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igenlodeMade a third or fourth attempt at the eggless apple cake recipe using the last of the frozen windfalls I gathered earlier in the year. (The eggs that should have been delivered today weren't!)
Looking at the pictures posted I have to say that my results were nothing whatsoever like his -- I eventually worked out that part of the problem was that he was using a 240ml 'cup' whereas the cup markings on my jugs simply assume that 'one cup' equates to half a pint, but I still don't see how he can have such a very runny cake batter and yet have it cook so quickly. My first attempt was nowhere near cooked through. After cutting down all the liquids and using brown flour to soak up more moisture I ended up with a pretty stiff mixture this time round, and there was certainly no question of 'pouring' it anywhere. It still took 40 minutes instead of 25-30 minutes to cook, but that was an improvement on earlier attempts.
In any case I totally messed up the recipe directions, adding the flour first instead of at the end and then having to turn the lump of mixture out of the lined tin at the last minute in order to stir in the sugar I'd accidentally missed out! (At which point I was exceedingly grateful it was so stiff...) The belated sugar addition did give the finished cake a nice crunchy surface.
I slogged through the stages of the crushed beets with lemon vinaigrette simply in order to have some way of using up the labneh. I didn't have any dill, so I added sage (supposed to be good with greasy meats) and the last shreds of the dying basil. And since I really didn't see how one was supposed to dine on a single beetroot, however crushed, I served it on a bed of couscous and spinach leaves and dressed the whole with the lemon vinaigrette.
It was all right, but it certainly wasn't worth the effort of roasting the beetroot one day and then labouring to peel it and then frying it the next day while grating and juicing a half-lemon. Judging by the recipe reviews, it seems to be recommended as a way of serving beets to people who don't like them; I do.
And I didn't particularly like the labneh as an accompaniment. It was pretty sour.
Looking at the pictures posted I have to say that my results were nothing whatsoever like his -- I eventually worked out that part of the problem was that he was using a 240ml 'cup' whereas the cup markings on my jugs simply assume that 'one cup' equates to half a pint, but I still don't see how he can have such a very runny cake batter and yet have it cook so quickly. My first attempt was nowhere near cooked through. After cutting down all the liquids and using brown flour to soak up more moisture I ended up with a pretty stiff mixture this time round, and there was certainly no question of 'pouring' it anywhere. It still took 40 minutes instead of 25-30 minutes to cook, but that was an improvement on earlier attempts.
In any case I totally messed up the recipe directions, adding the flour first instead of at the end and then having to turn the lump of mixture out of the lined tin at the last minute in order to stir in the sugar I'd accidentally missed out! (At which point I was exceedingly grateful it was so stiff...) The belated sugar addition did give the finished cake a nice crunchy surface.
I slogged through the stages of the crushed beets with lemon vinaigrette simply in order to have some way of using up the labneh. I didn't have any dill, so I added sage (supposed to be good with greasy meats) and the last shreds of the dying basil. And since I really didn't see how one was supposed to dine on a single beetroot, however crushed, I served it on a bed of couscous and spinach leaves and dressed the whole with the lemon vinaigrette.
It was all right, but it certainly wasn't worth the effort of roasting the beetroot one day and then labouring to peel it and then frying it the next day while grating and juicing a half-lemon. Judging by the recipe reviews, it seems to be recommended as a way of serving beets to people who don't like them; I do.
And I didn't particularly like the labneh as an accompaniment. It was pretty sour.
