Category Archives: Sunday Cook Off

Feb 20 2012
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Sunday Cook Off

Sunday Cook Off: Chocolate Ripple Teabread

Didn't quite manage to get a picture before tucking in

 

This week I made Chocolate Ripple Teabread, taken from a Cadburys chocolate recipe book that I’ve had for years. At the moment I’ve got my eye on one of my signature dishes, a Chocolate Marble Cheesecake – but that’s for another week.

Recipe

200g milk chocolate, broken into pieces

200g unsalted butter/margarine, softened

1 tsp ground mixed spice

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence (as always, I used more)

225g self-raising flour

1/2 (half) tsp baking powder

100g milk chocolate, chopped (to decorate)

1. Prepare a 1kg/2lb loaf tin. Put the chocolate (not the stuff for decoration) in a heatproof bowl, place over a pan of gently simmer water and leave until melted. Stir in 25g of the butter and the spice.

2. Place the remaining butter, the sugar, eggs and vanilla essence in a bowl. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Spoon one-quarter of the mixture into the tin. Spread one-third of the chocolate mixture over the cake mixture. Repeat the layering of the cake mixture and chocolate sauce, finishing with a layer of cake mixture [how many times can mixture be used in a sentence?!]. Sprinkle with the chopped chocolate.

3. Bake in a preheated over, 180*C (350*F) for 1 1/4 hours or until risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. **I found that, after 45 mins, my cake was well done and starting to burn, I’ve no idea where they got an hour and a quarter from, but when I make this again I’ll probably put it in for 40 mins max.** Leave in the tin for 10 mins and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

4. Gobble.

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Feb 13 2012
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Sunday Cook Off

(Belated) Sunday Cook Off: Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins

Woops. I got so caught up in Whitney/BAFTAs/Grammys that I completely forgot about my amazing recipe find. What a hectic Sunday!

Anyways, on to the sweet stuff…I used American measurements because I got the recipe from an American blogger (http://www.brighteyedbaker.com), but there are plenty of conversion tables that are only one Google search away. While they were baking, all of the muffins seemed to explode in the same direction and form quite a humourous shape, but they still tasted great so that’s all that matters.

Phallic, yet tasty

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon (I used a bit more for extra flavour)

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg (Be careful not to use too much, this is what adds the doughnut taste but you don’t want to go overboard)

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

2/3 cup light brown sugar

4 tablespoons oil (I used olive oil)

1 teaspoon vanilla (I always use more vanilla then the recipe advises, you can never really have too much)

Topping:

4 tablespoons butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Oven Temperature: 200*C

1. Prep a muffin tin with cooking spray (I wanted to cover the entire thing in cinnamon sugar, if you just want to use it as a topping then use muffin cups)

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla for about a minute. Add the dry ingredients to wet and mix until just combined.

4. Pour the batter into the muffin tin. Don’t be afraid to fill more than 2/3 full if needed. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, checking with a skewer at the end to make sure the muffins are done. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a bowl and combine the cinnamon and sugar in a separate, shallow bowl. The size/shape of your bowl depends on whether you want to dip the entire muffin into the mixture or just the top.

5. As soon as the muffins are done baking, dip one-by-one in melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar. Make sure not to drench them in too much butter/that you have an equal butter to sugar ratio, otherwise the muffins will go soggy. Place on a wire rack to cool.

6. Gobble.

Wait until the muffins are completely cooled before storing them, I made the mistake of putting them in a tub too soon (the dogs were looking a bit devious) and they were soggy by the morning. Next time I’m just going to leave them uncovered permanently, a stale doughnut is better than a wet doughnut.

Feb 05 2012
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Sunday Cook Off

Sunday Cook Off: Cheese and Guacamole Toastie

Mmm...cheese...

On a snowy kind of day all you want to eat is a bit of comfort food, so I turned to my latest obsession – chunks of Double Gloucester and lashings of guacamole between two slices of crusty bread. Nom. It’s not particularly complicated (By which I mean it’s the easiest thing I’ve ever made), and it helps to fulfil my daily cheese quota. I am a great lover of cheese, my friend and I used to live by the rule that anything can be tasty as long as you add enough of the stuff.

There isn’t really a recipe for this one as it’s quite self explanatory, but I’ll give you a rough guide.

1 – Take two slices of bread and butter one side of each. Slice as much cheese as you think is necessary and set to one side.

2 – Heat a frying pan (don’t add oil or anything else, that’s what the butter is for) and put in one slice of bread, buttered side down. Spread the guacamole on top and add the cheese, then pop on the second slice with the buttered side facing up.

3 – Wait a few minutes for it to crisp up and then flip and repeat.

4 – Gobble it all up.

Apologies for the poor photo, but I was really quite impatient to get my teeth into the fatty goodness. And for some reason it’s come out sideways, again, sorry.

I’ve got to be honest, there aren’t a lot of recipes that I use that are particularly healthy, so maybe don’t come here on a Sunday if you’re struggling to be content with a Slimfast. I particularly enjoy cakes. But that’s for next week…

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