I always like Sunday lunch to be an event. Even if it’s just Andrew and me, I tend not to turn to leftovers at this particular time of the week. Instead, it’s a time for experimenting with new recipes, often elaborate multi-step ventures. For lack of a better word, I like my Sunday midday meal to be “fancy”.

This isn’t a hangover from my childhood; weekend lunches in my family are a non-starter at best. It was a mug of soup from the freezer or some toast from the breadbox, and my sister and I were pretty much left to fend for ourselves. (After we’d reached an appropriately independent age, of course- it’s not like our parents neglected to feed their babies.) Perhaps my predilection for involved weekend lunches is some sort of post-adulthood rebellion.

As those lunches go, a vegetable quiche/tart is certainly one of the most involved. There’s the pastry, the veg, the filling, the blind baking and the actual baking- definitely one to sink your cooking teeth into. I made just such a tart last weekend, after being inspired by my sister’s Pumpkin, Spinach and Goat’s Cheese Tart.

Wanting to keep the essence of that pie while still making the recipe my own, I made some (not insignificant) changes. The first was to use an all-butter pastry, because I’ve gotta tell you, I just don’t hold with that shortening nonsense. Bland, flavourless and just plain gross – at what cost flakiness, I ask you?

Since I’ve promised not to cook with pumpkin anymore (at least not for another year) I used butternut squash, an old favourite of mine. Greens came in the form of Russian kale, my new favourite addition to soups and stir-fries. Surprisingly for me, I didn’t have any cheese, save a bit of leftover cream cheese, in the house at all. I opted to mix this into the egg and cream mixture, which gave the tart a subtle cheesy taste.

So was all this “involvement” worth it? Oh, yes. One of the best things about flexing your culinary muscles on the weekend is reaping the benefits all week long- this baby here made many a delicious lunch, I can assure you.

• Squash and Kale Tart
• adapted from Let Her Bake Cake
• makes one 10″ tart
• Pastry Tart Case
  1 1/4 cups plain flour
  1/2 tsp. salt
  113g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 1cm cubes and very cold
  1/4 – 1/3 cup ice cold water
  
  Filling
  1 small butternut squash
  75g Russian kale, stems discarded and leaves chopped roughly
  2 eggs
  200ml double cream
  1/2 cup cream cheese
  1/3 cup grated parmesan
  salt and pepper, to taste
• 1. To make the pastry, mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs, but with some visible pea-sized pieces of butter remaining.
  
  2. Drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the ice water, and mix it into the flour with a fork or dough whisk. Work until it just comes together, but no more (you may need to add a bit more water, but do so a teaspoon at a time).
  
  3. Gather up the pastry and wrap it tightly in clingfilm; place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, or up to 3 days.
  
  4. When ready to use, remove the dough from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Gently lift into a 10″ tart tin and press into the corners, being careful not to “stretch” the dough too much. Trim off the excess, prick the bottom and sides a few times with a fork, and put the unbaked tart tin into the freezer for 30 minutes.
  
  5. Just before you’re ready to bake the pastry, preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F. Line the frozen pastry with parchment paper, and fill with baking beans or uncooked rice. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the beans/paper and cook for a further 7 minutes to dry out the bottom. Set the tart case aside to cool- it can be wrapped in clingfilm and frozen at this point, as well.
  
  6. To prepare the butternut squash, preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds with a spoon and brush the insides lightly with olive oil. Place the cut halves facing down on a baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes, until tender to the point of a knife. Allow to cool before peeling off the skin and chopping the squash into 1″ cubes.
  
  7. For the kale, bring a small pot of water to the boil and add the kale. Cook for about 7 minutes, until tender to your liking. Drain the kale and “squeeze” it dry using some paper towels or a clean tea towel.
  
  8. To prepare the filling, whisk together the eggs, cream, cream cheese, parmesan, salt and pepper in a large jug.
  
  9. Next, put everything together: dot the squash over the bottom of the tart case and “fill in the gaps” with the cooked kale. Pour the egg mixture over everything, but be careful not to let it overflow. Bake tart in a 180°C/350°F oven for 30-35 minutes, until tart is browned on top and springy to the touch. Cool slightly before serving.

