Maple pecan fudge

Christmas is fast approaching and over the past few years I have started to make little homemade presents, either a few together as a gift or alongside something else.

I have already made rhubarb and ginger jam which I made last year. This year I have already made a variation too, clementine and lemon marmalade. I have also remade peanut brittle, recipe here.

I still have to make salted caramels dipped in chocolate, pink champagne marshmallows, spiced coconut  caramels, frostbite cookies and pesto. Phew, look out for those appearing on the blog in the next week or so!

One new recipe for this year, already made, is maple and pecan fudge. I had never made fudge before so was a little worried about how it would turn out. The recipe I followed was fantastic and the resulting fudge is creamy and  really deeply flavoured with maple syrup.

Maple pecan fudge (from bbc good food magazine)

150g golden caster sugar
300g maple syrup (I used the darker grade for a more intense flavour)
30g of golden syrup
150ml double cream
75ml whole milk
1 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 tsp sea salt
25g butter
100g pecans, roughly chopped

Grease the sides and base of a 8 inch square pan with some sort of vegetable oil and line with baking parchment. 

Combine all the ingredients except the butter and pecans in a large heavy based saucepan and cook gently over a medium heat, stirring frequently,  to dissolve the sugar.

Pop a sugar thermometer into the pan and bring the syrup to the boil. Continue to cook the syrup at a gentle boil until it reaches 114C/236F. The mix will have to be stirred frequently to prevent it catching on the base of the pan. This will take a while to get t the correct temperature, be patient. 

Take the pan from the heat and plunge the base into cold water to prevent the syrup from cooking further. Add the butter, give the fudge a gentle stir then scoop into a large mixing bowl. Leave to cool at room temperature for 20 minutes. Do not touch it! Not even a tiny taste, you will end up with grainy fudge. 

Using a wooden spoon beat the fudge for 3-4 minutes until it thickens and starts to lose its sheen. Add 3/4 of the pecans and then spoon the fudge into the prepared tin, spreading with a palette knife to create an even layer. Scatter the remaining pecans over the fudge pressing them in gently.

Leave to set overnight before using a nice sharp knife to cut into squares.

The recipe states these will keep for two weeks. I have wrapped each square tightly in clingfilm then put them in a thick cellophane bag. Hopefully the recipients will enjoy, I certainly enjoyed my quality control piece!

Dairy free, gluten free 'Candy bars'

Uh oh. Stomach pains are never good, so off the the doctor I went. Everything super bad ruled out. Current thinking is IBS triggered by excess dairy or maybe even a mild lactose intolerence.

I was not impressed. I appreciate many people live with this but it would mean a HUGE change in my baking habits. Then a glimmer of hope, I only have to give lactose up for two weeks to see if my symptoms completely disappear. After that I should be allowed a small amount (phew chocolate stays!), I reckon I can still bake the way I always did with maybe a few tweaks along the way.

However that does not help me for the coming weeks, no butter, milk, yoghurt, cream, sour cream, creme fraiche, caramel, chocolate, cheese etc.

I do have cake recipes that are oil based instead of dairy so that is a good option for cake. Its a little tricky should I want any sort of luscious creamy frosting. I reckon I could make a brownie that contained no butter too. What about biscuits? I am not a fan of margarine and have never made a biscuit with oil, research and experimentation required I think.

I actually decided I wanted some sort of nutty chocolate fix and stumbled across these 'Candy Bars' from Gwyneth Paltrow's book 'Its all good'. In a quick aside this book has received some stick, and while I do not think elimination diets and detoxes are necessary, and if I ignore some of the waffle about food we are 'all' allergic to, it actually has fantastic recipes, that are healthy, packed full of goodness and more importantly all the ones I have tried are packed full of flavour and super delicious.

Sorry for the waffle, back to the 'Candy Bars', they are not a candy bar in the traditional sense, these are no snickers, but they do taste fantastic. Nuts, maple syrup, sticky dates, and intense dark chocolate are a winning combination in my book!

Candy Bars (Gwyneth Paltrow, its all good)

200g plain cashews
240g dates, weighed without stones, roughly chopped
50g desiccated coconut
170g almond butter (If you cannot find almond butter this could work with peanut butter too)
125ml maple syrup
100g dark chocolate (I used green & blacks)

Line a small traybake tin with baking paper.

Put the cashews in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Add the dates, coconut, almond butter and maple syrup. Pulse until the mixture is combined and forms a ball of sticky dough. 

Transfer this dough to your prepared tin, press into all the corners and level with your hands. Slightly damp hands will stop the mixture sticking to you.

Put in the fridge for 5-6 hours to set. Once set gently melt the chocolate, pour on top, and gently spread out with a spatula to cover the whole surface. Put back into the fridge for and hour before cutting into bars and devouring. 

update: perhaps cut them before the chocolate has completely set otherwise it cracks

Keep in the fridge, they will keep for up to two weeks.

I think these taste really really good, they have texture, are just sweet enough and the dark chocolate gives a sophisticated edge.

Gwyneth says that they can also be stored in the freezer. I like them this way best but Mark likes them from the fridge. The chocolate from the freezer and the chew from the bar reminds me a little bit of a choc ice!

Sticky maple apple tray bake

Here is a yummy tray bake from The Great British Bake off book, 'How to Bake'. I needed something non chocolatey that would quell my cake craving, this little lovely does just that, and with all the apple in it I can  feel a little virtuous when eating it.

