Apple Pie Cake with a Brown Sugar Sauce

We had some people over for dinner tonight, and I cooked a pretty nice meal I guess. I did Chicken Savoyarde and Lemon Rice.   I also cooked carrots, and some green beans, a pea salad and some crusty french bread on the side.  I think everyone was pretty happy with the meal.




The piece de resistance though was this fabulous cake. One of the guests said it was the best dessert he had ever eaten . . . and well, not to brag or anything . . . it is pretty good, if I don't say so myself.



A moist and tender cake, which is stogged full of lovely warm spices and chunks of apple . . .
Baked in a pie dish so that it is shaped like an apple pie. Oh , it smells like heaven when it is baking . . . all comforting and spicy and scrummy.



But that's not all . . . no . . . that's not all . . .



While it is baking you make this totally scrumdiddlyumptious brown sugar rum sauce to spoon over top of baked cake. You can serve it warm, or at room temperature. It's decadently delicious either way.



OF course a dollop of whipped cream, is it's crowning glory.



Go ahead . . . dig in. You won't be sorry. It may not look like much, but this is one case where looks are quite, quite deceiving. This is a true winner.



*Apple Pie Cake with a Brown Sugar and Rum Sauce*
Serves 6 to 8
Printable Recipe

It's a cake, shaped like a pie and stogged full of apples and spice, with a delicious brown sugar and rum flavoured sauce to spoon over top. Yummy!

2 ounces butter softened (1/4 cup)
190g of caster sugar (1 cup)
1 large free range egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
150g of plain flour, sifted (1 cup)
2 TBS hot water
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped (about 3 cups)

For the Sauce:
100g of soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup firmly packed)
85g of caster sugar (1/2 cup)
5 TBS butter, softened
125ml of heavy cream (1/2 cup)
1 tsp rum flavouring (You can use 1 TBS of real rum if you wish)

Whipped Cream to serve

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter and flour a 9 inch pie dish very well. Set aside.

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the caster sugar and the egg. Combine the flour, salt, cinnamon and grated nutmeg. Stir into the creamed mixture, along with the water and vanilla. Stir until smooth. Stir in the chopped apple. Spoon the batter into the prepared pie dish. Smooth the top over and then bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

For the sauce, combine the sugars, cream and butter in a small saucepan. Heat and stir over medium low heat until the butter is melted. Bring to the boil and allow to boil for one minute only. Remove from the heat, stir in the rum flavouring. Serve warm or at room temperature with the cake.

Cut the cake into wedges to serve. Top each wedge with some sauce and a dollop of whipped cream.

Happy May Day and Bon Appetit!

Nan's Sugar Scones

I adapted this delicious recipe from one in the April issue of Delicious magazine.  From the moment I saw it, I knew it was something I wanted to bake.   A fairly ordinary buttermilk scone recipe which have lemon soaked sugar cubes pushed into their centres!



The scone dough is fairly simple.  It was quite damp, so if you want scones that look more like baking powder biscuits, don't add all of the liquid.  I found it very tacky.  I did not want to add too much extra flour to them, so I just patted them out on a well floured surface and used a well floured cutter to cut them out.

 

Because the dough was kind of tacky they spread a bit . . .  the ones in the magazine were straight up and down.  I actually  liked them spread out a bit, and soft sided . . .



The lemon soaked sugar cubes melt and end up tasting sort of like lemon curd.  It's like magic really!



In the magazine they recommended serving them with cream and jam, but I can tell you, they were positively delicious all on their own.  Even the day after.   In fact we found them quite, quite moreish!

 

*Nan's Sugar Scones*

Makes 15 medium scones

Printable Recipe 

These are delicious!  For soft sided scones, place them close together on the pan, for crisp crusted ones place them on the baking sheet with some space in between.  Adapted from a recipe found in Delicious magazine. 

400g self raising flour, plus extra for dusting (1 3/4 cup plus 2 TBS)

50g caster sugar (1/4 cup)

1 tsp salt

60g cold unsalted butter, cut into bits (1/4 cup)

310ml buttermilk (1 1/3 cup)

the finely grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons

the juice of one lemon

15 sugar cubes

buttermilk to glaze 

Preheat the oven to 230*C/425*F/ gas mark 7.  Line a baking sheet with baking paper.  Set aside.

Measure the flour into a bowl.  Whisk in the sugar and salt.  Drop in the butter.  Rub the butter in with your fingertip until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.  Stir in the lemon zest.  Add most of the buttermilk, stirring it in with a round bladed knife.  Only add the remaining buttermilk to give you a soft dough.  Turn out onto a floured surface and knead gently 2 or 3 times.  Pat or roll out to 1 inch thickness. 

