The chocolate alternative …

Take a look :

Here's the tin, greased and dusted

The filling in the tin, ready for the oven

Out of the oven, leave to cool

A slice of cake, with raspberries

Here are the bits, pieces, hints and tips!

Once the cake has cooled use a round bladed knife and ease around the edge to loosen – take your time – if you don't you'll tear the edges of the cake – that would be a shame since you've achieved a brownie type crusty edge. If the cake won't budge then repeat the edging with the knife. Have a large sheet of foil ready to receive your cake, turn it - with care, then wrap and fridge.

The cake serves 8 – you may think the portion size isn't very generous – take my word for it – it's a rich cake.

Now for the choices – this cake is dense and intense. You can serve the cake cold with ice cream and/or cream or even clotted cream.

If you prefer soft, warm and squidgy then microwave for 20 seconds – take it from one who isn't bothered about chocolate, this is very good indeed.

It freezes well … don't forget to portion and wrap in cling film, then bag together.

It's a win, win – a chocolate alternative for the festive season – not a Christmas Pudding in sight.

Do you want something different for the New Year and love oranges – try this on for size!

Don't like Christmas Pudding – the chocolate alternative

If, on the other hand, chocolate is your bag, then this is the recipe for you!

Here's a flourless chocolate cake recipe I found – you want easy – this is it – it does exactly what it says – in the tin!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Serves 8

120g dark chocolate – choose a cocoa solid

of 50%

120g unsalted butter

150g caster sugar

50g cocoa

3 eggs

½ tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla essence

You will need a small sandwich tin -

measuring 20cms/8” x 3cms/1¼”

a butter wrapper for greasing

an extra heaped teaspoon of cocoa

for dusting

a sheet of foil big enough to wrap the cake

Grease the tin with the butter wrapper and then sprinkle cocoa into the tin and carefully tilt the tin until the bottom and the sides of the tin are covered. A small tip – unless you are practised at this art you might want to tilt the tin over the sink!

Pre-heat the oven 130fan/150c/Gas 2.

Set a glass bowl over simmering water and melt the chocolate and butter – when melted, wearing oven gloves and with care, set aside on a heatproof mat or board. Stir in the sugar, cocoa, eggs and vanilla, mix well. Tip into your prepared sandwich tin and bake for 30 minutes.

Let the cake cool, in the tin for 15 minutes.

There's more …

The perfect alternative to Christmas Cake!

Here are the photos :

the cake in the tin

and out of the tin

a portion with the clotted cream

The bonus – you get a cake or a pudding, hot or cold!

This cake recipe does exactly what it says on the cake tin and then some - it has a delicious richness with just a hint of cinnamon, just right. Sticky, treacly from the muscovado sugar, not as heavy as the traditional Christmas Cake - I think it would be the perfect alternative!

The cooking apples don't taste like cooking apples, they are soft and taste like plump pieces of squidgy toffee apples.

More pluses :

this cake is good warm or cold – serve with cream,

custard, brandy butter, ice cream or clotted cream -

the choice is yours, whatever takes your fancy!

it keeps well. I made it on a Friday, wrapped in foil – twice.

By Tuesday it was as good as Friday – just that there were

only two portions left!

Yum ...

Don't like Christmas Pudding?

Here's an absolute cracker – pardon the pun - Dorset Apple Cake! Dark, rich, slightly gooey but the glory is that you can see pieces of apple in the cake – you really have to eat this cake with a fork unless of course you enjoy licking your fingers!

This is another example of there not being a real authentic recipe because everyone has their own. Add this, that and the other – who is to say which version is the right one?

I looked at lots of photos of the Dorset Apple Cake, some looked very pale, some looked dry, some looked overcooked on the top and pale on the bottom. I really wanted a cross between a cake and a pudding, if that makes sense?

Here's my offering, tweaked as usual :

Dorset Apple Cake

225g cooking apples, peeled and chopped

slice an extra apple to decorate the top

juice of half a lemon – 1 tbsp

225g plain flour

1½ tsps baking powder

115g unsalted butter, diced

165g dark muscovado sugar – gives a dark

Chrismassy style cake or use light for a lighter

version – golden demerara too – use 50g of this

for the topping

1 egg beaten

2-3 tbsp of milk

½ tsp ground cinnamon

25g ground almonds

Preheat oven to 160fan/180c/Gas 4.

