Oat and Cornflake Biscuits

 HiHiHi,


Where Have I Been, well....

I was kidnapped by pirates.... erm.. no scratch that,

I was campaigning with greenpeace... hmm no,

I was out filming a documentary on something fabulously interesting ( I wish ).

No, for real, truth be told, I've been revising. Revising big time. Having recently accepted an offer from King's College London to study History I have discarded my party lifestyle (HA!) and buried myself under a pile of books, but really, I miss you. Though I'm very sorry, and feel very guilty, I think it's going to happen a fair bit. To make up for it, here are some biscuits. Which, if you like me, have been crazy busy, then stop what you're doing! Put down the important piece of work and step away. Retreat to the kitchen. Boy! do you deserve it! Let's declare a national holiday.

 We're combining honey-nut cornflakes, chocolate, oat and butter and we're gonna make some magic.

         Then we'll add a little more chocolate. For luck? ( let's go with that )


Here comes the recipe....


1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup honey nut cornflakes
1/2 cup chocolate chips
4 oz melted butter
3/4 cup sugar

What to do.....

1. Melt the butter and add to the rest of the ingredients when hot, the chocolate will melt, but its supposed ta'.
2. Press into a lined cake tine and put in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius and cook for 2 minutes, it won't seem hard at first but let it cool, then....
3. Melt a bar of dark chocolate (say 250g) and pour over and leave to harden
4. Enjoy with a strong coffee!

 A wonderful opening to a wonderful film.

Vote!Vote!Vote!

Hello, just here to ask if you could do me a solid and vote for ma mamma (if you didn't already know it's Maria Stengard-Green) in this photography competition. Then you would be putting the bread on our table..... (joke) Real simple and would be just great! thank yoooou eve' so much! We wouldn't normally ask, but see, some of the people in this competition advertise on the radio.... so its big time competition. Would appreciate it a lot!

http://www.phototraining4u.com/apprentice.html 

Now that I'm done shamelessly pestering you for favors, I'd like to tell you that I made a marble bundt cake today, and I'd like to share it with you. Come over, its sunny, eat cake.... alternatively I'll post the recipe soon!

Hot Blueberry Soup

Deep somewhere in the Swedish forest

Whilst we're in this stage, where winter feigns summer for a day or two, then quickly turns around and smacks you in the face with winter again and you don't know whether to turn to soup or a smoothie, here is a reminder of summer with the warmth needed in winter.

Attempted artistic squiggles

Elsa Beskow's beautiful children's book about the Swedish blueberry underworld

This is the same sheepish look I think I get when I've eaten all the blueberries

I went to London yesterday, and late in the afternoon, visited Portobello market, wandered around, ate lots of churro's and spent money I didn't have on a pair of dungarees (fool!). It had been a long and lovely and strange day and then... the years supply of rain fell out of the sky and got held in my hat and tipped into dress soon as I looked down. On top of that we were late for the train, so, soaking wet, we fought our way through the crowds of equally soaking people on the tube, we made it! I mention this only because THIS is exactly the right time for hot blueberry soup. Whilst I don't recommend recreating the events, it gives you an idea of exactly the kind of recovery this soup may provide. It's a miracle soup, a soup not like any other. It's weird, but that's fine. Just trust me.

And even if this recipe gives you sense of unease, a fear of the unknown, just add a little vodka to make it into schnapps!! The alcoholic drinks with antioxidants! Now that's got to be good!

 

Blueberry soup

3 cups of frozen blueberries

1 and 1/2 cups water

3 tsp vanilla sugar

juice of one lemon

1 tsp cornflour, sifted

2 tblsp sugar

1. Put all of the ingredients into a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Cook for 5 minutes and then smash the blueberries with a masher.
2. Strain and serve with a little crème fraiche or even ice cream.

To make the schnapps, mix equal measure of vodka and blueberry and serve in a schnapps glass.

With the mush left over, mix with vanilla yogurt and waste not want not. 


And here is quite possibly the most beautiful song ever...

