Showing posts with label Eat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eat. Show all posts

Do you ever crave the simple foods of your childhood? I know I do. The other day I fancied baking, but I wanted to make something unusual. After a bit of searching the internet for some inspiration, I decided on Iced Fingers (or buns, whatever you prefer to call them). However, finding a recipe wasn't particularly easy so I took several and put my own spin on them. I settled on these little fingers not only for their appetising appeal, but also because they could be made using ingredients I already had in my cupboard. A no obscure ingredient kind of recipe is simply the best.

I was far too impatient to let them cool before applying the simply scrumptious icing and so their presentation was lacking, however they tasted incredible!

So here is the recipe:

Ingredients

For the Dough

500g strong white flour (don't worry about using bread flour, plain flour works perfectly well)
60g caster sugar
40g unsalted butter, softened
14g instant yeast (I used2 of the 7g packets I had hiding at the back of my cupboard)
2 eggs
150ml warm milk
140ml water

For the Icing

200g icing sugar
7 tsp of cold water

Method

1. Place all ingredients (but not all of the water, perhaps around half) into a bowl and mix with your hands or spatula to combine. Gradually add the remaining water as you mix.

2. Once the mixture has come together, knead in the bowl for approx 10 minutes with your hands.

3. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and continue to knead for a further 10 minutes. The dough should be sticky and have an elastic feel to it. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place for 1 hour to rise.

4. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces, if you're using a set of digital scales I think I worked out that each piece should roughly weigh 75g. Roll into balls in the palm of your hand and then into fingers shapes. You can leave them in balls if you would prefer though, whatever is easiest!

5. Place the dough shapes onto a greased baking tray, leaving plenty of space for them to double in size. Do not cover them. Leave to rise in a warm place for 40 minutes.

6. Before your 40 minutes is up, heat the oven to 220 C, or 200 C fan. Once risen, bake for 10 minutes before removing from the oven to cool.

7. Sift your icing sugar and mix in the water. Be careful when adding the water as you want to make the mixture as thick as possible for a strong coating of icing. If your mixture is too thin, simply add more icing sugar and similarly if it's a bit too thick, add a few drops of water.

8. Try not to eat them all at once.

Let me know if you give them a go on Instagram, i'd love to see some photographs!



I love crumbles. There is just something about fruit stewed in sugar and spices that is so comforting. However the problem that I have is that Jack detests fruit in both desserts and cakes. Christmas cake, no. Christmas pudding, no. Apple pie, no. Warm, sugary fruit in a dessert is his idea of hell. To me, this was a devastating fact to come to terms with when we moved in together. There are only so many chocolate desserts you can eat! Determined to come up with something crumble based that he would eat, I began experimenting.

Now, Jack loves bananas. So I thought if I could get them to keep their shape - maybe he'll eat them in a crumble? After all, it was the mushy texture he really didn't enjoy. Alas, my experimenting paid off. Last night, we had a banana crumble with custard and he devoured it! We're also currently eating the leftovers as a porridge topper as i'm typing this. So here is the recipe! I hope you enjoy it as much as us, let me know what you think.

The key to this recipe is to use bananas that are yellow with very little green on their skins. If you use overly ripe bananas, they'll just turn to mush in the oven.

This recipe will serve 2-3 people.

Ingredients

Topping

32g light brown sugar
56g cold unsalted butter
32g plain flour
64g of oats (I like Mornflake Scottish Jumbo Oats)

Filling

28g unsalted butter
64g light brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
A good squeeze of fresh orange juice
4-6 bananas - add as many or as little as you like, whatever you've got hanging around! Cut them into 1 inch chunks
Pinch of salt

Method

1. Heat the oven to 170c fan.

2. Mix all of the topping ingredients together, use your fingers to rub the cold butter into the mixture. Cover and place in the fridge. Also place your 1 inch chunks of banana into a bowl and place them in the fridge.

3. For the filling, melt the butter in a pan and add in the sugar, cinnamon and salt. When it turns into a brown sludge, add in your orange juice. Adding the juice might make the sauce sizzle and spit but don't worry!

4. Add in the banana chunks, toss to coat. Be careful not to break them up.

5. Spread the banana mixture into an oven safe dish and sprinkle your crumble topping over the top.

6. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the top of the crumble is a golden brown. Serve with custard or vanilla ice cream.


Sometimes, it's comforting to return to a simpler way of doing something. Bread is the perfect example. It's so convenient and easy to purchase a loaf of bread, but it's rare that we actually step back and think about the process of making such an ordinary food. To me, there is truly nothing better than the smell of freshly baked bread, served with a warming winter soup. It's really not as hard as you might think and actually, I believe the key is not to over think the art of making bread. In my experience, that's were things go wrong. So go on, roll up your sleeves and give it a go.

To make 1 loaf, you will need:

500g strong white bread flour
2 tsp of salt (I like to use pink Himalayan salt)
7g sachet of fast action yeast
3 tbsp of an oil of your choice (I used olive oil)
300ml of warm water from the tap

Method:

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl and then create a well in the middle of the mixture.

2. Add the oil and water to the well. Mix well and add an extra teaspoon of water if the dough is too stiff.

3. Place the mixture on a lightly floured service and gently knead for 5-10 minutes. This is the part where you need not to overthink, knead until the mixture is smooth and has come together well.

4. Place dough ball in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and place somewhere warm. Leave to rise for 1.5-2 hours.

5. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and place a dutch oven in to heat up.

6. When heated to temperature, remove the dutch oven - don't forget your oven gloves! Then place a sheet of baking paper on the inside of the dutch oven and then add in your dough. Cover and return to the oven for approximately 45 minutes. Do keep an eye on the bread as it nears the end of it's time in the oven, all ovens cook differently. Remove the lid from the dutch oven and continue to bake for an extra 5 minutes. Do not leave the oven, you need to watch your bread closely and take it out when it's the perfect golden colour.

7. Remove from oven and remove from dutch oven, then wrap in a clean tea towel for 20 minutes.

8. Slice and serve with a slather of butter and jam!

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