White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Spread with homemade Digestive Biscuits

This week I worked on a couple of new recipes....one being my alternative version of a classic and the other being my own version of a classic...both came out fantastic so I'm sharing them with you...

As like most people I enjoy Nutella although I never buy it as I probably would smoother it on everything haha, but I kept thinking whether it can be done with a different variety of nut as I'm sure your all aware...I love nuts hehe :)) Macadamia Nuts and white chocolate go so well together and it makes this spread very irresistible and its so easy to make :)

White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Spread

150g Macadamia Nuts
100g white chocolate (melted)
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Pre heat the oven to 180/170c
Place the macadamia nuts on a baking tray and place in the oven for about 8-10 minutes until toasted

Remove from the oven and allow to cool

Place the cooled macadamia nuts in a food processor and blitz until it resembles a paste (this is due to the oil in the macadamia nuts)

Add the melted chocolate, icing sugar, cornflour and vanilla extract and blitz until incorporated and smooth

Pour into a sterilised jar or tub and place in the fridge for a couple of hours to harden slightly (I placed mine in the freezer for about 45 minutes just to speed it up as I was so impatient hahaha) leave at room temperature to soften slightly.

Now it's ready to spread on a nice bit of bread :)) or on a homemade digestive

It will probably be impossible to recreate the digestive biscuit exactly, but my version is pretty similar and great for kids to help with :))

Digestive biscuits

100g wholemeal flour
40g plain flour
4 tbsp oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
120g butter, softened
100g soft light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 190/170c
Line a baking sheets with baking paper
Mix the flours, baking powder and oats together in a bowl.
Cream the butter and sugar together and then add the vanilla extract and mix in.
Add the flour to the butter mixture and mix together, I always find its easier with my hands!
Put the dough onto a lightly floured worktop (wholemeal flour) and knead lightly until you have a nice smooth ball. Roll out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch and cut out using a shape like a circle or a foot cutter which my son chose :) didnt really work with a dinosaur :/ (and you need them fairly thick so as not to be too crisp)
Carefully lift onto the baking tray.
Place in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Allow to cool for a couple of minutes and cool on a wire rack and enjoy with a cup of tea :)

Apple Spiced Muffins

We were meeting up with a friend this week and i obviously had to make a little something haha so I made my famous Apple Spiced Muffins! These are not like shop bought muffins...these are proper muffins, soft moist and delectable! The secret is not to over mix the batter mixture, once you've added all the ingredients, don't fold the ingredients more than 10 times, don't worry if its not all incorporated it will be fine :))

Best Apple Spiced Muffins

200g plain flour
50g caster sugar
100g soft brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp cinnamon
90ml milk
80ml vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large apples - peeled, cored and chopped
Demerara sugar to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 200 C/ 180 c and add paper cases to a muffin tray.
Measure out the flour, sugars, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the apples and mix in to coat well with the flour mixture.
Add the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract to a jug and mix until well incorporated and a little frothy
Pour the milk mixture in with the flour mixture and fold in until just combined...no more than 10 times. This is the secret to good muffins (mixture will still be a little lumpy).
Spoon the mixture in to the muffin cups. Add a sprinkle of Demerara sugar on top of each one.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top, and enjoy!

The Best Focaccia Bread you'll ever taste

It's national bread week and so I thought I would share with you my favourite bread recipe...focaccia! A lot of shop bought versions are heavy and dry which is the complete opposite to what focaccia should be....it should almost melt in the mouth and be very light. Here is the perfect recipe for focaccia, once you've tried this recipe you certainly won't eat shop bought again :)

Garlic and Rosemary Focaccia

This recipe produces quite a wet sticky dough and although it can be done by hand, it is a lot easier with a stand mixer. Of course if you choose to do it by hand the best way to work with a wet sticky dough is to oil the work surface and also your hands, makes handling the dough much easier, a lot easier than with flour...trust me :))

500g/1lb 2oz strong white bread flour
10g salt
10g fast action yeast yeast
100ml olive oil
40ml garlic olive oil
1-2 tbsp dried or fresh rosemary
360ml tepid water
olive oil, for drizzling
Salt to season

Place the flour, salt, yeast, rosemary and olive oil into a bowl (make sure you put the yeast on one side and salt on the other). Add in three quarters of the water and mix, then add in the rest of the water until you get a sticky dough. Knead for about 5-10 minutes.
Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size.
Line two large baking sheets with greaseproof paper. Tip the dough out onto an oiled work surface making sure not to knock back the dough, handle carefully and divide into two portions and place onto each baking sheet, cover with oiled cling film and then leave to prove for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 220C/200c. Drizzle the loaves with oil, sprinkle with fine sea salt then bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden in colour.

