BLUEBERRY CAKES

These are not muffins, but mini cakes, which means that making them takes a tiny bit more time than muffins, but the result is much better. There is a dispute as to whether the recipe comes from the Ritz or from the department store that led to Macy's. It is because of the latter that I have dared to touch the recipe, because I have a physical allergy to 'anything Ritz' (which I hope I share with most other Europeans) since the London billionaires owners of that hotel became leading supporters of Brexit, Farage and then Boris Johnson - so much for these two being 'politicians of the people'!

You need:

-115 g butter

- 200 g sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

- 140  plain flour plus one tablespoon

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- half a teaspoon salt

- 120 ml milk 

- 350 g blueberries

- three more tablespoons of sugar

Preheat the oven at 190 degrees (375 F for those of you in America)

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisker. Then add the eggs (one by one) and the vanilla while you keep beating. Combine the flour, baking poder and salt  - add half of it to the mixture, then add half the milk, then the rest of the flour and finally the rest of the milk. Sprinkle a tablespoon  of flour on the blueberries and add them to the mixture. 

Put the batter into a muffin tray lined with muffins' papers. Sprinkle the three tablespoons of sugar on top. And bake for 30 minutes.  

LEMON MUFFINS

And yet one more recipe with lemons. You need:
- 300 g plain flour
- a pinch of salt
- one and a half teaspoons of baking powder
- half a teaspoon of bicarb.
- 200 g sugar
- 2 eggs
- zest and juice of one and a half lemons
- 85 ml milk
- 115 gr butter (melted)

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients but the sugar (flour, salt, baking powder and bicarb). Then mix separately the sugar, eggs, zest and juice of lemons, butter and milk. Combine both sets of ingredients loosely with a fork (do not over mix them). Put the mixture into muffin cases (10 very big ones or 12 normal ones) and bake for 25 minutes.

CHOUQUETTES

While this year I am working this week, for many years I used to spend a few days at the beginning of August in France. Nothing reminds me more of La Republique than going to a bakery early in the morning to buy croissants and chouquettes - vive La France! While making croissants in a pain in... the neck, making chouquettes is very easy indeed.
You need:
- 65 ml milk
- 70 g plain flour
- 70 g butter
- 3 eggs
- 150 g pearl sugar 

Heat the oven at 180 degrees. Put a tray with water in the lowest part of the oven so that the oven produces steam.

Put the butter and the milk  in a pan over low heat until the butter is melted. Add the flour (all in one go) and beat well with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and wait for 10 minutes so that the mixture cools down. Beat 2 eggs in  little bits) and put the mixture into a pipping bag.

Pipe little blobs of the mixture on a tray covered with silicone. Push down any peaks by patting them carefully with a wet finger. 

Beat the remaining egg and paint each blob with the egg wash. Sprinkle the blobs with plenty of pearl sugar. Put the tray with the chouquettes into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Delicieux. 

SWISS BUNS - BOLLOS SUIZOS

I am being told these are called Swiss buns in Spain because they were the signature bun of the famous Swiss Cafe in Madrid. But they are eaten all over Spain. A milky coffee (cafe con leche) with a  suizo is a breakfast that you can have perching around the counter of many Spanish 'bares'. In my village this is done at around 10 am while you read the newspapers and listen to the gossip of the day.

You need:
- 320 g bread flour
- 3 eggs
- 8 g dry yeast - though I have recently discovered fresh yeast, that you can buy in Amazon (and freeze) or at some supermarkets in the UK. It is a fantastic ingredient for baking. The proportion is 10g fresh yeast to 4g dry yeast. 
- 75 g butter
- 75 g sugar
- 3 eggs
- a pinch of salt

Heat the milk, butter and 55 g of sugar until the butter has melted and the whole mixture is warm. Add the yeast, mix well and wait for 3 minutes. Then add two of the eggs. And finally the flour and salt. Knead the mixture, put it in a bowl and let it rest (and rise) for 1.30 or 2 hours until it doubles its size.

