Apple, Apricot & Cinnamon Swirls

If I'm ever stuck for a sweet baked treat in the morning for my guests and time is not on my side, these apple pastry swirls are a life saver!!!! Made with minimum effort but allowing for maximum taste they are a winner every time, and can be made even in the most stressful of kitchens.

This is another example how utterly versatile ready rolled puff pastry is..... helping us create the perfect breakfast treat. Guests have been really impressed with these bite size pieces of pleasure, and its almost shameful to admit how easy they are, and that they didn't take me hours of slaving in the kitchen.....opps...my secret's out!

Ingredients

• 1 sheet of ready rolled puff pastry (room temperature)
• 1 cooking apple
• 2-3 tbsp of apricot conserve
• 3 tbsp of brown sugar
• 2 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp of buttermilk (or beaten egg)
• Icing sugar to decorate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Line a baking tray with baking parchment
3. Allow your puff pastry to come to room temperature. (If you try to roll it straight from the fridge, it will crack)
4. Unroll the sheet of pastry.
5. Place the apricot conserve in a dish and microwave for 30 seconds.
6. Brush the entire surface of the pastry with the melted conserve.
7. Grate the cooking apple over the conserve and redistribute to ensure an even spread
8. Scatter with the brown sugar and the cinnamon. 
9. From the longest side, roll the pastry as if your rolling a swiss roll.
10. Cut into bite size pieces.
11. Brush with the buttermilk and spread out on the baking tray as they tend to double in size.
12. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
13. Remove from the oven when they are golden and bubbling and cool on a wire rack.
14. Once cooled sieve icing sugar over each swirl.

These are not only a breakfast treat, but also can be turned into a delicious dessert after a traditional Sunday roast. Simply make the swirls larger and serve with some creamy custard.

Raspberry, White Chocolate and Orange Muffins

Finally……I’m back!!!!! What a crazy few months it’s been… Can’t believe I didn’t have any time for food blogging and recipe hunting/testing over the last 3 months.

It certainly was a crazy few months, with a great learning curve. Being up to my eyes in pancakes and full irish frys and whatnot, Serena’s Medium Rare unfortunately had to take a back seat.

When I initially started the B&B people said, ‘its hard work you know’……..and I did understand that it would be, but boy oh boy I couldn’t have imagined how much work it takes. Not that any day felt like work, mind you. In fact the summer flew and I relished cooking for guests and getting great feedback on my cooking and baking, not to mention chatting with a vast variety of interesting people on a daily basis. It’s most definitely the job for me!

Now that the B&B is closed until Summer 2013 and I’m back to my ‘day job’, I’ve had time to breathe and reflect on what has been a wonderfully successful summer.  We brought our modest little B&B from #89 on Tripadvisor, to …….(drum roll please)…. #3 on Tripadvisor!!!!!

I really found a big passion for baking this summer, which before used to scare me. After many experiments with muffin recipes my Raspberry, White Chocolate and Orange Muffins proved to be the most popular. I ended up baking these so often in the finish I’m convinced I could bake them in my sleep.

It must be said this recipe is adapted from Clodagh McKenna’s Blueberry Muffin recipe from her book Homemade…

Ingredients

·         400g Plain flour

·         150g Caster sugar

·         85g Butter

·         2 eggs

·         1 tbsp Baking powder

·         Zest of an orange

·         Juice of half an orange

·         260ml Buttermilk

·         Salt

·         200g raspberries

·         200g of white chocolate chips

Method

1.       Sieve the flour into a bowl, along with the baking powder, salt and sugar.

2.       Melt the butter over a low heat.

3.       Zest the orange over the flour mixture

4.       Lift the flour mixture high from the bowl and let it fall between your fingers, do this maybe 10 times. This helps to lighten the flour.

5.       Beat the eggs in a jug with the buttermilk and add the melted butter once its cooled slightly and the orange juice.

6.       Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

7.       Add the raspberries and chocolate chips and gently fold.

8.       Have the oven preheated to 200 degrees.

9.       Line a muffin tray with paper cases and using a dessert spoon fill each case.

10.   Bake in the oven for 23-25 minutes.

11.   Remove and cool on wire rack.