Blueberry and Vanilla Muffins

Blueberry and Vanilla Muffins

Hopefully you have recovered 
from the excesses of 
Pancake or Shrove Tuesday.

We had a marathon pancake 
eating tea which was great
fun.

We all enjoyed covering the pancakes with 
various toppings and 
feeling somewhat sick
afterwards.

Childhood memories in the making.

Miss Bee managed a gut-busting
eight pancakes,
Mr. Bee in respectable five,
and me only four.

Little bee was not interested as 
they had made pancakes at
school that afternoon and was,
in his words,
"not a fan".

I had bought some lovely fresh 
raspberries and blueberries
as a choice of topping 
but seemed to
have ended up with 
quite a few left over.

I suspect the chocolate spread 
was a more popular choice.

So, not wanting to see the fruit 
go to waste I thought a nice, 
quick batch of muffins
was called for.

These are the easiest thing to make and are
very popular with everyone.

You will need :

250g plain flour

2 tsps baking powder

150g caster sugar

175ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

150ml sunflower oil

100g blueberries

2 tbsps of oats and brown sugar mixed together

1. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with 

some pretty paper cases,

and pre heat the oven to 180c / 160 c fan/ gas 4.

2. Put all of the ingredients 

except the blueberries and

the oats and sugar mix 

into a bowl or mixer.

Combine until all the ingredients 

have come together.

3. Fold in the blueberries.

The recipe calls for 100g of blueberries 

but I suspect I had a few 

more than that.

A few grams here or there will 

not spoil the mix

and it will not see any of your 

fruit going to waste.

4. divide up the mixture equally 

into the muffin cases.

I find an ice cream scoop 

very helpful for this.

Sprinkle with the oat and brown sugar topping mix

and place into the preheated oven 

for approx  30 minutes,

or until the tops are a lovely 

golden brown

and the blueberries will have 

probably burst and

those beautiful purple juices 

are running down the

sides of the cases.

Leave on a rack to cool.

These are delicious warm or cold

but fresh out of the oven,

they are just too good to resist.

They are such beautiful little treats 

of blue jewelled 

fruitiness.

I'm sure my hungry lot will have t

hese demolished

as soon as they 

arrive home from school.

Have a lovely weekend and until

next time,

enjoy your day.

B 

x

Passion Fruit Pavlova

Better Late Than Never....

It had been my intention to write this
post last weekend,
but obviously that did not happen.

I make a million and one plans
in my head but
it's pot luck which ones actually
come to fruition.

Never the less,
I really wanted to share this recipe with you.
It is a lovely treat and you could
make it anytime of the year,
but with Valentine's Day approaching
I did think this would be the perfect
treat.

Mr. B is a sucker for anything sweet,

and meringue is a particular favourite

of his.

With this in mind,

a trip to the supermarket at the weekend

gave me the inspiration for this recipe.

There were special Valentine's

promotions of the usual chocolates

and pink champagne.

But, nestled in amongst these slightly

unimaginative treats were some

passion fruit.

I stood and pondered for a while 

"what I could make with them?",

and on a bit of a whim,

six of them dropped into my basket.

Not an official impulse buy,

but not on the shopping list either.

I do try not to buy things

'not on the list'

but fail miserably every time.

Life is too short to not buy something

essential every now and again, right?

I remembered watching a You Tube video

from Edd Kimber a while back

where he was whipping up a 

passion fruit curd.

This seemed like to perfect opportunity 

to give it a go.

This is a two stage recipe.

The first being the Passion fruit curd,

and the second stage for a

amazing pavlova.

A very definite Busy Bee family

favourite.

you will need :

6-7 passion fruit - enough to give you 80mls of juice

5 eggs yolks (4 of the whites will do for the meringue later on)

100g unsalted butter

150g caster sugar

1. Juice the passion fruit through a sieve

into a heatproof bowl.

Do this by squeezing the halves into 

the sieve and rub the

pulp with the back of a spoon against

the sieve to 

release the juice into the bowl

underneath.

2. Add the sugar and egg yolks to the juice

and pop the bowl over a pan of

simmering water.

Whisk continuously until the

liquid starts to thicken.

