Posts Tagged ‘organic food blog’
Saturday, November 13th, 2010
Even better than Chocolate Rice Pudding in terms of return on effort is a quick and simple chocolate mousse, which always seems to get a big thumbs up from whoever tastes it, even though it is perhaps one of the simplest things to make.
Chocolate Mousse
Basically, it is a bit of melted chocolate, some cream and eggs and there you have it; you actually do not really need the gelatine, but I once had a disaster making this when it did not set very quickly, so I add the gelatine more as a safety measure than a necessity. It is, also, really flexible as a recipe, so you can play around with the flavours to the base recipe used, such as you could change orange blossom to rose water, orange oil, vanilla extract or brandy or just leave it out altogether, then you can decorate the top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings or homemade caramel pieces.
Easy Peasy Chocolate Mousse
Some Ingredients For Easy Peasy Chocolate Pud
2 x 100g bars of chocolate – 1 dark and 1 milk chocolate
2 level tablespoons caster sugar
6 tbsp double cream
4 eggs, at room temperature seperated between yolks and whites
3 tsp orange flower water (or rose water or just water)
1 tsp gelatine
Firstly separate the egg yolks and whites. Lightly whisk the egg yolks together and leave the egg whites until later.
Put the orange flower water or water into a small ramekin and sprinkle the gelatine over this. Leave to be fully absorbed.
Break all of the dark chocolate bar (that is the whole 100g) into a heat proof glass mixing bowl and all but the last row of segments on the milk chocolate bar (that is 80g of milk chocolate). Melt these over a pan of boiling water, mixing the two flavours together. Leave to cool until just warm to touch.
Break Up The Chocolate Into Pieces
Melt The Two Chocolates Over Boiling Water
When cool, add the double cream to the double chocolate and mix in thoroughly. Place the ramekin of gelatine into a small pan of water to half way up the side of the ramekin, then bring the water gently to a boil watching for the gelatine to be fully melted, or as I do simply place ramekin in the hot water used to melt the chocolate and it will melt in that even as it cools down. Add the gelatine to the chocolate mix and gently whisk through so fully mixed in.
Stir In Some Double Cream
Stir In Egg Yolks
Now, whisk the egg whites until a soft peak, then fold into the chocolate. Put the mousse into ramekins or wine glasses to look pretty. Leave to set and cool for at least 30 minutes.
Whisk the Egg Whites
Fold The Whisked Egg Whites Into The Chocolate Mixture
Pour The Chocolate Mousse Mixture Into Glass Ramekins Or Bowls
Easy Peasy Chocolate Mousse
Serve with whipped cream and grate over the remaining milk chocolate over this.
Tags: Blog, chocolare pudding recipe, chocolate, chocolate mousse, chocolate pudding, cooking, easy pudding, food and wine, foodandwine, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 8th, 2010
This recipe for Chocolate Rice Pudding was inspired by reading a blog by Helen Best-Shaw of Fuss Free Flavours fame, who wrote a recipe for Chocolate Risotto with Peaches. I was intrigued by the concept, especially having just made the Indian Tea Infused Rice Pudding for Diwali. So here is my version, which is slightly different from Helen’s version although hers still sounds better than mine. Neither recipe is done any favours by the photography as this is not a photogenic pudding, even though it tastes fabulous.
As a recipe, it calls like many things for some patience and care in the making, as the milk can boil over, the rice can stick to the pan and the sweetness will be variable depending on the chocolate used. Also, you can eat it hot or cold; I am not a fan of cold rice pudding, but lots of people are, so why not make extra and take it to work for sneaky packed lunch treats. Chocolate Rice Pudding is fairly versatile – you can serve it as showy dinner party food by putting it neatly into glass bowls, then topping off with some whipped cream and shavings of chocolate, or serve warm as a homely winter warming treat.
All in all it is rich and delicious, so thanks Helen for the inspiration. It reminds me of one of mainstays for a quick and easy pudding, East Peasy Chocolate Mousse.
Recipe For Chocolate Rice Pudding
200g / 7oz dark chocolate
600ml / 1 pint full fat milk
100g / ½ cup pudding rice (Arborio rice)
2½ heaped tablespoons light muscovado sugar
30g / 1oz / 2 tbsp butter (ideally use unsalted butter, but you should then add a pinch of salt to the milk)
42½g / 1½ oz / 2tbsp raisins
Break the chocolate into a bowl and melt over a pan of boiling water. Leave to cool down on top of the still warm water, but obviously off the hob.
