Some of you may have noticed that we've removed the "Beta" icon from the Flavrbox homepage. This is an important milestone for us and we thought you may be interested to know what it means.

Beta usually means "we're not quite finished yet, but you're unlikely to have any problems". In the case of the Flavrbox website it meant that we were still creating and testing cool new features. The site still worked great of course, we've been happily taking your orders since we we first launched back in September 2011. Thanks to the superb eCommerce platform Magento, we were able to go live incredibly quickly with a fully working site.

But now we're in the position where we've managed to iron out all the major kinks in the site. Sure, there may be the odd typo (we're only human!) but the website functions superbly and we're keen to show it off. Now we can start to look towards our plans for the future.

So this is the reason we've dropped the "Beta" label. It's our statement about having a website we're proud of and it marks an important step in the development of Flavrbox.

We've got lists of great ideas for the website as long as our fridge. Over the coming months we'll be trying them out on our test servers and only putting them live when we're sure they're ready. If you have any suggestions to add then please drop us a line: hello@flavrbox.com.

By the way, check out our latest addition - Pilton Cider. Perfect for the warm BBQ evenings. Cheers!

This is the first in what, we hope, will be a series of posts which explain what goes on in the background, here at Flavrbox.

Here's a video of one being made, via the blog What should I eat for breakfast today?

P.S. I’m sorry that the ‘notes’ are leaning towards essay length, but I’ve made soooo many loaves in so many ovens on so many different days in all the seasons that I’ve accidentally learnt what little tweaks you can make to turn a homemade loaf good for toast into a ‘knock your socks off brill’ homemade loaf perfect for supersoft sarnies. Lots of little things make lots of difference, some of which you can control, some you can’t, so getting a handle on the things you can is worth a bit of reading.

A few notes: 

• If I want to feel like a healthy bean I leave the salt out, but its addition really is priceless when it comes to flavour. Also, fine textured salt is best because courser grains or flakes need dissolving in the yeasty water if they are to be properly incorporated and yeast and salt are not best buds. 
•  If, by chance, you’re boiling up some potatoes any time soon, save the water and use it in this recipe. You can even put it in the freezer and defrost it when you’re in the bread making mood. The extra starch in the water keeps the bread softer and springier for longer...perfect for sandwiches. 
• The temperature of the dough when it’s trying to rise is one of the things I’ve found makes the most difference. On a hot summer’s day all is hunky doory, but most days in Scotland the dough needs a little help. If you have a roasytoasty airing cupboard, brill, if not you’ll need to improvise. I like to turn my (electric) hob on for just half a minute or so, so it is juuust warm, never too hot to hold your hand against, and set the bowl on it for its rising time. I’ve also seen people put the oven on and set the bowl on a chair next to it, or you could get creative with your radiators. Either or...just make sure it’s a cosy temperate that you would enjoy. 
• Unlike with cake baking, when baking bread there is leeway in terms of tins. I use a silicone loaf tin because it is what I have and works. But you could also use a metal loaf tin, greased and floured, or you could just leave it as a nice round on a lined baking sheet. If you do the latter, just before you pop it in the oven, give it a few slashes on top with as sharp a knife as poss to give it lots of room to grow. 
• Makes one nice big loaf 

You will need

• A large-ish loaf tin or baking sheet, greased and lined 
• 500g strong white bread flour 
• ½ tsp fine salt 
• 2 tsps ‘Easy-Blend’ or ‘Active’ dried yeast 
• 300ml-ish of warm water 
• Splosh flavourless oil (olive or veg or groundnut, whatever) 

The recipe:

• First job...weigh out the flour into a big bowl and sprinkle over the salt. 
• Next, add the yeast to the water and give it a mix around to let the yeast dissolve a little. 
• Now pour around 2/3 of the yeasty water over the dough and with a spread out hand, start to churn it up and mix it in. Then keep adding the rest of the water, or even a little more if you need, until it all comes together and you have a ball of soft dough and a mostly clean bowl. It’s best to err on the ‘too sticky’ side, rather than the ‘too dry’ if you’re in doubt. 
• Put a fairly big blob of oil on a clean, dry surface and spread it out a bit with your hands. 
• Turn the dough out on top of the oil and fold the dough around in it so it is covered all over. 
• Knead for around 5 minutes; pushing and pulling it around and folding it on top of itself until it looks shiny and feels stretchy. Don’t worry if it sticks to the surface you are working on, it probably will a bit, just keep going and it will recollect any bits it leaves behind. 
• Now time to pop your ball of shiny dough back into the bowl and cover with a tea towel or Clingfilm...or you could put a plastic bag over the top of the bowl like I do...or use a shower cap like the Hairy Bakers do. 
• Leave it in a cosy place for 1 to 1.5 hours; until it looks big and airy. 
• Meanwhile, time to prep your tin/baking tray. 
• When risen and proud, scrape the dough out of the bowl with a big metal spoon, and flop it onto a floured surface. Fold it up a few times to knock the air out and the shape appropriately for your tin. 
• Now gently pop the dough in your tin or onto your baking sheet and leave for about 1 more hour, until it puffs up and looks proud. Do NOT forget about it at this point, I have, and what happens is that it gets big enough to burst, and then does and then siiiiiiiiinks. Booooo. 
• Preheat the oven to 220˚c. 
• Now you’re ready to bake. Pop your lovely loaf in the middle of the oven and leave for around 20-25 mins, until nice and golden and crusty looking. 
• Now remove the loaf from its tin and place, upside down on the oven shelves, or turn it upside down on the baking tray, so its squidgy bottom can become crispy and tanned. Leave for another 10 minutes. 
• It’s ready when knocking it on its bottom, like knocking on a door, makes it sound nice and hollow.
• Cool on a wire rack or tear up right away and eat with too much butter. 

A group of students, 'La Route Des Vins', are raising money for children with brain damage by sailing from Bordeaux to Bristol, retracing the old trade route shipping wine from France to England. The wine they will be carrying will then be auctioned at Bristol on 16th May.  The students are from the L’Ecole de Commerce Européenne (the European Business School) which is located on the Quai des Chartrons, the stronghold of the great wine merchants in the past.  

The charity they are raising money for is 'Neuf de Coeur', which was established by Florence Papin and her husband, the famous football player Jean-Pierre Papin.  Shortly after the birth of their daughter Emily they discovered that she had severe brain damage.  Whilst trying to find a solution to their daughter's illness they met up with Mr and Mrs Le Dean, parents of Anne, who had discovered a rehabilitation technique used in the United States using multi-sensory stimulation.  Both families decided to cross the Atlantic to try this method which proved to be very helpful for both little girls. 

Back in France, the four parents decided to form an association to support families facing the same issues: 'Neuf de Coeur'. The name is a combination of Jean-Pierre Papin’s famous number he wore on his football shirt and the word 'coeur', meaning 'heart', which stands for the love they have for their daughter Emily. The association offers advice, financial support and access to treatments little known in France.

The students are sailing in the boat 'Feeling 44' and depart from the Quai de Chartrons in Bordeaux this Wednesday, 9th May.  

Their schedule is as follows:

• Wednesday 9 May at 12am: Departure from Bordeaux on the Chartrons docks next to the H14. There will be a send off with stands and tents offering wine tastings; the press will be in attendance and visitors are welcome.
• Thursday 10 May at 1pm: Arrival in La Rochelle  with an over night stop.  Friday there will be wine tastings and fund raising events on the dock. 
• Saturday 12 May at 3pm: Arrival in Lorient with an overnight stop.  Sunday there will be wine tastings and fund raising events on the dock. 
• Monday 14 May at 10am: Departure from Lorient to Bristol. 
• Wednesday 16 May at 2pm: Arrival in Bristol. Visitors are welcome and there will be a wine auction  as well as wine tastings and Bordelaise food, tents and stands.

If you are in the area it would be great if you could show your support! Check out the La Route Des Vins website and stay up to date by following the team on Twitter: @Route_Des_Vins.

From the Flavrbox Team — "Bon Voyage!"

A few notes:

• If you live in Scotland too, or an equivalent where buttermilk and such exotic products, like ooo fruit, is scarce you can substitute yogurt, or you could make your own by squeezing half a lemon or so into normal milk and setting aside for 15 minutes to sort of curdle.
• These aren't the bounciest or springiest of pancakes, more crisp on the outside and dense in the middle. If you would prefer that perhaps just stir some popper seeds through the batter of these basic breakfast pancakes.
• I didn’t use a blender for these like I usually do for making pancakes because I didn't want to mash up the seeds. Do feel free to though.
• Although I don’t usually go in for using cup measures American styleee, I think for a morning time batter, just grabbing a nearby mug and using that to gauge proportions is much less effort-ful than getting out the scales. So when I say cup, I mean an average sized mug.
• Makes around 10 medium sized pancakes

You will need

• A frying pan (I use 2 to speed the process up)
• 1 cup plain flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• A pinch bicarbonate of soda
• A 250g tub buttermilk
• ½ cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp melted butter, plus extra for greasing
• 1 tbsp poppy seeds

 The recipe:

• So it’s easypeasy really, just get your pan on a medium-to-high heat.
• Now mix together the dry ingredients in a big bowl.
• Then whisk in the wet ingredients so you have a smooth batter, a bit thicker than double cream.
• Plop a blob of butter in your hot pan and swirl it all around so it gets nice and melty.
• Now pop spoonfuls of batter in your pan and let them cook away. It’s really up to you how big you make them, I like them big enough to feel generous without them being a nightmare to flip; I think a tablespoon or two of batter at a time does the job.
• When you can see that the batter is cooking around the outside of the disc and bubbles are finding their way up to the surface, it’s time to flip.
• When they’re dappled golden brown on both sides pop them on a plate for immediate consumption or store in a warm oven while you get on with cooking the rest of the batter.
• Either way, when it’s time for eating I suggest a good dollop of marmalade, but as always, pancake consumption is open to interpretation....

Inspired by 101 Cookbooks.

Some feedback on our first box is appearing on Twitter and Facebook... and it's all good (so far)!

"Wow! Got our Flavrbox box today. What a treat... full of gorgeous goodies and we loved the beautiful packaging and details. Highly recommend! So far we have brewed some tea from Attic (coolest packaging ever!) and tried the delicious Cocoa Loco chocolate. Yum!"

"Received it! A cracking selection and very well presented."

"Picked it up from the post office this morning! Very impressed and excited."

"Loved it! Great selection - something for everyone. Especially interested in trying the Peppermongers pepper soon."

If you subscribed to our Tasting Box, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Thanks!

A few notes:

• The taste of this is unapologetically butterbutterbutter, so use the very best you can.
• You'll end up with 6 egg whites leftover, but don't fret, I'll hit you with the perfect recipe to use them up later in the week, requiring 4, and you can freeze the rest, or all of them, for another day.
• Makes enough for a gift and extra for snaffling

You will need

• a 23cm loose bottomed or Springform tin, buttered really well
• 6 egg yolks 
• 225g plain flour
• 250g caster sugar
• 250g unsalted butter, nice and soft

 The recipe:

• Preheat your oven to 190˚c and first job, take a tsp of egg yolk out of those ready for the cake and mix with 1 tbsp water and save for later.
• Now sieve your flour into a bowl and stir through the sugar.
• Then tip in the butter and yolks and mix with your hands or a wooden spoon to a sticky dough. 
• Press the dough into your cake tin and smooth over the top.
• Now brush with the egg yolk/water mixture for a nice glaze.
• Pop him straight in the oven and bake for 15 minutes before turning the temperature down to 180˚c and cooking for a further 25 minutes. It will be golden and firm.
• Let it cool 100% before removing from the tin and cutting into slices of whatever shape you fancy, I went for a lattice but there's squares and wedges at your disposal also.
• Happy dining.

From Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess

Lovely Lou helps carefully pack your tasty treats

The Flavrbox kitchen/office was a mess today as we packed, wrapped, printed, licked and stacked. The final preparations were made for a momentous occasion - shipping the first tasting Box!

We've had a great response to the whole box thing and we're really pleased that it's taken off. It meant more work today than we were expecting... We only just made the post!

We've included a special message from the Flavrbox team

We can't wait to see what the next boxes will bring. There will always be surprises!

Seb hands over the delicious cargo to our postie. Cheers Chris!

A big thanks to everyone involved, it's been a huge effort to get this far. We're very proud of the results.

And to all our lovely customers: we hope you enjoy the box!

A few notes:

• You need to clean leeks super-well, however clean they look on the outside you can guarantee that you will find at least some sand and grit tucked away amongst their layers. To do this, slice them in half lengthways from the green end to about 2/3 of the way down towards the white end. Waggle around, fan out the layers and leave to sit in a few changes of cold water.
• Croutons would also be a very welcome addition, as would some snipped chives.

Serves 4-6

You will need

• A blender
• A good know butter
• 4 large leeks, cleaned (see note)sliced finely
• 1 onion, peeled and sliced
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• S&P
• 850ml hot stock
• 300ml milk

The recipe:

• In a nice big saucepan, melt the butter and add the leeks, onion and potatoes.
• Season with salt and pepper, stir around so everything gets a good buttery coating and leave to cook gently for a good 15 minutes, until everything is golden and soft looking.
• Add the stock and milk , cover and let simmer away for another 15 or so minutes or until the vegetables are tender and soft. Don’t worry if the addition of the milk makes it look a teeny bit curdle-y or lumpy, the blending will fix that.
• Take the pan off the heat and leave the soup to cool a little before blending to a smooth and silky paste; I always find this requires a longer session in the blender that you imagine, so when you think it’s ready and smooth, turn the blender off then on again and leave to whizz or around another 30 seconds.
• Reheat the soup veryvery gently in its saucepan, then serve in warm bowls with your choice of lovely toppings, or simply with a thick slice of bread and too much butter.

A Delia recipe. Of course it is.

Today we have a stunning recipe (including a video!) from Sarah Cisinki and Chloé Roose for Linguine Vongole. Visit their website, Brussel's Kitchen, for more fabulous recipes and photogpraphy.

This summer, we went on a road trip on the Northern Spanish coastline, from little village to little village. Our first stop was in Cadaques. We ate tons of seafood : huge shrimps, razor shells, prawns, and clams. Today, I went in a little spanish fish shop, which we will tell you more about soon, and I felt like cooking those little clams we ate last summer, but this time with linguine, italian style.We miss summer, the weather is shitty and here is a recipe that sends us back directly to the beach. A really easy recipe too, the only thing you'll need is to get hold of these wonderful vongole.

