Tag: caramel sauce

Date bread

If this looks familiar, it’s because it is almost identical in every way to a Banana Bread For Dory (q.v.) but it uses dates instead of bananas.

I wanted to try this out because my friend Becky B brought over a sticky date cake the other day and it reminded me of the packet of dates in the larder I had been meaning to use to make a sticky toffee pudding, but have never quite found the excuse for.

It’s also because I do LOVE that banana bread recipe but quite often don’t find I have quite the right number of overripe bananas to justify it. So I wondered if it was possible with dates. And it is! It is still a sort of date bread, rather than a cake, because it’s not especially sweet, which I think is a good thing. You could definitely spread this with butter, for example. Like all cakey/breads that are not a sponge, this keeps very well in tupperware for a few days.

Becky B did a terribly clever thing with HER date cake, which was to soak it, in the manner of a lemon drizzle cake, with a caramel sauce that she bought from Waitrose – it was Bonne Maman, she said: “Confiture de Caramel”. She thinned it with some hot water, pricked the cake all over with a skewer and then went MAD with the sauce. It was really, really fab. My mother always says that things that other people have made for you are always more delicious than something you have made yourself, but still – Becky B is a terrific cook.

You can also make your own caramel sauce if you are that sort of person – there is a recipe somewhere on here, have a rummage.

So here we go

Date bread

150 veg oil
200g dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
250g dates
75g natural yoghurt
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
225g wholemeal spelt flour (get it from Waitrose)
2 tbs caster sugar or cane sugar

1 Pre-heat your oven to 170C and butter a 2lb loaf tin and line it (YES you must do this, don’t be lazy) and line a baking sheet, too.

1 In a bowl whisk together the oil, sugar, vanilla and eggs

2 Chop up the dates roughly then put them in a bowl and pour over boiling water to just cover them. Leave them to soak for 20 mins then drain them and sort of gently mash them through the sieve to get out most of the water.

3 Add the youghurt to the dates and mix together. Sprinkle over the bicarb of soda, baking powder, and salt and stir again.

4 Mix the date mixture and the sugar/egg mixture together. Then sprinkle over the flour and stir until things are only just combined. Over-mixing is disastrous here so stop as soon as you can’t see any more flour. Spoon the batter into your smugly-lined tin.

5 Sprinkle some sugar – caster, cane or granulated -down the spine of the loaf and then put in the oven.

7 Bake for 45-50 mins.

HOW is Kitty, people say to me. How is she, how is she? I don’t talk about her that much any more because she is just off my hands. She turns two in February but she has been off since she turned 18 months old and could walk, talk, ask for things, watch tv, sit and draw or look at her books, play imaginary games with her stuffed animals, scoot around the kitchen on her little trike and so on. She is an actual person these days and it’s such a relief, I can’t tell you.

When I look back on some of the darker things I wrote when she was small I feel awful, so guilty. But it must have been bad for me to write those things, it must have been like that. She’s now this little chattering pixie, everyone wants a piece of her, everyone wants a smile and to hear her squeak “I’m knackered!” – her first party trick.

I used to dread her waking up in the night – the thought of it made me feel actually sick with anxiety. Now sometimes I wake in the night and hope that she might wake, too and need me. But she never does.

Here is a picture of Kitty with her bunny, her hair a bit wild from her nap. Note how she is gripping the bunny quite hard round the neck – I think she is trying to get him to tell her where the chocolate is. I can get pictures printed on t-shirts, mugs, bags and mousemats for a small fee if anyone is interested?

Though I can see the benefits of babies, I suppose. They are not constantly after your iPad and whatever it is that you are eating. And they don’t have a massive fucking tantrum when you try to stop them from doing incredibly dangerous things.

