Plum jam shortbread

Getting some distance to things is sometimes useful. I haven´t spent much time online in the last few weeks, first I was busy preparing for my extended Christmas holiday, getting presents and cards all finished on time, then cleaning the house and packing my bags. When I landed in Finland, it was like coming to a completely different world. I turned off roaming on my phone and all of a sudden I was detached from all the usual communication that keeps me preoccupied. I still have wifi at my Mum´s of course, but the Culinary Consultant has taken over my computer so all I have is my iPad. And now Mum´s computer when I'm writing this, as typing long texts on a touchpad is more than my patience can handle.

I live so closely connected to the internet at home. I check my emails first thing in the morning, check facebook, blog, read blogs and then check the emails last thing before I go to bed. Not so when I'm in Finland. This is a holiday from everything that is routine. I don't have access to my craft room, and I don't need to cook. And I have also been thinking about my relationship to blogging. And how the food blog has become more of a chore than a fun hobby. Which is why I will take some time off to see whether I want to get back to it later in the year. Or whether I just want to focus on the card blog as there will be some more exciting announcements over there soon. So I don't know whether this will be my last blog post for a while or my last food blog post ever. If I do get back to blogging, I will update it on my facebook, twitter and Google+. But for now I wish everyone a wonderful, peaceful and food filled Christmas and a great New Year 2015, may it be even better than last year!!

I will publish a food recipe as well. It's something super quick and easy to put together, bakes relatively quickly and it's absolutely delicious. The original recipe is from The English Kitchen, and it's for lemon curd shortbread.  I thought my home made plum jam would be great substitute as it feels silly buying lemon curd when I have the fridge filled to the brim with home-made goodies. The plum jam is not very sweet and it has a slight sour/bitter flavour to it, just like marmalade has. That's why I love combining it with sweet pastry, it keeps the balance of the flavours, just as I imagine lemon curd would as well. So whether you have lemon curd, plum jam, orange marmalade or something else you want to use up, this shortbread is a great way of doing that.

Plum jam shortbread (serves 8):
225 g all purpose flour
125 g semolina or rice flour
125 g caster sugar
225 g chilled butter, cut into small cubes
200 g plum jam (or lemon curd, or whatever other jam/curd takes your fancy)
2 tbsp caster sugar

The howto: 
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Butter a 21 cm springform tin. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, flour and semolina. Add the cubed butter and rub with the butter into the flour until the texture of coarse sand. Press half of the mixture into the springform tin, and spread the jam on top. Mix the rest of the butter and flour mixture with the additional 2 tbsp sugar and spread the crumble topping onto the jam, pressing down lightly. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the edges start to turn a bit golden. Let cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then cut into eight slices. 

The verdict:
This is a super easy treat you can whip up at any time as it only uses kitchen staples. Perfect for surprise guests. It's amazing how delicious it is, given that only very basic ingredients go in it. It's buttery and crumbly, and it's absolutely irresistible. 

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies

I just started my three week Christmas holiday (I'm writing this on Friday night, and schedule it to be published early on Saturday morning). I can't remember the last time I would have three weeks off work. Possibly not in ten years, possibly never. In about four hours we are heading off to the airport to go home to Finland to spend Christmas with friends and family. I will be exhausted when the alarm clock goes off, I'm even contemplating just staying up all night.

The weeks leading up to today have been chaotic, both me and the Culinary Consultant have been working long hours, so everything else has been pushed aside. No proper cooking, no house cleaning, very little crafting and certainly no time to plan what to pack and very little thought about Christmas presents. This year we will make do with very few presents. And I don't mind at all! There has been several difficult times this fall, but everyone has made it through and all I want to do is take it easy, do nothing and just enjoy the simple things. Cook nice food. See friends. Spend time with family. My only regret is that my baby Sis, who is doing a wonderful job on her first year as a medical doctor, can't join us this year. 

I am just sitting on the sofa, writing this while the Culinary Consultant (who has to stay awake tomorrow morning for the two hour drive to the airport) is sound asleep upstairs. I'm really tired too, but at the same time I'm so wound up about travelling tomorrow (oh wait, correction, later today!) that I can't really sleep. I keep going over things in my head. Did I really pack everything I need (most likely not, but it won't really matter) and did I really put the passport in my bag (yes, it was there the last seventy-two times I checked, so I'm sure it's still there). Is my phone charged? Yes. Will I remember to pack the phone and the charger tomorrow morning? Yes, because I never go anywhere without my phone. That's pretty much what is going on in my head at the moment. Oh and that little nagging voice saying I should be in bed, and that I will regret this tomorrow morning. No wait, correction again, later this morning. 

