Doughballs with Mozzarella and Garlic Butter (for dunking)

These were oh SO good. Terribly fast and a super way to use up some left overs !

Last weekend I made pizza. When I make pizzas, I generally make up a bread dough mix for a 500g loaf and then divide this into portions. Each loaf mix makes approx 4 pizzas or 2 great big ones for sharing.

We had one big pizza last weekend and after the first rise, I bagged the remaining half the dough in a ziploc bag and shoved it in the fridge. It seems to survive in there for up to a week no probem. I can then either pull it out and shape for more pizzas or a few fresh rolls. As it has already had a prove, the second prove is fairly quick as long as your kitchen is warm !

This time, I used half the dough in the fridge (1/4 of a batch) to make these little dough balls. Basically, they're just micro rolls !

Pinch off little balls of dough. Press a small piece of mozzarella (if desired) into the middle of the dough. I wanted final size to be around the size of a ping pong ball - so they only want to be tiny... about half that size before they prove.

Dip the dough balls quickly in some milk or water and them roll them in semolina. I hate that stuff for puddings (bleurgh) but it gives a lovely texture to the outside of breads.

Place them spaced apart on a baking tray. My kitchen was cold as the heating was not on, so I put them on the circular tray for my halogen oven cooker and loosely covered in cling film. The halogen oven is fab as it heats up in lightening fast time with no preheat required. It also uses jsut 1/3 of the power of my conventional fan oven !

Then I popped them into the halogen oven to prove with the heat set half way between off and thaw for approx 30 mins until doubled in size.

Once proved, remove the cling film and pop into a preheated oven at 180deg for approx 5 mins until JUST starting to colour. Alternatively, just remove cling film and turn the halogen oven on for about 7 > 8 mins with no preheat at 180deg C.

Serve alongside some melted garlic butter for dunking.... or drizzle the garlic butter over the top and allow to soak in.

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

combine ingredients and then knead until gluten develops and it becomes silky. Put aside in a warm, draught free place to rise until doubled in size.

Knock back. Either then put it into a 2lb loaf tin or mould (if you prefer not to make it free form) and leave for a second prove - or divide up for pizzas etc.

I don't bother second proving for pizzas. I just roll it and use it.

Any left overs, pop in a ziploc bag in the fridge where it will keep for a week.

Dough balls like these make a lovely side dish and any left overs are ideal for tiny tiny micro rolls for toddlers like mine !

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/

Whisky Orange Marmalade

It's been some years since I last made marmalade and home made is SO many times better than shop bought. Seville oranges are coming to the end of their short season now - so get your hands on some quickly if you get the chance.

I actually made this a couple of weeks ago, late one evening. I had not managed to get hold of any seville oranges, but the normal ones are superb anyway at the moment - so I just used those.

Normally, white granulated sugar is used in marmalade. Sometimes, if you want a really dark and strong marmalade - a big spoonful of black treacle will be added to the pot.

In a moment of genius, I decided to use light brown soft sugar instead of regular white granulated. It adds soft caramel tones to the marmalade. It makes the marmalade taste is really smooth and it's full of flavour but not bitter.

900g oranges

2 lemons

1kg sugar

1.7litres of water

150ml Scotch whisky

How you prepare your oranges may vary. I chose to squeeze the juice out of mine into the pot with the water, scrape out the pith and seeds and suspend these in the pot in a muslin bag. I left the lemons whole and finely sliced my orange peel. Boil for approx 2 hours until the orange peel and lemons are softened.

After that - I decided it was a total waste to chuck the lemons away ! Instead, I cut them open and squeezed out the juice. It's much easier to remove the pith and also to slice the peel up AFTER they've been boiled first - so next time, I'd boil the fruit more.

Discard pith / seeds and add sugar and whisky. Boil until temperature reaches setting point on a sugar themometer. Remove from heat. Allow to cool for 5 mins before bottling into warm sterilised jars.

I sterilise my jars in my halogen oven cooker. It will generally take about 8 jars at a time. With no preheat and only using 1/3 of the power of my conventional fan oven, it's quick and energy saving.

Ok ok.... you want to know what REALLY happened ???

Well - Oliver had been a little poorly, so I had not been out with him that day to feed the ponies. When my husband came home, the oranges in water were boiling away nicely. I asked him to keep a check on it whilst I went to go and feed the animals.

By the time I got back,  he'd forgotten about the pot on the cooker ..... The oranges / lemons were close to having boiled dry ! The kitchen was full of steam with the amount of water that had boiled off.

I added some more water to the pot... not really knowing how much it needed along with the whisky but guessed it would need to boil a bit longer thna normal with the sugar in to reach setting point..

I brought a bag of sugar from the cupboard to add to the pot and on the way fell over a toy fire engine that had appeared by magic. The sugar was all over the floor and not fit for use. After a clean up, I discovered that the only sugar left in the cupboard was light brown soft. That's how it got to be in my marmalade. A lucky emergency ingredient that made a wonderful addition and amazing substitue !

Sometimes things don't go smoothly....

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ silicone bakeware moulds cookshop and online store.

Cooking With Table Top Halogen Ovens / Cookers

Well - I've had umpteen email requests over the last week or two for some more halogen oven meal ideas.

I must admit, I've got rather lax in this area. I use my halogen oven most days (unless I'm doing lots of baking for work or need a full size oven). It's just that when I get home from work with a hungry toddler and a husband arriving in not long after - I simply forget to make note or take photographs. Not surprising really I suppose, and I'm sure few of you rarely take photos of your dinner !

Well - first up is some stewed plums with greek yogurt. Plums and apples are in season right now and both of these autumn fruits are a real delight to eat. These were some of the last of the year's victoria plums which were halved and stones removed. Sprinkle well with some cinnamon (if you wish) and some granulated sugar. Leave to sit for around an hour for the juices to start to come out the plums. Generally works well if you prepare this before cooking and eating your main meal.

Pop in the halogen oven in ramekins for approx 10mins at about 180 > 200deg. Serve hot with a dollop of greek yogurt for a healthy and tasty pudding..

Fat and juicy butchers sausages. These sausages are from our local butchers - Tony Perkins. Tony's shop in Attleborough, Norfolk has had a total overhaul and is really fab. Go and check it out if you are local.

I cooked these sausages in my Sarah-Jane's Halogen oven on the baking tray upon the top rack. As I like to grill them, I tend to set the temperature to around 225deg C and cook for about 10mins.  I never bother turning them. They are beautifully browned. Serve with some hot english mustard in a crusty roll or chopped up and thrown in a pasta bake - there is a multitude of things you can do with them ! Best of all, no smoke alarm going off - easy cleaning up and no burnt bits :-)

You'll see there is barely anything comin out the sausages - that's cause they are so darn good !



Next up is my chicken calazone. Even the bread bit is home made.

First of all, make up a batch of bread dough. You can use a 500g bag of premix for a bread maker and knead it by hand. Alternatively, 500g strong white bread flour, a sachet of bread maker yeast, teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar. Add approx 300ml of warm water to it and bring together in a bowl. Feel free to add in some chopped fresh herbs, chopped olives, bits of sundried tomato, etc

Tip on to work surface and knead for approx 5 > 10 mins until becoming elastic. Leave aside in a cling filmed bowl for about 15 > 20 mins. I don't want this to rise much as it is for flat breads - but it gives me time to get on and cook a couple of bell peppers in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil..

When the peppers are done, put aside in a covered bowl.

I've got two lemon pepper chicken breasts here - again from Tony Perkins - which have been butterflied. Tony will happily coat them in lemon pepper coating or a multitude of other things he offers in his shop. Lazy, but ideal for a quick dinner ! I cooked these in the halogen oven on the baking tray / top rack at approx 200deg C for 12mins. Then I added the peppers to reheat for another 3 > 4 mins

Whilst the peppers were cooking, I cooked the flatbreads. Divide the dough into approx 6 balls and roll each out into a large, thin circle. Pop into a dry, hot pan and cook until bubbles rise on the surface.

At this stage, they are ready to flip over.....

