Smartie cookies

I think everyone has a soft spot, and recipe, for Smarties cookies. I adore them and so do my children. After all these years they still get excited when they see these cookies in the biscuit tin and they always disappear quickly.

I can't remember exactly where I got this recipe from, I think it it was 'Good Food' magazine but I can't be sure, it was scribbled down in my hand written recipe book years ago and has been used many times.

Smarties cookies

100g/ 4oz butter
100g/ 40z soft dark sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
150g/ 6oz s/r flour
85g/ 30z Smarties






Pre-heat oven to 180c/ gas mark 4.
Beat butter and sugar together in a bowl until creamy.
Beat in the syrup.
Work in half the flour, stir in the Smarties, add remaining flour and bring the dough together with your fingers. Divide into 14 balls.
Place well apart on a baking sheet, do not flatten them.
Bake for 12 minutes until pale golden on the edges. Cool on a wire rack.



This recipe makes a soft, chewy cookie. I get 14 good sized ones from this amount of dough but you can divide the dough further to make thinner, chewier cookies from the dough if you wish.
I think the reason I love this recipe is it reminds me so much of my Mam's gingersnaps. No-one ever made gingersnaps like my Mam, soft, chewy not crisp like my Granny's, I realised today that if I get rid of the Smarties and add ginger they would be my Mams biscuits. I love 'food nostalgia', hopefully my kids will one day look back at this recipe and feel the same about these cookies.

Hello stranger!

Long time no see! It's been quite a while since my last post, why?, I'm not sure really.
I lost my mojo, wasn't really inspired to cook at all, let alone think of blogging, and as always, life has a way of creeping up on you and taking over. I still haven't got that spark back but as I felt a little inspiration to stir up some treats in the kitchen I thought I'd share them with you.




Lunchbox treats

50g milk chocolate
150g rice malt syrup (I used a less healthier golden syrup)
55g butter
60g rice crispies
30g cornflakes (I crushed them a little)
40g quick cook oats
75g sesame seeds

Melt the chocolate, syrup and butter gently in a heavy-based saucepan.

Add all the other ingredients, turning to coat everything well.

Using your hands (encased in CSI gloves), shape the mixture into walnut-sized balls. You should get about 25; you could also make this using a 12-bun muffin tin lined with muffin papers to get 12 larger cupcakes.

Let them set in the fridge for an hour or so, and they will keep quite happily in there for a week of treats.



I spent the day pottering about and decided I wanted to bake but without the mess, some light weighing and stirring, these lunchbox treats from Nigella Express sounded perfect. Nigella says these are a ideal wholesome snack, including rice malt syrup, seeds and cereal. I can see how that is a healthy snack option, I had no rice malt syrup, so I substituted for good old unhealthy golden syrup. I imagine this substitution made quite a difference to the flavour of these treats and dare I say, for the better. These moreish bites were a cross between a Toffee crisp bar and a Lion bar (remember them?) delicious. Nigella does say that they will last up to a week in the fridge, this batch lasted a few hours, they disappeared in a blink of a eye.

Jammy coconut mallows

It's no secret that I love baking and one of my favourite parts of baking is taking something old fashioned and easily bought in any shop and recreating it at home. For example I am always baking biscuits and lets be honest, unlike cakes and puddings, it is very easy to buy in good quality biscuits very cheaply, especially here in Britain, we love our biscuits here.
Custard creams, digestives and shortbread are firm family favourites and you can buy them in any corner shop but nothing compares to the real deal.

Flicking through this months Good food magazine I came across these mallow biscuits, a reworking on a old fashioned favourite. The original versions were a square shortbread biscuit covered in two rows of coconut dusted mini mallows with a row of raspberry jam running down the centre.
This recipe makes coconut biscuits sandwich together with jam and melted marshmallows, the biscuits are then rolled in jam and coconut, a new twist on a old favourite....a taste of my childhood.

Jammy coconut mallows

For the biscuits:
250g butter, softened
140g golden caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g plain flour
100g desiccated coconut
For the middles and coating:
about 175g raspberry jam
18 large pink and white marshmallows, cut in half across the middle
25g desiccated coconut

Heat oven to 190c/ gas 5.
Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla together with a pinch of salt until smooth. Fold in the flour and coconut to form a dough.

On a floured surface, shape the dough into a round, then roll to the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut into rounds using a 6cm cutter. Lift onto baking sheets, then bake for 14 minutes until light golden. Cool for a few minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

To sandwich the biscuits, lay half out on a baking sheet, under-side up. Put half a teaspoon of jam on each one, and top with a piece of marshmallow, then bake for 2 1/2 minutes or until just melted. Remove from oven, then quickly top with the other biscuits, pressing down so that the marshmallow sticks them together and just oozes out.
Cool for 10 minutes. Put the coconut and remaining jam onto plates, dip the edges in the jam, them roll in the coconut.

