A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

…baking!

I don’t know if it’s ‘normal’ to have a baking cupboard – but most of my cupboards currently look like this:

…except this one, which I’ve designated as home for all things cakery:

*HOARDER ALARM SOUNDS  IN THE DISTANCE*

So, anyway, I thought it was about time me and L put our heads together and made a cake in our new flat – it rained all morning today, an excellent opportunity to get messy with a bit of flour, no?  And before you ask, yes – my daughter is still in her nightie, rockin’ some fluffy bed hair, it’s how we roll.

Date Loaf Cake

375g dates, chopped
2 tsp. instant coffee
1 cup (175g) self raising flour
1/4 cup flaked almonds

I like loaf cakes.  You see, I like their simplicity, I like how easy they are to store and I like their fuss-free attitude to life.  I also probably just like the fact that they look like loaves, carb fiend here with the blood sugar levels to fucking prove it.  We opted to make a simple date loaf because I don’t have any of my cake spices over here yet and I also didn’t have any oats, otherwise we would have gone down the “let’s kid ourselves they’re wholesome” muffins route.

This particular date loaf is exceptionally simple because it only contains four ingredients.  Yes, four.  There’s more ingredients in my cup of tea than that – especially if you include the midge that just dive bombed it, kamikaze style.  Poor midge, it isn’t even caffeinated.

I digress.

Roughly chop your dates and soak them for a few hours (overnight if you’re more prepared than I am) in your coffee solution – 2tsp instant coffee, 1 cup of boiling water.  This will allow them to get all squishy and happy… they don’t take on much of a coffee flavour, I detected only the tiniest hint.

If, like me, you have a small child – get them to add the chopped dates into the prepared coffee and marvel at how. fucking. long. it takes for them to meticulously plop each piece into the bowl from varying heights, meticulously checking and double-checking (OCD alert) that each stoned-piece of shrivelled fruit has landed just where they want it.

Then, just as you’re about to sweep the whole pile of dates into the bowl in a fit of irritation, ignoring any patterns they’ve been painstakingly creating – they give you a side-smile like this and you suddenly re-discover limitless patience.  Clever this whole self-preservation thing.

Give it all a bit of a stir and walk. away.  Seriously, the longer you leave the fruit to soak, the better the results.  Have patience fellow cake-munchers.

Once your dates have been suitably soaked, add 175g of self-raising flour and combine the mixture before pouring into a greased/floured loaf tin.  Don’t be stupid and use a 3lb loaf tin like we did when the sum of your ingredients only weighs like, 500g at the most.

Get aforementioned OCD chid to meticulously place flaked almonds (or whole, whatevs) on top and bake in the centre of the universe oven at 160 degrees celsius for 45 minutes.  Considering it has NO fat or sugar in it, you get a surprisingly moist, sweet loaf.  Them dates are pretty clever things!  I guess you can’t have brains AND beauty huh?

Our slightly-too-flat-because-our-tin-was-too-big date loaf cake.  Four ingredients, minimal washing up.  Hoorah.  Especially nice spread with a little, or you know… shit-loads of butter.

So proud.  Her, not me.

Oh ok, me too.

Until I started Weight Watchers, I thought Quark was just an old skool page layout program.  Or a particle.  Turns out it’s a cheese that’s approximately half as disgusting as cottage cheese, which makes it pretty edible when you’re looking for lower-fat cheese alternatives.

I’ve been craving pasta like crazy since I’ve been following the weight watchers plan and whilst I can totally still have pasta (perhaps not my favourite mega-bowl of pasta shells and pesto), it just feels like such a damn waste of points.  Have you ever weighed pasta?  It’s surprisingly heavy.  You need to play that pasta at its own sneaky game and get clever.

Instead of spirals, bows and shells – opt for lasagne sheets and cannelloni tubes – you can construct a hefty portion of your favourite pasta dish without feeling short-changed just by making this simple substitution.  On the menu last night was this, Spinach & Quark (just pretend it’s ricotta) Lasagne.

My husband hates fresh Spinach but he tolerates (and secretly enjoys) the frozen stuff.  I don’t understand why, but I figure that it means at least I don’t have to wash the leaves.  Pick your battles.

