PLUM AND ALMOND CAKE

I spotted a recipe in a lovey blog called "Katie Cakes" for a raspberry and almond cake and offered to take it as a dessert when invited out to lunch at a friend's house.  The host was delighted but then I discovered that I didn’t have the frozen raspberries in the freezer that I could have sworn were there!  Drat!

So I used some of my frozen cinnamon roasted plums instead!  Almond goes well with plums so I omitted the vanilla and replaced it with almond extract.

The mixture was fairly stiff which meant the fruit didn't sink to the bottom of the cake and stayed exactly where I wanted it - as a layer in the middle.  It was a huge cake and rose almost to the top of the tin.  

It was absolutely delicious and the kind of cake where a small slice was definitely enough.  It would probably work well using a slightly larger tin.

I forgot to dust it with icing sugar until I was taking pictures of the leftovers at home.  That definitely made it look more glamorous - not that it needed it.  I kept the remaining cake in the fridge and it still tasted fresh several days later when I took it round to another friend's house for coffee.  Definitely a keeper and you can see the recipe here.

Ingredients

250g each of:

    unsalted butter, softened (I used baking spread)

    caster sugar

    self raising flour

    ground almonds

2 large eggs (mine were very small so I used 3)

1 tsp almond extract

250g cooked plums, stoned and halved (see recipe here)

2 tblsp flaked almonds

Method

Preheat the oven to 185°C / 175° fan.  Grease and line the base of a 20cm round springform cake tin.

Put the butter, sugar, flour, almonds, eggs and extract into a large bowl and beat well with a hand held electric whisk until well blended (or use a stand mixer).

Spoon roughly half of the mixture into the prepared tin and arrange the cooked plums over the top.

Carefully spoon the remaining mixture over the plums and spread out evenly.  Scatter the flaked almonds over the top.

Bake for 55-65 minutes until done, covering loosely with foil about half way through to prevent the cake from browning too much.

Cool in the tin.  Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Cuts into 10 generous slices.

PLUM (OR NECTARINE) TART (can be gluten free)

The nectarine version.

The recipe for this popped up in my FB feed and comes from one of Nancy Birtwhistle's books, the one about gardening.  

The plum version before baking.

There is no pastry involved so some would ask - how can it be a tart?   I spent a happy few minutes looking up the definitions of cake, tart, torte and gateau and came to the conclusion that although it was definitely not a cake, a flan or a pie I still had no idea!  In any case it went down well for dessert at a BBQ one very hot June evening.

The plum version when cooked.

The first time I made this it was definitely a bit overdone - the plums looked a bit crozzled and it was a devil to get out of the tin.  Only when I made it the second time did I realise that I had baked the first one at 160° fan instead of 160° C.  A casualty of the debilitating heat - it had reached 39°C during the day and my concentration withers exponentially over 30°C!

The nectarine version - much less crozzled.

For the second time I used nectarines, didn't cram quite as much fruit in, and kept the slices away from the sides of the tin, which definitely made it easier to turn out, baked it at the right temperature and kept my eye on it.  With its apricot glaze it had that patisserie glamour.  It tasted great too.

Stoning the fruit can be a bit fiddly.  An old fashioned grapefruit knife came in handy for getting the stone out of some of the firmer fruits.  Changing the ordinary flour for gluten free flour (e.g. Doves Farm) will make it a gluten free dessert and a handy recipe to have instead of pavlova.

Ingredients

For the cake base

zest of 1 lemon

2 tsp lemon juice

30ml whole milk

125g softened butter or baking spread (I used Le Fleurier)

125g caster sugar

1 egg

125g plain flour or gluten free flour

125g ground almonds (or half and half ground almonds and ground rice)

For the topping/fruit

10-12 ripe plums or 3 large nectarines

2 tblsp apricot jam

Method

Butter the base and sides of a 23cm loose bottomed tart tin.

Put the milk and lemon juice into a small bowl or jug, mix together and set aside

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, lemon zest and sugar.  Add the egg and beat well until well combined.

Fold in the ground almonds (or almonds and rice), then the flour followed by the thickened milk.

The mixture will be quite thick so transfer it to the prepared tin and level with the back of a spoon or small palette knife.  Smooth the surface as much as possible then put the tin in the freezer while you prepare the fruit.

Cut each plum or nectarine in half and remove the stone.  Cut into quarters and slice thinly.  Plums  should make 8 slices each, nectarines 12 slices.

Preheat the oven to 160°C / 140° fan / gas mk3.  

Remove the tart case from the freezer and arrange the slices of fruit neatly in circles on top of the cake base.

Stand the tart tin on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 1 hour.  The fruit should be tender and the cake base lightly golden and cooked.

