Flour, Cake and Pastry

Happy Christmas Eve! So tomorrow is the big day, and I hope you've all got your presents wrapped, cards written and food prepared! Today is sadly the last in our Festive Favourites series for this year, and I've had so much fun sharing some of my favourite feel-good foods with you over the last week. This will be my last post for a few days so I hope you all have an amazing Christmas, and keep your eyes peeled on social media for a brand new post next week in time for the New Year! As it is Christmas Eve, I thought I'd share with you a great way of using up leftovers...Mini Turkey and Cranberry Pies. These little pies are so cute and are packed with a punch of flavour! You can also fill them with ham and mustard, or any other dream combinations that takes your fancy! Ingredients: 500g plain flour (plus extra for dusting) 250g butter Pinch salt 250g shredded leftover turkey 8tbsp double cream 8tsp cranberry sauce 1 beaten egg Method: Prepare the pastry (th...

Panettone is a classic Italian sweet bread, full of flavour. From it's humble beginnings in Milan, Panettone has fast become known as the Italian Christmas Bread. Today, this bread is often used as part of the Christmas gift giving season, and is found in nearly every Italian kitchen. In some families, this includes Easter as well. The bread is very buttery and so it doesn't stale easily. It's often accompanied by coffee or liqueur. It is an extremely labour intensive bread to make, which can take between 13 to 20 hours, due to the multiple risings which must take place. Therefore it is often prepared the day prior to serving. Many recipes call for hours of fiddling and waiting around for the bread to prove in to it's classic dome shape. However, that doesn't mean that a simple recipe was easy to come across! Here is a recipe you can make in your sleep (literally), and it comes from Maison Cupcake , who was inspired by a Great British Bake Off recip...

Good evening! Friday is almost upon us, which means the weekend is looming, as is Christmas! So today's Festive Favourite recipe is a staple in any meal, and always goes down well with a bowl of hot homemade soup, so it's perfect when you use up those left over veggies and turkey trimmings on boxing day. That's right, today's recipe is for a yummy traditional farmhouse loaf! Ingredients: 12g dried yeast 1 tsp sugar 500g strong white bread flour 1tsp salt 15g unsalted butter 300ml warm water Method: Place 150ml of warm water into a 600ml measuring jug. Sprinkle in the yeast and sugar, and whisk well before leaving in a warm place until the yeast froths up. This will take about 15 minutes. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter and add the yeast and a further 150ml of warm water. Mix together until a soft dough starts to form. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, this could take up to 10 min...

We're half way through the week! With four more days to go until the big day, I hope you're all getting your presents wrapped, food bought and cards written. Christmas Day will soon be upon us! So another day means another Festive Favourite recipe, and today's bake doesn't let down...today is meringue day! This recipe is a great one to get the kids involved with, and comes from British Lion Eggs ...Christmas Meringue Snowmen! This recipe makes 5 snowmen, so if you want to make some more (which you probably will), just double the recipe! Ingredients: 2 egg whites 100g caster sugar 75g milk chocolate chips 5 (10cm) lengths of ribbon Method: Preheat your oven to 140C. Grease a large baking tray and line with non-stick baking paper. Place the egg whites in a large, clean bowl and use an electric whisk to whisk them until they are thick, white and stiff peaks form. You should be able to tip the bowl upside down and the egg whites sh...

Happy Tuesday! Today's recipe comes from yet another European country which is full of culture, flavour and an overflowing amount of scrummy recipes and bakes that are yet to be discovered. Although this recipe has become increasingly popular here in the UK, it still is and always be a traditional German dish. A perfect alternative to Christmas Cake, and impeccable with a glass (or two) of brandy, stollen has quite possibly got to be up there in my list of favourite bakes. As a Christmas bread, stollen was baked for the first time at the Council of Trent in 1545, and was made with flour, yeast, oil and water. Advent was seen as a time of fasting, so many rich foods such as butter were forbidden during Christmas bakes. Over time, the bread has changed from being a simple, fairly tasteless loaf to one which is sweeter, more dynamic and made with extremely rich ingredients such as marzipan. It has adapted into the loaf we all know and love today, and frankly, it wouldn't...