Serves 2:

5/6 “lumps” (technical term) Frozen Spinach
80g Lasagne Sheets (that’s approximately 4/5 sheets)
250g Quark
2 cloves of garlic
1tsp Smoked Paprika
80g low fat Mature cheese, grated (i’m still loving the Cathedral City one best)
1 tomato, sliced
Salt and Pepper to taste (quark is generally unsalted)

Finely slice the garlic and defrost the spinach in the microwave, retaining any excess water (if you’re stuffing cannelloni tubes with the mixture, drain the water).  Stir in the Quark, Smoked Paprika and garlic until well-combined.  Grab a shallow dish and spoon 1/3 of the spinach mixture on the bottom.  Layer the lasagne sheets ontop and repeat the process. I usually get two layers of pasta and three layers of spinach from the above quantities but your mileage will obviously vary depending on the size of your dish!

Top the final layer of spinach with the sliced tomato and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Cook in a pre-heated (190 degrees celsius) oven for around 30 minutes or until the cheese begins to brown.

We had a red pepper looking a bit wrinkly in the fridge, so I halved it and sprinkled with balsamic vinegar before popping it in the oven alongside the lasange for around 25 minutes.  Serve with a side salad.

9 Weight Watchers Pro Points for a super-cheesy, easy-peasy lasagne.

Do you buy Quark?  What are your favourite recipes with it?

Pizza is one of my (many) vices… hot, cold, hot then cold then warmed up again – however I eat it, I love it.  The spicier and more garlicky, the better – jalapenos are a must, I helpfully remind myself that spicy foods raise the metabolism, therefore burning fat more quickly no?  I excel at self-delusion.  When I first joined Weight Watchers, I read the most horrifying piece of information that my eyes had ever digested: one slice of stuffed-crust pizza is 10 points.  That’s a single slice… a single fucking slice, I’m only allowed 26 points a day!  I can hoover up a whole pizza (what, 8 slices?) in the time it takes my husband to work through one slice.

So pizza was off the menu then.  Except it so isn’t.

The pizza you see above scores an incredible 7 points.  That’s 7 points for the entire pizza.  I think we all need to take a moment….

…

…for those of you who don’t know follow Weight Watchers, we’re talking around 350kcal.

You don’t need to make your own pizza dough and it only requires about 10 minutes in the oven.  Here’s what you’ll need:

1 Warburtons Square-ish Wrap
1 tbsp Tomato Puree (I mix a tsp of garlic puree in too!)
Your choice of 0 point topping (onions, peppers, mushrooms, tomato, jalapenos)
50g “wafer” ham
Dash of Worcester Sauce/Tabasco/Balsamic Vinegar (whichever you prefer)
Sprinkling of Italian herbs
30g Cathedral City Light Mature Cheese (this is the only ‘light’ cheese I’ve found to melt properly)

I keep my wraps in the freezer and just take one out and cook it from frozen.  Spoon the Tomato Puree onto the wrap and spread evenly to the edges.  Top your “pizza base” with the ham, veggie toppings and Italian herbs before sprinkling the cheese over the top.  Finish off with a sprinkling of sauce before cooking it in a pre-heated oven at around 200 degrees celsius for around 10 minutes.

Serve with a side salad and feel ridiculously virtuous about it.

What is your biggest foodie vice and do you have a healthier alternative for it?

I usually blog my food posts on a Friday (a.k.a food friday!) but this week has been all over the place and I’m currently in the North East for a fortnight visiting family.  Subsequently, I’m limited with what I can blog – it’s quite alright to stand in my own house taking a billion FOTD / nail pictures / swatches but quite another looking like a crazy in someone else’s house!  Until I can sneak away somewhere where I’m not overlooked, I’m blogging some older photos that are left-over on my hard-drive – bear with me!

Since I’ve been doing Weight Watchers, I’ve amazed myself at how devious I’ve become when it comes to discovering ways to stuff my face (with the most amount of food) for the least amount of points.  I’m not sure that this is truly helpful in the long run (portion control anyone?) But it’s keeping me on the plan day-to-day, so I won’t knock it too much!

