Mulled Clementine Meringue Pie

Christmas desserts are wonderful, I have a lot of love for Christmas cake, for trifle and even occasionally Christmas pudding but don’t you think they sometimes just get a little predictable, a little boring even? Well, this year I decided to do something a little different. First of all if you want a whole host of Christmas dessert ideas then check out the current issue of Olive Magazine as I have written a feature on them, some of the recipes can also be found online here. Secondly I have one more recipe for you this year, a Christmas dessert that would be happy as the end of any big celebration and perfect for the winter months as it uses the fruit of the season, clementines. Doing something fruit based means if you don’t like those rich sometimes heavy Christmas desserts this gives you something as little lighter to enjoy. 

The clementine flavour is on its own a wonderful thing but to make it that little bit extra special and to make it more festive the clementine mixture has been mulled, that is to say infused with spices. Cinnamon, star anise, cloves, cardamon and mixed spice, all those warming wintery spices that we associated with Christmas. The pie itself isn’t too laborious of a task to exclude it from the main event the Christmas dinner. You can blind bake the pie and make the filling the day before simply making the meringue topping on the day you want to serve it, plus you can blowtorch it at the table so you have the same drama as the flames that adorn the Christmas pudding.

Mulled Clementine Meringue Pie
1 full baked pie shell (you can use my favourite pie crust recipe here)

Clementine Filling
650ml clementine juice
100ml lemon juice
Zest of 3 clementines
Zest of 1 lemon
185g caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
3 cardamon pods, lightly bashed
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 star anise
3 cloves
1/2 tsp mixed spice
4 large egg yolks
50g cornflour
100g unsalted butter

Meringue Topping
4 large egg whites
250g caster sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar

To make the filling place the juices, the zests, half the sugar and the spices into a large saucepan and bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for a couple minutes then turn off the heat, cover, and set aside for 30 minutes to infuse.

Once infused whisk together the egg yolks, cornflour and the remaining sugar, whisking until smooth (if the mixture is dry and wont come together add a splash of the warm clementine mixture). Meanwhile place the pan back on the heat and bring the clementine mixture to a simmer. Pour the mixture through a fine sieve onto the eggs, whisking to combine. Pour this mixture back into the pan and over medium/high heat cook until very thick. Once the mixture is bubbling, cook for a couple minutes more to cook out the taste of the cornflour. Scrape the custard back into the bowl and add the butter, stirring to melt and combine it. Pour this finished mixture into the fully baked pie shell and refrigerate for a few hours to set. At this point the pie can be kept in the fridge for a day before topping with the meringue if you want to prepare ahead. 

For the topping place the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water and cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is hot to the touch. Remove the bowl from the heat and using an electric mixer whisk for about 7-8 minutes or until the meringue has cooled and is holding stiff glossy peaks. 

Spread the meringue over the clementine filling and then using a blowtorch brown the meringue until almost burnt. You want the flavour that comes when the meringue gets nice and dark so don’t be afraid of taking it to the edge of burnt. 

Without the meringue the pie will keep in the fridge for a couple days, with the meringue on I prefer to serve it within a day. 

Salty Honey and Tahini Chess Pie

I. Am. Obsessed. This is a not a new thing, it’s been a slow build but with every bake that I use it in, I fall ever so slightly more in love with it as an ingredient. You can probably tell by the name of this post that the magical ingredient I am talking about is tahini, sesame seed paste. It lends itself so well to baking, it’s flavour is familiar (I describe it as peanut butter but with more depth) and it marries wonderfully with so many different flavours and is the perfect thing when you want something a little more sweet and salty. I’ve added the paste to cakes, to cookies, to all manner of recipes but when the Sister Pie cookbook landed on my doorstep all I could think of was pie. Pie is another obsessions of mine and in the same way I find tahini to be a brilliantly flexible ingredient, pie is the dish that you’ll never run out of ideas for, it is a vessel for whatever flavour you could fancy. And right now that flavour is tahini, specifically a salted honey and tahini pie.

The recipe for this pie uses my favourite pie dough, my ultimate flaky pie dough that I developed for Olive Magazine and can be found here. The filling owes a lot to the brilliant Sister Pie cookbook along with some pointers from the Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie book which came out a few years back. Its a slight mash up of both their recipes with a few additions from me. 

The recipe is based on an old classic American idea called Chess Pie. Whilst to us brits that name doesn’t mean anything every American I know seems to loves it. Think of it in a way that isn’t dissimilar to treacle tart. You also may know of its famous modern cousin, Milk Bar’s Crack Pie. Now for anyone who has tried Crack Pie you know this style of dessert can be very sweet, almost too sweet for a lot of people, but that is where the brilliance of tahini really helps in this recipe. Whilst sesame works a treat in sweet recipes it does have an overwhelming savouriness which really helps to balance the sweetness in the recipe, as does the salt that is added (do not skip the salt the pie needs it, so do you). 

