Stacey's Beetroot and Goat's Cheese Brownies

For "Mad March", I wanted to bake something a little on the unusual side, so when I saw a photo of "goat's cheese brownies" on buzzfeed, I knew that had to be it. The only problem was that it ended up turning out that goat's cheese brownies were not that mad at all... when I searched for recipes 100's came up! Apparently goat's cheese brownies are pretty big in the USA! So, how could I make my brownies even madder? By adding beetroot. Yummy, lovely beetroot.

This is a brownie of three layers. I used my usual brownie recipe for the chocolate layer, and took inspiration for the goat's cheese layer and the beetroot layer here and here (respectively). I started mine with the chocolate layer, then goat's cheese, and then beetroot. Next time I make them, I'll do the beetroot layer first, as that batter is much thicker than the other two and needed spreading with a spoon, whereas the chocolate and cheese layers could just be poured. I've typed the instructions below as if the beetroot layer went in first, because I think you'll find it much easier to do that way!

I've provided below all of the ingredients you need to make all three layers, so this will work as a sort of shopping list. But, to make it easier to read and to tell what goes where, I've split ingredients by layer in the method below. I hope this makes sense!

Ingredients

175g cooked beetroot

35ml vegetable oil

100g dark chocolate

3 medium eggs

50g caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

100g self raising flour

50g cocoa powder

150g soft goat's cheese

30g honey

55g margarine

110g muscovado sugar

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes

Makes: 25 brownies

• Preheat the oven to 180 and line a brownie tin with baking paper
• Start with the beetroot layer: 

For the beetroot layer:

175g cooked beetroot

35ml vegetable oil

100g dark chocolate

1 egg

50g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

45g self raising flour

25g cocoa powder

• Put the beetroot and the oil into a blender and blend to a fine paste. Add the chocolate and blend until the chocolate is in very small chunks. Put this mixture to one side.
• Pop the egg, sugar and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl and whisk until pale and foamy. Add the beetroot mixture, flour and cocoa powder to the bowl and fold into the eggs until all combined.
• Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and spread level with the back of a spoon. Pop the brownie tin to one side whilst you prepare the cheese layer:

For the cheese layer:

150g soft goat's cheese

1 egg

30g honey

20g self raising flour

• Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and whisk until smooth. Carefully pour the mixture over the beetroot layer and put to one side.
• Prepare your chocolate layer:

For the chocolate layer:

55g margarine

25g cocoa powder

1 egg

110g muscovado sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

35g self raising flour

• Melt the margarine, either in the microwave or in a pan over a low heat. Stir in the cocoa powder, and put this to one side to cool for a few minutes.
• Put the egg, sugar and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl and whisk until pale and foamy. You'd be surprised - even brown sugar goes pale when whisked!
• Fold in the cocoa mixture and the flour until this combines to a smooth, runny batter.
• Pour the batter very carefully over the goats cheese layer in the brownie tin, making sure to cover all of the goats cheese mixture.
• Pop the brownies into the over for 40 minutes. The brownies should feel "set" when you press them likely - that's how you know they will be cooked but still fudgey.
• Allow the brownies to cool in the tin before turning out onto a chopping board and cutting into 25 squares.
• Eat one, and be amazed at the marvellous combination of taste and texture!

Stacey's Gluten Free Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

These are absolutely the chewiest cookies I ever made. Seriously good stuff. For our "free-from" month my main "bake" was to make a gluten free veggie lasagne, but I didn't like the way it turned out so I went ahead and knocked up these vegan and gluten free cookies instead. The recipe below started it's life over on this blog here, but as usually I messed with the quantities and stuff. Seriously - I think I have a problem where I'm not actually able to follow a recipe.

I think next time I make these, I may leave 50g of my oats whole to give the cookies a little more structure. I'll post pics/update to let you know how it goes!

