ultimate dunkable carrot biscuit

Carrots - Bugs Bunny’s favourite food hardly needs an introduction as it is well known by even the smallest child. The health benefits of carrots are also legendary. Many of us have been told that eating carrots would keep your eyesight bright and allow you to see better in the dark.

Carrots belong to the Umbelliferae family, named after the umbrella like flower clusters that plants in this family produce. Carrots are related to other vegetables such as parsnips and fennel; and herbs such as caraway, cumin and dill. The carrot is a plant with a thick and fleshy root. It grows underground and has feathery fern like green leaves that emerge above ground making it easy for one to pull out with ease. There are over 100 different varieties of carrots that vary in size, flavour and colour. While we usually associate carrots with the colour orange, in fact, carrots grow in various colours including white, yellow, red and purple, the latter being the original colour. This year I have grown: Kuttiger; Autumn King; Baby; Chatenay, Rainbow, Yellowstone, Purple Haze and Resistafly.

Over the past few months I have eaten carrots in a variety of ways: simply shredded raw in salads, as a nutritious soup, as crudités and even in recipes such as mosaic carrot and green bean pie, courgette, baby carrot and mint flan, carrot and runner bean flan, and even a rainbow carrot cake, some of which I would encourage you to try. This time however, I decided to make some biscuits with a purple haze carrot (which was orange on the inside), as well as turn them into carrot shapes. Well how else was I going to get your attention?! I think even Bugs Bunny would approve!
I am submitting these to Weekend Herb Blogging#208 or WHB as it is fondly known by. The weekly event was originally founded by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen and now coordinated by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything. Haalo is also our host this week. This week there 's a bit of difference too as Weekend Herb Blogging celebrates its 4th birthday (Hip hip hooray) and with that it gets a brand new logo, which I will soon be showcasing in my sidebar. I am so grateful to WHB as it gives me the opportunity to showcase my food made with my home-grown produce. Thank you WHB.
So why carrot shapes, some of you may be asking or maybe not, but I am going to tell you anyway. I am not a tweeter, my life is pretty uneventful to sign up to that, plus I can barely text (really). But I do like reading other food blogs, bloggers comments and exchanging ideas. It was a comment by a fellow blogger on my lavender scones, that prompted me to make squash scones in the shape of pumpkins, which then made me think even more creatively when I came to make these carrot biscuits, hence the carrot shape (made without a cookie cutter). I do enjoy reading your comments, so please do continue share your thoughts and inspire.

Apple and Carrot Biscuits

Makes about 12 - 16

Ingredients

225g plain flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

150g unsalted butter

100g golden caster sugar

50g carrots, grated (I used purple haze)

25g eating apple, grated (I used British Spartan)

Method

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the grated carrot and apple into the flour mixture, then fold into the creamed butter. Knead to a soft dough. Rest for half an hour in the fridge. When you are ready to cook the biscuits, roll out into 1/2 thick and mark into wedges or use a cookie cutter. Fork over the dough and bake on a non-stick surface for about 15 minutes. Leave to cool before cutting.

I have seen various carrot and apple shortbread recipes recently, but I originally came across this culinary combination a few good years ago in Tamasin Day-Lewis (yes Daniel Day-Lewis’s sister) cook book Good Tempered Food on which my recipe is based. These were not so much as shortbread, but more biscuity and crumbly nonetheless.

Ancho chilli kickin' beans

November in the UK brings the Anniversary of the unsuccessful Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Whether you celebrate Guy Fawkes’ Night with fireworks or not, it’s a good time to have a bonfire to clear up the garden; or the allotment plot, and enjoy some belly warming soup. So this is my homely contribution: Pinto bean soup made with a ancho chilli pepper.
A few months ago, my oldest nephew was up for the weekend. He always brings me something, and it is often food related. This time it was three packets of dried Mexican chillies: habernero, chipotle and ancho. Although I was familiar with all, I had never actually cooked with ancho chillies before, so was curious to try it and the best way to was to make some soup. The ancho chilli pepper added a mellow sweetness with a subtle chilli kick.

Pinto Bean Soup with Ancho chilli pepper
2 cups pinto beans*
2 onions finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons of sunflower or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 Ancho chilli
Sea salt
Chopped fresh coriander leaves for garnish.
Optional: to serve with soured cream or grated cheddar cheese
Method
Soak the beans overnight, then wash and boil until tender. Drain and set aside. *I don’t have a pressure cooker, so I have to cook the dried pinto beans the traditional way. You can also use tinned pinto beans, I often do.

Heat oil in a large pot and add onion, garlic, spices and dried chilli. Cook until onions are translucent. Then add the cooked pinto beans to the pot, along with 2 ½ pints of water and 1 ½ teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and allow to simmer for 45 minutes. Blend half of the beans and the chilli pepper until smooth and return to the pot. Taste for seasoning, garnish with coriander leaves and serve. Adapted from Deborah Madisons’s Vegetable Soups.

Two Tone raspberry cakes

I picked the last of the autumn raspberries on Sunday. These canes had only been transplanted to plot 45 early in the year, so had not yet established properly as the raspberries on them were flavourless, unlike those I had growing at plot 11
So instead of eating these fresh, I decided to make these two tone raspberry cakes based on the Double chocolate and raspberry cakes I made a month or so ago.

These little heart shaped cuties are much lighter. They did not last long, as D gobbled 4 in one go.

Two tone raspberry cakes
Make 8 - 10 individual portions
Ingredients
175g self raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

175g caster sugar

175g butter, at room temperature

3 organic, free range eggs, beaten

50g white chocolate chips or chunks, chopped into pieces
2 tbsp cocoa powder
100g fresh raspberries

Method

Heat oven to 180C. Grease a 8 - 10 holes of a muffin tin. Sieve flour and baking powder into a bowl, and stir in sugar. Blend the butter until soft, then add the eggs and beat or whisk together until the mixture is light. Then divide mixture into two bowls. In one bowl gently fold in the white chocolate. In the other bowls, sift in the cocoa powder and stir to combine, then gently fold in the raspberries. Spoon the mixtures one by one and evenly into the muffin tin, alternating the colours if you wish. Don’t overfill as the cakes will rise. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, remove (you may need to use a palette knife) and leave to cool completely.