Orange You Glad To Hear From Me?
Bad jokes aside, we have LOTS of goodness inc my Blood Orange & Almond Drizzle Loaf Cake, Cardamom Pancakes w Peanut Butter & Chocolate Sauce, Spiced Potato Paratha and my Mango & Coconut Crepe Cake.
Hi friends!
I hope you are all well and have had a lovely week so far stuffed to the brim with pancakes and a whole lotta love. I have had a slightly chaotic and full-on week, which has somehow resulted in me producing what is possibly the longest newsletter to date?? I’m not sure how it has happened, why it happened or what even possessed me but we are sharing a plethora of goodness so because of that – and because I always leave the intro’s to last to prioritize the recipes, Substack is aggressively reminding me with every additional word I type that I have gone WELL over the email limit so we are keeping it short and sweet with little to no fluff so we can dive straight in.
Hooray for some of you. Sad time for those who enjoy the fluff – IT WILL BE BACK NEXT WEEK. I promise to use the time from now till then learning how to not overfeed you with writing and recipes. But I make no apologies for it – being a huge feeder is part of the Indian genetics. You will eat until you are rolling out that door. Anything less and the whole thing has been a total failure.
So, without further ado. Let’s feast!
This week I am spoiling you with the goodies – we’ve got a mish mash of sweet things, savoury things, delicious things, easy things and some straight up filth (peanut butter & chocolate sauce, I am looking at you).
On the menu this week, we have:
My Cardamom Pancakes w Peanut Butter and Chocolate Sauce. It couldn’t be pancake day/week without me giving you my recipe for the fluffiest, easiest, wins every time, American style pancakes (the only way to pancake in my opinion). Mine are lightly spiced with cardamom (shock, she uses it once again) and are drowned in a crunchy peanut butter, chocolate and maple sauce. When I say this sauce is lethal, I mean it is straight up drinkable. Pure and utter indulgent filth. Just the way it should be.
Technically not a pancake but a savoury offering of my Mum’s Spiced Potato Paratha. So when I was asked to do an event this Tuesday, I was asked to make a savoury pancake. Immediately my mind went to aloo paratha my mum would make. Two of these bad boys and you are in a buttery carb coma for the rest of the day. Simple ingredients, gently spiced. This is pure home comfort for me.
This weeks latest ‘Around The World’ cake, which just so happened to coincide with Pancake day. It’s my take on a French Gâteau Mille Crêpes. Now look, I am not a big crepe fan but I am a huge fan of mango and coconut and what is better than mango and coconut? Layers upon layers upon layers of mango and coconut. A rather time consuming bake but aesthetically, it wins hands down.
Lastly, the main bake of the week is my Blood Orange & Almond Drizzle Loaf Cake w an Olive Oil & Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream and Pistachio & Basil Sugar. Truly a mouthful in every way – we are using some of the seasons best fruit for a deliciously tender and moist loaf cake. This is the cake you need when you want something impressive without having to go all out. An incredibly versatile bake which you can turn into cupcakes, muffins, a one sponge affair, a stacked bonanza or keep it low key with the loaf. It’s fruity, it’s zesty, mildly sophisticated, all with the outrageous amount of yum.
We are kicking off the yum this week with one of my classic recipes, my Cardamom Pancakes with a Crunchy Peanut Butter, Chocolate and Maple Sauce. I say classic because I promise you, once you try my recipe for super fluffy, pillowy soft, bouncy, boingy (it’s a word, don’t question it) pancakes, you will never need another.
My American style pancakes are lightly spiced with cardamom (because yes I will use it everywhere and in everything), stacked up high and then drowned in a crunchy peanut butter, chocolate and maple syrup sauce. That sauce is every bit as delicious as it sounds by the way. I made these pancakes at an event this week and I quite proudly watched people drinking the sauce straight from the pouring jug. In that moment, I felt the same sort of pride I could imagine parents feel when they see their babies walking from the same time.
