Homemade Blueberry and Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Hey, happy summer! My mum, my sister, and I, decided to have a crack at making some of our own frozen yogurt. We tried blueberry and strawberry yogurts, but if you want to try something else that's fine if you freeze the fruit beforehand.

Ingredients for Strawberry frozen yogurt:

300g Strawberries (frozen)
375ml Natural yogurt (I got fat free)
2 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp honey

Method for Strawberry frozen yogurt:

1. In a food processor; add the strawberries, yogurt, caster sugar, and honey. Blend until smooth and creamy (yogurt type consistency).

2. Put the yogurt into an airtight container, and freeze until the mixture is solid, which could take around 5-6 hours.

Ingredients for Blueberry frozen yogurt:

150g blueberries (frozen)
375ml Natural yogurt (fat free)
3 tbsp honey

Method for Blueberry frozen yogurt:

1. In a food processor blend; the blueberries, yogurt, and honey together until smooth and creamy. (yogurt type consistency).

2. Put the yogurt into an airtight container, and freeze just like the strawberry yogurt, the blueberry frozen yogurt could be a little stiffer when scooping out when it has frozen compared to the strawberry yogurt.                                                                                                                                                 

Happy baking, Beth xx

2015 What I Grow In The Garden

Hey, summer last year I did a post on what we were currently growing in the garden. A lot has changed since then, the arrival of 5 chickens as a main change! Hopefully we get a good harvest of fruit and veggies this year. Unfortunately not from the cherry tree because the pigeons have got to them!

Tomato plant from a seedling to growing fresh tomatoes ready for summer, already got some growing!

Having a crack at some chili peppers this year, should get a decent harvest.

 Potting up some herbs, rocket, and lettuce, to be moved out of the green house into the section the chickens have dug up for us!

Speaking of the chickens... Look how big Little has got! Her brother unfortunately had to leave us, because he was a little vicious and we had to give him away, but he's gone to live on a very happy farm with three hens that he can grow old with.

All the chickens are doing well, Dave jumped in front of the camera to get a closer look at what I was holding, she soon got bored after this picture though.

These grapes have been growing for years, this year we have started to get a decent crop out of them probably going to use them to make wine out of. With the elderberries further up the garden, they should make a decent wine (for my parents at least!)

The cherry tree, with no cherries on it because we couldn't keep the birds off! Even though there are hanging CD's; where the light can reflect off them and ward the birds off the branches. We do also have a few mini potted plants such as mint, and basil. We also have a mystery plant that we don't know what it is until it starts to grow flowers/fruit and vegetables. 
We are making an effort to grow some figs this year next to the cherry tree, they'll be done soon, once they're at the right colour and start to droop a little.

So that's what we grow in our garden. What do you grow in your garden?

Happy Baking, Beth xx

Nutella and Orange Brownies

I wanted to try something new with the average brownie. So after two attempts and a lot of Nutella- here's the outcome. This is the original recipe I changed up to fit what I was doing. Original :). Happy Baking x

Ingredients:

250g unsalted butter
200g Nutella
80g cocoa powder (or drinking chocolate mix) sifted
Zest and juice of 1 orange
65g plain flour sifted
1 tsp baking powder
360g caster sugar
4 eggs

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180C, grease a 24cm cake tin. In a small sauce pan melt the butter. When the butter has melted leave to cool for about 5 minutes, stir occasionally. Meanwhile in a medium sized bowl add Nutella and orange zest and juice. Once the butter has cooled a bit add to the chocolate orange mix mix well until smooth.

2. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and sugar. Once that has been thoroughly mixed. Add the chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and stir well.

3. Beat in the eggs until a silky smooth consistency is achieved. Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes. The brownie should still be a little gooey on the inside.

4. Cool on a cooling rack then transfer to a chopping board and cut into chunky pieces.

Happy Baking, Beth x

Delicious Summer Fruit Tartlets with Creme Patissiere

Hi guys, this recipe is amazing. The creme patissiere is beautiful. My family loved these tartlets, they went down really well. I hope you like them too!

Ingredients:

For Crème Patissiere:

300ml milk

1 tsp seeded vanilla essence 

3 large egg yolks 

50 g caster sugar

1 heaped tablespoon of plain flour

knob of butter

For Tarts:

300g shortcrust pastry ( I made my own pastry from a recipe)

400g mixed berries

1 kiwi cut into slices 

Method:

1. For the crème patissiere, pour the milk into a saucepan and add the seeded vanilla essence. Then bring the mix slowly to a gentle boil -- reduce the heat and gently simmer for a few minutes.

2. Put the egg yolks and the flour into a large bowl along with the sugar, and whisk for a few minutes until the mixture becomes pale and fluffy. You can tell when it's done as it will leave a small trail when you lift the blades up.

3. Pour about one third of the hot milk into the mixture whilst whisking constantly at a slow speed, until all of the milk has been mixed in. Then add the rest of the milk, doing the same.

4. Return the mix to the pan and bring slowly to the boil, stirring constantly until the custard has thickened, and is smooth and glossy. It may look a bit lumpy to begin with, but don't worry keep stirring, it will become smooth. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes, whilst stirring. 

