Pear & Cranberry Crumble Cups: opt for lower sugar, dairy-free option

Take advantage of harvest fruit with these perfect-for-autumn Pear & Cranberry & Crumble Cups  ...

Wonderful at room temperature eaten by hand; even more luscious
warm covered in custard or double cream

Autumm is such a great time for English apples and pears and this twist on classic Oatmeal Date Bars makes good use of them.

The kitchen had a bag of wallet-friendly ripen-at-home pears; with lots of oatmeal in the cupboard and dairy and plant butter in the fridge, the result was these gorgeously fruity, individual crumble cups.

They can't truly be called healthy but there's an option for lower sugar.  The flour is lower-gluten spelt, however, and the high proportion of oatmeal  helps lower cholesterol and maintain good digestion.  Fresh fruit, of course, adds lip-smacking goodness.

You could go 50-50 pear and apple or replace with all apples.  

The recipe is easy; kids attacking homework would find the 20 minutes involved both relaxing and rewarding!

This can be made in a flat dish and cut into 16 servings or in a lined cupcake tin.  These colourful little cups though, bought online, look very pretty and the little treats slip out easily.

Cost: £4'ish (9/25)

Makes: 16-20 (recipe halves nicely)

Ingred: 

   350g/12.3 oz fresh peeled & cored firm pears (about 4 Conference) 

   3/4 tsp vanilla 

   spices (opt): 

         1 tsp cinnamon

         1/8 tsp nutmeg

         generous pinch cardamom

         generous pinch ginger

     OR 1.5 tsp  allspice

   1 cup/120gm/4.2oz rolled oats or Uber Granola  (67 used English cup measures)
   1 cup/142gm/ 5oz plain spelt or common wheat flour

   generous handful sunflower seeds or chopped nuts (optional) 
   1 pinch salt
   1/2 tsp baking soda
   light brown sugar: min generous half cup/100'ish g/3.55'ish oz - maximum 2/3 cup/127gm/5oz light brown sugar 

    3.8oz/110g dairy or plant butter, or a mix of both, softened 

    100g/3.5oz (2 handfuls) dried cranberries 

    splash of brandy

    

Method:

MAKE-AHEAD BLUEBERRY ORANGE SPONGE; butter/dairy-free option; fresh fruit; spelt option

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Thanksgiving can be busy and there isn't always the time for home-made treats...

Blueberry Orange Sponge with Orange Glaze
tastes even better the day after baking

But this delicious harvest cake, studded with divine blueberries, is made in advance.  If you can wait a day or two, well wrapped and left at room temperature, the cake tastes even better, but hold the topping until serving day.

The cake is healthier than most -- go dairy free with plant butter, replace wheat flour with higher-protein spelt and for increased fibre, 20% of the flour should be wholemeal.  

Choice of toppings: aq light dusting of icing sugar OR an orange glaze OR a luscious layer of orange buttercream icing (dairy free option).  

Cost: £4.50'ish, less for fewer berries; more for plant butter

Serves: 15-24 fingers

Ingreds:

175g/6.1 oz dairy or plant butter

125g/4.6oz white sugar; 50gr/1.75oz brown sugar

3 large eggs

zest 1 orange

1 tb orange juice

1 tsp orange essence

175g/6.1oz white spelt or wheat flour; 50g/175oz wholemeal spelt or wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder  

150g/5.2oz blueberries (fewer berries if budget is a worry)

Glaze

100g icing sugar

2 tb orange juice

 

Method:

RASPBERRY COCONUT MIDI-CAKE: dairy free option, healthy fibre

Delicious and appealing butter-free cake featuring coconut and fresh juicy berries... 

Toasted and plain coconut add to the rustic texture of a summery cake

The recipe was adapted from Sky Gygnel in The Sunday Times, who serves it - fruit-free - for breakfast.

But 67 thought it would be perfect as a fruity Sunday lunch dessert.  

