Blackberries are in season

My lovely neighbour has just given me a big jug full of juicy blackberries from her garden.  I am going to put these to good use and make a Blackberry and Apple Loaf for Ben, Holly and Josh. (sneaky way to get to your 5 a day recipe, taken from the Good Food website.)

I also found these great verse about blackberries that sums up their appeal...

O, blackberry tart, with berries as big as your thumb, purple and black, and thick with juice, and a crust to endear them that will go to cream in your mouth, and both passing down with such a taste that will make you close your eyes and wish you might live forever in the wideness of that rich moment. (An extract from How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn)

Blackberry and Apple Loaf

Ingredients

250g self-raising flour
175g butter
175g light muscovado sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
2 rounded tbsp demerara sugar
1 small eating apple , such as Cox's, quartered (not cored or peeled)
2 large eggs , beaten
1 orange , finely grated zest
1 tsp baking powder
225g blackberries

Method

1.Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4/fan 160C. Butter and line the bottom of a 1.7 litre loaf tin (see tip below). In a large bowl, rub the flour, butter and muscovado sugar together with your fingers to make fine crumbs. Measure out 5 level tbsp of this mixture into a small bowl for the topping, and mix in to it the cinnamon and demerara sugar. Set aside.

2.Coarsely grate the apple down to the core and mix in with the eggs and the zest. Stir the baking powder into the rubbed-in mixture in the large bowl, then quickly and lightly stir in the egg mixture until it drops lightly from the spoon. Don't overmix.

3.Gently fold in three quarters of the berries with a metal spoon, trying not to break them up. Spoon into the tin and level. Scatter the rest of the berries on top. Sprinkle over the topping and bake for 1¼ -1 hour 20 minutes. Check after 50 minutes and cover loosely with foil if it is browning too much. When done the cake will feel firm, but test with a skewer.

4.Leave in the tin for 30 minutes before turning out, then cool on a wire rack. Peel off the paper before cutting. Will keep wrapped in foil or in a tin for up to 2 days.

Have your cake and eat it! Apricot and Ginger Tea Bread

Can this be true? A cake (ok, tea bread) without sugar or fat???  It must be a joke right?

I have just made an Apricot and Ginger Tea Bread (recipe from Splenda) that replaces all the sugar for sweetener, it's cooling as I write.  I have made the cake for a relative who has just been diagnosed with Diabetes and who loves cake!  The last time I tasted a diabetic cake, it was vile and needed a bucket of tea just to get it to go down.  I am hoping that this cake is a little less heavy and 'orrible. 

Anyway, here is the recipe for those that want to give it a try. (the true test will be if my kids eat it!!!)

Apricot and Ginger Tea Bread

Ingredients

200g 'no soak' dried apricots, chopped
2 pieces stem ginger, finely chopped
50g raisins
300ml orange juice
225g self raising flour
8 level tbsp Splenda granular (I am sure that other granulated sweeteners would work just as well)
2 eggs, beaten

Method

Mix together the apricots, stem ginger, raisins and orange juice and leave for 30 minutes

Grease and line the base of a 900g/2lb loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius/gas mark 4

Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the Splenda

Beat the eggs into the apricot mixture.  Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the apricot mixture gradually, beating to make a batter

Pour into the tin and bake for 45 minutes until golden and an inserted skewer comes out clean. (note: I had to bake mine for over an hour until it was ready)

Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before cooling on a wire rack

Serve in slices. (suppose to serve 12)

Seriously?

Have just found out that on the 21st July it was National Junk Food Day in America.... Check out this website http://www.buddytv.com/articles/30-rock/its-national-junk-food-day-whi-41093.aspx.
Thought that it was some kind of joke!  Pass me the Pringles...

Low Fat Chilli

This is a great Low Fat Chilli recipe if you are trying to lose weight.  It cuts out a lot of the red meat (but not completely) therefore allowing the Chilli to still taste quite yummy!  This recipe was passed down to me my by mum.

Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 tsp oil (or a few sprays of oil from an oil spray)
1 large onion
2 green peppers
1 clove of garlic
4 - 8oz low fat beef mince (depending on how meaty you want it)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2tsp mixed herbs
chilli powder to taste (start with 1 tsp and work up!)
Splash of Worcestershire sauce
3oz dry weight bulgar wheat
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of kidney beans
2 beef stock cubes
salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a jug, measure the bulgar wheat and add 1 of the stock cubes and half a pint of boiling water.  Leave for 15 minutes.

Add the oil to a heavy based pan (or spray the oil in).  Allow to heat up then add the onions, garlic, beef mince, peppers, herbs and spices.  Cook until the vegetables have softened slightly and the meat is brown.

Add the rest of the ingredients (including the bulgar wheat) and let it bubble away for about half and hour, stirring from time to time. 

Serve with basmati rice.