Mincemeat and custard muffins

I have to confess that this recipe comes from my brother, and it is very delicous - a new way to have a mince pie.

Ingredients

Muffin

250g (9oz) plain flour
85g (3oz) sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

240ml (8 fl oz)milk

90ml (3 fl oz) sunflower oil

Mincemeat

Ready made custard

Method

1. Lin muffin tins.
2. Preheat oven to 190-200C (gas 5-6)
3. In a large bowl, sift together flour baking powder and salt. Stir in sugar and set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, beat egg with fork. Stir in milk and oil.
5. Pour liquid into dry mixture. The final batter will not be smooth, there will be some lumps in batter, but no visible flour.
6. Half fill muffin cases. Add 3/4 teaspoons of mincemeat and 3/4 teaspoons of custard. Put more muffin mixture on top until case is 3/4 full.

chocolate cake in a mug

I heard about this recipe a while ago and have just got around to making it. It is delicious, quick and easy to
make. I have made these as a quick pudding for my 2 children. Ioan says that they taste like my chocolate chip muffins.

(I promise - it  tastes nicer than  it looks)

The recipe makes 2 mugs and you can mix the ingredients in the mugs.

4 tablespoons plain flour
5 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips
drop of vanilla essence

• Place flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips in mugs (divided evenly)

• In a bowl gently whisk egg with milk, oil and vanilla essence.
• Pour half of egg mix into each mug and mix well, ensure that no flour is left at bottom of mug.
• Place each mug in microwave (separately) and cook on high for 1 min and then 30 secs at a time on medium until cooked. I find I need a minute on medium. Cake should be cooked with not uncooked mix on the top and feels slightly firm to touch.

Serve with cream or ice cream.

Quick and easy Pizza

Naan Bread Pizza

I made these last night for the kids to have for their pack lunch today.  I thought I would work out how many points they are on weightwatchers and if you use the mini naan breads (sainsburys healthy eating) and half a slice of ham they work out at 3.5 points.

Ingredients

• 2  mini Naan Bread or 1 large Naan bread
• Pizza sauce (jar or you can make your own)
• 1 oz grated cheese
• any toppings you want.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 240C
2. Spread tomato sauce on the Naan bread.
3. Put on toppings as desired.
4. Put grated cheese on the top.
5. Cook in oven for 8 mins (until cheese has melted)

No pictures at the moment, may put some up next time I make them. The kids love these in their lunch boxes.

Carrot and Coriander soup

Yummy Carrot and Coriander soup (0 points on weight watchers)

1 Onion (sliced)
1 kg Carrot (chopped)
2 Pints veg Stock (using 2 veg oxo cubes)
1 tsp ground coriander
freshly ground salt and pepper



picture from BBC food

1. Use frylight in pan and sweat onions and carrots for 3-4 mins to soften.
2. Stir in the ground coriander and salt and pepper, cook for 1 minute.
3. Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Simmer until vegetables are soft.
4. Blend the soup until smooth.

Abbots Leigh Pool

Today the sun was shining, so this afternoon we decided to take the kids out. Huw had heard of Abbots Leigh pool and fancied having a look. So after lunch we got in the car (after some grumbling from the kids) and set off for Abbots Leigh, we weren't 100% sure of where we were going but had a rough idea. Anyway we managed to find the right road (Manor Road) and found a signpost and squeezed into the car park. Well it just looks like a wooded area, but as soon as we got to the pool it was lovely with trails around, up steep banks. There were quite a few people around, dogs walking and swimming in the pool. Mountain bikers riding around the trails. We also did some geo-caching while we were walking - to give the kids something to do. Ioan and Carys found a rope swing and had great fun swinging on the rope. Carys managed to graze her knee as she skidded along the ground and Ioan hurt his arms. They want to go back again next week so it was worth dragging them out of the house.

 
Carys swinging

Carys's bad knee

Carys found a den

Carys watching the dogs swimming in the pool

Ioan swinging

Carys hiding from the camera

Ioan jumping across a dam

A dragonfly

Wedding Cake

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. I have had a couple of busy weeks. However in that time I did make a wedding cake which is part of the reason for no blog.

The cake had a chocolate fruit cake layer at the bottom. I used Nigella's recipe

Ingredients

• 12 1/4 ounces (350 grams) dried soft prunes, chopped
• 8 3/4 ounces (250 grams) raisins
• 4 1/2 ounces(125 grams) currants
• 6 1/4 ounces (175 grams) unsalted butter, softened
• 6 1/4 (175 grams) dark muscovado sugar
• 6 1/4 fluid ounces (175 ml) honey
• 4 1/2 fluid ounces (125 ml) coffee liqueur
• 2 oranges, zested and juiced
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 2 tablespoons good quality cocoa
• 3 free-range eggs, beaten
• 5 1/4 ounces (150 grams) plain flour
• 2 1/2 ounces (75 grams) ground almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2. Line the sides and bottom of an 8 by 3 1/2-inch deep, round loose-bottomed cake tin with a layer of reusable silicon baking parchment. When lining the tin with the parchment, cut the material into strips that are twice as high as the tin itself (it is easier to use two shorter strips of parchment, than one long strip); the height of the strips protects the cake from catching on the outside of the cake tin.
3. Place the fruit, butter, sugar, honey, coffee liqueur, orange zest and juice, mixed spice and cocoa into a large wide saucepan. Heat the mixture until it reaches a gentle boil, stirring the mixture as the butter melts. Let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes.
4. After 30 minutes, the mixture will have cooled a little. Add the eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and baking soda, and mix well with a wooden
5. Carefully pour the fruitcake mixture into the lined cake tin. Transfer the cake tin to the oven and bake for 1 3/4 to 2 hours, or until the top of the cake is firm but will has a shiny and sticky look. At this point, if you insert a sharp knife into the middle of the cake, the cake should still be a little uncooked in the middle.
6. Place the cake on a cooling rack. Once the cake has cooled, remove it from the tin.

how to make a paper hurricane cover

how to make a paper hurricane cover

I think this is a really cool idea. May have to try it one day. Will post pictures if I do.

