Getting Fruity with Hugh

The pain of last night’s lack of sleep is still too raw (a long, dull story involving new smoke alarms that are ‘charging’. Loudly). However I did at least have Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall and his Date and Orange Cake recipe from last Saturday’s Guardian to keep me company at 4am this morning, that and my lovely new Microplane zester.

Look at it, isn’t it lovely?

The perfect Christmas gift from my brother and family it made short work of zesting the three oranges that go into this moist cake. The recipe was part of a section in the Guardian last weekend about Christmas left overs. Now, I always have dates and oranges in the house for baking purposes but I did actually have a pack of medjool dates still  in their little paper cases, bought for a Christmas treat that didn’t get eaten.

As one of the commenters on the link above noted, and as I’ve found before with Hugh’s recipes, the butter pooled out of the bottom of the tin. Luckily I had placed the tin on a baking tray so it was caught and I didn’t have to spend time scrubbing away at burnt fat on the base of the oven (that would not have improved my day). I would try reducing the butter, to 250g perhaps, but I also wonder if it’s the nuts in the cake that makes it less absorbent especially as these were pulsed from whole blanched almonds so were coarser than pre-ground almonds - of course that’s still reason to reduce the butter should you wish.

I kept the pieces of dates fairly large as they were deliciously moist but have to confess I had only the smallest of tastes of the finished cake from one small section that had stuck to the base where the parchment had come loose. I took the finished cake into work, let it be known it was in the kitchen, and in no time it was gone.

I was fairly sure, in that post-Christmas time of abstinence a rich cake such as this would’ve been nibbled in thin slivers or shunned entirely leaving me time to taste, but it went before I could cut a slice. It went  down well though. Perhaps if you make it you could let me know what you think?

Uplanned

I started this post without a cake, cookie or muffin, lacking even a recipe or a workable kitchen in which to bake. I felt bereft.

A while ago I had the thought that it would be a good idea to get a loft conversion in my house. I’ve been in my little home for ten years and have accumulated a fair amount of ‘stuff’. My house is small and mostly perfectly formed; however the one thing that Edwardian architects of inner-city worker’s cottages did not plan for was storage space. How could they have possibly envisaged the boxes of Christmas decorations that need to be contained for 11 months of the year? Or have had any idea about the crate of camping equipment that has been packed away for, ooh about 36 months at last count; or the box of frog ornaments of my mother’s that I can’t bear to part with, nor have on display that needs a home out of the way somewhere. What about the roll of carpet remanet that must surely be useful for something, someday and the large DIY box filled with left over flat pack screws and allen keys, lightbulbs for fittings no longer installed? Not to mention the boxes and boxes of cables and leads from electrical items no longer owned? Well, you can’t just throw them away can you? I need a cable amnesty.

I imagine the families of the men who built the railways at the turn of the last century didn’t really need much of the above, so the-cupboard-under-the-stairs sufficed as the sum total of available storage. Of course having a loft to convert means I could have used that space – a cheaper and cleaner option no doubt. However I am not a fan of either ladders or dark spidery, wasp-nest-infested (as it turns out) places so anything consigned to that space would not be retrieved by me.

Plus I needed new carpets. Seriously, this was the deciding factor. Ridiculous. No point forking out for new carpeting if, at some point in even the mid-distant future there’s work planned in the house. So Project Loft was born. I won’t bore you with the details, nor inflict revisiting them on myself but it’s been a trial, one that’s not over yet, although the end is in sight. My poor home has been battered and bruised, my cat is seriously disturbed by the noise and new location and direction of the stairs (he’s not the brightest by a long shot, but watching him struggle, for over a week, with the new layout was priceless. There’s a door on the bottom of them now so he can’t see them, so they don’t exist. I wish I were a cat). I’ve been a little stressed.

The chaos in the house has led to chaos in my mind. The dust and dirt are necessary and despite what people who know me might think, I can cope with that. What I can’t cope with is that by extension I am unable to do any of the things that I find enjoyable and relaxing because of the dirt and the mess. I enjoy cleaning and pottering, I love to know there’s clean white linen on the beds and fresh towels in the bathroom. I relish the morning sun through clean windows and my naturally forgetful and chaotic nature is reassured by an ‘everything in it’s place…’ home. I know that none of these things are important in the grand scheme of things but they are points in my day and week that I enjoy.

But more than anything else I love to bake, and I haven’t been able to. In the past few weeks I have barely been able to get into my kitchen so full was it with the contents of the rest of the ground floor. Worst of all, Christmas was approaching and I couldn’t see a point at which I might be able to put up those decorations and fill my home with light and shiny things. My keys went missing on a daily basis and every evening I came home aghast at the rock-like crust on my kitchen work top caused by repeated spillages of sugar from the spoon on its way to the tea cups combined with a multitude of drips from t-bags en route to the bin.

However, there was a brief respite in the week before Christmas; flooring went down, walls were painted white, I cleaned like a daemon and with builders away for the festive period that which I dusted  and wiped remained smear free. The tree went up as did my lights old and new and sparkly things were dotted around. My Christmas cakes, were wrapped and given out and I even found time for a last-minute bake-fest for extra goodies to hand out.

So, the house was in as much order as was possible prior to all the work being completed (no date as yet, but the end is in sight), decorations were up, Christmas presents wrapped and ready to go and an early shift at work meant I had an an afternoon to myself – what else to do other than bake? I’d made another of the moorish Caramel Fruit Cakes from Dan Lepard to take into work but wanted to make something chocolatey and something a bit different. I’ve had the ‘Baked’ book for sometime and despite regularly reading rave reviews I’ve not managed to bake anything from it yet. There’s something about the recipes in the book that I find daunting, a lot of them seem time consuming with many steps, but their Brownie recipe is mentioned so much as the best out there that I had to give it a try. There was a tub of sour cream to be used also and the Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe seemed like a good one to bake to offer to colleagues not tempted by fruit or chocolate. As it turned out I took an extra day off work so neighbours, friends and family were the recipients of these treats rather than colleagues, however I will not only be making the brownies again soon (and this will have to become my go-to recipe, they really are divine) but I will sit down and choose further recipes to bake from this book.

Coffee Cake – not actually a cake containing or tasting of coffee but usually a cake to be taken with coffee often with a streusel or crumb topping, this is one of those.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate,  Cinnamon Swirl

Baked – New Frontiers in Baking

Crumb Topping

100g plain flour

130g dark brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt (use Maldon or similar)

75g toasted walnuts

84g cold unsalted butter cut into 1″ cubes

Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl

112g caster sugar

1tsp cocoa

1 tsp cinnamon

Sour Cream Cake

525g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp bicarb

1/2 tsp salt

225g unsalted butter, soft but cool cut into 1″ pieces

4 large eggs

500g caster sugar

160z / 545g sour cream (I only had 300g so made the rest up with buttermilk)

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C butter and line a 9×13″ pan (although the cake won’t stick, if you line the tin with parchment and ensure an overhang then you can ‘lift’ the finished cake from the pan rather than turning it out and you won’t disturb the crumb topping).

To make the crumb topping pulse the flour, sugar and salt for 5 seconds in a processor, add the toasted nuts and pulse again until finely chopped. finally add the butter cubes and pulse again until a sand like texture is achieved. cover and place in the fridge.

To make the swirl, combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt into a large bowl.

Cream the butter until ‘smooth and ribbon like’ . Scrape the sides, add the sugar and beat again until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides as necessary

Add sour cream and vanilla beating until incorporated then add the sifted dry ingredients in three stages – do not over mix.

Spoon 1/3 of the batter into the prepared pan and spread evening with an offset spatula. sprinkle half the swirl mixture over the batter, cover with half the remaining batter spreading evenly once again then repeat with the remaining swirl mixture and final lot of batter.

sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over the top.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 60 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean. Rotate the pan three times during baking.

Cool for 30 mins in the pan before lifting out and allowing to cool completely before slicing.

The brownie recipe, below, really is one to try. It’s nothing short of stunning and so quick an easy. It’s not exactly light on the chocolate, or butter, or sugar, but then a brownie shouldn’t be. I made the mistake of cutting the brownies into portions before it was completely cooled. Unfortunately this meant that a fair few pieces crumbled, and those crumbles had to be mopped up by me. Bloody lovely. Make these. Eat them, share them, hide them wrap them and keep them, freeze them if you must but make them soon.