Break Up The Chocolate And Put Into Bowl
Melt The Chocolate Over A Pan Of Boiling Water
Add the milk to a heavy bottomed pan, together with the pudding rice and sugar (and a pinch of salt if using unsalted butter). Heat up to a gentle simmer, stirring all the time. Then let simmer for 25 – 30 minutes, but check it and stir it regularly as the milk can boil over, the rice can stick to the base and different rice will cook at differing rates. It should cook through to a nice al dente texture with this amount of milk, but if needed, simply top it up.
When cooked, take it off the hob, add the butter and stir this through. Now add the melted chocolate and raisins and mix these through. Check the sweetness and if you feel it needs it, add some more sugar; there is a lot of variation in the sweetness of bars of chocolate that you might want to use, as well as peoples’ taste buds.
Stir In the Butter To The Cooked Pudding Rice
Mix In The Melted Chocolate And Raisins
Leave to cool and serve cold, or reheat and have it warm. If serving cold, serve in glass bowls topped with whipped cream and some shavings of dark chocolate.
Chocolate Rice Pudding
Tags: Blog, chocolate, chocolate rice pudding, cooking, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, foodie news, organic food blog, pudding recipe, recipe, Recipes, rice, rice pudding, Steenbergs, sweet, sweet recipe, vegetarian recipe
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 3 Comments »
Saturday, November 6th, 2010
Indian Rice Pudding
For pudding with my Imperial Korma, I made Indian Rice Pudding. I love rice pudding and I love the Indian versions, especially Pal Payasam which is the traditional Keralan recipe; these use basmati rice which has a firmer mouth-feel than arborio rice, which is used for a typical English rice puds.
In Kerala, you would flavour it with cashews as they are grown all over Kerala, including by my friends at Elements Homestead; however, the other day I did not have any cashews to hand so I used flaked almonds which worked really well (cashews are rarely in our storecupboard, but almonds always are).
As it is an Indian rice pudding, I wanted to add an extra flavour element to the rice pudding and decided to infuse the milk with tea and I actually used one of our chai teas, which I make using a Keralan black tea from the POABS Estates near Nelliyampathy together with Fairtrade spices that are indigenous to the region. You do not need to use a chai tea (or tea at all for that matter), but I suggest you should use light and flowery teas rather than strong ones, so a Nilgiri Black Tea or a Fine Darjeeling would work well, but I do not think a malty Assam or Kenyan tea would be right as those flavours will come through too strongly.
Axel’s Tea Infused Indian Rice Pudding
½tsp green cardamom powder
2tbsp ghee or unsalted butter
2tbsp flaked almonds
2tbsp raisins
100g / 3½ oz basmati rice
600ml / 1 pint full fat milk
1tsp Indian tea (optional)
100g / 3½ oz light muscovado sugar
Heat the ghee/butter in a heavy bottomed pan and fry the almonds and raisins until the raisins have swollen up. Remove from the hot oil and drain almonds and raisins on kitchen paper and keep to the side; keep the oil in the pan but off the heat.
In a milk pan, warm the milk to just below boiling point; you will see bubbles just appear at the edge of the milk just by the pan edge. Take off the heat and add the tea to the milk, stir in and leave to infuse for 5 minutes, then strain out the tea leaves by pouring the milk through a sieve.
Wash and drain the rice twice. In the saucepan, reheat the ghee/butter and lightly fry the basmati rice for about 1 minute being careful not to let it stick or burn. Add the tea-infused milk and stir into the rice; heat to just below boiling point, stirring all the time to stop it sticking on the base of the pan and so burning.
When the rice is nearly cooked with an al dente bite, add the sugar and stir it in until it has dissolved and the rice is throughly cooked. Add the fried almonds, raisins and cardamom powder, stir right through and gently cook for about 2 minutes longer.
Serve hot, with cream or milk if you want.
Tags: Blog, Fairtrade, Fairtrade blog, Fairtrade spices, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, foodie news, green blog, Indian cooking, Indian rice pudding, lifestyle, organic food blog, pal payasam, recipe, Recipes, rice pudding, spice, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
I cannot really believe that it is already November, the clocks have fallen back and I am preparing for Christmas, with the Christmas cake baked and Christmas pudding slated for this weekend. So on a cold, windy, dark November morning, I looked back with joy at the tail end of autumnal style cooking and my favourite bloggers’ articles on the web.