Sticky Lemon and Rosemary Morning Buns

 These are for the morning after. The morning after a night, as it normally runs. A night filled with curry, and cluedo, wine and eton mess, to nurse the hangover and to share with your friends. These are for a sunny sunday, a sleepy saturday. These are dead easy, and they should be, why stress over sticky buns, worth it as they may be.

Recipe adapted from BBC recipes, the Great British Bake-off

 The flavours of the fragrant lemon and rosemary are real wonderful!

                          Though my mum still won't believe it- mess is beautiful! (sometimes)

 

And here comes the recipe....

 

Ingredients

• 250g/9oz strong white flour, sifted
• 250g/9oz plain flour, sifted
• 125ml/4fl oz warm water
• 125m/4fl oz warm milk
  
• 1 x 7g/¼oz sachet fact-action dried yeast
  
• 2 tsp fine sea salt
  
• 50g/2oz caster sugar
  1 1/2 lemon, zest only
  8 sprigs of rosemary, finely cut with a pair of scissors
  1/ 1/4 cup margarine
  5 tbsp sugar
  1 free-range egg, beaten
  50g/2oz butter, cut into cubes
  vegetable oik, for greasing
  
  
  For the Sticky drizzle
  
  
  1/4 cup sugar
  juice of 2 lemons 
  
  
  For the Icing
  
  
  1/2 lemon, juice only
  50g of icing sugar, sifted
   

And how to do it....

Place the flours, water, milk, (heat the milk and water with 4 sprigs of the finely chopped rosemary) yeast, salt, sugar and lemon zest into a large bowl and mix with a fork until combined. Add the beaten egg and butter and continue to mix until the mixture comes together as a sticky dough. (and don't forget to add the egg like I did-what a fool).

Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for five minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Lightly oil a bowl with a little of the vegetable oil.

Place the dough into the bowl and turn until it is covered in the oil. Cover the bowl with cling film and set aside in a warm place for one hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Lightly grease a baking tray.

Knock the dough back to its original size and turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll out so it measures roughly 30 by 25 cm. Spread with the margarine, the zest of half a lemon, the 5 tbsp sugar and the very finely chopped rosemary). Roll into a sausage and cut into about 10 pieces. 

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.

Bake the buns in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until well risen and golden-brown. Remove the buns from the oven and set aside to cool on a wire rack. (they should look a little less cooked than mine, whoops)

Whilst still in the oven, make the drizzle by combining the sugar and lemon juice. When the buns are ready, immediately prick them with a cocktail stick and pour over the sticky drizzle.

Meanwhile for the icing, mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together in a bowl until smooth. Once the buns have cooled completely, drizzle the icing sporadically over the buns like a sweet lemony art. Decorate with little sprigs of rosemary. mmm mmmmm


Eat either cold or, warm in the microwave for 30 seconds or the oven till warm. 


Leaving you with another cracker! 

Christa x
 

Lime Curd Sugar Cookies

Much too much filling...never mind

These are cookies for end of a busy and happy weekend.

You've been to the pub, you've had a long and lazy Saturday morning with french toast, bacon and sausage for breakfast, but you've also done your fair share of work. This is a small and simple treat for the end of the weekend, if you, like me, use baking to unwind, because we all know that in the forthcoming busy week of hard work, you'll need plenty of small treats to keep you going, like these little biscuits, which should last you until the next lovely, lovely weekend.

Here comes the recipe...

For the sugar cookies (from the Hummingbird bakery cookbook)

200g unsalted butter
280g caster sugar
1/2 a vanilla pod
1 egg
400g flour
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1.Cream together the butter and sugar until light a fluffy
2.Add the egg and mix well
3. Slowing mix in the flour, cream of tartar, salt and vanilla pod. It is easy to overwork this dough, but it's important that you don't.
4. Roll out onto a floured surface with a floured rolling pin to slightly less than a £1 coin thickness and cut with a 58mm cookie cutter,and place on a large tray on some greaseproof paper
5. Place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius and cook for 10-11, until the edges of the cookies start to go slightly brown.
6. When the cookies come out of the oven, immediately sprinkle with a little caster sugar.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

I did a slightly stupid thing, I made perhaps 5 times too much cream cheese frosting. However, to make enough the measurements start to get awkward and silly, so I will give you the full recipe. I froze the rest of the frosting and will defrost it for a carrot cake sometime soon( if you freeze it, make sure to mix it once defrosted before spreading).

