Christmassy cooking!!

Merry Christmas, Bloggers!! And I'd also like to wish you a Happy New Year!!
I had a lovely Christmas this year. I got the present I've been wanting since I was 10, a Kenwood mixer! An excellent present for me and my baking!!

I love this time of year. It's the only time you can stuff your face full of delicious things without anyone judging you. You can drink from 9am and continue drinking till the early hours, you can have pudding for breakfast, you can pop off to the kitchen and come back with a plate piled high with cheese, ham, pickles and a cheeky slice of cold turkey with nobody batting an eyelid- in fact they're jealous of your plate and go and assemble their own.
And so, while this Christmas is now drawing to a close, it's never too late to whip up some sticky toffee puddings, glaze a ham or make a pork pie. 
I'll start with the glazed ham as it keeps the longest. It will quite happily sit in your fridge for two weeks just waiting for late night nibblers to come and hack off a slice. It's delicious hot and cold so you could have it hot with some chive mash and a little apple sauce and then you can have the rest cold.
Start off by boiling your joint in water for 20 minutes per half pound plus an extra 20. Add in a cinnamon stick, bay leaves, pepper corns and juniper berries to enhance the flavours. There are many recipes kicking around where you cook your gammon in coke or apple juice or ginger ale and while I'm sure these all taste beautiful, I'm not one to spend money where it's not fully necessary so I stick with water and aromatics.
Once it's boiled, remove it from the water (but keep it as this hammy water makes a delicious stock to enhance gravy, soups and sauces). Remove the skin carefully with a sharp knife an then score the fat. Stud with cloves if desired (my mum hates cloves and so I don't but they will add extra flavour). Place the joint in a deep roasting tin. Pre-heat the oven to 180oC.
To make the glaze, mix together 2 tablespoons of mustard (English or French is fine but not wholegrain) with 4 tablespoons of honey and the zest and juice of an orange. Pour all of this over the joint and use a pastry brush to get the glaze into the scored lines. There will be a lot of glaze in the bottom of the pan but this will reduce in the oven and be used to baste the ham. Cook the gammon in the oven for half an hour, basting every 10 minutes with the glaze in the bottom of the pan.

The honey will caramelize and create delicious blackened bits that while they don't look the most appealing, definitely get fought over.
Onto pork pie! We love a good pork pie in our house and we've made one at Christmas for the past few years. We change the recipe every year, trying to find our favourite. This year we used pork shoulder, smoked bacon and sausage meat along with herbs and seasonings inside a hot water pastry crust:
450g plain flour 
150g lard
50ml milk
50ml water
Salt and pepper
Pre-heat the oven to 180oC.

Place the lard, milk and water into a small pan and heat until the lard has melted.

Sift the flour into a large bowl and season with salt and black pepper and mix well.

pour in the warm lard mixture to the flour. Mix well to combine, until the mixture comes together to form a dough. Knead for a few minutes, then form into a ball and set aside.

For the meat, you'll either need an incredibly sharp knife and lots of patients or a food processor along with:

A small bunch of sage leaves

3 anchovy fillets

400g pork shoulder

50g smoked bacon

50g sausage meat 

1/2 teaspoon all spice

1/2 teaspoon ground mace

Firstly, add the sage and three anchovy fillets to the processor bowl and finely chop. Then gradually add the meat and then the spices along with some salt and pepper.

Line a 7 inch tin with 2/3 of the pastry. Fill with the meat and then make a lid with the remaining pastry. Decorate and glaze with egg wash. Bake for an hour.

The meat will shrink within the pastry so you can make up a pork jelly to fill in the gaps (1/2 pint hot stock- perhaps from the gammon above- with 1 sachet gelatin) but this isn't strictly necessary.  

And now, my signature bake, little sticky toffee puddings.

I've been making these beauties since I was thirteen and they're a family favourite. I have to make double quantities of the sauce on request for my brother as it's so good! 

