Think | Cakeasions

We think it’s ALWAYS time for tea and cake. The question is: which is the correct cake for the relevant occasion?

If there’s one thing we know about January it’s that this is absolutely NO time for giving up cake. Healthy it may or may not be, but in terms of your wellbeing, cake is most certainly where it’s at. Of course, that doesn’t mean one needs to be mindlessly mainlining Mr Kiplings every hour. When we talk about ‘Cakeasions’ what we mean is being able to correctly identify the right cake for the right occasion: that sweet and sticky mess for when your heart is broken, that solid, fruity concoction for rainy days when you need a bit of bolstering against the cold. 

To help, we’ve put together a few occasions that we think benefit from cake and suggestions for matching cakes to problems. Read on and feel both comforted and satiated. 

Cakeasion: A good long walk

Cake: What you need here is parkin for your pocket. Robust (so as not to get squished on the walk) and with a gingery kick to keep you going, a pocket of parkin will be welcome on any winter walk. Thermos of tea recommended but not essential. 

Cakeasion: Fika

Cake: The Swedish concept of Fika (pausing briefly in your day for a spot of coffee and cake) is best suited to something small and light; the Swedes never overdo things. We’d recommend a classic Swedish Almond Cake; nice and light and goes excellently with coffee.

Cakeasion: Well done, you!

Whether it’s a graduation, a baby or simply ‘well done on getting through the week’, cake is always a good way to say ‘Congratulations!’

Cake: Something a little showy and silly. Perhaps a good old Victoria sponge dressed with fresh fruit and edible flowers. Because flowers are lovely, but flowers you can eat (on top of a sugary sponge) are even better, right?

Cakeasion: A broken heart

Cake: Broken hearts require chocolate; no question about it. Whether you’re making a cake for the broken-hearted or are on the lookout for something to mend your own ticker, a chocolate fudge cake should do the trick. Don’t stint on the chocolate fudge icing. 

Cakeasion: Secret cake

Cake: Eaten, standing at the cupboard in the kitchen with your coat still on while everyone else brings the shopping in from the car, or scoffed from a secret tin in the shed while sorting our your seed packets, there’s something special about clandestine cake. For this occasion we would recommend a cake that doesn’t drop crumbs and which can be swallowed quickly in an emergency if people approach: a Jamaican ginger cake or anything else fruitless and baked in a loaf tin fits the bill. 

Cakeasion: Rainy day cake

Cake: This is the kind of cake you pull out of the back of a cupboard on a Sunday afternoon when the doorbell rings. It needs to be a cake that keeps well because you never know when it might be required. We think a rich fruit cake with plenty of nuts on top should do it. Wrap it tightly and freeze it and it could last up to a year.

This blog was inspired by our recipe for Poppy Seed Snack Cake from our January issue. It was taken from One Tin Bakes Easy by Edd Kimber (Kyle Books) Photography: Edd Kimber

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Recipe | Brussels Sprout Bhajias

This simple recipe will see off the rest of the sprouts on for a Post-Big Day Buffet

Makes 16

2 tsp cumin seeds, bashed
2 tsp mustard seeds, bashed
1 tsp turmeric
225g gram flour
1 tsp flaked sea salt
270ml water
1 onion, finely sliced
2 green chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced
Thumb of ginger, grated
300g Brussels sprouts, halved and shredded
Vegetable oil, for deep -frying

1 Mix together the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, turmeric, gram flour and salt. Pour in the water and whisk into a batter. Stir in the onion, chilli, ginger and sprouts until well coated.

2 Half fill a saucepan with oil and heat until bubbling. With a tablespoon, drop balls of batter into the oil and fry for 4-5 mins , until golden. Drain on paper towel and keep warm in a low oven.

These Brussels Bhajias are part of our menu for a post-Christmas turkey buffet, with an Indian flavour. You can find the rest of the recipes, including Carrot & Parsnip Pakora, Turkey Makhani and Cranberry Chutney, starting on page 36 of the December issue.

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Make | Sweet & Silly Sandwiches

Picnic season is upon us, and what better reason for a silly sandwich? 

If there’s ever a time when we can cast aside the sensible egg and cress or ham and mustard it must be for a midsummer picnic when a bit of fun and frivolity is always on the menu. Here are a few of our favourite sweet sandwiches that are part lunch, part pudding and part party. 

Fairy Bread

An Antipodean delicacy; open buttered white bread slices, sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. Nutritional factor: zero. Fun factor: eleven out of ten. 

Banana and Honey

Reminding us of childhood Sunday teas, the hilarity of putting banana in between slices of Hovis has never left us. Jazz it up with a sprinkling of cinnamon. 

Grated Apple

Excellent with crusty bread and a slightly salted butter. Add peanut butter if you must but we quite like the simplicity of a good old apple sarnie. 

