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.

favourite muffins for when you need to feel better

My usually ravenous four year old has almost no appetite at the moment. I guess swarms of angry looking pox marching across your face will do that. I baked his favourite muffins today to try and coax him into eating something. Happily it worked. How could it not?

100g melted butter beaten together with 1/2 cup of raw organic sugar and a large soup of natural yogurt. Then in with 2 eggs and 2 cups of flour. Today I used one cup of plain flour and one cup of ground almonds (figured if it was going to be all he ate today we’d at least get some nuts in for protein… but then he somehow found some space for a little ice-cream this evening so turns out he was doing quite well on the protein front!). 1 tsp baking powder. A cup of frozen raspberries / blueberries and a few chocolate chunks.

The smell of baking certainly makes a pleasant change from the rather overpowering aroma of pine-tassel / calamine that’s been dominant around these parts of late.

blueberry and puffed amaranth slice (gluten free)

Super quick, super fluffy and puffy and rather more-ish. Whisk 4 eggs (hence why they are so fluffy and puffy) with 1/2 cup of sugar (I used raw organic granulated) add 1/2 cup yogurt (or a couple of spoons) 1/2 cup puffed amaranth, 1 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 cup frozen blueberries. Bake it until it smells good and passes the clean knife test (I think about 25 minutes – will I ever remember to time these things properly?).

I think some lemon zest would have been good in here too but the kiddies are not so crazy about it in baking. I can feel some other combinations coming up too… raspberry / chocolate… pear and ginger..

lemon-y, ginger-y, nutmeg-y apple and blueberry crumble with coconut flour and puffed amaranth topping

Does anyone else spend as long thinking about what they’re going to have for pudding….on a daily basis? I think probably not. I think I’m a bit weird to have four young kids and still expend so much headspace considering what I will be tucking into when they are all safely tucked up for the night. I guess it makes me either pretty lucky that I don’t have more pressing things to worry about…or possibly it means I have a really bad sense of perspective.

The actual food preparation is usually very quick. It’s the thinking.. the chocolate – fruit- chocolate fruit – chocolate and fruit  type dilemmas that I find myself consumed by for lengthy periods. I don’t mean to give the impression that I’m sitting around tormented, staring into space. No, no, I’m  cracking along with my day, it’s just there at the back of my mind.

Today I decided to try out my new obsession with puffed amaranth, in a crumble.. Another tick for the amaranth – excellent flavour when paired with coconut flour – quite dry with a bit of a crunch. Nutmeg, lemon zest and fresh ginger all additions worthy of the low level pondering time spent on them.

blueberry, prune, almond and amaranth chocolate muffins (gluten free)

The puffed amaranth in these muffins makes them rather light and fluffy, especially given they are gluten free. With the added advantage being amaranth is the nutritional heavy-weight of the grain family.

Start by stewing half a cup of prunes and half a cup of blueberries in a little water. Over the top melt about 70g of dark chocolate and 50g of butter. While it’s melting whisk 4 eggs with half a cup of raw sugar. Whisking is fun for kids…. sometimes a touch messy, but fun. Add 1 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup puffed amaranth, half cup brown rice flour, 1 tsp of baking powder and a couple of spoons of cocoa powder (optional). At some point you’ll need to switch the whisk for a wooden spoon.

Blend the chocolate, butter, prunes and blueberries together into a thick paste and then beat this into the rest of the mix. Spoon into muffin cases. Made 12 regular size muffins – baked at 180 for about 15mins.

While I wasn’t looking B managed to eat 3 of these within a few moments of arriving home from school. I guess it’s Friday, it’s the first week of term, and they taste pretty good..

blueberry, raspberry, apple and chia lunchbox muffins

The kids decided not to take advantage of the extra hour in bed with the clock change. Seems to go that way every year. No point feeling resentful.. they’re only little, after all. So we had a whole extra hour this morning, and baking is always a good way to use up a spare moment.

