Maple Syrup

Plum and Pecan Friands with a Maple Glaze

/ Claire / Leave a comment

This is my first friand recipe using autumnal flavours. The plums that are in season at the moment are delicious – sweet and winey. They are great just eaten on their own and the children love eating them, but they are lovely to cook with too.

plum pecan friands

These friands are made with ground pecans rather than the usual ground almonds. My eldest son says he doesn’t like pecans (what is wrong with him?) but he liked these very much. He did remove the pecan on the top though!

The flavour of the pecans is lovely and goes so well with the cinnamon and orange zest and the seasonal fresh plums are delicious. The maple glaze is optional really, but really works well with all the flavours.

Plum Pecan friand 3

The first batch of these turned out a little wet, so after I have chopped the plums, I place them on some kitchen paper to absorb a little of the moisture. You only have to do that if the plums are extra juicy though.

Plum Pecan friand closeup

Ingredients:
6 large egg whites/250ml Two Chicks pasteurised egg whites
250g icing sugar
130g pecans + 12 extra to top each cake
100g plain/all-purpose flour – sieved with 2tsp cinnamon
Zest of an un-waxed orange
160g melted butter + extra for greasing the tin
5 small ripe plums – chopped into small pieces and placed on some kitchen paper

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

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C and brush the pan with the extra melted butter

Tip the pecans into the food processor, a coffee grinder, or I used the milling attachment on my Nutribullet and pulse the pecans until they are completely ground into crumbs. Make sure you keep agitating the nuts to keep them on the move, otherwise, as they are quite moist, you can end up with pecan butter.

Tip the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment and mix until broken down and frothy. Add the butter and zest and whip until fluffy.

On low speed, add the ground pecans, icing sugar, flour and cinnamon until just combined. Stir in the plums by hand.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. I use an ice cream scoop to do this as I make less mess.

Plum Pecan friands closeup2

Place a pecan nut on the top of each cake and bake for 30-35 minutes or until they have risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leave to rest for at least 15 minutes before gently turning out onto a wire cooling rack. I actually left these until they were almost cool because they are quite delicate.

Leave to cool completely before making the glaze.

Plum Pecan friand closeup1

For the glaze, simply stir maple syrup into the icing sugar until you have a runny consistency and drizzle back and forth over the cooled cakes.

These are delicious served with coffee, but would be perfect for an autumn picnic too.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

/ Claire / Leave a comment

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes with Zesty Whipped Orange Butter.

These are delicious for a special weekend breakfast, or for those times when only pancakes will do.

Pancakes3

Butter:
4oz/113g room temperature butter
1tbs icing sugar
Zest of 1 clementine or small orange
1tbs freshly squeezed juice from the clementine or orange
Pinch of cinnamon – optional

Mix all the ingredients together using an electric whisk until completely whipped.

Pile onto greaseproof paper and roll into a sausage, twisting the ends to secure. Refrigerate until needed.

Pancakes:
2 eggs – separated
1 ½ cups/210g plain/all-purpose flour
¼ cup/50g sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup/113ml buttermilk
½ cup/113ml whole milk
3tbs/43g melted butter – allowed to cool
1 cup/160g blueberries
Warm maple syrup for serving

Beat the egg whites until they stand in stiff peaks.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt and stir in sugar.

In another bowl or jug, beat the egg yolks, buttermilk, milk and melted butter together.

Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until combined, but being careful not over-mix.  Fold in the egg whites.

Ladle the batter onto a hot greased griddle or heavy based pan and sprinkle the blueberries into the wet mixture.  When bubbles appear on the top, flip them over to cook the other side.

Serve with a slice or two of the zesty orange butter and warm maple syrup.

This recipe also works really well substituting the blueberries for any other berries or dried fruit such as raisins, cranberries, chopped apricots or apples

Pumpkin Coffee Cake with a Maple Glaze

/ Claire / Leave a comment

The Perfect cake for the Autumnal season – a cinnamon spiced sour cream pumpkin coffee cake, topped with a maple glaze.

pumpkin cake

Ever since I was a child, I have always loved pumpkins.  Photos of endless fields of the orange beauties, the way people decorate their porches with them, the scary carved ones that grin on Halloween.  I even had a story about an evil one!  There is something about them that is deliciously Autumnal, which is, of course, the best season of all – I think so anyway.

In the story about the evil pumpkin, the people who owned the pumpkin farm also sold lots of pumpkin products – cakes, breads, cookies etc.  I wanted to find out about how to make pumpkin treats like this and as I grew older, I discovered the huge array of recipes that you can add pumpkin to.  Growing up in England, there wasn’t much pumpkin around really and the first time I ever made a batch of pumpkin pancakes that I had seen online, I had to make my own puree the long way round.  Canned pumpkin is still not readily available everywhere and I buy my cans online, but once I had tried my first taste of pumpkin pancake, I was hooked!

I wanted to make a pumpkin coffee cake, so experimented with various coffee cake recipes, until I settled on this version.  It’s a moist and tender sponge with that unmistakable pumpkin flavour and the spices make the house smell wonderfully autumnal while it bakes.  The maple syrup glaze really makes it a showstopper.

pumpkin cake close up

Streusel:
½ cup of packed brown sugar
¾ cup of plain/all-purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ stick of cold butter, cut into cubes

Cake:
3 cups of plain/all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 ½ stick of butter
1 cup of pumpkin puree
1 cup sour cream
3 large eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt

Glaze:
½ cup icing sugar/confectioners’ sugar
2 tbs maple syrup
½ tsp maple extract (optional)

Method:
Butter and flour a tube pan and pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F

Place the streusel ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix until the butter has been worked into the flour and sugar and is in crumbles.  You can also do this with your hands.  Set aside.

For the cake, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  I do this in the stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment and leave it going for around 4-5 minutes.

Then add the eggs one at a time, making sure each one is fully incorporated before adding the next one.  Add the vanilla, sour cream and pumpkin and mix well.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and soda into another bowl, along with the pumpkin pie spice and with the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Finish by hand rather than risk over-mixing.

Spoon half the batter into the tube pan, and smooth out the top.  Sprinkle over half the streusel mixture and then top with the remaining batter.  Finish by sprinkling the rest of the streusel mixture over the top of the cake batter and bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, then turn out onto your cake plate and allow completely.  If you try to glaze when the cake is still warm, it will just melt and run off.

Mix the glaze ingredients until it is a thick consistency that will drizzle.  Add more syrup if too thick or more sugar if it’s too runny.

Drizzle the glaze over the cake, back and forth until you have the desired coverage.

pumpkin cake plate