Exciting keto coffee syrups (accidental find)

We bought these sauces last year to pour over ice cream and make some fun desserts. I was then very surprised to find out that the coffee syrup is bought was exactly the same thing so now I’m having a fabulous array of fun flavoured coffee in the morning. Hope you enjoy this too!

Buy on Amazon https://amzn.to/3ROUn5K

The simplest of keto desserts – jelly and cream!

This isn’t really a recipe but I have to share it as it never fails to cheer me up and fill a sweet spot when I need it.

Ingredients:

10 calorie jelly (https://amzn.to/3RTyVfR)

Full fat whipping cream

Method:

1. As per the jelly instructions make up the jelly at least a few hours before you want to eat it

2. Let it set in the fridge for a few hours

3. Serve with cream

I like to make individual glasses ratter than one big bowl

Copying Disney snacks – Dolewhip (Christmas holiday kids activity)

This is a recipe I tried in the summer as we were majorly missing our Disney parks fix for the year. I did however think it would a fun one to do with kids over the Christmas break to eat/drink with a Disney movie or a vlog of one of the parks. It contains fruit at least to cut through lots of the rich Christmas food.

Ingredients:

2 cups of frozen pineapple (you can buy the tinned stuff; drain and freeze)

1/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon lemon or a dash

Method:

1. Allow the pineapple to defrost a little (20 minutes)

2. Blend everything together

We had some straws leftover from our last visit to really make you feel at Disney home. There are some similar ones online though (https://amzn.to/3SRMe1E).

Simple Caramel Custard Tarts

After a conversation with my other half recently and the topic of desserts came up we ended up discussing the humble custard tart. Now I’ve only ever had these things from shops and I do remember one of my friends from school being obsessed with them.

I therefore went off in search of a recipe and apart from the pastry which of course you can just go and buy it is the most simple recipe to date I’ve blogged about and considering I thought it would be scary to work with cooking eggs (picturing scrambled sweet egg tarts) it turned out great.

Using my simple shortcrust party recipe as detailed below make up a batch of pastry; cover in clingfilm and store in the fridge for a few hours to really chill down.

https://modernmrsbeeton.blog/2018/11/11/basic-pastry-and-beef-pie-sunday-leftovers/

Ingredients for the filling:

• 3 eggs
• 45ml (3 level tbsp) white sugar
• 400ml (3/4 pint milk)
• Pinch nutmeg

Recipe:

1. Get your pastry out of the fridge and on a lightly floured board or surface roll it out. Lay over either a large or individual (greased) pie tin. Even cup cake tins will work.  Using an extra bit of pastry as a tool push the pastry into the corners and cut off the edge to make pretty.
2. Whisk the eggs into the sugar and add warm milk slowly.
3. Put the pie tin in the fridge and using a jug pour the mix into the case so not quite filling it. Push into the oven very slowly.
4. Sprinkle with the nutmeg or cinnamon if you prefer. A little sugar also caramelizes quite nicely.
5. Back at 220 degrees c for 10 minutes and then 180 degrees c for a further 20 minutes until the dish doesn’t wobbly a lot, only slightly.

Perfect Jam Tarts

After a recent conversation with my better half when I recently asked on Sunday what dessert he would like after Sunday dinner, he declared he really loved jam tarts as a kid so I went looking for recipe.

Little did I know but jam tarts are the simplest thing in the world to make and I make a lot of simple things. Once you knock up a little short crust party (or be super lazy and buy the frozen stuff) you simply put little shells in a cake tin as if you were making mince pies.

Pastry recipe: https://wordpress.com/post/modernmrsbeetonblog.uk/1015

On top of the pastry you add a spoon full of the jam of your choice and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees c.  I also added some little pastry cutter shaped hearts on top and a brush with egg wash  to make then brown.

Simple; quick retro dessert.

Baking tin: https://amzn.to/3CvwxGz

Jam: https://amzn.to/3SWAfjz

Basic Pumpkin Pie in England

Happy Halloween! Well Happy season of anyway. Pumpkin pies are very American and the only ones I’ve ever eaten have been in America so I’ve they have been of the very sweet variety. Therefore, in order to source a recipe I went straight to Martha Stewart and the various other classic American cooks. I did however then realise I live in England so don’t have quite the same ingredients so I’ve done a cheat’s version. It does taste rather good though.

Ingredients:

Either buy some shortcrust frozen pastry or make your own

If you make your own you need:

1 and 1/3 cup plain flour

½ tsp salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp cold water

Method:

1. Combine the ingredients and put in cling film in the freezer for 30 minutes
2. Press the pastry into a greased tin of your choice
3. Put in the fridge

Filling Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 can evaporated milk

1 can pumpkin filling (if you can’t get in the supermarket you can buy online https://amzn.to/3S17QHE)

½ cup white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger (powdery stuff)

1-2 ground cloves (be careful not to add more or it can taste like medicine)

Method:

1. Beat the eggs and then add everything else
2. Pour the mix into the pastry case from the fridge
3. Bake for 15 minutes at 325F
4. Bake for 45 minutes at 350F
5. Store in the fridge

Sorry for the American temperate measurements but it was an American recipe.

Perfect Carrot Cake with Cream Frosting

Last weekend I went through a phase of making homemade soups. I go through this phase fairly often when I have a load of vegetables leftover or it’s cold outside. I’ll add some soup recipes soon. Consequentially I had a load of carrots left over so figured I’d ruin the healthy eating and make a carrot cake. For whatever carrots you have leftover adjust the proportions below as long as you keep the wet and dry ingredients in proportion to each other.

