Victoria Plum and Vanilla Jam

Yesterday my mum came to visit me and she bought with her a kilo of ripe Victoria plums. All last night thoughts and recipes kept going through my head as to what I should make with them and I couldn’t decide. Should I make an upside down plum cake, some muffins, a crumble, jam, chutney, a crumble topped cake, in a tart etc…

Thankfully this morning I woke up and had somehow decided I was going to make jam. I have made plum jam once before and really loved its vibrant colour and plumy flavour and I think it was this memory that convinced me to make jam. My next thought was ‘do I want to make a plain plum jam or do I want to add another flavour?’ I considered adding another fruit such as apple or apricot but decided against it. I then thought about the possibility of adding ginger, cinnamon or almonds to the mix but in the end I decided to use vanilla.

There is something magical about watching these golden fleshed plumbs transform into a vibrant glossy pink colour as the colour leeches out of their skins. I used a vanilla pod rather than essence as I wanted to get a true vanilla flavour and the tiny seeds which got distributed throughout the jam make it look quite attractive. The smell as this cooked was wonderful, really fresh and fruity.

Once it had cooled I tried some on a scrap of bread and I got an instant burst of sweet plumy flavour with a lingering aftertaste from the vanilla that really works well. I left some of the vanilla pod in each jam jar, which I hope will intensify the vanilla flavour over time (that’s the black curl you can see in the larger jam jar). Mmmm delicious.

Victoria Plum and Vanilla Jam
Ingredients
1kg Victoria plums
120ml water
1 vanilla pod
450g granulated sugar

Method
Wash the plums to remove any dirt or bits of grass.
Cut the plums in half, twist apart and remove the stone and cut in half once more, removing any bad bruises.
Split the vanilla pod open lengthways and place into a large pan along with the plums and the water. Bring to a simmer and allow the plums to cook for 15-20 minutes until soft and broken down.
Meanwhile wash and dry three jam jars and place into a 120C oven to sterilise.
Slowly stir in the sugar and continue to stir until it has all dissolved and the mixture has turned clear and shiny.
Bring the mixture back to a rolling boil and allow to cook, stirring every few minutes to prevent the bottom from burning.
Once the mixture starts to feel more viscous, (thicker) conduct a setting test.
To do this, simply place a small amount of the jam onto a plate and place in the fridge for a few minutes. Then gently push your index finger through the pool of jam, if it crinkles slightly then the jam is ready. If not, then allow to cook for a few minutes more before testing again.
Once ready, remove the jam from the heat, extract the vanilla pod from the jam and take your jam jars out of the oven.
Place a strip of vanilla pod into each jar and then divide the jam between the jars (a ladle or mug works well), filling each one almost completely to the top, leaving only ½cm headspace.
Screw the tops onto the hot jars using a pair of rubber gloves to prevent burning yourself. Allow to cool before storing in a cool dark place for up to a year. Once opened, keep in the fridge.

Makes 3 x 420g jars or 2½ larger jars.

Berry Delicious Smoothie

This is extremely quick to throw together and provides a deliciously thick and fruity tasting smoothie. Better yet, not a banana in sight. I like bananas, but I find they can often end up making smoothies taste quite similar. In this particular drink it’s the dense and slightly fibrous melon which provides the thickener.

Make sure to use the ripest of berries and melon to get the best flavour. Also, try to use an apple juice that is fresh and not from concentrate as concentrates can tend to give too strong a flavour and be overly sweet. Very refreshing on a hot day.

Berry Delicious Smoothie
Ingredients
40g Raspberries
75g Strawberries
285g Honeydew melon
250ml fresh natural apple juice (not from concentrate)

Method
Place all of the ingredients into a food blender and whiz together until smooth. A jug and hand blender also works equally well.
Pour into glasses and drink.
Serves 3-4

Creative Tagging

Gigi from Gigi Cakes has tagged me for a Creative Tag. This involves writing 8 of your fellow bloggers names in a creative way. The first name has to be the name of the person who tagged you and then 7 others. The aim is to use a background picture of something that you find amazing in the world. Be as creative as you like.

Below is a little information about honey and honey bees from The Honey Association. Hopefully you will see why I find them so amazing.

