Spetsofai

As with all good meals - photographs questionably but tastes fantastic

A firm Greek favourite to finish off 2020.

I go to the same Greek restaurant all the time – but obviously not recently. One thing I was really missing was this amazing chorizo and pepper stew which tastes rich and delicious. I think cooking time is the key, this could be a great slow cooker meal. But I have nothing if not time on my hands at present, so I had time to cook it low and slow on the stove.

The boyfriend required chips with his.

I had mine with flat bread, but this would also be amazing with a fresh slice of thick bread, or even a nice crisp side salad. Rice and chips also work!

Chokladbiskvier

These are the weirdest little biscuits - apparently a Swedish staple! They feel very festive to me, little bite-size almondy chocolate treats!

So they have three main parts - a meringue base, a buttercream filling and a chocolate glaze topping. Making all three parts is a little time consuming but none of the techniques are particularly difficult and they are the loveliest little moresels when they're done.

According to my Swedish insider, you find these all over Sweden in little cafes. Bite size, crunchy and smooth and deliciously sweet!

Mughlai Chicken - Creamy Almond Chicken

This delicately spiced meal is visually reminiscent of a korma, but it's got a huge depth of flavour that I'm obsessed with. It's borrowed from my ride-or-die Nigella, with a few little tweaks.

It's one of those brilliant meals that's even better re-heated the next day and it's quick and easy enough to whip up after work! If I'm willing to make that effort on a weeknight then it must be easy, I swear. The whole spices make it taste like a meal that takes a lot more effort than it actually does. 

Speaking of the spices, I'll admit that there are a fair few ingredients. Having said that, the whole spices don't really go off and I find myself reaching for them often - it's worth having them in your cupboard!

Marbled Oreo Fudge

I think it's close enough to the festive season that I can get fudge recipes going. For me, fudge feels very Christmassy.

However, you never need to go without fudge again (at any time of year!), because making this recipe is super simple and makes a fudgy, creamy, sweet slab of deliciousness.

There are two ways to melt the mixture together, and I did both in this recipe. You can melt everything together gently in a saucepan over a low heat. Or you can do the same thing with a bowl and microwave, microwaving in 30 second increments until everything is smooth and melted together. Both are easy, I did the darker chocolate one in a saucepan because there was more of it, and the white chocolate one in a bowl. This also meant that I was able to do both at once which reduced the time between making it and getting it in my mouth.

Cinammon Cake With Peanut Butter Buttercream

I haven't updated in a while - blogger changed their interface and writing new posts with pictures has become a real drag. I will do better!

Starting with this cake of dreams. I don't know about everyone else, but sometimes I just get a massive craving for cake. It's not that often, and when it happens, I usually default to my all-time favourite - mocha walnut cake (it seriously is my favourite, first posted all the way back in 2013 and rarely do I make a better cake).

But I saw an instagram post for peanut butter buttercream and I just had to try it. I really didn't want the hassle of a three tier, frosted, epic cake situation so I made a really simple sheet cake and bunged a load of frosting on top.

And it was INSANELY delicious.

I make a really nice peanut butter cookie that is rolled in cinnamon sugar - so I thought a light yellow sponge with a hint of cinnamon running through it would be a really nice but unusual pairing. It worked beautifully - but I think the chocolate sponge from my Oreo cake would also be amazing.

makes enough for a rectangular sheet cake (my tin is approx 25x17cm) and I got 4 spare cupcakes

Ingredients for the cake

• 325g plain flour
• 25g cornflour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 230g butter, softened
• 150g granulated sugar
• 150g packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 240ml buttermilk (or regular milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice)
• 80ml sour cream
• 3 large eggs

Ingredients for the buttercream

• 230g butter, room temp
• 80g peanut butter, room temp
• 440g icing sugar
• 25g cocoa powder
• 3 tbsp milk or double cream
• pinch salt
• Sprinkles, to finish

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.

Begin with the cake - mix the flour, cornflour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt together and set aside.

In a smaller bowl, mix the milk, sour cream and eggs.

In another, larger bowl, beat together the butter, sugars and vanilla until lighter and slightly fluffy.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix well, and then add 1/3 of the liquid mixture and mix well. Continue to alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients, mixing well after each addition.

Bake for 35 minutes until golden and cooked through (I always check mine with a knife).

While the cake is cooking or cooling, make the buttercream.

Whip the butter for a few minutes, then add the icing sugar, cocoa powder, milk and beat again. Finally, add in the peanut butter and salt and beat until combined. You can always add a little more icing sugar if its too runny, or more milk if its too stiff.

When the cake is cooled, pipe or spoon your icing on top, however you do it, and throw on some sprinkles if you're into that.

Slice and eat! Delicious!

Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Am on a cookie binge these days. These are SO GOOD. I love the rich flavour of sesame in basically anything - so why not cookies!

And the addition of tahini makes a regular chocolate chip cookie into a buttery, savoury, beautifully rich cookie.

And these cookies are really easy to make. I love cookie recipes where you chill the dough overnight, because when you're ready to bake them the next day, it's about 30 minutes from rolling the cookies to eating the (warm) cookies. DREAMY!

Creamy Peppercorn Sauce

Sometimes you just get weird cravings for stuff. I was never really into peppercorn sauce until recently, and the other day I just HAD to have some. I didn't have steak or anything on hand, but I had all the ingredients for peppercorn sauce, so I roasted some chicken and threw it on top.