These really took me back and boy, were they popular, more so with the adults than the children. These biscuits will be a regular in my biscuit tin

Raisin and cinnamon milk loaf

I came to bake this bread by chance really, I set out to make the Cornish saffron bread from Rachel Allen's Bake.
This recipe intrigued me as it uses warm milk infused with saffron to give a lovely colour to the loaf. The only problem was that on eating this loaf I discovered that I have a intolerance (I don't like to use the term allergy here) to saffron.
Weeks ago I developed a ever so slight rash on my face (after eating paella) it faded quickly and I thought nothing of it, until now. As soon as the loaf was cooked and had cooled enough to eat I took a slice, withing minutes the same rash again developed on my face. Trying to convince myself that I do not have a saffron intolerance I later ate another slice, as you do, and the rash worsened. It covered my whole face, so saffron is now off the menu at my house.
However, apart from giving me a nasty rash we all thought the bread was very good, it had a different texture to regular bread, I put this down to the milk and my daughter commented that the crust was delicious, she hates homemade bread crusts. My only gripe with the recipe was it needed a extra something....cinnamon.
So, the following day I made the loaf again, I omitted the saffron, and instead infused the milk with a cinnamon stick, and added ground cinnamon to the flour. I also used a smaller tin than the one Rachel recommends. The loaf was perfect.


Raisin and cinnamon milk loaf

350g strong white flour, sifted
1 tsp ground cinnamon
50g caster sugar
100g butter, softened
75g raisins
1/2 cinnamon stick
200ml cold milk
1 x 7g sachet of fast acting yeast

1 lb loaf tin.



Grease and line the loaf tin.
Place flour, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl, mix well. Rub in the butter, until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the rasins.
In a small saucepan, bring the cinnamon stick and milk to the boil over a low heat. Remove from the heat, cool to body temperature, remove the cinnamon stick, then add the fast acting yeast.
Pour liquid into the dry ingredients, mix well then knead for 10 minutes.
Place in a large bowl, cover, and leave to rise until it had doubled in size.
Knock back the dough, knead again and place in the prepared tin. Cover again and leave to rise for another hour.
Preheat oven to 180c/ gas mark 4, when the dough has doubled in size bake it in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour.


I must admit I did prefer the second version of this bread and will make it again. I love the idea of using warm milk in the dough, the dough was fabulous to knead, in fact to look at, it reminded me of choux pastry, it had a lovely feel. The cooked bread had the texture, almost, of brioche, so, so light and fluffy. A perfect fruity loaf.

Half term baking - Valentine's cookies

It's half term here and with the weather looking decidedly bleak the obvious way to kill a few hours is with some home baking, Valentine's day is a obvious theme right now. Cut out cookies it was to be but the 'problem' with cut out cookies and children is that children love to 'play' with their piece of dough. It gets rolled, shaped, crumpled up, re-rolled, re-shaped and so on after a while it becomes tough and inedible - for the children - personally I don't eat the re-rolled creations, I simple admire the work of my little angels.
In my quest to find a good workable, child friendly dough I tried a much recommended one from Martha Stewart, her sugar cookies. This dough was great, I found it a little wet to start with and added a extra 3/4 cup of flour but apart from that it was a dream to work with. We started off with heart shaped cookies, moving onto champagne flutes - quite fitting for Valentine's day, before long my son was cutting out palm trees and flamingos - wishful thinking for a drab and dreary February.


Sugar cookies
from The Martha Stewart cookbook
Makes approx. 2 dozen cookies

2 cups of all purpose flour (I needed a extra 3/4 cup)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 pound butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp brandy - I swapped for milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Sift together the dry ingredients. In a electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light; add the egg, brandy and vanilla and beat well. Add the dry ingredients a little at a time and mix until well blended
Wrap and chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before rolling.
Preheat the oven to 400f. On a lightly floured board, roll out one third of the dough at a time. Roll to about 1/8inch thick and cut out with cookie cutters. Put shaped on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Do not allow to burn. Cool on racks.

Decorate as your children choose to do so.

This dough was incredible, very robust but still came out of the oven light and crisp, they went down a storm, a great recipe.

Oat, seed and raisin cookies

There is nothing flash or fancy about oat and raisin cookies, indeed I'd go as far to say that they are home baking at it's best. Simple, wholesome ingredients, yet still deliciously addictive.
I have been baking oat cookies for my kids for years and years and everyone loves them, this slightly healthier version proved just as delicious.
This recipe, from Annabel Karmel (fabulous kids food expert) includes sunflower seeds alongside the oats and raisins. It's a great way to get extra seeds into the children's diet, they didn't realise the seeds were there at all and really enjoyed the cookies.
I have to say I loved the addition of the seeds the cookies tasted very much like Hob-nobs and to say there is relatively little sugar in the recipe they taste as though the have been drenched in syrup.
Chewy, crunchy and (sort of) good for you....what more could you wish for in a cookie.




