It is Monday again and I have managed to complete quite a few of my jobs but all I seem to do is add to the list so I still have loads to do. I made a Risotto for dinner but it turned into a Risotto with a twist. After making this in the slow cooker I have decided that you shouldn’t use a slow cooker for Risotto as it just turns to mush and I prefer to see the grains of rice. It is definitely not a meal to leave in the slow cooker all day whilst you are out of work – for sure! Never mind at least I tried it . It did get eaten especially by my husband and one child but next time I will make it the traditional way in a large frying pan.
My Risotto contained mushrooms, onion, garlic, sweetcorn and vegetable stock. I did not add white wine as my children would not have liked it with the wine in it. My strange twist was that I added curry powder, black pepper, turmeric and cayenne pepper to spice up the Risotto a bit as I decided I wanted to change the flavours. The meal turned into a very spicy curry based homely meal which was soaked up with chunky bread. It would have gone well with poppadoms to give it a Indian feel – very strange meal indeed.
Also, over the weekend I baked another Giant Doughnut Pizza and the children decorated it with a Valentine theme and gave it to their Dad. However, he didn’t get to eat it all himself as the children helped themselves to quite a bit of it. Needless to say, the doughnut didn’t even last 24 hours so it must have been good. Last time I made the doughnut my husband said it could have been sweeter and I disagreed with him but this time he said it was just right but I think the fact there was so much chocolate covering the top of the doughnut that it complimented the doughnut base perfectly ( and I didn’t add any extra sugar to the recipe).
On Sunday, I baked the savoury bakes which were ordered for a local art and craft shop called “Canny Crafty“. This shop has a ceramic and pottery painting theme with a small coffee shop/cafe inside it. It has a very homely atmosphere and the owners are very pleasant. My first order for them was for Sausage Rolls, Corned Beef Slice and Cheese & Onion Slice which I delivered this morning, bright and early. I hope my savoury bakes are a hit at Canny Crafty. Fingers crossed x. All these recipes can be found in my different recipe books which are available through Amazon.
Also, I baked some Cookies with a difference as I was trying to bake cookies which could be used to dunk into sweet sauces such as caramel sauce, chocolate sauce and marshmallow fluff – to name but a few. The cookies baked perfectly and turned out nice and crisp, cut easily into bite size chunks or fingers and are perfect for dunking – even in a cup of tea or hot chocolate. These cookies were Cinnamon & Chocolate Cookies but they could be lots of different flavours and you could easily make them gluten free but I am not sure about egg free – I still have to try that out.
One thing I didn’t get to bake is the Shortbread with different flavourings but it is something I will have a go at tomorrow as the family still have the Cinnamon and Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites to finish off. Maybe I will make a chocolate sauce for them to dip the cookies in for dinner tonight. This is the recipe for the cookies:
[lt_recipe name=”Cinnamon & Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites” servings=”24″ prep_time=”10M” cook_time=”20M” total_time=”30M” difficulty=”Easy” summary=”There are many flavours you can add to these bites. Nutritionally, one of these Cookie Bites contains 115 calories, 4.7g total fat (6% daily total fat), 16.7g total carbohydrate (6% daily total carbohydrate), 0.5g fibre (2% daily fibre) (based on a 2000 calorie diet). ” print=”yes” image=”https://www.love-to-bake.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/cinnamonbites.jpg” ingredients=”95g butter;150g soft brown sugar;1 egg;250g plain flour;1 tsp cinnamon;0.5 tsp baking powder;0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda;0.5 tsp salt;100g chocolate chips;icing sugar for dusting” ]Preheat the oven to Gas 4.;Line a baking tray.;In a mixing bowl, weigh out the ingredients for the dough.;Using an electric whisk, mix together to form a dough.;Transfer the dough to the baking tray and press down evenly.;Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.;Switch the oven off.;Slice the cookie try into pieces and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes.;Remove from the oven and tray.;When cool, dust with icing sugar and store in an airtight container.[/lt_recipe]
For “Valentine’s Day” I am planning on baking a Giant Oreo Brownie which has been a great addition to my webshop and it has been very popular this last week or so. If you order a tray of the Oreo Brownie now it will not arrive in time for Valentine’s Day – sorry. The brownie will be heart shaped and the decoration can be done by the children. I will share the photos tomorrow when I am finished baking for the day. I am using a heart shaped tin for this but you can still make heart shaped cakes and other yummy goodies with round and square cakes. This is a diagram I made for a post I wrote last year if you want to have a try.
Even though it is half term my children seem to be having a busy time. So far there has been a sleepover for one and a cinema for one. Tomorrow, there is a tea out for one then a sleepover for one but there are two coming to sleepover here on the same day. Madness I know and all on Valentine’s Day. Never mind I am sure they will all enjoy themselves. It will be me that needs a week off to recover. Hahaha!!
At the weekend, I have orders for Oreo Brownies, Rainbow Cakes and Corned Beef Slice which are needed at a family christening then on Monday the children go back to school but with all that is going on here I don’t know when they will fit their homework in.