Almond Honey Cake with Apricots

Ingredients

1 tsp vanilla essence
100g read-to-eat dried apricots
2 large eggs (or medium, whatever you have)
180g honey
150g peeled and finely grated sweet potato
finely grated zest of 1/2 unwaxed lemon
100g spelt or any other type of flour
100g ground almonds
2 tsps baking powder (more generous if using wholemeal)
1/4 tsp salt (if you wish)
100g whole blanched almond (keep a dozen or so for the top)

3 tbsp apricot jam or 1 tbsp of clear honey to glaze the top

20 - 23 cm tin

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.  Grease the tin.

Chop the apricots into small cubes (about 1/2 cm).

Beat the eggs, honey and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl (about two minutes).  Add the grated sweet potato and lemon zest and mix well.  Add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, salt (if using) and mix thoroughly.  Add apricots and blanched almonds and mix gently, so as not to break the almonds.

Put the mixture into the tin.  Decorate the top with the 12 remaining almonds and place in the centre of the oven for 40 minutes.

Remove cake and while hot, brush over heated jam or honey.

Enjoy with yogurt or ice-cream.  Mummm.


PS  This receipe was adapted from 'red velvet, chocolate heartache'

Soda Bread

Ingredients
400g flour (I used a mixture of Quinoa (no more than 50g), spelt, rye and wholemeal flours)
2 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 generous tablespoon molasses
25g olive oil or melted butter
450ml buttermilk (or milk with lemon juice added to it)

Preheat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7.

Sieve the flour, sugar, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and mix well.  Mix the molasses, olive oil and buttermilk together.  Stir the liquid through the dry ingredients quickly and evenly.  Scape it into a floured 20cm tin.

Bake the loaf for 20 minutes with oiled foil covering the top.  Then turn the oven down to 200C/gas mark 6, remove foil and bake for 20 minutes, or until the bread is cooked.

Super with a hearty winter soup or a bowl of lentils. 

Brussel Sprout & Gorgonzola Tart

Ingredients

• 300g brussel sprouts, cut in half or broccoli
• 4 eggs
• 200ml crème fraiche or double cream
• handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 25cm tart case, baked blind
• 150g crumbled Gorgonzola or Stilton

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

Steam the brussel sprouts until just cooked, leave in the colander to dry.

Mix together the egg and cream, add the chopped parsley and season.  Spread the cooled broccoli over the base of the tart case.  Add the Gorgonzola to the tart, packing it into the gaps and making sure the tart is nice and full.  Pour over just enough of the egg mixture to reach the rim of the case.  Bake for 20 minutes, until just set.

Remove and leave to cool slightly before serving.  Serves four.

Fruit & Nut Biscotti

Ingredients

• 250g spelt flour
• 170g - 250g unrefined muscovado sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 3 medium organic eggs, lighted beaten
• 55g plump sultanas
• 55g dried cherries, cut in half
• 55g pitted dates, chopped
• 75g shelled pistachio nuts
• 55g whole blanched almonds
• 55g of shelled hazelnuts
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180c. 

Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl.  Add half the beaten eggs, and mix well.  Then add more egg little by little until the dough takes shape (you may not need all the eggs).  If it's too wet add some more flour.  Add the fruit, nuts and lemon zest and mix well.

Divide the dough into six and roll each sixth into a sausage shape, about 3cm in diameter.  Place at least 6cm apart, on baking parchment on baking trays.  Wetting your hands when rolling out helps to prevent the dough sticking to your hands.  Lightly flatten the sausages and bake until golden brown, about 20-30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and leave for 10 minutes to cool down and firm up. 

Reduce the oven temperature to 140c.

With a serrated knife, cut the biscotti on the diagonal into 5mm slices and lay these on the baking trays to cook for a further 12 minutes.  Turn the biscotti over and cook for the third time for 10-15 until pale golden.  When ready remove from the oven and place on cake racks to cool.

Enjoy!

