Lime and coconut macaroons...great treat and healthy to boot!

Wow, wow, wow. I'm going to keep this short and sweet (excuse the pun) I've only just made these but they were so great I had to post straight away. In the search for gf and dairy free treats I remembered the old fashioned coconut macaroons that my nan used to love and decided to give them a go with the updated twist of lime. They taste great, very pleased with the chewy but crisp texture and the lime zing lifts them perfectly. The best surprise though was that I checked the nutritional value and they're perfect for a healthy treat too! 80 cals, low in carb and high in protein and fibre with moderate healthy fat from the coconut. They'd make a great gift for a friend on a diet. Pile 5-6 up and tie with a pretty bow. 

So here goes:

Ingredients:

Makes 9

100g unsweetened shredded/desiccated dried coconut 

2 large egg whites 

1 tbsp coconut sugar or soft dark brown sugar or your choice of sweetener (the state are based on sugar) 

1 lime (or two if they aren't very juicy!) 

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180C

1. Place the egg whites in a bowl and add the sugar. Beat well until incorporated. 

2. Add the coconut, zest and juice of the lime and stir until fully combined

3. Form the mixture into 9 rough balls and flatten onto a greased baking sheet 

4. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden brown

Enjoy! 

Happy First Birthday Sarah's Kitchen Diary

This is my 83rd post and one year since I started my blog on 22nd August 2011.

I wanted to mark the first anniversary in some way. I've been interested in cooking since I was a very small girl. I'd help my mum and my nan in the kitchen and I especially love baking. I think I've mentioned before my first baking book was Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book, which has been revamped and republished in various guises over the years. I've lost count of the number of copies I've bought as gifts and genuinely every recipe works! My copy, although well looked after, is also well loved. The recipes I've baked the most invariably have a smudge of cake batter or chocolate on them. These days a lot of the recipes that I've made time and time again are committed to memory and in even when I play around and create a recipe 'from scratch' the starting point and the baking knowledge is likely to come either from my mum or Mary Berry.

So in making a first 'birthday' cake I had to make something influenced by my mum and Mary Berry.

I have taken Mary Berry's basic Victoria sponge but added some fresh raspberries to the batter. This is something my mum used to do for a quick pudding when I was young, typically served with custard and using whatever fruit was in season, raspberries, blackberries or apples.

I also added some white chocolate to the buttercream as I think this makes it more of a celebration cake and goes very well with the raspberries.

I toyed with the idea of making a sophisticated celebration cake with minimal decoration but decided that because I could and as it was a first 'birthday' I would go to town with the decoration. So I decorated the cake with plenty of sprinkles and sparkles and topped with some long silver candles.

If you want to recreate this please remember that the addition of raspberries to the cake will make it very moist and prone to go off quickly so eat it or freeze it within a day or two otherwise you'll end up with a mouldy mess. I never seem to have that problem as cake never lasts long in my house!

Here is a picture of my creation.





Happy First 'Birthday' to
Sarah's Kitchen Diary!

Here is a picture of the bottom when it came out of the oven. You can see the raspberries.



Here is my bible!





Recipe

8oz self raising flour (I use sponge flour as I think it gives a better texture)
8oz caster sugar (I use unrefined)
8oz margarine or butter (I always use Stork as I think it gives a better texture and have seen Mary Berry do the same so much be good)
4 large free range eggs
2 tsp baking powder
A couple of handful's of raspberries

For the icing:
250g butter
500g icing sugar
100g white chocolate

Start by pre-heating the oven to 180C.

Line two 8" round cake tins

Put all of the cake ingredients, apart from the raspberries, in a bowl and mix until blended.

Pour half of the mixture into each cake tin and place in the pre-heated own for 30-40 mins until a skewer, when placed into the cake, comes out clean and they are springy to the touch. Remember from the tins and put on a wire rack to cool completely.

Whilst the cakes are cooling make the icing. Put the butter in a stand mixer and beat for a few minutes until very pale, light and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Once all of the icing sugar is incorporated leave the icing to keep mixing, whilst you melt the chocolate, as this will make the icing lighter and fluffier.

I always melt chocolate in the microwave on full power but for bursts of 15-30 secs stirring in between each one, but I know some people are scared of the chocolate burning so feel free to melt it in a pan suspended over a bowl of boiling water. Once the chocolate is melted, stop the mixer and put the chocolate to one side to cool slightly. This avoids the hot chocolate melting the butter and ruining your icing.

Once the chocolate is cooler pour it into the mixing bowl and blend until it is incorporated into the icing.

Put half of the icing on one cake and then place the other cake on the top to create a sandwich. Add the remaining icing to the top and then decorate with your choice of sprinkles, sparkles and candles.

Enjoy!

Jubilee Flag Cake

My dad made a cake. This should be headline news. I think I have seen him in the kitchen cooking about 3 times in my entire life and at least one of them involved a tin of bake beans!

He was given instructions, but still made it all on his own and it really was pretty good!

It was fashioned on Mary Berry's Flag Traybake but just with a standard sponge.

