Fudge Kitchen

There is a place in Canterbury near the Cathedral, at the top end of the Kings Mile, that smells devilishly divine.  As you walk past you are hit with wafts of warm caramel, indulgent notes of toffee, vanilla drifts of superheated sugar and sinfully rich hints of melted chocolate.  What makes this a real test of will is the sign outside that tempts you in with the promise of free samples.

I'm talking about the Fudge Kitchen

The hunter green shop front gives way to a business that has been perfecting its fudge recipes for over 30 years, using traditional techniques and methods that are nearly two hundred years old.  All the fudge is made in-house in the great bronze fudge cauldron and on the marble slab where, if you get lucky with your timings, you can watch the fudge artisans doing their stuff.

If watching isn't enough for you, then you can always get down and sticky with the fudge yourself in one of their fudge making experiences!  For the cool price of £60 for two people, you can learn the basics of fudge making, put yourself into a sugar coma on free tasting samples and walk out with 4 slabs of fudge to take home.  Not bad value to be honest!  They also do the Fudge At Home kits where you can get scientific in your own kitchen with your very own sugar thermometer and fudge tools and a lot of cream.

We will get onto the fudge itself in a moment, I promise.

For now, let me tell you a little bit more about fudge in general.  Fudge was originally 'born' at a female college in Virginia in the States, not in Cornwall or Devon surprisingly.  Apparently a college lecturer was taking a class in toffee making when the temperature of the concoction was not taken high enough. The end product was called ‘fudge' and in one fell swoop two things were invited; a creamy, delicious treat and the term to 'fudge' something.  

The Fudge Kitchen specialises in American style fudge, using a recipe that relies on the creamiest of cream instead of butter to give their fudge its distinctive, addictive texture and help the vanilla flavour maintain its creamy colour.  They must be doing something right as they now have Fudge Kitchens in Canterbury, Bath, York, Cambridge, Windsor, Edinburgh and Oxford (all of which, coincidentally considering the origin story of Fudge, are towns and cities with major Universities present).  They are a proper Kentish company; their head offices are in Lyminge, not far from Canterbury.   Can't get to a store and currently clawing and the screen to get your paws on some?  Don't worry - they deliver.   You may even get really lucky and find them at a stockist near you.

They don't just do big slabs of fudge. For those of you who prefer your fudge in liquid form, they also do sachets of drinking fudge in a multitude of different flavours, from Tangy Orange to Gorgeous Ginger (I married one of them) and the original Sea Salt Caramel.  You can have these hot in the winter or as a seriously different milkshake in the summer.

Then there are the fudge sauces.  Pancake Day is admittedly behind us, but I'm a firm advocate for pancakes throughout the year and these would make an amazing topping.  They would also be awesome in a sticky toffee pudding, poured over ice cream, in a bread and butter pudding (the chocolate and ginger would be especially brilliant for this), baked into cakes and cupcakes or as an indulgent icing or as a fudge fondue with marshmallow and fruit skewers. 

So that's all the little added extras that the fudge kitchen specialises in.  Now onto the main event - the fudge itself.

The first thing to note is the variety of fudge you can get - from your traditional toffee and chocolate flavours to seasonal classics (at the moment Hot Cross Bun and Lemon and Ginger are on the menu for the spring time). 

You can try a sliver of any of the fudges before you buy one of the enormous, 175g slabs that they have for sale in the the window.  We had come in to build a box to take to the pub for my birthday for everyone to share - a little goes a long way.

We got a 6 slab box for £22 to take home and filled it with Traditional Toffee (very sweet and warm), Vintage Vanilla (pure white with a warm vanilla taste that comes from pods and not essence), Caramel Swirl (made from the Vintage Vanilla fudge which has homemade caramel swirled through it), Chocolate Classic (my favourite, dark and velvety and most definitely not for children - it has an almost bitter edge that cuts through the sweetness of the fudge), Double Trouble (dark chocolate fudge with great chunks of white Belgian chocolate running through it) and Belgian Chocolate Swirl (dark Belgian chocolate and the classic Vanilla fudge swirled together). 

