Berry burst muffins

Muffins are the busy lady’s best friend. After checking back on my blog for a recipe I’d posted a while back, I saw I hadn’t blogged since April; truly scandalous!

I’ve only baked a handful of times and have felt hard pushed for timea. I’d like to say it was result of working flat out and having a strenuous work out/hobby regime, but I’d been lying through my teeth. It’s mainly through socialising WAY too much with my new(ish) work colleagues (all in the name of ‘bonding’), and getting back into reading big time.

But these muffins truly are quick as a flash- AND they generate hardly any washing up. One big bowl, a small saucepan and a wooden spoon are all you need, and the whole process takes no more than 45 minutes from start to finish. What a dream. Now, this batch turned out a little flat for me, but that’s cause I only added the one egg and lazily didn’t defrost my berries first, but the taste is just lovely. Right my wrongs and you’ll get a lovely rise.

And not ONLY are they super speedy; they’re full of fruity goodness. Berries (frozen, in true speedy style) apple and banana? Surely, but surely one of your five a day..?

So here they are. Ideal for a lunchbox or to take on a last-minute picnic. Just remember to take at least two each..

Berry burst muffins

Ingredients

200g plain flour
75g light muscovado sugar
75g caster sugar
75g butter, melted
2 eggs
2 bananas- ideally very ripe!
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb
Two tbsp natural yoghurt
3 heaped tablespoons berries (I used frozen)
1 apple, peeled and coarsely grated

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4. Line your muffin tin with cases.
2. Pop your butter in a saucepan and melt on a low heat. Meanwhile, mash your bananas in a large mixing bowl.
3. Mix in the eggs, yoghurt, sugar, grated apple and the melted butter, and combine.
4. Sift in the flour, bicarb and baking powder, and stir thoroughly.
5. Mix in your berries, and spoon into cases about 3/4 full.
6. Bake for around 18-20 minutes, until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

Earl Grey and Rose Water Bundt Cake

Just a few weeks ago, newspaper headlines declared we were in drought, and decried the start of a hose pipe ban. ‘But how will I clean my block paved drive way witouth my fully-loaded penis-esque Karscher pressure washer?!’ demanded middle-aged men with middle-aged spread.

Fear not, hose-wealders. As if by magic – or by the power of that lesser known phenomenon, Sod’s Law – at the very mention of a hose pipe ban, the mighty sky retaliated by rounding up a gang of the greyest, densest, meanest clouds around, and heartily encouraging them to piss down upon us all for the best part of ten days.

Now, I’m not particularly fond of pounding London’s uneven, puddle-laden pavements in (usually) porous shoes, wrestling with an umbrella determined to show off its jellyfish impression. But what I am fond of is having a perfect excuse to stay indoors, whack the heating up, and get in the kitchen – which is just what this rainy Sunday provided.

Now, don’t judge me, but I only tried Earl Grey tea for the first time a few months ago. (I KNOW). Now, I adore it; I have at least one every day at work and it always feels like a treat. It’s also perfect with a light and lovely piece of cake or a delicate biscuit (not that these are usually in abundance at work – for shame!).

Since my first taste, I’ve wanted to try Earl Grey in a cake, and since I had a bottle of rosewater that I was determined to bake with, too, I decided to bring them both together in a fancy floral experiment using my new bundt tin.

I am thrilled with the result; bundt tins make such a beautiful-looking cake- even before you do anything to the top! In my case, I decorated with my new favourite frosting (that’s a BIG deal, by the way): rose water glaze.

It’s just so gorgeous! I would describe the glaze as like a delicate, fancy version of a krispy kreme glaze – and since it was a bundt cake, I felt like I’d made myself a giant, classy krispy kreme. The best part about a bundt cake is that you use proportionally much less frosting because of the surface area, so it’s great if you don’t enjoy lots of sickly frosting – it’s probably less calories too..? A little like throwing deck chairs off the Titanic, I know, but god loves a trier…

Serves 12

Ingredients

• 225 butter
• 125 g caster sugar
• 100g light muscovado sugar
• 225g plain flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp essence of rose water
• 3-4 earl grey tea bags, brewed with 100ml water to form a strong solution
• 2 tbsp lemon yoghurt (plain will do w/a few drops of lemon juice)
• pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan)/gas mark 4. Grease a bundt tin with butter.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together. Whisk in the eggs one by one, then add the yoghurt, rosewater and most of tea solution – saving a tablespoon or so for the glaze.
3. Sift and fold in the flour, baking powder, and saly until thoroughly combined.
4. Distribute evenly into the bundt tin, and smooth around the top with a spatula.
5. Bake in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. NB – the colour on the side you will see in the oven will be lighter of the colour of the ‘top’ when it’s flipped, so don’t worry if it’s not golden brown!

