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Basic Butter Biscuits

Basic Butter Biscuits

I think it’s always good to have a fail safe basic butter biscuits recipe that you can call on at a moment’s notice. It’s one of those things everyone should have up their sleeve.Basic butter biscuits

I like this one because depending on the type of biscuit you’re planning on making, you don’t have to refrigerate the dough first. Unless you’re making some delicate shapes, you can easily get away without it.Basic butter biscuits

This recipe is very adaptable – add chocolate chips, add a curd, add colouring – it handles it all well, and it’s very good at keeping it’s shape too.

You can even cut out a little and fill in with hard boiled sweets – when it comes out the oven, leave for a few minutes so that the sweets can set again, but not too long as they’ll harden and stick on the tray. Then you’ll need a jackhammer to get them loose again!

Basic Butter Biscuits

Cut the insides out and replace them with a different colour – that’s super effective and very pretty!

Basic Butter Cookies
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 30
Ingredients
  • 225g butter
  • 200g sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 400g all-purpose flour
  • ½ tsp. baking powder
  • ½ tsp. salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat over to 180C
  2. Add butter & sugar into the Thermomix Bowl. Mix at speed 4/10 seconds.
  3. Add the butterfly and mix at speed 3 for 60 seconds
  4. Add 2 eggs, vanilla, flour and other ingredients, then mix speed 4/30 seconds
  5. Set on the dough setting for 1min 30 seconds and tip out into a bowl. If it’s looking very sloppy you will need to refrigerate it for up to 30 mins, but it should be okay immediately.
  6. When you’re ready to roll out, tip it out onto a well-floured tray. Roll out, or make balls, and proceed with your cookie making fun.
  7. Place on a tray and bake for 8 – 15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie.
  8. Allow to cool a little before lifting the biscuits.

Basic Butter Biscuits

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Bear Alpha Bites Cereal {Review}

Alpha Bites

I must say, when I agreed to be a Bear Ambassador, I didn’t realise I would be so spoiled! Last month it was a personalised bag for some trick or treating, in previous months crafting, and more besides, but this month along with two boxes of Alpha Bites cereal, I received a bright yellow breakfast bowl – the kids loved it so much I bought a matching one… it’s made breakfast a much brighter affair! – and with it a personalised spoon, and a Heather Alstead placemat.  Alpha Bites

Aren’t they pretty?

Alpha Bites

Of course, the real review here is the Alpha Bites. Aside from the simple, but bright and colourful boxes themselves. The boxes contain the Bear Time Travel Adventure cards, which my daughter absolutely loves. They are informative and entertaining, and often good conversation starters. Alpha Bites

The Alpha Bites come in ‘plain’ multigrain and cocoa flavours. They are very sweet, but not in a saccharin manner – in fact they have no added refined sugar, and no added salt. The Alpha Bites consist of barley, oats, corn, rice, wheat and coconut nectar, which is what makes it sweet. Alpha Bites

The kids love Alpha Bites, surprisingly the Multigrain as much as the Cocoa. They love it with milk, and they also like it as a snack without milk, so that’s good to have on hand for when everyone wants a little something sweet.

We are part of the Alphabites programme, so have been sent these items free in exchange for an honest review

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Bear Claws Snacks For Autumn

Bear Claws

I do love ‘happy post’ – that’s what we call mail the postman has to ring the bell for!  A few weeks ago we received this fab parcel from BEAR, containing their Halloween/Autumn themed bear claw snacks.
Bear Claws

I loved the personalised bag that comes as a perk of working with Bear, and did immediately pop the little squashes into the oven, then demolished them with slatherings of butter. And I didn’t even share! 😉

For the kids, the box contained Strawberry and Butternut BEAR Claws and Apple, Pear and Pumpkin BEAR Claws.

Each box contains 5 lunch box sized bags – convenient, since I have two kids, so they can have a two bags each and there’s a spare for me!

As with all BEAR snacks, these flavouris are 100% fruit and veg and contain no ‘added nonsense’. Bear Claws

The flavours sound rather… unusual… and I wasn’t sure what to make of them, but after playing with my food for a while, I did try them.

