bonfire parkin

A true mark of discovering where in the country a person was born or grew up is to ask if they know what Parkin is. If I had a penny for every time someone has gone 'Parkin..? eh?' when I've mentioned that I have baked some...well,... I'd probably have.....errrmm.....about 10p!??

Parkin is a treacley, syrupy, oaty, rib-sticking stodge cake which goes very well with a large mug of tea on a cold night stood around a blazing bonfire watching the 'sparkles' in the night sky. Or just as well, sat indoors watching Corrie, you pick. I think it would also go well served warm with a healthy dribble of hot custard but I've never tried it like that as it usually goes too quickly to experiment with. Although it does last well up to a week wrapped in baking parchment and foil.

It originates from Yorkshire and although I am from t'other side of the Pennines, I have such childhood memories of eating homemade Parkin on Bonfire night.

It's usual to bake it in a square pan then cut into smaller square pieces to serve but I always make mine in a loaf pan and cut into slices.

This recipe is from an old Tate and Lyle recipe pamphlet that my mum used to make the parkin when we were little. This time I changed the recipe slightly and I have to say it was the best to date.

I know that bonfire night was well over a week ago now, but really this cake is just a good winter cake that can be eaten anytime to warm the cockles on a bitterly cold night.

Ingredients

175g {6oz} plain flour, sifted

175g {6oz} porridge oats, plus extra for scattering on top

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

75g {3oz} unsalted butter, cubed

50g {2 oz} light muscovado sugar

125g {4 oz} black treacle, warmed 

125g {4 oz} golden syrup, warmed

1 egg, lightly beaten

grated zest and juice of one small orange {tangerine, clementine, satsuma}

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF/gas mark 3.

Butter a large loaf tin and line with baking parchment.

Sift the flour with the spices and bicarbonate of soda, add the oats and rub in the butter to resemble breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, warmed syrup and treacle, beaten egg and orange zest and juice. Stir until all combined then spoon into loaf tin. Scatter the extra oats {about 2 tablespoons} over the top and bake in the oven for about 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Try to resist often opening the oven door as this can make the top sink - as mine did - slightly but this shouldn't affect the taste.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then remove the cake from tin and cool on a rack.

squash, spinach and goats cheese tart

Trying to cling to a bit of summer while the rain pours down and the blustery autumn winds blow. I made these tarts in mini tart cases (from John Lewis) but can just as easily be made as one large tart.

Makes 8 small tarts or one large tart.

Pastry Ingredients
200g {7oz} Plain flour, sifted
100g {3½oz} chilled butter, cubed
½-1 medium egg, beaten
Pinch of salt

Rub the butter, salt and flour together until it forms a breadcrumb texture {or whizz in the food processor}. Add about ½ to ⅔ of the egg {keep the remaining egg for wash} so that it just comes together to form a dough. Flatten out the ball of dough with your hands, wrap in cling film and allow to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Bake Blind
When chilled, roll out on a floured surface to approximately 4mm thick and line the tart case {or cases} with the pastry. Prick the base of the tart with a fork and line the pastry with foil and fill with dried rice or beans and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180°C {350°F}.
Remove the foil and beans and brush with a little bit of the leftover beaten egg. Put back in the oven for 2 - 3 minutes.

Meanwhile make the filling...

Filling Ingredients
4 eggs, lightly beaten
250ml double cream
A small butternut squash {approx 250g} peeled and cut into chunks
A good handful of spinach , stalks removed
50g chedder cheese, finely grated
150g goats cheese, chopped or sliced into small pieces
Pinch of grated nutmeg
Salt and pepper to season

With the oven still set at 180°C {after baking the pastry} place the squash in a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 15 - 20 minutes.
Wash the spinach and while still slightly wet, place in a pan over a low heat and allow to wilt. Drain away any water and let cool before squeezing out any excess water. Chop roughly.

In a bowl or large jug lightly whisk the eggs and cream together, add half of the grated chedder cheese and season with salt and pepper. Mix in the spinach.

Divide the squash and the goats cheese amongst the tart cases then pour the egg mixture over filling almost to the top. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top with a sprinkling of nutmeg.
Place the tart case or cases onto a baking tray and bake in the oven for 35 - 40 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow the tarts to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the tins.

lavender biscuits

These heavenly scented and delicious biscuits are really easy to make and have that proper buttery crumble cookie taste that melts in the mouth, or the mug, if you're more of a tea dunking biscuit lover.

