FIGS FOR 1001 NIGHTS

FIGS FOR 1001 NIGHTS

This is so simple - scarcely a recipe really - but so good. Unless you get figs straight from the tree they sometimes need the blistering heat of an oven or grill to bring out all their honeyed sweetness. The cinnamon is emphatic, certainly, but it doesn't overwhelm the whole; it, rather, infuses the fruit, along with the kitchen you're cooking it in, with mellow spiciness. This is the pudding to end a slow-grazing, long-picking dinner eaten outside on a warm, balmy night.

If you haven't got any vanilla sugar, just use ordinary caster sugar and add a drop of pure vanilla extract along with the flower waters. A Middle-Eastern store of some kind will stock packets of slivered pistachios, vividly green and splintered into little boat-shaped shards. But if you can't get them, just buy shelled pistachios from a health shop or supermarket and chop them roughly with a knife or mezzaluna yourself.
- Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

12 black figs
50 g unsalted butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
1.5 tsp rose water
1.5 tsp orange flower water
500 g mascarpone
100 g pistachio nuts, slivered

Method

Preheat a grill or oven to the fiercest it will go.

Quarter the figs, taking care not to cut all the way through to the bottom, so that they open like flowers, or young birds squawking to be fed worms by their mummy, and sit them, thus opened, in a heatproof dish into which they fit snugly.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then add the cinnamon, sugar and flower waters. Stir to combine and pour into the figs.

Blister under the hot grill or bake in the oven for a few minutes and then serve; it's that quick. Just give each person a couple of figs on a side-plate. Splodge alongside some mascarpone over which you drizzle some of the conker-dark syrup, then sprinkle over some of those green, green shards of pistachio.

CHOCOLATE GUINNESS CAKE

CHOCOLATE GUINNESS CAKE

This cake is magnificent in its damp blackness. I can't say that you can absolutely taste the stout in it, but there is certainly a resonant, ferrous tang which I happen to love. The best way of describing it is to say that it's like gingerbread without the spices. There is enough sugar - a certain understatement here - to counter any potential bitterness of the Guinness, and although I've eaten versions of this made up like a chocolate sandwich cake, stuffed and slathered in a rich chocolate icing, I think that can take away from its dark majesty. Besides, I wanted to make a cream cheese frosting to echo the pale head that sits on top of a glass of stout. It's unconventional to add cream but it makes it frothier and lighter which I regard as aesthetically and gastronomically desirable. But it is perfectly acceptable to leave the cake un-iced: in fact, it tastes gorgeous plain.
- Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

For the cake
250 ml guinness
250 gram(s) unsalted butter
75 gram(s) cocoa powder
400 gram(s) caster sugar
142 ml sour cream
2 medium egg(s)
1 tablespoon(s) vanilla extract
275 gram(s) plain flour
2.5 teaspoon(s) bicarbonate of soda

For the topping
300 gram(s) cream cheese
150 gram(s) icing sugar
125 ml double cream (or whipping cream)

Method

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C, and butter and line a 23cm springform tin.
Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

COCONUT MACAROONS

COCONUT MACAROONS

"These are an easy Passover biscuit, very popular in the United States as they store well and taste delicious. Of course, all macaroons are a very good way to use extra egg whites."

- From "New Jewish Cooking" by Elizabeth Wolf Cohen

Ingredients

4 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar
250 g sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice or distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
275g desiccated coconut

Method

In a large bowl, with  an electric mixer at medium speed, beat whites until frothy.
Add cream of tartar and beat on high speed until peaks form.
Gradually sprinkle in sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition until whites form stiff peaks.
Sprinkle lemon juice or vinegar, vanilla and coconut over whites. Gently fold in until just blended.

Preheat oven to 150oC/300oF/Gas Mark 2. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Drop mixture by heaped teaspoonful, keeping a cone shape, until 2.5cm/1 inch apart.

Bake 40 tp 45 minutes until lightly browned, macaroons should be very slightly soft in the centre. Remove macaroons on paper to wire rack to cool slightly. Carefully peel off paper and cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

MOROCCAN BUTTER ISCUITS

MOROCCAN BUTTER ISCUITS

From "New Jewish Cooking" by Elizabeth Wolf Cohen

Ingredients

250 g unsalted butter, softened
250 g sugar
375 plain flour
25 g ground almonds
coarsely chopped walnuts to decorate (optional)

Method

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter until white and creamy, 5 to 7 minutes.
Add sugar and continue beating until very smooth and creamy, 4 to 5 minutes.
Stir in flour and ground almonds by hand until well blended and a soft dough is formed.
If dough is too soft to handle, add a little more flour or chill until dough is firm enough to handle, 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 150oC/300oF/Gas Mark 2

Lightly flour large baking sheets, do not grease. With lightly floured hands, divide dough into walnut-sized pieces and roll into smooth balls.
Place on baking sheets about 2.5 cm/1 inch apart. Press a few walnuts on the top of each ball.

