Lighter blueberry muffins (mofns)

July 8, 2015January 28, 2020 ~ Corrie ~ 1 Comment

I call muffins ‘mofns’ because I think it’s funnier. Also, it’s what I call my dear housemate/life partner Isabelle. I made these mofns in an attempt to cheer her up after her moron boyfriend broke up with her last week. She didn’t eat any of them in the end, turns out not everyone feels the need to binge-eat after a break up like I do… So I ate most of them on her behalf – I’m a good friend like that. The rest sadly went in the bin because I accidentally got drunk and left them out in the sun. So, not an overly successful baking experience but the mofns I did manage to eat, were very nice and relatively guilt-free – if you don’t slather them in butter like I do…

Lighter blueberry muffins (mofns)
Makes 12 / Takes 35 minutes / V ❄
You’ll need: 12 muffin cases, muffin tin, electric whisk
250g self-raising flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
50g light unsalted butter
75g caster sugar
1 Punnet blueberries
½ lemon, juiced
2 large eggs
235ml semi-skimmed milk
½ tsp sea salt flakes

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan/325°F/gas mark 3.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add the butter and with your fingers rub it into breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and blueberries before putting to one side.
3. Whisk the eggs, milk and lemon juice together in a separate bow with an electric whisk. Add the wet mixture to the dry and fold until just combined – be careful not to over fold, the mixture can be a little lumpy.
3. Fill the 12 muffin cases with roughly 3tbs of mixture each and bake in the oven for 20-25 mins. Leave the mofns to cool for 10 mins in the tin. Serve warm spread with butter or leave to cool fully. Will keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container.

If you’ve had a go at making any of my recipes, I’d love to hear from you. Follow me now @corrieheale and tag your recipe pictures using #corriesrabbitfood.

V– Vegetarian ❄– Suitable for home freezing once baked. Wrap individually in clingfilm and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost the night before and enjoy for breakfast the next morning

Homemade hummus

June 7, 2015February 19, 2021 ~ Corrie ~ 2 Comments

Just when I thought I’d eaten enough hummus to keep me going for at least 10 years, I go and make it from scratch. When I was a student, I used to get drunk and make hummus and minted potatoes in the middle of the night, instead of staggering to KFC like everyone else. Although thinking back on it, perhaps KFC was the safer option – no one should operate a food processor after 4 white wine spritzers. What can I say, I’m a humous wielding maverick.

Anyway, much like my baked falafel recipe, the type of canned chickpeas you use is really important. I like the big fat juicy ones that Napolina do, most supermarket own brands are too bullet like. Use a food processor if you prefer a smoother texture and a hand blender for a more rough pâté. I’ve used a food processor on this occasion but I’ve made this recipe many times with a hand blender to save on washing up.
Although making hummus is easy, it can go pretty wrong pretty quickly if too much liquid is added, so make sure you have an emergency can of chickpeas spare. Adding an extra can of chickpeas can save any sloppy hummus disaster – of which, I have had several.

Homemade hummus
Makes 2 pots / Hands on time 10 mins / Total time 10 mins / V Vn Gf Df
2 cans chickpeas, I use Napolina
1 large or 2 regular sized garlic cloves, crushed
4 tbs Tahini
1 lemon, juiced lemon
salt & pepper
Garnish
Smoked paprika
Extra virgin olive oil
Chopped parsley to serve

Method
1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas before taking a small handful and putting them to one side for the garnish. Put the rest of the chickpeas in a food processor with the crushed garlic and blitz until combined and smooth.
2. Meanwhile, fill one of the chickpea cans half full with water and add 4 tbs of tahini. Mix until combined (it should look curdled but loose). Squeeze in the lemon juice, mix and pour half the can on top of the chickpeas. Blitz again.
3. Once the humous has come together it’s up to you how wet you want it so add a bit more of the tahini and lemon water if you want a more loose consistency – this is down to personal preference. If it’s too wet then drain your emergency can and add it to the mix and blitz again (trust me, it will help).
4. Season with half a teaspoon of salt and a good pinch or pepper and mix thoroughly with a spoon. Keep tasting and seasoning until you get it how you like it.
5. Scoop out into pots and top with the left over chickpeas. Sprinkle your chosen garnish and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Finish with a final dusting of salt and pepper. Keep in the fridge and consume within 5 days.

