The best thing about this recipe – it makes lovely rhubarb syrup that you can put in a number of different alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. I’ll put some links at the end but you can make everything from rhubarb bellinis to martinis to lemonade.

I have my failings as a gardener (and as a human but that’s another subject altogether) but I can grow rhubarb. I’m a big fan of perennials and the closer they are to the wild thing they came from, the more I like them. Once you establish your rhubarb patch it will repay you with more rhubarb than you know what to do with.

And rhubarb is so hardy. The Davinator was overseeing the hard landscaping done by his contractors. I was away on a business trip. They decided to shift the vegetable garden plot by a metre or so. First, they bogged a mini digger in the plot – I was digging up the odd board and bricks for a couple of years. Second they simply dug up the rhubarb and threw the plants in another corner. Zero TLC and the darned rhubarb flourished.

Rhubarb is very cheap in the stores when it’s in season if you don’t grow your own. This recipe has you make rhubarb syrup, add gelatine and then some fizzy wine. The finished product is mildly alcoholic so you might want to use an alcohol free sparkling wine if you’re making it for kids. Do not waste your good champagne on this. A moderately priced bottle of prosecco or cremante or cava is perfect. I would say use cheap booze but the recipe only uses 200 mls so you have to drink the rest. And life is too short to drink cheap.

Other uses for your rhubarb syrup:

Rhubarb bellini – use the syrup instead of the puree and omit the sugar.

Rhubarb martini

Rhubarb lemonade – alcohol free

Recipe

You might add mint leaves and a bit of whipped cream to your jellies to serve but they are lovely as they are. If you’re offering a non-alcoholic version to kids – tell them AFTER they’ve eaten on that it’s rhubarb based.

Thank you for reading the blog and cooking the recipes. I love seeing your photos and your feedback.

Stay safe and well.

Beans are amazing and versatile. I always have 3 or 4 different kinds of dried beans. I was building a little stockpile pre-Brexit and so rolled into Corona quarantine with about 5 kilos of dried beans and lentils. The challenge – make them into great food for the Davinator (not a problem for the ultimate omnivore), my son and his university roommate (our lockdown crew).

Homemade refried beans is a great response to this challenge.

Refried beans are healthier and easier than you think. The recipe is very flexible – you can use almost any kind of canned or dried beans you have available. Black beans, white beans, pinto beans, black eyed peas. I was eying up a can of chick peas the other day – but those are better used in hummus.

The amount of spice is up to you – some like it hot, some like it garlicky, some like it with the flavour of beans shining through. The vegan version is, if anything, better than the standard version. Or you can go full on old school decadent carnivore and start with lard or beef dripping.

Refrieds are NOT fried twice. It’s a corruption of frijoles refritos or ‘well fried’. Not deep fried, not soaked in lard, just fried well.

Refried beans are great in Tex-Mex food; fajitas, burritos, quesadillas, tacos, dip, nachos – the list goes on and on. Kids like beans if they are well cooked and will pretty much eat anything you wrap up in a flour tortilla. Also, refrieds are an essential component of the highest form of Tex-Mex food – huevos rancheros. Food of the gods.

My son and his roommate brought a can of refried beans when they came home for lockdown. I said ‘I’m going to show you what that should taste like’. Made them this recipe, took a dish into their study room with a few corn chips. They took one tentative taste (to be polite) and then dived in and gobbled the rest up. They are converts.

The convenience of a can of refried beans is not to be sneered at but make these at least once so you know what they should taste like. I made extra and froze portions for future use.

And just in time for Cinco de Maya – here’s the recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 30 grams (2 tablespoons) of butter or neutral oil, divided (vegan substitutions)
• 1 small white onion, peeled and diced small
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 x 425 gram cans of beans (2 x 15 ounce cans) or 200 grams (1 cup) of dried beans, cooked as described below
• 120 mls (1/2 cup) vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (decide how spicy you want your beans to be and consider hot or chipotle chili powder)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon freshly-squeezed lime juice
• fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
• optional garnishes: finely-chopped fresh cilantro, crumbled or shredded cheese, diced tomato, and/or sliced jalapeño

Instructions

1. Heat half the butter (or oil) in a large deep frying pan until melted.  Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.  Add the garlic and repeat for 1-2 more minutes, until cooked and fragrant.
2. Add in the canned or cooked beans, veggie stock, chili powder, cumin and oregano, and stir to combine.  Continue cooking until the mixture reaches a simmer.
3. Take the pan off the heat.  Use a potato masher or a wooden spoon to mash the beans to your desired consistency.  If you like them super-smooth, you can purée them with a stick blender or in your food processor. I don’t recommend the food processor – pureed beans are a b*****d to clean up.
4. Stir in the remaining butter until well-combined.  Taste and season the beans with lime juice, salt and pepper, to taste.
5. Serve warm, topped with any garnishes you might like.

