My brother and sister-in-law came to visit from Australia a few weeks ago, and as you do when people come to visit from not-England, you do the very English thing of taking them for afternoon tea… although I advise that you should first find out if they wanted a high tea or creamtea because they are very different. If you’re expecting a three-tiered tray of triangled sandwiches, pretty dainties and sparkles, getting a plate with two flat scones and a dollop of jam and/or cream is somewhat disappointing, delicious as it is when you were expecting it.
Anyway, I digress. We got to discussing clotted cream, as you do, and how it’s made and my brother set me the challenge of making clotted cream in the Thermomix. It turns out you can’t in a TM31 because you can’t switch the movement of the blades off. I have someone testing it on the yoghurt function of the T5 at the moment, so we’ll see how that works out, and let you know.
In the meantime however, this incredibly simple recipe – can you call it a recipe if it’s one ingredient? – can be easily adapted whether for a slow cooker or an iPot or whatever you use. The important thing, really, is that you need to put it in something that can be kept still for three hours, and the greater the surface area, the better. Also realise that a 600ml pot of double cream only gives you about 100ml of clotted cream, so have some ideas on hand for what to do with the remaining cream that is similar to buttermilk, and make it sooner rather than later as it won’t last long.
The clotted cream itself will last for 3-5 days in the fridge.
I’ve seen recipes online for clotted cream that I’m pretty sure are actually sour cream – cream and lemon juice – that is not traditional clotted cream. Clotted cream is thick cream obtained by heating milk slowly and then allowing it to cool while the cream content rises to the top in coagulated lumps.
You can also use clotted cream instead of butter on toast, perfect with jam, or instead of ice cream on hot puddings – or with ice cream if you’re so inclined. I have used it to top chocolate mousse and steamed puddings, as in the pictures.
DIY Clotted Cream In The Slowcooker Or Crockpot
Author: Luschka
Ingredients
600ml cream (also 600g)
Instructions
Pour the double cream into your slow cooker and put it on the lowest setting. On mine this is warm (as compared to low or high). It’s roughly 70C.
Leave the lid off to allow air exposure and leave for 3 – 4 hours.
Switch the heat off and leave for another hour.
Move the pot of cream very gently to the fridge making sure not to break the surface or shake it in any way.
Keep in the fridge overnight, then scoop the top thick layer off carefully, putting that in an airtight container and use the remainder as buttermilk in bread or scones which you can then top with your clotted cream!
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We’re still learning about France this week, and another recipe from the France: Food and Celebrations* book that we’ve been using that we just had to try is the Chocolate Mousse. According to the Frenchling in this book, this dessert is only for special ocassions, but a great thing about it is that it’s really simple to make.
I think if you have two Thermomix bowls this is the simplest recipe in the world. I just have the one and it’s still dead simple, just requires a bit of a wash inbetween.
Of course I am trying to teach the kids to cook without the Thermomix too, so there’s a bit of ‘elbow grease’ required in three sets of whisking, but that’s good for them too. They used the Annabel Karmel Casdon Baking Set which has a fabulous bowl and whisk, perfectly child sized and very effective in whisking.
I had each girl responsible for her own whisking ingredients while I did the chocolate, but managing kids whisking liquids doesn’t leave much time for photo taking!
The original recipe calls for three hours in the fridge, but I’m not convinced by that. After an hour the mouse was almost more of a pudding, whereas initially upon finishing it, I couldn’t resist tucking in a little had to perform a taste test and it was very light and airy.
You can add flavoured chocolate to this to make a flavoured mousse – mint, orange, strawberry, whatever you like. I used dark chocolate in this recipe.
Easy French Chocolate Mousse – Kids In The Kitchen
Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 3
Serve with home made clotted cream, strawberries & mint leaves!
Ingredients
150g chocolate
2 large eggs, seperated
2 tablespoons sugar
125g (125ml) whipping cream or double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
fruit and cream to serve
Instructions
Regular Instructions
Melt the chocolate in the microwave, on a double boiler, in a bowl nestled inside a pot on the stove top (making sure not to get any water in) or however you normally melt chocolate.