If you’ve had a go at making any of my recipes, I’d love to hear from you. Follow me now @corrieheale and tag your recipe pictures using #corriesrabbitfood.

V– Vegetarian Vn– Vegan Df– Dairy free. Gf – Gluten free

Vanilla apple cake

May 31, 2015February 13, 2023 ~ Corrie ~ Leave a comment

Let me just start by saying that this cake is not the slimmers option, so if you have type two diabetes look away now. I don’t usually bake cakes but tomorrow is my dear old dads birthday. Sadly he is no longer around to eat cakes but when he was he seemed to like this one. Happy 62nd birthday Dad.

Vanilla apple cake
Serves 8 / Hands on time 25 mins / Total time 1 hr 30mins + cooling / V ❄
You’ll need: 20cm cake tin, foil, electric hand whisk or standing mixer
350-400g Brambly apples, peeled, cored and sliced
½ lemon, juiced
250g unsalted butter + extra for greasing
250g caster sugar
3 large eggs
250g self-raising flour
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs demerara sugar
1 tbs icing sugar for decoration

Method
1. Preheat an oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4 and grease your cake tin with butter.
2. Peel, roughly slice and core the apples. Put them in a large bowl, squeeze over the juice of half a lemon and give the apples a good toss – this prevents the apples oxidising and turning brown. Put to one side.
3. In a large bowl or standing mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until using an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat the eggs in one at a time, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides. If the mixture starts to curdle, simply add a tbs of the self-raising flour and continue to whisk until combined.
4. Sift in the remaining self-raising flour along with the salt and baking powder. Use a wooden spoon to fold in the mixture. The batter should be pale and thick.
5. Fold in the apples and spoon into your prepared tin, using the back of a spoon to push the mixture evenly to the edges (it may seem like there isn’t enough batter to cover the apples but don’t worry, the apples sink to the bottom of the cake during baking). Smooth over the top with a wooden spoon and sprinkle over 1 tbs of Demerara sugar.
6. Bake in the oven for 40 mins. At this stage the cake will be very brown but don’t worry, it’s not burning. Remove the cake from the oven and swiftly cover the top loosely with foil before returning to the oven. Continue to bake for a further 20-30 minutes or until a skewer that is inserted comes out clean, making sure you don’t mistake raw cake batter or baked apples.
7. Remove from the oven and leave the cake to rest in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Leave to cool fully before dusting with icing sugar and serving with clotted cream and a cup of tea.

If you’ve had a go at making any of my recipes, I’d love to hear from you. Follow me now @corrieheale and tag your recipe pictures using #corriesrabbitfood.

V – Vegetarian
❄ – This cake is suitable for home freezing once cooled. Wrap well in cling film and freeze fore up to 3 months. Defrost fully before serving.

Spaghetti Quorn bolognese

May 30, 2015January 29, 2020 ~ Corrie ~ Leave a comment

So Quorn, hmm. Not really sure how I feel about it if I’m honest, but it works really well in this dish, mainly because I adapted it from a meat recipe. When I was a child, I used to get furious bolognese envy. I’d look over at my best friend Philippa, shovelling forkfuls of cascading spaghetti into her mouth, flecked with delicious, oily meat and cheddar cheese. I would then woefully look down at my plate – a lone soggy stuffed pepper staring up at me and I would wish I was dead… Okay so that’s perhaps a little dramatic, but I wanted to create a decent alternative to bolognese that would make little Corrie very happy. I now cook it all the time and everyone loves it, it’s cheap, easy if a little time consuming – I tend to make it on a lazy Sunday. Enjoy

Spaghetti Quorn bolognese
Serves 4 / Hands on time 30 mins / Cooking time 1-2 hrs / V ❄
You’ll need: A hand blender/food processor, oven-proof cooking pot with a lid.
1 tsp olive oil
1 white onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
350g Quorn mince
150ml semi-skimmed milk
150ml vegetarian white wine
1 can plum tomatoes
¼ tsp nutmeg
Large handful of black olives in brine, drained
300g wholewheat spaghetti
100g vegetarian Italian hard cheese or Parmesan*
Handful of fresh basil leaves
Extra virgin olive oil

Method
1. Preheat an oven to 160°C/140°C fan/325°F/gas mark 3. In a large oven-proof pot, on a medium heat, sweat the onion, carrot and celery in the oil, adding a dash of water if needed to help them steam. Cook for 5-8 mins.
2. Once soft, take off the heat and roughly blend the vegetables with a hand blender or food processor. Return to the heat and add the mince and the milk. Cook for a 3 mins or until the milk has absorbed, and add the tinned tomatoes. Break the plum tomatoes up with a spoon and add the white wine, olives, nutmeg and a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper.
3. Put the lid on a jar and slow cook in the oven for up to 2 hrs, stirring halfway through.
4. Remove from the oven and serve stirred through spaghetti and topped with torn fresh basil and a sprinkling of cheese and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

If you’ve had a go at making any of my recipes, I’d love to hear from you. Follow me now @corrieheale and tag your recipe pictures using #corriesrabbitfood.

V – Vegetarian
❄ This bolognese is suitable for home freezing once cooled. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
* Parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiani) is always made using animal rennet, therefore it is not vegetarian. Substitute for Italian hard cheese if applicable.

Homemade Goats Cheese

May 25, 2015September 11, 2018 ~ Corrie ~ 3 Comments

Homemade Goat's Cheese (trust me, it's easy than you think) — Homemade Goat’s Cheese (trust me, it’s easy than you think)

A strange recipe to start off my blog I know, but I was dangerously bored last Sunday and found a cheese making kit under a pile of books in my room. Ever so slightly out of date I decided to give it a whirl, cheese is better out of date anyway right? To my surprise the box only contained four things; half a metre of muslin cloth, a thermometer, a bag of rock salt and a bag of citric acid which you can substitute for lemon juice (hope my friend Jenni didn’t spend too much money on this present).
So anyway, off I went and bought 2 litres of goats milk and I was ready to give it a go, expecting it to be a complicated time consuming process. Two hours later I was eating goats cheese on toast, it was that easy! This is how I did it…

Homemade Goats Cheese
Makes 1 ball / Takes roughly 2 hours / V
You’ll need… Thermometer, Large deep pan, Colander, Butter muslin cloth (about 1/2 a metre)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
2 litres of whole goats milk
A fresh loaf of bread, I recommend walnut or sourdough
50ml of cooled boiled water (I just used the water in my kettle)
(Plus any herbs, garlic or chilli you may wish to add to flavour the cheese but you don’t have to. I just used a bit of freshly chopped parsley)

1. Mix 1tsp of citric acid (or lemon juice) into 50ml of cooled boiled water until dissolved and set aside.
2. Pour your milk into the pan and add the citric acid solution. Stir in an up and down motion thoroughly. Stir continuously but gently heat the milk on a medium heat up to 180F. You will see the milk begin to separate into the curds and whey (so that’s what curds and whey are, huh.) It will appear a little grainy.

3. Remove from the heat, cover with a lid and leave for half an hour. Have a cup of tea.
4. Put your colander in the sink and line with doubled over muslin. When the milk has cooled, gently pour into the colander and let the whey drain away. Once most of it has drained, mix in the salt and the herbs (if using).
5. Gather up the edges of the muslin to create a bag, twist the bag and give it a gentle squeeze to further extract the whey. Don’t squeeze too hard though, you don’t want the cheese to start seeping out (I apologise for using the word ‘seeping’). Use the corners of the muslin to securely tie it over a tap and leave for another half hour to an hour.

So that’s kind of it, YOU’VE ONLY GONE AND MADE FRICKIN CHEESE! Shape your cheese into whatever shape you desire, I like a log shape myself. You can eat the cheese immediately so get that lovely bread in the toaster, rub it with a garlic clove and spread the cheese liberally on top. Sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil. Refrigerate your cheese and it should keep for up to a week.