At A Slice Of Cherry Pie, Julia Parsons has been cooking in Turin at the Slow Food Show, making sausages and a British pasta dish; all good reading and sounds like an amazing event. And in a Halloween vein, there are recipes for Halloween biscuits and Roasted Winter Squash With Nutmeg.
At Cannelle et Vanille, where as always the photography is awesome, Aran Goyoaga has made some delicious Pumpkin, Quinoa And Hazelnut Gnocchi which sound amazing; I have never really liked gnocchi and I get tired of pumpkin soup at this time of year, so this seems to sort out two problems at once. While earlier, the smells of the mouth-watering Pear, Hazelnut and Brown Butter Cakes just leap out of the screen and they look so dainty and perfect in the photography, shaped as they are in mini bundt circles. I have also worked out why her blog looks so perfect, she is a food stylist and photographer, so I do not need to feel too down on my own inabilities in my blog, where everything seems made at home, so rough and ready, which actually is how it is.
Some time back, I experimented with recipes for the ideal Almond Cake and came up with something that seemed to pass muster, however Clotilde Dusoulier at Chocolate & Zucchini has come up with a great alternative, Quince Almond Cake, which I reckon you could also do with pears if you cannot find any quinces. Clotilde has also posted an intriguing Savory Sesame Cookies recipe that has been adapted from a recipe by Clea at Clea Cuisine.
At Chubby Hubby, they have created a fusion slow-cooked Pot Au Feu that mixes French cuisine with Vietnamese pho. It sounds like an ideal winter warmer as the nights draw in.
CookSister has been very active with lots of photography, restaurant reviews and some inspiring recipes. I like the Individual Beef & Guinness Pies, where I might substitute a local stout or dark beer from a microbrewery around us like Monkey Wrench Ale from Daleside Brewery or Riggwelter from Black Sheep Brewery. These would be accompanied nicely by the Runner Bean And Feta Gratin and with Creme Brulee for pudding.
David Lebovitz has been enjoying visiting markets again with the Arabian exoticism of the Sharjah Market in the United Arab Emirates. But life will never be the same after the recipe for Chocolate Mousse cake which is a must for any cake-a-holic and chocoholic and has already entered our repertoire. I love his post about Oatmeal Raisin Cookies as they sound lovely, as well as the truth behind David’s life about being a chef and that it is grunt work; I think TV has a lot to answer for as it makes everyone feel they can be the next superstar singer earning gazillions or Gordon Ramsay or Prime Minister, which is plain folly as most of us are really just going to have to work hard to scrape a living, pay our taxes and get by – that’s the plain and simple truth. My father talks about “winers, diners and grinders” in the business world, where most are permanently left in the grinders (or grunts) camp, so for example a policeman friend of ours says that they are really just well paid muscle willing to do the stuff that no-one else will do. But the piece de resistance for me is the Swiss Chard Tart where David has topped the normal pastry filled with chard with apples on the top layer and then enclosed this in even more pastry; this sounds a delicious combination with all those heady baking spices and different textures from raisins and pine nuts.
Helen at Fuss Free Flavours has been busy making Double Chocolate Madeleines which I need to make alongside the David Lebovitz’s Chocolate Mousse Cake mentioned earlier, and I like the idea of Healthier Chocolate Crispies, which I do not feel will catch on for kid’s parties but sounds a perfect excuse for adults to indulge in children’s foods – why should they have all the fun? Chocolate seems to be the theme and Spiced Chocolate Stout Beef Casserole sounds amazing even after Chocolate Week, finishing off with the very adult Chocolate Stout Brownies to help the waistline.
Tags: A Slice Of Cherry Pie, baking, Beef Casserole, Beef Pie, Blog, Cannelle Et Vanille, Chocolate And Zucchini, chocolate cake, cooking, Cooksister, David Lebovitz, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, foodie news, Fuss Free Flavours, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, spice, Steenbergs
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 4 Comments »
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
A Slice Of Carrot Cake
Jay kept on calling my “gingerbread” “carrot cake” over the last few weeks, so I took the hint and started trying to perfect a carrot cake recipe.
