Category: All Recipes

1. Iced Coffee Recipe

   Posted on 12:56am Wednesday 16th Sep 2020

   

   Iced coffee is one of my favourite ways of enjoying coffee in summer. Iced Coffee is very common drink on the continent, but not so much in the UK. Well, I think, it's time to change that!

   Lot of people think, that you need to have a specialist coffee making equipment to make something fancy like an Iced Coffee, but the opposite is true! I'd recommend that you make your coffee the way you normally do and then turn it into an iced coffee. Whether you have an expresso machine, coffee maker with hot water dispenser, or just use an instant coffee, you can make a delicious iced coffee drink perfect for the summer.

   I always offer refreshments, when I run my baking courses and this week, I decided to prepare my version of Iced Coffee. I was right that nobody really wanted a hot drink anyway and my iced coffee was a bit of a welcomed novelty.

2. Easy Plum Jam Recipe

   Posted on 7:55pm Thursday 10th Sep 2020

   

    Autumn is always a happy season, since it's a harvest time and there is so much colour in the countryside. There is also plenty of fruit around and one of my favourite thing to make is a plum jam. 

   We used to make plum jam from plums from my grandmother's farmhouse garden and often mixed different varieties. The flavour was always a bit different and we sometimes added spices or alcohol to make the jam extra special.

   I'd say that if you see a 'Pick your own' anywhere where you live, it's worth the efford to collect your own plums, as these will be perfectly ripe and sweet at the same time. You can, of course use a shop bought ones, but I'm often dissapointed with the flavour unless you buy a good quality and then it becomes expensive.

   So, today I wanted to share with you my easy plum jam recipe, which I've tried and tested over the years.

3. Chocolate Sorbet Recipe

   Posted on 12:00pm Wednesday 3rd Jun 2020

   

   This chocolate sorbet recipe is perfect as a delicious dessert, but also suitable for dairy free diets. Because it's made without cream or milk, this sorbet is very light and the taste is amazing.

   Whist the preparation time is very simple, you need to leave the sorbet to freeze for quite some time, so make sure you start your sorbet making the day before you want to serve it.

4. Oatmeal Brownie Recipe

   Posted on 12:00pm Tuesday 19th May 2020

   

   This recipe is very simple to make, and it's a real energy booster. Unlike normal chocolate brownie, this recipe has chocolate added in rather than mixed in. Because of the oats, this recipe is also slightly on a healthy side, if you can possibly count brownie recipe healthy at all!

   My friend brought this recipe back from a recent trip to America, so the recipe is measured in cups. To be honest, I've started to bake more and more using cups as a measure, and it's surprisingly easy! I can even remember a few recipes without getting the cookery book out.

5. Boiled Sweets Recipe

   Posted on 12:00am Tuesday 5th May 2020

   

   Author: Magdalena Marsden

   This article was last updated on 5 May 2020

   I've always been interested in traditional confectionery - pretty much all of my life I was on a quest for the perfect sweets, chocolates or bonbons. And I was always fascinated about the process of sweet's making and it was partly the reason why I founded Cocoa & Heartfew years back. All those demonstrations at seaside sweet's shops of how to make a stick of rock got me thinking, that perhaps I could have a go myself. And I did - successfully - made several batches of boiled sweets and now you can have a go too, following my step by step boiled sweets recipe tutorial.

6. Vegan Sourdough Pancakes Recipe

   Posted on 12:00pm Sunday 26th Apr 2020

   

   This vegan sourdough pancakes recipe is very easy to make and delicious to eat. The best thing is that you can play around with the recipe depending on what you currently have in your kitchen cupboard. I remember when we didn't have a lot of money, we used to make pancakes with just water, baking soda, sugar and flour - a perfect vegan & cheap version of the traditional pancake recipe.

   With this recipe, you can use a leftover sourdough starter (unfed sourdough starter) or an active one, if you want. The only difference is going to be the lightness and fluffiness of your pancakes - the more your sourdough starter is active, the more your pancakes rise. But, since this recipe is intended for your leftover sourdough starter (the bit that you normally discard), I always use an unfed sourdough starter with this recipe.

7. How to bake a No knead bread without a dutch oven

   Posted on 12:00pm Thursday 23rd Apr 2020

   

   For the last twenty years, I've been baking my bread using the traditional method of kneading bread dough, leaving to prove twice, shaping it and finally baking it in a standard domestic oven.

   But until recently, I've never tried the 'no knead' bread. I have to say, I was a bit sceptical, thinking to myself that if not kneading your dough was the way to go, why would anyone even knead bread dough anymore?

   Surely 'no knead' bread can't be as good as the traditional bread? The kneading is essential as it awakens the gluten in bread flour, which is what makes the dough so elastic and holds its shape when your bake it.

   If you read my other bread recipes on this blog, you already know that there is a bit of science behind bread baking and every element of the bread baking method has its purpose and reason.

   With this in mind, let me finally let you on a little secret! 

8. Chocolate Crunch Recipe

   Posted on 12:00pm Tuesday 21st Apr 2020

   

   This is probably one of the easiest chocolate recipes I've ever tried. Quick to make and it taste delicious. If you ever forget a pudding or the children want something sweet, this is the recipe!

   Like with many recipes, there are many versions, so I've decided to try few to see which one is the best one (the life of a food blogger is truly hard...). The main difference is whether the recipe includes eggs or not. Both are equally good, but in a different way. The one with egg is richer and slightly softer (it's very close to brownies, but not as gooey).

   I have also included one version with a plain flour and one with self-raising flour. I tend to just use whatever I have in the cupboard as I don't want to go shopping every time I run out of one particular type of flour.

   To make your own self-raising flour (if you don't have it), use plain flour with with baking powder. To make 225g of self-raising flour (for the second recipe), just add about 1 1/4 of baking powder to 225g of plain flour. 

   As you can see the first recipe doesn't have any baking powder, but if you want to give the chocolate crunch a bit of a rise, feel free to add some (about 1 1/4 teaspoon should do it).

   Chocolate crunch recipe (without eggs)

   170g unsalted butter

   170g caster sugar

   225g plain flour

   tiny pinch of salt

   30g cocoa powder