I better get on to today's recipe. I had some leftover cream cheese that just "had" to be used up. And when the Culinary Consultant went digging in one of our kitchen cupboards he found a bag of dried cranberries. So it wasn't so much we wanting cookies as it was divine intervention I think. I used this recipe from a blog called Gimme Some Oven. I didn't make any other changes to the recipe apart from halving it, as I thought two dozen cookies should be enough.

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies (makes about 24):
For the cookies
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I used less as I always think recipes use too much salt)
115 g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1/2 tsp vanilla paste)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup cranberries

For the frosting:
115 g cream cheese
1/4 cup white chocolate chips, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
1 cup icing sugar

For the topping:
finely chopped dried cranberries
small chocolate chips or melted white chocolate

The howto:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Mix the flour, soda and salt. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugars using an electric mixer. Add the egg and vanilla and keep on whisking. Gradually add the dry ingredients, and mix until batter is smooth. Gently fold in the chocolate chips and cranberries. Wrap dough in cling film and chill for at least an hour.

Place tablespoon sized dollops of the dough onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet, well separated as the cookies expand quite a lot when baking.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Bring cream cheese for the frosting to room temperature.

When cookies are completely cooled, prepare the frosting. Using an electric mixer, mix the cream cheese with the melted chocolate. Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature, otherwise the chocolate will solidify. Add the vanilla. Reduce the speed of the mixed and incorporate the icing sugar. Spread onto the cooled cookies. Decorate with cranberries and white chocolate.

The verdict:
These cookies were very sweet. If you don't like very sweet cookies, don't make them, or alternatively just exclude the icing. But if you do like very sweet things, you will love these. And the tartness of the cranberries does cut the sweetness a bit. Needless to say, these disappeared very quickly from our kitchen, I can't imagine who could have eaten a huge batch of cookies in just a few days... They are so pretty with the red cranberries on the white frosting, very Christmas-y and perfect for the season.

Rock cakes

I asked the Culinary Consultant whether there was something in particular he wanted me to bake. Usually I don't get much a reply other than along the lines of "Not really". This time however he did bring up the subject of Rock cakes. I haven't had them before, but I remember the Culinary Consultant has mentioned them a few times. According to Wikipedia they are fruit cakes which have a rough surface resembling rock. They were promoted during the Second World War by the Ministry of Food as they require less sugar and eggs than ordinary cakes. Old ways are often good ways, so I decided to give them a try. I used this recipe from BBC food but added a bit of cinnamon and allspice.

Rock cakes (makes about 12):
225 g self raising flour
75 g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
125 g butter, cubed
150 g dried fruit (such as sultanas, raisins, orange peel, currants)
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract (I used one tsp vanilla paste)

The howto:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Mix the flour, sugar an baking powder and add the butter. With your fingers, rub the butter with the flour mixture until the texture of coarse sand. Mix int the dried fruit and spices. In another bowl, mix the egg, milk and vanilla extract. Add to the flour and butter mixture and stir with a spoon until a rough dough forms. If the dough is too dry to come together, add a tsp of milk. Don't overmix. Using two spoons, drop the dough onto a parchment paper lined baking tray to form rough heaps the size of golf balls. Bake for 15-20 minutes (mine baked for 24 minutes) or until golden on top. Enjoy with tea or coffee while warm.

The verdict:
The cakes are very quick to prepare and don't take very long to cook, so they are easy treats to make. They did turn out similar to the picture in the original recipe, so I think I got it quite right. The texture of the cakes is lovely and crumbly and the pieces of fruit are really good. I had three as soon as they came out of the oven...

Biscoff and chocolate cookies

Many food bloggers are are always trying to find the ultimate cookie recipe. Some like their cookies crunchy, others like them chewy. I like any cookies. Soft, crunchy, chewy or any other kind. They are just different aspects of the same ultimate delight. So while others work hard trying to perfect their recipes to be just so-and-so or this-and-that, I just enjoy the cookie recipes they create. There are all these ideas about how cookie dough improves when it's stored in the fridge for a few days. A few DAYS? I can't even leave it to chill for a few hours. When I want my cookies now, I want them NOW. And that's the ultimate genius with cookies, they are pretty quick to make, if you don't insist on leaving them in the fridge for days. About 10 minutes to whip up the dough and then about 10 minutes in the oven. If you are in a cookie emergency, like I was the other day, you can have cookies on the table in less than half an hour. Now THAT's what I call a perfect cookie!!

On a side note, how ironic is it that this recipe uses Biscoff spread, which basically is cookies made into a spread, to make cookies. Yes, it's a bit weird. At least this time I managed to save enough cookie butter to actually make cookies, last time I bought Biscoff spread I just ate it straight out of the jar and had almost none left to bake with. 

This recipe was one that I have pinned ages ago, just in case of a Biscoff cookie emergency. It's from a blog called Buns In My Oven, but it's originally from a book by Katrina Bahl called The Biscoff Cookie & Spread cookbook. The original recipe says it makes about 30 cookies, I made mine bigger so I got 16 cookies and hence had to increase the cooking time a bit. I don't like small cookies, they just make me sad. A cookie should be a good size, it's very rewarding to have a big cookie in my opinion. But you can of course make the cookies any size you want.

