5 Delicious Pancake Recipes to try this Pancake Day!

Shrove Tuesday, more popularly known as pancake day, is fast approaching since it falls on Tuesday 16th February this year, and once again the big pancake debate will be sure to raise its head. Are you sweet or savoury? Classic lemon and sugar or chocolate overload? Who the best pancake flipper really is!? But however you choose to eat your pancakes there is no denying that they are totally delicious and having a day dedicated to eating them is a win win right? 

But with so many delicious recipes floating about online and in our recipes books it can be hard to decide the route to go way it comes to making your pancakes. So, in this post I have rounded up 5 delicious pancake recipe ideas from indulgent and decedent to those perfect for people following a diet plan or watching their waistlines.

12 Festive Delicious Treats to Make this Christmas - Bakes, Cakes and Chocolate!

There are so many things we all love about Christmas! The family time, the pretty decorations, driving down the roads and seeing beautiful Christmas lights twinkling in windows and I am sure the kids would say the presents and Father Christmas too! But one other reason why so many of us enjoy the festive season is all of the delicious food that seems to be around! 

Growing up I always remember my nan letting us come round on weekends in the run up to Christmas and teaching us how to bake all sorts of Christmas delights such as chocolate yule log and gingerbread, and it is something I have tried to carry on with my own children. There is just something so comforting about that delicious baking smell at Christmas time and there are plenty of recipes out there to try if you enjoy baking too. 

Below I have put together a list of 12 "must try" recipes and bakes that you could try this festive season and they all look totally delicious! Check out the list below and let me know in the comments which ones you would love to try this Christmas -

Chocolate Caramel Tart - Great Blogger Bake Off!

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Despite not being the best of cooks I love watching The Great British Bake off and it always inspires me to want to get out in the kitchen and bake.

For those of you who watch the program you will have seen that last weeks theme was pastry and so this week I decided to attempt my own pastry creation in the form of a chocolate caramel tart! The tart featured on Bake Off was actually a bakewell tart but since nobody in our house is a fan of Jam except me it seemed a waste, hence the chocolate caramel tart.

So here is the recipe and how ours turned out, please do let me know if you have a go I would love to see your creations too over on Facebook!

Rice Krispie Christmas Puddings!

Me and the kids have been busy in the kitchen today making up some very cute little rice krispie marshmallow Christmas puddings! They are really easy to make so even the kids can get involved in making them, they require no baking and minimum ingredients here is how we made them.

You will need -

- Rice Krispies (or supermarket own brand),
- 50g Unsalted butter,
- 150g mini marshmallows,
- Milk and White Chocolate,
- Decorations for the top (optional).

Start by melting 3-4 tablespoons of butter slowly, use a large pan as you will need the room to add the rice krispies later. Once the butter has melted add in the marshmallows and gently heat stirring occasional to ensure the butter encorporates with the marshmallows. Once they are all melted you should be left with a smooth thick slightly sticky marshmallow mixture.

Leave your marshmallow mixture to cool for a few minutes and then add in your rice krispies, I added mine a cup full at a time until I reached my desired stickiness so add your slowly until you are happy with the consistency. Remember you need them to be sticky enough to form balls.

Leave the mixture to cool slightly then form balls from the mixture, you can make them as big or as small as you want I went for smaller palm sized ones perfect for the kids. Now set these aside to cool.

Next take your milk chocolate and melt in the microwave (be sure to keep an eye on it and stir regularly as you don't want it to burn). Carefully dip each ball in to the melted chocolate removing any excess with your fingers. Place in the the fridge for around 30 minutes for the chocolate to harden.

Finally melt the white chocolate in the microwave (again being careful not to over do it) and using a teaspoon (or piping bag if you have one) place a small amount of white chocolate to the top of your chocolate balls and allow it to run down the sides slightly. Once the chocolate has begun to set (but before it completely hardens) apply your decorations to the top, I chose these holly and berry sprinkles from Morrisons which were under £1 for mine!

Do let me know how you get on if you have a go at these! Do you have a favourite sweet treat you bake at Christmas?

xXx

Quick and Easy Chocolate Orange bread and butter pudding!

