Fudgey Bacon and Pecan Blondies

Bacon. Bacon is great. In fact, most pork products are pretty fabulous. It's just a shame that it's one of the most fatty meats you can eat so we don't have it often, but occasionally I'll treat Pete and I to a tasty bacon sandwich for breakfast or a dinner of sausage and mash. However until now we had not tried bacon in a sweet baked recipe or dessert.

It's a pretty big thing in the USA right now - fancy a bacon, banana and peanut butter cupcake? Or maybe the famous 'Maple Glazed Bacon Apple Donut' from Dynamo Donut and Coffee in San Francisco? If you browse for some sweet treats on Etsy.com you're sure to come across chocolate covered bacon or bacon chocolate truffles.

As Pete and I are pretty addicted to Food Network we were made aware of these combos awhile ago and have always been curious as to whether it actually it good. My salted caramel cupcakes are awesome, so surely the salty bacon mixed with something sweet like chocolate would be great? Well, it is. Really really great actually. So great that I'll probably spend the next few weeks adding bacon to everything I cook - I'm now fairly sure that bacon will indeed enhance any recipe known to man.

There isn't so much bacon in these delicious slices so it's overpowering. You won't get a bit of bacon in every bite, but now and again you'll hit a chunk and be taken to heaven. The saltiness works SO well with the sweetness of the fudge and the creamy rich pecan nuts. I could indeed eat the entire tray if I didn't think that it would make me look like the very animal you get pork products from. Please try it, even if you think it sounds wrong. These blondies are so very very right.

Bacon on your creme brulee ma'am? Why yes, yes please.

Fudgey Bacon and Pecan Blondies
Makes 18 delicious squares

Ingredients
225g unsalted butter, melted
430g soft brown sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
280g plain flour
100g pecans, roughly chopped
100g vanilla fudge, roughly chopped
3 rashes of bacon, grilled until the fat is crispy and then chopped into little chunks

Method
Preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F and line a 9" x 13"deep sided baking pan (or something similar) with greaseproof paper.

Whisk together the melted butter and sugar until well combined, then add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.

Sift together the baking powder, salt and flour and then beat into the sugar mixture for 2-3 minutes. Fold in the pecans, fudge and bacon pieces.

Spread evenly into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is crisp and golden but the inside is still moist. Slide a knife into the center and if it comes out pretty much clean with perhaps a couple of crumbs it's ready.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan and cutting into squares. It's really good warm, and really good cooled. Store in an airtight container.

Some bacon-licious links!

Woodhouse Farm - A Leicestershire based producer of excellent home reared meats including bacon, you can order online for delivery or they have a storefront you can visit.

Bacon Salt - The stuff of legends, shake it onto anything and make it taste like bacon. Bacon chips. Bacon chicken. Bacon steak. Bacon popcorn. Bacon with extra bacon-y flavour! Buy it online in 8 different flavours including original, maple, applewood, jalapeno and more!

Baconnaise - From the people that invented bacon salt, you can now buy bacon flavour mayonnaise! Comes in regular or lite versions, I am yet to try this stuff but shall be purchasing very soon to slather onto everything I can think of.

The Bacon Explosion - A truly ridiculous recipe for teh hardcore bacon lover. I do not condone anyone ever eat this as it contains 5000 calories and 500g of fat. Heart fail.

Love Food Hate Waste's Bacon Recipes - This is a really great site showing you how to turn leftovers into delicious a new meal along with proper portion sizes, food storage tips and more. This link takes you to the bacon recipe ideas but go to the homepage here for more frugal fun.

Moussaka Burgers with Fried Aubergine Slices and Tzatzkiki

Burgers are pure genius, we all know this. Whether it be a juicy beef patty topped with bacon and cheese or a gorgeous fat veggie burger stacked with onion rings they can be perfectly tailored to anyone's taste. And I really do quite often choose the vegetarian option over the meat, a local Loughborough restaurant called Moomba's do a killer smoked aubergine and chickpea burger with halloumi - bliss!

But as good as a burger can be, I have far too often been disappointed by a greasy, grey, burnt to a crisp beef disc at many a barbecue. At the top of the list of burger fails for me is the minted lamb burger. Don't get me wrong, if this is made from scratch it can be beautiful but the pre-packed ones just never ever get it right... so I had to do something about it.

As you all know by now I am not the type of lady to do it simply, so rather than just put the mint into the patty itself I have put it in a sauce and fused two of my favourite dishes together to create what I concider one of the best burgers I have ever eaten - the moussaka burger. Seasoning the mince with cinnamon, parmesan, oregano and a little chilli and topping it with a tower of fried aubergine slices, then finishing with a cool slather of homemade cucumbery tzatziki creates pure burger perfection. The only thing missing is the bechamel, which I think would be far too bland as a burger sauce.

