Golden Butternut Squash Soup and Farmhouse Soda Bread

The recipe this month on my Great British Bake Off calendar is Farmhouse Soda Bread which me and my sister decided to make one day for tea before she went back to university. I really enjoy having someone to bake with. Its beginning to feel very autumnal all of a sudden so it seemed appropriate to pair the soda bread with butternut squash soup from Easy Everyday: Simple Recipes for No Fuss Food.

Soup and bread

Delicious soda bread, good crust!

Golden Butternut Squash Soup

This soup is brilliantly easy to knock together as all you do is chop all the ingredients, saute then simmer with stock and its ready in under an hour.

Serves 4

• 1 kg butternut squash, peeled
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 onions, diced
• 1.2 litres chicken or vegetable stock
• sea salt and fresh black pepper

Cut the squash in half lengthways and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Chop the flesh into 2cm pieces.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the squash, onions and garlic (we also added in one chilli at this point for a bit of kick) and saute over a low heat for ten minutes. Add the stock, bring to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes.

Using a hand-held blender, blitz the soup until smooth and creamy. Season and serve.

Farmhouse Soda Bread

• 450g plain white flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 350ml buttermilk

A non-stick baking tray

Heat the oven to 220C.

Sieve the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the buttermilk into the well and mix into the dry ingredients with your hands, to make a soft, slightly sticky, rough looking dough.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and shape into a ball. Set it on a baking tray and gently flatten so it is 3-4cm high. Using a knife score the dough with a cross. Dust with flour and bake for about 35 mins until golden brown. To test if the loaf is cooked, tap underneath with your knuckles. If it sounds hollow it is ready. If it gives a dull thud bake for a few minutes longer and test again. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Vegan Pot Luck

Last week my friend Steph held a vegan pot luck for which we made several vegan goodies. I’m not vegan myself but I am always intrigued by the food she cooks as it always tastes delicious and meat, as well as other animal products, are never missed. A “pot luck” is a meal where all the invited guests bring along something, either sweet or savoury. The “pot luck” aspect is that you never know who will bring what and, therefore, what you will be eating for tea! We chose to make ‘Pepperoni’ Pizza, Spinach and Tofu Spanakopita and Lemon and Lavender Cake. My personal favourite was the cake. Other dishes at the meal were two types of chilli, macaroni and cheese, chickpea and spinach salad, chickpea, mushroom and spinach curry, banana biscuits and coconut biscuits.

All the delicious food!

‘Pepperoni’ pizza

Making the spanakopita

Full to the brim spanakopita

Icing the cake

Lemon and lavender cake!

Spinach and Tofu Spanakopita

• I onion, diced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• a bag of spinach, blanched
• a packet of soft tofu, drained
• 1 tbsp fresh dill
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• puff pastry
• margarine, melted

Preheat the oven to about 200C. Saute the onion in a pan until soft and golden.

Place tofu in a bowl and mash with a fork. Add the dill, lemon, onion, salt and pepper and spinach. Stir thoroughly to combine.

Roll out the puff pastry and divide into nine squares. Add a large spoonful of the mixture to the centre of the pastry. Fold in half and crimp the sides to secure. Brush the tops with melted margarine and prick with a fork.

Bake for 45 minutes until golden and the filling is hot.

This recipe is from food.com

‘Pepperoni’ Pizza

• mozzarella-style cheese (i.e. vegan mozzarella cheese)
• pepperoni-style meat (i.e. vegan pepperoni)
• tomato puree or passata
• 650g strong white flour
• 7g yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 75ml olive oil
• 325ml warm water

To make the dough: mix the flour, yeast and salt together in a large bowl and stir in the olive oil.  Gradually add the water, mixing well to form a soft dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a bout 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Transfer to a clean bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for an 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size. When the dough has risen, knock back, then knead again until smooth, roll into a ball and leave to rise again for 30 minutes to an hour.

Preheat oven to highest setting. Divide dough into six and roll out each to form the base. Spread over the passata or puree and top with the toppings.

Bake in the oven until bases are crisp and golden-brown and the cheese has begun to melt.

The pizza recipe is taken from the BBC Food website

Lemon and Lavender Cake

For the cake

• 500ml soya milk
• 2 tsp cider vinegar
• 360g plain flour
• 50g cornflour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 450g caster sugar
• 160ml sunflower oil
• 4 tsp vanilla extract
• juice and zest of one lemon

For the icing

• one tub of Betty Crocker vanilla icing
• purple food colouring

For the lavender syrup

• equal parts caster sugar and water
• zest and 1 tbsp of juice of one lemon
• fresh lavender, plus two stalks to decorate

Two lined cake tins, a piping bag

To make the cake: Measure the soya milk into a jug and whisk in the cider vinegar gently. The milk should start to thicken slightly. Sieve the flour, cornflour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Add the sugar and combine, make a well in the centre of the ingredients. Add the sunflower oil and vanilla extract to the soya milk and whisk to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the well in the centre of the dry ingredients and stir gently with a wooden spoon until no lumps remain. Divide the cake mixture between two lined cake tins and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 30-45 minutes. Check the cake after 30 minutes; a skewer should come out clean and the cakes should be risen. Allow the cakes to cool in their tins for 15 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the lavender syrup: Whilst the cakes are cooking add equal parts caster sugar and water (200ml water and 200g caster sugar for example) into a pan along with the lavender depending on the quantity you want to make. Bring to boil and boil until reduced by half. The more lavender you add the more you reduce the stronger the flavour of lavender will be.

To assemble and decorate: whilst the cakes are cooling in their tins prod the sponge several times with a fork to make holes. Pour the syrup over the sponges and allow to sink in. Reserve some syrup for the icing. Separate a small portion of the Betty Crocker icing and add some purple food colouring to make a lavender-coloured icing. Stir in some of the lavender syrup. To the remaining icing add the zest and 1 tbsp of juice of one lemon. Cover the entire cake with the lemon-flavoured icing and decorate with the lavender-flavoured icing.

