apple cinnamon muffins

This weekend I felt like baking apple cinnamon muffins. It just had to be that and nothing else would do. I turned to baking goddess Nigella and found a recipe from her book Kitchen (now on my wishlist on amazon!) on this blog (thank you, Laura!). She did not disappoint!

As Nigella in her cooking shows, I too was not concerned with exact measures. I felt quite free actually! A baking style which suits me? Really? Thank you, Nigella.

On to the muffins.

You'll need:

2.5 eating apples
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
125g light brown sugar, plus 4 tsp for topping
125ml honey
60ml natural yoghurt
125ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
35g roasted peeled almonds

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC and line a muffin tin with muffin wrappers; the recipe makes 12.

2. Peel the apples and cut them into small 1cm cubes.

3. Add the flour, baking powder and 1 tsp of cinnamon in a bowl.

4. Whisk together the 125g brown sugar, honey, yoghurt, vegetable oil and eggs. I used an electric hand mixer.

5. Chop the almonds and add them to the flour bowl.

6. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry. Add the chopped apple and stir to combine. Very important for muffin batters - don't overmix! The lumpier and heavier the bater, the lighter the muffin.

7. Make the topping by mixing 4 tsp of brown sugar and a teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

8. Spoon the batter into the muffin papers and sprinkle with the topping.

9. Bake for around 20 minutes. The muffins should have risen and be a beautiful golden colour.

10. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

11. Eat (or devour!) with pleasure :)

There’s one slight problem with this recipe – it only makes 12! These muffins were so delicious that 12 is definitely not enough.

Tomato and garlic bread

Nothing like setting yourself a monthly goal to get things done and see things changing. This past weekend, I opened Dough by Richard Bertinet looking for the bread that would make me part with my everyday bread and further explore the world of breadmaking. 

The first step was to stop drooling! The photography is amazing and I'm pretty sure I could taste most breads just by looking at the pages. The second step was to decide on my favourite bread. I had really strict criteria for this: best looking bread, simple recipe. 

This tomato and garlic bread is a variation on one of the breads in the book. Following recipes is not my forte, I like to tweak things to suit me and clearly this was no different. I hear frequently how bread making is this exact science and everything must be just so... well, not from my experience. Admittedly I don't know how my bread compares to other more precisely done ones, but I'm happy as is and I shall continue with the relaxed approach!

Tomato and garlic bread

600 g strong white flour

15 g yeast (I used fresh)
10 g salt
50 g extra-virgin olive oil
320 g water

25 garlic cloves
300 g cherry tomatoes
oregano, pepper and olive oil

Cut the tomatoes in half, season with dried oregano and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and roast them in the oven in low heat (I did 120ºC) until done (2.5 hours in my oven).

Heat 6 tbsp of olive oil with 1 tsp of sugar. Peel 25 garlic cloves (I would stretch it to 30 next time) and add them to the olive oil. Roast it in the oven until the garlic is soft (for me is was 30 minutes, at 180ºC). Let them cool and let them dry somewhat in a clean bowl.

Pre-heat the oven to 250ºC. Mix the flour and the yeast with your finger tips, then add the salt, olive oil and water. Mix it all by hand and work the dough until you have a nice soft dough ball. It took me 25-30 minutes, even though the book says 10-15... such is life! Leave it to rest for one hour, covered by a tea towel (the dough should double in size).

Remove the dough from the bowl and put it on a floured surface. Flatten it by hand into a square. Put the tomatoes and garlic all over your squared dough. Fold one third to cover the the middle section, and then the other side covering that one. Cut your dough in three and close the cut edges. Place in a greased baking tray (I used olive oil). Cover with a tea towel and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Open a hole on each bread and put the tray in the oven, turning the heat down a bit (220ºC for me). 25 minutes later I had the bread ready!

Everyday bread

Hello, I'm Joey and I make my own bread. Sounds cool, right? And it is cool, but for different reasons to the ones I used to consider. 

I've always wanted to make my own bread. Ok, maybe not always, but definitely since my early twenties. I did make bread on a couple of occasions, patted myself on the back not quite sure why as the thing was only *just* edible, and kept dreaming of the day I would wake up a true domestic goddess making bread while sewing my own Channel-like clothes. Turns out... that never happened to me! Who would have guessed?!

