Winter Warmer

As you may of gathered by now, I mainly bake sweet things, but today I thought I'd share something savoury. It's really bloody cold right now, so I'm eating quite a bit of soup...instead of buying it this week I thought I'd make some. I had a huge bag of sweet potatoes and I know they taste good, so making them into a soup seemed like a pretty good idea. 

I must admit, I did find a recipe for Sweet Potato soup online, however I modified it slightly and it tastes good!

What you'll need:
-600g sweet potatoes
-1 onion; roughly chopped
-2 cloves of garlic: finely chopped
-knob of butter
-500ml vegetable stock 
-Small handful of cherry tomatoes; roughly chopped
-Ground spices: chilli, coriander, rosemary & paprika - you'll want a healthy pinch of each. 

The Making Of:
-On a medium heat, in a large saucepan, melt the butter and add: onions, garlic and spices. Cook for about 8mins, until soft
-Add the sweet potato and tomatoes. Allow to soften for a few mins and then add the stock.
-Turn down to a low heat, stir, and simmer until the potatoes are soft. 

If you like a chunky soup, take it off the heat and tuck in straight away. But if you prefer a smooth soup; take it off the heat, let it cool and blend/mash. 

Best enjoyed with a huge lump of warm of bread! 

Here today, Scone tomorrow

When you think of England you think of; tea, strawberries and Scones. Well, I do anyway. Usually this would be a Summer combination but I could eat scones all year round. Especially when they're doused in clotted cream! So on that premise, Winter or not, scones are acceptable! 

This was my second attempt at making the little beauts (my first was a terrible shame), and I have to say I was most impressed!

It's not an exciting recipe, but you can obviously jazz it up if you wish. 

What you'll need:

-225g self-raising flour

-pinch of salt

-55g of butter

-25g caster sugar

-150ml milk

-1 beaten egg

The baking:

-Pre-heat the oven to 220c / 425f / gas mark 7 & grease a baking tray

-Mix the flour sand salt together, add the butter and rub together

-Stir in the sugar and add the milk; mix into a soft dough

-On a floured surface (don't want anything sticking) roll out the dough so it's still pretty thick, and use a small cutter to cut out the rounds. Repeat until it's all gone. 

-Smother the tops with the egg, then pop them in the oven

-Bake for approx.15mins; or until golden brown and risen. 

They're best enjoyed when still warm with lashings of cream and jam. 

OoOoOh spooky!

Okay, not spooky, but tasty.

IT'S HALLOWEEN!!

Unfortunately my imagination this year could only stretch to my costume, so instead of baking something CRAZY I've stuck to what I know; shortbread cookies. However, this time I've made them look cooool.

The recipe can be found in an earlier post, so all you need now is some icing! Easy peasy! 

Now, go get bloodied up and have some fun! 

New beginnings

I know technically Spring is the season for new beginnings, but it's Autumn and I feel like giving this another reboot. This time around though, I'm planning on using the blog purely for my kitchen ventures. It kinda makes sense seeing as I've already uploaded a couple of recipes.

Okay so...if you happen to stumble across my concoctions, please feel free to enjoy.

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