Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Kids

Easy Chocolate Trifle

The chocolate trifle is an absolute joy of a recipe. You can use almost any chocolate cake as a base – the recipe suggests chocolate muffins, but we used chocolate swiss roll. You add chopped bananas and white chocolate buttons, and then pour over some marmalade (let down with water) in place of jelly.

 

The really fun part is making your own chocolate custard. I was a bit daunted by this, but it was actually really straight forward. I’ve made it three times now, and have had no curdling at all. If you can master the custard recipe, you’ll always have this on hand to make for pouring over sponge puddings, or crumbles. You can leave the chocolate out and add a little vanilla for a plainer option, too. Or, simply use any custard you have at home.

chocolate trifle

 

Here’s the recipe by Simon Rimmer.

*I’ve made a couple of changes – I think you can get away with half a jar of marmalade and also, I leave the custard as it is and don’t stir in the whipped cream as there’s plenty of cream on top.

1 vote

Print

Chocolate Trifle

Prep

Inactive

Total

Yield 8 portions

An indulgent home-made trifle using chocolate roll or muffins, fresh bananas, marmalade and buttons topped with a fresh chocolate custard and a mascarpone-vanilla cream. Perfect for playdates or to feed a crowd or a big family. 

Ingredients

3-4 large chocolate muffins or one large chocolate swiss roll

Good glug of brandy (optional, leave out if making for kids)

2-3 bananas – sliced

75g white chocolate buttons

1/2* jar of orange marmalade – let down with 100ml hot water

Fresh Custard

6 egg yolks

125g caster sugar

40g flour

300ml double cream

100ml milk

150g dark chocolate – chopped

200ml double cream – whipped (optional)

Topping

250ml double cream – softly whipped

250g mascarpone cheese

1 vanilla pod – seeds scrapped

To decorate – 100s and 1000s

Instructions

  1. Break up the muffins or slice the chocolate swiss roll and put into a trifle bowl. Add a good glug of brandy, if using. 
  2. Add the banana slices, chocolate buttons and then pour over the let-down marmalade.
  3. Custard – whisk the egg yolks and sugar and flour together.
  4. Bring the cream and milk to simmering point and then pour over the egg mix, a little at a time, whisking together well until smooth.
  5. Put the custard mixture back into the pan with the dark chocolate and stir until chocolate melts and the mixture thickens. Do this over a very low medium, stirring continuously for about 5 minutes. Transfer into a cool bowl. Cover with cling film and leave to cool completely.
  6. Once cool, fold in the whipped cream, if using. Pour the custard over the sponge/bananas/buttons.
  7. Topping – mix the cream, mascarpone and vanilla together until well combined. Pipe or spoon over the top and sprinkle with 100s and 1000s.

Notes

1 jar of marmalade reduced to 1/2 jar 

Courses Dessert

Cuisine British

 

I hope you get to try this recipe, or any of the others from Eat the Week – I have loved them!

With thanks to Iceland Foods for commissioning this post #ad

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

Healthy Packed Lunch Ideas

I recently reviewed a Robbie the Robot lunch box, made by the British company Pink Lining, who also offer other beautifully designed children’s lunch boxes, satchels, bags and holdall bags, as well as baby changing bags and accessories. With the summer holidays approaching, there will be plenty of trips to the park and opportunities for outdoor eating. The start of the new school term will also, no doubt, be here in no time at all. With this in mind, I’ve been challenged to create a healthy packed lunch or lunch box recipe, incorporating plenty of fruit and veg.

Pink Lining Lunch Box

Children can quickly get bored of ham or egg mayo sandwiches, so to ‘liven up our lunch’ boxes, I very often make a new potato-based salad or a pasta salad, which can be portioned up into smaller containers ready to go. Our favourite is a miniature new potato salad, with cooked salmon flakes, topped with brightly coloured pomegranate seeds and cubes of fresh cucumber. Other healthy packed lunch ideas include small pieces of cold quiche or tartlets with seasonal vegetables, wraps, homemade fruity banana bread, cheese and marmite swirls and dips, such as hummus, with pita slices, carrot and cucumber sticks. I always add in plenty of fresh fruit, such as strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, or a large piece of fruit such as a ripe peach or pear. My children also like chocolate coated rice cakes as a sweet treat and a drink of either whole milk or oat milk.

Healthy Packed Lunch

You can buy lots of different types of lunch box containers these days, I like the ones with separate compartments, but little pots or plastic cups with lids will also do the trick. Most of my containers are baby weaning pots, perfect for little people’s lunch boxes, too.