The flavours are like no fudge you have tasted before.  All of them are decadent, rich and creamy; a small morsel goes a very long way and will satisfy even the strongest of sweet tooth cravings. Our box lasted for ages. Half of the box fed 8 people as a dessert, the other half we took to rehearsal with 15 people there who gradually munched their way through it.     

Why not consider something a little bit different from your traditional Easter eggs this year, and go for a box of fudge for the family, or a home kit so you can make your own fudge at home with the kids over the Easter holidays (supervised closely of course!)  They would absolutely love it!

You can find the Fudge Kitchen on facebook and twitter and they have a blog so why not say hello?

If you like (or hate!) what you have read, please do let me know in the comments below or slap me with a cheeky follow, or say Hi to me on my Facebook group or Twitter or Instagram!

Yorkshire Pudding Roast Beef Sandwich

A few weeks ago I was perusing Angela's blog and came across something that stopped me in my tracks.  It was a twist on a classic roast dinner, a roast dinner sandwich if you will.   However this was no normal looking sandwich.  On closer inspection something was rather different about this particular option.  There was no bread....or bap...or roll....or bun...or indeed any other type of breaded product that you would normally associate with a sandwich (did anyone else just have the toaster sequence from Red Dwarf flash though their heads or am I on my own with that one?)

What you had instead was thick cut slices of beautifully rare roast beef layered with peppery rocket and sweet caramelised onions.  In between humungous slices of Yorkshire pudding.  This looked like heaven and I had to try it.

Steve happened to agree with me as I discovered when I got a text message from him asking for it for dinner soon after seeing it on my twitter feed.  It's quite rare for Steve to request something in particular so when he does, I know he is keen!

This was a double whammy recipe for me as well as the leftovers gave me an excuse to try out something I have only ever drooled over the idea of on the television before, but more of that later.

This would work with a hot or cold roasted meat joint but you want to start cooking the Yorkshire pudding and the caramelised red onions about 10 minutes before the beef is ready to come out of the oven and 30 minutes before you want to eat.

Once you have your timings worked out and your beef is merrily cooking as you want it to, you can get cracking on the Yorkshire pudding.  I've tweaked Angela's measurements slightly to work for the type of pan I wanted to use.

170g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
5 eggs
230ml semi-skimmed milk
Enough vegetable oil to cover the base of your baking tray to a depth of about half a centimeter.  Anymore than this and you won't just get a soggy bottom on your Yorkshire, you will get one that is full of oil which is rather unpleasant to eat!

So, mix all your ingredients together and whisk until really smooth and full of air (about 3 minutes).  Stick the mixture in the fridge to chill.

In the meantime put the baking pan with oil into the oven to heat up.  Turn the oven up to 230C (this is why you need to take the beef out now).  Wrap your beef up tight in tin foil and clean tea towels like a toddler and leave it somewhere to catch its breath and rest.  After 10 minutes the oil should be scalding hot.

Work very, very carefully here.  Take the baking dish out of the oven, pour the chilled batter into the dish (it may spit) and put it back in the oven for 20 minutes to cook.  Do not open the oven door during this process.

You will end up with a monster Yorkshire pudding.

 While the Yorkshire pudding is cooking and the beef is resting, get to work on the caramalised onions.

1 red onion, peeled and sliced finely
1 glass red wine
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 glass water
3 tablespoons brown sugar
4-5 springs of fresh thyme
Knob of butter

In a large shallow pan, fry the onions in the butter until soft, then add the glass of red wine and simmer for 3-4 minutes.  Add the sugar, balsamic vinegar, water and thyme and turn the heat up to high to bring it to a furious boil and let the onions reduce until you have a sticky, syrupy mixture.

Once everything is cooked, you are ready to assemble!

Carve your Yorkshire pudding into large squares (quarters makes sense) and then layer the beef and caramalised onions with fresh rocket.  Carefully fold the Yorkshire pudding in half and voila, a sandwich is born! 

