Easy Butterscotch Salted Caramel Budino

If you follow me on social media, then you may know that Disneyboi and I were recently on one of our frequent jaunts to London.

We always like to try new places to eat when we are down there and on this visit we happened upon a  new pizza place called NY Fold. Right in the heart of Soho, on Charing Cross Road, it promised the New York pizza experience in the UK. It’s owned by a pizza champ, well known in the states, called Bruno DiFabio

image source

I remember loving pizza in New York when I’ve been there in the past, it’s flavour is like no pizza I had ever had in the UK - until now.

We both tried a couple of pizzas each, with some US beer, and the flavours were amazing. I tried one called a Juliet which had fig jam, prosciutto and balsamic glaze on it, plus mozzarella and gordonzola. It was divine. So was the Starry Hope I tried which was mashed meatballs, whipped ricotta, pesto Genovese and onions and mozzarella. The flavours were just like I remembered from America.

If you happen to be in London, and like pizza, I implore you to give this place a go. You will love the relaxed atmosphere as well as the brilliant pizzas. I can honestly say these were the best pizzas I had ever had in the UK.

You may be wondering where this all fits into this post and the picture at the top. Well, the menu had way more than pizza. You could get pastas too, focaccias and salads. Plus desserts.

You see where I am going…One was called Budino which I had never heard of before. We couldn’t manage desserts as we were too full (the slices of pizza were ginormous) but Budino stuck in my mind. On the menu it promised biscuit crumble, butterscotch pudding, caramel sauce, sea salt and Chantilly cream. I had to give this a go!

Looking at Budino on Wikipedia it tells me it is a sweet Italian dish, like a custard or pudding, thickened with cookies or cornflour. Flavours can vary too, but I liked the thought of the butterscotch with the chocolate oreo flavour.

So, last weekend I whipped up Budinos for our pudding. It is a cheat’s version, but so easy to do and easy on the eye too I think you will agree. You could make pudding from scratch, caramel sauce from scratch, but this is the short-cut version, for all of us who have busy lives.

I crushed up some Oreo cookies, whipped up some Butterscotch Angel Delight, layered on caramel sauce, sprinkled on sea salt and finished with thick luscious whipped cream. Oh yes, and more caramel and Oreos to garnish.

How much of everything you add is up to you. You can tweak the amounts of whatever ingredients you like most. I served mine in little jars, as you can see in the pics, but you could serve it in whatever you like.

Here’s how I made mine.

Easy Butterscotch Salted Caramel Budino

Oreo cookies, butterscotch pudding
Whipped cream and salted caramel

Cuisine:	Dessert	Category:	Pudding	Yields:	2 servings
Prep Time:	10 Mins	Cook Time:		Total Time:	10 Mins

Ingredients

• 7 Oreo Cookies
• 1 package of Butterscotch Angel Delight Pudding Mix
• 300 ml milk (to make the pudding)
• Shop bought caramel sauce
• Double cream
• Sea Salt

 

Instructions

1. Make your pudding – preferably with a mixer, this aerates it and makes it even thicker than normal. Leave it to beat for a good few minutes if using a stand mixer.
2. Place the Oreos in a plastic food bag and crush with a rolling pin or other heavy object.
3. Beat the double cream in a separate bowl until thickened.
4. In the bottom of the jars, spoon in crushed Oreos, leaving just a small amount to sprinkle on top.
5. Spoon half the butterscotch pudding on top of each layer of Oreos.
6. Dollop some caramel sauce on top of this.
7. Grind some sea salt over the top of this – amount is up to you.
8. Spoon cream over the top, making sure it is thick and heaping!
9. Drizzle more caramel sauce, grind more salt and sprinkle more Oreos on top.
10. Stick your spoon in and enjoy!

Treat Petite July 2015 Round Up

It’s been a mad month for me, but everyone else seemed to have a great time baking up a storm despite the warm weather in some places.

The theme was Summertime Special for Treat Petite this month and we had loads of great entries;

Sarah at Tales from the Kitchen Shed entered these gorgeous Strawberry Tartlets

Nic at Nic’s Bakes made Matchpoint Pavlova – the matchpoint comes from the name of the fruit salad she used in the recipe here (it was Wimbledon time!)

My Treat Petite co-host Kat, The Baking Explorer, made Pimms Cupcakes, a great flavour to use in baking.

Anitha at Healthy & Tasty Vegetarian Recipes made Badam Burfi or Almond cake. Made from almonds, milk, sugar and ghee it looks almost a bit like Scottish Tablet. Looks very nice indeed.

Back at the Kitchen Shed, Sarah made Cheese and Garlic Twists. I would love these to snack on, or have at the side of a bowl of pasta!

‘Fanny’ at Keep Calm and Fanny On made Egg Mayonnaise Tartlets from one of Fanny Cradock’s books. They are slightly racist which our Fanny does apologise for – as for the Real Fanny, it was a different time!