Chocolate, brie and raspberry

One for toastie fans. This is like a sweeter version of a bacon, brie and cranberry toastie. The brie and the chocolate (dark for preference) melts beautifully into the toast while the raspberry reduces to a very pleasant mush, taking the place of the cranberry sauce. 

Fruit Sandos

A Japanese staple: chilled, whipped cream and seasonal fruits - strawberries, mandarins, pear… whatever you like - sandwiched in slices of milk bread (brioche also works). Fresh, sweet and so pretty looking. 

Sugar sandwiches

No messing about here. This traditionally Irish treat was usually bestowed upon children by over-indulgent grandparents. There’s little as exciting as the sight of the bag of Tate and Lyle, a tub of Stork and some plastic bread on the sideboard in your Granny’s kitchen. Add some lemon juice for a bit of zing and a pancake day ambience. 

In our June issue, we have a rather lovely recipe for a grown-up silly sandwich. The Rose Petal & Strawberry Sandwiches (recipe below) are part of our Heart Body & Soul feature that focuses on roses this month. It also includes instructions to make Rose Bitters, Rosewater Tonic and a savoury galette with Rose Harissa. 

Rose Petal & Strawberry Sandwiches

Give your afternoon tea a floral and fruity twist with sandwiches that give scones a run for their money 

Per sandwich: 

Two slices of brioche bread 

1 tbsp clotted cream 

1 tbsp strawberry jam 

A few drops of rosewater 

3 strawberries 

Fresh rose petals, six or more 

1 Spread the cream onto both slices of the brioche bread. 

2 Stir the rosewater into the jam, then spread this on top of the cream on one slice of bread. Thinly slice the strawberries and carefully lay on top of the cream on the other slice. 

3 Remove the heels of the rose petals if needed before laying the petals on top of the jam and carefully putting the two pieces together. Either cut into dainty fingers or leave as delicious doorsteps.

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Recipe | Hot Smoked Salmon, Caper and Dill Tart

A simple tart that will have everyone reaching across the picnic blanket for the biggest slice

A tasty and filling savoury tart that is ideal as the centrepiece of a spring picnic or a light lunch in the garden with friends. Serve with a big green salad or just cram it in with fingers and have cherry tomatoes on the side. Tastes as good sitting on the car boot with a view of the sea as it does out on the patio.

Serves 8

375g shortcrust pastry
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
180g ready-to-eat hot smoked salmon
35g capers, drained and rinsed
3 eggs 150ml single cream
50ml milk
15g fresh dill, fronds picked

1 On a lightly -floured surface, roll out the pastry and use it to line a 35cm x 13cm flan tin (alternatively, you can use a 26cm circular flan tin). Trim any overhanging pastry and prick the base with a fork. Chill in the fridge for 20 mins. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6.
2 Once chilled, remove from the fridge, line with foil and fill with baking beans. Bake for 10 mins, remove the foil and beans and bake for a further 10-12 mins, or until the pastry is crisp. Set aside to cool.
3 Heat the oil in a pan and gently fry the onion for 5 mins, or until soft and golden. Spread over the pastry base, then flake over the salmon and capers.
4 In a bowl , beat the eggs, cream and milk together, then stir in the dill and season to taste. Pour into the pastry case and bake for 35-40 mins, or until firm and golden. Leave to cool before slicing into portions.

This recipe is just one of the picnic ideas by Louise Gorrod in our feature A Vintage Day Out. You can find all the recipes, including Rainbow Chard and Feta Borek, Herby Hoummous, Strawberry and Mint Shrub, Summer Wraps and more beginning on page 54.

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Recipe | kedgeree for a weekend at home

A lovely, lazy dish for brunch, lunch, or whenever you like…

We’ve all spent more time at home recently. While we’re all dreaming of a weekend away, why not have a ‘weekend away at home’, with fancy food, time to sit over the lunch table and chat and plenty of board games and books. This hot smoked salmon kedgeree is delicious served hot or cold. The brunch dish was first given the royal seal of approval by Queen Victoria, and if it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for us.

Serves 4

2 tbsp ghee
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 bay leaves
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 leek, chopped (white part only)
2 large tomatoes, finely chopped
750g of cooked basmati rice
2 tbsp medium curry powder
Juice of 1 lemon
1½ tsp sea salt flakes (or to taste)
200g cooked hot smoked salmon fillets
2 boiled eggs, cut into quarters
Lemon wedges, fresh coriander and dill to serve

1 Heat the ghee in a large sauté pan or frying pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger, bay leaves, cumin, fennel and mustard seeds and sauté for a few seconds until the seeds start to crackle and become fragrant.
2 Add the leek and sauté for a further 1-2 mins, or until it starts to soften and caramelise, then add the tomatoes and cook for another 1-2 mins, or until they’re glazed and softened.
3 Add the cooked basmati rice, curry powder, lemon juice and salt and mix well, ensuring that the rice breaks down and all the spices are evenly incorporated throughout.
4 Flake the cooked salmon fillets into the pan and mix thoroughly, taking care not to break up the salmon flakes too much. Reduce the heat, adding a couple of tablespoons of water if it looks a little dry. Cover and cook for a further 2-3 mins, or until the dish is completely warmed through.
5 Spoon onto a platter or serving dish and garnish with the boiled egg quarters, lemon wedges, fresh coriander and dill.

