Autumn baked apples with pecan and dried fruit stuffing

It is that time of year again. It is getting cold, wet and blustery outside, Autumn is now in full swing. The rain was so heavy this evening that my bicycle brakes failed on me as I was hurtling down a hill, narrowly missing a head on collision with an oncoming bus. Thankfully I weaved onto the path just in time, but it put the s**ts up me enough to think it may be time to buy that new bike I've been banging on about for an eternity. But anyway, enough about my near-death experiences, Autumn is a time of soft fruits, golden trees, soft light and harvest moons. I do love this time of year.

This is a proper Autumnal recipe. Hot, soft baked apples with nuts and dried fruit and a big dollop of hot custard. I imagine Greek yogurt would go well with this too, or good quality ice cream. This recipe wasn't spiced, however to make this an even more special seasonal dish, adding any or all of the traditional Christmas spices* could set this recipe alight.

This is my Mum's recipes. She doesn't remember where she got it from, so all measurements are estimated (as with all my recipes.. sorry, it runs in the family). It is really easy, and you can use whatever you have in the cupboards. It is highly adaptable. The recipe can easily be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, whatever you like. A great, easy, healthy dessert.

Autumn baked apples with pecan and dried fruit stuffing 

 Serves 3 (can easily be doubled)
3 large eating apples
30g butter/ non-dairy margarine
45g demarera sugar
1 tsp mixed spice* (see below, optional)
Handful pecans (and/or other nuts, flaked almonds are LOVELY)
Handful raisins, sultanas, cranberries (or whatever you have)

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Core the apples using an apple corer
3. Score the outside of the apples, just above the centre
4. Mix the butter, sugar, spice (if using), nuts and fruits together in a bowl
5. Stuff the mixture into the cored apples
6. Place the apples in an oven proof dish
7. Pile any extra mixture on top of the apples
8. Add a splash of water to the dish to help the apples soften in the oven
9. Place in the oven for around 35 minutes, until the apples are soft
10. Place an uncooked pecan on top of each baked apple
11. Serve with custard, Greek yogurt or ice cream

*Spice mix
You can buy mixed spice from the supermarket, or make your own.
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground allspice
1tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cloves
1tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground coriander

1. Blend all spices together, and store in a sealed jar away from light.

Spinach Pesto pasta

I made this to carb load the night before my triathlon (yes I have now completed my first triathlon and am very smug, I came 8th). It was perfect because it had wholemeal carbohydrates for energy, protein from the nuts, iron from the spinach and olive oil for the heart. My pesto is vegan as I don't add cheese, but you can add some if you like.

This meal was a favorite in my student house as it is cheap. To make it cheaper I often use walnuts, sunflower seeds or mixed nuts instead of pine nuts.

Sorry about the picture, again I forgot to take a picture of the actual meal so this is a photo of the leftovers. The main meal also included a huge avocado salad and rye and spelt bread, mmm.

Spinach Pesto Pasta

Serves 3
180g Wholemeal pasta
2 large handfuls fresh spinach (or 4-5 blocks frozen spinach, thawed)
Handful fresh basil (optional, this meal did not include this)
Handful pine nuts (or other nuts or seeds)
1 clove garlic
Olive oil
Nutritional Yeast*/ Cheese (optional, I didn't use any but you can add some if you wish)
Salt and pepper

1.  Place the wholemeal pasta in boiling salted water, cover and leave to cook according to packet instructions. Once cooked, drain.
2. In a dry pan over a high heat, add the pine nuts (or alternative) and toast until they have taken on a golden colour. 
3. Also add the garlic (skin still on) to the pan to cook a little to take away the strength of raw garlic. Once the garlic looks browned, crush and finely chop.
4. In a blender or food processor, add the spinach, basil (if adding), toasted pine nuts, garlic, nutritional yeast/cheese (if using), salt and pepper. 
5. Add about 1tbsp olive oil and begin to process. Slowly keep on adding olive oil until the ingredients have mixed and it has formed a paste. 
6. Check seasonings, add to the cooked pasta and serve with a big salad and good bread.

*Nutritional yeast has a nutty savory flavour, similar to cheese. You can get it from most good health food stores. It is great in pesto, mashed potato, anything that needs that savory taste that cheese can bring.

Chestnut, sundried tomato and sweet potato loaf

Sitting down with the family at Christmas and Easter normally makes me feel a little left out, with my own 'special' potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sausages and of course the main star of the show to replace the meat, whatever it may be that I have dreamt up this time. I am always trying to find something special to make for these family meals, and for the 6 or so years I have been vegetarian, I have struggled to find the 'perfect' vegetarian alternative. Sometimes I am so uninspired I just have veggie sausages or Quorn fillets. However, I can now say this loaf  could be a contender, with a few tweaks here and there.

