Easy Bread Rolls - Recipe

I didn't make these bread rolls today for many reasons - it's too hot and I no longer have a kitchen. The fitters come on Monday to fit my new kitchen, we are also having a new boiler which means a few difficult days.  It's a great excuse to eat out but I'm sure I'll soon want to cook again.  I've chosen some appliances that are going to take me a few weeks to get used to and at the moment I'm not sure when cooking will resume.

Choosing a kitchen and appliances has taken months and at last the day of the refit is about to arrive. I've learnt a lot over the last six months about appliances and the process of choosing a kitchen and interestingly I couldn't find all of the help I needed on the internet.

The dough balls before I put them into the airing cupboard to rise.
 I always flour my trays instead of greasing them.

I weighed out each piece of dough but somehow they didn't rise evenly.
Even the poppy seeds didn't want to stick evenly to the risen dough.

The rolls are made with an enriched dough which is milk and egg mixed together instead of the usual water.  Easy and straight forward to make and they freeze too.

Makes: 12 bread rolls

450g strong plain flour
1½ tsp salt
½ tsp caster sugar
7g easy blend dried yeast
55g butter
1 egg beaten
250ml warm milk
Seeds or a dusting of flour to decorate

1. Flour two baking trays.  Into the bowl of the mixer add the flour, salt, sugar and yeast.  Rub in the butter.  Place the bowl under the dough hook of the mixer and pour in most of the milk and egg to make a soft dough.  On a low setting let the mixer do it's work for 8-10 minutes.
2. Spread a film of vegetable oil over the dough and cover the bowl with a greased piece of clingwrap.  Place in the airing cupboard until doubled in size.
3. Remove the cling wrap and return the bowl to the mixer - let the dough hook knock back the dough on low for a couple of minutes.
4. Turn the dough onto a greased board and divide into 12 even pieces.
5. Take a piece of dough and place under the palm of your hand and move your hand around in a circle until you have a dough ball.
6. Take a floured baking tray and place six dough balls on each tray.  Cover with greased cling wrap and leave to rise until doubled in size.
7. Preheat the oven to 220ºC.
8. Brush the tops of the rolls with the retained milk and egg mix and sprinkle with seeds or flour the tops.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

The floury rolls had the best rise and the flour keeps the dough crust soft

Strawberry Meringue Slice: Recipe

Strawberries dipped in chocolate

I love strawberries dipped in chocolate, I also love looking at them sitting on a cloud of meringue and cream. Sunshine, the odd glass of bubbly, a BBQ and the perfect dessert to end a meal......happy:)

Halved strawberries dusted with icing sugar are perfect too.

For the meringue:
4 large egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
225g caster sugar
2 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp white wine vinegar

For the filling:
284ml pot double cream
225g strawberries

You will need:  Large baking sheet lined with baking parchment.

1. Preheat oven to 140°C.
2. Place the egg whites in a bowl with the cream of tartar and whisk until they hold their shape and soft peaks are formed. Add the sugar a teaspoon at a time and whisk until the meringue is thick and glossy. Whisk in the cornflour and vinegar.
3. Take a few blobs of meringue and place these on the four corners of the baking sheet,these will act as glue, now place the baking parchment on top. Spread the meringue mixture out to a rectangle approx 27cm x 17cm. Bake for 1 hour until crisp on top. Remove from the oven. Leave to cool completely before removing the paper from the base and transferring onto a plate.
4. Whip the cream to soft peaks and spread over the meringue.
5. Dip a few strawberries into melted chocolate and leave to set on parchment paper. Decorate the meringue slice as you wish.

Freshly picked from my garden

More berry meringue recipes:

Strawberry & Redcurrant Pavlova
Chocolate & Vanilla Berry Pavlova
Berry Meringue

Cheese, Mustard and Poppy Seed Plait - Recipe

This crusty bread goes well with soup, it is fabulous toasted and topped with grilled cheese and tomatoes or with a wedge of cheese and a few grapes, better still a ploughman's lunch.  What more can you ask from a slice of bread. It freezes perfectly too....

I didn't make the bread by hand and get into a sweaty mess using muscles that need a workout (although the bingo wings would be grateful), I have no aggression to rid myself of,  I always use the dough hook on the mixer and am more than happy to see it doing the work rather than me.

The liquid used is milk which makes a very tender crumb, mustard powder from the store cupboard and a piece of cheddar cheese which most of have in the fridge.

