A kitchen full of goodies!

Hello people, did you all have a nice weekend?

We had a quiet weekend, and I spent a little time in the kitchen this afternoon.

I brought a cook book last year in February, Bake and Decorate, by Fiona Cairns, which I lost when we moved house.... and much to my delight I found it last week. I have been kicking myself about what I had done with it and I knew it was in a box.... somewhere.... and somewhere was in the garage!

Anyway, there was a delightful recipe in there for Sticky Toffee Cupcakes with a Salted Caramel Buttercream.... I can see you drooling from here!

They were a delight to make, and the buttercream was simple to make, even though you did have to make some caramel sauce which had to cool before adding it to the buttercream... this recipe does come with a health warning - do not lick out the cake mixture bowl, caramel bowl and the buttercream bowl as you will make yourself sick, as Mr P found out!

Adding the caramel to the butter and icing sugar

Giving it a good mix!

Here are the finished results.... I am now on the look out for some nice bronze cupcake cases as I think they would look nice in them, and also I might make some chocolate decorations to sit on top... or sprinkle on some rock salt! The recipe would also work well if you put the cake mixture in two sponge tins and did a layered cake.

Yum yum

You just want to reach out and stick your finger in the buttercream!

I also whipped up my first batch of marmalade as well today - I made two types - plain and one with ginger.

Simmering away nicely!

The jars are cooling on in the kitchen as we speak. I can't wait to try some this weekend.

Better go and pack up the cakes for work. Have a good week!

Nic xoxoxox

Obsession with quiches?

Afternoon all, 

I appear to have a thing for quiches at the moment - forget the horrid, bland shop brought quiche with soggy bottoms (there is nothing worse than a soggy bottom!). I was thinking about what to make for tea tonight, and there's not much in the fridge (shopping day tomorrow)... apart from half a squash, some red onions, milk and eggs... now I would call these items "household staples" for my fridge and are normally lurking in there somewhere. And a quiche sprung to mind.

I've always got flour and butter in the house, so knocking up some pastry isn't a problem. I make mine in my magimix which saves time and mess (200g plain flour, 100g cold butter, 3 tbsp cold water, pinch of salt - add flour and salt to mixer and pulse, add butter and mix until breadcrumbs, add water, mix until dough starts to form a ball, scope out, pop in a bit of cling and slap in the fridge - job done in less than 5 minutes).

Luckily, there was some rouge goats cheese in the fridge, or else I would have used cheddar, but here is my recipe: 

Roasted Squash, Caramelised Red Onion and Goats Cheese Quiche

Ingredients

Half a medium butternut squash, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes

2 red onions, peeled and thinly sliced

100g full fat soft goats cheese (if you don’t like goats cheese, a strong cheddar will work well)

Olive oil

Knob of butter

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

3 eggs

142ml of milk

142 ml of double cream

2tsp of dried thyme

1 tbsp runny honey

1 packet of shortcrust pastry (or you can make your own pastry)

For this recipe you will need a 24cm flan tin with a loose bottom.

1. Preheat the oven to 200C / GM6. Roll out your pastry until big enough to line your greased tin. Press the pastry gently into the sides of the tin. Be careful not to stretch the pastry otherwise when it cooks it will shrink. Trim off any excess, keeping the off cuts to patch up any holes if necessary. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork and line with crumpled greaseproof paper and weigh down with baking beans or dried rice. This is called blind baking. Place on a baking tray and pop in the oven for 15minutes. After 15minutes, take the tin from the oven, reduce the temperature to 180C/GM4 and remove the greaseproof paper and baking beans. Pop the tin back in the oven for a further 10 minutes. Blind baking prevents your pastry going soggy when you add you quiche ingredients. Remove from the oven and brush the pastry with egg white. This will act as a sealant and help prevent any leaks!
2. Now onto the filling. Place the diced squash, 2tsp of dried thyme, 2 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp of runny honey in a roasting tin and roast in the oven for 20minutes at 180C/GM4 until the cubes are soft and starting to brown. Place aside to cool.
3. On the hob, in a large frying pan, add 2 tbsp of olive oil and a knob of butter. When the butter has melted, add the onions and balsamic vinegar and let to reduce over a low heat. The balsamic will help caramelise the onions. This should take 20minutes.
4. To make the egg filling, in a measuring jug add the milk, double cream, 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk. Season with salt and pepper. Give the mixture a good stir so everything is combined.
5. To compile your quiche, place the red onions over the bottom of the pastry case; scatter over the squash and crumble over the goats cheese. Pour the egg mixture gently over the filling. Place the quiche back in the oven at 180C/GM4 for 30/40 minutes or until the top looks puffy, golden and set.
6. Leave to cool slightly before turning the quiche out of the tin. Enjoy with a nice green salad.

