Bourban spiced apple pie

Everybody loves apple pie. Fact. It's a classic. With ice cream, with custard, with cream or clotted cream, any day, and time of the year. I love apple pie. I also love bourbon and this recipe combines two of said favourite things to create the mother of apple pies. It is a match made in heaven as the bourbon adds a caramel, oaky taste which compliments the apples and cinnamon spices excellently. We ate this warm from the oven with some posh vanilla ice cream and a bottle of real ale each - I recommend a tawny bitter sweet beer with this, something which is described as 'caramel' or 'toffee' flavours, well that's what I drank and it was delightful (a Caledonian 80/- to be precise). So without further a-do here's how to make it...

Ingredients 

for pastry:

200g plain flour

2 tbsp icing sugar

110g cold butter, cubed

3 tbsp cold water

3 tart apples (I used Granny Smiths), peeled and thinly sliced

120ml milk

2 tbsp bourbon (I used Gentleman Jack but normal Jack Daniels or Jim Bean or any other bourbon is fine)

125g brown sugar

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 egg, beaten

So to make the sweet short crust pastry, sieve the flour and icing sugar into a bowl then rub in the cubed butter using just your fingertips until you have a fine breadcrumb (if you have warm hands try running them under the cold water for a bit then drying them off first as this will help to stop the butter melting and it getting too sticky). Add the water and mix in with a knife until it comes together then mould into a ball, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile preheat your oven to 190°C. Mix together the milk, bourbon, cornflour, brown sugar and cinnamon and whisk with a fork then add the sliced apples to marinate.

Roll out about two thirds of the pastry on a cold, well floured work surface (flouring the rolling pin too) and line the base of your pie dish - I used a smallish deep pie dish (about 9 inches). Fill with the apples and sauce then roll out the rest of the pastry for the lid. Carefully place on top and trim the sides with a knife. Crimp the edges and decorate with any spare pastry if you so wish - I just can't help myself! Brush with the beaten egg wash and make a couple of holes in the top to let the steam out then bake for about 45 minutes.

Serve with ice cream, cream or custard and enjoy - proper comfort food!

 

Carrot cupcakes for a summer BBQ

It has been a lovely sunny weekend and yesterday was my mother's annual family barbecue get-together. I wanted to contribute to the food as everyone was bringing something so I decided to make these delicious carrot cupcakes. I did want to make the little marzipan carrots to decorate the top but I couldn't find orange food colouring in any of the supermarkets (come on guys get it together!) Instead I just used these cute little multicoloured chocolate beans which all the kids loved so it turned out ok I guess. I'm pretty sure these tasted good as they were all gone in about 5 minutes so I must have done something right! The recipe is a different one to the one I usually use for making a full size carrot cake and uses grated apple as well as carrot so you get a really nice moist cake. With it being so warm yesterday I pre-made the cream cheese frosting and kept it in the fridge until they were needed otherwise I would've just ended up with a runny sloppy mess and nobody wants to eat that! I made a big batch of these and doubled up this recipe (which made about 32) but if you just want to try this recipe out this makes about 12-15.

Ingredients
(makes 12-15)
2 large carrots, grated
1 large apple, grated (skin on is fine)
175g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
50g chopped walnuts
125g white granulated sugar
2 eggs, beaten
160ml sunflower or vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Zest of 1/2 orange

For the cream cheese frosting:
40g butter (at room temperature)
100g cream cheese (at room temperature)
250g+ icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

First of all pre-heat your oven to 180°C and put your cupcake cases into a baking tin.

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and mix in the bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and chopped walnuts.

Make a well in the centre and add the beaten egg, oil and vanilla essence and mix until thoroughly combined. Add the orange zest, grated carrots and apple and fold into the mixture. It should be quite sloppy.

Divide the mixture into the cupcake cases (about 3/4 full) then bake for about 18-20 minutes depending on your oven - check earlier if they are looking too brown as all ovens are different. They are ready when a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool completely on a cooling rack.

