Roasted Flat Peaches

There is a peony bush in the cottage garden and every year is sprouts up these fantastic pink pom poms of ruffled petals. 

As soon as the fat flower buds start to appear, I practically run in from work every night to see whether or not they have bloomed. When they are wet from the rain they slump over, heavy with the water, and threaten any leg that walks past them with being drenched. 

Then they start to fade. A short season of huge pink flowers in the garden. I try and soak in their elegance and their lustre as much as possible before the pink turns to white and the petals start to drop.  

Much like these flat peaches. I try and get as many into my life in the short(ish..) season that the fruit and veg man near my office has them for. A box for a £1.  Can't go wrong.  

Simply preheat the oven to 180o/c and place the peaches in an oven proof dish.  Drizzle with a little honey and bake for 15 minutes, flipping half way through.  Dependant on how ripe your peaches are, you might need to bake them for a little long.  You want the skins to start to loosen and the flesh to be  soft.  Serve hot or cold. 

Banana Split Jars

It's that time of year again. Shake out that tartan blanket. Check your stock of Tupperware. Up to the loft to find the picnic hamper. Get ready to wiggle your toes in the sand and brush grass off your sandals.

It's picnic season.

This year I'm on a mission to banish soggy sandwiches and flabby quiche, to make picnic food glamourous. And I had a little help with these Banana Split Jars from Fruitdrop.

Like the ever popular veg box schemes, Fruitdrop want to make our workplaces healthier. My office has just moved a bit deeper into the city and it annoys me that its easier to grabs bags of crisps, chocolate and sweets than it is to find fruit. I'm hugely guilty of snaffing Malteasers at my desk but for the past week and a bit, I've had a stash of delicious fruit that make me feel like a snack saint with a Fruitdrop office fruit box

These banana split jars are the perfect way of using up just ripe bananas and strawberries. Here's how I did it...

Ingredients

Makes four servings

200ml of double cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder
1tbsp icing sugar

150gr Madeira cake (or another firm sponge)

2 firm bananas
125gr strawberries
Splash for orange juice


Chocolate covered cocoa nibs or grated chocolate
Glacé cherries

Method

1, Whip the cream, vanilla and icing sugar together to medium soft peaks. Transfer this into a piping bag.
2, Cut up the Madeira cake and slice the strawberries and bananas. If your not going to eat the jars straight away, toss the banana slices in a little orange juice to stop them browning.
3, In freshly washed jars, layer up your bananas, strawberries, cake and whipped cream.
4, Top with the chocolate covered cocoa nibs and a glacé cherry.
5, Firmly affix the lid and you're ready to picnic.

Storage
Fresh cream. We don't want that laying in the sun for too long. I refrigerated mine before packing in a cool bag with an ice pack for transportation.

Disclosure
I received a Fruitdrop box of fruit and compensation for my time and ingredients. My photos, recipe and views expressed are my own.

Damson Days: Damson Cheese

It happened a year ago. It is still referred to as “The Great Damson Debacle of 2011”.

Two damson based dishes that were a complete disaster. Completely unsalvageable. A chutney that could have stripped paint and in fact worked quite well as a drain cleaner and a cobbler than was time consuming to eat whilst embodied the fear of smashing a tooth. (Although the 2011 damson vodka, which had its first tasting yesterday, is pretty superb!)

This year, I bolted myself into the kitchen and had a Damson Day. Face your fears and all that. One of the first things I decided to make was cheese. Damson cheese. (Click here more info on fruit cheeses).

Ingredients
250ml red wine
250gr soft light brown sugar
1.5kg damson, washed thoroughly
250ml water
250gr caster sugar

Method
1, In a large, heavy based saucepan set over a medium heat, dissolve the brown sugar into the red wine. Tip your clean damsons and 125ml water. Stir to combine. Pop on the lid and gently boil for around 30-40minuts until your damsons are soft and the stones start to come away from the flesh and skin.
2, Mash the damson with the back of a wooden spoon. Mine is now dyed a delightful shade of purple.
3, Pass ladlefuls of the cooked damsons through a colander over a large bowl and clean out the saucepan ready for the second stage of cooking. Some people pass theirs through sieves to get a really smooth cheese, I love a bit of texture though. I'd recommend doing this over a sink...