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 8-10 minutes
Makes 18 cookies

Ingredients:
150g rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder

250g crunchy peanut butter

150g dark muscovado sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp water (if needed)

1. Preheat your oven to 180 and line a couple of baking sheets with grease proof paper
2. Pop you oats into a blender, and whizz to a fine powder. Don't worry if there are a couple of rough bit. Stir in the baking powder and put to one side.
3. Beat together the peanut butter, sugar and vanilla extract until well combined. Stir in the oat flour until a crumbly dough starts to form, then knead this gently with your hands until the mixture comes together. If you find the mixture is too crumbly, add a little water until you get smooth dough.
4. Roll the dough into balls and pop on the baking sheets, making sure to leave ample space between as the cookies will spread! 
5. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown and starting to get crisp on top. Don't worry if they are still gooey when you take them out of the oven, they will firm up slightly as they cool. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes, until transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Enjoy!

Stacey's Cheese Scones

I'm following the example set by other members, and posting my recipes from previous meetings... starting with these cheese scones from our Fairytale Tea Party in July! I had used the "Sword in the Scone" pun previously for my other blog, but it went down well so I figured it would be a good way to get some savoury bakes into our fairytale offering. I accidentally made these vegan, since I try to avoid dairy and used sunflower spread, soy milk and soy cheese. I don't particularly like the taste of soy cheese normally, but it tasted fine in these scones. The scones can be served warm or allowed to cool before serving, and are best eaten on the day of baking.

Prep time: 5-10 mins        

Cook time: 10-12 mins       

Makes 6 large scones

Ingredients:

135ml milk
1 tsp lemon juice

275g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
tsp baking powder
65g margarine
1tbsp caster sugar

100g grated cheese

To glaze:

2tbsp milk
Salt and cracked black pepper

1. Heat the oven to gas mark 7 and place the baking tray you plan to use into the oven to heat up.
2. Heat the milk in the microwave for around 30 seconds until warm, but not hot. Add the lemon juice to the milk and set this to one side for a few minutes whilst you prepare the dry ingredients.
3. Tip the flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl, and then tip in the margarine. Rub the ingredients together with your fingers until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and grated cheese to the crumb-like mixture, and mix in with your hands.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the cooled milk. Mix these together using a cutlery knife until they combine to make a wet dough, being careful not to overwork.
5. Scatter flour over the work surface and tip the dough out onto it. Sprinkle a little more flour on top of the dough. Fold the dough over itself 2-3 times until it becomes smooth, again being careful not to overwork. Pat the dough out (it's better to pat than to use a rolling pin) to around 3cm thick.
6. Using a cutter of your choice, cut scones out of the dough. Tip - do not twist your cutter as this seals the sides of the dough and may prevent your scones from rising.
7. Brush the scones with a little milk, and then sprinkle on some salt and black pepper before popping them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.
8. Enjoy!

Happy Baking!

Stacey's MBS&V Brownies

MBS&V = Mars Bar, Salt and Vinegar. Bear with me.

When we decided that the theme for this month's bake would be "guilty pleasures", I knew exactly what mine would be based on: a delightfully disgusting habit I discovered as a young teenager. See I was a young teenager in the early 2000's, in the time before Jamie Oliver launched his attack on Turkey Twizzlers and before anyone even considered sending their kids to school with a healthy, nutritious packed-lunch. So my packed lunch usually consisted of a soggy sandwich, a packet of crisps (Salt and Vinegar, naturally) and a chocolate bar. I've never been overly fond of sandwiches, so that usually got binned, and I spent my later school years (without my mother's knowledge or consent, I should add!) lunching on mars bars and salt and vinegar crisps. But boy did I know how to make the most of it! I would break the mars bar up into chunks, and put these INSIDE the bag of salt and vinegar crisps. I would then take a chunk of mars bar out of the crisp bag, sandwich it between two crisps, and shove the whole lot in my mouth in one bite. I know, it sounds disgusting, but trust me, the combination of crispy, crunchy, salty crisps, with sweet, gooey mars bar is the tastiest contradiction ones tongue could ever know.

As I got older an wiser I started eating healthy lunches, but ever so often I'd treat myself to my tasty guilty pleasure... so that's why we ended up with Mars Bar and Salt & Vinegar brownies!