Thank you for reading the blog, commenting, cooking, subscribing and sharing. Keep healthy and safe.

Instructions for cooking dried beans: this is my go to website for working with dried beans. It takes a little more time but is even cheaper than using canned beans. Enjoy.

This is the most foolproof recipe for jam or jelly that I’ve ever made. If you’ve got citrus fruit, sugar and some jars you are more than half way home. It’s a good recipe for a newbie or a nervous jam maker because the ‘setting’ is very reliable.

Why a marmalade recipe from someone who lives in England? Citrus is technically never in season here. But there is a long association between these cool and damp islands and the traditional citrus based preserves that are marmalade.

Legend has it that a ship load of Seville oranges ran aground in Dundee in Scotland. The scavengers scooped up the oranges and then cooked them with sugar until it ‘jellied’ to protect their loot. That story has been debunked but the first ever factory to produce marmalade was in Dundee, opened in 1797.

The corona virus lockdown has propelled me into making marmalade on two fronts; we have excess citrus fruit and a shortage of jam.

We get our fruit and vegetables from a delivery service – Abel & Cole. Adore them but they’ve made adaptations to their service during the lockdown so you get your fruit and veg box and can’t edit out or in specific items. Also the Davinator has been the one to brave the queue system at Waitrose (posh supermarket for Americans). He is prone to going ‘off list’ and coming home with things that ‘looked yummy’. Et voila, there is excess of oranges.

One of my best friends lives in Devon and makes the best jam, marmalade and preserves and is generous with gifting them to friends. We don’t actually go down to see them when we’re about to run out of jam and marmalade – but it might SEEM that way. We had been scheduled to visit at Easter and our stocks had run low. Then corona. And the Davinator was down to one jar of courgette marmalade, one jar of chutney and we opened the last jar of strawberry jam.

We had a need for marmalade, we had oranges and sugar and I had the empty jars I had been saving to return to my jam making friend. And that’s all you need for ingredients. A couple of pieces of equipment help a great deal: a food processor for chopping, a deep kettle for the boiling marmalade and jam funnel.

You won’t make elegant jewel toned marmalade with artistic shreds of peel with my recipe. But it will work (i.e. jell) and it will look and taste great. And it’s a great time saver. The prep takes about 10 minutes, including getting out your food processor and it takes about 30 minutes to cook. While it’s cooking you can prep your jars, sterilise your lids and wash up the food processor.

Ready to marmelise?

Recipe

Makes 1.75 litres of jam, say 5 normal jam jars. You could do one or two very large jars as well. It keeps.

Ingredients

900 grams (2 pounds) of citrus fruit: oranges, lemons, grapefruit, clementines, satsumas. All of one kind or mix and match. You can use one or two limes but don’t go full lime – too bitter. That’s about six medium sized oranges.

1 kilogram (2 pounds, 2 ounces) of sugar (caster – UK, granulated – US)

Crystallised ginger, a generous handful if desired.

Method

1. Wash the fruit, quarter it, remove seeds or pips with the tip of a knife. Cut off any blemishes in the rind and I also cut off the stem end. Throw it all in the food processor or blender with the ginger if you’re including ginger. If using the blender, do 2 or 3 batches. Process until its quite small chunks.
2. Put in a deep sturdy cooking pot with the sugar. Over low heat, melt the sugar while stirring. Bring to a boil, back it down to a simmer with big bubbles popping on the surface. Keep stirring from time to time and scrape down the sides of the pot into the jam. It needs to be bubbling away for 25 to 30 minutes.
3. Prep your jars. I sterilise all preserve jars, including jam jars although some argue that the boiling preserves kill all bacteria. I’m indifferent to germs most of the time but I sterilise the jars and the lids. Here’s a link to the easiest method – bake them in the oven. The video also has a reasonable alternative to the jam funnel – transfer your marmalade to a sterilised jug to pour it into the jars. Also works well. Use a glass or metal jug and be aware that it should be sterilised too. The handle may get hot.
4. Your marmalade should be coating and jelling on the back of a metal spoon now. Go ahead and fill your jars. If you’re a nervous jam maker – have plenty of clean tea towels (dish towels), oven mitts and sterilised tongs to put the lids on. Get ready and fill your jars.
5. This recipe works because of the amount of the pectin in the rind of the fruit so it is quite reliable. But here’s a top tip from my jam making friend – if it does not jell, empty the jars back into a saucepan and boil it for another 10 minutes. If your jam sets too ‘tight’ you might need to heat it to use it but it’s absolutely lovely gently warmed and poured over pancakes or waffles.

I hope you enjoy your marmalade. Thank you for reading, commenting, subscribing, sharing and for cooking the recipes.

Ratatouille is a classic vegetable stew from the south of France. Don’t show this blog to any French people you know because we’re going to colour outside the lines with ingredients and preparation methods. Recipe is great for the vegetarians and vegans. We are trying for zero food waste and fewer trips to the market for ingredients so this recipe is all about flexibility.

Side note: Ratatouille, the movie, is one of those Pixar cartoons that’s secretly aimed at adults but also amuses children. We’ve got access to Disney+ while our son is home from university and we are shamelessly exploiting it. In the movie, they make an incredibly posh nouvelle cuisine version of ratatouille. We’re not cooking that today. There are posh versions – carefully colour coordinated and layered. That’s cooking as performance art and nobody has the time for that.

The beating heart of ratatouille is aubergine (eggplant you Americans) and tomatoes. Those are the only two mandatory ingredients for me (ducking now while purists hurl things at me). Most ratatouille also includes bell peppers, courgettes (zucchini again for you Americans), onions and garlic.

I consulted the hive mind of Twitter for other things you can and cannot put in ratatouille. No support for root vegetables (I suggested parsnips and carrots) and that includes potatoes, sweet potatoes and radishes. In fact several Tweeters more or less accused me of cooking heresy. Also beans (as in pulses) are verboten. I would tend to avoid cabbage as it has a strong taste and it needs bacon to make it edible. Cucumbers have so much liquid I would also avoid them.

Things you can put in ratatouille – pretty much any other vegetable in just about any form. Frozen mixed veg, corn from cans, summer squash, pumpkin, leeks, shallots. Kale, spinach and other sturdy greens are also acceptable. Go for it.

I consulted my vegetable drawer and my store cupboards and my latest ratatouille had one aubergine, two tins of tomatoes, one red bell pepper, 2/3 of an orange bell pepper, one truly ancient courgette, some leeks and assorted onions (one Spanish, two white ones). I found some dried basil in the store cupboard that expired in 2007. 2007. Used that too.

I’ve included the ingredients in the recipe in the order that I put them in the pot. I use a large deep enamelled cast iron soup pot, don’t use aluminium – it doesn’t like the acid from tomatoes. You can find hundreds of ratatouille recipes on line – this one works for me.

Recipe

Ingredients

• olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped fine (I don’t cook with garlic but its widely used)
• 2 medium onions, peeled, halved and sliced thinly (I use a hand held mandolin and slice them directly into the pot)
• 2 bell peppers, cored seeded and chopped into cubes of about 1.5 cm (half an inch or so) pieces
• 1 medium aubergine (eggplant) chopped into cubes, same size
• 1 medium courgette (zucchin) chopped into cubes, same size
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes with juice or 6 fresh tomatoes, cored and seeded
• bunch of fresh basil or 2 tablespoons of dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Coat the bottom of the stock pot with a generous layer of olive oil and heat until it smells sweet (medium heat). Add the garlic, give it a couple of minutes.
2. Add the sliced onions, stir to coat with oil and cook until they begin to soften, about five minutes
3. Repeat with the bell peppers, then the aubergine, then the courgette.
4. Add the tomatoes and stir to coat. Bring to a slow simmer and cook for about 20 minutes once simmering.
5. Watch to see that it doesn’t get too dry and start to stick to the bottom of the pan. Cautiously add water if it looks dry.
6. About 5 minutes before it’s finished add the basil (chopped if fresh) and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve up with your favourite carbohydrate base. I’ve seen the Davinator eat ratatouille on bread, pasta and mashed potatoes (not all at the same time). It’s been eaten as a breakfast dish with a couple of fried eggs as well.

It will last several days in the refrigerator.

Thank you for reading, commenting, cooking the recipes and for sharing on social media.

We are only four people in social isolation in our household: the Davinator plus younger son and his roommate from university. The Davinator is the middle of a big building project (redoing some of our hard landscaping) and is eating accordingly. University students are Olympic standard eaters. A fair amount of catering to do and I was looking for things that can be precooked and served in different ways. Meatballs are the answer.

Meatballs are easy for non-expert and ingredients are flexible. Kids seem to love them and there are many ways to serve them. The more expert a cook you are, the more confidence you’re likely to have with substitutions and changes. I go over each ingredient below to help you figure it out.

Meatballs are minced (ground) meat, usually mixed with bread crumbs, egg and seasonings. My recipe calls for Parmesan cheese but this is a lovely addition and not vital to the recipe. Remember google is your friend so just ask ‘substitutes for……’ and see what comes back.

