Banana and Honey Ice Lollies

I've never bought an ice lolly for my son which has led to full on, lying back, kicking, screaming because he wanted more.  Apart from my son's behaviour (and not wanting to reward it), it's not going to make you feel too bad giving him two.

It's also a great way to use up and store bananas which are past their best as you do want them slightly over-ripe.

Banana and Honey Ice Lollies - makes 4-6 depending on mould size

Ingredients

1 ripe banana
2 tsp runny honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
100g, 3.5oz Yogurt (low fat is fine)

Method

Peel and chop the banana.  Blend the ingredients together.  Pour into an ice lolly mould and freeze until solid.  Run some warm water over the outside of the mould to release them.

Don't give to under 1's due to the honey (you could always miss it out if your bananas are super ripe and sweet.)

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Rhubarb Cake

Rhubarb is such an odd fruit.  It's almost a twisted fact of nature that rhubarb is great at this time of year, just as we should be donning our suncream and sunglasses.  Then you have a spring like this one.  Days of dismal rain and almost tempted to switch on the central heating.

So rhubarb suddenly has a strange purpose.  The joy, if you like, in the drizzled disappointment of British weather!

After initial reluctance, my son loved this cake and so did I.  It lasted for 2 further days in a tin and I also froze some wedges which defrosted in the microwave beautifully.

Great served warm as a pudding with silky double cream or custard or cold as a cake.  Ok, I'm not winning any prizes on health here but I figure it's still healthier than a chocolate bar, and, cream aside, it's pretty low in fat.

Rhubarb Cake - makes 1 large cake

Ingredients

60g, 2oz Margarine
300g, 10.5oz Sugar (I used a mix of half white and half dark soft brown sugar which gave lovely little toffee flavoured flecks in the mix)
2 Eggs
300g, 10.5oz Self Raising flour (or the same amount of all purpose / plain flour with 3 tsp baking powder)
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tsp Mixed Spice (apple pie spice)
300g, 10.5oz Low Fat Yogurt
250g, 9oz Rhubarb cut into short lengths

Method

Preheat an oven to 160oC, 325F, Gas Mark 3.

Line a 7.5", 19cm cake tin with baking paper and grease lightly (a mild flavoured oil spray is great for this).

Cream the margarine with the sugar as best you can as there isn't much fat.  Add the eggs and beat in.  Add the spice, vanilla and the yogurt and beat together.

Add in the flour then fold in the rhubarb.

Pour into the tin and bake for approx 1hr 15mins.  Check after an hour and cover if it's browning too much.  Check with a sharp knife or skewer to see if it's done.

Allow to cool on a wire rack and serve warm or cold.  This would be great warm with custard.  Central heating from the inside thanks to Rhubarb cake!

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Chocolate Custard (low sugar)

Custard.  I never make it from scratch but I do make it from custard powder.  It occurred to me when making some custard from custard powder the other day that custard powder is simply cornflour (cornstarch) natural flavouring (vanilla) and colour (normally a natural colour like annatto).  I don't have much annatto floating around the house and there feels like something wrong about making white custard even though that's the colour it would be if not made with eggs, so my idea was to make chocolate custard.

This would be great hot with chocolate cake, poured over banana (if you want to keep on my 7 a day routine), on it's own or allowed to cool in small pots and eaten cold like blancmange.  It's pretty low sugar too with only 1 tsp added sugar per portion.  There's more sugar in a fromage frais!

Chocolate custard - Makes 2 small bowls

Ingredients

280ml, Half Pint milk
1 rounded tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
1 tsp Cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
2 tsp Sugar

Method

Mix the cornflour with the cocoa powder and sugar with 1 tbsp of the cold milk then add the vanilla.  Heat the remaining milk in a microwave for 2 minutes or until hot.  Gradually whisk the hot milk into the cornflour mix then return to the microwave for 2-3 minutes on full power or until cooked and thick.  Keep an eye on it as it can boil up and boil over.

I would be honoured if you would consider nominating me in the Britmums BIB awards, especially the food category.

After all, who can resist delicious chocolate custard?

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Fruit Crumble Bars

I'd looked online for a fruit crumble bar recipe which I thought wasn't a load of faff.  I failed to find one so this is what I came up with.  It's simple and you could switch in whatever fruit you have in the fruit bowl looking past it's best.

