freestyle chocolate, blueberry and pumpkin seed loaf

 

When I’m feeling stressed or anxious I often bake. This loaf was free-style baking at it’s best. Almost trancelike concocting without any real idea what the outcome would be.

The quantities here are very vague (as per the trancelike state I refer to above)..but very roughly ; 50g melted dark chocolate, 50g melted butter, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup raw sugar, large scoop of full fat yogurt, 1 cup ground pumpkin seeds, 1 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup rice flour, 2 spoons cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking powder. All beaten together and then poured in a loaf tin – baked for around 40 minutes at 180 until a knife came out clean.

Maybe I need to think about yoga.

Aside from some crazy freestyle baking I’ve been making a lot of the old staples. Looking forward to the food bloggers conference tomorrow for some new inspiration. Will also be writing a few posts for Munch over the coming weeks – pop over there and check out this interview.

fresh peach and raspberry coconut and almond upside-down cake (gluten free)

I am pretty excited to be writing some posts inspired by Hill Street Farmer’s Market, of which this is the first. Not only is the produce fantastic, but in order to get to the market and back, before Saturday football, I have to duck out of the chaos that is family breakfast time. Shortly after 8am, with just the littlest member of the family under one arm, I was able to close the door behind me and breath in the still morning air. Anyone with kids will relate to what a luxury that is.

There was no traffic, a few students with remnants of last night’s fancy dress to smile at, evoking memories of footloose and fancy free days …and the promise of good coffee. No one asked me the same question 15 times in steadily higher pitch, from the back seat, or tried to draw me into refereeing side by side seat kicking match. Within moments of leaving the house I had decided this was a little outing I really needed to take every Saturday. So I figured I had better get something good. Something I couldn’t get from the local supermarket.. something I really needed to visit the farmers market for. I got a basket full.

First up, it’s the turn of the perfectly ripe peaches and sweet end of season raspberries. Some of which were just eaten fresh, but some formed the base of this gorgeous peach and raspberry upside -down cake. You start by lining the base of a cake tin and greasing it – sprinkling it with a little granulated sugar and covering it with peach slices. They don’t need to be beautifully chopped because it looks completely stunning anyway and having the peaches a bit randomly cut just adds to the charm. Between the peach slices, dot a few raspberries.

For the cake bit I used bigger quantities than usual as hoping it might actually last through the weekend, rather than be demolished in one sitting. 100g of melted butter , just less than a cup of soft brown sugar, 4 – 5 spoons of yogurt – beat it all together then in with 4 eggs, just under a cup of coconut flour, 1 cup ground almonds and a couple of spoons of brown rice flour, 1 tsp gf baking powder. It looks like quite a dryish cake mix so you kind of need to spoon it fairly carefully over the fruit – smooth it over and bake it. Once again I forgot to check the timings but it was probably close on 40 mins. It goes quite brown on the bottom and springs up.

More market treats coming later.

Rather excellent chocolate orange cakes (gluten free)

Modesty is a virtue …. but if you create a really excellent recipe then it’s only fair to shout about it. Especially if it has chocolate in. Even more so, if it’s really easy to make, and kind of healthy, if you are like me, and class anything with a ground almond base as healthy regardless of what the other component parts are…the chocolate is dark chocolate anyway, and everyone knows that’s the healthy kind.

Start by melting about 70g (or 3 rows of a bar of dark ghana if, you want to get really specific about measurements)  and about 40g of butter over hot water – grate in the zest of an orange. While it melts, whisk 4 eggs. Now usually I’m a bit lazy with my whisking – a quick whirl around, and I’m in with the sugar. Today I just had a bit more time – everyone was either out,or occupied, so I found myself in a bit of a trance with the whisk in hand and next thing the eggs were all properly fluffy. Add 1/2 cup of granulated sugar to the eggs and whisk it in – then 1 and 1/2 cups of ground almonds and 1/2 cup of brown rice flour. Add the juice of half an orange and a teaspoon of gf baking powder (if you like – these cakes rise fine without because of the eggs so if you want to keep the ingredients pure and simple you could skip it – but it will be a bit fluffier and puffier if you put it in).

Whisk in the chocolate mix, pop in muffin cases and they are ready in about 12 – 15 minutes – same with all cakes. they are ready when they ‘spring back’ to the touch or a knife comes out clean.

Now all that’s left to be decided is what to eat them with – I’m thinking a large scoop of greek yogurt will do very nicely. (If you’re wondering how I know these are  good when I’m yet to eat them then that would be the ‘fresh from the oven taste test’ I conducted earlier.. baker’s perk. So, little chocolate orange cakes, you have inspired me to create a ‘top picks’ tag … so in the future I can search my hundreds of recipes and find you and others like you.

garden beans dressed with olive oil, lemon, parmesan and almonds with chilli, lemon blue warehou and buttery polenta

Yesterday, a lovely friend gave me a bag of beans fresh from her garden.

I cooked them and dressed them in olive oil, lemon juice, and slivers of parmesan and almond. Yes, I was feeling a bit fancy, but these beans deserved the best – they were a gift after all.

