Farmersgirl Kitchen

Monday, 18 June 2012

Chocca Mocha Date and Walnut Loaf

I had the urge to bake yesterday, I'd been clearing out and tidying up all my cake supplies and saw that there was half a bag of dates that could do to be used up. As always my thoughts drifted towards the various blog challenges that I like to join. I flipped through an old Bero cookbook and saw a Date and Walnut Cake. But that wouldn't do for any challenge but if I added cocoa powder and some coffee...it would fit with this month's We Should Cocoa!

And so the Chocca-Mocha Date and Walnut Loaf was born. 'We should Cocoa' is a challenge created by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and Chele at Chocolate Teapot, but this month is being guest hosted by Lucy at The Kitchenmaid.

Chocca- Mocca Date and Walnut Loaf

200g dates

Pinch bicarbonate of soda

2 heaped tsp Nuvia Cafe or other instant coffee

150ml boiling water

75g butter, softened

75g golden caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

200g self-raising flour

25 g cocoa powder

30g dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

75g walnuts

1. Heat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 1lb loaf tin

2. Chop the dates ( I cut them with scissors as it’s easier)

3. Put the dates in a bowl, add the pinch of bicarbonate of soda.

4. Measure the boiling water into a jug to 150ml and add the instant coffee

5. Pour the coffee over the dates and bicarb.

6. Cream the butter and sugar, then gradually beat in the egg.

7. Stir in the flour, nuts, chocolate and lastly the dates

8. Place the mixture into the lined tin and spread evenly.

9. Bake for about 1 ¼ hours until firm.

10. Cool on a wire rack, serve sliced with or without butter.

I used Nuvia Cafe as I had been asked to review it. I must say I was a little sceptical, Nuvia is promoted as Healthy Coffee. It is Sumtran Arabica coffee infused with the extracts of 100% Certified Organic Ganoderma Extract (an immune enhancer), African Mango (a healthy, natural appretite suppressant) and Pomegranate (a super anti-oxidant) I did wonder what on earth it would taste like with all those fruity flavours.

The coffee comes in nifty little sachets which are handy to keep in your bag or in a drawer at work.

I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it, it looks like the old-fashioned powdered coffee or instant esspresso powder. It tastes more like filter coffee than it does like instant coffee, I like my coffee fairly strong, so it suited me. I expect if you used less than one sachet you could get a weaker cup. Whether it has health-giving properties, I would not like to say, but it is does make a decent cup of coffee and I had no qualms about using it in my baking.

This recipe makes a really rich dark chocolately loaf, the dates provide a sweet moistness and the walnuts a nice crunch. I think it would go very well with a slice of crumbly wensleydale!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I was not required to write a positive review and any opinion expressed is my own.

Labels: chocolate, coffee, dates, review, walnut, We should Cocoa

Saturday, 14 January 2012

Haddock Mornay Layer Bake - keen as mustard!

All of this little lot came to me from Kelly Atkins at Food Matters. They are working with Henry Harris and Grey Poupon to show the versatility of Grey Poupon Dijon mustard as an ingredient in cooking. Grey Poupon is one of the finest Dijon mustards, it’s the white wine in the ingredients that makes it superior to its competitors and the flavour it creates when used as an ingredient is very unique.

I opted to make a fish dish and only specified some spinach, the rest of the ingredients were a surprise to me a bit like doing 'Ready Steady Cook'!

So here is what came in my bag:
2 Haddock Fillets
260g bag of Spinach
220g Blue Stilton
300ml Creme Fraiche
2 Leeks
3 potatoes
215g jar of Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard

You will also need:
2 tbsp olive oil
75g butter
1 tsp cornflour
50g Gran Padano cheese, grated
100g mature cheddar, grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper

After much thought and some inspiration hunting through my cookbooks, I decided to make a layered bake.

Put 1 tbsp olive oil and 15g butter in a large pan, add the leeks when the butter begins to sizzle. Saute the leeks gently until they are soft and slightly golden. Tranfer them to an ovenproof baking dish, season with salt and pepper.

Put the other 1tbsp of olive oil and 15g butter into the pan and add the whole bag of spinach leaves once the butter begins to sizzle. Cover the pan (I used a sheet of foil and cook gently until the spinach has wilted, about 5 minutes.

Place the wilted spinach over the leeks in the ovenproof dish, season with salt and pepper.

If the fish has skin, remove the skin and cut the fish fillets into chunks and spread over the spinach and leeks. Season with salt and pepper.

Put a tsp of cornflour into a bowl and add about a tbsp cold milk, mix together. The cornflour will help the creme fraiche not to split when the dish is baked.

and now for the mustard, add a generous teaspoonful of Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard to the milk and cornflour and mix thoroughly.

Add the Creme Fraiche and the two chesses and mix together.

Spread the mixture over the fish and vegetables layers.

