Jubilee Jammie's

♬ 'Big Willie Style' by Will Smith

Who doesn't love Will Smith? I heard him on the radio this afternoon and have been playing his jiggy tracks most of the day. Apart from reminiscing and singing down the heavens when 'just the two of us' came on, I also got a bit Viddy happy. I have a feeling this fifteen second video phase is the start of another craze. My mini videos will solely be food related, not song covers or staring out the camera. 

The Jubilee is approaching and I've still got a few creative ideas in my cake tin of a brain, here is an idea that will brighten a cake stall or be lovely with a cup of tea. 

When it came to deciding on a biscuit recipe, I wanted buttery, gooey, short and slightly crumbly. Using egg yolks and icing sugar give these biscuits exactly the above, which will melt in your mouth. 

Ingredients to make 12:

2 medium egg yolks

225g soft butter

1 tsp almond essence

300g plain flour

120g icing sugar, save some for dusting.

Raspberry jam

Blackcurrant jam

Black cherry jam

Method:

: Working left down...

: Cream butter and icing sugar until soft.

: Add yolks and flour, stir in and turn out mixture on a table and press altogether to make a soft and slightly sticky dough. No need to knead too much here.

: Make it cold by keeping it in the fridge for a minimum of two hours.


: Preheat oven to 180°c.

: Cut the dough in half. Roll one half to about 5mm on a floured surface, and use a large cookie cutter (6-8cm) and cut 12 bases. 

: Lay on a large tray lines with greaseproof paper. Keep enough space between each biscuit.

: Bake for 10 minutes until they start to brown. Take out to cool and they can toughen up.

: Do the same for the second dough, but this time cut a small shape in the middle. A circle, star or even a diamond would be cool.

: Put the small shapes back in the dough to avoid waste.

Once each biscuit has cooled, use a selection of organic colourful jams and spread a small amount on each base.

Dust each top biscuit with icing sugar before placing it on top of the jammie base.

Favourite Songs:

ê 'Miami'

             

ê 'Just The Two Of Us'

Apple Covered in Crumble

♬ 'Lungs' by Florence and The Machine

The cycle back home was tedious. There were a handful of cyclists and drivers who shouted rather hideous comments. By far the best one was from a rather hot looking guy on a fixed gear bike who sped past me and shouted, 'come on girl sort it out!'. He made a good point, I have just got back from yet another heart wrenching boxing session and my legs feel and have the characteristics of jelly. This afternoon it was a different story, I was full of life because I came across two new Iphone apps and my legs were raring to go!

My all time favourite album was put on while I made this gorgeous pudding. I'll try and put my finger on it: 'Lungs' is my back drop, saviour and the only album that can make me feel happy, sad and crap all at the same time. Anyway while Florence is singing, I took the opportunity to try something that I've been pondering for about two months. There is the standard apple crumble, on the other hand I thought why can't the crumble work around the apple? At first I thought this would never work because the apple would get sloshy and the crumble will not stick effectively. This could only be resolved if the apple was not stewed for the same time like in a standard crumble recipe. I figured if I keep the apple in boiling sugary water while making the crumble, this should be enough to save it from browning and get it slightly soft on the outside.

Here is the recipe, a picture frame, and a short video courtesy of Viddy. Honestly without my Iphone and the apps my life would be just as unfortunate as the Wicked Witch of the East. Wow I went a bit link happy for a moment, the reason being you need to know what I ramble on about!

Recipe for one.

Ingredients:

1 large Bramley apple

25g soft butter

25g caster sugar and extra for the water.

50g plain flour

Granulated sugar for sprinkling

1 heaped teaspoon of mixed spice

Method:

: Preheat oven to 200°c.

: Boil the kettle then pour in a large saucepan, add 2 teaspoons of sugar.

: Core and peel the apple as quick as you can, then immerse in the boiling water and put the lid on.

Working from left to right on the photo method below... 

: While the apple is in the water, make your crumble by using your fingertips and rubbing in the butter, sugar and flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.

: I took about 5 minutes rubbing in, try not to take longer than this as the apple could get too soft.

: Scoop the apple out the water and roll in the crumble.

: Use both hands to stick the crumble around every bit of the apple. Even stuff a bit down the core.

: Lay on greaseproof paper, sprinkle granulated sugar on top and bake for 25 minutes.

: Once golden and a few cracks appear it should be done.

: Serve with hot custard, cream or ice cream in the core.

Finally this is my reaction and the finished pudding. Viddy is like a video twitter, so for 15 cute treasured seconds I am talking fast, showing you the finished pudding and excited about gobbling it all up. Find mixitcookit and follow moi, there will be viddies that won't make it on the blog and will show quick meal ideas.

 Practice makes perfect, and there will be loads of these Viddies while longer videos are in the process of being edited.

 Favourite Song:

ê 'Dog Days Are Over'

Quorn Gratin

♬ 'The Sound Of The Smiths' by The Smiths

I don't know too much about this band, mainly due to the fact that I am a pure 90's chick. However I was pretending to be a witch when role playing this afternoon and this is why I chose this album! 'How soon is now?' was the theme tune to a series called 'Charmed' which was during an era when vampires, demons and witches were dominating television. Please don't get me started on 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer', let's just say I was engrossed!

 Kids love the same game over and over again, and after 10 rounds of bad witch vs good witch, I was shattered and the cackling was drying out my throat. It was most definitely time to eat. This is not technically a proper gratin, but has similar properties. The preparation of gratin varies, but I wanted to flip the script and use tomatoes instead of cream. Hopefully one day when I visit France someone will show me the traditional method.

