Jumbles

These are a fantastic biscuit for children to make. My kids love these more so for the fact that they have chocolate chips in them and rice Krispies. You can put in them what ever sweet you want, I tend to do plain chocolate chips that way the baby of the family can eat some. In fact she got to help me and the other two terrors mix these. This was her first taste of helping to bake. She loves being in the kitchen when I am baking.
Because it hurts me to stand at the minute I decided we would do this at the dinning room table.

What you need:
$ ox butter
8 oz Golden Caster sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 oz rice Krispies
200g chocolate chips.

What you do:
Preheat your oven to 180 o'C and grease and line you baking trays with grease proof paper.
Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.

Beat in the egg and extract.

Fold in the flour and Bicarbonate of soda.

Then the rice Krispies followed by the chocolate chips.

Using a tablespoon scoop out some of the mix shape into a ball and place on the baking tray. make sure you spread them apart as they will spread.

Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until they are a nice golden colour.
Leave to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Happy baking
Shelly
xxxx

Bacon and Onion Quiche

For this I used a basic short crust pastry recipe (just click on the link for the recipe) as I did not need the whole batch that I made I used what I needed and then wrapped the rest in cling film and put in a freezer bag and froze it. While I was making the pastry I had some helpers. Amelie and Aron both got a taste of how to make short crust pastry

Normally I tend to buy a quiche but  I really fancied doing one of my own and I am so pleased I did I will not be buying quiche ever again.
For this you can not cheat you must cook the bacon and let it drain or you will get that dreaded soggy bottom.
I covered the top of my quiche in cheese, I used grated cheddar for mine but you can you what ever you fancy.
I will apologise now as there are not alot of photos for this as when I was cooking the bacon I went to remove the frying pan and was busy telling my son to move so he would not get burnt and ended up burning my hand so luckily my partner ended up finishing off making the quiche for me under my direction and supervision while I had my fingers in cold water.
I even had help with the washing up

What you need:
basic short crust pastry
Tsp of fat
1 small onion finely chopped
4 oz bacon. Fat removed and diced.
2 eggs beaten
300ml milk
salt and pepper to season
2 oz Grated cheese.

What you do:
Roll out your pastry and Line your tart tin. Place this in the fridge.
Preheat your oven to 200 o'C. Make sure you place a baking tray on the shelf, your tart tin will sit on this (it will help prevent soggy bottom). Take a little bit of your beaten egg and give your pastry an egg wash on the base. (again this will help prevent a soggy bottom)
Heat the fat in a frying pan and fry the onion gently to soften, Fry your bacon do not crisp. Leave to one side making sure that you drain any excess fat. I placed mine on a clean tea towel.
Remove your prepare pastry from the fridge and place your onion and bacon in the pastry.
Mix the beaten egg and milk then season with salt and pepper.
Pour this into your quiche then sprinkle the cheese on top.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes then lower the temperature to 180 o'C and bake for another 15 minutes.
The centre should be firm to touch.
Leave to cool in the tin then remove from the tin.
Serve either warm or cold.

Happy Baking
Shelly
XXXX

Lemon Loaf

This is a lovely little tea bread/loaf its nice and refreshing with a zing. I tend to put less lemon in it than I use to as the children do not like it to zingy..
I have done enough just to give it a nice taste with out being to over powering.
This does not normally last long in my family.  Its a nice treat in the evening with a cup of tea/coffee/hot choc or a nice simple pudding for the kids after a long day playing out side.

What you need:
4 oz butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs, seperated
zest 1 lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice
6 oz plain flour
2 oz self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 fl oz milk

what you do:
Grease and line your loaf tin with grease proof. Preheat your oven to 180 o'C.

In a small bowl cream the butter and sugar until creamy and pale.

beat in your egg yolks, lemon zest and juice

set to one side.
In a large bowl shift your flours and baking powder.
Fold in the butter mix and milk. Put to one side

In a clean bowl beat your egg whites until the hold stiff peaks.

Take about 2 tbsp of your egg white and fold it into your loaf mix. This will help losen it up.

Gently fold in the rest of your egg whites until fully combined.

carefully pour into your prepared loaf tin.

Bake for 50 minutes or until firm to touch and a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool for 15 minutes in the load tin then remove and leave on a wire rack to cool completely.

