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As mentioned in Day 77 of The Challenge These were experimental, and came out very well. I wanted bread to go with our lunch. But we were out of bread, so I was going to make baking powder biscuits. But I was out of butter, so I decided to make corn muffins, but then realised that I had used the last of the eggs and milk already. So I made corn muffins with what I had - Apple sauce and apple juice instead of the eggs and milk. They were a bit sweeter than normal, and a little moister, but they worked! Ingredients: 1 c flour 1 c cornmeal 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 c sugar 2 eggs 1/4 c sunflower oil 3/4 c apple juice 3/4 c apple sauce 1) Mix together the dry ingredients. Gradually add the wet ingredients, mixing well to prevent lumps. 2) Spoon into muffin cups or into a prepared cake tin. 3) Bake at 200°C for 25-30 minutes. These worked very well? They are certainly more sweet than savoury, and worked best with just butter, no jam or chutney really did justice or had its own justice done on these muffins, but they were tasty never-the-less. In future, I might use a little less apple sauce, and probably cut the sugar a little. Definitely worth a try for a bit of variety though!

The last few blondie recipes (Pear-Ginger and Apple Rhubarb) I've come up with were all a caramelised

This was a somewhat experimental recipe as I have made something similar-ish in the past but not quite

I will still keep the other recipe too, but this is a nice alternative to have up my sleeve!

After my earlier attempt at a tomato ketchup, I was inspired to play around with other ketchup varieties. One that I wanted to try, thinking that the vegetable would lend itself well to this, was beetroot. The challenge in making this ketchup was to make it taste properly ketchupy and not like borscht. I think I managed! Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think! Ingredients: 4 beets, peeled and chopped 1/2 head garlic, minced 1 onion, chopped 7 tbsp red wine vinegar 3 tbsp light brown sugar 1 tsp oregano 1 - 1 1/2 tsp thyme 1/2 - 1 tsp salt 1 - 1 1/2 tsp tandoori powder 1) Place beets in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer, cooking, covered, until beets are tender. Add other ingredients, and continue to simmer, uncovered for about 20-30 minutes. 2) Cool the beets slightly then pour the contents of the saucepan into a blender and blitz well. Taste test, adjust, then transfer back to the saucepan and cook further until reduced to the desired gloppiness. 3) Meanwhile, boil clean jars for 15 minutes, completely submerged in water, thus sterilising them. While the ketchup is still hot, spoon into the jars one at a time (canning tongs come in handy here to fish the jars out of the boiling water), then wipe the rim, seal and place upside down on a clean towel to cool. I made my ketchup last week, and then we pulled it out this evening to have some, and I am really quite pleased with it. It tastes like ketchup, but it also still tastes like beet. And to my great relief, it does not taste like cold borcht!

As mentioned in Day 39 of The Challenge Pancakes are an easy classic. For whatever reason we decided to have pancakes and bacon for dinner, but to give it a veneer of respectability we made the apple cinnamon pancakes. Ingredients: 1 1/2 c flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 3 tbsp sugar 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 3 tbsp melted butter 2 eggs 3/4 - 1 c milk 1 apple, grated 1) Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add wet ingredients one by one, mixing after each addition. 2) Melt butter in a heavy bottomed skillet, and drop a large spoonful of batter into the skillet. Wait until the bubbles have come to the top of each pancake and popped, then flip them. When the second side is golden brown, serve up. We had ours with bacon and maple syrup, quark and cinnamon sugar, and a fresh cheese on the side. I've never tried this before, and was happy with how they turned out. I highly recommend trying these, both with the apple and with the cheese, but step up the amount of apple. It was more prominent in the batter than in the cooked pancakes. It made a tasty, very adult dinner.