Ingredients

For four people you'll need:

• 500g of linguine (as an alternative, try some Artisan Spelt Pasta)
• 1kg of clams
• 5 pretty big garlic cloves 
• two handfuls of flat parsley
• a dozen cherry tomatoes
• white wine
• olive oil (try Prima Oliva's Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

Method

In a wok, heat up the olive oil, add the garlic and let cook for a few minutes. Add a glass of wine and a handful of parsley. Add the clams and let them cook until they open. It's really important not to use those which might already be opened, they're simply not fresh anymore. They're gonna open one by one, and you'll have to get them out. Keep them in a plate, and during that time, cook the pasta.

In the wok, add half a glass of white wine, the cherry tomatoes cut in three and a bit of olive oil. Let the tomatoes cook for a few minutes. Once the linguine are al dente, add them to the wok with the clams, the rest of parsley and mix everything together. Don't underestimate the amount of sauce for the amount of pasta you have. If it feels like not enough, add wine and olive oil. Enjoy. 

Recipe by Natasha Piper, adapted from the Guardian Word of Mouth blog series.

Brownies, like the tangible existence of God or George Clooney's sexuality, will forever be debated. Everyone has their dead cert 'BEST' recipe, choosing to melt the butter with the chocolate, add an extra egg yolk here, a different nut there... really it comes down to personal taste, whether you like a really dense fudgey, almost undercooked brownie, or something more cakey. I've only just stuck my pick into the tip of the iceberg as I tend to be impatient when it comes to baking. But recently the chocolate cravings have taken on a mammoth turn and as a result I have plunged myself into near-scientific research of brownie-baking. This is but one of many experiments I hope to share with you. Serves 1 absolute glutton (because you just won't want to share it).

A couple of notes:

• I actually invested in a electric handmixer for this as the whisking is so vital to the end result. Unlike many brownie recipes, the creaming of the butter and sugar is more closely linked to cake-baking and it's important that the texture is really smooth and fluffy. Equally make sure you use really large fresh eggs - I found mine weren't large enough which resulted in a mix that was a touch too dry. Take time to incorporate each egg into the mix.
• Tin size is quite important here too - make sure it's not too big.
• The quick-cooling of the brownies using an ice bath really works to stop the cooking and seal the moisture! By far the hardest thing is waiting a whole hour before tasting...
• These brownies are magic with added bits like nuts, white chocolate chips or peanut chips, dried fruit etc.

Ingredients

• 250g 70% cocoa chocolate
• 250g unsalted butter
• 300g golden caster sugar
• 3 large eggs, plus 1 extra egg yolk, lightly beaten
• 60g plain flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 60g good quality cocoa powder
• 100g walnuts (optional)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C, and line a 23cm x 23cm baking tin with baking parchment.
2. Set a bowl over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water, and add 200g of the chocolate, broken into pieces. Allow to melt, stirring occasionally, and then remove from the heat immediately. 
3. Meanwhile, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, and break the rest of the chocolate into chips. 
4. With the mixer still running, gradually add the eggs, beating well between each addition to ensure it's thoroughly incorporated before pouring in any more. Leave mixing on a high speed for five minutes until the batter has a silky sheen, and has increased in volume.
5. Remove the bowl from the mixer, and gently fold in the melted chocolate and chocolate chips with a metal spoon, followed by the sifted flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and walnuts (I think if the mix does feel a bit tight here, a drop or two of milk won't hurt).
6. Spoon the mixture into the tin, and bake for 30 minutes. Test with a skewer; it should come out sticky, but not coated with raw mixture. If it does, put it back into the oven for another 3 minutes, then test again. Prepare a roasting tin of iced water.
7. When the brownies are ready, remove the tin from the oven and place in the cold water bath. Leave to cool for an hour before cutting into squares. Store in an air-tight container; they're even better the next day.

Enjoy!

Flavrbox is proud to announce that we will be taking part in Bristol52. For 52 weeks, the Bristol52 Twitter account will be taken over by 52 groups, businesses and individuals from Bristol. The aim: to show the world the diverse characters and personalities that make Bristol such a great city of live and work in. The project was inspired by Sweden's official Twitter account, which is handed over to a different Swedish citizen every week.

The project kicks off tomorrow (23rd April) with fashion blogger Hayley. Flavrbox is taking over the account on the 25th Feburary, 2013. Admittedly, that seems like a long way off to us at the moment, but to use a cliché: time flies! Make sure you take a look at the line-up to see what's in store over the next 12 months.

Sound like fun? Follow Bristol52 on Twitter to join in and sign up to the Bristol52 mailing list to keep up to date with developments.

A few notes:

• As with all scones, the less intervention; pressing and squashing and rolling, the better. See here for my 'perfect scone tips'. The only thing is, because of the inclusion of the oats in the dough, I didn't want to use a food processor, so just rubbed the butter in with a plain old fingers.
• If you don't have any wholemeal flour and don't fancy buying some just replace it with more plain.
• You can of course use round cutters if you fancy, I just find cutting squares with a knife means less dough squashing and hence increases your chances of super light scones.
• Makes 8

You will need

• A heavily greased or lined baking sheet
• 260g plain flour
• 80g wholemeal bread flour
• 35g oats, plus extra for topping
• 1 heaped tbsp baking powder
• 1 heaped tbsp caster sugar
• 160g cold butter, cubed
• 4 tbsp maple syrup
• 4 tbsp milk, plus extra for glazing

The recipe:

• First let your oven preheat to 200 °c.
• Next combine the flours, oats, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl and rub in the butter until it just about starts to look like fine breadcrumbs, though don't go at it for too long.
• Then make a well in the centre and add the milk and maple syrup to the mixture. First mix it in with a fork and then get your hands in there and softlysoftly bring the dough together, adding more milk if you need.
• Turn out onto a floured surface and cut the dough in half. Shape each half into a rough square, about 4 or 5 cm think. 
• Cut each square into 4 smaller squares and transfer each scone onto your baking sheet.
• Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. They will still be a bit squishy so leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 or 10 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack ooooor splitting open and getting creative with your toppings. Bacon went down well and my bananas were brill. May I suggest giving toasted pecans a try too...whatever, a drizzle of more syrup is a must. 

Adapted from Rose Bakery's Breakfast, Lunch, Tea.

A few notes:

• If you’re not an uber-olive-oil fan, first seek help, and if that doesn’t work, replace half the quantity used here with a milder tasting oil such as groundnut. Or, if you’ve jumped on the British cold-pressed rape seed oil bandwagon and favour its mustardy flavour and sunshiney colour over olive oil, feel free to substitute this here too.
• My preferred method if to whizz this up in my food processor, but a blender would work too (a very thorough washing up will be important though if you don’t want your morning smoothie to have an unwelcome savoury addition). If you have neither of these at your disposal though, all you need is a bowl and whisk, a bit of elbow grease and maybe someone to help you pour in the first drops of oil so none gets accidently splashed into your bowl while you whisk.
• Makes a good jam jar’s worth

You will need

• 2 cloves garlic, peel and slightly squashed
• Pinch sea salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 2 egg yolks
• 300ml your favourite extra virgin olive oil

The recipe:

• If you’re using a processor or blender, whizz up the garlic and salt to a paste in your machine of choice. Otherwise use a pestle and mortar to squash and grind it to a paste.
• Whizz or whisk in the pepper and egg yolks to the garlic mush. If you’re doing it by hand, now add transfer your mixture to a nice big bowl, set on top of a tea towel to stop wobbling.
• Now it’s time to add the oil; at first it literally must only be added drip by drip while your machine continues to whizz or you continue to whisk. Once you’ve added around a quarter of the oil in this way, you can pour it in in more of a steady stream, but still aim for restraint.
• Once all the oil is added you should have a shiny, thick, almost wobbly paste that, well looks like mayo, though less anaemic coloured than the jarred stuff, and you’re ready. Get a-dunkin’.

From Nigel Slater’s Real Food.

A few notes:

• Nige actually makes mini lime loaves but I wanted lemon. You feel free to use any citrus flavour you like, just make sure you use unwaxed, otherwise you'll end up with the zest drying out and being "a bit like hair". Wooopsiiiiies my mistake.
• Don't worry if you don't have an amazing Secret Santa friend who gives you vintage mini loaf tins for Christmas, just use fairy cake cases in a fairy cake tin.
• Makes 8-10

You will need

• mini cake tins, lined; I improvised with grease-proof paper
• 125g soft butter
• 175h caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• zest of 1 lemon
• 175g self-raising flour
• 4 tbsp milk

For the syrup

• 4 tbsp lemon juice (juice of around 1 lemon)
• 100g icing sugar

• Preheat your oven to 180 °c.
• Now cream your butter and sugar together until lightened in colour and then beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the zest until creamy and fluffy looking.
• Next fold in the flour and milk and spoon into your lined tins.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, until risen and golden.
• While the cakes are cooking prepare the syrup by heating the juice and sugar in a little saucepan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
• As soon as the cakes are out of the oven prick all over with a skewer or cocktail stick or even a bit a dry spaghetti, and pour over the syrup slowly, allowing it to be absorbed all over. You might want to go over them twice, adding just a bit of syrup at a time, so it gets soaked in evenly. 
• Leave the cakes in the tin for a good while, until nicely cooled and properly soaked.
• Then turn out and enjoy.

As you may have noticed from our front page, the new Flavrbox Tasting Box is just around the corner. In celebration of this, we're giving away one for free! You'll love what the box consists of: quality, hand-picked food, complete with notes and serving suggestions. Ten runners up will also win 10% off Flavrbox vouchers!

How to enter

You can gain an entry into the competition for each of the following:

1. Retweet the competition on Twitter.
2. Share or comment on the competition on Facebook.
3. 'Like' our Facebook page.
4. Leave a comment on this blog entry (must be signed into Facebook). 
5. Repin this image on Pinterest.

Do as many or as few as these as you like; however, doing them all will give you a total of five entries into the competition, significantly increasing your chances of winning! 

Competition rules

• Competition is open to residents of the UK only.
• Competition is not open to Flavrbox employees.
• We'll select the winners at random. One person will win a Tasting Box, while ten runners up will win 10% off Flavrbox codes.
• Decisions are final, and prizes cannot be exchanged for cash value.
• We'll announce the winners on 25th* April, 2012.

*This was incorrectly listed as the 30th April. The Tasting Box for all subscribers will be dispatched on the 25th, so we want to attempt to dispatch the winner their box on this day also. Apologies for the error!

Well, since starting just over a year ago, who would have known how popular our chocolates would become?! 

Easter, Reviews and Markets

At the moment, we are busy getting everything ready for Easter. Over the Easter weekend, not only will we have a stall at Bristol’s Chocolate Festival, but also have a big Easter display going on in the luxurious Bristol Hotel. We are making some very unusual products for this Easter! Although we will have a few traditional Easter eggs, we are in the process of finalising some really fun alternatives which of course still involves our delicious chocolates. The umpas lumpas won’t let me tell you what it is, so you’ll have to come along to the Bristol Chocolate Festival and see for yourself!

With reviews coming from Bristol Magazine, Gourmet Hot Chocolate, Bristol Bites, and West Country FOODLOVER Magazine in the next few weeks, we are very excited to hear what everyone has to say about our chocolates! 

We recently started attending Green Park Station Market in Bath and what a success! We had lots of new customers and with so many friendly faces over in Bath, I think we may make it a permanent place to visit with our chocolates! 

Loulou's Chocolate Club

We are also finalising ‘Loulou’s Chocolate Club’, one of the best types of clubs as far as I’m concerned!

That’s right, you’ve got it! A place where you can sign up to receive a box of chocolates through your door every month! We will have options to suit everyone with different sized boxes over a 3, 6 or 12 month period. It will include tasting feedback cards, special offers & discounts, free products & will include your own favourite’s from Maison Loulou Chocolates! You'll be able to sign up for the club right here on Flavrbox!

Finally...

We're also working with a wine expert, Kelli Gould, from the Wine Tasting Co. to give you a fab evening of wine & chocolate in the lovely Somerset countryside! The venue & dates will soon be confirmed, so keep a look out on our website and Twitter for more info on that soon.

Last, but not least, we were recently shortlisted for best confectioner in the Bristol Good Food Awards 2012! Although we didn't win, it was fabulous to be shortlisted among two other producers.

— Lou @ Maison Loulou Chocolates

Introducing Ada—or to give her Sunday Name, Camellia Sinensis. This is a little tea plant which we have proudly nurtured. Most tea comes from this variety of camellia plant or its cousins. They are related to camellias many of you may grow in your gardens, although we don't recommend their leaves for tea as we've been told it's disgusting (mainly as the leaves are too big, tough and very bitter).

But how did we come to nurture little Ada?

It all started with a couple of mature Yorkshire ladies who, seeing we sold loose leaf Chinese teas, scrutinised, poked, prodded, shook and squeezed the packets on our display. When asked if they enjoyed loose teas, one looked me straight in the eye and told me that they didn't hold with all this foreign muck. You don't know what's in it—sweepings up with mouse droppings and worse! It transpired they drank only Yorkshire tea. As it was grown, in their mind, in Harrogate, it was upmarket and classy. "And you know where it's been!", they chimed enigmatically.

With that they flounced off, muttering about days of the empire...

Well, we knew that there had been an attempt to grow tea in the north unsuccessfully, but the meeting with the ladies sent me off with a bee in my bonnet. Or perhaps a fool's errand! Could we grow tea? Why not try? Why not have our very own mini tea garden? Yes, the climate, the conditions and so on aren't right, but...

And so Ada, grown and raised in Cornwall, became our first tiny tea plant. She had six leaves and we knew there was a long way to go before the first cuppa... but I like a challenge and I love tea. So far, so good! After Ada came Dolly (pictured right). So we have a plant in honour of each of the Harrogate ladies! And although we are a long way from our own tea garden, the big and little sis sit well on our little terrace.

Oh, and if you were wondering why the plants are named Ada and Dolly—they were named after our grandmothers. As the two Harrogate ladies were from about the same era, I thought it very fitting. Both of my grans loved a good cup of tea and the Harrogate ladies would have amused them no end.

If you enjoyed the story about Ada and Dolly, be sure to check out The Tea Experience's superb range of flowering tea blooms here on Flavrbox. They're ideal gifts for the tea lover in your life.

