Georgina Hayden

Feeding since 1982

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Pete’s triple chocolate orange Christmas brownies

12.14.2014 by georgie // 2 Comments

Today Pete and I got to visit a very special little lady, our friends rainbow baby Robyn. She is a gorgeous little pud, a real miracle baby and it was amazing to meet her. We haven’t managed to spend time with many of our friends kids yet but we’re getting there. And I’m really glad we were able to spend a bit of time with this special bub.

Obviously we couldn’t turn up empty handed (and I’ve promised our friends next time we go I’ll take them some more of my slow cooked ragu), but this time it was all about the brownies. Brownies with a little twist, and these dreamboats were inspired by a festive pile of Terry’s chocolate orange in our local corner shop. Who can resist a Terry’s chocolate orange? (We realise too late that it was 2 for £3. Pete was gutted. I think it was probably a good thing. We’ve got a wedding next week and I’m already concerned about the slinky black dress I’m wearing…). So, armed with chocolate and an appreciation for festive flavours we were on our way. However I got deeply engrossed in an episode of Homeland and my crochet so it was all down to Pete. And with barely any guidance these beauties appeared. Boy did good.

 

Pete's triple chocolate orange brownies
Pete’s triple chocolate orange brownies

PETE’S TRIPLE CHOCOLATE ORANGE BROWNIES

Makes 25

  • 200g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
  • 190g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 3 large eggs, free range or organic
  • 250g golden caster sugar
  • 110g plain flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Finely grated zest of an orange
  • 75g white chocolate, chopped
  • Half a Terry’s chocolate orange, broken into segments (alternatively use 75g of chopped orange chocolate)

Preheat your oven to 180/ gas mark 4. Grease and line a square cake tin, around 24cm/ 9″.

Place the dark chocolate and butter into a medium sized pan and gently melt on the hob over a medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Meanwhile whisk the eggs and sugar together in a bowl or large jug and leave to one side.

As soon as the butter and chocolate has melted, remove the pan from the heat and leave to one side to cool a little. After around 10 minutes whisk in the beaten egg and sugar until you have a glossy mixture. Fold in the plain flour, salt, ground cinnamon and finely grated orange zest with a large metal spoon. Finally stir in the chopped white chocolate and then pour into your prepared cake tin. Top your brownies with the chocolate orange segments, leaving some whole and breaking some up.

Bake the brownies for 20 minutes, until just set with a lovely thin sugary crust. Leave in the tin to cool for at least 20 minutes before turning out. Cut and serve warm with ice cream, or cooled and straight up with a mug of tea. To be honest I think these are even better the next day.

 

Categories // Baking & puddings Tags // Baking, Birthday, Brownies, Cake, Chocolate, Christmas, Sweets

Simple cookie cutter biscuits

12.11.2014 by georgie // 2 Comments

This last week has been pretty tough one for us both and as much as we’ve tried to avoid Christmas lets be honest, you just can’t run away from it. We had so much hope for Christmas this year and all the things we’d do together as a new little family, so it’s proving pretty painful. Initially we were going to boycott it completely but last weekend we turned a corner and decided we’d actually quite like a little tree for Archie. I’ve always had massive trees, so to make it a bit different and special we bought a little potted one. It is totally lobsided, only about 2ft tall and I’ve really grown to love it. We’ve left all our usual decorations in the cupboard and simply decorated it with lights, a couple of handmade decorations that have been made especially for Archie and biscuits. Monday night, after a particularly hard day we went about making these biscuits and the couple that left the kitchen an hour later were changed people. Gone were the tears and in their place was a sense of peace. It’s a super straightforward recipe and there was something very calming about making them. We printed names on them and cut out festive shapes. Very simple and beautiful and our little Christmas tree is full of love.

So now I’m going to be perfectly frank with you, this recipe isn’t going to blow your mind (having said that the biscuits are pretty addictive in a simple ‘rich tea/ digestive biscuit’ kind of way! I just polished off three for breakfast) but what it does do is give you a perfect dough for cutting, shaping, printing on and threading. Your stars and angles will have perfect points to them and your letters will be legible. And please for one minute do not think these aren’t good biscuits, they really are! But I’m going for style over substance on this post and wanted to give you a basic but foolproof recipe. None of my usual jazzy baking – just good solid biscuits that your nan would probably like.

Jazz them up as you wish, ground cinnamon for a festive feel, and/ or a little finely grated orange zest. Or lemon zest… or just stick to vanilla. It’s all good.

 

Christmas tree biscuits
Christmas tree biscuits
Archie's tree
Archie’s tree

 

SIMPLE COOKIE CUTTER BISCUITS

Makes 40 – 50 biscuits (depending on the size of your cutters! Halve if you want to make less but this was perfect for our tree. And for lots of gifts too)

  • 200g lightly salted butter, at room temperature (unorthodox I know but I quite like the saltiness to these… use unsalted if you wish)
  • 200g golden caster sugar
  • 2 large eggs, free range or organic
  • 575g plain flour
  • 1 tablespoon good quality vanilla extract (or finely grated orange or lemon zest or peppermint extract or coconut extract… the possibilities are endless. If you do flavour with peppermint or coconut remember you only need a few drops!)

