Kae's Kitchen- Recipes for all Food Lovers.

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Swedish Breakfast, with a view.

In my recent trip to Sweden, I was surrounded by so much nature- with so much wild berries to pick. I was lucky enough to stay in my boyfriend’s summer house, which was surrounded by wild blueberries. I took this opportunity to make some blueberry jam, which I brought home to give to my family.

Blueberry Picking.

The summer house I was staying in was absolutely surrounded by blueberries. In half an hour my boyfriend and I had collected over 1kg blueberries! Unlike the British blueberries, the colour of the berry under the skin was a vibrant purple, staining your hands and teeth! (So the evidence was clear if you were doing the whole “one in the basket, one for me” trick!) 

How to make Blueberry Jam.

I’m going to keep this recipe short and sweet- it’s so easy I thought I would keep it simple:

Weigh the blueberries and add half of the weight in sugar. (e.g. 1kg blueberries = 500g sugar) Add the juice of one lemon per 500g blueberries (so for the previous example you’ll need 2 lemons.) Bring the three ingredients to a gentle boil for 45 minutes and pour into sterilised jars. 

Chewy Cookies.

How to make Chewy Cookies.

Ideally the butter should be at room temperature. Unlike most days, I planned to make these cookies the day before so I left my butter out overnight. If you don’t have time, simply chop the butter into small cubes and follow the recipe as normal. (It make take a few minutes longer.)

In a free-standing mixer with a paddle attachment, place 250g butter and beat on a medium speed for 10 minutes until light in colour, and almost double in size. It should have a similar consistency as mayonnaise. To this, add 300g soft light brown sugar. Dark brown sugar can also be used at this stage, or even use half and half- it will make the flavour richer. Beat the butter and sugar for another 3-5 minutes. (See pic. 3)

This recipe requires 1½ eggs- and to do this accurately you need to break 2 eggs and whisk gently, and then strain it through a sieve (I used a tea strainer) which makes it a smooth liquid. An average egg weighs 50g, therefore for this recipe you’ll require 75g. Add the egg slowly into the butter and sugar mix, whilst on a medium-low speed.

In a separate bowl, weigh out 375 plain flour, 10g corn flour, 10g bicarbonate of soda and 6g salt. Roughly mix all the dry ingredients and add this to the wet mix in 2 stages. Do not over-mix! Once the ingredients have incorporated stop the machine. 

Now the cookie dough is ready, any additional ingredients such as chocolate chips, nuts or even dried fruit can be added. Roughly add 300g of any of these ingredients to the cookie dough. I added 100g roasted brazil nuts and 200g good quality dark chocolate. Roughly chop into small pieces and add to the cookie dough, pulsing it roughly 6-8 times. Cling film the dough and rest in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Once rested, roll the cookie dough into equal parts. Depending on what size you want your cookie to be, weigh them at roughly 20-40g. They do spread a lot so make sure to space them out on the baking tray. The cookie dough can be frozen at this stage, in individual balls. To bake them after freezing, place them onto a baking tray as normal and leave at room temperature for 20-30 minutes before baking.

Ale Bread Rolls.

How to make Ale Bread.

I decided to do the entire process by hand- I’ve heard it gives a better result and I fancied a challenge! However this recipe is also suitable for a household kitchen aid, using the hook attachment. Do bare in mind that the kneading time will be less.

It’s pretty much an all-in-one recipe. In a large bowl, add 250g strong white flour, 15g soft butter, 5g salt and 5g instant yeast. Make sure the salt and the yeast is not in contact. Measure 150ml ale, I used Spitfire, into a measuring jug. Add the ale to the dry ingredients slowly, mixing by hand throughout. Add all the liquid and bring all the ingredients together into a rough dough.

Place the dough onto a worktop lightly covered in olive oil and knead for approximately 10 minutes until the dough become smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl and cover to prove, for 1-2 hours until double in size.

Once the dough has had the first prove, place back onto a greased worktop and knock back the dough. To knock back, simply tap the dough with your knuckles, flattening it gently. Divide the dough into 6 equal parts and roll into balls. Sprinkle with a light dusting of flour. I cut the top of the dough balls, however this is optional. Leave to prove for the second time, for an hour until double in size.

