Category Archives: Almonds

Victorious dahlias and vanilla almond toffee

26 Sep, 2012

Do you like a bit of gentle competition? I do. It brings a little frisson of tension to an endeavour and can encourage me to to do better. And it’s fun too – especially for the winner! A neighbour in our village grows the most glorious dahlias, blooms that steal the ‘Best in show’ prizes across the village and county fairs. At this time of year, I love to walk through the smallholding where he painstakingly nurtures an astonishing variety of these lovely flowers, and sometimes I am given a few to bring home.

I also entered a little competition this week. Vanessa Kimbell, warm-hearted foodie extraordinaire, together with Fortnum and Mason, Ndali Vanilla and the fabulous Faritrade association, hosted a contest and food gift exchange for food writers, bloggers, and like minded souls.

I wanted to tell you this at the end, but I can’t hold back – I won! My winning offering was this Almond Butter Toffee, dusted with Ndali Vanilla and flakes of sea salt. The recipe is below.

Fairtrade is all about helping farmers and growers, particularly in vulnerable parts of the world, achieve fair prices and wages for their products and labours. I’ve learned quite a lot about this from my young son as his school encourages Fairtrade education projects. The farmers who produce Ndali Vanilla in Uganda are able to send their children to school and feed their families because they receive a fair price for their crop. Fairtrade makes a world of difference to people’s lives and I am keen to support it – if you would like to learn more, take a look at their website. My friend Vanessa, through her connection with Ndali, is a wonderful ambassador for Fairtrade and she organised the gift swap to raise awareness and support.

The competition had four categories: confectionary, biscuits, cakes and preserves. Food writer Lucas Hollweg, Chantal Coady of Rococo Chocolates, and a couple of the Fortnum and Mason buying team judged the entries. I gulped when I saw that Chantal was judging the sweets – if anyone knows about chocolate and aromatics in sweeties it’s Chantal, and I’m certain she must be hard to impress. By the way, her new book – Rococo, Mastering the Art of Chocolate – is due out on the shelves very soon. I had a sneak preview and it is extraordinarily beautiful. I can’t wait to get my own copy.

So here it is, the winning recipe!

Almond Butter Toffee with Chocolate, Vanilla and Sea Salt

Now before you start, there are a few things to note about making this toffee. Even though it is quite a simple recipe, working with sugar can be a bit tricky. It’s science and artistry all wrapped up together! It is best to use a candy thermometer to ensure you have the caramel to the right stage. Not hot enough – the result will be too soft, too high – you will burn the sugar. Make sure you use good cane sugar (ideally Fairtrade!) as it makes all the difference to the end result. Also, get everything ready before you start. Have hot gloves to hand and keep the decks clear and tidy. Hot bubbling caramel deserves your full attention and respect!

For the toffee:

280g butter, unsalted

225g caster sugar

100g light brown muscovado sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

45ml water

200g almonds, roughly chopped

For the covering:

350g milk chocolate – choose a good rich flavoured one – broken into small squares

150g almonds, toasted and coarsely ground

1 teaspoon Ndali vanilla powder

1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes

Line a large baking tray (with sides) with baking paper.

In a heavy medium pan, melt together the butter, sugars, salt, and water. When the sugar is dissolved, allow the mixture to boil over medium heat, stirring often, until a rich golden caramel develops and the temperature reaches 290 degrees. I use F as that is what is on my thermometer. This will take longer than you expect, about 15 minutes. Add the chopped almonds and stir them in, then allow the temperature to come back up to 290-300 degrees. Remove from heat and pour right away into the lined baking sheet.

Give it a few moments to cool, then dot the toffee with half of the chocolate bits. As it melts, spread it over to cover the toffee. Sprinkle with the ground roasted almonds, sea salt flakes, and the vanilla powder. Allow to cool completely. Melt the remaining chocolate. Turn the toffee over and cover the other side with melted chocolate, almonds, sea salt and vanilla powder. Again, leave to cool completely. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

So, would you like to know what I won? Well, I can hardly believe it myself. I won a beautiful stand mixer from Kenwood. (much desired). I also won a lovely hand mixer from Kenwood for second prize in the biscuit category – my Pecan and Vanilla Butter Biscuits. And the fabulous prize from Fortnum and Mason, a magnificent hamper. I am so delighted, these are prizes I will treasure and truly appreciate.

Some of you might know that we are fixing up (and living in) a rustic old sixties house. I’ve come to really appreciate Midcentury style and these dahlias have just the esthetic of that era, don’t you think? I’ve placed a vase of them on my old Danish G-Plan table for you to see.

Thanks for visiting. More soon. Px

in Allotment, Almond Toffee, Almonds, Artistry, Baking, Chocolate, Fairtrade, Photography, Uncategorized, flowers | Comments (13) Read more...

Travels to Kefalonia – and a wedding.

