Roasted Vegetable and Lentil Burgers

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These veggie burgers take a little while to make, but I think they're worth the effort as they have a good flavour and texture and are packed full of vegetables. I used my trusty old Lakeland burger press to make them. If you make burgers regularly, it's worth getting one, as they squeeze all the air out of the mixture, leaving you with a good, solid burger which can stand up to being turned in the pan.

Makes 6-8 burgers

• 1 cup of cooked & drained puy/green lentils
• 1 small onion, diced 
• 4-6 chestnut mushrooms, chopped roughly
• 2 small/1 large red or yellow bell pepper, diced
• 150g/6oz sweet potato peeled and cubed
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 2 slices of bread, made into breadcrumbs
• 100g grated halloumi or paneer cheese (or vegan cheddar-style cheese)
• 1 small egg/1 tsp Orgran no egg mixed with 1 tbsp cold water (or similar egg replacer)
• 1 tsp paprika
• ½ tsp English mustard powder
• 1 tsp dried oregano or mixed herbs
• Black pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/170C Fan/Gas 4/350F

Put all of the vegetables and the whole, unpeeled clove of garlic in an oven proof dish. 

Drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil and roast for around 20-25 minutes until softened and starting to colour.

Allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then remove the clove of garlic and squeeze the cooked garlic out from the peel, onto the vegetables.

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Transfer the roasted vegetables, lentils, grated cheese, seasonings and egg/egg replacer into the food processor.  

Blend/pulse for a few seconds, to break up and mix the lentils and vegetables, but not do not purée them. 

Add enough breadcrumbs to make a firm dough-like mixture. 

Allow the mixture to to stand for about 30 minutes.

Divide into 6-8 portions and using your hands or a burger press, shape into burgers.

Fry the burgers in a drop more olive oil for about 5 minutes on each side until golden brown.

Serve in bread rolls with your favourite burger toppings.

Alternatives: For a spicy bean and veggie burger, swap the paprika and mustard powder for 2 tsp mild (or hot!) chilli powder and swap the lentils for a cup of drained, tinned kidney beans. 

Suitable for freezing (before coking). Layer between sheets of grease-proof paper and wrap in cling-film.

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The Spice Tailor curry sauces from Anjum Anand - a review

I'm ashamed to say that National Curry Week passed me by last week, without me hearing anything about it, so this week I'm making up for it by cooking three different vegetarian curries using three of the new curry sauces from The Spice Tailor. I regularly cook curries from scratch, so I was surprised to read that a recent survey by The Spice Tailor, found that despite tikka masala being Britain's favourite curry, only 25% of us have ever tried cooking it at home.

Celebrity chef Anjum Anand has develop her own range of sauces which makes cooking a curry at home, faster than ordering one from the take-away! There are seven sauces in the range, most of which come with a sachet of dried spices, a base sauce and a curry sauce. Recipe tips and suggestions for extra ingredients are included, but basically you fry the dried spices (with or without the optional dried chilli) in a drop of vegetable oil, then add your choice of paneer, pulses and/or vegetables (or meat/fish, if you're not vegetarian!), followed by the base sauce. After a couple of minutes, you add the curry sauce and leave to simmer for about 8 minutes.

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I tried out three of the sauces: the Tikka Masala (which I added paneer and mushrooms to), the Punjabi Tomato (with added chickpeas and aubergine) and finally the Spiced Spinach (with added potatoes and green pepper). I pre-cooked all of the vegetables, except the mushrooms, before adding them to the curry sauces, as I knew that they wouldn't cook through in 8 minutes, however paneer, tinned pulses and meat substitutes such as Quorn would all work well and cook in the stated time if you were in a hurry. I added the whole chilli to all of my curries and fished it out before serving...we're all used to eating medium curries and I would say, even with the added chilli, all of the curries were on the milder side of medium. Some of the other whole spices needed removing before serving too, such as the whole cardamom pods and the curry leaf. You could, of course, leave them in and play 'find the spices' at the dinner table with the family!