Cut the mixture into 8 bits (around 50 g each) and shape them as little buns. Put them on a baking tray (with baking paper or silicone mat underneath) cover them with a tea towel and let them rest for 1.30 hours.

Preheat the oven at 210 degrees.Make a cut with a sharp knife half way through the buns, paint them with the remaining egg, damp the remaining 20 g of sugar with a few drops of water and sprinkle the wet sugar on each bun. Lower the temperature of the oven to 190 and bake for 12 minutes.

 

LADY FINGERS - BIZCOCHOS DE SOLETILLA

These light little things are called bizcochos de soletilla. It is what elegant ladies eat with hot chocolate in Spain. As far as chocolate is concerned the Spanish population is divided in two: posh ladies who drink hot chocolate in the afternoon, served in fine china and with 'soletillas' on the side; and everybody else who drinks hot chocolate in the morning in normal cups with fried churros (see our recipe). I know what you are thinking, but elegant men eat churros and that seems to be fine.

After 382 posts in this blog I am sure you already know that I am more churros than soletillas. But still, I loved soletillas when I was growing up. In my village there was a really good bakery (Pasteleria Frias) which actually still exists. They used to make soletillas and sold them on strips of baking paper. Eating these with a cup of hot chocolate or a glass of milk seemed the height of sophistication at the time - little did I know then that they can be made cheaply and in almost no time!

You need:
- 2 eggs
- 60 g self raising flour
- 50 g sugar
- a teaspoon of vanilla essence
- half a teaspoon of baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- two tablespoons of icing sugar

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
Mix the egg yolks with the sugar and beat well. Add the vanilla essence. Separately whisk the egg whites with the salt until they are stiff. Fold the whites into the yolks mixture.  Then sift the flour and fold it into the mixture. Pipe the mixture into 6 cm strips on a sheet of baking paper. Dust the strips with the icing sugar just before getting them into the oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes (the precise timing depends on your oven, but they should be pale)

RHUBARB JAM

I originally did this some years ago from a BBC recipe with real vanilla pods, but the recipe below is with frozen rhubarb (less than half the prize than fresh) and vanilla extract and it is just as good as the original one.

You need:
- 1 K of frozen rhubarb
- 1 K of jam sugar
- juice of 1.5 lemons
- 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
- and the essential ingredient for making jam without any stress: a jam thermometer (£8 in Lakeland - totally worth it)

Put the rhubarb, jam sugar, vanilla extract and the juice of a lemon in a big pan over medium heat. Let it simmer for a good 22-25 minutes until the rhubarb goes mushy. My children do not like big bits of fruit in the jam, so as soon as a rhubarb is soft I press it down a few times with a potato masher. Keep the heat on for another 10-14 minutes until the mixture reaches 105 degrees. Take the pan off the heat and add the juice of the half lemon. Let it rest for a few minutes and pour it into sterilised jars (just rinse the jars with water and microwave them for 2 minutes). You should get 5 jam pots from this. 

CHRISTMAS TREE BISCUITS

We make these every year to decorate the Christmas tree. If you are in a 'being a good person' phase, just follow the recipe and use nicely flavoured sweets to make the transparent glass. The risk is that  your children will eat the biscuits as soon as you look the other side, just as my 3 years old niece did last week (the results of which you can see in my instagram account miriamgonzalezdurantez) If you are in a 'fed up of being a good person' phase, then add four generous teaspoons of ground black pepper to the mixture and use strong mint flavoured sweets - you can be sure the children will not mess around with your tree.

You need:
- 1 egg
- 100 gr sugar
- 100 gr butter at room temperature
- 275 plain flower
- half a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon
-  half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
For the decoration
- and egg white
- 225 gr icing sugar
- 6 boiled sugar sweets (any colour you like)

Preheat the oven at 190 degrees.
Beat the sugar and butter in a food processor. Add the egg, then the cinnamon and vanilla and finally the flour. Wrap it all with cling film and let it rest for 30-45 minutes in the fridge. Then roll it out to the thickness of a pound  (or a euro - almost the same thickness and on the way to being the same value!) and cut the biscuits in whatever shape you wish.

