#39 'All Day Breakfast'

Each week, as I sit down to write another newsletter, I feel incredibly daunted by the prospect of a blank page, and the thought that I have little of any interest or value to share. This week is no exception… wish me luck!!!

How are you all doing? How’s the week been?

I know I need to find a topic other than the weather to discuss, but can we all agree that Britain is really living up to its reputation at the moment? According to the ‘World bank’ website the good old British climate is ‘maritime, moist and temperate’ - in other words wet and an annoying ‘is it coat weather’ temperature - it seems to be EXACTLY this right now and I’m really OVER it! I just would really like some guaranteed sunshine and a touch of warmth - pretty pleasssse! Anyone else thinking the same or are you all thinking I should be more grateful and stop moaning? Ahem…

Moving SWIFTLY on from the topic of weather, my week has been… well, a bit ‘all or nothing’ really. It started pretty drearily; I felt really low again on Monday and Tuesday. Predictably, I experienced a REAL come down following the two weeks I spent recipe testing for my friend. I had worked so hard doing something I thoroughly enjoyed, in the safety and comfort of my own home, and suddenly the purpose was gone. I also felt unbearably tired, which was probably the upshot of having worked so hard for two weeks, and thus fell back into that pit you may recall I was in a couple of weeks back.

Being BRAVE

However, on Wednesday, Mum, Olive and I went on a little adventure to visit friends of my Dad’s in North Wales - we had the most delightful afternoon with them, I spent no time on my phone, managed to socialise which I have found increasingly challenging of late and frankly could have stayed with them well into the evening.
In truth, I was feeling so rubbish prior to going that I questioned whether it was worth it. It all felt like a massive effort, I was nervous that these people were going to think we were annoying or boring, the drive was daunting, and it was an upset to my routine. The reality, however, was that the day was beyond perfect, and I am so unbelievably glad that I wore my big girl pants and went to see them.
The moral of the story being: NO, don’t put yourself in situations that you know you don’t want to be in - I will not be going clubbing anytime soon and I don’t go out to get drunk… (I have also never* been drunk in my life) - BUT, if you are presented with an opportunity, give yourself a delicate nudge to go and join people. The experience may be average at worst, but will most likely exceed your expectations, and your life will undoubtedly be enriched - whether you realise it initially or not.
*that’s a slight lie - last year I spent a magical evening in London drinking champagne with a friend and consuming just half a pot of olives; I definitely wasn’t walking in an ENTIRELY straight line when we left the bar (oops).

The BIRDS

A quick bit of Happiness/positivity chat that I stumbled across this week, and wanted to share. It’s something very simple, that we all know but probably fail to acknowledge when times are tough… and that is ‘Tomorrow the birds will sing’.
The simple message here being: our problems may not vanish overnight, but we can always guarantee that something as pure and beautiful as the birds singing awaits us in the morning. Spending time connecting with the natural world is the perfect antidote to the pressures of modern life. It is completely disconnected from us; detached from our concerns, worries and fears. Getting close to nature – and especially listening to birdsong – can loosen the importance of our worries, centre us in the now, it can shift our perspective from the negative and allow us to restore and refocus our attention. Whilst the restorative effect of nature may not resolve all of our struggles, we can always seek to take solace from it. Go to bed with the comfort that you’ll wake to chirping birds… and when you do wake up… step outside (with a coffee in your hand - it’s a level up, I promise), and listen to them, you’ll love it, and they’ll appreciate the audience!

BREAKFAST

It’s painfully obvious that I LOVE my breakfast. Cooking it, photographing it, eating it– all BRILLIANT. Now, I know I’ve covered the topic of breakfast - most notably porridge - countless times before but it is arguably the BEST meal of the day, so it needs to be acknowledged ok!?

As I started to sink into my little pit again last weekend, I spent quite a bit of time in my ‘happy’ place: reading recipe books, imaging ideas that may not have been tried before, and discovering things I wanted to learn, countries I wanted to visit, and skills I needed to hone.

During this particular ‘research mission’ I realised that I could VERY happily eat ‘breakfast’ foods throughout the day. My devotion to porridge, (occasionally a bircher muesli), means that more often than not, I forego other TOP dishes… and frankly this travesty needs to be resolved.
Now, I have no intention of foregoing my bowl of oats each morning, so I have basically come up with a set of breakfast themed recipes that I can feasibly enjoy throughout the day, without missing out on anything - either nutritionally or in terms of my preferences - EPIC I KNOW!
On the menu is - porridge/bircher - both recipes you can get from previous newsletters - head to my NEW recipe index to find them - for lunch, it’s ricotta pancakes - ok so they are still sweet but you could feasibly omit the sugar, maybe add a few herbs and top these beauties with sour cream and smoked salmon for a blini vibe! For dinner I suggest my crusty rolls - either with your choice of baked beans, eggs, hash browns, halloumi, avocado (a sort of all day breakfast vibe) or maybe a Tuscan style ribollita - YUM. For snacks - you HAVE to try my devilishly moorish granola clusters, they’re so addictive and much richer than your standard granola but I LOVE them - warning - you’ll want to sprinkle them over everything (and you should!!). Meanwhile, over on TCC+ we have a breakfast inspired dessert of THE OG school dinner pud - cornflake tarts and custard. Strictly speaking this doesn’t REALLY count as breakfast food but it includes cornflakes and jam so it’s part way there, right? If that wasn’t enough, I also have a breakfast inspired drink below to accompany all this breakfast-y goodness - and that is: CEREAL MILK - it’s PURE comfort and you HAVE to try it! Right, I’m gonna stop chatting - go enjoy a day of breakfast inspired comfort!

‘Granola’ Clusters

The most addictive granola snack you will eat - think ‘Nature Valley’ granola bars… but better - obv!