Meat

Use any type of minced or ground meat. My favourite is 50/50 beef and pork. Lamb, chicken, turkey and even sausage meat bought in bulk or squeezed out of the casings. I’m guessing you could make duck meatballs if there’s such a thing as ground duck. Be aware of how much fat you’ve got in the meat, ultra lean meat like chicken or turkey won’t hold together as well and doesn’t have the same mouth feel on eating.

Vegetarians, I bet you could make meatballs with Quorn mince. It then ceases to be a meatball but let’s not worry about the ontology of naming things today.

Bread crumbs: I have a big supply of panko breadcrumbs, because I hate to run out so I buy in bulk from Amazon Subscribe & Save. So many possibles substitutes here. You can make some from bread. Here’s a video but essentially you oven dry them and then whizz them up in food processor. The video uses fresh whole wheat bread but bread type and freshness don’t really matter. Use wheat bread though.

The quantity might not substitute straight across, so keep mixing in until you have a good consistency.

Other substitutes, grind in a food processor or put in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin:

• plain water crackers or saltines, basically any kind of savoury biscuit,
• unsweetened cereal like corn flakes or weetabix,
• rolled oats or porridge oats
• pretzels, crisps, corn chips (be careful with weird flavours like prawn).

Even more creative:

• cooked rice or quinoa
• flaxseed
• potato flour
• cornstarch

Egg

The egg in this recipe is a binding ingredient – it helps the meatball hold together. Hopefully, you’ve got eggs but if not you can substitute yogurt (unsweetened and unflavoured) or try about half the same quantity of milk. Getting a little bit more unlikely: ground flax or chia – one tablespoon with 3 tablespoons of water = one egg. Tofu, if you have any, or melt some butter or vegetable shortening.

Seasonings: salt and pepper are enough and it may be all you want if you’re going to make a flavourful sauce or soup for your meatballs. But if chilli flakes, Italian seasoning, whatever takes your fancy from your spice cupboard.

Serving suggestions:

• make a simple clear soup with celery and carrots, add the meatballs at the end
• heat up a can or jar of prepared sauce and serve with pasta,
• make marinara sauce, (see this simple recipe) and serve with pasta
• serve warm with some barbecue sauce (put them on toothpicks – kids will eat anything on a toothpick),
• crush them into a sandwich with lots of ketchup or HP.

Once cooked, meatballs will keep in the fridge for 3 days or until a teenage boy finds them.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 450 grams of ground meat, can be mixed
• 1/4 cup (25 grams) of panko bread crumbs (very fine dry bread crumbs – you’re using a substitute be prepared to adjust to get a good firm consistency when you’re rolling the meat balls)
• 1/4 cup (25 grams) grated parmesan cheese (optional)
• 1/4 cup (40 grams) finely chopped onion (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 egg or substitute binding agent

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200C (180 fan). Line a baking sheet or a shallow pan with foil. Drizzle with the olive oil and spread the oil to cover the pan.
2. Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Easiest to use your hands to smush it all together and combine well. Add any additional herbs as you go. You’ll be able to tell if the meatballs are going to bind together. If it’s too wet, add some more bread crumbs. If it’s too dry, try adding milk a tablespoon at a time.
3. Scoop out a generous tablespoon and roll it into a ball. Place on the baking tray. They will brown better if not touch each other. This is a job that children love to ‘help’ with. And the meatballs are going in a hot oven, so its fine.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Cut one in half and make sure they’re not pink in the middle. Consume your test meatball to hide the evident.

Enjoy. And happy cooking.

I had 3 kilos of apples and ran a Twitter poll: tarte tatin or applesauce. Tarte tatin was the (unsurprising) winner with 83% of the vote. I won’t swim against the social media tide on food – so here we go with apple tart, French style.

This is not an easy recipe and it took me several attempts before my results were reliable. Realistically, three attempts that were edible but not photogenic; full of runny sugar and messy. The fourth time – I resolved to not to chicken out when cooking the apples in the sugar syrup. The point is to make caramel, not syrup. If you’re a candy maker or a jam maker – you should do okay. If you have no experience of working with boiling sugar – don’t start here and don’t start alone. Try making some. caramel sauce first, for example.

I used Cook’s Illustrated recipe. It’s the only cooking website I value enough to pay for. When they say they’ve cracked a recipe, they have. This is a different approach to a classic recipe but the results are worth it.

Want a vegan version? Probably easier than you think. Use vegan puff pastry (most supermarket ready pastry is vegan because they’ve taken the butter out to save money). And use top quality flavourless oil, about 60 mls, instead of butter in the sugar syrup.

