Salted Pumpkin Seed Chocolates

Boo! 

It has been quite some time in the wilderness but I'm thinking it's time to resurrect Feast with Bron. I miss having a place to write about food adventures and keep track of new favourites and the occasional disaster. The plan is to blog from a broader base than just Borough and market days but still go with the pleasures of eating. My heart and soul is firmly rooted in the buying, making and eating of great food. I'm a greedy cow at heart - but always that's happy to share.

Ages ago I bought the Polpo cookbook and an early favourite was roasted butternut, served just warm, draped with torn proscuitto then sprinkled with a grating of salted ricotta and a handful of toasted pumpkin seeds. All the elements were individually good, together making a lovely plate of food but easily the most amazing element was the lightly toasted seeds. They taste amazing - rich and smooth and deeply savoury like a quick crunch of luxury scattered across the plate.

And so easy! Small dry pan, gentle heat, add seeds and toss occasionally for a couple of minutes till they go from green to brown and the first one or two pop and you're done.

I started adding them to other salads for a hint of richness and crunch, then as a textured finish to creamy soups and a slightly decadent tasting addition to soft pasta sauces. They were so good in every incarnation - like a little miracle flavour bomb every time. Always savoury though, their place was firmly rooted in salads and mains, pretty much where I use pumpkin flesh.

Around Halloween I came across the idea of using them in butter chocolates and I was intrigued. Very easy to see how the rich smoothness of the seeds would be enhanced to eleven blended with butter and wrapped in chocolate. I played with the recipe a bit and have found my perfect version.

Salted Pumpkin Seed Chocolates

These are a little bit fiddly but very easy and will make a fabulous addition to Christmas excess or pretty gifting to those you really do love

Makes 24

100g pumpkin seeds

40g unsalted butter

40g icing sugar

½ - 1 teaspoon sea salt crystals

350g dark chocolate

In a small frying pan dry fry the seeds over a medium heat until they are golden and smell rich and toasty. Allow to cool, then set aside a tablespoon of seeds for later.

Tip the rest of the seeds into a bowl with the butter and sugar and grind with a stick blender till you have a smooth paste. Stir through the salt crystals.

Set 24 small paper cases onto a baking tray.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl stays clear of the water. Spoon 2 teaspoons of the liquid chocolate into the base of each paper case then refrigerate for 15 minutes or so until the chocolate sets. 

Leave the remaining chocolate in the bowl over the pan of hot water so it stays liquid,

Once the chocolate has set put a spoonful of the pumpkin seed paste on top and smooth it to almost the edge of the set chocolate.  Spoon another 2 teaspoons of chocolate over the top and add a couple of the reserved seeds to decorate. Put the tray of finished chocolate cups back into the fridge to set.

Share cautiously, eat with gusto!

Chocolate Orange Cake

Oranges may not be the only fruit but 300 years ago fresh oranges were expensive luxuries in northern Europe (and probably "fresh" wasn't always the exact word for them). I can see why - an exotic fruit of such a wonderfully vibrant colour, they promise much and once peeled the sweet segmented flesh offers no disappointment. The wealthy built orangeries in the grounds of their stately homes, not something I'd come across until I came to England, but the building of an orangery illustrates how besotted the wealthy were with this lovely citrus. A fine example is the baroque Orangery in the gardens of Kensington Palace which was built in 1704 for Queen Anne, who used it for parties. The architect was Nicholas Hawksmoor and was built with under-floor heating - remember this is the dawn of the 1700's - and in winter was used as a conservatory for delicate plants.

In those days if you could get oranges, they were marvellous for impressing your guests. They were a fleeting crop and one of the main concerns was how to preserve them, to savor their rich flavor and majestic colour all year. I'm guessing that that is why some clever cook came up with the idea of cooking them. The really distinctive flavor of an orange is in the peel, and so I offer this up as the motivation for the very first boiling of whole oranges.

This Nigella Lawson cake requires the boiling of whole oranges, 2 of them for 2 hours, and the who did it why first question has caught at the edges of my mind for the few months that I have been making it. Not who so much, but definitely why. They bob away - you can't drown an orange - and gradually become squidgy - soft and wet and changing shape easily when pressed. They lose their smooth exterior and all that reassuring firm resistance they have when just picked and basically end up the very opposite of what you want in a fresh orange. The first time I made this recipe I reached the 'boil oranges for 2 hours then cool slightly' point and really, seriously, did not believe we were going anywhere good.

How wrong I was.

Chocolate Orange Cake

The baroque Orangery, located next to Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens, was built in 1704-05 for Mary's younger sister, Anne, who became Queen when William died. Anne used Kensington for entertaining and she held parties in the Orangery.
The building had under-floor heating and in winter it was used as a conservatory for delicate plants.
The architect of The Orangery is thought to have been Nicholas Hawksmoor, the clerk of works on Kensington Palace and the designer of six new churches in east London.
- See more at: http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens/facilities-in-kensington-gardens/the-orangery#sthash.7UYP8MLn.dpuf

The baroque Orangery, located next to Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens, was built in 1704-05 for Mary's younger sister, Anne, who became Queen when William died. Anne used Kensington for entertaining and she held parties in the Orangery.
The building had under-floor heating and in winter it was used as a conservatory for delicate plants.
The architect of The Orangery is thought to have been Nicholas Hawksmoor, the clerk of works on Kensington Palace and the designer of six new churches in east London.
- See more at: http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens/facilities-in-kensington-gardens/the-orangery#sthash.7UYP8MLn.dpuf

The baroque Orangery, located next to Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens, was built in 1704-05 for Mary's younger sister, Anne, who became Queen when William died. Anne used Kensington for entertaining and she held parties in the Orangery.
The building had under-floor heating and in winter it was used as a conservatory for delicate plants.
The architect of The Orangery is thought to have been Nicholas Hawksmoor, the clerk of works on Kensington Palace and the designer of six new churches in east London.
- See more at: http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens/facilities-in-kensington-gardens/the-orangery#sthash.7UYP8MLn.dpufIf you could get oranges, they were great for impressing your guests. But one of the main things on your mind would be how to preserve them, to savor their rich flavor and majestic color all year.

I am far from a cake fanatic but I have made this one at least half a dozen times over the last few months, and everyone that eats it wants the recipe. I understand. It is a great cake, rich and elegant and properly grown up and sophisticated.

2 oranges, unwaxed ideally
200g ground almonds
50g cocoa

6 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
250g caster sugar

Put the oranges into a pan of water and simmer for 2 hours, until they go unattractively soft. Set aside to cool.

Heat the oven to 180C and grease and line the base of a 20cm spring form tin.

Cut the oranges in half then put them into a blender – skin pips and all – and whizz to a paste like consistency. Add all the rest of the ingredients and blitz again till you get a lumpy batter. If your blender is not big enough to put everything in, tip the orange pulp into a bowl then blitz the rest of the ingredients in the blender, add that to the orange and mix till it's all combined.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for about an hour till a skewer comes out clean. 

Leave the cake in the tin on a wire rack for 20 minutes or so to start cooling then carefully unclip the outer ring and take it off. The cake can cool fully on the metal base before serving.