Put the biscuits on a tray lined with being paper. Remember to make a hole at the top of each biscuit. And if you want to get a transparent effect then cut a shape inside each biscuit and put a sweet (or half a sweet) inside each shape. Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes ( we got 24 biscuits, but it depends on how big your cutter is)

Let the biscuits cool down completely. Then prepare the icing by just whisking the egg white and icing sugar for 5 minutes. You need a pipping bag with a very small nozzle to decorate it with whatever shapes you wish. Though they also look good if you just cover the biscuits in icing with a teaspoon.

CHIA SEED CRACKERS

I have finally found a way to use the chia seeds that I once bought in a moment of 'clean eating' inclination.  I am afraid I  do not get what people see in chia seeds  - that slimy texture when you mix them with yogurt or milk? definitely not good!

This is a recipe to get children to eat seeds. It has no flour, which is a plus.
The recipe (that we have edited) comes from  http://ohsheglows.com/2012/01/31/endurance-crackers/

Take any measurement (a glass or yogurt pot) and  mix:
- one measurement of sunflower seeds
- half a measurement of chia seeds
- a quarter of a measurement of flax seeds
- half a measurement of sesame seeds
- half a teaspoon of salt
-one measurement of water

Preheat the oven at 150 degrees. Mix all the seeds and water. Let them rest for 20 minutes. Extend the mixture over a baking tray covered with baking paper. Bake for 30 minutes, then turn around and bake for another 25 to 30 minutes.

The taste is actually Ok… but give me Ryvita any day.

VALENCIANAS

This recipe is at the request of Emily, who got in touch to ask for this recipe for her nan after watching me talking about the Made in Spain book at Lorraine"s.

Valencianas are elongated cakes. The whole point of that shape is that you normally dunk them in hot milk for breakfast. It is actually very difficult to buy the long paper cases in the UK so we did them  mini-loaf paper cases instead.

There are lots of recipes in the internet, all very different. We had to phone a friend of mine from Valencia to find the closest one to the real thing ( which is normally shop bought in Valencia from any of the fantastic bakeries there). This one comes from http://recetastradicionalesdecocina.blogspot.com.es/2014/07/receta-de-las-magdalenas-valencianas.html. We have only adjusted the quantities a tiny bit.

For nine Valencianas you need:
- 2 eggs
- 200 gr sugar
-200 gr plain flour
- 85 ml sunflower oil
- 170 ml milk
- a teaspoon of baking powder
- grated rind of a lemon
- caster sugar


Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.
Mix the sugar and eggs ( we did this by hand) until they become pale. Add the oil, lemon rind and milk and keep mixing. Then add the flour and baking powder.  Pour the mixture into the cases (use double paper cases so that they do not expand too much) sprinkle a bit of sugar on top of each valenciana and bake for 25 minutes (check after 20 minutes - they should be golden but pale)

The children loved them and they really make your kitchen feel wholesome.

MENEMEM

At one of the dinners to promote the Made in Spain book a journalist told me about the Turkish dish menemem. I have tried it twice since then. Huge success. It basically starts with what we call in Spain 'a sofrito' (onions, green peppers and tomatoes) and then eggs are added on top - what's not to like? 

Given the developments in Turkey it seemed fitting to tell the children about Turkish food this weekend. Cooking is also a good way to overcome the frustration of seeing the two countries closest to my heart navel-gazing while the international order disintegrates around us.  Mind you, we then went all dancing to a concert of the Gipsy Kings - that is an even better way to forget about everything! 

We got the Menemem recipe from the website www.seriouseats.com and adapted it a bit.

