Dairy Free Russian Apple Cake

It was recently my housemate’s birthday and in my book any birthday has to be accompanied by a cake. The problem is my housemate isn’t the biggest cake fan. Last year for her birthday rather than a cake I made her a loaf of bread as a celebratory substitute. But this year I didn’t think I could repeat the bread trick so wanted to make a cake that my housemate would enjoy, which basically involved a cake that isn’t too cakey!! A bit of trawling of the internet and I came across a Russian Apple cake or ‘Sharlotka’ recipe over at Smitten Kitten. This is a recipe where layers of apples are covered in a batter and then baked to make a cake that is more apple than anything else…so a perfect non-cakey cake. And as a bonus there is no added fat so this is a great dairy free addition to the blog.

I adapted the original recipe I found over at Smitten Kitten to include some blackberries from our garden along with some ground almonds to add a more English autumnal twist to this Russian recipe.

INGREDIENTS

500g tart eating apples e.g. Granny Smith (8 small)

½ cup blackberries

4 eggs

250g caster sugar

Seeds from ½ vanilla pod

150g flour

20g ground almonds

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C or 360°F and line a 25cm diameter, loose bottomed tin with non-stick baking parchment.

Peel and core the apples and slice into 2cm thick chunks.

Fill the lined tin with layers of the apple interspersed with blackberries.

In a large mixing bowl beat together the eggs and sugar until thick and creamy.

Fold in the vanilla, flour and almonds until fully combined, being careful not to overwork the mixture.

Gradually pour the batter over the apples and blackberries ensuring the mixture fills all of the gaps between the fruit.

Transfer to the oven and bake for 1 hour until firm and golden brown on top.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin before removing and transferring to a cooling rack.

This cake can be served warm with cream or custard or cold as an afternoon teatime treat.

Vegan Summer Fruit Shake

I thought I had better write this recipe up quickly before the sun disappears from the sky and an autumn chill creeps across the land. There was a little mini heat wave at the weekend though, and after an afternoon of gardening in the sunshine I was in need of some cooling refreshment. And so I raided the freezer and the fridge and whizzed just three ingredients together to make a summer fruit shake. And rather than the usual milk and ice cream added to a shake I used up some of my frozen banana stock and almond milk to make a vegan friendly beverage!

INGREDIENTS

85g frozen banana
50g red berries of your choice (I used frozen summer fruit mix)
200ml almond milk

Place all of the ingredients into a food processor and whizz until blended.

Transfer to a glass and enjoy.

Simple!!!

Vegan Chocolate Courgette (Zucchini) Cookies

My patio plant are currently laden with bulging crops of mange tout, potatoes and carrots. My tomato plants are only just beginning to flower however and my cucumber and courgette seedlings didn’t survive beyond the slug and snail massacre of the spring. Some of my colleagues with larger gardens (and better slug deterrent methods) are currently drowning in the produce and have been sharing courgettes with the rest of the lab. I love courgettes and have already added these grateful gardening gifts to risottos, ratatouille and curries.

Courgettes also make great additions to baked goods providing moisture in cake and bread recipes. I decided to try something a little more alternative with the remaining courgettes hanging around my kitchen and opted for a biscuit recipe instead. I took inspiration from this recipe over at Two Peas and Their Pod making a few adaptations so that the recipe was vegan friendly. On leaving the oven these chocolaty treats properly resembled a fudgy cookie but after a day in the biscuit tin they took on a much more cakey texture (although still as delicious), and either way a great way to get some of your 5 a day into a sweet treat.

INGREDIENTS

225g flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

100g vegan friendly spread

60g cocoa powder

150g caster sugar

50g soft brown sugar

75ml coconut milk

120g grated courgette/zucchini

Pre-heat the oven to 175°C / 350°F.

Line a large baking sheet with greaseproof paper or non-stick baking parchment.

Melt the vegan spread in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Once melted remove from the heat and add both sugars and the cocoa powder and stir until a thick paste-like consistency is reached. Then add the coconut milk to the mixture and stir until well combined.

Sieve the flour and baking powder into the saucepan and stir until combine, then fold in the grated courgette until evenly distributed among the mixture.

