June Snack Pick!

I wanted to share my discovery with you today as someone always on the lookout for new and exciting products. My snack pick for this month is Marks and Spencers Chocolate Coated Wasabi Peas!

I'm a huge wasabi pea fan and I'm also particularly excited by anything with a salty and sweet combo. The first thing I notice is how beautifully tempered the chocolate is, super shiny and tempting. The choice of dark chocolate means that a couple of peas is enough at a time - no binge eating here.

I'm not sure whether the wasabi element has been toned down or the chocolate counter acts the heat but it's missing a little bit of the usual wasabi kick... But the crunch from the pea mixed with the smooth dark chocolate more than makes up for it. It was a good balance of sweet and salty and I think this bag is going to last me for a couple of days! 

A Georgie Porgie Thank You

Hi everyone. I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your support and I really hope that you're enjoying my blogging adventures as much as I am. When I started this blog, it was just to fill up my spare time but it's become so much more than that. I would never have realised I had so much potential when it comes to food and cookery if it wasn't for this platform and it's given me a great opportunity to develop myself creatively. It's also opened quite a few doors for me professionally speaking - something that I had never thought was possible through something as personal as blogging, but for this I will be forever greatful. So consider this my thank you to everyone who has supported Puddings and Pies and made it all worthwhile. 

For one lucky winner, I will be personally handcrafting (with love) a big, sticky, gooey, chocolately Mars Bar Loaf Cake. I will then make sure it makes it to you safely and in once delicious piece! All you have to do is like my Facebook page through the competition banner below. What could be easier? 

Chocolate and Raspberry Choux Buns

After my experimental period over Christmas - I've decided that choux pastry is my new favourite. I've got very fond memories of Choux Buns. It's something my mum and I would buy as a treat at our weekly food shop - the caramel ones to be precise. They are the epitome of decadence, naughtiness and never fail to send me into a delectable sugar coma. Having make Profiteroles and a Gateux St Honore, I decided it was time to try my hand at Choux Buns.

Chocolate and Raspberry Choux Buns

You're going to need a batch of choux pastry to start with. I haven't had a chance to write up my personal method yet, but I would recommend you follow this recipe from Delia:

http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/baking/how-to-make-choux-pastry.html

For the filling....

Take one box of raspberries (saving a few for decoration) and place into a saucepan with half a cup of sugar and a dash of water. Heat this slowly until the sugar caramelises and the raspberries break down to make a coulis. Add a squeeze of lemon juice to taste. 

Sieve the coulis into a bowl or jug and put to one side to cool. 

Next it's time for the Chantilly cream. In a mixing bowl, pour 300ml double cream, 1 tsp vanilla paste, 100g icing sugar. Whisk until the cream is nice and think. Put in the fridge to chill. 

Melt 1 large bar of dark or milk chocolate (up to your preference) in the microwave, or over a pan of simmering water. Dip the top of each choux bun into the chocolate for a nice coating and put aside to set. 

Once the chocolate has set, spoon a good amount of cream into the bottom case of the choux bun, add the raspberry coulis and sandwich the chocolate covered top onto your mountain of goodness.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Rainbow Cake

We've all seen variations of the rainbow cake. Layers of gorgeous, jeweled colours smothered with fluffy frosting. They're almost too spectacular to eat. Almost. 

This is my variation on the rainbow craze, a birthday cake for my colourful, crazy friend. The sponge is raspberry flavoured and the buttercream is laced with white chocolate. Instead of several different coloured layers, I've gone for the lazy and slightly psychedelic pools within the sponge layours.  

White Chocolate and Raspberry Rainbow Cake

Ingredients

225g unsalted butter, very soft

225g caster sugar
4 large eggs
200g self-raising flour
25g cornflour 
3-4 tablespoons milk

Raspberry Extract

A variety of food colourings.

150g soft unsalted butter

1tsp vanilla extract

375g icing sugar

150g white chocolate (melted)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C / gas mark 4 and line two sandwich tins. 

Cream the butter and sugar together then add the raspberry extract. 

Add the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour between each. Fold in the rest of the flour and the cornflour.

Add a little milk to loosen the mixture slightly.

Separate the mixture into as many different bowls as you have colours. Add colours! 