Adapted from a Paul Hollywood recipe

Choux Buns...Profiteroles

One of my husbands favourite desserts aside from pavlova is profiteroles (and eclairs) so at the weekend I decided to knock up a batch. Don't be put off from making Choux Buns, they are a lot easier than you think, honest and there are so many possibilities...I made profiteroles this time, but you can do eclairs, cream puffs, beignets souffles and even savoury choux buns...so here's the recipe :)

Profiteroles

Choux Buns
60g plain flour
1 tsp caster sugar
150ml water
50g butter
2 eggs

Filling
450ml Double cream
Zest of 1 large orange

150g chocolate to cover

Pre heat the oven to 200/180c

Measure out the plain flour and caster sugar

Grease a baking tray and run under cold water for a few seconds and allow the excess water to run off

Heat the water and butter in a pan until it starts to boil, straight away pour in the flour/sugar mixture and mix until it becomes smooth and starts to come away from the sides of the pan

Beat the two eggs together and slowly mix the eggs in, a small bit at a time

Spoon teaspoon amounts into the greased baking tray and place in the oven for 10 minutes at 200/180c then turn up to 225/200c for a further 15 to 20 minutes until they are crisp and golden in colour

Pierce the bottom of the Choux buns with a small skewer and place on a cooling rack

Put your cream into a bowl and add the orange zest and mix in. with a hand mixer, beat to stiff peaks

Place in a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle and pipe the cream into the cooled down Choux buns

When ready to serve, pour over the melted chocolate and serve with a little cream :))

Rainbow Layer Cake

As you know my son had an Easter party recently and for the table centre piece I made a rainbow layer cake which I must say, everyone including all the children were very impressed with :)) its actually pretty simple to make compared to how it looks so I wanted to share this very tasty recipe for you all to enjoy :))

Rainbow layer cake

To make 3 sponges -
225g very soft butter
225g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
85g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
150ml natural yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Food colours
Red- 1-2tbsp cocoa and then add the red
Pink, blue, green, yellow, orange and purple

Icing
1 tsp vanilla extract
375g cream cheese
375g mascarpone
200g icing sugar

Pre heat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Grease bases of 3 x 20cm cake tins.
mix all the ingredients together and split into three and add your first three colours. Pour into the tins and bake for 20 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean.

Repeat this with three more colours

For the final colour, divide the recipe by three and use for your final colour

Leave all the sponges to cool, I left mine overnight wrapped individually in clingfilm and they were perfect for stacking.

Mix all the icing ingredients together but don't over mix as it becomes thinner and runnier the more you mix it.

Place one layer on a serving plate and coat with a small amount of the icing and top with another layer, repeat until all layers are stacked and coat the whole cake in a thin layer of the icing, place in the fridge so that the first layer of icing can harden and you are then ready to cover the cake again

Quick and simple Cinnamon Rolls :)

Me and my son were visiting a friend and I never like to go empty handed but with the crazy busy week we have had I didn't really have much time to make anything too elaborate. I really wanted to make some cinnamon rolls (I had a slight craving for them haha) but with limited time, I found this fab recipe which required about half an hour of my time which was perfect and with a few of my own alterations the end result was magnificent...okay they are slightly more doughy than your regular cinnamon rolls as this is a no yeast recipe but the outcome is wonderful and its perfect to make with kids...ticks all the boxes for me :))
Add a cream cheese frosting like I did and it definitely is like eating a real cinnamon roll.

No Yeast Cinnamon Roll

Dough
3 cup plain flour
1 cup buttermilk,
(or 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice added)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Filling
2 1/2 tbsp butter melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Orange glaze
Juice of half a large orange
4 tbsp caster sugar

Cream cheese frosting
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Measure the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, vanilla and egg into a mixing bowl. Add the buttermilk. Stir until thoroughly combined and form a dough.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute or until smooth.
Roll the dough into a 12-inch by 24-inch rectangle. Spread the melted butter over the entire rectangle. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon all over.
Roll the dough into a log beginning at the wide side. Cut into two-inch pieces and put the pieces into a 7" pan.
Bake at 180/170c fan for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Heat the juice and caster sugar in a pan until the sugar is dissolved and spread over the cinnamon rolls as soon as they come out the oven.

Mix all the frosting ingredients together until soft and smooth.