The Baked Brownie

188g plain flour

1 tsp salt

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

310g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (60 – 72%)

225g unsalted butter cut into 1″ pieces

1 1/2 tsp instant coffee (the original recipe states 1 tsp instant espresso powder, if you can get it)

338g granulated sugar

88g light brown sugar

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven 180C, butter and line 9×13″ tin

Whisk or sift together the flour, salt and cocoa

In a bain marie melt the chocolate, butter and coffee until completely smooth.

Turn off the heat but leave over the pan of water and add the sugars, whisk until combined and then remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Add three eggs and whisk then the remaining two eggs and whisk. Add the vanilla and stir, do not over beat or the brownies will be cakey rather than fudgy.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the batter and fold in with a spatula until just traces of the flour remains visible.

Pour into the pan and smooth, bake for 25 – 30 mins (25 in my oven) turning the pan after 15 mins. When done a toothpick inserted into the centre should still be coated with a few crumbs – you don’t want these over cooked.

Leave to cool completely before cutting into 24 squares.

Apparently these will keep, well wrapped, for three days. Do let me know if you achieve this!

Brand New Spatula at (pre) Dawn

Winter means that even a modestly early morning in the kitchen is spent facing darkened windows, although this last Saturday the freezing cold snap (might have to revise the use of the term snap as that implies brevity) meant that there was at least the sparkle of ice and snow in the pitch black of my garden at 5am. I was glad to wake early as I had a morning free from builders, a recipe and a brand new spatula (gifted to me on my birthday) to try out.

I really enjoy Dan Lepard’s ‘How to Bake’ series in the Saturday Guardian, it’s one of the first pages I turn to frequently one to cut out and add to the stack slipped into various notebooks and recipe books. I always hope for a cake rather than a bread or pudding recipe and the previous week I was rewarded with a festive fruit cake recipe that was immediately pinned up in the kitchen as ‘one to make soon’ rather than tucked away.

I made my Christmas cakes, in mini loaf form, some time ago to the same Mary Berry recipe as last year and have been tending to them ever since, feeding with Brandy and trying to resist picking at their fruit and nut studded tops,

So I really don’t need another fruit cake in my kitchen –  what a ridiculous statement!

I originally baked this as a gift to take to a family gathering that I’m going to this weekend, and once cooled I double wrapped it ready to be stored for the week. But I just couldn’t resist. The thought of the figs, prunes and walnuts contained in the caramel cake was just a little too much. Plus, I had to cut into it to get a photo so I could properly blog about it didn’t I? Then, of course, the tasting is all important to ensure the feedback I leave here is accurate. I’m not sure at what point photographing and tasting became munching, but my god, this is a tasty cake. So I had to bake two more on Sunday morning. Cake number one has been distributed and devoured by a couple of people, cakes two and three are wrapped and ready to be transported and cakes four and  five are in the planning! This will definitely be my stand by fruit cake from now on.

This has no booze in it (although you could feed afterwards) and no pre-soaking of the fruit so there’s not a huge amount of preparation. In fact with the figs being taken care of with kitchen shears rather than chopping (handy tip that) the prep was quick, especially as the cherries are left whole (although I did give them a rinse) and the walnuts remain in their halves. What you end up with is a cake rich with delicious fruit with wonderful texture from the nuts and whole cherries – I’d even go as far as to say that the addition of alcohol might detract from the soft, warm richness from the caramel.

Dan adds that the cake is ready to ice and decorate ‘as you please’ but I think the only things needed alongside a slice of this is a mug of tea, a slice of sharp cheddar and perhaps an open fire and to enjoy it by. Should you happen to have all, some, or none of the above to hand, the recipe on the Guardian’s site is definitely one to bookmark

Crammed with Cranberries

For my birthday, which fell on the American holiday of Thanksgiving, I decided to honour the theme and the season with two cranberry laden cakes to take into work. As a great deal of my baking inspiration comes from the blogs I read, most of which are American, there was no shortage of potential recipes to be found in the weeks leading up to the 25th. I always have frozen and dried cranberries in the house but bought two bags of fresh that have appeared in the shops recently to use in the recipes below. I would imagine frozen would work just as well with b recipes, you might just need to extend the baking time by a couple of minutes and give them a quick toss in flour to help with the additional moisture.

