Chocolate and Raspberry Pavlova

If there is one celebrity chef that I would like to know on a personal basis. Nigella Lawson. She can do no wrong. I have all her cookbooks. Any recipe that I follow from her cookbooks always work. Her Nigella Bites cookbook is getting almost as shopworn as my copy of Joy of Cooking and the dearly loved Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (my second ring - bound copy, a gift from my mother as my first copy just fell apart) The following recipe is from her Forever Summer cookbook. It is by far and away my favourite summer desert recipe.

I will only make it when the raspberries are in season. I got some raspberries this week that seem to be okay even though it is still a bit early. They're from Spain and have a pretty good perfume. Out of season, they’re too sour.

For the chocolate base:

6 egg whites - my own Whitelees eggs are so huge that I only used 5 this morning and it worked out just fine.
300g (1 1/3 cups) sugar
3 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
1 teaspoon balsamic or red wine vinegar
50 g of dark chocolate, finely chopped (50 g of plain chocolate chips will do if you're stuck)

For the topping:
500 ml (about a cup) whipping cream or double cream
500 grams raspberries
coarsely grated dark chocolate

Preheat your oven to 180 C or about 350 F and line a baking sheet with baking parchment or baking paper . Beat the egg whites until peaks form and then beat in the sugar a tablespoon at a time. (it will take a while – patience please) Beat until it is all soft and shiny. Sprinkle the cocoa powder and vinegar over the top and the chopped chocolate. Gently fold everything thoroughly . You don’t want to loose all the air you just spent ages getting IN.

Mound all of this onto the baking paper in a circle that is a rough 8 inches in diameter and pop it in the oven. Immediately as you put it in the oven, turn the temperature right down to just under 150 C or about 280 F and bake for one to one and a half hours. When it is finished, turn off the oven, but leave the meringue in the oven and let it cool as the oven cools. When it is ready it should be crisp around the edges and on the sides and dry on the top.

This is the finished base. It is taking all my self-control not to break it up into bits and eat it now. I could do that, but I don't have enough eggs to make another at this point. I have some eggs, but they were laid this morning and won't be ready to use for baking until tomorrow. Did you know that you can't use a really fresh egg for most baking. The eggs have to be at least a day old.

Now whip the cream (add a little vanilla extract and a smidge of sugar if you think your raspberries might be too sour.)

When you’re ready, invert the base onto a serving dish and put the whipped cream on the base. Arrange the raspberries on top of the whipped cream and garnish with the coarsely grated chocolate. You're ready to go.

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS - or Cranberry

Preheat your oven to 180 C or 350 F. Put muffin papers in your muffin tin OR if you are out of muffin papers grease and flour the tin.

1 3/4 cups plain flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil

Mix all the dry ingredients together and make a little well in the centre. Into the centre pour the beaten egg, milk and oil. Only mix it a little bit. The lumpier the batter, the better the muffins will be.

It's so important I'm stating this twice. DON'T OVER MIX. The lumpier the batter, the better the muffins. I barely blend the mixture.

Now fold in the blueberries. Spoon the batter into the muffin papers and pop into the oven for about 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. This recipe will make 7 nice big muffins or 9 small ones. I prefer big. If you prefer the smaller muffins, cut the baking time. The photo above shows the approximate size if you only make seven.

Cranberry version

If you wish to make cranberry muffins, and a bit more sugar to the batter and replace the blueberries with a cup of cut up cranberries. I cut them in half. Cranberries are really tasty but very sour. I sprinkle a bit of granulated sugar on the tops of the muffins before baking. Makes for a crisp bit of sugar to balance out the pucker value of the cranberries. Cooked cranberries are as beautiful as rubies.

NOTE: Thanks for the comment about be not putting in the amounts of blueberries or cranberries in the above recipe. I didn't put the amounts in as I usually just use a whole container of blueberries straight from the shops. The containers aren't large in the UK and seem to have just enough for one batch of muffins. If you want actual measurements, then about a heaping cup of blueberries. Naturally, add more if you've got them or fewer if you want less blueberry goodness in the muffins. As for cranberries, a good cup of cranberry halves will do. Adjust the amounts to your own personal taste.. in other words - "some" blueberries and "some" cranberries.

Caramels

An old favourite of mine from waaaaay back. The ingredient light-coloured corn syrup is not available in the UK. I may try golden syrup which seems to be similar but thicker at some point. I'll let you know the results.

Before you start, get your pan ready. Line an 8 x 8 x 2 inch pan with a big sheet of cooking foil. Then butter the foil. You'll be glad you did this before hand because if you don't do this first, you'll have to stop stirring the candy at a crucial point and it may burn. If you want chopped walnuts or even better, pecans in the final product, sprinkle them onto the buttered, foil-lined tin.

This is not a recipe that you can do while having a glass of wine. You will be dealing with food temperatures that are a lot hotter than you would find normally. Save yourself unnecessary pain and another cooking burn by staying clear headed.


1 cup butter - please use butter and not margarine - no substitutions for this one
16 oz of light brown or muscavado sugar (about 2 1/4 packed cups)
2 cups of cream (US folks please use half and half)
1 cup light corn syrup (Karo syrup - not available in the UK)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (which I forgot last time and it still turned out beautifully)


In your heaviest bottomed large pan melt the butter over low heat. Add in the brown sugar, cream and corn syrup. Stir in and turn the heat up a tiny bit. Clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan. When the mixture starts to boil, check the flame under your pan (if you're using gas - make sure that the flame is only just touching the bottom of the pan) I cannot stress enough that you can't turn up the heat to make this recipe cook any faster. Slow and steady.

Stir the boiling mass constantly while monitoring the thermometer. Keep going until the candy has reached the firm ball stage. The thermometer will register about 248 F or 120 C. You will have noticed that the texture of the mixture will have started to change. Please be careful at this point. Right at the end when the candy is at its hottest is when you run the greatest risk of burning your candy.

When it is ready, remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla and pour the caramel into the prepared baking tin. You're going to have to let it cool for hours. When it is first poured out, it is molten sugar and will give you a nasty burn. Don't touch it!

When it has cooled completely, unmould it onto a big cutting board and using your biggest knife, cut it into small cubes. Put all the cubes in an airtight container and hope that they last in your house for more than a day.
See - its empty