Rocky Road from BBC Good Food

I know it's been a while - I'm dieting and this blog makes me want to bake! Baked goods in my house don't last for long when I'm around so it's safer if I just don't!

Happily, I had the opportunity to bake for someone else today! Louis finishes nursery tomorrow so we made a couple of things for him to take in for his teachers, the first being this Rocky Road (or Chocolate Crunch Bar as they like to call it) from the BBC Good Food site.

Cuts into 12.
Ingredients

• 100g butter , roughly chopped
• 300g dark chocolate (such as Bournville), broken into squares
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 140g rich tea biscuits , roughly crushed
• 12 pink marshmallows , quartered (use scissors)
• 2 x 55g bars Turkish delight , halved and sliced (or use Maltesers, Milky Way or Crunchie bars) [I used Maltesers and Crunchie]

1. Gently melt the butter, chocolate and syrup in a pan over a low heat, stirring frequently until smooth, then cool for about 10 mins. [It's important to let this cool for minimum 10 minutes otherwise the marshmallow will melt, which is not what you want!]
    
2. Stir the biscuits and sweets into the pan until well mixed, then pour into a 17cm square tin lined with foil and spread the mixture to roughly level it. Chill until hard, then cut into fingers. 

It was so easy to do - in fact, the hardest thing I think was chopping up the marshmallow because they were so sticky! Smelt gorgeous too.... not entirely sure how they tasted - I did have a little nibble (shhh!) which was goooooooooood! I put some of them in a jar which I wrapped with ribbon and a parcel tag to take in to school tomorrow. Hopefully they taste as nice as it looked, and I hope the rest of my household eat the remains that we have here - it keeps calling me!

Hummingbird Bakery Banana Loaf

Makes 8-10 slices

Ingredients

• 270g soft light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 200g peeled bananas, mashed
• 280g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 140g unsalted butter, melted

Grease a 23x13cm loaf tin and dust with flour. Preheat the oven to 170C / 325F / GM3


Put the sugar and eggs in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat until well incorporated. Beat in the mashed bananas.


Add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger to the sugar mixture. Mix it thoroughly until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated into the egg mixture. Pour in the melted butter and beat until all the ingredients ar well mixed. 


Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth over with a palette knife. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour or until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool slightly in the tin before turning out to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. 

Hmm - not overly impressed with this one. Needless to say, it was polished off pretty darn quick, but at the same time a bit cinnamon & gingery for me. Nice, but not sure if I will make it again. I think I prefer banana cake with my black 'nanas.

Mustard Toad in the Hole

I've always loved toad in the hole, but never quite managed to get it right. The batter always goes too crunchy, or there doesnt seem enough batter.... just had never mastered it. I had a packet of sausages in the fridge which needed eating, and after doing a low-carb diet for a while, the last thing I wanted was them in all their sausagey glory, and wanted to disguise them as something delicious, so I checked out the BBC Good Food site for inspiration, and came across this recipe for Mustard Toad in the Hole.

  Serves 4 

Ingredients

• 8 sausages
• 2 onions , cut into wedges
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 150g plain flour
• 2 tsp English mustard powder
• 2 eggs
• 300ml milk 

Method 

Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Put the sausages and onion wedges in an ovenproof baking dish. Drizzle over 2 tbsp oil, season then cook for 20 minutes until everything is browned a little.   

While the sausages are cooking, put the flour and mustard powder in a bowl and season. Gradually whisk in the eggs and milk to make a batter. Pour into the hot dish with the sausages then cook for another 30-40 minutes until crisp and golden. [I did them for 30mins in my oven as it tends to get quite hot and found it the perfect amount of time]. 

I can honestly say that this is the nicest toad in the hole I have ever had the pleasure of eating. Absolutely gorgeous and went down a treat with the Little Man too. I shall definitely be adding this on to my rosta. So simple, yet so delicious 5/5.

Cherry Bakewell Cake

A friend of mine mentioned, last week, how much she loved Bakewell Tart. I advised her to try the Cherry Bakewell Tart from BBC Good Food as its absolutely scrummy. Ever since I mentioned it, I have had mega cravings for it, so today, with the help of a 3 year old boy, I made it again...

Serves 8.

Ingredients:

FOR THE CAKE

• 200g butter , well softened, plus extra for greasing
• 200g golden caster sugar
• 100g ground almonds
• 100g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp almond extract or essence
• 4 large eggs
  

FOR THE FILLING AND TOP

• ½ a 340g jar morello cherry conserve
• 175g icing sugar
• 5-6 tsp water or lemon juice
• 1 tbsp ready-toasted flaked almonds

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and make sure there's a shelf ready in the middle. Butter and line the bases of 2 x 20cm round sandwich tins with baking paper.

Using electric beaters, beat together all the cake ingredients with a pinch of salt until smooth, then spoon into the tins and level the tops.



Bake for 30 mins or until golden and springy. Don't open the oven before 25 mins cooking time has passed.

When they're ready, cool the sponges for a few mins, then tip out of the tins and cool completely on a wire rack. Make sure the top of one of the cakes is facing up as you'll want a smooth surface for the icing later on.

When cool, put one sponge on a serving plate, then spread with jam. Sandwich the second sponge on top. Sieve the icing sugar into a large bowl. Add the water or lemon juice, then stir until smooth and thick. Spread evenly over the top and let it dribble over the sides. Scatter with the nuts and leave to set for a few mins before cutting.

Ahhh - heaven, it was just as good as I had remembered and got a big thumbs up from the little man too. If you try it, please let me know what you think.