Hasselback Fondue Potato Bake #BakingBloggers

There are two stars of this recipe for hasselback fondue potato bake: First up are the new potatoes, sliced and roasted, opening up nicely so star number two, the cheese, can melt right inside. The finishing touches of wine and cream, not to mention quick pickled onions, make this dish one you’ll cook again and again.

Here I am channeling Nigella again. (Did you see the almond clementine cake in my last post? So good!) I think it is something to do with the weather turning just a bit cooler and I am motivated to share warming recipes. My apologies to everyone who is still in Indian summer mode, but it’s getting chilly here in the Channel Islands. We aren’t turning the heat on yet but I am certainly enjoying having the oven on in the kitchen again.

The first time I ever heard of hasselback potatoes was on one of Nigella’s shows, probably 10 years ago, and instantly they became one of my favorite dishes. Because who doesn’t love a roast potato that opens up for more butter and/or gravy? No one, that’s who.

Hasselback Fondue Potatoes

This recipe is adapted from one on the .delicious magazine website called hasselback potato bake.  It is described as “a love affair between crisp, roast potatoes and melted cheese – more specifically fondue.” Theirs also called for kirsch, which I know can be a traditional addition to fondue but I am not a fan. Add a sprinkle with the cream and wine if you are.

Ingredients
1 small purple onion, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Pinch sugar
Pinch salt
1 1/2 pounds or 680g new potatoes, scrubbed clean
1/4 cup or 57g butter, melted, plus extra for the baking pan
6 bay leaves
1/2 garlic bulb, halved horizontally
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
8 3/4 oz or 250g mature cheddar (or your favorite mix of flavorful cheeses)
1/3 cup or 78ml whipping cream
1/3 cup or 78ml dry white wine

Note: Substitute your favorite cheese for this dish. I used primarily a Welsh cheddar with garlic and herbs, called Green Thunder, plus really sharp extra mature cheddar to make up my required amount.

Method
Put the sliced onion in a small bowl. Pour the vinegar over the onion and add the pinches of salt and sugar and stir. Set aside to marinate.

Grate your cheese/s. If using more than one kind, mix them together now.

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and prepare your baking pan or casserole dish by greasing it with a little butter. Choose a vessel that fits your potatoes fairly snugly so they will stay cut side up without rolling around.

Rest each potato on a wooden spoon and cut slices all the way across, just down to the spoon.

Arrange the potatoes in the buttered pan. Use a pastry brush to coat them with half of the melted butter. Tuck the bay leaves and garlic in between the potatoes and sprinkle the whole dish with fine sea salt and a few generous grinds of black pepper.

Roast the potatoes in your preheated oven for about 30-35 minute, or until they are golden and almost cooked through. (Poke them with a fork to check.)

Baste the potatoes with the remaining butter and return the pan to the oven for another 15 minutes. The slits of the hasselback potatoes should really be opening up now, ready to absorb the delicious cheese, cream and wine that are coming!

Remove the baking pan from the oven and sprinkle on half of the grated cheese. Pour half of the wine over the potatoes, followed by half of the cream.

Set aside a few slivers of the pickled onion and scatter half of the balance on top of the cheese.

Follow this with the rest of the cheese, wine and cream, then top with the second half of the pickled onion.

Bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted and the whole dish is bubbling. If the cheese isn’t browned enough, you can turn the broiler on for a few minutes but do not step away, if you do. Cheese can burn quickly!

Top with the few reserved slivers of onion to serve, for a last pop of color and freshness.

Enjoy!

This month my Baking Blogger friends are sharing their favorite recipes with potatoes. Many thanks to our host Sue of Palatable Pastime for her behind the scenes work and this delicious theme. Check out all the tasty potato recipes below.

• Baked Cajun Potatoes by Anybody Can Bake
• Baked Potato Skins with Paneer and Veggies by Cook with Renu
• Easy Savory Sweet Potato Muffins by Recipe Pocket
• Egyptian Sanyet el Batates by Pandemonium Noshery
• Hasselback Fondue Potato Bake by Food Lust People Love
• Individual Quiches with Potato Crust by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Italian Potato Cake (Gattò di Patate) by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Oven Roasted Garlic Potatoes by Palatable Pastime
• Roasted Befteki and Potatoes by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Salsa Potato Stacks In Muffin Pan by Sneha's Recipe
• Wizarding World Roasted Potatoes by Simply Inspired Meals

Baking Bloggers is a friendly group of food bloggers who vote on a shared theme and then post recipes to fit that theme one the second Monday of each month. If you are a food blogger interested in joining in, inquire at our Baking Bloggers Facebook group. We'd be honored if you would join us in our baking adventures.

Pin this Hasselback Fondue Potato Bake!

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Almond Clementine Cake Squares #FoodieExtravaganza

Super easy to make, the rich batter for these almond clementine cake squares is whipped up in a food processor with long simmered clementines, which you don’t even peel. I’ve been making versions of this cake for years with great success. As long as your guests like orange marmalade and almonds, they are going to be huge fans, I promise.

Early last year a good friend and neighbor was traveling so she asked me to unlock her door for guests that were going to arrive at her home before she returned. She had prepared and frozen a lovely beef stew for them to reheat and popped it in the freezer. My other task was to put the stew in the refrigerator so it could thaw in time for their dinner.