A few notes:

• Of course if you're not into the chocolate and....thing, you could leave out the pepper and you'd have a lovely grown up chocolate cake.
• I served mine with mascarpone and cream, on different occasions I might add, but ice cream would be brill too, especially as the cake gets a few days old and is best served after being warmed in the microwave for 30 seconds.
• Serves at least 8

You will need

•  a 23cm cake tin, greased, dusted with flour and chilled
• 180g butter
• 240g dark chocolate
• 6 eggs, separated
• 70g caster sugar
• 1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
• icing sugar for dusting

The recipe:

• First it's the usual. Preheat the oven to 150 °c.
• Now melt the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of just simmering water. It'll take longer than you thing, but be patient and just let it slowly get on with it, no poking or prodding.
• Now in a large bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and fluffy looking. 
• Stir through the pepper and chocolate mix carefully and gently.
• Now take a little taste, chef's perks, and check for pepperyness. Add more if you fancy,
• In a new, spanking clean bowl with a spanking clean whisk, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and you can tip the bowl upside down without any disaster occurring.
• Then gently fold a quarter of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, followed by the rest in 3 batches.
• When everything is just combined, pour the mixture into your cake tin and pop into the oven, baking for 20-25 minutes. The cake should be puffed up with only the slightest hint of wobble.
• Leave to cool for in the tin until it's cool enough to handle, then remove from the tin.
• You can serve now or a bit later...with whatever you fancy, just enjoy.

Adapted from The Acorn House Cookbook by Arthur Potts Dawson.

A few notes:

• Of course the flavour additions you use are totally up to you. Go with extra lemon for zingyness great with fish, or a few whole cloves of garlic would be a real treat next to some sausages and mash, or how about some ginger and chilli when you’re after some Asian flavours.
• Serves 4

You will need

• 1 head of broccoli, cut into florets
• A few glugs extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of ½-1 lemon
• Good pinch of salt

The recipe:

• Here we go...first preheat the oven to 180°c.
• Pop the broccoli into a roasting tin or on a baking tray, large enough for each floret to have room to itself, and drizzle over the olive oil
• Squeeze over the lemon juice, sprinkle over the salt and give everything a good toss around so it can all mingle together.
• Roast in the oven for around 20 minutes until the edges are starting to singe and there you go, it’s ready for whatever you fancy, see, easy and delicious.

A few notes:

• This is the sort of thing that is easypeasy to chop and change according to your fancy. Change the meat to a lovely british ham of maybe some cooked crispy bacon...word on the street is that Flavrbox has a fabulous selection of suitable meaty treats, so take a peek.
• You could also mix up the cheese, some gooey fontina or some lovely sharp cheddar...oh would you look at that, Flavrbox has a fabulous selection of dairy delights too.
• Makes 2

You will need

• A 375g packet of ready rolled puff pastry or the results of this recipe
• Your favourite mustard
• 120g Gruyère, thinly sliced
• 90g prosciutto
• A teeny bit of olive oil
• A few gratings of parmesan

The recipe:

• First thing's first, roll the pastry, so it’s a bit thinner if you’re using shop bought and if not, to a rectangle of around 40x30cm.
• Then cut in half length and then width ways, like St George's cross, so you have 4 equal rectangles.
• Spread around a tsp of mustard thinly over each pastry rectangle and scatter the cheese over two of them.
• Top the cheese with the prosciutto and then dab the border of these rectangles with olive oil.
• Now to form the parcels, turn each empty pastry rectangle, on top of the meaty one, mustard side down, and press the edges together. You should have 2 nice pastry envelopes.
• Now pop them both on a greased baking sheet and leave to chill in the fridge for half an hour.
• Meanwhile preheat the oven to 220°c.
• When the pastries have chilled, brush them all over with a little olive oil and grate over a scatter of parmesan.
• Pop the baking sheet in the hot oven and bake for 15 minutes, until golden and crispy looking. Mmmmmm. 

Producing the Oil

The village is a hard working community that passes traditional methods of farming from generation to generation. During the olive harvesting period which lasts from November through to February, it is not unusual here to see three generations of the same family working together.

Before anything can happen, the olives need to be harvested. Instead of using heavy machinery that could damage the trees, Xavi and Cisco (along with their parents) collect the olives with an electric rake that shakes the olives from the trees which then fall into nets under the tree, ready for collection. The olives are then transported to the mill, around a 10 minute drive out of Granyena.

When the olives arrive at the mill, they are sorted to make sure there are only olives in the batch and no bits of tree or anything else that may have been collected en route. The next step is a little more time consuming, batches of olives will be taken to sample in the mills lab, where they will be pressed into oil and the acidity levels will be tested to make sure that the oil can be certified as ‘extra virgin’. 

When we have determined that the olives (and therefore the oil) is of the high quality we expect, we can then send the olives to be pressed. The olives, including the stone are cold pressed and are crusted into a paste extracting the oil. As nothing needs to be wasted when making the oil, we add a bit of oil to this paste and some local spices and use the paste (known locally as Tapenade) on fish, bread, pasta and anything else that springs to our mind really. It has a strong olive flavour which is delicious!

The final (and our favourite!) stage is the extraction and bottling of the oil. This is also where we get a taste of our newest batch. The oil we don’t bottle straight away we store in large vats in the mill until they are needed; this is usually a short period of time. Before we sell any oil, it is judged by 12 Catalonian judges from Les Garrigues. These judges do not drink or smoke so that they can experience the true taste of the oil and then make a judgement on the oil commenting on the various flavours and quality. After their approval, we try to get the oil into your home as soon as possible for your enjoyment.

Interested in trying this heavenly olive oil? Head over to the Prima Oliva page on Flavrbox to browse the entire range!

A few notes:

• These are soooooo much easier made in a food processor, so do that if you can. If that's not an option though, no probs, you can use a good old fashioned bowl and spoon, it'll just take a little more time and burn a few more calories, but that way you can eat more...hurrah.
• If you prefer you can roll the sandy peanut butter mixture into bite-sized balls, pop in  mini cupcake cases and drizzle the chocolate mix over. I guess you could say that they look slightly more elegant that way, especially if topped with a silver ball or star.
• Feel free to mix up and chop and change the proportions of different types of chocolate depending on what you prefer or just what you have around.
• Makes 30-40

You will need

• a small-ish square, loose bottomed cake tin, lined

For the base

• 50g dark muscovado sugar
• 200g icing sugar
• 50g soft butter
• 200g smooth peanut butter

For the top

• 200g milk chocolate 
• 100g dark chocolate
• around 1 tbsp butter

 The recipe:

• So let's do this. Pop all the ingredients for the base in a food processor and whiz to a sandy, clumpy mixture or do the same by hand in a bowl. Don't worry if the muscovado sugar remains a bit nubbly, it even looks like that in Nigella's picture.
• Tip the mix into your tin and press out to as even a layer as poss with your hands or a spatula.
• To make the topping, melt all the ingredients together slowly, without too much stirring, in a microwave or in a bowl over a just-simmering pan of water.
• Pour over the base and pop in the fridge to set.
• When you're ready, turn out the slab of joy from the pan and chop into squares, or any size you fancy really. 

Why Prima Oliva Oil is the Best

 There are a few reasons why we believe our oil is the best:

• Our oil has a maximum acidity level of 0.2%
• It’s made using the Arbequina Olive
• Has a hint of almond and spice
• No chemicals are used during harvest
• A lot of care is taken during harvest and production

It’s a bit technical, but one of the reasons for our oil being of such high quality is because of the oils low acidity level. For an oil to be classed as ‘Extra Virgin’, it must have an acidity level of no more than 0.8% acidity per 100 grams. This is a figure set by the International Olive Oil Council. However, because our oil is from a protected denomination of origin, our oil must have a maximum acidity level of no more than 0.5% per 100 grams to be classed as extra virgin. Luckily for us and for our customers, our oils acidity level falls well below this figure - which means we can guarantee our oil is of the highest quality!

The main reason why Granyena’s oil tastes so good is because of the olive that makes it; the Arbequina olive! It may be small but it sure is mighty! The Arbequina Olive is a special olive that holds a very special taste. Smaller than most Mediterranean olives, it is recognised worldwide for its high quality and special taste. During harvesting Xavi and Cisco ensure only the highest-quality Arbequina Olives are used to produce the oil.

There are numerous producers of oil in Catalonia, so why is ours so special?

Well, our oil gets its unique flavours from the earth due to the growing methods used by the farmers. Olive and almond trees are grown together successively which leaves a hint of almond in the oil as well as rosemary which is grown around each tree and used primarily to make honey! This gives the oil an initial sweet flavour with a fresh aroma of leaves, grass, green nuts and a hint of spice at the end. 

Xavi & Cisco are intensely passionate about their land and the environment; because of this they use no pesticides or herbicides on their crops and only use traditional methods of farming to ensure their crops are well nourished. This also means that the olives used for the oil are free of all residues making it entirely environmentally friendly with no defects of any kind. In our eyes, the most important reason for the quality and exceptional taste of the oil is the care and devotion they put into the cultivation, harvest and production of the olives, oil and all their other products. They strive to achieve quality and not quantity; this is the reasons we are proud to sell produce from Granyena.

The combination of the soil, climate, surrounding vegetation and care taken when harvesting makes this oil a truly unique and extremely tasty extra virgin olive oil. But don’t just believe me; give it a try for yourself by visiting our page on Flavrbox.

Continue to part three...

A few notes:

• Serve with brandy cream, or even scrummyer, brandy mascarpone.
• If you have sweetened chestnut puree, you don't need to add the sugar to the mix. And if you want to up the chestnut factor even further you could add some chopped cooked chestnuts, or even some marron glace, maybe Granny left some lying around.
• Makes 1 18cm tart

You will need

• an 18cm tart or cake tin, well greased and floured
• 250g shortcrust pastry, I'm afraid I used shop bought but if you fancy making your own, pop on over to here and Delia will sort you out.

For the filling

• 150g cream cheese
• 300g chestnut puree
• 2tbsp icing sugar
• 1 nice splosh brandy (optional)

For the topping

• 100g dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp double cream
• 1 level tbsp golden syrup

• Preheat your oven to 180°c.
• Roll out your pastry to a nice thin few mm and press tightly into your tin.
• Trim off the excess and prick all over the base with a fork.
• Now you need to blind bake, which means bake the pastry case without any filling, so put a big piece of baking paper over and inside the pastry case so you can fill with baking beads, or dried rice or beans; just something nice and heavy, without them touching the pastry.
• Bake the pastry for 20-25 minutes, until starting to turn golden and firm. If any parts of the base have risen and puffed up poke them back down again by pricking with a fork.
• While that cools you can get on with the filling. It's easy, just beat all the ingredients together and pour into the pastry case. 
• Bake for 45 minutes, when the filling should look just set, with still a hint of wibblewobble left.
• While the tart is cooling you just need to melt together the topping ingredients, either in a double boiler or slowlyslowly in a microwave.
• Pour over the chestnut layer and leave for a little bit to set.
• In fact, if you can resist it for a bit, this tart, well the filling at least, seems to get a little better after a few hours chilling in the fridge. Good luck.

How Prima Oliva Began

Prima Oliva is a business set up by myself (Sam Lee), my dad and my uncle. On a business trip to Spain, my dad was introduced to one of the farmers of Granyena (called Xavi) by a business contact who was best friends with the farmer. Xavi invited them to his home for a meal and then took them out to see the local musician, an Irish man in the village called Brian (or El Brian) who was playing a gig in a local bar. Brian later became the the label and packing designer for Xavi.

After a few trips back to Granyena, and a growing interest in the surrounding olive groves, the two farmers asked my dad if he would be interested in attempting to sell their oil in the UK, as they currently only sold their products in Spain and in small quantities in Italy. At this time, I was coming to the end of my gap year and had a few months of summer before I started university in Newcastle. My dad didn’t have the time to set up this new business so asked me if I fancied giving it a go over the summer to learn some business experience with the possibility of earning some money for university.

The idea really appealed to me, but I didn’t have a great knowledge of olive oil so I though the best thing to do would be to visit Granyena, so that’s what I did.  I went to visit for a weekend to meet Brian, Xavi and the other farmer in Granyena, Cisco, who took me on a tour of the olive groves and showed me the methods of farming, collection and production as well as roping me into some free labour.

When I came home, I created a website, booked numerous summer food shows to attend and carried on from there.

Granyena is a small Catalan village that lies at the heart of 'Les Garrigues', a well-known extra virgin olive oil producing region in Spain. It enjoys a typical Mediterranean climate and a long history of olive and almond farming. 

Our friends in Granyena

Let us take a few minutes to introduce you to our friends in Granyena - the two farmers Xavi and Cisco and artist/designer/musician Brian or ‘El Brian’. Through broken English and Catalonian (and over many beers and good meals), we have built a strong friendship with these three and have entered a small business venture.

Xavi & Cisco

Xavi and Cisco are two of the farmers of Granyena. They are good friends who have grown up together in the village have a vast knowledge of olive farming and oil production. Their fathers and grandfathers were working on the land before them so they know the land and its needs inside out. Cisco is a walking encyclopaedia on anything olive related and even the older generations in the village sometimes come to him for advice! They both have big plans to get their oil known, as they believe that their oil deserves recognition. We agree too!

‘El’ Brian

Brian an artist, photographer, designer and translator. He was born in Ireland but has moved to Granyena after marrying a local girl. By living in Granyena for many years, he is now fluent in Catalonian so any language barriers between us, Xavi and Cisco are solved easily. The labels and packaging are all designed by him, which is a great advantage for us.

When he’s not working on new designs, you can often find Brian in bars around Catalonia with his folk band ‘Brian Caffrey and the Others’. He currently has 3 albums out and you can check out some of his music here.

Continue to part two...

We have Jamie Oliver; my imaginary bestie friend, to thank for this one. As soon as I saw him make these waffles and Dunk. Them. In Hot. Chocolate. *swoon* on his Christmas show I knew I had Christmas day breakfast sorted. Jamie's recipe is for one great big waffle, made in a griddle pan, which is what I did on Christmas day. But home alone in my humble 'sans griddle pan' abode, I twiddled with it so I could make a little one in my mini Le Creuset. And really, it was JUST as spongely good, if not a smidgen better, and soooo much easier to handle.

The ridges of the griddle pan weren't deep enough to create the syrup trapping gorges of traditional waffles anyway and this way you don't have to 'rock the rustic look', which is how Jamie consoled my rather homemade and scrappy looking large one which was kind of a nightmare to flip over...no messy edges here. You can just stand back and feel puffed up and neatly proud, just like your waffle. 

