Carluccios Raspberry Meringue

Carluccio's is one of my favourite chain restaurants. The decor is beautiful and the food full of fresh italian flavours and lots of mozzarella! I also love the giant pile of raspberry and chocolate meringues they have in their window display, and bought one for dessert!

Here we shared one giant one between myself, my mum and Scott!

Ingredients:

1 large meringue ( or little ones, broken ones, whatever you like!)

red-current jam, or a jam of your choice

Pouring cream

fresh fruit/berries

Method:
Crumble your meringue into three bowls.
Drizzle with the cream. Spoon a few teaspoons of jam into each bowl, and finally sprinkle over a few berries. I used raspberries and blueberries as they were what we had in the fridge! Raspberry's are my favourite fruit so we usually have a punnet of them to hanging round.

The meringues were crisp on the outside and soft and sticky in the middle! Just as they should be. The only problem was they didn't really taste like raspberry which was a little disappointing!

It's sometimes hard to think of desserts to make when you haven't got much in, but anything meringue based is always a winner,  so I always try to keep a packet in the cupboard for when you need that sweet treat :)

Chocolate Cupcakes

I love cake. I love sweet things. Ok I love food in general but sweet things in particular :) As you can see most of the recipes I post tend to be of the sweet variety! I don't usually bake cakes though, but yesterday I had a day off work and decided to try my hand at some cupcakes as a little afternoon treat :)

They turned out reasonably well, especially the violet buttercream icing! Heres what I did:

Ingredients:

100g Plain flour

20g Cocoa powder

140g caster sugar

1 1/2 tsp baing powder

pinch of salt

40g unsaltd butter

120ml milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla paste

Mix together the dry ingredients and butter using a electric hand whisk. In a separate jug, mix the egg milk and vanilla paste. Gently combine with the dry ingredients and beat until well combined.

Spoon into cupcake cases (this makes 12 cakes) and bake on gas mark 3 for 20 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean when inserted into the cake.

Buttercream icing:

75g soft butter

125g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste

optional : food colouring

Beat the icing sugar and soft butter until well combined, You may need a tiny drop of milk to help blend together. Add the vanilla paste and food colouring. I used a ultra violet purple food colouring gel from Tesco. It was quite weak so I needed to use quite a bit even to get a faint purple tone.

Spread over the cakes once they are cooled. I topped mine with fresh blackberries and silver edible balls. :)

Enjoy :)

Rabbit Pana cotta

I made this lovely creamy dessert the other day using a plastic rabbit shaped jelly mould. The mould almost worked, all but the ear in fact! But the taste definitely made up for the shaping!

Panna Cotta

3 leaves Gelatin

250ml milk

250ml Double Cream

1 large teaspoon vanilla paste

50g sugar

Method:

Gently heat the milk cream and sugar in a pan, continuously stirring. Meanwhile soak your gelatine leaves in cold water in a separate bowl. Add the vanilla paste to the cream. Take the warm cream off the heat and add the gelatine leaves. Stir until they have dissolved into the cream.

Lightly grease the pudding mould with sunflower oil (I didn't do this step and regretted it as the mould didn't work as well as i'd hoped - so I recommend you do do it!) Pour the mixture into the mould and refrigerate for at least 2 hours!

I made a little blueberry and raspberry coulis to drizzle over the rabbit! 

Gently simmer the fruit with some sugar until most of the fruit has broken down, but there are still fruit with shape. Leave to cool and drizzle over the rabbit!

There wasn't much left at the end!

Greek salad with your feta?

I can not tell you how much I love a good Greek salad. It's something I could happily eat until it came out of my ears... well you know what I mean.

Whenever i'm on holiday I eat grotesque amounts of the stuff and it has become a real firm favourite of the family!

In Greece you generally are served with a slab of feta on top of your salad, whereas in Britain the feta is usually crumbed on top or cut into cubes! Here I crumbled ours but that would be up to you!

Ingredients:

Feta cheese

black olives

juicy tomatoes

cucumber

red or white onions

red or green peppers

Extra Virgin Olive oil

optional: vinegar

salt & pepper

Chop the vegetables until they are roughly the same size. I don't use many onions as I think they can be overpowering, but thats up to you!

Crumble the feta over the top of the salad, and drizzle the extra Virgin olive oil over the top. Top with a little dried herbs (oregano) and some vinegar if you like!

It's healthy, delicious and reminds me of the lovely Greek tavernas I've visited on previous holidays! The perfect dish for all occasions :)

Garlic, basil and mozzarella bread

A quick and easy thing to have under your belt is homemade garlic bread! It's something I don't think i'd really buy again now unless I really had to, as this recipe is so easy and tasty. It always impresses people when you say you've made it yourself (even though its not fully homemade) and adds a little something special to an everyday meal.

