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  • Toad-in-the-hole

    Serves 4

    You will need:

    • For the batter
    • 100g plain flour
    • 2 eggs
    • 150ml semi-skimmed milk
    • For the toad
    • 8 sausages (roughly 2 per person)
    • 1 onion, finely sliced
    • 1 tbsp vegetable oil

    Preheat oven to gas 7, 220°C, fan 200°C.

    First make the batter. Put the flour in a bowl, add the eggs and slowly mix in the milk then beat until smooth.
    Put the sausages in an ovenproof baking dish, scatter over the sliced onion and drizzle over the oil. Roast for 15 mins.

    Remove the dish from the oven, pour the batter over and around the sausages then return to the oven and cook for a further 35 mins or until the sausages are cooked through and the batter is golden on top.

    Serve the toad in the hole with gravy and vegetables.

    TIP: The batter recipe also works for Yorkshire Puddings

    Original recipe: Tesco Food

  • Pull Apart Cheesy Pesto Bread

    Makes 2 servings

    You will need:

    • 250 g strong bread flour , plus more for dusting
    • ½ teaspoon salt
    • 1 teaspoon yeast
    • 150 ml warm water
    • 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, plus a tiny bit for greasing
    • 150 g pesto
    • 30g shredded cheddar cheese
    • 30g shredded mozzarella cheese

    Combine the flour, salt, and yeast together, then form a well in the centre. Add the water and 1 teaspoon of the olive oil and stir until the mixture holds together.

    Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 7-10 minutes.

    Put the dough into a bowl greased with olive oil, cover with cling film, and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

    Knead the dough again for another minute or so, then form the mixture into 18 even-sized balls.

    Coat each dough ball in a generous helping of pesto.

    Place the dough balls into a large cake tin, cover and rise for another hour.

    Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C.)

    Cover the dough balls with the cheddar and mozzarella.

    Bake for 20-25 minutes.

    Enjoy!

    Original recipe: Tasty

  • Garlic, Mushroom and Quorn Pies

    Makes 2 pies.

    You will need:

    • calorie controlled cooking spray
    • 1 leek, sliced
    • 150 g (5½ oz) chestnut mushrooms, sliced
    • 2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
    • 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
    • 200 g (7 oz) quorn chicken style pieces
    • 75 g (2¾ oz) frozen petit pois
    • 60 g (2 oz) low fat soft cheese with garlic and herbs
    • 100 ml (3½ fl oz) skimmed milk
    • 2 x 45 g (1½ oz) filo sheets, measuring 50 x 24 cm (20 x 9½ inches), and defrosted if frozen
    • salt and freshly ground black pepper

    Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6/200ºC/fan oven 180ºC. Heat a medium size, non stick saucepan and spray with the cooking spray. Add the leek, mushrooms and garlic and cook for 2 minutes, stirring regularly. Stir in the thyme, Quorn and peas. Cook, stirring, for another 3 minutes.

    Add the soft cheese and milk, season, and cook for a minute until hot. Spoon the mixture into two 250ml (9fl oz) pie dishes.

    Scrunch up each sheet of filo pastry and then place on top of the pies to fit the dishes. Spray the top of the pies with the cooking spray, place on a baking sheet, and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.

    TIP: Use puff pastry to line the pie tin and top the pies if you want a nicer pie

    TIP: You may want to increase the sauce level for these pies. To do that, increase the cheese and milk a little to taste.

    Original Recipe: RTE Lifestyle

  • Pizza base

    Ingredients

    • makes 2 large bases or 4 medium pizzas
    • 400 g Tipo ’00’ flour
    • 100g strong white bread flour
    • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
    • 7 g dried yeast
    • 1/2 tablespoon golden caster sugar
    • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

    Method

    1. Sieve the flour/s and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle.
    2. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and oil into 325ml of lukewarm water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well.
    3. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.
    4. Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.
    5. Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands – this is called knocking back the dough. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in clingfilm, in the fridge (or freezer) until required.
    6. If using straight away, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas – this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas.
    7. Timing-wise, it’s a good idea to roll the pizzas out about 15 to 20 minutes before you want to cook them. Don’t roll them out and leave them hanging around for a few hours, though – if you are working in advance like this it’s better to leave your dough, covered with clingfilm, in the fridge. However, if you want to get them rolled out so there’s one less thing to do when your guests are round, simply roll the dough out into rough circles, about 0.5cm thick, and place them on slightly larger pieces of olive-oil-rubbed and flour-dusted tin foil. You can then stack the pizzas, cover them with clingfilm, and pop them into the fridge

  • Yeast Conversion

    Yeast Conversion Table

    This is a table to convert fresh yeast to original dry yeast or Quick Yeast. This can be used for making breads and anything using yeast.

    To download or view the table in PDF format click here.