Oat and raisin cookies

75g butter
85g golden caster sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
75g raisins
50g sunflower seeds
50g plain flour
1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2tsp salt
40g porridge oats

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in all of the remaining ingredients until completely combined.
Shape into walnut-sized balls and flatten slightly by pressing in the centre with your fingers.
Place in an oven pre-heated to 180c for 12-14 minutes until golden.
Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12-15 biscuits.

Pacific lime chicken

I wasn't going to blog about this chicken dish, mainly because I find it impossible to take a half decent picture of chicken portions, I don't know why, I just can't make them look nice, I really need to work on my plating up skills, lol. However as soon as I tasted this dish I knew I had to post about it as it is, by far, the most delicious chicken recipe I have tried in a long while.

The recipe comes from Diana Henry's Cook Simple, a fantastic book that I have lusted over for months and finally picked it up. I have heard many good things about this book from other bloggers and on foodie forums and new this would be a great book for me, I'm not disappointed, in fact it is one of the few books I own that I could quite easily cook everything in it.

This is the very first recipe in the book and as I had everything to hand I gave it a go, so glad I did, everyone raved about this chicken, in fact my son and I resorted to spooning the leftover cooked marinade out of the dish stove-side, we couldn't get enough. I have mentioned before of my love of sticky chicken, this is super sticky and the limes really come though, I find that a lot of marinades don't really penetrate the meat, this really did and I only left it a few hours, overnight marinating would be spectacular.

Pacific lime chicken - serves 4

8 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on

wedges of lime, to serve

Marinade:

5 tbsp runny honey

5tbsp dark soy sauce

juice of 4 limes

3tsp soft brown sugar

3 garlic cloves, crushed or grated

leaves from 5 sprigs of thyme

black pepper


Mix all the marinade ingredients together. Make incisions in the underside of the chicken and pour the marinade over it. Cover with cling film. If you have time, leave the chicken to marinate - anything from 15 minutes to the whole afternoon - in the refrigerator, turning the chicken pieces every so often.

Lift the chicken out of the marinade and put it in a small roasting tin or shallow gratin dish; it needs to lie in a single layer. Roast in an oven preheated to 190c/ gas mark 5 for 35-40 minutes, basting every so often with the leftover marinade and cooking juices until cooked through. If it gets too dark in colour, cover the dish with foil. The finished dish will be sticky and glossy. Serve with fresh limes, cut into wedges or halves.

Luscious lunch

I am not a girl who can skip lunch, or any other meal for that matter, I need breakfast as soon as I wake up and then spend hours dreaming of lunch time. This recipe comes from the first Cook yourself thin book and it is meant to be a tasty side dish, but it's great for cabbage lovers (like me!) as a really quick cook lunch. The original recipe is shredded savoy cabbage with toasted pine nuts and crispy prosciutto. I often chop and change it, any green cabbage will do and the prosciutto is often swapped for Serrano ham, as I used today, or my favourite, crispy pancetta....drool. The only thing I never change is the toasted pine nuts, I adore pine nuts and often I'm so hastily wanting to eat them I don't toast them properly, as in the picture, lol.









Shredded savoy cabbage with toasted pine nuts and crispy prosciutto



250g savoy cabbage

20g pine nuts

35g prosciutto - or other continental meat

1/2 tsp olive oil

2 sage leaves, finely chopped - I omit these

salt

1/4 tsp white pepper - I prefer to use black

Serves 2 - as a side dish

150 calories per serving



Take the outer leaves off the cabbage from the outside in and, using a sharp knife, remove the core. Roll the leaves up like cigars and slice into thin ribbons. Give them a quick wash under the tap and set aside without bothering to dry them too much.

In a large dry frying pan, toast the pine nuts over a medium-heat until golden. When toasted and lovely, remove them from the pan and set aside. Next add the prosciutto, laying it out flat in the bottom of the pan for 4 minutes until it has shrunk slightly and gone crispy. Set aside with the pine nuts.

Heat the pan up and pop in the olive oil, sage and cabbage. Stir-fry this mixture for 5 minutes, then put in 1 teaspoon of water, turn the heat off completely and place the lid on for another 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then add the prosciutto in little shards and pine nuts before serving.

Date bars

After my subtle hints for Rachel Allen's new book, Bake, for Christmas fell on deaf ears I decided that for my birthday I'd drop subtle as a sledgehammer hints for this book, it worked, after receiving some lovely gifts for my birthday what fell through the letterbox but Bake, it was well worth the wait.

I am the first to admit I find Rachel quite uncomfortable to watch on TV, she doesn't seem to have that natural show business flair, but I adore her books, they are all so homely and family oriented and I love the fact that in some of her recipes she will tell you to go and have a cup of tea while you're waiting on something coming out of the oven.

Flicking through the book so many wonderful bakes jumped out at me, in particular the blueberry cheesecake but I settled on these date bars mainly because I adore dates and stocked up on loads of them in the post Christmas sales.





