Hot Apple Pie Pockets - Lazy Sunday breakfast in bed

Get your chops around this!  This is my quick method for hot apple pie stuffed croissants. It's simple, hot and delicious. Serve it with ice cream it's a win win!

Great for a breakfast in bed Sunday treat or as a speedy dessert.

Ingredients...

1 big Braeburn apple

1 vanilla pod

15g caster sugar

10g brown sugar

25g butter

a croissant from the local bakery

Ice cream from the freezer.

half a teaspoon on cinnamon if you like that kind of thing.

1 warm, comfy bed that you don't want to get out of (partner optional)

Peel and slice the apple.

Melt the butter in a saucepan

stir in the apple and the sugars

Split the vanilla bean lengthways and scrape out the vanilla beans and stir into the apple, butter and sugars melting away in the saucepan.  Smell that?  Mmmmmm!

Turn to a medium - high heat, stir and cook until apple is soft and sticky... and most of the liquid has absorbed into the apple making it look a little brown, sweet and toffee like.

Pop the croissants into the oven to warm through.  2 mins.  

Take the croissants out of the oven and slice open.  Stuff full of the warm apple mixture and serve with a dollop of good vanilla ice cream on the side.  You could also dollop with creme fraiche or yoghurt.

Best eaten like a sandwich... melt the ice cream inside it and you get that hot/cold wonderful combo.  WOW.  

Enjoy your Sunday guys!

Orange Juice

After a sunny start yesterday, I decided to put my pile of work to one side and sneak out of the kitchen to the local trading estate to try to find some curtains for the new place.

But I got distracted by a cool little cafe in the Marks and Spencer's homestore... Gosh. I'm so predictable!

I loved the blue and green chairs and the giant cake stands on the oversized shelves. Aren't they cute?  It looked pretty darn good with the natural wood too and gave me lots and lots of inspiration.

I also got excited to find a bottled orange juice that contained just pure squeezed oranges.  Yep, no absorbic acid, no concentrate, no weird stuff.  And it was very tasty and fresh too.

I'd been looking for an orange juice that just contained orange juice (no big ask you might think) for such a long time it was starting to make me consider getting a juicer and doing it my ruddy self! So thank you Marks and Spencer.

Now I just need to find a muffin that eliminates cellulite.  I'll let you know if I find such a wonder.  I don't hold much hope.

Bircher Muesli

There's nothing like a big breakfast and a good magazine to get your inner fire burning in the morning.  *Rocky Balboa theme tune*  I really needed a bit of OOMPh this morning because I wanted to curl back under my duvet and wake up in Spring (a lot of grey cloud cover today in the Cotswolds *sad face*).

So, this morning's breakfast choice was Bircher Muesli (because I had a Granny Smith Apple and some left over Blueberry syrup from yesterday's pancake feast) and I hate to see good food go to waste.

You're probably wondering where the Bircher Museli 'thing' originated from.  Well, it's a popular breakfast of uncooked oats, nuts and fruits (omit nuts if you're allergic to them like moi)  and was developed by some clever Swiss physician for his patients in his hospital.  So there you have it - it must be super healthy and fab.

It's also very popular in Australia, where I lived and worked until recently.  What more can be said; it's healthy, delicious, satisfying and very addictive - and as it's all natural, nutritious filled stuff, it's also figure friendly! *clap hands*.

You will need
A pack of Waitrose Muesli Mix (they do a nut free one which is awesome for nut allergy freaks like me!  Thank you Waitrose!)
1 cup of Orange Juice
1 Granny Smith Apple
a sprinkle of lemon zest
Leftover Blueberry Syrup, (for the recipe look here)
1 1/2 cups of Greek Yoghurt (or normal yoghurt, your choice, you could even opt for a vanilla yoghurt ...yum!)
A drizzle of honey (optional)

1. Mix the dry muesli with the orange juice and 1 cup of the yoghurt (you can leave it in the fridge over night to absorb and get all gooey which I love to do but if you're short on time you can leave it for 10 minutes while you make a coffee and grate the apple).
2. Then grate the apple on your cheese grater (cheese graters: not just for cheese my friends!).
3. Sprinkle the apple on top of the muesli mix.
4. Dollop the rest of the yoghurt on top.
5. Dollop the blueberry mix on top of that.
6. ...and if you're really feeling fancy, grate some lemon zest over the blueberries and drizzle with honey.

