Or should it be Muesola?
Yes that’s right – granola meets muesli.
Before now, I have made muesli and I have also made granola. Muesli is great, fine, but I’m not the biggest fan of dried fruits, so my options are limited. Granola is great, very nice in fact, but can be too hard or too chewy and I hate the thought of over-developed jaw muscles. So unseemly…
Wouldn’t it be nice, I pondered, to have the concept of Granola in a more muesli form…

So I tried and I liked it. Oh, yes, I liked it. Slightly sweetened with that toasted oat flapjack aroma; it’s nutritious and tasty. It’s versatile too – change the fruit, increase or omit the nuts, change the sweetness… whatever rings your bell.

Heat oven to GM3/160C/325F

Fetch a large, shallow roasting tin (mine measures 13″ by 11″ – the larger surface area the better)

Into your tin, place porridge oats, desiccated coconut, chopped pecans, soft brown sugar and cinnamon.

Mix it up and drizzle in some maple syrup, some oil and melted butter.

Stir it up (little darling) and bake for 30 mins – stir once or twice during this time to even out the cooking.

Deep golden. Now let it cool completely.

So that’s the gran, now add some more (raw) porridge oats and raisins for the uesli.

Stir well and keep in an airtight box to ensure a tasty breakfast.

Have a very good morning!

—-

Granuesli

PRINT THIS RECIPE (opens in a new window)

500g / 6 cups porridge oats – half for the gran, half for the uesli
75g / 1 cup desiccated coconut
90g / 1 mean cup pecan halves, chopped
50g / 1/3 cup light brown soft sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
100g / 2oz salted butter, melted
2 tbsp oil
a drizzle (2 tbsp) maple syrup

150g / 1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to GM3/160C/325F
Into a large roasting tin, place HALF the oats – that is 3 cups -, coconut, chopped pecans, sugar and cinnamon. Mix.
Drizzle over the melted butter, oil and maple syrup. Mix.
Bake for 30 mins, stirring once or twice during this time to ensure even cooking.

Remove from oven and cool completely.

Once cold, add the remaining 3 cups porridge oats and raisins. Stir to combine, then store in a airtight tin/box/whatever.

Variations
Well, this can be varied as much as your preferences dictate.
If you want proper granola clumps, then increase the butter to about 5 oz and be sure to squeeze lumps together prior to cooking.

Vary the sweetness – cut it down if you want more uesli than gran, or change the sweetness – reduce the sugar, but increase the maple syrup. Use honey instead or maple syrup. Hey, use Agave nectar if you like. Ooh! Use golden syrup – that’ll nod nicely in the direction of the flapjack.

Don’t like nuts? Leave them out. Live for nuts? Put more in.

Hate raisins? Use a different dried fruit or leave it out altogether and just top your bowl with some fresh fruit instead.
Dollop some spooky yogurt on there too, whilst you’re at it.

—

AKA American buttermilk pancakes with banana slices in them… drowned in maple syrup.  Oh, yes please!

My Mum and MIL dined on these in Hong Kong when I was a toddler, the memory remained and the recipe, whilst it has morphed with input from both Mum and me over the years (decades actually, eek!) is still as sigh-inducing as always. I often wonder what I was eating whilst they stuffed banana hotcakes down their throats. Probably best not to know, really. It would only be upsetting.

Sift 110g plain flour, 1/2 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 1 tsp sugar into a medium bowl.

Pour 170ml buttermilk into a jug, then into that whisk 1 large egg and 1 tbsp very soft unsalted butter.

Pour the liquid onto the flour and whisk together to get a smooth, thick batter. If it’s a bit too stiff for your liking, add another tbsp or so of buttermilk. You don’t want it too liquid though.

Thick, innit?

Slice a banana (this was a bit mean actually – it only worked out to about 2 slices per pancake)

Heat a mean slick of butter in a frying pan and spoon out your pancakes. Make them whatever size you like. I usually do a heaping dessertspoon of batter for each.

Carefully site your slices of banana on top of each pancake. I press them down a bit to bed them in.

Once the bubbles appear, it’s time to flip them over.

Flip! Mmm… you might like to use a spatula/fish slice type thing. This isn’t really in the pancake tossing set.

Keep them warm and serve, or if you like running backwards and forwards to the kitchen, make them to order, as it were.

