Double Chocolate and Toffee Muffins
So you know my sneakiness knows no bounds, but while #2 continues to refuse everything healthy apart from carrot sticks, frozen peas and the odd apple I need to keep one step ahead. Breakfast is a particular problem, as he hates milk and smoothies make him gag (we made raspberry and mango ones yesterday and they were absolutely gorgeous – he tried a sip but no, same result: think Dean Gaffney on ‘I’m a Celebrity…’). Tea is slightly easier, I made spaghetti the other day and used the same tomato sauce I make for pizza and he did eat that, but grudgingly. So in order to stave off rickets or mange or whatever it is malnourished children get, I figured even a little healthy stuff is good, even if it’s disguised with chocolate, and these little babies even surprised me.
8 oz plain flour
1 oz dark cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
6 oz brown sugar
6 fl oz milk
1 egg, beaten
4 oz butter, melted
Large handful dates, stoned
4 oz dark chocolate, chopped
So, as usual with the muffins, sieve your flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, then add the sugar. The darker the sugar the more toffee-ish the end result. Now here’s the sneaky bit. Take a big handful of the dates, and whiz them in the blender with the milk until they’re unrecognisable. Then melt your butter in a jug in the microwave, mix in the date/milk mixture and the beaten egg and stir into the dry stuff. Remember, the less you mix, the lighter the result. Finally, bung in the chopped chocolate. A couple of ounces of walnuts would be a good addition here, too. Give them a hint of a stir to combine, then divide into 12 muffin cases. I found that you get a large serving spoonful in each one.
Bake for about 25 minutes at 200 degrees, then serve warm, explaining that the little glistening golden pieces in the muffin are toffee (they do taste remarkably toffee-like, well, that’s what you use to make sticky toffee pudding, right?). Oh and remember, lying in a maternal, nutritionally responsible way isn’t really lying at all.
Chocolate and Banana Loaf
Chocolate and Banana Loaf
#1 was off to a choir competition yesterday evening (they came 4th – not bad for their first competition), so I thought I’d make something yummy for them to come home to. I had a couple of leftover bananas that were a bit past their best, so I shoved them into the usual 4/4/4/2 cake mix and I have to say it worked quite well. Here we go then:
4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
4 oz self-raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
2 mashed bananas
Bar of Green and Black’s dark chocolate
Cream the butter and the sugar until pale, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Fold in the flour and the cocoa (sieved). I added a teaspoon of baking powder to compensate for the heaviness of the bananas, but not sure what it would be like without it (it was quite dense and moist). Fold in your mashed bananas and your smashed up chocolate and pour into a lined loaf tin (I turn the loaf tin over and cut two strips, one the same width as the bottom, one the same length, then cross them into the bottom of the tin) and bake. It needs about an hour at 180 degrees, gas mark 4, but stick a knife in a bit before and see if it comes out clean.
I proudly presented a slice to #2 when he came home from school and his response was suspicious: ‘hmm, what’s in this?’ Seeing as he’d actually got the first mouthful in, I took a gamble and told him it was banana. ‘Yuck’, came the reply as he pushed it away, ‘gross’. I despair.
Chaos and Carbonara
#2 has a friend to stay this weekend. The house is in chaos: this being Saturday there’s the usual festering rugby kits humming by the back door, and now there’s running sucker-gun battles in the hall (thanks for those by the way, Dad) and the lounge is a sea of lego. We’ve already had arguments over whose turn it is on Star Wars and over who is James Bond. My nerves are completely frazzled and the dog and her lampshade are gibbering quietly to themselves under the kitchen table. Cheery texts from Hubby who is coincidentally very busy today at work have been met with a veritable smorgasbord of expletives. Salvation has appeared in the unlikely form of son #2 himself, who being a bit of a budding Gordon Ramsey has decided to take charge on the catering front, which is fine with me. He’s quite keen that I post his recipe for your delectation, and measuring not being his strong point, we’re working in handfuls and..er..sploshes, so here goes:
#2 son’s kid-friendly spaghetti carbonara
1 pack streaky bacon
1 pack spaghetti
Frozen peas
2 eggs
Splash of milk
Boil a big pan of salted water, then add your spaghetti and a couple of handfuls of frozen peas. Meanwhile, snip the bacon into strips and fry. Crack the eggs into a bowl, add a good slug of milk and whisk.
When pasta is cooked and bacon is crispy, drain the pasta then quickly bung in the egg mix and the bacon. Mix up so the eggs cook, then serve with loads of grated cheddar.
For an adult version, I would use cream instead of the milk, parmesan instead of cheddar and maybe even pancetta instead of the bacon. Yummy whichever way you do it though. Now all I need to do is find the kitchen again under all the pans, packets and utensils. Happy days..
