Waffles with Greek Honey & Blackberries

After watching my sister enjoy scrumptious looking waffles while we were holidaying in Greece together, I returned home craving waffles. Thankfully I am one of those people who can’t resist buying kitchen gadgets and so own a waffle machine, meaning it wasn’t long before I could satisfy my craving.

This is a very quick waffle recipe that makes just two waffles, which is perfect for one person. I gave a slight nod to my holiday by using some Greek runny honey I’d bought back with me, both in the batter itself and drizzled on top. This gave it a subtle sweetness and a lovely faint floral flavour that honey can add.

As blackberries are in bountiful supply at the moment, I topped my waffles with some honey sweetened cream cheese and a handful of lightly cooked blackberries that I’d foraged from nearby hedgerows. I love their dark glossy purple colour and they went so well with the cream cheese and honey.

Even though I made two waffles, there is only one in the photos as I decided to eat them separately as the blackberries released quite a lot of juice and I didn’t want the second waffle to go soggy. I simply left it on the waffle grill (switched off) which kept it lovely and toasty warm for me.

These were so quick and easy to make but really satisfied my waffle craving. I love how the dips and grooves of the waffle captured the glossy juices of the berries. Each bite formed into its own little square.

Waffles with Greek Honey & Blackberries

Ingredients

60g gluten free self raising flour

1 egg

60ml milk

2 tsp sunflower oil

1 tsp Greek honey

¼ tsp almond extract

¼ tsp baking powder

To Serve

Blackberries

2 tbsp cream cheese

Greek runny honey

Method

Preheat your waffle machine and spray or brush the plates with a little oil. Meanwhile, mix the flour and baking powder together in a bowl.

In a jug, measure out the milk and then beat in the egg, oil, almond extract and honey.

Pour the milk mixture into the flour mix while whisking gently until you get a smooth batter. Allow to stand for 2-3 minutes to thicken slightly.

Pour the batter into the waffles machine and cook according to the machines instruction, until crisp and golden.

While the waffles are cooking, heat a large handful of blackberries until they are warm and just beginning to release their juice, but are not fully broken down.

Mix the cream cheese with a little runny honey and whisk until creamy (a spoon works fine).

Place one cooked waffle onto a plate, spread with half the cream cheese mixture and top with the warmed blackberries.

Drizzle with a little extra honey and enjoy. Repeat with the remaining waffle (I like to eat them separately so the second one doesn’t go soggy).

Makes 2 waffles

Gooseberry, Raspberry & Almond Crumble

A few weekends ago I went to a PYO (Pick Your Own) fruit farm and enjoyed a happy but rather prickly hour picking my own gooseberries and raspberries. After munching on a few I decided I wanted to bake something with them and decided on crumble.

Gooseberries and raspberries look so pretty together, their contrasting red and green colours look so striking and as they are both in season together, it makes sense that they would taste good baked together too.

I lightly cooked the gooseberries first, just so they started to soften as they were a lot bigger and firmer than the raspberries. I love the flavour of almond with fruit and so added a little almond extract to the fruit and sugar base and then some ground almonds to the crumble topping. I was actually surprised how fragrant and inviting this made the crumble smell while it was baking. Warm sweet fruit and heady almond is a match made in heaven in my opinion.

I also added a few gluten free oats to the topping, as I like the little bit of texture they add. You can leave them out or replace them with some flakes almonds if you can’t tolerate gluten free oats.

The finished crumble was fabulous. The juices had escaped from the gooseberries and mingled with the jammy raspberries to form a delicious sweet and sticky pink syrup with a lovely subtle almond flavour. The gooseberries themselves were a mix of sweet and intense sharpness. I found the ones that had burst seemed to take on some of the sugar and were nicely sweet and syrupy, while the few that remained intact released a burst of tart fruity sharpness when bitten into. I know plenty of people who would have found this too sharp, but I loved it. It also helped prevent the pudding from being too sweet. I love tart sharp flavour – I have been known to eat raw cooking apple! If you like your sweets to be sweeter simply taste a gooseberry and add more sugar before baking.

