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Easter

April 10, 2020

Creme Egg Cupcakes

Creme Egg Cupcakes

Have fun this Easter with these Creme Egg Cupcakes!

Creme Egg Cupcakes

Print

Creme Egg Cupcakes

Prep 15 mins

Cook 2 mins

Total 17 mins

Author Ren Behan

Yield 12 cakes

Made with Cadbury's Creme Eggs, for a egg-stra special treat this Easter. 

Ingredients

125g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter or margarine, at room temperature
2 eggs, beaten
100g self-raising flour (or plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder)
25g cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
12 large Crème eggs, unwrapped
For the vanilla frosting
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
250g icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
To decorate
12 mini Crème eggs, unwrapped

Instructions

  1.  Place the large Crème eggs into the freezer. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake liners.
  2. Beat the sugar and butter or margarine together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Slowly add in the eggs and a tablespoon of flour at a time. Sift in the rest of the flour and the cocoa powder and mix well. Stir in the milk and mix again.
  3. Put one spoonful of the cupcake mixture into each paper case. Take the Crème eggs out of the freezer and place one whole egg into the case, pressing it down gently into the mixture. Put another spoonful of the cupcake mixture on top of each egg. Using the back of a teaspoon, gently even out the cupcake mixture in the case, so that the top of the Crème egg is just showing.
  4. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Take the cupcakes out of the oven, let them cool in the tin slightly and then place them onto a wire rack.
  5. To make the vanilla frosting, beat the butter for a few minutes until it is pale and creamy. Slowly add in the icing sugar until it is all incorporated and beat for a few minutes. Add the vanilla, followed by the milk to loosen the mixture slightly. Transfer the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a round-holed nozzle.
  6. Pipe the buttercream onto each cupcake and decorate each cake with one mini egg, cut into two halves.

Courses Dessert

You may also like:

Nigella’s Brownies with leftover mini eggs

No Bake Creme Egg Cheesecake 

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cheeesecake

Hot Cross Buns

April 10, 2020

Hot Cross Buns with a Maple Glaze

Hot Cross Buns with a Maple Glaze

Hot Cross Buns Ren Behan

Hot Cross Buns, traditionally eaten on Good Friday are an Easter staple. They are fairly straight-forward to make and are well worth having a go at as they’ll be much tastier than a supermarket version. These have the added bonus of another Easter staple – chocolate!

I have also topped my buns with a delicious maple glaze and of course the obligatory cross over the top which is made with a mixture of flour and water.

A couple of tips:

  1. Yeast does not like hot liquid, so make sure that the milk and butter mixture has cooled back to room temperature before adding to the dry ingredients
  2. Adding the chocolate chunks in after the first prove will help to keep them from melting.

Hot Cross Buns Ren Behan

Hot Cross Buns Ren Behan

1 vote

Print

Hot Cross Buns with Chocolate Chunks and Toffee Glaze

Prep 30 mins

Cook 15 mins

Inactive 49 mins

Total 1 hour, 34 mins

Author Ren Behan

Yield 12 buns

Hot cross buns just got better. Try my modern, tasty version, with cinnamon and dried fruit, as well as chocolate chunks and a delicious toffee glaze to finish them off perfectly.

Ingredients

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter

200ml whole milk, at room temperature

500g strong white flour, plus a little extra for the board

7g fast-action dried yeast + 1 tsp sugar

50g caster sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

75g mixed peel

75g sultanas

Zest of one orange

2 eggs (one to glaze the buns)

1 tsp vanilla bean extract or powder

A pinch of sea salt

A little vegetable oil to grease the proving bowl and tray

100g chocolate chunks

For the crosses

100g plain flour

2-3 tablespoons water

For the toffee glaze

55g unsalted butter

125g light Muscovado sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

Instructions

1. Melt the butter and leave to cool, then pour the butter into the milk and set to one side to cool.

2. Tip the yeast into a small bowl. Add a tablespoon of cold water and a teaspoon of sugar. Mix and leave to froth.

3. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the frothy yeast, caster sugar, cinnamon, mixed peel, sultanas, orange zest, one beaten egg, the vanilla and a pinch of sea salt.

4. Using a fork, stir the ingredients to combine them, then slowly add the cooled melted butter and milk mixture. The butter and milk mixture should not be hot, otherwise it will kill the yeast. Bring together using your hands until a ball of dough forms. Add a little extra milk if the dough seems dry.

5. On a floured board, knead the dough for five minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Grease a large bowl with a little oil and place the ball of dough into the bowl, covering with cling film. Leave the dough to prove in a warm place for 60 minutes.

6. After 60 minutes, the dough should have doubled in size. Tip it out onto a floured board and punch the dough back to knock out any excess air. Tip the chocolate chunks onto the dough and work them in, kneading slightly again for about a minute.

7. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions and roll each ball into a bun shape, flattening it slightly. Lightly grease a large baking tray with oil and then lay the buns in the tray. They should be almost touching. Cover with a cloth and leave them to prove again for 30 minutes.

8. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 8.

9. To make the crosses, mix the plain flour with water and bring it together to form a dough. Knead until smooth then roll out onto a floured board. Using a knife, cut 12 long strips, around 0.5cm in thickness and then cut each strip in half to make 24 pieces. Carefully place the dough strips onto the buns and brush the tops with beaten egg. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden.