Biscoff and chocolate cookies (makes 16-30):
120 g butter at room temperature
120 g Biscoff spread
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (I used 2/3 tsp vanilla paste)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt (I omitted this as I used salted butter)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips

The howto:
Cream together butter, Biscoff spread and the sugars. Keep on whisking and add the egg and vanilla. In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients and combine with the butter and sugar mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips. 

Make balls or use a cookie scoop to drop balls of cough onto a cooke sheet, leaving space between for the cookies to expand. Place in fridge for 30 minutes to chill (I have a confession... I skipped this step and the cookies still turned out nice, although if you have more patience than me you should probably do it to give the butter some time to chill before baking).  Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Bake for 8-15 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies. The original recipe, which says the recipe makes 30 cookies says to bake them 8-10 minutes, my larger cookies (16 cookies from the dough) were done in 15 minutes. Place on wire rack to cool.

The verdict:
These were very nice cookies, soft on the inside and slightly chewy on the outside. The one thing that did surprise me was that the Biscoff flavour did get very mild after baking the dough compared to how the dough tasted before baking. 

I used dark chocolate chips as that was what I had in my cupboard when my cookie craving struck. I can't stockpile milk chocolate chips as I just eat them straight out of the bag... But I think milk chocolate would go great with these cookies as well, and that's what recommended in the original recipe. The cookies are perfect served with a glass of cold milk.

Apple sauce and fudge snickerdoodle bread

The term bread in the name of today's recipe most certainly refers only to the shape of the thing, as it's most definitely a cake. I don't mind at all! And you could convince yourself to think it's almost healthy. It has some whole meal flour after all. And the butter is replaced by apple sauce and oil. So yes, let's all stick our heads in the sand and pretend it's healthy, because I bet you can't stop at one slice. Or maybe you can, which means to say you are more disciplined than I am. But then again, that's not much to brag about as my self control is non-existent. Especially when it comes to carbs. And in this case, the carbs are accompanied by delicious apple sauce, fudge, sugar and cinnamon. It must count as one of your five a day because of the apple, right?

This recipe is directly copied from This Gal Cooks. When this bread came up on my blog feed I immediately pinned it to bake as soon as I made a batch of stewed apple. I assumed that would work to replace the apple sauce, which it did very well.  Also, I'm not quite sure of the difference between butterscotch and fudge chunks, I couldn't find the former, so I'm assuming it's about equivalent with the latter. Probably a US vs. UK thing.  

Apple, fudge and snickerdoodle bread (makes 1 loaf):
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup wholewheat flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp apple pie spice (I don't have any, so I added some cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves, would have added some ground ginger as well, but had just run out)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup apple sauce (I used our home-made stewed apple)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fudge chunks (or butterscotch chips)
(1 tbsp flour)
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

The howto:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Prepare your loaf tin by buttering if needed. I used my trusty silicone loaf tin which I never butter, and everything always pops out perfectly fine.

In a bowl, mix together the flours, caster sugar, baking powder and spices. In another bowl, mix together the apple sauce, oil, brown sugar, water, eggs and vanilla extract. Combine the dry ingredients into the wet, mix as little as possible. If you want to, coat the butterscotch/fudge chunks in flour (I skipped this step) and mix into the batter. Pour into the loaf tin. Mix the tbsp of brown sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle on top of the bread. Bake for about an hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. If the top gets too dark, cover with foil. Let cool completely before cutting.

The Verdict:

I have eaten three slices of this bread for breakfast. 'Nuff said.

Apple cake with brown butter frosting

I had a big bunch of juicy apples and needed something to use them for. Of course I went looking for a cake recipe, and found this apple cake recipe from Cookies & Cups that I had pinned earlier for and emergency like this. I mean, those apples would have gone bad very soon, I'm convinced of that. And eating them as is just seemed a bit.... too healthy I guess. So obviously adding lots of butter and sugar was the only possible solution to my dilemma. 

At this point I also owe the food blogging community a grand apology. I have not jumped on the browed butter trend before, as I have thought it can't anything too exciting. I mean butter is butter, right? I love butter, of course, but I really didn't think there would be such a big difference. And then I made the frosting, and had a taste... And realised why browed butter is such a huge trend. Just take my word for it, if you haven't jumped on the browed butter bandwagon yet, quickly quickly grab that butter and chuck it in a saucepan. You won't look back!

