Showing posts with label Desserts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Desserts. Show all posts
Blueberries were very hard to come by for the first several years I lived here in the UK.
I m happy to say that in the intervening years they have become readily available, and actually quite affordable. We can buy them in all of the grocery stores now, even the budget shops.
My husband and I also grow our own as well now. This means I have lots to use in a variety of ways.
My husband and I also grow our own as well now. This means I have lots to use in a variety of ways.
Being high bush ones, they are not quite as flavorsome as the wild ones from back home, but they are still pretty good!
We had the missionary elders for tea last night and so I baked them a little taste of home in the way of this fabulous Blueberry Coffee Cake.
The British idea of a coffee cake is a cake which is highly flavored with Coffee, as in a Coffee and Walnut Cake. This is NOT one of those . . .
Instead this is a coffee cake in the North America sense, which merely means that it is a lovely moist cake, sometimes with a crumble topping, perfect for enjoying with a hot or cold drink.
A cake that is perfect for brunches . . . and yes, also great dessert when served warm and topped with ice cream or cream.
This is exactly that kind of cake . . . with a moist and tender cake batter.
It is flavored and moistened by the use of lemon yogurt . . . with the fruity topping of a generous amount of fresh blueberries . . . and a moreish buttery crunch of cinnamon flavoured brown sugar streusel on top.
Delicious. Simple. Quick to make.
You can substitute butter for the vegetable shortening if you wish.
*Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake*
Makes one 9 inch square cake
Makes one 9 inch square cake
Printable Recipe
This cake has no coffee in it. It is merely a moist cake, chock full of berries and topped with a cinnamony streusel topping, perfect for coffee break or elevensies with a hot drink.
for the cake:This cake has no coffee in it. It is merely a moist cake, chock full of berries and topped with a cinnamony streusel topping, perfect for coffee break or elevensies with a hot drink.
1/2 tsp vanilla
55g of lemon yogurt (1/4 cup)
Bake the cake for 45 to 50 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan until just warm. Lift out and cut into squares to serve.
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We had the Missionary Sisters over for supper last Tuesday night and I cannot believe I am only getting to now tell you about these beautiful tarts that I made for our desserts!
I suppose half a week pretty much without internet has really made me fall behind on my posts. But I am showing them to you today and that is what counts!
The blueberries are ripening on our bushes at the moment and I took advantage of this fact to bake some lovely little blueberry tarts for us all. I have baked this before using apples and plums as a large tart, and it was gorgeous.
The blueberries are ripening on our bushes at the moment and I took advantage of this fact to bake some lovely little blueberry tarts for us all. I have baked this before using apples and plums as a large tart, and it was gorgeous.
You can find that recipe here. I decided that it would work very well as individual tarts and using blueberries.
It is a really simple recipe and always turns out. It made 5 individual tarts, but my tart tins were 4 inches across.
If you made smaller ones you would get more tarts out of the recipe. These were very filling and on the large side for delicate appetites.
The pastry is a real doddle to make. It goes together in the food processor, lickety split. And you can have it rolled out in no time and lining your tarts.
There is no need to pre-bake the pastry either. You just slap the filling in and bake them.
The filling consists of a vanilla sponge which bakes like a cake inside that sweet short crust pastry . . . puffed up and golden brown . . . clustered around those lovely sweet berries, all sweet and sunken into the delicate sponge . . .
I erred on the side of caution when adding the berries. When I make these again, and I will do just that . . . I will add even more berries. A tasty brush of warm apricot jam finished them off. We had them with clotted cream . . . of course!
*Summer Blueberry Tart(s)*
Makes8 servings as a tart
or 5 individual tarts
Makes8 servings as a tart
or 5 individual tarts
For the sponge:
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. The tart is done when the berries have sunk in a bit and looked cooked, and the sponge has risen and gotten golden brown in places. Also the pastry is crisp and golden brown. Allow to cool for several minutes before removing to a wire rack. Melt the jam in a small saucepan and push through a seive. Brush some on top of the tart (s). Serve warm or at room temperature with cream or ice cream.
WE do love a good cobbler in this house. We grow all of our own soft fruits in our back garden . . . black currants, strawberries, raspberries, tayberries, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. We don't get a lot of anything at any one time . . . not yet anyways. The bushes are all still young and so at best we get things in dibs and dabs.
I tend to freeze a lot of it so that eventually I end up with enough to make a pie or some such with them. Hopefully with each year that passes, and as we add more bushes and plants, we will one day end up with a plethora of berry goodness. We do have a lot of strawberries now each season. It's taken almost four years to get to that point. The rest will eventually catch up as well, but in the meantime I make a lot of bumbleberry goodies.
