Roasted Courgette Salad with Goats Cheese and Pine Nuts

This is such a lovely way to cook courgettes, my friend made me a salad recently with roasted courgette and butternut squash and it was delicious so this is my version.  I had some smoked pancetta in the fridge so put that in but it's not essential.  I've made this just for me so the quantities are for one, served with a large glass of wine....don't mind if I do.

Ingredients

One big or two small courgettes, cut into thick pieces

1-2 tablespoons of Pesto, from a jar (or fresh if you have it!)

Glug of Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

A couple of tablespoons of pine nuts

Pancetta or Bacon (optional)

Half a small round of Goats Cheese

A big handful of baby spinach leaves

A few glugs of your favourite dressing

• Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
• Toss the pieces of courgette in the olive oil and the pesto, put into a roasting tin and season with plenty of salt and pepper.  Put in the oven to roast for about half to three quarters of an hour, checking after about 20 mins.
• In a small frying pan, fry the pancetta or bacon until starting to crisp then add the pine nuts and fry with the bacon until lightly brown.  If you're not using bacon, just dry-toast the pine nuts in the frying pan.
• When the courgette is soft and tender and caramelising in places take it out of the oven and leave in the tin.
• Put the spinach on your plate and lightly dress (my favourite dressing at the moment is mustard, cider vinegar and olive oil whisked up with salt and pepper).  Break the goats cheese into pieces and strew around the leaves then follow with the courgette and the bacon/pine nut combo.
• I also like to drizzle around a few drops of balsamic glaze, the sweetness goes well with the goats cheese and it looks a bit good too!
• Grab a fork and dig in...yum

Carrot Cupcakes with St Clements Icing

Carrot cake normally comes with a thick cream cheese topping which, although deliciously indulgent, does make the whole thing quite heavy and calorific.  These carrot cupcakes are topped with a fresh orange and lemon icing and have a moist, fluffy interior, so totally guilt-free! (in the land of denial that is, where I like to spend much of my time)  

I don't put nuts in my carrot cake as I prefer it without and I like to add a touch of cinnamon but if you're not a fan, try substituting it with nutmeg.  You could also put some orange zest in either the cake or the icing if you want it more orangey, it's a personal thing.... 

Makes about 16 fairy cakes or 12 larger cup cakes

Ingredients  

250g Carrots, peeled and grated on a coarse grater

150ml Sunflower Oil

2 Large Eggs

200g Caster Sugar

200g Self-Raising Flour

2 tspn Baking Powder

1 tspn Cinnamon (or nutmeg)

2 tbsp Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice 

For the Icing

Approx. 200g Golden Icing Sugar

Juice of 1 orange

Approx. 100g White Icing Sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

• Pre-heat the oven to 175C (fan) and put fairy cake or cup cake cases into a cup baking tray.
• Put the eggs, sugar and oil into a mixing bowl and whisk until pale and bubbly.
• Add the grated carrot and gently mix.
• Sieve in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon (if using) and add the orange juice. With a spoon, mix together quickly but thoroughly to make quite a runny mixture.
• Spoon into fairy cake/cup cake cases, leave about 1cm at the top of each case.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 12 minutes or until puffed and dried on the top and a skewer comes out clean when poked in.
• Leave to cool completely.
• To make the icing, put the golden icing sugar in a bowl and slowly add enough orange juice to make a thick icing. Then put the white icing sugar in another bowl and drip in enough lemon juice to make a thick icing. 
• Spoon the lemon icing into a piping bag with a small round nozzle.
• With a spoon, ice the cupcakes with the orange icing then immediately pipe swirls (or whatever pattern you like) of the lemon icing onto it.
• Of course if you don't want to be bothered with the piping, just make one icing with orange and lemon juice together.  Either white or golden icing sugar can be used....I'm just quite keen on the golden at the mo!

Gluten-Free Double Chocolate Cookies

Since my first Double Chocolate Cookie blog I've had a few requests for a gluten-free version.  All the bought gluten-free biscuits I've had in the past have been very dry with a slightly unpleasant grainy texture....but these double chocolate cookies need to be gooey....challenge!!
There are quite a lot of wheat flour substitutes out there and I had stoically decided to try several different ones to see which was the most suitable.  Thankfully, after some good advice,  I discovered that Doves Farm do a gluten and wheat free plain flour...which uses 5 different flours in the blend.  The recipe needed a bit of tweaking because the gluten-free flour is a bit different to work with, also baking powder needs to be added.  My usual baking powder contains wheat, however the Doves Farm baking powder doesn't....hurray!  Here goes....


I know it sounds a bit odd but they only really seem to work when the dough has been in the fridge for quite a while to firm up.  I think they naturally firm up because of the butter hardening but also the flour absorbs some of the liquid, improving the texture and flavour.

