Delicious lemon curd - use up your leftover egg yolks

I use a lot of egg whites to make my macarons and I always end up with a lot of egg yolks in my fridge. One way of using up the yolks is to make lemon curd.
Homemade lemon curd is delicious, very easy to make and you know exactly what's in it. It is very versatile, here's a few examples how you can use your lemon curd: in lemon meringue pie, lemon meringue cupcakes, stir into your morning yogurt for an instant boost, use it as a pancake topping or you can even rub it onto your chicken before roasting.
Don't forget to use sterilized jars and your lemon curd will keep in the fridge for several weeks. Once you have opened them consume within 1-2 weeks.


Here's the recipe I use, that makes 500ml approximately, so you will need 2-3 jars.



3 tbsp cornflour
50g caster sugar
3 lemons
50g unsalted butter, cubed
3 egg yolks




Combine the cornflour and sugar in a bowl. Measure out 275ml cold water and add just enough to make a paste. Finely grate the lemon zest into a medium pan, add the rest of the water to the pan and gently warm up over a low heat.
Squeeze the lemon juice into the cornflour paste then pour the mixture into the pan and whisk together. Cook until thickened, whisking all the time.
Cube and stir in butter, then the egg yolk one by one. Heat very gently for 1 minute then remove from the heat. Leave to cool, then pour into the sterilized jars.
I always label my jars with the name of the content and the date I make them.

Enjoy!

Pondtail Bakery

Who makes the best French macarons?

Ever since I started making macarons I have wondered who made the best French macarons available. I  also realised that I couldn't create my own perfect macarons if I didn't know what the best ones tasted and looked like. I decided to try as many as I could find.

I had already known the two big names in macaron making, Ladurée and Pierre Hermé. I was also on the lookout in supermarkets. This is how I stumbled on Marks and Spencer's and Waitrose's macarons. I also got hold of a box from Paul, one of my favourite bakeries in London.
So I had five different boxes filled with delicate macarons, and I was looking forward to tasting them one by one.

I needed a system, though, so I would compare the macarons through a set of criteria; such as appearance of packaging, selection of flavours in the box, quality of shells (i.e. hard/soft/wonky), how natural they tasted and price.

I started the trial with the M&S ones, and I was very disappointed with them. This was the cheapest box out of the five and I think the price represented the quality. There were twelve very small macarons in a plastic tray and only three different flavours. They were inconsistent in texture, they were hard and dry, they looked mass produced and tasted quite dull.

Next, I tried the Maison Blanc macarons from Waitrose. A paper box that covered a plastic tray held twelve, quite small macarons in six different flavours. Thanks to their appearance and colours, they looked a lot more inviting than the M&S ones. Their shells had good consistency and their fillings in the center were flavourful. Quite good for a supermarket product, and only a little bit more expensive than the M&S ones.

Based in Covent Garden, Ladurée's pretty boutique shop sells beautiful macarons. The price is very high, therefore you expect exceptional quality. I decided to buy an assortment box that contained eight big macarons in eight different flavours and colours. The paper presentation box looked very luxurious, however, it didn't protect the fragile macarons very well. You could easily tell which flavour you were eating with your eyes closed as they were so distinctive. Their shells were shiny and flat with perfect feet, and were just the right texture. I was very impressed with them all, but my favourite was the Liquorice one.

Then, I tried Paul's macarons. The twelve macarons came in a plastic box, with a ribbon round it, in six different flavours. At this point I thought "Can any macarons overtake Ladurée's beauties?" . The answer was no. These macarons were enjoyable and looked more pleasant than M&S's and Maison Blanc's, and the box had a good selection of flavours but the quality didn't meet Laduree's.

My last box of macarons was from Pierre Hermé's shop in London and was the most expensive of all. The shop had a modern, sophisticated feel to it, and the macaron display looked out of this world. I picked one of each flavour and left the shop with an assortment box of twelve macarons. The blue, plastic round box felt very expensive and it held the macarons soundly. The macaron shells were very colourful and some of them were paired with two different coloured shells, nonetheless, they didn't look as uniform as the Ladurée ones. Every macaron had a wow factor with their deep filling and complex layers of flavour, such as Vanilla and bits of Green Olive; Passion Fruit, Rhubarb&Strawberries.

At the end of my macaron journey I felt that if you believe in quality, and would like to taste something extraordinary, the independent bakeries, patisseries will give you more pleasure and sensation.

With Love from
Pondtail Bakery

Banana bran muffins - full of goodness

When my kids are unwell I want to spoil them and give them something very yummy and very nutritious at the same time. I would like to share this banana bran muffin recipe that I find very easy and quick to make. The muffins are full of flavour and packed with goodness. You can make normal size muffins or if you have mini muffin trays you can make mini muffins.
For the mini muffins just follow the recipe and it will make about 24 mini muffins, or you can double the quantities below and make 12 normal size muffins.

They are delicious warm for breakfast with a cup of tea, or you can enjoy them cold in the afternoon when you fancy something sweet.

