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

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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.

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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

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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.

Moist, sticky, sweet but fiery pieces of succulent chicken, nestling with languid red onion and red pepper, bathed in sour cream and wrapped in the warm blanket of a tortilla. The Fajitas. Surely one of the finest English recipes ever to take the Americas by storm.

Shakespeare and Dickens both make reference to this inventive dish. The tragedy is that no one recognises its true English origins*. Not until now, anyway.

So, fair maidens and Noblemen, this way for the receipt for Fajitas.

* None of this is true.

To prepare this much beloved, easy and heartwarming feast, acquire some chicken meat. I prefer thigh – tis cheap and tasty, much like my husband.

If you can get them, and want quickness, go for the thigh fillets. If not, get the thighs with bone and skin still attached and simply cut the meat off the bone. In this instance, I had 3 thighs and a drumstick – sounds like the opening line of a joke.

Hack and butcher them into bite-sized pieces

Get a shallow dish and put the ingredients for the marinade into it.

3 tbsp light olive oil, 2 tblsp maple syrup, 1½ tblsp wine vinegar, 2 tsp dried Oregano, 1 ½ tsp dried jalapeno (or use a fresh one), ½ tsp ground cumin, freshly milled salt and pepper and 2 cloves garlic, crushed (I hadn’t put it in yet when I took the picture)

Place your chicken into the marinade, turn it around to coat it, then cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Remove the seeds from a red pepper and cut into strips. Finely slice one or two red onions.

Preheat your griddle/sizzler pan/frying pan, add a little oil and fry your onion.

Once it’s beginning to brown, add the red pepper.

When you’re happy with it’s state of doneness, add the chicken with its marinade. If, as I sometimes find, the chicken isn’t really browning because the pan is too crowded, remove the vegetables and keep them warm, allowing the chicken to cook nicely

that’s better

Add the veggies back, ready for serving

Warm your tortillas according to pack instructions (I used ye olde microwave and kept them warm in my tortilla warmer – courtesy of Aldi).

Take one tortilla, spread a little sour cream over it, scatter – neatly, please – with the tender, sticky chicken and veg, then a sprinkling of grated cheese.

Roll up and devour. You can add all sorts of weird and wonderful things to it, but as I have a pathological hatred of avocado, there’s no guacamole on the plate. You must do whatever shakes your maracas.

Your English Maracas. Ariba.

………………….

Ye Olde English Fajitas

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chicken thigh meat off the bone, cut into bite sized pieces

marinade:
3 tbsp light olive oil or a vegetable oil
2 tblsp maple syrup
1.5 tblsp wine vinegar
2 tsp dried Oregano
1.5 tsp dried jalapeno (or use a fresh one)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
freshly milled salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed

Combine the marinade ingredients in a shallow dish and add the pieces of chicken. Turn well to coat then cover and chill in the fridge for 2 hours or so – stir around occasionally.

2 red onions, peeled and cut into think wedges
1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into thin slices

Preheat your griddle/sizzler pan/frying pan, add a little oil and fry your onion. Once it’s beginning to brown, add the red pepper. When you’re happy with it’s state of doneness,add the chicken with its marinade. If the chicken isn’t really browning, remove the vegetables and keep them warm, adding them back just before serving.

Serve in warmed tortillas with a blob of sour cream and some grated cheddar or whatever other hard cheese makes you smile.

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

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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.

I hate games that involve things like ‘what is your favourite flavour’ because how are you supposed to choose? I reason with myself at times like that…what does it matter? No-one’s saying I can only ever eat that one thing, no-one will beat me with a kipper if I fail to mention something that I think of later, but still I fret.

So. ONE of my favourite flavours is maple.

I would like maple on everything please – that and cinnamon. See?! I’m doing it already! I’ll discuss cinnamon obsession another time.

A family member of a family friend has sent me maple sugar at Christmas time. This sugar is revered in this house – I split it with my Mum and we all have to ceremonially sniff the maple sugar and bemoan our loss at not being able to get it here. How my heart soared when I saw it in the supermarket, but alas it was maple flavoured sugar and frankly, I spit on that. Not in supermarkets – the judge said I mustn’t do that any more. Ha.

If you cannot get maple sugar, then don’t worry, just use all light brown sugar – there’s maple syrup in it anyway, it’s just that the maple sugar ups it to another level.

So you need this lot ( I used the Sainsbury’s maple syrup because I had run out of my Waitrose stash. Waitrose’s #2 strength is far better):

Put 200g (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter in a saucepan over a low-ish heat and melt it.

Add 100g (80ml, 1/3 cup) maple syrup, 100g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) light brown sugar and 50g (mean 1/3 cup) maple sugar. Or just add 150g light brown sugar.

Simmer and stir that to get it to come together like a sauce and get the sugar pretty much melted. Don’t fret – you can’t do anything wrong with this. Just don’t boil its pants off, it only takes a few minutes.

Add the porridge oats to this

and stir well to combine.

Tip into a paper-lined 8″ square pan and smooth out. Scatter some extra maple sugar over the top.

Bake for 25 mins until golden, then put onto a wire rack and, keeping it in the tin, allow to cool.

Once cooled, lift out by its paper and cut into slices, squares, whatever.

This keeps really well in an airtight container

Should last the working week easily.

In theory. Yeah. Best of luck with that. Put it this way, it will KEEP for a week; whether it lasts that long is a different matter.

Maple Flapjacks

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200g (1 3/4 sticks) butter
100g (1/3 cup) maple syrup – try to get Waitrose’s #2 strength if you can
100g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) light brown sugar
50g  (1/3 cup, meanly filled) maple sugar – if you don’t have or can’t get this, just use 150g light brown sugar
325g (4 cups) porridge oats

extra maple sugar to sprinkle on top (optional)

Preheat oven to GM4/180C/350F
Line an 8″ square tin with greaseproof paper

In a large saucepan,on a low-medium heat, melt the butter.
Add the syrup and sugars, simmer and stir until the mixture is coming together and the sugars have more or less melted. Only takes a few minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir in the porridge oats.

Tip into the tin, smooth down and scatter with more maple sugar if using.
Bake for 25 mins until golden.
Cool in the tin on a wire rack, then slice into bars or squares.

Keeps well in an airtight container – probably lasts the working week.