Posts Tagged ‘vegetarian’
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
I have been trying to create a hot chocolate product at Steenbergs and as part of my research I came up with this really rich hot chocolate recipe. This Hot Chocolate Recipe is something to relax with and enjoy at home, since Sophie calls it “a hug in a mug”. It is, however, probably impossible to commercialise as any attempt to dumb it down will make the whole experience cheap and less luxurious.
Homemade Rich Hot Chocolate
Recipe For Rich Hot Chocolate Drink
575ml /1 pint / 2½ cups full fat milk
60ml / ¼ cup water
60g / 2 oz / ¾ cup good quality Fairtrade caster sugar (not your plain white stuff)
100g / 3½ oz dark Fairtrade chocolate (I use one bar of Divine chocolate)
In a bowl over boiling water, melt the chocolate bar, then switch off the heat but leave over the hot water.
Put the milk and water into a pan and bring to the boil. Just as the first bubbles appear at the edges, take the pan off the heat. Add the caster sugar and stir in until dissolved.
Add the chocolate and stir in; reheat the mixture until it just starts to bubble again.
Take it off the heat, then whisk quickly with a hand whisk for about 1 minute. Pour into 2 or 3 mugs, sit back and enjoy.
Tags: Blog, chocolate, cooking, ethical, Fairtrade, Fairtrade blog, Fairtrade spices, Food, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, Steenbergs, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 1 Comment »
Sunday, November 21st, 2010
My mother is German, our family coming originally from Eastern Germany; in fact, my maternal great great grandfather’s family were from even further east in modern Poland, being a headmaster for a school in Gdansk.
Slices Of Homemade Stollen
As a result, one of my favourite treats has always been stollen and lebkuchen which my grandmother used to send us from Lebkuchen Schmidt in Nurnburg. Everything came in gorgeous decorated tins or beautifully covered in pretty wrapping. It really was one of those magical things about my Christmases when I was young, but the mystery has gone a bit now that you can buy versions from Marks & Spencer through to Lidl, even if the quality just is not there; in the same way, Niederegger marzipan was a special treat, yet is now ubiquitous, and we used to get a 10 inch bar covered in chocolate, from which we used to cut off small slices to eat like manna. As I said earlier, ours used to come from Lebkuchen Schmidt and I have treated myself to a pack this year, so fingers crossed that will arrive by Christmas (the wonders of the world wide web and its power to connect).
But I really felt that I could/ should have a crack at making homemade stollen as, unlike the lebkuchen, this is something (a) I ought to be able to make; (b) the treat factor in stollen is less great. For reference, I used three books: Delia Smith’s “Christmas”, Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter’s “Bread” and my other favourite Elisabeth Luard’s “European Peasant Cookery”, with ”Bread” used as the key recipe. Interestingly, modern stollen (or shop bought stollen) has morphed into a relatively dry, sweet fruit cake with some marzipan in it and smothered in icing sugar (nor is it a rich fruit cake like Christmas cake or Yorkshire brack, but quite plain), which is not the real thing which should be an enriched bread; the best locally made stollen cake comes from Bettys & Taylors, which is worth treating yourself to.
Recipe For German Stollen
For the marzipan:
115g / 4oz / 1 cup organic ground almonds
50g / 2 oz / ¼ cup organic Fairtrade caster sugar
50g / 2oz / ¼ cup organic icing sugar
½ tsp natural almond extract
½ tsp lemon juice
½ medium egg, lightly beaten
Weigh out the organic sultanas and currants, then sprinkle the tea over these and leave to soak up the liquid until you need them later. Sift the bread flour and salt together into a large bowl, then add the sugar and stollen spices and mix thoroughly together.
Tip In The Stollen Spice Mix
Put the yeast into a small bowl and pour over the lukewarm milk, breaking up the yeast with a fork and mixing to a creamy emulsion. Make a well in the flour and pour the yeast mix into this and cover the liquid over with a bit of flour. Cover the bowl with some cling film and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes. This stage gets the yeast active and growing.
Leave The Yeast To Get Active
Next, we make the rich bread batter. Add the melted butter and whisked egg and mix together to a soft dough. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough has a smooth, elastic texture. Put the dough into a lightly oiled mixing bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place to rise. This will take 2 – 3 hours and you are after it doubling in size; I left mine close to a warm fire and it doubled in about 1 hour, but be careful about the warmth as the ideal temperature is about 37C, i.e. human body temperature – too low and it will expand slowly, but if it gets too hot, you will kill off the yeast (that is also why the milk should be tepid or touch tepid).
Add The Melted Butter And Whisked Egg To The Bread Batter
Knead The Enriched Dough
While the dough is rising, you should make the marzipan. This is one of those mega-simple recipes where you simply mix all the ingredients together and knead to a soft, smooth paste. When made, put in the fridge until you need it.
