Custard Slices: GBBO Comic Relief Challenge Three

So far in my self-inflicted challenge to re-create the Technical Bakes from the Comic Relief GBBO episodes, I have attempted Chocolate Eclairs, and Bakewell Tart, with some reasonable successes. I'm not going to lie - I got a little bit cocky. So I decided that the third challenge to face would be the Custard Slices. For this, I am using Paul Hollywood's recipe from the BBC Food site.

I dutifully purchased the required ingredients, and tonight set about reading the recipe and preparing to conquer the Custard Slice. Then I realised two things. Firstly, I have never made rough puff pastry before in my life... and secondly, I have never made patisserie crème, nor have I ever successfully mastered custard from scratch. Needless to say, my confidence was immediately shot. 

None-the-less, I bravely opened the packet of flour, and started sifting. As with the previous challenges, I will copy the recipe and instructions below, with some photos of the process. These are my main notes from the recipe.

Making the rough puff pastry was surprisingly straight-forward, the instructions were clear - the key I figured out was to handle it as little as possible. I only used about two thirds of the water stated in the recipe until the pastry came together, so stopped adding it then. The rolling, folding and resting sequence is quite time consuming, in fact this recipe is one for a leisurely afternoon or evening bake, as there are lots of steps for mixing, cooling, assembling, and quite a few breaks in between. (It does give you plenty of time to clean up and wash up in between stages though).

I was quite pleased with my pastry, although both sheets did puff up more on one side than the other, and the bottom sheet flaked quite a bit when I transferred it to the tin. 

The patisserie crème was the bit that I was most daunted by, and I think I cooked it a touch too long as I had to work really hard to get it through the sieve at the end but other than that I managed to follow the recipe fairly uneventfully. 

I assembled the pastry and patisserie crème, and finally spread the icing over the top layer. As both my sheets of pastry were a bit bumpy, I turned the top sheet over so that the flat bottom side was facing upwards (I'm all for using illusion to hide mistakes!). I drew on the lines of melted chocolate, and pulled a cocktail stick through to create the 'feathered' effect, and voilà! By no means perfect, but I was happy with the first attempt, and most importantly they tasted great! Home-made is always better than shop-bought! 

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The Recipe: taken from the BBC Food website

Ingredients

For the rough puff pastry

• 225g/8oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• ½ tsp salt
• 200g/7oz butter, chilled and cut into 1cm/½in cubes
• 140-160ml/5-5½fl oz water

For the crème pâtissière

• 500ml/18fl oz milk
• 1 vanilla pod, split down the middle and seeds scraped out
• 100g/3½oz caster sugar
• 4 free-range eggs, yolks only
• 40g/1½oz cornflour
• 40g/1½oz butter

For the icing

• 200g/7oz icing sugar
• 5 tsp water
• 50g/2oz dark chocolate, melted

Preparation method

1. In a large bowl mix the flour and salt together. Rub in a third of the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Then roughly rub in the remaining butter, leaving large lumps.
   
   
   

   

   
   
2. Add the water a little at a time until the pastry just binds together (you may not need all the water).
   
   
   

   

   
   
3. Tip the pastry out onto a floured work surface. Roll into a narrow rectangle about 2.5cm/1in thick.
   
   
   

   

   
   
4. With the pastry vertically in front of you fold the bottom third of the pastry up onto the middle third then the top third down onto the other thirds. This is called a turn.
   
   
   

   

   
   
5. Wrap the pastry in cling film and place in the refrigerator to chill for 10 minutes
   
   
   

   

   
   
6. Take out of fridge and with a rolling pin roll out again into a narrow rectangle and repeat the turn as before.
   
   
   

   

   
   

   
7. Chill again and repeat the rolling and turning once more, so a total of three times. Wrap the pastry in cling film and return to the fridge to rest.
8. While the pastry is resting, make the crème pâtissière. Pour the milk into a pan and add the split vanilla pod and its seeds. Bring the milk mixture to the boil, then remove from the heat.
   
   
   

   

   
   
9. Whisk the sugar, egg yolks and cornflour together in a large bowl.
   
   
   

    

   
   
10. Pour out a little of the hot milk onto the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Whisk in the rest of the hot milk until well-combined, then return to the pan.
11. Cook the mixture over a gentle heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture becomes thick. It will just come to the boil.
12. Remove from the heat and pass the mixture through a sieve into a clean bowl. Add the butter and stir until melted and thoroughly combined.
    