Each of the curries looked and tasted very different from each other and the smell in my house was amazing! We all like the flavour of the Punjabi Tomato curry best, followed by the Tikka Masala. A word of warning though...the Tikka Masala didn't taste anything like a British restaurant tikka massala; it tasted strongly of cardamom and wasn't sweet and creamy. Not a criticism, as it tasted very aromatic, just not how I expected it to taste! The Spiced Spinach curry was our least favourite as it tasted a little bitter and the spinach flavour dominated the dish. I would have preferred to add fresh spinach instead. I found the sauces very simple to use, and good value for money. Although each sauce was supposed to serve two, I found that by adding extra vegetables and pulses, each one made a curry big enough to feed my family of four.

If you want more tips on cooking curries at home, tune in to Cookalong with Anjum on ‘Spice Nights’, when Anjum will be showing how to cook simple and delicious Indian dishes in just 15 minutes, using some cheats and lots of scratch cooking.  Spice Nights airs weekly on Tuesday evenings at 7.30 pm from now until 6th November. Register to watch at www.thespicetailor.com.

The Spice Tailor range is now available to buy online at www.thespicetailor.com and in Waitrose stores.

Integrity Statement
I received 3 Spice Tailor curry sauces to review and 3 to give away on my blog. I did not receive payment, and the views expressed are genuinely those of myself and my family. Pack images courtesy of The Spice Tailor.

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My second blogoversary

Well, it's that time of year again. My blog is almost 2 years old, and to celebrate, I'll be hosting not one but two fab foodie give-aways this week. It'll be my first attempt at using Rafflecopter, so do bear with me and let me know if you find it doesn't work!

This year, other than my usual recipe and review posts, I linked up with a charity called Deki, and loaned some money to a woman called Leontine from Togo, who wanted a loan to expand her food stall business. Her loan was fully funded and the great news is that she has already paid back £130 of the £390 she borrowed. 

One last thing I must just mention...This year, I was very excited to find my blog mentioned on Red Online as one of their best vegetarian food blogs (alongside Ellen!). Not bad for some one who wondered if anyone would read her blog when she first started blogging.

Thanks for all the likes, follows, tweets, comments and competition entries over the past year...I really do appreciate them. Keep a look out for my next give-away and remember that you've got to be in it to win it!  Pin It

Stuffed Butternut Squash

I love butternut squash, and as it's in season and cheap at the moment, I thought I'd experiment with a new recipe. This stuffed squash makes an impressive main course suitable for a dinner party and would also be lovely as an alternative to nut roast at Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Serves 2

• 1 small butternut squash, halved lengthwise
• 1 small red onion, diced finely
• 50g/2oz sun-dried tomatoes, diced
• 100g/4oz chestnut (or mixed) mushrooms, diced finely
• 50g/2oz feta or hard goat's cheese, crumbled or cubed
• ½ tsp ground fennel seeds
• black pepper, to taste
• 2 tsp chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 180C/170C Fan/Gas 4/350F

Cut the squash in half and scoop the seeds out using a spoon. If the cavity isn't very big, scoop out a little of the flesh too.

Drizzle the squash with a little olive oil and season with half of the ground fennel and some black pepper.
Place on a baking tray and roast for 20 minutes. Turn over and cook for a further 15-20 minutes, or until the flesh is soft and the skin is starting to brown.

Meanwhile heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan.
Add all of the remaining ingredients, except the cheese, and cook gently for about 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly while the squash is cooking.

Remove the squash from the oven.
Stir the cheese into the stuffing mixture.
Fill the cavity of each squash with the stuffing, packing well and pressing down with a spoon.
Return to the oven for a further 10-15 minutes.

Serve with a tomato sauce, seasonal vegetables and your choice of roasted potatoes, pasta or garlic bread.

Alternative: For a vegan version either omit the cheese, or swap it for some chopped green olives, or vegetable antipasti.
If cooking as a vegetarian option for Christmas dinner, roast the squash (for 30 minutes) and prepare the stuffing the day before, but don't fill the squash. On Christmas day, fill the squash with the stuffing and re-heat. 

