Strawberry Jam Bread

After making the jam tarts last night I got to searching for some more ways to use up all that excess jam, in particular the cement like Strawberry Jam.  Google very kindly pointed me in the direction of this recipe, and though its title is a little deceiving ~ its more of a loaf, along the same kind of lines as Banana Bread, than an actual bread ~ it has already earned its place as a regular feature in our home by request of Hubby.  Over set Strawberry Jam is not a pre-requisite for this!

Strawberry Jam Bread

485g plain flour

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp baking powder

330g vanilla caster sugar

225g unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp lemon juice

4 duck eggs

250 - 300g strawberry jam

130ml buttermilk
250g chopped nuts (optional)

Combine flour, salt, cream of tartar and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside. Combine sugar, butter, vanilla and lemon juice in large mixing bowl; cream together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beat well after each addition. Stir together jam and buttermilk; add to creamed mixture by alternating with dry ingredients, mix just until blended. Stir in nuts, if using.

Spoon batter into 2 greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pans. Bake at 180C for 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pans onto cooling racks.

Makes 2 Loaves
Adapted from Cooks dot com

Breakfast Club - Buttermilk Pancakes with Blueberry Compote

It has been a while since I had made Hubby and I a civilized breakfast.  On Sunday I rectified this by making Buttermilk Pancakes that I had spied over on Jenny's blog (The Red Mangetout) a little while ago.  I'm pretty sure I actually saved the link originally for the very yummy sounding (and looking!) Spiced Apple Compote as well as for the buttermilk pancakes, but with a serious lack of apples in the fruit bowl I was forced to think of an alternative.  Enter the copious amounts of blueberries in the fridge and another saved link to a blog post which this time came from Jane's Sweets and Baking Journal.  With my blog steals in hand breakfast was served ;0)

Buttermilk Pancakes with Blueberry Compote
For the Pancakes
150g plain flour
130ml buttermilk
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 large eggs (I reduced this from 3 eggs - I'm guessing they were medium sized originally)
1 tbsp sugar (I added this cause I like sweet pancakes!)
1 tsp vanilla extract (and I added this cause I like ... vanilla in my pancakes?!?!?!)
For the Blueberry Compote
2 punnets fresh blueberries, any stems removed
1/4 cup caster sugar
Juice from 1/2 lemon

To Make The Pancakes
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  Make a well in the centre.


Add 75ml of water to the buttermilk and pour this in to the well. Gently whisk in to the flour.

Add the eggs one by one, whisking until you have a thickish smooth batter.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan on a medium to high heat and pour a small amount of batter into the pan, and cook for around 1 minute on each side. The pancake should puff up and be a nice golden colour.

Serve immediately with blueberry compote.

Makes 12
Adapted from The Red Mangetout

To Make The Blueberry Compote
Put half of the berries in a medium heat-proof bowl and set aside.

Combine the remaining berries, the sugar, and the lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the berries release their juice, 5 minutes or so.

Increase the heat to high, bring the mixture to a boil, and cook, whisking frequently, until the compote has thickened a bit, about 2 minutes or more. Pour it over the uncooked berries, and using a rubber spatula, gently fold together.

This compote will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Serves 4
Adapted from Jane's Sweets and Baking Journal

There was a very successful breakfast, Hubby loved the compote which was a bit of a break through seeing as he normally won't go near a blueberry.  That said, I was a bit disappointed with the pancakes though, and I now understand where the phrase 'flat as a pancake' comes from!  I'm not quite sure what caused this but onwards and upwards, there are plenty more pancake recipes for the trying ;0)

Strawberry Scone Cake

Summer arrived in Edinburgh today - I even made it into short sleeves!  Poor old Hubby is suffering with a cold though [ahem : Man Flu!] and didn't get to enjoy the great outdoors at all.  Summer had to be brought indoors for him so after dinner (a BBQ with lots of new recipes to share with you over the coming days!) I made this Strawberry Scone Cake.

Taking pride of place on the front cover of the latest issue of Good Food Magazine and has made my mouth water every single time I've looked at it but I promised myself I'd wait until British strawberries were in season before I would make it.  And guess what?!?!? I found some British strawberries today - it was meant to be!  Still very early in the season I know, and yes I know that I could buy a punnet of the Spanish Strawberries that is twice the size for the same price but they smelt so good!  And in the end they ended up tasting even better ;0)

Strawberry Scone Cake
225g SR flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
50g cold butter, diced
42g golden caster sugar
142ml buttermilk
4 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Topping
200ml double cream
Icing sugar
Vanilla extract
5 tbsp berry jam
Strawberries

Heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C.  Put the flour, salt, baking powder and butter into a food processor and pulse until you can't feel any lumps of butter.  Pulse in the sugar.

Gently warm the buttermilk, milk and vanilla in a pan.  Using your largest bowl, quickly tip in some of the flour mix, followed by some of the buttermilk mix, repeating until everything is in the bowl.  Use a knife to quickly mix together to form a dough - don't over mix it.

