Elmfield Farm Cottages

These muffins are so very easy, only take 5 minutes to make.  They are best eaten warm, but as they are made with vegetable oil they last for a day or two in an airtight tin.  They also freeze well.

For 9 muffins.

Mix together dry ingredients - 255g plain flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt and 150g caster sugar in a bowl.

In another bowl mix wet ingredients - 1 egg, 240ml milk and 90ml vegetable oil.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients, and pour into around 9 lined muffin tins.

Bake for 20 minutes at 190 degrees C.

Variations:

Chocolate chip muffins - add 75g chocolate chips to the dry ingredients. Sprinkle some more chocolate chips on top just before baking.

Lemon and Poppy seed - Add the grated rind of 1 lemon and 1tbs of poppy seeds to the dry ingredients.

Janice Gordon lived opposite us when my sister and I were growing up. This gingerbread recipe is hers, and was given to me by my sister Emma last week. It is lovely sticky and is good with a cup of tea in the afternoon, or with a slice of cheddar cheese.

8oz margarine

8oz brown sugar

8oz black treacle

12 oz plain flour

3 teaspoons cinnamon

2 desertspoons ginger

1/2 pnt hot milk

2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs

Melt marg, sugar and treacle

Sift flour and spices, add melted ingredients and beat

Mix bicarb and milk, add to above mixture

Beat eggs and add to mixture

Pour into a 8inch lined, greased tin

Bake for 1hr 20 mins at 130 degrees C

Keeps for ages - if you dont eat it!

I have tried many many chocolate cakes, but I like this Mary Berry recipe the best.  It is very simple, quick and above all moist.  It lasts for quite a few days in an airtight tin.  This seems ideal for a group of children. I have  been making these cakes for guests with children over easter and decorating them with the little sugar coated chocolate eggs.

50g cocoa powder

200ml boiling water

175g Self Raising Flour

1 tsp baking powder

100g Butter

275g Caster sugar

2 eggs

Grease and line 2 x 20cm sandwich tins. Preheat oven to 180 C

Mix cocoa powder with the boiling water until smooth

Add the rest of the ingredients and use an electric whisk to mix together until blended.

Divide between the tins and cook for 30 - 35 minutes

When cool these can be sandwiched together with cream or a simple icing of 100g butter, 225g sifted icing sugar with 2 desert spoons of cocoa and 2 tablespoons of boiling water.

This is a recipe, originally from Darina Allen which my mother cooked over Easter and is a wonderful use of seasonal rhubarb. It was truly delicious and can be served with cream or custard.  5 or 6 apples peeled and chopped can be substituted for the rhubarb.
Pastry
170g plain white flour
85g butter
1 dessertspoon castor sugar
1 beaten egg, approx.
Filling
5-6 stalks of red rhubarb

Crumble
85g unsalted butter
85g plain white flour
170g granulated sugar from the vanilla pod jar
85g chopped almonds (unpeeled)
3 teasp. cinnamon

9 - 10 inch (23-25.5cm) tart tin

First make the pastry.
Sieve the flour and sugar into a bowl, cut the butter into cubes and rub into the flour with the fingertips. When the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs, stop.
Whisk the egg. Take a fork or knife (whichever you feel most comfortable with) and add just enough liquid to bring the pastry together, then discard the fork and collect the pastry into a ball with your hands. The drier and more difficult-to-handle pastry will give a crisper, ’shorter’ crust. Cover and rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Line the tart tin with pastry.

Fill with chopped rhubarb.

Next make the crumble.  Rub the butter into the flour and sugar to make a coarse crumble. Add the ground cinnamon and chopped almonds. Spread the crumble over the top of the fruit.

Bake in a preheated oven 190C/375F/regulo 5 until fully cooked - 35-40 minutes.
Serve warm or cold with a bowl of softly whipped cream.

We have long been thinking of keeping chickens for meat as well as for eggs and have finally taken the plunge.  We currently have 8 eggs in the incubator due to hatch this weekend.

We have found the easiest way to roast a bird keeping it moist and delicious is to put a chicken in a casserole dish with a lid.  Pour over a pint of chicken stock or white wine, 6 cloves of garlic (dont bother to peel), a couple of generous tablespoons of red current jelly (or similar).

