I saved quite a few of them through the years. I still use some of the recipes that I gleaned from them, so all was not lost!
As I said, this recipe came from a Robin Hood Flour one. Baking Festival Recipes was the title. There are 27 pretty tasty recipes for cakes, cookies, muffins, etc. in it.
You begin by soaking some old fashioned oats in milk. I always use whole milk for my baking unless otherwise specified.
Old fashioned oats are the large flake oats. Don't be tempted to use instant oats. They will no have the right consistency. You want an oat with some bite to it. Instan oats would become far too gummy.
Using the whole oats gives you a muffin with plenty of lovely wholesome texture. Oats are very good for you and are filled with fibre and iron and are good for your heart.
The chopped orange gets stirred into the soaked oats, along with an egg, some brown sugar and melted butter. There is also plenty of chopped dates in the mix. I adore dates.
They have a lovely sticky toffee flavour. Dates are actually what makes sticky toffee cake so moist and delicious. I love to use dates in my baking and always have a bag or two in the store cupboard.
They are wonderful in cakes and bakes. I love to make date slices, and of course they work beautifully in muffins such as these ones I am sharing today. Little sticky hints of caramel to go along with the tart orange flavours.
When I was living down South I sometimes went into London to the Borough Market. I don't know what you couldn't get at the Borough Market.
It was filled with stalls selling everything from soup to nuts! I remember one time buying these lush chocolate covered dates. I still think about them. Taste memories are some of the best kinds of memories.
I had loved it as a child and they had stopped making it. I was 21 when I was pregnant for Eileen and I am 65 now. That is a long time to have a craving for something!
Taste memories. They only get better with time. Either that or we crave them more. One way or the other most of them will never be fulfilled. Now back to the muffins.
These delicious moist muffins will always be there for us. That's the good thing about recipes like this. They never disappear or go away so long as you curate them and keep them in a safe place.
And that's what I am doing today. Sticking the recipe here online for everyone to enjoy! Tina and Tony were here earlier and they said they were excellent!
Tangy from the orange, which also adds to the moistness. Studded with sticky toffee dates, and willed with wholesome oats.
I cannot think of a way in which these could ever be improved! I really can't. Unless you also wanted to add some toasted chopped nuts.
Orange, Date & Oat Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups (300ml) whole milk
- 1 cup (80g) old fashioned oats
- 1 medium orange, washed, seeded and quartered
- 1 large free range egg
- 3/4 cup firmly packed (150g) soft light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (120g) butter, melted
- 1/2 cup (75) chopped pitted dates
- 2 cups (280g) plain/all purpose flour
- 1 TBS baking powder
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Line a 12 cup medium muffin tin with paper liners.
- Measure the oats into a bowl and pour the milk over top. Let stand 5 minutes.
- Put the orange into a food processor or blender and blitz until it is finely chopped. Add to the oats along with th egg, brown sugar, melted butter and dates.
- Measure the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add the wet ingredients all at once and stir together just to combine.
- Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups and bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. A toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean and the tops should spring back when lightly touched.
- Tip out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Store leftovers in an airtight container.
I usually bake something like a muffin at the weekend. You never know when people are going to stop by so its nice to have something in the cake tin. They are also an extra special nice treat to enjoy with a hot cuppa in the middle of the afternoon or the evening when you're watching the telly.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
In honor of my impending departure from these lush and green lands, I thought I would make a Nova Scotia recipe for us all to enjoy. Nova Scotia is the province in Canada that I am from and where I am returning.
Known for it's great beauty and humble people the early settlers christened it after their home land. New Scotland. I expect it reminded them very much of Scotland. Having been to Scotland now myself, I can see many similarities.
The dough for these is a very simple make, and involves the use of very simple ingredients. Flour, old fashioned rolled oats, salt, butter, brown sugar and some baking powder.
You can add a touch of vanilla. I used a smidgen of vanilla paste as I am trying to use it up before I need to pack everything away. I don't think I can bring much in the way of food with me when I go, if anything at all. (I am so hoping I don't have to give everything up.)
You roll the dough out into a rectangle with a rolling pin. I love my beechwood rolling pin. I have never had such a beauty before in my life, and it is probably one of the best rolling pins I have ever had.
It is nice and heavy and does a great job of rolling things out. You will need a rectangle about 5 inches by 11 inches in size and about 1/4 inch in thickness.
Once that is done you need to cut them. They should be cut into rectangles. I did a long cut down the centre of the length, cutting it in half that way.
Then I made six evenly spaced cuts the other way. This creates 12 nicely sized oat cakes.
Place them onto a parchment lined baking sheet. I used a spatula to do this so I didn't risk them breaking apart.
You don't really need to leave a lot of space between. Just enough for the air to circulate so that the edges can get nice and crisp.
They do puff up a bit in the oven. But they are lovely and crisp and will crisp up even more when they cool down.
Perfect for dunking. In a hot cuppa. In a glass of milk. In a hot cocoa. In a horlicks. In an Ovaltine. In anything. I bet if you were a hot toddy kind of a person they would even be great dunked in that!
