Reduced sugar Lemon & Courgette Loaf - perfect with a cup of tea

If you are anything like me and enjoy a good ramble through recipe websites and magazines, you can't help but have noticed the trend towards including vegetables in sweet cakes and loaves.  I think it has largely come over from the States, but I also can't help thinking that perhaps this is what used to go on during the war when sugar was rationed and cake ingredients were at a premium.

Anyway, this was my first go with including courgette - and it's very good!  With the lemon in there too, you don't notice the courgette flavour but it has a distinct effect upon the texture of the cake/loaf.  (I can't help but call it a cake, because it looks so much like one and tastes so much like one!  However, the original recipe touts it as an American breakfast bread.  Well, considering cornbread, I suppose it fits!).  This is a very robust cake in that the texture of the cake crumb is almost bouncy.  Not rubbery, it just has a degree of resistance to the tooth, without being dry or crumbly.  I like it a lot.

My lovely Facebook friend Ann recommended the loaf to me - for which thank you very much, Ann!  The original recipe came from the Lemon Tree Dwelling blog (see here) - where, incidentally, it is referred to as a "bread".

Now, along with trying to reduce our consumption of carbohydrates (Conscience : "Oh yes? Why are you making cake then, Jenny, eh?", me : "Shut up and get back in your bed!"), we have also been trying to reduce our consumption of processed sugar.  That's a real tricky one where sweet baking is concerned.  I won't entertain the use of lots of the sweeteners that are out there today - and particularly not anything with aspartame or acesulfame in it. However, we have found that Truvia (a stevia based sweetener) is acceptable.

Hence, you will find that the ingredients include a quantity of Truvia along with a much reduced quantity of caster sugar.  The original quantity of sugar is 0.75 of a cup, so if you want to make a full sugar version - there you go.  :)  That may also help you in calculating how much of another sweetener of your choice, you are likely to need.

Oh and yes, because this is an American recipe (originally), the ingredients are in cups. All I can suggest is that if you haven't already, you get yourself a set of cup measures.  SO much easier than trying to convert from cups to grams!

One other thing - the original recipe says to use vegetable oil.  Because I'm me and butter tastes SO much nicer, I just melted the right amount of butter in the microwave and used that instead.  ~proud face~  What?  It was low calorie enough, alright?

Right then, excuses over, I thoroughly recommend you give this recipe a try.  Make sure to have it baked and iced before cup of tea time in the afternoon, right?  You'll be glad you did.

REDUCED SUGAR LEMON & COURGETTE LOAF   (makes around 12 slices)

Ingredients :

One and a half cups of plain flour
A half tsp bicarbonate of soda
A quarter tsp baking powder
A quarter tsp salt
A third cup of Truvia

A quarter cup of caster sugar
1 cup of finely grated, unpeeled courgette
A quarter cup of melted butter
1 egg
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp finely grated lemon zest

For the drizzle icing :

Half a cup of icing sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest

Method :

Prepare a 1lb loaf tin by either greasing and lining with baking parchment, or by use of a ready made loaf tin liner.  Pre-heat your oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, and salt.  Stir them together thoroughly and set aside.

In a separate, large, mixing bowl combine the Truvia, sugar, grated courgette, melted butter, egg, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Stir to combine.

Add the contents of the dry ingredients bowl to the courgette mixture and stir just until combined.  You may need to add a wee drop of warm water, if the mix appears too stiff.

Spoon the mixture into your prepared loaf tin and level the surface.

Bake for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack for a few minutes, then remove the loaf from the pan and cool completely.

Once cool, combine the ingredients for the icing and drizzle over the loaf.  Allow a little time for the drizzle to dry - while you're making a cup of tea is about perfect.

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Coffee & Walnut Loaf - a perfect tea-time cake

One dismal and dreary Saturday, when I was sitting here neatening up photographs for upcoming blog posts, I was made aware of some clatterings and drawer-scrufflings that were undoubtedly coming from the kitchen.

I could hear the baking larder door being opened and closed, the pyrex bowls being got out, the hand whisk's "whiskerators" (our name) being extracted from the mad puzzle that is the utensil drawer and the unmistakable sound of the oven buzzing into life.

All this meant just one thing - hubby had decided to bake a cake.

We had avidly watched the whole series of "Great British Bake Off", without either of us running keenly to the kitchen to follow up on inspiration gained.  We had even watched the Mary Berry/Paul Hollywood baking masterclass spin-off programmes without being moved to recreate any of the recipes.  (Although I do have a number of "would like to makes" on the back burner).