I really like the word 'dollop' today.  Can you tell?

I dare you to go to a meeting at your workplace and use 'Dollop' somewhere.  Tweet me if you do!!

Enjoy your brekkie reading your favourite magazine.  I'm in love with Company at the moment, they're new style is fab!

Can it be Pancake Day Every Tuesday? Please?

I forgot how much fun pancake day was.

© Angie Browning.  taken with iphone. tweeked in instagram. pancakes devoured.

Happy Shrove Tuesday!  So what's it all about?  Well, a quick Google told me the following;

> Basically it is the last day before Lent starts (a period in the Christian calendar) and a time to indulge yourself before the time of abstinence (giving up things for Lent) and usually the foods that you aren't allowed in Lent.  Pancakes were chosen traditionally to be eaten this day because they contain fat, butter and eggs...which were forbidden during Lent (and it's also why some people give up chocolate for Lent).

Phew!  Well now that we've got the background information, we can indulge and enjoy a lovely sunny morning of Pancakes.  Why, you'd almost think it was spring! ... just need a few bunny rabbits.

For the Pancakes you will need to grab ...

2 cups of Self Raising Flour

1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1/3 cup of caster sugar

1 1/2 cups for milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

A few knobs of butter

Blueberry Syrup..

A cup of blueberries

a tablespoon of sugar

a teaspoon of flour 

The process!

....Sift the flour and Baking Powder together.

...Make a well in the middle and whisk in the egg and milk and vanilla essence

...Whisk until creamy.  Set aside. (Pancake mix is better left to 'sit' a while... 15 mins to 30 mins is good)

...In a small saucepan heat the blueberries, sugar and flour until simmering.  

...Leave to simmer until it thickens.

...Get your frying pan on the heat and melt a good knob of butter.

...when your butter is melted grab a soup ladle and ladle in a dollop of pancake mix.

...When you see bubbles on the surface of the pancake, flip over, count to 5 (1 elephant, 2 elephant, 3 elephant, 4 elephant, 5 elephant... you get the gist.) and pop on the plate.

Carry on until you've no pancake mix left!

Serve on a stack, pour blueberry mix on top, sprinkle with powdered sugar and a dollop of greek yoghurt or ice cream depending on how tight your skinny jeans are feeling that day :)

Lick all the spoons before popping into the dishwasher.

Beat Monday Blues with Banana Bread!

This is no ordinary Banana Bread.

It is a Banana Slab Cake.

It's chunky, it's sweet, it's sticky, it's cinnamony (with a hit of vanilla) and Oh. My. Gosh. It's SO good served warm with butter on top.

This fluffy goodness has the power to make a Monday great again!

Woohoo.

All hail the Banana Slab Cake!

(You will have to beat the recipe out of me... Oh ok I'll let you have it)

250g Flour

250g Sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder

4 Ripe Bananas (mushed up)

a sprinkle of Superman Powers

125g Kryptonite

125g Butter

2 Medium Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Cinnamon (ground)

2 Lashings of love and kisses.

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees C

...Cream sugar and butter until fluffy.

...Whizz in the eggs one at a time.

...Stir in vanilla and cinnamon

...Fold in the banana mush

...Fold in the flour and baking powder until just combined

...The key to this is not to over mix.

Pour into a loaf tin and place in your toasty oven and bake until a toothpick comes out clean. About 45 mins should do it depending how big your loaf tin is.

Serve warmed or toasted with a layer or butter, honey or golden syrup... or nutella.. chocolate sauce.... or go all out and put the whole lot on top - I dare you!

Enjoy your awesome Banana Bread.... er Banana Slab Cake.

Angie xx