BUTTERMILK STUFFED SCONES

Warm light crumbly melt in your mouth deeply satisfying cave aged cheddar cheese scones, on their own sumptuously delicious but these have gone to a whole other level being smothered with salty butter, fresh baked ham off the bone and warm brie, one scone is too much and will need a couple of attempts to finish, but watch out that flavour will have you going back for just one more bite!

Prep time 10 minutes / Resting time 30 minutes / Cooking time 20 minutes

Ingredients 

(makes 10 large)

160g cold salted butter

400g 00 flour

30g sugar

40g baking powder

200g double cream

220g full cream milk

300g aged cheddar grated

1 egg beaten for wash

5 slices ham on the bone

300g Brie room temperature 

1/2 pack butter

Pre heat your oven 220 C / 440 F

Place your baking sheet in the oven, if you have a stone baking sheet even better.

In a large bowl rub the butter in to the flour to breadcrumbs, stir in the sugar and baking powder, mix in 90% of the cheese reserving a little to sprinkle on top of the scones, then whisk the milk and cream together and stir gently to combine, at this point I turn the rubble mix out on to the work top and bring together by gently pushing the dough together but keeping my actions light, once you have a large flattish mound fold the dough in half, turn 90 degrees and press out to the same thickness as when you started, repeat this 3 more times pressing out a little less each time, this action is folding the layers of dough and fat which will give your scones the most unbelievable crumbly light melt in your mouth texture, not dissimilar to a really good home made puff pastry, cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

Press out the dough to approximately 2” thick and using a circle cutter cut out the scones in a straight down and up action, do not be tempted to twist the cutter as this suppresses the rise of the scone while baking.  Remove the hot baking sheet from the oven place your scones on, don’t over crowd, cook in two batches if necessary.  Brush the tops with egg wash place a sprinkling of cheese on the tops of the scones, turn the oven down to 200 C / 400 F and bake the scones in the oven for 20 minutes until golden brown and a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.

Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack to cool for a few minutes, these are at their very very best served warm, if serving later wrap in a tea towel until needed and enjoy.

Cut the scones in half layer thick butter on both sides, top with ham and brie, pop in the oven for five minutes to warm through and enjoy immediately.

TIRAMISU AMARETTO MARSCAPONE

For my DaD, decadent glorious over indulgent happiness in every spoonful, this is a pudding that will take you several attempts to finish, the gorgeous rich marscapone custard and fragrant amaretto espresso biscotto will bring a cracking smile to your taste buds.

Ingredients

(serves 4)

20 biscotto amaretti almond biscuits

75ml disaronno Italian liqueur

1 espresso coffee

250g marscapone

2 egg yolks

4tbsp caster sugar

1 tsp cocoa powder

First make the espresso, place the biscotti biscutis on a plate pour over the disaronno and espresso and leave for a couple of minutes to soak up all the liquid.  In a large bowl whisk the marscapone, sugar and egg yolks together until smooth, now you are ready to assemble the layers.

In individual or one large serving bowl place six of the soaked biscotto biscuits top with one third of the marscapone custard, dust over a third of the cocoa powder, repeat this twice more and place in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours before serving.

HOT DOG PARTY

What a great way to celebrate my 17th birthday with a Posh Hot Dog party, local free range outdoor reared pork made in to pork and apple Happy Sausages, home made brioche Hot dog buns and for the fixings see my menu!

My Posh Hot Dog Menu

Me and mum learnt all about Hot Dog history, how the German immigrants in America served a sausage called a dachshund in a bun then a famous cartoonist for a paper drew a sketch of the hot dog and as the story goes he wasn’t sure how to spell dachshund so he drew the dachshund dog in a bun and Ta-Da the term hot dog was coined!  Also we learnt that 18th July is National Hot Dog Day too.

Menu

My Hot Dog history lesson continues as I learnt that each state has their own iconic Hot Dog Recipe so I put my favourite on my Posh Hot Dog party menu, the create your own fixings were fried onions, chilli beef, cheese, bacon, sauerkraut, jalapeños, dill pickles, raw onion, mayo, chipotle mayo, tomato ketchup, hot dog mustard and Coney Island Beavers Mustard.

My Bacon and stripes hot dog.

Menu selection, my favourite is the chilli dog and cheese, even better with mac n cheese!

Loving my hot dog stand, mum almost gave in a brought me a full on street hot dog selling cart ! 

Theses retro fun hot dog cartons were great on the day as lots of my teenage friends wanted to load up their dogs and go back in to the man cave for pool and gaming, so these were a cool container.

Awesome Corn Dogs

These are my favourite too sausage on a stick!  What’s not to love fabulous corn bread coated franks with a mustard dip!

FLORIDA GATORS BIRTHDAY CAKE

My 17th birthday Florida Gators cake was so awesome, I loved it.  My mum is not a baker and only makes one cake a year, my birthday cake!  Mum watched Buddy from cake boss on you tube to see how he made his 16ft life size alligator cake and followed his lead and made me the best most awesome Florida Gators Alligator Cake!

I had four cake flavours in my cake the head was coffee and walnut, the whole body chocolate fudge, half the tail was carrot cake and the rest was lemon drizzle, a flavour for everyone.

To make the alligator first draw your alligator body shape on your cake board, then place your cake circles or squares on the board, carve the cake to the shape drawn, cover with frosting, add the eyes, eyebrows and nose now.