Push the dough into a floured 20cm sandwich tin, smoothing the top, and bake for 20 mins until cooked.  Once cool, top with double cream that has been whipped with a little icing sugar and vanilla extract.  Drizzle with berry jam (I omitted this part as I didn't have any) and pile some halved strawberries on top.  Dust everything with icing sugar.

Serves 10 (if you are lucky!)
Good Food Magazine, June 2010

For someone who struggles to make scones,this cake was very successful - yippee!  And it tasted like summer in cake form!  About the only thing I would do differently next time is to grate some chocolate over the top in place of the icing sugar.

Rhubarb and White Chocolate Muffins

These little guys were made last Sunday and the only evidence left of them after Tuesday was the empty bowl - I had managed to eat about 2 of them!  Somebody must think that my head is zipped up the back if I believe his story of 'they went bad and I had to throw them out'!

Rhubarb and White Chocolate Muffins
150g caster sugar
80g butter, softened
2 large eggs
225g self-raising flour
150g butter milk
400g rhubarb, cleaned
150g white chocolate, roughly chopped
Preheat oven to 225C.  (I was a bit scared of cooking muffins at this temp but it didn't have any adverse effects, I think it needs to be that hot to ensure that the rhubarb cooks as well as the muffin batter).

Beat the butter and the sugar until creamy. Add the eggs and beat to combine. Add the flour, then the butter milk.

Cut the rhubarb stalks into small slices, then fold into the batter. Add the white chocolate and work into the dough gently and quickly.

Line a muffin tray with paper cups, fill with the mixture. (Again, I was a bit worried about the amount of rhubarb in the paper cases as opposed to the muffin mixture but during cooking the rhubarb shrinks and the batter expands and it all works out well in the end!)

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

Makes 16 muffins
The Passionate Cook

The Passionate Cook also gives a good tip to store them overnight in the cooled oven so the crust doesn't go soggy from the rhubarb.  We enjoyed these warm from the oven but they are very nice the next day too - I couldn't pass comment on what they are like after that becasue they apparently 'went bad'!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Sometimes words just aren't enough to express what you want to say.  Sometimes you just have to bake your words! 

Red Velvet Cupcakes
140g plain flour
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
120ml buttermilk
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp red food colouring paste
55g unsalted butter, at room temp
170g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 quantity vanilla buttercream (ordinary recipe with 1 tsp vanilla added)
Red luster dust and 12 chocolate hearts, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Line a 12 hole non stick muffin tin with paper cases.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, bicarb, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla and food colouring together until blended.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in the flour mixture, a third at a time, alternating with a third of the buttermilk mixture, until all is mixed in.

Divide the mixture between the paper cases.  Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 20 mins until springy to the touch.  Remove and turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool.

Once cool, pipe the vanilla buttercream on and sprinkle with some red luster dust and top with a chocolate heart.  Package in gift boxes and give with love!

Makes 12
Taken from 'Eat Me'

I made these yesterday and gave them to some very special people today who have helped me through a bit of a tough time recently.  The cupcakes are just a small thing but they are my way of saying thank you, that I appreciate all that they had done to support me.  And then my daily inspirational quote popped into my inbox and it was like it was meant to be;

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

William Arthur Ward

Apple and Cinnamon Scrolls

Continuing with the 'healthy' baking theme, these Apple and Cinnamon Scrolls are a tasty treat and actually started life as a weight watchers recipe.  One or two minor tweaks from me though means they aren't quite as low in points as they should be!

Apple and Cinnamon Scrolls
2 1/2 cups SR flour
7g sachet yeast
2 tbsp caster sugar
50g low fat spread, melted
1/2 cup buttermilk, warm
1/2 cup skim milk, warm
2 medium apples, cored and finely chopped
A large handful sultanas
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup brown sugar
Fry light spray

Combine flour, yeast and caster sugar in a bowl.  Stir to combine, then make a well in the centre.  Combine spread, buttermilk and milk in a jug and pour into the well.  Use a wooden spoon to mix together until combined.  use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 mins, or until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if necessary.  Place the dough in a clean bowl sprayed with oil.  Cover with a damp tea towel and set aside in a warm spot to prove for 1 hour, or until double in size.

Preheat oven to 220C/fan 200C.  Spray a 18cm x 25cm deep tin with oil and set aside.  Knead dough again for a further 2-3 mins, or until smooth and elastic.  Place dough on a sheet of baking paper and roll out to a 26cm x 36cm rectangle.

Combine apple, sultanas, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar together in a bowl.  sprinkle mixture evenly over the dough.  Roll up firmly to enclose filling and form a log.

Cut the dough log into 8 even slices and place side by side in the prepared tray.  Cover with a tea towel and set aside to prove for a further 20 mins.  Bake in the preheated oven for approx 20 mins, or until golden and cooked through.  Best served warm.

Makes 8
WW Australia

The scrolls are best eaten on the day they are made but they can be frozen for up to 3 months.  These scrolls taste so good that nobody will know they are good for you ... unless you tell them ;0)