Recipe of the week - Easy Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

 

 

For our Valentines Day breakfast this year I wanted to try something a bit different. I really, really fancied some Cinnamon Rolls and so searched around for a good straightforward recipe. There are quite a few available online and this is one that I have adapted from some of those that I found.

 

I wanted the dough to be made in the breadmaker. Paul Hollywood would not approve, I'm sure, but then he doesn't have five children to fit in around his bread making! Besides, the lovely Mary Berry is often heard recommending time saving gadgets so I know she wouldn't mind.

 

I also wanted to make up the rolls up to the point of cooking them the night before, so that all I had to do in the morning was pop the uncooked rolls into the oven for 15 minutes and then we could enjoy them fresh and warm from the oven.

 

I'm pleased to say that my technique worked and on Valentine's morning we did indeed have fresh warm Cinnamon Rolls. Those boys who couldn't eat them had our usual weekend breakfast of pancakes so there were no complaints from them.

 

The cinnamon rolls were so good that I may or may not have eaten one (perhaps two) for my lunch on Valentine's Day too. Let's just say that I'm glad that I'm still nursing a little 16 month old so as to justify those extra calories!

 

I really can't recommend these enough.

 

For the dough you will need:

1 cup warm milk

2 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup butter, melted

4 1/2 cups strong white flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup white sugar

2 1/2 tsps dried yeast

 

For the cinnamon filling you will need:

A little more butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

 

For the glaze you will need:

2oz icing sugar

enough water to make up into a drizzable icing

 

- Put the milk, eggs, melted butter, flour, salt, white sugar & yeast into the bread machine, select the 'dough' setting and start it working.

 

- When the cycle is finished, turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll out into a rectangle about 1-2cm thick. Spread the extra butter over the dough, as thick as you would if you were having some bread and butter.

- Mix the cinnamon and brown sugar and then spread it evenly all over your buttered dough.

- Roll the dough up like a Swiss roll, starting with the longer side.

- Cut the rolled up dough into about 12 even slices and place them in a greased, rectangular baking dish. Leave a little space between each roll as they will end up touching when they have their second rise.

- Cover with cling film and leave overnight. (Alternatively you could leave them to rise for about 30 minutes and then bake.)

- In the morning, preheat the oven to 180C, remove the cling film and bake the rolls for around 15 minutes until lovely and brown.

- While the rolls are cooking, make up a thickish icing .

- Remove the rolls from the oven and then drizzle with the icing.

- Enjoy as a lazy weekend breakfast.

 

 

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Christmas Biscuits

One of our Christmas traditions is baking Christmas biscuits together.

 

A couple of days ago I had this as the activity in David and Ally's advent activity calendar.

 

Because Ally can't handle anything with raw egg in it I made up a batch of these easy biscuits from Allergy Adventures blog. We adapted them slightly by leaving out the lemon and adding a teaspoon of mixed spice instead.

 

 

 

 

Because there was no egg in them Ally was able to do all the rolling and cutting by himself, and what a great job he did of them too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although he is the only boy with no allergies, David still made a free from biscuit so that everyone could eat them. He used my usual Christmas Biscuit recipe, which you can find here. The boys with egg allergies, as I've mentioned before, are fine to eat egg in biscuits and cakes. They just can't handle raw egg or eat egg on its own. We made these without the stained glass middle bits but we are planning on making a batch of the stained glass ones for the tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David took his job very seriously and can't wait to make another batch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two batches of biscuits were made on Monday.

 

It's now Wednesday and there is nothing in that tin but crumbs!

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Make it Monday - Homemade Mincemeat

At the weekend I got a proper start on my festive baking.

I've already made a few batches of mince pies since the beginning of November using shop bought mincemeat, but it's not until I make up a batch of the homemade stuff that I feel like my Christmas baking has begun.

Why bother making your own mincemeat though? 

Isn't it one more thing to add to the list of things needing done for Christmas?

Well, I don't think so. I'm not suggesting there is anything wrong with ready made mincemeat. Or that there is something superwoman and domestic goddess-y about making your own. I just think this tastes nicer, and feels more homely. And it is so straightforward and easy to make that it isn't burdensome at all.

With all our food allergies it is always good to make something at home too, as you know exactly what you are eating.

