Guinness Bread

Last Sunday on St. Patrick's day I decided to make something I had had pinned for a while - Guinness Bread. I found the recipe on the Black Peppercorn. The recipe was ridiculously easy for bread, no kneading, no waiting just some mixing and you're there! I was a little skeptical but I can't tell you how delicious this turned out! It's quite sweet so if you are looking to make more of a savoury bread I would half the sugar.

Guiness Bread

Makes one loaf

3 C plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

1/3 C oats + 1 tbsp

2/3 C dark brown sugar

340ml Guinness

1 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 175C/350F and grease a loaf pan with the butter. 

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, 1/3 C oats and brown sugar. Slowly beat the Guinness into the dry ingredients using an electric mixer on a low setting. Make sure it is not lumpy but do not over-mix.

Pour the batter in the greased loaf try and sprinkle the 1 tbsp of oats on top. 

Bake the bread for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Place on a cooling rack at room temperature.

I wouldn't recommend this bread not toasted as it is a little heavy but toasted with butter it is so delicious! It says you can use any type of beer with this recipe so I foresee a range of beer breads in the near future!

*If you are looking for a slightly healthier option, I have also tried this bread with 1C wholemeal flour and 2C plain white and there is little difference.

**I have since tried this with London Pride instead of Guinness and it worked great! It was even a little sweeter than with Guinness and didn't rise quite as much but again toasted with butter is so delicious.

Cadbury's Creme Egg Brownies

This recipe popped up on Facebook this week and my girlfriends and I tried it out as soon as physically possible! They went far too quickly to get a photo but they were GOOD! Perfect timing for Easter..

*picture and recipe Lizzie Batchelar via Cadbury's facebook page

Cadbury's Creme Egg Brownies

185g unsalted butter

185g best dark chocolate

85g plain flour

40g cocoa powder

3 large eggs

275g golden caster sugar

6 Cadbury’s Crème eggs cut in half

-  Preheat the oven to 160C and grease a 20 cm square baking tin. Melt the butter and dark chocolate together either in the microwave or in a bowl over boiling water.

-  Break 3 large eggs into a large bowl and tip in 275g golden caster sugar. With an electric mixer on maximum speed, whisk the eggs and sugar until they look thick and creamy, like a milk shake. This can take 3-8 minutes. You will know it's ready when the mixture becomes really pale and about double its original volume.

-  Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggy mousse, and then gently fold together.

-  Hold a sieve over the bowl of eggy chocolate mixture and sift the cocoa and flour mixture, -  -  Pour into the baking tin and cook for 15 minutes then take out of the over and gently press the cadburys crème egg halves into the mix, spacing them apart evenly. Put back in the over for another 5-10 minutes. *Do not leave longer than 10 minutes else the goo goes hard!*

-  Leave to cool before removing from tin and cutting into squares.

Roast Chicken with White Wine & Shallots

For my housemate's birthday I made the house dinner. My nan had made me this recipe a few weeks before and as the birthday boy's favourite thing in the world was chicken I decided to make it for him. It's a really easy recipe for how good it is, all in one dish! The recipe calls for a whole chicken cut into 8 but when my nan made it she used thighs so I did the same and used thighs and drumsticks.

This is a Bill Granger recipe and comes from the delicious magazine that I have mentioned before, a brilliant magazine for keen cooks (my nan subscribes so I can nick hers!). The recipe recommends to serve with crispy bread and a side salad but I served with mashed potato and it was really good for soaking up all the good gravy!

Roast Chicken with White Wine & Shallots
Serves 4
8-10 chicken thighs and drumsticks
150g bacon, diced or into lardons
10 french shallots, peeled
Thyme (orig. fresh but I used dried)
1 fresh rosemary sprig
1 tsp chili flakes
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
250ml white wine

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F. Arrange the chicken in a large roasting dish and cover with shallots, bacon, thyme, rosemary and chili flakes, olive oil and S&P.

Roast for 20 minutes. Add the wine and roast for another 20-30 minutes or until chicken is golden brown and cooked.

Serve with mashed potato or crusty bread and salad.

Elasticated Skirt

The March part of my Stashbusting Sewalong Challenge is Impending Seasonal Change. As I've had so little time because of university work I decided to make something I already knew how to make: an elasticated skirt. I made this before for my friend Bailey so I know it works well - you can see hers and the tutorial here. 

