POST CATEGORY : Recipes

Lemon(ish) meringue cupcakes

Lemon(ish) meringue cupcakes

A few weeks ago we went to the Chatsworth farm shop suppliers fayre and I bought ALOT of curd. So the experimenting begins…..

For the cupcake
80g softened unsalted butter
280g golden caster sugar
240g plain flour
1tbsp baking powder
Zest of a lemon
2 large eggs
240ml milk
Lemon curd ( I used Chatsworth lemon lime and mandarin curd for a twist)
Preheat the oven to 190c GM5 and line a muffin tin with paper cases
Beat together the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and lemon zest to make fine breadcrumbs ( I used a hand mixer)
Whisk the eggs and milk together
Pour the milk and egg mix into the dry ingredients and combine to make a smooth batter
Spoon into the paper cases ( I usually fill about two thirds full ) and bake for 20 minutes or until springy to the touch
When completely cooled cut out a bit from the middle of each cupcake and spoon in some curd before putting the bit of cake back in
Making the meringue topping
2 egg whites
150g caster sugar
Whisk the egg whites and caster sugar in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water for approximately 5 minutes (this is until the sugar has dissolved – when you rub some of the mixture between your fingertips it won’t feel grainy). Take the bowl of the heat and using a hand mixer mix until stiff peaks form and the mixture is thick and glossy.
Pipe this on top of the cupcakes and use a cooks blowtorch to brown the topping ( you could put them under the grill briefly if you don’t have a cooks torch)
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Guinness and rye bread, rhubarb chutney

Guinness and rye bread, rhubarb chutney

I’ve enjoyed reading my new cookery books recently. I was bought a book by Irish food blogger Lilly Higgins called Make, Bake, Love. The first recipe that caught my eye was the Guinness and rye bread. It’s a fantastic and quick recipe. The bread was great with some strong Wensleydale cheese and homemade chutney.


I highly recommend you buy the book and make the bread. I’m going
to play around with the recipe to make the bread in my bread pot. I’ll post my variation when I do. In the meantime here is my rhubarb chutney recipe

About 900g rhubarb cut into small pieces
15g garlic
25g root ginger crushed
Peel of 2 lemons
25g salt
15g cayenne pepper
450g sultanas
900g demerara sugar
600ml vinegar

Put the ginger and lemon peel in muslin.
Put the rest if the ingredients in the pan, add the muslin and simmer gently ( stirring regularly) until the chutney thickens.
Remove the muslin and pot in jars.
It works best if you leave it at least a couple of months to mature.

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Pork belly with dipping sauce sushi rice and greens

Pork belly with dipping sauce sushi rice and greens

Another experiment today after buying a nice piece of pork belly at our farm shop. I used some ideas from the bbc food site to come up with this

Piece of pork belly ( skin scored)
chinese five spice
Sea salt

Dipping sauce
4 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 shallot finely diced
Piece of ginger finely diced

To serve: steamed spring greens and sushi rice

I rubbed a couple of teaspoons of Chinese five spice and sea salt into the pork and left it in the fridge for a couple of hours

I then cooked it for 15 minutes at the highest heat in the oven then turned it down to 160C and cooked it for a further 1 3/4 hours

For the dipping sauce I simply mixed everything together

Once the pork had rested I cut it into chunks and served it with some sushi rice some spring greens and drizzled over dipping sauce.

It doesn’t look pretty but it tasted delicious


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Wild garlic pesto

Wild garlic pesto

At the weekend we went to the Dales Food and Drink Festival in Leyburn. We had a great time exploring the food hall, listening to music, watching morris men, eating great food and drinking fine beer!
I decided to experiment with a couple of my purchases – rapeseed oil and wild garlic leaves

here is the result
100g ish of wild garlic leaves
50g finely diced shallots
50g pine nuts
150ml rapeseed oil
55g finely grated Parmesan
Pinch of sea salt
Pinch of brown sugar
Put the oil, pinenuts, garlic leves and shallots in the food processor and blitz
Mix in the cheese, salt and sugar
Put in sterilised jar(s) and top with some extra rapeseed oil as a seal
Hey pesto

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Hot cross bun pudding

Hot cross bun pudding

So I thought I’d use up some hot cross buns and made this up- it was really rather delicious….