Apple cake with browned butter frosting (from Cookies & Cups):
225 g unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla paste (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 cups flour
3 cups cubed apple (about 3 large apples)

Browned butter frosting
110 g butter
3 cups icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tbsp milk

The Howto:
Butter a bundt cake pan. Peel and cube the apples. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Cream together the butter and sugar. Add vanilla and the eggs one at a time and keep whisking for a bit longer. In another bowl, mix the baking soda, salt, cinnamon and flour. Mix the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture. Fold the apples into the mixture. Transfer to cake pan and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10-20 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

To prepare the frosting, melt the butter in a saucepan and brown until gently browned. Remove from the heat and add the icing sugar and vanilla and mix using an electric whisk. Add milk until the frosting is your desired consistency. Frost your cake while trying very hard to resist the urge to eat the frosting right then and there with a spoon right out of the saucepan.

The Verdict:
This cake is great as it's very quick to prepare. The only problem I had was to get it out of the pan. It certainly didn't come out nice and clean, but then again that's what you have frosting for, to cover up the tears and cracks.

The cake is lovely and moist thanks to the apple pieces. But now, let's talk about the frosting. No, wait - let's just sit down and be quiet for a minute to contemplate the awesomeness of the frosting. It's so hard to believe that it's nothing but butter, icing sugar and vanilla. Well, it's not just butter, it's browned  butter. And that makes all the difference. It's like maple syrup and caramel fell in love and had a baby. The most beautiful baby in the world. If all food bloggers in the world are raving about something, it must be something special. Like browned butter. I can't believe I have lived without it for this long. But now I have seen the light.

Sundried tomato and goat's cheese muffins

Isn't it just amazing what you can find on the internet. I just had a mad idea cross my mind the other day - how about making sundried tomato and goats cheese muffins. And upon googling I came across a recipe for just that. I'm starting to wonder if there is any recipe at all that you wouldn't find on Google. I dare you!

Anyhow, I found a recipe that looked very good on Domestic Sluttery. I made a few changes to accomodate the ingredients I had available. These muffins were so easy to put together, it only takes a few minutes. I served them as a side to a wonderful soup I made (more on that soon) and it was so easy to put the dough together and assemble the muffins in the muffin tin before my guests arrived, and then just pop them in the oven half an hour before dinner. 

Sundried tomato and goats cheese muffins (makes 10-12 muffins):
75 g wholewheat flour
325 g strong white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
3 eggs
250 ml milk
1 jar (190 g) sundried tomato paste, or chopped sundried tomatoes
100 g goats cheese
2-3 tbsp grated cheddar

The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. In a bowl, mix the flours, baking powder, salt, pepper and oregano. In another bowl, mix eggs, milk and sundried tomatoes. Combine the liquid into the dry ingredients. Don't mix more than needed to, just enough to combine the ingredients. Take a heaped tablespoon of batter and place at the bottom of 10-12 muffin tins. I didn't butter or line my muffin tin, but if you want your muffins to come off the tins easily, use paper or silicon muffin liners. Divide the goats cheese into as many pieces as you have muffins, pop the cheese in the middle of the muffin, and add another heaped tablespoon of batter on top. Sprinkle lightly with grated cheddar. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden and well risen.

The verdict:
These muffins turned out absolutely fantastic. They rose beautifully in the oven, were fluffy and light. The sun dried tomato added a fantastic flavour and the heart of goats cheese was a perfect little surprised. However, to have a more even distribution of goats cheese, next time I think I might cut the cheese in small cubes and add it to the batter itself. 

The muffins are best when eaten warm. You can pop them in the microwave for about 30 seconds or so if you have any leftovers for the next day. You can replace the sundried tomatoes and goats cheese with pretty much any savoury flavourings you like, for example olives, any other cheese, nuts, smoked salmon, pieces of pepperoni or chorizo or anything else you can think of. I loved the wonderful flavour of the sundried tomato, and the lovely red colour it gave the muffins. 

Jamie Oliver's super flaky cheese scones

I don't think I had ever had scones before moving to the UK. As I am a self-confessed carboholic of the worst kind, it was obviously meant to be that I would fall in love with them. But I'm also very picky with my scones, I won't just have any old store bought, mass produced scones. They shouldn't be to doughy and soft, they should have a crisp crust and be crumbly on the inside. Sweet scones should be filled with heaps of clotted cream and jam and cheese scones should have heaps of cheese on the top, be nice and crusty and soft and fluffy inside. 

My previous job cafeteria had really good cheese scones, me and Best Friend used to start our mornings with a coffee and cheese scone. You knew it would be a great day if the cheese scones were still warm. My current job is close to a Marks&Spencers and their bakery cheese scones are pretty good too, although not top notch. In fact I consume so many cheese scones, whenever any of my colleagues are going over to the M&S they automatically ask me if I want them to bring over a cheese scone for me. Can you say "In need of an intervention"?

