Recent recipe roundup

Apple and pork meatballs (Tesco) 

Decent, the sage and nutmeg give the pork a lift, but it maybe needs breadcrumbs to soften - the all-meat meatballs were a little bouncy. The suggested 16 come out a bit big but any smaller and the apple would make them fall apart I think.

Chicken tagine (Good Food)

Good in principle (the toasted spice blend smelled great) but came out very badly. The amount of liquid in the recipe must be a typo - 750ml made a watery mess. The onion, tomato and preserved lemon turned to mush, the spices were drowned, and there was no browning of the chicken. It was such a disaster I completely forgot to add the feta and pomegranate seeds when serving! Several comments mentioned the liquid issue but as the rating overall was over 4 stars I didn't check the comments before cooking. Should have trusted my instinct as it felt like a lot when adding it.

Rhubarb and rosemary scones (National Trust)

Absolutely delicious. Not a flavour combo I would have thought of but really works. If you are not feeding a whole tearoom I would halve the recipe, though. Would make again, if only to see what they are like when not kneaded to death because I forgot the sugar at the rubbing-in stage and had to add it to the dough. D'oh.

Brown butter cookies with rhubarb and white chocolate (The Boy Who Bakes / Bon Appetit)

Guess who got given rhubarb? Not the most obvious cookie mix-in but I needed something more handheld than a scone to take to a gathering. And brown butter is always a winner. I decided to adapt this recipe, using white chocolate and stem ginger (in syrup) as the mix-ins and a cluster of ginger-syrup-roasted rhubarb dolloped on the centre before baking. The flavour combination was fantastic (could have taken more ginger if anything) but I should have cooled the butter more before starting the mixing, or refrigerated before baking. The dough was incredibly soft going into the oven and so the cookies coalesced into a (tasty) blob while baking and had to be rescued with a palette knife.

(Side note, the original recipe calls for "chocolate wafers" which I was confused about as an ingredient, but on watching the recipe video it turns out they look like chocolate buttons, but made of posh chocolate for baking purposes. At least one commenter used actual wafers but said the cookies came out well!)

Chocolate brownies

Unbelievably I'd never made brownies before. Followed this recipe to the letter and it worked really well. No notes!

Brown butter oat cookies

From this House and Garden recipe - followed as directed (adding apricots and stem ginger) they didn't spread at all, and a kitchen timer error saw them overcooked which didn't help the result. Taste ok though, so I'd like to give them one more chance.

• Bring 110g butter to foam/caramelised stage; set aside and stir in 90g sugar and 2 tbsp honey or syrup. Cool a little.
• In a bowl mix 150g rolled oats, 90g plain flour, tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder.
• Chop a handful of dried apricots and a knob of preserved stem ginger (or other additions to taste).
• Beat 1 egg.
• Add sugar/butter mix to dry mix, then eggs and additions, mix well.
• Place 12 balls of mixture well apart on 1-2 trays to accommodate spreading (allegedly).
• Bake 180°C for 15 minutes or until you realise the timer hasn't beeped. Drop the unattractive brown lumps on to a cooling rack, sulking while you do.

What to try? Not spreading suggests mix was too dry but it seemed soft when placing on the tray. Sure I added the right amount of flour. The oats were from the end of a box so maybe too powdery? Did dried apricots take moisture from the mixture?

Cheesecakes, vegan and not

Vegan: based on this one from Carnation, quantities as written

Biscoff 175g and flora plant butter 25g for the base.

540g violife cream cheese (3 packs!) +100g Carnation 'condensed milk' for the main part.

Plus a pinch of salt, vanilla, a little maple syrup. Blackcurrant compote on top.

Texture held up well, after I was worried about it being too soft. Wouldn't mistake it for full dairy cheesecake but it was OK.

Non-vegan: Nigella but made half as much again of base and filling as I just could not spread the base thin enough to cover the tin! I used biscoff, added lime instead of lemon (and a bit of zest). Absolutely delicious, unsurprisingly, but definitely benefited from the tangy blackcurrants and the lime (could use more zest if anything).

190g biscoff + 110g butter (somewhat different ratio to above!)

450g cream cheese mixed with 90g sifted icing sugar + 70g greek yogurt*; folded in 300ml double cream (whipped), tsp vanilla, tsp lime juice, zest

*as I only bought 300ml cream for the original recipe which needed 250 so 375 for the scale-up... probably would have been fine without?

To "lightly whip" double cream needed quite some time before any difference was observable. Made it to very soft peaks. Maybe whipping cream next time.

For each: topping was blackcurrants previously simmered with a little water and sugar. Took half a pint, heated and dissolved half a pack of vege-gel, then added a few whole blackcurrants in at the end. 

Banana bread

Good, reliable recipe by Jack Monroe:

Mash 3 ripe bananas with 50g brown sugar and 75ml oil.

Sift together 220g flour (any combo - half and half wholemeal and white is good) plus 1tsp baking powder, pinch salt, tsp mixed spice. Mix wet and dry mixtures.

Optionally add choc chips or sultanas.

Bake in lined loaf tin for ~50 mins @ 160°C fan.

Carrot cake / muffins

Vegan carrot cake from the Plant Based School

Makes 12 large muffins, baked for 25 mins (turn tray) +12 mins (150°C).

Reduced sugar to 150g.

300g carrots was 2.5 med-large allowing for peeling and ends.

Chicken casserole with dumplings

 So good! Based on BBC Good Food recipe for chicken casserole with herby dumplings. All made in a hob-to-oven casserole dish.

Onion and carrot fried off with lardons and (this time) some scraps of leftover salami plus mixed herbs.

Chicken drumsticks, skin pulled down and trimmed, coated in seasoned flour and browned. Add a splash of red wine and deglaze the pan before adding the veg back in. Top up with chicken stock and tomato puree, add in some whole baby mushrooms and chopped parsley.

Cook (170° fan) for 20 mins covered, 10 mins uncovered. Meanwhile make dumplings: 100g SRF and 50g any butter/spread. Mix to breadcrumbs, season (I used a coffee-spice rub geared for tomato sauces), then add just enough water to bind. Divide into six and add on top of the casserole for another 10 minutes (uncovered) at the end.

Could be done in a slow cooker but the dumplings are better in the oven.