He mixed 24oz margarine with 24oz caster sugar, 24oz self raising flour, 12 eggs and 6 tsp of baking powder and poured it into a large roasting pan. It took almost an hour to cook at 180C.

He then made a basic butter cream with 16oz butter and about 16oz icing sugar and a splash of milk.

Once the cake was cool he spread the icing all over the top and placed raspberries and blueberries on it in a union jack pattern.

Jubilee Afternoon Tea

After being out of the country for the royal wedding last year I decided to throw myself into the Jubilee celebrations with abandon. So liberal amounts of red, white and blue later a Jubilee afternoon tea was ready for my friends.

For the savoury elements I decided to keep it relatively simple. My take on coronation chicken, revamped into a fresh salad, which would have jewelled with pomegranate seeds (had I not left them in the kitchen) plus salmon, cream cheese and pickled cucumber sandwiches, cheese and chutney sandwiches, chicken and lemon mayonnaise sandwiches and ham sandwiches This was all washed down with some bubbly with a non alcoholic version for my pregnant friend and the drivers.







For the sweet elements I had such a long list to chose from, but I manage to narrow it down by prioritising the ones which were most in keeping with the red, white and blue theme (plus the lime cupcakes as you can see from previous posts I love lemon drizzle cake and I'd been meaning to try experimenting with a lime version for ages)
- raspberry cupcakes
- lime drizzle cupcakes
- blueberry and lemon cupcakes
- mini Victoria sponge
- individual eton mess












Recipes

Jewelled Coronation Chicken Salad

Serves 4-6 (easily doubled or trebled)

1 roast chicken, cold
Mixed leaves
1/2 a cucumber
Pomegranate
300ml natural yoghurt
2 tablespoons of korma curry paste
1 teaspoon of honey
2-3 springs of mint, chopped
Seasoning
A squeeze of lemon juice

Start by making the dressing. Mix the curry paste, honey, mint, lemon juice and seasoning into a thick dressing.

Scatter the lettuce leaves all over a platter and then add cubes of cucumber and chunks of roast chicken.

When you are ready to serve drizzle liberally with the dressing and scatter with pomegranate seed. Serve the rest of the dressing alongside.

Smokes salmon, cream cheese and pickled cucumber sandwiches

Smoked salmon (I used Waitrose essentials trimmings as it doesn't need to be in large pieces for this)
Cream cheese
Cucumber
White wine vinegar
Sugar
Seasoning
Sliced bread

At least and hour before use a potato peeling the slice the cucumber into ribbons. Put them into a bowl and toss in a generous glug of white wine vinegar, a large pinch of sugar and seasoning.

Spread the bread with a thin layer of cream cheese. Add the smoked salad and a few ribbons of cucumber. Top with another slice of bread and cut into triangles of fingers, with or without crusts as desired.

Cheese and chutney sandwiches

Grated mature cheddar cheese
Your favourite chutney
Sliced bread
Butter

Thinly butter the bread and add a generous helping of grated cheese. Spread the other side of the bread with the chutney and add to the top of the sandwich.

Cut into triangles of fingers, with or without crusts as desired.

Chicken and lemon mayo sandwiches

Roast chicken, chopped
Mayonnaise
Lemon juice
Dijon mustard
Seasoning
Lettuce
Sliced bread

Out the chicken into a bowl and add the mayonnaise. I would normally make this using Jamie Oliver's recipe but my friend is pregnant and therefore can't eat raw eggs so I tarted up bought mayonnaise with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a squeeze of lemon juice and seasoning.

Sandwich the chicken mixture, with a few lettuce leaves, between two slices of bread.

Cut into triangles of fingers, with or without crusts as desired.

Red, White and Blue Cupcakes
Makes 12

For the cakes:
4oz self raising flour
4oz margarine
4oz sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder

For the flavourings and icings:
Zest and juice of 1/2 lime
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
Zest of 1/4 lemon and about a tablespoon of juice
About 10 raspberries
Freeze dried raspberry powder
12 Blueberries
8oz butter
8-10oz icing sugar
A tablespoon of milk

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C in a fan oven). I started by making all of the cake plain for ease. Beat together all of the ingredients for the cake and share the mixture between 12 muffin cases.

In 4 sprinkle the lemon zest and another 4 with lime zest and give them a gentle stir with the end of a teaspoon so the zest doesn't sit on the top. Leave the other 4 plain.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 mins.

While they are cooking mix a tablespoon of granulated sugar with the lime juice. As soon as the cakes come out take the 4 lime ones and make very small holes in them with a skewer and drizzle over the lime juice mixture.

Whilst the cakes are cooling make the icing. I always beat the butter for 5 mins or more until it is very pale and then gradually add the icing sugar and finish with the milk. This makes the icing very light and fluffy and also makes it much paler which is good when you're aiming for white!

In a small saucepan take the raspberries and the other tablespoon of sugar and heat up until it has thickened slightly. To get smooth icing sieve the raspberry mixture to remove the pips. Put to one side to cool.