Hubby, however, had been harbouring a secret desire for a Coffee & Walnut cake for a while.

Too many decorations? Does not compute!

We do try to ride out these sorts of desires.  Wait to see whether it's a real yearning, or whether it's just a passing fancy.  For instance, I've been harbouring a want to make a fish curry for oh, probably some four to five months now.  It's just waiting for a time when the right fish is affordable and the dish will fit into the remainder of the week's menu.  I'll get there, one day!

This fancy quite obviously wasn't going to go away though - so he was acting upon it.

Now, how easy would it be, to go off to the local supermarket and buy a Coffee & Walnut cake, eh?  It would be the work of minutes as Sainsbury's is literally just down the road.  But no - there he was up to his neck in flour and walnuts, making the object of his desire.  You've got to admire him for that!

This was a very particular Coffee & Walnut cake though.  It wasn't to be one of your traditional round cake - oh no.  What he was hankering after was a loaf shaped version, filled with chopped walnuts and ripe with the flavour of coffee.  It was to have oodles of coffee buttercream on top, instead of sandwiched in between the two layers.  Oh - and loads of chocolate decoration.  Nothing else would do.


So, for those moments when you desire an outrageously decorated Coffee & Walnut Loaf that is light as a feather, deliciously nutty and rich with coffee flavours - here's hubby's recipe.

COFFEE & WALNUT LOAF

Ingredients :

150g of self raising flour
125ml full cream milk
110g caster sugar
75g unsalted butter cut into cubes
3 tsp instant coffee granules
60g of crushed walnuts plus 16 walnut halves to decorate
1 beaten egg.

Method :
1.  Butter and line (I used a loaf tin liner) an 8 by 3 inch loaf tin.

2.  In a large saucepan, place the milk, butter and coffee granules and warm until the butter is melted and the granules have dissolved.

3.  Remove the pan from the heat and then add the sugar and crushed walnuts.  Stir until the sugar has dissolved before folding in the beaten egg.

4.  Finally, add the flour in stages, stirring gently and continuously until all of the flour has been incorporated

5.  Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and then place into an oven, preheated to 325degF/160degC/gas3.  Bake for 45 minutes before testing with a skewer - which should come out clean, if the cake is done. 

6.  Remove the loaf tin from the oven and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before carefully turning out onto a wire cooling rack.  Once fully cooled, decorate the cake with coffee frosting and halved walnuts.

For the Frosting

Ingredients :

120g butter, room temperature
160g icing sugar
15ml (or more to taste) strong coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract.

7.  Whisk the butter until it becomes pale before incorporating the sugar in stages.  Whisk together until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.  Finally, whisk in the coffee and vanilla until well incorporated.  If the mixture becomes too stiff, simply add a splash of milk.   For a bit of variation, other trusted coffee additions such as cinnamon or hazelnut syrup can be added.

All that remains is to make a cup of tea, get out your best crockery and indulge yourself!

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Moist Orange & Lemon Marble Cake

I have been sitting here for a few minutes now, wondering what on earth to call this cake.  I settled on "Orange & Lemon Marble Cake" some time ago - but it was finding a word to describe the end result after you've drizzled it with the syrup that was the difficult bit.

I felt that simply "Orange & Lemon Marble Cake" seemed as though it could convey itself as being rather dry - which this cake just isn't.  Having consulted the online thesaurus, however, I'm very definitely not going to use the majority of its "moist" alternatives.  Words like "drippy" (well, it did, for a bit!), "oozy" (hmmn, nope), "muggy" (hardly!), "dank" (ewww!), "muculent" (even ewwww-er!), "saturated", "dripping" and "sodden" (oooh, missus!).  The description of a "Drizzle Cake" isn't even right here, as for all that you drizzle syrup over it, there is no real evidence of it having been drizzled at the end of the process.  Well, not until you bite into it.

So "Moist Orange & Lemon Marble Cake" it is going to have to stay.

The marbling was there - but without food colour, it's difficult to see

My parents were coming over for a cup of tea and a chat, which provided the motivation to make the cake.  Not that I need a lot of motivation to make cake, you understand - but for the sake of all our waistlines, it's probably better that I leave cake baking until I've got someone else to help eat it up!

