Chocolate Easter Bread and Butter Pudding

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This has been sat in my drafts for a week and a half and I forgot about it! I could kick myself.

About a month ago I had some left over croissants that could have been used for missiles as opposed to anything edible. I decided to use them for a bread and butter pudding instead of throwing them out, especially good as I needed to use up two eggs before they went off and couldn't be bothered to make a cake.

When we came back from our Easter weekend away, I discovered that we seemed to have a plethora of hot cross buns that were more akin to rock cakes. Is it just me that finds they go stale really quickly? I hate throwing good food out, and so faced with six stale hot cross buns and too much Easter chocolate, I decided to make an Easter bread and butter pudding.

I used the trusty BBC Good Food Guide recipe which the kind @caroljs had pointed out to me and adapted it accordingly.

  • butter for greasing
  • chocolate spread (I used chocolate Philadelphia)
  • 4-6 Hot Cross Buns, sliced into quarters
  • 50g/2oz chocolate drops/chunks/bashed-up Easter egg
  • 2 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 250ml whole milk
  • 150ml single cream
  • 2 free-range eggs
  • 25g granulated sugar
  • 3tbsp of chocolate powder
  1. Grease a 1 litre/2 pint pie dish with butter.
  2. Cut the Hot Cross Buns into quarters. Spread each slice with on one side with chocolate spread.
  3. Arrange a layer of buns, buttered-side up, in the bottom of the dish, then add a layer of chocolate broken bits. Sprinkle with a little cinnamon, then repeat the layers of bread and chocolate, sprinkling with cinnamon, until you have used up all of the buns.
  4. Gently warm the milk and cream in a pan over a low heat to scalding point, but not boiling and bubbling point. Whisk in the chocolate powder.
  5. Crack the eggs into a bowl, add three quarters of the sugar and lightly whisk until pale.
  6. Add the warm milk and cream mixture and stir well, then strain the custard into a bowl.
  7. Pour the custard over the prepared bread layers and sprinkle with the remaining sugar and leave to stand for 30 minutes.
  8. Preheat the oven to 180C/355F/Gas 4.
  9. Place the dish into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the custard has set and the top is golden-brown.
  10. Serve warm with a dollop of dairy ice-cream or clotted cream.

Easter pudding

How To Use Camera+: Photo Editing App

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One of my Photography Resolutions this year was to learn how to use apps on mobile devices, i.e. my phone and the iPod Touch. I found out about Instagram and pretty much fell in love with it pretty quickly. But the one thing I don't love about Instagram is the limited filters and editing options.

One of the fabulous bloggers taking part in #Project366 is HPMcQ and she does some pretty fabulous things with her photos. I especially love this photo of hers, and she was kind enough to share her favourite photo editing app with me. It's called Camera+ and I love it.

I thought I'd share with you one way I've used it recently:

I ended up tranforming a below-average photo into something a lot more attractive with a few easy steps.

Still hate the camera on the iPod Touch though, which is why I take photos on my camera, e-mail them across and then edit them that way.

I bought this app and therefore I wasn't asked to blog about it, I wanted to show you how cool it is. Oh and if you fancy voting for me in the BritMums Snap Award, press the button below. Thanks!

Snap Shortlist

Lights Out Portable Pop-Up Blinds (Review & Competition)

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One of the things that I was adamant with when setting up The Boy's bedroom when he was first born, was the window coverings. I was determined he'd have a black out blind and the linings on the curtains, as I didn't want him waking up at silly o'clock in the morning during the Summer, and I wanted him to have uninterrupted sleep during his afternoon naps. It's worked brilliantly and as a result is always something that I've worried about when we've gone to stay with friends and family, or gone on holiday. Most holiday homes have thin curtains which serve little purpose other than to throw a tinted hue over the room. I've been known to be pegging black out lining to the curtain rail in an attempt to darken it sufficiently enough for him to sleep.

Well, not any more!

Last week we were sent the Lights Out Portable Pop-Up Blinds to review, and they came at a perfect time as we were away for Easter weekend in a place that I knew had wafer-thin translucent curtains at the windows. These blinds are excellent. The pack contains two blinds and each one measures 1.2m x 1m. They fold down into a circular lightweight storage bag (measuring 45cm diameter) which took up barely any space in an otherwise cramped car!

