MacMillan Coffee Morning! :)

MacMillian Coffee Morning Bakes

It was the MacMIllan Coffee Morning this weekend and i course baked some goodies for sale!!! From M&S, they were selling the ‘Little Book of Treats’ for £4.99 and I decided to make the Fruity Flapjack biscuits – courtesy of Kate Harries and Peanut Butter Brownies, Dame Maggie Smith’s recipe.

They were simple to make and tasted delicious! I also made the pistachio cake as well as it always goes down a treat! 🙂 Apparently from the staff, they said it was the 1st cake go so I was really pleased! 🙂

Hope you guys did some baking for this event too! 🙂

Fruity Flapjack Cookies

Peanut Butter Brownies

Pistachio Cake

MacMillian Coffee Morning Bakes – Yum! 🙂

MacMillian Coffee Morning Bakes!

 

Football Healthy Snacks Part 2!!!

Here’s part 2 of the football healthy snacks as I made Tesco’s Flapjack cookies and Energy Bites from BBC Good Food.

The energy bites was really simple to make, slightly messy but quick to do! 🙂

Ingredients:

• 100g Pecans
• 75g Raisins
• 1 x tablespoon of flaxseeds – i didn’t have this so I used mixed seeds
• 1 x tablespoon of cocoa powder
• 1 – 3 x tablespoon of honey
• 50g Desiccated coconut (to finish)
• 3 x tablespoon of peanut butter

Method:

11) Put the pecans into the food processor, blitz to crumbs, then add the everything else (not the desiccated coconut) and pulse to combine. If the mixture seems too dry, add some more honey or peanut butter to make the mixture more moist.

2) Shape the mixture into golf sized balls and roll them into the desiccated coconut to coat. Put in fridge to firm for 30 minutes. They will last for 3 – 4 days.

I also made flapjack cookies using Tesco’s recipe. Although, I was not really impressed with the outcome and I wouldn’t make this again! I thought the biscuits were quite thin and tasted quite sweet. The recipe was on the back of the Demerara sugar packaging.

Here’s the ingredients:

• 175g Butter
• 175g Demerara sugar
• 100g Golden syrup
• 75g wholemeal plain flour
• Half teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 250g Oats
• 1 x teaspoon of cinnamon powder
• 100g Raisins
• 100g Dried cranberries
• 1 stem ginger finely chopped
• 1 x egg beaten
• 2 x tablespoon of boiling water
• Preheat oven to GM4 (180c) and line 2 x trays with parchment paper

Method:

1) Heat the butter, sugar and syrup until melted.

2) Add all the other dry ingredients. Then add the egg and water – mix thoroughly . Leave until cool to handle.

3) Dampen your hands and shape into flattened balls. Allow space to to spread and they do spread by quite a fair bit. I used a small ice cream scoop for the balls.

Bake for 12 – 15 minutes until golden brown. Leave to harden and then transfer to a wire rack.

I am glad everybody at work enjoyed the healthy snacks, but I prefer to bake lovely and fattening cakes and desserts! 🙂

Football Healthy Snacks Part 1!!!

My internet connection was down for 2 weeks so I was unable to blog any posts! Unfortunately at my work place, wordpress is banned!!! Very annoying!

So, going back to week commencing 9th September, I was asked by one of my work colleague to bake something healthy for the company’s football charity event! All the stuff that I normally bake is quite unhealthy and indulging so I thought ‘healthy’ bakes would be a challenge!!! 🙂

I decided to make a variety of healthy snacks – Cranberry & Pecan Oaties, Flapjack cookies, Honey & Peanut Booster bars and Energy Bites! I think at times, I might be abit too ambitious with my baking!!!

From the feedback, the honey and peanut booster bars and cranberry & pecan oaties were a hit so I was pleased! 🙂 I actually nearly burnt down my kitchen making the cranberry & pecan oaties as the baking parchment caught on fire in the oven! Luckily, my hubby was around to put it out and I still had some mixture left!!! 🙂

Here’s the recipe for the Honey & Peanut Booster Bars from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall:

Ingredients:

• 125g Unsalted butter
• 150g soft brown sugar
• 125g crunchy peanut butter
• 75g honey and a little more to finish
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 200g porriage oats
• 150g dried fruits ie apricots, raisins, cranberries, blueberries
• 150g mixed seeds ie pumpkin, sunflower, poppy, linseed
• Preheat the oven GM3 (160c). Grease and line a 20cm square tin

Method: Make 16 pieces

1) Put the butter, sugar, peanut butter, honey, grated zests into a deep saucepan over a low heat.

