I love feeding people and it rains baked goods on my friends, family and co-workers. And I love  Christmas. Put the two together and it’s time to give the gift of homemade food.   I look for things that are durable and keep for some time.  There’s so much food at Christmas that you don’t want to give food with a short shelf life.  Two of my favourites are Christmas cranberry chutney (this blog post) and stollen, my next blog post. 

My children love cranberry sauce that comes from a can.  So much so that the Davinator made a special dish for the canned stuff that shows off the perfect rings.  But most adults find it too sweet.  I make a cranberry chutney that goes well with turkey, chicken, ham and I’ve even spotted it on a cold beef sandwich.    

Preparation of the chutney is fairly simple.  If you’re going to eat it yourself, it’s easy to let it cool, put it in a storage container and keep it in the fridge.  It keeps well for a week or more.  But if you’re going to ‘gift’ it, you will need to sterilise the jars and put the chutney in jars when it is still hot.  Your chutney should keep for six to eight months although I’ve never had it last longer than a few weeks.  However, it also means that it doesn’t need to be refrigerated and thus good for gifting.  

Chutney recipes are usually flexible; the cranberries are essential (its in the name)and they give the chutney it’s beautiful colour. But I’ve used mango instead of pears & apples and I usually look around the kitchen for any spare fruit that might suit.

If you’re an experienced preserver of food, skip this section.  But if not, I highly recommend this BBC Good Food video  They sterilise the jars in the oven and boil the lids and rims.  I use a jam funnel to help fill the jars (way better than the jug they recommend in the video).  I sterilise the funnel, some tongs and a couple of big spoons at the same time as I’m filling the jars. 

My secret weapon is a pair of heatproof gloves.  These are really helpful for handling the tongs, the jars, etc.    These aren’t life changing but really have their moments.  Mine are a sort of knit and I try hard to keep them away from the boiling water because they soak it up like a sponge.  

Recipe and instructions

Ingredients

2  large onions, chopped

150 grams  minced ginger (save your time, use the jarred stuff from Waitrose)

360 mls wine or cider vinegar

200 grams of brown sugar 

Juice and grated peel from 2 large oranges

4 garlic cloves either chopped fine or pushed through a press

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (omit if you don’t want some zing)

4 large tart apples, chopped into say 1/2 pieces (no need for precision but too big and it’s hard to put on a sandwich, too small and they dissolve in cooking)

4 pears, chopped in the same manner as the apples

1 kilo of cranberries

A small cinnamon stick for each jar. 

Instructions

1. Put all ingredients from the onions through to the red pepper flakes in a big pot (not aluminium) and bring to simmer.
2. Add the apples, simmer for five minutes.  Add the pears and cook for another five minutes. 
3. Add the cranberries, bring to a boil and then back it down to a slow simmer.  Cooking time will vary depending on what kind of pot you use.  I would estimate 30 minutes and then start checking on consistency.   The Davinator likes his chutney of a spreadable consistency but sticky enough to hang onto the sandwich.  Or cheese.   Use your imagination, he puts chutney on it.  
4. Start getting your jars and lids ready.   To prevent bacteria (and thereby have wasted your time) the chutney needs to go in the jars while the jars AND the chutney are both hot.  If you’re comfortable with this process, go for it.  If not, go watch this video! 
5. I like using the jam funnel to fill the jars, but make sure it fits in the jars. Great tip from BBC Good Food – get more job ready than you need.  I filled 6 x 400 ml jars.  I often do several different sizes.   
6. Fill the jars and carefully put a cinnamon stick in the hot chutney.  Then put the lids on.   Use your imagination to decorate the jars.  Pinterest is a great place to get ideas; go there and search ‘jam jar decoration’.  If you haven’t used Pinterest, I’m not trying to ruin your life.  Some people have too much time…….
7. This should keep for about six months but refrigerate as soon as opened and use in a week.  

Enjoy your Christmas preparations.  It is the most wonderful time of the year. 

Or yourself!  It’s the run into Christmas and when I’m not baking or decorating, I’m Christmas shopping.  I try and give only gifts that people want.  Seems simple, but it can be surprisingly time consuming.

Here’s my list of 13 great gadgets for a baker that will fit in a Christmas stocking. Well,  maybe not in the min-stocking in the photo.  All really useful and none very expensive.  I am possibly Amazon’s biggest customer in the UK but all of these should be fairly widely available via a google search.

But first, why is a bakers dozen 13? Are bakers just bad at counting? Not really.

The most widely accepted theory is about avoiding a beating.  There were laws in England that based the price of bread on  the price of the wheat used to make it. Bakers who cheated  their customers by overpricing or selling undersized loaves or rolls were  punished by fines or flogging.  We all know its hard to make baked goods uniform and medieval bakers did NOT have a digital scale to help them.   The bakers would add that bit extra to ensure their goods didn’t come up ‘short’.  Hence, the baker’s dozen.

1. Dough scraper: a nice plastic gadget that gets all the batter out of the bowl, handy for kneading wet dough,  scraping stuff off the counter tops, mixing heavy dough, cutting dough.   Upper right corner.
   

   Clockwise from top left; countertop protector, dough scraper, fast read thermometer, cheap shower cap.