1/cup butter
3/4 cup cream cheese
1/2 vanilla pod, seeds scrapped out
4 cups icing sugar, sifted

1. Cream together the butter, cream cheese and vanilla
2. Add the icing sugar and mix well


For the Lime Curd

1. You will need about a quarter to a half of the curd. 

Once the cookies are cooled, add a small dollop of both the curd and cream cheese on each cookie and sandwich together with another cookie. Make sure there is not too much filling, or it will spill out when you bite into it.

These cookies are best eaten a day after making,when they are little softer.

And here's a nice little tune to send you into the week....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wzf4jFgHwU&noredirect=1


Christa x

Next recipe: Lemon and Rosemary sticky buns!

Valentines?

Nothing baked for Valentines today- who needs an occasion to make your loved one something delicious, do it everyday! But here's a good un', Happy Valentines day!

Lime Curd

                                              Lime Curd

Beautiful curd, thanks to my mums lovely editing

It turns out I’m a shouty baker. I wish it wasn’t true, and that I was one of those bakers who’s pies never burnt and who’s dishes washed themselves, the kind that exist only on television. These curds are dedicated to my boyfriend who has to tolerate my shouting and faffing in the kitchen. Jake, I’m sorry for yelling, I was not angry at you, it was only the stress. Despite all this, I do love baking, but I think I need to be alone, my kitchen is very small and I have big elbows.

I only recently discovered curd when a friend and I bought someone for lunch and ate it out of the jar with potato cake. Delicious! But before that I never really got it but now I totally get it.

This is a twist on a recipe by Joy The Baker . I want to try 3 different curds, (grapefruit, orange and lime) and if I’m honest, lime was by far the best, so, since I want only the best for you, I will spare you the recipes for the other too, though if you were interested, I’m happy to send you the recipe.

This is a really simple, really delicious curd, that is slightly tangy but still sweet, delicious on crumpets but also good in lime curd cream cheese biscuits (recipe to follow).

 Ingredients

(Makes about 3/4 of a cup)

2 limes

2 large egg yolks

1 large egg

5 tablespoons granulated sugar

3 teaspoons lime zest

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons lime juice

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

pinch of salt

What to do…

1.Combine the lime zest and sugar on a chopping board, scrapping the two into each other with the back of a large knife until the zest is evenly distributed within the sugar.

2. In a saucepan over a low heat whisk together all of the ingredients for about 5 minutes. You will see the mixture start to thicken considerably and it should coat the back of a spoon.

3. Remove from the heat and pass through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl and leave to cool, then decant into small jars or one large jar. Curd is best refrigerated and eaten within a week.

A gift for my boyfriends parents, to replace the terrible chutney I made them for Christmas

Happy eating,

Christa x

Coconut, Coffee & Chocolate Balls

I'm still trying to find my way around blogging and this site, and I'm still trying to write a 3000 word essay on death on three texts (bluh!), so please bear with me if I'm posting these recipes a little slowly. I'll get there, promise. In the meantime, I made these for you.

If you could smell pictures, then oh boy! Picture courtesy of ma mamma.

These little treats are just a whole new kind of delicious, and there isn't an oven in sight. They're another Swedish treat that combines coffee, chocolate, vanilla and coconut. Thank you Sweden! They are so easy it's unreal, so, have a go, go ooooon. I may have gone for a swim earlier and eaten A LOT of these afterwards, or not.

Delicious goo.

They're not pretty yet, but just wait!

Just too pretty, another one courtesy of me mam! Here's to pretending it's summer!

This recipe reminds me of summer, my brother and I eat a ton of these every time we visit our grandparents in Sweden. My brother in particular can work his way through several packets in a couple of days! I've used guess work to try and replicate the recipe a couple of times, they're not quite the same, but still pretty good I'd like to think!

If you want to try the real thing, then the ones from Ikea are pretty good!