While it’s melting, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding the sugar slowly as you whisk, then put the egg whites in the fridge.
Next, whisk the cream to stiff peaks, and place in the fridge.
Finally, in a large bowl add the vanilla extract to the egg yolks and mix until smooth. Pour the melted chocolate slowly in to the egg yolks, stirring all the time.
Next, add the cream to the egg and chocolate mix, and stir till it’s all combined.
Finally fold in the egg whites. Do not beat, whisk or over stir this as doing so will cause the mousse to collapse.
Once combined, dish into serving dishes and place in the fridge for 1 – 3 hours to set.
Top with strawberries, mint leaves and cream for a luxurious finish.
Thermomix Instructions
These instructions are for one bowl. If you have two, melt the chocolate in one and do the whisking in the other.
Place the egg whites and sugar in the Thermomix bowl and whisk with the butterfly speed 4 about 1 minute. Keep an eye on it – the freshness of your eggs and the temperature will affect how long you need to whisk this for, and you don’t want it to collapse again, so just stop when you reach stiff peaks.
Scoop into a bowl and set aside in the fridge
Wash out the bowl and dry thoroughly.
Pour the cream in and add the butterfly again. Whisk the cream for about 30 seconds/speed 4. Again, keep an eye on it – freshness of cream and starting temperature of cream will affect how long it needs to be whisked for. You don’t want butter!
Set aside the cream, and wash and dry the bowl.
Add the chocolate to the Thermomix bowl and chop speed 5, 10 seconds.
Heat to 50C/Speed 2/ 3 minutes. Meanwhile in a large bowl, mix the egg yolk and vanilla extract and stir to combine. When the chocolate is melted pour in a thin stream whisking together. (Don’t pour the egg into the hot chocolate or you’ll end up with scrambled eggs.)
Add the cream to the bowl, whisking to combine.
Finally, add the egg whites and gently fold them in. If you whisk or stir too vigorously you’ll knock all the air out of the egg whites and your mousse will fall flat.
Once combined, move to your serving dishes and refrigerate for 1 – 3 hours.
Top with strawberries, mint leaves and cream for a luxurious finish.
This week my home schooled kids are learning about France, because we’re heading off to Disneyland Paris in a few weeks. They don’t know this though – they think we’re going to Paris to learn about ‘old stuff’. We will spend a day in Paris too though, just to make sure their learning wasn’t for nothing.
One of the things you learn when learning about France, beyond capital city and population size, is food, and since we have very little by way of groceries at the moment (someone left the car door open, leaving the light on over night and us with a flat battery today. RAC finally reached us well after bed time tonight, so grocery shopping tomorrow!) I was quite literally faced with four onions, two day old bread and some cheese to come up with a dinner idea… you can see where I’m going with this, I’m sure.
One of the books we’re using for our studies at the moment is called France: Food and Celebrations* by Sylvia Goulding, with a bunch of recipes for kids to make, so while I could do this with so much more ease in the Thermomix in 15 minutes, I still feel it’s really important for my kids to learn to cook traditionally first, so that they can understand the basics of cooking – and from there the sky is the limit.
For this French Onion Soup, I didn’t add the traditional Gruyere, so the kids’ just had a strong cheddar on theirs. I added some Chaource to mine. Chaource is a French cheese, originally manufactured in the village of Chaource in the Champagne-Ardenne region. Chaource is a cow’s milk cheese, cylindrical in shape at around 10 cm in diameter and 6 cm in height. It has a soft inside, like an already baked Camembert, and has a beautiful very mild blue cheesy tang to it. It’s really lush, a very unknown cheese in the UK and easily available from Tesco and just works in this soup. (Sorry French traditionalists!)
I had my 5 year old slice the onions (we use this ‘safe’ Pampered Chef slicer) and then stir them on the stove till they were translucent. Meanwhile my 3 year old layered bread and grated cheese in soup dishes. I poured the water in to make the soup, transferred everything to the grill and removed it from there again.
