50g mixed seeds (poppy, linseed and sunflower seed here)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
50ml olive oil
A few tbsp boiling water
– Take half of the oats and blitz them to a fine meal in a food processor.
– Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.
– Add the olive oil and stir through evenly.
– Add a small amount of boiling water and mix well to bring it together into a dough. Be careful to add gradually as you do not want the mixture to become too wet.
– Roll out the dough to 3-5mm thick and cut out rounds. Place on a lined baking tray.
– Bake at 200°C for 15 minutes until just turning golden. Leave to cool on the tray. Store in an airtight box.
– 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.
When I saw these langoustines in the fishmonger yesterday I knew a special meal was needed!
I’ve never made paella before but I’ve eaten it plenty of times. I was a little nervous going all in on a recipe I’ve never experimented with before (langoustines aren’t cheap!) but I didn’t need to worry, it was amazing and so delicious!
Serves 4
125g chorizo, sliced
4 large chicken thighs, skin on (or 8 small ones)
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 red pepper, diced
250g paella rice (or risotto rice if you can’t get it)
500ml chicken stock
Pinch of saffron
100ml white wine
400g tin chopped tomatoes
150g king prawns
Handful of frozen peas
Salt and pepper to taste
4 cooked langoustines
Lemon wedges
– Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large, heavy pan with a lid.
– Add the chorizo and cook for 3 minutes.
– Remove the chorizo from the oil (which should now be a lovely colour) and place in a bowl to the side.
– Add the chicken thighs and cook on a low heat for 5 minutes each side with the pan lid on.
– Remove the chicken thighs and place in the bowl with the chorizo.
– Add the garlic, red pepper and rice and stir well until the rice is well coated.
-Add the stock, saffron, wine and tinned tomatoes. Stir well.
– Add the chicken thighs and chorizo back into the pan and simmer on a low heat with the lid on for 10 minutes.
– Add the prawns and peas and mix through gently. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
– Add the langoustines on top and replace the lid. Simmer for 10 more minutes.
– Leave to sit with the heat off and the lid on for 5 more minutes before serving with lemon wedges.
Super quick and simple to make this Japanese Tori Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken) really hits the spot! You can add garlic and ginger to the marinade if you like for a little extra flavour but I don’t usually. For authenticity make sure you’re eating it with Kewpie mayonnaise!
Chicken breast (or thigh) chopped into bite size chunks
1 tbsp cooking sake
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp corn flour
Large pinch of salt
– Marinate the chicken in the sake and soy sauce (optional: garlic and ginger pastes) for at least 30 minutes or as long as overnight in the fridge.
– Heat a pan of oil to 180°
– Drain any excess liquid from the chicken.
– Add the corn flour and salt and mix so the chicken is well coated.
– Drop into the hot oil a piece at a time, cook in batches if necessary so it’s not crowded.
– Cook for 3 minutes until golden brown.
– Remove from the oil with chopsticks (or tongs) and place on a sheet of kitchen paper to drain.
– Serve hot or cold with mayonnaise and a lemon wedge squeezed over.
Christmas is tradtionally a time of leftovers. We’ve got just about all of the sandwich suitable turkey off it now so now it is time to think of other things to make with the bits and pieces left over. There are lots of options available but few I’d actually enjoy. Pie seemed the way to go. Not only can you use the turkey but there’s nothing stopping you from using up some stuffing or leftover vegetables or even a few dollops of cranberry sauce. Got a ham? Pop it in too! Whatever is left or takes your fancy, within reason, then in it goes! I usually keep things simple. I might do turkey, stuffing and cranberry but I’d leave out the vegetables. Ham, turkey and vegetables go well together too. If you’ve got a lot of mash then why not skip the pastry and use that? It really does depend entirely upon what you have and what you like. If you’ve only got turkey to play with then a simple turkey and mushroom pie is great too.
Makes 1 average pie dish serving 4 people.
For the pastry:
225g plain flour
pinch of salt
50g butter, chilled and diced
50g Trex (white vegetable fat), chilled and diced
3-4 tbsp chilled water
– Mix together the flour and salt.
– Add the butter and Trex and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs.
– Add 3 -4 tbsp cold water by sprinkling it evenly over the surface fo the mixture. (I used 3 tbsp and a bit.)
