Coffee Cake

Ingredients:
6oz / 175g margerine
6oz / 175g caster sugar
6oz / 175g sr flour, sifted
2 large eggs
teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons instant coffee
2 tablespoons hot (not boiling) water
2 tablespoons cold water

Directions
1. Preheat oven to (160C / Gas 3).
2. In a cup, dissolve the coffee in the hot and cold water.
3. Tip ALL the ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat well. Hint: Use an electric mixer!
4. Divide the mixture between 2 greased and lined cake tins and bake for approximately 30 minutes or until the cake is springy when touched.

Fill with whipped cream or butter icing.

Plum Crumble Cake

This recipe is courtesy of Jacqui Hobbs, from the September edition of "Your Steyning".

This cake is delicious with a dollop of whipped double cream and a good cup of coffee. It keeps for up to a week.

Ingredients:
800g plums, halved, stones removed

For the Cake:
125g (4.5oz) plain flour
1tsp baking powder
125g (4.5oz) caster sugar
1 lemon, zest only
4 drops vanilla extract
125g (4.5oz) softened butter
2 medium eggs

For the Crumble:
150g (5oz) plain flour
100g (3.5oz) caster sugar
pinch ground cinnamon
100g (3.5oz) butter

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C (gas 4). Grease and line a 10" springform cake tin.
To make the crumble, sift the flour, cinnamon and sugar. Either rub in the butter by hand or pulse in a food mixer until you have a fine breadcrumb texture.
For the cake. Sift the flour and baking powder, add the other ingredients and then either use a hand whisk or a food mixer to achieve a smooth consistency.
Spoon the mixture into the tin. Smooth the surface flat. Arrange the plums cut side up so that they overlap.
Sprinkle over the crumble mixture in an even layer.
Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes (test with the tip of a knife which should come out clean).
Remove from the oven and release from the tin. Place on a wire rack to cool.


I made this crumble cake yesterday and it was DELICIOUS. I had to cook it for an extra 20 minutes however with just the bottom element of the oven on to cook the cake base, I think I had melted the butter for the cake mix too much so it was having trouble cooking - but, it worked, and worked really well. I shall be making this again - I just need an excuse now!

Treacle Tart

Recipe courtesy of James Martin from Housecall.

Ingredients
Pastry:
225g / 8oz plain flour
110g / 4oz butter, chilled and diced
1 medium egg

Filling:
450g / 1lb golden syrup
85g / 3oz fresh breadcrumbs
generous pinch ground ginger
1 lemon, zest finely grated, plus 2tbsp of the juice

Rub the fat into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Mix in the egg with a knife, and knead to a smooth dough.
Use the dough to line a 9" loose-bottomed tart tin, prick with a fork and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 190C.
Bake the pastry blind for 10-15 minutes until light golden brown.
Mix together the filling ingredients and pour into the pastry case. Bake for about 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold.


And now for my adjustments....

I used a large egg in the pastry mixture and it was still quite difficult to get it all to bind together well. One recipe I found said to add a little water to the mix if it was being difficult.
I used two 5" foil cases for my tarts, and the pastry mix was more than enough for them.
There was slightly too much filling for the two cases though.

Apart from that, I followed the recipe exactly, and they turned out really well!!

Next time....

I am going to make the breadcrumb to syrup ratio slightly less syrupy, and use black treacle as well as golden syrup - I'll probably use just less than 400g total syrupyness.

I think that's the only thing I'm going to change for next time!

Edit
I made two tarts for Steve, using most of a 900g tin of golden syrup and what was left in my black treacle tin which might have been about 50g. It came to just over 800g all in, there's still a good amount of syrup left in the big tin. Breadcrumbs - used 8 slices thick sliced warburtons, crusts removed. Grated rind of 2 lemons, plus 4 tablespoons of the juice, and a generous amount of ground ginger. Have to admit I cheated though and used 2 ready made shortcrust pastry bases! Tarts were REALLY well received, the black treacle is definitely a "secret ingredient" to be shared and the lemon is extremely necessary.

And they are even better with double cream.

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Well this is almost cheating, but not quite. Almost, because I used a packet sauce (for chicken and leek bake) but not quite because I did all the rest myself.

Serves about 6 as part of a main meal.

Ingredients
For the filling:
1 packet of chicken and leek bake sauce mix, 3/4 pint milk
2 large chicken breasts, diced
handful of big button mushrooms (I had.. um... 9?)
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 heaped tablespoons flour
Short pastry made with 300g flour and 150g baking margerine.

Oven to 180C.