As there are several varieties of lavender each can give a slightly different intensity of lavender loveliness.

I used the leaves and flowers from my Edelweiss lavender plant which has white flowers and an altogether lighter fragrance so these were only ever so slightly lavender, but as lavender can be very heavily scented, this worked a treat.

Perfectly lovely with a big mug of builders tea as an afternoon pick-me-up.

As Autumn leaves fall fast and the lavender starts to die off, use the basic biscuit recipe minus the lavender and instead add any variations of the following;

grated zest from 1 lemon,

50g of chopped dried blueberries/cranberries/raisins,

 25g finely chopped crystallized ginger,

A tsp of mixed spice {or ginger/cinnamon etc}

or whatever you fancy really...

Dip half the biscuit into melted chocolate for extra luxury!

This recipe was taken from The Edible Garden.

Ingredients:

150g {5oz} butter

90g {3½oz} caster sugar

225g {8oz} plain flour

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp fresh lavender leaves, chopped

1 tsp {approx.} lavender flowers removed from the spike

Makes 10 -12 biscuits.

Preheat oven to 160°C {320°F} and grease 2 baking trays.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy.

Add the flour {sifted}, egg yolk and lavender leaves {or substitute} and mix well.

Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a smooth ball. Gently roll the ball into a cylinder shape about 8-10 cm {3-4 in} in diameter. With a sharp knife, slice the cylinder into 10-12 slices and spread out onto the baking trays. Press a few lavender flowers into the top of each biscuit.

Bake in the oven for 15 - 18 minutes until the biscuits are firm and ever so slightly golden on top.

Allow to cool on the trays for about 5 minutes then carefully move to a cooling rack.

Any surplus uncooked dough can be wrapped in clingfilm and kept in the fridge for a few days.

what to do with fresh beetroot...& a lovely couscous

...roast it!

Although there are many lovely Borscht style recipes for fresh beetroot, with my sporadic and small harvest of baby beets and with a slight fear of pink stained fingers, home, and worse still, toddler...It has to be quick, easy and relatively mess-free for me.

Roasting beetroot is simple as;

Wash beetroot,

Chop off the leaves and tail,

{small baby leaves can be eaten raw in salads and larger leaves can be steamed or stir fried}

Place beets on a piece of tin foil,

Season with salt and pepper,

Wrap tin foil around beets,

Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven at 200°C for 1 - 1½ hours or until tender,

I sometimes pinch the skins off when baked but this isn't necessary.

A lovely couscous

Ingredients:

2 large carrots, peeled and sliced into discs,

4 baby beets, roasted as above then quartered,

1 tbsp runny honey

1 orange, grated zest and juice,

A handful of fresh dill, roughly chopped,

175g couscous,

175ml vegetable or chicken stock.

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Place the chopped carrots into a small roasting dish with a glug of olive oil and the honey and roast,  for  20 mins or until tender.

Put the couscous into a large mixing bowl and pour over the hot stock. Cover the bowl with cling film and put aside for 5 mins or until the liquid has all been absorbed.

Fluff up the couscous with a fork and stir in the honeyed carrots and beetroot and finally add the orange juice and zest and chopped dill. Mix together, season and serve while still warm.

blueberry banana bread

It's always quite disappointing to discover the bunch of sunshiney yellow bananas that have been quietly brightening up one corner of the fruit bowl (corner?) have now, seemingly in the matter of a blink, turned an over ripe brown and are a little too mushy for eating.

Thank goodness for all of those recipes which call out for mushy over ripe bananas; milkshake, pancakes, muffins and of course the daddy of the mushy banana usage- banana bread! Hurrah! All is not lost!

This recipe is a mish mash (banana mash...) of recipes I've come across. I added dried blueberries instead of raisins because this was all I had but it worked a dream. The blueberries swell up when in the oven and are beautifully juicy and syrupy in the bread.

This banana bread is delicious toasted and makes a lovely alternative to toast in the morning or for afternoon tea on a wet grey day, yum!

