(6p) Banana Bread

I snapped up 7 bananas for 6p at the supermarket the other day. Slightly past their best, they were just perfect for making banana loaf. I made a couple of loaves by doubling the recipe below. The first was plain and the second had 100g of dark chocolate chips thrown in for good measure and stashed the latter in the freezer for a rainy day.

Loaf cakes like these freeze really well - I just left mine in the greaseproof paper and popped it into a freezer bag with the date on. Bananas are often reduced in the supermarket as they go from ripe to overripe so quickly, so keep your eyes peeled if you want to get in on the banana bread action!

This is adapted from a Mary Berry recipe and is the quickest and easiest recipe for banana bread that I know. It makes a loaf that's pretty even in texture, but if you wanted chunks of banana, I'd suggest stirring with a wooden spoon rather than using an electric mixer.

Ingredients
100g softened butter
175g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk

1. Pre-heat the oven 180℃/360℉/Gas Mark 4 and line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper
2. Mix all of the ingredients with an electric mixer
3. Spoon into the loaf tin and flatten the top with a spoon
4. Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for around 1 hour, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean
5. Leave to cool in the cake tin for a short while and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully

Enjoy warm with cream or ice cream or with a cup of afternoon tea.

Back to School Blues Cure - Cornflake Cakes

I spent last week in sunny Cornwall and went back to work on Monday, which felt just like the first day back at school, when you accept that summer is over and feel the long year stretching out ahead of you. There's also a chill in the air in the mornings, dew on the grass and my calendar has flipped over to September.

I therefore decided I needed comfort food and made one of the best school-age snacks; cornflake cakes!

I can't call this a recipe, as all you do is melt some chocolate over a simmering pan of water and then stir in your cornflakes (mine had gone soft, which was the perfect excuse to make cornflake cakes!), but I can tell you it tastes delicious and thoroughly recommend you get making right away...

PS I love my polka dot cake cases, but how amazing are these flower pot cake cases from Lakeland?

September Seasonal Recipe: Apple and Blackberry Crumble

The blackberries are ripening beautifully here in The Cotswolds (and especially in my 'jungle garden'), which is the perfect excuse to make an apple and blackberry crumble.

Ingredients

2 cooking apples

400g blackberries

50g caster sugar

Topping:

150g plain flour

75g caster sugar

75g butter

1 tsp cinnamon

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180℃/350℉/Gas Mark 4
2. Peel, core and slice the apples and then wash and drain the blackberries
3. Pour the fruit into an ovenproof baking dish and sprinkle the caster sugar over the top
4. Sift in the flour and sugar into a clean bowl
5. Add the butter to the bowl and rub until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
6. Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 40 minutes or until lightly golden

Apple and blackberry crumble is a classic, but if you want to branch out further into the blackberry realm then Pinterest is full of inspiration as always. How about coconut, blackberry and lime ice cream here or some blackberry lemonade here or if you're feeling really out there, blackberry glazed salmon here.

Bank Holiday Bake Along: Chocolate Layer Cake

I'm making the most of this Bank Holiday Monday and using this rare opportunity to sneak into someone else's kitchen and make a cake. In the interest of making the most of the sunshine, I haven't been experimenting with a recipe, but instead baking along to this BBC Good Food recipe. I made a (slightly) less indulgent one with two layers and half of the quantity of icing, but the full quantities are below:

Ingredients
For the cake:
175g self-raising flour
3 tbsp 70% cocoa powder (my borrowed kitchen didn't have any cocoa powder, so the cake was a little lighter in colour and less rich, but still delicious)
1 tsp espresso powder
175g softened butter
175g golden caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1-2 tbsp milk 100g, 70% coca dark chocolate, melted

For the icing:
500g dark chocolate
500ml double cream

1. To make the icing break the chocolate into a bowl and heat the cream in a non-stick saucepan until simmering. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool whilst you prepare the cake.

2. Preheat the oven to 180℃/160℃ fan/Gas Mark 4. Then melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water and set aside to cool.

3. Measure out the dry ingredients, then add the egg and melted butter. Blitz with an electric whisk.

4. Add the metled chocolate to the mix and fold in.

5. Divide the mixture evenly between 2 greased cake tins and bake in the centre of the oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove and allow to cool before icing and giving to a glamorous assistant to model.

