Plum & Almond Crumble Slice

Plum & Almond Crumble Slice

It's described as a buttery tray bake, full of new season fruit and spice.

I made it for my turn at afternoon tea at work and it went down a storm together with the Mint Aero Cookies.  One comment was "I'd pay good money for this !"

250g pack butter, very cold
225g caster sugar
300g ground almonds
140g plain flour, plus 25g
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
approx 6 plums, stoned and cut into 6ths
50g flaked almonds

Heat oven to Gas 4/180ºC. Grease and line with baking parchment a 20cm x 30cm baking tin.

Put the butter, sugar and almonds into a food processor, pulse until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Remove half of it and set it aside.

Add 140g flour to the processor and whizz until it forms a dough. Tip into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

To make the filling, put the butter sugar mix that you set aside earlier into the processor saving a few tbsp for the topping. Add the eggs, cinnamon and baking powder and whizz to a soft batter.  Top the shortbread base with this then put the plum pieces on top of this.

Bake for 20 minutes then sprinkle with the remaining crumble mix and the flaked almonds.  Cook for another 20 minutes until golden. Leave to cool in the tin before slicing.

Mint Aero Chocolate Cookies

This recipe is a variation on chocolate chip cookies and was passed to me by my niece Danielle.

Mint Aero Chocolate Cookies

Cream together 100g butter or margarine and 75g light soft brown sugar.  Mix in 175g self raising flour, 2 tbsp milk, 2 tbsp golden syrup and a 113g bag of mint aero balls.

Place in lumps on a greased baking tray and bake at 180'C/Gas 4 for 10-15 minutes until golden. Cool for a couple of minutes on the tray then transfer to a cooling rack.

Middle Eastern Meatloaf

This is a Waitrose recipe and it's quite tasty........

Middle Eastern Meatloaf

125g Bulgar wheat (dry weight)
grated zest of 1 orange
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely grated
250g pack minced lamb
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp pine nuts 
50g sultanas
2 beaten eggs

Preheat the oven to 190'C, Gas 5. Grease and line the base of a 1.5k (2lb) loaf tin. Cook the bulgar wheat in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes until tender.  Cool slightly then drain well and tip into a large bowl.

Stir the remaining ingredients into the bowl and mix well to combine.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared loaf tin and press down very well with the back of a spoon.  Bake for 40-45  minutes until cooked through and nicely browned.  Turn out of the tin and slice.

They suggest serving it with lightly steamed Savoy cabbage, we had it with steamed Kale.

You could use cooked brown rice or even couscous in this recipe and I found I had no pine nuts so I used almonds instead.