Farmersgirl Kitchen

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Hugh's Honey and Peanut Butter Flapjacks

There was nothing in the biscuit tin. There was nothing in the cake tin. I wanted something sweet now what did I have in the cupboard that would make a quick and easy sweet treat? I always have oats, dried fruits and a mix of pumpkin and sunflower seeds that we use in our bread, so I went looking for a FLAPJACK recipe and found this one by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in River Cottage Every Day:

Honey and Peanut Butter Booster Bars

Makes 16

125g unsalted butter
150g soft brown sugar or light muscovado sugar
125g no-sugar-added crunchy peanut butter
75g honey, plus a little more to finish
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
200g porridge oats (not jumbo)
150g dried fruit, such as raisins, sultanas and chopped apricots, prunes or dates, either singly or in combination
150g mixed seeds, such as pumpkin, sunflower, poppy, linseed and sesame

Preheat the oven to 160C/gas mark 3. Grease and line a baking tin, about 20cm square.

Put the butter, sugar, peanut butter, honey and grated citrus zests in a deep saucepan over a very low heat. Leave until melted, stirring from time to time.

Stir the oats, dried fruit and three-quarters of the seeds into the melted butter mixture until thoroughly combined. Spread the mixture out evenly in the baking tin, smoothing the top as you go.

Scatter the remaining seeds over the surface and trickle with a little more honey. Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden in the centre and golden-brown at the edges.

Leave to cool completely in the tin (be patient – it cuts much better when cold), then turn out and cut into squares with a sharp knife. These bars will keep for 5-7 days in an airtight tin.

These bars are really very moreish and you only need a small piece to fill you up. The fruit I used was mainly raisins with some dried cranberries and dried apricots. I used a mixture of smooth, crunchy and three nut peanut butter, because that's what I had in the house. The peanut butter doesn't dominate the taste of the bars and they are the soft and fudgy type of flapjack rather than the crisp, crunchy type.

I'm entering the flapjacks for Tea Time Treats, the monthly blog challenge run by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Janie at The Hedgecombers. July's Tea Time Treats is being hosted at The Hedgecombers.

Labels: apricots, cranberries, dried fruit, flapjacks, honey, Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall, oats, peanut butter, raisins, Tea Time Treats

Monday, 10 June 2013

Milk and Cookies!

I didn't set out to make cookies. It happened like this, I had made far too much buttercream for the Vanilla and Coconut Cake, there it was in the bowl, really quite a lot of butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract. What was I going to do with it? I knew if I put it in the fridge or freezer for "another time" I would end up throwing it out in a month or so. Hmmm... (scratches head) butter, sugar, vanilla- Eureka! I could make cookies.

I headed to the bookshelf and picked out a few baking books, thinking "oats would work well with vanilla". Rachel Allen came up trumps with a simple Oatmeal and Raisin Cookie recipe. The recipe has caster and light brown sugar, rather than icing sugar, and I think this would make a crisper cookie than the ones I made, referred to by my husband as 'buns'!

I'm not going to post the recipe as it is copyright, I had a search online to see whether it had been published for one of Rachel's TV programmes, so I could link to it, it has not. However, if you search 'Rachel Allen Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies' you will find it has been published on some other blogs.

So if you are ever left with some extra buttercream, you will know what to do!

Posted with Blogsy

Labels: buttercream, cookies, oatmeal and raisin cookies, oatmeal cookies, Rachel Allen, raisins

Saturday, 15 December 2012

Delia's Christmas Dried Fruit Compote

Over at Belleau Kitchen, dear Dom has challenged us with his usual Random Recipe teaser. However, in my haste, I misread the challenge and instead of choosing a recipe from a cookbook that I received as a gift last Christmas, I thought we were to choose a 'Christmas Cookbook'. Doh!

I don't have too many Christmas cookbooks, just a couple of Delia's and the Home and Freezer books that I blogged about last week. The original Delia Smith's Christmas was the one that came to the top of the pile and I opened it randomly and was delighted to find myself looking at 'Christmas Dried Fruit Compote'.This version of the fruit compote isn't on Delia's website, but I found it published in the Telegraph online.

When I went to my larder, inevitably, I didn't have everything I needed for the recipe, so substituted some different dried fruits. No figs and no prunes, I could have sworn I had some prunes but must have used them in the instant mincemeat. I had some lovely Medjool dates from the hamper I got from Olives from Spain and some dried mandarins and cranberries, all lovely Christmassy flavours.

The original recipe calls for a liberal dose of Port, well my husband can't drink Port, it gives him migraines, so I used a couple of tablespoons of Amaretto, one of my favourite liqueurs. In the book Delia suggests that the fruit compote is served with flaked almonds, well I didn't have any of those either, so for this, by now VERY, Random Recipe, I used some nice green pistachio nuts to add to the festive colours.

I made the compote last night and was sorely tempted to have some on my porridge this morning, but remembered just in time that it was full of booze and I had to drive into town to the hairdressers! We had it this evening served with Greek yogurt and it was delicious, would be great with vanilla ice cream too. All in all I'm rather pleased that I misread the challenge as I wouldn't have come across this recipe otherwise.

I put up the Christmas tree today, it lives in the kitchen between the cook books and the stove, and is decorated with an eclectic mixture of totally uncoordinated baubles and pretty things I have been collecting since 1980 when we bought our first flat, indeed the coloured lights were a flat warming gift from a friend and they are still working. I used the tree and lights as a background behind the first photo of the Dried Fruit Compote. In the spirit of the Random Recipe challenge, here is a Random Christmas decoration from my tree.

