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After making my Yellow Carrot Tart with the barley flour crust, I started thinking. That crust base was unique, with a bit more bite and a bit more sweetness to it than regular crust. At some point when nursing in the middle of the night (sometimes that's when the best ideas happen, the problem is holding onto them in the morning) it occurred to me that the crust modified slightly would work nicely for shortbread. After thinking of it it kept niggling me until I tried it. So I did. It also dawned on my while making them that if I can get the barley flour fine enough, barley, with less gluten than regular flour, is a great replacement as in shortbread everything is done to prevent gluten chain formation (soft butter, no kneading). Starting with something even less likely to do that has the potential for even crumblier, tenderer biscuits. Ingredients: 2/3 c barley flour 2/3c flour 1/2 c butter, very soft 1/4c sugar 1/3 c dark chocolate chips 1) Place flours and butter in a bowl and mix until smooth. Add sugar and chocolate chips. Mix. Press together into a dough. Do NOT knead. 2) Turn out onto a clean surface and roll out to about 1 - 1.5 cm thick and cut into rounds of the desired thickness. Place rounds on a cookie sheet with wax paper and chill 20 minutes. 3) Bake at 190°C for 15-20 minutes until golden. These were very tasty and the flavours came together as I had hoped. The biscuits could have been a little thicker though. Also, in terms of the texture, these didn't melt in your mouth the way regular shortbread cookies do. I need to grind the barley flour a little finer next time as it had too much bite, but otherwise, I am delighted with these!

Definitely best had hot, but they were still good the couple of days afterwards too!

Hot filling and comfort foody while being healthy and not too heavy.

The sweet potatoes needed more flour to come together than regular ones, but the texture was good and

As mentioned in Day 56 of The Challenge We had other plans for dinner, but then feeling a little under the weather we wanted something simple and easy but also packed with flavour, vitamins and energy. I've done this in various forms before, sometimes vegetarian, sometimes with sausages or other meat, sometimes with baked eggs tucked in among the veg. Sometimes the pancakes are under the veg, sometimes separate. I have yet to try the pancakes baked down over the veg, and this was the first time that I changed the pancake batter to make it more savoury. It was baked separately and came out beautifully! Ingredients: For the veg: 3 carrots, chopped 3 onions, chopped 1 head of garlic, chopped 1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, chopped 1 zucchini, chopped 1 1/2 - 2 c of chopped pumpkin 1 c raisins 2-3 tbsp olive oil 1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 2 tsp whole grain mustard 2 tsp nigella seeds 3 tsp zathar salt and pepper to taste For the pancakes: 1 1/2 c flour 3 tbsp semolina 1 c milk 2 eggs 1/3 c tomato passata 3-4 tbsp melted butter 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 2 thyme sprigs 4 sundried tomatoes 2 tsp garam masala 2 tsp thyme salt and pepper to taste 1) Place all the veg and raisins in an oven proof dish. Drizzle over the oil, balsamic and mustard, then sprinkle on the zathar and nigella seeds. Mix well and bake for approximately 45 min at 180°C. 2) Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients for the pancakes. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Coat a skillet in melted butter and pour in the pancake batter. Place the thyme and sundried tomatoes on top and then put in the oven for about 30-35 minutes at 180°C with the veg. 3) Serve together hot with condiments. This turned out really well! I had to use a little more liquid than the pancake batter usually calls for, but it came out well in terms of the taste and texture. It could have used a little extra baking powder, or an extra egg instead of some of the milk to make it puff a little more than it did. Having said that, the batter did rise to about twice its original size and was very light. We tried a number of different condiments with this, both sweet and savoury. Surprisingly, our favourite condiments were the Green Tomato Chutney and maple syrup (I mean pancakes and maple syrup are classic!) I highly recommend trying this!

I find this very satisfying, and as much as I like a good, traditional meat lasagne, I also like having

Looking into fenugreek a while back, I came across a description of it comparing fenugreek's taste to that of maple and the fact that fenugreek is sometimes used as a maple substitute. That gave me an idea. What about if I used fenugreek in something that often has maple syrup added to it, like pancakes. The idea niggled for a while until I finally tried it. The pancakes worked really well. They were missing a little richness to the maple flavour, but with butter or yogurt they were really tasty! Less sweet obviously, than adding maple syrup to a dish, and the flavour was more delicate, but very tasty. Ingredients: 1 1/2 c flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp fenugreek powder 3 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp melted butter 2 eggs 3/4c milk 1) Combine dry ingredients, then gradually add wet ingredients. Add an additional splash of milk if necessary for the batter to be just thin enough to pour. 2) Melt butter in a skillet then cook the pancakes in two-tablespoon-dollops (or bigger if you want) over medium heat until bubbles appear and pop on the surface and it goes from shiny to matte, then flip. Serve hot with butter, jam, syrup or fruits. Or anything else you fancy. I really enjoyed these. They had a definite maple flavour but without added sugar. I enjoyed mine plain with butter, which gave them an extra richness that brought out the maple flavour. These are definitely coming back out! The only aspect I wasn't delighted with was the texture. They were a little heavier than usual, and I don't know if fenugreek requires a little additional liquid or rising agent, or if there was a mix-up somewhere. To be tried again I guess, and I will see. If you try them, let me know what you think!

Some I am cooking with now, for tasty, warming autumnal foods, while others I am roasting and then freezing this roasted pumpkin purée, I decided to make more muffins - still in a bid to stock up on breakfast foods

Historically, they were the survival food of France during rationing during WWII. It was good but... A good comfort food, and a very nice variant on a regular gratin.

Warm and filling, it is the ultimate comfort food. Add this resulting triple mix to the pasta and stir well to coat all of those little tubes in gooey goodness