Irish Potato Pancakes - Pimped up Leftovers for a happy Pancake Tuesday

I have gotten into the habit of deliberately making too much mash potatoes for the dinner, so I can have an excuse to make these delicious potato pancakes. The kids love them, as does my husband.

Today is pancake Tuesday, but rather than making my usual batter (which I make a couple times a week anyway off season) I decided to make these potato pancakes. I make them with the kids in mind, so I always make a plain batch. However if I was thinking about adults I would certainly spruce them up with scallions and herbs, and maybe ever some feta.  There really are loads of possibilities and variations so feel free to experiment for more grown up tastes.

Ingredients

• 325g cold mashed potatoes
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 110g self raising flour
• Salt/pepper
• 180ml milk (today I used soy milk)
• 2 eggs
• Oil for frying

Method

1. In a bowl add all the ingredients except for the oil
2. Whisk until very well combined, I used a hand held whisk
3. Put a pan on a medium heat, add the oil, I used olive
4. Using a ladle, pour in the batter in ladle size batches. 
5. Allow to fry until bubble holes appear on the top. This takes approx 2-3 minutes.
6. Flip the pancakes, and fry for another 2 minutes.
7. I got 15 small-medium size pancakes from this mixture and served with baked beans for the kids lunch. The wolfed them.

Tip: A sophisticated starter/brunch idea, would be to add chopped dill to the batter and serve the pancakes with smoked salmon and creme fraiche.

Mango & Raspberry Overnight Oats

There's nothing new about overnight oats!! Soak your porridge overnight and they're nice and creamy in the morning and more digestion friendly. Right!! My friend's mom has been religiously soaking her porridge in water overnight since I was a child. So what's changed???!!

Well for one thing Instagram/Pinterest happened. All of a sudden we are seeing porridge becoming increasingly trendy, with an explosion of photos of beautiful looking overnight oats, with all sorts of fruits, seeds, exotic powders etc. Healthy eating has never been more popular especially online. When I do a search of '#overnightoats' on Instagram's public posts there are more than 318,000 post.

So basically what are these new pimped up overnight oats?? Well, there is no one recipe. You can make them with what ever combination you like. The possibilities are endless. Here's a nice and fragrant one though that I like to make, It has a tropical and fruit vibe. It has chia seeds and pumpkin seeds that will super charge your body first thing in the morning. They are a great healthy make ahead breakfast, that is also very portable. The thought of a ready made tasty breakfast already made in the fridge, might make getting out of a warm cozy bed that much easier.

Ingredients

• 50g of porridge oats
• 50ml of water
• 1 tbsp of chia seeds
• 1 tbsp of dessicated coconut
• 1/2 a fresh mango, cubed
• 2 tbsp of frozen raspberries
• 1 tbsp of pumpkin seeds

Method

1. Place the oats in a jar or deep glass, add the water.
2. Top with the chia seeds and coconut
3. Top then with the mango, raspberries and pumpkin seeds.
4. Cover and allow to sit in the fridge overnight.
5. I like to serve mine with a spoon of Greek yogurt, honey, and milled chia seeds.

Maple Spiced Sweet Potato Muffins

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas.....

I've been absent of late from blogging. I had  to take a time out towards the end of our busiest B&B season ever. Things got very hectic and on top of doing Bed & Breakfast 24/7, I also have the two little monsters to look after. So in the end, something had to give and alas I'm afraid it was my blog! Now that we have closed for the season and I had some time to recuperate, I delighted to be back experimenting, photographing, tasting, and blogging all my favourite recipes!

And this is a wonderful recipe to return with!! These muffins, though not intentional, and bursting with Christmas tastes and smells! And with December starting tomorrow, this recipe is a highly appropriate come-back!

Last night I put down too many baked sweet potatoes for the dinner. Here I was thinking one of the kids would finally fall in love with baked sweet potatoes, instead of eating mashed regular potatoes. To no surprise, there was no such luck, leaving me with two spare baked sweet potatoes.

I let them cool fully and put them in the refrigerator over night. I remembered last winter experimenting with butternut squash muffins, and they tasted great. Howerver I totally forgot to write down how I made them, so I thought, with these spare baked sweet potatoes, I should really try to recreate that recipe again, and this time record the ingredients.

