mix together the oils, vinegar, sauces and ginger.
2) Season the steaks and cook in a hot pan for a few minutes on each side (longer if you prefer well done). Take out the pan and rest for 5 minutes.
3) Toss the spinach and watercress in the sauce you made.
4) Divide onto two plates and sit the butterbeans on top.
5) Slice the steaks and arrange on top of the salad, garnishing with some more watercress and drizzling with any remaining sauce.


Pineapple Beef Stir Fry

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For 2:
200g beef steak chunks
300g tin of pineapple chunks
Half a cucumber, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
100ml hot beef stock
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
Dash of sesame oil
Sauce:
2 tbsp rice wine
1 tbsp sesame oil
Bit of cornflour

1) Mix the sauce ingredients together, adding as much cornflour as needed to preferred thickness. Add the beef and leave to marinade for at least 15 minutes.
2) Fry the beef for a few minutes, then set aside.
3) Gently fry the vegetables, then pour in the stock, followed by the ginger, rice wine, honey, soy sauce and sesame oil. Cook for another couple of minutes.
4) Stir in the pineapple then return the beef, mixing until everything is cooked through.
5) Serve with steamed rice or noodles.


Spiced Steak with Minted Couscous

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For 2:
2 fillet steaks
100g couscous
150ml hot veggie stock
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp chickpeas
1 spring onion, chopped
2 tsp mint
Juice of 1 lemon
Marinade:
100ml olive oil
Juice of 4 lemons
1 shallot, grated
2 garlic cloves, grated
4 tbsp ginger
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp oregano

1) Mix the marinade ingredients in a bowl, add the steaks and leave overnight (or for at least 20 mins!)
2) Grill the steaks for 8-10 minutes (turning once), depending on how well done you like it. Take off heat and leave to rest for 5 mins.
3) Meanwhile, pour the stock over the couscous and cover for 5 mins. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and serve with the steaks.

Other beef recipes you might like. Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie-Day: Low Fat Pie Kick

I wasn't intending this to be a spicy pie. It was meant to be innocently mild.

Maybe it was because I've got a bit of a cold. Maybe it was due to my spice intolerance. But something about this pie got me all sniffly and watery-eyed.

But I wasn't upset, oh no! My stomach was indeed very happy.

All of my spices are in a long row along a window sill and as I'm cooking something, I often glance over for inspiration for what I might throw in. (Well I say 'inspiration', but I really just throw random things in.)

I'm not well versed in knowing exactly which spices go with what so usually just add, mix and taste...add, mix and taste...and in this case, it turned out well (despite being a tad too spicy for my tongue!).

This recipe fills an 8" dish - but it's an incredibly moreish pie so would realistically serve 2-3 people. Er, I ate this in two sittings, yes. But don't worry, with a tomato-based sauce, mixed veg filling and potato top, it's nice and healthy anyway :-)

Low Fat Pie Kick

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For an 8" pie dish (serves 3-4):

4-6 new potatoes, quartered + 1 tbsp paprika
Half an aubergine, chopped
Half a courgette, chopped
100g black eyed beans
1 small red onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, grated
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika
Half tsp cayenne
Half tsp cumin
Olive oil

1) Gently boil the new potatoes in salted water for about 10-15 minutes until just tender. Drain and toss with paprika.
2) Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil.
3) Add the aubergine, courgette and beans.
4) Once softened, add the tomatoes and puree.
5) Pour in a little water followed by all of the spices. Cook for 5-10 minutes, mixing well.
6) Transfer to a pie dish and add the potatoes.
7) Bake at 220 degrees C for 30 minutes.

Stick it under the grill for the last 5-10 minutes if you want the potatoes a bit more crisp.

Mm. Wish I hadn't eaten it all so quickly.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie-Day adventures. Continue reading this post..

Restaurant to Try: Bali Bali, Soho

Two or three times a year, my old college buds and I meet for a much-needed catch-up. Every time we get together, it's just like old times - and of course, the meet-ups usually involve nattering over a good meal.