Although the fried aubergine slices may make it a little more difficult to serve as a barbecue dish you could always prepare them inside while the lamb burgers are being grilled and bring them out with the tzatziki. It just means you'll be indoors for a few minutes and therefore closer to the fridge full of drinkies and this isn't a bad thing, surely?

Moussaka Burgers with Fried Aubergine Slices and Tzatzkiki
Serves 4

Moussaka Burger Ingredients
800g fresh minced lamb
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)
2 tbsp grated parmesan
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
4 ciabatta bread rolls
1 or 2 ripe beef tomatoes, sliced

Fried Aubergine Slice Ingredients
1 medium aubergine, cut into cm thick slices
lots of salt
100g plain flour

Tzatziki Ingredients
200g greek yoghurt
1/2 cucumber, deseeded and either diced very small or grated
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Method
Start your barbecue/grill/oven preheating to medium. Take your aubergine slices and lay them on a few sheets of paper towel, then sprinkle liberally with salt on both sides. Put these to one side while you prepare the burger patties.

Put the minced lamb into a bowl, sprinkle over all the herbs and spices and mix thoroughly with your hands. No-one wants to hit a big spice pocket in their burger so make sure everything is really well combined. Divide the mixture into four equal size balls and shape them into nice round patties, making a little indentation into the middle of each one - this stops the center bulging up and making the top bun topple off. Cover the four burgers with cling film and set aside in the fridge.

Next take your aubergine slices and press them into the flour, coating both sides and tapping off any excess. Place them back on to the paper towels and leave to settle while you make the tzatziki by combining the yoghurt with the diced cucumber, crushed garlic, mint, lemon juice and paprika. Cover with cling film and put into the fridge to develop it's flavour.

Pour olive oil into a heavy based saucepan until it is around half a cm deep and put on the hob to heat up until the oil starts to shimmer and smoke a little. Take your aubergine slices, dredge again with the flour and tap off the excess and then place in the hot oil to fry. They need 1-2 minutes on each side until they get a crispy golden coating. You'll need to do this in batches, when they are done remove them back on to the paper towels to remove any excess oil.

Cook your patties on one side of the grill and lightly toast the buns on the other. The burgers will take between 2-4 minutes on each side depending how thick you have made them. Basically, you want an even colour throughout and for the juices to run clear when poked.

Lay a few tomato slices on the bottom half of the bun, top with the lamb burger and slather over some tzatziki. Add a few slices of fried aubergine and the top half of the ciabatta roll and serve with some roasted new potatoes and a few salads of your choice - I recommend some sort of lemon and coriander cous cous concoction.

Chamomile and Spiced Apple Cupcakes with Honeyed Cinnamon Nutmeg Frosting

I'll start with an apology as this recipe is nearly a week late in being posted. Pete and I have spent the last seven days trying to finish decorating our flat so I just haven't found the time to blog - one room left to go! It's been a pretty epic task and we're both all tidied out, but I'll be posting a second recipe tomorrow to make up for it! Something delicious, savoury and tall, it's a good one I promise.

These cupcakes were inspired by a new tea I've been having at work, it's chamomile, apple and cinnamon - one of those fruit and herbal infusions. It's meant to be calming - believe me I need all the help I can get, the civil engineering trade is mighty stressful at the minute. It's a really nice blend and while I can't claim it has completely helped keep me calmer I always find a nice smelling hot drink by your side to be comforting.

I've taken elements from two of my previous cupcake recipes to produce this one - the milk infusion method from the earl grey and the main batter method from the fresh strawberry. It's not often that a first time recipe comes out perfect but I think these turned out beautifully - nice moist cake with a good high domed top. The chamomile flavour isn't immediately apparent but is a nice undernote that comes through a little more in the after taste. The spiced vanilla buttercream is really lovely, leaving a soft warmth on your palette - they are probably more of an Autumn time treat, but I'm sure I'll be making them again before September.

Chamomile and Spiced Apple Cupcakes with Honeyed Cinnamon Nutmeg Frosting
Makes 12 standard American size cupcakes

Chamomile and Spiced Apple Cupcake Ingredients
1 tbsp butter
1 large (or 2 small) golden delicious or cooking apple, peeled, cored and cut into a half cm dice
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 chamomile tea bag, contents removed and ground as fine as you can in a pestle and mortar
2 tbsp apple juice (from concentrate gives a more pronounced flavour)
80ml milk
2 chamomile tea bags
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
110g butter, softened
400g caster sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 large egg whites, at room temperature

Honeyed Cinnamon Nutmeg Frosting Ingredients
115g butter, softened
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
500g icing sugar
2 tbsp runny honey - preferably manuca honey

Cupcakes Method
Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F and line a tin with a dozen standard American cupcake liners or muffin liners.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and then add the diced apple, cook on medium heat for a minute or so and then add the brown sugar, cinnamon and ground chamomile tea. Cook for a further minute before adding the apple juice. Lower the heat and cook until the apples soften enough to be lightly mashed with a fork. Set aside to cool while you infuse the milk.