Cook’s note: Use ready-cooked basmati rice to make this recipe super-quick and easy to prepare.

This kedgeree recipe by Lousie Gorrod is part of our Weekend Away at Home feature from our March issue. You can find the rest of the menu, including a garlic dip, rosemary spiced nuts and a triple chocolate cake - as well as lots of ideas for making a weekend away out of a weekend at home - starting on page 48. Photography by Emma Croman.

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Recipe | Warm Blackberry and Almond Overnight Oats

This breakfast is autumn in a bowl and will give you something to get up for on dark mornings

Overnight oats are slow food at their best. Spend a quiet evening making the blackberry compote to warm gently when you need it ,and putting your oats in to soak, and in the morning you’ll be rewarded with a filling breakfast to put a spring in your step all morning. It’s an ideal use for one of your pots of frozen blackberries, but it’s very easy to subsitute other fruit, or a diffiernt nut butter. Get creative and make the recipe your own if you like.

Serves 2

½ large red apple
2 tbsp almond butter

For the blackberry compote:

250g blackberries
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 bay leaf
Squeeze of lemon juice

For the porridge:

100g rolled oats, soaked in 250ml water for at least 30 mins, ideally overnight
250ml unsweetened almond milk
¼ tsp sea salt
1 tsp coconut oil
2 tsp raw cacao powder

1 Make the blackberry compote by heating the blackberries, maple syrup, bay leaf and lemon juice in a small pan with 1 tbsp of water. Once bubbling, remove from the heat and set aside.

2 Put all the porridge ingredients, including the soaking water, in a medium pan set over a medium heat. Stir for 3-4 mins, until the oats start to come together, the coconut oil has melted and the cacao powder has blended in.

3 Grate the apple (reserving a couple of slices to garnish). Spoon the porridge into deep bowls and top each with 1 heaped tbsp of blackberry compote and 1 tbsp of the almond butter. Finish with the grated and sliced apple .

Cook’s note:Soaking grains helps to break down their tough outer layer, making them easier to digest.

This delicious breakfast is just one of the recipes from our October feature Against the Grain by Louise Gorrod, with photography by Emma Croman. It also features recipes for Barley Porridge with Roasted Plums, Yoghurt and Toasted Almonds; Porridge with Caramel Sauce, Apples and Toasted Hazelnuts; Pumpkin Barleyotto with Manchego and Pumpkin Seeds; and Cheesy Rye Gratin with Ale and Mustard. The October issue is in shops now.

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Pudding facts: strawberries and cream

Like the look of these strawberries and cream muffins? Join us in delving into their history (before we delve into their paper cases and get our faces mucky)

Wimbledon begins again in just over a week. And out come the strawberries and cream. Of course, everyone associates the dish with the tennis tournament but we only recently learned why, and just how far back strawberries and cream goes…

It’s summer, 1509. Henry VII has recently shuffled off his mortal coil and his son, Henry (soon to be VIII) has set about spending his father’s carefully tended coffers. Henry has married Catherine of Aragon and is shortly to have a bun in the royal oven. As is custom, on ascending the throne, he has also released most of the country’s prisoners. A generous, if fairly rash idea. All in all, it’s early days, they know nothing of the difficulties to come. It’s a summer of love, of excess… and of feasting.

Royal banquets were expected to feed up to 600 at a time. Twice a day. A feat that would make a bottle of Fairy Liquid cower today. Thomas Wolsey was tasked with arranging all this and, with 600-odd guests chomping their way through up to 44 courses at any one meal, some of those courses would need to be very simple to prepare.

The combination of strawberries and cream is said to have first appeared at one of these feasts in 1509. Cream had previously been considered a peasant food - the Turkey Twizzler of its day - but the dish went down a storm. And of course, what was served for the King soon became fashionable in every well-to-do dining room across England. English ladies became so excited about the pud, they were charging their gardeners to cultivate strawberries to serve to their own dinner guests. The country went briefly strawberries and cream mad.

But whence came the tennis link? Thomas Wolsey’s palace had a tennis court, where he apparently also served strawberries and cream. Well don’t we all have that one signature pud we always fall back on when guests descend?

By the time the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament began in 1877, it was obviously peak strawberry season, but also Tudor history was ‘having a moment’. It seems to have a moment at least once a century - Hilary Mantel didn’t jump willy nilly on that particular bandwagon, of course. So all the planets were aligned for strawberries and cream to make a comeback. And come back they did. But they never left.

