Granola

Last week Yvonne from Hey Pesto tweeted that she was making up a hamper and wanted to include some healthy options.  In the end she opted for some yummy jars of homemade granola.  I love granola but don't often buy it as I have never found a shop bought version that I really like, so I decided to make some myself.  I am still firmly in the battle to eat healthy foods following the stodge and comfort food of December.  The weather is not helping as it regularly hovers near 0 or in the minuses at the moment.  While all of my meals are prepared from scratch using fresh vegetables I am still being drawn towards carb laden mash potato and similar for dinner so I feel that breakfast and lunch need to take on a lighter twist.  Granola with natural yogurt for me is not only a healthy way to start the day but also a really tasty way too.  I'm not a big fan of porridge so this is an ideal way for me to get some porridge oats into my morning routine.

The following is my recipe but do feel free to add some dried fruit once the granola has cooled and also use nuts of your choice. 

Granola
(makes enough to fill a 1ltr Kilner Jar)

240g/3cups Porridge Oats
100g/1cup Almond Flakes
100g/1cup Blanched Almonds, roughly chopped
100g/1cup Walnuts, roughly chopped
2tbsp Sunflower Oil
10tbsp Honey

1.  Preheat the oven to 165C/329F/Gas Mark 3.  Line a baking sheet with grease proof paper.
2.  Place all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix well to ensure the honey and oil are evenly distributed throughout.

3.  Pour out onto the prepared baking sheet and spread out evenly.
4.  Place into the preheated oven for 45 minutes.  Remove from the oven at regular intervals and stir to ensure that the mixture browns evenly and to avoid large clumps forming.

5.  When golden brown all over remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. (The mixture may still seem a little soft or damp when removed from the oven but it will crisp up as it cools.)

6.  Transfer to an airtight container and store for up to one month.  (If you wish to add dried fruit do so at this stage.)

Mini Banana Loaves

The other day I noticed that a bunch of bananas in the kitchen had taken on a dubious speckled appearance.  "They're for the bin", I thought.  You see I don't eat a huge amount of bananas as they are just a little to heavy for my delicate tummy.  I can eat my own body weight in chocolate without a problem but not a banana, go figure.  Mr. Boo reverts back to his 3 year old self at the sight of a blackening banana and refuses to eat them so they are generally consinged to the compost bin at the 1st signs of a freckle.  This time I resolved to save them and turn them into something yummy for the one I love.  That's you babes!

Right here's the recipe, enjoy!

Mini Banana Loaves
(makes 8 mini loaves or 1 x 1lb loaf)

1kg/just over 2lb's Plain Flour
approx. 6 Bananas
3 x 7g/0.25oz sachets of Dried Yeast
2tbsp Sugar
2 level tbsp Sea Salt
3tbsp of Honey, and 3tbsp for glazing
Flour for dusting

1.  Place the flour into a large bowl.  Make a well in the centre.
2.  In a food processor, blitz the bananas until smooth and liquid.  Transfer to a measuring jug and if necessary top up with water to 625ml.

3.  Add half of the banana liquid to the well in the centre of the flour.  Add the yeast, sugar, salt and honey and stir to incorporate.  Gradually start to bring some of the flour into the mix, you will get a porridge type consistency.
4.  Add the remaining liquid and continue to mix incorporating all of the flour until the dough has formed.
5.  Flour your hands and knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it is nice and elastic.  You can knead in the bowl if it is big enough, if not flour a work surface and transfer to that.  I do it in the bowl to save me cleaning up something extra.
6.  Shape the dough into a ball, flour the top (place it back in the bowl if you kneaded on a work surface) and cover the bowl with clingfilm.  Place in a warm, draught free area(I always use my airing cupboard/hot press) and leave to prove for 30 minutes.

7.  While the dough is proving prepare the baking tin.  I have a tin with 8 compartments for mini loaves(individual mini loave tins can also be bought in packs of 2 or 4 etc.) which I oiled lightly and lined with greaseproof paper.  It is sufficient to just oil the tin but I wanted the paper for presentation purposes so did both.  If you don't have mini loaf tins a regular 1lb loaf tin will do fine or you could simply flour a baking sheet and shape the dough into a round and bake it on that.  The possibilities are endless.

8.  When the dough has doubled in size knock it back(bash it about with your hands to knock the air out). 

9.  Divide the dough into 8 equal portions and place them into the loaf tins or shape according to your baking tin.
10.Place the dough back into a warm draught free place and leave to prove for a further 30 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.
11.When the dough has proved brush the top with the remaining honey and place into the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

12.Serve while still warm with some butter, peanut butter or even some scrummy vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of toffee sauce.  Nom nom nom!

CPM: Chocolate, Peanuts & Marshmallow (GF)

*Before we get started, apologies for the atrocious pictures in this post, I was feeling a bit lazy. Soz!*

I was watching Food Network the other day, not like me I know, when this popped up.  It was one of those snippets of a Food Network chef talking about 'The best thing I ever tasted...'.  You know the ones I mean.  The theme for this particular one was sugar and Chef Duff from Charm City Cakes was in the hot seat. 

