Banana maple walnut muffins

"Nuffins" are my three year old's favorite.



Butter, for greasing the muffin cups (unless using liners)
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (not regular whole wheat flour)
1&1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1&1/2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas (about 4)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts




Preheat to 375f, and butter or line your cupcake tin
Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
Place the eggs, maple syrup, brown sugar, milk, oil, and vanilla in a medium sized bowl and whisk to combine. Add bananas, and stir to combine.
Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture, and stir till just combined. Fold in the walnuts. Do Not Over mix.
Fill the muffin cups almost to the top. Bake 20 – 30 minutes using the toothpick test. Let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Well, I think I finally cracked it. I’ve had some trouble in the past with the muffins. Historically, they don’t rise very well, and the texture is a bit off. These, however, came out lovely, tall, and ever so tasty.

I got these from the book Food to Live By. Another home run for this book. We all loved these.

Festive Ham

More Hot Ham Water...




3.5kg gammon
2 litres cranberry juice
2 litres apple juice
2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
2 onions, halved but not peeled
1 tbsp allspice berries

For the glaze:
Approx 30 cloves to stud the ham
4tbsp cranberry jelly, or 6tbsp cranberry sauce
1tbsp runny honey
1tbsp English mustard powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon




Put the gammon into a pot and cover with cold water and bring to a boil, then immediately drain and rinse in a colander (or leave in cold water and soak overnight).
Rinse the saucepan and put the gammon back in and add all of the ham ingredients (not the glaze ingredient). If the fruit juice doesn’t cover the ham, add some water. Bring the pan to a boil and cook at a fast simmer for about 3.5 to 4 hours. Partially cover with a lid if the ham is sticking out at all getting dry.
Once it’s cooked remove it from the pot and let it cool till you can touch it. Cut and peel off the rind, and trim some of the fat, leaving only a little. Preheat the oven to 220c. Score the fat into diamond shapes, and stud the points of the diamonds with a clove.
Heat the remaining glaze ingredients, till the jelly (or sauce) melts, and it forms a smooth glaze. Let it bubble till it gets syrupy. It needs to be thick enough so it doesn’t run off the ham as you cook it.
Sit the ham on a piece of foil in a roasting tin. Pour the glaze over the ham so all the scored fat is covered, and cook for 15 minutes.
If you want you can let it cool completely after the boiling, but then you’ll need to bake for about 40 minutes (from room temperature) at 180c, with a quick blast of high heat at the end.

This was from theNigella Lawson book “Feast”. I decided to make it for our Easter dinner, because it looked like a fun way to make a ham. It was.

I will warn you that you should take a close look at your biggest pot before you try this one. Mine is huge, and was still a little too small. Next weekend we are going out to a specialty store to buy the biggest pot ever, so that I can make this again someday.

This was easy, and gorgeous. The long time boiling in the sweet fruit juice really cut back the saltiness of the ham in a beautiful way, and the glaze was so good that it was hard not to just eat pieces of fat off the top.

The leftover ham was so good, that I couldn’t bring myself to make anything out of it, I had to just eat it cold with nothing added.

Hot Cross Buns

For the dough:
150ml milk
50g butter
zest of 1 orange
1 clove
2 cardamom pods
400g bread flour (has to be strong bread flour, not regular)
1 packet easy blend yeast (7g)
125g mixed dried fruit
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 egg

For the egg wash:
1 egg, beaten with a little milk

For the crosses on the buns:
3tbsp plain flour
1/2 tbsp sugar
2tbsp water

For the sugar glaze
1 tbsp sugar
1tbsp boiling water

Heat the milk, butter, orange zest, clove and cardamom till the butter melts, then remove from heat and leave to infuse.
Measure the flour, yeast, and dried fruit into a bowl, and add the spices. When the infused milk cools to blood temperature, take out the cardamom pods, and beat in the egg and pour into the bowl of dry ingredients.
Knead till you have a silky elastic dough, form into a ball and place in a buttered bowl covered with cling film. Leave to prove overnight in the fridge (or for an hour to an hour and a half in a warm place).
Preheat to 220c. Take the dough out of the fridge and bring back to room temp. Punch down and knead till elastic again, then break the dough into 16 pieces. Sit them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, snug together but not touching. Using the back of a knife, score the tops of the buns with a cross, and leave to prove for about 45 minutes.
Brush the buns with egg wash, then using a teaspoon dribble the flour, sugar, water mix into two lines in the indents of the cross. Bake for 15-20 minutes. When they come out of the oven, mix the sugar and boiling water and brush it onto each bun to make them shiny and sweet.

These were also in theNigella Lawson book “Feast”. They seemed so complicated at first, but they are not any more difficult then any other bread. And they are really festive and yummy.

To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about hot cross buns. I seem to like them in theory more then in practice, but I keep trying them periodically, and these are probably my favorite so far. They got rave reviews even though I forgot to add the egg to the dough…oops.

Honeycomb Cannelloni

Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese for grating
500g/1lb 2oz good quality cannelloni tubes
olive oil

for the sauce
a small handful of dried porcini
150ml /5.5oz olive oil
3 carrots, peeled and diced
4 sticks of celery, trimmed and finely diced
1 large red onion, peeled and finely diced
1 leek, trimmed, outer leaves discarded, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
5 portobello mushrooms, finely chopped
5x400g tins of tomatoes
a large bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped

for the spinach
680g/1&1/2 lb fresh spinach
nutmeg for grating

for a quick white sauce
285ml/1/2 pint single cream
500ml/ 17.5 oz crème fraiche
4 good quality anchovy fillets in oil, drained and finely chopped
handful of grated parmesan cheese

First find a pan that will hold all your cannelloni, snugly, standing up.



Preheat to 190c/375f
Make your sauce:
Put the porcini in a bowl and cover with boiling water, leave to stand for 5 minutes.
Heat a pan and add the oil, carrots, celery, onion, and leek. Cook for 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic and portebello. Remove the porcini from the bowl and add to the pan, and cook for another 5 minutes. Strain the porcini liquid into the pot with a wineglass of water. Allow the liquid to reduce slightly, then add the tomatoes, and chopped basil stalks, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for up to 45 minutes, then tear in the basil leaves.

Prepare spinach:
Throw the spinach in a pan with a splash of oil , stir and leave it to wilt down. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Set aside.

White sauce:
Mix together all white sauce ingredients, and check the seasoning.



Get your baking dish and spoon in about 1/2 inch of the cheese sauce, sprinkle with parmesan and top with the spinach. Ladle in half of your sauce then press the cannelloni tubes down into the sauce. The sauce should come about halfway up the tubes. Spoon over the rest of the sauce, smoothing it down the holes. Pour over the remaining cheese sauce, then sprinkle over some parmesan, drizzle with oil and bake for 45 minutes.

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe that I have been looking at for a while, but just hadn’t gotten around to. I finally tried it the other day and it was excellent. I had thought that the fact that all the cannelloni tubes were standing up was really just kind of funny, and would make me laugh when I did it, and these things are true, but it’s also a lot easier. Anyone who has ever tried to hand stuff a cannelloni tube without breaking it can attest to that.

It’s also different because most of the cannelloni I have had in the past was stuffed with cheese, but these are stuffed with the sauce, which is practically all vegetables (by the way, be sure to mince your vegetables really small or they won’t easily fit into the tubes). In the end it makes them somewhat lighter, and quite a bit healthier I would think.

The combinations of flavors are really wonderful. The cheese sauce is not overpowering, it just blends well, and the spinach layer not only really fills out the dish, but it also meant I didn’t need to make a side green veg to go with it.

The only down side to this dish is that it’s a bit hard to serve without mangling. Not as hard as I thought it would be, but hard enough that it looks a lot prettier in the pot then out. On the other hand, even if you mash it up and smoosh it all together, it will still be delicious!

Waldorf Salad

1/3 cup plain nonfat yogurt or sour cream
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1tsp grated lime zest
2tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp honey or sugar
1 unpeeled apple, cut into 1/3 inch dice (1 cup)
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup seedless grapes, cut in half
1/2 cup pecans, or walnuts, toasted
5 oz, about 6 cups baby spinach or mixed greens

Place the yogurt, mayonnaise, lime zest and juice, curry powder and honey in a small glass or ceramic bowl and whisk to combine.
Place the apple, celery, raisins, grapes, and nuts in a large bowl. Add half the yogurt dressing and stir to combine. Just before serving, add the salad leaves and toss to combine. If the salad is too dry add more dressing.

Any left over dressing can be stored in the fridge for up to a week.

This recipe is from Food to Live By. I have to say, this book continues to impress me. This salad is really good. I have never really been a fan of fruit in my green salad, but the mix of flavors and textures works so well here. I think it's because it's not just a green salad with some raisins thrown on, but an almost half and half balance between the greens and the other stuff. Also, the dressing really pulls it together well. I wouldn't have thought that curry would go well in a dressing, but it's really mellow, and it blends everything really nicely.