I had to bake a bundt as they’re my favourite type of cake and I’m glad did as on the morning of my birthday I received my ‘I Like Big Bundts’ badge from Mary the Food Librarian  which I earned by baking on National Bundt Day on the 15th of this month you can see the round up of all those bundts baked in honour of the day, including mine, over at her site. Thank you Mary for taking the time to post one of these all the way over to the UK, I actually squealed with delight when I opened the envelope, along with my birthday cards, on the morning of the 25th.

Both recipes are courtesy of Joy the Baker, chosen for their main ingredient of cranberries, and also because I thought the two together offered a nice contrast of flavours and choice for my colleagues; the richness of a cake laden with fruit, spices and bourbon offset by the zing of lime zest in a light muffin. The original muffin recipe states whole milk, but I had buttermilk to be used. I worried initially that it might be a little too sharp a flavour on top of the cranberries and  lime zest, which is why I kept in the sugar topping, a step I often leave out. I really don’t think it was too sharp, these muffins were light and tasty and possibly my favourite thing for a long time. However,I have a confession, I didn’t manage to brown my butter. It’s not something I’ve done before and it just didn’t seem to be happening.  I’ve no idea how long it actually takes to brown butter but I seemed to be standing over the pan for ages. I had my iPhone and googled hints and tips but my impatience won out and I just used un-browned melted butter. On a positive note, this means I will have to make them again once I’ve established what I was doing wrong.

For the bundt, the apples and bourbon go together nicely, but I think I would perhaps try using a brandy next time, I even have some orange flavoured rum that I need to experiment with. I just used apples I had in the fruit bowl which were British coxes

Browned Butter, Cranberry and Lime Muffins

Joy the Baker

for 12 Muffins:

100g melted butter

1/3 cup of buttermilk or whole milk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Grated zest of a lime

225g plain flour

140g caster sugar

3.4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups / 162g fresh or frozen cranberries

40g muscavado sugar for topping

Pre-heat your oven to 180C and line a muffin tin with cases.

Brown the butter by melting over a low heat until brown bits appear, once the cracking has subsided it will brown quickly so remove from the heat (or just stand stirring for a while then remove melted, un-browned butter from the heat)

Whisk together the milk or buttermilk, whole egg and additional yolk, vanilla and lime zest in a large jug. Add the browned butter and whisk in.

Whisk together the flour, sugar baking powder and salt in a large bowl and then add the wet ingredients, gently but thoroughly combining.

Fold in the cranberries, spoon into muffin cases, sprinkle with a little of the extra sugar and bake for 18 – 20 minutes. Allow to cool in the trays for 15 mins.

The batter seemed very cranberry heavy – almost as if there wouldn’t be enough muffin to encase them all once cooked, but I needn’t have worried, the cranberries were perfectly encased in the batter although they did need a little over the 20 mins to brown nicely.

Apple, Cranberry and Bourbon Cake

Joy the Baker

450g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil

3 large eggs

337.5g granulated sugar (I used caster)

87.5g muscavado sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1 tablespoon dark rum/ bourbon /orange juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 apples; peeled, cored ad cut into 1/4″ pieces (approx 245g) and a squeeze of lemon juice to prevent them browning

1/2 cup fresh cranberries

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and grease a large (12 cup) bundt pan.

Whisk or sift together the flour, bicarb and salt.

Whisk together the oil, eggs, sugars, spices rum and vanilla in a large bowl.

Fold the dry ingredients in to the wet and then fold in the fruit. Joy points out that the batter will be thick and heavy and it’s definitely one that needs to be spooned in the pan rather than poured.

Bake for 60 – 74 minutes (it was 60 for me) and then allow to cool in the pan for 30 minutes before turning out onto a wire wrap to cool completely.