Here's the recipe:

50g Bran Flakes
75ml warm full fat milk
1 ripe banana, mashed
1 egg yolk
50ml sunflower oil
50g raisins
60g soft light brown sugar
60g wholemeal plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Here's the method:

Pre-heat your oven to Fan 160 Celsius/180C/350F/Gas 4. Line your baking tray/trays with paper cases. In a bowl mix the Bran Flakes, milk and mashed banana, and leave for 5-10 minutes. Transfer to a food processor and add the egg yolk, oil, raisins and sugar. Whiz for a minute to combine. In a separate bowl mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger, and add these dry ingredients to the food processor, and pulse to combine. Spoon into the muffin cases ( 1 tbsp for mini muffin cases, 2 tbsp for normal size cases.)
Bake the mini muffins for about 12-14 minutes, normal size muffins for about 20 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Keep them in an air-tight container or alternatively you can freeze them in a freezer bag. 

Top tip when you double the quantities is to always say it out loud how much of this and how much of that you are going to add to your mix. It's very easy to lose track otherwise.

Happy baking!

Pondtail Bakery

Cooking chocolate comparison - and the winner is.....

This week I have tried, tasted and tested a few of the baking chocolates that are available in the supermarkets in the UK. We are very lucky really to be able to choose from and buy several different brands.

Namely, I have tried Varlhona, Dr. Oetker, Lindt, Green & Black and Sainsbury's Belgian chocolate chips.

All of them contain 70% cocoa except Dr. Oetker's Extra Dark Chocolate that is 72%.

But what do you really expect from your cooking chocolate? I have to say I am not a chocolate person myself, I prefer a slice of delicious cake to a piece of chocolate. However, I do like certain chocolatiers' hand made truffles and little chocolate boxes. They always use the finest ingredients, the best chocolate. This should apply to baking as well. 

My rule: If you don't like the chocolate don't bake with it. You can really taste the difference between cakes that are made with cheep or good quality ingredients, especially chocolate. By the way, you can eat cooking chocolate, it is not only for cooking.

So, let's see what I have discovered.

The first cooking chocolate I tasted was Lindt Cooking Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa. It was nice and smooth, slightly bitter as you would expect but very silky. It looked very dark. 

The second one was Green&Black's Organic Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa. It didn't look as dark as the Lindt and it was a bit more bitter to taste, it was sharper and it had a bitter aftertaste. Hmmm, I thought, interesting. I expected something better from Green&Black. But let's see the rest of them. 

Then I tried Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Cook's Belgian Dark Chocolate Chips 70% Cocoa. I had to put 3 chips in to my mouth to get the real flavor. It was quite smooth but quite bitter. 

The next one was Valrhona's Noir Guanaja 70% Cocoa. This was a big block of chocolate and found it hard to break a piece off but when I tasted it I liked it very much. It tasted very smooth, silky and bitter but not sharp at all. Very nice chocolate.

And the last one was Dr. Oetker's Fine Cooks Extra Dark Chocolate with 72% Cocoa. I could still taste the Valrhona in my mouth when I tried this one and it tasted very sweet in comparison. This was the darkest chocolate out of all and it tasted the sweetest, however. It was smooth and dark.

At this point I was really confused because I had had expectations before I tasted them. I had judged them just by their packaging or their price.

So, I had to taste them again and this time I was quite quick, I ate the pieces one after the other and it was clear which one I preferred the most.

• Green&Black's came fifth because of its sharp, bitter aftertaste. Good thing though that it is organic.
• Sainsbury's Belgian Chocolate Chips took the fourth place, they had a very bitter taste too.
• Third place went to Dr. Oetker's Extra Dark Chocolate, I expected a bit more from this chocolate, however, this could be a really good budget ingredient if you make cakes for your family.
• Second place went to Valrhona. Very nice, smooth chocolate, very expensive and not widely available. If I made something very special, i.e. chocolate ganache for my chocolate macarons or chocolate brownies, I would use this chocolate. If quality means a lot to you I can really recommend this one.
• And the winner is Lindt's Cooking Dark Chocolate. I loved this chocolate for its smooth, silky texture, for its very dark colour and its subtle bitterness. It is a lot less expensive than Valrhona and widely available. 

I have also learned that bitterness is the most sensitive of the tastes. In our mouth the taste buds for "sweet" are on the tip of the tongue; the "salt" taste buds are on either side of the front of the tongue; "sour" taste buds are behind this; and "bitter" taste buds are way in the back. That's why, when you eat a salted caramel macaron or a bitter orange macaron it feels like something very strange is happening in your mouth, you can't really describe it but you love it and you want some more of it.

This is only my view of cooking chocolate, everyone is different so you might find this won't work for you.

Happy experimenting with chocolate and flavors!

Pondtail Bakery 

Where to find cake flour in the UK?

The answer is very easy: in your kitchen! 

There are a lot of amazing American recipes on the Internet but some of them call for cake flour. You can't buy cake flour in the UK, however, you can make your own.

Here at Pondtail Bakery, we celebrated the Queen's 90th birthday yesterday with some delicious orange cupcakes.

I used self-raising flour, plain flour and corn flour to make the cupcake mix. To be precise I used 150g self-raising flour, 80g plain flour and 45g corn flour. This means that I substituted about one-third of the plain flour with corn flour. In other words, 16% of all flours was corn flour. 

When I use corn flour in my cakes I substitute about one-fifth of the flour with corn flour. So, I add 20g of corn flour to every 105g of plain flour. Hope that makes sense.

Why do I do it? Because it makes my cakes a lot lighter, fluffier, a lot less dense. Corn flour has a lower protein content than plain flour, so by adding corn flour to my flour mix I remove some of the gluten.

I hope this was helpful.

Happy baking!

Pondtail Bakery