Simple Vanilla Buttercream Recipe

It's tempting isn't it, wouldn't it be wonderful if you could make a batch of light and fluffy buttercream at home instead of always buying it. Well now is your chance, this is unlike anything you will buy, it is silky smooth and full of pure vanilla goodness. Better still you can tailor this recipe as you please with different flavours and colours! 

Chocolate and Vanilla Tart

As chocolate plays an intricate part of romance and being wooed in general I thought that this was the perfect dessert for a romantic meal for two. Last year I posted this recipe and a vegetarian meal of Butternut Squash and Feta Filo Parcels as the main course. I thought that I should spruce up the photography for this decilate and fingerlicking of dessert in order to it justice. I think that no romantic meal is complete without chocolate and this is my pièce de résistance for any meal..... a dark chocolate and vanilla pie served with soft whipped cream and a dusting of icing sugar....perfect!

Mini Baked Doughnuts

"Good, goods in small parcels" and these are really good goods!  I love doughnuts they are my Achilles heel, I can't help myself when they present themselves beside the coffee machines at petrol stations, the shiny chocolate glaze and those colourful sprinkles....all too much for my self control!

Some Simple Christmas Cake Decorating Ideas

Don't be stuck for cake decorating inspiration this year, try some of my simple but classy cake ideas. Your cake can be a simple or as detailed as you wish but don't spend ages in the kitchen slaving over your masterpiece. 

Pumpkin Traybake with Cream Cheese Icing

I have a fascination with all things pumpkins and squashes in general, they are one of those ingredients that really surprise me, especially in baking, they are really, really tasty.

Jam Tarts

Long story short my son thinks that when the Vikings pillaged Ireland they came for, wait for it Jam Tarts! Now how, I hear you ask did he come up with that, well I have to say I am to blame!

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

Photography has been part of my life, all my life! As long as I can remember, my father carried around a camera and before him my grandmother. My father talks about his mother lining them up as children and taking a family snap with her Brownie or as he calls it a Box Brownie. We still have some of those photographs at home, it seemed strange to me as a child seeing my father side by side with his siblings, not to mention seeing my uncles and aunt as children!

Biscuit Base Lemon Meringue Pie

I have been working on my fitness the last couple of months, with getting older and all, I thought I should try and take a little time for myself and get fitter. 

I have tried many activities over the past ten years and as much as I love going out on my bicycle, it can be somewhat time consuming and with winter months closing in it can be a bit dangerous too. So I have found my newest love.....YOGA!!

I made Tom Doorley's 3-Course Menu to Serve 4 (With Wine!) for €20 or Under.

Okay two blog posts in the same day is a record for me, but it I just had to share this with you all. I take no credit for this menu, I just happened to be listening to Marian Finucane's radio show when she interviewed Tom Doorley about his summer menu. Now aside from the fact that is not bad value at all, if you are entertaining, the food sounded really tasty, so I thought sure why not? The recipe for this whole meal is on Tom Doorley Megabites blog. I made the whole meal, albeit with a few minor changes, so here is how I got on....

I decided to make the tart first, as it sets as it cools and it taste perfect at room temperature.

The pastry is very rich and buttery (use chilled butter when making the pastry) however this makes it a bit tricky to roll out so I took Tom at his word and treated it like plasticine and pushed it into the edges of my tart tin.

Blind baked it at 190ºC for 10 minutes.

I upped the sugar in the tart by an extra 100g cause I have a sweet tooth that makes me do these things ;) The recipe wasn't clear if I should use two or three eggs, so I opted for two.

Baked it for 30 minutes at 160ºC until it was golden on top.

The tart was still a bit sharp but perfect with some pouring cream.

The chicken and mushroom gratin..... 

I cooked the chicken for about 40 minutes and allowed it to cool slightly before stripping off the flesh.

The gratin is very moreish and hearty. I used a 1.2kg chicken which was €2.99 from Aldi instead of the the 1.4kg free range chicken called for in the original recipe. I had the chicken in the freezer and was looking for a tasty recipe in which to use it. The filling is very easy to make, no lumpy sauce to worry about.

The chicken is tender and sweet while the topping is just the right amount of crunchy!

Makin' the soup....

I reduced the stock to about 1ltr, now because I used a very, very large saucepan to cook the chicken in, I had a LOT of stock, so the job of reducing it too a bit longer than I thought. Once that was done it only took a few minutes to make the soup.

Light and perfect with a cool glass of wine.

The salad...

The salad leaves (lolla rossa) were from my own garden and I substituted the shallot with a homegrown spring onion. I made the vinaigrette in a jar with 2 parts oil to 1 part cider vinegar with 1tsp of wholegrain mustard.

Dress the salad just before you are about to serve it as it will wilt if left too long.

I really enjoyed this meal, it was really tasty and although it takes time to put together it is well worth it. I will be making this again soon and looking forward to it too!

No Bake Nutella Bites

If you are looking for a quick and easy recipe that requires no effort at all then you are in the right place. Basically heat, stir and chill and you are on your way to a chocolatey chewy bite that didn't even raise a sweat. These little tasty morsels are very moreish and even if I say so myself are real lookers! Perfect for some after dinner dining, party treats or perhaps as a movie snack.

Recipe adapted from Dinner Dishes and Desserts

Yield 80-90 pieces

Ingredients
450g White Sugar
4tbsp Cocoa powder
113g Butter
125ml Milk
1tbsp Vanilla extract
165g Nutella
230g Porridge oats

Method
Line a 30x25cm shallow baking tray with baking paper.

