What would Hemingway do?

Well, the stress is over, but not entirely in a good way. I didn't get the job. I'd been stressed because I hadn't heard about it, then this morning I heard, and it was bad news. Oh well. There'll be other jobs and I'm sure this just means there is something better out there. Plus I won't have to worry about moving whilst doing my writing up this summer.

Still, I really wanted that job.

In these sorts of situations I find it helps to turn to my favourite writers for comfort. I think this time it would be apt to draw on Hemingway's example. How? by drinking lots of rum of course!

Which brings me to the recipe I promised you. One of my very own creations, "Hemingway's breakfast loaf." I've called it this because it's a quickbread designed for weekend breakfasts that's both saturated with rum and filled with coconut, a tropical combination that I think Hemingway would have approved of. Plus, it would be his ideal breakfast, sitting in his study in Cuba, with his cats and a hot strong coffee in the early morning as he started to write. He could justify the alcohol because technically, it's in a cake, and not a shot glass. Cunning eh?
So yes, I will be eating a large slice of this with my coffee this morning. The quickbread equivalent of drowning my sorrows.Ed's note: you can of course make this without the rum using more orange juice, as it is quite a boozy cake for first thing in the morning. Then again, that's why weekend mornings were invented, and less alcohol is surely a crime against the cake's muse.

Hemingway's Breakfast Loaf - Makes one 9" by 5" loaf

1 cup Wholemeal Flour
1 cup self-raising flour
3/4 cup sugar (I used caster as it was all I had, but I think soft brown would be great, and will try that next)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup dark rum
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 egg beaten
1 cup dried cherries, chopped in half
1/2 cup of pecans, chopped
1/2 coconut (fresh, shredded)

Overnight, or for at least half an hour before you start soak the chopped cherries in the rum (or if you're being mad and not using the alcohol, soak them in 1/2 cup orange juice instead).

Preheat oven to 170C and line a 9" by 5" loaf pan.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. When mixed well, add the orange juice, egg and butter, then mix until it starts coming together (it'll be really thick, don't worry). Add the cherries and the rum they've been soaking in, stir, and then add the coconut and pecans. Mix until the they are mixed evenly throughout the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for aprox 45 mins. Cover the top with foil part way through if it looks like it's browning too quickly. It's ready when a toothpick or skewer comes out clean, I'd start checking from about 30mins just in case.

Leave to cool on a wire rack, and then serve. It should stay moist in an airtight container for a couple of days due to the coconut.
Enjoy for breakfast with a strong coffee. An extra shot of rum in your coffee is option, but it would make Hemingway proud.

Update: Good reason for not getting the job: staying closer to friends who are amazing and send you flowers to make you feel better. I might not have gotten the dream job, but I'm a very lucky girl indeed.

Serial goodness

I am definitely a girl with some deep contradictions, and my battle with mornings is probably high up on the list. You see, I think mornings are great, especially in the spring and summer when the sun rises early and you can sneak out into the garden with your coffee while the world is still dozing and enjoy it all to yourself. Except I very rarely do. Why? Because I'm in bed dozing like the rest of them! See, I like mornings, but I like my sleep more and it's an ongoing struggle between these two instincts. I seem to do better on holiday and in the height of summer, but I long for the days when I can rise without grump, and sun myself in the garden with the cat before the midday football match has started!

There's another reason why I am trying to curb the "staying in bed" urge in favour of the "rising enthusiastically" one. I love breakfast. I really do, it's my favourite meal of the day and I have been known, when N is out in the evenings, to eat it for dinner. But I really enjoy it in the morning where it belongs. I'm not a girl who goes in for the steaming piles of food for breakfast, you won't find me tucking into a fry-up in the morning (or ever, for that matter) for example. I like to save those breakfasts for the "brunch" portion of the day, the one that comes in between walks in the woods and secondhand bookshopping. Instead I like a bowl of cereal, museli or porridge during the week (spiced in winter, adorned with fresh berries in summer) and a little something more indulgent for the weekends. Always with a black coffee. Always.
Coupled with my love of breakfast is my love of good museli or granola. I try so hard not to pour myself a massive portion (I so easily could) and often look forlornly at the empty bowl which appears all too quickly. My biggest problem with store-bought granola is that it is so often too sweet for my liking, so when Nicole was kind enough to send me the "Baked" granola recipe a few months, along with rave reviews, I knew I was in for some cereal goodness I could make for my very own.