The fabulously Christmassy smell as it cooks is an added bonus. A smell so good that it will even get the teenager in your house out of bed earlier than usual on a Saturday morning to see what is cooking!

I first came across a homemade mincemeat recipe in Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess and my recipe is one that I have adapted from hers over the years.

You will need:

250g brown sugar

250ml orange juice 

1kg cooking apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

500g mixed dried fruit

100g glace cherries, washed and roughly chopped

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 lemon - grated rind of it and the juice of half of it

3-4 tablespoons port (optional)

~Put the sugar and orange juice in a pan and heat gently until the sugar is dissolved.

~Add everything else except for the port and let it bubble away on a medium to low heat for around 30 minutes. It should look all soft and mushy when it is ready.

~Let it cool for a little while and then, if you are adding it, add the port and stir it in.

~Put into clean, sterilised jars.

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The return of Bake it like Berry

 

 

A little over a year ago I set myself the challenge of baking my way through Mary Berry's Baking Bible.

 

Only a couple of weeks after I started it I discovered I was expecting Fraser. And then the pregnancy sickness hit me! Even just the thought of cakes made me feel ill for all 9 months and so I only baked the essentials - the usual free from bakes for Calum and Alasdair.

 

I had to stop scrolling through my Pinterest feed, usually filled with lots of inspiration for yummy cakes, as even looking at cake made me feel sick!

 

I didn't want to forever associate the Baking Bible with how horrible I felt and so I postponed my challenge.

 

Those of you who followed my pregnancy updates will remember how out of character I felt by this dislike of sweet things. It wasn't new to me though, as in each pregnancy I have felt the same.

 

Now that Fraser is 6 months old, and in some sort of a routine, I'm ready to take on the challenge again. I should also add that he was more than worth every moment of that sickness.

 

So, here's what I tried out this week....

 

Firstly, some Double Chocolate Cookies.

 

These were so, so easy to make. They were so good that James (14) made up a second batch a couple of days after I had made the first.

 

 

 

Secondly was this Lemon Swiss Roll.

 

 

The recipe is actually the same as the one I use for our Jam Rolly Polly (recipe in the recipes tab above) but with some lemon zest added. I told Calum (11) that I was going to make this and asked if he wanted it made free from, as Jam Rolly Polly is one of his favourites, but he wasn't too keen on the idea of lemon! So I didn't.

 

It was a really lovely and light cake.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally I made some simple Griddle Scones.

 

 

Each weekend we have pancakes for breakfast and I always my granny's griddle for them but it was scones just like these that my granny used to make all the time.

 

 

 

Again, another simple recipe. These could easily be rustled up quickly for a last minute visitor and don't even need an egg in them.

 

They were especially good warm from the griddle and reminded me of summers at my granny's when she would bake endless batches of scones on the old stove. All that was missing was granny's homemade Rhubarb Jam!

 

 

So that's the roundup for this week. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of the kitchen this coming week!

 

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Christmas Recipes - Chocolate Yule Log {Gluten Free & Dairy Free}

 

I've made a chocolate log to have as one of our puddings on Christmas Day every year since I was in 2nd or 3rd year at high school. We learned how to make one in home economics that year and then I made another for Christmas Day. After that it just became the tradition that I would make a chocolate log each Christmas. It wouldn't seem like Christmas dinner without one now!

 

This recipe isn't the one I used way back as a 14 year old (I'm not even going to try and work out how long ago that was!) but is the recipe we use to make one of Calum's favourite cakes - Jam Roly Poly - adapted to make it chocolatey. The step by step photos in this post were taken whilst making the jam version so just imagine that they are chocolate coloured!

 

If you want to make this with 'normal' ingredients it will work fine, just use plain flour rather than self raising. The reason I use self raising in my gluten free version is simply because I prefer the texture it gives over the gluten free plain flour. The plain flour gives a much drier texture, making this too hard to roll.

With wheat flour though you won't have to worry about this, and making it with self raising flour will make too fat a cake, again trickier to roll.

You will need:

4 eggs

4oz sugar

4oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

1oz cocoa powder

Some extra sugar for sprinkling

Dairy free chocolate buttercream for filling (or cream if you aren't dairy free)

~Using the whisk attachment on your free standing mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together well until they look really light and creamy.

~While this is mixing you can prepare your Swiss roll tray. Grease it lightly and line with baking parchment/grease proof paper.

