Farmersgirl Kitchen

Friday, 25 September 2015

A Feast of Blackberries - The Great British Blackberry Recipe Round Up

A huge thank you to all the lovely cooks, bakers and bloggers who joined The Great British Blackberry Recipe Round Up. There are so many delicious recipes and they are really varied, everything from Spiced Blackberry Pulled Pork to Blackberry Lollipops and of course cakes, desserts and preserves. Don't take my word for it, here they all are below:

1. Blackberry Frozen Yogurt and Granola Breakfast Pops - Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
2. Blackberry and Clotted Cream Ripple - Sudden Lunch
3. Blackberry and Apple Swirl Buns - Mint Custard
4. Blackberry Gin - Mint Custard

5. Blackberry Pear Crisp - A Palatable Pastime
6.Wild Blackberry Jam - I'd much rather bake than
7. Bramble Blackwells - Foodie Quine
8. Spiced Blackberry Jam - Farmersgirl Kitchen

9. Peach and Blackberry Galette with Lavender and Thyme Honey - A Girl and her Home
10. Blackberry and Oat Muffins - Rough Measures
11. Blackberry and Lemon Bake - Food Jam

12. Blackforest Chocolate Brownies - Sew White
13. Summer Burst Berry Cake - Belleau Kitchen
14. Simple Seasonal Blackberry Cake - Lancashire Food

15. Autumnal Blackberry and Lavender Cobbler - Lancashire Food
16. Blackberries and Rose Geranium Crumble - Lancashire Food
17. Bramble and Vanilla Cordial - Farmersgirl Kitchen
18. Baked Nectarines and Blackberry Surprise - The Peachicks Bakery

19. Summer Fruit Traybake - Sew White
20. Blackberry and Hazelnut Polenta Cake - Mainly Baking
21. Blackberry Lollipops - The Hedgecombers

22. Apple and Blackberry Chia Seed Preserve - Nutricious Deliciousness
23. Blackberry and Apple Pie - Chez Maximka
24. Spiced Blackberry Pulled Pork - De Tout Coeur Limousin

25. Double Blackberry Chocolate Gallette - Tin and Thyme
26. Blackberry, Garlic and Bay - De Tout Coeur Limousin
27. Blackberry and Apple Geranium Swirl -Lancashire Food
28. Self-Saucing Blackberry and Apple Pudding - Tales from the Kitchen Shed

29. Blackberry and Apple Cupcakes - Tin and Thyme
30. Blackberry, Lemon and White Chocolate Scones - Baking Queen 74
31.Blackberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake Cups - The Veg Space
32. Blackberry and Hazelnut Flapjacks - Chardonnay and Samphire

33. Blackberry and Apple Cake - Eco-Gites of Lenault
34. Blackberry Fairy Cake Buns (Muffins) - Lavender and Lovage
35. Blackberry, Elderberry and Damson Jelly - JibberJabber UK

I hope this inspires you to make some of these recipes, do let me know if you do.

Labels: Blackberry, Bramble, brownies, cake, cupcakes, dessert, flapjacks, gallette, ice cream, jam, Muffins, Pie, Pulled Pork, Scones, The Great British Blackberry Recipe Round-Up, vinegar

Thursday, 16 July 2015

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.

Anatomy of a Salted Caramel Peach Sundae (from the bottom up)
Serves 4

Layer 1 - The Fruit
Roasted Caramelised Peaches
4 ripe but firm peaches
50g soft brown sugar
25g butter (I used Moose Maple Butter)

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Skin the peaches by covering with boiling water, removing after a couple of minutes and slip off the skins. Slice the peaches and place in an ovenproof tray, cover with the sugar and dot with butter. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the sugar and butter melts and the peaches start to brown and caramelise. Leave to cool, then lift the peaches from the caramel and Set both aside.

Layer 2 - The Ice Cream
2 scoops per person Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Try Kelly's of Cornwall Clotted Cream and Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Place two scoops of ice cream per person on tray or dish and place back into the freezer until ready to assemble the sundaes.

