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Reasonably healthy birthday cake and potentially fluorescent animals
Léo was 11 at the end of August and had been meticulously planning a paint-ball party for several months. He had trawled the internet for supplies and equipment until it dawned on me that half a dozen little boys in the possession of paintball guns ‘chez nous’ was bound to mean multi-coloured, possibly even fluorescent, highly traumatised animals. As if our animals don’t have problems enough. So it was decided that the paint-balling be done at a safe distance (about 30 kms away – I wasn’t taking any chances). They came back here afterwards (multicoloured and very grubby) to relieve the pool of over 1000 litres of water before sitting down to eat hamburgers and birthday cake. I had also planned to serve hotdogs, but Hugo polished them off before they made it to the table. The less said about that the better I think.
I really can’t claim that this cake is 100% healthy, but it’s just about as healthy as it can be, it couldn’t be easier to make and it goes down a charm. What’s not to like?
Ingredients
200g spelt flour
140g cane sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 organic eggs, beaten
1 plain yoghurt
150ml organic virgin coconut oil, melted
Organic hazelnut spread and plain chocolate (65% coco solids) M&Ms to decorate
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Add the eggs, yoghurt and coconut oil, mixing well. Pour the mixture into a greased medium cake tin and cook for 30 minutes. Remove from tin and leave to cool before covering with the hazelnut spread ‘icing’ and M&Ms. -
Blackberry and apple crumble (gf) and hideouts for dogs
by Hugo, Canine Correspondent
I’m really not a complaining sort of dog, but there are a few things that have been bothering me recently. The Bossy One invited lots of friends to stay this Summer, which is fine because it means that I can have fun knocking them over and sitting on their laps. But it also means that she has less time to devote to me. And that is not fun, in fact it’s hurtful because I feel neglected. Admittedly she still takes me for walks, but frankly her mind is elsewhere when she’s jabbering away or picking blackberries. Usually she spends her time worrying about where I am while I’m off chasing deer and rabbits. Sometimes I hide to watch her look for me; it’s quite amusing to watch her unspool. Anyway, to get away from it all, I made myself a little camp under the hydrangea bushes in front of the house. Only the hens know where I am; at least they still remember I exist.
Ingredients
300g apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tablespoons maple syrup
80ml orange juice
150g blackberries, rinced
80g chickpea flour
40g ground almonds
2 tablespoons almond flakes
pinch of ground sea salt
40g butter, cut into cubes
40g organic virgin coconut oil, at room temperature and cut into small cubes
30g cane sugar
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Gently simmer the sliced apples and maple syrup for a couple of minutes in about 80ml of orange juice (or apple juice or water). Add the blackberries and transfer to an ovenproof baking dish. To make the crumble, put the butter, coconut oil, chickpea flour, ground almonds and salt into a bowl and rub in with your fingertips. Add the almond flakes, mixing well. Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit, adding the cane sugar to the top of the mixture. Bake for about 35 minutes and serve hot with vanilla ice cream. -
Caramelised peach and buckwheat pudding cake (gf) and tired chicken legs
Hugo and I were nearly a kilometre from the house yesterday evening when we realised that we were not alone — all three hens had followed us. (The only other time I have seen chicken legs move as fast was at a rugby club barbecue). It goes without saying that Hugo was not best pleased. He tried to explain, rather tendentiously I felt, that they should return home, but to no avail; they were absolutely determined that they needed some exercise. As a result, for the moment at least, we have three hens too knackered to lay eggs.
This pudding cake is another adaptation from my Book of the Moment: Love, Bake, Nourish by Amber Rose. Luckily for me, it is fairly egg-light, but no less delicious for it.
Ingredients
For the peach topping:
3 peaches, peeled and cut into slices
2 cardamon pods
25g salted butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
For the pudding base:
75g butter
75g organic virgin coconut oil
75g organic buckwheat flour
2 large free-range eggs (preferably from hens that don’t partake in cross-country events)
75g ground almonds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
50g maple syrup
50g agave syrup
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Caramelise the peaches and ground cardamon pods in the butter and maple syrup. Set aside. Cut the butter and coconut oil into small cubes and cream with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add a tiny bit of the flour, then the eggs one at a time. Continue to beat the mixture until fluffy. Fold in the remaining flour, ground almonds, cinnamon and syrups.
