Tag: Day

February 16, 2015

Flat as a pancake

Sorry, what’s that? IT’S PANCAKE DAY TOMORROW? Or maybe if you read this on a Tuesday it’s pancake day today. Or maybe if you’re reading this in a few months time pancake day is nowhere nearby, and if that’s the case there’s nothing stopping you from making pancakes anyway. Especially when they taste THIS good.

I don’t think there can ever be enough pancakes, so I bring you not one, not two, but three recipes this week. And with three recipes comes three gifs. I know, I spoil you.

My fellow Europeans will have to excuse me for edging towards the North American style of pancake (you can add more flavours this way, but I assure you I’m still a die hard fan of our traditional flat friends). Those of you across the pond will also have to excuse me for not adding sugar and melted butter and all that nonsense to the mix.

These are a hybrid, somewhere half way between. Maybe this is what happens in Iceland or Greenland, who knows?

Enough ramble. LET’S. GET. FLIPPING.

Who am I kidding? I’m far too anxious to flip them.

You will need

Apple, maple and bacon pancakes

1 cup Plain flour

1 cup Full fat milk

1 Apple

1 Egg

1 tsp Baking powder

Bacon and maple syrup to serve (adjust to your own preference)

White chocolate and raspberry pancakes

1 cup Plain flour

1 cup Full fat milk

1 cup Raspberries

1 Egg

1 tsp Baking powder

100g/3.5 oz White chocolate

50g/1.5 oz Dark chocolate to serve

Banana and blueberry buttermilk almond pancakes

1 cup Plain flour

1 tub Buttermilk (284ml)

1 Egg

1 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Almond extract

2 Bananas

1/2 cup Blueberries

More blueberries, some natural yoghurt and honey to serve

NB: The process is the same for all three recipes, however, the banana ones use buttermilk instead of regular milk. This makes a much thicker, goopier mixture.

All the recipes make 6-8 pancakes depending on their size.

Apple, maple and bacon pancakes

Step one

Whisk together the flour and baking powder and make a well in the middle for the egg.

The way to make smooth pancakes is to whisk little circles to gradually include the flour. Slowly add the milk a third at a time and continue making circles until all the flour is mixed in.

Step two

Grate the apple until you get to the core and add to the pancake batter.

Step three

Using a tablespoon or so of vegetable oil, fry the pancakes until you start to see lots of little bubbles on the surface.

FLIP FLIP FLIP.

Step four

If you’re wanting bacon with this (and unless you’re a vegetarian, you are wanting bacon) then you’ll want to have that grilling or frying off at the same time.

Right. One down, two to go.

White chocolate and raspberry pancakes

Step one

Refer to step one of apple, maple and bacon recipe.

Step two

Chop the white chocolate into smallish chunks.

Step three

Stir the raspberries and chocolate into the batter. I squashed a few of them with the back of the spoon.

Step four

Cook em off.

You will find this mix a little runnier than the last one from a combo of the raspberry juice and the melting white chocolate.

Step five

Put the dark chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave and melt gradually, 20-30 seconds at a time.

Step six

Stack them, cover in dark chocolate, enjoy.

Banana and blueberry buttermilk almond pancakes

Step one

Repeat the usual step one, you’re a pro by now. This time the buttermilk rather than the milk will make a thicker texture. Don’t forget to include the almond extract.

Step two

Spoon a pancake into the pan and place slices of banana and some blueberries onto the surface. Push them down a little so they don’t fall out when you flip them.

Step three

Pour some honey and natural yoghurt on top.

Eat until you can’t move.

February 12, 2014

Last minute lolly

When making the maple truffles I ended up with a decent amount of left over chocolate from the dipping stage. So I decided to create another little Valentine’s treat. There’s still time to dash to the shop and whip one up tomorrow evening for a yummy treat that’s more heartfelt than hallmark.

This is a little bit of a cheat post (hence the mid-weekness of it all). I’m afraid there are no photographs of the stages, just the final product. But all is not lost…I do go through making homemade chocolate lollies here.