~When your eggs and sugar are ready gently fold in the flour and vanilla. Try not to mix it too much or you will flatten the lovely air bubbles you have just beaten in.

~Bake at 200C for about 12-15 minutes only. It is important not to overbake. If you do the cake will be too dry and rolling it won't be so successful!

~The cake is ready when it is lightly golden.

~While the cake is baking, prepare a sheet of baking parchment/grease proof paper slightly larger than the baking tray. Sprinkle it all over with your extra sugar.

~When you take the cake out of the oven, carefully but quickly tip it upside down onto the prepared parchment and sugar. Peel off the baking parchment that was on your cake in the oven.

~Now cover with a clean, damp tea towel and leave to cool down.

~When your cake has cooled, spread your chosen filling all over the cake. Then, starting at one of the short sides, roll up the cake. You can use the baking parchment to help you push and roll.

Because gluten free cakes tend to be a bit more crumbly I don't try to spread any chocolate buttercream over the log like I used to when baking with wheat flour. If you are using wheat flour then do go ahead and cover the log in icing and finish off the decoration with fork markings to make it look like a proper piece of wood!

 

I think the little cracks in the cake make it look quite wood-like anyway, and we just finish our decor off with a good sprinkling of icing sugar snow. And, as you can see in the top photo, last year Calum (11) made a cute little Robin out of sugar paste as a final flourish!

 

 

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Christmas Recipes - Stained Glass Biscuits/Christmas Biscuits

 

I first posted this recipe two years ago but there is no harm in repeating it again as it is, I think, a lovely wee tradition. We also use this recipe, minus the stained glass part, to make up simple Christmas biscuits. We don't bother with any fancy decorating on them, just a sprinkling of icing sugar, as you will see from the photo at the bottom of the post.

 

The recipe I use is adapted from a Nigella Christmas biscuit recipe.

 

To make wheat & dairy free Christmas biscuits you will need:

10oz Doves Farm Wheat Free Self Raising Flour

2tsp mixed spice

1tsp ground cinnamon

3 oz dairy free margarine

3 oz light brown sugar

2tbsp runny honey

1-2 beaten eggs

~Put the flour and spice in a food processor and blitz until mixed.

~Add the butter, then blitz, then add the sugar and blitz again.

~Now add the honey, blitz it in, and slowly add the eggs.. You probably won't need all of the eggs, but you might, so go slowly here, stopping the blitzing when everything comes together as a dough.

~Now roll out your biscuit dough on a floured surface and cut out your shapes then place on greased baking trays.

~Once on the trays cut out a shape in the centre and place a boiled sweet in this centre.

~If your sweet is too big for the hole in the biscuit, just crush it up a little with a pestle and mortar and fill the hole with chunks of sweetie instead.

~You will also need to make little holes at the top of each shape you plan to hang on the tree. Use a skewer or cocktail stick for this.

~Bake at 180C for around 15-20 minutes, after which your biscuits will be golden and the sweets will have melted and filled up the middle.

~Leave to cool on the trays as the stained glass centre will be hot, hot, hot!

~Once cooled you can thread them and hang them up. If you find that the hole has closed up a little in cooking, thread a needle and sew the string through it. Works perfectly!

They look so pretty hanging on the tree with the fairy lights shining behind them.

 

 

And the non-stained glass version.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Christmas Recipes - Easy Peppermint Bark

It appears to be December already.

 

I mean, the calendars and Advent Calendars are all telling me that it is, but what I want to know is, what happened to November?! I mean, where did it go to so fast? Did anyone else find it flying by or was it just that we were so busy loving on our new little man?

 

Anyway, December is indeed here, and boys both big and small are getting excited for all the festive fun that it brings with it.

 

I've always thought that the run up to the big day of Christmas is just as exciting as the day itself and am so pleased to see the boys thinking the same way. As I was baking some mince pies the other night James told me that Christmas was his favourite time of year, not because of the presents, but because of all the traditions we have. And not fancy traditions either but simple ones. Like mince pies, making decorations, our Jesse tree devotions, getting together with friends and family, and some more Christmas baking!

 

So, since I think Christmas baking is such a comforting, homely tradition I thought I would celebrate the first week of Advent by sharing some of our favourite recipes each day this week.

 

Today's recipe is a super easy one to start with. Even someone who never bakes could rustle this one up no problem. I have now delegated this one to James (13) and he has been making at least two batches of it a week since the beginning of November. The reason for him having to make so much is that it is just so simply delicious! Once you have one slice, well, you can't just have one slice! I should also say that I had never heard of Peppermint Bark until I saw this recipe on PaisleyJade's blog a few years ago so it is really her to thank. Or for your waistline to blame!

 

 

You will need:

400g milk chocolate

400g white chocolate

1-2tsp peppermint essence/flavouring

2 candy canes, crushed.

 

~ Melt the milk chocolate, spread evenly in a tray bake tin then leave to set.

~ Melt the white chocolate and then add the peppermint essence. How much you need really depends on the brand, some are more minty than others so it's probably best to add 1 tsp then check the taste before deciding if you need to add more or not.

~Spread the white chocolate over the milk chocolate and then sprinkle with the crushed candy canes.

~ Once it is all set cut into squares. If you cut smallish squares you can tell yourself that you can eat more slices since they are only small.

 

Now wasn't that easy?!

 

You could also make this up with Dairy free versions of the chocolate but we haven't been able to get hold of Dairy free white chocolate for a while now.

 

Oh, and before I finish up. Little Fraser is 6 weeks old today. He has been smiling for a wee while now but whenever I tried to capture it with the camera he would stop! I finally did today though, so here he is...

 

 

Just had to share that too :)

 

 

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Mary Berry's Baking Bible Challenge

This week I bought a book I have been after for quite a while. 

It's a cookbook, of course, written by perhaps the nation's most loved of cookery writers/presenters/judges - Mary Berry.

It's not just me that's a fan in this house, the older 3 boys all love watching the Great British Bakeoff. I am not allowed to watch an episode without them here, and this last couple of weeks they have really enjoyed watching the documentary The Mary Berry Story.

So, I decided to set myself a wee challenge.

Since, you know, looking after a household of four boys and a hard-working husband just isn't enough to do really.

Seriously though, this isn't a tricky challenge, and one that everyone will benefit from.

I decided that since Mary Berry is the Queen of home baking, I would try and bake my way through her Baking Bible. 

That's a fun challenge, right?

Some of the recipes I will adapt to be allergy free, others I will do as written. I have only come across one recipe on my quick flick through that is quite nutty, and I may just give that one a miss. Given the number of nut allergies in the house I don't really like to cook with them any more!

We have already made a start, and the boys have been willing helpers. Calum (10) made the flapjacks entirely on his own. We used dairy free margarine and added dairy-free chocolate chips (the chocolate chips were one of Mary's alternatives to the basic recipe) and they were a hit!

James (13) helped me make some profiteroles for pudding another day.

We served these with our own chocolate sauce recipe (equal quantities of chocolate and cream, melted in a pan). They didn't last long!

I'm hoping to get a recipe or two from the book baked every week, and then I will share the photos of the results (which, judging by the first two we have tried look to be super yummy) on here.

I need a little help from my lovely readers though.

Can anyone think of a catchy name for my challenge?

I'm thinking that the Mary Berry Baking Bible Challenge doesn't exactly roll off the tongue!

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Cookbooks

Did I mention that I got some new cookbooks for my birthday?

I did? Several times?

Well, ok, yes I did. These are the books....

I do love a good cookbook, reading through it and taking notes about what I want to make next.

The bottom left book is where I got the inspiration for last week's Recipe of the Week (see here if you missed it)

With the top book in the photo, I think I might just start at the beginning and try out every single recipe. They all look so good! It's all about breads, which is something I'm not so used to making. My homemade bread comes courtesy of the bread maker - sacrilege to Mr Hollywood, I fear! Using his fine book though, I feel sure to conquer the challenge. It's full of step by step guides, plenty of photos and loads of advice.

I've not been the only one enjoying the books. The birthday boy, a huge British Bakeoff fan, loves looking through them.

This is how I found him the other day.....

Unfortunately, I don't think there is any way I can adapt those two breads he is looking at to make them gluten and dairy free so that he can try them!

 

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Make It Monday - On A Tuesday

Better late than never is a philosophy I rather like!

For today's Make It I would like to hand over to my littlest man who was busy icing some cupcakes this week.

All by himself.

There was a fair amount of 'one spoonful for the cake, one spoonful for me' going on but the cakes were just for ourselves anyway!

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