Breakfast Club - Croissants with Warm Blackberry and Apple

This is only our second Breakfast Club - last weekend the concept was given a very wide berth thanks to over indulging in beverages on Saturday night at K's barbie. But, we're back with vengence this weekend! Today's breakie included the left over pikelets from yesterday, with Peach and Apricot jam, Summerberry Jam or Passionfruit Curd for slathering over the top ... mmmmm! But the star dish is one of our favourites for this time of year, Croissants with Warm Blackberry and Apple. This version is made the WW way but for maximum enjoyment use full fat croissants and whatever fruit is on hand, blueberries and raspberries added in work really well.

Croissants with Warm Blackberry and Apple

2 eating apples (3 if on the small side), peeled, cored and chopped roughly

150g blackberries

2 reduced fat croissants, halved

2 tsp low fat spread

2 tsp caster sugar (I use vanilla suger)

Place the apples and blackberries in a small pan with 2 tbsp water. Bring gently to the boil and simmer for 3-4 mins until softened.

Preheat the grill to medium. Spread the croissant halves with the spread and arrange in an ovenproof dish. Spoon over the blackberry and apple, so that some of each piece of croissant is exposed. Sprinkle with the sugar and grill for 2-3 mins until the croissant is beginning to brown.

Serve warm, divided between two plates.

Serves 2

Think this one came from a WW magazine!

Summerberry Jam

What do you do when realisation hits that you have too many punnets of summer fruit? Make jam ;0)

Speedy Summerberry Jam

750g mixed summer berries - my mixture included a punnet each of raspberries, strawberries and blueberries and 2 punnets of blackberries

100ml water

400g caster sugar - I used vanilla sugar

Wash and remove any stalks from the fruits. Place in a pan with water and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer for 10-15 mins, stirring frequently. Add the sugar, stir until it has dissolved and boil for a further 15-20 mins.

Transfer to sterilised, airtight jars to cool. Once cooled, cover and chill in the fridge where it will become more jam like. It will keep for up to 2 months.

Makes 750ml

BBC Food Website

I was a bit worried about this jam setting because it only has caster sugar in it instead of preserving sugar but its actually set really well. And the colour looks fantastic too, a rich shade of mulberry - the evidence is splattered all over my now ruined white tee shirt! That will teach me not to wear an apron.

Upside Down Berry Cake

Phew its Friday night! Been a tough old week for us but its finally time to take stock and recharge the batteries. I love Friday nights! Hubby and I have a date with a DVD and a Chinese take out tonight but I thought I would sneak one small post in before dinner arrives. We had this for dessert last night, we had a friend round for dinner and I needed something quick and easy to put together after work but that tasty pretty wonderful too. This cake was a winner on all fronts ;0)

Upside Down Berry Cake

200g butter, plus extra for buttering

200g golden caster sugar

4 eggs

225g SR flour

25g ground almonds

200g frozen mixed berries, defrosted

2 tbsp golden syrup

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C. Line a deep 20cm spring form cake tin with paper and butter it.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and then fold in the flour and almonds. Fold in enough water to make the mixture spoonable.

Drain any excess juice off the berries and tip them into the base of the tin. Add the golden syrup, then spoon the cake mixture on top. Bake for 1 hour or until the cake is cooked through. Cool the cake in the tin, turn out and remove the paper.

Serves 12

Olive Magazine

Not the greatest of photos, I do apologise. Still not quite plucked up the nerve to be taking photos of food around our friends so I have to be a bit surreptitious about which doesn't result in the best of pictures. Trust me though, this cake is so good I'm lucky there was anything left to take photos of! The smell of it baking had us all climbing the walls.

Serve with ice cream for a bit of extra decadence ;0)

Breakfast Club - Nigella's American Breakfast Pancakes

Can you believe this is the very first Nigella recipe to appear on this blog? Incredible but true! I can assure you that the balance will be seriously redressed at Christmas time when calorie control is given a temporary holiday and all the Nigella books come out of hibernation from my bookshelf.

I gave the recipe a slight makeover (or under!) to reduce some of the calories and all in all they aren't too bad a way to start the day every now and again. I replaced the butter with low fat spread and the full fat milk with semi skimmed. Mine weren't quite as fluffy as those in Nigella's picture but nobody was complaining and they went down a storm. Also, in my head at least, a pancake should be larger than a pikelet, if not then the pancake would indeed be just a pikelet, so I threw Nigella's bilini sized guidance to the wind and made mine extra large and still managed 13 decent sized pancakes from the mix. Breakfast was complete with a drizzle of the Blackberry Sauce left over from the ice cream sundae's.

