Weight Watchers quiche

I have tried this weekend to be a 'good' girl and have kept my baking to something savoury - in this instance a healthier quiche using filo pastry.

The result was quite nice - hubby had a second and third slice so it couldn't have been too bad!

8 sheets of raw filo pastry
calorie controlled cooking spray
1 small onion, trimmed and finely chopped
2 whole medium eggs
150ml skimmed milk
75g diced lean ham
40g cheese, grated
handful chopped parsley
pinch salt and pepper

Preheat oven to gas 4 or electric 180C/350F
Unroll filo. Mist each one with cooking spray and layer them in an 8 inch round flan tin or dish.

Mist a non-stick pan with cooking spray and saute onion until soft - about 4/5 mins.

Beat together eggs and milk. Stir in ham, chese, parsley, onion and seasoning. Pour into prepared pastry case.

Bake for approx. 30 minutes or until set. Cool slightly before serving.

Seville orange marmalade

What could be better on a Sunday morning than fresh-from-the-oven crunchy bread (on this occasion an oat and linseed loaf) and home-made Seville orange marmalade? Every January I always look out for these bitter, slightly knobbly, fruits in the supermarket and make a few jars of preserve which, actually, don’t last too long in our marmalade-loving family.

When we first moved to Spain in 2003 we lived in an area surrounded by family-owned orange groves grown largely for juicing. However, it was also rather irksome to see Seville orange trees lining most town streets but grown purely for decoration. It was so sad to see these fruits drop off as they ripened only to rot on the ground completely wasted. And yes, I’ll own up, as the locals didn’t use them at all, I used to ‘scrump’ mine, after dark, from the odd tree sited away from traffic pollution as it was impossible to buy them from the shops. Even when living far away from my UK home, my annual marmalade making could, and still does, continue!

I have always used the same simple recipe:

6 Seville oranges

1.4 litres of water

1.1 kilos jam sugar

Slice the oranges in half using a metal spoon, scoop out the flesh over a bowl to collect any juice, leaving the pith behind. Reserve the shells.

Put the flesh, juice and pips into a food processor (or, as I do, use a stick blender) and blend until smooth.

Push the puree through a sieve into a preserving pan.

Now scoop out as much of the pith from the shells as possible. Slice the rind into thin matchsticks and add these to the sieved flesh in the pan.

Pour in the water.

Bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for around 1 hour or until the rind is very soft and the mixture has reduced by half.

Over a low heat, add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Increase the heat and boil for 10 minutes or until setting point is reached.

Allow the marmalade to cool slightly and then pour into sterilized jars.

Golden sweet cornbread

I was determined this week to a) defrost the freezer and b) to clear out the shelf in the cupboard where I keep all the different bags of flour, etc. With this spell of freezing weather in mind, I thought I could quickly take everything out, wrap it in newspaper, pop it into a cool bag, and place it in the garden for a short while – after all, the temperature is well below freezing outside at the moment. Well, I got as far as finding all the bags of blackberries that we had lovingly picked in the hedgerows last summer and knew I had to stop and make a preserve with them before I did anything else.  I am not a fan of all the little fruit pips and so stewed the fruit gently until cooked then passed it all through a sieve. Equal quantities of strained juice to sugar, after boiling for less than 5 minutes, resulted in a wonderful thick fruity spread. Now I just need to find room for the filled jars!

My second attempt at spring cleaning also took a back seat when I found on the cupboard shelf a bag of polenta flour or fine cornmeal. I have to tell you that I hunted high and low for this product a couple of months ago to bake a special cake and managed to buy some, at enormous expense, only for the resulting confection to be a huge disappointment!  The bag of flour has not been touched since.

So, determined to ‘use up’ rather than ‘throw out’, I remembered this cornbread recipe that I have been meaning to try for some time. Cornbread originates, I believe, from the States and so the measurements are in the easy volume or ‘cup’ format.  Served warm from the oven, with my unctuous blackberry jam, it was a real treat. The defrosting and shelf-clearing can wait until tomorrow!

Golden Sweet Cornbread

1 cup plain flour

1 cup fine yellow cornmeal

2/3 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used rapeseed oil)

Preheat oven to 400F/200C (slightly lower for fan ovens). Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and oil and mix until well combined. Pour immediately into the prepared pan.

Bake in oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the centre of the cornbread comes out clean.

Healthy Citrus and spice cake



Well, we are nearly two weeks into January and I hereby confess all my sins over the festive period – shopping in the sales, watching too much television, having the odd alcoholic drink, not going to the gym and, significantly, eating far more than is the norm for me, as well as indulging in some of the most delicious but calorie-laden foods! What is to become of me? OK, hold the front page, you are all my witnesses, after my birthday next week – well, a girl has to enjoy dinner out on her special day -  I am really going back on the wagon of healthy living.

