The Curious Case of the Toddler and the Flap Jacks!!

So Easter has once more come and gone and we still have heaps of chocolate to get through! My eldest loves dark chocolate so i managed to persuade him to part with half a bar to jazz up our usual flapjack recipe, in fact not much persuasion was required as he loves flapjacks as does the three year old who insists on calling them Jack Blacks! 

We were having a very calm day last Tuesday, plenty of playing and not much fighting, its usually the other way around so i decided to spend a quiet hour in the kitchen baking while the baby was sleeping.  Dinner was on, flapjacks in the oven and i was even having a lovely cup of fresh coffee when i heard the crying and then toddler appeared with blood streaming down his face!!!  Sods blooming law, knew the day had been going too well!  Quick tweet with picture of injury to @21stsafety (benefits of being friends with a paramedic!) brought the conclusion that a hospital visit was in order.  Toddler and I headed to Mullingar A & E where after five hours of waiting he was glued and paper stitched almost back to new.  I am thinking of hiring him out to hospital waiting rooms for a fee as he managed to keep entire waiting room amused while we were waiting and he also managed to eat his way through a bag of fruit and two "black jacks" which reassured me that his injury was minor!

Anyway back to the flapjack recipe, could not be easier! Comes from an old Odlums cookbook which am sure was held in the same regard as the bible in most of our homes growing up!

Ingredients

• 6oz porridge oatflakes
• 20z light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 3oz butter
• Melted dark choc (optional)

Place the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan and stir till butter has melted.
Add the porridge and stir to combine.
Transfer to a brownie tin which is well greased.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Mark into fingers while warm.
Allow to become cold in tin before removing.
Drizzle melted chocolate over the top.

Ta da, black jacks!

What can be more chocolatey than a #chocalong??

I adore chocolate, dark, milk, white, flavoured, chunky or smooth, it doesn't matter! When I read about the chocalong I thought, what a great excuse to combine two of my favourite things, baking and chocolate!! Continuing my fascination with all things tarty (no smart comments please!) I decided to do a Chocolate and Raspberry Tart, full of delicious high fat ingredients but i tend to focus on the high antioxidant levels of the dark chocolate, sure its practically a health food. :-)

Chocolate and Raspberry Tart

1/2 a quantity of Jamie Olivers sweet shortcrust pastry (see Sweet Tooth post for recipe)

Filling

250g good dark chocolate
250ml cream, whipped
250g mascarpone cheese
2 egg whites, whipped till standing in peaks
Punnet of raspberries

• Line a tart tin with the pastry and cook blind for 20 minutes or until golden.
• Melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over boiling water then take off heat.
• Add cream and mascarpone and mix well before folding in egg whites.
• Pour chocolate mixture into cooled pastry case and arrange raspberries on top!
• Allow to set in fridge before slicing and serving with cream. Enjoy!!

At long last, a chance to write!!

Its been a month since i have had any time to write up a new post and for the next 90 minutes hubby dear is glued to the soccer so I don't feel obliged to have to make conversation!  Am now back in the land of the working mum and time is slipping away from me!! Am luckier than most though, have an evening job which only requires me for 20 hours a week and allows me to stay home with the kids during the day till hubby comes home to take over.  The working bit is definitely the easy bit, its hard going juggling a seven month old baby, an active three year old and a socialite eight year old!  Some evenings I await the arrival of my hubby home with the nervous excitement of our first dates but alas it is merely excitement that i am getting to leave the house and enter the world of adult conversation for a few hours!!  I work in one of the better known English supermarkets as a team leader, which basically means i do a little bit of everything and run around like a maniac trying to keep everyone pleased.  In a previous life I have worked as a property negotiator (back in the days when people actually bought houses) and an accounts assistant (when people actually had some money to worry about)! I never thought I would end up in the land of retail but lo and behold here I am and as happy as Larry, whoever he may be. I find it fascinating to watch people going about their daily business and have had some priceless moments with customers which i will bore you with along the way.  Thanks for reading and watch out for some more blogs tonight to include #chocalong and if I have the energy Tiramisu!



 

Delicious Carrot Cake thanks to @sophiemichell!

I have had such  a busy week which involved a wedding, a surprise 40th birthday party, St Patricks day and a joint 3rd/26th birthday party!  So hard to find the time to keep my blog updated but I  will always get around to posting my recipes eventually!
This carrot cake was so delicious that i made it two days in a row for two different parties.  I came across the recipe while watching @sophiemichell on Market Kitchen and it looked so scrumptious I had to try it.
The cinnamon syrup that goes with it is divine and although the cake is supermoist anyways the syrup adds another gooey dimension!