Place the sugar, cocoa powder, butter and milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring frequently. Boil for 1 minute, remove from the heat.

Fold in the vanilla extract, nutella and porridge oats. Mix until all the porridge oats are coated in the chocolate mixture.

Pour into the prepared tray, level off.

Gently tap the dish on your work surface to remove any trapped air bubbles.

Before the mixture sets, shake over sprinkles of your choice.

Chill for 2-3 hours or until firm, use the baking paper to help lift the chocolatey goodness out of the baking tray. Place on a chopping board, with a sharp knife cut into roughly 2cm square pieces. Serve and devour!!

Cherry Pie!

I remember the last really hot summer here in Ireland, it was in July of 2006. My abiding memory is sitting out on our decking early one morning eating our breakfast and watching the sun stream through the fencing. It was the start of what my mother calls an Indian Summer!! 

There is nothing like a good cliche to describe the weather here at the moment, I think it would be fair to say that the sun is splitting the rocks and that you could fry an egg on a stone (has anyone ever tried that here in Ireland?). 

I however, am not a creature who enjoys the sun, well that's not exactly true, I love the sun it just hates me! Instead of turning as brown as a nut (another favourite saying of my Mother) my fair Irish skin just sizzles...ouch! 

So, as a result I retreat indoors away from the midday heat and somewhat unwisely turn on the oven. So far this week I made a sumptuous Black Forest Gâteau and now continuing in that vein I decided this beautiful cherry pie would be my next worthy project. The recipe can be found on Zoom Yummy, a witty blogger who take some excellent photos, especially on how to create this lattice topping. Enjoy!

I did cheat and use 340g of shop bought pastry, but I did pick out the punnets (500g) of fresh cherries by myself!

 My daughter and I destoned the cherries by hand, a very satisfying job indeed.

A note on the original recipe, I recommend mixing the cornflour and sugar together before adding to the cooked cherries, this will save the cornflour going lumpy over the heat.

I left 2cms of pastry around the edge of the pie dish.

It's really important to let the filling cool before adding the lattice, my pastry disintegrated into the hot filling (I've no patients for stuff cooling!!) also, thicker and wider strips than I cut out would be easier to work with.

Zoom Yummy lattice tutorial is excellent, well worth pinning for again.

I folded the 2cm pastry over the tails of the lattice and pinched with my fingers and thumb.

Ready to go into the oven, I didn't brush my pie with an egg wash but I will the next time.

50 minutes later this beauty came out of the oven all bubbling and gooey. Allow to cool to room temperature before eating.

A tasty treat for a beautiful summer's evening.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

This is like summer in a pie dish, I just love the colours of the fruit all wrapped in flaky pastry. My father grows both strawberries and rhubarb in his garden and this is perfect for when both crops are in abundance. The rhubarb season starts in March and goes out of season in October, then the strawberry season starts in May and lasts until November, plenty of opportunity to make this slice of summer!! 

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
Pastry:
200g Plain flour
100g Cold butter, cubed
1 tsp Caster sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
3-4 tbsp Cold water (more if needed)

Filling:
300g Fresh strawberries, washed
300g Rhubarb, washed
150g White sugar
30g Cornflour
½ tsp Ground cinnamon
½ tsp Mixed Spice
¼ tsp Salt
3 tbsp Water
1 Egg, beaten

Method
Preheat the oven to 230ºC/450ºF/Gas Mark 8, grease and flour a deep 22cm x 5cm, (9 inch x 2 inch) Pyrex pie dish or similar, tap the excess flour out into your hand, set aside.

To make the pastry needed (375g just in case you're buying shop bought):
Sift the flour (if only to remove the lumps!) into a large bowl, stir in the caster sugar and cold diced butter. With only your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the vanilla extract and the water, a tablespoon at a time until the pastry starts to come together. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface, gently bring together, wrap in cling film (I like to pat the pastry into a flat disc shape as I find it chills quicker). Allow to "rest" in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile make the filling:
Wash and dice both the rhubarb and the strawberries, mix together in a large bowl.

Add the sugar, cornflour, cinnamon, mixed spice, salt and water to the bowl. Mix gently to coat the fruit (don't be afraid to get your hand in there and give it a good mix)

Roll out about two thirds of the "rested" pastry on a lightly floured surface until it is large enough to line the base of the Pyrex pie dish.

I find lifting pastry a bit tricky at times, so I use my rolling pin, place the rolling pin in the middle of the rolled out pastry, gently fold the pastry over the pin, then use the rolling pin to lift the pastry and lay it into the dish.

Tip the filling into the pastry case, roughly trim the edges, leaving about 2cm (1 inch) of pastry overhanging the dish.

Roll out the remaining pastry and either cut with a lattice cutter or cut into 2 cm (1 inch) strips and weave over the top of the pie (see picture below, try to remember your national school teacher teaching you how to weave a paper basket, under one..over one!)

 Dampen the edges of the pastry with the beaten egg and press the lid into place, pressing firmly but gently.

Use your fingers scallop the edges of the pastry. Brush the whole pie with the beaten egg (or milk if you prefer).

I usually place the pie on a baking tray, just in case the juices boil over and drip onto my oven. Bake at 230ºC/450ºF/Gas Mark 8, for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas Mark 5 for a further 50 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the juices are bubbling.

Serve with warm with  ice cream or cold with warm custard.