Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts
Happy Father's Day to all you dad's out there! I know some people think that days like this are just a huge money grab for retailers, but I don't care. I love to celebrate my dad each year in a special way. Oh, I know . . . I love and honor him every day, but what does it hurt to have an extra special day set aside just for dads. Not a thing!
I am about 3 in this photo
Because I am the oldest child I got to enjoy my father for three full years before anyone else came along. I love my father so much. It is from him that I got my love of reading, my brown eyes, my dark hair, my easy going nature and my bum chin! Another thing I got from him is everything Maple Walnut! It is one of his favourite flavour combinations and it is one of mine as well!
Having lost my mom this past January only made my father more precious to us. He is 84 years old now, and thankfully enjoys fairly good health. He's got pacemaker and he has diabetes, but for the most part he does pretty well. He still drives and goes out every day for breakfast at the local cafe and in the afternoon for coffee. I wish I was close enough to spoil him and give him one of these tasty muffins!
Instead my husband Todd is the lucky recipient! We were not blessed to have any children of our own, but we do have a very pampered Cocker Spaniel and Todd is a wonderful father to her.
This fabulously tasty muffin is perfectly sized for one. Just what you want a special treat for someone to be spoiled with, something that is all their own!
I don't really mind because in all honesty I don't need to many of things like this hanging around my kitchen. They get in my mouth and that's not a very good thing at all, as my hips will attest to!
This is a muffin which is lightly sweetened with Maple Syrup. You could add a few drops of maple flavouring if you wanted to. Its not something we have over here in the UK. You could use maple sugar also instead of the brown sugar for full on maple flavour! (That I do have!)
I always like to toast my nuts before baking with them. It really helps to enhance their flavours and is a really easy do. Just pop them onto a baking tray and roast them in a moderate oven until you can smell them. Take them out and let them cool before using.
There are toasted walnuts in the muffin batter itself . . . . and also in the buttery brown sugar and cinnamon streusel topping!
A nice crunch and sweetness to gild the top of what is really a beautiful muffin!
It has a beautiful texture . . .
Wonderful flavours . . . and that crunch on top is in short . . . perfect. Todd declared it most delicious! Of course he enjoyed it hot from the oven with cold butter. Oh how I wish . . .
Maple Walnut Muffin
Yield: Makes one giant muffin
A very generous sized muffin built for one. Sweetened with maple, filled with toasted walnuts and topped with a cinnamon walnut streusel. Bake some loving for your honey bunny today!
ingredients:
- 70g plain flour (1/2 cup)
- 2 TBS packed soft light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- pinch ground cinnamon
- 3 TBS whole milk
- 3 TBS amber grade pure Maple Syrup
- 2 TBS butter, melted
- 1 TBS full fat sour cream (now is not the time to bicker over calories)
- 1 large free range egg yolk
- few drops of vanilla
- 2 TBS chopped toasted walnuts
For the Streusel Topping:
- 2 tsp plain flour
- 2 tsp soft light brown sugar
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 TBS chopped toasted walnuts
- 1/2 TBS cold butter
instructions:
How to cook Maple Walnut Muffin
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a ramekin or baking dish large enough to hold one cup of batter, and dust with flour, shaking out any excess. (I used a medium round ramekin dish and tied a baking paper hat around it.)
- Make the streusel. Combine the flour, sugar, nuts and cinnamon. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Set aside.
- Whisk all of the dry ingredients for the muffin together in a bowl. Whisk together the wet. Add all at once to the dry ingredients and stir just to combine. Fold in the toasted walnuts. Pour into the ramekin. Sprinkle the streusel over top.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Fabulously tasty!
I will call my father early this afternoon. Hopefully I will catch him in, in between his forays to the local cafe. I expect my sister is having him over for supper tonight. Oh how I wish I could be there to help spoil him as well.
I am willing to guarantee that you are going to fall abso-flippingly in love with this simple cake I am sharing here with you today. GUARANTEE!
