tapioca-free baking, an unexpected challenge

An unexpected challenge today. My step-daughter suddenly told me that she always gets stomach ache every time she visits.  What was in my bread and cakes?  Well, the bread she ate this morning had my usual flour, so that was urid, tapioca and corn, and also had sweet potato and yeast and baking powder.  All of these are things she eats routinely except the tapioca.  I include tapioca in baked goods as it contributes to a smooth slightly chewy texture, and also, when pre-gelatinised, give excellent pre-baking elasticity, allowing doughs to be rolled super thin, and makes things more flexible after cooking too, as shown in the write up up the wraps.

I was rather startled by this, as she normally tucks into all my baked goods with gusto, sleeps well, and goes away declaring she feels refreshed from her visit.  I wasn't to worry about it, she said, she could just eat the other stuff.  I looked up on the internet and immediately found a stream of information from people who said the same thing, stomach ache not long after eating tapioca.  This was in addition to the information on how poisonous tapioca is if not prepared correctly.

Immediately I set about testing tapioca free recipes. I had to work with whatever I had in the house on an early Sunday morning.  Here are the first two, a cracker, with three variations, and a chocolate chip cookie.

Tapioca free flour mix
100g urid
50g buckwheat
50 cornmeal


Recipes
Crackers
50g flour
1/2 tsp olive oil
20 ml water  (add a little more if dough too dry)

Mix and knead together until smooth.
Roll out on floured board.

Add anything you like for flavouring.  The large crackers are the plain mix, the small scalloped ones have pepper in, and the other small ones are the pepper mix plus sunflower seeds.

Roll thin, place on baking sheet and cook at 180C until just tinged with brown.  Place on baking rack to cool.

These are crisp and very good.

Chocolate chip cookies
100g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
30g butter (I used a spreadable butter mix as hadn't any proper butter)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
40 g sugar
35g chocolate chips

Whisk flour and baking powder together.  Rub in butter to flour, add sugar and egg and vanilla, stir or squidge with hands to get an even quite stiff mix, then add chocolate chips.  Cook at 180C for about ten minutes until tinged with brown.  If you want them crisper turn the oven down and bake for longer.

I used dark chocolate chips, and that makes a cookie that is not very sweet. If you want a sweeter cookie increase the sugar and add milder chocolate chips.

These are crisp, not chewy as they would have been with the tapioca, but really very pleasant.

I was concerned that the buckwheat might give too much flavour, as I am not generally a fan of buckwheat except where I do specifically want the dark, dominant taste.  I included it because it does give a soft flexible crepe, as used in Brittany.  In this mix it doesn't dominate the flavour.

gluten free chappattis / wraps

stack of gluten-free flatbreads

As easy flatbread that can can be served with curry or salad or used as a wrap.

I tried two recipes, on using tapioca gloop, the other using water to bind.  I did the one with the tapioca gloop after being disappointed with the way the flatbread cracked when being rolled.

For those of you who haven't tried tapioca gloop (I think others call it gel) it is a great product for giving flexibility to foods, and making doughs easy to roll.  Just take 10g of tapioca flour, mix it with 100ml cold water, and stir over heat until it goes clear.  Cool and use as the liquid in the recipe.


First recipe
Ingredients

• 50g buckwheat flour
• 100g gf flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca,20% cornmeal)
• 2 tbsp oil ( I used olive)
• 60 ml water
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt and sugar if wanted

Whisk flours, baking powder and flavorings together.

Stir in oil and water and mix until smooth and flexible.  Add extra water if needed so that when you press the dough the edges don't crack.  Leave to sit under a damp cloth for a few minutes.  As you take pieces to roll cover the rest of this dough with the damp cloth to stop drying out.

Take a golfball sized piece and roll thin, keeping pin and board well dusted with flour.  Cook on a medium griddle until just cooked - the main part of the flatbread will look whiter and bubbles will form, any hot spots will be gold to black depending on quite how hot your griddle is.

Turn over and cook second side.  If you have big bubbles holding the flatbread off the griddle you can press down with a cloth or paper towel.  When I was little and being taught how to make chapatis this is what we did to get the dough to form one giant bubble so that the bread could be opened when cooked.  You probably won't get quite this effect, but it is a technique for ensuring even cooking.