10. To make the toffee glaze, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan and stir well. Take the sauce off the heat. Once the buns are baked, brush the tops with the toffee sauce and serve whilst warm.

Notes

Yeast does not like warm liquid, so make sure that the milk and butter mixture has cooled back to room temperature before adding to the dry ingredients. Adding the chocolate chunks in after the first prove will help to keep them from melting.

Courses Dessert

Cuisine British

You may also like:

No Bake Creme Egg Cheesecake 

Polish Easter Babka  

Easter Tiramisu 

April 10, 2020

No-Bake Crème Egg Cheesecake

No-Bake Crème Egg Cheesecake

This is a simple no-bake, get-ahead dessert, perfect for your Easter table.

Creme Egg Cheesecake

Creme Egg Cheesecake

1 vote

Print

No-Bake Crème Egg Cheesecake

Prep 20 mins

Total 20 mins

Author Ren Behan

Yield 8 portions

This is a simple no-bake, get-ahead dessert, perfect for your Easter table. 

Ingredients

For the base

200g digestive biscuits, crushed into very fine crumbs

100g melted butter, unsalted

For the cheesecake topping

300g full fat cream cheese

200g Mascarpone Italian cheese

4 tbsp icing sugar

100ml double cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 large Crème eggs, unwrapped

3 mini Crème eggs, unwrapped, to decorate

Instructions

1. Line a 20cm springform cake tin with a circle of baking parchment. In a mixing bowl, mix the biscuit crumbs with the melted butter until you have a sandy consistency. Tip the crumbs into the tin and press down firmly with the back of a metal spoon until your base is flat. Refrigerate while you make the topping.

3. In a large mixing bowl, using a whisk, beat together the cream cheese, Mascarpone cheese and icing sugar until well combined. Add the double cream, along with the vanilla extract and whisk again.

4. Spoon the topping onto the biscuit base and smooth down with a spoon or palette knife. Carefully slice the Crème eggs in half and arrange the eggs, pushing them into the cheesecake topping, so the tops are visible. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

5. To remove the cheesecake from the tin, sit the cheesecake in some hot water (make sure it down not reach the top of the tin) and then gently unlock the sides or ease it out. Before serving, decorate the centre of the cheesecake with mini Crème eggs

Notes

Use a sharp knife dipped in boiling water when you slice the cheesecake to give you clean slices.

Courses Dessert

You may also like:

Hot Cross Buns

Easter Tiramisu

Polish Easter Babka

March 31, 2018

Polish Easter Babka

Polish Easter Babka

A traditional, yeasted, Polish Easter Babka cake – Babka Wielkanocna 

Jump straight to the recipe

Polish Easter Babka

I have always found Easter to be full of mystery, tradition and ritual. In some ways, the signs and symbols all around us at this time of year are simple and universal; eggs, representing new life, buds bringing with them the promise of spring. However, dig a little deeper and you’ll find theories on how the Christian celebration of Easter is said to have been influenced by the early pagan celebrations and spring fertility rituals. The name itself, Easter, is a derivative of the German Ostern. However, the Greek and Latin name for Easter is Pascha, a celebration specifically celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, though there are also symbolic and historical links to the Jewish holiday of Passover. It’s fascinating how our cultures have adapted, acquired and assimilated various rituals and traditions.

Polish Easter Babka

Rebirth

There are many folk customs associated with Easter, especially evident in Slavic cultures and linked to the Slavic festivals of spring. The painting and gifting of eggs, the preparation of an Easter basket, as well as the slightly more peculiar traditions of hanging a herring on a dry branch (herrings are also traditionally eaten on Good Friday and by Poles, at the Easter Sunday table) or soaking one another with water on Easter Monday.

Polish Easter Basket

In Poland, Easter provides the opportunity for a big feast following six weeks of Lenten fasting; churches, homes and streets are decorated with displays of colourful flowers, palms and intricately painted eggs. On Easter Saturday, Poles prepare their baskets (read more about how to make an Easter Święcone basket over on Ania’s blog here) filling them with food such as boiled and coloured or painted eggs (pisanki), ham or cured meat (kiełbasa), salt (sól) butter (masło), bread (chleb) and a sweet cake, such as a Baba or Babka. The basket is blessed by the priest on Easter Saturday and then eaten together for breakfast on Easter Sunday. Each item within the basket has a symbolic meaning – Eggs: new life or Christ’s Resurrection, Butter (often shaped into a lamb): goodwill, Kiełbasa or ham: God’s generosity, joy and abundance, Salt: necessary for life, Bread and Babka: symbolic of Jesus who is the bread of life.

Easter table

The Easter traditions we look forward to the most as a family are our Polish Easter customs, particularly the preparation of the Polish Easter basket, which happens to also involve baking a traditional Babka, or a Mazurek cake, or perhaps a poppy seed roll or even a baked Easter cheesecake. Of course, in our home, the odd hot-cross bun is also consumed, the Easter bunny visits the children and even as adult, I look forward to collecting my very own stash of milk chocolate eggs – a ritual I don’t think I’ll ever grow out of.

