Fruited tea cakes

Since buliding my confidence in tackling the basics of bread, I've been working my way through different forms of bread to keep building on my experience and fruited teacakes are beginning  to make a regular appearance since they are one of the few breads that my husband genuinely enjoys & loves them for a quick breakfast, and the kids love them as well

So after a couple of attempts making them, and being happy with how they've turned out , I thought I would share my recipe.

To make 6 teacakes you will need:

100 milk
100ml cold water
30g unsalted butter
350g bread flour
7g fast action yeast
2tbsp sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
65g dried mixed fruit ( sultana raisins fruit peel )
1 medium egg beaten

• Warm the milk with the butter until the butter melts. Add in the water and stir together. Set aside
• Place the flour into a bowl and on opposite sides, add the sugar, salt , cinnamon, mixed spice and yeast.
• Make  well in the middle and slowly begin to add the milk, mix togther with your hand to form a soft dough. If you find the dough is too sticky, add in a couple of tbsp of flour.
• Knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic. If you prefer to use a freestansing mixer with the dough hook you can do so.
• Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, cover with cling film ajd leave to rise until doubled in size
• Once the dough has risen, lightly flour your work surface, remove the dough from the bowl, and gently knock out the air from the dough. 
• Tip the fruit into the dough and knead for a couple of minutes until the fruit is evenly dispersed. 
• Divide the dough into 6 equal sized balls, roll into smooth rounds and then flatten each round - I flattened each round out to the size of my palm.
• Place onto a greaseproof lined tray, and leave to prove for about 35 -40 minutes. And preheat your oven to 200c/180c fan
• Brush the tops with the beaten egg, and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown all on top and well risen
• Serve cut in half with butter or toast them the next day again with butter and jam for brekfast. They will keep for 2-4 days in an airtight container or well sealed food bag

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

Following on from my Mince meat recipe, here is my recipe for my quick, easy but delicious mince pies ..

The amount for the pastry will make a batch of 12, so of you're wanting to make more just double up on the pastry ingredients.

With the mincemeat you'll have plenty left over from just 12 pies but you can always store any left over in the fridge

 For the pastry bases you will need 1 batch of my Sweet short crust pastry and a batch of my mince meat


• Start by lightly flouring your work surface, roll out the pastry to about the thickness of a £1 coin

• Using a pastry cutter slightly bigger than the holes in the cupcake tin, cut ot 12 rounds. Gently press each round into the tin holes

• Fill each case with 1 - 1 1/2 tsp with the mincemeat

• Use any left over pastry to either cut out shapes and place them on top of each pie, or make cut out lids to place on top.

• If you top your mince pies with lids, brush the edges with a little water and seal together  by pressing together  with a fork and poke a small hole in the top to help the steam escape.

• Brush the lids/shapes with a little egg wash and bake in a preheated oven at 200c/180c fan for 18- 20 minutes or until golden brown

• Leave to cool slightly  before transferring to a wire rack to cool, and and lightly dust with icing sugar before serving

Guacamole

This is a really quick and easy recipe for guacamole as a friend's daughter asked me to post it.

For my version of guacamole, I  dont really measure the ingredients, i eyeball it as I go but the amounts listed below should be about right as I've gotten the hang of measuring small amounts by eye

For my guacamole you will need

1 small red onion
1 red chilli ( de seeded if you're not keen on spice)
3 ripe avacados
Small handful chopped coriander
Zest and juice of 2 limes
Olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
2-3 cherry tomatoes

• Peel and chop your onion into small chunks, pop into a bowl

• Cut the chilli in  half width ways ( deseed if you wish ) chop      up one half and add to the onion, slice the remaining half          and set aside

• Chop the corinader, and add this to the onions along with         the lime zest

• Destone the avacadoes, scoop out all the flesh and roughly chop it, add to the bowl and squeeze over the juice of the limes. You can have the avacadoes in mostly chunks and slighty smooth or completly mash it up with a fork if you prefer it smooth

• Add a drizzle of olive oil, a good pinch of salt and pepper. Check the seasoning and adjust if need be with more salt and pepper or lime juice. 

• Chop the tomatoes into  chunks, stir through the guacamole, garnish with a little more fresh coriander and finish with a little drizzle of olive oil just before serving

fruit scones

Scones are probably one of the first things I ever learned to bake and even now i love the simplicity of them and how they still taste delicious everytime.

The recipe i use now has slightly changed from what i used growing up, but definitely this recipe gives me the best tasting and textured scones to date.

