Peanut and cranberry oat bars

I'm sort of at a loss as to how to describe these. I want to call them flapjack because they are a baked bar containing oats and no flour, but to me, flapjack is full of syrup and butter and these bars contain neither, so I'll stick to the name in the title, which is descriptive if a little clumsy. The recipe comes from the Sainsbury's Magazine, which I buy each month and think is great value (£1.40 compared to around £3.40 for most of the other monthly food magazines you can get - Olive, BBC Good Food etc). However, I enjoy buying and reading the magazine, but rarely get round to making anything from it (although this applies to most of the magazines I buy - am I the only one who is guilty of this? I suspect not.....) and so for me to make these within a few months of seeing the recipe, even within the same season, is something of a surprise! In fact, I have made them twice, with slight differences.

The feature they come from is all about 'The fats that help your health' and is explaining about mono-unsaturated fatty acids being beneficial for health so the recipes are low in saturated fats and high in mono-unsaturates - plenty of nuts, seeds and avocados. Fear not, this recipe does not contain avocado! It does contain nuts though, and the original version also contained seeds, but I left these out as I'm not really wild about them. Peanuts are one of the few nuts I am not allergic to (I have been eating them all my life, and am very lucky, because peanut allergy can be extremely severe and peanuts/peanut oil are used in a lot of commercial goods) and are not actually a true nut, growing below the ground as explained in the article linked above.

I actually decided to make this recipe (on both occasions) to help with an overabundance of low fat yogurt in my fridge as the recipe calls for low fat yogurt to provide the moistness. (If the picture above looks dry, this is my poor cutting skills - it is really, really moist!) As with flapjack, the recipe is a doddle to put together and can be done at the last moment. Great for lunchboxes (unless your child's school has banned peanuts!) or as a healthy breaktime snack for the grown ups too.

Peanut and cranberry oat bars

Ingredients

75g crunchy peanut butter

100g caster sugar

6tbsp agave nectar or honey (I used honey the first time, and golden syrup the next....)

225g virtually fat free yogurt

100g dried cranberries (I didn't have enough the first time so used half and half cranberries and raisins)

275g porridge oats (the recipe specifies 225g but I found this made a very wet mixture)

Method

- Grease and line an 8"/20cm square cake tin with baking parchment

- Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas 5.

- In a pan, gently heat the peanut butter, sugar and honey until melted. Then stir in the yogurt and dried fruit and then the oats.

- Tip into the prepared tin and smooth the mixture into the corners with the back of a spoon.

- Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Mine took longer to become the colour you see in the pictures, probably nearer 45 minutes, but because the mixture is so moist there doesn't seem to be any detrimental effect.

- Using a small sharp knife mark into rectangles (8-10) and then leave to cool completely in the tin.

- When cold turn out and cut into bars.

Recipe note: The original recipe says: 'The bars will keep for several days in an airtight container. They freeze well too."

In its second incarnation this recipe contains all dried cranberries instead of mixed with raisins, golden syrup instead of honey, and butter instead of peanut butter. Just as moist as the version above, but almost certainly significantly less healthy. Guess which version I preferred. Sigh. Oh well, it's still lower in fat than traditional flapjack, and is a good way of getting oats into your diet. (Yes, I grant you that porridge is still a better way, but these are more portable!)

Colleagues enjoyed both versions and the moistness of the bar was a welcome contrast to the chewy dried fruit and oats. I would make these again, but probably only to use up excess yogurt if I have it hanging around in the fridge.

Mincemeat swirls with lemon icing

Well, it's a good job that my new year's resolutions didn't involve blogging more often or more regularly, because I most certainly would have had to call that resolution broken! Sorry about the gap, but I'm back, and with something really delicious to make up for it!

Last year I made mincemeat, and as the festive season rolled around again I decided it was time for another batch. I used the same recipe (Delia Smith's version) as last year (I've noted the quantities I used at the bottom of this post, as they differ slightly from her recipe - I like glace cherries in mine, and no nuts, plus a little more spice), but this year followed her instructions to stir as the mincemeat cooled, which resulted in no fatty white blobs (this pleased me greatly!). Sadly, with one thing and another I didn't find time to make any mincepies at all this year. In fact, writing this has made me realise that I didn't even eat any this year. Hmmm, that ought to be rectified. However, I believe that mince meat shouldn't just be for Christmas, but for all year round. (Ok, well, perhaps all winter..... even I don't think I want mincemeat in the heat of summer) And if you've got half a jar of mincemeat hanging around the cupboard, asking to be used up before it is forgotten in favour of newer flavours I would ask that you try these rather delicious rolls. These were sort of inspired by chelsea buns, but I can't ever remember eating a chelsea bun, so it was more just the shape that gave me the idea.