Nigella's American Breakfast Pancakes

225g plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

30g butter (I used low fat spread)

300ml milk (semi skimmed for me!)

Butter for frying (I used a non stick pan so it only needed a light spray with cooking oil to start off with)

The easiest way to make these is to put all the ingredients into a blender and blitz. (Ingenious! Can't believe I never thought of that before!) Nigella likes to leave the batter to rest for 20 mins before using it so I did too.

When you cook the pancakes, all you need to remember is that when the upper side of the pancake is blistering and bubbling it's time to cook the second side.

Makes 13 (ish)

From 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess'

Breakfast Club - Berry Scrolls

Its been a while since I've posted a 'Breakfast Club', mainly because its been a while since Hubby and I have enjoyed a civilised breakfast. But as it is nearing the end of January I think its high time we get ourselves back into some kind of routine, so without any further a do, here is our first Breakfast Club for 2010.

Berry Scrolls

125ml warm milk

7g dried yeast

2 tbsp caster sugar

1 egg, lightly whipped

300g plain flour

60g unsalted butter

100g frozen berries, thawed slightly (I used Summer Fruits)

1 tbsp caster sugar, extra

150g fresh ricotta

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp milk

Combine the milk, yeast and sugar in a bowl. Set aside in a warm, draught free place for 10 mins or until frothy. Add the egg and whisk to combine. Place the flour and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the yeast mixture and process until combined. Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm, draught free place for 40 mins or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with non stick baking paper. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3-5 mins or until smooth and elastic. Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out the dough to a 30 x 40cm rectangle. Fold the short side closest to you over the middle of the dough. Fold the opposite side over to enclose. Roll out the dough to a 30 x 40cm rectangle. Repeat the folding and rolling process.

Combine the berries and extra sugar in a bowl. Spread the ricotta evenly over the dough. Spoon the berry mixture evenly over the ricotta. Starting with the longest side closest to you, roll up firmly to form a log. Cut cross ways into 6 even portions.

Arrange each portion, cut side up, side by side and just touching on the lined tray. Combine the egg yolk and milk in a bowl. Brush the egg mixture over the scrolls. Bake in oven for 30 mins or until golden. Serve warm.

Makes 6 (I got 12 out of mine though. Think maybe I was a bit cheap on the slicing process!)

www.taste.com.au

I made these last night and reheated them this morning in an oven heated to 150C for 10 mins. I have to admit that not all of them made it to this morning. Sis-In-Law was staying over last night and we each had to sample some fresh out of the oven last night. They are quite scrummy, although next time I think I'll add more berries ... and I'll try to get 6 large scrolls out of the dough too ;0)

An Autumn Sundae

This creation is a bit of an impromptu dessert tonight. My sweet tooth has been speaking to me all week bit it got to the point after dinner that it could be ignored no longer. I'm trying desperately not to eat my entire body weight in sugar this week so I decided this was probably the 'healthiest' fix I could summon!

Blackberry Ice Cream Sundae

300g fresh blackberries

75g vanilla caster sugar

Good ice cream (I had to compromise on this one and used a low fat option - sigh)

Tip the berries and sugar into a pan, cover, then gently simmer for 10-15 mins until the berries have softened into a sauce. I kept mine 'textured' to try and keep the feelgood fruit factor going but if you prefer a smooth sauce just push the mixture through a fine sieve.

Spoon some ice cream into a sundae glass, top with a couple of spoonfuls of sauce and then repeat layers to the top of the glass. We did this while the sauce was still warm which made for some lovely melty, drippy spoonfuls. If I was being more sinful though I'd leave the sauce to cool completely and then top the sundae's with whipped cream, a nice thin homemade biscuit and some chocolate shavings.

Serves 4

Adapted from Good Food Magazine, September 09

I must apologise for the standard of the photos (again!) but I was in such a rush to inhale this that taking decent photo's of it was a bit lower on my priority list than normal. Sorry!

Jumble-Berry Jam

I don't know about you but some summer sunshine wouldn't go amiss around here at the moment.  As all the usual summer flavours are out of season I have resulted to a frozen summer fruit mix for this jam, which Hubby has praised each and every single time it has been served.

Jumble-Berry Jam

400g caster sugar

400g summer fruit - a mixture of strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, blackberries and blueberries (you can use frozen fruits out of season)

Juice of 1 lemon

Place the sugar in a heatproof bowl and pop in a moderate oven for 10 minutes to heat up. You can also place the jars into the oven to warm, to prevent them cracking when the hot jam is poured into them.

