Reduced Sugar Ovaltine & Dates Cake

Hello all hope you are all well!! So, after a sabbatical month of not blogging, here we are with a new recipe for you all. Apparently Ovaltine cake is a wartime classic here in Britain and here is our take on this cake recipe. I reduced the amount of sugar and increased the amount of dried fruit. I also used rice milk instead of dairy milk and the cake turned out surprisingly light. You can, of course, use cow's milk. It turned out so good and because it is not overly sweet I cheekily spread some proper butter on a slice of this tasty cake whilst it was still warm. Heaven!! The ingredients down here are for a small cake so feel free to double the amounts for a larger cake.  Give it a go...very easy to prepare. For a small cake you will need...

• 170g self-raising flour
• 40g caster sugar
• 70g chopped dried dates
• 3 tablespoons Ovaltine
• Pinch of salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 cup (240ml) rice milk (or cow's milk)

How to...

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C/350°F.
2. In a medium sized mixing bowl sieve the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, Ovaltine and sugar. Mix them well with a wooden spoon.
3. Add the chopped dates and rice milk and mix well until you get a runny batter.
4. Pour into a silicon mould or a lightly greased small loaf tin.
5. Bake into the preheated oven for 50 minutes.
6. Serve warm with or without butter.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Middle Eastern Pancakes with Dates

These pancakes are a bit different than usual as I decided to give them a Middle Eastern/Arabic touch by adding ingredients such as rose water, orange blossom water and also sweet spices such as aniseed and cardamom. I made these for breakfast, they were very filling and very very tasty and as an accompaniment I stewed some dates which added a lot of sweetness. Give them a go, they are a different delicious take on the classic pancakes. For 4-6 pancakes you will need...

• 1 cup (about 125 g) plain flour
• 1 cup (about 235 ml) whole milk
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• Pinch of salt
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 tsp orange blossom water
• ½ tsp rose water
• ¼ tsp ground aniseed
• ¼ tsp ground cardamom
• 100g chopped dates
• 2 tbsp water
• Small knob of butter

How to...

1. In a large bowl put all ingredients apart from the dates & 2 tbsp water and mix well until you get a smooth batter.
2. Grease a non stick pan with a knob of butter and spread across the pan with a piece of kitchen towel.
3. Heat up the pan on a medium heat until well hot, drain any excess butter.
4. Always on a medium heat, ladle the batter into the pan and leave to cook until the pancake starts producing bubbles on top. When the surface is bubbly and pancake looks set, flip the pancake and cook for a couple of seconds. Repeat until all batter is used.
5. Keep pancakes warm and in the meantime, prepare the dates by adding the dates and 2 tablespoons of water to the same pancake pan and warm enough until dates are soft and mushy.
6. Spoon the date mixture on the piled pancakes and serve warm!!

Enjoy!!

R&A

Baked Imqaret - Maltese Date Pastries

Imqaret are a very famous deep fried sweet Maltese treat. There used to be just one place where Maltese people used to buy them, "il-Gabbana ta' Bieb il-Belt' but later on they could easily be found at village feasts and local markets' mini-stalls. We missed them so much that we had to make our own. We chose to bake them and used already made pastry. If you want to make your own pastry it is quite easy to do and you can always deep fry them!! The deep frying method does give it a unique taste but in my opinion the taste is in the filling. The delicious orange blossom water that we Maltese have been using for ages, from curing a poorly tummy to creating delicious tasty sweet pastries and the use of aniseed give these pastries their unique taste. Try them out, they are exquisite!! We used only 250g dates but feel free to double the amount to make more. You will need...

• 250g dates, pitted and chopped
• 1-2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp grated orange zest
• 1 tsp orange flower water
• Pinch ground cloves
• ½ tsp ground aniseed
• 1 ready-made sheet shortcrust or sweet pastry
• Flour, for dusting

1. Start by blending all the ingredients, apart from the pastry obviously in a food processor. Add the water bit by bit, you do not want a very liquid mixture. Do leave the mixture a bit lumpy. Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
3. Dust your kitchen bench with flour and roll the pastry sheet, using a flour dusted rolling pin roll out the sheet so it becomes thinner. Cut into two long strips, put the mixture in the middle alongside the pastry strip leaving an inch on each so you can seal easily. Wet the edges with some water and cover with the other strip of pastry and seal well, packing the date mixture well. Slice into diamond shapes or slices (see picture) and bake into the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. 
4. Serve hot or cold.

Enjoy!!

R&A