Labels: Belleau Kitchen, Christmas, dates, Delia Smith, dried apricots, dried cranberries, oranges, pistachio nuts, raisins, Random Recipes

Saturday, 18 August 2012

Apple and Raisin Compote for Random Recipe #19

It's 'back to basics' at Random Recipes this month, just the pure and simple Random Recipe Challenge. I took the lazy route of shutting my eyes and pointing at my book shelves, rather than doing things by numbers, but the random book I chose was Rose Elliot's "The New Vegetarian Cookbook". There isn't anything much new about it now as it was published in 1986! It's a great little book so if you don't own a copy, look out for one.

Again, I just 'let the book fall open naturally at the place' (fans of Ivor Cutler may appreciate that) and found myself at p75 in the Quick Main Meals section. I chose to make the Apple and Raisin Compote because I had some apples which arrived in my grocery delivery in a somewhat bashed state, not great for eating but perfect for cooking and holding their shape. I combined them with some Bramley cooking apples which cook down to a nice mush.

Apple and Raisin Compote

750g/1 and a half pounds cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tsp honey (recipe states 2 tbsp but I found 2 tsp to be enough, I used Scottish Heather Honey)
1 small, well scrubbed orange
pinch of ground cloves
50g/2oz raisins

To serve: Greek Yogurt (I used 0% Fat Greek Yogurt)

Put the apples in a heavy-based saucepan with the honey, orange rind and juice, ground cloves and raisins. Heat gently for 10 minutes until the apples are tender. Serve hot or cold with the yogurt.

Easy isn't it? But I tell you the smell of the honey, apples, cloves and orange was divine, I wish I could share it with you.

If you would like to take part in the Random Recipes Challenge, visit Dom at Belleau Kitchen for full details. The challenge is open until 29th August, 2012.

I used the photo of this recipe for the 365+1 photo prompt/digital layout that I do on my other blog for crafting, Serial Crafter, I thought I'd share the layout here too!

Labels: 0% Greek Yogurt, 1986, Apple, compote, Ivor Cutler, raisins, Random Recipes, Rose Elliot, The New Vegetarian Cookbook

Saturday, 12 November 2011

Dark Chocolate MIncemeat for Christmas

I was struggling with the 'We should Cocoa' challenge for November, just how should I combine chocolate and apples? I thought about a chocolate apple cake, stewed apples with chocolate custard, chocolate covered apples. But none of these ideas really appealed.

However, I was lucky enough to win Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet from The Chocolate Log Blog (co-host of We should Cocoa) and my copy arrived this week. Flipping through all the lovely recipes and excellent photographs and I stumbled upon a recipe for 'Dark Rich Mincemeat'. Maybe it was the name that did it, dark and rich conjures up CHOCOLATE to me and it got me wondering what it would be like to include some dark chocolate IN the mincemeat.

I'm also entering this for Vanessa Kimbell's "Let's Make Christmas".

This recipe is inspired by the Dan Lepard recipe.

print recipe

Dark Chocolate Mincemeat

by Janice (Farmersgirl Kitchen) November-6-2011

Christmas Mincemeat (dried fruits, apples and butter) with added chocolate. Inspired by Dan Lepard's Dark rich mincemeat in Short and Sweet

Ingredients

2 dessert apples, peeled, cored and chopped small
300g Dried raisin, sultana & cranberry mix
100g soft prunes, stoned and chopped
250ml stout or porter
1 medium cooking apple, peeled cored and grated
300g muscovado sugar
1 lemon, grated zest and juice
1 tbsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
50g butter
3 tbsp brandy or rum
100g dark chocolate

Instructions

1. Add the stout or porter to a large pan with the grated cooking apple, muscovado sugar, lemon zest and juice.2. Bring to the boil, stiring and simmer for about 5 minutes.3. Measure the dried fruits and other dry ingredients and put in a bowl with the chopped dessert apples.4. Add the dried fruit mixture to the pan with the butter and simmer until thick.5. Remove from the heat, leave until warm and stir in the brandy or rum.Leave to cool completely, then stir in 100g chopped dark chocolate.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: around 3lb

I haven't made anything with it yet, but I had a little taste and it is so delicious!

Labels: apples, butter, chocolate, cranberries, raisins, rum, We should Cocoa

Monday, 26 September 2011

Flapjacks to die for!

Ah the evils of We should Cocoa. I was checking out the entry by Cake, Crumbs and Cooking and saw these amazing flapjacks. They have so much fat and sugar in them, they should really only be available on prescription for very thin people!

Thing is, my friend was coming for lunch and the trouble with being a food blogger is that people who know about your blog expect very high standards of home cooking and baking! So I had to make something and somehow I was drawn to these.

Of course, being me, things didn't go quite according to plan. When I went to my larder I found that the small tin of condensed milk I had in there, wasn't! It was a tin of dulce de lecce. I did have a huge tin of condensed milk which I bought by mistake when on-line shopping, but I didn't want to open it because I really don't need to have that sitting around waiting to be used up.

So, as previously mentioned, it's five miles to the shops so I just used the Dulce de Lecce, its only boiled up condensed milk anyway, so I figured it would work...and it did! I also used raisins instead of dried cranberries, v. tasty.

The flapjacks are sweet, chewy and absolutely delicious. Cut into small squares as they are very rich. And of course, when my friend arrived, she had brought some chocolate chip cookies that she had made for me! Nice to receive some home baking, thanks!

Thanks too, to Cake, Crumbs and Cooking for pointing me in the direction of this great recipe!

Labels: condensed milk, dulce de lecce, flapjacks, raisins, We should Cocoa

This Page