OLIVE AND ROSEMARY CROWN
SERVES: 10 ACTIVE TIME: 30 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 3–4 HOURS DEPENDING ON PROVING TIME
When breakfast is presented as a crown you feel like you are living your best life. I love placing something right in the centre of the table before it is demolished – that brief moment of gasps gives me great pleasure. This looks great, and tastes delicious with the salty tapenade, strong blue cheese and a hint of rosemary. Not to mention the apricot glaze for sweetness. Any leftovers make a great snack throughout the day, or you can freeze them in slices for another time.
250g strong bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
7g fast-action yeast
2 tablespoons dried rosemary
50g unsalted butter
135ml warm milk
1 egg, beaten
For the filling
120g black olive tapenade
150g blue cheese, crumbled
To serve
3 tablespoons apricot jam, warmed
fresh rosemary leaves, thinly sliced
Put the flour, salt, yeast, dried rosemary and butter into a bowl, then rub the butter into the flour until it is like breadcrumbs.
Make a well in the centre. Add the milk and egg and use your hands to bring the dough together. Knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes, until stretchy and smooth, or if you are using a mixer, knead with a dough hook attached for 5 minutes. Put back into the bowl, cover with clingfilm, and leave until it has doubled in size (approx. 1½ hours).
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Flour your work surface and tip the dough out. Knock all the air out, then roll the dough into a rectangle about 33cm x 25cm. With the long edge facing you, spread the tapenade all over the dough and crumble over the blue cheese.
Roll the dough up like a Swiss roll, as tightly as you can, with the seam at the bottom. Take a knife and cut all the way across the centre, exposing the swirls and making sure you leave a couple of centimetres uncut to keep it attached at the very top. You should have what looks like an A that has not been crossed. Turn the cut side out so the layers are visible and simply twist the two pieces, one over the other. Pinch the end and then join the two ends to make a circle. Carefully place on the tray – if you lose the circle shape, now is the time to fix it – then cover with a greased clingfilm sheet and prove for another 30 minutes
Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C. When the crown has doubled in size again, uncover and bake for 25 minutes. When it is ready, place on a rack to cool.
Warm the jam in the microwave, just enough to loosen it, and brush all over the crown for a beautiful sweet sheen. Sprinkle with fresh rosemary.
You can freeze this loaf, or the leftovers. Cut into slices and pop into a freezer bag.
OLIVE AND ROSEMARY CROWN
BANOFFEE WAFFLES
SERVES: 12 ACTIVE TIME: 45 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 45 MINUTES
This uses a simple brioche recipe, but it’s stuffed with a banana and chocolate mixture and toasted in a waffle maker. What is great about these waffles is that you can freeze them when they are cool, without the toppings, and simply toast them from frozen in your toaster. Try different fillings if you like, too – frozen berries, jam, chocolate hazelnut spread …
For the waffles
250ml warm water
2 teaspoons dried yeast
3 tablespoons warm milk
2 tablespoons caster sugar
450g strong bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter
2 large eggs, beaten
cooking oil spray
For the filling
2 ripe bananas, mashed (peeled weight 200g)
100g dark chocolate, chips or finely chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 tablespoon caster sugar
To serve
icing sugar, to dust
frozen yoghurt or ice cream
crumbled oat biscuits
toffee sauce, straight from the bottle
Put the water, yeast, milk and sugar into a bowl. It should start to froth, which means it’s working. Leave it to one side for about 5 minutes.
Put the flour and salt into a second bowl and mix together. Add the butter and rub it in until it is like breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre.
Add the beaten eggs to the yeast mixture, then pour into the centre of the dough. Using your hands, get in there and bring the dough together.
Lightly flour a work surface and knead the dough for about 10 minutes. It will be wet, and you may find you need some extra flour to bring it together. You may find it easier to do this in a tabletop mixer with a dough hook for 10 minutes on medium speed. Pop the dough back into the bowl, cover with a tea towel or clingfilm and leave for an hour or until the dough has doubled in size – this will depend on the warmth of your room.
Mix together the mashed banana, chocolate, vanilla and sugar to make the filling, then cover and place in the fridge.
Have a floured baking tray at the ready. When the dough has doubled in size, take it out of the bowl and knock it back on a floured surface. By which I mean get your fingers and knuckles in and squash it back down. Divide it into 12 balls. Take the filling out of the fridge. Flatten each bit of dough and lay them out on the surface.
Divide the filling between the 12 bits of dough, then take each one and pinch the dough into the centre to encase the filling. Pinch the edges hard to seal the dough, then pop them on to the baking tray seam-side down. Cover and leave for as long as it takes to prepare all your toppings.
Turn the waffle maker on and spray generously with oil. Pop a dough ball into the centre and push the iron down. Cook for 3–5 minutes, or until the waffle has a crisp golden exterior.
If eating straight away, dust with icing sugar and add your toppings.
