I recently enjoyed my eighth year at the Ideal Homes Exhibition in the RDS. Donal Skehan and I took part in cooking demonstrations with Brian McDermott as MC, and it was a great experience
There were lots of Simply Better producers on the stand. I did one demo on the perfect steak and then another, cooking chicken satay skewers. It is always good fun to have people up on the stage to chat. There were plenty of nice comments about the Irish Farmers Journal and Irish Country Living and this column, which is always good to hear. Thank you all.
Today, I have two simple baking recipes. The Halloween midterm break is a great opportunity to tackle some fun baking projects. To make these biscuit pops, you’ll need to buy ovenproof lolly sticks.
This week, I visited Carleton Cakes in Cootehill, Co Cavan, an Irish success story set up in 1994 by teacher and baker Doreen Carleton and her husband, Wilfred, who looks after the business side of things. They supply Simply Better, and Doreen told me they have made 8 million pop biscuits for Starbucks Europe. What a business they have built.
The caramel ripple squares are like a marbled cake with blobs of caramel, and they melt in your mouth. They are irresistible to chocoholics and can be served as an afternoon cake or as a pudding with single cream or ice cream.
I would recommend getting the best chocolate – and Aine’s Chocolate, made in Cavan, is hard to beat.
Ingredients: makes 15 biscuits
100g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
1 medium egg, beaten
½ tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
For the buttercream frosting:
100g butter, softened
200g icing sugar, sifted
½ tsp vanilla extract
A splash of milk
A few drops of orange food colouring
75g desiccated coconut
75g small chocolate chips
Method
1 Put the butter and caster sugar in a bowl. Using an electric hand-held whisk or wooden spoon, beat together until smooth and creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until well combined.
2 Tip the flour into the butter and sugar mixture and mix on a low speed until it comes together to form a dough. Gather it up into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
3 Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/gas mark 4). Line 2 baking sheets with non-stick baking paper.
4 Put the biscuit dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll it out until it’s about 5mm thick. Stamp out the biscuits using a 6cm fluted round cutter. Transfer the biscuits to the prepared baking sheets and insert a lolly stick into each one, just a quarter of the way through. Bake for 6-8 minutes, until the edges are golden brown, then carefully transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before decorating.
5 Meanwhile, make some buttercream frosting. Place the softened butter in a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon. Slowly add the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time until thoroughly incorporated and you have a smooth, creamy mixture. Add the vanilla extract and a little milk with a few drops of the food colouring to make it a pale orange colour. Chill for 10 minutes.
6 Put the desiccated coconut in a small bowl, add a few drops of orange food colouring and mix well, until the coconut is a pale orange colour.
7 Spread the orange frosting over one side of each biscuit and sprinkle with the coconut. Use the chocolate chips to make cute faces to serve. These will keep for up to 2 days in an airtight container.
Ingredients: makes 12
100g good-quality plain chocolate
( at least 55% cocoa solids)
100g butter, plus extra for greasing
2 eggs, beaten
150g light brown sugar
50g plain flour
For caramel ripple:
200g cream cheese, softened
50g dark brown sugar
1 egg
A few drops of vanilla extract
Method
1 Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F/gas mark 3). Grease a 20cm square shallow cake tin and line the base with non-stick baking paper that’s hanging over the edges.
2 Break up the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and add the butter. Set on top of a pan of gently simmering water and leave to melt, stirring from time to time.
3 Meanwhile, prepare the caramel ripple. Combine the soft cream cheese, dark brown sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a bowl and mix well until evenly blended. Set aside.
4 Stir the beaten eggs into the melted chocolate mixture with the light brown sugar. Sift the flour into a separate bowl, then fold it in. Spoon half of the chocolate mixture into the prepared tin, then dollop teaspoons of the caramel mixture and the remaining chocolate mixture on top. Using a skewer, lightly ripple them together to make a marbled top.
5 Bake for 25-30 minutes, until just set. Leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes before cutting into squares, then transfer to a wire rack with a palette knife to cool completely.
6 To serve, arrange on plates or wrap in greaseproof paper to take on picnics or in packed lunches.