 


Cut into 2 1/2 inch rounds using a sharp round cutter and using a sharp tapping up and down motion.  Do not twist the cutter and flour the cutter in between cuts.  Place the scones onto the baking sheet as desired.  Gather the trimmings and re-pat and cut until you have used up all the dough, and placing them on the baking sheet.

Place the lemon juice into a bowl.  Working with one sugar cube at a time dip them into the lemon juice, turning to coat,  and then push them down into the centre of each scone.  Once you have finished this, brush the scones with a bit more buttermilk.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until they are risen and golden brown.   Serve warm or cold, on the day, with some cream and jam.   Delicious!



Hope you will give them a go and let me know what you think!

Bon Appetit!

British Bangers with Buttermilk and Chive Mash

Todd just loves his Banger's and Mash. If I want to make him happy, that's all I have to cook up. He could very easily  eat them more than once every week!




I do think they have lovely sausages over here in the UK. . . well the best quality ones at any rate. The el cheapo ones are just plain nasty . . . but you could say the same thing about cheap sausages anywhere in the world. Full of fat and fillers, they are just horrible. There's no denying it.



But there is nothing tastier or more beautiful than a really good  sausage.  I will be the first to admit I am very fussy about the sausage that I choose to eat!  You want a meaty filling with a nice snappy skin!



I am very partial to debbie & andrew's, and I know you must be sick of hearing that, but 'tis true.   They have become my banger of choice.  I love the Perfect Cumberland ones.  Gluten, wheat and dairy free, they fall perfectly within the guidelines of healthy eating, as they are also quite lean. Scrummo!



Today I glazed them in a deliciously sticky sweet, fruity and spicy glaze and pimped the mash up with some chives and buttermilk, which stretched the boundaries of the traditional idea of Bangers and Mash, but not in a bad way.  These were very tasty indeed.



Todd thoroughly enjoyed.  His meat and potato loving heart was well and truly content with this dish.  Mission accomplished. He didn't even miss the Bisto.



*Sticky Bangers with Buttermilk and Chive Mash*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

This ain't yo mama's bangers and mash!

1 pound good quality butcher's sausages
2 dessert spoons of mango chutney
2 dessert spoons of apricot preserves
2 dessert spoons of grainy Dijon mustard

For the mash:
2 pounds floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
( a maris piper, or a russet type of potato)
2 ounces milk (1/4 cup)
2 ounces butter (1/4 cup)
4 to 6 ounces of buttermilk (1/2 to 3/4 cup)
1 bunch of chives, finely chopped
salt and black pepper

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add about a TBS of oil or less, just enough to coat the pan and allow it to heat up. Add the sausages in one layer, reduce the heat to medium and cook, turning frequently, until nicely browned all over and cooked through, about 20 minutes.

In the meantime place the potatoes into a pot of lightly salted water and bring to the boil. Cook until fork tender and then drain well. Place back into the saucepan and shake over the residual heat of the burner to dry out. Mash well with a potato masher. Beat in the milk, butter and buttermilk until ight and fluffy. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir in the chives. Keep warm.

Stir together the mango chutney, preserves and mustard. Turn up the heat under the pan of sausages. Pour the mango mixture over top. Heat to a boil and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes, until the sausages are lightly glazed and sticky, but not burnt. Remove from the heat.

Divide the sausages and the mash amongst 4 heated plates and serve immediately along with your favourite vegetable. (Todd likes peas and carrots. He's so predictable!)

Garlic Lamb Cutlets with a Mint & Sun Blush Tomato Sauce

If you are looking for a delicious way to cook some lovely spring lamb cutlets look no further!  I adapted this delicious recipe from  a cookery book of mine entitled,  "Secrets from a Country Kitchen" by Lucy Young. The original recipe called for studding two 7 chop rack of lamb with garlic and roasting them for about 25 minutes in a hot oven. I didn't have a rack of lamb, but the recipe looked so tasty that I really wanted to try it, and so I did what any good cook does . . .  I switched it out for what I did have which was  . . . 





. . .  some lovely spring lamb cutlets.   I decided to rub them with some olive oil, crushed garlic, salt and pepper and leave them to marinate for half an hour. I then took out my lovely new grill griddle pan and seared them on both sides, just until they were pink in the middle.