I had quite a lot of Yorkshire pudding left over and so I tried out something I have only ever seen Nigella do on television.  I heated up some leftover pudding when I was peckish and poured cream and golden syrup over it.  I then stuffed my face.

Oh my.

This discovery will be dangerous.


If you like (or hate!) what you have read, please do let me know in the comments below or slap me with a cheeky follow, or say Hi to me on my facebook group or twitter!

Lime Cheesecake

I love going to someone's house for dinner.  You feel so much more relaxed than when you go to a resturant, you don't have to be out at a certain time, it's easier for babysitters and it doesn't have to mean a ton of work for the host either if everyone chips in!

We recently got invited to James and Sasha's for dinner.  Well, I say invited.  What really happened was I invited them to us, they thought it would be easier for their baby if we came to them (no hassle organising a babysitter and whilst Ashley could sleep in a travel cot at our house he would still get disturbed when they went home).  This resulted in a change of venue to their place.

I feel like I just invited myself over and asked them to feed me.

At the very least I could offer to bring dessert.  They took me up on this which then led to the challenge of narrowing down what I wanted to make. 

I got back in contact with Sasha and found out what we were eating.  Chinese style with an Indonesian twist.

Right.

About all I could think of to do in that category was Burbur Sum-Sum but I wasn't convinced it would travel well as normally you make it just before serving!  James and Sasha live just one street over from us, so I also needed something that I could physically carry to their place in one piece.   

Instead I started thinking about the flavours that would be prevalent and realised that I could work a dessert around lime and ginger, even if the finished product is not strictly speaking traditional to the Indonesian area!

Key Lime Pie immediately came to mind.

I don't have any Key Limes so thought I would make a Lime Cheesecake with a chocolate and ginger base to contrast against the sharpness of the lime.   This is a cheesecake without any cheese as well, so maybe it's more of a Lime Pie? 

This pie is a bit much for 4 people and would quite happily feed 8.  We tucked in after a wonderful meal cooked by James and there were some appreciative noises around the table - I think people liked it!

Ingredients:

Zest and juice of 5 limes plus 1 lime for decoration
1 tin condensed milk (397g is the ideal size and is the standard Nestle tin)
3 medium egg yolks
2 tablespoons good quality dark chocolate powder (I used one by Hotel Chocolate)
1 teaspoon ground ginger powder
150g good quality ginger biscuits (you want the bite)
150g dark chocolate biscuits (I used McVities Dark Chocolate Digestives)
150g unsalted butter (melted)
300ml double cream
1 tablespoon icing sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 160C.

Relieve some tension by putting the biscuits in a strong bag and hitting them repeatedly with a rolling pin or other heavy blunt object.  You could of course crumb them in a blender, but where's the fun in that?

Mix the biscuit crumbs with the dark chocolate powder, ground ginger and melted butter and press the mixture into a greased baking tray (a foil disposable one is useful for this dish as you can cut it away without risk of the crust breaking.  If you use a traditional baking tray, line it with greaseproof paper).

Bake blind for 10 minutes, remove and leave to cool.  Leave the oven on.

Beat the egg yolks with an electric whisk for 1 minute until light (you could use a regular hand whisk but this will take a while and make your arm hurt), add the tin of condensed milk and beat for a further 3 minutes.

Add the zest and juice of the limes and beat for another 3 minutes (are you seeing the need for the electric whisk now?).  Pour the topping into the cooled base and bake for 15 minutes.

Remove, cool and then put in the fridge for at least 2 hours to set.

When set, beat the cream and icing sugar together until thickened and lightly set.  Pile onto the middle of the pie or pipe around the edges.  Scatter with more lime zest and slices of lime in the middle to decorate or use curls of chocolate or anything that takes your fancy!

Chow down - good for American or Asian dinner parties.  Or British. Or African. Or Caribbean....