However, this weekend, I still had to satisfy my urge to bake and I scoured my not insubstantial hoard of recipe books for such a confection which used ingredients that I already had in the store-cupboard. One recipe that leapt out of the page included fresh cranberries but, as my husband has been advised not to eat cranberries as they interfere with his medication, I changed the flavour to zingy citrus with the slight warmth of cinnamon spice.

I also wanted to try a silicone mould that I had bought for 99p in the sales. It was a ‘moment of madness’ purchase but promised a cake shaped like a beautiful rose – hard to resist I know! The actual result, after baking, was sadly rather disappointing and probably exactly why the price had been slashed to an all time low! Never mind, the cake tasted fine and, as a lower calorie alternative, one I will keep up my sleeve and make again for a future healthy eating tea-time indulgence.

Here’s the recipe:

Citrus and spice cake

Zest of two clementines (I used tangerines) plus 3 tbsp juice

3 free-range eggs

190g golden caster sugar

2 x small tubs (120g) Greek-style low fat luscious lemon yoghurts

1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 tsp orange extract

200g self-raising flour, sifted

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 180C or fan 160C or gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin with baking parchment.

Whisk together the yoghurt, eggs, vanilla and orange extracts, plus zest and juice. In another bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar. Stir all the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until smooth.

Pour into prepared tin and bake for around 50 minutes or until golden and slightly springy to the touch. Finally, leave cake in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

New year's day macaroons

As my parting shot for 2012 I thought I would share with you my recipe for Sparkly Pink Almond Macaroons. What could be better than a plate of these easy pretty biscuits to accompany a shared cup of tea or coffee when visitors call on New Year’s day?  They would equally make a lovely girly foodie gift at any other time of year.

Ingredients:

2 egg whites

225g golden caster sugar

125g ground almonds

¼ tsp almond extract

25 blanched almonds

pink food colouring and pink edible sparkles (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C (fan oven 160C) mark 4. Then line baking trays with edible rice paper. Whisk the egg whites in a clean grease-free bowl until stiff peaks form. Using a large metal spoon, gradually fold in the sugar, then gently stir in the ground almonds and almond extract to make a firm paste. Finally, if liked, tint the mixture to a strong pink colour.

Spoon teaspoons of the mixture on to the baking trays, spacing them well apart. Press an almond into the centre of each one and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave on the baking sheets for 10 minutes to harden slightly, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Trim off rice paper edges and sprinkle, if liked, with edible sparkles. On cooling these biscuits have a soft, chewy centre. Once made, eat within 1 week and store in an airtight container or wrap in cellophane as a gift.

Makes approximately 20.

Around 80 calories per biscuit

A very happy munching New Year!

"It's the most wonderful time of the year"

Frangipane mince pies

As the Andy Williams old song goes.....

"It's the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling
And everyone telling you "Be of good cheer"
It's the most wonderful time of the year......

Reindeer - ready for action

And now I feel that I am just about ready for the festivities to begin. Yesterday we even visited some reindeer temporarily housed at our local garden centre. The staff confidently told us that they would only stay until they were needed on December 24^th. Aaaaaargh!

Home-made gifts

Today I put together the various home-made items that I have produced as gifts for family and friends – Cranberry vodka, Cinnamon and apple room fresheners, pink macaroons, Christmas cakes for one and, I didn’t forget the pets, carrot, cheese and parsley bone-shaped biscuits.



Who's a good boy then!

 We then spent a happy hour or two this morning delivering our seasonal goodies – Jasper (a retriever) especially enjoyed his early present - before finally returning home to produce my ‘Bake ahead Christmas mince pies’.

Mince pies ready for the oven

This year, I decided to make them slightly differently in that I used a sweet short-crust pastry for the bottom, added a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat, before finally topping with a frangipane mixture studied with marzipan. Flaked almonds completed the assembly. The wonderful aroma of warm spices filled the kitchen and I am pleased with the result.

Yes.....It's the most wonderful time of the year
There'll be much mistletoeing
And hearts will be glowing
When loved ones are near
It's the most wonderful time of the year”

Bake ahead Christmas - Part III - a biscuit tree

What a merry time we had last weekend with friends making biscuits to produce a Christmas tree tower. Our husbands gallantly used their good right arms to do the mixing of a simple sweet dough recipe:

300g unsalted butter, softened

300g caster sugar

2 small eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

600g plain flour, sifted

and we used Lakeland 3d Christmas cookie cutters to make the shapes. When baked and cooled I covered the biscuit stars in rolled fondant icing, brushed all over some edible glitter and decorated the edges with silver balls. I actually thought it might turn out to look like the leaning tower of Pisa but, as you can see, it is fairly straight and ready for the festive table.