The spices used in the recipe and wonderfully Moorish and the use of oil and maple syrup give the muffins a great moistness. My kids adore muffins, and these muffins are a great way of hiding sweet potatoes in their diet. They are going to be the perfect lunchbox snack.

Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins

• 225g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp all spice
• 140g light brown sugar
• 75g raisins
• 175ml milk
• 30ml maple syrup
• 60ml olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 150g of cooled baked sweet potato
• 2 tbsp of mixed seeds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Line a muffin tray with muffin cases.
3. Sieve the flour, baking powder, and spices into a large bowl.
4. Add the brown sugar  and raisins and stir to combine.
5. In a jug, add the egg, mashed sweet potato, maple syrup, and milk and whisk thoroughly to combine.
6. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients from the jug.
7. Stir until all is combined and a batter is formed.
8. Divide the batter evenly into the 12 muffin case. Scatter each muffin with some mixed seeds.
9. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. 
11. While the muffins are still hot, brush the tops of the muffins with some maple syrup. This with help make the tops sticky and crunchy and the maple syrup will also soak into the hot muffins.

Smoothie Bowl - On the Bandwagon & Loving it!

So anyone on Instagram will have noticed an increased presence in smoothie bowls in the Instafeed, people are going gaga for them. And sure why not, they are stunning to look at, and could quite possibly be the healthiest meal you will eat.

I adore them and now I'm hooked!! So versatile and pretty, there really is no right or wrong recipe, it's a little bit of what you fancy.

The premise though is, using a basic smoothie recipe as the base for the bowl. I would recommend making the smoothie slightly thicker than you would if you were going to drink from a glass.

Finally the toppings, you can mix anything from seeds, fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, chia seeds, quinoa. Whatever you fancy. These couldn't be healthier if you tried.

Here's the recipe for one of the smoothie bowls I make most often

Ingredients

Smoothie

• 1/2 a banana
• 1 tbsp of hemp protein powder
• 2 tbsp of almond milk
• 4 tbsp of frozen mixed berries
• 1 tsp chia seeds

Toppings

• 1 tsp of chia seeds
• 1 tbsp of chopped pineapple
• 1 tbsp of melon
• 1 tbsp of mixed desicated coconut/sunflower seeds/pumpkin seeds
• 1 tbsp of walnuts, chopped

Method

1. Blitz your smoothie ingredients and pour into a bowl.
2. Top the smoothie with the selected toppings

Banana & Maple Granola Cups

I was inspired to make these cups after seeing a video on Proper Tasty facebook page. They are a great inventive way of getting some slow releasing energy oats into you the morning, as well as looking oh so pretty.In addition to being nutritious and good looking, they are very versatile and keep in the fridge in a sealed airtight container for up to a week.

Even though I was inspired by the video in the above link, I did change a few ingredients and also part of the cooking method. I found from cooking the cups in the muffin trays they had a slightly 'soggy bottom', so for a final five minutes in the oven, I took them out of the muffin tray and turned them upside down on a baking sheet, to crisp up the base of the cups, so no soggy bottoms in sight!

I'm very excited to get my guests reviews on them when I open our bed & breakfast Sika Lodge next week.

Here's how I made them

Makes 12 cups

Ingredients

• 250g rolled oats ( I used jumbo oats)
• 150ml pure maple syrup
• 2 mashed bananas 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt

Example of toppings

• 0% fat strained Greek Yogurt
• Berries
• Mango puree
• Compote
• seed mix
• Stewed fruits

Method

1. Mix the maple syrup, vanilla extract, and bananas thoroughly.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, cinnamon,and salt.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.
5. Oil the muffin holes of a 12 muffin tray.
6. Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin holes and using the back of a spoon spread the mixture up the walls of the muffins holes, creating the cup shape.
7. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and the muffin tray and invert the granola cups on a baking sheet. 
9. Bake for a further 5 minutes to crisp up the bottom of the cups.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
11. Add a generous dollop of thick Greek yogurt and top with your choice of berries, compote, dried fruit or mixed seeds. It's your call!

Tip: A drizzle of honey certainly wouldn't go astray either on these!!

Lemon Curd & Blueberry Tarts - The Fastest Tarts in the West

I had to think twice whether or not to post this recipe as it's nearly too easy, and hardly a recipe at all. But then I thought why not show how a bit of quick thinking can help transform just 3 ingredients into something truly scrumptious.