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 40 minutes
Makes 12 brownies

Ingredients:
225g margarine
100g cocoa powder
3 mars bars
4 eggs
450g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g self raising flour
2 packets of salt and vinegar crisps

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 (180) and line a square cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Melt the margarine in a saucepan over a low heat. Once completely melted, remove from the heat and stir in the cocoa powder until a thick, smooth mixture forms. Leave this to one side to cool.
3. Whilst the chocolate mixture is cooling, chop your mars bars into bite-sized chunks.
4. Tip the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract into a large mixing bowl and whisk at a high speed until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick, pale and creamy. Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture and the chunks of mars bar until the chocolate is all stirred through.
5. Add the flour to the bowl and fold in until just combined, then transfer the mixture into the prepare baking tin.
6. Crush the crisps into small chunks and sprinkle these over the top of the brownie mixture. Bake for 40 minutes, until firm to touch. Allow the brownie to cool in the tin before cutting into chunks.

Stacey's Raspberry Yogurt "Cheese"cakes

For Cake'n'Bake Club's healthy theme, I decided to bake some mini-raspberry cheesecakes. These cheesecakes are low-fat, low-calorie, sugar-free, and cheese-free. Yep, no cheese. I shouldn't really call them cheesecakes, but "yogurt and tofu-cakes" just sounds a bit weird. Anyway, the recipe I started with was Chocolate Covered Katie's Greek Yogurt Cheesecake, but I made one or two tweaks along the way. (As a side note, I love Katie's blog - everything looks so yummy and usually low-fat/sugar-free!) I baked my pretend-cheesecakes in a mini-muffin pan, firstly because I thought they would be easier to share this way, and secondly because I thought a bit-sized treat was more in-keeping with the month's theme! I did some very, very rough working out and found that each mini-cheesecake had 38 calories and 0.9g fat - not too shabby (although, it goes without saying that this will vary depending on the brands you use!) They didn't really taste like cheesecakes though, and if I'm honest I wouldn't make them again. They mostly tasted just like raspberry yogurt, but the stevia made them taste a little artificial. Still, it was fun to experiment and they didn't taste bad - they just didn't taste cheesecakey enough for me! :-)

Please note - you will need a blender for this recipe!

Prep time: 20-25 minutes
Cook time: 30-35 minutes
Chill: at least 2 hours, preferably overnight
Makes 24 mini-cheesecakes

Ingredients:
100g Almond Biscotti (my recipe for home-made almond biscotti is here)
5 tbsp almond milk
Punnet of raspberries
150g silken-firm tofu
350g low-fat natural Greek yogurt
5 tbsp stevia-extract sugar alternative
15g cornflour

1. Lightly grease a mini-muffin pan and pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4.
2. Start by whizzing the biscotti in your blender until it's in fine crumbs. Add the almond milk, and whizz again until they combined to form a paste. Put 1tsp of the biscuit mixture into each muffin hole and press down with the back of the spoon. Pop this in the fridge whilst you prepare the "cheese" filling.
3. Count out 24 raspberries and put these to one side. Put the tofu into your blender and puree until smooth. Add the yogurt, the remaining raspberries, the stevia and the cornflour and blend until all have combined.
4. Spoon 2tsps of the yogurt/tofu mixture onto each biscuit base, then gently press one of the reserved raspberries on top of this. 
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes until set and starting to brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before popping into the fridge to set overnight.
6. When ready to serve, carefully turn the cheesecakes out of the muffin pan. I'd recommend you try one before serving, just to make sure they are OK ;-)

Stacey's Bailey's Blondies

These Blondies are also known as "Monica Geller's" because they came to be due to my uncontrollable need to please people.

Basically, on the day of our December meeting we had a few last minute cancellations, which under normal circumstances wouldn't pose a problem, but because of the Secret Santa theme this month it meant that some bakers would not receive their "gift" (i.e. have their word baked) and that simply couldn't do.

