Winter Fruit Salad with a Lemon and Poppy Seed Dressing

Even though we have had a fairly mild winter this year . . . I still find myself longing for the salad days of summer . . . there are some days when stodge just doesn't cut the mustard. I want lettuce, and I want it now!



I love fresh salads made with lovely fresh tomatoes and other salad vegetables, but in truth . . . the tomatoes at this time of year are decidedly anemic looking and tasting! There is no salvaging them!!



Instead I choose to use fresh fruit. It adds beautiful colour, texture and flavours to my salad. eating apples and pears . . . the fruits of winter . . . along with some sweetly chewy dried cranberries, little jewels of colour . . .



Tossed together with some lovely cos lettuce . . . crisp and crunchy and slightly bitter . . . just perfect with the sweetness of the fruit . . .



Crunchy salty roasted cashew nuts . . . Creamy sweet nutty emmenthal cheese . . .
And a sweet and sour lemon and poppy seed dressing . . . homemade of course! You get the tartness of the lemon combined with the sweetness of sugar . . . a little bite from some grated onion and the crunch of poppy seeds.



Oh, my . . . this is some good, and does the trick. I am happy . . . for now . . .



*Winter Fruit Salad with a Lemon and Poppy Seed Dressing*
Serves 6 to 8
Printable Recipe

A perfect blend of crunchy cos lettuce, sweet apples, pears and cranberries, salty cashew nuts and nutty emmenthal cheese, swathed in a tangy lemon and poppy seed dressing. Delicious!

1 pound of cos lettuce hearts, washed, dried and torn into bits
(Romaine lettuce, 16 ounces)
6 ounces emmenthal cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler (Swiss cheese)
150g of roasted salted cashew nuts (1 cup)
75g of sweetened dried cranberries (1/2 cup)
1 large eating apple, washed, cored and thinly sliced
1 large ripe pear, washed, cored and thinly sliced

For the Dressing:
95g of white sugar (1/2 cup)
125ml fresh lemon juice (1/2 cup)
2 tsp finely grated onion
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
150ml of salad oil (2/3 cup)
1 TBS poppy seeds
(This will make more dressing than you need, but you can store it in the refrigerator and
use it for other salads.)

To make the dressing, shake all of the dressing ingredients together in a large jar until emulsified. Set aside.

Toss the lettuce, cheese, nuts, cranberries, apple slices and pear slices together in a bowl. Divide amongst chilled serving plates. Give the dressing a good shake again and drizzle some of the dressing over the salads. Pass remaining dressing so that people can top it up as need be on their own salads.

Iced Walnut Cake

Sometimes you have a craving for a cake and nothing else will do . . . it has to be a cake, and that's . . . that!



I baked us a tasty Walnut Cake the other day because I wanted cake, cake . . . cake. I love walnuts. I'm like my dad in that way. He loves walnuts too.



His favourite ice cream has always been Maple Walnut . . . so is mine, but alas . . . the only way we be getting that over here is iffin we makes it ourselves! Not a problem!



We'll make some of that another day . . . today we wants cake, and what we wants, we gets!



Oh my but this is tasty . . . chock full of lovely walnuts and iced with a creamy buttercream icing. DO toast the walnuts first for even more flavour.



The Canuck in me was just itching to add some maple flavour . . . but the purist in me held her back.

Enjoy! I did.




*Iced Walnut Cake*
Makes one 8 inch cake
Printable Recipe

The perfect teatime cake.

225g of butter, softened (1 cup)
225g of self raising flour (2 cups), sifted
1 tsp baking powder
225g soft light brown sugar (1 cup packed
75g of finely chopped toasted walnuts (3/4 cup)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 TBS treacle (molasses)
4 large free range eggs

For the buttercream:
75g softened butter (6 TBS)
1 tsp vanilla
175g sifted icing sugar (1 1/2 cups)

Toasted walnut pieces to decorate

Preheat the oven to 1600*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Butter and line two 9 inch round shallow cake tins with baking paper. Set aside.

Place all of the cake ingredients into a large bowl. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes with an electric whisk until smooth. Divide the batter equally amongst the prepared tins, smoothing out the top.

Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown and the top springs back when lightly touched.

Allow to cool in the pans for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream, beat all the ingredients together with an electric whisk until smooth and fluffy. Place one cake layer on a plate. Spread with half of the buttercream. Top with the other cake layer and spread the remainder of the butter cream over top. Sprinkle with toasted walnut pieces.



There's a delicious Pizza baking in The Cottage today, where I'm sharing my special recipes for a lovely crust and my own special secret pizza sauce! (A secret no more!)

Sticky Maple Nut Puddings

Saturday afternoons . . . a relaxing time that usually finds me in my kitchen, experimenting and puttering to the dulcet tones of Rod Stewart and the American Songbook. (I love those albums!)



We usually skip lunch, and eat our dinner mid-afternoon, complete with a tasty pudding . . . kind of like at Christmas, but without the gifts and crackers . . . it usually holds us through until Sunday morning with maybe only a snack of cheese and toast in the evening or something similar . . .

January Saturdays call for comfort meals . . . warm and filling . . . and stodgy puddings equally as comforting!



Stodgy doesn't mean awful though . . . it usually means rich and deliciously tasty. Puddings such as this fabulous version of a Sticky Toffee Pudding, using the wonderfully rich sweet flavours of Maple Syrup, creamy dates and crunchy toasted macadamia nuts.



With it's scrummily moreish Maple Cream Sauce, this is a pudding fit to please even the most jaded palate! I dare anyone not to like it!! How could it ever get any better than this????



Well . . . ahem . . . lashings of cream do add an additional layer of scruminess.



This is bliss . . . gooey stick maple puddings, moistly filled with dates, topped with baked on and buttery maple syrupy toasted nuts, sitting in a pool of maple cream and then drizzled with cold cream . . . whilst Rod Stewart warbles in the background. Ahhh . . .



This is Sticky Toffee Pudding . . . but pimped to the n'th degree!! It doesn't get any better than this!!



*Sticky Maple Nut Puddings*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe

The smell of this baking is enough to send everyone in to the kitchen to ask what's for dessert! Gooey sticky maple and macadamia nut topped date puddings, served with a moreish toffee sauce and of course cream. Why not! (You may want to double the sauce!)

80g of soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup packed)
150g of unsalted butter, softened (a scant 3/4 cup)
170ml of pure maple syrup (2/3 cup)
70g macadamia nuts, toasted and coarsely chopped (1/2 cup)
185g of chopped pitted dates (1 cup)
185ml boiling water (3/4 cup)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60g plain flour (1/2 cup)
60g self raising flour (1/2 cup)

Sauce:
90ml of double cream (1/3 cup)
2 TBS pure maple syrup
25g of unsalted butter (2 TBS)

Pouring Cream to serve



Preheat the oven to 180*C/ 350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter 6 8-ounce ramekins. Cut out parchment paper circles to fit into the bottoms and line each of them with a circle. Place on a baking tray and set aside.

Measure out 2 TBS of the brown sugar. Cream together with 60g (2 14 ounces) of the butter and half of the maple syrup. Spoon into the bottoms of the cups. Evenly sprinkle each with an equal portion of the chopped nuts.

Place the dates in a saucepan with the water. Bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the soda. Let sit for about 10 minutes, before beating with a spoon to break up the dates until almost smooth. Beat in the butter and then the eggs, one at a time. Sift together the flours and then stir them into the date mixture. Divide this batter evenly amongst the cups.

Bake in the heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool for five minutes before inverting into 6 pudding bowls. Peel the paper off carefully.

In the meantime, combine the cream, syrup and butter for the sauce in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 5 minutes until slightly thickend. Spoon the warm sauce around the puddings and serve with some pouring cream..

White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Blondies

The recipe I have to share with you today creates something almost too dangerous to have in the house . . .



Seriously . . . tis a good thing this is the season of giving . . .



Imagine a chewy, fudgy, buttery blonde brownie . . .
stogged to overflowing with scrummy little bits of rich, sweet white chocolate . . .



and crunchily addictive hunks of macadamia nuts . . .
Now . . . top it with a gooey, sticky caramel toffee topping.



See???? I have created a monster . . .
but what a scrumdiddlyumptious way to go!




*White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Blondies*
Makes one 8 inch square pan, or 16 bars
Printable Recipe

Squidgy blonde brownies stogged full of white chocolate, macadamia nuts and glazed with caramel!

4 ounces softened unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
9 ounces soft light brown sugar (1 1/4 cups packed)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large free range eggs
5 ounces plain flour (1 cup)
3 1/2 ounces coarsely chopped macadamia nuts (3/4 cup)
3 to 4 ounces white chocolate, chop coarsely
250g soft toffees (about 1/2 cup packed)
2 fluid ounces water (1/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 5. Line an 8 inch square pan with parchment paper leaving an overhand to ease in lifting the bars out when done. Butter the pan and the paper lightly.

Cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat iin the vanilla and eggs, one at a time. Stir in the flour, making sure it is completely incorporated. Fold iin the nuts and chocolate. Spread into the prepared pan. Bake in the heated oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Place the toffees in a small saucepan, along with the water. Cook and stir over medium low heat, stirring constantly until the toffees are melted and the mixture is smooth. Using a fork, drizzle the hot caramel glaze over top of the brownies. Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.