When the dough has risen sufficiently, take the marzipan out of the fridge, then tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and punch (knock back) the risen flour. Flatten and roll the dough to 1 inch thick;. pour over the sultanas, currants, mixed peel and chopped almonds. Fold over the dough and press and gently knead the dough until all the fruits have become incorporated. Now roll out the dough to an oval shape about a foot long (30 x 23cm / 12 x 9 inches), then slightly depress the centre with the rolling pin to make it thinner like a crease on a card. Roll the marzipan to a long thin sausage shape and place it into the slight depression on the dough, leaving a short space at either end. Fold over the dough, so that it covers the marzipan and gently seal the edges.
Place The Marzipan Roll On The Dough
Place the loaf on a prepared baking tin that has been lightly oiled and cover with some oiled clingfilm. Leave in a warm place to rise to double the volume again, which should take about 60 minutes.
Prepared Loaf Ready For Second Rising
Preheat the oven to 200C/ 400F. Bake the stollen loaf for about 30 minutes until it is brown and it sounds hollow when tapped. While warm, brush the surface with some melted butter and leave to cool. When cool, dust it with icing sugar.
Sprinkle Icing Sugar Over The Baked Stollen
Tags: almond extract, baking, Blog, Christmas, Christmas food, cooking, food and wine, foodandwine, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, spice, spices, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, stollen, stollen recipe, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 2 Comments »
Sunday, November 14th, 2010
I am winning with Christmas food preparations this year, which seems unbelievable considering how little time I seem to have to do anything at the moment;. I am running about one week behind last year. However, as a man who cooks, I do actually find baking strangely therapeutic and calming at the weekend. I think it gives me some peace and quiet, allowing my thoughts to settle themselves down after a hectic week at Steenbergs, and this week has been one of those business nightmare weeks.
So Christmas cake was baked 2 weekends ago, Christmas pudding last weekend and this weekend I have made a new batch of mincemeat. I always make a mammoth sized Christmas cake and extra Christmas puds, giving one to my parents and another to some great friends of ours, both of whom deserve just a little something for their help during the year. As for the mincemeat, I have usually made one that does not include any sugar as I feel the dried fruit, apple and juices are usually sweet enough, however after some gentle prompting last year, I thought I would try a more traditional version and add some sugar, which is what I did this morning.
Basically, it is my normal mincemeat recipe with the addition of 250g / 8oz dark molasses sugar from Billingtons crumbled into it and a reduced amount of apple as it seems to ferment a little over time. Still simple and easy, so my old recipe is now called the “No Added Sugar Mincemeat Recipe” and this will become our “Traditional Mincemeat” recipe. It really is worth the effort making this as it is really just a case of chucking some ingredients together and leaving to develop flavour over the short time to Christmas.
Ingredients
175g/ 6oz raisins (Organic and/or Fairtrade if possible)
175g/ 6oz sultanas (Organic and/or Fairtrade if possible)
250g/ 8oz currants (Organic and/or Fairtrade if possible)
85g/ 3oz chopped mixed peel
85g/ 3oz flaked almonds, toasted
125g/ 4oz eating apples (Cox’s are good), cored and chopped but not peeled
125g/ 4oz shredded suet (I use Community Wholefood’s vegetarian suet, but Atora also do one)
250g / 8oz dark muscovado sugar (Organic and/or Fairtrade if possible)
1tsp organic Fairtrade nutmeg powder
½ tsp allspice powder
½ rounded tsp organic Fairtrade cinnamon powder
Grated rind and juice of 1 orange (or 50:50 orange and lemon)
75ml/ 1/8 pint “good” whisky or brandy (I use Bruichladdich from Islay)
1. If possible, use organic ingredients and/or Fairtrade ingredients, as they are good for the environment and the communities that grow the crops.
2. Simply mix all the ingredients together and seal in a large tub, or ideally a bucket with a lid.
Ingredients For Mincemeat Weighed Out
Mix The Dark Muscovado Sugar Into The Fruit And Nuts
Traditional Mincemeat All Mixed Up
3. Stir it once or twice in the maturation period – at the end of November and maybe mid December. Pot it up into a couple of good sized Kilner-style jars on or about the 20th December.
4. It lasts for a good 2 – 3 years, so don’t worry if you haven’t used it all in one Christmas period. It is good to use in baked apples or to make a quick mincemeat tart for pudding anytime in the year.
Tags: baking, Blog, Christmas, Christmas food, cooking, Fairtrade, Fairtrade blog, Fairtrade mincemeat, Fairtrade spices, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, foodie news, homemade mincemeat, mince pies, mincemeat, organic, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, spice, spices, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, vegan, vegetarian, 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 »
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
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
It is that time of year when customers are after our Christmas tea which is made to my own special recipe.