Lili at Lili’s Cakes made black sesame and yuzu ice cream petit fours biscuits. They are sugar-free so you could treat yourself to more than one…

Helen at Family Friends Food made individual Tropical jellies with whipped coconut cream – these scream summer!

Jen at Jen's Food made beautiful strawberry, rhubarb and rose macarons. The photographs here are stunning!

Caroline at Caroline Makes made gorgeous mini lemon meringue tarts which I bet were mouth-puckeringly good!

Angela at ‘Only Crumbs Remain’ made griddled peaches with macerated strawberries, basil and cream. Fantastic idea for a BBQ!

Lucy the Baking Queen got all fancy and made financiers – Pistachio, Cardamom and Rose flavour. They look stunning!

Caroline at Caroline Makes grabbed herself a bag of blueberry icing sugar and made mini vegan chocolate blueberry cakes. Love that icing!

Lili at Lili’s Cakes made an Apricot ice-cream and cava dessert. It looks so refreshing and summery.

Choclette over at Tin and Thyme made Blueberry and White Chocolate Flapjacks – I love the combination of those flavours and Choclette’s bake looks delicious.

Ros , the More Than Occasional Baker obviously agrees with me that they are a good flavour combo as she made Blueberry and White Chocolate Buttermilk Scones. I could really go one of them with a cup of coffee right now!

Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen made Cherry, Raspberry and Strawberry Pancakes. These triple berry beauties would be perfect for a weekend brekkie, or as Shaheen had them, for lunch!

A decidedly different entry into Treat Petite, from Sadhna at Herbs Spices and Traditions, was Paneer Tikka – these barbecue skewers or as Sadhna is used to calling it braai. These would be great on a summer grill.

Caroline at Caroline Makes also entered Pina Colada Cupcakes with Pina Colada icing sugar she bought. These look really tropical and fun.

Elizabeth at Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary shared with us her mother-in-law’s recipe for 4 ingredient hazelnut cookies. So easy, but very impressive. Love these.

Emily at Cooking for Kishore is lucky enough to have peaches growing near to where she lives. She went picking (11 lbs worth!) and made some into scrummy Peach Almond muffins. (She also made peach jasmine tea which looked good too!)

Lastly, my entry which was themed on the flavours of Neapolitan ice cream. I made pinwheel cookies with strawberry, vanilla and chocolate cookie dough.

Thanks to everyone for entering your summer inspired treats. Here’s hoping that summer lasts for a good while yet (or actually reaches Scotland this year!). Keep your eyes peeled on ‘The Baking Explorer’ for next month’s Treat Petite theme.

Now That's What I Call New #8

Greetings everyone and welcome to ‘That’s What I Call New #8’. My occasional round up of some products I have been sent to try and let you know what I think. Some are new on the market, some are new to me, and some are just for fun.

Green's Indulgent Range

To start with Green’s the baking people who have been providing the UK with boxed cake mixes for over 100 years (who hasn’t had their divine cheesecake mix!) have launched a new Indulgent range. Included in the range are Chocolate Fondant, Tiramisu, Profiteroles and Salted Caramel Dessert.

I was sent the Chocolate Fondant and Tiramisu. I have tried these over the past couple of weeks and they do taste lovely and aren’t too tricky to whip up. The Tiramisu is a bit more involved with a few steps, the Chocolate Fondant much easier. My only gripe was the requirement for certain baking equipment. The tiramisu requires a 7” square baking tin – which I don’t have (and I have a lot of cake tins). The Chocolate Fondant requires 4 ramekins 8 to 8 1/2 cm in diameter. Again not something I have.

I improvised and things worked out okay, but definitely check what is required for the mixes, before you purchase, to make sure you aren’t disappointed when you open the box! Check them out in various supermarkets soon, including ASDA, starting at around £2.29.

Vita Coco Coconut Water

Next, out of the blue, I was sent some cartons of Vita Coco coconut water. Now, I have had this before, and I don’t love it. I would love to love it, as coconut water is so good for you with many, many health benefits. On our recent trip to London, I discovered that you get various different flavours of the coconut water, such as Lemonade, Pineapple, Café Latte and so on. I would recommend giving coconut water a go, if you haven’t before. It is like sticking a straw in a coconut and if, like me, you aren’t 100% on the original, you can always try another flavour.

Ritz Crisp and Thin Snacks

I was also sent some Ritz Crisp and Thin snacks, to cater for my savoury tooth. You may have seen these in supermarkets recently. They are oven-baked potato snacks, posh crisps really. They come in four flavours. Sea Salt and Black Pepper, Sweet Red Chilli, Sea Salt and Vinegar and Cream Cheese and Onion. They go great with a glass of wine, my favourite being the cream cheese and onion. Disneyboi is torn between salt and vinegar and chilli varieties. They come in small bags and big ones – the latter being very dangerous as they are so scoffable!

