Almond Cookies (Dairy Free, Egg Free, Vegan)

After one of the coldest Springs on record, the weather is finally starting to warm up.  Like us, the garden is loving it!  The Aquilegias (‘Granny’s Bonnet’) are out in full force…

Aquilegia - June 2013

and the peonies have started to bloom.

Peony May-June 2013

We had zero fruit on the apple and plum trees last year due to the poor weather conditions, but things are looking better this year.  Even the tiny apple tree growing in our rockery is covered in blossom.

Apple Tree & Peony - May-June 2013

Hopefully we’ll have lots of homegrown apples come September 🙂

Apple Blossom - May-June 2013

The weather is still very patchy at the moment though.  One day we have glorious sunshine and it’s warm, while the next day it can be cold and dark, with non stop rain.  I don’t know when (or if) the weather is going to settle down this year, so we’re just going to have to make the most of the sunshine when it appears.

This morning, before heading out on our bikes, Lil’ L and I decided to bake some Cinnamon Fruit Loaf and Almond Cookies.  As soon as the cookies were baked, we headed out into the garden to enjoy them along with a cup of raw hot chocolate.

Lil L, Almond Cookies & Hot Choc in the Garden 1

In fact, it was so sunny this morning that we needed to wear sun glasses!

Lil L, Almond Cookies & Hot Choc in the Garden 2

The almond cookies were really yummy!  Straight from the oven, they were crunchy on the outside with a softer centre.  We used chapatti flour which is so fine that you wouldn’t even guess that these cookies were wholegrain!  To boost the almond flavour, we added a little almond extract which gave them a hint of marzipan.  Next time round, we’re going to toast the almonds first to see if we can boost the almond flavour even more.

Vegan Almond Cookies

Here’s how we made them:

[print_this]

Makes: about 18 cookies

Ingredients
140ml / 4¾ fl oz / 2/3 cup rapeseed (canola) oil
155g / 5½ oz /¾ cup unrefined caster sugar
60ml / 2
fl oz / ¼ cup soya milk (or use almond milk)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g / 7 oz / 1½ cups fine wholemeal (wholewheat) flour (I use chapatti flour)
1 tablespoon semolina
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
½ teaspoon salt

100g / 3½ oz / 1 cup flaked almonds

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas 4.  Line 2 large baking trays with non stick baking paper.
  2. Place the sugar, oil and milk in a large bowl and use a fork to whisk the mixture until it is smooth and caramel-like (about 2 minutes).  Mix in the almond and vanilla extracts.  Sift the flour, semolina, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the bowl and stir until fully combined.  (If your wheat flakes are too big to be sifted, simply whizz them in a grinder, food processor or mini chopper until they are fine).  Mix in the flaked almonds.
  3. Scoop a rounded tablespoon of dough and place on the prepared baking tray.  Press down to flatten the dough slightly.  Repeat with the remaining dough, placing the cookies about 5cm / 2 inches apart on the tray (they will spread as they cook).  Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned round the edges.  Remove from the oven and leave for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  When completely cooled, store the cookies in an airtight container.

[/print_this]

Fuelled up from our ‘elevenses’, we headed out on our second bike ride of the weekend, this time along the beautiful Kennet & Avon Canal…

Riding along the Kennet & Avon Canal Towpath

passing through the lush green countryside and wildflower meadows round Monkton Coombe, followed by a ride through the Bath Two Tunnels (it was so cool in there!)

Two Tunnels

then onto Bath city centre for cappuccinos & smoothies.    It was absolutely glorious!

I hope you had a lovely weekend too and I wish you all the best for the week ahead 🙂

What was the highlight of your weekend?

Sweet Chestnut Casserole with Herb Dumplings – Comfort Food for a Snowy Weekend!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!

It’s been snowing here in Bath. Yay!

Snowy Bathampton Meadows 500

Snow is something of a novelty here. Last year it only snowed for one afternoon!

Lil’ L was so excited when he awoke on Friday and saw the snow. Not only did it mean that he got a bonus day off school, but it also meant that he would finally get to use the sledge that his grandparents had bought him two years ago!

He quickly gulped down his breakfast, threw on some warm clothes, and was out the door!

Lil L Snowy Bath January 2013 1

With all this freshly fallen snow, the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful!

Snowy Tree in Snowy Bath January 2013

As lunch time, M came for a spot of sledging. The boys had a huge amount of fun!

Lil L sledging in Snowy Bath January 2013

They were moving so fast that I only just managed to catch a shot of them. Can you spot them? They’re behind the tree!

Lil L sledging in Snowy Bath January 2013 3

I’m a big scaredy cat when it comes to things like this, so I’m very happy to watch from the sidelines.

Lil L Snowy Bath January 2013 2

As well as sledging, we’ve had some beautiful walks this weekend, including one along the Kennet & Avon Canal into Bath City Centre.

Snowy walk along the K&A Canal - January 2013

Upon arrival, Lil’ L suggested we warm up with a veggie pasty from our favourite pasty shop  (Pasty Presto) by Bath Abbey 🙂

Lil L at Pasty Presto Bath

Back home, we’ve been warming up with lots of hot chocolate. Our current favourite blend is the Elements for Life Raw Hot Chocolate. It’s totally lush! (check out my review here). To make it into a filling, nutritious snack, I’ve been throwing a bunch of ingredients in the blender (1 cup Alpro Almond Milk, 1 tbsp raw hot chocolate powder, 1 tbsp chia seeds & 1 tbsp ground almonds per person) and blending it on high speed before gently heating it through. It’s delicious, thick, creamy and leaves you feeling totally full up 🙂

Lil L drinking hot choc

I’ve also been making lots of comfort food. For the second Sunday in a row, I’ve made a Sweet Chestnut Casserole with Herb Dumplings.  We absolutely love this dish and it’s perfect for this time of year.

Chestnut Casserole with Herby Dumplings

N.B. Recipe updated 1/3/18 to match the recipe in the Bit of the Good Stuff cookbook.

[print_this]

Sweet Chestnut Casserole with Herb Dumplings
In my book, this is comfort food at its best! I’ve ‘healthified’ the dumplings as much as possible by adding in some wholegrain flour and olive oil instead of suet, but I think they taste as nice, if not nicer, than regular dumplings. 

Serves: 4
Hands on time: 30 minutes   Ready in: 60 minutes

Ingredients

Casserole:
1 TBSP olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 celery sticks, finely diced
1 large sweet potato (400g), peeled and chopped into small bite-size pieces
2 medium carrots (150g), sliced into thin disks
200g / 2½ cups chestnut (or crimini) mushrooms, diced
1 tsp each dried rosemary, sage, thyme
1 tsp sweet paprika
480ml / 2 cups vegetable stock (broth)
2 TBSP tomato purée (paste)
180g / 1 heaping cup cooked (ready to eat) chestnuts (I used 1 packet of Merchant Gourmet Whole Chestnuts)
3 TBSP mixed seeds (e.g. sunflower, pumpkin, shelled hemp seeds)
1 TBSP cornflour (cornstarch)
salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Dumplings:
90g / â…” cup fine wholemeal (whole wheat pastry) flour or chapatti flour
90g / ⅔ cup plain (all purpose) flour
1 TBSP baking powder
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp mustard powder
½ tsp salt
40ml / 3 TBSP olive oil
80ml / â…“ cup soya milk

Method

1  Gently heat the oil in a large casserole or heavy-bottomed pan. Add the vegetables, dried herbs and paprika. Cover with a lid and leave to sweat for five minutes. Stir in the vegetable stock and tomato purée. (To begin with, it may look like you have too many vegetables, but they will reduce down). Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2  Meanwhile, prepare the dumplings: Place the flours, baking powder, herbs, mustard powder and salt in a bowl and mix well. Add the oil and milk and stir with a fork until it starts to come together. Finish bringing the dough together by hand. It should be a soft, slightly sticky dough, so add a touch more liquid or flour if needed to attain the right consistency. Divide the mixture into 12-16 equal pieces and roll into balls.

3  Slice the chestnuts in half and add them to the casserole, along with the seeds. Mix the cornflour with 1 TBSP water until smooth, then stir it into the casserole. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Arrange the dumplings on top, cover with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes.

4  Ladle into warm bowls and serve. Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for three days.

[/print_this]

For a Gluten Free version, you could serve the casserole with a root veg mash or add an oaty crumble topping.

Have a great week everyone! Stay warm!

 

 

Is it snowing where you are?
What are your favourite Winter warming comfort foods?

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Bath Lantern Parade & Christmas Market 2012

This week we’ve had heavy rainfall and high winds, and many areas within Bath are now flooded. Bathampton Meadows (pictured in my top banner) has turned into a lake and our garden is completely submerged under water. It’s an amazing spectacle! I’ve posted some pics on my FB page if you want to see for yourself.

However, these adverse weather conditions weren’t going to put us off attending the Lantern Parade and opening of Bath Christmas Market last night. It was raining and blowing a gale when we first ventured out. Fortunately, by the time the Parade kicked off, the rain had reduced to a fine drizzle. Good thing too as I don’t think the paper lanterns would have lasted very long in a deluge 😉

The Lantern Parade started at the Holburne Museum and made its way down Pulteney Street to the sound of Bath Samba Band. Everyone was in high spirits despite the weather.  I noticed that lots of people (me included) couldn’t help but add a little samba strut to our step as we made our way into the city centre 😉

The Parade ended at the Abbey, the site of the Christmas Market.

I just love visiting the Market at night. The sight of all those little wooden sheds lit up is so inviting 🙂

And who are these two characters? I’m not exactly sure but they were very entertaining. Lil’ L ‘high fived’ the … Snow Queen?

In addition to the parade, there were some awesome animated light projections on the Holburne Museum and Bath Abbey. These were the work of Transient Graffiti, a local community development project.  We enjoyed the animation whilst warming ourselves with veggie pasties from Pasty Presto (by far the best pasty shop in Bath in our opinion!)

It was a great night out and I’m so glad the rain died down so we could all enjoy it. About an hour later the torrential rain started again so we were very lucky indeed!

Just before I sign off for the weekend, I must announce the winners of the Raw Hot Chocolate Giveaway.

The 3 lucky winners are…

Julia
Denise Williams
Kathleen Hooper

Congratulations guys! Please email me your postal addresses (Sharon at BitoftheGoodStuff dot com) and I’ll post the prizes to you next week.

If anyone of my other readers would like to try some of the Elements for Life Raw Hot Chocolate, Dan & Paula have given me a discount code that entitles you to 10% off any of the individual hot chocolates, mugs and hot chocolate gift sets.  Simply order before 1st December 2012 and enter the code BOTGS1112 at the checkout.

If you live in the South West of the UK, you’ll be able to find Elements of Life raw chocolate goodies in a number of retail outlets. The full list can be found here.

I’ll be running another chocolatey giveaway in December and this time it will be international.  I’m excited already. I love giveaways 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone! Stay safe & stay dry xx

 

A Special Birthday Treat: Afternoon Tea at Bea’s Vintage Tea Rooms, Bath

For my Mum’s birthday this year (which was back in May), I wanted to treat her to afternoon tea in Bath. Incredibly, my mum has never had a traditional English afternoon tea before!

After waiting four months for her birthday treat, she finally made it to Bath this week. It was so lovely to spend some quality one-to-one time with her (something we rarely get these days). I wanted to treat her to a whole day of pampering, so we started the day with coffees, followed by a 2-hour session at the Thermae Bath Spa. By far the best part of the Spa is the rooftop pool, with its stunning views across Bath.

[Source]

Before my Mum arrived, I’d scoured the Internet looking for the best place to have afternoon tea. Many places only offered the tea between 3-5pm which, of course, makes sense as it’s afternoon tea. However, this limited time window isn’t so great if you’ve got to pick the kids up from school!

Fortunately, through the Visit Bath website, I came across Bea’s Vintage Tea Rooms, which offers teas throughout the day. From its description, the tea room sounded very appealing…

“Step back in time when you enter Bea’s charming Vintage Tea Rooms next to the Assembly Rooms and Fashion Museum on Saville Row in Bath.
Decorated in authentic 1930’s/1940’s style from the dainty china tea sets and embroidered tablecloths to the ceiling lampshades, bevelled mirrors and wartime posters. It offers a blissful retreat from the hustle and bustle of this popular historic city.
Retire to the comfortable sofa reminiscent of Gran while you browse wartime recipe leaflets and admire patriotic posters. Or sit at a table, to be served by smiling staff in period pinnies, bright red lipstick and landgirl bandanas, serenaded by the music of those momentous moments”.

After reading this, I couldn’t wait to check it out!

The tea room is only about a 5-10 minute walk from the city centre, but far enough out to feel that you are truly away from the ‘hustle and bustle’.  We walked from the Circus to Saville Row, but probably the quickest way to reach it from the city centre is to walk up Bartlett St, off George St (that’s the way we returned to the centre and it’s very direct).

The establishment did indeed live up to its description. It was a feast for all the senses. Before I’d even entered the tea room I was drawn to the staircase with its eye catching wall coverings.

The interior of the tea room is beautifully decorated with vintage mirrors, lights, ornaments and crockery.

Check out the beautiful 1940s tea dress in the display cabinet!

I loved the cute menus and hand-embroidered tea cloths. I remember my Nan having a cloth like this!

And check out the cake cabinet. Everything looks so scrumptious!

Shortly after we arrived, we were warmly greeted by one of the waitresses, followed by Bea herself.  My mum ordered her afternoon tea for 1 (sadly there were no vegan options), and I chose to have a rocket and roasted pepper toasted sandwich and a pot of tea. The teas arrived in vintage pots with a little egg timer to indicate when the tea was fully brewed (I loved all these little details!)

And check out my mum’s afternoon tea! There were finger sandwiches, a scone with clotted cream and jam, and 2 slices of cake!

The cake on the left was filled with lemon curd, with a meringue topping. Absolutely delicious, according to my mum! After eating the sandwiches, scone and a piece of cake, she didn’t have room for the other piece, so Bea gave her a little box to take it home in.

My mum’s afternoon tea cost £10 and, in my opinion, this was the best value afternoon tea I’ve experienced in Bath. Others I’ve seen (I’m not going to name & shame) have been similarly priced or more expensive, and totally underwhelming.

I’d like to say a big “thank you” to Bea for making my mum’s birthday treat so special.

Eek! Check out my swimming pool hair and no make up look. My mum carries it off so well… unlike me!