A quote that I read today, shared by a friend, really struck a chord this morning:

“Rituals are how civilizations preserve their memory, keeping faith with those who came before us and handing on their legacy to the future.” R. Sacks 

I’d love to hear how you are celebrating and if you are in the mood for a spot of Easter baking, perhaps you’ll give my Polish Easter Babka a go.

In my cookbook Wild Honey and Rye: Modern Polish Recipes, you can also find a recipe for Mini Lemon Babkas.

Polish Easter Babka

This Polish Easter Babka (Babka Wielkanocna) enriched with eggs and studded with dried fruit and raisins, has a sort of brioche-like texture. This recipe is made with yeast (the rising agent) and therefore requires two periods of proving (though no kneading) and is a lovely project to have a go at over the Easter holidays.

Polish Easter Babka

1 vote

Print

Polish Easter Babka

Prep 15 mins

Cook 30 mins

Inactive 1 hour, 40 mins

Total 2 hours, 25 mins

Author Ren Behan

Yield 8

Almost every household in Poland will be enjoying a traditional Easter Babka this weekend. Usually, a small piece of the Babka (or even a whole Babka) is placed into the Easter basket, along with boiled and painted eggs, butter, ham or cured meat, salt and bread which is blessed on Easter Saturday and enjoyed for breakfast on Easter Sunday. I hope you’ll enjoy this tradition of making a Babka, and maybe even a basket over the Easter weekend. 

 

Ingredients

  • 125ml/ 1/2 cup milk
  • 115g/½ cup butter, softened, plus extra for greasing the tin
  • 2 tsp fast action/instant yeast + 4 tsp lukewarm water + 1 tsp granulated sugar  
  • 4 large eggs
  • 180g/½ cup caster/fine sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean extract
  • 120g/ 1 cup all-purpose flour, ideally ‘00’ pasta flour or fine cake flour 
  • 120g/ 1 cup potato flour (available at the Polish shop) or cornflour    
  • 150g/ 1 cup raisins
  • 1 orange, peeled
  • 1 lemon, peeled

Icing sugar, to dust

Instructions

  1. In a small pan, bring the milk to the boil then take off the heat and leave to one side. Add the butter to the milk and allow it to melt.
  2. In a jug, mix the yeast with lukewarm water and a teaspoon of sugar. Stir or whisk until dissolved and set to one side. It should begin to bubble. 
  3. In a stand mixer or a large bowl, beat the eggs for five minutes until creamy to incorporate lots of air. Add the caster sugar, a pinch of salt and vanilla and mix well. Add the milk and butter mixture, along with the dissolved yeast and mix well. Stir in the flour, raisins and orange and lemon peel and mix to combine.
  4. Cover the bowl with cling-film and leave in a warm place for an hour - first rise. 
  5. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Grease your cake tin well with plenty of butter.
  6. Carefully pour the dough into the tin, cover again and leave for 30-40 minutes - second rise. 
  7. Remove the cling-film and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. The Babka should be golden and a cake tester should come out clean.
  8. Leave the Babka to cool in the tin. Once cool enough to handle, transfer it out onto a plate and dust with icing sugar. The Babka will keep well in a tin for up to 2 days. 

Courses Dessert

Cuisine Polish

Happy Spring!

You may also like:

Recipe: Polish Meatballs with Mushroom Sauce {+ more Polish Recipes to try}

Easy Easter Recipes by Ren Behan for the Good Food Channel

Hot Cross Buns

April 1, 2015

Recipe: Easter Chocolate Cake

Recipe: Easter Chocolate Cake

Easter Chocolate Cake

There’s no other time of year when you can indulge in quite as much chocolate as Easter! If you’ve managed to give it up for lent, well done, you’ve got a great deal more will power than me. This is an Easter Chocolate Cake that I love making for my family and it makes the perfect Easter Sunday centrepiece. You can decorate your cake any way you like – mini eggs make the perfect topping and I’ve used some of Heston’s edible hay from the inside of one of his golden eggs, but you could get a similar effect with some shredded wheat or with edible rice paper. The main thing is to bake it, cover it in chocolate frosting and enjoy it this Easter!

…

Read more

April 1, 2015

How to be a #GoodEgg this Easter with Waitrose

How to be a #GoodEgg this Easter with Waitrose

This post is in support of the Waitrose #GoodEgg campaign 

Easter Chooclate Cake

Click here for my Easter Chocolate Cake recipe

Did I mention how much I love Easter? It definitely has something to do with all the chocolate around. However, I also love that it’s spring and that it’s generally brighter and that the Easter bunny hops around. We actually do have two wild bunnies hopping around our garden, they visit every morning and so I tell the children that they are hunting around for all the best places to hide eggs. Easter also provides us with a nice opportunity to get into the kitchen and bake. We have more than two weeks off school and there’s generally less to do than before Christmas, so things are more relaxed.

This year, instead of a traditional Simnel cake (made with fruit and marzipan) I’ll be making version 2.0 of my Chocolate Easter Cake. This chocolate cake is perfect in every way and will feed a lot of people. Plus, you get to decorate it with whatever you have to hand – mini eggs, cute decorations and edible hay….

