Wholewheat Oat Raisin Cookies

A Treat For Me

I have been doing so many things to please other people, including cooking for friends, the elderly and the homeless.  I decided that I wanted to make a well earned treat for myself.  A plate of cookies, fairly low calorie but with a rich luxurious taste of raisins and  vanilla.




Ingredients:

100g soft unsalted butter, 65g light brown sugar, 2 eggs, 100g porridge oats, 90g wholewheat flour, 1tsp vanilla essence, 1/2tsp baking soda.

Method:

1. In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
2. Beat in the eggs.
3. Sift in the flour and add the rest of the ingredients.
4. Mix well to form a dough.
5. Put a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray.
6. Pre heat the oven to 120 degrees C.
7. Make cookie shapes with the dough and put on the tray.
8. Bake for 20 minutes.
9. Leave cookies to cool.

Gourmet Turkey Burgers

GBK Here I come!

I love the burger restaurant GBK! I have always wanted to make my own gourmet burger from scratch and I finally did even the wholemeal bun. I felt a huge sense of achievement when I finished it.  The seasoning is just right and the best thing about making your own burger is you can stck it up as high as you like and be creative with the toppings.




Ingredients:

Breadcrumbs made from 1 slice of soya and linseed bread with the crusts removed, 4 big white mushrooms (washed and chopped), oil for frying burgers, 1 medium red onion (chopped), 3 small cloves of garlic (washed and chopped), 350g lean turkey mince meat, tbsps lemon juice, 1 large egg (lightly beaten), 1/2 tbsp salt, 1/2 tbsp black pepper, 1tbsp maggie liquid seasoning, 3 radishes (peeled and chopped).
To Serve: beef tomatoes, lettuce, freshly made wholemeal buns, tomato chutney, cheese, low fat mayonnaise.

Method:

1. Apart from the oil put all of the ingredients into a large bowl and get ready to get your hands messy.
2. Form the turkey meat mix into burger patties ready to fry.
3. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and start frying the burgers.
4. Fry the burgers until the turkey meat is cooked all the way through.
5. Serve with the other ingredients and create your burger.

Wholemeal Buns

Love in the kitchen

A house smelling of freshly baked bread is a house smelling of love, joy and sunshine as far as I'm concerned.  I hope that when I own my own house my house will smell of beautiful cooking everyday, well with the occasional Thai takeaway from now and again.

Ingredients:

500g strong wholemeal flour, 275ml of warm water, 2 1/2 tsps salt, 1tsp caster sugar, 1 satchet 7g dried yeast, 1tsp butter.

Method:

1. Put the yeast, sugar and water in a bowl until a froth has formed on top.
2. Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl and rub in the butter.
3. Make a well in the centre and put the yeast mix in it.
4. Mix the bread mix until you have made a soft dough.
5. Knead for 10 minutes onto a floured work surface.
6. Divide into bread rolls on a baking sheet on a baking tray.
7. Leave these to rise for an hour.
8. When the rolls have doubled in size pre heat oven to 200 degrees C/ Gas Mark 6.
9. Bake for 20 minutes until the rolls are brown and hollow on the outside.

Gingernut Biscuits

Treats for mummy

I love making food for my mummy, so  I thought I would treat her with some lovely gingernut biscuits.  You could also crumble these into ice cream or low fat yoghurt for a healthy dessert.
  

Ingredients:

100g self raising flour, 1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1 1/2tsps ground almonds, 2tsps ground ginger, 2tsps ground cinnamon, 2tsps caster sugar, 50g butter, 1tbsp honey.

Method:

1. Sift flour in a large bowl.
2. Add the ginger, soda, cinnamon and sugar.
3. In a small pan heat the butter and honey until the ingredients melt.
4. Stir the butter and honey into the dry ingredients.
5. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
6. With lightly floured hands form the cookie dough into cookie shapes and place on baking sheets on a baking tray.
7. Bake the cookies for 13minutes.
8. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Vegetable Phyllo

Left Overs

This is a very quick way to use up your left over vegetables.  Washing and preparing your vegetables in advance allows your to add more vegetables to your dishes. Add while you're cooking it's better to snack on the vegetables then sweeter snacking foods.  This phyllo concoction is a tarty pizza thingy.  It's crunchy, cheesy and gives you more time to do other things... like spring cleaning and shopping :)




Ingredients:

4 sheets of phyllo pastry, egg was from 1 egg, 4 cubes of frozen spinach, 40g cheddar cheese (grated), 1/2 red peper (washed, chopped and desseeded), 3 spring onions (chopped), 1/4 red onion, 2 big mushrooms (chopped), 2tbsps tomato chutney, hot pepper sauce.