There really is no such thing as a bumble berry . . . it's basically a name you give to a pie or dessert which has been created using at least three different berries . . . all "bumbled" together, and so it was with this Bumbleberry Cobbler which I baked for the missionaries when we had them for supper last Tuesday evening.
Containing random bits of all of the berries we have available at the moment . . . this cobbler had blueberries and blackberries from last year in it (we are still waiting for ours to ripen this year) mixed with black currants, tayberries and raspberries . . . the only real requirement being that there be at least three different types of berries . . .
Lightly flavoured with lemon sugar and topped with a crumbly buttery, vanilla infused scone topping . . . and baked until the berries are all bubbling up and sweet . . . the scone topping is browned and crisp . . . and the whole thing together is one delicious mass of tasty cobbler goodness . . .
Served warm . . . each bowl holding a portion of that thickened sweetened fruit, along with some of that buttery cobbler topping . . . and topped with a dollop of clotted cream, this dessert delights all of the senses. In short . . . it went down a real treat and the platter was licked totally and completely clean. I love it when that happens. Job done.
*Bumbleberry Cobbler*
Serves 8 to 10
A gorgeous juicy mixed berry filling topped with a crumbly, butter, vanilla infused scone topping. What's not to like about this?
For the filling:
850g of mixed summer berries (raspberries, blackberries, tayberries, blueberries, etc.) (6 cups)
200g granulated sugar (1 cup)
the finely grated zest of one lemon
3 TBS plain flour (all purpose)
For the topping:
158g of plain flour (1 cup plus 5 TBS all purpose)
6 TBS granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
6 TBS butter, chilled, cut into bits
1 large free range egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
To finish:
1 TBS granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
To serve: (all optional)
clotted cream
pouring cream
ice cream
whipped cream
Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Butter a deep nine inch square baking dish. Set aside. Alternately you can use a 10 inch round quiche dish.
Mix together the sugar, lemon zest and flour for the filling. Place the berries into a bowl. Toss together with the flour mixture and pour into the prepared baking dish, spreading them out evenly and making sure all of the sugar, etc. is evenly distributed.
Whisk the flour for the topping together with the sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Drop in the butter. Rub it in with your finger tips until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Whisk the egg and vanilla together with a fork and then toss this into the flour mixture, tossing it all together until evenly moistened. It should be clumpy. Scatter this over top of the fruit as evenly as you can. Mix together the granulated sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle this evenly over all.
Bake in the preheated oven until the topping it golden brown and the filling is cooked through and bubbly, some 45 to 50 minutes. Cover lightly with some aluminium foil halfway through the baking time to prevent the topping from over-browning. Serve warm with clotted cream, ice cream, whipped cream or pouring cream.
What do you get when you cross a beautiful gift basket with a bit of cook's ingenuity and acumen? Well, I'll show you what you get. Hang on to your hats! You're in for a delicious ride!
I just have to show you what I recently received. This isn't a great photo of it because of the plastic wrapping, so I will show you the one from the gift site . . .
It is a lovely gift hamper from the people at Hampergifts, makers of gift baskets and luxury Christmas hampers. The one I received was their Wine and Cheese Feast, and it was chock full of lots of lovely goodies!
It was presented in a lovely wicker basket with wooden handles and everything was packed perfectly so as to make sure nothing got broken.
It contained a lovely assortment of biscuits, chocolates, chutney's, spiced nuts, crackers, a bottle of wine and two lovely cheeses.
With Graces Irish Shortbread Biscuits (shaped like shamrocks), Border's Black Forest Biscuits, a lovely box of Baronie Belgian chocolates, some Cairnsmhor Sea Salt Crackers, Cottage Delight Old English Chutney with Cider . . .
Edinburg Preserves Rosemary Biscuits for Cheese & Pate, Cottage Delight Spicy Mango & Ginger Chutney, Olives-et-al Chilli Harissa Almonds, some lovely chocolate caramels, again from Baronie . . .
EDinburg Preserves Quince Jelly and two lovely rounds of cheese from the Snowdonia Cheese Company, a Little Black Bomber Cheddar(with attitude) and a Little Red Devil (Red Leicester with Chilies and Crushed Pepper).
Also included was a bottle of Merlot from Kleine Zalze.