If you want to knock up the same sort of sauce-ry, my key bit of advice to everyone who gives these a go – please PLEASE do not skip letting the batter rest at room temp for 30 minutes before using. Give that gluten time to relax, the flour time to hydrate and the batter time to thicken. ESSENTIAL for max fluffiness. For more tips and recommendations, make sure you check out Rubes Recommends where I’ll give you a lemon and blueberry compote alternative for anyone who isn’t completely enthralled with the current offering (weird flex but ok).
Recipe Serves: 5 / Makes: A LOT
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D –
Batter
200 g Self Raising Flour
40 g Golden Caster Sugar
3 Cardamom Pods, ground
0.5 tsp Baking Powder
0.25 tsp Salt
0.5 tsp Vanilla Bean Powder
1 Large Eggs
280 ml Buttermilk
50 ml Whole Milk
Coconut Oil, to lightly grease pan
Unsalted Butter, to serve
Sauce
130 g Crunchy Peanut Butter
110 ml Maple Syrup
50 g Milk Chocolate
50 ml Whole Milk
Pinch of Sea Salt
M E T H O D -
For the pancakes, pop all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Into a separate bowl, mix together all the wet.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients in one bowl using a balloon whisk. Mix until just combined and no visible flour streaks remain. Leave to sit for at least 30 minutes.
Place a non-stick (and non-toxic) pan over a medium heat.
In the other saucepan, add all the ingredients for the sauce. Gently heat until the chocolate has melted and mix to combine until smooth. Leave on a low heat to keep it pourable.
Add a spoonful of coconut oil to the pan before using a ladle or jug to pour pancake batter onto the frying pan.
Allow the pancake to cook and flip over after a few minutes or until the air bubbles start to appear and let the other side brown.
Repeat for all the batter.
Transfer the pancakes to serving plates and generously drown in the crunchy peanut butter chocolate sauce.
Pop a square of butter on top (optional) and use the blowtorch to gently scorch and serve.
We all know that a paratha isn’t a pancake but it is, for damn sure, a carby, buttery delight. When I was asked to serve up a savoury pancake offering on Tuesday, the brand were thinking along the lines of something that involved lobster and caviar. I will say it for us all…lol.
My response was nothing short of that and I immediately followed up that bemused chortle with…‘are you being serious??’. Turns out they were, so I took all advice on board, listened to what they wanted and politely returned with the following idea of a Spiced Potato Paratha. It couldn’t be further from what they were thinking and certainly didn’t use any luxury ingredients they were hoping for but what it does deliver is simplicity done best.
Simple ingredients, treated well, cooked with love and reminds me of home. Eating these warm are a must - alongside some mango pickle, some natural yoghurt sprinkled with sea salt and some garam masala and suddenly I’m 10 again sitting at my Mums dining room table, yelling for another.
Was it cocky of me to completely ignore the brand? Perhaps but also I’m not here trying to be someone I’m not. I’m certainly not a chef, nor a seafood kinda cook but what I can do, is good mood food. And plenty of it.
Recipe Makes: 12 Paratha
Recipe Serves: 6 (or 3 if hungry)
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D –
Dough
260 g Wholemeal Bread Flour, sifted
260 g Plain Flour, sifted
300 to 320 ml Water
Filling
400 g Maris Piper/Red Skinned Potato
100 g White onion, finely chopped
2 Green Finger Chilli, finely chopped
Handful Coriander, finely chopped
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1.5 tsp Garam Masala
2 tsp Sea Salt
1.5 tsp Dried Fenugreek Leaves
To Make
200 g Ghee or Unsalted Butter
2 Cloves Garlic, minced/grated
To Serve
Mango Pickle
Natural Yoghurt
M E T H O D -
Begin by making the dough by adding both flours to a mixing bowl and slowly adding the water. Bring the flour together using your hands until it forms a rough dough.
Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes until soft. Pop back into the bowl, cover and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
In this time, make the filling by boiling the potatoes (skin on) until soft (approx. 15 to 20 mins).
Drain the water, cool the potatoes by submerging into cold and peel the skin off.
Add to a mixing bowl and use a potato masher to mash. Leave to completely cool.
Once cool, add the remaining filling ingredients, mix well and taste. Adjust seasoning accordingly.
Grab a saucepan and add the unsalted butter and garlic. Place over a medium heat and gently melt. Leave on the lowest heat.
Divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Roll each into a ball.
Lightly flour the worktop and use the heel of your hand to gently flatten into a disc. Roll out the dough into a circle, approx. 2mm thick (thinner, the better).
Use a pastry brush to brush over the garlic butter. Roll the rough up inside a cigar, shape into a spiral and flatten with the heel of you hand again to seal. Repeat the rolling and buttering process 2 more times.
Place the griddle pan over a medium heat and season the pan with some oil.
Once you have spiralled for the last time, press down with the heel of your hand one more time till the dough is approx. 6 cm in width.
Place 2 to 3 tsps of filling into the centre and carefully encase with the dough, ensuring you have tightly secured the seam to avoid the filling spilling out.
Use the heel of your hand to gently press out the dough and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to a circle shape approx. 2 to 3 mm thick.
Place the paratha onto the hot pan and leave to gently cook.
Once you see some air bubbles or the sides starting to crisp, carefully flip over and cook on the other side.
Use the pastry brush to brush over some more butter on top, flip and butter the top side before placing on a serving plate.
Repeat for all the mix and serve up alongside natural yoghurt and some pickles.
Next up in my deliciously never ending ‘Around The World’ series is a French (although this seems to have angered a lot of people but ya know, I am just following a list online so don’t shoot the baker) Crêpe Cake - a delicate and impressive looking number that is made up of a gazillion crepes (mine was 25) all layered between cream (I opted to alternate between Mango and Coconut cause duh), making it the perfect (and kinda high maintenance) no bake kinda cake.
This Gâteau Mille Crêpes couldn't have come at a better time considering it was Pancake Day this week. Whilst I am not suggesting you spend any of your valuable time making 25 crepes, 2 different creams, alternate, stack, crumb coat, decorate and chill all before slicing into it, eating it and wanting to mildly murder me for putting you through all that, I would say use 1/3 of the recipe below and place some of the cream into the middle, top with some fresh fruit before rolling and folding like a Hong Kong style pancake instead OR just dollop it all on top. Takes a fraction of the time, so it’s quicker in the tum and all for the same amount of yum.
Recipe Makes: 22 to 25 Crepes (inc a few dud first tries)
Recipe Serves: 8
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D –
Crepe
300 g Plain Flour, sifted
Pinch of Salt
85 g Golden Caster Sugar
790 ml Whole Milk
4 Large Eggs
30 g Unsalted Butter, melted
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste or 0.5 tsp Vanilla Bean Powder
Mango Mascarpone
250 g Mascarpone
255 ml Mango Pulp, tinned
15 g Icing Sugar, sifted
0.5 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
150 ml Double Cream
Coconut Cream Cheese
160 g Coconut Cream
25 g Icing Sugar, sifted
100 g Cream Cheese
0.5 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
150 ml Double Cream
To Finish
Approx 30 g Desiccated Coconut
M E T H O D –
Grab two bowls. Into one bowl, add all the dry ingredients for your crepe batter and mix. Into the second bowl, add all the wet ingredients and mix.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and use a balloon whisk to thoroughly mix until no lumps remain. Alternatively, add all the ingredients into a blender and blitz until smooth.
Leave the batter to one side for at least 30 minutes (the longer the better to let the flour hydrate and the gluten to relax).
Grab yourself a non-stick pan and place over a medium heat. Allow it to heat up before adding a touch of coconut oil or butter to the pan (just a smidge).
