All Things Ooey Gooey
Quadruple the yum this week with THREE LOTS of Gooey Ooey filth, plus a recipe for a Chilean Milhojas Cake – think 14 layers of heaven. Yes please!
Another Week, Another Reminder…
That’s right folks, I am back to remind you about that little thing I spent 2 years working on...my debut book WAAAH.
We have got 50 drool-worthy recipes, each offering a dairy and plant based recipe so a whole lotta yum for everyone’s tum. Some of my fave recipes from the book include my Malt & Milk Chocolate Tiramisu, Banoffee Monkey Bread, Pina Colada Meringue Roulade, Sticky Jamaican Ginger Cake and my Salted Caramel & Cinnamon Doughnuts (the latter?? WOW).
Anyone in the UK who pre-orders via the Waterstones website before midnight on the 22nd May 2024 will be able get a £6 discount providing you enter code ONEBAKE6 at the checkout. The publication date is 23rd May (not long away eeek!) so works out to be a nice little gift for future you/friend/parent/child/dog.
And rather thrillingly, we now have 25% OFF for anyone ordering from Barnes & Noble, if you enter code PREORDER25.
I am sure you have probably heard lots of people harping on about how important pre-orders are for a book but guess what...turns out they are actually telling the truth. Pre-orders help create some early buzz and excitement which is fairly key to its initial success as it helps to alert retailers and other buyers that we’ve got some good stuff going on over here, which in turn will hopefully push the book further and into more shops and countries. Everyone deserves a little bit of this filth!
Hey Friends!
I hope you are doing well – I find myself in a familiar spot of having to apologise ONCE AGAIN for going awol last week. I am VERY SORRY for that which is why you’ll find this week is a real bumper edition. It is jam packed full of goodies and recipes – four delicious bites worthy of your time and all requiring a fairly basic skillset level so a perfect last minute addition to your weekend plans.
I took a few days off last week to rest and recharge a smidge. The grand plan of going to Italy was scaled back slightly to a lesser grand plan of a trip to the Cotswolds but honestly, it was perfect. I slept a tonne (I took a nap at 6pm for an hour and a half, woke up to eat and went back to bed by 9pm through to the morning. Babies truly are just living the life), ate a lot (nothing new there), went to a spa on both days (immediately turned into a prune), tried my hand at Padel (ya know, it could be my new thing) and had very limited access to the internet which was F*CKING FANTASTIC.
One of my skills I have recently discovered is the ability to waste away an hour in a blink of an eye just doom scrolling on whatever app has vaguely caught my interest. I say vaguely, the minute I see a cake being made, being decorated, being cut, being eaten, I’m gone. Away. Toodeloo time, it was nice knowing you. Which is why I have recently taken up learning a new language because if I am going to waste time on an app, it will at least be productive wasting?? More on that later.
Time to wrap up my pre-ramble cause the main ramble….ooooof, she is RAMBLING. Grab a cuppa and get cosy cause we’re in it for the long haul today.
PROMISE I WON’T GO AWOL AGAIN ANYTIME SOON. Soz. But love ya, bye x
We are getting right into it this week as we have a tonne of recipes to work through – which you should know by now means we are in for ONE HELLUVA LONG newsletter for which I am sorry for but also should make for fairly okay material if you’re after company on your work commute, need help to get to sleep, need to pretend to look busy (don’t judge, we all do it on occasion) or are just flat out bored…so really, ya welcs??
First up, we are tucking into the latest bake from my ‘Around The World’ series, a Chilean Milhojas Cake – which is also known as a Thousand Layer Cake. Whilst there technically isn’t 1000 layers in this cake (sadly), there are 14…which is basically a sh*t tonne in the cake world. 14 crisp, crunchy layers of pastry sandwiching liquid gold (aka the king of ingredients, dulce de leche), walnuts, crème patissiere and jam. Whilst I have gone fancy and packed a lot into my version, the traditional would see it done with just the dulce de leche and walnuts. The inclusion of pastry cream and jam are commonly used and I can confirm, are a warmly welcomed addition to the party as they help to cut through the rich butteryness of the cake.
