Bakewell Buns

When I'm thinking of new recipes, I'm usually led by a craving of a certain ingredient whether it be chocolate, nuts or something savoury...and honestly it normally is of the nut variety, almonds, Brazil's nuts, walnuts... Yep you get the picture "I love nuts!" Anyway with that in mind I then think about what will work well with that ingredient and then ideas come to me like the one I'm about to tell you about! One of my favourite desserts has to be a bake well tart but why does it have to be just in tart form, I have recreated it in muffin form, and cake form (for which I will include recipes another time) so why not as a sweet bun....ohh yes :))

Bakewell buns
(Almond and raspberry buns)

500g strong white bread flour , plus extra for dusting
7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
300ml milk
40g unsalted butter , softened at room temperature
20g caster sugar
1 egg
2tsp Almond extract
oil , for greasing

Frangipane Filling
100g softened butter
45g caster sugar
2 eggs
75g plain flour
100g ground almonds
2tsp almond extract

Raspberry jam or you can use fresh raspberries- about 3 or 4 large tablespoons

Put the flour into a bowl and add 1 tsp salt and the sugar on one side of the bowl and add the yeast to the other. Meanwhile, warm the milk and butter in a pan until the butter melts and the mixture is lukewarm. Add the milk mixture and egg to the flour and stir until the contents come together as a soft dough (add extra flour if you need to).
Once the dough comes together knead for about 5 mins, adding more flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl bowl and turn until covered in oil. Cover the bowl with cling film and put in a warm place for 1 -2 hrs or until doubled in size.
For the frangipane filling, cream together the butter and sugar, then add the whisked eggs and 1tbsp of the flour and mix. Now add the remaining flour, ground almonds and almond extract and mix until incorporated.
knock the dough back to its original size and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll it into a 1cm-thick rectangle.
Spread the frangipane all over the dough and top with the raspberry jam and spread across ( you may find the mix together so try and be gentle with it)
Roll up the dough (long end to long end) into a tight cylinder, cut into 4cm slices and position on the prepared baking sheet, leaving a little space between. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for 30 mins.
Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Bake the buns for 20-25 mins or until risen and golden brown.

Perfect homemade Pesto

I absolutely love pesto as its so versatile and the best thing is it is so easy to make which is why I never buy the jars of it now! Honestly it really is so simple and if you follow my basic recipe you can adjust the amounts to exactly your taste ie more parmesan or more pine nuts or more garlic, the choice is yours. Also pesto freezes brilliantly so there's no need to use all of it all of it at once, just pop into a small freezable pot ( I use old baby food pots) and pop in the freezer and just take out when you need it

25g of fresh basil leaves
1 tbsp pine nuts (toasted in a dry frying pan until golden)
2 tbsp Parmesan (grated)
Either 1 crushed garlic clove or 1 tsp garlic oil
A good glug of extra virgin olive oil (probably about 4 or 5 tbsp)

Add basil leaves to the food processor and blitz, add the pine nuts and blitz, add your grated Parmesan and either the garlic oil or crushed garlic and blitz until desired consistency is achieved . Pour in the extra virgin olive oil (you can add more or less at this stage, really depends if you want it to be drier or more oily) and give it one last blitz and its ready to use.

At this stage you can put it small pots and put into the freezer to use when needed

Lamb tagine with saffron and cardamom infused rice with toasted nuts and Harissa and olive flat bread

After my hubby had been ill (man flu) over the weekend and had lost all his taste buds during that time, I thought it was only appropriate to then cook one of his favourite meals...well seeing he could taste again haha :)) it was a great success. Ill post the recipes soon :)

Easy lunchtime scones :))

Who says scones have to be circles haha!!! Enjoying a nice lunch of goats cheese and roasted red pepper scones, even had some help making them from my three year old :) Heres my super easy cheese scone recipe, easy to adapt to your own taste

225g/8oz self raising flour
pinch of salt
55g/2oz butter
25g/1oz goats cheese (or any other cheese you fancy) grated
150ml/5fl oz milk
Roasted red peppers (either roast yourselves or from a jar) another alternative is sundried tomatoes

Heat the oven to 220C/200C/425F/Gas 7. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with baking paper
Mix together the flour and salt and rub in the butter.
Stir in the cheese and red peppers and then add the milk to get a soft dough (use a knife to bind)
Turn on to a floured work surface and knead very lightly. Pat out to a round 2cm/¾in thick. Use a 5cm/2in cutter to stamp out rounds and place on the baking sheet. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use it all up.
Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk. Bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Yummy pie :))

I love pies, but sometimes I'm not in the mood for a heavy pastry, therefore I mix it up with filo pastry. By just scrunching up some sheets of filo pastry, makes a lovely light topping :))

A little something for the morning :)

I know it's a bit early and some of you haven't even had dinner yet but what about a fab recipe for American pancakes, perfect with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice in the morning...my sons favourite :)

200g self raising flour 1 tsp baking powder Pinch of salt 1 tbsp caster sugar (can omit this if you desire) 1 egg 300ml milk Knob of butter (melted) Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and pinch of salt in a bowl. Beat the egg in the milk and make a well in the dry ingredients and pour milk/egg mixture and whisk. Add the melted butter to the mixture and mix well.
Heat a frying pan with a little butter and oil and as it gets to the required heat, pour the oil/butter into a small bowl to leave a dry-ish pan. With a ladle, spoon onto the pan the mixture, spacing apart so that you can get individual pancakes. Once small air bubbles appear on the top (a couple of minutes) they are ready to be turned over, repeat on this side and remove from pan onto a warmed plate. Continue with the rest of the mixture.
You can also put any left over mixture in the fridge covered with cling film until the following day Enjoy :))

A little hello :)

Welcome to my blog which will be full of recipes, ideas, pictures and tips for great fun cooking and baking! I am a full time mummy, with a huge passion for cooking and baking and understand the importance of providing good, yummy food to the table, with two hungry boys in my house I wanted to make sure all our food is homemade including the bread we eat...honestly it's easier than it sounds. I will be posting on my Facebook page "Truly Baking Mad Mummy" and on my blog on a regular basis, with updates on what I've made, recipes, pictures and the many new ideas I have that I am just bursting to tell you about! Feel free to leave feedback on any of my posts, I look forward to hearing your comments and happy cooking :))