Banana and raisin loaf

This is very easy to make and tasty.

225g Self Raising Flour
100g margarine
150g raisins
2 tablespoons of honey or golden syrup
2 eggs
100g sugar
3 bananas mashed

Rub the margarine into the flour, then add the raisins, eggs, honey, sugar, and bananas.

Mix thoroughly and then bake in a greased loaf tin at 180 for approx 1 hour.

Sweet Orange Monkey Bread

I wanted to do some baking with the children at school. They love it when I bring in homemade bread so I decided to make some bread with them. Let's face it children do love sweet stuff so I made this recipe up and it worked really well. The children loved helping to make it and eating the result.

Do you know why Monkey bread is called Monkey bread?

Apparently it's because when baked everyone can dig in and break off a chunk like monkeys.
You learn something new everyday :)

Before

For Sweet Orange Monkey Bread

3 mugs of strong plain flour
Half a mug of milk
One egg
1/3 mug of sugar
2 tablespoons of margarine
One sachet of instant yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
Grated orange rind


For the glaze
2 tablespoons of margarine
Juice of an orange
Sugar

Rub the margarine into the flour. Add the orange rind, salt, sugar and yeast. Mix well. Whisk the egg into the milk and add to the mixture. Form into dough and knead well. Leve to rise in a warm place for an hour or so. Knock back the dough and knead for a few minutes. Put the juice of an orange and the margarine into a microwavable bowl and heat for 20 seconds or until melted but not hot.

Break off tiny bits of dough and make into a ball. Dip into the margarine mixture and then roll in sugar. Pile into a greased baking tin or dish. Leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour and then bake at 180 for 30 minutes

After

Macaroni Cheese made with Campbells soup

This is a recipe I have made for many years. I probably first made it when I was about 18 or 19 and now both my daughters make it.


To serve 4
8oz of macaroni
One tin of Campbells Tomato soup
One onion chopped
3-4 oz of strongish cheese (cheddar, red leicester or even the cheap ones from Asda or Sainsbury)

Method

Cook the macaroni in plenty of salted boiling water. Chop the onion and fry in a pan with a teaspoon of oil. Add the soup. Stir continuously until heated through. Add all of the cheese and stir in until melted. If the sauce is very thick then just add a splash of milk. When macaroni is cooked, strain and add to the sauce. Stir round.

You can sprinkle breadcrumbs and cheese on top and pop under a hot grill for 5 minutes if you want to.

Garlic Monkey Bread

I make this when we have a barbecue because everyone can just dig in. It's also good for informal family meals to accompany chilli, or spaghetti bolognese.

Before


After

For the dough you will need:
4 cups of strong plain flour
1 sachet of easyblend yeast
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 cloves of garlic crushed

To coat the dough
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 bunch of parsley chopped finely
6 oz of butter or margarine

To make the dough put the ingredients into a bread maker. Mix on the dough setting. When ready take out. Leave to one side for a few minutes whilst you melt the butter/margarine in a pan along with the garlic and parsley. When melted put to one side to allow to cool a little. You will now need a greased baking tin.

Divide the dough up into lots of little dough balls and roll around in the garlic butter and just place into the tin. Continue with the rest and just pile into the tin. This is a great activity for kids to get involved in. When you have used up all the dough then pour the rest of the garlic butter over the monkey bread. Leave to one side for about 10 mins to rise a little.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes in a preheated oven 180C

For a variation you could sprinkle on some grated cheese and have garlic and cheese monkey bread.

Green Bean Salad

If you grow beans in your garden you can get very bored with just cooking them hot as a vegetable. My daughter loves this recipe and it's a way of using them cold in a salad.




Green beans either whole if small or cut into a pieces
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 clove of garlic crushed
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons of wine or cider vinegar

Cook the green beans in water until just tender.
Run under a cold tap to cool off
Mix all the other ingredients together thoroughly then add to the green beans. Toss and serve.

Big Cook Little Cook

The CBeebies site has a great selection of children's recipes.

Click here

Microwave Flapjack

Thankyou to Simon for this recipe



Flapjacks

Ingredients

Makes 12 pieces

100g (4oz) butter or marge (I use Flora).
50g (2oz) soft brown sugar – I use dark muscovada – gives great flavour
2 tablespoons golden syrup
150g (6oz) rolled oats
75g (3oz) mixed nuts (for best flavour, chop your own whole nuts rather than ready-chopped)

Method

Lightly grease a 23cm ( 9 inch) square shallow glass dish.
Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and heat in microwave until melted.
Stir the melted mixture until all one colour.
Mix in the golden syrup, chopped nuts and then rolled oats. Mix thoroughly.
Press the mixture into the glass bowl and level the surface.
Cook on max power for 3mins 50 secs in a 850/900 watt microwave. Longer time in less powerful microwave.

Leave to cool. Cut into squares / rectangles when cool to serve when cold.

Click here for Simon's site

Flapjack

This is my favourite recipe for flapjack. I have changed it over the years. You can add alsorts to it like cherries, dried fruit and even chocolate.

8oz SR flour
5oz margarine
5oz sugar
3 large tablespoons of golden syrup
5oz of rolled oats

Melt sugar and golden syrup in a pan or in the microwave
Add the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl then pour in the melted margarine and sugar. Mix well and turn into a greased rectangular baking tin. Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes until cooked through. Leave in the tin for about half an hour and then mark into pieces. Carefully remove and then leave to cool properly. You can if you want to be really naughty add some melted chocolate to the top of the flapjack.

Gruffalo Cake

I made this during bookweek where our classes theme was 'The Gruffalo'




It was very simple to make and the children really enjoyed it. Click the title to take you to the recipe from the Gruffalo website.

Low fat banana loaf

Five large ripe bananas
8oz of self raising flour
2 eggs beaten
3 oz of brown sugar
zest of a lemon and an orange

Mash bananas well add eggs, mix well, add flour and sugar and mix again. Put in a loaf tin and bake for about an hour at 150 Very moist and delicious!

Scone ring

8oz sr flour
2 oz marg
2 oz of sugar
Fruit (optional)
milk (enough to make a dough)

Add Margarine to flour and rub in, add sugar and fruit if using. Add milk bit by bit to make a dough. Form into a big round slightly flattened and then mark with a knife. Brush with milk and bake at 180 for about 20- 30 mins