Brilliant Banana Brownies - A Little Cake Tester's Idea !

Me : "Would you like to go to the beach today ?"

Oliver : "No - I'm going with Emma next week Mummy. I want to ride my new gocart a long long way and then you can make me some brilliant banana brownies...... That is an alliteration I can eat you know !"

That did make me laugh as he'd obviously been thinking that one up. Oliver is due to start school in a few weeks and really is ready to go. He does love to make up alliterations with big bad burps probably being one of his all-time favourites.

Well - I haven't actually baked in ages and there were some very ripe spotty bananas in the kitchen. 

Can't remember last time we had cake in the house. Given Steve and Michael were off out today and given Oliver wanted to stay home - gocarting and brownies it was.

I've made the BBC Best Ever Brownies recipe a few times before, and very good it is too. I decided to use it as a starting point on this occasion and work around what I thought may work best and what we had in the cupboards.

185g salted butter
185g milk chocolate

3 large eggs

250g white sugar

85g plain flour

75g cocoa powder

130g mashed ripe bananas

65g milk chocolate (chopped)
65g white chocolate (chopped)

2tsp vanilla extract

Melt the salted butter and milk chocolate together in the microwave (takes approx 1min) and then set aside.

Beat the 3eggs and sugar plus vanilla together with an electric mixer for about 6 or 7 mins until really thick and fluffy.

Fold the melted butter / chocolate mix into the whipped eggs and sugar to combine..

Sieve in the plain flour and cocoa powder, then fold in until just combined. 

Now fold in the banana and chopped chocolate.

Put into an 8" square silicone baking pan. For brownies, I like to prep this with a big strip of baking parchment covering the base and up two sides - it just makes it really easy to lift out later.

Bake in a fan over at 160deg C for approx 30mins. The top will be set, but the brownie will still be a tiny bit wobbly in the middle. A tooth pick will come out sticky from the centre.

Allow to cool, then transfer to the fridge for an hour or so before cutting. It should be a bit squidgy in the middle.

Serve as it is with a cup of coffee or glass of milk - or warm and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Sarah-Jane Nash, August 2013 - www.siliconemoulds.com

Oliver and Emma - The Terrible Twosome.....

Well - I know you haven't heard much from me the last few months. Truth is, there has been a lot going on.....

We're working away on fitting a kitchen at work. Infact, it's not JUST a kitchen, it's going to be a cookery school. Unfortunately, one of the units was delivered the wrong size - so we're waiting on a replacement being made and delivered (hopefully next week). Meantime, I've been working on some projects and ideas that I'll share once I've got space to photograph..

Meantime - my little Oliver is getting very grown up !

This is Oliver (4.1/2 and his girlfriend, Emma - 5.3/4) - 5th May 2013

Last weekend, he had her sleep over. Excited was an understatement. He was practically bouncing off the walls !

First of all - we took a trip to High Lodge at Thetford Forrest.

There aren't actually many photos, as shortly after this I lost my camera ! Luckily, I DID actually get it back.... though the kids weren't amused at having to go back the way...

This was a really cool swing. Takes about 8 kids at once..

Ringing the bells on the musical trail. Couldn't have lost these two if I tried - they were the noisiest kids in the park !

Such a lovely sunny day - and amazing the weather held for the bank holiday Monday....

When I got these two home they were FILTHY.

Thankfully, with a new little boat to play with - they were desperate to get into the bath whilst I made tea. At the threat of a bath, Oliver is known to sometimes run and hide !

The little necklace he is wearing is made of amber and was a gift from Emma. He's had it since Christmas and refuses to take it off.

They're a pair of monkeys together, but best of friends.

Getting them to bed was the easy bit..... trying to get them to sleep was a bit more interesting. 

Chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter. Eventually, Oliver fell asleep first - but woke Emma up with his snoring ! Chatter, chatter...... In the end, they had to go in different rooms.

5.45am - yup - you've got it - they were up and full of beans....

A day out this time to the  war reenactment event at Mid Suffolk Railway. In this photo, we're all on the steam train. That's my husband in the back ground....

Absolutely amazing day with loads to see. Most people were in period dress - it was like stepping back 70 years in time..

Soldiers, home guard, nurses, wrens, doctors, children....

