Festive Mince Pies 🎄

Hey guys

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but here is a new Christmassy blog post. I am one of the many people that goes way over the top for Christmas simply because I love it. 

I go all out decorating the Christmas tree in colour theme (though this can be hard due to the amount of random baubles that I have). Last year I made some amazing mince pies which I was very proud of; I even made the pastry. So I thought that it was about time that I posted this mince pie recipe. They have a slight twist as they are slightly orange infused.

Ingredients: 

For the pastry: 

500g of strong white plain flour

175g of caster sugar

375g of unsalted butter

Juice and rind of 1 large orange 

Filling:

550g of mincemeat 

Rind and zest of 1/2 a lemon 

Method: 

1. Start by making the pastry, sift the flour and the sugar into the bowl. Then chop the butter up into cubes and then use your fingers to rub the flour, sugar and butter together. Keep doing this until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2. Using a spoon, mix in the orange rind and then the juice of the orange until it forms a dough. Then wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for 30 mins. 

3. Preheat the oven to 220C. Then in a different bowl mix the lemon juice and rind and the mincemeat. 

4. Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll out as thick of about 2 £1 coins. Then using a pastry cutter that is about 7.5 cm in diameter, cut out 24 disks. With the rest of the pastry cut out stars which will be the tops of the pastries.

5. Grease a cupcake/muffin tin and then put each disk of pastry in each cupcake hole. 

6. Then spoon the mincemeat mixture into the pastry cases. Then top with the stars and brush the mince pies with milk.

7. Pop into the oven and leave for 15-20 mins before taking out. Then leave to cool before taking them out of the muffin tin. 

8. Dust with icing sugar and they are ready to serve or you can reheat them in the oven and serve them with ice cream or custard. 

I hope that you enjoyed this super festive recipe!! 

Anja xx

Dark Chocolate Bites with Nut, Fruit Toppings

So at the moment I am doing the 'no chocolate, sweets or cake' apart from Saturday's (where I can have a little bit of a cheat). For my cheat days I still want to have a a healthy twist on what I have. 

These snacks are a good alternative to a bar of factory processed chocolate. You can add whatever you want to these chocolate snacks. 

Ingredients: 

225g of dark chocolate 

Assort of things to add:

-Pistachios

-oat clusters

-dried fruit

-seeds/nuts 

-peel

Method: 

1. Line a tray with baking parchment. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling hot water. Once completely melted, use a spoon to make circles of chocolate. 

2. Sprinkle the assortment of nuts/seeds/dried fruit on top. Let the go plate set at room temperature and store in the fridge. 

These snacks can been eaten at home or  on the go. 

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

So as the theme of autumn continues, though now it is November I am super exited for Christmas, I though that I would write up a nice simple Gluten free Pumpkin bread. 

I absolutely love Banana bread so I thought that I would put lovely/festive twist on this. 

ingredients:

350g of all-purpose gluten free flour 

3/4 tsp of salt 

1 1/2 tsp of baking powder 

2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice

133g of caster sugar

84g of unsalted butter

2 eggs, free range 

160g of sour cream 

170g of pumpkin butter 

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a loaf tin with baking parchment. Beat the pumpkin butter, unsalted butter and caster sugar in a bowl. Then add in the salt. 

2. Then mix in the sour cream and eggs into the mix until well combined. The add in the baking powder and the flour but by but so that there are no clumps of flour left. 

3. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for 45-55 mins in the oven. Take out to cool and leave for 10 mins before removing from the tin. Slice the loaf once cool and make sure that you store in a tin so that it doesn't go stale. 

Puff Pastry Pie filled with Roasted Baby Vegtables

Hey guys,

So I have a savory recipe for you today and as far as I am concerned, pies, soups and stews are all very autumn/winter foods. I have found an amazing recipe that I thought I could share with you and maybe you can make it too. (Makes 6)

Ingredients: 

2 x 320g of ready roll all buttered puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

12 baby carrots
12 baby cougettes
12 baby parsnips
1 tbsp of olive oil
6 tsp of tomato paste
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Unroll the ready roll pastry and cut six 10cm squares with a long knife. Then cut 48 strips 2cmx10cm. Brush the squares of puff pastry with egg and on each of the sides of the square lay a strip of pastry. Then brush with egg again and bake in the oven for 20-30 mins.

2. While the pastry is cooking in the oven, cut the vegetables in half, horizontally. Once the pastry cases are out of the oven, pop the vegatables on a small baking tray, drizzle in olive oil and roast in the oven for 30 mins.

3. Cover the bottom of each pastry case with a tsp of the tomato paste and then arrange the roasted vegetables upright in the pie case. Then drizzle with a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil and serve.  

Ghosty Cupcakes- Halloween Theme

So a favorite among many of us has to be Halloween! With costumes and sweets and of course, amazing cupcake designs this time of the year is one of my favorite times of year. To be honest, if you search on Google Images 'Halloween Cupcakes' you can get a range of different images showing some of the most intricate designs that I have ever seen but you can also get some designs that look just as good but they super easy to carry out.

Just the thought of little children running around shouting 'Trick or Treat' picking sweets from bowls full to the brim of haribos and chocolate in wrappers. I remember when I was a bit younger our next door neighbours would always have a Halloween party and they we would always bring round marzipan mice with little strawberry lace tails and chocolate chip eyes, though to be totally honest I never actually ate the mice, just the tails and the eyes!

So today I going to give you a Halloween cupcake recipe. The cupcakes are carrot cake as a lot of people in my family prefer carrot cake to pumpkin cake. I am going to decorate them with a cinnamon and cream cheese frosting though if you don't like cinnamon you can always leave it out. The icing will be shaped in a little ascending swirl and decorated with some chocolate chips for eyes to make a little ghost figure on top of your cake! If you aren't so keen on cream cheese you can always do a basic buttercream icing.

