Flapjack Oat Crumble Topping

With Winter coming soon, get ready to make the very traditional English crumble. This has a fantastic twist that gives it a gooey texture like flapjack.

Serves 6 (with a thick crumble topping)

Ingredients
170g Plain Flour\Wholemeal Flour
170g Rolled Oats
75g Butter
130g-150g Soft brown sugar (depending on how tart your fruit is)
2-3 tablespoons Golden syrup

Method

1. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips. You want to make sure you don't melt the butter. It should resemble breadcrumbs.
2. Now rub the oats into the flour and butter mixture.
3. Once completely mixed, stir in the sugar using a spoon.
4. Add the golden syrup gradually and not it large clumps. Move it evenly around the bowl.
5. Mix the golden syrup into the crumble mixture so that it forms small balls of mixture.
6. Add to the top of your favourite fruit: apple, apple and blackberry, blackcurrant, raspberry etc. 

Plain Scones - very easy to make and easy to eat!

I love summer and Cornwall. We recently went on holiday to the North Coast of Cornwall and I baked some truly west country scones. Did you know they are so simple to make and taste better than any bought scone!

You only need four ingredients to make scones: flour, butter, milk & sugar.

Makes 8 large scones or 16 medium scones

Ingredients

450g plain flour
80g butter at room temperature
30g caster sugar
two pinches of salt
300ml milk

To serve:
A jar of strawberry or raspberry jam
Clotted cream


Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 7, 220°C (Fan 200°C).
2. Sift the flour into a bowl and rub the butter into it rapidly, using your fingertips. You use your fingertips so you don't get it warm by using your hands. Being quick is essential to good quality scones.
3. Once it's rubbed in add the sugar and salt.
4. Then take a knife and use it to mx in the milk little by little. Mix using a cutting action through the mixture.
5. Flour your hands a little and knead the mixture to a soft dough. If it feels dry after kneading for a minute or two add a little milk. Make sure the mixture is completely combined, don't over knead about 1min will be fine.
6. Flour a clean kitchen worktop and roll out, with a floured rolling pin, gently your scone dough. You are aiming for a thickness no less than 2cm.
7. Now use a pastry cutter (or I've used a pint glass before) place it on the dough and tap it sharply so it goes straight through the dough. Don't twist otherwise they end up a funny shape.
8. Get as many scones out of the dough as possible. Knead the dough leftovers again and repeat steps 6 & 7 until you have used all the dough. Although I find it easier to just make the last of the dough into a scone like shape!
9. Place them onto a baking tray and bake near the top of the oven for 12-15mins.
10. Once they turn a golden colour they are ready to be cooled on a wire rack.
11. Serve by cutting them in half, adding a layer of jam and clotted cream.
12. Eat the same day or they freeze fantastically if you are planning an afternoon tea party.

Lemon Drizzle Traybake - Mary Berry's Recipe

This is one of my favourite cakes. It is really easy to make and tastes great. You need to add the topping to the cake while the cake is still warm. It will then absorb the lemon syrup easily. If the cake is too hot the syrup will tend to run straight through.


Ingredients

225g softened butter
225g caster sugar
275g self-raising flour
2 level teaspoons baking powder
4 large eggs
4 tablespoons milk
finely grated rind of 2 lemons

For the crunchy topping:
175g granulated sugar
juice of 2 lemons


Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3, 160°C (Fan 140°C).
2. Grease a 20 x 20cm tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment.
3. Measure all the ingredients from the traybake into a large bowl and beat until well blended. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top gently with the back of a spatula.
4. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 50-60 minutes or until the cake has shrunk from the sides of the tin and springs back when pressed in the centre with your fingertips.
5. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out, carefully peel of the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack.
6. To make the crunchy topping, mix the granulated sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl to give a runny consistency.
7. Stand the wire rack on a tray to catch any drips of the topping.
8. Spoon the lemon syrup evenly over the traybake while it is still a little warm.
9. Cut into 30 squares when cold.
10. Can be stored in greaseproof paper and in an air-tight container.

Healthy Granola Bars - under 100 calories each!

 



There are many 'so called' healthy bars on offer in supermarkets however when you look at the ingredients they are normally full of refined sugar or glucose syrup. There has been a recent craze of breakfast bars and these are full of sugar! Basically refined sugar is bad for your health.

 

These bars are designed to give you a slow release of energy through the oats, nuts and seeds. The only sweet element comes from the fruit and a small amount of honey (a natural sweetener).

 

Makes 8 Granola Bars

 

Ingredients

 

100g Oats

30g Whole Almonds

15g Pumpkin Seeds

15g Sunflower Seeds

2 teaspoons Organic Cinnamon

3 tablespoons Apple Juice

 

4 Apricots (optional)

4 Prunes/Dates

30g Raisins

2 tablespoons of melted Honey

3 tablespoons of Apple Juice

 

 

Method

 

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6, Fan 180°C, 200°C.
2. Mix together in a bowl the oats, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cinnamon & apple juice.
3. Place a sheet of baking paper onto a baking tray.
4. Spread the above oat mixture out onto the baking paper.
5. Put into the oven for 10 minutes, mixing the oat mixture half way.
6. While the oat mixture is in the oven, cut the apricots in half and then into small chunks. Then cut the prunes/dates into very small pieces (the smaller the better).
7. Once the oat mixture is baked, put the oat mixture back into the bowl.
8. Add the apricots, prunes/dates, raisins, melted honey and apple juice to the oat mixture.
9. Mix it all together.
10. Then cut out a square piece of baking paper. In the middle of the baking paper add a small line of mixture.
11. Then squeeze the mixture together to resemble a log (about 6-7cm long) and to make sure the mixture is forced together.
12. Then place the bars onto the baking paper on the baking tray, used to make the oat mixture.
13. Once all 8 bars are on the baking paper, if you like cinnamon, sprinkle a little over the bars.
14. Bake the bars for 30 minutes, after 15 minutes turn the bars over to bake the other side.
15. Once baked, remove from the oven and place onto a wire rack to cool.
16. Once cool you can store in a box or place two of them in food bags into the freezer for a quick snack.

 

Lactose Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Sugar Free, Wheat Free, Yeast Free, Vegetarian.

 

The Nation's Top 5 Favourite Cakes by Waitrose Kitchen

The UK's 50 most influential bakers vote for Britain's best cake. Among them are baking legends Mary Berry & Delia Smith, taking respective first and second place in Waitrose's Baking Power List.

Britain's Best Cakes:

1. Chocolate Cake
2. Lemon Drizzle Cake
3. Victoria Sandwich
4. Carrot Cake
5. Fruit Cake

I will be attempting to find the best recipes for each of the above to share with you in time. My next blog will be a Lemon Drizzle Cake as it is one of my favourites.

Banana & Cadbury Chocolate Chunk Cake

This is a family favourite. It's moist, dense and has whole chunks of Cadburys Dairy Milk chocolate. Who wouldn't love this cake! It keeps really well and can be frozen in advance. This recipe is nearly as old as me, and won a competition in a magazine for amateur baker.

Ingredients

2 large ripe bananas (the more black the better!)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
175grams margarine
225grams granulated sugar
275grams self-raising flour
pinch salt
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 medium eggs beaten
150grams Cadburys chocolate/your favourite chocolate


Equipment

Saucepan
20cm round cake tin


Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3, 325°F (170°C).
2. Peel & mash the bananas until smooth, mix in the vanilla essence.
3. Heat the margarine & sugar in a saucepan over a low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved.
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the sifted flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda.
5. Beat in the eggs & mashed banana. Don't worry if it looks curdled.
6. Leave the mixture to cool.
7. Stir in the chocolate chunks and then spoon the mixture into the round cake tin.
8. Bake for 1 hour+
9. Insert a skewer into the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean then the cake is cooked.

Baking Tip: Do you open the oven when baking sponges, cupcakes or muffins?

The basic answer is NO! Don't open the oven to check if a cake is cooked. If the cake is not cooked and you open the oven, the sponge will sink and you will have a dent in your cake.

There are some simple tips to knowing if your cake is done, without having to open the oven door:

1. First, cook the cake for the minimum recommended time. Recipes have been practiced several times and therefore they know the correct baking time.
2. Take a look through your oven door to see if the sponge has turned golden brown.
3. You should be able to smell the cake now. But make sure its not a burning bit of cake mixture that has strayed from the tin.
4. The sponge would have also come away from the sides of the tin or cases.

Once you have checked these points, you can now quickly open the door and lightly press the sponge in the centre. If the sponge bounces back then it is ready to come out.

1. Remove the cake from the oven and run a knife around the edge of the tin or muffin/cupcake case.
2. Remove from the tin onto a cooling wire rack

Mary Berry's Ultimate Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are the best double chocolate chip cookies I have made, thanks to baking star Mary Berry. My husband loves cookies and he now only wants me to make these, nothing else is good enough!

These are very easy, produce great results and are extremely yummy. You can even get your children helping out rolling the dough into little balls. Makes about 30 cookies.

Ingredients:
200g Bournville chocolate
50g butter
397g can condensed milk
225g self-raising flour
90g white chocolate buttons

Method:

1. Lightly grease 3 baking trays
2. Break up the Bournville chocolate and gently melt it along with the butter in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in the condensed milk, then take off the heat and cool.
4. Mix in the flour and the chocolate buttons and chill the mixture until firm enough to handle. The mixture will seem very stiff and dry, but don't worry this is how it is meant to be.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 180oC/Fan 160oC/Gas 4.
6. Place large teaspoonfuls of the mixture spaced well apart on the prepared baking trays. Making sure the chocolate buttons can be seen.
7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes. The cookies should still look soft and will glisten. Don't overcook them as they soon become very hard. Carefully remove the cookies with a palette knife and cool on a wire rack.