Sunday Cook | Lasagne

Lasagne is my ultimate comfort food. It was the meal I would always ask for on my birthday growing up and the meal that my mum would always make to welcome me home from Uni. Now, we all know that your own mother's cooking is the best. But! After a few years of trying to perfect my own lasagne recipe, I have to say I'm pretty proud of my version. (If you're reading I still love yours the most Mum, never fear!!)

I hold my hands up to the fact that lasagne is hardly a difficult dish to make, and I don't really have a "recipe" per say. But to be weirdly soppy about food, lasagne signifies home and its comforts to me. My housemate Joe has always said its my signature dish and he encouraged me to blog about it; so here we go!

Ingredients:

- 1 pack of 500g beef mince
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 pack of chestnut mushrooms
- 2 cartons of chopped tomatoes
- tomato puree
- handful dried mixed herbs
- bunch of fresh basil
- bunch of fresh baby spinach
- lasagne sheets
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- plain flour
- milk
- mature cheddar cheese (as much as you like - go crazy!!)

Method:

Firstly, finely chop the onion and two cloves of garlic. Heat some oil in a large frying pan, and add the onion and garlic leaving to soften. Then add the pack of beef mince, separating in the pan with a wooden spoon. Cook until the mince has browned.

Meanwhile, quarter the chestnut mushrooms and add them to the frying pan. Then stir in the cartons of chopped tomatoes, handful of dried herbs and roughly two tablespoons of tomato puree. Cover the pan and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Pre-heat the oven to 220C.

In a saucepan, melt the butter on a medium heat. Add a few tablespoonfuls of plain flour and cook until combined, stirring quickly so it doesn't burn. Add a few good glugs of milk, and whisk continuously. Continue to add flour and milk, whisking continuously until you have the desired quantity and thickness of sauce. This is pretty much up to you, it depends how gloopy you like your white sauce and how much of it you want!

You then need to recruit a sous chef (your boyfriend/girlfriend, sister, brother, mother, father, friend, pet..okay maybe not pet!) to grate a shit-load of cheese. Or just a little bit...it depends how cheesy you like it. In this house-hold however? We lovee the cheese. Then add this to your pan and whisk until combined.

You're now ready to assemble! Wahoo! Grab a large roasting dish and pour a third of the meat sauce in. Spread it out and then cover in a layer of lasgane sheets. Spread over a third of the cheese sauce and add a layer of baby spinach. Repeat this three times (or as many as you can!) adding more grated cheese to the top.

Pop your masterpiece into the oven for about 30 minutes or until bubbling, golden and delicious! ENJOY. Just not straight away as you may burn your mouth, and I will take no responsibility! You have been warned!! :)

So, I hope you like my rough recipe! Let me know if you try my version :)

Aimée
Xxxx

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Sunday Bake | A Healthy Biscuit?

Okay, so I may have slightly twisted the truth in calling this a healthy biscuit, but its definitely a lot healthier than most! This is the Anzac biscuit, which was originally made to send to the ANZAC's (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) serving in Gallipolli. Now its made to commemorate Anzac Day. Now, I say its healthier as it only has 125g of butter and has coconut and porridge oats to bulk it out. It's super tasty and sooo easy to make, so I thought I'd share it with you as a way to beat the January Blues without completely ruining your New Years diet!

Ingredients:
1 Cup Plain Flour (1 Cup = 225g)
1 Cup Porridge Oats
1 Cup Dessicated Coconut
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
125g Butter
2 tbs Golden Syrup
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Method:
Firstly, pre-heat the oven to 160 Degrees and line two baking sheets, or one large sheet with baking paper.

Then stir together the flour, porridge oats, dessicated coconut and brown sugar.

Next in a small saucepan melt together the butter, golden syrup and 2 tablespoons of water over a medium heat. Remove it from the heat once its all melted and add in the bicarbonate of soda, it will froth up quite a lot! Then put the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until it is all combined.