When you open the Strawberry and Butternut package you’re immediately met by the sweet aroma of the strawberry. Pop one in your mouth, and the overwhelming flavour is of strawberry. I struggle to identify the pumpkin flavour in these at all, but from a child’s point of view, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Apparently there’s 230g butternut in a finished (dehydrated) 100g of BEAR Claws, so if a bag is roughly 20% of that  – each bag contains roughly 45g of butternut (I’m guessing) – so it’s an ideal way to get those hidden veggies in!

bear-3

The Apple, Pear and Pumpkin flavour on opening has a sweet apple aroma, and while it has distinct pear and apple flavours, you again can’t really taste the pumpkin despite the presence of over 240g of pumpkin to each 100g of finished product.  Bear Claws

While the BEAR claws are great to play with, they are also delicious to eat, and my kids love them. In fact, it’s getting them to save some for later that’s the problem!

Bear Claws are available online from Amazon and Ocado though you can pick them up in shops like Waitrose too.

We were sent this box of goodies free to review as part of the BEAR ambassador programme. Opinions and views are my own (or those of my children.) Links in the post may be affiliate links – you will not be charged for using them. 

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Easy Monster Eggs

Monster Eggs

It’s almost Halloween and while the rest of the world have been having parties and trick or treating, we’ve been so busy I’ve not even thought about it too much. This evening though we did breakfast for dinner, of a sort, with sausages, eggs and potato wedges, and I decided to make them a little Halloween-ish. So here’s a quick recipe for  Monster Eggs to bring some Halloween into your day with little to no effort.Monster Eggs

Fortunately, I happened to have edible ink and edible eyes on hand (That’s normal, right?!) so it was easy to do. If you don’t have those, you could use mayonnaise and olives for the eyes, or even mayonnaise and a sprig of greenery for eye slits.

For this recipe you will need:

  • 4 peeled and boiled eggs (14 minutes in the Thermomix internal steamer/Varoma) 
  • 50g spinach
  • 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • Salt to taste

Cut the eggs in half, then scoop the yolks out
eggs Combine the yolks, spinach, mayo and paprika in a food processor and blend till it’s a smooth mix (2 mins, speed 4 in the Thermomix)

If you have edible ink, draw eyelashes on the egg whitemonster-eyes

Scoop spoonfuls back into the egg whites and top with the ‘eye balls’

egg-eyes

Sprinkle salt to taste

These will keep for a few hours in the fridge if you’re making them for later

Follow this link for more Halloween recipes

 

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How To Make Fruit Vinegar

Foraging is a fantastic activity, but it’s hard work, so you want to utilise every scrap to best effect in whichever way you can.

Once I’ve made a syrup  from the berries I’ve harvested, I’m loathed to throw them out. Some say you can put them in an ‘adult pie’ or ice cream, but that doesn’t always work – blackberries, for example, are white as snow by the time the flavour’s been sucked out of them, or there’s simply nothing left of them.  Other fruits, however, like rose hips, hawthorns and elderberries, have enough left in them to make something else out of. Like second-use tea bags, they’re not the ultimate flavour, but they may just work out okay.

balsamic vinegar

I have a bundle of 100ml jars specifically for this purpose – when I’ve made a syrup, I pop the pulp into the jar and top it with vinegar – if it doesn’t work out, I’ve lost about 50ml vinegar. If it does work out… I have a delicious new fruit vinegar to enjoy.

Some fruits – like elderberries or fresh blackberries – will pretty immediately change the colour of the vinegar, but I’d still suggest leaving it for a few days – although I have also done it about a year down the line, having forgotten about it! Others – like hawthorn – may take about a day to change the colour of the vinegar, but it’ll come.

To start, you’ll need equal parts fruit to vinegar, so lets say 600g fruit to 600ml apple cider vinegar. Now, I don’t normally set out to make vinegar, but rather use leftover bits of fruit or used pulp to make the vinegar, so you can be flexible with the amounts. I tend to use what I have, cover it with vinegar, and hope for the best!

That makes the next bit a little more tricky – or a good opportunity to practice maths and fractions!

After  at least four days of soaking in the vinegar, strain out the fruit and pour the vinegar into a pot on a medium heat.  For every 600ml liquid you need about 300g sugar – add less or more, depending on how sweet or how thick you want the vinegar. Add the sugar and stir till it is all dissolved. Leave to simmer for 15-25 minutes (adjusting depending on how much you’ve started with – the longer it boils the thicker it will be) without a lid on, which will reduce the liquid into a thick and delicious vinegar for dressings or dipping. If it’s not thick enough, simmer a little longer, but do bear in mind that as the vinegar cools, it’ll thicken too.