2. Plastic shower caps – but not the cheapest ones.  You can buy 100 on Amazon or eBay for £6.50 but they are so cheap it’s essentially single use plastic. We’re not fanatics but we’re trying to avoid plastic waste. So, give  the boxed ones that are 10 for £3 a try.  They last longer and survive a gentle rinse out if you get dough on one.
3. Thermometer(s).  Baking (all cooking actually) is essentially a chemistry experiment.  It’s good to be precise when it makes a difference.  There are instant read thermometers that will tell you if you roast is cooked,  your bread is ready or your boiling sugar is hard crack.   And things like oven temperature can be the difference between an exploding chocolate cake that creates an oven cleaning emergency or a mouth watering Sacher torte.  I have three I rely on; one to check the temperature of baked goods, one to leave in the roast and one to check oven temperature.  Search ‘instant read thermometer’ ‘oven thermometer’ ‘roast thermometer’.
   
   
4. Loaf pan liners. Paper liners save greasing pans, make clean up easier and a way less fiddly than cutting parchment to fit.   They come in 1 and 2 pound sizes.  There’s also pan liners for round cakes.   And the amount of fat that is used to grease a cake pan can destabilise the chemistry of your cakes.  Some day I will write on blog post on my struggle with making a Victoria sponge cake.  It’s my nemesis.  But pan liners helped me get there.
5. Offset spatula. Nerd alert here.   An offset spatula allows for better control and precision when icing cakes or lifting and moving cookies, chocolates or anything delicate.  Better yet, a set of three offset spatulas in different sizes.  The baking nerd in your life will love you. 
6. Pastry mat. A pastry mat is a flat sheet of plastic with markings that helps you eyeball when the dough has been flattened to a six inch diameter disk., for example.  A great short cut.  Also really speeds clean up.  Instead of painfully scraping up dough or flour you can just put the whole thing straight in the sink.  Roll it up tight and it should fit in the Christmas stocking. 
7. Egg whisk. Okay, more nerd stuff.  I went on an all day ‘egg’ course with my mate Lisa.  We cooked and ate a LOT of eggs.  Fried eggs, poached eggs, omelettes, scrambled eggs.  We learned the ‘right’ way to crack an egg (and a one handed crack method).  The best gadget we saw was a specialist egg whisk.  Lisa bought one for me later.  Here it is.
   
8. Miniature tape measure. I have a tiny tape measure in a magnetic case that lives on the extractor fan in my baking kitchen.  It means I don’t have remember (or guess) the dimensions of my multitude of pans, tins, baking trays etc.  It’s the kind of thing you might get in a Christmas cracker, but it’s a super little tool.
   
9. Spacers for rolling dough and sugar paste icing.  Back to our desire for precision.  If you’re making cookies or some kinds of dough or pastry – you want to roll it out to an even thickness.  Spacers are simple plastic guides – you put them on your pastry mat, whack the dough in between them and roll away.  Here’s a link to a YouTube video because it’s hard to visualise these until you’ve used them. 
10. Active dry yeast. Many bakers may have a favourite type of yeast, you can take a peek in your baker’s cupboard and see.  But if they make bread,  active dry yeast is a good bet.  I use a French brand ‘saf-levure’ that comes in 500 gram tins.  It might be a tight fit in the Christmas stocking but its top quality and its about 1/4 the price of supermarket purchases on a per gram basis. 
11. Cookie cutters.  Shaped cookies are not just for Christmas anymore.  So many shapes, themes and materials these days.   You can cut cookies for any holiday or special occasion. Find a shape that is special to them (I have a friend who’s a unicorn freak and I have a unicorn cookie cutter to make cookies for her) or maybe find them an antique biscuit cutter.  I have a set of Star Wars cookie cutters.  Serious Star Wars nerds in our house.
    
    

    One of my first forays into royal icing.

12. Good quality hand cream. Bakers wash their hands about 500 times a day.  I don’t actually know, I’ve never counted but it’s a lot.   I have two pricy favourites; ‘Occitane en Provence’ shea butter hand cream or ‘iColoniali’ myrrh hand cream.   Find a scent that your baker loves.
    
13. And finally – edible gold glitter (or any other special sprinkles for your baker).   Try this website for some fun and funky sprinkles.
    

Have a lovely Christmas, and bake on everyone.

Okay, I couldn’t resist just one more.  A stand to help fill your piping bags…….

A plastic gadget that should be cheaper but works a bomb.

Merry Christmas all…….

Buttery flaky crust, crisp on top, gooey and sweet in the middle. Nutty and chocolately.

Thanksgiving is a day of feasting, family and friends, practically sacred to all Americans.   You can do your own thing at Christmas time but you better show up at home for Thanksgiving.  Or perhaps – where you are for Thanksgiving is your home.

Pumpkin pie reigns supreme on the dessert buffet on Thanksgiving but pecan pie has always been my top choice.  I will eat (and make) pumpkin pie but there is something a little odd about a vegetable based dessert.  Just saying.

My recipe takes pecan pie to a new  level – making them individual sized and adding chocolate.  Chocolate and pecans – a match made in heaven.   And I’ve noticed that people might be reluctant to grab a knife and hack off a piece of pie and put it on a plate, find a fork and THEN eat.  So much easier to pick up one of these little beauties and pop it in.  Either with or without a little dollop of whipped cream.  It’s all about portion control.

One unique feature of this blog post; the crust recipe makes about twice what you need for 12 mini pies.  I used my usual pie or sweet tart pastry recipe.  I tried making a half batch but the dough just went sulky and wouldn’t come together.  No idea why.  You can try cutting the ingredients in half (or doubling the filling recipe).   Or you can put the extra dough in the refrigerator and wait for inspiration to strike.  And I’m doing mince pies over the weekend.

The only specialised equipment you need for this recipe is a 12 hole muffin tin.  Here we go……

Ingredients

Crust

320 grams plain flour

2 teaspoons caster sugar

1 teaspoon salt

115 grams chilled unsalted butter

95 grams cold vegetable shortening (Trex or Crisco)

120 mls very cold water

(Note: this makes roughly twice as much crust as you need for the mini-pies).

Filling

105 grams brown sugar (light or dark, both good)

1/4 cup or 115 grams of Karo light corn syrup or Tate & Lyle golden syrup

1 egg

15 grams of melted butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

85 grams chopped pecans, plus 12 pecan halves for decoration

75 grams dark chocolate or semi sweet chocolate bits

Making the pastry

1.  Make sure your butter and Trex are well chilled.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a wide shallow bowl.
3. Cut the butter into cubes.   Try not to touch the butter and Trex with your hands more than you absolutely have to. Here’s an important distinction between dough and pastry.  (say for bread) is all about transmitting warmth from your hands to the dough to encourage the incorporation of any fat and the development of the yeast.   Pastry is about keeping it cool and NOT completely incorporating the fat.  Add the  butter and Trex to the dry ingredients.
   

   Try to handle the butter as little as possible.

4. Cut together the dry ingredients and the fat with either a pastry blender or two table knives working back and forth.  I think a high quality pastry blender is an important tool.   I clean the pastry blender with a table knife, rather than with my fingers.
   Again, trying to keep the butter and Trex cool (rather than melting it into the pastry).   The pastry should look like peas, coated with flour once combined.
   

   Those butter lumps look a bit big in hindsight.

5. Add the water to pastry one tablespoon at a time.  I like to have the chilled water in jug and pour it in, then stir.  The pastry should start to come together but it will look quite shaggy,  even after all the water is in.  Tip the pastry out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it together. (You’re allowed to touch the pastry with your hands here).  Divide the pastry into two equal portions, wrap each one in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour.
6. Your pastry will have some visible butter lumps in it.  Provided they aren’t too big this is okay.
   

Making the filling

1. Melt the butter in a plastic bowl (15 seconds in the microwave should do it).
2. Combine the butter with the brown sugar, the Karo or golden syrup and the egg.  Stir in the chopped pecans, the chocolate bits and the vanilla.  Beat it together until smooth.

Assembly and baking the individual pies

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (160C fan).
2. Spray the muffin tin generously with non-stick spray (I have coconut based spray that I use for baked goods vs the olive oil one for savoury dishes).
3. Take one of the packages of pastry from the refrigerator.  Cut it into 12 even pieces (weigh it on a piece of cling film and then divide by 12).
4. Press a piece of pastry into a flat disk (yes, you can use your hands now). Place one into each muffin cup.  Flatten out the bottom and press the pastry up the sides of the cup.
5. Put a scoop of filling into each pastry shell.  I have a small trigger scoop that is about the size of a tablespoon.  Or, you could whack the filling in a pastry bag and pipe it in.  You should have just enough filling for 12 mini pies.  Don’t fill above the pastry shells or you’re going to have a sticky mess to clean up when it comes out of the oven.  Put one of your reserved pecan halves on the top of each pie.
   
6. There will be barely enough left in the bowl to make it worthwhile for the Davinator to sneak in and ‘clean’ the bowl.
   
7. Bake the mini pies for 30 to 35 minutes.  The pastry above the filling should be a toasty brown colour.   Cool in the muffin tin for about ten minutes, then gently remove to cool completely. You may have to loosen the pies with a flat knife.  Let them finish cooling before you eat them – or you might burn your tongue.
   

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Gratitude is a choice, count your blessings and be thankful.

Home made cream filled chocolate sandwich cookies.

Or should I say ‘cream filled chocolate sandwich cookie’? I stumbled across this recipe from the amazing Sally of Sally’s Baking Addiction.  I made it and the  cookies were so delicious it changed how I thought about ‘convenience’ foods.

Note: the terms biscuit and cookie are used interchangeably in this blog post.

This recipe started me on my quest to re-discover food that has been stolen from us by big food companies pushing ‘convenience’.  These cookies are what the inventor of the Oreo imagined.  Then the cost accountants said ‘cheaper ingredients please’ and the marketing team said ‘must last for 18 months in the package’ and the logistics team said ‘oh and should survive a 3 story drop without crumbling’.

Nobody actually NEEDS cookies. We WANT cookies.  If you’re going to indulge in a cookie (biscuit), make it one of these cream filled chocolate beauties.

I’ve made a couple of process improvements and tweaked the recipe ever so slightly for non-American bakers.  My version of the recipe makes three dozen (36) filled sandwich cookies, 75 to 80 individual biscuits.  It’s about double the original recipe. but believe me you won’t have any trouble with ‘disposal’ of these cookies.

They are a great way to win friends and influence people.  And the 3 dozen includes ‘wastage’ like when the Davinator sneaks into the baking kitchen and steals some dough or a fresh baked cookie.  For a big man, he can be stealthy.

My instructions below include three innovations that help me get consistent results with the recipe: melting the butter for the dough, weighing the dough for each biscuit and piping the filling onto the biscuits.

Some genius at Cooks Illustrated came up with the idea of melting butter to combine it with sugar.  I tried it first in my brioche and I’ve never looked back.  Just about any recipe that combines butter and sugar (not icing sugar) works well with melted and cooled butter rather than ‘room temperature’ butter.   Cooks Illustrated is the only online cooking resource I pay for, by the way.  Love it.    Occasionally frustrating because they sell cookbooks and gadgets you can’t get in the UK.  