If you like a rustic charred effect you can put the flatbread on an open flame when ready - this used to make our chapatis expand like balloons.

Recipe 2

Having been disappointed by the flexibility I made the recipe again using the same ingredients but tapioca gloop and reducing the water.

Ingredients
50g buckwheat
100g flour (40%urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
tapioca gloop made with 10g tapioca flour and 100ml water
pinch salt and sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp oil
extra water to make smooth dough.  I needed another 30ml

Knead until smooth, by hand or with machine.  Cover as before with damp cloth.  Roll and cook as before on medium griddle.

During the cooking stages these two flatbreads behave pretty much the same.  The difference shows if you handle them the way you would if filling.  Here are photos of both types of flatbreads rolled and unrolled twice for comparison.  Unless you are intending to eat these flatbreads immediately you make them and don't much care how they handle, it is worth the extra few minutes making the tapioca gloop/gel.

flatbreads 1(top) and 2 - rolled

flatbreads unrolled , 1 on right

flatbreads re-rolled, 1 on right

flatbreads opened out, 1 on right

flourless peanut butter cookies

peanut butter gf cookies

I got an urgent plea this morning from my sister.  Could I tell her how to make gluten-free peanut butter cookies as she was dreaming of them.  She needed a recipe without any complicated flours, as all she had was cornflour (not cornmeal) and rice flour.  I remembered a blog by glutenfreegirl, so posted a link immediately.  I then set out to try these myself.

The recipe is very simple, calling for 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of peanut butter (smooth), 1 egg and 1 tsp of baking powder.  Those of us who are used to weighing ingredients might wonder what a cup meant, so I measured.

1 cup of the sugar I used (golden caster sugar) is 200g
1 cup of peanut butter ( I used crunchy) is 230g.  The jar I have is 454g, so just scoop half the jar full into your bowl and save mess.  I can't see that the precise amount will make any difference to the outcome, and a bit less washing up is always welcome.  If you use the kind of peanut butter that already has sugar added you may want to cut down the sugar.

Stir all the ingredients together and roll into little balls.  Roll these in sugar and place on a lined baking sheet.  I tried one tray where I left the balls round and another where I pressed the cookies lightly with my fingers to flatten.  The end results are the same.  Leave as balls if you want, but if you like pressing them, feel free to do so. (The next time I made them I just just dolloped the mix onto the baking tray with two teaspoons - less messy to do and gives a freeform biscuit that is attractive).

Cook at 180C for ten minutes.  Take the trays out and leave to set for five minutes before you move onto the cooling rack.

When cold, enjoy.  I coated some of these in a bit of melted chocolate for an extra bit of decadence.

The texture of these is very good, crisp and slightly chewy.  They are slightly too sweet for my taste, but with bitter chocolate they work very well.

swirled chocolate on bottom of cookie

These are so good I don't think I'd bother trying any other recipe - they take about a minute to mix, ten to cook, and ready to eat, still warm but getting crisp, five minutes later.  With the chocolate - a minute in the freezer sets the one you can't wait to eat.

samosa - gluten free and vegan

samosa - gluten-free and vegan

More for the deep fryer collection.  Samosas are a popular snack food, and very versatile as you can fill with any flavour filling ( I found myself wondering what banana and chocolate would be like).

I started by using pastry based on the recipe at http://www.samosa-recipe.com/Samosa_Pastry.html.  I didn't use their filling, as it needed cooking, so based mine on a recipe from http://www.indianfoodforever.com/snacks/samosa.html, just making it easier given what I had in the fridge and pantry.

dough

• 225 flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
• 130ml warm water (approx - add enough to get good dough)
• 2tbsp veg oil
• salt if wanted

Mix salt with flour if using, make well in flour and put in oil and enough water to make a pliable dough.  Wrap and leave for half an hour for flour to absorb liquid.

samosa dough

filling

• potato cooked and mashed - I microwaved four smallish potatoes, slipped the skins off and chopped coarsely
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 inch of ginger, finely chopped
• chilli to taste.  I used a little green chilli
• garam massala 1 tsp
• 2 tsp korma or other curry paste, or your own spice mix.  I like Patak's.
• 1/2 tsp oil

If you mix all of these together while the peas are frozen you can stir quite hard, the potato mashes nicely, and the peas stay whole.

The filling is ready to eat as it is and only the pastry needs cooking.