My favourite ‘find’ (courtesy of minimins forum) are the Warburton’s Square-ish Wraps…

They make fantastic wraps, pannini alternatives and pizza bases – they’re super versatile, are a little more filling than a normal wrap and “weigh” in at only 4 points a-piece – roughly the equivalent of two slices of bread.  Before I discovered these, I thought pizzas were off the menu for good!  Hallelujah for square-ish wraps!

One of our weekly meals is a Tuna Melt, served up with a big side salad.  It’s obviously not the most complicated meal in the world, but it’s both satisfying and quick to rustle up!

You’ll need:

1 tin of tuna in brine (I only buy tuna steak, chunks are for cats)
2 tbsp light/extra light mayonnaise
1 small onion, finely chopped
30g cheese (I use full-fat version because low-fat doesn’t melt properly)
black pepper

Combine the drained tuna, onions, black pepper, and mayonnaise in a bowl.  Spread the ‘filling’ over half of one of the square-ish wraps before scattering the cheese ontop.  Fold the wrap in half and either place under a hot grill or use a panini press.  I love my press, healthy toasted sandwiches!

Grill/toast until the cheese has melted and serve with a side salad.  I’m a sucker for a splodge of chilli sauce with mine, don’t tell anyone.

The entire meal comes in at a very respectable 10 Pro Points, less if you use low-fat cheese.

What are your favourite filling-but-low-fat meals?

There are a few things that are genuinely hard to beat in this world. A beautiful smokey eye, a toddler’s podgy hand searching to find yours, a pint of pear cider on a Summer’s afternoon… and an amazing curry.

This isn’t an amazing curry, but I’m doing my best!

Whenever I order anything from the Indian takeaway, it has to be accompanied with a side of Sag Aloo which I usually come to blows over with my husband. “YOU TOTALLY HAD MORE THAN ME!” And this, from the man who doesn’t like spinach. But anyway, I digress….

Since I found a tired-looking cauliflower in my fridge a couple of months ago, I’ve been perfecting my Aloo Gobi recipe… but in the end, I gave up and went on eBay to buy some spice mix. So should you, it’s like… really, really nice and 100x easier when you’ve finished a day’s work and you all you want to do is slump infront of Eastenders with some tasty grub. Yes, I know… slattern.

You’ll need (serves 4):

200g of potatoes, cubed (you can leave the skins on)
1 very large cauliflower (or 2 small), floretted into bite-size pieces
2 onions, diced
4/5Tbsp Bombay Potato Spice Blend from spiceworks.co.uk
2 tins peeled plum tomatoes
1 large handful of frozen peas
1kcal spray cooking oil
100ml low fat soured cream

Cover a baking sheet with tin foil and arrange the potatoes and cauliflower over the surface. Spray generously with the 1kcal spray (about 30 sprays). Roast in the oven for around 30 minutes at 200 degrees celsius. You want the tips of the cauliflower to just start turning black.

Fry the onions in a couple of sprays of the cooking oil and once translucent, add the tomatoes and spice mix.

Simmer gently until the cauliflower and potatoes are ready to come out of the oven.

Whoops, mine are a little too well done… probably by around 5 minutes. It’s all good though, they didn’t actually taste burnt. Add the roasted vegetables to the frying pan.

Add a little water (about half a cup) to the frying pan and combine all the ingredients to ensure they’re well-coated with the sauce. Simmer on a low heat with a lid on to ensure that the cauliflower is cooked through. Continue to add a little water if the cauliflower requires longer cooking.

Add the frozen peas and remove the lid to reduce any excess water. Take off the heat and stir in the soured cream.

Serve! We ate this wrapped in a couple of chapatis with a salad on the side. Delicious it was too! I think that roasting the potato and cauliflower makes all the difference to this recipe, it concentrates the flavours and greatly improves the texture (imho).

* For WW, I pointed this (per portion) at 13 Pro Points, this includes the two chapatis.

Sheenie is one half of blogging superduo Just Nice Things and the lady can’t half cook up a storm in the kitchen.  She’s just started a food blog over at Cook with Sheenie and as soon as I clapped eyes on her recipe for Butter Chicken, I knew my waistline was doomed. DOOMED I SAY!

Don’t believe me?  LOOK AT THE BUTTER.

Stop drooling, it’s unladylike.  The rest of you, stop tutting, we can’t help it.