The first few attempts did not go down with the kids as firstly they contained walnuts (“I always have hated walnuts” was the response, but in our household it is more of a case that if I can see it then I cannot/must not like it) and then I found them a bit too dry. So walnuts removed and buttermilk added, I have come up with a carrot cake recipe that passes muster – moist and tasty. You can always add the walnuts back in again should you so wish; I would suggest 115g / 4oz / 1 cup of chopped walnuts.
The kids got to the icing and topped it with a vast amount of sprinkles which they loved eating as much as the cake itself. Overall, it is not a bad way to claim you have eaten one of your 5 -a-day.
For the cake:
175g / 6oz / ¾ cup unsalted butter
175g / 6oz / ¾ cup light muscovado sugar
3 egg yolks at room temperature and gently whisked
3 egg whites at room temperature
30ml / 2 tbsp sunflower oil or buttermilk
175g / 6oz / 1½ cups organic self-raising flour
5ml /1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp sea salt, finely ground
¾ tsp organic cinnamon powder
½ tsp organic ground nutmeg
50g / 2oz / ½ cup ground almonds
225g / 8 oz / 1½ cups freshly grated carrot
For the icing:
175g / 6oz / ¾ cup mascarpone cheese, or cream cheese
40g / 1½oz / 3tbsp icing sugar
1tbsp lemon juice
Walnuts or sprinkles to decorate
Set the oven to 160C / 325F. Line a large loaf tin with baking parchment (dimensions: 12 x 19cm; 4½ x 7½ inches).
Sieve the self-raising flour, salt, cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder and baking powder together into a large mixing bowl. Separate the egg yolks and whites; mix the egg yolks together gently with a fork or a whisk and set the egg whites aside.
Cut the butter into small pieces and put into a mixing bowl, then add in the soft brown sugar. Cream together the butter and soft brown sugar. Add the egg yolks and the buttermilk or oil and whisk until thoroughly mixed in.
Put Butter And Sugar In Mixing Bowl
Cream The Butter And Sugar
Add the self-raising flour together with the other dry ingredients and the ground almonds; mix it all up with a silicone spatula or hand whisk.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then add this and the grated carrots to the cake batter and fold in fully.
Add The Whipped Egg Whites And Stir In
Scoop the carrot cake batter into the prepared loaf tin.
Scoop The Carrot Cake Batter Into The Loaf Tin
Put into the centre of the warmed oven and bake for about 70 minutes. As the hour comes up, start checking the carrot cake by gently pressing the top in the centre to feel whether it feels springy and spongy rather than liquidy; when done a skewer should come out without any dampness on it.
Leave to stand for 10 minutes, then turn out of loaf tin, remove the baking paper and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Baked Carrot Cake, Cooled And Ready For Icing
When cool, it is time to start preparing the mascarpone ice cream. To make the cream cheese icing, put all the icing ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix together thoroughly. Spread this over the top of the carrot cake and decorate with sprinkles or walnuts or other nuts for that matter.
Spread The Mascarpone Icing Over The Carrot Cake
Decorate Your Carrot Cake
Enjoy with tea or a coffee, or indulge yourself and enjoy as is and without the excuse of a beverage.
Tags: baking, Blog, cake, cake recipe, cakes, carrot, carrot cake, Fairtrade spices, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, gastronomy, organic, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, sea salt, spice, spices, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe
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Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
September has been a busy month for food bloggers. I think that is partly as many have had a holiday in August and recharged their batteries, but also it is harvest time and so there’s a huge amount of culinary stimulation in the fields, gardens, markets and shops. For me, harvest time is perhaps the most wonderful time of year as the earth’s bounty repays the effort you have put into the soil; perhaps not as light and joyful as spring and as full of promise, but fulsome.
At A Slice Of Cherry Pie run by Julia Parsons, there are a couple of a nice and simple looking recipes – Autumnal Welsh Lamb Steaks With Butter Beans and Baked Figs With Maple Syrup.