Split the icing into two bowls. In the one add the lemon juice. In the other add the raspberry juice.

Pipe the icing onto the cakes. I used a round nozzle for the lemon icing and a Wilton 2D for the raspberry. I topped the lemon ones with blueberries and the raspberry ones with a sprinkle of raspberry powder.

I also had a few little union jack flags which I popped in the top.

Mini Victoria sponges
Makes 2

Using the same recipe as for the cakes above split the mixture between two 4 inch cake pans.

Once cool split each cake and sandwich with whipped cream and strawberries.

Eton Mess

Greek yoghurt
Whipped cream
Vanilla extract
Icing sugar
Strawberries
Raspberries
Meringues

Mix roughly equal amounts of cream and yoghurt with a little vanilla extract and icing sugar. Layer up in glasses with the fruit and meringues.

Jubilee BBQ

What could be more British than planning a BBQ on a slightly rainy bank holiday? BBQs remind me of my childhood. Come rain or shine we would BBQ at every opportunity. I particularly remember the rainy ones. My Grandad getting out the hair dryer to encourage slightly damp coals to burn hotter and my dad holding a golf umbrella over the BBQ whilst I cooked wearing a waterproof particularly stick in my mind.

Fortunately this Saturday the sun broke through the clouds shortly before the fire was lit. I wanted to keep things simple so I made some burgers and chicken and chorizo kebabs. People often think of BBQs are unhealthy but with a little thought they can be healthy and clean.






For the kebabs I took cubes of chicken breast, slices of chorizo and a mixture of vegetables. I threaded them onto skewers and marinated in a simple marinade for about 3 hours. For the marinade I chopped a mixture of parsley, basil and mint, added a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, a tablespoon of red wine vinegar, a crushed garlic clove, seasoning and a good glug of olive oil.

The burgers were made by mixing beef mince with an egg, seasoning, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, chopped rosemary and a crushed garlic clove. I then formed them into patties. I added a bit too much egg which made the mixture sticky so I dusted each with flour before cooking.

The trick to a good BBQ, for me, is to constantly turn the meat. Far more often than people normally do and also make sure the grill is not too low. This ensures that the meat doesn't burn before it is cooled.

Here are the cooked kebabs and burgers.


Serve with a green salad and a jug of Pimms to wash it all down! Obviously the Pimms isn't healthy so keep this as a treat!

First post in my new kitchen - crumpets, crumpets and more crumpets!

This is my first post in a few months, largely because I've had no kitchen, which has made cooking and baking rather difficult. I've moved house and now that the building work is finally finished I have a kitchen with an actual working oven!
After so long without being able to do what I love I thought for a while about what I'd like to make and settled on crumpets. They're so easy, yet delicious and very comforting.
I use a Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall recipe which can also be used to make pikelets (flat, pancake shaped crumpets) which are great if you don't have crumpet rings.
Basically you whisk all of the ingredients together and leave them somewhere warm until yeast does it's job and the mixture gets nice and bubbly. Alternatively if you want them for breakfast you can make the mixture the night before and put it in the fridge over night. By morning it will be ready to cook.
If you want to make crumpets heat up a frying pan and place some greased crumpet rings in the pan. Carefully pour a spoonful of mixture into each. If the mixture runs under the rings it is too thin so whisk in a little more flour. They are ready to turn over when bubbles have formed on the top and the batter is pretty much cooked. If bubbles don't form the mixture is too thick so add a little water to the batter before cooking the next one.
To make pikelets whisk in about 50g more flour and simply spoon the batter into a hot pan and cook in the same way you would cook pancakes.
Here is one of the crumpets




And here is a pikelet




Recipes
Crumpets
Hugely satisfying to make. Makes 12.
450g plain white flour
350ml warm milk
350ml warm water (approximately)
5g powdered dried yeast
10g salt
1 tsp baking powder
A little sunflower or vegetable oil
In a bowl, whisk the flour, milk, water and yeast into a rather runny batter the consistency of single cream. Cover with cling-film and leave for an hour until really bubbly (or three to four hours, if need be).
Heat a heavy-based frying pan or flat griddle over a medium-high heat. Whisk the salt and baking powder into the batter. Lightly grease the crumpet rings and pan. Put one ring in the pan, fill to just below the top – the batter should stay in the ring and lots of holes should appear on the surface after a minute or two. (If it dribbles out underneath, it is too thin, so whisk a little more flour into your batter mix. If lots of holes don't form, it's too thick, so whisk in some water.) Assuming your test crumpet is OK, after five minutes or so, when the surface is just set, flip it over, ring and all. (If the cooked base seems too dark, turn down the heat.) Cook for two to three minutes, until golden on the other side. Repeat with the remaining batter in batches. Butter and eat at once, or cool on a wire rack for toasting later.
A pikelet variation If you don't have rings, whisk an extra 50g flour into the batter, to stiffen it, dollop spoonfuls into a greased, warmed pan and cook for a couple of minutes a side.

From http://m.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/14/crumpets-muffins-pikelets-farls?cat=lifeandstyle&type=article