Then roll the mixture into small balls ( I made about 15) and place on the baking trays about 5cm apart. Flatten them slightly with a fork or the palm of your hand, then bake for 10 minutes until golden brown. They will be VERY soft when you take them out of the oven, but just leave them to cool on the baking tray and they will firm up.

Once they have cooled enough, you can either tuck in straight away or pop them in a box to save for later! I hope you like them! Let me know if you try the recipe :)

Aimée
Xxxx

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Bake Off's Back......ALRIGHT!

I do hope you enjoyed my Backstreet Boys inspired title ;) As you may have guessed, I am extremely happy that The Great British Bake Off is back on our screens! Its literally one of my favourite TV shows ever. Of all time. In the world. ....

To mark the occasion I thought I'd make some tasty treats to add to my viewing experience and I thought I'd share them with you :) I decided to make Salted Caramel Tuffles (from Edd Kimbers Say It With Cake) and Macadamia Nut Blondies (from Sainsburys Baking Recipe Collection). Annoyingly I forgot to take photos whilst making the truffles - to be honest it was a pretty intense experience! But here's how they ended up: 

I realise they look a little dishevelled - but hey, since when have truffles looked perfect? They were pretty easy to make, just super messy once you start creating the individual balls! But they're so yummy, so I recommend checking out Edd Kimber's recipe. 

When making the Macadamia Nut Blondies however, I did remember to document! So here we go :)

Ingredients wise you want:

125g Unsalted Butter * 400g Light Brown Soft Sugar * 2 Medium Eggs * 2tbp Vanilla Extract * 125g Plain Flour * 2tsp Baking Powder * 1/2tsp Salt * 80g Macadamia Nuts * 50g Desiccated Coconut * 100g White Chocolate (roughly chopped)

To start with, preheat your oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas Mark 4 and line a 36x24cm baking tray with parchment making sure the paper goes up the sides of the tray. Then you want to whisk together the butter and sugar. The recipe states that you should do this with an electric hand mixer, but if you're like me and had forgotten that you'd lent the mixer to your sister the week before, a normal hand whisk works fine too! 

Once you've killed your arm (if you whisked by hand!) add the eggs one at a time, whisking between each addition - then add the vanilla extract. 

Then add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix to combine until you have a smooth consistency. Finally add in the nuts, coconut and chocolate. 

Spread the mixture out in the tray as evenly as you can - if you have this ridiculously handy angled spatula it will literally be a doddle! Like seriously, this spatula is amazing - and sadly that's not the first time I've raved about it! 

Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate 180 degrees and continue to bake for another 10 minutes. Whilst this is happening, please take part in the most important part of baking - licking the bowl. Please do so to your hearts content, as really you're helping yourself on the washing up front! 

Once baked, it should look better than this picture above! I had a few issues with the baking tray I used, which had a dip all around the odd edge of my Blondie. I also accidentally poked a hole in it whilst it was still too hot - lesson learnt! You need to leave it in the tin till its completely cooled, and then according to the recipe chill in the fridge overnight before cutting into squares. I'm gonna level with you - I just ate a load of this (fatty!) and I only made it a few hours ago. It tasted amazinggg - so no biggie if you can't wait till morning! I'll report back if it tastes incredible tomorrow though! 

The Sainsburys recipe does also include the calories per serving - but I'll refrain from giving you that information for your sakes! Let me know if you attempt either recipe - or if you baked anything for the start of the Great British Bake Off! I'm sure I'll bake some more throughout the series which I'll post on here :)

Aimee

Xxxx

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Recipe | Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

 Way back in January, I posted about a handmade birthday box I made for my best friend, (check it out HERE) and I included some home-made Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. I promised to post the recipe on here, and its taken me till April to do so! I'm such a good blogger, clearly. But, seeing as its still hardly summer weather I think hot chocolate is still called for. :)

Firstly ingredients wise you need -

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
1/3 tablespoons sea salt
1 cup dry milk powder
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (I realise I used dark - I can't read okay..)
10oz dark chocolate

The recipe I used is American, hence the measurements being in cups but there are lots of conversion tables on the interweb. Or if you're lucky enough to have measuring cups like me, you're winning!