Coconut and Pistachio Baklava

I have always loved baklava.  The sticky, flaky, honeyed pastry treat that so many different countries lay claim to, from the alabaster marble sheathed temples of Greece to the snow capped pointed domes of Armenia, has long been one of my favourites.

Steve and I were recently out for dinner at an Italian-Moroccan (it's a thing and a thing that works surprisingly well) restaurant in Canterbury and we ordered the platter of baklava for dessert; 6 minatures in total with three of each variety.  It came out with your usual orange flower and rose flavours, and then we both picked up one, popped it in our mouths and simultaneously closed our eyes and groaned with pleasure.  It was a coconut baklava, a flavour I have never had before in this context and it worked incredibly well.

I have been attempting to recreate it at home and, while not quite the same yet, this is not too far off.  As you can prepare it 24 hours in advance it is the ideal dinner party dessert.  Serve it languidly, reclining on deep cushions with incense scented air and mint tea if you want to go truly authentic but whatever you do, don't supply napkins.  This will encourage the inevitable finger licking caused by this saccharine bite sized pastry.

Interestingly, the traditional ingredients of honey and pistachio were considered by the Turkish Sultans to be aphrodisiacs and the spices, cardamon for men, cinnamon for women and cloves for both, were supposed to balance and bring harmony.

Regardless of any truth behind this belief, this dessert is still a truly tempting treat for anyone.

You will need:

For the baklava
Baking tray - square shaped, perhaps 20cm and a few centimeters deeps
80g unsalted butter (melted)
270g packet filo pastry.  You should have about 12 sheets in total; if it comes in the packet with 6 large sheets just cut them in half.
100g dessicated coconut, plus extra for sprinkling
100g unsalted pistachios, coarsley chopped or blended.  The rougher the better so don't spend ages trying to get them evenly chopped!
70g sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon ground rose petals (available from Seasoned Pioneers, just grind the whole petals)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamon powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

For the syrup
200g honey
Juice of half a lemon
100ml water
1 teaspoon green cardamon pods
1 cinnamon quill
2 tablespoons rose petals

Preheat the oven to 180C

Mix the pistachio, coconut, spices and sugar in a bowl

Butter the base of the tray and layer 4 of the 12 sheets (1/3 of them) onto the tray, brushing each individual sheet with melted butter before layering the next sheet on.

After layering 4 sheets, spread half of the coconut and pistachio mix onto the pastry evenly.

Layer another 4 sheets of filo on top of the nut mix, brushing each sheet with butter again.

Spread the last of the nut mix and then layer the final 4 sheets of filo, brushing with butter a final time.  Make sure the last few sheets drape slightly over the edge so that as you brush with butter the filling is completely sealed in.

Carefully carve the baklava into triangles and then bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

In the meantime, heat the honey, water, lemon juice with the cinnamon quill (snapped into pieces), most of the rose petals and the cardamon pods (cracked open - put the pods in a small bag and hit them with a rolling pin.  Very theraputic)!

When hot, turn off and allow the spices to steep into the syrup.

When the baklava is cooked, strain the syrup over the still hot baklava and sprinkle the remaining rose petals and dessicated coconut over the top.

Allow to cool then carefully remove from the pan and store in an airtight container.  Unless of course you want to eat them all at once.  Don't worry, I won't tell on you! 

Crème Brûlée

I find it very strange (and a bit dishonest) how you can pour custard into a dish, chuck it in an oven, set fire to it and suddenly it becomes one of the most popular puddings of all time just because you called it a fancy French name.  Doesn't seem fair really does it?  It's like one of those Pinterest 'recipes' that claims opening a tin of Heinz soup and pouring it over some chicken and pasta is culinary genius or layers some pre-mix items together and describes them as baking when in reality it's a bit of a cop out.

I guess this is what this is - cop out Crème Brûlée.  Just don't try it with Bird's custard powder - I don't think it will have quite the same effect.

At its most basic level, baked custard is all Crème Brûlée really is and yet because of the creamy texture it feels like one of the most decadent desserts out there.   The combination of toffee like crisp shell and smooth, velvety vanilla interior is an absolute classic.

