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New recipe: easy cheaty focaccia

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When I published a picture of my easy no knead no rise irish soda bread recipe on Instagram recently, I mentioned that I thought it could be easily adapted to make a kind of cheaty focaccia, the Italian flatbread that’s often infused with rosemary and garlic. I gave it a go this week and oh my goodness. It’s SO easy and SO delicious - especially warm straight out of the oven. We had it with sweetcorn fritters, veggie burgers and salad and it was just the nicest accompaniment, but I can imagine it would be fab with antipasti, or just on the table with a lasagne and fresh salad. As with all soda breads, it doesn’t keep that long, but that honestly won’t be an issue.

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Easy no knead white bread

Back to basics: easy, no knead white bread

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I love making bread. I love the smell of the loaves baking that fills the house house with that feeling of warmth and comfort (and hell, don’t we all need a bit of that right now?) and I love the fact that it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than buying artisan loaves from bakers (although I love doing that too). What I don’t like is kneading, so you won’t see any of that in my bread recipes. I know some people love it (and I’ve gone through stages of making bread like that), but I prefer the ‘bung it all into the machine’ method. All the flavour, none of the arm ache. This easy, no knead white bread recipe makes two loaves. They don’t last long enough in our house, but if you want, you can eat one fresh, then slice and freeze the other one. It’s perfect for toasting.

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Chocolate swirl buns

Chocolate swirl buns

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If you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed that I’m currently obsessed with buns (the bready kind - stop that). It started with these Kanelbullar, and then on Saturday I wanted to make rolls for sausage sandwiches and started wondering what the same dough would be like with something savoury in it (yum, as it turns out - similar to using a brioche bun for a burger I guess). But then I had too much dough for just buns so my thoughts turned back to those delicious rolled up swirly bun things again. This time I added the butter and sugar filling and quite a lot of chopped up chocolate too. The results were seriously delicious, so at the risk of being boring I present the latest in my bun series: chocolate swirl buns.

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Swedish cinnamon buns kanelbullar

Swedish cinnamon buns (kanelbullar)

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I love making these delicious, soft cinnamon buns when I’ve got a little time at the weekend. There’s nothing nicer than a bit of gentle kitchen pottering, and the smell of these beauties baking scents the whole house with heady spiced sweetness. Sooo good! I originally wrote the recipe for Nordic Style - the gorgeous coffee table book we created for Viking Cruises. The one in the book is a bit more authentic, using fresh yeast in the dough, but when I’m just making them for us on a Saturday morning, dried yeast is more convenient. Sometimes I just use butter and sugar and add dried fruit, or when Charlie’s at home I make them with cocoa as he’s a cinnamon hater. This soft sweet milk dough can also be used for soft iced buns too.

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Grain free coconut and almond bread

Coconut and almond bread

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So recently, we’ve been thinking about what we eat quite a bit. Mr E has a very stressy job and also a very sweet tooth. Combine the two and you get someone who spends the whole day snacking on sweet stuff and not eating properly. At a recent check-up, his doctor mentioned that some of the cause of the tiredness he’s been experiencing recently could be down to the amount of sugar he eats. As far as I understand it (disclaimer: not a doctor and repeating this third hand!) when he’s busy and stressed, he reaches for a sweet treat as a quick ‘pick me up’, but then the body releases insulin, which helps to use up the sugar, making the blood sugar levels crash again. It’s a flippin’ sugar rollercoaster than can cause problems with your hormones, your sleep and your energy levels. It turns out that a diet high in carbs can also play havoc with your blood sugar, so we decided to try and cut down our sugar, and go a bit easier on the carbs, concentrating on eating more vegetables, lean protein and healthy fats. I’m not a diet person. I want to eat lovely food and not feel like I’m missing out, but I’m also very keen to be supportive and help Mr E live healthily, so the first thing that on my list was to try and create a good, lower carb bread. This coconut and almond bread is wheat and gluten free, much lower on the carbs, and our current favourite.