For the puddings:

175g stones dates, chopped

1/2 vanilla extract

2 tbs coffee extract

3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

75g butter at room temperature

150g caster sugar

2 eggs, beaten

175g self-raising flour.

Preheat the oven to 180oC.

Begin with the dates which need to be put in a bowl with the vanilla, coffee, bicarbonate of soda and 175ml boiling water. Leave to one side.

In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Gradually add in the eggs, beating well between each addition. Then fold in the flour before adding the date mix, including all the water. 

The mix will look very sloppy but this is correct - the wet mix is what makes the puddings so light and moist.

Divide the mix between 8 greased metal ramekins, place them on a baking tray and bake for 25 minutes.

When you're ready to serve, release the puddings from their tins and place in a serving dish. Place the dish under a warming grill. For the sauce:
25g chopped pecans
175g soft brown sugar
110g butter
75ml double cream

Melt the butter and sugar together with the pecans. Once it's all dissolved and bubbling, add the cream and whisk. Take the now warm puddings from the grill and pour over the sauce. Knock any nuts off the tops to stop them burning. Return the dish to the grill and let the sauce begin to bubble. 

Serve with pouring cream.

So there you have it!! Three little beauties to have in your back pocket for any occasion. 

Hope you enjoy!!

Merry 2014 one and all!!!!

Chocolate, orange and hazelnut biscotti

Howdy blog fans!! Hoping you're all well and enjoying the festive season!! As always, I'm well into the Christmas spirit- as you can see from my very lovely hat!

I've been baking again, this time for my lovely colleagues at the wedding venue. I put a tin of this biscotti next to the kettle in the staff room and three days later it was all gone. Much as I love everyone there I'm looking to leave in the new year to get started on my career but I'll probably still go back on odd weekends to help out. I feel that they will definitely miss the stream of cakes and goodies I take in with me!!

So, biscotti!! Versatile little Italian biscuits that can be flavoured with any fruits, nuts, spices or even herbs! Go mad!! This is my favourite flavour combination for biscotti though.

You'll need:

280g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

250g caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

50g dark chocolate, melted and cooled

50g chocolate chips

30g chopped hazelnuts

Zest of 1 orange

A few drops orange extract

For the dough, mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl and add the eggs to form the dough mixture.

Add the tepid chocolate and mix thoroughly before adding the chocolate chips, nuts and the orange.

Knead the dough gently before forming into two logs and placing on a lined baking tray. Bake for 25 minutes in a pre-heated 160oC oven (don't use a fan oven).

Remove from the oven and slice the logs into 1 1/2cm slices. Return the slices to the tray and bake for ten minutes. Then turn them over and bake for another 10.

So there you go! A few words of warning though- if you decide to leave the melted chocolate out, decrease the flour to 250g or your dough will not bind. There are literally thousands of different flavours you could do- the only think I'd say is be wary of fresh fruit as they'll make the biscotti soggy and you want a lovely crunchy biscuit. Dried cranberries, pistachios and white chocolate is a lovely festive combo, or maybe almond and lemon. Get creative!! The basic dough will be a vessel for your creations!!

I'll be back soon with little sticky toffee puddings!

Merry Christmas bakers!!

Homemade edible gifts

So, as promised, I come bearing literal gifts. Edible gifts! 
I've got three recipes for you, all of which have now been extensively tasted by various family members and are relatively simple to make and a delight to give out as gifts (as well as have a quick nibble on yourself).
So firstly, I've got some cinnamon candied pecans for you. I found this recipe on a blog called Brown Eyed Baker who's based in America and has loads of really lovely recipes but this is the one I had to share with you! 

You'll need:
250g shelled pecan nuts
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
100g granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon water
In a large zip-lock bag, shake together the sugar, salt and cinnamon.
In a bowl, whisk the egg white with the water and vanilla.
Tip the pecans into the bowl and stir around until coated in egg.
Using a slotted spoon, move the nuts from the bowl and into the bag. (Don't try to do this in batches or the cinnamon sugar will become clumpy and wont stick to the nuts). Seal and shake the bag until all the nuts are coated.

