Chocolate Swirl Shortbread

Shortbread is one of my favourite baking options - quick, delicious and easy. So when, at a barbecue at Faye's house in Costa Rica I spotted this recipe in the Green and Blacks recipe book, I knew it would be a winner. Green and Blacks, for those unfortunate souls among you who don't know, is a marvellous brand of chocolate, and one of my yearnings when I was in Costa Rica. They really know their chocolate. This recipe is kinda fiddly, and I have yet to achieve the uniform round swirliness that I am aiming for. It tends to turn out a bit splurgy, aesthetically, but tastes blooming marvellous. Made them in Spain for Luis, Sarah and Alex and we discussed how rich they were while polishing off the whole lot.

Shortbread 1
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
50g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter

Shortbread 2
125g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
50g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter
100g dark or milk chocolate, chopped into pieces

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2.
1st shortbread: Sift together flour, salt and sugar. Rub in the butter, until the mixture combines. Knead lightly, then place dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Follow the same steps for 2nd shortbread, but include the cocoa with the flour.
Roll out both doughs on a lightly floured surface into equal sized rectangles about 1cm thick. Place the plain shortbread on a sheet of greaseproof paper, place the chocolate shortbread on top of the plain one and then put the bigger pieces of chocolate onto the middle of the shortbread and scatter the smaller shards over the rest of the surface.
Carefully roll the shortbread like a swiss roll, as tightly as possible, using the greaseproof paper. Once rolled, pinch both ends together to prevent the chocolate falling out. Then using both hands squeeze until it is 22cm long.
Using a sharp knife slice the roll into 1cm slices. Lay well spaced onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Bake for 25 minutes until they are a light golden colour. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 14

Toad in the Hole

Another post - can you tell I'm making the most of the kitchen available? Today was rainy and grey - perfect British weather for a very British dish. It's taken from a book by Nigel Slater called Real Food, which has fantastic chapter headings which read like a list of my favourite foods - sausages, sandwiches, chocolate, ice cream, etc. He's definitely a man after my own heart - look at the way he puts bacon around the sausages. Genius! It's definitely a cold weather winter-warming comfort food, but then isn't all the best British food?!

2 free range eggs
125g plain flour
150ml milk with 150ml cold water
1 level tablespoon grain mustard
6 fat, herby pork sausages
100g thinly sliced prosciutto, pancetta, serrano ham or thin streaky bacon
3 tablespoons dripping or lard

Mix the eggs, flour, milk, mustard and some salt and pepper together with a whisk, beating out any lumps of flour as you go. The consistency should be about that of ordinary double cream, but no thinner. Leave to rest for 15 minutes. (Or in my case, about 24 hours because the sausages were off, which didn't seem to do it any harm!)
Cut the skin from each sausage and peel off. Wrap each piece of skinned sausage meat in a piece of prosciutto or whatever you are using. Put the dripping or lard in a baking tin (28 * 21 cm) and place in an oven preheated to 200C until it is smoking. Pour in the batter - it will sizzle softly in the hot fat - then arrange the sausages in the batter. Get it into the oven and bake for twenty-five to thirty minutes until puffed and golden.

My middle was a little undercooked but it's basically pancake batter so it tasted pretty good to me. I think making sure that the fat is smokin' is pretty important when getting the batter to rise properly. I recommend serving with gravy, potatoes and some delicious green vegetables. And not doing any strenous exercise for about 12 hours afterwards - you'll just want to sludge in front of the TV!

Lemon Syrup Loaf Cake

A classic. I would have said foolproof but somehow I managed to screw it up the other day. Think that was my fault, though, for adding a spot of icing sugar to top up caster sugar in a cavalier fashion. Apart from that one small blip this recipe is consistently easy, reliable and delicious. I used it today to keep Lynn and Laurie happy when they got home from work while I made dinner. I'm currently staying with them, making their dinner to make up for taking up a third of their cute little house. So this may not be the last recipe of the week.
Anyhoo, here's the cake recipe. From 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' by Nigella Lawson.

125g unsalted butter
175 caster sugar
2 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
175g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons milk
450g loaf tin, buttered and lined

juice of 1 and a half lemons
100g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/gass mark 4 and butter and line your loaf tin well.
Cream together the butter and sugar, and add the eggs and lemon zest, beating them in well. Add the flour and salt, folding in gently and thoroughly, and then the milk. Spoon into the prepared loaf tin and put in the oven. While the cake is cooking get on with the syrup: put the lemon juice and sugar into a small saucepan and heat gently so that the sugar dissolves.
Bake the cake for 45 minutes, or until golden, risen in the middle and an inserted cake tester comes out clean. As soon as the cake is out of the oven, puncture the top of the loaf all over with the cake tester or suitable implement. Pour over the syrup, trying to let the middle absorb it as well as the sides, then leave it to soak up the rest. Don't try to take the cake out of the tin until it is completely cold, as it will be sodden with syrup and might crumble.

Mmmmmmm. Right, I'm off to bed - been cycling around Cambridge and it's knackered me out!