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Vanilla French toast with fresh berries

My perfect family breakfast: vanilla French toast with fresh berries

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Breakfast on a weekday can be a bit of a rushed affair. I don’t generally even bother with breakfast, but if we do anything it will be a quick piece of toast or bowl of cereal. On the weekends, though, we really like to take our time and do a proper family late breakfast/brunch. Often this will be bacon and eggs or pancakes and syrup, but my absolute favourite is our vanilla French toast. The lovely chaps at Prestige sent me one of their fab Dura Forge square grill pans, so I thought it was about time I shared my recipe (it’s not a difficult one, but I have a certain way of doing it) and tried out my swanky new pan at the same time.

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Delicious no knead rye bread rolls

Weekend baking: delicious, no knead rye bread rolls

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One of my biggest commitments for 2018 is to eat healthily: to nourish my body and fill it full of good stuff. But let’s be sensible: we’re never going to eat healthily 100% of the time. I think I’m aiming for around 80%, with a bit of cake and the odd glass of wine thrown in as a treat (note to self: that’s a treat, not every day - catch up on my Drinkaware month here). Diets are one of my biggest bugbears. I don’t want to count calories, or cut out carbs. I like carbs. Carbs give us energy and are a great source of fibre*, but we need to choose the right carbs for our body, not depressing, flabby white bread, mass produced, sugary biscuits, or - sadly - doughnuts (mmmm, doughnuts). One of the greatest things I feel I do for our family is take the time to bake really delicious, home made bread. Rye is less refined and much more nutritious than some other grains but I’m not really a huge fan of 100% rye, so I mix it roughly half and half with normal white bread flour. These easy, no knead rye bread rolls are so easy to make and this dough will probably make 10-12, depending on how big you make them.

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Halloumi, olive and mint pizzas

Halloumi, olive and mint pizzas

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As Charlie goes off to university very soon (sob), and as we all know, being a student means living on a pretty limited budget. I want to make sure that he has loads of recipes that he can refer to here so that he can make himself a few decent meals without resorting to expensive takeaways. For a Friday night treat, is there anything better than pizza? It’s horrendously expensive to buy, but incredibly easy - and much cheaper - to make at home. Step forward my favourite essential Waitrose range which stocks all the products you need at great prices (and great welfare standards) without compromising on quality. Charlie loves halloumi, so I’ve created this pizza especially for him, piled high with all the ingredients he likes: here’s how to make my halloumi, olive and mint pizzas at home:

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Rosemary rye bread toasties with avocado, pesto and mozzarella

Easy home made rosemary rye bread

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Last week, I mentioned my need for a few little calming rituals, like my coconut chai tea. My brain is particularly whizzy at the moment (hence, I went to my first yoga class this week - and loved it), and if I’m up really early, I quite like to go downstairs, say hi to the dog and have a little potter in the kitchen. At the moment I’m a bit obsessed with baking bread - I tend to bake two loaves at a time, using my standard, lazy recipe (which doesn’t involve any kneading at all). I’ve mentioned before that rye is really good for you - I don’t make 100% rye bread, which we find too strong, but when mixed with white flour, this is our absolute favourite. Another bonus of home made bread is that it lasts ages when compared to shop bought, which seems to go mouldy very quickly. This particular recipe has rosemary added, which is surprisingly delicious. Here’s how to do it:

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Home made pizza

Pizza night: easy home made pizza

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I love pottering about in the kitchen; I find stirring, chopping, rolling and mixing completely therapeutic - that kind of mindless manual labour that’s both soothing and uncomplicated (although I mostly do the kneading in the KitchenAid, if I’m honest - I’m far too lazy for that). There’s only one thing that makes pottering nicer, and that’s the chatter of people. One of my favourite evenings is a weekend night when the boys are both home, maybe with friends/girlfriends in tow and we have an impromptu pizza night. I can only fit two at a time in the oven, so there’s a whole pizza production line going on, with people chatting and munching - I love it. My one photograph - snapped before someone grabbed a slice - is completely rubbish (I’ll rephotograph it, I promise) but I wanted you to experience this lovely, fun family evening as soon as possible. Here’s my foolproof, easy home made pizza recipe, that you can jazz up/double up as much as you wish:

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Soft iced buns with chocolate orange drizzle