Using the slotted spoon, take the nuts from the bag and spread them over a grease proof paper lined baking sheet.
Put into a 130oC pre-heated oven for one hour, stirring every fifteen minutes.

Once out the oven and cooled, I sprinkled with gold luster dust (for a bit of festive sparkle) and packaged into individual cellophane bags. You don't have to use pecans- any un-roasted nuts will work!

Next, Florentines! My mum loves these almondy delights smothered in dark chocolate. I made some teeny, bite sized ones for my gifts. There's loads of different florentine recipes around using different fruits and nuts, but this is my version:

You'll need:

25g butter

75g caster sugar

10g plain flour

65ml double cream

100g flaked almonds

25g glace cherries, washed

25g mixed candied peel

25g crystallized ginger

100g dark chocolate

Start off by putting the butter, sugar and flour into a saucepan and heat gently until melted. Then gradually add the cream and stir until smooth.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix until well combined.

Remove from the heat and spoon teaspoons of mixture onto grease proof lined baking sheets.

Bake for 7-12 minutes depending on the size - mine were tiny so took very little baking.

Allow to cool and harden on the tray before transferring to a cooling rack. Once completely cool, melt the chocolate and spoon and spread blobs of it over the bottom of each biscuit. Leave to set before packing into boxes or bags.

And finally, some simple yet visually lovely fruit and nut chocolate coins.

 For these you'll need to temper your chocolate, which isn't as tricky as you might think. I used 400g of dark chocolate. So, chop it all up into very small pieces and reserve a quarter of it. Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie until it reaches 118oF or 48oC. Take it off the heat and using a wooden or plastic spoon (not metal) stir in the reserved chocolate until it reaches 89-90oF or 32oC. This is called seeding. Chocolate is now ready to use. I got my tempering method from this website: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Temper-Chocolate/#step2 so full instructions are available there.

Now for the toppings I've used all kinds of nuts - pistachios, hazlenuts, brazils and almonds. I also used some candied peel, dried cranberries and little fudge chunks. Spoon small circles of chocolate either onto a mold like I did (mine is actually a macaroon mold but it works a treat) or onto grease proof paper and then top with whatever you fancy and then finally, sprinkle with edible gold stars.

My mum and I set up a little production line of making gift tags for all my gifts so I could give them to my family at out annual Christmas gathering.

So there you go!! Edible gifts!! I hope you enjoy them and I hope anyone you give them to enjoys them just as much. 

Merry Christmas!! xxx

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

For my birthday two weeks ago, I was given a mini cupcake stand by my lovely friend, Jess and so I obviously had to whack out a cracking cupcake recipe to show it off. So, inspired by my favourite Festive treat, I decided to make some chocolate orange cupcakes. 
These are so tasty and beautifully orange-y and topped with light butter cream icing you feel like you're wafting on a cloud with a much lighter version of a Terry's Chocolate Orange. 
For the cakes you'll need:
175g self raising flour
175g caster sugar
175g soft butter/margarine
3 eggs
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder (NOT drinking chocolate)
Zest of two oranges
4 teaspoons orange extract (I used Waitrose cooks essentials)
2-3 tablespoons of milk
Pre-heat the oven to 180oC.
Sift the flour and cocoa into a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Using the all-in-one method, whisk all the ingredients together until they form a smooth batter, adding more milk if it seems a little thick. Taste to check the orange flavour- add more if you think it's needed.
Spoon the mixture into 24 lined muffin trays and bake for fifteen minutes or until they spring back when pushed with your finger.
Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the butter cream:
450g icing sugar
60g cocoa powder
zest of an orange
2 teaspoons orange extract
150g soft butter
60ml milk

Gradually whisk the icing sugar and cocoa into the butter until no lumps of butter remain. Add the orange zest and extract along with the milk and beat until light and fluffy.
I decided to pipe my frosting onto the cakes (mainly because I got a new nozzle) but I lost my piping bag so I used a large plastic sandwich bag. I cut a corner off the bag, put the nozzle through and away I went. Easy to use and no washing up required! 

