Perfect Yorkshire Puddings Every Time!!

Hello My Lovelies,

I know for alot of people the words Yorkshire Puddings strike fear into the hearts of home cooks up and down the country!

When I first started attempting to make Yorkies over 5 years ago now they were shocking! They would never rise and were stodgy and greasy, and my darling Fiancé will never let me forget the time I had run out of plain flour and decided it would be just fine to use self-raising instead (BIG NO NO!). These will always be dubbed in my household as 'Yorkshire Cakes'.

Luckily now my yorkies are perfect everytime! The big secret is SMOKING HOT fat! Whether it oil, lard, beef dripping or goose fat it needs to be smoking hot otherwise they simply will not rise.

So here is my recipe for my Yorkshire Puds! Light and crispy with the signature hole in the middle for holding all that yummy gravy...mmm gravy.

Make 12 individual Yorkshire Puddings

Ingredients:

• 4 Large Eggs (weighed)
• Equal weight of Milk
• Equal weight of Plain Flour
• Pinch Of Salt & Pepper
• Fat/Oil Enough to just cover the bottom of each well
• Muffin Tin with 12 holes

1. Heat the oven to 230 degrees
2. Weigh the eggs in a large batter jug and add equal weights of milk and flour
3. Season to taste (you can even add in herbs at this stage)
4. Whisk thoroughly making sure the batter has no lumps
5. Leave to stand for at 10 minutes
6. Place the fat into each well of the muffin tin and heat until the fat is smoking around 20 minutes
7. Give the batter another quick whisk
8. Turn oven down to 210 degrees
9. Add the mixture to each well of the muffin tin (ensuring you hear a sizzle), around three quarters full.
10. Leave to cook until golden brown for approximately 20-25 minutes

Enjoy with your favourite Sunday dinner

Waffles! Tasty Waffles!

Hello My Lovelies,

For those of you who follow my facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/SitaMeenaSaysJomMakan 
you will know my darling Fiancé bought me an Andrew James Waffle Maker for Christmas (something that I have coveted for some time now)

So with that in mind once the hustle and bustle of Christmas and New Year was over and I was back in the comfort of my own home (and kitchen...yay!) I decided it was time to try out my beautiful and shiny new kitchen gadget.

As you can imagine I was rather excited about using my new gadget, not knowing how it would go I just got stuck in! The first few I made were dreadful (but tasted sooo good!), not knowing I needed to spread the batter around quickly (because the waffle maker is hot so they started to cook right away!) I had what I can only describe as bald in places waffles! Not so pretty I can assure you... however they still tasted yummy so we gobbled them up straight away with some maple syrup!


If you don't own a waffle maker (get one you won't be disappointed!) you can easily use a frying pan or a griddle pan to cook them in, obviously you won't get the same shape or pattern on them but they will still be delicious. You just need to cook them long enough to be golden brown on both sides and fully cooked in the middle then cut into stripes and enjoy!

Now this recipe will make around 10 Full Waffles in a Waffle Maker this size and shape. 

Ingredients:

• 250g Plain Flour
• 1 Tbsp Baking Powder
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 3 Tbsp Caster Sugar
• 3 Large Eggs (lightly beaten)
• 425ml Whole Milk
• 115g Butter (melted)

1. Pre-heat your waffle maker to the highest heat setting
2. Mix together your dry ingredients in a large batter jug
3. Whisk in the eggs, milk and butter until well combined and the batter is nice and smooth
4. Ladle (not quite a full ladle) miture into each well of the waffle maker
5. Close waffle maker and cook for 3-5 minutes until golden brown on both sides
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all of the batter is used up.
7. ENJOY!!

Any leftover waffles can be frozen or popped into a ziplock bag and re-toasted to crisp up again!! 

I like to have these as a simple dessert with strawberries, chocolate sauce and whipped cream or as part of a breakfast with bacon, scrambled eggs and maple syrup!

What ever your favourite combination is enjoy it!!

Until next time....

xxx

Christmas Food Gift Ideas

Hello My Lovelies!

Ok so this post is late.....super late! But better late than never!

I figured this Christmas (or the one just gone..oops!) I would put my talents to good use by coming up with Foodie Gifts.

Now you may have already seen a previous blog on my Cookie & Cream Fudge which went down a storm so I'm going to share some ideas with you on what I produced for Christmas 2012!

First up I can tell my house was fudge central! Everyone went crazy for the stuff including getting me to make it for their loved ones for Christmas too!! I did a variety of different flavours and once you have mastered making fudge (not toffee which to be honest in the beginning is what I kept making) then the world of flavour combinations is your oyster!

A few flavours I experimented with that were huge hits and a few old classics:

• Cookies & Cream
• Strawberries & Cream
• Baileys
• Banoffee
• Rum & Rasin
• Vanilla
• Mint Choc Chip
• Lemon Meringue Pie

 Banoffee Fudge

 Cookies & Cream Fudge

 Packaged Up!

 Strawberries & Cream Fudge

Baileys Fudge

Other goodies I made as gifts this year were biscuits, cookies, brownies, blondies, sweetie flavoured vodka and my amazingly zingy lemon curd!!

Watch out for blog on my other Christmas Gifts!

Until next time....

xxx

Deliciously Moist Chocolate Cake

Hello Lovelies,

For many years now I have being trying to perfect my chocolate cake recipe to be light yet moist and there have been some dense messes along the way!

Finally after all this time I have found the perfect balance chocolatey lovliness and a light and airy sponge

This is now the only chocolate cake recipe I ever use (including using this for my chocolate cupcakes) even the raw cake mix tastes soooo good and must admit to wanted to just eat it before I've even put it into the cake tins!

I know its naughty but I defy anyone to tell me they can resist cake batter!!

This is a lovely and simple all in one mix and if you want a truly decadent choccy cake then of course you must cover the whole thing in a wonderful, rich chocolate ganache......mmmm ganache!!

So here is the recipe and I hope you enjoy it!

6oz Butter (softened)

6oz Soft Brown Sugar

5oz Self Raising Flour

1oz Cocoa Powder

½ tbsp Baking Powder

Pinch Of Salt

3 Large Eggs (lightly beaten)

2 tbsp golden syrup

2 tbsp warm water

1. Pre-heat oven to 180oc/gas mark 4

2. Mix together butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, eggs and golden syrup.

3. When all mixed through add 2 tbsp of warm water and mix again.

4. Spoon into muffin sized cake cases and cook for 18 minutes or put in a sandwich tin/s and bake for 25-30 minutes for a cake until cooked! (insert a skewer into the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean its done!)

5. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely!

Then fill with your choice of filling and away you go

:)

 Pic 1: Being left to cool straight from the oven

Pic 2: Filled and Covered in Chocolate Ganache 

 Pic 3: As Cupcake (straight from the oven)

Pic 4: The finished chocolate cupcakes!

If you are looking for a 2 layer sandwich sponge cake just double the recipe and pop the mixure into 2 sandwich tins and bake!

Until next time....

xxx