It took a couple of goes to get it just right (first too sweet, second not enough nuts and seeds) but I think I've cracked it. I don't eat this every morning as it still feels like too much of a treat compared to my high-fibre museli, but once or twice a week with some plain yoghurt it's just right.

Hyped-up Granola - adapted from the "Baked" version. (Makes just over 1 pound of cereal)

2 cups of rolled oats
2tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
3 tbsp groundnut oil
1/8 C honey
1/8 C maple syrup (I did this by half filling my 1/4 cup with honey, then topping up with syrup)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 C flaked almonds
1/3 C Hazelnuts
1/2 C mixed seeds (I use linseeds, sunflower and pumpkin)
1/3 C mixed dried berries (I used blueberries, cranberries and sour cherries)

Preheat oven to 160C and line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone liner.

Place the oats in a large bowl and mix in the cinnamon and salt. In a small bowl whisk together the oil, honey, syrup and vanilla. Pour this over the oats and mix together until all oats are coated.

Place the mixture on the baking sheet and spread into as thin a layer as possible, leaving clumps if you like clumpy granola.

Bake for 10 mins, then remove from the oven, toss and add the nuts and return for another 5 mins, remove again, toss, add the seeds and then return to the oven for 10 mins. Remove and allow to cool fully before adding the dried fruit.

Store in an airtight container, it should last a week or so (if you can refrain from munching on it at every possible "passing the cupboard" opportunity that is!).

Breakfast with Mum

I'm definitely a Daddy's little girl. Always have been, always will be. I fit very snugly into the "father's and their daughter's" cliche.But my Mum, well she's more like a best friend. A best friend with all this knowledge about making clothes, and knitting and cats (indispensable when we first got Sniff and I was on the phone every five minutes going "now's he's doing this, what do I do?!") and all sorts of useful things like that. And that's just how I like it.Yesterday we had breakfast and proceeded to shop our way around the market, buying far more that two little ladies could carry, before heading home for bread, cheese and lessons in cable knitting. It was the most wonderful of days.
I'm trying to pursude her to guest post, but it's not going that well so far. I think I need to ply her with more wine first!
But rest assured there are all sorts of exciting things to come, and not all of them involve baked goods - shock horror!



p.s. I couldn't resist taking this picture of my rhubarb travelling back on the bus, I thought it so cute the way it matched the rails.

On a lemony roll, or should I say scone?

The wonderful goodness of the recent Meyer lemon experiments got me thinking about how I don't actually bake enough purely with lemon. I adore lemons and yet searching through the recipes I've made and posted I think there are only a couple that actually use lemon as the main flavour, and that's just not right.

So when I found us without bread for breakfast on Sunday morning I couldn't resist making something with lemon again. I hunted out the amazing scone recipe that has been handed down from my grandmother, to my mother and now to me, and decided that the light texture and wonderfully quick and easy recipe would match perfectly with my desire for lemon and growling impatient stomach.

This time I used a normal lemon, but I think the sharpness was just what I needed as I find things that are too sweet a bit much in the morning. I made a half match which wielded four triangular scones (rolling and using round cutters was just too much), perfect with coffee for Sunday breakfast. We were having brunch as it happened so these scones were added to other things, and so got a dash of maple syrup across them. Oh yes, do that, it's lovely.

These are some seriously delicious scones, so be warned you might scoff them all in one sitting without noticing. I'm so glad I only made four. Oh, and they really don't keep well so you just have to eat whatever you've made in one day. I wish I could lie and say that's a shame, but it really isn't!

Lemon Scones - makes four (but can easily be doubled or tripled for more)

4 oz self-raising flour
3/4 oz caster sugar
1 oz butter
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
zest of two small lemons, or to taste (I like mine pretty lemony)

Preheat the oven to 230C and line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone

Mix all the ingredients together, rubbing the butter into the flour so it becomes like crumbs. Add enough milk to make a dough. Roll out into a rectangle (don't roll too thin as they won't rise much) then cut across the diagonals to make four triangular scones.

Place the scones on the baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes (until they are just golden). Serve slightly warm with a tiny drizzle of maple syrup, or opened with lashing of butter and lemon jelly.

See, I told you it was easy!

p.s. I'm a little slow on the uptake, and have only just discovered this wonderful little bit of software that makes your pictures like old school polaroids. I'm totally in love with it and thought this recipe perfectly suited such a quaint picture.

'ave a banana. No really, please eat one. Or two, or three, I'm begging you.

