Brown Sugar Peach Pie

The weather has changed slightly with a good north westerly breeze helping me get all my clothes dry but it also had me putting on a cardigan! I was adamant, after the beautiful weather we had, that I wouldn't put back on my winter clothes. But still, it is a little chilly so I needed something warm and fuzzy to fill me.

This tray bake pie was to be it and good thing too, as it felt warm and summery as soon as we started eating it. It's also a very homely pie, perfect for sharing with pots of strong tea and really suited an evening after dinner reminiscing the Irish Summer as we looked out at the return of the rain!!

A full fat, Irish Dairy butter short crust pastry keeps the peaches in place, holding in all that lovely, sticky, sweet mess. The peaches offer that perfect blend of texture to help balance out the sweet flavours of the brown sugar and bourbon. The cinnamon helps make the pie rustic, satisfying and homespun. Perfect for this time of year.

Brown Sugar Peach Pie

The Pastry:

480g plain flour

100g icing sugar

300g diced cold butter (+ a little extra for greasing the pan)

2 large free range eggs

The Peaches:

4 cans of peach slices

125g demerara sugar

2 tbsp of bourbon

1 tsps cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 180C, 350F or Gas Mark 4.

Put the flour, butter and icing sugar into a food processor and blitz until looks like breadcrumbs. Crack in the egg and bring together until a soft ball forms.

Split into two balls, one slightly larger than the other.

Wrap in clingfilm, pat down and leave in fridge for 30 mins.

Add all the ingredients for “The Peaches” into a bowl and toss about until coated. Set to one side, to rest.

Grease with the extra butter, a rectangular baking tray, ideally 9x13 and about 2 inch deep.

When the balls come back out of the fridge, roll them out, the size of your tray pan. Place on rectangle of pastry into the tray and let any excess hang over the edges.

Using a slotted spoon fill the pan with the peaches, being careful not to add in any juice that may have seeped out during resting. Spread out evenly.

Cutting strips of pastry with the other rectangle layer them over the pan, pulling alternate strips back and layering the opposite direction to give a lattice effect.

Once the top has been covered over, turn in the edges of pastry that were hanging over and pinch to close. Brush the top of the pastry with the peach juices left over in the bowl, toss some demerara over the top.

Bake the whole thing in your pre heated for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden and the juices are bubbling inside.

Leave to cool for about 15 minutes and serve warm with a big dollop of ice cream. 

Simple and delicious!!

Sure what more could you want on these not so summer days?

Brown Sugar Shortbread with a Peach (no-churn) Ice Cream

For those of you into numbers, this recipe will be brought to you by the number three.

It's not that I planned it that way, it's just how it is really. What follows are three, incredibly simple easy makes. Having them individually, on their own is fabulous but smooshed together on a hot summers day... Now you are talking my language!

Peaches are in season so perfect to buy ripe and juicy right now, but if you are lazy you can totally opt for canned.. No one is going to judge you! All recipes contain three ingredients. Three, no more and no less. Three exactly.

That's it.

Like honestly, you cannot go wrong with this. Make one or all and bask in your baking prowess.

Baked Peach Puree

3 whole peaches skinned, de-stoned and chopped in half
a little knob of butter for each peach half
sprinkle of brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F or Gas Mark 4.
In an oven proof dish, add all the ingredients and pop in the oven, uncovered for 25 minutes until the juices are bubbling the sugar has melted and the peaches are gone all squidgy.
Remove from the oven, allow to cool for about 10 minutes and then blitz into a puree with a hand blender or similar.

Peaches and Cream Ice Cream

500ml of single cream
1 can of condensed milk
the batch of peach puree

Whip the cream up until peaks form.
Add in the condensed milk and continue to whip until thick.
Fold through the batch of peach puree and transfer into a freezer proof container (I like to use a loaf pan). Cover the container with clingfilm or a lid.
Pop into the freezer for at least 4 hours to set.

Brown Sugar Shortbread

225g salted butter at room temperature
285g self-raising flour
110g soft brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F or Gas Mark 2. Line two cookies sheets with baking parchment.
In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until it is one sticky mess.
Add the flour and mix until just combined.
Toss the dough out onto a pre-floured counter top and knead together.
Wrap the dough up into some clingfilm and pop into the fridge for 20-30 minutes, to allow the butter to cool.

Roll out the dough onto a pre-floured counter top and cut out your shapes.

I like to do little circles... JUST REMEMBER to space the cookies apart as they spread when they are baking.. I usually get about 16 cookies from my dough.

Bake for 15-20 mins on the lowest racks in the oven, until they have turned that beautiful caramel colour. They will be soft (and hot) to touch when you take them out. You need to leave them on the tray to cool completely. By doing so you will have that soft, melt in your mouth crumbly texture to them.

Just like shortbread should!

Once you've gotten through all the steps assemble how you please.

I like to do the scoop on top of a cookies, but you could sandwich the ice cream between two... or even crumble the cookies into crumbs and sprinkle it all haphazard like.

Whatever you do, enjoy it. That's the main thing!

