Author: Claire

Caramel Corn

/ Claire / Leave a comment

The perfect food for a rainy Saturday afternoon with a movie

popcorn2

I normally make buttered, salted popcorn, but for an extra special treat, I made this crunchy caramel corn which is slow cooked in the oven to form a sweet, buttery shell around the popcorn. I used some gourmet blue corn I found when out shopping one day and used my hot air popper to pop the corn. If you don’t have one, you can pop your corn the old fashioned way in a heavy bottomed pan, or buy microwave popcorn and pop it that way.

Ingredients:
¾ cup of unpopped popping corn (one large handful!)
4 tbs butter
½ cup light brown sugar – packed
Pinch of salt

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees C/300 degrees F

Spread out the popped corn evenly over a non-stick baking sheet pan, or a buttered baking tin. You may need to use two baking trays if you don’t have a large one.
In a heavy bottomed pan, heat the butter, sugar and salt and bring to the boil until the caramel is golden.

Carefully pour the very hot caramel mixture over the corn and use a spatula to toss to coat. Spread the corn out again evenly and bake for 40 minutes, turning it every 10 minutes to ensure it is completely coated in a shell of crunchy caramel.

When it is ready, keep the children away from it and leave to cool before it is devoured!

You can also add peanuts, cashews or brazil nuts to the corn.

corn bowl

Summer Vegetable and Goats Cheese Wellington

/ Claire / 1 Comment

Super easy to make – summer vegetables and goats cheese encased in puff pastry.  A tasty and filling lunch dish, that is good hot or cold and served with lots of salad.

Roast Veg parcel

Ingredients:
1 red pepper, cut into large chunks
1 yellow pepper, cut into large chunks
2 small courgettes/zucchini, halved lengthways and cut into chunks
2 red onions, cut into wedges
1tbs dried oregano
1 pack of chestnut/cremini mushrooms, chopped
½ clove garlic microplaned (optional)
Small bag of baby spinach, washed and spun dry
1 tbs Thyme leaves, chopped
Goat cheese, such as chevre, roughly broken up into crumbles
Puff pastry – either home made or shop bought and rolled into a rectangle
1 tbs butter
1tbs olive oil
1tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Egg and a little milk for brushing

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C

Roasted veg

Toss the peppers, courgettes and onions in half the olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper and roast until tender and the edges starting to brown. This will take around 30 minutes. Leave to cool

In the meantime, sauté the mushrooms on a medium heat in the butter and olive oil with the garlic until golden. Remove and using the same pan, add the spinach and sauté for another minute or two until wilted and leave to cool.

Place the puff pastry onto a lined baking sheet and cut thick strips around the edge, leaving the centre intact.

Mix together all the vegetables and thyme and place onto the pastry, topping with the goats cheese.

Brush the strips with a little of the egg wash and fold over the ends first and then alternate side strips until the filling is encased. Cover with cling film and chill for an hour or overnight if you are making ahead.

When you are ready to bake, brush the egg wash all over the pastry and bake for around 45 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and cooked through.

Roasted veg parcel sice

Mini Blackberry Cheesecakes with Apple Roses

/ Claire / Leave a comment

Apple roses have been done to death on Pinterest, but they are still delicious, fun to make and look very pretty.  These apple roses are in the middle of mini baked cheesecakes with tart blackberries.

cheesecakes

When I was a child, my uncle used to make elderberry wine.  Every year, one one day in late August, would be the day we would bring our baskets and containers and all go with him.  There was an old, disused railway bank near his house that was covered with brambles and elderberry bushes with millions of lovely purple berries.  He would get his elderberries and make the potent homemade wine and we would pick blackberries to make pies, crumbles, cakes and jam.

I really miss our family trips to forage for those lovely berries, but I still love blackberries to this day.

These mini cheesecakes are ideal for an addition to afternoon tea, a bite-sized dessert or an after-school treat.

Crust:
2 cups/approx 200g of digestive biscuit crumbs
2 tbs sugar
2oz/57g butter – melted

Cheesecake:
16oz/454g full fat and room temperature cream cheese
¼ cup/60g room temperature sour cream
1 cup/237g sugar
2 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 extra large eggs
Blackberry puree – made with 1 heaped cup of fresh blackberries, 2 tbs sugar, heated until the juices run and the sugar dissolves. Push through a fine sieve to remove the seeds and leave to cool completely. You need ¼ cup of the puree. OR you can of course cheat and use ¼ cup of seedless blackberry jam.

Apple Roses:
2 crisp apples, preferably with a rosy red skin. I used Pink Lady apples
1tbs lemon juice
5tbs water

Cinnamon sugar:
¼ cup/60g caster sugar mixed with 2 tsp cinnamon.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF and line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake cases.

Mix the crumbs, sugar and butter together and divide the mixture equally into the cupcake cases, pressing down with a spoon for a firm base.

To make the filling, place the cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, lemon zest and vanilla into a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat until very creamy, with no lumps.  Add the eggs and beat again until fully combined.  Stir in the blackberry puree, you can fully mix in, or leave as a marbled finish.

Carefully pour the cheesecake mixture into the prepared cupcake cases, coming up to just over half way.

For the roses, cut the apples in half, remove the core and thinly slice into half circles and place in a bowl with the water and lemon juice.  Microwave for around 1 minute until the slices soften and they are flexible.

Depending on how thick you have cut your slices, you need around 10-12 for each rose. Lay them out on a board, overlapping each slice with the next.  Sprinkle with a little cinnamon sugar and roll up from one end the other as tightly as possible.  Place into the waiting case, the rose will ‘bloom’ and fill the mini cheesecake.  Repeat until you have a rose in each one and top with a little sprinkle of the cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 180ºC/350ºF for around 25 minutes until the centres are just set and allow to fully cool.  Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

Apple rose closeup