I had not ever had a waldorf salad before, but I was told that this was an especially good one. I'm looking forward to trying out more and more salads as the weather gets nicer and nicer.

Fruit loaf

This bread is HUGE! This is a picture of a half eaten quarter of a slice, just to give you an idea of scale.



Basic loaf:
30g/1oz/3X7g sachets dried yeast
30g/1oz honey (or sugar)
625ml/just over 1 pint tepid water
1kg/just over 2lbs strong bread flour
30g/1oz salt
Some extra flour for dusting

Fruit mixture:
A pinch of ground cinnamon
1 clove, ground
200g/7oz dried apricots
100g/3&3/4 oz dried dates
200g/7oz raisins
Place the fruit mixture into a food processor and chop very finely.

Dissolve the yeast and honey (or sugar) in the tepid water.
Mix the flour and salt, making a well in the middle and pouring in the yeast mixture. Mix together adding in the fruit mixture and forming a dough. Knead for about 5 minutes.
Flour the top of the dough make it into a roundish shape and place it onto a baking tray. Score the top and leave to prove till it doubles in size (probably about 40 minutes). You want a warmish place, and you can cover with cling film to speed the process.
Knock the air out and pack it into a greased and floured bread tin. It should just under fill the tin. Leave it to prove again till it doubles again, then bake at 200c/400f for 50 minutes, remove from the tin and put back into the oven for a final 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 30 minutes.

I've been looking into fruit breads lately. So many of them are more cake then bread and I wanted one that would be good for breakfast, or snacks, and wouldn't make the kids nuts with sugar. I found this one in a Jamie Oliver book, and as I trust him implicitly, I went with it.

So glad I found it! SO GOOD! This is great because it uses honey as a sweetner, and although it seems like a lot of honey, if you take the size of the bread into consideration, it's practically none. From the recipe alone it didn't look like it would have all that much flavor, but it was amazing! The spices make the bread all light brown and perfume-y and the bits of fruit are just the perfect amount of sweetness. The crust is really nice too, sort of chewy. This bread is good for everything, breakfast, snack, dessert, whatever. It's just so good that it doesn't need anything on it, although it's amazing with cream cheese too.

I fully and wholeheartedly recommend this bread!

Easy Almond Cake

This is a total cheat because I didn't actually make it. My mom is visiting right now, and she loves cake. She saw this one in the Nigella Lawson book "How to be a Domestic Goddess" and had to try it. It was made in my kitchen, and I was there watching, but I can't actually take the credit.



250g softened butter
250g softened marzipan
150g caster sugar
1/4 tsp almond essence
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
6 large eggs
150g self raising flour

25cm springform tube pan, or patterned ring mould, buttered and floured.

Preheat to 170c/325f
Chop the butter and marzipan to make them easier to break down, and put them in a food processor with the sugar. Process till combined and pretty well smooth. Add the almond essence and the vanilla extract and process again. Add the eggs one at a time through the funnel, processing again each time. Tip the flour down the funnel, processing again, and then pour into the prepared tin.
Bake for 50 min, but check from 40. When the cake looks golden and a cake tester comes out clean-ish, remove from the oven and cool before turning out.

I know it sounds like this would be overly sweet, with the marzipan and all, but it's really not. It's truely a beautiful thing. It has the consistancy of a pound cake, but really really almond-y. It really was super easy too, and not just because it wasn't me making it. It also kept well and was just as good if not better the next day.

Good Cake!

Chicken Paprikash

4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2 inch strips
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1/2 inch strips
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
2tbsp butter
2tbsp olive oil
1 medium size yellow onion, cut into 1/4 inch dice
1tbsp minced fresh garlic
2tbsp tomato paste
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup sour cream
2tbsp flour
1/4 tsp hot Hungarian paprika (optional)
coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley (optional)

Keeping the thigh and breast meat separate, season the chicken pieces with the salt, pepper, and paprika.
Heat the butter and oil, and add the thigh meat stirring frequently for about 5 minutes. Then add the breast meat and continue stirring frequently till cooked through, 3-5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to a bowl and set aside.
Add the onion to the skillet and soften, about 5-8 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
Add the stock and increase the heat to bring to a boil then reduce back to low. Add the chicken with any juices, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
In a bowl whisk together the sour cream and the flour, and add to the chicken stirring to blend. Cook over low heat until the sauce thickens slightly, 3-5 minutes. Do not let the sauce boil or the cream will separate.
Add the hot paprika if using, season to taste and garnish with parsley.

