Blueberry Crumble Muffins

baking, brunch

So it’s the weekend, finally! It might not be morning, it might not be lunchtime, but it’s definitely time for these muffins. Bursting with fresh blueberries, wrapped with a cinnamon batter and topped with a spiced brown sugar crumble. These are where it’s at. Your loved ones will thank you big time. And your tastebuds!

Ingredients

For the crumble

  • 100g butter
  • 100g plain flour
  • 100g dark brown sugar
  • a pinch of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt

For the muffin mix

  • 350g self raising flour
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 15g baking powder
  • a pinch of salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 175ml milk
  • 115g melted butter
  • 1tsp ground cinnamon
  • 300g fresh blueberries

First things first, preheat your oven to 180C for a fan oven and 190C for a gas. Get all of your crumble ingredients into a bowl and rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs. When you’re done, tip the lot onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and make sure it’s all spread out evenly. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, stirring it with a fork after 10. When the crumble mix is done make a start on your muffins. Whisk all your wet ingredients in a large bowl, just give it a good mix to combine everything. Then sift in all of your dry ingredients, give it all a good stir, making sure you don’t over mix it. Throw in your blueberries, give it another stir for luck and you’re ready to spoon it into a muffin tray. Make sure you’ve lined it with paper cases, spoon in a dessert-spoonful of the muffin mixture, top with a teaspoon of the crumble mixture and bake for about 20 minutes. When they’re ready, get your mug of black coffee, glass of orange juice and your newspaper and your weekend is about to begin.

Easy Peasy Arancini

dinner, tapas

You’re gonna like this. I mean, REALLY like this. Arancini are delicious, hot, breaded balls of rice stuffed with things, sometimes tomato sauce, sometimes vegetables, this time mozzarella, which turns gooey and stringy when fried. All they are is risotto, cooled right down, rolled into a ball, breadcrumbed and deep fried. Serve these with a nice hot bowl of passata and you’re laughing. Definitely try these for a drinks and dinner party, they’ll go down a storm!

Ingredients

  • 250g arborio risotto rice
  • 1lt boiling water
  • 2 chicken stock cubes
  • 1 finely diced shallot
  • 1 tbsp pesto
  • 1pinch of cayenne pepper
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • a few sprigs of thyme
  • 1tsp oregano
  • 200g panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 pack of pizza mozzarella

Right, make sure your kettle is boiled, you’ll need boiling hot water for this, rice takes a lot longer to cook with cold water and you don’t want that, do you? Get a saucepan on the hob on a medium heat and stick a splash of olive oil in there. While that’s heating up, finely dice your shallot and sweat it off for a few minutes in the pan. When you’re satisfied it’s cooked, chuck in your rice and fry for a minute or two. Whilst that’s frying, in a jug, crush your stock cubes and top with boiling water. Give it a stir and pour about a third of the stock into the pan. Keep your eye on the rice and keep stirring until all the water has been absorbed. Add another third of the stock, do the same again and finally the rest until your rice is almost cooked all the way through. If you want a bit more of a bite to it, add less water at the end. When the rice is cooked to your liking, add the pesto, seasoning, thyme, oregano and cayenne. Stir it all up, pour into a baking tray and chill in the fridge till cool. While thats cooling, cut your mozzarella into cubes, get your breadcrumbs into a bowl and heat up your fryer or a pan of about 500ml oil to 170C. When the rice is cooled enough, pick up a handful about the same size as a golf ball, flatten it slightly, place a cube of cheese in the middle and bring all the edges up to form a seal. Roll it into a firm ball and roll in the breadcrumbs. When you’ve made a sufficient amount, carefully place them in the fryer and fry for about 6/7 minutes or until a beautiful golden brown. Eat them quick before they cool, better to have a burnt tongue but a mouthful of gooey mozzarella than a cool bite of meh.

Pizza à la Milla

dinner, pizza

After a crazily busy week with a new job and a new challenge, a day off meant chill food. So homemade pizza seemed to be a top answer. This one is a bit of a spin on my favourite, Fiorentina, which has spinach, eggs and plenty of mozzarella and parmesan on top. All I’ve done is substitute spinach for prosciutto, put a bit of oregano in the dough and away we go! Put whatever you want on your pizza, but this one does it for me.

Ingredients

  • 500g white bread flour
  • 100g semolina flour (you don’t need it but it does make your base nice and crispy)
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2tsp dried oregano
  • 1 sachet of dried instant yeast
  • 1tsp sugar
  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • 325ml lukewarm water
  • Whatever toppings you desire.

