Pecan Pie recipe (with spelt pasty)

It is National Carrot Cake Day (who knew this was a thing?) but my carrot muffins were sad, flat little things and far too sorry to show on this blog. But, I did have have some success in the kitchen, with a Pecan Pie! 

It's my first attempt at making one,  as it's more of an American tradition and pastry scares me, but I'm chuffed with how it's turned out. 

 

recipe under the cut:-

Victoria Sponge (gluten-free)

A Victoria Sponge is the most simple of cake recipes, it's usually the first cake that children bake themselves. This gluten-free version is just as easy, and tastes just as good, if you weren't told it's gluten-free you wouldn't know.

recipe under the cut:

pear, chocolate and pistachio cake (gluten-free)

I adapted this recipe to create a decadent pear, chocolate and pistachio cake. It's a little bit of a faff, but I made it as a thank you.

   
As it is flourless the cake doesn't rise very high, but it still manages to be light and spongy.

recipe under the cut:-

pistachio and almond cookies

These biscuits are perfect with a cup of tea. Plus they're quick and easy to bake. 

They're are slightly pasty looking, so some green food colouring might be a good idea, to give them a pastel hue. 

Recipe under the cut:- 

rhubarb and polenta muffins (gluten free)

Rhurbarb grows really well in my back garden, but aside from crumble we're never sure what to do with it. Looking for some inspiration I came across this recipe, which I then adapted.

recipe under the jump:-

gluten-free hazelnut and carrot buns

It's been ages since I've baked as our scales broke, but after getting a new pair I was ready to get experimenting again. Even with fully operational scales I still winged it with this recipe, I just added more ingredients until it looked right, and lucky it worked. These buns didn't last 5 mins.

As there was only two of us in I made a reduced amount of mixture, making only 6 buns. Of course the ingredients can be doubled if you need more. 

recipe after the cut:-

Pear & Almond Tart

After my visit to Hughenden Manor I've been craving a pear and almond tart, so I had ago at making on myself. For a first attempt at pasty, it turned out rather well! To be honest, two people managed to polish off this family sized tart over two days - I'm not even ashamed.

boozy courgette brownie

If you like dark chocolate, that is verging on bitter, try this simple brownie recipe. The courgettes (zucchini) keeps the cake moist, so it tastes just as good the next day. 

recipe after the cut:

chocolate, ginger & walnut carrot cake

Now, this cake isn't much of a looker, but trust me it tastes amazing. I think my my mistake was putting into too large a cake tin, which has left it looking a bit flat. It's not a fancy, dinner party cake, more the type that you whip up and secretly scoff all to yourself.

It also fills your kitchen with a lovely  christmassy, spicy smell when baking.
full recipe under the jump:-

gluten-free clementine and nutella cake

This is not a cake to make if you're short of time, but as it's a bit time consuming and fiddly it makes it a real treat.

recipe after the cut:

Penguin Postcards

I finally got round to putting some of the Penguin Postcards up on my walls.

I had a bit of difficultly choosing a frame. Each postcard measures 9.8cm x 15.3cm (including a thin white border) and it hard to find a standard frame that would allow me to fill the frame without cutting a postcard in half. In the end I went for this Ikea Ribba frame (40x50) which enables me to have two rows of postcards, four across.  Eventually I would like a larger frame, as it looks slightly small hanging above my double bed, but as the frame was only £7 it was a bit of a bargain.

As I was limited by how many postcards I could have I selected only ones with the classic Penguin striped design. I chose cards not that I'd necessarily read, but ones that reflected my personality and interests.   As I got loads of the cards still to use I'm very tempted to make some more as gifts for friends and family.

I also framed this iconic A Clockwork Orange design for on my night stand. The frame is this small Ribba frame (18x24, £2.75).

I'm really pleased with my bookish decor, what do you think?

Baklava with pistachio nuts and rose water syrup

I'm going to a Christmas potluck party at the weekend, the theme is 'the true meaning of Christmas' so dishes are supposed to be middle-eastern in flavour. So, with this in mind, I decided to have a test-run of making Baklava. I loosely followed this recipe.

I did have to make some alterations to the recipe, partly out of necessity (I didn't have enough pistachio nuts, so had to substitute with  some walnuts and cashews) and also because quantity of sugar and butter seemed way to high. So when I had to brush butter on each sheet of filo pastry, I did so at stingily as possible.

I think I'm going to reduce the sugar content in the syrup even further (I halved it) as even though Baklava is supposed to be sweet, it's still to much. I've eaten the tiniest little diamond, and the resulting sugar high has me ready to crawl up walls and bounce of ceilings.  

Also, if you're thinking of attempting this recipe, salted and roasted pistachio nuts work fine. I was slightly worried as the recipe calls for plain pistachios but I couldn't find any. This did mean I had to spend about half an hour shelling a bag of nuts, but I didn't in front of the tv so it wasn't any kind of hardship. I would say if you are using salted and roasted pistachios it is probably a good idea to make up the rest of the weight with another type of nut so the salt isn't overwhelming.