This time around, we had tickets to see Stomp! and had decided to go somewhere nearby for a pre-theatre lunch. It feels like an age since I last tried out a restaurant for the first time. So I was pretty excited about going to Bali Bali, an Indonesian restaurant near Soho.

I've never tried Indonesian food before and after looking through their website and reading positive reviews on numerous other sites, I had pretty high hopes.

I have to tell you straight away: I was not disappointed!

As soon as we arrived, we were greeted with the friendly faces of a waiter and waitress. The restaurant is pretty tiny (probably only around 20 small tables) and it felt like we were being welcomed into their home - you definitely get the warming family-run feel here. It'd probably feel too crowded if you go for dinner though as the tables are set pretty close together.

Now, my friends have never tried Indonesian food before either so we were all umming and ahhing alot over the menu. There's a set lunch and pre-theatre menu but loads of options on the main menu too, divided by the meats, a surprisingly large veggie section plus rice and noodle dishes.

In the end, we asked the very patient and helpful waitress for some recommendations - she pointed out the Rijstafel option, where they do a selection of 7-8 of the most popular dishes from the menu. We chose the one that includes seafood dishes too, to get a good mix. They were even accommodating to my low threshold for highly spiced foods, pointing out milder dishes to swap for the hotter ones :-)

Now I've got to apologise for the pics here - the dishes arrived in such quick succession on our little table that I had to abandon my camera to help make room for the food! I was sharing the 8 dishes of the Rijstafel with Nathan, but there was also a large main dish each for Hafeez and Pawanjit to fit on the table too!

(from top left) Ayam Panggang Pacak (mild coconut chicken), Semur Daging (beef in Indonesian sweet soya sauce and chicken and beef satay

Egg Fried Rice

Udang Mente (stir-fried prawns with cashews and veg)

The dish at the top of this post was fried squid in garlic and chilli (I just took the chillies off!) and we also had a fish in tomato and garlic sauce dish too. The 8th item was a HUGE basket of prawn crackers!

I'd definitely recommend this place. If not just for the authentic food and lovely service, but for the great value for money too - our bill came to under £20 a head - not bad for 8 dishes, eh! I'd like to go back soon please :-)

Other restaurants I've tried that you might like to read about. Continue reading this post..

Say NO to Takeaway: Make your own Thai Fish Curry instead!

First, let me just reassure you that this tastes alot nicer than it looks...

Yeah, my photography and plating is still sketchy but it's the sauce-based ones that tend to make things a little trickier than usual. It looks all good in the pan but then when I dish up, I find it hard not to make it look like a dolloped mess.

So that's why you can't really see the creamy sauce here that you'd expect from a Thai curry. But it's in there, honest!...

Now, this is also a bit of a hash version of green Thai curry (this just gets better, doesn't it?). Because I didn't use green chillies. Or any chillies at all for that matter. Or coconut milk. And when I made the paste, it actually came out red.

Obviously, you can add chillies into the paste if you like. The dish only uses a couple of tablespoons of curry paste but the recipe makes about a few tablespoons extra - just because it's easier to measure out the ingredients and it can keep in the fridge for up to a week anyway.

And of course, the best thing about making your own sauce from scratch is that you can taste it as you go, adding in whatever you like to suit you.

Thai Fish Curry

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For 2:

1 haddock fillet
Large handful of king prawns
Large handful of sugar snaps
2 spring onions
1 red pepper
200g basmati rice
2 tbsp soft cheese
Skimmed milk
Fresh coriander and a few lime wedges to serve
For the curry paste:
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp lemon grass
1 tsp cumin
Half tsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp chopped onion
Juice and zest of half a lime
Bit of fresh ginger
Some fresh coriander
Pinch of salt
Couple of green chillies (optional - I can't handle them personally!)