And why would they? Sweet, juicy strawberries and rich, cold cream are one of history’s most winning combinations, going together like love and marriage, fun and feasting… Henry VIII and gout…. Yes, maybe go easy on the cream with those strawberries this Wimbledon.

We’re celebrating Wimbledon with these strawberries and cream muffins (pictured) from our June issue, which is on sale now if you’d like the recipe. Just the thing to accompany your cuppa during the Women’s Final. The recipe from The Tin & Traybake Cookbook by Sam Gates (Robinson). Photography: Peter Wright

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Cake-off: English vs American muffins

There’s certainly nuffin like a muffin. But which one would win in a duel? We investigate

They say to-may-toe and we say to-mar-toe; they aren’t too embarrassed to ask for a doggy bag for their expensive restaurant dinner and we would rather starve for a month; we have Proper Cheese and they… well, we’ll say no more. But still, that famous ‘special relationship’ endures. Muffins though. We’re never going to agree on those. Ours are a sort of dense bread roll, with flat tops and bottoms, rolled in semolina flour for a crispy edge. Theirs are veritable cakes, often served in a paper case and with toppings and flavours galore.

So, here at The Simple Things, we thought we should settle this once and for all and pit the English muffin against its American counterpart in five categories. En garde!

Texture

Well it’s no competition really. The American muffin is obviously a cake, so springy and soft it may be but there’s nothing like the bite on a toasted English muffin with its crunchy semolina floured surface. At the end of the day it’s a chewier bread-based item and in yeast we trust.

Flavour

We have to hand it to our American friends here, we love the flavour of an English muffin but you can’t chuck handfuls of chocolate, banana or blueberries in an English muffin. Well, you can, but it would be a waste.

Style

Again, the American muffin takes it. Basically it’s a giant cupcake, isn’t it? And we all know how show-offy cupcakes have become over the last two decades. This just goes one better. We sort of stand behind the plucky, salt-of-the-earth English muffin on this one, but it has to be said the English muffin is Woman’s Weekly to the American muffin’s Vogue.

Comfort factor

You’ve come in from a cold walk, you’ve put the kettle on the stove, built a fire and got a blanket and a good book. What are you having with it? It’s not a blueberry muffin is it? It’s a lovely English muffin sliced in half, toasted and slathered with butter. Especially on the black too-toasty bits.

Flexibility

Can you eat an American muffin with either lashings of butter and strawberry jam or under a couple of perky poached eggs, wilted spinach and a huge dollop of Hollandaise sauce? Can you jiggery. The English muffin wins hands down in the flexibility stakes. It makes a fancy breakfast, an easy lunch and a satisfying teatime snack. Also good with mature cheddar, melted or not, prosaic butter and marmite or a hundred other fancy toppings. The English muffin is a flavour vehicle in its infinite variety.

So there we have it. English muffins win. But to show we’re not bad sports, we’ve featured a delicious Rye, Buckwheat and Fruit breakfast muffin in our April issue’s Cake in the House. The recipe is from Nourish Cakes by Marianne Stewart (Quadrille). Photography: Catherine Frawley. The April issue is in shops now.

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Cake facts

Cakeformation you need to know

Carrot cake -  that unlikely yet winning combination of cake and vegetable. With its natural sugars and ability to bring delicious moistness to any dry ingredients, it’s perhaps not such an unlikely idea at all, but we salute the person who first dug up a carrot and then went renegade with the flour, eggs and sugar.

No one is entirely sure when carrot cake was first invented but food historians think it is likely to be a descendant of carrot puddings, which were eaten in Medieval Europe. By the 16th and 17th centuries, carrot pudding was being served either a savoury side dish or a sweet pudding with an egg custard. This would have been baked inside a pastry tart, like a pumpkin pie,  and served with a sauce. Other versions may have been steamed, more like a plum pudding, and served with icing, so you can see how the carrot pudding edged slowly but surely towards cake.

The exact point at which pudding morphed into cake no one is sure but it was certainly during World War Two that carrot cake as we know it today became popular. As Britain was urged to ‘dig for victory’ carrots were in much more plentiful supply than sugar, which was rationed, and they had the double benefit of being both a sweetener and a bulking agent in a cake. We imagine a slice went down very nicely with a strong cup of tea during a tedious afternoon in an air-raid shelter, too.

In our March issue, we have a recipe for the Chai Carrot Cake with rose and lime icing pictured above from Feasts of Veg (Kyle Books). Recipes & photography by Nina Olsson.

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Recipe: carrot houmous

Photography: Ryland Peters & Small

Shop-bought houmous comes in many flavours. This roasted carrot version is brilliant with savoury pancakes.

