I’ve tried to make pull apart breads on, well, more than one occasion, but I’ve never found them to be perfect. They’ve just never been ‘right’ – till today. Today I made a most beautiful garlic & herb pull apart bread. It was light, fluffy, airy and delicious. My kids loved it. I loved it. Now I’m writing it all down step by step so hopefully next time I make it, it’ll be as good! I have a hankering to try this with bacon too. Just saying.
You can make this with or without the cheese, and you can vary the herbs to your preference. The main thing is to make sure you add some of the garlic butter to the bottom of the baking dish so that it seeps through to make these beautiful, fluffy and delicious breadrolls for a tear & share bread.
Garlic & Herb Pull Apart Bread Recipe
Recipe Type: Side Dish, Bread
Cuisine: BBQ, Bread
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8 – 10
You can make this bread with any recipe you prefer, really, but this one is adapted from the Bestest Breadrolls recipe on the Thermomix community.
Ingredients
For the bread
10g dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
510 g bakers flour
30 g garlic flavoured olive oil
310 g warm water
For the garlic butter
4 garlic cloves
15g flat leaf parsley
60g parmesan or other cheese
60g butter
Instructions
Add all the ingredients to a clean Thermomix bowl.
Mix at speed 5 for 10 seconds, then knead for 90 seconds using the dough setting.
Oil a glass bowl and place the dough inside. Cover the dough and set aside to rise to double it’s size.
For the butter
Add the garlic, parsley and cheese to the bowl and mix on speed 5 for 8 – 10 seconds.
Add the butter and melt at 50C/Speed 1/2 mins.
Pour a third of the melted butter mix into an oven safe dish..
Take the dough and split it into 8 – 10 balls. Put them on top of the butter mix in the dish, making sure they touch lightly. Drizzle over the remaining butter mix.
Turn the oven on to 180C and put the breadrolls into the oven (while it’s still cold).
Bake bread for 20-30 minutes depending on your oven. It should be golden brown.
Remove from oven dish so the base doesn’t get soggy.
I know leftover cake is a bit of a foreign concept in most cases, but after making the Vegan Chocolate Cake the other day, we had loads left over. We could of course just sit down and eat it, but we had one of those days here today and I decided my kids and I needed a party for three. It was misty and cold and overcast for most of the day too, so we had to bring the beach indoors.
I recently bought these fun bucket and spade silicone cups that you can bake your cakes in, but I thought we could go with the cake pop idea instead.
At least it gave my kids something to do rather than bicker and argue for a few minutes!
There are no specific amount here because, well, it’s leftover cake!
Roughly, though – half a cake, a small amount of icing sugar, and a sand-coloured biscuit and you’re set.
Put equal amounts of butter and icing powder in a mixing bowl and mix till it looks like icing, a minute or two is normally sufficient. (Thermomix: 2 mins/speed 4) A good start is 50g butter and 50g icing sugar.
Add the cake to the bowl and crumb by hand or in the Thermomix, mix at speed 5 for 30 seconds.
Spoon the mixture into the buckets and squish it flat to compact it.
In a clean bowl, crumb some sandy-coloured biscuits – in the Thermomix, that’s 10 seconds on speed 5. I used the honey-waffle biscuits, but anything that colour will do and you need only one or two biscuits per bucket.
Spoon the ‘sand’ over the compacted cake – it’s a bit like cake pop consistency – and stick your spade in it.
With the left over left overs we made cake pops by forming balls and rolling it around in the sandy coloured biscuit crumbs before putting them on sticks. I popped a little love note in a jar for each of my girls for a ‘message in a bottle’, put the cake pops in and there we have it:
Left over cake for a party of three (or however many you need!)
We aren’t vegan as you can tell by the creamy and beautiful buttercream or chocolate that decorate this cake, but the cake itself is vegan, and beyond being a really tasty treat, it’s also a useful recipe to have to hand when you don’t have eggs, which often happens in my life.
So, this cake is vegan, the chocolates aren’t and the buttercream isn’t. But there’s a lovely topping that you can use if you’re particularly after a vegan cake too – I’ll include that in the recipe.
