fruity cinnamon buns

We had a pang for Cinnamon Buns this weekend but as its not something that I make all the time I don’t really have a staple, tried and tested recipe so I set about putting one together!

I’m obviously a massive fan of Nigella Lawson so she was my first point of call but I’ve also made some really good bread dough recipes from Joy the Baker too so I checked their website to see if there was anything I could use.

The recipe that follows is a mix of both Nigella’s Norwegian Buns (the batter) and Joy the Bakers Cinnamon Rolls (the filling) with extra tweaking, fruit and spice I decided to add myself!

They turned out to be amazing!

Sunday Brunch Fruity Cinnamon Buns

Ingredients
makes 8 buns

Filling
100g Caster Sugar
50g Light Brown Sugar
100g Mixed Dried Fruit
2 tbsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tbsp Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
Sprinkle of Ground Cloves
2 tbsp Maple Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla Essence (preferably some made by Emmms using Indonesian vanilla pods and vodka! Look out for it in the pics!)

Dough
300g Strong White Bread Flour
50g Caster Sugar
Sprinkle of Salt
10g Dried Yeast Powder
50g Butter (melted and a little extra for brushing)
200ml Milk
1 Egg

Decoration
100g icing sugar
A little warm water

Method

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl.

Beat the egg together with the melted butter and milk and add slowly to the dry ingredients.

This batter is quite sticky so make sure you keep your board well floured when kneading.
Knead for a good 10 mins adding more flour if necessary but not too much!
Have faith as it will get easier to knead as you go on.

Once the dough is smooth and springy leave to rise in a warm area for 25 mins.

Whilst you are waiting for the dough to rise make the filling by adding all of the dry filling ingredients and dried fruit into a bowl.
Mix them together then mix in the maple syrup and vanilla essence.

Once the dough has risen, roll into a rectangle about 12 inches by 14 inches.

Now rub your filling all over the dough getting all into of the corners.

With the long side closest to you begin to roll the dough into a tube.
Now slice the tube into 8 equal sized pieces and place into a buttered baking tray.

Cover and leave to rise again for 10 mins.
Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees c.

Once the buns have risen, brush with the remaining butter and bake for 18-20 mins until golden brown.

Make up 100g of icing sugar mixed to required consistency with some warm water and drizzle over the buns.
Most people would suggest to wait until they have cooled but I prefer them straight out of the oven!

Serve for a sweet tasty breakfast with a good cup of coffee!

cherry pecan coffee loaf

I’ve been on a real quick bread kick of late, starting with what might have been the very best banana bread I’ve ever made three weeks ago. Since then, though, it’s been all about cherries. I am mad about cherry bread. Last week I made a gorgeous, if cakey, Cherry-Orange Quick Bread. This week, I thought I’d share the more substantial, cherry-chocked Cherry Pecan Coffee Loaf.

This bread is oaten and moist. The cherries give every piece a bit of zing, while the pecans and brown sugar topping add a wonderful earthiness. I used hazelnut milk, which really rounds out the flavours and also gives you a bit of added superfood. I’m not sure how easy it is to find, however, and let’s face it any milk (dairy or non) would be suitable.

ingredients:

3 cups plain flour
3/4 cup granulated golden sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 1/2 cups ready oats
2 cups milk (I used non-dairy hazelnut milk — delicious!)
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1 cup frozen cherries
1/4 cup brown sugar, for dusting
pecans for decorating

method:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees/Gas 5 and have a loaf pan greased at the ready (9 inches x 5 inches).

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger. In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, oil and vanilla. Stir the milk mixture into the flour mixture until almost incorporated, then add the frozen cherries.

Pour the mixture into the loaf pan and use a spatula to smooth evenly into the corners. Sprinkle the brown sugar over top, liberally. Then lightly set pecans into the surface at intervals. Bake for about 1 hour, or until golden. A tester (bamboo skewer or toothpick) should come out clean. Leave to cool for about 5-10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

alternatives:

Any berry/nut ever! Actually, I reckon any frozen fruit would be delish: mango would be great with coconut or brazil nuts to top and raspberry with walnut would be lovely. Next on the menu might be peach and almond.

recommendations:

As with all quick breads, try to wait until the next day before cutting into it. I’ve been baking mine at night lately, which admittedly helps me resist the urge to cut straight in. I leave the loaf to cool for an hour, then wrap it in my floppy silicone baking sheet and again in the opposite direction with a clean dish towel, and leave it in the bread bin till morning.

it’s chutney time – again

It’s chutney time again people!!!

I love this time of year, planning out all the Xmas gifts and goodies! One of my favourite parts is making Xmas Chutney.

I save chutney making to only once a year as if I made it any more than that I would be the size of my house due to over consumption of cheese and crackers!
It’s nice to know that for two weeks of the year, me and my love can sit on the living room floor with a tray full of cheese, meats, crackers, red wine and spicy fruit chutney!

I made a slight alteration to my recipe from last year, I added more chilli!!
We are on a crazy chilli kick at the moment and it had to be done!

I used red tomatoes instead of red and green and unfortunately they were bought from the grocers as my crop this year failed miserably :( I’ve put that down to the move as I dont think my veggies liked it too much.

I also added ground cloves, nutmeg and cider vinegar and the dried fruit was mixed rather than just sultana.

Anyway, my chutney is made, jarred and labeled and sitting waiting for the third week of December!

Roll on Christmas!!!

lemonade by the glass

The phrase ‘sunshine in a glass’ might be a little hyperbolic, but it is exactly what I need right now! Summer has not been forthcoming in London this year — something about jet-streams being further south than they should, cross-Atlantic weather systems… All I know is that I’m being chased by clouds and pelted with rain every time I step out my front door.

Enough, I say! If I can’t have the sun outdoors, I can at least have the sun in my mouth. Or something less dirty/flamey. Lemonade. I can have lemonade.

This recipe is a by-the-glass affair inspired by my decade-old memories of lemonade at Jet Fuel, a cafe near Riverdale in Toronto, which I would steam up to after a long day of lifeguarding at Regent’s Park Pool. They kept it simple and so have I.

ingredients:

1/2 lemon
fresh, cold water
3-4 ice cubes
2 heaped tsp. sugar (any kind)

method:

Using a lemon juicer (or your fist if you’re Hulk-like), squeeze out all the juice of the lemon half into a glass right to the pith. The pulpier the better.

Top up the glass up with fresh, cold water, leaving enough space to add the ice cubes without the liquid splashing over the sides. Add 3-4 ice cubes. Dump the sugar on top of the ice cubes and allow to sink to the bottom. Now, with a teaspoon, gingerly mix the sugar into the lemon mix and over the ice cubes. Be gentle: undue force will cause irreparable lemonade lossage.

Lemon. Squeeze. Repeat.

Note: I suspect you could do this by the jug-full, but I haven’t tried it. Let me know if you do and how it turns out!

Top Tip: Keep that teaspoon handy as the sugar will form a delicious sediment at the bottom of the glass, which would be a shame to waste.

Alternative Suggestions: Lime! Grapefruit!

Also Note: I think Jet Fuel used the peel and soaked it over night in sugar — I could be making that up, but I seem to recall zest being part of it.

Lastly: Yes, that is a jam jar. This is not an effort to be cutesy or all Depression Era-chic (always hilarious in these times of economic austerity), this is strictly practical. Over the last couple of years we have transitioned from proper glasses to jam jars because I can’t break jam jars; however, as Louisa will attest, show me a glass (especially a nice one, or one with sentimental value of any kind) and I will find a way to break it.

left overs feast – tortilla chips

Yesterday, my love made her signature dish of Beef Burritos for dinner and as usual it was delicious!!

No photos unfortunately, sorry.

I normally freeze the leftover tortilla breads to use another time but was told that they never roll properly when they are defrosted which proves for a messy Burrito!!! Not good!!

So instead of freezing I decided to use them and some other frozen ones to make yummy tortilla chips.

I had 2 wholemeal tortillas and 4 seeded tortillas to bake so I made two different flavours.

For the wholemeal I used olive oil, salt, pepper and chilli powder.

And for the seeded I used an oil blend (rainbow pepper) my mam got me for Xmas last year with a bit of salt.

I brushed the oil over both sides of the bread then sprinkled over the salt, pepper and chilli powder.

I placed them on a baking tray, without overlapping, and baked at gas 6 for about 5-8 mins, turning halfway.

They were so yummy they almost put me off my pizza!!!

saturday baking

I had my wisdom tooth taken out on Thursday and since then I’ve been feeling pretty bad!

I underestimated the pain and decided I would be fine to go into work on Friday! What a mistake!
I lasted about 3.5 hours but once my eye started drooping due to the pain I gave up and headed home.

Other than sleeping and eating mush…..

(awesome mushy food made by my love!)

….I’ve been doing not much more so today I decided to cheer myself up by baking a carrot cake. I don’t need to do any talking during baking which is perfect as it huuuurts!!

I saw this carrot cake last week on a local food blog I’ve been following and thought it looked perfect.

The main reason I was looking at baking a cake was to celebrate my love’s success over at daysarenumbers.net for scoring a film screening in Scala Forever’s ‘Russell Forever‘ season.
They will be showing Savage Messiah at the Montpelier at 3pm on Friday 16th March if anyone is a Ken Russell fan!

So here is the result!!
I think I’ll have to mush it all up to get it in my mouth but it will be worth it!

the zucchini bread trials

Ah, zucchini bread. One of lives greatest pleasures, this is. My love affair with quick breads secretly packed with vegetables began in high school, thanks to my friend Judith whose mum is a masterclass zucchini bread maker. Her version is usually darkened by a generous addition of cocoa powder to the batter and pitted with thick chunks of chocolate.

This version was an experiment to satisfy a craving. Foregoing chocolate, this version, or what’s left of it, is of the raisin and hazelnut variety. And oat. I realise oats and zucchini make for a bit of a weird craving, but go with me on this. I’ve been wanting to make something with oat flour for a while; it adds so much substance to general cakey naughtiness and it tastes delicious. As it happens, oat flour is always a good idea for everything, as is zucchini.

Although I’m a dab hand at quick breads in general, I’d not made a veganised version of zucchini bread in ages and wasn’t entirely sure how it was going to turn out. Not helping matter was the fact I didn’t have any flaxseeds, and zero inclination to make a run in the rain for them. However, I’d already blitzed my oats so I dug out an old recipe from my (poor, lamented) Erqsome blog that never fails no matter what you do to it. This recipe doesn’t bother with egg replacer at all and instead sticks to a wartime classic: a baking soda and baking powder combo.

The result was nearly perfect. The crumb is spot on; the crust is perfectly caramelised. As coffee bread it is lovely, but it’s not really something that I’d want on its own. The raisins were excellent, as I knew they would be, but I think dates would be even better. The hazelnuts were too much, there should have been about half (although if I use dates in future, I will have to go for pecans instead, obv.). The zucchini wasn’t quite present enough, there should have been double the zuke and more oat flour to counter the increased water content. The granulated sugar didn’t bring out the sweetness of the raisins and zucchini nearly well enough, while brown sugar would have been just right. I may even try to use palm sugar, if I can drum up enough courage to do the maths.

Bottom line: Zucchini Bread v2.0 will be AWESOME.

PS, So Louisa reminded me last week that I haven’t actually posted since October. OCTOBER. Sorry about that. Utterly remiss. There are good reasons for my absence, but I’ll save them for another post.

mulled new year

Here is a tried and tested recipe for Mulled Wine which will surely keep you warm as we head into the new year.

The week between Christmas and New Year is always a tough one, the big day is over, you’ve eaten too much and spent an abnormal amount of time with your family.
This mulled wine is what you need to see you through.

Keep it mulling on the stove and it will fill your house with calming, warming scents.

For use with 1 bottle of wine

Ingredients

3 tbl sp light muscovado sugar
1/2 orange peel
1/2 orange squeezed
1/2 orange sliced
1/2 lime squeezed
1/2 lemon squeezed
2 bay leaves
1 tsp each of nutmeg, all spice, cinnamon,
6 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 bottle of wine (Chianti or Cabernet Sauvignon)
2-3 25ml shots of brandy

Method

Add everything except the wine and brandy to a pan on a high heat.
Bring to the boil with a slosh of the wine and reduce to a syrup.
Once the syrup is thick enough to see the bottom of the pan when stirred add the remaining wine and brandy.
Once the liquid is at a warm drinkable temperature, pour into cosy glasses and enjoy.
Do not boil once the alcohol is added or you will burn it all off!

christmas is coming (quicker than I thought!)