Oliver and Emma got to sit in a huge old period Army Truck. Oliver was above my head height in the cab in this photo....

They looked at how the old guns used to work, hold some blank ammo, what the inside of a grenade looks like and old bombs. They even got a mock identification card each. Needless to say, Ellie the elephant was never far away !

Pity I didnt get a photo from outside - but this is inside the green goddess fire engine. We were lucky enough to get a ride in this and have the sirens on when we got back.

Wasn't long after this that we headed home.... Two VERY tired small children and a very tired mummy. Oliver was asleep for the night by 6pm and I think I was asleep by 8pm !

Tonight Oliver is staying at Emma's house.... Victoria (Emma's mummy) has her hands full ..... As we print a copy of the blog as a yearly memory book, I'm hoping Victoria is going to do a blog for me with some photos. From what I've heard so far, they're up to high jinx.....

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.

-------------------------

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

Oliver Makes Toffee Popcorn

Got children ? Get them involved with you in the kitchen.

My little boy, Oliver is 3yo and loves helping Mummy in the kitchen.  He adores baking (especially sifting flour) and peeling vegetables. Another favourite is getting to make omlet for his tea. The blue eggs from our cream legbar hen are his favourite and he has now got the hang of cracking them properly without just squashing the whole thing in his hands after breaking the shell.

Recently, we made toffee popcorn. He had such fun watching it pop through the glass lid in the pan. So much so, that we made another batch at his request the next morning. He took it to nursery for "Show and Tell" to share with his class. It was a horrid rainy day, so the kids got to watch a short film and eat their popcorn. Oliver's teacher said the kids had a blast !

Anyway - here is a first YouTube tutorial by Oliver. All you need is some popcorn kernels, a little oil, butter and golden syrup.

Enjoy x

Having Fun With Simple Cake Pops !

I've got a lot of blog catching up to do !

The last few weeks have been really tough with a horrendous work load, but finally the new website at www.siliconemoulds.com is live. It went online yesterday afternoon.

Though not yet complete, it's functional and up and running with a lot of new features. I need to continue to work on it, so missing images etc will be appearing over the course of the next week or so as I get them all added. Once it's completed, I can then start to add some more new stuff which I might decide to tease you all with on the blog first.

Well - I decided to have a play at some cake pops a few weeks ago. Actually - I couldn't have told you HOW long ago it was until I took a look at the youtube upload date - so I can only guess it was around 3rd March.

I used this silicone bakeware mould - our 15 cell semi sphere which is only £4.25 and will easily roll up and store in a kitchen drawer.

My intention had been to made a standard sponge mix ( 175g each of butter, self raising flour, sugar and 3 whole eggs), but I'd made macarons a day or so before and had 5 yolks sitting in the fridge. Instead, I used 1 whole egg  plus 5 yolks and some milk to loosen it up a bit.

Worked really well and made a really rich cake.

Typically, it was a project I STARTED at almost 3am, and also created a dodgy YouTube video of the process which you can view further down.

Just the thing for two little friends on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Oliver and Zach adored these ones with coloured chocolate beans. I'd taken a plain coated cake pop and stuck the beans on with little dots of extra candy melt. Made for enormous cake pops and took them an eternity to pick (and eat) all those chocolate beans !

A very late night making cake pops at an unsociable hour made every minute worthwhile when these two got their hands on the goodies. There was a lot of excitement and shrieking !

Hmm - you get the idea. It worked really well, but the lighting was dire with these low energy lightbulbs and videoing yourself never works very well ....

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com

Brownies Part 2 - Two ways... Cooking With Oliver- FOODBUZZ #5 1/3/12

What kid doesn't love brownies ? Oliver and I baked brownies this morning at his special request....

Well - the kitchen was already like a war zone and the floor practically flooded (see the last blog post) - so I reckoned adding a bit of chocolate to the equation really wouldn't make too much difference to the amount of clean up required.

Unsurprisingly, after this lot, Oliver ended up 15 minutes late arriving to nursery, and I was 15 minutes late for work. But then again, when you arrive with platefuls of brownies - all tends to be forgiven and forgotten.

This recipe will make 16 man-food sized brownies, but if you aren't looking to overdose on chocolate brownie, you may want to cut each into two rather daintier ones. After all - brownies are rather rich.

