Delia Smith

Delia’s Chestnut cupcakes

Posted by annauk1 on November 24, 2011
Posted in: Chestnut, Christmas, Cupcakes, Delia Smith. 11 Comments

I can’t help but feeling that these delightful little cupcakes from Delia Smith’s ‘Happy Christmas’ book need a blog post devoted entirely to them. They are in an altogether more grown-up league than your usual run of the mill cupcakes, though they too have their own special place in my heart of course.
Can one have an ‘adult’ cupcake? If so, then these are they.
Tender, mildly chestnut flavoured, not too sweet sponge, topped with a glorious combination of mascarpone and sweetened chestnut puree and topped with heavenly, indulgent marron glace..

Too special to be shared with the children.

Did I really just say that?

Well, when you see the price of these little beauties (only 6 of the little darlings in this box!) You may understand my reluctance.

Delia’s Chestnut Cupcakes
Adapted from her book ‘Delia’s Happy Christmas’.

Makes 8.

150g creme de marrons (sweetened chestnut puree)
110g butter, very soft
2 eggs, beaten
110g chestnut flour (about as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel! So I used plain flour)
1 and a half tsp baking powder
4 tbsp milk

For the topping:
100g creme de marrons
200g light mascarpone
3 marrons glace, thinly sliced
1 tsp icing sugar

Preheat oven to 170deg.C or 150deg.C if you have a fan oven.

1. Whip the butter and 150g creme de marrons until you get a beautiful pale and fluffy mixture.

2. Add the eggs a little at a time, until incorporated.

3. Sift in the flour and baking powder, using a large metal spoon to cut and fold the flour in.

4. Add the milk when half of the flour is in.

5. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake for 35-40 mins.

6. When the cakes have cooled make up the topping by mixing the remaining chestnut puree with the mascarpone.

7. Spread or pipe over the top of each cupcake, decorate with the marron glace and a light dusting of icing sugar (and in my case, pretty little gold and silver balls)

Marks out of ten?    10!

Would I make these again?   I’m already planning the next time….

Would I do anything differently?  I’m still trying to find chestnut flour, then I’ll let you know!

Thanks for a wonderful recipe Delia! I’m very impressed.

Our early Christmas dinner (My special Christmas Stuffing)

Posted by annauk1 on November 23, 2011
Posted in: Christmas, Cupcakes, Delia Smith, Family recipes, Stuffing. 6 Comments

My parents decided on Sunday that they would host an ‘Early Christmas Dinner’ for all the family, as my brother and his family were coming down from South Wales on a pre-Christmas visit. I thought it was a great idea! We love adore Christmas dinner- so why save it for only one meal a year? Anyway, it was a great idea to get us all into the festive spirit.
Mom had all bases covered, so I decided to take my special Christmas stuffing which I also made last year and which earnt me lots of the family’s praise. As my daughter-in-law says, and I agree, she could forgo the turkey and just have a plateful of stuffing and gravy! I’d have to add cranberry sauce to that, love the stuff!
It’s simple to make, try and buy the best quality sausage meat that you can, it  makes a big difference.

The first thing I did was start off by frying  200g lardons (or chopped up bacon)  in a little oil,
to this I added 1 onion, finely chopped and a small bunch of sage, finely chopped, fry off for a few minutes until softened.

Add the lardons, sage and onion to 900g best quality sausagemeat, 170g pack of sage and onion stuffing mix (which has been re-constituted with water as per packet instructions)
To this, add 200g cooked chestnuts which have been roughly chopped (I like to chop them into quite large pieces as I feel it adds to the texture of the final dish. I really like the feel of them, grainy, nutty but soft)
Also add a  250g jar of wholeberry cranberry sauce and plenty of seasoning.

Bake in an ovenproof dish, at 160degC (fan oven) for about 60-90 minutes. The final cooking time depends on the dimensions of your chosen dish, the deeper the stuffing is, the more cooking is needed. Mine needed the whole 90 minutes.
Bear in mind that this recipe makes a large amount, you could halve the recipe, or make the whole amount and do as I did by having stuffing and gravy sandwiches the day after! Heaven.

What could be nicer after our Christmas meal than some festive cupcakes?
These ones are Delia Smith’s chestnut cupcakes, from her Christmas book, made with sweetened chestnut puree, both in the batter and in the topping, and topped with the most heavenly (and expensive!) marrons glace…….

The children really loved these ones….

Chocolate chip muffins with peppermint buttercream frosting, topped with candy canes and little gold stars.

Roll on our next Christmas dinner I say!

A Delia-ish pie, F’ artichokes and Ligurian pasta

Posted by annauk1 on February 20, 2008
Posted in: Delia Smith, Pasta, Pie, Recipes using mince, The Cranks bible. 1 Comment

1. Delia-ish shepherds pie:
From Delia Smith’s new book entitled ‘How to cheat at cooking’. Here’s the recipe. This was actually very good! I used the frozen potato discs stated in the book, but not the tinned mince.

2. F’artichokes – Or more correctly, stoved Jerusalem artichokes from ‘The Cranks bible’, very delicious! Pistachio gave me this recipe a year or two ago, and I’ve only just got around to re-making it. Here’s the recipe.

3. Ligurian pasta with potatoes, pesto and green beans – Again from Delia’s new book. Here’s the recipe.Nothing worse in this recipe than a tub of fresh pesto, which I usually keep in the house anyway. Very good, and quick.