Grease and line a 7” round cake tin.

Toss the apple with the lemon juice and set aside. Sift the flour and baking powder together then rub in the butter until you get breadcrumbs then add the ground almonds.

Stir in 115g of the sugar, the apple and the egg, mix well, adding a drop of the milk at a time to make a soft doughy mix.

Transfer to your tin.

Finally, mix the reserved 50g of soft brown sugar, sliced apple and cinnamon and arrange on top of the cake mix.

Bake for 45-50 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

Photos up next …

Save time and money – Part 10

Or you could choose a cobbler …

… what's the difference? A dumpling usually contains suet (veggie or not) although it's true you can make them using self raising flour, whereas a cobbler is a scone based mix. Cobblers can be both sweet or savoury - I thought we'd have a change and make a cheese and onion version.

Before I begin with the recipe for the cobbler I think it's worthwhile repeating a tip I gave in April relating then to dumplings but which will be equally useful for the cobbler.

Traditionally dumplings are placed on top of a casserole with a tightly fitting lid. Casseroles have a thicker consistency than soup and obviously, usually, slow cooked in the oven. Soup simmers on top of the hob and saucepan lids “sit” on top of the pan and are not what I'd describe as “tightly fitting”.

Here's my tip - tear off a sheet of foil large enough to overlap the pan, push down slightly and then secure with the lid. Make sure your soup is simmering gently before you add the dumplings and seal with foil. 20 minutes later you'll have dumplings the size of which you wouldn't believe!”

Clarification for certain culinary words are required - the word, “dollop” - means “large” the word to describe the size of each portion of cobbler is “blob” which is smaller than a dollop! Reading this paragraph it sounds like I've really lost it. Recipes should be as precise and descriptive as you can make them and size definitely matters when you're giving guidance to readers.

Once again, to back up my mouth – here's my tip :

Dust off that ice cream scoop that you use once every blue moon! Brush the scoop with the tiniest drop of vegetable oil to prevent sticking and use it to scoop uniform blobs of cobbler – it's meant to be rustic so don't stress! It's an idea so that you'll achieve even weighted cobbler cooking.

By the way – my ice cream scoop measures 5cms in diameter – 2” in old money, here it is :

Cheese & Onion Cobbler

2 medium onions, finely diced

15g of unsalted butter

1

dessertspoon of rapeseed oil

a pinch of salt

The cobbler topping

375g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp sea salt

75g unsalted butter – diced and chilled

250ml milk – I used semi-skimmed

125g Gruyere, coarsely grated

Method

For the onions

Using a medium sized frying pan, melt the butter and rapeseed oil, add the onions and salt and cook on a medium to low heat for 15 minutes, stirring until soft and golden. Set aside to cool.

For the cobbler

Using a large mixing bowl add the flour, baking powder, salt and butter and rub in with your fingertips until you've got a breadcrumb texture. Add the milk, cheese and onions and stir with round bladed knife until just combined. Using your ice cream scoop, spoon blobs on to the top of your gently simmering goulash. You're cooking 8 – reserving 6 - the recipe will give you 14.

Bake, uncovered, in the oven for 25 minutes until golden brown.

I decided to cook eight blobs and then wrap the remaining six, bag and freeze so that I can see how they behave on another day when I need a cobbler – watch this space!

Here are the final photos :

the remaining six, ready for wrapping

the remaining six, bagged ready for the freezer

here's the soup and cobbler – I shouldn't

have done but I ate them both – yum!

This ticks more than one box. If you're tired and in need of comfort, a casserole or a soup with a cobbler is the answer, it absolutely hits the spot. It's economical too – perfect for a mid week Autumn meal.

P.s. I had leftover soup and cobbler which, portioned, went into the freezer. I defrosted a portion of soup which had two blobs of cobbler – in the fridge, overnight. I lifted the cobbler blobs away from the soup and placed on a microwaveable plate or a lid from a box would do. The cobbler blobs hold their shape well and so it's easy to remove any soup in its cold state. I wanted to see how the cobbler element performed and so microwaved them on high for one minute – you may want another 20 seconds. I then re-heated the soup and hey presto lunch! The cobbler blobs were delicious and I have another boxed stashed in the freezer for that chilly Autumn day I know is on its way.