Anyway, the recipe is a milk loaf dough and as ever, I used Dan Lepard's technique for kneading the dough, which makes the whole thing no effort at all, as the short bursts of kneading fit around other things I'm attempting to do at the same time. The technique is explained well towards the end of this white tin loaf post.

Mincemeat swirls with lemon icing
Ingredients
100g plain flour
200g strong white bread flour
scant tsp salt
scant tsp dried fast acting/instant yeast
1tbsp golden syrup
around 200ml milk (I used semi skimmed)
about 1/2 jar (roughly 200g mincemeat, but see below)

For the glaze - icing sugar, a lemon

Method
- Scald the milk - bring up to the boil and then allow to cool to blood heat (so you don't kill the yeast!) This seems like a pain to do, but as Dan explains here, you need to denature one of the enzymes in the milk that would contribute to heavy bread. If you really can't be bothered, don't scald it, the results won't be that bad!!!
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and leave for 10 minutes. Knead for around 10 seconds on an oiled surface, then cover and leave for 10 minutes. Repeat. After the third knead, leave for 30 minutes or so, then roll or stretch the dough to form a rectangle about 12"(30cm) long by roughly 7-8"(18-20cm) wide.
- Spread the mincemeat over the dough, leaving a small border at the edges. How much you use depends on your taste (and how much you've got left to use up!) - if you love mincemeat use a bit more and get a thicker layer, it's up to you.
- Roll up so that you've got a long thin roll rather than a short fat one (i.e. roll lengthways) and then cut the roll into seven. Arrange them cut side up in an 8" (20cm) cake tin. I lined the edges of my tin with parchment because it was loose bottomed and I didn't know if the mincemeat would leak goo onto the oven, but it didn't, so you could probably get away with a greasing of butter around the tin.
- Leave to rise until the rolls have filled out and are touching. When they are nearly at this stage (oh, the accuracy of this recipe!) preheat your oven to 200C/Gas 6 (only you know how long this will take, hence the vague instructions as to when to preheat!).
- Bake for around 30-35 minutes (although in all honesty I can't remember quite how long they took - check at around 25 minutes - I should really pay more attention....) until golden brown. Remove from the tin (this is where the loose bottom really helps!) and turn over to check they sound hollow when tapped (I agree this isn't a great way of checking, but because they're only shallow they should cook through ok).
- Leave to cool on a wire rack.
- Make the glaze to your favourite consistency - sticky/runny, whatever you want, by mixing lemon juice with icing sugar. Drizzle over your buns and enjoy!!!



These were soft and luscious when first cooked, and the lemon in the icing contrasted well with the rich, spicy mincemeat filling, which in turn was complemented by the soft, slightly sweet dough. Yum! They don't keep particularly well though, so in the event of having any left over (as if!), freeze them and enjoy by warming through in the oven.



Mincemeat - see this post for instructions on how to make!
Ingredients
450g Bramley apples, cored and chopped (no need to peel)
250g vegetarian suet
350g raisins
225g sultanas
225g currants
250g mixed peel, chopped
350g dark brown soft sugar
2 oranges, zest and juice
2 lemons, zest and juice
200g glace cherries, chopped into quarters
4tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
6tbsp brandy (I used Calvados this year, as this is what I had around)

Cranberry upside down cake

Having spent Christmas very enjoyably at J's house, she came here for New Year and I cooked for the two of us. For dessert I decided on a cake based around Dan Lepard's stone fruit yogurt cake, which I made back in October. To give it a seasonal twist I decided to use cranberries - they seem to be one of the few fruits that are still available seasonally, along with gooseberries. Thankfully (like gooseberries!) they freeze well, so I've bought a couple of bags for the freezer too.

I halved the recipe (as there were only two of us) and baked it in a 6" tin for the same amount of time specified in the original recipe. This worked really well, so I must remember for the future that an 8" cake recipe can be halved to fit into a 6" tin.

I will give the ingredient amounts I used below, but suggest you check out the link to Dan's original recipe for the method. I served the cake with a cranberry sauce made by simmering around 175g cranberries with 30g light muscovado sugar for about 20 minutes until the cranberries are soft and have mostly exploded. This made a very tart sauce, which was a good foil to the creamy vanilla ice-cream and delicious moist cake. However, if you wanted to serve the sauce on its own, I would suggest increasing the amount of sugar substantially.

I really enjoyed this cake, it's moist and has a satisfying bite, and the contrast of the tart cranberries with the relatively sweeter cake is a lovely combination.

Cranberry upside down cake

Ingredients

Enough cranberries to cover the base of your tin, around 125g for mine, I think!

12g light muscovado sugar to sprinkle over the cranberries

90g caster sugar

90g butter, softened

1 large egg

90g thick greek yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

40g semolina

90g self raising flour

On New Year's Day we went a walk in the local nature reserve (along with half of the local population I think!) which was very cold but really rather beautiful. A lovely start to 2010.