This is a new mould design, due for launch around end of April and currently being design registered and now going into mass production. I originally designed it to make 100g soap bars - but then decided it would be PERFECT for large individual brownies and flapjacks.

I made two different types of brownies. One normal batch and one decidedly sticky dulche de leche batch. 

I had a tin of condensed milk that was about to go out of date. Determined not to waste it, I heaped a good spoonful of the stuff over the second load of brownie mix and swirled it in. A lot of it sank down the sides of the mix - which was no bad thing. Other than that - there is no difference in the recipe between the batches....

Apart from the taste of SOAP that is. Uh huh - I used one of the prototype moulds (I've got two) for soap making first. I thought I was going to get one tray of brownies and wasn't expecting the mix to do two. So.... I used the tray I'd been using for experimenting with soap to make the Dulche De Lche brownies. Washed it first of course - but there was still a soapy after taste. Therefore, I MUST advise that you don't use the same mould for soaping and baking. It's not nice !

Saying that - these moulds made a really nice job of the brownies. I greased and floured first and they came out cleanly when cooled and firmed up a bit.

Yummy - brownie batter tastes good - licking the spoon is the treat reserved only for the chef !

You can see Brownies Part 1 from 2010 here - with Oliver...

RECIPE - makes 16 large brownie bars (or 32 small ones)

Preheat fan oven to 160deg C, 180deg C electric

185g salted butter

185g dark chocolate (I used Belcolade Belgian)

85g plain flour

50g cocoa powder

100g milk chocolate (chopped)

3 eggs

275g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2tsp espresso coffee powder (optional)

condensed milk - (for Dulche De Leche Brownies)

Melt the dark chocolate and butter together in the microwave in short bursts - then set aside.

Cream the eggs and caster sugar until light coloured, thick and foamy.

Add the sieved flour and cocoa, plus vanilla and espresso powder to the sugar / egg mix and fold to combine. Add the chocolate chips in the last few strokes.

Note that the brownies don't taste like coffee. The purpose of the coffee is to enhance the depth of chocolate flavour.

Grease and flour 2 x 8 cell rectangular bar silicone bakeware moulds. If you want to make some Dulche De Leche ones, put a great bit heaped teaspoon of condensed milk on top of the brownie batter and swirl it in a little on top with a teaspoon handle.

 Bake for approx 20 mins until JUST set and cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool thoroughly before turning out and allowing work colleagues and a little cake tester to devour.

Give the soapy ones to those with no sense of smell. They might taste ok (ish) but certainly smelt floral !!!!!

In case you haven't noticed.... my batter photos and baked photos are round the opposite way !

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - February 2012

Ham, Potato and Red Lentil Soup - Cooking with Oliver !

There is nothing quite like a comforting bowl of soup to warm you through to the core. It also makes a cheap,  easy and filling meal. This large pot of soup is enough for around 10 portions.

It's also something Oliver likes "helping" with in the kitchen. Lets just say I'm messy when working in the kitchen - but when Oliver is helping..... there is stuff EVERYWHERE. Still - I wouldn't swap those precious moments for anything.

1 large ham hock

500g red lentils

500g peeled floury potatoes

3 stalks celery

1 large onion

3 bay leaves

5 dried chillies

1.8 litres of water

1 tablespoon of Margiold Bullion Powder (or 2 > 3  vegetable stock cubes)

Oliver put the ham hock, quartered onion, chopped celery, chillies and bay leaves into the pot. Add the water.

Oliver added the water in 3 batches.

We cooked this in the pressure cooker for 1 hour. I then removed the ham hock.

Oliver had spent the last hour playing chopping the potatoes (that I had sliced) up with a cookie cutter into teeny weeny bits. I must admit - there were loads on the floor..... so we scooped them all up and he spent another 15 minutes at least washing them in the sink and playing with the tap.... 

The potatoes and lentils then went back into the electric pressure cooker with the rest of the ingredients for about 20 mins. After cooking, I then blended these with a stick blender until smooth.

Serve the soup with some flaked meat from the ham hock on the top. Yum !

We kept half the ham back for making wraps. 1.2kg ham hock from the butchers cost just £2.50 and yielded 570g of meat. 