What did happen was that I woke up one day and discovered I could no longer eat most shop bought breads. Where I live bakeries are hard to come by and getting freshly baked bread was an impossibility (oh how I missed Portugal that day!). So... I was left with no bread or make my own bread. I went with the latter.

When I realised I needed a recipe which would fit into my lifestyle easily, whilst being yummy of course, all my dreams of domestic goddess lost ground to practicality!  I found said recipe on Concha's blog about 8 months ago and have been making it since. I love this bread! It's delicious and soft and it works.every.single.time!

As I make it just for myself (lasts about 4/5 days) I tweaked the recipe slightly as follows:

600 g strong white bread flour

10 g easy bake yeast

12 g coarse sea salt

390 ml tepid water (the jug is not very precise... it should be though)

I then follow Concha's explanation and voilà, a delicious loaf comes out!

This is my everyday go-to bread recipe. This month, I will explore one other bread recipe... I feel brave!

Pumpkin jam

My absolute favourite jam. Ever. Always. It reminds me of lazy Sundays with bread and cheese on the side and National Geographic and the golden autumnal light through the window with a cat or two on my lap.

Pumpkin Jam is my favourite jam of all. My brother likes to ask me silly things like “if you had to pick one forever and ever, what would you choose?”. I tend not to have an answer to these questions, but I do in the case of jam – pumpkin jam forever. With or without nuts. With or without cheese on the side. Pumpkin jam rules my jam world!

Ingredients:
1kg of cubed pumpkin
500g of white sugar – I don’t like very sweet jams and this reflects it. You can increase your sugar up to 750g.
3 cinammon sticks
2 oranges
Walnuts (optional)

Preparation:
1. Peel and chop your pumpkin into small cubes to have 1 kg. Place in a tray.
2. Put the cinnamon sticks in the tray with the pumpkin.
3. Cover the pumpkin with 500g of white sugar.
4. Peel and slice the oranges and place them on top of the pumpkin and sugar.
5. Cover the tray so nothing falls in it (with a kitchen board for example) and leave to rest for 12 hours (overnight).
6. When you uncover the tray 12 hours later, you’ll have your pumpkin bits softened in a liquid, with the orange slices on top. You’re good to go!
7. When you’re ready to make the jam, start off by preparing the jars. Wash glass jars and lids (mine are metallic) in hot soapy water and rinse thoroughly. Place everything in the oven, on top of a kitchen towel, at 110C. Remove from the oven only when you’re ready to bottle the jam.
8. From the tray with the pumpkin, leave two small orange slices and remove the rest. Leave one cinnamon stick and remove the rest. Transfer everything (cubed pumpkin and liquid) to a pan.
9. Heat in medium heat stirring occasionally until surface boiling (took 20 minutes). Lower the heat and stir occasionally until you have half the liquid you began with. Remove the cinnamon stick.
10. Transfer to the prepared jars (I used three jars). Cover the jar mouth with a wax disc and close.

Note: I used mashed up walnut in one of the jars. I put walnuts in a kitchen bag and mashed them with a kitchen roll. As I filled the jar with the jam, I mixed in the walnuts and gave them a little stir for even distribution.

I hope you love it as much as me :)

The recipe is also here.

This weekend...

I cooked with figs for Cocina Global and I loved it. Who knew figs were this amazing fruit that you can eat in yummy salads and make delicious jam with? Seriously, who knew and why had LMJ not been informed earlier? 

This weekend was a little bit about figs and a little bit about other things. Like knitting club and good chats over coffee, about the little things and the big things. Or cycling for a night out (completely against my principles), so I could spend time with friends I wouldn't otherwise be chatting about nothing with. Or how I finally rewrote LMJ's About page with all you've ever wanted to know. Well, not quite, but I like it better now.

dinner challenge

Mushroom and red pepper risotto. With rocket.*

Good people of the world, believe me when I say... it was yummy! Oh - so - very - yummy! The photo is not the best though, highlighting a few things for me:

1. need to improve on my food photography - importance: high

2. need not to succumb to challenges with Dobbin as the light will not always be what I wish for - importance: extremely high

Oh, and so you all know, I win. I posted the dinner photo first :)

*I love rocket. and green on the plate.