time to start a challenge...

I don’t pretend to be an amazing chef/baker but I’d love to have some go-to recipes for simple foods. Below is a list of things I’d like to attempt to make.  Some I have made before and would like to improve on and others are something totally new to me.  I hope to have completed all of these by the end of 2012 (I know I’m a bit late in the resolution department).  I won’t be sticking to any order, just what takes my fancy.

¨      Bread

¨      Onion bhajis

¨      Chocolate flapjack

¨      Red Velvet cupcakes

¨      Vanilla Cheesecake

¨      Rocky Road

¨      Cake-in-a-cup

¨      Steak and Ale pie

¨      Pate

¨      A decent birthday cake

¨      Cider

¨      Breakfast bars

¨      White chocolate cookies

¨      Cheese straws

¨      Chicken peperonata

¨      Fish cakes

¨      Pasties

¨      Ice cream

I will probably add to this list or find other yummy things to make.

R x

yorkshire puddings

I would consider myself Yorkshire, but some of my friends who have grandparents and great, great grandparents that are Yorkshire would not consider it so.  My southern and Scottish relatives would say that I am very northern, very Yorkshire whilst people from there would say I had a southern twang or no accent at all.

Oh well, thought I would try Yorkshire’s namesake, the Yorkshire pudding.  Traditionally eaten in Yorkshire as a starter rather than with a roast dinner, they’re fairly tricky even though the ingredients and cooking instructions are fairly simple.

How people get there puddings to not inflate in the middle, I will never know.  However, these are the best Yorkshires I’ve ever made.
Heat oven to 230 degrees.
                                          

Ingredients (Makes 4)

2 eggs

120g flour

100ml milk

Oil

Pour the oil into a Yorkhire pudding tray.  Put in the oven until the oil is sizzling.

Beat the flour and two eggs together until smooth.  Add the milk and mix all together.

Pour into tray and put in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

R x

p.s Yorkshire people also eat fruit cake with a thick slice of cheese.  Try it, it’s delicious!

chocolate pancakes

Just spotted a lovely recipe over on one of my favourite blogs so thought I would share it on here :)

Please click the link and see for yourself!

The Raspberry Branch - Chocolate pancakes

Can't wait to try this recipe.

R x

simple chocolate muffins (sort of...)

So for my first post, I thought I would try a simple recipe that had very little chance of going wrong...

Ok so I decided to bake chocolate muffins, except I didn't have muffin cases so they became large chocolate buns.  I used my environmentally friendly bun cases though :)

I used Bournville chocolate and it worked pretty well, I used an unsweetened chocolate for both the cocoa powder and the choclate chips, milk chocolate would make them so sweet!

   Ingredients

   100g butter
   125g caster sugar
   100g brown sugar (dark)
   2 eggs
   150ml soured cream
   250g plain flour
   2 tbsp cocoa powder
   chocolate chips
   5 tbsp milk
   1 tsp bicarb of soda

The above recipe is to make 12 muffins (about 14/15 buns if you don't have muffin cases!)

Firstly, whack the butter, caster sugar and brown sugar into a bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon.

Next beat in the eggs, cream and milk and mix in - it should be a thick liquid at this point.

Sift the flour, bicarb and cocoa powder into the mixture and then stir until it becomes quite stiff.  Then mix in the chocolate chips...I used 100g but you can use however many you want. 

Spoon into the cases and bake for about 25-30 minutes at 190 degrees.

If you wanted to be adventurous, perhaps pop in something different to chocolate chips...perhaps nuts or cherries?  Or add some butter icing on top with chocolate chips in!

Happy baking :)

R x