I finish work at 5pm, and on club nights aim to get to the Friends Meeting House by 7pm to start setting up. Usually I take my bake club things to work with me in the morning, stay at work until 6:30pm and go straight from there, as work is about halfway between my house and the meeting house. This time, however, to ensure that everyone got their words baked, I left work bang on 5pm, ran to the supermarket to buy some ingredients, ran home, and started baking like a mad-woman! Anyway, I ended up getting a taxi up to the meeting house, and the brownies were still lovely and warm by the time I got there. Thankfully, Ruth had arrived before I did and started setting up shop :-) We then sat and ate some of the gooier brownies with spoons. It was a good day.

Anyway, the words that needed to be baked were Bailey's, Stars and Red. so below is my recipe for Bailey's Blondies with white chocolate stars and red edible glitter to decorate!


Ingredients:
200g slightly salted butter
100g white chocolate
2 medium eggs
135g caster sugar
100ml Bailey's Irish Cream
300g plain flour
Edible glitter and white chocolate stars to decorate (optional)

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 - 40 minutes
Makes 16 blondies

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and line a square tin with baking paper.
2. Put the butter into a small microwavable bowl and melt in the microwave. Place this to one side to cool.
3. Melt the white chocolate, either in the microwave in 20 second blasts, or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, place to one side to cool.
4. Put the eggs and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl and beat until frothy. Beat in the cooled melted butter, Baileys and white chocolate. Finally add the flour to the mixture and fold in until just combined.
5. Pour the batter into the prepare cake tin, then sprinkle on the edible glitter and white chocolate stars, if using, to decorate.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown in colour, and springy but still moist to touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan before turning out and cutting into 16 gorgeous, gooey brownies!

Stacey's Ginger and White Chocolate Cheesecake

So, the word I drew out of the hat this Christmas was ginger (THE flavour of Christmas last year!!) Originally I was planning to bake a gingerbread house that we could assemble together at the meeting, but as I did the draw I knew that another member had gingerbread, so I decided to go for something a little bit different. As it turned out - Steph made a cheesecake too!! There's no such thing as too much cheesecake, though, and Steph's was baked and tasted just like gingerbread, whereas mine was of the chilled variety. 

Ingredients:
200g gingernut biscuits
100g margarine
30g crystallised ginger, plus extra to decorate
150g white chocolate
300ml double cream
300g cream cheese
150g icing sugar
A little bronze lustre dust
Gold edible shimmer spray

Prep time: 20 minutes
Chill time: 3 hours (minimum)
Serves 8-10

1. Crush the gingernut biscuits into fine crumbs, either by putting in a blender, or by bashing with a rolling pin the old fashioned way.
2. Melt the margarine and mix into the biscuit crumbs. Pour the biscuit mixture into the cake tin you are using (I used a 7 inch springform pan) and press down with the back of a spoon to flatten. Pop the tin in the fridge to allow the biscuit base to set whilst you make the cheesecake filling.
3. Start by chopping the crystallised ginger into teeny tiny small pieces, and put these to one side. Melt the white chocolate - either in the microwave or in a bowl over hot water - and put this to one side to cool.
4. In a large bowl, whisk the double cream to soft peaks, then whisk in the cream cheese and icing sugar. Separate 250g (approximately 1/3) of the filling into a smaller bowl, and stir in the chopped ginger and bronze lustre dust. Put this to one side.
5. Whisk the cooled white chocolate into the remaining cheesecake mixture.
6. Remove the biscuit base from the fridge and start to layer the cheesecake fillings on top of this, making sure to level the top of the cheesecake between each layer. Start with half of the white chocolate filling, then all of the ginger filling, then the remaining white chocolate filling.  
7. Spray the top of the cheesecake with the gold shimmer spray, then place one or two pieces of ginger in the centre to decorate. Pop the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 3 hours to set before serving. (It's best to leave it overnight, if you can!)

 

Stacey's Rainbow Birthday Cake (of doom!!)

I was tempted not to post this recipe, simply because I can think of no reason why any sane person would want to recreate the monster I created for our first birthday party. But then I thought about it, and there are a lot of crazy people out there who might want to bake a 9lb birthday cake, so here's the recipe!