Be generous, be frivalous and go high!
SPOTTED DICK BREAD WITH HOMEMADE BUTTER
SERVES: 8 ACTIVE TIME: 30 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR
This bread is so easy to make and has all the delicious flavours of a spotted dick. Bread making can be fun and does not have to be laborious. Spotted dick can take a long time to make what with the steaming, but this way you can have those delicious flavours without spending all your time in the kitchen. This is a great time to make your own butter too, seeing as you will have all that time spare.
For the bread
500g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
50g vegetarian suet
100g candied peel
100g currants
1 orange, zest only (slice the rest and pop it into a freezer bag for extra flavour in cold drinks)
1 lemon, zest only (slice as above)
400ml buttermilk (if you have no buttermilk, you can make your own by adding 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to 400ml of whole milk)
For the butter
600ml double cream
1 tablespoon sea salt
If you’re making your own buttermilk, now is the time to do it, to give it time to thicken and do its sciencey thing!
Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Put the flour, salt, sugar, bicarb, suet, candied peel, currants and citrus zest into a bowl and mix really well. Make a little well in the centre and pour in your buttermilk, using a palette knife to bring the mixture together. Tip it out on to a work surface and gently bring the dough together, without kneading it – you don’t want to overwork it. Place it on to the baking tray and flatten it down, then use a sharp knife to make 4 cuts all the way through, to create 8 triangles. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
While it’s baking, make the butter. Put the cream into a mixer, or use a hand-held mixer, and whisk. It will quickly get to stiff peaks – just keep it going and then it will separate. This is exactly what you want. As soon as it does that
it will change fast – you will be able to hear it. There will be a lot of sloshing, where the water separates from the fat. What you should be left with is crumbly-looking butter and liquid in the base of the bowl.
Have ready a colander lined with muslin, or a thin piece of cotton. Tip the butter into the colander and leave it for all that excess liquid to drain off. As the dripping slows down, give it a good squeeze to get rid of some more moisture. Add the salt and mix through, then set aside the amount you need for the bread and refrigerate the rest. It will keep in the fridge for a month.
When the bread comes out of the oven, leave it to cool on a rack for 15 minutes, if you can resist the urge not to eat it straight away. Then pull away the triangular wedges of warm bread and spread them with your fresh butter.
If you have any bread left over, slice it and freeze it. You can pop it straight into the toaster from frozen.
SAUSAGE AND EGG SLIDERS
MAKES: 12 ACTIVE TIME: 20 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 40 MINUTES
I think sliders are just burgers really, and as much as I like making them, I never seem to make the same version twice – when I really like one it always tastes different the next time round, so I always make these in 12s. That way we have the same thing each time and it all kind of happens in one pan. We love them for breakfast, but you can add a salad and turn them into lunch, or add fries and make them into dinner.
oil, for frying
12 sausages
2 tablespoons onion granules
1 teaspoon garlic granules
12 eggs
1 tablespoon chipotle chilli flakes
salt and pepper
12 baps, batch baked so they’re joined together (or 2 x 6, whatever you can find)
butter, for spreading
12 slices of cheese (I like the stuff wrapped individually in cellophane)
sauce of your choice (I like brown sauce)
Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C, and make sure you have a roasting dish large enough to take all 12 baps comfortably or 2 trays that each fit 6. Grease the inside of the dish really well and line with baking paper.
Take the sausages out of their skins and place in a large bowl, then mix in the onion and garlic granules. Squash each bit of sausage meat into the roasting dish until you have covered the base, then bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile whisk the eggs well and season with the chipotle flakes, salt and pepper. Take the roasting dish out of the oven and lay the sausage meat on a baking tray. Grease the roasting dish again, really well. Pour in the eggs, making sure they reach all the corners. Bake for 5 minutes, then take the eggs out and place on top of the sausage meat on the baking tray.
Slice the baps in a clean sweep horizontally and take off the tops. Spread the bases with butter and pop them into the roasting dish. Lay the sausage meat and eggs on top, cut round each bap, then add the 12 slices of cheese. Squeeze over brown sauce or ketchup or both. Put the tops back on the baps and put back into the oven for just 5 minutes, to warm the bread and melt the cheese.
Freeze individual baps in clingfilm.
SAUSAGE AND EGG SLIDERS
EGG ROLLS
SERVES: 6 TOTAL TIME: 20 MINUTES
Eggs are by far my favourite things to cook and eat. Not simply for their versatility but also for their ability to take on any flavour – we can make omelettes with them and bake cakes with them, and you can’t get much more flexible than that. These rolls are lovely – the eggs glue themselves to the wrap so that they are easy as pie to roll, making them delicious and portable. They freeze really well, too, for a breakfast on the go and a makeshift lunchbox cooler all at the same time.