Firstly line a rimmed (very important!) baking tray with baking paper and set aside. Then you need to make the caramel, prepare for really pretty swirly colours and an amazing smell! Heat the sugar in a large pan over a medium heat, without stirring. Be patient with it and when the sugar begins to melt, slowly swirl the pan around to melt it without burning. Keep your eye on the pan, as it can burn in an instant! As soon as its melted to a deep amber colour remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the vanilla. It will spit, so wear an apron just in case! Whisk the caramel until smooth again and immediately pour onto the lined baking tray. You then leave it  to cool for around an hour and the hard part is over!

If you find that some caramel gets stuck to your pan, pour in some water and put it over a gentle heat. Once its warmed a little, the caramel should come off easily and melt in to the water meaning you can just pour it away and be left with a shiny pan. :)

Once its completely cooled, you need to snap it all into tiny pieces. I found the best way to do it was to jab at it with a knife - its quite a good stress reliever actually! You then need to turn a food processor on, and while running feed the caramel pieces in so they are ground into a fine powder. The food processor starts to ooze a caramel smoke at this point and makes a god awful racket, so you might want to warn anyone in the vicinity beforehand. Once its completely pulverised, it should look a bit like this:

You then need to add the rest of the ingredients, aside from the chocolate, to the food processor and whizz until smooth. Finally, add the chocolate to the mix and process until the mixture is a fine powder.

And, voila! You've made your own salted caramel hot chocolate powder! Which sounds mega impressive, but as you've just witnessed, is ridiculously easy! I hope you enjoy it :) The original recipe states to use three tablespoons mixed with milk - but I find that wayyy too much. So, I'd say its just up to personal preference. Also, side note - this recipe makes LOADS. Like LOADS. So make sure you have enough jars :)

Aimée
Xxxx

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Source: Adapted from Seeded At The Table.

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Baking | Cheesecake Brownies [Epic Nom.]

Well hello there!

On Friday I made one of my very favourite treats! Cheesecake Brownies; two of my favourite desserts combined! The ultimate indulgence :)

Heres how I made it, :);

First off, set the oven to Gas Mark 3 and cream the butter (250g, not the 251g that I seemed to have used ;)!) and sugar (420g) together.

Then add two eggs one at a time.

Then sift together the plain flour (380g), cocoa powder (60g), bicarbonate of soda (1tsp) and salt (1/2 tsp).

As appetising as it sounds, I always think it looks like gravelly dirt when its mixed together! Yum! Anyway, once it is combined, mix it with the batter in two batches.

Until it looks like this, and you struggle not to just slam your face in the bowl and eat it there and then!

Wrap about a quarter of the dough in clingfilm and put it in the fridge, then press the remaining dough into a lined tray and put into the fridge for 20-30 minutes. You should use baking paper to line the tray, but because I'm very organised and always think ahead un-organised, I didn't check if I had any! So I had to use foil instead, it does work okay, but you need to grease it well to make sure the brownie doesn't stick, and it does speed up the cooking process slightly.

Now we've got to the best part! Licking the bowl and spoon! :D This always brings back memories of baking with my mum as a kid! It was my favourite part :)

After you've eaten as much brownie dough as you can manage, take the chilled tray out of the fridge and pop it in the oven for 20-25 minutes and then leave to cool.

Now onto the cheesecake topping! :) Firstly, you need to melt White chocolate (80g) and then leave to cool slightly.

Then mix together cream cheese (300g) and  icing sugar (60g) until smooth, then add one egg, and finally the melted chocolate. Spread this mixture on top of the brownie base.

Then crumble the leftover dough from the fridge over the top and put this back in the oven for around 25 minutes or until the cheesecake is set.

And voila! Leave the cheesecake brownie to cool and then set in the fridge and you are done and dusted to enjoy the yummiest treat ever! :)

The recipe was taken from the brilliant Hummingbird Bakery cookbook which you can peruse here. :)

I hope you enjoyed the baking adventure, and if any of you try out the recipe be sure to send me a picture! :)

Bye for now!

Aimée
Xxxx

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