Category: Baking

Origami Pigeons

We love to break a stereotype here at Heathlands, and today we thought we look at the common and much unloved pigeon.

Commonly thought of as a pest and carriers of disease, nothing could be further from the truth. The pigeon is an intelligent animal, with excellent recognition skills, as well as superb navigation abilities.

There are 5 regognised pigeon / dove species in the UK with the “feral” pigeon being a decendant of the now rare Rock Dove. You can find out more here:

https://www.countryfile.com/wildlife/birds/guide-to-pigeons-and-doves-of-the-uk/

Today’s craft activity is how to make origami pigeons and doves.

What you will need:

  • Pale blue / grey / cream origami paper
  • A black felt tip pen

Instructions:

Standing Pigeon / Dove
Flying Pigeon / Dove

Malteser Rocky Road

This sweet treat is a really simple treat to make and can be adapted in so many ways.

Ingredients:

  • 250g dark chocolate
  • 200g milk chocolate
  • 50g white chocolate (to decorate)
  • 200g maltesers
  • 75g mini marshmallows
  • 100g biscuits
  • 200g salted butter
  • 150g golden syrup

Method:

  1. Line a square 8 inch cake tin with baking parchment.
  2. Add dark & milk chocolate, butter and golden syrup to a heavy bottomed saucepan and melt together.
  3. Allow to cool for around 10 minutes.
  4. Break up biscuits and add all of the remaining ingredients, other than the white chocolate, to the cooled mixture.
  5. Pour out into cake tin and smooth over.
  6. Melt the white chocolate in a microwave in short bursts and drizzle over to decorate.
  7. Chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours or over night.
  8. Cut into desired size pieces and enjoy.

Country Slice Cake

Ingredients:

215g self raising flour

22g butter

200g caster sugar

1tbsp cornflour mixed with 3tbsp of cold water

3 eggs

1tsp vanilla extract

80g sultanas – soaked in hot tea for 10 minutes and drained

Sugar crystals to sprinkle with

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C (fan)
  2. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
  3. Slowly add the whisked eggs and vanilla extract.
  4. Stir in the cornflour mix.
  5. Add a handful of flour to the sultanas to coat them – this prevents them from sinking into the mix.
  6. Sift the flour into the bowl and fold together.
  7. Put into a lined cake tin and sprinkle with sugar crystals.
  8. Bake for between 45 minutes and 1 hour.
  9. Test with a wooden skewer, if clean, cake is done.
  10. Enjoy!

Ingredients in Bold are allergens

Homemade Fudge

This indulgent treat has only a few ingredients, but you need to be careful making it!

This recipe involves boiling sugar.

Ingredients:

450g Demerara sugar / soft brown sugar

115g butter

150ml milk

396g can of condensed milk

Optional:

100-150g of peanut butter

Method:

  1. Weigh off all ingredients and put in a large saucepan.
  2. Line a 20cm square tin.
  3. Heat the mixture, stirring constantly.
  4. Once boiling, boil for 10-15 minutes, making sure the mixture does not catch or burn.
  5. Take off heat and let it cool for 5 minutes.
  6. Pour into tins and chill overnight.
  7. Cut into squares and enjoy!

Marmite Cheese Twists

Cheese twist or straws are a simple and delightful snack and really easy to make! You can adapt this recipe in many ways… add finely chopped sundried tomatoes, chilli flakes, herbs or even some mustard.

Ingredients:

Plain flour to dust your surface

Premade puff pastry

2tbsp Marmite softened for spreading

75-100g Gruyere or Cheddar cheese

1 egg beaten for glazing

Method:

  1. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment and preheat your oven to 180°C.
  2. Soften your marmite on a gentle heat on the stove or in short bursts in the microwave.
  3. Dust your surface with flour and unroll pastry if pre-rolled or roll out a 30-40cm square.
  4. Paint your pastry with the marmite about halfway up and sprinkle with about 3/4’s of your cheese.
  5. Fold over the bare pastry and pat down.
  6. Reroll to a little less than half a centimeter.
  7. Egg wash and sprinkle over remaining cheese.
  8. Cut into strips 1.5-2cm wide.
  9. Gently twist your strips, place on baking sheets and chill for 10 minutes.
  10.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until nice and golden brown and cool.
  11. Enjoy on their own or with your favorite dip!

*** Ingredients in Bold are allergens.

Christmas Sausage Rolls!

