Mary Berry Lavender Shortbread Biscuits

The area around where I live in Surrey is known for its lavender – in fact, it was once known as the lavender capital of the world. In the summer there are beautiful purple fields stretching into the distance. Apparently Yardley, a British toiletries brand that is known for lavender talcum powder, ties back to the area but eventually cheaper French lavender flooded the market and a lot of the lavender fields in Surrey were given over to housing estates.

 

Now, there are two main operators of the lavender fields, at least that I'm aware of. Mayfield Lavender is a commercial enterprise, but still a family-run farm; they are open every day through June, July and August where you can buy lavender plants and products. I've never been and it's not clear to me from their website whether you can actually pick your own lavender or not - I would assume so, but can't be sure!

The place that I've preferred to go to over the last couple of years is the non-profit allotment run by Carshalton Lavender. It's a volunteer-led project and they have an annual harvest one weekend a year (this year it was at the end of July) where you can go and pick your own lavender. They charge a reasonable £5 for a large bunch and £10 for a bucket-ful, and there are stands selling food and drinks, cakes and lavender products. That's me in the photo above picking lavender.

My husband and I went with some friends who live locally and I picked a large bunch of lavender, as I was planning to do various things with it from baking to making lavender bags (if I ever get around to using my sewing machine!).

It was my father-in-law's birthday not long after and he really likes shortbread, so I decided to make him some lavender shortbread with local lavender, and parcel a few pieces (as he isn't meant to be eating much sugar) up as a gift.

I used this Mary Berry recipe - lavender shortbread seems a very Mary Berry thing to make. It was very easy to make though you do need to factor in chilling time for the dough - I actually did mine overnight.

Here's the lavender that I picked:

I made up the dough and added the lavender

Make into a cylinder, roll in brown sugar, wrap in foil or parchment and chill in the fridge until firm.

Slice into rounds and bake in the oven

The finished product

 

 I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at the Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi.

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Restaurant review: Caballo Lounge, Epsom

Mostly when my husband and I go to the cinema we have dinner beforehand - we've found that if we drive to Epsom town centre after dinner to watch a film around 8pm, it's very hard to find anywhere to park! It also makes it more of an evening out if we have a meal as well, though as we don't tend to have a lot of time, we choose places that are near to the cinema.

This time we were walking down the street and I spotted a place I hadn't noticed before, though apparently they have been there a while! The Caballo Lounge is part of a chain but has quite an independent, quirky feel (obviously a result of meticulous research and planning across the chain!).

You'd be forgiven for thinking you had stepped into someone's living room (if their living room had a bar) - there are walls lined with books, sofas as well as tables and chairs, lampshades, board games - it looks like somewhere you could while away an afternoon with friends or children or go out for a drink in the evening.

Caballo Lounge offers everything from breakfasts to burgers, by way of paninis and pastries. They even have separate gluten-free and vegan menus which is something you don't see very often. As we went in the evening we wanted dinner; I love macaroni cheese so I ordered the mac and cheese (£8.95) which came with roasted butternut squash and tenderstem broccoli and garlic bread.

I was a bit disappointed that the cheese sauce was a bit thin and didn't have a strong flavour and that the whole dish didn't come together particularly well - it was basically some pasta, some chunks of butternut squash and a long piece of broccoli in a dish, as if each element had been cooked separately and then just put into the dish to serve. I would have preferred something baked in the oven with a crispy topping and a thicker cheese sauce. It was a shame as I really liked the place otherwise and I'm not sure whether I would go back or not.

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Tiramisu Cupcakes - coffee cakes for people who don't like coffee

These cupcakes taste just like the real thing - like you are eating tiramisu!

I made them for a family party with my in-laws; my mother-in-law and husband both love coffee cake but I really don't like it. I wondered if there was a way I could incorporate coffee into a cake so it would still be enjoyed by someone who doesn't like coffee; I've got a great recipe for chocolate cake that uses coffee as one of the ingredients to give depth of flavour but it doesn't actually taste of coffee at all. Then I remembered a dessert that I love, that uses coffee - tiramisu!