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - February 2012

Chicken Liver and Brandy Pate & Puddle Jumping !

A New Year and a new beginning. It's also time for me to reflect back on the things I've done and the things I want to do. 

Loads of new things to cook and bake, new experiences. The last few months have been very difficult as workload had had a massive impact on my life and limited the one on one time I've been able to give Oliver. Don't get me wrong - I'm a workaholic and will always be a workaholic, but there if more to life than work and I'm glad that the madness of Christmas rush has eased off !

Nearly 4am and I'm still not in bed. Actually - I WAS in bed, but found I was too excited to sleep. That got me up and baking macarons. Yeah - you know you are a foodie when you put macarons in the oven at 2.30am !

I'll tell you what the excitement is about another day - it's still a secret I'm afraid, but is all about macarons.

The recipe I'd like to share with you now is for CHICKEN LIVER AND BRANDY PATE. I served it for New Years Day lunch along with rye sourdough crackers, sausage rolls and homemade bread (amongst other things)

For this recipe, I used a 1lb silicone loaf mould.

Ingredients : 

300g chicken livers

150g salted butter

2 > 3 tsp brandy

clove of garlic (finely chopped)

1 onion

salt and pepper to season

a sprig of fresh thyme

First of all, prepare the chicken livers by removing any sinewy or discoloured parts.

Fry in approx 50g of the butter for around 5 mins until starting to colour nicely.

Remove the livers from the pan and set aside.

Add the remaining butter and chopped onion with the garlic to the pan and the thyme leaves (removed from stalks). Sweat off the onions until transparent and then add the brandy. Cook for a minute or two more and then add all the contents to a food processor and blend until smooth.

Put this warm paste into your 1lb silicone loaf mould and level the top.

Use some clarified butter to seal the top and refrigerate overnight.

Alternatively, make a savoury jelly to pour over the top. I used 120ml of chicken stock, to which I added a couple of bay leaves and 2 tbsp of orange juice. Sit this in a bowl with a leaf of gelatine for 5 mins. Add to a pan and bring to just below simmering point to dissolve the gelatine. Allow to cool to room temperature and then pour over the pate. I decorated the top of my pate first with a couple of orange slices and the bay leaves.

Unfortunately, due to lack of time, my pate only got about 2 hours to chill ! It really wasn't enough and tasted far better the next day.

Oh - we had these too.... apple crumble slices - same recipe as the mincemeat crumble slices (but mincemeat replaced with same weight of apples, sugar and cinnamon mix)

These photos of Oliver were taken Monday 2nd January. Had to believe it was just earlier this week. I've done so much since then !

I took him out for an afternoon at Eaton Park to run off some steam. It was glorious sunshine, but windy and bitterly cold. There was one puddle in the whole park and typically Oliver found it.

It was more like a pond than a puddle. This was one MASSIVE puddle. Thankfully, he was prepared with several layers of clothes and some new wellies. I had TRIED to put waterproof overalls on him underneath earlier, but that had resulted in a screaming match and I ended up giving up.

To start with, it was a paddle near the edge. No big deal, and loads of smiles. I got the camera out my handbag and snapped a few shots. An evil grin started spreading across his face I KNEW what was going to happen next, and no matter how much I tried to get his eye contact or yell at him - Mummy was totally ignored.

Yep - puddle jumping and lots of it. THIS was just the start. Note the thick winter jacket, the fleece underneath and the gloves. It was FREEZING cold. Passers by watched and laughed in amazement as my little monster tore around in that puddle like a total lunatic. Honestly - you would have thought it was the middle of summer !

Oliver was in that puddle for a good 30mins at least. I tried threats, I tried bribery. He wasn't coming out and belted off through the ware as fast as he could if I got remotely near. Eventually, I managed to grab him by the back of the jacket and chaos followed. He was not happy about being dragged out that puddle and it was a struggle to get him back to the car until I persuaded him that McDonalds would be shut if he wanted french fries and didn't hurry up. Total lie of course. I don't think Mc Donalds ever shuts !

His wellies were near impossible to get off as they were full to the brim with water. He was absolutely soaked to the skin. I had to strip him off. By then, Daddy had arrived and kept an eye on him wrapped up in a jacket whilst I made an emergency trip to the big superstore about 5 miles up the road to purchase a dry set of clothes as we were too far from home. Lunch at the pub (with french fries for Oliver did follow) and strangely enough there were no comments on how it wasn't Mc Donalds .