The next time, I would serve this my absolute favourite way - potato bread on the bottom, sliced steak on top, sauce all over.

There's not really many pictures of this because it's just that easy. Put everything in a pot. Cook it for a bit. Pour it over food.

Stacked Brownies

Stacks on stacks on STACKS.

Can’t decide whether you want a cookie or a brownie? I'm here to say "why not both?" It's building up to be another wet weekend, so sweet comfort foods seem smart.

These are some multi-layered brownie ridiculousness. Make a soft but sticky cookie dough, then top it with a layer of Oreos and THEN over the top of that pour over a silky smooth brownie batter.

Bake it. Eat it. Weep.

I have heard people put all sorts in the middle of the two layers, including peanut butter cups (YUM!). I've been thinking a lot about this - a distinctly delicious UK twist would be to use custard creams in place of the Oreos. Or even better, the king of biscuits, BOURBON CREAMS.

 

Chewy Ginger Nuts

I bought a tin of dark treacle ages ago when I had a craving for Jamaican ginger cake and then it just sat sadly at the back of my cupboard, unused.

But then I was spending a Sunday trawling through my recipe books for inspiration and I found a killer recipe for chewy ginger biscuits. I made a few subs to get my treacle in there and they came out PERFECTLY. Really soft but with crisp edges. Sweet but dark. Ridiculously flavourful. Hella delicious.

I love a crackle-top cookie!

Bake and enjoy! They are perfect for a little snack, but I am also picturing a dessert featuring them slightly warmed, with vanilla ice-cream on top and then drizzled with chopped nuts/honey and thinking that would be INCREDIBLE.

Japanese Milk Bread Loaf

Okay I hope you lovely people are finding yeast because you have to try making this bread.

This dough is obscene. It’s silky and smooth. It is a dream to work with and cooks like a dream. This reminds me of a brioche dough, but with a traditional roux starter, or tangzhong.

Peaking on my little resting dough babies

This is a little time consuming but really is my ideal way to spend a weekend. It would also make amaaaazing French toast which is a great Sunday brunch food.

Ras El Hanout Baked Chicken

This is a perfect midweek “throw it all in one pot and cook” dish which packs the most ridiculous flavour punch while being the most low-effort dinner I’ve made in a while. You could use skin-on chicken thighs (use 8) but I don’t really like those.

Ras-El-Hanout is a fabulous mix of spices. I got mine from a little deli, but I’m sure I’ve seen it in world food aisles of bigger grocery shops. It means “head of the shop” and is usually made up of the best of spices. The exact spices and quantities are not set in stone, but usually combine all of the delicious ones – cumin, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, cardamom etc. Mine had rose petals in it too!

This is a full on one pot dish – everything in an oven-proof dish, bake, serve. So quick. So delicious. So what are you waiting for?

Butter Chicken

The very best curry is fairly time consuming but so, so worth it. That’s how I categorise this meal; it’s more of a delicious weekend effort than a weekday meal. It involves juggling a few things and throwing in a lot of ingredients.

Served with some Nigella seeds and I reserved a little of the fried garlic for a topping

But during the cooking process it smells INCREDIBLE and the end product is one of the best curries I've ever eaten - woooooorth it!

Vareniki - Russian Mashed Potato Dumplings

My favourite thing about travelling is eating new cuisines. In Russia last year I was super hungry and late one evening we stopped into a little diner. I ordered what is basically a bowl of comforting delights - mashed potato wrapped in dough. Perfection. Carbs on carbs, my kind of cuisine.

I have been meaning to make these for AGES but honestly, folding dumpling wrappers can be a little bit tedious. Then I saw a thing. A gadget. The coolest thing ever!

DUMPLING PRESS OMG

So this was an absolute breeze. Easy, delicious and kind of quick for dumplings! I don't think my recipe is strictly traditional but it was really really good. Usually you'd just have this on your own but I served it with some sausages for a little extra protein.

Chocolate Oreo Cake

So, it was my BIRTHDAY recently. And my lovely boyfriend sourced some cake for me. Now that’s a hard task, because I have high standards for cake. But he found some absolute gems from a local cake shop - one of which was a chocolate oreo cake.

I ate it. It was life-changing. I immediately planned to make my own.

I was really keen to make a square cake, because I could easily chop it up into portions for work, and we want to reduce the number of people touching the baked goods (ie cutting a round cake has a little more contact that picking up a cut slice).

I think that coffee adds the perfect complement to the heavy chocolate flavour here, without making the final cake taste like coffee at all. Also, no matter how fine you process the biscuits, they’ll still probably be too big for a traditional shaped piping nozzle, so I just used one of my faves – the big round one that makes lovely Hershey’s Kiss-shaped dollops of icing.

No Knead Bread

I’m going to make a confession. I really like kneading bread. I don’t understand when people want to do less kneading.

Maybe I LIKE the misery..

So I’ve always ignored these no knead recipes. But I got sucked in the other day, browsing bread recipes in lockdown, as we all are. I saw some pictures of some bread that just had the best crust and looked artisan-bakery perfection.

Can't argue with that crust

It was no knead. I gave it a go.

And it turned out GREAT. The best part is that it takes almost no time to prep the dough, then you can leave it in the fridge for up to 7 days before baking! This means I can have fresh bread in the morning. Don’t underestimate how wonderful that is.

The secret of the crust is the steam generated from cooking it in a pre-heated lidded dish. Magical.