Weighing the biscuit dough seems fiddly but it means that you have uniform pieces when it comes to assembly of the sandwiches.  In other words – they all match.  I pipe the cream on because it’s neater (once you get the hang of filling and working with the bag),  and you can weigh the filling as you put it on.

Piping the filling is quicker than spooning it on – it means you eat less of the filling. If you bake as much as I do – it makes a difference.

There seem to be a lot of steps in the recipe but don’t worry.  It’s to break the recipe down for the less confident bakers.

Bake away people!

Recipe

Chocolate sandwich cookies

• 320 grams plain white flour (not self raising, I don’t get on with it)
•  85 grams unsweetened natural cocoa powder – I use Callebaut and get mine from Amazon
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 225 grams unsalted butter melted then cooled (see below)
• 300 grams fine white caster sugar
• 100 grams brown sugar (I find that light or dark doesn’t matter)
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cream Filling

• 120 grams unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 95 grams vegetable shortening (Trex or Crisco), room temperature
• 420 grams icing  sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

Making the chocolate biscuits

1. Melt the butter in a plastic bowl or other microwave safe container. I do 30 second pulses and it takes 2 or at the most 3.   Let the butter cool for about 10 minutes.  You can get the rest of ingredients ready while it’s cooling.
2. Put the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.  Whisk to combine.
3. Combine the sugars in the bowl of your stand mixer.  Put the paddle attachment on.  Pour in the melted cooled butter and beat at a low speed.  It might take a minute or two but is much quicker than creaming even true room temperature butter.   Beat in the eggs and the vanilla until well combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients.  Beat slowly.  Stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Beat for another minute.  Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a shower cap and refrigerate for an hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan).  Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking sheets.
6. Take the dough out of the refrigerator.. It should be firm and easy to handle. Divide it into four roughly equal portions.  Get your scale ready – put a piece of parchment on it, zero it.
7. Roll one of your portions into a log about 3 cms (an inch and a bit)  in diameter.  Cut off about a 2 to 3 cm piece and weigh it.  You want each biscuit to be about 15 grams.   Divide the dough into 15 gram portions.  Roll each 15 gram piece into a ball and place on the baking sheet.  You will get good at ‘feeling’ when they are right weight and your speed will pick up.
8. Fill 2 baking sheets, leaving enough room between each biscuit because they will spread.  Crush each ball so that they become disc shaped.
9. Put the baking sheets in the oven and cook for 7 -8 minutes.  You can do a test biscuit on it’s own (also fun to eat) to see how your oven is baking.   I don’t rotate the baking sheets or move them up or down the oven racks because I don’t think it makes a difference for a cooking time that short.  If you find it does, then I would do one baking sheet at a time.
10. When the biscuits are cooked, remove them from the oven, cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes and then move to a rack or a clean tea towel.  I use an offset spatula and move one biscuit at a time – resisting the impulse to use my fingers or do two at a time.  It’s quick enough. Cool the biscuits well before adding the cream filling.

Making the ‘cream’ filling

1. Beat together the butter and the vegetable shortening using the paddle attachment in your mixer.  This is NOT the time to try the melting butter trick.  You’ve just got to wait for the butter to soften.  Add the icing sugar and the vanilla.  I throw a damp towel over the mixer rather than rely on the Kitchen Aid splash guard (that is the most useless piece of kit ever, actually makes more mess than it prevents).  Beat until smooth.
   

   No actual ‘cream’ and should be a bit stiff.

   Now it’s time to get out the piping bag and do your assembly.

Two great gadgets come together now: disposable piping bags and the piping bag filler.  It’s a plastic cone shaped thingy (see below) and helps you fill the pointy end of piping bag.  I buy the piping bags in a big roll and use them for buttercream,  mashed potatoes, filling cookies and putting dough into things like donut pans.

A plastic gadget that should be cheaper but works a bomb.

Assembly

1. Fill your piping bag. DO NOT CUT OFF THE END – YET.  You don’t need a metal nozzle. Gather up the top and twist it about 10 times.  Then swing it over your head like a bolo or a lasso.  This forces the filling to the pointy end.  NOW cut off the end of the piping bag. Repeat: DO NOT CUT THE END OFF BEFORE THE LASSO STEP.  Learn from those of us who may have redecorated the kitchen with buttercream icing.

Lay out your biscuits in pairs and match any that may have been 14 or 16 grams.  I put the filling on the ‘smooth’ side and then put the smooth sides together.  The smooth side would have been the bottom when baked.

Lay out your sandwich pieces and improve any size mis-matches.

Put a biscuit on the scale and zero it (smooth side up).  Apply about 15 grams of cream filling to the biscuit and then smoosh another (matching) cookie on top of it.

The piping bag really helps with speed and uniformity. Also you eat less icing….

Fill away, smoosh the pieces together and enjoy.  These keep in a sealed Tupperware container for at least a week.   I’ve never had these cookies go stale – they get eaten too fast.

Happy baking!

What’s the first rule of Tiny Task Day (TTD)?

Don’t talk about TTD.  No, wait that’s the first rule of Fight Club.

Try again, what’s the first rule of TTD?

Get a kick ass partner. No, wait that’s Rule #7 of Zombieland.

The first rule of TTD is …make a list.

Handwritten lists are the best.

I love lists and handwritten lists the most.  I love writing lists and then crossing stuff off the list.

I digress – what is a tiny task?  Tiny tasks are things you need to do that take less than 15 or 20 minutes to complete.  A tiny task might contribute to a project or a much bigger task but it stands on its own.  Tiny tasks are non-recurring or recur at such irregular intervals that it’s hard to predict when or if they need to be done.