Take a large desert spoons full of the dollop onto the baking tray, leaving a little room between each cookie for the mixture to spread a little.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until firm.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sesame, sunflower and ginger snaps

I love sesame seeds and I am partial to the odd sugary treat so adore a sesame snap. And what is even better is that they only contain sugar and sesame seeds so are vegan and gluten free and as I recently found out really even easy to make. I decided to spice my snaps up a little with the addition of a little ginger as well as some sunflower seeds and sent some of these off to my recent foodie pen pal. The remaining snaps were used to fuel myself and my friends through a recent bog snorkelling competition…..and on that note here is the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

100g sesame seeds (toasted)

40g sunflower seeds

2 teaspoons ground ginger

225g caster sugar

Line a baking tray with non-stick baking parchment and grease the paper with a little vegetable oil to prevent the snaps from sticking.

Place the caster sugar in a saucepan and place over a medium heat. Leave the sugar until it start to turn golden around the edges and then stir until all of the sugar has melted and a golden caramel has formed.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the sesame and sunflower seeds and the ground ginger.

Stir together using a wooden spoon or spatula that has also been lightly greased with vegetable oil.

Spoon the mixture out into the prepared baking tray and smooth out using the spoon/spatula. Score the top of the mixture with a sharp knife marking out rectangles and leave to set. Once set snap along the scored lines into separate portions.

Foodie Pen Pals and Fruit Bread

It’s the end of the month so it is Foodie Pen Pal Parcel reveal day. This month I sent a parcel to Charley of Charley’s Kitchen, and received a lovely parcel from Alice who is from Denmark so the parcel was packed full of lots of lovely continental treats.

And the parcel contained;

Mashed potatoes with mushrooms – a camping favourite of Alice and her family, I haven’t had a chance to try this yet and may have to save it until the next time I am off camping too to keep with tradition!

Muesli bars – I have already munched through these (one just before I took part in a recent bog snorkelling challenge) and both were really yum.

Candied rose petals – a great baking ingredient that I hope to use in something pretty soon.

Sahefest – This is a special little ingredient to add to cream before whipping to help it hold its shape, another useful store cupboard ingredient.

Kinder Bueno – This didn’t last long!!!

Lemon Muffins – Made from a German recipe and absolutely delicious.

Bread Spice – A little pot of bread spice and three bread recipes (one of which includes the spice) to make.

So thank you Alice for a lovely parcel full of some great things that I haven’t come across before. I haven’t had a chance to make the spiced bread that Alice included a recipe for yet but I have made the fruit bread which is delicious, and I have included the recipe below with a few minor changes (the recipe called for ALL BRAN but I didn’t have any so swapped this for oats instead. The original recipe from Alice also only included dried apricots but I threw in some dates as well and the result was really good.

INGREDIENTS

240g flour

260g brown sugar

130g oats

50g dates

50g dried apricots

300ml butter milk

Pre-heat the oven to 225 ° C

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

Add the buttermilk and stir until well combined before pouring the dough into a greased loaf tin.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes until golden brown.

Lemon Curd Ripple Ice Cream with Lemon and Basil Syrup

This blogpost marks a rare occasion, an occasion when I am posting an ice cream recipe (which isn’t particularly rare) when the sun is actually shining (which is!!!). It seems to have become a common practise to nip out of work at the end of the lunch hour to feed my ice cream addiction. And with this zesty recipe I have been further feeding my habit out of my own freezer at home.

Some left over lemon curd in the fridge inspired the lemon curd ripple ice cream (which is adapted from the lemon and poppy seed ice cream cake recipe from the Guardian). Another condensed ice cream recipe, I love these because they are so easy to make, require no churning and don’t contain any eggs!!

The accompanying basil and lemon syrup was inspired by my bumper basil crop. I have always attempted to grow my own basil from seed, and have always failed miserably. But this year, thanks to the wondrous appearance of a golden ball of warmth that seems to be permanently visible in the sky, my basil is blooming! And so I thought I would experiment a little, so that I could enter my ice cream recipe into this months Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream challenge over at Kavey Eats…..the theme for which this month is herbs.

The basil syrup is rather subtle but makes a really fresh syrup to accompany this zingy ice cream. And as suggested by Kavey I have also entered this recipe into the cooking with herbs challenge as run by Lavender and Lovage.

FOR THE ICE CREAM

2 lemons

1 tin condensed milk (397g)

150ml plain yoghurt

250ml double cream

100g lemon curd

Zest and then juice both lemons.

