Archive of posts from October 2015

Blueberries and almond cake

This is the right season for berries and this is a perfect recipe to use them. It is a delicious and moist cake that combines the nice flavour of the berries with the crunchy taste of the almonds. The recipe below is for a square tin of 15 cms – baking a regular sized cake would be too much for the 2 of us but if you need to make a bigger cake (ie 20 cm square or round tin) you will need to double the ingredients below.

What you need:

  • 75g unsalted butter, softned
  • 75 g caster sugar
  • 125 g self raising flour
  • 7 g baking powder (1/2 tsp)
  • 80 g blanched almonds, halved
  • 200 g blueberries
  • 1 large egg
  • 75 ml milk

How to make it: Preheat the oven at 180°C and grease and line your cake tin. Gently wash the blueberries and let them dry before using them.

Cream the sugar with the butter until light and fluffy with an electric mixer. Add the egg and work well until all ingredients are combined.

Add the flour and the baking powder (sifted), the almonds and the milk and whisk well. Once you have a nice mixture you need to incorporate the mjority of the blueberries. Spoon the mixture in the tin and add the remaining bluberries at the top.

Bake your cake in the oven for 35 mins approx – check your cake while baking as if it begins to brown you would need to cover it with some baking paper or foil so it will cook evenly.

Test with a toothpick if your cake is ready and if it comes out clean you can remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down.

Enjoy your cake when completely cooled down with some fresh blueberries or if you want indulge with some fresh cream.

Cranberries and pistacchio oat cookies

These cookies are Amazing: I baked them for my husband who is back to school again. He needed a little help with sugars so I decided to bake these beautiful treats.

What you need:

  • 100g pistacchio nuts
  • 100g unsalted butter,softened
  • 100g dried cranberries
  • 200g brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1tsp vanilla
  • 1tbsp honey
  • 125g self raising flour, sifted
  • 125g oats
  • pinch of salt

How to make it:

Pre-heat the oven at 190° and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Mix together the butter and the sugar unitl smooth (better to use an electric whisk). Add the egg, the vanilla extract, the honey and whisk again. Add the flour, the oats, the salt, the pistacchio nuts and the cranberries. Mix well until combined.

You need now to divide the dough in small little pieces (like a walnut), place them on a baking sheet leaving enough space for the cookies to cook. Flatten the cookies slightly and bake them for 10 minutes. Leave the cookies to cool down.

Cookies

Tips:

  • if the dough is too stiff you can add little water or milk;
  • cookies need to be flatten before baking them so they cook evenly;
  • if the cookies look soft after 10 mins remove them from the oven: they will get the cookie consistency once they are completely cooled down. I learned this after several burnt batches.