Yes, it really did weigh 9lbs. I weighed it and everything!

This one slice fed 5 people. I'm not even kidding.

I never actually intended to make a cake of this size. You see it was all an error of judgement. You see, I had planned to bake this in my 6" cake tin, meaning it would have been a smaller cake. However, I (stupidly) ordered the wrong size cake topper, and so the topper was too big for a 6 inch cake and I couldn't trim it down without losing too much of the design, so there was only one thing for it - I had to bake a 9 inch cake. The problem there being that I also couldn't reduce the number of layers... all colours of the rainbow should be present in a rainbow cake, and I'm already cheating a bit by merging "indigo" and "violet" into "purple".
 
Anyway, if for whatever reason you find yourself with way too much time of your hands, a kitchen full of baking ingredients, and a hankering for a cake of giant proportions, the recipe is below! Just to give you an idea of the quantities if you'd like to make a less gargantuan cake: I was going to use a 100g/1 egg mixture per layer for the 6" cake.

Ingredients:

for the cake:
900g margarine (no joke)
900g caster sugar
9 medium sized eggs
150ml milk
900g self raising flour
3 tbsp vanilla extract
Food colouring in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple

for the icing:
500g vegetable shortening (Trex)
1kg icing sugar (still not joking!!)
2 tbsp vanilla extract

to decorate:
hundreds and thousands of hundred and thousands
an edible cake topper of your choice (optional)

1.  Preheat the oven to gas mark 5, and grease and line two baking tins. 
2. Unless you're using your kitchen sink as a mixing bowl, you're probably going to want to make this in batches. I made my batter in three batches, splitting each batch into two layers of cake. 
3. Start off by beating 300g margarine with 300g caster sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and creamy. Beat in three of the eggs, one at a time, followed by 50mls of the milk and 1tbsp of the vanilla extract. By the time you've beat all that in, your mixture should be light and fluffy.
4. Measure out 300g of the flour, then fold this into the cake batter a little at a time, until the ingredients combine to form a smooth batter. Scoop half of the batter into a separate bowl, and use the food colourings to create a red batter and an orange batter. I always start with red as it's the worst colour to mix. If you don't use enough blue or green colouring, you just end up with light blue or light green. If you don't use enough red food colouring, you don't get light red. Oh no, my friend. You get pink. So you need to use a fair amount of red food colouring to get a red sponge. Don't forget though, that the colours will be more vibrant and a little darker once baked.
5. Pour the batters into the prepared cake tins, and bake for 25-30 minutes until firm but spongy to touch. Allow the cakes to cool in their tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to create your yellow, green, blue and purple layers. (Optional extra: make yourself a cup of tea and try to figure out how you're going to get this massive hunk of cakey goodness from your kitchen to the venue!!)
7. Once all the layers are baked and cooled, mix up your frosting by beating the shortening and icing sugar together. I used an electric mixer for this to save time.
8. Place your purple layer onto your serving plate, and spread a thin layer (roughly 1 tbsp) of the frosting over the top of this. Place your blue layer on top of this and repeat. Repeat also with the green, yellow, orange and red layers.
9. Once all of your layers are stacked, crumb coat the cake. A crumb coat is a thin layer of icing that goes onto your cake and is left to set before you put your actual icing on. It's like cake underpants. Crumb coating is a very good idea when making rainbow cake, as one of the purposes of a crumb coat is to stick the crumbs to the cake so they don't get into your outer layer of frosting. Rainbow cake crumbs stand out against white icing, so crumb coating is good. Plus it's fun to say: crumb coat. Anyways... once you've covered your cake in a thin layer of frosting, pop it into the fridge for an hour or so to allow the crumb coat to set completely.
10. Once the crumb coat has set, ice your cake with the remaining white icing. Top your cake with the edible topper, and use sprinkles to hide the seam between the cake topper and your frosting. I also poked sprinkles into the side of my cake to look like polka dots. I'm not really sure why I did that, it was just a whim. I thought it looked pretty at any rate.
11. Invite that guy from Man VS Food over, promising him a t-shirt and eternal glory if he can eat the whole thing in 45 minutes. Alternatively, share the cake with lots of friends and family, and lots of tea!       

