Tuesday 20 October 2009

Welcome to my world

The lovely Debs of Deb Cooks.. interviewed me this month, please check out her blog for all the gory details :)

Many thanks Debs :)

Saturday 10 October 2009

Jaffa Drizzle Loaf

I saw this recipe a while back and had snagged it, however it appeared again in a little booklet with Good Food this month and reminded me to make it as we had family over for dinner this week.

This cake has a really lovely texture, with a delicious orangey scent. The chocolate is supposed to be drizzled over, however mine had other idea's so I smothered it instead, which I feel was a much better result! I think next time I will up the orange juice amount but overall it was a very delicious cake.



Ingredients

140g butter , softened
200g self-raising flour
1 1⁄2 tsp baking powder
200g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
6 tbsp milk
finely grated zest 1 large orange

TO FINISH

3 tbsp orange juice
50g golden caster sugar
50g dark chocolate

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 1.2-litre loaf tin. Put all the cake ingredients into a bowl and beat with a hand whisk or wooden spoon for 3-5 mins, until light and fluffy. Spoon the mix into the tin and level the top.
Bake for 40-50 mins, until golden brown and firm to the touch. Meanwhile, heat the orange juice and sugar gently in a small pan, stirring until dissolved. When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and spoon over the orange mix. Leave to cool in the tin, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Break up the chocolate and melt over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave on Medium for 1-2 mins. Drizzle over the cake and leave to set.

Sunday 4 October 2009

White Onion Soup - A tribute to Keith Floyd

I'm sure I am not the only one who was saddened by Keith Floyd's passing, I loved watching his programs, mainly for his unique style of cooking, which made me feel quite at home in the kitchen, complete with a glass of wine, whilst cooking :)

I had planned as a tribute recipe to Keith Floyd, to make his Prawn's with chilli and coriander, (hoping to make very soon as it sounds so good!) however due to a few dinner guest changes, this glorious White onion soup ended up being first. This soup is so easy, delicious and will be a regular make here! It allows onion fan's to really get a lovely, oniony hit but within gentle, creamy, velvety surroundings. This recipe is taken from the book 'A splash and a dash' by Keith Floyd.

This is also my entry into the blogging event being held by Julia at A Slice of Cherry Pie and James of Back to the Chopping Board in tribute to Keith Floyd.



Not sure on recomended servings but I halved it and it serves 3 as a starter

Ingredients

50g unsalted butter
4 Spanish onions
2 celery sticks, stringed and finely chopped
50g plain flour
300ml milk
900ml good, hot chicken stock (I used a AWT chicken cube, worked well)
Nutmeg (I didn't add as not huge fan in savoury dishes)
S&P to taste

Garnish:
Single cream
Parsley (I didn't use)

Heat in a saucepan a little of the butter with 1 tbsp water, add the onions and celery, cover and sweat until nice and soft (15-20 mins). Blitz in a food processor/ Liquidizer.

Using the same pan, heat the remaining butter, add the flour and cook gently until creamy (a roux), add trhe milk slowly, whisk until smooth and thick, add back the onion/ celery puree and the stock, heat through until smooth. Season with nutmeg, s&p.

Garnish with a swirl of cream and parsley. I used homemade croutons, in lieu of parsley and think they work very well, made me think of bread sauce...:)




RIP Keith, I've raised a toast to you this evening :)

Thursday 1 October 2009

Possibly the best ever Choc chip cookies?

I've been waiting to post about these as I needed to post this months 'Fresh from the Oven challenge' first! I've had this recipe for a while, taken from Olive magazine and finally baked them last week - they are really, really good.

Beautifully buttery, oaty, chocolatey, soft, slightly chewy and are even better eaten still warm from the oven. I can see these being a regular bake for me! The only real amendment was that I left the walnuts out, mainly as I'm sure I had some but couldn't find! I did adjust the sugar as to what I had in the cupboard and it thankfully worked perfectly!



Chunky chocolate cookies

Ingredients:
Ingredients100g plain flour
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
125g unsalted butter
175g soft brown sugar (I only had dark soft brown, used 150g and 50g golden caster sugar)
25g caster sugar (see above)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g walnuts , chopped
175g porridge oats
50g dark chocolate , chopped into small chunks

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Mix the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Cream the butter, sugars, egg and vanilla with electric beaters. Stir in the flour mixture, then add the nuts, oats and chocolate.

Line 2 baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment and drop large tbsps of dough onto them (mine were more ball like in shape). Press down gently. Bake for 8-10 minutes until light golden. (I cooked a few mins longer as made bigger ones)

Let them cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. They will look underdone but will finish cooking on the hot tray. Wait until they are completely cool then pack into a tin lined with baking paper.

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