The most child friendly cookies ever!

I've adapted this from an American 'cookie mix-in-a-jar' recipe, so you'll need an American 1/2 cup measure. It's so simple, the 5 year old made these pretty much all by himself, filling and scooping with the cup. They were a big hit with the kids, although I'm not sure personally about the rice crispies! Next time I might try raisins instead!

1. Preheat oven to 180C

2. In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup of margarine/butter until fluffy.
Add 1 egg and beat.

3. Next add:
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup soft dark brown sugar
1/2 cup rice crispies
1/2 cup porridge oats
1 1/2 cups of plain flour
1/2 cup white chocolate chips/chunks
1/2 cup milk or plain chocolate chips/chunks
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

4. Mix it all together!

5. Drop heaped teaspoons of the mix onto ungreased baking sheets, leaving 5cm between each cookie, as they spread out when cooking. We got about 20 from this mix.

6. Bake at 180 for 10-12 minutes.

7. Leave to cool on trays for 10 minutes or so, then transfer to a cooling rack.

8. Watch the kids gobble them up!

Herman the German Friendship cake

We have really enjoyed watching Herman grow; feeding him and stirring him and stirring him some more. Finally the time came to bake him, and he turned out quite well. I'm not sure I'd necessarily say he was worth the 10 day wait, but it was fun to try nevertheless!

Should you be on the receiving end of a small, baby pot of Herman, follow these instructions and watch him grow!
Needless to say, the little cook enjoyed it immensely!

-German Friendship Cake

I am a sourdough cake named Herman.
Put me in a mixing bowl and cover me with a tea towel, and sit me on your worktop.
You cannot put me in the fridge or I will die.
If I stop bubbling I am dead.

Day 1: stir well
Day 2: stir well
Day 3: stir well
Day 4: I am hungry! Feed me 1 cup of plain flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of milk. Stir well
Day 5: stir well
Day 6: stir well
Day 7: stir well
Day 8: stir well
Day 9: I am hungry again! Feed me the same amount as day 4. Stir me well, then divide me into 4 portions. Keep 1 portion for yourself and give 3 portions away to friends with a copy of these instructions.
Day 10: I am VERY hungry! Feed me 1 cup of sugar, half a tsp salt, 2 cups of plain flour, 2/3 cup sunflower oil, 2 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 2 cooking apples cut into 1cm chunks, 1 cup of raisins, 3 tsp cinnamon, 3 tsp baking powder.

Mix everything together and then pour into a large, shallow, greased baking tin. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of butter and 1/4 cup of brown sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes at 170-180C

When cold cut into fingers.
I freeze well and am delicious warm with ice cream!-

Falafel burgers

These burgers are light, extremely easy and quick to make and taste great! I imagine additions like parmesan, chilli flakes or crushed nuts could add another twist! The little cook enjoyed them, the littlest cook loved crumbling them everywhere, and the critic liked them *almost* as much as the beef version I made for him! (which incidentally follows the same recipe, but swaps the chickpeas for 500g organic beef mince, omitting the lemon juice.)

Ingredients:
1 x carton chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 onion
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
Handful fresh coriander
Roughly 60g brown bread (1-2 slices)
1 egg, beaten
1 tblsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Method: preheat oven to 190-200C

1. Dice the onion finely. Heat a glug of olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Fry the onion for 5 minutes or until softened without colouring too much. While the onions are cooking:

2. Blitz the bread in a food processor and empty onto a plate.

3. Blitz the chickpeas in the food processor until coarse and empty into a large mixing bowl.

4. Blitz the fresh coriander in the food processor until roughly chopped. Empty into bowl with chickpeas.

5. Add the spices, half the breadcrumbs, half the egg, lemon juice and the onions to the chickpeas.

6. Put a drizzle of olive oil onto a baking tray and place in the oven to heat up.

7. Season the mix, then mix together with your hands. If its dry, add a little more egg. Then form into 4 burgers. Pat each burger into the remaining breadcrumbs on both sides. (The burgers can now be wrapped in clingfilm and chilled until you are ready to cook them, up to 24 hours in advance)

8. Take the hot baking tray out of the oven, and CAREFULLY place the burgers onto the hot tray.

9. Place back into the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes, turning once.

Serve with hummus, salad and home-made potato wedges for a yummy alternative to burger and chips!

Pea Cupcakes

Thanks to Ellie for the Natural Green Cake Challenge idea! Peas sprang to mind, so I googled "pea cupcake" and made up the following recipe based on a few American versions I found.
These are so easy to make, the little cook managed almost all of it on his own.

We made half plain green and put peppermint flavour and chocolate chips in the other half - but the general consensus is that these didn't work too well! (I liked them but the little cook and the critic were not keen at all! The plain green ones however - "can I have another one please?")


Ingredients: (makes 10 small cakes - I didn't want to end up with 30 cakes that might have tasted horrid!)

1 large egg
125g golden caster sugar
1/2 tsp natural vanilla extract
100g peas - if frozen, thaw them, then puree
40ml olive oil
1 tbs lemon juice
150g plain flour
pinch salt (which I forgot - it didn't seem to be missed though)
1/2 heaped teaspoon baking powder

1. Puree the peas. Pre-heat oven to 180C.
2. Whisk the sugar and egg together until light.
3. Add the pureed peas, oil, vanilla and lemon juice to the sugar and eggs and whisk well.
4. Tip in the flour, baking powder and salt and combine.
5. Spoon into cake cases and bake for 12-15 minutes.
6. Transfer to wire rack to cool, eat!

