White Chocolate & Raspberry Dipped Cookies

You might remember back in May I told you I had been interviewed all about this blog and baking for a podcast on Podium.me. Well, today is the start of a new 3-part podcast series with me over on Podium, called ‘Lucy’s Recipes’ where I bake and chat through a different recipe each week. I am super excited about it, I really enjoyed recording it and it was a really fun new challenge. These white chocolate and raspberry cookies are the first recipe in the series and were a big hit in my house!As well as talking through the recipe for these cookies on this weeks podcast, I also chat about my future plans now that I have finished school. I haven’t mentioned them on here before as I was waiting until everything was confirmed and I had solid plans to announce. But since exams results day was yesterday here in the UK I can finally be sure of exactly what I’m doing for the next four years. At the start of October, I am starting cookery school! I know it will be a massive challenge going from a fairly relaxed Sixth Form schedule at school to an intense year of learning everything there is to know about food but I am so excited! In case you are interested, I will be doing this Leiths Professional Diploma for a year. After that, I will be starting a History degree at Cambridge in October 2014. This blog will of course keep going and I’m hoping to be able to write posts about my time at Leiths and updates on cookery school as well as my normal content, if people would be interested? Now, back to the cookies!This is my fourth white chocolate cookie on my blog and they are always super popular but I wanted to do something slightly different with this version. I adapted a Dorie Greenspan sable recipe, meaning that the cookies are super sandy and buttery. This was the first time I have used freeze dried raspberries and I really liked them – they are super pretty and their burst of intense raspberry flavour helps cut through the richness of the thick layer of white chocolate! At first, I wasn’t sure if these cookies would be too rich but judging by the speed at which the cookie tin emptied I think we managed! You can find the recipe below, and head over to the podcast here to listen to me chat through the recipe and discuss cookery school a bit more. I hope you enjoy!
White Chocolate and Raspberry Dipped Cookies
Ingredients: 225g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
2 cups plain flour 250g white chocolate, chopped into small chunks freeze dried raspberries
1. Cream the butter and sugars in a stand mixer or with a wooden spoon until really light and fluffy.
2. Add the yolks and salt and mix until combined.
3. Pour in the flour and 100g of the white chocolate and stir until the dough comes together and looks uniform.
4. Shape the dough into a log and wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 3 hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 180’C. Unwrap your log of cookie dough and slice into 1cm thick cookies. Place on a lined baking tray, leaving 1inch between them.
6. Bake for 15minutes until golden, then let cool.
7. Melt the remaining white chocolate in the microwave (stirring every 30seconds) or in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.
8. Dip the cookies halfway into the white chocolate and place on parchment paper. Sprinkle some freeze dried raspberries over the white chocolate and leave to set. Enjoy!

Raspberry, Oat and Almond Bake

I’d describe this time of year as ‘muddled’. It’s definitely still winter, but there’s the occasional sign that Spring will soon come. Mock exams are here, whilst the real things are still a few months off yet feel just round the corner. I’ve applied to uni, but have to wait till August for the grades. I’ll finish school forever in June, but it feels scarily close. It's a weird limbo time of year and I think this bake suits that perfectly. It’s got the oats for a flapjack, texture of a crumble and jammy fruit yet somehow manages to be none of these things!I should have predicted this from its vague ‘bake’ title and lack of photo, but the ingredients list sounded to good to miss out on: marzipan, lots of berries, cinnamon, flaked almonds, a dash of honey – all good flavours combined into one tin. The results were hard to explain. Clearly, these flavours combined into something delicious that was impossible to stop eating and vanished in one weekend.The sweet marzipan cutting through the sharp berries, the almonds adding crunch, the oats a bit of sustenance. The problem was that it was impossible to know how to serve it as it was so crumbly! It was hard to cut proper slices of, yet still a bit more solid than granola. It was like a fruit crumble that was super heavy on the topping! I think it would make a delicious luxury brunch item, served unapologetically messily in bowls, perhaps with yoghurt? Don’t let its confusing nature put you off, the results are absolutely gorgeous and make up for whatever it lacks in appearance! You can find the recipe here – enjoy!