I don’t quite know what they have in the waters over there in South America, but I am here to DRINK IT ALL UP. The bakes from there aren’t just nice or good, or tasty. They are GOD DAMN DELICIOUS. Augustus Gloop mode was fully activated from the moment I had my first bite all the way through to the Last. When I tell you I DOVE head first into this bake, like I legit Tom Daley’d this bake. Wow. Is this love? I think so.
Recipe Makes: 1 x 20 cm / 8 inch cake
Recipe Serves: 12
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D –
Dough
375 g Plain/AP Flour, sifted
Pinch of Salt
250 g Unsalted Butter, room temp
3 Large Eggs, yolks only
190 ml Whole Milk, fridge temp
1 tbsp Rum/Pisco (I used dark rum as that’s all I had)
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
Filling: Dulce de Leche
1 x 397 g Tin Condensed Milk
Filling: Crème Patisserie
250 ml Whole Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
50 g Caster Sugar
3 Large Eggs, yolks only
10 g Plain Flour, sifted
10 g Cornflour/starch, sifted
Filling: Raspberry
150 g Raspberry Jam
To Finish
150 g Walnuts, finely chopped
50 g Salted Roasted Almonds, finely chopped
M E T H O D -
THE NIGHT BEFORE:
Get the dough made and chilled the day before you are making and constructing the cake. Place all the ingredients into a stand mixer bowl. Using the paddle attachment mix all the ingredients together until they have just combined and a dough has formed. You want to keep the butter in clumps for a flakey pastry dough (similarly to a rough puff pastry) so underwork as opposed to overwork.
On a sheet of clingfilm, sprinkle on top a light dusting of flour. Transfer the rough dough on top and wrap and place in the fridge overnight. You want to give the butter time to solidify, dough to firm up and flour to relax.
Whilst that is chilling, make the dulce de leche. Into a large saucepan, add your tin of condensed milk and fill with enough water so the tin is submerged. Place the saucepan lid on top and place over a medium heat for 2.5 hours. Throughout the two hours just ensure the tin is always fully submerged.
After 2.5 hours, drain the water and allow the tin to cool before transferring out the contents, covering and leaving to cool.
THE MORNING OF:
make the crème patissiere. Use a balloon whisk to mix the egg yolks in a bowl, along with the sugar, cornflour and flour until pale in colour. Work through the gritty stage until the mix becomes fluid and smooth.
Pour the milk into a saucepan along with the vanilla and bring to near boil. When near boiling, pour 1/3 of the milk into the egg yolk mixture and whisk immediately until smooth.
Pour the egg yolk milk back into saucepan and mix. Reduce the heat and continue to stir the custard. Keep stirring until it thickens - we want this quite thick, a good sign to stop is when it bubbles in the middle.
Remove from the heat and transfer the custard to a large shallow tray to cool. Cover with clingfilm to prevent a skin forming and leave to completely cool.
Next up, let’s bake the dough layers. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
Divide the chilled dough into 14 even balls (I am pedantic and would suggest weighing each one to ensure they are equal weight but do bear in mind I have no life so this is just suggested).
Roll out each piece on top of floured baking paper or silicon mat until thin – you are looking for this to be slightly larger than a 20 cm /8 inch cake tin, with a thickness of 2 mm max. Use the base of an 20 cm/ 8 inch cake tin to cut around as a guide and prick the entire surface of the dough with a fork.
Transfer onto a lined baking sheet and pop into the oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, flipping over halfway, until lightly golden. Remove and leave to cool on a rack. Repeat for the remaining 13 dough balls.
Now you’re ready to construct. For ease, transfer the dulce de leche, creme pat and jam into separate piping bags.
Add a splodge of dulce de leche to your serving plate and place your first baked dough layer on top. Pipe a thin layer of dulce de leche on top and use an offset palette knife to smooth over. Sprinkle over a small handful of walnuts and almonds.
Place a dough layer on top but this time pipe over a thin layer of creme patisserie.