There is one important piece of equipment you need. A 23 cm (9 inch) skillet or casserole dish that can go from a high heat stove top to the oven. I have a le cresuet enamelled cast iron dish that is perfect.

Feeling brave enough to venture on? Here we go with the recipe.

Recipe

Pastry Dough

• 230 grams plain flour
• 30 grams icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 110 grams chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes (tip – cut it then chill it)
• 1 large egg
• Water if needed

Caramelised apples

• 110 grams unsalted butter
• 160 grams caster (granulated) sugar
• 1.4 kilos (3 pounds) apples (cored, peeled, cut into halves or quarters)

Instructions – these are in the order I recommend you do them, so start with pastry, move to apples and then assemble.

Method

1. Making pastry using a food processor: combine flour, sugar and salt in the processor with the steel blade. Mix. Sprinkle the chilled butter over the top. Process until well mixed. Mine was about 30 seconds of pulsing. Turn the mixture into a bowl, add the egg and mix with a fork until little balls start to form. Gather into a ball with your hands. If it’s dry, add water a teaspoon at a time to get it to form into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic, squish into a 10 cm (4 inch) disk. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Making pastry by hand: mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut the butter in with a pastry blender or two tables knives. Proceed with adding the egg.
3. After 30 minutes, take the pastry out. Flour your counter top and roll the pastry to 25 cm round. Put on a baking tray, cover and return to the refrigerator.
4. Your pastry is chilling. Now time to get on with the apples. You want to end up with relatively uniform size pieces. I had lots of small apples so I cored, peeled and halved 12 apples. I confessing I had two pieces left over so I ate them.
5. You may feel the urge to put your apples in lemon juice to keep them from browning as you proceed to peel and core the whole lots. It’s not necessary (you’re going to caramelise them and turn them really brown) and it changes the chemistry of the sugar. You can do this but if you do you must rinse the lemon juice off and then dry them. They don’t need to be bone dry but no obvious water on them.
6. You’ve got all your apples pieces ready. Because I’m a little bit obsessed I trim the pieces so that they are roughly the same height. You are stand them up in the sugar and it makes the tarte pretty if they are all the same size. Not necessary though and by now you may well be bored messing around with apples.
7. Melt the second lot of butter in your 23 cm pan on the stove top. Mix the sugar in. Now it’s time to put the apples in. If using small apples like mine – stand them up in the sugar and fit in as many as you can, like doing a jigsaw. If using big apples, quarter them and lay them on their sides in a circle near the edge of the pan. Fill in the centre with a few pieces. Some of the apples will be exposed above the butter and sugar mixture. This is okay.
8. Put your oven on – preheat to 190C, 375F.
9. Put the pan back on the heat and turn it up high. Once it’s bubbling, cook for about 10 minutes. You will be tempted to turn it down. Don’t. I stand over it and watch it like a hawk, rotating the pan 90 degrees on the burner every minute or so to reduce hotspots and scorching. After 10 minutes, remove from heat and carefully using the point of a knife, flip each apple pieces over so the uncooked side is now in the liquid sugar. Cook until the juices turn amber and are visibly thickened, probably another 5 minutes but possibly longer.
10. You’ve turned butter and sugar to caramel, now it’s time to assemble the tarte. Be very careful: hot pan, hot contents. Remove from heat and carefully place the pastry on top of the apples. Press down lightly so that no pastry is overhanging. It doesn’t need to look great – it’s the bottom of the tart. Put it in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes and bake until the crust is golden brown.
11. Remove from oven and place the pan on a wire rack or trivet that will allow it to cool. Leave for about 20 minutes. Now loosen the edges with a knife, place a heat resistant flat plate over the top and flip it upside down. Use a generous sized plate or cake stand and be prepared with some kitchen paper towels for remnants of liquid sugar. Pry out any apples that remained in the pan and stick them back in the tarte.
12. Serve warm or allow to cool. Enjoy with sour cream, whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Thank you for reading, baking the recipes and commenting. I have a special request for a future blog – some spectacular chocolate chip cookies. That may be preceded by a blog on lovely bean soup but it’s coming your way soon.

Well isn’t that a cheery title for a blog post? We are living through something that seems unique in the modern era. Here in the UK, as of the date this is written, many working from home, leisure establishments are closing as of tonight and waves of panicked shoppers are emptying the supermarkets as fast the staff can restock.

My ‘normal’ supply chain for baking supplies is not supermarket dependent; I tend to bulk buy flour of various kinds and mail order speciality ingredients. This for both cost and certainty of supply – I find that supermarkets are increasingly purveying ‘meals’ and processed food and much less likely to have anything but the most commonly used basic ingredients. And those only in smaller packages.

