One of my favourite blogs to visit is Deb's Dust Bunny, it's a delightful place full of delicious recipes and interesting information all served with a dollop of good humour. Last week I spied Debs recipe for Cinnamon Apples Scones, it's one she posted last October, how did I miss that! These are not the usual kind of scones I would make, they are more like American Scones much sweeter than our and iced on top. I was really drawn to them and had a go at making the scones, as you can see above. However my mixture must have been too wet as they spread rather too much but were still totally delicious and I liked them so much that I thought the mixture would make a really good cobbler topping.
Cinnamon Apple Scone Cobbler serves 6
For the filling 6-8 small apples, peeled, cored and sliced 2 tbsp granulated sugar 1 tbsp water
For the topping
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
4 Tablespoons soft brown sugar - you may need more if your apples are tart
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 Tablespoons butter - cut into small pieces
1 egg
6 Tablespoons of plain yogurt or milk
1 apple - peeled, cored and chopped into a fine dice
A little sifted icing sugar to finish
1. Place the sliced apples, sugar and water in an ovenproof dish and cover with a lid or foil and place in the oven at 160C for about 20 minutes until the apples are softened but not disintegrating. 2. Put all the dry ingredients into the bowl, use a knife to cut in the butter, then rub in with your fingers. 3. Beat the egg and yogurt or milk together in a small bowl. 4. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix until only just combined, do not over mix or the scone will become tough. 5. Remove the cooked apples from the oven and place large spoonfuls of the mixture on top of the apples. 6. Increase the oven temperature to 200C/400F and bake for 15-20 minutes. The scones take only 12-15 minutes but I found that the depth of the topping meant it needed a little extra time.
Dust with icing sugar and Serve with ice cream or custard. This was very good, the apples in the topping give a surprising texture and the cobbler was crispy on the top and softer where it met the stewed apples. It would be good to try with ginger instead of cinnamon.
Many thanks to Debs for giving me permission to recreate and re-purpose her recipe.
I'm entering this Cinnamon Apple Scone Cobbler into Bookmarked Recipes, the blog event hosted every month by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.
Last month I posted a recipe for Venison cooked in Cider made with a haunch of fallow deer venison from Millbank Parkland Venison. I'd like to show you another recipe, this time using the rich and tasty venison sausages also from Millbank Parkland Venison.
Venison Sausages with Red Cabbage and Apples
5 Venison sausages
1/2 red cabbage, sliced
2 red onions, sliced
4 sticks celery, sliced (optional)
2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
100ml red wine vinegar
1 tbsp muscovado sugar
Salt and Freshly ground pepper
1. Brown the sausages in a pan.
2. Layer the cabbage, onions, celery and apple slices. Season.
3. Add another layer of the vegetables and top with the sausages.
4. Sprinkle over the sugar and pour over the vinegar and put the lid on the dish or cover with foil.
Bake in the oven for 1 1/2 hours at 160C
If you would like to try some of the Millbank Parkland Venison products, you can still enter the giveway HERE
Venison is one of those meats that many people shy away from. Perhaps because they are not sure how to cook it, and then there is the 'Bambi' factor. Neither of these reasons would put me off and I have cooked venison in the past but I find that it is just not readily available at the butcher or the supermarket. It's nice to know that I'm in tune with top chefs Valentine Warner and Ainsley Harriott who were championing Venison and Mustard on the Great British Food Revival and I couldn't believe how closely Valentine Warner's views about venison were to mine!
Millbank Farm is run by Emma Boyes with her husband Gareth, and after a walk around the farm to see the deer, Emma prepared some recipes which we were able to taste. The sausages and burgers were delicious and all the dishes were full of flavour. I was intrigued to see what I could make with this local produce, so last month I contacted Emma to see if she would like me to make some dishes with venison from her farm.
Venison is regarded as the premier meat for the health conscious. With the lowest fat, lowest cholesterol and the highest protein content of any meat combined with high iron content and omega 3 it is ideal for those on a healthy or low cholesterol diet. Venison: 6g/100g fat (beef/chicken/lamb/pork 12-20g/100g) Venison: 198 kcal/100g (beef/chicken/lamb/pork 214-286kcal/100g)
Millbank Parkland Venison is exclusively sourced from 14 to 22 month
old animals in prime condition, the meat is hung for the optimum period
of 1 week, resulting in venison which is consistent, tender and of very high quality.
Not all venison is the same. Venison varies within species, age,
gender, whether farmed venison or wild venison as well as the condition
and health status of the deer. There are 6 deer species in the UK.
Scottish venison includes fallow, red, roe and sika deer. We
believe fallow and roe venison are of the highest quality due to the
texture and flavour of the meat. At Millbank, through the choice of deer combined with how they
manage and select the deer, they aim to consistently provide the very
best culinary experience.