They are an oddly disturbing shade of green, which the little cook loved - somewhere between dinosaur and Buzz Lightyear! They do taste of peas slightly, sweet, fresh, they're quite nice, and make a change from the usual butternut squash recipe!

Next time, I'm going to try throwing in a handful of blueberries - proper monster cakes! Green and purple spots!

Butternut Squash and Amaretto Risotto

The little cook loves risotto, and particularly loves the butternut squash one. The amaretto can, of course, be left out, for when you're making it for little people!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced.
2 cloves of garlic, crushed.
Olive oil.
smallish tsp each of dried basil, oregano and thyme. (you could add dried chillies here too, its a nice twist, although not for when the little cook is having it)
250g risotto rice (i use arborio)
900-1000ml veg stock (i use a couple of veg oxo cubes or similar)
1 butternut squash
Salt and pepper
A couple of handfuls of grated parmesan, to taste
Optional: 100ml of amaretto. 1 red pepper, diced.

How to:

Cut the butternut squash in half lengthways, scoop out the seeds and place face down in a baking tray with a drizzle of oil. Cook in the oven at 180 for 30-40 minutes, or until tender (it will depend on the size of the squash).
Heat up a good couple of glugs of olive oil in a heavy bottom saucepan.
Fry the onions gently for 5-10 minutes, then add the garlic and fry for a further couple of minutes. When the onions are almost translucent, add the herbs, optional diced pepper, stir and add the rice. Stir until all the rice is coated in oil, and then cook for a few minutes.
Add the amaretto and cook off. Start adding the stock, a few ladlefuls at a time. It will take 20-30 minutes for the rice to absorb all of the stock. Keep stirring.
When the squash is cooked, and the rice is done, scoop the flesh out of the skin and stir it into the risotto, breaking it up.
Stir in the parmesan, season and its ready.

Summer Fruit Pudding with Brioche

I wanted to make a summer fruit pudding with a twist - I remember making a bread and butter pudding with brioche when I was working in France, so thought I would give it a try with summer fruits. I also wanted to create a yummy but not-too-fattening party dessert!

I made this for a family party and it went down so well I had to make another the next day so that we could all have some more!

The little helper did not help with this one - given that it involves boiling syrup and lots of purple liquid! He did however enjoy eating it with yoghurt on for pudding the next day.

Serves 8-10

Equipment:

1 x 2lb loaf tin
cling film
2 x medium sized pans
thick cardboard, cut to the size of the loaf tin
something heavy to weigh the pudding down with - tins of beans or a bottle of wine work well

Ingredients:

1 x 500g bag of frozen summer fruits
roughly 250g of fresh fruit - I used 1/2 a punnet of strawberries, 1/2 a punnet of raspberries and a pack of blueberries.
1 x 400g brioche loaf (unsliced)
1 x sachet of Green's vegetarian Quick-gel
200 ml water
100g sugar
To serve: an assortment of fresh strawberries/raspberries/blueberries.

Notes to ingredients:

The fruit
All fresh fruit can be used, redcurrants, blackcurrants, blackberries etc. If using fresh fruit, reduce cooking time of the harder fruits, before adding the softer fruit (strawberries/raspberries/blueberries etc.)

The brioche
For a lower-fat version, you could try using unsliced white bread, slightly stale would work best. For a more indulgent version, try maderia cake.

The jelly
You could use a normal jelly (like rowntree's) in blackcurrant or raspberry flavour, or leaf gelatine - make it up to the packet instructions and then add to the fruit mix.

Cooking instructions:

Empty the frozen fruit (or fresh hard fruit) into a pan with 80g of the sugar, and a few spoons of water, about 50ml. Allow the sugar to dissolve and the fruit to soften (10 minutes). Add the soft, fresh fruit and turn off the heat.

In the meantime, empty the quick-gel sachet into a pan, with 20g of the sugar and add 200ml of water. Simmer until the liquid thickens (10-15 minutes). Once thickened, add to the fruit mix and stir through. Allow to cool slightly while you prepare the brioche.

Slice the brioche into 3 thick long slices, about 1.5cm thick, trimming the crusts off.

Line the loaf tin with cling film, leaving an excess for covering the pudding over once completed.

Spoon a little fruit juice into the bottom of the tin and place the first slice of brioche on top. Spoon over half of the fruit mix. Place another slice of brioche on top. Spoon the remainder of the fruit over, retaining some liquid for the next layer. Place the last layer of brioche on top, and spoon over the last of the liquid.

The loaf tin will be quite full now, so carefully wrap over the cling film and secure by twisting the seams together.

Place the cardboard on top, and weigh the pudding down. Watch out for any liquid spilling out of the seams!

Allow the pudding to cool completely and then place in the fridge overnight.

To serve:

Unwrap the top of the clingfilm and place a long plate over the pudding. Invert the pudding onto the plate and peel off the rest of the clingfilm.

Pile an assortment of fresh fruit around the pudding, and you're done. Serve with your choice of cream, creme fraiche, ice cream, yoghurt etc etc.

Enjoy!