I made it with some fabric I had bought with no intended use.. story of my life before this year.. It's got a really nice weight for a skirt and is navy blue so versatile as a wardrobe item. As you can see from my pictures I used my pinking shears I got for Christmas  and my dummy I got for Christmas! It's beautiful! I may shorten it a little but it looks pretty good on my dummy for now until it gets a bit warmer here in Brighton!

Ciabatta Bread

Apologies for the lack of posting.. final year panic has started to kick in and I'm in the library all day every day. I made this a few weeks ago and have only just got around to posting it.

My nan got a 'How to Bake' bread making book by Paul Hollywood for Christmas so we decided to try some out.  I don't really eat bread apart from Vogels but I love ciabatta and pita bread (especially with olive oil and dips!) It was so successful, and so easy - much easier than the tin loaf we also made which was far less exciting and delicious (in my opinion!).

Ciabatta
Makes 2
500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
10g salt
10g instant yeast
40ml olive oil
400ml tepid water Lightly oil a 2-3 litre square (or if not rectangular) plastic container. In a electric mixer, put flour, salt and yeast (without putting yeast and salt directly on eachother) and then start mixing while adding oil and three quarters of the water. When it starts to come together as dough, add the rest of the water a little at a time and mix on a medium speed for 5-8 minutes. It should be smooth after this time, but still sticky.

Put into a square or rectangular oiled container with a tea towel covering to rise in a warm place for at least an hour - 2-3h is recommended (at least until it doubles in size).  Mine went huge!

Preheat the oven to 220C degrees and cover 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Heavily flour a work surface and transfer the dough onto the flour trying not to push it down at all and trying to keep the square shape, trying to keep as much air in it as possible and in the same shape. Cover the top with more flour then cut into four equal pieces. Stretch each piece and place on a baking tray covered with baking paper.

Leave the rolls for a further 10 minutes then bake for 25 minutes until golden and sound hollow when tapped on the base. Place on a wire rack to cool or eat hot and fresh. 

Spicy New Orleans Barbeque Shrimp

For Valentines Day, some girlfriends and I had a night in and cooked dinner. I offered to bring the main as I had pinned a recipe I really wanted to try out from Return to Sunday Supper.  It did not disappoint! This is a really great recipe if you don't have a lot of time that evening to cook and so easy! I made it all in the morning and left it to marinade in the fridge all day. All I had to do in the evening was pop it in the oven with a baguette. It went down very well and all went - quickly!

Some of the ingredients I couldn't get as you can't get them in the UK so I have amended the recipe to what I used as substitutes. I was quite accurate in my measurements at first but as I was cooking for 6 people instead of 4 I added more of everything, taste-tested, then added more of things I thought it needed.

Warning! If you are not a spice-fan, half the cayenne pepper! My amended recipe is below.

Spicy New Orleans Barbeque Shrimp
Serves 6
1.25 kg king prawns, peeled and deveined
3/4 C butter, melted
2 tbsp Chili Sauce
2 tbsp tomato salsa
6 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
4 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp fresh parsley + 2 tbsp at end
1 tsp cayenne pepper
4 tbsp woodsmoke/hickory BBQ sauce
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp oregano
6 cloves minced fresh garlic
Dash of tabasco
[1 large baguette heated in oven to serve]

Peel and devein the shrimp. Add all of the other ingredients in a saucepan, stir and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and let cool. Arrange the shrimp in an oven- proof casserole dish and pour the sauce over the shrimp.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Preheat oven to 200C/400F and bake shrimp for 20 - 25 minutes.

Serve immediately sprinkled with the remaining 2 tbsp parsely and with a crusty baguette (baked for 5 minutes in oven at 150C).

Delicious!

Bow Tie

Happy Valentines everyone! For the February part of my Stashbusting Sewalong pledge, I made a cute bow tie for my little Valentine D who lives in New Zealand.

I followed a really great tutorial from delia creates - so good in fact that I won't try to top it or simplify it here but simply send you there!

I did make one small change however - as I couldn't measure D's neck so I added elastic to the collar instead of velcro. 

Hope you all have a great day!