- 

To make it healthier - and offset the custard garnish -white flour was replaced with 100% Organic self-raising brown flour* and the batter was dotted with ripe fresh raspberries.  It was served with ice-cold vanilla custard (which came out of a tin!)

67 worried about the cake's texture when baked; it looked solid and as if it might be stodgy.  But Reader, nothing could be further from the truth.  This is not one of your airy, very fine-crumbed almost cloud-like cakes but a delightful get-your-teeth-stuck-into layer of rustic deliciousness.  It was delightful to eat on a broiling summer day. 

Slightly larger than 67's usual midi-cakes, it will keep well in the fridge and no one will mind a second portion a day later.  

Cost: Modest

Serves: 2-4

Ingreds

70g/2.5oz organic self raising brown flour

35g/1.2oz coconut, divided

One medium egg

75g/2.6oz castor sugar

25ml sunflower oil

100g/3.5oz plain or coconut plant or dairy yoghurt

1/4 teaspoon maple syrup

generous handful fresh raspberries

Method:

ALMOST NO DAIRY 'CREAM' OF HADDOCK SOUP: dairy-free option, low-cholesterol, prepare ahead

Smooth creamy almost no-dairy Smoked Haddock Soup...healthy filling indulgence

updated dec 24

 Smoked Fish Soup, found in delis & bistros everywhere in Republic of Ireland
(with multi seed bread) no-dairy option

photo 24/9/16

The blogger came across a version of this soup everywhere in the Republic of (Southern) Ireland, whether in major cities or small towns.  

It's not surprising because the soup is rich, thick and satisfying - a bowlful will suffice for supper - and Ireland has plenty of smoked fish.

67's version is based on Smoked Haddock and is almost free of dairy (there's a dairy-free option).  It's gorgeously flavourful, velvety, smooth and satisfying.   

Low-Dairy 'Cream of Haddock' Soup is modelled on what chefs call a veloute -- a rich soup based on chicken, veal or fish stock with butter, flour and plenty of cream.  Veloutes usually appear on high-end menus; they're considered rather sophisticated, with expensive ingredients adding a touch of luxury.  

67's version puts the emphasis on health -- it has no cream or flour and only a tiny amount of butter but is still richly textured and thrillingly tasty.

And though not exactly budget, it won't cost the earth  

The cost of smoked haddock has remained steady over the past two years (currently £10 a pound/1/2 kilo: Dec 24) but makes the soup an indulgence.   

The soup will impress when entertaining, ideally served piping hot in small cups.  Or it makes a lovely first course for a special lunch or dinner, or as a  light main course. 

It's one of the blog's more popular choices, appearing on page views time and again throughout the year.

Cost: £11'ish
Serves: 6 as main; 8 as first course; many as appetizer 

Ingred:

  2 med onions (or fennel, trimmed, soaked in 9:1 solution of water & vinegar, with tough outer leaves & fronds removed and well scrubbed)
  2 carrots
  1 large potato

 (all the above coarsely chopped)

  1 tbsp dairy or plant butter & 1 tbsp good olive oil
  16 oz/1/2 kilo uncooked smoked haddock OR for the frugal 8oz/1/4 kilo each of smoked haddock and white fish, divided (the flavour will be less intense)
  1 bunch parsley tied together
  1 bay leaf
  2 cloves garlic, grated (opt)
  6 cups of fish stock (pref; you can replace 1 cup fish stock with white wine/grape juice) or water
  1 sprig fresh or a generous pinch dried thyme 

  1 tsp Dijon mustard 
  zest of a lemon 

Garnish: 

  chives (opt)

Method:

COFFEE WALNUT CAKE, Vegetarian, budget friendly, dairy free option

A frugal egg & butter-free Coffee Walnut Cake that makes even carnivores happy..

updated 8/2025/first posted 2019

Crowd-pleasing egg & butter-free Coffee-Walnut Cake; budget friendly. too
'Very, very good!' 'Gosh, it was tasty; the coffee tempered the sweetness' 

photo 26/4/18

This surprisingly good Vegetarian cake is so tasty and beautifully textured, it can pass for the conventional thing.  

