Nutella Delice for World Nutella Day

This year's humble offering (better late than never) is based on a idea from visiting Pasteleria Kruss in Cartagena. It's about layers. Nutella sponge, creme patisserie, Nutella chocolate ganache and hazelnut buttercream finished with hazelnut praline on top.

Here's an interesting thing - Ferrero use 25% of the world's supply of hazelnuts. There was that time a few years ago when the hazelnut harvest went down due to the frost. A little fluctuation in the price of hazelnuts must cost multi millions. It made the stock of Nutella go down for sure - that's never a good thing!  

If you can't find ground hazelnuts for the sponge you can grind your own in the Vitamix like I did - comes out with a great texture! 

This would ideally be fridged for a few hours to set before slicing. I gave up waiting - it's been a long day, so the creme pat was a bit soft. Patience eh?

Hazelnut sponge

3 Egg whites

150g Icing sugar

3 eggs

150g Ground hazelnuts 

50g Plain flour

25g Unsalted butter

• Whisk the egg whites and 50g icing sugar to stiff peaks. 
• In a separate bowl mix 100g icing sugar and 3 eggs till thick and creamy
• Fold in ground hazelnuts, flour and butter
• Fold the hazelnut flour mix and egg white mix together. 

I forgot and added all the icing sugar to the egg whites, then whisked the whole eggs on their own. Still turned out fine. 

Line a large baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Spread the sponge mix on to the paper lined tray so it is a thin layer. I made 2 baking trays worth.
Bake at 160 oC for about 6 - 8  minutes till just set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.   

Chocolate and Nutella Ganache

50g Plain chocolate

125ml Double cream

75g Nutella

Heat cream and chocolate, then pour over nutella and blend together. 

Vanilla Creme Patisserie

250ml Milk

3 Egg yolks

Vanilla

50g Sugar

1 1/2 tbsp Plain flour

Heat the milk till just off the boil. 

In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks, flour, vanilla and sugar. 

Add a little of the milk to the egg yolk and sugar mix and whisk in.

Return to the pan and allow to thicken, stirring frequently. 

Place a greaseproof cartouche on top of the creme pat to stop a skin forming. Allow to cool. 

Hazelnut Cream

75g Unsalted butter, softened

Vanilla 

150g Icing sugar

50g Nutella

50g Hazelnuts blitzed down to a paste

Cream the softened butter and icing sugar till thick. Fold in the hazelnut paste and Nutella. You may need a little warm water to loosen it. 

Candied hazelnuts - whole/ praline and pulled sugar spikes

The candied hazelnuts really finish this off well.

150g Caster sugar
2 tbsp Water
Hazelnuts

Hard core chefs just use sugar, no water. I like to make life easy and add water.

1. Caramel likes medium heat. Brush around the edges of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water every so often - this stops the sugar crystallising. Caramel doesn't like being stirred - that makes it crystallise too. Sugar needs a bit of respect.
2. When you're at caramel colour drop the hazelnuts in. Make sure they are evenly coated. Keep them moving in the caramel for 1 minute, then take them out with a fork on to a tray with greaseproof paper to cool. 
3. Now take the caramel pan off the heat and dip it in cold water to stop it cooking. Wait till it cools and thickens just enough so it's like the consistency of golden syrup. 
4. Make a clear piece of work surface where you can hang the hazelnuts. Put newspaper or tin foil on the floor below so the caramel drips on to that rather than the floor. Then you can fold it up afterwards and bin it - nice easy clear up. 
5. Stick the hazelnuts onto cocktail sticks, through the side, not the middle or they fall apart. Dip into the caramel and hang over the edge of the work surface using jars, tins or mugs as weights to hold the skewer in place.
6. If it cools down too much you can put the caramel back on the heat, then go back to stage 3. 

Once they are set they are delicate and best left in position until needed.


Layering up

Line a 1 lb/ 500g loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Now have fun layering them up!

Trim the sponge using a ruler so it fits the size of the loaf tin. Divide the hazelnut cream, creme pat and ganache in half. Make 2 layers of each with a layer of sponge in between each. A spoon dipped in hot water is most useful in smoothing the hazelnut cream, creme pat and ganache layers. 

Alternatively, you could consider making it a single layer of each so it's more of a tea cake style thing.  

Cover and refrigerate to help set it before slicing. 

Best served at room temperature. I let it set, then sliced it, then let it come up to room temperature. 

Previous Nutella Day recipes:

Pear and Almond Tart with Nutella Ice Cream

Espresso, Nutella and Hazelnut Brioche Crown

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2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge - C is for Caffè Affogato & Carrot and orange cake

"Is there a dessert deli round the corner or something?" asked one of the guests at the Italian themed birthday dinner I cooked for last Saturday near Fossebridge. They couldn't understand how so much can come from one kitchen in such a short time while I was cooking and serving on my own. Magic.

Assiette of desserts with caffee affogato (left), prosecco and berry jelly (middle), tirimisu (right), then 2 non-Italian style desserts (it was their choice after all!) apple tarte tatin (hiding at the back and millionaires shortbread at the front.