I should add here that this is probably a meal for two, but for one adult and two children it’s ample. Considering you’re eating a slice of bread and an onion with some cheese, it’s incredibly filling, and very rich.
French Onion Soup – Kids In The Kitchen
Author: Recipe adapted from France: Food And Celebrations
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 3 soups
The original recipe calls for duck or goose fat. I used regular salted butter.
Ingredients
2 large or 4 small brown onions
large dollop butter (20g)
1 teaspoon sugar
1.5 litres beef stock (reduce to1000g if using TM31 Thermomix and cook without MC)
4 – 8 slices day old bread
100g shredded cheddar cheese
100g other cheese (for kids I leave this one out and use just cheddar as that’s rich enough for them) Gruyere or Chaource
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Regular Recipe
Peel and thinly slice onions.
Add butter and onion to a pan and sauté till they are translucent and beginning to brown, about 5 – 8 minutes.
Add stock and simmer for 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, grate the cheese, and layer cheese and bread in an oven proof soup bowl (Individual bowls are better than one serving dish) Start with a thin layer of cheese, top with bread, another layer of cheese, and end with a layer of bread, reserving some cheese for later.
When the soup is cooked, spoon onion and soup into soup bowls and top with remaining cheese.
Place under grill for 5 – 10 minutes, keeping an eye on it till the cheese is browned. The dishes will be hot, so transfer carefully to a counter.
For the Thermomix
Add one or both cheeses to the Thermomix (drop over running blades) speed 5, 10 – 15 seconds.
Clean the bowl and set the cheese aside.
Add the onions and butter to the Thermomix and blend 10 seconds speed 4.
Sauté for 8 mins/100C/spoon speed. (If you can, do this on the stove, I do prefer the flavour)
Add the stock (remember to keep to the limits in the Thermomix, so 2000g for TM31)
Cook reverse speed, Varoma/15 mins, without the MC
Meanwhile in the soup dishes, start with a thin layer of cheese, top with bread, another layer of cheese, and end with a layer of bread, reserving some cheese for later.
When the soup is cooked, spoon onion and soup into soup bowls and top with remaining cheese.
Place under grill for 5 – 10 minutes, keeping an eye on it till the cheese is browned. The dishes will be hot, so transfer carefully to a counter.
I know you’re wondering what on earth I’m doing posting a Christmas recipe in August, but since I’m in the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s summer here, now’s the right time for me to test something I’ve been toying with in my mind for ages.
We spent last Christmas in Australia, and Christmas day was really very hot, as Perth is wont to be late December. I bought the Christmas pudding my mum used to buy and made her special brandy sauce and we ate our Christmas pudding – but we ate it because my mum used to make it and she wasn’t there anymore, but it lead me to thinking that it would be great to have the same flavours, but in a more seasonally appropriate fashion.
A quick Google showed me that my genius idea of brandy butter ice cream isn’t original (isn’t it sad when that happens 😉 ) but I looked at a few recipes, made some adjustments and came up with this below.
I don’t have an ice cream maker either – just to add to the complication, so you can make this recipe with any and all or absolutely no gadgets. As it happened, I also didn’t have butter, so had to first make that from some extra cream!
Brandy Butter Christmas Cake Icecream
Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: Christmas
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 700g
Ingredients
130g butter
100ml/95g brandy
300ml/300g milk
2 egg yolks
175g light soft brown sugar
150ml /150g double cream
Christmas Pudding (as much as you have)
Instructions
Melt the butter on a stove till it’s just browning, then remove it so it doesn’t burn.
Add the brandy and set aside to cool.
Warm the milk in a pan, while you whisk the yolk and sugar till it is lighter in colour. Don’t let the milk boil.
On the stove
Pour the hot milk over the sugar mixture, whisking continuously, then return to the saucepan set over a low heat. Cook for 3-4 mins, stirring the whole time until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon.
