Hely's Big, Hearty........ SCOTTISH HAGGIS PIZZA

Hello, it's Helen again!

Well I'm getting to grips with Sarah-Jane's bread recipes, and I have to say I have turned out several lovely loaves. 

Basic Bread Recipe

500g strong white bread flour

1 tsp salt

1 sachet quick action yeast (same stuff they use for breadmakers)

1 tablespoon sugar

approx 300ml of luke warm water

While making up her basic bread dough this afternoon, I had a sudden craving for a PIZZA for dinner ............................and why not?

Time to raid the fridge for ideas. 

With 'Burns' Night' being only just gone, I had a couple of small fresh HAGGIS in the fridge... (as one does) 

(You can buy the real thing, already bagged and ready to microwave for just 6 minutes) ............PERFECT!

I turned on the oven (with the big flat grill pan in it, lightly oiled) as high as it goes, 250deg. to heat up HOT,

and looked out everything I fancied that might make good ingredients.

I rolled out 1/2 of my bread dough on to my big silicone pastry mat to a 12" dia. 

It didn't stick in the slightest - in fact, it didn't even stick to my rolling pin ......whatever had I been worrying about?????

http://www.siliconemoulds.com/pink-massive-fondant-pastry-silicone-rolling-work-p-339.html

Ingredients  (Just make yours up as you go along!)

1/2  standard bread dough mix (equiv. of a 1lb loaf)

1     haggis (I used ‘McSween's' - serves 2-3)

1/2  carton of Sainsbury's chopped tomatoes with olive oil & garlic (390g carton)

2     onions (mine were quite small) - sliced

3     tomatoes - sliced

2     sticks of celery (de-strung and chopped)

2     red hot chillies - sliced

+ some grated cheese - I only had cheddar (Scottish matured - of course!)

                                    (Be very generous with the 'toppings' and it'll be a 'WOW!')

I opened up the haggis & chopped it up into a bowl, microwaving it for 4 minutes. Everything else I had chopped and ready in bowls, ready for the big rush....

I took the hot grill pan from the oven, slapped in the rolled-out pizza base, slathered on the chopped tomatoes, spread the haggis, then the rest of the toppings - with the cheese on top, and slammed it back into the HOT oven.......... Phew! NO PROBLEMO!

About 10 minutes later it was ready to serve. Lovely crispy base and the toppings looked thick, meaty, tasty, juicy and crunchy, easily enough for 4 people, with a good portion for each. 

FANDABBYDOZEY!

Now THAT’s what I CALL a PIZZA!

Now tell us what YOU will put in YOUR PIZZA!

http://www.siliconemoulds.com/pink-massive-fondant-pastry-silicone-rolling-work-p-339.html

COFFEE BUNS

Hello everyone!

This is not Sarah-Jane blogging, but ME - I'm her mum, Helen. I hope you don't mind the intrusion, but I'm 'helping' out today.
It's many years since Sarah-Jane baked her first fairy cakes and made chocolate rice crispies and smartie marshmallows with me and she's come a long way since then. Now it is me who very much follows HER baking and asks HER advice!

I have been thinking recently of an old family recipe we all enjoyed, so I 'dug it out'.
Coffee Buns.
They are more of a sort of soft biscuit, and if, like me, you love coffee - you should love Coffee Buns!
BUT - horror of horror, this old recipe was all in imperial - even the oven temperature!

The 'secret ingredient' is 'Camp Coffee' which is a liquid coffee with chicory, which you can buy in any supermarket. If you don't have any, you can always make some strong liquid coffee to add instead.

Ingredients
1/2 lb marg  (I used 250g)
2 cups of demerara sugar
2 eggs
1 tablesp Camp Coffee   (the recipe said 2, but was changed to 1 - or maybe it was a 1 changed to 2....
1 lb (500g) self raising flour                                                                             so I just used 1.1/2 tblsp)
1/2 lb currants (250g)

First, I washed and soaked the currents for a little while, so they wouldn't turn out like bits of grit.
Cream the marg and sugar
Whisk the egg  (save a little for glazing), and add with the coffee to the mixture
Stir in the sifted flour and the currants

Roll into balls the size of a large walnut (I got 30) and space them out on your baking trays (prob.2).
I lined my trays (the grill pans, actually - nice and big) with my wonderful plain black silicone mats from www.siliconemoulds.com, and very lightly oiled them. Just overlap them to cover the trays. (They worked a treat, as usual, so I only had the mats to wipe and no trays to wash up.)

Slightly flatten, and brush the tops with egg before putting into the pre-heated oven.
This old recipe said 375deg (old money) or 190deg C, and I thought that looked rather on the hot side, which probably explains how my mum often burned them.

Here's a handy conversion chart

Fahrenheit	Celcius	Gas Mark
250°F	120°C	Gas Mark ½
275°F	135°C	Gas Mark 1
300°F	149°C	Gas Mark 2
325°F	162°C	Gas Mark 3
350°F	176°C	Gas Mark 4
375°F	190°C	Gas Mark 5
400°F	204°C	Gas Mark 6
425°F	218°C	Gas Mark 7
450°F	232°C	Gas Mark 8
475°F	246°C	Gas Mark 9
500°F	260°C	Gas Mark 10

I decided that 160/170deg would be better, but as my oven control panel is decidedly difficult to read (even with my specs on and standing on a chair!), I confess I guessed where to turn the dial and set the timer for the required 30 mins.

They turned out just as good as I remembered them! Delicious!

Sarah-Jane


I seem to remember Sarah-Jane enjoyed Coffee Buns too!  

.........and something tells me now that I'm in for BIG trouble!!!