Transfer the mixture into a greased cake tin, levelling well with the back of a spoon. Place the caramelised peaches on top of the cake mixture, drizzling any remaining juice over the top. Bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool. Delicious served with vanilla ice-cream. -
Quatre-quarts (pound cake) and irritatingly untidy hens
Things are dodgy here in the canine mental health department — Hugo’s OCD is back with a vengeance. He has decided that the three hens should be together AT ALL TIMES. Apparently stray hens are just too untidy to contemplate. Luckily, the white hen and older red one do seem to stick together (whether through choice or fear of Hugo is unclear). The younger red hen though is a bit of a rebel and seems to enjoy teasing neat-freak dogs. I’ve given up yelling at him for grabbing her by the wings and depositing her in her rightful place next to the others as he doesn’t seem to harm her (beyond making her soggy) and she’s obviously anything but traumatised. He makes the most of having her in his mouth to lick her clean; In Hugo’s world, cleanliness is next to godliness.
Although pound cake (quatre-quarts as it’s called in France) really contains too much sugar to be considered healthy, I’ve tried to make it as unhealthy as possible by using ‘whole’ ingredients. The result is rich, delicious and versatile: a great vehicle for all sorts of toppings or accompaniments.
Ingredients
250g spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
125g butter
125g extra virgin organic coconut oil
200g cane sugar
4 large organic eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 tablespoon rum
Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together and set aside. Cut the butter and coconut oil into cubes and leave to soften at room temperature for a few minutes. Beat with an electric mixer for about ten minutes until fluffy and then gradually add the sugar, continuing to beat. Add the eggs one at a time and whisk for another few minutes. Lastly, add the rum and vanilla essence and gently fold in the flour. Transfer the mixture to a buttered loaf tin and cook in a non-preheated oven at 160°C for an hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin. -
Apple and almond muffins and lawnmower paths
My husband has decided that the heat is too intense to navigate our land on foot and has starting going everywhere by lawnmower, as you do. He explained the logic at some length, although I don’t remember much; my mind must have slipped into neutral. I believe it was something to do with ‘efficiency’ and the fact that if I’m looking for him, I just have to follow the path of most freshly-cut grass. Or something. Our bank manager sounded more than a little bit nonplussed on the ‘phone this morning when I told him that he could indeed speak to ‘Monsieur’ just as soon as I had identified the most recently-cut grass strip…
These muffins are deliciously light and tasty whether you’re certifiable or not. They are adapted from one of my favourite cookbooks of the moment: ‘Love, Bake, Nourish’ by Amber Rose.
Ingredients (makes 12)
2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into pieces
1 teaspoon cinnamon
60g salted butter, softened
60g coconut oil, softened
150g spelt flour
2 organic eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
160g agave syrup
60g ground almonds
50ml milk
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Sprinkle the apples with cinnamon and poach until soft in a small amount of water. Set aside. Cream the butter and coconut oil for about 4 minutes. Add a spoonful of flour, beat again, then add the eggs, beating further until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add a little more flour to prevent curdling. Gently fold in the rest of the flour, baking powder, agave syrup, ground almonds and milk. Lastly, fold the poached apples into the mix. Spoon the mixture into muffin trays and bake for 25 minutes.
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Spelt kuglof and strange dog diets
My husband ceremoniously whipped up and presented Hugo with an an egg-white omelette yesterday. What was that all about do you think? I mean, just how bizarre is it to make an egg-white omelette for a big black labrador? As if the poor mutt doesn’t have enough issues to last a lifetime. Anyway, in a fit of rebellion I poured cream over his kibbles last night (Hugo’s, not my husband’s); he needs to learn to live a bit.
Kuglof (kouglof, kougelhof, kugelhof, kugelopf, kugelhopf or kouglouf) is typically found in Alsace, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Traditionally it is baked in an earthenware mould with a central funnel, although there are now silicon or aluminium moulds available.
