Mincemeat and cranberry flapjacks

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Kellogg's Special K Granola

Peaches, Honey and Mint Pancakes

Peaches, Honey and Mint Pancakes

During the week breakfasts need to be easy and quick which usually means bowls of cereal all round. Weekends though are a different affair – it's time to start cooking things for a leisurely, laidback meal. However, this is still breakfast time and we can't spend spend too much time in the kitchen as the younger natives start getting very restless. Fresh inspiration is always welcome and this has come in the form of a package I recently received from Clarks Honey containing their new Honey blend.

Clarks Honey is a clear, runny honey which makes it perfect for drizzling or measuring out for recipes. Usually British honey is set but Clarks has mixed British honey with Blossom and Acacia honey so you get the best of both. For a light fruity breakfast I chose some ripe peaches but you could also try nectarines, apricots or plums. The mint is from my garden and is a lime mint variety but pick whatever mint you have.

Ingredients

½ oz (15g) Unsalted butter

4 Ripe peaches, de-stoned and sliced

3 Mint leaves

1 tbsp (15ml) Clarks Honey

1 Packet Abra-ca-Debora Diddy Sweet Dutch Pancakes

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/Gas mark 6.

2. In a large frying pan melt the butter and start to cook the peach slices slowly.

3. Once they start to fry cook the pancakes as per the instructions (4-5 minutes).

4. Tear the mint leaves and sprinkle over the peaches. Then drizzle over the honey.

5. Heat though gently making sure the peaches keep their shape.

6. Serve mixed with the heated pancakes.

If you want to know what we did with the Roddas Clotted Cream they became pudding that night along with some fresh figs drizzled with some more Clarks Honey.

Clarks sent me the items for free and no payment was received. The views and recipe are my own.

Bacon and Cheese Muffins

Bacon and Cheese Muffins with a dash of Soy Sauce

Some people ask how I come up with ideas for recipes. This is how I came up with this recipe for Bacon and Cheese muffins. I was idly flicking through a cookbook which of course has the starters at the front. I saw a recipe for something with cheese. Mmm, I like cheese. I don't know what cheese it was for but nevermind. Keep flicking and in the main courses there's a recipe with bacon in it. I like bacon too. I prefer it to be smoked bacon for the flavour. The recipe was for chicken breasts with bacon wrapped round it. Not really interested in that. I move on and I get to the cakes and sweet bakes. Ooh, chocolate muffins. I might make something with chocolate in later and then it hits me – cheese, bacon, muffins. All three of them could go well together. So there you go recipe idea.

Muffins, like in my cookbook, are usually of the sweet variety so you need something to replace the sugar in the basic mix. I added some mustard powder but also some Kikkoman Soy Sauce, which they kindly sent to me. Both the bacon and cheese are quite strong flavoured and salty so to help cut through that I used the Kikkoman Less Salt Soy Sauce.

To get the taste of both the cheese and bacon you do need to use some strong, mature cheddar and also some smoked bacon. Anything milder and the flavours won't be there. You can serve these cold like a sweet muffin or just let them cool slightly before serving warm. If you let them cool they would be a tasty addition to a picnic or an interesting alternative in your lunchbox.

Makes 12

Equipment: 12 cup muffin tin lined with paper cases

Ingredients

4 Rashers smoked streaky bacon

8oz (225g) Self-raising flour

2oz (55g) Plain flour

1 tsp (5ml) Baking powder

½ tsp (2.5ml) Bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp (2.5ml) Mustard powder

6 tbsp (90ml) Sunflower oil

7fl oz (200ml) Milk

1 Large egg

1 tbsp (15ml) Kikkoman Low Salt Soy Sauce

4oz (110g) Mature cheddar cheese, grated

Method

1. Line the muffin tin with the paper cases.

2. Grill the bacon until cooked and crispy. Leave to cool then cut into small pieces.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/Gas mark 6.

4. In a large bowl mix together the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and, mustard powder.

5. In a separate bowl beat together the oil, milk, egg, Soy sauce, cheese and bacon.

6. Mix the two sets of ingredients together until just combined.

7. Cook for 20-25 minutes.

8. Leave to cool on a wire. Can be eaten warm or cold.

Kikkoman sent me sample of their sauces to try for free. No payment was made for this post.

Vegan Blueberry Bran Muffin

Vegan Blueberry Bran Muffins

I like a blogging challenge – you may have noticed this if you have read some of the posts on here. So when the lovely Victoria from A Kick at the Pantry Door announced her new monthly blogging challenge of Feel Good Food I was in. To start the challenge the chosen ingredient is the superfood blueberries.

