MacMillan Coffee Morning

It’s not all wholesome almost vegan food around here, I’ll have you know. Well, it mostly is for me, but not for others…

Today was MacMillan Coffee Morning at our daughter’s school. The official date for ‘The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ is this Friday, but the school has other plans for that day. I’ll try to keep you updated.

This school has some amazing, good-enough-to-be-pro, bakers which is why cake sales are always such a winning fundraiser. But I’m not one of those bakers. Let’s just say my skill-set is somewhere else.

However in the last couple of years, the Big C, i.e. Cancer, not Cold, has come closer and closer, among friends big and small. So donating to a charity which helps people in this difficult time was a must. And so I set to baking. They say play to your strengths, which in my case means ‘bake something you wish you could eat’

First off, some Danish Brunsviger. This is my favourite morning pastry, re-visited by me. It’s sweet, it’s anything but light, it’s unapologetically not healthy and I love it for it!

Where else to get the recipe, than the good ol’ Frøken Jensens Kogebog, the bible of traditional Danish cooking.

For 1 medium baking tray:

250 g flour

2 tsp sugar

75 g soft butter

7 g dry yeast

1-1.5 dl warm (not hot) milk

For the ‘icing’:

80 g butter

80 g dark brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Mix flour and sugar, then mix with butter with a wooden spoon. Add yeast and warm milk. Mix, then knead the dough really well on a floured surface. Return to the bowl, cover and leave to rise for 20 min in a warm place.

Then roll out the dough and place in a medium baking tray, making sure the sides are higher than the middle. Leave to rise again for 10-15 min.

Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 200 C and make the icing: soften the butter, then mix with all the other ingredients.

When dough is ready, form little dips in the surface, but careful not to make holes all the way through (same method as for a focaccia). Pour the icing over, spread it out evenly and bake for 25-30 min. Take out and leave to cool (and set) before enjoying with a cuppa and your feet up, if possible.

Mine was a bit over-baked, but tasty nonetheless. How do I know? I made a second one with spelt…

But 3 little tray-bakes seemed a paltry donation, so I decided to also bring my ‘school famous’ Cheddar & Jalapeño Muffins. Famous, because in a sea of sweet stuff, some people crave the savoury and always look out for my French inspired muffins.

The basic recipe is from my talented friend Zazou (check out her beautiful work here), which I then adapt to the ingredients at hand.

250 g self-raising flour

4 eggs

20 cl oil or butter (I like to use olive oil)

salt, pepper and some white wine or other (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 180 C

Mix all the ingredients in a food processor. Pour into a bowl and add the tasty stuff: in this case, 150 g grated cheddar and a large tbsp of chopped jalapeños.

Now, you can either pour it all into a lined loaf tin and serve in slices, but for a cake sale I favour muffin shapes,  each topped with a slice of jalapeño (so as to warn people that it’s not a strawberry cupcake)

Bake for 30-40 min, until a knife inserted in the middle comes out dry and clean (middle of the muffin, that is)

This time, enjoy with a nice cold beer. Skål!