You need:

- 2 onions diced ( we used red ones)

- 1.5 green peppers diced

- 5 tomatos in big chunks

- 3 tablespoons of olive oil

- a pinch of salt

- black pepper

- half a teaspoon of oregano

- a pinch of paprika 

- one egg per person

Fry the onion and peppers in the olive oil until they are soft ( 15-17 minutes) Then add the tomatoes and continue cooking for another 15 minutes. Add salt, oregano and paprika. Then break the eggs on top (you can also beat the eggs before you add them so that you get 'red scramble eggs' but it is easier to share this dish if you leave the eggs whole) Wait until the eggs set (barely) and serve.

This is enough for four.

TART LORRAINE

This is a very simple tart-version of quiche Lorraine that works well for the Summer, whether for lunch of for a brunch. You need:
 - a packet of puff pastry
- two handfuls of grated cheese
- 150 gr bacon or pancetta (diced)
- half a teaspoon of salt
- 125 gr cherry tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.  Roll out the puff pastry to make a rectangle (if you buy ready-rolled out pastry, roll it a bit more between two pieces of baking paper so that you get a very thin base-. Put the pastry on top of an oven tray covered with baking paper and prick it with a fork all over. Bake for 10 minutes.
Take the pastry off the oven. Sprinkle the cheese on top. Arrange the tomatoes on top of the cheese (do not cut the tomatoes as otherwise the tart will become too watery and the pastry soggy). Heat the pancetta on a frying pan for 3-4 minutes (on in the microwave for minute). Get rid of the recess fat (by putting the hot pancetta on a bit of kitchen paper) Sprinkle the pancetta on top of the tomatoes. Sprinkle a tiny bit of salt on top of it all and paint lightly the tomatoes with the olive oil (with a brush). Bake for 15-17 minutes until golden.
My youngest likes to put the tomatoes on top and paint them with the oil.

ORANGE FLAPJACKS

Good old flackjacks are having a bit of a revival due to healthy grain and seeds - based diets. If you are a supporter of this fashionable diet you may want to call them 'cereal bars', 'breakfast bars' or 'granola bars', which for some reason make the flapjacks seem indeed healthier. The bad news is that there is nothing healthy in these bars (what is healthy is to eat an orange instead). They are delicious nevertheless.

You need:
- 200 gr oats
- two handfuls sunflower seeds
- four tablespoons flaxseeds
- five tablespoons sesame seeds
- four tablespoons orange peel (diced)
- three tablespoons butterscotch buttons (if you want a healthier versions do not add these)
- 100 gr butter
- 100 gr muscovado sugar
- 1 tablespoons of honey
- 2 tablespoons of golden syrup

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Mix the oats, sunflower seeds and flaxseeds, put them on a baking tray and roast them for 8-10 minutes. When you take them out lower the temperature of the oven to 170 degrees.  Melt the butter and mix the melted butter and all the other remaining ingredients with the roasted seeds. Grease and line the baking tray. Put the mixture on it and bake for 25-30 minutes.

When you get the tray out of the oven let it cool down for 30 minutes and then cut it in squares or rectangles. My children are always impatient to cut these and a result we never get neat edges. Regardless or whether these are neatly cut or not the favour is great.

BACON AND CHEESE MUFFINS

Have been travelling lots so could not cook much, but we are now back on track. I tried a mini version of these at a very stylish cocktail party, one of those Martha Stewart inspired events that only Americans seem to have the flair to put together. This is the less elegant but more substantial version of the muffins - ideal for breakfast or for an English picnic (if only the weather held up...)

You need:
 - 300 gr self raising flour
- 1 teaspoon of bicarb
- 120 gr bacon (into small cubes)
- 100 gr grated cheese (manchego or cheddar)
- a pinch of salt
- a pinch of paprika
- a pinch to dried thyme
- 1 egg
-200 ml milk
- 50 ml single cream
- 2 tablespoons olive oil

A muffin tray.

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.