Now it’s well known that we love a sausage roll at Heathlands. So we thought we’d put a festive spin on them and make Christmas sausage rolls! How you might ask? Well with stuffing of course and chestnuts. Yum.

Ingredients:

1 pack of premade puff pastry

500g pack of sausage meat

1 pack of your favourite stuffing

½ a pack of precooked chestnuts – these are optional

1 egg

Flour for dusting

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 190°C.
  2. Remember; you should ALWAYS wash your hands before and after cooking. This is very important as you are handling raw meat.
  3. Make your stuffing to the packets instructions, remembering to half the water as we are only making half the packet. Allow this to cool.
  4. Roughly chop your chestnuts if you are using them.
  5. Combine your sausage meat, stuffing and chestnuts.
  6. Roll out your pastry sheet onto a dusted surface to stop it sticking. Add your sausage meat in a line, leaving enough space to fold over the pastry and egg wash next to it.
  7. “Crimp” the edges of the pastry with a fork and cut to desired length. Slit the tops, egg wash and decorate with seeds if you want to.
  8. Place on a non-stick baking sheet or line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Bake at 190°C for 20 minutes, allow to cool a little and enjoy! 

Spiced Winter Biscuits

These lovely warming biscuits are perfect for after a lovely winter walk with a cup of tea.

You will need a mixer or electric whisk for this recipe.

Ingredients:

200g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

1 medium egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

400g plain flour

Method:

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
  2. Add your egg & vanilla and mix well.
  3. Sieve your flour & spices into the mixture and mix well. If your dough is a little crumbly add a few drops of water at a time until it holds together.
  4. Wrap in clingfilm of baking parchment and rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
  5. Roll out to desired thickness and cut out.
  6. Chill again for 30 minutes.
  7. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and bake for 8-10 minutes. They should only be a very light golden colour.
  8. Cool on a rack and enjoy!
  9. To store, place in an airtight container.
  • Ingredients in bold are allergens

Easy Christmas Cake!

This easy recipe is for a delicious Christmas cake and is based on a Borrowdale tea bread! Make it a couple of weeks in advance and it will mature beautifully. If you would like your cake to be gluten free, simply swap the flour for plain gluten free flour!

Ingredients:

450g mixed fruit – we used raisins, sultanas, currents, glace cherries and mixed peel

100ml strong tea

100ml rum – you can leave this out and double your tea

250g plain flour

175g dark brown sugar

25g melted butter

1 egg whisked

Zest of a large orange

1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp mixed spice

1tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt

*** Optional – nuts and glace cherries to decorate

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C.
  2. Weigh out all the ingredients.
  3. Put fruit and tea mixture into a bowl and allow to soak for at least 3 hours, overnight is better.
  4. Quickly melt your butter in the microwave. 30-40 seconds should be enough.
  5. Stir sugar into the fruit mixture.
  6. Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt into the mixture and combine.
  7. Stir in beaten egg and melted butter.
  8. Put into an 8inch round cake tin, decorate if wanted and bake for between 1hour & 15minutes and 1 hour & 30minutes. Check the cake with a temperature probe or a skewer. Skewer should come out clean, temp should be 92 degrees C. 
  9. Enjoy!

Rats Tails!

Yes, you read that right! Rats tails. This is a delicious snack for bonfire night, to accompany, in our house at least, jacket potatoes and chilli!

If you don’t like spicy food you can substitute the chillies for sweet baby peppers.

Ingredients: 

Large green chillies

Cream cheese

Streaky smoked bacon

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius or gas mark 5.
  2. Half your chillies or peppers and clean out the seeds and pith.
  3. Fill with cream cheese.
  4. Wrap filled chillies or peppers with bacon.
  5. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes and enjoy!

Weetabix Cake

We’ve had lovely feedback from our Easy-peasy Chocolate Cake. So we thought we’d share another great and simple cake recipe with you all. This recipe uses cups as measurements. We quite literally use a coffee mug to measure!

You will need:

Ingredients:

  • 2 Weetabix crushed
  • 1 cup of Self-raising Flour
  • 1 cup of dried fruit [sulphites] you can pick, we used sultanas, glace cherries and chopped dried apricots
  • 1/2 cup of caster sugar
  • 1/2 cup of milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees.
  2. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
  3. Grease and flour a 1lb loaf tin and pour in mixture.
  4. Bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
  5. Allow to cool for as long as you can stand it and enjoy with a cup of tea! We like to butter it too…
  • Ingredients in bold are allergens

Gluten / Lactose Free Plum and Rhubarb Crumble

This delicious classic dessert is warming and seasonal. Plums are perfect this time of year and rhubarb is still plentiful. We served with ice cream, but custard would be awesome too!