Remove from the oven to cool slightly.  Remove the tart from the tin and place on a serving plate.

To make the glaze, warm the apricot jam in a saucepan with 1 tblsp water.  Brush over the fruit.

Serves 8-10.

This is my gluten free version, made with apricots.  The cake base is as per the recipe above but using half and half ground almonds and ground rice, plus gluten free flour.

GIFFLAR ROLL PUDDING (AND/OR TART)

 

Considering the nature of my last two posts, and now this one, you would be forgiven for thinking that I now spend my whole life dreaming up how to use leftovers in a way that avoids waste but is still edible.  I have to say that lately it does often feel like that but I can assure you, there has been proper cooking going on and when I get time to sort through photos and concentrate on things normal service will be resumed.

Just in case you were also wondering what on earth a Gifflar is, well, it's these things.  They are kind of bready rolls flavoured either with cinnamon or vanilla like small cinnamon buns but a bit firmer.  The only place I have ever seen them is in Ikea.  They are very tasty, not too sweet, and very filling with either a cup of tea or a glass of wine.

In one of our mad panic visits to Ikea earlier in the year (in an attempt to finish DIY projects and make the house ready for visitors) I picked up a bag of each and they did indeed come in very handy for keeping said visitors' hunger at bay on the occasions when the catering had gone awry.  

As mentioned in my previous post, there were inevitably leftovers when all the visitors had gone home and I spotted in the cupboard an opened packet of vanilla Gifflar which was only missing one or two rolls.  So, thinking that you can make a bread and butter pudding out of many things other than bread, I came up with a way of using them for a dessert.  I also used a few apricots that were lurking in the fridge drawer but you could use plums, apples, or virtually any other fruit.  My mum used to put raisins or sultanas in her bread and butter pudding and they would also work well here.

I sliced each one in half and arranged them in a pie dish, tucking the sliced apricots in between. 

I then poured over my usual custard mixture for a bread and butter pudding which you can see here.

It worked really well.  It puffed up in the oven and sank back down when it had cooled and was, truthfully, a lot firmer than say the brioche pudding that I usually make, but was still delicious.

The next day it had firmed up rather more and, as dipped my spoon into the dish, I realised that in actual fact it was now very much like a tart and could be sliced.

So that's how we had the rest of it, sliced just like a tart and served with a drizzle of cream!  Which made me wonder if I had once again invented a new kind of dessert, after the fashion of the tarte tatin or the Bakewell pudding?!

If so I think I would have to think of a different name for it.  Gifflar tart somehow doesn't sound quite as appealing!!

Ingredients

8-10 Gifflar rolls (either cinnamon or vanilla flavour)

a handful of apricots, stoned and quartered

1 tblsp demerara sugar 

2 eggs

2 tblsp double cream (or any kind of cream or crème fraiche)

about 150ml milk

2 tblsp caster sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C / 140 fan.

Cut the rolls into half and arrange in a suitable, buttered baking dish.  Slip the slices of apricot in between and sprinkle over the demerara sugar.

Put the eggs into a measuring jug and beat.  Add the cream and enough milk to make up to 400ml.  Beat in the caster sugar.

Pour the egg mixture evenly over the contents of the dish and press down lightly with the back of a tablespoon or fish slice.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until the custard is set.

Whilst still warm serve in spoonfuls with cream, custard or ice cream.  Serve in slices like a tart when cold.

PLUM AND APPLE CRUMBLE also apple, orange and apricot crumble

Never in a million years did I think that I would need to consult a recipe for a crumble.  I have, after all, been making crumbles for about sixty years, ever since I first started helping my mum to make the Sunday dinner.

Crumbles in those days were very basic, either apple or rhubarb, using Bramley cooking apples bought from the greengrocer van that came round on Friday evenings, or rhubarb from the rhubarb patch at the top of the garden behind the greenhouse.  At the right time of year there would be wild blackberries to add to the apples.

They would be made the same way as pastry, half fat to flour, usually margarine, rubbed in by hand.  There were no embellishments, just fruit and crumble topping served with Bird's custard.  They were not fancy, just plain home cooked fare.

I made my crumbles like this for decades and always had some block margarine in the fridge for that purpose.  When I got my first food processor I made my pastry and crumble mix in that which saved a bit of time.

Latterly I have become extremely lazy.  Fruit chucked into the bottom of the dish with - quelle horreur - shop bought crumble mix on the top.  Maybe sprinkled with a few flaked almonds.

With friends coming round for supper I had decided to make a crumble and thought it was time I should up my game.  Hence the hunt for an actual recipe and the first one I liked the look of is by Mary Berry which you can see here.  The main difference is that the proportion of butter to flour is greater than half and the sugar used for the topping is demerara.  I had plenty of time so even rubbed the butter into the flour by hand!  

