Baked Lemon And Poppy Seed Donuts

Alright, I'm totally in donut mode now.

There is something about baked donuts that sparks joy in people. Myself included. They always come up perfectly round and beautifully baked and it’s just pure deliciousness in the comforting shape of a donut. 

You do need a special tin (these are so essential to my life that I have two..) but I promise it is worth it! I don't love deep-frying food, and this is a perfect compromise to still allow donuts in your life if you're like me.

Basically the sky is the limit with these. I have done a few variations in the past (chocolate, strawberry, cinnamon), and it made sense to give it a go in lemon form!

The lovely glaze is easy to whip up, tart and sweet and makes a perfect addition to the spongy cakey goodness of the donut.

Makes approx. 16 donuts

Strawberry Glazed Baked Donuts!

I know which plate I want...

It’s that time of year again! Everything is pink and there are hearts everywhere. And then on Feb 15th the frugal ones can score some half off chocolates.

Stage 1 - baked

I don’t really “do” Valentine’s – this year me and the Swede are getting a Chinese takeout and calling it a day. But I do love any excuse to bake pretty things, so I decided to do a baked version of the strawberry (“Homer Simpson”) donuts that I made a few years ago.

Stage 2 - glazed once

Because I’m obsessed with baked donuts.

And you will be too. If you do presents for Valentine’s, ask your other half to buy you a donut pan. You won’t regret it.

Stage 3 - strawberry glaze and sprinkles

These are really simple to make, and feature a cheeky double glaze (plain/classic and strawberry/pink). Feel free to halve the glaze ingredients if you don’t want to double dip. But sugar = love, so I dipped twice.

Slow Cooker Coconut Beef Curry

This is my new absolute favourite.

I love slow cooker meals that take like 8 hours. The main benefit for me is that I can put one on in between night shifts and wake up to the smell of a delicious dinner that’s all cooked and ready to go. It’s the one time in my life I feel like an adult.

Beef is great for that. 6-8 hours on low and you have chunks of beef that are falling apart. They can literally be cut with a spoon. You need that in your life.

This curry is an insanely delicious meal. I felt LUCKY to wake up to this meal. I’m not going to say it made night shift worth it, but I wasn’t mad at it.

The other great thing is that the spice paste makes enough for 2 curries, so you can either halve it or make the full amount and store some in the fridge for a week or two so you can have yet another delicious meal.

Muttar Pilau and Baked Chicken Tikka

Happy Sunday! Brighten up the cold unforgiving week to come by planning to make this for dinner this week.

I forgot how much I love rice. I haven’t properly cooked rice in months (microwaveable rice is really useful for quick dinners but it sure doesn’t taste as good as freshly boiled rice.

I saw this recipe in the newspaper ages ago and it piqued my interest. We’re talking an Indian spiced fried rice. I love rice, I love peas, and I love spices. Sign me up. I didn’t want to cover it in sauces, so I went with a delicately spiced oven baked chicken. You could also have this as a veggie main on its own.

Now, the rice has a lot of steps, but it’s surprisingly quick to whip up, I made enough rice for 4 and enough chicken for two, and that maths means that I’m going to live off the leftovers of my rice now. Thinking ahead!

Spiced Beef Fatteh

Growing up, Nigella was everything I wanted to be. I found, and still find, her to be elegant and decadent.  She has had a bit of flack recently – I don’t think I will look at avocado on toast the same way again. But flicking through her older cookbooks recently reminds me of everything that I have always loved- her easy style, the effusively descriptive way she writes, the luxury she brings to everything, and the sheer joy she appears to get from preparing and eating food.

..I still want to be Nigella when I grow up.

This is a pure Nigella recipe – delicately spiced beef mince packed with veg, a garlic sesame creamy dip, and a smattering of toppings which work oh-so-perfectly, and a final dish that tastes as impressive as it looks. She knows how to put out a showstopper!

This meal would make an incredible sharing platter, the grand centrepiece of a Lebanese/Turkish style feast. It is also just as great as an individual main meal.  Or, instead of carving up the pitas, you could slice them in two and stuff them with the beef and toppings for an amazing lunch on the go.

Melomakarona - 300th POST!

This is my Christmas present to all of you this year. For my 300^th post (!), I bestow the recipe for the best cookies in the entire world. And I’m posting it in plenty of time so that you can go out and get the ingredients and set aside the time to make them. You honestly won’t regret it.

These are Greek Christmas cookies that you are only allowed to make at Christmas (according to my Greek friend!). They are delicately spiced, sweetened with syrup and they are my EVERYTHING. The amount of ingredients sounds ridiculous – and it is! This is a serious Christmas cookie recipe, you get about 60 of them. Enough to get you through the whole holiday season of gorging.

THIS ISN'T EVEN ALL OF THEM

Now, the recipe looks a little funny. I’ve never baked cookies with orange juice before. I've never dunked hot cookies in syrup before. I was worried that the dough wouldn’t come together and would be too sticky. I was worried the cookies would fall apart in the syrup. But it went great, it all worked out, trust me and just go with it. I bravely went first so that I could light the path for you guys.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Ingredients for syrup

• 375ml water
• 600g granulated sugar
• 100g honey
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 3 whole cloves
• 1 vanilla pod
• ½ an orange, halved again

For the cookies

• 400 ml orange juice
• 400 ml sunflower oil
• 180 ml olive oil
• Grated zest of 1 orange
• 1 kilo all-purpose flour
• 50 g icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 200 g fine semolina

To Finish

• A few tbsp. honey
• A handful of chopped walnuts

Method

Start with the syrup, you can make this a few hours beforehand (it has to be cool before you dip the cookies in it) or even the night before.

Add all of the ingredients except for the honey to a saucepan and gently heat until the sugar has melted and liquid is clear. Stir every now and again.

Remove from the heat and add the honey. Then set aside until cooled and ready to use.

When you’re ready to make the cookies, preheat the oven to 190C.

Add the orange juice, oils and orange zest into one bowl and whisk with a fork.

To another, bigger, bowl, add the flour, icing sugar, spices, bicarb and semolina.

Make a well and add the wet into the dry ingredients.

Mix very briefly, up to half a minute maximum.

Shape the dough with your hands into slightly flattened oval shape, about 4cm long.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and crispy.

Place the hot cookies in the syrup a few at a time. Dunk them real good so they're covered and coated in syrup.

A spatula will help

Coat in syrup and remove to a wire rack to dry off (I put a load of tinfoil underneath to catch the syrupy drips and make cleanup easier).

Drizzle over some honey and sprinkle over the walnuts and allow to dry and crisp up.

ENJOY

Spiced Festive Cupcakes

It’s the season where I add cinnamon and ginger and cloves to EVERYTHING. I have a little jar of spices I mixed together just for the wintery bakes (of course I do) and it comes in handy at times like this.

For the spice mix, I add together something roughly like 6 tbsp ground cinnamon, 2 tbsp ground cloves, 2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tbsp ground ginger, 2 bits of star anise, cinnamon bark and 6 cardamom pods into a small kilner jar. Then I mix it all together and use it throughout my Christmas bakes!

Whatever  you decide to use, these cupcakes are supremely delicious and you’re all welcome for this gorgeous recipe. I decided to ice them in a very festive way, with little wreaths and trees which are ridiculously simple to pipe (it’s just little splodges in shapes) and look (in my humble opinion) really cute!