Baked banana and peanut butter oats

For me breakfast is definitely not a hurried bowl of cereal, as I am hungry by 10am. It needs to be something substantial and just as importantly tasty. Oats feature heavily in many of my breakfasts, porridge and overnight oats being the main two to date.

Here I present to you baked oats.The prep takes 2 minutes and while they are in the oven for 30 minutes it is perfectly easy to shower, dress and get ready for the day ahead, then voila a warm soothing comforting breakfast.

I urge you to give them a try, the top is baked golden, like some sort of flapjack/cookie and the underneath is warm and soft, like a hug in a bowl.

Baked banana and peanut butter oats

serves 1

1/2 small banana (eat the rest while you wait!)
30g oats
55ml almond milk 
teaspoon smooth peanut butter
spash vanilla extract 
pinch cinnamon  (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Mash the banana and then mix in all the other ingredients, just till combined. Spoon into a ramekin, or individual casserole dish.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until golden, then dig in whilst warm!

A few notes. I used almond milk as I cannot have dairy and besides which it is yummy, feel free to use other milk. I do not like my breakfast too sweet. I find the banana and vanilla make it sweet enough. If you like things a little sweeter, try a teapsoon of maple syrup, agave nectar or brown sugar added to the mixture before baking.

The ramekin will look crusty and scary when you have finished eating, but adding boiling water to the pot and leaving for an hour will allow you to simply wipe it away.

Dairy free pancakes

Just occasionally I can be tempted away from porridge. Especially on a lazy Saturday morning when I can have fluffy pancakes topped with banana and maple syrup. Yum.

Now most pancake recipes have dairy in so I have had to do  little searching and tweaking to make a recipe I am very very happy with.

It is a pancake flavoured with vanilla and cinnamon. It has apple and coconut in the batter, they do not contribute too much flavour but combined with the other ingredients offer the pancake sweetness. Especially as this recipe has no sugar, just some maple syrup in the batter.

I used a little spelt flour in the mix for a nutty more robust pancake. My other half declared them the yummiest ever so I guess I am on to a winner.

Dairy free pancakes

makes 8

110g plain flour
25g spelt flour
30g desiccated coconut
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
175ml almond milk
100ml water
tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla paste/extract
1 apple

Preheat the oven to low about 50-80C. Mix the flours, coconut, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. 

Mix the almond milk, water maple syrup and vanilla the whisk into the dry ingredients until no lumps remain. You may need a tiny bit more water, I needed an extra tablespoon. Grate in the apple. 

Heat a little oil in a non stick frying pan. I used an american measuring 1/4 cup per pancake, if you do not have these it equates to 50-60 ml a pancake. You could put your mixture into a jug and pour into the pan .

Cook for a couple of minutes until the underside is golden and the top has little bubbles. Flip over and cook for a further minute. Transfer to a baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm. Keep going until you have used all the batter.

One of my favourite toppings is sliced banana and maple syrup. The sweetness the two provide is just right with the pancakes. You may have your own favourite toppings. How about berries and honey. Or adding some blueberries to the batter instead of apple and topping the whole stack off with more blueberries and maple syrup. Let me know if you have any favourite ways to top your pancake!

Stollen breakfast rolls

Merry Christmas everyone! I hop everyone's day was what they wished it would be. Are you still hungry? I suspect not. If you are like me though you will probably have a lots of leftover bits and open bags in your baking cupboard, yes? Well if so these stollen style breakfast buns could help use up the dried fruit and marzipan kicking about.

These are delicious warm from the oven and as the dough is light they are a not too heavy start to your day, plenty of room for that party buffet later!

I used the cinnamon roll recipe on my blog, here. I changed the filling by using mixed spice instead cinnnamon, plenty of mixed dried fruit and 60g of marzipan  broken into small pieces.

These really are best baked fresh so I kept the rolls in the fridge baking them over a couple of days as and when I needed them.

White chocolate, orange and cardamom breakfast rolls

So having said I would only bake one thing from each bake off week I have already made two from bread week. I was impressed with Ruby for making a peacock out of bread, something I would never have thought of, let alone have attempted! The judges were impressed with her flavour though too and not just its looks, and I have to say I was tempted to try it myself.

So these morning rolls were conceived, as I may have mentioned I was not going to make  peacock!

The recipe can be found here, along with the instructions for making the peacock, should you wish to try.

I divided the recipe by 3 and got 6 rolls.

