Stuffed Lemon Cookies

 

Stuffed Lemon Cookies

Recipe: Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 2 teaspoons lemon extract

• 2 teaspoons lemon zest

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• Lemon curd or lemon filling of your choice

• Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat and Prepare: Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

2. Cream Butter and Sugar: In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Add Wet Ingredients: Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the lemon extract and lemon zest. Mix until well combined.

4. Incorporate Dry Ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing until a smooth dough forms.

5. Form Dough Balls: Roll the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place them onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving some space between each cookie.

6. Make Indentations: Use your thumb or the back of a spoon to make an indentation in the center of each dough ball. Fill each indentation with a small dollop of lemon curd or your preferred lemon filling.

7. Bake: Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden.

8. Cool and Serve: Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired, before serving.

Blueberry Muffins with Oil

Blueberry Muffins With Oil

YIELD: 12 MUFFINS

Blueberry Muffins With Oil

PREP TIME 10 minutes COOK TIME 15 minutes TOTAL TIME 25 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 2 eggs
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a muffin pan or line with paper liners.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, oil, and vanilla. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a fork or whisk very briefly until just combined, being careful not to overwork the batter. A few lumps of flour are totally fine.

Fold in the blueberries until just combined.

Divide the batter between wells in the muffin tin and bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes.

Flourless Lemon Polenta Cake

For the cake

225g caster sugar

225g butter

200g ground almonds

125g fine polenta

1 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

1 lemon (juice and zest)

For the syrup

200ml lemon juice

150g sugar

METHOD

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160°C
2. Butter two 6” cake tins and flour with polenta
3. Cream the butter and sugar until white
4. Beat the eggs and add them little by little
5. Gradually add the lemon juice and grated zest
6. Sieve the dry ingredients and fold them into the mixture
7. Divide the mixture between the tins
8. Bake at 160°C for approximately 30 minutes
9. Boil the lemon juice and sugar then pour the mixture over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven
10. Once cooled, remove the cakes from the tins, dust with icing sugar and serve with fresh fruit and crème fraiche

Cheese Biscuits (American Style)

Easy recipe that makes a really nice flaky American style cheese biscuit (kinda like a scone). Great with soup. Best served straight from the oven with a little butter on top.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
5 tbsp butter (roughly 75grams)
1 cup milk
1 cup grated cheddar

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder.
To this add in the butter in cubes and combine until you get coarse cumbs.
Mix in the milk and cheese. Make sure you combine all the ingredients well but don't over mix the batter.
Drop heaped tablespoons of batter on to a greased baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes on 220C.
Makes 10-12 biscuits

Sausage, bean, and cabbage casserole

It may not sound exciting but this recipe is a firm favourite in our house. Searching for new recipes for sausages, my husband found this online. I've adapted it for our tastes. 

Ingredients: 

6 Lincolnshire sausages (or any other sausages you like really)
1 onion
1 can black beans
1 can butter beans
(you can use whatever beans you like. We just happen to like these)
Rosemary (fresh or dry) - 1 tbsp
Sour cream - 200g
Apple cider vinegar - 2-3tbsp
Whole grain mustard - 1tbsp
Water

Cut the onion in half, and then slice it into long thin strips. Fry these off until soft then put aside. 

Cut the sausages in half, and then in half again but this time length ways. You want to end up with four pieces from one sausage. Make sure that you leave the skin on as this helps to keep the pieces together as they cook. 

Using the same pan you cooked the onions in, place the pieces of sausage in skin side down. You want to cook them on a high heat until they are really crispy on all sides. The skin will shrink and crisp up, and make the sausage pieces curl over slightly. That's fine. 

It should end up looking like this: 

There might be quite a bit of fat from the sausages left when this is done. I would advise to drain some off. 

Add the onions back to the pan with the sausages. Then add in the two cans of beans (drained), the apple cider vinegar, the whole grain mustard, and the rosemary. Mix these all together and cook on a low heat for a few minutes. 

At this point I usually take the pan off the heat for a couple of minutes to allow it to cool before I add the sour cream. I've had it curdle before when I added cold cream to a hot pan. If your sour cream is at room temp then you should be fine to add while on a low heat. 

Once the sour cream is added, mix thoroughly, coating all the ingredients. At this point I usually add a little bit of water just to thin the cream a bit and help to coat everything. You will want to taste the sauce to see whether it needs more vinegar. I usually end up adding a little more vinegar, water and sour cream before the end to get the flavour and consistency just how I like it. I would suggest you do the same for your taste. 

Take your half cabbage and chop it finely. Place the cabbage on top of the mixture and put the lid on your pan for a few minutes. Once it's softened a little, mix it into the sausage casserole and replace the lid. Cook until the cabbage is to your preferred softness. I like mine to still be a little crunchy. 

Before you serve, taste the sauce again to make sure it's as you want it. Add more of whichever liquid it needs. 

Your casserole should end up looking like this: 

Enjoy!!

Hummus

A friend of mine is allergic to sesame seeds so doesn't eat hummus.  I came across these recipes recently and thought of her.  None of them have sesame in them!

Hummus

Ingredients

For the hummus...

300g freshly cooked chickpeas
3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 T (tablespoons) olive oil
1 small clove garlic
2 lemons (shave off five thin strips of peel, then juice, to get 3 T
Flaked sea salt

For the fried aromatics...

4 T olive oil
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
1 large clove of garlic, peeled an thinly sliced
2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
1 cinnamon stick, lightly crushed
5g coriander stalks (cut into 4cm lengths, plus 2 T picked leaves

To make 300 g cooked chickpeas

1. Soak 125g dried chickpeas in plenty of cold water and half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda overnight.

2. Next day, drain, put in a pot with 900 ml water and a quarter teaspoon of bicarb, bring to boil, then simmer for 30 minutes (or longer, depending on the freshness and variety of the chickpeas), until very soft but still retaining their shape, then drain.

(I can't help but think that it might be easier just to buy a can of chickpeas!)

To make the hummus

1. Put the first 4 ingredients for the hummus in a small bowl of a food processor with the lemon peel, two T of lemon juice, 1/2 t (teaspoon) of flaked salt and a T of water.  Blitz for about 2 minutes, until you have a smooth paste. 

2. For the fried aromatics, heat the oil in a medium pan on a medium heat, then gently fry the chilli, garlic, ginger and cinnamon for 5 minutes, stirring every once in a while, until the garlic is just starting to brown.

3. Add the coriander stalks and fry for a minute or two more, until the garlic is golden brown and the chilli aromatic.

4. Transfer the solids to a plate with a slotted spoon and reserve the oil.

5. Sprinkle generously with flaked salt.

6. Spoon the hummus onto a large plate, creating a large well in the centre with the back of a spoon.

7. Spoon the oil into the well and drizzle over the remaining tablespoon of lemon juice.

8. Top with the fried aromatics and fresh coriander, and serve.

And for a slightly simpler hummus...

Ingredients

200g freshly cooked chickpeas

1/2 garlic clove peeled and crushed

1 lemon - the zest finely grated, to get 2 t. and juiced to get 1 T.

1T olive oil

5-6 T Greek-style yoghurt (not low fat is possible)

Flaked sea salt and black pepper

Instructions

1. Combine the ingredients in a food processor and blitz smooth

Another Blueberry Muffin Recipe...but with frozen blueberries

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups frozen unsweetened blueberries
TOPPING:
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg


DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, milk and vanilla; mix well. Stir in dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in frozen blueberries.
Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Combine sugar and nutmeg; sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Yield: about 2 dozen.