Pear, ginger and cardamon loaf

This is a perfect recipe for this time of year, slight spicing adds a warming note to this delicious bake, great served with a steaming mug of tea after a wild and windy walk, but also great as a pudding cake served with custard.

This loaf cake isn't going to win any prizes in the beauty stakes but is definitely a prize winner in the flavour stakes, I just love the moist fruity pear chunks and the crunch of the flaked almonds. It does have the habit of swallowing the pears and almonds into the cake but I still love it, its frugal too as it a good recipe to use up pears that are starting to become overripe. I am using British Conference pears here which have a great flavour, they aren't in season very long so make good use of them while you can.

So go on embrace the season and create a beautiful warm spicy fug in your kitchen as a perfect antidote to the weather outside, the Danish have a word for it Hygge, give it a try......

What you need

• 175g softened butter or quality vegetable margarine
• 1 tsp ground cardamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 175g light brown sugar
• 3 conference pears - peeled, cored and cut into 1/8ths
• 2 free eggs 
• 175g self raising flour (gluten free works fine)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp flaked almonds
• 2lb loaf tin - lined

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in your stand mixer
• Add the flour and baking powder, spices,  and eggs to the bowl, mix until you a smooth mixture
• Place half the mixture into your prepared tin, roughly level with a palette knife, place roughly half of the pears (chopped into little cubes) in a layer on the cake mixture
• Top the pears with the rest of the cake mixture and places the rest of the pear slices on the top, sprinkle with flaked almonds
• Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden and cooked through.
• Cool in the tin for at least 20 minutes or so, perfect warm on its on or with cream or custard. Cold its great with a cup of tea.
• If you like serve cold with a dredging of icing sugar

We are linking up to Recipe of the Week over on AMummyToo 

                                                                 

And to Casa Costello's Bake of the Week 

                                                          

JibberjabberUk - Love Cake linky whose theme this month is Best of British

                                           

And two of my favourites Credit Crunch Munch from Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food for All, hosted this month by Elizabeths Kitchen and No Waste Food Challenge from Elizabeths Kitchen, hosted this month by Its not Easy being Greedy.


                                             




                                                             

Fig, yogurt and rosemary loaf cake - gluten free

I just can't resist beautiful fresh figs and at the moment they are at their peak, I have always had a thing for them even as a child, mainly in the form of a fig roll (newton) I might add. High in fibre and with a sticky sweetness whether fresh or dried they make a great addition to many dishes, my favourite memory is of picking a perfectly ripe specimen off a huge tree outside my apartment window whilst staying in Calvi, Corsica. Still warm from the Mediterranean sun and so juicy, a great food memory.

Inspired by a bake I spotted whilst wandering on the internet this recipe, my version is gluten free and uses rapeseed oil rather than olive and has the subtle addition of almond extract also. Don't worry about the rosemary in this sweet bake its barely noticeable and just provides a slight herbyness to the sponge, the cake is moist and very moreish.

                                      

What you need

• 175g caster sugar
• 2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary - finely chopped
• 125g ground almonds
• 50g plain gluten free flour
• 2tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp almond essence
• 180g Greek yogurt
• 120 ml Extra Virgin rapeseed oil
• 2 large eggs - free range of course
• 4 fresh figs - halved
• 2tbsp - soft brown sugar
• 2lb loaf tin, lined

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Whisk the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy and tripled in volume
• In another bowl or jug, whisk together the yogurt, oil and almond essence
• Add to the egg and sugar mixture, the ground almonds, flour, salt, baking powder and rosemary, fold them in gently and try not to loose to much air.
• Quickly whisk in the oil and yogurt mixture until incorporated, then pour into a prepared 2lb loaf tin
• Carefully place the halved figs on the top, place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes
• Sprinkle the brown sugar on to the figs and bake for another 20 - 40 minutes until tested cooked with a skewer, if the cake is browning too much cover with foil
• Remove when bake and cool initially in the tin, cool full on a wire cooling rack.
• Serve as it is or with a little additional yogurt

A delicious moist cake with an exotic twist.

This last few weeks my blogging mojo has been a little absent and life generally has taken over, hopefully normal service is now resumed.

We are linking up to a few of our favourite linky's

Bake of the Week from Casa Costello, fellow WI member and all round lovely person.

                                                       

Emily over at A Mummy Too for Recipe of the Week

                                                             

Karen over at Lavender and Lovage for Cooking with Herbs - them this month Herbs for Autumn ( Bay, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme)

                                       

Dom over at Belleau Kitchen for Simply Eggcellent - them this month Anything Goes as long it contains free range eggs.