Ingredients

110g Butter (spreadable is easier)

175g Caster Sugar

1 Large Egg

3 tbsp Golden Syrup

1 tspn Vanilla Extract

160g Gluten-Free Plain Flour Blend 

4 level tspn Gluten-Free Baking Powder

25g Cocoa

3 tbsp Milk

200g Chocolate (milk, white or dark)

• Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg, syrup and vanilla extract.
• Sieve in the flour, baking powder, cocoa and milk and mix together to make a rather sloppy cookie dough.
• Chop the chocolate up, leaving some chunky bits and mix it into the dough.
• Cover the bowl and put into the fridge for at least 2 hours or until the dough has stiffened up considerably (I leave it overnight).
• Pre-heat the oven to 160C or gas 3 and line a baking sheet with greaseproof/baking paper.  With a spoon, scoop out golf ball sized balls of dough and put them on the lined baking sheet allowing enough space in between for spreading.  If you want to make them all at once you will need more than one baking sheet.  The dough keeps for a few days in the fridge or longer in the freezer so, unless you want a lot of cookies, it makes sense to bake it in two batches.
• Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes until puffed and wobbly but feeling firm at the edges.
• Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then carefully transfer to a plate or rack to cool.

Soft Wholemeal Bread Loaf

I really think that there is a great satisfaction in bread making, resulting in intense personal pride when you open the oven and bring out your beautifully baked loaf.  

This is a good everyday bread recipe which makes a loaf with a soft crust, good for sandwiches, toast and soup dipping.  I normally use half white flour and half wholemeal as using all wholemeal flour tends to make quite a heavy loaf.  It's great to experiment but this tends to be the loaf I make most often.

Ingredients

250g/8oz Strong White Bread Flour

250g/8oz Wholemeal Bread Flour

1 heaped teaspoon Salt

200 ml Warm Water, from a recently boiled kettle

120ml Milk

1 heaped teaspoon Sugar

1 tablespoon Oil (sunflower or light olive oil)

1 sachet (7g) of Fast Action Dried Yeast

• Mix the flours and the salt lightly together in a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
• In a measuring jug, measure the water and the milk (it should be warm but not hot when mixed) then add the sugar, yeast and oil.  Give it a good mix until the sugar is dissolved then pour into the middle of the flour.
• With a fork, gradually work the liquid into the flour until it starts to come together as a dough.  Get rid of the fork and switch to using your hands to knead the dough around the bowl to pick up any remaining flour.
• Scrape off as much dough as you can from your hands and wash them.  On a clean work surface, pour a tablespoon or so of oil and spread it over the surface getting your hands thoroughly oiled at the same time.
• Take the dough out of the bowl and start to knead it on the oiled work surface.  It may be a bit sticky but persevere!  After kneading for a while, if you feel that it really is very sticky, try washing and oiling your hands again, this often works for me.  If this doesn't work, then lightly dust the dough with white bread flour and keep kneading.  However, you want to avoid adding too much flour and making the dough too firm, it will struggle to rise resulting in a rather solid loaf.
• When the dough has had about 10 minutes kneading and feels springy to the touch, put it back into the bowl that has been washed and oiled.  Cover the bowl with cling film and leave the dough to rise to about double the size.  This can take anything from 1 to 2 hours, depending on the temperature of your house!  It's good not to rush this stage anyway as it gives the flavour chance to develop.
• When you've got a well-risen dough, take the dough out of the bowl and 'knock it back', lightly kneading it to get the air out.  Then shape it into a vague oval, tucking the dough under itself to make a smooth top.  Place the shaped dough into an oiled loaf tin and cover lightly with cling film and leave to rise again.  This may take up to an hour.
• Pre-heat the oven to 210C (fan).
• When the dough has risen, transfer to the pre-heated oven and bake it for approximately 25 minutes until it sounds hollow when tapped underneath.
• Leave it in the tin to cool slightly then carefully turn it out onto a rack or board.  Leave it to cool completely before slicing, it can go a bit doughy if it is cut into when warm.  The crust will soften as it cools.

Double Chocolate Cookies

These are, in my mind, the best type of cookies. Soft and slightly chewy in the middle with a bit of a crunch around the edge...yum yum.
They are best eaten on the same day and this recipe makes about 20 cookies so I often bake them in two batches.  Saving half the dough in the fridge for a few days or freezing it for up to a month.  A second fresh batch of cookies can then be produced with ease (and a little domestic smugness) whenever they are needed.....    

 

Ingredients

125g Butter (I always use spreadable)

125g Caster Sugar

75g Light Muscovado Sugar

225g Self Raising Flour

25g Cocoa

1 Large Egg

1 tablespoon Golden Syrup

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Up to 200g Chocolate (dark, milk or white)

• Pre-heat oven to 175C and line a baking sheet with greaseproof/baking paper (this is fairly essential as they tend to spread too much if baked directly on the metal baking sheet).
• Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg, syrup and vanilla extract.
• Sieve in the flour and cocoa and mix in until you have a stiff dough.
• Chop up all the chocolate, leaving some chunky bits then mix it all into the dough.
• Using a spoon, scoop out golf ball sized balls of dough and put them on the lined baking sheet with a decent amount of space in between them to allow for spreading.
• Bake for 12-14 minutes until puffed and wobbly in the middle and slightly firmer at the edges.  They won't seem done but they collapse down and firm up very quickly on cooling.  If you want them squidgy in the middle it's important not to overcook them.
• Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for a few minutes then transfer to a plate or rack to cool, or for as long as you can resist them....

Note: The cookies in the picture have had melted white chocolate trickled over them when cool, just to make them a little more special!