Kids Fruit Pizzas

Ingredients:

Base: 4 Tortilla wraps

Sauce: 125ml yoghurt (I used dairy-free coconut based yoghurt),
1 tsp runny honey,
half teaspoon vanilla extract,
3/4 teaspoon orange juice

Fruit: Any fruit, but berries, chopped apple, tinned pineapple chunks, tinned mandarin slices all work well

Method:

1. Using a round biscuit cutter, cut the tortilla wraps.
2. Mix together in a bowl the sauce ingredients.
3. Spread the sauce on the tortilla rounds.
4. Top with the prepared fruit.

Early First Blackberries

Blackberry picking the first weekend of August in Yorkshire is unheard of, usually it's the bank holiday or even September before it's time for the first fruits.

Here's our first crop & the bush is heaving with green ones & more flowers.

Think it'll be a bumper harvest this year....

More Hogan Harvest

For my first year of gardening we have done quite well, we had lots of peas, we have quite a number of tomatoes, many are still green but here was my first red tomato.

I also have a toddler who arrives at my side regularly with a proud smile on his face and a handful of freshly picked green tomatoes, which he says are apples! So we shall see how many manage remain on the plant until they are red.

My herbs are doing really well after a slow start and I have started to use them in my cooking.

Do you remember the photos I posted of the basil in June (What's Wrong With My Basil?) well these are the same plants, you would never guess how healthy and green they could look after starting out in the garden so brown & yellow.

And this is my first red raspberry, which is a surprise as I only planted the canes this year and had read that it can take a few years for them to bare fruit. Well, we have a number of flowers and small fruits beginning to grow on the plants now, so we have done quite well with our first season.

The blackberries which have grown over from next door are also feeding us well, with 2 apple and blackberry crumbles made this week with the produce.

I am looking forward to trying some different plants and more of the same as well next year.

Healthy Fruity Breakfast Granola

Healthy Fruity Breakfast Granola

Ingredients:

2 tbsp vegetable oil

125ml maple syrup

2 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla essence

500g muesli base

200g seed mix (the bag I use is from Lidl & contains 55% sunflower seeds, 40% pumpkin seeds and 5% pine nuts)

100g cranberries

100g diced pineapple

100g diced papaya

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 150C/Gas Mark 2.
2. Mix together in a bowl the vegetable oil, maple syrup, honey and vanilla essence.
3. Add 300g of the muesli base and the seed mix to the syrupy mix.
4. Spread over 2 baking trays and heat in the oven for 15 minutes.
5. Add the cranberries to the half baked trays of granola and mix in.
6. Heat for a further 15 minutes.
7. Allow to cool.
8. Scrap off into a large bowl and add the rest of the muesli base, papaya and pineapple.

Enjoy with cold milk on a lovely summers morning as a healthy breakfast.

Spiced Cranberry Chutney

This is the last Foody Friday regular recipe post, but never fear I will continue to post interesting recipes which I make. (See FOODY FRIDAY news) But for the last one, it had to be a good seasonal one . . .

For Christmas this year, I was inspired to create some foody presents. I googled some fun recipes and decided to have a go at Delia's Spiced Cranberry Chutney recipe . . .

Delia's Spiced Cranberry Chutney recipe

I was pleased with the outcome although I think I should have allowed it to simmer for slightly longer than Delia suggested as one batch I made has come out a little too liquid, but it's really delicious chutney and makes a wonderful Christmas present for friends and family.

Summer Fruit Crumble

Sorry just realised this is an awful photo!

Ingredients:

Topping:
100g flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

50g butter

3 tbsp demarara sugar

Fruit filling:

100g frozen summer fruits mix

1tsp corn flour

2tsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5 or 190C.
2. Place the frozen fruits into the bottom of an ovenproof bowl.
3. Sprinkle over the fruit the cornflour, sugar and vanilla essence.
4. In another bowl, place all the ingredients for the topping and using your fingers, rub all ingredients together.
5. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit.
6. Bake in the oven for approximately 30-40 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling away underneath.

Blackberry & Apple Tarts

Blackberry & Apple Tarts

Do you enjoy foraging in the autumn for blackberries?

When I was a child we always had a family day out picking blackberries. It was always great fun, but it is not something I have been organised to do since I left home.

Ingredients:

225g blackberries (frozen or fresh)

40g caster sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp orange rind

250g ready made puff pastry

2 tbsp demerara sugar

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and sliced

Before heading into the oven

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5 or 190C.
2. Place the blackberries, caster sugar, lemon juice and orange rind into a pan and heat gently until the fruit is mushy. Allow to simmer until the mix is syrupy.
3. Roll out the pastry to <5mm thick and using a pastry cutter, cut out 12 rounds.
4. Place the pastry rounds into a greased bun baking tray.
5. Spoon about 1.5 tsp of the blackberry mix into each pastry case.
6. Place a piece of chopped apple on top of each tart and then sprinkle with demerara sugar.
7. Place in oven for 15-20 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

NB If you have some leftover pastry, blackberry syrup and apple chunks you can make a flat tart but just fold over the edges to make the crust thicker.

Autumn Berries

These photos are from another of Autumnal walks to work this season, amazing berries for the birds to eat before they migrate south for the winter...