Category: Bakes

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Bakes Blog

Winter Cherry Muffins?

Wherever I can, I try to be an ethical food shopper – conscious of the environmental and social impact of the produce that ends up for sale in our shops and market stalls here in the UK.

This means I have an issue with the black cherries that appear in our supermarkets this time of year. Nothing to do with their taste – they are every bit as delicious as they look. So what’s my problem?

Well, one look at the January frost on the ground in the UK will remind you that it is not exactly the season for luscious cherries to be blossoming on the trees. Just like Paddington Bear, they have travelled here all the way from South America. That is way too many food miles for my liking – the Earth could well do without the energy consumption and carbon generation associated with that amount of transportation, and the refrigeration needed to ensure they arrive here in fresh condition.

However, it’s never that straightforward, and this presents me with lots of dilemmas. Ok, I hear you say, so they’ve been shipped here from half way around the world, but isn’t it preferable that they have been grown naturally in a seasonal, sunny climate? Isn’t that better for the environment than the fruit, tomatoes etc that are grown out of season in a heated glasshouse closer to home, here in the UK or northern Europe?

And how is this different from the bananas, pineapples and other fruit and veg that we import? Or longer life items like tea, coffee and cocoa? If we boycott certain items, aren’t we damaging the trade of countries with less well-developed economies?

Aaagh! See – I told you it was a nightmare.

Over time, I’ve developed a few rules of thumb to navigate my way through this ethical minefield.

Firstly, as far as possible I buy and cook with food produced locally and in season.

Secondly, I’m fine with fruit and veg, and store cupboard foods, that we just can’t grow in our climate, like tea, coffee, bananas etc being brought here. When fairly traded, this creates jobs and helps the producer country develop and maintain a sustainable economy.

But as for foods we can grow here in summer (like cherries), I don’t see why we in the western world have to be so spoiled as to expect them to be shipped to us from wherever, all year round, regardless of the impact this has on the planet. If we really can’t do without cherries in our winter, we can preserve part of our own summer harvest, or put them in the freezer.

But wait – there is yet one further ironic twist that highlights the futility of this episode of global trade. This week in Sainsbury’s, the packs of South American cherries were all yellow stickered with massively reduced prices. They had reached their sell-by date without anyone buying them at normal price. Were my fellow shoppers taking an ethical stand and refusing to buy them?

It was too tragic a thought that all this beautiful fruit, having been carefully cultivated by South American farmers and brought all this way, would now begin decomposing on our shores, as soon as the yellow stickers expired later that day.

So I bought a pack – at a ridiculously reduced price that cannot possibly reflect the true economic cost of the whole enterprise to Sainsbury’s. I reckoned the loss-making exercise will have taught them a harsh commercial lesson, and that importing practices might now be changed.

For the record, I lovingly washed, chopped and de-stoned the cherries, mixing them with some cocoa and other long life, store cupboard ingredients.

I baked the choc cherry muffins shown in my main photo above. They were delicious, but I will wait to the summertime to post the recipe, when cherries are properly in season here!

But hey, here’s an idea: what if, for a couple of months this time of year, we get by with our native apples and the soft fruit we’ve grown through the summer, having preserved it or frozen it to see us through the winter. The planet can be spared the pointless exercise of transporting cherries half way around the world, and our lovely friends in South America can be left to enjoy their own fresh produce.

Now what’s wrong with that? Comments welcome!

In the meantime, here’s The Jam with All Around the World.

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Bakes Blog

New Year’s Day

My New Year’s Day this year was notable for 3 things.

Firstly, I used up the last of the puff pastry and mincemeat from the festive supplies, baking the final batch of mince pies of the season (see my photo above). When this point in the season is reached, you really do know that Christmas is officially over.

Secondly, my wife and I joined a beautifully scenic group walk along our local section of the English Coastal Path. The walk leader explained that it has now been renamed the King Charles III Coastal Path, reflecting our new monarch’s aim of promoting access to the realm’s green and pleasant land. Well done, sir! I did wonder whether he and Camilla might surprise us somewhere along the route, popping up with some mince pies of their own, to wish us all a happy new year. It was not to be, however.

Thirdly, I fulfilled a New Year aim by launching a channel for A Different Kitchen on Instagram. Mission Control for the blog remains firmly here on WordPress, and there are no plans to change that. The tools on here for online writers are excellent, and I love the support, talent and inspiration within the WordPress community (yes, that’s you!).

