How could anyone not be happy to receive a jar of something called Christmas chutney? This is the bejewelled stuff of dreams. Red as Rudolf’s nose, lightly spiced and teeming with sweet onion. Pretty jars help this on its way to being the perfect gift, when accompanied with a truckle of something strong. READ MORE
This recipe for cranberry and hazelnut bread is one of those annoying bakes that’s gone within an hour of being retrieved from the oven. The hazelnuts toast in the oven, the cranberries add that all important sweetness and the oats make for a textured loaf that feels like it might well be both good for you as well as delicious. READ MORE
What’s the best bit of Christmas lunch? Not for me the meat, nor the roasties. Not even the honey glazed parsnips or gravy. The stuffing has it all; a bit herby, a bit porky and a bit fruity. These stuffing balls are delicious with the roast as well as sliced cold in sandwiches or eaten with pickles in front of a favourite Christmas film.
One year ago: Mini Yorkshire pudding canapes and Christmas pudding fizz and Brandy butter icing and Rudolf morsels
Two years ago: Lime meringue pie with chocolate pastry and Christmas scones and Ginger cake with Christmas cottage and Hot chocolate on a stick
Three years ago: Moonuts and Cheese biscuits and Parsnip soup and Inauthentic chicken tagine
Cranberry stuffing balls
Makes enough for 16 – 30 balls
Ingredients:
(about 2 slices)
Remove the sausages from the casing, then mix together with all the other ingredients in a stand mixer (using the paddle attachment) or with your hands until well combined. With wet hands form balls of mixture about 5cm across and bake on a greaseproof paper lined baking tray in a preheated 200C/gas mark 6 oven for 20 – 25 minutes.
Never work with children or animals? Pah! We had a great time making these Easter biscuits. In fact I’d say I might have had more fun than Audrey, Sienna, Joe and Benjamin. For me the most important thing to remember for baking with kids is to be well prepared (as in don’t leave finding the baking trays until you already have the snakes and dinosaurs made) as kids don’t have huge amounts of patience.
Also to choose recipes that are quick to make, quick to bake and are ready to eat before the end of the baking playdate. There’s nothing worse than a 4 year old being told their baking booty isn’t ready to eat until the next day. This biscuit dough is very forgiving so hot little hands who want to squish and re-roll can happily do so. Oh and the lemon flavour isn’t too overwhelming either so perfect for if your little one is fussy. Makes a fair few… depends whether you’re a snake person or a dinosaur person.
Oh and there’s a video too featuring lots of cute kids and cute biscuits. You can watch it here or just click on the film below.
All comments gratefully received. I love reading them.
One year ago: Octonauts cupcakes and Walnut, fudge and Fleur de Sel cookies
Two years ago: Mutter paneer and Hot cross biscotti
Lemon animal biscuits
Ingredients:
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and smooth. Stir in the egg with a tablespoon of the flour. Stir in the remaining flour, baking powder and lemon zest and mix until fully combined. Roll small pieces of dough into shapes with your hands to make animals from snakes to butterflies to snails to dinosaurs and decorate with the cranberry slivers and pearls. Pop on baking trays and leave to harden up in the fridge for 30 minutes – this stops the biscuits from spreading too much. In the meantime preheat the oven to 180ºC, fan 160ºC, gas 4 and then bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly golden. Leave to cool completely before moving from the baking trays.
Can I moan a little first? This Easter is yet another holiday that has been ruined by illness. So far the boys have had ear infections, viral infections and now one has chicken pox. Seriously, I for one have had enough of this nonsense, let alone them poor little mites. I know this is not in any way related to this Easter recipe but I need someone to listen. Even if it’s virtual. I’ve been in confinement with illness and bugs for too long… so my dear parents came over today and I made these. Sanity restored.
Enough whinging. So here she is, my grand dame of Easter recipes. I give you my white chocolate and cranberry hot cross buns. Well worth the wait and various stages.
All comments gratefully received. Here are some other Eastery recipes you might like too:
Last week: Cadbury creme egg mess
One year ago: Mini Simnel cupcakes and Chocolate orange easter spiced fudge and Eastery two tone cupcakes and Easter apostles scone loaf
Two years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Hot cross biscotti
White chocolate & cranberry hot cross buns
Made 11 for me
Ingredients:
Okay. Here we go. Mix together the flour, yeast, salt, olive oil and caster sugar until everything is evenly distributed. Then add the warm milk and mix again. Then add the egg, beaten and mix again. Now you need to knead until shiny and elastic – probably about 10 minutes by hand or about 4 in a mixer. I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer as this is a VERY sticky dough – it’s enriched with milk and eggs which mean it’s hard work by hand. It isn’t impossible but I am just warning you. A dough scraper might be useful if you do do this by hand. And remove all rings.
Once shiny and elastic (but still sticky) cover in clingfilm and leave to double in size. Once doubled add the clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Mix well whilst knocking back the dough then scrape onto a floured work surface and divide the dough into as many pieces as you wish to make buns. I managed 11 oddly.