– Using a flat bladed knife mix it together until it forms a dough.
– Gather it together with your hands and lightly knead for a few seconds to bring it together.
– Form the dough into a ball and wrap it in clingfilm. Place it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
For the filling:
1 onion, chopped
Turkey/ham/vegetables/stuffing/etc.
a good splash of olive oil
2 tbsp cornflour
1/2 pint chicken stock
– First saute your onion with a pinch of salt in a little oil in a frying pan. Add whatever leftovers you’re using and stir gently to combine.
– In a separate small pan add a good splash of oil, at least enough to cover the base of the pan.
– Gently heat this until it just starts to shimmer a bit then add the corn flour. Whisk rapidly to combine.
– Pour in your chicken stock, still whisking and keep stiring until it is a smooth sauce.
– Pour this sauce into the other pan and stir well to mix.
To make pie:
– Lightly flour the worksurface and the rolling pin, not the pastry.
– Turn out the chilled dough onto the worksurface and roll it out in one direction, turning it as you go until it reaches about 3 mm thick.
– Place your pie dish upsidedown on top of the pastry and cut a line around the dish about 1 cm out to leave room for shrinkage.
– Cut a second line around this about 1.5 cm thick.
– Fill the pie dish with the filling.
– Moisten the edge of your dish with a finger dipped in water then press the 1.5 cm thick strip round the outside of the dish trimming the length to fit.
– Moisten this pastry with water again then lay the rest of the pastry over the top using the rolling pin to help lift it across.
– I fluted the edges of this pie. It’s very simple. You basically place the thumb and index finger of one hand on the ‘inside’ of the pie and with the index finger of the other hand press the edge of the crust inwards between the two fingers of the other hand. Move round the pie and keep going until the whole edge is fluted.
– With any spare pastry I like to make decorations for the top of the pie.* I went for a Christmassy snowman and Christmas trees. Again just dampen any pastry you’re pressing together to make it stick.
– Once you’re done brush the top of the pie with beaten egg and cook in an oven preheated to gas mark 7 for 40 minutes until the pastry is a golden brown and the contents heated through. If it starts to look too brown then cover with foil or butter papers** for the remaining cooking time.
* And any spare spare pastry I stamp out shapes with cutters, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with grated parmesan to make cheesy biscuits.
** I keep the butter papers when I’ve used a block for covering things like this. It saves on foil and is a great little recycling tip!
I love salt dough. There’s something so satisfyingly primary school about it but it’s not just for kids! It’s cheap, simple and fun. My sister and I made up a 3 cup batch of this and set to making Christmas decorations. We made a mixture of things: wreaths and candle holders, cut out decorations to hang on the tree and freestyle modeling decorations too, When we were kids we made all sorts of decorations and presents from it. Handy hint, if you want to make a sheep or hair then the garlic crusher is your best friend. We used acrylic paints to paint ours but you can use just about anything you like really. For best results varnish the salt dough afterwards. We didn’t because we like the rustic, homemade look and also because we’re impatient and couldnt’ be bothered to wait! And yes, those Daleks are on the tree (round the back though) because what is more festive then the Doctor Who Christmas Special?
Makes however much you want, just multiply up keeping the same ratios.
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp vegetable oil (don’t multiply this up, just add 1 tbsp unless you’re making a bucket load in which case add a few!)
– Mix together the salt and flour.
– Add the oil.
– Gradually add the water and mix.
– Once you have a smooth, kneadable dough you’re ready to go!
– Shape as you like and lay the finished product on baking paper.
– Bake in the oven on gas mark 1 for 5 hours or microwave for 3 minutes then test and do longer if the dough is still soft underneath.
– When cool paint as you wish and varnish if you like.
NB. YOU CANNOT EAT THIS RECIPE. IT IS COMPLETELY INEDIBLE!
I’ve been having good successes with bread for a while now but I usually stick to the same recipe because it works and makes excellent bread. However, while excellent, I was after a bread roll with a soft crust instead of a nice crusty one. While sometimes a crusty bread roll is exactly what you need at others you really need something easy to bite, for example a bun to go round a burger. I had thought I was going to have to find a completely new recipe to get this softness in my rolls. Luckily I stumbled upon a tip that was so ridiculously simple it was brilliant. Brush the bread rolls with melted butter when they come out of the oven. So simple and it works!
