Sally's spinach, mozzarella and tomato wholegrain loaf

I used Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Wholegrain seeded flour, which is described as a "Rich malted bread flour with wholegrain wheat, sunflower, pumpkin and linseeds".

I used the directions on the side as a guide and added/adjusted/switched a few ingredients. My baking tends to use recipes made up in my head. This is probably how it went.

Probable ingredients:
500g of wholegrain seeded flour.
125g of mozzarella
Sachet of fast action yeast.
25g of olive oil (instead of butter).
Lukewarm water, much less than written on side of flour packet. I think I used about 250ml, but use up to 350ml as necessary.
Salt, approx 1.5tsps.
2 small blocks of frozen spinach. 50-60g ish.
Some semi dried tomatoes. I think about 50-60g again at a guess.

Method:
1. Microwave the spinach to defrost. Put in a sieve to allow any excess water to drip out. 
2. Use directions on side of bread packet to make bread. I think it went a bit like...
3. Flour in bowl. Mix in yeast and salt.
4. Put olive oil in and mix with fingertips until resembles breadcrumbs.
5. Add and mix in the lukewarm water until the dough comes together but is not sticky. Leave it slightly on the dry side as later added ingredients are wet.
6. Knead for about 10 mins.
7. Chop mozzarella, spinach and semi dried tomatoes to your preference. Add to mix and stir through.
8. Put in a bowl and cover with cling film or a plastic bag.
9. Put in a warm place for at least an hour.
10. Take dough out, knock down and put in a loaf tin.
11. Cover again and put back in the warm place for at least 30 mins to rise again.
12. Pre-heat oven to gas mark 7 (220c, 200c for fan assisted or 425f for you retro kids).
13. Cook for about half an hour in the middle of the oven until golden brown.

To enjoy:
It is a little heavy, so I would recommend slicing and toasting it, with lashings of butter. Yum!

Sally's Raspberry and Blueberry Jubilee Battenberg

Raspberry and Blueberry Jubilee Battenberg

Ingredients:

200g butter, softened

200g caster sugar

4 eggs

200g self-raising flour

90g blueberries

90g raspberries

A few drops of vanilla essence

1 x pkt white marzipan

1/3rd of a jar of strawberry conserve or jam.

Prepare an 8″ square tin by lining the sides and the base.  In the piece of baking paper for the base fold a pleat which will divide the cake in half.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160c (fan)/180c/Gas Mark 4.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time along with a spoonful of the flour to prevent the mixture from curdling.

Add the vanilla essence.

Once all the eggs are in sift in the remaining flour and fold until the mixture is even.

Split the cake mix between two bowls.

Take the blueberries and raspberries, and lightly blitz using a stick blender or mash with a fork in separate bowls.

Add the crushed blueberries to one bowl of cake mix and the raspberries to the other. Stir through evenly.

Add each cake mix to it’s own little compartment in the tin and level roughly with the back of a spoon.

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes until lightly golden brown and cooked through.

Once baked transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Trim the crusts off each cake and level the top.

Cut each type of cake into two even pieces.

Now it’s assembly time.

Work on a chopping board or something similar.  Position one log and coat the top and two side with jam, don’t worry about the base for now.

Add in the next piece of cake and again coat the top and the sides.

Add in the next piece on top, making sure the different cake flavours sit diagonally.  Jam….you get the gist.  It’s like building a wall.

Once assembled make sure the top and sides are coated with the jam, again leaving the base for now.

Set the cake to one side and lightly dust the worksurface with icing sugar.

Knead the marzipan until it’s soft and pliable enough to work with and roll out into a large rectangle, approx 4mm deep.

Trim the rectangle to just slightly larger to the depth and your cake and slightly wider than the measurement around the entire cake  (approx 20cm x 30cm). Check your marzipan sheet isn’t stuck to the worksurface before going any further!

Lay the sheet of marzipan onto the cake centrally.

Now carefully flip the Battenberg over onto the worksurface so that the base is now in the air.

Coat the base with a layer of jam and finish wrapping the marzipan around the sides and the top.

Trim off any excess where the marzipan meets.

Carefully turn the Battenberg over so that the seal is now underneath.

Smooth and straighten the marzipan sides.

To crimp the top use your fingertips working along each side. Either use the end of a piece of cutlery or just your finger in place of the spoon, pushing the marzipan into your thumb and forefinger.  If in doubt practice on a piece of excess marzipan first!

Prick a line for decoration along each crimp with a fork.

Finally trim each end with a sharp knife to neaten the marzipan and cake.

Sally's sausage rolls for people who don't like sausage rolls

I don't like sausage rolls and I'd never baked with pastry, so I thought I'd try to make sausage rolls I wouldn't mind eating. Ingredients I bought went something a bit like this:

500g ish of belly pork.
Pack of streaky bacon.
Small pack of puff pastry, but a larger one would have been a much better idea.
Fresh thyme.
A pack of cherry tomatoes.
Lemon juice.
A pack of baby button mushrooms (probably about 150g, I'd guess)
Red onion.
One egg.

This is what I did:
1) Chop up belly pork into 1cm squares. A sharp knife and patience works well here. I only had one of these.
2) Chop up bacon into similar size pieces with scissors.
3) Put in a mixing bowl.
4) Finely chop the onion.
5) Slice the mushrooms.
6) Quarter the cherry tomatoes.
7) Put veggies in and mix.
8) Chop up some thyme and add this and the lemon juice to taste.
9) Dust some flour over worksurface and nice dress you're wearing. Roll the pastry out to about the thickness of a pound coin.
10) Grease three baking trays and pre-heat oven to whatever the puff pastry packed said, I think about gas mark 6 or 7?
11) Half the pastry lengthways (split into thirds if you bought a bigger pack of pastry, I'd imagine), and place some mixture down the middle leaving plenty of pastry each side.
12) Beat the egg.
13) Brush some beaten egg down the inside of one of the pastry sides.
14) Flop the un-egged pastry side over, then flop the egged side over that. Press firmly to seal.
15) Turn huge sausage roll over so it is sitting on the seal. It looks prettier this way.
16) Slice into pieces, about an inch or a bit less is good.
17) Place on baking trays.
18) Snip pretty little steam vents into the top of the pastry.
19) Glaze tops of rolls with egg.
20) Repeat steps 11-19 (without halving the pastry again!) until you've used all the pastry.
21) Pop baking trays in oven for 20-25 mins until pastry has risen and is golden brown, and meat is cooked.
22) Go change flour splattered dress.
23) Enjoy!

I had a lot of sausage mix left. I fried it up with more cherry tomatoes, a tin of tomatoes, courgettes and onions and served it with pasta. Delicious!

Sally's squishy orange & spice cookies

 

 

Ingredients

Serves: 18

• 250g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 170g unsalted butter, melted
• 200g dark brown soft sugar
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 325g chocolate chips (I used Green & Black's Maya Gold 100g bar, G&B's Burnt Toffee 100g bar, and almost all of G&B's milk chocolate cooking chocolate 150g bar)
• Zest of 1 orange
• Juice of half an orange
• As much mixed spice as you want (I think I used about 1-2 teaspoons)

Preparation method

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 15 mins

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C / Gas mark 3. Grease baking trays or line with parchment.
2. Sift together the flour, bicarb and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough onto the prepared baking trays, with each cookie around 4 tablespoons of dough (for smaller cookies, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful and adjust baking time as necessary). Do not flatten the dough. Cookies should be about 8cm apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking trays for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.