Pop it in the oven for an hour with the lid on and 1/2 hour to an hour with the lid off at around 180 degrees C.  The meat will be very tender and almost fall off the bone, and for a lovely gravy just strain the juices and serve.

This is a very very simple but tasty desert.  Delicious served with greek yoghurt this cake lasts for days or even weeks.

Cake

• 50g stale breadcrumbs
• 200g Caster sugar
• 100g ground almonds
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 200ml sunflower oil
• 4 eggs
• zest 1 orange
• zest 1/2 lemon

Syrup

• Juice of 1 Orange
• Juice 1/2 lemon
• 75g sugar
• 2 cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick

Whisk oil and eggs together.  Add to dry ingredients and zests.

Pour into a 20cm (8in) lined greased and floured tin.

Put in a cold oven, turn to 180 oC - bake for 45-60 minutes until firm and golden brown.

While it is baking make syrup by gently simmering  syrup ingredients for 3 minutes.

When cake is baked pierce all over and gently spoon over syrup, until it is all soaked up.

Serve decorated with cloves and cinammon from syrup.

This recipe is from Darina Allens Ballymaloe Cookery Course.

This recipe is good on the day it is made and even better if you leave it for a few days - and its so very easy.

175g Plain Flour,
200g Caster sugar
125g Porridge Oats
1tsp Ginger Powder
1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
2tbls Golden Syrup
110g butter
200ml Milk

Heat butter, milk and syrup until butter has melted. Stir into dried ingredients. Put into a lined 8in square tin. Bake for 45 minutes in a 140 degree C oven. Leave to cool in the tin. Cut into 16 squares.

This recipe was given to me by an American friend. The trick is to undercook the brownies, so they are very gooey in the middle. They last very well in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer for a month.

• 230g butter,
• 150g good dark chocolate,
• 4 eggs,
• 260g caster sugar,
• 2tsp Vanilla,
• 2tbls Camp (coffee and chicory essence),
• 230g Plain Flour,
• 200g of chocolate chips or chopped nuts or mixture of both.

Melt butter and chocolate. In another bowl beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and camp. Add chocolate mixture, stir in flour. Mix in chocolate chips and/or nuts. I use a mixture of milk and while chocolate chips. Pour into a lined swiss roll tin. Bake for 28 - 30 minutes in a 175 degree fan oven. The brownies should still be soft in the middle.

They are nice either on their own with a cup of tea, or served warm, dusted with icing sugar and some strawberries and cream as a desert.

I always try to leave guests to Elmfield a home made cake.  If you have had a long (or short) journey, we hope you will enjoy sitting and relaxing with tea and cake.  For those who have asked for the recipe here is Lemon Syrup cake.

Soften 175g butter and beat with 175g caster sugar.  Gradually whisk in 3 beaten eggs.  Fold in 225g self raising flour and the grated zest of 1 lemon. Loosen the mixture by folding in 2 tablespoons of  milk and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Bake in a lined 2lb loaf tin at 160 degree fan oven (I think 180 degree C conventional oven) for 55 minutes.

When it is cooked, pierce all over with a fork and gently spoon over a mix of 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and 3 tablespoons of golden syrup.  Leave to cool in the tin.

This recipe is originally from Gary Rhodes New British Classics.

I always use our duck eggs for this recipe - I think it makes it just a little richer.  It works very well with chicken eggs too.   

One of the nicest and easiest jellies to make. It has a real autumn fresh flavour.

Take equal quantities of apples and blackberries. I use regular eating apples, windfalls are ideal. Roughly chop apples (don’t bother to peel or core them). Put the apples and blackberries in a big pan with a little water. Stew gently until the apples are mushy. Strain the juices through a muslin cloth or jelly bag.

Cook the blackberry and apple juice with sugar (use 1lb of sugar for every pint of juice collected). Once the setting point has been reached, pot and cover just like Jam. I test the setting point by pouring a teaspoon of the jelly onto a plate that has been sitting in the freezer. If you then run your finger through the jam and it wrinkles then its cooked. If not boil for a little longer and test again.