0 Chestnut maple snowflakes

For quite a while I  have been wanting to experiment with chestnut flour, I think this stems from a holiday memory in idyllic Tuscany, when we stayed in a house over looking a chestnut grove and in it was the cutest rustic drying house. I was fascinated with the gnarly trees, the nuts and the recipes they were used in, chestnut flour is used in Italy to make pasta, pancakes and cakes amongst other things.

Chestnut flour is naturally gluten free and is something you will need to seek out if you want to bake with it as its not routinely stocked in most health food shops, this is possibly due to a shortish shelf life but you can obtain it easily by mail order and most shops will happily order it in for you. If you are baking for a coeliac ensure the flour is truly gluten free.

Chestnuts are synonymous with the festive season so I decided to come up with a biscuit recipe which uses this lovely flour, combining it with maple syrup to give a lovely smoky earthy flavour and use my lovely snowflake cutters to give a seasonal twist to this bake. 

This recipe makes about 12 to 15 cookies, depending on the size of the cutters you use. These would make a lovely gift wrapped in cellophane and lovely festive ribbon or a parchment package. Don't expect a crunchy biscuit these are more tender, the snowflakes aren't overtly sweet either.

What you need

• 12 tbsp chestnut flour (I used Shipton Mill) and little extra for rolling out purposes
• 3 tbsp melted coconut oil
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 egg 
• Icing sugar for sprinkling purposes

What you do

• Mix all the ingredients in a food processor
• Tip out on to a floured piece of baking parchment, roll out to just a little thinner than a pound coin and using a cutter to cut out the snowflakes.
• Place on a baking tray (I use a silicon sheet to ensure they don't stick) 
• Bake in a pre heated oven at 180c for 10 -15 minutes until just turning golden
• Cool on wire rack, they firm up more on cooling
• Sprinkle with icing sugar or ice with glace icing if you like.
• Store in a tin

This month we are linking up with Treat Petite created by Cakeyboi and hosted this month by The Baking Explorer, the theme this month being Christmas. 

                                                             

                                                              

We are also linking up to Family Foodies hosted by Bangers n Mash and Eat your Veg, the theme being festive foodie traditions, as these snowflakes are liable to become a new tradition in this household as they are delicious and ideal to baked as a gift particularly for adults.

                                      

And lastly December's Teat time treats hosted by Karen over at Lavender and Lovage and Jane at Hedgecombers. This months theme is Glitter, sprinkles, candles and shiny stuff, this bake I think qualifies as it has lots of sprinkled icing sugar and the staging includes candles.

                                         

                                                                

Detail: Chestnut maple snowflakes

0 Fresh Cranberry and Almond Slices

It's always around about this time of year that I start craving fruit. It must be something to do with the change in the weather; possibly also due to the fact that more and more chocolate and festive treats are becoming part of my daily diet.

I love the colour of cranberries, so bright and cheerful. They are relatively undiscovered in this country other than the ubiquitous cranberry sauce. Our friends over the Pond however, use this beautiful berry in a  range of bakes, both fresh and dried.

Since discovering this recipe I have already made it a couple of times, once for a birthday cake for a close friend and  again for my work colleagues who loved the bake as a tasty contrast to all the mince pies and chocolates at this time of year.

Once baked, the berries keep their lovely bright pinky-red colour and the almonds provide a crunchy contrast to the soft almondy sponge.

If you want to serve this for a special occasion, just cut it into dinky little squares and serve on an attractive platter dusted with icing sugar. If you can find some suitable "kitsch" decorations, why not accessorize accordingly. 