Stacey's Meringue Ghosts

So, I possibly went a bit over-board with all the recipes this month. BUT in my defence we did have a few more non-baking guests than usual so I wanted to make sure they all had enough cake. I also had some egg whites leftover from my pumpkin pie mixture that I needed to use up. And I really like baking things for Halloween. So here are my meringue ghosts!

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Makes 18 ghosts

Ingredients:
2 egg whites, room temperature
60g golden caster sugar
60g icing sugar
Coloured sugar ball decorations for the eyes

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 1, and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
2. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, then add the caster sugar a little at a time, whisking well between each addition to ensure the sugar has dissolved. By the time you've whisked in all of the caster sugar, you should have a really thick, pillowy and glossy meringue.
3. Gently fold in the icing sugar with a spatula until it's all mixed in, then spoon the meringue into a large piping bag. 
4. Snip of the end of the piping bag and pipe hap-hazard spirals onto the baking sheet, about 2 inches tall. Carefully stick two sugar balls into each meringue pile for eyes.
5. Bake the meringues for 1 hour 30 minutes, then turn off the oven and allow them to come to room temperature with the oven door still closed. This will ensure you have super crisp, super yummy meringues!

Stacey's Mini Pumpkin Pies

I LOVE pumpkin pie! It's quite strange, actually, as I didn't even try pumpkin until October 2010, but it's one of my favourite ever foods. I usually make a big pumpkin pie, but wanted to make individual pies for our club meeting. Unfortunately this meant the I ended up with a fair amount of pumpkin pie mixture leftover, so I've halved the recipe below accordingly. If you do have too much, just place it in an airtight container in the freezer, and use it to make more pumpkin pies at a later date :-)

I used Joy's recipe for pastry (borrowed from her Bakewell Tarts) and I have to say, it's the most successful attempt at baking pastry I've ever made! (Pastry is my weakness!)

Ingredients

For the pastry cases:
200g slightly salted butter, chilled and cubed.
400g plain flour
80g icing sugar
2 medium eggs, beaten

Note: you could always use store bought pastry, if you wanted to. Mary Berry said it was OK. If using store bought pastry, skip to step 3.

For the pumpkin filling:
1 large egg, plus 1 yolk
125ml double cream
200g condensed milk
220g pureed pumpkin
1tsp ground cinnamon

Makes 16 - 18 tarts, depending on the size of you pan (I made mine in a muffin pan)

1. Start by NOT preheating the oven. You want the kitchen to be as cold as possible whilst you're making the pastry. Tip the cold, cubed butter and the flour into a large mixing bowl, and rub in between your fingers until it resembles fine bread crumbs. 
2. Mix in the icing sugar by hand, then cut in the beaten egg with a knife until the mixture starts to come together to form a dough. Press the mixture together into a ball, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.
3. Whilst the pastry is in the fridge, prepare your pie filling. Start by whisking the egg and egg yolk together until light and frothy. Add the cream, condensed milk, pureed pumpkin and cinnamon and continue to whisk for 3-4 minutes, until the ingredients combined to form a custard-like consistency.
4. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4, and grease a deep muffin pan.
5. Turn the pastry out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it lightly, before rolling out as thinly as possible. Cut circles out of the pastry and place this into the muffin pan, using the end of a rolling pin to help you push the pastry into the muffin holes. Prick the pastry cases all over with a fork, then blind bake for 15 minutes.
6. Take the pastry cases from the oven, and carefully remove the foil and baking beans used for the blind bake. Fill each pastry case with 2tbsp of the pie filling, then return to the oven for another 30 minutes, until the pie filling is completely set (you can test with a cocktail stick, if you'd like to.) You'll noticed that the pie filling has risen into a dome shape - this will deflate as the pie cools. Don't worry, this happens to mine all of the time and as far as I can tell it's normal. At the very least - they still taste good!
7. Allow the pies to cool in the muffin pan, then keep refrigerated.

