Recipes

Autumn Spiced Pumpkin Friands

/ Claire / Leave a comment

These seasonal little tea cakes are made with pumpkin, spice and topped with a crunchy oatmeal streusel and a little maple glaze. They are full of autumn spices and the perfect addition to an autumn picnic, afternoon tea, or an after school snack. I also like to pop them into lunchboxes.

Pumpkin friands

Friands are so easy to make and there are so many variations to try and I think I will add a few raisins to these next time.

Ingredients:
6 large egg whites
250g icing sugar
125g ground almonds
100g plain flour
Zest of half an orange
1tbs pumpkin pie spice
160g melted butter, plus a little extra for brushing the friand tin
½ cup unsweetened pumpkin puree

Streusel:
1tbsp butter
2tbsp plain flour
tbsp rolled oats
1tbsp soft brown sugar
½tsp cinnamon

Maple Glaze:
½ cup sieved icing sugar
2-3tbs maple syrup – enough to thin

Pumpkin Friand1

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C/approx 350°F and brush the friand tin with a little melted butter.

I make my friands in a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, but they can be made just as easily by hand or using a hand mixer.

Briefly whisk the egg whites, breaking them up until they are frothy.

Add the ground almonds, pumpkin puree, zest, butter, icing sugar and then fold in the flour until just combined.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, leaving a little room for the streusel.

Pumpkin Friand

Scatter a little of the streusel over each one and bake for 25-30 minutes, until they have risen, turned golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Pumpkin Friand slice

Leave to rest for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack. Leave to cool completely before adding a little glaze.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cookies

/ Claire / 1 Comment

These cookies are full of pumpkin, spice and chocolate chunks. Just the thing for an after school snack with a glass of cold milk.

Pumpkin cookies

The cookies puff up like pillows in the oven and are super soft and chewy, but with a crisp edge.

Ingredients:
1½ cups soft brown sugar lightly packed
1 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup vegetable oil
1 extra large egg
2 cups of plain/all-purpose flour
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 tbs pumpkin pie spice
1 tsps baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 cups good quality milk chocolate chunks or chips

pumpkin cookie

Method:
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the sugar, pumpkin, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

In another bowl, sieve the flour, spice, baking powder, soda and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and then stir in the chocolate.

Let the mixture chill out for 30 minutes in the fridge, this will help the mixture firm up a little.

Pre-heat the oven to to 180°C/350°F

Using a small ice cream scoop, or a spoon, add equally sized balls of dough onto the sheet. Take care to leave room for the cookies to spread out as they bake. Flatten out the balls a little and bake for 12-15 minutes.

They will puff up and grow as they bake. These are soft and chewy cookies, so don’t over-bake. Leave to cool on the tray for a couple of minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Pumpkin cookie hand

They are lovely warm from the oven, but will get even chewier if you let them sit for a while. This recipe makes around 18 cookies, depending on how big you make them, so make sure you save some for the next day, when the flavours and texture will be even better.

Pumpkin cookie napkin

Stilton, Walnut and Apple Scones

/ Claire / Leave a comment

These savoury scones are flavoured with blue cheese, walnuts, apples and sage. They are really quick to make and just the thing to bake on an Autumn Sunday afternoon.

Stilton Walnut Scones

The secret to these is toasting the walnuts, it really brings them to life and they go so well with the Stilton and apple.

Ingredients:
380g self-raising flour
85g cold butter, cut into dice
1tsp salt
100g walnut halves
180g stilton cheese, rind removed and crumbled
1 large, crisp apple – grated and squeezed to remove most of the juice
8 sage leaves, finely shredded and chopped
200ml cream
1 egg yolk and a little milk to make an egg wash

Stilton scone closeup

Method:
Toss the walnuts in a dry pan and toast them on a medium heat. Keep them on the move and don’t let them burn. You know when they are ready as they start to smell nutty and toasted and they will take on a more golden colour – around 5 minutes. Set aside to cool, before roughly breaking up or chopping them.

Place the flour and salt in a bowl and rub in the butter. Do this by hand, or in a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. The butter should look like small peas and the mixture will be like rough breadcrumbs.

Add the sage, apple, walnuts and stir through the crumbled Stilton cheese.

Using a fork, or with the mixer on low speed, add the cream to create a rough dough. Do not overmix.

Turn out onto a floured board and wrap in plastic, forming a disc. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

When you are ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 190°C/375°F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a non-stick liner.

Roll or flatten out the dough to a thickness of around 5cm and cut out your scones. If you use a 6cm cutter, you should get around 8 altogether.

Stilton scones1

Place the scones on the lined baking sheet and brush with the egg wash.

Bake for around 20 minutes, or until baked through and the tops are golden brown.

Stilton scone open

These are lovely, hot from the oven with salted butter and perhaps some chutney and a little more of the Stilton. They make a delicious afternoon treat on a rainy autumn day.