Affogato al caffè to be precise. Affogato means drowned in Italian, so this is literally vanilla ice cream drowned in coffee. Now I'm thinking how good would this be with Baileys ice cream? Or whisky and honey ice cream?








Ice cream recipe - vanilla

Need an ice cream recipe for the affogato? Try this one (re-posted from the recent pistachio ice cream)

There are 2 routes you can go down with ice cream - the custard based route or the Phildelphia style (without egg - not because it contains Philadelphia cheese) route. I much prefer the Philadelphia version for my events - saves so may problems with pregnant guests, who, although I would use pasteurised egg still are wary of eating it.  Better safe than sorry!
I use the Philadelphia ice cream recipe from the book (now fallen apart at the spine) that I got in '95 - the summer I'd finished A levels and tested many of the recipes during that summer with the fruit from our garden - Ices: The Definitive Guide.
These days you can use vanilla paste (see rigtht) rather than infusing & scraping vanilla beans - faster & cheaper & tastes very good! Make your own vanilla essence is coming up on the A to Z letter 'T'.

To make another type of ice cream you can miss out the vanilla and add something else using the same recipe - fruit puree for example or another of my favourites is a ginger version - add ginger wine (about 150 ml) and chopped stem ginger.

375ml   Milk
50g      Caster sugar
125ml  Condensed milk
250ml  Double cream
Pinch of salt
1/4 - 1/2 tsp vanilla paste to taste.

1. Heat a small bit of the milk in a pan with the sugar till the sugar melts, then take it off the heat to cool. No point putting all the milk in - just takes longer to cool down, so longer time till you can start making ice cream. 

2. Add all  the remaining ingredients with the sugar/ milk and mix together till combined. 

3. Churn in the ice cream machine. If you don't have an ice cream machine there is a link to still freezing method here. 

Should make 1 litre. 

Italian meat and cheese sharing platter starter at the Italian themed birthday meal near Fossebridge

Had to use this board they had at the house for the feta and grape  foccacia

C is also for Carrot and orange cake. Another recipe I purloined for one of our lunch parties from The Ginger Bread Lad's blog - see recipe here. I left Shawn icing this & grating zest on top while I was doing something else.... think he got carried away. Sure tasted of orange though!  

Related posts:

Caramel (Millionaires) shortbread

Tarte tatin

Other cakes we have made

Pineapple tarte tatin

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Zwetschgenkuchen - German plum cake

Zwetschgenkuchen - German plum cake from this recipe using South African Flavor King plums - I think flavorking should be  a verb - the 2014 equivalent of 'twerking'. When your trying out/ inventing new recipes you're 'flavorking'!
Flavor King plums taste like a cross between plums and apricots and have a bubble gum type flavour - so nice, so morish!

 It was interesting cooking at the South African fruit meal for MsMarmitelover then following via twitter her trip to South Africa where the fruit is grown:

25 year + investment! Promise of high returns, but also such a risky business - who knows what demand and the market in general is going to be like in 25 years? They are taking a leap!
Also so many other factors involved - exchange rates, seasonality: the South African stone fruit season is in the UK winter so we don't naturally think of buying plums, nectarines, peaches etc because for us they seem out of season at that time, whereas in fact they are peaking and so amazing! Add in that our fruit consumption is actually going down anyway, pest control, other stone fruit markets which could increase their yields (China, Australia, Chile etc) and it's a really tough business!

Pretty sad isn't it - 3 times more money spent on promoting vodka than fresh fruit? But also telling of our times. I have also been aware of this supermarket mark up of fruit and veg for the last few years - compare it with what we pay wholesale in the catering industry and you see why supermarkets are making such high returns. Along with that, however, is the high level of wastage which supermarkets have with fruit and veg - this is all incorporated into the high prices.

I liked the scientists' answer to the fruit fly problem though - isn't technology amazing!? 

From all of that.... to these:

Amazing to think of the industry behind the food you eat ain't it!?

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Pineapple lemon drizzle cake cooked in pineapple rings

So you've cut the pineapple rings out, then what do you do with the pineapple skin? I was just about to chuck the skins away and Sean says "You can do something with those can't you?" Well necessity is the mother of invention they say, so this is what we did. Another addition to the cakes-cooked-in-unusual-'tins' opus.

It snowed heavily with icing sugar.......

Lemon drizzle cake cooked inside the hollowed out pineapple shell. The pineapple skin gives it flavour as it cooks. Then boil up the pineapple core (the core you cut out to make the rings - see how to cut pineapple rings in a post from 2010 here) along with lemon juice and sugar and use this as the drizzle to drizzle over the cake when it is cooked. Meanwhile the pineapple rings went with coconut and lime panna cotta.

Similar posts

Other cakes we have made
How to make pineapple rings 

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Ginger cake cooked in a pumpkin

For last week's lunch buffet on Hallowe'en we went festive with this cake - you eat the squash and the cake: 2 for the price of 1! 

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Chocolate cake baked in an orange. Warning: make lots of extras - they are addictive!