So after spending loads of money on cheese scones I thought how silly is that when I could make my own for less. It turns out mine didn't work out much less, as ingredients were about £0.37 per home made scone versus £0.63 for the store bought ones in M&S, but it's still a bit of a saving. This way I do know what goes into my scones though. I use the expensive butter and flour, I could drive the price of ingredients down a bit if I used store brand ingredients. I'm admittedly a bit of a butter snob, I am sure there has to be a difference in quality as store brand butter is almost half the price compared to the brand I like to use. I should probably do a double blinded, placebo controlled trial, although I'm not quite sure how to do it in practice. Bake with a blindfold on?

I usually turn to my traditional and no fail cheese scone recipe, but this time I thought I would try something a bit different. I used a recipe from Jamie's Great Britain. It's a recipe that is originally designed for a sweet fruit scone, but I just removed the fruit and sugar and added cheese hoping that they would come out all right. I also like my scones big, so I used a big cutter instead of making the more traditionally sized small scones. I just don't see a point of eating two smaller scones when you could have one large one. Obviously, eating just one small one is not an option.

As with any other dough that requires butter to be rubbed into flour, you should work relatively quickly to keep the butter cold as that will create the flake in the scones. Also, the less you work the dough the better. I don't use a rolling pin to roll it out, just my hands to pat it. Also, when you use the cutter to cut the scones, just press it straight down, don't rotate it as this will impair how the scones rise in the oven. 

Crumbly cheese scones (makes 7 large ones):
150 g cold unsalted butter
500 g self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
4 tbsp milk
100 g grated cheddar (set aside 1/4 to sprinkle on top) £1

The howto:
Add butter, flour, baking powder and salt in to a large bowl. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour mixture to create a rough, crumbly mixture. Make a well in the middle of the mix and add eggs and milk and give a quick mix. Resist the urge to mess too much with it. Leave to stand for 15 minutes in the fridge, with the bowl covered with clingfilm. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Roll out to about 3 cm (just over an inch) thickness, cut out large or small scones and place on a baking sheet. Brush with milk and grate cheese onto the scones. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the cheese is golden. If you make smaller scones, decrease the baking time.

The verdict:
These scones didn't rise sky high like I had hoped they would. Turns out if I had read the the recipe properly, it called for self-raising flour, not regular. And people not following instructions is one of my pet peeves... But one thing they certainly were was flaky. They had that absolutely lovely melt-in-your mouth flakiness so I will certainly use this recipe in the future as well, and alternate with my easy bake version. And make with self-rising flour next time. They are at their best when eaten when still warm, with a bit of butter.

Blackberry and poppy seed buns

After all our jam making sessions, we have a fridge full of jam. And although we are quite efficient at destroying it, I thought I would speed up the process a bit more by making some lovely jam buns. I just don't want to take the chance that our jam goes bad. Which is why we made relatively small batches of each jam, and put the rest of the fruit in the freezer for more jammin' sessions later in the winter. Right now our freezer is jam packed with produce from our garden and our mission is to make sure we actually eat everything before next spring (something we didn't quite achieve this year). 

This is a well used and trusted recipe for bun dough. It's from the Finnish website Kinuskikissa, and it always turns out great. You can either skip the ground cardamom or add it, as I Finn I would say buns are not buns if there isn't cardamom in them but if you absolutely detest it, leave it out. If you are undecided, I would suggest just give it a try. You won't regret it. It is such a wonderful flavour and it goes so well with the blackberries.

For this recipe you absolutely have to use home made blackberry and apple jam. It's only acceptable if it's been made from berries you picked yourself. Just kidding, just kidding. You can use any jam you like. I just can't get enough of our lovely blackberry and apple jam.

Blackberry and poppy seed buns (makes 12):
For the bun dough:
7-7.5 dl (2 3/4 - 3 cups) strong bread flour
1 1/2 tsp dried instant (fast-action) yeast
1 dl (1/3 cup plus one tablespoon) sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground cardamom
2.5 dl (1 cup) room temperature milk
80 g melted butter
1 egg (technically speaking you should use 1/2 egg for this amount of dough, but I can't be bothered to use just half an egg so I just add a whole egg and it doesn't seem to make the dough any worse. If you want to use some egg wash to brush your buns before baking you could leave some of the egg for that)

For the filling:
1 tsp vanilla paste
About 1 cup of blackberry and apple jam
3-4 tbsp poppy seeds

For the glaze:
zest and juice from one lemon
4-5 tbsp icing sugar

The Howto:
In a large bowl, mix the flour (use 7 dl at this stage), yeast, sugar, salt and cardamom. Add milk, melted butter and egg. Mix to form a dough. Tip onto a lightly floured work surface and knead. The dough is a bit soggy, so I prefer to use only my right hand to knead and use a dough scraper in my left hand. If the dough is completely impossible, add some flour a little bit at a time, up to 1/2 dl (about 1/4 cup). The dough will start getting less sticky and more elastic as you knead it. I usually end up adding about a tablespoon or two during the kneading. Place dough back in an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise for about 2 hours or until doubled in size. If it's cold or the yeast is a bit slow, the rise could take even longer. When the dough has approximately doubled in volume and it springs back when you push it with a finger, it has risen enough.  