Honey and peanut butter booster bars

This is a 'Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at River Cottage' receipe.  It's a great snack bar.  However, it can't go in packed lunch boxes as it has nuts, but it's super for an after-school snack and as a pick-them-up at the weekend. 

If you don't have any oranges and lemons, it's ok to use a tablespoon of mixed peel.  Same with the dried fruit and mixed seeds, I finished as many bits and pieces as I could find.  A great larder clearer-outer!  Same with the peanut butter, it doesn't matter if it's smooth.
 
Ingredients
125g mild olive oil or unsalted butter
150g brown sugar
125g no-sugar-added crunchy peanut butter
75g honey, plus a little more to finish
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
200g porridge oats (if jumbo, blend a bit to break down)
150g dried fruit, such as raisins, chopped apricots and prunes or dates
150g mixed seeds, such as pumpkin, sunflower, poppy, linseed, hemp and sesame

Grease and line a baking tin, about 20cm square. Put the oil, sugar, peanut butter, honey and grated citrus zests in a deep saucepan over a very low heat.  Leave until melted, stirring from time to time.

Stir the oats, dried fruit and three-quarters of the seeds into the oil mixture until thoroughly combined.  Spread the mixture out evenly in the baking tin, pressing down and smoothing the top as you go.

Scatter the remaining seeds over the surface and trickle with a little more honey.  Place in an oven preheated to 160°C/Gas Mark 3 and bake for about 30 minutes, until golden in the centre and golden brown at the edges.

Leave to cool completely in the tin, cut into 16 squares.  These bars will keep for 5-7 days in an airtight tin.

Variation: Banana booster bars
Replace the peanut butter with 1 medium ripe banana (about 175g), mashed.  Stir it in after all the other ingredients have been combined.

Polenta Crust Tomato Bread

Whilst the oven is on, I always try and cook a few things.  This bread recipe is a Dan Lepard's from The Guardian (11 September 2010).

A gorgeous smell of tomatoes emanates from this loaf when sliced.  Fabulous for a hearty lunch.

Ingredients
100g natural yogurt
25g tomato paste
25ml olive oil
150g roughly chopped sun dried tomatoes (in oil)
1 sprig of rosemary, leaves picked (or tsp of rosemary)
125g water

400g spelt flour or strong white flour, if preferred
1 sachet of dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
Polenta for shaping

Mix together the first six ingredients.  Put the flour, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl, pour int he tomato mix and work to a soft dough.  OR put the flour, salt and yeast in the mixing bowl that has the tomato mixture and whizz round with a dough hook.  Leave for 10 minutes, whizz for 10 seconds, and repeat twice more.  Pat into the shape required, brush with water and roll in polenta.  Place on non-stick paper, cover with a clean cloth and leave for an hour in a warm place.  Slash down the centre and bake at 220c for 45 minutes.  Ours came out burnt and overcooked, so check after 35 minutes.

Devour!

Carrot & Pineapple Cake

What to do when there's going to be seven of you for tea!  Something for everyone, healthy, substantial and delicious.

This is a cross between a BBC Good Food recipe and the larder!  It doesn't matter if you don't have all the ingredients, it's good to improvise and get something a little unexpected and original.

Ingredients
300g plain flour (we used a mix of left over spelt and wholemeal self raising)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
200g soft brown sugar (we used 175g of unrefined dark sugar)
4 eggs
250ml mild olive oil
1 orange, zested
1 lemon, zested (we didn't have any of either and used some chopped mixed peel)
200g carrots, finely grated
150g walnuts (we used crushed hazelnuts and pinenuts, as no walnuts in the fridge)
227g tin pineapple pieces, well drained and chopped (used a larger tin and didn't chop)

Heat the oven to 150c.  Line a 20cm, 10cm deep cake tin (or a larger tin if not so deep).  Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda together and stir in the sugar.  Put all the ingredients together in the mixer and whizzed it for a few minutes till nicely combined.  Whizz at a low speed at first, so the flour doesn't fly out of the bowl.  Spoon mixture in the tin and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.  If you are using a shallower tin, the baking time will be less.

