Raspberry, chocolate & hazelnut breakfast bread

While on the BBC Good Food site over the past couple of weeks, this recipe popped up lots of times. I’m on a bit of a Nutella buzz at the moment, so this was right up my street. The worst bit was waiting for it to cool, as the smell screamed “EAAAAAAT MEEEEEEE”. Well, it didn’t so much scream, as murmur seductively: "eeeeaaaaat meeeeeee".

I mixed the dough last night, finished it this morning and baked it while getting ready for the day, so that by the time it was cooked and cooled, we were ready for breakfast.

It takes very little kneading, which is good, and I did this in the Kenwood, so that was even less effort. The bread was delicious, with a loose and light texture, and I guess that even though you’re using a full jar of Nutella, it’s spread over an entire loaf, so it’s only 20g per portion (just a little more than a dessertspoonful, and if you get ten slices from it). The raspberries do not count towards your 5-a-day.

Raspberry and Nutella bread

I’d no eggs, so I left this out and the bread still turned out fine. The dough was very soft so the egg would have made it even softer and less easy to handle.

2 x 7g sachets fast-action dried yeast

600g '00' flour, sponge flour or plain flour, plus extra for dusting

50g golden caster sugar

400ml warm milk

50g melted salted butter, plus extra for greasing and to serve

1 large egg, beaten

200g jar Nutella, plus extra to serve (optional)

200g raspberries

1-2 tbsp chopped hazelnut

1 tbsp granulated sugar

raspberry jam, to serve

Mix the yeast, 400g of the flour, the sugar and 1 tsp salt in a big bowl. Whisk together the milk, melted butter and egg, then tip into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon. Cover tightly with greased cling film and chill at least overnight or up to 3 days.

When you’re ready to finish the bread, heat oven to 180°C. Add the remaining flour to the dough and use your hands to mix in. Tip onto a lightly floured surface and lightly knead to completely bring together. Roll out with a little more flour to a 50 x 30cm rectangle. Spread the Nutella all over the dough. Scatter the raspberries evenly over, then press lightly with your hands so they stick into the dough a bit.

The original recipe goes into detail over cutting and twisting, which I started but my dough was quite soft, so it was quite difficult to manipulate. I ended up folding it back in on top of itself twice, which was not as pretty but it worked.

Lift onto a baking sheet, scatter with the hazelnuts and granulated sugar, and bake for 30-40 mins until browned and crusty.

Cool until just warm. Serve with butter, raspberry jam and extra Nutella, if you like.

Home made granola

Between one thing and d’other, I ran out of muesli during the week (this is probably linked to my 'up-make' of smoothies*). So I decided to do something that I've until now considered as complete and utter madness** - make breakfast cereal.

While looking for something else on line I saw a recipe for homemade granola (or muesli) and decided to give it a go.  The result is very satisfying. The best part is that you can make it to how you like it.

Home-made granola 

So, in a large bowl, mix 125ml of maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of honey, a teaspoon of vanilla essence and a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Add 300g of large oats and around 200g of whatever nuts you have. I used up the ends of packets of almonds, walnuts and pistachios to make the 200g, but you can use seeds (sunflower, sesame, ground linseeds…) or whatever you have handy. Make sure the nuts and oats are well stirred through the maple syrup. Cover a baking tray with baking paper and spread the oaty mix over it. Cook this in an oven at 150° for 15 minutes. In the meantime, weigh out 100g of dried fruit – again, whatever you have lying around. I used a mixture of dried cranberries, sultanas and blueberries and some goji berries***. Sprinkle this over the oaty mixture and cook for another 15 minutes.

When its cool, store in an airtight container and use in your smoothies, on yogurt or wherever else.

* 365things smoothies contain: a cupful of fruit such as frozen mixed berries or frozen raspberries, plus a banana, a pot of yogurt, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a dessert spoonful of granola, a splash of milk or fruit juice or sparkling water and maybe a spoonful of almond butter (think peanut butter but with almonds instead of peanuts. It is available from health food shops and is addictive. It is a good source of calcium, potassium and magnesium and contains lots of vitamin E. Vitamin E is like edible skin cream, so instead of spending a fortune on anti-wrinkle creams and the like, treat your skin from the inside. Careful though, as almond butter is quite heavy on the calories). Whizz all the ingredients in a blender for about a minute until smooth, adding more milk or juice to get it to your preferred consistency) and serve glass.

** why do I consider making cereal a form of madness? Well, unlike other processed food, porridge oats and muesli/granola are quite pure forms of food and they contain less nasty stuff than say processed bread, so I don't mind buying them, and I will spend a day making bread. And, until now, I just thought life was too short to make this stuff. Mind changed ;-)

*** I bought the goji berries in a health food shop after hearing they are incredibly good for you, with high calcium and iron levels. I didn't like the taste of them that much so they have been in the cupboard for a while. Added to the granola means that the taste is diluted a bit.

American-style pancakes

American style pancakes 

I’ve been making a few of Felicity Cloakes “the perfect” recipes recently (like the chocolate chip cookies). I’m always looking for new brunch recipes, so these immediately piqued my interest. We didn’t have any maple syrup, although I think I’ve seen it in the Carrefours around Waterloo and in the British shop. We ate them with honey and jam. The pancakes were light and fluffy, with a good taste and colour.

45g melted butter

115g flour

115 cornmeal (‘farine de mais’ in French. I didn’t have any in my kitchen and wasn’t looking for it when I was doing the shopping, so I used polenta instead and they turned out great)

a pinch of salt

2 tablespoons of caster sugar

½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1 egg

300ml buttermilk (see here for more info on the science behind buttermilk)

100ml full fat milk

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a jug, mix two tablespoons of the melted butter plus all the other wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, stirring to combine as you add them.

American style pancake batter

In a heavy pan, add a little of the leftover melted butter and heat to a medium heat.

Drop large spoonfuls of the mixture of the mixture into the hot pan and cook for about two or three minutes on the first side and another minute on the reverse side. You know the first side is done when holes appear on the raw side of the pancake. I was able to get three pancakes onto the pan. Repeat for the rest of the mixture. I got about 12 pancakes from this amount of mixture.

Low fat fruity crumble muffins

These low fat muffins come from a good food recipe. I tweaked it and then forgot to add the melted butter (to replace the oil) and they turned out brilliant, and even more low fat.

For the muffins

175g caster sugar

175g fruit (I’ve used rhubarb and ginger, raspberries, blueberries. I guess that grated apple, mashed banana and anything else that is going cheap at the shops will work)

1 egg

A sprinkle of vanilla (if you have vanilla sugar use that and leave this out)

125ml milk

200g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

For the topping

50g of muesli or oats

A bit of cinnamon if you feel so inclined, mixed with the oats

Heat the oven to 220 degrees and line a muffin tin. I get 10 muffins out of this mixture, although it’s supposed to do 12.

Mix the egg, vanilla and milk together lightly. Add the vanilla, flour, bicarbonate and baking powder and the fruit.

This bit is really important. Mix everything just enough to combine it, no more.

Spoon it into the muffin tin and top with a teaspoonful of the oat topping. Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes.  Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack.