The Return Of The Panettone!

Yep, another panettone recipe!  Actually, that technically isn't true ... it's the same panettone recipe as the first one just with some different flavourings.  Alas, it still only scored an 8 out of 10 from Hubby.  This time it was scored down because I didn't wrap it properly and so it dried out a wee bit.  Technicalities I tell you!!!  Upon arriving home from work he actually commented that the house smelled like real panettone and as I had baked it in a big tin this time (individual portions had been the reason for my two point deduction last time) I felt sure this one was going to gain me top marks.  Lesson learnt, it simply means I need to visit Lakeland to buy a tin big enough to store the panettone in between scoffing sessions ;0)

Butterscotch Chocolate, Macadamia and Cranberry and Panettone
500g plain flour , plus extra for dusting
2 x 7g sachets easy-blend dried yeast
100g golden caster sugar
200ml milk
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g butter, softened
150g macadamia halves
150g dried cranberries
150g butterscotch chocolate , chopped into chunks (Green and Blacks)
To Finish
1 egg , lightly beaten
2 tbsp demerara sugar

Tip the flour, yeast and 1 tsp salt into the food processor fitted with a dough blade. Mix briefly, then add the sugar and mix again. Warm the milk to hand hot and, in a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla extract. Add both the milk and eggs to the dry ingredients and mix to a soft dough. Work the dough in the processor for 2 mins, then leave in the machine until doubled in size, about 1 hr.

Cut softened butter into the processor, pulse until incorporated, leave for a further 1 hr to rise again. Add the chocolate, macadamias and cranberries to the machine, then pulse gently to mix evenly.
 

 
Butter and base line a 20cm deep cake tin. Make a 10cm collar with double thickness baking paper and line the sides of the tin. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly to shape into a ball. The dough will be very soft, so flour your hands well before handling it and work quickly. Drop the dough into the tin and leave to rise for 30 mins. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
 
Brush top of the dough liberally with beaten egg and scatter over almonds. Bake for 45-50 mins until the well risen and deep golden brown. Turn out of the tin and cool on a wire rack. Cut into wedges to serve. Will keep for 2 weeks wrapped in foil, or freeze on the day of making for up to 1 month.

Serves 8
Adapted from both the Good Food Mag, Jan 10 and Nicisme's bread machine recipe over at Cherrapeno

Spelt, Raisin and Macadamia Bread

Recently I've discovered Spelt Flour, mainly due to reading The Ordinary Cook's posts and decided I would like to give this flour a whirl in some of my own baking.  Trying to locate the flour was a bit of a trial, its not as widely stocked as some of the other speciality flours, at least not in my neck of the woods, so it meant a special trip to one of the bigger shops to get a bag ... then I needed to have some spare time up my sleeve in order to get cracking (... and then in order to post this I needed my internet to be working which has probably been the biggest trial of all over the last month or so.  Touch wood everything seems to be going fine at the moment)!

Encouraged by The Ordinary Cook's adventures I've been keeping my eyes peeled for more and more recipes using spelt flour so I was delighted when this recipe turned up in one of my magazines recently.  The bread was delish and the addition of the earthy and oily macadamias helped to even out the sweetness from the raisins and honey.  I really enjoyed the bread, so much so that Hubby didn't even get a look in!  Its great as a change from the normal fruit bread if you are looking to vary things a bit.

Spelt, Raisin and Macadamia Bread
7g sachet, fast action dried yeast or easy bake yeast
2 tbsp honey
250g spelt wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp veg oil
125g macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
125g raisins

Put the yeast and honey with 200ml water in a large bowl and mix.  Add the spelt flour and salt, mix and begin kneading, adding a little more water if the mixture seems dry.

Add the vegetable oil to the dough and knead in well before kneading in the macadamias and raisins.

Cover the bowl with a cloth then leave the mix to stand for 1 hour in a warm place.  Tip out onto a floured board and knead briefly, then shape into a loaf and put in a 500g loaf tin.  Leave to stand for 45 mins.  The loaf will rise to fill the tin a bit more (its not a huge rising bread though).

Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C.  Bake for 25-30 mins until the crust is dark golden brown.  Cool completely before slicing.

Makes 1 x 500g loaf
Olive Mag (can't remember which month but it was this year!)

Chocolate Week - Carpe Diem Brownies

I've come to a decision ~ I'm not weighing myself this week! In fact, I may not weigh myself for the rest of the month cause that's how long it's going to take me to burn off all this chocolate I am only two days in. I should be hanging my head in shame right now, but I'm not. Carpe Diem!

White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Brownies

200g dark chocolate, chopped (I used milk chocolate)

100g unsalted butter

115g vanilla caster sugar

2 tsp natural vanilla extract (I used a good dollop of vanilla bean paste)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

40g plain flour

150g white chocolate

110g macadamia nuts, chopped (I skipped the chopping, I really like the look of the nuts and chocolate left whole/chunky when the brownie is sliced)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly grease a 20cm square cake tin and line with baking paper. (My tin is oblong, maybe 14 x 20cm but it worked just fine).

The original recipe says to combine the chocolate, 2 tbsp of water and the butter in a saucepan but I added them to a heatproof bowl and placed this over a pan of simmering water just to be on the safe side. Stir over low heat until the chocolate and butter have melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the sugar. Remove from the heat.

Stir in the vanilla bean paste (or extract), eggs and flour. Mix until well combined.

Chop the white chocolate into large chunks. Stir the chocolate and nuts into the mixture. Stop stirring as soon as the chocolate begins to melt. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for 35 mins, or until the top is firm to touch. Cool in the tin, then cut into squares.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Makes 20 squares (yeah right!)

Taken from 'A Cook's Book Of Decadence - Chocolate, Coffee, Caramel'

I love the title of this book, it was one of the reasons why I bought it. Can you believe I found it in the bargain bin at my local bookshop!!!! It certainly looks as though it has seen better days and even though this is the first time I've actually made something from it I've probably read it cover to cover at least 20 times in the last year.

There have been a lot of blogs with Brownie recipes on them lately and I've copied down each and every one of them in my notebook for recipes to try in the future but white chocolate and macadamia are two of my favourite food stuffs and helped nudge this recipe ahead of the others. Hubby had to 'sample' three brownies for his taste test before proclaiming them a success, I don't think he'll be stepping on the scales this week either!

I cut the brownies slightly larger than the recipe recommended. If you're going to be naughty then you may as well do it properly! The rest of these will be taken into work tomorrow, Gaz got stuck with a particularly nasty piece of work on the audit today instead of me so I promised him brownies to make up for it! Hope they last till morning ...