Stacey's Mummified Mini-Pizzas

Here's the recipe for my Mummified Mini-Pizzas. I'd recommend eating these warm straight from the oven, as they are then REALLY tasty. I wouldn't recommend baking them on a Monday afternoon because you have the day off work and then putting them in a tupperware tub in the fridge until Wednesday evening, as that can make them go a bit soggy.

Prep time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook time: 25 - 30 minutes
Makes 16 mini pizzas

Ingredients:

For the pizza base:
3g (1/2 packet) dried yeast
1tbsp sugar (any kind)
2 tbsp olive oil
150ml warm water

175g white bread flour
75g wholemeal bread flour
Pinch of salt

For the topping:
50g tomato puree
One red pepper
Half a bag of grated mozzarella (can also use cheese strings, but I find that grated mozzarella tastes nicer!)

1. Start by making your pizza dough. tip the yeast, sugar and olive oil into a jug with the warm water and stir well. Put this to one side for a few minutes to allow the yeast to start working.
2. Tip both kinds of flour and the salt into a large mixing bowl, and mix together with your hands. Make a well in the centre of the bowl of flour and pour in your liquid mixture. Stir the flour from the sides of the bowl into the wet mixture with a fork until a rough dough forms. Tip this out onto a lightly floured surface a knead for a good 10 minutes before returning to the mixing bowl and covering with clingfilm. Leave in a warm place for an hour to prove.
3. After an hour the bread should have double in size. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. 
4. Tip the bread dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly for a minute or so to knock out the air. Roll the dough out to around 0.5cm, then cut circles out of it with a cookie cutter. Place these circular pizza bases onto the baking tray and bake for 10 minutes before removing from the oven to cool slightly before adding the toppings.
5. Meanwhile, cut small "eyes" out of the red pepper. Was the pizza bases are cool enough to handle, spread a little tomato puree on each one. Give each pizza two red pepper eyes, and then arrange the grated cheese around the eyes, leaving gaps in between to look like bandages.
6. Bake for a further 15 - 20 minutes until the cheese has melted and started to brown, and the underside of the pizza is completely cooked. Serve immediately - we don't want those Mummies to escape!

Stacey's Honey and Apricot Scones

I entered my Champagne Victoria Sponge recipe into a competition run by Natural Selection Foods and I won a whole bunch of their dried fruits, so I wanted to use some in my baking for fruit and veg month. I chose the apricots as they were lovely and sweet, and substituted the sugar for honey in this recipe.

225g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

50g butter or margarine

50g chopped apricots

2tbsp clear “runny” honey

100ml buttermilk

Beaten egg, to glaze

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 15-20 minutes

Makes 12 small scones

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Tip the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and mix together by hand. Add the butter and rub this into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add the chopped apricot, honey and buttermilk to the mixture and stir with a spoon until the mixture comes together to form a dough. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly for a few minutes, until the dough is soft and smooth.
4. Roll the dough out to around an inch thick, cut out small scones using a round cutter, then place these on the prepared baking tray, leaving a space between each. Brush with the beaten egg to glaze, then bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown on top.
5. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack to cool – although scones are always best eaten slightly warm!
6. Eat as they are, or serve with jam and cream.

Stacey's Raspberry Meringues

This is one of my favourite EVER recipes. They take a long time to cook, but it is SO worth the wait. You can use either fresh or frozen raspberries.

