A cheat treat

Sometimes there is nothing that can satisfy that need to be perked up than a big tub of ice cream .

Now I know the obvious contenders in this category Is Haagen Dazs or good old Ben & Jerry's but I happened to stumble on this little delight after work on Saturday when I popped in to M&S for their meal deal.

I had promised My wee one all week I'd get her ice cream, So with that i sauntered to the freezer and BAM there they were a whole array of undiscovered creamy luscious treats...

At that moment in time there was only one flavour that could win me over and that was their "Molten Chocolate Brownie". Sweet god it was exactly what it said on the metaphorical tin.

It was more'ishly chocolate had whopper chunks of brownie laced the whole way through, and they didn't lie about the molten part either. It oozed with chocolate syrup but they didn't over do it so bravo to M&S ha...

Hope you enjoy my tried and tested
Enjoy
Rebecca x

Kick start to the new year- my multitasking Irish angus meatballs.

So it's been a mad few weeks to say the least, my beloved has moved to to the great white north aka Canada and myself and the wee ones have stayed here back in Ireland and will do so for the next ten weeks.

Talk about a whirlwind of emotion for all involved but the excitement surpasses all emotions and that's what will make the weeks fly.

The day before he flew out we went and did the weekly foodie shop and my trolley was looking like a magical rainbow of colour. I thought it was a perfect moment to start this new years health kick that we all seem to go on but this time I knew I'd have a better chance of sticking with it longer than I normally do as mr temptation wasn't going to be around like the naughty little devil sitting on my shoulder tempting me with all sorts of cookies and breads.

So my first evening alone I wanted to try something new but that wasn't time consuming because as it cooked I would be feeding my 2 1/2 year old and my 6 month old, wash the dishes and make baby bottles...

What on earth could i make I hear you all say....how about meatballs in my very own marinara sauce. I'd prep and make my sauce, while that was cooking away I'd feed the girlies. Next I'd make my meatballs and rest them in the fridge, put the kettle on for the bottles, was the dishes, sterilize the bottles then make them.

After all that I whacked my mini meatballs on the pan poured myself a glass of Claret...

To make these multitasking meatballs you will need

Irish angus minced beef
1/2 a red onion diced
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black cracked pepper

Firstly in a bowl combine the mince and diced onion together with your hand for a few moments making sure their mixed really well.

Next sprinkle the salt and pepper in and mix again before cracking the in the egg, at this stage just get stuck in and combine all 5 ingredients with gusto. Squish it between your fingers you don't want these mini delights to crumble the moment they touch the pan.

Once the messy work is finished you now need to form little meet balls the size of(note iv just scanned around my room to find the right words)...the lid of a coke bottle!!!

Once they are all rolled pop them in a fridge for ten to fifteen minutes this will allow them to firm up.

Fifteen minutes later take these little bad boys out of the fridge pop them in a pan that's had extra virgin olive oil heating and cook in batches as they would only end up boiling /stewing if there was no room to sizzle.

Turn occasionally when golden making sure your not been premature with their removal. Lastly place them in your dish and pour over my delicious marinara sauce(as seen in previous blogs)

I like to finish this dish of with some grated vintage cheddar and a glass of red

Enjoy
Rebecca x

My gluten free rock salt and olive oil bread

So there i was knee deep in cupcakes last Friday and a selection of them were gluten free, and just incase I wasn't going to be under pressure with making 50 cupcakes for a baby shower I had this notion that id give making gluten free bread a go, had never made it before but I had seemed to be on this gluten free buzz for the past few weeks as I had made gluten free meat loaf the week before for my other blog "2 girls with a blog".

So as I'm whisking my cupcake batter( and must mention my beloved machine stops twirling, so I've to hand twirl my bowl on the machine as the whisks go 90)and all the while in my head I'm conjuring up flavor friends, and I look up for a moment and there in front of me is a bottle of extra virgin olive oil....boom goes my brain why not use olive oil and rock salt that's a guaranteed marriage of flavours.

For this recipe you will need:
390ml skimmed milk
420g gluten free flour
150 ml extra virgin olive oil
1teaspoon of rock salt

Firstly in a bowl add your flour and whisk gently to remove all the lumpy bumps, next pour in your skimmed milk and 90 Mls of your oil and combine well this will take a few moments to combine evenly.

Coat your 2 lb loaf tin liberally with some of the left over olive oil not to use it all as the remainder is for drizzling over the top.

Pour in your bread mixture note that this mixture is an extremely wet consistency but the outcome will be a very light airy loaf.

Drizzle the last of the olive oil over the batter before sprinkling with your rock salt. Pop it in the oven @160' for 45 minutes. It will rise super quick and a fab golden color will appear sooner than you think don't panic it's all part of the process.

For me this bread was YUM the crunchy rock salt on top and the unique tang of the olive oil was just so more'ish, so more'ish infant that I nearly ate the whole bloody thing haha...

Enjoy
Rebecca

My apple & black berry crumble

So while I'm down the path of luscious desserts my grandad Jackie used to adore this next one is a given.

He used to love equal measures of apple tart to cream and I'd say when my gran "Nanos" made the apple tart for him she'd be lucky to get at least One slice from it.

