Light and fluffy Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Happy Easter everyone :) and to celebrate why not try some of these wonderful light and fluffy pancakes for breakfast...

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

3/4 cup plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
2-3 tbsp sugar
1 cup ricotta
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
Zest of 1 large Lemon
4 tbsp (heaped) Lemon curd
Blueberries, for garnish

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a small bowl. Mix together the ricotta, eggs, milk, lemon zest in a large bowl. Whisk the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until just combined. Heat a pan with some oil and butter over a medium high heat and once heated, pour out any excess oil from the pan. Spoon small amounts of the batter into the pan and cook on both sides until light golden brown. Place them on a plate and continue with the remaining batter.
Drizzle some of the curd over the pancakes and top with fresh blueberries.

Chocolate and Orange Hot Cross Buns

It's Good Friday and a perfect time for some easter baking. Hot Cross Buns are a perfect easter treat but I'm going to be honest...I'm not a big fan of raisins and currants :( so I normally stay away from them but this year I decided to make my own but with a twist so that I could eat and enjoy them....chocolate and orange hot cross buns! They were out of this world...don't just take my word for it, definitely give them a go :)

Chocolate and Orange Hot Cross Buns

450g strong white bread flour
25g cocoa powder
7g fast action yeast
60g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon (ground)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
40g butter
300ml milk
100g chocolate chips
Zest of one large orange

Crosses
75g flour
75ml water

Glaze
3 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp orange juice

Pour the milk into a pan and add the milk and heat gently until the better has melted (try not to boil the milk), add the vanilla extract and set aside. It needs to be like warm.

Place the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, orange zest and cinnamon into a bowl and slowly add the milk/butter mixture. Mix until you get a soft dough and then add the chocolate chips.

Knead for around 10 minutes or 5 minutes if using a stand mixer

Place in an oiled bowl and leave to prove for around 1 1/2 hrs or until doubled in size

Turn out onto a lightly oiled work surface and knock back. Divide into 12 balls and roll the balls gently to make them smooth and place on a lined baking sheet. Cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave to prove again, until about doubled in size (about 45 minutes)

Pre heat the oven to 200/180c

Mix the flour and water together to a smooth spreadable paste and fill a piping bag fitted with a small holed nozzle.

Pipe crosses onto the buns and place into the pre heated oven for about 15 minutes.

While the buns are baking, make up the glaze by add the caster sugar and orange juice in a pan and heat until the sugar is dissolved.

Once the hot cross buns are cooked, remove from the oven and immediately brush the orange glaze over all the buns

Enjoy :))

Easter Cookie Nests

Easter is almost upon us, so me and my son decided to bake some easter treats....and as requested by him we made some cookies but with an easter twist :) here's the first recipe, nice and easy to make with little ones and very tasty :)

Easter Cookie Nests

1 batch of Cookie Dough (my chocolate chip cookie recipe)
Mixed Mini Eggs

Pre heat the oven to 180/170c

Make up the batch of cookie dough but leave out the chocolate chips
Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Put spoonfuls of the cookie dough onto the baking sheet but don't flatten them as you need them to be thicker than normal.
In the centre of the cookie, push in a few of the mini eggs

Place them into the pre heated oven for around 10-12 minutes.

Leave to cool and enjoy :)

Creme Egg Cookie Pies :))

I'm sure you've seen the creme egg brownies that seem to have swept the nation hahaha and although they look lovely I decided to do something a little different with the creme eggs. Following on from the cookie baking session with my son we also made some Creme Egg Cookie Pies, this idea started off with a different cookie filling but as its easter Creme Eggs it is and honestly they are lovely :))

Creme Egg Cookie Pie

1 sweet shortcrust pastry case (homemade or shop bought)
I used the hazelnut sweet shortcrust pastry that I had left over
1 cookie batch (my chocolate chip cookie recipe)
Pack of creme eggs- I used the mini creme eggs

Pre heat the oven to 180/170c

If your making your own pastry case, blind bake the pastry case first.

Make up the cookie dough but leave out the chocolate chips.

Fill the pastry case with the cookie dough and spread evenly inside. You can do one large one or small individual ones if you prefer.

Cut the creme eggs in half

Place the cookie pie into a pre heated oven for 10 minutes, remove and place the creme eggs into the cookie dough and push them in gently, the dough will be very soft at this stage.

Place back into the oven for a further 4 minutes

Some Easter Lamb recipe ideas :)

It's tradition to eat Lamb around Easter so here are 4 different ways to have your lamb...all extremely tasty and perfect family meals :)

Lamb 4 Ways

Sweet and Sticky Marinated Lamb

4 Lamb steaks

Marinade
4 tbsp Honey
Zest of 1 Lemon
2 heaped tsp dried Rosemary or 2 large sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 tbsp Olive oil
3 large Garlic cloves (crushed)
1 tbsp wholegrain Mustard

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and pour over the lamb steaks and leave to marinade for at least an hour preferably longer.

Once your ready to cook them, bast them again with the sauce so they ate completely covered.

You can either BBQ the steaks, fry them (keeps them sticky) or you can grill them.

(This marinadeaalto works well with beef steaks)

(recipe by Jose Pizarro)

Roast Lamb

I leg of lamb joint
4 or 5 garlic cloves (peeled)
1 tbsp dried rosemary

Prepare your leg of lamb by making incisions into the meat, large enough to accommodate a garlic clove.
Insert the garlic clove directly into the meat and continue with all the cloves
Drizzle some oil over the meat (you can use olive oil or garlic oil) and then sprinkle over the rosemary cook to your liking.