This recipe is taken from the Food Network.

You can buy the vegan ingredients at Holland & Barrat’s.

Finished Project: Jackalope’s Head

I had a lot of free time over the last bank holiday weekend so I spent most of it stitching up a jackalope’s head from my newest cross stitch book, Storyland Cross Stitch. The pattern was filed under the hardest set of patterns but I didn’t find it too difficult once I got going.

Getting ready to stitch

Finished head

Framed in a painted white embroidery hoop

Finished Project: Cross Stitch Sugar Skull

I have had this project finished for quite a while but only got round to framing it recently. My sister wanted a cross-stitched-something for her birthday and this is what she chose. The pattern is from bombastitch, a shop on etsy, and, despite the intricate design, was quite easy to stitch up. I was originally going to frame it in an embroidery hoop but realised the piece of material wasn’t quite big enough for this. I then decided to go for an ornate black oval frame but couldn’t find one. In the end I chose this simple black frame (the same as I used to frame ‘Vote Knope’) from Wilkinson’s.

On my wall (although it will actually be hung up in my sister’s room)

On-going Project: Midnight Menagerie

Last weekend I didn’t have to work so I engrossed myself in beginning this beautiful project whilst watching films and baking in between. A great weekend! Here is my progress so far (I’ve done the first quarter for those who know the pattern).

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was in Liverpool for the weekend and really fancied doing some baking. I decided on chocolate chip cookies after seeing this article on the Guardian website about a year ago. It is from the series on “how to make the perfect…”. By looking at several different recipes and techniques the author attempts to create a recipe for the perfect, for example, chocolate chip cookies. This recipe did not fail! The cookies came out so chewy and melt in the mouth with lovely big chunks of soft chocolate. I replaced dark chocolate with milk out of personal preference and the result was delicious.

Hot from the oven

Perfect with a cup of tea

For the recipe see the Guardian website.

Finished Project: Felt Owl Keyring

This month’s free gift with CrossStitcher was such a little cutey. It consisted of felt and soluble canvas. I was excited to start this project because I have never used any sort of waste or soluble canvas before and have wanted to try it out for ages. In order for you to be able to cross stitch onto the felt you had to pin the square of soluble canvas onto the felt, stitch up the design and then soak in warm water for the canvas to dissolve leaving you with perfect cross stitches. Once that was done it was simply a case of sewing up the owl and stuffing him (or her). I really like the result and would definitely use soluble canvas again, maybe for a Christmas project. The one problem I had with the soluble canvas is that it left the felt feeling quite stiff once it had dissolved.

The finished guy!

DIY Noticeboard

I had been coming across noticeboards using ribbon as the method of keeping pictures attached to the board for a while and really wanted one of my own for when I was too lazy to get pins from the drawer.I searched on pinterest for some more inspiration and possible how-tos for creating this kind of noticeboard.

pinterest inspiration

See Kate Forman for more

I then saw a very plain and cheap noticeboard in Wilkinsons (possibly my favourite shop) and decided to do a DIY. In order to turn a plain noticeboard into a bit of a jazzier one I used white paint, a sponge (in the picture there is a paintbrush but I decided to use a sponge for a more speckled effect), some black ribbon and some silver pins.

First, I dabbed a light covering of white paint all over the board to see what kind of coverage the paint had.

I then gave it another light covering, leaving a slightly speckled look.

Then, with the help of my friend I attached the black ribbon in a criss cross pattern using silver pins.

Next, I hung it on the wall and slotted in some photographs and pictures.

Little Goat’s Cheese and Tomato Tarts

This is August’s recipe from my Great British Bake Off calendar. It feels like I haven’t done any baking in ages so it was nice to make these tarts for tea. These little tarts were incredibly tasty and used such simple ingredients. Sometimes the best recipes are those which use minimal ingredients.

Little Goat’s Cheese and Tomato Tarts

• 375g puff pastry
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• few sprigs of thyme
• salt and pepper
• 150g soft goat’s cheese
• about 300g tomatoes

a large baking tray

Make sure the puff pastry if thoroughly defrosted. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface to a rectangle about 20cm wide and 30cm long. Trim off all the edges then cut into 4 rectangles. Set the 4 pieces of pastry on the baking tray and prick the centre with a fork. Chill for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 220C. Measure the olive oil into a small bowl. Finely chop the garlic with some of the thyme leave (keep some to garnish) and mix into the oil with a little salt and several grinds of pepper. Divide the goat’s cheese into 4 portions. Cut the tomatoes into wedges.

Arrange the tomatoes on top of the pastry, leaving a 1cm border all the way around. Make sure they are not mounded up in the centre or the cheese will fall off in the oven. Brush very lightly with a little of the olive oil mixture. Top with pieces of goat’s cheese and a few sprigs of thyme. Bake in the heated oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the pastry is crisp and golden brown around the edges, and the goat’s cheese is starting to colour. Slide the tarts on to individual serving plates and spoon over the rest of the olive oil. Serve immediately with a salad.

I also think these tarts could work quite well with ricotta cheese, spinach and sautéed mushrooms and onions as the topping.

New Project: Anna Maria Horner’s Midnight Menagerie

I have raved and raved about this pattern for so long that I thought it was about time I stitched it up. I bought the material from shop on ebay for about a fiver, which I thought was pretty good value for the size of it. As always, I raked through my supply of threads for the colours I needed. The only downside to this pattern is that the different shades of colour could be made a bit more noticeable. A key would probably be quite helpful but I suppose it allows scope to adapt the pattern.