Focaccia

Focaccia is probably the simplest and easiest bread recipes to make.As long as you follow the instructions carefully it can hardly go wrong.You also need a leisurely afternoon to make this like any kind of bread considering the amount of time you need to let the yeast do it's magic.

I am just adding the basic Focaccia recipe here but you can go wild with your creation and add as many toppings as you like. You can also put different toppings on different parts of focaccia to suit various paletes.For example Jamie Oliver made this 3 flavour focaccia ,the three flavours being 1 caramelised onions.2.basil and Cherry tomato 3.Three cheese flavours and rosemary.

It can be eaten on its own as it has enough salt and oil or can be made into a sandwich or Panini.

Ingredients:

1. 500 grams strong white bread flour- It is better to use strong white flour as it has more gluten content than the ordinary /plain flour.
2. 1 sachet dried yeast  or 7 grams
3.1/2 tablespoon golden caster sugar
4. 400 ml  Luke warm water
5.olive oil.
6.1 teaspoon salt
7.sea salt
8.Rosemary springs

Method

Put the sugar and yeast in a small bowl and stir in 60ml of water.Leave in a dry place to activate.If the yeast does not bubble and foam in 5 minutes throw it away and start again.It is Important that water is luke warm and not hot as hot water can kill the yeast.

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl or in a food processor fitted with plastic blade.Add the olive oil(1 table spoon),the yeast mixture and 3/4th of water.Mix and then add the rest of the water ,a little at a time ,until the dough loosely clumps together.

The dough looks very wet at this stage and the first time I made this I thought the proportion of water to dough is wrong and kept adding flour while kneading .It resulted in a very hard focaccia.So Trust me this is how it is supposed to look like.

 Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 minutes until smooth,or until the impression made by a finger springs back immediately.there are lot of techniques for kneading the dough but it doesn't really matter as long as you are stretching the dough and bringing it back in some fashion.You can oil hands/use flour.You can also use dough scraper to bring the back together .

Rub the inside of a large bowl with olive oil.Roll the ball of the dough around in the bowl to coat it with oil,then cut a shallow cross on the top of the ball with a sharp knife.Leave the dough in the bowl,cover with a cling film/tea towel and leave in dry warm spot for 1- 11/2 hours until doubles in size.

Punch down the dough to its original size .Roll or stretch the dough out to a rectangle of roughly about38x28cm.what I did was put the dough ball in the centre of an oiled rectangular tray and  stretch it out to fill the tray.Cover it with cling film again  and leave for 2 hours in the same place.

Pre heat the oven to 220c/425 F/Gas 7.
make dimples in the dough with your fingers and spread with olive oil,sea salt,black pepper if you want and rosemary springs.
Bake for about 20 minutes.

I made a sandwich for myself with left overs the next day with some prosciutto ham,salami and mozzarella with red pesto as the base.Yummy!!

Lemon and Poppy seed cupcake

I have taken this recipe from fellow blogger bumbleberrybreeze and just made it into cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

Ingredients;

11/2 cups all purpose flour (200grams)

2 teaspoons baking bowder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup yogurt (245grams)

1 cup  caster sugar (200 grams)

3 large eggs

2 table spoons grated lemon Zest

1/2 tea spoon vanilla extract

2 table spoons poppy seeds

1/2 cup oil (120ml) corn oil or olive oil or vegetable oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

Topping

90 g full fat soft cheese

90 g softened butter

175g icing sugar

Directions:

Pre heat the oven to 180c.
Sift together 11/2 cups flour,baking powder and salt into one bowl.

In another bowl whist together the yogurt,1 cup sugar with lemon zest,eggs,vanilla and oil.Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into wet ingredients.Mix the poppy seeds with a table spoon of flour and fold them into the batter.
Divide the batter into 12 cupcake moulds lines with paper cases.The mixture looks very wet but don't worry.
Bake at 180c for 25-30 min.
meanwhile,cook the 1/4 cup lemon juice with 1 tablespoon sugar in a small pan until sugar dissolves.set aside.
While the cupcakes are still warm,prick it with a toothpick and drizzle with lemon syrup.

For Icing beat the butter and cream cheese and add icing sugar slowly.You can add yellow colour to give the lemon colour .I added pink only because it was a  left over from a previous cake.

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Stroke Nurse's Carrot cake

This Recipe was given to me by our stroke liaison nurse 10 years ago when I was a junior doctor in the medical ward. This, I was  told was passed on to her by her grandmother so I have the backing of generations of testing to be foolproof.
I did tweak the quantities a bit to make it bigger in size but the ingredients are the same.So far it has never failed me.

Ingredients

325 g self raising flour
21/2  tea spoons baking powder
1 1/2 tea spoon ground cinnamon
225 g light brown soft sugar
200 g carrots
3 eating apples - small
100 g pecan nuts- chopped
3 eggs
225 g corn oil

Topping

150 g full fat soft cheese
150 g softened unsalted butter
200 g icing sugar- sifted

1. Grease and line 23 cm round cake tin with non stick baking parchment.
2.Sift the flour,baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl.Mix in the sugar until evenly blended.

