Treacle Toffee Apple Butter

One of the most popular recipes I have made on my little blog is for apple butter made in the slow cooker.

Apple Butter, which is a common condiment in the United States, isn’t really well known over here in the UK.

It’s really stewed apples, concentrated right down to pack in as much flavour as possible. This is then an ideal consistency for spreading onto breads, I’ve even used it in a pumpkin pie.

With even more apples on our trees, I had loads left over and needed to do something with them. I decided to make more apple butter, but didn’t have any dark brown sugar.

I did have Demerara in the cupboard and treacle and wondered if using both would add up to the same thing.

We set about peeling a ton of apples the other Sunday and used 3kg for the apple butter and stewed the rest down to make crumbles and other goodies which I shall no doubt bring you in the future.

I followed the same recipe as I had used for the previous apple butter  substituting the dark brown sugar with the Demerara and a couple of teaspoons of treacle. If you can't get treacle where you are unsulphured molasses would work equally as well.

I set the slow cooker to go for 12 hours (getting up through the night to check it) and the result was a much darker mass of stewed apples ready to be blended down into apple butter.

But the taste of it was very, very different. The treacle flavour seemed to give a smokey, pleasant burnt taste, much like treacle toffee. It was deeply intense, very flavourful and really rather nice.

So by accident I have come up with a variation of apple butter, a treacle toffee apple butter which is warming and spicy, quite bonfirey if that makes sense.

Give this a go if you still have spare apples to use up.

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Treacle Toffee Apple Butter

by Stuart Vettese November-14-2016

Apple butter made in a slow-cooker with added treacle

Ingredients

• 3 Kilograms apples (any variety)
• 225 grams granulated sugar
• 200 grams demerara sugar
• 3 generous teaspoons of treacle 
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract or paste

Instructions

Peel, core and chop the apples. Place in the bowl of the slow cooker. Add the sugars, treacle, spices and salt and mix through. Cook on low for 9 hours. The apples will reduce and become darker . Lift the lid slightly off the cooker to let moisture escape and continue to cook on low for another 3 hours. After the three hours, remove from the heat and add the vanilla, stirring this through. Using a stick-blender puree the apple butter. Place in jars and allow to cool fully before placing on lids. It will thicken slightly as it cools.

Details

Prep time: 1 hour Cook time: 12 hour Total time: 13 hour Yield: 2 large jars

I'm entering this recipe into this month's slow cooked challenge hosted by Janice at Farmersgirl Kitchen and Lucy Baking Queen 74.

The Wedding Cake

As I’m sure you know by now, Disneyboi and I got married in Toronto last month.

It was a glorious day, the best weather we had during our entire ‘vacation’. And we went off to the Niagara region for our ‘mannymoon’.

Then when we returned we had a party for friends and family which was a great (drunken) night with lots of cheesy pop tunes, stovies (it’s a Scottish thing) and wedding cake.

I have shared the wedding cake on my social media so you may have seen it over the past wee while. Renshaw kindly provided me with the icing for the cake and I was initially going to make the cake myself, but everyone advised me against it.

And I’m glad I didn’t. I had designed a big elaborate affair, full of elements Disneyboi and I love and Nicoll’s Bakery in Dundee made the idea in my head into a reality.

It was a three tier cake and the bottom was a fruitcake, moist and full of nuts and fruits. The middle tier was chocolate cake stuffed with gorgeous buttercream, very mousse like in texture. The top tier was a vanilla sponge.

Have a look at the video below and see if you can guess all the elements…

The top is one of those Mickey Mouse hats, as Disneyboi used to work in the Disney Store. Next to that is R2-D2 from Star Wars as we both love the movies (and they are owned by Disney too now).

The middle tier had Kermit the Frog’s collar (another Disney owned character now), The Sound of Music as we love the movie and visited Salzburg last year, ABBA as Disneyboi and I are HUGE fans and Scooby Doo as we love dogs and I love Hanna Barbera cartoons especially.

The bottom tier had a couple which most folk seemed to stuggle with. Most obvious probably was Fred Flintsone’s outfit, my favourite cartoon, Dorothy’s dress from the Wizard of Oz and the feet of the wicked witch wearing the ruby slippers popping out from underneath (another of our favourite films, and a nod to my favourite musical Wicked). The other two elements? Charlie Brown’s jumper (as we love Snoopy) and finally Kylie Minogue’s logo as Disneyboi is a big, big Kylie fan.

Also on the cake was a Canadian flag, for obvious reasons, and a cup of Starbucks as we are always in there! (we even had favours at the party in mini coffee cups and tea and coffee served in Starbucks takeaway cups, thanks to the manager of the Dundee store).

So, there you have a walk through our cake. Perfect for big kids like Disneyboi and I. I hope you like it too.

Pumpkin Oaty Bars

Well, I’m back properly!

This year has been a complete and total whirlwind and it is now coming to a quieter end thank goodness. We moved home in January, and then not long after we started planning our wedding in Canada followed by a big party.

