A Delightful Afternoon Tea.

Reminicing about yesterdays delightful afternoon tea at Judges Country House, Kirklevington.  This was an extra special visit to celebrate my daughters and my birthday, which falls on the same day in September.  Upon arrival at the stunning country house, surrounded by lush greenery, we were whisked into the Great Hall, where afternoon tea is served.  From the moment we stepped into Judges, we were greeted with kindness and exceptional service.  The smartly dressed staff offered impecable service, making us feel at ease and relaxed.  Whilst admiring the surroundings my attention was turned to the beautiful christmas carols, sung by Judy Garland, evoking a timeless, nostalgic vibe.... very appropriate for our beautiful setting.

The afternoon tea itself was from a choice of three, guests are able to choose from these three options: ours was the traditional tea.  There was a selection of freshly made sandwiches which ranged from: smoked salmon, cucumber, roast beef, egg mayonaise and cheese savory.  These were complemented by a fine selection of homemade cakes: chocolate brownie, lemon meringue, carrot cake and raspberry mousse.  Finally, a choice of scone.... fruit or plain.  We opted for both.  This was presented with thick clotted cream and a home-made strawberry jam.

I have to say that this was the most perfect way to spend a delightful christmas afternoon with my daughter.

Halloween Sugar Cookies.

Yesterday was the perfect rainy day to make Halloween sugar cookies with the kids.  They are tasty, colourful and great fun to make.

Ingredients:

3 cups of Plain Flour.

1 tsp of Baking Powder.

1cup of Stork Margarine.

1 cup of Caster Sugar.

1 large egg.

1 tsp of Vanilla Extract.

Colourful sprinkles.

Silver Spoon Icing Sugar.

8 tsp cold water.

Black fondant icing.

Americolor gels in Electric Orange & Violet - to colour tint the icing.

The Halloween Cookie cutters were purchased from Asda a couple of years ago, they have lasted for ages.

Method:

In a medium bowl sift the flour and baking power, put the bowl to one side for later.

In another bowl, cream together the Stork margarine and caster sugar with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.  Alternatively, to save time, you could use an electric mixer.  I personally like the old school method, as it feels more traditional.

Next, add one large egg and the vanilla extract.  Stir carefully.

Carefully and slowly, blend in the flour mixture, until fully incorporated.  You should do this gradually, until the mixture starts to pull away from the side of the bowl.

Then, once the mixture looks like it could be handled, take the dough out of the bowl and place into greeceproof paper.

Knead the dough gently for a few minutes and then wrap in cling film.  Chill in the fridge for 2 hours.  If you are pushed for time, you could place the dough in the freezer for 20 mins..... But don't forget about it ;-)

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius .

Place the chilled dough on greeceproof paper and with a rolling pin, roll the dough until it is about a third inch thick.

With the cookie cutter shapes, press into the dough firmly and gently lift, until the shape is clearly defined.  Remove the excess dough around the shape.

I find it easier to cut out the greeceproof paper around the shape and lift that onto the baking tray, rather than trying to lift the raw cookie, as it usually has a tendency to break.

Bake in the oven for 8-10 mins, until lightly golden.

Once the cookies have baked and are looking good, allow to cool whilst you prepare the icing.

In a bowl mix the icing sugar and water together.  Add the water a tsp at a time, mixing thoroughly.  You should stop when the icing leaves a small trail, when you cut through with a spoon, for 20 seconds.

Divide the icing into 3 separate bowls.  

With a toothpick, a drop at a time, add the colour gel carefully.  First the electric orange.  Mixing well.

Then, in the other bowl, with another toothpick, the violet.

Keep one bowl with just plain white icing.

Now, you are free to decorate the cookies however you wish ;-)

Get into the spirit of Halloween and have no fear whilst decorating.  Use sprinkles, ribbon, sweets..... Have fun!!

These sweet and buttery Halloween cookies would be great for visiting trick or treaters..... Have a Spooktacular Halloween everyone.

XOXO. 

Skinny Fries with Roasted Garlic Aioli.

The other day I was kinda hungry, not the ravenous type of hunger where it has you opening all the cupboard doors, in the hope that something delicious will miraculously jump out and spontaneously pop into your mouth. No, it was more like the hunger where you want to kick back and slowly munch your way through something addictive and delicious. 

Now, I don't want to claim responsibility for the fact that you will totally just keep on popping one after the other into your mouth..... Yes, they are that addictive.... but also, if you make the garlic aioli, not only will you transmit garlic for a couple of hours.... You will go back for more... I promise ;-) 

Ingredients:

5-6 cloves of garlic.

7-8 tablespoons of light mayonnaise.

5-6 large potatoes, I just used standard white potatoes.

Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Take a generous amount of tin foil and scrumple and shape it until it resembles a small bowl.  Place inside the garlic cloves and drizzle with a small amount of olive oil.  Close the edges of the foil around the garlic cloves, covering them.

Place them on a small baking try in the top of the oven for 40 minutes to cook through.

Next, peel and very finely chop the potatoes into thin strips and put them into a bowl.

Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and with your clean hands, turn them over in the bowl, so that all the potato strips get a generous coating of oil.