6 medium eggs
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic granules
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
oil, for frying
85g sliced black olives (drained weight from 185g jar)
100g fresh, frozen or tinned button mushrooms, sliced (optional)
6 small tortilla wraps
6 teaspoons sun-dried tomato paste
Crack the eggs into a bowl, then add the parsley, garlic granules, salt and pepper, and give everything a good mix.
Put a small non-stick frying pan (20cm or 23cm to be precise) on the hob on a medium heat, and drizzle in 2 teaspoons of oil.
Take the time at this stage to peel your tortilla wraps away from each other, otherwise you will be frustrated when you can’t get them separated, and frustration leaves you with big holes in your tortillas.
Put the olives into a bowl, and the sliced mushrooms, if using, in another bowl, and have them nearby. Pour 3 tablespoons of the egg mixture into the pan – the eggs should sizzle, but if they don’t, turn the heat up a little. Scatter a few olive slices and mushrooms on to the wet egg mix.
Take a tortilla wrap and spread it with a teaspoon of sun-dried tomato paste. Quickly put the tortilla on top of the egg, paste side down. While the wrap and egg are cooking, get the next wrap ready, spread with the paste.
Using the back of a slotted spatula, press the top of the tortilla to help distribute the egg under the wrap. Cook for no more than 30 seconds, then, as soon as the egg has glued itself to the tortilla, flip over and cook on the other side just to warm it through for another 30 seconds.
Take the pan off the heat and put the tortilla/egg on a plate. Roll the whole thing when it is cool enough to touch. Do the same with the rest of the wraps until the egg is used up.
Wrap any leftovers in clingfilm and pop them into the freezer.
When you are ready to eat the leftovers, leave to thaw in the fridge. Or microwave with clingfilm still on for 1 minute on high, until hot all the way through. Keep heating in 10 second bursts, if needed.
ENGLISH MUFFIN BAKE
SERVES: 4–6 ACTIVE TIME: 30 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR
I love making this – the muffins are filled with tangy sun-dried tomato and cheese, covered with a cheesy sauce and grilled. It’s warm and wonderful and there is a double helping of sauce to freeze for a macaroni cheese another time (see below in green or just halve the sauce ingredients, if you don’t want to do this).
7 English muffins
10 tablespoons sun-dried tomato paste
100g Cheddar cheese, grated
For the cheese sauce
60g butter
60g plain flour
1.2 litres whole milk
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon yeast extract
100g Cheddar cheese, grated
Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C and have a 900g loaf tin at the ready.
Melt the butter in a pan, then add the flour and whisk into a smooth paste. Pour in the milk a little at a time, making sure to keep mixing – the mixture needs to come back to the boil before each milk addition. Cook on a low heat for 5 minutes, then take off the heat. Stir in the salt and yeast extract, then add the cheese and stir through.
Toast the muffins and slice them in half. Spread both cut sides with the sun-dried tomato paste and sprinkle with a little of the cheese, then sandwich them back together. Spread a little cheese sauce in the base of the loaf tin. Line the muffins up next to each other in the tin and pour half the remaining sauce all over them, making sure you get the sauce into all the gaps. Top with the rest of the cheese and bake for 30 minutes, until the top is really crisp.
MACARONI CHEESE
You can freeze the rest of the cheese sauce for another time, or make a macaroni cheese now so that you have a dinner to eat at some point in the next few days. Cook 250g of macaroni and drain, then add to the sauce and stir through. Pour into an ovenproof freezer-safe dish, and sprinkle with grated cheese. Leave to cool, then freeze until needed. To cook, preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C and bake uncovered for 40 minutes.
COCOA PIKELETS WITH WHIPPED MAPLE BUTTER
MAKES: 30 ACTIVE TIME: 30 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 45 MINUTES
These are like crumpets, but thinner and
with no need for a special mould to make them. They are satisfying to make as you watch the bubbles come to the surface. These are made with cocoa, so they have a subtle chocolate flavour. Served with whipped butter – yes!
For the pikelets
500g strong bread flour
50g cocoa powder
7g fast-action yeast
2 teaspoons caster sugar
350ml warm water
350ml milk
cooking oil spray
For the whipped maple butter
150g butter, softened
8 teaspoons maple syrup
Begin by making the pikelets. Put the flour and cocoa powder into a bowl, then stir in the yeast and sugar. Now add the water and milk, and whisk to bring the whole thing together into a smooth paste. Cover and leave in a warm place until it has doubled in size and is bubbly.
While that happens, make the whipped butter. Put the butter into a small bowl along with 2 teaspoons of the maple syrup. Whip for 2 minutes on high, then pop into the freezer for 2 minutes.
Now take the butter out, add another 2 teaspoons of maple syrup, and whip for another 2 minutes. Then put back into the freezer for 2 minutes. Take it out again, add 2 more teaspoons of maple syrup and whip for a further 2 minutes. Then put back into the freezer, again, for 2 minutes.
Then for the last time, take it out, add another 2 teaspoons of maple syrup, whip and pop into a serving dish.
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