Layer 3 - The Sauce
Salted Caramel Chocolate Sauce
100g salted caramel chocolate, chopped or use Hotel Chocolat salted caramel puddles
caramel from the roasted peaches
20g butter
2 tbsp water
Place all the ingredients in a small pan and gently heat, stirring, until the chocolate has melted and formed a sauce, you may need a little more water to get it to the correct consistency for pouring.

Layer 4 - The Crunch

Caramelised Almond Granola Crunch
100g granola (I used one without dried fruit)
20g flaked almonds
50g soft brown sugar
25g butter

Heat the oven to 180C. Place the butter in a frying pan and heat gently until the butter has melted add the granola, almonds and sugar, mix the dry ingredients with the butter stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a baking tray and spread evenly. Place in the oven and bake for 5-6 minutes. Watch the Granola Crunch carefully as it burns quite quickly. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once cool, break up the mixture, it will keep well in a jar if you have any left over.

To assemble the Sundae
Place the roasted peaches in the base of the sundae dish or bowl, top with two scoops of salted caramel ice cream, pour over the salted caramel sauce and sprinkle Caramelised Almond Granola Crunch over the sauce, eat and enjoy!

Easy like Sundae morning (with apologies to Lionel Ritchie!)
While this is a really rich and luxurious Sundae, it does require a bit of time and preparation to make the various layers, if you want to create something much quicker, simply use fresh fruit without roasting, use a ready made Dessert Sauce like the new squeezable range from Clarks (the honey and maple syrup people) the sauces are made with carob syrup, a low calorie, low gi alternative to refined sugar, flavours include tempting chocolate and tantalising caramel, either of which would work well in this Sundae, as well as scrumptious strawberry. For a quick and easy topping, try chopped up fudge, fudge pieces or chocolate chips, or simply sprinkle over some granola without caramelising it.

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

Monday, 19 January 2015

Easy White Chocolate Eton Mess Ice Cream

Ice Cream in January, with all the snow and ice? What am I thinking about? Indeed, I am shivering just looking at the picture, however it's nice to have a change from the rich fare we have been eating in December.

This particular ice cream is the result of me defrosting the freezer, you see I found a small carton of strawberry puree from summer 2012! I let it thaw and had a taste and it was fine, but needed to be used. I also had a single white chocolate meringue left over from New Year, a teeny tiny bar of Green and Blacks White Chocolate and a tub of Creme Fraiche in the fridge, it was either Eton Mess or Eton Mess Ice Cream.

Easy White Chocolate Eton Mess Ice Cream

250g ripe strawberries
100g caster sugar
300g Creme Fraiche
1 left over meringue crushed into chunks not powder
25g white chocolate

1. To make the strawberry puree, hull the strawberries and crush them with the sugar, either in a food processor or with a fork, it will take you a bit longer but you do get some nice chunky bits of strawberry.

2. Mix the strawberry puree with the creme fraiche, cut the chocolate into chunks and mix it into the strawberry mixture. Put in an ice cream maker to churn or put the bowl into the freezer until the ice cream is firm. I would recommend using a shallow flat dish as it will freeze quicker.

3. Take the ice cream out of the freezer every 30-45 minutes and break up the ice crystals by whisking with a fork. The third time you do this, the ice cream should be firm enough to mix in the crushed meringue, then leave it to freeze until firm.

4. To serve, take the ice cream out of the freezer and place in the fridge for about 20 minutes until it is soft enough to scoop.

As I used half-fat creme fraiche, the ice cream was more crystallised. You get a better result with full fat products but it is still delicious.

I'm entering this ice cream for the double-bubble blog event We Should Cocoa/Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream being jointly run by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and Kavita at Kavey Eats.

I am also entering this for the No Waste Food Challenge run by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. The strawberry puree I used was rescued from the freezer and the single meringue was left over from New Year.

Labels: Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream, chocolate, Eton Mess, ice cream, meringue, No Waste Food Challenge, We should Cocoa

Monday, 4 August 2014

Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Sandwich

I am totally sold on the concept of the Ice Cream Sandwich. You can pick it up and lick the ice cream from the centre with the melting ice cream running down your fingers or eat it from a bowl breaking through the crisp cookie to reach the sweet, icy centre. Add some delicious Scottish strawberries and you have the perfect dessert.