A few notes:

• I served mine with my (read Nigella's) trusty blueberry syrup; simmer a few frozen blueberries in a splosh of maple syrup for a minute or two. Oh yes, that, and shed loads of butter.
• Like pancakes, the possibilities of tweaks and twiddles are endless- hows about adding chocolate chips to the batter, or going savoury and serving with bacon and eggs??
• Makes enough for 3 or 4 breakfasts

You will need

• a little heavy bottomed frying pan
• 1 egg
• 150ml milk
• pinch of salt
• 110g self raising flour
• 1 1/4 tbsp baking powder
• 50g butter, melted

 The recipe:

• First things first lets whisk the egg and milk together in a large bowl.
• Then add the salt, flour and baking powder and beat to combine.
• Finally beat in the cooled melted butter until just about combined and then STOP stirring and fiddling. The mix needs to be left alone now for at least 30 minutes to swell and puff up.
• When the resting time is almost over, heat your pan so it is very hot, and swirl a knob of butter around in it so it's greased all over.
• Pour in the batter, smooth over the top and leave alone for a good 5 minutes.
• Now the fiddly part, the flipping. So the easiest way I find to do this is to slide a palate knife around the edges of the half cooked waffle so you know it's all loosened from the pan. Then sliiiiiide the waffle onto a plate so the cooked side remains on the bottom. Then hover the pan upside down over the waffle, hold the plate with an oven gloved hand and flip, so the uncooked side is on the bottom in the pan. Done.
• Stick the pan back on the heat and cook for a further 5 minutes.
• Check both sides are golden brown and the centre of the waffle feels firm to the touch, if not give it a few more minutes on each side, flipping should be much easier now.
• Now you're ready to cut into wedges and take on the day, however dreary it may be.

Tweaked from Jamie Magazine

At Flavrbox, we love our food. But can you imagine being without not only food, but shelter and comfort? Homeless people in this country face these issues—and more besides—every day. This is why Flavrbox supports Kindness Riot, an original project that aims to get people to show some kindness and help homeless people.

How does it work? Simple:

1. When you experience a random act of kindness, it makes you feel good. More often than not, you want to share what happened!
2. Send in your experience to Kindness Riot and they'll post it on their blog so other people can feel good too. People who read these stories will, hopefully, become motivated to perform little acts of kindness themselves!
3. After reading the kindness stories, people may even be motivated to gift a small amount to the charity and help homeless people in this country.

So when did you last experience a random act of kindess? Head over to Kindness Riot and read about how kind people can be. Then share your own stories, and make Britain a better place in the process. A little bit of kindess can go a long way!

Recipe by Natasha Piper.

There are so many variants of this recipe, found all over South Eastern Europe and the Middle East. It's one of my favourite dips, and, the same way hummous is eaten in the Middle East, I like to have this as a main course with chunks of bread, pitta or a mixture of raw vegetables.

This is a speedy one if you have a gas hob as you just plonk the aubergine directly on the flame. If you are most unfortunate and plagued by working with an electric hob, it's best to roast the aubergine whole in the oven, although this will take considerably longer.

Ingredients:

• 1 large aubergine
• 2 tbsp tchina (tahini - raw sesame paste)
• 3 tbsp Turkish yoghurt 10% fat
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed
• lemon juice
• extra virgin olive oil (try Prima Oliva's Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
• salt (explore the Salt Yourself Out range)

Method

1. Place the whole aubergine directly on the hob flame, on a medium high heat. The skin will start to blister and darken quite quickly. Turn at regular intervals using tongs so the skin is blackened all over.
2. After about 10mins or so of rotating, the aubergine should appear completely blackened and soft - to the point where it's about to collapse - this indicates the flesh is cooked inside. Take off the heat and transfer to a chopping board.
3. Slice lengthways, then carefully scoop the hot flesh into a bowl, making sure to discard the charcoaled skin. Chop roughly with a knife and fork and then mash using the back of a fork.
4. Add the yoghurt, tchina, garlic, olive oil, salt, lemon juice and mix well. Taste and adjust the seasoning as you wish. 
5. You can add paprika & chopped parsley if you wish. Serve as a starter or side with pitta, or if you're like me you'll just demolish the whole bowl in one sitting.

Enjoy!

A few notes:

• It might be best to have a tiny taste of your chilli before you use it, either fresh or dried, so you can tweak the amount, using more if it's mild or less if it's 'head-pop-off' strong.
• These perhaps aren't the daintiest looking biscuits, a pretty shape cutter helps, use whatever you fancy. For extra prettyness you could also drizzle over a thin stream of melted chocolate....ooooh melted 'chilli chocolate' perhaps. 
• These are a lovely prezzie tied up nicely in a box or bag, I gave mine as a ' it was your birthday and I haven't given you your proper prez yet so have these in the meantime' gift.
• If you don't have a food processor, it might be easiest to combine all the dry ingredients and  rub the butter into this mixture.
• Makes a good biscuit tin-full

You will need

•  a lined baking tray
• cookie cutters of any shape, around 5-10cm diameter
• 225g butter, cold from the fridge, cubed
• 280g plain flour
• 30g corn flour
• 110g icing sugar
• 25g cocoa powder
• 1 small fresh chilli, finely chopped, or 3/4 tsp dried chilli flakes.

The recipe: 

• This is a simple one really, just put all the ingredients in a food processor and whizz until just combined.
• Transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
• Preheat your oven to 110 °c and prepare a clean surface, dusted with icing sugar and/or cocoa, to roll out your mixture onto.
• I found it easier to deal with the dough in 2 halves, but either way, roll out to a thickness of around 1cm.
• Cut out your shapes and transfer to the baking sheet. 
• Bake for 1.5 hours and then leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes or so, then cool completely on a wire wrack.
• Worship.

Adapted from Avoca Tea Time

A few notes:

• This is basically normal white bread dough, shaped, poached and brushed with bicarb. Think of it like that and the recipe won't seem so convoluted.
• Definitely best eaten on the day of making, with sweet German mustard if you're a traditionalist.
• Makes 6

You will need

• a large baking sheet, well greased
• a large sauce pan
• 150ml water
• 75ml milk
• 1 tbsp (or 1 sachet) dried yeast
• 400g white bread flour
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1-2 tbsp flavourless oil
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• rock salt

 The recipe:

• First things first, heat the water and milk to around body temperature and stir in the yeast. Leave to mingle for a few minutes while you measure out the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl.
• Combine the liquid with the flour and mix with your hands to a soft dough, adding a little extra water if you need.
• Spread some oil on a clean surface to stop the dough sticking and knead for around 5 minutes until smooth and springy.
• Pop the dough back in the bowl and leave in a cosy place for around 1 hour.
• After that bash the dough around a bit to knock out the air, knead for a few more moments and return to the bowl again.
• Leave to rise for another 30 minutes.
• In the mean time preheat your oven to 190°c and bring a big pan of water to the boil.
• When the dough's ready, cut into six equal sized pieces and shape into pretzel shapes. To do this first you need to roll a long sausage shape, around 50cm in length, with a fat middle, tapering to skinnier ends.
• Next make a loop with the ends crossed over, as in the picture below.

• Then swap the ends around to make a twist, as below.

• And finally fold the ends up to attach on to the chunky middle with a dab of water.

• Boil each pretzel in the water for around 1 minute, then pat dry with a clean tea towel or kitchen paper and set aside while you combine the bicarb with 100ml of the water from the pan.
• Dip each pretzel (they're sturdier than you think) in the bicarb solution and pop onto your greased baking sheet.
• Sprinkle with a good few grains of rock salt and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until deep bronze.
• Cool for a while and then transfer to a wire rack ooor pour a beer and eat immediately.

Adapted from Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog

Our Twitter pal Missie Cindz has recently launched her new line of food-inspired clothing to take away. In her own words:

Missie Cindz Take Away is my new food-fuelled clothing project where I design and distribute food-themed clothing and accessories. I’ve been working hard at bringing you the best tasting food-inspired T-shirts to satisfy all types of taste buds... the T-shirt Take Away will be my biggest challenge yet and the shirts are all about the food – made best for wearing ASAP! Mark my word, the typical ‘Take Away’ will be getting a lot more interesting this summer! 

Her first design, Meal No. 19, is available now in sizes S to XL! All her shirts are high quality and hand screen-printed locally (in Sheffield) on heavy cotton. We love the designs so far and can't wait to see where this venture will head next. Keep on designing, Missie!

This tasty little recipe for cornbread comes from Amy of Pies and Fries. 

This easy, tasty cornbread makes the perfect accompiantment to my previous post for Ox cheek chilli, but it also goes very well with a chunky winter soup, barbecued ribs and chicken or even on its own, spread with indecent amounts of butter. It's a great storecupboard standby recipe that looks very impressive, but yet takes mere minutes to mix together and throw into the oven. I've based it on a Lesley Waters recipe, found on the Good Food website, but have added some strong cheddar and chives for an extra punch as I find cornbread can often be a little bland. Add a small tin of sweetcorn kernals, along with the wet ingrediants, if you want some extra texture and sweetness. Although this is certainly best served warm it will keep for a couple of days, and I have also frozen leftovers pretty successfully.

Cheddar and Chive Cornbread

Ingredients 

• 280g cornmeal or polenta (coarse or fine)
• 85g plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 large egg
• 150 ml milk
• 425 ml buttermilk or natural yogurt
• 100g jarred jalepenos, drained and chopped (I used red for colour)
• 100g strong cheddar, grated
• Small bunch of chives, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6.  butter a small square cake tin or roasting tin.
2. In a large bowl combine the cornmeal, flour and bicarbonate of soda and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. In a jug combine the egg, milk and buttermilk and mix well.
3. Pour the contents of the jug into dry ingredients. Add cheese, chives and chillies.Stir lightly, taking care not to over-mix as this will make the corn bread tough.
4. Pour the mixture into the buttered tin and bake for 25-30 minutes until firm and golden. Cut into squares and serve warm.       

A few notes:

• I tend to make shortbread in a food processor in an attempt to save mess and avoid the common 'overworked' shortbread failing, but do feel free to rub in the butter with your fingertips and bring everything together by hand.
• Of course you absolutely do not have to include rosemary, just leave it out and you have a wonderful standard shortbread.
• Don't store these in a container with any other kind of biscuit, rosemary likes to pass her strong flavour around.
• Makes 10-15

You will need

• A baking sheet lined
• a  cutter or upturned glass, around 10cm in diameter
• 200g plain flour
• 100g cornflour
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 200g butter

The recipe:

• First things first, pulse both flours and sugar together in your processor to combine.
• Whiz in the rosemary and then the butter until everything starts to come together.
• Tip the crumbly mixture onto a floured surface and bring properly together to a soft dough with your hands.
• Divide the mixture in half and roll one half out to a thickness of around 5mm.
• Cut out rounds with your cutter, gathering the excess to re-roll and cut.
• Transfer the rounds to your lined baking sheet and repeat the rolling and cutting for the second half of the dough.
• Chill the raw biscuits it the fridge while your oven preheats to 170°c.
• Bake the biscuits for around 12 minutes, they should only just be starting to change colour to a veryvery light gold.
• Cool on a wire rack.
• Eat with a cup of tea and a chat with your real life best pal.

Canapés are a delicious party staple, and these canapés are particularly delish—after all, who doesn't love roast beef and Yorkshire puddings? Recipe appears courtesy of the fantastic Open Table.

Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding Canapés

I have spent the afternoon making canapes for my brother and his wife who are having a party tonight.  Canapes are one of my favorite foods... I love making them as much as eating them.  I enjoy the challange of making small versions of a bigger meal.  I think they look wonderful on a plate and there is nothing more exciting than having a marinated prown, then some beef - followed by a little smoked salmon - then finishing with a mini ice cream... I think it is the prefect way to eat! In fact my husband and I enjoy them so much that when we got married we replaced the traditional a sit down meal with lots of canapes... we loved it.

Ingredients (makes 36)

• 75g plain flour
• 150ml milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt (explore the Salt Yourself Out range)
• Olive oil (try Prima Oliva's Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
• 250g fillet steak
• Butter
• 4 Teaspoons of Mascarpone
• 2 Teaspoons of Horseradish sauce (the adventurous may want to try this Beer and Horseradish sauce!)

Equipment

• 24 Hole mini muffin tray

Method

1. Start by making the batter.  Mix the flour, milk, eggs and salt together and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. 
2. Turn the oven on to 200.  While the oven is heating up, mix 4 teaspoons of mascarpone with 1 teaspoon of horseradish sauce, cover and place in the fridge.
3. Pour a few drops of olive oil into each of the holes in the mini muffin tray and place in the oven so that the oil heats up and starts to bubble, this should take about a minute.
4. Quickly (but carefully) remove the tray from the oven and fill each hole half full with the batter mix.
5. Return the tray to the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 8-10 minutes till the batter is golden and has puffed up, once cooked remove from the oven.  Clean the tray and make another 12 yorkshire puddings.
6. While the second batch of yorkshires are cooking, cook the fillet steak.
7. Heat a tablespoon of butter in a frying pan for a minute or so.  Once the butter is bubbling place the steak in the pan.  Cook for 2 minutes on one side and then turn over and cook for another two minutes.  Remove the steak from the pan and place on chopping board to rest for 5-10 minutes.  Once rested slice very thinly into 36 strips.
8. Remove the second batch of yorkshires from the ovenYou are now ready to put the canapes together. 
9. Spread a little of the mascarpone mixture on a yorkshire, top with the steak and place on a plate ... repeat until all the the canapes are ready ... serve with a nice cold drink.

Cooking Notes

• Be careful that the hot oil does not spit when you pour the batter into it.
• You leave the batter to rest to allow the gluten in the flour to relax, this makes the batter tender.  If you don’t allow the batter to relax the yorkshire pudding will be slightly tough and rubbery. 

A few notes:

• As always, make sure you wait until the cake has completely cooled before icing, melty icing would be no good.
• I made the icing in a food processor; whizz icing sugar, then add cream cheese and cream and whizz to combine. But I'll write the recipe for doing it by hand.
• Makes 1 23cm cake

You will need

•  a 23cm cake tin, well greased and the base lined 

For the cake

• 250ml Guinness or dark porter or stout
• 250g butter, cubed
• 75g cocoa
• 400g caster sugar
• 142ml sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1tbsp vanilla extract
• 275g plain flour
• 2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

For the top

• 300g cream cheese
• 150g icing sugar
• 125ml double cream

 The recipe:

• Preheat your oven to 180°c.
• Pour the Guinness into a large saucepan, with the butter and heat gently until the butter has melted.
• Whisk the cocoa and sugar into the pan and remove from the heat.
• In a bowl, beat together the sour cream, eggs and vanilla and stir into the pan of Guinness.
• Finally whisk in the flour and bicarbonate of soda until well combined.
• Pour the dark mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45mins to 1 hour, until risen and springy.
• Leave to cool completely in the tin.
• To make the topping, whip the cream cheese until smooth.
• Sieve in the icing sugar and beat to combine.
• Add the cream and beat until spreadable.
• When the cake/pint is cold, remove it from the tin and spread the icing/foam in a nice smooth layer on top. 
• Happy Birthdaaaay. 

From Nigella's Feast- one of my all time favs

An exclusive recipe taken from Clippy's Preserving the Nation UK cookery school tour! Check out the website for more, or follow Clippy on Twitter for news, recipes and humorous asides! 