A daily, weekly or monthly task is ‘recurring’.  Unloading the dishwasher is a recurring task.  Putting the bins out for collection is a recurring task.  Cleaning the accumulated receipts, coffee cups, spare coats, empty water bottles and candy wrappers out of your car is a tiny task.  Only needs to be done once in a while, takes less than 20 minutes and is complete. So that’s clear now.

Every so often, I give myself a tiny task day.  It’s a great tool for productivity and breaking through the procrastination barrier.

A tiny task can have a level of annoyance and irritation disproportionate to the time needed to complete it. Talking to a call centre to say cancel a membership or subscription is a tiny task – you might go over the 20 minute limit – so lets say it SHOULD be a tiny task. Or going on line and engaging in a multiple step process is a tiny task.  But both of those can be mighty annoying. Any so our old friend procrastination crops up.  Even if it costs us money, we still procrastinate.

An example of a tiny task  I procrastinate – unsubscribing to Apple Music.  I am ambivalent about Apple Music.  I have subscribed and unsubscribed on average once a year for the last three years.  Yes, that’s since Apple Music was founded three years ago.  It’s easy to subscribe and annoying to unsubscribe.  I Google ‘how to unsubscribe from Apple Music’ and then follow the steps.

Tiny tasks are unlikely to have an externally imposed deadline.   If the tiny task is difficult or annoying or inconvenient a tiny task might go undone for months.  This brings us to the second rule of TTD – eat the frog for breakfast.  Mark Twain said,

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

Do the thing you least want to do first and your day will improve.

Find a paper and pen, write your list,  figure out which tiny task is your personal live frog. Get on with your own tiny task day.

These muffins are the first recipe I made with my King Arthur Whole Grain Baking cookbook and they remain a favourite.  One of these muffins is the perfect breakfast for busy people.  The cookbook itself was a gift from my elder sister, Rachael.    It’s a gift that keeps giving and has given me and my family lots of joy.

This is a muffin recipe and it really is one of those that anyone can bake.  It’s full of fruit, vegetables and seeds as well as whole grains.  I’ve done the ingredients in metric (except for teaspoons and tablespoons). I have done the instructions in the order that I do them – not the order they are in the cookbook.

Ingredients

225 grams whole wheat flour

210 grams light or dark  brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

200 grams of carrots – grated

2 large tart apples – grated

85 grams  raisins

45 grams desiccated coconut

45 grams slivered almonds

60 grams sunflower seeds

3 eggs

130 mls corn oil

55 mls orange juice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190C (or 170C fan).  Put paper liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.  Line a small (450 grams) loaf tin.  You might not need it, but I always do.  You’ll see why below.
2. Prep the dry ingredients.  Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a big bowl.
3. Prepare the carrots.  I don’t peel the carrots and I’m not precise about the amount.  I cut off the tops and bottoms, weight the carrots and err on the side of more carrots not less.   I use a small electric chopper (like this one from Amazon – I actually have 2).  The electric chopper is a great gadget and is priceless for people who use lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Chop the carrots small and throw them in a medium bowl.
4. Prepare the apples.  I use two big green Granny Smith apples.  I core them – like the carrots, I never peel them. Chop the apples into big chunks and then chop them small, like the carrots.  You don’t need to be too precise with the apples either and I always err on the side of more apples.   Put the apples in with the carrots.
5. Add the coconut, almonds, sunflower seeds and raisins to the bowl with the apples and carrots.  Stir it together and then add the contents to the dry ingredients.  Mix well using a big wooden spoon – DO NOT USE YOUR MIXER.
6. Beat the eggs in a separate medium bowl with a fork until they are well mixed.  Add the corn oil, orange juice and vanilla to the eggs.  Stir together and add it to the dry ingredients and the fruit vegetable and seed mixture.  Mix well with your wooden spoon!
7. Time to fill your muffin tins.  I use my trigger ice cream scoop (like this one on Amazon).  A generously filled scoop is perfect for a muffin cup.  Don’t overfill the muffin pan.  You may well have enough left over dough for a small loaf.
8. Bake the muffins for 23 to 25 minutes; the tops should look dry.  If you make a loaf as well, that needs to be baked for about 35 minutes at the same heat.
9. Take the muffins out of the oven, leave them in tin for about 5 minutes, then tip them out onto a cooling rack.   The muffins are sturdy; they travel well, they freeze well and kids love them.  The kids never notice the healthy bits.

Sturdy muffins that travel well.

Donuts with white chocolate glaze

Yes, it’s time to make baked chocolate courgette donuts.  Yes baked. Yes chocolate.  Yes courgettes.   And if you don’t have a donut pan – you can make muffins.

I do grow vegetables.  I’m not sure why (that’s probably the subject of another blog and some real soul searching – not sure I actually like growing vegetables other than asparagus).  Courgettes seem to like my garden though and in my worst gardening summers – there are always courgettes.  I don’t like to waste food, especially food that I have grown.

You may have a tidal wave of courgettes from your vegetable garden, allotment or in-laws.  Here’s a great way to use them and make nearly guilt free chocolate donuts – without a fryer.

