It’s been a bit quiet round here lately, what with me moving house (twice) and Jo having a baby and moving house (once). I’m living in Rome now, in a rented flat, and it’s taken me a while to get used to not just a new kitchen, but also unfamiliar ingredients (for example, the innumerable types of flour available in Italian that don’t quite correspond to what we use in the UK).

When I did start baking again, mostly I produced old faves. But now I’ve been in Rome nearly three months I felt I really had to try and make a tiramisu, it being the quintessential Italian desert and all.

“But Daniel,” no one is likely to cry, “you don’t like coffee!” to which I reply, yes, but I do like sugar, chocolate, eggs and dairy products, so I’m sure I’ll cope.

I debated buying the biscuits – sponge fingers in British English, ladyfingers in Yankese and biscotti di savoiardi in Italian – but thought, no, I’ve got to do the whole caboodle, so I used this recipe. I could almost hear my old teacher abusing my piping technique.

For the actual tiramisu, I used a recipe from ‘Cucina Romana’ by Sara Manuelli.

Who I am to judge the authenticity of the recipe? A bit of research indicates many use cocoa instead of grated chocoate, and plenty of whipped cream, but this one’s all about the mascarpone and raw eggs, man. (Hence I couldn’t make it last week when my pregnant sister-in-law was staying.) Mascarpone is basically cultured cream, so I’d suggest you don’t really need extra cream.

I scaled it back slightly.

2 eggs
70g sugar, granulated (though caster would be fine)
335g mascarpone
1 and a 1/2 (ish) tablespoons Marsala
20g ish dark bitter choc, grated
10 biscotti di savoiardi / sponge fingers
210g coffee, made fresh

Separate the eggs.
Beat together the yolks with 35g of the sugar until thick and pale.
Gently blend the mascarpone into the egg yolk mix.
Whisk the egg whites to peaks, then blend in the other half of the sugar, the Marsala and half the grated chocolate.
Fold the egg white mix into the egg yolk/mascarpone mix.

Layer half the biscuits on the bottom on a dish and pour over half the coffee.
Cover this layer with half the egg/mascarpone mix.
Make another layer of biscuits, and pour over the rest of the coffee.
Cover with the rest of the egg/marscapone mix.
Sprinkle the remaining choc on top and chill, preferably for at least four hours.

Eat. Eat too much. Make yourself feel slightly unwell.

So I was encouraged to add this even though I feel I’ve done many like it before but Dan said it always worth posting old favourites! I’ve been off the boil, so to speak, lately with general life things getting in the way and attempting to set up a business! I think both Dan and I have been busy with life-changing experiences of late, but he’s probably done more baking that me and been kind not to post too much!

So this is the wonderfully easy;

8oz sf flour (you could add a bit of wholemeal)
6oz sugar (I used some light brown and some caster)
6oz butter
3 eggs
1 tsp bp
Demerara sugar for the top

I added about 80g chopped dates and two bananas mashed.

Cream the butter and sugar together, beat in the eggs then the flour and bp and finally add the dates and bananas. Base line a round cake tin and pour in the ingredients, sprinkle the top with demerara sugar (generously) and bake for about 45 minutes at 180 degrees (fan assisted).

Delicious and lovely and moist – really wonderful if it’s still warm too and even with custard.

Moving house, so trying to use up as many oddments as possible. Got a huge tub of cocoa, odd flours, a load of ground almonds, a few flaked almonds and some foul orange and geranium chocolate. These were the result. Unless you really like icky geranium chocolate, I’d avoid it and use orange choc, or even just a good dark choc, and add some orange zest, if you have any oranges.

It was experimental, and I played around with it as I went along, so this just approximate.

Preheat the oven to 160C (or 140C ish fan oven).

Cream together 100g unsalted butter with 120g sugar (I used soft brown, as that’s all I had left, but other recipes  use caster or granulated).
Beat in two eggs and 60g (or 60ml if you insist) of orange juice. It curdled, but don’t worry about that.

Sieve together 100g flour (I used rice flour with some SR, but preferable to use plain), 80g cocoa and 3/4 t of baking powder.