1) Bring the basmati rice to the boil, then cover and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.
2) Whizz the curry paste ingredients together in a food processor.
3) Add the paste to a pan on low heat. Pour in the milk and cheese and mix gently until the cheese has melted.
4) Tip in the haddock and prawns and cook for a few minutes. Add the pepper, sugar snaps and spring onions.
5) Serve with the steamed rice, garnishing with some fresh coriander and a couple of lime wedges.

If you liked this, you might want to try making these other takeaway alternatives too.

Or some other seafood recipes here that might take your fancy. Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie-Day: Triple Topped Triple Filled Fish Pie

I was going to call this a 3-Way Fish Pie but that sounds a bit dodgy. Usually in a fish pie you get three different types of fish - here I've used salmon, haddock and prawns. But I didn't want to do a plain old mashed potato topping so decided to mash up 3 different veg instead.

Can you tell what they are?

Carrot, parsnip, swede.

With a bit of wholegrain mustard thrown in for good measure :-)

Triple Topped Triple Filled Fish Pie

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Serves 4 (made in an 8" pie dish):

Half a swede, chopped
Carrot, chopped
Parsnip, chopped
1 salmon fillet, chopped
1 haddock fillet, chopped
100g king prawns
200g light cream cheese
150ml hot veggie or fish stock
4 tsp cornflour
4 mushrooms, sliced
2 spring onions, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp tarragon
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
Pepper

1) Boil the swede, carrot and parsnip for about 15 minutes until just tender.
2) Heat the cream cheese with the stock. Once smooth, spoon a little out to blend with the cornflour, then add back in.
3) Add the salmon, haddock and prawns. Stir gently until cooked through. Mix in the spring onions and mushrooms.
4) Squeeze in the lemon juice, and sprinkle in the parsley, tarragon and pepper to taste.
5) Transfer to a pie dish. Drain the veg, add a tbp wholegrain mustard and mash.
6) Spoon over the filling and bake at 190 degrees C for about half an hour.

You can stick it under the grill afterwards too to crisp up the topping if you like.

Note to self: mashed toppings and fish fillings do not lend themselves to beautiful composition.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie-Day adventures. Continue reading this post..

(Almost) Low Fat Chocolate and Banana Oat Cake

This is one of those recipes that has the potential to be a healthier cake option...

...but it really isn't! I guess the only 'bad' things in it are sugar and flour so at least it's butter free. It does not mean however, that this particular cake supports my previous thoughts that slightly-healthy-cakes = disaster. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite - this cake is YUMMY! I've actually made this cake twice over the last couple of weeks - because it went a bit wrong the first time.

It wasn't a complete disaster - it was the oven's fault. I was back home and decided to make it for my dad's birthday, but I forgot that my parents' oven is fan-assisted so forgot to reduce the temperature. Cue a burnt cake top. And only a little burnt inside.

Funnily enough, the second time I made the cake, it wasn't taste as moist. I don't know if this has anything to do with the fact that I decided to use a massive round cake tin, instead of the loaf sized one that the recipe calls for. Does spread-out cake mixture equal more dryness? Who knows. I just wanted to make it in a round tin so that I could arrange the banana slices on top in a way to make sure that each cake slice had one. That's only fair isn't it?

So er, take your chances with the cake tin you use for this. I used a 9" one, which was clearly too big anyway but that's the only round one I have at the moment. So this would probably work alright for a 7 or 8 inch round tin. But you're probably safest just using a loaf tin.

(Almost) Low Fat Chocolate and Banana Oat Cake (butter free)

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For an 8" sandwich tin:

1 egg
125g sugar
75ml veggie oil
3 overripe bananas, sliced
150g plain flour
50g rolled oats
50g dark chocolate, grated
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1) Whisk the egg with the oil and sugar. Mix in 2 of the bananas.
2) Sift in the plain flour and fold in the oats, chocolate, cinnamon, baking soda and bicarbonate of soda.
3) Pour into a greased tin and scatter more oats on top, followed by the remaining sliced banana.
4) Bake at 180 degrees C for about 30-40 minutes or until you can pull a skewer out clean.

Other healthy baking recipes you might enjoy.

