Saturday 31 January 2015

Vanilla cheescake

Looking for a sunday dessert?  Here's how to make my CHEESECAKE.

1. Crush 400g digestive biscuits.  Pour 125g melted butter over them and mix well to combine.  Topple into a prepared greased and base lined (this is when those pre-cut round and square base liners that i blogged about before come in handy) spring form tin and press out to the edges, evening out the top to form a smooth biscuit base.  Place in fridge to set and chill.
2. Meanwhile, in your mixer place 600g room temp cream cheese and whip lightly.  Add in 3&1/2 oz icing sugar and a drop of vanilla extract and mix for a minute or two.  To this add 300ml whipped cream and fold in.
3. To this i added in some crushed up maltesers and stir in.  You could add in anything you fancy.  You could try flake chocolate maybe or broken pieces of different chocolate bars.
4. Empty the mix onto the chilled biscuit base using a spatula to get every bit from the bowl.  Even out the mix and top with some grated chocolate and whole maltesers to decorate.  Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.  Best to refridgerate it overnight

Honey & Nut lemon drizzle cake

Honey & nut lemon drizzle loaf:
This one is for me! My type of treat for afternoon tea.

1. Sift 350g plain flour and 1tbsp baking powder in a large bowl.  Rub 175g butter in until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in 75g caster sugar and a mix of roughly chopped walnuts and hazelnuts.
3. Beat together 3 medium eggs, 1tbsp milk, 1tbsp lemon juice, 2tbsp golden syrup and 3tbsp honey (you could just use 5tbsp of honey or maple/golden syrup). 
Add to the dry ingredients and gently mix to make a soft-dropping consistency (add little more milk if need)
4. Pour mix into prepared greased and lined loaf tin.  Bake on middle shelf of preheated 170 degree oven for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
5. Remove loaf and cool on rack.
6. For the lemon drizzle, sift 75g icing sugar into a bowl.  Add 1tbsp lemon juice and stir to make a smooth icing, adding little by little more juice if needed.  Drizzle how you want over the cooled loaf and top with some walnut pieces.

The perfect afternoon tea loaf!

Thursday 29 January 2015

Simple Veggie Soup!


SOUP is such a simple thing to make!
-It can be as simple and healthy as you wish,
-you can add in whatever flavours and ingredients you like,
-it's great to use up any left over veggies,
-it is really a one pot wonder and
-the best thing is you can whip up a batch and freeze it.

I find soup a great thing to have if you're eating healthy. 
It will fill you up and is great to have in the pot to go to during the day if you feel peckish.  It holds great in flasks too for packed lunches.

ALDI do an amazing "Super 6" offer every week where they have 6 fruit/veg on offer for 39c each!  I tend to start here and work my shopping around it!
This week i picked up some packets of juicy granny smith apples for snacking and lunches.  I also picked up packs of leeks and carrots & parsnips to make some yummy soup.  All these packs are just 39c this week!  Amazing.

So in the evening i decided to whip up some soup for supper.  I made enough for 2 days snacking and also freezing. 
Here's the very simple version i did. 
As i said, you can add in whatever you like - this is just what worked for me this time around.  It turned out so tasty without tweaking it at the end, i said i would share it with you all.  (all the veg i mention here i have chopped up ready)

1. In a skillet, on medium heat, heat some flora cuisine and saute 2 carrots; 1/2 large onion; 1 parsnip; 1 leek; 1/4 white cabbage; 1 garlic clove; fresh ginger (literally a tiny bit as it's strong) and a little fresh parsley.
(i start with the carrot, soften a little and add each ingredient in, softening a little before the next ingredient is added)
2. Season with salt; blk pepper; red & yellow aromat; cumin seeds and pour in boiling water to cover.
3. Remember that chicken stock we made from our chicken a few weeks back?  Well, now is when we will use a tub of it from the freezer! (check out my blog on making stock) I run a pallet knife around the tub and top the frozen stock straight into the mix.  If you don't have homemade stock, you can add a chicken stock cube or pot with some water instead.
4. Simmer for about 15 minutes. 
5. Blitz your soup with a hand held blitzer if you have one.  If you don't you should invest in one.  I picked mine up for literally nothing - about 10 - 15 euro.  It's hassle free as you can do so in the same cooking pot. Less cleaning or washing up..... result!
If you don't have a hand blitzer, you will need to liquidize in batches.

I did not need to add any more seasoning as i had enough from what i added already plus from the chicken stock. 
I also was happy with the consistency of it.  I did not need to add any cream or anything else.   It was a thickish consistency and very tasty and flavoursome.

Served with some homemade brown bread or soda bread and butter is a recipe for contentment and satisfaction! 
Sure to warm you up on these cold wintery evenings.

Thursday 22 January 2015

BANANA BREAD CAKE

This is without doubt, one of my favourite sweet cakes to go with a coffee.  Its moist and yummy and, not too heavy and easy to make.  It's a great treat to whip up for afternoon tea or to bring when visiting.

I use cup measures in this.  You can pick up a cup measure jug anywhere and find it very handy when baking.  Especially if you find a recipe online and are following it by cup measure.
Here's how i make mine:
1. Cream together 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup of sugar.
2. Add 2 beaten eggs and 4 mashed bananas.  Combine well.
3. In a large bowl, sieve together 1 1/2 cups plain flour; 1tsp baking powder and 1/2tsp salt.
4. Add 1/2tsp vanilla extract and combine well for a minute or two.
5. To this i folded in chopped walnuts but you could add in whatever you fancy here if you like.
6. Pour into greased and lined tin of choice. Bake 175degrees for 1 hour.  Check by inserting skewer in. If it comes out clean, your cake is done!
7. When cooled i poured over a mix of a little water and icing sugar just to give a little sweet texture glaze.
DELICIOUS!

Thursday 15 January 2015

Super easy BUNS!!

These little beauties are so easy to make, with very simple measurements for you to memorize so they can be whipped up within minutes to satisfy the family. 
The simple recipe is as follows:
-6oz sugar
-6oz s.r. flour
-6oz butter softened
-3 eggs
-vanilla extract
I use a mixer to make mine........fast and easy!
-Mix butter and sugar together for few mins.
-add 1 egg at a time with a spoon or 2 of flour after each one (so as not to curdle)  Mix well.
-add remaining flour and mix on high speed for a few minutes.  Add about 1tsp vanilla extract.
(make sure no butter lumps) Use a spatula to scrap down the sides also and mix again.
-spoon mix into cupcake/bun cases, half way up case.  Bake in pre-heated 180 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes.
-i like them nice and light/pale so take them out and check them with a skewer.....if it comes out clean, they're done. 
-cool them on a rack.
You can add in some chocolate chips to the mix at the end when everything is mixed and just combine with a spatula. 
It's nice sometimes also to decorate them with a topping. 
You could add cream cheese frosting.  Here i melted some chocolate and topped each bun (when completely cooled) followed by some sprinkles or marshmallows for example and set aside to set.
Simples!  yummy!