Guest post #2 - Home made scones

My second guest blog post is from Cheryl who blogs over at Peppermint and Pearls. 

Ingredients

350g self raising flour

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

85g butter, cut into cubes

3 tbsp caster sugar

175ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Squeeze of lemon juice

Beaten egg

Jam and clotted cream

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees/180 degrees for fan ovens.

2. Put the flour into a large mixing bowl along with the salt and baking powder, mix together.

3. Add the cubes of butter and mix together with your hands until the mixture resembles crumbs.

4. Put the milk into a jug and microwave for 30 seconds, the milk should be warm but not hot.

5. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and the vanilla.

6. Put a baking tray in the oven – the scones need to go onto a hot tray to bake.

7. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the milk.

8. Combine the dry and wet mixtures together with a knife.

9. Scatter flour onto your work surface and place the dough on top of it.

10. Pat the dough out – do not knead it. Once you have worked it out so it is smooth, pat it into a round that should be about 4cm deep.

11. Using cutters cut out the scones, re-work the dough until you have as many scones as possible.

12. Brush each scone with some beaten egg and place onto the hot baking tray.

13. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

14. Serve with jam and loads of clotted cream, seriously, go mad for the clotted cream.

15. Enjoy warm or cold with a nice big mug of tea.

Valentine's surprise... salted caramel brownies

Regular readers of my blog will remember from last year's Valentine's post that I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day. I don't believe in going all out and spending loads of money on one day every year... shouldn't we do little things every day (which don't necessarily cost lots of money) to show people that we love them?

Anyway, even though I never make a big fuss on Valentine's Day, I decided to bake a chocolatey surprise for Neil. I love baking and I hadn't had a chance to bake anything since before Christmas, so this also gave me a good excuse to use my new baking goodies!

My new apron!

As soon as I read Kaz's blog post on her salted caramel brownies, I knew I just had to try this recipe and that it was the perfect baking adventure for my surprise Valentine's Day treat. I made chocolate brownies last June which were rather amazing, so I thought it would be interesting to make a different kind of brownie this time.


Ingredients

180g plain flour
3tbsp cocoa powder
300g dark chocolate
150g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
220g soft brown sugar
4 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract

50g chocolate chips (optional - I had some left over from a previous baking adventure!)
1 tin of Caramel
1 tsp salt

Can you tell that I shop in Tesco?

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 160C and line your baking tin with baking paper. 

2. Place the chocolate and butter into a bowl over a pan of water and stir on a medium heat until it's all melted. I had to use a cereal bowl and a milk pan because I didn't have a large heatproof bowl... this is not recommended! Let's just say that the bowl was very full. 

3. Add the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract to a bowl, then add the chocolate/butter mixture and mix until smooth. I forgot that I was supposed to use two types of sugar so only put the caster sugar in... I then added the brown sugar a bit later on when I realised that I'd left it out. I don't think it made much difference, but just bear in mind that there are two types of sugar to add. I used my electric mixer... works like a dream!

4. Sieve in the flour and cocoa powder and beat the mixture until it's all combined. I also had to add the brown sugar here as I forgot to do this in step 3, and I also added the chocolate chips at this stage. My mixture was extremely thick at this point... possibly this was because I added the brown sugar at the wrong point. I used the electric mixer for a minute or two but then had to switch to a wooden spoon. As you can see from the photo below, my mixer was a bit clogged up!

5. Put half the mixture into the baking tin, making sure it's spread evenly. This step was very tricky as my mixture was so thick, so mine wasn't spread particularly evenly.

6. Add the salt to the tin of caramel, making sure you mix thoroughly. Add a layer of caramel on top of the brownie mix, making sure that you leave a small gap around the edge. 

7. Layer the remaining brownie mixture on top of the caramel. Again, this was very difficult as a result of my super thick mixture and I didn't quite have enough mixture left to cover all the caramel, as you can see below. 

8. Bake the brownies in the oven for approximately 30 minutes, then leave to cool before cutting up and serving. Mine were extremely moist and gloopy when they came out of the oven so I couldn't even cut them into squares, but the mixture solidified as it got cooler. As you can see, it didn't matter that I hadn't covered all the caramel with the brownie mixture as the top layer of chocolate seemed to be magically spread evenly after it came out of the oven. 

I was very worried when the brownies first came out of the oven as I couldn't cut them into chunks due to the moistness of the mixture, but they turned out fine in the end. I cut half the mixture into chunks (after I'd left it to cool for a while) and put the chunks into my new baking tin. I then put them on my little table with chocolates, a lit Yankee Candle and Valentine's card ready for Neil's arrival. I know, I know... I needn't have bought the chocolates, but the hazelnut praline in these Cadbury chocolates is so good!

Neil had also ignored the 'no presents' rule and arrived with a beautiful bunch of pink and red flowers and a little chocolate rose. We're a sneaky pair!

What did you get up to on Valentine's Day? Did you bake anything? Send me your links!

I've been baking again... Chocolate chip muffins!

Life has been very busy for the last few months so I haven't baked anything since my beautiful chocolate brownies back in June. When I found out that we were having cakes in work after opening our Secret Santa gifts, I decided to get back on the baking bandwagon!

