Salted Caramel Peach Sundae for National Ice Cream Day

It's National Ice Cream Day on 19th July, there are so many different flavours of ice cream and different ways to serve it, but nothing beats a sundae on a hot day. There’s something magical that happens when ice cream and sauce and fruit and crunchy stuff come together. From classic fruit, nut and sauce combos, to more extravagant creations involving cookies, meringues and alcoholic sauces (for adults only!), there are many delicious possibilities.

Labels: caramelised, ice cream, National Ice Cream Day, Peach, salted caramel, Sundae

posted by Janice @ 18:00 23 Comments

Peach and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

This cake was created as a result of a glut of rhubarb and those peaches you buy to ripen at home and then they all ripen at once and you have to use them quick before they get over-ripe! It's really moist and the perfect 'pudding cake' as it can be eaten as warm or cold as a dessert with cream, yogurt, custard or ice-cream.  It is also just as nice as a slice of cake with a cup of tea or coffee.

Peach and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

Topping
4 peaches or nectarines
1 large  or two medium stalks of rhubarb, thinly sliced
125g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
125g soft brown sugar

Cake
125g softened butter
125g soft brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
125g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

For the topping

1. Melt the butter and mix with the soft brown sugar. Grease a 20cm round cake tin and spread the butter and sugar mixture in the base of the tin.
2. Skin the peaches by placing in a bowl and covering with boiling water, leave for 2 minutes, then lift them out and the skin should slip off easily.  Slice the peaches into even slices and place on the sugar mixture in a pleasing pattern.
3. Cover the peaches with the thinly sliced rhubarb.

For the cake

1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and beat well with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes until well blended.
2. Spoon the mixture over the peaches and rhubarb and smooth the top.
3. Bake at 190C/170C fan for 25 minutes or test with a skewer, the cake is done when the skewer, when placed into the centre of the cake, comes out clean.
4. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then remove from the tin and either serve warm or cool on a cooling rack. 

As it is the season for peaches, here are a few more ideas for cooking, baking and preserving them :

Peach Coffee Cake - Little Sunny Kitchen
Cinnamon Peach and Ice Cream Waffles - Made With Pink
Peach and White Chocolate Cake - Tin and Thyme
Peach, Marzipan and Amaretto Crumble - Casa Costello
Peach and Apricot Jam - Fab Food 4 All
Peach and Ginger Compote - Natural Kitchen Adventures
Peach Upside Down Cake - Jen's Food

I'm adding this Peach and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake to the Midsummer Madness themed Love Cake Linky run at JibberJabber UK

This will also be my contribtuion to Bake of the Week over at Casa Costello

Labels: baking, cake, glut, Peach, rhubarb, Upside-Down Cake

posted by Janice @ 19:54 27 Comments

Peach and Bramble Meringue Slice

At the end of the summer, peaches, nectarines and foraged berries, like blackberries, are sweet and full of flavour.  I'm lucky living on the farm, that I can simply step out of my back door and down our lane to pick some 'brambles'.  Here in Scotland there are not quite enough ready to make jam or jelly, but there were just the right amount to add to a tray baked cake.

It all started with the two egg whites I had left over from another recipe.  I didn't want to make a pavlova or meringues, much though I love them.  I could have frozen the egg whites for another day, but there was no cake in the tin so my thought was to make a cake and top it with meringue.  This recipe is adapted from a plain vanilla tray bake sponge, but I didn't add any milk to the mix as I knew the fruit would add moisture.

Peach and Bramble Meringue Slice
For the cake
2 peaches or nectarines
approximately 75g of blackberries (brambles)
175g butter or soft margarine
225g self-raising flour
1 1/2 level teaspoons baking powder
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the meringue
2 egg whites
100g caster sugar

1. Heat the oven to 180 C, Gas 4.  Grease and line a roasting tin 30 x 22.5 cm.
2. Skin and chop the peaches or nectarines.
3. Place the butter or margarine, flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs and milk together in a large roomy bowl and beat well for about 2 minutes until well blended. Gently fold in the chopped peach or nectarine pieces.
4. Turn the mixture into the tin and smooth the top, press the brambles into the mixture, distributing them evenly across the mixture.
5. Bake for about 35 minutes until the cake has shrunk from the sides of the tin and springs back when pressed in the centre with you fingertips. Don't let it get too dark as you will be returning it to the oven.
6. Turn the oven down to 160C, Gas 3.
7. Place the egg whites in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until they form soft peaks.  Add the sugar a spoon at a time whisking well until all the sugar has been used.
8. Spread the meringue over the cake and bake for 10 minutes until the meringue is firm to the touch and pale golden brown.
9. Leave to cool in the tin and when cold, cut into squares.

