Pink Lady and Walnut Muffins #MuffinMonday #glutenfree

Walnuts and beautiful Pink Lady apple chunks bake up lovely in gluten-free muffins for the perfect breakfast or snack. 

This week I am blessed to be staying at a dear friend’s house in London. We’ve settled my younger daughter in her temporary housing for her summer internship, with a new sim card for her phone and some essential toiletries. Hard goodbyes were made easier by plans to meet again for dinner later in the week. So now it’s time to play. We are off today on the train to Brighton to visit my friend’s daughter and treat her to lunch. Since it’s Muffin Monday, we decided to make some muffins to take along for the trip.

Ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1 cup or 240ml buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups or 240g gluten-free flour blend (I used Dove’s Farm.)
1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup or 60g walnuts, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large Pink Lady apple
2 tablespoon brown sugar for topping, optional

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease your muffin tin or line it with paper liners.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, canola and vanilla extract.

Peel, core then chop the apple.

Aren't the Pink Ladies just the most beautiful apples?

Add it immediately to the egg/buttermilk mixture, stirring well to make sure all the little pieces of the apple are covered so they don’t turn brown.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, xanthum gum, sugar, baking powder, baking powder, walnuts and salt.

Pour your wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them together until just mixed.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and top each with a sprinkle of brown sugar, if desired.

Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a rack for a few minutes and then remove the muffins to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Jacques’ Cucumber Salad (but) with Onions

Cucumber salad, made Jacques Pepin’s way, stays crunchy for several days, making it a great make-ahead contribution for your next potluck or barbecue party. You’ll want to double or even quadruple this recipe for a crowd. 

This week Sunday Supper is going to a barbecue party and bringing along everything you need from drinks to salads to ribs (You gotta have the ribs!) to make it just perfect. I love a fresh dish, but sometimes time does not allow for in-the-moment creations. That’s where Jacques Pépin and his cucumber salad come to the rescue. In the chef’s own words, “The salt, you will discover, draws the juices from the cucumbers, making them limp, and, paradoxically, very crisp at the same time. Prepared this way, the cucumbers will stay crisp for several days.” And so they do.

Many thanks to our hosts today, Jennie from The Messy Baker and Melanie from Melanie Makes! This recipe is adapted from Jacques Pépin's Complete Techniques.

Ingredients
4 cucumbers – weight 1 1/3 lbs or 585g
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt – I used sel gris.
1/2 small purple onion – about 2 oz or 55g
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons sour cream
Freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon peanut oil

Jacques’ ingredient list calls for three cucumbers, which he says will give you five cups sliced. I got two cups out of my four cucumbers so I don’t know where we went wrong but I reduced the rest of the ingredients proportionally to fit what I had. After all, you can’t salt two cups of cucumbers with the same salt that’s meant for five!

See? His aren't bigger than average. 

Method
Peel your cucumbers and cut them in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon.

Cut them into slices about a 1/4 inch or 1/2cm wide.

Pop them into a colander, over a bowl to catch the juice. Sprinkle the cucumbers with salt and mix well. Allow to drain for at least an hour but preferably two, at room temperature.

Meanwhile, slice your half onion as thinly as you can manage and soak the slices in a small bowl in the lemon juice. Stir it occasionally as it sits.

When the time is up for the cucumbers, rinse them thoroughly under cold water and then press them lightly to get rid of excess water.

I laid them out briefly on some paper towels.

Mix the sour cream and the peanut oil into the lemon juice and onions, along with a good few grinds of fresh peppercorn.

Pour this mixture over the cucumbers and stir.

Jacques says more salt won’t be necessary and he is absolutely right. Because of the sour cream, refrigerate this salad if not eating immediately.

Enjoy!

Are you looking for more barbecue party recipes? Sunday Supper’s got you covered!

Beverages

• Best Wines For A Summer BBQ Party from ENOFYLZ Wine Blog
• Grilled Peach and Cinnamon Whiskey Sour from Peaceful Cooking
• How To Make Fresh Squeezed Lemonade from Life Tastes Good
• Pineapple Margaritas from The Messy Baker
• Stone Fruit Sangria from Because I Like Chocolate
• Strawberry Lemonade from Basic N Delicious

Appetizers

• BBQ Stuffed Calimari from Jane's Adventure in Dinner

Sides and Accompaniments

• Cucumber Salad with Blackberry Browned Butter Vinaigrette from Nik Snacks
• Easy Fruity Salad from Hot Momma's Kitchen Chaos
• Grilled Corn on the Cob with Lime Butter from The Redhead Baker
• Jacques' Cucumber Salad with Onions from Food Lust People Love
• Mango Peanut Slaw from The Texan New Yorker
• Mom's Classic Macaroni Salad from Webicurean
• Roasted Strawberry BBQ Sauce from Bobby's Kozy Kitchen
• Two Tomato Chutney from What Smells So Good?