I am always on the look out for quick and easy dessert recipes and this chocolate orange bread and butter pudding is a great way to use up bread they may be going a little stale! It uses up simple ingredients that are usually found in the cupboard and if you don't have the chocolate or marmalade you can substitute it for a different flavour such as jam or chocolate chips! 

For this recipe you will need - 

• 2 eggs
• 50g caster sugar (+ extra for sprinkling on top)
• 60ml of double cream
• 250ml full fat milk
• approx 8 slices of bread 
• marmalade
• 100g dark chocolate (we used Divine) 
• appox 50g unsalter butter ( + extra for greasing your baking tin)

 Pre-heat your oven to 180C and then start by buttering your slices of bread with a good layer of unsalted butter, make sure you get right to the edges! If you are using marmalade then also cover your bread in a layer of marmalade at this stage too. 

Cut your prepared bread into triangles and layer into your greased baking tin. If you are adding chocolate now is the time to add chunks of your chocolate within the bread triangles. 

Now add another layer of your bread triangles and more chocolate. 

Next beat together your eggs and sugar until they become pale and slightly fluffy. Whilst doing this gently heat together the milk and cream but DO NOT let it boil. Once heated through remove from the heat and slowly add the milk and cream mixture to your egg and sugar mixture, ensuring that you mix the mixture as you do this. 

Pour you egg and milk mixture over your prepared bread and push down on it slightly to ensure all of the bread is covered and soaking in the mixture, allow this to soak for around 20 minutes. Sprinkle the top with some sugar then pop it in a pre-heated oven for around 35-40 minutes until golden brown like above. 

Then slice, serve and enjoy with or without cream (or perhaps you prefer ice-cream or custard?)

xXx

Nutella and Marshmallow squares!

Have you seen our latest Degustabox Review? If not check it out HERE.

Inside our box this month was Toasted Marshmallow Creme! So I put some of it to good use and made these yummy and easy to make puff pastry squares!

All you need is Puff pastry (I cheated and used ready made!), Nutella and Marshmallow creme. 

Preheat your oven to around 180C.

Rolloll out your puff pastry and cut out as many squares as you want to make, I made my squares around 3 inches by 4 inches in size but you can make yours smaller or bigger if you wanted. 

Then place a tbsp of nutella in the centre of each square and spread it out, Remember to leave the edges of your square completely clear. 

Now add a tbsp of your Marshmallow creme on top of the nutella and place your squares in to the over for around 15 minutes or until the edges of your squares are golden brown, 

Allow to cool slightly and enjoy whilst still warm! 

They were delicious and so quick and easy to make! When they come out of the oven the pastry is crispy on the outside, The chocolate is melted just enough to make it soft and the marshmallow has turned soft and gooey! 

xXx 

Chewy Chocolate M&M and Marshmallow Cookies Recipe.

For once we have managed to avoid all tasks, groups and responsibilities and finally enjoy a much needed chilled out Sunday. One thing I always loved doing on a Sunday with my nan as a kid was baking and it's something I really need to try to do more of with my own kids, so today as we had the chance, we decided to whip up a batch of delicious cookies. These M&M and marshmallow cookies are the ultimate sweet treat when it comes to cookies so we thought we would share the recipe with you. 

With crispy edges and a chewy centre these cookies are definitely Moorish! We have added M&M chocolates into ours but if you're aren't a fan of these or have another favourite chocolate you would love to add then just substitute these for your items and add them in at the same time. 

Ingredients -

250g Plain flour

170g Unsalted butter (melted) 

220g Brown sugar

100g Caster Sugar

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp Vanilla extract.

+ Your choice of filling we chose Chocolate M&Ms and marshmallows, but you could choose anything you like! 

Method -

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F or 165 degrees C. Grease or line a baking tray with grease-proof paper

• In a bowl sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, then add the salt and set aside.

• In another bowl mix together the melted butter, brown sugar and caster sugar thoroughly. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy (we used an electric whisk for this)

•  Now mix in the reserved sifted ingredients gradually until mixed together. Now Stir in your choice of filling this is where we added our m&ms and marshmallows (stir these in by hand using a large wooden spoon or spatula).

• Now evenly divide the mixture into balls (this mix should make around 15 cookies) and these squash the cookie dough balls slightly so they make a thick disc shape on the tray.