The cake is moist and delicious with the sweet fruit pieces adding a soft lusciousness and the meringue a light crispy texture.  You can make the cake without the meringue and it would be almost as good, but the meringue really enhances it. 

I submitted this recipe to The Guardian Cook - Reader's Recipe Swap and was thrilled when it was accepted and published.




I'm entering my Peach and Bramble Meringue Slice for this month's Alpha Bakes which is asking for bakes which include the letter P.  Alphabakes is a monthly challenge run by Caroline Makes and The More than Occasional Baker 

Labels: AlphaBakes, Blackberry, Bramble, cake, meringue, Peach, slice, tea

posted by Janice @ 21:53 18 Comments

Lamb Pot Roast and Peach, Bramble and Almond Crumble - Dish of the Month September

In the Kitchen Diaries II, Nigel Slater tells us " I am not a chef and never have been. I am a home cook who writes about food."  He goes on to say "I'm neither slapdash or particularly pedantic in the kitchen (I haven't much time for uptight foodies; they seem to have so little fun).  Neither am I someone who tries to dictate how something should be done and I am never happier than when a reader simply uses my recipe as an inspiration for their own."

If you have taken part in 'Dish of the Month' or even read through one of the round ups, you will realise that most of the participants use the recipes as an inspiration.  I am trying to cook the Kitchen Diaries month by month, finding at least one recipe from the appropriate month to share in this blog challenge and I have found that the inspiration route certainly works for me.  Some of this may be because the seasons in Scotland are slightly out of kilter with the more southern parts of the UK, for example Elderberries feature in the August chapter and at the end of August they are still green here.  Or it may be that I am more of an ingredient led cook e.g. what is in the fridge/freezer/cupboard/garden

No matter, I've never failed to be inspired by Nigel's recipes and ideas, even if, sometimes, I veer so far off recipe for them to become unrecognisable!

And so to this month's offering which is Lamb 'osso buco' with parsley papardelle.  Guess what?  I didn't have lamb steaks on the bone, I had a nice piece of Herdwick rolled shoulder, so I made this into more of a pot roast, oh and no Marsala either, so I used a tablespoon of Brandy and some lamb stock.  And, because I haven't been feeling too well recently and couldn't face making roasties, I just threw the potatoes in to cook with it.  So no need for pappardelle, although I may make that to eat with the left over lamb.  I also made some fresh mint sauce which added to the deliciousness.



Dessert could have been Pear and Chocolate Oat Crumble from KDII, but I didn't have any pears, so I concocted a Peach, Bramble and Almond Crumble instead.  As this is my recipe rather than Nigel's, I have included it for you below:.



Peach Bramble and Almond Crumble

Serves 4-6

2 peaches
about a cup of blackberries (brambles) - or a couple of handfuls - sorry this is crumble not science!
1 tbsp caster sugar
100g plain flour
45g ground almonds
75g butter
50g demerara sugar
25g flaked almonds

1.  Skin the peaches, by putting them in a bowl, pouring over boiling water and leaving for a couple of minutes, then removing and the skin should come off easily.
2. Slice the peaches and place in an ovenproof dish.  Add the brambles,  and the sugar.
3. Put the flour, ground almonds and butter, cut into cubes, into a bowl.  Rub the butter through the flour and almond mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Add the demerara sugar and spoon over the fruit in the ovenproof dish.
5. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the crumble mixture.
6. Bake at 160C for about 40 minutes until the fruit is bubbling and the crumble has turned golden brown.
7. Serve with cream, ice cream, yogurt or custard.





If you would like to take part in Dish of the Month, then please:

• Make a Dish of the Month from ANY recipe by Nigel Slater
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen or A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate
• Use the Dish of the Month logo in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @serialcrafter or @Heavenona_plate and #DishoftheMonth and we will re-tweet it to our followers.

Rules:

• If you own The kitchen diaries II please do not publish the recipes on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from the BBC Food website, please link to the recipe on BBC Food rather than publishing the recipe. Likewise recipes on the Guardian Lifestyle website.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

Labels: Almond, Bramble, crumble, Dish of the Month, lamb, mint, Nigel Slater, one pot, Peach, pot roast

posted by Janice @ 10:30 5 Comments