…

Read more

April 17, 2014

Easy Easter Recipes – Good Food Channel

Easy Easter Recipes – Good Food Channel

Just before I sign out for Easter and wish you all a very happy weekend, I have a few additional easy Easter recipes to share that I was invited to create for the Good Food Channel. I hope they inspire you to have a go at making or baking something yourself at home. Yes, the shops are full to the brim with commercially produced Easter eggs, cakes and hot cross buns, but there’s something truly special about having a go at something yourself at home – especially if it means challenging yourself to try something new or getting the children involved in the kitchen. Just make sure you have some aprons at the ready and your ingredients to hand, then roll up your sleeves and get stuck in. I really hope that some of these recipes feature on your Easter table – don’t forget let me know if they do!

Hot Cross Buns

Chocolate Hot Cross Buns {Recipe Here} for the Good Food Channel

Hot Cross Buns are easier to make at home than you may think – the buns above were only my second ever attempt – the first batch were fine, but the liquid I used was slightly too hot and I managed to kill the yeast – so you might want to avoid doing that!  My version includes chocolate chips (add them towards the end of kneading) with a toffee glaze.

Creme Egg Cupcakes

Creme Egg Cupcakes {Recipe Here} for the Good Food Channel 

When baking with Creme Eggs, a good tip is to pop them in the freezer for a little but first, so that once they go into the cake batter and into the oven, they don’t melt immediately! Don’t forget to buy some of the mini Creme Eggs to decorate your cupcakes with.

DIY Chocolate Eggs

Caramel and White Chocolate Easter Egg [Recipe Here} for the Good Food Channel

I purchased an inexpensive DIY Easter Egg kit at Lakeland and we had a go at making some of our own Caramel and White Chocolate Easter Eggs – the kids were really thrilled and we found making them a relaxing way to spend a not-so-sunny spring afternoon.

Mini Egg Cake

Mini Egg Cake {Recipe Here} for the Good Food Channel 

Finally, probably my favourite recipe, a chocolate cake covered in chocolate butter cream and completely encrusted in Mini Eggs – you’ll need about eight large packets but it makes for a great Easter centre-piece!

More Easter Recipes!

Chocolate Rolo Cake for the Good Food Channel

Creme Egg Cheesecake for the Good Food Channel

Re-cap on last year’s Chocolate Orange Easter Tiramisu Party

Finally…I’m off to colour my eggs for our Easter basket and then…put my feet up!

I look forward to seeing your Easter tweets @RenBehan or you can post a photo on my new Facebook page Ren Behan Food.

Have a great Easter weekend.

Click here for all of the Easy Easter recipes!

Easy Easter Recipes

Ren Behan is a freelance contributor to the Good Food Channel. All recipes, styling and photographs in this post author’s own. 

April 10, 2014

Recipe: Creme Egg Cheesecake

Recipe: Creme Egg Cheesecake

Creme Egg Cheesecake No Bake

Easter is a great opportunity for spending time with family and that shouldn’t include you spending hours in front of the stove, slaving away. I always find it a much more relaxing occasion than Christmas and the food should also reflect that.

This simple, no-bake Cheesecake can be made ahead of time and makes a great dessert centre-piece. It is also a great recipe to pull out of the bag if you find that you are really short of time.

The mascarpone (Italian) cheese in the dish provides a balance of flavours to the sweetness of the chocolate and creme egg fondant. This is just a suggested decoration – you could use Mini Eggs, crushed Easter eggs or whatever you can salvage from the children’s Easter Egg stash!

Tip: For clean slices when you slice the Cheesecake, use a sharp knife dipped in boiling water.

[recipe id=”12349″]

Elsewhere…

Sarah’s Easter round-up for Baby Centre – 15 Fabulous Treats to make at Easter.

Re-visit my Chocolate Orange Tiramisu Party  – one of my most popular posts

Time to bake? Have a go at my Lemony Spring Cupcakes, too

Creme Egg Cheesecake Ren Behan

What treats are you most looking forward to making this Easter in the kitchen?

Recipe, styling, photos and recipes author’s own. This recipe was previously featured by the Good Food Channel 

March 30, 2013

Chocolate Orange Easter Tiramisu Party

Chocolate Orange Easter Tiramisu Party

Baking disasters happen to everyone. That’s what I told myself as the double layer chocolate orange cake I was planning to make stuck to the tin in a magnificent fashion. The only way to get it out was to hack it up into bits – and so it became a Chocolate Orange Easter Tiramisu. Lesson 1 – don’t forget to grease and line the tin. Lesson 2 – never throw a broken cake away, you can always turn it into a tiramisu or a trifle. You can use any chocolate cake or chocolate loaf cake for this recipe.

Easter-Tiramisu

To make an authentic tiramisu, you should really use Savoiardi biscuits, sometimes called Lady Fingers – but ‘stuck to the tin’ chocolate cake works just as well, in my book. I make my tiramisu to a recipe my Italian brother-in-law taught me many moons ago – egg yolks with sugar, then vanilla, mascarpone cheese and finally, whipped egg whites to lighten it up. You can also soak the biscuits in liquour, or marsala wine, but I just used orange juice and also grated in some extra orange zest. Always finish with a good dusting of cocoa. Finally, invite your friends and family over and tuck in – this makes a lovely Italian-inspired ending to any Easter meal.