Put the condensed milk into a large mixing bowl and stir in the lemon juice and zest until combined. 

Then stir in the yoghurt.

In a separate bowl whip the cream until soft peaks are formed. Fold the cream into the condensed milk mixture.

Transfer the mix to a freezer-proof container. Finally Dollop the lemon curd on top of the ice cream mix and ripple into the mixture using a ford until distributed throughout the mixture.

Transfer to the freezer until frozen (I left mine over night before tucking in!).

FOR THE SYRUP

A large sprig of basil

Peel and juice from 1 lemon

75g caster sugar

100ml water.

Peel the lemon using a vegetable peeler before juicing the lemon. Add the juice and peel into a small saucepan with the basil, sugar and water. Place over a low heat and allow the sugar the dissolve.

Increase the heat a little and allow the mixture to gently bubble until reduced to a syrup.

Pass the syrup through a sieve to remove the basil stalks and lemon peel, allow to cool and spoon over the ice cream to serve.

Pear and Frangipane Tart and MasterChef Ireland

I love a good foodie programme on TV and am a self-obsessed MC (a.k.a MasterChef addict)!!! I love MC in all its varieties whether the contestants are professionals, celebrities or general members of the public. I also enjoy watching the numerous versions of this TV show that are filmed elsewhere in the world. Australian MacterChef takes the show to a whole new level with teams and egg breaking challenges accompanied by a judging panel who have a complete inability to eat food off of the same plate so all dishes cooked up by the contestants have to be meticulously divided between plates for them before tasting can begin (there’s no Gregg just digging straight in and indulgently liking the chocolate fondant off the back of his spoon).

Now that I live on the other side of the Irish Sea I’m also aware of MasterChef Ireland, for which applications are now open for the new series. So if you think you have what it takes to be the best chef in Ireland and be in with a chance of winning €25,000 go apply.

As much as I like to think I am a little Master Chef in my own kitchen I don’t think I am quite ready to take on the challenge of MC….but in recognition that applications for MC Ireland are now open I thought I would attempt to make a recipe from the last series. I went for what was originally a peach and frangipane tart made by Fidelma Boyce.  Frangipane is a great tart filling for anyone who is lactose in tolerant as it is naturally dairy free unlike things like creme patissiere. By substituting the butter in the pastry of the original recipe with a dairy free spread I made this recipe suitable for anyone who is dairy free. (I also didn’t have any peaches so swapped them for pears, but it turned out great!!)

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE PASTY

180g plain flour

120g dairy free spread

1 egg

Zest  1 lemon

70g icing sugar

FOR THE FILLING

150g icing sugar

180g ground almonds

3 eggs

60 g plain flour

4 pears

Mix the flour and icing sugar for the pastry together in a bowl and stir in the lemon zest. Rub in the spread until fully combined with the mixture resembling breadcrumbs. Then add the egg and bring all of the ingredients together using your hands until a ball of dough is formed.

Wrap the pastry in cling film and transfer to the fridge for an hour to allow to cool.

Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 180°C and grease a loose bottomed 30cm diameter flan tin with dairy free spread.

After an hour roll the pastry out on a floured surface and carefully line the tart tin with the pastry gently pushing it down into all of the edges.

Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans (or uncooked rice) and blind bake for 12 minutes. Then remove the baking beans and paper and return to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

Next place the icing sugar, almonds, eggs and flour into a bowl and beat until well combined. Spread this mixture evenly into the pre-baked pastry case.

Core and slice the pears into 2cm thick slices and arrange on top of the frangipane until the case is full with pear slices. Put the tart back into the oven for another 20 to 25 minutes until the frangipane is firm.

Once the tart is removed from the oven you can use a little fruit jam to add a glaze to the tart if desired.

Then allow to cool slightly and tuck in!!

THE SEARCH IS ON TO FIND IRELAND’S NEXT MASTERCHEF!

Are you an amazing amateur cook with a passion for food?

Do you dream of pursuing that passion and possibly changing your life?

Have you got what it takes to impress in the MasterChef kitchen?

If so, we want to hear from you!

Don’t miss out, APPLY NOW for the chance to become the next MasterChef Ireland Champion and win a cash prize of €25,000!

Application deadline is 22^nd July 2013

For more information and to apply go to:

www.rte.ie/masterchef