Each of the blinds has a toggle through the middle of it with a suction cup attached to the one end. Simply position the suction cup and attach it to the window, pull the toggle and it holds the blind in place over the window, pulling taut to rest against the frame.

They overlapped perfectly and pulled tight to cover the wide expanse of window with no problem whastoever. Bearing in mind I'm not a 'follow-the-instructions' person, I had them up in the window within thirty seconds. For deeper window recesses there are extension rods to attach.

The left picture above shows the window to be covered, the middle shows it with the 'curtains' drawn, and the right hand picture shows the blinds in action. Apologies for the blurriness on the middle picture but I was taking the photo without a flash and had to stand still for thirty seconds to get the photo. I couldn't take a photo of the room with the blinds attached at first, as it was pitch black and my camera couldn't focus. I had to place my phone on the bedside table with the light on to give it something to focus on. As a result the slight light strip you can see is from the reflection of my phone not from the window.

One last point to note is that, despite many 'pop-up' items being nigh on impossible to 'pop-down' again afterwards, these were back in the storage bag within thirty seconds.

The Lights Out Portable Pop-Up Blinds are excellent! I would buy these in a flash because they work brilliantly, and I wish I'd known about them when I first had The Boy, so many holidays could have been more enjoyable with more sleep!

The kind souls at Lights Out are offering a set of the Portable Pop-Up Blinds to one lucky reader. Simply fill in the Rafflecopter form in order to enter.

All entry mechanisms must be completed for your entry to count.

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Meal Planning Monday #6

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I'm slacking off, I abandoned the stir-fry last week (because I realised fajitas and Chinese combined with that were too similar), and we had Pizza Hut instead. But I figure that for the most part I'm sticking to the plan, and I'm wasting less food and saving money so that's always a good thing. Our diet is more nutritious and balanced, and we're getting great use out of the slow cooker.

With the weather improving somewhat, the mood of our meals has lightened to take account of that; a few more Spring like meals on the menu this week. Plus I've been sent some Rachel's Organic yoghurts to try out some of their recipes, so I've planned a few meals based on that.

  • Sunday: Spring Sausage Stew (done in the slow cooker) and Fruit Cobbler
  • Monday: Fajitas (wraps that need using up from the end of last week)
  • Tuesday: Halloumi Salad with Herby Yoghurt Dressing
  • Wednesday: Pizza Hut pizza and chips (when Mr. TBaM went and bought pizza last week on our cop-out night, they had 2 for 1, so he came home with a spare one which we froze)
  • Thursday: Dauphinoise potatoes, blue cheese and leek tartlets (based on this recipe)
  • Friday: Lasagne (leftovers from the freezer, either with quorn or butternut squash and spinach)
  • Saturday: Chinese (I made deep fried tofu last week and it was gorgeous).

Next week, I think I'm going to have to do some batch-cooking on the Monday and Tuesday for the forthcoming weeks.  With the new term starting, I'm bound to be exhausted at first.

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I'm linking this up to Meal Planning Monday at Mrs. M's

Slow Cooker Sunday: Fruit Cobbler (Dessert)

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Now I know I've already posted one Slow Cooker Sunday recipe today, and I also know that I've also posted this recipe several months ago, but this is the first time I've tried doing the fruit (in fact any dessert) in the slow cooker. Plus it's my blog and I want to post it again, so there you go. I've used the slow cooker for the first part of the recipe as I have no idea if the cobbler bit would cook in it, another time I'll test that out.

Fruit Cobbler

Ingredients:
Serves 4-6

  • 800g of mixed fruit, I went for apples, plums, pears and nectarines
  • 160g caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 300g self raising flour, sifted
  • 85g unsalted butter, cubed
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3 tbsp milk
  • 150g Rachel’s Low Fat Natural Bio Live Yogurt

Method:

  1. In the slow cooker take the fruit, 100g of the caster sugar and add the water, cook until the fruit softens. Tip: leave the fruit to cool before adding the cobbler pieces this will stop some of the fruit bubbling out over the dish.
  2. To make the cobbler, add the sifted flour, butter, baking powder and the remainder of the sugar (60g) and using a food processor or mixer whiz together for a few seconds on pulse speed until fine crumbs form.
  3. Add the milk and yogurt and whiz again until a soft dough forms . You can either spoon the mixture in scattered clumps over the fruit or add a little more flour and roll out the dough using a cutter. Leave some gaps for the cobble effect.
  4. Bake the cobbler for 30-35 minutes until the topping is golden and the fruit is visibly bubbling beneath.
  5. Serve with vanilla ice-cream, custard or clotted cream.