6. Enjoy!

Hope your Bank Holiday Monday is sunny and involves a tasty cake!

Mince Pies

You know Christmas is nearly here when you eat your first mince pie! So here's a recipe to make a batch and get that 'Christmas is coming!' feeling...

Ingredients:
225g cold butter, diced
350g plain flour
100g golden caster sugar
280g mincemeat
2 tbsp of milk
Icing sugar, to dust

1. To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour, then mix in the sugar and a pinch of salt. Combine the pastry into a ball, adding a tbsp of milk if necessary to bring the dough together, although it should remain firm. Knead briefly.

2. Preheat the oven the 200℃ (180℃ for fan ovens)/400℉/Gas Mark 6 and grease 18 holes of two shallow muffin trays.

3. Roll the dough out on a floured board to around half a centimetre in depth and, using a cookie cutter slightly larger than the muffin tin circles, cut out 18 'bases' and press them into the tins.

4. Fill each pastry base with a couple of teaspoons of mincemeat. Be careful not to overfill.

5. Gather up the remaining dough from the bases, roll out to the same depth as previously and this time use a cookie cutter around the size of the muffin tin holes to make the tops. I used stars and hearts, but you could make full lids or use any shape you please.

6. Brush the tops lightly with milk (or a beaten egg if you prefer the glazed look) and bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for around 20 minutes, or until golden.

If you want to make these in advance, they can be frozen after step 5. Mince pies make a lovely gift or treat to take to a friends, if you can resist gobbling them all up.

PS How do you eat yours? Hot? Cold? With cream? With brandy butter?

Takeaway at Home- Duck Pancakes

We all love a takeaway every now again. Unfortunately takeaway doesn't always come cheap, but this is not a problem when you can make your own duck pancakes at home and pretend you're having takeaway! This works especially well when duck is on special offer (like it has been in Sainsburys lately).

This takes a bit of preparation, but if you're savvy you can persuade someone to do the washing up in return for this Chinese-style feast.

Duck Pancakes
Serves 2

Ingredients
Duck- how much depends on how hungry you are and whether this a starter or a main course- I used 2 legs for two hungry adults

For the pancakes:
125g plain flour
1 tsp sugar
A little sesame oil (to be authentic) or olive oil (if you don't have sesame oil)

To serve:
Finely sliced spring onions
Finely sliced cucumber
Hoisin sauce (this recipe looks good) or plain ol' soy sauce
Prawn crackers to keep you occupied whilst the duck cooks

1. Pop your duck in the pre-heated oven- I cooked two legs and these needed 90 minutes at 160℃. Go eat some prawn crackers until the duck has around 45 minutes left. Check the duck and turn if necessary.

2. Put the kettle on to boil whilst you measure out 125g plain flour and a teaspoon of sugar in a heatproof bowl. Pour 100ml boiling water into the bowl and mix well, until a ball of dough is formed.

3. Knead the dough for a few minutes on a well-floured surface, then place the dough back in the bowl and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes to rest.

4. Meanwhile thinly slice the spring onions and cucumber and, if you're being super enthusiastic, make some hoisin sauce.

5. Once 30 minutes are up, take the dough out of the bowl and form into a sausage shape. Divide the sausage into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and then gently flatten to form a circle- make your dough circles as thin as possible without them breaking/tearing.

6. Brush 4 of the circles with a little sesame/olive oil and then place the non-oiled pancakes over the top of these to form 4 pancake 'sandwiches'

7. Heat a non-stick frying pan and cook the pancakes 'sandwiches' for 1 minute on each side, until they puff up and start to colour, remove and keep warm whilst you serve the duck.

8. Enjoy a delicious (and smug) Chinese 'takeaway' feast!

June's Seasonal Recipe: Courgette and Raisin Muffins

This month's seasonal recipe comes from Annabel Karmel, who says it's a 'delicious way to get your child to eat more vegetables' or in my case, to pretend muffins are super healthy. Either way, they're delicious for sure!


