Small Batch Honey, Tahini & Sesame Muffins

 

The other day I baked us a batch of Bran Muffins from a new recipe that, whilst they tasted alright, were very much of a disappointment to me.  They were flat, overly sweet and just not a recipe I would recommend to anyone.  I wanted to be able to share something delicious with you that you wouldn't be embarassed to serve to anyone.

 

I hasten to add that I didn't change anything in the recipe, but prepared it exactly as presented.  I don't know why these things happen. One man's meat is another man's poison I guess!  Anyways, I have this great muffin recipe book that I got maybe 11 years ago.  

 

Entitled Mad about Muffins and written by Diana Bonaparte, it is a muffin cookbook that I cannot recommend highly enough.  Every single recipe that I have baked from it has been a great recipe!

 

I was intrigued by the recipe for Honey, Tahini & Sesame Muffins.  I love all of those things, and it also uses lemon zest.  I had ear-marked it for use quite some time ago and this morning I finally got around to making them.

 

I did adapt the recipe by cutting everything in half.  The full recipe makes 11 muffins, but I got six nice sized medium muffins halving it.

 

They are not uber sweet, despite the use of honey.  I don't like my muffins to be extremely sweet. Thy are not supposed to be like cake.  They are supposed to be more like a bread.

 

The flavour of these was exceptional . . .  you can taste the tahini, but more of a "hmmm . . .  I taste something that tastes a bit nutty."  It doesn't whack you.  Of course the subtle taste of lemon is there as well.

 

As you can see they rose beautifully.  I did get a bit of cracking on top, but thats not at all unusual in a good muffin.  I think the touch of demerara sugar and sesam seeds on top is also a very nice touch and quite attractive. It also provides a tiny bit of crunch.

 

As you can see, they have a beautiful texture. My honey did fall to the bottom of the muffin. Not sure how to get around that. Unless perhaps you used creamed honey instead of liquid for the centres?  What do you think?

 

All in all I would call these an excellent muffin.  We both really enjoyed them.  They smelled lovely when they were baking as well. 

  

In all truth I don't know why I waited so long to make them!  Tahini is something I always keep in my store cupboard and this was a great opportunity to use some of it, however small!  I highly recommend!  If you don't have tahini you could use peanut butter, but in that case I would leave out the lemon zest and the sesame seeds.

 

Small Batch Honey, Tahini & Sesame Muffins

Yield: 6

Author: Marie Rayner

Prep time: Cook time: Total time:

The triple combination of honey, lemon and tahini paste make for a very delicious muffin indeed.  Sized for the smaller family but easily doubled to feed more.

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

• 165g plain flour (1  1/4 cup)
• 65g caster sugar (1/3 cup superfine sugar)
• 1 tsp  baking powder
• pinch salt
• the finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
• the juice of 1/2 lemon
• milk (see instructions)
• 50g oil (4 TBS)
• 25g clear honey (3 1/2 tsp)
• 15g tahini paste (1 1/2 TBS)
• 1 large free range egg
• 2 tsp sesame seeds

To fill:

• clear honey

To top:

• 1 TBS demerara sugar (turbinado)
• 2 tsp sesame seeds

Instructions:

How to cook Small Batch Honey, Tahini & Sesame Muffins

1. Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.  Line a six cup muffin tin with paper liners.  Set aside.
2. Rub the sugar together with the lemon zest until fragrant.  Sift in the flour and baking powder and a pinch of salt.  Combine well together.
3. Heat the honey for the muffin together with the tahini and then whisk together to combine.
4. Add the lemon juice to a beaker and then add milk to give you the equivalent of 85g/3 fluid ounces.  Beat in the egg and  oil with a fork. Then beat in the honey, tahini mixture.  Add all at once to the dry ingrdients just to combine.
5. Fill your muffin cups half full.  Drop a tsp of honey onto each muffin and then cover with the remaining muffin batter.   Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle some over top of each muffin.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 22 minutes until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. The tops should spring back when lightly pressed.  Transfer from the muffin tin to a wire rack to cool.

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Not sure why but my recipes generator it not working today. Its an app that I actually pay for the use of so I hope that it isn't like this for long. When it comes back up again, I will replace this old format with the recipe card.  I can see it, but it is not giving me the option to copy and paste it into my blog post.  Between that and my facebook, I am batting zero this week!  Its a good thing I am a positive person!  Back to sort it out and its fixed!  Yay!

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Small Batch Cherry Cheesecake

 

My mother, God bless her, loved cheesecake.  It was one of her favourite desserts. She was only the size of a bird, so tiny that a good breeze could have easily blown her over, but she did like to eat.  I don't know what her secret was to keeping her slim figure.  I remember her asking me about seven or 8  years back did I have a good cheesecake recipe.  I did and so I shared it with her.  I don't know if she ever made it or not. I like to think that she did, and that she enjoyed it.