Once both sides are done - you end up with these : 



Put them on a plate and cover with tin foil to keep warm. I had a load exttra left - which is fine as they reheat great the following day..

Here's the sliced lemon pepper chicken breasts. You can see how wonderfully moist and juicy they are !

To fill, I just microwaved **CHEAT ALERT ** a jar of tomato and chilli sauce..

Add some of the tomato chilli sauce, 1/2 a sliced lemon chicken breast, a few slices of bell peppers, some black olives and crumbled feta. That's it ! One chicken breast can easy serve two people and this is not a skimpy dinner by any means despit the fact it's fairly frugal and low budget :-)

Sweet potato wedges, bokwurst german sausage and fried onions

A fast and easy weekend meal - ideal for when my stepson is staying over.

First of all, chop up some sweet potato into wedges. I tend to leave the skin on. Toss in a little olive oil and season well. These are in a 10" silicone cake baking mould , on top of the tray and on the bottom rack. I use that mould a lot in the halogen oven for loads of different things. It's great for containing stuff and stops me flipping wedges over the side of the tray when I want to turn them over !

These were cooked for about 15 mins on the bottom rack at 225deg C.

After that, I popped the top rack in.

Bokwurst went on the top rack at approx 200deg C for about 5 mins or so. These bokwurst weere from Lidls and already cooked - so only need heating through. I like them done long enough that the skins start to split open. Doesn't make them too attractive - but they taste good ! There isn't any fat, water etc comes out of these - they taste as Bockwust should.

The fried onions were the only thing not cooked in the halogen oven

This is a 1kg cheap gammon joint from Lidls. The sort I would normally boil for hours and hours on end.



Remove from plastic and put inside a roasting bag, with a couple of little slits on top. This went on the tray and on top of the bottom rack in my halogen cooker. With it, I put in some hatched baking potatoes. I prefer to hatch (cut) baking potatoes on both sides as they cook much quicker.

This was a while ago. I THINK I cooked it at about 200deg for 1hr 10mins approx in the table top halogen oven. All the juices stayed in the bag - you can see how juicy the meat was. The joint lasted us several days as I used some for sandwiches and later what was left with the reserved juices for a pot of soup.

Enough for now - it's 2am and time for bed ! Hope this helps some of you new halogen oven owners out there.

Happy cooking !

Sarah-Jane Nash - on table top halogen convection ovens http://www.siliconemoulds.com/  - October 2010

Piri Piri Lemon Chicken & Halloumi Kebabs with Homemade Flatbread

An easy but tasty dinner tonight.....

I had a pack of Halloumi cheese in the fridge which has been there for ages. Thankfully, halloumi keeps for a very long time. It's quite a salty Greek cheese I belive and lends itself to grilling and barbequing as it does not melt and run - but instead goes crispy.... much like frying tofu I suppose.

I used two chicken thighs per person and cut the meat from the bone into strips. I then threaded cubes of halloumi and the chicken (marinated in a piri piri and lemon marinade) on to wooden skewers. Had I had the ingredients to hand, I would have certainley made my own chilli sauce from either Cherry on a Cake's blog or The Little Teochew's Blog. Both are so much better I'm sure than one could ever get from a supermarket jarred sauce !

Still - the one I used was pretty potent stuff.....

I cooked them on the high rack of my halogen oven cooker on the baking tray (with low grill on top) for approx 10mins at maximum power until cooked through and the halloumi was nicely browned and crispy. No preheating required.

These kebabs would be simply delicious done on the barbeque and are so easy to prepare.

To serve with them, I made some homemade flat breads

Recipe for flat bread

3 cups of plain, all purpose flour

1 cup water

3 tablespoons olive oil

heaped teaspoon black onion (migella) seeds

good shake of powdered garlic

1 tsp ground cumin

teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

No need to sieve - bung it all in a bowl and bring it together until a dough is formed.

Split into 6 > 8 pieces and roll them out. I made mine into 8 pieces and rolled them out to approx the diameter of the span of my hand.