The Canada Shop

A company contacted me via Twitter recently asking if I would like to try their maple products. They are called the Maple Cabin on Twitter and their website is The Canada Shop. They sell maple goodies such as butter, sweets, syrup and sugar. I was sent a couple of bags of the maple sugar. When I opened the envelope the smell blew me away. It was so good. I haven’t baked with it yet, but intend to soon and I will bring you recipes soon. However, I have been trying the sugar in coffee and over cereal and I can tell you the flavour is even better than the smell…If you love maple like I do, visit the shop.

Munchy Seeds

Lastly, I was sent some Munchy Seeds to try. You may have seen these around. Munchy Seeds are a range of nutritious seeds which you can top yoghurt with, pop on salads or even sprinkle over a stirfry – or like me scoff as a crunchy snack.

The seeds come in various varieties including Choccy Apricot, with Belgian chocolate coated sunflower and pumpkin seeds, with pieces of apricot. There is the Chilli Bite variety, spicy roasted apricot kernels, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

They are healthy, nutritious and most important of all – tasty! Sachets start at 69p and tubs at £2.35. Available from Sainsbury’s.

That's all for now folks.

Neapolitan Pinwheel Cookies

Oh my goodness! What a mad month it's been. I've not baked or blogged, entered anyones blogging challenges, nearly as much as I'd like to have done, but life gets in the way sometimes.

You may remember I said a while back that Disneyboi and I were at long last selling our individual properties and buying somewhere together. Well, we are half-way there! He has sold his flat and for the first part of the month we were packing up all of his belongings and putting them in storage. We did that, he has moved into mine until we get that sold and get a new place together.

This was stressful enough, but add on top of the fact we had a pre-planned trip to London two days before contracts were signed on Disneyboi’s place. We did all our moves and the following day made our way to London. And we never do London at a relaxed pace – we walk for miles, in very hot temperatures! We are back now and going back to 'everyday' work seems like a break!

Back to the baking and I made these in a spare mad moment a couple of weeks back. The photos are pretty bad, some of the cookies were over baked, but having read all of the above I'm sure you will forgive me!!

My idea was to tie in with this month’s Treat Petite, the theme of which is ‘Summertime Special’. My concept was  to take the flavours of traditional Neapolitan ice-cream – chocolate, strawberry and vanilla and turn that combination into a pinwheel cookie. Sounds pretty summery, right?

It was pretty straightforward – knock-up some cookie dough, divide into three, flavour one with cocoa powder, one with strawberry flavouring and pink colouring, and the third a hit of vanilla extract. Roll each slab of cookie dough into a rectangle, place on top of one another then tightly roll them up.

I chilled the rolled log in the fridge for a while then sliced it into rounds, baking each one (or in my case, over baking!). The second batch was less crispy and kept their colour better. The flavours worked together very well and tasted like neapolitan ice cream in cookie form – so my plan did work after all.

Here's how I made them…

Neapolitan Pinwheel Cookies

Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla
Flavour Pinwheel Cookies

Cuisine:	Snack	Category:	Cookies	Yields:	24 cookies
Prep Time:	2 Hrs	Cook Time:	10 Mins	Total Time:	2 Hrs 10 Mins

 

Ingredients

• 500 grams unsalted butter, softened
• 280 grams caster sugar
• 2 free-range egg yolks
• 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon strawberry food flavouring
• Pink food colouring (amount varies)
• 550 grams plain flour
• 50 grams cocoa powder

 

Instructions

1. Beat together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and stir through.
2. Carefully divide this mix into three separate lots, all weighing the same.
3. Take one batch, add the vanilla extract and beat in, before folding in 200 grams of the flour.
4. Take this cookie dough, wrap in cling film and pop into the fridge.
5. Take another third and add 150 grams flour and 50 grams of cocoa powder. Stir this through until a dough forms, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge again.
6. Take the last third, add the strawberry flavouring and pink colouring (amount depends on type you use). Add the flour and fold until a dough forms. Transfer to cling film and chill in the fridge.
7. Once all portions of dough have chilled for a couple of hours, roll each one out to a rectangle shape about 9”x13”.
8. Place each rectangle on top of each other, preferably with the vanilla portion in the middle, but that's up to you.
9. Roll the combined rectangle from the longest side and roll tightly all the way until a log is formed.
10. Wrap it tightly and chill again for at least two hours, preferably overnight.
11. Once chilled, with a sharp knife cut discs from the log, of the same thickness and place these onto cookie sheets lined with greaseproof paper. Transfer to the fridge.
12. Whilst the cookies are chilling, preheat the oven to 180C.
13. Bake the cookies in the oven for approximately 10 minutes or until they just turn very slightly golden on the edges.
14. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack immediately, to avoid further contact from the heat of the cookie sheet. Allow to cool fully.

