Easy Spiced Hot Fruit Bake or “Hot Alabama fruit”

September 8, 2020September 7, 2022 Belinda

A delicious and healthy Holiday breakfast bake for something a little different.
This gluten free spiced hot fruit bake also makes for a great topping for waffles, pancakes, oatmeal, or by simply by itself! A nutritious dish to add to your Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Brunch! Vegan friendly.
Another reason to love this is the smell as it’s baking… you know, the smell of spices, the smell of Christmas morning breakfast.

2 cup sliced apples
2 cups pear slices
1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
1 cup pineapple chunks (save the juice)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup coconut palm sugar (unrefined) or brown sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup, agave, or honey
1 tsp cinnamon (extra for topping)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 stick melted butter (4 to 5 tbsp melted vegan butter can be substituted)
Optional – An additional 2 teaspoons melted coconut oil or butter to coat walnuts
1/3 cup chopped raw walnuts or pecans
extra cinnamon for nuts or serving

Preheat oven to 300F.

In a large bowl, toss your fruit and add in 1-2 tsp lemon juice. Set aside.
In another glass bowl, combine your melted butter, spices, and honey or maple syrup.
Mix in a few tablespoons of your leftover pineapple juice as well.
Add this sugar/butter mixture to your fruit and coat evenly.
Pour fruit evenly in a 9×12 baking dish.
Pour the leftover sugar/butter/oil mixture on top.
Baking for 1 hr.

OPTIONAL – Toss your nuts in a tiny bit of melted coconut oil or butter and pinch of cinnamon. I usually just coat the nuts in the leftover butter/sugar from the fruit mix bowl. Then sprinkle the nuts to the top of dish and bake all together for 1 hr.
Sprinkle any additional cinnamon and spiced over hot fruit bake before serving, if desired.

NOTES
You can prep this dish the night before and baking the day of. There are a few ways.

Option 1: You can mix everything, place in casserole dish, place in fridge, then bake the next morning.
Option 2: The fruit is is more bright and crispy if you mix the fruit in lemon, place in a large dish, cover. Then mix the melted butter, sugar, spices in another bowl. Place that in fridge too. In the morning, reheat the butter/sugar mix and pour it over the fruit. Then bake.
Option 3: Bake everything the night before and then simply reheat for 20 minutes at 300F before serving.

Accompaniments · Baking · Breakfast · Do-ahead · Holiday Food

Apple, cheddar and sage scones

September 8, 2020September 7, 2022 Belinda

Enjoy these cheesy scones for breakfast, with a warm bowl of soup, or in a Thanksgiving bread basket!
Recipe from blog, “The View from Great Island”

Makes 8 scones

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp light brown sugar (optional, this isn’t enough to make the scones taste noticeably sweet, but helps balance out the flavors. You can omit it if you’d like.)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces
1/2 cup milk, buttermilk, or half and half
1 cup finely chopped apple
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh sage leaves, plus a few small leaves for laminating the tops of the biscuits, if desired.
2 Tbsp milk or cream for brushing, optional

Preheat oven to 375F and line or butter a baking sheet.

Place the flour, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
Add the butter to the food processor, and continue to pulse until no large chunks of the butter remain and the mixture is coarse and crumbly.
Slowly add in the milk and pulse until the dough comes together into a ball.
Remove the dough from the food processor and place it into a mixing bowl with the chopped apple, shredded cheese, and sage. By hand, mix it all together until everything is well dispersed, but try not to over-mix it.

Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat or gently roll it into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Using a 2 1/2 inch scone cutter, cut about 8-9 scones and place them on your prepared baking sheet.
Brush the tops of the scones with milk or cream, and place a small sage leaf or two on top of each scone, brushing it with more milk so that they stay put.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Baking · Breakfast · Do-ahead

Zucchini and cheddar soda bread

August 27, 2020September 7, 2022 Belinda

Soda bread is one of those wonderful rustic, crusty, easy breads that requires very little kneading. This one is particularly lovely with the added cheese and zucchini flecked through it.

14oz (400g) self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
2 medium zucchini
2oz (50g) rolled oat
1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
3oz (75g) mature cheddar, grated
small bunch thyme , leaves only
10 fl oz (284ml) buttermilk
1 tbsp clear honey
1 egg , beaten

Heat the oven to 400F/gas 6 and dust a baking sheet with a little flour. Place a box grater on top of a clean tea towel and coarsely grate the courgettes. Lift the corners of the tea towel and, holding it over the sink, twist to compact the courgettes and squeeze out as much liquid as you can.

Put the flour, oats, bicarb and 1 tsp fine salt in a large bowl. Add most of the cheddar (save a little for the top), the thyme and the courgette. Mix the buttermilk and honey, then pour into the flour mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to clump together, then tip onto a work surface and knead briefly to bring all the loose bits together – try not to overwork the dough or the bread will be heavy.

Shape into a round loaf and place on the baking sheet. Brush with egg and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Use a sharp knife to score a deep cross on top of the loaf, then bake for 40 mins until deep golden brown. Best served warm, but leftovers will keep for 1-2 days.