The Marks & Spencer recipe book 'Easy Cupcakes' has some really imaginative recipes - it's a very good little book that I've had for about five years but only used a handful of times. It has a recipe for tiramisu cupcakes - in true Caroline style, I didn't read the ingredients list properly and was half way through before I remembered I didn't have any masala or sweet sherry, but I did have crème de cacao and this worked perfectly. Here's what you need to do: the recipe says this makes 12 but I only got 8 (large) cupcakes out of it.

You need:
115g unsalted butter or baking spread like Stork
115g light brown sugar
2 eggs
115g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp coffee granules
25g icing sugar
4 tbsp. water
for the frosting:
225g mascarpone cheese
85g caster sugar
2 tbsp. marsala or sweet sherry, or in my case crème de cacao
cocoa for dusting

Preheat oven to 180C. Beat the butter, sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder in a bowl until smooth and creamy and spoon into paper cup cases in a muffin tin.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until risen and firm to the touch.

Place the coffee granules, icing sugar and water in a pan and heat gently until the coffee and icing sugar have dissolved. Boil for one minute then allow to cool.

Brush the coffee syrup over the top of each cupcake while the cupcakes are still warm. Then leave the cakes to cool.

For the frosting, beat the mascarpone, icing sugar and masala in a bowl and spread on top of the cupcakes. Sprinkle with a pinch of cocoa powder.

These cupcakes tasted gorgeous - just like eating tiramisu!

I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at the Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi.

 

Charlotte at Charlotte's Lively Kitchen runs a blog challenge called the Food Calendar and there are several things happening this month that these cupcakes would be great for, including National Cupcake Week from Sept 12-18, International Coffee Day and the Macmillan Coffee Morning.

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Carrot Rice 'Risotto' with Chorizo

Did you know that you can do more with your spiralizer than just make vegetable spaghetti? You can also make rice - or a vegetable rice anyway!

After spiralizing vegetables into spaghetti-like strands you can give it a quick whizz in the food processor and turn it into little grains like rice. I don't think you could put the raw veg straight into a blender - that is, you couldn't as easily turn a raw carrot into carrot rice without spiralizing it first, and a cooked carrot would just turn it to mush. You could of course grate it rather than spiralize like I did with this cauliflower rice.

I've got the Inspiralized recipe book by Ali Maffucci and also get a lot of recipes from her blog, www.inspiralized.com. I found a recipe for a spicy seafood and chorizo paella using carrot 'rice' and diced bacon (I used chorizo);  It tasted absolutely delicious - I was really impressed, and since it's now Sugar Free September (for some people at least) I thought I'd share my adaptation of this recipe if anyone is looking for meal ideas.

To serve two, you need:
1 tbsp. oil or a few sprays of Fry Light
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
half an onion, diced
1 chorizo sausage, sliced
200g tin chopped tomatoes
2 carrots, peeled and spiralized then processed in  blender to turn them into rice
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 cod fillets, chopped into chunky pieces
12 large prawns
1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Fry the chorizo, garlic and onion in the oil

Spiralizing the carrot, then pulse in a blender until it turns into 'rice'

Add to the pan with the tinned tomatoes, chilli, paprika, and turmeric, the cod and the prawns

Then add the lemon juice and sprinkle with the parsley. The finished dish:

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Restaurant review: Dotty's Teahouse, Carshalton

Tea, cake, vintage crockery and crafts is right up my street – and now literally down the road as well. Dotty’s Teahouse recently opened in Carshalton in Surrey; I heard about it initially through a Facebook page and when I drove past, wanted to go there right away.
 

It took over a shop on the corner of the high street and the corner plot gives the perfect shop-front; there are chairs outside, bunting and shabby chic decorations in the windows. Inside, they sell crafts made by local people and have a room at the back where they offer craft workshops – one of which I did last week.

 

The first time, I went with my mother-in-law for lunch; we sat by the window and it didn’t take long to peruse the menu, which is quite short, at least in terms of food- there are 12 types of tea. In terms of savoury food, the only options are sandwiches – five flavours – or crumpets or toast. I actually love the sound of crumpets right now but we both decided to have sandwiches – tuna mayonnaise and egg mayonnaise.