This amount of filling only just did all the samosas.  Make more than you think you want, adjust the seasoning until you find it hard to resist (which is why I ran out, I think) then leave to cool.

Technique

Deep fryer set at 170C

Cut the dough into pieces - this amount will make 24 smallish samosas.  You won't be able to roll the pastry quite as thin as a wheat pastry, but it works pretty well.  Flour the board and your rolling pin well as you work and keep moving the pastry so it doesn't stick.  If you do find it sticks just squish it back together with a little extra water and put it back with the others for a moment.  Also, if you find the dough has dried out just do the same.  It seems quite forgiving, and the pastry that I re-squished several times seems to have worked the same as pieces that rolled perfectly first time.

Roll each portion into a circle and cut in half.

Working carefully, as the dough is fragile, brush a little water along the cut edge and roll into a cone, supporting with the thumb and forefinger of one hand. I just dipped a finger in water for this but you can use a small pastry brush.

Fill carefully - not right to the top.

You need enough pastry left over to be able to fold one side down, brush with water, then fold the other side so that it sticks.  If you get holes stick a scrap of pastry on with water.

Put on a floured tray or plate until you are ready to cook.  Place a few samosas in the fat at a time, shaking gently now and then.  As with all fried food don't overcrowd the fat.  Remove when they are a light golden brown all over.

frying at 170C

Drain on a cooling rack.

 I'll see how they respond to freezing and thawing later.  TT says they taste and feel pretty much like any other samosa he has had.

sorry about odd bits of formatting - Blogger is behaving strangely at the moment




Update;  tasted good and held together well after freezing.  Heated some in the oven until crisp, others were eaten cold after they had defrosted.  Both were good.  Definitely a good recipe to make for standby snacks from the freezer.

Gluten-free Battered Fish and onion rings

There are a few fish and chip shops around that do gluten free food, but often it is only for two hours when they first change their fat once a month or some such.  As the oil contains gluten from the batter it isn't safe to eat just the chips either. We did find a fish and chip shop in Newquay a couple of years ago that has a dedicated fryer and a big sign in the window - we had been looking for Fifteen, Jamie Oliver's place, couldn't find it, so stopped at this place instead of going home without food.  I couldn't spot it in a quick google search, so if anyone has a link to this pioneering fish and chip shop please let me know.

While I had the fryer full of fat it seemed sensible to try a battered fish.  It was remarkably simple  and as good as anything you would get from most chippies, according to TT who still buys these, particularly after a hard days manual labouring and on motorway service stations.  It is very unusual to get food poisoning for deep fried foods, so if in doubt at food places that is what to go for.

I read several fried fish recipes, and a review of different batter ingredients (very interesting - rates different wheat flours and buckwheat)

Heat your oil in the fryer to 170C

Battered fish

http://www.fishbatter.co.uk/

·      Fish

·      75g flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)

·      1 tsp baking power

·      100 ml soda water
A tsp sugar or pinch turmeric can be added if you want a deeper coloured batter.

In a large bowl, whisk or sieve dry ingredients, stir in soda water (take care – froths).  It will be a thick gloopy batter.  Leave to sit for a few minutes for the flours to absorb the liquid.

Flour fish.  This is Vietnamese River Cobbler.

Dip fish in batter and fry until golden and fish cooked  (about six minutes at 170C)

If you like a thicker batter there are two things you can do.  Add more flour to the initial batter, or drizzle extra batter onto the fish while it is cooking. If you get a bare patch add some fresh batter and carry on cooking.

I bought the Coop own brand of soda water - it was only abut 50p.

Slip a few onion rings in the leftover batter and add to the fryer –instant succulent crispy onion rings.

Sweet potato doughnuts - gluten free

sweet potato doughnut

While I was looking up doughnuts I came across several recipes where sweet potato was a major ingredients.  I tried two types this one where the sweet potato is the main ingredient and the flour acts as a binder, and another one where the flour is the main ingredient.  I was surprised by how light and fluffy they were, and would consider using them again - even perhaps as an accompaniment to a savoury course.

Sources:

seasaltwithfood.com

http://www.keeplearningkeepsmiling.com/2009/11/10/sweet-potato-donuts/

Heat oil to 140C

Ingredients

·      Plain sweet potato doughnuts

·      200 sweet potato

·      60g flour

·      ½ tsp bp

Method

Cook sweet potatoes, peel and mash.   I just washed and microwaved these, then the peel comes off easily while they are warm.    