Tip the dough back onto a work surface and knead a few times to knock the air out of the dough. Roll out to a rectangle and drizzle with the vanilla paste. Spread the blackberry jam on top, and sprinkle poppy seeds. Roll into a tight log and cut into 12 pieces. I prefer to use dental floss to cut the roll, it results in the neatest cuts, believe it or not. Place in an oven proof dish leaving about an inch between the rolls. Cover with cling film and leave for a second proof for about 30-40 minutes, until the rolls are almost touching each other. Heat oven to 190 degrees C and bake for 20-25 minutes. If the buns are getting a bit too dark, you can cover them with foil to prevent them to turn very dark like mine did.

Leave the buns to cool for 15-20 minutes. Prepare the glaze by grating the lemon zest and squeezing the juice into a bowl. Add enough icing sugar to make a thick paste. Drizzle onto the buns. Serve warm.

The Verdict:
The best thing you can bake with yeast is buns. Well, maybe in addition to bread, but still. And one of the best things you can put inside buns in jam. These buns are sticky and sweet and amazingly good. I put a few of them in the freezer thinking the rest would last us a good few days. Well, they didn't. I inhaled several as soon as they came out of the oven. Hence the picture with a few buns missing... 

Honey and oats sandwich loaf

I can't believe it's hump day already! Halfway to the weekend. The weeks just fly away, it was barely spring and now it's less than 100 days to Christmas. But rather than thinking of dark mornings and evenings ahead, let's think about happy things. Like carbs!

This recipe is adapted from the Brown Eyed Baker blog, as it was one of the first hits that came up when I googled "sandwich bread recipe oats" and I thought it looked and sounded very delicious. I saw a very special sandwich on a cooking program on telly the other day, and am dying to try it but we didn't have any bread in the house so instead of buying some substandard British supermarket bread I just thought I would make some myself.

I always convince myself baking bread is a huge hassle, so I don't do it nearly often enough. But I started this dough after getting out of bed on a Saturday morning (around 8ish), and it was out of the oven by 11.30 am, so after giving it a bit of time to cool I will have super fresh bread for our lunch sandwiches.

This is a very simple dough to throw together from ingredients you are most likely to have at home at any time (possible minus the honey, depending on if you are a big honey fan or not. I have some old honey that has started to crystallise a bit, so this recipe was a perfect way to use it up before it became completely unusable). The original recipe uses traditional oats, not the quick cook ones, and there were comments on the site saying the dough was too soggy if using quick cook oats, but I didn't have a problem, hopefully this will work for other people as well. If you use traditional oats, have a look at the original recipe, as you are supposed to soak them in boiling hot water first and then letting the mixture cool before proceeding. I made my bread exactly as described below without problems. 

Honey and oats sandwich bread (makes 1 loaf):
1 cup warm water 
1/4 cup warm milk
2 tsp instant (easy bake) yeast
1/4 cup honey
1 cup quick cook oats
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter (cut into small pieces)
1 cup strong whole wheat flour
1 2/3 cup strong white flour

Ready for the oven

The howto:
Mix the warm water, milk, yeast, oats and honey in a bowl, and leave for a few minutes. Add the butter and salt and mix. Add flour and turn onto a table and knead until a soft dough forms (this can be done by hand or using a machine. As I don't have any other options, I did it by hand. The dough is a bit soft, but after kneading this brioche bun dough, this dough was easy peasy). Leave to proof for about an hour, or until dough has doubled in size. 

If using a regular bread loaf pan (9x5 in), butter it. I used my trusty silicon loaf pan, which needs no prep, I love it as it's one more step that can be omitted, making things just that little bit easier. After the dough has proved, oil your hands, and knock the air out of the dough by kneading it a few times. At this point the dough seemed really well behaved, it didn't stick and was easy to handle. Shape the dough into a log by smoothing it out to a rectangle and make a roll, tucking the ends under and rolling a few times on the table to ensure its even. There are some pictures of the process on the Browned Eyed Baker blog here if you aren't sure how to do it. Pop the loaf into the tin, and leave to proof for another hour to hour and a half (my loaf was climbing well over the edges of the loaf pan after an hour). At the end of the proofing, preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Bake for 45 minutes, and protect with foil if bread starts to brown too heavily. I added 10 minutes to the baking time as the bread still felt a bit wobbly after 45 minutes. Also, it didn't become nearly as dark as the bread in the original blog post, not sure why but it turned out great nonetheless.