Ingredients

• 240 grams plain white flour
• 150 grams white caster sugar
• 45 grams cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons /9 grams of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon / 4.5 grams of salt
• 150 grams (approximate) of shredded courgette (after pressing out water)
• 200 grams white chocolate chips (any chocolate chips work but its a good visual effect using white)
• 160 mls of milk, with addition of two teaspoons of lemon juice (curdles the milk) (or buttermilk if you have it)
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 30 grams butter, melted
• spray oil

Instructions – make as muffins

Preheat oven to 220 C (200 C fan)

1. Shred the courgette.  This is an average sized courgette, not one of those prize winning giants.  Put a piece of kitchen towel in a small sieve and press the courgette to get rid of some of the water.  After pressing it can weigh anything from 145 to 175 grams and the recipe will work.  Leave it draining while you prep the rest of the ingredients.  If you have extra courgette, fry it in some butter, add some parmesan cheese and eat with lunch.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder.  Stir in the courgette and combine with your hands so that the courgette shreds are well distributed and coated with the dry mixture.  Stir in the chocolate bits.   Add the curdled milk, eggs and the butter.  Stir until combined.  Do not over-stir and certainly don’t use your electric mixer.
3. Grease the muffin tin with non-stick spray or use paper liners (I’m a fan of paper liners).  Fill the muffin tins about 3/4 full with batter.  I use an ice cream scoop to fill them.
4. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes.   The tops should spring back when pressed.
5. Optional glaze – melt another 100 grams of chocolate.  Easiest way to melt it – put it in a microwave bowl, zap for 10 seconds, check and repeat until it’s melted.  Then drizzle using a spoon, a piping bag or a plastic food bag with the corner nipped off.

Big ones, little ones, some mini-muffins as well

Instructions – make as donuts

If you have a donut pan, follow the steps above.  Grease the donut tin with the oil spray.  I have a coconut oil spray that I use for this.  Corn oil also works but I would stay away from olive oil based sprays.  You will get better results if you pipe the batter into the donut tin.   Disposable piping bags are very useful.  Filling the bag is annoying – get a tall cylinder (like the one that came with your stick blender) or a tall glass or a vase to hold up the piping bag.  Fold the edges down and fill using your ice cream scoop (see above).   Get a black binder clip to close the bag when you’re between filling trays etc.

Same oven temperature.  Place in the oven for about 8 minutes.  Tops should spring back when pressed.

These freeze well and defrost quickly.  If you want a frozen one, put in the microwave for no more than 30 seconds.  Then eat immediately because it will toughen up once microwaved.

Four simple ingredients.

Convenience food is amazing for productivity at home.  It is a gift from god to those busiest of people – working parents.    And almost everything we eat – even in Mama Dolson’s kitchen – has an element of convenience food.  Let’s work through an example.

It’s lunch time.  You buy a ham and cheese sandwich with mayo, crisps and a bottle of juice.  Breaking down only the sandwich; without ‘convenience food’ you would need to start with wheat, a pig, a cow, some chickens, a sourdough starter, corn to press for oil, something to make vinegar and a source of salt.   That is a lot of work for a ham and cheese sandwich with mayonnaise.   And I didn’t mention the preservatives, colouring agents, flavour ‘enhancers’, etc.

Modern life would be practically impossible without convenience food.   Unless you’ve grown it yourself, all the ingredients in the kitchen have an element of convenience. As a minimum, it’s convenient that they are there in your kitchen.   Butter is a convenience food – can you imagine getting fresh milk and churning your own butter before making toast in the morning?  Convenience food is a game changer.  But it’s worth knowing what you have given up for convenience.

I had  a life changing experience when I stumbled across a recipe for home made Oreos.  I made them and the result was amazing.  What I had made was what the creator of Oreos had invented.  But that Oreo vision had then fallen into the hands of marketing, supply chain management, packaging and dare I say it – the management accountant.  The original Oreo was modified so that it would last 12 months on the shelf, could be easily packaged, transported and so that each package would make the company money.  The ideal Oreo had become a money making convenience food.

It launched me and my family (and anyone else within reach whom can I feed) on a voyage of discovery.  I love taking a convenience food and finding out what it really tastes like.  I’m not a zealot looking to ban convenience food.  I’m an adventurer on a quest for authenticity.

For example, I used to joke that mayonnaise was the only fattening thing I didn’t like.  No longer true – I love fresh home made mayonnaise.   Mayonnaise is so much more than smooth white boring sauce and a convenience food.  Some foods deserve fresh mayonnaise (crab meat for example) or oeuf mimosa (mimosa eggs, coming in a future blog post).

So, let’s make mayonnaise.   The Davinator filmed me making it. The video is 1 minute and 2 seconds long because once you’ve assembled your ingredients – that’s how long it takes. Here’s a link to a video on YouTube.  Mama Dolson makes mayonnaise.      

And if you don’t like my video – there’s about 100 other ones on YouTube that will show you the same thing.

You do need the right equipment for this recipe to work.  You need a stick blender and cylindrical container.   Plus the ingredients.  You can make mayonnaise by hand or in a food processor but this way always works for me.  Once you trust the recipe, you can start to experiment with different oils, acids and spices.  One of our favourites is lime chilli mayonnaise with crab meat.

It only lasts a couple of days in the fridge but I’ve never had to throw any away. Think about how long a bottle or jar of mayonnaise or salad cream lasts…..what do you think they’ve done to it to make it last that long and never separate.

Recipe:

• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• a pinch of salt
• 240 mls of oil; I use 120 mls extra virgin olive oil and 120 mls corn oil

How to:

Break the egg into the container.  Put in the lemon juice, pinch of salt and the oil.  Give it a minute to settle then put the stick blender to the bottom, put it on a high setting and whiz away.  This will take less than 30 seconds and you have mayonnaise.

Watch the video, yes it is that easy.

I haven’t banned mayonnaise in a squeezy bottle because I don’t want to stop and make mayo every time the Davinator wants a sandwich.   But the Davinator has not touched the squeezy bottle since I made the first lot of home made mayo.  If there is no home made mayo – he uses another condiment. Which tells you everything.