Ingredients
75g raisins
4 tablespoons rum or kirsch
15g bakers yeast
200ml lukewarm milk
500g spelt flour (or plain if you prefer)
1 teaspoon sea salt
75g cane sugar
2 eggs, beaten
75g butter, softened
75g coconut oil, softened (or just use 150g butter)
20g almond flakes
1 tablespoon icing sugar to decorate
Place the raisins in a small bowl and cover with kirsch or rum. Set aside to soak. Mix the yeast with 100ml milk and a tiny bit of flour and leave to double in volume. Mix the remaining flour, salt, sugar, eggs and milk. Beat or knead for about 15 minutes. Add the butter and coconut oil, mixing well. Next add the yeast and knead or beat until the dough becomes detached from the bowl. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave the rise for an hour in warm place (between 25-30°C). Reduce the dough to original volume by gently tapping. Add the soaked raisins and mix. Butter the mould and evenly distribute the flaked almonds in the bottom. Add the dough and leave to rise until it reaches the edge of the mould. Cook for 45 minutes in an oven preheated to 200°C. Once cooked, remove from the mould and decorate with icing sugar. -
Healthy chocolate chip cookies and mutant mosquitos
Monumental rainfall followed by stifling heat means mosquitos. Of course here, it doesn’t just mean common or garden mosquitos, it means huge, mutant reprobates with an agenda: namely to make me look as if I’m suffering from a very nasty infectious disease. And as if a nasty infectious disease isn’t punishment enough, I’m also covered in bruises from walking around the house in the dark because I’m too scared to put the lights on.
Léo is injured too and has his arm in a sling (something to do with walls, daredevilry and being a ten-year-old boy). Since his skateboarding tricks are somewhat impeded, he decided we should make chocolate chip cookies; I decided that they should be reasonably healthy and this is what we came up with.
Ingredients (makes 25-30 cookies)
125g spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
65g virgin coconut oil
75g cane sugar
40g organic chocolate chips
15g chopped hazelnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, beaten
Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and rub in the coconut oil until the mixture is the consistency of breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, chocolate chips and nuts. Add the vanilla and egg and mix until the mixture becomes a stiff dough. Knead the mixture on a floured surface and roll into a sausage shape, roughly 5cm thick. Refrigerate for several hours or even overnight.
Preheat the oven to 190°C. Cut the dough into slices of just under a centimetre and arrange, spaced out (the cookies, not you ;-)) on a greased baking sheet. Cook for 12 minutes and leave to cool. -
Spelt brioche and a water-locked house
We had almost as much rainfall overnight as we usually have during May and June combined. Here it doesn’t rain, but it pours; the house was surrounded by an impressive moat this morning that I don’t recall being there when we signed on the dotted line. We now also boast a second river, which sounds fine in theory, but is not so practical in reality as we’re not very well-equipped boat-wise. Hugo took one look outside this morning and went back to bed, sighing heavily, the hens are developing webbed feet and learning to swim and I was out early drying off the horses with my hairdryer. All-in-all an appropriate morning for brioche.
Ingredients
300g spelt flour (or plain flour if you prefer)
100g butter, melted
100g coconut oil, melted (you can substitute this for a further 100g of butter)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1½ teaspoons dry bakers’ yeast
2 tablespoons cold water
4 eggs, beaten
40g cane sugar
Dilute the dry yeast in 2 tablespoons’ luke-warm water and set aside for 10 minutes. Mix the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, beaten eggs, melted butter and oil. Either knead by hand or beat in a mixer (better if you’re lazy). The dough must stay elastic in consistency so add a drop more water, if necessary. Leave the dough to rise in the mixing bowl for about an hour at a temperature of between 25-30°C (it should double in volume). Beat and knead the dough and leave to rise for a further hour. Beat and knead again and put the dough in the loaf tin. Leave to rise one last time. Preheat the oven to 200°C and cook for 25 minutes. -
Canelés de Bordeaux
There is an exquisite patisserie called Pariès in Bayonne, which is the capital of the Basque country in south-western France. They recently produced a book of their recipes, which Idrooled overdiscovered the other day. Bayonne is famous for its chocolate, amongst other things, and was one of the first places in Europe to produce chocolate in the early 17th century. There is always a deliciously rich, chocolate-laden aroma in the streets of the city centre. It’s sometimes worth just strolling around there to get a fix!
I will be sharing some of the chocolate recipes from this absolute gem of a book, but today I made another regional speciality: canelé [kan-ul-ay]. A canelé (or cannelé) is a small French pastry with a moist custard-like centre and a dark, thick caramelized crust. It is the shape of a striated cylinder approximately 5 cms in height and is a specialty of Bordeaux.