Don't try to add the frosting until the cakes are fully cooled as you will just end up with a runny mess - believe me! I find it is best to make the cream cheese frosting and leave it in the fridge for as long as you can - overnight if possible so it can set. It would be a good idea to make this first before you make the cakes so it can be setting whilst you are doing the rest. It is also important that you leave the butter and cream cheese out of the fridge for a while before you make this as they mix together much better at room temperature and you do no get little lumps of butter that has not mixed in properly which can happen if the butter is too cold.

So to make the vanilla cream cheese frosting you mix together the butter and cream cheese - I use an electric mixer as it is quite hard work by hand and if you mix on the top setting it makes the mixture nice and smooth. If you don't have one it is fine to do by hand - you just need to make sure there are no lumps in it. Now sift in the icing sugar and mix in. This bit is kind of a judgement call as I always find no matter what recipe you use for cream cheese frosting it is always too runny and I end up having to add loads more icing sugar than it says. So you just have to keep testing it and sifting in a bit more icing sugar at a time until you are happy with the consistency - it needs to be able to stay on top of the cakes and not run off. Finally stir in the vanilla essence then transfer to a container and leave in the fridge to set.

Use a butter knife to spread the frosting on top of the cupcakes and decorate with whatever you fancy. These will be the best carrot cupcakes you will ever eat! 

Poppy seed and mozzarella twist bread

Another weekend, another bread. I am really getting in to this bread baking malarkey now and I'm loving trying different flavours to see what works together. This week I decided to do another twisted crown bread, a bit like the Italian Brioche Couronne one, but this time using poppy seeds and stringy buffalo mozzarella cheese and it turned out really well. The poppy seeds have a nice nutty taste and the mozzarella goes nice and gooey if you eat it when it is still warm then a bit of added parmesan bumps up the cheesiness. I think I could have added some slow fried red onions as well to this one so I might try that the next time... This bread is pretty easy to make and you don't have to wait hours for it to prove (a mere half an hour my friend!) so its a good one if you are a bit tight on time. It is also made with stuff you may already have in the cupboard, aside from the mozzarella, and the ingredients are all cheap to buy so its a good one if you're a bit short of cash.

We ate ours with some nice Thai spice marinated salmon and salad grown by yours truly - pretty proud of my first veg growing attempts actually and I've taken a few pics of the garden. I say garden its more of a yard or 'courtyard garden' as I like to say. When we first moved here I was a bit dubious of how much I would be able to grow there but I think what I have planted has done really well so far - I'm still waiting to see how my Jack Lantern pumpkin, carrots and climbing beans do through the summer so we'll have to see!

Ingredients

500g strong white bread flour

100g wholemeal flour

Pinch salt

7g packet fast action dried yeast

2 tbsp honey

350ml lukewarm water

Olive oil

About 3-4 tbsp poppy seeds

2 balls buffalo mozzarella

Parmesan cheese 

Mix the 2 flours, the yeast and the salt together in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the water and mix together until you get a rough dough. Push a dent into the centre of the dough and add the honey into it then fold the dough in onto the honey. Knead for about 10 minutes on a floured work surface or 5 minutes with the dough hook on an electric mixer. The dough is ready when it springs back if you prod it with your finger.

On a clean floured work surface roll the dough out into a flat long rectangle (about 40cm by 20-25cm though it doesn't need to be exact) so the long side is towards you. Brush the top with olive oil then evenly sprinkle over the poppy seeds. Tear up the mozzarella and dot the pieces across the dough. Grate some parmesan over that then roll the dough up towards you, trying to keep it tight, to make a long sausage. 

Squash the sausage down slightly then cut in half lengthways. Turn so the open filling is facing upwards then twist the two pieces together - turn one hand clockwise, the other anti-clockwise. Try to do this quite quickly as dawdling may cause the filling to fall out! Join the 2 ends and squash  together to create a ring.

Lightly oil a baking tray then transfer the dough ring to that. Now brush or spray the top of the dough with olive oil and cover with cling film and a tea towel. Leave somewhere warm to rise for 30 minutes. Now set the oven to preheat at 200°C. Put a deep baking tray in the bottom of the oven to heat up - you add a cup of water to this when the bread goes in the oven to create steam to give it a nice crust and help it to rise.