Although plums aren't seasonal in the UK at least, they are in South Africa and the UK are a major export market.  Irrespective of what you think of imported fruit and vegetables, these plums were lovely.  Juicy, delicious and sweet but unfortunately my son on a whim has decided he doesn't like plums or maybe he's aware it's not UK plum season.  Who knows?  Stranger things have happened than my son deciding to put his foot down on carbon footprints.  Well he is 3.

If you are sticking to more locally sourced fruit, why not try using frozen fruit instead?  Raspberries might work well but will probably need boiling down more so they're not too wet.

Fruit Crumble Bars - makes 9 generous sized bars

Ingredients

100g, 3.5oz Plain (all purpose) flour

100g, 3.5oz Porridge oats

100g, 3.5oz Sugar

100g, 3.5oz Butter

1 egg

2-3 Ripe large plums

1 tsp Cornflour (cornstarch)

Method

Stone the plums and cut into small pieces (don't skin them).  Heat in a pan with a tbsp of water until the juices start to run, a few minutes or so.  Check they're not too sour (add sugar if wanted but remember the crumble is sweet.  I didn't add any sugar.)  Mix the cornflour with a tbsp water and mix into the hot plums to thicken the juice.  Take off the heat.

Preheat the oven to 200oC / 400F, Gas Mark 6.

In a food processor or bowl rub the flour, oats, sugar and butter together.  Add the egg to bring together.

Line a  20cm by 20 cm (8 inch by 8 inch) baking dish with baking paper.

Press two thirds of the mix into the base.

Top the base with the plum mix then loosely crumble the remaining mix on top.

Bake for approx 18-20 minutes or until hot through and browned on top.

Cut into bars and serve warm (not hot) or cold.  When cold store in an airtight tin.  Best eaten the same day or the next.

Make it Thrifty

Use anything which is needing eating up in your fruit bowl, especially stone fruit or berries.

I would be absolutely honoured if you would consider nominating me in the Britmums BIB awards, especially the food category.

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Apple and Almond Cake

A big hit with my 3 year old and grown ups, this is a cake which is equally at home with custard as pudding and as a cake.

The basic mix is based on a victoria sponge (so not sugar free) but by adding apples into the mix, this pads out the cake meaning you get something which feels special without needing layers of sugary icing or jam so still a treat but perhaps a less guilty one.

This makes one shallow cake, which I think is the best kind to have with custard or cream.

Apple and almond cake - makes one cake

Ingredients

110g, 4oz Margarine (it blends better than butter for cakes and is less greasy)
110g, 4oz Sugar (I used a mixture of white and dark brown soft sugar)
2 Eggs
110g, 4oz Self raising flour (or plain / all purpose flour with 1 tsp baking powder)
1/2 tsp Almond extract
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tbsp Milk
175g, 6oz Dessert apples (peeled and cored weight, approx 2-3 depending on size)
A generous tbsp Flaked almonds

Method

Preheat the oven to 180oC.

Peel and core the apples cutting into rough chunks.  Grease and line a loose bottomed shallow cake tin.  Mine is approx 17cm, 7 inches diameter.

Cream the margarine and sugar together using electric beaters and add the almond extract.

Add the eggs and whisk followed by the flour, baking powder and finally the milk.

Mix the apple chunks in carefully and turn into the prepared dish.  Smooth out and sprinkle flaked almonds on top.

Bake for approx 30 minutes or until cooked through push out and cool on a wire rack.  Serve still warm as pudding with custard or cream or cold as a cake.

The apple still has some texture which I quite liked.  I've not tried it, but if you want it to be softer, try using cooking apples or cutting the apples smaller.

My son had an individual game pie with carrots and peas followed by this for pudding.  He eats well for a three year old!

Warning:  Officially whole nuts are not recommended until kids are fairly old because of the choking risk (although the risk with flaked almonds is likely to be much lower).  As I've done I urge you to ensure you are with your child when they are eating this to ensure they don't choke and if you have any doubts, don't feed it to them.

Make it Thrifty

If you don't have almond extract, miss it out or substitute it for vanilla extract.

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Best Pancake recipes

Pancakes; I'm a bit of a fan; in fact, one of my very early recipes was for a sugar free American style pancake recipe so I thought, with Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Day or Mardi Gras) looming on 4th March this year, I'd tell you about my favourites!

The point of Shrove Tuesday was to use up all of the rich ingredients in the house like eggs and sugar before the traditional period of fasting and reflection of Lent.  Pancakes though are a fantastic way to make food quickly and easily and make a meal out of eggs (mostly, see below!)  Eggs are a great way to include vitamin D into your diet which is often lacking in our bodies at this time of year (as I look outside to the frosty ground and sun shining weakly on my garden!)