We’ve made this recipe using the cup quantity method, just like our Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake!

Ingredients for filling:

2 cups plums halved and de-stoned

2 cups rhubarb roughly chopped

⅓ cup of gluten free flour

⅓ cup of brown sugar

Ingredients for crumble topping:

⅔ cup of gluten free oats

½ cup of dark brown sugar

¼ cup of gluten free flour

3tbsp set coconut oil

1tbsp vegetable oil

1tbsp cinnamon powder

½ tsp sea salt

Flaked almonds to decorate if wanted

Method:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees C
  2. In a medium pyrex dish or deep oven pan, gently combine the filling ingredients.
  3. For the crumble topping. Combine all the ingredients, rubbing together until it is crumbly!
  4. Sprinkle it over the filling and bake until the crumble topping is deep golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Around 40-45 minutes.
  5. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes before serving and enjoy!
  • Ingredients in bold are allergens.

Lactose Free Coconut Scones

These scones are made with coconut milk but you could also substitute with your favorite lactose free milk as well. We thought almond milk and cherry or how about oat milk and cheese? Just remember to omit the sugar in a savory scone!

Ingredients:

225g Plain flour

12g GF Baking powder

112g Vegetarian margarine / soya spread

50g Unrefined golden caster sugar

120ml Coconut milk

Desiccated coconut to decorate

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 200°C and line the baking tray with parchment.
  2. Sieve flour & baking powder and then rub margarine in to get a fine crumb.
  3. Add sugar to coconut milk and whisk.
  4. Add liquid to dry ingredients and mix until you have a soft dough.
  5. On a floured surface, roll the mixture out to around 1 inch thick and cut out with a scone cutter of your choice.
  6. Wash with spare coconut milk and dust with desiccated coconut.
  7. Bake for 20 minutes or until a rich golden colour as ovens vary.
  8. Enjoy with lactose free topping of your choice!

Gluten Free Orange and Almond Cake

At Heathlands we pride ourselves in seeking out and perfecting recipes for individuals with allergies. This is one of those recipes, developed by our amazing volunteer David.

*** Please note that this cake includes NUTS

This surprisingly light gluten free cake is packed full of flavour and definitely worth the extra time needed to make it.

Ingredients:

2 Oranges washed & chopped in pieces, skin & pith as well as flesh

5 Eggs separated into yolks and whites

200grs Unrefined golden caster sugar

225grs Ground almonds

Decoration Flaked almonds and icing sugar

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C and line 2-3 loaf tins with paper.
  2. Place chopped Oranges in pan with a little water. Cover and stew gently till soft and liquid has evaporated. Leave to cool. Liquidise in processor or use a small stick blender (Whatever you have).
  3. Whisk egg whites till stiff then gradually add half the sugar to create a meringue.
  4. Whisk egg yolks with remaining half of caster sugar till pale and thick.
  5. Gradually whisk in the pureed oranges to the egg yolk and sugar mixture then fold in the ground almonds.
  6. Gradually fold in the meringue.
  7. Now gently add the mixture to the lined loaf tins. Level the tops, sprinkle on flaked almonds and bake. 
  8. Cool on drying racks.
  9. Remember, if necessary cover. Oven time always varies dependent on the oven but look for 40mins to 1hour.
  10. Enjoy! We like this with a cup of tea.

Gluten Free Ginger Cookies

These gluten free biscuits are a delicious sweet spicy treat. The recipe will also work perfectly well with normal plain flour.

Ingredients:

350grs Self-raising flour [gluten free]

Pinch Salt

200grs Caster Sugar

1tsp Ground Ginger

1tsp Bicarb of Soda.

115grs Margarine

90grs Golden Syrup

1large Egg beaten and warm

150grs Crystallised ginger coarsely chopped

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
  2. Line a baking sheet with silicon paper or bakers parchment.
  3. Sift flour with salt, sugar, ground ginger and Bicarb of Soda.
  4. Melt margarine gently with syrup. Cool gently.
  5. Pour butter and syrup over the dry ingredients. Add the egg and 2/3 of crystallised ginger. Mix thoroughly.
  6. Divide into 30 small balls, place well apart on trays and gently flatten.
  7. Press remaining crystallised ginger into flattened balls.
  8. Bake 12-15 minutes until light golden in colour.
  9. Cool for one minute to allow cookies to firm up. Remove to cooling wire and leave to chill completely.
  10. Enjoy!