You can leave this plain but I decided to put some icing on mine. All I did was mix some icing sugar with lemon juice to make a thick icing. You can make yours as runny as you like. If you do it runny you might want to pierce some holes on the top of your loaf so that some of the icing seeps through the loaf.

Happy Baking
Shelly
xxxx

Chocolate Dipped Pipped biscuits

This is a very quick and simple recipe. I tend to use peppermint when I make these as I love the taste of peppermint and chocolate together but you can use what ever extract you want.
I also tend to do two sizes one set small so Abigail can have some and the other using the largest star nozzle I have for the rest of the family. I also tend to leave the smaller ones plain.
If you wanted to add a little extra you could put some sprinkles on the melted chocolate before it cools.

What you need:
4 oz butter
4 tbsp icing sugar
6 oz plain flour
1/4 tsp extract (I use peppermint you can use any you want)
100g plain chocolate

What you do:
Preheat your oven to 180 o'C and grease two baking trays with butter. prepare your piping bag with a large star nozzle.

In a bowl beat your sugar and butter together until light and creamy.

Mix in your flour and extract.

Spoon into your piping bag and pipe you biscuits dough onto the baking trays.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until a nice pale golden colour.

Leave to cool on the trays for about 5 minutes the transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Break up your chocolate into a small bowl and place on top of a small pan of simmering water. Make sure the water does not touch the bowl.

Stir until the chocolate has melted.
Get a sheets of grease proof paper and place under your wire rack. (this will catch any chocolate drips)

Once your chocolate has melted dip in the biscuits. You can do both ends but I prefer just to do the one.
Place these on your wire rack and leave to set.

If you are doing this on a hot day place your chocolate onto the grease proof and chill in your fridge for a few minutes.

Happy Baking
Shelly
xxxx

Plaited bread

This has to be one of the best breads I have ever made. It does not last past 24 hours. You don't have to put it into a plait you can just leave it round etc.
Now I made the mistake yesterday of putting a damp tea towel over this on the second prove, Please don't as it will stick especially in humid weather.
I made the plait the same way I would do my daughters hair.

What you need:
1 tbsp dried active yeast
1 tsp clear honey
8 floz lukewarm milk
2 oz butter melted.
15 oz strong white flour
pinch of ground sea salt
1 egg beaten.
1 egg yolk mixed with tbsp of milk for the glaze.

What you do:
In a jug combine the milk, honey, butter and yeast. Give it a quick stir

 and then leave to foam for at least 15 minutes.

In a bowl mix the flour and salt and make a well.
Add in the foamed yeast mix and mix using your hand to create a rough dough.

Place your dough onto a lightly floured work top

and knead your dough until it is smooth and elastic. This takes about 10 minutes.

Flour your bowl and place dough bake in and cover with cling film.

Leave to prove in a warm place for about one hour or until it has doubled in size.

Lightly grease a baking tray.
Remove the dough from the bowl and lightly punch down.

Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces (mine weighed just over 8 oz each)

Roll into equal sized sausage shapes.

To begin the plait take your three ends and tuck them in.

then start your plait.

Once finished tuck the end in as well.

Cover loosely and leave to prove again for at least 40 minutes.

preheat your oven to 190 o'C.
Egg wash your plait be careful not to get it to much in the folds as it will stick when baking.
Bake for 45 minutes until a nice golden colour and sounds hollow when tapped.

Happy Baking
Shelly
xxxx

Banana Loaf

This is a fantastic recipe for using over ripe bananas.
My kids love this especially buttered, or they just help them selves if it is left on the side, they pick at it.
If you are doing this on a hot day I suggest that your soak your banana (with the peel still on) in cold water for about 10 minutes this will help them from turning brown.
I am not sure what size loaf tin I used I just use the one that I have and it does not tell me.
If you want more of a crunch in this add some chopped nuts, does not matter which type you use, mix them in at the same time you mix in the bananas.
I used Bertolli butter for this again as I find it gives the loaf just that little bit extra.

Apologies as I forgot to take photos while baking this.

What you need:
2 Bananas
2 oz butter
5 oz Golden caster sugar
2 eggs
8 oz self raising flour

What you do:
Preheat your oven to 190 o'C and grease and flour your loaf tin.

Mash your bananas and put to one side

Cream the butter and the sugar until pale and fluffy
beat in your eggs and fold in your flour
Mix in your bananas

Pour your mix into your loaf tin

 and bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Until Golden and firm to touch.