Shop bought ready rolled puff pastry is an absolute godsend! The possibilities for baking recipes are endless. Here I'm using my own homemade lemon curd, but you can just as easy buy a good quality jar of lemon curd.

 The lemon and blueberry flavours are a match made in heaven, but you could always subsitute the blueberries for raspberries if you wish.

I made these tarts this morning for my Bed and Breakfast guests. I'm usually up against the clock in the morning preparing the breakfast, but as these tarts require minimum effort, they were the perfect choice for early morning baking!

Ingredients

• 1 sheet of ready rolled puff pastry
• 12 tsp of lemon curd
• 24 blueberries

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
3. Stamp out 12 circles of pastry rounds
4. Place 1 tsp of lemon curd in each pastry disc, followed by 2 blueberries.
5. Pinch up the sides of the circle, so the lemon curd doesn't escape.
6. Spread the discs out of the baking sheet and bake in the oven for 14-15 minutes.
7. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack when baked.

Moist n' Sharp Blueberry & Lemon Curd Loaf

I made this loaf cake for my B&B guests, but I must confess there is only half a loaf left. WARNING: This cake is totally addictive. The buttermilk helps lift the cake to a crazy level of moistness!! And the lemon curd, gives the cake a super sharp hit. With summer upon us, this is the perfect breakfast/elevenses/afternoon tea/ any time cake!!! The blueberries and lemon curd are a match made in heaven.

When I asked my husband to test a slice of this cake and told him I made it up as I went along, he said 'you need to write down what you did immediately, and do it again!!' So here it is!

Note: You can use good quality shop bought lemon curd, but I made my own, using Clodagh McKenna's recipe from her book Homemade. My B&B guests swoon over that lemon curd. I'll post that recipe up shortly.

Ingredients

• 225g plain flour
• 110g blueberries
• 170g caster sugar
• 130ml buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 125g of butter
• 3 tbsp of lemon curd
• 1 tbsp of almond flakes
• 1 tbsp of demerara sugar
• 1 tbsp of baking powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 165 degrees.
2. Sieve the flour and the baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and stir.
3. Melt the butter and add to the buttermilk. Break an egg into the butter/buttermilk mixture and whisk to combine.
4. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredient and stir to combine. Add in the blueberries and stir just enough to combine.
5. Grease a loaf tin and add half the mixture to the tin. Spread it evenly.
6. Spread the lemon curd over the mixture and cover with the remaining cake mixture.
7. Scatter the cake with the almonds and sprinkle with the demerara sugar.
8. Bake in the oven for 55 minutes.
9. Allow to cool completely in the tin, before turning out.

Pistachio & White Chocolate Spread - The Indulgent Nutella Alternative

I first came across this spread whilst on holidays in Sicily. I mentioned before how we stayed in a Farmhouse B&B on our last night in Sicily. They made their own olive oil as well as growning pistachios. (http://www.ciucismanor.it/php/products.php). The breakfast was a real homely experience with everyone gathered around one big table with all the delicious baking and meats and spreads in the centre of the table, everyone helping themselves. I  must have eaten a whole bowl of the pistachio spread before asking our host, Ginevra, what exactly is was that I was eating. I thought to myself no wondering it tastes amazing.............Chocolate........White Chocolate!!!!

 When Ginevra explained that it was a type of chocolate spread made with pistachios and white chocolate, I was hooked. It tasted unreal and the vibrant green colour gives it a fantastic appearance.

My own tried and tested spread is simple to make, but I've found, very difficult to eat only a small portion at a time. I use coconut oil here, but you could use other oils,  like sunflower oil or groundnut oil.

Ingredients

• 300g of shelled pistachios
• 200g of good quality qhite chocolate
• 4 tbsp of coconut oil
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 tsp of table salt

Method

1. Place the pistachios in a food processor and blitz until a wet crumb forms, could take up to 3 minutes.
2. Melt the white chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water. Add the vanilla extract to the melted chocolate.
3. Allow the chocolate to cool.
4. Add the coconut oil, salt and melted chocolate to the pistachio crumb and blitz it again until to clumps together and ressembles a butter.
5. Store in an airtight container, in a cool dry place. (Not the fridge, otherwise it will loose it's spreadability).
6. It's delicious on toast, crusty bread, or on cupcakes, or as an alternative to cream in a victoria sponge perhaps.