Allow the muffins to cool for 15 minutes and spread over the cream cheese frosting

Another great alternative is to place the cinnamon rolls into muffin tins and then place in the oven...individual cinnamon roll muffins :))

Why not add pecan nuts to the sugar and cinnamon filling...yummy :))

Bakewell Ice Cream

I seem to have been a bit MIA recently...so I have several recipes that I want to fill you in on, one of them being another ice cream flavour that I've been working on! One of my favourite desserts is a Bakewell tart and I've recreated it in muffin form and cake form so why not in an ice cream...honestly it really works and its almost like your biting into a Bakewell tart...yummy hehe :))

Bakewell Ice Cream

1 can (14 ounces) Condensed milk
2 cups (475ml) Double Cream
6 tsp almond extract
3-4 heaped tbsp raspberry jam

In a bowl, stir together condensed milk and almond extract. In another bowl, whisk the double cream until you get stiff peaks (easier using an electric whisk) With a rubber spatula, gently fold whipped cream into condensed milk mixture. Pour into a large tupperware tub and spoon the raspberry jam into the ice cream mixture and using a skewer swirl it round.
freeze until firm, usually about 6 hours and enjoy :)

You can of course add some fresh raspberries in to it as well :)

Lemon and Blueberry Ice Cream

The sun is finally shining so here's a recipe for Lemon and Blueberry Ice Cream....this is my sons favourite flavour with the wonderful lemon and the whole blueberries in it...perfect for a nice sunny day :))

Lemon and Blueberry Ice Cream

1 can (14 ounces) condensed milk
2 cups double cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Zest and juice of 1 lemon (more if you want it really lemony)
100g blueberries (fresh or frozen blueberries)

In a medium bowl, stir together condensed milk, vanilla extract and lemon. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat cream until stiff peaks form.
With a spatula, gently fold whipped cream into condensed milk mixture and gently fold in the blueberries (if using fresh blueberries, be careful not to squash any)
Pour into a freezer safe container and freeze until firm, about 6 hours

Mini Meatball Pizza Muffin Cups

I love it when new ideas come to me, especially when the work haha and this really was a winner! I had been thinking about fun foods for kids and parties and taking something oridinary and putting a little spin on it and I came up with this...at first I wasn't sure whether it would work and crazily I attempted it for the first time on the morning of the Easter party, but thankfully it worked and they went down a storm, everyone loved them and were raving about them...so here's the recipe

Mini Meatball Pizza Muffin Cups

Pizza dough (please refer to my pizza dough recipe)

Meatballs
500g beef mince
35g pancetta or bacon (I used smoked bacon)
2 tbsp mascarpone
1 tbsp grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper

Tomato sauce
1 Onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp oregano
Plum tomatoes
1/2 tsp tomato purée
Salt and pepper to taste

Make up the pizza dough and leave to rise.

Mix all the meatball ingredients together in a food processor and then roll into small balls and place on a plate. Place in a fridge for about half an hour if you can but don't worry if you can't.
Heat a small amount of oil in a pan and fry the meatballs until browned all over and set aside

In the same pan heat some more oil and cook the onion until soft and golden.
Add the garlic, oregano and rosemary and fry for a minute more.
Add the tinned plum tomatoes and stir through and add the tomato purée and stir through with some salt and pepper.
Bring to the simmer, add the meatballs and simmer for around 20 minutes. If the sauce becomes too dry, add some water as you will need a little sauce to fill the pizza muffin cups.

Pre heat the oven to 200/180c fan

Once the dough has risen and has about doubled in size, knock back and divide into 10 balls

Oil a deep muffin tin and place the balls into each hole

Spread the dough into the cup and spread up the sides. Spoon a few of the mini meatballs and sauce into the middle and continue with all the dough balls and meatballs

Place into the pre heated oven for about 15-20 minutes

Remove from the muffin tin carefully (if the tin was oiled well they should come out quite easily) and enjoy :)))))

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

I'm the queen of parties, I like to have a party for every occasion, Christmas, Halloween, birthdays, summer, Easter...pretty much anytime really haha and it also gives me an excuse to bake and make some fun and exciting goodies for guests! This time round was my sons Easter party so lots of 3 year olds to cater for and of course the parents!
My cookies are famous amongst my friends and I keep re inventing them with new flavours but I wanted something fun for the party and it came to me...well while looking through the Internet for ideas....Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip...it couldn't be more perfect and served with Easter shape cookies.
The only thing I noticed that I wasn't keen on was most of them were just cream cheese with sugar and some chocolate chips which is really not like cookie dough at all, so I came up with my own and wow was it a hit, it is like eating the cookie dough before you put it in the oven but without the egg...perfect! You can thank me later :))

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

2/3 cup butter softened
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 mascarpone
1 3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Add the butter and sugar into a bowl and mix until light and fluffy
Add the vanilla extract and mascarpone and mix well

Add the flour, bicarb, salt and mix until the dough starts to form together then add the chocolate chips and knead in

And your away...

I personally like it exactly like cookie dough but If you want it more dip like and softer, feel free to add more mascarpone until you get the desired consistency :)