Soft iced buns with chocolate orange drizzle

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I’ve been fiddling around a lot lately with this recipe. The boys have (mostly) been willing testers, although one of the batches tasted ‘kinda like chocolate pizza’, which wasn’t really the result I was aiming for. What I have been aiming for is a really soft white finger roll - you know, like the ones you buy in a bakery, smothered in gooey icing. I think the best ingredient in getting these soft iced buns as light as possible is actually time - they need to rise slowly, then be shaped, then rise slowly again. The perfect rainy-day occupation, then. And there have been quite a few of those recently (although yesterday I made them while the sun was shining and the kitchen door was open - and that’s good too.) Read more

Orange and sultana rye bread

Orange and sultana rye bread

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I love this lazy time at home between the hustle and bustle of Christmas, and the excitement of the New Year. We’re lucky, nobody is working and we’re all enjoying spending time at home together, watching films and eating too much chocolate. Yesterday we went to the Royal Albert Hall with my Dad for the Christmas Spectacular. It was wonderfully festive - there was a bit of ballet, a bit of opera and some modern classics like John Williams’ incredible Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Today we’re just pottering at home (see what I did there?). I wanted to share this really lovely, easy recipe with you. It’s a half rye/half strong white flour mix (I find rye a bit overpowering), scented with oranges (or at this time of year, leftover clementines) and sweetened with honey. I think 2017 is the year we’re all going to be embracing our homes and families, simplifying our lives and counting our blessings, and pottering in my beloved kitchen, baking those I love a delicious, home made treat comes high up in my priorities. Here’s how to make my orange and sultana rye bread:

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Soft wholemeal rolls - an easy, step by step recipe

Slow and easy soft wholemeal rolls

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So GBBO is back on our screens tonight and I’m completely over-excited! I LOVE baking (and watching other people baking) and I particularly love making bread, don’t you? It’s the ultimate slow food. I do feel that I’m rather chained to the internet, what with blogging and writing and, well, Instagramming and stuff (I know, it’s totally my own doing), so sometimes it’s just nice to switch off and have a lovely potter in the kitchen. Bread baking can’t be rushed and it forces you to relax and gives you plenty of head clearing time. These easy soft wholemeal rolls are based on my ‘quick and easy soft bread rolls’ recipe, published back in 2010 and since archived. I often get lovely emails from people asking where they went, and keep meaning to update the recipe (and the horrific photography - and the dodgy title - I prefer slow bread to quick bread!) so I made a batch yesterday and feel rather chuffed to be able to have one topped with smashed avo and a poached egg for my breakfast today!

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Smashed avo on homemade rye toast

My everyday loaf, made in the mixer

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Because I’ve been away quite a bit, I’ve really missed pottering in the kitchen, and the first thing that I wanted to do was bake. Oh wait, that was actually the second - the first was tidy up and put everything back where I like it - but then it was bake. I absolutely adore breadmaking: I love the delicious smell and the sense of achievement (and the fact that this recipe makes two loaves, because the first one gets scoffed instantly). What I don’t like is kneading. This recipe is 100% perfect WITHOUT kneading, and I know, because I make it nearly every day.

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Lemon meringue pizza

Lemon meringue pizza? Why not!

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This week’s Sunday baking is steering into uncharted territory for me. I make pizza all the time and have a tried and tested dough recipe that always turns out well, so when the lovely chaps at Beko asked if I’d create a pizza for them, I was really happy to give it a go. Turns out, though, that Beko were after something a bit different! They have a sweet pizza recipe page on their website and my challenge was to come up with a new sweet pizza creation.

Sweet pizza you say? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

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Spiced cherry hot cross buns

Sunday baking: spiced cherry hot cross buns

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The thing I like most about baking hot cross buns is the smell. That gorgeous, sweet spicy smell that fills the whole house - better than any scented candle, and so comforting. With these hot cross buns I used a packet of dried cherries that I had in the cupboard, but any dried fruit will do; I think cranberries would be delicious. Take your time, because slow rising gives the best results. I’m guilty of rushing up to the airing cupboard every five minutes to see if they’ve risen, but, like bread, they always turn out best when you’ve forgotten the dough and it’s puffed up to glorious proportions.

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