At Cannelle et Vanille (how come the photos are just so beautiful – it is just not fair as mine look like an amateur has snapped them however hard I try), Aran has been still enjoying her vacation in here native Basque region in Spain and wrote a beautiful piece about apples and an apple cake, which puts my efforts on apples to shame; I must try Aran’s recipe as I am on a quest for a decent apple cake at the moment. Also, I love her post about mushroom picking with her father as my mum enjoys her mushroom foraging at this time of year, which earths her back to the soil; I am so pleased that the mushrooms were cooked in a simple risotto dish as good food should be simple and natural and not overfussy. Finally, the Leek, Butternut Squash and Potato Soup with the Apple and Gruyere Muffins have a delectable, autumnal feel about them, but with the amount of apples I have got at home an apple soup recipe would have been welcomed with open arms.
At Chocolate And Zucchini, there is a really useful post called Tomato Burger Buns, which sounds intriguing as a title. What interested me the most was the links into an article in the New York Times about the perfect hamburger. So I feel minded to rekindle my quest for the perfect burger, which can restart now that the nights are drawing in and I have some inspiration for the buns’ component, which was where I had been struggling for a way forward.
At Chubby Hubby, he and his wife flew off to Bangkok to eat at David Thompson’s new restaurant and has shared the recipe for Grilled Pork Neck With A Spicy Sour Sauce, which has that wonderfully Thai feel to it. This links in nicely to a pre-press viewing at Delicious Days of David Thompson’s up and coming book on Thai street food – David Thompson’s Pork Skewers; they also do not seem too hot so would be great as children’s food.
At CookSister, there is a fabulous round up of braai recipes in celebration of national (South African) barbecue day; I like the sticky pork ribs from Simply Delicious and a Kudu Potjie which is a really traditional South African type of pot cooked casserole and Cooksister’s own Whole Leg Of Lamb Barbecue and later her Lamb Sosaties. There is a definite autumnal, harvest-like feel to Stuffed Courgettes and inspires me to cook up our marrows from the garden.
David Lebovitz has been busy travelling to Ireland and showing folks around Paris on a chocolate tour. In amongst it all, he has included some great recipes – a recipe for a brown soda bread inspired by his trip to Ireland and a lovely post about making butter in Cork, as well as a perfect sounding Plum And Rhubarb Crumble cooked by the lovely Rachel Allen, who is one of my favourite cooks.
Helen at Fuss Free Flavours has cooked a healthy and wholesome courgette and red lentil dhal and a Four Seed Tapenade that would be excellent on pasta, plus a Harissa Lentil Salad With Lettuce which (I must declare an interest here) uses my Harissa With Rose Seasoning. I like the idea of the Polenta Bread that uses this corn meal staple within the bread; with Helen Best-Shaw and David Lebovitz baking bread, I reckon this winter is going to involve experiments with bread making, something which has been hold for a couple of years now.
…continues in part 2 [lots of activity in blogosphere this month]…
Tags: A Slice Of Cherry Pie, baking, Blog, Cannelle Et Vanille, Chocolate And Zucchini, Chubby Hubby, cooking, Cooksister, David Lebovitz, David Thompson, Delicious Days, Food, foodie, Fuss Free Flavours, Julia Parsons, organic, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe
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Saturday, October 2nd, 2010
For whatever reasons, I have not been quite happy with the original teabread recipe that I created and posted a few weeks back, so I have been playing around with the recipe now and baking away. Now several teabreads and a family of very happy tasters later, I think I have cracked it.
The key is still in the tea – the better the tea, the more interesting the tea, the better and more interesting the end result. I have now made it with breakfast tea, Assam tea, Christmas chai tea and Redbush Chai tea and they all come out with slightly different flavours, but they are all great. The tea should always be made with loose leaf tea as you lose that fustiness from the tea bag, plus why use good ingredients then spoil their subtleties with the imperfection of the flavour from a bag. The other addition that I have made is I have substituted buttermilk for the butter, which adds a different richness to the cake that was not completely right beforehand, however you can either substitute this for a full fat milk or omit this ingredient but then add extra tea to compensate, otherwise the teabread loses some of its moistness, which is part of the joy and vital to the texture.
The other part that I have played with is to work on variations of the steeping of the fruits. Firstly, I think it is better to boil the fruit for 10 – 15 minutes, then to leave the fruit to cool and steep in the brewed tea ideally overnight, but certainly until the fruit has cooled to a warm to the touch temperature. The alternative of steeping in freshly brewed tea did not seem as successful, although fine; perhaps the initial boiling softens up and gets the fruit more receptive to taking up the flavours of the tea.