Line the bottom of a pie dish with just over half the pastry, bake blind.
Coat the chicken pieces in the flour, tap the excess off and set to one side.
While this is baking, fry the onion on a low heat in some oil in a non-stick frying pan until starting to lose its colour - about 5 minutes. Add the chicken piece by piece so it doesn't all stick together. If necessary, add a splash of water if everything is sticking to the bottom of the pan. Never add more oil - just splashes of water. Turn the heat up to medium and seal the chicken - about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes. Make the sauce mix up and add to the pan, bring to boil and cook another 5 minutes.

Transfer the whole lot to the pie dish, top with the remaining pastry and cook for 30 minutes or until pastry on top is golden.

Serve with new potatoes, french beans and carrots :)

Chocolate Ice Cream

(or, Death By Chocolate) (happily)

Ingredients
1x184ml carton whipping cream
225ml milk
7 large egg yolks (save 4 of the whites and make meringues!)
110g caster sugar
40g cocoa powder
200g plain chocolate chopped into chunks

Method
Pour the milk, cream, sugar and cocoa into a saucepan. Whisk really well and bring to the boil, stirring frequently to ensure the sugar and cocoa dissolves.

Meanwhile, put the yolks in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Once the milk and cream has boiled, pour it slowly over the yolks, whisking continuously.

Pour the mixture back in the pan and heat over a gentle heat for 3-4mins, scraping a wooden spoon over the bottom of the pan until the custard has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, and you can draw a line in it (on the spoon) with your finger (beware it is HOT!).

Turn off the heat and whisk in 125g of the chopped chocolate, and continue whisking until it's all melted.

Leave to cool! Overnight will do it, or about 2-3 hours in the fridge. Once it's completely cooled, transfer to a 1litre plastic container and put it in the freezer, vigorously stirring every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours. Then stir in the remaining chocolate chunks and freeze overnight.

If you have an icecream maker, churn the icecream and, once it starts to freeze, add the chunks of chocolate.

Rock Buns

Ingredients
200g (8oz) self-raising flour, plus a pinch of salt
100g (4oz) margerine
100g (4oz) caster or brown or granulated sugar... sugar, you get the idea
2-3 tsp spices - nutmeg, cardamom, tiny bit of ginger, cinnamon perhaps
raisins or dried cranberries / mixed peel / cherries / whatever takes your fancy
1 egg
tiny drop of milk

Method
Oven to 190C.
Mix the flour and salt together, rub in the margerine.
Add the sugar, spices and dried fruit.
Add the egg and mix to a stiff dough, adding a tiny (TINY) bit of milk if it's just not binding.
Grease a baking tray. Put rough lumps of dough onto the tray, bake for 15-20 minutes. Makes 8 generous rock buns, or up to 12 diet size ones.

They should be chewy in the middle but crunchy on the outside.



I added more than a drop of milk, and hence my rock buns have spread out rather than keep their rock shape :( but at least they taste good!

By my 4th attempt I tried adding 2tbsp cocoa powder, 2tsp ginger, 2tsp nutmeg and a packet of rehydrated dried cherries, and a drop of vanilla and 2tbsp milk with the egg. They were good, but a little too gingery...

Sloe Whisky

(or gin) (or vodka) (or anything really)

I went sloe picking one morning in November, the aim being to collect enough to make sloe whisky. As the only bottle of whisky that I was allowed to touch was a half finished plastic bottle of the stuff which we bought on the ferry crossing from Finland to Sweden (and even that's a 12 year old single malt) I was pleased that I managed to gather enough sloes. Seems I was a little late though - the trees were bare where I was able to reach, and even with my trusty walking stick I only managed to get about 300g of sloes. Just enough though - I had about 250ml of whisky left in that bottle!

The recipe

The recipe I found says to get a 2 litre bottle of gin, drink half of it, and then for the remaining litre (assuming you are not so pickled already as to carry on following the recipe) you will need 700g sloes and 350g sugar.

Here's the rest of the recipe, if you can really call it that!

Gingerbread

Makes many many gingerbread stars, trees, men and whatever else you can cut out.

Ingredients
350g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tsp ground ginger
100g butter (softened)
175g muscovado sugar
4 tbsp black treacle
1 egg
(Note: kids might not like the flavour that the musovado and treacle give this gingerbread, so you can substitute it for light soft brown sugar and golden syrup.)

Method
Sieve the flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Rub in the butter.
Mix the sugar, treacle and egg together to get all the lumps out of the sugar, and add this to the flour and butter. Mix to a pastry dough. Knead gently. Roll out onto a floured surface to about 5mm think (you might need to split the dough into 2 sections for this unless you have a particularly large work surface) and cut shapes out using pastry cutters or a knife. Gather up all the leftovers and knead gently again, roll out and cut more shapes out. Swap the dough for the other half at this point and do the same. Use all the dough up!
Place onto lined baking sheets and bake for about 10 mins at 180C (my oven's fan assisted, adjust times to suit your oven). Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For the icing
225g icing sugar and 2-3 tbsps water should make a suitably thick glace icing. Use a piping bag and tiny nozzle. If adding food colouring make the white icing just not thick enough 'cause the colouring (if it's liquid) will make it runnier.

