Welcome to Mum&sons

My two eldest boys challenged me to start a cooking blog with simple recipes that we can cook together - and my youngest one has now joined in. I am hoping they pick up some cooking and photograph skills... or that at least they learn to design and run a blog.


CHOCOLATE CHIP BUNS

We got this recipe from the Guardian food section. We had a bit of a technical glitch as we poured the melted butter over the dough with chocolate chips while the butter was very hot, so some of the chocolate chips melted a bit making the buns go brown. As it happens they are lovely like that, so feel free to make the same mistake if you wish.

You need:

250 gr chocolate chips
2 pinches of salt
25 g sugar 
375 ml  milk
100 ml water
1 sachet of fast-action yeast
75 g butter 
625 g bread white flour
1 beaten egg
Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
Boil the milk and add the water to it. Add the yeast and let it rest for 5 minutes. Separately mix the flour, sugar and salt and add it to the milky yeast mix. Add the chocolate chips. Melt the butter and add it to the mixture until you get a soft dough. Cover it with a tea towel and let it rest for ten minutes. Knead it for a few seconds, divide it into 15 balls and let it all rest (still covered) for an hour. Put them on a tray lined with baking paper, brush them with the beaten egg and bake for 20 minutes. 





LEFT OVER CHICKEN PIE

This is great with left overs from a roast chicken, though you can of course cook the chicken from scratch if you prefer it.

You need:
- two leeks
- 1 clove of garlic
- 2 table spoons of olive oil
- 20 gr of butter
- 100 gr diced bacon or ham
- left over roast chicken (whatever you have)
- frozen peas (to taste - we added a couple of handfuls)
- salt (a pinch)
- ready made puff pastry
- 1 egg beaten
- two spoonfuls of creme fraiche or double cream

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
In a shallow pan heat the olive oil and butter. Add the leak cut in rounds and the garlic (in slices). Let it cook over a low heat until the leaks become translucent. Add the bacon. Increase the heat to medium and add the chicken (cut in chunks) and then the peas. Add the salt. Let it all cook for 5 minutes. Add the cream and let it bubble up for a could of minutes.

Put the chicken and leek mixture into a pie dish. Cover it with the ready rolled puff pastry. Prickle it all over with a fork and paint it with the beaten egg so that it gets a nice golden colour. Put the dish into the oven and after 20 minutes it should be ready.