Beat a little of the sieved mix into the creamed mix, then when it’s cleared, fold in the rest. Fold in 100g of ground almonds.

Fold in couple of tablespoons of flaked almonds (though blanced almonds, roughly chopped would be preferable), and around 60g of roughly chopped chocolate.

Divide the mixture into two, and form it into logs. Put the logs on baking sheets and bake for around 30 minutes.

Slice the loaves into pieces about 15mm thick, and put these back on the baking sheets. Bake for about 10 minutes, then turn over and bake for another 10. You’re drying out the biscuits, to make them hard and crunchy – perfect for dipping in your coffee or whatever.

Oh, and for etymology geeks, biscotti, like the English word “biscuit”, ultimately derives from the Latin bis – “twice” – and coquere – “to cook”. So, “twice cooked”. Or indeed, twice-baked.

Apologies for crappy mobile snap.

(Oh, and Jo – the title isn’t busting the line for me. If it is for you – tough! I don’t want to put “choc” instead of “chocolate”!)

I have a thing about peanut butter at the moment, and cookies! This is a standard cookie recipe but with peanut butter and banana, I used some dark muscovado sugar which made them rather rich but lovely. It’s essential that these cookies remain soft in the middle so 10 minutes seems to be the maximum time in the oven but ovens vary. They just need to be golden on the edges.

Ingredients:
125g unsalted butter
100g unrefined granulated sugar
75g dark muscovado sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
100g crunchy peanut butter
1 ripe banana, mashed
50g rolled oats (approximate)

Melt the butter and pour over the two sugars, beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the other ingredients and beat well. You may want to adjust the amount of peanut butter or the oats depending on the thickness of the mixture. I played it a bit by ear. The banana adds moisture and the oats take it away, so just make sure it’s no too stiff.

Dollop dessert spoonfuls of  the mixture onto baking trays lined with greaseproof paper, well spaced apart. Place in a 190 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Leave to cool on the trays until hardened a little before turning them onto a wire rack. Enjoy with tea, but especially coffee I find.

This one’s from an old Katie Stewart recipe book my mum used a lot when I was growing up. It’s a cake we used to make a lot, but I’ve not eaten it for years. So we revisited it on my dad’s birthday a few days ago. We were hard at work shifting scalpings around for the garden, so this one was perfect as it’s quick to make. Stewart says, “This delicious cake with a crunch, sweet topping is quickly made at short notice.”

Preheat the oven to 190C.

For the cake:
225g self-raising flour
1 t baking powder
85g butter
85g caster sugar
1 egg
142g milk

Sieve together the flour and BP.
Crumble in the butter.
Stir in the caster sugar.
Combine the egg and milk, then stir that into the dry ingredients.
Beat to a smooth batter.
Put the batter in a greased, 22cm (9in) round loose-bottomed tin.

For the topping:
Combine 30g SR flour with 60g of soft brown sugar.
Melt 30g butter, then add this to the flour/sugar and mix with a folk to create a lumpy, crumbly mix.
Put this mix on top of the batter.

Bake 40 mins. Cool 5 mins in tin, then turn out and cool completely.

Inspired by Dan’s biscuits and leftover ganache I made these with Ivy – she helped with the mixing and cutting. The chocolate with orange icing biscuit recipe is from my M&S chocolate box book (which they don’t seem to make anymore) but I added some nutmeg for a change. I had some leftover icing from Lawrence’s heart cake so sandwiched them together with the rest of it.

Biscuits:

90g butter softened
60g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
280g plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
ground nutmeg (about a teaspoon)

Blend together the butter and sugar, add the egg then the flour and knead into a dough. Roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut into rounds or stars or whatever you fancy. Place on baking trays lined with greaseproof paper and bake in a 180 over for about 12 minutes. Leave to cool on the trays for a bit before transferring to cooling racks. Allow to cool completely before sandwiching together with the icing. Yum.

