Summer Treats...

 To celebrate the real start of Summer (and as I write this, the sun has just broken through the clouds at last!) I thought you might appreciate a new recipe. Sugar Moon has just taken a week off to rest and recuperate...you can read more about where we went here....and, as usual I came home itching to get into the kitchen straight away! Work doesn't begin properly until tomorrow, so these were made at home, and use the best of the current fruits - you can easily adapt this recipe to use whatever you like best. Raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries will all work well here - perhaps adjusting the sugar levels in the topping if the berries are very tart.

Apricot & Blueberry Bars

Base:

150g wholemeal spelt flour (you can use regular plain flour or even gluten-free if you prefer)
1 (preferably free-range) egg yolk
150g butter
100g ground almonds
20g whole hazelnuts (or whole almonds if you prefer them)
75g light soft brown sugar
pinch Maldon or other sea salt flakes (optional, but so good!)

Additional ingredients for topping:

50g wholemeal spelt flour (or other flour as above)
50g whole hazelnuts (or almonds as above)
1 tbsp light olive oil (or other vegetable oil if you don't like the taste!)
50g soft light brown sugar (optional, depending on tartness of your chosen fruit)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180c
Line a 23cm square foil tray (or equivalent tin) with baking parchment

For the base: pulse ground almonds and whole hazelnuts for a few moments in a food processor until whole nuts are in small pieces...

 Add the rest of the base ingredients to the processor...

( This is the spelt flour we usually use...I love its nutty flavour and great texture...but do feel free to substitute as it won't make much difference to the finished bars!)

 Pulse until the ingredients form clumps....then press around 3/4 of the mixture into the prepared baking tray (leaving the remaining mixture in the processor bowl)...

 ...bake the base for about 10 minutes, until it turns a light golden brown....

 ...this will help prevent a soggy bottom! Then cover the base with your chosen fruit. As a guide, I used 5 apricots (stoned and roughly pulled apart) and 150g fresh blueberries...

 Add remaining topping ingredients to the rest of the mixture left in the processor and pulse to combine. It won't clump together as much, but will start to stick together if squeezed between your fingers. Scatter over the fruit...

 ...you want it to just about cover, but I always like to see a little of the berries peeping through the crumb! That's just personal preference though. Flatten the top slightly with your palms to help it stick together a little. Then bake for around 30 minutes, turning the tray halfway through the baking time to ensure an even colour...

 Cool thoroughly (preferably overnight in the fridge) before lifting from the tin using the edges of the baking paper and slicing into bars. They will crumble a little at the top, but just scoop these up with your fingers and enjoy!

 Apricots are one of the only fruits that I think are better cooked than raw...I just adore them in season.

 These bars would actually be gorgeous eaten slightly warm as a dessert, with cream or ice cream, too! Feel free to experiment and enjoy them. I thought I'd finish with one of my absolute favourite Summer lunches - this is usually what I would eat during the week, on a baking break (probably listening to The Archers!)

A toasted slice of good sourdough (I love Richard Bertinet's loaves available from Waitrose, if I can't find any handmade) rubbed with a raw garlic clove and topped with fresh, ripe tomatoes...here I added fresh marjoram from the garden and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast flakes. And always, lots of freshly ground black pepper. Heaven on a plate! Enjoy the summer and all it offers food-wise....it won't be here for long! Sugar Moon is now back in full production...so do visit our lovely website if you haven't already.

Happy June xx

Presents from a friend...

There are many bad people in this world...the events of this week have highlighted that yet again...and it's a depressing thought, of course. BUT I'm so happy that there are many, many more good, kind and generous souls around!

A  few weeks ago I mentioned that in the UK we don't have flaked, sweetened coconut. The moist & delicious kind. We get desiccated coconut...shaved, dried coconut...and of course we can buy fresh ones, milk & cream. But I love the strands of white deliciousness that are so great to bake with, and I find mentioned so often in my American recipe books. I always bring some back from my trips to Australia...but it never lasts long.