It was the perfect fresh and fruity summer dessert and the zingy colourful fruity was definitely the star of the show.

Gooseberry, Raspberry & Almond Crumble

Fruit

450g gooseberries

40g caster sugar *see note below

½ tsp almond extract

150g raspberries

Crumble Topping

75g brown rice flour

15g tapioca starch

30g ground almonds

30g gluten free oats

50g butter

45g light soft brown sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Place the gooseberries into a pan along with 2 tbsp of water and cook gently until they are just starting to soften and a few are beginning to burst. You don’t want to cook it until you have puree.

Remove from the heat and stir in the caster sugar and almond extract.

Spoon the gooseberry mixture into a baking dish approx 5x8inches, and scatter the raspberries over the top.

Make the crumble topping by mixing together the flours, oats, almonds and brown sugar. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the flour mix.

Rub the butter into the flour using the tips of your fingers, lifting them up above the bowl and letting the mix fall back into the bowl as you rub.

Continue until you have a mix of small clumps and fine crumbs of crumble.

Scatter the crumble over the top of the fruit and bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden brown.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Also tastes great cold or served with custard if desired.

*Note: some gooseberries can be very sharp and sour tasting. Taste a gooseberry when they have been lightly cooked and mixed with the sugar. If it is too tart for your liking, add 20g+ more sugar to taste.

Crustless Lemon Tart with Mango, Basil & Elderflower

Not too long ago I bought a large net of lemons intending to make a hot baked lemon pudding cake, but then boom, we are suddenly in the middle of the hottest weather we have experienced in 6years and the idea of baking and eating a hot dessert was no longer appealing.

I still wanted to enjoy some weekend baking but it had to be quick, simple and fresh. I decided to use my lemons to make something zingy and chilled. I find citrus so refreshing in hot weather. Instantly I thought of a lemon tart, but didn’t want the hassle of having to make and bake my own gluten free pastry. Instead I decided to simply make the filling and bake these into little dishes, which I could then eat chilled. This also meant minimal preparation and amount of time the oven had to be on.

I based the recipe on one of Delia’s for a lemon tart. This called for cream which I didn’t have, so instead I used yogurt which I thinned with a little milk. This worked really well and gave the finished ‘tart’ a fresh and clean taste, rather than making it too rich and creamy.

The lemon mix only needs lightly whisking together and it’s ready. I chose to bake it in a water bath as without the pastry crust, and in individual servings, I felt it was at risk of over baking from the dry heat in the oven. This worked well and resulted in a thin firmer top with a delicious, softly set, almost crème brulee like zingy lemon filling.

To make the dessert extra special I served it with some tiny cubes of super sweet fresh mango that I first marinated in basil and homemade elderflower syrup. The basil may sound like a strange addition, but it just added another clean fresh note, without being too obviously basil. Mint would be a great substitute too. The floral mango and elderflower went perfectly with the fresh and zingy lemon.

The desserts were fresh, light and zingy. If you can image stirring lemon curd into a set custard that’s the kind of flavour and consistency you get, only slightly lighter. The perfect sweet treat to enjoy after a light dinner on a hot day.

Crustless Lemon Tart with Mango, Basil & Elderflower

Ingredients

80-100ml lemon juice

Zest of 2 lemons

2 eggs

60g caster sugar

50ml milk

40g Greek yoghurt

To serve

½ ripe mango

2 basil leaves (or mint)

3 tsp homemade elderflower syrup (or lemon syrup or Limoncello)

Cream or Greek yoghurt

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Lightly whisk together the eggs and sugar, you want them combined, but not fluffy.

Add the lemon zest and juice and stir to combine.

Mix the yoghurt and milk together and then add to the lemon mixture.

Mix until smooth and combined.

Divide the lemon mix between two pudding dishes (approx 12cm diameter) or 3 ramekins.

Place the dishes or ramekins into a deep sided baking tray. Add boiling water from the kettle carefully into the tin, so that it reaches half way up the sides of the dishes.

Place into the oven for 15-18 minutes.

They should be softly set on top and still slightly wobbly in the centre when baked.