To the basic mix I added the zest of a whole orange, and the crushed seeds of three cardamom pods. Once I had kneaded the dough I then added 1/2 of my chopped white chocolate and briefly kneaded it in.

After the first proving I rolled the dough into a rectangle, sprinkle over the crushed seeds of 3 more cardamom pods, a tablespoon of caster sugar and the remaining white chocolate. I then rolled up the dough, cut into 6 equal buns and then set on a baking tray covered with parchment to rise for a further 30 minutes.

At this point I covered the dough and left in the fridge overnight.

To bake the rolls I heated the oven to 140C (fan) and cooked for 20-25 minutes.

They were delicious. Thank you for the idea Ruby!

English muffins

I am not a huge bread snob. I am not a fan of the sliced stuff but I do buy some types of bread, I simply do not always have the time, or the inclination to make it myself.

When I do buy bread it tends to be from local bakers so less chance of absolute rubbish. Bread can be so delicious but disappointing bread is really really disappointing!

After a week of being ill I wanted something nice for a Saturday brunch and decided on English muffins with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon.

Still not feeling well I was going to buy the muffins, I had a quick nosey at the ingredient list and this is what I saw.

Wheat flour, water, yeast, maize, rice flour, salt, sugar, wheat gluten, vegetable oil, soya flour, emulsifier E472a, E471, Preservatives Calcium Propionate, E200, Acidity Regulator Tataric Acid, Flour Treatments Ascotrbic Acid (Vitamin C)

This seemed a lot of ingredients for a simple breakfast muffin. So I looked it up. This is what is in a homemade one.

Bread flour, water, milk, yeast, sugar, salt.

I do understand to make it to our shelves food needs certain preservatives but 3 times the amount of ingredients really put me off. So I dragged myself into the kitchen and actually these are really very very easy to make.

English muffins

makes 6

115ml milk
1 tsp dried yeast
1/2 tsp caster sugar
220g white bread flour
1/2 tsp salt

Gently warm the milk with 25ml water until warmed through. Do not heat it too much, you do not want to kill the yeast. If it does get a little too warm, leave to cool before adding to the yeast. 

Add the warm liquid to the yeast and sugar, whisk and leave for 10 minutes until frothy.

Mix the flour and salt then add in the frothy, yeasty liquid. You want a soft, not sticky, dough. You may not need all the liquid, or if your dough is really too sticky add a touch more flour.

Knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth and pliable. Put in a bowl, cover and leave in a warm place, until doubled in size. Mine took ~ 1 hour.

Take the dough and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out to about 1 cm thick. Use a cutter 7-8cm in diameter to stamp out rounds. The trimmings can be squished back together, re-rolled and more muffins stamped out.

Pop the muffins on a lightly floured baking sheet and leave in a warm place for ~ 1 hour to rise and puff up.

Melt a little butter or lard in a heavy based frying pan and pop in your muffins. Turn the heat down to low and cook the muffins for 6 minutes on each side. You will probably need to cook the muffins in a couple of batches.

I made these on Friday afternoon and on Saturday split and toasted them for brunch. They tasted fab as part of brunch. I imagine they are lovely warm and fresh but I cannot say for sure.. I will have to make them again to be sure.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I was really not with it when I made these!

Nigella breakfast bars

So that is it. Lent has begun and so has my abstinence from chocolate. I would not call myself a complete and utter chocoholic, yes I love it and yes, if I am honest I have it most days, however I do not have it multiple times a day and occasionally turn it down (!) so therefore do not feel a complete addict...

The lovely Mark has decided to abstain too which makes both out lives easier, I do not have to watch him chomping it and he does not get biffed on the nose for wafting it in front of me one too many times.

A mini problem arises as I realise that he takes his breakfast to work everyday. His favourite cereal bar. His favourite chocolate cereal bar.

With this thought in my mind I began to think more about the commercial cereal bar. Most of which are full of sugar and not much goodness, and do not keep a man, or woman for that matter, full till lunch time.

I had heard a few people rave about the Nigella breakfast bars so decided to see if I these would be a more nutritious, more filling and chocolate free breakfast.

They are full of good things, oats, plain nuts, mixed plain seeds, dried fruit, a little unsweetened dessicated coconut and condensed milk. These seemed to me a much better thing to eat for breakfast regardless of whether or not they contained chocolate.


