Breakfast Breads

It's hard to beat a slice of freshly baked sweet bread for breakfast. Except, possibly, that bread a day or two later, toasted and smeared lavishly with butter.

This cinnamon pullapart loaf has been very popular in the blogosphere of late. I first spotted it on Heather's blog, and Natashya has also made it, but it went through a couple of pairs of hands before it got to them, originally it was from Joy the Baker. The one I made was Heather's version, with the ricotta. I think my stacking in the tin could

have been a little tidier!

Gorgeous flavour though. I think next time I make it I will prepare it the night before, keep it in the fridge and then bring it back to room temperature for baking fresh in the morning.

Which is what I did for this lovely coconut bubble bread from Mary at One Perfect Bite.

I made a double quantity of the coconut crumble and rolled each ball of dough in it, before packing them into the tin (my loaf tin is quite large, so this quantity made one loaf). Mary said that it made marvellous toast and she wasn't wrong - I actually think it was better toasted than eaten fresh. Although I did have to watch it like a hawk to make sure the coconut didn't burn.

Nigella's banana bread is another lovely breakfast treat. I used apricots soaked in sherry rather than sultanas in rum, and they gave a lovely little tangy punctuation to the sweet moist bread.

This bread keeps very well. It stayed moist and delicious for the week it took to eat it, so I never got to find out if it toasted well. I bet it would.

Meat-Free Monday: Beetroot and Carrot Dips

This carrot dip, with another dip made from roasted beetroot, garlic and yoghurt. So pretty in one bowl and the sweet, earthy flavours really compliment each other. Lovely spread on some ryvita!

Sweet Treats

Two dessert posts in a week! What is the world coming to?

As it happens, this is a round up of stuff that I have made over the last 3 months, so it isn't that bad! And it's mostly stuff I took to work, so you needn't worry that Paul has developed a sweet tooth in some sort of midlife crisis.

At Easter I tried out my friend Alide's recipe for Caramel Easter Egg Brownies. They are a dryer-textured brownie elevated to great heights by caramel-filled Easter eggs being baked into them. Strangely, I couldn't get caramel-filled Easter eggs (AND I couldn't get a Lindt bunny anywhere, which I am still bitter about) so I used these Thornton caramel swirl jobbies, which looked like little exploding beach balls. They were very, very acceptable to the chocolate-eating hordes at work. Not my favourite brownie, but a good way of using up excess Easter eggs, if you have such a thing. You could also use mini creme eggs, if the thought of those fondant-filled snotballs doesn't appal you.

The brownies were still being digested when I made this chocolate biscuit cake. I don't know if you had seen the news that Prince William of Wales got married? There was so little coverage of it that you probably missed it. Anyway, Prince William requested a chocolate biscuit cake, apparently his favourite when he was a child. One of the volunteers at work told me she had never heard or tasted chocolate biscuit cake before, so I made one. Mine does not look like the one they had. Mine was not very successful, unfortunately. The flavours (I used ginger biscuits and added chopped apricots and extra crystallised ginger) were excellent, but there wasn't enough chocolate to biscuit to hold it all together. So that one needs revisiting. It certainly wasn't a patch on Mrs Stacey's refrigerator cake (old friend of my mother's) which I must make and blog about for posterity.

The next sweet treat came about because I had condensed milk leftover after making Dan Lepard's halva flapjacks.

My friend Jacki had hooked me up with this recipe - which she said was very reliable, egg-free and adaptable. I messed around with the recipe, of course, and produced a very delicious tender cookie with a wonderful flavour. If you do want to make these cookies please keep in mind that an Australian cup is 250ml, slightly larger than the American 8oz cup which can make a difference.

Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cookies

80g butter, softened

100g chunky peanut butter

1/3 cup caster sugar

125ml condensed milk

1 egg

1tsp vanilla (I used vanilla bean paste - doesn't matter, as long as it is genuine vanilla and not synthetic flavouring)

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

250g choc chips (I used 150g milk chocolate and 100g 85% dark chocolate and chopped it into chunks)

Cream the butter, peanut butter and caster sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the condensed milk, egg and vanilla. Beat in the flour until thoroughly combined then fold in the chocolate.

