Rosemary & Pepper Oatcakes

I was lucky enough to spend most of Friday afternoon hosting an afternoon tea at The Soho Hotel, in the name of work. Their sandwiches, cakes and scones were delicious - the eclairs being the stars of the show! I was still a bit caked out when I came to getting my cookbook out this morning. So, I decided to bake something savoury today and found this recipe for oatcakes in a copy of Feel Good Food magazine. I love oatcakes, especially with a really good cheese and chutney, but have never made them before. I added some chopped rosemary to the recipe as I thought it would go nicely with the black pepper and have some in my window box not being used enough! I bought some lovely Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire cheese to go with them from Good Taste, a newly opened and much needed deli up the road.

The Recipe

50g plain flour

150g oatmeal (I used coarse)

2 tspn ground black pepper

1/2 tspn salt

fresh rosemary cut into small pieces

125g unsalted butter, diced

milk, to glaze

1. Heat oven to 200c, gas 6. Grease a baking sheet. Put all the ingredients , except the milk, in a food processor and blend until the mixture starts to bind. Add 2-3 tbspn cold water and mix until it forms a firm dough.

2. Roll the dough out thinly on a floured surface. Use a pastry cutter to cut out rounds. Place on the baking sheet and brush with milk before sprinkling each one with some extra salt and pepper.

3. Bake for about 15 minutes until just beginning to colour. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Naomi's Revel Bars

I found this recipe in a very old American cookbook called Chocolate Lover's Cookies & Brownies which I've had on my bookshelf for donkeys years but never used. I have no idea who Naomi is so any info is very welcome! I had a bit of the oat mixture left so I made them into cookies which worked well.

The Recipe

240g unsalted butter + 2 extra tablespoons

360g soft brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tspns vanilla extract

300g plain flour

1 tspn bicarb of soda

400g rolled oats

200g chocolate (I used Green & Blacks 70% dark)

1 can condensed milk

1. Preheat oven to 160c. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 inch plan.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the eggs and beat until light. Add vanilla extract.

3. Combine flour and baking soda and stir into the creamed mixture. Blend in the oats.

4. Spread 3/4 of the oat mixture evenly in the prepared pan.

5. Combine the chocolate, condensed milk and 2 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan. Stir over a low heat until melted. Pour the chocolate mixture evenly over the oat mixture in the tin. Dot with remaining oat mixture.

6. Bake 20-25 mins or until the edges are browned and the centre feels firm. Cool in the pan on a wire rack and then cut into bars.

Flourless Chocolate Lime Cake

I decided that it was time that I did a blogger's challenge - firstly as it's a good way of making me bake something I might not usually try and secondly as all the other bloggers seem like a very friendly lot! So this recipe is for this month's We Should Cocoa challenge which is being hosted by Chele at Chocolate Teapot. The recipe this month has to include Chocolate and Lime. I was intrigued by this combination as it immediately brought back memories of eating Tilley's Chocolate Limes on car journeys as a child. I seem to remember I had a kind of love hate relationship with these sweets, not really being able to decide if I liked the combination of the two flavours. I was therefore curious to see whether many years on if if I liked this pairing any more.

I've done a Nigella recipe although I've omitted making her Margarita Cream. While I like the sound of the cream I don't have any Tequila at home - although I could have adapted it with something else it wouldn't really have been a Margarita Cream then. I was going to buy some Tequila and then remembered an encounter with Don Julio* in Mexico and thought better of it! The lime flavour in this cake is quite subtle and does cut nicely through the richness of the chocolate - I would have this over a Chocolate Lime any day!

*the tequila brand not the man!

The recipe can be found here on www.nigella.com.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Buns

I was in New York a few years ago and must have walked what seemed like miles to visit theButtercup Bake Shop on 2nd Avenue on the East Side. Actually I just looked at the map to check the address and it clearly wasn't miles - maybe I was wearing heels or something - the point being that I felt I had made a real effort to visit this shop! Anyway, apart from buying a couple of amazing cupcakes (it was at the time when the whole cupcake thing hadn't really kicked off properly in the UK) I also picked up their cookbook.

After last week's cupcake semi disaster I decided to steer clear of this type of cake and instead looked in the 'Breakfast Basket Quick Breads, Biscuits, Coffee Cake, Buns, and Muffins' chapter and decided to give these buns a go. I'm not sure you'd be wanting to have them for breakfast (not exactly the most healthy way to start the day!) but they would definitely be nice with a mid morning tea or coffee. The original recipe uses raspberry jam but I changed that to fresh raspberries mixed with a little icing sugar. What surprised me most is how light they are - I would have thought the cream cheese would have made them quite heavy but it doesn't at all.

The Recipe

120g plain flour

1 tspn bicarb of soda

1/2 tspn baking powder

1/4 tspn salt

230g cream cheese

120g unsalted butter

200g sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tspn vanilla extract

60ml milk

90g plain flour

40g raspberries mixed with a little icing sugar

Preheat oven to 175C.

1. Grease and flour a 12 cup muffin try (or use silicone so you don't have to do either).

2. Combine 120g flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set side.

3. In a large bowl beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture, alternating with the milk. Add in the additional 90g of flour and stir until well combined.

5. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups. Add a dollop of the raspberry mixture on top of each one and swirl with a knife. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.