 

Of course with her lung cancer operation and all of the complications she had afterwards, her days of cooking were pretty much over, although by all counts she did have a fairly healthy appetite right up until she passed.  Her tastes had changed however and the things she liked to eat before, she no longer enjoyed.  Funny how that goes.  I suppose it was the dementia.

 

Cheesecake is not something I make really often.  With there only being two of us, a full-sized cheesecake just is not practical anymore.  I will sometimes buy two slices in the shops, but they never live up to their promise.  That's all I will say about that.

 

I once bought a frozen Cheesecake Factory one at Costco and that was very good. It was already cut into slices that you could just take out and eat as and when you wanted them.  But it was huge and cheesecake is something we only want once in a very blue moon, so again, highly impractical as I ended up giving  most of it away.  You can't keep these things in the freezer forever.

 

This quick, easy and delicious baked cheesecake recipe I am sharing with you today ends all of those problems. It is the perfect size for the smaller family!

 

You bake it in a 9-inch  X 5-inch loaf tin. It cuts perfectly into 6 smallish wedges.  I say smallish, but really they are all any one person really needs to be eating of such a rich dessert.

 

A delicious swirl of tart dark cherry preserves is baked into the cheesecake . . .  I used an Italian brand.  (Crosta & Mollica)  It has lovely big bits of cherry in it, and I don't find it to be overly sweet.

 

If you don't like cherries, you could use peach jam, or blueberry jam  . . .  strawberry, raspberry  . . .  any kind of jam you want or desire.

 

I think you could even use lemon curd if you wanted to . . .  now THAT would be extremely dangerous for me.  Todd might not even get a look in, I am that greedy when it comes to lemon. Sad but true.

 

It works out fine however because he isn't really fond of lemon anything so he doesn't really mind if I snuffle up all the lemon goodies.

 

Anyways, back to this dessert.  Its gorgous.  Its simple to make. It is quick to make.

 

And it is just the right size for us.  If I had some sour cream I would have topped it with some and it would have been even better.

  

If you are a smaller family looking for a tasty dessert, or even if you are a normal sized family wanting something that isn't going to be hanging around for days, I hazard to guess that this dessert would be perfect for you.

Yield: 6 smallish servings

Author: Marie Rayner

Small Batch Cherry Cheesecake

All of the lush deliciousness of a full sized version, but with less temptation to resist.

ingredients:

For the crust:

• 160g digestive biscuit crumbs (fine) (1 cup graham cracker crumbs)
• 60g butter, melted (1/4 cup)

For the filling:

• 16 ounces (1 pound) FULL fat cream cheese
• 95g granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
• 1 large free range egg, beaten lightly
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 9 tsp good quality dark cherry preserves

instructions:

How to cook Small Batch Cherry Cheesecake

1. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas  mark 4.  Butter a 9 by 5 inch loaf tin and line with parchment paper, leaving extra on the sides to lift it out.
2. Mix together the crumbs and butter.  Press into the bottom of the loaf tin evenly.
3. Whisk together the cream cheese, egg, vanilla an sugar until smooth.  Pour into the loaf tin on top of the crumbs.  Add the cherry preserves in spoonfuls on top of the batter and then using a skewer, carefully swirl it.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes. The centre will be almost set, but still have a slight wiggle.  The top should be firm.  Cool for an hour in the pan then lift out and chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hour or overnight.
5. Cuts into 6 small wedges.

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We are supposed to have a nice weekend weatherwise this weekend.  Here's hoping!  Our back garden s squelching and we could use a few dry and sunny days to dry it out so that we can mow!  Happy weekend everyone! 

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Garlic Butter Salmon & Broccoli for two

 

I am really excited to share this one pan sheet pan supper for two with you today for Garlic Butter Salmon & Broccoli!  Salmon and broccoli are perfect partners.  So are salmon and garlic! Put the three together and you have a really delicious entree that everyone will love.  It is perfectly sized for two but you can very easily multiply the amounts to serve more!

 

Best of all th whole thing bakes on one baking sheet, which, if you line it with aluminium foil, makes for a really no fuss no muss supper option!  I did bake some sweet potatoes to have with it as well, which makes this a Triple Super-food Supper option!

 

Roasting sweet potatoes is so easy. I just wash them well, dry and pop them onto a baking sheet and into a hot oven. They are usually done in about 35 to 40 minutes, depending on their size.  Simply cut in half, scoop out the flesh and mash. Nothing else needed.  They taste fabulous all on their own.  Roasting sweet potatoes in the skin and then mashing them makes for one very tasty side dish!