The verdict:
This was a very easy bread to put together and it had great rise. It was really hard to wait until it had cooled completely before sampling it. But I do urge you to wait, as the bread is really difficult to cut while the loaf is still warm (don't ask me why I know). This bread is quite sweet from the honey, so beware if you don't like sweet breads. For me it was perfect, as I do like a bit of sweetness, and it goes great with the light nuttiness of the oats. I also like that it's very soft and fluffy, not at all dense. I think it would be perfect for toasting and serving with butter and jam. I'm not sure it would be the best for sandwiches as it seems quite soft, and quite hard to cut into really thin slices. Given how little work it is to make, this is a really great, tasty and lightly textured bread which baked perfect the first time I tried it although I did make some alterations to the original recipe.

Raspberry and dark chocolate muffins

The other day I stopped by Morrisons as they had a good deal on strong bread flour. We don't usually shop in Morrisons as it's a bit off our usual route, but I thought it was worth going out of my way to stock up on flour. But when I got there I realised everyone else had also thought it was a great deal as there was no discounted flour left on the shelf. I felt a bit silly leaving completely empty handed as I had gone out of my way to drive there so I bought a few punnets of raspberries which happened to be very good value for money. We were rather unlucky with our own raspberries this year as the birds ate most of them, I only managed to get a few very small tubs in the freezer. So we enjoyed these raspberries very much, and ate one of the punnets with some ripe sweet figs and ice cream for pudding. I decided to make the most of the second punnet so I divided it up between two recipes, one of them being these lovely raspberry and dark chocolate muffins. 

I used a recipe from a blog called My Happy Place which I pinned ages ago. I keep on pinning stuff, but very rarely actually go back to look at them, so I felt rather satisfied with myself when I found this recipe again last night on one of my pinterest boards and it was perfect to make as a quick and easy breakfast. It also is relatively low fat as there is no added fat in addition to what comes with the yogurt and chocolate. I also replaced some of the flour with whole wheat to add some fiber. I decided to make just half of the recipe, as me and a large number of muffins is just a bad idea. The original recipe says it will make 12 muffins, so I was expecting to make 6 out of the halved recipe. However, half the recipe actually resulted in 11 muffins, so I'm not exactly sure how gigantic the original muffins are (they don't look that big in the pictures). Hence, I also needed to bake them for a much shorter time.

Raspberry and dark chocolate muffins (makes 6-11 muffins):
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used full fat, as I detest the low fat ones)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp caster sugar
1 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup all purpose and 1 whole wheat)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup raspberries cut into quarters
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
a few teaspoons of caster sugar to sprinkle on top

The howto: 
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (375 degrees F). Butter your muffin tins (or line with paper or silicone liners. I love my silicon muffin liners, they don't need to be prepped and the muffins always come out perfectly without sticking). Mix all ingredients except the raspberries and chocolate chips in a bowl until a smooth batter forms, don't overmix. Add raspberries and chocolate chips and gently incorporate into the batter. Spoon into muffin tins until about 3/4 full. Sprinkle lightly with caster sugar. Bake for 25 minutes if making smaller muffins (i.e. 11 from this batch), and 30-40 minutes for larger muffins (i.e. if you made 6 muffins from the batter).

The verdict:
I was surprised how fluffy and soft these muffins were, given that they are very low fat. Usually my experience with "healthy" muffins is that they end up very dense, particularly if you add whole wheat flour to them. But these were really light and very delicious. The caster sugar on top forms a nice crunchy crust. The slightly tart raspberries go so well with the gooey, sweet chocolate chips. I had to immediately freeze some of these, as I had no self control whatsoever around them. I also love these easy, one bowl bakes which only take a few minutes to whip up, and you can have fresh muffins on the table in just over half an hour. Perfect for those lazy weekend brunches when you want something scrummy without having to spend the whole day slaving away in the kitchen.

Pear and salted caramel squares

While you are reading this, I'm off enjoying the last few precious days of my annual leave entitlement this year. And doing it in great company as one of my bestest friends in the world is visiting. We are probably sitting somewhere enjoying afternoon tea. Or doing something else, but most likely it's very much food related. So I didn't want you to be without some goodies as well, hence sharing this recipe which I made a while ago, but it just got stuck in the queue of things to post.

A while ago I posted not one, but two recipes for salted caramel. As much as I love salted caramel, I didn't make it just to eat it with a spoon straight from the jar (although a large amount of the caramel did suffer that fate). I actually made it for these amazing pear squares, which I have adapted from a recipe for Apple Pie Bars from Sally's Baking Addiction. I used pear as that was what I happened to take out of the freezer. Note to self, frozen apple and pear look very similar if they aren't labelled appropriately. I have learned my lesson, and have been much more diligent with my labelling pen and masking tape this year. But this time it turned out to be a very lucky coincidence as the squares turned out really good.