Film star cake shot - posing in a sunbeam

I had pondered for a while as to what to make.  I didn't want a cake that would need lots of decoration and icing etc., as that just adds to the calorific value and time spent in the kitchen.  I have to bear the length of time something takes to make in mind, because I only have so long that I can spend up on my legs, even if I am perched on the stool during most of it.  So it's no good baking a cake that requires lengthy decoration, only to find that I have no energy left in my legs with which to do it.

Marble cakes always go down well and I considered making a chocolate and orange marble cake.  So many of my cakes seem to involve chocolate somewhere along the line, that I was reluctant to go down that route.  The orange bit interested me, though.  I considered doing an Orange Drizzle Cake - in the same way as a Lemon version.  I wasn't sure that it would pack the same zap! as the lemon version though.

Then it occurred to me to do an Orange & Lemon Marble Cake.  It was very experimental at this stage and I pondered whether to colour the cake mixes so as to make the marbling more effective.  Having decided against it - on the grounds that if I can get away without using food colouring, so much the better - I can say that I would very definitely colour at least one - probably the orange - cake mix and have reflected that in the recipe below.  For all that you could taste the difference in flavours as they swirled through the cake, you couldn't see the difference other than the change in the colour of the fruit zest.

I'm not sure what clever cake fairy whispered in my ear about drizzling the citrus syrup over the cake, but I'm jolly glad she did.  It made the end result so deliciously moist, sticky and moreish.

The cake got the thumbs up from my parents, with murmurs of appreciation for its fine texture and lovely flavours - and best of all, they helped to eat a good percentage of it.  There was just enough left for son & heir to have a second go at it, which made him happy too.

Serving up a home made cake seems to me to mean so much more to your guests, than just breaking out a bought offering.  It's all cake - but home made is cake made with love more often than not.  "Love" is like "umami" - it's very difficult to quantify and describe, but it makes all the difference when it's in the recipe.

MOIST ORANGE & LEMON MARBLE CAKE   (serves 8-10)

Ingredients :

225g softened butter
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour
1 tbsp juice & 1 tbsp zest of a lemon
1 tbsp juice & 1 tbsp zest of an orange
Orange food colour

For the syrup :
1 tbsp shredless orange marmalade
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp water.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180degC/340degF/gas 4.

2.  Line the bottom of a 20cm cake tin with baking parchment.

3.  Place the butter, caster sugar, eggs and flour into a food processor and whizz until smooth.

4.  Divide the mixture between two bowls and add the lemon zest & juice to one bowl and the orange zest, juice & two drops of food colour, to the other bowl.  Stir to combine, using a different spoon for each bowl.

5.  Dollop alternately into the cake tin, making sure to divide the flavours as much as possible.

6.  Using the handle of the spoon, run it lightly through the mixture - which will create the swirly pattern.  Don't overdo this bit, or you'll mix it in too much.

7.  Level the surface and tap the tin on the work surface to expel any large air bubbles.

8.  Put into the oven and bake in the centre of the oven for 45-55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

9.  Turn out onto a cooling rack.

10.  In a small saucepan, place all the syrup ingredients and heat gently, stirring, until the marmalade has dissolved.

11.  Taking a fine skewer, pierce the cake repeatedly all over the top surface.

12.  Paint on the syrup liberally, ensuring that it runs into the skewer holes and not down the sides of the cake, until the syrup is all gone.

13.  Cool completely.

Serve

Printable version

Kenco Caff Free Millicano Coffee - and Coffee Kisses!

That's a jolly weak cup of coffee! (Sssh, don't tell, it's tea!)

The whole subject of coffee is almost as complicated as wine, it seems to me.  People apparently make a career out of coffee in differing ways - not least of which is serving what is (in my opinion, obviously) the best coffee in the world, from Macdonalds.  ~shrug~  Don't look at me like that - have you tried it?  No?  Well then.  Don't diss what you haven't tried.  Those of you have discovered Macdonalds coffee will undoubtedly be nodding and salivating at the very thought.

We have, I admit, driven to Macdonalds just for a coffee, it's that good.

Aaaah, coffee - that's better!

So, when I was offered some of Kenco's new Millicano Caff Free coffee to try, I was initially reluctant but then knowing that the original Millicano wasn't half bad, decided to give it a go.

You know, it's really very good!  ~surprise~  Not bad at all.  I've found that having a caffeine free coffee in the house is a good thing for those moments when you want a coffee but don't want the caffeine hit (like just before bed, for instance).  It's also great for teenagers who decide they'd like a coffee just before bed, too.

