Festive Gingerbread Biscuits!

So its Pre-Christmas weekend and I had my friend Eva staying with me and we decided it would be fun and festive to bake some Gingerbread men/ biscuits!

They were so tasty, and fun to decorate! My giant gingerbread woman ended up looking more like a man though hehehe! The recipe is below! 

Gingerbread biscuit recipe: 

(Its meant to make 20 big men but we made about 60 medium sized biscuits!)

-350g Plain Flour

-1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

-2 tsp ground ginger

-1 tsp ground cinnamon

-125g soft butter

-175g soft light brown sugar

-1 egg

-4 tbsp golden syrup

-Icing sugar and decorations

How to make:

-Sift flour, bicarb, ginger and cinnamon together and pour in to a food processor. Add the butter and whizz until it looks like breadcrumbs. Then add the sugar and whizz again.

-Beat the egg and golden syrup together and add to the food processor and pulse until it comes together.

-Take the dough out, knead slightly into a ball and wrap in cling film. Then leave it to cool in the fridge for about 15 mins or longer.

-Preheat the oven to 180c. Then roll out the dough and cut out your biscuits in to your desired shapes! 

-Place on to a greased baking tray and bake for about 8-10 minutes, but keep an eye on them as they burn quickly!

-Leave them to cool on a wire rack and then decorate them how you like!

Operation gingerbread men!

Our gingerbread family and biscuits ready to go in to the oven!

I was so excited to use smarties to decorate the biscuits as I havent eaten them in years and I absolutely love them!

Our mass of baked gingerbread! 

(note: many had already been eaten at this point!)

And here were our finished biscuits once we had decorated them and eaten half of the decorations!

Then that evening I went over to my best friend's house which feels like my second home hehehe!! And I had some wonderful Champagne to kick off the Christmas celebrations!

Merry Christmas!! 

Pre-Christmas Pheasant!

Hello, so it is very nearly Christmas.. about 5 days to go now! Very exciting!

We had my godfather over for lunch and I made 2 very tasty roast Pheasants! The recipe was courtesy of BBC food website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roast_pheasant_with_18760

Here is our little Christmas tree at home, with some homemade decorations that I made for it!

So heres the recipe for the Roast Pheasant with Celeriac and Bacon!

Recipe: Serves 4 generously 

Pheasant and roast vegetables:

-2 Pheasants

-Olive oil

-4 rashers of streaky bacon

-2 Bay leaves

-1 leek, chopped

-1 onion, chopped

-1 carrot, chopped

-250g Mushrooms (about 6!), chopped

-4 garlic cloves, smooshed

Recipe for the Celeriac and Bacon:

-1 whole celeriac, cubed 

-8 rashers of streaky Bacon, chopped

-1 leek, chopped

-Half a bottle of Cider

-200ml of chicken stock

-100ml of cream

How to make:

-Preheat the oven to 200c

-First prep the pheasants, put a little butter inside each of them and then place 2 rashers of streaky bacon and a bay leaf on top of each one. Sprinkle with a fair amount of olive oil and seasoning. 

-Place all of the chopped veg in to a deep sided baking tray and then place the pheasants on top of them.

-Pop this in to the oven and roast for about 45/50 minutes

-Whilst the pheasants are roasting then make the celeriac and bacon!

-Fry the streaky bacon in a heavy based frying pan until crispy and then add the  celeriac and leek. And cook these for about 8 minutes.

-Then add the half bottle of cider and reduce it by half. Then add the chicken stock and reduce that by half as well. 

-Add the cream and season generously with salt and pepper. Let this all cook together for a little longer and then serve with the pheasant!

-Carve your pheasant, or just cut each in half and let your guests do the hard work! Then enjoy! YUM! :) 

Here are the 2 pheasants on top of the vegetables waiting to go in to the oven!

I also made some yummy roast potatoes! These I made my slitting the potatoes down to nearly the bottom and then I smothered them in oilve oil, rosemary and salt! They were so good!

And of course I also did some Brussel Sprouts.. because secretly I love them!

This is the celeriac and leek, all chopped and ready to be cooked!

Here is the celeriac, bacon, leek, cider and stock simmering away!