Uncover the bread and sprinkle with some more poppy seeds and some grated parmesan then put in the oven for about 30 minutes (don't forget to add a cup of cold water or a handful of ice cubes to the tray in the bottom for steam). After the 30 minutes tap the bread on the bottom and if it sounds hollow it is ready.

I think this bread would be really nice with some homemade soup - might have to make it again if my pumpkins are a success!

Baby radishes.

Spinach, beetroot and radishes.

Mixed salad leaves.

Pumpkin.

Grape vine.

Rhubarb, mint (for mojitos) and strawberries.

Baked eggs with bacon bits

This is one of our favourite breakfasts - first seen (by me) on the lovely Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen however I always cook some lardons so they are nice and crispy and use them instead of the fish roe which she uses (not sure about that first thing in the morning...) She calls them 'oeufs en cocotte' which is obviously the french name for them but the good thing about this is you can add anything. I have seen quite a few variations of this done with different cheeses, ham, spring onions, mushrooms and other ingredients so you could just stick in anything you fancy which you have knocking about in the fridge. You don't have to cook these in tea cups I just think it looks cute and they are the perfect size for individual portions but ramekins are also fine. These are really easy to make and are very tasty - the perfect alternative to a full english and once you've made them once I can assure you they will become a breakfast favourite!

Ingredients
(for 2)
180g bacon lardons or pancetta
2 large eggs
Small pot crème fraîche
Salt & pepper
Fresh chopped parsley
Fresh crusty bread

First preheat your oven to 170°C.

Fry off your lardons until they are golden and crispy then transfer to some kitchen roll to absorb the excess fat.

In your teacups or ramekins put 2 tbsp crème fraîche in each then a twist of salt and pepper and sprinkle some of the lardons on top. Add another tablespoon of crème fraîche, then a few more lardons and then crack your egg on top of that. Add yet another spoon of crème fraîche, a few more lardons and a twist of salt and pepper, so you are layering up the ingredients.

Place in a bain-marie so the eggs cook more evenly and put in the preheated oven for about 8-10 minutes. The eggs should be set on top but still have a runny yoke. sprinkle on the chopped parsley and eat with fresh crusty bread. Delightful.

Sunflower seed and honey bread for a sunny Sunday

I've had some sunflower seeds in the cupboard for a few weeks now. I bought them with the intention of making some kind of bread and I have finally got around to it this weekend although never having made such a bread I had to do a little research first as I was worried the seeds might burn if I put them on the top. I came across a recipe for a sunflower seed bread using honey in the recipe which used a combination of white bread flour and wholemeal flour but for my own adaptation I used only white as I was all out of wholemeal. That's the beauty though as you'll just get a slightly different bread, perhaps a little less nutty. We have just been eating this by itself with butter so far and it is really nice and sweet and nutty but it would be nice with some homemade soup or a stew or even some cheese and pickle.

Ingredients

500g strong white bread flour

7g packet fast action yeast

300ml luke warm water

2 tbsp olive oil

Pinch of salt

2 tbsp runny honey

Handful sunflower seeds

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl (I used an electric mixer for this recipe as this dough gets pretty sticky) then add the yeast and salt and mix. Add the water slowly then the olive oil and mix with the dough hook fitting for about 3 minutes. 

Turn off the mixer then squash a well into the dough and add the honey. Try to fold the dough in over the honey then turn the mixer on again for about another 3-4 minutes. Cover with cling film and a tea towel and leave to prove for an hour.

On a floured work surface knock back the dough (just by pushing out all the air) then shape into a kind of fat sausage, roll in the sunflower seeds and put into an oiled loaf tin.

Leave to prove again for about 30-45 minutes or until it has risen and springs back when poked. About 20 minutes before it is ready preheat the oven to 220°C.

Sprinkle with flour and bake for about 30 minutes then leave to cool for a couple of minutes before taking out of the tin and allowing to cool on a cooling rack. Pretty easy to make and really tasty!