Homemade Waffles

Randomly my eldest son asked for waffles for breakfast last week, he must have seen them on a TV program or something because I have never made them before! Initially I said no and then I remembered that my toastie maker has waffle plates on it and I have never used them, so I thought why not? I googled a few recipes to see roughly what the ingredients were and then made up a batter using what I had in the cupboards.They are relatively simple to make, you just have to take care when folding in the egg whites because this is what gives them a light fluffy texture over a stodgy one - cooked well they should be crispy on the outside and light and fluffy in the middle. They cook quickly and the variations for sweet or savoury toppings are endless - myself and the boys had strawberry and banana with maple syrup and the Hubby had crispy bacon with maple syrup! If you have any type of waffle maker at home I would highly recommend giving them a go! This batter made 6 waffles.


Ingredients

170g Plain Flour
3 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
30g Caster Sugar
2x Eggs
250ml Whole Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

How To Make

1. Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.

2. Combine the yolks with the milk and vanilla and then pour into the dry mixture and thoroughly combine. 

3. Whisk the egg whites until they a fluffy and form soft peaks. Then carefully fold them into the batter, keeping in as much air as possible. Let the mixture rest for a few minutes whilst you prepare you toppings and heat up you waffle maker. 

4. Cooking instructions may vary depending on your waffles maker. Mine is a 3in1 toastie maker and I cooked them by pouring approx 40ml - about half a ladle - of batter onto the bottom plate of the waffle maker and then closed the lid and cooked them for 4 minutes.

5. Once cooked, pop them onto a plate and top with your desired topping!

Gingerbread Dinosaurs

My eldest son loves to bake and a couple of nights ago we read the story of the Gingerbread Man before bed and he asked me if we could make some in the morning, I never pass up the opportunity to bake with my sons and so of course I said yes! Whenever I make these biscuits I always use Mary Berry's Gingerbread Man recipe (from her Ultimate Cake Book). This is such a simple dough to make and you can use it to make traditional gingerbread men (or women) or use it to cut any shape you like - in my dino-mad sons case we used it to make Gingerbread Dinosaurs!!! My Step Dad Ian got me these awesome little cutters for Christmas and they are a must have for any dinosaur mad kid who likes to bake because they not only are a great shape and size but they have the added stencils to imprint the dinosaurs skeleton onto the cookie.This recipe makes about 20 cookies.


Ingredients

12oz Plain Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
2 tsp Ground Ginger
4oz Margerine
6oz Light Brown Sugar
4 tbsp Golden Syrup
1 Egg (beaten)

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 190'c and lightly grease 3 baking trays. Measure the flour, ginger and bicarb into a bowl. Rub in the margarine until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. 

2. Stir in the sugar and then add the beaten egg and golden syrup to the dry mixture. Mix to form a smooth dough. 

3. Divide the dough in half and roll out one half onto a lightly floured surface to about 5mm in thickness. Cut out the gingerbread dinosaurs, imprint firmly with the stencil and then transfer to the baking tray. Repeat with the remaining dough. 

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes until slightly darker and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. I decorated these by piping white glace icing into the bone imprints on the cookies. 

Oven Scones

Ah the simple scone! Whether you believe it is jam first and then cream (me!) or cream and then jam, you just can't beat tucking into a freshly baked, warm out of the oven scone topped with sweet strawberry jam and a dollop of clotted cream...heaven! My sister is amazing at making scones and she uses this simple recipe from Good Housekeeping and it never fails. I recently got the nudge to make a batch by my friend Kirsty who, upon seeing a post on Facebook about how the Queen takes her scones, reminded me about how we were totally out voted at a Christmas meal by the our friends and other halves during a discussion about scones because they all say that it is cream first and the jam. Well it turns out Her Majesty agrees with Kirsty and I! Whoop! Anyway, I couldn't stop thinking about scones and, seeing as they are my Hubby's favourite too, I decided to make a double batch so were half plain and half were raisin and sultana. This recipe makes 8 scones.

Ingredients

8oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
40g Butter (salted)
1/4 pint of Milk (plus extra to glaze)
50g Dried fruit - sultanas, raisins, currants etc (if doing fruit scones)

How To Make

1. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl. Rub the butter into the mixture so it resembles fine breadcrumbs. If doing fruit scones add your fruit now and stir through.

2. Stir through the milk, using a knife, to give a fairly soft dough. Gently roll out the dough, on a lightly floured surface, to about 2cm thick. Then cut out into rounds using a 6cm cutter. 

