TIME FOR A TEA TIME TREAT

There's a new challenge on the blogging block, and I love a good challenge, so I was delighted when two exceptional bloggers came together to invite us to tea .... well to Tea Time Treats, and this month Karen has invited us to prepare something delicious using ginger, happy days - my all time favourite ingredient (along with all my other favourite ingredients!!!), not so happy days - I am really trying to cut down on the goodies so I can really pig out in December!!!!

So now my challenge was to make something delicious containing ginger BUT also something that I wouldn't devour (yes, that is the state of my will power these days) ........... it had to be dried fruit, loved by all the family but not by me!!!

I turned to Lilly Higgins' Make Bake Love (it's just so pretty) and decided to play around with her Tea Brack recipe, obviously adding some ginger in there, but I also simplified it by using a luxury fruit mix rather than the individual fruits she suggested - it went down a treat, and was just the stop gap needed before the Christmas Pudding Season started (the consumption of Christmas puddings in this house is a story for another day!).

Tea Brack
adapted from Lilly Higgins' Make Bake Love

300ml           hot strong tea
360g             luxury fruit mix
100g             chopped stoned dried dates
1                   egg
225g             self raising flour
150g             brown sugar
3 tbsp           Cointreau or your favourite alcohol
1 1/2 tsp       mixed spice
1 tsp             ginger
2                   knobs of crystallised ginger

Preferably the day before, but for as long as possible -  soak the fruit in the tea.

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line a loaf tin with parchment paper or butter it.

Add the ginger, beaten egg, flour and sugar to the fruit and mix well.
Add the Cointreau and spices and mix again.
Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours - until a skewer (or stick of dry spaghetti) comes out clean.
When perfect remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes.
Remove from tin and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy

Thanks to Kate and Karen for this fun idea.

For my Irish readers - I was invited to this years Taste of Christmas, a huge improvement on last year's event, plenty of stalls, delicious food from some excellent restaurants, including the wonderful Bon Appetite (where I did the masterclass!!).  I went to the first of the Masterchef shows and although it had a few glitches, and a bit of nervousness it was quite good.  It would have been very good had the audience been given copies of the recipes being cooked and if Nick had lightened up on plugging his book and restaurant!!
Well worth a visit, to get you in the Christmas mood.

BROWNIES 20 AND A REVIEW.

I have mentioned Lilly Higgins new book Make Bake Love on a recent post and promised to do a review - over at her blog Stuff I Make, Bake, Love Lilly was saying that her book is sold out on Amazon, I'm not at all surprised!  It is an excellent book, packed full of doable (is that a word??) delicious recipes - with a few aspirational ones in there for good measure. I was absolutely delighted to recieve a review copy.  The photography is wonderful, you just want to reach in and grab a bite, there is an excellent balance of  unusual flavours (Plum and Cardamom Cupcakes -delicious!)  and old favourites.  The recipes seem to be well tested (I'm pretty sure I read that Lilly worked as an instructor at Ballymaloe Cookery School) and thought out. 

I think that you can often judge a baking book by it's bread section and having made most of the breads from this book (I left out a couple of the yeast ones!!) I have to say that it really stands up - the Health Loaf being a particular favourite here.  If I have any criticism of the book, and it is very slight, it is that there are a couple of recipes in there that are just variations of a previous recipe - the Blueberry muffins are very like the Red Berry and White Chocolate Muffins, but that really is nitpicking.  All in all, I loved this book (I really enjoy when fellow bloggers make the step over to writing cookery books successfully) and I can't wait for her next one!


I've been having a great time over the past couple of weeks baking up a storm trying out loads of the recipes, one has already become a firm family favourite and I've made it several times!

These are the Rum and Raisin Cupcakes - totally addictive!  I have a confession to make here - the deliciousness of these cupcakes might be helped by the fact that I used raisins that have been soaking in rum for 2 years - yes, you did read that correctly!!!  I bought a bottle of dark rum especially to make Rum Raisin ice cream, left the raisins to soak in the rum in a big jar, and promptly forgot all about them - for two years!  I recommend you do the same!

Even as a non-lover of dried fruit, I'm a huge fan of these cupcakes - I very generously give my raisins away (!) but the sponge retains the sweet, mellow flavour from the fruit.

Health Loaf - it's great to feel virtuous eating bread this delicious!

The Spiced Sultana Bread was a doddle to throw together, and scored really high on the taste to effort ratio!