In the Thermomix
If you’ve whisked the sugar mixture in the Thermomix, add the hot milk to the sugar mixture and cook on 60C/3:30mins/speed1. This should make a custard, thick enough to coat the spoon.
Once all the sauces are cooled:
Whisk the double cream to stiff peaks. Mix the brandy butter with the custard then mix in to the cream. Make sure it’s all combined well, then put it in the freezer.
Making the ice cream
If you have an ice cream maker, follow the instructions to make ice cream. If you don’t, add it to your Thermomserver or any other dish and remove from the freezer every half hour to stir and break down all the crystals.
After 5 times – about 2.5 hours – crumble the Christmas pudding into the ice cream mix together, and leave to set till you’re ready to serve. (If you’re using an ice cream maker, follow their instructions on adding bits.)
Remove 10 – 15 minutes before serving, depending on your outside temperature, and enjoy.
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This recipe features in A Very Thermie Christmas, where you can find it and 50 other recipes perfect for a Thermomix assisted Christmas. Read more about it here.
My children have always been fond of spending time in the kitchen with me, so when we were offered a review of the Casdon Annabel Karmel Baking Range, I said yes – we have a ton of play kitchen stuff, but real kitchen goodies made for kids? Well, what’s not to love?
My brother has been visiting from Australia this week, and he mentioned wanting coconut ice, so I pulled up an old recipe from the Disney Cakes and Sweets series that’s fantastic to makes with kids, since it doesn’t require any boiling or cooking.
Disney Cakes and Sweets is 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
Most of our equipment came from the Casdon Annabel Karmel Baking Range and while it’s supposed to be for pastries and cakes, it worked really well for coconut ice.
We used the mixing bowl and mixing spoons to mix our ingredients together, and then we used the cupcake tray and silicone mini cupcake cases to add a layer of white and then a layer of pink coconut ice.
The kit is really great for little hands, strong and well made. It doesn’t feel at all flimsy or weak – in fact the opposite – it’s really well made and conveniently designed, down to the silicone ‘handles’ on the tray to make it better to hold out of the oven (that we didn’t use this time).
I am really impressed with the quality of this set – honestly I’ve had ‘real’ pans and silicone that haven’t been as good.
The ‘My Perfect Pastry Set’ contains 10 cookie cutters, a round baking tin, six measuring spoons, a silicone spatula, a measuring jug, a mixing bowl with an anti-slip base, a silicone handle whisk, a rolling pin, a mini tart pan and 10 recipes from Annabel Karmel – we’ll try those next!
Casdon Annabel Karmel Baking Range And No-Cook Coconut Ice
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 kg
Ingredients
397g can condensed milk
300g (11oz) icing sugar
300g (11oz) desiccated coconut (we used organic)
½ tsp vanilla extract
food colouring of choice
Instructions
Instructions
Set out silicone cupcake cases or a baking tray, ready for use.
I use an awesome brownie pan for most things, and the cupcake cases work well too.
Pour condensed milk into a large mixing bowl and sift in the icing sugar. – I opened the tin of condensed milk and poured it out into the bowl to avoid the sharp edges.
Add the coconut and vanilla essence or extract and mix together until well combined.
Spoon half the mix into your baking tray and flatten out pressing down tightly. Add a few drops of food colouring, and mix well to combine. This is such a messy, fun job, the kids love it.
If you’re having two coloured layers, add the required colour to the other bowl.
Mix well and add to pan, flattening till all the first layer is covered, and it’s all flattened.
Place pan in the fridge for six hours or overnight to set.
Once set, turn out and cut the coconut ice into squares.
If you use the brownie pan, cut it while still in the pan. This will make huge slices though, so use a knife to cut again.
For the Thermomix:
Make your icing sugar first, if you’re making your own.
Add all but the colouring and mix on speed 2 for 30 seconds.
Split the mixture into two, put one layer in the pan and flatten it with a spoon or with your hand, then add the food colouring to the other one.
Layer the next into the pan and leave to set in the fridge for at least 6 hours.
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.