All of my recipes are made without added sugar or are low in sugar unless you add some with the topping with syrups or icing sugar which makes them great even for babies.


Sweet

My original sugar free pancake recipe is here (with step by step instructions).  This is the one I come back to again and again and was a finger food my son absolutely loved as a baby.

A slight extension from this was to include berries into the batter in my berry pancakes (defrosted frozen berries would work well at this time of year.)

I also made some for my new blog using frozen cherries which were lovely pink pancakes!

Savoury

By rights I'm no fan of a savoury pancake recipe, especially when it's a crepe wrapped around something which would work much better if it was inside cannelloni (I'm thinking spinach / ricotta mixes here particularly).

That said, I am a fan of the savoury American style batters, basically vegetable fritter recipes but my absolute favourite has to be my sweetcorn fritter recipe.

Sweetcorn in a slightly spiced savoury batter dunked into sweet chilli sauce.  If you make too many they are even great for lunch, warmed up for a few seconds in a microwave.

You can also make really decent potato pancakes which would be great with a fry up.

Traditional

For the UK anyway this is a traditional pancake recipe, a thin pancake with a filling is the traditional thing (I've chosen strawberries here but I do love lemon juice and sugar).  My recipe includes step by step instructions on how to make a traditional crepe if you're a bit lost.

Special Diets

Not everyone is able to eat every ingredient sadly and food allergies are on the rise.  I work in food safety and I'm aware of how difficult it is to live with these restrictions from day to day.  This is why I often try and find ways to make traditional recipes but avoiding some of the key food allergens.

My egg free pancakes might sound like an impossibility but there's a great thing about bananas that they lend so much structure to the batter.  It started out as an accident when I forgot to add eggs to the batter one time and realised I didn't notice the difference (so much so it took me years to repeat thinking I'd simply got it wrong and put eggs in after all!)

You do notice a slight difference in flavour with the dairy free pancakes but not in a bad way and it's great if you just don't have much milk in but need breakfast!

Unusual ingredients

I've also made a few more twists on the classic by making wholemeal pancakes or even including ground almonds (see top photo; delicious by the way).

Alternatively if you are using syrup or honey, yogurt pancakes add a slight tang which is great against the sweet topping.

I suppose this kind of development on a theme harks back to the days when the pancake was to use what was left in the cupboard before the fasting began.

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Egg Free Pancakes - great for all ages

It never occurred to me that you could make American style pancakes without eggs and you wouldn't be able to notice the difference.  The only way I knew was, one time when making my normal sugar free pancake recipe, I made it as normal then got confused thinking I had more eggs in the fridge than I thought.  I was convinced for years I'd miscounted, but, this morning I gave it a go again and I was right, you don't need the egg!

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with eggs at all and they're a great source of vitamin D but they are also a common food allergy and, if you don't have eggs in, you can still have delicious pancakes!  Result!

Egg Free Banana Pancakes

225g, 8oz, (1 and three quarters cups) of Self Raising Flour (or plain / all purpose flour plus 2 tsp baking powder)
Knob (about 30g, 1 oz, 1tbsp) butter or use non dairy spray oil
300ml, 10.5floz, (1 and a quarter cups) Milk 
1 tsp natural vanilla paste or vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas

To serve for adults and older children (optional)
A knob of butter and a drizzle of honey (over 1 year only) or syrup

Method

Weigh out the flour, put in a blender with the milk, vanilla and bananas.  Blend until fully smooth.

Warm a non stick frying pan and either rub with a knob of butter or use spray oil.

Fry in batches; turning when bubbles appear on the surface of the pancakes (see here for instructions.)

Serve!  When my son was little I got away with giving him these without toppings.  It wasn't until he was three he noticed Mummy and Daddy were having honey or syrup.  I can still get away with giving them to him as a snack though without a topping as they're naturally sweet.

These are a great first finger food or baby led weaning food for younger kids.  Cold they taste like Scotch Pancakes so are great any time.

Make it Thrifty:

This is a great way to use up over-ripe bananas.

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Simple Baked Southern Fried Chicken

Ok, sorry to remind you but we're approaching New Year and the time for those resolutions.  What will yours be this year?  Lose weight?  Stop smoking?

Have you ever noticed how resolutions are always about what we don't want rather than what we do want?  That's a bad thing because we're not wired that way.  Don't think about a pink elephant.  Go on, think about ANYTHING else apart from pink elephants.  Don't think about it.  You're thinking about it aren't you?  You can't help yourself!