Tiramisu 

[kitchenbug-your-recipe-appears-here-8080]

 

Easter Party

After I had made this, I saw another post by Guilia who writes at Jul’s Kitchen from Tuscany – she very cleverly split two Easter eggs and filled the shells with tiramisu. So you could fo that, too and make Easter Egg Tiramisu.

Easter

Easter Tiramisu

I hope you all have a really lovely Easter weekend!

Happy Easter

More Easter baking

Leftover Mini Egg Brownies

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

Jacqueline’s post on BabyCentre – Creme Egg Brownies and an Easter Tea Party

My Polish Kitchen

Update: I’ll be filling my new site My Polish Kitchen with lots of recipes and reviews over the Easter break. You can see my post on egg decorating and our Polish Easter basket here. Traditionally, we would also bake a Babka or a Mazurek cake – there is a lovely recipe for an Orange and Almond Mazurek Cake here which is in From a Polish Country House Kitchen.

Finally – a little shout out – of you are in Manchester on Easter Sunday and fancy a Polish Easter experience, singer Katy Carr will be singing at The Old Abbey Inn at the launch of Manchester’s first Polish gastro pub!   

What are you doing over the Easter weekend?

March 27, 2013

Alternative Easter Lunch: Pollo al Limone from ‘The Amalfi Coast’

Alternative Easter Lunch: Pollo al Limone from ‘The Amalfi Coast’

Easter is usually all about roast lamb, but in case you are looking for an alternative – or you have an extra large crowd to feed – you might have time to try this recipe for Pollo al Limone – or Lemon Chicken Thighs. It is one of my favourite recipes from a book I received recently called The Amalfi Coast – A Collection of Italian Recipes, by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi. You can be in with the chance of winning a copy yourself here. I’ve actually been able to get Amalfi lemons from Natoora UK (also available via Ocodo) but if you can’t, just use any unwaxed, fresh lemons.

Lemon Chicken Thighs

 Photo credit: Helen Catchcart

Pollo al Limone (Lemon Chicken)

From The Amalfi Coast –  by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi

**(Recipe printed with permission)**

Chicken thighs are underused, in my opinion. They are economical, succulent, full of flavour (more so than the overused breast) and cook quickly. This simple recipe is great as a quick supper dish.

Serves 4

  • 8 boneless chicken thighs, skin on
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • ‘00’ or plain flour, to coat the chicken
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
  • 3 small sprigs of rosemary
  • 100 ml (31⁄2 fl oz/1⁄2 cup) white wine
  • 50 ml (2 fl oz/1⁄4 cup) water
  • juice of 1 lemon (reserve the juiced halves)
  • 25 g (1 oz/2 tablespoons) butter
  • new or fried potatoes to serve
  • slices of lemon to garnish

Method

Season the pieces of chicken with salt and black pepper. Coat the pieces in flour and tap off the excess. A quick way of doing this is to put the flour in a plastic food bag with the chicken pieces and shake the bag, making sure the meat is evenly coated. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry the chicken skin-side down first until golden brown. Turn the chicken over and brown the other side, adding the garlic and rosemary. Pour away the excess oil and return to the heat. Pour in the wine and allow it to reduce for a few minutes, then add water, lemon juice and butter. Add the lemon halves to the pan and keep on the heat until the chicken is cooked through. Discard the lemon halves and serve with new or fried potatoes.

Amalfi_Coast

More Easter Ideas

I’ve just written two posts for Jamie Oliver.com too – so pop over to get some tips on The Perfect Easter Roast or go for another alternative this weekend, an Easter Lasagne.

Other Recipes

Still stuck for ideas? Try my ‘Almost Spring’ Lamb Hotpot or my Pull Apart Spring Shoulder of Lamb.

Lamb Hotpot

I’ll be back tomorrow with some Easter dessert and baking ideas.

March 25, 2013

Easter News, a Refresh and a Cake Creation!

Easter News, a Refresh and a Cake Creation!

Easter Baskets

Easter weekend is almost here, which means it’s time to start thinking about feeding, baking, decorating eggs, making Easter baskets and hopefully, to finally welcoming some Spring sunshine! Easter can be a very special time, rich in symbolism; new life, re-birth, new activity, perhaps taking a break, a step back to breathe, taking the opportunity to spring clean, to move away from the old or to welcoming something new.

Easter Baskets

There has been lots going on behind the scenes for me, as usual, everything seems to have happened all at the same time. Lots of new and exciting writing work  – you can read my first two posts on Cooking with Kids for Great British Chefs, starting with Easy Breakfasts Your Kids Can Help Make and Cooking with Different Generations. There’s more to come on the writing front, too.

Cooking with Kids

New Blog Name & Logo!

You might also have noticed some changes on the blog – most obviously, Fabulicious Food! is no more. Instead, I have a lovely new header and blog name. I have ‘ummed and ahhed’ about changing my blog name for a while now and when I began working on a new logo with Regula (Miss Foodwise) who I met through Food Blogger Connect and her husband Bruno at The Tiny Red Factory, I decided that I wanted to be bold and have something new and completely different to the Fabulicious Food of old. Together, we came up with a brand new design, which I am really happy with.  I hope you like it, too!