These contain too much sugar for me to claim that they’re positively good for you. Having said that, I made them with cane sugar and spelt flour (of course!) and as they contain rich, ‘real’ ingredients they are most definitely a healthier choice as a treat than anything in packaging! I had to make a second batch to photograph because the first batch disappeared far too quickly; They’re that moreish!
Ingredients (makes about 12)
You will need a special canelé mould to make these. The best are made from copper, although I used silicon.
400ml milk
20g salted butter
2 egg yolks
1 egg
140g sugar (I used cane sugar)
120g flour (I used spelt flour)
1 vanilla pod
10cl rum
A little extra butter for greasing the moulds
Beat the egg yolks, egg and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the flour and vanilla and continue to mix gently. Bring the milk to the boil in a saucepan, remove from the heat and immediately add the butter. When the milk has cooled to lukewarm, add to the other ingredients in the mixing bowl. Mix well. Leave the mixture to rest in the fridge for at least 24 hours, 48 hours if possible. This is important as the mixture must be as ‘airless’ as possible or it will rise during cooking. Also for this reason, it must always be mixed gently, taking care not to add too much air.
To cook the canelés, preheat the oven to 220°C. Remove the mixture from the fridge and very gently stir the (what will now be separated) batter until homogenous. Add the rum at this stage too. Fill the buttered moulds about 7/8 full. Cook for 10 minutes at 220°C and then turn the oven down to 190°C. Cook for a further 40 minutes. Leave to cool before eating. -
Spelt flour crêpes and the chaos theory according to Hugo
by Hugo, Canine Correspondent
In the interests of transparency (have you noticed the trendy lingo I’m picking up?), I asked to write today’s blog because I don’t think that the Bossy One is always very honest with you.
The way she presents her recipes would have you believe that she’s a domestic goddess (I heard that on the television), when in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The havoc she creates in the kitchen is quite something. Not that I’m not complaining because the more the food ends up on the floor, the happier I am. 🙂
Today’s recipe, for example, should really read something like this:
Sift the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl, use a large shovel to scoop up the ingredients that somehow landed outside the bowl, whilst simultaneously trying to recover from violent coughing and sneezing fit caused by inhaled flour. Make a well in the centre and break the eggs into it, mutter obscenities and pick the broken bits of eggshell out with your fingernails. Whisk the eggs, little by little incorporating the surrounding flour. If you use an electric whisk, you can be sure that a substantial amount of mixture will end up on the surrounding walls, sometimes even the ceiling. Combine the almond milk and water and add little by little to the flour/egg mixture. Turn the whisk to SLOW before pouring in liquid, otherwise it will ricochet alarmingly which isn’t good because it causes more mad muttering (I can also do alliteration :-)). Once all the liquid has been added, continue to whisk until you obtain a smooth batter, the consistency of thin cream (yeah right; in her dreams!). Push back messy hair, smothering small amount of ‘smooth’ ( 😆 ) batter over face.
I won’t go on because she can be a bit sensitive when it comes to criticism, even if it is constructive, and I’d like to continue this writing lark. I will leave you with this thought though: this is a simple recipe – just imagine the scenario with a complicated one 😉
Thank you for your kind words Hugo, I think I’ll take over now. This is based on Delia Smith’s recipe for ‘basic pancakes’, which I have adapted to use with spelt flour and almond milk.
Ingredients (makes about 10 crêpes)
110g spelt flour
pinch of salt
pinch of bicarbonate of soda
2 large eggs
200ml almond milk
75ml water
butter or coconut oil for cooking
Sift the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl, make a well in the centre and break the eggs into it. Whisk the eggs, little by little incorporating the surrounding flour. Combine the almond milk and water and add little by little to the flour/egg mixture. Once all the liquid has been added, continue to whisk until you obtain a smooth batter, the consistency of thin cream.
To cook the crêpes you will need a shallow frying, or preferably a crêpe pan. Melt the butter or coconut oil making sure that the base of the frying pan is coated. Pour a small amount of batter into hot fat in the pan, tipping from side to side to distribute evenly. Cook until golden brown on both sides.