National Bundt Day

Mary, The Food Librarian is a dedicated baker. For the month leading up to the 15th November, National Bundt Day in the States, she has baked bundt cakes. One a day, for thirty days, that’s thirty cakes. I can only imagine her shopping bill and the looks she must have recieved from fellow shoppers when spying her trolley full to the brim with ingredients. Never mind the sheer volume of sugar, butter and eggs (including quail’s eggs for one recipe)  but the randomness of the additions to those base ingredients, ranging from stout to butternut squash; from pears to melons; from  jelly to minced beef and garlic. Had her fellow shoppers know what these ingredients were intended for it would surely have raised a few eyebrows.

I am grateful for her dedication and if you want to see how she incorporated all the ingredients into the wonder that is a bundt cake, head over to her blog  and take a look at her recipes and photos.

I decided to recreate the bundt she baked on Day 12, Libby’s Sour Cream Pumpkin Bundt. I have quite a stock of Libby’s pumpkin puree as there was shortage last year and Waitrose stopped stocking it, so as soon as the tins reappeared on the shelves I bought a fair few (yes, I may have over done it slightly, there will no doubt be more in the way of pumpkin themed recipes heading this way in the near future). I followed the recipe on Mary’s site as listed other than substituting buttermilk for the sour cream which results in a slightly lighter cake in my experience. I also just gave the cake a light dusting of icing sugar rather than the glaze.

I will be taking this cake into work today, along with some muffins (recipe later) to feed colleagues in return for a donation  for Movember. This month many men will be growing a moustache to raise awareness, and money, for prostate cancer charities around the world. My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer this year. He’s well and we wait to hear if the radiotherapy he’s received will have done it’s job and nuked the tumour into oblivion. If you know someone who during November has sprouted some additional facial hair please sponsor them or donate a little money to this great cause.

Sharing the Love: Part II

As a continuation of a theme, what could be better to share than dips? As one with a savoury rather than sweet tooth, I would rather sit around a dish like the one above than a platter of sweet things, and by their very nature they are to be shared in the true sense – communal snacking. A friendship with a neighbour, cultivated in part through the aforementioned cake sharing, led to an invitation to a bonfire night party last week. The horrid, wet weather prevented any actual firework display but good company and wine made for a lovely evening and this trio of dips were a tasty accompaniment.

I recently spotted a recipe for a black bean dip  courtesy of the LA Times that I wanted to try, and added to this two other dips to use up some of the stocks of chick peas and tahini in the cupboard, the pumpkin and beetroot were a colourful nod to autumn, although the pumpkin was from a tin and the beetroot pre-cooked rather than freshly roasted. All three took no time at all to blitz in a food processor, the most time-consuming part was washing the bowl and blades in between making each dip.

I think my favourite has to be the beetroot and walnut, although I adapted the quantity/ratio as I only had a small pack of beetroot in the fridge. With all of them feel free to add more citrus if needed and if the consistency isn’t quite right for you add more olive oil or water until you’re happy. Serve with something crunchy and ‘scoopy’ (you know what I mean) my preference is for some wholemeal pitta tossed in olive oil and sea salt then toasted.

Spicy Pumpkin Dip

Food Network

1 tin of pumpkin puree (Waitrose stock Libby’s brand)

1 tin chickpeas – drained and rinsed

3 tbsp tahini

1 garlic clove

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp cumin

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Blend the chickpeas and pumpkin in a food processor until smooth, add the remaining ingredients and process. Season with salt and pepper to taste

 

Beetroot and Walnut Dip

Good Food Channel

250g cooked beetroot (not the kind in vinegar!)

100g toasted walnuts

50ml olive oil

25ml water

1 tbsp tahini

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt to taste

Pulse the walnuts in a food processor until coarsely chopped and the beetroot until a paste forms.

Add oil, water and tahini, lemon juice and pulse again.

 

 

Black Bean Hummus

LA Times

1 tin chickpeas – drained and rinsed

1 tin black beans - drained and rinsed (on closer inspection the original recipe said 2 tins, but I used 1 and it was fine although I didn’t use as much water as was suggested)

4 cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp tahini

juice of a lemon

1 cup of water (240ml) plus more if needed

1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I would start with one – it was fiery with 1 1/2 but maybe that’s where the other tin of black beans would’ve been useful!)

2 1/2 tsp cumin

2 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp pepper

Blend the beans, oil, garlic, tahini and lemon juice to a paste. With the motor still running on low speed, add the water.