Raspberry Panna cotta

Note to self: don’t try and transport panna cottas. It proves rather stressful. I had to transport these, precious glasses and all, on a car journey to my Granny’s as I was providing the dessert at lunch. They were placed in a shoebox, wrapped in tissue paper, padded with tea towels and strapped in to the car with a seatbelt. Probably unsurprisingly, they and the precious glasses got there unharmed but perhaps next time I’ll stick to cake!I was inspired to make these after having these from M&S and loving the combination of rich creamy panna cotta and bright raspberries. I’ve made a vanilla pannacotta before, so I chose to combine the two layers of the supermarket version into one delicious raspberry panna cotta. I was nervous this would be too bouncy and jelly-like in texture because of the two sheets of gelatine, but I needn’t have worried as they set nicely but still stayed delightfully creamy and rich. The results were summery, absolutely chock full of raspberry flavour and a really pretty shade of pink. The recipe is from Nigel Slater’s fruit volume of Tender, but it can also be found here. You don’t taste the rosewater, it’s just there to stop the raspberries being too tart, although I suppose you could up the amount to make it a key flavour but I wanted to let the raspberries shine on their own. Enjoy!

Raspberry Almond Cake

I’m back! Schoolwork and weeks of important exams, followed by a much needed holiday to France and then a computer switchover have meant I’ve been away from not just my blog but reading others too, so I’m looking forward to catching up on all the delicious things I have missed. May was clearly quiet on my blog, but I’m back with a delicious summery cake to resume my June blogging.One of the best things about summer is the fruit – strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blueberries and peaches and more. So much of this is perfect just eaten as is, or only manipulated lightly – such as marinated strawberries in an (always rich but addictive) Eton Mess. If I do bake with it, the flavour of the fruit still needs to be the main star and this cake does exactly that with its thick layer of jammy raspberries in the centre.The original recipe is called Bakewell Cake, just as anything with almonds and fruit is so often labelled Bakewell Tart style. Regardless, it’s really simple to make as all the ingredients other than the raspberries are whizzed together at once – which means it is dangerously easy to have an addictive cake in record time! The cake also works well with frozen raspberries, so it can be a staple right all year round – even when warm summer days can feel a long way away. Enjoy!

White Chocolate & Raspberry Cookies

I wrote quite a deep, honest starting paragraph for this post. Then I looked at it and figured – this post is about a cookie. An almightily delicious and irresistible cookie yes, but a cookie nonetheless. So whilst there maybe a time for deep opening up, today I’m keeping it simple (I have a very delicious post coming up towards the end of the week) and just saying: you really must make these cookies.I don’t know how I originally came across this recipe as it is, rather embarrassingly, from the Carnation website. I have had the recipe saved for ages and every time I checked my ever growing list of links stored in my Recipes to Try file I’d remember them and remind myself to make them. Then I would promptly forget. Until one very rainy day last week when I got a huge craving for these – so much so that I was willing to go out in the rain to buy condensed milk, the key ingredient for these cookies as it ensures their really soft centres.These are rich – because of the sweet melting white chocolate and the rich dough – but that doesn’t stop them being moreish. Plus, the raspberries are nicely tart and if it’s pouring with rain in the middle of July then who doesn’t deserve a delicious cookie?! Or three. The actual dough was very quick to make but the repetitive process of making all the balls of dough, flattening them and adding the halved raspberries does take a little time. Beware – these cookie spread a lot. For my first batch (luckily only four or five) I made normal sized little balls of dough and the cookies turned out huge: over saucer sized. The recipe makes a lot but that really will not be a problem because like I say, they are very addictive. There will be fights over who gets the biggest one, trust me! Enjoy :)

Where I’ve Been…

Previously, I was ill. This time my absence is much more exciting: I was spending two gorgeous sunny weeks on the American East Coast! And it all started with four days in the blistering 100’F heat of Washington DC, where we stayed in the fabulous Eastern Market area. Of course, the farmers market was my first stop once we arrived and I adored seeing the huge range of exciting food and colourful fresh produce which was so different from the markets of England or France. Hope you enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for more holiday posts to come :)

Jam Doughnut Muffins

Its been a while! 2 weeks, the Easter period. I have been spending it in sunny(-ish) Cornwall, enjoying the seaside and cream teas. It was a very nice holiday and after giving up chocolate for Lent it was gorgeous to enjoy my eggs :) I hope everyone else had a lovely Easter too and it is good to be back blogging once more.
Whilst enjoying the Cornish cream teas, I was re-introduced to jam. This sounds weird, I realise, but true. For a long time I didn’t like jam of any sort and refused to enjoy it. Then I became the sort of person who only likes jam in certain situations – in jam tarts yes, spread on toast no. Now, I am a full jam fan and these muffins are the perfect way to show this new found love.I still don’t touch blackcurrant jam. But these were made with delicious raspberry – by far my favourite flavour. From the outside, these muffins look sort of plain, not very exciting. But open it up… and you are met by a juicy raspberry swirl. Plus from the top… the sweet sugar-dipped crown of each muffin is revealed. Suddenly these are a whole lot more delish. Gorgeous! Made especially for my sister’s 18th as she loves doughnuts and every birthday girl deserves a little bit of what they love. You can find the recipe here and then quickly get baking!