Cheeky Chocolate & Banana Jam

Ingredients (makes 4 x 200g jars)

• 800g bananas (about 6 very large ripe ones)
• 100g dark chocolate (use 70+ cocoa solids – coarsely chopped)
• 40ml amaretto 200ml water (room temperature)
• 420g granulated sugar (if possible vanilla infused sugar)

Method

1. First place your jam jars in a pre-heated oven (130oC for 15minutes to sterilise the jars). Secondly make sure you have weighed all your ingredients & your equipment and utensils are ready.
2. Thinly slice banana, about 1mm thickness. Transfer the banana to a large saucepan with the water and sugar. Mix well on a medium heat, stir constantly and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil (where the bubbles do not stop when you stir it). Once the mixture starts to boil, skim away any excessive scum, stirring constantly all the time. 
3. Keep at a rolling boil for another 2 minutes, stirring constantly till the mixture becomes clearer and brighter.
4.  Add in the dark chocolate, mix well and bring it back to boil. Once chocolate has melted, remove from the heat immediately, stir in the amaretto. 
5. Laddle the hot jam into hot sterilised jars leaving a gap of about 1~2cm from the top.  The chocolate and banana jam will keep up to 3 months if stored in fridge. Once opened consume within 2-3 weeks – if it lasts that long! 

A few notes:

• I do all the mixing in a blender, less effort, less mess, and it mixes in the sticky peanut butter nicely, but you could quite happily use a good old fashioned bowl and whisk.
• I'm not usually one for cup measures but just grabbing your favourite average sized mug to measure the flour is much easier than getting the scales out at breakfast hour.
• Makes about 15 big ones

You will need

• A non-stick frying pan
• 1 ¼ cup self-raising Flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 2 heaped tbsp peanut butter

The recipe:

• Get your pan on a medium heat.
• Pop The dry ingredients in to the blender and give everything a pulse.
• Now blend in the milk and egg, followed by the p. butter.
• If you want a little help with non-stickness, grease your pan with a bit of butter.
• Now I pour heaped tables spoons of batter straight from the blender into the pan, it saves washing up an extra spoon. If you're less lazy than me you could do it old school and spoon the mixture in.
• Cook for a few minutes and when bubbles start to show on the up-facing surface, give the pancake a flip and cook for another few mins.

We have a special recipe today from Amy Levin of Ooosha... Raw Culinary Artistry for delectable bitesize mole truffles.

If you have fun making these, Amy offers world class training for all levels—whether you're an aspiring raw chocolate chef or just want to learn some new skills. If you mention Flavrbox when signing up to her classes, Amy is offering an amazing 25% off! To find out more information about her classes—including glittering reviews—take a look at her website.

Amy also offers a free healthy recipes mailing list, which you can sign up to here.

Mole Truffles

Ingredients (makes 50 bite sized truffles)

• 250g raw almond butter (or make your own in the vita mix)
• 50g pumpkin seeds - soaked, rinsed and dehydrated
• 75g raisins + 100g soak water
• 50g maple syrup2 tsp nama shoyu
• 1 1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds - ground in a mortar and pestle
• 2 ancho chilis - de-seeded and soaked with the raisins
• 2 tsp chipotle pepper - de-seeded and roughly chopped
• 35 g cacao powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean, scraped and empty pod reserved for other uses 
• 1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1 tbsp cinnamon powder
• Pinch cayenne pepper or smoked hot paprika (optional)
• 225g 78% Ooosha dark chocolate or a high quality raw dark chocolate of your choice

Method 

1. Soak the chipotle, anchos and raisins in enough water to cover for 4 hours or until soft. 
2. I made my own almond butter by using my vita mix; Put 250g of soaked and dehydrated almonds in the vita mix, turn the blender on high speed and, using the tamper stick, push the nuts into the blades until you have reached a nice smooth consistency. Be aware that the blender conducts a fair bit of heat, so you want to really use the tamper stick to keep things moving and finish the butter within a minute of blending and it's best to cool the butter in the fridge or freezer before proceeding with the rest of the recipe. This will keep the heat down.  
3. Add the remaining ingredients except the melted chocolate and blend like fury, using the tamper stick to help you. Don't add more liquid as it was change the recipe completely in the end, however if you choose to add more liquid then you will need to also add a bit more chocolate to keep the consistency right.
4. Turn the mix out into a large mixing bowl, pour in the melted chocolate and whisk it all to combine. At this stage you could also add some textures, like cacao nibs or chopped pumpkin seeds, if you wanted textured truffles.
5. Cover with cling film, press the film right on top of the mix so it doesn't create a skin while it cools. Set in the fridge or freezer. Best thing to do is leave it in the fridge overnight as this allows it to slowly set and the flavours will develop more, in fact, over the coming days the flavours will continue to develop. 
6. Finally, with cacao dusted hands, roll the truffles into balls. Alternatively, you can set the mix into silicon moulds, pop them out and then roll in chocolate. If you choose to roll into balls, then don't coat with powders as this will not allow the chocolate to adhere. You could, however, roll them in chopped nuts and then dip in chocolate for a nice underlying texture.

The Flavrbox Team want to take a moment to show support for the wonderful Thanks For Farmers project, created by a group of passionate University of Plymouth students. Their mission? To encourage recognition for our hardworking British farmers.

So add your thanks to farmers, for preserving our beautiful countryside, for working hard to provide us food we so often take for granted, for their dedication to make the world a better place. Here is our 'thank you': 

From the far far away land of Belgium, from the watering mouth of a seldom foodie entrepreneur living in the field of Bristol, from a man who's travelled the world in search for food, I shall bow to those that dirty their hands to make our tastebuds go wild!

I shall treat those that, comes rain or shine, spend their time lovingly growing and rearing so we can LIVE.

I shall thank those farmers and small producers to make this world a better place, and I am proud to say that to do so, we have launched www.flavrbox.com to say THANK YOU!

Leave your thanks!

Flavrbox is proud to announce that we have partnered with the Gourmet Society! Thanks to this partnership, all Flavrbox cutstomers can benefit from an excusive deal for a 3 month free trial membership to the Gourmet Society. This membership gives incredible discounts at around 5500 restaurants throughout the UK and Ireland. Each restaurant offers members either 2 for 1 meals, 50% off food or 25% off food and drink. The huge selection of restaurants includes Michelin-starred establishments, everyday family favourites, country gastro-pubs and national chains such as Prezzo, Café Rouge, Revolution, Living Room and Loch Fyne among others.  

Simply register here and you’ll be sent your free dining card along with a comprehensive printed guide so you can start enjoying your savings straight away! If you decide to take out an annual membership at the end of your trial, you will even be entitled to a discounted rate of £39.95 (40% off RRP). Happy dining! 

Terms and Conditions: Offers and availability may vary. Participating restaurants subject to change. A valid credit/debit card is required to register for your free trial. Membership is free for the first 3 months, you can return your card at any time during the free period and won’t be charged. If you keep your card after the free period, you will become a full member and be charged the specially reduced rate of £39.95 for annual membership. For full terms and conditions visit www.gourmetsociety.co.uk.

The Digital London Challenge are running a competition for new startups as part of the Digital London summit. The thirty highest ranked startups will go on to be examined by judges, who will shortlist twelve startups for a public vote. 

Even being nominated for the shortlist would give Flavrbox an amazing boost, so if you have a moment, please vote for us. Voting requires one click and all you need to enter is your email address. As of writing, we are ranked 4 out of 10—with your help, we can get even higher!

Vote for Flavrbox!

Recipe by Natasha Piper, adapted from Waitrose recipes.

A light, simple winter pasta soup recipe adapted from Waitrose recipes. This soup is a meal in itself containing protein from the lentils and carbohydrates from the pasta. Some sourdough bread and butter recommended only for the extra hungry!

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 200g dry cured lardons or diced pancetta
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic gloves, chopped
• 1/2 small red chilli, chopped and deseeded
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 1 carrot, diced
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 100g green or Puy lentils
• 1.5l hot chicken or vegetable stock
• 100g small pasta bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• big bunch of spring greens, kale or spinach.

Instructions

1. Cook the lardons, onions, celery and carrot in a large saucepan for around 5 mins until the bacon begins to crisp (add olive oil if necessary - try Prima Oliva's Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil).
2. Add the chopped garlic and chilli and stir.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for a further 2 mins until pulpy, then stir in the lentils and stock. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and season with salt & pepper.
4. Add the pasta and cook for a further 10 minutes until both the lentils and pasta are tender. Add water if necessary.
5. Roughly chop the spring greens if using, and steam for a couple of minutes in a separate pan. 
6. Serve the soup in generous-sized bowls, with the greens piled on top to add wonderful colour and freshness to the dish. You can swirl a bit of extra-virgin olive oil on top and sprinkle with sea salt - try something from our Salt Yourself Out range.

Enjoy!

The Flavrbox Tasting Box: a new way to discover and sample some of the great food on Flavrbox. Launching soon! Enter your email address here and we'll notifty you when it's available! 

Most people just goes for something quick and easy to throw together when it comes to dinner on a weekday. As you might have figured out now, I'm not most people. Or very normal for that matter.

The night I cooked this I started with two tubs, pork and beef, mince that needed using up and it all ended with a fairly involved dish. Don't let that turn you off though, it is well worth the effort - even if I say so myself.

Cooking en papillote is quite easy and can be varied to you hearts content. Personally I would probably mostly associate it with cooking fish. However, as I am showing you here it doesn't just have to be fish. I've also cooked chicken en papillote for example.

The meatballs I made are made the way I'd call typically Swedish. That means that they are made with a 50/50 blend of pork and beef mince. Other variations are of course also welcome. Heck, if you don't have the time, just use pre-made meatballs and a jar of shop bought tomato sauce.

Yes, I did just say that - you can use some pre-made stuff if you feel like it. Go for it, at least you assemble the dish in a slightly more interesting way than a nuked ready meal of meatballs and spaghetti. It could be a good start down the slippery road of cooking from scratch.

After that bombshell, let's have a look at the recipe.

Ingredients (made far too many meatballs but freeze the leftovers)

• Meatballs
  • 500g pork mince
  • 500g beef mince
  • Salt (try our Salt Yourself Out range)
  • Pepper
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Breadcrumbs
• Tomato sauce
  • 500g Passata
  • 1 onion, diced
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Smoked paprika
  • Worcestershire Sauce
  • Brown sugar, optional 
• Olive oil (such as Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Prima Oliva)
• Spaghetti, cooked according to the instructions on the packaging
• Parmesan cheese, grated
• Fresh basil, torn

Method

Meatballs

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Shape meatballs about 3cm or so in diameter. Heat the oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Fry the meatballs in batches, without crowding the pan, until nicely browned on all sides.

Tomato sauce

Heat oil in a pan on medium heat. Let the onion sizzle away until it starts to soften but not gaining any colour.  Add in the passata, stir well and season to taste. Add sugar if you think it is a bit too tart .Let this simmer away until it has gained the thickness you desire.

Assembly

Stir in the spaghetti and torn basil with the tomato sauce. Place spaghetti and sauce on pieces of parchment paper, top with meatballs and grated parmesan. Make a small bag out of the parchment paper and tie together with butcher's twine or use silicone rubberbands to close it together.

Place the parcels in a oven preheated to 180c. Let cook for about 15 - 20 minutes or until the parmesan have melted sufficiently.

Place the bags on heated plates and open at the table. Enjoy!

This recipe is adapted from Freestyle Cookery, a wonderful recipe and review blog by Michael Eriksson.

Garibaldi Biscuits

A few notes:

• This is a fairly tricky dough to play with, so I like to deal with a bit at a time; cutting off a chunk, rolling into a rectangle cutting in half and making into biscuits, rather than splitting the whole thing in half and having to roll each half out into a giant rectangle.
• Squish in lots and lots of currant, the more the merrier....more that you think, it'll make a difference to the final biscuit.
• You can make these as big and fat or small and dainty as you like. I like a sturdy but not too hefty size and thickness.
• Makes a good biscuit tin-full

You will need

• a baking sheet, well greased
• 200g self-raising flour
• 100 soft butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 2-3 tbsp milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 150gish currants
• a good sprinkling of granulated sugar

The recipe:

• Preheat your oven to 180°c.
• Sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter with the tips of your fingers (ooor you could do all this in a food processor, adding and whizzing everything in the same order).
• Mix in enough milk to bring everything together to a soft dough and turn out onto a floured surface.
• Roll out some of the dough (see notes) into a long rectangle. Then trim the edges and cut tin half so you have 2 rectangles the same size, about the height of your Garibaldi's length.
• Move one rectangle onto your baking sheet, brush with egg and sprinkle with lots of currants.
• Push the currants down into the dough and then pop the second rectangle on top. 
• Brush the top with egg and then sprinkle liberally with granulated sugar.
• Slice into separate biscuits and shuffle them around so there is a gap between each one.
• Repeat this process until you've used up all your dough.
• Bake the biscuits for 12ish minutes, until golden and crisp looking and put the kettle on.

From Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer by Jane Brocket

A few notes:

• I'm sorry about being a bit vague about amounts for the filling, its just that it's more of an assembly job than anything, so really its up to you how much of each layer you fancy, or even how big you want to make the pastry cases. Just go with the flow...this can NOT taste bad.
• Of course you could use the pastry cases for anything you fancy really, you could make mini Brownie Pies or just fill with fruit and Greek yogurt if you want to pretend you're being healthy.
• As I've said numerous times before, this pastry is beautifully buttery and melt-in-the-mouthey thanks to the addition of ground almonds and a light hand. What that also means though is that it’s a bit of a bum to roll out because it is so short  and crumbly. What I tend to end up doing is rolling it out to the thickness I want, attempting to line the tin, and then patching up and patting in the leftovers into gaps and tears. So don’t be disheartened it will turn good in the end.
• You can indeed make you're own dulche de leche, but I haven't ever done that yet...so I'll update you when I do and know exactly how.
• Makes 6 big individual pies

You will need

• A 6 holed muffin pan, well grease 

For the pastry

• 210g plain flour
• 50g caster sugar
• 50g ground almonds
• 125g butter
• 1 egg 

For the filling

• 1 tin dulche do leche (Carnation caramel) 
• 2 ripe bananas, sliced
• 1 medium tub double cream, whipped lightly
• 1 square dark chocolate

The recipe:

• So let’s get going. First things first make the pastry by popping all the dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse together. Then whiz in the butter followed by the egg and leave trundling around until it comes together to form a dough (you could also do this by rubbing in the butter with your finger tips then mixing in the egg by hand).
• Turn out the dough, pat into a disc and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 180°c.
• When the pastry's ready, roll it out as best you can to a rectangle. Lay over the muffin tin and gently push down to line the holes. Patch up any tears that appear with leftover bits and pieces. 
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until just turning golden.
• As soon as the pastry's out of the oven use a sharp knife to cut between the holes to make square topped cases.
• Leave to cool in the tin for around 15 minutes then gently remove and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
• Now for filling, blob and smooth a couple of teaspoons of the caramel into the bottom of each case. top with banana then cream.
• For a final flourish grate a sprinkling of chocolate over the top. Enjoy and leave feeling fancy for another day.  