Cover about half a cup of chia seeds in a little fresh apple juice to hydrate (or water is OK but we happened to have some apple juice open). Beat together about 50g of melted butter with 1/2 cup sugar (I used granulated but probably any kind would be OK – or maybe replace with honey and grated apple / pear if you don’t like sugar),  2 spoons natural yogurt. Then in with 2 eggs, 2 cups self raising flour – the chia seeds which will be a think gunk by this time and then 1/2 cup of blueberries and 1/2 cup of raspberries – or any other kind of fruit… hell, throw in some chocolate chunks if you like ..it is Monday morning after all. You could use coconut flour and rice flour and an extra egg if you wanted gluten free but they would be a bit denser.

Slap it into some muffin cases and bake for 15 mins – this made 9 this morning but it really depends whow much mix you put in each one, plus as I never measure anything (aside from with an assortment of tea-cups – whichever are to hand) it’s always pretty random. I think  one of the world’s great myths is that baking is an exact art, that requires preparation, and beating, and fluffiness, and creaming, and weighing, and processing, and makes lots of mess (although this bit is always true baking with kids). Honestly, as long as you put roughly the right amounts in, and the ingredients are good, then you will get a good result without too much faff. Obviously if it’s something special, or you have plenty of time to spare, then you can break out the scales and the kitchen aid.. and probably get a better result.. but in my experience it’s rarely a disaster if you don’t follow an exact formula (or any formula at all).

Blueberry, strawberry, chia and honey ice-blocks

I’ve got a new ‘instant’ ice block maker. It’s not the kind of kitchen gadget anyone could really claim to ‘need’ but boy does it make ice-block making more fun. The trouble with the old-style ‘put them in the freezer and wait for them to freeze’ technique is that it takes so long. By the time the kids have opened the freezer 500 times and poked them and asked ‘are they ready yet?’ everyone’s lost their rag and the whole thing seems like too much hassle so you all pile down to the dairy for jelly-tips.

So I’m feeling pretty good about my new piece of kit. Yesterday we squeezed fresh oranges and blended the juice with some raspberries – the kids were so excited watching them freeze before their eyes I didn’t dare try and delay the eating by taking a photo. Today we simmered some frozen blueberries and strawberries in a bit of water with chia seeds and a spoon of honey , blended it  and 10 minutes later here it is.

Blackcurrant, blueberry and strawberry ‘purple’ cupcakes (gluten free)

I didn’t intend these cupcakes to turn out ‘purple’ but as they began to come together I started thinking of purple cake day – which for those not familiar is an incredibly inspiring initiative. Unfortunately my timing in making these is a little off (purple cake day is the 1st March annually) but it’s always good to reflect on the purple spirit and now I have almost a whole year to perfect the recipe.

It started with a few big bags of frozen berries and the idea to make some fruit puree for J. Put some strawberries, blueberries and blackcurrants in a little water to stew for a few minutes and then pureed. The results were so visually appealing I immediately put a spoon into some yogurt for each of the boys and let them mix it into a beautiful purple swirl. Then I started thinking of other things I could do with the gorgeous purple puree and the purple cupcake was created.

Whisk 3 eggs with 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Add a hefty scoop of yogurt (i used greek but plain full fat live yogurt would be good too) and keep whisking. Then 1 and  1/2 cups of ground almonds, 1/2 cup of brown rice flour, 1 tsp (gf) baking powder. Tip about a cup of the fruit puree into the mix and swirl it round with a whisk (or get your young helper to) lightly to keep a bit of a contrast. Spoon into muffin cases and bake for about 15 mins.

The icing was just more fun with fruit puree with a little bit of icing sugar – nice and runny and sticky and perfect for little knives held in chubby little hands.

This is an entry for March’s Sweet NZ – hosted by my darling lemon thyme blog 

 

Jake’s pineapple and blueberry upside down cake

Grease a big round cake dish and cover the bottom with pineapple slices, blueberries and a little brown sugar (this is the short-cut version that was necessary due to a few small people milling around – apparently the top dollar version involves caramelizing the pineapple slices first).

For the sponge you beat everything together at once; 250g butter, 250g flour, 250g sugar and 3 – 4 eggs (depending on their size) 1 tsp baking powder. The butter needs to be pretty soft. Tip the sponge mix onto the fruit and bake.

I’ve never really done the upside-down cake so watching J and L put this together and has definitely inspired me to create a gluten free version – I’m also thinking this would work well with stone-fruit , have to see what’s at the market this weekend give it a go.