• Bake the cookies for around 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool on baking trays before transferring to a wire rack to completely cool as these will still be quite soft when they first come out of the oven.

All that is left to do is enjoy. These cookies are delicious both warm and cold (if eating warm be sure to leave them to cool a little so that they firm up first). You can store them in any airtight container for several days (if they last that long!)

Do let us know if you have a go at the recipe and let us know what you decide to put in yours, we love hearing all of the different flavour combinations people love in their cookies, I think we might try honeycomb cookies next!  

xXx

We Made Cupcakes!!

With James home for the summer holidays and his excitement building for starting school in September I've been trying to find things to keep him occupied so today we made cakes! 

James loves baking well more the decorating the cakes afterwards lol!

Here is the simple recipe we used for our cakes -

Ingredients

110g softened butter (room temperature) 

110g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

1tsp vanilla extract

110g self raising flour

2tbsp milk

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a 12 hole cake tin with paper cake cases,

- Cream together the butter and sugar until well combined and the mixture is pale in colour.

- In a seperate container beat together the eggs and slowly add these to your butter and sugar mixture a little at a time. Then add in your vanilla extract. 

- Sift the flour and fold this gradually into your mixture. Adding a little milk at a time until the mixture is smooth and of a dropping consistency. 

(If you wanted to make your cakes a funky colour you could add a few drops of food colouring to your cake mix at this point!)

- Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full and then place into the oven. We added a few pink and white mini marshmallows into the centre of ours at this point. 

- Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. A tip to check if they are cooked or not is to insert a skewer or cocktail stick into the centre of the cake, If it comes out clean (no cake batter residue left on the skewer or cocktail stick) then your cake it cooked. 

Leave to cool and then decorate as you please!

Here are our cakes...

James cakes (decorated all by himself!) - 

Mummy's cakes - 

Whats your favourite thing to bake? 

xXx

WannaPizzaThis **REVIEW**

We were recently given the opportunity to try out a mini pizza making kit from the lovely people at WannaPizzaThis? and we jumped at the chance as James loves pizza and it seemed like a fun activity to do during the half term.

Wannapizzathis are a company who provide pizza making kits that are freshly made using the freshest ingredients. All of their kits are made using fresh ingredients and are prepared to order in a vegetarian kitchen. They offer 2 main pizza kits...

The mini pizza kit (this is the one we were sent out to try!) which contains ..

- A childs rolling pin
- A childs Wooden spoon
- A pre mixed bag of flour (enough to make dough for one 9 inch pizza or 2 mini pizzas's)
- A pot of homemade pizza sauce
- Instructions on how to make the pizza

(These are priced at £4.00 + p&p)

OR

The Full pizza baking kit which contains .... 

 - 1 bag of Pre-Mixed Flour (enough for one 9 inch pizza or 2 mini pizzas)

- 1 pot of sauce for 1 or (2 mini) pizza

- Mini wooden spoon

- Mini rolling pin

- Pizza tray

- Kids apron

- Kids chef's hat

- Mixing bowl

- Cooking instructions

 (These are priced at £10.50 + p&p)

Wannapizzathis also give you the option to add extras to any of their kits at a small addition price! 

Here is the kit we were sent out which contains all the items listed above in the Mini Pizza baking kit.

 The kits comes with everything you need (apart from a small amount of oil, water and your choice of toppings). I loved the addition on the little rolling pin and wooden spoon as these were perfect for James to use and can be kept for future use! 

The instructions included were clear and easy to follow.

Here is James making the dough for his pizza (this was simply a case of adding water and oil to the bag of pizza flour included and mixing!)  ...

We then rolled out the dough (I helped him a little with this but James was very keen to have a go by himself with his little rolling pin) and added the pizza sauce which was included and smelt DELICIOUS!!! and the toppings, James went simple and chose ham and cheese for his pizza. 

 We then placed the pizza into the oven for 10-15 minutes to cook. The smell was amazing and smelt just like walking past a pizzeria!

Here is our finished pizza straight from the oven...

It looked and smelt amazing and the dough was crispy but still slightly soft on top. The sauce didnt soak in or disappear so meant the pizza still have a lovely oozy top YUM! 