In a seperate saucepan heat the milk with the two chamomile tea bags until it just comes to a simmer, then turn off the heat and leave to infuse until the milk is at room temperature and then remove the tea bags. The milk will have reduced down - you need around 60ml so measure what you have left and if you need to top it up with more plain milk. Mix with the stewed apples and set aside for a moment.

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Cream the butter for 2-3 minutes and then gradually add the sugar. When well combined and fluffy add the egg and egg whites and mix until just combined. Now add half of the flour mixture and blend, then add the stewed apple and milk mixture and beat before finally adding the second half of the flour. Mix until just combined.

Divide the batter between the cupcake liners and bake for 22-25 minutes until the tops are slightly golden and spring back to the touch. Leave to cool for ten minutes in the tray, then place them a rack to cool completely before frosting.

Honeyed Cinnamon Nutmeg Frosting Method
Cream the butter, milk, vanilla essence, cinnamon and nutmeg until well combined and then gradually mix in the icing sugar. You should be left with a smooth creamy white frosting flecked with the spices.

Spread or pipe onto your cooled cupcakes and then drizzle over the runny honey.

I believe the picture below shows one of the best ways to eat a cupcake... cakey sandwiches y'all!!!

Garlic and Lemon Thyme Roasted Chicken and Purple Sprouting Broccoli Calzone

I'm fussy when it comes to pizza. I need a thin crust and good quality toppings, thick doughy bases and too much pizza sauce with a smattering of bad quality mozzarella are not to my liking. We need a good pizza place here ASAP, Loughborough is home to far too many lame take-out dives serving foam based doner kebab topped abominations. But we shall leave such disgusting thoughts behind us and move on to the good stuff...

I find vegetarian toppings much more to my liking on pizzas, lots of light elements rather than strong spicy meats so you can taste each ingredient as well as a light well thrown base. Don't worry, I'm not asking you to throw your pizza bases for this recipe, I'm pretty sure if I had tried we would have ended up with a cat running around the flat in a ghost-like costume made of dough. Never a good thing.

What is a good thing however, is the whole premise of a pasty style pizza. A crisp outer shell with a softer inner edge that gives way to a generous pile of cheesy tomatoey goodness. In this recipe I have used chicken and broccoli, purple stemmed broccoli to be exact - lots of subtle flavours that you make sing with a wonderful herb combination of lemon thyme and oregano. Roasting the chicken and broccoli is also a great flavour intensifier and removes the extra moisture which would produce the awful result of a soggy calzone.

You will get either two very large or four medium calzones from this recipe. Pete and I shared one large calzone and I would suggest serving it with a sharply lemon and oil dressed salad and a smile.

Garlic and Lemon Thyme Roasted Chicken and Purple Sprouting Broccoli Calzone
Serves 4

Pizza Dough Ingredients
325ml water, luke warm
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp caster sugar, preferably golden
1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast
500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp salt, finely ground

Creamy Ricotta Pizza Sauce Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium red onions, diced small
2 tsp dried oregano
6 medium-large vine ripened tomatoes, diced small
200g ricotta cheese (one standard size pot)

Filling Ingredients
170g pancetta, diced very small
2 tbsp olive oil
200g purple sprouting broccoli, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
500g chicken breast, cut into 1.5 inch chunks
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
3 tbsp lemon thyme leaves, freshly pulled from the sprigs
3 tbsp parmesan, finely grated
300g mozzarella, grated

Pizza Dough Method
In a jug or bowl mix the water, olive oil, sugar and yeast well and set to one side for a few minutes to 'come alive' while you place the sifted flour into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the yeasty mixture into the well and stir together with a fork gradually incorporating the flour. When it starts to come together place the dough onto a clean and floured surface and knead it until you have a springy, smooth dough - this should only take a minute or so. Place this into a floured bowl, sprinkle the top of the dough ball with more flour and cover with a damp clean tea towel. Set this aside in a warmish place to rise for about an hour, it will pretty much double in size.

Pizza Sauce Method
Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F.

Heat the olive oil in a deep non stick pan and add the diced onions. Cook for 2-3 minutes and then sprinkle over the dried oregano. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, add the diced tomatoes and stir well. Cook on medium high heat for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes have melted down into mush and you have a fairly thick sauce. Turn off the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes before mixing in the ricotta cheese. Leave this off the heat to cool while you roast your fillings.