Be sure to crack open the maple syrup….

They’re fluffy, so they like to soak up plenty of maple syrup. Mind you, they never manage to soak up the amount that Alex pours over them, so let that be a lesson. To someone?

Treat yourself this weekend hey?

———————

Banana Hotcakes

PRINT THIS RECIPE (opens in a new window)

110g plain flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp sugar

170ml buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tbsp very soft unsalted butter.
1 or 2 bananas, sliced

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb into a medium bowl.
Measure the buttermilk into a jug, then whisk in the egg and butter.
Once it’s combined, pour the liquid onto the flour and whisk together to get a smooth, thick batter. If it’s a bit too stiff for your liking, add another tbsp or so of buttermilk. You don’t want it too liquid though.
Slice up a banana or two.

Heat a mean slick of butter in a frying pan and spoon out your pancakes. Make them whatever size you like. I usually do a heaping dessertspoon of batter for each.
Carefully site your slices of banana on top of each pancake. I press them down a bit to bed them in.

Once the bubbles appear, it’s time to flip them over. You might like to use a spatula/fish slice type thing. This isn’t really in the pancake tossing set.
Keep them warm whilst you finish up the batter and serve, drenched in maple syrup.

Cinnamon buns are a gift from the yeasted pastry Gods and this recipe, with cream cheese laminating the dough, is outstanding.
I first stumbled across this recipe whilst perusing Michelle’s blog.  She had, in turn, got the recipe from Joy the Baker – just goes to show that a good recipe gathers a large fan base.
These cinnamon buns are remarkable, a tender utterly delicious dough swirled with dark sugar, pecans and plenty of cinnamon. I have been searching for THE recipe and this one is it. I thought I loved the sticky bun version of cinnamon rolls, but this is much nearer the kind of famous cinnamon buns that we, sadly, cannot get in the UK.

First, proof the yeast. I used Allinson’s Dried Active Yeast (comes in a 125g small orange tin).
Combine  2 ¼ tsp of the yeast, ½ tsp caster sugar and ¼ cup water heated to 115F in the bowl of a mixer. Stir to combine and let it sit for about 10 mins until foamy.

To that, add ¼ cup caster sugar, 2 tbsp light brown sugar, ½ cup milk (at room temperature), ½ tsp vanilla extract, 1 egg and 1 egg yolk. Mix with a hand whisk to combine this well.
Put the bowl onto the mixer – fit the dough hook.
Add 2 ¾ cup plain flour and a sprinkle of salt and mix on medium speed until it just comes together.
Increase the speed to medium-high and knead for 4 minutes.

Add 4oz unsalted butter (at room temperature), chopped into tblsp sized pieces, and continue to knead for about 6 minutes. Whilst in the mixer, the dough is like a half-mad possessed slop; banging and slapping the sides. Most entertaining to watch. It is sticky and wet.

Flour your work surface very well and scrape the dough onto it.

Knead a good ⅓ cup plain flour into this – I had to knead it initially by using a scraper to lift the dough over and around. The more I think about it, the more I think I kneaded more like ½ cup flour into it – maybe more. Grease a large bowl well and put the dough in to the bowl for its rise.

Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm and draught-free for 1 ½ – 2 hrs to double in size.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling – in a bowl, combine ½ cup caster sugar, ¼ packed cup dark brown sugar, ½ cup finely chopped pecans, 1 tblsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp salt and ⅛ tsp mixed spice. Once you’ve mixed that lot together, add 2 tbsp maple syrup.

So, once the 1 ½ – 2 hrs has elapsed and the dough has doubled, I had this:

Heavily flour the worksurface again and turn the risen dough out onto it.

Gently knead the dough until it is no longer sticky – add more flour as you need it.

Once you have that, cover it with a tea towel for 5 minutes and let it have a rest.
Flour your rolling pin and roll it out to a 10″ square. In a small bowl, mix 4 oz cream cheese (at room temperature) to smooth it. Gently spread it over the dough square.

Fold the square,like a business letter, into thirds

Then take the open ends and fold them into thirds again to make a small square of dough

Turn the dough over so that it is seam side down, then gently – firmly but gently, roll it out. A 10″ by 20″ rectangle yielded 8 very large buns, so I rolled it out to a length of 20″ and a width of around 15″.
Brush the dough with 2oz melted unsalted butter

Then evenly scatter the filling over it – pressing it into the dough lightly. Leave one of the short ends with a naked border so that it can be sealed when rolled up.