Salted Honey and Tahini Pie
1/2 batch of my Ultimate Flaky Pie Dough
1 tbsp sesame seeds
egg yolk for blind baking the pie

Filling
120g unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
150g light brown muscavado sugar (you can use regular light brown too)
3 tbsp fine cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt, plus extra for topping
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g honey
3 large eggs
125g tahini

To make the pie remove the dough from the fridge and on a lightly floured work surface roll out into a circle about 11-12 inches across. Drape into a 9-inch pie plate and cut the excess so that about 1-inch of dough is hanging over the edge of the pie plate. Take the overhang and roll it under itself to form a rope of dough that sits on the rim of the pie plate. Use two fingers of one hand, pinching them together, holding them against the outside of the pie. Use your forefinger of your other hand and press the pastry, from the inside of the pan, into your pinched fingers so the pastry forms a classic v-shaped crimp. 

Place the pie into the fridge for at least 30 minutes or until the pastry is nice and firm (you can also freeze the pie shell at this point). 

Preheat the oven to 220C (200C). Once chilled remove the pie from the fridge and line with a crumpled piece of parchment paper and fill with rice or baking beans. I prefer rice as the small size means there is less air pockets meaning it is less likely for the pastry to rise up during baking. Bake the pie on a baking tray in the preheated oven for about 20–25 minutes or until the crimped edge of the pie is golden brown. Remove the parchment and the rice and bake for a further 5 minutes or so, until the inside of the pie is starting to brown. Since we are adding a wet filling you can add a further step to prevent the dreaded soggy bottom. Brush the inside of the pie with a beaten egg yolk and pop the pie back in the oven for a minute or so until set. 

Remove the pie from the oven and set aside for the moment. Reduce the heat of the oven to 200C (180C fan).

To make the pie filling, place the butter, sugar, cornmeal, salt, vanilla and honey into a large bowl and whisk together until smooth and combined. Add the eggs one at a time whisking to combine. Finally add the tahini and whisk the mixture until everything is smooth and fully combined. Pour the custard into the blind baked pie shell. Before baking brush the crimped edge of the pie with a little beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake on a baking tray for about 40-50 minutes or until the edges of the filling are set and puffed up whilst the middle has a gelatinous look to it, set but still a little wobbly. Keep an eye on the rim of the pie as the seeds may brown a little quicker than the pie, so if they seem a little too dark tent the pie with foil for the rest of the baking. 

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with a little flaked sea salt. Set the pie aside to allow it cool to room temperature. 

My Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe - Cookie Chronicles

After three weeks and five of the most popular recipes around it is time for me to put my money where my mouth is and give you my perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Each of the test recipes were delicious and I would definitely make them all again, but in each recipe there was that perfect something that I loved. For my final recipe, my ‘ultimate’ if you want, I thought I would take these elements, smoosh them together and see if I could make the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. 

Now I should probably say there is no such thing as the one perfect recipe, this just happens to be my personal favourite recipe as it has everything I love in a chocolate chip cookie. It has crisp edges but a soft and ever so slightly chewy centre, a lot of chocolate, a good balance of sweet and salty and dough that has a good flavour of its own. All of these elements are subjective but they are what I look for in my perfect cookie. When it comes to chocolate I was surprisingly stuck over my choice. Should I use chips or wafers, the chocolate style I was testing throughout this process? I expected this to be an easy choice, going with my bias and regular use of the wafers but the chips make a wonderful cookie too and I think this comes down to exposure to bad chocolate chips in the past. Over the past eight years of working in food the only chocolate chips I have had easy access to were low quality chocolate, bulked out with vegetable oil, im talking cheap supermarket chocolate chips. This style of ‘chocolate’ (not sure chocolate made with vegetable fat can actually be legally called chocolate) is the stuff I have told you to avoid because it doesn’t melt, has a waxy taste and just work properly when it comes to baking. Thankfully Guittard, who I partnered with to create this series, make a chocolate chip that is nothing but chocolate, pure and simple. There is a difference between chips and wafers and it is important to know the difference. Traditionally chocolate chips, made only of chocolate, are made with less or no added cocoa butter to make the chocolate thicker so that it holds it shape when manufactured, whereas wafers have more added cocoa butter so they fall flat when produced. This simple difference will affect the outcome of the recipe making slight differences to each recipe. The main difference I found when using chips in this recipe is that the cookie spreads a little less than when made with wafers, but unlike poor quality chips that don’t actually melt during baking these still create those beautiful pockets of melted chocolate.

When it comes to method for this cookie I basically stayed with the classic drop cookie style of the original Toll House recipe and the method used in Tara O’Brady and Bon Appetit’s recipe as it was satisfyingly simple and resulted in a delicious cookie. So melted butter it is, but taking a tip from Alison Roman we are using salted butter and taking it one step further like Bon Appetit we are going to brown it too, because why not! I also threw in Sarah Kieffer’s pan banging method because the resulting ripples in the baked cookie add texture and make for wonderful crips edges. When it comes to ingredients we are staying classic the only addition is a couple egg yolks which make for an even fudgier dough. 

My Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

225g salted butter, diced
350g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
200g light brown muscavado sugar
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
340g dark chocolate (I use Guittard 66% wafers or 63% chips)
Flaked sea salt, for sprinkling

Start by preparing the chocolate. Take about a 1/4-1/3 of the chocolate and roughly chop to break up in uneven small chunks.

To make the cookie dough we first need to brown the butter. Place the butter into a saucepan and place over medium heat and cook until first the milk solids separate, then the mixture foams, and then the milk solids brown. With salted butter you need to stir the butter as it browns to make sure the salt doesn’t clump with the milk solids, you’ll also find that the foaming doesn’t dissipate quickly so you wont be able to see the browning as easily, so watch very carefully to make sure the butter doesn’t burn.

Pour the butter into a large bowl and allow to cool for a few minutes before whisking in the sugars. Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, whisking until smooth and combined. Whisk in the vanilla. In a separate bowl whisk together the dry goods then add to the butter mixture and using a spatula or wooden spoon, mix together just until combined, there should be the odd bit of flour showing throughout the dough. Add the chocolate and mix until evenly distributed. Cover the dough with clingfilm and refrigerate for about 4 hours or until the dough is firm but not rock solid, you should still be able to scoop out portions without too much effort. 

When almost ready to bake preheat the oven to 180C (170C fan) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Form balls of cookie dough into portions roughly 85g. You can do this with a cookie scoop or you can roll in your hands. Place the cookies onto the baking sheets, a couple inches apart and sprinkle with a little flaked sea salt. 

Bake in the preheated oven for about 16-18 minutes or until golden brown at the edges but still a little paler and soft in the middle. After baking for 10 minutes remove the tray from the oven and firm bang on the work surface to collapse the cookie. Repeat this process every two minutes or so, creating a ripples effect at the edges of the cookie (this adds great texture on the finished cookies). Once baked allow to cool on the baking sheets for about 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Kept in a sealed container these cookies will keep for up to 5 days but personally I think these are best on the first couple days when the texture will be at its best. 

Note: this recipe was developed in metric measurements and with UK ingredients so if making in the US I would suggest making this with extra large eggs and european style high fat butter.

For those asking where Guittard chocolate is available in the UK it is currently stocked by Ocado, Whole Foods, Lakeland, Sous Chef and M&S

Bon Appetit Brown Butter and Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies - Cookie Chronicles

Its the final week of the Cookie Chronicles and for todays recipe we are going a little controversial and talking mix-ins. Do you like your chocolate chip cookies like I do? Unadulterated with nothing more than lots of glorious dark chocolate? Or do you like it with nuts, butterscotch, pretzels and whatever else you might fancy throwing in? If your in the latter camp you might like this recipe as instead of the classic chocolate it also adds in a handful of toffee, in the form of a chocolate coated toffee bar (Skor in the US and I used Daim here in the UK). I adore toffee so I was excited about this recipe. 

Whilst the recipe was published and popularised by Bon Appetit magazine it was actually a user submitted recipe, sent in by Kate Davis, you can follow her on Instagram here. 

The Breakdown

Other than the toffee there are a few key differences to the ingredients in this recipe. It uses browned butter, adding a nutty note to the dough. It also uses dark brown sugar which should add a lot more molasses flavour, which is never a bad thing.

Makes 20

2 sticks (225g) unsalted butter
2 cups (280g) all-purpose/plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup packed (220g) dark brown sugar
1/3 cup (65g) granulated/caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 toffee bars (Skor, Daim, Heath etc) chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups chocolate wafers, 72% cocoa
Flaky sea salt

Place the butter into a saucepan and set over medium heat and cook, stirring often, until the butter foams and then browns, about 5-8 minutes. Pour the butter into a large bowl and allow to cool slightly.

Meanwhile mix together the flour, baking soda and salt

Add the sugars into the bowl with the butter and whisk together for a few minutes to combine. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until the mixture lightens and starts to thicken. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix until just incorporated. Finally add the chocolate and the toffee bar pieces, mixing just to incorporate. 

Set the dough aside for about 30 minutes to allow the flour to hydrate, the dough will be fairly loose to start with but as it sits it will thicken. 

Preheat the oven to 375F (190C) and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a 1 1/2 ounce ice cream scoop portion out cookies and place on the baking sheets, about 3 inches apart. Sprinkle with a little flaked sea salt.

Bake for about 9-11 minutes or until the edges are golden brown but the centres still a little soft. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Result
First off, these cookies are fabulous, undeniably delicious and very easy to make. Saying that I find the dark brown sugar a little overwhelming for a chocolate chip cookie and it makes tasting the toffee and little hard. Now to give the recipe its credit, this is an American recipe and I believe this might be more down to the fact that British dark brown sugar is a little stronger in molasses, my cookies looked quite a bit darker than the ones in the magazine, so take that with a pinch of salt. I always love brown butter in a recipe so this is definitely a winning element for me. I would 100% make these again, I am thinking a version made with pretzels and stem ginger would be amazing.