This along with my regular day to day work, where I have to travel more now, and taking on a garden in the new home. It all means more time away from the kitchen and computer. This has genuinely taken up a LOT of my year and I don’t feel I have dedicated as much time to the blog as I would have liked.

The party was fantastic . You may have seen the wedding cake on social media over the past wee while. I hope you liked it as much as I did. I can’t lay claim to having made it, but I can claim to having designed it. It incorporated all elements of things Disneyboi and I love. Check that out in a future post.

One thing I do love which wasn’t on the cake though was pumpkin! I enjoy baking with it, and as I always say it’s not just for Halloween, but for the Fall. When we were in Canada last month pumpkins were everywhere. They look so lovely piled up outside shops. It must be the orange colour which I love, although you get so many varieties these days.

I had a couple of cans of pureed pumpkin languishing in the bottom of the kitchen cupboard and I saw a recipe in a magazine I had picked up on my travels. It was for a bar, square type of affair with nuts, oats and cream cheese going on.

The best way to describe it was like a pumpkin pie filling sandwiched between a crumbly cookie crust. Gorgeous!

The pumpkin is mixed with cream cheese, egg and the spices you associate with pumpkin pie. The crust is made with sugar, butter, flour and added pecans and porridge oats. You flatten three quarters of this in the bottom of a pan and bake it until golden and firm, you then add the pumpkin filling and scatter over remaining mix. This gives a crumble like topping.

When baked the pumpkin is soft but firm and the cookie part is slightly crunchy and the edges go a bit crusty which my tasters were scrambling over.

These pumpkin cream cheese bars are easy to make and too easy to scoff! Here’s my adapted recipe from ‘Fall Baking’ magazine:

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Pumpkin Oaty Bars

by Stuart Vettese November-07-2016

Bars with a cookie crust, cookie top and pumpkin cream cheese centre!

Ingredients

• 135 grams Plain Flour
• 170 grams Granulated Sugar, divided
• 100 grams Light Brown Sugar
• 170 grams cold  unsalted butter, cubed
• 80 grams porridge oats
• 65 grams pecans, chopped
• 225 grams full-fat cream cheese, room temp
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 can of pumpkin puree (about 400 grams)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 medium eggs

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan).
Grease and line a 9x13 baking pan and set aside.
In a large bowl, sift the flour, stir in 55 grams of the granulated sugar, all the brown sugar and then rub in the butter until the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Stir in the porridge oats and pecan nuts.
Remove a cups worth to sprinkle on the top (about 250 grams).
Press the rest of the crumbly mix into the bottom of the prepared pan firmly then bake for 10 to 15 minutes until it becomes golden around the edges. Remove from the oven.
In the bowl of a food mixer, beat together the cream cheese, cinnamon, allspice and remaining sugar until creamy.
Beat in the pumpkin and vanilla until smooth then add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition.
Pour the wet mix over the warm cookie base and sprinkle the remaining dry mix evenly over the pumpkin filling.
Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until it wobbles only slight when jiggled and a toothpick comes out clean from the centre of the pan.
Allow to cool then score into squares or bars and serve.
Refrigerate any that are not being consumed immediately.
Enjoy!

Details

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 30-40 mins Total time: 1 hours 10 mins  Yield: 24 bars approx

I am entering this bar into Treat Petite, co-hosted by Kat at The Baking Explorer and this month by  me. There is no theme anymore, so 'Anything Goes'.

Treat Petite November 2016

If you haven't already, don't forget to check out October'sRound Up over on the Baking Explorer for a fantastic collection with some pumpkin based treats going on along with some spooky delicacies too.

As you probably know, Treat Petite has no monthly theme now, so once again Anything Goes! You can enter anything you like, just remember the Treat Petite rules below...

Treat Petite is for all of those delicious bites, which can be individually portioned. Tray bakes are fine, cookies, cupcakes, brownies, macarons and so on. No cakes, puddings, whole loaves – you get the idea… here are those all-important rules:

1. Add your petite treat to the Linky Tool at the bottom of the current month's post by the 25th of the month, midnight at the latest

2. Post your bake onto your blog and link back to Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer, stating who is hosting this month

3. Follow Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer blogs on Google+ (see sidebar links), if you haven't already.

4. If you tweet use #TreatPetite and mention @MrCakeyboi and @BakingExplorer - we will retweet

5. Add the challenge logo to the post and 'Treat Petite' as a label to the post

6. Use any recipe as long as the source is noted

7. If you like, add your photo to the 'Treat Petite' Pinterest board (request access from Cakeyboi)

8. Feel free to enter old posts as long as you update the post and meet all the requirements above!

This Month's Degustabox (with a new discount code)

I received my latest delivery of the Degustabox - I love when it comes, ripping it open and seeing the random treats inside!

Degustabox, as you may know,  is a subscription service where you sign up to receive a box every month, full of mystery products, some new to the market. For £12.99 a month (or £11.99 if you pay bi-annually) you can get this great service delievered straight to you front door. A bit like online supermarket shopping, but without knowing what you will get.

Here is what was inside this month's box;

(Oh and some brioche buns too filled with chocolate too you can see in the bottom right of the picture at the top.)

Imagine getting a box delivered every month,full of surprise treats. You can sign up over at the Degustabox website and I have an exclusive £7 discount for you. Simply enter BSVOW where it asks for a discount code, apply and it's as simple as that. Your first box will cost only £5.99!

Pop over and start your Degustabox taste adventure now!

Disclosure Statement: I received the Degustabox free to review. Any opinions expressed are my own.

Emmy's Apple (or Pear) Torte

I'm back!

In case you haven't read my last post we were away in Canada for a couple of weeks - getting married!

I will bring you more about our travels in a future post, but in the meantime I am bringing you a recipe for a torte which our host Emmy made for us one evening. She kindly passed me the recipe so I could share it with you all.

Emmy is the wife of Disneyboi's cousin Lawrence and they put us up during our stay in Toronto. Emmy made a meal for us on our first Saturday, starting with a gorgeous prawn pesto pasta dish, which was followed by this torte. The only difference with the one I am bringing you today is the one Emmy made contained pears and as I still have tons of apples left from our bumper crop, I used them instead.

Either tastes good in the recipe. Emmy actually made another one later in our stay, and the second one used marzipan in the mix.  

Although I'm not a huge fan of marzipan it tasted really good in the torte, and I decided to use some almond extract in the mix to replicate it as I had no marzipan in the house.

The mix is an easy to whip up cake batter, with the fruit coated in cinnamon and nutmeg, popped into the batter in a decorative fashion.

This torte is delicious warm from the oven, but also good when cooled. Both with a little whipped cream on the side is of course recommended!  The outside of the torte goes all chewy like a cookie, which is absolutely scrummy.

Thanks again to Emmy and Lawrence for their kind hospitality during our trip!

Why don’t you have a go at making this torte and experience a bit of our holiday!

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Emmy's Apple Torte

by S Vettese October-18-2016

A fruity torte with a cakey, cookie texture!

Ingredients

• 2 ripe apples
• 2 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•  125 grams plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 115 grams unsalted butter, softened
• 200 grams granulated sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180c and line an 8" round baking tin with greaseproof paper.

Peel and core the apples and cut each into eights. Toss with the two teaspoons of sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and pinch of salt.

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter, 200 grams of sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time and beat in.

Add the extracts and stir in.

Add the dry mix and beat together.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place the apple wedges in a decorative pattern in the batter.

place it in the oven for approximately 30 mins until golden brown and a tooth pick comes out clean from the centre.

If the top browns too much when baking, tent the tin with foil.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly then run a knife around the edge and invert onto a plate, then invert again onto another plate!

Serve with some whipped cream or a dollop of fat free yoghurt.

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 50 mins Yield: 1x8" torte

Goodies, Wullies and Nuptials

This is my last post as a single man! You may have noticed that my posts have lessened over the past wee while. That is because we are in the middle of wedding preparations at the moment.

image source

Disneyboi and I are to be wed, next week in Toronto. We jet off at the end of this week and spend a couple of weeks there. The wedding itself will be just a small affair with Disneyboi’s cousin and his wife as witnesses.

Expect lots of photographs on social media whilst I am away and lots when I return in the form of blog posts!

However, in the meantime I have been sent another selection of goodies from Degustabox to sample. Usually I go over each item individually to let you see what you will get in the latest box, but as I should be packing right now, here is a photo of the contents which includes borlotti beans, jellies, bread crisps, fizzy juices, popcorn thins and more!

Remember if you want to sign up to Degustabox, you can get an exclusive discount using code BLDEG15 worth a huge £7 off your first box. Pop over to the Degustabox website for more information.

Lastly, as you may know, I love cartoons. As a wee boy, I loved watching them on TV and reading comic strips. And as I am from the Dundee area, the biggest cartoon characters on my radar included DC Thomson’s The Broons and Oor Wullie who appeared (and still do appear) in the Sunday Post newspaper each week. I used to get the annuals at Christmas too and devoured them between Christmas day and the night before going back to school.

Recently Dundee had an ‘Oor Wullie Bucket Trail’ where well over 50 statues of Our Wullie on his famous bucket were decorated in various guises and dotted around Dundee and the surrounding area. This was great fun over the summer, looking out for Wullies, all in aid of the Archie Foundation children’s charity, helping sick kids in the north of Scotland. The Oor Wullies were then auctioned off after the Bucket Trail had finished and made a whopping £883,000 for the charity.

We were lucky enough to get tickets to go and visit the Oor Wullies which had been gathered together as a final gathering before being sold off. Below are a select few of my favourite Wullies for you to enjoy. Pop to the official Bucket Trail website to see the full array.

Here’s hoping DC Thomson’s do another character from their publications. Perhaps Dennis the Menace from the Beano or Bananaman. How good would that be?

That’s it for now folks. Catch you when I am back from our holibobs, as a married man! Maybe catch you over on my Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts if you are around. See you soon.