Spoon each colour into the sandwich tins. Feel free to create crazy patterns. I opted for one colour inside another until they formed rings.

Bake for 25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Turn them out and leave on a wire rack to cool.

Whisk the melted chocolate, vanilla extract and butter together. 

Sieve in your icing sugar gradually and whisk until you have a light and fluffy buttercream. 

Ice your cake! 

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Who says vegan baking can't be awesome? This is a great chocolate cupcake recipe with no dairy products and a little fruit surprise in the middle. This recipe is converted from a US version so apologies for the strangely accurate measurements. You can also use the recipe for a normal vegan chocolate cake rather than cupcakes. Just use sandwich tins or a spring-form cake tin.

Cake Ingredients

384g Plain Flour

6 Tbsp Cocoa Powder (I recommend Green and Blacks)

2 tsp Baking Powder

400g Caster Sugar

1 tsp Salt

10 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

2 Tbsp White Vinegar

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

473ml Water

1 Fresh Raspberry for each cake you bake

Chocolate Frosting

6 Tbsp Pure Vegan Spread

2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

100g Icing Sugar

Preheat your oven to 170C. 

Take a bix mixing bowl and add all of your dry ingredients. Mix them all together.

Make a well and add the liquid ingredients.

Whizz together with an electric whisk.

Pour the mixture into your cupcake cases and into the middle of each cake, place your fresh raspberry.

Bake for 25 minutes. 

To test if they are done, skewer the middle and it should come out clean.

Leave the cakes to cool on a wire rack.

Take another mixing bowl and add the vegan spread. Whisk until light and fluffy.

Add the cocoa and icing sugar (adding more if not thick enough) and whisk until combined.

Once the cakes have cooled, pipe or spread the buttercream on top and enjoy!

Wilcox Wedding Cakes

On a side note: Puddings and Pies is now on Facebook! Please take a moment to like this page here.

Last month I undertook my first ever wedding order. 60 cupcakes, half of which were to be vegan, alongside appropriate decoration and cake toppers.

We opted for Stem Ginger cakes with Lemon and Honey Buttercream and Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream and a Fresh Raspberry Center.

I will be posting the recipes for these later on, but for now let me just leave you with some pictures of the display.

I'm available for any function or party, just send me an email at georgie.wishart@gmail.com

Boozy Choccy Bread Pudding

Alcohol! Chocolate! White Bread! Pudding! You're happy now right? This dessert requires absolute minimal effort with maximum delciousness at the end of it. You can even put it together whilst cooking your dinner, and who thought they had time to do that anymore?

This is a bit stolen and adapted from a Nigella recipe, and I'm told that the consistency is a bit more 'bread and butter pudding' than 'bread pudding'. But as long as you're shoveling chocolate and boozy bread into your mouth, it's pretty much impossible to notice. 

Boozy Choccy Bread Pudding

Serves 2 fattys like myself and Rob, or a normal family of 4.

• 4 slices of white bread (as stale as possible) cut into chunks
• 1 120g bar galaxy chocolate, broken into small pieces
• 2 eggs
• 40g soft light brown sugar
• Half a cup of creamy liqueur of your choice (I used Marks and Spencers Toffee and Pecan Cream)
• Half a cup of double cream or crème fraîche
• Half a cup of milk
• Demerara sugar for sprinkling
   

Directions

Preheat your oven to 180C.

Place the bread and chocolate (evenly mixed) in an ovenproof dish.

In a jug, add the milk, cream, liqueur, brown sugar and eggs. Whisk until combined. 

Pour the mixture over the bread and chocolate and press down on the bread so that it soaks up as much of the liquid as possible. 

Sprinkle over a good helping of demerara sugar and bake in the oven for 20 mins or until the top is golden brown and crispy.

The Chocolate Covered Flapjack Cake

I love birthdays. Other people's birthdays that is and never my own. There is too much pressure surrounding your own birthday when really you'd rather be hiding in a dark cavern and praying to a God that you won't get any older. But other people's birthdays are great. As long as it's not you having to look at those never ending, accelerating numbers on the front of a hilariously offensive card. A big reason I love birthdays is because I love to spend hours choosing the perfect present for someone and anxiously watching them open it. It gives me a rush once I see their delighted face and realise that all that time and effort has paid off. It's also a great reason to bake and eat cake! 