As for the Bambi shapes, they are moulds from the Disney Cakes and Sweets range from Eaglemoss. We subscribed to this a couple of years back and now have 79 issues filling up my shelves, and a ton of baking goodies too. Ameli’s birthday party last year was a Princess Party, where we used some of the supplies from the Disney Cakes & Sweets magazines, and obviously this Bambi, owl, rabbit and little birds are from that too. It’s a really fantastic magazine to subscribe to, and along with fantastic quality bakeware and silicone moulds there are step by step instructions and recipes for every Disney character you could imagine. It’s something else. You can find out more about what’s available in the Disney Cakes & Sweets Magazine subscription by clicking here.
Now, on to the cake. These characters use 3 standard slabs of chocolate. You could get away with two and just make them a bit thinner. I used two dark and one milk, melted together (I use a Thermomix, 90C, 3 mins, speed 2, but you can use a double boiler).
For this particular cake I also bought the flowers, and my 3 year old called it a ‘forest cake’. When a grown-up friend at our party said ‘Oh, they’re even resting on the grass’ I was very pleased that my marbled green fondant icing, with the bits of ‘soil’ towards the bottom actually translated as such!
Last year I made a similar cake for a spring party, and I added toadstools, flowers and other Disney Cakes & Sweets foresty themed buttons and it looked really pretty. (If you ignore the actual cake baking skills!)
Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake
Recipe Type: Cakes,
Cuisine: Dessert, Cakes, Vegan
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 cake
The vinegar and baking powder cause a reaction so you need get the cake into the hot oven as soon as these two ingredients are mixed, so start with the dry ingredients. In the images above, I have made three batches of the recipe below.
1 tsp [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0069KOLY6/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B0069KOLY6&linkCode=as2&tag=diaofafirchi-21&linkId=IT2MPEJH5DJ5AXSK” target=”_blank”]vanilla extract[/url] (I recommend this one)
60g (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
1 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar
1 tsp baking soda/bicarbonate of soda
Instructions
Regular Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Oil or prepare your baking tin.
In a bowl, mix all the ingredients, adding the baking powder and vinegar last.
Pour into an ovenproof dish, and put in the centre of a hot oven.
Bake at 180C for about 30 mins.
Cool completely before icing.
Thermomix Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Oil or prepare your baking tin.
Add all but the last two ingredients listed to the bowl, and mix speed 4, 5 seconds.
Add the vinegar and baking powder and mix speed 1, 5 seconds.
Pour into an ovenproof dish, and put in the centre of a hot oven.
Bake at 180C for about 30 mins.
Cool completely before icing.
3.2.2925
For my cake I made a buttercream icing, and topped with fondant. My mother used to make the best buttercream in the world. Here’s her recipe, adapted to the Thermomix, but you can use any electric beater for the job – just focus more on the appearance than the timing.
I like to use a beautiful rich yellow salted butter for this, as it cuts the sweetness a little.
Granita, despite my children calling it ice cream, is actually a semi-frozen dessert made from sugar, water and various flavourings. It is related to sorbet and Italian ice; but in Sicily it has a coarser, more crystalline texture – a bit like this recipe below.
Watermelon is a childhood memory for me. It reminds me of hot days, living in a hot, hot place, and my mother deciding to to make dinner, because who wants to cook when it’s 42C outside?! It reminds me of sweet sticky nectar running down my arms, of getting hosed down in the garden. It’s a good memory, and while we now live on – quite literally – the opposite side of the world, and the watermelons are round and have softer skins, but I love that I’m able to pass this same memory on to my own little girls now too.
When there’s left over watermelon – and sometimes there is – I like to make a watermelon and rose water granita. It keeps the watermelon going for a few days more and it is just so refreshing.
I hope you’ll love it as much as I do!
Watermelon & Rosewater Granita
Recipe Type: Summer, Ice Cream, Dessert
Cuisine: Italian
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 800g
Granita is light, easy and refreshing!
Ingredients
80g caster sugar
125 ml water
600g watermelon
1 teaspoon rose water
Instructions
Regular Instructions
Add 80g caster sugar to a saucepan with 125ml water and bring it to boil. Allow it to boil for 3 minutes, then put aside to cool down completely.
