Domestic Sluttery

Tuesday, 29 October 2013

Baking for Beginners: Pecan Brownie Pie

For the last week, I've been eating variations of this pecan brownie pie. I am now 37% toasted pecan. It's taken a lot of terribly arduous effort to perfect, but I promise that this will one of the most incredible desserts you'll ever make. I didn't create the recipe, my housemate Laura did. I was in charge of taking photos and Very Important Pie Testing. Luckily Laura was very happy to share the recipe without me having to resort to blackmail.

The brownie section is based on a Delia Smith recipe. It's fudgy rather than cakey so it's very forgiving of substituting gluten free flour. The rest? Sticky, wonderful gooey pie with just a hint of booze and richness.

Pecan Brownie Pie
You'll need:

For the pecan pie layer:

300g pecans
55g butter
55ml maple syrup
110g of brown sugar
Decent splash of whiskey (don’t go crazy, you mad boozehound)
1 egg, beaten

For the brownie layer

55g dark chocolate
110g butter
2 eggs, beaten
55g self raising flour, sifted (switch for gluten free flour if you'd rather, same measurements)
220g brown sugar

Make it!

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4, and line an 8 inch springform tin.
Lightly coat your pecans in maple syrup, and toast them in the oven for 6-7 minutes (keep an eye on them, they burn quickly and pecans are expensive). Once your pecans are nicely toasted, turn the oven down to 160 degrees/gas mark 3.
Put half of the pecans as a flat layer on the bottom of your lined cake tin. Use the less pretty ones and save the nicer looking half for later.
Mix the butter, maple syrup, sugar and whisky in a pan on a low heat. As soon as the butter is melted take it off the heat.
When the mixture has cooled, beat in the egg and pour it over the pecans.
Pop in the oven for about 15 minutes. It should be just setting slightly, but not cooked.

While the pecan pie layer is in the oven, make the brownie layer.

Using the same pan that you probably haven’t washed up yet, melt the butter and chocolate together and then let cool. Fold everything else into the pan.
When the pie is ready, pour the brownie mixture into the cake tin and put back into the oven for about 30 minutes, until the top is springy and fairly solid.
Remove from the oven and let it cool in the tin a little, then run a knife around the sides before releasing it.
Turn out onto a plate, so the pecan pie section is facing upwards. Press some more of your toasted pecans into a lovely pattern while the brownie is still warm and squishy. Admire your handiwork.
Serve in giant slices with thick cream, hot chocolate, whisky, a dance movie and anything else that fills you with warm autumnal feelings.

Thanks very much to Laura Crichton for the recipe. And all of the pie.

World's Best Cakes

World's Best Cakes is quite the claim, but this new baking book from Roger Pizey makes a fine job of presenting 250 recipes from around the globe. He's worked with Albert Roux and Marco Pierre White, and been head chef in top restaurants in London. This man knows his stuff and it shows. He's chosen recipes from every continent and grouped them into ten chapters from traybakes and layer cakes to pastries and tarts.

Here are ten reasons why we love it.

1) Each cake has a little intro explaining its origins, much like the Domestic Sluttery food map. They're each written with such enthusiasm that you'll find yourself bookmarking recipes involving cassava, cheese and coconut (popular in the Philippines, apparently, and now in Streatham).

2) It demystifies exotic sounding cakes from around the world. For example, mustikkapiiraat from Finland? They're basically eccles cakes, with a pinch of cardamom (those crazy Fins!).

3) A cheery chapter at the start takes you through the basic techniques you'll need. We're talking really basic. One technique is 'pouring'.

4) It's a rare recipe that needs more than six ingredients. And none of them will send you further than your local supermarket. The emphasis is on keeping things simple, rather than sending you out for obscure ingredients you'll use once and never again. The Taiwanese cake feng li su, for instance, needs nothing more extravagant than melon and pineapple.

5) Simple also means quick. Nothing's taken me more than 20 minutes to prepare so far. There are a few more challenging recipes if you want to stretch yourself - millefeuille, Moroccan m'hanncha (a delicious filo and nut concoction) and Austrian Linzer torte - but plenty to occupy you if you don't.

6) Mouthwatering full page pictures of almost every recipe (and half page photos of the rest) mean you'll just want to dive straight in. Even my cakes, which can generously be called rustic, turned out resembling the photos.

Mexican chocolate and chilli cake and Jewish honey cake

7a) The book has double-fan adhesive binding. This is something I raved about with Dan Lepard's baking book too, because it means it lies flat on your worktop. It's meant to be used, not just read...