As a relatively new recruit in my office, I hadn't yet had much of a chance to show off my skills in the kitchen. But when the boss' birthday arrived, I jumped at the chance to bake a cake for the occasion. It was unknown what his favourite flavour was and so I had decided on a safety Brooklyn Blackout chocolate cake, courtesy of my Hummingbird Bakery book. This was the plan until last week, when there was a scrum over a flapjack. Occasionally we get a visitor to our office who comes to use one of our desks and will always bring a hamper of treats for us. One of the treats this time was said flapjacks (a pack of 3). I heard a commotion coming from the kitchen to discover that one of our editors was contemplating the last flapjack, much to the boss' dismay. Suddenly it dawned on me. I had to make a flapjack cake! 

I spent a few hours googling 'flapjack cake', only to find normal trays or bars of flapjack. No cake shaped beings in sight. So I took it upon myself to create one. 

Here is my recipe for:

 Chocolate Covered Flapjack Cake

Ingredients:

450g Oats

300g butter
75g demerara sugar
6 Tbsp Golden Syrup

2 big bars of chocolate

Your favourite cake decoration

Directions:

1. Line two sandwich tins with greaseproof paper and preheat your oven to Gas Mark 4
2. In a saucepan over a low heat, place the butter, sugar and syrup. Stir until melted.
3. Take the pan off the heat and add the oats. Stir until all of the oats are covered in the mixture.
4. Distribute the mixture between your two sandwich tins and pat down with the back of a spoon.
5. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden and starting to crisp on the outsides.
6. Flip your flapjacks out onto a cooling rack or plates and pop in the fridge to cool.
7. Once they have cooled, melt two big bars of chocolate in your microwave, stirring every 30 seconds.
8. Spread a thin layer of chocolate over the top of one of your flapjack layers.
9. Place the other layer on the top.
10. Spread the remaining chocolate over the top and decorate in any form you see fit!
11. Place back in the fridge for the chocolate to set.
12. Make sure you take the cake out of the fridge a few hours before eating for the flapjack to soften!

Outsider Tart

Wide leafy roads. Delicatessens. Hazy afternoon sun. Yummy mummys guarding their Mamas and Papas pram whilst indulging in skinny lattes and artisan croissants. It can only be Chiswick. Those who have been to Chiswick will know how appealing it's peaceful streets can be. Filled with quality shops, restaurants and a few good old gastropubs, Chiswick mixes London style perfectly with suburban heaven. Of course, you have to be disgustingly wealthy to have a nice house here, unless you fancy renting a pool-house cupboard for your entire months salary. 

That doesn't stop me dreamily wandering it's streets and staring through windows at things that I will never be able to afford. But food is a necessary expense. At all times. Let me introduce you to one such necessity. Outsider Tart is run by a couple of New Yorkers, living the Chiswick dream, and sharing the American love for a great piece of cake. Their menu never ceases to confound and amaze me. From brownies to cookies to the up and coming trend of whoopie pies, if you need an excuse to sit down for a brew then look no further.

We first discovered Outsider Tart at an international Southbank Food Festival. My eyes meeting with a delectable selection of brownies and whoopie pies across the crowded courtyard, there was no way I couldn't just have a look. Despite having sampled many of the great food on offer already, including a huge piece of Apple Strudel, a Maker's Mark brownie had found it's way into my hands for later and a whoopie pie had made it's way into Robs hands for immediate consumption. I've only previous tried supermarket whoopies, but this had no contention. The beautiful chocolate sponge with the marshmallow centre melted in my mouth and made me want to raid the rest of their stall. I needed all of the whoopies. 

I'm of the opinion that no brownie at all is better than an average brownie, and I have been questing to find that moment of brownie heaven for quite some time now. I like my brownies squidgy and rich with a crumbly outside and the closest I've come to that, surprisingly, is Pret's chocolate brownie. But that all changed the moment the Outsider Tart brownie hit my belly. I was in brownie heaven. Four times the size of the meagre Pret brownie, this was fudgy, crumbly and sickenenly good. I tried to savour it, I really did, but it was gone in a matter of minutes. I'm also a big bourbon fan, so the additional Makers Mark flavouring made it all the better.