These bars are a cross between a fruit slice and fruit crumble, basically a crumble mix, half of it pressed into the base of a tin, covered in a layer of fruit, and sprinkled with the remaining crumble. They are really delicious, sweet, sticky, light and fruity. My OH wasn't too interested in their appearance but fell in love them after one bite. They would also be fabulous with a apple and blackberry filling which I shall be cooking in the Autumn.

Date bars from Rachel Allen's Bake

250ml water

200g dates (stoned and chopped) I used 150g dates and 50g of prunes that were needing used up.

175g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

175g soft light brown sugar

100g porridge oats

good pinch of salt

175g butter, diced

20 x 20cm square tin

Preheat the oven to 180c/ Gas mark 4. Butter the sides of the cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

Place the water and chopped dates in a medium-sized saucepan and bring up to a simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes, uncovered, on a low-medium heat until the date mixture is very soft and thick, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Add the sugar, oats and salt and mix well. Add the butter and, using your fingertips, rub it in until moist clumps form.

Press half of the oat mixture evenly over the base of the prepared tin. Spread the cooked date mixture over this, then sprinkle with the remaining oat mixture. Press gently with the palm of your hand to flatten it on top.

Bake in the oven for approximately 40 minutes or until golden brown at the edges and set in the centre.

Allow to cool completely in the tin, then cut into bars and serve.

Persian-style onion soup

French onion soup is a Bistro classic, delicious it may be but it is a faff, then add croutons or bread and a mound of cheese and the calories soon add up. Still recovering from the festive season I am craving some lighter foods and turned to Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite for inspiration. This simple, aromatic and lightly spiced soup immediately caught my eye, I don't know how I managed to overlook it before.


Persian-style onion soup
serves 4

3 tbsp olive oil
5 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
sea salt and black pepper
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp dried mint
2 tbsp plain flour
700ml vegetable or chicken stock
1 cinnamon stick
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp caster sugar
few flat leave parsley sprigs, I swapped for coriander.

Place a heavy based pan over a medium heat. Add 2 tbsp olive oil, the onions and some seasoning. Cover and seat for 12-15 minutes until the onions are soft, lifting the lid and stirring occasionally. Remove the lid and increase the heat very slightly.

Add the spices, dried mint and remaining oil, then stir in the flour, cook, stirring frequently, for 3-5 minutes. Gradually pour in stock, whisking as you do so to prevent any lumps forming. When it has all been added, drop in the cinnamon stick and simmer over a low heat, partially covered with the lid, for 30-40 minutes.

Stir in the lemon juice and sugar, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Discard the cinnamon stick. Ladle the soup into warm bowls and scatter over the herbs to serve.

This soup is very good, quick enough to make for a special lunch and uses store cupboard ingrediants. The subtle spices make a wonderfully aromatic base for this soup, I can't get enough of it and I'm planning to cook it again this week.

As promised here is a little taster of some of the goodies we ate over the holidays, I decided not to show the pile of selection boxes, Quality street and Toblerone's we scoffed, baked goodies only, it was only as I uploaded the pics I noticed they were all recipes from Nigella's books, all very good and I recommend you try them all.
I apologise for the dodgy photography, not my strong point at the best of times but I think these pictures are proof that I hit the Eggnog a bit heavily.


Seasonally spiced nuts, from Nigella Christmas....fabulous!




Star topped mince pies from HTBADG, I made Delia's mincemeat, it is wonderful.

Chocolate Christmas cake from Feast/ Nigella Christmas. As a Christmas cake lover I was wary of this cake, I needn't have been, it is delicious, although I couldn't taste the chocolate in it...and I'd added extra.

Chilli jam from Nigella Christmas....Like a thick set sweet chilli dipping sauce, wonderful! I am adding it to allsorts. Fantastic addition to any sandwich, I will up the chilli ratio next time though, I like to have a small fire in my mouth, this needs more fire.

Christmas pudding bonbons....what a carry on, lol. Thanks to 'Rhyley's granny' for supplying me with the elusive green glace cherries, I cheated and instead of making pudding bonbons I made dark chocolate truffle versions of them. Kitsch, yes, a pain in the backside to decorate...Oh YES!

Christmas cupcakes from Nigella Christmas. My son baked these when he was home sick, child's play to make and eat.

Marshmallow squares from Nigella Express. I made these twice in one weekend, we all couldn't get enough of them, they looked so pretty covered in glitter that hasn't shown up in pics but believe me they were cool.

Hopefully normal service will be resumed soon, I can't wait to get back to blogging and back to normal.

NO, I havent dropped off the face of the earth...

but I can see why regular readers may assume I have done so. I havent posted since the beginning of December and I really don't know where the time went. On top of the regular December madness I was ill, had sick kids to deal with and was without internet access for over a week (that was worse then being ill) however I have still been cooking and hopefully before New year I will at least show pics of what we ate over Christmas.

Another apology to the Daring bakers, I was unable to take part in this months very tricky challenge.