You can play around with the main filling ingredients and add what you like as long as you stick with the egg filling ration. There is nothing wrong with a bit of experimentation once you get the basics right. I was thinking about doing chorizo, butter bean and tomato quiche... and then remembered I married a vegetarian! Hopefully I can get hold of some veggie chorizo (yes, it does exist)!

Enjoy!

Nic xoxox

Sweet Treats No 2!

Hello again!

Two blog posts in one weekend! Crikey! I am spoiling you! The annoying thing is that this is the second time that I have had to write this post as "Blogger" went crazy on me last night and the post turned into a page of techno speak and I couldn't right it.... never mind!

Anyway, after a lovely weekend spent at home with Mr P, who had his head in the TV watching several rugby matches, I decided to spend Sunday baking in the kitchen as well.

I wanted to have a play around with a old family recipe, Granny Warren's Yoghurt Cake. Now, I love this cake as it is so easy to make, and it is plain and simple.

The original recipe is:
150g pot of plain yoghurt (keep the pot as it will be your measuring tool)
One pot of Corn Oil
2 eggs
2 pots of caster sugar
3 pots of self raising flour

Pre heat oven to 160C, and grease and line a 8" cake tin.

Ingredients all lined up and ready to go!

In a large bowl, add the yoghurt and oil. Stir
Add the eggs. Stir.
Add the sugar. Stir.
Add the flour..... you guessed it! Stir!

It makes a cake batter which you pour into your cake tin. Pop it in the oven for 40-50 minutes. You may need to cover the top of the cake with tin foil after 30minutes if it browns too quickly. Leave to cool for 10minutes before removing from the tin. Leave to cool completely before cutting.

Now, I wanted to see if I could adapt this recipe into cup cakes with a twist with the addition of poppy seeds and lemon..... here goes! When I added the flour, I also added 2 tbsp of poppy seeds, the zest and juice of one lemon. The recipe makes 16 cupcakes. Cook at 160C for 20-25 minutes. When you spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, make sure that you fill them half way (not 3/4). I'll show you why...

You get a muffin top if you fill the case 3/4 full!

This is how they are supposed to look like - fill your cases halfway only!

I also brought some new cupcake tins from Steamer Trading on Saturday.... they are fluted cupcake tins and fit the job perfectly! I found that my old bun tins were too shallow, and my muffin tins were too big. Masterclass now make a fluted muffin tin which are perfect for cupcakes.

Whilst the cakes were in the oven, I made some lemon curd. I wanted to spoon out a hole in the top of the cakes when cooled. The recipe I use for this is from Ruth over at the Pink Whisk! It's a great recipe. Thanks Ruth!




Sunshine on the window cill!



The little holes of curd.... ready to be hidden by some lemon butter cream!

Whilst all this was going on, I made some lemon butter cream: 500g sifted icing sugar, 110g unsalted soft butter, zest and juice of one lemon, 2 tbsp of milk.

My top tip when making butter cream, and to stop your kitchen turning into a sticky cloudy mess, sift the icing sugar in a large bowl in the sink. Cover the bowl and sieve with a clean tea towel whilst you sieve. Any mess will go into the sink and you won't be buried under clouds of icing sugar. Once the icing sugar has been sifted, I add the milk and lemon juice and give it a stir... it starts to bring the icing together, then I add the butter and place under the mixer. This also stops a cloud of icing sugar forming in the kitchen and making everything sticky!

Believe me, it works!

Here are the lovely buns. Mr P and I sampled one each on Sunday afternoon (followed by another sampling after tea!)...

Displayed on my lovely "bargain" John Lewis Cake Stand! £9.00!

The cupcake cases came from Homesense which is the Home Division of TKMaxx. They sell an amazing selection of cases and they are really good quality. You can also buy them from TKMaxx in their smaller home departments.

I also had time to whip up some Peanut Butter and Honey Seeded Bars.... but it appears that as they were cooling, a large mouse had a nibble....

And I have to share with you my new metal sign in the kitchen... brought from Ebay!

And I made some Lavender Sugar... ready for some Lavender Shortbread in two weeks!

