Peach and Basil Muffins

Faced with a bowl of fresh but very ripe peaches I grabbed some cook books off the shelf looking for a quick dessert recipe.
Instead, I came across a muffin recipe that I hadn't tried before : Peach & Basil.

With  a thriving basil plant sitting on my kitchen sill I decided to search no more and whipped up a batch of tasty muffins instead.

Here's the recipe taken from Homemade Muffins by Carol Tennant.

Makes 12
2 ripe peaches peeled & pitted
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
3 tbsp packed brown sugar
grated peel & juice of a small lemon
2 cups/300g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp (half) baking powder
4 tbsp unsalted butter (2oz/57g)
Generous 1/3rd cup/80g granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
2/3rd cup/150ml milk
Chop the peaches into small dice, place in a bowl with the chopped basil. brown sugar and lemon juice. Leave to stand for a bout 30 mins if possible, 20 mins will do if time is tight!
Preheat oven to 400F/200C, grease a 12 cup muffin pan, or use muffin cases as I did
In a large bowl mix the flour & baking powder and rub in the butter until the breadcrumb stage. Stir in the granulated sugar & lemon peel.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg with the milk, add this to the dry mixture alternating with the peaches and their juices.
Spoon into the muffin pan and bake until risen & golden, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
Serve warm or cold with your beverage of choice.

Glacé fruit topped Christmas cake.

Last month I blogged about baking Mary Berry's Victorian Christmas Cake.
Click here if you missed that post or would like the recipe.
Since then I have given the cake a little tot of whisky about every 10 days or so to keep it moist.
When it came time to decorate the cake I first warmed through 2 tablespoons of apricot conserves with 1 tablespoon of Calvados apple brandy.
(What can I say? It's a boozy cake!)

Abricots, poires, clementines, prunes, figues, tranches de citrons, tranches d'oranges and bigarreaux.
Apricots, pears, clementines, figs, slices of lemons and oranges and cherries.

I brushed the cake quite liberally with the conserves and then artfully (!) arranged some glace fruit and pecan nuts before brushing once again with the remainder of the conserves until all was beautifully glossy.

I purchased the fruits glacés from Les Fleurons d'Apt a wonderful online emporium full of Provencal foodie treats.

This will be the last post of 2011, whew! hasn't this year just flown by?

Like many of you, I'll be taking a short break away from blogging until the New Year.

Until then dear friends and followers may I take the opportunity of wishing you all 

A Very Merry Christmas

and

 A Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2012.

Teatime treat - Apple and Sultana Cake.

We've had a good crop of eating apples this year

from the trees espaliered against the garden wall.

As a thank you for staying home with the dogs, whilst I swanned off to Paris last week, I baked an apple and sultana cake to make teatime a little bit special for the Senior Partner.

(he's partial to fruit cake) 

It's a very simple cake to make, especially if you have a KitchenAid Mixer.

Ingredients:

350g self raising flour

150ml sunflower oil

175g golden brown sugar

3 eggs (beaten)

1tsp ground cinnamon

75g golden sultanas

3 medium sized eating apples (peeled, cored and diced into small pieces).

Method:

Preheat oven to 180⁰C /350⁰F/Gas 4

Lightly grease and base line a 21cm/8" deep cake tin.

Pour the sunflower oil into a bowl - add the sugar and beat together until well blended.

Gradually beat in the eggs until the mixture has increased in volume, then add the sieved flour and cinnamon and stir gently into the liquid, until fully incorporated.

Add the diced apples and sultanas and mix well, don't worry if the mixture is stiff.

Transfer to the baking tin and bake for about an hour or until golden brown.

Check for doneness by testing with a wooden skewer, if any uncooked mixture sticks to the skewer, continue to bake the cake for a further 10 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.

Leave in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack until completely cool.

Linking this post to Weekend Cooking @ Beth Fish Reads

click on the link to see Beth's review of

The Mozza Cookbook

 by

 Nancy Silverton

Chocolate and Cranberry Muffins

Whilst replenishing my pantry with baking essentials recently I came across a packet of dried cranberries, they were meant to have gone into a Christmas relish but somehow I had overlooked them during the holiday period.
What to do?
One of my mottoes is "If in doubt ~ bake"
It isn't really a motto, I just made it up so that I could share with you this great recipe for chocolate and cranberry muffins which I came across when I googled "dried cranberry recipes".