Puts a new perspective on the idea of a "cup of coffee" ...

Hubby reckons he can detect a flavour that separates the Caff Free version apart from the original, but I'll be darned if I can.  It's a perfectly acceptable, tastier than your average type of coffee, that I'd be perfectly content to drink.  I wish I'd had this available when I worked in the high pressure environment of a marketing department!  Maybe I wouldn't have suffered so many coffee headaches and palpitations.

The great thing about Kenco Millicano is the combination of instant coffee with finely milled coffee beans, which gives it that "fresh coffee" flavour that isn't quite as good as the "brewed from the bean" stuff, but that gets a lot closer than many.  Amazingly, this quality has been retained in the Caff Free version, which makes it one of the best decaffeinated coffees I've had in a long, long time.

You can find out more about it on its Facebook page, at http://www.facebook.com/kencomillicano.

Hopefully, by now, you know what I'm like and would know that having a tin of coffee would get me to thinking what else I could use it for.

Enter the Coffee Kisses - a small spherical coffee flavoured biscuit/cookie hybrid that is bi-sected by a helping of coffee buttercream and is absolutely gorgeous.

Empty kisses - bring on the buttercream!

Now I can remember my Mum making Coffee Kisses waaaay back when I was a child, probably when we lived in Germany and when she would have used Camp liquid coffee in the baking.

I know I made them once, probably around ten years or so ago.  I can remember this occasion because half way through the process it dawned on me that I didn't have the ingredients to make the buttercream - and we couldn't afford to go out and get them.  So we ate the dry biscuits, which were nice, but not the same.

It occurred to me that we were due to go visit my parents at the weekend and it would be nice to take some of the Kisses with me for them, so that they could have a blast from the past too.

I had forgotten just how easy they are to make (if you've got a food processor, that is!).  Just bung the ingredients for the buttercream in the processor, whizz it a bit and bingo, out comes buttercream.  Next, whizz up the ingredients for the biscuits, portion them out onto a baking tray and bake.

Does it get any easier than that?  I don't think so.

I used the Kenco Millicano Caff Free as flavouring in both biscuit and buttercream - just put the granules into a cup and wet them down with a tablespoonful of hot water.  The flavour was wonderful and the granules dissolved perfectly.  Couldn't have asked for better.

I can confirm that I took a bag of Coffee Kisses to my parents' house - but I didn't bring any back, so I assume that means they went down acceptably well!

The recipe for Coffee Kisses is available from the Be-Ro website here : http://www.be-ro.co.uk/f_insp.htm and I won't reproduce it on the blog as I didn't change it in any way.  If you have any problems accessing the Be-Ro website, let me know and I'll be happy to fetch the recipe for you.

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Strawberry & Raspberry Amaretto Gateau for the Jubilee Weekend

For ages, the Jubilee weekend was just something crepuscular and ephemeral that was likely to happen around us, but not really involve us, here at Eatwell Towers.  Right up until little more than a week beforehand, when I found myself being sucked in to the holiday vibe that was playing around the whole event.

It's not that I'm anti-royal (having worked for Historic Royal Palaces Agency for nearly ten years, that's highly unlikely), or have any antipathy towards the Jubilee in a Morrisey kind of way, it's just that it felt rather as though it was all happening in London and so didn't really affect us here in Dorset.

Sponge cakes look promising!

As the weekend got closer, I began to twig on to the fact that there was going to be quite a lot (for "quite a lot", read "huge amounts") of coverage on the t.v. which would probably be worth watching simply from a historical "I saw that" point of view.

I had, of course, known about the activity surrounding the Jubilee that the blogging world was devoting to the cause - but that wasn't anything new.  After all, there only has to be a "Green Pea Day" and out come all the blogs detailing green pea recipes, (mine amongst them, very often!) so it was only to be expected that there would be heaps of baking blogs going bonkers with cupcakes in the shape of corgis, crowns and all things royal.

Yes, very promising. Fingers crossed they cut okay!

My inner resistance towards being a sheep (apologies to everyone who feels they may fall into the sheepy category) was what was stopping me from scheduling in a big old Jubilee High Tea, with Charles & Camilla's favourite scones, Kate & Wills' favourite chocolate biscuit cake et al - and blogging about it.  So because of this inner battle of mine, this is why I wound up making an almost last minute whizz bang spiffingly enormous creamy and alcoholic gateau.  Yes, you'll find me at the back of the flock following on apologetically.