Apple & Strawberry Turnovers - The Perfect Quickie Snack

I made these turnovers this morning for the Bed and Breakfast guests, and honestly they were made from start to finish in 20 minutes using only four ingredients. Now how's that for a quickie?!

Quick snacks do require short cut ingredients, so as always, I use premade shop bought ready rolled puff pastry, and I use a high quality strawberry conserve. There is nothing wrong with using short cut ingredients from time to time, as long as you buy the best quality you can afford. There really is such a difference.

These turnovers are perfect for my guests who love a morning pastry, but they would work equally as well with a dollop of cream or custard for an elegant dinner party dessert. Either way, they are simply childs play to make and way too delicious not to make.

Here's how:

Ingredients

• 1 packet of ready rolled all butter puff pastry
• 1 jar of good quality strawberry conserve
• 2 tbsp of flaked almonds
• 1 apple, peeled and diced.

To Glaze:

• Some milk and brown sugar

To decorate:

• Some icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Roll out the puff pastry with the longest end neares you. Then cut it into 3. Then cut horizontal in half.
3. On each square place a teaspoon of strawberry conserve in the centre and top with a teaspoon of diced apple
4. Repeat with every remaining square.
5. Brush the edges of each pastry square with the milk and fold in half pressing down all the edges.
6. Use a fork to press down the pinched sides of the squares.
7. Brush the tops of the squares with the milk, top with a couple of flaked almonds and finish off with a sprinkle of brown sugar.
8. Place in the centre of the oven for 16-18 minutes to bake.
9. When beautifully risen and golden brown, remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
10. When cooled dust liberally with icing sugar.

So easy, there's simply no excuse!!!

Refreshing and Tangy Lemon & Ginger Bars

With summer only a hop, skip and jump away, it's out with the comforting cakes and in with some zesty light but vibrant summer baking! These lemon and ginger bar are the perfect way to start the summer season. They are so simple to make , kids would be only too happy to help and they are absolutely awesome for picnics and lunchbox treats.

I find that they keep great for a couple of days in an airtight container.

Ingredients

• 90g of butter
• 250g of ginger nut biscuits.
• 200g of caster sugar
• 2 large free range eggs and 1 extra egg yolk, beaten
• 100ml of lemon juice
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 25g of plain flour.

Method

1. Line a swiss roll tin, 18cm x 23cm, with grease proof paper and preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Crush the biscuit in a zip-lock bag with a rolling pin (kids love this), and add to a bowl.
3. Melt the butter.
4. Pour the melted butter into the crushed biscuits and mix well so that the biscuits are well coated.
5. Press the buttery biscuits into the base of the baking tin and press down really well with a spoon.
6. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden.
7. In a clean bowl, add the remaining ingredients and stir well to combine thoroughly.
8. Pour the mixture oven the golden base and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes, until completely set.
9. Allow to cool on a wire rack in the tin. Once cooled cut into bars.

Balsamic Blueberry Compote - The Perfect Breakfast Accompaniment

Our most popular request for breakfast in the Bed & Breakfast is our Pancakes! We traditionally serve the pancakes with a small bottle of maple syrup and either strawberries or blueberries. I thought as a new twist to keep thing fresh I would devise a new interesting topping for the pancakes! Thus I came up with this balsamic blueberry sauce. Its simple to make and any leftovers can be stored in the fridge to top on toast, as an accompaniment to a venison dish or even on vanilla ice cream. One of my other favorite uses is as a topping to my homemade granola.

You don't normally associate balsamic vinegar with sweet dishes, but it works so well with blueberries and indeed strawberries, they are a secret love match! The vinegar really brings out the 'blueberriness' of the the blueberries, if that makes sense. The sauce is perfectly balances with a hint of lemon juice and a drop of maple syrup for a healthy natural sweetness. Once you try this sauce, you will be trying to come up with excuses to make it again and again!

Ingredients

• 250g of blueberries
• 2 tbsp of balsamic syrup
• 1 tbsp of maple syrup
• Juice of 1 lemon

Method

1. Put the blueberries into a saucepan, and add the syrups and the lemon juice. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. 
2. It's that simple!!