Let’s get to work on your dough. Do this in a warm room and you won’t have to wait as long for the first prove to be done. Start by measuring out your water and adding your yeast to it. Mix it and while your weighing out your other ingredients it should go all nice and frothy, like a badly poured pint. But that’s what we want, so don’t fret. Get your flours, salt, sugar and oregano in a mound on the work surface and make a well in the middle with your fist. When your water and yeast is frothy, pour your olive oil into it and begin adding it to your flour. Make a claw with your hand and move it in circular movements in the well whilst adding your water mix. This should incorporate everything well. When all the water’s been added, knead the dough for about 10 minutes until you can stretch a piece of it in your finger and see through it. This tells you all the gluten in the flour has been stretched out and will give you a gorgeous crumb structure when cooked. When your dough’s ready, place it in an oiled bowl with cling film over the top and stick it somewhere warm. The warmth will quicken the proving process, meaning you can eat it a whole lot sooner. When the dough has doubled in size, turn your oven on to about 200C for a gas and 190C for a fan. Now for the fun stuff. Roll out your dough into an rough circle, thick if you like it thick, thin if you like it crispy, like me. If you want to be a tosser (that is right term…..right?) then check out this guy. I’m not too great at it, I won’t lie. When your happy with the shape and thickness, start putting your toppings on. I started with an easy passata base, lots of pepper, prosciutto, chopped cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and an egg. When you’re done with yours, cook it for about 15 mins, check it at 12 and when you’re happy with the bake, grate over some fresh parmesan and stuff your face. Simples.

Nice and easy Battenberg

baking

Okay, I honestly swear on my trusty Kenwood mixer that you CAN do this. All it takes is a little bit of effort and splash of pink and yellow and voila! A caramelised geometric sponge your granny would be proud of! Must be served with tea, in a teapot, with a tea cosy. Must.

Ingredients

  • 300g golden caster sugar
  • 300g salted butter
  • 300g self raising flour
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla essence
  • a few drops of pink and yellow food colouring
  • 1 pack of golden marzipan
  • 6 tbsp apricot jam

Preheat your oven to 170C for a fan and 180C for a gas. Then in a mixing bowl cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add your eggs one by one with the vanilla essence. Sift in your flour and give it all a good mix until all incorporated. Now divide your mixture into two and colour one half with the yellow food colouring and the other with the pink food colouring. Line a rectangular tin with greaseproof paper and with a folded piece of foil, make a divide down the middle so the two mixtures don’t touch. Spoon the batters into the designated sides of the tin, smooth down the tops and bake for about 15-20 mins or until the spring back when prodded. When they are ready, leave to cool completely. When cool, level of the top with a bread knife if needs be, the batons must be completely equal all way round for the Battenberg to be perfect. When you’ve trimmed the tops, slice the sponges into roughly 1’’ thick strips. They need to be the same width as the depth, which ought to be about an inch. Next, in a saucepan, get your jam with about 100ml water on a medium heat to melt. You need to be able to paint to jam onto the sponge and marzipan with a brush, so the consistency needs to be quite runny. While thats melting, rub icing sugar over a clean surface and roll out the marzipan into a rectangle, the same length widthways as your batons, leaving plenty of room to roll around the sponge, mine was roughly 12’’ by 15’’. When your jam is ready, paint it over your rolled marzipan. Place one baton right at the top(the edge trimmed with a knife so it’s perfectly straight) and paint the inner edge with jam. Choose the other colour sponge and place tightly next to the first. Paint all the exposed sides with jam and place two more batons on top of the two existing, making sure to switch the colour in a chequer-board way. Paint the outer edges with jam and very carefully and tightly begin to roll the whole sponge towards yourself, covering all the sides with marzipan. When you get to the end, neatly trim off any excess marzipan, leave the sides loose, you’ll want those on for a neat finish. If you have a blowtorch, give the whole Battenberg a quick torch for a really tasty caramel finish. Then trim off your ends, eat them, and show everyone what you’ve made! Queen Victoria would be seriously amused right now.

Hot Pear, Honey and Cinnamon Sponge

dessert

Hot puddings have always been a proper British thing. In France you have tarts and pastries. In Italy it’s always a nice crème brûlée or panna cotta, a creamy dessert with a strong espresso. Well we have hot puds. With tea. Not necessarily pretty or complex, but damn good all the same. This sponge is warming and homey with the cinnamon, fruity and summery with the pear and sweet and moist with the honey. It’s a good’un.