Add the spices and blend, taste and adjust seasoning.

Sharing the Love

I’m under no illusion about the reasons behind my baking, there is absolutely nothing altruistic in my providing treats for those around me. It is a fair and equal exchange between me, the baker, and those that receive the finished goods (bakee?).  If I didn’t live near such lovely people, or work with those whose company I enjoyed, I would bake far, far less. Or weigh far, far more. But I’m lucky. I have good neighbours, friends and colleagues and they enable me to indulge in my hobby and I know that they are lovely people, whose company I enjoy through, my baking.

The rewards extend beyond the pleasure I get from the recipe books I hoard, the planning and baking and even beyond watching others enjoy what I have created; my relationships with neighbours especially, have developed in part because I needed people to offload the products of my kitchen onto, which in turn has led to some good friendships.  At work, the baking provides a framework for connections and small talk, leading what can be odd office dynamics to develop into something more genuine.

Last week a colleague shared with me more apples from her garden, these apples have been a real bonus and  have provided a wonderful autumnal theme to recent baking sessions. I won’t repost the recipes in full, but this weekend I took the latest batch of apples and made a stock of apple sauce as per Deb’s recipe on Smitten Kitchen. Most went into the freezer for future use, but one batch was saved for Sunday’s pre-dawn (I’m looking forward to spring already) baking session and her Spiced Applesauce Cake. I didn’t bother with the frosting and I really don’t think it needs it. It’s so easy to bake and only takes 35 minutes in the oven, there’s a tartness and moistness from the applesauce that I really enjoyed especially against the toasted nuts.

If you read here with any regularity you’ll know my affinity for courgettes and spotting Nigel Slater’s cake that combined the two was the highlight so far of his latest book.

This is a wonderfully easy cake to make, and the moistness from the courgettes and apples are offset by the crunch of the nuts. I used a mixture of walnuts and pecans and you could play around to your heart’s content with the nuts and dried fruit combinations. Having baked so much recently from American recipes the ‘pinch’ of cinnamon seemed overly cautious, and you could add nutmeg or mixed spice quite happily I think. I hint of citrus might not have gone amis either, the zest of an orange would do wonders to lift it slightly – perhaps judge on the tartness of your apples? I would avoid any juice as additional liquid content might cause problems with the water from the courgettes and apple (top tip only discovered after I’d made this, so I can’t vouch for its effectiveness is to put the apples and courgette in a salad spinner to remove the excess water – might have to make this cake again to try it out – let me know if you use this method).

So, whilst autumn makes its presence known with the reversion to GMT and leaf-blocked guttering, step into your kitchen and bake this to share with your family and friends. Or perhaps make new friends and connections by wrapping up to give to neighbours and colleagues.

A Cake of Apples and Courgettes

Nigel Slater; Tender Vol II

200g butter

200g caster sugar

2 large eggs

150g/2 small courgettes

1 small apple

200g plain flour

Pinch of salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of cinnamon (be generous)

60g pecans, roughly chopped

60g sultanas

Preheat the oven to 180C and prepare a 20cm x 12cm x 9cm loaf tin (I doubled quantities and made several smaller loaves – all the better for sharing and also gave me chance to try out the tin liners from Lakeland)

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy – about 5 mins in a stand mixer

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl

Beat the eggs and add slowly to the butter and sugar mixture

Coarsely grate the apple and courgettes (I used a processor – far quicker and less messy, especially if you have juicy apples) and then squeeze in a clean tea towel to remove excess water

Fold the courgettes and apples into the mixture then slowly add the flour mixture until just combined

Add the nuts and sultanas, scrape the batter into the prepared tin and bake for oner hour or until it is golden and firm to the touch.

Allow to cool in the tin

Not The Cookie Monster

I’m not a biscuit person. Although, as a child biscuits were the one treat we always had in the house. We didn’t have crisps, cakes or chocolate on a regular basis and pudding was a rarity.  But there were always biscuits in the cupboard,  there for my sister and I to have along with the daily post-school cup of tea and chat about our day with mum.