Salads

After a heavy Christmas, I was really feeling some salads. One of my friends Kate pretty much only eats salad (okay, and seeds and nuts..) so I turned to her for some delicious recipes. Here are two that are simple but were really great and one is even a little winter-y if you're one of those people that don't like eating salad in the winter [I am not!]. Both go well with a dressing of 3:1 oil and balsamic with a tsp or so of smooth mustard.

Cranberry Walnut Salad
Mixed leaves
Cranberries
Walnuts, halved
Apple slices soaked in lemon juice
Mixed seeds
Cucumber, finely sliced
Mixed seeds
 

Pomegranate Mint Salad
Mixed leaves
Lettuce
Finely chopped fresh mint
Carrot, peeled
Pomegranate seeds

Enjoy!

Courgette & Chocolate Chip Muffins

I've seen many recipes for courgette (zucchini!) bread and muffins and finally got around to making some. I found this recipe on Alyssa B. Young and had most of the ingredients already.

They are really great. The recipe is simple and they turned out better than my cakes usually do with very little effort! The cinnamon especially really worked with the chocolate and they are really light.

My modified version is below - I made a few changes. I'm not a huge nut fan so I took away the walnuts and I didn't have any vanilla so I left it out, and I'm not sure it would add anything. I didn't want to put as much oil in as she suggested but then it seemed dry so I added another egg - worked perfectly! I tried two batches, one with 1C courgette and one with 2C courgette and both were really good so I would recommend doing it with 2C. Pictures are with 1C.

Courgette and Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 12
1.5 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C sugar
1 tsp baking/bicarbonate soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 C vegetable oil
1/4 C milk
1 tbs lemon juice
1-2 C shredded corguette/zucchini (approx 1-2 corguette)
1/4 C dark chocolate chips

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F/175 degrees C for 25-35 minutes or until muffins test done.

Heat Packs

As part of the Stashbusting Sewalong January Itty Bits, I managed to make, along with my pocket warmers, heat packs {I did finish in January - just!). There are many tutorials out there for heat packs but I really liked this one from fellow fellow with the split compartments and stop stitching around the sides. It was an easy project apart from the end trying to sew together the hole with loads of rice in the pack already! I made a bit of a mess with my thread but it's small and white so not wholly noticeable :)

It's not worth me writing out the tutorial as the one I followed was so good - so head there! The bags are filled with rice - easy to get and cheap!

So for January, I managed pocket warmers and heat packs - pretty fitting for the weather! I think I will continue January's theme throughout the challenge as I really love short projects and have plenty of small scraps left.

DIY: Pom Pom!

I knitted this hat a few years ago when I first learnt to knit and haven't really worn it at all because I thought it was a bit boring. I really like the colour and lost my other hat so decided to put a pom pom on so that I would wear it more!

I do want to do more knitting but I'm not very fast and so get bored easily. Hats are good for me as they are quick but it's been so long I have more or less forgotten how to use my circular needles!

The pom pom took less than 5 minutes and I think really transformed the hat. I've seen plenty of tutorials on pinterest on how to make a pom pom so I just did it by memory.

Wrap the yarn around your fingers at least 50 times.

Take it off your fingers and tie a long piece of yarn around the middle of the loops. Cut the middle of all the loops when the middle is firmly tied.

 Using a large eye needle simply sew into the top of the hat, as many times until it is firmly attached. Then cut the long threads and trim the pom pom ends until you are happy!

I will be wearing the hat more now! Especially when I get back to the UK and it's COLD!

DIY: Chili and Taco Seasoning

It was one of my good friend's birthday last month. She too is a keen cook so I decided to give her something food-related. I always want to make spice mixes I find on pinterest but I feel like many of them would be a lot of fun to make and then never be used. But then I found chili and taco mix! Starzy cooks for her house every week and I am sure she has done tacos and chili before - ie, a mix she would actually use! It's also good for her as it's not common to have a whole load of spices in a student house..

I got the recipe from My Baking Addiction and just substituted the onion powder with more garlic powder as I didn't have any. I also halved the chili flakes as I used some from my uncle's garden which are DANGEROUSLY hot!

4 tbsp of chili powder
2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons paprika
3 teaspoons sea salt
4 teaspoons black pepper

Simply mix all ingredients together!