Ingredients in BOLD are allergens.

Gluten Free Rosemary Crackers

These simple crackers are a tasty treat with all cheeses and gluten free!!!

This recipe will also work with standard plain flour.

Ingredients:

200g Gluten free plain flour
3tbsp  Extra virgin olive oil
1 Handful of fresh rosemary, de-stalked & chopped
50g Sesame seeds
1tbsp Garlic power
2  Free range eggs
1tbsp  Water
+ Good quality rock salt or sea salt to sprinkle

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 190° and line baking sheet with silicone paper or bakers parchment.
  2. Whisk eggs and olive oil together in bowl.
  3. Prepare and weigh off all dry ingredients [except salt] and combine in food processor.
  4. Slowly add egg and oil mixture, then water until a ball of dough forms within the food processor.
  5. Turn out dough and knead well.
  6. Split in half and roll out dough onto a liberally flour dusted surface very thin. Perhaps 1/8inch thick if you can manage. Sprinkle on salt and lightly press it into dough.
  7. Cut out with desired shape and place on baking tray.
  8. Bake for approximately 20 minutes depending on oven, crackers should be bubbling and slightly coloured.
  9. Cool on racks.

Ingredients in BOLD are allergens.

Gluten Free Cheese Biscuits

Ingredients

  • 185g Gluten free plain flour
  • 85g Vegetable margarine
  • 225g Grated strong cheddar
  • 1tsp Salt
  • 1tbsp Garlic power
  • 2 Free range egg yolks
  • 1tbsp Water

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 160° and line baking sheet with silicone paper or bakers parchment.
  2. Weigh off all dry ingredients and marg. to processor and combine.
  3. Add cheese and combine.
  4. Slowly add egg yolk first and then water until mixture forms a ball within the
    food processor.
  5. Turn out dough and knead well.
  6. Split in half and roll out dough onto a liberally flour dusted surface very thin.
    Perhaps 1/8inch thick if you can manage.
  7. Cut out with desired shape and place on baking tray. Chill in fridge for 1/2hr.
  8. Bake for 20 minutes or longer depending on oven and cool on racks.
  9. Eat with more cheese!
    1tbsp 1tbsp 1tsp 1tbsp
    Cayenne pepper Smoked paprika Chilli flakes
    Dried Parsley

Why not spice things up and add a table spoon of chilli flakes!

Cum

Cheese Scones

Ingredients:

  • 225g Self Raising Flour
  • 1tsp Baking Powder
  • 55g Butter
  • Pinch of Salt
  • 25g Mature Ceddar
  • 150ml Milk
  • 1 Egg

Method:

  1. Serve the flour and baking powder into a bowl and rub the butter in with your finger tips.
  2. Add the milk gently with a wooden spoon to get a soft dough.
  3. Bring the dough together with floury hands. Yup, this can be messy!
  4. Turn out onto a floury surface and press down to about 3cm thick.
  5. Cut out with a scone cutter and place on a baking tray with parchment.
  6. Whisk egg and wash the top of scones.
  7. Bake at 210 degrees for 12-15 minutes

For a delicious alternative, melt a tablespoon of marmite into the milk on the hob, then cool in the fridge before making you scones.

Easy-peasy Chocolate Cake!

It’s great fun bringing you all these recipes, but how do I know they work? Well because while in isolation I’m making them too! With my little helper of course.

This week I wanted to find a recipe that our daughter could do, with the very bare minimum of help from me. So; no weigh chocolate cake it is!

You will need:

Ingredients:

1 cup of Self-raising Flour

1/3 cup of Cocoa Powder

1 cup of Caster Sugar – granulated will work too

1/3 cup of Butter softened

1/2 cup Milk

2 Eggs beaten

Equipment:

Cup

Mixing Bowl

Whisk

Cake Tin

Grease Proof Paper

Method:

Gather all of your ingredients and preheat your oven to 170°C.

Melt your butter and measure out your ingredients and put them in a large bowl. There is no need for sifting or sorting.

Whisk the mixture well.

Line a tin with greaseproof paper and pour in.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Let it cool and enjoy!