Last Day of Farmhouse Breakfast Week

It's been fun posting all these different breakfast ideas for Farmhouse Breakfast Week and I think I may even have convinced a couple of people that breakfast is worth a few extra minutes to make.  If you have seen my post about Bircher Muesli Yogurt you will know that we are creatures of habit and generally eat muesli Monday to Friday.  On a Saturday we will vary what we eat, sometimes eggs, sometimes porridge or other cereals. However on Sunday, unless we have visitors when we might have a full 'Scottish' breakfast, we will usually have a bacon roll and lots of coffee.

A nice granary roll from a local bakery, two slices of grilled smoked bacon and a squirt of HP sauce!  Brian goes for tomato sauce, but for me the spicy flavours of HP sauce go perfectly with the salty, smoky bacon.



I hope you have enjoyed Shake up Your Wake up with Farmhouse Breakfast Week.  If you’ve been taking part in the Breakfast Week Challenge then you can submit your entries now! Just fill in this form to tell them what you ate for breakfast each day during Farmhouse Breakfast Week (from Monday 21^st – Friday 25^th January 2013) and how it made you feel. You could win a luxury break!

Labels: bacon, breakfast, Farmhouse Breakfast Week, granary roll, HP sauce, Shake up your Wake Up

posted by Janice @ 09:00 1 Comments

Homemade Seville Orange Marmalade

I really only like homemade marmalade and have been making marmalade since I was in my early 20s.  My mum always made her own marmalade and used to put the peel through the mincer, I would help by turning the handle.  When I spoke to her at the weekend she was planning to make some marmalade and bemoaning the fact that she no longer has that mincer!

I managed to source some Seville Oranges and turned to my old favourite recipe from Home and Freezer Digest (regular readers will have worked out by now that I learnt a lot of my cooking from this little magazine published in the 1980s and 90s) I usually chop the peel in the food processor for home consumption, but this time I am entering a jar of marmalade in the World's Original Marmalade Awards and Festival 2nd & 3rd March 2013

Seville Orange Marmalade

If you are cooking or baking your breakfast between now and 24th February, remember to link up to Breakfast Club and the good news is...Helen of Fuss Free Flavours has arranged for one lucky Breakfast Clubber to win a  Sharpham Park Breakfast Hamper containing:


All you have to do is link your cooked or baked breakfast blog post to the Breakfast Club and we will choose one Breakfast Club entrant by Random Number Generator when the Breakfast Club ends on 24th February.

Labels: breakfast, Breakfast Club, Breakfast Watch, cereal, Dalemain, Farmhouse Breakfast Week, marmalade, marmalade awards, Seville Oranges, Sharpham Park

posted by Janice @ 22:44 6 Comments

Chocolate Cherry Energy Bars for Breakfast Week

I know that lots of people find it difficult to find time for breakfast and grab a cereal bar in preference to sitting down to eat.  There's nothing wrong with that especially if you make your own so you know exactly what you are getting.  These particular energy bars were created to meet the rather exacting requirements of this month's We Should Cocoa challenge over at Chocolate Log Blog.  We should Cocoa is hosted alternately by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and Chele at Chocolate Teapot.



Choclette has challenged us to make something, using chocolate of course, but without any cane sugar.  Honey and other sweeteners are allowed.  It also gave me a chance to use some of the Sugar and Crumbs cherry flavoured cocoa powder which has really natural cherry flavour and really enhanced the energy bars.

Chocolate Cherry Energy Bars

100g butter
200g clear honey
150g rolled oats
50g cocoa powder (I used Sugar and Crumbs, Cherry flavoured cocoa powder)
130g mixed seeds
10g Chia Bia Powder (optional)*
10g Baobab Superfruit powder (optional)*
100g chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
100g dried cherries (alternatively sultanas or cranberries)
50g ground almonds

*If not using the Chia or Bilbao powders then add an additional 20g mixed seeds.



1. Heat the oven to 180C
2. Melt the butter and honey in a saucepan


3. Stir in the remaining ingredients and press into a 22cm square baking tin

4. Bake for 15 minutes
5. Allow to cool slightly before cutting into bars
6. Leave to cool completely before removing.


This is also another recipe for Breakfast Club 'Cooked or Baked' open until 24th February.

And fits nicely with the 'Healthy' bakes theme for Calendar Cakes hosted this month by Laura Loves Bakes and in alternate months by Dolly Bakes

Labels: Baobab Superfruit Powder, Breakfast Club, Calendar Cakes, Chia seeds, Farmhouse Breakfast Week, Sugar and Crumbs, We should Cocoa

posted by Janice @ 06:00 10 Comments

Making Whoopies on Sunday Morning!

Perhaps this is not quite what you had in mind when you read the title of this post?  But this is indeed a Whoopie Pie, it's a Croque Monsieur Whoopie Pie and I made mine large for a weekend Shake Up Your Wake Up  Farmhouse Breakfast Week breakfast.

