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These are an adapted version of a muffin recipe I got from my mother-in-law. They are packed full of vitamins, fibre and protein and are super tasty. The only down-side is that they are a little dense, but they are very worth it despite that! I switched out the sugar from maple syrup to honey and grape molasses, and changed the spicing and nuts around a little. Some of those decisions are taste based and some are pantry based. The grape molasses was because I recently picked some up and wanted to try it out. Ingredients: 1 c ground hazelnuts 1 c ground almonds 1 c oats 1/2 c raisins, chopped 2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp cloves 1 tsp baking soda 3 eggs 1 c zucchini, grated 1 c carrot, grated 1/3 c butter (scant), melted 1 tsp vanilla 1/4 c honey 1/4 c grape molasses 1) Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. beat in the eggs then add the wet ingredients. Stir until just combined. 2) Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake at 175°C for 25-35 minutes until golden brown and a knife comes out clean. I like these either plain, or with just a little butter. They are tasty, with a rich flavour and make a great breakfast on the go. I might play around with spicing and flavours a little more though just to sharpen them up a little.

Back in the autumn, my dad shared a video with me by Pro Home Cooks on making your own vinegar at home. I was intrigued, and after checking out a few more websites and how-tos, I decided to try it out. I then checked out instructions from a couple of other places and launched into it. I used only dried fruits as these apparently have a lower incidence of white mould forming on top. I made six different kinds of vinegar, using cranberries, raisins, apples, lemon slices, rosehips and one combo vinegar of apple and rosehips. I filled the bottles about a third to half-full bottles with the fruit and then filling the rest with water. I covered them with cloth, so as to allow the bottles to breathe but keep debris out and stirred them (almost) every day. And that was it. At the 3 week mark I filtered out the fruit, and at the 60-day mark, I capped the bottles. Once or twice I had issues with a little mould on the top, which I skimmed off. Other times, it was hard to tell what was mould or what was the mother of vinegar forming. I only hope I didn't skim the mother at any point! Interestingly, it was the lemon vinegar with which I had the greatest mould challenge, even right up until the end. Each of my six vinegars now has a distinctive colour, smell and flavour. I am leaving them to mature a little before really launching into using them, but will do so soon! SO far they've been used a little on salad but not for much else yet. I want to try the same method with other things too. Supposedly vinegar can be made from carrot peels for example. We'll see how it goes!

This one is half cheese journey and half recipe. I was asked for it by a colleague though, so here it is. Yogurt making is not massively new to me. I have done it a few times, and have enjoyed trying out different starter yogurts and seeing the effect different ones have on the final yogurt. It is very easy to do an the result is satisfying. If the yogurt is not as thick as you'd like, simply strain it. Then you have yogurt as well as whey to use. The key to this as far as I am concerned, is to use a good quality milk. Mine was quite thick, with an almost flan-like consistency, but we strained it a little anyway. Ingredients: 2 l milk 3/4 - 1 c yogurt with active cultures 1) Place milk in a saucepan and heat over medium until it is warm but not too hot. You should be able to dip your pinky finger in and leave it for a count of 10 without being uncomfortable. 2) Add the yogurt to the milk and stir. Cover the saucepan and place in a warm spot to ripen over night or longer. A spot in the sun, by the fire or by a radiator are great. I usually put mine in my Wonderbag cloth oven as it maintains the temperature over a long period without using any energy and without risk. 3) Strain as needed. I particularly like home-made yogurt for dishes like borani where the flavour of the yogurt itself is key. Depending on the starter yogurt used the end-yogurt may be more acidic or sweeter. Play around with it and figure out which you like best!