You don't have to cut them apart prior to baking. You can just score the dough with a sharp knife into 12 rectangles right on the tray.
Don't cut all the way through. This will result in softer oat cakes. Its all dependant on the result you wish for.
Soft and a bit chew, or short and crisp. In all truth delicious both ways. I am a crisp cookie/biscuit lover. So I am.
I am actually really looking forward to my move. To seeing family again and being near my babies and grandbabies. To be able to spend some time with my pa before he goes to be with my ma. He is 86 now and will be 87 in January.
I pray every day that he lives long enough for me to be there and to have some time to spend with him. We do speak often on facetime, which is nice, but the real thing will be so much better.
I am looking forward to baking with my grandchildren given the chance. We might even bake these. I have 8 grandchildren. 7 boys and one girl.
I have never gotten to spend any time when them when they were wee babies. I am hoping and praying that I will be able to spend some time with this last one before he gets out of the baby stage.
There is something lovely about wee babies. Those little noises they make, the way they snuggle into your neck. The smell of their little heads.
I just can't wait. I have high hopes and I hope they are not dashed. Wish me luck!
I am hoping to be gone from here by the end of November. I will have to isolate for two weeks before I can be with anyone. I am a bit slow at getting things started, but expect that things will go pretty quickly once everything is set in motion.
Nova Scotia Oat Cakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup (90g) old fashioned oats (rolled/large flake)
- 3/4 cup (115g) plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup (115g) butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup packed (100g) soft light brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Line a baking tray with baking parchment and set aside. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.
- Whisk the oats, flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl. Set aside.
- Using an electric whisk, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the brown sugar and vanilla. Beat for a further 2 minutes until well creamed and smooth. Add the dry ingredients a bit at a time, until all have been amalgamated and the dough is beginning to clump together. Knead for a few turns to bring it completely together.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured board. Pat into a rectangle shape and then roll out with a rolling pin to a 5 by 11 inch rectangle. Using a sharp knife cut into 12 evenly sized rectangles. (One cut down horizontally and six across.)
- Carefully transfer to the baking sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 13 to 15 minutes until perfectly set, and the edges are golden brown. Place the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- They will crisp up more as they cool. Store in an airtight container.
notes:
The oats cakes from the mainland tend to be a bit thicker and softer. These ones are more like the ones from Cake Breton Island which tend to be crisper. Both a delicious, however I hold a certain fondness for anything that is crisp and buttery.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
I have always loved Brownies. When it comes to baked chocolate goodies, brownies are probably one of my favourite ones. Having said that however, in thinking about chocolate cake, I think brownies are second to chocolate cake.
I do have several very good from scratch brownie recipes on here. I think as I get older I am a lot less into things like this than I was when I was younger. I think perhaps when you get older you get a bit choosier about how often you indulge and what you choose to indulge in.
I have used a brownie mix for these brownies today. I used the Ghiradelli Triple Chocolate Brownie mix that you can buy in Costco. It comes with three bags of mix in the box.
They are incredibly rich and moist. My friend Tina buys them all the time so her wee grandson Freddie can help her bake. He just stirs the mix up and he thinks he has done something really special!
You will also need some flaked almonds. They get scattered around each dollop of the pie filling prior to baking as well.
That's it in a nutshell really. Other than that all you will need is what the boxed Brownie mix calls for. In this case it was oil, water and an egg.
If you wanted to really make it authentic to the Black Forest, you could stir some Kirsch into the pie filling. Or, once baked, poke some holes into the brownies here and there and drizzle in some Kirsch.
About 18 years ago we took one of our first holidays together into the Black Forest and I treated myself to a slice of Black Forest Cake one day when we were out and about.
It is a cake that the Black Forest is very famous for. Can I be honest here?
Why not! I always am! Either it was a very bad cake or Black Forest Cake is not all it is cracked up to be. I just didn't get the appeal.
The lovely hot chocolate I enjoyed along side of it more than made up for it however. All was not lost!
Have any of you had the experience of enjoying a slice of Black Forest Cake in Germany? I had really hyped myself up to enjoy this cake and it was really quite a disappointment!
Black Forest Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 box of brownie mix (I used the Costco Ghiradelli triple chocolate brownie mix)
- Ingredients needed according to the brownie mix
- 1 tin of cherry fruit pie filling
- flaked almonds
- icing sugar to dust (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare your brownie mix according to the package directions, preheating the oven to the correct temperature and buttering and lining a 9 inch square baking pan.
- Spread the brownie batter into the baking dish. Mark it into 16 squares as best as you can. Pop a TBS of the cherry pie filling into the centre of each square. Sprinkle the almonds around the edges of each square.
- Bake according to the package directions.
- Cool completely. Dust lightly with icing sugar, remove from the pan and cut into squares to serve.
notes:
So what are you favourite kinds of brownies? Do you use a Brownie mix ever? Do you like it? What is your favourite brand? I normally make them from scratch and I am sure this would also work with a scratch brownie recipe. Here is my favourite Brownie Recipe.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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