Bread and Butter Pudding

Hey guys,

So I hope that you enjoyed my french inspired post of macaroons but today's recipe is a bread and butter pudding. Instead of using bread I tend to stick to brioche. My mum has always made bread and butter pudding and I have never been particularly keen but I over time I have started to warm to it. This is a Delia Smith recipe that has been pasted down to me by my mum.

Just to let you know, I doubled this recipe when I made it.

My top tip is:

Always use white bread, I have found that brown bread just doesn't work that well.

Ingredients:

8 slices of white bread or brioche (I used brioche)
Unsalted spreadable butter
50g of currants
275ml of of milk
60ml of double cream
50g of caster sugar
3 eggs
freshly grated nutmeg (you can use as much or as little as you want)

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and butter a enamel baking dish (2l). Butter all the slices of brioche and cut them in half. Arrange one layer of the brioche at the bottom of the enamel dish. Sprinkle over half of the currants.

2. In a measuring jug measure out the milk and the double cream. Mix them together and stir in the caster sugar and whisk in the eggs one at a time.

3. Then add another layer of brioche, pour over the custard mixture that you have made and sprinkle on the rest of the currants. Pop in the preheated oven and bake for 30-40 mins. This pudding is best served warm and I usually have it with icecream!

I hope that you enjoy this simple but classic recipe.

Anja x

Links:

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/bakingbuddies_ 

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Email: bakingbuddiesblog@gmail.com

My Trip to France in Photos

Hey guys,

So I have quite a few photos which I took when I was away in France because I love to keep my memories and photos so that I can back on them and I thought what better than to show you some of the food and the views that I experience in France. 

Just to give me a bit of background to the holiday. We started the first week in Deauville in a house that belonged to some family and we stayed there for a week. We then went to the outskirts of Paris to go and visit some friends. Although we only stay for the weekend we drove into Versailles and saw the most amazing musical fountains and they're all like a maze and they were just so beautiful. We then went to centre parks where I didn't really get that many photos but some of the food that was amazing. One night we went to a crepe a buffet well my brother ate about five crepes and I only managed to down liked to but I just love French culture so much and to be able to go there and try the food and see some of the architecture and the fountains was amazing to be able to fit so much into just a small space of two weeks.

So now I finish blabbering on here are some of the photos from the week some of these photos are taken on my iPhone and some of them are taken on a Canon EOS 100D.

Some macroons we bought at the local super market. They were so tasty and were the inspiration for my chocolate macaroons with a white chocolate and rasberry ganache. 

We went to a little cafe called Cafe Plumber which was located in the centre of Deauville. 

Macroons I saw in a beautiful patisserie window. 

The Musical Water Fountains at Versailles 

Links:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/angelicbaking_x/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bakingbuddies_ 

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/AngelicBaking/ 

Email: bakingbuddiesblog@gmail.com  

Basic Buttercream Recipe

Hey guys,

So here is a little extra blog post for a friend (Instagram: faithy.b). It is a simple butter cream recipe.

Ingredients:

600g of icing sugar
300g of butter

Optional extras: 

Food colouring
Flavoring extracts
Lemon zest
Orange zest
Cocoa Powder

Method: 

1. Beat the butter for at least a couple of minutes before you add the icing sugar. Then ass the icing sugar little by little so that you don't get covered in icing sugar. Pop a shaped nozzle into a piping bag and fill it with the icing. Then decorate!!!

You can add whatever you want to the icing sugar. Sometimes I add some food colouring or lemon zest to change it up a bit. Sometimes just leaving the icing plain can be nice and adding fresh berries on top or royal icing cut outs.

Hope you enjoy
Anja x

Links:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/angelicbaking_x/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bakingbuddies_ 

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/AngelicBaking/ 

Email: bakingbuddiesblog@gmail.com    

Chocolate Macarons filled with a White Chocolate and Raspberry Ganache

Hey guys,

So as you may know, if you follow me on twitter is that last week I came back from France promising some French inspired recipes. I took inspiration from the amazing patisserie shops and bakeries that were filled with all sorts of hand crafted treats.

Today's recipe is inspired by some beautiful macaroons that my parents picked up in the local supermarket. They were simply delicious. My favorite being chocolate, had a crisp shell filled with a soft centre and creamy filling. So I thought that I would put my own twist on the macaroons which we tried and make up my own recipe. I looked at a couple of other people's blogs and took my inspiration from a variety of different recipes which I kinda jumbled all together to make this one.

So here we go and I hope that you enjoy this recipes as much as I have done, making it.

Ingredients: 

125g of icing sugar
1 tbsp of cocoa powder
200g of ground almonds
3 small egg whites

For the Filling: 

65 ml of pouring cream
100g of white chocolate
50g of raspberries, coarsely chopped

Utensils:

Large metal spoon
Measuring spoons
Piping nozzle (rounded with no extra detailing)
Electric Whisk
2 disposable piping bags
2 large metal bowls

Method: 

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a big baking tray with greaseproof paper and set aside for later. In a bowl, mix the ground almonds, sifted icing sugar and cocoa powder.

2. In a separate bowl whisk the egg white with an electric whisk until you can hold the bowl above your head and they don't fall out on top of you (until stiff). Then bit by bit, fold the egg whites into the dry ingredients.

3. Pop the plain nozzle into the piping bag and pop the macaron mixture into that piping bag. Snipe the end of the piping bag so that the end of the nozzle just sticks out. Pipe 26 small blobs (around 3cm in width) onto the lined baking tray leaving a bit of space between each one.

4. Once all of the blobs are finished smooth each one over with a wet finger. Then leave for around 30 mins to dry and 'form a skin'. After 30 mins pop the macaroons into the oven for around 15-20 mins or until the macaroons feel firm when you touch them (don't press too hard or they will break and crack).

5. Whilst the macarons are cooling you can start on the white chocolate and raspberry ganache. Firstly heat the cream in a small pan until it starts to bubble. Then take the pan off the heat and pop in the white chocolate, stirring it as it melts. Once all of the white chocolate has melted, pour the white chocolate ganache into a bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave in the fridge for 40 mins.

6. Once the ganache has thickened up, add in the chopped raspberries and stir to achieve a sort of ripple effect. Peel the macarons off the baking parchment and pair them up with another one of a similar size. Then fill a piping bag with the white chocolate and raspberry ganache (you don't need a nozzle). Simply snip the end a pipe a blob of ganache in the middle of one macaron half and sandwich the the two halves together. Repeat this step for all of the other macarons.  

And there you have some beautiful macarons. I hope that you all enjoy this recipe and please share it.
Anja x.