 

The sandwiches were nice but very simple, from a mass-produced loaf of sliced white and a tin of tuna. I think doorstep bread – or bread from a bakery – would have given a better impression, even though they did taste very nice. They were served with a small salad and a few crisps, for £4.20.

 

We had been looking forward to trying the cake; they had a selection along the counter and I went for a slice of lemon and poppy seed while my mother-in-law had coffee cake. The cake was very good – definitely homemade, light and springy with a pleasant flavour. We were able to take our time over lunch and didn’t feel hurried; Dotty’s is a lovely place to visit and I've overheard several people saying they now go in there a lot for tea and cake.

 

I can also recommend the craft workshops, some of which are aimed at children and some at adults. I did a jewellery making class with Cara Fairbairn, who lives locally and has worked as a jewellery designer for several companies including Vivienne Westwood.

On this occasion we were working with beads, but it was more complicated than it sounds! We each made a pair of earrings, a bracelet and a necklace. Choosing beads and threading them onto the wire was the easy part; the more tricky bit is properly fixing on the clasp, or the part of the earring that goes through your ear - we had three different pairs of pliers for the different jobs.

I obviously didn't do a particularly good job as my bracelet fell apart as soon as I got it home and my the clasp on my necklace came off the next day, but Cara very kindly offered to fix them for me. It was really interesting learning the technique, and it's definitely something I would have a go at again.

The Dotty's staff waited on us throughout the evening, bringing copious amounts of tea and a lovely cream tea of a scone, cream and jam. They mentioned a sewing workshop coming up which I am going to look out for.

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Meal Planning Monday 2016 - Week 36 - Sugar Free September

Week two of Sugar Free September... how are you all doing? Is anyone else taking part in the challenge?

This week I have a plumber coming round so I'm working from home one day, and another day my husband and I are going to get a quick dinner before going to a rare late-night opening at the London Aquarium, which I'm looking forward to. But it means I will have to think carefully about where we go for dinner and what I can have!



Monday
Turkey meatballs with cauliflower mash

Tuesday
coconut chicken stir-fry based on this recipe over spiralized veg for me and rice for him
Note to self: marinade beef for tomorrow

Wednesday
working from home - plumber coming
Lunch - cauliflower cheese
dinner - beer-braised brisket with Branston and coleslaw, in a tortilla for him and without the tortilla for me

Thursday
salmon and vegetables for me, gammon for him

Friday
Going to the London Aquarium in evening; I think our best option for a quick dinner beforehand will be Giraffe

Saturday
Lunch: sausage and bacon mini quiches (adding in sweet potato puree from freezer)
Dinner: duck breast with lavender, beetroot and sweet potato, from this recipe (chicken for him)

Sunday
Lunch: Off to a car show in Eastleigh where my husband is part of a group offering passenger rides in supercars for charity. It will be very hard to avoid bread and I don't want to take a salad as there may be nowhere I can properly sit and eat it, and a sandwich is much easier. So I'm going to make us a  New Orleans Muffuletta sandwich: which involves bread, olive salad, salami, ham, mortadella, provolone and Swiss cheese.
Dinner: Not sure what time we will be back so might do something from the freezer and not worry too much about avoiding carbs.

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Chocolate and Merlot Red Wine Cupcakes - Wilton Shot Tops Kit

I've long been making cocktail cupcakes and bundts, experimenting with recreating the flavours of my favourite tipples in the form of cake. So I was really excited when I went to the Lakeland product launch in July and saw this Shot Tops kit from Wilton - and even more excited when they gave me one to try.

The set contains little plastic pipettes in the shape of either wine bottles or cocktail glasses; you fill them with alcohol (or any liquid) and insert them into the top of the cake, for people to squeeze the liquid into or over the top of the cake as they eat them. I'm sure I remember someone doing something similar on the Great British Bake Off but having to use 'proper' pipettes, I don't think they were sold for home baking at the time!

The kit I received also contained a small recipe book, and there were some great-sounding recipes for cocktail-based cupcakes in there, but disappointingly not all the recipes actually involved the pipettes. I wanted to make one of the recipes that did, and also thought about inventing my own cocktail recipe, but decided that to review the kit properly I should make one from the book.

I was going to stay with a good friend down in Devon over the August bank holiday and she enjoys various cocktails but is a particular connoisseur of red wine -she actually helped me pick the wine we had at my wedding. So I decided to make a rather unusual sounding chocolate and merlot cupcake - not strictly speaking a cocktail but apparently chocolate and red wine go together. Wilton says: "The concentrated, rich taste of merlot wine and not-so-sweet dark chocolate is a natural match when combined in these intensely flavoured cupcakes."

The cupcakes consist of a chocolate base, buttercream with red wine reduction and pipettes containing red wine that you drizzle over the top.

The recipe says this makes about two dozen cupcakes, but I got 16 large ones out of it. You need:
2 cups plain flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar (I used caster)
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream

for the icing:
2 cups merlot wine
1 cup butter, softened (the original recipe says to use half butter, half shortening, but as that's basically lard I didn't want to)
4 cups icing sugar

for the infusion:
1 1/2 cups merlot wine
Wilton Shot Tops infusers

Preheat oven to 180C, 350F. Beat the sugar and oil with an electric mixer in a large bowl then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add some of the flour mixture, alternating with the sour cream, until it is all mixed in.

Place cupcake cases in a muffin tin and divide the batter evenly between the cases.

Bake for 16-19 minutes in the oven and allow to cool.



Bring the wine to the boil in a small saucepan and simmer until it has reduced to a couple of spoonfuls. Allow to cool completely.

For the buttercream icing, beat the butter and icing sugar in a large bowl. Add the reduced wine and beat again.

Pipe or spread onto the cupcakes.



Cut a small opening in the tip of each Shot Tops infuser and place in a cup of wine; squeeze to draw the liquid into the pipette and when you stop squeezing, it should stay inside. Insert into each cupcake and when you serve, squeeze the Shot Top to infuse the cupcake with wine. You can taste the wine in the middle and it gives the centre a nice moist texture. I don't expect I will use these Shot Tops that often but they really are a great idea!

I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at the Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi.

- And also with We Should Cocoa, hosted by Choclette at Tin and Thyme.

Charlotte at Charlotte's Lively Kitchen runs a blog challenge called the Food Calendar and there are several things happening this month that these cupcakes would be great for, including National Cupcake Week from Sept 12-18, International Chocolate Day and the Macmillan Coffee Morning.

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Movie night: pairing your wine with your popcorn

It's Saturday night so I'm sure a lot of you are enjoying a drink and a snack, maybe watching the X Factor or like me right now watching a film. What's your go-to snack for movie night?

Popcorn is closely associated with watching films since it's sold in cinemas, though that wasn't always the case. If you want to know how popcorn came to be sold in cinemas have a read of this article, it's fascinating!

I've sometimes made popcorn at home to recreate the movie night feel and my preferred drink to enjoy at the same time is either a glass of crisp white wine or a vodka and coke. The people at Skinny Pop, which makes popcorn with no artificial flavourings and no trans fat, asked me to share the infographic above. They offer a range of flavours - though their products are only sold in the US - and suggest different wines to go with each one, which is an interesting idea and something I haven't come across before. So my preferred sauvignon blanc would go well with original or salt and pepper popcorn, whereas I've discovered that the sweeter popcorns, which I do think taste better, would go better with a glass of red. Have you thought about pairing your drinks to your snacks in this way?

Disclaimer: I was not paid any compensation and did not receive any free products for this post. All text and opinions are my own.

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5 Sugar-Free Breakfast Recipes - Sugar Free September

People have differing views on breakfast: some say it is the most important meal of the day, others say 'breakfast like a king, dine like a pauper', others say if you skip breakfast entirely your body burns more of its fat reserves, and others still say you need something small (protein according to some, lemon juice and hot water according to others) to kick-start your metabolism.

It's really confusing and I've tried several approaches over the years, all with very little difference to my weight. What I am sure about though is that the 'traditional' breakfast foods in the UK of cereals and toast are the least good things to be eating. Sugar and simple carbs are not what you need first thing in the morning.