Mix flour and baking powder together

Mix sweet potato with flour

Shape into rings or other shapes

Fry until golden

The interior will be wetter than ordinary doughnuts due to high proportion of sweet potato.

These taste a lot like sweet potato. They might make an amusing accompaniment to a main meal or be a way of having a sweet fried treat if you can't eat processed sugar / need lower GI diet.

If you want these to be sweeter, glaze or ice, or dip into a sweet sauce.

Southern-style deep fried chicken - gluten free

Deep fried chicken -  based on southern-style deep fried chicken recipe by Nigella Lawson

If you can't / don't eat egg, use tapioca gel as a way of getting the coating to stick.  Make this by taking 10g tapioca flour, 100ml water, stir together while cold, then heat stirring constantly.  I find this an effective way of getting things to stick - coatings, seeds on bread etc.

Poach chicken pieces in stock until cooked.  This means that when you fry them you are only cooking the coating, so you can do it fast and hot, and you don’t have to worry about the safety of the chicken.  You can do this the day before and refrigerate until needed.

poach chicken until cooked

Pat dry.  I left the skin on as that is what the recipe suggested but I would remove this next time.

poached chicken

Heat fryer to 170 degrees C

For two chicken legs (four pieces):

1 egg,  mix and place on shallow plate

75g flour  (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)

seasoning for the flour – pick your favourites, and put in quite a lot as this thin coating will be the main flavour hit for the whole chicken piece.  I use garlic powder, chilli and paprika.

Place flour mix in a bag.  Put the chicken pieces in one at a time and shake to coat.  Dip in egg until coated, then put back in the flour and shake. Slightly messy activity but very easy.

coat with egg and flour

Place in hot fat and cook for a couple of minutes until crisp and golden.   Dip in slowly so that the coating starts to cook before you let the chicken fall into the fat. If you hold each piece with tongs you can do this safely. This will stop your batter sticking to the wire basket. Drain on a wire rack.

crisp fried chicken

I froze some and reheated.  They were fine so make a big batch while you have the fryer set up. 

TT says they are crisper than the bought fried chicken.  Having been poached, the chicken is succulent and thoroughly cooked.  Vary the broth and the flour seasoning to suit your taste.

Nigella Lawson, whose recipe I based this on, poaches the chicken in milk.  I used stock to avoid the lactose and milk proteins.

Doughnuts - gluten free

fluffy inside, gluten-free doughnuts

More on the adventures with a deep fat fryer.  I kept getting emails saying it was international doughnut week or some such daft thing.  So, I made four types of doughnuts in one day.  Flour is my standard mix of urid lentil (40%), tapioica (40%) and fine cornmeal (20%)

While I was looking at a lot of doughnut recipes I came across some that used baking powder (referred to as ‘cake’ doughnuts by some), and those using yeast.  I also came across some that used both.  This seemed a strange idea, as I tend to think of baking powder releasing its leavening effect as soon as it gets wet.  If you read the excellent Alton Brown, who provides good information in a simple way about basic cooking chemistry, baking powder now has a two stage process where it reacts when wet but also when heated, so you get lift in the oven or hot fat even if you have a gap between mixing and cooking. 

I tried two doughnut recipes using baking powder, both with sweet potato, then one with yeast.  I then took a yeasted recipe, and made it first with yeast by itself and then with added baking powder. To my surprise, in a blind testing, it was very obvious which doughnuts had the baking powder.  They were softer, more squeezable, and had a better mouth feel. You can see a more open texture.

on left - yeast only, right, yeast and baking powder

If you can’t use yeast, it is still worth making doughnuts with baking powder, but they seem to stale a bit quicker.  If you can’t eat baking powder, make yeast doughnuts.  If you can, use both together. 

I will be using this as my standard recipe.  I will try substituting vegetable oil for the butter, and leaving out the yogurt, so as to reduce the lactose, but I don’t expect it will make much difference as the amount is so tiny.  The yogurt adds acidity, which, according to Alton Brown, gives a higher temperature at which the batter sets. A squeeze of lemon would do this too.  He was discussing variations on cookies, so I don’t know if this will make a difference in the deep fryer.