True balsamic improves with age. If you’re disciplined and have the space, use 3/4 of your vinegar now, but put aside a small jar of each batch in the back of the cupboard somewhere. I discovered a forgotten blackberry balsamic in the back of a cupboard when we moved house – it was about five years old, thick, sweet and incredible!

How To Make Fruit Vinegar
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
  • 600g fruit
  • 600ml white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
  • 300g sugar
Instructions
Instructions
  1. In a glass jar, add fruit and cover with vinegar. Leave for at least four days, shaking whenever you pass by it.
  2. When it’s taken on good colour, strain out the fruit and pour the vinegar into a pot on a medium heat.
  3. Add the sugar and stir till it is all dissolved.
  4. Leave to simmer for 20 – 25 minutes without a lid on, which will reduce the liquid into a thick and delicious vinegar for dressings or dipping.
Thermomix Instructions
  1. In a glass jar, add fruit and cover with vinegar. Leave for four days, shaking whenever you pass by it.
  2. After four days, strain out the fruit and pour the vinegar into the Thermomix.
  3. Add the sugar 15 mins/ Varoma/speed 1/ NO MC

 

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Slowcooked Chicken & Tomato Stuffed Pepper

Stuffed Pepper

Temperatures are dropping and the days are becoming shorter, so for us, it means the slow cooker has come out of the dark depths of the cupboard. We’re trying out a variety of savoury dishes for Halloween, a season not normally known for its savoury foods, but I want to have some options available, at least! Stuffed Pepper

For this recipe, I’ve used yellow peppers. I didn’t realise until I was cleaning them out that one of the peppers only had two humps on the apex, rather than three, which meant it couldn’t stand on its own. Undeterred, I just cut a small layer off, not so much that the bottom of the pepper was opened up – just enough to make it stand up straight.
Stuffed Pepper

Cutting faces in a pepper is a whole lot easier than it is on a pumpkin. Simply use a sharp knife and carefully pop the cutout parts out. Stuffed Pepper

You can use any filling you like, really. I’ve used a chicken and tomato one. If you want to stretch this meal, add some rice or couscous to the pepper. Alternatively, serve each pepper on a bed of rice. I didn’t bother in this particular meal. Stuffed Pepper

Once stuffed, I felt the peppers could use a bit of help to stand out a little, so I used a finger to pop some homemade tomato sauce into the eyes and mouths of the peppers.

Stuffed Pepper

I love the way the chicken and tomato looks a bit like brains, topping off the Halloween face. It’s simple, and quite effortless and very tasty!

Slow Cooked Chicken and Tomato Stuffed Peppers Recipe

Slow cooked Chicken & Tomato Stuffed Pepper
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 500g skinless, boneless chicken
  • 1 tin of tomatoes
  • 30ml (2tbs) dark soy sauce
  • 15ml (1tbs) balsamic vinegar
  • 5ml (1tsp) dried or fresh chopped rosemary
  • 5ml (1tsp) salt
  • 5 fresh tomatoes
  • 4 yellow peppers
  • For Halloween Faces, you’ll also need a little tomato sauce
  • Serve with rice or other grain if you are so inclined.
Instructions
  1. Turn a slow cooker on low for 6 hours
  2. Add chicken, canned tomatoes, soy sauce, vinegar, rosemary and salt , put the lid in place.
  3. With an hour to go, add the fresh tomatoes
  4. With 30 minutes to go, remove the lid so the sauce can thicken a little
  5. After six hours, cut the top off the peppers and remove the seeds. (If you’re making Halloween faces, do that now too)
  6. Stuff the pepper, and using a clean spoon or finger, fill the eyes and mouth with tomato sauce.

Find more Halloween recipes here

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ChillFactor Milkshake Maker {Review}

Milkshake Maker

We love kitchen gadgets around here, even if they are just for kids in the kitchen, so we were excited to try the ChillFactor Frozen Milkshake Maker – a cup with a handle and blades to turn any milky drink into a milkshake in just minutes.Milkshake MakerThe Milkshake Maker consists of five parts – the cup, the cooling pouch, the lid and blades and the washer (to prevent leaks). There’s also a spoon – slash – straw to drink or eat with.