Ren Behan

New Site – My Polish Kitchen

After even more umming and ahhing,  I also decided to set up a new home for all of my Polish food and recipes over on a new site called My Polish Kitchen. For this bit, Shay Bocks helped me with the design of a new site and also found a cool way of linking My Polish Kitchen with this blog via a little widget on the right of the headers. I’ll be working on plenty of new content over Easter.   

Finally, the very clever Jo at Callia Web helped me to tweak the colours back over here to make everything, overall, a little less pink! As you can imagine, the whole process has been quite interesting, with lots of going back and forth, but I think we are finally there now. There will be plenty happening here as well as on My Polish Kitchen, so stay tuned!    

Cake Creation

In other exciting news, just before Christmas, my friend Michelle Becker from Pink Soul Photography and I made a short film about a cake, which to our surprise, was accepted by the first St Albans Film Festival. We featured some local ingredients, I stone-ground my own flour at Redbournbury Mill, and thanks to Michelle’s creative eye and editing, our little film called ‘Cake Creation’ was shortlisted and featured in the documentary category with a screening a couple of weeks ago. Congratulations Michelle!  We can also finally share it with you all now. 

Cake Creation for Vimeo from Michelle Becker on Vimeo.

There is plenty to come before Easter, baking and chocolates galore!  Thank you so much for reading my blog, trying my recipes and for sharing your thoughts and comments with me.

We hope you enjoy the video!

 

March 18, 2013

‘Almost Spring’ Lamb Hotpot

‘Almost Spring’ Lamb Hotpot

One of our favourite one-pot meals, by far, is a lamb hotpot. It is so easy to throw together and is incredibly warming and comforting. I am desperately willing for it to be brighter and warmer, but we’ve still got frost and grey skies – so an ‘almost Spring’ hotpot is called for. You could make this in a slow cooker, but the potatoes wouldn’t get crispy on top. The lamb and vegetables would be lovely and tender, though. My onions, celery and carrots were all from our veg box and this is a classic, seasonal British dish.

Lamb Hotpot

Spring lamb is just coming into season. I usually ask the butcher for British lamb neck fillet, but a traditional ‘hotpot’ can also be made with neck chops, stewing lamb, diced leg or shoulder or something with a bone for extra flavour.  For a Lancashire Hotpot, add 3 lamb kidneys, sliced, to the pan at the same time as browning your meat. Leave out the tomato paste and add a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce instead.

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Lamb Hotpot

I’m sending this recipe across to Louisa at Chez Foti who is hosting this month’s Simple and in Season.

I’m also sending this to Credit Crunch Munch  hosted jointly by Helen at Fuss Free Flavour and Camilla at Fab Food 4 All – although buying lamb fillet can be pricey, the carrot, onions, celery and potatoes are all in season and were all from my veg box. The stock and tomato puree are store-cupboard staples.

This recipe takes around one and a half hours to cook in the oven. You could follow all the same steps and instead of transferring the lamb and veg to a lidded casserole dish, layer it up in a slow cooker and cook for 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on a low setting. Pop over to Mediocre Mum’s new site Slow Cooker Queen for more slow cooking ideas.

Finally, this is my first entry into Made with Love Mondays, too.

What’s your favourite warming one-pot meal?

May 21, 2011

Pull Apart Spring Shoulder of Lamb

There’s something about weekend cooking that normally means the pace is a lot slower and you may have a little bit more time to spare to cook a family meal or even a Sunday roast – though having more time doesn’t mean it needs to be hard. This week I came across a lovely shoulder of lamb at my local butcher, which is usually a bit cheaper than leg of lamb but tastes great slow roasted – the meat can literally be pulled off the shoulder with a spoon and fork.

Look out for rare breed, new season spring lamb for great flavour. Grass-fed will mean that the lamb will also be higher in omega-3. Also, keep an eye out at your local farmers’ market or ask your butcher whether he has any locally reared lamb, as you’ll also be helping local farming and agriculture whilst at the same time capturing that really good British spring lamb flavour at its best.  
For a really seasonal Sunday lunch try slow roasting your lamb with garlic, herbs and wine(see below) and serving it with Jersey Royal new potatoes and British asparagus, both of which can be par-boiled and then just roasted in the lamb juices – almost a one-pot meal. I also used the stock cube trick Marco Pierre White recently showed us to season the meat – seemed to work a treat. You’ll see it in the method below.  

Don’t forget to keep sharing your seasonal recipes in my Simple and in Season linky-up, there are now quite a few great looking seasonal treats to try (not just from the UK!) I’ll be rounding-up in a separate post at the beginning of June and sending out a book to the winner. 