Have I ever mentioned how much I like chestnuts? Ever? Maybe once or twice, with the Chestnut Cookies, Caramel Chestnut Risotto, or Chestnut Puddings... They are a seasonal must for me around Christmas, and I absolutely love them. The smell of them roasting conjures up images of Christmas markets, hot chestnuts in paper bags, burnt fingers and the delicious sweet earthy flesh warming you from the inside... For Christmas, we usually have pumpkin pie and mincemeat pie, but this year we decided to add in a new one, Chestnut Pie. Somehow, bouncing around ideas about something else entirely, and the idea of trying a chestnut pie came up. Other ideas are still pending testing, but the one we decided to make a reality is along the same lines as a pecan pie. However, those involved in the discussion agreed that pecan pie is generally too sweet, so we reduced the amount of sugar. I also don't like corn syrup, so instead, we used honey and citrus syrup left over from making Candied Peel. We also figured that the citrus would balance out the earthy flavour of the chestnuts. To address the sweetness, we also made a thin pie in a large dish rather than a deep one. For the first try, we used frozen chestnuts (defrosted, of course), but raw. I had thought that 40 minutes in the oven would be enough to cook them, but it wasn't. In the second try, therefore, I used cooked chestnuts, boiling some first (saving the chestnut water, we'll see what it will come in handy for. Oatmeal maybe?), some I roasted. For the pie crust, I used vinegar syrup from making pickled plums this summer. The added flavour was interesting, but a regular pie crust would work fine. Ingredients: Pie crust: 1 1/2 c flour 1/3 c butter, cold and cubed 1/3c milk/whey/plum vinegar syrup Filling 1 kg chestnuts 3 tbsp butter 1/2 c light brown sugar 1/2 c honey 1/2 c citrus syrup (use molasses or maple syrup if need be. Or more honey) 3 eggs 1) In a large bowl, rub the butter and flour together until you achieve a wet sandy texture. Stir in the liquid, gathering into a dough, manipulating as little as possible. Chill. 2) In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar. Stir in honey and syrup, then beat in eggs. 3) If using raw chestnuts, boil for about 10 minutes until tender. Then roast about half at 190°C for 15 minutes (alternatively, I did it in the air fryer). 4) Roll out pie crust, and line a pie plate with it. Pour in the chestnuts, and then the batter. Bake at 180°C for 40min. Allow to cool and set, then serve at room temperature. I really liked this pie! And even the pecan pie doubters (*cough* Hubby) enjoyed it. I liked it better the first time around, but the chestnuts were better cooked the second time around. I would merely use pre-cooked chestnuts or boil them next time, and skip the roasting. I would also deliberately use light brown sugar. The second time I used dark brown sugar, and I think that worked less well, although that opinion was not unanimous. The pie crust worked, but a regular one would have worked equally well. The citrus syrup definitely worked, and I may even add orange zest or candied orange peel to this pie next time. We also used double the amount of chestnuts the second time around, making it super chestnutty. I would maybe split the difference in future and use 750g. The first time we had it with whipped cream, and the second time with mascarpone. Both work, but I think I preferred it with whipped cream.

As mentioned in Day 57 of The Challenge Rotkohl, literally red cabbage, is a stewed cabbage dish traditionally eaten in Germany and German-speaking Switzerland alongside sausages or other meat. You can get them ready made in tins, or you can make it yourself, pretty easily too. This batch came out particularly well, but the key, really, is time. I got this ready early in the day, before lunch, and stashed it in my Wonderbag slow cooker for the rest of the day until dinner, thus giving it plenty of time to stew. I also added a couple of first-time innovations which worked out scrumptiously. Ingredients: 1 half of a red cabbage, chopped 2 apples, chopped 1 c raisins 2 tsp orange peel 1/4-1/2 nutmeg, freshly grated 1 c apple cider vinegar 1 c apple juice Pepper 1) Place all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a simmer and stew covered at low temperature for at least 45 minutes (the longer the better). A slow cooker works wonders, but you can do it over the stove if need be. I love this dish! It works as a side for all sorts of meals, it is dead simple, and so so satisfying! Please try this! EDIT: I tried this again recently and made it with dried grapefruit peel instead or orange. It worked well, but there was a little more bitterness. A pinch of salt sorted that out though! Certainly an alternative to bear in mind!

I've done this in various forms before, sometimes vegetarian, sometimes with sausages or other meat,

My sister is visiting to help with the arrival of the Littler One, and we've been on a bit of a baking kick. Well, cooking of a variety of kinds, really. We decided we wanted to do some Christmas baking, with a little flavour experimentation, as well as making old favourites (like Cinnamon Stars, Basler Christmas Cookies, or Christmas Butter Balls). One of the Christmas flavours we wanted to play with was cranberry, After some playing with ideas, we settled on these. The last few blondie recipes (Pear-Ginger and Apple Rhubarb) I've come up with were all a caramelised brown sugar base, so we thought this time we'd try out a white chocolate base instead. Ingredients: 4 eggs 1 c light brown sugar 1/2c butter 200g white chocolate 1/2 c oats 1 1/2c flour 1/2c cranberry juice 1 c dried cranberries 1/2 c walnuts, chopped Zest 1 orange 1) Over very low heat, melt the butter and white chocolate in a saucepan, stirring almost continuously to prevent burning. (The right way to do this is probably over a Bain-Marie, but this works too, and I couldn't be bothered). 2) Beat the eggs with the sugar until light. Add dry ingredients and combine. Stir in the juice, cranberries and zest, and finally, fold in the melted chocolate. Scatter nuts over the top. 3) Pour batter into a brownie tin and bake at 180°C for 25-30 minutes. These came out very tasty. Interestingly, although we enjoyed eating the blondies hot, the flavours had developed more and were better balanced on the following day. There are however a couple of tweaks we might try next time. Firstly, the cranberry flavour didn't come out as strongly as I would have liked. next time I will try starting with double or even triple the amount of cranberry juice and cooking it down to a half cup, thus intensifying the flavour. Secondly, we found the flavour profile very high, lacking in deeper notes. To balance this out, there are a couple of things I want to try. Toasting the nuts and the oats, and maybe increasing the proportion of these might add the deeper note that I am looking for. Another, perhaps subtler way of doing this would also be to melt the white chocolate in the oven, caramelising it a bit and deepening the flavour profile. I feel that this is an advantage to brown sugar blondies over white chocolate ones in that they have this incorporated as a matter of course. . Finally, I found these to be a little on the sweet side, so I might cut the sugar a bit next time, to three-quarters of a cup perhaps. They were also a bit cakier than I like, so I might add a dash of milk and/or reduce the flour by a bit, and pull them out of the oven that little bit earlier. With so many changes and tweaks to try, and so many ideas to try, I wish I worked in a test kitchen!