What you need

• 1 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup softened butter 
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs - free range (whisked together with the milk)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 cup milk ( I used skimmed)
• 1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries (chopped in half)
• Flaked almonds

You will need a non stick baking tray about 9" by 5" and approx 1" deep, sprayed with oil or cake release

What you do

• On a plate or a shallow dish, sieve the flour and baking powder to remove any lumps
• In your mixer cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
• Add the vanilla paste, almond extract to the mixer and the egg/milk mixture and the flour, whisk briskly until you have a smooth mixture
• Gently fold in the chopped cranberries by hand
• Tip into your prepared tin and smooth the top
• Sprinkle with flaked almonds
• Bake in a pre heated oven at 180c (160c fan) for approx 35 minutes until golden, well risen and cooked through
• Cool in the tin
• Cut into slices or squares

I am linking up this post to Blue Kitchen Bakes - Fresh Cranberry Recipe Linky

                                                    

                                                

Detail: Fresh Cranberry and Almond Slices

0 Christmas Sticky Buns

Now first things first, I can't claim credit for this bake, in the last few months Mr Lancashire Food has been developing his bread baking skills and these yummy festive buns are his first forage into the world of enriched  dough. Based on a chelsea bun recipe with the fruity hit being provided in this case by mincemeat and extra stickiness by spiced sugar butter ( granulated sugar mixed with ground cinnamon and ground allspice). They are delicious.

Ingredients

• 300g strong white bread flour 
• 50g light soft brown sugar 
• 1 egg - free range please
• 40g melted salted butter (cooled)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 7g dried yeast 
• Mincemeat - approx 1 large jar 
• Butter (soft) mixed with spiced sugar
• Warm water (blood heat) - approx 100-150ml ( all depends on the flour)

Method

• First mix the flour, sugar, salt, melted butter, and egg in a large bowl, with your hands until it is well mixed.
• Now mix the dried yeast and approx 100ml of the warm water into your mixture
• Mix this with your hands until you have a soft sticky dough ( add more water if needed), now knead for about 10 minutes on a floured surface until your dough is soft and elastic.
• Now leave in a covered bowl to prove and double in size, this may take several hours depending on the temperature of your room
• One doubled in size , gently stretch out into an approximate square approx 12" by 12"
• Spread your dough with the mincemeat , make sure you go all the way to the edges
• Roll up your dough in to a large sausage shape, cut into slices approx 1 1/2" thick
• Place in a baking tray, choose a container which will fit the slices snuggly. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for another 30 mins
• Pre heat your oven to 170c 
• When you are ready to bake your buns dot the top of each buns with the spicy  sugar butter 
• Bake until well risen and browned , checking your buns are baked through
• Leave to cool initially in the tin
• Then cool on a wire tray

Delicious and very very moreish, if you want snow on your buns sprinkle with icing sugar or alternatively drizzle with water icing. You could also play around with the spices you use in the spicy butter too.

Detail: Christmas Sticky Buns

0 Chocolate chestnut brownies

After baking with chestnut in my last clandestine cake club cake post, I had both some puree and whole chestnut leftover. I love chocolate brownies so I thought I would mix the two, the resultant bake is a lovely festive treat and is great with a coffee, not at all nutty more of an aromatically moist crumbly treat enhanced by adding the chestnut.

Ingredients

• 140g dark chocolate (approx 50% cocoa solids or more)
• 200g approx chestnut puree ( I blitzed my leftovers)
• 200g granulated sugar
• 170g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 large eggs - free range
• 100g butter
• Drop of milk to loosen mix if necessary

Method

• Preheat your oven to 170c fan / 180c nornal oven, line a deep square or oblong baking tin, approx 20cm square ish
• Melt chocolate and butter in bowl in the warming oven
• Mix your eggs and sugar and whisk until ribbony and volume increased
• Cool slightly your chocolate and butter mix , then mix with your egg mixture and all your other ingredients, adding a little milk if necessary.
• Pour into the prepared tin
• Bake for approx 15- 20 minutes until cooked but still slightly moist in the middle
• Remove from oven and fully cool in the tin
• Cut in to chunks and dust with icing sugar, if you are feeling very festive you could use gold spray or edible glitter too.

Detail: Chocolate chestnut brownies

0 #BoothsCheers !

                                  

So very very proud to be asked to take part in the first online and in-store simultaneous beer and wine tasting event for Booths, the wonderful regional supermarket that really knows what it means to keep it local. Its a family firm founded in 1847 with a reputation for quality produce. They have 29 stores throughout the North West, the latest being Milnthorpe in Cumbria.