The exact recipe can be found here. The beauty of this recipe is that it is adaptable to suit your own tastes. I made a few tweaks myself. Firstly I used light condensed milk, it tastes the same and gives the same baked result. I also altered the amount of nuts and seeds slightly, purely based on the size of the bag the shop sold. Mark also requested prunes instead of apricots.

I had a couple of these myself as snacks before dance classes when tea was going to be late. They really kept me going, are very filling and most importantly delicious.

In the coming weeks these bars will be tweaked a number of ways for new exciting breakfasts and snacks. I have an idea involving apples, raisins and hazelnuts, if they turn out well I will be posting that recipe here very soon.

Cinnamon swirl loaf

Argghh, everything getting on top of me since coming back from holiday, have not been able to bake much , let along blog about it. A broken washing machine and flooded kitchen meant I could not get to my oven even if I wanted to. Still I have a couple of things I made before my holidays so now seems a good time to tell you about them.

One of them is a yummy cinnamon swirl loaf.


This is another recipe from The Great British bake off: how to turn everyday bakes into showstoppers.

This is a yummy bread that is good by itself, toasted and, my personal favourite, toasted and topped with sliced banana. It is perfect for breakfast but just as good as that got in from work snack before dinner!

It is not too difficult to make and just requires a little forward planning to allow the bread to rise.

Cinnamon swirl loaf

Makes one loaf

500g white bread flour
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsps caster sugar
7g sachet fast action yeast or 15g fresh yeast (I actually used the dried stuff that needs activating to no ill affect)
125ml milk
50g butter
1 large egg at room temperature

For the filling

50g caster sugar
tsp plain flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Mix together the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl, if using dried yeast stir it in. If using fresh yeast stir it into 7 tablespoons of the measured milk.

Gently heat the milk (either all or the remaining) with 125ml water and the butter until lukewarm an the butter melted. Remove from the heat and beat in the egg with a fork until combined, add to the flour mix, along with the fresh yeast if using.

Work the ingredients together with an electric mixer on low until a soft dough is formed. Turn on to a ightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and pliable. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with cligfilm, leave to rise in a warm place for an hour or so until double in size.

To prepare the tin, cut  strip of baking paper the same width of your tin and long enough to cover the two short sides. Lightly grease the tin and then line with the paper.

Punch down the dough then pat into a rectangle about 2 cm thick, cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for 5 minutes. 

Roll out the dough to a rectangle as wide as the length of your tin and 48cm long. Keep the sides as straight as you can. 

Brush the dough liberally with milk, mix the filling ingredients and sprinkle evenly over the dough leaving a 1cm border at one short end.

Roll up the dough nice and tightly from the short end without the clear border, pinch the seam to seal it. 

Lift the rolled dough into the tin, folding the ends under to make it neat. 

Slip the dough into a plastic bag, inflate the bag slightly then tie the ends. Leave the loaf for about an hour again until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Take the dough from the bag and brush with milk. Bake in the preheated oven for ~35 minutes until golden brown, It should sound hollow when tapped on the base. If it does not sound hollow return to the oven (straight on shelf not back in the tin) for a further 5 minutes. 

Transfer the loaf to a wire rack and rub with a knob of butter to create a shiny top. 

This bread will last up to 5 days in an airtight tin, ours did not make it past day 3!

Kings Bread

Kings bread is a bread made in Mexico, and Spain, on January 6th. Traditionally a small porcelain doll or more likely a  dried bean is hidden in the bread, symbolising baby Jesus. Whoever gets the bean has to buy the tamales on 2nd of February for Candlemas day.

How do I know this? The book for this months cupcake book club is set in Mexico.

Kelly from american cupcake abroad has started a cupcake book club, the basic premise is to read a book with a foodie theme then bake a delicious treat inspired by the book. You can read all the details here, why don't you join in?

The book has a recipe for each month, many are savoury and there is even a 'recipe' for matches!
I liked the sound of the kings bread and searching around online found many variations, below is my own interpretation.

Kings Bread

Makes 1 wreath

2 tablespoons milk
tsp active dried yeast
80g caster sugar + 1 tsp
zest of 2 oranges
tsp mixed spice
2 eggs + 1 for egg wash
55g butter
tsp vanilla paste or extract
280g plain flour
80g raisins
sliced almonds for decoration.

Gently warm the milk, stir in the yeast and tsp sugar and leave to stand.

Combine the flour, sugar, orange zest and mixed spice into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the milk mix, egg, butter and vanilla. Mix the wet ingredients together, I used my hands, and gradually incorporate the flour until a smooth dough is formed. 