However, people engage in different ways, and just as ADK also has an accessible Playlist on Spotify and a channel on X/Twitter, I thought it was time to open another on Instagram. I think of it like a restaurant chain, opening an outlet in a new town or community to meet another set of people. The concept remains the same – a personal view of the world through a lens of Good Food, Great Music. Whichever platform people choose to engage with, they will encounter the same style, attitude and values (oh yes, and the same jokes – thank you there at the back).

One week on, and so far it seems to have been well-received. I’ve had lots and lots of likes, comments and follows, and a few invitations to join groups and networks. It’s helped take my total follower count across all my platforms past 2,500.

If you are on Instagram, do please pop over to @differentkitch and say hello, so I can follow back.

All in all, a busy 24 hours to start 2024. Naturally, today’s musical choice is U2 with New Year’s Day. I saw them perform this live when it was still a relatively new track. I’d seen them in their even earlier days, and the main development of their sound by this point was the introduction of an electric piano. On stage, the Edge managed to play it with one hand, at the same time as playing the lead guitar slung around his neck. Oh, and he was also providing the backing vocals to Bono. What an all-round talented chap he is. I suppose these days you would call it multi-tasking.

Enjoy U2 with New Year’s Day.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Cranberry, Orange and Pecan Muffins

Just as I thought the UK season of imported fresh cranberries was coming to a close, what should I find? Only that a whole new batch of them has just appeared in Morrisons. North American friends – you have answered my prayers!

Time then for another round of muffins, obvs. This time I have blended the cranberries with the zest of an orange and chopped toasted pecan nuts, finished off with a whole pecan garnish. They can be enjoyed as a breakfast, a dessert or, erm, a naughty snack.

The pecan on the top gets a nice, deep roast as the muffins bake. Sometimes I save that whole to the last bite, to savour its rich smoky and nutty taste.

What better way to start 2024! Here we go, then…

Servings

Makes 12 muffins.

Timings

15 mins to make, 20 mins to bake in the oven at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 280g plain flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • half tsp salt
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 110g fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped in a food processor
  • zest of 1 orange
  • 240ml milk
  • 90ml veg oil
  • 60g chopped, toasted pecan nuts
  • 12 pecan nuts to garnish

Method

  1. Prepare a muffin tin or mould. Switch on the oven to 180C.
  2. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, and stir in the sugar.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine the egg, chopped cranberries, orange zest, milk and oil, and stir to combine.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir so that no dry ingredients are visible. Add in the chopped pecan nuts with the last few strokes.
  5. Spoon the mixture into the tin/mould, and top each muffin with a pecan. Bake for 20 mins.
  6. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Customise It!

Omit the nuts if they are not your thing – the mix of juicy cranberry and orange will still taste great.

Fresh cranberries aren’t the only great American export featuring in the ADK Kitchen in these first few days of 2024. I’ve been playing a lot from Interpol, the group that the NME once described as the most important band to come out of New York. Hmm sorry, they’re not – just pause for a moment to think of some of the competition to that claim: The Velvet Underground, The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Strokes to name a few.

They are very good, though. I went to see them live a few years ago at London’s Kentish Town Forum. It was on a weeknight, and I remember telling my boss that I had to leave work early that day to get to London to see Interpol. A look of fear and intrigue flashed across her face, worried that I had become entangled in a mysterious web of international crime.

At least I was able to see them play this track, which is one of my faves. Here are Interpol with C’mere.

PS. Happy New Year!

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Cranberry, Oat & Yoghurt Muffins

It’s that one time in the year when the UK’s lovely friends and allies over there in the US and Canada share with us your precious treasure of fresh cranberries. Thank you!

The rest of the year, we have to make do with jars of Ocean Spray Sauce. Not that I am complaining about that, though – they are a reliable addition to the winter dinner table. We also have dried cranberries, of the sort I used to make Cranberry & Pistachio Cookies, for example. However, none of these ever tastes quite the same as the fresh article.

So how excited was I this week, when I saw packs of fresh cranberries imported from America, sitting there in Sainsbury’s fruit and veg section, nestling up alongside the blueberries. I quickly threw a couple of packs in the trolley and began making plans.

Here I am sharing with you my fresh cranberry, oat and yoghurt muffins – just follow the recipe below. I like these because they bring out the natural sourness in the berries, which we can’t usually taste as the processed varieties have been sweetened before they reach us. That sourness is enhanced by the bitterness of the yoghurt, while there is also a chewy, nutty bite in the rolled oats.