It comes from this beautifully presented book, Let's Make Whoopies by Sophie Grey, featuring recipes for over 70 whoopies as well as some over 30 cupcakes.  Sophie Grey is the founder of the artisan bakery company Crazy Baker and will be judging the Pie Bake Off next Sunday 27th January,  at the special showing of Nora Ephron's Julie and Julia at the Lexi Cinema in Kensal Rise.  The competition to win tickets is open until 12.00 noon on Sunday 20th January.

So what exactly is a Whoopie?  

Sophie describes it as "two partially risen sponges with a filling, sometimes capped with a set topping"  The recipes for the whoopies reminded me of making muffins, where you prepare the dry ingredients and the wet ones, then lightly fold them together but this time you whip the egg whites separately so

 

Let's Make Whoopies has 7 chapters covering a wide range of flavours and presentation ideas.

Classic Whoopies and Cupcake consists of 15 recipes including Classic Vanilla whoopie, Red Velvet whoopie and Toffee Banoffee whoopie.  Vanilla cupcake, Coffee and Walnut cupcake and Sticky Toffee cupcake

Chocolate Whoopies and Cupcakes has 18 recipes including Devil's Food whoopie, Brownie whoopie and Sachertore whoopie.  Jaffa cupcake, Mississippi mud pie cupcake and White chocolate cupcake.

Fruit, Vegetable and Flower Whoopies and Cupcakes gives us 16 recipes including Lime and Cardamom whoopie, Apple and Cinnamon whoopie and Beetroot whoopie.  Spiced Pear cupcake, Courgette cupcake and Rhubarb food cupcake.

And then the chapter which intrigued me the most: Savoury Whoopies and Cupcakes with 14 savoury treats including Sun-dried tomato and basil whoopie, Porcini whoopie and Croque Monsieur whoopie.  Corn and chilli cupcake, Rye cupcake with smoked trout mousse and Feta spinach and dill cupcake.

There's a fun chapter for Wacky Whoopies and Cupcakes with 15 fun bakes including Frog Prince Whoopie, Hairy Spider whoopie and Fower head whoopie.  Alien cupcake, Ginger cat cupcake and Monster cupcake.

Some lovely ideas in the Celebration Whoopies and Cupcakes with 15 small celebration cakes including Valentine's whoopie, Wedding whoopie, Easter Bonnet whoopie.  Easter nest cupcake, Halloween Dracula cupcake and Christmas cupcake.

And finally Specialist Whoopies and Cupcakes with 14 bakes for those with allergies and intolerance, these include Egg free apple plum and cinnamon whoopie, Gluten free lime drizzle whoopie, Sugar free sweet potato, carrot and sultana spelt whoopie.  Gluten free orange almond cupcake, Egg free vanilla sponge cupcake and Egg free chocolate cupcake. 

It's Farmhouse Breakfast Week from 20th - 26th January and I'll be blogging about breakfast all week.

You can follow @breakfastweek on Twitter and tweet a picture of your breakfast every day with the hash tag #BreakfastWatch. You can also post your photos to Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

The Croque Monsieur whoopie contains many of the ingredients of a cooked breakfast: ham, eggs and tomato and ideal for a special breakfast.   It's made from  a basic whoopie recipe with added cheese, salt and pepper.   The two 'sponges' are sandwiched with a very thick bechamel with added cheese and a small slice of ham.  You then add a little bechamel on top, a slice of tomato and a little more grated cheese, then back in the oven for 5 minutes. You can make  the whoopie sponges and bechamel and then assemble and reheat in the morning.  I made half the quantity of the recipe and made them big enough for a meal, rather than a bite sized canape as shown in the book.  They were very filling but I would say it is quite a lot of work for what you end up with so would need to be for something special.  I will definitely try some of the sweet whoopies though, I really like the look of  of these recipes. 

"I don't think any day is worth living without thinking about what you're going to eat next at all times"  Nora Ephron

I'm adding this to Breakfast Club which is all about Cooked and Baked breakfasts and runs until 24th February right here at Farmersgirl Kitchen.

Labels: Croque Monsieur, Farmhouse Breakfast Week, Lets make Whoopies, Shake up your Wake Up

posted by Janice @ 08:30 6 Comments

Are you ready for Farmhouse Breakfast Week?

Labels: Farmhouse Breakfast Week, Shake up your Wake Up, The Nation;s Breakfast

posted by Janice @ 21:02 1 Comments

Breakfast Club at Farmersgirl Kitchen

 

If you would like to take part in Breakfast Club here is what you need to do:

• Mention Breakfast Club in your blog post and use the logo
• Link to this post at Farmersgirl Kitchen and to the Breakfast Club page at Fuss Free Flavours
• You are welcome to send in old recipes, but please add the Breakfast Club information and republish
• Entries can be sent to other events, but please respect their rules
• If you tweet please tweet using #blogbreakfastclub
• Add details to the Linky, feel free to grab the code as this is a blog hop
• By entering you are allowing Farmersgirl Kitchen to post your image
• Please email your name, blog details and entry url to Farmersgirlkitchen at gmail dot com by 24th February 2013 and I will post the round up on 28th.

Labels: Bangers and Mash, Breakfast Club, Farmhouse Breakfast Week, Fuss Free Flavours, poached egg, potato cake, Shake up your Wake Up

posted by Janice @ 07:00 17 Comments