I am entering these into Treat Petite hosted by Kat, The Baking Explorer and this month me, for the theme Summertime Special as Neapolitan ice-cream reminds me of summer.

Choc Chip Banana Bread Fondant Fancies

Shhh. don’t tell anyone but we had a non-cake club ‘Cake Club’ recently.

To explain, we had a meeting of all who usually attends the Clandestine Cake Club in Dundee, but this one was ‘off the books’ if you like.

And because of this, we didn’t have to have it at a different venue from where we’ve been before (which gets tricky in Dundee, it’s really not that big!) and we didn’t have to insist on just big cakes. Here's what everyone else brought...

So this was right up my street. I love to make smaller treats, pretty much why Kat at the Baking Explorer and I started up ‘Treat Petite’ for anything other than big cakes, puddings, that sort of thing.

The bake I took along was inspired by a recent trip to Costa. Don’t fall down in shock, we are through and through Starbucks lovers, but on one Sunday we ended up having a bite to eat in Costa.

And there we saw a new range of Fondant Fancies they were doing, in mint choc chop flavour and raspberry ripple. I think it was a summer ice-cream thing.

However, it got me to thinking that I haven’t ever made fondant fancies before. I have seen them being made on the Bake Off, and thought they did look a bit tricky, but now was as good a time as any.

And inspired by the Costa cakes, I decided to plump on a different flavour than the norm, giving my fancies a Cakeyboi twist.

I had some bananas in the freezer, some chocolate chips in the cupboard, so Choc Chip Banana Bread Fondant Fancies it was. The cake it self was a huge slab of banana bread with the chocolate chips and on top of that I laid some white fondant. Chocolate fondant would have been ideal here, but I couldn’t find any.

Instead of buttercream for the dollop on top, I used a piece of chocolate. You could use any sweet that you like. Perhaps a Rolo, or a Malteser for example. I had some Twirl Bites which I used.

Lastly, the icing. This was a simple mix of chocolate, butter, water and icing sugar. It coated the fancies lovely and I also added a bright yellow icing flavoured with banana, to give them that fondant fancy look. They did take a good while to set, so if you are making these for a special occasion do make them at least 24 hours in advance and keep them cool, otherwise they will melt again.

I took the first pics when the icing was still wet and I tried one like this too, The icing, before it went hard, had the consistency of chocolate fudge cake icing which was nice, but a bit messy. You could serve it like this too if you didn’t have loads of time.

Everyone at the cake club adored the taste of banana bread with the chocolate icing. I think I may even try making some different ones nearer to Christmas time.

Here’s how I made them…

Choc Chip Banana Bread Fondant Fancies

Banana bread topped with fondant
and bathed in a chocolate icing

Cuisine:	Dessert	Category:	Fancies	Yields:	20 fancies
Prep Time:	1 Day	Cook Time:	25 Mins	Total Time:	1 Day 25 Mins

 

Ingredients

• 3 medium ripe bananas
• 250 grams granulated sugar
• 125 ml vegetable oil
• 2 medium eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 250 grams plain flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 100 grams chocolate chips
• Apricot Jam/Syrup/Agave Nectar or similar
• 1 pack of ready rolled white fondant
• 20 chocolates for top of fancies
• 100 grams plain chocolate
• 25 grams melted butter
• 4 tablespoons water
• 6 tablespoons icing sugar

 

Instructions

1. Grease a 9”x13” cake pan and set aside. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. In a bowl sift together the flour, bicarb, salt and cinnamon. Set this aside.
3. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until pulped. Add the sugar and vegetable oil and beat until blended.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and stir in after each addition.
5. Add the vanilla and beat in.
6. Fold the flour mix into the wet mix until no dry ingredients are visible.
7. Fold in the chocolate chips then transfer the batter to the baking pan.
8. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the centre.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before transferring to a wire rack.
10. When fully cooled, brush the top of the cake with some warmed jam, or syrup to the top of the cake.
11. Place the fondant on top and smooth over with your hands.
12. Allow this to set up, for a few hours or preferably overnight.
13. With a sharp knife, cut the banana bread slab into 20 squares.
14. Take a chocolate, and melt the bottom slightly with a hot teaspoon. Stick this to the centre of each fancy.
15. To make the icing, in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter with the water. Stir in the icing sugar until smooth.
16. Patiently coat each of the fancies with the chocolate icing, using a fork to lift the cake and a spoon to pour and dab on the icing. Place on a wire rack over greaseproof paper to drip.
17. Make simple icing from some water and icing sugar some yellow food colouring (and banana flavouring if you have any).
18. With a spoon drizzle this over the fondant fancies.
19. Allow to set slightly and eat with a fork if still fudgy or wait overnight again until fully set.