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The best blackberry and apple crumble recipe

The best blackberry and apple crumble recipe

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I know, it’s a big claim and of course I’m making it in jest. I’m sure there are lots of crumble recipes out there that are just as good. But there are blackberries everywhere in the hedgerows at the moment and they’re the fattest, juiciest most gorgeous ones I’ve seen in a long time so I’ve made a lot of crumble recently and I’m pretty sure this is the best blackberry and apple crumble recipe you’ll find around these parts. It’s quick, it’s easy, there’s no messing about, I feel like there’s just enough sugar to keep the apple a little bit tart, which is a perfect complement to the sweet, crumbling topping… I used to make crumble with my mum and it still makes me feel all warm and lovely inside to serve up a proper pudding (with cream or custard) after dinner. So here’s a gorgeous recipe so you can give someone you love a big hug in a bowl too.

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Chocolate swirl buns

Chocolate swirl buns

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If you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed that I’m currently obsessed with buns (the bready kind - stop that). It started with these Kanelbullar, and then on Saturday I wanted to make rolls for sausage sandwiches and started wondering what the same dough would be like with something savoury in it (yum, as it turns out - similar to using a brioche bun for a burger I guess). But then I had too much dough for just buns so my thoughts turned back to those delicious rolled up swirly bun things again. This time I added the butter and sugar filling and quite a lot of chopped up chocolate too. The results were seriously delicious, so at the risk of being boring I present the latest in my bun series: chocolate swirl buns.

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Swedish cinnamon buns kanelbullar

Swedish cinnamon buns (kanelbullar)

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I love making these delicious, soft cinnamon buns when I’ve got a little time at the weekend. There’s nothing nicer than a bit of gentle kitchen pottering, and the smell of these beauties baking scents the whole house with heady spiced sweetness. Sooo good! I originally wrote the recipe for Nordic Style - the gorgeous coffee table book we created for Viking Cruises. The one in the book is a bit more authentic, using fresh yeast in the dough, but when I’m just making them for us on a Saturday morning, dried yeast is more convenient. Sometimes I just use butter and sugar and add dried fruit, or when Charlie’s at home I make them with cocoa as he’s a cinnamon hater. This soft sweet milk dough can also be used for soft iced buns too.

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Vanilla, coconut and cashew overnight oats with frozen berries

Vanilla, coconut and cashew overnight oats with frozen berries

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I’ve been trying SO hard to be healthy recently. I’m trying to cut down on the booze, eating healthily and I’m still running three times a week - I’ve completed the NHS Couch to 5k app now, but I now just replay one of the later weeks (anything from around week 6 really) every time I run. I find it much more motivating to be told how I’m doing and I genuinely just like having Jo Whiley in my ear. I whack on a bit of The Greatest showman, pop my headphones in and plod along for half an hour or so. I’m not the fastest runner, and I don’t really enjoy it that much, but I like the feeling of achievement when Jo finally says ‘and that’s it, you’ve done it!’ and I know it’s keeping me healthy. I tend to run before breakfast, so I like to make something healthy to come back to, and these vanilla, coconut and cashew overnight oats with frozen berries are my current favourite.

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Vanilla French toast with fresh berries

My perfect family breakfast: vanilla French toast with fresh berries

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Breakfast on a weekday can be a bit of a rushed affair. I don’t generally even bother with breakfast, but if we do anything it will be a quick piece of toast or bowl of cereal. On the weekends, though, we really like to take our time and do a proper family late breakfast/brunch. Often this will be bacon and eggs or pancakes and syrup, but my absolute favourite is our vanilla French toast. The lovely chaps at Prestige sent me one of their fab Dura Forge square grill pans, so I thought it was about time I shared my recipe (it’s not a difficult one, but I have a certain way of doing it) and tried out my swanky new pan at the same time.