I’m facing some supply chain issues as those stockpiling are turning to alternative suppliers – including mine.

I’m embracing this challenge and will try to use up some of the niche and speciality ingredients in my store cupboards. The likelihood that you will have the same weird assortment of ingredients is very low, but improvisation and imagination are your best friends. I’ll try to describe what can be substituted and how.

First up, buttermilk rye rolls to use molasses, rye flour and potato flour (not starch) and a limited amount of bread and whole wheat flour. The recipe is based on one in King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.

The flour mix is flexible except for the quantity of potato flour. This is different from ‘potato starch’. Potato flour is dried potatoes ground very fine. If you don’t have potato flour you can substitute a cup of mashed potatoes and reduce the buttermilk by half initially. Keep an eye on the dough, if it seems dry add more buttermilk a tablespoon at a time. Otherwise, flex the flour components to your taste. This version is a little lighter than the Davinator’s favourite version which has much more rye flour.

I kneaded in my new mixer, the Anskrarum Assistent. It’s cool, it rotates the bowl not the hook and I love to watch it. You can hand knead or machine knead. Get the dough smooth and glossy.

Time to dig deep in the store cupboards and make up some yummy baked goods.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 285 mls of buttermilk, heated to lukewarm. If no buttermilk, sour 280 mls of milk with 5 mls of lemon juice, leave it ‘curdle’ for 10 minutes.
• 60 grams of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons molasses or black treacle
• 60 grams whole wheat flour
• 110 grams rye flour
• 180 grams bread flour or plain white flour
• 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
• 35 grams potato flour
• 2 teaspoons instant dry yeast
  
• Topping – 60 grams of butter, melted

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients except the topping butter in the bowl. Mix well then knead until smooth and glossy. Cover with a damp towel, cling film or a shower cap.
2. Allow the dough to rise for a couple of hours. It may not double but it should get puffy and elastic.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface. Separate into 12 or 16 pieces. I made 16 rolls of approximately 50 grams each. The dough will weigh about 800 grams.
4. Prepare a baking pan – I used a 30 cm (12 inch) round tin, lined it with paper. Parchment works best.
5. Flatten each piece into a rough circle. Fold from the outside to the middle to make a little bundle that looks vaguely like a Chinese dumpling. Turn over and create surface tension by rolling it under your hand or between your hands. Place in the prepared pan, should not touch each other at this point.
6. Cover the pan and allow a second rise of 2 to 3 hours. Preheat the oven to 170C (160fan) when nearly ready to rise.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Temperature test or tap to hear a hollow sound.
8. Leave the rolls in the pan while you melt the butter. Brush butter over the top, twice then remove from the pan to complete cooling.

These rolls make great sandwiches in the larger version or little buns with cheese in the smaller version. They basically disappeared in my house while still warm each time I made them.

Keep well everyone. Be of good cheer and be good to each other.

Send requests. I’m flexing my baking skills to avoid wasting anything. Let me know if you’ve got any strange ingredients you want to use yp. Thanks for reading, commenting and baking my recipes.

Every recipe has a story. Readers will know that I volunteer weekly at Smartworks (pre-Corona virus hiatus any way). I bring baked goods every Wednesday for the staff, the clients and my fellow volunteers. We have a Wednesday team that does ‘wardrobe’. We have the pleasure of sorting, sizing, hanging and steaming the many wonderful donations from private donors and corporate partners.

Occasionally, I ask the Smartworks team for baking ‘requests’. And one of the Wednesday team, the lovely Daryl, asked for chocolate cheesecake muffins. Never made them before so perused blogs and internet recipe sites. They are an American thing (Daryl, like me, is an American in the UK) but I was looking for a recipe that used weight and metric measurements. Follow Daryl on Instagram here. I can convert from volume to weight but American recipes can call for ingredients that I don’t like to use and tend to be too sweet. I found a recipe here on Allrecipes.co.uk that served as a good base although I tweaked the sugar and the prep instructions a bit.

And thus a classic recipe was added to my repertoire. These muffins are vote winners and relationship builders any place you take them. A couple of bonuses – can be whipped together in a hour or so. And I get to use the 24 cup muffin tin I brought home from America. The recipe makes 18 to 24 nice sized muffins; you could halve it or you could make 12 big ones and then some mini ones. Adjust the baking temperature and time down if you decide to make small ones.

A few tips: first use Philadelphia cream cheese if you can find it. I don’t know what they put in that stuff but it gives the best texture. It also works with Waitrose basic cream cheese and really expensive organic stuff but Philly is easiest to work with. Second, if you’re a regular reader you know my views on chocolate. Use the best quality cocoa powder and chocolate chips you can afford. it makes a difference. Finally, I use a piping bag to fill the muffin tins. Once you get the hang of it – it’s a time saver and it keeps your tin tidy.

Everyone say ‘thank you Daryl’ now and move on to the recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

Cream cheese filling

• 225g cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 50 grams caster (granulated) sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Chocolate batter

• 200 grams plain flour
• 175 grams caster sugar
• 60 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 250ml water
• 75ml vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon plain vinegar (distilled malt or white vinegar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

170 grams dark chocolate chips.

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan). Prep your muffin tins (makes 18 to 24) I use paper liners in my muffin tins and give them a quick spray of coconut oil. You can go without the spray oil but I would not do these in an unlined tin even if you grease and flour.
2. Beat together the ingredients for the cream cheese filling. Put to one side.
3. Sift together the dry ingredients for the chocolate batter: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt.
4. Combine the water, vegetable oil, vinegar and vanilla extract. Mix into the dry ingredients. The batter will appear very thin.
5. Fill a piping bag with the chocolate batter and carefully pipe each muffin tin about one third full. There’s usually too much batter for one bag so use a second one or clip the first one closed with a binder clip (you know those annoying black clips that we used for paper documents). See this video of me filling the tins. I’m working on doing better videos – with narration for one. Bear with me.
6. Fill another piping bag with the cream cheese filling. Pipe a couple of tablespoons on the top of each chocolate batter base. I do one squeeze of the bag all the way around and then circle back to those that look less full.
7. We haven’t forgotten the chocolate bits. Drop 6 or so in the cream cheese filling of each muffin tin. I know this seems fiddly and it’s fine if one or two end up in the chocolate part but it’s the best way to evenly distribute them
8. Put your tin or tins in the oven for 30 minutes, then test for doneness.
9. Remove from the oven and let the muffins cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then remove. If you let them cool completely in the muffin tins the edges can harden.

Enjoy! Thanking you for subscribing, for reading the blog and for baking the recipes. It’s a labour of love – I have no hope of monetisation but it’s fun for me. Please send requests, comments, etc.

Happy Baking.

Carrot cake takes misuse of vegetables to new heights. Carrots, a starchy questionable vegetable to start with, become the foundation of sweet rich lovely textured cake in this recipe from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. If you’re interested in carrots as a vegetable, try and find heritage carrots – before the Dutch made them orange and sweet. But we’re going to make them unhealthy, so the ordinary supermarket carrots are fine.

Carrot cake is a favourite wherever you take it. If I’m transporting the cake, I over bake it slightly. It changes the texture to more chewy but it’s just as tasty. You can make a vegan version of this cake as well – substitutions are below.

My recipe calls for nuts, coconut and raisins – these can all be omitted, none are essential to the structure of the cake. If you make the classic cream cheese icing, I suggest using Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I’m not a fan of American processed food but Philly has some magic ingredients that keeps the icing from getting lumpy.

No specialist equipment is required for this recipe but a mini chopper or a food processor is highly recommended for the carrots. For the best texture, I suggest fine grating the carrots. Smaller pieces makes the cake cut better.

I bake this recipe as a sheet cake in two square cake pans: 15 cms (6 inches) by 15 cms (bake for 45 mins) It also makes 2 x 23 cm (9 inch) round layers (bake for 40 mins) or a 33 cm (13 inch) by 23 cm (9 inch) sheet or single layer cake (bake for 45 mins). I line pans with parchment paper or pre-cut parchment liners – I never grease pans.

Bake away.

Recipe

Cake

• 4 large eggs
• 295 grams (10.5 ounces) of vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 295 grams (10.5 ounces) caster (white) sugar
• 90 grams (3.25 ounces) brown sugar
• 225 grams (8 ounces) whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 250 grams (8.75 ounces) finely grated carrot
• 100 grams (3.75 ounces) pecans or walnuts, chopped
• 85 grams (3 ounces) shredded or flaked coconut
• 340 grams (12 ounces) raisins

Cream cheese icing

• 85 grams (3 ounces) unsalted butter, softened, at room temperature
• 225 grams (8 ounces) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 450 (1 lb) icing (confectioners) sugar, sifted
• 90 grams (3.25 ounces) chopped candied ginger (optional)
• 110 grams (4 ounces) chopped nuts, walnuts or pecans

Vegan option: use 260 grams of unsweetened applesauce instead of the eggs in the cake. Try this recipe for vegan vanilla icing.