We were able to enjoy some of that cheese earlier this week as a traditional Ploughman's lunch picnic supper! I do so love a Ploughman's lunch/supper. They are so easy to throw together. All you need is some crusty bread, some nice pickle/chutney, a couple of good cheeses, some fruit (apple in this case), a bit of veg (cucumber and lettuce on this occasion) and some chunky bits of ham. You end up with a feast fit for a King or Queen!
Afterwards we feasted on some delicious Black Forest Cookies and Cream Sundaes! Oh boy were these really easy to put together and so fabulously scrumptious!
I quite simply crumbled several of those lovely chocolate biscuits that were in the hamper into the bottom of two dessert glasses . . .
dropped a scoop of really good vanilla ice cream on top of the cookies . . .
Drizzled over top some warmed cherry jam and a homemade chocolate sauce . . .
And topped them off with some squirty cream . . . and a couple of milk chocolate wands . . . the end result being something which was totally delicious, yet had taken me next to no time at all to put together.
*Black Forest Cookies and Cream Sundaes*
Serves 2
I did something totally delish with that bottle of wine too, but I'll save that for another day! In the meantime I would like to thank Sophie along with the people from Hamper Gifts for sending me this lovely Gift Hamper. This post was written in collaboration with Hampergifts, makers of gift baskets and luxury Christmas hampers.
As you know we had the missionaries over for supper the other night. I made them a chicken pot pie and then we had mash with it, along with some salad and coleslaw. Yes, I do feed them well.
I wanted to make them something special for dessert and I thought to myself I hadn't had a bowl of pudding in a very long time. Butterscotch pudding is my favourite pudding of all.
Now here is an interesting little tidbit about British Food. Over here Dessert is called Pudding . . . all desserts. Pie, cake, bakes, etc. If it is a sweet which comes at the end of the meal it is called Pudding.
Now here is an interesting little tidbit about British Food. Over here Dessert is called Pudding . . . all desserts. Pie, cake, bakes, etc. If it is a sweet which comes at the end of the meal it is called Pudding.
Don't ever confuse the word "pudding" over here with what we North Americans loving adore as being a thick custardy dessert which comes in flavours such as chocolate, lemon, coconut cream, pistachio, vanilla and . . . butterscotch!
They don't do pudding here . . . they do custard and dessert pudding! Pudding is just a word which means dessert, and they do them very well!
These are not really good photos I know. It's kind of hard to take a nice photo of pudding, but don't let the bad photos deter you from making this. It's fabulous. Rich. Creamy. Butterscotch-ee.
Like Caramel, but better. It went down a real treat with the lads. It's really not that difficult to make pudding from scratch.
You just have to remember a few things . . . one, don't be in a rush and try to cook it over too high a heat (It will scorch if you do) and two, whisk, whisk, whisk (that way you prevent any lumps from forming). Other than that, it's a real doddle.
*Butterscotch Pudding from Scratch*
Serves 6
(You can freeze the egg whites to lose at a later date. They are perfect for pavlova and other meringues.)
3 TBS butter, cut into bitsBeat the egg yolks together in a bowl. Slowly whisk in 1 cup of the hot pudding mixture a bit at a time. (This tempers the eggs and keeps them from scrambling.) Whisk this mixture back into the hot pudding and return to medium low heat. Whisk and cook constantly until the mixture comes back to a gentle boil. Cook, whisking constantly, for a further minute.
Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla and butter bits. Cover and allow to cool to room temperature.
Divide between individual dishes, or pour into a large serving container. Cover with some plastic cling film, pressing it onto the surface of the pudding to help prevent a skin from forming. Chill for at least 2 hours prior to serving. Serve with or without whipped cream.
I baked them some Oatmeal Raisin Cookies to have along with the pudding. These went down a real treat as well. This has to be one of my favourite oatmeal cookie recipes.
Crisp on the edges and soft in the middle . . . and oh so buttery. Studded to the hilt with lovely sticky sultana raisins, these are really satisfying.
It makes really big cookies, which the lads also enjoyed. They went down really well with the pudding. These were perfect together.
You could make them smaller of course but downgrade the baking time if you do to about 9 to 10 minutes instead.
*Oatmeal Raisin Cookies*
makes one dozen LARGE cookies
makes one dozen LARGE cookies
The ultimate comfort cookie. This is our favourite.
1 large free range egg, at room temperature
Cream the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Whisk together the flour, soda and salt. Stir this into the creamed mixture to combine. Stir in the oats, one third at a time, to combine completely. Stir in the raisins. Scoop onto the baking sheet by 1/4 cup portions, placing them 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
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