                                                          

Adapted from a recipe by blog.plentyofzest.com

Banana and honey loaf cake - gluten free and no artificial sugars

Here at Lancashire Food we don't like to waste food and also where possible create recipes which not only taste good but do you good. This recipe ticks all the boxes for us, using ripe bananas for the majority of the sweetness for this cake and just a touch of honey its free from artificial sugars and being full of all things that are good for you it a "super" bake.  A great debate currently ranges in the food community about the amount of sugar in our diets and home cooking and baking gives you the control to adjust the amount of sugar added to your recipes. We like that, we use buckwheat flour here for its nutritional value but a basic plain gluten free flour would also work.

Please don't expect this to taste exactly like a normal banana loaf as it doesn't, but it still has some sweetness and as we are using honey you can adjust the sweetness level to your taste, I would suggest starting at 1/2 cup and reducing down from there as your taste buds acclimatise to less sweetness.

A couple of months ago we started hosting a local beekeepers hive in our garden and hopefully very shortly we might just (fingers crossed) get to taste some honey from our bees, its a fascinating process and has been very interesting watching the development of a new hive with all its trails and tribulations. In just a short couple of months we have had issues with wasps ( nasty things that attack hives ), the birth of a new queen and the balancing act of when to collect the honey. I have been stung twice once by a bee (yes a honey bee) and also by a wasp ( very painful and much worse than a bee sting).

So hopefully next time I bake this loaf we might be using our own honey .........

What you need

• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour (check gluten free if necessary as not all are)
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cardamon
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 eggs - free range
• 1/4 cup - coconut oil
• 1/4 cup of milk (any type nut, cows, goat)
• 1 tsp cider or wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup of local honey
• 3 ripe bananas

2lb loaf tin, oiled and base lined.
If you don't have all the spices to hand sweet mixed spice or lebuken spice can be substituted

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Mash the banana roughly in the bowl of your mixer
• Add all other ingredients
• Mix thoroughly and pour into prepared tin
• Place in the oven and bake for approx 45 minutes
• Cool in tin
• Delicious served slavered with butter

We are linking up to Bake of the Week over on Casa Costello

                                                             

Also to Recipe of the Week with Emily over on A Mummy Too

                                                            

Love Cake - Back to Basics over on Jibberjabber, as this is good basic banana loaf recipe at heart.

                                   

Simply Eggcellent - Theme being Cakes this month over with Dom at Belleau Kitchen (Happy Birthday !) which celebrates all thing egg.

                                                               

Credit Crunch Munch over at Fuss Free Flavours as once again we are using up manky bananas. A blog challenged created by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food for all.

                                                 

And finally No Waste Food Challenge blog hop over at Foodie Quine this month. This challenge was created by Elizabeths Kitchen Diary.

                                                             

Chocolate and Pear Torte - Gluten free and so very tasty

The other weekend as per usual I was clearing out the fruit bowl as I was drawing up my shopping list of what I wanted to purchase for the week ahead. Just a couple of of pears remained still juicy but on the overripe side, my mind flashed back to a wonderful chocolate and pear tart I had eaten several years ago in an amazing trattoria in Tuscany, Italy. It was the sort of place were there was no menu and the choices were what was fresh from the market or the oven.

This torte is inspired by that tart, this one gluten free and a torte not a tart but equally beautiful and also doing a great job using up pears.

Its a simple recipe and is actually diary free if you use vegetable margarine as the chocolate flavour is coming from cocoa not chocolate.

Ideally you need a 23cm loose bottomed cake tin so you can remove the cake easily from its tin.

What you need

• 150g plain flour gluten free 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 150g soft butter or vegetable margarine (I like the Pure range)
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g ground almonds
• 2 eggs - free range
• 50g Cocoa - I like Green and Blacks Organic
• 2 tsp Choco inglese essence (optional)
• 2 Conference pears - peeled, cored and quartered
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Oil spray

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Prepare your pears and toss them in the juice of the lemon to prevent them from going brown
•  Prepare your tin, base line and oil spray so you are ready for the cake mix
• In a large mixing bowl or ideally a stand mixer, combine all the other ingredients until you have a smooth mixture
• Turn the mixture into the tin, smooth the top and then artistically place the pear quarters on the top, just slightly pressing them into the mixture
• Place in the oven and bake for approx 45 - 60 minutes until the torte tests cooked with a cocktail stick.
• Allow to fully cool in the tin and then remove. Serve as it is or with creme fraiche, cream or Greek yogurt.

The cake will store for a couple of days in a cool place covered with clingfilm or in a cake dome. A very satisfying bake and one that disappeared very quickly.