Pear and Salted Caramel Squares (makes 16 squares):
Crust:
115 g unsalted butter, melted
50 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
125 g all purpose flour

Pear filling:
about 2 cups of cubed pear (if using frozen, defrost and drain well before using)
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg, cloves or ground ginger depending on preference (or a bit of each...)
(optional: a tbsp or two of stewed pear)

Crumble:
40g oats
70 g muscovado sugar (I prefer light to dark for this bake)
30 g all purpose flour
60 g butter
home made salted caramel

The Howto:
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C (300 degrees F). Line a 8x8 in (20x20 cm) baking tin with parchment paper. Prepare the crust by mixing all ingredients but the flour, and then adding flour, mixing only enough to get a smooth dough. Press into the baking tin, and bake for 15 minutes.

While the crust is baking, prepare the filling and crumble. For the filling, mix the pear with the spices. You could add sugar if you want to, but I think it was perfect without any added sugar. To prepare the crumble mix oats, sugar and flour in a bowl. Cut the butter into cubes, and rub it into the oat and flour mix until you get a consistency of coarse sand.

When the crust has baked, increase the oven temperature to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Spread the stewed pears and then pear chunks in an even layer onto the crust, and top with crumble. Bake for another 30-35 minutes until the crumble is golden brown.

Let cool completely, first in room temperature and then for at least 2 hours in the fridge. Drizzle with salted caramel and cut into 16 squares.

The Verdict:
I have already made these bars twice, that's how good they are. I'm sure the original version with apples is amazing, but I think my pear one worked really well, and as I said, I omitted the sugar from the filling as I didn't want them to be overly sweet. Together with the delicious home made salted caramel they make such a perfect combination. I enjoyed the squares best when room temperature, but they were also good when eaten warm with some vanilla ice cream. I was going to put some of them into the freezer, but not all too surprisingly there weren't any left when I was going to freeze them.

Brioche buns

I have been meaning to try baking my own hamburger buns, as the store bought ones are simply disgusting. The quality of bread in general in this country is indescribably substandard. The only way of getting a decent loaf of bread is to bake it yourself. Sometimes you may run across a small bakery that makes good bread, but living beyond all civilisation we don't have any good bakeries anywhere near us. I do like my burgers in a nice brioche bun, so I thought why not try it. As I was working the dough I was once again reminded that making brioche dough by hand is a pain, and that I need to start saving up for that Kitchen Aid ASAP.

I found this recipe by simply googling brioche buns. It's from a blog called The Clever Carrot, and they looked so yummy. The blog also has some great step by step tutorial with photos if you are not a very experienced baker (but it's only for using a food processor to make the dough).

Brioche hamburger buns (makes 8):
1 cup warm water
3 tbsp warm milk
2 tsp dry yeast
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt (I would decrease this to 3/4 - 1 tsp)
35 g butter
(seeds for topping if desired)

The howto:
Mix the water, milk, yeast and sugar in a jug or small bowl and let stand for five minutes. Meanwhile lightly whisk the egg in another small bowl. In a large bowl, mix the flours, salt and butter and either use a paddle attachment on a stand mixer or your fingers to process until resembling coarse sand. Add the yeast mixture and egg and either process in a stand mixer for 8-10 minutes until a dough forms, or use your hands to mix and then knead for 10-15 minutes. The dough is sticky and rather tough to knead by hand, but don't add more flour as that makes the dough too dense. I used a dough scraper in one hand and the other hand to do the kneading. It will get slightly less sticky at some point when the gluten starts forming. Return to the bowl and let the dough rise until double in size. This will take 1-3 hours, and it's worth letting it rise properly as that is what will give you those wonderfully light and fluffy buns. 

When you are happy with the size of you dough, scrape it out onto a floured surface, and knead a few times to push out all the air. Divide into eight equal sized balls, and shape into rolls. Place onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet and cover with a towel and leave to rise for another hour. Towards the end of the second raise, pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F). Brush with egg wash ( egg mixed with a bit of water) and sprinkle with seeds of choice if desired. Place an oven proof dish with water in the lower part of the oven, and place rolls in the oven to bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool.

The verdict:
Before starting, I have to admit I made a mistake when making the dough, which I only discovered when I typed up the recipe for my blog post. I only put one egg in the dough instead of two. I was wondering why the dough wasn't quite as soggy as I had expected (although it was sticky enough, trust me). So all I can say is that the buns turned out great when using one egg. They were really tasty, and very light and fluffy. The only change I would make is to reduce the amount of salt to half of what it is, I don't like my bread very salty and this was certainly a bit on the extreme side. But other than that, these were the perfect hamburger buns. They were also perfect for eating with nothing but butter while fresh out of the oven, and they were perfect for eating for breakfast with butter and jam (such as this awesome plum jam). This is definitely a keeper, although the kneading is a bit of a messy business it's definitely worth the effort. 

The buns are perfect for hamburgers but also delicious
simply with some butter and jam.