Home Made Chicken Nuggets - Oliver's Favourite !

Some of you may know that I originally started this blog as an online diary / photo album for far away friends and family. For this reason, I make absolutely no apologies for the fact that many of the posts are full of stories and photos of my little boy Oliver - he's basically what started it all.

The last two years, my mum has made us a hard back recipe book of this blog. It's fantastic as it's an album of family recipes and memories. I've got it on ebook version on my iphone and ipad too !

Anyway ....

My dear little Oliver. This recipe is just for you. My gran (Nanny Johnsons mummy) used to make the most wonderful fish and chips. As children, Uncle Simon and I used to get so excited when she made her battered fish for us as a treat.

This is the basic batter recipe I make for your favourite homemade chicken nuggets. Despite not even being quite 4 yo, you helped chop up those potatoes with a great big knife for the wedges. Mummy had to watch your didn't chop off her fingers !

Funnily enough, one of tonight's chicken nuggets looked very much like a tiny oven-ready chicken !

There isn't much too this recipe and no weights etc. I just make it up in volume to suit what I need. You could use this batter for fish too. You are growing up so fast already ! One day you'll be a big boy and off to college / uni or having left home and want to make these yourself.....

About a cup of plain flour

some very cold, sparkling water

pinch of Maldon sea salt
1/4 tsp or so of tumeric

a pinch of garlic granules

Sometimes I add a few chopped fresh herbs. I also add a good sprinkling of cayenne pepper or chilli powder to the batter for daddy and I after I've made yours. The tumeric isn't spicy - 

Add some of the cold, sparking water to the flour and whisk until there are no lumps. It wants to be a little more liquid than a dropping consistency cake mix.

Slice your chicken breasts - each into about 8 pieces. Dip in the batter and then fry in hot sunflower oil for about 5 mins until golden and crispy. If you have a digital thermometer, I normally make sure the oil is about 135 deg C + before I drop them in.

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For the wedges, simply chop the unpeeled potatoes into wedges and pop into a self seal / ziploc type bag. Add some seasoning (cajun spices, garlic granules etc are good too) and a drizzle of olive oil. Close the bag and give it a good shake. Tip on to a baking tray - and bake at about 210deg C until golden and crispy - about 25 mins.

All my love, Mummy xx

Mini Doughnuts / Donuts (by the bucketload !)

I've stared playing with some of the new moulds that have arrived in an effort to start getting photos, measurements and recipes online. There are SO many to do that it's going to be quite a task !

I must say, I've always been sceptical about doughnut / donut moulds - after all, aren't the best doughnuts deep fried ? I'd never given baked ones a second thought. A couple of months ago, I made some mini jam doughnuts which I've yet to blog the recipe for. Very good they were too - but an awful lot of faffing around to be honest.... I found a recipe online at www.allrecipes.com for cake doughnuts and have modified it a fair bit.

I'll warn you now. These doughnuts (UK spelling!) are paler coloured. They're surely healthier - but a bit denser in texture than the yeast risen kind. They DO taste just as good and are easy enough for young children to help bake along with mum. This recipe makes LOADS - 40 infact, but they are small and disappear fast.... especially if your kid wants to take them to nursery with him / her as Oliver did ! It should be very simple to half the given quantities.

Oliver and I made 3 variations from the one base recipe - rolled in cinnamon sugar, dipped in pink icing and dipped in coffee and maple syrup icing. All were superb ! If you try them without rolling in sugar or dipping in icing, you will find they are not very sweet. Given we're coating the outside in copious amounts, the inside doesn't need to be overkill on sugar too.

The 8 cell Mini Donut Silicone Bakeware mould is now available here : http://www.siliconemoulds.com/cell-mini-doughnut-baba-details-follow-p-411.html

Thanks goes to John Masters who helped me photograph these and also did some taste testing (he was the one holding a half eaten mini doughnut below !) Hope you enjoyed them John !

Prepare your silicone mini donut / doughnut pans but either greasing and flouring or with a very light coating of cake release. Dr Oeteker does an aerosol one and Wilton's comes in a little bottle. Goes a long way - and both are fast becoming by friends. Cake release is so fast and easy for prepping pans.

Place mould on baking tray for support. I can get two of these pans on one tray at the same time.

Preheat the oven to 200deg C / 180deg C fan

Recipe 

1 cup (250ml volume) white granulated sugar

3 cups of self raising flour *

2 tsp vanilla extract

300ml milk (warmed)

3 eggs

2 tablespoons of honey

115g melted butter or use vegetable oil

can be substituted for 3 cups normal plain (cake flour) plus 4 tsp baking powder

Spoon some batter into each cell. Go easy ! You want to fill to just BELOW the centre section - a little LESS than 1/2 full. First couple of trays, I had a tendancy to way overfill.

You only need a small amount of batter per cell - about a dessert spoonful. I spooned it in and then used a damp finger to level it in the cell and expose the raised bit in the centre to ensure it was not covered over.

Bake in the oven for 9 > 10 mins. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for just a few minutes - long enough to firm up a little... then simply flip the mould over and turn them out.

If you have over filled them, you only have holes about half way through. My first 16 (two trays) were like that. No problem - easy and quick to fix. Oliver was quite happy to stamp out (and devour) the middles using an apple corer.

To toss in cinnamon sugar : mix 1 tsp ground cinnamon with 100g of caster sugar. Brush each donut with melted butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar

To ice : Mix icing sugar with a little boiling water into dipping consistency. Needs to be quite thick. Can easily be flavoured and coloured. For the coffee and maple glaze, I used 1tsp espresso powder with a tiny bit of boiler water and a table spoon of maple syrup. The pink ones were not flavoured.