More Hungry Jenny cakes and cookies! Continue reading this post..

Oodles of Udon Noodles

Udon noodles are easily one of my favourite types of noodles. They are thick, slurpy and delicious! But they are extremely slippery buggers that are tricky to pick up with chopsticks (or any other utensil for that matter!).

I don't have an Asian supermarket near me and the ones at my normal supermarket aren't as nice so I don't get to eat them that often unfortunately. But, whenever I go back home to visit my family, I manage to get my fix when my mum slips me a stash of noodles to take back with me.

Usually, I just boil them in some stock, add some naughty Frankfurter sausages and maybe a bit of ripped lettuce. But this time, I decided to make the effort to dish up something more interesting to do those noodles justice..!

So here's a couple of suggestions, both serve two people:

Teriyaki Salmon with Udon Noodles (above)

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For 2:

2 boneless salmon fillets
400g udon noodles (the chilled kind, not dried)
700ml hot veggie or fish stock
1 tbsp fish sauce
Large handful sugar snaps
A few mushrooms, sliced
2 spring onions, chopped
2 tsp sake
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp mirin
Half tsp brown sugar
Half tsp grated ginger

1) Mix together the sake, soy sauce, mirin, brown sugar and ginger.
2) Brush the sauce over one side of each salmon fillet. Grill for about 5 minutes on one side.
3) Bring the stock to the boil. Add the noodles and leave to cook gently for a few minutes, stirring in the fish sauce.
4) Add the sugar snaps, mushrooms and spring onions to the pan and cook for another few minutes.
5) Serve the grilled salmon atop your lovely udon noodle soup!


Tofu and Peanut Butter Udon Noodles

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For 2:

400g udon noodles (chilled version, not dried)
200g cubed firm tofu
100ml hot veggie stock
1 red pepper, chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp honey
1 heaped tsp ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
1 garlic clove, minced
Some peanuts to garnish

1) Mix the stock with the peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, ginger, sesame oil and garlic.
2) In another pan, gently boil the udon noodles, drain and toss in sesame oil.
3) Heat a wok and pour in the sauce. Add the tofu, followed by the pepper and spring onions. Cook through making sure the sauce coats everything.
4) You can dish atop the noodles or toss through them before serving. Sprinkle over a few peanuts.

Continue reading this post..

Skin-boosting Omelette

I don't know about you but despite excess chocolate giving me happy hyperactive feelings, it also brings makes my skin breakout in spots. And with Easter well and truly over (in other words, no more reduced chocolate eggs in-store), you might want to think about getting your face back to a stage where people don't scream and run away from you.

...Yes, ok, that's an exaggeration, but I'm sure everyone has those ugly days where they feel like their presence might just scare away a small child.

This isn't one of those miracle remedies for spots by the way, it's just that the combination of eggs, pepper and peas contain the nutrients that damaged or inflammed skin long for.

So get cracking with those (non-chocolate) eggs! (Yeah, there totally had to be an egg pun in this post somewhere).

I totally can't flip an omelette, so the ones I make never actually encase the filling, I just part-cook the egg before throwing the filling ingredients on top so that they stick on instead!

Skin-Boosting Omelette

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Serves 2:

3 eggs, beaten
1 red pepper, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
Handful of frozen peas

1) Pour the beaten eggs into a frying pan with olive oil over a very low heat.
2) Allow the egg to cook for a couple of minutes until the base is almost set.
3) Tip the pepper, onion and peas on top.
4) Leave to cook for another 3-5 minutes until the egg is cooked through.

Oh and for good measure, stick toothpaste on your spots before you go to bed tonight, it really does work!

Other Hungry Jenny healthy food thoughts you might be interested in Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day Faux Pas: The Chinese Egg Custard Tart of Disproportions

Hmm.

So what went wrong here then?

I've wanted to make Chinese egg custard tarts for ages. They're not actually something I grew up with particularly - in fact, I'm pretty sure I wasn't a big fan of them at all! I mean, they do look a bit odd - little tarts with wobbly-looking yellow goo inside.