Serves 8

500g carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

200g chickpeas

1 small garlic clove, crushed

Squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1⁄4 tsp ground cumin

1 Preheat oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line a roasting pan with baking parchment.

2 Place the carrots, olive oil, salt, pepper and 1 tbsp of water into the prepared pan, cover with foil and roast for 40 mins until tender. Set aside to cool.

3 Drain the chickpeas, reserving 3 tbsp of their liquid. In a food processor blitz the carrots, chickpeas and reserved liquid, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, cumin and some salt and pepper until smooth.

4 Serve, spread on the turmeric pancakes you can find in the February issue of The Simple Things, topped with seasonal raw veg, herbs and salad.

Recipe from Modern Pancakes (Ryland Peters & Small).

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Cake facts: drizzle me this

The secrets of a good drizzle cake

Lemon drizzle is the nation’s favourite cake apparently (40% named it as their favourite).

This is according to a survey last year by the prosaically named Protein Times, but we won’t quibble. In some ways it’s no surprise.

Lemon drizzle is definitely a crowd-pleaser; there’s just nothing to dislike about it. Dry-fruit deniers and icing detesters have no quarrel with a drizzle, and  it’s traditional, too. We note that (new-fangled) Red Velvet cake achieved a meagre 15% in the same survey.

The other good thing about a drizzle (of any flavour) is its simplicity. It’s a good bake for a seasoned cake-maker to impress with as well as a fine place for a beginner baker to start. And with a few semi-pro tips you can achieve a very pleasing result.

So what’s the secret of a great drizzle cake?

1. If you want your drizzle to really penetrate the cake, use a small skewer to make holes evenly across the top of your cake before drizzling the drizzle. Alternatively you can leave the skewer in the drawer and have the drizzle as more of an ‘icing’ on top.

2. Always pour the drizzle over while the cake is still warm so that more of the flavour is absorbed.

3. And don’t remove it from the tin once drizzled until it has completely cooled and set.

4. Our favourite tip - replace any milk in the recipe with limoncello. It’s what they do in Campania, and they’re never wrong about anything food related.

In our February issue, on sale now, we have a rather lovely looking passion fruit drizzle (pictured above) on our Cake in the House page. The recipe is from The Tin & Traybake Cookbook by Sam Gates (Robinson).

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Cake facts: treacle tart

In praise of the stickiest, sweetest sweet of all

You’d be hard pushed to find a sweeter ‘sweet’ than a treacle tart. So sweet it’s rhyming slang for ‘sweetheart’ and with the ability to make your molars ache just looking at it and enough sugar in it to fell a cart horse, it’s little wonder it looms large in our collective childhood consciousness (it’s probably still looming large in our collective bloodstreams, too).

So redolent is this pud with memories of cosy, carefree days, and wide-eyed pure childish gluttony, it’s made its way into many a children’s book and film, too.

Treacle Tart is as Enid Blyton as lashings of ginger beer and for many of us Blyton was our first literary encounter with the rib-sticking open-topped tart. What picnic, after all, would be complete without a sweet and impressive centrepiece perched in the middle of a field on a red-checked tablecloth and surrounded by grubby knees and ankle socks?

It also appeared, memorably, as bait for the children The Child Catcher lured to his caged van in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with the cry “Cherry pie, cream puffs, ice cream… and TREACLE TART!” The children swiftly forget all advice administered thus far by Truly Scrumptious. “Treacle tart! Ice cream! And all free!” Jeremy gasps, as they both bowl headlong through the door and into The Child Catcher’s cage. And who can blame them?

But, more recently, treacle tart has become particularly known as the dessert of choice for one very famous fictional boy. It’s Harry Potter’s most loved pudding. Early in the first book we see a medley of desserts magically appear in front of the new pupils and witness Harry quickly snaffling a treacle tart. It’s apparently a favourite in the wizarding world, but Potter is particularly partial. In fact, in a much later book, under a love spell which smells to the bewitched individual of their favourite thing, Harry’s nose detects “treacle tart and the woody scent of broomstick handle”. Mmmmmm…

So if a wizard cannot resist a treacle tart, really what hope have we muggles? It’s certainly a favourite among children but we think adults should indulge themselves more often too.

To that effect, our January issue’s Cake in the House recipe is for a Treacle Tart with Thyme and Orange. The issue is in the shops now, should you care to make it. The recipe is from one of our favourite new cookbooks, Time: A Year and a Day in the Kitchen by Gill Meller (Quadrille). Once you’ve made it, do send us a photo of your tarts in the comments below (once you have made it to a standing position again). Treacle tart should really be eaten, prone, on the sofa, preferably in front of a roaring fire, so there’s really no rush. You just take your time, treacle.

More from our January issue…

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Hanger: the struggle is real

Do thoughts of delicious food bring out the hulk in you when hungry?