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Green Vegetable Burritos

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I'm not sure if these are strictly burritos or not, but whatever they're called, they make a nice quick and healthy snack or lunch. You can of course, vary the vegetables depending on what you have available.

Makes 4

• 2 medium courgettes/zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced
• 1 large green pepper, deseeded and sliced
• 75g/3oz spinach, washed
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 1-2 tsp mild chilli powder
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp pickled jalapeños chopped
• 1 cup of grated hard cheese/vegan cheese
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander/cilantro (optional)
• 4 corn tortilla wraps

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan. 
Fry the courgette and pepper until softened and just starting to brown.

Add the garlic, herbs, jalapeños and chilli powder and stir well.

Throw in the spinach and coriander and allow to wilt for a minute or two.

Heat the tortillas until warm (in a pan, microwave or oven). 

Fill with the vegetable mixture and a sprinkle of cheese, fold and eat!

If you have more time, you could make your own flatbread wraps.

Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes is hosting a sandwich themed No Croutons Required this month, which is handy, as I wrote this post just before I found out the theme!

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Vegetarian Chicken-Style 'Parmesan'

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I was trying to think of something different to cook for dinner the other night and turned to some of my favourite vegetarian blogs for inspiration. It wasn't long before I found this lovely, simple but tasty looking recipe from Mary at Meatless Mediterranean. Mary calls this dish Mock-Chicken Patties with Parmesan, and she has graciously allowed me to reproduce an Anglicised version of her recipe using UK ingredients/cooking terms (I have also tweaked the cooking method, to one which suited me better.)

I served this dish with penne pasta; all the family loved it and have asked me to cook it again soon (and it's not often that happens!)

Serves 4

For this recipe, I used Sainsbury's meat-free chicken style burgers (which only cost £1 for 4). I also used Sainsbury's basic mozzarella cheese and economy pasta, so I reckon the whole meal for 4 of us cost about £2.50 to make from scratch. It also only took about 30 minutes to cook.

You could also use Tivall schnitzels, Quorn chicken-style burgers or any of the other mock chicken fillets you can buy either with or without breadcrumbs. 

• 2 cups/500ml of Classic Marinara Sauce or your favourite tomato-based pasta sauce
• 4 vegetarian breaded "chicken" burgers
• ½ cup grated mozzarella cheese (I used a 125g ball of mozzarella instead)
• 2 tablespoon grated vegetarian Parmesan-style cheese, plus additional for serving, if desired
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (optional)

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Heat oven to 180C/170C Fan/350 F/Gas 4.

In a small saucepan, heat the marinara sauce over medium-low heat until it is warm but not boiling.

Meanwhile, place the burgers in a heatproof dish and bake for 15 minutes, then remove the burgers from the dish and keep to one side.

Spread 1 cup of the marinara sauce in the bottom of the dish. Top with the burgers and then pour the remaining sauce over. Sprinkle the mozzarella evenly over the top and then finish with the Parmesan-style cheese. Return to the oven and bake for a further 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and the sauce is bubbling . 

Once cooked, sprinkle with the parsley, if using.

Serve with additional Parmesan-style cheese for topping, as desired.

Alternatives: For a vegan version use a melting dairy-free cheese and vegan Parmesan.

Not suitable for freezing.

Recipe reproduced with kind permission from Meatless Mediterranean.

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Spinach, Red Pepper and Goat's Cheese Quiche

The name of this recipe has given me a headache, as I'm a bit of a stickler for apostrophes being in the right place. Should I use goat's cheese, goats' cheese or just plain old goats cheese in this quiche? I came to the conclusion that goats' cheese was correct, as the milk making the cheese must come from more than one goat, however after googling and reading this amusing article, I've gone for goat's cheese. Please do leave me a comment, if you object to this and think I should have gone for goats' cheese after all!