Millbank Farm Parkland Venison is Fallow Deer venison and wild Roe deer which are less gamey than Red Deer venison and much more tender, it is low in fat and Millbank Farm venison is ethical, welfare friendly, stress free, low food miles, low carbon footprint, processed in their natural environment. This information and more is available on the Millbank Farm Parkland Venison website.
Haunch of Millbank Farm Parkland Venison in a Cider and Mustard Sauce
I wanted to come up with a recipe full of the flavours of autumn, which complemented rather than overpowered the venison, apples and squash seemed to be the answer!
Serves 4-6
1 small haunch of venison (approx 500g)
1tbsp olive oil
10g butter
6 sage leaves, chopped
150ml vintage cider
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
100g creme fraiche
1 tsp cornflour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
You could easily increase the quantities to serve a larger group, this haunch will provide two half inch thick slices of venison per person for 6 people, or three slices for four people.
1. Heat the olive oil in a pan on a medium heat.
2. Brown the haunch of venison in the pan, then remove to an oven proof dish.
3. Add the butter and sage leaves to the pan juices and cook for 1 minute, then add the cider and mustard. Let it bubble up for 2-3 minutes, then add to the venison in the ovenproof dish.
4. Cover with foil and bake in the oven at 180C for 45 minutes.
5. Once cooked, lift the venison onto another plate cover with foil and allow to rest.
6. Pour the mustardy juices into a small saucepan and heat until simmering.
7. Mix the teaspoon of cornflour with the creme fraiche and add to the juices.
8. Cook until slightly thickened.
9. Carve the haunch of venison in thick slices and serve on butternut squash and apple puree with the sauce poured over generously.
Butternut Squash and Apple Puree
1 medium butternut squash
2 Cox's Apple Pippins
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1. Heat the oven to 200C
2. Peel, deseed and chop the butternut squash into cubes. Cut the apples in half and take out the core with a teaspoon.
3. Put the 3tbsp of olive oil into a roasting tin and add the butternut squash and the apples to the tin and roast in the oven until the squash is tender, about 30 - 40 minutes.
4. When the squash and apples are soft, remove the apple pulp from its skin and puree both with a stick blender or liquidiser, season to taste. The consistency should be similar to mashed potato.
The Millbank Farm Parkland Venison should be served slightly pink to be enjoyed at its best. The flavour of the meat is excellent and goes really well with the sharp heat of the mustard and creme fraiche sauce and the sweetness of the butternut squash puree and cider.
If you would like to try some Millbank Farm Parkland Venison you can buy it from the online farm shop or take part in the giveaway below for a chance to win a taster pack for two people containing 2 rump steaks, 2 vension burgers and a ring of venison sausage. Details of what you need to do are in the Rafflecopter widget with opportunities for bonus entries. Please remember to read the terms and conditions.
Jacqueline has set us a slightly different challenge for this month's No Croutons Required, she says "I
would like to focus on what is often served alongside soup or a salad. I
am thinking of the humble sandwich. Toasted or plain, I would like you to come up with an interesting sandwich. The only stipulation is that it must be suitable for vegetarians."
Too few people understand a really good sandwich.James Beard
My Mum probably makes the best sandwiches, she always ensures that there was plenty of filling and that the filling goest right to the edge of the sandwich, the best way to achieve this is by cutting off the crusts. But I'm not going to make that kind of sandwich because ever since the early stages of the Great British Bake Off, I've been hankering to make some flatbreads. I used the recipe for 'Magic Bread Dough' from Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg Everyday.It's an interesting mix of strong and plain flour and something I haven't tried before.
There is plenty of dough to make several different flatbreads. For the dough for my sandwich I added some chopped rosemary. You can cook the flatbreads on a griddle but I put them in a hot (240C) oven for about 5-10 minutes.
This one is more like a pizza. I spread the dough with, one of my favourite sauces, Maggi Chilli and Tomato Sauce straight from the bottle. Then sprinkled over some grated Lockerbie Cheddar Cheese.
For the sandwich filling, I adapted Hugh F-W's Leek and Cheese Toastie from River Cottage Veg to lower the calorie count.
Leek and Cottage Cheese Flatbread Sandwich
15g butter
2 medium leeks, trimmed and finely chopped (white and pale green part only)
A couple of sprigs of thyme, leaves only
3 tablespoons of cottage cheese
1 tsp cornflour
50g cheddar
1 large rosemary flatbread
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Melt the butter in a frying plan and add the leeks. Cook gently until softened. Stir in the thyme. Mix the cornflour with some of the liquid from the cottage cheese and add to the pan, add the cottage cheese and warm through. Take off the heat and add two-thirds of the cheese .
Pile the leek and cheese filling onto one half of the flatbread and fold over, sprinkle over the rest of the cheese and place under a hot grill for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts.
Serve with salad
I served my sandwich with a Carrot, Cucumber and Apple Salad with chopped Pistachio nuts
To finish off, I'd like to show you the sweet flatbread that I made, using the basic dough a few dried apricots, chopped white chocolate and ground almonds.
