Recipes We Love!
Whether you grow your own, or wish you grew your own!
Lemon Drizzle Courgette Cake
I've got a glut of……..courgettes!
A tasty way to use some of those courgettes - the recipe makes two bar cakes and freezes brilliantly well.
Cooking time: 45 mins
Ingredients
200g (7oz) ground almonds
240g (8½oz) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
350g (12oz) golden caster sugar
225ml (8fl oz) extra-virgin olive oil
3 large free range eggs
¼ tsp almond extract
2 tsp vanilla extract (the best you can get)
300g (10½oz) grated courgette (2 medium/3 small)
For the lemon drizzle:
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp granulated sugar
3 tbsp icing sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 350°F/gas mark 4. Line two 20x10x13cm (8x4x5in) loaf tins with parchment paper or a preformed paper liner.
In a medium-sized mixing-bowl combine the flour, 1 tsp salt, the baking powder, ground almonds, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
Using a hand-held or a standing mixer, whip the sugar and oil until lighter in colour, about four minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then add the almond and vanilla extracts.
Add the dry ingredients all at once. Give the batter a thorough mix. Fold in the courgettes by hand. Transfer to the tins and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine the lemon juice with the sugars in a small bowl. While the cakes are still warm use a pastry brush to coat the tops with glaze. Allow to cool.
This cake seems to improve with freezing. I like to slice it and wraps those slices in butchers wrap, and then freeze the wrapped slices in a suitable freezer container or freezer bag.
NB: For a lower fat version, simply omit the olive oil. Strangely it works just as well!
Adapted from a recipe published in The Telegraph by Sarah Leahey Benjamin
Chocolate and Baileys Cream Pots
Undeniably rich and indulgent, this dessert is perfect served in a shot glass, perhaps alongside one filled with Lemon Cream (recipe to follow!).
Makes 6 large desserts or 12 small ones.
Ingredients
140g dark chocolate
140ml whipping cream
5 tbs Baileys or Irish Cream Liqueur
250g Mascarpone cheese
140g glucose syrup
Chocolate shavings, to decorate
Method
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water.
Once smooth, add the glucose syrup and stir.
In a separate bowl, whisk the cream until it forms soft peaks.
Stir in the Baileys and Mascarpone cheese.
Add a tablespoon of the cream mixture to the melted chocolate.
Then combine the remainder of the cream mix with the chocolate mix and stir until thoroughly combined.
Transfer to individual serving dishes and chill.
I like to serve it in shot glasses, and is particularly lovely served with a shot glass filled with lemon cream along with a shortbread finger.
This recipe was taken from 'In the Galley with Graham, recipes used on Tenacious' (Samways, Appleby & Bacon).
Rhubarb and Custard Muffins
I've got a glut of……..rhubarb!
Makes lots of these and freeze them for later.
(this is adapted from a recipe on BBC Good Food)
Makes 12 muffins. Cooking time: 15 mins
Ingredients
175g caster sugar
175 rhubarb - chopped into half inch pieces (halve chunky pieces lengthways too)
2 tbs olive oil
1 free range egg 1 tsp vanilla extract
125ml milk
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tbs ready-made custard
50g light muscovado sugar
50g plain flour
25g porridge oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
50g chilled butter
Method
Heat over to 220C/Gas 7.
Sprinkle the caster sugar over the prepared rhubarb and leave to one side. Do not cook, heat, or anything else!
To make the crumble topping, combine 50g each muscavado sugar and plain flour together with the cinnamon. Rub in the butter until you get a crumbly but fairly dry mixture. Set aside.
Mix together the oil, egg, vanilla and milk and put into the rhubarb mix.
Add the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Combine thoroughly.
Half fill 12 muffins cases with the mixture. Top each one with a teaspoon of custard, before adding the remainder of the mixture.
Sprinkle each one with the crumble mixture.
Bake for 15 mins, or until a cocktail stick poked into the centre comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack.
They may be difficult to remove cleanly from the paper cases while still warm, but once cold the cases should peel off easily.
Apple Rose Tarts
This recipe has been doing the rounds on Social Media so I'm not sure who to attribute it to, however this is my take on these tasty and pretty apple tarts. Delightful to look at, a great use of apples and much simpler to make than you may think.
Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins
Ingredients
3 apples (I used a combination of eaters and cookers)
Juice of ½ lemon
3 tbsp apricot jam
1 pack of puff pastry
Cinnamon
Method
Heat oven to 200°C.
Wash, core and halve the apples before slicing thinly.
Place the apple slices in a microwave-safe bowl of cold water along with the lemon juice and microwave on full power for 3 minutes. Set aside.
Mix the apricot jam with 2 tbsp cold water, stirring well to combine. Set aside.
Dust your work surface with flour and roll out the puff pastry into an oblong.
Using a sharp knife and cutting along the short side, divide the pastry into 8 equally sized oblong strips. Each strip will be roughly 3 inches deep.
Spread the watered-down jam along the centre of each strip (approx. 1" wide) leaving the long sides clear.
Taking each pastry strip, lay the apples along one long edge so that just over half the slice hangs over the edge and overlapping by about a quarter of each apple slice. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Fold the clear pastry edge up towards the apple slices, so the apple is peeping out of the top.
Now from one of the short ends, carefully roll the pastry up and place into a greased muffin tin.
Cook for 30 minutes. After 20 minutes you may need to cover the tops with a piece of silver foil to prevent the apple slices from charring.
Remove from the oven and cool before removing each tart from the tin and sprinkling with icing sugar, or if feeling particularly devilish, cinnamon sugar.
Top tip: To ensure the pastry cooks through in the centre, make sure it is rolled out nice and thin.