The light brown sugar provides a complementary sweetness in the cake mixture, making for an overall, pleasing blend of flavours on the tongue. What’s more, as the fresh cranberries burst with the baking, they infuse the muffin with juice that will keep the cake moist. Irresistible!

See my main photo above for the muffins, including one I cut in half to show the richness of the filling. A highly satisfying, healthy muffin to be enjoyed at breakfast, as a snack or a dessert.

So, to all our North American friends – as you can see, we are taking care of your special gift to us, and turning them into healthy, tasty treats. Please keep these little fellas coming!

Servings

This will make 12 muffins.

Timings

10 mins to prepare, 20 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 200g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • half tsp salt
  • 85g rolled oats
  • 140g natural yoghurt
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 egg
  • 120g light brown sugar
  • 140g fresh cranberries
  • 90ml milk
  • 90ml veg oil

Method

  1. Switch on the oven to 180C. Prepare a muffin tray or mould.
  2. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
  3. Pulse the cranberries in a food processor with blade fitted, for a few seconds, 2 or 3 times. Light chopping will help them fully bake and soften in the muffins. Tip into the bowl of flour and stir so the fruit is coated.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the oats with the yoghurt and bicarb. Leave for a couple of minutes, then stir in the egg and the sugar. Finally, stir in the milk and veg oil.
  5. When the oven is up to temp, combine the wet ingredients with the dry, and stir until no dry ingredients are visible. Spoon in to the muffin tray/mould, and place in the oven for 20 mins.
  6. When they are looking browned, as in my main photo above, remove to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

Customise It!

If I was making one change to this, I would swap in broken pieces of white chocolate for some of the cranberries, at a ratio of up to half and half. That also helps bring out the sweet and sour contrast.

There really can be only one band to accompany this post, so I’m adding this track to the ADK Playlist. Limerick’s own The Cranberries with Dreams.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Fruity Coconut Flapjack

I enjoy the flavour of toasted oats in baking. I brought a bag of medium oatmeal back from my recent trip to Scotland, and used it to make the flapjacks shown in my photo above.

They are based on a recipe by Paul Hollywood, of Great British Bake-Off fame, and combine the oatmeal, which is quite finely ground, with rolled oats. The theory is that the two different thicknesses of oat adds chewiness. It also helps the flapjack mixture meld together, rather than descending into a collection of crumbly clusters, as flapjacks sometimes have a tendency to do.

Most importantly, they taste great, the golden brown oats mixing in with coconut, ground almonds, raisins and cranberries.

Servings

Makes 16 square flapjacks.

Timings

15 mins to prepare, 25 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 150g medium oatmeal
  • 150g rolled oats
  • 50g desiccated coconut
  • 50g ground almonds
  • 50g dried raisins and cranberries
  • 200g baking spread
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 160g golden syrup

Method

  1. Grease and line a baking tin – the one I used is 20 cm square. Turn on the oven to 180C.
  2. In a bowl, mix together both varieties of oats with the almonds, coconut and dried fruit.
  3. Put the spread, sugar and syrup in a saucepan and warm on the hob until it has dissolved into a sweet, sticky sludge. Pour into the bowl of oats and mix well, till there are no dry ingredients showing.
  4. Scrape into the prepared tin and level the surface. Bake in the oven for 25 mins.
  5. Remove from the oven – the top should be golden and there should be signs of toasting at the edges. Leave to cool in the tin.
  6. While it is cooling, cut with a sharp knife into 16 squares, while still in the tin. When completely cool, you can then lift out each square to serve.

Customise It!

Add other dried fruit, like chopped apricots, in place of some of the raisins and cranberries, or possibly also some ground toasted nuts or seeds. Don’t add more than the overall quantity of 50g however, otherwise the mixture will be more prone to crumble apart.

I said I’d feature a track by The Chats, the Australian punk trio I saw supporting Queens of the Stone Age last week. They are a lot of fun and don’t take themselves that seriously – a cartoon-like Aussie punk version of The Monkees. Check out some of their videos on You Tube. Here they are with Smoko.

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Bakes Blog

Autumn in Atwater

This time of year always reminds me of an autumn family trip to Montreal in Canada a few years back. One of the places I particularly enjoyed was Atwater Market/Marche Atwater. It is a very large farmers’ market housed in a lovely old art deco building. There you will find all kinds of gourmet food, meat, veg, bread, cheeses and seasonal produce. See my main photo above for this shot I took of pumpkins resting in the autumn sun.

There was a buzz of excitement all around as it was Halloween. The scary, decorated pumpkin display was something else, as my photos below show.