I made a few tweaks, the main being to the frosting. The book says to use cream cheese, I had no cream cheese but had mascarpone, which is just Italian cream cheese, right? The result is luscious and I am going to find a way to put this frosting on a cupcake so I can get more of it in each bite. I suspect that if conventional cream cheese were used to frosting would be tangier and perhaps a tad looser.

Sticky maple apple traybake (Adapted from the Great British Bake off)

For the cake

400g (prepared weight) bramley apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1cm cubes
1tsp mixed spice
2 tsp maple syrup
150ml groundnut oil
125g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
275g plain flour
2 large egg whites

For the frosting

75g butter
50g light brown sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
175g mascarpone cheese

Grease and line a traybake tin. I used my brownie tin and it worked just fine. Preheat the oven to  180C/160C FAN.

Prepare the apple and mix with the mixed spice and maple syrup, set aside. Whisk the ground nut oil, sugar and whole eggs until thick and mousse-like. Add the apple and combine. Add the flour and fold in with a metal spoon. 

Whisk the two egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add a third of the whisked egg whites to the cake batter bowl and fold in with a metal spoon. Add the remaining egg white a third at a time and gently fold in. 

Tip the batter into the prepared tin and level with a spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes then, using the lining paper to help, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the mascarpone cheese and maple syrup and beat to combine. Spread over the cooled cake and cut into generous chunks. 

Spelt, orange and maple biscuits

These are one tough cookie! Not to eat, I would not give you a tough biscuit recipe to make, but I personally found them tricky to make, especially as I was expecting them to be simple and quick to do.

The recipe states that once the dough is brought together to chill it for 30 minutes and then roll it out. Mine did not roll. It crumbled. Only the heat of my hands would bring it together enough to stamp out. Although I measured everything I suspect maybe my dough was a little dry and maybe a splash more orange juice and oil would have solved the problem.

Once they were baked however these biscuits held together perfectly well. They are good biscuits for those who do not have a sweet tooth, or for those of us that do but fancy a change, they do not contain much sugar and the main flavour comes from the orange and the nuttiness of the spelt four.

Spelt, orange and maple biscuits (slightly adapted from Biscuit by Miranda Gore Browne)

250g wholemeal spelt flour
50g oats
60ml olive oil
50g caster sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
zest and juice of 1 orange

Mix the flour and oats together in a bowl. Mix the remaining ingredients together and then add to the bowl, mix until a dough comes together. If it is a little dry maybe try a smidge more oil/juice. Divide the dough into two and shape into a flattish disk. Wrap in clingflim and chill for at least 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN and line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Take your dough and roll it to about 3 cm thick and using a cutter of your choice cut out biscuits. I had problems rolling and ended up kind of squishing my dough out. 

Place the cut out biscuits onto the prepared baking sheets and bake in the preheated oven for ~10 minutes until lightly golden. Transfer the biscuits to a wire rack and allow to cool. 

I kept them in an airtight tin and thought that after day 3 they were past there best, M thought no such thing however and polished off the remaining few on day four!

I really like spelt flour at the moment and plan on trying it in a few more bakes soon

Maple, raspberry and orange cupcakes

Hmmm I do like chocolate but it has come to my attention that out of my last 5 posts 4 contain chocolate, and the fifth was a savoury bake! I am sure this is just coincidence with various blogging challenges and celebration bakes resulting in more chocolate than usual!

Still it was my aim to make something a little less rich and a bit more fruity. I had a little think and adapted a love bakery recipe I liked the sound of. The book has a 'breakfast' cupcake that is flavoured with honey and topped with greek yoghurt frosting.

I flavoured my cupcake with maple syrup, filled it with cooked raspberries and while I did use a greek yoghurt frosting I spiked it with orange zest.

Maple, raspberry and orange cupcakes


makes 12


For the cakes


125g butter
125g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 eggs, room temperature
125g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsps milk


For the filling


120g raspberries
20g raspberry jam


For the frosting


50g butter
60g greek yoghurt
350g icing sugar
zest of one orange
handful of oats 


Preheat the oven to 180C/160 FAN and line a cupcake pan with 12 cases.


Using a handheld or free-standing electric whisk, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla paste and maple syrup together until very light and fluffy (up to 5 minutes). Add the eggs and beat for a further two minutes, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the flour and baking powder to the bowl and beat until fully incorporated, scrape down the bowl again. Add the milk and beat for a further minute.

Fill the cases 2/3 full, I used an ice cream scoop for easy filling. Bake the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch. Note the maple syrup does result in them colouring a little more than other cupcakes but all is fine. When done cool the cupcakes on a wire rack.


While the cupcakes are in the oven pop the raspberries and jam in a small saucepan with a teaspoon of water. Cook gently until the raspberries have mainly broken down. Leave to cool. As this mix cools it will thicken. 


When the cupcakes are completely cool cut a cone out of each of them. Fill the cavity with the cooled raspberry mixture and place the cone back on top. The cone will have to be trimmed to fit back in, and YOU, the baker, can nibble these off cuts as a bakers treat!

For the frosting beat together the butter, greek yoghurt and orange zest, continue beating and add in the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time. Do not panic it will get soupy initially, just keep going. 


Now if you want to pipe your frosting you will have to keep it in the fridge for at least an hour, I tried piping mine straight away and my beautiful spirals did not stay. 

Dry toast a handful of oats in a pan, keep an eye on them they can burn quickly, scatter the toasted oats over the frosting and you are done!

Thanks to the raspberry and orange these cupcakes are not overly sweet, and the cake itself has a lovely flavour. Just the cupcake for the sunny days that have finally arrived!