Shape into balls with a pair of teaspoons and place, well spaced, on a baking sheet covered with baking paper.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 15 minutes until well risen and browned. Cool on the baking sheet before trying to move them. Makes 35-38.

Last but not least: vanilla milkshakes. I can't remember how the conversation started, but we were reminiscing about vanilla milkshakes and how neither of us had had one in years and years. So I made some. I suspect the last time I had one it wasn't made with organic milk, organic vanilla icecream and fair-trade vanilla.

They were very good. Very filling though - we had them for lunch. I can't believe I was ever able to have a milkshake as a drink alongside a burger or something.

Spaghetti con Fegatini di Pollo: Presto Pasta Nights

This is my first ever submission to the long-running Presto Pasta Nights. For 221 rounds Ruth at Once Upon A Feast and a bunch of guest hosts have been doing a summary of all that is great and good in the pasta blogosphere.

This week's is being hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours, so I am sending my spaghetti con fegatini di pollo (chicken liver spaghetti) over to her for the round up tomorrow.

I used this Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe, although as it was a mid-week meal I didn't have time to make my own fettucini! And I don't know about serving 6-8 people - that quantity of sauce on 500g spaghetti (raw weight) served the two of us with two portions of leftovers for the following day. Anyway, it was thoroughly delicious. And a very easy way into offal if you are not sure about that sort of thing!

Eton Mess for Wimbledon

I'm not much of a tennis watcher, but I do like Wimbledon. It seems so civilised that there is still a tournament played on grass where the players have to wear white. I don't know how the connection between strawberries and cream and Wimbledon arose either, but as the strawberries are at their best right now it does seem fitting.

Eton Mess is strawberries and cream fancied up a bit. I took this one to a barbecue last weekend and I have to say it was magic - the perfect balance between cream, fruit and meringue - although when I put it together I was a bit anxious because it looked like an awful lot of fruit and meringue to a very little cream.

Very good English soft fruit was quite heavily discounted last week, so this was even moderately economical, which was nice just before payday!

Eton Mess (to serve 8 or more)

500g strawberries, halved or quartered
400g raspberries
1tsp rosewater
2tbs sugar
400ml double cream
1tbs sugar (extra)
1tsp vanilla bean paste
8 meringue nests
Crystallised rose petals (optional)

Put the strawberries and raspberries in a bowl, sprinkle with the rosewater and sugar and allow to macerate in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Drain the fruit, reserving the juices that have oozed from them, and place the fruit in a serving dish. Combine the reserved juices, vanilla bean paste and extra sugar with the cream and whip to soft peaks. Spread the cream over the fruit.

Crumble the meringue nests over the cream.

Just before serving, fold it all together and garnish with the crystallised rose petals (if using). At this point it isn't pretty but it really is delicious and much less anxiety-inducing than a pavlova.

Chicken liver and potato salad

This substantial salad from Nigel Slater is very rich! The combination of the crisped new potatoes (I added a couple of cloves of garlic to the oil), tender chicken livers and sour cream dressing (I left out the dill) with the crunchy slices of pancetta was delicious. I piled it onto some salad leaves to make it salad-y-er but a green vegetable on the side, or perhaps a few steamed green beans added to the mix, would be good too. Still, it somehow tastes light enough to be a viable option in this warmer weather that has finally hit!

Meat-Free Monday: Baked goats cheese marinara

This is another wonderful dish from Kevin at Closet Cooking. Rich, thick marinara sauce (I love the mahogany colour it goes after some time in the oven), luscious melted cheese, freshly baked baguette to smear it all on.

I used whole cheeses, so they didn't look cooked until the crust was broken, but slices of a goats cheese log will take on a lovely burnished brown colour.