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Perfect fluffy pancakes for Pancake Day

Perfect, fluffy pancakes for Pancake Day

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What if I told you I’d got a recipe for the floofiest pancakes you’re every likely to make, AND that the secret behind them is cheaty, home-made buttermilk, AND that you can make them all in advance, keep them warm in the oven and they don’t even sink a teeny, tiny bit? I know, right? Feeling pretty smug right now. So, quick sciencey bit: buttermilk is more acidic than normal milk (it’s also thicker, making your batter less runny) so using buttermilk in your pancakes (and indeed scones or whatever) means that there’s more acid to react with the baking soda, therefore making more bubbles and making the pancakes lighter and fluffier. See? It’s not magic, it’s science. But I never remember to buy buttermilk, so I use the next best thing: normal milk soured with lemon juice and left at room temperature for a couple of minutes. It works in exactly the same way and will give you the perfect, fluffy pancakes. Want the recipe? Read on!

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Delicious no knead rye bread rolls

Weekend baking: delicious, no knead rye bread rolls

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One of my biggest commitments for 2018 is to eat healthily: to nourish my body and fill it full of good stuff. But let’s be sensible: we’re never going to eat healthily 100% of the time. I think I’m aiming for around 80%, with a bit of cake and the odd glass of wine thrown in as a treat (note to self: that’s a treat, not every day - catch up on my Drinkaware month here). Diets are one of my biggest bugbears. I don’t want to count calories, or cut out carbs. I like carbs. Carbs give us energy and are a great source of fibre*, but we need to choose the right carbs for our body, not depressing, flabby white bread, mass produced, sugary biscuits, or - sadly - doughnuts (mmmm, doughnuts). One of the greatest things I feel I do for our family is take the time to bake really delicious, home made bread. Rye is less refined and much more nutritious than some other grains but I’m not really a huge fan of 100% rye, so I mix it roughly half and half with normal white bread flour. These easy, no knead rye bread rolls are so easy to make and this dough will probably make 10-12, depending on how big you make them.

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Et voila - Christmas crumble muffins with a little help from the Kenwood Chef Elite

Christmas crumble muffins with the Kenwood Chef Elite

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Recently, an enormous box arrived at English Towers with a lovely note from the folks at Kenwood: ‘we know you love cooking, so would you like this beautiful Kenwood Chef Elite?’ Seriously generous, right? But I didn’t rush to open it, because, well, I’ve got a mixer already that I’ve had for ages and love, and on the box it looks all complicated and new-fangled, not homely and quirky like mine. Not wanting to seem ungrateful, though, and because everyone kept complaining that there was a huge box on the kitchen floor, I opened it up and popped it onto the kitchen counter. Well. Cue choirs of angels singing and all that jazz, because this thing is beautiful. Seriously, I sent a pic to Mr E and he replied ‘erm, wow. It really goes in our kitchen’. To give it a thorough test, though, and make sure it has brains as well as beauty, I attempted some Christmas crumble muffins with my sleek and shiny new baby. Here’s how I got on:

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Fresh orange and dark chocolate muffins

Fresh orange and dark chocolate muffins

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You know me, I LOVE to bake. I go through spells of obsessing about things: recently it’s been fresh bread (including these yummy iced buns), all sorts of different flavoured brownies, and muffins, especially breakfasty ones. It’s funny how things change but at one stage the boys would happily scoff a big breakfast in the morning: eggs on toast, bacon sandwiches… that type of thing. Recently, they’re not as keen (probably because they’re always late) and I hate the thought of them going out into the world with empty stomachs. Bring on the breakfast muffin: easy grab and go food, and not too hideously bad for them (better than a McDonald’s breakfast, no doubt). I absolutely love the flavour combo of these fresh orange and dark chocolate muffins, although obviously you could add things like blueberries or chopped banana instead (I only add a scant 75g anyway).

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A smoothie a day... the mango and turmeric smoothie

A smoothie a day…

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I’m just not really a breakfast person. I’ve tried hard to change this, but the most I generally eat before about 11am are copious cups of tea and maybe a biscuit or a banana. So when Breville came along with their Blend Active Diary Challenge, bandying about phrases like ‘a smoothie a day’, and phrases like ‘lesser used vegetables’ and ‘superfoods’, I was a bit worried I wouldn’t enjoy my challenge week. Still, I’m always up for a bit of experimentation, and let’s face it, an entire healthy meal in a glass sounds like a lazy person’s dream come true. Here’s how I got on:

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Coconut and chia seed granola bars with chocolate drizzle

Coconut and chia seed granola bars and a fab Nature’s Path giveaway (closed)

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We get through tons of granola here at number one. Mr E and I both like it for breakfast, and the boys scoff enormous bowls of it whenever they’re hungry and often when they come in last thing at night, so it’s really important to me to buy great quality granola (we’ve all bought those ones that are a bit - well, ‘sawdusty’, haven’t we?). I use granola in quite a few different ways, and I thought I might share them with you. So here are a few different breakfast ideas using our fave Nature’s Path granola, including these really easy and yummy coconut and chia seed granola bars, plus the chance to win a lovely gift for you too!