Honeybees are the most important producers of honey. They gather nectar from flowers and plants and carry it to their hive where other worker bees then take over. They add enzymes, any water evaporates away and this, together with the action of the enzyme, turns the nectar into honey.

Honey has long been recognized as a natural medicine for thousands of years. It has antiseptic properties and can be used as a remedy for sore throats, burns and cuts.

Honey is one of the oldest foods in existence. It was found in the tomb of King Tut and amazingly was still edible. Honey is the only known food that never spoils. There is no need to refrigerate it, even once opened. It can be stored in a dry cupboard indefinitely, although, If moisture gets into the jar it can start to crystalise.
Honey has different flavours and colours, depending on the location of the hive and kinds of flowers the bees visit.
One honeybee visits between 50 - 100 flowers during one collection flight from the hive. Despite this, an average worker bee makes only about 1½ teaspoons of honey in its lifetime!

Honey is hygroscopic, meaning it attracts water, so it is good for baking cakes as it keeps them moister for longer (always a bonus).

The Creative Tags

Gigi from Gigi Cakes

Anne from Anne’s Food

Bea from La Tartine Gourmande

Jenjen from Milk & Cookies

Johanna from The Passionate Cook

Myriam from Once Upon A Tart

Peabody from Culinary Concoctions

Nicole from Baking Bites

Black and White Blondies

To give them a proper name they are really Black Cherry and White Chocolate Amaretto Blondies. When Myriam of ‘Once Upon A Tart’ announced another Brownie Babe event my first thought was unsurprisingly brownies. However, I decided I wanted to do something a little different this time (having participated in event no.1) and as blondies are also allowed I decided to create my own recipe based on them instead.

I decided to make the blondies extra blonde by melting in some white chocolate and to use whole black cherries which I hoped would provide a great colour contrast. During the making of the blondies I hit upon the idea of creating a brownie base layer before adding the cherries and the blondie batter, to give them a sort of baseline. As I was in an experimental mood I also added some amaretto to the blondie batter, in the hope it would complement the cherries.

The blondies are quite dense, fudgey and gooey when cooked with a slightly crisp/crackly surface and a velvety smooth texture with a slight chew. Due to the white chocolate, and their general nature, the blondies are quite sweet, but biting into a chunk of juicy cherry helps to cleanse the pallet and prevents them from being too rich or sweet. I was really pleased with how the cherries looked against the background of the blondie and I had arranged them so that there was a whole cherry included inside each square. To my annoyance I forgot to remove the stones from the cherries and didn’t realise until after they were in the oven. However, I think this helped them to retain their shape when cooked. I took these into work for the Monday Munchers and people didn’t seem to mind the stones. I think they rather liked spitting them out or nibbling around the outsides. I was a little disappointed at how the base brownie layer turned out very thin. It didn’t have quite the effect I was hoping for but its still there as a sort of outline. Next time I will use more of the batter for a thicker brownie layer.

Overall these are really tasty little treats and the flavours all worked together well. I think they actually taste better the next day, after sitting in the fridge which allows them to become even fudgeier and allows the flavours of the cherries and amaretto to develop more.

You have until 17th of August to submit your brownies or blondies to Myriam’s Brownie Babe event.

Black Cherry and White Chocolate Amaretto Blondies
Ingredients
100g butter
80g white chocolate
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
75g plain flour
16 black cherries, fresh or tinned.
2 tsp Amaretto
2 heaped tsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp hot water
1 tbsp additional plain flour

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Line the base and sides of a 20cm/8 inch tin with greaseproof paper.
Melt the butter and white chocolate together in a small bowl, either in the microwave or over a pan of boiling water.
Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl until thick, creamy and paler in colour.
Stir in the melted chocolate mixture before sifting over the flour and folding in gently.
In a separate smaller bowl, dissolved the cocoa powder in the hot water until smooth. Transfer around ¼ of the white chocolate mixture into the smaller bowl containing the cocoa powder. Mix until well incorporated and add the additional tbsp of flour to thicken slightly.
Pour the dark chocolate batter evenly over the base of the prepared tin.
Arrange the cherries at regular intervals over the surface of the dark chocolate mixture.
Beat the Amaretto into the white chocolate batter and pour over the top of the cherries, ensuring they all get evenly covered.
Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until golden brown on top and a skewer inserted comes out relatively clean. (You may want to cover the tin with foil for the last 10 minutes of baking if it’s browning too much).
Allow to cool in the tin before removing and placing in the fridge for 30 minutes before slicing into squares.
Makes 16 squares.

