Yummy Carrot and Walnut Bread! Perfect with a bowl of hot carrot soup with a big piece of cheese on the side. For the recipe, go to http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9314/quick-carrot-and-walnut-bread– Delicious bread ready in 40 minutes!
Drop-Scone Pancakes with Bacon – Best Breakfast!
This breakfast was worth getting up for! The small drop-scone style pancakes really work well with the bacon and maple syrup!
You will need:
250g self raising flour
A pinch of baking powder
A pinch of sea salt
25g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
About 275ml milk
50g butter, melted
A little sunflower oil
12 rashers back bacon
maple syrup
1. For the pancakes: Sift the flour,baking powder and salt into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Make a well in the centre and break in the eggs. Pour in about half of the milk. Whisk, gently at first and then as you start to get a thick paste, add more milk and the melted butter. Beat until you get a creamy batter a little thicker than double cream- you might not need all the milk.
If you are doing bacon too, you should put that under the grill now.
2. Put a large, heavy bottomed frying pan or a flat griddle over a medium-high heat. Add a few drops of oil and rub with a thick wad of kitchen paper to oil the pan very lightly. Pour (or ‘drop’) a tablespoon of the batter into the pan- to get a disc about the size of a digestive biscuit. You should be able to get 3 or 4 into the pan.
3. After about a minute, little bubbles will begin to appear on the surface of the drop-scones. As soon as they cover the surface, flip the scones over with a spatula. Be warned- the first batch may stick. Cook on the other side for about another minute or so, and then transfer them to a warm plate and cover with a clean tea towel so they stay soft, or just eat them straight away!
4. Cook the remaining scones (you should get about 25-30 out of 1 batch) in the same way. Serve them with the crispy bacon rashers and drizzled with maple syrup.
Baking Saturday!
Tomorrow is my favourite day of the week; baking Saturday! My chance to spend time cooking and baking new treats in the kitchen. Tomorrow I’m feeling some caramel shortbread, chocolate cake and possibly cheesecake? Looking forward to that!
Espresso Cupcakes
Most delicious cupcakes! Recipe will be up soon when I find time.
I also made a few into cute tiramisu desserts, just take out a circle from the middle of the sponge, make up a coffee syrup from brown sugar, water and coffee granules heated over a low heat for 10 minutes, and mix some greek yogurt in a bowl. Layer the yogurt, sponge middles and syrup and then put the tops back on! Yummy!
Great British Bake Off!
My absolute favourite tv show! For people who don’t know, it’s a competition between 16 home bakers to find the most talented one. Still gutted for Rob today, loved him!
Cinnamon Rolls
These rolls are so delicious! Great for a early tea, afternoon snack or even breakfast. I made these yesterday and my family adored them!
Recipe taken from allrecipes.co.uk
This recipe was for a bread maker, but I adapted it so it can be done without. See http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/4727/clone-of-a-cinnabon.aspx for the bread-machine version
- For the dough:
- 250ml warm milk (45 C)
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 75g butter, melted
- 600g bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 100g caster sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast
- For the filling:
- 225g dark brown soft sugar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 75g butter, softened
- For the icing:
- 100g cream cheese, softened
- 50g butter, softened
- 200g icing sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. Mix in the sugar, butter, salt and eggs. Add flour and mix well. Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour. Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
- In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Roll dough into a 40x50cm (18×20 in) rectangle. Spread dough with 75g butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 slices. Place buns in a lightly greased 23x33cm (9×13 in) baking tin. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200 C / Gas mark 6.
- Bake buns in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While buns are baking, beat together cream cheese, 50g butter, icing sugar, vanilla and salt. Spread icing on warm rolls before serving
It is a long process, but well worth it! I will certainly be making these again.
Started my catering course today!
Me still being at school, today I had my first food lesson and started my
catering GCSE. I love cooking at school! I find it so interesting to learn about the business side to the catering industry, and to be cooking whilst everyone else has double French is certainly a bonus! Plus, I can eat tasty food on the long walk home….
Mocha Cupcakes
Some of the best cupcakes I have ever tasted, the flavours are amazing!
Taken from the Hummingbird Bakery ‘Cake Days’ recipe book.
For the sponge:
240ml milk
15g hot chocolate powder
5g espresso powder
80g soft unsalted butter
280g plain flour
1tbsp baking powder (I was surprised at this huge quantity but it works!)
1/4tsp salt
2 eggs
For the frosting:
50ml milk
30g hot-chocolate powder
500g icing sugar
160g soft butter
(this makes a lot of frosting! I made half of the above amounts and had plenty spare)
1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees, gas Mark 5. Line a muffin tray with muffin cases.
2. For the sponge, warm the milk without boiling it, then remove from the heat and stir in the coffee and hit chocolate powders until dissolved. Set aside.
3. Using a electric whisk, freestanding mixer or by hand, mix butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. If mixing by hand like I did, cream the butter and sugar first to get an even texture.
4. Break the eggs into a jug, pour in the flavoured milk and whisk together by hand. Pour 3/4 of the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Continue mixing in the freestanding mixer or by hand until you have a smooth batter. Add the remaining milk mixture and mix until all the ingredients are incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter looks too runny, it works in the oven.
5. Spoon the batter into paper cases to about 2/3 full. Any leftover mixture can be put into extra cases. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until risen and springy. Take them out and poke a cocktail stick into the centre, if it comes out clean they are done. Leave to cool completely before adding frosting.
6. To make the frosting, warm the milk in a saucepan and add the chocolate powder until well dissolved. Set aside and allow to cool completely.
7. Whisk the icing sugar and the butter with an electric mixer or by hand until the mixture is sandy textured. Whisk in the flavoured milk and continue to whisk until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
8. Top the cupcakes with the frosting and decorate however you choose.
Very tasty, moist cupcakes that are not too sweet or overpowered by chocolate.
Feeling some baking coming on…
Lying in the bath reading the Hummingbird Bakerys ‘Cake Days’ recipe book and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s ‘River Cottage Everyday’. Amazing books! Feeling some mocha cupcakes and some Drop-Scones coming on!
New food love: Vietnamese street food
Yum! Today I went to a Vietnamese street food restaurant named Phu. It was so delicious and unusual and the techniques and flavours used were amazing! It consisted of so many different ingredients that bonded together so well; chilli, lemongrass, coriander, beansprouts, onion, peanuts and most importantly, rice noodles and chicken. I recommend this type of food!
onepinkmacaroon 