Phew, that was a busy weekend!

See you soon!

Nic xoxoxo

Sweet Treats!

Hello peeps!

How's it going? Hope everyone is well.

I've been buried in the kitchen all afternoon whilst Mr P had his head in the TV watching three rugby matches!

A new cook book arrived this week (yes, another one for my collection!).... Mary Berry's Baking Bible. It's a lovely book, plenty of useful guidance if you are a beginner. Very robust recipes. Anyway, I fancied making chocolate eclairs. It's been a very long time since I made eclairs.... and choux pastry.... and I was really pleased with the results.

Mary's recipe for Choux Pastry is really easy to follow and it really does work a treat. Eclairs are also very cheap to make and require few ingredients. The pastry is made from water, butter, flour and eggs. It makes a batter rather than your normal pastry which you pipe onto a baking tray.

I am also in love with my new disposable piping bags which I brought from Lakeland Plastics today. I know that they are disposable, but I did wash the one I used today and reused it for the cream and it worked a treat.



Laying out all the ingredients first

  

This is the dough, after the water and butter have been heated and the flour added - you beat it with a wooden spoon until it comes together into a dough ball....

Then you start to gradually add the eggs and beat, until you end up with a glossy batter which you spoon into the piping bags.  

Piped choux pastry, 5-6" long...

Attention! Lined up

Eclairs all cooked, and cut to let the steam out so they don't go soggy on the inside. They don't take long to cool at all.

Eclairs cut in half and decorated with the chocolate and butter topping.

This is what happens when you loose the fight with your husband and end up with an Eclair rammed in your face! Will I ever learn!?!

All plated up and ready to distribute to the neighbourhood! Don't worry, we didn't eat them all, we gave them to the neighbours!

The eclairs were amazing and they went down a treat. They were really easy to make, and I would recommend giving them a go. Don't be scared, give them a go!

Also, I whipped up a Halloumi and Spinach Quiche for tea.... and there wasn't a soggy bottom in sight!

Out of the oven!

Lovely thin pastry and not a soggy bottom in sight!

I also went to Steamer Trading today and brought a new fluted muffin / cup cake tin for my cup cake treats. I found that my old tins were either too shallow or too big. At last, a tin that is perfect for cupcakes!

Happy baking everyone!

Nic xoxoxox

Special Delivery from Father Christmas.... and Mr P is taking over my kitchen!

Welcome to 2012 everyone! Where did 2011 go?!? I hope that you all had a great New Year! We had a very quiet New Year and were tucked up under the duvet in the land of zzzzzzz before midnight!

In between Christmas and New Year, Father Christmas made a special delivery......

I am now the proud owner of one of these......



My new baby!






















Oh yes! I am now the proud owner of a KitchenAid Artisan Mixer! It's only been out for one trip so far.... and I must stop stroking it!  I really can't wait to get some time in the kitchen to use it! What to make first!?

I also spent some of my Christmas money on a few items for the kitchen -  a new stainless steel stock pan (to replace the ye olde aluminium pan that was inherited from my gran!); some lovely new roasting tins and baking tins and, of course, a raft of cook books..... including Tea with Bea which is a lovely book and got some really great reviews on Amazon.

I didn't really get to have a look-in to the kitchen over Christmas and New Year. Mr P appears to have been inspired by my recent cooking and even volunteered to cook on Christmas Day for us.

With New Year's Eve looming, Mr P volunteered to cook again.... and he said he'd cook anything that I fancied...... and I fancied Pasties! Mr P has never made pastry before, let alone a pasty.... and he's a vegetarian....

When I make pasties for him, I actually use quorn beef pieces..... I did direct him to a blog (cough cough) that showed him how to make a pasty!

Anyway, he used the pastry recipe from the Great British Bake Off cookbook series 2 and followed my guidance for putting together the pasty....

Learning to "chip" the veg....

First time at crimping..... and the lovely decoration!

Served with a cup of tea!



Proper Job!

I have to admit, he made bloody good pasties! And his pastry was amazing too!I think I may have to start to watch my back in the kitchen before he takes over and kicks me out! He even used my new pans before I had a chance and I think was just as excited about my KitchenAid as I was! He keeps badgering me about when I am going to use it next! Pah! Bake off in the Pengelly Belly household then! Bring it on!

Right, I'm off to watch The Sport Relief Great British Bake Off!
Cheerio,

Nic xoxox