Doughnuts – yeast

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5268/cinnamon-doughnuts

1 egg yolk

1 tsp yeast

100ml water

30g caster sugar

120 flour

1 tsp yogurt

8g butter, melted and cooled

Doughnuts – yeast and baking powder

1 egg yolk

1 tsp yeast

1/2 tsp baking powder

100ml water

30g caster sugar

120 flour

1 tsp yogurt

8g butter, melted and cooled

*remember to use water that isn't too chlorinated - filtered or water left out to sit for a while is fine if you are in a high chlorine area.


Set fryer to 140C about ten minutes (I timed my machine, it got to 180C in six minutes)  before your doughnuts have finished their second rise.

Method
Dry ingredients
If you have yeast that goes straight into flour, whisk this into the flour with the baking powder
If your yeast needs starting in warm water, mix the yeast, half a teaspoon of the sugar and a little flour into warm (no more that 38C) water and leave to start frothing.

Wet ingredients
Mix water, egg, yogurt, melted butter and sugar together.

Mix wet and dry ingredients together.  It will be wetter than you would expect for a traditional yeast dough.  If you touch it lightly you should get a little dough sticking to your fingers.  It will get dryer as it sits as the flour absorbs moisture slowly.

Leave to rise.  If possible put in a warm moist environment.  I usually rise doughs in the oven with the light on and put a bowl of boiling water in the bottom at the start.  You will see the dough rise, but if you can't remember how big it was to start with, scoop a little out and you will see lots of bubbles in the batter.

bubbles visible in risen dough

Take small handfuls of the dough and shape into a ring by pushing your thumb through the middle.  This saves you trying to roll and cut the dough, or having to pinch ends together if you start by making a sausage and joining.  I use the same technique as when I make bagels.  With gentle handling this soft dough is quite easy to work.

Place on a floured tray and let it rise for a while, until you can see that they have grown in size.  Place in hot fat until browned, turn over and cook second side.  Shake the basket gently when you first put them in to make sure they don't stick to the basket. Drain on a cooling rack.  Roll in sugar while warm, or ice when cold.

frying doughnuts

yeast only (left) yeast and BP (right)

 TT, who occasionally buys doughnuts at train stations said these were better than the ones available from these chains.  I suspect if you served them to people they would just be amazed that you had made doughnuts and not even think that they were made from unusual and gluten free flours.

I didn't have a proper attempt at filling them with jam - I think a syringe would be helpful for this, making the dough easier to handle.  However, I also have a plan to try freezing neat blobs of jam which could then be pushed easily into the dough, thawing as the doughnut cooked. If I get around to that I'll let you know the results.

iced doughnut

Deep fried mushrooms

deep-fried chestnut mushrooms

While I had oil hot in the new fryer I did a few extra foods. One of these was deep fried mushrooms.  I was amazed at how tender and succulent they were, and how non-greasy.


Put the deep fat fryer on at about 175C.  Make sure it gets up to temperature, then I recommend agitating the basket and making sure it comes up to temperature again.  This avoids variations in the oil and reduces the risk of the mushrooms lowering the temperature too much.

When I first started frying I lifted the basket out of the oil, placed the food on the basket and then lowered it slowly.  I did this to reduce the risk of the fat frothing.  However, this technique means that the food sticks to the basket.  If you can manage to lower the food slowly into the oil so that it begins to cook before you let go then you don't get it sticking to the basket.  If the pieces of food are small, as in the mushrooms, you can lower them in a slotted spoon and swirl it as it goes down.

I based it on this battered mushroom recipe

Battered mushrooms

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/deep-fried-mushrooms/Detail.aspx

·      100g - 150g flour

·      150 water

·      1 egg

·      1 tsp garlic salt

·      mushrooms

Whisk dry ingredients, whisk in egg and water, cover mushrooms with batter and deep fry for about three minutes – until the batter is crisp.  If you want it to be a more golden colour quicker put a little sugar in the batter.  Gluten-free flours don't brown in quite the same way as wheat.

I simply substituted my flour (urid 40%, tapioca 40% and cornmeal 20%) and added some chili powder and paprika for a bit of extra zip.  Make the batter thick enough that it doesn't all drip off the mushrooms.  By adjusting how thick the batter is you can get mushrooms with a thin crisp skin or a thick bubbly coating.  I did a variety of thicknesses and decided I liked the ones where the batter was quite thick.