After it was baked, I glazed it with honey and put it back in the oven for a couple of minutes.
I'm entering this for No Croutons Required run by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.
Not the greatest looking Tarte Tatin, my nerve went on the caramel and I didn't let it cook for long enough to colour up properly. It might not have had the full colour but it did have the sticky, sweet toffee apple taste.
I was inspired to make a Tarte Tatin because I was sent this Mermaid Hard Anodised Aluminium Tarte Tatin Tin to review, it's the perfect shape and size to make the famous upside down Apple Tart. It's also extremely strong and hard wearing, I was able to put it on the stove top to make the caramel and there was no buckling and no hot spots. The Tarte Tatin dish retails for around £27 but is currently on sale on Amazon for £21.54
Tarte Tatin
8 eating apples
200g caster sugar
50g butter
375g all butter puff pastry (I used Tesco ready rolled)
1. Peel, core and halve the apples. Don't worry if they turn brown , it won't show in the finished tart.
2. Put the sugar in the base of the tin with 50ml water, then melt the sugar slowly over a low heat, stirring.
3. Once the sugar has melted, turn up the heat and bubble for 5 minutes or so to give a golden caramel. You are looking for a rich reddy brown, but be careful it doesn't burn.
4. Take the caramel off the heat immediately and stir in the butter which will foam up.
5. Arrange the apple halves on top, cut side up, so they fill the pan, slice any left over apple pieces and fill in the gaps.
6. Put the pan back on a gentle heat and cook for 5 more minutes. Turn off the heat and let the apples cool completely.
7. Heat the oven to 200C/Gas 7. Roll out the pastry, then lay over the cooled apples in the pan. Trim the pastry using the edge of the pan as a guide, then tuck it inside the edge around the apple, making sure they don't move.
8. Bake for 30 minutes until dark golden and puffed. Remove from the oven, stand for 5 minutes, then carefully turn the tart onto a serving plate.
I'll definitely be making another Tarte Tatin and try to get that dark mahogany coloured caramel. The tin would also be excellent for other pies, whether upside down or right way up!
Many thanks to Ria, Sarah and Emma for sending me the bakeware to review, although I was supplied with the Tarte Tatin tin to review, all opinions expressed are my own.
I was struggling with the 'We should Cocoa' challenge for November, just how should I combine chocolate and apples? I thought about a chocolate apple cake, stewed apples with chocolate custard, chocolate covered apples. But none of these ideas really appealed.
However, I was lucky enough to win Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet from The Chocolate Log Blog (co-host of We should Cocoa) and my copy arrived this week. Flipping through all the lovely recipes and excellent photographs and I stumbled upon a recipe for 'Dark Rich Mincemeat'. Maybe it was the name that did it, dark and rich conjures up CHOCOLATE to me and it got me wondering what it would be like to include some dark chocolate IN the mincemeat.
Christmas Mincemeat (dried fruits, apples and butter) with added chocolate. Inspired by Dan Lepard's Dark rich mincemeat in Short and Sweet
Ingredients
2 dessert apples, peeled, cored and chopped small
300g Dried raisin, sultana & cranberry mix
100g soft prunes, stoned and chopped
250ml stout or porter
1 medium cooking apple, peeled cored and grated
300g muscovado sugar
1 lemon, grated zest and juice
1 tbsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
50g butter
3 tbsp brandy or rum
100g dark chocolate
Instructions
1. Add the stout or porter to a large pan with the grated cooking apple, muscovado sugar, lemon zest and juice.2. Bring to the boil, stiring and simmer for about 5 minutes.3. Measure the dried fruits and other dry ingredients and put in a bowl with the chopped dessert apples.4. Add the dried fruit mixture to the pan with the butter and simmer until thick.5. Remove from the heat, leave until warm and stir in the brandy or rum.Leave to cool completely, then stir in 100g chopped dark chocolate.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: around 3lb
I haven't made anything with it yet, but I had a little taste and it is so delicious!
The nice people of Total Greek Yogurthave sent me a lovely consignment of their delicious thick greek yogurt to play with. As I've been away for a few days, I haven't had a lot of time to make anything, but her is a quick little dessert I made on Saturday.
Instant Apple 'Cheesecake'
Melt about 100g of butter in a pan. Put half a dozen digestive biscuits (graham crackers) in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin.
Add the crumbs to the butter and mix well.
I made my little cheesecakes in ramekins but you could make a larger one in a small flan dish.
Divide the butter and crumb mixture between the ramekins and press down.
Add the Greek Yogurt and top with some fruit compote. I stewed some apples with sugar, raisins and cinnamon, once cool it made a lovely topping for the dessert. The combination worked well, it was not too sweet and the different textures worked well together.
This blog reflects my love of cooking, cookery books, blogs and recipe websites. I love to eat, so welcome to my farm kitchen, come and see what I am cooking and eating today.
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