I've previously reviewed a breakfast cereal that I think has good health benefits but since I've started #SugarFreeSeptember I thought I'd give five breakfast ideas that are healthy and largely sugar-free. Some people say you can still eat fruit on a sugar-free diet but others disagree, since fruit is high in natural sugars. So none of my suggestions below include fruit, but you can add it if you like eg to the yogurt, or have some grapes with the cheese.

#1 Eggs - a great way to start the day and also sugar-free (just don't dip any soldiers in your boiled egg!). My favourite is poached egg with smoked salmon for an indulgent way to start the day. Omlettes are also a good idea, and if you have a bit more time to cook, try poached eggs on wilted spinach sauteed with olive oil, salt and pepper.

 

#2 Greek yogurt (unflavoured) sprinkled with chia seeds. Chia seeds are a good source of vitamins and minerals. They are not that cheap but I bought a big tub from the supermarket for only about £4 and it goes a long way.

 

#3 Cheese: good if you want to eat protein in the mornings and not as strange as it sounds- think continental breakfasts where you have ham and cheese on bread. The ham and cheese together make a good healthy and very quick breakfast if you are on the go - without the bread.

#4 Buckwheat pancakes: these are just like regular pancakes in method; the taste is a little different but I barely noticed, though of course my fussy husband did - but he still liked them! Using buckwheat flour instead of plain flour makes these gluten-free, so as well as not including any refined or natural sugar, these pancakes won't raise your blood sugar like gluten will.

I used 150g buckwheat flour to 250ml milk and one egg to make four pancakes; whisk the egg and milk together and make a well in the flour, and pour in, whisking well. Heat a little oil or butter or coconut oil in a frying pan, pour in enough mixture to just cover the base of the pan and cook until browned on both sides. My husband had his filled with grated cheese, while I spread mine with goat's cheese (I had a bit left over in the fridge from another recipe) and smoked salmon. Delicious!

 

 

#5 Homemade granola - I used this recipe from 'I quit sugar' by Sarah Wilson. I have to be honest and say it really wasn't my favourite thing to eat, but it wasn't that bad and I felt very virtuous eating it. You can make up a big tub at the beginning of the week and take it into work or portion it out as you need. I had a lot of the ingredients already, including the chia seeds which I bought on a whim and hadn't used yet; the coconut flakes came from Ocado, the mixed nuts from Lidl and the coconut oil from Amazon.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl (along with some cinnamon and I used a tiny bit of agave nectar which is a natural sugar but very high in sugar - the recipe advises rice malt syrup as being optional and I wasn't sure where to buy that (health food shops perhaps?) but as I had agave nectar decided to use a little of that - I don't think it would have been very palatable without.

Baking in the oven:

And then a little tub to take to work with some Greek yogurt.

 

 

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Slow Cooker Chicken Korma

I’m often trying different curry recipes to find one that is closest to take-away – I don’t have takeaway or restaurant curries very often (probably just a couple of times a year) but do love a chicken korma. This slow-cooker recipe isn’t quite like the takeaway ones, as the sauce is not as thick or as sweet, but I think it’s a lot healthier! It’s easy to make too – after a bit of initial prep you put everything into the slow cooker. The recipe comes from a book called 200 Slow Cooker Recipes but I adapted it.

You need: 

2 tbsp sunflower oil

8 chicken thighs, skinned boned and cubed

2 onions, peeled and chopped

1-2 green chillies to taste, deseeded and finely chopped

2.5m fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped

5 tbsp korma curry paste

250ml coconut cream or milk (I took this to mean coconut milk, not regular milk)

300ml chicken stock

2 tbsp ground almonds

 

 

Fry the chicken in a frying pan until it has browned, then put it in your slow cooker.
 

 

Add the onions, chillies, ginger, curry paste to the frying pan, and fry for 2-3 mins.

 

Pour in the coconut cream or milk, stock and ground almonds. Chop half the coriander and add to the sauce and season. Bring to the boil then spoon over the chicken in the slow cooker.
 

 

Cook in the slow cooker according to the machine instructions 6-8 hours.

 

 

Serve with rice

 

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