Leave in the tin for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Happy Baking
Shelly
XXXX

Cinnamon and Hazelnut Palmiers

For this I used Rough Puff Pastry I made this morning. (there is a link on the what you need, just click on Rough puff pastry and it will take you to it) I only needed 8 oz of it so I frozen the rest for which we will use to make sausage rolls, etc.

I used Hazelnut for this as this is what we had in our nut tub (yes we have a tub full of nuts) you can use Almond or Walnuts or a mix of all three. Now since our nut cracker was broken my lovely partner cracked the shells with his hammer, he also had two little helpers at the time.

I also used my vanilla sugar in this but regular/golden caster sugar will be fine.

When these are baking you must keep an close eye on them as they burn easily, They will also need turning over half way through. 

What you need

8 oz Rough Puff Pastry

2 oz Hazelnuts

2 tbsp caster sugar/flavoured caster sugar/golden caster sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 egg, beaten.

What you do:

Butter your baking trays.

In a food processor process your nuts, sugar and cinnamon until you have a fine powder, Don't worry to much if there are some lumps in it. Put this to one side.

Sprinkle your work top with some caster sugar

 and the roll out your pastry into a rectangle, it need to be no thicker than 1 in.

Brush your pastry with some egg  and sprinkle half of your nut mix evenly all over your dough.

Fold on side into the centre

and then fold over the over side, it does not matter if they slightly overlap.

Roll out your pastry to slightly flatten your rectangle.

Brush with more of your egg on to the dough and again using about half of your nut mix sprinkle this on top of the dough.

Fold the edges again to meet in the centre.

Then brush again with the egg wash and sprinkle the remaining nut mix onto the dough.

Fold the dough in half.

Slice the dough cross ways.

Place on your prepared baking trays

 and place in the fridge for around 15 to 20 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 220 o'C 

Bake for 4 to 8 minutes or until golden then turn them over and bake again for 4 to 8 minutes or until golden.

Leave to cool on the baking trays for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Happy Baking 

Shelly

xxx 

How to make Rough Puff Pastry

This is just a quick version of puff pastry. It is fantastic with sausage rolls, mince pies, cheese strudel slices and Palmiers. Plus lots of other stuff. This can be frozen once you have completed all stages just wrap in cling film and place in a seal proof container or freezer bag.

I tend to have a couple of block of butter in the freezer and use them for this or puff pastry as I find the end result is much better

what you need:
8 oz string plain flour
pinch of crushed sea salt
3 oz firm butter diced
3 oz firm lard diced
1 tsp lemon juice
150ml of water

What you do:
Sieve flour into a bowl and mix in the salt.

Put in your butter and lard

 and use a wooden spoon to mix until all the butter and lard are covered.

Add your lemon juice and water and using your hand mix to form a dough. Try to be as light handed as possible as you do not want to squash the butter and lard just yet.

Wrap in cling Film and place in the fridge for 10 minutes.

On a floured work top roll out your dough into a long rectangle.

Fold the dough in on itself (see pictures)

Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 10 minutes

Roll out your dough into a long rectangle and fold the dough in on itself again.
Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 10 minutes

Roll out your dough into a long rectangle and fold the dough in on itself again.
Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 10 minutes

Roll out your dough into a long rectangle and fold the dough in on itself again.
Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes or longer. Then use as required.


 This is the stage where you can freeze it until you need it. I cut off what I needed and the wrapped the rest in cling film and put it in a freezer bag, with the date and what it is written on it.

Happy Baking
Shelly
xxxx

My Brittany Butter Cookies

My Brittany butter cookies are a bit different as I use two types of butter to make them. The first one is the stork easy to mix baking liquid and the second one is Bertolli butter. I find the Bertolli butter just gives them that little bit extra. I must admit I first did this yesterday as a bit of an experiment and found that they taste so much better.
The kids love them and even the baby of the family gets to eat some as they are not sweet at all.

What you need:
6 egg yolks
2 tbsp milk
12 oz plain flour
7 oz caster sugar
4 oz stork easy to mix baking liquid
3 oz Bertolli butter

What you do:
Preheat your oven to 180o'C and grease your baking trays with butter.
in a small bowl take 1 tbsp of egg yolk and milk and mix until combine, put this to one side as this will be your glaze.

In a large bowl mix the flour and sugar. Make a well

and add in your remaining egg yolk and butters.

Using your hand gradually mix in the flour and sugar mix until a dough has formed.