I decided that such a wonderful beef stew also deserved an equally flavorful dessert. It was a winter day, chilly by Dubai standards, but my home was warm and the fragrant aroma of sweet orange hung in the air as my clementines cooked, and again, as the cake rose puffy and golden in the oven. Honestly, there is something therapeutic about baking this cake, perhaps it was channeling my inner Nigella.

Isn’t it wonderful when one can do a good deed and reap benefits as well?

Clementine Almond Cake Squares

This recipe is adapted from Nigella Lawson’s very first book, How to Eat, the Pleasures and Principles of Good Food, originally published in 1998. It is naturally gluten-free as long as you take care that your baking powder is gluten-free, of course.

Ingredients
8-10 tiny thin skinned clementines (about 1 lb 4 1/4oz or 575g total weight)
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cup or 300g sugar
3 cups or 320g ground almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional to serve: powdered sugar

Method
Cover the clementines with cool water in a large pot and bring them to the boil. Lower the fire until the water is at a very low rolling boil and cook for two hours. Check the water level occasionally and add more water to keep them covered, as needed during the cooking.

Drain the pot and set the clementines aside to cool. Once they are cool enough to handle, discard the stem stubs, cut the clementines in half around their equators and remove any seeds.

Puree the clementines in a food processor, peels and all, until smooth.

Note: The clementines can also be cooked a day or two ahead of baking. Once the clementines are cool, put them in a airtight container and refrigerate them until you are ready to bake, then follow instructions to remove the seeds, etc. and carry on with the rest of the recipe.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 13x 9 in or 33 x 23cm pan by lining it with baking parchment. Set aside.

Add the almond flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to the food processor and blitz for a minute or so until completely combined.

Add the eggs and blitz again until you have a homogeneous batter.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes in the preheated oven or until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Check the color of the cake as it bakes and cover it with foil if it starts browning too much before it is cooked through.

Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then slide it out of the pan using the parchment and leave it on the wire rack to cool completely.

This cake needs nothing more but it is pretty with a light sprinkling of powdered sugar. Cut into squares to serve as dessert or, indeed, with a cup of afternoon tea.

Enjoy!

This month my Foodie Extravaganza friends are wishing happy birthday to Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, the creator of afternoon tea. Our host is Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla. She wrote, "Let's celebrate with anything afternoon tea-related. It can be your favorite tea, something made with tea, or something that you would eat at a tea party." Check out all the wonderful recipes we are sharing:

• Almond Clementine Cake Squares by Food Lust People Love
• Assorted Tea Sandwiches for Afternoon Tea by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cherry Almond Scones by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Gourmet Fruit and Nut Crisps by Palatable Pastime
• Hawaij Coffee Scones by Caroline's Cooking
• Meat Pan Rolls by Sneha's Recipe
• Prickly Pear Lemon Curd by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Pumpkin Cranberry Scones by Simply Inspired Meals

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month.

Posting day for #FoodieExtravaganza is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board.

Pin these Almond Clementine Cake Squares!

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Rum Raisin Banana Muffins #MuffinMonday

An adult-only snack with a taste of the Caribbean, these rum raisin banana muffins are a tasty celebration of summer, sun and a beach holiday down the islands.

When I was little we lived for three years on the island of Trinidad, not far off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea. On holiday weekends, it was a treat to be invited to go “down de islands” to stay with friends who had holiday homes there. “De islands” are the Bocas Islands which lie between Trinidad and Venezuela in a series of straits called the Bocas del Dragón or Dragon’s Mouth.

I remember those holidays as care- and mostly clothes-free. The houses were fairly basic and everything you were going to eat or drink had to be brought with you by boat. But down de islands, everyone was in a party mood and rum punch flowed freely for the adult crowd.

A favorite dessert in those days was homemade rum raisin ice cream. Even children were allowed to eat it! It’s a great flavor combination and banana is a welcome addition.

Rum Raisin Banana Muffins

Make these adult-only muffins child-friendly by replacing the rum with apple or your favorite natural juice.

Ingredients
3/4 cup or 115g seedless raisins
1/3 cup or 78ml golden rum
2 cups or 250g plain flour
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil
1 large egg

Method
Soak the raisins in the rum, turning them with a spoon occasionally so the top ones also have a chance of soaking up some rum. I find that this goes faster if you warm the raisins and rum. Either way, set the bowl aside until the raisins have plumped up a little. Not all of the rum will be absorbed.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by lining it with paper muffin cups.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another smaller bowl, mash the banana with a fork. Add in the milk, oil and egg and whisk to combine.

Drain any unabsorbed rum into the bowl and whisk again.

Tip the drained raisins into the flour bowl and stir to coat them.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl and fold together until just combined.

Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden and a wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Leave to cool for a few minutes in the pan then remove to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Check out the other lovely muffins my Muffin Monday group is sharing today!

• Apple Cinnamon Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Blueberry Muffins with Blueberry Jam & Lemon Sugar Topping from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Chocolate Chip Sourdough Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Rum Raisin Banana Muffins from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

Pin these Rum Raisin Banana Muffins! 

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