(happily- get it?)
Yes, I have been getting a little obsessed with apples. You may realise I love them anyway- often having one for breakfast or lunch. I was given a big bag by my parents, so have been enjoying baking with them.
Last week I made some apple crumble bars. I based them on this berry crumble bar recipe by Katie.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Into a bowl I mixed 1.5 cups of flour (mixture of plain and wholegrain spelt), 1/2tsp baking powder, 1/2cup sugar (should be brown but I only had golden), 1 tbs melted coconut butter, 2tbs almond milk and a lot of cinnamon!
I sprinkled half into a dish and pressed it down quite firmly.
Then chop up some apples- I think I used 4 or 5 small ones, but next time I would use more- maybe double to have a massive apple layer in the middle. Mix these in a bowl with 3 tbs maple syrup, and 1 tsp vanilla, and then pour this over the base. Top with the remaining crumble mixture.
Bake for 45 mins.
When I take it out of the oven, I ease the edge of the bars away from the dish, but leave until cool to slice and remove from the dish.
Then enjoy with some custard 🙂 (well, this is alpro vanilla but it tastes the same).
Then I made some dried apple rings. I keep seeing them (and other dried fruits) in blog-land, so had a go at my own.
I cored and sliced some apples, sprinkled them with cinnamon, and then baked them in an low heat oven (100C) for about 2 1/2 hours.
While they were baking I was flicking on the TV and saw someone make these on Market Kitchen- how topical! She used hers to top an apple cheesecake which sounded lovely.
These are so tasty! I had these little vacuum pots from Lakeland, which are perfect for storing them- although I don’t think they will last long!
I also made some bread- I have posted one of my bread recipes before, but that was a cinnamon raisin bread. So here is my seedy bread. Makes one mini loaf.
First I start off the yeast- I use quick yeast but I still get better results if I do this first. By that I mean I put some warm water in a cup (a normal cup with maybe 100ml water in it?), 1 tsp yeast and a pinch of sugar, plus a tablespoon of bread flour in the cup. I leave it until the yeast bubbles. (If doing sundried tomato bread, chop up the dried tomatoes and add them to this- they will soak up some of the water and that is lovely).
Then in a separate bowl I weigh out 150g bread flour- I prefer a mixture of wholewheat and white, and I love canadian flour for this. I add a sprinkle of herbs- I love rosemary here. Also add a pinch of salt. When the yeast mixture bubbles, pour it into the bowl and mix it a bit with a spoon. It may look too wet/dry in places, but do not worry. Turn it out and knead gently- it should all come together after a few mins of kneading. Put it back into the bowl and cover with cling film. Now, if I am making it for the next day, I put it in the fridge. If not, leave it out to rise.
(This was in the fridge overnight, so I took it out for a bit to kick start the yeast again)
When it has doubled in size, knead it again and add in some seeds- I used the food doctor seed mix here. Then put it in a lightly oiled small loaf tin, and leave to rise again.
About to knead the seeds in above, below in the tin after rising again.
Then bake in the oven (200C) for about 35 mins.
Get your boyfriend to slice it because it is too hot to handle!
Serve with vegetable and bean bake. Mmmmm.
I have been at home from work, as the antibiotics do not seem to be working. So I rang the doctors and they told me to go back tomorrow once I have totally finished the course (it was only a 3 day course). I am getting a little fed up- today was the perfect day for a run or for some gardening, or even a walk, but I was not up to any of that. Plus I always feel bad when calling in sick to work. Can’t be helped though.
Fave apple recipe?
Yummy! I chopped up half of one (which was 100g) and coated it in a little melted coconut oil (from 
I microwaved 1 1/2 sweet potatoes, scraped out the filling and then whizzed it up with a tin of drained lentils, some chia seeds (1tbs) soaked in water (I hoped this would work like a gel and hold them together a bit), paprika, and sundried tomatoes.
(All ready to be whizzed up).
I baked them for 25 mins, and then enjoyed a couple for dinner.
Soooooooooo good 🙂 I found that I liked the thinner fries the best, so I think next time I make them I would slice them super thin. The patties are very soft but the sweet potato flavour really came through. 🙂 The rest are in the freezer so I can go sweet potato crazy another day! Yay!
Some pumpkin whoopie pies! I was so excited to make these 🙂 Although I did not have any marshmallow fluff to add to the filling, so I made it without and the filling was super runny!
They were a hit with Andy and at work- gently spiced and really tasty. 🙂 Ones to make again for sure.
Also it is National Cupcake week this week. I am not sure if it is an excuse for the Food network to show more of Cupcake wars than usual, but I was emailed a few recipes from 
Snacks all packed up;
Nakd bar for morning snack, and Eat Natural mini bar for the staff meeting.
Hummus and roasted pepper sandwich, nectarine and pear. And my big water bottle. 🙂
Roasted sweet potato (in the microwave, sorry!) with hummus (I meant to try it with almond butter but turned out I must have finished my jar), and some veggies and basil tofu with tomato and a tsp pesto. I was supposed to have some salad too but it had gone all squishy.
(Mainly an excuse to put on a photo of my teapot as I have not had one on here for ages! And our cute cups- mine is the chicken one)
A row of Mint Rawr chocolate (soooo good- the perfect amount of mint)
Alpro dark chocolate, some of Lizi’s granola and a little white chocolate wonderful (which on reflection was not needed as it was very sweet and a bit too sweet for how I was feeling).
Mint tea always makes it better 🙂