Gather round a large table with a pot of tea and enjoy.

Brocolli & Spinach Quiche

It's not that I haven't been cooking and baking, just that our stomachs shout their requests before the camera manages to come out of the bag.

This was supposed to be a Seafood Quiche, but like all cooking, adapting it to your taste is far more important than following a recipe.

Quiche

The original shortcrust pastry I replaced with a more flavoursome Parmesan pastry.

175g Wholemeal Spelt (or plain flour)
75g Olive oil not Extra Virgin (or butter)
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 egg yolk

Sift the flour into a food processor (it's easier into a bowl and then the processor) with the oil, Parmesan, egg yolk and 3-4 tablespoons of cold water.  Mix till it forms a firm dough.  If a little too dry add water spoon by spoon.  This is a crumbly dough, so don't worry.

Roll out the pastry thinly on a lightly floured surface and place in a 20cm flan tin.  Cover and chill for about 20 minutes.  Prick the base lightly before baking blind at 200c for about 15 minutes or until crisp and golden brown.

defrosted Spinach (I used three cubes of chopped and frozen from the supermarket!)
Broccoli
Olive oil
1 bunch spring onions trimmed and chopped
3 large eggs plus the left-over white
150ml single cream (I suppose you could use Crème fraiche, but I haven't tried it)
1 tablespoon of tomato puree
pepper
25g grated cheese of your choice, maybe cheddar or Gruyere

Heat the oil in a small saucepan and add the spring onions, cook gently for 5-7 minutes.  Do not allow the onions to brown. 

Meanwhile, cut the broccoli into small florets, wash and microwave in a covered dish for 3 minutes.  They need to have a bit of bite to them.

Beat the eggs, cream, puree and pepper.  Mix in the broccoli and spinach and pour into the pastry case.  Sprinkle with cheese and bake in a preheated oven 150c for 30-35 minutes.

Have with veggie or a lush salad.  Enjoy.

PS  I don't add salt, but please do if you prefer.
PPS

Gateau Pithiviers

Puff pastry with a marzipan filling (to you and me!)

Ingredients

• 300g of marzipan

    or

• 50g olive oil
• 125g unrefined brown sugar
• 2 egg yolks (but will probably only need one, so do one and see how you go)
• 125g ground almonds
• few drops of almond essence
• 2 tablespoons of rum

Pastry

• 2 x 225g packets of puff pastry
• 1 egg lightly beaten (can just use the egg white from above) with teaspoon water and a pinch of salt to glaze pastry
• icing sugar

Method
Mix oil and sugar, then beat in the egg yolk, almonds, vanilla to taste and rum.  Cover and chill until firm enough to shape.  Form into a round cake 10cm across, chill again till quite firm.
Roll out half the pastry into a circle 6mm deep and 20cm across.  Roll out the remaining half into another circle 4-5mm deep and 23cm across.  Place the smaller circle on a dampened baking tray, place the almond cake in the middle and brush round the edge of the pastry with water.  Place the larger pastry circle on top.  Firmly press the top pastry circle onto the bottom pastry circle all around the base of the almond cake.
With a small knife, cut evenly spaced indentations in from the edge of the double edge and fluff up.
Place the tray in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Brush the cake with the egg glaze and cut a cartwheel design from the centre to the edge of the top surface.
Bake the cake in the centre of a preheated oven (220 degrees centigrade) for about 15 minutes or until well risen and beginning to brown.  Turn down the temperature to 200 degrees centigrade and bake for a futher 30 minutes or until the sides are golden brown, firm and crusty.  If the top is browning to much, cover losely with foil, AND finish baking to ensure the pastry is cooked and flaky throughout.

Serve warm or cold.  Serves 8-10. 

Now for my slice with a cup of tea...