16 Jun, 2011

I’ve been on the road. There’s nothing quite so exciting as a voyage is there? That’s how I feel – and especially so of travel to a place I’ve never seen before. So with much delight we set off to Greece, via Athens to the startlingly beautiful island of Kefalonia. I have long dreamt of visiting Greece, and with this trip we had a very special reason to make our journey: the wedding of our dear friend Hector (also our son’s godfather) and his beautiful Sonia. Despite pictures and books, you never truly know what a place will be like until you are actually there do you? The light, the mood, the breeze, the colours? And the food! For me this is very important – the markets, cafes and restaurants, food shops and supermarkets, the fruit growing on the trees. Like this lemon I just picked.

A lovely lunch of prawns and garlic, and a “village salad” of soft fresh cheese, herbs and olives.

I have never seen water so clear as this Ionian sea – and look at the colours. Perfect for a little swim before lunch.

The wildflowers are sprinkled alongside the roads and over the hills like fluttering jewels and the wild herbs fill the breeze with scent. The land is rich with olive trees. Beautiful olive trees.

A bounty of land and sea. And bread, honey and nuts.

So a wonderful few days of exploring and eating, drinks and chats in the town square cafes, the children climbing the big tree in the middle of the square, laughing, and learning a little Greek. What could be better? Well a big fabulous Greek wedding, of course!

This wedding was magnificent and so different from any I’ve been to before. The ceremony took place outside as the sun was going down, beside a beautiful family chapel. The guests all stood, walked around, chatted a bit, while the priests conducted the marriage ceremony. Some sang, we all pelted the couple and priests with rice. The children ran around and giggled, flinging handfuls of rose petals. Later the children helped to give out sugared almonds and little almond cakes. And then off we all went, to a glorious seaside taverna, to dance and feast and toast the happy couple.

Some sweets from Kefalonia. Such a beautiful place – I can’t wait to visit again one day.

Thanks for visiting. More very soon, with some recipes inspired by the sun!

in Almonds, Beach, Celebration, Greece, Kefalonia, Lemons, Olives, Wedding | Comments (25) Read more...

A bunch of Rhubarb.

11 Feb, 2011

Colour. Sometimes a flash of vibrant colour inspires a wonderful creative moment, a mood, a story. At least it does for me – how about you? Colour and light, both so influential. There’s no getting away from it, England in February is not bathed in either glorious warm light nor rich bright colour. And I love both. But there are compensations – it’s taken me a little time to appreciate it but I do now see a quiet beauty in the subdued mood of a dull grey day. And actually, this light intensifies the vibrancy of colours – which can be all washed out under a bright sunlit sky.

So after a walk through a lonely feeling landscape, I met a glorious heap of rich red rhubarb at the farm shop. It brightened my whole day, my whole week. What a revelation. I’ve always quite liked rhubarb – without much passion – but this week, as my little boy like to say, like has turned to love.

Returning with a lovely brimming basket of produce, I set about photographing and baking. Two pleasures! How to do justice to this lovely rhubarb? I settled upon a tart of crisp puff pastry, filled with aromatic sweet almond cream and topped with rhubarb and muscovado sugar. I could hardly photograph the finished tart, so eager I was to share it and enjoy eating it! If you have a chance, do try making this – I think you’ll be very pleased.

A most delicious Rhubarb and Almond Tart

Rhubarb and Muscavado Sugar Compote

5-6 stalks of rhubarb. I’ve used the gorgeous, bright red forced rhubarb that’s currently in season. Wash and chop into 1 inch bits.

a scant cup of light brown muscovado sugar (This depends a bit on how tart the rhubarb is and how sweet you like things. Add a bit, and add more to suit.)

In a heavy pan, warm the sugar with a spoon or so of water and allow to melt into a syrup. Add the rhubarb and simmer over medium heat until it softens. Don’t overdo it, let it keep a little shape. Set aside to cool while you prepare the rest of the tart. Or just eat – it’s lovely with ice cream or custard. ( I ate the first batch this way!)

Frangipane – Almond Cream

100g butter, 100g sugar (caster or fine), 100g ground almonds, 25g plain flour, 2 eggs,1 teaspoon of vanilla. (Or a few drops of almond essence if you like an extra almond boost.)

In a bowl, mix well together the butter, well softened, with the sugar and almonds. Stir in the flour and then mix in the eggs and vanilla.

Puff Pastry and a small handful of flaked almonds

500g of puff pastry. I use a good, all butter pastry from the shop.

Heat oven to 200 degrees centigrade. Line a baking sheet (about 24-30 cms) with baking paper. Roll the pastry out to fit the size of the baking pan. Lay the pastry in the pan and brush the edges with a little beaten egg, and roll over slightly to make a border all around. Spoon the frangipane (almond cream) all over the pastry base and smooth out to an even layer. Then gently spoon the rhubarb compote over. Leave a few spaces in between the spoonfuls as the frangipane puffs up and browns around it nicely. Sprinkle with some flaked almonds. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the pasty is lovely and golden. Wait a few minutes for it to cool before enjoying it.