Continuing on from that initial request for a ketchup recipe, here is another one. This time I decided to do a spiced (but not spicy) carrot ketchup, in part because I had a bunch of carrots on the brink of going off. It turned out really tasty, but slightly less classically ketchuppy than the Tomato Ketchups or the Beet Ketchup. Ingredients: 6 c carrots, chopped 3/4c tbsp apple cider vinegar 5 tbsp brown sugar 1/2 tsp ras el hanout 1 tsp tandoori powder 1 pink onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 4 cm ginger, minced 1 tsp nigella seeds Salt and pepper 1) Place all ingredients except nigella seeds in a saucepan and simmer until carrots are tender. Blitz until smooth. Taste test, add nigella seeds and reduce until the ketchup reaches desired consistency. 2) Meanwhile, sterilise glass jars by boiling them for 15 minutes. Fill while the ketchup is still hot, seal and leave to cool. We've been having this on all sorts of things recently and it's proved very versatile. Little Bit stays true to his trend of eating condiments as though they were their own foods, but in this case, I'm fine with that.

As mentioned in Day 47 of The Challenge Our basil plant was starting to suffer from the cooler weather, and our tomatoes were ripening, so the stars aligned as it were for a tomato tart. Or agriculture on my balcony did in any case. I had been wanting to have a tomato tart for a while and so seized the opportunity and am delighted that I did! Ingredients: Crust: (you can use a store bought crust if you want, but this is also very quick and easy, I promise! It is better if you have a half hour to let it chill before rolling it out, but it still works if you don't) 3/4 c flour 1/2 c cold butter, cut into pieces pinch of salt 1/4 (approximate) water 6 large tomatoes, sliced a handful of fresh basil leaves 1 ball of mozzarella, sliced 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar Salt and pepper to taste 1) To make crust, mix flour and salt. Cut in pieces of butter and mix together with fingertips until it forms a crumb like texture. Add water and mix with a fork, then knead into a soft dough. 2) Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. 3) Roll out the pastry and line a pie dish with it. Layer sliced tomatoes in the pie dish (Careful not to drizzle in the juice at the same time or your pie will be soggy!) and then place mozzarella slices over the top and drizzle over olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Tuck in basil leaves, and season. 4) Bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes until the mozzarella browns slightly. Tasty and fresh yet warm for a cool, sunny autumn day. Absolutely loved this, and it went down well with Hubby and Little One too!

With citrus fruit now in season, one way of preserving them is in a curd - a custard-like jam that keeps in the fridge for about 4 weeks and in the freezer for about a year. It requires eggs and butter, making it rich and creamy, but less long-lived. I have experimented with making various curds at different times, and enjoy them all. Grapefruit curd is a particular favourite. It is also something that always seems like it will be more complicated and difficult than it is. Some recipes call for egg yolks, others for whole eggs. I've done it with both in the past and both work. The curd is maybe a little richer when made with egg yolks rather than whole eggs though. This time, going away a day later for Christmas, I didn't want extra egg whites hanging around, so I used whole eggs. Feel free to substitute though. As you cook until it thickens, I don't tend to change the proportions much, the curd just thickens faster with egg yolks than whole eggs. Ingredients: 5 eggs 1 c + 3 tbsp sugar (250g) 1 1/8 c butter, diced (250g) Juice of 1 1/2 grapefruits, reduced by about 1/3 Zest of 2 grapefruits 1) Place a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water, forming a Bain Marie. In this, whisk together the sugar and eggs until uniformly combined. 2) Add the zest and the juice and whisk well. Add the butter a cube or two at a time, waiting to add the next cube until the previous ones have mostly melted. Continue whisking and adding butter cubes until all the butter is added and melted, and the curd begins to thicken. (Optional extra step for a smoother curd: Strain the curd when it has begun to thicken, removing the zest and any other bits. I find this unnecessary and don't mind encountering bits of zest, but the choice is yours). 3) Meanwhile, sterilise jars in boiling water for 15 minutes. When the curd has begun to thicken, spoon the hot curd into freshly boiled jars and seal immediately, making sure the rims of the jars stay clean. As the curd cools, it will seal the jars. ( I needed three jam jars for this quantity of curd). The curd should keep in the fridge for about 4 weeks or in the freezer for about a year. Once opened, be aware that it is made with eggs, so consume it relatively quickly. I am pleased with how this turned out, and am planning on conserving more citrus this way as they come into season, so stay tuned for any variations!