Prick all over with a fork and brush tops with a little olive oil

Pre heat a dry frying pan or griddle and cook on each side for approx 3 or 4 mins at a fairly hot heat. You can keep them warm in an oven at low heat under tin foil if cooking a whole batch at once.

How I wish I had a griddle to get those sexy lines on my flat breads... These are very similar to nann bread in look - but more bread like in texture.

I served these simply with some finely sliced cucumber in greek yoghurt with a squeeze of lemon and some cherry tomatoes on the vine.

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.blogspot.com/

Banana & Chocolate Tear & Share Bread - for Eve !

You may remembar a couple of weeks ago I made an AntiPasto Tear and Share Bread....

I also had an idea of recreating the same as a sweet version with bananas and chocolate which Eve liked the sound of.

I made this for the girls shorlty after, but have never got round to posting the photos...

It's a basic bread dough... tweaked :

500g strong white bread flour

1.1/2 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons of honey (I used orange blossom runny honey)

Sachet of breadmaker yeast

300ml of milk (instead of the normal water)

30ml approx of olive oil.

Make up as normal bread dough and knead until smooth and silky. Leave to prove until doubled in size.

Knock it back and then roll out into a large rectangle.

After that, it's a case of putting in chocolate chunks and bananas and rolling it up.

This is the second or third row of chocolate and banana being rolled in ! You'll definately get banana and chocolate right the way through this one :-)

Finished bread rolled up like a log is above.

Now I chop it up into rolls about 2" or so deep. These are then spaced out into a 10" diameter silicone bakeware mould. The bread sections will grow into each other and take up the excess space. This is a super handy pan to have and very versatile.. I use this one for loads of things.... bread, cakes, a cooking container on top of the baking tray in the halogen oven / cooker. 

I then pop it back in the halogen oven for a second prove for another 15 > 20 mins. Halogen cooker is FANTASTIC for proving bread. Set the temperature half way between off and defrost setting for proving bread. It's great summer and winter to keep a constant proving heat.

Whack the heat up to 180 > 200deg C in fan oven or halogen oven and cook for approx 25 > 30minutes until done. On removing, drizzle all over with more runny honey and leave to cool for a bit before serving

I challenge you to ONLY eat one bit !

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ / http://www.naturalheating.co.uk/ - July 2010

Stuffed Peppers - Halogen Oven Recipe (GUEST RECIPE - HELEN)

This is some photos taken by Helen along with ingredients list for stuffed peppers - cooked in her Sarah-Jane's Halogen Oven / Cooker

large green and red bell peppers
boiled easy-cook rice (2 cups)

chopped up crispy bacon pieces

chopped green spring onion

finely chooped fresh green/red chillies

frozen peas

choped tomatoes

 seasononing

oil/tomato puree or I used 1/2 jar of Doritos Hot Salsa - to bind & flavour.

Remove stalks and stuff peppers. Top with grated cheese

 Helen used one of our 6 cup extra deep muffin moulds to sit the peppers in and stop them falling over during stuffing.

These were cooked in the halogen oven at 160deg C for approx 35 mins. To keep them upright. Helen propped them up with the toast rack. Genius !

Increasing the temperature to 180deg C next time should get them done a bit quicker :-)

On removing from the halogen cooker, they looked like this :

Thanks for the photo and recipe idea Helen. I'm sure those who check in for recipes to use in their Halogen Cooker will appreciate it. Would work nicely in a normal oven too.

Gooseberry, Elderflower & Lemon Jam

Ok - so this is cheating a little. I made this jam just over a week ago - but I'm really behind and still have not got everything downloaded off my camera.

Jam is really easy to make - especially if you have invested in a sugar thermometer. The thermometer takes away any guessing and does away with lots of tests for sets. Worthwhile investment if you make preserves and jams.

I'm going to try and not make much in the way of jam this year as I've still got a load of jars in the shed from last year having gone a bit overboard with jamming. However, copious amounts of beautiful elderflowers growing in the field were begging to go with some gooseberries I bought at Diss market.

 I'd had my eye on their beautiful cherries and had decided to get some on my way back from feeding the ducks with Oliver as the queue was so long. However, by the time I got back - the cherries were gone !