Cake, Crumbs and Cooking is a great blog authored by a "twenty something baking enthusiast living in the north of England".
Now I don't know whereabouts in the North this young baker hails from but as a "Lassie from Lancashire" and lover of all things to do with baking myself, this blog ticked all my boxes and I signed up to follow along.

If you're a baker or cake maker you might want to check out the recipe too by clicking here.
Being me, I tweaked the recipe just a little bit.
I didn't have any dark chocolate in the pantry, which is unusual, but I did have a bar of Lait Bricelet, a Swiss milk chocolate with a creamy hazelnut and wafer biscuit filling which I used instead.
Also, a tip that I learned a long time ago when using dried fruit of any kind, always toss the fruit in a little of the flour before adding to the mix.

It helps to stop all the fruit falling to the bottom of your cake or muffin.
A small thing but well worth doing.
Linking this post to Full Plate Thursday over at Miz Helen's Country Cottage, a weekly gathering of cooks and bakers with recipes and good food to share.

The muffins turned out great, very flavourful -  perfect with a cup of hot coffee.
I would just mention though, that if like me you use milk (with or without a sweetened nutty filling) not dark chocolate and don't have a very sweet tooth, you may want to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe.
Linking also to Kathryns Muffin Monday @ Talking Dollars and Cents, click on the link for more muffin recipes.

Baking Bread with Lorraine Pascale.

Since the beginning of the year Monday evenings have found me sitting comfortably on the sofa in front of the TV, glass of wine to hand, whilst the BBC's new chef glamourous, former model Lorraine Pascale demonstrates how easy baking really is.
 "Baking is fun, it's easy, it's therapeutic, it's relaxing, it's a joy really," she said.
Her ideal meal would start with roasted camembert and garlic followed by a beef fillet baked in the oven with pepper and cognac. It would be finished off with some fondant fancies or a passion and lemon meringue pie. (BBC website)

I enjoy baking very much but normally my repertoire consists of cakes, pies and sweet treats and until Lorraine showed me how easy it was, I had never considered baking my own bread.
Too much kneading, proving, more kneading, and waiting around for the dough to rise.

First of all I downloaded the recipe for the
 "Doris Grant Loaf  
a no - need - to - knead bread adapted from a 1940's recipe by healthy eating evangelist Doris Grant, who believed white flour - and its lack of nutrients - was the enemy".
Click here to get the recipe for yourself.
LP was right, it was very easy to make - indeed.

Delicious served with Mr B's homemade winter vegetable soup.

Click here for details of all six episodes of Baking Made Easy by Lorraine Pascale.

Flushed with success, after baking the Doris Grant loaf, I ordered the BME book of 100 recipes, released to coincide with the TV series, at Amazon. Click here to buy the book now at half price!
Yesterday, I baked soda bread.
Click here for the recipe.

Perfect for a simple ploughmans lunch served with a small salad, cornichons, English cheddar cheese and of course, Branston pickle.
A nostalgic taste of England in rural Normandy.

(Apologies for lack of ploughmans pix, DH was hungry!)

Linking this post to Full Plate Thursday @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage.

Full Plate Thursday Background Story

When we were young and just starting out in life sometimes we did not have a lot of money.

 Most of our friends were having to stretch the dollars at the end of the month just like us. My girlfriends and I decided that we would pool our food for some of the evening meals right before payday... the last week of the month. I have some of the fondest memories from those days. We would all bring our food together and we had some great food and great fellowship. We would get the food on the table and everything ready, someone would bless the food and then the hostess would say "come fill your plate".

Why not head over there and see how Miz Helen filled her plate last week and what's on the menu today.

Also joining in with Show & Tell Friday with Cindy @ My Romantic Home

and with

 Sherry and Home Sweet Home Friday @ The Charm of Home.

Thanks for hosting, ladies.