Well, in my own defence, it just didn't seem right to be a) on a Sunday, b) in June, c) in the televisual presence of royalty and d) following on from Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding, to have anything else except an enormous confection of cake, summer berries and a dash of alcohol.

Royals to one side for a moment, I was jolly glad I did - as the Gateau was absolutely To.Die.For.

I had said in my meal planning post for that week, that I was musing upon making a fruit sponge of some sort, so the thought was in my head even then.  However, it grew from a simple summer fruit sponge as time went along.  It's probably just as well the Jubilee happened when it did, before I'd had a chance to consider coating the lot in chocolate or something equally damaging to our waistlines.  I think it probably did enough damage as it was!

After adding the syrup - just look at the lovely texture!

The sponge was a simple "bung it all in together, whisk it up, put it in sandwich tins, bake it" sponge cake.  However, it was when hubby mentioned a gateau and I hit upon the idea of cutting each cake into two layers, that the rot set in.

I had a punnet of strawberries and a punnet of raspberries that we'd picked up as having been marked down in price, so I had the fruit there - and I'd bought a carton of double cream just because I anticipated requiring it for the fruit.

Raspberry layer in place

Now fruit and cream would be good - very good - in between each layer, but I wanted to make this gateau more gateau-like - sumptuous, delicious and naughty.  Hubby reminded me that we had a bottle of Amaretto liqueur in the cupboard and so the idea of the Amaretto syrup was born.  It was a simple matter to melt some sugar in water and add 50ml or so of Amaretto to it - then let it cool as the cakes cooled.  Once everything was cool, I brushed the syrup onto each layer of cake and let it soak in.

After that, it was just slather on the cream, add the sliced fruits and layer it up.  Do a simple little decoration on top, add a little icing sugar and ta daaa!  The Jubilee Gateau was born.

Hand me a fork and make it snappy!

Even though I knew the gateau was four layers tall, when hubby brought the slices through for dessert it still surprised me how enormous the whole thing was.  In truth, however, it was no more than a Victoria Sponge cake with extra cream and fruit instead of jam (and a hit of Amaretto, of course).  So simple to produce - but so very effective and so very, very tasty.

STRAWBERRY & RASPBERRY AMARETTO GATEAU   (makes 6-10 slices)

Ingredients :

200g caster sugar
200g softened butter
4 beaten eggs
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2-3 drops vanilla essence
85g caster sugar (for the syrup)
2 tbsp cold water
50ml Amaretto liqueur
300ml double cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
strawberries & raspberries to fill.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 190degC/375degF/Gas5.  Prepare two sandwich tins by lining with a circle of baking parchment.  I included the sides of my tins in the lining, but only because they're particularly old tins - nice shiny new ones won't need this.

2.  In a large bowl (I used our Kenwood Chef) place the 200g of caster sugar, the softened butter, the eggs, the flour, baking powder and vanilla essence.  Starting slowly (so as to keep the flour in the bowl), begin to whisk the ingredients together - or beat them together, if you're particularly sprightly and are doing it by hand.  Continue to mix until you have a soft, smooth texture whereupon you can divide the mixture equally between the two tins and smooth off the top surface.

3.  Put the two tins together on the one shelf if possible, and bake for some 20 minutes or until risen, golden and the cake springs back when lightly depressed in the centre.

4.  Remove the cakes from the tins and place onto a cooling rack until perfectly cool.

5.  In the meantime, you can get on and make the Amaretto syrup.  So take a small saucepan and place the 85g of caster sugar, the water and liqueur into it.  Mix them together and heat gently until the sugar has all dissolved.  Leave to cool.

6.  To assemble the gateau, take each cake and very carefully with a sharp bread knife cut through to create two layers from each cake.  Lay each layer out separately.

7.  Taking the syrup, brush onto each cake layer, distributing the syrup equally amongst the layers until it has all gone.

8.  Whip the cream with the icing sugar until it reaches soft peaks - be careful not to take it beyond this stage.

9.  Here on in, it is a simple matter of coating each layer with cream and adding sliced strawberries and the raspberries - remembering to save a few for decoration.  I would recommend that you place the first layer onto the presentation cake plate and build the cake from there, adding cream and fruit, then a layer of cake, then cream and fruit until you reach the last layer.

10.  Simply arrange the saved fruit attractively, sprinkle over a little icing sugar snow - and serve.

Printable version

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Walnut Cheese Loaf - a teabread with a difference!