These nights have strict requirements if they are to reach the desired heights of fun; fun that means that although you weren't even remotely tipsy, by the next morning, the memories are a blur of chatter, gaaffoooors and that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from spending time with people that make you smile.

Requirements: 

• Food to nibble on while dinner is cooking; you're probably rAVenous from speeding about all day.
• Beverages that are delicious and fancy feeling while being gloriously low-maintenance; current fav = fizz and cordial. English Cox's apple is a recent discovery, or perhaps one of those lovely drinks by the Lovely Drinks people from right here on Flavrbox. 
• A deliiiicious tea, or dinner if you prefer, which requires no effort.
• Banterbanterlaughterlaughter.
• And finally, a nice hot cup of tea and PJs.

These cheesy whirls satisfy requirement #1, in fact satisfy doesn't cover it in the slightest. They went down a STORM, and to be honest, I was a bit worried that they might be a bit divisive; they have a superstrong flavour. But no, perfect 'after work, dinner's cooking, let’s have chats' food. And soso simple for you...so go on, PJs on. 

A few notes:

• This is so straight forward that it would be easy to chop and change the filling to what you fancy; other cheese, other herbs, you could even go sweet and do cinnamon and crunchy brown sugar.
• To make things easier still, I used a shop bought pastry. Though do feel free to make your own and do feel smug about it.
• Makes around 20

You will need

• A large baking sheet, greased
• 250g shortcrust pastry, bought or with a little help from Delia, found here. I would double the recipe, freezing any leftovers, and replace the lard with butter
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• around 50g (a nice chunk) Applewood Smoked Cheddar
• 1 egg

The recipe:

• Roll out the pastry to a neat rectangle; the size isn't really important but make sure it's around 1/2 cm thick.
• Brush egg all over the pastry, then scatter over the rosemary and grate over the cheese.
• Roll the pastry up like a swiss-roll from one of the long edges of the rectangle and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Cut the roll, with a serrated knife, into swirls, about every 1.5cms...or as thick as you want them.
• Preheat the oven to 180°c.
• Bake the whirls for 20-25 minutes until golden and lovely looking...let the fun commence. 

But I still want breakfast to be a treat, it's the first thing you eat after not consuming anything for a whole half a day and I want it to be something I look forward to when the alarm goes off in what really should be classed as the middle of the night considering the dark and the cold, which in Scotland, can be the case for pretty much an entire day

If you're not a peanut butter fan, firstly, eeerrrrm perhaps book an appointment with your GP, and secondly, you might want to go away and make a cup of tea while I waffle on (mmm waffles) a bit more. If you are a fan though, hurrah, this is the perfect busy weekday brekkie. Make ahead, half healthy (oats, natural peanut butter), half treaty (butter and quite a lot of sugar), cut and come again and swoon worthily delicious, it has all the required attributes. 

I'm afraid the warm, fudgey, claggy-in-a-good-way geniusness of this simple bake doesn't translate well via photographs, which really just show brown stodge, so you'll just have to trust me, oooor perhaaaaps you might want to give it a go yourself, go on you know you want to. 

A few notes:

• The portion here was served, after a blast in the microwave, with milk and elderberry syrup, I was going for a PB&Jam feel. But you could go with just plain, with actual jam or banana is really good too, or how about Nutella. yEEEs.
• I was anxious that mine wasn't cooking and setting enough so after 20minutes in the oven I mixed everything around in the dish to redistribute it all. Ooor I could be lying and I could have had an accident which involved turning the dish upside down in the oven and having to spoon everything back into the dish, you decide. Either way I have tweaked the oven temperature and cooking time so hopefully you won't have to do that.
• I feel a bit adverse to weighing things for a breakfast so I just used a average sized mug to measure everything and popped it into the dish that looked most appropriately sized. Much simpler and more breakfast friendly that scales.
• Makes enough for a good weeks' breakfast for one

You will need

• a small-ish ovenproof dish, greased
• 1.5 mugs oats
• 1 mug soft brown sugar
• 3/4 mug milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 your fav peanut butter- I used organic smooth with no added sugar

 The recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 180°c.
• Mix everything together in a large bowl until well combined. A strong whisk is helpful here.
• Pour and scrape the mix into your oven dish then pop into the oven and bake for 35 minutes. If it looks golden and wobble-free at this point, fab, you're ready, if it's not quite set, give it another 10 minutes.
• Set aside to cool overtime and fall asleep excited.

Adapted from tidymom

A few notes:

• Don't be tempted to overfill the pastry with jam- it will bubble up and stick and cause disaster. Be restrained at this point.
• I used muffin pans here, just because my shallower fairy cake size pans haven't yet made the journey to my Scottish kitchen. So use fairy cake ones if you can, muffin pans just make it a bit trickier to get the baked tarts out.
• Use any preserve you like, I always like to do half lemon curd and half jam, Mr Kipling Stylee, but use whatever you fancy or just what you have in the house.
• Although I said it's a good recipe for leftover pastry, I'll pop a recipe for it from scratch in case you want to make it specially, or you could easily use shop bought shortcrust.
• Makes as many as you fancy, this amount of pastry will make tonnes

You will need

• Fairy cake tins, heavily greased and dusted with flour

For the pastry

• 210g plain flour
• 50g caster sugar
• 50g ground almonds
• 125g butter
• 1 egg 

• Jam, curd, preserve etcetc

The recipe: 

• So let’s get going. First things first make the pastry by popping all the dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse together. Then whiz in the butter followed by the egg and leave trundling around until it comes together to form a dough (you could also do this by rubbing in the butter with your finger tips then mixing in the egg by hand).
• Turn out the dough, pat into a disc and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 180°c.
• When the pastry's ready roll it out, cut discs to fit your tin with a cutter or mug and line the tin.
• Fill each little pastry case with a teaspoon-full of jam and pop the tin in the oven.
• Bake for 12-15 minutes until the pastry is golden round the edges.
• Throw a party and feel nostalgic.

A few notes:

• Out of bare cupboard necessity, I used Golden Syrup for the syrup part and dark muscovado for the sugar part. Traditionally though, at least some of the syrup would be black treacle so you could follow my recipe verbatim, use all treacle and all light brown sugar or chop and change and use a combination.
• The joy/pain of Parkin is that it gets better with age- so don't make it when you are extra-specially hungry, but when you have a plan. Wrap it in foil and leave well alone for a couple of days at least before tucking in.
• I haven't tried it yet but parkin warmed, with a squodge of cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream, might be reminiscent of sticky toffee pud....why not give it a go.
• Makes 10ish big squares

You will need

• A 23cm round or 25x25cm square cake tin, nicely greased 
• 1x454g tin of golden syrup
• 125g butter
• 140ml milk
• 125g soft brown sugar
• 170g plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 340g oatmeal

 The recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 160°c.
• Pop the syrup and butter in a pan over a low heat and melt the butter.
• Stir the milk and sugar into the pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
• Mix the flour, bicarb, spices and oatmeal in a large bowl and pour over the warm liquid.
• Stir everything together and pour into the cake tin.
• Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden and risen but moist and gooey looking.
• Store wrapped in foil for a few days before cutting into squares and munching.

Adapted from Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer by Jane Brocket

It's also a great bread for beginner bakers to try out, because although kneading such quantities of dried fruit into a springy dough is a bit of a bugger, the loaf doesn't rely on a light, springy texture; the result of experience, intricacies and sometimes luck, to make it magical.

In fact, it's not light and fluffy at all, it's dense and sweet and just the right side of gooey. Perfect for a toasty tea after some energy-burning winter activity. The sort of thing that leaves you with rosy cheeks, a cold nose and needing something to warm you up from the inside.

A few notes:

• Like I said, kneading the fruit into the dough is a pain, but just do it a bit at a time and you'll get there. You'll probably loose a currant here or there but it can't be helped, it's the quantity of fruit which makes this bread so brill.
• The quantity of fruit also means that when sliced, the bread is quick delicate and prone to breaking up a bit, so I prefer to toast under the grill rather than in a toaster.
• This recipe could either make one large 2lb loaf or two littler 1lb loaves. I prefer to make two so I can freeze one for another day. If you go for the bigger one, just up the cooking time by 10 minutes or so.

You will need

• 1 2lb loaf tin or 2 1lbs tins, greased and floured
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey
• 150 ml warm water
• 1 1/2 tsp dried yeast
• 30g butter, at room temperature
• 500g strong wholemeal bread flour
• 150ml strongly brewed tea or warm milk
• 375g of dried fruit- I like a mixture of currants, sultanas and mixed peel

 The recipe:

• First things first, dissolve 1/2 a tbsp of the honey in the warm water, stir in the yeast and set aside for 10 minutes so it can get nice and frothy.
• Meanwhile in a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips.
• Dissolve the final tbsp on honey into the tea or milk and add it to the flour along with the yeast mixture.
• Work together to form a dough and then knead for 5 minutes until it becomes springy and smooth.
• Now pop back in the bowl and leave somewhere cosy and warm for about an hour, until just about doubled in size.
• Then knead the dough again and work in the dried fruit, a bit at a time. 
• Pop the fruity dough into the tin/s and leave to rise again for 30 minutes to 1 hour, until nice and tall and proud looking.
• Preheat the oven to 190° and bake the bread for 30 minutes.
• When nice and golden on top, turn the loaves out of the tin, and pop back in the oven, upside down, straight onto the shelf for another 5 minutes to crisp up the bottom. Some fruit likes to jump off at this point so it might be best to stick a baking sheet on the shelf below so you don't end up with current-ey cinders burning in the bottom of your oven.
• Slice, toast, spread, enjoy.

Adapted from my Dad's very old Sunday Times Book of Real Bread.

It won't matter that you only got halfway through your 'to-do' list and you've got a whole new one for tomorrow. And it won’t matter that it’s January and you were meant to be doing ‘this’ and not doing ‘that’, which generally means less fun, so you haven’t really done and not done it any way.

No worries. You’ve got this. This ooey-gooey, too hot, too sweet, too sticky and utterly satisfying circle of love to get you through. He'll mop your brow in times of stress, he'll dry your tears when you're sad and he'll rub your feet when they're sore (symbolically that is, don't actually put your feet near him). Rest your head in a bowl of this divine syrupy goodness, swimming in cream; both pouring AND clotted if it's extra-specially bad, and for a glorious moment or two, nothing else will matter. All is well and your tummy will smile. 

A few notes:

• You might consider doubling the pastry amounts and popping half in the freezer before the resting stage. It's so handy to have some ready and waiting and maybe, possibly, perhaps it might be required for other things you'll find on here soon.
• Whenever I have a bit of bread that's too stale for eating, I whizz it to crumbs in my processor and keep them in a bag in the freezer. You can just keep adding to them and whenever you need a few handfuls for something just use them from frozen, no need to defrost. This means I actually used a mixture of wholemeal and white crumbs for the tart, you can use one or the other too though, whatever you have to hand really.
• If you don't have a food processor you can use a grater to make the crumbs. It'll be a bit more messy and time consuming and the crumbs probably won't be as fine but if it means treacle tart is a possibility when it wouldn't be otherwise- totally worth it.
• Also...as usual, I used a food processor for the pastry. You can use your fingers for rubbing in the butter and bringing it all together.
• Makes an 18cm tart

You will need

•  a shallow 18cm cake or pie tin tin, greased

 For the pastry

• 110g plain flour
• 50g butter
• 1-2 tbsp cold water

 For the filling

• 400g golden syrup
• 125g breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 50g butter

 The recipe:

• First lets get on with the pastry. Pop the flour in the processor and give it a pulse.
• Next whizz in the butter until it has a texture of fine breadcrumbs then, a tbsp at a time, whizz in the water until everything comes together and makes you a nice dough.
• Pat into a flat disc and let rest in the fridge in a bag or some clingfilm for 1/2 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 180°.
• When the pastry's ready, roll it out so it's big enough to cover the base and sides of the tin. 
• Press it into the prepared tin and trim off any excess that folds over the top of the sides.
• Let it wait in the fridge while you get on with the easy-peasy part- the filling.
• Just pop everything in a saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted.
• Pour into the the pastry case, smooth the top down and bake 25-ish minutes- until the pastry is a teeny bit golden.
• Eat when it's just a bit too hot, the cream will cool it down. Any leftover can be reheated for a few minutes in the oven when it's required. 

It is the peeeeerfect student staple food; something to rely on on those days when you only have a potato and curry paste left in the fridge. With yogurt and fruit for breakfast on days that start in the rush that they continue, in a big bowl with milk for a desk picnic (much nicer than a 'working lunch'), or as dry clusters absent mindedly poppoppopped into an open mouth as a standing-up snack to accompany a kitchen catch up.

However you work this into your life it will remain crispy and crunchy with surprise chewy bits here and there, it will be faintly spiced and toasty tasting...and would you credit it, rather healthy too.

This was indeed one of my staples as a student and I have only just rediscovered its glory. The smell that seeps out of the oven is one of my student-time smells, that and Malibu.
I've made granola from other recipes since my obsession with this one but will return to Nigella for ever and ever. She is another staple.

A few notes:

• For the apple compote part, I tend to get out a few slices of cooking apple that I've kept in the freezer as leftovers from pies etc and zap in the microwave until cooked and mushy. I even leave the skins, they become lovely and chewy in the granola. Or of course you could use already cooked apple or even buy it in a jar.
• This recipe is open to endless interpretation, add what you like...I've recently seen a recipe that rather festiv-ly adds dries cranberries and crystalised ginger. Coconut is a nice one. Nig also suggests a chocolate and peanut version. But like I said I will always return to this one as a basic.
• The original recipe requires brown rice syrup but I've never seen that anywhere, so I use malt extract which I get from Holland & Barrett. I love malt, it's what Edinburgh smells like.
• Makes about 1 litre

You will need

• a baking sheet, lightly oiled
• 250g rolled oats
• 90g apple compote
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1/2tsp ground ginger
• 60g malt extract
• 2 tbsp runny honey
• 50g light brown sugar
• 250g your fav nuts- I like a mix of pecan, brazils and almonds
• pinch salt
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 150g sultanas

The recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 170°c.
• Mix everything, except the sultanas, together thoroughly. It might look like it wont come together but it will eventually, promise.
• Spread the oaty mix out onto the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. 
• Then stir and rejig anything around a bit and the return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
• Leave to cool in the baking sheet for 5ish minutes, and then stir around again to make clusters and crumbs. It might feel a bit soft at this point but will crisp up as it cools.
• When it's all cooled down completely stir through the sultanas and keep in a nice airtight jar or tub.
• Eat whenever. where ever, just eat.

