American Style Pancakes

I made a last minute decision to make some American Style Pancakes for a brunch we were hosting. I couldn't find a recipe in my cookbooks - it seems the only Barefoot Contessa cookbook that I don't own is the one with a recipe for this. I ended up turning to good old google and scrolled to find Jamie Oliver's recipe as I find that his or BBC Good Food's recipes rarely let you down. A quick look at the recipe for the ingredients, it looked simple enough so off I went to make it.

Delicious Chocolate Brownies

Recently, I searched high and low for a chocolate brownie recipe that would cater for both a nut and gluten allergy. I couldn't find something (they all either had nuts or 'normal' flour) so I adapted a recipe from BBC Good Food - see their recipe here.

The Best Cookies!

Everyone loves cookies right?! We here at Yummy Yummerson adore them; not only because of how delicious they can be but also because they are so easy to make and you can get really creative with your fillings!

Carrot Cake Mini Cupcakes

This is my go to recipe if I need to bake for a nice occasion such as a christening or birthday party. They are nice and small (even though a little bit more work) but make nearly 90 mini cupcakes and therefore feed a lot of people. Guests rave about them and also complain that they are on a diet while slipping the 5th one into their mouth whole. It's great!

Cookies Cookies Cookies

Everyone loves cookies right?! We here at Yummy Yummerson adore them; not only because of how delicious they can be but also because they are so easy to make. Two hours and you can have 40 huge cookies. They're perfect for a party - or a Friday night in on your own - am I right?! We adapted this recipe from other cookie recipes we had used previously, and it works wonders! What is great about it is that it works well with so many different fillings!

Okay so the basic cookie recipe (chocolate chip) is as follows. Note that you can half the quantity if you don't such a large amount.

Ingredients:
500g Plain Flour, sieved.
1 tsp Baking Soda.
1 tsp Salt
340g Real Butter, melted.
400g Soft Brown Sugar (Preferably Dark, but either will do)
200g Caster Sugar
2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract 
2 Eggs
2 Egg Yolks
600g of Chocolate Chips.

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (fan oven)
2. Line baking trays with parchment paper
3. In one bowl; add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix together.
4. In another bowl; mix together both sugars and the melted butter until incorporated.
5. Add in the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
6. Add in your chocolate chips and mix again until evenly dispersed.
7. Scoop 2 tbsps of dough out of the bowl, and roll into a ball with your hands. Place on the baking tray. Continue to do this until all your dough is used. Space each ball about 3 inches away from the next.
8. Bake in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are starting to brown.

Note: The cookie will be soft when it first comes out of the oven. Once it cools, it will begin to harden. This could take a few minutes. Once they are hardened slightly, you can move them onto the wire rack to finish cooling.


The alternative recipe is to use different fillings. So where-ever you see 'Chocolate Chips' above - you can change this to whatever you want. Yes- WHATEVER you want. Now don't complain if you put broccoli in and they don't taste so good. I'm talking about the good stuff - M&Ms, Smarties etc. 

Some flavours we have gone with previously that have worked a treat:
- White Chocolate & Cranberry (Split 50/50)
- Milk Chocolate & Cinnamon (550g chocolate, 3 tbsp cinnamon)
- Smarties/M&Ms
- Dime (Chopped)

Why not give it a try! This is where you can get creative, so go wild! 

Raisin Scones

I was asked to bake some scones for a charity bake sale and I decided to try a new recipe. I fell to the safe bet - Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. I only recently watched her make these scones on her TV show (Food Network) and they looked delicious. To accompany the scones, I made Raspberry Butter and whipped some cream. The scones turned out great; light and fluffy and golden all over.

                      

The recipe I used can be found here. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/raisin-scones-recipe.html

Notes about this recipe:

1. Use 1 tsp of salt instead of 2.

2. Heavy cream = Double Cream.

3. I used a round cutter that was 3 inches wide- you don't have to use the square cutter here.

3. Recipes makes 14-16.

4. Bake in fan oven at 180 degrees for 18 minutes.

If you are unsure if your scones are done, just cut one open and look inside to see if they need a few minutes more. This is also a great excuse to eat the scone, because you can't serve a cut up scone to someone, right?!

Once you are happy that your scones are cooked, place them on a wire rack and allow them to cool.

Along with this I also whipped together 1/4lb of Kerrygold butter with 1/3 cup (about 2-3 heaped tbsp) of good raspberry jam and a pinch of salt to make the Raspberry Butter.

With the raspberry butter, I suppose you are just cutting out the "extra hassle" (I put that in quotations, because it's NOT an extra hassle) of having to spread butter AND jam onto your scone, but together they make a lovely creamy and sweet topping for your scone.

I also used the leftover cream I had and whipped this up to serve with the scones. 

I found a tray and covered it in a nice linen tea towel, and placed the scones inside. This can then be served with the butter and cream in their jars.

                   

Homemade Pizza

Ingredients:

For the base: 
7g sachet active dried yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
175ml warm water
1 tbsp olive oil
260g of flour - with extra for kneading and rolling.
1/2 tsp salt

For the sauce:
1 Jar of Passata
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Basil
1 tsp salt

Method:

1. For the sauce - Mix passata, oil, oregano, salt and basil in a bowl. Cover and let it sit for an hour. 
2. For base - Sieve flour and salt into a bowl, and create a well in the middle.
3. Pour yeast, sugar and water into jug, stir a bit and let it sit for 10 minutes in a warm place (or until a bit frothy).- then stir in Olive Oil.
4. Pour the yeast mixture into the well of the dry ingredients and with your fingers pull in the flour and salt mix until a dough is formed.
5. Flour the counter top, and knead the dough on it for 5 minutes.
6. Oil a bowl and put the ball of dough into it, and cover with a damp tea-towel for 45 mins. Place it in a warm place for best results. The dough should be double its original size.
7. Punch the dough down and knead again. Return to the bowl for another 10 minutes, covered with the towel again.
8. Take as much dough as you need and roll it out on a floured surface to form the pizza base.
9. Place the base onto baking parchment on a tray and apply the sauce.
10. Then add Mozzarella and any other toppings you want. 
11. Drizzle a bit of olive oil and some oregano on top!
12. Cook at 180 degrees for about 7 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and golden.