Rocky Road (no churn) Ice Cream

Chocolate ice cream is one of those things that makes me giddy. Like actually giddy. Like little girl, annoying her parents after one too many chocolate ice creams, giddy. 

I know you might think that's weird, or sad, but let me tell you... I'm a girl of very simple (though sometimes intricate and pretentious) taste. And chocolate ice cream is one of those tastes. It's pure, basic simplicity excites me.

Now, I figured that the best chocolate ice cream came from a carton in the freezer at the supermarket. That without an ice cream maker it would just taste like... meh... nothing great! But I was wrong.

Wrong.

So very wrong.

There is nothing easier than making home made chocolate ice cream. If you have all the ingredients in your cupboard, an electric mixer and 15 minutes to kill, then you could have a tub of chocolate ice cream in the freezer and head on off about your day!

First I need you to ask yourself; do you like chocolate, marshmallow, biscuits, chocolate chips? You do, well then this ice cream is for you. If you don't, you need to reevaluate your life decisions to date (joking!). If you don't, make it for some one who does and just watch their face light up like you have just handed them a unicorn.

It is that good. I know it is. And you will too.

The beauty about this recipe is that it can be customised to your liking.  You like more chocolate chips? Put them in. You like nuts? Put them in. You like peanut butter? Put. It. In. You want to make it a triple chocolate, diabetic coma inducing feast of deliciousness... Go ahead! Add in chocolate fudge sauce like your life depends on it.

Just be sure to give it the freezing time it needs. That's the hard part here. But patience young Padawan, patience. It will be worth all the wait.

So very worth it.

Rocky Road Ice Cream
This ice cream melts a little quicker than your traditional churned, custard based ice creams. The air that would normally be circulated in an ice cream machine is created by whipping up the double cream and the custard element is replaced with the condensed milk.  All that you need to take from those last sentences is that it melts, a little quicker, so you have to eat it faster.

(this is your basic chocolate ice cream recipe)
125g dark chocolate
125g milk chocolate
250ml of full fat milk
1 can condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon coco powder
pinch of salt
500ml of double cream

(add anything else you want)
150g marshmallows
150g crushed biscuits
125g chocolate chips


Break up the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and add the condensed milk.
Heat the full fat milk to just before boiling and pour over the chocolate and condensed milk. Let stand for 5 minutes or so to melt and cool slightly. Then mix through fully,  making sure all the chocolate is melted.

Add in all your extra ingredients and mix through again.

Whip the double cream with the vanilla, so that when you lift out the beater it stands all on it's own.

Fold the chocolate mix in with the whipped cream until fully incorporated and transfer to the tub, tin or whatever you are going to use to freeze it in (Tip: not glass.. don't be a silly goose). I used my 2lb loaf tin and covered it with a bit of cling film, to stop ice particles forming. You could use any tin, plastic box or tub you have.

Pop the ice cream in the freezer for at least 8 hours, but if you can wait, overnight is best. When you do take it out, allow it to sit on the counter for about 5 minutes to soften. It'll make it easier to scoop out.

All ready for the freezer!

Once you're done, revel in it's glory. It's chocolately, creamy, marshmallowey, crunchy glory. Enjoy, savor and join the club where you'll swear that you will never buy store bought ice cream again. 

We are working on our t-shirts.

Lemon Meringue Fool Ice Cream

Lately I'm that friend. 

The one you don't talk to anymore. Who you contact but writes you back with short bursts of bleuuuggghhh... or thinks she's responded in her head only to realise three days later she never actually responded and is now too embarrassed to write back. That friend who is constantly busy, getting no where and trying to carve out any normal, real, meaningful time to spend with you so that when she is there she's not thinking about the million other things that "need" to be done.

Because let's face it, nothing actually really needs to be done. Right? Right now? 

No. Nothing.

The summer holidays arrived. The weathers being it's usual temperamental self and I am just floating along in this sea of to-do lists.

I do it to myself. I am my own worst enemy. I have always had a problem with the word 'no'. I never know how to say it. Especially to myself. "You can't burn the candle at both ends" is a phrase my Mom will say to me on an almost weekly basis these days. I try to prioritise, make life simpler and it works for a few weeks. But I have this constant internal battle between being efficient and getting everything done at once going on and it all piles up on top of me. 

And I bake and make and procrastinate. 

Then I go and make something too good not to share.. and I feel like I have this little splash of mojo coming back. Like I am headed on the right path. Like I am finally getting on top of things. Funny how ice cream could make me feel like that. But it wasn't the ice cream itself you see, I am not some magical ice cream making witch, but rather the reflective conversation had over ice cream with a dear friend. Perspective is a fine thing. Clarity is a fine thing.

Onwards and upwards to finer things.

The Lemon Meringue Fool Ice Cream is as luscious as it is delicious. There is a subtle hint of lemon helping to balance the creamy ice cream. What really makes it pop are the drops of homemade lemon curd, scattered haphazardly throughout. The meringue is crisp and sweet and adds another layer of texture. It's very rich and it contains a million calories. But it's a no churn, no brainer that is a cinch to make and makes you feel like you were born to be an ice cream maker!