Main Dishes

• Asian-Style Pasta with Gochujang Peanut Sauce from Wallflour Girl
• Barbecue Ribs from girlichef
• BBQ Stuffed Peppers from Small Wallet, Big Appetite
• Bistecca from Confessions of a Culinary Diva
• Competition Baby Back Ribs with Apple-Bourbon Barbecue Sauce from Crazy Foodie Stunts
• Grilled Cedar Plank Salmon from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Grilled Clams with Chorizo from Noshing With The Nolands
• Grilled Sanma from A Mama, Baby & Shar-pei in the Kitchen
• Grilled Shrimp with Lemon Basil from Nosh My Way
• Grilled Swordfish and Eggplant with Fusilli and Tomatoes from Cooking Chat
• Grilled Wings from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Lemon Oregano Spatchcock Chicken from Kudos Kitchen by Renee
• Mango Beef Kebabs from Curious Cuisiniere
• Steak Skewers with Chimichurri from Jelly Toast
• Sweet and Tangy Blueberry BBQ Chicken Pizza from Simply Gourmet

Desserts

• Amazing S'mores 7-Layer Bars from Flavor Mosaic
• Banana Pudding Pie from A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• Blackberry Cake from Peanut Butter and Peppers
• Blueberry and Raspberry Galette from Rhubarb and Honey
• Farm Stand Blackberry Buckle from The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Grilled Peach Crumble from Try Anything Once Culinary
• Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cream and Sweet Balsamic Syrup from La Bella Vita Cucina
• Hot Fudge Ice Cream Pie from Melanie Makes
• Lemon Ricotta Bars from The Foodie Army Wife
• Old Fashioned Sour Cherry Pie from Pies and Plots
• Pineapple Upside Down Cake from Take A Bite Out of Boca
• S'mores Chocolate Cookie Cups from Cupcakes & Kale Chips

Upside-down Apricot Butter Bundt #BundtBakers

Baking an upside-down cake in a Bundt pan is not for the fainthearted. But with lots of butter in the caramel and in the batter, it can be done! 

This month the Bundt Bakers are celebrating stone fruit. Things like peaches, apricots and plums or cherries and nectarines, in fact anything with a hard stone or pit in the middle, so even avocados would qualify. This great theme was chosen by Felice of All That’s Left are the Crumbs but unfortunately, she was unable to host this month, so I’ve stepped in. We miss you, Felice, and are all wishing you well!

We can get beautiful apricots here in Dubai, but they aren’t the sweetest so I decided to use canned ones for the cake. If you have sweet fresh apricots, by all means, substitute. The cake batter is a simple buttery pound cake, spooned into the caramelized sugar Jamie Oliver uses for his apricot tarte tatin, which is one of my favorite desserts to make. Although I usually leave the pistachios off. Must share that one soon too.

Ingredients
For the cake:
1 pound or 450g unsalted butter, plus more for pan
1 pound or 450g sugar
5 eggs
3 cups or 375g all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup or 240ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the “upside down” caramelized apricots:
3 1/2 oz or 100g sugar
2 tablespoons water
5 tablespoons or 1/3 cup or 70g unsalted butter, diced
1 can (14 1/2 oz or 410g) apricots in syrup, well drained

Method
In a small skillet, cook your sugar and water over a low to medium heat until it starts to brown. Watch it carefully the whole time! You do not want this to burn, just to caramelize. When it gets a nice medium brown, take the skillet off the stove and add in the butter.

Stir vigorously but don’t splash yourself! That stuff is hot.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and butter and flour your Bundt pan thoroughly.

Mix your flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside.

With a mixer, cream butter and sugar together in another bowl. Add the eggs to the creamed butter, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

First egg and fluffy butter creamed with sugar

By the time the last egg goes in, it may look a little curdled but don't that alarm you. Now add the dry ingredients alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour, mixing well after each addition.

Mix in the vanilla extract.

Pour your caramelized sugar and butter mixture into the prepared Bundt pan.  If it has started to harden up, you can warm it again very gently - just until it will pour - but you don't want it too hot.

That's a lot of butter in there. No way this can stick! Just keep repeating that.

Gently lay the drained apricots, round side down, in the caramel.

Spoon the batter carefully into the pan, first on top of the apricots so they stay down and then all around them. Keep spooning the batter until it is all in the pan. If you pour, you risk dislodging the apricots.

Smooth out the top and bake for 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you are a thermometer-using type, according the King Arthur Flour website, the internal temperature should be about 200°F or 93°C when a pound cake is done.

It looks a bit funny around the edges because the caramel bubbled up as it baked.
You can still see a little caramel there on the right. It soaks into the cake as it starts to cool.

Cool on a wire rack for at least 10-15 minutes before turning out. I wouldn’t leave it any longer though because you don’t want the caramelized sugar to harden again and stick to the pan. There is no sound more beautiful to a Bundt baker than that gentle thud of a cake turning loose.

Enjoy!

Do you love baking with stone fruit? We’ve got a great bunch of recipes for you this month!

• All-American Chocolate Cherry Pie Cake from Lauren at So You Think You Can Cook
• Black Forest Bundt Cake with Cherry Ganache Topping from Teri at The Freshman Cook 
• Caramel Mango Bundt Cake from Bea at Secrets from My Apron
• Cherry Almond Ginger Bundt from Jane at Jane’s Adventures in Dinner 
• Cherry Carrot & Banana Bundt from Kelly at Passion Kneaded 
• Cherry Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake from Renee at Magnolia Days 
• Chocolate Avocado Bundt Cake from Terri at Love and Confections 
• Cinnamon Peach Bundt Cake from Bea and Mara at I Love Bundts 
• Peaches n Cream Melba Bundt Cake from Laura at Baking in Pyjamas 
• Peachy Bundt from Margaret at Tea and Scones 
• Plum, Chocolate and Orange Bundt Cake by Maria at Box of Stolen Socks 
• Roasted Cherry Kugelhopf with Cherry Bourbon Glaze by Tux from Brooklyn Homemaker
• Upside-down Apricot Butter Bundt from Stacy at Food Lust People Love

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme.  Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send me an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove @ gmail.com.