4 large egg-whites (room temperature)

1tsp cream of tartar

115g caster sugar

115g icing sugar

50g raspberries

Prep time: 15-20 minutes

Cook time: 1hour 45 minutes

Makes 18 meringues

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 1 and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Chop the raspberries into small pieces.
2. Whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar together until the egg whites are thick, opaque, and stand in stiff peaks.
3. Whisk the caster sugar into the egg whites one tbsp at a time, being sure to whisk well between each addition. If your sugar doesn’t dissolve into the egg whites properly at this stage you will end up with weepy meringues later! When all of the caster sugar has been added you should be left with a mixture that is stiff, smooth and glossy.
4. Gently fold half of the icing sugar into the meringue mixture until combined, but be careful not to beat out too much of the air you’ve whipped in! Add the remaining icing sugar and the raspberries to the meringue bowl, and fold these in gently.
5. Scoop the meringue mixture onto the baking tray using two tablespoons to shape into rough ovals, then bake for around 1 hour 45 minutes until golden brown and crispy on top.  Turn off the oven, but allow the meringues to cool inside the oven – this will create meringues which have a really crispy outer-layer, and a really gooey inside! Once completely cool, store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Stacey's Peanut Butter Fudge

Time taken: 15-20 minutes for preparation plus 2 hours to cool

Makes 15-20 pieces

Ingredients
65g butter
250g brown sugar
65ml milk
150g crunchy peanut butter
1tsp vanilla extract
150g icing sugar

Process

1. Line a small tray with cling film, so that the cling film hangs over the sides. I used one of those plastic tubs that you often get take-away food in as they are the perfect size!
2. Cut the butter into cubes, then melt in a saucepan over a medium heat.
3. Once the butter has melted, stir in the sugar and the milk until all of the sugar has dissolved. Bring the mixture to the boil without stirring. Once the mixture is bubbling leave it on the heat for a further 3 minutes and then remove from heat.
4. Add the peanut butter and the vanilla extract to the mixture and stir until all of the peanut butter has melted. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then tip the icing sugar into the pan. Stir until the ingredients have combined to form a smooth paste.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tray and leave to cool to room temperature before placing the fudge in the fridge to set (this usually takes at least two hours).
6. Once the fudge has set, use the cling film to help remove the fudge from the tray and cut into squares. Store the fudge in an airtight container.

Stacey's Ploughman's Picnic Rolls

These picnic rolls are great for a picnic as the filling is baked inside them. The recipe below is for my ploughman's picnic rolls, but you could do almost any filling, sweet or savoury! There also really good for packed-lunches. Just bake a batch at the weekend, leave them to cool, wrap them well and store them in the freezer. When ready to use, remove from the freezer and place in the oven at gas mark 4 for around 10 minutes to re-fresh - delish!

Prep-time: 1hour 45 minutes
Cook time: 25 - 30 minutes
Makes 8 picnic rolls

Ingredients:

For the dough:
300ml warm water
1tbsp brown sugar
2tbsp olive oil
7g sachet of dried yeast
500g strong white bread flour
Pinch of salt

For the filling:
2-3tbsp Branston Pickle (I used the small chunk variety)
4 slices of good quality ham
150g mature cheddar

1 small egg, beaten, to glaze
A little extra grated cheese, to decorate (optional)

1. Place the water, sugar, olive oil and yeast into a jug a stir well. Leave this to one side for a few minutes. Meanwhile, sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and create a well in the centre. Tip the yeast mixture into the centre of the well, then work the flour into it using a fork.
2. Once the ingredients have combined to form a rough dough, tip the contents of the bowl onto a clean dry work surface. Knead by hand for 5-7 minutes, until all of the flour is incorporated and you have a soft, springy dough. Place the dough into a large oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for one hour, until doubled in size.
3. Whilst the dough is proving, prepare your filling. Slice the ham into strips and grate the cheese. Leave these to one side until ready to use.
4. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knock back, then split into 8 equally sized balls. 
5. Making one at a time, roll each ball out until around 5mm thick then spread a thin layer of pickle over the top, making sure to leave a space around the edges. Sprinkle on your other filling ingredients, then begin to roll the dough up Swiss roll style. Tuck the ends of the roll underneath to create and oval bun shape. Please the rolls on a floured baking tray and leave to prove for a further 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6.
6. Once doubled in size, glaze the rolls with a little beaten egg, and sprinkle a little grated cheese on top of each one. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until golden brown all over, then remove and leave to cool.