You will need: 

450g strong plain white flour
1½ tsp salt
25g butter
7g easy blend dried yeast
85g strong mature cheddar cheese, grated
2 tsp mustard powder
freshly ground black pepper
300ml milk warmed until tepid
Poppy seeds
Olive Oil

1.   Flour a baking tray.
2.   Into the mixing bowl of your stand mixer sift the flour and salt. Add the butter and let the beater rub this into the dry mixture. Add the yeast, cheese, mustard powder and black pepper to the bowl.
3.   Place the dough hook onto the mixer, pour in most of the milk and mix on low until a soft dough forms, adding more of the milk if necessary to achieve a soft dough.
4.   Turn the mixer to medium speed and knead for about 10 minutes.
5.   Pour some olive oil onto your hand and spread over the dough.
6.   Cover the bowl with cling film and leave until doubled in size.
7.   Knock the dough back with the dough hook and set on low to knead for 3 minutes.
8.   Remove the dough from the mixer, divide into two equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a long sausage.  Plait the two pieces of dough together, pinch the dough together at both ends, tuck under the plait.
9.  Place the plait onto the floured baking sheet, cover with a piece of oiled baking parchment.  Leave to double in size about 30 minutes.
10. Preheat the oven to 190ºC. Brush the plait with some milk and sprinkle over the poppy seeds. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the bread is a deep golden brown.

More bread recipes:
Walnut & Rosemary Focaccia
Sunflower and Honey Flowerpot Bread
Sunburst Rolls

Blueberry Crunch Muffins: Recipe

I'm in the process of emptying the freezer and have approximately three weeks to either eat what's in it or throw things away.  A bag of blueberries needed using up and I decided to make these homely muffins.  There are only two of us to get through eight large muffins, I tested one to make sure they are up to scratch, I've had to freeze the remainder.  The blueberries took up a fraction of the room of seven large muffins.  I really need to think the freezer problem through and maybe start a list. The fridge/freezers new home will be in my dining room, empty and turned off whilst I have a new kitchen installed but it still needs emptying.

Over the next few weeks Kitchen Delights London Reporter @PaulFoodie will be adding to the mix by contributing more fun posts. We have reviews for Taste of London, healthy snacks, tasty barbecue spices, exciting kitchen kit, a restaurant review and in the pipeline a Guest Posting by a friend of Kitchen Delights. There will be before and after photographs of the new kitchen refit which I've been planning since the end of last year. I've also made a few things which will hopefully get posted too!

I've been sent a fabulous microwave to review which will get us through a tricky couple of weeks whilst we are without any kitchen appliances.  I'm in need of a few survival tips......

Makes: 8 large muffins (in tulip cases) or 12 muffins in muffin cases.

200g plain flour
125g caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
75ml vegetable oil
1 egg
130ml semi skimmed milk
zest of 1 lemon
150g blueberries
Topping:
25g plain flour
15g cubed butter
1 tbsp caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. Place the flour, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl.
3. Making a well in the centre, add the oil, egg, milk and lemon zest.
4. Mix together with a whisk to make a smooth batter.
5. Fold in three-quarters of the blueberries. Save the remainder to place on top of the batter.
6. Add to a bowl the flour, sugar and cubed butter.  Mix to a crumble with a fork.
7. Using an ice cream scoop fill the muffin cases equally with the mixture.
8. Taking the reserved blueberries, scatter over the top of the batter, pressing down slightly.
9. Sprinkle over the crumble mix. Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden and cooked through, a cake tester is useful for this.

For more muffin recipes:
Apple Muffins
Nigella's Chocolate Banana Muffins
Crumble Berry Muffins

Strawberry and Chocolate Cupcakes: Recipe

I've eaten more chocolate this year because the winter went on and on, I'm not a chocolate snob, but a bar of Lindt Excellence Strawberry Intense Dark Chocolate is hard to beat. The chocolate has pieces of freeze dried strawberries running through, it smells of summer and reminds me of strawberries dipped in chocolate.

The strawberries for the cupcakes were bought but it
shouldn't be too long before I am picking my own strawberries

For the vanilla cupcakes:

Makes: 9 cupcakes

You will need: 12 hole muffin tin lined with 9 cupcake cases

115g softened butter, 115g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 115g self raising flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon vanilla essence.

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. Place all the ingredients into a bowl and beat together with an electric mixer for two minutes.
3. Spoon into 9 cupcake cases and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool.

For the vanilla buttercream:

You will need:

175g softened unsalted butter, 350g sifted icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract.

1. Beat the butter in a bowl to soften. Add the icing sugar gradually, add the vanilla extract, and beat until the icing is very smooth and pale in colour which will take 5 minutes using a stand mixer.

To decorate:

I used a 1M icing nozzle to pipe the buttercream. Cut a square of chocolate in half and place on the buttercream, top with a whole strawberry.

More recipes you may like:
White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans Cupcakes
Mini Strawberry Victoria Sponges

Photographs taken using the Nikon D3200.

Nigel Slater's Smoked Haddock with Potato and Bacon

You will definitely need more sauce on your plate than this!

We would happily eat this tasty meal any day of the week, my husbands name for this is 'posh fish and chips' and I agree.  Dyed smoked haddock is our choice because it always looks good on the plate.

A pan of fabulous bacon and chips

Smoked Haddock, cream, bay leaves and peppercorns

There is a very generous amount of sauce, we didn't waste one single drop - dunk some fabulous bread into any remaining sauce.

The Smoked Haddock with Potato and Bacon recipe can be found on the Guardian website.

I am entering this into Dish of the Month challenge hosted by Janice at Farmers Girl Kitchen and the host for June is Sue at A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate.