Kale Chips

Kale is one of those vegetables that I do like but always ends up getting left in the back of the fridge to go off. I received some in my veg box and after a week I really really needed to use it up. I normally put it on pizza but we weren't having pizza so I made kale chips, which I've heard about before.

Kale chips are super duper easy, it is nearly not a recipe.
Just wash your kale, remove the stalky bits and tear in to medium sized pieces. Drizzle over some olive oil and season, toss to cover all the leaves.
Bake in a low-medium oven (about 150c) for 10-15 minutes, turning every five minutes to stop them buring - mine caught a little bit which means they go a bit bitter.

Eat!

Candied Ginger Brownies

You'd think I would have enough brownie recipes on here but I don't think there is such a thing as too many brownie recipes, or too many brownies!

Lately I have been more of a fan of brownies with things in them, before I was more of a chocolate nut and just wanted them to be as chocolatey as possible - which is obviously no bad thing either. But sometimes it is fun to experiment!

Spiced brownies are lovely and these candied ginger ones give you a good hit of ginger in each bite, and a bit of texture from the candied coating.

If you really like ginger I would make your pieces big but if you don't chop them up finer than I did, it will all work out fine either way. These are semi gooey brownies, with a nice crisp top.

100g good quality (70% cocoa or more) dark chocolate
70g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
75g self raising flour
1 tsp of baking powder
25g cocoa (or just use more flour)
100g candied ginger, chopped

Preheat your oven to 400f, 200c (180c fan) or gas mark 6

Break your chocolate into pieces and melt together with the butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring frequently.
Take the bowl off the heat, leave to cool for a few minutes and then add in sugar and then your eggs one at a time.
Then add in the vanilla. Sift in the rest of the dry ingredients and fold together.
Then carefully fold in your chopped candied ginger, saving some for the top.

Pour into a non stick or greased and lined 9 inch square cake tin and sprinkle over the rest of the ginger. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Elderflower Fritters - version 2

It's elderflower season!

Well strictly speaking it isn't but the whether has been so warm lately that elderflowers are blooming nearly more than a month early. I know this because I made fritters in late June last year. 

They were so good that I couldn't wait to get my hands on some more this year, so I am glad they are early.

Elderflowers grow almost everywhere so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding your own in the countryside.  I am lucky, I have a tree in my garden!

I am waiting for some more to bloom so I can make cordial too. So check back for a post on that.

Last time I made fritters they were nice but the batter was a little dense and my technique wasn't so great so they weren't all that pretty. I replaced some of the milk for sparkling water this time around, giving them a light batter, much like you would use for tempura.

Elderflower Fritters - serves 2 / makes 6 fritters

6 heads of elderflower - checked for bugs

50ml of milk
100ml of sparkling water
100g of self raising flour
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 egg

ground nut or sunflower oil for frying

Use your elderflowers as soon as you've picked them, if left too long they start to smell strange and lose their floral scent. Check them for any bugs but do not wash them otherwise you'll lose all the lovely pollen, which is where the flavour is.

To make your batter mix together the milk, water and then the egg. Slowly whisk in your flour, salt and baking powder until you have a loose batter - the consistency of single cream. Add more water if necessary.

Heat about 2-3 inches of oil in a large saucepan. Pop a bit of batter in after about 2 minutes to check if it is hot enough.

Dip your elderflower head in and twist slowly to make sure it is fully battered, then pull out and let the excess batter drip off. Carefully put into the hot oil - if you keep the stems long when picking you will have something to hold on to. Fry in batches for a few minutes until golden brown, drain on kitchen paper.

I like to serve them drizzled with honey and with a scoop of ice cream.

Lemon & Ricotta Breakfast Muffins

I called these muffins so you can eat them for breakfast.
I am kind to you like that.


I made these for three reasons.

1. I had a lot of lemons
2. I wanted to test out my new silicone cupcake breakfast muffin cases

3. I like to eat cake for breakfast.

On a serious note, they do have much less sugar than a cupcake, and of course no icing or buttercream -they aren't particularly sweet, so add more if you want a sweet muffin. They are lovely split open and served with some natural yoghurt and honey.


Lemon & Ricotta Muffins
makes 12 muffins

1 cup (200g) of self raising flour
1/4 (50g) cup of sugar
half teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of honey
1/2 (100g) cup of ricotta
1/4 (50ml) cup of milk
3 tablespoons of melted and cooled butter (approx 75g solid)
1 egg
zest of 3 lemons, juice of 2
oats or wheatgerm to sprinkle on top - optional

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4 / 180c / 160c fan.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Do the same with the wet ingredients and the egg, whisk them together. Slowly fold the wet into the dry, taking care not to over mix.

do you like my silicone cupcake liners? fancy and useful.

Fill the cupcake cases generously with the mixture, about 1 cm from the top - you want them to rise high.
Sprinkle with some oats or wheatgerm if you'd like.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until they are cooked through.

Lemon Bars for UK Handmade Summer Issue

Hello!

I have been a bit quiet on the blog front recently, I have just started a new job and still getting into the swing of things. Also I had a rotten stomach bug last week which left me with nearly a whole week off unable to bake anything!

I did however recently write a recipe for the UK Handmade summer issue, some gloriously summery lemon bars. It is on page 47, please have a read and the rest of the magazine is just beautiful this month.

I will be back very soon with some new recipes :)


Deepa

Sourdough Bread

I started my sourdough starter nearly two weeks ago, and the week between making the starter and making the bread made me really impatient!

I love sourdough bread, it keeps really well and has a really distinctive taste.

I used the recipe from River Cottage to make my bread, using 100ml of my starter (which I fed again once I had taken some out for bread). You have to make a 'sponge' first and leave it to ferment overnight. This bit is a bit nerve wracking first time because it is then if you find out if your starter will ferment - luckily the morning after I was greeted with a nice bubbly bowl of sponge.

Once worked into a dough and proved all day it baked to a lovely big loaf. I think the only mistake I made was getting a bit carried away with making sure I had a nice crisp crust. I poured water into the tray a few times during cooking so the crust was really thick, not so great the day after, but good straight out the oven.
Next time I will fill up one tray of water and leave it at that.

I am looking forward to making some more bread next week. I have also seen a recipe for sourdough pancakes which sounds interesting!

I made a simple tomato soup to go with our sourdough which I topped with cheese and grilled. Yum!

Rhubarb Custard Cake with Lemon Glaze

Forced rhubarb time is here! It definitely feels like spring time when seasonal fruit comes back into the shops. I love the colour of forced rhubarb too, shocking pink just reminds me of summer time rather than dull old February.

I bake with rhubarb a lot, cakes, cupcakes, pies, simple crumbles and jam. This recipe is super simple to make, the crumb is creamy - to me it actually tastes of custard  - and we all know what rhubarb goes with! This batter has more eggs and less flour, hence the custard taste, and the juices from the rhubarb seep out whilst it makes which makes it extra moist.

I experimented with a lemon glaze too, rhubarb is sour but I think the glaze works surprisingly well.

Rhubarb Custard Cake
makes one cake, I baked mine in a 7 inch square tin.

150gs of softened unsalted butter
150gs of white sugar plus extra for the top
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100gs self raising flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder
zest of one lemon
2 large sticks of rhubarb

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, mix in your eggs one by one and then the vanilla. Fold in your zest, flour and baking powder til just combined. Pour the batter into a greased and lined cake tin (mine was non stick so I didn't use any baking paper)
Trim your rhubarb and chop into 1 inch pieces, arrange over the top of the cake, sprinkle about a tablespoon of sugar over the top, this will add a bit of extra sweetness to the rhubarb.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes at 200c / gas mark 6 til cooked through. When a knife is inserted it won't come out absolutely clean because it is quite a moist cake, a few crumbs should stick.

Leave to cool for about 5 minutes and then very carefully transfer to a plate or a board to allow you to glaze the cake.

For the lemon glaze
juice of one lemon
dash of vanilla extract
approx 70g caster sugar

whisk both together until well combined, the sugar doesnt have to dissolve as you want a nice crunchy top. Spoon over the warm cake and leave for as long as you can before grabbing yourself a slice.

This cake is just lovely out of the oven as it is incredibly crispy on top, you can reheat it slightly from cold to crisp up again too.

Starting a Sourdough Starter

I have started a sourdough starter! I started it on Sunday, so far it is going well and I had bubbles last night. I am probably too excited about it. Hopefully I can make some sourdough over the weekend.

This blog post from Joy the Baker is super useful, some of the other recipes out there are ESSAYS on the subject, really it is simple. One cup of bread flour. One cup of water. Blend. Every 24 hours for the first 3-4 days you need to feed it. Do this by throwing half away, and adding half cup of water and half a cup of flour. Stir. Leave in a warm place. Once it has established itself you keep it in the fridge and feed it once a week.


(if anyone knows how to take an attractive picture of this big yeasty floury mess I'd be grateful, haha).

My First Macarons & Using Up Your Egg Yolks Lemon Curd

Hurray some food blogging!

I've been a bit remiss since Christmas (ok way before then) even though I've been baking lots of things and making lots of things.

Macarons have been on my lists for ages and ages, our last house had the worse oven on the planet, it couldn't even cook a baked potato evenly so I wasn't trusting it with macarons. Since we have moved we have a nice shiny electric oven which keeps the temperature even and cooks things nice and quickly. I can now bake a whole cake in less than an hour and without checking it every 2 minutes impatiently.

This also means I can now make meringues, lemon meringue pie specifically! Yum.

I used the recipe over on The Catty Life, she embued me with confidence that I Can Do It. Macrons scared me a bit, maybe I read too much into them and worried about how hard they would be.

I didn't age my egg whites, like you should, because I forgot. I still got the taste of macarons and the airy inside, but I didn't get the longer for 'feet' and a thicker shell. You can make macarons with un-aged egg whites but they won't be as pretty!

Vanilla Macarons with Lemon Curd Filling 
recipe from the catty life 

100g ground almonds
200g caster or icing sugar (I used caster which was fine)
50g caster sugar
3 egg whites - preferably aged by leaving them in a bowl at room temperature for 24 hours.
squirt of vanilla extract

Whip your egg whites still they start to foam/turn white, then add in the 50g of caster sugar slowly to combine. Whisk further til you the eggs form stiff peaks, add in the vanilla extract.
Combine the almonds and the 200g of sugar in a bowl, mix, then carefully fold them in to the meringue mix, adding it in quarters til combined.
Using a piping bag dot the mixture on to a lined baking tray, mine were about 1.5 inches wide, they don't spread too much in the oven.
Leave for 30 minutes to an hour til the mixture sets a little, it should form a 'shell' on the top.
Bake at 150 degrees celsius for 15 minutes. Keep checking, the recipe says 10 minutes but I needed a bit longer.

Remove when cool by sliding a knife under each macaron.
Sandwich with lemon curd, eat four in a row like I did.

Lemon Curd
This lemon curd is great because you can use up your leftover egg yolks from the macarons.

3 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
juice and zest of one lemon
50 grams of unsalted butter, cubed

Beat the egg yolks and caster sugar in a heatproof bowl using an electric whisk til the sugar has dissolved.
Then place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, add in the lemon juice and zest plus the butter. Whisk to melt the butter, the eggs should start to thicken, keep whisking. Keep an eye on the heat as you don't want the eggs to scramble. The mixture is done when it coats the back of a wooden spoon - it will thicken further as it cools.
Immediately pour into hot sterilised jars (this actually makes one jar) and seal. Keeps for 2 weeks in the fridge, after opening.

Easy Peasy Mince Pies

I love homemade mince pies, shop bought ones are always disappointing, too much filling and horrible dry pastry. Mince pies are also very satisfying to make, they seem like a big achievement but they can be really easy.

I was given a jar of homemade mincemeat which went into these pies, it was much lovelier than shop bought - not too sweet, boozy and well spiced.

The pastry contains no liquid, just butter, flour and sugar. A lot of butter, which is what makes it stick together. The resulting pastry case is very close to shortbread but crisper and sweeter. I think these took me just over an hour to make, most of the time was spent because I had to bake in two batches.

They are not the prettiest mince pies ever, not neat but what I like to call 'rustic'. They taste brilliant though, which is what matters!

I played around with the mincemeat, the first batch had pure mincemeat but the second I added some chopped hazlenuts and grated apple (spotted that tip on Kirstie and Phil's Christmas) which added lovely texture and also meant I could eke out the mincemeat more.

Makes approximately 16 - 18 mince pies
adapted from BBC Good Food

225g very cold butter
350g plain flour
100g granulated or caster sugar
1 jar (about 300g) mincemeat
egg or milk to brush over tops

Add your flour to a large mixing bowl, then grate in all of your butter. Grating cold butter means that you have finer strands in your flour which allows you to incorporate it better. Rub into the flour til you have a texture like fine crumble. Mix in your sugar and start to knead into a dough, the butter will be warmer now and so you will be able to work into a dough. Try not to add any liquid as your pastry will shrink in the oven later on.
Once it starts to form knead briefly and it is ready to use.

Preaheat oven to 200c (180c fan) or gas mark 6.
Lightly grease a nonstick cup tin, you don't have to but I wasn't going to trust my tin entirely after last year!
To form the bottoms you can either form walnut sized pieces of dough, flatten and then spread out into each cup to form a base. Or you can roll out the dough carefully (using plenty of flour) and use pastry cutters. I found the pastry cutters a better method although a little more time consuming. Form tops using pastry cutters or small sized balls squashed out.
You can also go for a lattice effect (which may look neater than mine, I am sure) or top with chopped nuts - both of which are delicious.

Brush the tops with beaten egg or milk, bake for 20 minutes til golden brown.
Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before taking them out of the tins.

Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes - Gluten Free

These are properly syrupy, sticky and sweet cupcakes with a lovely lemon tang - I didn't start out intending for them to be gluten free but they are which is a great bonus! I made them by replacing the flour for ground almonds - which makes the cakes light and slightly nutty as well as gluten free.

I sprinkled the cupcakes with sugar before baking for an extra crisp top, and then drizzled them with a generous amount of syrup when the came out of the oven.

Makes 12 muffins / large cupcakes

175g unsalted butter
200g sugar
200g ground almonds
zest of 2 lemons
juice of 2 lemons
1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder
3 eggs

Cream the butter and sugar together til well combined, then whisk in eggs, fold in almonds, zest and baking powder. You can add a dash of vanilla extract here too.  Spoon into cupcake cases, leaving about 1cm from the top of the case. Sprinkle each cake with sugar, be generous!

Bake in the oven for 10 - 15mins til cooked through, they will be squidger than normal cakes but they will be cooked through. They won't rise to a dome like a flour cake either, mainly cos of the sugar topping too, but the baking powder will help them along a little bit.

for the drizzle:
juice of 2 lemons
approx 3-4 tablespoons of sugar

mix the drizzle ingredients together til you have a consistency like double cream, set aside while the cupcakes cook. as soon as the cupcakes come out prick them a few times each with a fork, and then drizzle some of the syrup over the top.

Leave to cool and then eat! These are so soft and syrupy that they make a lovely pudding with some creme fraiche or ice cream.

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

I have been a bit quiet on the food blogging front lately, I have been baking and making new things but the dark evenings are making food blogging difficult. There have been rhubarb buttermilk cakes, cupcakes, a couple of tarte tatins and the best custard ever, but sadly my camera wasn't a guest at these baking sessions!

These cinnamon roll cupcakes are a little bit different, and I couldn't wait to try them. So I had a day off and the light was good, perfect!

I've never been much of a fan of cinnamon rolls, often they are dry and the cinnamon far too over powering- and also covered in sickly icing which ruins the pastry. I always thought them hard to make because of making a dough and making them cook through just right.

I spotted a couple of cinnamon cupcake recipes whilst googling due to cravings, and they seemed easy and well... ever so cute.
It is not a cupcake as such, it is just cooked in a cupcake tin with liners. This means each roll cooks quickly and you have instant individual portions. Because the rolls are squished up nicely in the cake liner they rise upwards and you have lots of pretty little rolls.

The recipe itself is fairly easy - you need time to wait around for it to prove and rest and you need to make sure you work it to a nice soft dough. After the first prove and the first rest you spread a wonderful mix of cinnamon, lots of sugar and butter onto a rolled out rectangle. Once rolled up and chopped into pieces you prove once more and bake in the oven. The cinnamon sugar crisps up on top and inside it caramelises for a lovely gooey caramel surprise.

You will eat at least two of these in a row when they are still warm from the oven, promise you.

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes
Makes about 12 - 14 rolls/cupcakes

for dough
1/2 pack of instant yeast (about 3 g)
1/4 cup of  granulated sugar divided into two
1/2 cup warm milk (whole or semi skimmed)
2 tbsp melted butter
1 egg
pinch salt
2 cups of strong white bread flour
dash of cinnamon

for cinnamon sugar filling
1/2 cup of granulated or brown sugar
1 heaped tablespoon of cinnamon
approx 3 tbsp softened butter / 25g

Dissolve the yeast and half the sugar in the warm milk (whisking helps it combine), leave for 10 minutes til it is foamy.
Then add in your eggs, melted butter, rest of the sugar and the salt. Mix well then sift in your flour and cinnamon. Mix until it becomes more dough like and then knead for a few minutes til you have a soft and smooth dough. Cover with a tea towel and leave to prove in a warm place for 1 hour to 1 hr 30 mins - until the dough has doubled in size.

After the first prove turn the dough out on to a board, roll it in to a rough rectangle, about 1 inch thick. Leave to rest uncovered for 10 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400f / 200c / gas mark 6.

Roll out your dough til it is about 1/2 in thick, you want it to be rectangular so cut off the edges to form a rectangle - you can use the trimmings to make some more rolls after the first batch.

Mix together your cinnamon sugar filling in a small bowl then spread the mixture over the rectangle, leaving about 1 cm from the edge of the dough. If you have any leave over dough trimmings leave some sugar mix to spread on that.

Carefully roll your dough and sugar mix in to a sausage shape, cut in to 12 pieces.
Fit them snugly into some cupcake cases in a cupcake tin, you want big muffin/cupcake sized tin and cases rather than small fairy cake type ones.

Cover the cupcake tin with a tea towel and leave to prove for 30 minutes.
Once proved bake in the oven for 10 minutes til the dough is cooked through and the sugar bubbling away. Keep an eye on it as the sugar can burn quickly - some of mine caught slightly because I got distracted with jewellery things ;)

Leave to cool for a bit before eating, they'll be very hot.
You can also add in a cream cheese or simple caramel frosting, but they are just as good on their own!

Ginger Molasses Cupcakes - Happy National Cupcake Week!

Happy National Cupcake Week everyone!

I believe this week is just promotional for a baking magazine but it is a good enough excuse for me to bake cupcakes, so yay!


As the weather is getting colder and Autumn is approaching I thought I'd make something comforting and spicy. I had some muscovado molasses sugar in the cupboard and ginger seemed like a good match, a bit like sticky toffee pudding without the dates. I have iced the cupcakes with a light lemon cream frosting which goes really well against the rich sponge.

Ginger Molasses Cupcakes

 Makes 12 large cupcakes

100g butter, softened
175g dark muscovado or muscovado molasses sugar
2 eggs
dash of vanilla extract
zest of half a lemon - optional
175g self raising flour
175ml buttermilk or whole milk
1 heaped teaspoon of ground ginger - I opted for ground as I didn't want stringy bits of fresh ginger in my cakes.

Mix together your butter and sugar until fully combined, you may need to blend it slightly to combine as the sugar is thicker and denser. Whisk in your eggs one by one using a hand whisk or an electric one. Then add in the vanilla, ginger and lemon if using.
Alternately add a small amount of your flour (sifted in) and buttermilk/milk til all of it is used up.

Fill cupcake cases up 1cm from the top, you want nice full cupcakes, and bake in a preheated medium oven for 15-20minutes until cooked through.

Light Lemon Cream Icing

Ices 12 cupcakes

100ml of double cream
juice of one lemon
3 tabelspoons of icing sugar

Whisk your cream with an electric whisk until it forms soft peaks, then slowly with a hand whisk combine in your icing sugar and lemon juice. Taste for sweetness/lemonness, add more to your taste.
Chill in the fridge until the cupcakes are ready to ice. These cupcakes are best iced just before you eat them so the cakes don't get soggy. The icing will keep in a bowl in the fridge for a couple of days so you can ice as you go!
I topped mine with some cute little blackberries that I picked in my garden, they worked really well with the creamy gingery cupcake.

Yum! I hope you bake something yummy for national cupcake week.

Deepa
x

ps - apologies for the quality of the pics, it is getting dark in the evenings! :(

Spiced One Bowl Brownies

I have encountered and made many brownie recipes, each one different from the next in technique and flavour. I like them with coffee, with nuts, even with bacon, but sometimes I want them to be quick and easy - because everyone needs brownies in a hurry sometimes.

These recipes require something which I don't normally ever use in baking - a microwave. The butter and chocolate is melted in the microwave for a couple of minutes and then the other ingredients stirred in one by one.

I've adapted the recipe to include some spices (something that feels very autumnal!) - ginger, cinnamon and smoked paprika - trust me the smoked paprika is good.

I much prefer very gooey brownies but my husband prefers his more like a moist cake - these are more of a cakey brownie with a lightly crisped top. If you like gooeyness then use about 50g less of the flour.

Spiced One Bowl Brownies
adapted from all recipes

NB  - I made this recipe again but with only 75g of flour and 25g cocoa powder, it gave a gooier brownie with a crisper top, good if you like them this way!

100g good quality dark chocolate (70%), broken in to pieces
70g butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinamonn
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Preheat your oven to 400f, 200c or gas mark 6

Put the butter and chocolate into a large microwavable bowl, microwave on high for 2 minutes.
Remove from the microwave and stir together til the chocolate is completely melted in with the butter.
Stir in sugar til combined.
Stir in your eggs one by one and then add in your vanilla.
Sift in your flour, baking powder and spices, fold in to combine.

Pour into a greased and lined, or non stick, square 9inch pan. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until just done - your knife should come out with a few crumbs when inserted - the great thing about brownies is that it isn't a disaster if they are underdone because it equals more gooeyness!

easy flourless peanut butter cookies

These have to be the easiest cookies to make ever. Four ingredients, made and in and out the oven in 30 minutes, and no flour!

They are crumbly and soft and if you want to add a 5th ingredient I urge you to press in some dark chocolate chips.

Please use good quality peanut butter for these, I opted for Whole Earth organic peanut butter which has nice chunky peanut pieces in it, and a lot less oily than standard peanut butter.

Update - 14/7 - Something I forgot to say! I tried these with a mixture of honey and sugar too, 3/4 of the sugar and 1/4 of soft set honey which works just as well. I think half and half might even work too!

Makes 24 cookies
adapted from joy the baker

1 cup (200g) good quality crunchy peanut butter
1 cup (200g) of brown or caster sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp of baking powder

Preheat your oven to 180c / gas mark 4. Grease and line a flat baking sheet. This recipe makes two batches, if you have two trays you can cook them at once or cook in batches.

Add your peanut butter, sugar and baking powder to a mixing bowl, stir well to combine the ingredients. Add in your beaten egg and mix for a few minutes until you have a soft dough.

Form into walnut sized dough balls and add to your baking sheet, press down with a fork. Bake for 10 minutes until golden brown.
Leave to cool completely on the baking tray (I know, torture!) so they harden slightly - they are quite soft when they come out of the oven.

Serve with a large cup of tea, feet up and begin dunking!

Cooking - Ricotta Gnocchi & Sundried Tomato Pesto

I'm a big fan of gnocchi, but I don't have it often enough, mainly because I've always made it with potatoes which is a far more labourious process. This ricotta version does still require a little effort but is less time consuming, from this you get a light and creamy pasta with less heartache from boiling and cooling potatoes.

Gnocchi refers to the shape of the pasta rather than what it is made from - gnocchi is the plural of gnocco, which means 'lump' in italian - so they refer more to little dumplings rather than a specific ingredient.


This gnocchi can be served with any of your favourite sauces - a simple tomato, basil pesto, a cream sauce or sage butter. My new favourite is sundried tomato pesto, it is a great sauce because you can bring it together with storecupboard ingredients and a touch of parmesan.

I made do with normal supermarket ricotta here but if you can find something great from a deli or your local farm shop it will taste even better.

Serves 2
To make the Gnocchi

250g tub of ricotta
150g - 200g 00 pasta flour or plain white flour
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon parmesan or pecorino
salt and pepper

First you need to drain your ricotta, put it in a fine sieve over a bowl and leave for half an hour for any residual water to drip through.

Once your ricotta is ready add it to a large bowl with the egg yolk and seasoning, then your pecorino or parmesan. Stir to combine, then slowly add your flour in a few tablespoons at a time until you have a workable but slightly sticky dough. Make sure to add your flour in slowly so you can keep an eye on the consistency.

Knead the dough very lightly for a minute, the key to good and light gnochhi is to try not to work the dough too much. Cut it into two pieces and roll each piece out into a sausage shape about 1 inch thick.

Cut your dough into little 1 inch pieces. Transfer to a well floured plate or tray and refridgerate for at least 1 hour. If you want to freeze your gnocchi to use later, lay out on a baking sheet and freeze, then transfer them to a freezer bag. Defrost fully before cooking.

To cook your gnocchi, add to a pan of simmering water and cook for 1 - 2 minutes until the gnocchi float to the top.
Remove with a slotted spoon as each one rises to the surface. If you are making the pesto below save a few tablespoons of the cooking water.

For extra texture you can fry your gnocchi after this step. Add oil to a nonstick pan and fry on a high heat for 1 - 2 minutes on each side until golden brown. This step is great because you get a crisp outside and a melty middle.

To make sundried tomato pesto

4 -5 sundried tomatoes
clove of garlic
about 10 pine nuts
2 tablespoons parmesan or pecorino
olive oil
small bunch of basil - optional
salt and pepper

Blitz all your ingredients in a food processor until blended. Add more oil if it seems a little thick. This pesto is a little drier than basil pesto, you can use the saved cooking water from your pasta to make it more like a sauce.

To serve with your gnocchi very gentle toss the sauce with the hot gnocchi in a saucepan, being careful not to break up the gnocchi pieces.

Serve in warmed bowls with parmesan on top, we had ours with some garlic rubbed ciabatta too.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

I crave things often and suddenly, but normally they go away fairly quickly to be replaced by another craving. Sometimes I crave something for days and this is when I have to make it at all costs.

This time it was sticky toffee pudding. I've never made it myself before but it was only going to be a matter of time. I searched around and found this recipe by David Lebowitz and also this version of his recipe on Ginger Tablet which was happily in grams rather than cups too.



This is just the kind of food you need when the roads are covered in ice and the house just won't heat up, it really does feel like it sticks to your ribs (and your arteries).

Sticky Toffee Pudding - adapted from David Lebowitz & Ginger Tablet
I roughly halved the Ginger Tablet recipe, made a couple of variations and we got four very generous helpings.

for the cake:

250g dried dates, chopped

100g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 egg
vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp

50g butter, softened

80g granulated sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

50ml milk

for the toffee sauce:

100g muscovado sugar

25g butter, diced

100ml double, heavy cream

1tbsp golden syrup

Put your chopped dates in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for about 10-15 minutes whilst you make the cake mixture and sauce.

For toffee sauce add all the ingredients to a non stick saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring all the time so it doesn't boil away. After about 5 minutes take off the heat. I added a bit of cream towards the end as the recipe said this would help the sauce to remain thin, it still thickened anyway! Reheating it will bring it back to sauce stage later on.

Line a loaf tin with well buttered greaseproof paper (both sides) - add half of the toffee sauce to the bottom of the loaf in.

Cream butter and sugar in a bowl.Add egg, then vanilla then your syrup. Sift in flour & baking soda slowly and mix in carefully. Add in milk and mix. Then drain your dates and add to the cake mixture, mixing carefully, take care not to overmix.
Then add your cake mixture to the loaf tin, on top of the toffee sauce.
The layer of toffee sauce really makes this pud stand out!

Bake for 20 -25 minutes at Gas mark 4 (I think 180c?). My oven is old and decripid and so took a lot longer but anyone with a normal oven should have this ready in less time.

Reheat the rest of the sauce on the hob when the cake is done, slice cake, pour on sauce, add ice cream/cream/custard, die of pleasure.

Any remaining sauce will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, but if you use it all up the first sitting (don't blame you!) its fairly easy to make a small batch with the same recipe above.

:)

Vanilla Marshmallows

One of the things I do this time of year is try a recipe that I have never tried before, something sweet, so I can give the end product as a gift.
Really, this is not very wise considering I am planning on giving these things as gifts, and should they go wrong I would have to rush out to the shops at the last minute!

I've made fudge in the past, truffles and some disastrous too vinegary red onion marmalade.

This year I thought I'd try marshmallows, I'd seen them on River Cottage a few months back and they looked too delicious not to try. I love sweets but the shop bought marshmallows are always disappointing.

Boiling sugar, mince pies in the background!

I used the River Cottage recipe but tweaked it a little to my taste.
I didn't go for the beetroot but instead prepared some vanilla sugar ahead of time (2 weeks in a tub with a couple of split vanilla pods) and also infused some spent vanilla pods in the hot water before I added the gelatine.

The vanilla taste comes through very well, I'd love to try other things next time - maybe infusing with fruit tea.
You also don't need a mixer for this but you do really need an electric whisk to save your arms, and obviously the thermometer is a total must.

I took my marshmallows out of the tin after about 3 hours but I left it on a powdered board overnight to set further, this makes them a lot less sticky to cut into pieces.

These take an afternoon to make but they are definitely worth it, they are nothing like the shop bought variety at all. I can't wait to hear the verdict from those receiving them! I will of course be keeping some for myself, for coffee dunking purposes.



xx