Lightly flour your work top

 and knead your dough for a few seconds only. Flatten out your dough using your hand. I did mine to about 1cm thick.

 Cut out your shapes, I used my 3 1/16 in round cutter. Place these on your baking trays and brush them with your egg glaze.

Place in the oven on second from top shelf and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Leave on the trays to cool for 5 to 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Happy Baking
Shelly.
xxxx

Just a quick catch up.

Hi,

I just wanted to say that I am sorry I have not been blogging as much as I should I have not given up on my blog.

 With it being the kids summer Holidays I am spending as much of my time that I can outside with them while we have nice weather.

 I am also 4 weeks away from giving birth so my blog posts will be a bit less than I would like but please bear with me  as I will be baking and blogging where possible.

I also should inform you that my cooking times and temperatures will be changing as I now have a new cooker (my 11 year old one finally gave up after baking my cookie dough cupcakes) so my settings are now for a fan oven (a first for me) still electric.

You will still be able to catch me on face book and twitter



Happy Baking
Shelly
xxx

Cookie dough cupcakes

A while ago I made some cookie dough cake pops, as I managed to get 25 balls out of the recipe and used only 10 of the balls at the time I thought I would use the rest in cupcakes so I put the remaining ones in the freezer.  The other day I was messing about with my basic cupcake recipe and decided that I would put the dough in the cupcakes and see how they turned out. According to my children and a family friend they are yummy.
My buttercream I was not happy with I made it the same way I always make it but due to how humid the weather was on that day it melted so I now know to have a fan on when doing buttercream in humid weather or bake something that does not need it....
I used fairy cake cakes and got 18 but I would recommend using muffin cases. I am not going to put on this post about how I made my butter cream instead I will put a link to it so that you can see the recipe and how to.
I apologise now for some of the photo's as I used my phone to do them.

what you need is:
150g butter
6 oz Golden caster sugar
3 eggs cracked into a cup and beat lightly
8 oz self raising flour
1 tsp of extract (use any flavour you want)
1 oz cocoa powder
frozen cookie dough balls
Butter cream


1. what you do:

Preheat the oven to 150oC ( this is based on my old oven so if you try 180oC first and then adjust from there) and line your tin with cupcake cases.
Put your butter and sugar into a bowl and beat until creamy.

Beat in the eggs and extract.
Beat in the flour and cocoa powder.

Put a tsp of your cupcake dough into your cases

then place a frozen cookie dough in the centre. Cover this with about a tbsp of cupcake dough.

Place in your oven on the middle shelf and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until firm to touch.
Leave in the tray to cool for 5 minutes then transfer to cool completely.

Once cool decorate.

Happy Baking
Shelly
xxxx

How to make biscuits on sticks

I tend to make these then let the kids decorate. I original got this recipe from Baking Mad but found the dough to be to sticky so adjusted the weights on the icing sugar and flour and added some extract and found that they taste great. What I have to make sure is that when they are cooling that they are out of reach of little hands has they tend to disappear before they get decorated.
You can do any shape you like with these, I did some stars, flowers, hearts and circles. I then decorated some with foundant icing.


what you need:
12 oz plain flour
200g butter
5 oz icing sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
lolly sticks
decorations of your choice
My decorations
Icing
Coloured Foundant.
Edible coloured pens
My kids decorations
Silver balls
Chocolate sprinkles
Icing coloured ( one red and one blue)
hundreds and thousands


What you do:
In a large bowl rub the flour and butter together until you get bread crumbs.

 Stir in the icing sugar

and then add the egg yolks and extract. Use your hand to combine it, I tend to squeeze it together and then need it until I have a smooth dough.

Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for an hour or over night.

Line your baking trays with grease proof paper.
Roll out your dough

and cut out your desired shapes. Place these onto the prepared baking trays

 and very gently push your stick into your cookie. You want it to go about half way through.

Place these in the fridge for another hour. This will help them keep their shape when baking.

Preheat your oven to 180 o'C and bake your cookies for 10 to 15 minutes. They want to be a nice golden colour.

Allow to cool on the baking trays for 5 to 10 minutes then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Decorate.
How I decorated mine.
I coloured some foundant and cut out shapes with my biscuit cutters then stuck these on using some icing

How my kids decorated theirs.
They covered there biscuits in icing then put decorations on

Happy Baking 

Shelly

xxx