I changed the recipe from my usual a little bit as I’ve been experimenting with a few different things with my bread recently I find using milk instead of water makes a very nice bread and the top comes out slightly darker. On a crusty loaf it seems to make a delicious chewy blistered crust with nice flavour. But essentially this is the same as my regular bread and a doddle to make.
Makes 6 small rolls, 4 large
250g strong bread flour
4g fast action yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
150ml milk, warm
2 tbsp olive oil
a little melted butter
– Mix together the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a medium sized bowl.
– Make a well in the centre and add the milk and oil.
– Mix until it forms a dough then turn out onto a floured worksurface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and soft.
– Lightly oil a bowl using your hands and then continue to knead the dough with your oil hands until the oil is worked in.
– Put the dough in the oiled bowl and move around so it’s covered in oil.
– Place in a warm place to rise for about an hour or until doubled in size. *
– Knock down the dough and knead it for a minute.
– Divide the dough into the portions you want and shape into round balls by pinching the bottom sides together until you have a smooth top.
– Place on a baking tray and gently flatten a little with the heel of your hand.
– Repeat for each ball of dough.
– Leave to rise in a warm place for at least 30 minutes until the dough has roughly doubled again.
– Bake for 10 minutes at gas mark 7.
– Remove from the oven and immediately brush the tops generously with melted butter.
– Allow to stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.
* I’ve started to rise bread in front of the fire now that it’s getting frosty. I place it on the hearth with a glass bowl over the top to keep out the drafts. Seems to work very well!
Yay! This is my 100th recipe posted here! To celebrate I made a cake. Chocolate cakes and I have a tricky relationship. I’m very demanding when it comes to chocolate cakes. I am after perfection! I’m not sure I’m quite there yet but this is the best chocolate cake I’ve made yet. It’s moist and fudgey and squishy but not too rich. It’s quite dense but stops just short of being called brownie-like. The best thing about it is that it can be thrown together in a blender or mixer if you don’t want to do it by hand. It was ridiculously easy. All in all this cake was a success.
I was going to do fantastic things icing this cake. I made fondant icing from scratch, well, a box of fondant icing sugar. But I had to get the Kenwood out to mix it and spent over an hour rolling it out. Blood, sweat and tears went into this icing, literally. Then I finally had it rolled out to the right size. I went to pick it up to drape it over the cake and… DISASTER. It stuck to the plastic sheets I’d been rolling it out between and then it stuck to itself and then it fell apart. I honestly don’t know if it was too wet, sticky, or too dry, cracked into pieces. But I cried.
So I just stopped with the buttercream icing and decided that may be I should practice with ready rolled a bit first. Learn to walk before I try running if you will. As for the decorations… well, I have the artistic ability of a drunken ferret. I love edible ball bearings and all baked goods should be blessed with them. Strawberries or raspberries would look great on this but they’re out of season at the minute so I used raspberry jelly sweets instead. A layer of fresh fruit inside would be nice too.
Makes 1×8″ cake
For the cake:
225g granulated sugar
200g plain flour
100g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
120ml milk
60ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
120 ml boiling water
For the buttercream*:
180g plain chocolate
225g unsalted butter, softened
240g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
– Heat your oven to Gas Mark 4 and prepare two 8″ sandwich tins.
– In a large bowl mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa**, baking powder and salt.
– Add the egg, milk, oil and vanilla essence to the dry ingredients and mix well. It make seem very dry but keep at it. It will come together to form a dough. Keep mixing until it is a smooth, even consistency.
– Add the water and mix thoroughly.
– Pour the batter into the two tins. If you want completely equal layers you can weigh them but I usually do it by eye.
– Smooth the batter out so it is even.
– Bake for 25-30 minutes. You will be able to see if the centre is uncooked and a skewer inserted will come out clean.
– Make up the buttercream by melting the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Allow to cool.
– Cream together the butter and the icing sugar and then add the vanilla essence.
– Mix well then add the melted chocolate and stir thoroughly until everything is combined.
– Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes or so then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
– Once completely cool fill between the two cakes and ice all over with the buttercream using a palette knife to smooth it over the cake.
– Decorate as you wish.
* I only made 2/3 this amount and it needed more so expect better coverage than seen in the photo.
**Sift this in or you will get lumps.
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 