The colour will change to a more opaque

pale orange and

the mixture should coat the back of a spoon.

 Be sure to stand over the

 pan during this process and 

inhale.

Th smell is utterly divine.

3. Remove from the heat and add the butter.

Stir gently until the butter 

has completely melted.

Pour into a sterilised jar and keep in

the fridge until ready to use.

The next stage is to construct the meringue

pavlova case.

I understand meringues

 can be quite a daunting challenge

for some people,

but it really is not that hard to do.

you will need :

4 egg whites

225g caster sugar
1.5 tsps white vinegar
1.5 tsps cornflous
1.5 tsps vanilla extract

for the filling :
300ml double cream

Passion fruit curd
Passion fruit to decorate (optional)

1. Lay a sheet of baking parchment
on a baking tray.

I put four dabs of the meringue

mix onto the corners of the 

baking tray to help the

lining stick.

Preheat oven to 160C/ 140c fan/gas mark 3.

 Whisk the egg whites in a clean, 

dry bowl until they are stiff. 

Whisk in the sugar a spoonful at a time. 

2. Blend the vinegar with the cornflour

and whisk it 

with the last spoon of sugar

into the egg whites.
Add the vanilla extract here too.

Beat the egg whites until stiff and glossy.
They should hold their shape like above.

3. Spread the meringue out to roughly 

an 8” circle on the baking tray 

and build up the sides so that they 

are higher than the centre. 

4. Put the baking tray in the centre of the oven, 

turn the heat down to 150c/130fan 

or gas mark 2 and bake the meringue for 1 hour.

After the hour gently tap the top
of the meringue.
There should be a hollow sound which
indicates it's done.

Turn the oven off but leave 

the pavlova in the oven to become quite cold 

(otherwise it will split open as it cools).

I tend to leave it in the oven overnight

and it will be beautifully cold

and 'set' in the morning.

Remove the pavlova from the 

baking tray and place on a suitable serving dish. 

I have a lovely heart shaped dish but 

unfortunately my pavlova came out just

a touch too big to fit,

so I used this pretty glass plate instead.

5.Place the cream  in a basin and beat until blended 

and the mixture is thick and creamy.

Now at this point you can either blend in the

passion fruit curd,

(about half of the mixture you made

should do it but of course if

you prefer a stronger flavour,

simply add a little more,)

until it is a lovely warm 

pale orange colour.

Or you can put the plain cream mixture

into the pavlova and then place

three or four generous dollops of the curd

into the cream and swirl around until you

are happy with the appearance.

Place in the fridge and
leave to stand for at least 1 hour
before serving. 

Look at that beautiful, oozy cream.

You could also scatter some passion fruit

seeds over the top for decoration at

this point too,

but remember you would need to buy

an extra passion fruit to do this.

Don’t leave overnight – 

this dessert is best made on the day you want to serve it,

but I'm sure whoever you make this for

will not want to leave it.

Until next time,

enjoy your day

Bernice

x

A Happy New Year

A  Happy New Year

Normal routine has been restored to the 

Busy Bee house hold

following all of the festivities

of Christmas.

I am back to work and the children are safely

ensconced in school.

We had a wonderful time.

The magic of Christmas was very much

bestowed upon us. 

With a five and nine year old at home

I did feel as if this was one of the

very special years we will always

cherish.

Santa called and left a wealth lovely gifts.

Far too many really but,

well,

it's Christmas.

The children were very happy with everything

they received and thank you cards

have been made and posted.

I was given a gorgeous necklace

by Mr B. which I happened to comment on

one day during a day out 

in Helmsley.

Unbeknownst to me,

he had sneaked back to buy it whilst

I was busy sorting out the

kids with the obligatory toilet break 

before we left for home.

Sneaky huh?

The amount of food that we consumed over the

holidays was not too bad at all.

I didn't break into the Christmas cake until

New year's day.

It was delicious and well worth

the wait.

Suffice to say,

there is not a great deal of it left now.

Well, it would be a shame to leave

it to go dry - right?

I must confess I have run my baking mojo

down to empty 

with the run up to Christmas,

so I do not feel compelled

to spend too much time in the kitchen at present,

but I'm sure this will change in a short while.