So, I thought I was on top of all my christmas plans.

Decorations are up

The cake has been baked, fed and is now waiting to be eaten

my Chutney is settling nicely

my niece’s christmas sweater has been made and being worn by her for christmas parties.

This is an adaptation of Drops Christmas Jumpsuit with Hood, I used the Reindeer pattern from Knitting Matters blog and flipped it in PS to get the alternate side. Also across the back is a white and red snowflake motif.

(There is no way my neice could have an Aunt that knits without having a Xmas sweater, not only that but it matches mine from last year)

With my visit to the local Christmas market been planned with a detour via the Micro Brewery this weekend I thought I had plenty of time to finish my knitting, however with only 10 days left to go time is speeding along and Im getting slightly worried!!

I decided my Secret Santa person this year would be receiving knitted sock in amongst their gift so I chose the pattern Bex from Cookie A, Sock Innovation.

What a treat to knit!

The pattern is very easy to remember, with repetitive structured cables and travelling rib sections you can knit away getting lost in the texture. That is until the pattern jumps slightly, grabbing your attention back to the  design and taking you on a similar but slightly different journey than before.

The result is a bold, 3D like boxy pattern, reminiscent of Escher Stairs. Absolute Genius!

The yarn I am using Sparkleduck British Merino,  just adds to the texture of the pattern with a really tight twist in the ply and strong bold colour. Love it!

So this Sunday I am planning to bake something glorious out of the Nigella’s Christmas Recipe book, settle on the couch and finish these socks!

red and green tomato chutney – with a hint of chilli

I got so many tomatoes from my crop this year as even though the snails had got to them I was still left with a huge heap of both red and green ones that I just knew chutney was the way to go!!

I love chutney on pretty much anything! It is so nice smothered on a crusty bread roll with some strong cheddar cheese, or used as a dip for popadoms or crisps, or with left over Xmas dinner….. Mmmmmm

So the other day I set about putting together a recipe that would work with the quantity of tomatoes I was left with.

This is what I came up with!

Ive not yet tasted it since I jarred it up but it was tasting pretty good in the pan! Roll on Xmas so I can get these opened!

I’ve added quite a bit of chilli to give my chutney a kick but you can remove this if you don’t like the spice.
Also any dried fruit can be used instead or as well as the sultanas.

Ingredients

900g toms red/green
3 onions
3 apples (I used Cox and Braeburn)
70g sultanas (any dried fruit will do)
250g light muscovado sugar
400ml white wine vinegar (any vinegar will do)
1″ ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
3 small red chilli de-seeded (optional)
1 small red chilli with seeds (optional)

Method

Roughly chop all of the green tomatoes, onions and apples and chillies

Add all of the remaining ingredients plus the chopped fruit and veg (except the red tomatoes) to the pan and turn the heat on medium.

Cook for about 20 mins, stirring well, whilst roughly chopping your red tomatoes.

Add the red tomatoes to the pan and bring to a simmer.

Continue to simmer for approx three and a half hours until completely reduced.

And that’s it!
Simple!

Now for the jarring process.

This always scares me a little as I never want to ruin what I have made!

The steps I follow are:

1: use metal topped, screw lid jars (jam jars are perfect)
2: wash them in hot soapy water
3: rinse in clean hot water
4: place in the oven at gas mark 1 for up to an hour to dry.
5: remove them from the oven immediately before pouring the boiling hot chutney in to them.
6: take care when pouring/spooning and fill to almost the top.
7: wipe away any leakage.
8: cover the top of the chutney with a wax paper circle just slightly bigger than the top of the jar.
9: place plastic over the top, immediately wrap an elastic band around the plastic and screw on the lid.
10: leave to cool.

Store in a cool dry place until opened then store in the fridge.

I hear that the longer you leave your chutney the better it will taste so this is where the patience comes in!

Add some labels and your chutney is ready to enjoy or to give away as Xmas gifts!