I’m not going to include the recipe on here, for that you’ll have to point your little mice (mouses) in this direction and find out the method and quantities needed to make this culinary masterpiece.  If you try it, do let Sheenie know what you think!  This has replaced my usual “show-off” meal, you know that singular recipe that people think you can only eat nicely in restaurants?  This Butter Chicken kicks my Chicken Laksa to the KERB.

Here. have some photos to give you some idea of just how om-nom this dish is…

You want it don’t you?  I know I do…

* I did the WW points counting on this and you can have a quarter of Sheenie’s Butter Chicken (as made per her instructions) for 10 Pro Points.  That’s not bad really is it?  I added some Chapattis (5 Pro Points for two) and have been eating nothing but dust for the rest of the week.

In my vain attempts at shedding the remaining 3 1/2 excess stones that are hanging from my bones, I’ve been customising various recipes and generally bastardising them until they’re less likely to (fat) bastardise me.  My latest batch of chocolate brownies packed a concealed weapon of the green variety.  Courgette.  Zucchini… whatever you want to call it.  A veggie commonly used in cakes n’ stuff because of it’s moisture giving properties.

You wouldn’t know it to look at them though huh?

They’re sublimely moist, beautifully chocolatey, could do with a little more sweetening and have a satisying, though-not-very-cakey texture.  Half of you will be grimacing at your screens with an “Ugh, sick!” expression, the other half will be piqued by the possibility of being able to indulge in chocolate brownies whilst wearing a smug look of virtue on your faces.  At least I hope.

Courgette Chocolate Brownies (makes 24-ish, approximately 104kcal each piece, 3 Weight Watchers Pro Points)

2 1/2 large courgettes (pulverised in a food processor)
140g Apple Sauce
200g Caster Sugar (I’d add about 50g Splenda to this next time)
300g Plain Flour
100g Cocoa Powder (I used Tesco’s Fat-Reduced Cocoa Powder)
100g Plain Chocolate (broken into little pieces)
1 1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1. Add the apple sauce to a bowl and stir in the sugar and vanilla extract.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder and bicarb.

3. Stiry the dry ingredients into the wet and combine.  The resulting mixture, will be very dry but don’t worry, here comes the courgettes to save the day!

4. Add the courgettes to the mixture, followed by the plain chocolate pieces.

5. Pour the mixture into a greased brownie tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 170 degrees celsius for around 25-30 minutes.

6. Allow to cool a little before turning out and cutting.  Remember, 6×4 = 24!

What treats are you enjoying this weekend?

When I opened the fridge last Friday, I was greeted by a tired-looking cauliflower and whilst I adore a regular Aloo Gobi, I fancied something a little bit different.  I thought I’d take some of my favourite spices from the delicious middle-eastern makloubeh and make them fit around the ingredients I had to hand.

Because I’m following the Weight Watchers plan (still doing the same uber-veggie thing but calculating it all Pro Points stylee), I couldn’t seriously deep-fry the cauliflower whilst keeping a straight face, so I sprayed the florets with some 1cal cooking oil and roasted them in the oven until they began to turn black on the tips, about 35-40 minutes on full whack.

I fried off some onion (more spray) and added the roasted florets which were still a little firm.  As the oil became absorbed, I added a few Tbsp of water to prevent things from sticking and loosely covered the pan with a lid.  It was time to get the spice mix ready!  Once prepared, tip the spice-mix into the pan and stir well to coat all the ingredients.  Add the brown rice and half a cup of water, re-cover.

You’ll need to check the water levels regularly, so just keep a mugful of water to hand and add more as the rice needs it.  Cook until the rice is al-dente.

Arrange the pork fillet around the edge of the pan and re-cover.  After 6 minutes, turn the pork… and allow to cook covered for around 8 minutes.  If the rice is still too firm, you can simmer on a low heat for a little longer, just add more water as you require.  Remove the lid for the final 3/4 minutes of cooking to allow any excess water to reduce.  Before serving, stir a little room-temperature soured cream into what should be an almost-dry mixture.