So with all things sweet iv put a little twist to his apple tart and invited along some crowd pleasers . For this recipe you will need:

Crust:
175g flour
25g icing sugar
100g diced cold butter
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon of water

Filling:
7 small apples peeled and sliced thinly
1 punnet of blackberries
Zest of 1 orange

Crumble
100g of light brown muscavado sugar
100g of butter
200g of flour

So lets get started get your pastry dough made wrapped in cling film and then pop in the fridge this will keep the butter cold which will prevent it from shrinking away from the sides of the flan tin.

Blind bake @190' for 10 mins remove the foil and bake for a further 8 mins. With apples and blackberries comes lots of moisture so this will prevent a soggy bottom!!!

In a uniform pattern place the apple slices on the pastry. once all the slices are down pop the gorgeous blackberries evenly over the apples .

Next get started on your crumble. In a bowl pour in your flour and sugar and combine. Then add your cubed butter and rub them all together until you get a crumb like consistency.

Sprinkle this liberally over your apples and blackberries and pop it in the oven @ 180' for at least 30 minutes, by the time your crumble has goldened your fruit has softened nicely and the glorious purple tones from the blackberries have mingled with your apple slices...

I kept true to jackies tradition and teamed this crumble with whipped cream more of a 70/30 ratio than his 50/50...(",)

Enjoy
Rebecca

A cranberry & cherry orange loaf

My grandad Jackie had the sweetest tooth known to man, he had porridge for breakfast which without fail was coated liberally with sugar.

One of my favourite foody memories of Jackie was seeing him sitting at his kitchen table with an unusually big dessert spoon eating trifle straight out of the trifle dish, there obviously was no time to put it in a bowl lol...

So when ever they used to come and stay with us down in the sticks my mam would have a few weeks worth of desserts made in anticipation of this love affair with all things sweet.

One dish that sticks out in my head is an orange loaf, just the smell of fresh oranges triggers that food memory for me.
So here is a twist on that very orange loaf..for this you will need;

2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 tablespoons of oil
1 cup orange juice
Zest of 1 orange
1 egg
1/4 cup of caster sugar
100g of glacé cherries
160g of dried cranberries

In a bowl pop in the chopped cherries and cranberries, the zest and juice of the orange. Give this a good mix then sprinkle in the sugar. Set aside for minimum 1/2 hour this will give the cranberries a chance to get nice and plump from the juice.

In a separate bowl sift in all your dry ingredients, once that's done pour in your oil and a whisked egg and combine.

Next mix the two bowls together with a wooden spoon, this is a wet mixture which in turn will give you a fab moist loaf.

You will pour your mixture into a pre lined 2lb loaf tin and pop into your oven which will be pre heated @180' for 30 minutes.

For this loaf you want to check and check again with your skewer that it has baked fully as there are a lot of wet elements to it.

Pop on the kettle and cut your self a few slices and enjoy Sooooo good.

Rebecca

Lillie-B's first fruit purée

I can't believe it's this time already, Lillie-B is becoming accustomed to the world of FOOD. So far it's going without a hitch last week we tried sweet carrot purée, this week we moved on to a scrummy sweet potato & parsnip purée and you'd swear she'd been gobbling food forever...

Sometimes still feels like Lottie-Daisy should be still gobbling down all this. So today iv decided to go wild and make her my yummy apple purée.
For this you will need:

5 small children's apples
3 table spoons of water

Firstly I peeled the 5 small apples and chopped them up, the reason I used these cute teeny apples is the flavour, they have such a soft sweet flavour. Which is spot on for babies and children of all ages.

Next pop your chopped apples in a pot and add your 3 tablespoons of water. Cook this on a low heat for 8 minutes exactly .

The tip of your knife will pierce through your apple chunks with ease at this stage. I used a hand held blender to purée the apples and I blended them in the pot(saves on the washing up)...

I divided the purée up into little pots and froze them they will keep perfectly for a few weeks..

For Lillie-B I added a few baby spoons of the purée to her baby rice and it was a hit, a great way to introduce the flavour to a baby...

My super decadent brownies

What is it about brownies, it's like they have some super magnetic force that draws you to them. And when there baked well by god do they hit the spot...

Now iv had my fair share of brownie disasters iv curdled the mixture and even over baked them so when I finally perfected my brownie recipe I had to share it with you guys...for this recipe you will need:

100g butter
100g plain chocolate
100g milk chocolate
250g of caster sugar
4 large free range eggs
70g plain flour
50g cocoa powder

First of all fill a pot 1/4 the way full with boiling water and sit a heat proof bowl over it making sure it is not actually touching the water.

Dice your butter and break up all your chocolate and pop them in the bowl stirring occasionally, while your chocolate and butter is melting away, crack your four eggs in another bowl and whisk until pale and frothy. Next add your caster sugar to your frothy eggs and whisk like mad until well combined.

Once your chocolate mixture has melted take it off the heat and allow it to stand. Sift your flour and cocoa into your egg mixture and gently fold it in, you put the effort in to making your eggs and sugar all fab and frothy don't ruin it by lashing it together.