Once the potato has been evenly coated in the olive oil, on a baking tray, lay them in an even layer.  You, may need to bake two batches, depending on how much potato you have.  This is no bad thing... Double the joy ;-). 

Place the baking tray with the potato into the oven, and allow to bake for 20 mins.  After this time, take them out of the oven and turn them over and move them about a bit.  Add the tray back to the oven for a further 20 mins.

What you should find is that some of the fries will be crunchy and crispy, whilst some will be soft and brown.... A killer combo!

 

To make the Garlic Aioli is really quite simple.  Take 7-8 tablespoons of the mayonnaise of your choice and put into a bowl.  When you take the potatoes from the oven, also remove the foil which contains the garlic cloves.  

Allow the garlic to cool slightly and gently squeeze the soft, squidgy garlic centre into the Mayo.  With a spoon stir the soft garlic into the Mayo.  A la Aioli is complete.  My personal challenge to you, is that you don't devour it all in one go .... Like someone I know..... Who me? Never..... Lol ;-)

Look, you can totally see where I have been swiping some extra tastes.....

Also, I couldn't wait to try the skinny fries.... Delicious with a sprinkling of crunchy salt.

Enjoy to your hearts content...

Strawberry Greek Yoghurt Popsicles.

Well, we are three weeks into the school summer holidays and I hope everyone is having fun!  We have been busy, visiting London, Oxford and Legoland with the kids. A great time has been had by all and new memories have been made :-)

I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to find it difficult to feed the kids healthy snacks whilst they are at home all day.  There's only so many bowls of fruit, unsalted peanuts and carrots they will eat, before they start pulling faces and saying, "Oh, not again!"  So, in a flash of inspiration I thought I would try to make something healthy and exciting ;-). Cue..... Strawberry Greek Yoghurt Popsicles.... Anything to grab their attention!

Ingredients:

Punnet of Strawberries.

Carton of 0% fat free Greek Yoghurt.

Method:

Chop fresh strawberries into chunks.

In a bowl, pour in the yoghurt, then add a teaspoon of caster sugar and stir well.

With a small spoon, carefully place spoonfuls of the yoghurt mix into a Popsicle mould.  Layer the spoonfuls with the strawberry chunks.

I have actually lost the tops of the Popsicle mould, so I have used some leftover plastic spoons.... Anything works, really ;-)

Place the unfrozen Popsicles in the freezer for a few hours to set and then carefully ease them out of the moulds.

Hopefully, these will help with the healthy choices I am trying to get the kids to make.

Butterfly Sugar Cookies.

Since I was a little girl, I have always loved to bake. It goes back to when I visited my Grandma on a Sunday. After dinner, when the pots had been washed, we used to roll up our sleeves, put on our aprons and bake up a storm for Sunday Afternoon Tea. We used to call these sessions... Farmhouse Kitchen. Grandma, pretended to be the host of 'Farmhouse Kitchen', whilst I was the trusty side-kick. We had so much fun and it ignited a love of baking, that to this day, still makes me very, very happy.

I try to re-create this 'Farmhouse Kitchen' scene with my Princess, and in the process we laugh and giggle our way through triumphs and disasters in the kitchen.

This is what we made a little while ago. Butterfly Sugar Cookies. We hope you enjoy......

Ingredients:

3 cups of plain flour.
1 teaspoon baking powder.
1 cup Stork margarine.
1 cup sugar.
1 large egg.
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Baking parchment.
1 cup icing sugar.
Embellishments for the cookies.

Method.

Mix the flour and the baking powder in a separate bowl and place to one side.

Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy, in a separate bowl.

Add the egg and vanilla extract to the creamed mixture and beat well.

Slowly incorporate the flour a bit at a time and mix until the dough starts to come away from the sides of the bowl.

Next, I like to lay a piece of baking parchment onto a worktop and turn the dough mixture onto it. I then knead the dough a few times to make sure that all of the ingredients are well incorporated.

I then wrap the dough in clingfilm and place it in the fridge for two hours to chill. If you are a bit pressed for time you could pop it in the freezer for 20-30 mins.

At this point, pre-heat your oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Take the dough from the fridge and place it onto parchment paper with another piece on top. I find it easier this way. The reasons are two-fold; Firstly, it's saves the need to keep adding flour, which only dries out the mixture, when rolling. Also, if you roll the dough directly onto parchment, you only need to lift it straight onto a baking tray, without the need to try and move each individual cut out cookie. Therefore eliminating the worry of breaking and dismantling the cookie during transportation.

Once the dough is rolled to a half inch thickness, cut out the desired cookie shape with cutters. Remember to leave a gap between each cookie, as they expand slightly when they bake.

Place the baking parchment with the cookies, onto a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 8-10 mins, until nicely golden.

Allow to cool and then decorate as you would like.

 
Princess and I decided to make butterflies. We used white icing as a base. One cup of icing sugar, with a few teaspoon of water added, until the desired consistency is reached. We flooded each cookie with the icing and then added some coloured sugared almonds and some small strawberry chews, in the design of a butterfly.

We also imprinted a butterfly design onto rolled blue, ready-made fondant icing and placed it onto round, fluted cookies.

We hope you like these designs Xxx