Now after all that chatting on here is the recipe. I hope that you enjoy and please tweet me with hashtag #angelichalloween.

Ingredients:  

175g of light brown/ muscovado sugar
150 ml of sunflower oil
2 eggs
zest of 1 medium orange
200g of grated carrots
2 tsp of mixed spice
200g of self raising flour
1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

100g of butter
300g of cream cheese
100g of icing sugar
cinnamon, as much as you want
chocolate chips, to decorate


Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas 4. Pop some cupcake cases into a muffin tin and set aside for later.

2. Mix the oil and the sugar in a bowl and then whisk in the eggs. Then add in the orange zest and grated carrots and mix together until it is well combined. Then add in the dry ingredients (mixed spice, self raising flour and bicarbonate of soda) little by little so that everything is well mixed together.

3. Then fill each cupcake case half full with mixture making sure that each cupcake is filled the same. Put in the over for 20-25 mins so that when you touch the cupcakes lightly they bounce back or when you pop a skewer in it comes out clean.

4. Once the cupcakes are out of the oven you can start on the icing. Whisk the butter for a couple of minutes and then add in the cream cheese and combine. Then gradually add in the icing sugar and cinnamon. The icing should be soft and you should see no lumps of icing sugar that are not combined together.

5. Put the icing in a piping bag with a rounded nozzle and beggin. Once the cupcakes are cool start with the piping by starting on the outside and in circles go to the middle bringing the piping bag up so that the icing starts to tower on top of each other and end in a point. Then pop on two chocolate chips on to the icing for eyes.

Then your cupcakes are done and are ready to be eaten, after they have been photographed, of course.

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Email: bakingbuddiesblog@gmail.com  
  

Orange Spice Hot Chocolate

So, with Halloween just around the corner I have been loving all things festive. I particularly like the smell of spices such as cinnamon and clove. I have always loved it when you go into shops and you see the jars of spices that you can buy and use to scent your room. By combining my love of hot drinks and festive spice I have come up with a hot chocolate recipe to warm you up. It has been starting to get a lot cooler recently and I love it when it is raining outside and you can cosy up with a blanket, a hot drink and watch some YouTube or Netflix.

This recipe is a Orange Spice Hot Chocolate. I hope that you enjoy and love this just as much as I do. Xx

Ingredients:

8 cups of semi skimmed milk
7 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1/4 cup of caster sugar
zest of 1 orange
225g of dark chocolate
marshmallows and whipped cream, to serve

Method: 

1. Start by heating the milk in a pan, making sure that it doesn't boil. Add in the cloves and cinnamon sticks along with the sugar and stir. Make sure that you keep on stirring so that the milk doesn't form a skin.

2. Add in the orange zest and simmer for 15 mins. Over a pan of boiling water heat the dark chocolate in a glass bowl. Don't let the water touch the bottom of the glass bowl. Once the chocolate has completely melted, strain the milk and spice mixture so that all the cinnamon stick and cloves are no longer in the mixture. Slowly por the melted chocolate into the milk mixture over a very low heat and stir until well combined.

3. Pour the hot chocolate into mugs or glasses and top with marshmallows and whippy cream. If you want to make this more Instagramable you can add a sprinkle of cocoa powder and a piece of sliced orange to the top.

School Snacks- Healthy but Fun

Hey guys,

So as school or work has begun for basically all of us, I thought that it were about time that I write a blog post with ideas for yummy but healthy snacks. Some of these are shop bought and others will of course be homemade.

1. Nakd Bars

These healthy and nutritious bars are the perfect snack to bring with you on the go and with a variety of flavours, for berries to chocolate, they should have a taste to satisfy everyone. My personal favorite is Cocoa Crunch,which may sound unhealthy but is packed with 18% protein which is very important for your diet. These bars are also have another bonus, they are wheat, dairy and gluten free and they only have natural sugars.

2. Carrots and Hummus

By simply chopping up some carrots and popping them into a tub with a spoon of hummus you could have an amazing snack. Carrots are full of healthy minerals and vitamin A. Carrots are also full of antioxidants in ample amounts. Hummus is a great way to get extra protein into the body. It made from chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice and salt. It is also full of flavour and I love it.  Chickpeas help to lower cholesterol!

3. Pitta bread

Another snack to have is pitta bread, in particular, whole wheat ones. They are a good way to get more fibre into your system and help to fill you up as they have a high carbohydrate content. I often put something like ham in them for lunch or you can add marmite or any filling of you choice.

4. Chocolate

Once a week or something like that I like to have something a little bit sweeter and richer. You can have a chocolate bar or a chocolate covered rice cake (my favorite). Having dark chocolate is better for you but there is no problem in having a treat ever so often.

5. Smoothies

Smoothies are something you can make on a daily basis and take into school. They can be filled with whatever you want from something super healthy like goji berries and kale to yoghurt and banana but either one is good. To boost the energy that a smoothie gives you should add oats. They are full of fibre, they give you energy and they also help to lower cholesterol. You can have these throughout the day to keep you going.

6. Granola bars

Granola bars are one of the best snacks to go to school with. They can be packed with all sorts of different oats and berries which will slowly release energy throughout the day. You can make you own ( recipe down below) or you can simply by them in packs from the shops as they sell them pretty much anywhere.


Hope that this gave you some ideas into what kind of snacks to bring to school
Xx.

Granola bar recipe: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7001/cinnamon-berry-granola-bars

Links:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/angelicbaking_x/

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Email: bakingbuddiesblog@gmail.com