I served this with some wide flat type noodles.



This recipe is all about the quality of your paprika. Without a good one, it's basically going to be just some chicken and onions. I used a really nice smoked sweet paprika and it was really wonderful. I left off the optional hot paprika at the end because of the boys, but I would recommend using it. I think it would make what was a good and super comforting dish, into an amazing and really deeply flavored dish.

This was from a book called Food to Live By, and it was, as with everything I've tried from this book, really exceptional. My youngest loved it so much I had to include a picture of him enjoying it.

Filled Focaccia

aka... crazy mutant bread of goodness


For the bread:
9oz/250g strong white bread flour
1tsp easy blend dried yeast
5oz/150ml water
1dsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing
1tsp salt

For the filling:
Anything you have in the house. I had:
Tomatoes
Olives
Ham
cheese



This was a real recipe, but it didn’t really work for me. I was supposed to have a bread maker, which I don’t, and I was supposed to have things like Parma ham, which is pricey, so I kind of took the idea and ran with it.

I mixed the dry ingredients and added in the wet ones and kneaded for about 5 minutes or so, basically till it felt good and springy and compact.

I let it rise once, then cut it in half. I rolled out the bottom as large as I could, and laid it out on a baking sheet. I covered the dough completely with slices of ham, grated the cheese and sprinkled it over the top, then threw on a few torn up olives (they were the black oil cured kind). I rolled out the other piece of dough so that it would cover it all, and after covering it I pinched the ends together so nothing would leak out.

I let it rise for about half an hour, though it didn’t really. Then I poked my fingers into it’s surface to make the classic focaccia look, threw some sliced tomatoes and salt, and the rest of the olives over the top and tossed it into the oven at 200c/400f for 20-25minutes.

It came out like a funny mutant pizza bread thing, but boy was it tasty! For some reason the whole center of it inflated in the oven, though no other part of it did. As It was cooling it sort of fell back to a normal looking thing, but by then we were so distracted by eating it, that who cared?

Because it didn’t rise as it should have, I suppose technically this was a failure, but it was really tasty, and even my older son had many pieces. I’m going to make this again next time I need an easy to transport picnic type food.

Next time I will probably make a bigger dough though, as this one had to be rolled pretty thin.

Bagels

Hey, sorry I’ve been out of commission for the last couple of days, but I’m all better now, and I have bagels for you!



1kg strong white flour, plus more for kneading
1tbsp salt
7g easy blend yeast, or 15g fresh yeast
2tbsp sugar
1tbsp veg oil, plus more for greasing
500ml warm water, plus more as needed
2tbsp malt or sugar for poaching bagels


Combine flour, salt, and yeast together in a large bowl. Add the sugar and oil to the water. Make a well in the dry ingredients, and add the liquid. Mix together then knead, adding as much flour as you can. You want this to be a very dry dough. It will be very stiff and hard work, and will take at least 10 minutes.
Form into a ball, put into an oiled bowl, turning to coat, then cove with clingfilm and leave to rise about an hour. Punch down and give a good knead, then divide into 3 pieces. Roll each into a rope, then cut into five pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, then back into a rope, then curl around to form a ring, pinching the ends together. Sit the bagels on a sheet, cover and leave for about 20 minutes, till they are puffy.
Preheat to 240c, or as high as your oven will go. Boil a pot of water and add the sugar or malt once it is boiling. Drop a couple of bagels at a time into the boiling water for a minute, turning them over halfway through (use two spatulas). Then bake for 10-15 minutes till golden brown.

These are Nigella’s bagels.

These are not in celebration of Passover, as they would be completely inappropriate considering they are leavened and all, but at least they are the right ethnic background. I was going to do some Passover food, but again, was out of commission for a bit.

More importantly though, holiday or not, these are so much fun to make and wonderful and tasty and all things good!

They are not the best bagels I’ve ever had, because I am a New Yorker, so that would be a tall order, but they are really good, and I will make them again and again, and that is saying a lot.

She wasn’t kidding when she said the dough would be tough. This dough is not your friend. It was actually a work out getting it kneaded, but then all the rolling and shaping and boiling were so much fun they totally made up for it. We made some with toppings. After the boiling before the baking. I made a couple of seed covered ones, and a few salt (coarse sea salt), because they are my all time favorite.

My older son (3 years old) got to help and he did really well. He rolled them into ropes and shaped them with little to no help, and they came out great.

Seriously, this is another that is a fun group activity and a great food too!