A crumble is a popular dessert in restaurants in this part of France I had noticed that the topping is often fairly thin, sometimes barely covering the fruit layer.  Quite different from my home made crumbles which had a good thick layer of topping.  Having decided to use a small bag of my cinnamon baked plums (see here) from the freezer, I supplemented it with a few apples and then wondered if the quantity of crumble in the recipe might be too much.  So, I made 1½ times the quantity, used half and put the other half in a bag in the freezer ready for another day.

It was lovely, deep golden and fudgy and the demerara sugar sprinkled on top gave it quite a sparkly, glamorous appearance.  This is the way I will be making my crumbles in future.  

Ingredients

For the fruit layer

About 12oz plums (or try gooseberries)

2 tblsp soft light brown sugar

a sprinkling of cinnamon

3-4 eating apples

For the crumble topping

9oz plain flour

6oz cold butter, cubed

3oz demerara sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)

*I have used imperial weights, i.e. ounces instead of grams, because that was easier when calculating the increased quantities compared to the original recipe! 

Method

Preheat the oven to 200° C / 180° fan / gas mk 6 and butter a suitable shallow baking dish.  Mine was about 20cm square.

My plums were ready cooked and in the freezer (see text) but if you are using fresh plums, wash them, cut in half and remove the stones then cut into quarters.  Put into a large saucepan with a tblsp of water, the brown sugar and cinnamon.  Peel the apples, slice them straight into the pan with the plums (discarding the cores) and cook gently until just soft.  Add a little more water if necessary and stir often.  Set aside to cool while you make the crumble topping.

To make the crumble topping, put the flour, butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl.  Rub together using your fingertips until you have the appearance of breadcrumbs.  A few larger clumps will be fine.

Tip the fruit into the baking dish and spread it out evenly.  Sprinkle roughly half of the crumble topping over the fruit and bag the other half for the freezer.

Sprinkle a little extra demerara sugar over the top and bake for 20 minutes.

Then lower the oven temperature to 180° C / 160° fan / gas mk 4 and continue baking for a further 20 minutes by which time the topping should be golden brown and the fruit bubbling slightly at the edges of the dish.  Keep your eye on it and check after 10 minutes to make sure it's not overcooked or burning.

Serves 6 portions.  Plus the extra crumble mix which is frozen for future use.  Thaw at room temperature for an hour or so before using.  

Update: I have since made the crumble using the food processor instead of rubbing in by hand, stopping before the crumbs were completely even in appearance.  In other words, left a few lumpy bits.  It was just as good!

For APPLE, ORANGE AND APRICOT CRUMBLE:

Replace the plums in the filling with:

a handful of dried apricots, diced

3-4 small oranges, peeled and divided into segments

Put all the prepared fruit in the baking dish and microwave on high for 4 minutes then stir together before adding the cinnamon, demerara sugar and crumble mix.

Proceed as with the apple plum and apple crumble.

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I feel compelled to mention here the plate!

At our local déchèterie (council tip or recycling centre) there is a large table where people can put unwanted items that are still good.  You can simply help yourself.  There were huge piles of crockery the other day and tea plates like this are very useful for the larger gatherings that I sometimes host, or to lend out to others for theirs.  They are very pretty so I took six of them.

CINNAMON BAKED PLUMS and a biscuit discovery!

In return for some courgettes and tomatoes, my friend Sally gave me a huge bag of plums the other day.  Our own plum trees have had hardly any fruit on them since the bumper crop a few years ago and we do love plums so I was very grateful!

Knowing what to do with so many at once was a head scratcher.  We were expecting visitors but they have  a long list of things they don’t like.  Plums are on the list (as are courgettes and tomatoes).  So with a need for baking but not with plums I had to do something to preserve them for our own use later.

Cooked plums take up less room in the freezer than whole ones so I decided to roast them.  We sat for a while at a shady table in the garden to halve them and remove all of the stones.  This was a bit fiddly but worth the trouble; the plums were at various stages of ripeness so some of the stones were easier to remove than others.

I then simply spread them in a single layer in roasting tins, sprinkled with demerara sugar and a dusting of ground cinnamon.  I baked them at 180° fan for 20 minutes by which time they were nice and soft and sticky.  We had some on our breakfast cereal and some with ice cream and a mini stroopwafel  The rest went into the freezer for future enjoyment.

Stroopwafels - where have they been all my life?  I had never heard of them until I spotted them in a French discount store called "Action". They are delicious little wafer sandwich biscuits with a caramel filling.  Utterly divine and wickedly sweet but luckily the mini version is not too detrimental to the waistline - as long you don’t eat too many!  They go perfectly with ice cream, fruit salad and Sally's delicious plums!