If you know someone who suffers from ‘hanger’ (the condition of becoming particularly irritable when hungry), it might be time to cut them some slack. Or perhaps just cut them a slice of cake. It may sound like an excuse to either fly off the handle, or snack at will for the sake of peace, but scientists say ‘hanger’ is a genuine phenomenon.

Sophie Medlin, lecturer in nutrition and dietetics at King’s College, London, told Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour recently: “We’ve long recognised that hunger leads to irritability, but the wonderful world of social media has merged the two words and we now know it as ‘hanger’.”

And (here comes the science bit) “When our blood sugars drop, cortisol and adrenaline rise up in our bodies - our fight or flight hormones.” These then cause the release of neuropeptides, which affect the way the brain works. “The ones that trigger for hunger are the same ones that trigger for anger and rage. So that’s why you get that sort of same response,” she explains.

So now you know.

And if all that has made you hungry, well, we wouldn’t want you to leave in a bad mood. Please enjoy this recipe for Crunchy Indian Spiced Chickpeas (pictured above), which appears in our November issue and is taken from Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Sound: A New Way to Cook by Sybil Kapoor, (Pavilion) with photography by Keiko Oikawa.

Crunchy Indian Spiced Chickpeas

Makes 2 bowls

1 x 400g can chickpeas, drained  and rinsed

¼ tsp ground turmeric

¼ tsp chilli powder

¼ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground coriander

¼ tsp amchoor powder (dried sour mango), optional

1 tsp fine sea salt, or to taste

1 tbsp cold-pressed sunflower oil

½ tsp lemon juice, or to taste

1. At least 30 mins before cooking, rinse, drain and pat dry the chickpeas on paper towels. Spread them out in a single layer on a plate.

2. Preheat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6. Mix the spices and salt in a small bowl.

3. Place the chickpeas and oil in a separate bowl and mix well, before adding the spice mixture. Toss until completely coated, then tip onto  a non-stick baking sheet and spread the chickpeas into a single layer.

4. Bake for 35 mins, giving the tray the odd shake. If you prefer your chickpeas floury inside, remove after 35 mins. If you prefer them crunchy throughout, turn the oven off after 35 mins and leave inside for a further 15 mins.

5. Once done, leave the chickpeas in their roasting pan and season with the lemon juice. Leave until cold, then serve as needed.

These make a great snack for a chilly November evening. We recommend serving them with friends and your choice of drink, and our November Playlist, all about food, on in the background. Feeling calmer yet?... Good.

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Cake facts: malt loaf

Photography: Patricia Niven From The Beer Kitchen by Melissa Cole

With its warming spiciness and rib-sticking texture you will not be surprised to hear that malt loaf was ‘invented’ by a Scotsman. John Montgomerie patented the recipe in 1886. He had a new process of saccharification (breaking carbohydrate into its compnent sugar molecules) which involved warming some dough with diastatic malt extract and then keeping it at a precise temperature until the extract's enzymes pre-digested some of the starch. All sounds a bit scientific to us. We’ve put all our resources into working out the ideal amount of salted butter to spread onto each slice. We’ve experimented quite extensively. We’ll let you know the results when we have them. Pass us another slice in the meantime. All in the name of science, of course.

If you’d like to make your own magnificent malt loaf, we have an excellent recipe from Melissa Cole’s new book, The Beer Kitchen, with photography by Patricia Niven in our November issue.

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In defence of the pear

Why we think it’s time the pear stepped into the limelight

Photography: Kirstie Young

Goodness, but we love a pear. The combination of crisp and soft, sweet and refreshing, and so versatile. A pear is just as joyful whether eaten as a simple finishing point to a lunchbreak sarnie, as it is poached in wine, sunk into a crumbly cake or layered atop a tart.

But we have to say, and we don’t think we are courting controversy here, we think pears aren’t getting the love they deserve.

There’s the expression ‘pear-shaped’. In body shape terms, it may be preferable to being an ‘apple’ (or a melon soon after Christmas) but why the negative connotation in a plan ‘going pear-shaped’? Isn’t pear-shaped a beautiful and natural thing, the glorious juicy contents expanding generously towards the bottom and easing slowly outwards? If a plan goes hideously awry surely it’s starfruit-shaped? Or dragon-fruit shaped? Or pancake-shaped, even? It just seems undeserved.

We hate to take sides but our difficulty really is with the apple as pear-opponent, particularly at this time of year.

We like an apple, too, of course (some of our best friends are apples) but sometimes it seems that it’s all about apples just now. We bob for apples, we eat them from a string in silly party games, we stick the pips to our head to tell who our true love will be… October even has its own apple DAY, we recently noted. Our November issue has a rather splendid recipe for toffee apples. And we liked the results so much we even put them on the front cover, as you might have seen. You see, even we are not immune to the charms of the apple. Who doesn’t love a toffee apple?