Carrot and Coriander Soup

Ingredients
2 oz butter
2 leeks (sliced)
450g carrots (sliced)
1 tbsp ground coriander
2 pints chicken stock
salt and pepper
greek yoghurt
fresh coriander to garnish

Method
Melt the butter in a large lidded saucepan and add the carrots and leeks. Stir well to coat the vegetables with the butter, cover, and cook gently for 10 minutes until softening but not colouring. Add the coriander, stir well and cook for another minute.

Add the chicken stock (I use 3 stock cubes for my 2 pints of stock, but make it however you want), season to taste (I use salt, white pepper and black pepper), bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Purée the soup in a blender and return to the pan. Add about 2 tbsp greek yoghurt, mix well, and reheat gently. Don't allow the soup to boil.
Ladle into bowls, add another dollop of yoghurt to the centre of each bowl, and sprinkle with fresh coriander to serve.



Variations:

Butternut Squash & Coconut Soup
Substitute the carrots for 2 butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and diced; and add a blend of tumeric, cumin, coriander and chilli powder or cayenne pepper. Season with salt and white pepper. Add a 400ml can of coconut milk, and only use 600ml stock.

Broccoli and Stilton Soup
Use 2 heads of broccoli, cut into florets, instead of the carrots and coriander. Once you've puréed the soup, add up to 400g chopped up stilton - to taste - puréeing as you go.

Spicy Parsnip and Sweet Potato Soup
Use about 4 chunky parsnips, peeled and diced, and 2 or 3 sweet potatoes, instead of the carrots. (Use your own judgement!) Add between a quarter to a half teaspoon chilli powder, or experiment with little red chillies. I added coriander as well to my attempt.

Chocolate Banana Bread

courtesy of Tim Baker, from CLP's blog

Ingredients
250g plain flour (can use gluten-free flour)
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
250g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, softened
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
175g good quality dark or milk chocolate, chopped into pieces

Method Preheat the oven to 180C (350F/Gas 4). Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl.

Mix the butter, sugar, banana, eggs, vanilla extract and chocolate chips in a separate bowl. Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine, being careful not to overmix.

Pour the batter into a non stick, or lightly greased and floured, 19 x 11 cm loaf tin and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until the bread is cooked when tested with a skewer. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool. Serve in thick slices with butter. Makes 8 to 10 slices.


I added a small packet of dried cranberries to the loaf I made recently (soak them in hot water for about an hour before using them) and it's a rather good addition!

Pizza

Ingredients
1 cup warm water (about half and half boiling and chilled)
1 sachet dried yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
400g plain flour
1 tbsp olive oil

Method
In a smallish bowl, stir the salt and sugar into the water, and add the yeast, slowly, stirring to dissolve. Leave about 5 minutes while you weigh out the flour into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour the yeast mixture into the centre. Add a good dollop of olive oil and start mixing slowly until all the flour is incorporated - you may need to tip it out onto a work surface and knead it together until it's smooth.
Put the dough back in the mixing bowl and drizzle a bit of oil on, smoothing it over with your fingers. Cover the bowl and leave somewhere warm to proove for about half an hour. I find if I warm the oven up to about 100C then turn it off it's a nice temperature to proove dough at.
Tip the prooved dough out onto a floured surface and stretch out into a round. Place onto a baking sheet, top as desired and bake for about 15 minutes or until nicely cooked!


My topping here was creamed tomatoes mixed with oregano and sage, chopped up sliced pieces of peperoni and roughly chopped pieces of mozzarella. Mmmmm.

Raspberry Ripple Icecream

Can be made either by hand or with an icecream maker.

Ingredients:
500g raspberries (fresh)
250g caster sugar
1 x 500g tub fromage frais

Method:
Put the raspberries into a medium saucepan with the sugar and 3 tablespoons water. Bring to the boil slowly and simmer for 2 minutes. Purée the raspberries in a blender, clean the pan, and strain the resulting goo back into the pan to remove the pips. Bring to the boil and cook for 8-10 minutes to reduce by half, stirring continuously. Leave to cool but do not refrigerate as the mixture will harden.

Spoon the fromage frais into a 1 litre plastic tub and whisk in 2/3 of the cold raspberry mixture. Cover and freeze, vigorously stirring the mixture every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours. Then stir in the remaining puree, stirring just enough to make streaks through the mixture, and freeze overnight.

If you have an icecream maker, simply churn the ice-cream with 2/3 of the puree and, once it is ready, add the remaining puree and churn once or twice until it streaks through the mixture.