Heat the pan and fry the bacon until it becomes crunchy (4-5- minutes over medium heat). Pour it on kitchen paper to get rid of the fat.
Mix the flour, bicarb, cheese, salt, paprika and thyme.  Then add the bacon.
Separately mix the eggs, oil, cream and milk. Pour it over the flour mixture and combine it all without over-mixing.
Put the mixture into the holes of the muffin tray ( this makes 12). Bake for 35-40 minutes. Let them cool down a little before you eat them.

DRIED APPLE CAKE

This is one of those cakes that you leave on the kitchen table and it disappears in no time at all. It is done with dried apples, which I have recently discovered for cakes, and they make the cake rich and dense. You need:

- 150 gr dried apple chunks
- a glass of water
- 175 gr sugar
- 175 gr plain flower
- a teaspoon of baking soda
- 85 gr sunflower oil
- 2 eggs
- zest of one lemon
- butter to grease the loaf mould

Preheat the over at 185 degrees. Grease the loaf mould and then cover it with baking paper.

Put the dried apples with the glass of water in a microwave dish and microwave for 4 minutes at the highest setting. Then drain the apple chunks to get rid of the water.

Mix all the ingredients but the apple. When they are mixed well add the apple chunks and mix again (you may feel there is too much apple for the cake butter, but just keep mixing until all the apple chunks are coated). Put it all into the mould and bake for 55 minutes.

Children like helping with this cake and also eating it. Be careful so that they do not get hurt when you take the apple chunks out of the microwave as the water will be very hot.

WAFFLES

This is one of my bribing foods of choice - as easy to make as pancakes, but they look like if you have made much more effort to the kids. Add whipping cream on top and you will get them to do anything.

You need:

- a mug of  plain flour

- three quarters of a mug of milk

- two eggs

- a pinch of salt

- two teaspoons of baking powder

- two teaspoons of sugar

- a quarter of a teaspoon of vanilla essence

- 100 gr of melted butter

- a waffle pan or waffle maker ( we have an electrical one from Robert Dyas that costs around £20 and you can use to make panninis as well)  

- icing sugar

Mix all the ingredient expect for the butter (we blend them with a hand held mixer). Brush the waffle maker with the butter (on both sides). Add the mixture and cook for 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle the waffle with lots of icing sugar. 

CRUMBS - MIGAS

This is not for the children, it is for you. You know that time when you come home seriously late with friends after a drinking and dancing night desperate for food before you call it a day? This is what 'migas' are for - the most wonderful combination of carbohydrates and fat ( and if you have been dancing all those calories are OK for once). I promise you they can cure any hangover (I even had to give a speech the morning after my last night out and it went perfectly fine) They are so good that I made them again this weekend with the children.

Originally they were shepherd's food from the main plain in Spain, though some posh Spanish restaurants serve them as a starter now.

You need:
- 4 handfuls of cubed bread. Best is the white bit of baguettes that you can break down with your fingers, but cubed loaf bread is fine.
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- two garlic cloves
- half a red pepper ( or even better a dried Spanish pepper called 'nora')
- a pinch of paprika
- a quarter of a glass of water
- a quarter of a teaspoon of salt
- 60 g of cubed bacon or pancetta (they sell this already cubed in supermarkets)
- 60g of cubed chorizo (they also sell it already cubed in supermarkets)
- a handful of green grapes (cut in halves)

Dissolve the salt in the water and sprinkle it (not too much) over the cubed bread. Put it on a kitchen towel and press firmly so that you get rid of the excess moisture.  Heat the oil in a big frying pan. Fry the garlic cloves and peppers for 5 minutes (low heat). Discard the garlic and peppers. Fry (in the same oil) the bacon and chorizo for another 3-4 minutes, then add the paprika and finally the bread. Fry it all over medium heat for 8-ish minutes until the bread is golden. Take it off the heat and add the grapes (I know it is a bit weird to add grapes but it really works well)

My 11 and 13 years old sons though this was: easy, seriously good, and also very cool, though the latter is only because I told them this is a good dish to know for the  times when they will go clubbing when they are older. Probably not too good parenting skills - but it is never too early to learn about the important things in life...