Remove from the oven and take the dishes out of the water bath. Leave to cool for 1 hour before chilling in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Meanwhile, slice one mango cheek into thin fingers, remove the skin and cut into cubes about 5mm square.

Place into a small bowl along with 2 finely shredded basil or mint leaves.

Drizzle over 3tsp elderflower syrup and stir until evenly coated.

Chill in the fridge until required.

To serve, place a large spoonful of the marinated mango onto the chilled lemon dessert. Serve with a blob of lightly whipped cream or thick Greek yoghurt.

Eat and enjoy

Serve 2-3 depending on dish used

Note: Recipe can easily be doubled or quadrupled as required

To make your own elderflower syrup

Elderflower grows wild in huge bushy patches almost everywhere. Make sure the flowers are pure white and fragrant. If they are yellow, they are past their best.

Pick the flowers off a large bunch of elderflower and place into a saucepan with 1 pint of water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave until cool.

Strain the water through a fine sieve or muslin to remove the elderflowers. Weigh the amount of water you have left and add the same quantity of caster sugar.

Stir together and bring back to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and then allow to bubble until thick and syrupy.

Transfer to clean seteralised jars that you have first heated in the oven.

Store in the fridge

Great in drinks, over ice cream or yogurt or drizzled over fresh fruit or cake

Cherry Brandy & Chocolate Surprise Cheesecake

Do you ever have some days or weeks where you are craving a certain food or flavour and you just can’t get it out of your head? Last weekend for me that was cheesecake. I just had a craving for it that wouldn’t go away. Normally my dessert of choice is something cakey or spongy, but last weekend I wanted rich, creamy indulgent cheesecake!

Being coeliac sadly means I can’t pop down the shops for a quick cheesecake fix, but have to make one myself. However this has its advantages. Not only do I love baking, but baking it yourself allows you the freedom to be as simple or wacky as you want with the flavours, plus at the end you end up with an entire cheesecake to devour, rather than a single slice wahhhha!

As I went cream cheese hunting I instead discovered a different sort of soft cheese called Quark. This cheese is almost like a cross between cream cheese and ricotta and feeling adventurous I decided t use it as the base for my cheesecake. This proved to be a very good idea as the Quark was thicker and creamier than normal cream cheese, which I’ve found can sometimes go a little runny when I’ve baked with it in the past. Like ricotta, the Quark is made with strained milk, meaning it’s a lot healthier than cream cheese too, all the more reason for a bigger slice!

I had a jar of Morello cherries in syrup that I had been wandering what to do with and so decided to make a cherry studded cheesecake. Cherry Brandy flavoured ice lollies used to be one of my favorites. I’d buy them from the ice cream van outside school and feel ever so grown up as it had ‘brandy’ in the title (can you still get these?) I decided to soak the cherries overnight in Brandy to give them a bit of more a kick.

Chocolate always goes well with cherries and so I made a chocolate biscuit base for my cheesecake, which also added a nice colour contrast. While preparing my cheesecake I suddenly decided to create a hidden middle layer of chocolate cheesecake, encased in the cherry cheesecake. This created a fun surprise when the cheesecake was sliced, as from the outside all you could see was the pale cherry. Chocolate and cherry are also a fabulous flavour pairing.

As I still had some cherry juice leftover I made a quick cherry jelly using a little of the agar agar powder I have been experimenting with recently. This finished the cheesecake off nicely and gave it a wonderfully glossy mirror top.

I was really pleased with my finished cheesecake and it certainly satisfied my cheesecake cravings. Morello cherries steeped in brandy, a hidden chocolate layer, a rich chocolate base and a glossy cherry glaze and combined into a velvety smooth and creamy cheesecake. What’s everyone else been craving recently?

Cherry Brandy & Chocolate Surprise Cheesecake

For the cherries

100g drained, pitted Morello cherries in syrup (reserve the syrup)

40ml Brandy

For the base

90g gluten free shortbread or digestive style biscuits

50g butter

20g caster sugar

10g cocoa powder

For the cheesecake

400g Quark or soft cream cheese

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

10g cornflour

50g dark chocolate

For the cherry jelly

130ml cherry syrup reserved from earlier

20g caster sugar

½ tsp agar agar powder

Method

The day before, remove the cherries from their syrup, cut them in half and place into a small bowl. Pour over the brandy, stir and cover with clingfilm. Set aside for 6 hours, or preferably overnight to allow the cherries to steep and absorb the flavour of the brandy.