#BoothsCheers is running for the next 6 weeks up to Christmas and their are some great deals every week on beers and wines to get you in the festive mood, if you are lucky enough to live near a store you can visit and taste that weeks special offers, their will also be recipes and food matching advice being shared both in store and online. Lots of other bloggers are taking part too on instagram and twitter. So its a great excuse to have friends round for a sociable evening.

Well what a great time we had for the first #BoothsCheers event, the two wines that were sent for tasting were delicious, the Isla Negra Sauvignon blanc was crisp fresh and light with a slight hint of grapefruit, ideally for serving with fish. the Isla Negra Merlot was juicy and fruity and very easy drinking and would be ideal with steak and other red meats.The Marstons double drop beer was popular with the chaps and they thought would be great served with traditional party snacks such as sausage rolls. We had a great time swapping menu suggestions on twitter and posting pictures via instagram, we are all looking forward to next week. 

Week 2 we received a red  Emiliana camerenea chilean wine and a Emiliana  White chardonnay , along with a bottle of budvar budweiser. One of guests this week is a wine connisseur and particularly enjoyed the red , whilst his wife liked the chardonnay. The wines were food matched to a spicy chilli for the red and creamy chicken dishes for the white. It was felt the budvar would be a good match to hot dogs or similar . Mr Lancashire Food was also lucky enough to win one of the photographic challenges on the night too, not sure what his prize is though !

Looking forward to week 3 , we were pleased to discover that our wines are a Rose and Sauvingnon Blanc from Brightwater Bay from New Zealand and our selected beer is Cocker Hoop from Jennings. 

Week 3 , we received our lovely wine and beer and were joined by no less than two sets of couple friends, our first tasting was the Sauvingnon Blanc , this was more citrussy than our first bottle of this variety in week 1 with a tropically nose , very drinkable all the same. We then moved onto the Rose at 13% a pretty feisty bottle which we all thought tasted like fruit pastilles and was very quaffable  Our beer from Jennings a Cumbrian Brewery , was a nicely balanced hoppy ale, which we thought would be lovely in onion gravy with toad in the hole.

On the night @synergymono (Mr Lancashire Food's twitter handle) was delighted to  receive a personal message from Booths for his photographs.

Week 4  and we are tasting Saint-Emillion Grand Cru and a Croft 'Indulgence' Port. We have presented with a "secret mission" in our parcel this week and my mission challenger is fellow blogger Northwestnosh , we have to come up with a great comfort food that either features or match to our bottles tonight, check out the associated blog post here for a recipe of what we came up with. This week due to time pressures we are #BoothsCheers on our own, writing christmas cards and have a more relaxing evening than of late.

Week 5 - the penultimate #BoothsCheers party will see a Cote du Rhone and a Pouilly Fume. Lancashire Food was really lucky to have one of our recipes featured as the perfect match to the Cote du Rhone

 

Booths‏@BoothsCountry

Our recipe to match our #BoothsCheers red this week is by the talented cook@LancashireFood. Here's Slow Cooked Brisket http://bit.ly/YWFzGz 

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7:22 PM - 12 Dec 12 · 

and all received a lovely christmas message and thank you from the store on instagram.

Next week is the last week :-(, we have a chateau neuf de pap and a chardonnay to look forward to. ever inventive the PR company choose to mix things up by sending out different parcels to the online bloggers, our was a bottle of manzanilla sherry and a jar of ground cloves. That taxed us some what ! but after a bit of a think I cam up with a rabbit basque based on Delia Smiths classic chicken basque, which would use the sherry as part of the stock and a pinch of cloves to spice up the dish. A dry sherry can also be used in a cheese fondue which would be a great party dish. 

BoothsCheers has been a great online and instore event and has really brought peoples attention to Booths , we are so lucky in the north to have a great local supermarket chain, who knows the real meaning of local.

Detail: #BoothsCheers !