Fat Friday #17 Autumn Strudel

Welcome to that time of the week! It's Fat Friday! This weeks recipe is a great recipe to do with a friend, as you'll need some help with the strudel pastry. Its tons of fun to stretch and play with!

Recipe: Makes 4 large or 8 small strudels

Strudel Pastry:
·       250g Plain flour, sieved
·       1 egg
·       30ml vegetable oil
·       25g melted butter, plus a little extra
·       113ml water
·       100g poppy seeds

Spiced Apples:

·       3 apples cored, peeled and cut into chunks
·       20g raisins
·       20g apricots cut into pieces
·       100g granulated sugar
·       30g water
·       A pinch of cinnamon

Equipment:
·       Chopping Board
·       Saucepan
·       Wooden Spoon
·       Measuring Jug
·       Teaspoon
·       Tablespoon
·       Timer
·       Baking sheet lined with silicone paper
·       Pastry Brush
·       Fork
·       Loaf tin lined with silicone paper
·       Knife

Apple Filling

1.Place all of the filling ingredients in a saucepan and cook until apples are cooked through and the mixture is slightly mushy.
2.Put aside in bowl to cool and place into the strudel pastry.

Strudel pastry

1.Sieve the flour into a bowl.
2.Add the egg, oil, water and butter and mix with your hands to form a dough.
3.Knead for 5 minutes until elastic.
4.Rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
5.Once rested, roll the pastry out on a floured surface until ½ inch thick.
6.Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3/ 170c/325f
7.Stretch the dough by hand until it is as thin as paper.
8.Brush the pastry with a little melted butter

9.Cut the pastry into long oblongs. Spoon in the apple filling across a little of the pastry and roll into a cracker shape.
10.Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with poppy seeds.
11.Place on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes

What other flavours do you like in strudel?

Insta-Salmon! (Easy Salmon Dinner with green beans, spinach and white wine)

This meal is very easy to make and its suitable for freezing. Just ensure that you get the meal out from the freezer, in the morning and leave in the fridge to defrost for the day. You can serve with cooked new potatoes or fries, if you want to be really naughty.

Recipe: Serves 1 hungry student (Student Cookbook by Sam Stern)

• 1 fillet of salmon weighing 225g
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• 6 black olives
• 4 cherry tomatoes
• (Optional: 2 tablespoons white wine) 
• Pinch a of salt and pepper
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• Olive oil
• 50g Spinach
• 50g Green beans

Equipment:

• Foil
• Oven
• Tablespoon
• Chopping board
• Knife
• Baking Sheet

1. Chop the garlic and cherry tomatoes.  
2. Cut one piece of foil per fish meal. It needs to be large enough to take all the food items plus a little extra.
3. Lay the foil out on a baking tray.

4.Scrunch the edges up slightly and place the fish in the middle.Season.

5.Cover with the garlic, lemon juice and oil.

6.Arrange the potatoes, spinach, green beans, olives and tomatoes around the fish.
7. Drizzle over a little wine if using or more lemon juice and olive oil.
8.Pull the foil up and over the meal. Pinch the edges firmly to close.

9. Put in fridge for later or bake in the oven at 200c/ 400f/Gas Mark 6 10-15 minutes.

Fat Friday #8 Basic Fruit Batter

That's another week done and over with, of course you know what that means. Its Fat Friday! This week is kind of a throwback day as I've been trying to sort out loads of stuff with my pastry course and moving in my new place with my boyfriend (its been two days and we haven't killed each other...yet...) so its been hard to do something fancy and way cool. So this week you'll have to settle for Basic Fruit Batter. I first made this in my first pastry course and has been sitting idle for about a year unpublished on the blog. Oops on my half. Also I kind of felt that battering fruit was bad for you, but that was back before the time of Fat Friday*

*I'm not saying eat all fruit in batter. Please consume in moderation

Recipe: Basic Batter (My own)

·       450g plain flour

·       Pinch of salt

·       6 egg yolk

·       450ml white wine

·       90ml oil, plus extra for frying

·       Fruit of your choice (We used pineapple, apple, pear and kiwi. Kiwi was the best! Seriously, don't knock it until you try it.)

Equipment:

·       Bowl

·       Whisk

·       Frying pan with oil /deep fryer

·       Fork or a slotted spoon

·       Sieve

·       Jug

·       Knife

·       Chopping board

·       Plate with about 200g of sugar and 20g cinnamon 

    1. Peel the fruit, core the apples, pears etc so that it’s in rings. (Don't do this for kiwis, strawberries or other small fruit.)
2. Sieve flour into a bowl and add salt.
3. Make a well in the middle, and whisk in the eggs. Add the white wine and oil and mix well until it looks like a lumpy but wet mixture.

4.Heat up the oil in a frying pan/fryer to about 180c or until the oil is hot enough for frying. To test if it's hot enough, place a drop of batter into the oil once the batter starts to crisp and bubble, the oil is hot enough.
5. Coat the fruit with the batter, place into the hot oil and cook for 3-4 mins or until the batter has turned a golden colour. (Please be careful at this stage as there is a burn risk.)

6.Place into a plate of cinnamon sugar and roll around to coat. Serve. 

What fruit would you batter? Would you stop at fruit?
Happy Friday and Happy Baking 

Traditional Doughnuts

Hello and a great big welcome to Friday! Its not just Friday however, its Fat Friday! Where stuffing your face with food is encouraged. This week we're looking at doughnuts.

These are traditional jam filled doughnuts. Which are fluffy on the inside and have a little bite on the outside, thanks to the cinnamon sugar. I've chosen raspberry but feel free to add strawberry jam, custard or pastry cream. Doughnuts are easy-ish to make, the most difficult part is the cooking process. Doughnuts have a tendency to cook quickly and will float around all over the place. Also, hot oil is dangerous so this recipe isn't recommended for children. If you feel uncomfortable with hot oil, have someone who is more confident at cooking with it.
So with the health and safety out of the way, lets bake... I mean fry!

Ingredients: Will make 10 giant sized doughnuts, or 20 medium doughnuts (Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food Website)

• 500g strong white flour, plus a little extra
• 50g caster sugar
• 40g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 free-range eggs
• 2 x 7g sachets instant yeast
• 10g/¼oz salt
• 150ml/5fl oz warm milk
• 130ml/4½fl oz water
• 1 large jar smooth raspberry jam
• 300g sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• Loads of oil for frying (sunflower/vegetable)

Equipment:

• Deep fat fryer/Saucepan filled with oil
• Sieve
• Bowl
• Baking sheet x 2, one lined with flour and the other lined with sugar and cinnamon
• Disposable piping bag
• (Mixer with a dough hook attachment-Optional)
• Damp Tea-towel
• Spoon
• Slotted Spoon
• Small knife

 

1.Place all ingredients into a large bowl, holding back a 1/4 of the water and stir with your hands until a dough is formed. This will get messy, so please make sure your hands are clean.

2.Add the remaining water and knead the dough in the bowl for about 4 minutes. (Or you could mix with a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook which is what I did).

3.Tip dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. (Again, I used a dough hook on a stand mixer and mix for 10 minutes.)

4.Place the dough into a clean bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise for an hour. Make yourself a cup of tea, wash up or maybe watch a bit of TV.

5.The dough will have doubled in size. Tip the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface, and knead it a few times to knock the air out of it.

6.Divide the dough into 10/20 portions and shape each portion into a ball.

7.Place all balls onto a floured baking tray and allow to rise for an hour.

8.Preheat sunflower oil in a saucepan. Meanwhile get a baking sheet and mix the cinnamon and 300g sugar together on the tray.

9.Pop the doughnuts into the fat, cooking each side for about five minutes or until golden brown. Put around 3/4 in at a time to avoid them sticking

10. Remove the doughnuts from the oil with a slotted spoon and immediately roll into the sugared baking sheet.

11.Set aside and leave to cool.

12.When completely cold, cut into the side of the doughnut, reaching to the centre, this will be where the jam will go.

13.Spoon some smooth strawberry jam into a piping bag and pipe until full but not bursting.

What is your favourite jam filling? Want to share your Fat Friday food moment? Use the hashtag #fatfridays on Instagram and twitter.
Have a good weekend and happy baking (or frying..)!