But I tried one again recently at a dim sum restaurant and thought, actually, they're not that bad at all! They don't taste overly 'eggy' or anything and the texture isn't too strange either. I think that's what always used to put me off them.

So I wanted to make them but don't have mini fluted tins or paper cases. I have a muffin tray, which might have worked but I wanted the pastry to have the pretty fluted effect!

I couldn't find anything suitable in the shops so ended up buying a large fluted flan tin. Aha, I thought, I'll just adjust the recipe ingredients and make a GIANT Chinese egg custard tart instead!

Well you can probably already how I went wrong with this. I misjudged how much pastry I would need and had to create extra bits to stick up the sides of the tin. Then I had about a third of the filling leftover because I'd made way too much to fit inside.

And I wish I'd taken a picture after blind-baking the puff pastry. I'm not sure what the norm is but I removed the baking beads after a while to let the pastry golden up a bit - forgetting that this would make it puff up for a mad dragon - when I finally took it out, I had to push the pastry back down again so that I could add the filling!

It was really tasty though at least! Next time I'll need to judge the ingredient quantities a bit better...

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie-Day adventures.

Fancy a laugh at my other Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas? Continue reading this post..

Say NO to Chinese Takeaway: Make a Healthy Sesame Beef, Broccoli and Brown Rice Stir Fry instead!

Nice classic takeaway alternative for you today.

This dish reminds me of Miranda from Sex and the City because this is pretty much what she orders every time she gets a takeout! (I think it's chicken rather than beef actually but the rest is the same.)

There's a scene where she starts to order it over the phone and gets embarassed because the takeout lady already knows exactly what she's going to get.

Surely another reason not to dial that takeaway number again? Don't let yourself get stuck in that takeaway rut, it's so much easier to recreate a tastier, healthier (and probably cheaper) version at home instead.

And no, you don't have to be a single 30-something-year-old female to make this dish ;-)

Healthy Sesame Beef, Broccoli and Brown Rice Stir Fry

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For 2:

250g beef fillet strips
60ml hot beef stock
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 crushed garlic clove
1/2 tsp cornflour
Small red onion, chopped
4-6 broccoli florets, halved
Small green pepper, sliced
Sesame oil
150g wholegrain rice
Fresh coriander to garnish

1) Toss the beef in half of the sesame seeds.
2) Add the rice to a pan of water. Bring to the boil, then cover and leave to simmer for 20-25 minutes.
3) Stir the stock with the soy sauce, ginger, garlic and cornflour.
4) Fry the beef in sesame oil for a few minutes. Take out of the pan and set aside.
5) Add a little more sesame oil to the pan and fry the onion, broccoli and pepper.
6) Pour in the stock mixture and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes. Return the beef to the pan for a few more minutes.
7) Divide between 2 plates, sprinkling over the rest of the sesame seeds. Garnish with coriander and serve with the steamed rice.

If you liked this, you might want to try making these other takeaway alternatives too. Continue reading this post..

Bailey's Cakegasm

Now, I'm no cake virgin, but oh sweet biscuit crumbs, I've just had my first cakegasm.

It was quite unexpected because I've baked quite alot of cakes now, some good, some bad, some very, very ugly. But after this particular experience, all I have to say is that future cakes now have ALOT to measure up to.

I was actually intending to make a cake laced with Malibu rum - not because I had some rum to use up, but just because I was er, craving a Malibu-flavoured cake. None of the recipes I saw quite took my fancy though, so I started browsing other ideas. In the midst of this, I found out that my local supermarket was offering a litre of Bailey's for a tenner (normally it's just under £20). It felt a little naughty buying a massive bottle just to bake a cake, but at that price, it would have been rude not to buy it, surely.

And so, the love affair began. It is actually a very simple cake to make. I often get caught off-guard with a certain recipe step or prep of an ingredient sometimes. But, with this one - no complex ingredients or directions at all. The perfect match, eh?