Marmalade.

How to make Marmalade. 

I used 5 large oranges for this recipe. First, take all the peel off the orange by cutting the top and bottom of the fruit, and slicing off the skin. Place the fruit in a food processor and blitz for a few minutes to make the juice.

To prepare the orange peel, you want to cut as much of the pith as possible. Pith is the white part of the skin, which is very bitter in flavour and will give the marmalade a bitter aftertaste. Using a sharp knife, cut the pith off. Once the peel is pith-free, (well, as much as you can!) julienne the peel (cut into thin strips). To remove the last bit of bitterness, I boiled the chopped peel in water three times, changing water in between each stage. After the third boil, strain from the water and place in a large pan.

Going back to the blitzed orange, pass through a sieve and pour the juice into the large pan. I added one vanilla pod and a thumb-sized piece of ginger- however these ingredients are optional. Top up the juice with 1.6L water and bring to a gentle boil and leave to reduce by half. 

Guinness Cupcakes.

I made these to celebrate St Patrick’s Day last week, and they were a huge success! Everyone loved them, I was so thrilled! 

How to Make Guinness Cupcakes. 

First, pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper cases. Set aside.

In a saucepan, heat 250ml guinness with 250g butter. Do not boil the guinness- just gently heat until the butter has melted. To the warm liquid, add 400g sugar and 80g cocoa powder. 

In a separate bowl, mix together 150g crème fraîche and 2 eggs. Add this mixture to the guinness mix.

Finally, weigh out the rest of the ingredients: 275 plain flour and 2½ tsp bicarbonate of soda. Sieve the dry into the wet mix in 2 stages. Pour the mix into 20 muffin cases and place in the oven for 20 minutes. 

Blueberry and Oat Muffins.

How to make Blueberry and Oat Muffins.

First, pre-heat the oven at 170 degrees. Place paper moulds in a muffin tin and set aside.

Ideally, the butter should be room-temperature, however I wasn't prepared enough (nor patient!) so I used butter straight from the fridge. If you're in the same position as I was, cut the butter into small cubes. Place 110g butter into a mixing bowl with a paddle attachment and add 65g sugar and beat until light and fluffy. This stage is really important- since this is the stage which gives these muffins the light fluffy texture. The first three photos shows the different stages of creaming the butter and sugar. 

To this fluffy mix, add 2 eggs, one at a time. It will look split- but this is OK. 

Tiramisu. 

How to make Tiramisu.

The first thing to do is to make the coffee soaking syrup. I made a strong coffee, approximately 150ml worth, and added 30g sugar. Place in a fridge and once cooled, I added 50ml disaronno, however this is optional. 

To make the marscapone cream, there are three stages. 

First, whisk 200g double cream until firm peaks. Set aside. 

Make the Sabayon. Sabayon is basically like an Italian meringue made with egg yolk. Place 3 egg yolk in a mixer with a whisk attachment. In a pan, bring to the boil 60g sugar and 40ml water. At this stage, start whisking the yolks. Once the liquid has been boiling for approximately 5 minutes, (it should've reduced by almost half) pour this into the whisking yolk by dribbling it down the inside of the bowl. It is important that the liquid does not hit the moving whisk- since it will splash everywhere and potentially make sugar nests! Allow the mixture to whisk until it forms a ribbon like consistency. (See third photo.)

The second stage is to combine the sabayon and mascarpone. In a separate bowl, weigh 200g mascarpone. Beat this with a rubber spatula to make smooth. To this, add roughly 1/3 of the sabayon and beat with the spatula until fully incorporated. Once smooth, add the remaining sabayon.  

Lastly, fold in the whisked double cream in two halves. It is important not to fold in all the double cream in one go- as it will lose the aeration. (See fourth photo for finished cream.)

To build the tiramisu, I cut out the sponge with a round cutter which fit the individual moulds. Line the base with the sponge and using a pastry brush, I soaked the sponges with the coffee syrup. I then piped a layer of the mascarpone cream, followed by another layer of soaked sponge. The second layer of mascarpone cream is the top, so I decided to pipe a pattern- it usually looks rather nice once the cocoa powder is dusted on.