Some recipes are just meant to find us.

When I borrowed my sister’s copy of Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache, the “healthy cake” cookbook I reviewed the other day, she informed me that she’d “decided” I should make this recipe: Sunken Apricot and Almond Cake. Seeing that it called for tinned apricot halves, I immediately rejected the idea (if there’s anything I dislike more than cooked fruit, it’s canned fruit). Instead, I turned my attention to finding something else to make.

Perusing the book’s pages over the next few days, I resolutely ignored this cake, considering several other recipes and even trying a couple. Eventually, I had to admit it: this apricot-topped, almond-scented cake was calling my name. The flavours were Mediterranean in feel, the ingredients were (almost) all in my cupboard, and it even used my favourite vegetable, butternut squash.

Swallowing my pride, I got to work. I couldn’t bring myself to buy the tinned apricots, so I opted for dried instead. I always have them around, and they seemed more suited for the time of year, anyway. In the summer, I imagine that fresh would also be delicious.

I’m not going to lie: baking without butter requires more investment than you might care to make. Grating the butternut squash for this recipe was a mind-numbing, painstaking, fingernail-endangering job (I’m not so dextrous with a grater). Certainly more work than measuring out some butter.

I have to say though- in this case, it’s definitely worth the extra effort. The finished cake had an unbelievable texture- moist and dense but far from heavy. The butternut squash is undetectable as a flavour, good news for those who aren’t yet convinced by the vegetable-desserts concept. Instead, it combines with the eggs, almonds, vanilla and spice to make a cake far greater than the sum of its parts.

My sister agreed that it was the best recipe she’s tasted from the book. Thank goodness we’re past the age for “I told you so”.

• No-Butter Apricot and Almond Cake
• adapted from Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache by Harry Eastwood
• makes 16 pieces
• 16 dried apricots
  1 tsp. vanilla extract
  3 large eggs
  180g caster sugar
  200g peeled and finely grated butternut squash
  1 tsp. almond extract
  60g plain flour
  200g ground almonds
  1 1/2 tsp. mixed spice
  2 tsp. baking powder
  1/4 tsp. salt
  icing sugar (to serve)
• 1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F. Lightly butter the sides of a 8″ x 8″ square baking pan. Cut a piece of parchment paper to cover the bottom and two sides of the pan, and butter this as well. (Don’t skip this step, even if your pan is non-stick; because there is no butter in this cake, it’s prone to sticking.)
  
  2. Put the apricots into a small bowl with half of the vanilla extract, and just cover with boiling water. Set aside to soften.
  
  3. Using an hand blender or stand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together for 4 minutes, until very light and fluffy. Add the butternut squash, almond extract and the rest of the vanilla extract, and beat to combine.
  
  4. Add the flour, ground almonds, mixed spice, baking powder and salt, and give the mixture a good final whisk, to make sure everything is well combined.
  
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and shake to distribute evenly. Drain the apricots and squeeze them dry, then place in a grid formation over the surface of the cake, so that there will be one in each piece once cut. (Alternatively, you could chop them finely and scatter them over the surface- this will make the cake easier to eat, but perhaps a bit less pretty.)
  
  6. Bake the cake in the middle rack of the oven for 35 to 45 minutes, until lightly browned on top and springy in the middle. Let the cake cool in its pan for ten minutes before running a knife along the sides and gently removing it (using the parchment paper to “lift” it) to a cooling rack. Once completely cool, dust with icing sugar and cut into squares to serve.

There’s something about traveling that makes your own habits, culinary or otherwise, glaringly obvious. It’s only when you’re taken out of your day-to-day routine that odd quirks, individual preferences and (at times) OCD tendencies come to light.

Take my recent trip home, for instance. It was wonderful not to worry about cooking for a spell, to simply relax and enjoy the delicious meals presented by my Mum, aunts, Grandma and various waiters, and not think about the cleanup or health factor (holiday food doesn’t have calories, right?). But food prepared by others, no matter how delicious, is never done exactly the way you’d do it, is it?

So when we got home last week, I began (somewhat grudgingly) to cook my own way again. As I was sprinkling some chili flakes into some-or-other dish with which to soothe and nourish our jet-lagged souls, Andrew came into the kitchen and paused. “Your family doesn’t like spicy foods as much as we do, do they?” he asked.