Easy Pastry

• 200g/8oz plain flour
• 100g/4oz cold block butter, cut into cubes
• cold water 

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs (or blitz in the food processor for a few seconds. Add just enough cold water to bring the mixture together into quite a firm dough (I used 4 tbsp).

Wrap in cling-film and chill for at least an hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 190 C/180 C Fan/ Gas 5/375 F

Roll out the pastry on a floured board and line a greased 20cm/8" sandwich cake tin or flan tin.

Bake blind for 12-15 minutes or until it's just starting to colour.

Remove from the oven and reduce the heat to 170 C/160 C Fan/ Gas 3/325 F

Filling

• 1 red onion, cut in half and sliced finely
• 1 large red bell pepper, de-seeded and sliced finely
• 75g/3oz washed baby spinach
• 75g/3oz soft or hard goat's cheese (chopped or grated)
• 150ml/5 fl oz double cream
• 2 medium eggs, beaten
• ½ tsp ground fennel seeds
• Black pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan. Add the fennel seeds, black pepper, onion and red pepper and saute until the vegetables are soft and just starting to colour. Then add the spinach leaves and chopped dill and allow to wilt for a minute or two. Remove from the heat.

Mix the eggs, cream and cheese together.

Spoon the vegetables into the pastry case.

Pour the egg mixture over.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the filling is golden brown and set firmly.

Serve hot, warm or cold with sautéed new potatoes and salad.

Suitable for freezing.

Alternatives: You could use almost any combination of vegetables in this quiche.

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Farewell and bon voyage!

image from istockphoto

This is a sad post for me to write. I'm about to lose one of my oldest and closest friends (I'll call her Scarlet as I think she'd like that!), as she's emigrating with her family to Australia today. Well, I suppose I'm not really going to lose her as we'll be in regular contact thanks to the modern wonders of Skype and Facebook, but that's how it feels. 

Scarlet and I met at uni many years ago and soon realised we both had a similar outlook on life and taste in music (and luckily not a similar taste in men!). 

During our uni days, we passed many a happy hour at the student union when we probably should have been studying at the library or writing assignments, and while other friends moved on to pastures new, we remained living in the same town after we graduated. Our lives changed quite drastically over the years, but we were there for each other through the highs and the lows. 

We often moaned about our jobs and gossiped about our respective work colleagues, either over the phone or over a cup of tea and a piece of cake. She was a bridesmaid at my wedding and my girls were bridesmaids at hers; we celebrated our 30th birthdays together and commiserated when we hit 40! 

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I'm not sure if she's ever read my blog (she knows I write one, but I haven't told her what it's called!), but if you do, Scarlet, I'm really going to miss you and my girls will miss your children just as much.

To make this post slightly food-related and slightly less self-indulgent, here's a photo of the Bon Voyage cake I made for Scarlet and her family!

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The Great British Bake Off - My daughter's first ever Tarte Tatin

Last week on the Great British Bake Off, the contenstants made their own rough puff pastry for a Tarte Tatin. I vaguely remember making rough puff pastry in home economics at school many years ago, and have never attempted it again since. I'm not a big pastry maker (or eater), but those tartes looked so delicious that I thought I might have a go. However, 13 year old Miss Only, decided she wanted to make one, and who was I to turn down such an offer? 

She used Sarah-Jane's Banana Tarte Tatin recipe, but swapped the bananas for apples...
Despite never having made pastry before, she found that the rough puff pastry was actually quite easy to make, with the help of a food processor. The caramel sauce was a different matter though, as the first batch didn't work - the butter didn't mix in with the caramel at all (when she swirled the pan as directed), so she took a spoon to the mixture and ended up with butterscotch! For the second batch, I suggested she melted the butter with the sugar and water before bringing it up to the boil and this worked much better.

I think the oven temperature needed to be a bit hotter than the recipe stated, as although she cooked the tarte for the recommended time, the apples released quite a lot of juice, which didn't evaporate, leaving the middle of the pastry slightly soggy. None-the-less, it tasted great and the grandparents were most impressed! 

