The Perfect Autumn Cookie: Cobnut, Chocolate & Spelt

I’ll admit, they’re not an ingredient I often use- not due to their seasonality, but rather the fact that they’re difficult for me to get my hands on.

Britain has a great larder, one we often ignore in favour of the more familiar ingredients from far beyond our humble shores: take miso or galangal for example- I would expect to find them in my local supermarket, but  not bone marrow or brill; parmesan, of course, but crowdie, unlikely; kaffir lime leaves, yes, never sorrel or chervil or lovage. Cobnuts also fit this category neatly. But if you’re very lucky, you might just stumble across a handful before the season ends.

If you’ve never tried one, they are to a large extent, a hazelnut and their flavour is quite similar, but they’re a tad sweeter and roasted, they’re a sensation. Of course, you can use hazelnut in the recipe below and you’ll create just as satisfying a biscuit, but it’s worth seeking out a cobnut or two, especially if you’ve never done so before.

Cobnut Cookies*

150g plain flour
50g spelt flour
100g salted butter
50g caster sugar
50g light brown muscovado sugar
1 medium-sized egg
50g cobnuts, roasted and chopped
50g milk chocolate, roughly chopped
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mace
a pinch of salt

1. First, cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, then beat in the egg.
2. Sieve the flours, salt and bicarb into the mixture and combine.
3. Stir in the chopped cobnuts, chocolate, mace and cinnamon until distributed fairly evenly.
4. place a teaspoon of the mixture onto a lined baking tray and bake in the oven at 180°C (a little less for fan assisted ovens) for 10-12 minutes. Remove them from the baking tray(s) when firm enough to do so and cool thoroughly on a rack.
5. It isn’t necessary to serve them with a pot of Earl Grey, but I recommend it.

* A friend suggested the name ‘cobnobs’. If you’re British, that probably seems like a fine name for a biscuit. If you’re not, it may sound rude.

Pumpkin Velouté with Crispy Sage

Is there any ingredient as emblematic of autumn as the pumpkin? It’s as bold as any October treetop and only really available at this time of year, ready to be carved and carted from door to door by expectant trick-or-treaters. But what becomes of your ghoulish gourd the day after?

Perhaps, if you’d rather it didn’t simply get discarded, you could turn it into this vibrant and tasty soup, quite fitting for an autumn evening. This recipe should make about six bowls’ worth.

October’s finest

Pumpkin Velouté with Crispy Sage

2 medium sized pumpkins, peeled and diced into half inch cubes
2 onions, chopped
200g butter
400ml vegetable stock
50g grano padano
a little crème fraîche
salt
black pepper
a handful of sage, chopped if the leaves are large
a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds, toasted

1. Put the butter into a heavy saucepan large enough to take all your ingredients. Once the butter starts to bubble, add the pumpkin and onion and cover with a lid. Cook until soft, but stir occasionally to ensure the pumpkin isn’t catching on the bottom of the pan.
2. Add the stock, bring to the boil then leave to simmer for five minutes. Whizz it up with a liquidizer until smooth and season to taste.
3. Pass it through a sieve and reheat just before you want to serve it.
4. To make the crispy sage leaves, heat up some oil in a frying pan. When the oil is hot, add the sage and fry for twenty seconds or so, remove from the pan.
5. Put the velouté into a bowl, stir a spoonful of crème fraîche into it. Sprinkle a few sage leaves and toasted pumpkin seeds on top. For those of carnivorous persuasions, a little fried iberico or parma ham adds an excellent salty note.