So I'm a little late in posting this, but we get spectacular apricots here in the summer, so while they were in season I decided to make jam. Rather than going traditional though, I thought I would try something a little different and add port to the jam to deepen the flavour a little. We then had to try them with scones and clotted cream... Ingredients: 2.5kg apricots, stoned and sliced 3c sugar 2 c Tawny port Water 1) Place apricots in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add enough water to cover the fruit and bring to a simmer. Stir in other ingredients. Put a saucer in the freezer. 2) Stir occasionally to prevent the jam from sticking. As it thickens you'll need to stir more consistently. 3) Taste test to check for sugar. I go light on sugar, you might want to use more. 4) When the jam looks as though it has thickened enough, drop some of the hot jam on the saucer from the freezer. If after a minute it starts to solidify and the top wrinkles and pulls tight, it should gel nicely once cool. If not, then boil it a bit longer or add sugar (or both). 5) To sterilize jars: boil clean jars and their lids for at least 15 minutes. Fill them with the boiling jam immediately on removing them from the boiling water (canning tongs make this so much easier and make it less likely that you'll burn yourself, but you can do it with a spoon or a spatula and a dishcloth). Fill to just below the rim, wipe the grooves clean and screw the lid on tight. As the jars and contents cool, the centre of the lid should be sucked down and the jars will be sealed properly. Place the jars upside down on a clean cloth. Label when cool. I was very pleased with the result. The balance between the apricots, the port and the sugar was delightful. The jam worked well on scones or muffins but also in oatmeal and such. I will definitely be making this again!

I do love a soufflé, and since our time in South Africa when we got into making both sweet and savoury soufflés on a regular basis, they are something I come back to as an easy throw-together comfort food. With apple sauce and cheese on hand, this seemed just the thing for a light lunch with people coming around. Apple and cheese are flavours which I like so well together, too that it seemed an excellent opportunity to try them in this guise. Ingredients: For the flour mix: 1/4 c flour 1 tsp sage 1 tsp thyme Pepper 2 tbsp butter For the roux: 1 1/2 tbsp butter 1 1/2 tbsp flour mix 1/2 c milk 1/2 - 3/4 c apple sauce 1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 1/2 c cheese, grated (I used medium aged Gruyère) 2 egg yolks For the soufflé: 1 1/2 c roux 7 egg whites 1/2 c cheese, grated 1 tsp sumac 1 tsp thyme Salt and pepper to taste 1) Assemble the flour mix in a small bowl. Set aside 1 1/2 tbsp of this. Use the butter to grease the soufflé dish thoroughly. Dust the dish with the remaining flour mix, ensuring good coverage right up to the rim. Dump any excess flour out. 2) Make the roux. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the flour mix that was set aside, and stir well. Lower the heat and gradually stir in the milk, stirring continuously to avoid lumps. Add apple sauce and vinegar, and stir in cheese. Finally, beat in egg yolks. Set aside and cover the sauce pan to prevent a skin forming. 3) Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form. Mix about 1/3 of the egg whites into 1 1/2 c of the roux in a large bowl. Gently fold in the remaining whites. Salt and pepper to taste. 4) Carefully pour the roux and egg white mix into the prepared soufflé dish. Sprinkle the grated cheese, the sumac and the thyme over the top. Use a butter knife to gently loosen the soufflé from the side of the dish. 5) Place the soufflé dish in a larger oven proof dish at least half the depth of the soufflé dish. Pour boiling water into the larger pan, coming midway up the soufflé pan. Bake at 180°C for 25-30 minutes, leaving the oven door closed until the end of the bake time to prevent collapse. I was pleased with how this came out. I would be tempted to use sliced apple with it next time too, either lining the bottom or arranged on top of the soufflé. Once you sort of know what you're doing, these come together pretty quickly, and I love the cloud of flavoured egg that is scooped out onto plates. It works either as a main or as a side. Caveat. I did make a little too much roux for the size of my soufflé dish and so had some left over to use up in the following days.

As things are beginning to settle down again though, I have some exciting recipes to share from the last It ended up being a different colour than I had originally pictured, both because of the pectin and because

Rosehips are ripening, and I decided to use some rosehip purée to trial a new muffin recipe. Hurray for a new rosehip recipe! I also decided to try something new with this recipe and baked these in the air fryer.