So how thrilled and touched I was to receive in the mail this week four - yes, FOUR! - packs of gorgeous flaked coconut from my dear Canadian friend Rosinda . She's just started a beautiful new food & family blog...you can go to it by clicking on her name & I'd highly recommend it. Anyway, I was so delighted by her kindness that I decided to create a new bar for the Coffee Tree in her honour. You can see it above - and it'll be in my book too! I've called it a 'Double A Bar' as she has two beautiful young daughters whose names both start with an 'A'! The bar is chewy, coconutty, oaty with a touch of lemon...there's a filling of lemon curd...and a lemon frosting with more coconut pressed into the top. Beautiful! Just like the thought.

Two were sold before I even left the shop after delivering yesterday...a new classic?

Thanks again Rosinda....xo

Happy weekend everyone...it's going to be a hot one here...xx

A happy accident...

Today is such a gorgeous, warm sunny day...hardly like early April at all. If it weren't for the lack of leaves on some of the trees, I'd be convinced it was late May. To celebrate I made this Sunshine Orange Drizzle Cake for the Coffee Tree this morning. Flavoured with orange zest, soaked in orange syrup while still warm and then finsihed with an orange sugar glaze. When I took the lid off the delivery box we all 'aahhed' as we breathed in the smell!

Sometimes, a mistake can turn into something unexpectedly good. So it was when I created these Pecan Caramel Custard Bars...

I was going to make something completely different, and began to make my favourite caramel sauce. I boiled the sugar and water, and when I had a beautiful burnished brown colour & that unmistakeable toffee smell, I added double cream. But in my enthusiasm, I added far too much! I was left with a thick, creamy caramel custard that would never have done for what I'd intended...but of course, i couldn't waste it! I'd already made a shortbread base, so I toasted some pecan nuts I had....added some egg yolks to the custard ...added the nuts and poured it over the cooked shortbread before baking it for around half an hour at a low temperature. It turned out perfectly...smooth and rich and the caramel went perfectly with the pecans.

The recipe is now going in my book! You'll know the story behind it ...it proves that sometimes it can be good to make mistakes!

Have a great day xoxo

A few delights...

My weeks seem to be getting busier and busier...can you believe it's almost March already? Unbelievable to me. It's time to change the tone of my baking a little...not too Spring-like yet, but moving away from the very comforting, heavier cakes...slowly, slowly.
Yesterday, I made a tray of Cardamom Orange Cake with a cream cheese frosting...

Cardamom is a beautiful, warm and underused spice which goes perfectly with fresh orange. This smelt gorgeous.

Next, an Espresso Walnut Cake with Vanilla frosting...I replaced quite a proportion of the flour with ground walnuts to lighten and moisten the mixture and to make sure that there was a really good walnut flavour. Coffee is a natural partner...I used espresso, to make it slightly darker and more sophisticated than my usual Coffee & Walnut Cake. No filling in this one either...just the vanilla buttercream on top, with a sprinkle of espresso and broken walnuts to finish...
Today, as it's half-term here, I wanted a child pleaser for the Coffee Tree. I came up with this creation...

Caramel Peanut Shortbread. Another one that I had to make and deliver VERY quickly before I devoured it! Crisp, buttery polenta shortbread....caramel & peanut butter filling, topped with roasted salty peanuts and, finally, dark chocolate ganache....

oh I'm so glad that it's not still here!

Hoping your Thursday is as lovely as mine...and that you make time for a treat somewhere, somehow xo

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Saturday treats....

I started my weekend delivery with these Black & White Cupcakes. Very heavily frosted cupcakes don't go down too well at the Coffee Tree - the customers tend to prefer more understated offerings! I thought that these fit the bill perfectly. Beautiful, vanilla sponge on the bottom and dark chocolate ganache poured glossily on top - finished with a gold sugar star..

Simple yet sophisticated? Hopefully they went down well anyway... next was one of my own creations. I call them Glazed Blueberry Bars -

sticky, oaty slices with a tart  fresh blueberry middle and lightly glazed on top (which also stops them from becoming dry.) I love to have plenty of filling so that it oozes slightly when you cut (or bite!) into them..