Raspberry Jam Drops

There are good cookies, and then there are great cookies. There are everyday cookies, and then celebration cookies. There are “are-these-worth-the-calories-?” cookies, and then there are five-in-one-go cookies. There are mini cookies, and then plate-sized cookies. There are simple “meh” cookies and then there are these cookies.
The thing with a To Bake list, is when ever you see a different recipe it just calls you more. These cookies were spotted on the Delicious magazine website – and immediately it was clear the To Bake list was going to have to wait. These were being made!

These are so simple, which is partly what makes them so good (aside from the fact they make a LOT.) The cookie dough is flavoured with vanilla and custard powder (which is pink! Who knew thick yellow custard could be made from a pink custard powder? Strange.) and a blob of bright raspberry jam is plopped into a well made in each little ball of dough. Refridgerate, bake, eat. The trouble with these cookies being so small is that it becomes very easy to eat several in one go. 26 cookies were produced for a family of four on Saturday evening. 9 remained on Sunday morning!

These would make lovely Christmas gifts – give these stacked into a jar tied with ribbon and you would be very popular! Let the Christmas baking commence! These are also versatile – I’m seeing rhubarb jam for a nice rhubarb&custard combo, or less custard and more ground ginger/cocoa powder/chopped raisins – anything! – in the cookie. But at heart, these are best simple and warm. Oh so good warm. Find the recipe here.

Oaty Raspberry Muffins

There are times, rare times, when I want to bake, but also mind about being that li-ittle bit healthier. But just because thinks are healthier, doesn’t mean they are going to be baked any less tasty! One ingredient that could always make me feel healthier, even if surrounded by kilos and kilos of chocolate – would be oats.

See, as soon as you throw a handful or two of oats into a muffin (or anything baked!) I can feel just that bit better about having a second helping. And once you’ve added some yummy juicy fruit (in this case raspberries) – why stop at two helpings? After all, muffins are best on the day they are made ;)

The recipe for these Raspberry and Oat muffins came from the lovely must-read Bibliocook blog, where the muffins are originally made with blueberries. Having none of these available, I substituted for frozen raspberries, and added a few minutes onto the cooking time. Ooh, these were delicious! The raspberry juices stained the muffin a pretty light pink inside – and they smelled divine! Mmm :) If you’re a muffin fan, then these are most definitely for you. You can find the recipe here. Until next time!

Charlotte Russe

My Mum’s birthday falls on the 8th August, right in the middle of our holiday in France and Spain. Whilst this meant she was lucky enough to enjoy sunshine and swimming pools on her birthday – there was no homemade cake! Now in family with bakers and cooks, there should ALWAYS be a homemade birthday cake. So once we were home, out came the recipes!
Before we had left, my Mum had noticed a gorgeous looking Charlotte Russe in the window of the patisserie Paul. Paul is a very fancy French bakery which has now spread its chains all over London as well as smaller branches at motorway service stations! Whilst the standard of baking there is very high, this sure pushes up the prices! The rather small (if beautiful) charlotte russe my Mum saw was practically £20! So, a homemade one it was definitely to be.
A Charlotte Russe is essentially when you line a tin or bowl with sponge fingers, and pour in a “bavarois”. The bavarois in the recipe I followed was a custard thickened with gelatine, with whipped cream and raspberry puree stirred in – then refrigerated in the tin. We (my Mum & I) topped our russe with whole raspberries which we set with a raspberry glaze, but we thought that the raspberries looked prettier without. The exact origins of the charlotte russe is, as with many desserts, not 100% exact. It is either thought to be named after the British Queen Charlotte (1744-1818, wife of George III) or to have been invented by the French chef Marie Antoine Careme (1784-1833), who named it in honour of his Russian employer, as russe is Russian in French.
You can find the recipe I followed here except I made a few alterations…..
Instead of four miniature desserts, I used one large tin. I found I needed 4 gelatine leaves to make the custard set properly, and I also used two packets of frozen raspberries for the mousse and bought extra fresh raspberries for the top. Although I just used shop-bought this time, the recipe also includes how to make your own sponge fingers, which would improve the dessert even more!

The charlotte russe involves quite a few steps, so I split it over two days – which is easy seeing how the bavarois needs at least 4 hours or overnight to set up well. I’m pleased with how the final product turned out and it looked so pretty waiting to be devoured! The rich raspberry mousse was delightfully offset with the crunchy sponge fingers, and the whole glazed raspberries added another dimension of sharp juicy goodness :) Whilst I wouldn’t rush to make this dessert again– it was a really good one to make as it was my first time using gelatine and a right show stopper!