Now back from a hardcore session of boxing, I'm getting hungry looking at this photo and will have to make it again. I've used Quorn mince as it's quick, low fat and high in protein.

 ▶Recipe for a medium dish, serves 6.

Ingredients:

300g Quorn mince

1 can of organic chopped tomatoes.

1 teaspoon chilli powder

400g kidney beans

1 tsp dried oregano

1 small red sliced onion

3 small garlic cloves, crushed.

Pinch of fennel seeds.

Salt

Pepper

Tomato puree

Light olive oil

2 dried chillies

5 medium Desirée potatoes with skin on and sliced like thick crisps. 4 slices should come out from one potato. For a rough estimate keep on slicing and lay them in the dish. Or if you wish to use a mandoline slicer, use less potatoes.

Buffalo Mozzarella

Method:

: Fry the onions in a tablespoon of olive oil until soft, add 2 crushed garlic cloves and the  fennel seeds, keep on a low heat until the seeds start giving off their aroma.

: Add the mince and stir for one minute, then tip in the can of tomatoes.

: Fill this whole can with water and pour in.

: Use a tablespoon to measure out the tomato puree and stir in.

: The chillies can get involved at this stage.

: Simmer for about 15 minutes, then add the oregano and kidney beans.

: Taste then season if you wish, I added a tiny bit of sea salt and a lot of black pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes with lid off.

: Preheat oven to 190°c.

: In a gratin or fairly shallow dish drizzle a bit of olive oil and rub remaining crushed garlic on the base and the sides.

: Lay one half of the potatoes at the bottom, then pour over the mince, discard the dried chillies.

: Line the rest of the potatoes on top, add torn or grated mozzarella and a bit more oregano.

: Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.

: Take off the foil and bake for an extra 30 minutes. 

: Wait to see a nice crust forming and then poke a fork in one potato and check to see if it's done.

: Put under the grill for a few more minutes so the mozzarella browns a bit and serve hot.

A meal fit to curl up on the sofa with a simple salad and watch some vampire action.

Favourite Song:

ê 'How Soon Is Now?'

Popping Jubilee Lollies

♬ Various tracks from M.I.A, particularly 'Bad Girls'! 

A plethora of gold heavy chains, rings and psychedelic prints have been at the forefront of my wardrobe this weekend. And who better than the very cool M.I.A to get playing while I jazz up my outfits and get a bit creative in the kitchen!

This year is all about captivating England, yes the weather so far has been a grey and drizzly nightmare, but we have the Olympics, Jay Z and Rihanna making an appearance in Hackney: and most importantly the Queens diamond jubilee celebrations in June. I am going to take this opportunity to go absolutely mental with my creativity and cook what I can that is blue, red, white and most importantly recreate the English palate. 

Already a fan of wearing stripes, the union jack design is one I am a complete sucker for. Anything with this theme I will hold close. In previous posts I explained that it was Geri Halliwells dress at the Brits in 1997 that sprang on my addictive tendencies for this flag. Now all major supermarkets are stocking up on my favourite three colours and my purse is deflating as I go in and buy anything and everything. 

These lollies were a random experiment, and I handed them out to local kids who's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets once they took a bite! Popping candy is such an old school nostalgic memory, the routine was to spend the last bit of change on coca cola bottles, tip tops or candy after school, unfortunately my parents would find out because I was silly enough to leave all the wrappers in my pockets.

 ▶ If you would like to make these ready for an event you are hosting or attending then give these a go:

Ingredients:

150g organic milk chocolate

Red lolly sticks

Popping candy

Blue, white and red sugar balls.

Method:

: Melt chocolate in a bowl over boiling simmering water. Once melted take off the heat.

: Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and line up lolly sticks with enough space between them.

: With a tablespoon, spread chocolate over top of the stick.

: Sprinkle sugar balls and popping candy and the chocolate circle should get bigger. Make sure your hands are dry, any moisture will jeopardise the 'pop'.

: Do the same with the others, making sure each lolly is upside down to it's partner.

: Refrigerate for a few hours.

: Peel off slowly and hand out.

Favourite Song:

ê 'Bad Girls'

' Pull Up The People'

Jenna's Choux Pastries

♬ 'Songs About Jane' by Maroon 5

That's right. It's all about Jenna, Jenna, Jenna.  A few years ago whilst living in a crooked flat above a tattoo parlour I was draining Stereophonics on a daily basis and Jenna was always pottering about to Maroon 5. Since it's her special day I had to get them on while making her birthday treat. Well one of them, the other design is top secret, naughty and not for this blog! 

 I've gone a tad vibrant and childlike with the decoration, well for me a cake has to look fun! Jen loves chocolate eclairs and when I see her later on I will whip up some cream and we will eat gluttonously.

Profiteroles are cute, eclairs are mouth watering, but who says choux pastry has to be piped round or oblong? As long there is enough space inside them to fill up, creating interesting letters, shapes etc could be the next wave of madness! One tip is the pastry doubles massively in size. At first I piped the letters too small, and learnt the burnt crunchy way: not cool. 

Recreate this magic for someone you know, the recipe for eclairs is here. 

▶ Something to note if you want the above effects, instead of using wholemeal flour I used plain flour, and I simply melted chocolate and dipped each letter in once cooled, then decorated.

DONE!

Favourite Songs:

ê 'This Love' 

ê   'She Will Be Loved'