Ingredients:

1 loaf crusty bread e.g ciabatta, french stick

125g butter

2-3 cloves crushed garlic

a few leaves of basil or parsley

Slice your loaf the way garlic bread looks, with even slices going about 3/4 of the way deep. Or slice the ciabatta in half length ways for extra easy-ness!
Melt the butter in a bowl until soft but not melted. Add the crushed garlic cloves. Chop the herb of your choice and add to the butter mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the gaps of the garlic bread or spread along both halves.
You could now top with a little parmesan or mozzarella to make cheesey garlic bread!
Bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes on high, or until the bread has lightly coloured, the butter melted, and the cheese golden (if your using cheese).

Homemade Lemonade

Homemade lemonade is a real treat and so fresh and delicious compared to bought cordial. It's really simple to make and isn't too costly!
Scott made a delicious batch recently so we've been enjoying the benefits while the weathers been good (even though it looks likes its changed now!!)

Heres what Scott did:

Ingredients:

500ml lemon juice

The zest of 3 lemons grated finely

2kg castor sugar

1 litre water

2 tbsp citric acid

Method:

Dissolve the sugar with the litre of water and the lemon juice. Simmer gently for for a few minutes. Add the lemon zest and the citric acid. The citric acid makes the lemon flavour 'pop' and I think it also helps preserve the cordial for longer, though i'm not 100% sure about that. If you haven't got any its not  too dramatic to leave it out! It still tastes amazing :)

Simmer for another minute or so, then strain the mixture through a sieve or a piece of muslin is you have some.

Place in a sterilised bottle and once opened, keep in the fridge! 

The drink is best served 2/3 cordial:water.

We tired another version with some mint from the garden as we have too much growing, but it didn't work out as well as the pure lemon!

I had mine served with ice and a slice of lemon, and a good read of Katy Perry's interview in Elle magazine this month :)

Key Lime Meringue Pie

I made a lime meringue pie for the first time the other day and I felt such a sense of achievement! Admittedly I didn't make the pastry... but I am truly horrific at pastry so it was for the best.

It was deliciously limey and sweet and I had a lot of fun eating the left over filling....

Anyway heres how I did it :

Ingredients:

Sweet Pastry

Filling:

2 tbsp cornflour

100g sugar

finely grated zest of 3 limes

 juice from the 3 limes

85g butter

4 egg yolks

1 cap food colouring, green (optional)

200ml boiling water

Meringue:

Four egg yolks (room temperature)

200g castor sugar

1 tsp cornflour

Put a baking sheet in the oven and heat oven to Gas Mark 6. Bake the pastry case ‘blind’ (filled with dry beans) for 15 mins, then remove the foil and bake a further 5-8 mins until the pastry is pale golden and cooked. Leave on the side to cool.

Place all your filling ingredients into a saucepan and cook gently until thick. Stirring constantly as you don't want lumps.

Pour your thickened filling into you cooked pastry case and set aside.

Whisk your egg whites for a minute or so, then add the caster sugar and tsp cornflour. Whisk until the mixture is glossy, and the meringue stays in stiff peaks (if you can hold it above your head upside down you know its ready!

Spread over the filling, and using the end of a small teaspoon, make little flicks and peaks on top of the meringue. Bake in the oven on Gas Mark 4 for about 15-20 minutes or until the meringue is lightly coloured on top.

I added a little green colouring to emphasise that it was lime and not lemon :) you could quite easily change this to a lemon meringue pie by using 2 lemons instead of the three limes!

Serve with ice cream or cream, or even enjoy it on its own :)

Tiramisu Teacups

This was a lovely little dessert I whipped up for a weekday pudding! They are only small so you get a little taste of what you fancy, without the extra calories!

Tiramisu is one of Scott's favourite desserts so I always feel a bit of pressure when making this particular pudding! But this is a simple quick and easy version for when you have some cream left over in the fridge.

This recipe made 5 teacups!

Ingredients:

1 Pint double cream

1 1/2 tablespoons icing sugar

1 cup of strong sweetened coffee

 lady fingers (trifle sponges)

5 teaspoons Nutella

chocolate to flake onto the top

Method:

Soak the lady fingers on a plate with the sweetened coffee.

Place 1 and a bit lady fingers in the bottom of the cup.

Layer a teaspoon of Nutella on top of the lady fingers. 

Drizzle over a litte more of the coffee mixture,

You could keep repeating these layers if you had a taller glass but you'd obviously have to adjust the ingredient quantity.

Now whip the cream with the icing sugar until it is thick but not over whipped.

Spoon over the top of the puddings.

Finally sprinkle over some chocolate gratings or shavings,

And pop in the fridge to cool!

You can see here the lady fingers soak up the moisture from the coffee mixture and become soft and tasty.