Liquidise the watermelon – a couple of minutes in a food processor should do it – and add the rose water. Place in the fridge.
Once the sugar syrup is cool, mix the two together and place in the freezer. I use a metal bowl.
Remove from the freezer every 30 mins to stir, making sure to break up all the lumps. After 90 minutes and three stirs, the granita should be ready to eat.
Decorate with washed rose petals if you have any, and enjoy.
Thermomix Instructions
Add 80g sugar to the Thermomix and pulse 3 or 4 times.
Add water and boil Varoma/Speed 2/3 mins.
Put aside to cool down completely.
Add the watermelon to the Thermomix and add the rose water, then speed 5/2 mins.
Once the sugar syrup is cool, mix the two together and place in the freezer. I use the ThermoServer.
Remove from the freezer every 30 mins to stir, making sure to break up all the lumps. After 90 minutes and three stirs, the granita should be ready to eat.
Decorate with washed rose petals if you have any, and enjoy.
There are a lot of sweet-teeth in my family, so when Father’s day rolled around, it seemed fitting to make a delicious cheesecake filled with a family favourite – marshmallows. I mean, what could possibly go wrong, right!
In retrospect I should have cut the marshmallows in halves or quarters, just to make them more bite-sized, but it didn’t make it taste any the worse.
I love that this cake is no-bake, I love that you can make it a day ahead for the best firmness, and I love that it’s delicious!
This is a very forgiving recipe. So long as you don’t over whip the cream. It’s really easy with two bowls, but I only have one and it’s not a huge faff – just make sure to clean the bowl properly before adding the cream.
Ingredients
10 – 15 Marshmallows (1 cup mini marshmallows)
250g Digestive Biscuits
75g Soft Butter
400g Double Cream
500g Cream Cheese (at room temperature)
100g icing sugar
Instructions
As compared to the picture above, chop the marshmallows into chunks. A regular marshmallow in four pieces or so would be fine. Alternatively, pop them in the Thermomix and chop on speed 4 for 5 seconds.
Clean out the bowl (doesn’t need to be washed)
Add the biscuits and the butter to the bowl and mix till it resembles wet sand. (30 seconds speed 5)
Sprinkle over the base of a cake tray, and press down so that it creates a firm and solid base for your cheesecake.
Put it in the fridge for a couple of hours and make sure to wash and properly dry the bowl.
When the base is ready, whip the double cream to stiff peaks. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t turn to butter. Add the cream cheese and icing sugar and mix (with the butterfly) (speed 2, 30 seconds).
Put the marshmallows on the base of the cheesecake, then pour over the cheese mix. (If you have a deep dish layer marshmallows, cheese, marshmallows, cheese).
Smooth the top and put in the fridge till you’re ready to serve. You can eat this same day, but next day is even better!
I use a springform tin, gliding a knife around the edges to loosen first, then releasing and serving on the base.
Oh, I love puff pastry. I know I could make it, but I really love having a few boxes of it in the fridge because it makes the whole ‘quick dinner’ thing really easy.
To make these pastries, cut the raw product into squares, then once the filling is in take the corners and fold them to the centre. Don’t press them down just leave them loose and pop some filling on top. That way the filling is inside and outside. Lovely.
Balsamic Onion Pastries Recipe
Recipe Type: Snack, Pastry
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
A pretty forgiving recipe, and while beginning to end it’ll take about an hour, your hands on time is very little, especially if you’re using a bought or premade puff pastry.
Ingredients
1 Portion of puff pastry
600 grams onions
20 grams olive oil
40 grams balsamic vinegar
75 grams brown sugar
Instructions
Roll out your pastry into a large square
Cut into 8 squares
Peel the onions and chop 3 seconds speed 5
Add olive oil, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar
Cook for 30 minutes, Varoma Speed 1 with measuring cup off.
Spoon onto the pastry squares and fold the corners in towards each other. Add a tablespoon of the caramelised onion to the centre of the folded pastry.