However, we can’t help feeling that the cumulative effect of all this apple love is sometimes at the expense of the lovely, unassuming pear.

Pears have been growing in England since the year 995, so they should really have their feet firmly under the table. A pear tree may survive for up to 250 years, so it’s no surprise that the pear is a symbol of immortality in Chinese culture. Take note, apple trees, with your paltry 100-year lifespan.

An apple a day may be known for ‘keeping the doctor away’ but a pear is one of the highest-fibre fruits you can treat yourself to. It also includes calcium, magnesium, copper and manganese, as well as the antioxidant quercetin, which, according to Sunday supplements, helps prevent cancer and reduces blood pressure. Basically, if the pear were newer to the supermarket than the sun-dried tomato, we’d be calling it a superfood.

And finally, m’lud, we would like to point out that a griddled slice of pear on a crusty piece of bread with a sliver of blue cheese reclined louchely upon it is a food of the Gods, and an apple, while delicious, butters no parsnips in this circumstance. <Gavel>

We accept that may be a fruit ‘n’ veg metaphor too far, so we will bow out gracefully now, but will first give a nod to the lovely feature in our November issue on things you can do with pears today, tomorrow and next year. It’s written by Lia Leendertz who knows a thing or two about how to use orchard fruit well, with photography by Kirstie Young. One not to miss. Do send us a slice of the dark chocolate and pear cake when you’ve made it, please.

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More pear recipes…

More from the November issue…

Finding hygge

January is full of possibilities. Plans and hopes and dreams. As it should be at the start of things. But no need to rush. The warmth of hearth and home is what we need during these dark midwinter days. Appreciating what we have and where we live, embracing being indoors, cosy and comfortable together — a hygge life. Let your mind wander while you sit; make the case for adventure, for exploring the unfamiliar, for strange languages, for the mountains and for the stars and where they could lead you. 

January’s The Simple Things is all about hygge. Pronounced hue-gah, hygge is a Danish word to portray a feeling or mood that comes taking genuine pleasure in making ordinary, every day moments more meaningful, beautiful or special. Get your copy now for plenty of ideas to try this month. 

We might not have the snow here but you can pretend you’re in Scandinavia with one of these fun Nordic experiences. If you can’t beat them and all that...

l If you’re going to Paris and fancy a very different experience, head to the Insitut Finlandais and spend the night in a Finnish wood cabin (above). The cabins are a temporary installation (until May) designed in a pared-back Nordic style and guests will be treated to a taste of the Finnish hospitality with a traditional breakfast and themed events from music to film screenings. kotisleepover.com

l There’s plenty of hygge to be had in London this winter. At Southbank Winter Festival (until 25 January) pop into the Rekorderlig Cider Lodge to sample the new Spiced Plum cider and huddle round firepits with bowls of Swedish food. Or go to Winter Wigwam in Hoxton and feast at a long table, warm up with hot mead by the fire and join a hair braiding or ukulele session. queenofhoxton.com

l It’s bound to be chilly in Scotland but keeping warm is easy in the new 40ft loch-side sauna with panoramic views of Loch Tay in the Taymouth Marina. When it all gets too sweaty, you can jump into the loch to cool off before cosying up by the firepit.
taymouthmarina.com

More from the January issue:

More hygge:

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View the sampler here.

Recipe: Apple 'doughnuts'

OK, so these aren’t real doughnuts, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how delicious (and addictive) they are, despite being far healthier than their sugary namesakes. Kids will love making and eating them – so why not turn it into a game and see who can be the most creative? Great for using up your apple harvest, the doughnuts make a fun breakfast or healthy snack at any time of day. 

MAKES 12

300g full-fat cream cheese
100g peanut, almond or cashew nut butter
2 tbsp fruit purée or coulis
1 tsp maple syrup or honey
2 large apples, either red or green or 1 of each
3 tbsp chocolate spread or toffee sauce (optional)
75g mixture of your chosen toppings (see below)

TOPPINGS:

dried fruit, eg golden raisins, cranberries, dried apricots or goji berries
nuts, eg hazelnuts, pecans, almonds or pistachios
seeds, eg pumpkin, sunflower,
toasted sesame or linseeds roasted nut and seed mix toasted coconut flakes
bee pollen
edible flowers

ESSENTIAL KIT:

apple corer

1 Line a tray with non-stick baking paper and set aside.
2 Divide the cream cheese between two small bowls. Mix the nut butter into one and the fruit purée or coulis into the other. Stir 1⁄2 tsp of syrup or honey into each bowl. Cover and set aside. Can be made a day in advance.
3 Use the apple corer to remove the cores. Cut each apple into six even-sized slices (including the ends) and lay them flat on the prepared tray, ends cut side up.
4 Spread the nutty cream cheese over six slices and the fruity one over the other six, leaving the hole clear. Use your toppings to decorate the apple doughnuts as you like. You can also chop your toppings into smaller pieces if you prefer. Either arrange them on top of the apple slices or press the creamy side down onto the toppings to stick.
5 As a further flourish, drizzle chocolate spread or toffee sauce over the apple doughnuts, if you like. To loosen the sauce for drizzling, spoon it into a small bowl and sit the bowl in another bowl of just-boiled water. Give it a good stir once it starts to melt.