Since turning vegetarian, I have learnt to cook. My mum wasn't very happy when I decided to turn veggie, and put her foot down saying something along the lines of "if you want to be vegetarian you bloody well cook vegetarian", so I did. I'm glad she did, because I probably wouldn't have found such a passion for cooking. It has also meant I cook alongside my mum when the family are together, giving us mother/daughter 'bonding' time, and an extra pair of hands (and taste buds).

I made this for Easter, and got lots of ooohs and aaaaahs when I brought it out. Even though the rest of the family had their turkey, they all helped themselves to my loaf. Definitely a great centrepiece to a vegetarian dinner table, and one I will keep on experimenting with.

Chestnut and sweet potato loaf

Serves 6
110g fresh breadcrumbs
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp fresh rosemary or 1/2 tsp of dried
1 handful of fresh basil, chopped
10 to 12 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
200g vacuum-packed chestnuts, roughly chopped*
70g walnuts
1 egg, beaten
2 medium-sized sweet potatoes
300g fresh spinach
Grated nutmeg
Butter
Decorate with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh rosemary

*I used Merchant Gourmet pre-cooked chestnuts. You can get these from nearly all the major supermarkets.

1. Peel and chop the sweet potato into about 1 inch chunks and place in boiling salted water over a medium heat for around 8-10 minutes, or until soft. Drain and mash with a little butter and seasoning.
2. Cook the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft and translucent.
3. Combine all other ingredients (except sweet potato and spinach) in a bowl. Next add onion mix and stir in sweet potato and combine.
4. Place spinach in a heatproof bowl. Pour hot water over spinach to wilt. Drain, chop and mix with a little butter and grated nutmeg.
5. Grease 500g loaf tin and add half of nut mix, pressing down. Then pile in the spinach. Top with rest of nut mixture.
6. Cover with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes at gas mark 4/180°C/fan 160°C, remove foil for last 10 minutes to brown top. Leave to stand for 10 minutes before turning out.
7. Decorate with sun-dried tomatoes and rosemary.

P.s. Mine looks huge because I used 2 MASSIVE sweet potatoes. Next time I cook this I will weigh the sweet potato, as 'medium' or 'large' doesn't really give you a good indication of how much you need.

Macadamia and cranberry cookies, and chocolate chunk cookies

As with most offices, if it's your birthday or you get promoted (as in my case), it is etiquette to bring in naughty treats. Now, both my bosses are quite wonderful at baking, so I felt obliged to have a go myself. You may have noticed that I haven't posted any sweet recipes on my blog yet, and there is a very good reason for that. I'm very inexperienced when it comes to baking, but I'm willing to give anything a go, so I tried three (bit ambitious) types of cookie. One was a complete disaster. When trying to make cinnamon and raisin cookies I got through half of one recipe, realised I didn't have half of the ingredients, so swapped to another. I didn't however think to look at the difference in butter and sugar, or how many cookies it made, and my new recipe ended up having three times the amount of butter and sugar than it should have. They turned out rather flat and ugly, but funny enough they were the first to go at work. Human instinct once again makes us go for the most overly fatty sugary thing on offer.

Another couple of recipes inspired by BBC Good Food. I definitely lied in my first post when I said I don't follow recipes...
Macadamia and cranberry American cookies
Gooey chocolate cherry cookies
Neither look anything like the original recipe.... oh well, I tried

Macadamia and cranberry cookies

200g butter
2 eggs
100g light muscovado sugar
175g golden caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
350g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
100g dried cranberries
100g macadamia nuts , chopped

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Beat in the butter, eggs, sugars and vanilla, preferably with an electric hand whisk, until creamy. Stir in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and cranberries and macadamias, to make a stiff dough.
2. Using a tablespoon measure or a small ice-cream scoop, drop small mounds onto a large baking dish, spacing them well apart, then poke in the nuts and berries. Bake in batches for 12 mins until pale golden, leave to harden for 1-2 mins, then cool on a wire rack.

Milk and dark chocolate chunk cookies

 Makes 20 cookies
200g unsalted butter , at room temperature
85g light muscovado sugar
85g golden caster sugar
1 egg
225g self-raising flour
100g plain chocolate , 50-70% cocoa, roughly chopped
100g milk chocolate , roughly chopped

1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Beat the butter, sugars and egg until smooth, then mix in the flour, chocolate and ½ tsp salt. Spoon onto non-stick baking sheets in large rough blobs. Make sure they are well spaced as the cookies grow substantially as they bake. The raw dough can be frozen.
2. Bake for 12-14 mins until just golden, but still quite pale and soft in the middle. If baking from frozen, give them a few mins more. Cool on the sheets for 5 mins, then lift onto racks and leave to cool completely.