Stollen Recipe

Stollen

Ingredients 1

500g strong white bread flour

100g caster sugar

1 sachet fast action yeast

10g salt

150g soft butter

250ml full fat milk

Ingredients 2

2 tsp mixed spice

grated zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp cardamom seeds

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

30ml amaretto

100g blanched almonds

200g raisins / currants

125g mixed peel

1/2 tub glace cherries

Ingredients 3

225g melted butter

400g marzipan

Ingredients 4

25g melted butter

icing sugar

Method

• Mix ingredients 1 to a dough.
• Mix ingredients 2 in a bowl then place the dough on top.
• Kneed the dried fruit and spices into the dough.
• Cling film and leave to double in size.
• On a lightly floured top: form the dough into a 16 inch square.
• Brush the top with melted butter (ingredients 3).
• Form the marzipan into a 16 inch by 10 inch rectangle.
• Place in the middle of the dough with a 3 inch border, top and bottom.
• Roll the dough up from bottom to top.
• Cut the rolled dough into 3 equal lengths.
• Leave to rise for an hour.
• Bake the loaves for 45 minutes at 170 C fan / Gas 5 / 190 C conventional.
• Brush with melted butter and dust with icing sugar.
• Leave to cool.
  
  

Baked Creamy Egg in a Crispy Cup

This is a quick and tasty way to cook egg. It's similar to cottage eggs, where the egg is baked in a ramekin without a bread lining, which is still delicious, but you have baked-on egg to contend with when washing up.

Ingredients (per egg)

1 egg

1 slice of bread

butter

2 tsp double cream

1 grind of salt

1 grind of black pepper

Method

Cut the crusts off the slice of bread and roll flat with a rolling pin.

Spread with butter.

Push the bread, butter side down, into a ramekin dish or a muffin tin.

As you push the bread down, folds of bread will form.  You can just press these to the edges.

If you make any holes in the bread as you press it into the tin, rip off a little bread from the top and press it down over the hole.

Crack in one egg.

Season with salt and pepper.

Add the cream.

Bake for 15 minutes at 180 C.

Serve.

My kids love these.  Some eat them with their fingers, some eat them with a spoon, before eating the bread cup.  Come to think of it, I love these with a salad for a lunch or light dinner.

You could vary the seasoning of the egg to your personal taste.  Perhaps some finely chopped parsley or smoked paprika.

Quick Flammekuchen, tarte flambee

I believe tarte flambée, or flammekuchen, is a dish from the Alsace region.  Traditionally a thin leavened bread topped with crème fraîche, onions and bacon lardons, then baked in a wood fired oven.

This quick recipe I improvised one lunch time when there was not much in the fridge for lunch, save for an open pack of ham, crème fraîche and a small onion that my son had brought back from a gardening club at school.  Traditionally, I assume the bread would be leavened with yeast, but this quick version uses self-raising flour.

For the base

Self raising flour, a heap the size of a tennis ball.
Pinch of salt
Half a teaspoon dried mixed herbs
A glug of garlic infused oil, say about 2 tsp
Enough cold water to make a soft dough.

Don't worry if you add a little too much water and the dough is sticky, just add a little more flour until the dough stops sticking to your hands as you work it.
Roll out the dough to an oval or oblong shape to a few millimeters thick.

For the topping

Spoon on a tablespoon or two of crème fraîche and spread evenly with the back of the spoon. Sprinkle with a chopped shallot or small onion. Chop up ham and scatter on top, or use bacon lardons.

Bake at 180 - 200 C for about 10 minutes.