This week's GBBO featured crème caramel, meringues and tortes - all of which sounded a bit too faffy to make, so we'll wait for next week and see whether to attempt another challenge then! Pin It

Good Natured Salads - a review and a recipe for Greek Salad

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When I was asked to review Good Natured salad products, my first thought was to test them out in a Greek salad, having recently come back from a holiday in Crete, where we enjoyed many Greek (or village) salads. Luckily we're big fans of salads in the Onykahonie household - I say luckily because some people think that's all us vegetarians eat! 

The Good Natured range consists of a variety of mainly UK produced salad crops, herbs, fruits and vegetables. What makes them different from other brands, is that they are free from pesticide residues, as they are grown using natural predators (ladybirds, not lions!) to see off the nasty crop-munching pests. This makes them slightly more expensive to buy than regular fruit and veg, but a similar price to organically-produced products.
The vine tomatoes and cucumber we tested looked pretty enough and tasted as good as any organic salad products we've eaten. I can't say that I would be prepared to pay the extra for them (having stopped receiving an organic box for cost reasons), but I would certainly prefer to see wide-spread use of this method of horticulture to help decrease both the price of pesticide-free fruit and vegetables and the use of pesticides in the UK. There is more information about the way Good Natured products are grown here. 
Find Good Natured products in larger ASDA stores. Look out for the labelled products in green boxes.

Greek salad

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• 1 small lettuce, washed and shredded
• ½ cucumber, cut in half and sliced
• 2 large vine tomatoes, cut into chunks
• 1 green pepper, sliced thinly
• ½ small onion, sliced thinly
• a handful of Greek olives
• 125g Greek feta cheese, sliced thickly
• dried oregano and olive oil to serve.

Place the lettuce at the bottom of a bowl. 
Scatter the remaining salad ingredients over. Top with the feta cheese and sprinkle of dried oregano. Drizzle a little olive oil over to serve.

Integrity Statement
I received a voucher towards the purchase price of Good Natured products. I was not required to write a positive review and the views expressed are genuinely those of myself and my family. 

Logo used with kind permission from Good Natured ©

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My attempts at an 8 strand plaited loaf!

I'm getting a bit bored of a certain well-known competitive cooking show, as it's becoming too competitive, too 'professional' and far too pretentious for my liking (honestly, who really cooks anything in a sous vide?). But, I'm loving this series of the Great British Bake Off, as it has kept its gentle tweeness, thanks mainly I think to the well-chosen and generally pleasant range of contestants, the knowledgeable (but not patronising) experts Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry and to the lovely Mel and Sue, who co-present the programme.

So far, in this series, I've been inspired to have a go at baking the rather tricky looking 8 strand plaited loaf. Before this, I'd only ever attempted a rather pedestrian 3 stranded plait. The instructions for plaiting the dough were a bit confusing at first, but once I understood what they meant, my plait started to grow and actually looked quite like the ones on the programme!

With my first attempt (above), I followed the GBBO recipe to the letter, despite having reservations about the amount of yeast used (I would usually only use one sachet for that amount of flour). I think this resulted in the bread over-proving, as the resulting loaf was flatter than I expected, had quite a close texture and wasn't particularly tasty.

My second attempt (left) was with my tried and tested challah recipe. As this dough is softer than a plain bread dough, it was slightly more difficult to plait and the resulting loaf wasn't quite as neat as my first attempt. It did, hower, taste better!

I've entered this post on this month's Fresh from the Oven linky over on Fuss Free Flavours (started by Claire at Purely Food and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy) . Pin It

Beautiful Days Festival 2012 - A review

The law of averages should have meant that our third festival of the year was a dry one, having been to two wet and muddy festvals earlier in the year, but no; when we arrived at the rural Devon campsite for our first Beautiful Days festival it was peeing down with precipitation.

