No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

This fruit cake is slightly different from the norm in that it uses Beer instead of  Brandy, Sherry or Rum and on top of it, it has chocolate too.  Also, the dried fruits are not 'stewed' in alcohol, just cut up and tossed in. Sounds easy, doesn't it?  The chocolate does add a depth to the flavour of this fruity, boozy cake.  Give this a try and enjoy this cake as a favourite holiday treat.  Perhaps you can bake this for X'mas too, boozy and fruity to welcome   2014! Recipe for Mixed Fruit Beer Cake Ingredients 150 gm butter 2 eggs 12 oz/340 gm plain flour a pinch of salt 3/4 cup Buttermilk (3/4 Tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice + milk to make up 3/4 cup) 1 oz/30 gm bittersweet chocolate - melted 4 oz - mixed fruits (cranberries, dried apricot and prunes, chopped and dusted with some flour from the recipe) 8 oz/230 gm caster sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1 cup Beer 1/4 c...

I chanced upon a recipe from Joanie for Guinness Stout Brownies and since I had all the ingredients at hand, I didn't hesitate to give it a try.  I had baked cakes and bread with Stout, so why not add a Brownie to the list....mmm These crust cracked  Brownies are superb, moist and full of choco flavour but without the slightest  trace of stout at all, which means you can indulge in them at any time of the day! Recipe for Guinness Stout Brownies (adapted from Joanie with slight modification) Ingredients 1 can of Guinness Stout 12 oz chocolate, chopped 8 oz butter 1 cup/8 oz brown sugar (reduced from 1.1/2 cups) 3 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 4 oz plain flour 1/8  tsp salt Icing sugar Method Bring stout to the boil with 2 oz brown sugar, simmer till 3/4 cup.  Let cool. Sift the flour with the salt, set aside. Microwave chocolate and butter, stirring in between till melted. Whisk eggs with the balance of brown sugar in a m...

This is a luscious rich, moist chocolately cake.  The Guinness stout does pair well with the chocolate, although the taste of stout is not overwhelming.  Definitely tastes much better the next day. Recipe for Guinness Chocolate Cake   (adapted from Nigella Lawson with slight modification) Ingredients 250 ml Guinness Stout    250 gm butter 45 gm cocoa powder 220 gm brown sugar 110 gm caster sugar 3/8 cup yoghurt (measuring cup halfway between 1/4 and 1/2) 2 eggs 1/2  Tbsp vanilla 275 gm plain flour 2.1/2  tsp baking soda A pinch of salt Method Sift the flour with baking soda and salt, set aside. Melt the butter and Guinness stout.  Remove from heat, add sugar, cocoa and whisk together.  Let cool. Beat yoghurt, eggs and vanilla till thoroughly combined. Add to stout mixture and whisk together.  Add sifted flour and whsk again till smooth.  Batter is a bit runny. Pour batter into a well gre...

I stumbled upon this Guinness Tea Loaf recipe from ' The Secret Tea Room'.  Not only does this loaf  taste soft and moist with only a slight tinge of stout, it's extremely easy to make.   I've tweaked the method a little and reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe.  Hope some of you may like to try it and I'll be glad to have your feedback! Recipe for Guinness  Tea Loaf   ( adapted from  The Secret Tea Room   with  modification) Ingredients 60 gm raisins, chopped 60 gm pitted dates, chopped 165 ml Guinness stout 1 egg lightly beaten 135 gm self-raising flour 100 gm light brown sugar Icing sugar (optional) Method Add Guinness stout to dried fruits, cover and leave overnight in the refrigerator. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in the sugar to mix well. Mix in the beaten egg followed by the Guinness and dried fruits.  Stir just to combine. Pour into...

Have you ever tried making cookies with booze?  I did, as I had all the ingredients at hand and moreover I was dying to get rid of the Guinness in my fridge.   No regrets when I was greeted with 'tipsy', chewy and aromatic cookies!

Of late, you must have noticed that I've quite a number of  'booze' posts in my blog.  Well, I was doing some cleaning up of my fridge not long ago and stumbled upon some cans of beer and stout lying idle in the cool comfort of the fridge.  Being a naive teetotaller I didn't realise that these booze do expire just like other foodstuff until I turned them over while rearranging them.  Gosh, they're going to expire in two months time and what am I going to do with them!  Fret not, I told myself, surf the net and that's exactly what I did ..........

Stone fruits were aplenty in Hawaii when I was there - nectarines, peaches, apricots, plums and cherries.  I jumped upon the opportunity to bake this Cherry Beer Cake  and was delighted that it was well received and everybody liked it.

More often than not this dish is served by either deepfrying the marinated spare ribs, grilling or barbecueing  them in your patio.  I prepared mine differently.  Marinated them with Oriental sauces  and chose an easy way out by cooking them in a pot, fuss-free!

G uinness stout beer bread .....My first attempt at baking with Guinness stout.  This is a no- yeast bread, very simple and quick to prepare.  It also saves a lot of time as being without yeast, there's no necessity for the dough to prove.  I made this all within 1.15 hrs.