Best made a day before serving, it's darkly flavoured, heavy-crumbed and not overly moist.  It's also healthier, free of eggs and butter (except, if desired, in the icing).  The Coffee & Walnut flavours have lovely 'bite'.  The sponge is dense rather than airy, more gingerbread in texture than sponge but splendidly so.  

Originally based on a vegan recipe, 67 initially replaced plant free milks with organic dairy milk and coconut oil with butter.  But that was in the days (2018) when plant milks contained sweeteners, oils and fillers and dairy-free butter needed a lot more work.

Since then, plant milks without nasty additives - and enriched with calcium, omega 3 and vitamins - have arrived in supermarkets.  (67 tends to use almond* which seems closest in flavour to dairy milk.)  As for plant butters in 2025, you'd be hard pressed to find something better than Tomor to give baked goods that wonderful buttery taste and texture.l

67's Coffee Walnut Cake needs to be made ahead to give the flavours time to settle.  A thin layer of icing and a few (optional) nuts are all that's needed to dress it up. 

Cost: £4.00 (without icing) + £1.25 for icing (2/25)
Makes: 1 8x11.5inch/20x30xcm rectangle (or 9in/23cm round or18 cupcakes)

Ingredients:
   220gm/7.75oz plain flour 
   175gm/6.1oz sugar + 20gm/3/4oz ground almonds (lower sugar content)
         OR 200gm/7oz sugar 
   1 tsp baking soda
   1/2 tsp salt

   240ml less 1 tablespoon dairy or plant milk (67 uses Plenish almond)
   1 tbsp instant coffee in 1 tbsp boiling water
   2 tsp vanilla
   80ml light veg oil
   15ml (1 tbsp) white wine vinegar

   Icing
     50gm butter or plant substitute, at room temperature
     50gm icing sugar
     25 finely chopped nuts

Method:

1. The day before cake is needed, preheat oven to 180c/350f
2. Line an 8x11.5inch/20x30cm rectangular pan with greaseproof paper
3. Whisk all dry ingred in a large bowl until thoroughly combined
4. Blend liquid ingred in a jug, pour into flour
5. Using electric beaters or a table top mixer, beat 2-3 mins until everything is well blended but don't overheat
6. Pour into pan, level the surface
7. Bake 30 mins or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean
8. Cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack; slide upside down onto a plate; remove greaseproof paper. Invert back onto serving platter.  
9. Place in air-tight container at least 24 hours.
10. Day of serving: Icing: whip softened dairy/plant butter until creamy; add icing sugar gradually; spread thinly over cake; scatter nuts over

Comments:
'Gosh this was good, and the coffee tempered the sweetness.' Retired writer
'I wasn't impressed the day it was made but it was very, very good on the day after.' Political Agent

Tips:

• for a circular cake use a 9inch/23cm springform pan, line the base with greaseproof paper and generously brush the sides with vegetable oil
• for cupcakes, reduce cooking time to 20 mins; a toothpick stuck in the centre will come out clean when it's done
• some may prefer to make 1.5 times the icing recipe
• the flavours might be a bit strong for kids; they'll love chocolate shortbread  - a doodle to prepare - instead

Notes:

67 adapted this recipe from a vegan blogsite after experimenting with vegan ingredients and techniques.  Some of the results have been surprisingly good though nearly all the products have high levels of sugar.  Many are quick and easy to put together.  But there's no doubt about it: some Vegan cakes can be...well, a teensy bit odd, in texture and in aftertaste.  And the recipes call for ingredients which 67 hesitates to use.  Coconut oil (dairy-free) is high in saturated fat and is currently on the American Heart Association's forbidden list.  Cooking without eggs and butter isn't a problem - in fact it's a money-saver - but this blog prefers to replace butter with light vegetable oil or plant or (for the non dairy-phobic) conventional butter.   