Still - locally grown gooseberries were still a huge treat and perfect to go with the elderflower (pictured above) which was growing just inside my field gate.

After topping and tailing the gooseberries, I snipped the stems from the approx 8 elderflower heads. Then, I laid them on a muslin square and tied them into a bouquet garni using a silicone food tie. The silicone food ties are fantastic little things - for tying meat joints, baked fish and multiple other uses. They pretty much replace string in the kitchen and are stupidly easy to undo. No trying to dig string out of your crackling.

Sorry - I digress ! I tied the other end of the silicone food rope to the handle of the pot on the outside - which made removing it later a breeze.

Add 2lb of gooseberries, approx 350ml of water and juice of a lemon. Cook until gooseberries start to become soft and pulpy. At this point, add the sugar and then boil for approx 20 > 25 mins until the jam reaches a set or jam temperature on a sugar thermometer.

Pour into warm, sterilised jars ( I now use the halogen oven for sterilising jam jars) which saves a lot of electricity over using my main oven.

The result was a rosey coloured soft set jam with a really nice tang and refreshing taste. Lovely with some fresh bread and butter.

Sarah-Jane Nash - the SiliconeMoulds.com cook shop, Norfolk. UK based, shipping worldwide.

Orange & Cardamom Syrup Soaked Brioche Buns - POST FOR LISA

Lisa emailed me a couple of days ago, looking for a small hearts silicone mould. The question was if this mould was going to produce a bun of adequate size to make Valentine Warner's recipe for Orangey Honey Buns.

I'd never heard of the recipe, so went searching for it and also found this one at British Larder. The photos for this one were more inspiring, so I thought I'd have a go and find out. I think the little buns look seriously cute in the mini canelle mould  or larger version of canneles.

The recipe was easy. First of all to make the dough. I started this in the food mixer, but the volume of dough was so little that the foodmixer and dough hook wasn't really working. I therefore got on with the bowl and a wooden spoon.

You can see here that the dough is very loose - almost like a cake batter. Needed a bit more mixing after this, but it wasn't too far away.

Spoon the dough into the silicone moulds to half fill each cell and set aside until doubled in size. The dough made 12 little hearts and 12 little roses.

There is absolutely no requirement to grease or flour your moulds with this recipe.

Silicone moulds are non stick and ever so easy to use. There is however a rule. If the sugar content is really high or greater than the fat content, grease and flour them. If sugar content is low or good bit less than the fat content - you shouldn't need to bother. They work EXACTLY like non stick tins. The same stuff that will stick to a traditional non stick tin will stick to silicone.

I never grease or flour for pastry or bread, chocolate, fudge, brownies etc.. Many cake recipes do need greasing and flouring. Once used to them, you'll be able to look at the recipe ingredients and automatically know if you need to grease them. If it's a really ornate mould with loads of detail and I'm making cakes, I like to grease and flour lightly anyway to make sure I don't damage the detail when releasing.

As these are just small - be careful on cooking time. I put minie in the over for 5 mins, but 4 would have been plenty. To be honest, I don't think the fact they were a little over done spoiled them - given they were to soak in copious amounts of sugar syrup.

Here is the sugar syrup after boiling for 5 mins. Instead of 400ml of water and 100ml of orange juice, I used 300ml water and 200mm juice. There is star anise, cinnamon, cloves and lemon peel in there. To be honest, I think the alchohol used in Valentine Warner's recipe really is needed. These were nice without, but a boozy kick would take them to a different level.

After baking the buns and making the syrup, you put the buns into a 1litre jar sterilised jar and pour in the hot syrup. I used 2 x 500ml jars instead of one big one. Next time, I'd use 3 jars and 50% more syrup, as I wasted about 6 or 7 buns and also cramped too many into each jar. It's AMAZING just how much these little buns swell in the syrup - so don't forget to leave them more expansion room than I did !