Anyway, in general, I'm always of the opinion that a bit of what you actually fancy is better than 101 diet products.  Let's face it, if you buy diet biscuits, you eat more biscuits don't you?  Go on, we all know the truth...  So although I'm not a huge fan of dieting per se, I also managed to lose quite a lot of weight in the last two years.  You didn't know that about me did you?  I am now a shadow of my former UK size 16/18 self and am now a comfortable size 12, size 10 in Fat Face or White Stuff on a good day with a fair wind behind me (and size 8-10 in US terms which is even better!)

I can't pretend that I'm healthy all of the time either.  It's not true.  I do exercise but I also occasionally eat chips and, very occasionally, fried chicken.  But that said, I can't bring myself to actually fry chicken at home, I can feel my arteries hardening at the thought and there is something a bit gross about the extreme fattiness of it.  If I ever do buy fried chicken (from a certain well known High Street chain), I always drain it on the paper towels to make it a bit less greasy before eating.

So this recipe is good all round.  Lower in fat but also much less greasy which is a good thing and makes it tastier.  No frying smells to stink out the house and you can feel slightly more virtuous for having your cake (or chicken) and eating it!  Just don't eat 10 pieces because it's 'healthier'!

Southern 'baked' chicken - Makes 4 pieces

Ingredients

200ml, 7 fl oz Semi Skimmed (2% fat) milk
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 dried chilli
4 large chicken thighs, skin on and bone in
60g, 2oz Plain (all purpose) flour
2 tsp Paprika
80g, 2.5oz Cornflakes
1/2 tsp Garlic powder
Salt and pepper
Spray oil

Method

Mix the milk with the mustard and chilli.  Soak the chicken in this mix for about an hour.

Crush the cornflakes then add to the flour, paprika, garlic powder and seasoning (miss out salt for very young kids).

Preheat the oven to 200oC / 400F / Gas Mark 6.

Take each piece of chicken out of the milk mixture.  Put each into the dry mix covering them, then onto a lined baking sheet.

Repeat with all of the pieces of chicken and then spray with the spray oil then put in the oven for 40 minutes, turning once.

The result was crunchy, gently spiced and tasty.  A hit with my 3 year old and me!

Mix it up; to make it more spicy if making just for adults or adventurous kids; use more chilli in the milk mix or a touch of cayenne pepper in the dry mix.

This would be great with coleslaw







So remember, when making your resolutions, think about what you do want this year, not what you don't and you never know, you might just achieve it!

I've linked this up to Nomday Monday and create, link inspire

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How I decorated my Christmas cake (and I'm rubbish at this kind of stuff)

I'm no sugar crafter.  You will see this from my results but although an amateur, I am quite pleased with how my cake turned out this year and the big secret was, it was so easy.

There is no hard stuff here but I'll give it to you with all the short cuts...  You don't even need an icing bag!


I use ready made ready to roll marzipan and icing.  The first thing was to make the leaves.

Add some green food colouring to some ready to roll icing.  Try to avoid the "Southampton colours", especially if feeding to kids.  To do this, add in a few drops with a bit of icing sugar then kneed it in on a board (be careful, food colourings can stain).

Once the colour is consistent, roll it out.

I have some plunger cutters for some of the leaf types, otherwise I use cookie cutters.  If you don't have a plunger cutter for the markings, get a non poisonous leaf which hasn't been sprayed, e.g. a rose leaf and press the reverse side into icing.  Cut out the shapes.

Leave the leaves to dry, dry some on scrunched foil or on something cylindrical so they don't all dry flat.  This just looks a bit cooler!  If you like, either make some icing with slightly different shade of green or pick out the veins with additional colour.

Leave these to dry.  It might take a day or two if you do paint them with colour.

When you're ready to ice your cake, roll out the marzipan.  Warm up some apricot jam with a little water in a microwave.

Put your cake on the surface you're going to present it on, this might be a plate or a board.  Put it upside down so you have the flat side on top.

Brush the cake with the apricot jam then press on the rolled out marzipan, cutting off excess and moulding it with your hands.  Experience with play dough may be useful here...

Then boil some water while you're rolling out the icing.  Brush the marzipan layer with water then cover again with the icing.  This layer is a bit more forgiving than the marzipan.

Trim off the excess then add your decoration!

To make it stick or if you're right into the fancy icing stuff, mix some egg white with icing sugar until really stiff then use that for all that fancy icing stuff or to stick on your easy icing leaves.

Stand back and wait for admiration!  Leave it to dry out uncovered (but away from insects / pests / curious children and animals) for a few hours before covering.