These can be made up to a day ahead and kept covered in the fridge. Serve on a tiered stand or layered between small squares of baking paper in a nice box.

For a twist...

• Use chocolate spread instead of nut butter, or jam instead of fruit purée.
• Decorate the tops with cake sprinkles for a treat.

Recipe from The No-Cook Cookbook by Sharon Hearne-Smith (Quercus) 

More from the September issue:

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Recipe: Coco Cabana cocktail

With 120 fruits native to its rainforest, there’s no wonder Brazilians make a mean cocktail. If watching the Olympics this month makes you pine for tropical climes, mix yourself a jug of this fabulously kitsch cocktail (palm trees essential) and the combination of rum, cachaça, strawberries and coconut will instantly transport you from kitchen to Copacabana beach.

Coco Cabana 

75ml cachaça
75ml Malibu
50ml coconut cream
50ml lemon juice
50ml simple sugar syrup
90ml pineapple juice
180ml coconut water
75ml strawberry purée ice cubes
1 orange, sliced
1 lemon, sliced

Pour all the ingredients except the orange and lemon slices into a large jug and stir well.
Fill with ice and stir again.
Top with lemon and orange slices.

Pronounced ka-sha-sa, cachaça is the national drink of Brazil and appears in many of its cocktails. Like rum, it’s a sugar cane spirit, but distilled directly from fermented sugar cane juice rather than from the molasses. It’s now possible to find simple brands such as Sagatiba in larger supermarkets or specialist spirit shops. If you’re at loss or don’t like the taste (some people find it too rough or strong), you can substitute vodka or rum. Oh and Brazilians do really run their cars on it sometimes – if you’re ever crossing the road and notice a waft of sweetness in the air, that’s the ethanol from the sugar cane. Not one to try at home.

Recipe from Carnival! By David Ponte, Lizzy Barber and Jamie Barber (Quadrille)
Photography by Martin Poole  

Read more from the August issue:

More cocktail recipes:

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Spring clean

Finally we are beginning to see signs that spring is on its way. Daffodils, blossom, Easter eggs and, dare we say it, the odd sunny day. 

While it might not be time to put away our winter coats just yet, it is time to think about welcoming the new season into our homes. What better way to do so than with a spring clean. Whether you plan to set aside an entire weekend to clean from skirting board to ceiling or you’re just going to resolve to give those curtains a spin in the washing machine, our Shopkeeper, Louise Gorrod, has the selected the perfect cleaning kit from The Stuff of Life to make those chores a little more enjoyable.

Images from top, left to right: Organic cotton ironing board cover by Orche and Ocre, £18.00 | Linen laundry bag by The Linen Works, £28.00 | Vintage style enamel wash bowl by The Glam Camping Company, £9.99 | Linen kitchen towels by LinenMe, £10.99 | Birch wood round brush by Cachette, £20.00 | Handcrafted scrubbing brush by Cachette, £12.00 | Set of 3 Kaleidoscope storage boxes by Cambridge Imprint, £18.00 | Organic cotton peg bag by Orche and Ocre, £12.00 | Natural belly basket by Olli Ella, £25.00.

Recipe: Allium broth

This delicious broth has many uses. Use it instead of water for cooking pulses and beans and it brings them to life immediately. Add some diced or shredded green vegetables and simmer until they soften for a nutrient-rich soup or simply stir in some green pesto and lemon juice and pour into a mug for a light lunch on the go.

Allium broth

Makes 1.2 litres
2 large white onions, skins on, sliced
2 leeks, green ends included, sliced
1 bunch spring onions, sliced vertically
4-6 garlic cloves, rolled and smashed, skins on
4 small shallots, skin on, sliced into rounds
2.25 litres water
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
4 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 tsp black peppercorns

1 Combine all the ingredients in a large pan. Cover with a lid and bring to the boil.
2 Lower the heat to a simmer, and continue cooking for 2 hours until all the allium vegetables have softened, become totally transparent and are almost reduced to a pulp.
3 Strain the broth through a sieve, pushing through the finer vegetables with a wooden spoon. Set aside to cool.
4 Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days, or freeze for up to three months.

Recipe from Broth by Vicki Edgson and Heather Thomas. Photography by Lisa Linder (Jacqui Small Publishing).

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From the February issue

Soup recipes

Supper on the sofa

February's The Simple Things is out now - buy, download or subscribe.