I took some of these to work with me and my mum also took some with her and I now have none left so they must have been pretty good! 
Home-made Christmas gifts coming soon!!
Much love!! 

Homemade pizza and Barbecue chicken cassulet.

Howdy food friends! 
It's been a while and I can only apologise but I've been in a bit of a pit of despair on the old job front. I was inches away from a job which wasn't great but had possibilities of growth but then I didn't get it. And then one of the graduate schemes I applied for also rejected me. Life is hard but hey ho. We move on.
FOOD!! I love it. A lot. 
So, pizza!! I appreciate it's easier to buy a ready made base and them top it, and even easier to get a takeaway. But wheres the satisfaction in that? 
I propose that you spend 40p on a pack of ciabatta bread mix, add oil and water, knead into submission and leave for an hour to rise. You could just as easily use flour, water, yeast and salt, mix and knead but I like the added flavour and texture of ciabatta. 
So, once it's risen nicely, knock it back (punch it) and then stretch it over your baking tray. Top it with anything you fancy- I like to use sun-dried tomato pesto instead of tomato puree and I love love love chorizo in all forms with mushrooms and mozzarella as my toppings. Split it into thirds or quarters so that everyone in your family can pick their own toppings.
Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden and risen and bubbly. Serve with a salad if you're feeling healthy!

So, onto the chicken cassulet! This is a recipe I came across on youtube that I've adapted. You'll need:

2 tablespoons of olive oil
6 boneless free-range chicken thighs, skin on
3 slices of smoked bacon, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon chilli powder
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 x 415g can baked beans, drained
200g smoked sausage, sliced
3 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoon white wine vinegar
3 sprigs of thyme
100ml ketchup
50g brown sugar
250ml chicken stock
1 small red chilli, diced and deseeded
Crushed sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Pre heat the oven to 200°C. Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of the oil and sear the chicken thighs for 1 minute both sides.
Remove from pan and set aside. Put all the remaining ingredients apart from the sausage and beans in a 3.5 liter casserole dish and stir well to combine.
Place the sealed chicken thighs on top, put the lid on the casserole dish and cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
Remove the chicken, stir in the beans and sausage mixture and replace the chicken on top.
Cook, uncovered, for a further 10 minutes. Leave to stand for 5 minutes off the heat before serving.

Enjoy my blogger friends!

Next I'll be doing home-made Christmas presents (edible of course) so keep as eye out!!

Paul Hollywood's savoury Brioche Couronne

Now, this recipe is in no way mine but it is so damn tasty I feel I have to share it with any of you who may not have seen Mr Paul Hollywood of Great British Bake Off fame making this in his bread series.


This book is really fantastic from teaching basic breads to sourdough to soda breads. I can't recommend it enough. Now it's my dad who's really caught the bread making bug, often referring to "his mate, Paul" who'd told him how to make the bread rise higher and so on. He's made this before and so I knew what each stage should look like. Here's what Paul Hollywood looks like as he's making it:


