0 Lekue - meringue roulade with blackcurrant and mint couli

Over the Easter weekend we had friends visiting and for a while now I had been wanting to use my Lekue Swiss roll mold , so I thought I would give a meringue roulade a go. I also had ulterior motives to use a excess of homelaid eggs and meringue recipes uses loads of eggs don't they (well whites anyway).

I decided to plump for making a plain cream roulade which could  then be served with anything from fresh fruit, fruit couli (using frozen homegrown fruit) or chocolate or caramel sauce. Choices choices......

I am mighty pleased with the resultant soft billowy marshmallowy meringue and the performance of the Lekue mold, the only downside being that the mold is rather flexible so it tooks some nifty handling of the oven shelf to turn the meringue out of the mold onto the cooling rack.

To ensure a smooth glossy well airated meringue ensure your mixing bowl is clean and free from grease, as a precaution I always wipe round with some lemon juice on some kitchen paper.

What you need

• 6 egg whites
• 275g caster sugar
• 50g flaked almonds

To fill the roulade I used whipped double cream sweetened with a good slug of vanilla paste, you could use whipping cream, marscapone or yogurt or even a sweetened cream cheese mixture. For a roulade this size I used a 300ml pot.

What you do

• Preheat your oven to 180c fan
• Place the egg whites in the bowl of your mixer (I used my trusty Kitchenaid) and mix until very stiff and well airated
• Add the caster sugar a little at a time, whislt continuing to mix until all added and the meringue is very stiff and glossy
• Scoop into your lekue mold (or if you haven't got one then a lined swiss roll tin) and smooth level
• Sprinkle with the flaked almonds
• Place in the pre heated oven and bake for 10 minutes until golden
• Turn the oven down to 140c and bake for a further 15 minutes or so until crispy to touch
• Take the meringue out of the over an tip out onto a baking paper covered wire rack to cool for 10 minutes or so
• Then fill with your chosen filling and roll using the baking paper to assist your roll.
• Remove the ends (chefs treats) and serve decorated with fruit or fruit couli or sauce.
• The roulade freezes well when filled with cream and rolled.

For the couli I used some of the last frozen homegrown blackcurrant I had in the freezer , sweetened with caster sugar (1/2 the weight of the blackcurrants) scented with a generous spring of fresh peppermint from the garden.

I am entering this post in Cooking with herbs challenge as I used this months featured herb - mint is in my recipe, the challenge was created by Karen over at Lavender and Lovage and she is hosting this month too.

                                                              

I was kindly provided the roulade mold by Lekue for testing and review purposes. 

Detail: Lekue - meringue roulade with blackcurrant and mint couli

0 Lekue - Cheesecake royale

For our most recent cake club meeting I thought I would make a cheesecake and as our theme was "A right royal do !", I decided on a marbled royale cheesecake and this was a great opportunity to utilise my Lekue ceramic / silicone baking mold, which seems especially suited to baking a cheesecake in. As I now baking gluten free I used a baked nut base as the crunchy cheesecake base instead of the usual biscuit mix. It worked pretty well but did suffer slightly from separating from the cheesecake top.

The Lekue mold performed very well and is a good addition to the keen bakers equipment cupboard, the mold was easy to use and the ceramic base made an attractive serving platter.

• To make the base use 
• 1 cup finely crushed almonds (I crushed flaked almonds by hand) 
• 1 cup almond meal 
• 4 tbsp granulated sugar 
• 5 tbsp butter softened 

Mix all ingredients together and press firmly in your tin or mold, bake in a preheated oven at 180c for about 15 minutes until golden, it will hardened on cooling.

For the cheesecake top

• 400g cream cheese (full fat) 
• 150g dark chocolate 
• 1 pot of creme fraiche 
• 85g caster sugar 
• 3 eggs 
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract 
• Grated white chocolate to serve

What you need to do

• Pre heat your oven to 160c 
• Melt the chocolate, I used the microwave in 30 sec blasts or alternatively using a bain marie 
• In a separate bowl mix the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, eggs and creme fraiche together until smooth. 
• Split the mixture in half and add the cooled melted chocolate to one half. 
• Now add alternative dollops of the two mixes to top the base , swirl together and level 
• Bake in the oven until just set, for me this was about 50 minutes, cool in the oven with door slightly a jar so the top doesn't crack. 
• Once cold, place in the fridge and serve with the grated white chocolate sprinkled on top.

Note :- The Lekue mold was kindly provided by Lekue for review and test purposes, all thoughts and opinions are my own as to the product.