I also made a little new years resolution not to

get too carried away with trying to make

things and then feel utterly swamped

with everything.

Unfortunately that did involve me

promising Mr.B that I would not

buy any more wool or crafty things

until I have used up my 'stash',

and he also suggested that 

this could include recipe books too.

I think I have sufficient to keep me

going for a while,

don't you?

Seville oranges will be coming into season any time now

so no doubt there will be some

marmalade making going on soon.

So until next time,

I wish you all a very happy 

and healthy 2017.

Bernice

x

Peppermint Bark

Christmas Treats

It has been a lovely weekend at home.

We've been having fun with finishing off the

last of the Christmas decorations,

icing cakes,

and, of course,

making some delicious Christmas treats.

A personal favourite is Peppermint Bark.

I discovered this recipe just a few years ago,

but it has soon become a very popular

favourite.

It is so simple to make,

but looks like you have slaved away for

hours in the kitchen.

You will need :

800g white chocolate

300g dark chocolate

1 box of peppermint candy canes

7 tbsp double cream

2-3 tsp peppermint extract

1. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

I used a tray with about 2cm deep sides.

This will allow plenty of depth for the layers of chocolate.

I also used a few clips to hold the paper in place.

It makes life so much easier.

2. Place the candy canes into a resealable plastic bag,

and bash the living day lights out it.

This is a good way to let go of some of the stress

that has been building up over the past few weeks.

Make sure you do not do this on a wooden surface as it may

damage the wood,

and the same goes for your rolling pin too.

Best to use an old one that won't

be missed.

Once you have broken everything up into small pieces

pour the broken candy through a colander.

This will remove all the dust,

which we will use in the chocolate ganache layer later.

If you find any large pieces of candy cane that 

escaped your earlier beating,

give it another go.

3. Pop half of the white chocolate (400g)

into a heatproof bowl and place

over a pan of warm.

Heat until completely melted,

taking care not to let the bottom of the pan

touch the water,

or else the chocolate will spoil.

Once fully melted,

pour the white chocolate into your prepared tray.

Put the tray into the fridge for about an hour to

set firmly.

4. Once the white layer has set,

it's time to get cracking on the dark chocolate ganache layer.

Do this by placing all of the dark chocolate into a basin

over water as before.

To this, 

add the double cream and peppermint extract.

You can make the flavouring as mild or 

as strong as like at this stage.

I tend to prefer a little bit of a kick to mine,

so I put the full 3 teaspoons into the mixture,

but 2 teaspoons would obviously be a 

little milder.

Santa's Little helper joined in for this bit.

Give the mixture the occasional stir until it suddenly becomes 

a thick, glossy and luxurious mix.

5. Leave the ganache to stand for a few minutes to cool slightly.

Then working fairly quickly,

Pour the ganache over the set white chocolate layer.

Smooth it out and then sprinkle the magical

candy cane dust from earlier over the dark chocolate layer.

Put back into the fridge for an hour to set, as before.

6. For the third and final layer,

it's just as before.

Put the remaining 400g of white chocolate 

into  a clean glass bowl,

and back on the pan of 

warm water until melted.

Pour this over the set ganache layer,

and like before,

try not to dilly dally about over this,

as the warm of white chocolate will

quickly melt the dark chocolate underneath.

Finish by sprinkling the broken candy cane liberally

over the top of the white chocolate,

and again back into the fridge for it's final set.

7. Once everything has set firmly,

remove from the baking tray.

It's now time to start cutting this slab of 

Christmas gorgeousness into pieces.

I trim of the rough edges first.

The left overs are a treat for the baker.

How large, or small,

you cut the pieces is entirely up to you.

It is quite rich so I tend to make the pieces on the small

side.

If you want another piece you can always go back for more.

Plus,

if they are intended as gifts,

your make will go a lot further in smaller pieces.

Once sliced and diced,

you can pop them into a pretty box

for gifts,

or simply display on plate

for people to graze on as they pass.

(If you dare).

I hope you enjoy giving this recipe a try.

It really is so easy.

Until next time,

enjoy your day.

Bernice

x