The Efx3 Recipe Collection

We don’t have US-style biscuits in the UK; closest thing is savoury scones. I made soup a few days back, veggies with barley and lentils, and had some left over and decided I’d like to make American biscuits to go with it. Found a promising recipe, tried it, and they came out fantastic.

Ingredients:

2.5 cups all-purpose flour

2.5tsp baking powder

0.5tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup milk

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 205C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Method:

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. I used self-raising flour so only added 2 level teaspoons of baking powder.

Cut or rub in the butter (I used salted, either works) until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. The butter has to be very cold for this, and if you’re rubbing it in, your hands must be cold too.

Add the milk and the beaten egg and stir either with a metal spoon or a knife until the mix is sticky, moist and lumpy.

Knead the mixture only enough to bind it. If you knead it too much the biscuits won’t rise as well.

Roll it out to around half an inch thick and cut with a cup/glass/cookie-cutter into circles. Try not to twist the cutter – this pinches the edges together and you’ll get flatter biscuits.

Brush the tops with a little milk and pop them in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick comes out  clean.

Nom!

1. 700g fresh peas, podded and blanched in boiling water for 5 mins.
2. 1 lge leek, cleaned and chopped
3. 1 lge onion, peeled and chopped
4. 4 lge eggs
5. 50ml milk
6. 50g butter
seasoning

Takes about 30 mins to prepare, including podding the peas, and around 40-50 mins to cook
Serves 2.
1. melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan and when sizzling add all the veg and stir well
2. turn the heat right down and sweat gently for 30 mins so the the veg softens but doesn’t brown
3. beat the eggs with the milk and season to taste, then pour over the veg in the pan
4. leave on the low heat for around 15 mins untill begining to set around the edges and underneath
5. put the pan under a hot grill to brown and set the top.

Ingredients:

800g firm white fish, skinless and boneless (I used 200g smoked haddock, 200g salmon, 400g cod)
570 ml milk
110g butter
50g flour
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 tablespoon of capers or gherkins, chopped (optional but well worth putting in)
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and black pepper to season

Topping/Serving

900g freshly boiled potatoes mashed with 50g butter, 50ml milk and freshly grated nutmeg (in my humble opinion, it should be illegal to mash potatoes without nutmeg)

Around 30 mins to prepare, then 30 mins-1 hour cooking time , depending if you put the potato topping on the pie or serve separatley

400f/200c

Method

1 . Put the fish in a baking tin, season lightly, dot with 25g of the butter and pour over half the milk, bake for 15-20 mins

2. Pour off and reserve the cooking liquid, break the fish into fairly large chunks

3. To make the sauce, melt the remaining butter, stir in the flour. Gradually add the cooking liquid and the remaining milk

4. Mix in the fish, eggs, capers, dill and lemon juice, and check and adjust the seasoning

5. At this point you can put back into the baking tin, cover with the mashed potato and bake for 30 mins, but I prefer to serve the mash on the side.

Prawns or mussels would also be good stirred into this!

just a thought, i bet the crumble topping would be good on this

Chocolate cake with chocolate sauce and cream

I use this basic formula whenever I’m making a sponge cake; however many eggs you use, use twice the quantity (in oz) of flour, sugar and butter (for chocolate cake, substitute around 1/4 of the flour for cocoa).  My mum taught me how to make cake and I think the most important part of the recipe is that everything is done by hand – no machines, no packet mixes. Just you and the spoon. ;p

For this recipe I’ll list the quantities you’ll need for two 6″ cake tins (6″ diameter, 1″ deep or thereabouts).

Before you start, pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 6 / 400F / 200C, and grease both of your cake tins (use greaseproof paper – the wrapper of a stick of butter will do – scoop up a little butter or margarine and rub it over the tins so that they’re well coated).

Ingredients:

3 eggs, whisked
4 oz self-raising flour
2 oz cocoa powder (NOT hot chocolate powder!)
6 oz caster / granulated white sugar
6 oz unsalted butter or margarine at room temperature
1/4 tsp baking powder

Preparation time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking time: around 15 minutes

Method:

1) Cut the butter into cubes. In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Using a wooden spoon, ‘cream’ (drag the butter into the sugar with the back of the spoon) the butter and the sugar together until the mix is fluffy, light and pale. Your elbow will hurt. Your forearm will hurt. No pain, no chocolate cake.

2) Pour a little of the whisked egg into the butter/sugar mix. With a fork, beat the egg into the mix until it is thoroughly mixed and not curdled. Pour a little more of the egg in, and beat again. Continue bit by bit until all of the egg has been whisked into the butter/sugar, and the mix is smooth without any ‘lumps’. This takes a lot of vigorous beating. Your elbow will hurt. Your forearm will hurt. You might sweat like a pig-dog. Remember – no pain, no chocolate cake.

3) Balance or hold a fine mesh sieve over the bowl, and sieve the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the bowl. Use a metal spoon to encourage the flour/powders through the sieve. Using the sieve to introduce the dry ingredients in this way ensures that your flour and powders are fine and full of air.

4) Using the edge of a metal spoon, ‘fold’ the flour/powders into the runny mix. Do this slowly, and only with the edge of the spoon. This will take a while, but eventually the ingredients will all be mixed together evenly and you will see no ‘bubbles’ of flour. This ‘edge of a metal spoon’ technique keeps the air in your mixture, helping it to stay light and fluffy so that your cake will raise nicely.

5) Distribute the mixture evenly into your cake tins. Try not to ‘handle’ the mixture too much, but spread it lightly over the base of both tins.

6) Place both tins in the center of the oven (if you have room on one shelf; otherwise, don’t worry too much) and bake for 15 minutes. It is very important that you do not open the oven door in the middle of the baking, as this will interrupt the rising process and make your cakes ‘collapse’.

7) This is perhaps the most vital part of the whole process. LICK THE BOWL!

After 15 minutes, open the oven door and, if you can do it without removing one of the tins, slide a metal knife or a toothpick into the middle of one of the cakes and if it comes out clean, your cakes are cooked. Otherwise leave them for another five minutes and try again.

Turn your cakes out onto a metal cooling rack (if you don’t have one, any clean flat surface will do – or even the ‘grill’ part of your grill) and let them cool off for 10-15 minutes.   When they’re cool enough, spread one of the surfaces of the cake with a filling of your choice, and place the other half on top of it. Spread the top too if you like.  There’s a recipe for the chocolate sauce I make here.

If you want to make a vanilla sponge instead of chocolate, use 6oz of self-raising flour, leave out the baking powder and cocoa powder, and add a teaspoon of vanilla essence. We only use the baking powder in the chocolate cake recipe because we’re substituting a part of the self-raising flour and the baking powder it contains, and because cocoa powder is heavier than flour.

Other yummy alternatives are making the plain (non-cocoa) sponge and grating the zest of one lemon or orange (or both) into the mix. Lemon and rosemary is lovely too.