Assembly is simple. Just pop the cooling bag inside, place the washer above and screw the lid with the blades in place.  Pop the Milkshake Maker in the freezer for 4 – 6 hours, or overnight, and you’re good to go.

milkshake-maker

When you’re ready to make your first milkshake, simply open it up, pour the milk in, and close it up again. Stir for about 30 seconds, then – making sure the straw lid is closed – shake it a little. Apparently, this makes it more bubbly. Then you can spin it around for another minute or so, and you’re ready to eat!

Our favourite “recipe” so far is, unsurprisingly, a chocolate milkshake:

Chocolate Milkshake Maker Recipe:

ChillFactor Milkshake Maker {Review}
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 cup
Ingredients
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon icing sugar
Instructions
  1. Remove the ChillFactor Milkshake Maker from the freezer. Pour in a cup of milk, and quickly add the cocoa powder and icing sugar.
  2. Close the lid with the blades in place and rotate for 30 seconds.
  3. Make sure the straw hole is closed, and shake for 20 seconds.
  4. Rotate again for another 60 – 90 seconds (although I find that doing it for less makes more of an ice cream, which we like too.)
  5. Remove the blades, insert the straw, and enjoy!

I think this milkshake maker is a huge improvement on the slushie maker we already have – it’s easier to do and I like the end result better too – although I haven’t tried it with non-dairy products.

If I could have an improvement on it, I’d want to be able to just freeze the cooling pouch to save space in the freezer, but I’m not sure if that would work – there’s nothing on the packaging to say you can’t but I suspect it could damage it, so maybe we’ll not try it.

Overall, the ChillFactor Milkshake Maker is a fun bit of kit that the kids love to get involved with. It may be making it’s way to the cupboard now for the next few months, but will be pulled back into service as soon as spring arrives again.

The ChillFactor Milkshake Maker is available from Character-Online for £9.99.

 

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Amazing Pumpkin Parmesan Dip

Pumpkin Parmesan Dip

Another fantastic centrepiece for a party, a pumpkin filled with Pumpkin Parmesan Dip looks great and is versatile for crackers and veggies alike. You can adjust the amount of parmesan, or even substitute for a cheese you prefer – I can’t imagine there’ll be too much difference to the end result.

Pumpkin Parmesan Dip

My kids are particularly antsy about raw garlic – they can pick it out of anything – so if you prefer, you can saute the garlic for three minutes at 100C. I only do that if I’m making it, especially for my children.

Pumpkin Parmesan DipI decided to put the dip into a bowl and hover the bowl inside the mouth of the pumpkin. I don’t know if that’s necessary or if you can just put it in the pumpkin, but I decided it would be easier in this instance to keep cool, and that the pumpkin itself was reusable for a number of days and other recipes if not. Also, if you’re particularly skilled at carving (I’m not!) a fake candle inside, under the dip could look very pretty too.

Pumpkin Parmesan Dip Recipe:

Amazing Pumpkin Parmesan Dip
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 600g
To cook the pumpkin, add 400 – 500 g chopped raw pumpkin to the internal steamer. Fill water to the 1-litre mark. Thermomix 15 minutes/Varoma/speed 4. Once finished, leave to drain and cool for a while before making the dip
Ingredients
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 50g parmesan
  • 100g cream cheese (I use full fat)
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 400 – 500g cooked pumpkin
Instructions
Thermomix Instructions
  1. Add 1 clove garlic 5 seconds/ speed 5
  2. Add parmesan 10 seconds/speed 10
  3. Add cream cheese, paprika, salt and cooked pumpkin 30 seconds/ speed 4
  4. Scrape down sides 1 minute/ speed 10
  5. Set aside to firm up again, and serve
Regular Instructions
  1. Finely chop the garlic, or crush it and add to a food processor
  2. Grate parmesan and add to the garlic.
  3. Add cream cheese, paprika,salt and cooked pumpkin
  4. Mix following your food processors instructions till it’s all well blended and smooth.
  5. Set aside to firm up again, and serve.

Try these Halloween recipes too!

The cheese biscuits in the images are round versions of these cheese straws.