Sugar in Your Tea?

This is my entry to this months Sugar High Friday which is hosted by Johanna from The Passionate Cook. This month’s theme was to cook a local/famous dish or food that originated in the region where we live. I am living in the county of Yorkshire and so I set about thinking of all the foods Yorkshire can put claim to, which as it turns out is quite a few. In the end I decided to bake a Yorkshire Tea Loaf and to make it, of course, using Yorkshire tea. You can’t get much more regional than that.

Despite knowing about Yorkshire tea loafs, I wasn’t really aware of the history behind it and so a little research was called for.

Yorkshire Tea is a black tea blend produced by tailors of Harrogate, one of the few remaining family tea and coffee merchants in the UK. The company was founded in 1886 by Yorkshire tea merchant Charles Taylor. It has a reputation for producing high quality teas.

The Yorkshire Tea Loaf was produced by Taylors as a way of using their Yorkshire tea to expand their range. It involves using the choicest fruits which are infused overnight with the tea. After the addition of flour, eggs, sugar and spices it produces a moist tea loaf which is delicious eaten on its own, sliced and buttered or in true Yorkshire style, with a thick slice of the crumbly Yorkshire cheese, the one much favoured by Wallace and Gromit…Wensleydale.

This tea loaf is quite unusual in that it contains no additional fat in the form of butter or oil, the only fat in the recipe comes from the eggs. The added sugar is also fairly low, although the dried fruit does of course add its own sugar and sweetness. Overall I consider this tea loaf to be relatively healthy. The lack of butter doesn’t mean that you end up with a dense and chewy loaf, quite the contrary. Thanks to the large amount of tea used, it is incredibly moist, so much so, that it actually makes a slight ‘squish’ sound when you bite into it. Despite the fairly large quantity of fruit, making the cake feel heavy when handled, it remains surprisingly light and even in texture.

You need to plan this tea loaf a little time in advance as it requires steeping the fruit in the tea overnight. Once this stage is done the rest of the loaf is very quick and easy to put together. I tasted a little of the leftover tea that hadn’t been absorbed by the fruit the following morning and it had really taken on the sweetness and flavour of the fruit. If I hadn’t been wanting to use it in the cake I could quite happily and have drank it there and then.

The combination of the soft brown sugar, mixed spice, fruits and almost aromatic tea gave me the strong impression of a Christmas cake with all the smells mingling together deliciously. Once cooked it takes on a different appearance with a lovely sticky/glossy golden brown surface, making it look almost as if its been glazed. The curst has a slight chew to it, which yields to a moist spiced interior that is speckled with plump juicy fruit and rosy cherries. The tea gives a most unique, yet not obviously tea, flavour. Overall I love it, it’s the perfect thing to munch on in the afternoon, the crust of a currant bun and the interior similar to a fruit cake but without being too rich or dense and of course it goes brilliantly with a cup of tea.

Other foods regional to Yorkshire include Yorkshire Pudding, Yorkshire Curd Cheese Tart, Bakewell Tart, Wensleydale and Yorkshire Blue cheeses, Liquorice/Pontefract Cakes, Fat Rascals (scone like biscuits) and of all things, Savoury Ducks (the Northern version of faggot).