(We like our medium rare so it's normally 20 min per pound and 15 min resting time)


Saffron, Chilli and Lime Lamb Skewers

1kg lamb cubed
Salt and black pepper
3 medium tomatoes
60ml olive oil
1 onion, very finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ tsp saffron threads
Zest of a lime and some of the juice
1/2 tsp mild chilli flakes (more if you like it spicy)
½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp caster sugar

Heat the oven to 200C/180c. Season the lamb with a quarter-teaspoon of salt and some black pepper, then spike the cubes of meat on to skewers. Arrange these side by side in a roasting tray just large enough to accommodate them and set aside.

Coarsely grate the tomatoes into a bowl (so most of the skin stays in your hand), and discard the skin.

Heat the oil in a medium frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, fry gently for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic, saffron, lime Zest, and a squeeze of lime, chilli flakes, cardamom, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook for a minute, stirring once or twice, turn off the heat and then stir in the tomato flesh.

Spoon the mixture evenly over the lamb skewers, so that all the meat is coated. Cover with foil and roast for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 150C/140c and cook for two more hours, basting once, until the meat is very tender.

Place skewers on serving plates, spoon over the thick sauce from the bottom of the tray and serve at once. If there's quite a lot of runny juice left in the tray, transfer the skewers to a warm plate, cover and keep warm. Pour all the juices into a sauté pan, place on a high heat and cook until reduced and thickened.

(adapted for a yotam ottolenghi recipe)

Mediterranean Lamb

6 Lamb chops

New potatoes cut into wedges

Zest of 1 lemon and juice
Zest of 1 lime
1 tsp dried mint
1 tsp chilli flakes (more if you want it spicy)
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
5 garlic cloves (skin removed)
A good glug of garlic oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Pre heat oven to 180/170c

Place the lamb chops and the potato wedges into a roasting pan.

Add the zest of both the lemon and lime, dried mint, chilli flakes, fennel seeds and the whole garlic cloves, pour over a good glug of garlic oil, juice of the lemon and some salt and pepper

Place in the oven for around 1 hour

Serve with fresh bread as the sauce is divine to dip into.

(adapted from a nigella lawson recipe)

Easter Hazelnut and Mascarpone Tart

Easter is nearly upon us so here's another easter inspired recipe...must say it is hard to get into the easter baking spirit with snow outside :(

Easter Hazelnut and Mascarpone Tarts

Hazelnut pastry case

180g plain flour
60g icing sugar
3 tbsp hazelnuts ,toasted, skins removed
90g butter , cold and cubed
1 egg yolk
1-2 tbsp cold water

Filling

250g Mascarpone
4 heaped tbsp Ricotta
2 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Nutella (optional)
Mini eggs for decoration
Chocolate to drizzle

Heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C
Whizz the hazelnuts in a food processor until roughly chopped
Tip the flour, sugar into the food processor with the hazelnuts and add the butter. Whizz until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and 1 or 2 tbsp cold water, then pulse to a soft dough. Take out of the processor and gently bring the pastry together (don't over work the pastry as it will become tough), wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough out and use it to line a tart tin (I used 4 individual tart tins) then chill for 15 mins. Line the pastry case with baking parchment filled with baking beans. Bake for 15 mins, then remove the paper and beans and cook for a further 5-10 mins until the pastry is cooked through

Mix the mascarpone until soft and add the ricotta and mix thoroughly.
Add the icing sugar and vanilla extract and whisk in. Chill until the pastry cases have cooled down.

Once the pastry case(s) have cooled down, spread some Nutella onto the bottom of the tart and top with the mascarpone filling, spread this gently and evenly.

Top with some mini eggs and a drizzle of melted chocolate

I did half with Nutella at the bottom and half without and both tasted yummy :))

A perfect breakfast :)

This morning we yet again woke up to snow...it's the 24th March, how can this be? I must say I'm getting pretty sick of the cold weather now and really craving some sunshine especially as I have some spring clothes that desperately need to be worn haha!
Anyway we all decided that a yummy warming breakfast was in order so I made my boys some banana and macadamia nut pancakes and they were wonderful...a lovely alternative to your normal pancakes and I'm guessing with the bananas and nuts in them, they must be slightly good for you ;))
(sorry about the picture I only managed to get a very grainy pic from hubby's phone before they got devoured haha)

Banana and Macadamia Nut Pancakes

225g bananas (well ripened)
225g milk
2 eggs
55g butter melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g self raising flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
50g toasted macadamia nuts

Mash the bananas and add to a bowl with the milk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract, whisk until thoroughly combined.

Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk until everything is mixed and combined.

The mixture is thicker than your normal pancake mixture due to the addition of the bananas but this is fine.

Heat a very small amount of oil in a pan.

Pour spoonfuls of the mixture in to the pan and add the macadamia nuts on the top straight away.

Turn over once cooked underneath and starting to firm up on the top. Cook the other side and place on a plate stacked up

Serve with maple syrup or if like me...nice and plain :)) but if your doing these for a pudding, they would be great with a big dollop of mascarpone cream or ice cream :)

This does make a large batch but perfect for a family :)

Recipe from "desserts for breakfast"