Its the time of year where party food is everywhere (and expensive) so I wanted to have a go at making my own! After flicking through a few recipe books for inspiration and only finding complicated extravagant looking options (I'd rather spend the time/ingredient money on making a whole meal or a pudding) I settled for some mini cheese and chive cakes in my go to book - '200 Cupcakes'. They looked quick, easy and all the ingredients needed where things I already had - perfect!
You will need:
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
50g mature cheddar cheese (finely grated)
4 tbsp snipped chives
50g lightly salted butter melted)
7 tbsp milk
1 egg (beaten)
Makes 20 (I halved the recipe and found it made 6 - luckily as I only have a 6 section non-mini muffin tray!)
1. Line 20 sections of 2 x 12 section mini muffin trays with mini paper cake cases.
2. Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
3. Stir in the cheese and chives until evenly melted.
4. Whisk together the melted butter, milk and egg with a fork in a jug and add to the bowl.
5. Stir well to form a thick paste.
6. Divide the mixture between the paper cases.
7. Bake in a preheated oven - 200C for 10-12 minutes or until risen and pale golden.
8. Transfer to a wire rack.
9. Serve warm or cold.
I don't think I would serve these as party food to anyone! Mainly because they were huge... I didn't have any mini muffin trays meaning the results are just big cheese muffins, basically worse versions of cheese scones! They were a bit on the bready side in the middle - again this could be due to their size, and definitely could have done with more cheese as they didn't have much flavour.
I would love to know if cakes made with a mini muffin tray would be any better...
This week I made an actual pizza from scratch! Yes even the dough... I don't have a recipe to share as the dough recipe was in a bread making manual and unless you have the exact same bread maker its not going to be very helpful!
Its all very easy apart from moulding the dough into the pizza base, the thinner the better. Kneading a ball of dough into a flat circle should be easy right? I couldn't get mine any bigger than a thick uneven rectangular shape (my boyfriend's one was an even thicker but much neater rectangle). Maybe I needed to throw it round in the air a bit like you see proper pizza makers do. Once you've got your pizza base its just a case of adding as many yummy toppings as possible (the best bit!)
You've got to be prepared time wise to make this though, after 40 minutes in the bread maker, 10 minutes struggling to make a pizza shape, 20 minutes rising, way too much time adding toppings and then 20 minutes baking you definitely have to plan ahead or get pretty hungry waiting (it was definitely worth the wait though!) It only actually requires 15-20 minutes of your actual time, the rest of the time its in the oven or bread maker.
So yes you can buy a pre made pizza, take it out its packet and leave it cooking for 15 minutes but this is so much tastier. The dough tastes so fresh and you don't have to be stingy with the toppings like bought ones usually are. You can buy 'empty' pizza bases to make your own pizza but they end up being a lot more expensive and whilst I did used to think these tasted good I don't think I would now I've had fresh.
If the base still tasted great when it was too thick (I thought it would ruin it and be all doughy) I bet if you could make one with a really thin base I bet it would taste amazing! Maybe next time! I definitely won't be buying a pizza again for a while...
I thought I was one of those people who thinks savoury and sweet should never ever be mixed together (I still won't have Sweet and Sour chicken based on this principle!) Salt and chocolate - why oh why would you ever do that? I thought this until I was in Barcelona and I tried a Salted Caramel Chocolate pudding one night (at Lonja de Tapas - I became slightly obsessed with this Tapas restaurant) and it was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. Look I even have a photo of it - it was that good!
So when I stumbled across this recipe for Salted Chocolate Tart I was very happy (tart isn't quite the gooey pudding in the photo I know). The recipe even tells you to buy a ready made pastry case - not going to say no to that! It is super easy and quick to make, creates a tiny amount of washing up, you can make it in advance for something (it needs at least 4 hours in the fridge to set anyway) and it doesn't require any extravagant ingredients you will only use once. It was perfect for the week I had (I made it before I was trading at a four day Christmas Market and the thought of getting home for a slice definitely kept me going through the 10 hour days). But the best thing is for something that requires a small amount of work it was still one of the best things I have ever made! You can spend hours following some complicated baking recipe, spend another hour clearing up and the end result is quite good but probably better if you had just bought it - this seriously chocolatey tart tasted much better than some of those kind of recipes ever did.
You will need:
170ml double cream
2 tbsp whole milk (I just used normal semi-skimmed)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
50g caster sugar
150g dark chocolate with sea salt (Lindt does one but I just used dark chocolate with a pinch of salt)
35g unsalted butter (cubed)
205g sweet pastry case
pinch sea salt to scatter (just try it!)
1. Warm the cream, milk, vanilla and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat, stir until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Bring to a simmer, take off the heat.
3. Stir in the chocolate and butter until melted.
4. Leave for 2 minutes.
5. Pour into the case.
6. Set in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.
7. Scatter with sea salt just before serving with some creme fraiche on the side if liked.
It also says to try spreading the base with caramel before pouring over the chocolate (definitely trying this next time!)