Instructions

1. Prep your pan or pans. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Grate the carrots. Chop the nuts. Combine all in a bowl and put to one side (stir ins).
3. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices in a separate bowl (dry ingredients).
4. Beat the eggs (or applesauce) in the mixing bowl of your stand mixer. Add the oil while the mixer is running. Add the vanilla and the sugars and beat until smooth.
5. Mix the dry ingredients into the batter until well combined. Don’t over beat.
6. Add the stir ins. Scoop batter into prepared pans.
7. Bake for the amount of time appropriate to the pan size. Use a toothpick to test, if it comes out clean the cake is done. Cool on a rack when done, then dust with confectioners sugar or use the cream cheese icing. Decorate the top with ginger or nuts.

I hope you enjoy the blog. Please ask questions and send comments. If you bake any of the recipes, please post a photo and tag @mamadolson on Instagram or Twitter.

An omelette Arnold Bennett is one of the most decadent (and fun) things you can do with eggs. There are various recipes available – ranging from the brain melting versions including hollandaise sauce to ‘simple’ ones that don’t actually making anything like an omelette Arnold Bennett. I hope my recipe below strikes the right balance between authenticity and complexity. It arrives at a beautiful balance between eggs, smoked fish and velvety sauce.

The omelette Arnold Bennett was invented by the chef at the Savoy Hotel in London. There was a long staying guest (the author Arnold Bennett) who was bored with the breakfast menu in particular and asked the chef to do ‘something different’. Anyone who travels on business will be familiar with this feeling. And the result was this wonderful omelette.

I went on an egg course with my friend Lisa and the culmination of the day was the teacher making an omelette Arnold Bennett. Of course, we were so stuffed full of gorgeous eggs by that point that we could only eat a couple of bites – but I marked it down as a real keeper.

This omelette makes a lovely light supper. I confess its too much work for me to be an actual breakfast dish (unless I’m having breakfast at the Savoy). There are several distinct steps to making this dish and it’s not an ‘easy’ dish but the skills are not that difficult. Approach it methodically and it’s yours.

An overview of the process;

• poaching the fish
• make the bechamel sauce
• enrich the bechamel sauce
• cook the egg base
• assemble the omelette
• grill the top.

Most of the ingredients are easy to find. The best smoked fish to use is haddock that is undyed (not undead, just not dyed bright yellow). If you can only find the bright yellow it’s okay. It doesn’t taste any difference, but it will make your sauce more yellow than cream coloured. I use the best eggs I can buy – usually Duchy Organic free range large eggs. The eggs are the star in this dish – augmented by the sauce and poached fish but eggs are king.

Recipe

2 generous servings.

Ingredients

• 200 mls of milk (whole or semi-skimmed)
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 whole cloves
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• 2 shallots or 1 small onion
• 200 grams of smoked haddock
  ********
• 30 grams butter
• 30 grams flour
• Milk from the poaching
• 2 large egg yolks (in addition to the 4 eggs below)
• 1 tablespoon of heavy cream
• 30 grams of mature cheddar cheese
  *****
• Butter for the omelette pan
• 4 large eggs

Instructions

Poaching the fish

1. Put the milk in a shallow pan over very gentle heat.
2. Peel the onion and cut off the top and bottom. Add to the milk with the cloves, peppercorns and bay leaf.
3. Heat the milk to just below boiling. Gently lower the haddock into milk (skin side down). Poach until it starts to flake – 4 to 5 minutes.
4. Remove the fish with a slotted spoon to a plate. Strain the milk to remove the onion and aromatics. After the fish cools, break it into pieces. Get ready to make the sauce.
   
   

Making the sauce

1. Melt the butter in a small deep saucepan. Whisk in the flour and foam until it is golden brown. This cooks off the raw taste of the flour.
2. Add several grinds of salt and pepper.
3. Whisk in the milk over the heat. Beat vigorously to get rid of any lumps and have a smooth sauce. The sauce should be thickened but still liquid. Remove from the heat.
4. Beat the two egg yolks with a tablespoon of heavy cream.
5. Start to add the sauce to the egg yolk mixture, one or two tablespoons at a time. After the first 3 or 4 additions you can add more sauce each time whisking until smooth. Put to one side.
6. Pat yourself on the back and take a deep breath. The sauce was the tricky part.
   

Making the omelette

1. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork.
2. Find a omelette pan than you can put under your grill. Put the pan on the heat and add a generous knob of butter and melt. When the butter starts to foam, add the eggs.
3. Stir them continuously, tilting the pan from side to side until the bottom is well set and the top is soft and creamy.
4. Heat the grill.
5. Sprinkle the cheese over the top of omelette.
6. Stir the flaked fish into the sauce and pour it over the top of omelette.
7. Place the omelette under the grill for a few minutes until the top turns golden brown.

Serve with crusty bread, green salad and glass of crisp white wine.