Mincemeat Streusel Slice

Sometimes the world of food can be a tad overwhelming. I decided to make mincemeat slice (half the battle – I’m the most indecisive person), had a cautious Google and was met with 795,000 results. For mincemeat slice?! So I ended up making two versions from two baking legends, Mary Berry and Rachel Allen, and doing a mini comparison. Sometimes indecisiveness can be a good thing – double the baking! The other 794,998 results will just have to wait until next year… The recipes differed slightly: Rachel Allen has a more classic approach of dividing one shortbread mixture in half to create two layers surrounding the mincemeat, whilst Mary Berry’s recipe has a very thin pastry layer as the base and a grated streusel topping. Both make a big trayful so we had plenty to compare! I added the zest of an orange to the shortbread in Rachel’s recipe which we all liked as we always have orange pastry in our mince pies at Christmas, and so this was notably missed in the plain pastry in Mary’s version. Also, Mary uses semolina in the streusel topping to add crunch, but none of us were really a fan of the gritty texture that this creates. However, one thing I preferred about Mary’s version was that the thinner base makes room for a thicker layer of mincemeat – useful for when you’re trying to use up Christmas surplus, a bit less heavy and also extra tasty! Mary’s also turned out prettier as the streusel melts into a fairly even top layer – all the photos in this post are her version. In the end we were torn – my parents preferred Rachel Allen’s version whilst I remain a loyal Mary Berry fan. The best result would probably be a combo of both: a bit less semolina in the struesel, a bit of orange to boost flavour and you’d have a winner! Maybe I’ll just have to make a 3rd batch to test this out… You can find the Mary Berry recipe here and Rachel’s version here (confusingly on Nigella’s website…) so you can decide which recipe sounds best to you. Enjoy!

Ruby Red Amaretti Crumble

Quite a fancy name for a crumble, but then it is a Nigella recipe and she is famed for her choices of phrase: chocolate digestives are crushed ‘until they look like dark Mexican mud’, chocolate cake is ‘a confection to exult in, not to regret’ and about peanut butter she says ‘Why, I feel the urge to just rub it all over my body!’ So in retrospect, she went pretty easy on this dish. Plus, this is so good it deserves a glamorous title. In essence, its a Plum, Orange and Amaretti Crumble but its probably the best crumble I’ve ever tried. Apple Crumble is good, the deep purple of Apple and Blackberry even better. Peach is nice in the summer and Pineapple for something a little bit different. But trust me, none are as good as this!The changes that make it stand out are small but effective. The plums are cooked lightly first in a bit of sugar, orange juice and zest to give it a little brightness, make the whole thing smell gorgeous and infuse it with orange. Crushed amaretti crumbs are sprinkled over the plums once they’re in the dish, and then a whole heap more are stirred into the crumble mixture. The combination works so well and smells absolutely intoxicating! We made another one for a friend shortly after ours was all gone, and it proved very tricky to give it away without diving in. With heaps of cream, a rainy evening and the finale of Downton Abbey this crumble made the perfect Sunday night. You can find the recipe here (as well as watch Nigella make it in her classic style) – try it and you might become like my family, planning to add amaretti to every single crumble in the future. Enjoy!

Gooseberry Crumble Cake

Yes, I know this is another cake. Which means that three out of my last four posts have been cakes. But hey, who turns down cake? Not me. Especially when it tastes so summery and pretty like this one… Before this cake I had never cooked with gooseberries, despite them being such a classic British summer fruit. They’re pretty much impossible to eat raw – they’re furry and super sour – but when baked they’re so pretty. I don’t often bake with fresh summer fruit (like strawberries) because they are so good fresh on their own (plus a little expensive) that it sometimes seems like a waste to bake them. Obviously with gooseberries, it’s a different story, and so this cake was made.I don’t think that I have made a crumble cake before but I love it. The moist dark layer of almond cake, the soft sweet-tart layer of gooseberries and the crisp and crunchy crumble? Everything is covered! This cake is best eaten on the first day because the crumble will have the nicest crisp texture. However, we saved this cake for a few days to take with us on a weekend trip and it was still perfectly delicious – just a little softer on top. The cake is a Nigel Slater recipe and he calls it a ‘cut and come again cake’ which is exactly right – it is very moreish! And as it contains fruit it really cannot be that bad for you...right?! Enjoy!

Apple Crumble Cake

I won’t bake things with ingredients I don’t like. It may seem silly – but I don’t see the point in wasting my time with bakes that, ultimately, I’m not going to be able to enjoy. Hence why you have never seen pistachios on the blog (or walnuts, hazelnuts or peanuts…). You won’t see mushrooms/lasagne/cheese soufflé. Great changes will happen before prawns or blue cheese make an appearance. I’m not a fussy eater and I like to try new things, of course, but I know what I do and don’t like.