This month's challenge was brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand, and you can look at the hundreds of Daring bakers take on this challenge by checking out the blog roll.

Hopefully things will be back to normal by next month and I can look forward to another challenge.

Once again, my sincere apologies, I hope to back very soon. I hope everybody had a fabulous Christmas and has a prosperous New year.

Maple chicken

This is always a hit, and always requested by my son, the recipe comes from Nigella Express and in the original recipe you use chicken and ribs, my son loved the original recipe so much that it toppled Elvis' backyard ribs from his top spot, he is extremely fussy about his ribs, I will blog Elvis' ribs one day, they are so good that they never hang around long enough to have their picture taken.


Like most people I am forever looking for ways to jazz up chicken drumsticks so I simply left out the ribs and used this tasty marinade, made with store cupboard staples.

Great for a simple supper.

The original recipe from Nigella Express

Maple chicken 'N' ribs

12 pork spare ribs

12 chicken portions, skin and bone still on

250ml apple juice, as sharp as possible

4 x 15ml tablespoons Maple syrup

2 x 15ml tablespoons vegetable oil

2 x 15ml tablespoons soy sauce

2 star anise

1 cinnamon stick, halved

6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

Put the ribs and chicken in a couple of large freezer bags or into a dish.
Add the remaining ingrediants, squelching everything together well, before sealing the bag or covering the dish.
Leave to marinate in the fridge overnight or up to a couple of days.
When marinating time is up, take the dish out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 200c/ gas mark 6.
Pour the contents of the freezer bag into one or two large roasting tins ( making sure the chicken is skin side up), place in the oven and cook for about a hour and a quarter, by which time everything should be sticky and glossed conker-brown.

Serves 6-8.

This is such a simple recipe and I always have everything to hand in the store cupboard for it, the flavours are subtle though so overnight marinating is essential. It really is delicious, a slight sweetness against the savouriness of the chicken and as always, sticky food is always delicious.

Sparkly gingerbread

I came to gingerbread quite late in life, gingersnaps, yes, fresh ginger, yes, gingerbread, no, not for me. That changed earlier this year when once again I was baking a cake I didn't like (i.e gingerbread), so I wouldn't eat it. I know, I know, I need to stop doing that as I always give in and find, yes, actually I do like that particular cake.

Anyway, in January I made Nigella's stem ginger gingerbread from How to Eat and I was converted, it is a wonderful cake and I will blog it one day, I just try not to bake it as I know I will eat it (I know, I know). Since then I have tried many gingerbread recipes but I always go back to Nigella's recipes.


These gingerbread muffins are Nigella's Christmas morning muffins, mine too now, but I make them often, not just for Christmas, as they are always welcomed by my family. This recipe is very easy and very, very tasty. Looking in Feast this week I noticed that Nigella suggests rubbing some edible gold leaf on these muffins as soon as they come out of the oven, and when my gold disco glitter arrived this week I knew it would be perfect on top of these muffins.


I am a magpie for anything sparkly, glittery or shiny, I love it and at Christmas I have a excuse to have glitter everywhere...even on my food.


Gingerbread muffins, from Feast

250g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 egg

50g dark muscovado sugar

50g light muscovado sugar

150ml full fat milk

1/4 ts balsamic vinegar

6 tablespoons vegetable or corn oil

4 tablespoon golden syrup

4 tablespoon black treacle

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/ 200c. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin papers. Combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and spices in a large bowl. Whisk the egg in a large measuring jug then add the sugars, breaking up any lumps. Add the milk and vinegar then measure in the oil with a tablespoon. Use the same oily spoon to add the syrup and treacle so they don't stick to it. Whisk the mixture to combine and add to the flour and spices.

Stir until mixed but still fairly lumpy - the mixture may be more runny than you expect for muffins - but you need the dense stickiness of gingerbread, rather than a cakey crumb.

Spoon or pour the mixture into the muffin papers and bake for about 20minutes until the tops are dry; the muffins will still feel squidgy when you take them out of the tins to cool on a rack.

Sprinkle lightly with gold glitter.

These fabulous muffins keep very well, unlike regular muffins, in fact like most gingerbread they get better the longer you keep them. I am rather surprised the glitter shows up in the photo, although it looks like a rather subtle dusting of it I actually drenched them with it.

Daring bakers

Caramel cake with caramelized butter frosting

(and optional caramels)








This months challenge was co-hosted by Dolores from Culinary curiosity, Alex from Blondie and brownie and Jenny from Foray into food.

The recipe this month was caramel cake with caramelized butter frosting, this recipe comes from Shuna Fish Lydon from Eggbeater.

This recipe involved making a caramel syrup, cake and frosting and to be honest I felt it was sugar overload but I went with it. The Caramel syrup freaked me out a little, it involved making a syrup with sugar and water and when the syrup was ready adding cold water to it, I was surprised actually that the syrup was a success, I imagined it seizing and setting in a big candy ball.

