Baked doughnuts.

Izzie asked this morning if she could have a treat from the local bakery after school. Gingerbread men and iced buns are what she normally goes for, so once I got home having dropped her off, I quickly flipped through mojewypieki.com and found exactly what I needed. A cross between sweet buns, a muffin, but made of yeasty dough, like for doughnuts.

I used 250 g of plain flour, 12 g of fresh yeast crumbled in, 50 g of sugar and vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt. 125 ml of warm milk, 2 large egg yolks, a zest of half a lemon. All this was working nicely in the kitchen aid, I then added 25 g of melted and slightly cooled butter and continued until the dough was smooth and lovely. Left to prove on the front window sill for about 2 hours and proceeded to pack my daily amount of boxes. 17 degrees today, scorching British summer, but not to worry, we have less than a month and there will be no more complaints about summer being rubbish!

Once the dough more than doubled in size I have flattened it and divided in 12 pieces, formed into balls, each with a spoonfull of good jam inside. Placed each in a muffin case and left to prove again.

Finally it was time to bake them, 180 degrees, less than 14 minutes. Sticky orange glaze completed the job. Floro and I destroyed a couple between us, the head judge will come home in a hour, we shall see. For me a definite keeper of a recipe.

Spicy garlic shrimp spaghetti.

Marion’s.

Youtube flashed this video at me this morning, I happened to have all the ingredients needed, there were no excuses. I first made some pesto for Floro and Iza, I knew they would not be interested in what I was about to be cooking.

Started with some chopped spring onions, some chopped ginger, a sprinkle of sea salt and pounded it into a nice chunky paste in my mortar. Heated up a little bit of oil and sesame oil and when it was hot, I poured it onto the spring onion mix, it sizzled and smelled amazing.

While the spaghetti was cooking, I got cracking with a generous handful of prawns. Onto the oiled pan went some chopped garlic, then prawns, a sprinkle of chili flakes and salt. A drizzle of soy sauce. Oyster sauce. A little cooking water from the pasta to loosen it. In went the pasta, it all got tossed together resulting in a dark, beautiful and very promising dish. To finish, the spring onion mixture, some mixed in, some on top.

I loved it!!!!