 

Salted Caramel Brownie Bites

Salted Caramel Brownie Bites

by Pam on November 11, 2013

We had friends coming over for dinner to celebrate a birthday. The birthday girl wanted something with chocolate for dessert. I found a brownie mix in the pantry and some caramel sauce. I decided to make mini brownie bites topped off with some caramel and sea salt. They were fantastic! The key is, to top the brownie with caramel and salt RIGHT BEFORE you serve them so the brownie bites don’t get soggy. They were a big hit with the birthday girl and the rest of us too. Quick, simple, and decadent – you can’t beat that!

Preheat the oven 20 350 degrees. Place cupcake liners into the mini muffin tray.

Prepare the brownie mix per instructions.  Pour batter evenly into mini cupcake tray liners.

Place into the oven and bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the tester inserted into the center of a brownie comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. Cool completely. The top of the brownie bites should have sunk in. If not, use the back of a spoon to press into the center of the brownie to make a well. Once you are ready to serve the brownie bites, spoon a bit of caramel sauce into the well of each brownie bite. Sprinkle the top with sea salt, to taste. Serve immediately.



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Salted Caramel Brownie Bites




Yield: 24

Prep Time: 10 min.

Cook Time: 13-15 min.



Ingredients:

Brownie mix, made per instructions
Caramel sauce, to taste
Sea salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven 20 350 degrees. Place cupcake liners into the mini muffin tray.

Prepare the brownie mix per instructions. Pour batter evenly into mini cupcake tray liners.

Place into the oven and bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the tester inserted into the center of a brownie comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. Cool completely. The top of the brownie bites should have sunk in. If not, use the back of a spoon to press into the center of the brownie to make a well. Once you are ready to serve the brownie bites, spoon a bit of caramel sauce into the well of each brownie bite. Sprinkle the top with sea salt, to taste. Serve immediately.



Recipe and photos by For the Love of Cooking

References

  1. ^ Print Recipe (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
  2. ^ Save to ZipList Recipe Box (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)

Soft meringues on berry coulis

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  • Serves: 4

  • Prep time: 30 mins

  • Cooking time: 30 mins

  • Total time: 1 hr

  • Skill level: Easy peasy

  • Costs: Cheap as chips

This is one of our easy and favourite berry recipes. Fluffy meringues floating on a delicious strawberry coulis is a delicious dessert recipe that serves up to 4 people. Perfect as a dinner party or weekend treat, the gooey meringues and sweet strawberry coulis make a delicious, mouth-watering combination. You could also serve this recipe in a tall glass with ice cream as an ice cream sundae alternative.

Ingredients

  • 300g strawberries
  • 2tbsp icing sugar
  • Juice of 1 lime, to taste

For the meringues:

  • 2 med egg whites
  • 125g caster sugar
  • 300ml milk

For the caramel sauce::

Nutritional information

Each portion contains:

  • Calories317

    16%

  • Fat3.0g

    4%

  • Saturates1.5g

    8%

of an adult’s guideline daily amount

That’s goodtoknow

If you’re not confident in making the meringues from scratch, use shop bought ones instead

Method

  1. To make the coulis, put about 250g of the strawberries, the icing sugar and lime juice in a blender and whizz until mixed. Push the mixture through a sieve to make a smooth sauce. Finely chop the rest of the strawberries and set aside in a small bowl.
  2. To make the meringues: Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl to soft peaks, then gradually whisk in the sugar until soft, shiny and fairly stiff.
  3. Pour the milk into a shallow pan and bring to a simmer. Put dessertspoonfuls of meringue mix into the milk and gently poach for 2 mins. Flip them over and poach for 1-2 mins, until spongy. Do this in 2 or 3 batches. Put them on a flat plate, while you cook the rest.
  4. To make the sauce: Put the sugar in a pan over a high heat, shaking it occasionally, so the sugar melts to a deep amber. Take off the heat, add 2 tbsp cold water to stop it cooking, then put back on a low heat to let the caramel dissolve again.
  5. Pour the coulis into 4 shallow plates. Place 3 meringues on top of each, add chopped berries, then drizzle with caramel sauce and serve immediately.

By Woman’s Weekly

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