Saturday, March 31, 2012

Jam Roly Poly and Elmo Cupcakes......








I came across this recipe on another blog a while ago. I can't recall whose blog it was so if it was yours, thank you, it brought me straight back to my childhood, my mum used to make this for us along with jam puddings real childhood 'nursery food'! I don't have a picture of this as I have not made it yet but do have pics of the elmo cupcakes that I made with the kids this week......Hope you like the recipe and that it will bring you fond childhood memories also......

Jam Roly Poly
Ingredients:
8 ounces self raising flour
2 ounces Demerara sugar
3 ounces suet (I use vegetable suet)
1 ounce butter, melted (on defrost in the microwave for a minute or so)
5 fluid ounces milk
Quarter teaspoon salt
Half teaspoon baking powder
Beaten egg and 2 teaspoons Demerara sugar for brushing on top before cooking.
Approx. half a jar of jam – your choice of flavour. I have to have raspberry!


Method:
Preheat the oven, 200C, Gas 6
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, suet, sugar, salt and baking powder.
Gently melt the butter and add to the dry ingredients with the milk.
Stir the mixture with a plastic spatula until it binds together (this takes very little effort, don’t overwork it)
Sprinkle a little flour on your work surface and rolling pin (or wine bottle if you don’t have a rolling pin)
Place your pastry dough on the floured surface ready to roll out.
Cut a piece of baking paper to lie on top of a baking sheet.
And now roll the pastry dough into as near a rectangle shape as you can … don’t worry too much about the shape but you are aiming for the same sort of shape as your baking tray.
Now spread your choice of jam over the pastry, leaving a one inch border all the way round – this helps to stop the jam squidging out when you roll it up.
Now the slightly messy part …. roll the pastry up, not tightly and very gently, almost lifting each time you roll to prevent major leakage of jam! I roll the long side, some people roll the short side, it depends on how think you want your slice of pudding!
Transfer the roll carefully to the lined baking tray.
Beat the egg and brush over the top of the roll, then sprinkle with the two teaspoons of Demerara sugar – this will give the roly poly a lovely crunchy top when it’s cooked.
And now to bake it … cook for 10 minutes at 200C, Gas 6 and then turn your oven down to 180C, Gas 4 for a further 20 minutes until the roly poly is lovely and brown and crunchy on the top.
Nearly time to enjoy your delicious old fashioned pud, just the matter of custard to sort now. If you are a purist, you will make custard with a double boiler and egg yolks, if you are a half purist, you will make custard with Birds Custard Powder and boiling milk, but if you don’t have the time or inclination for that, ready made will suffice …..!


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Lemon Curd Muffins.....

Lemon Curd Muffins - Makes 12 Muffins
Ingredients:
200g/7oz self-raising flour
100g/3 ½ oz golden caster sugar
1 large egg
75ml/3fl oz sunflower oil
150ml/5fl oz milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
60ml/12 tsp lemon curd
For the sugar coating:
60ml/4 tbsp lemon curd
50g/2oz golden caster sugar
Heat the oven to 190oC/375oF/gas 5.
Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases. Sieve the flour into a bowl and stir in the sugar. In a large jug mix together the egg, sunflower oil, milk and vanilla extract using a fork. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir gently together until just combined. Put a teaspoon of mixture in the base of each paper case. Top with 1 tsp lemon curd. Top with the rest of the muffin mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes until risen and firm.
For the sugar coating, microwave the lemon curd on high for 1 minute until melted. Put the sugar into a shallow bowl. Brush on top of each muffin and dip the tops of each one in sugar to coat the tops.
Yummy......

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Seáns Birthday













Happy new year everyone! 2012! Can u believe it? I have just made it one of my new year's resolutions to start blogging again, as I had reason to look at my blog the other day and it made me smile to look back at the picture's of my kid's and see how much they have grown, the time flies by so past and in this digital age I for one find that I don't print my pictures but instead leave them sitting forlornly on a disc which is just so sad, so it is nice to look back and see how much they have grown. I also have to admit that I was shocked to notice that my last post was WAY back then in 2010! alot has happened since then, My Dad passed away in May 2010 and that made me feel very depressed and not in the mood to share my thoughts with anyone, also with the recession the past couple of year's have been tough, not so much money around, little or no work to be found and living on a very tight budget, so I am going to also use my blog as a tool to plan my weekly menus and add some new recipes, it's always a handy place to keep things!
My son Seán was 5 on the 8th of Jan this year but his best friend was also 5 the day before and held his party that weekend, so I decided then that we would have ours the following weekend and so we did, Seán was in his element and had a great time, he was so happy to have all of his friends at his house and delighted with all of his pressies! My sister also brought us this great drinks fountain at Christmas as an extra present and it was a great addition, the kids loved it, we also dug out our chocolate fountain which we got a few years ago but it is always a great success! They all had a great time anyway so that's what counts!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Monday, January 18, 2010

The Gravel Poets


A friend of mine is in this band,they have just produced their first album, I'm loving this song, if you like it please check them out on you tube as every impression made on their video counts for them!
Maureen

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Groundhog day no more!



You know that you live in a farming community when your children make snow 'bales' instead of snowmen! Although they did also make snowmen!

It has been a touch of groundhog day here since about the week before Christmas as we keep getting more and more snow and it seems like christmas is ongoing which is not good for the waistline! Schools have been cancelled and so we have not resumed our usual routine and no work is getting done! However this morning we felt a return to normality as we woke to rain and gale force winds! Its amazing the difference that one day makes, I took the top three pics yesterday and the bottom one today! However I'm not in any hurry to go driving on those roads today they look like glass! So it will be another evening in beside the fire doing crochet or knitting! Hope its good wherever you are!
Maureen

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year!


Here's hoping that 2010 is the best yet!