Baking · Do-ahead

Blueberry-miso crumb cake

August 25, 2020September 7, 2022 Belinda

Miso and 100% whole wheat flour add salty-nutty complexity to this crumb cake.
It’s super tender and moist with plenty of crumble topping above and fresh berries below—you’ll find yourself reaching for a slice for both breakfast and dessert.
Recipe from Bon Appetite magazine

Serves 8

Crumble
¾ cup (95 g) whole wheat flour
½ cup (packed) (85 g) light brown sugar
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
3 Tbsp. white miso

Cake
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly, plus more for pan
1¾ cups whole wheat flour (260 g), plus more for pan
1½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. baking soda
2 large eggs
1 cup (packed) (200 g) light brown sugar
1 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pint (12 oz approx) blueberries

Crumble
Mix flour, sugar, butter, and miso in a small bowl until combined. Let sit until ready to use.

Cake
Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 9″ cake pan with butter. (If you have a 10″ cake pan, that is fine, but don’t use an 8″ pan because the batter is too dense)
Lightly dust with flour, tapping out excess. Whisk baking powder, salt, baking soda, and 1¾ cups flour in a large bowl to combine.

Whisk eggs, brown sugar, and yogurt in a medium bowl. Add vanilla and 1 cup melted butter and whisk to combine. Using a rubber spatula, mix dry ingredients into egg mixture until well combined, but do not over-mix. Mix in blueberries.

Transfer batter to prepared pan and spread in an even layer. Top with reserved crumble.

Bake cake, checking after 30 minutes and tenting with foil only if crumble is getting very dark (some color is fine), until top of cake is firm and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 60–70 minutes total. Let cake cool in pan, at least 2 hours, then cut into slices in pan.

Do Ahead: Cake can be made 1 day ahead. Tightly wrap and store at room temperature.

Baking · Dessert · Do-ahead

Easy one-bowl moist orange cake

July 27, 2020September 7, 2022 Belinda

I just LOVE one-bowl cakes, when you literally throw everything into the same bowl, mix and pour into the baking tin! This is exceptionally moist with the added bonus of a lovely orangey icing

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155g (5.4oz) butter
2 tsp grated orange rind
2/3 cup superfine sugar (caster sugar)
3 large eggs
1 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup whole milk

Orange icing
1 cup icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
1 tsp soft butter
1 tbsp fresh orange juice, approx
1 tbsp dessicated coconut

Grease an 8″ (20cm) round cake tin with butter, line the base with parchment paper and grease the paper.

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, beat on low speed with an electric mixer until all the ingredients are combined.
Increase the speed to medium, beat for about 3 minutes or until the mixture is changed in color and is smooth.
Spread into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for about 45 mins.
Let stand on the counter for 2 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.
Once cold, spread the cake with the icing and sprinkle with the coconut.

Orange icing
Sift the sugar into a small heatproof bowl, stir in the butter and enough juice to make a stiff paste.
Stir over hot water (without letting the bottom of the bowl touch the water) until the icing is spreadable

Keeping time
2 days

Baking · Chocolate · Do-ahead

Chocolate raspberry “pudding” cake

July 8, 2020September 7, 2022 Belinda

Nigella Lawson’s decadent but easy recipe

“I call this a pudding cake because its texture is simply a mixture between pudding and cake, though lighter by far than that could ever imply. Think, rather, of a mousse without fluffiness: this is dense but delicate with it. And it’s heavenly at blood heat, when the gooey chocolate sits warmly around the sour-sweet juicy raspberries embedded in the cake, like glinting, mud-covered garnets. This should be eaten an hour or so after it comes out of the oven. It gets more solid when cold, and loses some of that spectacular texture.
If you have any left, wrap it in foil and heat it up in the oven, or warm it up a slice at a time in the microwave before eating it.

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Photo by Jonathan Lovekin

Serves: 8

1½ cups self-rising flour
3 tbsp good unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter (plus more to grease cake tin – I use the butter wrapper)
1 tbsp Chambord (raspberry liqueur)
½ cup superfine sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
9 oz good bittersweet chocolate – 70% cocoa solids (broken into squares)
¾ cup black coffee and 185ml / ¾ cup water or 2 tsp instant coffee made up with 370ml / 1½ cups water
2 large eggs at room temperature (beaten slightly)
9 oz raspberries (plus lots more to serve)
approx. ½ teaspoon confectioners’ sugar (to serve)

You will need: a 22–23cm / 9-inch spring form cake tin.

Arrange the oven shelves so that one is in the middle for the cake, and another just below it. Slide a baking sheet onto the lower rack to catch any drips as the cake bakes. Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/350°F.
Butter a 22–23cm / 9-inch spring form cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Mix the flour and unsweetened cocoa together in a bowl, and set aside.

Put the butter, liqueur, sugars, chocolate, coffee and water in a thick-bottomed saucepan and stir over low heat until everything melts and is thickly, glossily smooth. Remove the pan from the heat, and let stand for a couple of minutes.