    
    

    

    
    
13. Leave to cool, cover with clingfilm and then chill before using.
14. Pre-heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Line two baking trays with baking parchment.
15. Divide the pastry into two equal pieces and roll out both pieces to 20cm/8in square and 5mm/¼in thick. Then place each pastry sheet onto the lined baking trays, and chill for 10-15 minutes.
    
    
    

    
16. Bake the pastry sheets for 10-15 minutes or until golden-brown and crisp. Set aside to cool.
    
    
    

    

    
    
17. While the pastry bakes, line a deep 23cm/9in square baking tray with foil with plenty of extra foil at the sides. The extra foil allows you to lift out the assembled slices.
    
    
    

    

    
    
18. Place one pastry sheet in bottom of the lined baking tray. (Reserve the prettiest piece for the top.)
    
    
    

    

    
    
19. Spread the crème pâtissière evenly onto the pastry in the baking tray before placing other piece of pastry, on top. Refrigerate while making the icing.
    
    
    

    

    
    
20. For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Stir in cold water until thoroughly combined and set aside.
21. Transfer the melted chocolate into a piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle, and set aside to firm up slightly.
22. Take the custard slice from the fridge and spread the icing over the top layer of pastry.
    
    
    

    

    
    
23. Using the piping bag, draw ten parallel lines along the top of the icing in one direction. Using a tooth pick, pull parallel lines about 2.5cm/1in across the melted chocolate and icing in alternating directions to create a feathered effect.
    
    
    

    
24. Place the slice back into the fridge to set.
25. Cut the finished vanilla slice into eight pieces.
    
    

    

    
    
26. Using the foil carefully lift the portioned vanilla slices out of the tray and place onto a serving platter.
    
    

    

    
    

Mary Berry's Bakewell Tart - Great Comic Relief Bake Off Challenge No. 2

Earlier this week I blogged my intention to work through the technical challenges from the Great Comic Relief Bake Off, and shared the results of my first attempt at Chocolate Eclairs - post here

Today's challenge comes from Episode Two, and it is a great British classic - the Bakewell Tart. This challenge uses Mary Berry's recipe - found on the BBC Food website here. I'm not tackling these in the order of episodes particularly, in fact my only rule is to follow the recipe to the letter - a personal challenge for me as I have a natural urge to meddle with things! As we have spent the weekend visiting the in-laws, I decided to make a Bakewell Tart to take with us, as I apparently am unable to stop myself from arriving on people's doorsteps with hampers of baked goods, like some wannabe Bree van der Kamp (of Desperate Housewife fame), not that anyone has complained to date!

The Bakewell Tart was particularly important for me to get right, as I grew up twenty minutes down the road from Bakewell, and spent a huge portion of my childhood there playing in the park, feeding the ducks by the river, and sampling the local delicacy. I really felt I had to do this one justice for the 9 year old me.

I found this recipe really easy to follow, and everything came together really nicely. The only issue I encountered was that my flan dish is slightly larger than the 8 inches specified in the recipe, and because of that I had a little excess pastry case as the filling didn't come as far up the dish as it should have. But I'm being overly critical at that, the tart tasted delicious! I wouldn't change a thing about this recipe, and it's definitely going to become a firm favourite in our house!

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THE RECIPE (taken from BBC Food)

For the shortcrust pastry

• 175g/6oz plain flour
• 75g/2½oz chilled butter
• 2-3 tbsp cold water

For the filling

• 1 tbsp raspberry jam
• 125g/4½oz butter
• 125g/4½oz caster sugar
• 125g/4½oz ground almonds
• 1 free-range egg, beaten
• ½ tsp almond extract
• 50g/1¾oz flaked almonds

For the icing

• 80g/2¾oz icing sugar
• 2½ tsp cold water

Preparation method

1. To make the pastry, measure the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the water, mixing to form a soft dough.
   
   
   Watch technique0:46 mins
2. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface and use to line a 20cm/8in flan tin. Leave in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
   
   

   

   
   
   
   Watch technique0:32 mins
3. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6 (180C fan).
   
   
4. Line the pastry case with foil and fill with baking beans. Bake blind for about 15 minutes, then remove the beans and foil and cook for a further five minutes to dry out the base.
   
   
   Watch technique1:23 mins
5. For the filing, spread the base of the flan generously with raspberry jam.
   
   

   

   
   
   
6. Melt the butter in a pan, take off the heat and then stir in the sugar. Add ground almonds, egg and almond extract. Pour into the flan tin and sprinkle over the flaked almonds.
   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   
7. Bake for about 35 minutes. If the almonds seem to be browning too quickly, cover the tart loosely with foil to prevent them burning.
   
