Creamy Black Pepper Sauce

A couple of years ago, I saw a serving suggestion on the back of a bag of fresh Tagliatellie  to serve it with a steak and black pepper sauce. Immediately, I wanted to try the meal, so I looked up about how to make a creamy peppercorn sauce to go with it. In the end I looked at several recipes and did my own thing based on the similarities. The result was yummy, and while initially the idea of making a creamy sauce from scratch seemed daunting, this method actually turned out to be quite simple.

This recipe is for a sauce to be used with red meat, and is perfect for going with a steak dinner. However this sauce is also gorgeous with a Haggis Stuffed Chicken Breast. If you want this sauce with a chicken meal, simply replace the Brandy with White Wine, and the Beef Stock with Chicken Stock. Doing this make a slightly lighter sauce that works better with chicken.

Ingredients: 50g Butter A Good Glug of Brandy 1 Beef Stock Pot/Stock Cube Ground Black Pepper Pinch of Salt Up to 500ml Water 5 Tbsp Creme Fraiche 2 Tsp Cornflour mixed with 2 Tsp Water 2 Tsp Fresh Peppercorns (Optional)

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium-high heat, then pour in the brandy and cook for a minute or two.
2. Add in the beef stock pot and stir until dissolved. Add in the water. If you want more than 500ml of sauce, then add in an extra stock pot.
3. Add in several generous pinches of ground black pepper and a pinch of salt. Add as much pepper to your own taste, if you want a good bite add in more, if you just want a hint of the flavour, add less. Simmer on the hob for a few minutes to infuse.
4. Add in the Creme Fraiche (again, if making more sauce, add in extra) and mix in with a whisk. Check the flavour and adjust the seasoning if desired.
5. Add a little of the cornflour mixture at a time to thicken the sauce, stirring consistently. If you run out of cornflour and want a thicker sauce, simply add in some more cornflour mixture, if it's too thick, then just add a little more water/
6. Finally, if using, add in the fresh peppercorns. I like to use a mixture of 1tsp of both green and pink peppercorns. If using, you need to use the fresh peppercorns (I use these ones from Waitrose) not the dried, as the fresh give a lovely light bite if you crunch on one - dried ones would probably break your teeth.

Wedding Favour Chocolates: The Trial Run

Two weeks ago, I did a trial run of the chosen chocolates for my friend's wedding in October. I then had my friends over for the day for a meal, and an all-important tasting of the chocolates to see what needs to be changed. Having done the trial run, I'm glad I did, because certain things worked, while others needed work. Here are the results.

Fudge: This was the simplest of the lot. Make a batch of the mixture, shove it in a tin or tray, let it set, then use a cutter to cut into hearts. Even decoration wise, this was simple. My initial plan had been to line the outside with chocolate, but having cut it out, and looking at it against the other sweets, it didn't really need the extra chocolate. In fact, it was better to NOT have the chocolate on there as not only does it give a different option flavour wise, but it provides a little break in the chocolate-fest that is this favours box. The main trial with this was not only to practice the recipe (which I haven't made in about 8 years), but also to decide on a flavour. This was the only sweet that had multiple flavour options: cherry, raspberry, and strawberry.

The flavouring side of things was interesting, as the cherry, while not unpleasant, tasted more like banana. Meanwhile, the raspberry was more like raspberry ripple ice cream. it was only the strawberry that tasted properly strawberry-ish. After tasting, the general consensus was to go for the raspberry flavour - especially since one of my friends had a rather... violent reaction to the strawberry (medicine flashback). Aside from the flavour there were two main things I learned from making the fudge. Firstly, I needed to add in more colouring than I thought I had to in order to get the desired colour. Secondly, and most importantly, I need to nsure that I boil the mixture long enough. While the texture of my first batch was perfect, my second and third ones, were a bit on the softer side and not quite right for fudge.

Final Verdict: The raspberry flavour won out, I just need to make sure that I boil the sugar etc for long enough.

Champagne Truffle Squares: This was supposedly to be the simplest of all the sweets I was making, yet it turned out to be the most problematic. The actual recipe was really easy to make, and I put it in the fridge to set with no problems. And it did set. However, the nature of the ganache and the mixture of dark chocolate with the softer milk chocolate made the ganache very quick to melt at the slightest touch. The flavour was exquisite, but because of its easy-melt tendency, it wasn't ideal for a wedding favour. Too long out of the fridge, and it would be far too soggy, and in a room that's likely to be warm due to the amount of people inside, it would be a chocolatey mess by the time anyone went to eat it. My first thought was to toss it in cocoa powder, which took off the initial melty quality, but didn't change that it would still go too soft.

I then attempted to roll the truffles into balls and coat them in hundreds and thousands, which got rid of the chocolate coated finger problem, but it was still too squidgy. The best solution in the end was to coat it in melted chocolate, however simply dipping it in and rolling around produced a rather... messy appearance. This particular batch doesn't really make the cut, but I've learnt from this. For the actual wedding, I will now be using a square mould to encase the ganache filling in dark chocolate to make it easier to eat.

Final Verdict: The most gorgeous flavour imaginable, but needs to be encased in dark chocolate from a logistical point of view.

Violet Creams: For me, this was fairly straightforward as it's an amalgamation of other things I've done in the past: Flavoured fondant filling, dark chocolate casings in the mould, and a painted on design in coloured white chocolate. My first step for this chocolate was to colour the white chocolate - though this time with pink food colouring rather than with freeze-dried fruit powder. Then, after attempting to use a piping bag to create the design, and finding that it wasn't controllable enough, I used a brush to pain a pink heart in the bottom of the mould. After letting that set, I then added in dark chocolate to line the mould - to get a decent thickness, I did two layers, allowing each to set before doing the next layer.

After that I then made up the fondant filling with icing sugar, double cream, and violet essence before topping off with more dark chocolate to seal it all in. The actual chocolate worked well. The flavouring produced an interesting effect. The initial hit of violet seemed quite strong, but after the second bite, the flavour seemed to disappear. The overall opinion was that the flavour was about right, but could do with a smidgen less of the flavour.

Final Verdict: Great look and taste, but a little less of the violet flavour would make it perfect.

Rainbow Ganache Truffles: This was my biggest experiment mainly because I had never attempted using powdered food colouring before. it turns out that using the sugarcraft powders was ridiculously easy and getting the colour right was just like mixing paint colours. The only thing I'd say colour wise is that i would put a bit more of the green colouring in next time, as I don't think that the green shows up too much. I had initially attempted to use a piping bag to pie the chocolate in as I figured it would save time, but it ended up being too difficult to control on such a small scale, so the trusty paintbrush prevailed. When I finally took these chocolates out of the mould, I was genuinely elated with the final effect - though a slightly thicker layer of chocolate around the side would be better.

As for the filling, the dark chocolate ganache worked perfectly with the white chocolate. The popping candy was rather nice, but I was a little on the conservative side when adding it. I only used a small pinch, but really it needed a LOT more to truly pop. Out of all the chocolates, this is visually the show-stopper, and I must admit, I am rather proud of it.

Final Verdict: More popping candy needed, and a little more green colouring required, but otherwise, YUM!

As you can see, the sweets were generally a success. Flavour wise, there was very little to fault, most of it is down to refining the details, getting things right, and working out the logistical side of ensuring that what does in the favour box will be able to cope with being in a relatively warm room for several hours without melting or turning into a gooey mess. After doing the trial, I'm even more excited, so all I can say is: Bring on October!