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.

Dorset Apple Cake with a Plum Jam Glaze

I found out at an early age that my name, Georgina, means 'girl of the farm'. I also come from Dorset. This means that I occasionally get teased about my southern, farmer nature. When I find my farmer-esque accent slipping in to my daily speech, I panic and run and hide from my heritage. But today I'm celebrating Dorset! It's a beautiful county with so many things going for it. One of which is the Dorset Apple Cake. 

My dad and his girlfriend have an apple tree in their garden and recently gave me a large bag of apples to use up. What better way then to stick them all in a cake? Then eat the cake. The glaze is another creation of leftovers, as I had some leftover cider from my cassoulet and half a jar of plum jam looking a bit lonely in the fridge.

Dorset Apple Cake with a Plum Jam Glaze

Recipe adapted from Delicious Magazine 

This is a great cake to be eaten while it's still warm, so don't wait to tuck in!

Ingredients

For the cake:

225g butter, softened

450g apples

1 lemon - zest and juice

225g caster sugar

3 large eggs

225g self-raising flour

2tsp baking powder

25g ground almonds

Demerara sugar for topping

For the Glaze

3 tbsp Plum Jam

50ml Dry Cider (Optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Grease a springform cake tin and line with baking paper.

Peel, core and cut the apples into small pieces and toss with the lemon juice.

Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest in a bowl until fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, adding a little flour with each addition to keep the mixture smooth.

Sift the remaining flour and the baking powder into the bowl and fold in with the ground almonds.

Drain the apple pieces well and then stir into the mixture.

Pour into the cake tin and level the mixture.

Cover the top with demerara sugar.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until well-risen and brown. To test, poke a skewer into the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean then it's ready! If the cake is browning too much, make it a hat out of baking paper to protect the top.

Whilst the cake is cooking, melt the jam and cider together in a small saucepan. Leave this to cool and  set.
Once the cake is out, leave it to cool in the tin for ten minutes.

Remove the cake from it's tin and pop onto a plate. Use a pasty brush to cover in the jam glaze.