I also made a larger version of the same cake to share with colleagues before the Christmas break. They also seemed to enjoy it! You can see from the edges of the cake that the foil lining of the tin doesn't improve the cake asthetically, but it makes it much less messy to bake, and it's a breeze to line a cake tin with foil rather than parchment paper - just push the foil in and squash the creases out!

Highlights of 2009

2009, my first full year of blogging! I thought I'd round up a few of my highlights over the past year. I don't think I can say that I have a favourite recipe overall, but there are a few contenders. The first must be the stone fruit yogurt cake above - the texture is soft and moist and the recipe adaptable to lots of different incarnations. I've already tried it with tart cranberries and can imagine it'll be a go-to recipe for a basic cake.

Other sweet delights this year were the treacle and ginger flapjacks pictured below - a really good combination and proof to myself that you don't always have to stick to the tried and tested simplicity of the basic recipe. On the other hand, this chocolate chip cake was a nice, simple recipe to provide a quick dessert served with juicy summer fruit. And one of the most searched for recipes this year was the Sweet and Simple bakes vanilla buttercream cupcakes, leading by a fair way, but also popular were these butterfly cakes.

Other highlights were my first (and successful!) baked cheesecake, here, my favourite gingerbread recipe, here, and a recipe that was my own invention, and which I was really pleased with - moist and more-ish and visually appealing too, this chocolate orange and vanilla marble cake was definitely an early success of 2009.

I think 2009 also represents a massive improvement in my bread baking skills. I've now got a couple of recipes I make over and over again, not least this apricot wholemeal/white hybrid bread which is perfect for breakfast. Joining Fresh from the Oven should inspire me to bake more too, although apologies to the group members for missing December's bake - I ran out of time and motivation as I can't actually eat Stollen myself and wanting to eat something is always an incentive for making it! One of breads baked by the group is the white tin loaf you see below, and has become my standard white loaf, tasting fabulous with a great texture and flavour.

I also learnt to be slightly more adventurous with my baking, highlights being the tomato and basil rolls shown above and black pepper rye bread, which is definitely on the to be baked again list! I also successfully baked hot cross buns this year, which is a first - previously they've always been burnt, so I was really pleased with this year's batch.

It appears that my obsession with Dan Lepard's recipes has continued without faltering this year, so let's hope that continues - I'm sure it will, as a large proportion of my 'to-bake' list has origins with his recipes. So I'll give a link to one of my most used resources over the past year, Dan Lepard's fabulous forums. (And no, I'm not on commission, just wanting to share his passion for baking with other enthusiasts!) And perhaps this year I'll manage to get a sourdough starter going, who knows!

Gingerbread two ways

It was this post by Johanna over at Green Gourmet Giraffe that inspired me to make gingerbread. Although looking at the date of her original post and the fact that I am only just writing them up now goes to show just how quickly the year has flown by (either that or I'm just very, very disorganised - I like to think that it's a combination of the two). Anyway, who could possibly resist those gorgeous bush buddies that Johanna made? Unfortunately I don't have such lovely cutters, but I did see this rather amazing cutter in Lakeland, and decided that even though I don't have any small children to admire it's amazing shape, I had to buy it anyway! Well, I think the dinosaurs it makes are cute anyway, and I'm sure that if you have little boys (or girls!) they'd love these biscuits.

The recipe I chose was Delia Smith's gingerbread recipe, because it seemed really straightforward and she notes that the dough is easy to work with and very forgiving, plus the recipe was already in weight rather than cup measures - sorry Johanna, I prefer to weigh my ingredients!

The first time round, for the dinosaurs, I made the recipe as stated, minus the orange peel, and using light muscovado sugar. The second time, for the mini Christmas tree you see at the top of the post, I used 2tbsp treacle and 1 tbsp golden syrup, and dark muscovado sugar for a darker, stronger more Christmassy flavour. I also went easier on the cloves the second time, it's a very strong flavour and I slightly overdid it the first time round!

One thing to note when decorating the dinosaurs is that mini Smarties (now with no artificial flavourings or colourings) are rubbish for baking with - all of the colours (which are much dimmer than they used to be when I was young and colourings weren't the work of the devil....) fade to a sort of monotonous green/brown after baking. The decorations you see above are using Silver Spoon baking beans. Clearly still using artificial (and therefore heat stable!!!) colourings. You see, spirulina extract isn't all it's made out to be, Nestle!!

I enjoyed these biscuits and smiled every time I looked at the dinosaur shapes. Colleagues enjoyed the gingerbread too, but weren't bowled over by the shapes. Well, we can't all be children at heart can we! I enjoyed the darker incarnation very much and the recipient of the Christmas tree looked pleased too!!!