Blueberry Blondies

Blueberry Blondies

Like the Chocolate Brownies with Dark and White Chocolate Chips I have made these to share at a family gathering.  The recipe is a close cousin to that I used for the fudge blondies.

Chocolate Brownies with Dark and White Chocolate Chips

Chocolate Brownies with Dark and White Chocolate Chips

I have made these brownies (and the Blueberry Blondies in the next post) and for a big family gathering,  We are all bringing something to share and I am in charge of cake!

Cream together light brown sugar and butter.

Beat in some eggs.

Then fold in cocoa, plain flour, baking powder and white and dark chocolate chips – or in this case chopped up chocolate.

Smooth it into a lined baking tin.

And bake until it is firm round the edges and just slightly wobbly in the middle.  Leave in the tin to cool and then cut into pieces.

Apple Cake

Apple Cake

This is a favourite in our household and helps to get a bit of extra fruit into my children.

First butter is melted into a mixture of brown sugar and syrup.

 

It is best to keep stirring until they have come together to form a smooth mixture – if the butter is separated from the sugar and syrup keep stirring!

 

Next add some grated cooking apple and some eggs.

 

And then add some self-raising flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon.

 

Mixing together to form a fairly runny batter.

 

Pour this batter into lined loaf tins.

 

Bake at 150C for about 90 minutes or until cooked through.  These could have done with a few minutes longer as they were still a bit stodgy at the bottom but I had to get them out of the oven to go to work….

 

Sausage, Bacon and Tomato Buns

This is something I have made to share at work.  I’ve done a lot of night shifts recently and find that having some nice food to look forward to helps!  We were meant to be having them for breakfast but we didn’t manage to wait that long….

First I made some ordinary white bread dough with 500g strong white flour and using a bit of oil from the sundried tomatoes in the dough.  Whilst it was proving I cooked some pieces of streaky bacon and pieces of sausage meat (which I just squeezed out of sausage skins).

Once it had proved and doubled in size I stretched the dough into a rectangle and sprinkled over grated cheese, pieces of sundried tomato, the cooked and cooled sausage and bacon.  In then rolled it up, from the long edge and cut the resulting roll into circles about 1 1/2 cm in depth.

 

Once these had risen I baked them in the oven at about 200C until they were golden and cooked through.  We ate them cold, and they were eaten pretty quickly, but I’m sure they would be nicer warm.

Chocolate Chip Slab Cookies

Chocolate Chip Slab Cookies

These are a family favourite and use just a few store cupboard ingredients.

First butter and light brown sugar are creamed together until they are light and really fluffy.

Next plain flour is mixed in to make a fairly solid dough.

I then chopped some plain chocolate (I use Sainsbury value dark chocolate – it is pretty good and much cheaper than chocolate chips).

The chocolate chips are stirred into the dough.

The dough is pressed into a lined tin (it doesn’t need to be lined, it is just much easier).

Then baked until fairly firm and golden.

I leave it to almost fully cool in the tin, then remove it with the lining paper and cut it into rectangles.  It should be cooled fully before putting in a tin to store.

Chicken and Leek Pie

Chicken and Leek Pie

I had the filling for this pie in the freezer so it was quick and simple to make today.  The filling was made by browning some chicken thighs in a pan with a little oil, then adding some chopped leeks and carrots and frying them gently until softened.  I then stirred in a little flour to make a roux and added part milk and part chicken stock.  I simmered it gently until the chicken was cooked through then took the chicken out of the sauce.  I took the skin off the chicken, the meat off the bones and stirred the chicken meat back into the sauce.

Today I made some shortcrust pastry by rubbing 50g butter and 50g lard (actually I used Trex, a vegetarian lard substitue) into 200g plain flour with 1/4 tsp baking powder – adding the baking powder makes the pastry a little lighter and flakier.

 

I then added enough ice cold water to bring the pastry together in a ball.  This then rested in the fridge for about 30 minutes which gives time for the gluten in the flour to react with the water and become more elastic.

 

After resting the pastry was rolled out (very thin in this case as I’m trying to loose weight and lots of pastry doesn’t help!) into two discs – one for the base of the pie and one for the top.

 

One piece of pastry was used to line the pie dish and the cold filling was spooned on top.

The second piece of pastry was then used to make the lid – the two layers were stuck together by brushing some egg around the edge of the base layer.  The edges were crimped and the top brushed with a little beaten egg to give the pie a shiny golden crust.

 

The pie was popular with all of us and we ate the whole thing with some peas!

 

Banana Muffins

 

I made these banana muffins to share with my colleagues at work as, during a night shift, we need plenty of food to keep us going!

First I mashed some bananas.

 

Then I added some sugar, melted butter, egg and milk and mixed these together.

Finally I stirred in some flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

 

I shared the batter between 12 muffin cases and baked them at 170C for about 15 minutes.

 

The result was these delicious, moist muffins.  They are also lovely with chocolate chips or fudge pieces in.

Christmas Pudding

Homemade Christmas pudding is so much tastier than shop bought – I made 4 today.  Two for this year and two for next year (so long as we don’t eat them before that) as they keep really well; in fact the flavour improves.

First all the ingredients were mixed together in a large bowl; suet, self-raising flour, breadcrumbs (made from homemade bread), mixed spice, nutmeg, cinnamon, dark brown sugar, sultanas, raisins, currants, glace cherries, dates, cooking apple, lemon zest, orange zest, rum, dark beer and eggs.

This was then left overnight so the flavours could all meld together.  The liquid had been absorbed by the dry ingredients.

The mixture was packed into greased bowls which were covered and steamed for 8 hours – my kitchen was like a steam room!

We had to eat one of the puddings as I managed to let the pan boil dry and the bottom of the bowl melted!  The finished puddings can then be stored.  To reheat them just steam for a further 3 hours – on Christmas day I usually do this in the slow cooker to save space on the stove top.  This recipe is based on one by Delia Smith which can be found here – I usually make a few changes depending on what dried fruit and alcohol I have available at the time.

Mincemeat

As a person who doesn’t really like shop bought mince pies (partly because I have a real aversion to candied peel) I find that homemade mincemeat makes all the difference.  It is easy to make and will keeps well so can be made in advance.  As well as being great for mince pies I have also been known to add a spoonful to shortbread dough which gives the finished biscuits a lovely Christmasy flavour.

Diced Bramley appples, suet, raisins, sultanas, currants, dark brown sugar, orange and lemon zest and juice, mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg are mixed together and left overnight so that all the flavours mingle.  Then the mixture is heated gently in a warm oven for 3 hours.  The suet melts and coats the apple (and all the other ingredients) so helping the mincemeat to last longer.  The mixture is allowed to cool, stirring occasionally.  Add some brandy and put the mincemeat into steralised jars.  This recipe is based on one by Delia Smith and the original recipe can be found here.

Fudge Blondies

These blondies are a distant cousin to brownies.  They have the same fudgy texture without the chocolate.

On this occasion I decided to add small fudge pieces to the batter but they are equally as nice with white chocolate chips. blueberries, raspberries or anything else you like!

First I melted together butter and light brown sugar, stirring until they were completely combined.

Then I beat in eggs making sure that the butter and sugar had cooled slightly so the egg didn’t cook in the mixture.

Then I stirred in some plain flour, baking powder and mini fudge pieces.

The finished batter was poured into a lined tin and the surface smoothed.

It was baked until golden on the outside and cooked through – I tested this by poking a skewer into the middle of the cake – if it comes out clean the cake is cooked.

Once it had cooled I cut the blondies into squares (and ate one before I put them in the tin!).