Preheat your oven to 180/ gas mark 4. Line a couple baking sheets with greaseproof paper. (Don’t worry if you only have one sheet or tray, you can just keep reusing it).

Cream together the butter and caster sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. (Feel free to do this in a freestanding mixer if you have one). Beat together the eggs and vanilla (or whatever flavour you are using) in a small bowl or jug, and gradually pour into the creamed butter, beating it in bit by bit. Finally mix in the flour until you have a smooth dough. If you are only doing these for decorations then you won’t have to worry too much about over mixing but really you don’t want to knead or over work the dough as you’ll end up with tough biscuits. The lighter you can keep it the better the texture.

Divide you mixture into 2 or 3 to make it easier to work with. Keep the dough you aren’t using in the fridge whilst you roll out the rest, so that it doesn’t become too soft. (You can even wrap it in cling film and bake later on, or the next day if you don’t have a lot of time or want fresh biscuits at a later date.) Roll the dough out on a floured surface, so that it is the thickness of a £1 coin (about 1cm) and cut out your shapes. Try to get the most out of the dough, because the more times you bring the scraps together and re-roll it the tougher your biscuits become.

Remember to pierce holes into the biscuits if you are making them as decorations! I used the thick end of a wooden skewer or a chop stick will do.

Bake the biscuits for around 9 – 10 minutes, depending on the size (less if you are making diddy ones) and then leave on the baking sheet for a further 3-4 minutes to firm up a little more. Transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool completely before decorating or threading with ribbon.

Biscuits
Biscuits for Archie

Categories // Baking & puddings, Celebration Tags // Baking, Biscuits, Christmas, Cookies, Decorating, Sweets

My favourite chocolate cake

11.30.2014 by georgie // 3 Comments

This week I had the privilege of making a special birthday cake for the lovely Jools Oliver. Working for Jamie means I have known Jools for quite a few years now; she is such a lovely lady, incredibly down to earth and a wonderful inspiring mother. She has been very supportive since we lost Archie, her kind and heartfelt words have meant a lot. So when I bumped into Jamie a few weeks ago I mentioned I would love to make her a cake, as a gift for her 40th birthday and a way of saying thank you for her support. When I asked her favourite flavour, I was told ‘chocolate and coffee’. Dream combo. So I took that and went from there…

Needless to say there were a lot of chocolate and coffee components! Including salted pretzel coffee bean caramel, shards of marbled chocolate with chocolate honeycomb pieces and torched homemade marshmallow to finish.

I’ve never made a cake I haven’t delivered myself, so when I let this creation go I was so nervous. I knew it wasn’t being given to Jools until the following day and I just prayed it would make it and stay in one piece! I’m glad to report it did, minus a bit of broken chocolate shard, but I can deal with that. It was a potential mudslide of a cake I was worried about!

So for this blog post I am sharing the base of this creation, the recipe for my favourite foolproof chocolate cake. I use this recipe for all sorts, I even used it as part of our wedding cake. It keeps really well and freezes perfectly too.

Jools' birthday cake
Jools’ birthday cake
Chocolate coffee layer cake
Chocolate coffee layer cake

 

MY FAVOURITE CHOCOLATE CAKE

Serves 16

  • 275g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 150g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
  • 300g golden caster sugar
  • 6 large eggs, free range or organic
  • 150g self raising flour
  • 30g good quality cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • A shot of espresso or tablespoon of vanilla extract (optional)

Preheat your oven to 180/ gas mark 4. Grease a 23cm spring form cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

Bash up the chocolate into small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl with the butter and sugar. Pop the bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water. Give it a little stir from time to time, until it is all melted, glossy and smooth. Remove the bowl, and leave it to one side for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

Whisk the eggs in jug, and once the 10 minutes is up gradually whisk the eggs into the chocolate mixture. Do this bit by bit, and whisk vigorously between each addition. Once the eggs are all incorporated sift in the self raising flour, cocoa and sea salt, then fold them in with a large metal spoon until just mixed together. Stir in the espresso or vanilla, if using, and then pour the cake mix into your prepared tin.

Bake in the middle of your oven for around 50 minutes, or until just cooked through. A skewer should come out clean, but still look like the cake is moist. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 – 15 minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. I then slice my cake into 3 even rounds, and finish however my heart desires! Sea salt caramel and cream, black forest gateau, with boozy cointreau and orange frosting… the possibilities are endless.

 

Categories // Baking & puddings, Cake decorating, Celebration, Starters & sides Tags // Baking, Birthday, Cake, Chocolate, Coffee, Sweets

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Georgina is an award winning food writer, cook and presenter from North London.
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