Flour a baking tray lightly and then take your piece of dough, dip it in a little of the flour on the work surface so it doesn’t stick to your hands – then squash it in your hand and pull the edges into the middle, like you’re folding something exciting into the centre. Pinch these edges together and then place the bun pinched side down on the tray. Continue until all the dough is used and leave about a 1cm space between each bun. Cover loosely in clingfilm and leave to proof until double the size.
Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Make the flour paste for the crosses by mixing 70g strong white flour with a little water until you have a stiff paste. It needs to be pipeable but not too thin that it drips down the buns. Once the buns are double the size brush them in egg wash then pipe a cross onto each bun. The buns will be touching by now through the proofing process so it’s actually easier to pipe along all the buns in one direction and then turn the tray and do the same – rather than pipe each cross individually. Pop into the preheated oven and bake for about 15 minutes but keep an eye on them as enriched doughs, especially ones with sugar in, have a tendency to burn easily. Also your buns might be bigger or smaller than mine so will likely have a different baking time. They’re done when browned and risen.
Whilst they’re baking make the glaze by boiling 60g water with 50g caster sugar. Had I thought about it at the time I might have added a little orange water or even lemon juice to this mixture but I didn’t. When the buns are ready grab them from the oven and brush with the still warm glaze. Beware using too much as it makes for soggy bun bottoms by dripping under the buns and pooling on the baking tray. When cool enough to touch pull the buns apart and transfer to a rack. Eat slightly warm with chocolate spread or toasted with salted butter. Or in bread and butter pudding.
You can totally substitute different chocolates/dried fruits/spices etc – let me know if you do and how it turned out? Happy Easter! x
More often than not I make little gifts for people who come to my day classes. It’s oddly one of my favourite parts of preparing for a class. I love it. I like baking the biscuits or mixing the fridge cake. I like cutting up cellophane to wrap around the little bundles. I especially like tying the ribbon. Scrap that. I especially like shopping for the ribbon. I’m a ribbon hunter. I check out what’s on offer everywhere I go. My current new favourite place to buy ribbon is The Range. Oh so pretty.
Imagine my horror yesterday when I found one of these little cranberry oaty biscuits left behind! All lonely, a gift unwanted. I’m hoping they were simply forgotten as cranberries are quite sensitive fruit. To make them feel better I am sharing the recipe. It makes loads, about 30 little morsels.
Ingredients:
So easy peasy. Just preheat the oven to Gas 4/160C. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the flour, porridge oats, vanilla extract and cranberries and mix together until combined, using either your hands or the mixer. Form into balls about the size of a walnut and bake in the centre of the oven, on a tray, for about 10 – 15 minutes depending on how crunchy you like your biscuits. Leave on the tray to cool as they’re still fragile when they’re warm.
For someone who managed to get through the education system to a decent level I surprise myself at how stupid I can be at times. I often miss really obvious things. For example:
Sometime in 2005, the day after drinking White Russians until 1am on a school night with my flatmate, I was a bit miffed to find myself at work vomiting. For some reason the inclusion of milk equalled no hangover in Holly World.
I was genuinely shocked that labour was painful. Even though I flirted with a midwifery career in the late 90s. So it’s not like I hadn’t seen women howling in pain and trying to scratch their partner’s eyes out.
It surprised me that my skinny jeans didn’t fit on January 3rd after 4 weeks of eating everything in sight, with a heavy bias towards sausage related party snacks involving pastry.
I thought I’d get the ending of Sherlock. I didn’t. I feel thick.
The diagnosis is clear; on the whole, a bit of a lack of common sense. Oh well, I’m still alive, albeit in an often surprised fashion.
This recipe surprised me. Recently the lovely people at Diverse Abilities Plus sent me this recipe book and I have to say that one recipe in particular intrigued me. It was a flapjack with Coco Pops in it. Of course I meddled with it. It’s a problem I have, like the lack of common sense.
Anyway, the resulting recipe is below and my this is a fine flapjack… chewy and with a slight crunch. It’s obvious in hindsight that the cereal inclusion would make for a great flapjack. Mr B has been enjoying this as a lunchbox treat for the last week. In fact, he’s even been seen snaffling a slice for breakfast. It is cold after all.
The recipe book can be bought here. Buy it, go on! It’s a quality publication and full of recipes I want to try. It even has a picture of Duncan from Blue in it. Teenage dreamarama.
Makes about 9 pieces but all depends on the depth and size of your tin.
Ingredients:
175g oats
75g brown sugar (I used that lovely crumbly, soft, muscovado stuff.)
2 large heaped tbsp golden syrup
25g Rice Crispies (Though the recipe said to use Coco Pops.)
40g cranberries (My meddling here – omit if you wish.)
100g sultanas (Again, my meddling, omit if dried fruit offends, or substitute.)
Preheat the oven to Gas 1/140C and pop the rack in the middle of the oven. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan, on a low heat until molten and smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the oats, Rise Crispies and dried fruit. Press into a greased square tin (I used a silicone one so no need to grease) and bake for 30 – 40 minutes until golden. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, score into slices, then leave to cool completely before cutting and eating. It firms up once cool.
Credit: Original recipe submitted by Georgia Blainey, aged 11.
Holly Bell 