We parked the car, loaded up the trolley and then headed on down the hill to the family camping areas. We settled on a spot away from the main paths (which turned out to be a good idea as the paths soon turned into muddy canals!), but fairly near a set of portaloos and a water tap. Once the tent was pitched, we cracked open a beer (and a couple of cans of Coke for the girls), sat in the tent and hoped it would stop raining; it did briefly, giving me just enough time to cook up some veggie burgers for tea, but then started again and continued for the rest of the night...

Friday was the first proper day of the festival and after waking up and finding the tent had leaked in the night (oh the joys of camping!), I cooked breakfast in the rain. We then headed off through the by now rather squelchy campsite, to see the Levellers kick off with an amazing acoustic set in the very packed Big Top. We explored the rest of the festival site in the afternoon and were impressed by the number of food and craft stalls. There were plenty of veggie and vegan options, although the food was a little pricey, as festival food always is. There was also a 'general store' which sold basic foods like bread, juice, milk, cheese and eggs at a reasonable price. 

We weren't quite as impressed with the number of portaloos available which often meant a good 15 minute or so wait, followed by a treacherous amble through the quagmire that surrounded each line of toilets...not so easy to navigate for those with young children (or after a couple of drinks!)

The kids' area ©

The festival won the best family festival award last year and I could see why; as well as family-friendly entertainment each morning in the theatre tent, the designated kids' areas looked great, with everything from fairground rides and craft activities to theatre and music workshops, but the girls felt too old for the kids' activities (accompanied by us) and too young for the teenagers' tent (where understandably, no parents were allowed!). Instead we all stayed together and watched various other acts that day, including a couple of lesser known bands at the small and intimate Bimble Inn and ending up with a fantastic set by Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls back on the Main Stage.

By Saturday the weather had started to pick up, but the ground underfoot was beyond redemption even inside the marquees (thank goodness I packed the wellies and waterproof picnic mat!). Luckily The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican were our first stop at the Band Stand and they soon made us forget about the mud with their humorous renditions of familiar songs with alternative lyrics...Waterloo Portaloo particularly made us laugh, especially when the portaloo cleaning crew turned up to empty the adjacent toilets halfway through the song!

Next stop was the Big Top to watch The Jam Tarts Choir (singing choral versions of indie/rock songs), which was a refreshing change from the usual festival acts and went down well with the crowd. Later on, we only caught a few Billy Bragg songs, despite me being a fan since the 80's, as by the time he came on the weather had picked up and the sun was shining. Unfortunately this had the effect of turning the Big Top into a sauna with the evaporating moisture from all the mud! Instead, we found a nice spot up on the bank in the main arena and settled down to watch the remaining acts on the Main Stage, which included Bellowhead, New Model Army and PIL.

Sunday started with another grey morning, but soon brightened up both weather-wise and visually with the colourful selection of festival goers' heart-themed attire (the dressing-up theme for Sunday was hearts, if you hadn't guessed); we felt slightly under dressed in our shop-bought, heart emblazoned T-Shirts, as some of the other outfits were real works of art.

After seeing a couple of acts at the Band Stand, we watched the hilarious Le Navet Bete's  - Napoleon A Defence in the theatre tent. We then headed to find our usual spot in the main arena, which was already getting pretty full. The girls and I hit the shops while Mr O soaked up the ambience and a pint of cider. We all watched the last acts on the Main Stage together, which included Alabama 3, Waterboys and of course the Levellers once again with a rousing firework finale.

So did we have a beautiful time at Beautiful Days? Yes!

Part of the family camping area ©

Overall, we were really impressed with the organisation and layout of the festival, the wide range of acts and the general family-friendly, laid-back atmosphere. My only criticisms were that there weren't enough toilets,the showers were a long way from the family camping area, and that a few more contingencies could have been made for the expected mud, especially around the portaloos and main pathways, such as boarding or extra bark chippings etc to soak up some of the moisture. I have since heard about instances of  'youths' up to nocturnal mischief and mayhem in some of the other camping areas, but luckily we didn't witness this first hand and were actually impressed with the behaviour of the vast majority of fellow festival-goers.

