Baking

Bubba and I went to LilliBop Festival last month. It was really fab!! We really hope that there will be another one next year.

Anyway, I decided to make some snacks that we could share with Lizzie and Baby Ivy... so when Sainsbury's sent me an e-mail as I'm in their baby club, I thought... hmmmm... the pasties looks nice and doesn't seem too difficult to make.

Ingredients:

200g young spinach leaf, chopped
1 courgette, grated
2 spring onions, finely sliced
100g ricotta cheese
50g edam cheese, grated
1tsp dried oregano
1 egg, beaten
500g shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten

> preheat oven at 180C or gas mark 4

> Put the spinach, courgette, spring onions, ricotta, edam, oregano and egg in a bowl and mix. Add a bit of freshly ground black pepper, if you like.

> I usually cut the shortcrust pastry block into nine little blocks and roll each at a time. Cut out a circle from each small block with a saucer.

> Pile the filling on to half of the circle and brush a little egg around the edge of the pastry, fold and crimp to seal the edge.

A couple of months ago when Nora started teething, I started thinking of teething biscuits. Nora was a bit tired of carrot sticks and needed a bit of food variety. At this point I prefer making things myself rather than buying because at least I know what goes into the food that I give my child. I am starting to buy biscuits here and there but I think I might as well stop because it's not that hard making them and most of the time preparing doesn't take more than 15 minutes; it's the baking that takes time.

Anyway, this is my first 'biscuit' I baked for Nora. And the best thing about it, I only use half of the loaf to make the bread sticks and the other half I keep so I can have a slice with my tea

Ingredients

1/8 cup molasses
1/2 cup corn oil
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (I usually mash 3 bananas)
1 3/4 cups flour
2tsp baking powder
1/2tsp baking soda
1/2tsp vanilla essence
a dash of ground cinammon

Instructions

Preheat oven at gas mark 4. Combine all the ingredients and mix well. If the molasses are a bit sticky, it might be a good idea to mix it first with egss and bananas to disolve it; or you don't have to include it because the banana is sweet enough.

Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan and put it in the middle of the over for an hour or the skewer is dry when you poke the middle of the loaf. Let it cool in the loaf pan for 10 minutes and then transfer it on to a wire rack to cool it down further.

Cut the loaf into sticks of your preferred size and lay them on a baking tray. Put it back in the oven at really low heat for more or less another hour. It all depends on how crunchy you want the bread sticks to be.

Voila! Bread sticks for the baby and a slice of cake for the mama. Isn't life perfect?

INGREDIENTS

55g dark chocolate
1tbsp brewed espresso
290g self-raising flour
1/4tsp salt
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
115g unsalted butter
250g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1tsp vanilla essence
3/4cup soured cream
1/3cup milk

• > Preheat oven at gas mark 4 (175C)
• > Melt the dark chocolate with the coffee in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Set aside.
• > In another bowl, sift the flour, salt and cinnamon together. Set aside.
• > In another bowl, cream the butter and gradually add sugar. Beat the mixture about 5 minutes until it's nice and fluffy.
• > Add 1 egg at a time to the butter mixture and continue beating.
• > Beat in vanilla extract and soured cream into the butter mixture.
• > Alternate at adding flour mixture and milk into the butter mixture, and mix well.
• > Pour half of the mixture into the bowl with the melted chocolate and stir.
• > Spoon in a couple of spoons of vanilla batter into the cake pan and alternate with a couple of spoons of chocolate batter.
• > When all the batter is in the cake pan, to have the marble effect, using the handle end of a spoon, gently swirl the batter. DO NOT OVER MIX.
• > Place the cake pan into the preheated oven for about an hour or until the skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the the cake.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
450g plain flour
200g sugar
1tbsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/4tsp grated nutmeg
115g butter
300g blueberries

• > Preheat oven on gas mark 4/175C
• > Mix milk and eggs
• > In a separate mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
• > Add butter to the flour mixture and used your hands to blend them together to form a mixture that looks like coarse crumbs.
• > Fold the blueberries to the flour mixture.
• > Add the milk mixture and stir until just combined, DO NOT over mix.
• > Line the muffin tin with paper muffin cups or if you don't have the paper cups, lightly butter the muffin tin.
• > Fill each cup half full and place in the oven for 25 minutes or skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
• > Place on wire rack to cool.
• > Makes 15-18 medium sized muffins.

INGREDIENTS

175g butter at room temprature
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
250g self-raising flour
200g glaced cherries
55g ground almonds
1 lemon zest
3tbsp milk

1. > Preheat oven at 175C (gas mark 4)
2. > Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. > Beat in one egg at a time, adding one tbsp of flour in between to stop the mixture from crudling.
4. > Fold in the remaining flour and add glaced cherries, ground almonds, lemon zest and milk.
5. > Pour the mixture into a cake pan and smooth the top.
6. > Put it in the middle of the oven and let it rise nicely until golden brown and the skewer pierced into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
7. > Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

yati's tip: I usually slice the cherries in half and mix it with the ground almonds before folding them into the mixture. This tends to stop the cherries from sinking to the bottom of the cake.