These are the classic sultana scones, but you can swap them for glace cherries, rasins or chocolate chips or even leave them plain if you prefer

To make 12-15 scones you will need 

250g strong bread flour
250g plain flour
5 level tsp baking powder
80g unsalted butter
80g caster sugar
250ml milk
2 medium eggs
100g sultanas/choc chips/glace cherries 

• Preheat your oven to 200c (fan) and line 2 baking trays with grease proof paper
• Place your flour, butter, baking powder and sugar in a bowl and rub the mixture together with your fingers till you get a breadcrumb like consistency. Add in your chosen fillings at this point, mix them through
• Add in eggs and half the milk and mix together to combine everything. Add the rest of the milk a little at a time combining the mixture until you get a soft (but not wet) dough. You may not need all the milk
• Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes till you have a smooth dough.
• Roll out your dough to about 2 and a half cm thick and use a 5and a half cm cookie cutter to cut out rounds. Re roll any remaining dough and cut out more rounds.
• Brush the tops with beaten egg and leave to rest for about 5 minutes.
• Bake in the  oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown and they have risen. 
• Serve toasted with butter or with jam and cream

 
 

Mango, Avocado & Chilli Salsa

This is possibly one of the quickest and easiest side salads ever and it's one that I will eat with a variety of mains as well as sometimes just on its own. The freshness of the lime & mint is perfect with the sweetness of the mangoes and the added slight heat from the chillies gives a wonderful kick to your tastebuds.



To serve 4-6 people you will need :

3 avocados chopped into chunks 
 2x 275g pack of pre cut mango chunks*  
juice and zest of one lime 
2 good handfuls of chopped coriander
1 handful chopped mint 
pinch of salt & pepper 
1 red chilli finely chopped - deseeded if you'd like a slightly milder salsa 
olive oil 

• Place your avocado in a bowl with the pre cut mango chunks. Using a zester, add the whole zest of the lime to the bowl and squeeze in all the juice, adding in the salt & pepper and stir through
• Add the chopped chilli, coriander, mint, a drizzle of olive oil and stir through. Check the seasoning and overall flavours. Tweak as necessary if you feel it needs a little more of any of the ingredients & serve 

* I sometimes cut up the mango chunks again myself as they can be quite big, I prefer them almost bitesize

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.... carrot cake

Easy peasy lemon squeezy carrot cake.. because it really is so easy and has a bit of a twist on the cream cheese frosting. I actually turned mine into a tray bake to take to work for my colleagues as an end of week treat. You can alternatively divide the mixture between 2 9 inch round tins or even divide into cupcake cases and you'll get 24 cupcakes.

To get a decent 18 - 20 square pieces as a tray bake you will need

For the cake :

340g/12oz self raising flour
170g/6oz soft light brown sugar
170g/6oz soft dark brown sugar
340g/12oz softened margarine*
7 medium eggs - at room temperature*
4 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp milk
3 large carrots grated 

50g/2oz roughly chopped walnuts

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 

125g/4oz dried mixed fruit 

2 tablespoon golden syrup 

juice and zest of a large orange

For the cream cheese topping/filling:

250g/8oz marscapone cheese

450g/16oz full fat cream cheese

170g/6oz icing sugar 

zest and juice of 1 lime 

100g/4oz chopped walnuts

• Preheat your oven to 180c/350f/Gas mark 4. Grease and line a deep rectangular baking dish/2 deep 9 inch round tins/ 2 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake cases.
• Cream the margarine with both sugars with an electric whisk or a freestanding mixer until pale in colour and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and mix until smooth.
• Add in the flour, olive oil, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, golden syrup, orange juice and zest, and whisk together till smooth
• Fold in the carrots, dried fruit and walnuts. Pour the mixture into the tray or divide equally between the 2 tins or cupcake cases.
• Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes or until lightly golden in colour and the cake starts to just come away from the edges of the tins/tray. Alternatively use a skewer/ cocktail stick to check that the cake has cooked. The skewer should come out clean if the cake is cooked through. If it comes out a little sticky, give the cake a little longer.
• Leave the cake to cool slightly before removing from the tray/tins ; Then leave to cool completely.
• Make up the frosting once the cake has cooled by mixing together all the ingredients till smooth and there are no lumps and spread generously over the tray baked cake or for the cakes spread some of the filling over one half of the cakes, place the other half on top and spread the top with some more of the frosting. For the cupcakes, just spoon the frosting over the tops. Don't worry if the frosting isn't perfect and neatly done - slightly messy an rustic frosting is perfect for this cake.
• Finish off the cake with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts and if you can resist leave in the fridge for about 20 minutes for the frosting to firm up a little but if you're anything like me then dig straight in 

* Having your margarine soft and eggs at room temp really does help in getting a better rise out of your cake rather than using them straight from the fridge. I quite often use the defrost function on my microwave for my margarine- at 30 second bursts till its softened  

**The tray i used was actually a deep roasting tray which measured 15'' by 12'',  round tins i have are about 3'' deep and for the cupcake cases i use standard size cupcake cases not mini cupcake cases