Chocolate crunch / chocolate concrete / chocolate tarmac

I mentioned chocolate crunch on Facebook last week and had lots of people writing to me for the recipe.

Depending on which area of the country you come from, you'll have heard this as either chocolate crunch, chocolate concrete or chocolate tarmac!

Chocolate crunch takes me back to my school days where it was served with bright pink custard; like Tellytubby custard ...

When I worked at the bank, chocolate crunch was back on the menu again; this time with a more grown up chocolate sauce.
Now I know why institutions serve it up - it's amazingly easy and quick to make and the ingredients are pretty frugal.

I discovered 'by accident' that you can also make chocolate goo: depending on your preference, you can bake this long and slow for a crunchier texture or give it a blast for 15 minutes, where you will end up with a crispy coating and a gooey interior. My two prefer the latter so this is what I now do.

Chocolate crunch

Ingredients

• 7 oz butter
• 5 oz fructose
• 10 oz self raising flour
• 1 oz cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
  

Method

• Preheat oven - 150 for a crunchy texture or 180 for gooey.
• Melt the butter in a large saucepan.
• Meanwhile, weigh out the rest of the ingredients.
• Take the butter off the heat once melted and mix in the other dry ingredients - bung it all in the saucepan; I'm one for making the washing up easy!
• Add the eggs and beat all the ingredients well together.
• You don't need to be too fussy with this recipe; just beat it up and don't worry about lumps of cocoa or bits of flour that are not mixed in properly.
• Put in a greased oven proof tray; I use a brownie tin. Choose the size of tin dependant on the texture you want - it you want it crunchy, choose a larger tin and spread the mixture thinner. If you want fudgy goo, keep the tin small so the mixture is thicker - play around and have some fun experimenting.
  
• Bake for 30 minutes at 150 for a crunchy texture or 180 for 15 minutes for a gooey inside.

Lemon drizzle cake

This is a delicious lemony cake. Both DD and DH love this one and I feel good about it because the lemon is chock full of vitamin C - just the thing to slave off winter colds, coughs and flu!

Both lemons and limes contain unique flavonoid compounds that have antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. They also have antibiotic properties.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Ingredients

• 6 oz butter
• 4 oz fructose
• Rind of 2 lemons
• 2 eggs
• 6 oz wholemeal SR flour

For the lemon drizzle

• juice from the 2 lemons
• 2oz fructose
  

Method

• Preheat oven to 180
• Gently heat the butter and fructose in a saucepan, until the fructose is dissolved
• Take off the heat and stir in the lemon rind, whisk in the eggs
• Fold in the flour and pour the mixture into a greased baking tin (I used a brownie tin but you could use any shape you like)
• Bake for 25 minutes until golden
• Squeeze the juice from the lemons into a saucepan with the fructose and heat gently until the fructose dissolves
• Poke holes in the cake and pour the drizzle syrup all over to soak in.
  

Pumpkin scones

I made something edible from pumpkin! Well, squash actually. NONE of us like pumpkins or squashes, even the smell of carving it makes me feel queasy. However this weekend my daughter wanted to carve some gourds and I couldn't bring myself to throw 'food' away afterwards. I hate waste especially food waste, so I made it my mission to create something yummy.

In the past I've roasted it, turned it into soups, curried it and made pie with it. All recipes have remained uneaten.

Today was the day I surpassed myself - here is my recipe! There was very little flesh from these tiny pumpkins but you could easily add more flesh and put in a little more flour to compensate.

Pumpkin scones - makes 8

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup stewed pumpkin / squash flesh
• 40 gm butter
• 220 gm self raising flour
• pinch salt
• 6 dates, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp agave syrup (you could use honey or date syrup)
• 1 beaten egg
  

Method

• Take the pumpkin / squash flesh, cut into tiny cubes and stew in a tiny amount of water until pureed - about 15 - 20 minutes
• Preheat oven to 200
  
• Meanwhile rub the butter into the flour and salt
• Add the chopped dates, cinnamon, agave syrup and egg - mix well until everything is incorporated
• Add the cooked pumpkin and mix well; you'll get a soft dough.
• If the mix is too wet add more flour; if it's too dry you can loosen it with a little milk
• Shape the dough into 8 scones and put on a greased baking tray
• Bake for 15 minutes until golden

These were delicious served like a traditional cream tea - buttered with a thick layer of sugar free apricot jam and topped with cream!

My two loved them and asked for more. So I've definitely made my peace with pumpkins and squashes, which is just as well because I have three pumpkins growing in the garden which I have nurtured in order to get the seeds.

I would love to hear of any of your favourite pumpkin and squash recipes.

Last day for blackberry picking

Today is the last day to pick blackberries!

According to legend; on the night of Michaelmas (September 29th) the devil spits on blackberries, making them inedible. So get out in the sunshine and see what you can forage!

We managed a small harvest this morning, much to our delight. I really thought we had seen the last of them, but we've been blessed with beautiful weather, so they are still ripe and plump.

We've left plenty for the birds and mice, however and have really enjoyed our wonderful harvest this year; it's been a real blessing. The only thing I wished I had got around to doing was making jam. I've never made jam of any sort and I wanted to try blackberry and apple. That will be my goal for next year!

What have you made with blackberries this year?

This year we have made:

blackberry muffins.



blackberry and chocolate brownies.



Blackberry and apple turnovers.



blackberry regal cake.



blackberry sponge pudding.