Stir the flour and cocoa mixture into the pan, and beat well – just with a spatula or wooden spoon – until all is smooth and glossy again, then gradually beat in the eggs. The mixture will be runny: don’t panic, and don’t add more flour; the chocolate itself sets as it cooks and then cools.
Pour into the prepared tin until you have covered the base with about 2cm of the mixture (which will be about half of it) and then cover with the raspberries and pour the rest of the mixture on top. You may have to push some of the raspberries back under the cake batter by hand.

Put into the preheated oven and bake for 40–45 minutes. Don’t try and test by poking in a skewer as you don’t want it to come out clean: the gunge is what the cake is about. But when it’s cooked, the top will be firm, and slightly cracked. Don’t worry about that: a little confectioners’ sugar will deflect attention. When it’s ready, take the cake out of the oven and put on a rack. Leave in the tin for 15 minutes before removing the sides of the tin; the cake must stay on its base.

When you’re just about to eat – and this should be around an hour after the cake’s come out of the oven – dust with a little confectioners’ sugar pushed through a tea strainer. Serve with lots more fresh raspberries, and Greek yoghurt, whipped double cream or crème fraîche as wished.

Baking

Marmalade and almond shortbread traybake

May 6, 2020October 21, 2022 Belinda

This is shortbread recipe with flaked and ground almonds and packed with shred-less marmalade, is ready in under an hour

250g salted butter,softened, plus extra for the tin
125g golden caster sugar,plus extra for sprinkling
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract
225g plain flour
125g ground rice or rice flour
50g ground almonds
200g shred-less marmalade
25g toasted flaked almonds

Heat the oven to 350F/180C/160C fan/gas 4 and butter and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.

Put the butter, sugar, vanilla and almond extracts in a large bowl, and beat with an electric whisk until pale. Add the flour, ground rice or rice flour and ground almonds, and mash in with a wooden spoon, then use your hands to bring everything together to a smooth dough. Divide the dough in half.

Roll and push one half of the dough into the base of the prepared tin. Use the bottom of a glass or jar to press the shortbread base as flat as possible. Spread over the marmalade.

Roll out the remaining dough on a piece of baking paper to a rough 20cm square and carefully lift on top of the marmalade. Prick all over with a fork, then scatter over the flaked almonds and press in to stick to the dough. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until pale golden, then sprinkle with a little more sugar and leave in the tin to cool.
Cut into 12 bars.

Baking · Do-ahead · Holiday Food

Bacon & Cheddar Scones

April 6, 2020September 7, 2022 Belinda

Recipe from the D’Artagnan website

This easy-to-make scone recipe is packed with flavor from with Applewood Smoked Bacon, sharp cheddar cheese, and fresh chives.
Enjoy fresh from the oven, or split and fill with scrambled eggs for brunch.

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Makes 8 scones
1 package Applewood Smoked Bacon or another smoked good-quality bacon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
4 tbsp cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 cup (about 4 ounces) grated sharp cheddar cheese
¼ cup chopped fresh chives
3/4 cup heavy cream, plus more as needed

With the rack in the center position, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove from pan and drain on paper toweling. Coarsely chop bacon and set aside.
In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, and garlic powder.
Add cold butter and pulse until incorporated, keeping some larger, pea-sized chunks of butter in the mix. Add cheese, reserved bacon, and chives. Pulse quickly, just to evenly distribute.
Empty mixture into a large bowl. Add the cream and stir to combine.
The dough should be shaggy but not too wet. It should stick together when squeezed. Add more cream, a tablespoon at a time, if needed.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat and shape the dough into an 8” round. Transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchment or a silicon mat. Cut the dough into 8 wedges. Spread them out on the pan, as they will rise when cooked. Brush the tops of the scones with heavy cream.
Bake until golden brown, about 22-24 minutes.
Remove them from the oven and let cool slightly before serving.

Baking · Gluten Free

Maple and rum baked bananas with toasted hazelnuts and pistachios

April 2, 2020 Belinda

Bananas become soft and caramelized when baked in foil – add rum, maple syrup and toasted nuts into the mix and you’ve got a wonderful dessert that takes only minutes to prepare.

Screen Shot 2020-04-02 at 2.21.13 PM Serves 4

Serves 4
2 unpeeled bananas
25g (1/2 oz) softened butter
1 tbsp soft light brown sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp white rum
a handful each of shelled hazelnuts and pistachios
a dollop or two of Greek yogurt

Heat the oven to 375F
Put a sheet of non-stick baking paper on top of a sheet of foil.
Slice the unpeeled bananas in half lengthways and put them in the center of the paper/foil.
Spoon the softened butter, sugar, maple syrup and white rum over the bananas, then wrap tightly in the paper/foil. Transfer to a roasting tray, then bake for 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a non-stick frying pan, gently toast the hazelnuts and pistachios until golden, then roughly chop.
Unwrap the baked bananas and serve, still in their skins, with the juices spooned over, sprinkled with the chopped nuts and a dollop or two of greek yogurt.