Since that day, Rob and I had been obsessing of their website and the sweet memory of those treats. But last weekend, I finally had an excuse to visit the place itself! I could not contain my excitement. After a stroll and a bit of book shopping, we finally arrived at our tasty destination for the true American experience. Another great factor of Outsider Tart is their huge selection of teas. As a tea freak, I had serious trouble in deciding what to have. I settled on a Teapigs chilli chai whilst Rob went for a cream soda (of which there were 3 varieties to choose from!). The shop is full of US goodies, stocking a huge variety of peanut butters and other treats. 

There were so many delicious looking cakes to choose from. I opted for the Mile High Bar. Is it a brownie, is it a cake, is it a cookie? I have no idea, but it tasted beautiful. Chewy cranberrys, fudgy chocolate and crunchy biscuit made this an explosion of textures and flavours - a joy to eat. Rob sampled what appeared to be an oatmeal whoopie, although I couldn't tell you for sure. Full of dried fruits and nuts, his treat felt as though you were eating something remotely healthy. Balanced with the creamy centre, getting your mouth around this was an exciting feat. Our only problem this time was finishing our treats. We had to take a doggy bag home, although I think we managed to get about 10 minutes down the road before I was snuffling for the bag again. 

Migraines, Fish and Parmigiana

Naughty me, been too long since I last posted. So as a treat, here is a video of how to gut a fish, starring the beautiful (subject to opinion) ME! It's also sound-tracked to Hot Kiss by Juliette and the licks which is highly inappropriate as a soundtrack for a disgusting fish gutting.

Enjoy!

So over the last few weeks, when I haven't been busy, a few delicious things have been cooked. One particularly lazy Saturday where I literally had NOTHING else to do, I decided to do a bit of rib experimentation after acquiring two big, tasty racks of beef ribs at Borough Market. As it was a Saturday, you can see that there are no vegetables on my plate... but that's fine, because it was TREAT DAY.

These ribs were, however, a labour of love as they took seven hours to cook. Seven.
You cover them in american mustard and a lot of spices, cook for several hours and then add the most delicious marinade over the top of the crust that has developed. It is mainly sugar.... but it tasted fantastic.
The outcome was some extremely good ribs. The only downside I would say is that after seven hours you would assume the meat would be so tender it just fell off the bone... it was actually a bit tough. We tried another ribs recipe later on in the week... and it was horrific.

Tonight (another treat day!), we cooked Pork Parmigiana. (Tesco didn't have any veal).This was basically pork escalopes in herby breadcrumbs, cooked in a tomato, anchovy and chilli sauce and then gratin-ed with mozzerella over the top. A bit too rich for me, and I think the sauce would have been better as a marinara without the anchovies.

Here are two new products I've tried recently. 

AMAZING. I am addicted. Dried mango is the best thing since sliced bread... and as a bonus, they sell it in Pret!

Now this one was purchased merely because I have had a 3 day migraine and I didn't think chugging half a litre of cider would do it any good. This way I could trick my brain into thinking I was drinking it without the physical consequences. The best part about this is, I was ID'd. Someone please explain to me how that makes any logical sense. You may as well have ID'd me for orange squash. The drink itself seems that if you take away the alcohol, you are basically drinking pear drops. It is inanely sweet. Too sweet. And that's a lot coming from me, the queen of sweet tooth, the girl who ate so much sugar last week she got a sugar hangover. Maybe I'll put some gin in it to balance things out.

Also, I thought I'd give you a little insight into my shopping habits.

Firstly there's this. The BEST shop ever. Two types of cookies, Baileys, chocolate, molasses sugar, butter, double cream, whole milk, eggs and cornflower. This isn't a normality for me, I had just decided to make a chocolate cream pie to take my mind away from the London Riots. Keep calm and make pie.
Plus the Baileys was on offer in Tesco - £10 for a litre bottle. 

This was the parmigiana shop. Plus the non alcoholic ciders. And some Rubicon - something my boyfriend thinks he will buy shares in because he is so in love with it and thinks that it's a hidden treasure. 

Oh, and Migraine patches :)
My migraine is in no way an indication that I drink too much red wine. I'm pretty sure the wine helps fend off other potential migraines... this one just slipped through.