The following day, line a 6inch/15cm deep springform tin with baking parchment. Wrap the base and sides of the tin with a large sheet of foil, you want it cover the whole base and up and sides of the tin in one piece. Repeat so you have two layers of foil wrapped around the outside of your tin.

For the base, blitz the gluten free biscuits in a food processor until they resemble fine crumbs. Add the sugar and cocoa powder and blitz again briefly.

Melt the butter, pour it over the cocoa crumbs and pulse briefly until and crumbs resemble damp sand.

Tip the biscuit mix into the base of your lined tin and press down into an even layer. Place the tin in the fridge to chill while you prefer the filling.

Preheat the oven to 175C.

For the filling, beat the Quark or cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs and sugar and beat again until well combined.

Now remove one-third of this mixture and place it into a separate bowl. Melt the chocolate and add this to the removed third of the cheese mixture, stirring it together until well combined. Set aside.

Sift the cornflour over the remaining two-thirds of mix. Then pour the soaked cherries and their brandy liquid into the cream mixture and fold in to incorporate. It will turn a light pink colour and be quite runny, this is fine.

Pour half of the cherry cheesecake mixture over the chilled biscuit base, spreading it into an even layer.

Place small spoonfuls of the chocolate cheesecake mix over the top of the cherry cheesecake until it is all used us. Gently try and smooth the chocolate cheesecake into an even layer, but don’t worry too much about making it perfect.

Then pour the remaining cherry cheesecake mix on top, covering the chocolate filling inside. Tap the cheesecake on the counter 2-3 times to remove any trapped air.

Place the foil wrapped tin into a larger deep baking tray.

Fill the tray with boiling water so that it reaches halfway up the sides of the cheesecake tin.

Carefully transfer this to the 175C preheated oven to bake for 50-60minutes. The cheesecake should be set around the edge but still a little wobbly in the centre when gently shaken.

Once baked, quickly remove the cheesecake tin from the water bath and return it to the switched off, but still warm oven. Leave the oven door ajar and leave the cheesecake to cool down gradually for 45-60 minutes.

For the jelly, start this once your cheesecake has been cooling in the oven.

Add another 130ml of cherry juice to a small pan along with the sugar and agar agar. Heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

Bring the mixture to the boil for 15 seconds, then remove from the heat and allow to cool for 3 minutes.

Remove your partially cooled cheesecake from the oven and carefully pour the hot cherry glaze over the top. It must still be hot, or else it will have set into a solid.

Carefully transfer the cheesecake to the fridge and allow to chill for at least 4-6 hours before serving.

Makes 1 x 6inch/15cm cheesecake

Deconstructed Pavlova – Buttermilk Panna Cotta, Mini Meringues & Textures of Strawberry

I have recently been reading about a vegetarian gelatine alternative called agar agar, which is derived from boiling several kinds of seaweed together. It’s dried and sold in powder form, flakes or bars and has similar properties to gelatine, in that it can set things into a gel or jelly.

I was intrigued and ordered some of the powder form online to have a play. As the weather was bright and sunny, I decided to try and replicate a recipe for buttermilk panna cotta, using the agar in place of the gelatine. Using buttermilk rather than cream appealed to me as it sounded lighter and fresher than regular panna cottas.

Seeing the first English strawberries starting to appear in the shops, I couldn’t resist buying a large punnet of them. I decided to pair them with the buttermilk panna cotta in order to create a light and summery dessert. As I was in an experimental mood and had set aside a whole day to play with my new agar ager, I decided to have some fun and use the strawberries in three different ways. Some I kept fresh and whole, others I sliced thinly and dehydrated until crisp and the rest I pureed, mixed with some agar and set the mixture into a jelly, which I then cut out small dots/circles of to decorate the plate. Strawberry 3 ways!