Here is the finished roast Pheasants and celeriac and bacon! The celeriac was wonderfully creamy, and it went really well with the crispy pheasant and potoatoes! I highly reccomend this recipe if you can get hold of some pheasants, if you cant then im sure it would work really well with a chicken as well!

Mince Pies...as it's almost December!

I know it's not even December yet but I had a huge urge to make some Mince Pies today! Its cold outside and definitely beginning to feel a little bit Christmassy! I have to admit that these are cheats Mince Pies (as I didn't make the pastry or mince meat.. oopsie!) but they still taste amazing and I will make some proper ones in the run up to Christmas!

The recipe: (made 10 but I only used 1/3rd of the pack)

-Jus-roll Sweet shortcrust pastry packet

-Mince meat (I used Waitrose Cranberry and Port)

-Milk, for glazing

To make:

-Grease a baking tin with butter and preheat the oven to 180c

-Roll out the pastry until it is quite thin (as it makes nice crisp pastry), and then use a large round cutter to cut out the base of the pie

-Spoon in a heaped teaspoon of the mince meat in to each, but dont put too much as it will bubble over when baked

-Then roll out the leftover pastry and with a heart or star cutter, cut out the lid and place on top.

-With a pastry brush, brush over a little milk on the lids and edges, then bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, but keep an eye on them as they turn very quickly! 

-Then sprinkle with some icing sugar and enjoy whilst still warm! YUM!

Above are the things you will need to make the Mince Pies! 

And below are the pies ready to go in the oven! 

Yummy, fresh Mince Pies out of the oven!

Almond, Rosemary and Fig savoury biscuits!

I haven't done any baking for a while, so I decided it was time! I found this recipe for rosemary and fig biscuits (but really they are more like crackers), but instead of using normal flour, they use Almond flour/ground Almonds. This means that they are high in protein which is good :)

The Recipe: (makes about 25 biscuits)

-1 1/2 Cups of Almond flour

-1/2 teaspoon of rock salt

-1 tsp Rosemary, finely chopped

-4 dried figs, finely chopped

-1 egg

-1 tbsp Olive oil

To make:

-In a mixing bowl, stir together the almond flour, salt, rosemary and dried figs. Then add the egg and olive oil.

-Stir the mix until combined. 

-Roll out the mix inbetween 2 pieces of baking paper, so that you can get it nice and thin (about 1/8 inch thick), then cut in to sqaures with a knife or pizza cutter.

-Then bake on about 150c, for 8-10mins (but keep an eye on them as they brown quickly) until lightly browned on top and bottom.

-Enjoy!

Chopping the Figs and Rosemary, and below the dry ingredients on the left and then adding of the wet on the right!

This is what the mix looks like once combined, then below is the mixture having been rolled out!

Above is the mixture once it has been cut in to shapes (you can make up ones from little bits of mix). Then below are the biscuits ready to go in the oven!

And these are the finished biscuits cooling on a wire rack! Yum!

Halloween Weekend at Home!

This weekend I came back from university and spent the Halloween weekend at home! I went to Whole foods in South Kensington in London on Friday and bought this Spelt Penne pasta to try! It looked really good as apparently it is gluten free and wholegrain which I like. I had them in a mozzarella, pesto, tomato and basil pasta bake which was delicious! The pasta was had a nutty flavour which I really liked- I highly recommend them! And I wasn't left feeling horribly bloated after eating them as well!

Whilst at home I also tucked in to the christmas crisps that are out already!! I absolutely LOVE Cheeselets! They are amazing - my all time favourite cracker/crisp thing! If you havent already tried them, then you need to, you dont know what your missing!

Heres a photo of my pre-dinner snack of Rose Champange and a bowl of Cheeselets, Twiglets and smoked almonds (also another love of mine!!) in front of the fire reading magazines- perfect!!

Marshmallow Rice Crispy Squares!

As this week is Halloween, I decided to do a bit of baking! (even though this recipe doesn't actually involve the oven!) I love rice crispy squares, and I wanted to decorate them with a bit of melted chocolate on top!