5. Remove the creme patissiere from the heat, beat in the knob of butter until melted, then scrape into a bowl. Cover the surface of the crème patissiere directly with cling film and leave to cool then put in the fridge until needed.

6. Heat the oven to 190C/170 fan. Divide the pastry in half. Put one half in the freezer for another use. The other half gets split in half again, so you have four pieces. Roll out each one to line the tartlet tins. Line each one with parchment paper and then put baking beans onto the parchment so it weighs down the pastry. Put on a baking tray and bake for ten minutes, then take out the parchment paper and beans. Bake for a further five minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden.

7. Trim the edges of the pastry after they have cooled slightly, then take out of the tins and leave on a wire rack to cool.

8. Fill the pastry cases with the creme patissiere and the berries, then add a slice of kiwi.

They are delicious, Happy Baking!  

Delish Mango and Lemon tart

I love this recipe as it's refreshing and so tasty! You'll absolutely love it - I know you will - happy baking! :-)
I got this recipe and altered it slightly from my Granny who saw Gino D'Acampo make it on a TV cooking show.

 Ingredients:

Ready roll pastry. ( It's not cheating - don't worry.)
2 mango's
1 egg white
200g of golden caster sugar, ( or demerara it tastes the same.)
150ml of double cream
4 free range eggs
Zest and juice of 2 un-waxed lemons.

Method:

1. Set the oven temperature to 190C

2.  Take the pastry and roll out to fit a 20cm flan tin. Prick the pastry with a fork. Make sure some of the pastry hangs off the side as you don't want it to shrink later on.

3. Put grease proof paper over the top and fill with baking beans to blind bake. Bake for 10 minutes. Then lift out the grease proof paper and bake for another 5 minutes.

4. Brush the pastry wit egg white and bake for another 5 minutes until the pastry case is shiny.

5. Bring the oven temperature down to  150C.

6. Whisk the caster sugar and the eggs until foamy.Then beat in the cream along with lemon zest and lemon juice.

7. Peel and cut the mango into small chunks ( about 1cm wide) and arrange on the bottom of the pastry case - pour over the lemon mixture.

8. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes it should have a slight wobble.

9. Cool at room temperature take out of the tin and enjoy!

Happy baking!  :-D  And trust me it tastes better than it looks! :-)

Strawberry Cheesecake

This is amazing! This recipe was from Nigella Lawson's website and I have put my own little twist on it. You don't have to use strawberries in a cheesecake, you can use many types of fruit and chocolate. This recipe serves 6-8 but if you want to make the cheesecake bigger just use bigger quantities.

Ingredients

125g digestive biscuits

75g soft butter

300g cream cheese

60g sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

250ml double cream

2 pots of strawberry jam

Punnet of strawberries

25g caster sugar

Method

1. Crush up all of the biscuits into a bowl until they look almost breadcrumb like.

2. Melt the butter on a low heat by stirring with a wooden spoon every few seconds. Once the butter has melted pour into the bowl of crushed biscuits, find a loose bottomed tin and tip mixture into it. Spread it out evenly making sure there are no gaps in the base. Put in the fridge for around 20 mins.

3. Meanwhile take half the strawberries and chop the tops off of them. Put the caster sugar and strawberries into a jug and blend. Put through a sieve so the mixture is smooth.  

4. Take the cream cheese, vanilla extract and sugar, then beat until smooth. Whip the double cream and add into the creamy mix. Put 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam into the mix and fold together. 

5. Spread strawberry jam over the base until it is covered (yum!) then put the creamy mixture on top and spread out evenly, it should now have a cool strawberry ripple effect.

6. Put in the fridge for 5-6 hours. Before serving cut the tops off the rest of the strawberries and make a cool pattern with them. I have sliced them into four pieces and made a cool pattern around the middle. Drizzle the sauce you made earlier randomly around the top of the cheesecake.

It will taste really nice. Have fun making it! (◕‿◕✿)

What my family and I grow in the garden

I love growing things. A quarter of my garden has been turned into a vegetable patch. We grow lots of different vegetables and some fruits.

Sweetcorn growing in the veg patch!

We grow things like figs, parsley, rosemary, raspberries,  strawberries, sweet corn, thyme, tomatoes and also carrots. We have a greenhouse with things like lettuce, parsley and chives. We have a fruit tree which grows cherries. We have a raspberry bush next to it. We painted a little wooden container and put some bottles which had the top cut off of them and holes in the sides. So you can fill them with water and they water the plants for you because the water leaks out of the sides of the bottles.

One of our first raspberries!

I love the taste of fruits, especially home grown strawberries dipped in melted chocolate ,yum!

Sweetcorn is always the best barbecued it has a lovely smokey taste. I use the herbs in my cooking, like thyme, rosemary, parsley and chives.

Parsley - great for burgers!

Mum's Fig Tree

Strawberry Planter - we had loads this year!

Runner Beans - Not sure these are doing very well :( 

Tomato Plant in the greenhouse

What do you grow in the garden? Beth x