It looked like maple syrup and was tooth achingly sweet.

I decided to make cupcakes instead of a individual cake. The cake was a doddle to make, pretty much a regular cake recipe but with some of the caramel syrup added to the mix. The uncooked batter tasted divine.

The cooked cake was more like a sweet bread than a cake, very dense, but delicious.

When the cupcakes were cooked and cooled I prepared my frosting. I've done a caramelized butter frosting before and loved it. First you need to cook your butter until it is brown, pour it through a sieve and leave to cool. The cooled butter is then used to make a butter icing with icing sugar and the caramel syrup, a little salt is added and believe me this icing is so sweet you need that salt.

It was a dream to work with and made a pretty cupcake but anymore than one of these and I'd be in trouble with my dentist.

Optional caramels:

Golden vanilla bean caramels recipe from Alice Medrichs.

This was a optional extra and I wasn't going to do it, I've made caramels very successfully before and I can't leave them alone, for the sake of my waist I was going to leave this recipe out. Then I had a brainwave and although it is this worse for my waist I still gave it a go.

Caramel hokey pokey ice cream, yum.

I followed the recipe provided, but I didn't take it so far so that it would set into caramel, I made the syrup and let it cool, basically I made caramel sauce. It was delicious, I ate a lot of it straight from the pan, so creamy and, well, caramell-y, lol.

Usually when doing something like this I would make my own ice cream, today I cheated and did something Dorie Greenspan suggests in her book, dressing up shop bought ice cream. I bought some very good quality vanilla ice cream and let it go softish, I mixed some crushed cinder toffee through and swirled with the caramel. The caramel went to toffee as it froze but melts again as the ice cream comes out of the freezer.

Very quick, such a cheat but so, so delicious. Any ice cream lover has to try this, I have hidden it in the depths of the deep freeze for Christmas.

The original recipes can be found on the hosts blogs. Thanks to this months hosts Dolores, Alex and Jenny, don't forget to check out their blogs and the other Daring bakers blogs on the blog roll.

Beanz Meanz ....Christmas?

Boston baked beans.

I have to admit that I adore good old baked beans, on toast with bacon chopped through it, heaven, not much beats it for comfort food. This recipe comes from Nigella Christmas, Nigella's newest gorgeous offering and I love, love, love this book.

This recipe was one of the first that really caught my eye, yes, in a book filled with luscious, decadent food I fall for baked beans. I was slightly mystified at first, why on earth would baked beans ever be classed as Christmas food? Hardly up there with turkey, stuffing and bacon wrapped chipolatas is it....yet still, I knew this was the first thing I would cook from this book.

Baked beans are not something I have ever cooked myself from scratch, they are one of the few things I am quite happy to open a tin for, my OH was mystified when I told him I couldn't go swimming as I had to spend the next 3 hours making baked beans, in fact is actual reply was "havent you heard of Heinz?" this was a adventure into the unknown.

Boston baked beans

Serves 8

500g haricot beans

2 x 15ml garlic oil

125g smoked streaky bacon, chopped somewhere between finely and roughly

1 onion, peeled and chopped

100g grainy mustard

2 x 15ml tablespoon tomato puree

100g dark muscovado sugar

1 litre of water, plus 60ml

1 x 15ml tablespoon cider vinegar

2 teaspoons Maldon salt or 1 teaspoon table salt, or to taste.

The night before you want to make this recipe, soak the beans in plenty of water for 24 hours.

Once the beans are soaked, drain and rinse them and put aside. Preheat the oven to 150c / gas mark 2 and heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole or a ovenproof pan with a lid.

Fry the chopped bacon briskly in the hot oil and, after 5 minutes, turn down the heat and add the chopped onion. Cook alongside the bacon for about another 10 minutes.

Add the mustard, tomato puree and sugar and 500ml of the water, stirring everything together well.

Stir in the rinsed beans, and add a further 500ml of water. Bring to the boil and let it bubble for 10 minutes.

Put a lid on the casserole or pan and transfer to the oven for 2-2 1/2 hours or until tender.

Remover from the oven and add the remaining 60ml water along with the vinegar and, after tasting carefully (don't burn your mouth), the salt if wished.

The beans were a doddle, quickly flung together and then left to bubble away for hours, the aroma of these beans was amazing but when would sugar, bacon and mustard not be amazing. We ate these beans as Nigella suggested with sausages, they were the perfect match. The were far superior to any tinned bean, slightly to firm for my OH's taste but I suppose that is to be expected when using dried beans, they weren't hard, just firmer than tinned beans. My daughter absolutely loved them as did I, although they didn't convert my son, baked bean hater, we can't please everyone.

I will certainly make the beans again the salty, sweet, smoked flavour was to die for, but not for a quick midweek supper. Perfect for posh sausage, chips and beans.