Yorkshire Tea Loaf
Ingredients
200g raisins
100g currants
50g glace cherries
¾ pint freshly made Yorkshire tea
75g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp mixed spice
270g self raising flour

Method
Weigh out the currants and raisins and place into a large bowl. Pour over the hot tea, cover the bowl with cling film and leave to steep for 12 hours or overnight.
The next day, the fruit will be very plump and juicy looking. Some tea will still remain in the bowl which is fine.
Grease a 2lb loaf tin and pre-heat the oven to 150C.
Chop the cherries into halves or thirds, depending on size, and add to the soaked raisins along with the sugar and spice. Stir until mostly dissolved.
Add the eggs and mix well until they are evenly combined.
Scatter the flour over the surface of the mixture. Using a wooden spoon, start at the centre of the bowl and beat the flour into the mixture, working your way out towards the edge until everything is well incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour and 30 – 40 minutes until golden brown on top and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out relatively clean (it may still be sticky if you hit a raisin)
Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire wrack to cool completely.
Serve in thick slices. I like it just as it is but it can be served with butter or with a slab of Wensleydale cheese for that authentic Yorkshire experience.
Makes 1 2lb loaf.

You have until Monday, 27th of August to cook and blog about a local specialty, so get investigating!

Fresh Apricot Upside-Down Cake

I made this cake whilst on holiday in France. We had bought an abundance of ripe, fresh apricots from the market in the village and despite eating quite a quantity of them, in the hot weather, they soon became so ripe that they were starting to leech their juices. Something had to be done to use them up quickly and this wonderful apricot cake was the result.

Baking the apricots really intensified their already sweet fragrant flavour. They looked so vibrant and glossy studded into the cake and surrounded by pools of their sweet buttery juices. The vanilla scented cake has quite a close texture but is very light and soft. This also meant it absorbed all the apricots excess juices, allowing the flavours to mingle together brilliantly. This cake is so simple and yet utterly delicious, especially when served with a big blob of crème fraiche. I think this may in fact be the best cake I have eaten all year. I bet it would be equally good with plumbs in the autumn time.

Fresh Apricot Upside-Down Cake
(Recipe from My Cool Desserts blog)
For the topping
150g caster sugar
55g butter
55ml water
8 – 9 fresh apricots

For the cake
4 eggs
1½ tsp vanilla
55g butter
115g self raising flour
140g caster sugar

Method
Heat the oven to 170C. Grease and flour a 9inch circular spring-form cake tin.
Cut the apricots in half, remove the stone and set to one side.
To make the topping, place the sugar and water in a pan and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
Bring to the boil and allow to bubble for 5-8 minutes until lightly golden brown.
Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. As soon as it’s melted in, pour the golden syrup mixture into the base of the tin. (If you stir for too long then mixture can seize up and go grainy. Don’t worry if this happens, spoon it into the tin anyway and it will dissolve again during baking.)
Add the halved apricots onto op the syrup, cut size down.

To make the cake, put the eggs, sugar and vanilla into a bowl. Beat with an electric whisk for around 10 minutes until thick, pale and creamy.
Sift over the flour and fold it in gently.
Melt the butter and stir into the cake mix (It will be quite runny as this stage).
Pour the batter over the top of the apricots and place in the oven to bake for 45-50 minutes.
It should be golden brown and top and a skewer inserted should come out clean.
Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before placing a large plate over the top of the tin and quickly turning out.
The apricots syrups juices will drizzle themselves down the sides of the cake.
Serve cold or slightly warm with cream or crème fraiche.

Little Lemon Cakes

These cute little lemon cakes were the latest offering to my work Monday Muchers. I have missed the last two Mondays, one because I was away on holiday and then last Monday I took in some madelines that I bought back from France instead.

I had to work this Saturday which meant I didn’t have my usual planning and shopping time before baking so it was a matter of using what I had available. I recently bought some mini petit fours cases and I was dying to try them out and as I hadn’t taken anything lemony into work before, these little cakes were created.

They take only a few minutes to put together as the cake is made using the ‘all in one’ method. They are topped with a subtle lemon buttercream and a dried blueberry. They are very light and surprisingly lemony considering their tiny size and the blueberry on top adds a nice little pocket of flavour when you bite into it.

I was a little worried at first that people weren’t all that happy about this weeks offering as no one seemed to be eating them. I thought that fact that they look a bit like eyeballs might have been putting people off, but it turned out they were just being polite and not wanting to be the first person to take one. It got to around noon when the first one was sampled and after that they disappeared pretty quickly.

Being bite size people happily ate 3 or 4 of these without worrying, afterall a slice of cake would be much bigger.