If you don't have time to make your own shortbread, you could buy some shortbread cookies and make this a really speedy treat, but there is not doubt that home made butter shortbread is much better and it's simple to make.

Shortbread Biscuits/Cookies
300g (10oz) plain flour
100g ( 4oz) caster sugar
200g (8oz) butter
caster (superfine) sugar for dredging

1. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar. Work in the butter with your fingertips - keep it in one piece and gradually work in the dry ingredients. Knead well until the dough has come together.
2. Pat down on a work surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough to about 1/2 cm (1/8 in) and cut out with a cookie cutter. You will probably have to keep pushing the dough back together again as it is very crumbly.
3. Slide the cut biscuits off the work surface with a knife and onto a baking sheet.
4. Bake in the oven at 170C (325F) Mark 3 for about 8 minutes until firm and pale golden brown.
5. Lift onto a cooling tray with a spatula and dredge with caster (superfine) sugar.

To make the ice cream sandwich: Using the ice cream of your choice, I used ready made Strawberry Shortcake Frozen Yogurt, let it soften slightly and press it into the cookie cutter that you used to cut the biscuits, remove the cookie cutter and refreeze the ice cream patties. Once I'd made these I realised that they were too deep for the sandwich so, once frozen, I cut them through the middle to make six. Then all you need to do is assemble the sandwich: take a biscuit, layer on some sliced strawberries, add the ice cream pattie, more sliced berries, top with another biscuit and decorate with a halved strawberry.

I used Graham's butter from Graham’s the Family Dairy to make the shortbread. In a sign of the growing demand for local produce, Graham's have beaten Danish rivals Lurpak to become the best selling butter brand in Scotland. Made from milk supplied only by Scottish dairy farmers, Graham’s butter is then churned the traditional way north of the border.

The new research confirms the consumer trend to increasingly choose Scottish produce. When it comes to block butter, Graham’s have overtaken Lurpak and now have 10.9% market share with their Danish rival trailing with just 9.8%.

I found Graham's butter light, creamy and easy to work with when making shortbread, the shortbread was very good, with a nice snap to it then melting in your mouth, just as it should.

I was supplied with butter by Graham's Family Dairy, I was not paid for this post and all opinions are my own.

Labels: butter, dessert, flour, ice cream, sandwich, shortbread, strawberry, sugar

Saturday, 24 May 2014

Butter Crisp Ice Cream Sandwich with Roasted Rhubarb

Generally, I don't eat dessert during the week, however at the weekend I like to have something sweet to finish my meal. I don't always have a lot of time to prepare and am often looking for a quick fix. That's exactly how I came to make this Butter Crisp Ice Cream Sandwich with Roasted Rhubarb.

The Rhubarb is slowly roasted in it's own juices with sugar in a low oven until it just starts to collapse, then left to cool. The ice cream sandwich is simply two Jules Destrooper Butter Crisps with a Stem Ginger Ice cream filling, served with the rhubarb compote.

In 1886, Belgian spice trader Jules Destrooper established the bakery which still bears his name.

In developing his first sweet biscuit, the Almond Thin, Destrooper insisted on the very best raw materials including summer butter, soft sun-ripened almonds and a spice blend still kept secret today.

Today, Jules' great-grandson Peter Destrooper runs the business, still making this Rolls Royce of biscuits in the tiny town of Lo in West Flanders. Biscuiterie Jules Destrooper bakes over 2,500,000 biscuits a day for delivery worldwide but Jules would recognise his original recipe, still in use today.

Generations of Belgians have enjoyed the crunchy bite, caramel sweetness, buttery warmth and mild toasted nuttiness of Jules Destrooper Almond Thins. Now discerning Brits can do the same.

I was sent a selection of Jules Destrooper biscuits/cookies to review, they make a range of delicious biscuits including Almond Crisp, Chocolate Thins, Florentines, Croquantes and the Butter Crisps shown above.

Try them for yourself. The Jules Destrooper range of biscuits are available from Co-op, Ocado, Tesco and Waitrose – RSP £1.54-£2.49 depending on the variety.

