Saturday's Blueberry Muffins

I felt like getting a little fruit in my dessert this weekend and immediately thought of blueberry muffins! I used this Paul Hollywood recipe from bbc good food. I also added some lemon zest and some dedicated coconut and it was all very tasty... except for the blueberries!

They just didn't really taste of anything. I've recently got into dried fruit, I love dried cranberries and also noticed that they do dried blueberries and the cranberries are always really flavourful so maybe it's the same for the blueberries? They do recommend using them in baking and anything would be better than the actual blueberries, are they out of season at the moment? 

I didn't put my batter in the fridge I also just mixed everything into the batter instead of studding on top. I put my fan oven on 160 and they took 15 minutes. I also divided them up into 12 cases so they were a little smaller but made me feel better about myself when I had two in a row because they're only little! 

I loved the lemon zest addition but I can't get enough of lemon in general and the desiccated coconut added a lovely bit of texture. 

I don't think I would use this recipe again, the first Paul Hollywood recipe to fail me! But I do want to try this hairy bikers one. 

Thanks for Reading xx

My new metal bowl that came with my new scales!

Chelsea Buns!!

Last Saturday I made myself some Chelsea bun minus the icing, I followed a Paul Hollywood recipe from the bbc website and I think they turned out pretty well.

I topped them with a lot of jam which I wanted to get really sticky but I think I laid it on a bit too thick, it was my mum’s homemade apple jam so I don’t feel too bad about that! Instead of the fruit suggested I got a big bad of mixed fruit which had the ones recommended and also a couple extra. I loved putting orange zest into the filling it added a needed kick.

I think next time I would add extra cinnamon or add extra sugar and cinnamon and make a paste with the melted butter and spread that on the dough, I wanted to taste and see it a bit more than I did.

Overall though it’s definitely a recipe worth keeping and they were pretty easy to eat too, I thought that dried fruit would go everywhere!

Thanks for Reading xx

My Chocolate Twists!

So ever since watching the Great British Bake Off and hearing about how tricky and time consuming puff pastry is I have wanted to set myself a puff pastry challenge and seeing as how I have suddenly discovered the newly refurbished pastry aisle in my local Tesco and a rivalling, perhaps triumphant, aisle in Sainsburys I was inspired to make a chocolate twist.

I used the puff pastry recipe from Paul Hollywood's recent book but cut down a little on the times, I only left the flour slab in the fridge for two hours at the start and once the butter was rolled in they only rested in the fridge for 30 minutes after each turn.

I have to say I was pretty surprised at how easy it was to complete each step and not get confused along the way I totally expected to get befuddled. I also found that it was a simple recipe and the only downfall is that it is time consuming, I would only be able to fit it in at the weekend, which is such a shame because it is delicious! So here are the chocolate twists, with layers!!!

I tried out two twisting methods and I think the first one looks the best but was also the trickier, for that one I squished the chocolate into the pastry strip and borrowed a glamorous assistant to hold one end while I twisted the other and caught falling chocolate to stuff back in! The second was to roll out the strip a bit more to make it longer put chocolate on half and fold the rest of the pastry strip over and then twist. But in the end who cares! I got some layers in my pastry!!And its chocolate so it all tastes good! Pretty certain these would also be amazing savoury and they only take 15 minutes in the oven!!

I would really really recommend puff pastry and Paul's recipe as it gives you are real cook boost, I was beaming when they actually worked! And I'm going to say it again they are DELICIOUS!!

Thanks for Reading xx