GALWAY FOOD FESTIVAL 2016

Happy Easter!

 We made our annual visit to the Galway Food Festival yesterday, Good Friday. It was VERY blowy around Fishmarket Square but there was no end of good things on offer and interesting foodie stalls to explore. I had a tdf salted caramel brownie in The Skeff and, later tofu and veg in Lime. Yum!

Beechlawn Organic Farm, Ballinasloe - our local farm - had a stall

These were delicious as was their Paleo Brownie (available as a mix)

These would make great airplane snack boxes from The Foods of Athenry

The Yum Tree Kitchen man

Polish Easter goodies

Polish Easter cake

Alannah and Róisín of Beechlawn Organic's stall -
I won that heart cake in the foreground (and below) in their raffle!

Scones by Sugar and Spice

The Galway Food Company is based in Loughrea - they do BEAUTIFUL biscuits

The Wild Irish Foragers and Preservers - fab, flavourful syrups and jellies

Harvest Moon's Basil Hummus - two of my fave things combined!

American Village Apothecary always impresses 

Sun-squinty Juno

Lovely lunch at Lime

Husband's Nasi Goreng at Lime

DARK CHOCOLATE ORANGE MUFFINS

Dark chocolate orange muffin

I bought a muffin tin. You know, American-sized muffins, as opposed to normal Irish bun-sized ones. And then it took me ten shops to find the proper cases to go in them and, even then, I could only find boring plain ones. (Though I did find some snazzy yellow cardboard ones in Tiger that won't fit in the tin...)

The Dublin airport chocolate orange muffin

Anyway, I am addicted to the giant-sized choc-orange muffins that you get in Harvest Market in T2 in Dublin Airport. I would almost (almost) take a flight just to have one of those muffins. They make the whole airport shenanigan worthwhile.

But I'm not flying anywhere until May, so I have had to resort to making my own. The ones in the airport have a gooey, sweet, orange jammy curd in the centre (drool!) but I couldn't find a satisfactory recipe to match that. So I have adapted a few different recipes to make these delicious choc-chippy-orangey ones instead. These are a trial run for Easter Sunday, when I will probably (hopefully) take the time to ice and decorate them.

My helpers

238 kcal per muffin

Makes 6 large sized muffins, 10 bun/cupcake sized muffins or 12 minis

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup self raising flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I used a 100g bag)
zest of an orange
1/4 cup milk
1/8 cup orange juice
1/8 cup veg oil (I used rapeseed)
1 medium egg, beaten

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180 deg C

Zest and juice the orange

Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar and choc chips

In a jug, mix together the orange juice, orange zest, milk, veg oil and beaten egg
Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in wet ingredients
Mix and pour into muffin cases

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes

HEALTHY CHOC CHIP COOKIES

Juno, mixing

I have been dreaming about flapjacks but then got diverted by this simple recipe, which I have adapted. I added Stevia (hoping for some sweetness). Hmmm. I'm not sure that Stevia does what it's supposed to do. Anyway,the coconut and choc chips provide a little sweetness. 157 kcals per cookie.

Grating the apple

Before baking

Finished cookies

Ingredients:

·         1 cup porridge oats

·         1/3 cup dessicated coconut

·         1/3 cup dark choc chips

·         1 peeled eating apple grated

·         1/2 mashed banana OR 1 beaten egg

·         1 teaspoon natural vanilla essence

·         1 teaspoon Stevia

Method:

1.      Preheat oven to 200C, grease and line a baking tray with greaseproof

2.      Beat egg OR mash banana, in a bowl, add grated apple and vanilla essence and combine.

3.      Add  remaining ingredients: porridge oats, coconut, choc chips.

4.      Thoroughly mix together using a wooden spoon and then form into rounds with your hands and flatten onto the greaseproof.

5.      Bake for 12 to15 minutes until golden brown

6.      Cool on wire rack and enjoy!