The recipe: (makes about 6 sqaures)

-6 cups of rice crispies

-1 large bag of marshmallows (about 10oz)

-2 tbsp butter

-100g milk chocolate (or white/dark)

-Sprinkles for decorating

To make:

-First of all line a deep baking tray with baking paper and butter/oil it

-Then melt the butter in a large pan and add the marshmallows and cook over a medium heat until they have melted together

-Then tip in the rice crispies and stir until they are all coated and tip out in to the baking tray and squash it in to the corners and smooth the top with the back of a spoon

-Melt the chocolate in the microwave or over a bowl of heated water and drizzle over the rice crispies, and decorate with some sprinkles, or whatever you fancy!

-Leave to cool in the fridge for about an hour and then cut in to sqaures!

Above are the rice crispies in the baking tray before drizzling with chocolate!

Here is the finished product! Yummy yummy rice crispy sqaures! 

mmmmm

Chilli Con Carne!

So I spent this weekend at home and I like to cook wholesome and warm food when I'm back! I decided to make chilli con carne for my parents and I and it was so tasty!

It is pretty easy to make and includes chorizo which adds to the flavour! 

The Recipe: (serves 4)

-1lb of Beef mince

-Half a red onion, chopped

-1 clove of garlic, chopped

-1 stick of celery, chopped

-Half a large chorizo/ 6 mini chorizos

-1 can of Chopped tomatoes

-1 can of mixed beans in water (drained)

-1/2 can of water

-1 Tbsp tomato paste

-1/2 tsp Cumin

-1/2 tsp Chilli flakes

-1/2 tsp dried Coriander 

To make:

-First of all, cut the chorizos in to pieces and fry them in a deep pan until they give out some of their orange oil. Then add the Beef mince and cook until browned. Add the chopped onion, garlic and celery and cook for about 2 mins. 

-Add the spices, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, drained beans, and then half  fill the empty tomato can with water and add.

-Give it a good stir to combine and bring to the boil, then turn the heat right down and simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes. 

-After 20 minutes it should have reduced and be quite thick. So then serve it up with rice, lentils or just on its own with some grated cheese!

Above is the first stage, where the mine, chorizo and vegetables are cooking.

Above is the chilli before it had been left to cook for 20 mins

And here is the Chilli ready to eat with some lime and coriander rice!

It tastes so good!! : )

Pumpkins and Snog!

So its that time of the year again.. Halloween!! I find it so exciting, carving pumpkins and baking halloween treats! Below is my pumpkin that I carved at the weekend! I wanted to try something different this year, I think it looks quite scarey! 

Below is Sarah's pumpkin that she carved- I love the starry eyes! 

Also this weekend I met up with Eva and Sarah in London and we had another dinner date at Itsu Sushi, then on to Snog after! We also got ourselves some Ben's Cookies to have, but I'm afraid I ate them before I remembered to take a photo! I had peanut butter and triple chocolate flavour! So yummy.

Below are Eva and my Snog's! 

Chicken and Fennel Ragu!

So, this recipe was recommended to me by Eva, and it was very yummy indeed! I cooked it last night for my Aunt, my Dad and I, the original recipe says to add new potatoes to the ragu but instead I roasted them separately for some crispiness! But this was another really warming winter meal, and I had forgotten how much I like fennel! 

(Below is the ragu before adding the tomatoes and stock) 

The recipe: (serves 4 people, generously)

- 1 large fennel bulb

- 1 Banana shallot, sliced

- 1 garlic clove, chopped

- 1 red pepper (I used half yellow and half red)

- 3 large Chicken breasts, diced in to large chunks

- 1 x 400g can of chopped tomatoes

- 150ml chicken or vegetable stock

- 1 tsp chili flakes

- 1 tsp paprika

To make:

-Half, then quarter the fennel bulb and then cut in to large slices, then cut the pepper in to long strips. 

-Heat some oil in a large, deep frying pan, and add the chicken to colour. Then add the onions, peppers, garlic and fennel and cook for a further 5 mins, moving it around to cook evenly

-Add the chopped tomatoes, stock, paprika and chili flakes and bring the ragu to the boil. 

-Then cover the pan with a lid and turn the heat down to its lowest and leave to lightly simmer for about 20 minutes. Make sure to stir occasionally

-Then serve with anything you like, I served ours with roast potatoes and some brocoli! 

Below is the finished Chicken and Fennel ragu! 

Thanks to Eva for passing on the recipe!