I stopped in mid-stir, thinking. It’s not as if I grew up eating bland, flavourless food or anything; in fact, both my parents profess to like spicy foods. But Andrew was right: there was a decided lack of spice on this most recent holiday. In fact, the only dish I recall eating that had my preferred level of heat was one that I made myself. (Yes, my mum insisted that I cook a non-traditional Thanksgiving meal for my aunt, uncle and cousins one night: cannelloni, braised cabbage and pumpkin pie.) But if my parents’ version of spicy isn’t exactly the same as mine, it’s probably due to breadth rather than depth. I’m sure they see spice as something limited to certain kinds of foods, while in my opinion, there’s precious little that can’t be made more delicious with a pinch of dried pepper flakes or a sprinkling of chopped fresh chili.

Ironically (after all that), this dish is not actually all that spicy. It is, however, wonderfully fragrant, sweet, and absolutely perfect for this time of year. The recipe, from Nigel Slater’s new book, originally called for pumpkin, which I didn’t have any of at the time. It was tasty with my favourite squash though, so much so that I’m sure I’ll be making it again this way.

The naan is adapted from a Deborah Madison recipe I’ve used for several years, though I opt to grill these rather than bake them, as she suggests. Crispy outside and doughy inside, with a a smear of melted butter and a sprinkle of sea salt, they’re the perfect accompaniment to not just this, but any curry. And they’ll take the edge off anything too-spicy, in case your tastes run opposite to mine ;)

• Squash and Chickpea Curry with Lemongrass and Coriander
• adapted from Nigel Slater’s Tender, Volume I
• serves 4
• 2 Tbs. olive oil (or use a neutral vegetable one if you prefer)
  1 large onion, chopped
  3 stalks lemongrass, outer leaves removed
  3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
  thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled
  2 tsp ground coriander
  1 tsp ground turmeric
  4 cardamom pods, crushed
  2 hot red chilis, finely chopped (or 1/2 tsp. crushed chili flakes)
  1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into bite-sized chunks
  200g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and simmered until tender (or use 2 x 400g cans)
  1 x 400g can of coconut milk
  approx. 1 cup of stock (or water)
  1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
• 1. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions and cook until soft and translucent.
  
  2. Meanwhile, make a rough paste of the garlic, lemongrass and ginger, either using a food processor or a mortar and pestle. Add this to the onions, along with the coriander, turmeric, cardamom and chili. Stir well and continue to cook over a low heat (you may need to add some water to keep the mixture from sticking).
  
  3. Add the squash and chickpeas, and pour in the coconut milk. Add just enough stock or water to almost cover the squash (about 1 cup), then partially cover the pan and simmer until the squash is tender to your liking. This should take 20-25 minutes; if you feel there is too much liquid, remove the lid toward the end of the cooking time and allow some of the moisture to evaporate.
  
  4. Remove curry from the heat and stir in the chopped coriander. Serve with naan (recipe below) and a dollop of Greek yogurt.

• Naan
• adapted from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
• makes 4 small naans
• 1 tsp. instant yeast
  1/3 cup plain yogurt (I use Greek-style)
  2 Tbs. butter
  3/4 tsp. sea salt
  1/2 cup hot water
  1 1/2 cups plain flour (I sometimes use 1 cup plain and 1/2 cup whole wheat)
  1 tsp. butter (for the tops, optional)
  sea salt (for sprinkling, optional)
• 1. Put the yeast, yogurt, butter and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the hot water and whisk until the butter has melted and everything is mixed together.
  
  2. Gradually add in the flour, stirring with a wooden spoon or a dough whisk. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes, until smooth. The dough should be soft but not too sticky; you may need to add a bit more flour. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour.
  
  3. Preheat the grill/broiler. Divide the dough into 4 pieces and pull, stretch or roll each one into a flat, oblong shape. Arrange the naans on a nonstick baking sheet and place under the grill until the tops begin to brown, about 4 minutes. Flip and cook the other sides until they brown, too.
  
