– Place a sheet of baking paper large enough to line a cast iron skillet on your work surface. Lightly Oil the sheet then scrunch it into a ball, then flatten it out again.
– Place 5 sheets of filo pastry on the sheet, rotating each one slightly so you get a sort of disc.
– Brush lightly with oil.
– Carefully lift the sheet into your cast iron skillet and gently press it into shape to fit the pan.
– In a large bowl place the eggs and feta. Roughly beat with a fork to combine.
– Add the beans, peas, lemon zest, herbs and salt and pepper. Mix.
– Transfer the mixture into the filo pie. Smooth out.
– Gently fold the filo over the top of the filling, pressing down gently. Scrunch up the last sheet of filo and use to cover the centre area where the sheets don’t reach.
– Brush the top lightly with oil.
– Place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
– Remove and leave to stand for 10 minutes before serving (or in my case an hour, it was still nice and warm!)
I always save the pumpkin flesh from my pumpkins when I’m carving them for Halloween. This is the advantage of growing your own pumpkins as a shop bought pumpkin usually has little flavour but if you can choose your variety you can get the best of both worlds. Although, to be honest, the spice in this mix means this would taste great even with a less flavoursome pumpkin!
These can be treated as either cupcakes or muffins, with icing it’s a cupcake, without it’s a nice, moist spicy muffin. The icing takes it to another level but it’s still delicious without.
This recipe makes an awkward 18 so what I did was make 12 cupcakes and 6 mini brioche shapes, which are great for a nice grab and go breakfast option.
Makes 18 cupcakes (or un-iced it’s a muffin!)
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ cup (59ml) milk
• 1 cup (236ml) vegetable oil
• 50g butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 270g pumpkin puree*
• 200g dark brown sugar
• 90g granulated sugar
• 350g plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
⁃ Heat the oven to 170°C and line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper liners and an extra 6 either cupcakes or a silicone tray if that’s easier.
⁃ Beat together the eggs, oil, melted butter milk and vanilla essence.
⁃ Add your pumpkin and sugars and mix well.
⁃ Add the flour, bicarb, salt and spices and fold in until totally incorporated. Try to to over mix but get all the flour broken down.
⁃ Pour into lined or silicone muffin holes.
⁃ Bake for 20 minutes until the cake is set and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
⁃ Leave to cool before icing.
*Steamed Pumpkin
– Cut your pumpkin flesh into rough chunks the same size and steam them in a vegetable steamer for 15 minutes until a knife inserted goes in smoothly.
– Mash the soft pumpkin flesh with a fork or a potato masher until smooth.
Salted caramel buttercream
• 100g unsalted butter (softened)
• 200g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp milk
• 4 tbsp salted caramel
⁃ Beat together all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl until smooth.
⁃ Heat your water and butter in a pan until melted but don’t let it boil.
⁃ Mix with your flour and salt until a smooth dough forms and knead lightly.
⁃ Squidge the dough into 8 muffin tins using either a mould or your fingers.
⁃ Roll out the remaining dough and make 8 lids just larger than your muffin tin tops.
⁃ Mix your apple, sugar, cornflour and cinnamon together and spoon generously into the muffin tin. (If using cooking apples this will shrink considerably.)
⁃ Press down the lids around each pie and make a small hole in the top with a sharp knife.
⁃ Egg wash over the top of each pie and sprinkle with a little Demerara sugar.
⁃ Bake at 180°C for 25-30 minutes until the tops are a golden brown.
⁃ Leave to cool in the tin then run a sharp knife round each pie to loosen, they should easily life straight out.
These Very Berry Breakfast Muffins are nothing less than an experiment in how much summer fruit it is possible to cram into a muffin and still maintain structural integrity! (About 300g as it turns out.)
The summer fruits are cropping heavily with cherries, raspberries, strawberries all ready now and the blueberries soon to ripen (confession: some bought blueberries went in here too!)
I am the furthest thing away from a morning person it is possible to be so easy, quick to ‘grab and go’ breakfasts are a must for me. These are packed full of homegrown fruit and the oats add a nice breakfasty touch too! You can whip them up in about 30 minutes start to finish too, which is always nice!
Makes 8
50g dark muscoavdo sugar 125ml milk 1 egg 1/2 tsp vanilla essence 40g butter, melted and cooled 150g self raising flour 1 tsp baking powder pinch of salt ~300g mixed summer fruits (can use frozen if fresh not available!)
8tsp porridge oats
8tsp Demerara sugar
– Heat the oven to gas mark 6/200°C and prepare 8 holes of a muffin tin with paper cases. – Beat together the sugar, milk, egg and vanilla essence then add the butter and beat again. – Add the flour, baking powder and salt into the mixture. – Fold in gently. – Add the fruits and stir in to the mixture to evenly distribute. – Divide the mixture evenly between the cases.
⁃ Sprinkle the top of each muffin with a teaspoon each of oats and Demerara sugar. – Bake for 25 minutes. (Check after 20) – Remove from the oven and leave to cool a little in the tin then place on a wire rack to cool completely or serve warm. These will be much less stable when warm but the berries taste amazing!
These spooky eyeball chocolate chip cookies are great easy Halloween cookies! I bought a packet of these sugar eyeballs ages ago but never really found a need to use them until now! These cookies are a great Halloween treat and you can use the technique with your own favourite cookie recipe if you prefer, no need to follow this one (though it is great!) You simply press the eyes into the cookie when it comes straight out of the oven and then leave to cool.