Blackberry sponge pudding

I think this is the last of the blackberry recipes for this season! We scoured the hedgerows this week and didn't find much.

I've had 200gms of blackberries sitting in the 'fridge for a few days and knew I needed to use them up quickly. As time and energy were short, I made a simple sponge pudding - warming, satisfying but quick and easy to make.

Blackberry sponge

Ingredients

• 200gms blackberries (no need to be exact, just use whatever you have)
• 1 tbsp agave syrup (optional; the fruit might be sweet enough)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
  
• 4 oz butter
• 3 oz fructose
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp backing powder
• 4 oz plain flour
  

Method

• put the blackberries in a pan with the cinnamon and agave syrup if using and simmer with a lid on until the fruit is tender.
• Meanwhile make the sponge topping:
• Cream together the butter and fructose
• Add the 2 eggs and mix well until you get a batter - don't worry about lumps!
• Add the baking powder and flour and mix well until you get a stiff dropping consistency.
• Put the stewed fruit into the bottom of an oven proof dish and cover with the topping
• Bake at 180 for around 20-25 minutes until the top is risen and golden

This recipe is so simple and you can use any stewed fruit you like to make an instant comfort pudding. DH was praising the sponge saying it was really light and fluffy; that's the first time I've made anything 'light' with fructose; it tends to make things heavier, probably because it is wetter than refined sugar.
I'm not really sure what I did right, but perhaps the mix of ingredients was just right ;)

Blackberry regal cake

I normally shy away from recipes that have 'parts' to them. I'm more of a 'chuck it in and mix it around' chef.

But after our fourth blackberry hunt this morning, which resulted in a bumper crop, I decided to do a slightly more posh recipe for Sunday pudding. It was originally called blackberry and coconut cake, but hubby decided it looked like a Royal Crown so renamed it to Blackberry Regal Cake

This recipe has 4 parts to it and is adapted from the fab Veg box recipes site for blackberry and coconut slice:

1. Prepare the blackberries
2. Make the base
3. Make the topping
4. Assemble the cake and bake
   

Blackberry regal cake

Ingredients

For the base

• 150 gm butter
• 50 gm fructose
• 1 egg
• 200 gm plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 70-100mls milk
  

For the blackberry layer

• 500gm blackberries
• 40 gms fructose
  

For the topping

• 100 gm butter
• 50 gm fructose
• 2 eggs
• 50 gm plain flour
• 200 gm dessicated coconut
  

Method

Make the blackberry layer

• Put the blackberries and the 40 gms fructose into a saucepan.
• Bring to the boil slowly, then put a lid on and simmer for 20 minutes.
• Take the lid off and allow to thicken (I simply drained off the excess juice into a cup because I needed the oven for Sunday Lunch and chucked a bit of cornflour in there to thicken it)

Make the base

• Preheat the oven to 180.
• While the blackberries are cooking make the base.
• Cream together the butter and fructose
• Beat in 1 egg until you get a smooth batter
• Add the flour, baking powder and a little of the milk at a time until you get a thick, dropping consistency batter.
• Put this into the bottom of a greased deep cake tin and smooth over

Make the topping

• While the blackberries are still cooking make the topping.
• Cream together the butter and fructose
• Add the eggs and beat until you get a smooth batter
• Add the flour and coconut and mix well into a very stiff 'paste'

Assemble the cake

• Over the base of the cake, smooth the cooked blackberries
• Very carefully put the topping on. The topping is very stiff, so try and smooth it over with a knife but be gentle otherwise it will squash into the blackberries!

Bake the cake

• Bake at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes until golden on the top.
• We served it warm with custard and will eat it cold with creme fraiche tomorrow!
  

Verdict:
8 1/2 out of 10. I love it Mummy, the cake is yummy, the blackberries are delicious. I love the crunchy coconut. It's a bit filling though and a tiny bit too sweet.

Ginger biscuits

My daughter has been asking me to make her some ginger biscuits for ages. Ginger isn't something I use other than in curries because DH isn't keen on it.

I have to admit, after baking these I started to feel enthusiastic about Christmas! The kitchen smelled gorgeous. I baked two types of ginger biscuits, followed by an apple and spice cake to help use up a glut of cooking apples. I felt proud too; these biscuits looked great when they came out of the oven - a gorgeous golden colour which looked just like the ginger nuts you buy in the shop.

Ginger is a great spice with many beneficial properties. It's used as a treatment for morning sickness because it has a soothing and calming effect on the stomach.

Ginger has anti inflammatory properties, which makes it really useful for people with osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.

In addition, ginger is a great ingredient for the first aid kit. Ginger helps to promote sweating during colds and flu. Maybe one of these ginger biscuits would be a good way to encourage poorly children to get better soon!

Ginger biscuits (makes about 18)

Ingredients

• 2 oz butter
• 4 tbsp agave syrup
• 2 tbsp fructose
• 5 oz self raising flour
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 3/4 tsp ground ginger

Method

• Pre heat oven to 180.
• Melt the butter, syrup and sugar until just melted. Don't allow to boil or leave for too long otherwise some of the ingredients can evaporate and alter the balance.
• Allow to cool a little, then mix in all the other ingredients until you have a smooth dough.
• The dough should be quite dry; if it is too wet, add some more flour, a little at a time until you get the right consistency.
• Using a teaspoon, drop spoons of the mix onto two greased baking trays. Allow a little room for expansion between each biscuit
• Bake for 10 minutes until golden

Verdict: 10/10 Just the right amount of ginger anybody would want and a really nice texture.