That night in the city, we saw lots of little kids dressed up in cute but scary costumes, being escorted by their parents from house to house to trick or treat, as the darkness was drawing in.

The parks were beautiful as the trees were turning all shades of amber and orange, leaving a golden carpet of fallen leaves on the paths, as my photo below shows.

This Halloween I shall be baking one of my favourites – Pumpkin Spice Muffins, shown below. Check out the link for my full recipe and post.

Have a fun evening, whatever you are baking, cooking, eating or drinking. Just remember to have that jack o’lantern burning at the window to keep any spooky spirits at bay. After all, you don’t want end up in the same situation as R. Dean Taylor (also a Canadian), in this chiller thriller of a Motown classic I’m adding to the ADK Playlist: There’s a Ghost in My House.

Happy Halloween!

Categories
Bakes Desserts Recipes

Hummingbird Slices

I tasted Hummingbird Cake for the first time on my recent motorhome trip to Scotland. It was served up in the delightful Cocoa Skye cafe in Brora (you can check out my post on it here). I decided I would come up with my own take on this when I reached home.

Incidentally, many of the beautiful places featured in my recent posts from Scotland have been battered this week by Storm Babet. Flooding has affected Angus, Aberdeenshire and Caithness, leaving us feeling how fortunate we were to experience brilliant sunny weather there, just a few weeks ago. Friends in Scotland – our thoughts are with you.

A little research tells me that Hummingbird Cake originated in Jamaica, and is now popular across the US. I’ll be interested to hear from any of my lovely American followers whether that is so?

I consulted several recipes before coming up with my own. One of those I read was by Jamie Oliver, who gave his version this convincing endorsement: “bake it, and get it in your gob”. Say what you mean, Jamie lad, say what you mean.

All the recipes I looked at made this a double decker cake. I wanted to make it single tier – I find a tray bake easier to serve and store, while having only one layer of cream cheese frosting makes it just a little less calorie-tastic.

I have stuck with the core ingredients of banana, chopped pineapple and pecan nuts in a spiced sponge, with cream cheese frosting and zesty sprinkles. The finished product is shown in my photo above, and has gone down very well with the family. So here we go, the ADK take on Hummingbird Cake.

Servings

Depending on how you cut it, at least 12 – 14 slices.

Timings

20 mins to prepare the cake, 30 mins to bake in the oven at 180C (the frosting is made while the cake is baking).

You Will Need

  • 280g self-raising flour
  • sprinkle of salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 50g pecan nuts, chopped
  • 2 bananas, mashed
  • 150g chopped pineapple, fresh or tinned
  • 2 eggs
  • 120ml sunflower oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 100g soft cheese
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 70g baking spread
  • 1 lime

Method

  1. Turn on the oven to 180C. Prepare a traybake tin (mine is 22cm square) by greasing and lining with kitchen paper.
  2. Sieve the dry ingredients – flour, salt, baking powder and sugar, into a bowl. Add the chopped pecans and mix.
  3. In separate bowl, mix the mashed bananas, pineapple, beaten eggs, oil and vanilla.
  4. When the oven is up to temperature, pour the contents of the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir until fully mixed, then pour into the prepared baking dish, evening it out with a spatula. Place in the oven for 30 mins.
  5. Meanwhile, make the cream cheese frosting. Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl with the soft cheese and spread. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth. Place in the fridge.
  6. Take the cake from the oven. Check it is baked by inserting a skewer in the centre – if it comes out dry it is done. Set aside to cool.
  7. Once cooled, lift the cake on to a board and carefully spread the cream cheese frosting all over. Grate the zest from the lime and sprinkle over. Place back in the fridge to chill.
  8. Take from the fridge and cut into slices. Keep these in a box in the fridge.

Customise It!

I liked this as it is, but you could decorate the topping with some small pieces of chopped pineapple or pecan if you wish.

I’m still enjoying listening to Scottish bands in the ADK Kitchen, so here is another great track to share with you: Del Amitri with Always The Last To Know.

Categories
Bakes Blog Desserts

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

At this point on our motorhome tour of Scotland we are at Brora, a small Highlands village on the north-east coast. Our camp site is a golf ball’s throw from a massive, deserted golden beach. I say a golf ball’s throw because, to reach the beach, you must first of all carefully traverse one of the many links courses that can be found along the Scottish coast.

The beach then stretches for 2 miles, along which there are several benches where it’s possible to sit to take in the views (like this one in my photo below), and listen to the sounds of the gently rolling waves.