We are linking this post to Bake of the Week created by Casa Costello and hosted this month over at Jen's Food.

Credit crunch munch as it uses some past their best pears, created by Camilla from Fab Food 4 All and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours   and hosted this month by Food Glorious Food

No waste food challenge over on Elizabeth's Kitchen

We Should Cocoa - who's theme this month is anything goes created and hosted this month on Tin and Thyme

Chickpea brownies, a healthy gluten free treat

Ever the one to try something different I have in the past made brownies with beetroot, avocado, dates and many other ingredients, this recipe is no different but the featured ingredient being chickpeas. Yes, folks chickpeas which make these brownies lovely and fudgey and deliciously gluten free. You can't detect the chickpeas at all in the bake, these brownies keep well for a few days in an airtight tin but I assure you they won't last that long !

The added bonus is you also get the must have ingredient of the moment - aquafaba or the humble juice from the bean can, which can be whipped up in many different delights and is a useful vegan egg substitute. More of this in the next post.

What you need

• 1 can of chickpeas - drained and rinsed, save the bean juice
• 2 free range eggs
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder - I used Green and Blacks
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 2 tbsp coconut milk
• 1 tsp coffee extract
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 pack of dark chocolate chips

What you do

• Pre heat oven to 180c
• Oil spray and line square approx 9"by 9" cake tin
• Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 25 - 30mins until cooked thoroughly, test with a cocktail stick
• Cool in the tin and cut into pieces after 20 minutes or so
• Serve alone or with creme fraiche or Greek yogurt

We are linking up to Bake of the Week over on Casa Costello

                                                            


And Recipe of the Week over on A Mummy Too


                                                                 

Cranberry and citrus cookies and an 80th birthday cake.

Recently at my weekly yoga class we held an informal 80th birthday party for a lady who attend regularly and is a great advert for the benefits of yoga, amazingly enough she had just returned from a month long tour of New Zealand too, so I for one will be carrying out practising yoga as long as I can.

As part of the birthday celebration my contribution was a lemon meringue birthday, which I was pretty proud of (the base recipe being a Fiona Cairns recipe from The Birthday Cake Book), as our yoga class is a quaint country church hall I couldn't adore the cake with candles through fear of setting off the fire alarm, so I resorted to raiding the garden for suitable edible greenery and flowers. I plumped for the fragrant yellow day lily and freshly picked lemon balm leaves.

As the birthday cake was topped with blousey meringues I had a couple of egg yolks left over so I came up with this recipe which is takes it inspiration from several sources, a Gino D'Acampo recipe for sultana cookies from Italian Baking and a lemon drizzle biscuit from Biscuit by Miranda Gore Brown.

What you need

• 85g butter - softened (needs to be very soft)
• 115g caster sugar
• 2 egg yolks - left over from the meringue making
• Couple of drops of Fiori di Silica essence (from Bakery Bits)
• 175g plain flour - I used gluten free
• 50g fine cornmeal
• 85g dried cranberries - drained after being soaked in warm water for 20 minutes or so

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Mix all the ingredients except the cranberries in a mixer , until you have a course dough
• Add the cranberries to the mix and just incorporate until the mix comes together
• Take walnut sized lumps of dough and roll into balls, place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and flatten slightly
• The mixture makes approximately 18 - 20 cookies
• Bake for 15 -20 minutes until golden 
• Cool on tray for a few minutes before carefully removing o a wire rack to cool fully
• Store in an airtight tin

We are linking up this month to Simply Eggcellent , the theme this month being anything goes created and hosted by Dom over at Belleau Kitchen. As this is recipe that uses egg yolks after making meringues.

                                              

We are linking up to Treat Petite this month - the theme being Lets Get Fruity ! created and hosted by Cakeyboi , as the resultant cookie is very fresh and fruity.

                                  

                                 

And also to Bake of the Week over at Casa Costello , which is a challenge for all things baking....

                                                

Rhubarb and Almond Cake

Please forgive me for being so remiss, over the last couple of weeks what with work, WI centenary  celebrations, the garden and many many other things I haven't posted any recipes to the blog.

Naughty naughty me, instead of baking and cooking I have been needle felting, bead netting and more gardening and this has somewhat distracted me from the job in hand. Whilst gardening I noticed that our rhubarb bed was again producing huge crops of rhubarb, we have a couple of varieties hence the slightly greener rhubarb in the picture.

This cake is light and deliciously almondy and has the benefit of being gluten free, you need to be a patient baker as it does take quite a while to bake particularly if you rhubarb is quite sappy but the results are well worth it. Its amazing served with creme fraiche or yogurt but lovely on its own too.