You can read my festival guide with meal ideas here.
Visit Festival Kidz for more family-friendly festival reviews, tips and info.

Integrity Statement
I paid for the tickets to Beautiful Days myself and was not asked to write a positive review. The views expressed are my own and those of my family.

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Black Forest Muffins (with a vegan option)

Baking Mad asked if I would like to test out another one of their recipes, this time using Silver Spoon Homegrown sugar, which is the ONLY sugar grown in Britain. As I already buy Silver Spoon products, I was happy to oblige.

"Silver Spoon sugars are made from sugar beet . The sugar beet that goes into Silver Spoon sugars travels a short distance to the factory (an average of only 28 miles) direct from the fields around Bury St Edmunds in East Anglia. Silver Spoon work with 1,200 local farmers to grown the beet, which is then made into their range of homegrown sugars for families all over the country."   The first 10,000 people to register with Baking Mad before 30th September 2012 will receive a free Silver Spoon mystery gift (UK only).  

I decided to go for the rather indulgent looking Black Forest Muffins, as cherries are cheap and plentiful in the UK at the moment. These are quite time consuming to make (compared to simple muffins), with the cherry pitting and soaking, but worth the effort for a special dessert. I cooked two batches - one non-vegan and one vegan - as I didn't want my lovely vegan readers to miss out on these (the vegan variations are in italics). Of course, that meant a lot of muffins to eat, but my family bravely stepped up to the mark and helped out!

For the muffins:

• 450 g fresh cherries pitted and halved
• 2-4 tbsp kirsch, white rum or cherry brandy
• 150 ml water
• 110 g dark chocolate chips (Silver Spoon Create) - v.o dairy free chocolate
• 225 g unsalted butter, softened v.o dairy free spread
• 175 g caster sugar (Silver Spoon Homegrown)
• 3 free range eggs - v.o option Orgran No Egg or similar egg replacer
• 400 g plain flour 
• 50 g cocoa powder
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 140 ml sour cream - v.o dairy free vanilla or plain yogurt

For the topping:

• 400 ml double cream
• 3 tbsp caster sugar (Silver Spoon Homegrown)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Vegan topping:

• 200g icing sugar (Silver Spoon Homegrown)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Boiled water to mix

Plus:

• 12 cherries to decorate
• Chocolate shavings or chocolate chips, to decorate - v.o dairy free chocolate

Method
Combine cherry halves with the kirsch, cover and set aside over night or for at least 2 hours. 

Heat the oven to 180°C/170 °C Fan Oven/350°F/gas 4.

Place paper cases in a 16 hole muffin tin.

In a small pan, over a low heat combine the water and chocolate chips. Heat, stirring frequently until the chocolate has melted. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

(For the vegan option, at this stage cream the sugar and dairy free spread, then add the remaining muffin ingredients including egg-replacer and mix until just combined. Then continue as for regular muffins.)

In a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the cooled chocolate, scraping the sides of the pan and mix thoroughly.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture in batches, alternating with the soured cream, mixing on low speed to incorporate.

Spoon half of the mixture into the paper cases, add a spoonful of cherries - about 6 halves - (reserving the liquid) and top with the remaining cake mixture, so that the paper cases are filled to the top. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until firm to the touch. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes; turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.

Using a skewer or cocktail stick, poke several holes in the top of the muffins. Drizzle or brush the reserved cherry liquid over the top of the muffins and allow to soak in.

Toppings
For the whipped cream: whisk the cream until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla and whisk until incorporated. Place a spoonful of whipped cream on top of each cupcake. 
For the vegan topping: Mix the icing sugar with the vanilla and just enough water to make a thick, but spreadable icing.
Decorate with fresh cherries and shaved chocolate. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

The Verdict
Not bad at all! The vegan muffins were a pretty good match for the non-vegan ones both in appearance and taste. In my photos above, you can see the slightly more bumpy-looking vegan muffins in the plain cake cakes and the non-vegan ones in the patterned cases.I found that both batches were a little drier than expected though, so I've reduced the amount of flour in the recipe above (compared to the original recipe from Baking Mad). I also felt that the original mixture didn't look dark/chocolaty enough, so I also added some cocoa powder. When I bake these again, I'll  mix the cherries and kirsch into the batter so they're distributed through the cakes rather than in one layer in the middle, as I think this will improve the taste and moistness of the cakes.