Ingredients

  • 250g butter
  • 250g golden caster sugar
  • 250g self raising flour
  • 5 eggs
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 pears, peeled and sliced into quarters
  • honey, to drizzle over
  • demerera sugar to sprinkle over

First of all, preheat your oven to 170C for a fan oven and 180C for a gas. In a mixing bowl, beat together your butter and sugar until it’s pale and fluffy. Then slowly add in your eggs one by one; if it looks like the mix will curdle before adding them all, throw in your flour and cinnamon, then your remaining eggs. If it doesn’t curdle, first of all congratulations, then add in your flour and cinnamon last. Scoop it all into a baking tin, arrange your pear slices in whatever fashion you wish, drizzle over as much honey as you desire and finish with a final flourish of the demerera sugar. This will give you one hell of a sexy, crunchy top. Bake it in the oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until it springs back when you prod it. When it’s good to go, it’s only right to have it with a good spoonful of vanilla ice cream. Eat up, chaps!

Kick-Ass Coffee and Walnut Cake

baking

I don’t want to sound like a snob, but, oh who am I kidding? I don’t like eating coffee and walnut cake anywhere else if it’s not this one. Every bite is just a wave of dry, crumbly disappointment. This one is moist, walnutty, glorious! Don’t ever settle for anything less! YOU DESERVE THIS!

Ingredients

  • 75g toasted crushed walnuts
  • 250g self-raising flour
  • 250g butter
  • 250g dark brown soft sugar
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1tbsp diluted coffee

for the syrup

  • 2tbsp coffee granules
  • 2tbsp granulated sugar
  • 100ml boiling water

for the icing

  • 250g icing sugar
  • 2tbsp coffee granules
  • 50-100ml water (depending on how thick you like your icing)
  • toasted walnut halves

First things first preheat your oven to 170C for a fan and 180C for a gas. Next, bung your sugar and butter into a mixing bowl and beat til light and fluffy. Then add your flour, eggs, crushed walnuts and coffee. Mix til it’s all incorporated. Divide the mix into two cake tins, nicely greased and lined thank you very much. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a knife poked into it comes out clean. When they’re ready, give them lots of pokes all over with a fork and pour over your coffee syrup, this is why it’s gorgeously moist. While it’s cooling, make up your icing. Put your icing sugar into a large bowl and make a bit of a well in the middle. Dilute your coffee in the water and then gradually mix the two together. If you make it too runny, add more icing sugar, if you make it too thick, add more water. When the cakes are totally cool, pour ⅓ of the icing in the middle of one sponge and spread it to the edges. Put the second sponge on top, cover with the remaining icing, stud with walnuts and bask in the glory.

Proper Cabonara

dinner

This is the proper Italian way of making spaghetti Cabonara, with eggs, pancetta, fresh parsley and pecorino cheese. No cream. Never cream. You get the creaminess from the eggs and cheese. So the first time i made this I kinda ended up with scrambled egg pasta. It was grim, I won’t lie to you. But then i understood that you don’t need heat to cook the eggs, you just need the heat from the pasta and it does the trick a-okay.

Ingredients

  • enough spaghetti for you (or two)
  • 2 eggs
  • 150g diced pancetta
  • a handful of chopped parsley
  • 50g grated pecorino cheese (or parmesan)
  • salt and pepper
  • a knob of butter

Get your pasta on to boil and heat the knob of butter in a frying pan. When the butter has just melted, throw in the pancetta and cook until golden and sticky, this’ll take about 5 minutes. When the pancetta is done, turn off the heat and in a separate jug get your eggs, parsley, half the cheese and lots of salt and pepper whisked up. When the pasta is ready, drain it and get it straight into the frying pan, no heat remember! Pour over your egg mix, give it all a really good stir until the spaghetti is all coated. Portion it all up, sprinkle over the cheese and eat it!

Baby Focaccia 3 Ways

baking

I fancied good old carbonara tonight and there’s only one thing you should have with that. Focaccia. Now mine aren’t just any old focaccia loaves. Oh no. These baby’s are perfectly sized with sea salt and rosemary, tomato and pesto and goats cheese and balsamic vinegar drizzled on top. Try and get a hold of semolina flour(you can find it in most supermarkets) cause this is what will give you the beautiful holey structure, a signature of a good focaccia.