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Pop yourself over to Slow Cooker Sunday on Mediocre Mum to see other entries

Slow Cooker Sunday: Spring Sausage Stew (Vegetarian)

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I am not an expert at slow cookers, but I'm getting there. About six months ago, the enthusiasm of The Moiderer (who is a big fan of them) made me go and buy one; a good brand that was reduced to clear. I tried a vegetable stew in it. After seven hours of cooking on high, I had to transfer everything over to a saucepan and blast it for 30 minutes as the vegetables were still basically raw. I returned the slow cooker to the store, brandishing raw carrots and threatening the manager with it if I didn't have my money back. Luckily, he relented in the face of root vegetables and I gave up on them, declaring slow cookers stupid.

That was until I was recently sent on to review. My husband and mum, both had been subjected to the non-slow-cooked vegetable stew, wondered if I was off my trolley but I gave it a go as it was for review. I am a convert! This is mainly due to the fact that I now have a slow cooker which actually cooks the food, it's kind of a plus point. The first thing I cooked in it was gammon (bah!) for my dad and husband, it was a true success. Since then I've also cooked chicken, beef and risotto in it, not at the same time I hasten to add. I adore it and am very enthusiastic about it.

The rather fabulous Mediocre Mum is a bit of an expert when it comes to slow cookers, and she has a plethora of recipes on her blog which I am in awe at. She has realised that there is a bit of a fanbase for them and is therefore starting up a weekly linky for slow cooker recipes which I am joining in with, as eagerly as possible.

Spring Sausage Stew

This recipe has come about because I also take part in Meal Planning Monday and last week everyone seemed to have sausage stew on their planner. I thought I'd give it a go this week, I don't like to miss out on things!

  • six mushrooms
  • one leek
  • one courgette
  • three carrots
  • four vegetarian sausages
  • a big chunk of butter
  • stock cube
  • 200g of Rachel's Organic Greek-Style Natural yoghurt (obviously there are other brands available but I'm trialling this for cooking with)
  • two tablespoons of parmesan cheese
  1. Chop the leek, courgette and mushrooms and place them with the butter and stock cube in the slow cooker pot directly on the gas (our slow cooker allows this, some don't). Sweat them down 'til the leek is translucent.
  2. Chop the carrots and sausages into chunks, add to the pot with 30ml of water and transfer the pot to the slow cooker base. Cook for two hours on high (or three on medium).
  3. Spoon in 200 g of natural yoghurt and two tablespoons of parmesan cheese, and leave to cook through for another thirty minutes on medium.
  4. Serve with herby potatoes (I bought a pack of these from Aldi the other day; 99p and three minutes in the microwave = perfect!)

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I'm linking this up to Slow Cooker Sunday at Mediocre Mum and to the recipe bank at The Moiderer

366 #15

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Congratulations for today is Day 106 of Project 366!

Well done to everyone who has broken the 100 day boundary, it's pretty amazing that we've all got this far and the habit is probably firmly ensconced now. Furthermore, with the improvement in the weather (apparently Summer's on its way?) there is a heck of a lot more material to photograph now.

The Project 366 Facebook group is a fabulous community who offer support to those taking part in this photography project, and give much blog love. We've made it a closed group so that not every Tom, Dick or Harry can see the content but if you'd like to join just click the 'ask to join group' button in the top right hand corner of the page.

To celebrate Day 100, I've got another cracking competition for you all. As you've probably seen, the very generous Snapfish are offering a prize this week of £35 credit to one lucky participant in the linky. I've reviewed Snapfish in the past and was amazed at the range of products available, with a brilliant quality finish on the items. In order to enter the competition, you'll need to add your favourite photo as normal, 'like' the Snapfish Facebook page and fill in the Rafflecopter form to say you've done this.

Time to link up:

  1. Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
  2. Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
  3. If you can spare five minutes to comment on just a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!
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