Pink Lining Packed Lunch

Pink Lining Lunch Box

1 vote

Print

Prep

Cook

Total

You can read a full review of the Robbie the Robot Lunch Box by British-brand Pink Lining, here.

Pink Lining -8

This is a paid recipe commission on behalf of Pink Lining. Lunch box – Robbie the Robot RRP £15

More healthy packed lunch ideas

Review: Pink Lining Children’s Lunch Box

So, in my dream life, whilst on maternity leave, I’d be running a gorgeous and useful website, offering pretty baby changing bags with matching bottle holders, children’s satchels and lunch boxes and handy holdall bags for chic weekends away. As I said, in my dream life…instead, I’m lusting over such websites, whilst trying to keep up with the demands of organising a busy household and a newborn baby! Happily, Pink Lining (one such website with a range of goodies designed by Charlotte Pearl for PL Child) have sent me a distinctive children’s lunch box to review. When I have a few extra minutes spare, I’m looking forward to browsing the rest of their website (and pretending) that I need yet another changing bag.

Pink Lining Lunch Box

The packed lunch debate is currently highly active in our house. My junior school-aged son has decided he no longer likes school dinners and instead wants to take in a packed lunch. My daughter, who currently takes a packed lunch into nursery, starts big-school in September and will benefit from the Government’s new free school meals scheme. If truth be told, I was quite looking forward to not having to get up and make any packed lunches at all and I’m still trying to convince my seven-year old that school dinners are the way forward. In the meantime, there is still a week or so of school to get through, with a couple of school trips to cater for. So, in comes this lovely Robbie the Robot lunch box. He’ll also come in handy for our summer holiday to Wales too, as we like to take easily transportable lunch boxes, rather that clumpy picnic baskets, with us on the beach.Pink Lining Lunch Box

At £15, the Robbie the Robot lunch box isn’t cheap, but it is well made and very sturdy. It is thermo-insulated, with a zip open front. Inside there is a blue mesh pocket to keep cutlery or food separate, such as packets of dried fruit, and an elastic loop to store a water bottle or drink. It’s a good size, so you can pack in quite a big container. Inside, it’s wipe clean and outside it is made of a laminated cotton canvas. There’s also a handle and a clip on top – handy to attach to a buggy whilst walking to school.

Pink Lining Lunch Box

There are a few designs to chose from –  Little Lady (with a ladybird design), Robbie the Robot (shown in my photos), Dinosaur Walk, Damsels and Unicorns, and Knights and Dragons. The designs and character repeat throughout the range so you can buy matching mini and large rucksacks, picture satchels which are classic yet unique, as well as larger sports bags and duffle bags. I really love the fact that this range is a little bit different, and a little quirky – not everyone likes Disney Characters or Spiderman! These unique lunch bags would be very easy for a small child or toddler to spot in an amongst other lunch boxes in the pile.

Pink Lining are a British-based company, who have been featured in Vogue and Tatler. Their PL Child children’s bags and lunch boxes are also stocked at Mamas and Papas. Pink Lining changing bags are stocked in John Lewis, as well as online at PinkLining.com in the USA.

With many thanks to Pink Lining/PL Child for sending me the Robbie the Robot lunch box for review. All opinions my own, links editorially given, the review is unpaid.  

Do school dinners or packed lunches rule in your house?

Shredded Chicken Pancakes for Chinese New Year

This Friday lots of people will be marking Chinese New Year. It’s out with the old and in with the new and if you’re up for a spot of Chinese-themed celebrating, there’s plenty out there to be enjoyed. Last year we took the children into Chinatown in London to show them some of the Chinese festivities and symbols – red lanterns and flags, Chinese dragons and very loud drums. We also enjoyed a tasty Taiwanese meal in a surprisingly authentic restaurant called Leong’s Legend, which had a very simple interior (based upon a Chinese tea house) but some really great food and was much less busy than the main streets in China Town. Try the ‘pork buns’ or Taiwanese mini kebabs, as recommended by Jay Rayner in The Observer.

Shredded Chicken Pancakes

I’ve written about what we’ll be doing this year along with some recipe suggestions in my weekly blog for Jamie Oliver. In the meantime, I’ve also come up with a family-friendly starter – a simpler (and slightly healthier) version of crispy duck pancakes made with shredded chicken. I know, I know, it’s not authentic and there’s no crispy skin to feast on, but my kids are a bit picky when it comes to duck fat so I’ve gone with shredded chicken (from a leftover roast) instead. Thankfully, they like the Hoisin sauce and the building aspect of this for tea keeps them extra quiet.

