Gingerbread Spice & All Things Nice
Gingerbread biscuits are working overtime this week – served up solo and in my Gingerbread & Chocolate Babka glazed in a Chocolate Sauce PLUS a bonus recipe using up leftover cheese this xmas.
Hey Friends!
We are back with another card laden installment of the newsy. Thrilled to have you here and so grateful for those of you who have been here for over a year now. A WHOLE YEAR OF THE LAST BITE. Something that very much started off as a little fun side project to make room for my rambles and give space to the never-ending internal monologue which plays out in my brain ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT LONG, has very much become a little sacred ritual. We went from being weekly here to biweekly, to allow me to complete some external work projects, but now we are officially in crimbo season, I am itching to get back dropping into your inboxes weekly again.
Tis the season for fun and a whole lotta yum. As a self-confessed carb fiend, the winter season is truly where I come alive. It’s all bread, comforting, beige good mood food over here and I am not mad at it one single bit.
The one thing I am mad at, and this happens every single year, without fail, is that I wait for December to roll around. I count down the days till I can blast the Bublé on repeat. I live for cosy season and now it is upon us, I feel horrendously behind. Like how are we in the middle of December??? How is Christmas nearly here? HOW HAVE I NOT EVEN STARTED MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE YET???????
Folks the fact I have not started and still have a tonne of festive recipes I want to develop, write, film and share with you all is bringing me out in a mild sweat. I’ve got the design all sorted in my head but whether it and I will make it through the next week in one piece is going to be another thing.
Please wish me luck and keep me in your prayers – I truly think I may have bitten off more than I can chew this time round. My last two have been so good (in my honest and very unbiased opinion) that I am somewhat feeling the pressure to out do myself. FYI, the pressure is coming from no one but myself so yes, this is all very much self-induced, I know I do not deserve a single shred of sympathy, but I will ask for it anyway TEEHEE.
P.S on the Christmas film front, please save yourself from the cinematic disaster that is Hot Frosty. I gave it a 2 out of 10 and the 2 were only because I had good snacks whilst watching it (tru fru snack pouches FOR THE WIN).
We have A LOT on the menu this week. It’s carb overload and I am not mad at it one single bit. A little savoury, a lot of sweet and a few bake across the worlds sprinkled in between.
First up we have the two latest Around The World cakes: a Polish Szarlotka and a Goan Bebinca. Two wildly different countries offering up two incredibly different cakes. One is a not too sweet apple cake with a rogue meringue filling and the latter is a mochi-like layered coconut dessert, subtly spiced with nutmeg.
Every foodie, blogger, content creator and person known to mankind claim their roasties are the best and I am here to tell you that they are all LYING TO YOU. Cause are their roasties smothered in marmite, finished with parmesan and thyme and served up alongside roasted garlic? Nope. Didn’t think so. My Rogue Roasties are a firm fave over the crimbo period and I can’t wait for you to give them a go.
Moving onto the main bake of the week which is my Gingerbread and Chocolate Babka smothered in a Chocolate Glaze. I LOVE a sweet bread and babkas hold a special place in my heart. This is a three for one sort of bake. We make the gingerbread spice from scratch, make the gingerbread biscuits from scratch and then use both to make our gingerbread babka. Alternatively, you can tell me to jog on and use shop bought items for the first two and just bake the bread. Either way will be a major win. Spiced bread smothered in chocolate and topped with a gingerbread crumb? I am SPOILING you this Christmas.
And talking of spoiling and rounding up the recipes this week is my not so traditional, not so authentic Baked Vodka Pasta – the best and perfect way to use up leftovers from the cheese board this Christmas. Creamy, cheesy, comfortingly good. I shamelessly ate this straight out the pan and solo for a few days because it is the straight up good mood food you deserve. It’ll be your go to comfort meal and is SO easy to make.
As we are packing a whole lotta recipes into this newsy, and I am known to ramble a whole lot, I am going to try my best to keep it short and sweet wherever possible so diving head first into our Around The World cakes, we head to Poland for their Szarlotka, otherwise known as an apple cake. Made up of a pastry dough base, topped with cinnamon spiced apples, a layer of meringue and finished with a grating of pastry on top for a crumble-esque finish, it has A LOT of promise. Meringue layer aside (I don't think it personally has much business being in there), it's a nice, inoffensive bake which will no doubt please a hungry crowd.
As a self confessed non apple fan (it is definitely a contender for top 5 worst fruit to eat solo), coming in so soon after the German Apfelkuchen, I had pretty high hopes for this. It's not overly sweet or heavily spiced and I think it could definitely benefit from a boost in both departments. Next time, I would increase the sugar a touch, fold the apple compote through a salted caramel sauce, add more spices (cardamom and a teeny tiny star anise) and serve this up hot, finishing it off with a generous glug of custard for a real winter warmer treat.