Place a dough layer on top and pipe over some raspberry jam and smooth over once again. Repeat this layering process until you top the cake with the 13th dough layer.
Use the surplus dulce de leche to coat the outside and top of the cake, as a crumb coat almost.
Break down the final dough layer to a fine crumb and mix in with the remaining nut mix. Use this mix to coat the sides and top. Pop the finished cake in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours.
Serve at room temp, slice with a hot knife and enjoy.
Next up we have last weeks ‘Around The World’ bake – a Gooey Ooey Butter Cake from Missouri, United States. All I gotta say about this one is...I was not prepared. I was not ready. I was NOT expecting this cake to go that hard. Like...I get it, sugar, butter and vanilla is a pretty decent throuple but...THIS decent??
The soft, gloopy, mildly set middle has a crazy level of both comfort and joy. On one hand it's giving you a sumptuous hug and then on the other hand it reminds me of licking cake batter from the bowl when my mum used to make/attempt fairy cakes as a kid. Every bite is laden with nostalgia, despite never having ever had it before. I don’t know what sort of sorcery they have going on over there in St Louis (brutally learnt that it is actually pronounced Lou-ISS and not Lou-WEE), but I am sold.
That gloopy, soft middle sits on top of a soft doughy base, with a crackly lid dredged generously in icing sugar. I mean, wow. Sign me up to the fan club immediately. This is simplicity done well INCREDIBLY well. There is no airs, nor graces. It's just a hunky little slab of filth. I didn't have Missouri on my travel hit list any time soon but get me there immediately cause I need a slice of this nice for realsies ASAP.
I didn't want to mess with a classic so used a very well rated recipe from NY Times which was provided by Molly Killeen from Made By Molly Bakery. I didn’t mess with Molly’s recipe too much but made a few minor tweaks to adjust to UK ingredients and went low on the bake time for max goop. If there is ever the option for goop, max it out, ALWAYS.
Recipe Makes: 1 x 23 by 33 cm / 9 by 13 inch deep dish
Recipe Serves: 16
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D -
Cake Dough
45 ml Whole Milk
5 g Active Dry Yeast
85 g Unsalted Butter, room temp
45 g Caster Sugar
5 g Sea Salt
1 Large Egg
215 g Plain Flour, sifted
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
Cake Topping
50 ml Golden Syrup
1.5 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
170 g Unsalted Butter, room temp
300 g Caster Sugar
0.5 tsp Sea Salt
1 Large Egg
145 g Plain Flour, sifted
To Finish
Icing Sugar, to dust
M E T H O D -
Let’s get started with the cake dough. In a small bowl, add the milk along with 2 tbsp of warm water. Sprinkle in the yeast and use a balloon whisk to mix until it’s mostly dissolved.
Pop a cloth over the top and leave it to sit for about 10 mins to activate. Yes I know we are using ‘active’ dried yeast so some of you may think what is the point but this is a real slow burner of a prove so give the dough a helping hand by getting that yeast thriving before we use it.
Meanwhile, add the butter, sugar and salt to a stand mixer bowl and use the paddle attachment to mix for about 5 minutes until light and aerated.
Scrape down the sides and bottom before adding in the egg. Beat well until everything had emulsified. NOTE: IF your mix curdles slightly or looks separated, this is because your butter was too cold. Use a blow torch (if you have one) to gently warm the bowl sides to help remedy if so. If you don’t have one, using a hair dryer will also do the same thing but remember you are gently warming the bowl, not giving it a blow dry.
Add in the flour, vanilla bean and yeasty milk to the bowl and mix on low for 2 minutes until everything has combined. Switch to a high speed and mix for 8 minutes until you’re left with a soft, elasticated dough which has come away from the sides and isn’t sticky to touch.
Grab a 23 by 33 cm / 9 by 13 inch deep baking dish (don’t grease it) and press the dough into the base. Make sure it covers the entire bottom and try to create an even layer. Cover with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm for 3 hours. NOTE: I prove my dough in an unheated oven with a tray filled with boiling water at the base. This creates a good steamy, warm environment for your dough to thrive.