Keeping the Marriage Alive.

Good evening blog readers. It's raining in London, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying a good date. Yes, this evening I was accosted and taken out by my dashing other half (we are not married by the way, he won't even take the hint. HINT HINT.) We decided to pop on the tube to Westfield as it is on our line and has a large amount of tasty food places in a small area... although this can often be bad, as both of us are extremely indecisive. Especially when so much deliciousness is involved.

So tonight, as the boy was paying (*sigh* should have dug my feminist heels in VS. *teehee* girly giddyness), he decided on 'Mandaloun', a Lebanese restaurant that, from the outside, looked buzzing with young, fashionable people smoking shisha pipes and enjoying delicious mezze. 

Now, I'd like to point out that I absolutely love mezze cuisine, and the ability to eat lots of different, small dishes. It's the ultimate 'try a bit of everything' menu, which is great for me because I ALWAYS want everything on the menu.
There was a member of the front of house staff stood right by the entrance, however she barely acknowledged us. We stood there politely for about 5 more minutes until she looked again and we tried to signal that we'd like a table for two. She asked in a mumbled voice 'Shisha?', to which we replied that No, we were here to eat. She gestured for us to go inside, where the host took notice of us and lead us to a nice table for two at the back.

There were lots of lovely, comfy looking booths in the main part of the restaurant, along with beautiful hanging lanterns, but it felt wrong to ask for one of those lovely, big, comfortable and cushy booths for just the two of us, despite that fact that I love to eat in booths. It's great for couples who are still in love and actually appreciate being close to each other and sharing food. But we settled for the small wooden 'for two' table.

There was a huge selection of food and wines to choose from, which is always great, but we thought it easier to order the 'Grand Mezze' selection for 2 people. This came to £44.00 for the two of us, as well as this I ordered a large house Lebanese Red and my other half ordered a Mango Juice. The food came pretty quickly, despite having to wait a while to place our order. But where was my wine? I enjoyed those few strong sips before a meal that inevitably always make my meal more enjoyable. We tucked in regardless. We were presented with a selection of hummus  falafel, stuffed vine leaves, pitta breads, salad, minced lamb parcels and filo pastry parcels. The vine leaves were beautiful - they were moist and flavoursome, and I very much enjoyed them. The hummus (it seemed there were two different varieties - a smooth and a chunky one) were also nice. There was also a sort of moussaka sauce with onions and peppers which was very tasty, despite the fact that neither of us like aubergines. But the rest was a little disappointing unfortunately. The falafel and parcels were very dry... OH! My wine has showed up - great! I really could of done with that about twenty minutes ago. At least now it will help with the dryness of my mezze items... oh? Oh. It is extremely rough. Plus it's also a small glass when I asked for a large. Always disappointing.


We were then presented with the second part of our mezze.


I'd like to point out that the waitresses that cleared our table and brought our food were very lovely and smiley.

The main part was a mixed grill of lamb and chicken shish and donor meat.
The lamb shish was INCREDIBLE. Perfectly cooked with a tender and succulent pink middle. The chicken shish was passable, but the donor meat was all too greasy for me. My date had turned from beautiful restaurant wine and dine to glorified kebab shop outing. Shouldn't I have at least done a few tequilas prior?

This all came to about £65.00... including a 12.5% service charge, which I think was downright cheeky seeing as we didn't have one permanent waiter/waitress to give it to and our drinks were incredibly late. I don't think that Mandaloun is somewhere I would be returning to... My boyfriend did enjoy it though, which is good at least :)

We then journeyed to 'The Bull', and I ordered a LARGE Cabernet Savignion, cuddled up in a cosy chair and relished in the warm, smooth taste of my wine. A good ending to the evening.


I would also like to point out that my boyfriend, fantastic and handsome as he is (*vomit* I Know, Right?), returned home today with not only the intention to take me out for dinner, but a chocolate tart. Not any chocolate tart, but a 'River Cottage Deli' chocolate tart. YES! It was so delicious. The pastry was a deep, dark and rich chocolate, and the filling was so smooth and perfect that I could have died... or orgasmed... or both. I thoroughly suggest that everyone has a chocolate tart for breakfast.