Steenbergs Organic Fairtrade Christmas Tea
We use a high grown organic Fairtrade from the POABS biodynamic tea estates in Kerala in Southern India as the base. This is a lovely clean drinking black tea, while at the same time being mild in flavour without any maltiness or meadowy flavours coming through; therefore it is a wonderful base tea.
Whole Fairtrade Spices Ready For Grinding
I take organic Fairtrade cardamom, organic Fairtrade cinnamon quills and organic Fairtrade cloves from the Small Organic Farmers’ Association in the Kandy region of Sri Lanka. I then get some organic Fairtrade vanilla pods from the warehouse and chop these to about 1 cm in size. All of these are mixed together and then ground down to a 1 – 2mm chop. By grinding the whole spices in small batches, I can ensure that the quality of flavours is fresh and strong and that I am happy with their quality.
These are added to the tea together with some organic orange peel granules.
Cracked Spices And Black Tea
I mix it all together by hand, transfer it into sacks and leave to infuse with these gorgeous spicy flavours for a couple of weeks before testing and releasing for packing.
Christmas Tea All Mixed Up
No additional flavours are added, no chemicals; it’s just tea and spices, blended by hand in North Yorkshire by me. The final tea is a gently spiced, homely and warming for these darker evenings.
Tags: Blog, chai, chai tea, Christmas tea, Fairtrade, Fairtrade blog, Fairtrade spices, food and wine, foodandwine, foodie, foodie news, gastronomy, spice, spices, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, tea, vanilla, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe, Yorkshire
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Friday, October 8th, 2010
The idea for this cake comes from the wonderful cook book “European Peasant Cookery” by Elisabeth Luard; it is her recipe for Apple Cake or Æblekage, which comes from Denmark. “European Peasant Cookery” is one of those great cookbooks that is packed with recipes that will inspire you and has no pretty pictures to beguile you and get in the way of the cookery.
A Slice Of Rich Apple Cake
I have changed it quite a lot, switching self rasing flour for plain and increasing the number of eggs used, but the underlying concept remains the same – a rich, moist apple cake. The result came out as a rich and fulsome apple cake that can be eaten hot or cold, as a cake or a pudding with custard or cream. It is a delicious balance between the sweetness of the cake with the tart freshness of the cooking apples; it reminds me of Zwetschgendatschi, which is one of my favourite flavour memories buried deep in my soul from holidays spent in Bavaria around the Chiemsee.
Axel’s Apple Cake
500g / 1lb cooking apples, thinly sliced
Juice of 1 lemon
2 pinches of organic Fairtrade mixed spice
1tbsp Fairtrade caster sugar, or flavoured sugar like cinnamon or lemon sugar (if using cinnamon sugar, drop the mixed spice)
225g / 8oz unsalted butter, at room temperature and chopped into cubes
195g / 6¾ oz Fairtrade caster sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature and whisked gently
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
195g / 6¾ oz organic plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp sea salt
½ tsp organic Fairtrade cinnamon powder
75g / 2½ oz organic ground almonds
Preheat the oven to 160C/325F. Take a 23cm / 9 inch cake tin and lightly oil the tin, remove any excess oil, then line the base with baking paper.
Windfall Apples From The Garden
Go pick your apples, peel and core them, then slice thinly. Place in a bowl and sprinkle the lemon juice over them all, then sprinkle with the caster sugar and a couple of pinches of mixed spice. Thoroughly mix it up to make sure all slices are nicely coated with sugar and spice. Leave until later.
Grind the ground almonds in a food processor to make them finer – I know it sounds weird but they are usually just too coarse. Put to the side for use later in the recipe.
Cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and Steenbergs vanilla extract and whisk up fully. Sieve together the flour, baking powder, sea salt and cinnamon powder. Add the flour mix into the cake batter and throughly mix up, then add the ground almonds and mix into the batter.
Sugar And Butter Ready For Mixing
Cream The Sugar And Butter
Mix In The Eggs And Flour Mix
Pour half the cake batter into the cake tin, then layer over half the apple slices. Cover with rest of cake mixture and then layer rest of apple slices over the top of the cake.
Layer The Apples On The Cake Batter
Bake in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. At around 1 hour, sprinkle the top of the cake with 1 tablespoon of sugar and start looking and checking the cake to ensure you catch it just when it is cooked. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in tin for about 10 minutes then turn out and cool on a wire rack.
Home Made Apple Cake
Serve warm with custard or whipped cream, or cold as a cake with double cream or on its own.
Tags: apple cake, apple cake recipe, baking, Blog, cake recipe, cooking, Fairtrade spices, Food, foodie, organic food blog, recipe, Recipes, sea salt, spice, spices, Steenbergs, Steenbergs spices, vanilla, vanilla extract, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 1 Comment »
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
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 1 Comment »
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
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