A bit more on the equipment:  a stick blender costs about £10 on Amazon or you can get a slightly more expensive set that comes with a cylinder.  If no container with the blender, find a plastic container or a Kilner jar.  There are three things:

1. It needs to be a snug fit for your stick blender.
2. The sides need to be straight up and down.
3. It should be at least 12 centimeters deep.

A stick blender and a cylindrical container are mandatory for this recipe.

So, people.  Let’s make mayonnaise!

A party trick is something that looks impressive but is actually easy once you’ve seen the magic.  This (genuine) no knead focaccia is the party trick of baking.  Have the equipment and ingredients, follow the instructions and voila.  The only thing you do need is time; this bread requires an overnight rise.  But it’s worth the planning.

Focaccia ready for eating

I found this recipe, thought ‘that will never work’ . Knock me down with a feather – it did work.  And it’s worked every time since.  This is an absolute favourite of the family and it disappears faster than I can make it.  I learned to  make (at least) two loaves. I decorate mine with sliced black olives, rosemary and sea salt – but you can omit any of these and substitute at will.  Sun dried tomatoes,  caramelised onions, use your imagination.  The olives tend to put younger children off which is a good outcome for greedy grownups.

Read the recipe through, there is a lot of elapsed time here; an overnight rise, a second rise in the pan for two hours.  Labour low, time high.

As always, instructions written for the non-expert.

Equipment

• A 25 cm or 10 inch diameter cake pan (same shape as you would cook a sponge cake in).  Pan diameter is important – a 25 cm diameter pan has a surface area of 490 scm.  A 22 cm diameter pan has a surface area of 380 scm, its 22% smaller.
• Parchment paper
• A shower cap or cling film
• Large bowl
• Dough scraper (always helpful)

Ingredients

• 500 grams white flour; all purpose or bread flour.  Any old white flour NOT self raising
• 15 grams rock salt or 10 grams fine ground salt
• 4 grams instant dry yeast ( NOT fresh, not fast rising) – Amazon it if you must (don’t worry about the flour, worry about the yeast)
  (dry ingredients)
• 325 mls water, room temperature
• 1/4 olive oil (divided)
• 10-20 pitted black olives, sliced
• Fresh rosemary, don’t chop it but pick the leaves off the stalk, about 2 tablespoons
• Coarse salt

Instructions

Remember, It’s the night BEFORE you want to serve the bread.

Put the dry ingredients in a fairly large bowl and stir well to combine (flour, salt, yeast).  Salt and yeast are not great friends so I put the flour in first then salt on one side of the bowl and the yeast on the other.  Once they’re combined with the flour, its fine.

Pour the water into the dry ingredients, stir to mix well.  You should have a wet looking dough, like this. Cover with your shower cap or cling film and leave for at least 10 but up to 24 hours.  Does not need to be in the refrigerator.

Dough ready for proving.Next day…..

Line the bottom of your cake pan with parchment paper.  And coat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Prep a cake pan 10 inches or 25 cm in diameter.

Your dough will have expanded and more than doubled in size but it will be soft and a bit sticky.  Lightly flour your work surface and sprinkle some flour across the top of the dough.  Using your dough scraper or a spatula, scrape out the dough onto the work surface and form it into a dome (flat on the bottom, round on top).  Turn the dough and tuck the edges under.  You want the top to be smooth and rounded – this keeps the dough hydrated.   Put the dough in the pan, start with the domed top, coat it with the olive oil and then turn it over.  Give it a bit of a squish to flatten it into sort of a disk.  Now cover the cake pan with your shower cap or cling film and leave for about two hours.

focaccia, dough, second rise

Preheat your oven to 225C (210C fan).

Prep your olives, rosemary and have the olive oil and coarse salt ready.   The dough will have expanded to fill most of pan.  Press it down to fill the pan and then lift the bottom edge of the dough, moving around the pan, pressing out the air bubbles and making sure the oil has coated the bottom.

Sprinkle your olives and rosemary across the top and press FIRMLY into the dough.  If there are kids around, get them to help with this – they love it.  If the olives and rosemary are not in the dough, they will be scorched bits of vegetable matter.  This is not what we’re looking for.   Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with the coarse salt.

focaccia, dough olives, rosemary,

Put the pan in the middle of the hot oven for at least 15 minutes and as long as 20 or 24 minutes until golden brown.

Let it cool in the pan for 20 to 30 minutes.  It should come out easily. You can serve immediately, serve it after it is fully cooled or warm it up in the oven later before serving.

I hope your family and friends love this bread as much as mine.

Keep on baking!

Salad Nicoise – my ‘go to’ lunch when I want to get on the Davinator’s good side.

Every cook needs people who eat.  It’s like leading and following; what kind of leader are you if no one follows? What kind of cook are you if no one is eating your cooking?  Cooking only for Instagram?

My consumers are family, friends, co-workers, fellow volunteers at SmartWorks,  my pilates instructor and her family not to mention my fellow Pilates students.  But my prime consumer and best critic is the Davinator (my husband Dave).  On the one hand, he has never met a baked good he didn’t like.  On the other hand,  he has great ideas about what he wants to eat and has learned to offer frank feedback (or get the same thing again).   I hate to be old fashioned but being a good cook is unlikely to attract a man but it certainly keeps them around.