After 2.45 hours, if you are proving in the oven, remove the dough and preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
Make the cake topping by mixing the golden syrup along with 2 tbsp of water and vanilla bean paste.
Add the butter, sugar and salt to a stand mixer bowl and use the paddle attachment to cream together for about 8 minutes until light and fluffy.
Scrape down the sides and bottom and add the egg. Beat well until the mixture is smooth. NOTE: If your mix looks curdled, repeat the bowl warming process as you did for the dough previously.
Add in the flour and golden syrup and mix until everything has just combined.
Spoon the mix (I used an ice cream scoop for ease) over the top of your risen dough. Use an offset palette knife or back of a spoon to gently spread for an even layer.
Pop into the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temp by 20 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes.
Remove the cake from the oven (embrace the cake jiggle) and leave to cool and set. NOTE: I left mine overnight but totally get if you want to tuck in sooner. Just ensure the middle is no longer jiggly and is firm to touch.
Once cooled, finish by generously dusting the top with icing sugar and slice and serve.
Following my first venture into the world of Ooey Gooey goodness, I became mildly obsessed and went and made a further two versions. It’s like when I stumble across a snack or lunch which tickles my tastebuds in just the right spot, so I then end up eating said snack/lunch every day for the next month straight. I’ve come to realise hyper-fixating is a recurring theme for me – right now I am on a 28 day streak of learning Japanese, because I became enthralled with the Japanese language and culture whilst watching Shogun. I KNOW none of this makes sense but somewhere in my head, it is all entirely logical (and no, I do not have any plans to go to Japan any time soon. I KNOW OKAY, I KNOW) which follows a toasted tuna bagel with diced red onion (raw, not pickled) and cucumber at lunch (on a current 7 day streak with that).
So, with that in mind, the next two bakes this week are a Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Raspberry Ooey Gooey, which is only beaten (just about) by a Lemon and Raspberry edition. Both are sinfully delicious and offers up variety in flavour to the classic. Whilst the Chocolate PB & J sits on a chocolate dough, the serving of the gloopy middle is doubled because if we are going naughty, then we are doing it in the MOST outrageous way. The chocolate filling is studded with fresh raspberries with a crunchy peanut butter (always think about texture folks!) rippled through.
In stark contrast to that, we have the Lemon and Raspberry version which just SCREAMS spring. I don’t know what it is about the flavour of lemon but my word, it has me in such a chokehold, I truly can’t explain. Whether it’s just a hint or the backs of my cheeks are squealing from the sour hit, I don’t care, just GIMME. Luckily for the rest of you, this bake hits a good middle. The base is scented with a smidgen of cardamom (my OTL – one true love, soz James) which I won’t cry about if you leave out but makes for the perfect, lightly warmed base for a sharp, sweet layer of raspberry compote.
Again, make this bake your own so if you wanted another berry in lieu of raspberries, use them. Blueberry here would work incredibly well, forced rhubarb when it is back in season (see ya in 2025), or even blackberries a little later in the year would be a delicious variation. Sitting on top of our fruity compote is our tangy, sharp and velvety smooth lemon butter topping which is rippled with lemon curd for extra extraness. I can’t stress enough how this is THE *perfect* spring bake.
Both of these tasty little morsels are perfect served up on their own, topped with some vanilla ice cream or drowning in custard (the lemon and raspberry one FOR SURE). Holy yum-oly, whichever way you choose to go, you and your tum are in for a jolly good time. Both are easy to do, both require a bit of time and forward planning, but check out Rubes Recommends for how to split your days when tackling an Ooey Gooey. Similarly, make sure you take a read on adding cocoa powder to doughs – the below recipe is version 4 (the first 3 were absolute shockers) so prep well or prep to cry. You choose (this sounds very pass agg but it’s constructive love, I promise).
Time to jump on board, we’re off to Gloop City.
Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Raspberry Ooey Gooey
Recipe Makes: 1 x 23 by 33 cm / 9 by 13 inch deep dish
Recipe Serves: 16
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