    Fresh Yeast Original Dry YeastQuick Yeast
    3g1.5g1g
    6g3g2g
    10g4g3g
    12g6g4g
    17g7g5g
    34g14g10g
    68g28g20g

  • Pizza

    • 650g/1lb 7oz ’00’ flour (or strong white flour), plus extra for dusting
    • 7g dried easy-blend yeast
    • 2 tsp salt
    • 25ml/1fl oz olive oil
    • 50ml/2fl oz warm milk
    • 325ml/11fl oz warm water
    1. make the dough, mix the flour, yeast and salt together in a large bowl and stir in the olive oil and milk. Gradually add the water, mixing well to form a soft dough.
    2. Turn the dough out on to a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Transfer to a clean bowl, cover with a damp teatowel and leave to rise for about 1½ hours, until doubled in size.
    3. When the dough has risen, knock it back, then knead again until smooth, roll into a ball and set aside for 30 minutes to 1 hour until risen again.
    4. Preheat the oven to its highest setting.
    5. Divide the dough into six balls and roll each out on a lightly floured work surface until 20cm/8in in diameter. (You can also make one big pizza.) Spread a little passata (or homemade tomato sauce) over each pizza base and top with your favourite toppings.
    6. Bake the pizzas in the oven for 10–12 minutes until the bases are crisp and golden brown around the edges and any cheese on top has melted.

  • Cheese sauce for Mac ‘n’ Cheese.

    Ingredients

    500ml milk

    50 grammes plain flour

    50g butter

    10:1:1

    700 ml: 70 grammes of flour: 70 grammes of plain flour etc.

    Add enough cheese to kill.

    100g grated strong cheddar (or 50g grated cheddar, 50g crumbled blue cheese) 

    As if you only use that amount of cheese.

    Method

    1. Pour 500ml milk into a large saucepan and add 4 tbsp plain flour and 50g butter.
    2. Turn on the heat to medium and start to whisk the mixture. Keep whisking fast as the butter melts and the mixture comes to the boil – the flour will disappear and the sauce will begin to thicken.
    3. Whisk for another 2 mins while the sauce bubbles then stir in 100g grated strong cheddar cheese (or 50g grated cheddar, 50g crumbled blue cheese) until melted.

  • Socca Farinata

    One Ingredient Socca! Amazing, crispy, golden brown, flaky flatbread that requires just ONE ingredient. Just mix, pour, bake, and done!

    SCALE1x2x3x

    INGREDIENTS

    • 1 cup chickpea flour (affiliate link)
    • 2 tablespoons olive oil (and extra for the pan)
    • 3/4 teaspoon salt
    • 1 1/4 cups water

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
    2. Whisk all ingredients until smooth.
    3. Pour 1-2 tablespoons additional olive oil into a large cast iron skillet. Pop the skillet in the oven for five minutes to heat the oil. (See notes on skillet sizing.)
    4. Pour the batter into the hot, oiled pan and swirl to spread evenly across the pan. Depending on pan size, you might want to do this in two batches (see notes). Bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden and crispy around the edges. Annnnd you’re done! Good luck not eating the whole hot, crispy thing in one sitting!

    Pan size: The size of your cast iron greatly impacts the end product and how thick / thin / crispy it will be. I used a 10-inch cast iron skillet and I actually split the batter in half and made two separate soccas in order to get them extra thin and crispy. In theory, you could pour all of the batter in and cook it all in one shot. But personal preference: those crispy, thin edges are EVERYTHING. So I prefer to split it into two batches when working with my 10-inch cast iron skillet

    From here.

    One Ingredient Socca

  • Flatbread

    Makes around 10

    You will need:

    • 300g plain flour
    • ½ tsp salt
    • 4 tbsps olive oil
    • 200ml hot water

    Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the centre.

    Put the oil in the well and then pour in the hot water. Stir the mixture with a spoon until it is cool enough to bring together with your hands. Leave the mixture to stand for between 10 minutes to half an hour.

    Divide the dough into 10 balls (roughly 50g each). Without using flour to dust, roll the balls out as thin as you can – you should be able to see your hand through them.

    Heat a non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat. Cook each flatbread in the pan for about 30 seconds on each side.

    TIP: You can flavour the flatbread with seeds (e.g. nigella seeds or poppy seeds). To do this, add a teaspoon or 2 of seeds into the flour before any liquid is added to ensure even dispersion.

    TIP: Make sure you use a non-stick pan. This is essential, else you will burn the pan, and the bread, and it will take forever to clean.

    Original Recipe: Nadiya Hussain – Instagram Stories

  • Oat Hazelnut Cookies

    Makes 9 cookies

    You will need:

    50g butter, plus a little for greasing
    2 tbsp maple syrup
    1 dessert apple, unpeeled and coarsely grated (you need 85g)
    1 tsp cinnamon
    50g raisins
    50g porridge oats
    50g spelt flour
    40g unblanched hazelnuts, cut into chunky slices
    1 egg

    Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and lightly grease a non-stick baking tray (or line a normal baking tray with baking parchment). Tip the butter and syrup into a small non-stick pan and melt together, then add the apple and cook, stirring, over a medium heat until it softens, about 6-7 mins. Stir in the cinnamon and raisins.

    Mix the oats, spelt flour, and hazelnuts in a bowl, pour in the apple mixture, then add the egg and beat everything together really well.

    Spoon onto the baking tray, well spaced apart to make 9 mounds, then gently press into discs. Bake for 18-20 mins until golden, then cool on a wire rack. Will keep for 3 days in an airtight container or 6 weeks in the freezer.

    TIP: As this isn’t classic baking, the ingredients do not need to be exact. Just note that if the grated apple is over 85g, then you may need a little flour to make sure that the mixture isn’t too wet to set.

    TIP: Be careful to not overcook these, the dried fruit can burn very quickly.

    Original recipe: BBC Good Food