Drain on a rack or paper as wanted.  If you have the fat at the right temperature you should find that very little oil comes off the food.

very little fat left on paper

crisp, succulent and lightly golden

Mini Cherry Tarts and left-over pastry.

Two weeks ago I made pies and tarts for a gathering of my friends.  One portion of pastry has sat at the back of the fridge since then, forgotten.  I wondered what the pastry would be like so long after having made it.

I made  lots of mini cherry tarts, just pressing a pastry circle into a mini-muffin tin and filling with cooked morello cherries. Ten minutes at 180C and jewel bright little tarts popped out crisp and golden.

I think a week is a more reasonable time to keep this gluten free pastry (one part butter to two parts flour, flour 40% urid lentil, 40% tapioca and 20% cornmeal).  I had to wait for it to warm up, as this pastry is too stiff to roll when chilled.  It is worth knowing that this pastry keeps well in the uncooked state, which makes it possible to make in advance for a busy time.

Caramalised apple and pear upside-down cake

 It is about the time of year I normally empty, defrost and clean my large chest freezer in the barn.  Now is the time that the stored harvest from last year is at its lowest, so the freezer maintenance is easiest.

The rhubarb is in season and the cherries are busy swelling on the trees, and the apples and pears had a mad blossoming session when the weather got unusually hot in mid-April (just hope the bees and bugs were ready).  We even have some peaches - but we have only ever had one go to delicious ripeness, so that is a wait and see.  I doubt we will get figs this year as the last two extra cold winters have made them start sprouting low down on the trees as all the tips are damaged, despite wrapping in lots of layers of horticultural fleece.

So, the last of the stored poached pears and an unwanted small apple, and a moment's peace.  Time to rustle up a quick fruit cake with a bitter caramel top, zingy soft fruit and light vanilla base.

I have a tarte tatin tin so I use that, but any heavy pan that can take direct heat and go in the oven will do.  Sprinkle sugar to cover the base of the tin and heat until it caramelises.  I didn't weigh this, just put an even layer over the base of the tin.  Heat without stirring.  If it is getting too brown before all the sugar has melted turn the heat off and let all the sugar go to whatever grade of caramel you like.  I like quite a burnt flavour, so my caramel is a dark brown.

sugar caramelising

ready for apples

Get a pan of cold water with ice cubes handy for the next job.  You probably won't burn yourself, but any activity with melted sugar needs extra care, and after once having dipped my finger tip into caramel when laying fruit I now get the remedy available first.  I never regret throwing the cold water away unused!  Caramel sticks to you finger, giving off heat.

Lay your sliced fruit in whatever pattern you like.  Leave this to sit while you get the cake batter going.  This allows time for the fruit and caramel to set slightly so that when you tip the batter in you are less likely to have boiling, slopping or other unwelcome activity.

apples on caramel

Set oven to 175C

Cake batter.
I made a simple cake batter with
50g butter
75g sugar
3 eggs
150g of my gf flour mix (20&cornmeal, 40%urid, 40%tapioca)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
50ml water

Substitute your own favorite fat (soft spread type is easiest) and flour.


Cream fat and sugar together, add eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla and beat until smooth.  Add water or other liquid to make a soft dropping consistency.  Dollop over fruit and caramel mix.  Bake for about 35 minutes until cooked.

tarte cooked

Take the cake out and, with extreme care and preferably those oven gloves that are joined with continuous padding between the hands, tip the cake out onto a large plate.  Don't get the caramel on your skin.

I decided to see what would happen if I left the tin for a few minutes.  The cake came out fine but quite a lot of caramel had set on the tin.  This seemed a waste, so I reheated it on the stove and scraped it out onto the cake.  This made a messy finish and of course the caramel set too hard to eat easily with the cake so I scooped it off again.  Put it onto a greased plate and eat as candy if you want to retrieve this.

If you leave the cake to cool you won't be able to get it out of the tin.  Place the whole thing back onto heat for a couple of minutes until the outer layer of caramel has remelted then tip onto a plate.

This is really a very simple cake.  I have made it sound more scary by doing the don't-burn-yourself bit.  Once you are used to the process and techniques you will find you rustle up one of these delicious and quit spectacular looking deserts with very little effort.