Roll the dough up firmly but gently from the short end – ending with the naked border. You want this to be a tight cylinder so spend a bit of time getting the first turn even. Don’t rush it.

Put it seam side down in readiness for cutting. Trim off the ends as they will inevitably be uneven. You don’t have to chuck them out though – find a gap for them somewhere!

Using a sharp thin-ish knife and a firm downwards motion, cut the roll into equal slices. As I said, the original 10×20″ rectangle yielded 8 huge buns.
My 15×20″ rectangle yielded 14.

Place the slices into a greased 9×13″ pan. I put 10 in that pan and the rest (including the ends) in another smaller pan.
(The pic shows 12 in the pan, but I though better of it and re-sited 2 of them – I wanted more room for them to expand.)

This picture shows where the cream cheese is in the dough – no wonder these are so tender

Cover the pan with clingfilm and then you have a choice.
a) set them in a warm place to rise for 2 hours
b) put them in the fridge overnight.

I made these the night before our get together, because I wanted to bake them fresh that morning, so into the fridge they went. Night night.

Next morning, take the rolls out of the fridge and stand them at room temperature for about 30 mins. (Or preheat your oven whilst they do the 2 hr rise)
Preheat the oven to GM5/190C/375F
Bake until golden brown – about 30 mins.

Put the pan(s) onto a wire rack and brush with 2oz melted butter.

Let them cool for 5 mins or so.
Make up the icing. Whisk 1½ cups icing sugar (I used fondant icing sugar because I think the coverage is better) with about 3 tbsp water. Go cautiously, but make it whatever consistency you prefer. I like it thick.
Swirl, spread or drizzle the icing over the buns.

Serve warm or at room temperature – they kept well too; warm them in the oven for 5 mins if you want that just-baked taste. Unbeatable.

-

Cream cheese Cinnamon Buns

PRINT THIS RECIPE (opens in a new window)

adapted from Brown Eyed Baker
adapted from Joy The Baker

dough:
2 ¼ tsp Dried Active Yeast (I used Allinson)
½ tsp caster sugar
¼ cup water heated to 115F

¼ cup caster sugar
2 tbsp light brown sugar
½ cup milk (at room temperature)
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk

2 ¾ cups plain flour
½ tsp salt
4oz unsalted butter, room temperature

filling:
½ cup caster sugar
¼ packed cup dark brown sugar
½ cup finely chopped pecans
1 tblsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
⅛ tsp mixed spice
2 tbsp maple syrup.

to laminate the dough:
4 oz cream cheese (at room temperature)
4oz unsalted butter, melted

to complete:
2 oz unsalted butter, melted (to brush over the buns)
1 ½ cups fondant icing sugar
3 tbsp water

Method:

In the bowl of a mixer, combine the yeast, ½ tsp caster sugar and warm water. Stir to combine and let it sit for about 10 mins until foamy.

To that, add the caster sugar, light brown sugar, milk, vanilla extract, 1 egg and 1 egg yolk. Mix with a hand whisk to combine this well.

Put the bowl onto the mixer – fit the dough hook.
Add 2 3/4 cup plain flour and salt and mix on medium speed until it just comes together.

Increase the speed to medium-high and knead for 4 minutes.

Add the softened butter, chopped into tblsp sized pieces, and continue to knead for about 6 minutes. It is sticky and wet.

Flour your work surface well and scrape the dough onto it.
Knead a good 1/3 cup plain flour into this – I had to knead it initially by using a scraper to lift the dough over and around. The more I think about it, the more I think I kneaded more like 1/2 cup flour into it- maybe more.

Grease a large bowl and put the dough in to the bowl for its rise.
Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm and draught-free for 1 1/2 – 2 hrs to double in size.

-

Meanwhile, prepare the filling – in a bowl, combine the caster sugar, dark brown sugar, pecans,cinnamon, salt and mixed spice. Once you’ve mixed that lot together, add the maple syrup. Combine well.

-

Once the 1 1/2 – 2 hrs has elapsed and the dough has doubled, heavily flour the worksurface again and turn the risen dough out onto it.

Gently knead the dough until it is no longer sticky – add more flour as you need it.

Once you have that, cover it with a tea towel for 5 minutes and let it have a rest.

-

Flour your rolling pin and roll it out to a 10″ square.

In a small bowl, mix the cream cheese (at room temperature) to smooth it. Gently and evenly spread it over the dough square.

Fold the square, like a business letter into thirds, then take the open ends and fold them in in thirds to make a small square of dough.

Turn the dough over so that it is seam side down, then gently – firmly but gently, roll it out.
A 10″ by 20″ rectangle will yield 8 very large buns, a length of 20″ and a width of around 15″ will yield 14.

-

Brush the dough with 2oz melted unsalted butter, then evenly scatter the filling over it – pressing it into the dough lightly. Leave one of the short ends with a naked border of around 1″ so that it can be sealed when rolled up.

Roll the dough up firmly but gently from the short end – ending with the naked border. You want this to be a tight cylinder so spend a bit of time getting the first roll even. Don’t rush it.

Put it seam side down in readiness for cutting. Trim off the ends as they will inevitably be uneven. You don’t have to chuck them out though – find a gap for them somewhere in the pan!

Using a sharp thin-ish knife and a firm downwards motion, cut the roll into equal slices.
As I said, the original 10×20″ rectangle yielded 8 huge buns. My 15×20″ rectangle yielded 14.
Place the slices into a greased pan(s). I put 10 in a 9×13″ pan and the rest (including the ends) in another smaller pan.
If making the 8 large buns – they fitted nicely in the 9×13″ pan.

Cover the pan with clingfilm and then you have a choice.
a) set them in a warm place to rise for 2 hours or
b) put them in the fridge overnight.

-

Next morning, take the rolls out of the fridge and stand them at room temperature for about 30 mins. (Or preheat your oven whilst they do the 2 hr rise)

Preheat the oven to GM5/190C/375F

Bake until golden brown – about 30 mins.

-

Put the pan(s) onto a wire rack and brush with 2oz melted butter.

Let them cool for 5 mins or so.
Make up the icing. Whisk 1 1/2 cups fondant  icing sugar with about 3 tbsp water. Go cautiously, but make it whatever consistency you prefer. I like it thick.
Swirl, spread or drizzle the icing over the buns.

Serve warm or at room temperature – they kept well too; warm them in the oven for 5 mins if you want that just-baked taste. Unbeatable.

Cereal. It has its place, but sometimes it’s not even a chore, not even unpleasant, it just IS.

Time to pep it up a bit. Ian has been pouring yogurt over the top, but that all got a bit milky and shudder inducing half-way through and there’s a limit to the quantity of dried fruit you can strew over it all before you get over-developed jaw muscles.

If only greek yogurt wasn’t generally so high fat and more to the point, expensive… Then we heard about straining yogurt and allowing it to sit overnight. The texture is transformed. It’s a miracle – a miracle, I tell ye!

Spoon over some sweet, poached fruit and bliss follows.

Here’s what I do.  Do this tonight and you too could eat this in the morning.

Place a sieve over a bowl and line it with 2 sheets of kitchen roll.

Pour a carton of plain yogurt into it.

Turn the corners in on the 3rd sheet of kitchen roll and place on top of the yogurt.
Put into the fridge overnight, or at least for a few hours.

Next morning, get impressive contraption out of fridge.

Peel back top layer of kitchen roll – really, it will peel off! See how firm… but shrunken it is? (Such a shame to have both those words in one phrase.)

Have another bowl waiting and flop the now solid yogurt into the bowl and peel off the bottom two sheets of paper.

Admire the amount of liquid in the bottom of the sieve bowl, then pour it away. If you’re my Mother, you can repeatedly complain about the smell of the liquid. It doesn’t bother me, but I have a husband who goes fishing, a 4 yr old son and 2 cats, so unpleasant smells aren’t exactly a rarity in my life.
Anyway.

Witchcraft. It is now the consistency of cream cheese. Low fat tastes high fat. Runny becomes velvety-firm. Spooky.

Spoon a portion into a small (big?) bowl and drizzle with honey and maybe some nuts and succulent dates or… spoon on top of some cereal and bathe with …poached plums!

Want to poach your plums? Here we go then.

Acquire a punnet of fruit. I’ve used peaches, nectarines and as pictured here, plums. Cut them in half and remove the stones.

Pour 6-7 tbsp sugar and 250ml/1 cup cold water into a large saucepan (mine is about 8″/20cm across)on a low heat.

Swirl around to dissolve the sugar into the water. Increase the heat to medium and simmer for 2 minutes.

Add the halved, stoned fruit to the saucepan – skin side down. Simmer gently for another 2-3 minutes or until they are beginning to soften around the edges (this can take much, much longer for larger or under-ripe fruit).

Turn them over and simmer for about 4/5 minutes (see above caveat for different fruit).

Once they are softened, not to mush, but so that there is no unexpected chomping to be done, spoon each fruit out into the waiting bowl.

If, like these little burlesque numbers, the skin is falling off their shoulders (look at them! Hussies!), go ahead and remove them. Likewise if you, like my husband, are sniffy about skin on poached fruit, equip yourself with a fork and a knife and remove as much skin as you can (be bothered to).

Increase the heat under the saucepan and enthusiastically simmer (as opposed to boil) the remaining liquid for a couple of minutes. I used to boil the remainder without mercy, but it goes too syrupy and I feel like we’re after more of a hint of syrup to it. Pour the beautiful juice over the plums.
Cool, then refridgerate. These keep in the fridge for several days. I put the bowl in the fridge, my husband eats them, I re-fill…etc.

Serve as they are, with ice cream, rice pudding or for breakfast with cereal and spooky yogurt.

Like this:

Gooooooooooood morning spooky yogurt and plums!

Here are the recipes once more, with feeling:

Spooky yogurt

PRINT THIS RECIPE (Opens in new window)

1 carton of plain yogurt – low fat, full fat – doesn’t matter – in fact, as many cartons as you can fit into your sieve.
1 sieve
3 squares of good kitchen roll ( I use Plenty – Bounty, as was)

Place a sieve over a bowl.
Line your sieve with 2 sheets of kitchen roll.
Pour the carton of plain yogurt into it.
Turn the corners in on the 3rd sheet of kitchen roll and place on top of the yogurt.
Put into the fridge overnight, or at least for a few hours.

Next morning, get impressive contraption out of fridge.
Peel back top layer of kitchen roll – really, it will peel off!
Have another bowl waiting and flop the now solid yogurt into the bowl and peel off the bottom two sheets of paper.
Admire the amount of liquid in the bottom of the sieve bowl, then pour it away.

It is now the consistency of cream cheese. Spoon a portion into a small (big?) bowl and drizzle with honey and maybe some nuts and succulent dates or… spoon on top of some cereal and bathe with poached plums!

(BTW, my Mum tried it with flavoured yogurt without any satisfaction. It seems like the flavouring and sweetness all drips away with the liquid, so save yourself some heartache and money and just buy the low fat cheap stuff – this carton only cost 46p!).

Poaching Plums

PRINT THIS RECIPE (Opens in new window)

400g Punnet of plums, halved and stone removed (or peaches, nectarines, damsons – although you might want to seriously up the sugar for damsons)
6-7 tbsp sugar
250ml/ 1 cup cold water

Pour the sugar and water into a large saucepan (mine is about 8″/20cm across)on a low heat. Swirl around to dissolve the sugar into the water. Increase the heat to medium and simmer for 2 minutes.
Add the halved, stoned fruit to the saucepan – skin side down. Simmer gently for another 2-3 minutes or until they are beginning to soften around the edges (this can take much, much longer for larger or under-ripe fruit).
Turn them over and simmer for about 4/5 minutes (see above caveat for different fruit).
Once they are softened, not to mush, but so that there is no unexpected chomping to be done, spoon each fruit out into the waiting bowl.

If the skin is falling off their shoulders, go ahead and remove them. Likewise, if you, like my husband, are sniffy about skin on poached fruit, equip yourself with a fork and a knife and remove as much skin as you can (be bothered to).
If, like my Mother, you consider your entrails with each bite of food you take, then leave them on. It’s between you and your preferences. And internal organs.

Anyway. Increase the heat under the saucepan and enthusiastically simmer (as opposed to boil) the remaining liquid for a couple of minutes. I used to boil the remainder without mercy, but it goes too syrupy and I feel like we’re after more of a hint of syrup to it.
Cool, then refridgerate. These keep in the fridge for several days.

Serve as they are, with ice cream, rice pudding or for breakfast with cereal and spooky yogurt.