DEVON DREAMING: BEACH COVE COASTAL RETREAT

Staying in North Devon at the beautiful Beach Cove Coastal Retreat - an idyllic beach hut complex at Hele Bay, near Ilfracombe. Photos from around the area, The Big Sheep, Knightshayes House and Hele Corn Mill.

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RHUBARB, ORANGE & GINGER MUFFINS

James and I spent the last day of our holiday yesterday wandering around the beautiful Knightshayes estate in Devon; picnicking on the lawn, spying on baby cows and just generally enjoying the sunshine. Although I love the majestic, historical houses and gardens owned by the National Trust, my favourite places within the estates are the more humble kitchen gardens (particularly at Kingston Lacy in Dorset), where you can always find seasonal produce, heritage crops and the odd animal - in Knightshayes' case, a rather vocal goose. The National Trust often sell some of their surplus crops and when I stumbled across some bunches of pink rhubarb in the glasshouses, I couldn't resist.

I've combined the sweet and tart 'barb with classic flavours of orange and ginger here but the recipe is easily adaptable depending on what's in season or what your tastes are. It would work well with cinnamon, pear and apple in Autumn or blueberries and lemon in the summer. I also tweaked the recipe to be just a little healthier, adding coconut oil as fat, low fat yoghurt and chia seeds in the topping. Perhaps healthy is the wrong word but hey, if a cake's got fruit in..... :)

Muffin Ingredients: 
6 tbsp coconut oil, liquid (sunflower or even melted butter would work too)
200g/7oz soft brown or light muscavado sugar
1 free-range egg, beaten
250ml/9fl oz low fat greek yoghurt, buttermilk (or failing all else - milk with lemon juice added)
1½ tsp vanilla extract
170g/3oz rhubarb, cut into 1cm/½in pieces
1 tbsp baking powder
250g/9oz plain flour, sifted
55g/1oz oat bran
Zest of one large orange
2tsp ground ginger
1 or 2 chunks of stem ginger, finely diced.

To Top:  A sprinkle of demerara sugar, chunky oats and/or chia seeds.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line 12 muffin tins with paper cases or spray the tin with oil.

In a large bowl, mix together the oil (zapped in the microwave), sugar, egg, yoghurt and vanilla.

Fold in the rhubarb, ginger, orange zest, baking powder, flour and oat bran, then spoon the mixture into the cases.

Mix together the topping ingredients and sprinkle over the muffins. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch.

Recipe adapted from Hairy Bikers here

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MAPLE PECAN CINNAMON ROLLS

This recipe is so overwhelmingly good that I think it really bypasses the need for any introduction...


But just in case you weren't already converted by the mere mention of a maple-pecan-cinnamon combo, there are a few reasons why you should give them a try. (1) Soft, unfurling curls of sweet dough, (2) smothered with a buttery cinnamon and nut filling and (3) covered with a sticky maple syrup glaze. The smell alone is enough to drive you to distraction, so much so that I was unable to work as they were baking and instead spent the majority of the 30 minutes hovering around the oven in anticipation.

I feel I should also mention, as something of a public service announcement, to please resist the urge to dive in immediately after removing from the oven. You will be covered in delicious burning syrup and you will burn your mouth on the steaming hot bread. Not that that stopped me...

Recipe adapted from Good Food Magazine, January 2008. Recipe also here

For the Rolls: 
450g strong white flour
50g caster sugar
85g butter, cut into small pieces
7g sachet dried yeast
2 eggs, beaten
150ml milk
Tsp Vanilla Extract
Spray oil for greasing.

For the Filling:

2 tsp ground cinnamon

85g light brown sugar

100g pecans

For the Glaze:

125g melted butter, plus extra

125ml maple syrup

50g light brown sugar

100g pecans, roughly chopped

Pinch of salt

Place the flour, sugar and 1 tsp salt in a mixing bowl (skip the salt if you're using salted butter), then rub in the pieces of butter until the mix has the texture of breadcrumbs. Add the yeast and eggs. Pour in the milk and mix well until you get a soft dough, adding more milk as needed.

Knead until the dough is smooth, soft and springy (Took about 15 minutes for me by hand, probably less in a mixer) and tip into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with oiled cling film or a clean tea towel, then leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 hr or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, make the filling: place the cinnamon, sugar and pecans in a food processor, and process until the nuts are finely ground. Knock the air out of the dough (punching, slapping and general bread abuse works for me) then split the dough in two. Roll and stretch each piece to form a 25 x 35cm rectangle.

Melt the butter for the topping and add the vanilla. Brush half all over each rectangle, then sprinkle half the filling mixture over each. Use a rolling pin to press the filling into the dough. Tightly roll each rectangle up from one of the long ends to get a thick log, then pinch the ends together to seal. 

Cut each log into around 8 pieces, they should be a couple of inches wide. Brush two 20 x 30cm deep baking trays with melted butter. Mix the maple syrup, salt and sugar into the remaining butter, then pour this over the bottom of each baking tray to coat them. Sprinkle with the pecans. Place the rolls on the tray, leaving a gap of at around 2cm around each roll. Cover with lightly oiled cling film, then keep in a warm place for about 30 mins until lightly risen.

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Remove the cling film from the tray, then bake for 30 mins until the buns are lightly browned and feel firm. Serve warm, sticky-side-up, preferably with a good cup of coffee and a good book.

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