I received a range of Jules Destrooper biscuits to review, I was not paid for this review and all opinions are my own.

Labels: Belgium, biscuits, Butter Crisps, chocolate, florentines, ice cream, Jules Destrooper, stem ginger

Tuesday, 31 December 2013

Your favourites and mine 2013

Last year I did a round up of blog posts for the year, choosing the recipe with the most page views for each month your favourite, and the one that I like best, my favourite. I enjoyed writing the post and you, dear readers, seemed to enjoy it too. I've excluded those posts which had major giveaways as those do rather skew the page views! Many thanks to all who viewed and/or commented and to the hosts of all the challenges that I have entered.

January

A soup of bacon and celeriac from The Kitchen Diaries II

Your favourite post in January 2013 was the launch of Dish of the Month, a blog challenge to cook the recipes of Nigel Slater.

My favourite was the Croque Monsieur Whoopie Pies from Let's Make Whoopies by Sophie Gray all part of Breakfast Club and Shake up your Wake Up Farmhouse Breakfast week.

February

Your favourite was this Rye and Spelt Bread and my review of Paul Hollywood's book 'Bread'

My favourite was Mon Cherry Amour Cupcakes from Le Cookie by Michael Benichou.

March

Your favourite was The Marmalade Awards where I met up with Sue, from A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate and Vivien Lloyd - The Jam Mistress!

My favourite was the birthday cake I made for my Mum's 80th, decorated with crystallised edible flowers.

April

Your favourite was my Random Recipe for April - Treacle Bites

My favourite was this Rhubarb and Orange Frangipane Tart, a recipe I got from Dom at Belleau Kitchen.

May

You favourite was my Rhubarb, Mango and White Chocolate Almond Cake which was an entry for We Should Cocoa.

My favourite in May was the Kugelhopf which I made for Alphabakes. I have to say this is probably my overall favourite of the whole year, it was quite a labour of love and tasted so good.

June

Your favourite was this White and Green Cabbage with Coconut Chillies and Ginger from the Farm Shop Cookbook.

My favourite is the Vanilla and Coconut Cake I made from the Clandestine Cake Book for Tea Time Treats.

July

Your favourite was Cherry Frangipane Ramekins based on a Nigel Slater recipe for Dish of the Month.

My favourite was the Chocolate Lime Ice Cream I made using Mackays Lime Curd.You can see that my OXO Good Grips Ice Cream Scoop is well used!

August

Your favourite in August was the Cicchetti I made from Valentina Harris and Lindy Wildsmith.

My favourite was the Beef, Red Pepper and Lime Burgers from Miranda Ballard's Burgers and Sliders. I'm not much of a burger person but these were so good.

September

Your favourite in September was Dish of the Month, Lamb Pot Roast and Peach, Bramble and Almond Crumble

My choice is an old favourite with a twist, my Summer Falls into Autumn Pudding.

October

Your favourite in October was the Chelsea Buns I made from The World's Best Cakes book.

I've chosen Braised Scotch Lamb Shanks in Red Wine as my favourite, I cannot begin to tell you how good they were!

November

Sloe Cordial was a popular post in November and I can now report that it went down very well with the recipients!

I loved these Hot n Smoky Cheese and Tomato Wraps, quick and easy to make and very tasty.

December

My Virtual Christmas Party was a favourite post in December, I even won a prize from Pidy for these canapes!

It may not be the most photogenic of dishes, and I didn't think you could really improve on baked red cabbage, but Spiced Ginger Red Cabbage made with Mackays Spiced Ginger Preserve was even better than I expected.

Thank you so much for visiting Farmersgirl Kitchen in 2013, I hope you will return to see what I am cooking and baking in 2014. I'll be back to wish you a Happy New Year and tell you about my future plans tomorrow.

Labels: 2013, Burgers, Dish of the Month, Farmersgril Kitchen, ice cream, Kugelhopf, Mackays, Nigel Slater, Paul Hollywood, review, rhubarb, Scotch Lamb, summer pudding, Vanilla and Coconut Cake

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