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 cauliflower, floretted and lightly salted
4/6 pork fillet medallions (you can substitute other cuts/meats – lamb would be delicious)
90g brown rice
1 large onion
60ml soured cream (I used light)
1kcal cooking spray
water

1tsp allspice (not mixed spice!)
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cinnammon
1/4tsp nutmeg
1/4tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground clove

Honestly, I never want to eat cauliflower boiled again.  And incase you’re on WW too – that’s 9 Pro Points.

What lovely things have you been cooking recently?

You know, this eating vegetables thing isn’t so bad.  I’ve discovered that bean sprouts are pretty awesome, I’ve learnt that salad needs some kind of dressing or it’s not going in my mouth, and I’ve discovered that mushrooms sort of taste like meat if you pretend really hard.  But seriously, except for my slightly dried-out sprouts, it’s been a lot easier than I imagined.

Here’s days 5 and 6 to tempt your tastebuds:

Day 5: Spring Greens

Smoked haddock with sliced greens and poached egg – 340kcal

I knew that I was gonna need something to match the strong flavour in the greens, so I went with a fillet of smoked haddock to bolster the flavours and keep things relatively balanced.

1 fillet of Smoked Haddock
125g British Sliced Greens
1/2 an Onion
2 Cloves of Garlic

1kcal Cooking Spray
1 Chicken Oxo Cube
1tbsp White Wine Vinegar
3 twists of chilli flakes

1 Egg
10g Sunflower Seeds

Place the fish on a piece of tin foil and grind/sprinkle with some chilli flakes, drizzle a tablespoon of white wine vinegar ontop and wrap the foil loosely into a parcel around the fish.  Oven cook at 180 degrees (fan) for around 18 minutes.  Make up the chicken stock as per the instructions on the Oxo packet and saute the chopped onion, greens, and garlic in a pan, with the stock until cooked.  Keep adding a little water if necessary.  Poach your egg in a pan of boiling water and serve with the fish on a bed of the greens.  Sprinkle with sunflower seeds.

 Day 6: Mushrooms and Lettuce

Pan-fried chicken & garlic mushrooms with salad – 490kcal

I think this one may be my favourite so far, I adore mushrooms…

1 chicken breast, cubed
150g mushrooms, don’t chop too small – I halved mine
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
100g salad leaves
5g pine nuts to garnish

1 tsp green pesto
1tbsp olive oil
1tbsp white wine vinegar

1kcal cooking oil spray

Spray your non-stick frying pan with cooking oil spray (around 10 sprays should do) and on a low/medium heat, fry off the chicken and garlic.  You may need to add the occasional splash of water to stop the chicken from sticking.  Add the mushrooms and pesto, reduce the heat and cook until the mushrooms are softened.  Meanwhile, make the (very simple) salad dressing by combining the olive oil and white wine vinegar.  Serve with a garnish of sprinkled pine nuts.

Did I mention that I bought some white asparagus for next week?  *looks blankly at packet*

Firstly, I want to say a massive thank you for all the ideas and inspiration that you left on my last veggie post, I’m slowly working through the comments and I’ll let you know how I get on with your recipes!  Day 3 should have been the Brussels Sprouts, but I wimped out in favour of the bean variety!  It’s going well so far, partly because I’m really enjoying the “will I/won’t I like it” anticipation that comes just before tucking in!  I know it’s not exactly life-changing when it comes to dietary habits but I’m hoping that it inspires me (and maybe a couple of you!) to think about making veggies the focus of a few meals a week.

I will say one thing though, thank GOD I’m not a vegetarian… as much as I’m enjoying the green stuff, a majority of vegetables on your plate has the side-effect of making the meaty accompaniment taste even better ha!

Anyway, here’s days 3 & 4 for your delight/disgust. I’m having pancakes today because it would be sacrilege not to observe the religious festival of Jif Lemon Day 😉  Oh and incase you’re feeling nostalgic, here’s a post in celebration of today from 2 years ago.

Happy pancake-ing!

Day 3: Beansprouts

Chilli Chicken with Beansprouts and Sesame Crackers – 390kcal

A beansprout-based meal bothered me.  Should I eat them cold or stir fry them?  I’d been doing a lot of stir-frys but I wimped out of the beansprout salad option and met the idea half-way.  I cooked the beansprouts a little earlier in the day and then chilled them, it was delicious.  Possibly my favourite meal so far.  Who knew the humble beansprout could be so awesome?