Tweaked from Nigella's Feast, one fabulous cook book.

Don't you just love a good tart? I certainly do and always make sure I've got some sheets of puff pastry stashed away in my freezer to quickly satisfy any tart cravings that may occur. Part of the reason I love tarts is that they are a great vehicle for using up odds and ends.

So, the tart in question involved slowly caramelising some sliced red onions in balsamic vinegar and brown sugar until sticky and syrupy, my house smelt amazing. Then all was required was some assembly work....unrolling out the puff pastry sheet, spreading over the onions and bacon and crumbling over the feta. So simple but so so tasty. Sun dried tomatoes and goats cheese would work well as an alternative, as would olives and grated cheddar. What are your favourite tart toppings?

Caramelised Red Onion, Feta and Bacon Tart Ingredients: to serve 4 with side salad

395g sheet of Puff Pastry

2 Red Onions

2 TBSP Balsamic Vinegar

1 TBSP Brown Sugar

1 TBSP fresh Thyme leaves Salt and Pepper

3 Smoked Bacon rashers, chopped

200g Feta, crumbled

Method:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 220c/200fan.

Step 2: In a pan fry the onion with a little oil until soft, turn up the heat and add the balsamic vinegar, sugar, thyme, salt, pepper and bacon, fry for 5 minutes and set aside to cool.

Step 3: Unroll the pastry sheet and score a line 1cm in from the edge around the sides. Prick the base with a fork.

Step 4: Spoon the cooled onion and bacon mixture over the base, keeping within the scored line, then top with the feta. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. I sprinkled over a few torn basil leaves at the end to add some colour.

Thanks to JamAndClottedCream for this delicious guest blog!

 A few notes:

• If you like a bit of extra chew to your Biscotti, eat as soon as poss. Conversely, if you like extra crunch for extra dunking time, leave to dry out for a few days.
• You could make mini Biscotti if you fancied; they'd make a lovely prezzie. Just divide the dough into 4 logs rather than 2 and reduce the cooking time by 5 minutes or so.
• Makes a biscuit tin-full

You will need

•  A large baking sheet, lined
• 75g soft butter
• 250g granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, 1 separated
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1 level tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

The recipe:

• Preheat your oven to 170°c.
• Cream your butter and sugar together with an electric hand whisk or wooden spoon until pale and fluffy looking (it won't be as smooth and voluminous looking as if you were using caster sugar but go with it), it'll take around 4 minutes.
• Beat in 1 egg and then the yolk of the other with the vanilla.
• Gently stir in the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt to form a stiff dough.
• Divide the mixture into 2 and make a log out of each half; around 23cm long and 4cm wide.
• Pop the logs onto your baking sheet.
• Combine the tablespoon of sugar and teaspoon of cinnamon.
• Brush the logs with the left over egg white and sprinkle over the cinnamon sugar.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes until the logs are puffed up and golden and leave until cool enough to handle.
• Using a sharp serrated knife cut the the logs diagonally to form Biscotti.
• Lay each biscuit back on the baking sheet on one of its cut sides, sprinkle with any remaining spiced sugar and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
• Leave to cool completely on a wire rack and get the coffee on.

 From Honey and Jam...a very lovely place.

Bramble Brownie Pie

A few notes:

•  Of course you could go ahead and just make the brownies without the pastry case and assume that it's just me being a twit. I'd turn the oven down 20ish° and give an extra 15 minutes to bake. •
•  If everything does end up too runny for your liking, serve in a bowl with pouring cream or ice cream and call is chocolate pudding. Done.
• You don't have to use the blackberries if you don't have any or can't be bothered to go and pick them, just leave them out. •
• If you prefer a sweeter brownie you could substitute some of the dark chocolate for milk chocolate, but it's best to keep at least half of the chocolate that you melt dark, so you get that ultra chocolatey taste. •
• This pastry is beautifully buttery and melt-in-the-mouthey thanks to the addition of ground almonds and a light hand. What that also means though is that it’s a bit of a bum to roll out because it is so short and crumbly. What I tend to end up doing is rolling it out to the thickness I want, attempting to line the tin, and then patching up and patting in the leftovers into gaps and tears. So don’t be disheartened it will turn good in the end. 
• Makes an 18cm pie

You will need

An 18cm round cake tin or pie dish, greased 

For the pastry 

• 210g plain flour 
• 50g caster sugar 
• 50g ground almonds 
• 125g butter 
• 1 egg

 For the brownie filling

• 3 eggs 
• 175g caster sugar 
• 175g dark chocolate 
• 150g butter 
• 100g plain flour 
• 225g blackberries 
• 100g chocolate chips or chopped chocolate of your choice

The recipe

1. So let’s get going. First things first make the pastry by popping all the dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse together. Then whiz in the butter followed by the egg and leave trundling around until it comes together to form a dough (you could also do this by rubbing in the butter with your finger tips then mixing in the egg by hand). 
2. Turn out the dough, pat into a disc and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour. 
3. When it’s ready roll it out as best you can and line the tin (see note). Pop the tin in the fridge while you get on with the rest of the pie. Preheat the oven to 180°c. 
4. Now for the filling. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until well combined and a bit more voluminous. 
5. Then melt the chocolate and butter together gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water or in a microwave. 
6. Mix the chocolate mixture into the eggs and then fold in the flour, berries and chocolate. 
7. Pour the filling into the pastry case and bake for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden and the top of the brownie has a dark crust and doesn't wobble, just gives a little. 
8. Cool on a wire wrack in the tin for 10 minutes or so, then turn out if you can...though if it's easier feel free to serve out the tin. 
9. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream. Good luck.

These extravagant little madams are super moist and filled with so much goodness that they don't need any splitting and spreading. Just eat them fresh and warm and they will make you so happy that you'll wiggle your toes and hop, skip and jump into the rest of your day.

A few notes:

• The dough this recipe makes is rather a wet and sticky one, so just make sure that when you're patting it out, the surface and your hands are nicely floured.
• You can pick and choose the fruit and chocolate to suit your favs- maybe chopped strawberries and milk chocolate, or perhaps you'd like to take out the naughtyness (WHY??) and go for full on fruityness, using only blueberries say. Go craaaazy and try things out. Just keep the total amount of added things along the lines of the stated 220g, splitting and dividing it in to all the things you love.
• All my hints and tips regarding how to make the perfect scone apply to these ones as well. Find them here.
• Makes 9

You will need

• A greased baking sheet
• 250g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 50g granulated sugar
• 85g butter
• 220g in total of raspberries and chocolate- I used 116g raspberries and 104g white chocolate, roughly chopped
• 170g ricotta
• 100ml double or whipping cream

The recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 220°c.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar together either in a bowl or food processor.
3. Now rub in the butter until you get a 'fine breadcrumb', texture using the processor or you fingertips. 
4. If you're using the food processor tip the mixture into a bowl.
5. Stir through the raspberries and chocolate and then mix in the ricotta and cream lightly with a metal spoon and bring everything together to form and squishy dough.
6. Transfer to your well-floured surface and with floured hands, gently pat into a square with a depth of about 2.5cm
7. Divide into 9 squares with a sharp knife.
8. Transfer the squares to the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. They're done when they're golden on top but they will still quite squidgy looking.
9. You'll probably have to leave them to cool and firm up on the tray for 5 minutes or so and then transfer to a wire rack/plate to cool/eat.

Recipe inspired by smitten kitchen,

Ginger Biscuits

(adapted from Jane Brocket's Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer)

A few notes:

• The first time I made these I think my oven must have been cooler because they didn't spread out so much and were thicker and spongier. So maybe go for nearer 160 degrees if that's how you like your bickies, or 180 if you like something a bit thinner.
• I put heaps of spice in my mixture because (gasp) my spices are a bit old. So if yours are new, rein it in a bit or the ginger might pop you head off.
• I find it simpler to make the dough in a food processor, just following the recipe order below. I know you don't have one though so I'll write it in the messy way.
• Makes around 15

You will need

• A large baking sheet, lined with baking paper
• 120g soft butter
• 120 g caster sugar
• 1 dessert spoon golden syrup
• 1 egg yolk
• 200g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 heaped tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• a pinch ground nutmeg

The recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°.
2. Now cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric whisk or a wooden spoon and a strong arm.
3. Next beat in the golden syrup and egg yolk.
4. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and work together with your hands until you have a firm dough.
5. Break off smallish blobs of dough, roll into balls and press lightly onto the baking sheet, keeping a good gap between each one.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes until they have turned a slightly darker gold and transfer to a baking sheet to cool.
7. Brew tea, dunk, mmmmm.

Norwegian Skillingsboller

adapted in a roundabout way from Nigella's How To Be a Domestic Goddess

A few notes:

• These are definitely best eaten on the day of making, after that a quick zap in the microwave helps them along a bit.
• I started off with 300g of flour but needed to add heaps more to make a viable dough, so I'd start with 350g and be ready to add more if needs be.
• Some recipes say to nestle the buns together and bake, so you have to tear off buns from a big sheet of them, others say spread them out...you do what ever you fancy but if you go for the spread out option they'll need 5 or 10 minutes less in the oven.
• Makes around 10

You will need

• a baking tray, lined
• For the dough
• 350g plain flour
• 50g granulated sugar
• 3 tsp dried yeast
• 50g butter
• 200ml milk
• 1 egg
  
  
• For the filling:
• 75g soft butter
• 75g granulated sugar
• 1 heaped tsp cinnamon

The recipe:

• First things first, pop the butter and milk into a saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted.
• This needs to be left to cool for a good 5 minutes, so meanwhile, weigh out the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl.
• Now whisk the egg into the buttery milk and pour into the bowl with the flour.
• Time to get your hands in there and bring everything together to a soft dough, adding more flour if you need.
• Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.
• Pop the dough back in his bowl and leave somewhere cosy for an hour or until just about doubled in size.
• Meanwhile make the filling by mixing the butter, sugar and spice together.
• After the hour, turn the dough out onto a clean floured surface and roll to a rectange of about 40x25 cm.
• Spread over the cinnamony butter and roll up from one of the long ends like a swiss roll.
• Cut, with a nice sharp bread knife, every 2.5 cm and lay each bun, swirl side up/down onto the baking tray with a couple of cm gap between each one.
• Now leave them to rise back in the cosy place for another 15 minutes to half an hour while you preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
• When the buns have puffed up a bit, pop them in the oven for 20 minutes, until they look golden and beautiful.
• Cool for a bit but eat while still warm, as soon as possible, while pretending you're tucked up in a wood cabin next to a roaring to fire.

So I like the ideeea of French Toast, but whenever I actually have it (which is not often, given the hate part of my feelings) I've always regretted the fact that I had it instead of pancakes or pastries of plain old buttery toast. It's the chewy, eggy layer on the surface of the bread that ruins it for me.

But I want to like it. I want to love it. I want to add it to my treat breakfast repertoire. I want to think, when I've got left over stale bread to use up, "I know, I'll make French Toast, yum". 

So here's what I did to persuade myself that French Toast and I are a match made in heaven; Strawberry Stuffed French Toast. It was indeed very yummy, almost cheesecake crossed with bread and butter pudding. Saying that makes me feel stooopid for still lamenting the lack of pancake involvement in this breakfast...cheesecake and bread and butter pudding...how can that be lamented??

But I did enjoy it and would make it again and if you're not one of those for whom the words eggy bread are wrinkled-up-nose-inducing you will LOVE it. It is raaaather filling so perfect for brunch on days that you know you'll have a late dinner or need lots of carbs and cals to see you through. I hope you do like it, I'll continue to persevere. 

Strawberry Stuffed French Toast

 A few notes:

• I think it might help alleviate the chewy eggy layer problem to soak the bread in the egg for a good few minutes each side. I only left mine in for a quick moment.
• Bread that is not fresh but not too stale is best for this. Too dry and it will crack and you'll lose lots of filling, too fresh and it won’t soak up all the eggyness.
• I served my French Toast with a sort of strawberry compote. I basically defrosted some berries and bubbled them on the hob with a drop of honey and almond essence for a few minutes. I would wholeheartedly recommend you do too.
• Serves one hungry one.

You will need

• A frying pan
• Bread
• 1 tbsp mascarpone or cream cheese
• 2 tsp of strawberry jam
• a few fresh strawberries, chopped
• 1 egg
• a splosh of milk
• a few drops of almond essence
• a knob of butter

The recipe:

• First slice a thickthickthick slice of bread. Make it as thick as at least two normal sized slices.
• Now slice halfway through the middle, making a pocket.
• Next job, mix together the mascarpone or cream cheese, jam and fresh berries and carefully spoon it into the bread pocket.
• Beat the egg with the milk and almond essence in a wide dish and soak the bread in the mixture for a few minutes each side while the frying pan is heating up.
• Melt a generous spot of butter in the pan and pop in the bread, leaving to cook on a medium heat for 4ish minutes on each side, keeping and eye on it. It's done when it's beautifully bronzed.
• Serve cut in half, topped with strawberry compote or maybe more fresh strawberries and sprinkled with heaps and heaps of icing sugar.

Lemon Curd Cake

 Adapted from Avoca Tea Time

A few notes:

• If I made this again, I’d double the quantities for the butter icing and use it both on top and in the middle of the cake. The whipped cream adds a nice fluffy texture but the subtle taste is a bit lost amongst all the zingy-ness.
• To cut the cake into two layers, cut through with a bread knife and then use the knife and another similar implement to criss-cross over each other in the middle of the cake. That way, the top layer that is lifted off is supported all over.
• Makes 1 nice big cake.