When I was living out in Australia a few years ago, my brother had a friend who brought scones round one day. They were the lightest scones I had ever had, and I had to have the recipe. I’ve made these hundreds of times and recently a friend asked me if I had the recipe on the blog. I realised I didn’t, so here it is Sam, just for you.
This is a 3-ingredients scone – okay, four, but salt doesn’t count. The self raising flour and salt are the dry ingredients, and the cream provides the fat you’d normally get from crumbling butter into the mix. The lemonade gives you the rise, since it reacts to the baking powder in the flour, and the bubbles airate the whole mixture, I guess.
You must not overmix this recipe, or you completely knock the air right out of it and end up with flat cakes – still tasty, but not quite afternoon tea quality.
Whether you a jam first or cream first scone eater , you’re bound to love how light and fluffy these scones are.
Lemonade Scones
Recipe Type: Thermomix
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 15
Light, airy and easy to make scones – enjoy!
Ingredients
400g self-raising flour
240g double cream
190g lemonade
pinch of salt
Instructions
Regular Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200C
Sift the self raising flour, cream and salt in a mixing bowl.
Add the lemonade and mix briefly till it’s all mixed together. Literally till it’s JUST mixed.
It’s REALLY important not to over mix or your scones won’t rise.
Remove from the bowl, and lay out on a tray. Pat it down to an even 2cm height.
Use a cutter and press down, and straight back up again – don’t twist the cutters as you don’t want to squeeze the air out.
Carefully lift the scones onto a tray
Brush with milk (use the back of a spoon if you don’t have a pastry brush)
Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, till golden
Thermomix Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200C
Place the self raising flour, cream and salt in the Thermomix bowl.
Add the lemonade and mix speed 4, 5 – 10 seconds. Literally till it’s JUST mixed.
It’s REALLY important not to over mix or your scones won’t rise.
Remove from the bowl, and lay out on a tray. Pat it down to an even 2cm height.
Use a cutter and press down, and straight back up again – don’t twist the cutters as you don’t want to squeeze the air out.
Carefully lift the scones onto a tray
Brush with milk (use the back of a spoon if you don’t have a pastry brush)
It’s almost Easter again, and while we aren’t really a free-from anything family, when there’s so much focus on chocolate – between Valentine’s day, Mother’s Day, and Easter, I like to have alternatives available, so that even if I don’t manage to curb my sweet tooth, I’m at least not filling up myself or the children with cheap, often actually not very good – chocolate.
This recipe is very easy. The children can help you make it, or you can whip it up quickly. It’s quite dark, we like dark chocolate. If you don’t like it as dark, adjust the cocoa down. You could add other things, like marshmallows, nuts, or cherries, but just remember to adjust the quantity of rice crispies down then. The main thing to remember is this isn’t held together by chocolate, which is strong, but by coconut oil, which needs to be kept cool, otherwise you’ll end up with what looks like a (very tasty) bowl of chocolate cereal.
Add the coconut oil and honey to the Thermomix bowl. If you’re using runny honey, 30 seconds/37 degrees/speed 2 should melt it all, but if the honey is crystalised or set, about 1 minute/50 degrees/speed 2. It must be mixed and melted before you go to step 2.
Add the vanilla and cocoa powder, and a small pinch of sea salt. 15 seconds/speed 3
Add the rice crispies and use the spatula to stir it in so that all the rice crispies are covered with the chocolate mix.
Transfer to a brownie pan (this one is fantastic!) and squash it all in nicely. Put in the fridge for an hour or two to set, then cut into squares.
Tip: Remember this is kept together with coconut oil, so keep it cool otherwise it might fall apart a bit.
Regular Instructions
Create a double boiler by boiling a pot of water on the stove, and put coconut oil and honey in a glass bowl over it. Once they’re melted, mix together and add the vanilla extract (be careful – both the glass bowl and the mixture will be very hot).
Add the cocoa powder and sea salt, and then add the rice crispies.
Mix together till all the rice crispies are covered in the chocolate mixture and transfer into your brownie pan.
Place in the fridge till it’s cooled and set, then cut into squares.