Roll your icing out to your thickness then roll across a alligator skin impression mat, place on your alligator cake, repeat until covered, when covering the head you can mould the icing over the eyes and nose to create a more life like look.  Using a chopstick or special tool join up the alligator skin on the joins to hide the seam.  Using edible spray paint add some texture to the alligator.  Next make four legs by rolling a large ball of icing to a burrito shape, pinch out 4 claws and bend to look like a leg.

To make the spines roll out your icing about 2 inches thick, cut the icing to the shape of the tail and pinch up spines in three lines of spines and place on the tail, for the body you will need four lines of spines.

Roll out your t shirt icing and coping the picture place on the alligator with the name and number of the birthday boy or girl.

HOT DOGS

Best Ever Hot Dogs

 Local farm outdoor raised Happy sausages in my homemade hot dog buns loaded with soft fried onions and stripes.  My first practice run for my Posh Hot Dog Birthday party and these were a delicious success.

Ingredients 

(makes 8)

The Hot Dog Buns

500g 00 flour

10g Himalayan sea salt

50g olive oil

30g fresh yeast (15g dried)

320g warm water

8 sausages

2 onions sliced

1 tbsp olive oil

The Stripes

French’s American Mustard

Tomato ketchup 

Mayonnaise 

Place the flour, olive oil, salt and if using dried yeast in a bowl add the water, if using fresh yeast add the yeast to the warm water with a pinch of sugar, stir to dissolve, add the water to the flour mix and bring together, knead for 7 minutes until smooth and springy to the touch.  Place back in to the bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to prove at room temperature for one hour.  Once proved shape the dough in to a long rectangle approx 6 inches long and divide in to 8 equal hot dog rolls, place in a tin that means the buns have to touch, cover with a tea towel and leave to prove for a further hour.  Brush the tops with milk, bake in a preheated oven 200 C for 20 to 25 minutes until hollow when tapped.  Leave to cool on a wire rack and pull apart to separate each bun.

While the hot dog buns are cooking grill or griddle cook the sausages and soften the onions in the olive oil, set up your stripes bottle the stuff a sausage in your buns and load with your choice of fixings.

WOOD FIRED PEPPERONI PIZZA

I love cooking in my family’s home made wood fired Pizza oven this is one of my favourite things to do with my mates and family, we make a great mess but have the best pizzas ever!  They only take two minutes to cook and my mum helps me make up loads of dough so we can make as many pizzas as we like, this is also good as sometimes we go wrong!  

I am a Pizzaiolo!



Best Ever Pizza Dough

Ingredients 

500g 00 blue caputo Italian flour

10g Himalayan sea salt 

50g extra virgin olive oil 

15g yeast

320g water

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and either by hand or by machine with a dough hook mix for seven minutes, then dust a little flour over the dough mix and gently form into a ball, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave in a warm area to prove for 1-2 hours until doubled in size if you want to use immediately, then other options are leave to prove slowly in the fridge for 24hrs, this is what I do as it gives me much more control over time and usage, this will keep for 48hrs in the fridge ready to go when you are, you can also freeze any left over dough at this stage, then when ready to use remove from the freezer defrost and once up to room temperature use as you would fresh.

Pizza Ingredients 

1 can san manzano tomato’s 

1 onion chopped

1 clove garlic chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 bag pizza cheese Mozzarella super melty 

1 pack sliced pepperoni 

Make the pizza tomato base sauce by gently softening the onions and garlic in the olive oil, add the tomato and bring to a simmer, take off the heat and blitz to a smooth sauce, stir in the oregano and season with salt and pepper if needed.

Now your ready to rock and roll, divide the dough into 6 portions roll out each dough ball into a thin pizza base, spread a ladle of the San Marzano sauce over the base, top with torn pieces of the mozzarella and finish of with pepperoni, place on your pizza stone or in your pizza oven and cook for 2-3 minutes in a wood fired oven or 15-20 on a pizza stone in the oven, as a rule when the cheese is bubbling all over that's it Ta da done...

My friends have lots of different combinations of their favourite pizzas, BBQ chicken and spicy meatballs and of course the Hawaiian, where as nan loves peppers, onions and garlic, Grandad is just cheese and tomato with olive oil and Mum and Dad love a original Margarita with fresh basil.

QUESADILLA SWEET CHILLI GOOEY CHEESE

Serious gooey melty cheese pull, charred sautéed peppers and caramelised red onions with sweet chilli sauce this is so darn good make plenty as it's not a dish for sharing 

Prep time 5 minutes / Cooking time 10 minutes

Ingredients 

(serves 1-2)

2 large soft flour tortillas 

200g grated mozzarella cheese

50ml sweet chilli sauce 

1 glug olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1/4 red pepper diced

1/4 green pepper diced

1 small red onion sliced

1 small bunch fresh coriander chopped

1 tub sour cream

To Cook

Heat a skillet medium hot, add the olive oil, peppers and onions, sauté for five minutes until slightly caramelised, remove from the skillet, place the skillet back on the heat, lower to a medium heat, add the butter to melt.  Place one flour tortilla in the skillet, sprinkle with half the cheese, all the peppers and onions, some fresh coriander, the sweet chilli sauce and finish off with a final layer of cheese, place the remaining flour tortilla on top, leave to gently cook for approx five minutes, to turn over place a plate on top of the skillet and turn over so that the quesadilla is now on the plate, slide the quesadilla back in to the skillet and leave to gently cook for the remaining five minutes ensuring that all the cheese has melted.

To serve drizzle with sour cream more sweet chilli sauce and the remaining fresh coriander, serve cut in to quarters and enjoy