It’s an ice-cream time of the year, and my kids seem to want some every single day at the moment – one of those side effects of living in a sea side town too: whenever we go to the beach, they think they’re in for a treat. It’s hard to say no too, when all around us holiday-makers are enjoying one of the rich and creamy Isle of Wight ice creams.
I decided it was time to break out the ice lollies again, and get some yoghurt made up. My girls are perfectly happy with frozen yoghurt as ‘ice cream’ so it works out well for all of us – they could even have them for breakfast.
I have these NUK ice lollies that I use for the kids because they take about two tablespoons of yoghurt, which makes a perfectly sized ice lolly. After one, they’re satisfied, making it an all round healthier treat than anything from a box or even a normally bigger than they they can eat soft serve.
The flavours are forgiving – you can pretty much do anything you like, but here are some of our favourites.
Mint & Chocolate Chip is always a good flavour combination, you can add cacao or cocoa to make it a chocolate flavoured frozen yoghurt, but even without that, it’s tasty, and by the time the fro-yo has frozen, the mint permeates through. Delicious. A few hits of choc-chips throughout and there’s nothing not to love.
See how good these look? But they’re only two tablespoons worth of yoghurt and yet sufficient to end a craving.
I thought the mint and chocolate might settle at the bottom, but was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t.
5g of mint leaves is a lot – on a TM31 it doesn’t even register – hence the ingredients say up to 5g. It’s a pretty forgiving recipe, so if you need to add a bit more or less of any ingredient, it won’t cause any problems.
Add the chocolate chips and the yoghurt and mix well.
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen, then serve.
Thermomix Instructions
Add up to 5g mint leaves to the Thermomix bowl and mix speed 5/10seconds.
Add the butterfly, the chocolate chips and the yoghurt and mix 30 seconds, speed 3, scraping down the sides if necessary.
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen, then serve.
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These flat peaches were incredibly juicy. The flavour from them was exceptional, but the problem with that is that they have a higher water content, which makes them freeze a little more ‘icy’ rather than ‘creamy’ which is what you’d get from a higher fat content in the yoghurt. In a ice pop it (like in the moulds above) it doesn’t really make much of a difference, but if you were hoping for a cone-style scoop it needs a longer thaw time.
The recipe for a hard fruit – apples, hard nectarines, and anything else that you would normally have to bake first – is the same as for a soft fruit, with the difference that you’d have to sauté the hard fruit first.
While honey makes the frozen yoghurt sweeter, especially if you’ve opted for natural yoghurt, it also helps emulsify it a little.
Hard Fruit Frozen Yoghurt Recipes
Recipe Type: Dessert, Yoghurt, Frozen Yoghurt
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 400g
My nectarines were still hard even though the skin was going wrinkly. I decided to saute them for a few minutes in some honey, which made all the difference. This works for all hard fruits, like apples.
Ingredients
3 Hard Nectarines (or other fruit)
1tbs (15g) Honey
300g Natural Yoghurt
Instructions
Regular Instructions
Chop the nectarines roughly, making sure to remove the pip.
Place in a pot on the stove with the honey and saute for 5 – 10 mins until it’s soft.
If you want the fruit chunky, leave it as is, but if you want it smoother, mash or purée the fruit.
Add the yoghurt and stir to combine.
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen.
You’ll need to leave the fro-yo for a few minutes to soften up before serving.
Thermomix Instructions
Add the nectarines to the Thermomix, making sure to remove the pip.
Add the honey and sauté for 3 mins/ Speed 2/ Varoma until it’s soft.
If you want the fruit chunky, leave it as is, but if you want it smoother, mix Speed 5/30 seconds.
Add the yoghurt and the butterfly and stir to combine (speed 3/20 seconds)
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen.
You’ll need to leave the fro-yo for a few minutes to soften up before serving.
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We serve these in one of three ways:
Either in an ice lolly like in the first picture
Or in a flat container you can scoop from. We live the chocolate covered waffles for serving too.