  4. If you like, brush 1/4 tsp. of butter on the top of each naan as soon as they are removed from the oven. Sprinkle over some sea salt (I also like chopped fresh coriander on these) and serve with any type of curry.

We all have our favourite flavours, right? The ones that keep tempting us, year after year, and become mainstays in our home cooking. Also the ones that as food bloggers we have to watch ourselves on, lest we become known as “the girl who writes that goat’s cheese blog“.

For me, those flavours include: goat’s cheese (clearly), caramelized onions, butternut squash, leeks, broccoli, sundried tomatoes, cumin, ginger, coriander, thyme and lemon. (And those are just the savoury ones; you’re lucky this isn’t a dessert blog!) Anything that combines two or more of these favourite flavours is bound to win my affection.

Come Autumn, when the squashes start appearing at the market, I go especially crazy for any combination of butternut squash with onions, nuts, sage, thyme and/or cheese. I’ve combined these ingredients, in various permutations, in countless pastas, risottos, tarts and salads. Yet still I go back for more.

With that in mind, today’s dish is a painfully obvious one. Yes, the onions here are roasted and so technically not caramelized, but the squash, goat’s cheese and thyme are all present and accounted for. Sigh, I’m a predictable little thing, aren’t I?

Heidi‘s recipe for Farro and Roasted Butternut Squash has been on my “to-make” list for some time, and a recent lunch at home with Andrew proved the perfect opportunity to add it to my roster of squash dishes. Since I’ve made rather a lot of farro-based salads lately, I was planning on replacing the farro here with brown rice or quinoa. Unfortunately, Andrew’s alarmed face stopped that idea in its tracks, and pasta it was.

To that pasta (whole wheat, so it’s not so bad) I added the roasted vegetables, some toasted nuts and some crumbled goat’s milk cheese. A simple balsamic vinaigrette brought it all together perfectly. And yes, it might have been obvious, boring and run-of-the-mill, but it was also very, very good.

Oh well- you can’t fight city hall, can you?

Note: This dish is meant to be warm and not hot, so don’t worry about finishing all the steps at the same time. It’s also good at room temperature, or even chilled.

• Roasted Squash with Whole Wheat Pasta
• adapted from 101 Cookbooks‘ Farro and Roasted Butternut Squash
• feeds 4
• 1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes
  1 small red onion, peeled and cut into 12 lengthwise wedges
  4 Tbs. olive oil
  1/2 tsp. dried thyme (use 1 tsp. fresh if you have it)
  pinch of sea salt
  150g whole wheat pasta (conchiglie and orecchiette work well)
  2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
  20g pinenuts
  30g walnuts, chopped roughly
  sea salt and black pepper, to taste
  30g soft goat’s cheese, crumbled
• 1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Put the cubed butternut squash in a shallow baking dish and scatter the pieces of onion (break them up as best you can) over the top. Add 2 Tbs. of olive oil, the thyme and a pinch of sea salt and toss well. Roast, tossing every 7 minutes or so, for approximately 25 minutes, until the squash is tender and browned. When you remove it from the oven, stir in 1 Tbs. of balsamic vinegar and set the dish aside to cool.
  
  2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to the boil and cook the pasta according to package instructions. When it’s done, drain and remove to a large bowl. Toss with 1 Tbs. of olive oil and 1 Tbs. of balsamic vinegar and set aside.
  
  3. Heat a small frying pan over high heat. When it’s hot, add the nuts and cook for 3-4 minutes until nicely toasted (toss frequently). Remove from heat to cool.
  
  4. When the squash and onions are cool enough to handle, remove roughly half the onions (I chose the burnt, ie less pretty, ones) and chop them finely. Dump them into the bowl containing the pasta, followed by the squash and rest of the onions, two thirds of the nuts and the remaining 1 Tbs. of olive oil. Mix everything together gently and add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle over the goat’s cheese and the rest of the nuts and serve.

I’m sitting here, having a slice of leftover tart for lunch, and thinking about how entirely inappropriate this meal was for an Easter dinner. I wanted to bring something to my sister’s celebration on Sunday, both to contribute to the table and so I’d have something “special” to eat myself. (She was cooking a ham, and I’m loathe to make a vegetarian meal out of side dishes alone. As good as the boiled buttered cabbage and scalloped potatoes were, they weren’t going to do me for such a festive occasion.) But the vegetables in the tart I made were so completely unspringlike- much more appropriate for Thanksgiving than for Easter.