Finnish rye bread

It seems I spend a awful lot of time baking bread these days, who can blame me, it is so therapeutic, but I mainly keep it up as I prefer to know what is in my food rather than buying ready sliced shop bread full of preservatives to ensure a long shelf life. I usually have three or four different loafs sliced and well wrapped in the freezer ready to use at any time.

I eventually stumbled across rye flour which it seems is scarily hard to find around here....well it was, funnily enough as soon as I tracked it down in a health food store I noticed that Asda had stocked it all along.

I prefer to make healthier loafs using wholemeal flours and adding seeds or grains, every little helps after all. As soon as I spotted the rye flour I knew what I was going to bake, Finnish rye bread from Nigella's How to be a domestic goddess. Nigella describes this bread as dense, dark and aromatic in a extraordinarily comforting way, she isn't wrong. I couldn't stop myself from eating this rustic bread, it is wonderful, I served it along side ham and pea soup, it is perfect for mopping up soup.

Finnish rye bread from How to be a domestic goddess.

225g rye flour

300g strong white flour

7g easy-blend yeast or 15g fresh yeast

1 tbsp dark muscovado sugar

2 tsp salt

300ml warm water

45g unsalted butter, melted

1 baking sheet.

Put the flours, yeast, sugar and salt into a large bowl and slowly add the water, mixing with your hands or a wooden spoon, until you've got a messy but vaguely cohesive lump of dough. Add a tablespoon of the melted butter and mix just to incorporate it. Start kneading, either by hand or with a dough hook, until the dough comes together smoothly to form a dense ball, adding more water or flour as necessary.

Use some more of the melted butter to grease a bowl and turn the dough ball in it so that the top is oily (and won't therefore dry out), then cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for a hour or so.

When the dough's doubled in size, punch it down. Give a good few kneads, and then form into a round loaf. Sit the loaf on the baking sheet, cover it with a tea towel and leave to get puffy for about 30 minutes, during which time preheat the oven to 190c/ gas mark 5. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until the loaf is cooked through.

Brush with the remaining tablespoon of melted butter and leave on a wire rack to cool.

I forgot to brush the remaining butter over the top of the cooked loaf, I found the melted butter on top of the microwave a hour after I had cut into the bread. I don't think it suffered for it. This bread kept very well, it made great toast the next day.

I used leftover bread we had to make croutons. I cut the bread into cubes, drizzled with olive oil

and salt and pepper and baked for 10 minutes,they were the best croutons ever.

Goodbye Pistachio

Yesterday many of us received the tragic news that our dear friend Pistachio had passed away.

Pistachio was known to many on the Internet from Nigella.com and later helping Violet's with the job of keeping us in line on Violet's pantry a fabulous foodie forum, and a great job she did too. A avid blogger, who's recipes could always be depended on and became a regular in many homes across the world.

Pistachio was a warm, elegant and eloquent woman and she will be sorely missed.

Goodbye Pistachio, sleep well.

Date and walnut flapjacks

I am always looking out for ways to boost my fibre intake and like most people would like the fibre filled food to taste good. As far as a snacks go "healthy" doesn't always equal tasty. Everyone knows that flapjacks, full of oats, are better than a bar of chocolate for a quick sweet fix but I still find most flapjacks just too sweet, most are made with sugar and added golden syrup, soon your healthy snack is turning into another fat filled treat.
Looking for healthier flapjack recipes I came across lots using dried dates, I was intrigued as in baking dates can give a lovely fudgy, softness such as in sticky toffee pudding.
The original couple of recipes I looked at didn't do it for me mainly because of unusual measuring method i.e teacups (?) and 'half tubs' of stuff....so I combined a everyday flapjack recipe with a inspired date and walnut flavouring. It worked.

Date and walnut flapjacks

125g butter
1 tbsp runny honey
100g dried dates, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes, drained well and chopped
50g broken walnuts
50g caster sugar
a handful of raisins (optional)
125g oats

Heat oven to 180c, grease a 8in square baking tin.
Put honey, butter, dates and walnuts into a pan, heat until the butter melts. The dates will turn fudgy and almost melt into the butter.
Stir in the caster sugar and raisins if using.
Stir in oats and mix well.
Bake for 20minutes, cut into bars as soon as you take them from the oven but don't try to remove them from the tray until cooled.


I have to say I adored these flapjacks and will bake them for myself again and again, my daughter, flapjack queen, wasn't impressed so we'll stick to usual flapjacks for her.
The dates did give a lovely fudgy, toffee flavour to the flapjacks and were complimented beautifully by the walnuts. They weren't however chewy flapjacks I suppose that is down to the lack of refined sugar, so they had a more cakey texture, either way they were delicious.
Although dried fruit itself is quite high in sugar I feel better about eating these flapjacks than a everyday one, plus the dates go toward your 5-a-day.....well, you might have to eat a few flapjacks to reach that but I'm willing.

Daring bakers

Two days work, two days work, in a heap on the floor, arghhhhh!


The Daring baker's challenge always comes around quickly, and reveal day, where the months challenge is announced is always a exciting day.

