Flavours You Love
Hey Bakers!
We're back with more recipes from our latest 'Flavours you love' challenge (in honour of Valentine's Day 💖) ... Maebh's Lemon Drizzle Traybake was the winner 🥳
This challenge was very special, as it was our first in-person challenge meetup since 2020!
Thank you to everyone who showed up, it was so wonderful meeting you all! For the bakers who weren't able to make it... don't worry, we've got you covered -- here you go!
Maebh's Lemon Drizzle Traybake
Ingredients
225g butter or baking spread at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
225g caster sugar
275g self-raising flour
2 level tsp baking powder
4 free-range eggs
4 tbsp milk
2 unwaxed lemons, finely grated zest only
1 heaped tbsp very finely chopped lemon verbena (optional)
For the glaze
175g granulated sugar
2 lemons, juice only
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease the tin with butter and line the base with baking paper.
Measure all the ingredients into a large bowl and beat for 2 minutes, or until well blended. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top.
Bake for 35–40 minutes, until the cake has shrunk a little from the sides of the tin and springs back when lightly touched with a fingertip in the centre of the cake.
Meanwhile, make the glaze. Mix the sugar with the lemon juice and stir to a runny consistency.
Leave the cake to cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then lift out, with the lining paper still attached, and place on wire rack set over a tray.
Brush the glaze all over the surface of the warm cake and leave to set. Remove the lining paper and cut into slices to serve.
Kavita's Raspberry Macarons
Ingredients
For the Macaron Shells
150g ground almonds
150g powdered sugar
55g egg whites (from about about 2 small eggs)
Pink/Red food gel colouring
55g egg whites
pinch of salt
150g granulated sugar
38ml water
For the White Chocolate Raspberry Filling
150g fresh or frozen raspberries
30g sugar
80g whipping cream
230g white chocolate
Pink/Red food colouring
Method
For the White Chocolate Raspberry Filling
Place raspberries and sugar into a small saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Simmer for about 5 minutes or until thickens and remove from heat. Sieve to remove the seeds. Set aside.
Place the sieved raspberry jam, cream and chocolate in a small saucepan. Place over low heat to melt the chocolate. Add pink/red food coloring . Transfer to a small bowl, let cool completely and refrigerate before using.
For the Macaron Shells
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about ½ inch, 1 cm) ready. Preheat oven to 130°C fan.
Using a food processor, grind together the powdered sugar with almond powder to obtain a fine powder. Sift through a sieve into large bowl.
In a small bowl place 55g egg whites and pink/red food coloring. Beat together until well combined. Pour the whites over the sieved almonds.
Place the other 55g egg whites and salt into a mixing bowl. Set aside until you prepare the sugar syrup.
In a small saucepan combine granulated sugar with water and place on medium heat. Using a candy thermometer measure syrup temperature. When it reaches 112°C, start whipping the egg whites. When the syrup reaches 118°C, pour it over the whipped egg whites while mixing continuously. Continue beating until the bowl has cooled slightly, and glossy stiff peaks have formed.
Add the whipped whites over the almonds mixture and using a rubber or silicone spatula gently fold in until combined and smooth. Work the batter until it flows in very thick ribbons when the spatula is lifted.
Transfer the mixture to the piping bag fitted with a 1/2 inch (1 cm) plain tip and pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch (2.5 cm) circles, evenly spaced one-inch (2 cm) apart.
Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons and to remove air bubbles.
Bake for 20-24 minutes. Let cool slightly before removing from baking sheet.
Place the raspberry and white chocolate filling into a piping bag and spread on the inside of the macarons and sandwich them together.
Leave in the fridge in an airtight container to bloom overnight. Serve macarons at room temperature.
Becky's Cheddar Cheese Puffs
Ingredients
1 stick butter (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces)
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 cup (4 ounces) grated sharp cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or rosemary
Freshly ground pepper
Method
In a medium sized saucepan, add the water, butter, and salt, and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the flour all at once. Stir rapidly. The mixture will form a dough ball that will pull away from the sides of the pan.
Remove the pan from the heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. Stir so that the dough cools more evenly. You want the dough to be warm, just not so hot that when you start adding eggs they cook as they hit the dough.
Add the eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition until the eggs are incorporated into the dough. (Do this part in a mixer if you want, or by hand with a wooden spoon.) The dough should become rather creamy.
Stir in the grated cheese, thyme, and a few grinds of pepper.
Heat oven to 218°C. Spoon out small balls (about a heaping tablespoon) of the dough onto a silicone or parchment lined baking sheet, with at least an inch separating the spoonfuls.
Place in oven and cook for 10 minutes at 425°F. Lower heat to 350°F and cook for another 15-20 minutes, until puffed up and lightly golden.
Madeleine's Cheese & Pesto Palmiers
Ingredients
Ready rolled puff pastry sheet
Red pesto (homemade or shop-bought)
Green pesto (homemade or shop-bought)
Cheese
Recipe makes 25-30 palmiers
Method
Roll out puff pastry sheet and spread sheet with green pesto and then the red pesto (not too much, just enough to cover the sheet). Use a fine grater to grate some cheese on top of the pesto covered pastry.
Use something to mark the middle point of the short side of the sheet of pastry. Then, start rolling both long edges into the middle point that you have marked.
Once completely rolled and the two long sides of pastry are meeting in the middle, slice the roll into 1cm slices (sometimes using a piece of thread to cut the palmiers is better as it doesn't squish the shape like cutting with a knife does).
Lay the palmiers on a baking tray lined with greaseproof. Make sure you leave enough room for each one to puff up. Sprinkle each palmier with a little bit more finely grated cheese.
Cook on 190°c for 20 minutes until puffed up and golden.
Malik's Lemon Ricotta Cake
Ingredients
3 tbsp unsalted butter, (43 grams) softened, plus more for greasing pan
5.5 tbsp granulated sugar, (69 grams)
1 egg
6 tbsp all-purpose flour, (47 grams)
1 tsp baking powder, (4 grams)
pinch of salt
1/3 cup ricotta, (81 grams)
zest of half a lemon
1/3 a medium apple, (approx 1/3 cup) peeled and grated
powdered sugar, to dust the top with
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease a 6" cake pan with some softened butter.
In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar together using a rubber spatula. When the two are combined and creamy, add in the egg and mix to combine.
Pour in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir everything together.
Then add in the ricotta, lemon zest, and grated apple. Again, stir everything to combine - there should be no visible clumps of flour or dry ingredients.
Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth out the batter. Bake the cake for approximately 25 minutes, until the cake is beginning to golden on top and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes before flipping out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust the top with powdered sugar.
Here are some photos of the other bakes!
Heewon's
Coconut Macaroons
Archie's Vegan
Strawberry Chocolate Cake
Taoha's
Banoffee Cake