Ingredients

100gr sultanas
1 orange (juice only)
250ml sunflower oil
225gr muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
1 orange (zest only)
250gr carrots grated
225gr self raising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Pecan halves to decorate

Icing

150gr mascarpone cheese
1 orange (zest only)
1 1/2 tsp orange juice
50gr icing sugar

Cinnamon syrup

220gr sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cinnamon stick

• Preheat oven to 180c. Grease and line two sandwich tins.
• Put the sultanas and orange juice in a small pot and bring to a simmer, leave for few minutes so sultanas absorb most of the juice then set aside to cool.
• Whisk the oil and muscavado sugar together to combine then whisk in eggs one at a time.
• Stir in the orange zest, carrots and drained sultanas.
• Sift the flour, cinnamon, ginger and a large pinch of salt over the mixture and fold in.
• Divide mixture between the two tins and bake for 25 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
• Leave in tin for ten minutes before removing onto wire racks to cool.

For the icing

• Beat all the ingredients together until smooth.
• Sandwich the two cakes using one third of the mixture and spread remaining on top.
• Decorate with the pecans

For the cinnamon syrup

• Place all ingredients in a pot with 250ml of water and stir over low heat until sugar is melted.  Simmer gently until mixture thickens, set aside.

Drizzle over with cinnamon syrup just before slicing.  It was absolutely gorgeous, definitely going to be one that i bake over and over again! 

Nuts about Nuts!

After reading @EnglishMums blog all about the delicious food she had ate in Mexico i could not get the idea of peanuts in a dessert out of my head! Once again i turned to Rachel Allen and her lovely recipe for Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Blondies! These beauties are so easy to make and went down a treat after the savoury tart.

Ingredients

125g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g soft butter
150g crunchy peanut butter
175g light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
75g white chocolate, chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 170c
Butter a 8 x 8 inch cake tin
Sift flour and baking powder
In a large bowl cream the butter and peanut butter together till very soft
Add the sugar, egg and vanilla extract and beat.
Add the flour, baking powder and chopped chocolate to form a dough
Place dough in tin and bake for 25-30 min until firm in centre
Lick bowl clean, :-)
Allow to cool in tin before cutting into squares.


I served them with home made vanilla ice cream and there was silence at the table till we were all done!

Ladies (term used loosely) Who Lunch! :-)

Since moving to Offaly almost four years ago I am lucky to have met a lovely circle of friends who all have small kids like me and we love getting together during the week to have a chat, a moan or a laugh together! It was my turn to have lunch at my house this week and i love making new things for us to try.  One of my friends is a lifelong vegetarian so i always love coming across a tasty meat free recipe that we can all enjoy.  I love browsing through my cookbooks and i came across a lovely recipe for Spinach, Potato and Goats Cheese Tart in Rachel Allens 'Bake' so i thought i would give it a bash with a few modifications!  I tried her shortcrust pastry recipe but was not happy with the end result so i went back to my usual tried and trusted savoury pastry and it was delicious!

Shortcut Pastry (enough for 2 tarts so freeze half)

500g Plain flour
250g cubed butter
Good pinch of salt
2 large eggs (beaten)
Splash of milk

Rub flour and butter together to resemble breadcrumbs.
Add salt.
Add beaten eggs and splash of milk to bring dough together.
Pat into sausage shape and place in fridge for 30 mins.
Preheat oven to 180c.
Cut slivers of pastry to line removeable base tart tin.
Bake blind in oven for 20 mins.

Filling

250g baby spinach
7 baby new potatoes
4 eggs
250ml double cream
Salt & pepper
Zest of 1/2 lemon
150g goats cheese
Few sundried tomatoes

Cook the spinach in tiny drop of water until it wilts, drain in sieve and allow to cool slightly.
Boil potatoes until just done and allow to cool so you can slice them each into four.
Whisk the eggs and add the cream, salt, pepper and the lemon zest. Whisk briefly.
Add the spinach and mix through.
Spread the potatoes over tart base and dot with the goats cheese.
Pour over cream mixture.
Place sundried tomatoes on top.
Bake for 35-40 mins till set in centre.
Leave to cool in tin for 10 mins before serving.

I served this with mixed salad leaves and leftover sundried tomatoes and it was gorgeous!

Mammy Knows Best!!

When i was a child i always remember my mothers baking.  There were no fancy cakes or meringues but solid home cooking probably like the majority of other homes.  Apple tarts, fairy buns, fruit scones, victoria sponges, fruit soda bread were all regulars on the menu and of course the irish mammy special, brown bread!  My kids love buns and i have tried countless recipes but i always come back to my mams recipe because it is so easy and quick and only uses four ingredients, five if you want the chocolate version which is compulsory with my sons and husband! This is exactly the recipe you need if you dont want to go shopping specifically for ingredients as they are all store cupboard favourites.

Easy Chocolate Muffins (makes 18)

8 oz margarine
8 oz caster sugar
4 eggs
10 oz self raising flour
1 oz cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 180c.
Cream the margarine and sugar together then add one egg at a time and mix. 
Sieve flour and cocoa powder and mix lightly into wet mixture.
Spoon into muffin cases and bake in oven for 15/20 mins till skewer comes out clean.
Eat!