IBERIAN SCRAMBLED EGGS

Scrambled eggs are only eaten for breakfast in Spain when they are plain. When other ingredients are added to the eggs (the below is a particularly good combination) they become a lunch or dinner dish. The only explanation for these eating times is cultural: for example, if you see somebody eating paella for dinner you can be sure they are not Spanish - paella is just not a dinner dish.

I have been asked by many people over the last three days to be more precise with all the quantities. The below is for a lunch/dinner for one, though sure it depends on how hungry you are!

You need:
- 2 eggs
- 3 tinned 'piquillo peppers' (they sell them in most supermarkets now) - cut them into stripes and keep also two teaspoons of the tin juice.
- 2 slices of Serrano, Iberico or Parma ham (the ham will be slightly fried, so no need to get an expensive one)
- a teaspoon of chopped parsley
- one teaspoon of olive oil
-  pinch of salt (not too much as the ham is salty anyway)
and a non stick frying pan.

Heat the pan (medium heat). Add the piquillo peppers with a tablespoon of their tin liquid. When the liquid has evaporated (1-2 minutes) take them off the pan. Heat the olive oil in the pan, tear the ham slices into strips and add them to the pan with half of the chopped parsley. Wait for one minute. Then add the peppers back to the pan. Beat the eggs, add the salt and add them to the pan. Stir with a wooden spoon. After a couple of minutes they are done. Just sprinkle the rest of the parsley on top and eat immediately.

My middle son makes really good scrambled eggs now and he manages to do the 'stir, lift and fold' movement which is the key to avoiding scrambled eggs looking miserable. These are definitely 'happy" eggs:

MILK BUNS

Children love these, either on their own or with butter, jam, cream cheese, ham, cheese...
It takes a bit to prepare them but to be fair  most of the time is just waiting while you are doing other things (homework?) so it is not a lot of effort.

You need:
- 500 g  plain flour
- two eggs
- 250 m milk
- 9 gr fast action yeast
- 100 gr sugr
- 90 g butter (room temperature)
- a pinch of salt
- one more egg

Warm 100 ml of milk. Mix the yeast, 50 g of flour and the100 ml of milk and let it rest for half an hour until  it gets frothy.

Then mix this with all the other ingredients. The easiest way to do this is in a food processor with the kneading hook for around 8-10 minutes. Then put it all into a glass bowl (greased with a tiny bit of sunflour oil) and let it rest for 2 hours until it has doubled in side.

Punch the dough to get rid of the air. Then divide the dough into 10 parts. Shape each one like a ball, or  give them an oval shape. You can also flatten them (oval shape), cut one extreme of the oval shape into three stripes and roll them on themselves (see bun on the right down corner in the picture). Put them on a tray lined with baking paper. Cover the buns with cling film and wait for another 35 minutes until they rise again.

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Cut the buns (if you like that shape) and 'paint them' with beaten egg. Put them into the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

YOGURT DESSERT

This is not a proper recipe, but rather a nice combination of flavours. I suppose it works for breakfast too, but we have it for dessert at dinners with friends when you cannot be bothered to prepare anything else. It looks really pretty and the flavours combination is great so everybody likes it.

You need:
- yogurt
- pomegranate
- a few leaves of mint
- walnuts, pecan nuts of hazelnuts
- honey

Put the pomegranate, and nuts on top of the yogurt. Pour the honey on top and decorate with the mint leaves.

Even my 6 years old can make this…

JAM SNAILS

All you need is:

- shop bought puff pastry
- jam (we did this with home made damson jam which is very dark, but any jam works well)

Heat the oven at 200 degrees. Spread the puff pastry (a rectangle) with the jam. Roll it as a swiss roll (along its shorter side). Cut it into slices (around 1.5 cms tick) Cover a baking tray with baking paper and put the slices on top, flatten them a bit. You can paint them with egg yoke, but we found that the jam already gives them a gloss, so we missed this step. Bake for 17-18 minutes until the pastry gets golden and the jam makes them look nice and messy.