Hopefully next time Oliver does puddle jumping I'll have spare clothes in the car. 

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - silicone bakeware specialists

Date & Honey Sourdough Bread and A Visit To Denver Windmill

I started this blog post on the 27th of November - the evening Oliver and I got back from our trip to Denver windmill. I don't know where the time has gone since then.... I've been working crazy hours to cope with the volume of emails and orders due to the pre-Christmas rush and the blog has been sadly been neglected. I've not been ignoring any of you, I've simply not been around.

Denver Windmill is (was) the last remaining commercial working windmill in Norfolk producing stone ground flour. I say was, as only a month before our visit tragedy struck and the mill was badly damaged. You can read all about it here.

Here is my refreshment recipe for my starter.

2 tablespoons of starter from your vat in the fridge

5 well rounded tbsp of strong white bread flour

1 well rounded tbsp of rye flour

mix with enough luke warm water to reach a dropping consistency (much like cake batter !)

Cover with clingfilm and leave on the kitchen counter overnight.

It should be nice and bubbly by the morning. Discard about half (of put it in another bowl if you intend making more than one loaf and do the next following steps to both lots of gloop).

To the remaining gloop, add about 2 > 3 times the amount of white wheat flour and enough water to get it back to dropping consistency. Leave for about 6 hours and it's then ready to bake. If it's not bubbling nicely, this step can be repeated. As long as there are a good amount of bubbles there, don't worry if it is not as foamy as it was after sitting for 12 hours. I've been doing this bit by eye as above and without weighing.

Whilst there, I purchased some newly milled flour and made this honey, date and raisin sourdough loaf the next day.

HONEY, DATE AND RAISIN SOURDOUGH

100g rye flour

400g stoneground dressed bread flour *

10g salt

3 tbsp runny honey

220g refreshed sourdough starter

250g water

150g chopped medijool dates

50g raisins

This can be mixed together and kneaded by hand - or shove in a Kitchen Aid with dough hook for 10 mins. I know, I know sourdough should be treated softly softly... but it is not always as convenient to do the lot by hand. I had several things going on tonight in the kitchen whilst my trusty Kitchen Aid worked my dough.

Once the dough is kneaded and has become soft and silky, put it back in the mixing bowl and cover with either a plastic shower cap or some cling film and leave for approx 3 hours until risen by about 50 > 75%

Take out, knock back and shape as required.

Put on a baking tray and leave to rise for another 1 > 1.1.2 hours before baking in a relatively warm environment.

I cut out a stencil of initials from an envelope. Wet the stencil and apply to the bread.

 Dust over lightly with flour

Remove stencil and bake for an artisan finish.

Yummy served slightly warm from the oven served simply with some butter and cheeses.

Of course, a visit to a windmill wouldn't be the same without going up the actual windmill. Oliver will show you around....

Oliver - scampering up the first lot of steps into the windmill

This is the floor where the flour is sent through a hopper system and into large sacks. These are then lowered to the floor below (via a hoist) through a hatch in the floor. Kind of hard to take decent photos as not really possible to get any further back. 

You can see the hoppers a bit better in this semi aerial view from the stairs to the next level.

Milling stones are on the next floor above. Again, rather impossible to get much in. Loads of equipment lying around and cordoned off given everything is in a state of repair.

Oliver going up yet more stairs. They were very steep and getting interesting by this point. He did well and managed up no problem. Coming down took quite lot longer as he was not nearly so confident and was rather "interesting". Still - he was very brave and came home with a certificate to say he'd got to the top.

This is a hopper that the grain is fed into, which in turn is fed to the millstones on floors below.

Once so pretty, this windmill is now sadly need of some restoration work. Thankfully, the people who have the tenancy are still managing to operate thanks to an engine powered mill.

 You can see in this photo why we couldn't go out the door of the tower and walk round the outside. Eeek !

Oliver was fascinated by the big gears on the top floor of the windmill. What a shame is wasn't working when we were there !

After all that - it was time for a cup of tea and some lunch in the tearoom. We can recommend the bread baked on site from the newly milled flour !