Not baking: espresso granita

So it's been really hot all over the Uk as summer finally arrives. I'm now dreaming of iced coffee and iced tea, so it seemed like a good time to make the espresso granita I saw a few weeks ago on Smitten Kitchen. 

We have a nespresso machine, so I used that to get my coffee for this. I used decaffinated as I'm trying to avoid caffeine at the moment. I also used demerara sugar (which I think is similar to turbinado sugar) because I prefer it over white sugar is espresso. 

I chilled it overnight and then froze it as per instructions.  Then when I got home from church followed by a food shop this morning and was rather hot and bothered, I decided to try some. I whipped a bit of (double) cream as per instructions and then tucked in. It was awesome! Dangerously awesome, in fact. I can see I'll need to make this again soon... 

Happy freezing! 

PS recipe is here: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2013/06/espresso-granita-with-whipped-cream/

Rhubarb Strawberry Butter

Having never really come across the combination of rhubarb and strawberry before a couple of years ago, suddenly it's everywhere. Have I been blind or is this a North American thing that has only just reached us? In any case, it's something I want to embrace. 

A few weeks ago I saw a recipe for a rhubarb strawberry butter on Simple Bites that sounded good. I made an apple cider butter from the River Cottage Jams and Preserves book by Pam Corbin and it was amazing, so I thought I'd give this a whirl. 

I have to say that whilst it tastes nice, it did turn out to be a lesson in reading the recipe properly. North American recipes are very fond of canning as a form of preservation (that's making whatever you're preserving, putting in your jars and then boiling the jars in order to kill bacteria and achieve a vacuum seal). To me as a UK reader, this seems a lot of faff, but there really isn't much sugar in the recipe, so I felt obliged to can and bought appropriate jars (much to Fantastic Mr Fox's horror as I am usually unable to pass storage jars without buying some... You'd think it would result in a tidy kitchen, wouldn't you?). 

Anyway, it worked and I seem to have a vacuum seal on at least one of my jars (I only tested one), but it was more effort than normal - and since I failed to start early enough did keep me out of bed... I might make less another time and keep in the fridge or freeze it. 

I'd also cook it a bit longer - I think mine is more compote than butter... Tastes nice anyway! 

Recipe is here:

http://www.simplebites.net/preserving-spring-strawberry-rhubarb-butter/

Fantastic Mr Fox's birthday cake

It was Fantastic Mr Fox's birthday a couple of weeks ago, so of course I had to make him a cake. I spent a lot of time considering different cakes and had tentatively decided on a Battenberg Cake   when I remembered last year's Cake of the Summer. It was a triple berry bundt cake with a lemon icing from the Smitten Kitchen website and it was truly amazing. Once I had it in my mind, I couldn't buy make it again. 

I think last year I used black currants, raspberries and blueberries. This time round I used blackberries, blueberries and raspberries.  

The cake is pretty straight forward to make - I used my KitchenAid. I had a slight moment of panic about getting the cake out, but it was needless. The cake was delicious and I expect to be making it again soon!

Happy baking!

PS The recipe is here:

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2012/06/triple-berry-summer-buttermilk-bundt/

Peach cobbler muffins

When I heard about the Back in the Day Bakery cookbook online, I was pretty sure I would like it. And it was soon added to my ever expanding cookery book collection. I've made a  few things to date: maple cinnamon, granola, hummingbird cake, brown sugar banana bread and pecan chocolate espresso coffee cake. The results so far had been good - especially the hummingbird cake and the coffee cake.  The only snag from my point of view is the fact that the recipes are in cups, which being Scottish, I find much more intimidating than weights. On the plus side, I do love using my pretty bird cups. 

Anyway, I had some ripe peaches, so I decided to make some peach cobbler muffins for breakfast. I mixed the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients separately last night to make it speedy. The results were pretty good - the cinnamon is a nice touch. They were pretty easy to make, too! Although I would be tempted to halve the recipe -in my  standard muffin tin, I got 17 muffins rather than 12... I have to add that not all my muffins rose well - perhaps I over mixed them??? 