 

67's favourite substitute for butter for vegan cakes and cookies is the Kosher plant butter Tomor available at Panzers, Kosher Kingdom and sometimes Kavanaghs & Waitrose.

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This recipe has been developed by B  Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises and  may not be reproduced, in any form, without the author's written permission.

SKINNIER LIVER PATE, Low-fat, Low-Cholesterol, Big Flavour, make ahead, dairy-free option

Wonderfully guilt-free!

updated Dec 2024

Skinny Chopped Liver: low-fat, low cholesterol, big flavour
with  dill pickle spears

Food in the Middle East is wonderful - both simple and exotic.   Hot bread - fresh from an oven at a tiny downtown stall - slathered with unsalted butter and dripping with fresh honey. Or, over a border, delicate 'tablecloth' flatbread cooked on an upturned oval of thinly beaten metal, passed down from generation to generation.   And, in the foothills of purple Iranian mountains, a tiny bus-stop cafe with unadorned but unforgettable chicken and saffron rice.  

What strikes a visitor to the Middle East is the similarities in cuisine, not the differences.  Flavours are strong and gutsy, casseroles and stews are distinctive and assertive - even aggressive - and the recipes are steeped in traditions and prohibitions eons old.  The food could not reflect the peoples of the Middle East more.  

Chopped Liver (or Liver Pate) is almost an essential in parts of the Middle East.  It is greatly loved, and as one gentleman told me, is nothing without lashings of chicken fat.  

Not for 67goingon50, it isn't.

This version of chopped liver is a combination of a traditional-ish recipe (adapted from Ina Garten) and a Western creamy liver pate.  It was developed for the fat and cholesterol phobic.  There is no chicken fat though there is some dairy or plant butter.  It still packs a punch flavourwise and the yoghurt makes for an appealing layer of tanginess. 

For the Festive season, it's easy on the budget and packed full of iron. It looks good on a festive buffet table and makes a good starter course with toast or hot rolls. 

It's also easy to prepare and can sit in the fridge for a day or two before serving.  

Cost: depending on livers & the cupboard - from £2.50'ish to £4.50'ish
Makes: 5 cups; halves easily

Ingred:
   500 gms/16 oz chicken livers, pref. organic, trimmed & free of green spots
   5 tbsp dairy or plant butter or olive oil or a mix
   2 teacups med diced onions, about 2 whole onions (fodmap friendly - fennel or peeled celery) 
   1/3 cup madeira/sherry/grape juice
   4 eggs, hard boiled
   1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
   2 tsp fresh thyme (fresh) or 1/3 rounded tsp dried
   2 tsp salt
   pinch cayenne

   3/4 cup strained fat-free plant yoghurt OR dairy Greek yoghurt

Method:

1. Saute chicken livers in 2 tbsp butter/oil 5 mins (a couple of mins more if you like your livers well done); add to deep bowl, set aside
2. In the same pan add 3 tbsp butter/olive oil; saute onions/fennel/celery over med high heat 10 mins, until soft & browned
3. Add alcohol; use fish slice to scrape away bits on the bottom of the pan; pour the contents over the livers
4. Reserve one cooked egg for garnish.  
5. Add the rest of the ingredients including the yoghurt to the livers
6. Blitz to the preferred texture; coarse or fine. (If fine, you may wish to pass the mixture through a fine-meshed sieve, squashing the contents with a ladle, to give a mousse-like texture).  Pour into a dish.
7. Separately grate white and yolk of remaining egg and arrange on top.  Refrigerate several hours or overnight, max 2 days
8. Serve on crackers, toast or rolls with dill pickle spears & tomatoes

Tip:

Fennel: Separate leaves remove bottom inch, discard fronds, blanch leaves in a 99-1 mix of water and vinegar 20 min

Celery: separate sticks of celery; chop off bottom 1.5 inches;  blanch leaves in a 99-1 mix of water and vinegar 20 min; lightly peel backs of celery sticks

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This recipe has been developed by B  Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises and may not be reproduced, in any form, without the author's written permission.