Also, if you're wanting to make cake pops, whack a lolly stick in each one before you dip it in the chocolate, but that's where it starts getting too complicated for me!

Here comes the recipe....

Coconut, Chocolate & Coffee Balls

Ingredients

Makes about 27 balls.

2 3/4 cups oats (2 cups will need to be blitzed in the food processor and the 3/4 held back)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 1/4 cups butter
1/4 cup chocolate powder

2 tsp coffee granules, diluted with 3 tsp hot water
tsp vanilla extract, or half pod vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
2 cups desicated coconut
250g chocolate

1. Blitz 2 cups of the oats in a food processor, till there are no more whole oats, though you don't want it like flour either!

2. Melt the butter and add to the oats.
3. Add the sugar, coffee, chocolate powder and vanilla and the 3/4 cups oats and mix until combined and looks like the picture above. If it is too wet, add more oats, too dry, more butter.
4. Roll into walnut sized balls and put on a sheet of greaseproof paper and leave in the fridge to set for 1 hour.
5. Melt the chocolate and allow to cool slightly, pour the coconut onto a chopping board, then, using barbeque tongs dip each ball into the chocolate until it is completely covered and roll in the coconut.
6. Return to the greaseproof paper and leave until the chocolate has set, enjoy with a strong coffee!

If you have any problems or queries about my recipes then feel free to get in touch!

Spiced peppercorn (I know- but trust!) loaf cake

A cake, a bread, an enigma.

  How in the world do you make peppercorns look beautiful. Tiny, wrinkly and just damn ugly. But this is the thing. It has its own kind of beautiful, like the flower embroided jeans of your early teenage years. This is why you just got to put it in everything, so don't skimp out when it comes to cake-nuh uh. Pepper used to be more valuable than gold, and to be honest, I still see it that way, because, let's be frank here, how tasty is ground gold in your scrambled eggs... not so tasty.

Cake is a valuable thing. It can be a celebration, a tiny tasty emblem of your love, or a sorry. Like, sorry I'm 2 hours late for *insert situation*, have some cake... you'll see all is soon forgiven, even if you're late because you were making the cake. The taste justifies the means! 

This recipe is a mix of just about everything I value in a good cake- a loafy shape, a moist crumb and a mixture of sweet and fragrant spices. It is inspired by a cake my mum used to make, which though still unrivalled, comes pretty close. The flavour used to come from a packet of Swedish spice mix, so this is an attempt at replicating those flavours.  

It's dead simple, have a pop at it, procrastinate once more. 

 HERE COMES THE RECIPE.....

 Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup butter-room temperature, if removed directly from the fridge, cube and place in lukewarm water for 10 minutes (A tip from the baking goddess herself, Mary Berry)

1 cup caster sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2/3 cup milk

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp dark brown soft sugar (or light brown sugar which will give it a lighter taste)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp crushed black peppercorns- and believe me they need to be crushed, you definitely don’t want to bite into one of those mid slice

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease and line a  29.5 cm length by 11 cm width and 8cm deep loaf tin (if you don't have greaseproof paper, whack a little more grease in there!).

 Beat the softened butter (easiest with an electric hand mixer or one of those wonderful and expensive kenwood mixers- definitely not jealous, wooden spoons are great) till it is soft and lump free.

Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about five minutes.

Add the eggs and beat till you see some volume in the mix. If you dare try the mix with the raw egg (I am yet to suffer from any raw mix related ailment, apart from over consumption, so don’t over think it- but I’m not promoting it! So ‘don’t do it’ ) it should have a texture similar to that of meringue mix-quite silky and smooth.  When the mixer goes round the bowl it should create a ripple effect. Then, alternate the dry ( flour, spices, baking powder) and wet (milk) ingredients, folding them in so as not to knock out all of the air you have just whipped up in the mixture. Mix in the brown sugar and pour into the greased loaf tin. The cake should be of a dropping consistency, as shown in the picture above, if it is not, then add a splash more milk.

Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven, until a thin stick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool, slice, and serve with a spread of butter or marg and a cup of tea bigger than life itself. 

These pictures took 45 minutes to load. I could have saved the world in that time! but I needed a shower...