Little Lemon Cakes

Ingredients
60g self raising flour
55g butter or margarine
55g caster sugar
1 egg
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp lemon juice

For the buttercream
50g butter or margarine
100g icing sugar
½ tbsp lemon juice
Handful of dried blueberries

Method
Preheat the oven to 175C. Place 25 petit fours cases on a baking tray and set to one size.
Place all the cake ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.
Divide the cake batter between the paper cases using a teaspoon.
Bake for 8-10 minutes until risen and golden brown.
Transfer to a wire wrack and allow to cool.
Meanwhile, make the buttercream. Add the butter into a bowl and sift in the icing sugar. Carefully work the sugar into the butter using a butter knife or a wooden spoon.
When incorporated beat well until smooth and add the lemon juice a bit at a time, making sure it doesn’t go too runny.
When the cakes are cold, pipe or spread the buttercream over the cakes and top with a dried blueberry.

Makes 25 mini cakes.

Tales and Tastes of France

I have been back from France for a week now and I promised to write a bit about it and so it’s about high time I did. We stayed in a lovely house that was in a small secluded village called Mormoiron. It was very quaint and quiet and surrounded by wonderful views (the above photo is the view we had from our house).

The day after we arrived there was a local food market in the town square and where we were able to buy all kinds of local cheeses, fruits and vegetables. The figs and apricots in particular were amazing, so full of flavour that we just cannot get back in England. The local Boulanger had set up a little stall outside his shop where he was giving out free tasters of his breads. I liked the fig bread which was studded with dried figs and went very well with cheese. The nut rolls was also very flavoursome with whole hazelnuts and almonds incorporated within it. The baguettes were also a firm favourite which had crisp yet slightly chewy crusts with pillowey soft centers and were quite rustic in appearance.

The bakery also sold a small assortment of pastries which of course we had to sample. The strawberry tart involved a base of creamy crème patisserie in a sweet pastry case with fresh strawberries and a glaze. The strawberries were very fresh and ripe resulting in a good flavour. The éclair was filled with a thick chocolate crème patisserie and topping with a shiny chocolate icing. I love the fact the French put crème patisserie inside their cakes and pastries, so much more interesting than boring whipped cream which in my opinion is rather bland. Next was a mixed fruit tart which was very similar to the strawberry tart and also very tasty. Finally there was the very rich and indulgent chocolate tart. This was basically a huge mound of ganache which had been piled into a sweet pastry base and dusted with cocoa. It gave a wonderful dark bitter chocolate flavour that just melted on your tongue.

All the nearby villages seemed to take it in turns to have markets on a different day of the week. We also visited the market in Bedoin which was absolutely enormous and teaming with people. It must have contained at least 300 stalls which snaked along the roadsides, and sold everything from pots, jewelry, bread, toys, shoes, fruits and oils. I bought a sweet looking cakey thing to try without really knowing what it was, as I couldn’t understand the sign, I just knew it included dates. It turned out to be quite a dry, crumbly and dense semolina wedge that had a filling of pureed dates and was coated in honey to give it a shiny glaze. The date bit was quite nice but the rest was very bland and disappointing. I’m glad I tried it though otherwise I probably would have wondered what it was like for the rest of the holiday.

One afternoon we headed deeper into the countryside to explore, passing many vineyards along the way. It always amazes me how they manage to plant them in such straight rows. The views were fantastic and we decided to climb up short slope to the top of a hill for a better look. At least we thought it was a short slope. We ended up scrambling up a dried up narrow river bed that twisted its way from left to right all the way up. The supposedly short climb took about three times as long as we were expecting. However, we were rewarded not only with amazing views but also the discovery of an old ruined church that we couldn’t see from the road below.

We visited Bedoin a second time when it was a lot quieter and came across the most wonderful bakery.

The fabulous smell of freshly baking bread drew up in even before we registered it was there. We left with a crusty seeded loaf and some olive bread. The olive bread was like no other olive bread I have tasted. It wasn’t just flavoured with little pieces of olives but was stuffed full of whole black olives which were bursting with flavour. The bread itself was quite chewy and naturally salty due to so many olives but it was wonderful cut into thin slices and eaten with cheese and tomatoes. We also stumbled across a little patisserie which had a range of beautifully presented pastries making us want to try them all. In the end we restrained ourselves to buying a very appealing walnut caramel tart and a wedge of proper thick, wobbly custard tart.

