http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com http://blogcopy.com http://blogcopy.com/int/fpix.php?bd=d68l en-us Tue, 21 May 2013 20:24:06 +0000 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpx3nj Tue, 21 May 2013 14:38:37 +0000 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpx3nj http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=1fn65ro Tue, 21 May 2013 14:38:37 +0000 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=1fn65ro http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=39skjfe Mon, 20 May 2013 19:19:54 +0000 Ganache







It's been a week of
cake here in Norfolk. A load of testing for some new mould designs I'm working
on for early next year and Oliver's 3rd birthday


RECIPE


160g
icing sugar
160g
ground almonds
4
large egg whites, separated into two equal batches -
160g
caster sugar
80ml
water
1
tablespoon lavender sugar
1/2
tsp violet gel paste food colouring

Sift
the almonds and icing sugar and lavender sugar together. Blitz with a blender or
in a mill. Add the food colouring paste / gel to two egg whites and put this on
top of the icing sugar / ground almond mix. The colour should good SERIOUSLY
STRONG. It will lighten when you add the egg white / syrup mix and again on
cooking. You do want gel / paste as liquid food colouring is not strong enough
colour and can thin the batter and interfere with the rise.

Heat
caster sugar and water together until they reach 110deg C. Whip 2 egg whites to
stiff peaks and then slowly drizzle and whip in the hot syrup to these until it
becomes shiny and stiff. Avoid getting any syrup directly on the beaters if
possible !

Fold
the whipped egg white / syrup mix gently into the other bowl of mix. I started
by adding a spoonful and mixing that through to loosen it up and then folded the
rest in.

Transfer this into a piping bag. Pipe into small rounds
on grease proof paper or silicone
baking sheets.


You need to stand the macaron mix like this on the sheets for
about 30mins or so until the surface does not stick to your finger when touched
BEFORE you bake it. Otherwise, your shells are likely to crack and the finished
result really isn't the same (been there - done that !) Put on some sprinkles
(if using) now. I sprinkled some dried lavender on top.

Pop into a 145 > 150deg C oven for approx 15 minutes. Remove
and immediately slide silicone sheet or greaseproof paper off the tray onto the
work surface. 

Leave to TOTALLY cool before removing. If even slightly warm,
the insides of the macaron will leave themselves stuck to the paper or silicone
sheet.]]> http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=39skjfe http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=1w6fodq Mon, 20 May 2013 17:20:29 +0000 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=1w6fodq http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=ika58t Mon, 20 May 2013 12:59:25 +0000 Bikers

Recipe - serves approx 10

For the base : 

225g oreos
150g digestive biscuits
100g salted butter

Line a 10" tin or pie dish with foil.  The
dish I used was terracotta.

Put biscuits in a bag and get a small child to
bash to bits with a rolling pin (this kept Oliver occupied for ages.....). Mix
in the melted butter and then press into the tin or dish, bringing the crumbs
about 2" / 50mm up the sides. Chill in the fridge.



For the filling : 

80g milk chocolate
60g dark chocolate
135g butter
1 tsp espresso coffee powder
150g caster sugar
1 tsp black treacle / molasses
150ml double cream
25g cocoa powder
3 large eggs

For the topping : 

250mls double cream
1 tablespoon of icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
25g approx of chocolate (grated, chips or made
into pretty curls)

Melt the chocolate and butter together with the
butter until combined. This can be done in either a double boiler or in the
microwave.

Whisk the eggs, sugar and treacle until trebled
in volume. Sift in the cocoa and espresso powders. Whisk in and then add the
chocolate / butter in a stream followed by the cream.

Pour into the base and then bake at 160deg C fan
/ 180deg C for approx 30 > 40 mins until just firm.

Allow to cool.]]> http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=ika58t http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2t92t1l Mon, 20 May 2013 00:19:33 +0000 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2t92t1l http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2t90yv3 Sun, 19 May 2013 13:52:04 +0000 big update !]]> http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2t90yv3 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpmxr1 Sun, 19 May 2013 10:13:37 +0000 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpmxr1 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=46v3hgr Sun, 19 May 2013 01:45:56 +0000 plus about 1/2 a jar to spare. This year, I've purposely grown extra beetroot
simply to make this. It went down a bomb in hampers last Christmas. It's
gorgeous with biscuits and cheese or cold meat and fresh bread - or with
salads. I think we went through about 4 jars when visiting my mum's last
Christmas holidays in under a week !

I modified the recipe a bit to suit what I had
available. It worked so well, I've contined to do so.

1200g raw beetroot, peeled and diced into small
pieced300g raw carrots, peeled and diced3 onions , chopped 3 medium
bramley cooking appleszest and juice 3 oranges2 tbsp white or yellow
mustard seeds1 tbsp coriander seeds 1 tbsp ground cloves 1 tbsp
ground cinnamon
700ml cider apple vinegar700g
granulated sugar

Cook all of the above in a very large pot or
maslin pan until juices are reduced and beetroot tender. I think it took about
an hour. Bottle into sterilised jars.... I used 8.
I made one batch a day or two before I made the
caramels and have never got round to posting the photos or recipe. If you like
beetroot, you'll adore this. I think this is my favourite way of eating beetroot
ever. My husband isn't a fan of the stuff. He's away camping tomorrow, so dinner
for me may just have to be some homemade crackers with cheese and this glorious,
heavenly beetroot chutney.]]> http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=46v3hgr http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=z3fvvv Sat, 18 May 2013 16:22:30 +0000
you will need to do this twice. If you do not
have american measure cups, use a standard teacup.

2 cups granulated sugar2 cups apple
puree
1 cup of vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp of cinnamon - if you really like cinnamon,
double it !
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup of sultanas or raisins

Add all wet ingreditents together and beat with
electric hand mixer. Sift dry ingredients (apart from raisins) into wet.
Combine and beat in until smooth - then stir in raisins.

Lightly butter giant muffin mould and then dust
with flour - tipping out any excess. Put mould on a baking tray. It must be
supported at all times.

Pour first batch of mix into base side. Make 2nd
batch of mix. Add about 2 cups of the mix to the mix in the base side.

CAREFULLY Put into a preheated 180deg C fan
oven for 30mins.

Remove from oven and pour rest of batter into
top side of mould. Put back into oven for 1 hour. After 30mins, put a piece of
greaseproof paper over the base side only and tuck round to stop the top
darkening too much.

When cooking time is up, check cake with a
tester. Be careful not to puncture your mould or it will rip ! I like to use a
cake tester which is not sharp and has a colour changing tip to tell you when
the cake is cooked. I think mine needed a further 10 > 15 mins.

Remove from oven and allow to cool until just
warm before turning out and cooling fully on a rack. The good thing with this
cake is that it did not get a big domed top. This meant the tops of each part
did not need cut off . They natuarally say nicely together which was actually a
big surprise !]]> http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=z3fvvv http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=46uy4m9 Fri, 17 May 2013 17:13:11 +0000 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=46uy4m9 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=3qbjtmy Fri, 17 May 2013 13:58:58 +0000 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=3qbjtmy http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpdndj Fri, 17 May 2013 06:19:33 +0000




It's cold and snowing outside and I'm stuck at home with a poorly teething baby. He's not well enough to go to nursery and even Iggle Piggle can't keep him occupied any longer.Oliver has decided to help Mummy with the washing ! I went to the bathroom and came back to a baby unloading dirty clothes out the washing machine. It was only AFTER I put the washing machine and turned it on that I realised it wasn't dirty washing he was removing. It was clean stuff I'd taken out the tumble drier from the basket - ready to fold and go upstairs.What do you want when it's cold ? A nice roaring log fire and a comforting, warm pud in your tummy. Well - the stove is lit. I've got an Abbey - you can see it at http://www.naturalheating.co.uk/ - the one with the deep red chimney breast.As for the pud - we'll - its even better as there is some store-cupboard standby stuff BEGGING to get used up before the big spring clean !I figure my dearly beloved might like a nice hearty pudding today - so I'm making a Peach and Rasperry Crumble in my halogen oven. It's all prepared ready to pop in later.RECIPE You'll need :plain flour (self raising will also do), butter, sugar, a couple of tins of tinned peaches and some frozen raspberriesI've got a 1 litre dish I use for things like this. Put 2 tins of peaches (sliced or halves will do - just chop into chunks) into the dish and top with a good big handful of frozen raspberries. Put in 3 or 4 tablespoon of reserved fruit juice from the peaches and sprinkle with a 1/2 dessertspoon of sugar.Pre-heat the halogen oven for 3 > 4 minutes at 180deg C, then pop this in, uncovered for apprpx 10 minsWhilst that's getting the fruit nice and hot, prepare the topping.Standard crumble mix is 2 parts flour to one part butter and one part sugar4 oz plain flour2 oz sugar2 oz cold butterRub these together until they form crumbs, then put on top of the fruit.If you have any demerara sugar lying around in the cupboads - a sprinkling of this on the very top will give a nice crunch. I've become a huge fan of halogen convection ovens. Everything cooks in a fraction of the time and they use so much less energy than a normal cooker. These will soon also be available on SiliconeMoulds.com and you should find all my Halogen cooker recipes and cooking times on there. Here you can see the crumble is in the oven. I put mine in at 180deg for 20mins. Like a normal oven, you'll need oven gloves to get it out. It's hot in there ! That's it. Ready to serve !]]> http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpdndj http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpdn61 Fri, 17 May 2013 06:18:35 +0000






There is nothing to this. It's hardly worth blogging !
However, I've had loads of emails recently asking if I cook fancy evening meals. The answer is - only rarely. Generally it's something quick and easy .... unless it's a special occasion or one of us fancies something rather out of the ordinary.
I use my halogen cooker a lot. It's generally used at least an average of 5 days a week. Oliver loves fish fingers and I can cook those in 6 > 7 minutes with a few chips (no preheat) - so my halogen oven is fab for things like that. I can also do fish on the baking tray with steamer plate over the top to diffuse in a similar amount of time. Saves tons of energy and I don't feel guilty about putting the normal oven on to cook just two fish fingers for a toddler and then later again for our evening meal.
For example, tonight I marinated some chicken thighs with garlic and lemon juice and tiny bit of olive oil. I cooked those in the halogen oven at 200deg C for about 15 mins until cooked through. I then decided to make some potato wedges with cracked black pepper and a sprinkle of paprika and popped those in on the top rack for about 10mins. Everything was beautifully browned.


 I could have cooked everything together on the baking tray on the bottom rack. However, if you use a tray on the top rack, the low rack then cooks by convection as it does not get the direct infra-red glow to "speed cook" and takes a good bit longer. I could also have cooked faster if I'd put the wedges on the bottom and chicken on the top rack (letting juices drip onto the wedges - yum yum) as the fan blows the hot air round everything that way.
Truth is, I'd a toddler to bath and get ready for bed and wanted to know our dinner was on the way without rushing bathtime ! That's the thing with the halogen oven - it cooks a lot faster than a normal oven and often faster than I expect. It's also far more energy efficient. The normal oven is 4500W at maximum, whilst the halogen oven is 1400W at maximum. BIG difference - especially with drastically reduced cooking times too. It's much faster cooking for the majority of things and easy to wash up.
Our halogen ovens are arriving back into stock on Friday. I think there are about 800 arriving ! Unlike most retailers, we importantly also stock replacement halogen bulbs for our ovens. Surprisingly few stockists do and a halogen oven with no bulb is pretty useless...
You'll find some recipes on the website here . I promise to try and get round to doing some more - it's just that I forget when I'm using it on such a regular basis !]]> http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpdn61 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=3qbi1vy Fri, 17 May 2013 06:18:03 +0000





This is some photos taken by Helen along with ingredients list for stuffed peppers - cooked in her Sarah-Jane's Halogen Oven / Cooker

large green and red bell peppers
boiled easy-cook rice (2 cups)chopped up crispy bacon pieceschopped green spring onionfinely chooped fresh green/red chilliesfrozen peaschoped tomatoes seasononingoil/tomato puree or I used 1/2 jar of Doritos Hot Salsa - to bind & flavour.


Remove stalks and stuff peppers. Top with grated cheese


 Helen used one of our 6 cup extra deep muffin moulds to sit the peppers in and stop them falling over during stuffing.
These were cooked in the halogen oven at 160deg C for approx 35 mins. To keep them upright. Helen propped them up with the toast rack. Genius !
Increasing the temperature to 180deg C next time should get them done a bit quicker :-)

On removing from the halogen cooker, they looked like this :

Thanks for the photo and recipe idea Helen. I'm sure those who check in for recipes to use in their Halogen Cooker will appreciate it. Would work nicely in a normal oven too.]]> http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=3qbi1vy http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=46uvinr Fri, 17 May 2013 06:17:23 +0000





Here is a lovely recipe for a lemon tart - my copy of the recipe came from Poet on the Omlet forum - http://www.omlet.co.uk/

I've adjusted cooking times to suit the halogen oven and used the low rack

Pastry base - either use ready made shortcrust pastry if you want to cheat - or quantities as below :

100g plain flour (preferably 00 if you have it)
40g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
60g butter

Pulse in a mini food processor to combine - or rub fat, flour and sugar until it forms crumbs, then use egg yolk to bind.

I rolled it out straight away to line a little less than 1/2 way up a standard 9" spring form cake tin. You could use a flan tin if you have one.

Chill in the fridge for at least 20 mins (covered in cling flim or with baking parchment pressed in place over the pastry) to rest.

Preheat halogen oven to 200deg for approx 3 mins. Then, bake the pastry case for approx 8 mins at 180deg. I didn't bother blind baking - as the halogen oven is so fast. It did rise slightly in the middle, but I patted this down on removing from the oven and it did not crack the base.

FILLING

1 x 397 gram tin Nestle Carnation Condensed Milk
Juice of 3 lemons (or 130 > 140ml long life lemon juice - such as Jif)
3 egg yolks - ours are laid in the garden !

Mix filling in a bowl and then pour into your pastry case (still in the tin)

Pop the whole lot back in the halogen oven at 180 deg for 10mins - see picture below

As soon as cooked, remove from halogen oven. As the halogen oven keeps all moisture in, if you don't take off the lid - the pastry would become soggy as it starts to cool down.

Once your tart is cool enough, you can refrigerate - or serve at room temperature. Dust with icing sugar if required before serving.

Can be served with some pouring cream or ice cream and a few fresh berries.
After demolishing, the team have agreed that this would make a fab base for a lemon meringue pie. We'll try it with a merinuge topping another day !]]> http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=46uvinr http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=z38fcd Fri, 17 May 2013 02:02:17 +0000 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=z38fcd http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=39s374e Thu, 16 May 2013 21:24:29 +0000 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=39s374e http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=1w5y2rq Thu, 16 May 2013 17:57:55 +0000 bash to bits with a rolling pin (this kept Oliver occupied for ages.....). Mix
in the melted butter and then press into the tin or dish, bringing the crumbs
about 2" / 50mm up the sides. Chill in the fridge.



For the filling : 

80g milk chocolate
60g dark chocolate
135g butter
1 tsp espresso coffee powder
150g caster sugar
1 tsp black treacle / molasses
150ml double cream
25g cocoa powder
3 large eggs

For the topping : 

250mls double cream
1 tablespoon of icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
25g approx of chocolate (grated, chips or made
into pretty curls)

Melt the chocolate and butter together with the
butter until combined. This can be done in either a double boiler or in the
microwave.

Whisk the eggs, sugar and treacle until trebled
in volume. Sift in the cocoa and espresso powders. Whisk in and then add the
chocolate / butter in a stream followed by the cream.

Pour into the base and then bake at 160deg C fan
/ 180deg C for approx 30 > 40 mins until just firm.

Allow to cool.

Whip the double cream with the icing sugar and
vanilla to soft peaks and use to garnish, with some chocolate curls Mummy made
earlier :-)]]> http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=1w5y2rq http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpbjm1 Thu, 16 May 2013 17:57:30 +0000
225g oreos
150g digestive biscuits
100g salted butter

Line a 10" tin or pie dish with foil.]]> http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpbjm1 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpbjh1 Thu, 16 May 2013 17:57:00 +0000 http://blogcopy.com/~siliconemoulds.blogspot.com?copy=2cpbjh1