Shredded Chicken Pancakes

I’m hoping to be able to pop into Chinatown at some point over the weekend to hunt for some more steamed buns and to stand by the windows watching homemade dumplings being crafted by hand.

Shredded Chicken Pancakes

Time for a little link-love. Firstly, I’m joining in with Extra Veg, a new monthly blog event hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy – lots of raw sliced carrots, cucumber and spring onions here. I’m also sending this to January’s Feel Good Food Challenge over at A Kick at the Pantry Door, which has a theme of tasty and inexpensive – this is both,  especially by using chicken instead of duck and adding lots of raw veggies. For the same reason, January’s Four Season’s Food Winter (co-hosted by Eat Your Veg and Delicieux) gets a hit too, with a theme of virtuous food – less duck fat! I’m also linking up to Credit Crunch Munch, also jointly hosted by Camilla at Fab Food 4 All and Helen at Fuss Free Flavours – leftover chicken, a substitution for duck and lots of veggies. And finally, to my own Simple and in Season – the carrots, cucumber and spring onions are all British and in season in January!

Blog_Events

Shredded Chicken Pancakes

1 vote

Print

Shredded Chicken Pancakes

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 4

An alternative to 'cripsy duck pancakes' - this is a kid-friendly and budget-friendly recipe using leftover roast chicken and plenty of raw veg, instead.

Ingredients

  • 200g shredded leftover roast chicken (around two breasts)
  • Half a cucumber
  • 2 carrots, peeled
  • 4 spring onions
  • 12 Chinese pancakes
  • 80g Hoisin or plum sauce

Instructions

  1. Shred the chicken with two forks - preferably whilst its still warm.
  2. Finely slice the cucumber, carrots and spring onions and warm the pancakes slightly, if you like.
  3. Set out the chicken, sliced vegetables and Hoisin or plum sauce. Fill each pancake with the prepared ingredients, roll up and eat.

Cuisine Asian

Let me know if you get up to anything exciting for Chinese New Year!

Make a Christmas Rice Krispie House!

Here’s a little project for the weekend, as an alternative to a baked Gingerbread house why not have a go at  my white chocolate Rice Krispie House? This was part of a group of Christmas recipes that I was asked to make and style for the Good Food Channel’s website. I think of all the recipes I made, this was the most fun!

Rice Krispie House

White Chocolate Rice Krispie House for the Good Food Channel – find the full recipe and instructions, here. 

The very basic ideas is to melt white chocolate and mix in some Rice Krispies – a bit like making chocolate crispie cakes, but with bigger quantities. You then have to work quite quickly to transfer the Rice Krispies onto two flat baking sheets, pressing down quite firmly to get two large flat slabs. Once this has set in the fridge, you use your white chocolate Rice Krispie ‘slabs’ to make up the structure of your house and with a bit of icing, just stick it all together and decorate.

This is a really exciting project for little people (and big people) and it is a great alternative when you feel like making something, but don’t quite fancy baking.

I did try using buttercream the first time to stick the panels together, but buttercream doesn’t really harden, so I found that royal icing created a firmer structure.You can decorate your house with any sweets you like and then sprinkle around some desiccated coconut for snow.

Christmas Good Food Channel

Other Christmas recipes for the Good Food Channel

Christmas Baking – Profiterole Cupcakes, Mince Pie Cupcakes, White Chocolate Malteser Cake

Stir Up Sunday – Nut Free Mince Pies and a Nut Free Christmas Pudding

Make Your Own Pomegranate Vodka – great for gifts

With thanks to the Good Food Channel for asking me to create these recipe. Styling, photos and recipes my own and reflect commissioned content. 

‘Fruitdrop’ Pear & Plum Banana Bread

This week I’ve had a much-needed health kick whilst getting through a huge box of fruit delivered to me by a company called Fruitdrop. The children got very excited about seeing all the fruit and have been eating much more of it too, usually in the way of fruit salads and a quick morning smoothie. We do eat a lot of fruit in general, but I think seeing a big box bursting with a huge variety of fruit sparked additional interest. The box contained red and white grapes, clementines, apples, pears, melon, kiwi fruit, mango, bananas, plums and a lemon – around fifty pieces of fruit in total. My Fruidrop box arrived in pristine condition and even though we are getting through it (with the help of a couple of batches of this fruity Pear and Plum Banana Bread) it has lasted us well over a week.

