Lemon And Blueberry Loaf

Yes you read that right. Lemon? Yes! Blueberry? Yes! Chocolate? No! I thought I would take a break from chocolate in my baking this week...I did eat a whole chocolate bar yesterday...oh dear. I'm poorly, don't judge me, I had to to feel better. Ahem...right?

One of my favourite loafs is a lemon drizzle - expect for banana loaf but that's just due to my weird excessive love for bananas. And my favourite muffins are blueberry muffins - 2nd to banana muffins of course, duh.

So when I saw this recipe on Pinterest for a lemon and blueberry loaf I thought nom nom nom nom. Literally.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed

The Lemon Syrup:

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

For the Lemon Glaze:
1 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
• Grease bottom and sides of one 9 x 5-inch loaf tin.
• In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the blueberries with the remaining tablespoon of flour, and fold them very gently into the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing loaf to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.
• While the loaf is cooling, make the lemon syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir together the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Once dissolved, continue to cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat; set aside.
• Use a toothpick to poke holes in the tops and sides of the warm loaf. Brush the top and sides of the loaf with the lemon syrup. Let the syrup soak into the cake and brush again. Let the cake cool completely.

I was very nervous past this point as I have never made a glaze before and the loaf looked so pretty and yummy already. But I thought what the hell, let's do it!  So:

• To make the lemon glaze, in a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of the lemon juice. The mixture should be thick but pourable. Add up to another tablespoon of lemon juice if the mixture is too stiff. Pour the lemon glaze over the top of the loaf and let it drip down the sides. Let the lemon glaze harden, about 15 minutes, before serving.

I didn't do so well with the whole pouring of the glaze properly so the loaf went from looking super delish, to looking...well, not so pretty!

As with most loafs you could of course bake it in different shape tins, make it mini muffin-like or super large. Just remember to adjust the baking time!

So although it didn't look like the prettiest cake in the end, my oh my did it taste amazing! Super fresh and a little zingy and incredibly moist. Just fabulous.

xoxo

Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes

So another week and another baking session gone. I made those on Saturday as we were going to the baptism of our goddaughter on the Sunday and I thought I could take it with us...and completely forgot, but that's another story!

I found this recipe on The Little Loaf, which has some proper yummy recipes (I think I say that a lot about many blogs, but hey it only means that there is an incredibly huge amount of savoury and sweet tasty recipes out there to explore!).

I absolutely love brownies so the thought of making it so that it was bite size was just too much and I had to try it.

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate, chopped
75g unsalted butter
60g golden syrup
3 medium eggs
75g light brown sugar
110g golden caster sugar
75g plain flour
15g cocoa powder, sifted
Handful of cocoa chips (optional - I used some white chocolate ones as it's Christoph's favourite)

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.

In their recipe they used an eight hole muffin tin but I wanted to have them slightly smaller so I used a cupcake tin with some cute cupcake cases and it made 16 in total!

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bain marie, stir in the golden syrup and leave it to cool.

Whisk the eggs together with the brown and caster sugars until pale and thick, add the chocolate mixture carefully to not add to much air to the mixture. Fold in the flour and cocoa powder.

Pour the mixture into your prepared tin, filling practically to the top as they won’t rise very much. Sprinkle the cocoa bits if using. Although if you are using white chocolate I would recommend pushing them in a little as you can see mine crisped up a little - it was still super yummy and didn't affect the taste but looks wise if I am honest it kinda did. Oh well, Christoph didn't seem to mind!

Bake for 18 – 25 min if using the muffin tin, otherwise bring down the baking time to about 13 minutes and check if it needs more time. You definitely don’t want to over bake these. "The middle should still have some wobble and a toothpick inserted should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it".

Remove from the oven and allow to cool if you can wait!

                                                                              xoxo

An Amazing Banana Loaf Recipe

I am quite sure I have posted about this recipe before but hey, that's just how much I love it.

I love bananas, in case you didn't notice in my banana post, and banana cake/loaf is delish. Add to that chocolate and walnuts and I'm one happy fat bunny!

I found this recipe in A cup of Jo. She does have some nice recipes and I have now tried a few with varying degrees of success. This one is a winner.

In her original recipe she also adsd bourbon - yum yum! - but I didn't have it in the house so I made it without it. And it is still completely delicious.

Ingredients

2 cups of flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
50g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3 mashed ripe bananas
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
170g semisweet chocolate chunks
And if you want the bourbon add 3 tablespoons of bourbon

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F (170C) Butter a loaf tin and line it if parchment if you want!

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute between each addition. Stop the mixer, scrape down sides of the bowl, and add bananas, lemon juice (and bourbon). Beat until well incorporated.

Turn the mixer to low and add the flour mixture all at once. Beat until almost incorporated. Stop the mixer and remove the bowl. Add the walnuts and chocolate chips and incorporate the last of the ingredients with a spatula.

Batter will be thick. Spoon the mixture into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow loaf to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before putting it onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Yeah...ahem...we totally couldn't wait that long...so the first slice was falling apart! 

Enjoy this wonderful loaf with a fresh cup of brazilian coffee. Heaven.

Xoxo

The Brighton and Hove Food and Drink Festival 2012

This last week it has been The Brighton & Hove food and drink festival and we didn't find out until it was nearly too late, which is very typical! Its happens twice a year, once in April for the spring harvest and once in September for the autumn one.

L'Eglise is this little French restaurant that is 5 min walk from our home and that we have walked past many a times, always saying to each other just how we should go and have food there soon. Last week, as I had been feeling very poorly all week, Christoph had decided that he would treat me to some good food. It was by checking their website that he found out this festival was happening and that the restaurant was taking part. The were offering a 5 course meal cooked by a couple of wonderfully French cooks from the region of Lyon as part of an International chef exchange: Yves Rivoiron and Jean Louis Gelin, who may I just say has the most incredible moustache I have seen and who is the most jovial chef I've met. He even sang us a song (click here to hear it, it's worth it) while topping up his glass of wine. Fantastique!

Christoph told him his moustache was bigger than a submarine (here), all in French so we think he appreciated the effort?

The evening was lovely and very convivial. Everyone sat together, we were outside, and this gave everyone the chance to chat with different dinners, meeting some interesting people and of course, eating some wonderful food and drinking fabulous wine. We opted to try out Jean Louis own brew which tasted light and was very easy to drink - and which also gave us the worse headache we have both ever experienced. Own brew it was indeed! 

If you live in the area I would highly recommend L'Eglise to anyone that wants good food, cosy setting, wonderful hostess and interesting patrons.

A lot more happened this week end at the festival and I cannot wait for the next one, which I hope I will be in better form for!

Xoxo