2) Leave until melted, stirring from time to time.

3) Stir in the oats, fried fruits and 3/4 of the seeds into the mixture until combined. Spread the mixture into the tin and smooth the top.

4) Scatter the remaining seeds and drizzle the top with some honey.

5) Bake for 30 minutes and leave to cool and cut into squares.

Here’s the recipe for Cranberry & Pecan Oaties:

Ingredients:

• 175g Plain Flour, plus extra for dusting
• Half teaspoon of baking powder
• 85g Porriage Oats
• 175g Golder caster sugar
• 1 x teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 140g Butter, chopped
• 70g dried cranberries or blueberries
• 50g Pecans, roughly broken
• 1 x egg beaten
• Preheat oven to GM4 (160c) and line 2 trays with baking parchment paper

Method: Makes 12 – 16 cookies

1) Tip the flour, baking powder, sugar and cinnamon into a bowl and mix well with your hands. Rub in the butter. Stir the cranberries and pecans, add the egg and mix well with a wooden spoon until it all comes together in a big ball.

2) Lightly flour the work surface, then roll the dough into a fat sausage about 6cm across. Wrap in cling film, then chill in the fridge until solid.

3) Unwrap the cookie log, thickly slice into discs and arrange on baking sheets. Make sure you leave space around each one as they do spread. I used a small ice cream scoop to place them.

4) Bake them for 15 – 20 minutes or until golden. Leave on the trays to harden and then cool completely on a wire rack.

So, this is part 1, part 2 to follow! 🙂

 

White Chocolate Cheesecakes!

Yum Yum Cheesecake! 🙂

My family loves cheesecakes, although I prefer cakes and hot desserts! 🙂 Normally, I would make my famous ‘Oreo Cheesecake’ for parties but lately for family gatherings, I have found a really easy and simple delicious cheesecake recipe from Nigella. And, this is perfect to make if you don’t have much time. I have made some adpatations from her reciepe, so it depends on what you like. I would normally make the cheesecake the day before I need to serve it so that it has time to set in the fridge. The texture is so creamy and light and extremely addicitive to eat!! 🙂 A family favourite! 🙂

Here’s the ingredients:

• 200g digestive biscuits
• 300g white chocolate melted
• 284ml double cream
• 250g philadelphia
• 250g mascarpone cheese
• 1 x tsp vanilla extract
• 75g butter melted
• 200g raspberries (frozen or fresh and optional)
• Mixed fruits to decorate and 1 bar of chocolate melted (optional)
• 20cm springform cake tin

Method:

1. Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until fine crumbs and mix it with the melted butter. Press down onto a lined 20cm springform cake tin with a back of a spoon
2. Pop it in the fridge to keep cool while you make the topping
3. Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over some simmering water and put aside
4. Beat the cream, philadelphia and mascarpone in a bowl until combined and then stir in the melted white chocolate with 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
5. You can scatter a third of the raspberries onto the biscuit base and cover with a third of the creamy topping, repeat twice more finishing with the remaining raspberries on the top. Or you can just leave out the raspberries and decorate with the fruits on top
6. Chill for at least 6 hours or preferably overnight. Before I serve this (an hour before), I will melt a bar of dark chocolate and use a fork to drizzle this on top of the fruits and put it back into the fridge to set. If you are putting fruits on top, it is best to put them on just before serving as sometimes there could be excess liquid from the fruits.
   

   Raspberries within the cheesecake and decorated with  fruits on top and mint leaves to finish! 🙂

   

Abergavenny Food Festival! :)

September Food Festival

I have read that in September, the best known of all food festivals takes place in Abergavenny, Wales. The activity spreads all over the town and there is a whole weekend of scheduled events and has the most fantastic food market! I am very excited about this because our tickets arrived in the post last and we managed to get them for £8 each which is a bargain!!! Even now, you can still buy the tickets for £9 each which is still cheaper than compared to the London Food Festival prices. It takes place on the 21st and 22nd September in 5 different venues around the town. I am sure it will be a completely different atmosphere than compared to the other foodies festivals that I have been in London! I can’t wait to go! 🙂

For more information about the Abergavenny Food Festival, click here.

elBulli: Ferran Adria and the art of food

I went to ElBulli: Ferran Adria’s food exhibition and was totally inspired! The fundamental principle of his philosophy is ‘Stop copying and consequently to start creating’. When compared with Heston’s food creations, it is completely on a different level!!

