love your misshapen creations
Alongside our new Lurpak TV ad, we’ve also created a few posters and the first two are breaking now. Like the TV ad, they celebrate the imperfections in home-cooked food and the joy derived from getting your hands dirty. Or floury.
Whether it be an oozing meat pie, unevenly puffed up and burnt at its
edges, or individual cupcakes unique in their crooked formations;
home-cooked food can’t be beaten. To help bring this to life, we worked in partnership with several
passionate food bloggers we follow and respect, Helen Graves from
www.helengraves.co.uk and Jeanne Horak at www.cooksister.com, who
devised the food recipes and cooked them on set so that we could photgraph them for the posters. Imperfectly delicious.
WHITE CHOCOLATE & RASPBERRY CUPCAKES recipe by Jeanne Horak
(As shown above).
Ingredients:
113g butter
75g white chocolate
150g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 cups self-raising flour
2/3 cup of water
24 fresh raspberries
Method:
Melt the butter in a double boiler. When half melted, add the white
chocolate and stir until both chocolate and butter are melted. Check
for lumps and remove from the heat. Add the sugar, then the eggs and
vanilla essence – mix well. Sift in the baking soda (to prevent lumps),
then add the flour and beat until mixture is smooth. Stir in the water,
a little at a time, mixing well between additions until all water has
been absorbed into the batter – it will be quite runny. Line a 12-cup
muffin tin with paper muffin cups. Pour about 2 Tablespoons of batter
into each cup. Place 2 fresh raspberries into each cup, then divide the
rest of the batter equally among the cups. Bake at 180 for 20 minutes
or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
ROAST CHICKEN AND BACON PIE WITH FENNEL recipe by Helen Graves.(As shown above.)
(Fills an 18-20cm pie dish)
Ingredients:
1 free-range chicken
25g Lurpak, softened
small handful of chopped parsley
1 lemon, sliced
2 bulbs fennel, tops, bottoms and core removed and finely sliced
1/2 large onion, sliced
4 rasher smoked bacon, diced
1 large leek, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Splash of white wine (optional)
A dollop of wholegrain mustard (optional)
Olive oil
350 – 400ml bechamel or white sauce (bought or home made)
For the pastry
100g Lurpak, at room temperature
220g plain flour (not strong white bread flour)
A large pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten
Method
– Preheat the oven to 190C and set a shelf in the middle.
– Take a roasting tray large enough to accommodate your chicken and
lay the lemon slices on the bottom and sit the chicken on top. Mix
roughly two thirds of the softened butter with all the parsley. Using
your fingers, make a pocket between the breast and skin of the chicken
by sliding your fingers gently underneath. Stuff the herbed butter into
these pockets and then spread the remaining butter over the outside of
the chicken. Season generously with salt and pepper. The chicken will
take anything from 30-90 minutes depending on size but keep checking on
it. The bird is ready when you can skewer it at the thickest part of
the leg and the juices that come out are clear.
– While the chicken is roasting, prepare the pastry by sieving the
flour and salt into a large bowl. Then cut the softened butter into
cubes and add it to the bowl. Using a knife, start cutting the butter
into the flour until it is fairly well mixed. You can now go in with
your hands and start rubbing the butter into the flour – do this as
lightly as possible. If you try to squidge the butter between your
fingers too much the pastry will become tough. When it resembles fine
crumbs, get some cold water (the colder the better) and add a
tablespoon at a time, cutting it in with the knife each time, until it
starts to come together. When it starts to form large lumps, go in with
your hands and bring it together into a ball. It should leave the bowl
clean. Rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
– Now prepare the vegetables. Heat a splash of olive oil in a pan and
add the bacon to it. Once the bacon is cooked add the leeks, fennel and
onion (plus the wine if using) and cook on a very low heat with the lid
on for around 15 minutes then add the garlic for a further five.
– When the chicken is ready, allow to rest and remove the meat.
– To assemble the pie divide the pastry into two portions – one
portion should be two thirds of the total amount and this will be the
base and sides of the pie. The remaining pastry will form the lid. Roll
out the base pastry into a circle shape on a lightly floured surface.
The shape will need to be larger than your dish as it needs to form the
sides of the pie also. Carefully lower this into the dish. Roll out the
lid and set aside.
– Mix the chicken, fennel mixture, mustard (if using) and bechamel
together. Take care when adding the bechamel. Add a little at a time to
get an idea of how much you will need. Season the mixture with salt and
pepper then fill the pie and top with the lid, taking care to make sure
the edges are sealed. Cut a cross in the top with a knife and brush
with the beaten egg.
– Bake for 20-30 minutes at 200C until golden brown.