 

Slow Roasted New Season Shoulder of Lamb,
with Jersey Royals & British Asparagus

Serves 4 

Ingredients:

1 x 1.3kg shoulder of lamb or leg of lamb
2 white onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
1 lamb stock cube
3 tablespoons fresh or dried rosemary
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
250 ml of white wine, water or stock
Jersey Royal New Potatoes (as many as you need to feed your crowd)
1-2 bunches fresh British asparagus 

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees celcius

2. Take a tin or casserole dish large enough to fit in your leg or shoulder of lamb, put your sliced onions and garlic in the bottom of the tin and lie your shoulder or leg of lamb on top

3. Crumble a lamb stock over the shoulder or leg or or put your stock cube in a small bowl and pour in a small amount of olive oil, mix this together with your finger to form a paste (a la Marco Pierre White). Spread this paste all over your leg or shoulder of lamb, season all over with salt and freshly milled pepper and scatter some rosemary all over the top
  
4. Pour over your white wine, water or stock and cover with a tightly fitting lid or with tin foil

5. Cook in the oven for 3 hours basting occasionally. If your liquid runs dry, add in some more wine, water or stock

6. Wash and boil your new potatoes for fifteen minutes and set aside. Blanch your asparagus for around three minutes and rinse under cold water

7. After three hours of cooking, take off the lid or foil and throw in your par-boiled new potatoes and asparagus. Coat everything in the liquid in the tin/dish and cook, uncovered for a further 45 minutes

8. After 45 minutes, take out your shoulder of lamb and place on a plate, covered to rest (for fifteen minutes.) Check your potatoes are soft, if not put them back in the oven for fifteen minutes. Pull the lamb apart (I usually throw it back on top of the veg) and serve.

April 20, 2011

Easter Egg Colouring and Decorating Fun!

Growing up, Easter was always a time filled with traditional and cultural symbolism. Each year, we would colour and decorate eggs, in Polish called ‘pisanki,’ and make an Easter basket to be shared for breakfast on Easter Sunday. I look back on my childhood and remember it as a happy time, marking occasions, remembering our Polish heritage and celebrating feasts. We did also have chocolate eggs, so I didn’t miss out, but there was much more to Easter than chocolate.

In many ways, the Easter bunny means very little to me. Yes, he’s cute, as are the chicks, and I’m sure everyone can appreciate that springtime marks new beginnings and that eggs, whether chocolate, coloured or soft boiled symbolise new life. But it’s always hard to know what to pass onto our children and how to do it in a way that it meaningful to them. Do we cling tightly onto the traditions of our parents and grandparents, or skip straight to the Easter Bunny, with Easter bonnets and chocolate eggs hunts in the garden? Or, do we try and pass on some of the things we did growing up and try hard to appreciate everything we were taught and brought up doing? 

This year, we are enjoying preparing for Easter as a family, which has included making a traditional Polish Easter basket, as well as colouring eggs and using some very cute little eggs wrappers, featuring chicks and Easter bunnies, hopefully to try and cover the whole spectrum! 

Egg dying is really easy and it’s a great pre-Easter activity. At home, we made dyes using onion skins and vinegar, which is a very traditional method of colouring eggs. The Polish tradition of making ‘pisanki’ dates back to the 10th Century, although some say that the Slavic people were decorating eggs much earlier than that. ‘Drapanki’ are made by scratching the surface of the eggs with a sharp tool to reveal the egg white. Traditional ‘pisanki’ are covered with a layer of molten wax or designs can be drawn straight onto the egg with wax.

We coloured our eggs two ways, the first few were boiled in water with onions skins and vinegar (the darker brown eggs) and the second batch were coloured using an egg decorating kit which contained tablets of dye. We used a wax candle to draw designs onto the pre-boiled eggs before dipping them into the dye for about ten minutes to take on the colour. The wrappers were even easier to use, we boiled the eggs, then put the wrappers around them and dropped them into boiling water for 30 seconds – which instantly shrinks the wrapper around the egg.  My little boy thought this was great fun, he scribbled all over his eggs with the crayon and then coloured them red and blue. He thought the wrappers turned them into ‘magic eggs.’

     
A few tips –
  • Use duck eggs or pale white eggs to get the brightest colour results.
  • Hard boil your eggs before dying, then store in the fridge.
  • For two tone eggs (such as the green one) dip the whole egg in dye for a few seconds, then take a shallower cup and place half the egg in the dye leaving the top bit exposed. (Ela’s tip)
  • The blue egg was hard boiled, the design was drawn on with a wax crayon and then it was placed into the dye.
  • Use your empty egg carton as a drying try.
  • To make the eggs shiny, rub them with a tiny bit of olive oil after colouring. (Mama’s tip)
  • Wear pastic gloves to avoid getting dye on your hands

All in all, a very fun Easter activity!

Easter egg wrappers and ceramic egg tray from Lakeland
Egg Decorating Kit ‘Draw and Dip’ (including dyes) by Dr Oetker
 

What are your own Easter traditions? Do you colour eggs or make bonnets or have an egg hunt?

April 18, 2011

Alternative Easter Lunch: Roasted Poussins

These little chickens are really easy to prepare and make ahead if you are cooking for a crowd and would make a lovely alternative to roast lamb on Easter Sunday, especially if you don’t like lamb!

I have been making this recipe for a number of years now, the original came from an American cookbook called The Healthy Kitchen by Dr Andrew Weil, which I lent to someone many years ago and somehow never reclaimed! 
 
I remember that the original recipes uses lemon pepper, which I believe you can buy in the States, (I just make my own) and also fennel, which I haven’t used, along with tomatoes, red wine and lots of garlic. I have adapted the recipe slightly and once the chickens have taken on all the flavours of the lemon, pepper, garlic, herbs and red wine you are left with a lovely sauce too.
 
To serve, you can very easily cut the chicken in two and serve half a portion, or depending on the size of the little chickens and appetites, just go all out and give everyone an individual bird!
 