   

   

   
   
8. Meanwhile, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Stir in cold water and transfer to a piping bag.
   
   
9. Once you have removed the tart from the oven, pipe the icing over the top, giving an informal zig zag effect.
   
   

   

I am entering this bake into this month's Tea Time Treats, hosted by Lavender and Lovage and What Kate Baked, and run this month by Kate. The theme is 'Puddings' and I can't think of a better entry than this classic!

Chocolate Eclairs : GBBO Technical Challenge

Last week after watching the Great Comic Relief Bake Off, I set myself the challenge of attempting the four technical challenges at home. My unwritten rule to myself was to use the recipe from the show (either Paul or Mary's) and follow it to the letter, rather than falling into my usual habit of substituting ingredients.

 

So... the four challenges are;

 

Episode One: Custard Slices - Paul Hollywood's Recipe
Episode Two: Bakewell Tart - Mary Berry's Recipe
Episode Three: Chocolate Éclairs - Paul Hollywood's Recipe
Episode Four: Lemon Meringue Pie - Mary Berry's Recipe

I'm not tackling these in order, but over the next few weeks I will test and publish each recipe and my comments.

Chocolate Eclairs

Chocolate Eclairs

So, this is the recipe that has the most riding on it, as they are Gary's absolute favourites. I have never made choux pastry before in my life, it has always appeared to be one of those witch-crafty type things that no normal person could ever achieve. After watching the celebrity bakers tackle it on GBBO however I was determined to give it a go.

As per my unwritten rule for this challenge, I used the recipe from the programme. I followed this one to the absolute letter, as I had a feeling if I deviated at all, something would go horribly wrong.

Making the actual pastry was surprisingly simple. Because I was a little afraid of this recipe, I weighed out all the ingredients beforehand, so that everything was ready to go, and I would definitely say this is the key to the pastry, as everything came together very fast. There are two points, firstly when you add the flour to the water and butter mix, and secondly when you combine the eggs with the dough, that it all looks like it's going wrong, and the mixture separates and goes lumpy, however power through, and it all comes back together perfectly just as the recipe states.

When cooking the choux pastry shells, again I followed the recipe method to the letter, even going so far as to set the stopwatch on my phone to time the intervals at each temperature. The next time I make them I am going to trust my instinct a little more, as if I am being over-critical the shells were about 1 minute over-cooked. When I cut the shells to make the slit for the cream to fill, a couple cracked as I eased them open. Filling with the cream was simple and straight-forward, however I would emit the vanilla extract from the recipe, as Gary and I both found the taste a little over-powering and unnecessary.

My only hiccough with the whole process was that I tried to short-cut on the chocolate and microwaved it to melt it down. I slightly burnt it at the edge, and the little crystallised bits of chocolate clogged up my piping nozzle making it really difficult to pipe evenly. Overall though, really pleased with my first attempt, and would definitely recommend this recipe to anyone wanting to give éclairs a go!

 

 

 The Recipe (from Paul Hollywood - BBC Food)

 

Ingredients

For the choux pastry

• 65g/2½oz plain flour, sifted
• pinch salt
• 50g/2oz unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
• 2 free-range eggs, beaten

For the filling

• 200ml/7fl oz whipping cream
• 5 tsp icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the icing

• 100g/3½oz milk chocolate, chopped

Preparation method

 

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Generously grease a baking tray with butter.
2. Sift the flour onto a sheet of greaseproof paper.
3. Put 120ml/4fl oz water into a medium-sized pan with the salt and butter and heat gently until the butter has completely melted – don’t let the water boil and begin to evaporate. Quickly bring the mixture to the boil and tip in all the flour in one go. Remove the pan from the heat and beat furiously with a wooden spoon – don’t worry, the mixture will look messy at first but will soon come together to make a smooth heavy dough.
4. Put the pan back on a low heat and beat the dough for about a minute to slightly cook the dough – it should come away from the sides of the pan to make a smooth, glossy ball. Tip the dough into a large mixing bowl and leave to cool until tepid.
5. Beat the eggs in a bowl until combined, then gradually beat them into the dough with an electric whisk or mixer, or a wooden spoon, beating well after each addition. (You may not need all the egg.) The dough should be very shiny and paste-like, and fall from a spoon when lightly shaken.
6. Spoon the pastry into a piping bag fitted with a 1.25cm/½in plain nozzle and pipe 12 x 10cm/4in lengths onto the greased baking tray.
7. Sprinkle the tray, not the pastry, with a few drops of water, and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Then, without opening the door, reduce the oven temperature to 170C/325F/Gas 3 and bake for 10 minutes, or until golden-brown and crisp.
8. Remove the tray from the oven and carefully make a small hole in the side of each éclair to allow steam to escape. Return to the oven and bake for a further five minutes, or until the pastry is completely crisp. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
9. For the filling, whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl until just stiff.
10. Once the éclairs have cooled, cut down the length of one side of each éclair and pipe in the whipped cream.
11. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler or a bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water (do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water) and allow it to cool slightly. Dip the tops of the éclairs in the chocolate and let the chocolate set before serving.