My recipe is based off a lot of recipes online (I really needed to confirm that the meringue layer was a legit thing) so tried my best to keep it as authentic as possible but as with most family recipes, everyone and every granny has their own take on it. This is one to try if you don’t want something too sweet but if you are after a good apple bake, go for the Apfelkuchen or my Apple Crumble Slices.
Next up, we head over to Goa for their Bebinca, otherwise known as the ‘Queen of Desserts’. Whilst I will always think Indian food reigns supreme in terms of savoury cooking, I'm not majorly a fan of Indian desserts as it's more often than not a pile of sugar, drenched in a sugar syrup and then finished with a sprinkling of sugar on top for extra measure (yes jalebi and gulab jamun, I am looking at you).
This one is kinda that but with added ghee for extra health. Traditionally made up of at least 7 (and sometimes as many as 16!) layers, a Bebinca is a rich, sticky treat made up of nothing but coconut milk, flour, ghee, sugar, eggs and a pinch of nutmeg for flavour. I tried to keep it very traditional after watching A LOT of youtube videos on how to make it so decided to make my own coconut milk from scratch and honestly, I am not sure the labour was worth the outcome.
For anyone interested in how to waste a significant amount of their time and want to make their own coconut milk too, the process went as follows:
First scour every supermarket for a coconut. Admittedly this was the easiest part but let’s remember friends that it is December, which means we are in the winter months (I know this doesn’t technically start until 21st dec but shh) and do you know how hard it is to find a coconut in the winter, in the countryside, in the uk??
Then you want to crack open the unripe, overpriced coconuts. I have seen many a film where people make this look effortless. It was not. These coconuts were thicker than a brick. No amount of bashing on a hard surface works so I resorted to throwing them on the floor outside. Again, no joy. At this point my fury was pretty high and I can confirm aggressively hitting the coconut on the ground will eventually work.
Then because the coconut is so unripe, you will need to bake the coconut shells for about 30 minutes at around 180C to help you prise the meat away. Once baked and cooled, you then need to use a knife to loosen the meat away from the shell and peel off. If you are lucky, this will happen in one piece. I, folks, was not lucky.
Then you want to grate all the meat or use a blender. Unfun fact, I broke my blender when blitzing honeycomb to make dust not long ago so used my thermomix, which I am also sure I have now broken so had to hand grate the rest.
Then you want to pour enough water over the grated coconut and allow it to sit for an hour.
Finally you want to drain and press the coconut, saving the water. This sweet, sweet nectar is coconut milk, and you are very, verrrrry over it.
I rambled, sorry.
Whilst this isn't what I traditionally know a cake to be, it was fun to give it a try, even if it didn't float my boat in terms of flavour and texture. What I DO love about it, is that I got to try something new, Whilst I won't love it all, I will always give everything a good try cause friends, food is a privilege and what a joy it is to be able to experience it all.
NOTE: Whilst I would normally always provide a recipe card for a bake here, I do not trust that my final version was a true adaptation of an authentic Bebinca so please refer to this YouTube vid which I followed to recreate:
Up next, are the Rubes Rogue Roasties. I pride myself on my roast potatoes and have never had anything other than compliments, empty plates and requests for seconds whenever I make them. Why are they rogue? Cause they feature parmesan…and marmite. And before I hear any haters, you truly can’t taste the marmite, it’s just there in the background with those yummy, salty, umami vibes just ready to knock your socks off.
This has been my go-to recipe for years now and will be what I am serving up on the table this year. Roasties are supposed to be a nice little side accompaniment, but these are the whole damn show. They steal the limelight; they steal the thunder and they will steal your heart (too far??). The secret to my roasties is the flavour. We go BIG on flavour which means these are great with just about everything and also nothing. I can eat these straight from the pan, no dunking in gravy required.
Velvety smooth middle and a crunchy, crisp outside? Yes. Lashings of parmesan for extra crisp and saltiness? Yes. Marmite and thyme for added umami. YES. YES. YES.
Some top tips to perfecting them:
Let your par boiled marmite covered potatoes steam dry on a cooling rack before tossing in flour and adding to your roasting tray
Add the ghee to a hot roasting tray. Don't worry about popping it in the oven to preheat, just place it on top of the hob and let that do its thing on a medium heat. Remember - hot tray, cold potatoes for max crispiness.
Don't overfill your roasting tray with the potatoes - this will steam your roasties as opposed to...well roasting them. Distribute them into two tins if necessary but give them PLENTY OF ROOM to do their thing.
Don't peel your garlic, keep them in the skin and eat when roasted. DIVINE.
Ghee has a super high burning point which allows for a crispier roastie. You can use your oil/fat of choice but you should be able to find ghee in most supermarkets down the wood food aisle. It will give a lovely buttery, nutty taste to the roasties which is just droolicious.
Recipe Serves: 6 (or 8 depending on your potato consumption levels)
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D –
1.25 kg Maris Piper/Yukon Gold/Russet*, peeled & chopped to same size
Sea Salt
10 g Semolina
25 g Plain Flour
1 tbsp Marmite
10 tbsp Ghee
1 Bulb Garlic
Fresh Thyme & Rosemary
Parmesan (as much as your heart says)
*you want a starchy potato here
M E T H O D –
Get that oven preheated to 200C Fan. Put the peeled potatoes in a pan (make sure they are all roughly the same size to boil and roast at the same time), add cold water and a good sprinkling of salt and bring to boil
Reduce to simmer for 5/6 mins (may need longer depending on size) and prick with a knife to see if the middle is softened - we don't want them mushy but we want them soft whilst holding their shape well. Drain the water from the pan. Add the marmite and give the saucepan a good shake - this will cover the potatoes in the marmite whilst also roughing up the edges. WHICH IS GOOD.
Let the potatoes steam dry on a tray or rack. In a large bowl, add the plain flour, semolina and a good pinch of salt. Mix well before adding the cooled marmite covered potatoes and coating well in the flour mix.
Pop roasting tray across two hobs, turn both up to a medium heat. Add in ghee and garlic cloves, skin ON. You don't want these to burn as they taste AMAZING once roasted.
Add potatoes to the tray (use tongs) and cook on the hob until the sides are all lightly browned & crisp.
Dip sprigs of rosemary in the hot ghee before brushing over potatoes before popping in the oven for approx 30/35 mins
Turn over potatoes halfway through. 5 mins to the end, grate over a good helping of Parmesan all over the potatoes. Pop back in the oven
Remove from the oven. Turn over the potatoes one last time and grate over another light (or heavy, I won't judge) sprinkling of Parmesan, lots of fresh thyme leaves and another pinch of sea salt (to taste).
Remove the garlic cloves from their skin, scatter amongst the roasted potatoes and serve hot.
Moving onto the main bake of the week which is my Gingerbread and Chocolate Babka smothered in a Chocolate Sauce. I bloody love bread – whether it is the sweet or savoury variety, on its own, slathered in butter, dunked in a sauce, crispy, crunchy, soft and pillowy, I will take it in whatever way it comes. This is kinda like a 3 in 1 sorta style bake. There are parts you can take, remove from the recipe to simplify, substitute for shop bought or bake on their own. Similarly, you can plan yourself a whopper of a bake day and make it all.
At the base of the recipe is my homemade gingerbread spice. This spice is then used to make gingerbread snap biscuits (you know the ginger sort but just with a deeper depth of spice). These biscuits are perfect to eat on their own, to gift or to dunk but here we use the biscuit to crush down to a crumb to make the filling for our babka. The bread dough is subtly spiced with the gingerbread, topped with a duvet of gingerbread crumb (I purposefully underbake the biscuits by a minute or two so they go jammy and smushy) and milk chocolate, baked till golden brown and then finished with a generous chocolate and almond butter glaze.
Not only is it a real crowd pleasing bake but she looks gorgeous and tastes of warming comfort. If anyone is worried about making bread, I promise you, this recipe is straight forward and easy to make. The only thing I would say is make sure you have some sort of technical help and by that I mean, please utilise a standmixer or an electric hand whisk at the very least to help with the dough. This dough is enriched with butter so it is a very soft and elasticated dough and whilst it can be made entirely by hand, it will take a little longer and will be a whole lot messier.
We are going for a long 1st prove to really build some depth to the flavour to the dough, which is obv great taste wise but also time wise. I know bread can be daunting because of how time consuming it can be but by splitting it up over the course of two days makes it easier to work through, more manageable for anyone with time constraints and allows you to have a life outside of the kitchen.
Serve up the bread warm, freshly baked or allow it to sit overnight for the flavours to develop for a slither of yum to enjoy with your cup of coffee. It’s the sort of bake you promise yourself that you will just have one small slither. And before you know it, the slither has turned into a generous slice. The slice turns into a chunk and the chunk turns into you hunched over the sink biting into the loaf like its an apple, crumbs flying everywhere, and self-respect is no longer part of anyone’s vocabulary.
It’s warming, comforting, cosy, indulgent, rich and addicting. Everything I aspire to be in life.
Recipe Makes: 2 x 2 lb Loaf Tins plus 18 Gingerbread Biscuits
Recipe Serves: I have no willpower so this is not a good/healthy question for me to answer right now.
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