Food & Drink
Jeni Hardie's Bad Girl Bakery in Muir of Ord has been helping customers recreate some of its popular bakes, including these delicious delights
Recipes from Jeni Hardie, plus Rose Murray Brown on wines from Alsace
If I had to think of a cake to describe these last few months, it’d have to be a rocky road. Like so many, we’ve had to completely change the way we operate. In the last few weeks we reopened our doors and our café was transformed into a food shop with a takeaway menu that changes daily. Everything in the shop reflects what we do: from our own baking and lunch or breakfast dishes to cookery kits that we really rate, and recipe bags with everything you need to make our cake or soup of the week.
Lockdown has stimulated a surge in interest in baking at home – I’ve had so many enquiries from customers looking to replicate our cakes that I had to start a baking blog. We’ve now given over an area of our new shop to baking ingredients and equipment and really hope that this cookingfrom-scratch trend will continue.
At Bad Girl Bakery we have a huge emphasis on the cakes baked that day so when they’re sold out, they’re gone. And of course the ultimate fresh food is that which you’ve made yourself, so do give these recipes a go. ■
Bad Girl Bakery in Muir of Ord has reopened its doors with a new shop offering takeaway cakes, pastries, biscuits, bread, sandwiches and more, www.facebook.com/badgirlbakery; badgirlbakery.wordpress.com @bad_girl_bakery
Crispy chicken burger
This is one of the best sellers on our new hot food menu and was created by our head chef Darren Campbell. We serve these lightly spiced, crispycoated chicken breasts in a brioche roll with iceberg lettuce, tomato and pesto mayo. It’s really quick, simple, and tastes great.
Serves two
1 large chicken breast
150g breadcrumbs
150g plain flour
1 tbsp smoked paprika 1tbspoil
2 eggs
100ml milk
3 tbsp mayo
2 tsp green pesto
2 brioche burger buns sliced tomato
iceberg lettuce
large pinch of salt and pepper
1 Pre-heat the oven to 180C/gas Mark 4.
2 Mix the flour, paprika, salt and pepper in one of the bowls and the eggs and milk in the other. Put the breadcrumbs in the last bowl.
3 Butterfly the chicken breast (cut it horizontally through the middle so you end up with two thin chicken breasts).
4 Coat the chicken well in the flour, then in the egg mix, then repeat (doing this twice means the coating will be really crispy). Finally coat the chicken pieces really well in the breadcrumbs, pressing down gently to make sure they stick.
5 Heat a tablespoon of oil in a big frying pan over a medium heat then fry the chicken breasts till golden brown on the bottom, turn and fry the other side.
6 Put them on a baking tray and bake in the centre of the oven for 5-10 mins. The time will vary, depending on the thickness.
7 If you’re building your burgers like we do, while the chicken is finishing off in the oven, tip out the oil and and clean the frying pan. Toast the brioche buns by placing them cut side down in the dry pan over a medium heat so the inside gets nice and toasted.
8 Mix the mayo and pesto, then spread most on the bottom of the buns but leave a little to spread on the inside of the top bun too, then add the tomato, then the lettuce and lastly the chicken. (This order keeps the burger as crispy as possible!)
Raspberry and white chocolate cookie bars
Imagine a cross between a cookie and a flapjack. Then imagine it with a gooey jammy, chocolatey centre.
Serves 12
250g unsalted butter (chopped)
325g light brown sugar
250g plain flour
230g porridge oats
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ a jar of good raspberry jam
200g white chocolate chips
freeze dried raspberries, optional
1 Pre-heat the oven to 165C/gas Mark 3¼ and line a 13x9 standard traybake tray with greaseproof paper.
2 Melt the butter in a bowl in the microwave or slowly in a pan over a low heat until completely liquid.
3 Add the sugar, oats, flour and bicarbonate of soda to a stand mixer bowl (or big bowl if you’re doing it by hand).
4 Pour in the melted butter and stir until there are no dry bits.
5 Press half the mixture into the bottom of the baking tray. Judge this by eye, it’s OK if it’s not exact. Pat this down so it’s even and smooth. Pay attention to the corners. If they have less mixture they will bake more quickly and be too hard.
6 Give the jam a stir so it’s loose and easy to spread, then spread around half the jar’s worth across the base of the traybake. Leave a border of about an inch, so it doesn’t ooze out and weld your traybake to the paper.
7 Scatter over about two thirds of the chocolate chips over the top, reserving the rest.
8 Finally, scatter the rest of the oaty mixture over the top and lightly pat it down.
9 Bake on the middle shelf for 25 mins, no longer. Remove from oven but don’t be tempted to cut it up now. The jam will be molten and the traybake will fall apart.
10 Once it’s cool, melt the rest of the chocolate gently in the microwave on low in 20 sec bursts.
11 Drizzle the melted chocolate over the traybake and pop it in the fridge till the chocolate is just set.
12 We finish ours off by sprinkling freeze dried raspberries over the chocolate before it sets. They add lovely colour and sharp raspberry flavour too.
13 Cut into approx 12 fingers.
Caramel brownies
This is the basic recipe we use for some of our brownies in the shop. It’s a mixture between cakey and fudgey so creates the perfect base for gooey pockets of caramel in every portion.
Serves 12
250g dark chocolate (we use 70 per cent cocoa solids) chopped up so it melts quickly
250g unsalted butter, chopped 300g caster sugar and 50g light brown sugar (but 350g of caster is fine if you don’t have both)
5 large free range eggs
75g plain flour
75g self raising flour
½ tin of ready-made caramel
1 Pre-heat the oven on to 165C/gas Mark 3¼ and line a 13x9 standard traybake tray with greaseproof paper.
2 Put your chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and melt it slowly over a pan of just simmering water. Take it off when everything is almost melted. The heat of the bowl will do the rest. The chocolate really needs to cool a little so don’t rush this stage.
3 Put the eggs and sugar into a bowl and put the flours into another small bowl.
4 Whisk the eggs together with the sugar until it is light and creamy.
5 Add the melted chocolate and butter mixture to the egg mixture and mix on low until it comes together into a glossy bowl of loveliness.
6 Add the flour and mix on low until it’s mixed in, then scrape the mixture into the traybake tray. Take time to flatten the mixture off and make sure it’s into the corners and even, other wise you will end up with thin, biscuity corners.
7 Dot teaspoons of caramel all over the traybake, making sure there’s at least one blob in every portion.
8 Swirl the edges of each blob a wee bit. You don’t want to mix it in completely, as you want pockets of caramel, but you want to create a swirly pattern so people can see it’s got caramel in it.
9 Bake on the middle shelf for 25 minutes then check. It may need more time. Baking time is really the only remotely tricky part of this recipe. If it’s under baked it will be too wet and if it’s over baked you’ll end up with a dry, but still tasty chocolate cake, not a brownie. After 25 minutes insert a skewer into the centre of the brownie (try to hit brownie, not caramel) if there are one or two damp crumbs on the skewer, it’s ready. If there’s any wet batter, it’s underdone, so put it in for 5 more minutes and check again.
10 Cool and cut into 12 pieces.