4, Scoop out all the stones and skins and put them in a separate bowl. Pour on the remaining 125ml water and stir. Pass this back through the colander and add to the rest of the damson pulp.
5, Return the strained damson pulp to the saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the caster sugar and stir until dissolved.
6, Next comes the labour intensive part. You need to gently boil your damson pulp until you have a thick paste that will set into cheese. This can take 40-60minutes of arm strengthening stirring. (I admit, I did set up my iPad and watched the rest of a documentary on Netflix).
7, To check when your cheese is ready, gently scrape the spoon along the bottom of the pan and it should leave a clear path behind the spoon that will be swallowed up within a couple of seconds.
8, Pour into sterilised jars or silicone moulds. I filled two Le Parfait straight sided jars up to about half way and then had some left over which I poured into silicone moulds. I left the cheese in the moulds to set before turning them out, putting them into an earthen ware shallow dish and covering with clingfilm and popped them in the fridge. Store unopened jars in a cool dark place and opened jars also in the fridge.

Cranberry Mincemeat

This is a variable drop into the mincemeat ocean, I'm sure you're all inundated with recipes for the stuff. It's based loosely on this Delia recipe, I hate chopped peel! Mine doesn't profess to be anything special. It doesn't have nuts in. But does have cranberries. Erm... That's about it...

But you want to hear something that is special? The smell of this cooking that fills you're house. Christmas in jar format. Plus, I wouldnt reserve this solely for mince pies... I have big plans for my jars of Christmas.

Ingredients
One massive cooking apple, or two small ones, cored and chopped finely.
400gr mixed dried fruit (mainly sultanas, raisins, currants)
100gr dried cranberries
100gr dried cherries
100gr vegetable suet
Zest and juice of a lemon, an orange and a lime
1 and 1/2tsp ground mixed spice
1/2tsp ground allspice
1/2 knob of nutmeg, grated
1/4tsp cinnamon
40ml rum, plus 25ml for adding before sealing the jars.

Method
1, In a large casserole dish, combine everything together and stir well, slap on the lid. Leave this for 12-18 hours in a cool place. Top of a double oven is great, not the fridge though.
2, When you're ready to go, take off the lid, stir it and cover loosely with foil. Put into your cold oven and turn the heat to 120o/c and leave for three hours.
3, After three hours, remove from the oven. Before you lift the lid, imagine that everything inside has actually been to a swanky spa and is currently indulging in a new liquid fat swimming regime. This is normal. Lift the lid and give it a stir. And leave to cool.
4, Pack into sterilised jars and add a little more rum on top.

We also recently did put up some of our Christmas decorations. This is out Christmas monkey.

Luci turns into a robot every time baubles are involved in her life... "Must. Kill. Baubles."

Apple and Cinnamon Galette

A galette isn't showy. Or extravagant. It'll hold whatever you ask it to, with no complaints. It doesn't care if it splits a little. It doesn't care if looks a little rough around the edges. It doesn't need fancy dressing up with icing and doesn't require special baking tins. All it needs is a baking sheet, a rolling pin and a hot oven. That's all it wants in life. Simplicity.

We could all learn from the humble galette.

Ingredients

Gingerbread dough (see below)

300gr chopped eating apples
2tbsp golden caster sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp lemon juice
Milk for brushing

You'll need 1/3 of the dough that the below recipe creates. The dough does freeze well and makes great gingerbread men if you want to use it up. You could make three galettes and freeze the spares. Or one giant one for a crowd.

Gingerbread dough
350gr plain flour
2tsp ground ginger
100gr cold butter, cut into cubes
175gr golden caster sugar
1 egg
4tbsp golden syrup


Method
1, Put the flour and ginger into a large bowl and rub in the butter to a fine breadcrumb consistency.
2, Stir in the sugar and the add the egg and golden syrup. Mix this together until it forms a ball of soft dough. Divide into three flat round discs and pop in the fridge for 30 minutes before use.
3, Preheats your oven to 190o/c and roll out 1/3 of the dough to a rough circle about 12inches in diameter and slide it onto a line baking sheet.
3, Toss the apples together with the sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice and pile up into the centre. You want to leave about an inch, maybe two, gap around the fruit.
4, Fold the edges up, enveloping the fruit slightly. Pinch shut any huge tears or breaks. Brush the pastry with a little milk.
5, Bake for 20minutes until golden brown and the fruit is bubbling.
6, Serve hot or cold, with cream or custard. The galette won't mind.

I'm entering my galette into Kate's Autumnal Baking Challenge. You can find all the details on her lovely blog. Happy Autumn