For the rose water glaze

• 120g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp rose water
• few drops of the earl grey solution

1. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl
2. Add a the rose water and tea, and mix together thoroughly with a fork until you have a reasonably thick glaze.
3. Once the cake has cooled, use a tablespoon to drizzle the glaze over the cake in lines or criss-crosses to finish.
4. Serve with a smug smile as you show-off an effortlessly pretty cake!

PS – Do you like my rather sweet table cloth?I I picked up two tea towels reduced to £1.50 in paperchase and thought they were too lovely to wipe the plates with, et voila!

PPS – What other recipes do you find work with with a bundt tin? I’d love to use it more!

Chorizo and Sweet Pepper Winter Warmer with Cheddar Dumplings

With ear muffs, hats, gloves, scarves and several layers, Alex and I headed out to join the celebrations for Chinese New Year this Sunday in London’s Trafalgar Square and Chinatown.

After a couple of hours squeezing down colourful streets crammed with excited children bringing paper dragons to life and hungry grown-ups hunting out the best dim sum, we moved on to take in some of the dancing and music in Trafalgar Square.

By 4pm, we found ourselves faced with a dilemma; do we wait a couple of hours in the cold to see what seemed certain to be a fabulous fireworks display, or do we head home and potentially miss out? We decided to grab a (very large) hot chocolate, find ourselves a spot on some (very cold) stone steps and wait it out.

That turned out not to be such a great idea; firstly, the fireworks felt distinctly disappointing. There was something of a cumulative ‘is that it?!’ as they came to an end the huge crowds dispersed. Secondly, we were freezing – ear muffs and all.

So it’s safe to say that by the time we got home, getting warm was top of our list, and I had just the thing for it; stew. There’s nothing quite like a bowl full of steaming hot, flavoursome stew on a cold winter’s night to warm from within.

But after a day being wrapped up in divinely exotic smells from all corners of the world, I knew we needed something with a little zing to it. With a little experimentation, this was the fabulous, sweet, rich and spicy result.

These tiny, beautifully sweet and zingy peppers are a fantastic store cupboard ingredient, and will perk up any dish. I actually picked up a huge jar in our local 99p store, but you can grab them in most supermarkets, too.

The great thing about this one is that although it’s hearty and filling, it actually contains at least four of your five a day. Whack a little butternut squash in there if you fancy and there’s your five!

Chorizo and Sweet Pepper Winter Warmer

Serves 2-3 but is easily doubled.

 Ingredients

• One large onion, finely chopped
• Two cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 30g chorizo, diced
• 1 yellow, orange or red pepper, chunkily chopped
• 1 medium courgette, sliced/diced
• 6 small sweet red peppers (mine were pickled)
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 4 medium tomatoes, chopped into chunks.
• ½  tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp oregano

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4.
2.  In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the onions. Cook for 3-4 minutes until softened, before adding the garlic and chorizo. Cook for a further 5 minutes until the chorizo oil has nicely coloured the onions.
3. Add the pepper and courgette to the pan and cook for another couple of minutes.
4. Throw in the tomatoes (chopped and fresh), add the herbs and spices, and season generously with salt and black pepper. Fill up the tomato tin halfway with water and add that to the pan.
5. Simmer for a couple of minutes, before transferring to a casserole dish and popping in the oven for 30 minutes.
6. While the stew is bubbling away, get on with making your dumplings.

 

For the Cheddar Dumplings

 Makes 6 medium-sized

• 80g self-raising flour
• 25g suet (or grated butter if you prefer)
• 3-4 tbsp water
• 30g cheddar cheese, finely grated
• ½ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp dried rosemary

Method

1. Add the flour, grated suet and cheese to a bowl and rub together.
2. Gradually add the water until the mixture comes together easily.
3. Form the mixture into six balls by rolling in the palms of your hands.

When the stew has been in the oven for 30 minutes, take off the lid, pop in the dumplings, and return to the oven without the lid, turning the oven up to 200 degrees, for 20 minutes.

It’s hearty enough to serve on its own, but it’d be great with a hunk of fresh bread or spicy rice, too.