Good evening!  Today's Festive Favourite Recipe is one that always goes down a treat, we make it at work all the time and it's quite possibly one of my favourite breads to make. So read on for our yummy Focaccia recipe! Ingredients: 500g strong white bread flour 2tsp. Salt 2 sachets dried yeast 2tbsp. Olive oil (plus a little extra for drizzling) 400ml cold water Sea salt, to finish Method: Place flour, salt, yeast, oil and 300ml of the water into a large bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon gently to form a dough and then knead the dough in the bowl for 5 minutes, gradually adding the remaining water. Stretch the dough by hand in the bowl, tuck the sides into the centre, turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat the process for about 5 minutes. Tip the dough into an oiled work surface and continue to knead for 5 minutes. Return he dough to the bowl and cover and leave to rise until doubled in size. Line 2 large baking sheets with grease proof paper. Tip the dough onto t...

Hello! Today is the first of my festive favourites, mincemeat. Mincemeat is something that really does get better with time, the longer you leave it, the more it matures, and the tastier it becomes! So it really is worth making it early, and leaving it to sit for a few days before you make some yummy mince pies! This recipe comes from the baking Queen, Mary Berry , and uses butter instead of suet, making it perfectly suitable for vegetarians, so its the perfect crowd pleaser! It makes 4 x 370g jars, so you should have plenty to keep you going over the Christmas period! Ingredients: 175g currants 175g raisins 175g sultanas 175g dried cranberries 100g mixed peel 1 small cooking apple, peeled and finely chopped 125g butter, cut into cubes 50g whole blanched almonds, roughly chopped 225g light muscovado sugar ½ tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp mixed spice 1 lemon-rind and juice 200ml brandy Method: Measure all of the ingredients except the alcohol into a large ...

Happy Sunday! With one week to go until Christmas, mince pies are being made, Christmas cakes are being decorated and Christmas puds are being steamed. But with a week to go there is still time to make a birthday cake or two, and this weekend's recipe is just that...a lemon and white chocolate birthday cake decorated with a sprinkling of icing sugar and encircled in white chocolate fingers. Without further a do, here's the recipe! Ingredients: 10oz self raising flour 10oz butter 10oz caster sugar 5 eggs 1 lemon-juice and zest 1lb icing sugar, plus a little extra for decoration 8oz softened butter 1tsp vanilla essence 2tbsp lemon curd 3 boxes Cadbury's white chocolate fingers *8 inch circular cake tin x 2* Method: Pre-heat your oven to 180C and grease and line your cake tins. Cream together the butter and sugar, before sieving in the flour and adding one egg. Stir well. Add the rest of the eggs and beat well until well combined and a cake batter is form...

Good afternoon!  It's once again Monday, and once again it's a chilly, dull afternoon, making you want to get in your pjs, make a cup of cocoa and curl up on the sofa to watch a good Christmas film.  This week is my fourth and final Winter Warmer recipe, and it's a yummy one! With half of my family living in Cornwall, it's safe to say we have had our fair share of Cornish pasties over the years (they are so yum). This is a bit of a spin on the classic pasty...it's  a pie for starters. But served with a few roasties and lashings of gravy, this is the classic Cornish Pasty, Northern style.  Ingredients: 750g lamb neck fillet (cubed) 2 baking potatoes (cubed) 1 500g swede (diced) 1 large onion (roughly chopped) 750ml lamb stock (hot) 1 tbsp thyme leaves 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 500g puff pastry  1 egg (beaten) Method: Put the lamb, veg, stock, thyme and Worcestershire sauce in a large pan. Bring to the boil on the job, skimming off any foam that...

December is here...and Christmas is less than three weeks away! Today's recipe is perfect for those family meal times, when you just need a hearty dish after a long chilly day at work or school. Ingredients: 1KG Bramley cooking apples 140g caster sugar 0.5tsp cinnamon 3tbsp flour 350g plain flour (plus a little extra for dusting) 225g softened butter 50g caster sugar 2 eggs Method: Put a layer of kitchen roll on a large baking tray. Peel, core and slice the apples about 5mm thick and lay evenly on the baking tray. Put kitchen roll on top and set aside while you make the pastry. For the pastry, rub the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until it resembles breadcrumbs. Break in a whole egg and a yolk (keep the white for glazing). Beat together for about a minute-it will look a bit like scrambled egg. Now work in the flour with a wooden spoon, a third at a time, until it begins to clump up, then finish gathering it togeth...