Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower...

 Albert Camus

I don't really have much time to write an in-depth poetic post about the lovely afternoon from whence these photos came, so I'll let them speak for themselves. Partially because I have not yet quite finished the essay i WAS going to do on sunday, partially because I am too damn excited about going to see Laura Marling at Gloucestershire Cathedral this evening! Literally so psyched I am barely able to type coherently...calm self. And speaking of calm, last friday afternoon I did a walk that I've never done before, on one of the most gorgeous Autumny sunny afternoons ever; all crisp air and golden colours. We seem blessed with them at the moment! Lovely friends, good weather, and a wide expanse of work-free-wonder to wander in. Who could ask for a better escape?

Canal walk on the way to the meadow

Sweet Dreams...

Unfortunately I do not have a recipe to share for these, I intended to post this more successful attempt at macarons from home when I actually made them towards the end of the summer. Naturally, that did not happen, and now me and the recipe are estranged. So these little beauties ( not massively professional looking but better than these ones) serve as an illustration of my progression along the road of almond based delights, and a promise for more attempts over Christmas. Plus they were gorgeous, filled with either Nutella, or a chocolate ganache and berry jam. Sweet memories...

 

Shake it out October

I WILL be a better, more consistent blogger. I promise. Starting...tomorrow? Why not? With returning to university, in a shiny new year and shiny new room, I am really trying to commit to new things, and stick with old ones. So posts may be a tad less frequent (and I WILL post with the marvellous Fabelists) but until I get my interweb head on, here is my song of the moment. I never went off Florence, obviously, but for a while she's been lingering in the ether of my music consciousness. Comfortably in the back. On shuffle. I was interested, not majorly psyched about the new album. And then I saw this video and was literally just hooked; it's 80s power ballad/Total Eclipse of the Heart enough so make me very pleased indeed.It's so wonderfully, almost self indulgently Gothic, the costumes are fantastic, and I know a fair few people for whom Devil-shake-flailing is the dance of choice (I'd like to say 'myself not included' but it would be a lie.) Plus the shots of smiling Florence of the ending (4.21 ish?) are gorgeous...

Toffee Apple Muffins

So remember how summer was 'over'? Apparently the weather's had different ideas and is treating us to one last blast of sunshine before everyone heads back to uni...and who am I to complain? Plus it means that I can pack away all my jumpers ready for the Oxford winter, and still have things to wear for the next few days. Excellent. So this week I've given up on work really, and have been preparing mentally and physically (packing, not working out, although I have become rather addicted to a Zumba game over the last few days) to go away again, and of course that means baking. These toasty-warm lovelies don't really go with the weather, but we had some good homegrown apples this week and I wanted to use them. And toffees.

Adapted from the 'Apple Spice Muffins' recipe in 'Muffins fast and fantastic' by Susan Reimer

Ingredients

9oz plain flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3oz caster sugar

1 egg

6oz chopped apple 

150ml milk

90ml sunflower oil (or 85g melted butter)

about 7 toffees, chopped

Preheat oven to 180 degrees for a fan

Sift the flour, baking powder, spices and sugar in a large bowl, and in another bowl beat the egg. Stir the chopped apple, milk, and oil/butter into the egg until its all nice and eggy. 

Pour the eggy-apple mix into the flour bowl and stir, adding the toffee pieces in the final few stirs. The batter will be quite gloopy and lumpy so don't worry! 

Fill muffin cases and sprinkle with demerara or brown sugar and bake for about 25 minutes until they're golden brown. Take the muffin cases out of the tin as soon as poss, as the toffee WILL leak everywhere and if it cools you won't get the cases out at all. 

Soak the pans so no-one else sees the mess.

Enjoy the melty, spiced apply cakes.

Note the crater where some toffee was?

The Daerie Queene

See what I did there? It's like 'The Faerie Queene'...but cheese related. Was going to go for something about Cheesus, but thought that may stray too far into tasteless territory. And considering just how tasteFUL my day was yesterday, I would not want that. Not at all. And the incredibly tasty day was had at The Great British Cheese Festival at Cardiff Castle. Now my family loves a good food fair, but never before have I been to one devoted entirely to such a foodstuff. And never before have I eaten so many very different cheeses at one event..it would be impossible to list them all but our fridge is now very well stocked with our favourites. Including an adorable little box of mini cheesecakes in all different flavours...bakewell tart cheesecake anyone? Now into my last week at home before back to university, and so many things to do! Hope everyone's weekends were brielliant 

Apologies. 

Chaucer cheese? definitely a good thing

Sweet and savoury smooth cheeses from Sancler...heavenly.

 

Hazelnut-Choc-Chunk Cookies

Really, I can claim no credit for these 'crunchy on the outside, nuttily sweet and soft on the inside' beauties. The recipe is shamelessly stolen from my sisters lovely blog , the only difference being me FORGETTING to add oats. How does that happen? I love oats! So as you can see, I rolled a few of the dough balls in oats to assuage my guilt slightly. And in place of dark chocolate chunks I used some cheeky Green and Blacks Butterscotch chocolate I found in the baking cupboard. Mmmmm. And nice for a change, but next time I make these I'll revert to dark I think, to showcase the hazelnutty dough.

Sarah's Choc Chunk 

Hazelnut Oaties

Ingredients

8oz butter

4 oz caster sugar

5 oz dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla syrup 

5 oz plain flour 

4 oz bread flour (or just 9oz plain)

50g chopped up chocolate and hazelnuts

50g oats

Preheat the oven to 160 ish for a fan

Cream the butter and sugars together until they have a buttercream-like consistency, then add the egg and vanilla and beat again till smooth.

Sift the flour(s) into the bowl and fold in with a spoon, then add the chocolate, nuts, and oats (optional apparently)

The dough will be quite stiff. Put it in the fridge and forget about it...go have lunch, cuppa tea, tiddlywinks match, whatever you fancy just let the dough to chill a bit so your butter doesn't melt the cookies all over the place when in the oven. Then when you're ready and the dough's nicely chilled, place balls of it onto lined sheets and bake for 12-15 mins until golden.

Plumble Cake

Warm out the oven with a nice blob of cream...mmm

 Plum + Crumble = Plumble

 Makes perfect sense, see? It seems strange that I haven't done a good recipe post in a while, but then my baking recently hasn't been all that picturesque I have to admit. There were some cookies that spread and glooped everywhere, a Peanut Butter slice that just screams 'heart attack' and some failed macaroons. But nothing I was aching to blog about (these beauties aside of course.) But we ended up with quite a lot of greengages recently which were going a bit squishy, and so I decided to use these lovely little plums before they went to waste...et voila! It isn't the prettiest thing, but then Autumn baking is all about comfort complete with sweet, caramelly stewed fruit. At least in my head it is.  

 And imagine my suprise to find a wonderfully similar-ish looking cake on one of my baking-blog-crushes Desserts for Breakfasts  posted just today! Although her photos are incredible and the whole thing is a far more elegant homage to these 'ugly green plums' as they're named on her blog...

Plumble Cake

Adapted from ‘Good Housekeeping’ magazine Oct 2011 (despite the fact it is September, I never understand why magazines insist on doing that)

100g butter

50g dark brown soft sugar

150g caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

100g sour cream

200g self raising flour

6 greengages and a large plum, chopped into wedges

For Crumble topping

50g butter

50g Demerara sugar

100g flour

(or any crumble topping of your choice)

Preheat oven to 160 for a fan oven and line a baking tray. Beat the butter and sugars with a whisk or electric whisk (this time, shock horror, I actually whisked it by hand, and it ended up lovely and light…victory!) until it’s nice, creamy and non-grainy looking.

Then gradually whisk in the eggs and sour cream (it may curdle a tiny bit but don’t worry, the flour will take care of that) Fold in the flour till no more lumps show, then spoon it into the baking tray. 

Lay the greengage and plum slices on top in a completely non-necessary pretty pattern (optional) then sprinkle the crumble topping over the whole thing. Bake for around 40 minutes until golden on the top and smelling deliciously fruity.