Finally, I have upped the quantities, the better to fit my loaf tin. The end result is moist, rich and moreish, tasting great with butter.
Revised Ingredients And Recipe For Axel’s Teabread
175g / 6 oz / 1 cup sultanas
125g / 4½ oz / ¾ cup raisins
50g / 2oz / ¼ cup currants
175g / 6 oz / ¾ cup light brown muscovado sugar
250ml / 8 fl oz / 1 cup strong, freshly brewed tea
1 egg free-range, at room temperature and lightly beaten
50 ml / 3½ tbsp buttermilk
230g / 8 oz / 1 cups plain white flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp Fairtrade cinnamon powder
½ tsp Fairtrade nutmeg powder
Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F. Line a loaf tin with baking paper.
Place the dried fruit and muscovado sugar into a heavy bottomed saucepan, then add the strong tea, heat and simmer for 10 – 15 minutes until the fruit has plumped up. Leave to cool in the pan, ideally overnight.
Sieve together the plain flour, baking powder, Fairtrade cinnamon and nutmeg powders. Make a well in the centre of the flour, then add in the egg and stir thoroughly with a spatula. Add the buttermilk and stir until you have a soft dough. Add the fruits and throughly beat together with the silicone spatula.
Stirring Up The Fruit Bread Mix
Pour the fruit teabread mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, remove from the oven then leave to stand in the tin for about 10 minutes, before turning out and leaving to cool on wire rack. Start checking the consistency of the teabread towards the end – when it is springy to a light touch on the surface of the teabread, it is done.
Yorkshire Teabread
You do not need to leave this to cool down completely as it is lovely eaten warm.
Tags: baking, Blog, cake, cake recipe, cooking, Fairtrade blog, Fairtrade spices, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, gastronomy, organic, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, spice, spices, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, teabread, teabread recipe, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe, Yorkshire
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
A Slice Of Homemade Gingerbread
I seem to be on a journey that includes loads of different traditional British cakes, which noone at home is complaining about at all. Perhaps, it is the nostalgic air of early autumn creeping into the air.
What is great about these sorts of cakes are that they get better with a bit of ageing, so there is none of this lightness that morphs into dryness overnight. There’s also an old fashioned solidity to them that makes them a meal in their own right rather than a light, frolicky piece of fancy that seems to be just a burst of sweetness without any substance.
They all make an interesting use of spice flavours and work well with different types of liquid. In this gingerbread recipe that I have been playing with, I use buttermilk which imparts a richness to the gingerbread that milk does not quite match. And while there is definitely some ginger taste in this cake, it is not overpowering and is balanced by the sweetness of the cinnamon powder (note: cinnamon not cassia or baker’s cinnamon), while the molasses flavours from the black treacle and muscovado are kept down through using relatively little treacle and a light muscovado rather than a dark one. You can tweak these quantities and ingredients to suit your household’s tastes – these match our own as Jay really loves this cake.
I, also, recommend wrapping up the cake and leaving it for a day as the cake becomes moister, which is much tastier and the texture is more correct than eating it fresh from the oven.
How To Make Traditional Gingerbread
280g / 10 oz / 2½ cups organic plain flour (I am using Gilchester’s white flour at the moment)
2tsp organic ginger powder
1½tsp baking powder
¾tsp bicarbonate of soda
¾tsp organic cinnamon powder
125g / 4½ oz / generous ½ cup light muscovado sugar
115g / 4 oz / ½ cup butter (lightly salted is fine)
125g / 4½ oz / scant ½ cup golden syrup (corn syrup)
50g / 2 oz / 3tbsp black treacle
200ml / 7fl oz / 7/8 cup buttermilk (or full fat milk)
1 large sized egg, at room temperature and lightly beaten
Set the oven to 160C / 325F. Line a large loaf tin with baking parchment (dimensions: 12 x 19cm; 4½ x 7½ inches).
Sieve the plain flour, ginger, cinnamon powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together into a large mixing bowl.
Sieve Together The Flour And Spices
Cut the butter into small pieces and put into a pan, then add the golden syrup, muscovado sugar and black treacle to this and warm over a gentle heat until the sugar has melted.
Butter, Sugars And Sweet Things
Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the sugars. Mix it all up with a silicone spatula or hand whisk. Add the buttermilk and egg and mix up thoroughly.