The best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have borrowed a book from my mother-in-law - Nigella Express. I love Nigella's recipes. One of my family's favourites (within the first few bakes) has become Totally chocolate Chocolate chip cookies.


I have adapted the recipe to suit my family and I don't use the best chocolate in the world. I do try and use chocolate with a high cocoa solid content. The best thing about this recipe is it make 12 cookies, you can cook as many as you want (fresh) and then freeze the rest in their ice-cream scoop blobs, ready to get out of the freezer and straight in the oven for fresh cookies another day. 

Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

(adapted from Nigella Express)

Ingredients

100g milk Chocolate

25g dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa solids)

150g Self-raising flour

30g Cocoa

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon Salt

125g butter

75g light brown sugar

50g sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

2 bags of chocolate chips (white, milk, dark - I use about 200g)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Melt the chocolate (I do this in the microwave for about 2 mins).
2. Put the flour, cocoa, bicarb and salt into a small bowl.
3. Cream the butter and both sugars in a large bowl. Add the melted chocolate
4. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract and then mix in the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips.
5. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out equal size mounds (don't flatten) and place about 6cm apart,as they will spread as they cook, on a lined baking sheet.
6. Cook for 18 minutes.
7. Leave to cool slightly on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack. 

They taste best fresh, so don't cook them all. Cook what you need and put the rest on a tray in the freezer. When hard transfer to a bag. Cook from frozen as needed. Yummy!!!

Scones

Today I was watching the second 'Great British Bake' on BBC2. Paul Hollywood is one of the judges on this program and he had given the contestants the ingredients and left them to make the scones. During the program he gave useful tips on how to make a good scone (something I have never been able to do). So I thought I would have ago. This is the result.

Carys said it was beautiful

I searched the internet for a recipe and found this one

Scone Recipe

Ingredients

500g/1lb 1oz strong bread flour, plus a little extra for rolling out
80g/3oz softened butter, plus a little extra to grease the baking tray
80g/3oz caster sugar
2 free-range eggs
5 tsp baking powder
250ml/8½fl oz milk
1 free-range egg, beaten with a little salt (for glazing)

To serve
butter
good-quality strawberry or raspberry jam
clotted cream

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 220C (200C fan assisted)/425F/Gas 7.


2. Lightly grease a baking tray with butter and line it with baking or silicone paper (not greaseproof).


3. Put 450g/15½oz (watch out for this I put all my flour in - whoops) of the flour into a large bowl and add the butter. Rub the flour and butter together with your fingers to create a breadcrumb-like mixture.


4. Add the sugar, eggs and baking powder and use a wooden spoon to turn the mixture gently.Make sure you mix all the way down to the bottom and incorporate all of the ingredients.


5. Now add half of the milk and keep turning the mixture gently with the spoon to combine. Then add the remaining milk a little at a time and bring everything together to form a very soft, wet dough. (You may not need to add all of the milk.)


6. Sprinkle most of the remaining flour onto a clean work surface. Tip the soft dough out onto the work surface and sprinkle the rest of the flour on top. The mixture will be wet and sticky.


7. Use your hands to fold the dough in half, then turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat. By folding and turning the mixture in this way (called 'chaffing'), you incorporate the last of the flour and add air. Do this a few times until you’ve formed a smooth dough. If the mixture becomes too sticky use some extra flour to coat the mixture or your hands to make it more manageable. Be careful not to overwork your dough.


8. Next roll the dough out: sprinkle flour onto the work surface and the top of the dough, then use the rolling pin to roll up from the middle and then down from the middle. Turn the dough by 90 degrees and continue to roll until it’s about 2.5cm/1in thick. ‘Relax’ the dough slightly by lifting the edges and allowing the dough to drop back onto the work surface.


9. Using a pastry cutter, stamp out rounds from the pastry and place them onto the baking tray. Once you’ve cut 4 or 5 rounds you can re-work and re-roll the dough to make it easier to cut out the remaining rounds. Any leftover dough can be worked and rolled again, but the resulting scones won’t be as fluffy.


10. Place the scones on the baking tray and leave them to rest for a few minutes to let the baking powder work. Then use a pastry brush (or your finger if you don’t have a brush) to glaze them with the beaten egg and salt mixture. Be careful to keep the glaze on the top of the scones. (If it runs down the sides it will stop them rising evenly.)


11. Bake the scones in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes, or until the scones are risen and 
golden-brown.


12. Leave the scones to cool, then split in half and add butter, jam and clotted cream to serve.

Its a start

I have been pondering blogging for a while now and decided that today would be the day. As if I didn't have enough to do today. I have been watching the great british bake off http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00thy2x. Fantastic program and I recommend it to all  bakers, great tips, I have learnt how to make scones today.