Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Apple Walnut cake


Favourite at Dore's sea scout clan.

When you make this the WHOLE house smells of cinnamon, cloves and all good things.
Make this a day before, allowing cloves and flavour to mellow.  It definitely tastes and cuts much better!

Ingredients

1 cup of corn oil
3 eggs
2 cups Sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups All purpose flour (plain)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp b.soda (often I use b. powder)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp groun cardammon
3 cups of diced peeled granny smiths
1 cup of pecans/walnuts

Mix oil, eggs, sugar, and vanilla
Sift all dry ingredients.
Note ( Batter quite thick in original recipe , add milk/OJ to make more runny, for a lighter softer sponge)
         

Pour in lined tin and bake in cold oven at 350/180 till brown and done about 50 mins.
If making muffins bake 12 mins.

Glaze (Too darn good to be omitted)
4 tbs butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar.
Melt all in a pan.  Pour over hot cake.

Hint: Quick bread sliced hot, they will crumble.
Nut and fruit bread should be baked the day before for easier slicing and mellower flavour.




 
Whole house smells of cinnamon and all good things.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Scones






After making the first batch of strawberry jam of this year, seriously how could I not bake scones?

Rich Scones with currants (classic yorkshire)

225g (8oz) Self-raising flour (cake flour)
salt pinch
50g (2oz) margarine
25g (1oz) caster sugar
50g (2oz) currants

pre-heat oven to 220 oC

Mix flour with margarine till resemble breadcrumbs.
Add sugar and currants, mix.
Add egg and mix to a dough (add milk if too dry)
Flatten to about 2.5 cm thick and cut into rounds. (Don't bother with a rolling pin)

(Optional: Brush tops with egg and milk)

Bake on a floured tray for about 10 minutes or till brown.

Tip:
Sign of a true scone is in the height.
When you don't need a knife to break it open, they should have a natural 'belt' that you can just split apart....


Click here for Source Recipe

Monday, March 19, 2012

Jamming

Strawberries in town and finally the price is cheap enough to make jam. This can only mean scones...light fluffy victoria cakes and bakewell tarts.
1.5 kg strawberries, cleaned and hulled. 0.5 kg of sugar
juice of 1 Lemon
Keep strawberries whole, add lemon juice and put on medium heat. Do not add water!
When very runny and 'boiling' add sugar.
Gently stir, or sway pan in circular motion to dissolve sugar in the hot fruit. Taste, if you prefer it to be a little sweeter, feel free to add more sugar to your liking.
(I like my strawberries to be as whole as possible and jam not overly sweet)
Do not cover.
Keep on low heat for about 3-4 hours or more, allowing jam to reduce and thicken. Be careful the bottom of the pan doesn't burn or the jam begin to carmelize. Beware this jam is very not sweet. In true british form, this jam is quite tarty, more fruit flavour and much less sugary than shop bought jams.


Video - Includes Big Tip
Sharing my fast and furious tip on how to sterilize jar quickly for jamming. An absolute game changer!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Ozen oh man!

Those Triangular thingys with a wierd name








So what they didn't turn out like in the cooking books..or in the shops, no-one can say photoshop or false play here. This is the real stuff! warts and all!

Fact is they were D E L -licking-L I C I O U S!!

Next time think I will wet the sides as well as pinch them to obedience!

OK, filling first, thought I would cheat and fill it with dates stuff, but frankly the poppyseed filling was so delicious! so much better than in the shops!

The lemon zest in the poppyseed filling is great!
And the orange zest in the pastry G E N I U S!

Poppyseed filling:
150g poppyseed grinded
Zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbps honey
3 tbps of sugar
1/8 tsp salt
180 ml of milk
Vanilla paste/extract
1/4 cup of crushed biscuits

1. Mix and heat all but the biscuits in pan till thick

2. Take off heat. Add biscuits. Allow to cool.

Pastry:
2 cups of Plain flour
1 egg
salt
3 tbps of sugar
250 gr of margarine
Zest of orange and juice
1 tsp of Baking Powder

(Better Recipe Click here)

Pre-heat oven at 190 c.

1. Cream margarine and sugar together.
2. Add zest and orange juice
3. Add flour with baking powder and salt
4. Add egg
5. Mix to make a soft dough.
6. Place in fridge to cool. 1 hour upto overnight.
7. Ready to roll, cut in quarters and roll out 1 quarter, keep rest in fridge in the meantime.
8. Roll out about 4 mm thick cut in rounds, place a healthy tsp of poppyseed mix in the middle and pinch with water to close. Leave a little opening on top.

Bake in oven till brown

Cool a little then sprinkle icing sugar (powder sugar)

Note: I think the biscuit recipe contains too much fat.  I found a much more successful cookie recipe Click here






 
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