Easy peasy pain au choc

Jus-rol pack of pain au chocolatI do most of my grocery shopping online (the “big” shop), so I don’t even remember how I found them, but JUS-ROL have started making pain au chocolat in a can*.  They give you the pastry and the mini chocolate sticks and you take all the glory of hot pastries, straight from the oven.

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Simple recipes: krispie buns

You know they’re ker-azy because they’re spelled with a Z.

This is another adaptation of my mum’s recipes from when she was at school (for her easy peasy buns/cake recipe, click here).  The adapted bit’s where I lick the golden syrup spoon.  These take about 5 minutes to make.  Less if you set everything out on the counter like in Jamie Oliver’s 30 minute recipes.  In that case, this would take about 3 minutes.

krispie buns

Ingredients

  • 2 level tbsp sugar
  • 2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
  • 3 tbsp golden syrup
  • 100g margarine
  • 100g cornflakes or rice krispies

Method

Melt everything except the cereal in a pan, don’t let it boil.  Take off the heat and mix in the cereal well.  Use spoons to share the mixture between around 12 bun cases, pretty ones if possible.  Lick spoons.  Lick pan.

Here’s some I made for the NCT crew this weekend.  Nom.

Recipe scrapbook

I decided to buy a big notebook when I was at university and write and/or stick my favourite recipes in it, to keep them all in one place.  Fast forward ten or eleven years, and this battered book (pun intended) now contains a good few yummy recipes for starters, mains, and especially desserts and baking.  Along with a huge pile of printouts and pages quickly torn from magazines from newspapers and supermarkets, the shelf in our kitchen was creaking under the weight of paper I needed to sort out.

Meaning business, I got my guillotine out (no, I’m not joking, I have a stationery problem), and started trimming recipes into little stick-able squares.  It took me about six hours (whilst watching my daughter.  And TV.) and my book is now as fat as can be.  But it’s so satisfying to have sorted it all out and have all my recipes in one place, really cathartic.

microwave brownie

I got so inspired I had to stop halfway through to make microwave brownie in a mug – yum!  I did share it with Barry, in my defence.  I’m not sure what the rules are on sharing other people’s recipes on blogs, so, instead, here’s my mum’s foolproof recipe for buns that I don’t even need to look at any more…

My mum’s always told me (this does about 18 buns or a cake): weigh 3 medium eggs with the shells on, then weigh out the same in sugar, SR flour and butter. Cream the butter and sugar together, then add in the flour and eggs bit by bit.  Add a dash of vanilla essence if you’re feeling fancy. Always use a wooden spoon, not a metal one. Pop them in the oven at around 180C for 20/25 mins until golden brown and try not to open the door while they’re in there.  Ice them when they’ve cooled.  Delicious, and so simple!