7b) ...although you'll want to curl up with the 'where to eat cake' sections at the end of each chapter. Look how pretty the chapter is on Paris! You'll be booking Eurostar tickets before you know it.

8) Roger's roped in his chef mates to donate some of their favourite recipes, so you can check out Paul A Young's intensely chocolatey Torte Gianduja and Richard Corrigan's boozy More Stout Than Treacle cake.

9) Aren't you convinced yet? What more do you want? You want me to bake all 250 cakes and cram them into your gaping maw? Come on.

10) CAKE.

If you're in mourning after the Bake Off final, I'd highly recommend picking up this and doing your own Technical Bake once a week. Get your housemate to pretend to be Mary Berry and say encouraging things about your delicious range of global cakes.

World's Best Cakes by Roger Pizey is £15.85 from Amazon.

Monday, 28 October 2013

Excellent Independent Magazines

I'm a bit of a magazine junkie. I read them backwards because the last page is always my favourite. I even read the funny little jokes on flannel panel. I get excited when a magazine has a contributor page where I can learn about a photographer and his love of autumn and his new puppy. But I dislike most mainstream women's magazines and have been on the hunt for some alternatives. Here are some of my favourite independent magazines.

Delayed Gratification. Quarterly, £12.
The world's first slow journalism magazine, Delayed Gratification likes to take its time. All of us are obsessed with breaking news, constant updates and live news on social media. It's time to take it down a notch. Slow down, read a different perspective.

Lula. Published twice a year, £8.
Lula is a fashion magazine for people who don't like fashion magazines very much. It's so unashamedly feminine and every single page is beautiful. It's a huge magazine and you can see just how much love and time goes into every feature. If you like the whole fashion world for its creativity rather than the fashion industry, this magazine will suit you to a (very expensive, sequin-trimmed) tee.

The Gentlewoman Published twice a year, £6.
You don't get to put Beyoncé on the cover of a magazine unless you're doing something right. The Gentlewoman are doing everything right. They celebrate modern women and they do it in a modern way. It's not about what the women look like, it's about them. Their intelligence, their style, what they think. It's really very fabulous.

Teller. Various publication dates. Issue 3 is out now, £8.
A magazine of stories. That's how Teller magazine describes itself. And that's exactly what they do. Filled with unexpected tales and fascinating photography, Teller isn't a magazine that can be pigeon-holed and it's all the better for it.

Oh Comely. Bi-monthly, £5.
In interests of full disclosure, I should probably mention that a couple of team DS have written for Oh Comely, myself included. But that's because it's really excellent and is always refreshing to see on a newstand of airbrushed perfection (although it is sometimes described as being a little twee). It's a beautiful magazine that makes people smile. It's about finding something important in the small things and inspires people to be creative, curious and adventurous.

Libertine. Quarterly, £8.
The newest lady magazine on the block, Libertine is packed full of inspiring women and interesting features. They're curious, they like wit and good manners and excellent lady folk and they're doing everything they can to redefine the landscape of women's media. Amen to that.

We Are Here. Quarterly, £21.06. (Ouch.)
The travel sections in most magazines aren't very inspiring, but We Are Here does things different. It's a quarterly and the focus is on a different location each issue. Oh, and all of their (beautiful) photography has been done on a mobile phone.

Printed Pages. Quarterly, £4.
Created by those talented folk at It's Nice That, Printed Pages is a joy of a read. It's a brilliant mix of illustration and inspiration and will pique your interest in things you didn't even know about before your copy landed on your doorstep.

Still want more? We've told you about Stack magazines before and that will definitely keep you busy for a while. Try uber-cool lifestyle magazine AnOther magazine, swanky fashion mag Love. If you're into vintage and crafts, you'll like Pretty Nostalgic (it's so, so beautiful) and drinks publication Gin & It, from the people who brought you foodie publication Fire & Knives. Not a single dieting feature in any of them I promise.

Gluten Free: Pumpkin Doughnut-Muffins

Love it or loathe it, pumpkin is inescapable at this time of year. Whether you're a dress-in-full-costume-and-scare-the-neighbours type of person, or a turn-off-all-the-lights-and-pretend-you're-not-in sort (or anything in between), I'm quite sure that a pumpkin has made its way into your kitchen this month. We have countless suggestions on what to do with them, but this is a tasty way to use up your leftover roasted pumpkin.

I was going to call these baked doughnuty muffins, 'duffins', but it turns out that Bea's of Bloomsbury already did that, then Starbucks took the idea and people weren't happy. In the spirit of peacekeeping, I'm just sticking with doughnut-muffins. Whatever you call them, they're ridiculously easy to prepare, and when pumpkins aren't in season the recipe works with roasted sweet potato, carrot or parsnip.

