Recipes

Stichelton & Smoked Bacon Salad

/ Claire / Leave a comment

Stichelton is a delicious, unpasteurised blue cheese, made to the original Stilton recipe at the Welbeck Dairy in Nottinghamshire.  I first tried this at the School of Artisan Food on the Welbeck estate, at one of their amazing lunches during a baking course.

Stilton and bacon salad plate

I bought my cheese from the Welbeck farm shop, where I can easily spend way too much money as there are so many good things to buy!  I love it with the apple sourdough that I always buy a loaf of when I go there too.

Stilton and bacon salad

Blue cheese and bacon go so well together and with the addition of toasted pecans and a few tart, dried cranberries, this salad is one of my favourite lunches.  Sometimes I add grilled chicken for a substantial warm salad that is good any time of the year.  I serve this with a simple honey and mustard dressing

I usually use smoked streaky bacon for this salad, but I bought some black treacle cured, smoked back bacon today, which worked really well.

Stilton bacon salad closeup

This is enough for 1-2 people, but the quantities can easily be increased.

Ingredients:
Mixed salad leaves – baby leaves, spinach, Rocket/Arugula, Romaine – anything you like
4-6 slices of good quality smoked streaky bacon with the rind removed or 2-3 slices of black treacle cured smoky back bacon
Stichelton or Stilton blue cheese at room temperature with the rind removed
Red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
A handful of pecans, toasted in the oven for 5 minutes
A few craisins (dried cranberries)

Dressing:
1tsp Dijon mustard
1tsp Wholegrain mustard
2tsp Runny honey
4tsp Extra virgin olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper if desired

Pre heat the oven to 220°C/430°F

Line a baking sheet with foil and place the bacon on the sheet. Cook for around 10 minutes or until crisp and chop into rough pieces.

Arrange the leaves, warm pecans, cranberries and tomatoes on the plate and whisk the ingredients for the dressing until you have a nice, slightly thickened consistency.

Stilton bacon closeup

Toss the salad gently in the dressing. Break the Stichelton into large crumbles and top with the hot bacon, toss gently once more and serve immediately.

Mini Cheddleton & Chive Scones

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These little bite-sized scones are made with Cheddleton from the Staffordshire Cheese Company, which is a creamy and quite crumbly cheese with a nice tang. It goes perfectly with the freshly snipped chives that are in these little scones. These are very nice, served warm with proper butter.

Cheese chive scones

Ingredients:
250g of self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1tsp English mustard powder
125g cold butter – cut into small cubes
150g grated Cheddleton Cheese plus extra for topping with
2tbs finely chopped chives
120ml whole/full fat milk
1 egg beaten and a little milk to make an egg wash

Method:
Sieve the flour, baking powder, mustard and salt in a bowl with the paddle attachment fitted. Add the cold, diced butter and mix until the butter is mixed into the flour but still visible.

Add the cheese and milk and mix until just combined.

Form a flattish disc and wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C/425 degrees F

When you are ready to back, turn onto a floured board and roll out to around 2.5cm thick and use a small round cutter – around 2cm.

Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment or silicon mat and brush the tops with a little egg wash and more of the grated cheese.

cheese and chive scones

Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden and well risen.

Best served warm from the oven with salted butter and perhaps a glass of wine.

Cheese scone butter

Blackberry & Lemon Friands

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Blackberries are in season right now and perfect for friands

Blackberry friands

Ingredients:
6 large egg whites/250ml Two Chicks pasteurised egg whites
250g icing/powdered sugar, sieved
130g ground almonds
95g plain flour, sieved
Zest of one un-waxed lemon
160g melted butter
Blackberries – I got giant ones, so used 2-3 per cake

Preheat the oven to 180°C and butter the friand tin

Friands are so easy to make and once you have shelled out for the tin, there are so many variations to make. These can easily be made in a muffin pan too.

Blackberries are in season at the moment and I picked up some huge, absolutely delicious and sweet blackberries on special offer this weekend. The combination of the lemony cake, studded with the big juicy blackberries were a real hit in my house.

Blackberry Friands2

Method:
Briefly whisk the egg whites until broken down and a little frothy, you do not need whip them.

Add the zest, butter, icing sugar and fold in the flour until just combined.

Spoon a little mixture into each hole in the prepared tin and place in a blackberry or two. Cover the berries with the rest of the mixture, divided equally between all the holes and place another blackberry (or two) on the top.

Blackberry Friand2

Bake for around 30 minutes, until they have risen, turned golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leave to rest for 15 minutes before gently turning out onto a wire cooling rack and dust with icing sugar and a little extra lemon zest if you like.

Blackberry Friand