The Great British Bake Off – Batter Week

General | 14th Sep

It’s batter week…..and unfortunately I have a love/hate relationship with batter. Quite simply, I LOVE it, My body HATES it!

Saying that, I actually thinks its the frying part of the batter that doesn’t agree with me, but still, I love the challenge of creating a healthy or even “good for you” version of the not so good for you foods. So any excuse to be in the kitchen experimenting :-) And if like me, you like to sit down every Wednesday to watch The Great British Bake Off with something yummy to munch on, and you want a healthier alternative, fear not….I have some pretty good recipes that I have devised, and they’re actually pretty good….so my little taste testers tell me. And believe me they wouldn’t demolish them in 5 seconds flat had they been anywhere near the lower end of the yumminess scale. Here are a couple of my recipes…. are they as good as the real thing…let me know!

Churros

These are undeniably just as good as the real thing, but with a fraction of the bad stuff, so it’s win win….

What you will need…..

225g Water

25g Agave

tiny pinch of Pink Himalayan Rock Salt

120g Coconut Oil

1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

140g Plain wholemeal flour

3 Eggs

For the Coating…..

100g Sugar – you can use a sugar alternative or honey glaze

1tsp Cinnamon

How to make it…..

If you don’t have an Aga like me you will need to preheat your oven to 400F/200C. Line 2 baking trays with bake-o-glide or greaseproof paper and leave to one side. In a saucepan add the water, coconut oil and agave, and heat until simmering. As soon as it starts to simmer add the flour and whisk until there are no lumps and a dough ball starts to form (see picture below). Now using a wooden spoon, stir for around a minute whilst still on a low heat. The mixture will pull away from the sides of the pan…this is what you want! Now take off the heat and add the beaten eggs and vanilla extract a little at a time whilst beating with your wooden spoon. Keep stirring until the eggs are completely incorporated….its should look a bit like mash potato at this stage.

Pipe slowly onto the bake-o-glide, so the churros are as fat as they can be, and bake in the oven (baking oven if your using an Aga) for around 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown.

Once cooked let the churros cool down for 5 minutes and then get a sandwich bag filled with the coating mixture, add the churros and shake….

Here they are, proudly displayed on one of our Personalised Wooden Chopping Boards but didn’t stay there long…:-)

Mummy’s Scrummy Waffles

What you will need …..

100g Plain white flour

150g Plain wholemeal flour

1 dessert spoon Baking powder

1 teaspoon of Agave

2 Eggs

450 ml of Cashew Milk (or any milk or milk alternative)

2 tablespoons of Coconut Oil

How to make it ….

Heat up your waffle iron. In a large bowl mix together all of the dry ingredients. Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan. In a separate bowl mix together all of the wet ingredients including the coconut oil and add this to the dry mix. Mix together until the batter is smooth, and then cook them as per your waffle irons manufacturers instructions….and voila! Serve with some homemade berry compote (I have a super healthy, immune boosting recipe for this if you would like it) or Maple syrup.

and lastly I couldn’t do a post on batter without including our family favourite, the Yorkshire Pudding. This graces our table every Sunday without fail and beautifully displayed on one of Make Me Something Specials most popular boards, the Personalised Wooden Carving Board. Perfect for taking your Sunday roast to the table for all of your guests to admire the beautiful lunch you’ve lovingly made…and of course to show off the board:-)