30/12/2010 by D.

Fed up with hunting down blini for the New Year’s Eve canapé, and then finding them a bit tough and dry?  Make your very own with this lovely recipe, which I’ve adapted from Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall’s.

500g plain white flour
350ml warm milk
350ml warm water (approximately)
5g powdered dried yeast
5g salt
1 tsp baking powder
A little sunflower or vegetable oil

Whisk together the flour, milk, water and yeast in a bowl and leave in a warm place to get bubbly for an hour (or more).

Heat a heavy frying pan or skillet and grease lightly with a piece of kitchen towel dipped in oil.  Make sure the heat is medium.  Whisk the salt and baking powder into the batter.  The batter should be the consistency of thick cream.

Drop a small spoonful of batter into the pan (the size you’d like the blini or pikelets to be).  When you see bubbles on the surface, flip it over and cook for a couple of minutes on the other side - you can take a peek and see if it is brown.  Remove to a warm plate.

Now drop in several spoonfuls and repeat until all the batter is finished.  You can re-grease the pan as necessary.

These are delicious with a spoonful of sour cream, a dollop of caviar and some chopped chives.  Alternatively they make a superb breakfast loaded with butter and jam, marmite, nutella or golden syrup.  Reheat them gently under the grill or in a toaster (for the bigger ones).

You can keep them for a couple of days in a plastic bag in the bread bin, but ours never last that long!

Posted in Flour, Baking, Milk, Vegetarian, Recipe | Print | No Comments »

01/02/2010 by D.

This is a very easy cake I made recently for a child’s birthday party and am posting the recipe as several of you have requested it!  There are no organic veg in here though…

We made a tray of brownies and a tray of flapjack, let them cool, and cut them into small squares.  We then laid the squares out alternately in a snake shape on a low table, and decorated the snake with smarties and candles.

As soon as the last candle had been blown out… the hordes descended and within 20 minutes all that was left were a few crumbs.  Highly popular with parents and babies alike and not a smudge of icing in sight.

Brownies

200g butter
100g cocoa powder (the posher the better)
4 eggs
400g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
100g wholemeal SR flour
100g choc chips (or cranberries; raisins; dried apricots; dried cherries…)

Preheat oven to 180c.  Line a shallow baking tin with baking paper.

Melt the butter in a pan, then stir in cocoa powder well to remove any lumps.  Beat the eggs in a bowl, then beat in the sugar and vanilla until smooth.  Add cocoa/butter mixture and stir.

Slowly add flour and choc chips until all well combined.  Pour into tray and bake for 20-25mins.  The less time you bake them for, the softer and gooier they will be.  For making this cake, you may need a couple more minutes as they need to be firm enough for little hands to grab. 

NB For more depth of flavour I sometimes substitute 20g of the cocoa for green & blacks drinking chocolate.

Flapjacks

150g butter
150g muscovado sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
450g oats
75g mixed fruit (or raisins etc as above or just add more oats for plain)

Preheat oven to 160c.

Grease a shallow tin.  Melt the butter in a pan, then stir in the sugar, syrup, oats and fruit.

Press mixture into tin until flat using a spoon and bake for 30mins.  Leave to cool before cutting and removing.  Again the timing on this one depends on how crunchy/chewy you like your flapjacks to be.  I’ve given a slightly firmer timing to make them work for the cake.

Posted in Chocolate, Dried Apricot, Vanilla Extract, Cake, Party, Baking, Raisins, Flapjack, Eggs, Recipe, Butter, Oats, Brownie, Sugar, Organic Box | Print | No Comments »