Pumpkin doughnut-muffins (makes 12 regular muffins or 48 mini muffins)
You'll need:

250g gluten free self raising flour mix
200g caster sugar
3 tbsp maple syrup
1½ tsp mixed spice (or pumpkin pie spice if you have it)
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
100g roasted pumpkin
200g creme fraiche (buttermilk, natural yoghurt of sour cream works too)
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Make it!

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
Put everything in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides to make sure it's all mixed. Alternatively, put all the ingredients in a big bowl and combine with a stick blender.
(If you don't have anything like that, simply mash the pumpkin then beat everything together with a spoon.)
Pour the mixture into greased or lined muffin tins and bake for 15 minutes for mini muffins/25 minutes for regular muffins.
Leave to cool slightly before turning out and sprinkling with a little sugar.

Rob Ryan x Tatty Devine

We love it when our favourite designers get together. Remember how we dialled up the excitement to 11 when we found out Coco Fennell and Karen Mabon were courting? Get ready to crank that dial to twelvety-million because our favourites Rob Ryan and Tatty Devine have collaborated on a beautiful jewellery collection. Rob's signature papercuts have been translated into gorgeous, hand-crafted pieces that I guarantee you will fall in love with.

Let's start with this rose gold crown of hearts ring. I've already seen one lady on Rob's Facebook page declare this will be her wedding ring, and you can see why: it's delicate, beautiful and has more character than most wedding bands.

Each piece comes in silver, gold and rose gold. This 'I Dream Of Asking You' bracelet looks prettiest in silver, with romantic secrets printed on the outside and inside.

I was a bit 'whatevs' about these 'Keep It Safe' earrings til I realised the bit was heart-shaped, and then I suddenly couldn't wait to shove them through my lobes. Simple, subtle, yet totally Rob Ryan.

This 'Forever Love Forever' ring could be another wedding ring. Or if, like me, the other warm body in your bed is a cat, just buy it for yourself. If you need more persuasion, then remember each piece comes in a deluxe Tatty Devine box with a print signed by Rob, and Harriet and Rosie of Tatty Devine.

I've saved the best til last: the 'Every Beat of My Heart' necklace. Classic Rob Ryan text meets typical Tatty Devine decoration.

The sixteen piece collection is currently only available from Selfridges, who are currently being a bit slack about putting it all online (come, Selfridges, sort it out). Thankfully, you can coo over the whole lot on Pinterest and you'll be able to buy it from Rob Ryan and Tatty Devine in the new year, so save your Christmas money for it. Prices start at £125 and go up to £675 for the gold 'Every Beat Of My Heart' necklace.

Girl, Put Your Records On: Crosley's Floral Turntables

Is there a word for the feeling of immense longing one gets when faced with a floral-patterned record player? Because there should be. Let's make one up. What about florturntabulation?

I experienced a major bout of florturntabulation the other day while I was noodling around Urban Outfitters' record player section looking at Crosley turntables, something I do with alarming regularity considering I have a perfectly functioning, perfectly beautiful Crosley turntable at home already. It transpires, however, that mine has a flaw - it isn't smothered in blowsy blooms.

The Crosley Keepsake turntable shown above is the same model as mine (navy leatherette, tweed, gorgeous, NOT COVERED IN BLUE FLOWERS HARRUMPH) so I can vouch for it making nice noises - depending on your choice of tunes, of course, but needless to say my musical taste is impeccable. It does all kinds of jazzy things with digital files and USBs and whatnot, but to be honest I can't tell you much about them because I only use mine to play records. If I'm going to go analogue, I'm going to do it properly.

The record player closes like a suitcase, making it portable and space-saving, not to mention bloody pretty. It's not a great whopping thing like some turntables, which means it's perfect for my teeny-weeny flat. At £160, it's something you'll probably need to save up for, but if you're in the market for a nice new record player, this is the perfect combination of style and substance at a reasonable price.

Smaller - and cheaper! - still is this Crosley pink floral mini turntable. It's £150 and ever so gorgeous. I love the pattern, and the colour, but I do wish that the floral design continued on the inside of the lid like the Keepsake model above. Let's have a wee swoon at it all fastened up, though:

MEGA-GREAT. It's like something a Sylvanian Family would own. In fact, this is definitely the record player the Sylvanian Caravan would have, if the Sylvanian Caravan were a real, life-sized thing - which, let's face it, we all wish it was.

Have I given you a case of florturntabulation? I do hope so. I can't justify buying another turntable, so I'm relying on you to get one instead. And just think! You'll be able to trawl charity shops for gems like this: