Hi everyone, slightly different format for today’s post. The usual recipe is just below, but I was recently invited to take part in the “Seven Link Challenge” by Kay from PureComplex.com. I’ve been reading quite a few posts from various blogs on this subject recently and was hoping someone might invite me to join in the fun, so thank you Kay! The challenge consists of posting seven links, from your own blog, which all fit into the seven, pre-defined categories and, you can then invite up to five other bloggers to participate.
Choosing the seven links was not always easy – what is also a little difficult is finding one of my blogging friends who hasn’t yet done this challenge, but it’s a great way to re-visit old posts and see how things have changed over the months. Without further ado, here are the links!
1) The Most Beautiful Post: Hamburgers
There’s something about these ingredients which lend themselves really damn well to being photographed and I was very pleased with how everything turned out. When I’d finished writing it all up I was frankly in the mood for another one right away π
2) The Most Popular Post: Fish and Chips with Onion Rings
I wanted to say my Pancakes recipe, but that was my one and only accepted photo to FoodGawker.com, so the traffic for that post is skewed. All the same, I’m still surprised by just how popular the Fish and Chips post was, and it accounts for 1.48% of all the traffic on the site.
3) The most controversial post: Spinach and Goat’s Cheese Pie
I don’t really cause a lot of controversy in my posts (hopefully), although someone told me in no uncertain terms that a recipe I’d written up was “wrong”. Apparently it results in clumpy pastry instead of binding nicely and additionally it’s “bland”. Well, it’s not my best recipe ever, but sometimes I want basic flavours, there’s nothing wrong with that. As for the clumping pastry? Well, I can only assume that’s caused by incorrect conversion between US and metric perhaps?
4) The most helpful post: Carrot Top Pesto
It seems that not so many people were familiar with the idea of using good old Carrot Tops in a pesto so hopefully at least one bunch has been spared the compost heap thanks to me so far!
5) The post that was surprisingly successful: Fast Chocolate Cupcakes
This post has 0.77% of all traffic on my site, and while that may not sound like much, that does place it in 10th spot of “Most viewed pages”. I gotta say… these cupcakes are perfectly nice, but when you compare them to the myriad other cupcake sites around the web these are very uninspired… and the photography is just terrible!
6) The post that did not get the attention it deserved: Millionaire’s Flapjacks
Not a single comment – for shame?! Actually this was a toss up between Rocky Road but I decided in the end that the Flapjacks get it. They were most time consuming, and I even made a video!
7) The post I am most proud of: Oat Cakes
This will probably sound odd, but the post I’m most proud of is also one of my most simple! I love eating Oat Cakes, but they’re expensive as all anything to buy, and I can’t even get them in France. Making these, I realise now there’s no need to fret any more because they literally taste exactly the same as bought ones, which makes me pretty darn happy π
And now… I just need to find some people to nominate? Well, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that, as far as I can see, and can remember, Jenny and Shilpa, from Baking Devils, and Kelly from Inspired Edibles haven’t participated in this rather fun little challenge yet, so Jenny, Shilpa and Kelly? If you’re interested, I’d love to see your answers to the above questions and thanks again to Kay for nominating me!
Now for the promised recipe:
Serves: Makes approx 25-35 cookies
Approx cost: β¬3.50
Approx calories (per cookie): 100
Approx preparation time: 30 minutes
On a recent trip to England I brought back with me some Spelt Flour. I’ve read a lot about Spelt recently on various blogs and was pleased to have the opportunity to try it. Of course, as soon as I lug a bag of flour back from England I notice that they’re selling it in France – “Γ©peautre”, in case anyone cares. In any case, I dutifully stowed it inside my kitchen cupboard, not entirely sure what I was going to do with it. I also had a bag of Rice Flour in the cupboard and while it’s wonderful to have “non-standard” things in your kitchen, what’s not so great is when you have no idea what to do with them. Well, I just happened to have a bag of candied stem ginger in the drawer too and thus a not so fiendish plan was hatched to brew it all up into a delicious batch of cookies.
I don’t often “experiment” too much when it comes to baking. Previous disasters have taught me that you don’t mess about with flour and eggs. Sure, add in some additional chocolate and what not, but successful baking is hard. It’s not a case of sticking a piece of meat on fire and grilling until brown. This is all about chemical processes and whatnot and so, apart from a few exceptions, for the most part I tend to stick to tried and tested recipes. This time however – I decided to kick back a bit. Ok, a cookie recipe isn’t exactly rocket science, but it’s my cookie recipe and here we go – the fruits of my labours. The first batch lasted about 1 day here. I made another batch, double-quantities last night and they seemed to go down well with some of my colleagues! Of course, now I’m out of candied ginger… I guess I’ll need to figure out how to make it myself! Hope you’re all having a good day π
Ingredients
– 125g Spelt Flour
– 125g Rice Flour (Normal flour will do if not available)
– 170g Butter, softened
– 90g Caster Sugar
– 90g Dark Brown Sugar / Molasses Sugar
– 60g Candied Stem Ginger
– 1 Egg
– 2 tsps Baking Powder
– 2 tsps Ground Ginger
– 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
– 1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to ~180 degrees Celsius and then place the soft butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy and slightly more pale in colour.
- Add in the Ground Ginger, Baking Powder, Ground Cinnamon, Ground Nutmeg and the Egg and mix well. Chop the Candied Stem Ginger into small chunks (not too small!) and mix into the mixture as well, before finally sifting in the two different types of flour and mixing everything together well to form a stiff paste.
- Once all the flour has been blended in take small lumps of the mixture and roll into balls in your hand. The lumps should be about the size of a “not too heaped teaspoon”, if you get what I mean π Place the balls onto a greased cookie sheet or baking tray and flatten them gently using a fork. Remember to allow space between each cookies as they will flatten and spread out during cooking!
- Bake in the oven for around 10-15 minutes (depending on your oven), until just starting to brown on top, before removing and allowing to cool in the tray for a few minutes. When you can pick them up with a spatula, gently transfer them to a cooling rack and leave to cool. Enjoy!
kelly says
Oh, I'm so excited about these ginger cookies! I'm a big fan of spelt and just love the combination of earthy flavours you've assembled here – molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg and plenty of delightful ginger. They sound and look so delicious (what a gorgeous photo with the pink flower).
Thank you for the nomination – I have been tagged a couple of times and need to get on it – will be fun! You did a great job with your roundup. That burger really did photograph well – love the way the onions are going one way et les tomates another (very stylistic!). Your oat cakes are gorgeous – I would be proud too! Can't wait to try your ginger cookies…. Thanks Charles.
Charles says
Thanks Kelly… it's too bad about the splodge of ketchup atop the onion slice in the burger photo though, lol π I think my next task will be finding out how to create my own crystallized ginger so I never need to run out again!
Looking forward to seeing your seven links when you have a chance! Have a nice day π
Eva says
These look delicious. It also looks like a nice treat for my best friend who is gluten intolerant.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who brings home unusual souvenirs ;-). A few years back (before the airlines came down on weight restrictions) I brought back a gorgeous cast iron crèpe pan from Galeries Lafayette in Paris; I also brought home a wonderful cast iron pizza pan from Chicago, and a few years ago, I found dehydrated chestnuts in Chelsey Market in NYC. We joke that I choose my souvenirs by weight!
Charles says
Thanks Eva – I find that every time I go home to England or to Sweden (my wife is Swedish) we end up bringing back SO much food. England especially doesn't have the best reputation for cuisine but at least you can easily get SO many things there that are much harder to find in France… different types of bean and flour for example.
By the way, can you not find dehydrated chestnuts often in the US? I see them quite a lot here – I could send you some if you'd like?!
Eva says
Hi Charles, I'm in Canada – I'm sure I can find them here, but it's so much more romantic to buy them on holiday and bring them home. Each time I use them, I recall where I bought them π
Charles says
Ah yes, of course, my apologies! I agree about what you say … buying the things on holiday, always makes them seem so much more fun and exotic… everything filled with wonderful memories!
Kristy says
Oh yummy! I love cookies – especially when they don't have chocolate. I have no doubt I could finish an entire batch of these. They look similar to my favorite cookie when I was a kid.
And great round-up. I'm going to go through and check out the ones I missed. And I have to say, you've made me want a hamburger at breakfast. π Yum!
Charles says
"especially when they don’t have chocolate"
What?! Chocolate makes the world go round Kristy… How can you say such things? No, it's true – so many cookies have chocolate, it's nice to have different things from time to time, although speaking of which, my mother has an incredible dark chocolate cookie recipe which I need to get my hands on… mmmmm!
Sissi says
I am so happy you also participate in this game! This post is fascinating and gives me so many ideas… First, I have to make Millionaire's Flapjacks. I have never heard of flapjacks, I know Millionaires' cake only from photos, but these look exceptional. I can't understand why no one has commented them… The Carrot Top Pesto is still amazing for me. Although once I talked to a guy on my farmers' market and he told me some people don't want him to cut it off, I always assumed it was to keep the carrots' freshness. The hamburger photo is beautiful indeed!
You must be very proud of a successful baking experiment. I agree it's very risky and apart from modifications of the recipes I already know, I rarely try something from the scratch. I have never baked with spelt. I just had it once in a restaurant and thought it was interesting, nothing else. Your cookies look however very tempting!
Thank you, Charles for this wonderful post full of memories and partially very new to me!
Charles says
Thanks Sissi – the worst thing is when the market people chop off the tops before you even have a chance to say "Nooooooo!". I'm surprised you've never heard of flapjacks, although perhaps they're less common than I thought. My mother used to make them just the flapjack alone with some spices and nuts and fruit – really good but with caramel and chocolate they become extra wonderful. If you ever see flapjacks being sold commercially (with VERY few exceptions) don't bother trying them. They're often sold on trains or ferries around England in little coffee shops and they're just terrible. Like they pushed oats together with some margarine and salt and forgot to cook it!
I made some wonderful bread last night and it's made me want to start baking all my bread at home. Every other Saturday night, doing a big batch. I'm really into the concept of being frugal about certain things and love the idea of saving about €2 for every loaf of bread I make, especially when it's so fun to do π
Sissi says
Charles, I once wanted to buy a bread machine, because I miss sometimes good dark, moist bread with grains (if I lived closer to Germany I would probably go to buy it there; we have here only pumpernikel which is ok, but couldn't have it too often). So it would be only to make very dark, sourdough bread which is quite complicated before the baking process itself…
Then I thought it would be like with my rice cooker: I would use it all the time, make sweet yeast breads etc.. There is also a small problem: my favourite bread is the crunchy crust baguette or wider bread with big holes and soft interior… I go to buy it in France at my favourite baker's. I will never be able to make it at home…
Charles says
Ah yes… I'm not a massive fan of French bread (not compared to the wonderful breads you can get in Germany, Sweden etc… even UK has some beautiful large loaves of bread perfect for sandwiches and toasting), but there is something incredible about a good baguette, especially when they're obviously artisan made… knobbly, mis-shapen, thick, crunchy crust, airy, perfect for ripping apart, sticking a big piece of cheese inside and just biting down.
My boss is German and is quite into food and cooking… if you liked I could ask him if he had any awesome dark bread recipes?
Greg says
That hamburger is gorgeous. Great roundup. I love the cookie recipe too. And clumpy pastry is my favorite!
Charles says
Thanks Greg, as Kristy said, I think I've caught the "want burger for breakfast" bug too, damn π Glad you enjoyed the round-up, hope you're having a good day π
Pure Complex says
Okay here are my favorites :).. I love the chocolate cupcakes.. of course ;). I also love the the hamburger recipe, the onion rings, and the Carrot Top Pesto.. DELISH! And your welcome.. I would definitely nominate you for this award again if I had the chance. Your blog is amazing. And love the added Ginger Cookie recipe.. Love it!
Charles says
Hi Kay, thanks for your kind comments. Seeing the chocolate cupcakes again I feel motivated to give them another try and make them look better this time, perhaps even add "more chocolatez!", hehe π
Linda says
I totally agree on that beautiful post! Really an amazing shot! So fun to find out about many posts I've missed. And these cookies using spelt is something I must try.
Charles says
Thanks Linda – it was fun for me too… made me want to go back and re-do some of the posts, write them up again, improve them, and most of all, take better photographs! π
ping says
I thought this 7 links challenge was and is a great idea. The burger looks delicious, splotch or not. You must be very happy that foodgawker accepted your pics. They've rejected all of mine, I've already given up submitting … sigh. I don't think I've ever seen carrot tops .. oh yes I have, in the organically grown produce section but they look pretty shriveled and dead, I don't think I want to eat those. I love ginger snaps and ginger cookies. Unfortunately I'm the only one in the house who likes crystallized ginger. They're great in fruitcakes … adds an extra zing.
Charles says
Hi Ping, actually just after this post I had my photo of Bouillbaisse accepted to both FoodGawker and TasteSpotting which made me really happy, but they have infuriatingly high standards. I'd all but given up too because I was so tired of getting rejections. I mean, of course, that's not the reason why I blog in the first place, but it's always nice to receive some extra traffic!
Hehe, there's nothing worse than shrivelled carrot-tops… if you can ever get some really fresh ones you should definitely give the dish a try!