On the other hand, as I have created this little piece of the blogosphere, I have come to realise my three favourite ingredients. When stuck with no inspiration, it is all too often a dish containing one of these favourites that I turn to. After several failures or disappointments, I turn to these ingredients to get my confidence back. I love them, and they will never be absent from my kitchen for long.

Chocolate. Lemon. Almond.

Together, bakes containing these three stars make 29 out of my 77 posts so far – quite a hefty proportion. All very different ingredients, but my favourites nonetheless. Whether the star ingredient, or sharing the spotlight, these ingredients always make me hungry. When my sister first started cooking ground almonds went into almost everything. It’s no different with me, and I have more almondy treats still coming up! But today, almond is indeed sharing the spotlight. Glorious pink apples take the stage (ahem, plate) to fill this pretty, juicy cake.

Inspiration can come from the randomest places, in this case a little Waitrose leaflet. This cake takes minutes to knock up but is absolutely scrumptious when cooked so it is perfect for those short-notice guests. The shortbread-style base is full of crisp and crunch, whilst the apples slowly soften down and release their delicate pink flavour. Then the flaky almond sweet crumble just tops it all off…I’m now craving some more and it’s all gone.

Apple Crumble Cake, from Waitrose NEW

Serves 6-8

Ingredients: 200g plain flour
150g butter
80g caster sugar
3 chopped apples
1tbsp demerara sugar
75g flaked almonds.

1. Preheat oven to 200’C, gas mark 6. Place flour, butter and sugar in a processor and blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Remove 1/3 of the mixture, continue blitzing the remainder until the mixture forms a dough. Press into a 20cm loose-bottom cake tin. Top with the three chopped apples.
3. To the crumble, add the demerara sugar and almonds. Sprinkle this over the apples and bake for 40-45 minutes. Enjoy the crumbly goodness :)

Blueberry Apricot Crumble Tray Bake

Quite a name, for quite a cake.
I’ve made things before with lots of flavours – but this is the best. Simple cake base. Lemon yogurt topping. Blueberries sprinkled on top. Sliced apricots join them. And the crowning glory layer of crumble. But not just plain crumble, utterly delicious cinnamon crumble. All in one little square of cake. That’s my kind of cake :)
This scrumptious cake is from the lovely The English Kitchen blog, by Marie. Every day Marie posts something delicious – and this was from back in mid-October but I’ve only just got round to making it. My finished cake is slightly different to Marie’s, because I used frozen instead of fresh blueberries. Whilst the fresh ones sit there looking gorgeously neat and round, the frozen ones explode in juicy purple goodness…creating a rather different look!
The frozen blueberries also make the topping more squidgy with juice, which in turn affects the crumble topping. Because of this, I had to cook the cake for about 20minutes longer – but the cake was alright as the blueberries kept them moist. I’d like to try this cake with apples and blackberries, or pears, or a nice summer version – I’m sure it would be so versatile. The lemon yoghurt was also an interesting addition – it’s just a subtle little flavour but it really adds a little extra zing! This makes a lovely big tray of cake, perfect for big casual gatherings: it won’t last long! Thank you Marie for the charming recipe, find it here :)

December 3rd – Mincemeat Crumble Cake

I have found my camera lead! This means I can show off my mincemeat I made yesterday. Once you have mixed everything together, you add the suet, so your mincemeat looks like this, all gorgeously Christmassy and juicy:

Then, Delia says to heat it in the oven for 3 hours so that the suet all melts and you can no longer see any white strands. However, all I did was cover it with clingfilm and put the whole bowl in the microwave for 5-6 minutes and it was all gone easy peasy! So then all that was left was to pop it into jars (wash them with boiling water beforehand) and you end up with beautiful mincemeat ready to go:

So today, it was December 3rd and a new recipe! I wanted to start using my mincemeat straight away so I made a Mincemeat Crumble Cake. Its got three components/layers but they are all very simple: a thin vanilla sponge to soak up all the mincemeat juices, then a mincemeat and apple mix, then a big crumble topping. I did like this cake but I had a little drama – the oven was not on fan but on oven and top grill, when I put it in. Not realising, I just left it for its 40minutes by which time I took it out and my crumble topping was now complete charcoal! My Mum cut off the burntness and we put the cake back in for five more minutes on its normal setting to cook properly all the way through. When we took it out it perhaps wasn’t as pretty as I had intended but tasted just as good! All rather embarrassing to admit, but my intro bit does say “document by successes and failures” although I would not call this a failure at all but just a bit of an accident!