Not only is it a very simple cake to make, but it has to be one of the moistest, most flavourful cakes you could ever want to eat.
I have adapted the recipe from one I found in the book Clodagh's Kitchen Diaries by Clodagh McKenna.
I was able to purchase a copy of this second hand the other week and the day it arrived I immediately bookmarked this recipe and set out the very next day to bake it. I kid you not.
In her description of the recipe she says: "This, I guarantee, will be one of your favourite recipes in this book. Light, moist and so zingy, it will keep for up to a week in an airtight container."
I would agree with everything she said but am doubtful about the last . . . not that it won't keep in a container for up to a week, but that you will even have any left to store for a week! Seriously!
Yes, it is THAT good!
This is the moistest, most flavourful cake I have ever made.
No flour in it . . . but you can't consider it gluten free because you do need a slice of white bread made into bread crumbs . . . and the gluten would be in that . . .
I used a slice of day old ordinary sandwich bread, about 1/2 inch in thickness. I did not cut off the crusts. I blitzed it into coarse bread crumbs in my food processor.
Once again I used Dorie Greenspan's trick of rubbing citrus zest into sugar to release the flavours and aromas. This cake uses the zest of one large orange and one lemon.
Use unwaxed if you can get them, otherwise scrub them well in soapy water and then dry with a soft cloth prior to zesting.
The citrus sugar gets mixed with the bread crumbs and a quantity of ground almonds . . . I think in North America you might call this almond meal or almond flour.
You will also need a teaspoon of baking powder. Mix that all together well then you simply stir in some vegetable oil that you have beaten together with some eggs.
She didn't specify the size of the eggs that I could find. I used large and they worked out beautifully.
That's it . . . just pour it into the prepared pan and bake . . . it smells really good while it is baking. Like a citrus grove . . .
After baking you make a spicy citrus syrup using the juice of an orange and a lemon, some sugar, a cinnamon stick and a couple of cloves.
This gets soaked into the still warm cake, while its still warm . . . this is the secret to it's moist texture and amazing flavour!
Moroccan Orange Cake
Yield: 8
Light, moist and filled with lovely zingy orange flavours. This is destined to become highly placed in your arsenal of favourite cake recipes! If you can't get unwaxed fruit, simply wash the fruit you have in soapy warm water, scrubbing it gently with a brush. Dry well before using.
ingredients:
- 50g slightly stale white breadcrumbs (1 slice)
- 200g caster sugar (1 cup minus 1 tsp.)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100g ground almonds (1 cup plus 3 TBS)
- 200ml sunflower oil (7 fluid ounces)
- 4 large free range eggs
- the finely grated zest of 1 large unwaxed orange
- the finely grated zest of one unwaxed lemon
- Whipped cream or Greek Yogurt to serve
For the citrus syrup:
- the juice of 1 large orange
- the juice of 1 lemon
- 75g caster sugar (1/3 cup, slightly heaped)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 whole cloves
instructions:
How to cook Moroccan Orange Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter and flour an 8 inch round cake tin. Line the bottom with baking paper. (I used a spring form pan.)
- Rub the fruit zests into the sugar with your fingertips until quite fragrant. Stir together with the bread crumbs, ground almonds and sifted baking powder. Whisk the oil together with the eggs. Add all at once to the dry mixture, mixing well together. Pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes until the cake is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
- While the cake is baking make the citrus syrup. Put all of the ingredients into a small saucepan. Bring gently to the boil, stirring constantly. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 3 minutes at which time the sugar should be completely dissolved and a thickish syrup formed. Discard the cinnamon stick and the whole cloves.
- Poke holes all over the surface of the cake with a toothpick or skewer. Spoon the hot syrup over the cake allowing it to soak in. Spoon any excess syrup back over the cake every now and then until it is all soaked in.
- Cut into wedges to serve along with some whipped cream or Greek yogurt.
She suggest serving it with either whipped cream or thick Greek yogurt.
We had it with yogurt. I had intention only of having one small taste but before I knew it . . .