Thinking through the dessert I decided I needed to add some chew or crunch element to compliment the other softer textures. Mini piped meringues seemed a good idea and I was struck with how my dessert now resembled a deconstructed pavlova.

I was a little anxious my buttermilk panna cotta wouldn’t set, as I wasn’t sure how to much to use. As it turns out I actually used far too much, as my panna cotta was more like a firm jelly, than a softly set cream. It still tasted nice, but wasn’t the texture I hoped for.

I have decided not to give any recipes for the dessert, as although I was happy with the presentation and the flavours, I felt the textures of both the panna cotta and meringues could have been improved. The panna cotta was much too firm and the meringues were more chewy than crisp.

The flavours were lovely when eaten together. The buttermilk panna cotta was fresh, and only lightly sweet, the strawberry elements had ripe fruity flavours that actually tasted like strawberries and the meringues had a lovely crisp outer crust and very very chewy interior.

I tried really hard with the presentation and was happy with how the dish looked. It just needs some tweaking to perfect the recipes. I need to read up about how to correctly substitute powdered agar agar for gelatine.

Anyone else got experience of working with agar agar?

Zingy Lime Curd

WOW! This has to be the best jam/curd/preserve I have ever made and ever tasted! It’s so fresh, zingy and zesty that it makes my tongue come alive with a jolt as the flavour sweeps over my taste buds like an electric shock. Almost like biting into a hot chili, a sudden rush of intense flavour, that makes your mouth water.

It’s sweet, sharp and sour all at the same time. I have never had lime curd before, but after buying a big bag of limes from the local market, I knew I had to do something with them besides squeezing a bit over a stir fry. I remembered seeing a post for a ginger lime curd on Chocolate Log blog and adapted her recipe slightly to create this fabulous curd. I didn’t have any ginger and wanted the curd to be really zesty, so used lots of limes and a lemon for extra zing.

 

I love the creamy yellow green tinged colour of the curd. The recipe said to sieve the zest out of the curd before jarring it, but I wanted extra citrus flavour and so left it in. I used a very fine grater to zest my fruit so the zest was fine enough not to be noticeable in the finished curd. It adds a lovely speckled appearance to the curd and I’m sure it adds to the zingy fresh flavour too.

 

If you love zingy, sweet and sharp flavours you must try this curd! I can’t stress enough how amazing it is. I have nearly finished a whole jar and I only made it at the weekend. I’ve been eating it on everything, bread, cakes, pancakes, swirled into yogurt and even my morning porridge! I may have had the odd spoonful straight out the jar too!

 

So quick, so simple and so zingy and fresh. Lemon curd seems bland and boring by comparison. It becomes wonderfully thick as it cools and sets. I’ll be making this again and again for sure. I’ve already promised a jar to my grandmother who shares my love of fresh and zingy flavours.

Zingy Lime Curd

(Recipe adapted from Chocolate Log blog)

Ingredients

Zest & juice of 3 limes

Zest & juice of 1 lemon

160g caster sugar

55g butter

2 eggs

Method

Place two clean glass jars and their lids on a baking tray and place into the oven. Heat to 130C and leave the jars in the oven to sterilise while you make the curd.

Finely zest the limes and lemon and add to a large heatproof bowl. Squeeze the juice form the fruit and add to the zest along with the sugar.

Place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and whisk constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has from cloudy to clear. (You can sieve the zest out at this stage if you don’t want it in the finished curd, but it adds a lot of extra flavour).

Cut the butter into small cubes and whisk into the zesty syrup until melted and combined.

Lightly beat the eggs and then pour into the lime mixture through a sieve to remove any oogly bits, whisking all the time to prevent the egg curdling into scrambled eggs.

Keep whisking gently for 10-15 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken. Do not be melted to walk away or turn the heat up to speed up the process, it will scramble the eggs.

Once the mixture starts to thicken, swap to a flexible spatula and keep stirring until the mixture is thick enough to coat the spatula. You should be able to run your finger down the spatula, leaving a mark without the curd flowing back over it.

Remove your jars from the oven and immediately fill to the rim with the hot curd. Screw the lids on the jars tightly, using rubber gloves to prevent burning your hands.