Integrity Statement
This is a sponsored post. I received free cooking ingredients (sugar, flour, chocolate chips and vanilla extract) in return for mentioning Silver Spoon Homegrown Sugar and Baking Mad. Original recipe courtesy of Baking Mad.

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Challah

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I make quite a lot of bread using my bread machine, but I haven't got round to blogging many of my recipes, mainly because home made bread tends to get eaten pretty well straight away in my house! Anyway, Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes got me inspired to do some baking blogging after reading about a bread making class she went to...

This recipe is for challah, which is a soft and slightly sweet bread and is great for breakfast. I remember that I used to love eating it as a child, although we used to call it poppy seed bread. I didn't learn its real name or know that it was a Jewish celebration bread, until I found a recipe for it after investing in a bread maker a few years ago. 

Challah is quite expensive to buy in the shops, so making your own is much cheaper and tastes just as good. My recipe is a simplified one, which I make using the dough setting on my bread machine.

• 4 cups strong white bread flour
• 1 cup cold water
• 2 medium eggs, beaten
• 2 tbsp honey or golden syrup
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter
• 1 sachet fast action dried yeast
• 1 tbsp poppy seeds

Beat the eggs and then reserve about 1 tbsp for the glaze. Place the eggs in a measuring cup and top up to the 1 cup mark with cold water. Add to the bread pan and then add a further ⅓ cup of water (to make 1⅓ cups of liquid in total).

Add the remaining ingredients, except the poppy seeds, to the pan.
Set the bread maker on its 'dough' setting and allow to run. 
If the dough feels sticky at the end of the programme, add a little more flour and kneed it in.

Divide the dough into 3, 4 or 5 pieces (depending on how good your plaiting skills are!) and roll into long thin sausage shapes. Try not to use any extra flour at this stage as this will stop the braided dough sticking together.

Press one end of each piece of dough together and then start to plait them. Once you've finished plaiting, press all the other end pieces together.
Place onto a well greased baking tray and tuck both ends under the loaf slightly to stop them unravelling.

Cover loosely with a clean tea towel or some cling film and allow to rise in a warm place for around 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 190C/180C Fan/375F/Gas5.

Glaze the loaf with the remaining beaten egg and sprinkle with the poppy seeds.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until it's golden brown and sounds hollow if you tap on the base.

Suitable for freezing.

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Reggae Reggae Chickpeas (Vegan)

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This is a recipe for a kind of spicy version of baked beans, using the original Reggae Reggae Sauce (as I had an opened bottle which needed using up!). Although I used chickpeas, this would work well with other pulses too.

Serves 4

• 1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 red onion, diced finely 
• 4 tbsp tomato purée
• 4 tbsp Reggae Reggae Sauce
• 125ml/½ cup boiling water or hot vegetable stock
• ½ tsp dried or 1 tsp fresh thyme

• around 450g/1 lb chopped, or sliced seasonal vegetables (e.g. bell pepper, courgette, sweet corn, carrot, etc)
• 1-2 tsp mild chilli powder

Gently fry the onion in a little oil until softened.

Stir in the tomato purée, Reggae Reggae sauce and thyme and cook for a further minute.

Add the chickpeas and water and stir.

Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the sauce has thickened up. 

Meanwhile, roast or fry some chopped seasonal vegetables, with 1 tbsp olive oil and sprinkle with the mild chilli powder.

Serve the chickpeas and vegetables with rice or in wraps.

Alternatives: If you can't find Reggae Reggae sauce, use a spicy jerk or barbecue sauce instead.

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