To create the heart shape you just need to create two circles next to each other and then sort of pipe down and drag to make the point. More info can be found on the Christmas Lollies post (link above). Once the outside is touch dry you can melt a couple of squares of white chocolate and drizzle over the top. Feel free to experiment with different decorations, types of chocolate, or just chuck a load of sweets on top while it’s still drying. You might even want to try piping a message to your beloved?

Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week, see you on Monday!

February 11, 2014

Truffles – The making of the bag

So, I missed Monday blog day. Apologies, but there was some urgent badge making to see to, for a very special nearly 8 year old who’s mum was tearing her hair out looking for an 8th birthday pin. Katie and her dusty old badge-it to the rescue.

Now to business…I know you spent your weekend making those lovely truffles and need something to gift them in. Here’s how to make a little bag. I warn you, it’s not really the industry approved method (I’ll do a tutorial for that another time) but it does the trick and is super quick and easy.

Step one

Choose your paper, I’m a sucker for a bit of brown parcel paper, but as long as it’s relatively thick you’re good to go with whatever takes your fancy.

Find a box whose dimensions match the rough size and shape you want your bag to be.

Cut paper to size as if you are wrapping a gift, but leave a little extra on the long side so you have some to fold down to close the bag.

Step two

Wrap the long side first. Fold over the edge that will appear on top so that it’s nice and neat and stick down with glue or double sided tape.

Step three

I don’t really want to patronise you and tell you how to wrap a parcel particularly when the above isn’t even the best. But wrap the bottom of the box, but make sure you leave the other end open!

Step four

Pull box out of the wrapping so you have the basic bag shape. You can go ahead and use it now (see I told you it was quick and easy) but I prefer to make it look a bit more authentic.

Pinch the edges to make crisper folds.

Step five

This step was a little difficult to photograph, but basically you want to create a fold in the centre of the long side. Put your index finger in between your two folds and use your thumb and middle finger to sort of pinch it together.

Step six

Fold the bottom under as shown above. This will give you the little triangular type bits, and also means that you can make a few and store them flat until you need them.

Step eight

Unfold, and fill with yummy truffles.

(note triangle bit I was talking about above – I’m not mad)

Step nine

For Valentine’s day decoration I used a wooden BBQ skewer. Chop with a pair of garden clippers to about the width of the bag.

Step ten

Use a bit of washi tape to create the feather of cupid’s arrow. Stick a bit on both sides and trim as above.

Step eleven

Fold down the opening of the bag and cut two slits through all layers of paper. Push arrow through to secure.

Step twelve

Use washi tape to make an arrowhead and secure to the end.

Step thirteen

Stick a heart over the centre.

In all honesty I am not a huge fan of this, but I think it’s probably partly because the woods don’t match. You could cut one out of coloured paper or card if you don’t have a little wooden heart in your supplies. Just make sure you don’t do what I did; hold it up first to see if you like the look of it rather than sticking it on and wishing you hadn’t.

Voila!

February 3, 2014

Sweeties for my sweetie

Valentine’s Day is the marmite of all the celebrations; people seem to either love it or hate it (I’m actually fairly in the middle on the whole thing, much like my relationship to marmite). The US tends to go mad for Valentine’s*…but let’s be fair, they’re a lot more chipper about everything than the rest of the world anyway. We Brits stay true to form, far more cynical, but with the inherent sense of obligation that both forces us to celebrate something, and then resent the enjoyment we get from it.

Chocolates are a typical Val Day gift, but they tend to lack the personal touch that well, let’s face it, is the fault of the whole shebang. I figure if you’re going to do it, do it right, make your own.

Whatever continent you live on, and whatever occasion you’re celebrating this February, here’s another recipe fresh from my kitchen. Great for gifting or gorging on, I present milk chocolate truffles with a hint of salty maple goodness.

* source: Pinterest…which is a completely accurate representation of American life.

You will need:

500g Milk chocolate

75ml Evaporated milk

50ml Double cream

1 to 1 and a half tbsp Maple syrup

2 tsp Salted butter

Pinch of table salt

Rock salt to decorate

Makes 20-30 truffles

Step one

Chop 250g of the chocolate finely, and place in a bowl. The more you chop the easier the cream will melt it. Use a bread/serrated knife for this…you can thank me later…I just changed your life.

Step two

Put the cream, evaporated milk, maple syrup, a pinch of salt, and the 2 tsp of butter in a small pan.

Don’t put more than a tablespoon and a half of maple syrup in your truffle filling – whilst tasting delicious it won’t set up, ergo it won’t be easy to cover in chocolate (yes, I did find out the hard way, but I’m kind enough to give you recipe 2.0).

Place on a low heat and bring to the boil, stir regularly. Leave that heat on low, I mean it! Patience is the way to go with cream, it’s the hormonal teenager of the baking world (volatile and breaks down easily).

Step three

Once the cream starts to bubble, take off the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Stir quickly with a hand whisk until all the chocolate is melted and it’s thick and glossy.

Step four

Wait.

Step five

Once your truffle mix is holding its shape (pull the whisk out and dribble it around, if it’s not merging back into one clump then it’s good to go) put into a piping bag/good quality sandwich bag. If you’re impatient then stick it in the fridge or freezer to help it along (but don’t forget about it – you don’t want it to be un pipe-able)

Snip off the corner and pipe into evenly sized blobs. Don’t worry if they are a bit misshapen, this is just to ensure evenly sized truffles more than anything. My mix wasn’t quite solid enough when I did it above (this is partly because it was the too-much-maple batch) so wait a while longer than that.

Leave for another 15-20 minutes.

Step six

Roll truffles into balls. You will need cold hands for this, I found washing them in cold water a few times throughout helped. You might need to give them a little squash first so that they roll (you’ll understand when you get there).

Step seven

Melt the remaining chocolate (keep about 50g back for a moment). You want to put it in a fairly small bowl so it’s nice and deep for dunking.

Do this in a microwave, but watch it closely, it turns in seconds. Pop it in for 30 seconds to start it off and then 10 second intervals, stirring in between.

Once it’s fully melted put the remaining 50g in and allow the heat from the rest of the chocolate to melt that too. This will help to temper it making the texture and shine better in the end product.

Step eight

Find something to dip with. You can buy fancy tools for this but I happened to have a metal kebab skewer with a whirly bit on the end. If you don’t, then snap the middle two prongs off a plastic fork.

Step nine

Dip.

I’ve tried to show the stages above, but essentially: 1. Tilt bowl and put truffle on dipper 2. Drop into melted chocolate 3. Lift out using dipper 4. Flip over and drop back in to coat the other side 5. Lift out and allow excess chocolate to drip off.

Don’t tap dipper on the side of the bowl, or your truffle will get stuck onto it. If you are overwhelmed by the urge to tap, then sort of thwack it on the melted chocolate, sounds counter productive but it does work.

Step ten

Dip all the truffles and rest on greaseproof paper in rows, leave to set for 10 minutes or so before decorating.

Step eleven

Put excess melted chocolate into a piping/sandwich bag and snip a small opening in the bottom. Allow the chocolate to start pouring from the bag and move your hand back and forth over the rows of chocolate. This creates the stripey bits on the top. There’s no need to squeeze really, it will pour out of the bag at the right speed.

Don’t worry about the bits that fall down the middle, you can put them on top of your ice cream. Nothing wasted when it comes to chocolate.

Step twelve

Put a little bit of rock salt on the top of each truffle. Don’t overdo this or it will be unpleasant, but a little salt is actually really nice with sweet or caramelly things like maple syrup and chocolate.

Step thirteen

Leave them to set. Have a little taste. Go on. You’ve got a few to spare. They’ll never know. Unless of course you write a blog about it, and then never actually produce any of the chocolates (sorry boyfriend).

Oh, and I made a little baggy…

Step fourteen

Stay tuned to fabrefaction for the making of the bag, and the using up of the left over dipping chocolate.

Until next time friends!