Lemon Curd

4 lemons worth of juice
400g caster sugar

200g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
6 free-range egg yolks

Put the lemon juice, the sugar and the butter into a heatproof bowl. Sit the bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Stir the mixture every now and again until all of the butter has melted and you get this big gooey, lemon butter mess!
Lightly whisk the egg yolks and then stir them into the lemon mixture. Whisk until all of the ingredients are well combined, then leave to cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring the mixture every now and again, until it is thick and creamy. You'll know it's thick enough when it coats the back of a spoon.
Remove the lemon curd from the heat and set to one side to cool, stirring occasionally as it cools. You should totally go about your business during this time. 
Once cooled, spoon the lemon curd into sterilised jars and seal. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.

Lemon Meringue Fool Ice Cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk

250ml double cream
225g cream cheese
30ml lemon juice (about 1 small lemon)
1 tsp vanilla extract
As much lemon curd as you like
6-8 meringue nests 

Using a hand/electric mixer beat together the sweetened condensed milk, double cream, cream cheese, lemon juice and vanilla extract in a large bowl until smooth. Set to one side.
Break up your meringue nests, roughly, and add them to the mixture, folding through gently.
Dollop in the amount of lemon curd you like for taste and just fold through until evenly spread.
Pour the mixture into a standard loaf pan, or divide the mix between the two smaller loaf tins. Dollop a few more drops of lemon curd on top and cover with cling film.  Freeze for at least 6 hours, but being honest, overnight is best.
Lick the baking bowl clean. You will not regret that part. 

Deep Dish Apple Pie

For the day that is in it I decided to make an American store cupboard staple. July 4th is a day for celebrating with all my American friends and their love of their independence!

I decided to whip together a deep dish apple pie. I wanted to throw my own twist on the American classic and opted to make a toffee sauce! Smother the apples in it before baking it and let it be an oozing, delicious not-so-good-for-you pie, speckled with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg.

The weather had changed slightly and a good north westerly breeze was helping me get all my clothes dry but it also had me putting on a cardigan! I was adamant that I wouldn't put on socks and I wanted to keep wearing my Saltwater sandals, so while my toes stayed cold, I needed something warm and fuzzy to fill my belly!

This pie was to be it and good thing too, as I had got Bramley Apples in the shops the day before. It's also a very homely pie, perfect for sharing with pots of tea and it was something that suited evening after dinner puddings down to the ground.

A full fat, Irish Dairy Cream butter short crust pastry keeps the apples in place, holding in all that lovely, sticky, sweet mess of a toffee sauce. The bramley's offer that perfect blend of tartness to help balance out the sweet flavour of the dark brown sugar in the toffee sauce. The cinnamon and nutmeg accompaniments make the pie, rustic, satisfying and homespun. It's one for all seasons I think...

All Butter Short Crust

240g plain flour
50g icing sugar
150g diced cold butter (+ a little extra for greasing)
1 large egg

Preheat your oven to 180C, 350F or gas mark 4.
Put the flour, butter and icing sugar into a food processor and blitz until looks like breadcrumbs.
Crack in the egg and bring together until a soft ball forms.
Wrap in clingfilm, pat down and leave in fridge for 30 mins.
Grease up a 9/10 inch round pie dish.
When it comes out split into two balls, one slightly larger than the other and roll out. 

I like to blind bake my pastry case bottom using pastry beads at 180C/350F or gas mark 4 for about 15 minutes. I find this helps stop all those lovely juices from seeping out all over the place. You'll find there'll be no soggy bottoms around here!

Once blind baked, take it out and just leave it rest while you finish off the apples.

The Toffee Apple Filling

1200g of Bramley Apple

This was 6 large Bramley's for my 10 inch dish. Skin the apples completely and then just chop them into however you feel... I like to do a rough slice and just keep slicing through the apple until I reach the inner core. I am not fussy about size or shape... it's all about the right amount here!

50g butter
25g plain flour
50g white sugar
60g dark sugar
100ml of water
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla paste (or extract, whatever you have)

Add all your ingredients into a pot and stir over a medium heat until fully melted and molten. Keep stirring until it thickens, do not stop stirring! This should only take about 3-4 minutes. Once thickened, take off the heat and pour into a bowl and allow to cool.

Pour the cooled toffee sauce over the apples and just leave it to one side until you need it.

Fill the pastry case with the apples and top with the remaining pastry. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven and minding the top doesn't get too brown. Allow to cool slightly on a wore tray upon taking it out of the oven.

Disclaimer; I didn't use all the sauce I made on the apples because um... we'd eaten a lot of it off the spoon and then said we'd use some of it on ice cream, then we dipped biscuits in to it. And we had more ice cream we had before tea... and then we had pie.

Serve it warm with ice cream, dripping down the side or cold with fresh whipped vanilla cream.

Tea I find, is the most friendliest of accompaniments but you have yours with your beverage of choice. Or none at all... I'm not here to tell you your business... well... Only that if pie is your thing.

You should make this one.