The real treat in this recipe is the sauce. It might sound a bit odd, but trust me when I say it's delicious! The original recipe called for two anchovy filets to be simmered with the garlic, but I didn't have any and so I added a tsp of Worcestershire sauce instead and it worked quite well! It was a real treat served with some steamed basamati rice and haricots vert on the side!



This was quick and easy to do and would make a lovely dinner party meal. Lucy suggests also trying the sauce with a saddle of lamb. Sounds like a winner to me!  I think you will love this.  We sure did!



*Garlic Lamb Cutlets with a Mint and Sun Blushed Tomato Sauce*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

Garlicky grilled lamb cutlets, cooked till just pink inside, with a creamy mint and sun blushed tomato sauce spooned over top. Delicious!

8 meaty lamb cutlets
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil

For the Sauce:
10 fluid ounces of double cream (1 1/4 cups)
2 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and halved
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
5 fluid ounces of white wine (5/8 cup)
1 heaped tsp of mint sauce
(from a jar, the stuff with vinegar in it)
2 TBS chopped fresh mint leaves
2 ounces sun blushed tomatoes, snipped in half with kitchen scissors (1/4 cup altogether)
fine seasalt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Rub the garlic cloves into the lamb cutlets along with some sea salt and olive oil. Let sit for half an hour, while you make the sauce.

Heat the cream over medium heat along with the 2 cloves of garlic until it comes to the boil. Reduce to a slow simmer and cook for 15 to 20 minutes over very low heat. At the end of that time, press it through a seive with the back of a spoon into a clean pot. (the garlic should be soft by then) Whisk iin the white wine and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to the boil. Cook whisking frequently over high heat until reduced somewhat. Stir in the mint sauce, chopped fresh mint, the sun blush tomatoes and season to taste with some salt and black pepper to taste. Keep warm while you grill the lamb.

Heat your grill pan. Sear the lamb cutlets on both sides for several minutes per side, or until they are done to your desire. We like them pink, which takes 2 to 3 minutes per side, but you may like them more well done. Place the cooked cutlets onto a heated platter and spoon some of the hot sauce over top. Garnish with some fresh mint sprigs and pass the remaining sauce at the table. Steamed rice and a green vegetable go very well with this.

Bon Appetit!

That's one Sharp Cookie Mrs Crimbles!

Mrs Crimble’s – Britain’s best-loved gluten free bakery brand – has created some deliciously zesty NEW Lemon Cookies. The cookies are both wheat and gluten free and are made with golden oats, tangy lemon curd and studded with lemon zest.



They come individually wrapped, with  two cookies per pack.   These Lemon Cookies are sure to jazz up a cup of tea or coffee, and make the perfect treat whether you are at home or on the move.



They are nice and crumbly with a moreish lemon bite!  We really enjoyed them. Its nice to know that coeliacs don't have to do without tasty treats!  We have a Missionary serving in our Ward area at the moment who is a Coeliac and I was able to pick up some of these and a few more goodies to have in the house for when he comes over.  As you know I do love to spoil the Missionaries!

  Thanks Mrs Crimbles!

Mrs Crimble’s was founded over 30 years ago and today their products can be found in all good independent farm shops, health stores, delicatessens and supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose, Morrisons, Co-op, and Tesco. Mrs Crimble’s can also be found in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. ·

Mrs Crimble’s entire range can be viewed at www.mrscrimbles.com.

 · One of Mrs Crimble’s best-selling Choc Macaroons is eaten every second worldwide!
· The company is the Official Free From Sponsor of the England Netball team who recently won the Bronze medal in the 2015 Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia.
 · Mrs Crimble’s was recently ranked 7th best-selling cake brand (The Grocer Top 20 Cakes, 17 Dec 2015) · Mrs Crimble’s have launched a fresh, new sub-brand – Gluten Free… and Good For Me, combining convenient meal solutions with positive health benefits.
· Mrs Crimble’s are also proud sponsors of the UK’s largest breast cancer charity, Breast Cancer Now

These tasty new Lemon Cookies sell for 69p a pack.  To check out more about them and Mrs Crimbles other products do take a look at the Mrs Crimbles Website.  (I always have their macaroons in the house.   We are quite addicted to them! They are fabulous!)

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Persian Cucumber Salad

This is a fresh and simple salad that you will find yourself using a lot over these next few months.  I know it feels a bit like Winter here this week, but it won't be too long before temperatures will be soaring and you will be popping out the grills and BBQ season will be upon us!



I made this salad the other night for the Sister Missionaries to have with their Turkey Burgers and it went down a real treat.  They really enjoyed it.  I did too!