Remember recently I said how we'd managed to pick up a selection of old cookery books from a Freecycle lady?  Well, one of those cookery books was "Traditional Farmhouse Teas" by Janice Murfitt.  It's a teensy little book with lots of lovely tea-time fare detailed.

Hubby, being the baker of the family, was immediately taken with the idea of the Walnut Cheese Loaf - although he envisaged it being more of a bread than a cake.  In fact, it turned out to be very cakey indeed and I would question its description as a "teabread".  It seems a lot closer to a cake, to me.

In the illustration (by Julia Cobbold) beside the recipe, it shows the teabread as being served with what appears to be cottage or cream cheese with chives.  I am sure both would be lovely with the flavour of the teabread, but have to admit that I - predominantly - ate my slices with either honey or raspberry jam!

Maybe I'm a bit odd, but it tasted pretty darned good to me.

Each slice was surprisingly moist - I had imagined it to be a little on the dry side (as teabread often can be) but the addition of the cheese and, quite probably, some of the oil from the walnuts, contributed towards keeping it beautifully moist.  In the baking, the flavour of the cheese came through and with the walnut, complimented each other very nicely. 

There is one thing that we wouldn't repeat in any successive Walnut Cheese Loaves - and that is to grate some parmesan over the top.  We found it made the top crust too salty and the parmesan slightly altered the flavour of the walnuts.  So be warned, if you consider doing that!

I see that the little book is still available on Amazon, but in its updated format.  My version is a 1994 vintage.  It's a fun little book that gives a recipe for my very favourite, Coffee & Walnut Cake.  So between that and this Walnut Cheese loaf, I think it can stay!

WALNUT CHEESE LOAF  (serves 10)

Ingredients :

350g self raising flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp English mustard powder
1 tsp salt
a pinch of pepper
125g butter
175g cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 tsp chopped fresh chives
1 tbsp chopped parsley
2 eggs
150ml milk.

Method :

1.  Line a loaf tin with either a paper liner or greaseproof paper.

2.  Sift the flour, baking powder, mustard, salt and pepper into a mixing bowl.

3.  Cut the butter into small pieces and rub into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fresh breadcrumbs.

4.  Stir in the cheese, walnuts, chives, parsley, eggs and milk.  Mix together with a wooden spoon and beat for 1-2 minutes, until well blended.

5.  Place the mixture in the prepared tin and level the top.  Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190degC/375degF/Gas 5 for around an hour or until the mixture is well risen, golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

6.  Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out.  Remove the greaseproof paper and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Serve.

Printable version

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Bacon & Cheese Muffins

A very long time ago, when I first made muffins and they were successful, it got us to thinking about what flavours would combine well in that context.

We went through all the nuts and fruit combinations, all the chocolate combinations and chocolate/fruit combinations - and then began to think savoury.

The very first combination that struck us, was Bacon & Cheese.  Now that seemed to be a workable combination for a breakfast or elevenses muffin, provided enough cheese was involved.  So often, in recipes, cheese is on the ingredients list but in insufficient quantities to make the kind of flavour impact that cheese lovers like us are looking for.  To our way of thinking, if you're going to have cheese in something, then we want to taste it - not just imagine that it's there, somewhere, under the rest of the flavours.

So, what we have here is a very cheesy, very bacony, Bacon & Cheese Muffin.

Sprinkled with cheese and ready for the oven

These muffins are by far and away the very tip top favourite of all muffin-kind, where my hubby is concerned.  He even asked for some for his birthday!  Granted, they aren't the cheapest of muffins to make - as they use an entire 340g pack of bacon at £2.60 or so, not to mention the cheese and buttermilk.  As an "extra" (i.e. outside of the normal run of breakfast, lunch and dinner) and as the ingredients only make 6 (albeit large) muffins, they definitely don't work out as the cheapest baking in the world.

However, as a breakfast treat - or a school break time treat - you'd have to go a long way to beat them.

Mmmmn ... bacon & cheese goodness!

I've tried various additional flavours with these muffins - such as sun dried tomato, red onion, and olives - but it seems to me that these additional flavours just serve to detract from the beautiful friendship that the cheese and bacon to have developed.   Although, having said that, I do add some English Mustard powder and a small amount of paprika.  These, though, rather than standing up there and exchanging fisticuffs with the cheese, do a very good job of being backing singers to the cheese and provide a deeper flavour profile to the substance of the muffin.  The mustard powder also provides a comforting and gentle warmth that you're really not aware of until after the last mouthful has been swallowed.