3. Place on a greased baking sheet and brush the top with some milk. Bake at 200'c for about 10 minutes until well risen and golden. Transfer to a rack to cool. 

4. Serve warm, split and filled with jam and clotted cream. 

S'Mores Cones

I can't remember exactly how this recipe came about... We had a family BBQ planned at our local woods for my cousins graduation and I was asked to do a pudding but it needed to be something easy to transport and that didn't require more than a cool bag to keep it chilled. I thought about toasting marshmallows but that to me wasn't a pudding, then I thought about S'mores and somehow I came up with my own version - S'mores cones! My eldest had great fun helping me stuff the cones with all the filling. These are so fun, simple and adaptable - you can use any fillings you like but I'd say you definitely need either marshmallows or chocolate (preferably both) for gooey-ness. They can also be made in advance and kept in the fridge until you're ready to BBQ them. Makes 10.

Ingredients

10 Waffle Cones 

10 Strawberries (quartered)

2 Bananas (sliced) 

100g White Chocolate Buttons

100g Milk Chocolate Buttons

100g Mini Marshmallows

How To Make

1. There is no strict rule for stuffing the cones here, simply stuff the cones with each of the ingredients. Approximately 1 strawberry (4 quarters), 2-3 slices of banana and 10g each of buttons and marshmallows. Make sure you push the filling all the way to the bottom and alternate which ones you put in so you've not got all strawberry at the bottom for example.

2. Once they are all stuffed, carefully wrap each one in foil and twist the top to seal the cone in. Store in the fridge until needed.

3. When you're ready to cook them, simply pop them on the BBQ (preferably on low, or in a cooler spot if using charcoal). Leave them on there for approximately 5-10 minutes, turning every so often. They are ready when the marshmallow is gooey and the buttons have melted (open the twist at the top to check). 
 

Coffee Cake

Coffee cake is a new bake for me, I made it for the first time last year, we were having a party for my youngest sons first birthday and I was providing hot drinks and cake for refreshments. I wanted a traditional sponge that had icing but equally wasn't too sweet and I know lots of family and friends who love coffee cake. After researching online I settled on this one by Mary Berry because it sounded so straightforward being a "throw it all in" mix. It comes out lovely and moist, with a lovely coffee taste that isn't over powering but equally still has enough flavour for coffee lovers. I don't have instant coffee at home and so I used 1 shot of espresso from my coffee machine and that works absolutely. This cake is delicious on its own but even better with icing,  I topped mine with a Vanilla Latte icing (icing sugar from Sugar and Crumbs) and that blended well with the cake, adding a sweet almost fudge-like flavour. Recipe makes two 7 inch cakes.

Ingredients

8oz Butter
8oz Muscavado Sugar
8oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
4 Eggs
4 tsp Instant Coffee (or 1 shot espresso) 

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 160'c and grease and baseline two round cake tins. Mix together all the ingredients, apart from the coffee, until blended. 

2. Gently stir in the coffee and then divide equally between the two tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean.

3. Once the cake has cooled on a wire rack you can ice it. 

Blueberry Muffins

I was given some surplus Blueberries by one of my friends and she said for me to "make something with them" and so, at the request of my Husband, I made Blueberry Muffins! Simple, easy and very tasty! I used the following recipe from Mary Berry's "Ultimate Cake Book" as its very simple and I had most of the ingredients to hand, apart from she adds lemon zest to hers and I didn't have a lemon to hand so instead I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract. They came out like a breakfast muffin I think, especially as they are low on sugar and they were lovely and light. Hubby ate 2 with an hour of them leaving the oven, so I assume they went down well with him! I also gave half of the batch back to my friend, who is a nurse, for her to share with her family or work colleagues. Recipe makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

9oz Self Raising Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
2oz Margarine
3oz Caster Sugar
6oz Blueberries
1 lemon (I used a teaspoon of vanilla extract)
2 Large Eggs
8 fl oz Milk

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 200'c and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases. 

2. Measure the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and then rub in the margarine until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, blueberries and grate in the zest of the lemon.

3. Mix together the eggs and milk and pour into the dry mixture. Mix quickly to blend, the mixture should have a lumpy consistency. Divide between the 12 cases and then bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until risen, golden and firm to touch. 

4. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes and then lift out onto a cooling rack to finish. 

Gin & Tonic Cupcakes

Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and Gin & Tonic one was one of them. I adapted my lemon sponge recipe to incorporate the Gin and once baked and iced (I tinted mine yellow) I decorated them with a slice of lemon and a shot top filled with gin and tonic. Makes 12. 

