Peach and Apricot Prosecco Conserve

Bit like a jam, with less sugar, whole fruit piece's and a tad syrupy. Great served on porridge, bircher or yoghurt, even on toast if you're adventurist. This conserve if sealed properly will keep in a cool dark place for up to a year.   

800g peaches
400g apricots
1kg sugar
1 lemon
250ml prosecco or cheap sparkling wine

Method:
Slice the peaches and apricots in half and remove the stone, then slice fruit once more into quarters.
Place the peach and apricots in a large bowl and sprinkle over sugar, cover the bowl with cling film and leave to stand over night or 12 hours.
Place fruit in a large heavy base pot with the juice of the lemon and prosecco. Put pot over a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Try to avoid the temptation of stirring the conserve. Once fruit has reached a gentle simmer turn the heat up to high and bring fruit to a boil and cook for 15-20minutes.
Pour conserve into sterilized jars while still hot and firmly seal with lid. Leave to cool and set for 2 days before using.

Apricots, Spiced Ewes Dressing and Ginger Rye Crackers Salad

Literally all stone fruit at this very moment is stunning! I'm not sure what the science is but I've noticed every second year stone fruit is better than the last. This year just happens to be the year for exceptional peaches, apricots and necterines. Make the most of their supperior juicey sweetness because you're going to have to wait another 2 years to get it this good.
I've incorperated apricots into a new tasty salad with sharp and sweet blue ewe's milk cheese and decorated in ginger rye crackers, fresh chilli and spring onions. Simply summer on a plate.

 4 apricots
1 bunch spring onion
1 large red chilli
100g washed baby spinach

Dressing:
100g blue ewes milk cheese
2 tablespoons cream cheese
150ml buttermilk
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 dried red chilli
1 clove garlic
Pinch sea salt

Ginger Rye Crackers:
350g rye flour
200g butter
100g grated cheddar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon sea salt
90 tablespoon cold water

METHOD:
Start with the crackers, place rye, cheddar, ginger, and salt in mixing bowl. Cube butter and add to the dry ingredients, using a fork press the butter into the dry ingredients till roughly combined. Add half the water and stir, add the remainder water and gently knead into a ball, wrap in cling film and leave to rest in fridge for 1 hour.
Once cracker dough has rested roll out into a rough rectangle 40x30cm on a floured surface, grease and line baking tray with parchment paper. Carefully wrap cracker dough round the rolling pin, then unwind dough over baking tray. Using your fingers poke bumps into the cracker dough surface to give texture. Bake cracker in oven preheated at 180oC for 15 minutes. Once cooked leave to cool completely.
For the dressing place a fry pan over medium/high heat and add the cumin and dried chilli broken into smaller pieces. Toast till the seeds and chilli become very fragrant and remove from heat. Put cumin and chilli in pestle and mortar and ground into a rough powder. Place all dressing ingredients into food processor and blend together for one minute.
Cut apricots in half and remove the stone, slice each half into 4 wedges. Trim spring onion and finely slice, cut chilli in half lengthways then thinly slice into semicircles.
To construct the salad you can either make 4 individual serves or one large platter. First lay down baby spinach followed by wedges of apricots. Sprinkle over desired amount of spring onion and chilli. Then break rye cracker into smaller bite sized chucks and scatter over salad, lastly drizzle over dressing and serve.

Orange, Apricot and Pumpkin Seed Loaf

3 to 4 times a year I change the fruit bread Kaffeine serves for breakfast from cinnamon'n'raisin to honey, milk and almond. However I've gotten bored with just these 2 varieties of fruit loaf and decided to mix things up a little and throw a third loaf into the mix. After a few trials and epic fails I've finally mastered the recipe, best served toasted with loads of artery coating butter.

650g strong flour
250ml whole milk
50g sugar
1 teaspoon yeast
250ml buttermilk
3 tablespoons olive oil
100g dried apricots
100g pumpkin seeds
1 orange
1 teaspoon cinnamon

METHOD:
Place milk in a sauce pan and warm the milk over a low heat till about 40oC (Luke warm) and remove from heat. Add sugar and yeast to milk and leave to stand for 10 minutes in the mean time roughly dice the apricots and zest orange on the fine side of the grater. Put flour in a large mixing bowl with apricots, pumpkin seeds, zest and juice of orange, cinnamon then pour in the fermented milk, buttermilk and olive oil. Knead together for at least 10 minutes, if you don't want to knead it yourself you can always use a cake mixer and attach a dough hook. Grease a separate bowl with a dash of oil and place bread dough into bowl, cover with cling film and leave to ferment in warm place for an hour.
Grease a loaf tin 24x12cm (8cm deep) with butter or oil spray then dust by tapping a little flour round the tin. Roll the dough onto a clean bench and knock back the air, knead for a minute or 2. Mold the dough into a shape that roughly resembles the size of the tin and place in side. Cover bread dough with either a clean damp cloth or tea towel and leave in a warm place to prove again for 1 hour and pre-heat oven to 180oC.
Once the dough has proven for a second time fill a small tray with warm water and place on the bottom shelf of oven and place the bread dough on the shelf just above, bake for 35 minutes. Once cooked leave bread to cool for 10 minutes before turning out, when the loaf has cooled completely you can slice. I like my slice's of bread very chunky and I usually get 7 piece from this recipe, best toasted and served with butter.