As always I knew I could bake the blueberries into a cake but I was undecided until I saw the theme of this month's Breakfast Club run by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours. This month's host, Elizabeth at Elizabeth's Kitchen, has set High Fibre as the challenge and with some wheat bran to use up my mind was made up – muffins it was!

 

I thought I'd make these muffins vegan not just for dietary reasons but on a practical note. Quite often I run out of eggs but still want to bake so having some recipes that can be made out of store cupboard ingredients is very handy. This recipe contains no strange or hard to get ingredients. The bag of wheat bran came from my local branch of Morrisons.

As these muffins don't contain any eggs they don't rise like a muffin normally does. However, if you don't want to hoof down a bowl of cereal whilst trying to put your shoes on and dry your hair at the same time, this is the breakfast for you. Pop a couple in your bag and eat them at a more digestible moment.

Equipment: 12 cup muffin tin lined with cases.

Ingredients

7oz (200g) Wholemeal plain flour

5oz (150g) Demerara sugar

2½ oz (75g) Wheat bran

2 tsp (10ml) Baking powder

4½ oz (125g) Blueberries, washed and dried

8 tbsp (120ml) Sunflower oil

8fl oz (230ml) Water

1 tsp (5ml) Vanilla extract

1½ tsp (7.5ml) Lemon juice

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4.

2. In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, wheat bran, baking powder and blueberries together. Make sure the blueberries are coated or they may sink.

3. In a separate bowl mix together the oil, water, vanilla extract and lemon juice.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Unlike other muffin mixes this isn't so wet.

5. Spoon the mixture equally between the 12 muffin cases.

6. Bake for 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Malt Loaf - New Year but no excesses

Malt Loaf with some juicy sultanas

Once January hit us there are all sort of plans for improving one's lifestyle. Out of the all the resolutions the most popular must be to lose weight and to get fit. After the excesses of Christmas, not to mention the tins of chocolates and boxes of chocolates still lying about, it can be hard to give up on the sweet things to eat. For most people resolutions rarely don't make it through January. The combination of the cold weather, still short days and the feeling of little to look forward doesn't make for a great motivator. What you need is something like a cake but without the guilty fat feeling. For this the number one candidate is malt loaf.

Malt loaf remains a quintessentially British food. Many people state its origins to be in northern England however a patent for it was filed by a Scotsman in 1890. Ironically, the company best known for producing it commercially is based in Manchester, but is named after the Danish Sorensen family who once owned the company.

In recent years malt loaf has regained its popularity as a snack foods amongst athletes, particularly cyclists and runners. The low-fat, carbohydrate high nature of it gives a welcome energy boost during endurance events. If though you are not of such a sporty nature then a slice of malt loaf goes down well with a cup of tea at any time of day. Opinion is divided whether one should eat it plain or spread with butter. I have also read people eulogizing about how good malt loaf is if toasted or fried in butter. Personally, I am an au naturel girl but I'll leave it to you to experiment and decide how you like it best.

Malt Loaf

Makes 2 x 1lb (450g) loaves. The second loaf can be frozen if necessary. For reasons of ease and quickness I use loaf liners for the tins. The recipe needs cold tea so remember make that first! I use what is left over in the pot from my morning tea.

Click here for a printable recipe. 

Equipment:2 x 1lb (450g) loaf tins, baking parchment (this will need to be greased) or loaf tin liners, mixing bowl, large saucepan

Ingredients

8oz (225g) Plain flour

½ tsp (2.5ml) Bicarbonate of soda

1tsp (5ml) Baking powder

8oz (225g) Sultanas

2oz (55g) Demerara sugar

6oz (170g) Malt extract

1tbsp (15ml) Black treacle

2 Large, free-range eggs, beaten

¼ pint (150ml) Cold tea (no milk or sugar added!)

Method

1. Get the two tins prepared by either lining them with greased baking parchment or pop in the loaf tin liners. 
2. Let the oven get up to temperature by pre-heating to 150°C/Gas mark 2.

3. In the mixing bowl weigh the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.

4. Add the sultanas and then stir together.

5. In the large saucepan put the sugar, malt extract and black treacle and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.

6. Take the saucepan off the heat and pour onto the dry ingredients. Add the beaten eggs and the tea.

7. The mixture needs to be well beaten until smooth.

8. Spoon equal amounts of the mixture into the prepared tins.

9. The loaves will need about 1 hour in the oven or until well risen and firm to the touch.

10.Once the loaves are cooked let them cool for 10 minutes in the tins then turn out on to a wire rack to let them cool completely.

11. The texture of the malt loaves means they are best left for 2 days before eating, however this can prove to be very difficult!