When a foodie mentions in passing that they are looking for really good biscotti, how can I not leap to the stove and bake some for a Christmas gift?
I nibbled one of the end bits as cook’s treat; it was very brittle (as it should be, it is designed to be dipped in coffee), the nuts chewy and the chocolatey hits dark and tasty. But the big surprise was the star anise, peppering the tongue with a spiced aroma that was perfectly Christmassy.
The matching of sweet with savoury has always intrigued me, particularly the South American favourite mole. I’ve never tried it but I really must get round to it. Whilst watching Market Kitchen the other day I saw cacao-magnate Willie Harcourt-Cooze injecting a pork shoulder with a spicy chocolate baste. Like him I am often disappointed with pork marinades: the flavour sticks to the outside but doesn’t penetrate the meat deeply, so your slice while nice ‘n’ porky is not flavoured with the marinade. Therefore by injecting the meat the flavours flood through.
While the flavours of the marinade did penetrate the meat the flavour lacked a great deal of the deep cocoa hit I was after. It was savoury and tasty but just not what I wanted. However, cold the next day the flavours had developed further and were much more interesting.
A good recipe, but better the next day.
This was another foray into Jamie’s America
It starts with butter and water boiled together and then flour added with baking powder and salt, with an egg beaten in to bind. That’s your batter made. This was then deep fried for 3 minutes until puffy and brown, then tossed in cinnamon and caster sugar for sweet-spicy flavour. The chocolate was made with boiling full-fat milk and cinnamon, mixed with a little cornflour and sugar until thickened. When it was the right consistency I added chopped dark chocolate and whisked like billy-o until I had a gloopy sweet sauce.
My gripes were three-fold: the chocolate while tasty was too thick and unctuous. It was more like chocolate custard. Next time I might forgo some of the cornflour. Also, the churros were a little doughy in the centre – I tried making smaller ones but the problem was still the same. I’d probably aim for something more like a doughnut recipe next time to get a lighter filling. Thirdly I used nearly every pan in the house! There’s so many things happening concurrently I needed pots and pans galore. (And therefore washing-up galore – ugh).
That said, it was very tasty and pushed lots of sweet / rich buttons, and I can really imagine this being a hit on bonfire night when everyone’s wrapped up warm, or possibly Christmas time as a fun snack. I’ll bring this one out again – with a few modifications.
That old wizard Heston Blumenthal has done it again. I’d seen a recipe on his Times column for a chocolate cake that contained popping candy in the base (also known as “star dust”, “space dust”, “pop rocks” etc depending on your generation). It sounded like too much fun not to do and the perfect opportunity cropped up this weekend so I grabbed the chance to make it. The recipe is here so I won’t regurgitate, I’ll give them the satisfaction of the hits. But I recreated it exactly as described.
Getting hold of the popping candy is pretty easy; there are dozens of eBay sellers who have it and generally sell it in packs of 24 for £2 – £3. It arrived at work and anybody who came into my office immediately had some pressed into their sweaty palms. Generally it was met with squeals of “I haven’t had this since I was TEN!” and people alternately opening and shutting their mouth to hear the crackle echo off their skulls. It was already fun, and I could see it was going to work well.
The cake itself is reasonably labour intensive as it requires three stages (base, mousse, icing) and various amounts of bain maries. It worked a treat though; I said nothing as I handed out plated portions and waited for the giggles and gasps which were worth every melting point. Great fun. In all seriousness what I’d also take from it is using pure roast hazelnuts as a base for a cake – very tasty. Heston as ever is right on the nose when he recommends adding salt – the tang sparks off the creamy chocolate very nicely.