I dug out my Mary Berry 'Cakes and Bakes' book and salivated over all the possibilities for about half an hour. Although I loved my chocolate brownies, I wanted to try a different challenge. I eventually decided on the rather tempting Chocolate Chip American Muffins (page 60). The muffins were really easy to make and went down very well at the Secret Santa gathering. They did taste very good, even if I do say so myself. I followed the recipe literally to the nearest gram, but people must have thought I'd put extra chocolate chips in as the muffins were so very chocolatey. I definitely wasn't going to complain about that, and neither did anyone else!

The finished product (ignore the mess on the tray...)

Recipe (makes 12 muffins)

250g self-raising flour

1 level tsp baking powder

50g butter

75g caster sugar

175g plain chocolate chips

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

250ml milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C / Fan 180C / Gas 6. Place your muffin cases into the 12-hole muffin tin. I didn't specifically buy muffin cases, I just used large cupcake cases. 

2. Measure the flour and baking powder into a large bowl then add the butter and rub into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. I recommend that you take off your rings before doing this, and I also wouldn't recommend trying to do it with long nails! Stir in the sugar and chocolate chips. 

3. Mix together the eggs, vanilla extract and milk, then pour the mixture all in one go into the dry ingredients. Mix quickly with a wooden spoon to blend. Don't panic if the mixture isn't totally smooth after stirring, it's supposed to have a lumpy consistency. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases in the tin, filling each one almost to the top. I'll be amazed if you can do this without making a mess... look at the mess I created!

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until well risen and firm to the touch. Leave to cool for a few minutes in the tray then lift out the paper cases and cool the muffins for a little longer on a wire rack. I don't have a wire rack, so I just cooled them on a different baking tray!

And there you have it... it really is as simple as that. What shall I bake next?

My latest baking venture: Chocolate brownies

After having lots of baking items for my birthday, I decided to make some chocolate brownies last weekend as a surprise for my boyfriend. I've been meaning to do some baking for a while as I haven't made anything since my Valentine shortbread, and our second anniversary gave me the perfect opportunity. Neil bought me the Mary Berry 100 Cakes and Bakes book for my birthday, so I stole the chocolate brownie recipe from there. You can buy the book here, and the recipe is on page 55. I had to adapt the quantities in the recipe slightly as I used a smaller baking tray, but the brownies turned out absolutely perfectly.

The finished product!

Ingredients

For a 30 x 23 x 4cm baking tray:

275g butter (softened)

375g caster sugar

4 large eggs

75g cocoa powder

100g self-raising flour

100g plain chocolate chips

The tray I used was approximately a third smaller than the one stated above, so I decreased the proportions accordingly.

Method

The method really couldn't be simpler!

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/gas 4.

2. Cut a rectangle of non-stick baking parchment to the fit the base and sides of the tin. Grease the tin and line it with the paper.

3. Measure all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix with a hand-held electric mixer until evenly blended. This gave me a great chance to use the mixer I received for my birthday! The mixing process was absolutely effortless with this little beauty.

4. Try not to eat too much of the mixture, and try not to splash any of it on the cable, worktop and items nearby. I failed miserably on this step on all counts... I'm sure Mary Berry is much more disciplined than I am. 

5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, then spread the mixture gently to the corners of the tin and level the surface with the back of a spatula. 

6. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the brownies have a crusty top and a skewer inserted into the centre comes clean. Cover loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes if the mixture is browning too much. 40 minutes was long enough for my brownies, but it will depend on your oven and the size of the tin you've used.

The top was pretty crumbly as you can see, but still delicious!

This was definitely my most successful baking venture so far. The brownies were perfectly moist, and the top  didn't crust too much. They smelt absolutely heavenly, and I had to take some into work to make sure I didn't eat the whole lot myself! The chocolate chips I used were amazing too, which proves that it's definitely worth splashing out on a more expensive bag rather than buying the cheaper brand. I learnt this lesson when I made my chocolate chip shortbread. 

What shall I make next? Suggestions/recipes would be very welcome!

Patatas bravas with chorizo

As you probably already know, I am a big fan of chorizo as it somehow makes every meal taste better. So, last night, I tried out the 'patatas bravas with chorizo' recipe from the BBC Good Food website. I made quite a lot of modifications, but followed the basic gist of the recipe. The quantities I used made enough for two portions.


Ingredients:
500g new potatoes
50g chorizo
Tin of chopped tomatoes
Squirt of tomato puree
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
Pinch of chilli powder
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of smoked paprika
Lots of Frylite!


Method:
I didn't follow the method on the BBC website to the letter, mostly because I've only got one frying pan. So here's what I did:

1. Chop the new potatoes into quarters and steam them for ten minutes
2. Chop the chorizo into chunks and put the chunks in the frying pan along with the Frylite, onions and garlic
3. Once the onions begin to soften, add the chilli powder, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika
4. Then add the tinned tomatoes and tomato puree, and let the mixture simmer for ten minutes
5. Meanwhile, drain the potatoes and add them to the mixture for 5 minutes
6. Serve and eat!

Yummers!

Really easy to make, super tasty, and very healthy as I didn't use much chorizo. What more could you ask for?