I used some of the world’s hottest chillies ( really these in in the A league of hot – the sort where your throat starts to catch just walking past them) to make a lemon , garlic , chili blue warehou parcel.. you know the kind that Jamie Oliver made fashionable back in the day. You fold it up in foil and then bake and the fish kind of steams inside the parcel and takes on the flavours around it. That’s the theory anyway, but I was a bit slapdash with my folding, and I overcooked the fish. Still – the foil made for a pretty photo glinting in the evening sunlight and we squeezed the roasted lemon over which meant even my super-dry fish was edible, especially with a heap of buttery polenta on the side…and those ever-so fancy beans.

little stewed prune, apricot and blueberry chocolate almond cakes with drizzly raspberry icing (gluten free)

These little beauties are seriously good. They may sound a bit busy but they are a triumphant collision of ingredients that will put a smile on your face after a long day (or indeed in the middle of it). They are good fun to make too – especially the drizzly icing which is quite literally child’s play. So OK they require a bit more ‘stuff’ than some other recipes and OK there is a bit more clearing up.. but what’s a little extra washing up when we’re talking pink icing?

You start by putting half a cup of organic dried apricots with half a cup of pitted prunes and half a cup of blueberries (straight from the freezer is fine) in a pan with a little water. Now I’m not much of an organic fanatic because I’m not quite ready to re-mortgage the house over the issue, and buying everything organic is seriously wild price-wise – but I am yet to find any non organic dried apricots / prunes that don’t have nasty stuff in – you can kind of tell by the colour differential that there’s something odd going on with non-organic dried apricots right? Anyway.. over the pan with the fruit stewing you melt some dark chocolate (about 50g at a guess) with 50g of butter. When the butter chocolate is melted the fruit will be stewed and you can blend it all together. Sounds a bit of a faff but it’s not really. If the blending sounds like a step too far in terms of effort then you could chop the apricots and prunes before you stew them and they’d be fine just mixed into the chocolate I would think.

Meanwhile whisk 3 eggs with half a cup of soft brown sugar, add and whisk in a cup of ground almonds, 1/2 cup of brown rice flour and 1/2 cup of cocoa and a teaspoon of gf baking powder – it’s quite thick at this point but then you add the fruit / chocolate mix and it goes into a rather pleasing consistency that is easy to spoon into muffin cases. These took about 15 mins to bake.

For the (entirely optional) pink icing I defrosted some frozen raspberries (you don’t need many – maybe 1/4 cup) when defrosted raspberries turn into a juicy slush which can easily be munched through a sieve to extract just the juice. This is a great job for a little person. If you add a bit of icing sugar and a teaspoon of yogurt you get a nice drizzly icing that is also a beautiful pink colour (without any need for food colouring) – the more sugar in ratio to the raspberry juice then the thicker the icing will be. I like it nice and thin so it’s more of a glaze – scooping it on and smearing it over the top of the cakes is also an excellent job for a little helper…OK so I did say these were slightly messier than some other cakes didn’t I –  but it was a rainy day and we were at a loose end after lunch so why not?

little chocolate, apricot, almond and chia miracle cakes (gluten free)

Decided today was definitely a day for some miracle cakes as I have come to think of them due to their restorative powers. Feeling run down so made a decision to up the chocolate quantity because everyone knows chocolate is magic stuff.

20 sqs (about 70g) of dark chocolate melted over water with 50g butter, 1/2 cup chia seeds and the pulp of an apricot. Meanwhile whisked 4 eggs with 1/2 cup of soft brown sugar then add 2 cups of ground almonds. Added the chocolate mixture and baked in muffin cases for about 10 – 15 mins.

Just had one with some greek yogurt and think I need a second to round off the evening.

 

Double chocolate, raspberry and almond muffins (gluten free)

Had T as my helper with these – he now wants to get more and more involved with everything from tipping to mixing to spooning the batter into the cases.

Started with 70g melted butter mixed with half a cup of soft brown sugar then a good pour of yogurt. 3 eggs, 1 tsp gf baking powder, 1 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup of cornmeal (bit of an experiment as no rice flour which I would have used here) 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 1/2 cup frozen raspberries, handful of chocolate chunks.Took about 15 mins to bake.

 

chocolate, chia, plum, ginger miracle muffins (gluten free)

The name miracle muffins reflects the weight of expectation I had from them to make me feel better. A week of chronic sleep deprivation with teething snuffly J has left me feeling really run down.

8 sqs dark chocolate and 6 squares milk chocolate, pulp of 2 small plums, big chunk grated ginger, 1/2 cup chia seeds, 50g butter – all melted together over hot water.

4 eggs, 1/2 cup soft brown sugar , just over a cup of ground almonds, 1/2 cup rice flour, 1 tsp gf baking powder. Beat together then mixed in the chocolate / butter mix. Baked for about 10 mins.

Slightly more spongey then the little cakes that only use almonds – rose nicely. One fresh from the oven perked me up enough to get through the afternoon and now having one with greek yogurt.

little chocolate almond cakes with plum and ginger

grate 2 plums into the chocolate melting bowl – add 50g butter, grated ginger (about 2cm cube) and 12 sqs dark chocolate. Melt over hot water. Meanwhile whisk 4 eggs, add 1/2 cup raw brown sugar and whisk more, add 2 cups ground almonds then pour in the chocolate mix – made 10 little cakes (cooked in muffin cases in oven at 180 for about 15mins)

little chocolate, almond and raspberry cakes (gluten free)

70g butter (melted) mixed with 1/2 cup of soft brown sugar, 2 large scoops of live yogurt (put in by T) 3 eggs, 1 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1 tsp gf baking powdwe, 1 cup frozen raspberries . Mixed and put into muffin cases, took about 20 mins to bake. Told the boys just one each as wanted some left for before football tomorrow but came home to find they’d been unable to stop at one!