Blueberry Banana Bread


200g self-raising flour
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
75g butter, softened
50g soft brown sugar
175g dried blueberries
4 small very ripe bananas, mashed
2 heaped tablespoons clear runny honey
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Butter and line a large loaf tin.
Preheat oven too 180ºC (350ºF) Gas mark 4.

Dry Bowl:

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour mix until resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and dried blueberries and stir in to combine.

Wet Bowl:

Whisk together the bananas, honey and eggs in another bowl. Then add the wet bowl mixture to the dry bowl.

Pour into the loaf tin and smooth and level the the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake in the oven for about 1¼ to 1½ hours or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from oven and leave in the tin for about 5 minutes to cool slightly then tip out onto a cooling rack, removing the greaseproof paper. Allow to cool slightly then serve sliced and buttered while still a little warm...yum!

The best chocolate cake?

Ok, every year, just before Christmas I go mad for cookery magazines. I buy them all and sit with a cup of tea flicking through the glossy mouth-watering pages wondering which delectable goodies I'm going to make for the festive season.

Apres bebe, it's more about what I'm going to have time to make. Which hasn't been much. Infact this year, not even a mince pie......sigh.

Anyway I still get the mags and then, because they take up a lot of room and alas do seem to contain an awful lot of advertisements, I rip them up! Carefully, I should add. I go through each magazine carefully tearing out each page which has a recipe I love and then I stick them all into a file with plastic slip covers.

I have four of the files now! Voila! Instant new cookery books! They're not all Christmas recipes as throughout the year I do tend to pick up the odd copy of the Waitrose or Sainsbury's magazine while out shopping.

I also stick in anything I print out from the internet. My only problem now is finding certain recipes without trawling through all four files......Add cataloguing to my new year to do list....!

So I saw this recipe in one of my bumper files for this chocolate cake and gave it a go. I'm not the biggest chocolate fan I have to say, I know...What's wrong with me??! If I'm out for dinner I'll very rarely (if at all) pick the chocolate dessert on the menu, I'd always rather go for something lemony or a brulee of some kind.

However, I do think proper homemade chocolate cake is to die for. Especially something big and stodgy - perfect with a cup of tea!

I'm not sure where this recipe cutting came from, I have a feeling it may have been the Sainsbury's mag, but I'm not sure, I really should write it down. Anyway wherever it came from, it's good!

So good that I made it for a certain little lady's first birthday. She didn't have any, but I did. And it was good! I'll be sure to tell her when she's older! He he!

Chocolate Cake

250g unsalted butter

300g light muscovado sugar

100g plain flour, sifted

100g self-raising flour, sifted

5 eggs

300g dark chocolate, melted and slightly cooled

Chocolate Icing

200g dark chocolate

200ml double cream

Butter and line a 20cm cake tin

Preheat oven to 160º C/ fan 140ºC / Gas mark 3

Using an electric whisk, beat together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.

beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding one or two tbsp of the flour as you go if the mixture starts to split.

Pour the melted chocolate into the mix, beating as you do so and then fold in the rest of the flour.

Spoon into the tin and bake for 1 hour 30 minutes, or until the cake has risen and has a crust on top and a skewer comes out clean.

Cool, then remove from the tin. Split the cake with a knife horizontally.

To make the icing, melt together the chocolate and cream over a low heat then cool until thickened.

Fill the cake with the icing, then spread the rest over the outside.

red velvet cupcakes

The world seems to be going mad for red velvet cupcakes. I was dying to have a go at making them so with my new Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and a birthday party coming up it seemed the perfect time. They came out pretty perfect, if I say so myself and were not as difficult as they look to make. Have a go. They look pretty impressive and taste divine!

Red Velvet Cupcakes (from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)

60g unsalted butter, at room temperature

150g caster sugar

1 egg

10g cocoa powder

20ml red food colouring

½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

120ml buttermilk

150g plain flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1½ teaspoons of white wine vinegar

1 quantity of cream cheese frosting (see here )

12-hole cupcake tray, lined with paper cases

Makes 12

Preheat oven to 170ºC (325ºF) Gas mark 3.

Put the butter and the sugar in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy and well mixed. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.

In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour, and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added. Scrape down the side of the bowl again. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the  cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out into a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

When completely cool add the frosting on top.

I sprinkled some dessicated coconut on top.

Yum!