This months challenge is very poignant to all Daring bakers, old and new, as this challenge was to be co-hosted with Sher from What did you eat, Glenna from A fridge full of food and Rosa from Rosa's yummy yums. Sher sadly passed away this summer, a dear loss to all Daring bakers.
Glenna has also left the Daring baker's due to personal reasons, so Rosa is now hosting alone.
In memory to Sher her chosen recipe is this months challenge, and a exciting choice it was too.

This months challenge is 'Bake your own pizza's like a real pizzaioli'. To make our own real pizza dough, the recipe chosen was "Pizza Napoletana" from Peter Reinhart's "The bread baker's apprentice"

The challenge: to make your own pizza dough, and try the tossing method for at least 2 of the bases. Try to get a photo of the dough tossing in action.
The rules: To make pizza dough as stated in the recipe, a pizza sauce and topping. You must use both sauce and toppings but have the freedom to use whatever sauce, ingredients you wish.

I must confess, in a tiny little voice "I don't like pizza" yes, I know, I know, I am the strangest person to walk the earth but it just doesn't do it for me....or my children who also will not eat pizza. However I was still looking forward to trying this recipe as I do often make pizza for my OH.

The recipe given yields enough dough for 6 pizza bases, I halved the recipe to make three, I planned to make 2 pizza's for the challenge (one for my OH and a sweet version for me and the kids) and freeze the remaining dough for a rainy day.

While I am confessing I also have to admit I failed miserably in the dough tossing photograph challenge, I only had a seven year old nearby to take the picture and the results weren't good, lol.
The full recipe can be found on Rosa's blog

The dough had to be made over a two day period, on day one the dough was made in a mixer, kneaded by hand, split into balls and placed in the refrigerator overnight. I loved this dough, it was a little sticky but not gloopy, it was a very silky dough...if that makes sense.



On day 2 the dough is ready to be used, and then the fun starts.

Exactly two hours before you need to use the dough you must remove it from the fridge.

The dough had to be sprinkled with flour and shaped into disks, covered and left for two hours.
45 minutes before baking a pizza stone needs to be heated in the oven, as hot as the oven gets.



To toss the dough, generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with cornmeal, flour your hands.
Take 1 piece of dough, lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.
When the dough has the shape you want, place it on the back of the jelly pan making sure there is enough cornmeal on it to stop the dough sticking to the pan.

I enjoyed tossing the dough although it was a little scary at first. It nearly ended up on the floor a few times. The dough shaped really quickly and gave a thin centre and thicker edges, which concerned me a little.
Now to get adventurous.

I used one piece of dough to make a sweet pizza, along the lines of a danish pastry. I spread the dough with apple puree, and covered the pizza in cubed, blanched apples. Sprinkled the apples with slivered almonds, butterscotch sugar and cinnamon and baked in the extremely hot oven for 5-8 minutes. After cooling the pizza slightly I drizzled with glace icing.

This sweet pizza was heavenly, absolutely divine. I adored the pizza crust but the centre was awfully thin and fragile, and couldn't cope with the liquid that came from the fruit. I decide to combine my two remaining dough balls to make a larger pizza for the savoury version.

I found it much easier tossing the larger dough portion than the smaller one, it thinned out more evenly.

For my savoury pizza I used a basic pizza sauce, this one comes from Jamie Oliver's book "Jamie's Italy"

Tomato sauce:

extra virgin olive oil

1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely sliced

a bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked

1 x 400g tin of good quality plum tomatoes

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a saucepan, add a splash of oil and the sliced garlic and cook gently. When the garlic has turned light golden add the basil, the tomatoes and a few pinches of salt and pepper. Cook gently for 20 minutes, mashing the tomatoes until smooth, then taste, season again and put to one side.

I made this pizza to my OH's tastes, authentic it ain't.

I spread the sauce over the dough, sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese, add sliced mozzarella, peperoni, sauteed onions and a sprinkling of oregano. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Then it happened........the pizza emerged from the oven and I had to stop OH from eating it until it had it's photo taken....the batteries were flat, every other battery in the house wasn't powerful enough for the camera. With a "do not eat that pizza!" warning, I raced to the shop, raced back and got snapping. Pheww!

OH tucked in and announced this pizza was fantastic, delicious, passed a slice to his friend, friend agreed....delicious, passed a slice to friend number two, yep, still delicious.

Then, bang, whilst helping him self to a second slice, OH miss judges where the table is and my delicious pizza is a mangled heap lying on the floor.

It was one of those super slow motion moments, I could have cried, so could the boys, they were all really hungry.

So, I am asked " how long will it take to make another one"

I answer " two days...."

the boys "eh?!?!"

I loved this challenge, it was great fun. Would I use this recipe again, I'm not sure, the recipe is good, works well and is delicious but two days for pizza dough is a little much for me.

Thanks to Rosa for hosting this months challenge and don't forget to check out other pizza's on the Daring bakers blog roll.