I wasn't paying too much attention to him as I was also scribbling something or other onto a piece of paper at the same time.  I very rarely just do one thing at a time, I always have one eye here and t'other there.  It's just the way I like to roll.  Even when I look like I am only concentrating on the task at hand my brain is generally 2 hours ahead thinking of the next thing I intend to do.  Anyhoo, I digress.  My attention turned solely to the tv when the chef who had created Duff's favourite dessert started to describe it.

First you pop 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream into the bottom of a glass, then you scatter on some sweetened peanuts, follow that up with a layer of chocolate ganache and then top the lot with some warm marshmallow fluff.  Naturally at that stage I found myself on my knees licking the tv screen. (Note to self, dust the tv.) 

I was giddy with excitement at the prospect of recreating this sweet confection and kept dreaming about it for the 24 hours that followed, so last night I gave in and made it before dinner.  I know, I shouldn't have but I was alone in the house and it was a good hour and a half before dinner so I did it.  This is one of my favourite things about being an adult, you can decide what to eat and when and if you want to eat dessert before dinner, you can go right ahead and do it!

As this was not part of an actual cookery show there was no recipe to accompany it.  The following is a rough guide:

CPM: Chocolate, Peanuts & Marshmallow
(the following quantities are for one serving but can very easily be multiplied)

*** NB Check that the brand of marshmallows you use are gluten free if making for someone with coeliac disease***

2tbsp Salted Peanuts
A squeeze of Honey
A handful of white Mini Marshmallows
4tbsp of Milk
3 scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream
3-4tbsp of Chocolate Sauce

1.  An hour in advance of assembly place the peanuts into a small bowl.  Squeeze over just enough honey to coat them all evenly.  Cover and set aside until required.
2.  Place the mini marshmallows and milk into a small saucepan and set over a low heat to melt.

3.  While you are waiting for the marshmallows to melt remove the ice cream from the freezer and allow to soften slightly.
4.  Once the marshmallows have melted remove them from the heat. 

5.  Place the 3 scoops of ice cream into the glass.  Flatten down with the back of a spoon.  Spoon the peanuts on top of the ice cream.  Cover the peanuts with the chocolate sauce.  Finally, cover the chocolate sauce with the melted marshmallow. 

6.  Grab a BIG spoon.  Lock yourself in a room on your own and dig in.  It is very important to get a bit of each layer in every spoonful.  Trust me, you will be glad you did.  Enjoy!

Notes:

• I had no vanilla ice cream in the house so used a homemade honeycomb one I had been meaning to taste.  It worked perfectly and I will post the recipe for that soon.
• Marshmallow fluff is not something that is readily available here.  I know Avoca sell a jar of pink marshmallow fluff but I think the melted marshmallow I used worked perfectly well.  Actually, I know it worked perfectly well because it was feckin delicious.
• I used a shop bought chocolate sauce but feel free to make your own ganache if you wish.  If I was serving it as a dessert I would most probably opt for a homemade version.

Ciabatta

I have mentioned in a previous post that Mr. Boo and myself had a dinner party on Saturday night. I usually put all of my efforts into preparing the main body of the meal from scratch and extras like bread and dips and nibbles tend to be store bought but this time I decided to do it all myself.

For starters we served Moules Mariniere so I wanted bread that would be nice for mopping up the sauce once all of the lovely mussels had been devoured. I decided ciabatta would do the job and I wasn’t disappointed, it was perfect.

The following recipe yielded 3 ciabatta loaves. We managed to get through them between dinner, breakfast and parcels happily taken home by our guests. You may want to divide the recipe or simply make the full amount and freeze dough or baked loaves for a later date.

Ciabatta

30g/1oz Fresh Yeast, or 3 x 7g sachets Dried Yeast
30g/1oz Honey
625ml/just over 1 pint of Tepid Water
1kg/2.25lb Plain Flour
30g/1oz Salt
6tbsp Olive Oil
Extra Flour and some Semolina for dusting

1. Dissolve the yeast and honey in half the tepid water.

2. Place the flour and salt in a very large bowl and make a well in the centre.

3. Pour the dissolved yeast mixture into the well. With your fingers and working from the centre outwards start to incorporate some of the dry ingredients into the yeast mixture.

4. Pour in the remaining tepid water and gradually incorporate all of the flour until you have a most dough. (If you feel the consistency is not quite right feel free to add some more water/flour a little at a time until you achieve a nice dough)

5. Knead the dough for approx 5 minutes until it is nice and elastic. (If your bowl is not big enough to knead in flour a work surface and tip the dough on to that)

6. Flour your hands and the top of the dough and shape it into a nice ball (place back in the bowl if you removed it). Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm, draught free area (I use the airing cupboard) for 45 minutes to prove.

7. After 45 minutes the dough should have doubled in size. Knock it back (knead to remove all of the air).

8. Add the olive oil and knead once again to incorporate throughout the dough.

9. Split the dough into 3 equal parts and roll each piece into a 25cm/10” roll. Flatten the length of each roll with the heel of your hand.

10. Dust 2 or 3 baking sheets (depending on their size you may only need 2) with flour and semolina. Place the dough rolls onto the baking sheets. Dust the dough with flour and semolina and score each one approximately 5 times.

11. It is now time for the dough’s 2nd prove so once again leave in a warm/ draught free place for 45 minutes.

12. Preheat the oven to 225C/425F/Gas Mark 7.

13. Once the bread has proved for the 45 minutes place in the preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes.

14. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about ½ an hour before eating.