 

I used some lovely salmon fillets in the freezer that we had gotten from Seafresh. Their fish is so amazing.  I have never had any fish from them that I didn't like.  Its frozen fresh at the source and so it is the freshest fish that you can find.  Their salmon fillets are absolutely gorgeous. Boneless and skinless and individually frozen so that you can take out as many or as few as you want to cook.

 

Sourced from the clear cold waters of Scotland and the Farroe Islands, they are centre cuts, cut from the thicker mid-section of the salmon, rather than the tail.  Fish cuts from closer to the tail are a lot "fishier" if you know what I mean.  Stronger in flavour.  I much prefer the higher quality centre cuts.

  

I always like to wipe my fish and pat it dry with paper towels before I use it.  I didn't need to oil my foil either, as I used Bacofoil which is non-stick.  Just pop those fillets onto the foil lined baking sheet.

 

A mixture of a small amount of butter, some fresh garlic, a bit of brown sugar and dried herbs makes up the garlic butter.  There is only 3 TBS of butter used between the fish and the vegetables, so spread out that isn't overly bad, plus I did not use any butter in my sweet potatoes.

 

This is the perfect low carb entree and great for diabetics.  High in fibre, low in carbs and salt. You only add as much salt as you want to add.  There is plenty of garlic herbaciousness going on there that you don't need to use a lot of salt.

  

Salmon is a favorite choice when it comes to choosing to eat healthy,  because it contains significant amounts of essential omega-3 fatty acids , which support heart and eye health . This heart-healthy fish boasts a boatload of other nutrients, as well.

  

Broccoli has long been touted as one of the healthiest veggies because of its nutritional makeup. This wonderful vegetable is loaded with fiber, antioxidants to fight cancer, and vitamin C to aid in iron absorption.

  

Sweet potatoes are loaded with beta-carotene which functions at a powerful anti-oxident as well as being a rich source of Vitamin A.  Put these three things together and you are scoring a "Hat-trick" of some of the best nutrition around! Plus they taste fabulous together. You can't go wrong!

Garlic Butter Salmon & Broccoli for Two

Yield: 2

Author: Marie Rayner

Perfectly baked and flavoured.  Moist and delicious salmon with crispy tender broccoli, all baked together on one baking sheet.

ingredients:

You will need:

• 2 boneless, skinless, salmon filets
• 1 small head of broccoli, washed, trimmed and broken into florets (about 2 cups)

For the garlic butter:

• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
• 3 TBS butter, melted
• 1/2 TBS soft light brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp dried rosemary
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1/2 lemon, divided in half

instructions:

How to cook Garlic Butter Salmon & Broccoli for Two

1. Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/gas mark 6. LIne a baking tray with aluminium foil and spray lightly with some non-stick cooking spray. Pat the salmon dry and then arrange on the baking sheet. Scatter the broccoli florets around the salmon on the sheet.
2. Whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, oregano, thyme, and rose mary. Drizzle this mixture over the salmon and the vegetables. Take one lemon quarter and squeee it over the fish. Season all to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes until the salmon flakes easily with a fork, and the broccoli is crispy tender.
4. Divide the salmon and vegetables between two heated dinner plates and serve hot with the remaining lemon for squeezing over top.

NOTES:

If you don't like your broccoli really crispy tender, you can blanche it in some boiling water for 2 minutes before using.

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As with any fish dish, quality speaks for itself.  When you are starting with really good fish, you really don't or shouldnt' have to do very much to it to get the best from it.  The Salmon fillets from Seafresh are beautiful. I think they are the best I have ever eaten and that says a lot!  If you are looking for quality fish at a great price with a fabulous delivery service I can't recommend Seafresh highly enough!  Their product, delivery service, packaging and customer service are exemplary in my opinion and so is this recipe!! 

A few things about Seafresh:

• Same Day dispatch on orders received before 1 PM.
• All packages are carefully hand packed.
• Free delivery on orders above £50, £8 on orders below that amount. 
• Responsibly and sustainably sourced.
• Air Blast Frozen at source within 4 hours of being caught.
• Wide variety to choose from. 

Do check them out on their website to find out more.
Follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Note - Although I was gifted with product free of charge for the purposes of review, I was not required to write a positive review in exchange, nor would my integrity allow me to recommend anything if I did not truly like it. Any and all my opinions are my own entirely.

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BBQ Flat Chicken Tacos for Two

  

I am sitting here as I write this and I am trying to think back to when I first tasted Mexican Food. (Not that this recipe is very Mexican by any stretch of the imagination.)  I think it was when I had moved to London, Ontario and we discovered a restaurant called Chi Chi's.  I believe it was a chain restaurant.