I digress briefly for an anecdote.  A merchant banker of my acquaintance (probably 5-10 years older than me) told me that he married a terrible cook.  I think that this was a fairly traditional It girl marrying merchant banker story.  Assessing that this inexperience and not bad training, he cheerfully ate whatever she cooked and only offered the mildest and most gentle of suggestions.  He believed that encouragement would get him further than criticism.  Apparently, it was three years before he would come home to a reliably decent meal.  I said ‘did she ever figure it out?’.  He seemed puzzled by the question.  End anecdote.

The Davinator’s favourite salad is Nicoise.  It is a great showcase for summer produce so fits well with our ‘eat locally, eat in season’ ethos.  It also helps with using up the Abel & Cole weekly organic vegetable box.  Well maybe not the tuna but all uncooked tuna you get the UK has been frozen and comes from a distance.   I use fresh tuna but use canned tuna if it suits you for cost or convenience reasons.  Nicoise is very flexible, so feel free to adjust the dressing (there is a ‘standard’ vinaigrette and a dijon vinaigrette below) and add or subtract ingredients as you wish.  Change it enough and it’s something else, of course but it might still be amazing.   This is my ‘go to’ recipe for Salad Nicoise.

Ingredients – salad

• 450g  fresh tuna, about 2.5 cm or 1 inch thick
• 400g new potatoes (approximately 8 to 10 if small, if big, be prepared to chop)
• 120g cherry tomatoes, halved (8 to 12 cherry tomatoes)
• 120g young fresh green beans
• 4 small lettuce hearts to 2 cos lettuce heads
• 1 bunch of spring onions
• 4 eggs, to be cooked
• 6 anchovy fillets (from a jar or tin)  chopped into 2.5cm or 1 inch lengths
• 16 pitted black  olives in brine
• 8 basil leaves (optional)

Marinade/vinaigrette dressing

• 105ml/7tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar (or balsamic)
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped small
• 2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped small
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped (optional, I omit because of Davinator’s allergy to all of the lily family)
• 1 tsp fine salt (not kosher or rock salt)
• 1 tsp black pepper
  (note that most vinaigrette dressings are roughly 2 parts oil to 1 part vinegar or other astringent ingredients)

Marinade/Dijon vinaigrette dressing

• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped (can omit)
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

Preparation instructions

(I’m trying to write for non-experts so apologies if I’m explaining things you know how to do).  This is my suggested order for preparation.

1. Tuna. Whisk together all of the ingredients for the marinade/dressing and put in a shallow baking pan.  Put the tuna in.  Turn it once or twice while you are doing the rest of the preparation.
2. Potatoes.   Scrub your new potatoes, do not peel them.  If you’re blessed with new potatoes the size of a cherry tomato (or indeed not much bigger than a cherry) go straight to the boiling phase.  If not, you want to cut into chunks not much bigger than one inch square.  Once cut, put in a pan with plenty of water and some salt (just throw the salt in but at least a teaspoon and more if you want).  Bring to a boil.  Boil for 12 minutes then take off the heat, cover and leave in the hot water until you’re ready to assemble.
3. Green beans,  Top and tail your green beans.  Get a pan of water boiling, add salt (see above for potatoes).  Throw in the beans, cook for 3 minutes.  Quickly drain the beans, then put in a bowl with ice water to quick cool.  (This is known as blanching and it keeps the beans a lovely bright green colour).
4. Eggs.   Get a medium sized saucepan, fill with water, bring to a boil.  Pierce the bottom (less pointy end) of each egg and quickly add to the boiling water.  Here’s an egg piercer, it keeps fresh eggs from cracking when cooked using this method.  It’s on my favourite gadget list.  Cook the eggs for 7 minutes, then run under cold tap water.  Some chefs would say 6 minutes, but I find this undercooked for most people.   When the eggs are cool, remove the shells.Obviously, you can do steps 2 through 4 well in advance and refrigerate your ingredients.
5. Prep the salad ingredients on individual plates: lettuce, halve the cherry tomatoes and distribute across the plates,  chop the spring onions very fine and distribute on the plates.
6. Prepare a heavy skillet or cast iron pan, bring it to a relatively high heat.  Cook the tuna steaks, to taste.  I like mine rare so 3 minutes per side.  The Davinator is a ‘well done’ merchant so 5 or 6 minutes per side for him.   While it’s cooking,  distribute the potatoes, tomatoes and green beans on the plates.  Cut an egg into quarters the long way for each plate.
7. When the tuna is cooked, add it to the plates.  Garnish with the olives, anchovies and torn basil leaves.  Whisk the marinade again (or make some more) and dress the salads.

The Davinator likes to have a some toasted sourdough rye bread with butter with his Salad Nicoise but any bread is a good accompaniment.

Good gadgets that help out with this recipe

None of these are mandatory for the recipe but each is a help.

I mentioned the egg piercer above.  The best way to make reliable boiled eggs (soft, medium or hard boiled) is to put them in boiling water (using a slotted spoon) after piercing them.  They won’t crack if they’re pierced before being put in the boiled water.  You can also bring the eggs to a boil starting with cold water and eggs in the pan (also won’t crack) but this method is much more difficult to time accurately.

Great for boiled eggs, allows for accurate timing.

I find that fresh herbs make a difference in this recipe (not always by the way).   I chop mine with a mezzaluna (Italian for half moon), its a lot quicker and more effective than chopping with a knife.

My favourite tool for chopping fresh herbs

I’ve got a grilling skillet that I only use for cooking tuna.  It probably is good for steak (Davinator cooks the steaks btw) and sausages but for some reason I only get it out for tuna.  And it does make those attractive stripes.

Nothing quite like it for searing tuna.

Keep cooking! And eat more vegetables.