My mum has a bit of a crush on Mr Hollywood.
So what you'll need:
500g/1lb 2oz strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
10g salt
10g instant yeast
170ml/6fl oz warm milk4 free-range eggs
250g/9oz unsalted butter, in small pieces, at room temperature
4 x 125g/4½oz balls buffalo mozzarella
8-10 slices prosciutto
½ handful fresh chopped basil
1 free-range egg, beaten
pinch salt
handful grated Parmesan
Make the dough by bringing the flour, salt, yeast, milk and eggs together in a bowl. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and knead for about ten minutes, or until the dough becomes smooth. Gradually incorporate the butter into the dough, kneading as you go. (You can use a dough hook on an electric mixer, and in fact Paul recommends that you do, but seeing as I don't have one, I go for the old fashioned method) Tip the dough into an oiled bowl– it needs plenty of room to rise. Leave the dough to rise until at least doubled in size (at least an hour, or overnight in the fridge). 
Line a baking tray with baking parchment. 
Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, without knocking the air out of it. Roll it out to a thickness of just under 1½cm, in a rectangle that’s about A3 size Have the long side facing you. Cover the dough with a loose layer of ham. Break off large pieces of mozzarella and distribute them all over the ham. Scatter the basil over the top. You can use basil pesto if you don't have fresh basil, but the flavour isn't quite the same. Roll up the dough from the long side furthest from you, into a long sausage shape. Cut the roll of dough in half down the length to expose the filling, leaving you with two long strips side by side. Twist the two strips together, holding both ends of the dough and twisting your hands in opposite directions, to make a long rope that’s quite tightly twisted. Form the rope into a circle and join the ends together so that the dough becomes a ring – a ‘couronne’ or crown. Put the crown onto the lined baking tray, and put the tray in a large plastic bag, big enough so that the risen dough won’t touch the sides. Leave the crown to rise until it has at least doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 200oC. Whisk an egg with a pinch of salt and brush the egg over the crown. Finally top the couronne with grated parmesan. Bake the couronne in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until golden-brown. The filling IS supposed to leak out- it's artistic and pretty. Leave to cool slightly. Serve warm or cold.As I've said, this is not my recipe. All I'm doing is sharing it with those of you who might not have seen this series.
This is my finished crown:

Hope you enjoy!!!

Toad in the Hole with caramelised onion gravy

I was having a chat with one of my bosses at work last week and he was telling me about the disaster that was his toad in the hole. He listed the many problems and issues he had with it: his friends kept opening the oven door, the roasting tin wasn't big enough and there were too many sausages. 
This led me to crave toad in the hole and so I decided to make my own. 
For a dish big enough for three people you'll need:
100g plain flour
300ml milk
2 eggs
salt and pepper
half a teaspoon of dried mixed herbs
2 large pork sausages (or three skinny chipolatas) per person
sunflower oil (around 4 tablespoons- enough to coat the bottom of the roasting tin)
A large, deep roasting tin (Mine was 30cm by 20cm)

For the caramelised onion gravy:
2 red onions, halved and finely sliced
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1 tsp of butter
1 tbs sunflower oil
2 tsp soft brown sugar
1 tbs balsamic vinigar
1 tbs gravy granules for meat (not chicken).
Half a pint just bolied water

Pre-heat the oven to 200oC
Put the sausages and oil into the roasting tin and put into the oven for ten minutes.
Meanwhile, to make the batter, put all the remaining ingredients into a bowl and whisk until well combined and a light froth has formed on the top.

When the sausages have gone very lightly brown, pour in the batter around the sausages and quickly shut the oven door. As soon as the oven loses its temperature the batter will lose its rise, much like a souffle. Leave to bake for fifteen minutes.

And now to gravy which, luckily enough takes around fifteen minutes to make.
In a frying pan, melt the butter in the oil and add in the sliced onions and salt (the salt stops the onions browning and draws out their moisture). Using a wooden spoon, separate the rings on the onions so you have a pan full on thin onion tendrils. Leave the onions on a low heat for fifteen minutes to soften.
Check the toad is ready and turn the oven off and put your plates in there to warm up.
Add the brown sugar to the onions and let it bubble before adding the balsamic vinegar. 
Let the vinegar cook into the onions before adding the gravy granules and boiling water to make a gravy of your preferred thickness.

Take the plates out of the oven along with the toad. 

Serve it up with lashngs of gravy and sides of your choice - I went for veg but I also love a good mound of mashed potato or even roasties.