Baked Beans - Bill Granger

In an effort to have bigger and more filling breakfasts, we've been buying more baked beans. But really, making your own beans is really easy, you know exactly what goes into it and you can put some extras in that you really like! I've made baked beans before, for my Breakfast with Benefits , and they went down really well - so I thought I'd give it another go! I saw the recipe in Bill Grangers book "Everyday" and the ingredients looked delicious, so that's the recipe I followed. I realised when making it I only had one can of cannellini beans - so I used a can of chick peas instead. It's still really delicious.

I'd love you to try these, they're delicious and what an amazing start to the day, if you have a chunky piece of good sourdough, a poached egg, and these beans poured over top! A hearty breakfast like that will set you up for the day, and will make you a morning person!

Serves 6
Ingredients


1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
100g pancetta, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 anchovies, chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp dried oregano
400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 x tins cannellini beans, rinsed
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper


Method


1) Preheat the oven to 160C
2) Heat the olive oil in a large flame proof casserole dish over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring for 5-6 minutes until the onion is soft.
3) Add the pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until slightly crisp.
4) Add the garlic, anchovies, thyme, and oregano and cook, stirring for another minute.
5) Add the tomatoes, 1/2 cup of water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
6) Stir in the beans, put a lid on the casserole dish and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Spiced apple muffins

I realised at about 7pm that I was meant to bring something to school tomorrow for morning tea... We spent the day out, checking out Sculptures by the Sea at Cottesloe, wandering Fremantle buying books, and then having tapas at Duende for dinner. I really couldn't be bothered, but I had pretty much everything I needed to bake, and it was better than leaving the house again to buy something. And really, homemade is so much better... I know there will be a spread of last minute shop bought cakes, party pies and chips/dip. I'm totally ok with the party pies though.


I had a quick look through my cookbooks and found a Bill Granger recipe for crunchy topped pear muffins which looked easy and I had all the ingredients. Cept for the pears, cinnamon, pecans and yoghurt.... Its ok, I subbed apples, allspice, slivered almonds and milk. They turned out pretty great! They're the kinda bake that tastes a lot better the next day, as I ate one when it was still pretty hot and I wasn't impressed. An hour later, I ate the other half of it, and it was much better! Hot tip - bake these the day before you need them!

The recipe stated that it made 6 muffins. 6? That's not many... so I doubled the recipe. It made 12 muffins and a cake. I think Bill was using a mega muffin tin! Its OK though because now we have muffins that can be chucked in the freezer ready to be eaten whenever we need em, and I'll take the cake to work! Bonus!


The following recipe is my adaption of Bills recipe, from Holiday.


Crunchy topped spiced apple muffins

Makes 12 cupcake sized muffins

1.5 cup plain flour
3 tsp bicarb
2 tsp allspice
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup canola oil (or any flavourless oil)
2 apples, peeled and diced into 1cm pieces

Topping

brown sugar
slivered almonds (I didn't measure them I just poured until it looked right!)

Method

Preheat oven to 180C and line/grease your muffin tin.

1) Add flour, oats, bicarb, allspice, and half the sugar into a bowl and combine.

2) Add the eggs, milk and oil into another bowl and mix thoroughly.

3) Combine the wet and dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix.

4) Fold in the apples gently.

5) Spoon them into the muffin tray, filling them pretty close to the top.

6) Combine the topping ingredients and put a heaped tsp on each muffin.

Pre bake

7) Cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Post bake

I doubled this recipe, and ended up having enough for a small cake - this took about 30 minutes and turned out looking gorgeous! I prefer it to the muffins! The muffins didn't rise as much as I thought they would, but they are still light. 

Will I make these again? Yes. But with cinnamon instead, and a little more sugar in the batter, it'll make a world of difference!

Were they easy to make? Yes.

Should you make them? Yes!