My Favourite Chocolate Cake Recipe



The last few days have been a bit of a whirl of baking ideas, tips and inspirations, and I suddenly have so much I want to share with you all, that I have actually started seven new blog posts, which I am going to have to ration out over the next few weeks! Not least of all has been the wonderful, albeit short lived return of the Great British Bake Off to our screens this week - my mission this weekend is to attempt at least two of the technical challenges from the week - standby for photos!

 

This week's run of GBBO has been every bit as entertaining, inspiring, and memorable as the three main series - my personal highlights have to be Warwick Davies goliath of a gateaux, Bob Mortimer's 'Baker St' cake, and Claudia Winkleman's... well just everything.

 

Let's not forget though that the run has all been about raising awareness and funds for Comic Relief - I for one will be buying an apron this weekend (and definitely will not be prancing around my kitchen pretending I have just been awarded Star Baker!) All the details are here - please take a moment to get involved.

 

Anyway - back to the main title of this post - I wanted to share my absolute go-to Chocolate Cake recipe - it's one I stumbled upon after years of experimenting and never being totally satisfied, and now I can safely say that this is THE ONE! I'm also going interject a few of my own baking essentials - this is by no way an endorsement or sponsored promotion - just my honest opinion on which products work best for me.

 

The Recipe

 

Ingredients (the following quantities make 12 cupcakes or one 8' cake layer - double the batter up to make a two tier cake, or a larger batch of cupcakes)

•  50g dark muscovado sugar
•  25g quality cocoa powder
•  125 ml boiling water
•  62g unsalted butter
•  75g golden caster sugar
•  112g plain flour
•  1/4 tsp baking powder
•  1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
•  1 tsp vanilla extract
•  1 large egg 

 

Step One: Weigh out the muscovado sugar and cocoa powder into a medium sized bowl. I always always always use Green and Black's cocoa powder. I find that the flavour is far superior to any other brand I have tried before, and it gives a really rich but not too sweet chocolate flavour to any bake. It is a little pricey, and this recipe calls for quite a high quantity - especially if you are doubling up the mixture for a tiered cake, but it really is worth it. Anyway, pour the boiling water over the sugar and cocoa powder, and whisk until fully combined. Set this bowl to one side.

 

 

Step Two: In a larger bowl, add the butter and golden caster sugar and cream together. Most cake recipes specify softened butter, which helps make the creaming process quicker and easier. I stumbled upon the Willow brand of butter when it was on offer once in my local supermarket, and it is wonderfully soft, even straight from the fridge. I have used this ever since, and it saves so much time - especially considering I never remember to take my butter out of the fridge in time and then have to mess with the microwave trying to soften it in 2 second bursts. I also only ever use golden caster sugar in my bakes, it's unrefined, and I really prefer the taste. 

 

Step Three: Add the vanilla extract and the egg to the creamed butter and sugar, and whisk well to combine. It is important here to use vanilla extract rather than essence, as the flavour is far better. You need to whisk the egg in well to combine to a smooth batter (above top right).

 

Step Four: Add the plain flour, baking powder and bicarb of soda, and mix well again. You will end up with quite a stiff mixture (above bottom right)

 

 

Step Five: Add the cocoa and water mixture from step one - use a spatula to get all the mixture out of the bowl, trust me you want every last drop! Mix well, until you achieve a smooth, glossy batter as above. The batter should be of an easy dropping consistency.

 

Step Six: Divide the mixture into cupcake cases or greased cake tins, and bake at 180 degrees until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. For cupcakes this is about 15 - 20 minutes, and for a cake 30 - 35 mins.

 

And that's it - my favourite chocolate cake recipe in six easy steps! The cake is light in texture, firm in structure, and incredibly chocolaty without being too sweet, which means it can take a really sweet frosting without being too sickly. For the cupcakes in the picture I chose a Salted Caramel frosting. A dark chocolate ganache works just as well, and you can always add a dash of cherry brandy or orange liqueur for something a little more adult... Just perfect! I've also found that this cake keeps really well for up to a week.

 

Enjoy! V x