I ask you, why does Easter have to be so early in the year? Obviously we can’t just go moving holidays around to suit our culinary inclinations, but it does seem to me that a holiday with such hopeful, joyous connotations deserves produce that evokes similar feelings. (Well, I think the connotations of Easter are hopeful and joyous- you’ll have to ask my sister to be sure. I used to read novels in church, tucked in between the pages of a Bible.) 

But such isn’t the case, and looking in the market on Sunday for inspiring Spring vegetables, I was mightily disappointed. Too early for asparagus, too early for peas and beans, I settled on an old favourite, the butternut squash. In the past I’ve roasted cubes of this for a quiche, adding caramelized onion and chopped sage for a autumnal weekend lunch. This time I wanted to try something different, having seen an intriguing recipe in my fabulous French Bakery cookbook Breakfast, Lunch, Tea.  

This recipe differs from that more standard quiche in several key ways. It’s not overly eggy, only containing one whole egg and one yolk, and instead of roasting cubes of squash and mixing them into a cream mixture, you puree all the ingredients together before filling the pie shell. The end result is creamy but light, more like a savory pumpkin pie than a traditional vegetable tart. The whole wheat crust and high veggie content make this a tart you can actually feel quite virtuous eating. So perhaps suitable for Easter after all, then? 

• Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Tart with Sage and Pinenuts
• Adapted from Breakfast, Lunch, Tea by Rose Carrarini
• makes one 10″ tart
• 350g plain white flour
  150g whole wheat flour
  1/2 t. salt
  pinch of cinnamon
  250g unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1cm cubes
  1 egg yolk
  1/2 cup cold water
• 2 small-medium onions
  2 Tsp. butter
  2 Tsp. olive oil
  salt and pepper
  5-6 sage leaves 
• 1 medium butternut squash
  1/2 cup single cream
  1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
  1 egg yolk
  pinch of grated nutmeg
  salt and pepper
  1/4 cup pinenuts, toasted
  4-6 sage leaves
• 1. Mix the flours, salt and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Add the butter and work it into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or your fingers, until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
  
  2. Make a well in the middle of the flour, and add the egg yolk and half the water. Mix quickly with a fork until the mixture comes together. (If it is very cold out, you may need to add a bit more cold water, a teaspoon at a time.) Use your hands to quickly mold the dough into a ball. There is no kneading involved, you just want to work quickly, and make sure the dough is neither sticky or too crumbly. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  
  3. Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease a 10″ tart tin, quiche pan, or loose-bottom cake pan with butter. Take the dough out of the fridge and divide into three even pieces. Two of these pieces can be wrapped in clingfilm and frozen for another day.  
  
  4. Flour a work surface and a rolling pin, and roll out the remaining piece of dough to about 1/8″ thick. Lift it gently into your greased pan, making sure that you don’t stretch it to fit. Press it into the pan gently and trim away the tops. Return to the fridge for another 30 minutes.
  
  5. Bake the tart cases blind with whatever weighs you have inside (uncooked rice or beans in foil, or ceramic baking weights) for about 25-30 minutes, removing the weights after 20. The pastry should be dry and just beginning to turn golden. 
• 6. Slice the onions thinly, and place in a heavy pan (with a lid!) over medium heat. When they begin to dry out and stick to the pan (after about 5 minutes), add the butter, olive oil and sage leaves, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Turn the heat down to low, cover again, and cook for 30-50 minutes, stirring occasionally. You may need to add a bit more olive oil if they begin to stick. The onions are done when they’re deep brown, barely holding their shape and taste sweet. Set aside to cool. 
• 7. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Quarter the butternut squash lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Place the pieces in a baking dish and brush with olive oil. Roast gently for 30-40 minutes, until browning in parts and soft. When you take the squash out of the oven, turn the heat down to 180°C/350°F.
  