3.Grate the carrots and apples.Add the nuts,carrots and apples to the flour mixture.

Mix them together then make a well in the centre adding the eggs and oil mixing well.

4. Bake at 180 C/gas mark 4 for 45 minutes to an hour.The mixture does look very wet when you are pouring it into the cake tin but don't worry it will still set and that's why it takes up to an hour.Cover with baking parchment after 30 minutes to stop the top burning.

Topping - Beat butter until soft ,then beat in the soft cheese and add icing sugar.When the cake is cool,spread over the top.

As you can see I made an effort with the decoration only because I was making it for a special occasion which is my best friend's birthday.

Otherwise it is just a slab of icing on top and that's it.

It still tastes Yummy though!!

Soft and Chewy Cookies

I have burnt my hands and some cookies in the look out for perfect soft chewy cookies like my favourite ones I buy from Millie's cookies/Subway white chocolate and macademia nut cookies.
There was always something missing,they were either too crisp/not thick enough/too sweet.
But this recipe works best and my friends can vouch for it who devoured the entire batch in one evening.

Next time I plan to experiment and make some variations of this .I may add some nuts or just white chocolate or mixture of everything.

Ingredients

170 g unsalted butter
100 g granulated brown sugar
50 g dark brown muscavado sugar
50 g granulated white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
250 g plain flour
2 table spoons corn flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
225 g chocolate chips or something like it in weight ( mixture of chocolate and nuts).

make sure eggs and butter are at room temperature.
 Method

1. In a large bowl add the butter and mix it with electric mixer until smooth and pale.

2. add the sugar mixture and beat again until smooth and fluffy.
3.Mix in the egg and vanilla.

4.In a separate bowl add all the dry ingredients - flour,corn flour,baking soda and salt.
5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.
6.Add the chocolate chips and mix in. I added  a bit of chocolate chips and part of white chocolate and milk chocolate blocks which weighed 225 g altogether as in my house nothing lasts long and I can't save them from myself and my children.

7.It makes a soft dough and you need to chill it in fridge at least 1 hour to get the right results.

8.Remove the cookie dough from fridge and leave it at room temperature for 10 minutes.it will be crumbly but don't worry .Take a big table spoon amounts into hands and make into balls.

9.pre heat oven to 180 degrees.Line baking tray with parchment paper and I lightly pressed the balls once transferred and bake for 7-9 minutes.

10.Don't touch them when they come out as they will be puffy and soft.Leave them for 5 minutes and they will come to the right consistency you want.

Medical Student's Chocolate Brownie

Dear medical student,I am sorry if you ever come across my blog because I forgot your name.
This was given to me by a medical student who was shadowing me and I kept it safe and made it many times because it is the best and easiest Brownie recipe I have ever made.If I go to a restaurant and have a brownie for my dessert I keep comparing it to this recipe because not many meet my expectations.
I like my brownie to be soft and melting in the middle served warm with vanilla ice cream.
If I were making it to take to work I leave it few minutes longer in the oven so that I can cut it into even pieces.

Ingredients

175 grams Butter
175 grams dark chocolate(I prefer 70% cocoa solids)
125 grams self raising flour
350 grams dark muscavado sugar
4 eggs
85 grams hazel nuts

1. Melt butter and chocolate over low heat.

2. Mix flour,sugar,eggs in a bowl.

3.Add chocolate butter and nuts .Mix well.

4. Pour into brown tin lined with grease proof paper.

5. Bake for 40- 50 minutes at 180 c/gas mark 4

I used a 28 cm roasting tin for it as suggested by the medical student and I usually follow my baking recipes to the 'T' but you can use 23 cm cake tin I suppose.

Again baking time depends on whether you are using it for dessert or snack.I usually take it out when the tip of my skewer tip is still wet with chocolate mix .
Enjoy with a dollop of vanilla ice cream/whipped cream

Celery and Egg Fried Rice

It is a very simple but very delicious recipe.I was a bit sceptical about use of celery before I tried it but Once I made it I never made egg fried rice any other way.

Ingradients

1 cup cooked rice- the staler the better

2 eggs

2 sticks of celery

1 onion/ small bunch of spring onions

1 table spoon sesame oil

1  teaspoon ajinomoto/ monosodium glutamate

2 cloves garlic

red chilli flakes- according to taste

2-3 tea spoons dark soy sauce

few coriander leaves.

chop vegetables as above and grate the garlic.

In a wok /deep pan add a teaspoon of sunflower oil and break the eggs and scramble them.

Empty the scrambled egg onto a plate and into the same wok add another teaspoon of sunflower oil and add garlic and onions and some salt.fry for 2-3 minutes until onions are soft and then add the scrambled egg ,celery,soy sauce,chilli flakes and rice.

 sesame oil here is more for flavour so I just add it at the end with a pinch of ajinomoto and coriander leaves.

And that's it.It is delicious on its own as a light lunch or you can have it with some raita.