You will need

For the cake

A 23cm cake tin

225g soft butter

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

225g self-raising flour

1 lemon

1 tsp baking powder

For the middle

A medium carton of double cream

A jar of lemon curd

For the butter icing

50g soft butter

100g icing sugar

 Zest of 1 lemon

The recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 170°.
• Grease and line your cake tin. I know it’s a hassle, but you’ll regret not doing it.
• Starting with the cake, cream the butter and sugar together until creamy and light and then gradually beat if the eggs.
• Gently fold in the flour and baking powder, followed by the zest of the lemon and the juice of half.
• Spoon into the tin and bake, low down in the oven, for around 55 minutes, though check what it looks like after 45. It should just be turning golden and be firm in them middle.
• Once cooked leave to cool for a bit then turn out the tin and leave to cool completely. Icing a warm cake is a bad plan.
• Meanwhile, whip the cream and put together the butter cream by beating the butter until it increases in volume and takes on a lighter colour.
• Beat in the icing sugar, the zest of the new lemon and the juice of the half left over from the cake mixture. It’ll look impossible at first but you’ll get there.
• Now it’s ready to assemble. Cut the cake in half horizontally and pop the top half on the dish that you’re serving the cake from. The top becomes the bottom you see.
• Spread this half with whipped cream and top with ¾ of the jar of lemon curd.
• Now nestle the second half of the cake on top, with the base facing upwards. This way you get a nice even surface.
• Spread the butter icing on top of the cake and drizzle with the rest of the lemon curd.
• Sing happy birthday and make a wish.

Courgette and Herb Frittata with Stove Top Roasties.  
 

A few notes:

• It is best to use a non-stick pan for the frittata. If you don’t have one  it might make things easier to line the pan you use with baking paper.
• If you’re buying herbs especially for this, and therefore don’t want to buy lots of different packets, may I suggest you go for mint. I didn’t use it here because something had cheekily munched my small supply of leaves  but I think it would bring even more fun to the party.
• I served my Frittata with goat’s cheese and chutney but you could eat it plain or with a whole number of other toppings. How about caramelised onions, feta, mozzarella and tomatoes or even have it in a sandwich with salad and mayonnaise.
• You need to use waxy potatoes for this recipe, which are small and often labelled ‘salad potatoes’. Floury ones that are used for ‘baking’ will break up to a mush. 
• Makes enough for 2

You will need

 For the Potatoes

1 glug of olive oil

1 knob of butter

½ onion, sliced

500gish waxy potatoes

Salt and Pepper

For the frittata

1 glug of olive oil

1 medium sized courgette, coarsely grated

A couple of generous handful of springtime herbs, I used parsley, coriander, chives, young rosemany and dill, finely chopper

4 eggs

Salt and Pepper

The recipe:

• First get the potatoes going; heat the oil and butter over a medium heat and throw in the onion, leaving until softened and golden.
• Then add the potatoes and lots of salt and pepper and give everything a stir around.
• Now turn the heat down to as low as possible, pop the lid on the pan and leave for a good 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring every so often.
• When the potatoes have about 15 minutes cooking left it’s time to start on the frittata, first by heating the oil in the frying pan and gently frying the grated courgette for a few minutes until slightly softened.
• Tip the courgettes from the pan into a bowl, with the herbs and plenty of seasoning.
• Next whisk the eggs into the herby mixture and pour everything back into the still warm pan.
• Leave on a low heat until it looks mostly set, with just a bit of wibblywobbly left in the middle; about 10 minutes.
• To cook the top, either stick under a hot grill if you have the facility, or flip the frittata over by sliding it out onto a plate, hovering the upside down pan over it, and turning everything over so the wobbly side of the frittata is at the bottom of the pan.
• Leave to cook for a final 5 minutes turn the heat up under the potatoes for the last few moments so they really crisp up (and go some way to satisfy the baked potato craving).
• Serve a wedge of frittata with the potatoes and a crispy dressed salad and any other adornment you fancy. Yum.

Anyway, here is my go-to recipe for good old basic pancakes. Little, fat fluffy ones mind, not wide skinny, Europe-style crepes. These are bland and bouncy and just perfect with about any topping you can think of. My current favourite thing to do is to pick up berries at the end of the day, when they’re a bit too squishy and are therefore quite a bargain. Just pop them in a hot pan with a blob of appropriate jam (strawb with strawbs etc) and let them bubble away for a bit until you get a gleaming pan of syrup. Pour on top of your buttery, breakfast friends, top with some fresh berries and start your day with smiles.

Pancakes

A few notes:

• This is a nice plain recipe; they’re pretty much scotch pancakes or drop scones if you prefer. Expect plenty more recipes with tweaks and twiddles winging your way in the future as my obsession develops.
• I am the only pancake enthusiast in my house so I tend to make a whole batch and freeze all that I don’t eat straight away. Just stick in the microwave for a minute or so or straight in the toaster to defrost (I haven't quite worked out which makes for the best texture yet), and bobs-your-uncle, pancakes at the ready.
• The original recipe says it makes 25, but I make them nice and big and fat so it’s usually more like 15.

You will need

A nice big pan or a few smaller ones

225g self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

25g sugar

1 egg

300g milk

The recipe:

• Pop the pan/pans on the hob to heat to a medium temperature.
• Stir together the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl, then whisk in the egg and milk. You should have a thick, bubbly batter.
• Grease the pan with a spot of butter on some kitchen towel.
• Drop tablespoon-fulls of batter into the pan and cook until you can see bubbles starting to appear on the up-facing surfaces.
• Remember that the law of physics (or something) states that the first pancake is guaranteed to fail, so don’t be disheartened.
• Flip and cook for another few minutes.
• Keep going until all the batter is transformed into pancakey deliciousness.
• Butter and top with whatever takes your fancy.

Oranges and Lemons Battenberg Cake

A few notes: 

• Battenburg or Battenberg? Who’s to say.
• I made the lemon curd as I was in full on lemon-mode, but you could just as well use bought stuff or any sort of jam you fancy, ooo or even marmalade, now there’s an idea.
• If you don’t fancy using marzipan (why? It’s amazing) then you could use shop-bought white icing. You could even paint it yellow with some colouring.
• Makes one large cake

You will need

1 small rectangular pan

150g softened butter

150g granulated or caster sugar

150g plain flour

3 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

2 lemons

2 oranges

2 tsp orange colouring

1 jar lemon curd

400-ish g of ready-rolled marzipan

The recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 180°.
•  Line a rectangle pan (I used one measuring 29x18cm) with parchment paper, making a fold that runs along the centre so the pan is split into 2 sections.
•  Beat the butter, sugar and flour together until light and creamy. It may take a while to come together but it’ll get there eventually.
•  Beat in the eggs, one at a time followed by the baking powder.
•  Transfer half the mixture into another bowl.
•  Into one half of the mixture fold the zest of both lemons and the juice of just one and into the other half fold the zest of both oranges, the juice of just one as well as the orange colouring.
•  Gently pour the cake mixtures into each side of the prepared tin and bake for 25-30 minutes.
•  Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
•  When it’s time to assemble the cake, lay one sponge on top of the other and trim so both rectangles are the same size and then slice down the middle to make 4 skinnier rectangles.
•  Place the marzipan on a flat surface dusted with icing sugar and spread over a layer of lemon curd.
•  Lay an one rectangle in the middle of the lemon curd and brush the 3 exposed sides with more curd.
•  Lay a rectangle of the opposite colour snuggled next to it and brush with more curd.
•  Do the same with the remaining rectangles on top of those on the marzipan, making sure the lemon sponge is on top of the orange sponge and vice versa.
•  Wrap the marzipan tightly around the sponge and trim the edges and seam neatly.
• Press the seam together and turn the cake over so the join of marzipan is underneath.
•  Stand back, feel proud and eat cake.

The key to achieving the perfect light and airy, tall and towering scone with no hassle is to learn the rules and to follow them. Simple. Even simpler, there's really only one rule...the dough is a party pooper. It doesn't like you to play with it, all it wants is to be warm and cosy in the oven as soon as possible with no pushing and shoving or pressing and squashing.

What that means is 1. Using a food processor is the easiest and most effective way to make the dough, 2. Don't use a rolling pin, just press down lightly with your hands and 3. You're cutter must be sharp so if you haven't got a suitable one use a knife, not a mug!

So there you go, the secret of the perfect scone. And it's simple. And oh so delish. And justifies the consumption of heart attack inducing amounts of clotted cream.

Scones

(adapted from Delia's Complete Cookery Guide)

A few notes:

• Delia says the MOST important thing for ensuring your scones rise is to not roll the dough out too thin. No less than 2cm she says, and who am I to argue, it's Delia.
• I used a knife to cut my scones. If you need to do this too, you can either press the dough out into a circle and cut triangles like you're slicing a cake (which seems to be quite an American thing to do but I'm not keen because it doesn't make for very even cooking) or make a big square and cut littler squares out of it (which is what I did for these chaps).
• I do pretty much the whole recipe in the food processor, just tipping the dough out for cutting when it's all come together, but I'll write it so you don't have to.
• On this occasion I'd had jam with breakfast so wanted to get creative and have something a bit different when it came to scones, hence the half jam half lemon curd situation. I decided it was a mistake, of course jam is best.
• Alwaysalwaysalways scone then cream then jam. Don't listen to anyone who says different. They. Are. Wrong.
• Makes about 12

You will need

a greased or lined baking sheet

225g self raising flour

40g soft butter

1 1/2 tbsp caster sugar

150ml milk

The recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 220°c.
• Sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter as quickly as possible.
• Stir through the sugar.
• Next mix in the milk, a bit at a time, with a metal spoon or knife.
• Now with floury hands, bring the dough together, without squishing or squashing it too much, and turn it onto a lightly floured surface.
• With as little pressure as possible, press the dough to a thickness of no less than 2cm and cut out in your chosen fashion. 
• Make sure the oven is up to temperature before popping the scones in for 10-15 minutes, until golden and risen.
• Pile high with cream. Leave guilt at the front door.

Welsh Cakes

(Adapted from Hamlyn All Colour Teatime Favourites...a wonderful book.)

A few notes:

• I did most of this in a food processor, just stirring in the currants, egg and milk at the end. This is my no means mandatory, just quicker and less messy.
• I didn’t have any mixed spice so just sprinkled in a spot of ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon. I ended up wishing I had added more. Tweak as you fancy.
• The recipe tells you to roll out the dough but I found it easier to press it down and out lightly with my hands.
• Makes about 10

You will need

 A big frying pan or flat griddle, greased

 225g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp mixed spice

100g soft butter

75g currants

1 egg

2-3 tbsp milk

The recipe:

• Sift the flour, baking powder and spice into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture is fine and bread crumb looking.
• Stir in the sugar and currants.
• Take a quick break to pop the frying pan or griddle over a medium heat on the hob.
• Next mix the egg into the mixture and knead in enough milk to bring everything together.
• Transfer to a clean, floured surface and roll or pat out to a thickness of 1cm.
• Cut out rounds or around 7 to 8cm and pop in the pan to cook.
• Cook for around 4 minutes, until the underside is golden and lovely looking and then flip and cook for another 4 minutes.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• Gather up the leftover dough, re-roll, cut and cook, keeping going until it’s all used up.Now eat a couple, spread with melty butter and honey or jam and try and save the rest for your journey. Good Luck.

whywhywWHY were they being ignored? They were little bursts of strawberry joy; like strawberry sweets, the ones that you eat and think...when has a strawberry ever tasted like this. NOW is the answer.

So with a basket full of the red jewels I trotted on home to play with my spoils. First stop Strawberry Cake, and what a cake! It's so much more than the sum of its parts and a real treat for breakfast or brunch. Cake in the morning is fine right? As long as there's fruit involved? 

Strawberry Sponge

(Adapted from smitten kitchen)

A few notes:

• I used vanilla extract to flavor the cake and the mascarpone that I served with it, but I'm super keen to try it with Almond Extract next time for more of a marzipany vibe. Let me know if you have a go at it this way and what it's like.
• The strawbs on the top of my cake went all jammy and delicious, which was definitely helped by the fabulousness of the raw berries. If yours are less' write home' worthy, maybe halve them and let them sit in some sugar or honey for half an hour before you add them to the mixture. 
• Makes a 23cm cake

You will need

 a 23cm cake tin

 85g butter

200g granulated sugar plus extra for sprinkling

1 egg

118ml milk

a splosh on vanilla or almond extract

188g plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

a nice big handful of strawberries, any big ones cut in half

The recipe:

• Heavily grease the cake tin and preheat the oven to 180°.
• In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg, and then stir in the milk and vanilla quite gently.
• Next fold in the flour and baking powder until just combined and pour into the tin.
• Now arrange the strawberries cut side down on top of the batter, as neatly or as ramshackle as you desire.
• Sprinkle over lots of sugar for a wonderfully crunchy crust and pop in the oven for 10 minutes.
• Then turn the temperature down to 160° and cook for another 50 to 60 minutes.
• Serve with sweetened mascarpone or creme fraiche. Yum.

If you've never tried it homemade before...as in proper homemade, not from a bottle that is labelled homemade, I say have a go at knocking up a batch. It's not time consuming and it will make you feel all Enid Blyton.

Homemade Lemonade

(From Delia's Summer Collection.)

A few notes:

• You must use unwaxed lemons, otherwise you'll pretty much be making wax-ade, yuck.
• When removing the peel, try to only take the yellow part. The white part will add bitterness.
• This looks boootiful in lovely swing top bottles, but fear not, plain old plastic ones will do just fine too
• Makes just under 2 litres

You will need:

a non-metal bowl

bottles

6 lemons

150ml granulated sugar

1.5 l water

The recipe:

• First give the lemons a really good wash and scrub.
• Next, use a potato peeler to remove the yellow layer of peel and pop in your bowl.
• Squeeze all the lemons and pour the juice onto the peel followed by the sugar.
• Next boil the water, pour on top of all the lovely lemonyness and give everything a good stir.
• Cover with a tea towel and leave aside in a cool place overnight.
• Next morning have a taste. If it's too sharp for you add a bit more sugar.
• You can strain it at this point if you fancy but I like the bits left in.
• Transfer to your bottle, chill and enjoy with lots of ice and topped up with a splash of fizzy water if you'd like. Soak up the sun.

Serves one

You will need

1. A blender
2. 75g blueberries
3. 1 over-ripe peach
4. 150ml your favourite milk
5. Honey, to taste (start with 1 tsp)

Now I’m of the mind that coming up with a solution to having too squishy summer fruit  in the house is a much more time-efficient way to fix things that solving the problem of buying them in the first place, which would probably require some sort of intervention. It’s compulsive you see, I feel constantly on the hunt for satisfyingly sweet, perfectly pert fruit and not buying any feels like giving in to the stereotype that Scotland doesn't do fruit. I know that is not true.

A few notes:

· I keep the blueberries, milk and honey as the consistent undercurrent to this recipe; the peach part being the thing that I chop and change and experiment with depending on the fruit situation...

· I therefore buy frozen blueberries from the supermarket, which makes it much cheaper and they’re ready and waiting for you. No need to defrost, just pop straight in the blender.

· My favourite variation, and one that is lovely to make when it’s not summer but you wish it was, involves subbing the peach for 100g strawberries, which I also often have in the freezer, and adding a blob of peanut butter. Eat with a spoon and thank me after.

To do:

Blend.

Sip.

Aaaah.