Leave to jars to cool on the side – the lids will suddenly ‘pop’ as the vacuum is created, ensuring a sealed and sterile jar.

Store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Makes 1½ - 2 jars of zesty lime curd

Apple Carrot Cake with Honey & Lemon Ricotta Frosting

I am sure I can’t be alone in having a recipe folder on my computer of ‘must bake’ recipes that I have gathered over the years from food blogs, magazine articles and other random places. I was recently having a sort out and came across a recipe for Carrot and apple cake with a lime cream cheese frosting that I immediately remembered I’d longed to bake the first time I saw it on The Passionate Cook blog. Image my surprise (and horror) at discovering the recipe was from 2009 – 3 years ago and I still hadn’t baked it! I dread to think how many other recipes I’ve got saved, waiting patiently to be baked. Far too many I fear.

Anyway, I decided it had waited long enough and a few weeks ago I finally got round to baking it – with a few of my own twists naturally. The thing that first attracted me to the recipe was:

1)      it's carrot cake – my absolute favourite

2)      it also contained apple – another big bonus

3)      it looked so incredibly, unbelievably moist

Carrot cake is probably my favourite cake. I just love the combination of textures, flavours, spices, crunch…delicious! Looking at the ingredients list it seemed to be lacking some of my favourite carrot cake components and so I decided to tinker with the recipe and add some sultans, walnuts, extra spice and brown sugar in place of some of the white sugar.

 

I also changed the frosting from being a lime cream cheese to a honey & lemon ricotta. Why? Well the cake itself sounded relatively healthy with all the apple and carrot, so I wanted something a little lighter and fresher. Ricotta flavoured with lemon and only marginally sweetened with a little spoonful of honey seemed to fit the bill.

 

The baked cake was certainly very very moist. However, on day of baking I found it quite tricky to cut due to the strands of apple and carrot, which were not easy to slice through due to the sponge mix being so soft and tender. Instead it tended to snare onto the knife and drag the crumb structure apart as I tried to slice it. This didn’t affect the taste – which was spicy, fruity and flavoursome, but didn’t make for great presentation. However, after a night in the fridge the cake firmed up and was much easier to slice.

 

I actually preferred it better the second day, firmer yet still very moist. The flavours had mingled together giving a more well rounded general flavour. The frosting too had firmed up, the excess liquid in the ricotta being absorbed by the cake, making it become more like a cheesecake style top than the softer, wetter mix it had been originally. It tasted very fresh and I liked that it was barely sweet, giving a nice contrast to the sweeter cake beneath.

 

The cake was delicious and I loved the slight chew or crunch from the added walnuts and raisins. It’s not my ultimate carrot cake, a recipe for which I’ve have yet to find, but it’s certainly a tasty version of one. It’s cooked at a low temperature which adds to it being a very soft cake and making it more of a pudding cake than an afternoon tea cake. The apple adds a great freshness when paired with the carrot. Use a sharp cooking apple for a slightly tart flavour, or a dessert apple for a sweeter one.

Apple Carrot Cake with Honey & Lemon Ricotta Frosting

Apple Carrot Cake

300g peeled carrot
150g peeled and cored apple (cooking or dessert, your choice)
150g butter
175g light soft brown sugar

50g sultanas

50g chopped walnuts
180g gluten free plain flour
3 eggs
3 tsp gf baking powder
1½ tsp ground ginger

1½ tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Honey & Lemon Ricotta Frosting
250g ricotta cheese
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp honey (or more to taste)

Apple Carrot Cake

Preheat the oven to 150C and line an 8inch spring form tin with greaseproof paper.

Grate the apple and carrot using a coarse grater and set aside.

Add the sugar to a large bowl. Melt the butter and pour it over the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each one.

Sift over the flour, baking powder and spices. Beat lightly until most of the flour has been incorporated. A few streaks are fine.

Add the grated apple and carrot and fold in using a spatula. Then fold in the sultanas and chopped walnuts.

Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 1 hour. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean and it should be slightly firm to the touch.