Mix Together The Wet And Dry Ingredients
Stir In The Buttermilk
Pour Ginger Batter Into Loaf Tin
Pour the ginger batter into the prepared loaf tin. Put into the centre of the warmed oven and bake for about an hour. As the hour comes up, start checking the gingerbread by gently pressing the top in the centre to feel whether it feels springy and spongy rather than liquidy; when done a skewer should come out without any dampness on it.
Leave to stand for 10 minutes, then turn out of loaf tin, remove the baking paper and allow to cool on a wire rack. When cool, wrap in clingfilm and leave for a day before eating; you can start eating it straight away but this is really a cake that tastes better the day afterwards.
Homemade Gingerbread Cooling Down
Enjoy on its own or spread with a generous coating of good butter. Delicious and so, so easy.
Tags: baking, Blog, cake recipe, cooking, Food, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, foodie news, gastronomy, ginger, ginger cake, gingerbread, gingerbread recipe, organic food blog, recipe, recipe for gingerbread, Recipes, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 1 Comment »
Sunday, September 26th, 2010
We only have three apple trees in our garden, but they have been massively fruitful this year. In fact, they have produced so many apples I cannot even hope to use them all, even with friends and family taking them. Nature has been so very fecund that even the quince bush outside of our front door has fruited; in the last 10 years, I reckon we have had had one quince on the bush in total, whereas this year there are seven. It must be nature’s response to two harsh winters – up the reproduction and spread more seeds to survive.
Fruitful Apple Trees In Garden
Apples Picked From the Garden
Windfall Chutney 2010
So over the last two weekends, we have peeled for hours, then: picked and stored the eaters for later this year rather than chomp on out-of-season, flown in fruits from some high street chain; made apple puree, which has been frozen to lighten the fruitless days in the depths of winter; eaten baked apples using up leftover mincemeat for last Christmas that is now gorgeously matured and very boozy; made two types of chutney – General Gordon’s chutney and Windfall Chutney; and still made no dent in the apple harvest.
I love the plenty of harvest time, but I hate to see the waste when there is such an excess, while I know that in February/March I will be longing for fresh fruit in the knowledge that I was so wasteful in September. And we have so little fresh fruit in this part of Northern England.
I have, also, cobbled together several different versions of apple cake, which both have a charmingly spiced, old world flavour to them.
Apple Puree Cake
Apple Puree Cake
Ingredients:
175g / 6 oz / 1 cup apple puree – cooking apples, stewed, pureed then sieved
110g / 4 oz / 2/3 cup sultanas
1tbsp currants
1 mug strong black tea (optional)
200g / 7 oz / 1 cup Fairtrade organic caster sugar
225g / 8 oz / 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 large eggs at room temperature, lightly whisked
340g / 12 oz / 3 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of sea salt
½ tsp nutmeg powder
½ tsp cinnamon powder
Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F. Prepare a 22cm / 9 inch cake tin by lightly buttering it and lining the base.
If you have not got any pre-made apple puree, peel some cooking apples then core and quarter them (weight will be more than the 175g / 6 oz but you can eat the balance with some sugar, while cooking the rest of the cake). Place in a pan and put lid on; heat under a medium heat until hot, then reduce heat to a low heat and let the apples stew until soft. Squash them through a sieve to give you your apple puree.
This next bit is optional and involves preparing the dried fruit. I put the dried fruit into a pan, then brewed a strong mug of black tea. The black tea was then poured over the fruit and I boiled the fruit for about 10 minutes until nice and plump. Sieve off the excess tea and leave to cool. You can ignore this stage and simply use the dried fruit, but I like doing this as it reduces that jaw-aching, chewiness of dried fruit, while adding another flavour dimension to your baking.
Sieve together the organic plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sea salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Cream together the butter and caster sugar. Add the eggs – half at first, followed by a tablespoon of the flour mix, then add the remainder. Now add in the cooled apple puree and mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the flour mix and mix together. Finally add the sultanas and currants and make sure it is mixed well.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 50 minutes. Towards the end start checking the consistency of the cake, by gently touching the top and feeling whether it is springy rather than liquidy. If it is cooking too slowly reduce the temperature to 160C / 320F and cook for another 5 – 10 minutes.
Leave to cool in tin for about 5 minutes, then remove from the cake tin and let cool completely on a wire rack.
For the second apple cake recipe, this will be in my next blog…
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