This recipe is adapted Rhubarb and Almond Cake from the Sainsbury's Magazine

What you need

• 150g butter - softened
• 150g caster sugar
• 2 eggs - free range
• 200g ground almonds
• Couple of drops panettone essence (I use Bakery Bits)
• Couple of  drops of Almond essence
• 100g gluten free plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 4 sticks rhubarb, chopped into 2cm lengths
• 2 tbsp flaked almonds

180c oven - pre heated

22 cm spring form cake pan - oil sprayed and base lined

What you do

• Cream the butter, sugar and essences until pale and fluffy, I used my trusty Kitchenaid mixer. Whisk in the eggs and add the flour/almonds a little at a time with the eggs if it looks in danger of curdling.
• Add the rest of the flour/almonds to the bowl and mix until well incorporated.
• Spoon approximately half the cake mixture into your prepared cake and spread to the edges, arrange roughly half of the chopped rhubarb on to the mixture, staying away from the edge of the tin. Sprinkle over a little caster sugar (1 tbsp)
• Top with the remaining cake mixture and spread to cover the rhubarb, now arrange the rest of the chopped rhubarb on the top in attractive pattern, again keeping away from the edge (this to prevent sticking to the tin), sprinkle with flaked almonds and another 1 tbsp of caster sugar.
• Bake for 6o minutes until golden and well risen, now cover with baking paper and bake for another 15-30 minutes (may be even a little longer as this depends on the moisture level in your rhubarb) until cooked in the middle.
• Cool initially in the tin and then transfer to a wire rack, the cake is quite delicate so be prudent and ensure very loose before removing from tin.

I'm linking up to Bake of the Week at Casa Costello, a linky for all things baked !

                                                   

Prune and raisin loaf cake - gluten free

Winter baking needs to be comforting and this loaf definitely hits the spot, ideal served with a good cup of tea. I have mentioned before that Mr LF is a member of a walking group and this has been tasted and approved by his fellow walkers, its also robust enough to survive being buffeted about in a rucksack or lunch box.

I love the sticky soft prunes which create large pockets of moist juicy fruitiness, this cake is naturally gluten free and improves with keeping, I have baked the recipe several times and would recommend that you use a quality cider or fruit juice as your soaking liquor as it really makes a difference to the overall flavour of the cake.

This version is taken from River Cottage Light and Easy and is also very similar to a tea loaf recipe I make a lot but instead of the raisins and prunes, I used the same quantity of dried fruit.

What you need

• 150g raisins or sultanas
• 150g soft pitted prunes
• 75g soft brown sugar
• 150ml cider, strong tea or fruit juice (apple or orange is good)
• Oil spray
• 1 egg - free range
• 100g rice flour or gluten free flour
• 100g ground almonds
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp mixed sweet spices

What you do

• Soak the fruit in the cider,tea or juice for a couple of hours, stir in the sugar until dissolved in a large baking bowl. I leave it covered with a tea towel in the kitchen
• Oil spray and base line a 2lb loaf tin
• Pare heat the oven to 170c
• Sieve the flour, almonds, baking powder and spices on to a plate ready for adding to the bowl
• Add the sieved flour and egg to the bowl containing the soaked fruits, mix thoroughly and then turn into the prepared loaf tin
• Bake for 50 to 55 mins until golden and well risen
• Cool initially in the tin and then cool fully on a wire rack
• Stores well in an airtight tin.

I am linking this post up to "Bake of the Week" over at Casa Costello, a general celebration of baking in all its forms.

                                                               

Spicy gingerbread loaf

This recipe is a firm family favourite and is pretty quick to whip up with the added bonus that its all made in one pan (less washing up, yeah I say). It has a lovely warm spicy flavour which is perfect with a cup of tea after a walk in blustery autumnal weather when you have been kicking through fallen leaves.

The sultanas are moist and juicy and really add something to this bake and it stores perfectly wrapped in an airtight tin, the recipe also has the bonus of making two loaf cakes.

What you need

• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 cup of sultanas
• 4 oz Quality margarine or butter
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp mixed spice ( I used Lebuchen mix )
• 3 tsp ground ginger

Boil this for 10 minutes or so to allow the fruit to swell, then cool fully, add 2 eggs and 2 cups self raising flour and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar, mix well and pour into two 2lb loaf tins, bake in a preheated oven at 160c for 40-50 minutes.

Super easy, wonderful comfort food .......

This would also be served at a bonfire party or for revellers paying a visit trick or treating.

                                                          

                                          


I'm linking up this to Treat Petite hosted alternatively by Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer, the theme this month is Trick or Treat.

                                                           

And also Bake of the Week over with Helen at Casa Costello