Tumbleberry and yogurt iced lollies

Need to cool down, these gorgeous summertime treats are a doddle to whip up and are much better for you than the icy treats you buy from the shop. Made with fresh berries, some sugar and a little yogurt they have just the right amount of fruity tang to creaminess ratio to deliver a very satisfying ice lolly.

For many months I have been searching for the perfect iced lolly mold, ideally my perfect one would be metal where you can use wooden sticks, just like the one I remember from the 1970's from the little corner shop that made vimto lollies in summer. So far I have managed to buy a plastic one where the plastic handles snapped one by one and then a supposedly metal one which turned out to be plastic with a steel finish (and yes I did complain to the manufacturer - who frankly wasn't very forthcoming). So the search continues......

To make tumbleberry and yogurt lollies you need

• 500ml mixed berries (can be frozen and defrosted)
• 200-250g sugar (varies depending on mix of fruit you use)
• 75ml of yogurt (I used a Greek yogurt)
• Icing sugar
• Ice lolly mold and sticks

To make the mixture

• Start by making a over sweetened compote, using the berries, the sugar and just a drop of water to get the juices going in the pan. Once the berries are softened and the sugar dissolved, switch off the heat. 
• Cool a little and then sieve to remove pips and seeds and any tough skins.
• Cool and then taste for sweetness, what you are trying to achieve is just a bit too sweet before freezing. If you need to add more sugar then use icing sugar as this dissolves without heating.
• Once you are happy with the level of sweetness, mix in the yogurt.
• Pour into molds and insert lolly sticks
• Freeze for at least 12 hours

Ta dah Tumble berry and yogurt iced lollies, on a hot sunny day you will be popular.

                                                    

Laterly we are linking up to Bloggers scream for Ice Cream over on Kavey eats who's theme is Fruity ice lollies, this is perfect.

Banana and blueberry loaf

As regular readers will know I hate waste, so another variation on Banana loaf was required to use up a couple of spotty bananas from the fruit bowl. I always buy organic fairtrade bananas as they taste so much nicer and more intensely banana than the ordinary type, combined in this recipe with one of my favourite superfruits blueberry, the resultant loaf is very moreish. Its a another cup recipe and is very easy, just line your tin and mash your bananas, other than that its an all recipe.

Ingredients

• Plain flour - 2 cups
• 1tsp baking powder
• pinch of sea salt
• 1/2 cup soft butter or quality margarine ( I like to use butter as the flavour is better in this recipe)
• 1 cup caster sugar (you could use granulated)
• 2 eggs - free range
• Vanilla paste - 1 tsp ish
• 2 ripe bananas - mashed
• 1 cup of blueberries

You'll need a 2lb loaf tin, lined

Method

• Just place all ingredients (except for the blueberries) in a large bowl and beat until you have a smooth mixture, I use my Kitchenaid mixer !
• Then gently fold in the blueberries and pour into your prepared loaf tin
• Bake in a preheated oven at 170c for approx 50 minutes, until cooked when tested with a skewer
• Cool in the tin initially and then on a wire rack
• Keeps well in airtight tin and would also freeze as well

Almond, amaretto and blueberry torte

This bake is inspired by the great Jo Wheatley - winner of the Great British bake off in 2011, I love making her raspberry and almond torte as featured in her book and also on the daily mail website here, I suggest if you are interested in baking you buy a copy as it contains some great no nonsense family recipes.

My variation on a theme is to pimp the cake by adding booze, in this case amaretto (thats inspired by a book Flavour Thesaurus - but thats another post) and to use blueberries rather than raspberries, obviously blueberries when cooked are more moist so the resultant cake is  slightly different in texture than Jo's version,  but very delicious all the same.

Ingredients - these were my additions and substitutions to the original recipe

• 2 tbsp amaretto
• 1/2 punnet blueberries
  
                               

Jo is regularly on twitter and facebook and seems to be one of life's genuinely nice people despite what life throws at you, I tend to find most bakers are like that as when you bake you really are putting you heart and sole out there on a plate.

So buy her book , its fantastic . I purchased my copy and in respect for Jo, I am not publishing the recipe, just linking to where it is available in the publish domain.



Blueberry, mango and passion fruit yogurt cake

I love my easy peasy yogurt cake recipe that you can find on an earlier blog post, last night I had a craving for  cake but I had no plain yogurt in the fridge just the remains of a pot of mango and passionfruit, I also had  about half a punnet of blueberries that needed using up, so this how this loaf was born. You could also add chopped mango and passion fruit to plain yogurt, it really is up to you.

Recently I have also be experimenting more with adding a topping to my homely but tasty loaf cakes to add another texture to the cake.I was really pleased with the resulting cake a delicious tender crumbed confection with a crunchy contrasting topping. Bake two, I did !


Easy peasy yogurt cake recipe is here, to add a crunchy topping mix 2 tbsp of demerara sugar with 2 tsp of ground cinnamon. Sprinkle onto the top of your unbaked mixture before baking. 

Low Fat Oaty blueberry loaf cake

I try wherever possible to make my baking healthy, I am great believer in the positive benefits of a piece of cake and if it healthy too then great. This recipe features low fat or no fat yogurt, something I normally have in my fridge, the fabulous anti oxidant rich blueberry , but you could use blackberry if that works for you and the cholesterol reducing oat. Cinnamon is also featured ( one of my favourite spices ) which supposedly has the properties to help regulate blood sugar levels.

What I do know is it tastes good, so hopefully its doing you good too. Based on an american recipe for mufffins,I have pimped its health content by adding the oats and spices.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of fresh blueberries
• 1 3/4 cups of plain flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of sea salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup of caster sugar
• 2/3 cup low fat / no fat plain yogurt
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup skimmed milk
• 2 eggs - free range
• 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon - to make cinnamon sugar

Method.

• Pre heat your oven to 180C
• Spray a 2lb loaf tin with oil spray
• Mix your first 7 ingredients in a bowl
• Whisk up in a second bowl, your eggs, yoghurt, milk, and lemon juice
• Add the wet mixture to your dry mixture and stir until well mixed
• Pour / scoop into your prepared tin
• Sprinkle the top with your cinnamon sugar
• Bake for approx 35-45 mins until well risen, golden and when tested with a coktail stick cooked through
• Cool in tin, serve in chunky slices.