Model turned tv chef and baking queen, Lorraine Pascale last week gave us her delicious recipes for Big Fat Carrot Cake and Pumpkin and Rosemary Muffins. This week, she shares her secrets to Hazelnut and Lemon Madeleines, Totally Lazy Mini Sausage Rolls and Pork Pies with Cider.
Sounds like the perfect picnic to us...
Hazelnut and lemon madeleines
There is many an argument over the origin of these scallop-shaped cakes. They have been linked to Polish and French royalty, with the exiled Duke of Lorraine thrown in for good measure. Proust spoke of these plump little cakes in his book Remembrance of Things Past. For authenticity, they should be made in a Madeleine mould, which, of course, is readily available to buy on the internet.
Makes 14 (V)
Vegetable oil or oil spray, for oiling
4 eggs
100g (3½oz) caster sugar
80g (3oz) butter, melted
Seeds of ½ vanilla pod or 2 drops of vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
100g (3½oz) plain flour
40g (1½oz) toasted hazelnuts - finely chopped or ground - almonds also work
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Equipment
1 large Madeleine tin
1 piping bag fitted with medium round nozzle
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), Gas Mark 4.
Oil the Madeleine tin.
Put the eggs in a large bowl and whisk until they have almost doubled in
volume, then while still whisking gradually add the sugar down the sides
of the bowl. This will take about 10–15 minutes with an electric mixer
and the mixture will be very light, fluffy and mousse-like.
Add the melted butter around the sides of the bowl so as not to knock out all the air, then add the vanilla and fold the mixture over itself to
combine, using as few strokes as possible - again, so as not to knock out the air.
Sift the salt and half the flour over the mixture and carefully fold it into the
batter. Once this is combined, sift the other half in and repeat.
Scatter over the nuts and lemon zest and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the piping bag and pipe the mixture into the prepared Madeleine moulds, filling them two-thirds full.
Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the Madeleines are springy to the touch and are turning a light golden brown colour.
Serve straight from the oven as a petit-four with tea or coffee.
Totally lazy mini sausage rolls
I make these often – sometimes the sausage shoots rather rudely out of its skin, sometimes it doesn't. To guarantee your sausage does not escape its roll during cooking, the sausage skin can be slipped off before encasing it in pastry.
Makes 16 rolls
500g (1lb 2oz) shop-bought puff pastry
Plain flour, for dusting
1 egg, beaten
8 herby sausages (the best you can afford), cut in two
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Small handful of thyme leaves
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F), Gas Mark 6.
Roll the pastry out on a floured surface to a rectangle of about 48cm
x 32cm (19 x 12½in) and bash the pastry with the rolling pin a bit.
Puff pastry is made of fine layers and normally you have to be very delicate with it. For sausage rolls the pastry needs to be slightly puffed but not too much, so bashing it with a rolling pin reduces the amount it puffs up.
Cut the large rectangle in half lengthways, then cut both smaller
rectangles into eight equal sections. You now have 16 rectangles in total. Brush one end of each rectangle with a little of the beaten egg, lay a piece of sausage at the other end, then season the sausage with salt and pepper and sprinkle with thyme leaves.
Roll the sausage up in the pastry to enclose and repeat with all the sausages. To make the rolls different and to pack an extra flavour punch, you can add sage, thyme or chopped rosemary. Put the sausage rolls in the fridge for 20 minutes for the pastry to harden.
Once the pastry is hard, remove them from the fridge and score the tops
with a sharp knife for decoration or prick with a fork. Brush well all over with the rest of the beaten egg and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, or until the pastry has turned a golden brown and looks crisp.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly before serving.
Pork Pies with Cider
Some like the jelly, others really don't. These pies are aspic-free and wrapped in the easiest pastry you can make. When it comes to peeling hard-boiled eggs, remember that older eggs peel more easily, so try to buy them in advance. But if your eggs are fresh, add a pinch of baking soda to the water, which also makes them easier to peel.
Makes 8 individual pies
Hot water crust pastry
430g (15oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
½ tsp salt
Few twists of black pepper
1 egg yolk
80g (3oz) butter
100g (3½oz) lard
180ml (6½fl oz) water
1 egg, lightly beaten, for glazing
Filling
3 rashers of thick bacon
265g (5½oz) pork loin
½ bunch of spring onions, trimmed
1 clove of garlic, peeled
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp Calvados or cider
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 hard-boiled quail's eggs, peeled (some supermarkets
sell cooked peeled ones)
Equipment
12-hole muffin tin
Start by making the pastry. Put the flour, salt, pepper and egg yolk
in a large bowl and mix everything together until well combined.
Make a well in the middle. Put the butter, lard and water in a small
pan over a low heat and let the fat melt.
Turn the heat up so that the liquid is bubbling furiously. It is important not to let the water boil before the fat has melted otherwise
too much of the water will evaporate, changing the quantities of the liquid.
Remove the pan from the heat and pour this liquid into the well in the middle of the flour mixture. Stir quickly to form a firmish dough. You may not need all of the water. It depends so much on the weather and how thirsty the flour is. Stir it well for a minute or so, then once it has cooled down lift the pastry from the bowl and knead it on a lightly floured work surface so it is smooth and uniform.
Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and put in the fridge for a good 30 minutes while you make the filling.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F), Gas Mark 6.
Blitz all the filling ingredients except the quail's eggs in a food processor until minced.
Remove the pastry from the fridge and divide it into two-third and one-third portions. Take the two-thirds piece and divide it into 8 balls.
Roll a ball out with your hands, then flatten it into a rough circle bigger than the muffin hole and push it down into the muffin tin. Make sure the pastry goes right into the corners of the tin. Ease up the edges of the pastry so they stand 5mm (1⁄4in) proud of the top of the tin. Repeat with the rest of the pastry balls.
Put a thin layer of the mince mix in the bottom of the pastry, then take a quail's egg and place it on its side in the middle of the pastry case. Pile more mince mix on top until the pastry is full and has a peak in the middle. Repeat with all the pies.
Take the one-third piece of pastry and divide it into 8 balls. Take one piece and flatten it into a circle large enough to act as a lid for the pies.
Place the lid on a pie and squeeze the edges together to seal. Repeat with all the pies.
Cut a hole in the top of the pastry for the steam to escape during baking and glaze the top of the pork pies with the beaten egg.
Bake in the oven for 30–35 minutes, or until the pastry is firm and looks golden brown.
Serve with some pickle and very cold lager.
Baking Made Easy is on BBC2 on Mondays at 8.30pm. The Baking Made Easy book, published by Harper Collins, is out now.