 

Roasted Poussins with Lemon Pepper, Garlic and Red Wine
Inspired by Dr Andrew Weil, The Healthy Kitchen

Ingredients

4 whole baby chickens/poussins
A few springs of thyme or lemon thyme
Zest of two lemons
1 teaspoon corse black pepper
8 cloves of garlic
3 onions, quartered
6 vine ripened tomatoes, quartered
250 ml red wine
Sea Salt

Method

1. Put the baby chickens into a roasting tin or tray big enough to fit the chickens and some extra ingredients around the side.
2. To make the lemon pepper rub/marinade, put the zest of two lemons, the black pepper and a few springs of thyme into a bowl and bash together to make a paste. Rub this all over the little chickens with a sprinkle of salt.
3. Take the garlic, tomatoes and onion and stuff a bit into each cavity, tumble the rest around the chickens. You can leave this to sit now for an hour or two, covered in the fridge.
4. When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to 190 degrees celcius. Pour the wine all over the chickens and cook for one hour and fifteen minutes, or until the juices run clear. Leave to rest, covered in foil, for fifteen minutes before serving.

         

March 3, 2011

Lemony Spring Cupcakes

Lemony Spring Cupcakes

Although there are still (officially) a couple of weeks until spring, the first appearance of daffodils in my garden have already cheered me up! It’s been a busy couple of weeks (see below) and I realise I have been slack in posting, but I promise lots of lovely posts in the coming weeks.  Today I have been baking cupcakes for my friend Beejal’s birthday and I wanted to share an easy recipe for lovely moist lemon cupcakes with a lemon curd frosting.

Spring offers so much inspiration and there is so much to post about…Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day, Mother’s Day, lots of ideas for Easter, the arrival of some wonderful seasonal food.  I have also been invited to attend a cookery demonstration at The Caldesi Cookery School in London and no doubt will come back with some recipes to share and will soon be hosting my first ‘give away’ competition courtesy of Hotel Chocolat so there is lots to come.

Last weekend I had one of the most amazing adventures of my life as I spent the day in the kitchen of  The Waterside Inn, a three Michelin starred French restaurant in the tiny village of Bray overlooking the River Thames.  It was truly amazing to see how the famous “Roux” kitchen works right from the inside. It was a slick operation, let me tell you, nobody wants to drop the ball in that kitchen! I was extremely well looked after and it’s an experience that will stay with me forever…though I won’t be changing my career to become a chef anytime soon!

I also popped along to The London Cocktail Club to take a masterclass, also for Beejal’s birthday.  A few Mojitos and Passion Fruit Martinis down the line and we were mixing like pros!

Back to cupcakes, since I am forever on the hunt for tasty cupcake recipes to try, the gorgeous Vanessa Kimbell sent me a sneaky-preview of a recipe (Vanilla, Elderflower and Rhubarb Cupcakes) from her soon-to-be-published cookery book Prepped! Though as I’m still perfecting my rhubarb jam and elderflower syrup I will have to share these with you at a later date.

For now, here are my Lemony Spring Cupcakes with a Lemon Curd frosting.  My top baking tip for the perfect cupcake is to buy a packet of disposable piping bags (Lakeland sell them). You fill your piping bag with your batter (I use a pint glass to hold the piping bag to free up two hands) then snip off the bottom and pipe the batter into the cases until they are two-thirds full.  It is much easier than using a spoon and I find gives a more even finish.  You could wash the bags or use re-usable ones but the Lakeland bags are great value.  I also use a muffin tray (Wilton) which is deeper and holds the cupcake case better as the cakes cook. Take special care when separating cupcake cases as even the slightest dint or crimple will make a difference to the finished product!

Print

Lemony Spring Cupcakes

Prep 30 mins

Cook 20 mins

Total 50 mins

Author Ren Behan

Yield 18

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Butter Cream

Ingredients

  • 375 g self-raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 120ml milk
  • 120ml vegetable oil (rapeseed is best)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or extract
  • 115g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
  • 225g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
  • Lemon Curd Buttercream
  • 110g unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 500g icing sugar
  • 1 teaspoon lemon essence
  • 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
  • 1 tablespoon lemon curd
  • 2 tablespoons of milk

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 12-hole and a 6 hole muffin tin with cupcake liners.
  2. Sieve the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl and leave to one side.
  3. Measure out the milk, oil and vanilla in a jug and also leave to one side.
  4. Whisk the butter and sugar in a mixer until very pale and creamy.
  5. Add the eggs one at a time and mix.
  6. Add the flour mix and milk/oil mix alternately to the mixer until it is combined – be careful not to over mix.
  7. Add the grated lemon zest and mix once more.
  8. Pipe the mixture into the prepared tin with cases or spoon in until they are two-thirds full.
  9. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
  10. For the Lemon Curd Buttercream
  11. Beat the butter, lemon essence and zest for about three minutes until the butter is pale.
  12. Add half the icing sugar and beat again until smooth.
  13. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat again.
  14. Add two to three tablespoons of milk to loosen the mixture a little if it is too thick.
  15. Pipe your buttercream onto your cooled cakes or spread on with a spatula. Decorate with spring flowers and sprinkles or smarties…!

Courses Cupcakes

  You may also like to read my homemade lemon curd post here:

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