Summer Bake

It's Saturday morning, I sitting at my desk with a list as long my arm. But I don't mind as I have had a very busy but productive week. There have been lots of play days with my 3 year old and the weather has been so kind this week, we have managed to get out every day and meet with friends to play outside and make the most of the holidays.

I have limited childcare in the holidays as I want don't want to miss out on this important part of our lives, the downside to this means I end up working every evening until my bedtime and of course Saturday mornings. But now that I'm in the full swing of things I am finding that actually it's working pretty well and my days feel completely fulfilled.

I had a lovely suprise yesterday when my good friend Quirky Boots  sent me a text message to say that my new carrier bag holders had been featured on the not on the high street.com facebook page they are still there and have 115 likes!! So if you have a spare minute please take a look.

As it's the weekend I thought I would share with you a recipe that I made this week, it's an old favourite, it uses up the glut of tomatoes and courgettes that are available at this time of year. Whether you have grown your own or are taking advantage of the in season offers at the supermarket this dish is perfect accompaniment to a summer bbq or as a main dish with some nice crusty bread.

I made it in a big dish that I bought from a recent vintage fair for £1.00!!! Bargainous!

Courgette and Tomato Layer Bake

What you need:

2 x large (or four small) courgettes sliced thinly
2 x large (or 1 beef) tomatoes sliced thinly
1 x onion chopped or sliced
1 x red pepper chopped or sliced

olive oil (drizzle)
oregano and basil
garlic (crushed)

50g parmesan or any strong cheese (grated)
handful bread crumbs (optional)
 
What to do:
1. Fry the onion and pepper in some olive oil for 5-10mins until softened, over a gentle heat. After about 8 minutes add the garlic.

2. Put the fried ingredients in the bottom of the dish and layer the courgette and tomato slices in a round, following the edge of the dish. I had so many for this dish that I did two layers, it wokred fine, just needed a little extra cooking time.

3. Drizzle with olive oil and scatter with oregano and fresh basil.

4. Bake in a medium oven for about 30mins, once it all looks cooked cover the top with the cheese and breadcrumbs and bake for another 5 mins.

5. Tuck in!!

Day 37: Homemade Daily Challenge, Toad in the Hole

My heritage is partly from Yorkshire and all the ladies in my family can make awesome Yorkshire Puddings. This skill has always escaped me. No matter what I do, I end up with soggy pudding or burnt pudding. Never the light, crisp, well risen delights that my Mother seems to be able to make in her sleep! In theory it should be easy, get a pan nice and hot with a little oil, pour in some pancake mixture and put it back into a hot oven. But I have always avoided making a Sunday Roast through the shame that is my lack of yorkshire pudding skillage.

Last month I went to a Pampered Chef  party where the host said we were going to make fool-proof yorkies that would rise out of the dish and were easy peasy to make using the baking stoneware. Of course I didn't believe a word.

She added 1 cup plain flour, 1 cup milk and 4 eggs* to a bowl and whisked. Whilst the oven came to a roaring furnace (it's got to be hot I've been told).  Spray some oil into the stoneware. Pour the batter into the dish or dishes to about half way up and put in the oven. To my amazement about 20 minutes later she removed from the oven a dozen, huge, golden brown, crisp, fluffy puddings. I had to buy a dish just to see for myself!!

Two weeks later my dish arrived this weekend I had a bash at making a Toad in the Hole. I first baked the sausages for about 12 minutes in the dish as I then didn't need to add any extra oil, while I prepared the batter (same recipe as above) I poured it into the dish and put back in to over for 20mins on a high setting and then another 5 mins on a lower setting, that bits not an exact science as all ovens are different.

This is what I pulled out of the oven after said 25 minutes:

 

Unfortunately in my eagerness to fill my belly I forgot to take a side view so you could see how well it rose but it stood up from the dish by about 3 inches!! We were all very impressed and got stuck in with veggies and gravy. It was so simple and completely worked even for a first attempt. Although I am not sure my granny would approve of using American stoneware when if I had any actual skill I could make them in her old baking tin!! 

*In my original post I said 2 eggs you actually need 4 for a good rise!!

Day 19: Homemade Daily Challenge

Baking day

For years I was a stranger to baking, but since becoming a Mum I have baked considerably more (which wouldn't be difficult as I didn't bake at all prior to motherhood). I don't know really why I have decided I like to bake now when I always bought cakes previously, is it a maternal instinct thing kicking in? Or it could just be that homebaking (even if like me you are a little bit rubbish at it) always tastes fantastic. It's also a pretty cheap way to entertain your toddler for about an hour and you get to eat the fruits of your labour at the end. 

So we have just baked these cookies, and they are very yummilicious, dead easy to make if you don't have all the ingredients I think you could easily substitute the brown sugar for all white, I used half butter half Stork margarine.

The recipe was adapted from this book which can be bought at amazon


The Recipe: (makes 12)

125g softened butter
75g white sugar
75g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g self raising flour
100g sugar coated chocolates (I used Smarties)

1. Preheat oven to 190C/375FGas 5. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
2. Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, beat in the egg and vanilla.
3. Sift in flour and beat into mix. Add Smarties.
4. Drop rounded tablespoons of mixture onto baking sheet, spaced well apart as they will double in size whilst in the oven.
5. Bake until golden 8-10 minutes.
6. Cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes and transfer to cooling racks

They are particularly delicious if you eat them still warm with ice cream as the chocolate is crunchy and gooey.  The recipe states they are best eaten on the day they are made (who am I to argue).

We packaged some up for Eva's granny (who she calls Ninny).