Sweet and sour crumble

Another day, another BBQ..I'm not exactly complaining!
This weather is gorgeous and despite the SPF I've still got a nice little rosy glow going on which is lovely.

Sweet and Sour CrumbleWe've had some pears in our fruit bowl that no one's been eating, I really hate wasting food so I decided to make a pear crumble. I think pears are a bit sweet and I'm not exactly a huge fan of them so I decided to use raspberries as a sharp, summery contrast to the seasonal in winter pear. It's a bit of an odd combination for this time of year but it tasted lovely. 

I'm using two dishes because I've lost my bigger one, it's a mystery..
This recipe serves six 

Ingredients

3 Small soft pears, enough slices to cover the bottom of you dish

1 punnet of raspberries

30g of caster sugar
1 tbsp of vanilla extract

Sprinkle of  ground cinnamon

75g of plain flour
25 g of Oats

80g of light brown sugar

25 g of desicated coconut ( I get mine from a local indian supermarket because it's like 70% cheaper than the supermarket)
80g of salted or sunsalted butter.

2 strawberries

Lemon Juice

Enough double cream to whip and serve

Method
 

1. Heat the oven to 180°/Gas 4/160° fan

2. Slice the pears into wedges, about 8 per pear , and lay down roughly into your baking dish. You can then add your raspberries but save five for later ;) Slightly crush the berries in to release their flavour.

3. Sprinkle over the caster sugar. Use two tablespoons of the flour and sprinkle that over the dish too. Then add the vanilla essence and a sprinkle of ground cinnamon. Toss everything together gently with a tablespoon and set the dish aside.

4. In a large mixing bowl. combine the rest of the flour with the 25g of oats, the light brown sugar and the desiccated coconut. 

5. Cut the 80g of butter into small cubes and rub into the dry ingredients until you have crumbs. Don't be alarmed if you have to add a little more butter or flour to get the right consistency. 

6. Coat the top of the dish with the crumble mixture. I like to add extra oats on top of mine so it looks pretty. Bake int the oven on the middle shelf for 30 minutes. 

7. Whilst your crumble is baking, you can make a sour strawberry and raspberry coulis. 
I just put the remaining raspberries in a blender with two strawberries and a little squirt of lemon juice. Set aside until serving. 

8. I love cream on all my desserts, especially when it's thick. Just electrically whisk double cream until it has a thick consistency. If you want to be cheeky, add a tbsp of caster sugar before you whisk. 

9. Remove the dish and serve warm, with the coulis and cream..

I hope you like the mix of flavors in this crumble. I think the sweet and sour flavours in the crumble are emphasized by the sweet whipped cream and the tangy coulis.
I've got a bit left in the fridge and I keep eating little mouthfuls whenever I pass the kitchen!
charlotte 

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Shandy cocktails

I'm not sure if this is actually going to constitute as a a cocktail tail but, whatever. I'm sure you all know how to make shandy too, but oh well. 

Last night we had a BBQ and in an excuse to use my new vintage glass bottles I thought I'd make a big drink of something lovely. 

In a mixing bowl I squeezed in the juice of two limes and added three tablespoons of lemon juice.
I then added to pints of pale lager.

Then I went ahead poured in lemonade. If you're going to make this then add as much or as little as you want, whatever suits your taste.

Use whatever glass you want. In hindsight I should have used a long glass because it's a long drink but yeah. I used a shallow dish with lemon juice to wet the rim of the glass, and then dipped the glass into a plate of salt. It gives a nice bitter pinch but I think next time I will try sugar. 

It was pretty good!

Usually I make shandy with just lemonade and lager but I think the lemon and lime juice really bring out the taste of the lager. 

charlotte

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Charlotte's 4th July Cherry and Cinnamon Pie!

Today started off really rubbishy as I went shopping in Birmingham and couldn't find a single thing worth purchasing! Maybe I'm getting sick of  sale items that originally graced the shops two Christmases ago? haha..

Anyway, I decided to bright up the day with a bit of baking to celebrate American Independence Day.

It's a hit with my family so if you want to find out how to make it, keep reading!

Charlotte's 4th July Cherry and Cinnamon Pie

Tips 

I prefer measuring in cups, filing them up is so much easier than measuring out grams on a scale.

Read the recipe through, there's nothing like getting excited to cook and realising you have to chill your pastry in the fridge for a couple of hours..

Ingredients

Pastry

1.5 Cups of pastry flour or pasta flour
1.5 Cups of plain flour

2 Tbsp of light brown sugar

1 Tbsp of ground cinnamon

0.5 Tbsp table salt

4 Tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature

3 Tbsp of Rapeseed/Canola Oil

1 Cup of water. 

Filling

500g of fresh cherries, stones removed

3 Tbsp of ground tapioca, which is pure startch

1 Tbsp of lemon Juice

1 Tbsp of vanilla essence 

1 Tbsp of dark brown sugar

A few ground cloves, if you want, up to you..

0.5 Cup of honey

Method

1. Combine all the dry pastry ingredients in a large mixing bowl

2. With your hands, break the butter in to smaller pieces and rub into the dry mix until you have soft crumbs

3. Wash your hands and add the oil and water, toss the mixture with a fork until you have moist crumbs

4. Bring the crumbs together as a dough with your hands in the mixing bowl, and then knead on a clean surface for about thirty seconds/a minute until it forms a solid ball. Divide in to two discs, place each disc on a separate plate and refrigerate for 2 hours. 

5.Whilst waiting you can prepare a 9 inch tin with butter and grease proof paper. Also,  make sure the cherries stones have been removed. 

6. After 2 hours, bring out the discs and place to one side to warm slightly. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. You can now prepare the filling.

7. Place the cherries in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle over the tapioca, lemon juice, vanilla essence and brown sugar and ground cloves if you've decided to add them. 

8. Add the honey. Warm it in the microwave if it's not already runny. Set the mixture aside.

9. Roll out the first disc of dough to roughly an inch or two bigger than the pastry tin. Place the disc over the tin and press down lightly.

10. Add the filling to the tin :)

11. Roll out the second disc to the same size, and using a sharp knife, vertically slice strips at your preferred thickness. Mine are all random as you can see, I clearly took a messy  rustic approach.

12. You can place all the horizontal strips on the pie first and then all the vertical, but I alternated between.
I thought the result would look a little prettier to be honest, oops!

13. Bake at 180 for twenty minutes, reduce the temperature to 160, then bake for a further forty minutes.

To serve I added a little blue food coloring to some double cream, whisked and added some weird tasting red, white & blue sugar ball things. They look pretty though, right?

And that's it! I hope you enjoy it. It's pretty good.

Happy July Fourth!

charlotte

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