I'm going to just leave you with a photo and a link to the recipe as I think the instructions are very clear and for me, the quantities worked perfectly: Annabel Karmel's Courgette and Raisin Muffins

Very British Scones

Here is a recipe for some very British scones, inspired by my visit to the beautiful St Ives last week. The recipe is largely based on a Delia recipe but using a thrifty buttermilk substitute. Delia reckons this makes 10, but having used this recipe a couple of times I've either made 6 large ones or (in this case) 12 smaller ones.

Ingredients

225g self-raising flour

75g butter at room temperature

40g golden caster sugar

1 large egg

2 tbsp buttermilk (or 2tbsp milk and 1/2 tbsp lemon juice)

Handful of raisins (optional and not Delia-approved!)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220℃/425℉/Gas Mark 7. Rub the flour into the butter with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

2. Make up your buttermilk substitute in a cup and then beat the egg into the buttermilk using a fork. Pour the mix and the raisins into the bowl with the breadcrumb mix and mix with a wooden spoon until the dough begins to come together.

3. Use your hands to bring together into a ball. Roll out on a floured surface to around 2.5cm thick. Cut out scones using a 5cm round cookie cutter and place on a greased and flour-dusted baking tray.

4. Lightly brush with buttermilk and then bake in the centre of the oven for 10-12 minutes until well-risen and golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

5. Serve with jam, clotted cream* and strawberries, preferably at a very British afternoon tea party

* I eat my scones the Cornish way (jam then cream), see here for an amusing article on the long-running debate between Devon and Cornwall about how scones ought to be served!

Herman the German Friendship Cake

I gave you a sneak peak of Herman the German Friendship Cake in this post, but now it's time for the full review.

I received a bag of 'Herman' with a simple sheet of instructions (similar to these) from a colleague last week. I've spent the past ten days keeping him alive (you can tell he's still alive because the mixture bubbles), feeding him flour, sugar and milk on day four and then finally dividing him up to share the Herman love before baking him.

Adding apples, sultanas, cinnamon mixed with milk, flour and sugar:

Ready for the oven with brown sugar and melted butter drizzled over the top:

Fresh out of the oven:

Thrifty re-use of a Fudges savoury biscuit tin to take the finished product to work:

In all the excitement, I forgot to take a photo of the portions, ready to go, but I hope I will have an update and a new Herman to try soon!

*Update- Herman turned out to be quite a tasty cake, the apple worked well and made it soft and moist*

Barbecue Burgers and Halloumi Skewers

Now that the sun has come out at long last, barbecue season is in full swing (as was evident from needing to go to 4 different shops yesterday to buy bamboo skewers, which had sold out at the first 3). I thought I would share some tasty barbecue recipes that we've been using this weekend...

Chili and Garlic Burgers
Makes 8-12 burgers

Ingredients
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 chili pepper (as hot as you dare)
2 packs of beef mince
1 egg
Salt and pepper to season

1. Finely dice the chili pepper and garlic
2. Put the chili, garlic, both packs of mince and the egg in a large bowl and season
3. Work the egg, chili and garlic into the mince with your hands
4. Form into 8 large patties or 12 smaller patties
5. Chill in the fridge for half an hour (or until ready to BBQ) to hold shape
6. Cook on a hot BBQ for 10-15 minutes, turning once, ensure burger is hot right through

Serve in buns with plenty of chutney, cheese and lettuce (ours are stacked up between greaseproof paper in this cardboard box as an unconventional method of transportation to the BBQ we went to last night!)

Halloumi and Vegetable Skewers with Lemon and Rosemary

Makes 12-14 skewers

Ingredients

1 block halloumi (mine was 250g)

Vegetables of your choice (I used courgette, mushroom, cherry tomato and red onion)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 lemon

1 sprig of rosemary

Salt and pepper to season

+ Skewers

1. Chop all veg into bite-size chunks and thread onto bamboo skewers

2. Mix the olive oil, rosemary and salt & pepper in a small bowl, add the juice squeezed from the lemon and stir

3. Brush or drizzle the oil over the skewers

4. Cook on a hot BBQ for 5-10 minutes, turning occasionally

Happy barbecuing!

Birthday Cakes

Tomorrow is my Birthday, so this evening I have been busy in the kitchen making cakes to take to work. Here is a quick sneak peek (recipes to follow!)