Once you have mixed that its time to pour your melted chocolate into your batter and once again fold it in.

Now for this recipe iv used an 8" round silicone cake mould, iv greased the base and sides before pouring in the mixture. Pop it in your over @ 180' forgot 30mins the time will vary if you are using a different tin and if the mixture is more shallow.

After 25mins check your brownie we want to centre to be gooey but not raw. Once baked leave to cool before removing and cutting

I like to dust mine with cocoa and icing sugar before dividing it up into bite size squares...YUM

ENJOY
Rebecca

Martha Stewart's New York cheese cake

So here's another tried and tested recipe from the cooking genius herself Martha Stewart. I think when it comes to her recipes if you follow them exactly your in for a winner.

So I decided I would try something more technical this time, now I know when you hear cheesecake your probably thinking that's not very technical but this cheese cake is super big in size and instead of popping it in the fridge you bake it. So here we go you are going to start off with the yummy biscuit base. What you will need:

12 digestive biscuits
2tbl sugar
6tbl butter melted
Pinch of salt

Firstly crush up the biscuits nice and fine in a bowl sprinkle in the sugar and salt before pouring in the butter. With your wooden spoon combine it all really well.

Next get your 11" spring form deep cake pan which you have lined with grease proof paper and pat the biscuit mixture evenly on the bottom.

Pop in the fridge for 10 mins to set, then pop it in the oven @ 160' for 15 mins

While that is setting/ baking lets get on with the creamy cheesecake mixture. For this you will need:

56oz of cream cheese(room temp)
1/2 cup flour
2 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
5eggs

Firstly make sure your cream cheese is at room temp, you get a much smoother consistency when it's not cold

In your mixing bowl pop in all the cream cheese and give it a good stir, next add your sieved flour, sugar and sour cream to the mixture and combine well

In a separate glass/bowl whisk your eggs and vanilla together i do this so the flavours are evenly combined and distributed through out your cakes. Add to mixture and stir.

I like to have the cake tin out and cooled slightly before I pour in the mixture. Also what I like to do is spray the sides of the pan with a baking spray so with any cakes the mixture won't stick to the side.

Next place out two large sheet of tin foil on your counter and sit the tin in the middle, bring the foil up the sides and higher than the top. Now what you are meant to do next is sit your tin in a large roasting tray and surround with hot water but little old me didn't have a whopper roasting tin that would fit an 11" pan, so been a mini mc guyver that I am I popped the roasting tray with hot water at the bottom of the oven so steam would still dance around the oven!!!

Bake for 45 mins @ 160' then reduce to 150' for a further 30 mins. Turn off your oven when this is all done and let cool in there for an hour...

This cheesecake was out of this world I served it at my wee ones christening and I was raging because it was gone in a flash not one slice left for me with my tea the next day ha ha good complaint I suppose.

Raspberry and lemon frangipani tart

What is it about a slice of tart that washes all your cares away...this weekend was my wee ones christening and I baked up a storm for it.

One of the tarts I made was this raspberry tart I had been researching this recipe for a while on the google box and for a lot of the recipes I looked at the quantities just didn't add up, so I ditched them and decided to do what I should have done from the start and go old school on it...work it out myself.

For this recipe you will need:

Pastry crust:
175g flour
25g icing sugar
100g cold butter
1 egg yolk
1 tbl water

Like in my previous blogs combine your pastry crust by hand, roll it out nice and thin, carefully pop it in your flan tin. Blind bake @190' for 10mins remove the foil and bake for a further 8mins.

While that's in the oven get cracking on your frangipani batter, for this you will need:
250g butter/stork
250g sugar
4 eggs
200g ground almonds
Zest 1 lemon
2 punnets of raspberries

Firstly melt your butter, then add the sugar and beaten eggs and combine until pale in colour. Next add the zest of 1 lemon and then your ground almonds, mix well.

Gently dollop out your frangipani mixture onto your pastry crust and spread out evenly making sure it doesn't go over the edges.

Now the fun part ,decorate your tart with your raspberries however you choose I went for the nerdy look and did circles and more circles. Don't press them down as they will sink in themselves.

Pop your tart in the oven @180' for 35-45mins

This is such a moist yummy cake and is perfect for breakfast lunch and dinner lol...

My all American pancakes

For me if I had to choose breakfast over lunch there would be no contest I just love breakfast if you make an occasion out of it that is....so for me there is nothing nicer than a fluffy stack of American pancakes with crispy bacon and maple syrup YUM.

For this super quick & yummy recipe you will need;
1 cup plain flour
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder

Whisk the egg, add the milk and then combine with your dry ingredients and whisk enthusiastically for a moment or two until your mixture is bubbly.

In your frying pan pour a small splash of oil. use a mild oil like sunflower or vegetable so the flavor does not overpower the pancakes yummyness.

With a ladle pour out a small amount of the mixture at a time so each pancake turns out the same size. If their to big they can taste quite doughy so if you keep them small they are browned on the outside but super fluffy on the inside.

Go wild and jazz up your pancakes by incorporating slices of bananas in the batter or even chocolate chips...