Do you ever get that feeling that there are far too many things in your head and not enough time to get them onto paper, or into the oven, or cast on to the needles, or traced onto fabric? That's exactly how I'm doing at the moment. I keep thinking of things and can't quite manage to keep one thing on my mind long enough to actually do it. It's like I'm too inspired. Sounds stupid, right?

There is one outcome of all of the above though, one I'm really good at. Mess. I actually left washing up for two days. Two days. That's just not right. And I haven't seen the dining table in a very long time. I'm sure it's there, under the papers, and fabric, and wool, and jars, oh so many jars!

There was something else that got left behind too. The bananas.

I'm not a fan of bananas. In fact if any one asked I'd have to be honest and say I don't like them. Used to. Used to eat them all the time. Perhaps I bananed myself out. Which, incidentily is exactly what I've managed to do to N. Apparently, "bananas are a great fruit, so tasty and easy to eat" doesn't mean "please add one to my lunch everyday." Oops. I did the same with kiwi fruit last year and now N won't go near one.

Last week I noticed we seemed to be leaving the bananas behind. They were floundering in the fruit bowl, ripening everything in their wake, and then being shifted to the fridge where they could turn black and lurk, like black lurking bananaery things. Eventually the waft of over-ripe banana smell every time I opened the door got to me and I decided to try my hand at banana bread, or rather banana bread in muffin form. With added blueberries, because what the hell, N loves them too and we have some.

Baking banana bread has several advantages; it uses up bananas, it gets N to eat aforementioned fruit without it feeling like a chore, and I don't like it. Oh yes. I won't even be tempted to have "just a tiny piece" - which so often ends up being three or four tiny pieces and a potentially increasing waistline. The supposedly delicious moist bananery smell eminating from these was enough to make me leave the kitchen, and voila, no more tempting baked good for me (yeah, like that'll last, we all know what chocolate dipped holiday is hovering).

The down side of course is that I haven't been able to taste these little "blunana" muffins, and so can't tell you about the results. They look appealing, and wholesome, and I promise to report back when N has tried them tomorrow.

Oh, I forgot to mention, they're low fat and vegan too.I made ten large muffins (they're supposed to be for breakfast) out of the following bread recipe, but you could easily bake it in a loaf tin for about 45-50 mins and slice it instead. I just wanted the easy servings to push into N's hand as he dashes out the door in the mornings.

Blunana muffins/bread

3 very ripe bananas
1 1/2 cup blueberries (I actually just used three small handfuls)

1/4 cup apple puree

1/4 cup groundnut oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons molasses

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon mixed spice (or cinnamon, but at the last minute I realised I'd run out and it was raining so there was no way I was leaving the house, yes, I'm lame, I know)

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin pan with ten papers, or line a loaf pan

In a large mixing bowl, mash up the bananas really well. Add the sugar, apple puree, oil, and molasses, and mix to combine.

Sift in the flours, baking powder, spices, and salt. mix until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined, then gently add the blueberries - mine were frozen so it was easier.

Add a quater of a cup of batter into each muffin case, top up if you have left over.

Bake for aprox 20-25 mins, or until the tops are browning and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and then eat.

Let's take a break(fast) shall we?

Nicole is right, I just can't seem to be stop putting things in jars. I think N was beginning to think he'd never get a cake or cookie again, but yesterday I decided it was time to put a stop to the preserving madness, pause, take stock and make some breakfast.

N and I have been discussing how I should go back to some of the recipes that were either a great success, or needed some adjustment, and make them again or have another go. With the weekend looming, and finally a lie-in, I decided it was time to get the flour out again and actually bake.

Remember these?


They were so delicious and I am ashamed to say that they only got made on two occasions. Only two. A total travesty. So I decided it was time to revisit them, and also to see if I could successfully veganise them.

We're having a brief spell without dairy at the moment, a mixture of health stuff and a response to our total cheese binge over Christmas. We're doing pretty well so far, we've been without cheese since the first week of January (the longest I've ever managed it, and given my obsession with cheese on toast it's been tough), and the past few weeks (post-river cottage) we've managed to cut out everything else. However I refuse to go without my baked treats so I'm expanding my skills a bit to include vegan versions of things. It's pretty handy considering one of my close friends is vegan. It means that not only do I have some experience of this kind of thing, but I will be able to make her more treats in the future as I expand my repertoire. I was really pleased with the outcome of the cinnamon rolls. I think you'd have a hard time telling that they're vegan, the only slight difference is that you don't get the slight buttery flavour in the dough and the filling, but this didn't stop me from polishing off two this morning for breakfast, so I doubt anyone's really going to notice.