The photo above shows theem just bottled. I actually sterilised the jars in my halogen oven whilst I made the syrup and was so easy ! I'll definately use my halogen cooker / oven for sterilising all my jars in future as it's so quick and easy - plus saves putting the normal oven on if I'm only making jam.

After bottling, these little sugary sweet buns have to sit to mature and swell in the syrup for at least 6 hours. By that time, you'll be itching to open them and the syrup level will have dropped about 1/2 way down the jar. These would make a super Christmas gift. VW says that they keep for a month in the fridge. The other recipe says a week. I'd be surprised if they last that long !

Next time I make them, I would :

make 50% more syrup

use 3 x 500ml jars

boil the syrup a minute or two longer to make it a tiny bit thicker

Add a good glug of booze !

Other than that, these were a great success :-)

Sarah-Jane - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/  - July 2010

Halogen Oven Bread Post - For ROSIE !

This post is for Rosie, who emailed me yesterday with a question on whether or not it is possible to prove bread in a halogen oven.

For those of you that don't know, a halogen convection oven / cooker is a small table top oven that sits on your kitchen worktop. It has a fan inside and a halogen heating element bulb. They cook solid things like meat joints and potatoes much quicker than a standard fan oven (usually at least twice as fast) and use approximately 1/3 of the power of a standard fan oven. My fan oven is 4500W and the halogen oven is 1200 > 1400W.

You can see a number of things I've made in the halogen oven along with cooking times on our website under Halogen Oven Recipes.

Most oven ready meals cook in half the recommended packet time (often less) using no preheat and using approximately one third of the power which makes a massive energy saving. I do use it a lot for things like that - such as a garlic bread to go with soup / salad / pasta, fish fingers or chicken nuggets for Oliver. The things we all buy now and again when we can't be bothered cooking from scratch.

I now also cook all my roasts in it as not only is it quicker and more energy efficient, but the meat is so much more succulent. Unless you try it, you'll need to take my word on that ! Actully - it's on again doing baked potatoes now...

Many people say you cannot cook bread or pastry in a halogen oven - but this really isn't so. I've had good success with shortcrust pastry, puff pastry and home made bread and rolls.

Anyway - back to proving bread. In the winter time, when my wood burning stove is on, our house is lovely and warm and proving bread is no problem. However, it's not really warm enough indoors at the moment with no heating and it takes forever to rise. Putting it in the halogen oven ensures a warm and draught free place

I normally make bread dough by hand from scratch. However, I'm trialling food mixers at the moment with a view to selling them on http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ next year. For quickness and ease, I used a packet of Wrights Parmesan & Sun Dried Tomato Bread mix and put it in the food mixer to mix and do the hard bit.

It's a 500g packet which makes a good sized loaf.

After removing the dough from the mixer, I kneaded by hand for a few minutes until silky and then put it on the halogen oven baking tray. I covered this loosely with oiled cling film, and put it in the halogen oven to prove. Temperature setting I used was just over half way between the off and thaw setting.

Not enough heat to cook - only enough heat to warm the bowl. The light occasionally came on for a second or two - but very very infrequently.

The dough had at least doubled in size in 30mins. If you wanted to make a more traditional shape loaf rather than free-form like this, use a 2lb loaf tin or the equivalent in a flexible silicone bakeware mould.

I then removed the cling film and turned the temperature up to 200 deg C I think it was (as on the packet for fan oven) and cooked for 20 mins before turning over and doing the base to get it nice and crispy for another 10. In retrospect, I think I would have been better using the extension ring as I did previously and cooking for 25 mins before turning over for 5 mins. Time wise, it took as long as it would have in a fan oven but without preheating and still used 1/2 of the energy. Bread loafs seem to take quite a while - almost as long as oven time though making rolls requires much less than the suggested time.

It made a nice big tasty loaf. I shoved it on a bread board and took it a 20min drive to work where it was demolished warm, in well under 10mins by 3 hungry lads.

Email to packet to tummy in 1.1/2 hours really isn't bad going !

Edited to add a picture of some bread scoffers - Rich from our office and his brother who works next door (and happened to smell the fresh bread !)

Sarah-Jane Nash - The silicone bakeware cook shop - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/