This is one of my favourite desserts to serve at dinner parties as it does have a wow factor, everyone loves it and it can be made a day in advance and just left in the fridge until required.  You also look like a friggin' kitchen genius.  Never a bad thing.

It is also unfairly easy to make!

Ingredients (makes 6):

600ml double cream (it must be double, high fat content is crucial)
5 egg yolks
1 vanilla pod / 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
100g caster sugar plus extra for caramalising
6 ramekins and a baking dish big enough to fit them all in

Preheat the oven to 150C

Pour the cream into a saucepan and add the vanilla extract or slit the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the seeds and add the seeds and the pod to the cream.

Heat gently to just below boiling point then remove from the heat and allow the vanilla to infuse.

Whisk the caster sugar and egg yolks together in a large bowl, getting as much air into the mixture as possible.

Remove the vanilla pod from the cream if using then gradually pour the cream into the sugar and egg mix, whisking continuously as you do so.  The custard should be smooth, with no lumps and a light froth on the top.

Pour the custard into the ramekins, then put the ramekins in a baking tray and fill the baking tray with hot water (about half way up the side of the ramekins, making a bain marie).

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until just set.  They should still wobble when moved.
Allow to cool for an hour before putting in the fridge to chill.

Remove from the fridge 20 minutes before serving to bring them up to room temperature.

Sprinkle caster sugar on the top and caramalise it with a cooks blowtorch (I always want to sport a visor a la Flashdance when using mine) or under a hot grill.

Leave for 2 minutes to allow the sugar to set hard before serving. 

Orange Blossom Halva Cake

This Arabic dessert is a bit like a cakey baklava in terms of flavour.  Halva simply means 'sweet' and this is a very sweet, sticky, dense and almost soggy dessert.  I use an awful lot of orange and honey syrup (more than The Spicery recommends) over the top of the cake as it cools, completely saturating it so that when you bite in you almost get a mouthful of the orange liquor with each morsel of cake.  Of course the amount that you use is up to you so if you prefer your cake a bit dryer and less like it has decided to bathe in orange I would recommend halving the amount of syrup listed below.

There are many versions of halva across the World, from Greece to India and this is based on a North African version.  It is comprised primarily of ground almonds and polenta and is very, very delicate in terms of structure with a propensity to crumble easily. It would not be my food of choice for a food fight.  You have been warned.

Because it disintegrates so easily you want to make sure you properly grease and line your baking dish to get the cake out in one piece.  Greasing really isn't enough - line the dish with baking parchment, leaving an overhang for handles to pull the cake out with.  You will be grateful for it later!

So you need...

Cake:
1 1/2 large oranges (zest and juice)
3 medium eggs
160g unsalted butter
150g sugar
100g ground almonds
160g polenta
300g runny honey
2 3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground star anise
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Syrup:
300g runny honey
Juice of 1 large orange
200ml water
1 tbsp orange blossom
1 1/2 tsp crushed coriander seeds
1 tsp green cardamon pods
1/2 tsp allspice berries

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Cream the butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well.  Combine the ground almonds, polenta and spices with a pinch of salt then add to the butter and sugar and stir to combine.

Fold in the orange juice and zest and pour the mixture into your cake tin.  Bake for 30 minutes until a knife comes out clean.

Meanwhile bash up the syrup spices to release the fragrances.  Heat the honey, orange juice, water and spices together in a small pan. 

Once it comes to a boil, turn off the heat and allow to infuse.  When the cake is cooked scatter flaked almonds over the top and strain the syrup over the hot cake, allowing it to absorb and making sure that the whole cake is covered.  The more syrup you use, the wetter, stickier and more syrupy the cake will be.  Obviously.

Allow the cake to cool completely before cutting into small pieces.  Carefully.  This thing crumbles into a gibbering wreck at the mere threat of a knife.  It also won't keep for long so you will need to eat it quickly.

How self-sacrificing of you!