S birthday cake 2021: Dulce de leche chocoflan

Another birthday! All our birthdays are in the winter, within a couple months. S's is the last of the winter, or the first of the year, and is well positioned to liven up February.

I'd had my eye on this recipe for ages. I basically usually make 2 cakes a year, for S and s birthdays... I bought a bundt tin specially, and had to buy dulce de leche and evaporated milk from an online peruvian / latin food store (evap seemingly especially hard to find round here?), but it was worth it - it was a fun recipe!

Little s helped me make it, and especially helped with the decoration. This is the only photo I have of the cake, but it worked! The inversion of the batters and the layers on slicing are so cool! And it was tasty - we like flan! Ours turned out more uniformly dark brown on the outside than the photo in the original recipe - perhaps because I decided to dust the tin with cocoa powder (I was so paranoid it wouldn't come out of the tin... although not enough to actually buy a specialist cooking spray) - but it was ok, it just made the layers more surprising when we sliced it!

For the flan:

380 g dulce de leche (i used 'la havana' from a jar)

354 ml evaporated milk (I bought it online as evap, then realized it was labelled condensed when just about to use it... but then noticed it was not sweetened, so I decided it was really evaporated - so confusing!)

115 g cream cheese, at room temp

1 tsp vanilla powder

pinch fine sea salt

5 large eggs

For the cake:

160 g plain flour

200 g sugar

50 g cocoa powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

85 g butter, cubed, at room temp

120 ml coffee, cooled

120 ml buttermilk

1 large egg

3/4 tsp vanilla powder

Heat oven to 180C. Prepare bundt tin by buttering the inside all over, being careful to get into all the nooks and crannies, and then dusting with cocoa powder.

To make the flan mix, blend up together the dulce de leche, evaporated milk, cream cheese, vanilla, and salt (I used a large bowl and a wand blender). Add in the eggs and blend until smooth.

To make the cake mix, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarb, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon with a fork. Add the butter and rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles wet sand. In a jug, beat together the coffee, buttermilk, egg, and vanilla, then mix it into the flour-butter mix gradually. Beat as fast as you can for a full minute.

Pour the CAKE mix into the bundt tin, smoothing out the top with a spoon. Carefully ladle in the FLAN mix so you disturb the cake mix as little as possible. Put the filled bundt tin pan in a roasting tin large enough to fit it. Grease a piece of foil and place it greased side down onto the bundt tin, folding it over the edges to loosely seal it. Transfer to the oven, then pour cold water into the roasting tin to come up 2 to 3 inches.

Bake for 2 hours to 2 hours 15 min, checking for doneness after 1 hour 45 min, using a skewer inserted into the cake to make sure it’s baked through, with little to no crumbs sticking to the skewer when you pull it out. (mine was pretty much done at 1 h 45 - I gave it an extra 5-10 min but I don't think it needed it).

Take out of the oven very carefully. Remove the bundt tin carefully from the roasting tin and let it cool to room temperature (which took several hours) before placing it in the fridge to cool completely, at least a couple of hours.

When ready to serve, carefully run a knife around any edges that are sticking, invert onto a serving plate, and shake up and down gently until it comes out!

 

It took a long time to cool and chill so definitely make the day before you want to eat it. And remember to brew the coffee and get cream cheese and butter to room temp ahead of time as well.

I was so relieved it came out - suddenly realized when shaking up and down the fifth time or so that turning out a bundt is a wee bit stressful (it was the first time I'd used a bundt tin) - there is no hiding issues - no icing or anything - the decoration is all in the shape of the tin... But we made it, phew! s and me had fun decorating it...

Realized it had an insane variety of different dairy products in it: dulce de leche, evap, cream cheese, butter, buttermilk... Also realized I like buttermilk - had never bought it pure before, always imagined it would taste like butter because of the name, but it is more like a runny yoghurt. 

The chocoflan was beautiful and quite tasty: maybe I should make more flans. And will have to think of more things to do with that bundt tin now!

Polenta paprika parsnips

Parsnips... I like them, but I only really like them roasted... or perhaps in soup? We got them in the veg bag a couple times recently so tried a couple of different roasting methods:

1) Delia mustard and maple syrup

2) Polenta and paprika  

In the end, I think we liked the polenta version better - the process was a bit simpler, and parsnips are already sweet so adding maple syrup seems a bit overkill. So here it is:

 

2 kg parsnips, peeled, trimmed and cut into halves or quarters lengthways

100ml rapeseed or sunflower oil 

5 tbsp polenta

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

2 tsp paprika

Prepare the parsnips and put them in water if doing ahead. Heat the oven to 220C. Blanch the parsnips in boiling water for 4-5 mins until slightly soft. Drain, leave to steam-dry, then tip into a large bowl. Drizzle over the oil and toss to coat all the parsnips.