Here is my recipe for a batch of about 12 rolls. I was halving my original recipe, which is why some of the measurements might seem a bit weird.

Vegan Cinnamon Rolls

Rolls:

1 1/8 tsp active yeast
1/2 c. warm milk
1/4 c. granulated sugar
half of 1/3 c. vegan margarine, melted
1 pinch salt
20g egg replacer (+ 55ml water)
2 c. all-purpose flour

Filling:

1/2 c. muscovado sugar
1 1/4 TBS. cinnamon
half of 1/3 c. vegan margarine, melted


Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. Add the the sugar, margarine, salt & egg replacer powder and water and combine well. Add flour and mix until the dough forms.
Knead the dough into a ball and leave in the bowl, covered with a tea towel, somewhere warm to rise for an hour, or until doubled in size.

When doubled in size turn out onto a floured surface and roll the dough flat until it is a large rectangle. It should be about ¼ inch thick.

Preheat oven to 200C

Mix the muscovado sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Spread the melted margarine evenly over the surface of the dough, and then sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar evenly over the top.

Roll the dough from the long side down to the bottom edge as if making a swiss roll or roulade.

Cut the rolled dough into 1 ¾ inch slices and put, evenly spaced, on a lightly greased baking pan. Let the rolls rise again until doubled in size (about 30 min.). Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden on top. (mine took about 20 mins.)

I make mine the day before and then re-heat in a 160C oven until just warm, about 5-7 mins. I also glazed mine this morning with a bit of lemon icing. I juiced half a lemon and then added enough icing sugar to get a slightly thickened syrup, I then drizzled it over the warm rolls and immediately scoffed two with my coffee. That's what weekends are about.

Baking Day! (August) - roll out the rhubarb.

Yesterday was Baking Day. I wasn't really in the mood to bake lots of things - I know, sounds crazy doesn't it, but yesterday just turned into "one of those days" and grumpy baking just isn't fun.

However, on Friday I did fancy making us something special for a baking day breakfast. It's been a while since we had a special breakfast and I had a couple of bits in the fruit bowl I needed to use up. The result? rhubarb and cinnamon breakfast rolls.

I used the same dough that I used when making the cinnamon rolls earlier this year and filled it with a rhubarb compote. I then sprinkled the rolls before baking with a sugar and spice mix.

The result? A rather damp and doughy breakfast but a tasty one nonetheless. I think I cut them rather too large and didn't think about the fact that the rhubarb was so wet. It was a nice experiment though and we managed to polish them off with no complaint. I think next time I'd cook down and strain the rhubarb so it isn't as wet, and bake them at a lower temperature for longer.

One to work on...

A photo essay: summery breakfast

A photo essay: Sunday breakfast time

I may not be as good at this as this site, but I'm getting there.

A photo essay: the perfect weekday breakfast.

Easter treats part one: hot cross buns

I'm not religious in any way and neither is N, so celebrating Easter might seems like an odd thing to do in Our Lovely Flat (tm). However, since it was a Pagan festival stolen by the Christians, which has since been re-appropriated by the Capitalists I figure that the food lovers out there are well within their right to borrow the occasion as an excuse to make some damn fine food. After all I think any great food could be considered sacred, and I don't need any excuses to worship at the table!

To be honest, I don't need an excuse to try making homemade versions of food that I really enjoy, in fact I don't need any excuse to make any tasty food at all, but Easter did provide an opportunity to make a whole lot of it at once! Having made my own stollen at Christmas I just couldn't resit trying my hand at the classic hot cross bun. I love hot cross buns, they combine so many things that I enjoy, bread, spices and toast (because I think the best way to enjoy them is toasted to bring out the spices, then slathered in butter!).

Fortunately one of my favourite cookbooks The River Cottage Year by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall included what looked like a great recipe for hot cross buns, and having cooked a number of things from it that have worked out perfectly I knew I need look no further. (I seriously can't recommend this book too highly, I can't wait to see what the Summer month recipes hold in store for us).

The smell of the dough was so fantastic. All spicy with a hint of orange, lemon and yeast. I was so excited about the whole thing that I totally forgot to look at how many the mix would make. So when it came to dividing the dough I was peering at the recipe reciting "cut into 2, then 4, then..." pauses and reads on, "ah, 16, that's rather a lot..." Oops! I must admit I wasn't too disappointed, in fact I was rather pleased. You can never have too many hot cross buns in my opinion.