  8. When the squash is cool enough to handle, peel off the skin (use a sharp knife if you find it difficult) and break up the squash. Place the chunks in a large bowl or jug, and add the cream, egg, egg yolk and nutmeg. Using an immersion blender, puree the mixture until smooth. (If you don’t have an immersion blender,this step can also be done in a food processor.)
  
  9. Gently fold the caramelized onions into the squash mixture, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon into the cooled tart case and shake gently to settle. Arrange the remaining sage leaves on top of the tart, and sprinkle over the toasted pinenuts. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is shiny, set and just turning golden.

In the autumn, when the leaves begin to fall from the trees and the days get shorter and cooler, most people (the type with varied interests and a healthy grasp on reality) are prone to melancholy. Foodies, however, see this change in a more positive light. A new season means new produce to buy, new recipes to try, new realms of gastronomic pleasure to explore. Summer’s remaining wares might start to look a little stringy and tired, but right around the corner is the most delicious season of all: harvest.

This time of year has been even better for me since I discovered the vegetal delight that is the butternut squash. Yes, I know- I was a late arrival to the squash party. Everyone else has been enjoying it for years, where have I been, etc. No need to rub it in. But rest assured, since buying my first one sometime last September, I’ve been making up for lost time. Immediately falling for its sweet, nutty taste, creamy flesh and versatility, I, uh, went a little overboard. I began cooking with it all the time- squash made appearances in quiche, on pizza, in risotto, with numerous pasta dishes. Eventually, around the middle of November, Andrew had to impose a quota on me. I was allowed to cook one meal per week involving butternut squash. Just one. Really, it was for my own good.

Recently, with the lengthening of the days, I found myself looking forward to the fresh green goods of spring, and believed squash was slowly losing its grip on me. In fact, when I opened up my new Jamie at Home book for some fresh inspiration over the weekend, I hadn’t cooked with it in weeks. (Thank you, thank you.) But, as soon as I saw Jamie’s recipe for Butternut Squash Muffins with a Frosty Top, as soon as I read the description comparing the taste and texture to that of carrot cake (another foodstuff with a mysterious hold over me), I knew I had to make them. And it couldn’t wait until next fall. I was going back to the squash.

Of course, I did play with the recipe a bit- I can never leave well enough alone. I couldn’t believe a recipe for one dozen muffins called for 2 1/4 cups of sugar (that must be a typo), especially when squash is naturally so sweet. I promptly reduced it to a cup, and subbed dark brown sugar for the called-for light brown. I also played with the frosting a little bit- adding cream cheese to suit my North American sensibilities.

The resulting muffins are nothing short of delicious. More an afternoon treat muffin than a wholesome breakfast number, they are dense but not heavy, with a nutty sweetness from the squash (and, uh, the nuts). They’re really good- just make them. You won’t be sorry. 

• Butternut Squash Muffins
• Adapted from Jamie at Home, by Jamie Oliver
• makes 12 large muffins (more if your tins are smaller are on the small side)
• 14 oz. butternut squash, deseeded but with the skin left on
  1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar 
  4 large eggs
  1/4 tsp. salt
  2 1/2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
  2 tsp. baking powder
  1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  1 tsp. cinnamon
  1/2 cup olive oil
• zest of 1 lemon
  zest of 1 clementine
  1 Tbs. lemon juice
  1/4 cup cream cheese
  1/4 cup creme fraiche
  2 heaping Tbs. icing sugar
  1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF/170ºC. Line your muffin tins with paper cups, if you’re using them. 
  
  2. Grate the squash, or whiz it in a food processor until finely chopped. Add in the sugar, eggs and oil and mix well. Then add the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and walnuts, and stir by hand until just combined. Don’t overdo it- you want it to be a bit lumpy. 
   
  3. Divide the mixture among your muffin cups, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a wooden skewer comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool.            
  
  4. To make your frosting, simply combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk well. Taste it to make sure you like the ratio of sweet to sour- I like my frosting on the sharper side, but you may want to add more sugar. 

  5. When the muffins are almost cool, spoon the frosting over the tops. Depending on how thin your icing is/how warm your muffins are, it may melt attractively down the sides or else it might just sit there like a blob. Mine was a bit thicker so I had to spread it around. Top with a bit more lemon/orange zest, if you like.