We’ve had a really busy week here to the point that it was late last night that I realised that Valentines day was TODAY. My kitchen was still stacked full of boxes, and while I’ve managed to make a little progress, I focused today on making space to bake a chocolate cake for our Valentine’s day dinner. As it turns out, however, the oven in our new house is gas, and has no markings! I’ve never baked in a gas oven before, and this didn’t seem to be the day to start experimenting!
Fortunately I had Saturday Kitchen on while I was unpacking and sorting, and Nigella Lawson came on and made her Hazelnut Chocolate Cheesecake, which looked simple and delicious. Below is an adaptation on her recipe. The basic recipe is the same, but I’ve Thermified it. This recipe, however, you’ll be able to make any even the most basic of food processors.
In Nigella’s recipe (If you read this, Nigella, I hope you don’t mind the first name basis!) she tops it with crushed hazelnuts, but I’ve topped it with cocoa powder, then decided that wasn’t striking enough, so sprinkled icing sugar over it. The icing sugar absorbs into the cake quite quickly though, so only dust with icing sugar when you’re ready to serve. The cocoa doesn’t absorb as easily. I think it would be lovely with fresh raspberries and strawberries in the summer too – or maybe some orange if you like the chocolate and orange combination.
This is absolutely delicious and it’s terribly rich, so a little goes a long way.
And lastly, before I get to the recipe, there is probably a much healthier way of doing this – by making your own hazelnut and chocolate sauce using this recipe here. But we’ve just moved house, and I was looking for a quick fix and I don’t feel (too) sorry.
Hazelnut Chocolate Cheesecake
Recipe Type: Desert
Author: Nigella Lawson, Thermied by Luschka
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 10
A rich and delicious desert, perfect for a special occasion, great when you’re short of time and even better if made in advance.
Ingredients
250g digestive biscuits (substitute for egg free alternatives)
75g soft butter
400g Nutella
500g cream cheese (at room temperature)
60g icing sugar
Instructions
Remove cream cheese from the fridge and bring to room temperature.
Meanwhile, add digestive biscuits, butter and 40g Nutella to the food processor and mix till it resembles wet sand.[b] (30 seconds speed 5)[/b]
Sprinkle over the base of a cake tray, and press down so that it creates a firm and solid base for your cheesecake.
Put it in the fridge – Nigella says overnight, but an hour works fine.
When the base is ready, add the cream cheese, Nutella and icing sugar and mix (with the butterfly) (speed 2, 30 seconds)
Pour over the base,smooth the top and put in the fridge till you’re ready to serve.
I use a[url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heart-Shaped-Springform-Great-Baking/dp/B004Z69LXW/”] springform tin[/url], gliding a knife around the edges to loosen first, then releasing and serving on the base.
Once released, decorate the top and serve.
Notes
I think a little Frangelico liquer would be amazing with this, as would orange essence or even rum essence. For a ‘prettier’ presentation, try making it in individual ramekins.
You know it’s Christmas time when the brie and cranberry starts coming into play. It’s not something we have a lot of at home as my other half isn’t a fan, but brie is the only thing I ever craved in pregnancy!
Come Christmas time, I often find myself simply short of time, and in a hurry. While I’d normally make my own shortcrust pastry – with the Thermomix it’s just so easy – but sometimes it’s really good to be able to grab a roll of ready rolled pastry and have your snack ready in 20 minutes.
(Do yourself a favour and get an all butter pastry though. They’re so much better!)
Brie & Cranberry Bites
Recipe Type: Snack
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 18
I haven’t put much by way of measurements into this recipe since it’ll depend on your personal tastes, to a large extent, and how much you’re planning on making. A single sheet of 300g pastry will make roughly 18 bites.
Ingredients
300g short crust pastry
150g Brie
Cranberry sauce
Instructions
Preheat oven to 200C
Roll the pastry to a thin and even layer.
Cut the pastry into 18 squares – rounds will do fine too.
Place each square into a muffin case and cook for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown.
In the meantime, slice brie into squares large enough to fit inside the muffin trays.
As the pastry comes out of the oven, while it’s still piping hot, drop the brie onto it so that it begins to melt. Top with the cranberry sauce.
These are best served hot, but can be eaten cold too.