It was so much fun making the plain flour dough for the crosses. It really felt like I was making proper professional food. I was so smug. N arrived home from work just as I was pasting the crosses on and his face lit up in a grin.

It was hard to resist not breaking one or two open when they came out of the oven and start eating them immediately, but somehow our will power held and they managed to be kept for breakfast. They were delicious and H F-W was right, the didn't have a yeasty flavour at all, just the gentle tones of mixed spice and the slight hint of orange and lemon. Perfect.

So, another thank you to H F-W, another great breakfast, and another successful food adventure.

I'm afraid I'm not going to post the recipe as it is a whole page of the book and quite frankly I can't be bothered to copy it out. I'll just leave you with the photos to make you all jealous! - Plus you should buy the book, it's brilliant.

Birdseed breakfast.

I love lazy weekend mornings, they are the highlight of the week, and part of that is breakfast in bed. Having made the cinnamon rolls last week I've definitely caught the special breakfast bug. Since I am trying to cut down on the amount of cupcakes and general baking indulgence (I could bake every weekend but I know I shouldn't) I decided that making something tasty for breakfast that's indulgent and healthy (well, kind of at least, come on it's the weekend and we're not monks or anything!) would hopefully satisfy both my baking wants and set us up for the day.

So, I took the cinnamon rolls dough recipe (which can be found here), and instead of using a butter and sugar/cinnamon filling, adapted a birdseed filling from "Mad about Bread" by Diana Bonaparte that I had purchased last weekend from the second hand bookshop. The result was a lovely bread roll filled with high fibre delicious seeds and fruit. Crunchy and doughy; lovely. I can see that this formula will become a real winner for breakfasts. I fully intend to try a fresh berry version when our raspberries and blueberries appear in the garden. Ah, just the potential of fresh blueberry and cinnamon swirl rolls is making be hungry all over again!

I won't post the dough recipe again, I will just post the filling ingredients and instructions.

1/3 cup of peanut butter (or just butter if you don't like peanut butter - although what mad fool that could be I don't know!)
Sprinkle of mixed spice and brown sugar (literally a sprinkle, you won't need much, just enough to add some spice)
25g cranberries
25g raisins
30g pumpkin seeds
30g sunflower seeds
20g sesame seeds
20g linseeds

Place the pumpkin and sunflower seeds on a baking tray and place in a oven preheated to 180C for five minutes to toast them. Meanwhile dry fry the linseeds and sesame seeds until just lightly browned. These techniques will bring out the flavour of the nuts more and make them nice and crunchy. Then place all these ingredients in a bowl with the raisins and cranberries and combine as well as possible. Put the peanut butter in a heat proof jug and microwave for 30-40 seconds to make it warm enough to spread thinly and easily.

Roll out the dough into a large rectangle. Thinly spread the peanut butter over the dough, sprinkle with the sugar and spice and then cover with the seed and fruit mixture trying to get as even a distribution of the various ingredients as possible. Roll the dough towards you into a swiss roll and seal as well as possible. Cut it into 3/4 inch pieces. Place on a baking tray that is either greased of covered in baking parchment. Allow to rise for 30 mins. When risen bake for 15-20 mins (mine took 15) until golden.

You can easily do all this the day before (as I do) and then just toast under a preheated grill for a few minutes to make them crispy again.

Mmm, tasty birdseed breakfast!

Baking Day! (March) Part One: Breakfast

Okay, so technically I start this months Baking Day yesterday, but I figured that since it was February 29th, a sneaky extra day, it doesn't really count! The reason I started early was because I wanted to try out a new recipe for Baking Day breakfast and had no intention of getting up early in order to make it.

The reason it needed making early was because I was trying out cinnamon rolls using a dough that required time to rise. So yesterday morning I donned my apron early and set off on a quest for breakfasty goodness. It was much easier than I expected; a simple sweet bread dough that once rested (for an hour) and risen was rolled out was spread with melted butter and a sugar and cinnamon mix. It was then rolled and sliced to produce the cute looking Swiss roll type chunks and proved for another 30 mins before putting in the oven for 15 mins.

The smell was good before the baking had even begun, and once they were in the oven an amazing cinnamony, bready aroma filled the flat. It was going to be really difficult to hold out trying them before breakfast!



Fortunately I did manage to hold out until this morning. Back they went in the oven for a quick re-reheat to toast up the edges, then they were drizzled with lemon cream cheese glaze and served up with our morning coffee. Totally delicious. They will definitely be becoming a staple of our weekend morning routine.