FruitDdop

The kids really love banana bread as an after school snack and so I very often whip up a batch for them. With all the extra fruit to hand, I decided to layer up some of the pears and plums within the loaf itself, also serving it with some extra fruit.

Plum and Pear Banana Bread

Fruitdrop is mainly aimed at office initiatives, with a suggestion of ordering enough fruit for 2-4 pieces per person per week, with a fruit box starting at £20. You can also order milk to go along with your fruit delivery and deliveries take place all over the UK on an ad hoc or more regular basis. The fruit is handpicked by Fruitdrop and sourced from wholesale markets from within the UK (although not all of the fruit was British grown). Fruitdrop also guarantee to replace any fruit if you find any damaged or over-ripe.

Fruitdrop-7

Print

Pear & Plum Banana Bread

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 6 -8

A quick and easy extra fruit banana bread recipe for the family (or your co-workers!) to enjoy. You can also use apples, or blueberries as one of the layers.

Ingredients

  • 150g unsalted butter (plus a bit extra for greasing)
  • 100g soft brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 200g self raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon (plus extra for dusting)
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 bananas, mashed
  • 120g sour cream
  • 1 pear, ripe, sliced
  • 2 plums, ripe, stone removed, sliced

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160 fan/gas 5. Grease the inside of a loaf tin with a little butter and line with a sheet of baking paper.
  2. Using an electric whisk, beat the butter with the sugar, eggs and vanilla.
  3. Sift in the dry ingredients and stir with a metal spoon. Stir in the mashed bananas and sour cream.
  4. Add one third of the mixture to the loaf tin and spread out using the back of a spoon. Next, add a layer of pear. Then a further third of the mixture followed by a layer of plum. Add the rest of the mixture and flatten the top. Dust with a little extra cinnamon.
  5. Bake the loaf for 1 hour. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for ten minutes before carefully taking it out to cool on a wire rack. Serve when warm or cold with extra fruit on the side. .

Other fruity recipe you might like to try with a fruit box –

You could adapt this Late Summer Fruit Salad with Pomegranate and Pistachio

Or, perhaps try these Toffee Apple Tarts, adding in some pears, too.

You could also use the pears to make these delicious Pear and Chocolate Brownies

 

With thanks to Fruitdrop for the delivery of fruit for me to review.

Pear & Plum Banana Bread Recipe commission in collaboration with Fruitdrop.

Top Books for Budding Little Cooks!

 

If you have little people at home, there are some top tips for happy mealtimes over on my page called Little Appetites (see above).
 
Feeding a family can be stressful and for me, the trick is to stay calm and make the kitchen a fun place to be, rather than a battleground!
 
In the meantime, here are some of my favourite cookbooks for family mealtimes or ideas to get kids cooking –
 
For easy food you can make together I like The Silver Spoon for Children – Favourite Italian Recipes. I had a cook book just like this when I was little, with hand-drawn pictures for each stage and easy-to-make recipes. If children are going to have a go on their own (chopping, assembling etc) I would say it is suitable for kids ages 8+ but most of the recipes are simple and adaptable for kids of any age with help. It is a great book if you are not a confident cook yourself but want some tasty Italian recipes.  You can even have a go at making your own pizza dough (as we did this week, I’ll be posting about that separately!) foccacia bread and if you are very brave, pasta!  Aside from this, there are simple snacks that your kids can make, such as tomato and mozarella salad, sausage crostini and mini pizzaiolo toasts. Yum yum!
 
Our favourite cookbook for eating as a family is Fay’s Family Food.  Fay gives tips on how to adapt the same meal for everyone in the family, babies and weaning stages included.  See my review here – Ren’s Review  Lots of the recipes are ‘bung in the oven’ style.   We love her One Pot Chicken with Lemon and Thyme and Orange and Ginger Chicken Casserole.
 
I Can Cook is a great one for young kids.  If you go over to the CBeebies website you can download pictures for the children to colour as well as activities and recipes. The accompanying book, whilst a bit cheesy (excuse the pun) is great for simple recipes.
 
If you haven’t cooked with your children before and are a bit nervous, you could also try looking for a local child/parent cookery class, some Children’s Centres offer Healthy Eating short courses and there are classes/franchises where kids get to make something simple with your help.
 
Please let me know if you have any tops tips or books you love in the comment box below!!