Lemon Cupcakes

Chocolate Brownies

Dave has hinted that I'm getting something to help take better photographs (?!) so watch this space for beautiful food and craft pics to come...

May's Seasonal Recipe: Healthy Asparagus Carbonara

This month's seasonal food is one of my favourite vegetables- asparagus. Here I'm adapting a Slimming World recipe to make a delicious, healthy and vegetarian-friendly asparagus carbonara.

Asparagus Carbonara

Serves 2

Ingredients

200g asparagus, chopped into 2cm pieces

150g spaghetti

1 egg

100g fat free natural yoghurt

1 garlic clove, chopped

3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Salt and pepper to season

1. Heat a pan of water and once boiling, add the spaghetti, return to the boil and then turn down to simmer gently

2. Meanwhile cook the chopped asparagus, by either boiling (3 mins) or steaming (3-4 mins)

3. Drain and set aside the asparagus

4. In a small bowl, beat the egg lightly with a fork and then add the garlic, parsley and seasoning, whisking with the fork until well combined. Set aside

5. Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain and then add to a large, lightly oiled non stick frying pan. Add the drained asparagus.

6. Stir and cook the spaghetti and asparagus on a low to medium heat for 2-3 minutes

7. Add the sauce and gently heat for 2-3 minutes until the spaghetti is well-coated (do not allow to boil or the eggs will scramble!)

8. Remove from the heat and serve

This is such a quick and easy dinner- my favourite kind of meal!

Bread, Scrub and Fun in Folkestone

We've just got back from a weekend in Folkestone, Kent celebrating Dave's Mum's Birthday. We had a lovely evening of improv comedy, an audience-participation trumpet piece and samba. This was followed by a beautiful sunny day today walking around Sandgate and Folkestone and having a delicious lunch. I thought I'd share a few photos of the things I made and we did over the weekend.

A loaf of bread for this morning to get us in the mood for real breadmaker week:

Home made scrub as a little Birthday gift using Mrs Thrifty's vanilla scrub recipe:

Walks along the beach hoping to spot Davina (formerly Dave) the Dolphin (see Wikipedia):

Photo slideshow 'this is your life':

Walking up the zig zag path on our way to eat delicious Nepalese food at Gurkha Palace

Hope your weekend was lovely too!

Coffee Cupcakes

Recipe: Coffee Cupcakes

Coffee cake is a favourite treat of mine, I love the flavour and smell. This recipe only uses one egg and 135g of butter (which tend to be the expensive ingredients in baking) to make 12 cupcakes, so does fairly well on the thrifty scale. It's adapted from Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery, which is one of my favourite books and is full of cupcake recipes for every occasion.

A box of these would make a lovely gift for a coffee (or cake) lover.

Ingredients
60g unsalted butter (remove from the fridge half an hour before cooking)
60g demerara sugar
60g light brown soft sugar
1 egg
60g self-raising flour, sifted
60g plain flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon coffee (espresso/instant whatever takes your fancy)
60ml semi-skimmed milk

For the icing:
75g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon semi-skimmed milk
1 teaspoon coffee (espresso/instant)
150g icing sugar, sifted

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180℃/160℃ fan/350℉/Gas Mark 5 and line a 12 hole tin with cases (I used standard size in this recipe, you'd need to make more mixture if you wanted to use muffin size)

2. Cream the butter and both sugars using an electric mixer, until the mixture is pale and smooth

3. Add the egg and mix again for a few minutes

4. Combine the flours in a separate bowl

5. Mix the coffee, milk and vanilla extract in a jug and stir to combine

6. Add one third of the flour mix to the creamed butter/sugars/egg mix and beat well

7. Add one third of the coffee/milk/vanilla mix and beat well

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until all of the milk and flour mixes have been added

9. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling them to about two third full

10. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden and slightly risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean

11. Whilst the cupcakes cool on a wire rack, prepare the icing by mixing the butter, milk, coffee and sifted icing sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy

12. Ice each cupcake and decorate with grated chocolate or a chocolate covered coffee bean if you wish

Enjoy your lovely indulgent treat!