Or mix two flavours together by pouring the first ‘batch’ into a container and putting it in the freezer for 10 minutes while preparing the second batch, then pouring it over or creating a swirl. It’s a really tasty way to enjoy two flavours together.
Soft Fruit Frozen Yoghurt Recipes
Recipe Type: Dessert, Ice Cream, Frozen Yoghurt
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 400g
It’s hard to give exact figures here, since the recipe is very forgiving, and since the point of it is to use up extra fruit and avoid wastage. Cook time is freezing time, but obviously depends on the size of your container.
Ingredients
3 Soft Fruits (the amount of fruit doesn’t ‘really’ matter. Add what you have.)
1tbs (15g) Honey
300g Natural Yoghurt
Instructions
Regular Instructions
Chop the nectarines roughly, making sure to remove the pip.
Place in a pot on the stove with the honey and saute for 5 – 10 mins until it’s soft.
If you want the fruit chunky, leave it as is, but if you want it smoother, mash or purée the fruit.
Add the yoghurt and stir to combine.
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen.
You’ll need to leave the fro-yo for a few minutes to soften up before serving.
Thermomix Instructions
Add the fruit to the Thermomix, making sure to remove any pips. Chop speed 4/10 seconds.
If it’s very juicy, reduce some of the juice.
If you want the fruit chunky, leave it as is, but if you want it smoother, mix Speed 5/30 seconds.
Add the yoghurt and the butterfly and stir to combine (speed 3/20 seconds)
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen.
You’ll need to leave the fro-yo for a few minutes to soften up before serving if you want it scoop-able.
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Play around with the flavours and see what your favourite combinations are!
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.
It’s nutella and banana. Do you need any more convincing? I have a banana bread recipe that I love and use often, but sometime a little something different doesn’t hurt!
I would recommend using deeper muffin pans than the ones I used for these, as being able to cover the nutella completely is a bit more ideal, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t.
Leaving the chocolate exposed will give it a crunch top layer, covering it will give you more oozy, yummy chocolatey goodness.
Now, I’m saying use Nutella here, because it’s a name most people recognise, but you can of course substitute for other chocolate spread, including a home made one.
These are really delicious, moist and tasty. I hope you enjoy them too!
Nutella Banana Muffin
Recipe Type: Treats, Snacks, Deserts
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 12
Adjust the Nutella, or home made Nutella, for more or less chocolatey centres.
Ingredients
180g self raising flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
100g sugar
80g oil (not olive)
2 eggs
2 bananas
100g milk
120g Nutella
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180C
Prepare your muffin pans
Add all the ingredients except Nutella and mix at speed 5 for 10 – 15 seconds to make sure it’s all blended.
Spoon into muffin cases, and drop a little less than a full tablespoon of Nutella into each muffin case.
Bake for 30 minutes to 45 mins, sticking a skewer in every 10 minutes after 20 minutes till it comes out clean.The size of your muffin tray is going to determine how long these takes, hence the variable time.
Remove from muffin trays onto a wire rack, and leave to cool.
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.
Anyway, I digress. We got to discussing clotted cream, as you do, and how it’s made and my brother set me the challenge of making clotted cream in the Thermomix. It turns out you can’t in a TM31 because you can’t switch the movement of the blades off. I have someone testing it on the yoghurt function of the T5 at the moment, so we’ll see how that works out, and let you know.
I’ve seen recipes online for clotted cream that I’m pretty sure are actually sour cream – cream and lemon juice – that is not traditional clotted cream. Clotted cream is thick cream obtained by heating milk slowly and then allowing it to cool while the cream content rises to the top in coagulated lumps.
A quick Google showed me that my genius idea of brandy butter ice cream isn’t original (isn’t it sad when that happens 😉 ) but I looked at a few recipes, made some adjustments and came up with this below.
See how good these look? But they’re only two tablespoons worth of yoghurt and yet sufficient to end a craving.
Now, I’m saying use Nutella here, because it’s a name most people recognise, but you can of course substitute for other chocolate spread, including a home made one. 