Ingredients

  • 400g strong white bread flour
  • 100g semolina flour
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1 sachet dried yeast
  • ½ tbsp caster sugar
  • 350ml lukewarm water
  • olive oil to grease the bowl

For the toppings

  • 50g crumbled goats cheese
  • salt and pepper
  • balsamic vinegar
  • a couple of cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1tbsp pesto
  • 1tbsp olive oil
  • sprigs of rosemary

Measure out your water, yeast and sugar into a jug and give it a mix. We want this to be frothy before we start with the kneading. Weigh your flours onto a surface (or into a mixer with a dough hook attachment) and make a well in the middle. If making by hand, gradually add your yeast mix to the well, mixing with your hand and making sure you don’t lose any. When you’ve added all the water, knead the mix for about 5-10 minutes until you have a smooth dough. If using a mixer, mix on a slow speed for about 7 minutes. Once you have a dough you’re happy with transfer it into a large greased bowl and cover the whole thing with cling film. Most recipes suggest a wet tea towel but I find the cling film keeps in all of the moisture and doesn’t dry the dough out when it is no longer wet. Put the bowl in a warm place (in the airing cupboard, by the fire or by a radiator) and leave for about 30 minutes until doubled in size. When it’s ready, carefully tip out of the bowl being very careful NOT to knock out any of the air. Portion the dough into enough rounds for your tin (i used a muffin tin) and shape them with your hands ready to pop in the moulds. When they’re in, push down each round with your finger, making little wells for your toppings. Give all of them a sprinkle of salt and pepper then get to work on your toppings. Push sprigs of rosemary into some rolls. Sprinkle crumbled goats cheese over others and place tomato halves on a couple more. Don’t put your vinegar or pesto on these yet, they burn easily. Preheat your oven to 220C for a fan oven and 230C for a gas. When your oven is heating, prove your bread for a second time, so cover with cling film lightly, not as tight as before and leave until slightly larger in size. When the temperature is right, pop your buns in the oven for about 10-12 minutes, until the tops and bottoms are golden brown. When they’re ready take them out of the moulds, drizzle balsamic vinegar oven your goats cheese buns and your pesto(mixed with the olive oil) spooned over the tomato buns, and violà!

French toast à la Milla

Breakfast, brunch

French toast can be a very versatile dish; have it savoury with poached eggs and bacon, with a fried egg, smoked paprika and chopped spring onions or like this, sweet with cinnamon and ice-cream! I used a fruit loaf for this but it’ll work just as well with a normal sliced white loaf.

Ingredients

  • 2 slices of sliced bread
  • 2 eggs
  • 50ml milk
  • 1tbsp golden caster sugar
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp grated nutmeg
  • a knob of butter for the pan
  • vanilla ice-cream

Mix together your eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg until they’re well incorporated. Place your bread flat in the egg mix, wait a minute of two for the egg mix to soak in, then turn oven and soak the other side. Have a frying pan heating on the hob, on a medium heat, and when it’s hot, chuck the butter in. When the butter has melted, carefully place your eggy bread in the pan and wait til it’s a golden brown. When it’s ready, turn over and cook the other side. Remove your toast from the pan, get it onto a plate and get your ice-cream on top pronto. If you want to be extra fancy, slice some strawberries on top. The perfect breakfast in bed.

Ginger, chilli and lime chicken with chimmichurri.

dinner

Okay, chimmichurri sounds like a weird voodoo  doctor’s chant but I assure you it’s anything but. It’s a beautifully sharp, garlicky sauce with hits of coriander and wholegrain mustard. A low fat sauce that goes very well with steak, but lends a tangy kick to this hot and sticky dish. It’s pretty fun to say, too!

Ingredients

  • 2 big breasts of chicken
  • 50ml chilli infused olive oil (post coming soon!)
  • 100g muscavado sugar
  • 3 chopped cloves of garlic
  • zest of 2 limes
  • 50g grated fresh ginger
  • a pinch of salt
  • a pinch of pepper

For the chimmichurri sauce

  • 100ml red wine vinegar
  • 50ml water
  • 100ml olive oil
  • 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
  • 2 cloves of garlic finely minced
  • half a red onion very finely chopped
  • a handful of chopped coriander
  • pinch of salt
  • pinch of pepper

First put all of your ingredients for the chicken in a large bowl and give it a good mix til everything is totally coated. Then get your oven onto about 140C Gas mark 2, were going to take this nice and slow and it’ll be you getting the rewards for your patience. Put the chicken into a deep-ish baking tray, cover with tin foil and cook for about 3-4 hours. While it’s cooking, make your chimmichurri. It’s easy, just whisk together all of your wet ingredients and then mix in the onion, garlic, coriander, salt and pepper. Easy! So after your chicken is ready to go, slice that baby up, get some babyleaf salad on your plate and spoon over that delicious chimmichurri. You’re good to go!