Just delivered to  a lunch buffet for a regular client - lucky people!

After the fruit salad in clementine and lemon sorbet in a lemon as part of a dessert for a dinner party I thought why not make a cake inside an orange - rather like the 'cup' cake I made last year. Chocolate cake seemed like the natural thing - you can't argue with chocolate and orange. The cake takes on the orange flavour as it bakes and tastes so fresh. I used this chocolate cake recipe - you can't go wrong with Mary Berry. I was addicted to one of her books when I was 12. It's amazing to see she's made such a comeback - deservedly so.

I found you probably only need to fill the oranges 1/3 of the way up. But this may be because I had made my own baking powder mix (had run out) so it was rather lively. They probably took longer to cook too (heat has to get through the orange skin before it can cook the cake inside).

It would be interesting to try it with limes and a white chocolate cake mix or a key lime cake mix.

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Croquembouche

Croquembouche - sure! I'll try that. 3 generations celebrating how many 4 or 5 birthdays? Granny had asked for croquembouche. Whatever Granny wants Granny gets!

Oh - you can't see the spun sugar on the iphone photo. Had fun making it though!

Assistant chef Brad spinning sugar around the croquembouche

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Pomegranate cake and last minute gluten free buffet lunch

I forget which recipe I used now - but there's pomegranate in the middle, pom juice in the icing and more pomegranate sprinkled on top. This would work well as individual cakes too.......

Pomegranate seeds in the mix which burst as the cake cooks!

All day breakfast puff pastry slice - with tomato, pancetta, sausage and mushroom and quail egg

Last minute gluten free lunch. Always helpful when you say you are gluten free before we turn up with your delivery. No worries though, rushed back to the unit and put this gluten free version together in 4 minutes and rushed it back. Always go that extra mile!

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Tapas delivery near Stratford on Avon

"Oh that's at the door!"
"It's either that woman or your tapas delivery"
"It's not a woman!"

Broad Marston Manor was like one of those winter scenes you see on the front of Christmas cards. The last few miles had been dicey with the snow filled roads frozen to an ice rink. Like a bit of adventure though.
With a week full of events everything had to be made fresh on the day so it was rush-rush, hence not many new photos :(

Pan rustico - halfway to sourdough using this recipe  - so good I am going to have to make it again and try some this time. Also made corn bread like this one.

Paella - similar to this one from last year

Spicy beef empanadas

Asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon (like the ones seen above from a previous event).

Spanish style mussels in a fennel bread bowl - see how to make the bread bowls here

Brie and spinach croquettes + GLUTEN FREE version
Sides

Insalata mixta

Patatas bravas

Gluten free brazo gitano - as there were a few gluten free guests I made the whole thing gluten free. Amazingly light. - the end pieces were amazing! Filled with whipped chantilly cream and strawberries.

Whole vanilla roasted pineapple just after cooking. 

Rice pudding tarts with blood oranges + some gluten free tart cases 

(As it was a delivery the rice pudding made with half evaporated milk, tart cases and blood orange segments were delivered separately so they could simply be put together just before serving to be at their best). Definitely one to do again!

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Strawberry and banana shortbread meringue

This has to be the ultimate shortbread no? Did this at the beginning of September. Hard to see maybe - camera viewfinder had broken so we had to hope for the best - they don't last long in this place with so much going on all the time....

Strawberry and banana meringue 'shortbread' - biscuit base like you would use for cheesecake base, buttercream on top, bananas sliced on top, strawberries on top of those and then Italian meringue piped on top and glazed with blow torch. There was a recipe which we had and adapted (originally cream on top instead of meringue), but can't find now - watch this space......

In production - you set the base first then the rest goes on top. We realised afterwards it would be much better to cut out the base into squares, then put the bananas, strawberries and meringue on top once they were cut - much neater. You live & learn!

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Blackberry and apple küchen and raspberry ripple cake

Ever since I'd picked up Nigella's Bites book I'd been wanting to try this blackberry and apple kuchen and finally last Tuesday was the day. A cross between bread and cake topped with bramley apples, juicy blackberries and a crumble topping - what could be better!? Well making it for yourself rather than giving it away, but c'est la vie.

Then there was this raspberry ripple cake. File this in the recipe file under 'n' for 'naughty but nice'

With raspberries inside, more are sprinkled on top with marshmallows  when you're almost  finished cooking, then put back in the oven to finish and toast the marshmallows - what could be more decadence on a Tuesday?

Will try with larger marshmallows next time which should melt. But seriously - marshmallows! There's a real cake topping!

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Tomato and pesto tart and lemon squares

Tomato and pesto tart - years since I'd made this, suddenly reminded by this blog post.

Baguette croute with caramelised red onion hoummous, egg and  cauliflower carpaccio

Lemon squares - just found this host of recipes last night..... endless baking fun to come!

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Chocolate marshmallow bar

You cook the chocolate brownie base, put marshmallows on and put it back in the oven to melt, then a chocolate, peanut butter and rice krispie topping. Too much chocolate? @Relishthetaste thought not - right too!

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