1000 Ways to Love Your Total Greek Yoghurt – Part 1

Total Greek Yoghurt has a new campaign designed to inform readers about the 1000 new recipes and ways to use and love their yoghurt.  Based on this campaign they invited a group of food bloggers up to London for a day cooking recipes using Total Greek Yoghurt under the guidance of Chef Paul Merrett. We arrived at La Cucina Caldesi off Marlebone Lane,

When I arrived Paul Merrett came over and said hello right away (unlike some celeb chefs who pretty much keep to themselves!) and he was very warm and welcoming and gave us a quick run down of the session and off we wsent to settle in at out workstation.

Chef Paul Merrett gave us a quick idea of the agenda for the session

Finishing touches on the panna cotta

Greek Yoghurt and Vanilla Panna Cotta with Raspberries

We were split into groups and told that we would be cooking the lunch of three courses.  First of all we prepared and made the Semolina Sponge Cake with Almonds, Hazelnuts, Greek Yoghurt and Honey. We prepared the cake first because it would take about 1 hour to bake and we could get on with other preparations in the meantime.

Ready to go in the oven

All four groups baked their cakes together

A few minutes to cool then pour over the syrup

Ready to serve

Just checking the middle is cooked

Served with a drizzle of honey and a dollop of yoghurt

Serves 8

Ingredients:

For
the Sponge Cake

120g TOTAL
Classic Greek Yoghurt

250g
butter

190g
golden caster sugar

4 eggs

50g
self-raising flour

Zest of
1 orange and 1 lemon (keep separate)

100g
ground almonds

100g
ground hazelnuts

250g
semolina

2
tablespoons of poppy seeds (plus 1 tablespoon extra for the top of the cake)

For
the syrup

Juice
of 1 orange and 1 lemon

175ml
water

140g
golden caster sugar

50g
honey

1 tablespoon
orange blossom water

To
serve

A blob
of TOTAL Classic Greek Yoghurt

Honey

Method:

1.     
Pre heat the oven
to 175°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3.

2.     
Grease the baking
tin.

3.     
Beat the butter
and sugar until it is pale yellow and creamy.

4.     
Beat in the eggs
one at a time.

5.     
Now chuck in the
flour, zest, ground nuts, semolina, Greek yoghurt and poppy seeds.

6.     
Stir everything
up well and spoon in to your greased baking case.

7.     
Bake for about 1
hour but check after 45 minutes – the sponge will be golden brown and springy
when cooked.

8.     
Put the cooked
cake to one side to cool slightly and make the syrup.

9.     
To make the syrup
place all the ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil.

10.  Allow the syrup mixture to reduce by at least half.

11.  Using a fork dot holes across the surface of the cake
and then pour over the syrup, sprinkle with the extra poppy seeds.

12.  Serve with Greek yoghurt and a trickle of honey.

Next we proceeded to make the starter – but I will talk about that in part 2! See you there.