Ingredients

6oz Stork
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs
Zest of 1 Lemon
1 tbsp Gin

For the icing...
200g Stork
400g Icing Sugar
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tbsp Gin

How to Make

1. Preheat the oven to 160'c and place 12 cupcake cases into a muffin tray.

2. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then gradually add the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour to prevent curdling.

4. Fold in the rest of the flour and the lemon zest. Lastly stir through the gin. Spoon the mixture evenly between the 12 cases. Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer test comes out clean. 

5. Leave them to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled make the icing. Beat the butter until soft and fluffy and then mix in the icing sugar, lemon juice and gin. Pipe onto the cupcakes and decorate however you wish.

Homemade Granola

I am not a fan of breakfast, I used to not be able to function without a bowl of cereal before I had kids but now I can't face it. Plus I have been finding I don't have time to sit and eat, as bad as that sounds.My husband often has shop-brought granola with milk for breakfast and has recently started buying the yoghurts with granola on top, which I quite enjoy and so I decided to maybe try and make my own granola to get me into the habit of having breakfast again. I googled lots of recipes for ideas as to what to include and it's so versatile! You can pretty much add any combination of fruit, seeds and nuts that you like. So I popped to our local Eco Store to top up on what I needed and set to work.For my first batch I used pecans, walnuts and peanuts plus apricots, apple rings, pears and raisins for dried fruit. Since then I have made it with banana chips, papaya, pineapple, sultanas, cashews, pistachios...you name it! It is fabulously easy to make and very tasty and satisfying served with yoghurt and honey for breakfast (the recommended portion of granola is 45g). Once made, the granola keeps in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks. 

Ingredients

200g Porridge Oats
120g Mixed Nuts
120g Mixed Seeds
120g Desiccated Coconut
250g Dried Mixed Fruit
4 tbsp Olive Oil
6 tbsp Maple Syrup
1 tsp Cinnamon

How To Make

1. In a large bowl mix together the porridge oats, nuts, seeds and coconut. Then stir through the oil,cinnamon and maple syrup.

2. Spread out onto a baking tray and pop in the oven at 200'c for 20 minutes. Give the granola a stir every 5 minutes to prevent bits getting too crisp. 

3. Once toasted, remove from the oven and stir through the fruit giving it a good mix up. Leave it to cool and then store in a jar or container. Serve with milk or yoghurt and honey. 

Welsh Cakes

This is new territory for me, I've never done a traditional cake on the griddle before but I have always wanted to try them. My 3.5 year old absolutely loves Welsh Cakes and so I thought I would start with these because I knew if they were successful they would go down well at home.After flicking through my many recipe books I got the basis of a recipe but had to tweak a few ingredients - mainly due to us being in the middle of a pandemic and supplies and trips to the shops being limited - but also due to personal taste! Welsh Cakes are traditionally made with currants, of which I am not a fan of as I find them gritty, and, because of this, I don't have any in my cupboards but I do have a big jar of raisins and so this was my first adaptation. My second was that most recipes use mixed spice to flavour, another item I don't have in my cupboard, and so I used a mixture of ground ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. These little beauties are really quick to whip up and take virtually no time at all to cook and once you get the hang of it they are so easy, I'd confidently and happily whip these up again! When greasing my griddle pan (apparently you can use a heavy based non-stick frying pan if you do not have a griddle) I used butter for the first batch but I found this made them 'splodge' and lose their shape. So for the next batch I tried a little spritz of 1 Cal spray and they cooked perfectly at 4 minutes per side on a low heat. Welsh Cakes, like scones, are best eaten on the day they are made but we had some warmed up (under the grill for 1 minute) for breakfast the next day and they were still delicious. They also freeze really well too and I sometimes get one out for my eldest for breakfast or lunch, pop it straight in the toaster to defrost and warm through. This recipe made 18.

Ingredients

225g Self Raising Flour
100g Butter
75g Caster Sugar (plus extra for sprinkling if you wish)
75g Raisins
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
A pinch of Nutmeg
1 Egg
1 tbsp Milk

How To Make

1. Rub together the butter and flour in a bowl (or in a mixer) until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.

2. Stir in the sugar, raisins and spices. Then beat the egg and milk together and pour into the dry mixture. Mix together until it comes together as a firm dough.

3. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and then roll to about 5mm thick. Cut into rounds using a 7.5cm cutter (I used the fluted edge for a nice shape).

4. Lightly grease and heat a griddle pan. Cook the Welsh Cakes for about 3-4 minutes per side on a low heat, if you cook them too fast they will be raw in the middle. 

5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and then dust with caster sugar (optional) and serve.