This is what was staring me in the face. The devil made me do it! OH MY GOODNESS!
Today (Saturday as I write this) we were able to watch the annual Trooping of the Colours on the television with the Birthday Parade for the Queen at the Horse Guards Parade in London, down the mall from Buckingham Palace.
NOBODY does pageantry, pomp and ceremony like the British! What a wonderful display this annual parade this is, filled with colour and tradition and music.
I just love it! I love seeing all of the Royal family and their children. Seeing what the girls are wearing . . .
Its always incredibly elegant! This was Megan's first appearance since the birth of little Archie and she looked lovely in Navy and White.
Kate did not disappoint in her lovely lemon coloured dress, and of course this was the first time we have seen little Prince Louis publicly in this way. He was charming with his waves and clapping from the royal balcony at the palace during the fly pass!
I took the opportunity to bake us some special cookies that we could enjoy with a hot cup of lemon tea as we watched the event. Lemon Lime Shortbreads!
You can't get much more elegant than shortbread cookies/biscuits! Crisp and buttery . . . they almost flake in your hands . . . perfect.
These are even more perfect because they are filled with little dimples of lemon curd prior to baking. Oh so tasty . . .
I use my own homemade Lemon Curd . . . but you can use any good quality store brand if you wish. Oh, I do so love LOVE Lemon Curd, don't you?
The biscuits themselves are infused lightly with the flavours of a good vanilla paste and the finely zested peel of a fresh lime, along with some of the juice . . .
A lime juice icing glaze gets flicked over the finished cookies . . . adding even more lovely citrus flavours . . . lemon & lime . . . a beautiful combination!
These truly are lovely . . .
The occasion also afforded me the opportunity to break out some of my vintage linens . . . the edges decorated in pink . . .
My Katie Alice tea service goes wonderfully with these delicate linens . . .
We almost felt like Royals ourselves . . .
We even practised the wave with each other . . . in another life maybe. I wonder what it feels like to grow up or live in such an atmosphere of privilege . . . a double edged sword I can imagine.
I am so happy that the two princes were able to marry for love . . .
Looking at them all on the balcony, at William and Harry and their wives . . . and William's children . . . I could not help but shed a tear for what Diana has missed out on . . . just wasn't to be I guess . . . so sad. I am sure she looks down on them often and is very proud of the men they have become.
I think this is largely because of her and her influence. I really do. They had the most "normal" of upbringings that any Royals ever had, and they are good men.
In any case do bake these cookies. You will quite simply adore them!
Yield: 42 cookies
Lemon Lime Shortbreads
Crisp, short buttery shortbread cookies, infused with lovely lime flavours, a lemon curd filling and a lime icing glaze. Seriously moreish!
ingredients:
For the Cookies:
- 230g unsalted butter, at room temperature (1 cup)
- 130g granulated sugar (2/3 cup)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla
- the juice of 1/2 fresh lime
- the finely grated zest of one small lime
- pinch salt
- 280g +2 TBS plain flour (2 cups + 2TBS)
- lemon curd to fill
For the Glaze:
- 130g icing sugar, sifted (1 cup)
- the juice of 1/2 lime
instructions:
How to cook Lemon Lime Shortbreads
- Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla bean paste/vanilla, salt, and lime juice and zest together in a bowl until creamy with an electric whisk, scraping down the sides of the bowl periodically. Add the flour in 3 parts until well combined. Cover and chill for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line several baking trays with baking paper.
- Shape the chilled dough into 1 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Make an indention in the centre of each, using the end of a wooden spoon. Don't try to push it in too deeply, only about halfway down. I rotate it a tiny bit to make the hole about 1/3 inch in diameter. Fill each hole with heaped 1/4 tsp of lemon curd.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, until puffed and the edges are golden brown. Leave to rest on the trays for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Whisk the icing sugar and lime juice together until you have a smooth drizzle icing. Flick over the cooled cookies and allow to set. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
Yummity yummity yum yum yum! Betcha can't eat just one!
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