The cake tin I used was a little too small (yes I got greedy and wanted to use more Bailey's so added a bit extra of everything else as well), so it rose and rose like there was no tomorrow. But don't worry, you can use the recipe here for a 10" tin quite safely.

Bailey's and Mascarpone Cake (butter free)

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For a 10" square tin:

125ml Bailey's
300g mascarpone cheese
250g sugar
250g plain flour
100ml vegetable oil
5 eggs
6 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

1) Separate the yolks from the whites into a large mixing bowl.
2) Whisk the whites in a jug until stiff.
3) Tip the mascarpone, sugar and oil into the mixing bowl with the yolks. Mix well.
4) Pour in the Bailey's and mix.
5) Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt.
6) Carefully fold in the egg whites, trying to keep the volume as much as possible.
7) Transfer to a cake tin and bake at 180 degrees C for about 30-40 minutes.

Beware, the smell is absolutely intoxicating - before, during and after baking. It is wonderfully moist and when you take your first bite, you will just fall in love with it - and find it extremely difficult to share it with others...

If you liked this, you might also enjoy my Bailey's Chocolate Swirl Tart too!

More Hungry Jenny cakes here. Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie-Day: Cranberry Pesto Pastry Swirls

Here are some savoury bites that are quite frankly, a faff to make.

I thought they'd be pretty easy to make. The filling does not need much preparation at all and you just need to whack it onto a flat block of pastry, roll it up, slice and bake, right?

Well, not quite.

Listen, I don't want to put you off making them altogether. But as usual, I tend to go the long way around making things (especially when it comes to baking), so you should be able to avoid the mistakes I made quite easily...

It was going well at first. I took a shortcut and bought some ready-made shortcrust pastry. I can just about make it myself now (well, it's hit or miss), but I didn't want to risk it. So that was easy.

Then the pesto. Helps if you have a blender that works properly. My one has little blades and doesn't really cooperate. Conclusion? I used the back of a spoon to mush up the last of the pine nuts that refused to blend themselves into the mixture.

The rest of the filling is simply mascarpone, sundried tomatoes and dried cranberries, which you just spread onto the pastry. The combination even before baking smells fantastic. The spreadage side of things? A little trickier.

Now I'm not sure what the right technique is but I just kind of chopped all of the filling ingredients up and packed them down onto the pastry to cover all bases. That was easy. But then came the rolling-up-into-a-swiss-roll part.

Imagine you've got a large duvet spread out with dozens of mischievous toddlers scrawling around on it. You try out a fun game to roll them up like a sausage roll, but they just REFUSE to cooperate. They sit up, their limbs stick out everywhere and well, it's a lost cause.

A weird analogy perhaps but that's what it felt like with the pastry. I had bulked the thing up with so many ingredients that it just wasn't rolling up properly. I lost count of the number of times I had to unroll, swipe off some ingredients and roll again.

So rather than just covering the entire mass of pastry with filling, I think the trick here is to aim for one or two tomato and cranberry bits along vertical lines - so that when you roll it up (and eventually cut it), each slice will have a bit of everything. It does make sense if you understood what I'm trying to describe...

There you have it. If you have any faith left in this recipe, you are most welcome to try it! ;-)

Cranberry Pesto Pastry Swirls

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Makes about 25:

250g shortcrust pastry, at room temperature
30g fresh basil
15g pine nuts
15g grated parmesan
1 garlic clove
3 tbsp olive oil
75g mascarpone
60g sundried tomatoes
25g dried cranberries

1) To make the pesto, blend the nuts, basil, garlic and oil. Add the parmesan and pulse to mix.
2) Roll out the pastry into a long oblong shape.
3) Spread the mascarpone, then scatter over the tomatoes and cranberries evenly.
4) Carefully spread the pesto over the top, then roll up the pastry from the long edge into a swiss roll shape. Wrap in clingfilm and stick in the freezer for half an hour.
5) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Slice the pastry roll into thin slices and place on a baking tray.
6) Loosely cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes until crisp.

Pie out.

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