Allow to cool almost completely before removing from the tin and leaving to cool completely. Meanwhile, make the frosting

Honey & Lemon Ricotta Frosting

Place the ricotta into a bowl and beat lightly until quite smooth. Add the honey and grated lemon zest and fold together well. Taste and add more honey if you want it sweeter, 1 tbsp makes it only faintly sweet.

Chill until required, before spreading over the top of the cake. Finish with a final scattering of fresh lemon zest.

Store the finished cake in the fridge and eat within 3 days.

Note: I found the cake was even better after a night in the fridge, when it was easier to cut and the frosting had firmed up.

Prune & Beetroot Brownies

Yes I know another beetroot recipe, but this is the last one I promise, at least for a few weeks! I decided to have another go at making beetroot brownies. I made some about 5 years ago and remember them being very tasty. Recently there seems to have been a surge of beetroot brownies and chocolate beetroot cakes around, which got me craving one again.

Back in my uni days I actually did my dissertation about the acceptability on taste of replacing the butter in brownies with fruit and vegetable purees. Beetroot was one of the veg I used and worked very well, producing a moist and tender brownie with no added butter. Another variety I tried was using pureed prunes. This too worked well, although it gave a denser and very sweet tasting brownie.

 

I hit upon the idea of using pureed beetroot to replace the butter in my brownies and combining it with pureed prunes, this time to replace the sugar in my brownies, as both prunes and beetroot are naturally very sweet. I had a quick internet search for prune and beetroot brownies and was actually quite chuffed when I couldn’t find a single one. There were plenty of prune OR beetroot brownies, but no prune AND beetroot brownies – a new brownie innovation hurrah! Feeling very excited I set to work.

The brownie batter turned out quite thick and a little coarse from the blitzed prunes and beetroot, but smelt very rich and inviting. I did use chocolate in the recipe, but as it was dark chocolate this would have contributed very little sugar or fat to the recipe. The lick of the spatula also tasted lovely.

 

After baking the brownies had puffed up slightly and yet set into quite a heavy feeling brownie. On slicing I was pleasantly surprised it was actually very light, moist and fudgy in texture, similar to a flourless chocolate cake. It had a fabulous deep chocolate colour with a dark ruby hue to it.

 

The top surface was slightly crackled and nicely sticky. The flavour was of a strong earthy chocolate, largely down to the beetroot, with a fabulous springy bite and nice chew from the pureed prunes. It was perfectly sweet and almost treacly in flavour which I think was contributed by the prunes. It was really rather addictive and I didn’t feel at all guilty eating 1 or 2…ok 4 squares in one afternoon as they must be relatively healthy brownies. Not that you’d know it!

 

The following day the brownies had become more compact and a little dense, but stayed wonderfully fudgy with a slight chew. So if you are looking for a chocolaty Easter treat that won’t pile on the pounds, maybe give these prune and beetroot brownies a go! Gluten, wheat, dairy (if non dairy choc), added fat and added sugar free! Probably higher in fibre, lower GI with added vitamins and minerals too. Now you can have your chocolate brownie and eat it too!

Happy Easter Everyone

Prune & Beetroot Brownies

An Apple & Spice original recipe

Ingredients

200g cooked beetroot

100g soft prunes

150g dark chocolate 60-70%

15g cocoa powder

60g brown rice flour

2 eggs

¼ tsp gluten free baking powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line the base of an 8inch tin with baking paper.

Place the prunes into a food processor and blitz until a thick sticky paste is formed. You may need to scrape down the sides of the mixer every so often.

Remove the prunes, and add the beetroot. Puree until very finely chopped and almost pureed.

In a medium sized pan melt the chocolate until smooth and glossy, then remove from the heat.

Lightly beat the eggs and then quickly mix them into the warm chocolate mixture, followed by the vanilla.

Add the prune and beetroot purees and fold together.

Scatter over the flour, baking powder and cocoa and fold in well to create a thick, slightly coarse mixture.

Spread the mix into the prepared tin and bake for 25 minutes.

It should be evenly risen, firm yet slightly squishy to the touch. Leave to cool for 20 minutes in the tin before removing to a rack to cool.

Slice and enjoy