I thoroughly recommend a good strong cup of coffee along with these muffins - and a drop of warm sunshine and a comfortable patio would be good, but we can't have everything!

BACON & CHEESE MUFFINS   (makes 8-10 large and 10-14 small)

Ingredients :

340g smoked back bacon
110g strong mature cheddar, grated (10g separated out for sprinkling)
360g self raising flour
2 tsp English Mustard powder
half a tsp paprika
half a tsp cayenne
1 tbsp sugar (I used a rounded tsp of Truvia)
100ml extra virgin olive oil or rapeseed oil
2 large eggs
250ml buttermilk
50ml semi skimmed milk (or plain yoghurt).

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180degF/350degC/gas4.

2.  Cook the rashers of bacon - whole - under the grill until the fat has rendered out but before they become crispy.  Put them on a plate and allow to cool completely.


3.  While the bacon is cooling, grate the cheddar.


4.  Take each rasher of bacon and with scissors, cut into small dice.

5.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, mustard, paprika, cayenne) until thoroughly mixed.

6.  In another bowl, combine all the wet ingredients (oil, eggs, buttermilk, milk) and give them a whisk with a balloon whisk until thoroughly mixed.


7.  Combine the liquid ingredients with the dry ingredients in the large bowl plus add the bacon and cheese.  Give everything a good few stirs - but don't over-mix.  It is good with muffins to retain a certain lumpiness to the mixture, so don't worry if there are small clumps of un-mixed in flour.  Too much mixing makes a tough muffin!


8.  Decant the mixture into one or two silicone muffin trays which have been placed upon a baking tray (otherwise they're hell to handle!).  Sprinkle over the remaining 10g of cheese.


9.  Put into the oven to bake for some 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the muffin comes out clean.


10.  Place onto a wire cooling rack and fight off all comers until ready to be eaten!


Printable version

Dorset Apple Cake

Having FINALLY got around to baking the Dorset Apple Cake that I'd been threatening to bake for around a month, I'm really not too sure about the results.

You see, the photograph of the Dorset Apple Cake on the recipe (which was given to me by a friend and I've no idea where it originates from) didn't look even a tiny bit like the cake that I wound up with.

My cake batter appeared to be more of a shortbread biscuit type of mixture - very dry and almost crumbly.  The recipe states "don't worry if the mixture is a bit stiff, keep mixing and it will come together".  Well, I mixed and mixed and added a tiny bit more liquid and it stayed looking a bit like a damp shortbread mixture, so I shrugged my shoulders and used it.

For all that the end result didn't look like its picture, it looked interesting and indeed was very nice to eat.

However, I'd consider it more of a dessert than a "cake" as such.  The cake part of the thing was (not surprisingly) very dense, although with the apple pieces throughout and with apple slices on the top, it avoided being dry.  The lemon zest came through in the cake mixture with a lovely little tang and I saved a few calories by using 40/60 Splenda sugar substitute and caster sugar.  I guess that could be part of the reason why the cake mixture was so dry, as sugar would have dissolved into syrup whereas the Splenda just sort of fizzes.

When served, the slice was just begging for cream, or greek yoghurt, or ice cream or even custard - so we sidetracked a little of the cream meant for the following day's trifle. 

We did eat all but one slice (although not all at once, she hastens to add!) - which got overtaken by other events and when I finally got back to it with intentions of eating it up, discovered a neat little round of mould on one apple slice.  Harumph!  Rats!

Hence, if you're planning on making the cake, I'd recommend not trying to keep it beyond two days - just to be on the safe side.  Ordinarily, of course, we'd have eaten it all up within those two days, but Mother's Day got in the way!

DORSET APPLE CAKE    (serves min. of 8)

Ingredients :

225g self raising flour
25g cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
110g butter
110g caster sugar (or 60g sugar plus 2 tbsp Splenda)

zest of 1 lemon
225g peeled, cored and diced cooking apples (weight following preparation)
1 large egg
2 tbsp milk
1 cooking apple, peeled, cored and sliced thinly, soaked in lemon juice
2-3 tbsp soft brown sugar.

METHOD :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 170degC/325degF/Gas 3.