Detail: Lekue - Cheesecake royale

0 Lekue - lets make bread, gluten free bread !

Gluten fee bread that looks and tastes (well similar) to real bread is the holy grail, yesterday on baking a Dan Lepard recipe I came close, very close to nirvana. This recipe has the praise of various bloggers across the world and is also featured on the BBC Food website,  so given that I had a lekue bread maker to give a whirl I thought I would give it a try and wow, I wasn't disappointed. The resultant bread had a crunchy crust and a texture heading toward a real crumb structure, it even rose a little and had a tiny bit of oven spring.

The recipe features two ingredients that make all the difference to gluten free bread baking, pysllium husk and golden linseed (aka flaxseed) both of which have gummy properties (there is no other way of putting it) which help give the bread stretch and which help make the crumb softer. The linseeds also help give the bread a "wheaty" like flavour.

I think the bread would be ideal toasted along side pate or toasted and topped with cheese and beans, its more like an artisan crusty cob loaf than sandwich bread.

What you need

• 30g golden linseeds
• 475ml warm water
• 2 1/2 tsp fast action yeast
• 100ml natural yogurt - I used greek yogurt
• 450g cornflour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 50g psyllium husk powder
• 50ml olive oil
• Extra olive oil and cornflour to finish

What you do 

• In a bowl mix the yeast and water, so the yeast starts to become active, stir in the yogurt and the baked linseeds. Mix this all together.
• In the lekue baking bowl I had weigh out the cornflour, psyllium husk, salt and sugar.
• Add the yeast mix and olive oil into the dry ingredients and mix well, do this quickly as it rapidly starts to seize.

• Once the mix is firm enough knead it for about 10 seconds ( I did this in the bowl), cover and leave for about 30 minutes, I did this by folding up the bowl.
• After the 3 minutes has passed shape the dough ready for baking, either on a tray lined with baking paper or in my case in the bowl,. Brush the top of the dough with a little extra oil and cover and leave to rise for 30 minutes (and amazingly it did a little) covered or in the lekue bowl.

• Pre heat your oven to 220c fan / 240c normal , uncover the dough and slash the top and sprinkle with a little cornflour. Bake for approx 40 minutes or so until a good colour is achieved.

• Leave to cool on a wire rack until fully cold before cutting

The dough is versatile enough to be suggested for buns or a foccacia sheet also.

The recipe is adapted slightly from Dan Lepard's recipe on BBC Food and I used the Lekue Bread maker which had been provided to me by Lekue for review purposes.

Detail: Lekue - lets make bread, gluten free bread !

0 Lekue - Gluten free waffles

One of the benefits of blogging is that from time to time we receive products from companies for review. Lekue is a Spanish kitchenware company which specialises in high quality silicone kitchen products and they have kindly sent me a parcel of their products to have a play with in my kitchen.

One of the items they have supplied is a waffle making mold, now as someone who has never made her own waffles before I was a bit nervous of making them especially as I was to try a gluten free version. The waffles you can buy in the shops seem to full of lots of additives so even before switching my diet they weren't something I would every buy. I do however have a thing for maple syrup (the real McCoy ! ) and waffle and maple syrup are natural partners right, so waffle making I go.

As you may know gluten free flours behave slightly different to normal flours so I was a bit nervous how they would turn out. Never fear they were fine, may a little on the dry side but that is soon solved with berries or syrup on top, so next time I'll also make sure I knock a few minutes off the overall cooking time.

What you need 

• 2 cups of GF plain flour (I used Dove's Farm)
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg - free range
• 3/4 cup milk (I used skimmed, sure you could use soya, almond or other if you have diary allergy)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter

This makes enough for 4 waffles

What you do

• Oil spray the waffle mold if needed ( apparently once used a couple of times you don't need to)
• Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk up into a thick smooth batter.
• Once mixed leave to one side for 5 minutes, meanwhile preheat the oven to 220C
• Now that the oven is warm, pour into the mold which is on a baking tray, just filling until it covers the top of the nobbles
• Bake for 8 minutes until golden and risen
• Remove and cool for a few moments before un molding the waffles, place them on the baking tray and return to the oven for 3 - 5 minutes 
• Serve warm with syrup, honey, fruit, ice cream whoever you fancy.

We now fancy trying a polenta savoury waffle so I'll let you know how we get on. We also have several more Lekue products to try so keep an eye out for those too. I was impressed with the quality of the product and would recommend if you like waffles and would like to make you own from scratch, they were sturdy and easy to clean. The pack contained two waffle trays and also a handy recipe book.

All opinions expressed are my own and the post is my own work. I have not received payment for this post but have been sent the item being reviewed free of charge by Lekue.

Detail: Lekue - Gluten free waffles