Ginger nuts (probably my favourite – dunkability high although better with coffee than tea) and Mcvities digestives were a staple. Packets of Rich Tea lived in there for the duration of my mother’s relationship with my almost-step-dad, Bourbons for my Aunt and custard creams and Hob Nobs (sometimes chocolate covered) would pop up on a regular, yet infrequent enough to make their presence exciting, basis. Christmas also produced tins of rich butter Danish shortbread, perfect in their munching, melting, mouth-feel but perilous for dunking; and birthday parties always ensured Foxes Party Rings and Cadbury’s Chocolate Fingers (which were also a favourite of our Labrador). After school visits to the houses of friends were a wonder of different options, but I never understood and still mistrust the Nice biscuit, or pink wafer chooser.

Teenage visits to my father for school holidays coincided with the junk/convenience food explosion of the late 80′s and early 90′s; resisted by my mother other than regular servings of chicken kiev, but positively encouraged by a baffled male parent, desperate to keep two bolshy daughters happy, or at least quiet because they were stuffing themselves silly on E numbers and utterly tasteless food. Half term weeks meant pop tarts, Findus crispy pancakes, take away pizzas, Microchips, Mars ice creams, trips to Mcdonalds and enabled my sister and I to discover over-sweet packets of Maryland cookies which would never grace my mother’s table. None of which were enjoyed, simply scoffed because they were forbidden by one parent and unnoticed by the other (cigarettes and alcohol soon followed in the same vein, but that’s a whole other post, or even blog).

For me biscuits should be the British type, to be shared with gossip, the day’s news and a steaming cup of tea (and if there is a dog around that you can allow to lap the dregs of tea and sunken crumbs all the better) but I never keep them in the house now and only ever crave digestives for their salty edge.

My ambivalence extends to my baking.  I don’t really enjoy making them. I have the odd recipe bookmarked and they can be good for mass distribution, but rarely would a cookie be the top of my list for a Sunday baking session. I think it was the post that accompanied David Lebozitz’s Oatmeal Cookie recipe that drew me in. The nostalgic tale of American cookies from one living abroad and their role in sharing made me think fondly of my relationship with biscuits and the place they held in my family life. I do also like oats, in pretty much any form, so yesterday I made a batch of dough, let it rest in the fridge overnight and this morning baked tray, after tray, after tray.

I’m still not won over. I don’t enjoy the process as much as cake or muffin baking and having to bake in batches is tedious. This was not helped by my compulsion to double the recipe meaning I had enough to make 48 enormous cookies. This doubling also contributed to the rather haphazard results I think. Uneven distribution of the flour and oats – because of the sheer quantity of them all through the butter and sugar mixture meant that some cookies spread almost wafer thin in the oven, their edges singeing in the process, whilst some retained their dome-like form becoming a chewier, more satisfying treat. They really were too sweet for me too, but I used half raisins and half sour cherries which were a nice contrast when encountered, and the spices were a subtle background. It should be made clear that any issues I have with these cookies are purely mine – in taste and execution. The cookies from well mixed batter had a lovely shape and texture, and those with a sweet tooth have raved about them.

Taking these cookies into work prompted a conversation about baking for a Bonfire night party and reminded me of one of the few things I baked over the summer. These Cookie Bars with Pretzel pieces from Michelle, the Brown Eyed Baker were probably the most moorish thing I have baked in years. In both texture and taste I could happily munch my way through piece after pieces. The salty/sweet combo is to die for and in my little notebook, next to the date on which I baked them (10/06/10 if you’re interested) I have scrawled ‘easy!’

Chocolate Chip & Pretzel Cookie Bars

From the Brown Eyed Baker

300g plain flour

1 Tsp baking powder

1/2 Tsp salt

170g butter at room temperature

175g light muscavado sugar

112g caster sugar

2 large eggs

2 Tsp vanilla extract

120z chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups pretzels chopped

Topping:

I used a sprinkling of sea salt and cocoa nibs, but Michelle suggested peanut butter, melted chocolate and more pretzels

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 9 x 13 pan

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt

In a stand mixer mix together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and vanilla, scraping down the sides then with the mixer on low-speed add the flour mixture.

Fold in the chocolate chips and chopped pretzels, sprinkle on some sea salt and some cocoa nibs then bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Ginger and Apples – what’s not to like?