Prepare the dish:
6 ish hot cross buns sliced in half and buttered
Few dollops of marmalade
Handful of raisins soaked in Cointreau


Butter the dish and layer the hot cross buns, raisins and marmalade

Make the custard:
500ml milk
500ml double cream
3 tablespoons caster sugar
1 large egg
4 large egg yolks

Put the milk and cream in a pan and bring near to boiling point
Whisk the egg, the yolks and sugar in a bowl, when the milk and cream are near boiling pour over the whisked egg whisking continually

Pour over the hot cross buns and leave to soak in for a few minutes.

Cook in the oven for about 45 minutes at 160


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Raspberry bakewell cakes

Raspberry bakewell cakes

I was given some beautiful individual cake cases for Christmas and decided to try something different today. Here it is

250g unsalted butter
250g golden caster sugar
280g self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
150 ml natural yoghurt
4 eggs
1 teaspoon each of vanilla and almond extract
Raspberry jam
Flaked almonds
Heat the oven to 160 (fan)
Using a hand mixer, mix the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, yoghurt, baking powder, vanilla and almond extract to make a smooth batter.
Spoon into the cases ( or you could do this as a cake if you like)
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes
Remove and quickly put a dollop of raspberry jam in each case and sprinkle with almonds
Bake for a further 15 minutes ( or until a skewer comes out clean)

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A rather fine steak dressing

So tonight we had steak, delicious steak and sweet potato fries. I tried a new dressing for the steak and it was really rather delicious.

Here it is:
chop 2 shallots and put in a bowl with 2 tsp of white wine vinegar for 5 minutes
add a couple of tablespoons each of chopped tarragon and parsley, a couple of teaspoons of chopped toasted hazelnuts some salt and a drizzle of oil.

Damsons, pears and plums

Damsons, pears and plums

There is something exciting about being given plentiful fruit from friends gardens. This weekend I had several bags of damsons, pears and plums and so got to researching and planning. I settled on damson jam and my first go at making muffins.

Damson Jam

My ingredients:
Approximately 4lbs damsons
ΒΌ pint water
4 lbs sugar

My method:
So I make jam the way my mummy taught me and I don’t remove the stones first ( that would frankly be a nightmare!)
1. I put the damsons into a pan with the water and simmer gently until the fruit becomes soft. I find it helpful to press the damsons with a wooden spoon to encourage them to break up and release the stones.
2. When the damsons have broken down it is then fairly easy to remove the stones as they come up to the surface.
(some people put the stones back in the pan in a muslin bag to help with the level of pectin but on this occasion I didn’t need to)
3. I then add the sugar and stir until it has dissolved.
4. Now is the time to bring the pan to the boil and boil rapidly for about 10 minutes until the jam sets when tested. ( I test it by putting a spoonful on a cold plate and checking if it sets when cool)
5. Now is a good time to remove any stones you missed earlier that have now appeared at the surface.
6. I then remove any scum on the surface before potting the jam and sealing it whilst still hot.

This makes approximately 6lbs of jam

Plum and Ginger Muffins


I’ve recently bought some lovely muffin wrappers so I used these for my two batches of muffins.
This recipe came from the Waitrose website http://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/s/spiced_plum_and_yogurt_muffins.html
The recipe was simple and easy. I didn’t have any stem ginger in so I left that out and added a little extra ground ginger. The yoghurt helped to keep the muffins moist but light.

Pear and Ginger Muffins

For this batch I used the recipe in Nigella Express. I didn’t make any changes and it worked well.

I probably shouldn’t boast but my mother in law texted me today to say that my muffin making experiment was a success – they were the best she had ever had! Compliment indeed!

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