Starting afresh, and something sweet and seasonal

Yep. I was right. What I said here, and then some. Life, unfortunately, has had the better of me for months now, and I am only getting the energy to blog now. A quick recap before getting on to more important stuff. Wedding in Belgrade, days in beautiful Vienna, a broken heart but the perfect break-up, a birthday, Scotland having a hot summer, climbing bonanza here, lazy days in Sweden, back for the Fringe, a job interview, a job offer, another weekend in Stockholm, back for an appointment with a solicitor. And here we are, 21 September and I have worked my last day amongst the mathematicians and on Monday I shall take on the social scientists of Scotland instead. I am no longer a house owner. I am happy.

I have a recipe I'm working on, and a bit of a tirade on how a perfect dough feels clammy, but I need to test the recipe a bit further before letting it loose on the internet. In the meantime I thought I'd share a seasonal recipe instead. We are really coming into apple season in the UK and I, for one, intend to make the most of this. I baked this subtly apple-flavoured loaf last week and my (as of two days ago) former colleagues were asking for the recipe.

This post is dedicated to the bunch of people I have worked with for the last five years. Thank you for the laughs and tears, for your support and for your cheese scones. You rock.

Apple loaf. Photo: Helene Frössling

A sweet apple loaf

100 g butter (at room temperature)
200 g granulated or caster sugar
2 medium eggs
175 g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon, plus a bit more for dusting
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
100 ml apple juice (not from concentrate)
1 large organic apple
"Pearl sugar"

Turn the oven to 170 degrees. Line a loaf tin with baking paper.

In a large bowl and using a hand-held electric whisk, cream the butter for a minute or so, then add the sugar and continue creaming for a couple of minutes until fluffy. In a smaller bowl mix the flour and baking powder with the cinnamon. Into the butter and sugar mix, add the eggs one at a time, incorporating the first one fully before adding the next one. If the mixture separates, add a spoonful of the flour after each egg. Swap from the electric whisk to a spatula. Mix the apple juice with the vanilla essence in a small bowl or measuring jug. Into the main mix add a third of the flour stirring it in fully, then half the apple juice, stirring again. Repeat the addition of flour, then the last of the apple juice, then the last of the flour. Finally, stir in the grated apple. Spoon the mix into the loaf tin, smoothing it down fully, and then across the top dust some cinnamon and, if you have any pearl sugar sprinkle some of that over the cinnamon. If you don't have pearl sugar, perhaps try demerara sugar?

Bake on the middle shelf for 35-40 min or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool somewhat in the tin before taking it out and letting it cool fully on a plate. It'll have a lovely toffee-ish smell.

Addicted to beetroot, and beetroot, orange and chocolate muffins

Three or maybe four years ago I tried the amazing combination of chocolate and beetroot for the first time. I have long been a fan of beetroot in most of its incarnations; it is only the cruelest of pickling that I don’t like. Think beetroot carpaccio, think tender wee beetroots roasted and served with butter, think beetroot hummous. The same year, 2009 (or was it 2010?), I saw a recipe for beetroot cake in the comments thread of some article on the Guardian website. I was intrigued and had to try it, turning the recipe into muffins instead. Those muffins were brought to work, perhaps in an attempt to get some feedback or more likely to avoid eating them all myself. My colleague J was so taken with them that she considered asking me to make her a beetroot chocolate wedding cake.

Just before Christmas I heard of a newly started, small artisan chocolatier in Edinburgh called Edward&Irwyn. It was small, and to the outside world it was not much more than a blog. On the last evening I spent with my boyfriend before we both left for our respective family Christmases, he gave me some of the E&I chocolates. One of the two flavours was beetroot, orange and milk chocolate. It was, quite simply, divine.

With J’s return to work after maternity leave (not an easy return due to nursery bugs galore, I must add), and the delicious E&I chocolate in mind, I decided to try to bake something like the muffins I had made before, but denser and moister. If you’ve read other posts of mine recently you might also recall an obsession with a certain recipe by Dan Lepard, so using oil rather than butter was an easy choice. I didn’t have to experiment more than once to find the right mixture. 

Beetroot, orange, chocolate. Photo: Helene Frossling

Chocolate beetroot orange muffins

3 eggs

80 g caster sugar

80 g golden syrup

120 ml vegetable oil

250 g cooked beetroot

zest from one-two oranges

120 g plain flour

60 g cocoa powder (not sweetened!)

1 tsp baking powder

Start by switching on the oven to 180 C, and getting out a 12-hole muffin-tray, and line with cupcake cases. I find metal muffins trays far easier than silicone ones, but we all have different preferences.

Finely grate the cooked beetroot and zest the oranges. In a small bowl mix the plain flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.

In a larger bowl and using a hand-helg electric whisk, mix eggs, sugar and golden syrup until light and a bit fluffy. Mix in the vegetable oil. At this point switch from the electric mixer to a spatula; the rest you want to do with a bit more finesse. Gently fold in the beetroot and orange zest. Once mixed well, fold in the flour mix. Divide between the cupcake cases. The mix will only rise a little bit when baking.

Bake the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes. Let them cool before eating, and eat within a couple of days if you want them at their freshest. I have no idea how long they stay ok, but I think most people wouldn’t find out as the muffins would be long eaten before they go stale. If you want to frost them to make them more like cupcakes I recommend the Hummingbird Bakery Cream Cheese Frosting. If you donb't have their books, Ocado has the recipe. 

Something for the weekend: mango and lime loaf

Ever since The Guardian published the Dan Lepard recipe for olive oil cake I have been a woman somewhat obsessed with exploring the possibilities of this dairy-free cake. It have tried it with orange and cinnamon, with walnuts and coffee, with Earl Grey tea and lemon, with just mixed spice. I find the recipe incredibly versatile and as far as cakes go it is also towards the less unhealthy end of the spectrum. Please do note that I’m not trying to make this into something healthy. It’s just somewhat less bad for you than some other cakes.

In a lot of my cooking endeavours I am steered by what I happen to have in the house. This time it was a mango so ripe that it practically begged on its somewhat wrinkly knees to be used up. Next to it perched a lime whose zest had started to dry just a little. My trusted guide to many matters culinary, The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit, did remind me of the magic potency of mixing mango and lime. In light of that, it simply had to be done. The result is a moist cake with a very mild flavour and a tiny bit of crunch to the top.

Mango and lime loaf. Photo: Helene Frossling

Mango and lime loaf

1 VERY ripe mango

1 lime

135g light muscovado

4 large free range eggs

150 ml vegetable oil

200g wholemeal spelt flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

Pre-heat your oven to 180C. Grease a loaf tin and line it with baking paper.

Peel the mango, and chop the flesh into small pieces. Zest the lime, then squeeze out the juice. Using a hand blender or a food processor pulp the mango with the zest and a tablespoon of lime juice. 

In a large bowl and using an electric hand mixer (or, if you feel strong, just a whisk), whisk up the eggs and the sugar. You are looking for a frothy mixture which is lighter in colour than what you started with – 2-3 minutes with the electric mixer should do it. If you are feeling strong and going for it with a whisk, you’re looking at far longer; just focus on the cake and the bulging biceps to come. Mix in the oil, followed by the mashed-up mango.

In a small bowl mix the spelt flour and the baking powder well. Gently fold this into the egg mixture, trying to loose as little air as possible.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin. Bake in the pre-heated oven for around 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin before lifting out. Store wrapped in greaseproof paper in a tin or tupperware box. Stored like this it will keep well for a couple of days, although my boyfriend would probaly let it stretch to a slice per day for up to a week - or until I have to try out the Lepard recipe again.