Month: November 2016

Squash & Walnut Bread

Oh the squash season never ends, so now I’ve turned my glut into bread. I made this today – so I have my brekkie sorted for tomorrow morning – but I will admit that quite a chunk of the bread has been eaten for tasting purposes.  It’s delicious just with butter, or add a sliced banana and some maple syrup drizzled over the top.

This loaf was inspired by a recipe by Naturally Ella for Pumpkin Oat bread.

Squash & Walnut Bread

pumpkin-bread

  • 80g oats
  • 250g plain flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 80g walnuts – roughly chopped or bashed
  • 200g cooked squash (crown prince or butternut or pumpkin)
  • 80ml maple syrup
  • 80ml coconut oil – melted
  • 70ml walnut oil
  • 2 eggs

Mix the oats, flour, baking powder, spices, salt and walnuts in a bowl.

Put the cooked squash (no skin), the syrup, oils and eggs into a blender and whizz for a few seconds to combine. Add this mixture to the dry mixture and mix together.

Put the mixture into a loaf tin.  Bake for around 50 minutes – 200c/400f/Gas 6.  After 30 minutes put some foil over the top for the last 20minutes to stop the top getting too brown.  It’s cooked when a skewer comes out clean and it sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.  Let it cool slightly then pop it on a wired rack to cool completely. (I will admit I ate a slice whilst it was still warm, it does crumble a bit, worth waiting that bit longer for it to be properly cool!).

 

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Crown Prince Granola

I’ve been trying out granola recipes and trying to incorporate some pumpkin or squash – I’ve had a few failures, mainly because the squash made the granola soggy and I prefer my granola clumpy and crispy.  But eventually I’ve found one that works. It is based on a Nigella recipe that used apple puree, and this gave me the idea of using squash puree.

I’ve been eating this all week – even hubby has been caught snacking straight from the jar.

I used crown prince squash to make the puree – but pumpkin or butternut squash would work just as well.

Note – see my Spiced Squash Pancake recipe for how to make the puree.

Crown Prince Granola

pumpkin-granola

Dry ingredients

  • 225g oats
  • 60g pumpkin seeds
  • 60g sesame seeds
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon mixed spice
  • 50g coconut sugar (or any other brown sugar)
  • 100g whole almonds
  • 50g Pecans – broken in half
  • Pinch salt

Wet ingredients

  • 100g squash puree
  • 1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
  • 60g brown rice syrup
  • 2 tablespoons honey

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  In another bowl mix all the wet ingredients until well combined.  Then pour the wet into the bowl of dry and coat everything really well.  Lay out the mixture onto a baking sheet.

Cook at 160c/320f/Gas 3 for around 40 – 45 minutes.  Ensure you move the mixture around on the baking sheet every 15 minutes to stop it browning unevenly. You want it to look golden and have a crunch to it.

Leave it to cool completely in the baking tray and then store in a container.  Keeps for a week or so.

 

Spiced Squash Pancakes

I was filling time looking at recipes last night and a pumpkin pancake one caught my eye. It was an American recipe using pumpkin puree, which seems to be hitting our shops in tins at the moment.  Yet it’s really easy to make up fresh and with my bumper squash harvest this year, I’ve got plenty to play with. Mixed with the right spices it becomes a delicious sweetly spiced puree that is crying out to be used in sweet recipes.

So here is my take on the pumpkin puree and pumpkin pancake craze.

The Puree

Pumpkins and squashes I think are pretty much interchangeable.  I’ve been using crown prince squash in place of pumpkin, and butternut squash can be used as well. To make a sweet puree I cut the squash into big chunks  (like big watermelon slices) take out the seeds but keep the skin on. Then put the chunks into a roasting tin, add some small dollops of coconut oil and roast for around 20-30 mins until really tender. The use of coconut oil keeps the sweet theme, you could use olive oil, but I would avoid vegetable oil or any other more savoury flavoured oil.

Once cool, slice the flesh off the skin and put into a food processor.  Blend for around 20 seconds into a soft puree.

You can add the spices here as well – roughly 1 teaspoon of mixed spice to every 100g of skinned squash – just blend it in for 1-2 seconds then the puree is ready spiced to use. The puree will keep in the fridge for a few days.

spiced-squash-pancakesSpiced Squash Pancakes (serves 2 – makes 4 -5 pancakes)

  • 60g spelt flour (or wholemeal)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 40g oats
  • Pinch salt
  • 125ml milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup (more for drizzling over the cooked pancakes)
  • 8g melted butter (more to grease the frying pan)
  • 100g squash puree with 1 teaspoon mixed spice

Method

  • Mix the flour, baking powder, oats and salt into a bowl.
  • In a separate bowl whisk the milk, egg, maple syrup, butter, puree and spice, until well combined. Add this mix to the flour mix and whisk to combine.
  • In a small frying pan, add a small knob of butter and melt this to coat the pan. Once melted add a ladle of the pancake mixture. Cook for around 2-3 minutes per side.

Enjoy with some raisins or sultanas, yoghurt and more maple syrup.

 

Vanilla Latte Porridge

This mornings dog walk was freezing and I got home needing coffee and hot food. So why not combine the two?  Hence my new favourite porridge – vanilla latte style. I tried to keep as close as possible to the style of latte I would usually order – which is a skinny latte. Personally I prefer cows milk in coffee, but whatever milk you normally have should work just as well.

I did prefer the porridge with some sugar (which I don’t normally have in coffee) – I think it needs something to give it a sweet hint and I do believe that the best match is brown sugar – can’t beat a bit of demerara.

Vanilla Latte Porridge

vanilla-latte-porridge

  • 50g oats
  • 250 ml milk
  • 50ml espresso ( I used an espresso shot from my coffee maker which is a perfect 50ml,  but you could use 50ml of strong black instant coffee.)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • Brown sugar – depending on taste. I used 2 teaspoons in the porridge and then an extra sprinkle on top.
  • Some crushed almonds to top. (I used 4)

Put the oats and milk in a pan and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and add the vanilla essence and the espresso.  Simmer for 5 minutes or so until the porridge reaches your preferred consistency.  Add sugar and mix in whilst still on the heat.

Serve with some sugar sprinkled on top and some crushed almonds.