Happy baking! 

Not baking: raspberry blancmange

I had never tasted a blancmange, but I have long been familiar with them at second hand through children's novels. Not the more contemporary ones (which are probably nothing of the sort for today's readers), but the older ones from the first half of the 19th century. These featured food extensively and one of the more esoteric delights (as far as I am concerned) was blancmange. But Annie Bell's Gorgeous Desserts features a few (as well as lots of jellies) and last summer I bought a jelly mould in the sale, so I thought the time had come. 

I made a raspberry blancmange featuring raspberries, double cream, a bit of sugar and gelatine. I figured that it was almost bound to taste nice, even if the set didn't work (my fears are the legacy of trying to convert a recipe for leaf gelatine to powdered gelatine for my dad with no guidance and a resulting very rubbery panna cotta...). 

You whizz raspberries with icing sugar and strain them, soak the gelatine and then heat the cream, stir in drained leaf gelatine, followed by the raspberry purée.   Then you pour it into a greased jelly mould and leave to set in the fridge overnight. Simple! 

Much to my surprise, I managed to in mould the blancmange (with some difficulty), but in more or less one piece! 

I served it with a roasted strawberry sauce from simple bites I'd made previously (very easy and good for solving the problems of too many strawberries about to turn).

It was good! And easy! I recommend it!

Happy non-baking!

PS if you also love children's novels and food, you might enjoy 'Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer' by Jane Brocket

PS Strawberry sauce recipe:

 http://www.simplebites.net/frozen-treats-roasted-strawberry-sundae-recipe/

Not baking: Warm Puy lentil and pea salad

I first came across Nigel Slater when I was a graduate student. Towards the end of my time, I lodged with a family and so wanted to cook quick meals. A visit to a local book shop and I emerged with two paperbacks: Real Fast Food and Real Fast Puddings. The first is based around food groups - fish, meat, eggs, vegetables, bread. It's still a go-to book for fast ways to cook delicious meals with what you have to hand, including breaded scallops, pasta dishes and two of my favourite uses of bulgar wheat. In fact, last time we went on a self catering holiday, this is the book I packed.  The second is based around seasons and includes the recipes I use most often for toffee sauce, chocolate sauce, custard, Christmas crumble (mincemeat, bananas, apples...Mmm...), sauce from Christmas pudding (my favourite use of left overs) and lots of non-banana bread recipes for ripe bananas. 

However, one of my favourite recipes is for a salad. Now, I'm not the keenest salad eater around. I never liked it as a child - mostly because I didn't like lettuce. About ten years ago, I started eating various salad leaves and things (mostly for my health), but I'm still usually slightly reluctant. However, this salad is different - it's warm for a start. You cook puy lentils in water and heat up some frozen peas in olive oil (not water). Then you drain the lentils and add to the peas and mix in some lemon juice. I like this with goat's cheese, but it's also nice with chorizo (and cheese!) or probably salmon or chicken. A delicious, near instant supper that's good for you!

Happy cooking! 

Honey wholemeal chocolate chip cookies

When I checked my (personal) emails at lunchtime on Friday, I had an email from Simple Bites with a recipe for these cookies: http://www.simplebites.net/honey-whole-wheat-chocolate-chunk-cookies-and-not-getting-organized/

They sounded so good and so easy that I promptly decided I should make them at the weekend.  

You make them in the food processor, in three stages and then roll balls of mixture to make the cookies. You flatten these and leave them to chill in the fridge while you heat the oven. Nothing to it. 

The cookies themselves are good - with a pleasing wholemeal flavour, giving the impression these are somehow healthy...

Perhaps not my favourite chocolate chip cookie of all time, but a good recipe to have in your repertoire. 

Unfortunately, my only photo is pre-bake since i forgot to take a picture before we ate them all.... 

Happy baking!