I promised an update too on the six frozen uncooked blobs of cobbler. Here's the light bulb bit – all that is required is an egg, beaten, ready to brush the blobs and then place in a pre-heated the oven 200fan/220/Gas 7 for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Here's what happened :

the tray lined with baking parchment, with

the cobbler blobs added and then egg washed, twice

straight from the oven and delicious

warm – a “cobbler” ploughman's

anyone?

Spoilt for choice!

Next up, a few ideas for your pudding or dessert if you don't like Christmas Pudding.

Save time and money – Part 9

If you fancied a change why not serve dumplings instead of potatoes with the goulash … with or without suet. Personal taste really – dumplings made with suet have more texture to them. If you prefer light and fluffy then probably without suet would be better for you. If you've never sampled this delicacy then the only way is to make them both ways and decide for yourself.

Suet Dumplings

100g self raising flour

50g vegetable suet

pinch of salt

60ml of ice cold water

A generous pinch of dried mixed herbs - optional

Mix the flour, suet and salt with the water – you want to achieve a firm dough with some give.

Divide into eight and shape into balls.

Place on top of your casserole or soup, simmer for 20 minutes. Ensure that the casserole or saucepan has a tight fitting lid.

Dumplings sans suet

140g cold unsalted butter

250g self raising flour

salt and black pepper

150ml cold water

Generous pinch of mixed herbs – optional

Back to basics – rub the butter into the flour – aka the rubbing in method – until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the herbs and a pinch of salt and black pepper. Add the cold water and mix quickly to form a dough. Dust your hands with flour and divide the dough into twelve and form into balls.

Add to the top of your casserole, soup or stew and bake for 20 minutes, as above.

You might think this is a lot of fuss about nothing – I suppose you have to be a certain age – give them a try, see for yourself!

Or you could have a posh version …

Parmesan Dumplings

In a large bowl, mix together

100g (4oz) self raising flour

50g (2oz) vegetarian suet

pinch of salt

15g grated Parmesan cheese

add 5 tbsps of ice cold water – 100ml approx

– enough to give a

firm but pliable dough. Divide into 8 dumplings – 6 if

you'd like big ones!

30g grated Parmesan cheese to garnish

Pre-heat oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Add the dumplings to the goulash and sprinkle 30g of parmesan cheese over the dumplings and cook for 30 minutes.

Serve in a warmed bowl – delicious!

Or you could choose a cobbler …

Save time and money – Part 8

A Hungarian rhapsody

I'm sure it's no surprise that the “Hungarian” refers to goulash. This time of year when it's turning cold it's difficult not to get bored once you've exhausted all the old favourites.

Here's my latest thought, “zhuzhed” a little. These days goulash seems to be served with rice or, spatzle (a soft egg noodle). I'm an old fashioned kinda gal with certain dishes and goulash is one of them. I like to serve mine, as was done in the 70s, with new potatoes. The ultimate comfort food however you want to serve it – by the way don't forget the sour cream - stirring in or even a blob on top – optional of course.

Hungarian Goulash

Serves 4-6 depending on size of appetite

900g braising steak, diced

glug of rapeseed oil to seal the beef

1 large onion, chopped as finely as possible

*8 tbsp tomato ketchup

*2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

*1 tbsp soft dark brown sugar

*2 tsps salt

*2 tsps Hungarian sweet paprika

*½ tsp mustard powder

300ml water

2 beef stock pots

1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water

small tub of sour cream - optional

Use a large frying pan and seal the steak in the rapeseed oil – in small batches – if you overfill the pan you will finish up with grey steak and it will “stew” - not nice! Set the batches aside in the slow cooker. Soften the onion for 2 minutes and then add to the steak.

In a medium sized bowl mix together the ingredients marked *.

Using the same frying pan – and therefore any residual juices, add the water and the stock pots, bring to the boil and stir until the pots have melted. Add the mixed ingredients * and pour over the beef.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until meat is tender.

At the end of the cooking time, using a slotted spoon, remove the steak from the gravy. Mix the cornflour with water and stir into goulash and cook on high to thicken.

Add the steak back into the thickened gravy and you're good to go.

Perfect for the hungry hordes!