It was really simple to make and uses only a few ingredients  . . .  cucumbers . . . Long English ones, lightly pared, you will want a bit of the green still there for show . . .  cherry tomatoes . . .  I used Italian baby plums, quartered, chopped red onions, salt, pepper and mint . . .  with only a bit of olive oil and some lemon juice.




I always leave my tomatoes on the kitchen counter.  They are not really ripe when you pick them up at the shops.  Leaving them on the counter helps them to ripen a bit more and bring their flavours out to the best you can get with off-season tomatoes.



This was simple, healthy and delicious.  I can only imagine at the moment how very tasty it will be once tomatoes and cucumbers are in season.  I can't wait!

 

*Persian Cucumber Salad*

Nakes 4 servings

Printable Recipe  

Made this the other night for the missionary sisters.  We had it with turkey burgers.  It was really good.  Simple and fresh.  I realized afterwards that I had forgotten the cheese on top.  It's really good! 

450g chopped English Cucumber (2 1/2 cups)

300g quarterd cherry tomatoes (1 1/2 cups)

1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 tsp finely chopped fresh mint

the juice of one lemon (about 2 1/2 TBS)

1 TBS extra virgin olive oil

fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

 4 TBS crumbled feta cheese to sprinkle over top (optional)

Combine everything but the cheese in a bowl.  Toss to combine.  Cover and chill for at least an hour prior to serving.  Sprinkle the cheese on top when you are ready to serve. (if using)



Fresh and Tasty!  Bon Appetit!

Mushroom Sauced Turkey Tenderloins

I know it might not seem  like it sometimes, but I do try to eat healthy.  All the cake recipes etc. you see on here, I didn't bake them all at the same time.  I try to only bake two things a week and those I bake at the weekend.  The rest of the week I eat other things.  As a type 2 diabetic with diverticulitis and IBS, and severe exema,   finding a healthy balance can be really difficult, and a bit of a mine field, if not down right depressing from time to time.

 

I've been recently been looking into the Whole 30 way of eating and wondering if this might not be a way of eating for me to explore.  This eating plan involves eating meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds, preferably as unprocessed and natural as possible, for 30 days, cutting out sugars, grains, alcohol, legumes and  dairy.  For 30 days.



I'm not sure I can do that  . . . but I am going to try.    We will see how it goes.  This program promises that if you follow it to the letter in 30 days you put an end to unhealthy cravings and habits, restore a healthy metabolism, heal your digestive tract, and balance your immune system.



It sounds good and like something I want to do.   This week I am trying a few different Whole 30 recipes to see if it is something I might be able to live and cope with.   Sticky my toes into the water as it were . . .  to test the temperature and if I like it, then I'll jump in with both feet.



To that end today I tried a recipe that I found on Physical Kitchness For a Cream of Celery and Mushroom Baked Chicken.   it looked really good.  I have adapated it though, to use turkey tenderloin meat and I switched out the directions a bit.



I was very happy with the end result and Todd was too.  It was delicious.  I used ground almonds because I didn't really have any almond flour and the almond flour available online was quite expensive.  I looked up what is almond flour and it appears that it is just finely ground raw almonds.  In any case the ground almonds I used worked well.  We had it with stir steamed tenderstem broccoli and steamed new potatoes.  We both enjoyed it very much.

 

*Mushroom Sauced Turkey Tenderloins*

Serves 4

Printable Recipe 

This is gluten, wheat and dairy free . . .  and delicious!  Who knew!  Whole30 friendly.

2 Turkey tenderloins

1 TBS olive oil

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

1 punnet of closed cup mushrooms, Sliced (about 2 cups)

2 stalks celery, sliced

2 TBS lemon juice

500ml chicken stock (2 cups)

250ml of almond milk (1 cup)

50g of almond flour (1/2 cup)

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Slice the tenderloins crosswise into 4 pieces each.  Place into a baking dish large enough to hold them in a single layer.  Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.  Add the onions.  Saute, stirring frequently, until they begin to soften.  Add the celery and mushrooms.  Cook, stirring, until they softened.  spoon half of this mixture over the turkey tenderloins pieces.  Add the chicken stock, to the remainder and heat  through.   Whisk in the lemon juice, salt, onion and garlic powder, thyme and pepper.  Whisk together the almond milk and almond flour. Whisk into the pan.  Transfer this mixture to a blender and blitz until smooth  Pour this over the turkey tenderloins.

 Cover with foil or a lid and bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes.  Uncover and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the turkey juices run clear.  Serve hot.

Note- This is great with some tiny boiled new potatoes and broccoli on the side.




Bon Appetit!