Category: Food

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Neven Maguire’s Brown Bread Recipe

 

By Neven Maguire Celebrity Chef

Everyone claims to have a great family recipe for wheaten bread. I’ve experimented with a lot of recipes over the years and this is deinitely the best I’ve tasted to date. It has a lovely sweet flavour but is still very much a savoury bread

Ingredients

  • 500 g (1lb 2oz) coarse wholemeal flour
  • 125 g (4 1/2oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 1 tsp bread soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 600 ml (1 pint) buttermilk, plus a little extra if necessary
  • 1 tblsp light brown sugar
  • 1 tblsp melted butter, plus extra butter for greasing and serving
  • 1 tblsp golden syrup
  • 1 tblsp porridge oats

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/gas mark 6) and grease 2 x 900ml (1 1/2 pint) loaf tins.
  • Sift the flours, bread soda and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the buttermilk, brown sugar, melted butter and golden syrup. Using a large spoon, mix gently and quickly until you have achieved a nice dropping consistency. Add a little bit more buttermilk if necessary, until the mixture binds together without being sloppy.
  • Divide the mixture equally between the prepared loaf tins and sprinkle over the porridge oats. Bake for 1 hour, until cooked through and each one has a slightly cracked crusty top, checking halfway through that the loaves aren’t browning too much. If they are, reduce the temperature or move the loaves down in the oven.
  • To check that the loaves are properly cooked, tip each one out of the tin and tap the base. It should sound hollow. If it doesn’t, return it to the oven for another 5 minutes. Tip out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
  • To serve, place the brown wheaten bread on a breadboard and cut into slices at the table. Hand around with a separate pot of butter for spreading.

Notes

Neven says: Cook it ahead! The beauty of this bread is that it takes so little time to prepare, but you could have everything weighed out and ready to go beforehand, though it’s hardly necessary. However, it can be frozen very successfully.

This recipe and many more are available in Neven Maguire’s The MacNean Restaurant Cookbook, published by Gill & MacMillan Books and available to buy here.

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Apple and Hazelnut Streusel Cake @kerrygoldusa

apple___hazelnut_streusel_cake_cropped

This cake can be served warm as a dessert or cold as a teatime treat. It’s delicious with custard, but it would also be good with crème fraîche, clotted cream, vanilla ice cream or whipped cream – the list is endless! If you don’t fancy the apple, try using rhubarb or blackberries, depending on the time of year.

Serves:4

Ingredients:

For the streusel:

4 tbsp plain flour

1oz (2 tbsp) Kerrygold butter, diced, extra to grease

2 tbsp light brown sugar

3 tbsp toasted skinned hazelnuts, finely chopped

For the cake:

5oz (10 tbsp) Kerrygold butter, at room temperature

5oz (2/3 cup) caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

8oz (11/3 cups) self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

1 dessert apple, peeled, cored and diced (about 175g (6oz) (1 cup))

4oz (¾ cup) toasted skinned hazelnuts, finely chopped

4 tbsp milk

warm custard, to serve

Directions:

Preheat  the oven to 350°F. Butter a 23cm (9in) loose-bottomed cake tin and then  line with a circle of buttered parchment paper.  To make the streusel,  place the flour in a small bowl and rub in the butter, then  stir in the brown  sugar and hazelnuts.

To make the cake, beat  the butter  and caster sugar together with a hand  held electric mixer in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs,  a little at a time, adding  one tablespoon of the flour when  you have added about  half of the beaten eggs.  This will stop it from curdling. Sift over the rest of the flour and the baking powder  and cinnamon,  then  mix lightly. Add the apple,  hazelnuts  and milk and fold in until thoroughly combined.

Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared cake tin and spread  level. Scatter the streusel in an even layer on top of the cake mixture and bake for 50 minutes  to 1 hour until the sides of the cake have shrunk slightly away from the tin and the streusel topping  is golden  brown.  To test if the cake is done,  insert a fine metal skewer into the middle. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes set on a wire rack.

To serve, cut the apple and hazelnut  streusel cake into slices and arrange  on plates with the warm custard.

APPLE & HAZELNUT STREUSEL CAKE

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Gillian Hegarty’s Home-made Pasta by Rachel Allen

 wild-garlic-pasta_0

Makes approx. ¾lb (350g) fresh pasta, feeds approximately 3-4.

You will need:

300g (10oz) ’00’ flour

25g (1oz) semolina flour and extra for dusting

A good pinch of salt

1 whole egg and 3 large egg yolks

1 dessertspoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon cold water

Sift the ’00’ flour, 25g (1oz) of the semolina flour and the pinch of salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre of the flour, break in one whole egg and two egg yolks into the centre, together with the extra-virgin olive oil and the cold water and mix everything together.

When the dough is at a crumbly stage (before you form it into a ball) check to see if there is enough moisture in it. If there is not, add the remaining egg yolk and maybe even an extra egg white. It is difficult to be exact with the quantity of liquid, as it depends on the size of the eggs and the brand of flour.

Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until it is really smooth and silky, see my Tip, above left. Wrap it well in cling film and let it rest for 30 minutes before rolling. Divide the dough into three pieces – keep two covered in cling film while you roll the other piece into a length that is 1-2mm (about 1/8in) thick. As a guide, you shouldn’t be able to read the lettering on a matchbox through the pasta. If the pasta is rolled too thinly it will be too sloppy and won’t be strong enough to hold the sauce.

Using a knife or pizza wheel, cut into ¼in (5mm) strips for noodles or tagliatelle. Pappardelle are the widest of the noodles, they should be cut to a width of 15mm (about »in) with a crimped-edge cutter. Toss the cut pasta in the extra semolina flour and then place them on a tray that is also sprinkled generously with semolina flour. Repeat with the remaining pasta dough.

The pasta is best if the strips are allowed to dry out for at least an hour in the fridge or cool place.

It can be kept for up to three days in the fridge.

http://www.rachelallen.com/post/gillian-hegartys-home-made-pasta

 

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Mary Flahavan- how to make the perfect bowl of porridge…

· 2 hrs

 

 

We are sharing Mary Flahavan’s definitive guide to making the perfect bowl of porridge, as it’s been handed down through the Flahavan’s family for seven generations.#PerfectPorridge #FlahavansPorridge #NationalPorridgeWeek

The Perfect Porridge Recipe…

(Porridge on the hob with 3 topping variations)

Preparation time: 2 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves: 3

Ingredients:
120g Flahavan’s Oats
875mls of whole milk

Method:
Makes 3 x 40g servings on the hob.
Stir oats into milk.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes stirring continuously.
Pour porridge into serving dish.

Serving suggestion 1
Top with greek yoghurt, mixed berries, coconut flakes, chia seeds
Serving suggestion 2
Top with peanut butter, grated dark chocolate and a chopped banana
Serving suggestion 3
Top diced apple, dried cranberries, honey and cinnamon