Knead the dough for 5 minutes, place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with clingfilm and allow to double in size. 

Punch the dough down and knead lightly to incorporate the raisins. Roll into a long narrow log and then form a circular wreath.

Place on a greased baking sheet, cover with greased clingfilm and allow to double in size again ~2 hours at room temp.  I put mine in the fridge overnight as I wanted it for breakfast.

Preheat the oven to 170C/150C FAN. Brush the bread with egg wash, add the sliced almonds in whatever pattern you so choose. Wash again and place in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.

The bread should be golden and sound hollow when tapped underneath.

I enjoyed the book and I enjoyed this bread. In mexico they have it with hot chocolate. I had it split and spread with butter for breakfast and had a cup of tea! Flavour wise it reminds me of a teacake or hot cross bun, though the texture is different. 

Any leftovers can be wrapped in foil and kept in a tin, it is still nice the next day warmed up in the oven. 

Apple pancakes

I have to admit I am not a huge pancake fan. Sure I have them on pancake Tuesday but that is about it. However since a recent america trip I do sometimes find myself fancying the fluffy american style pancake.

The recipe below is quick and simple and produces very nice fluffy pancakes. The mixed spice and apple give a really great flavour.

Apple pancakes


makes 10 smallish pancakes


100g self raising
50g caster sugar
tsp mixed spice
1 egg yolk
100ml milk
1 apple grated


Mix the flour, sugar and mixed spice together. Combine the milk and egg together and then add into the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined then mix in the apple.


Heat a teaspoon of butter in a frying pan. Add tablespoons of pancake mix to the pan and cook for about a minute, flip over and cook for about another 30 seconds until both sides are golden brown. Keep warm in a low oven whilst you continue making pancakes until the batter is all used up.

These pancakes will definitely be making a reappearance on my breakfast table. I had them with sliced banana and maple syrup and they were just amazing.

Cinnamon buns

So I promised you another American themed post and here it is.

 I cannot explain why I had such a cinnamon bun craving but I did, cinnamon is not even my favourite spice, mind you it has gone up in my estimation since I made these.

I found this recipe on happyhomebaking, the author had adapted it from a recipe posted by ‘Kitchenmage’ who had adapted it from ‘The pioneer women’, and I myself have tweaked it just a little. That’s the best thing about baking, it’s the little tweaks that make it personal.

There are only two of us, myself and the 'live in chief taster' (M) but the recipe below is easily doubled if you have a family to feed.

Warning you will need to start this recipe the day BEFORE you want your cinnamon buns for breakfast.

Cinnamon buns

For the dough:

125ml skimmed or semi skimmed milk
25g light brown sugar

30ml vegetable oil (I used ground nut oil)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
125g + 15g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt

for the filling:

1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
25g light brown sugar

25g unsalted butter

30g currants


Method:

Mix milk, sugar and vegetable oil in a pan. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar, then leave to cool for 15 minutes.

Place 125g plain flour and instant yeast in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the above mixture. Stir with a spatula until the mixture comes together to form a thick batter. Cover and let the batter sit for at least 1 hour.

Add in the remaining 15g flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until the mixture comes together.

Cover and leave to chill in fridge for at least four hours. (Note: dough will be more firm and easier to work with if left to chill in fridge).

When ready to make the rolls, melt the butter sugar and cinnamon together in a pan.

Dust the work surface with flour, dust the dough with flour too. Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape. Then roll out as thin as possible. Dust the dough and work surface with flour when necessary.

Brush the rolled out dough with melted butter mix. I used a pastry brush, even a palette knife was too rough with this very delicate and soft dough. Sprinkle the currants evenly over the surface.

Start from the opposite end of the dough, roll the dough neatly in a line towards you. Roll as tightly as possible. Dust fingers with flour if the dough feels sticky. Pinch the seams to seal.

Cut into 1 inch thick slices and arrange on baking pan (I used my brownie tray) greased with a little butter. Place the rolls close together but not touching.

Cover and leave to rise overnight in the fridge. The next morning, if rolls have doubled in size, bake them right away. Otherwise leave to sit on counter until double in size before baking

Bake in preheated oven at 180^oC for 20mins until golden brown.

For me this made 8 smallish buns, you could easily cut into 6 bigger ones. I also cooked all 8 at once, not all were eaten that morning, so some got reheated the next day. They were fine like this but definitely better fresh. Next time I may leave 4 in the fridge till the next morning and have fresh baked buns the next day too!