I always overdo everything slightly because, as regular readers will know, my baking motto (actually my LIFE motto) is 'Too much of a good thing is wonderful....!'

And lastly, with a small nod to Valentine's Day (more of which tomorrow) I baked a yummy Spice Cake with Peanut Buttercream frosting, from Rose Levy Berenbaum's 'Heavenly Cakes' book which I talked about last week...

I love anything with peanuts and it was a change to find something that used them but didn't also contain chocolate (I try and balance things with my Coffee Tree order, so that there's a fruity cake alongside something rich & chocolatey...or a very sweet thing and a savoury one) As you may be able to make out, I sprinkled the top of the cake with some tiny red sugar hearts...

but I warn you now....I won't be so subtle tomorrow!

have a wonderful Sunday xoxo

Sticky Toffee Birthday...

Yesterday was the birthday of a good friend of ours, Steve. As he was on his own on Sunday evening, we gave a tiny supper party for him...just four of us (our friend John came too!) I made mushroom, red wine & thyme pie, baked chicken w lemon, mashed potato, brussels sprouts and roasted parsnips...it all went down very well on that dark & blustery evening.

For dessert...I didn't want to bake a cake, as I knew that the remainder would probably go to waste. But Steve adores 'nursery' type puddings...so I had a brainwave and made a Sticky Toffee Pudding instead, with a birthday candle to make it festive! It had a beautiful, dark, caramelly sauce under the soft date sponge...

and, just for Paul who was brought up in Devon and loves it, we accompanied the pudding with...

wicked, delicious clotted cream...

of course, this was bought in the supermarket and not quite the same as the crusty yellow cream that you can buy when you go to Devon or Cornwall. But authentic and delightful enough to please the birthday boy (and his friends!) which is all that mattered.

This morning, I made yet another recipe from the Fat Witch cookbook. And, once more, I had to twiddle the quantities which has really put me off trying anything else from it, I'm sorry to say. But these turned out well, in the end...

Marbled Pumpkin Spice Brownie Bars. They were supposed to have a brownie bottom and a pumpkin top...but the base was so liquid that I ended up swirling the two mixtures together a bit...hence the 'marbling' in the title!

I managed to find some tins of real American pumpkin puree, which is the only thing to use when baking I think. These bars were nice and tall, quite squidgy... and they smelt lovely. So fingers crossed that they went down well at the Coffee Tree!

I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow...!

It's such a beautiful day today...not a cloud in the sky and the sun has warmth in it for the first time in months. I didn't want to come back from my walk with Alice this morning!

I hope you're having a lovely day too...xo

Another new book & Butterscotch Bars

Oh dear! I'm so sorry that this picture has turned on it's side...I'm not quite sure why! Anyway, it's the cover of the new book I bought last week...yet another one. It's a book of brownies and bars by Patricia Helding, the owner of NYC's Fat Witch Bakery . I have to say that there isn't much new in the book (to me, that is) Also I don't find the quality of the book to be too impressive - thin pages, slightly faded photographs.

Still, there's always something to learn from any new cookbook I find...like these Butterscotch Bars which I delivered to the Coffee Tree this morning...

They are sort of like Blondies...chewy & slightly crunchy very vanilla-y bars, with butterscotch and chocolate chips folded in at the last minute. The top, like a brownie, is shiny and crackly....while the inside is lovely and soft.
They looked and smelt very good - I'll see what the customers thought tomorrow. It's worth saying though that I made a shortbread base for the bars...and I'm very glad that I did. Without it (as in the original recipe) I fear they would have been far too soft to turn out or cut. Very difficult to handle - also quite thin!
Anyway, this may be a one off. I'll certainly reserve judgement until I've tried a few more recipes from the book.

Butterscotch Bars did their job this morning...tempting the Coffee Tree customers into buying a little extra something!
I hope that your Thursday has gone well so far...so much strange weather about. Thankfully t Australian cyclone is now over with, it seems, no fatalities. I hope that if you're snowed in somewhere, you're warm, cosy & well stocked!
xox

Join me at The Coffee Tree...

As I've been writing about my daily deliveries for almost a month now, I thought that it was about time that I introduced you to The Coffee Tree properly! So here we are, in the cold and gloomy early morning of a late January day...and the shop is always an oasis of warmth & brightness...and good coffee!

The little blackboard on the pavement sends good messages of what lies within...

and when you open the door it's a little like 'Cheers' - everybody knows your name! Or they all know mine, anyway!

Lovely Sue, one of the partners in the business, is always cheerful and smiling...and she's holding the free cup of coffee that I get in exchange for my deliveries each day!

I make all the cakes & slices...but not the croissants or danish...

These Date & Oat Slices are mine...I shared one with my Mum today, over a cup of coffee, as we discussed 'The King's Speech' which we'd just seen...yum!

And these were my specials of the day...I called them Mozart Bars, as it is my beloved Wolfie's 255th birthday today! The bottom is brown sugar butter shortbread and the top is salted cashew & butterscotch...oh yes, they were good.

In fact, it's lucky that I took these pictures first thing as they'd all been sold by the time I called in with Mum after lunch. But that's fine...I love it when people enjoy my baking and it sells well. That's why I do it!

At the moment, I'm baking Toasted Pecan Caramel Brownies....they're smelling good, and next is Ruby Cake from my new 'Sarabeth's Bakery' book - so watch this space!

Happy Thursday and thanks so much for reading xox

Citrus Celebration

In this, the coldest season of the year, it's fairly hard to find inexpensive and plentiful fruit. Bananas. Pineapples. Actually, anything tropical is good. And the citrus fruits are at their peak now...just what's required for a zingy, zesty tang to cut through the murk & gloom of January!

That's why these were perfect for today. Lemon Passionfruit Bars.

The base was a biscuit one (crushed graham crackers) with added coconut....then I made a thick, buttery, voluptuous fresh lemon & lime curd and added the ripe pulp from 3 passionfruit...a quick blast in a low oven just to set the filling to a gentle wobble...

a sprinkle of sweet, flaked coconut and then a night in the fridge to set and mingle the flavours.
This morning, I cut them into 16 bars. I kept 2, cut into miniatures....to keep in the fridge, tightly wrapped, for when we need a quick hit of sunshine!
But the rest I delivered to The Coffee Tree. Fairly simple to make, sparkling fresh. Tastes like Spring is on the way...and with the beautiful, clear sunny day we had, it feels like it too!

Happy Tuesday xoxo

Giveaway Congratulations & Almond Heaven...

This was the scene this morning as I placed all the names in competition for the Giveaway into my favourite coffee mug...I felt a little nervous, strangely...I so appreciate all your comments and the visitors to my blog, and I wanted everyone to win! But there could only be one, in the end - and it's one of my new 'commenters'...I'll let the picture speak for itself & just say WELL DONE to...

Nellie! I think you're in the US...but if you send me your address to: theblueangelbakery (at) hotmail (dot) co (dot) uk (of course, you need to put the @ & . symbols in there - I haven't to avoid spam mail!) then I will package up your goodies and send them to you, with my love...

I added this cute & colourful measuring spoon set to the gifts, as an added treat - I so hope you like everything & look forward to your receiving it and letting me know what you think!

So, to today's delivery...

Strawberry & Lemon Bakewell Tart. I love Bakewell Tart - because I adore anything almondy. For those who aren't familiar with it, it's a traditional British pudding. The usual recipe is for shortcrust pastry, spread with raspberry jam and topped with an almond frangipane sponge and flaked almonds. It's often served after a meal, hot with custard - or cold in fingers for tea. My version has a richer shortbread base, and this one had strawberry preserves and lemon curd under the almond layer. It just makes it a bit....MORE! And you've probably gleaned from my posts by now that if there's one thing I love it's abundance! Too much of a good thing is great in my opinion!

It was quite soft & gooey in the centre with a lovely short, crisp, buttery base and plenty of tart lemon curd oozing gently together with sweet strawberry pieces. GORGEOUS!

I can hardly believe that the weekend's here already! I look forward to hearing from Nellie soon...but thanks to everyone for reading, commenting and enjoying my blog.

Have a wonderful rest of the day xo