Filling Method
Place all the ingredients into a roasting tray and mix around so everything is coated with the oil, then cook in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through the cooking time.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for ten minutes. Pour onto a chopping board and dice everything down into roughly 1cm chunks, cover and leave to cool completely.

Building The Calzone
Remove your risen dough from it's bowl and knead again on a clean floured surface. Give it some welly and punch it about a bit this time to get the elasticity going, then cut into either two or four chunks depending on how many calzone you are making.

Roll the chunks of dough out into rough circles that are about half a cm thick. Place one onto a baking sheet and slather it with a good layer of the creamy tomato sauce. Sprinkle over some of the parmesan and then pile up some of your filling covering only one half of the base. Cover that with a good layer of grated mozzarella and then fold the non-topped side over the top of the fillings and press down around the edges to seal it closed.

Repeat until you have all your calzones made and then bake in the still preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until they are crispy and just starting to go golden. If you have any of the sauce left, heat it up gently in a pan and serve alongside the calzones to dip your crispy crust edges into.

Notes
Please do use purple sprouting broccoli if you can get it, it has a more pronounced flavour and less water content than the bog standard green stuff.

The creamy tomato and ricotta sauce in this recipe is a good staple to have in your repertoire - use it as a sauce for pasta, pour it over chicken breasts and top with cheese and breadcrumbs before baking or even use it cold in a sandwich as an extra spreading of delicious moisture.

I know it seems like a lot of effort, but homemade pizzas are always so much better than any take away or premade thing you could buy. Even if you only make them once a year as a treat you should give these babies a go.

Fresh Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes with Strawberry and Raspberry Vodka Frosting

Unfortunately it seems that Summer has already ended in little old Loughborough. Sunny afternoons sat in the beer garden with friends has now turned to staring out of the window at grey drizzly skies and wishing for sunburn and Pimms. It does not seem to have affected the deliciousness of British strawberries however, and this Saturday I tottered into town and bought up as many boxes as I could carry home (along with some luscious looking blueberries...) restraining myself from elbowing over excited teenagers in the face if they bumped into me and bruised my lovely berries. Word to the wise - do not squish a tattooed cook's fruit, she may poke you with her pairing knife.

The previous weekend we had dined on these lovely strawberries drizzled with balsamic and strewn over homemade (pink) meringues and vanilla whipped cream. Absolutely heavenly and one of the most perfect desserts ever. Every time I make meringues I just can't seem to stop myself tinting them pink, much to Pete's amusement - I am very used to that 'you are SUCH a girl' look.

As I spoke about these cupcakes at work today I got a few funny looks when people heard strawberries and vinegar in the same sentence, but believe me this is a magical combo. The Italians have been doing it for ages and we all know they don't tend to get food wrong. I don't know what it is but something in the balsamic seems to suck out the juicy sweetness of the berries, amplifying it much louder than if you ate them with sugar or indeed nothing at all. Try it for yourself it is just so versatile - over ice cream, with angel food cake, alongside white chocolate mousse or as the topping for the most divine pavlova you could dream of.

Fresh Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes with Strawberry and Raspberry Vodka Frosting
Makes 12 standard American size cupcakes

Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes Ingredients
150ml fresh pureed strawberries
1.5 tsp good quality balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar
60ml milk, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
110g butter, softened
400g caster sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 large egg whites, at room temperature

Strawberry and Raspberry Vodka Frosting
115g butter, softened
75ml fresh pureed strawberries
2 tbsp raspberry vodka (I used Absolut Raspberry)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
800g icing sugar

Cupcakes Method
Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F and line a tin with a dozen standard American cupcake liners or muffin liners.

Mix the pureed strawberries, balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon of sugar together and set aside for five minutes to develop before adding the milk and vanilla extract. In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Cream the butter for 2-3 minutes and then gradually add the sugar. When well combined and fluffy add the egg and egg whites and mix until just combined. Now add half of the flour mixture and blend, then add the strawberry milk mixture and beat before finally adding the second half of the flour. Mix until just combined.

Divide the batter between the cupcake liners and bake for 22-25 minutes until the tops are slightly golden and spring back to the touch. Leave to cool for ten minutes in the tray, then place them a rack to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting Method
Cream the butter with the strawberry puree, raspberry vodka and vanilla extract and then add the icing bit by bit until you reach a spreadable consistency - you may not need all 800g.

To Finish
Spread onto the cooled cupcakes with an angled spatula, tilting it to do a little swirl in the middle to finish, then sprinkle with a little pearlised sugar or the decoration of your choice. Or leave them plain, they're your cupcakes after all, and enjoy the fruity goodness.

As you can see I was too impatient to let the frosting set. Or to take the photographs before eating half of the above cupcake. Oops...