 

We used to go there every now and then and treat ourselves to Chimichangas and fahitas, and yes, (at that time) margaritas.  I liked the strawberry ones. They were so yummy.  The Fajitas were probably not overly loaded with fat and caloried but those Chimichangas could probably  be considered heart attack specials.

 

But we were young and did not think of such things. They fed you hot tortilla chips and salsa while you waited for your order.  If it was your birthday they would don Somberoes and come and sing Happy Birthday to you at your table.  Horror of all horrors. As a person who did not and does not like to be the centre of attention, this was a fate worse than death.

 

My sister taught me how to make Nachos.  I learned how to make Enchiladas from an old Sunset cookery book.  My love of all things Tex Mex was born. 

 

Up to that point the only thing even remotely resembling Tex Mes in my experience was my mother's Chili Con Carne and she got that recipe from off a can of tomato soup.  Not exactly authentic, lol.

 

Of course when you have five growing and hungry children, it can get to be rather expensive to eat out and so you learn to make things you like at home and that is what I did.  I think I got rather good at making Enchiladas and Nachos, Tacos and Chili.

 

These Flat Chicken Tacos resemble real tacos only in the sense that they are served with flour tortillas.  We like soft tacos in this house.  You can eat them flat with  knife and fork (my husband's preference) or folded up like a real taco. (My bohemian preferral!)

 

I simply toast some six inch soft flour tortillas over my gas burners until blistered and blackened on the edges and then I top them with shredded poached chicken that I have mixed with my own special sauce.

 

My sauce is tangy and smoky and spicy. I add some heat by using Spanish smoked paprika, this also adds a smoky touch . . .  I do use tomato ketchup. It works well.

 

I add brown sugar, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. I use Dijon, but you use whatever kind of mustard you like.

 

I add a full teaspoon of Green Tabasco sauce. Oh, I simply adore Green Tabasco sauce. I could eat it with a spoon.  Its not quite as hot as the regular one and has a green chili flavour.

 

I use a bit of seasoning and some garlic powder.  This gets cooked for a short to really meld the flavours and then I stir it into the poached and shredded chicken.

   

The chicken then gets piled onto the tortillas, topped with a four cheese blend, sprinkled with red onions and baked until the chicken is hot and the cheese has melted. You don't want them to brown. You want the tortillas to stay fairly pliable.  Served hot with your favourite toppings, they are really quite delicious.

 

Today I accompanied them with a quick slaw that I threw together by grating a carrot, shredding a head of baby gem lettuce, and hand shredding a bit of red cabbage.  This I dressed with a mix of Mayonnaise, Ranch dressing, a squirt of Lime juice and a pinch of sugar.  It was quite yummy if I don't say so myself, and I know I just did!

BBQ Flat Chicken Tacos for Two

Yield: Makes 4 flat tacos

Author: Marie Rayner

These are so simple to make and incredibly delicious. I like to serve them with a lime dressed coleslaw on the side.

ingredients:

For the sauce:

• 120g tomato ketchup (1/2 cup)
• 1 TBS soft light brown sugar
• 1 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 1 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/2 TBS Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp green Tabasco sauce
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp rubbed dry oregano
• salt and black pepper to taste

You will also need:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, poached and shredded
• 4 (6-inch) soft flour tortillas
• 120g grated four cheese blend
• 1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
• any garnishes as desired (lettuce, chopped tomatoes, spring onions, sour cream, etc.)

instructions:

How to cook BBQ Flat Chicken Tacos for Two

1. Mix all of the ingredients for the sauce in a microwave safe beaker.  Microwave on medium for about 3 minutes, stirring every minute.  Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Have ready a large baking sheet that will hold all of the tacos in one layer, or two smaller baking sheets.
3. Turn on a gas burner if you have gas and using a pair of tongs, toast the tortilas on both sides and then place them in a single layer on the baking sheet.
4. Shred the chicken into the bowl and then add enough of the sauce mixture to moisten well, or to your taste.  Divide the chicken mixture between the four toasted tortillas.  Divide the cheese and sprinkle one fourth of it on top of each taco. Sprinkle with the chopped red onions.
5. Bake in the heated oven until the chicken is hot and the cheese has melted. Sit back and enjoy with your favourite toppings.

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Oh boy but these were some good.  I was quite full up after eating two one and a half of them.  When I think of how much I used to be able to eat when I was younger I am quite amazed.  Somewhere along the way my appetite has drastically changed.  We used to be able to eat a pizza in the evening for a snack or a box of Kraft dinner, and this was after having had a full dinner earlier on.  Mind you back then we didn't go to bed until gone midnight most nights and nowadays we are all tucked in by 9 o'clock at the latest!  I guess we have officially become old fogies!

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