Ingredients:

Cake

300g plain flour

150g brown sugar

100g white sugar

3-4 large eggs dependent on their size

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp salt

300 ml sunflower oil

300g carrots peeled and grated

Topping

100g full fat cheese (I like Philadelphia)

30g butter

200g icing sugar sieved

100g walnuts (I keep whole)

100g caster sugar

(or buy the cheat’s version from my link below)

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees and line a tin
2. Beat everything together with a wooden spoon and transfer to the tin
3. Cook for 40-45 minutes until firm and a skewer comes out clean
4. Allow to completely cool (really important when using cream cheese frosting!)
5. Mix the topping together with an electric whisk. It will go really light fluffy after about 5 minutes
6. Spoon on the top and top with walnuts

Tips:

• You can change the quantities as long you keep the proportions of wet to dry ingredients
• Grate some walnuts and add them to cake mix to add some extra flavour
• The mixture will look really moist but that’s great as the cake will be too
• Adding more spices or fruit can make it more Christmassy so you can use it in place of a traditional fruit cake recipe if your family doesn’t like it

Some materials to buy if you want to copy:

Rectangle tin

https://amzn.to/3Cvr9TL

Cheat’s icing if you don’t want to make it

https://amzn.to/3rTa29s

Walnuts

https://amzn.to/3yD8HHT

Apple Pie (American Classics)

Next in my American Classics series is Apple Pie. What could be more classically American as epitomized in hundreds of TV shows and movies.

Ingredients:

Filling

6 cooking apples such as granny smiths cut into pieces

1 tsp cinammon

1/2 cup white sugar

1 lemon juiced

Recipe

1. Mix all apple slices with the rest of the ingredients and lay in a dish in an even layer

Pastry

1 + 1/3 cup plain flour

1/2 stick butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tbsp cold water

Recipe

1. Cut the butter and flour together. I have a metal pastry cutter that keeps the mix really cold as really good pastry in order to stay crumbly and short needs to be handled as little as possible
2. Add the wet ingredients and combine into a ball. Put in the freezer to really chill for 30 minutes
3. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and then lie it on top of the apple dish
4. I cut out a few extra shapes with the excess pastry and used a fork to crimp the edges of the dish and seal the pie. Under the pie edge add a little water to make the pastry stick to the edge of the dish
5. If you want a browner finish on the pie glaze with a beaten egg or milk
6. I have some cinnamon sugar at home (just sugar mixed with some cinnamon) so I sprinkled it on top on the pie

7. Bake the pie for 20 minutes at 180c or until golden brown

The result is sweet with a really good hint of cinnamon and the apples go lovely and soft. Next time I might try it with puff/flaky pastry instead to see if I can get a crunchier texture. An excellent edition to the American Classics series

Some materials to buy if you want to copy this:

Pastry Cutter

https://amzn.to/3CPgLqj

Pie Dishes

https://amzn.to/3eztZ21

https://amzn.to/3TfLzab

Pumpkin Pie (American Classic)

I’m starting a new set of recipes to try and taste themed around my love of American culture specifically food. We travel to the US almost every year and I’m always enamored with the restaurants and even food available at service stations! So I’m going to find as many classic American recipes that I can; the more traditional the better and try them out.

Sources such as Martha Stewart and Pioneer Woman have been an excellent support so I’d highly recommend them.

https://www.marthastewart.com/

http://thepioneerwoman.com/

So first on the list is classic Pumpkin Pie.

Ingredients:

Pastry

1 + 1/3 cup plain flour

1/2 stick butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tbsp cold water

Recipe

1. Cut the butter and flour together. I have a metal pastry cutter that keeps the mix really cold as really good pastry in order to stay crumbly and short needs to be handled as little as possible
2. Add the wet ingredients and combine into a ball. Put in the freezer to really chill for 30 minutes

Filling

Ingredients

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1tsp cinammon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground ginger

A couple of cloves bashed up

1 can pumpkin puree

1 can evaporated milk

Recipe

1. Beat the eggs
2. Add all the ingredients to the eggs and combine
3. Take the pastry out of the freezer and roll out onto a lightly floured surface until as few mm thick
4. Lift and place into a pie dish and push into the creases (use excess pastry to do this and not your fingers)
5. Leave a little excess and trim
6. Pour in the mixture
7. Bake for 15 minutes at 425c
8. Reduce oven temperature to to 350c
9. Bake for a further 45 minutes
10. Store in the fridge

I served it with creme fraiche as it’s so sweet so it helps balance it out. The verdict though is that I absolutely loved it. This is definitely the first win on the American Classics Cooking list

Perfect Cake Mix

I had a craving for cake this Sunday and decided to look up as I couldn’t remember the standard mix for Victorian or simple sponge cake. I’ve made these types of cakes since I can remember but I’ve never quite had the perfect fluffy recipe that other people seem to achieve. This time however I think I got lucky trying to make a recipe fit the quantities I had and the cakes were ridiculously fluffy so I will share with you what I did.

Ingredients:

200g self raising flour

200g caster sugar

3 medium free-range eggs

1tsp of baking powder

200g melted butter

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven 180 degrees c
2. Put your put in a bowl after measuring and put in the microwave for 20-30 seconds until softened
3. Put everything else in a bowl
4. Add the butter
5. Grab an electric hand whisk. Mine is an old fashioned one so not particularly fast
6. Whisk everything together for 3 minutes until the whole mixture goes white
7. Spoon into either a greased cake tin or cupcake cases
8. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown
9. Decorate or fill however you see fit

My simple cake tin if you’d like it:

https://amzn.to/3eqwBPM

Pretty tin to store it in

https://amzn.to/3SRsStz