Mix the polenta, salt, pepper and paprika, and sprinkle over the parsnips. Toss well, then lay the parsnips out on one large baking tray (or two small ones), with lots of space between them. Roast for 15 mins, turn them over, then roast for another 15-25 mins until golden and crunchy. (mine didn't take that long - perhaps the pieces were on the small side)

Baked potatoes

I rediscovered baked potatoes this autumn-winter. I loved them as a kid, but had got out of the habit of them. But with being home so much, things like this that take a while in the oven but little involvement seemed like a good idea. If I do 180C for 2 hours I can put them in the oven before I go get s and they'll be done in time for dinner.

A few large potatoes, ideally a good baking variety

olive oil

salt

Heat the oven to 180C (for cooking time approx. 2 hours), or 200C (for cooking time approx. 1 hour) - if you have time I think they taste better with lower for longer. Scrub the potatoes and pat dry. Put them directly on a big baking sheet. Stab them all over with a fork. Rub with olive oil and salt. Bake until done - they should have a thick brown skin, and be squeezable.

Good with bean chili. Or cheese. Or hummus. Or loads of other things.

Chocolate cake

I bought a kilo of ceremonial grade (100%) chocolate to support a covid fundraiser for a permaculture cacao farm in Guatemala. It arrived a few months later and it’s a significant brick of slightly powdery, almost smoky chocolate. I don’t find it awesome for just snacking, but it makes a great hot beverage - the smokiness really comes through. The restaurant that organised the chocolate fundraiser sent this recipe through with the chocolate info and I thought it sounded worth a try - although the original was with 77% choc so I had to adapt...

106 g sugar

80 g butter

54 g 100% chocolate

2 eggs

Melt butter, sugar and chocolate in a double boiler. 

Meanwhile, set oven to 150C and butter a baking tin (I used a loaf tin for this amount - cake ended up about 1 in deep). Also break the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly.

When all is melted, add the eggs to the chocolate bowl and whisk. It may split but keep whisking - it will come together. When smooth, pour into prepared tin and bake for approx. 25 min (35 min for 5 egg version). Done when a sharp knife comes out clean. Take out and let rest in the tin until cool.

This was adapted from a version with 5 eggs, 200g butter, 200g sugar, and 200g 77% choc - that’s why the numbers are a bit weird. I also worked out for 3 eggs, which might have fit a little better in the tin: 120g butter, 159.6 g sugar, 80.4g 100% choc. Or for 5 eggs and 100% choc do 266g sugar and 134g choc. 

I wasn’t sure if it’d work with subbing 100% choc for 77% - had a feeling 100% wouldn’t be good for melting / cooking - but it worked really well!

Puff pastry tarts (parsley and tomato / red onion and goats cheese)

I got into making tarts using bought puff pastry sheets. I've never tried making my own puff pastry, I probably never will. But those rolls of pastry in the fridge can be quite useful. I've tried following the package instructions, but find I like the results best when I just roll out the pastry, dump stuff on top, and bake. Which is lucky, since it makes it so very easy. I often seem to end up with allium-based toppings. 

(1)

Lots of red onions, sliced and cooked until soft with some balsamic vinegar and thyme leaves. Let cool, then spread over the unrolled pastry. Sprinkle with lumps of goat's cheese (the soft kind that comes in a roll) and walnuts. Bake at 200C for about 20 min, until it looks golden and done.

(2)

I thought this recipe might be a more fancy way to eat some of our garden tomatoes from the summer. Fresh tomatoes and herbs - should be perfect. It was good but not awesome.

3 large very ripe tomatoes (about 1.5 lb), sliced 1/4-inch thick

sea salt 

1 small garlic clove, peeled

1 cup (15 g) basil leaves, loosely packed

2 cups (25 g) parsley leaves, loosely packed

2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil, plus more for brushing

2 oz (55 g) hard cheese, thinly sliced or coarsely grated (e.g. cheddar)

pepper 

Place tomato slices on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Put garlic, parsley, basil, 1/2 tsp salt in a blender and pulse until finely chopped, mix in olive oil to make a paste. Blot tomatoes with kitchen roll to remove excess liquid. Spread pesto over the tart base, sprinkle with cheese, then cover with overlapping scales of tomatoes. Brush tomatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with ground black pepper. Bake 190C for c. 40 min (check after 30) - until tomatoes are well roasted.

Date and oat balls

I got really behind on writing up recipes... I made these ages ago, they were good, s liked them too (and I took some to the park and shared them with C and little m and gave an untrue impression of being an organized mum). Could have included a bit more cocoa? Every time I make date balls I wish for a proper blender. I think I nearly ended up buying a Vitamix as a result of these.

1 cup dates (normal dried ones not fresh or medjool)

2 cups rolled oats 

3/4 cup desiccated coconut 

1 tbsp cocoa powder 

1 tbsp almond butter

 

Cover dates with water in a pan and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and drain, setting the liquid aside. Put drained dates, oats, coconut, cocoa and almond butter in a blender or food processor. Add about 1/4 of the date liquid to the mix and blend (aiming for a good rolling texture - add slowly). Roll mixture into approx. 12 balls. Roll in extra coconut if desired. Keep in the fridge or freezer.