I was a wonderful holiday and I loved walking down into the village each morning to get fresh bread from the bakery and then spending the days exploring the area, shopping in the markets and trying out the different cakes, pastries and breads. We bought fresh seasonal fruit, vegetables and bread everyday and it really highlighted to me how much fresher and flavoursome the food is when you buy it this way. We have nothing like this back here in England, at least not near where I live. On the occasion that I have found a proper traditional bakery you can end up having to pay £3 or more for a loaf of bread and compared to the fruits I tasted in France the stuff we buy from the supermarkets is quite bland. I know France has a much better climate that we do for growing fruit but I still feel we could do better. The time went so quickly and I don’t feel I properly explored half the places we visited, the perfect excuse to return again sometime.

All About MeMe

Well I’m now back from France and back to work. I had a wonderful time and ate some really delicious breads and cakes which I promise to write about soon.

However, while I was away I have been tagged by Gigi from gigi cakes for a MeMe. The rules are as follows:

"Each player starts with eight random facts or habits about himself or herself. A tagged player then writes a blog entry with the eight things, as well as these rules. Then the player tags eight others and lists their names on his or her blog. Remember to leave a comment for your newly tagged players, letting them know they have been tagged and to read your blog!"
So without further ado here are eight little facts you probably didn’t know about me.

1) When I was nine my elder sister persuaded me to watch Jarrasic park with her. It absolutely terrified me and I had nightmares for around 4 years afterwards. I still can’t watch TV adverts for programmes including dinasores, such as the Walking with Dinersas documentary that was on a couple years ago.
2) My nickname is Kitkat. It has nothing to do with the chocolate bar, and was given to me by me sister when I was little. She liked the sound of it – Kitkat Katie.
3) I used to collect (and still own) things with big yellow smiley faces on. People got to know I collected them and it was all I ever received for birthdays and Christmas’s for about 3 years. I now own over 50 different objects with smiley faces on them. Everything from pencil sharpeners, cushions, posters, purses, napkins and badges.
4) I am allergic to Kiwi. Not drastically but if I eat it my tongue becomes sore, tingly and covered in little red spots.
5) One of my favourite books is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I used to read it enthralled. I love the style in which it is written and used to read it imagining I was Jane, surviving my way through school, the excitement of escaping, getting a job in a new and exciting place and the adventures that followed.
6) My favourite film of all time is The Sound of Music. I must have watched it over 50 times and I know all the songs off by heart. It always reminds me of my childhood and being ill as it was all I ever requested to watch, lying on the sofa when unwell.
7) Four is my lucky number, closely followed by sixteen. Afterall, 4 x 4 = 16.
8) While other people get excited by clothes shopping or buying a new pair of shoes I could (and do) spend hours browsing round foods shops and obtaining new kitchen gadgets. I now own so much kitchen equipment that it doesn’t all fit in my kitchen cupboards. One half of my wardrobe is taken up by cake tins, muffin cases, a waffle iron and an assortment of pastry cutters and piping bags.

I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about me and don’t now think I’m slightly deranged.

The eight bloggers I tag are:
Anna from Baking for Britian
Bonnie from Daydream Delicious
Niki from Esurientes
Meeta from What’s for Lunch Honey?
Joe from Culinary in the Country
Bea from La Tartine Gourmande
Lex Culinaria and
The Canadian Baker

Sorry if you have already been tagged, I’m not sure who has and who hasn’t.

Relaxing in France

From now until Sunday I am holidaying in the beautiful region of Avignon in France with my family on a much needed holiday. The weather is blissfully hot, a wonderful change from the wet and windy weather I left behind in England.

I do have some access to the internet but its very temperamental so I'm not sure I'll get the change for any more posts for a few days. I'm planning to try and sample as much French bread, cheeses and pastries as I can get my hands on and if I come across anything spectacular I promise to blog about it on my return.

Until then, au revoir.