Bake until set, 20 to 30 minutes.
Do not let biscuits overcook or brown at all, they should remain a creamy off-white colour.
Remove to a large rack to cool.
Store in an airtight container.

DOVES FARM RYE SODA BREAD

DOVES FARM RYE SODA BREAD

Very quick and easy to make this loaf is great for tearing into chunks to eat with a thick soup. For soda bread suitable for sandwiches omit the cuts across the top of the dough. Soda bread is best eaten fresh. This recipe uses a little more milk than the one on our Rye Flour packet as we think it makes a better loaf with the extra liquid.

Ingredients

250 g Rye Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
2 tsps Cream of Tartar
200 ml Milk
1 tbsp Oil
Method

Mix together the flour, soda and cream of tartar.
Add milk and mix to a soft sticky ball of dough.
Sprinkle the oil over the dough and turn it over to form a smooth ball of dough.
Place the dough on a large oiled baking tray & cut a star across the top of the dough.
Place a large pyrex dish or casserole dish over the dough.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 60/65 minutes.

DOVE'S FARM GINGER CRUMBLES

DOVE'S FARM GINGER CRUMBLES

This everyday biscuit recipe makes tasty, slightly chewy biscuits which are great for the cookie tin. The recipe makes about 30 biscuits.

Ingredients

125 g Rye Flour
75 g Oats
2 tsps Baking Powder
2 tsps Ginger Powder
25 g Chopped Crystallised Ginger
50 g Brown Sugar
1 Pinch of Salt
50 g Butter
100 g Golden Syrup
1 Lemon - Juice & Grated Rind

Temperature & cooking time:
170°C/Fan150°F/325°F/Gas 3

Method

Place rye flour, oats, baking powder, two types of ginger, sugar and salt in mixing bowl.
In a saucepan melt the butter, with the syrup, lemon juice & rind.
Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients & mix well.
Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into small balls and place on an oiled baking tray.
Flatten each dough ball with a fork.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes.

CHRISTMAS CHOCOLATE BISCUITS

CHRISTMAS CHOCOLATE BISCUITS

I love these dark, fat patties of chocolate shortbread exuberantly topped with festive sprinkles. There’s something so cheering about the sight of them, but they have more in their favour than looks: they are a doddle to make, and meltingly gorgeous to eat.
- Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

For the biscuits
250 gram(s) butter (soft)
150 gram(s) caster sugar
40 gram(s) cocoa powder
300 gram(s) plain flour
½ teaspoon(s) bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon(s) baking powder

For the topping
2 tablespoon(s) cocoa powder
175 gram(s) icing sugar
60 ml tonic water (boiling)
1 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
1 packet(s) sprinkles

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3 and line a baking sheet with Bake-O-Glide or baking parchment.
Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl and, when you have a light, soft, whipped mixture, beat in the 40g cocoa powder (sieving if it is lumpy) and, when that’s mixed in, beat in the flour with the bicarb and baking powder. Or just put everything in the processor and blitz, if you prefer.
This mixture is very soft and sticky and I find it easiest to form the biscuits wearing my CSI (disposable vinyl) gloves, so pinch off pieces about the size of a large walnut, roll them into balls, then slightly flatten into fat discs as you place them, well spaced, on your baking sheet; you should get about 12 on at a time.
Bake each batch for 15 minutes; even though the biscuits won’t feel as if they’ve had enough time, they will continue to cook as they cool. They will look slightly cracked on top, and it’s this cosy, homespun look I love.
Remove the baking sheet to a cold surface and let it sit for 15 minutes before transferring the biscuits to a wire rack, with a sheet of newspaper under it (to catch drips while topping them).
To make the topping, put the cocoa powder, icing sugar, water and vanilla extract into a small saucepan and whisk over a low heat until everything’s smoothly combined. Take off the heat for 10 minutes.
When the biscuits are cool, drizzle each one with a tablespoonful of chocolate glaze – to glue the sprinkles on in a minute – using the back of the spoon to help spread the mixture, though an uneven dribbly look is part of their charm.
After you’ve iced 6 biscuits, scatter with some of the Christmas sprinkles, and continue thus until all the biscuits are topped. If you ice them all before sprinkling, you will find the cocoa “glue” has dried and the sprinkles won’t stick on.