200g Beansprouts
2 Spring Onioins (sliced)
1/2 Red Pepper
1 Chicken Breast

1 tsp Chicken Seasoning (I used a chilli/garlic mill)
10g Sunflower Seeds
1tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder

4 Sesame Crackers to serve (Tesco do Poppy and Sesame ‘thins’ that are ideal)

Spray the chicken breast with cooking oil (the 1kcal stuff – you only need a couple of sprays) and season before placing it on a baking sheet in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees fan) for around 20/25 minutes until cooked.  Slice your red pepper and spring onions before lightly stir-frying them for a couple of minutes.  Add the beansprouts, garlic powder (you could use fresh but I only wanted a tiny hint of flavour), soy sauce and sunflower seeds.  Cook for a couple more minutes before setting aside to cool.  Serve with sesame crackers.

How easy is that one?!

Day 4: Brussels Sprouts

Garlic Chicken with Roasted Brussels Sprouts – 470kcal

If you don’t like garlic, this recipe won’t be for you.  The combination of sprouts AND garlic will ensure you never hear from that first date again so please only opt for this one on a day that you’re either very, very alone or very, very married.

1 Chicken Breast
3 cloves Garlic (thinly sliced)
150g Brussels Sprouts (destalked and halved)
4 Mushrooms (quartered)

1 tsp Olive Oil
10g Pine Nuts
30g Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp Balsamic Vinegar

Black Pepper to taste

This one is really quick to prepare and cook as well.

Trim the ends of the sprouts and slice them in halves, ensuring that the cut transverses the stalky bit before thinly slicing the garlic.  Into a small bowl: add the olive oil, pine nuts, balsamic vinegar, sprouts, mushrooms, and garlic and mix with your fingers to ensure a good coating of oil covers the sprouts.  Lightly spray your ovenware (I use an enamel pie plate) with 1kcal cooking oil spray and arrange your sprouts on it in a single layer.  Score the chicken breast to make ‘pockets’ along its length and pop a couple of garlic slices into each pocket before lightly spraying with your 1kcal cooking oil spray.  Place both dishes into a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees (fan) for around 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.  Keep an eye on the sprouts, you want them to caramelise but not dry out.  As you’re using less oil than normal, they may dry out more quickly.  Sprinkle with Parmesan a couple of minutes before taking them out of the oven.

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This one wasn’t my greatest success.  For one, I didn’t have any parmesan and substituted feta cheese – who knew that feta doesn’t like being cooked in the oven?  (Everyone except me probably).  My sprouts also dried out a little… not too much but as I was eating them, I was thinking… “could do with a glaze on these”.   The lovely Jules suggested to me on twitter that I might try cooking them in a hot pan next time, I think I might just try that and see if I can retain the roasty flavour without killing the texture.

As for the sprouts being… well, brussel (yukky) sprouty?  I can honestly say that they were improved by well over 300% when compared to boiled sprouts.  I had a couple of “slow chew” moments when I wasn’t adoring them BUT combined with the chicken, they were FINE.  Tasty if not magnificent!

What do you think of today’s recipes and are you having pancakes tonight?  Lemon and sugar or something a little more decadent?

I have been practising like a demon and have finally come up with a way to make a mean loaf (or two) of relatively healthy bread.  My ambition is to get it as low GI as possible without compromising on taste.  I’m still a long way off that goal but edging ever-closer.

I don’t know if any of you are nifty with a bit of dough (and I don’t mean at the Chanel counter) but if you’ve got any tips, I’m all ears!

1. Reactivate your yeast by stirring the yeast and sugar into your measured water.  Make sure it’s not too hot… it should be slightly warmer than tepid.  Leave for around 10 minutes, the yeast should have made the surface foamy.

2.  Combine the flours and salt together in a large mixing bowl.

3.  Add the yeasty water to the dry mixture and combine well before pouring in the melted butter/olive oil.

4.  I use a hand mixer with two dough hooks attached at this stage and mix for 5 minutes on level 3.  If you’re a traditionalist, get kneading for a good 10 minutes.  I use the hand mixer because whenever I knead by hand, I always get tougher bread.  Infact, I just bought a new hand mixer, it’s this one and I thoroughly recommend it.  I paid £18 (not inc. p&p).  Usually when sellers bump the price up like that it means that it’s temporarily out of stock.  The price should drop back down as soon as they get new stock.

6. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and place somewhere warm for ONE hour.  I put mine in the airing cupboard.

7. After an hour, turn the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and punch down to release the gas that’s built up inside the dough.

8. Give the dough a 1 minute knead/shape and place into a well-oiled bread tin.  There are lots of videos about on how to ‘shape’ a loaf.  I’m AWFUL at it.  At this stage, sprinkle in the additional seeds that you may want to add.

9. Cover again and return to warm place for no longer than 30 minutes.  I find this bread is prone to over-proofing and getting a flat top in the oven if I leave it any longer for the 2nd rise.

10.  Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius (fan oven) and whack it on the middle shelf for 45/50 minutes.

11.  Once cooked, you should hear a hollow sound when you tap the bottom of the loaf.  Allow to cool before cutting, no really… as tempting as warm bread is – cutting it too soon is death to a home-baked loaf.

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I usually double up the quantities and make two loaves at once.  Although it sounds laborious, the actual time spent with the dough is minimal (especially if you use a hand-mixer).  This isn’t the kind of recipe you have to stand over watching, stirring etc…

The recipe above works out at around £1.04 a loaf – less if you stick to only wholemeal flour (up the quantity to 450g) and do without the seeds.  There is something very special about turning out a freshly cooked loaf of bread and watching your family come to the conclusion that they never realised that ‘proper’ bread could taste so good.

As usual, my version is kinda lazy and a little bit cheat-y.  It’s not massively low GI but the use of wholemeal/spelt and the addition of seeds means that I ‘fill up’ quicker on smaller portions and it doesn’t spike my blood sugar *quite* as rapidly as plain old white supermarket bread does.  I’m genuinely the kind of girl who could eat bread all day long and this loaf cuts very finely without disintegrating… I really get better portion control without feeling like I’m missing out.  It also tastes a 100x better.

Do you bake your own bread?

I know, I know… I should save it for next week right?  But I have a week of baking ahead of me and if I do that, I’ll have forgotten about the Apple Pie that I made this evening.  I love Apple Pie but it’s strictly off limits for me at the moment.  Poor Mr L had a particularly nasty dentist encounter on Thursday so I thought I’d cheer him up with his absolute favouritest treat in the world.

First of all, I need to tell you.  Forget about the pastry, it’s not even mine.  My Mum brought me back some ready-made French pastry rolls in the Summer and they’ve been sitting in the freezer ever since.  Yes, they were puff – I know, I’ve broken about a billion Apple Pie rules already but I don’t like waste and I couldn’t be bothered to make my own tough, not-very-nice shortcrust at gone 11pm at night.

Anyway, if you can’t be bothered either, you can buy ready rolled pastry sheets too, shortcrust or puff.  Don’t let anyone judge you.

Anyway, do you want to know the secret to making awesome pies?  It’s this.  An enamel plate.  All my pies are made on these things – apple, meat, cheese and potato… you name it, it’s been made on an enamel plate.  They cost around £2.00 and my favourite ones are made by a company called Gelert.  You need one, trust me – no more soggy bottoms.

Anyway, the Apple Pie you see in that there picture up there, goes a little something like this.

1.  Preheat your (fan) oven to 170 degrees celsius

2. Peel and core the apples before dicing them into 1/2″ square cubes.

3. Over a low heat, gently stew the apples, sugar, ginger and sultanas until the apples are just tender and you’ve created a rich, thick syrup from the sugar.  Combine well.

4. Grease and flour your pie plate to prevent sticking and lay down your first sheet of pastry into the plate, pressing gently with your knuckle to ensure there are no gaps between the plate and your pie base.

5.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the apple mixture into your pie plate, you won’t want to use all the syrup.

6. Gently lay your top pastry sheet over the plate and fold the edges of the top pastry layer under the bottom layer and press gently into the plate edge to seal.  If you don’t like a thick crust, you can trim the edges before doing this.

7. Poke a few air vents into the top of the pie with a fork and sprinkle with sugar before placing in the oven and baking for around 40 minutes.

Enjoy!