Pour just enough batter into the pan and swirl for an even covering. (FYI I used a 25 cm / 10 inch pan and a 60 ml / ¼ cup measurer for the batter).
Let the batter cook for a minute or so until the edges start to crisp. Warning!! The first one or two will always be rubbish, it’s just the pancake rules so don’t stress.
Use a fish slice or offset palette knife to tease the edges away before flipping over and cooking for another 45 seconds to a minute until lightly golden. Remove and repeat for all the batter.
If you are pedantic like me, you can use a 7 inch or 8-inch cake tin base to lay on top of each crepe and cut around for nice, neat edges. Yes, that is very time consuming but if you want that super neat, aesthetic finish, do it.
Make the mango mascarpone by adding all the ingredients, bar double cream, to a bowl and use the whisk attachment to mix until smooth.
Pour in the double cream into the mango mix and mix again until you hit medium peak. You want this to be thick but spreadable.
Make the coconut cream by adding all the ingredients to a bowl and mix again until smooth. Go in with the double cream and again mix until thickened.
Place a crepe onto your serving plate. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop some of the mango cream on top and use a palette knife to spread to an even layer. Place another crepe on top and this time, scoop on some coconut cream. Repeat this layering process until all crepes are used.
Use the remaining mango cream to ‘crumb coat’ the sides and top for a nice even finish.
Pop the cake into the fridge to set for 1 hour before finishing off with some desiccated coconut on the sides.
The main bake this week is my incredibly impressive (in my opinion) and outrageously delicious (still my opinion) Blood Orange & Almond Drizzle Loaf Cake w an Olive Oil & Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream and Pistachio & Basil Sugar. So whilst it may not be the shortest or catchiest titled dish, it is the slice of nice you have been looking for this week. I know I say this about every bake, every week but this one is a SERIOUS WOW.
I’m talking about it being one of my fave bakes of the year (even possibly last year??) without doubt – as easy top 3 contender.
I am very conscious that as someone who eats, breathes and dreams all things baked goods, sometimes my recipes can be fairly complex or require a fairly decent skill set. I will be completely honest with you – there is no plan, no rhyme nor reason, no thought out approach to what is the main bake of each week. Sometimes it’s based on what is new in season, sometimes it is what I am craving and more often than not, it is some brainwave that comes to me whilst I am on the treadmill. Sometimes it works, sometimes it flops (I’ve shown you enough of these pics to know this happens A LOT) but sometimes, it is nothing short of magic.
I love making loaf cakes because of their simplicity. They are easy to make, easy to bake, easy to eat and are such a treat. This recipe makes the most of the in-season Blood Oranges – the oranges fancier, prettier and classier cousin. They are sweet and citrussy like their counterpart but lean more on the tart side of life towards grapefruit making it a perfect pairing to a buttery, sugary, almondy loaf cake.
The pistachio and basil sugar is NOT TO BE MISSED. Granted it sounds rogue as hell but the mildly aniseedy nutty flavour this combination brings makes the blood orange sing like its Adele. You can use this sugar to top yoghurts, fruits, for buttercream bases, to press into shortbread biscuits, add a sprinkling on top of some cream cheese on toast (just thought of this now and running to the kitchen to try immediately), whatever ya got, give it a little dusting of some green sugary glitter.
The best bit about this recipe is its versatility. Yes, we are using blood oranges today but if you can’t get your hands on them, swap out the fruit out for lemons instead. If almond isn’t your thing (are you ok??), scrap them and use coconut flour instead, or even polenta. Check out the Rubes Recommends section for lots of ways you can tweak the recipe to tickle just about everyone’s tastebuds.
And before anyone gripes about the olive oil whipped cream TRUST ME OKAY? It pairs incredibly well and I guarantee will become your new fave way to whip it.
Before we get cracking, let’s bask in her glory for one last time…
Recipe Makes: 1 x 2 lb Deep Loaf Tin
Recipe Serves: 6
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