Method:

1. Layer the phyllo sheets on a baking tray and brush some egg wash between each layer.
2. Cook the spinach, drain and then place on top of the pastry.
3. Scatter the vegetables then the cheese.
4. Bake for 20 minutes until the vegetables are cooked and the pastry is crispy and brown.

Chocolate Cloud Cake

The Contender

I truly believe now that my food is amongst the best of the amateurs. This cake is amazing, I would go as far as to say this is one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever eaten.  Props to Saffy :)

The Cloud Technique

This is a cloud cake because of the technique which is all about getting as much air into the the mix as possible.  This is through a good beating action.  This will make the cake chocolatey, moist, light and extra scrumptious.  You will be licking the crumbs off the plate. :)

This recipe was adapted from Sam Stern's Student Cookbook (Walker Books, 2009)

Ingredients:

220g soft butter, 220g golden caster sugar, 4 eggs, 220g self - raising flour (sifted), 2tsps baking powder, 6tsps cocoa powder, 4tbsps milk, 2tsps vanilla extract

Method:

Use half the ingredients for the first batch. Then use the other half for the next batch.  The two cakes will be sandwiched together at the end. 

1. Beat the butter in a large bowl with the sugar until the mix becomes creamy.

2. Beat in the eggs gradually, then the dry ingredients, milk and the vanilla extract.

3. Spoon the mixture into the a 20cm tin.

4. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C / Gas mark 4.

5. Bake the cake for 20 - 25 minutes until springy.

6. When this is done wait until cool then take out the cake and place on a plate.

7. Repeat the same process with the rest of the ingredients.

8. Once the icing has been made wait until the cakes are cool and sandwich the cakes together.

Icing Ingredients:

50g melted chocolate, 110g soft butter, 180g icing sugar, 2tsps milk

Icing Method:

1. Melt the chocolate.

2. Beat the butter until creamy.

3. Beat in the sugar gradually.

4. Stir in the melted chocolate and add the milk.

5. Decorate the cake.

Spicy Chicken Pizza

Friendship Food

Friendship food is food that cheers you up and food that you can share. Pizza is perfect friendship food, definitely not for a Bridget Jones lonely moment.  This pizza is gooey, but much lower in fat and salt then the average pizza, especially lower than those in Pizza chains.  I decided to make my own spicy tomato sauce and added elements that just make pizza perfection.

Ingredients:

450g strong white bread flour, 1tsp salt, 1 tsp, caster sugar, 2 x 7g sachets of super fast action dried yeast, 300ml warm water, 3tbsps oil, 2tbsps garlic granules, 400g passata, 1/2 tbsp mixed herbs, 1/2tbsp oregano, 1/2tbsp basil, 3 chicken breasts (washed, prepared and chopped into small pieces), 1 red pepper (washed, deseeded and chopped into small pieces), 1 red onion (washed and chopped into small pieces), 2tsps paprika, 3tsps cayenne chili pepper,  1tsp black pepper, hot pepper sauce, 250g low fat grated cheddar cheese, 2 spring onions (washed and chopped into small pieces).

Method:

1. Sift flour and salt into a large bowl.
2. Add sugar, yeast, water, garlic granules and oil.
3. Work into a soft dough, if it is too sticky add flour, it is is too dry add water.
4. Knead the dough for 18 minutes on a floured flat surface.
5. Put the dough in a bowl and cover with a wet tea towel.
6. Leave to double in size in a warm place for an hour.
7. During this time fry the chicken in the oil until it is browned and cooked all the way through.
8. Chop up the vegetables and put them to the side.
9. Heat up the passata in a pan and add the herbs and spices. Keep stirring till heated through.
10. After the dough has risen knead again for 2 minutes.
11. Roll out the dough and leave to rise for 10 minutes on a lightly oiled tray.
12. After 10 minutes spread the sauce on the dough.
12. Top the pizza as you like with all of the ingredients except the spring onions and hot pepper sauce.
13. Pre heat the oven to 230 degrees C / Gas mark 6
14. Bake for 17 minutes.
15. Sprinkle on the spring onions and drizzle on the hot pepper sauce.
16. Cook for 5 more minutes.