When we ate it though it had worked just as planned: the strong vanilla sponge was a yummy base, and the mincemeat and added apple were rich, plump and juicy. Then what was left of the crumble topping was nice and did add the extra crunch needed to make it all complete. Definitely worth a try – just make sure your oven is on the right setting :D

The recipe was good, but the method described seemed quite long and round-about and using a lot of plates and bowls. I did the crumble all in the Magimix then emptied it into a bowl and set aside. Then I put all the sponge ingredients in at the same time and whizzed and done! But, below I have printed the original recipe.

Mincemeat Crumble Cake, from Entertaining with Katie Stewart.

Makes a 22.5cm (9 inch) cake

Ingredients:

2 dessert apples

225-350g (8oz-12oz) mincemeat

175g (6oz) self raising flour

pinch of salt

100g (4oz) butter

100g (4oz) caster sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

2tbsp milk

Crumble Topping:

100g (4oz) self raising flour

75g (3oz) butter

75g (3oz) caster sugar

25g (1oz) flaked almonds

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180’C. Grease a 22.5cm (9inch) spring clip tin.
2. Sift the flour for the crumble topping into a bowl. Add the butter and cut in with two table knives using a scissor like movement until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
3. Add the sugar and flaked almonds and set aside.
4. Peel, quarter and core the apples, then dice finely and mix into the mincemeat.
5. Sift the flour and salt for the cake on to a plate. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until soft and light.
6. Lightly mix the eggs and vanilla essence and add to the creamed mixture, a little at a time, beating well after each addition – add a little of the flour along with the last few additions of egg.
7. Gently fold half the remaining flour into the mixture, then add the rest of the flour and milk and mix until blended.
8. spoon the cake mixture into the prepared tin and spread level. Fork the apple and mincemeat mixture evenly over the filling and cake. Then spread the crumble topping evenly over the filling and cake.

9. Place in the heated oven and bake for 45-50minutes. Allow to cool in the tin before opening the sides.

P.S. Sorry for the “interesting” and oddly lit photos, but I am making these things at about 7 when it is dark :(

Blackberry and Apple Mania!

If you love blackberries (or apples...) but can’t get any near you then look away because this post holds 5 yummy blackberry or apple (or both) baked puddings! After last Fridays successful blackberry gathering down by the Thames, we took our supply up to Suffolk where we picked more! We also gathered the glut of apples on our huge apple tree in the garden and then made these.....

First – blackberry and apple compote. Peel, core and chop your apples, add loads of blackberries, put on the heat and wait. You end up with delicious deep purple compote which I like best with Greek yogurt and a little bit of brown sugar for breakfast.



Next – Blackberry and apple crumble! Crumble is the first recipe I ever learnt to make and it is very simple. I often make it on holiday because all you really need is a bowl, caster sugar, butter and flour. I love rubbing it all together and thinking “this is never going to come together” and then in just a few minutes ending up with fine breadcrumbs. I like using slightly soft butter because it is easier and quicker to rub, but if I am making it at home I do it in the Magimix.

Sometimes I use tinned peaches or apricots for the filling, and once tinned pineapple, but my all time favourite is strawberry and rhubarb crumble! In Spain we used plums and sometimes we add oats or ground almonds to the crumble mix but mainly just leave it simple. This one was very good!

Thirdly – heaped blackberry and apple pie. One day we went to Ipswich and the Lakeland store there (I’m a bit sad - I loved it there and was choosing things to buy when I grow up!) . When we were there we bought (among other things!) a pie dish. As soon as I got home I put it to use making this delicious yummy pie. I liked the pie dish because it had a smaller dish with holes in that fitted snugly inside and was for baking things “blind” instead of using baking beans etc. I pressed down the pastry, put the small hole dish on top, baked for 10 minutes and it came out great! Then I piled in the apples and blackberries and covered with the remaining pastry. My sister carved in some stars and leaves on the pastry, we cooked it for about 20 minutes and it came out delicious! I was very proud because it was my first time making pastry and my first pie :)

Before...

And after!

Fourthly, (?) the simplest pudding – baked apples! Whilst at Lakeland we also bought these nifty baked apple cookers.

They came with a corer and we just cored the apples, secured them in the cooker, topped with mixed fruit, butter and sugar, covered with the lid and microwaved for a few minutes!

Fifth and finally, blackberry muffins. I will post more about these tomorrow but they are VERY good (I have made three batches in a week and there are only three members of my family eating them!). I really liked the recipe (from BBC Good Food Magazine) and know I shall make these again in the future. Now, however, I am all blackberried out and have some savoury recipes in the pipeline! Savoury - eek!!!