The walk along the beach leads to this picturesque little harbour, where each afternoon we watched the fishing boat come in from the North Sea to unload the day’s catch.

Everywhere is beautifully maintained, with a real sense that the local community take great pride in their surroundings.

As if this is not idyllic enough, the village has an amazing cake shop, Cocoa Skye. On our first day, we shared a slice of hummingbird cake with our americanos. I hadn’t come across this type of cake before, but once the waitress explained how it was made, I just had to try it. It tastes like carrot cake but with pieces of banana and pineapple, with a reassuringly sweet and creamy frosted topping and chopped nuts. I will definitely be trying to recreate this cake when I get home!

On the next day, my choice was this raspberry and almond bakewell, which was also delicious.

Mild weather, beautiful views, a golden beach and delicious cake. A heavenly combination that brings to mind this track from the Eurythmics, featuring the voice of Scotland’s Annie Lennox: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).

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Bakes Blog

Scone With The Wind

We have now reached the north coast on our motorhome tour of Scotland. The scenery here is wild and rugged, with sheer cliff faces where you peer down on powerful spraying waves crashing aggressively on to craggy, inaccessible rocky stacks.

The views are spectacular, looking directly across the foaming sea to the Orkney Isles – a barren and forbidding landscape dotted with abandoned crofters’ cottages. To the west is Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of the British Isles mainland.

And yet, our coastal walk soon brought us to a gentle cove, with a sandy beach where the seabirds fed and the seals lolloped playfully in the shallows. Nature at its wildest and best.

A constant is the steady onshore wind. It is this which gives its name to a little tea shop we came across. Scone With The Wind is no more than a wooden summerhouse in a local garden, where those brave souls hiking the coast can help themselves to homemade scones, tea and jam.

They are baked by the owner who lives in the house nearby. All that is asked in return is that you put a cash donation in an honesty box.

If you wish, you can sit down at one of the tables and enjoy the coastal view while you eat. The table cloths, china and napkins I think are a very civilised touch.

On the day of our visit, the flavours were Plain (Well Fired) and Cheese & Herb. We took ours away (having made our donation) and ate them later, spread with butter alongside a cup of tea, on a picnic between motorhome stopovers.

The owner also makes available any leftover one-day-old scones without any request for a donation. Callers are merely asked to Pay It Forward i.e. carry out a similar act of kindness to someone else in turn.

Now there’s a concept that could potentially reshape the world economy: what if we just decided to replace money with random acts of kindness to others as payment in commercial transactions?

Makes you think – and it all starts with a Scottish homemade scone.

We’ve been playing a lot of Scottish artists and bands over Android Auto as we drive along in the motorhome, especially as DAB radio doesn’t seem to have reached the Highlands yet. Here’s a track that goes well with the rugged landscapes we’ve been travelling through, featuring Stuart Adamson’s unmistakable bagpipe-guitar sound. Big Country with In a Big Country.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Spiced Apple & Oat Muffins

I still have lots of apples from the garden around for baking with at the moment – you’d almost think they grow on trees…..

Even after making my Dorset Apple Cake, there were still plenty more to combine with oats and spices in these tasty muffins, shown in my main photo above. Great with a cup of tea, for dessert or breakfast, and lovely with a few spoonfuls of Greek yoghurt on the side.

Servings

12 muffins.

Timings

10 mins to prepare, 25 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 190g plain flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • half tsp salt
  • 1 and a half tsp mixed spice
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 170g finely chopped apple
  • 60g sultanas
  • 1 egg
  • 60g oats
  • 150 ml milk
  • 90 ml vegetable oil

Method

  1. Warm the oven to 180C and grease a muffin tin or mould.
  2. Sieve the flour, baking powder, salt and mixed spice into a bowl. Add the sugar, chopped apple and sultanas, and mix so that the fruit is coated in flour.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix the egg, oats, milk and veg oil.
  4. When the oven is up to temperature, combine wet ingredients with dry, and stir to mix. Spoon into the muffin tin or mould and bake for 25 mins. Cool on wire rack before serving.

Customise It!

Cinnamon or nutmeg will go just as well as the mixed spice if you wish. A handful of toasted chopped nuts would be a good addition.

With a number of posts recently featuring spice, it’s amazing that I have thus far managed to avoid adding a track by the Spice Girls to the ADK Playlist. This probably has something to do with the fact that I am not a massive fan. This song, which I do like, comes fairly close, however. Bryan Adams and Mel C (aka the Sporty one) with When You’re Gone.