Put a saucer in the freezer for testing the jam later on.

Place the fruit (which can be frozen) in a saucepan with the lemon juice and heat up. Simmer for 3 minutes and crush most of the fruit with a potato masher. Add the warm sugar, stir to dissolve and bring up to the boil. Boil for 3-4 minutes over a high heat, stirring regularly.

To test to see if the jam is cooked, take a spoonful of the jam, place it on the frozen plate and allow it to sit for a few seconds. Then push your finger through the blob of jam - if the skin on top forms a wrinkle when pushed, it is cooked. Remove from the heat immediately and pour into sterilised jars or a bowl. A jam funnel is handy for this if you have one. Place the lids on top. The jam will set as it cools.

Makes 2 x 400g
Rachel Allen Website

Summer sunshine achieved ;0)

Blackberry and Apple Crumble Top Muffins with White Chocolate

The plan was to make some Blackberry and White Chocolate muffins when I got in from work tonight, but I discovered that I didn't have any buttermilk. Then I thought I'd make a nice Apple and Blackberry Crumble for dessert, not enough apples. Then I thought 'why not combine the two' and taadaa - Blackberry and Apple Crumble Top Muffins with White Chocolate was born.

The basic Muffin recipe came from the Goddess's Kitchen Blog, the crumble topping came from the '500 Cupcakes and Muffins' cookbook by Fergal Connolly and a few tweaks came from my favourite recipe website. The mixture made slightly more than I expected but there are no complaints on that score. They turned out really moist and light, so delish with a cuppa after dinner (or for anytime!)

Blackberry and Apple Topped Muffins with White Chocolate

220g blackberries
3 apples
2 duck eggs
250ml milk
120ml vegetable oil
200g vanilla caster sugar
375g plain flour (sifted)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (see note below)

100g white chocolate, chopped

Crumble Topping

50g unsalted butter, melted

4 tbsp plain flour

3 tbsp light brown sugar

4 tbsp porridge oats

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Place the eggs, oil, sugar and milk in a large mixing bowl and beat together.

Sift flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into small pieces. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir. Do not over mix. Gently stir the apples, blackberries and white chocolate into the mixture with the last few strokes, the mixture should still be lumpy.

Fill a muffin tray with paper muffin cases, and then fill each case to about two thirds full with the muffin mixture.

To make the crumble; stir all crumble ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the mixture and bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes.

Makes 22

Adapted from a lot of different recipes!

Chief taste tester (that would be Hubby) suggests more chocolate should be added next time, and I agree, the chunks of chocolate did seem to be few and far between in the muffin I sampled too. Also, the original recipe for the muffins said to put ground cinnamon in, I cut it back from the full teaspoon to just a half and then worried that I maybe shouldn't have added any at all with the white chocolate being an added touch, but I couldn't taste any at all in the finished muffin. Next time I'll leave it out but might put some vanilla extract in its place.

Summer Fruit Drizzle Cake

Shhhhhhhhh!  I'm supposed to be at the gym right now but instead I've bunked off to share this recipe with you!

Summer Fruit Drizzle Cake
175g very soft butter, plus extra for greasing
175g golden caster sugar
250g SR flour
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
175g fruit, stoned and diced weight (I used a mixture of raspberries and blackberries so let them whole)
140g granulated sugar
1-2 tbsp citrus juice - lemon, lime or orange

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C.  Grease a 900g loaf tin and line the base and ends with a long strip of baking parchment.  Put the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla extract into a large bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer for 5 mins until pale and creamy - the mixture will be very thick.

Spread one third of the cake mix into the tin, then scatter over 50g of the fruit.  Carefully dot and spread another third of the cake mix on top, and scatter with another 50g fruit.  Finally dot the rest of the cake mix over and gently spread with the back of a spoon.  Bake for 1 hour, until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Poke the cake all over with a skewer.  Put remaining 75g fruit into a bowl with the granulated sugar.  Stir in 1 tbsp of the citrus juice first with a fork, mashing a little of the fruit as you go.  If it's a bit dry, add a splash more juice and spoon over the cake.  leave in the tin until the cake is cool and the topping is set and crisp.

Cuts into 8 slices
Good Food Mag, Aug 11

I have to admit to making this cake some time ago now ... like when the magazine first came out in July!  Its a little gem of a bake that was moist and flavourful.  It kept really well too, in an airtight tin, and served well as a treat in Hubby's lunch box for the week ... and Uncle Frank had his share too!