I love chocolate, so ultimately it had to make it's way into a coffee dessert!

The sizes are great when you want that little treat after your meal.

Strawberry Jam

So a few days ago I said i'd post the recipe for strawberry jam that I used for the fruit we picked locally!

It's a really delicious jam and quite easy to make!

Recipe from BBC GOOD FOOD:

Ingredients:

1kg /2lb 3oz strawberries

1kg/2lb 3oz granulated sugar or caster sugar

½ lemon, juice only

Place the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a heavy bottomed pan. I used the Cruset which worked really well! Simmer gently until all the sugar has dissolved, and then bring the jam to the boil testing every ten minutes or so to see if its set. Heres a tip: Place a saucer in the freezer an hour before you make the jam. Then when you think the jam is set place a teaspoon of the jam onto the cold saucer. Push the jam on the saucer with your finger. If the jam wrinkles you know it has set and is ready to put into jars. If not keep boiling and checking every 8 minutes or so. 

Once your jam is set, ladle it into sterilised jars and it should keep for up to a year!

(It will be too yummy to want to keep it for a year though!!)

We had ours smothered on toast for breakfast this week!

 With a trusty mug of builders tea of course!

A delicious chocolate, nuts and seeds flapjack

I think I may have found my new favourite cake. 

This cake is a yummy combination of both naughty and healthy ingredients! It is undoubtedly better for you than a chunk of chocolate cake, but equally as delicious, and even helps you stay fuller for longer (which I need!!) 

Ingredients:

2.5  tablespoons golden syrup

3.5 tablespoons clear honey

200g unsalted butter

370g rolled oats
60g soft brown sugar 

Mix the honey, syrup, butter and sugar in a pan. Careful not to burn the butter! Once everything has melted nicely together, mix in the rolled oats. You want to make sure they have all been coated well in the sticky mixture. Line a baking dish with parchment paper, and spread the mixture over the paper. make sure you flatten it out to the edges.

Bake for 15-20 minutes on gas mark 5 or until the flapjack has lightly browned on top.

Take out of the oven and leave to cool completely.

Topping:

200g Dark chocolate 

1 tsp soft brown sugar

2 tsp butter

1 handful pumpkin and sunflower seeds

1/2 handful dried cranberries

1/2 handful dried currents/ yellow raisins

1/2 handful chopped almonds

Mix the chocolate, sugar and butter together.

Spoon over the cooled flapjack. Then sprinkle over your desired topping! Leave to cool on the side, or pop it in the fridge until the chocolate sets. And thats it! Delicious, healthy, sticky flapjacks :)

Lidl do a really good range of nuts and seeds so you don't have to spend the earth to use nice ingredients!

Here's my special plate again ;)

Grilled breakfast banana's with honey

Heres a yummy and healthy breakfast recipe which I found in one of my favourite cook books -

'Miss Sophie Dahls Voluptuous Delights'

Sophie Dahl wrote a wonderful cook book and presented a cooking programme a few years back. I loved her styling of the food and the stories behind each recipe! I just wished there were a few more photographs in the book, as obviously food is so visual and we all like to see the end result! This is an incredibly simple recipe with only two ingredients!

Ingredients:

1 Ripe banana

2 teaspoons honey

Peel your banana and slice it in half lengthways. I lined my grill with aluminium foil to prevent the honey dripping. Place the bananas on the foil and drizzle a teaspoon of honey on each side of the banana.

Grill on high for 5 or so minutes, or until the honey has caramelised and the bananas are soft and gooey.

I served mine with apricot and passionfruit yoghurt (Lidl again...) and some chopped nectarines as they were going soft and needed eating up! But they went really well with the dish!

  Breakfast is one of my favourite meals. I love bacon, eggs, toast, fruit , everything but cereal! I don't know what it is about cereal but it just does nothing for me! So I love when I find a new and easy breakfast recipe, and this was a real treat!

Dipped Marshmallows

Chocolate dipped marshmallows are a really quick and easy dessert to make, especially for little ones. They cost next to nothing to make, and there are very few ingredients.

Ingredients:

Soft fluffy Marshmallows

chocolate for melting

Seeds, chopped nuts, sprinkles, or whatever you fancy

Place some baking parchment on a tray. Melt your chocolate over a pan of hot water, or in the microwave. Pierce the marshmallows with your cake pop sticks and dip them into the chocolate. Let the excess drop of the marshmallows and either roll them in the sprinkles or scatter the sprinkles from above onto the marshmallows.

Place upside down onto the parchment and put them into the fridge until they are set!

The candy sprinkles are great for kids, but I liked the cranberries and seeds! 

I love this little japanese plate I found in a charity shop. It has a pretty little scene with a house and garden, and the wonderful pearly orange sky and blue ground.