Peel the potatoes and slice thinly, parboil in a pan of boiling water for about 5-10 minutes until soft but not breaking up. Top the ovenproof dish with the potatoes. Melt around 20g of butter in a pan and brush the potato slices with the melted butter.

Bake in the oven at 180C for 30 minutes until the sauce is hot and bubbling and the potatoes are golden brown.

I was really pleased with the taste of this dish, you could taste all the ingredients but no one overpowered the others and the crispy texture of the potatoes was a nice contrast to the creamy sauce and soft vegetables.

Now the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that I did not use the Stilton. I felt that it would have overpowered the taste of fish and I wanted the mustard to be the dominant flavour. However, I thought it might be nice to accompany the Fish Bake with a salad and a little Blue Cheese Dressing.

Blue Cheese Dressing

100g Blue Stilton

2oz cream cheese

1 tbsp mayonnaise

100ml single cream

Crumble the blue cheese, set aside about 1/3 of the cheese and mix the rest with the cream cheese until well blended.

Stir in the mayonnaise and the single cream, then stir in the remaining blue cheese.

Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for 3 hours to blend the flavours

I made a simple Waldorf salad with Romaine lettuce, chopped celery, sliced apple and chopped walnuts, combined with the Blue Cheese dressing this was very good and a complete contrast to the fish bake.

I'm not convinced these are ideal parnters but the Blue Cheese dressing would make an outstanding dip to have with crudites as it really complimented the celery (especially when I was testing it out before serving!)

Labels: celery, cheese, creme fraiche, Dijon Mustard, fish, Grey Poupon, haddock, Leeks, lettuce, potatoes, salad, spinach, Stilton, waldorf salad, walnut

Thursday, 24 November 2011

Banana Muffins

I needed a little sweetness in my life yesterday and didn't have a lot of time, so thought that muffins would fit the bill. There were bananas in the fruit bowl, looking nice and ripe and calling out to be used before the grocey delivery arrives (today). I thought I'd look and see what Betty Crocker had in the way of muffin recipes and sure enough there is a nice quick recipe for Banana Muffins.

Banana Muffins (makes 12)

2 ripe bananas (1 cup mashed)
1/3 - 1/2 cup milk (I put in 1/3 then needed to add more)
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1 large egg
2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

For topping
30g butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
30g finely chopped walnuts

1. Heat the oven to 200C. Grease the muffin pan or line with paper cases.
2. In a large bowl beat milk, egg, oil and banana with a fork or wire whisk until well mixed.
3. Mix the dry ingredients together and add them to the milk mixture and combine just until the flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy)
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Make the topping: melt the butter, add the sugar then brush the mixture over the warm muffins.
6. Put the chopped walnuts on a plate and dip the sticky top of the muffin in the nuts.

I can certainly recommend this recipe, it was quick and easy to make, the Betty Crocker book gives a selection of options for the basic recipe including Apple and Cinnamon, Chocolate Chip, Cranberry and Orange and Blueberry. I haven't used this book very much although I bought it about 4 years ago when we visited California. I think I will have to investigate further!

Labels: banana, Muffins, walnut

Saturday, 22 January 2011

Date and Walnut Scones - A Scone Challenge!

The Bakelady's Blog has put up a Scone Challenge and as I find scones really quite easy to make, I thought it would be good to have a go.

There are many different recipes and ingredients to include in a scone, but I fancied date and walnut. I scoured my cookbooks, but couldn't find a date and walnut recipe, so ended up combining a couple of Good Housekeeping recipes from the 'Complete book of Home Baking' i.e Spiced Walnut Scones and Date and Yogurt Scones.

Date and Walnut Scones

50g (2oz) stoned and chopped dates

75 g (3oz) walnut pieces

250g (8oz) self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp Mixed Spice

50g (2oz) butter

50g (2oz) light brown soft sugar

1tbsp demerara sugar

about 170ml (6fl oz) milk

Place the flour in a bowl with the baking powder and mixed spice, stir until well mixed, rub in the butter (or whizz in a food processor). Stir in the sugar, dates, walnuts and sugar.

Pour the milk into a well in the middle of the flour and mix with a palette knife to a soft dough.

Roll out the dough and using a cutter, cut out 8 scones, re-rolling the dough if necessary. Place on a baking sheet, brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with demerara sugar.

Bake in the oven at 220C for about 18 minutes until well risen and golden brown, Cool on a wire rack.

Labels: dates, Scones, walnut

Saturday, 7 August 2010

Coffee and Walnut Cake

It's my DH's birthday today, so I made him this Coffee and Walnut cake from the BBC Good Food site. I think I would have preferred a stronger coffee taste but the cake recipe was very good and as you can see it turned out beautifully. The frosting/icing is made with Marscapone cheese, light muscovado sugar and Tia Maria - now that is absolutely delicious and not too sweet. I used one 250g tub of Marscapone not the 500g they recommended but you would need the full amount if you were going to cover the sides of the cake.

Labels: cake, coffee, walnut

This Page