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Vanilla breakfast muffins

Vanilla breakfast muffins

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It’s SO cold!! I know we should probably all be ‘clean eating’ or whatever it is that we all do to make ourselves feel even more miserable’ at this time of year, but for me, mornings start best when they involve baked goods and a bucket of tea. These vanilla breakfast muffins use real butter and that old fashioned ‘wet into dry’ method. Feel free to add whatever you like to the recipe: chocolate chips are a favourite here. I like to add blueberries, then top the muffins with a sprinkling of granola, which makes them feel extra breakfasty. Remember, with a muffin recipe, you need to assemble the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients, then stir the wet into the dry, making sure you don’t overmix (a bit of flour visible is absolutely fine).

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Easy microwave chia oat porridge

A day’s meals using only the microwave? Challenge accepted!

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What do you use your microwave for? Do you even have one? Ours is used mostly for the boys to reheat meals that they’ve missed, and Mr E’s patented microwave bacon when I’m away. The rest of the time it sits forlornly in the utility, alone and unloved. And then Lékué came along and set me a little task: could I create a day’s meals using only the microwave and Lékué’s clever, colourful products. And you know I can’t refuse a challenge…

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Pumpkin pie spiced skinny latte with Arla BOB

Pumpkin spice skinny latte with Arla BOB

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So we’ve dressed up as witches cats (was that just me?), trick or treated, eaten all the leftover sweets and now it’s full speed ahead to Christmas. But wait, there are all those cute little pumpkins and squashes we bought to decorate our home (and, if you’re me, adorn your Instagram feed)! And it’s such a shame as most of them will get thrown away. Before they go in the bin, though, consider the beautiful, autumnal thing that is pumpkin butter. Even better, consider using it to make the very delicious, frothy and warming pumpkin spice skinny latte with new Arla BOB milk.

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Overnight chocolate chia oats

Overnight chocolate chia oats

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I’ve got to be honest, I’m a bit suspicious of all these ‘superfoods’ like goji berries and the like. I equate them with things like ‘clean eating’ (ugh) and all that making brownies out of butternut squash and dates stuff that’s been popular recently (seriously, brownies made out of butter, sugar, flour and chocolate are just fine - why mess with a classic?). But then the health food experts, BonPom came along and offered to send me some of their products and I thought yeah, why not - I’ll give them a go, and it turns out, actually, that I quite like chia. Who knew? Here’s my attempt at healthy overnight chocolate chia oats.

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oat bran flapjack cookies with chocolate

Chocolate oatbran flapjack cookies

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So as you read this, we’re on our family cruise around the Med on Celebrity Eclipse and are currently steaming towards Portugal (squee!). During the run up, as you know, I was eating really, really healthily (with the odd treat) and exercising daily. Mr E and I have been out cycling on our bikes and I’ve been walking a few miles with the dog every day, plus - an absolute revelation: I’ve been doing free weights, kettlebells and even sit ups at home, which I really enjoy. I really feel that my arms are more toned already and my jeans feel looser too. Bonus. I know they’re not for everyone but I’ve found a couple of the fitness tracking apps really useful motivation, and I’m watching my portion sizes (always an issue when you live with three strapping fellas). I’ve been fiddling about with this recipe for a while as, while I’m definitely not eating biscuits, sometimes I really crave something crunchy and sweet, and I thought it I could create a little treat that’s going to kill the cravings, but not derail the healthy eating, I’d be pretty happy. So I had a little experiment and created these relatively healthy little oatbran flapjack cookies. And then I ruined it by smothering them in chocolate.

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