The exhibition showed how it all began up from 1961 up until the restaurant closed in 2011 and this has now became the ‘elBullifoundation’ which will open again in 2014 as a creativity centre. The name “elBulli” came from the French bulldogs the Schillings owned, hence the logo. The exhibition is at Somerset House and it is only showing until the 29th September. I really enjoyed this and recommend this to anyone who is a foodie fan! 🙂

elBullifoundation

All the food creations

Tools & Equipment!

 

Tweet Tweet!!!

Just wanted to let you guys know, that I have now offically joined Twitter!!! I have only started tweeting last week and still trying to get the hang of it! It was my hubby who is really ‘not technical’ was showing me how to use twitter! and what to do!! How ironic is that!?!! I have downloaded the app onto my mobile so i can tweet every now and then if i don’t have time to write my blog entries!!

You can find me on Twitter: @AuntygkitchenHopefully, soon I will set up a facebook page as well for my blog! 🙂

How to cook rice – the old fashion way!

Cooking rice in a pot! 🙂

I have been meaning to write this entry for awhile now as our rice cooker broke a couple of months and we were completely clueless on how to cook rice in the old fashion way as we have always been brought up using a rice cooker!

We were in a tricky predicament as Dan made a lovely chicken and brown sauce for dinner and we went to switch our rice cooker on and it didn’t work!!! With this dish, you will definately need to eat this with rice as the sauce would soak up the rice.

We went on you tube to have a look at some of the methods and found this one was the simpliest and easiest to understand. And the results were amazing, the rice was cooked perfectly and tasted even better than cooking from a rice cooker!!!

Here’s the method:

1. 2 cups of rice is enough for 3 adults. Wash the rice x3 and drain the water. Remember, 1 cup of rice = 1 cup of water
2. Put 2 cups of water in a pot with a lid and turn you hob on high. Don’t open the lid whilst the rice is cooking or this will spoil!
3. When it starts to boil, turn it down to medium heat. When you see the steam coming out from the lid, turn the heat lower.
4. Turn off the heat completely where there is no steam. And, then leave to rest for 10 minutes. In all, it should take 10 – 12 minutes to cook the rice.

Yummy dinner! 🙂

I guess it is always good to learn the traditional method of cooking rice and embracing the modern equipment of a rice cooker especially when it breaks!!! 🙂

Sunday Treats! Peanut Butter Squares

Sunday Treats! 🙂

The weather is hot and it is Sunday afternoon, I don’t feel like baking but I feel like I need to make something!!! A treat of some sort without using the oven! A couple of weeks on TV, I saw Lorraine Pascale making some ‘Peanut Butter Squares’ and it looked really simple to make with only a few ingredients! I decided to give this recipe a go as I had all the ingredients at home! I used Hobnobs Oaty biscuits instead of digestive biscuits and I used a foil tin tray for this as I couldn’t find my square tin. They were so yummy and it goes well with a nice cup of tea!!! 🙂

Here’s the ingredients:

• 200g melted chocolate, you can use dark or milk or a combination of both
• 150g melted butter in a pan
• 250g digestive biscuits
• 200g soft light brown sugar
• 300g crunchy peanut butter
• 1 x tsp vanilla extract
• 20cm / 8 inch square tin lined with parchment paper

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a large pan
2. Melt the chocolate either in the microwave or in a bowl over simmering water
3. Blitz the digestive biscuits and brown sugar in a food processor to give fine crumbs. Tip them into the melted butter. Stir in the peanut butter and vanilla extract and mix together so everything is combined
4. Tip the mixture into the lined square tin and press it down with the back of the spoon. It needs to be really compact and tight. Then pour over the melted chocolate, tilting the tin back and forth until the whole thing is evenly covered
5. Pop in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up or in the fridge for an hour
6. Once the chocolate is set, remove it from the freezer or fridge and lift it out of the tin with the help of the baking parchment. Remove the paper and then use a sharp warm knife and cut into 16 squares. Normally, you can store them in a jar or tin but as the weather is quite hot, I have left them in the fridge! 🙂

All the ingredients!

Biscuits and sugar ready for blending!

All the ingredients mixed in!

Chocolate poured on top ready to set in the fridge!