Litchis cinnamon fairy cakes

Several weeks ago I wrote an article dedicated to litchis.

It started when friend of mine came over with a basket of pretty in pink sweet litchis. I have always been quite indifferent about them but their eye ball- like texture and sweet rosiness gave me inspiration. I decided to take the challenge, and go where no litchi has taken me before. I had to stock up and my first stop was at the farmers market, where, laid on the table was a stack of litchis still holding on to the branches as if their lives depended on it. They were big and plump and when I popped one in my mouth I experiences an explosion of taste. I took a batch with me but they were so good none were left. Once again I headed to the market and bought even more litchis. Once I was properly stocked it was time for work.

The result, as is often the case, took over my fridge, keeping a steady level of my daily litchi intake for a good few days.

This recipe did not make it into the article but instead I made these cakes of gooey goodness when I opened the refrigerator door only to find lots more litchis that needed using up.

Crumbly and moist, these sweet cakes are small yet lethal. Blind folded, you could be standing in the middle of a rose garden, eating a sticky toffee pudding.

Litchis cinnamon fairy cakes

Fairy cakes recipe adapted from here

Makes 12 small cakes or 6 large ones.

Ingredients

85g unsalted butter, softened


¾ cup golden caster sugar


1 medium egg


140g self-raising flour, sifted



¼ tsp baking powder



¼ tsp cinnamon


1 Tbs honey or maple syrup

100 ml milk, to mix (you might not need it all)


6 raw litchis, peeled with the stoned removed and chopped

Line a fairy cake or muffin tin with cases, and heat the oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

While continuing to mix, drizzle the egg in gradually, adding a tablespoon of flour if the mixture looks like it's about to curdle.

Combine the flour and baking powder, and then gently fold into the mixture. Add just enough milk to bring the batter to a dropping consistency.

Gently fold the honey and chopped litchis.

Divide the mixture between the cases: if you prefer flat-topped cakes, then just cover the bottom of the cases, if not, you can half-fill them.

Bake for 20 minutes, and then turn out on to a rack to cool.

Top with Caramelized litchis, see recipe below.

Alternatively mix icing sugar with enough boiling water to make a thick paste, then smooth over the cooled cakes, and add decorations before it sets.

Eat quickly or freeze, tightly wrapped.

Caramelized litchi candy

Ingredients

1 cup unrefined cane sugar

1 cup water

15 fresh litchis, peeled, stone removed and halved

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Place the sugar and water in a saucepan.

Add 4-5 litchis, stir and bring to a boil.

At this stage you can also add cinnamon and/ or chopped red chilli pepper, if you like.

Reduce the heat and cook over a gentle simmer for about 30 minutes, until the syrup has thickened.

Place the raw litchi halves in a roasting tray and pour the sugar syrup over them.

Bake for 1 hour, then reduce the oven temperature to 160°C.

Bake for a further 2-3 hours, brushing the sugar syrup over the litchis, and gently stirring them so that they all caramelize evenly, every 30 minutes or so.

Allow to cool.

The caramelized litchis and syrup can be used as an ice cream topping, served over cake or with an aged cheese.

They may also be added to a fairy cake batter.

Cinnamon, Plum and Almond Brunsviger

I’m hot. It’s all I can think about. It’s all that I feel. I’m so hot the thought of espresso in the morning makes my stomach turn. I skip it and so I get to walk around with a headache all day. It’s a lose-lose situation on top of a scorching heat and a chocking humidity. This leaves me chasing the cool blessed air of the environmentally damaging, resource abusive, financially burdening air-con system. From my flat to the café, directly to the bus, in the car or at the shops. This is no way to live. Going out in midday is a close as it gets to the scene in “Total Recall”, when the governor of California commands to “give these people air”.

But enough about the weather. Except, its too hot to be cooking. The only think I can conceive to cook are raw salads, fruit salads, cold noodle salads, and cold soup. At one point in the past few weeks my freezer was a vessel for 3 types of ice cream and 2 varieties of granita.

It’s not all bad. I’m enjoying the best lychees I’ve had in years, candy sweet mangoes, concentrated Muscat grapes, plums, peaches and nectarines. I recently made a cinnamon plum confiture, but it was standing idly on the fridge shelf with no real purpose to fulfil. Until I found good use for it in the shape of a light sweet yeast summer pastry. I prepared the Brunsviger dough and used it as a neutral base. This was topped with the reduced plums, their bloody juices, cinnamon, sugar and sliced almonds. This is a cross between a brioche and a focaccia; mildly sweet, fluffy, dough I could almost lay my head on, topped with sweet and sour caramelized plums. That’s summer right there, baked and compressed into an intense edible rectangle.

Its worth the sweat.

Cinnamon Plums and Almonds Brunsviger

(This is no longer a Brunsviger as such, but until I come up with a better name, it’ll do).

8- 10 slices

Ingredients

1 ¾ cup unbleached all purpose flour

¼ cup Durum wheat semolina

2 Tbs Sugar

A pinch of salt

75 grams cold, good-quality butter

140 ml lukewarm milk

25 grams fresh yeast

Topping

¾ plum compote

Alternatively, you could use freshly sliced plums

4 Tbs granulated sugar

½ Tbs Cinnamon

1/3 cup almond slices

In a bowl, mix the flour, semolina, sugar and salt.

Cut the butter into small squares, add to the flour mixture and work it with your hands until the dough reaches the consistency of sawdust. Add the yeast into the lukewarm milk, stir it and pour into the dough.

Knead the dough well and add a little flour if it is too sticky to handle.

Cover the dough with a cloth and place in a warm place to proof for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C and line a brownie tray with a baking sheet.

Roll the dough out onto the tray and stretch it into place with your fingers. Dimple the dough and pour the cooked plums and their cooking juices.

Sprinkle the sugar, then the cinnamon and lastly, the almond slices.

Bake for 25 minutes. You will know its ready when the crust is golden and you wont be able to ignore the sweet smell of baked yeast.

Remove the bake from the tray and allow cooling before serving.

Slice and serve fresh with coffee.

The Brunsviger can be pre-sliced, tightly wrapped and kept in the freezer. before serving, defrost in the oven.

Comfort & Comfortable

After all of the running around Europe eating fiasco has come to an end, I am now happily grounded to my chair, staring at the computer screen while enjoying the sub zero outdoors from my slightly over heated quarters. This has been going on for a few days now, and so today I decided to treat myself to several hours of quality time in the kitchen.
I baked cinnamon roll muffins adding mini chocolate chips to the mixture and toasted coconuts to the cinnamon sugar topping.

Roger, over & out.