I’m used to not receiving anything on Valentine’s Day so thought I’d make something for ‘him’ that we could all enjoy! In a way this cake it kind of sinister with it’s blood-red centre but it certainly has an impact! We’ll not dwell too long on the colouring – I could have used beetroot as I discovered one in the fridge afterwards, oh well – next time.

I’m not sure what I did this time but the cake was lovely and moist, it may be the extra egg I added as I only had a small batch. It’s a good old Victoria sandwich type cake with cocoa and colouring and chocolate butter icing; 8oz sf flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 60z butter, 6oz sugar, 2/3 eggs, 1 tablespoon cocoa, bit of milk perhaps. Divided between two tins and sandwiched together with the icing.

The way to a man’s heart!

Went for some old-school doily action with this one.

The recipe is from Dan Lepard in the Guardian – his original version is called “Hemp and ginger cake“, but as I’ve got so many different types of flour, and am hoping to move house soon, I didn’t want to add hemp flour to my collection too. So while his recipe calls for150g plain flour and 75g hemp flour, I used 100g plain flour, 50g wholemeal flour (stoneground at the watermill in Winchester), and 75g of rice flour.

Also, his recipe uses a cream cheese icing, but I just went for a basic buttercream filling, and the aforementioned doily and icing sugar pattern on the top.

The soft dark brown sugar and treacle give the crumb a lovely colour, while the crystallised ginger is great for chewy chunks of flavour.

It was our nephew Ruben’s 1st birthday party at the weekend, His mum Riette made a huge amount of wonderful cakes and I contributed with some very sugary blondies for the adults and jam muffins (which I’ve made before but with cranberry).

This recipe is from the More from Magnolia cookbook that Riette bought me one Christmas. It’s very American and the ingredients often include things like ‘canned cherry pie filling’ or ‘graham cracker crumbs’?! Some are decipherable however and these blondies were delicious and will have you on a sugar high all day.

Ingredients:
(all converted from American cups)
225g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
130g (aprox or 4.5 oz) butter
225g firmly packed light brown sugar
112g or 4oz granulated sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature (I used 3 small ones)
2 tsps vanilla extract
110g/4oz chopped walnuts
130g/4.5oz coarsely chopped white chocolate
88g/3oz coarsely chopped dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and light flour (I lined the base too) 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

In a small bowl combine the flour, bp and salt, set aside.
In a large bowl cream the butter and sugars until smooth, for about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix r. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chunks and spread even over the pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes the books says but check after 20 – mine cooked very quickly and you want them to be a little gooey in the middle.

I was thinking that I should buy some American cups to make life easier. I like that method of measuring rather than weighing – I wish I could just use my eye – not that skilled yet!

Still had some ganache left over in the freezer from the wedding cake, so these seemed like a good idea. Very pleasant they are too. The biscuits are fairly crumbly when you bite them, and they use peanut butter, giving them a slight saltiness, which contrasts nicely with the richness of the ganache.

They’re from a series of biscuit recipes Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall did in the Guardian Weekend magazine. All the recipes can be found here, but here’s this one in particular. It includes a recipe for ganache:

For the biscuits
240g plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
½ t baking powder
¼ t salt
180g butter
140g smooth peanut butter
100g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract
For the ganache filling
100g double cream
200g dark chocolate
30g butter, softened

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, beat until smooth, then stir in the flour until well combined. Pat into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour or two to firm up, as this is quite a soft dough.

Heat the oven to 170C. Line baking sheets with parchment (you may need to bake these in batches).

Lightly dust a work surface with flour, and pin out the dough to about 4-5mm thick. Cut into circles with a 5cm plain biscuit cutter. Place on the baking sheets about 2cm apart, and bake for 15-17 minutes, until the edges are slightly darkened. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Ganache: In a small pan, gently heat the cream until bubbles appear at the edges. Break the chocolate into small pieces and put in a bowl. Pour the hot cream over, stirring to blend, then add the butter a bit at a time, stirring until the mixture is smooth.

Leave to thicken slightly (can speed this up by putting it in the fridge), then pipe or spread the ganache on to half the biscuits, and sandwich together.