CHOCOLATE & PISTACHIO TART

Baker junior cooked up this delicous chocolate treat from the Popina Book of baking, a fabulous book that you simply must buy, full of sweet and savoury bakes to suit every taste. 

This rich but not sickly pud is one of many recipes we have tried from the book and one that turned out to be a real hit at the local high school.

BANK HOLIDAY BAKING

Banoffee Pie & Bread Pudding for the Queens Jubilee weekend

Not ground breaking but great for using up left overs

Ingredients

300g oat biscuits

70g melted butter

3 banana's - sliced

300ml double cream

1 tbsp icing sugar

297g Nestle carnation caramel

50g melted dark chocolate for decoration

Blend up the biscuits and add the melted butter

Press into a flan dish with removable base and leave to cool for 10 minutes

Spread over the caramel and refrigerate for an hour

Layer over the sliced banana.

Whip the cream, fold in the icing sugar and gently spread over the banana

Drizzle over the melted chocolate

Keep chilled

Bread Pudding

 Ingredients

500g stale bread (we used bread rolls)

200ml milk

100g sugar

100g butter

200g sultanas or raisins

2 eggs

Zest and juice of half a lemon

Generous grating of nutmeg

Pinch of Cinnamon

Measure of whiskey (optional)

Light brown sugar to sprinkle over the top

Cube the bread and put into a large mixing bowl.

Tip over the milk, stir and leave to soak into the bread for half an hour

Whisk up the eggs and mix in to the milk soaked bread

Add the sugar, butter, dried fruit, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon and whiskey and stir in.

Line a deep baking dish 20cm x 30cm with grease-proof paper and pour in the mixture.

Sprinkle of a good helping of light brown sugar for a sweet crispy top 

and bake in the oven for 1 hour at 170 degrees

Allow to cool and cut into 3cm fingers

Sometimes the old classics are enough!

HOME-MADE CROISSANTS with PAUL HOLLYWOOD RECIPE

A labour of love but worth it. 

Fortunately, Will has the patience and the time for this one.

We love croissants, especially on a sunny Sunday morning and although the shop bought ones are okay,

there's no comparison to a home baked one, just out of the oven and if your lucky enough to have some of granny's homemade jam in the cupboard, then even better.    

We've used Paul Hollywood's recipe, having been suitably impressed with last summers British Bake Off

Ingredients

625 g strong bread flour

12 g salt

75 g sugar

20 g dried yeast

water, for mixing

500 g butter, chilled

1 egg, beaten

Place the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, slowly mix in a little water until the mixture forms into a pliable dough.

(We used our trusty Kenwood)

Place the dough on a floured surface and knead well until it feels elastic.

Return the dough to the bowl, cover and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Return the chilled dough to your floured work surface and roll it into a rectangular shape,

around 60cm by 30cm.

Roll out the chilled butter into a rectangle about 1cm thick, around 20cm by 30cm.

(This was not easier as it kept getting stuck to the rolling pin and breaking. 

We ended up doing it in sections and spreading it out with a pallet knife)

Place the butter rectangle in the centre of the dough rectangle, so it covers around two thirds of the dough.

Fold the remaining dough third over the butter layer, so that the dough is now in 3 layers.

Return the dough to the refrigerator to chill for a further hour.

Scatter some more flour over your table and roll out the dough to a rectangular shape,

around 60cm by 30 cm.

Repeat the folding process, then return the dough to the refrigerator for a further hour.

Repeat this process of folding and chilling two more times, then wrap the dough in cling film and set it aside to rest overnight.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the rested dough to 3mm thickness.

Cut the rolled out dough into squares, each square 20cm by 20cm.

Cut each square diagonally, making 2 triangles from each dough square.

Place the dough triangles on a lightly floured surface with the narrow point facing away from you.

Roll each dough triangle up over itself and curl the dough roll around into a traditional crescent shape.

Place the shaped croissants on baking trays lined with silicone baking parchment

and leave to rise for 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6.

Once nicely risen, lightly egg-wash the croissants

and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Not bad for a first attempt.

We made 24 croissants from this mixture

Baking six for now and the rest for another day - yum.

And there you have it!  A step by step guide to making and baking your own croissants.

Go on, have a go.