Makes 18 cookies
200g melted unsalted butter 220g light muscovado sugar 100g caster sugar (If you like the grainyness of the M&S cookies feel free to use granulated, I don’t like it so I use caster) 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 egg 350g plain flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 200g chocolate chips (I use one bag of dark and one bag of milk for variety)
One pack sugar eyeballs
– Heat the oven to Gas mark 3/170C and prepare two baking trays. – Melt the butter, I put it in the microwave for 1 minute but microwaves vary so be careful! – In a large mixing bowl mix the melted butter with both sugars until smooth. – Beat in the vanilla and egg until smooth. – Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until it forms a dough. – Mix through the chocolate chips. – Divide the dough in to generous balls, slightly larger than a ping pong ball is best. Roll briefly in your hands to make a round ball and place 6 on a baking tray. Make sure they cookies are well spaced apart as they spread. – Bake one sheet at a time in the top of the oven for about 15-17 minutes. The cookies will still be soft but the edges should be a little brown. – As soon as they come out of the oven press the sugar eyeballs randomly into the cookies. Leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely/eat. – Repeat with the remaining trays of cookies.
1 cup cherries (You can use fresh, frozen or tinned cherries here. I forgot to weigh them but about a cups worth went in, measure it with your heart!)
6tbsp Cherry liqueur
300ml double cream
3tbsp icing sugar
1/4 cup cherries + 1 tbsp cherry liqueur (leave to marinate for a while)
1tbsp grated chocolate
– Heat the oven to 180°C and grease and line a loaf tin.
– Cream together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
– Beat in one egg at a time.
– Mix in the vanilla.
– Fold in the flour and cocoa powder.
– Fold in the cherries.
– Scrape the mix into your prepared tin.
– Bake in the middle of the oven for 1 hour, turning it halfway through.
– Remove from the oven and pour the cherry liqueur over the hot cake. (If using frozen or tinned cherries you can use the juices.)
-Leave to cool in the tin.
– In a small mixing bowl whip the cream and sugar until it forms stiff peaks.
– Lightly fold in the cherries. (Barely fold them at all, you want the pink to ripple, not make the whole thing pink.) Retain three good looking cherries.
– Untin the cake and place on serving dish.
– Spread the cream evenly over the top of the cake.
– Garnish with your reserved cherries and grated chocolate.
– Store covered in the fridge for up to three days.
From time to time I find myself craving the food I had in Japan. Sometimes it’s the simplest of things, like this Japanese egg salad sandwich. Because even though you’d think there isn’t much wiggle room in how to make egg salad you’d be amazed what a difference a few little tweaks make. I think the biggest difference is that the egg is mashed, not chopped and the mayonnaise must by kewpie for a truly authentic taste. The pinch of salt adds that little je ne sais quoi that makes this run of the mill sandwich spectacularly moreish!
For one sandwich:
2 hard boiled eggs
2tbsp kewpie Japanese mayonnaise
Pinch of salt
Soft salted butter
Two slices white bread
– Put the eggs, mayonnaise and salt in a bowl and mash with a fork until there are no large chunks. You could even use a food processor to get it even smoother (some conbini do) but I prefer a little texture.
– Spread the bread with butter and add the egg mix. This should be a well filled sandwich! (Though factors such as egg size and bread size will affect it, you may find this makes two less well filed sandwiches if using smaller bread.)
– Heat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C and live and baking tray.
– In a clean glass bowl whisk the egg whites until full and satiny.
– Add the sugar a spoonful at a time, continuing to whisk until the mixture is stiff and shiny.
– Fold in the cornflour and vinegar.
– Scoop our onto the prepared tray and smooth to create a well in the centre.
– Put the baking tray in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to gas mark 2/140°C.
– Bake for an hour and a half. Leave to cool in the oven, if using an electric oven open the door a bit.
– When the meringue is cooled prepare your fruit.
– Add the cream and icing sugar to a large mixing bowl and whisk until stiff.
– Split the cream in half and stir chopped fruits through one half.
– Spread the cream with fruit over the meringue.
– Top the fruity cream with the remaining whipped cream. (Doing this means that you get a clean, white topping with no bleed through from the fruits. Feel free to skip this design if you prefer.)
A lovely simple biscuit, quick and easy to work with and it gives a delightfully crisp buttery biscuit. Nothing fancy at all, as simple and wholesome as a biscuit can get! These biscuits remind me of some I had as a child at a farmhouse on the way to the lake district. There were no such things as hygiene certificates then, this was literally the farmer’s wife selling tea and biscuits in her kitchen and they were some of the best I’ve ever had!
Makes 18 biscuits
125g butter, softened
70g golden caster sugar (Plus a few tsp extra for sprinkling)
1 egg yolk
160g plain flour
small pinch of salt
Heat the oven to gas mark 5 and prepare two baking trays with baking paper.
Cream together the butter and the sugar in a small mixing bowl.
Add the egg yolk and beat well to combine.
Add the flour and the salt (if your flour is at all lumpy do sift it in as it will mix easier).
Bring all the ingredients together into a soft dough. It can help to use your hand to get it all together in the last bit.
Pinch off small walnut sized balls of dough and roll them in your palms to shape into rounds.
Place on the baking tray and use the heel of your palm to squish them flat.
Sprinkle the tops with the extra sugar.
Bake for 10 minutes until the edges are just starting to colour.
Remove from the oven and allow to sit on the tray for 5 minutes before trying to move them as they will break otherwise.
Hi, I'm Anna and this is what's going on in my kitchen and growing in my garden.
Everything you see here is how it looked as I cooked and ate it. I don't like to make things too fussy. I want you to know that if you try one of my recipes what you see is what you'll get.
Don't forget to leave a comment, I love to know what you're thinking and if you do try out a recipe then let me know how it worked for you. Happy cooking!
Anna in the kitchen 