 

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Cheesy Straws

Cheesy Straws

These cheesy straws are a lovely snack for lunch boxes and last minute visitors. They can be prepared whenever you have time, and the pastry frozen – then just pop out a handful and bake when you need them.  I was setting an Autumn scene for some photos I had to do, so we broke up the straws to make a ‘woodpile’. I was glad when the kids walked in and said ‘Oh, look at the brooms!’  Always useful when people can tell what you’re going for!
Cheesy Straws

These cheesy straws can be made as straws, though simply baking them in rounds is okay too – I tend to freeze them as round biscuits, making them easier to use with dips. If you’re going to make brooms, I recommend that you use the stringy type of kids cheese, rather than regular blocks of cheese which crack rather than pull apart. And have more chives than you think you need as they break really easily too. Cheesy Straws

I also like to add paprika or rosemary to cheese strings – it just depends on what flavour you like, or whether you like something different from time to time! Also, you don’t have to add parmesan, it just heightens the cheese flavour. If you decide not to, just make another 50g cheddar cheese.

Cheesy Straws Recipe:

Cheesy Straws
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 60 sticks
Ingredients
  • 375g plain flour
  • 225g butter
  • 150g cheddar cheese
  • 50g parmesan cheese
  • 1 tsp mustard (I use a grainy mustard, but powder will work too)
  • 2 egg yolks
  • pinch of salt
  • pepper to taste
Instructions
Thermomix Instructions
  1. Add all the ingredients to the Thermomix bowl
  2. Mix speed 5/30 seconds
  3. Remove and shape into a log. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes
  4. Heat the oven to 180C
  5. Break off pieces and roll into sticks using your hands
  6. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool before moving but be gentle as they are fragile
Regularly Instructions
  1. Add all the ingredients to a food processor
  2. Mix until everything is combined and the dough forms a ball
  3. Remove and shape into a log. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes
  4. Heat the oven to 180C
  5. Break off pieces and roll into sticks using your hands
  6. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool before moving but be gentle as they are fragile

 

 

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Pumpkin & Parmesan Soup

Pumpkin Parmesan Soup

Pumpkins in the UK have been a bit of an education for me. Where I grew up, pumpkins came in one size: big. And they had thick, hard-to-cut-through skin and bright, dark orange flesh, and tasted… well, like pumpkin. Here I find pumpkins come with thin skins, and light flesh that doesn’t taste like a whole lot of anything, so I normally try to mix some butternut squash in for a bigger hit of flavour if I’m making a soup.

Pumpkin Parmesan Soup

I think it may vary again in other places because I have read on US boards that they say the smaller pumpkins have more taste than the bigger ones, but this certainly isn’t my experience. In South Africa, we used to make pumpkin fritters, and they definitely were bright orange and tasted of pumpkin!Pumpkin Parmesan Soup

The smaller pumpkins are very easy to cut, though, and to scoop out, so they make a convenient soup bowl if you’re making this recipe for two – three people.
Pumpkin Parmesan Soup

I love fresh sage, lightly fried in butter to crumble over this, but I can’t always find fresh sage. Never mind. If you like chillies you can add some spice to this soup too, and if you have a bit of spare time, sautee an onion first and add it at the start with the rest of the ingredients. If you have fresh or homemade chicken stock, that’s even better than a stock cube too.

 

Pumpkin and Parmesan Soup
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 3 servings
If you’re able to find fresh sage, lightly fry the leaves in butter till the edges go brown, and sprinkle over the soup for a crunchy, tasty topping. 2
Ingredients
  • 700 – 800g Pumpkin or Butternut Squash, cut into cubes
  • 20 – 50g Parmesan Cheese
  • 1 Chicken or Veggie Stock Cube
  • 250g Water
  • 1 Teaspoon Sage
  • 1 Teaspoon Garlic Granules (or 1 Fresh Clove of Garlic, crushed and sauteed)
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
  • Pepper to Taste
Instructions
  1. Add everything except the pepper to the Thermomix Bowl
  2. Put the MC in place, and hold it down while you liquidise – 30 seconds/ speed 10
  3. Turn the heat up to Varoma/15 mins/speed 3. Keep the MC in.
  4. When it’s done, serve and top with pepper.
Calories: 419 Fat: 16 Carbohydrates: 55 Sugar: 19 Sodium: 3568 Protein: 26