Please add your Christmas cake pictures to my Facebook feed!

Merry Christmas from Mamacook!

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Baked Cherry Custard

This isn't a sugar free recipe but at only 2 tsp added sugar per portion and a step towards your five a day, it's not terrible!

I started trying to think of a custard recipe, then thought "what fruit could I include" and before I knew it, it was almost a clafoutis except a gluten free one.  Best served warm or cold not hot.

Baked Cherry Custard - Makes 3 puddings

Ingredients

150g, 5.5oz Frozen pitted cherries
2 tbsp Sugar
2 Egg yolks
150ml, 5.5 fl oz Semi skimmed (2%) milk
1/4 tsp Almond extract (or vanilla if you prefer)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180oC, 350F, Gas Mark 4.

Heat the cherries with 1 tbsp sugar until releasing the juice and starting to reduce.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer to three small ramekins.  Save the juice if liked for cheffy drizzles later!

Mix the remaining sugar, eggs, milk and extract and whisk together.  Pour carefully on top of the cherries and bake in a bain marie (deep baking dish with hot water poured up the sides of the dishes) for 15-20 minutes or until cooked with a slight wobble.

Make it Thrifty:

To make this recipe more economical to cook; put in the oven at the same time as something else so you're not wasting the heat.  Why not pop in while my chicken tray bake is cooking?

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Low Sugar Mini Cherry Tarts - Great for kids or grown ups

I'm showing my age now, the urge to type "damn fine cherry pies" was very strong.

As I said in my last post, I promised to write up a recipe for the pastry leftovers.  Because I don't know how much pastry you might have, the quantities are per tart.  Please adjust for the number you have!

This isn't sugar free.  Jam is laden with sugar but there is around 1-1.5 tsp jam per tart and only half of that is sugar, not massive amounts of sugar at all, much less than a commercial tart.

Mini Cherry Pies

Ingredients

Leftover pastry (see the chicken and mushroom pie recipe if you would like the pastry recipe from scratch)
1/2 tsp jam per case (see instructions for more info)
5-6 Frozen, defrosted pitted cherries per tart
1 tbsp jam additional or more if you have several tarts

Method

Preheat the oven to 200oC / 400F / Gas Mark 6.

For this, I would use a 'red' jam, ideally cherry but strawberry or raspberry is fine as long as it's not too seedy.

Roll out the pastry and cut circles big enough for a fairy cake tin, gently push them in.

Put approx half a teaspoon of jam in each pastry hollow.  Bake for approx 10 minutes or until the pastry is crisp.  Allow to cool for a couple of minutes.

Heat the additional jam in a microwave with a tsp boiling water until boiling (for approx 1 minute).  In the meantime, top the tarts with the defrosted cherries.  Once the jam is molten, pour over an additional half tsp over the top to glaze.

Allow to cool for a couple of minutes then serve slightly warm with a sprinkle of icing (confectioners) sugar if liked or cream.

Ok, not the healthiest recipe in the world but not awful either.  A dainty little fruity treat.  I'd rather give one of these to my son any day than a chocolate biscuit!  This is my ethos on life; I am happy giving my son treat foods but I try and put fruit and vegetables into every bit of food I can and I always try and use natural 'real' foods.  The fights I've had with our nursery who think sugar free instant whip is a great pudding for toddlers...

Make it Thrifty:

Oven cooking uses a lot of energy so ideally cook these when something else is already in the oven.  Why not make the chicken and mushroom pie at the same time as making these for pudding?

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Gingerbread men

...or considering the time of year... Gingerbread Mummies!!!

I posted a recipe for Gingerbread men a while back (or ninja bread men, I do like a play on words!)  This though is adapted to give a lighter result which is less dominated by anything other than the ginger flavour.  I found the treacle in the old recipe tended to drown out the spicy warmth.
Gingerbread Men � Makes 8-20 depending on size

Ingredients

60g, 2oz Butter or margarine (use non dairy to make dairy free)

60g, 2oz Caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp Runny honey

115g, 4oz Plain (all purpose) flour

1 tbsp Ground Ginger (Powdered Ginger)

Pinch mixed spice (pumpkin pie spice)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180oC, 350F, Gas Mark 4.  

Cream the butter and sugar, add the honey, vanilla extract, cream together then mix in the dry ingredients.  Bring together with your hands and kneed lightly.  Roll out thinly, using flour to dust and cut out the men.  Reroll any scraps and repeat.

Put the men or shapes onto baking trays lined with non stick baking paper.

Bake for approx 8-10 minutes or until starting to brown and crisp (they won't be completely crunchy until allowed to cool).

Cool on a wire rack, then decorate.

I did the gingerbread man "Mummy" decoration with a simple plain buttercream and a narrow plain nozzle criss crossed over the men.  I then cut off the excess at the sides of the biscuits and did the eyes with some black writing icing (I can never find I get a 'true' black from home colours.)

I have no idea whether having one of these is better than eating a pile of sweets.  Ok, one of these is obviously better than a pile of sweets but I have always thought that home baking, even unashamedly full on, naughty ingredients home baking like this is somehow more fulfilling than sugary sweets.  Hey, I could be wrong but it makes me feel good.

Store in an airtight tin and they should keep a couple of days.

There's no need to decorate these in the Hallowe'en style I've suggested, you could make it more traditional or, a great idea for a kids party, get some writing icing and get them to decorate them themselves!  Surprisingly popular with adults as well as kids!

Over 1 year olds only please because of the honey.  Enjoy!

Make it Thrifty:

A pretty cheap recipe as it is but look out for bags of Indian or Chinese spices rather than buying ginger in tiny jars.  It does lose a bit of potency over time but it still keeps reasonably well.

I've linked this lovely old recipe up to the Spice Trail Ginger challenge.

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Quick Ginger Biscuits

My son had a hankering for some biscuits after nursery.  I must be mad because what do I do after a hard day at work?  I only go and make some!

Not masses of sugar here but certainly just treat food.  When they cool, they make a pretty crunchy biscuit but my son loves biscuits like that.  While still warm they're a bit softer so don't be surprised if they're still soft when you take them out of the oven.  This was a recipe from my mum but originally from my aunt.  The recipe was originally to use 1lb of flour!  That must have made 40 odd biscuits!  I know my son eats a lot but...

Ginger Biscuits - makes approx 10

Ingredients

1 dessert spoon of golden syrup
45g, 1.5oz Sugar (I used golden caster sugar)
60g, 2oz Margarine (use dairy free if avoiding dairy in your diet)
110g, 4oz Self raising flour (or all purpose flour and baking powder)
1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
A generous 1/2 tsp Ground ginger (powdered ginger)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180oC, 350F

Melt the sugar, syrup and margarine together gently in a pan.  Take off the heat.

Line a baking tray / cookie tray with baking paper (or you could just about get away with spraying a non stick one with spray oil).

Mix in the remaining ingredients and quickly form into balls about the size of a small walnut.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes (10 in my oven).  Cool on a wire rack.

Keeps for a couple of days in an airtight tin.

Make it Thrifty:

This is already a pretty thrifty recipe but if you have the family to eat them all, doubling the recipe to use more often space will keep cooking costs down.

I've linked this lovely old recipe up to the Spice Trail Ginger challenge.

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Hidden Vegetable Sausage Rolls for the Whole Family

I've often said it's great to have a hidden vegetable recipe up your sleeve to ensure your kids are getting enough of their 5 a day.  All kids go through their fussy stages and vegetables are often the victim of it.

Hidden Veg Sausage Rolls - makes 30-35 small sausage rolls

Ingredients

1 onion
Spray oil
1 small or half a large courgette (zucchini) mine weighed 125g / 4.5oz
1 small carrot, mine weighed 60g, 2oz
1 tbsp chopped parsley
400g, 14oz Good quality sausage meat or sausage meat squeezed from the skins of sausages
500g, 18oz Ready rolled puff pastry
Milk to brush

Method

Finely dice the onion and soften in some fry oil.  Grate the carrot and courgette and add to the onion and fry gently until everything is softened and reasonably dry.

Put into a bowl to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180oC (fan), 200oC (conventional), 400F, Gas Mark 6.

Roll out the pastry.

Mix the sausagemeat and vegetables together with the parsley with your hands.  Form into a sausage shape along the pastry, allowing space to ensure you can fold the pastry over the top.  Press the pastry edges together and prick with a knife to allow steam to escape.  Cut into small sections (or larger ones if you prefer) and place onto baking paper.  Brush with a little milk.

Bake in the oven for approx 14-18 minutes (for small sausage rolls) or until cooked through and golden.

Allow to cool a little until cool enough to give to your child or cool completely on a wire rack and serve cold.  Put in the fridge if not serving immediately.  Also freeze well.

To reheat, defrost completely if frozen then warm in the oven at about 180oC for 10 minutes.  Once reheated serve warm.

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