James had great fun making his pizza and loved the fact he could choose his own toppings and roll out the dough. The kits are fab as they include everything you need apart from a few small ingredients you would usually have around the kitchen anyway. 

I think the largr kits would make a great idea for a family to enjoy doing together to really get everyone involved and you could serve the pizza with some salad and garlic bread as a lovely family meal that everyone has been involved with making!

The kits get a big thumbs up from James who gobbled down the pizza in record time! 

 You can check out Wannapizzathis on Facebook and twitter here ..

Facebook - /www.facebook.com/wannapizza

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Wannapizzathis

Or on there website here .. WannaPizzaThis website where you can find out all about their fresh ingredients, the baking kits and where you can buy yours from!! 

xXx

* I was not paid for this review. All opinions given are my own.. As a thank you I was allowed to keep the product.

* If you would like me to review your product or service, please email me on xJessLegresleyx@hotmail.com.

Reindeer biscuits!!

James loves to bake and what better excuse to bake than it almost being Christmas? I used to love baking with my nan and so it's always nice to share that passion now with my own kids. Plus, who doesn't love the smell of fresh baking through the house? Since its almost Christmas we decided we would have a go at making our own version of reindeer biscuits using a simple biscuit recipe and some pretzels, keep reading below for the recipe. 

They were simple to make and even more fun to decorate!

Ingredients - 

100g caster sugar

100g butter

1 egg

250g plain flour  

1tsp vanilla extract

+ these items for decoration-

small pretzels

smarties

chocolate sprinkles

icing sugar

Method - 

- Preheat your oven to 180 degree C and then line a baking tray with grease-proof paper.

- Cream together the butter and sugar (I find it easiest to use an electric whisk for this) Then add the egg and vanilla extract into the butter and sugar and mix well.

- Now gradually add your sieved flour into the mixture and mix well until it forms a dough. 

- Place your dough on to a well-floured surface and roll it out until it is just under 1cm thick. Now cut out your biscuit shapes, I used a round cutter to form the reindeer face, but you may wish to use a different shape.

- Place your cut out shapes onto your pre-prepared baking tray and prick them with a fork several times then place into the oven for around 12-15 minutes. After around 6 minutes in the oven remove the tray from the oven and place to pieces of broken pretzel in the top of the biscuit to form the antlers. Place back in the oven for the remaining time and until golden brown. 

- When cooked leave to cool on a wire rack and then add your decoration. We used red smarties for Rudolph's nose and royal icing and chocolate sprinkles for the other features. You can use whatever you like to decorate yours! 

We had lots of fun making these and I think they would make a fab treat for your little one to leave out for Father Christmas on Christmas eve!

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend! Are you doing anything Christmassy??

xXx

Today we made Pizza!!!

Im not sure about you but I am forever lost for ideas for tea time that the whole family can enjoy! There's only me hubby and my little boy who is 4 but I find us having the same meals over and over and it gets really boring.

On a weekend we are a nightmare for getting takeaway and now I've joined the gym this is something I am trying to avoid!

This week I decided to sit down and think of new meal ideas and with a little help from a few other mums I came up with lots of new meals for us to try this week. I am going to share with you a few of our meals this week so it may give you some new ideas. All of the meals are brought and made on a budget of around £50 per week for 3 of us  and that includes toiletries!

So today we made Pizza!!!

Here is James making his...

It was pretty simple to do and something everyone could get involved in. You can choose what ever toppings you like we had...  hot dog sausages, salami, mushrooms, onions, tuna, ham and mozzarella/ cheddar cheese.

I used a pizza express pizza sauce which comes in a tin and is only 99p and really gives that authentic pizza taste but you could easily you passata/ tomato puree.

The bases you can buy in most major supermarkets! I've definitely seen them in Tesco and Morrison's and there really cheap around 70p-£1 for 2 good sized bases!!

It was also a great replacement for the usual takeaway we would usually get and ALOT cheaper!!

Here is James finished pizza (He chose onions, mushrooms, hot dogs and cheese for his toppings)

We had great fun making them and it cost around £5 to make 3 pizzas with lots of different toppings and we served ours with a salad. Not bad to feed a family of 3 and it definitely got a big thumbs up from James who loved the idea of helping make his own tea!

xXx

More meal ideas will be coming up in the week!! x