I played around with Lilly's Honey Oat Bread, and used bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent instead of yeast (how lazy am I??).  Tasted great though!

I'm going to have to try the Seed Loaf again, as I don't think I did the recipe justice - the yeast thing is still my problem area!!!

I have blogged about the Blueberry (Blackberry) Muffins here. 

Rocky Road Brownies - oh my!!!  Scrumptious stuff!!

Plum and Cardamom Cupcakes had to be at the top of the "to try" list - I just love anything containing cardamom!  I tried making these as Lilly did with the plums just halved, but found them to have a better texture when I chopped up the fruit.

I added some chocolate chips to Lilly's Hazelnut Shortbread and they were devoured in no time!

From all the recipes I have tried I most want to share the Rocky Road Brownie one - I have been neglecting my brownie section of late, and these belong well up on the list!  Lilly says that you have to have both pink and white marshmallows in a Rocky Road - I beg to disagree!!!!!

Rocky Road Brownies

adapted from Lilly Higgins, Make Bake Love

For the Brownies

200g           dark chocolate (I used 50%)

250g           icing sugar, sieved*

200g           softened butter

3                 eggs

110g           plain flour

For the Topping

200g            chocolate, chopped - just use your favourite

100g            toasted nuts - I used hazelnuts and almonds

70g              digestive biscuits**, broken up

80g              marshmallows

Preheat oven to 170 C

Line a 23cm x 33cm baking pan with parchment paper.

For the Brownies

Melt the chocolate in a microwave or in a bowl over simmering water.

Beat the icing sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. (* I think that the icing sugar is too messy to work with - flies all over the place if you are not very careful, so I would use caster sugar in future)

Add the eggs one by one, mixing well between each addition.

Beat in the flour until just combined.

Slowly pour the melted chocolate into this mixture and combine well, without over mixing.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes, but start checking at 20 - over cooked brownies are so disappointing!

For the Topping

Mix the nuts, biscuit rubble(**I used less than Lilly recommended) and marshmallows together, next time I'll add some broken up Maltesers or Chrunchie Bars to the mix.  Keep the chopped chocolate to one side.

When about 5 minutes away from being cooked, remove the brownies from the oven. 

Scatter the biscuit mixture over the brownies, and then scatter the chocolate over this.

Return the brownies to the oven for 3 - 5 minutes, until the chocolate has melted sligthly and melded into the topping ingredients.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin on a wire rack for 20 minutes.

Best enjoyed while still slightly warm.....mmmmmmm!

Pop over to The Sporadic Cook, Julie's wonderful blog - you might find it interesting!

A GOOD MORNING!

Over at the delicious What Kate Baked, Kate has challenged us to bake something tasty for her Autumnal Baking Challenge - and the fruit that screams Autumn to me are blackberries, those delicious fruits that shout "pick me, pick me" as I try to maintain some pace on my  (occasional) morning walks - I'm ashamed to tell you how many times I give up on the idea of exercise and sucumb to the call of the purple orb (actually to the call of the tart/crumble/jam that will be their final destination!!).

I came home this morning with the last of the blackberries (only a few shrivelled specimens left on the bushes now) and found Lilly Higgins' new book Make Bake Love waiting for me - I have been following Lilly's blog Stuff I Make Bake Love for ages (do take a look, you'll love it) - and what could I do but combine the morning's haul and make something from the book using my precious berries.

There are many delicious recipes to choose from (I'll do a review soon - no problem finding recipes everyone will love!) but I alighted on her Blueberry Muffins - and even if I say it myself (!) it was a great decision - the muffins are light in texture but are brim full of flavour, and the blackberries were a fantastic replacement for the blueberries.


Blackberry Muffins

225g       plain flour
1 tbsp     baking powder
75g         Demerara Sugar (I used more as the blackberries were quite sharp)
1             large egg
150ml     milk
40ml       sunflower oil
1 tsp       vanilla extract
150g       blackberries

Preheat oven to 190 C
Fill a muffin tin with 12 paper cases (I actually got 11 good sized muffins from the mix)

Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.
Pour the milk, oil, vanilla extract into a jug, add the egg and whisk.
Pour this mixture into the flour and mix gently, remember lumps are good!
Gently fold in the blackberries.
Divide the mixture between the paper cases and pop into the preheated oven.
Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until golden and risen, and a skewer comes out clean.
Remove the muffins from the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.