2.  Butter and line an 8" round cake tin with removable base.

3.  Sift flour, cornflour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.

4.  Cut the butter into small pieces and rub in, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

5.  Stir in the caster sugar, diced apple and lemon zest.

6.  In a separate bowl whisk together the egg and milk.

7.  Bind the mixture together with the egg/milk mixture.  Don't worry if it is a bit stiff, keep on mixing and it will come together.

8.  Pour into the prepared baking tin and level the surface.

9.  Arrange the apple slices on top, then sprinkle the brown sugar all over to make a crusty glaze.

10.  Bake in the oven for around 35-40 minutes, or until a cocktail stick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

11.  Cool in the tin, then turn out onto a cake plate and serve with a dollop of cream.

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Cherry Shortbread Hearts

As Valentine's Day has been and gone, I can own up to what I gave my hubby without having to whisper or speak in code.

In fact, it was completely impossible to make these gorgeous Shortbread lovelies (which are a James Martin recipe that I found on BBC Good Food's website) without his knowing - as my spending a good couple of hours in the kitchen is a bit hard to miss.

However, what I did was to make a whole bucket load of the biscuits (which was just as well, as it happens) and pick the best 12 or so to go in a little baggie, just for him.

The theme was along the lines of tea & biscuits, so I also bought him a new tea mug which doesn't sound all that romantic or exciting until you realise that my hubby cannot survive without his tea - and preferably, biscuits.  I'm not altogether sure where the expensive dark chocolate that I also got for him came in to the equation, but he likes it - and Valentine's Day is meant to involve chocolate.

These biscuits were a long time in the creation, as it took me for ever to find a cookie cutter in the shape of a heart - and luckily found some in the supermarket once they'd got their full collection of Valentine's Day goods in.  The next thing to find was the baggie and it is truly amazing that as soon as I started looking for a bag with hearts on, they'd all disappeared.  Hey ho - I got one with sweeties on instead.

The biscuits themselves were quite a long time in the creation too, as I hadn't banked on what appeared to be a recipe for 14-16 biscuits making in the range of 25-30!  They had to go in to the oven, on two baking trays, in three instalments - which meant I had quite a production line going, in the end.  So, if you're considering making these and don't want that many, I'd suggest that it might be an idea to halve the quantities!

Still, they did their job - and if you're interested in a light but rich, crispy and jammy, melt in your mouth Shortbread biscuit, then these are for you!

I would recommend that your cookie cutter (which doesn't HAVE to be a heart shape, by the way!) is quite a large one.  Otherwise, when you come to pressing the bottle top in to them to make the indentation required for the jam, if the biscuit is too small you stand the chance of it fracturing - and nobody wants broken hearts!

Another change to the original recipe is that I would heat the jam slightly in a saucepan to encourage its fluidity, prior to placing onto the biscuit.  I found that my jam had a disconcerting habit of just sitting there in a jammy lump - which wasn't the idea at all.

I found that by far the easier way of cutting out the biscuits was to cut some dough from the ball and roll that out - probably around six or so's biscuits-worth.  Doing this prevented the dough from becoming over-handled through successive re-rollings and ensured the biscuits all stayed light.  It also means you have far less of a great lump to handle!

I have entered these little lovelies in the Very Good Recipes "Be My Valentine" competition, so we'll see how we get on!


Now then, is it tea time?


CHERRY SHORTBREAD HEARTS   (makes hundreds. Oh alright then, between 15-20)


Ingredients :


100g icing sugar
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
50g cornflour
50g ground almonds
250g pack cold butter, cut into cubes
50g glace cherries, finely chopped
half a tsp of almond extract
cherry jam, sieved.


Method :


1.  Pre-heat oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 and prepare two baking trays with parchment or greaseproof paper.


2.  Into a large bowl, sift the icing sugar, flour and cornflour.


3.  Stir in the ground almonds, then rub in the butter until smooth.  You can use a food processor for this bit.


4.  Stir in the chopped glace cherries and almond extract, bringing together to form a dough.


5.  Roll out on a lightly floured surface, then cut out biscuits gently using your cookie cutter.


6.  Carefully place each biscuit onto a baking tray, leaving enough room between each so that they don't touch.


7.  Place into the oven and bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden.


8.  Remove from the oven and, before the biscuits can cool, press a bottle top lightly into the centre of each, making the depression for the jam to go into.


9.  Spoon a little of the jam into each depression and replace into the oven for another 5-10 minutes, until the jam has settled and the biscuits are a rich golden colour.


10.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool further.


11.  Get the kettle on!


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