Autumn has arrived, the leaves are turning, the temperature is dropping, and I have spent most of a Sunday making my Christmas Cakes. Whilst I will have to wait weeks to sample those, below is a recipe for something that is simply Autumn wrapped up in a muffin case.

I still had plenty of the apples donated by my colleague, and knowing how much my Dad likes ginger cakes went looking for an appropriate recipe. As always Smitten Kitchen is one of my first ports of call and Deb doesn’t disappoint with her Gingerbread Apple Upside-Down Cake recipe. I adapted the recipe to fold the apples into the batter so I could make into cupcakes and chopped the apples into 1cm square pieces rather than the wedges suggested for the cake, forgoing the ‘topping’ although I suppose you could caramelise the apples before folding into the batter. These are beautifully moist and the perfect accompaniment to a mug of tea on an afternoon.

Can I also point out my current favourite thing – the small green patterned board that the muffins are sitting on in these photos. Something I brought back form my recent trip to Norway. I’m in love with the colour and patterns, a different one on each side. It sits on my kitchen work surface and makes me smile on these ever darker mornings.

 

Gingerbread Apple Cakes

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

4 apples (1 3/4 lbs) peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces, less than 1cm

112g butter

112g light muscavado sugar

1 large egg

1/3 cup molasses (treacle)

1/3 cup honey

1 cup buttermilk

375g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

In a large jug combine the egg, treacle, honey and buttermilk

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, bicarb, salt and spices

Beat the butter and sugar in a mixer on high-speed until flight and fluffy (approx 8 minutes)

Add the flour mixture and the wet mixture in batches  alternately to the butter mixture and mix until incorporated

Finally fold in the chopped apples before spooning into prepared muffin tins

Bake for 35 – 40 mins until a springy to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.

I was wary of over-filling the muffin cases as gingerbread mixture can rise a lot, however these didn’t, probably due to the fresh apple, so be generous when filling.

Autumn Apples

The Sticky Marmalade Tea Loaf from my previous post used up the jar of marmalade that had been mocking me from the fridge shelf. So I promptly went out and bought another one – because you can’t not have marmalade in the house can you? I am aware of the contradiction but should state that unopened jars in the cupboard do not elicit the same anxieties as open ones housed in the fridge - am I revealing too many neuroses in one post here?

I’m glad I did replenish my stock though, because my new copy of Nigel Slater’s Tender V2 arrived and one of the first recipes I flagged was his Apple and Marmalade Cake. I had been given an enormous bag of apples harvested from a colleagues tree so the ingredient gods were smiling on me that day.

I have made this cake again since, doubling the ingredients and making many small loaves as I wanted to give them away to neighbours – it works just as well.

 

Wholemeal Apple and Marmalade Cake

Nigel Slater

220g butter at room temperature
210g light muscavado sugar
4 eggs
250 g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
200g (peeled & cored weight) apples chopped into pieces less than 1cm
100g sultanas or raisins (I used a mixture of both)
125g Marmalade
Zest of an orange
Demerara sugar for sprinkling on the top
Pre heat oven to 160C and crease and line a 20cm cake tin.
Combine flour, cinnamon and baking powder
In a separate bowl combine the marmalade, raisins and/or sultanas, apples and zest
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then add the beaten eggs, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary
fold in the flour followed by the fruit and marmalade mixture
scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top and sprinkle with Demerara sugar
bake for 1 hr 15 mins (my double recipe made 5 small loaves which I baked for 45-45 mins)

I have also used the apples to make Deb’s Wholewheat Apple Muffins which I first tried last year . I was disappointed last time, but the addition of mixed spice added the depth that I think was missing previously (I reduced the cinnamon to 1/2 a teaspoon and added a teaspoon of mixed spice) I also made sure that the apple pieces were a little smaller, more suited to a muffin. Make sure you fill the muffin cases well, these do not rise that much in the oven so you need to be generous with the batter.

I have found more use for the many apples gifted to me including an apple and date chutney that is currently maturing before I can review it, and an apple and gingerbread cupcake that I will share with you shortly. I have my eye on an apple and courgette cake from Tender (courgettes currently earmarked for my morning porridge though) and of course,  apples and autumn also mean it’s nearly time to make my mincemeat in time for mince pies!