Ingredients

75g Jumbo Oats

30g Mixed nuts roughly chopped
30g Mixed seeds
Pinch flaky salt

25g Unsalted butter
30g Runny honey
10g golden syrup
15g Caster sugar
25g Soft Light Brown sugar
8g Demerara Sugar
¼ tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
Zest of ½ lemon optional

Method

Preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan. Line a baking sheet with parchment

Combine the nuts, seeds, salt, and oats in a large bowl. Meanwhile, combine the butter, honey, golden syrup, all the sugars, vanilla, and lemon zest in a saucepan and place over a low heat. Stir continuously until melted & syrupy. Once melted, pour over the oat mixture and stir thoroughly to combine. Pour out onto the prepared baking tray and press into a rectangle approximately 20x22cm – you want to form a uniform ‘sheet’ of the mixture.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes turning halfway through. It should be golden. Once baked, remove from the oven, and leave to cool completely on the tray. Once cooled, break into clusters/shards. Crumble over yoghurt, ice cream, snack on it… enjoy!!!

Ricotta pancakes

Unlike regular pancakes, where flour forms the bulk of the batter, these pancakes get a lot of their structure from ricotta, and the added step of whipping the egg whites. The result is a sublimely light and tender, yet suitably thick pancake that is deceptively filling due to the inclusion of all that protein. They are also almost custardy in flavour due to the extra creamy dairy - they’re just LUSH ok!? As I said above, you could omit the sugar and vanilla and add some herbs, maybe a little lemon zest and top with soured cream and smoked salmon - in fact, I think I may do this next!!!

Makes 4 pancakes - serves 1-2

Ingredients

75g Ricotta
1 Large egg separated
40g Whole milk
½ tsp Vanilla bean paste or extract
15g soft light brown sugar if using a syrupy topping, can reduce this to a tsp
55g Self-raising flour Use a lower protein variety for more tender pancakes
Pinch salt

Knob of butter to cook

Blueberry compote
75g Blueberries
5g Icing sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

To serve
Coconut yoghurt
Granola clusters (recipe above - optional)

Method

For the compote, combine the blueberries, icing sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan, cook over a medium heat for around 5-10 mins or until the blueberries are starting to breakdown and a glossy sauce has formed. Remove from the heat and set aside while you prepare the pancakes.

In a large bowl, combine the egg yolk, ricotta, vanilla, and milk. Add the sugar and lightly whisk to combine – don’t worry if there are a few lumps. Fold through the flour to form a thick batter – try not to overwork the mixture here. In a separate bowl, combine the egg white and a pinch of salt, whisk until fluffy and aerated. Add a spoonful of the egg white into the yolk mixture to loosen. Fold through the remaining egg white until just combined, being careful not to knock too much air out.

Heat a knob of butter in a non-stick pan and add ~ 55 of batter per pancake. Cook on a medium-low heat for around 3 mins on each side. Keep the cooked ones on a warm plate while you cook the remainder.

Serve the warm pancakes with a dollop of coconut yoghurt and blueberry compote or your choice of topping – maple syrup, caramelised banana and salted caramel, roasted peach/apricot/plum with a dollop of crème fraiche.

Seedy Wholemeal rolls

I ADORE these crusty, seedy little rolls - fill them with your favourite sandwich filling, toast them, dunk them in soft jammy fried eggs, serve with a salad, a bean stew, or just slick them in oil/butter and you’ll be very happy!

Ingredients

150g Wholemeal bread flour
100g T55 bread flour Or strong white bread flour
5g Soft light brown sugar
5g Sea salt
4g Instant dried yeast
40g Orange juice fresh
140g tepid water

To top
50g Mixed seeds
Pinch of flaky sea salt

Method

Combine the flours and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the yeast to one side of the bowl and the salt to the other. Add the water/orange juice and briefly mix to form a shaggy dough. Leave to Autolyse for 20-30 minutes.

Once autolysed. Mix on medium speed in the mixer for 10 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes, then mix again on medium speed for 7-8 minutes. Rest for a further 5 minutes and check the gluten development. Once you are happy that the dough has reached full gluten development i.e. it doesn’t tear when stretched and is smooth and elastic, transfer to an oiled bowl and leave to prove in a warm environment for 60-90 minutes or until doubled in size.

Once doubled, turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 6 – mine weigh around 70g each – and pre-shape into loose balls. Leave to rest on the worktop, covered with a damp tea towel for 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, line a baking sheet with parchment, and place your seeds on a plate in an even layer. Once rested, working with one dough ball at a time, cover in a ‘cage’ formed by your cupped hand. Move your hand in a circular motion, rotating the ball rapidly into shape. Using a spray bottle spritz the top of each bun lightly with water before upturning, (so that the seam side is now on top), onto the plate that your seeds are on. Gently roll the dough around in the seeds a bit to help them adhere then carefully transfer the dough ball – seed side UP onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough balls. Sprinkle over the flaky sea salt, then place the baking sheet into a large plastic bag and leave to prove for an hour or until doubled in size -  I like to take these quite far so that they are super puffy and airy and light!

Around 20 minutes before you intend to bake the rolls, preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan. Once proofed, transfer the rolls to the oven* and bake for 20 minutes or until dark, and sounding hollow when tapped underneath. Cool on a wire rack.

*For an improved oven spring, and light crisp exterior to your rolls, place a baking tray in the bottom of the oven, as you place your buns in to bake, simultaneously throw a cup full of water into the roasting tin at the bottom of the oven and immediately shut the door.

Cereal Milk

If you are new to cereal milk, I order you to make it your mission to try some at ONCE. Sadly, I am not the genius who came up with this, although I’m sure that it crossed my mind as a child that someone should bottle the milk leftover at the end of my cereal each morning and sell it along with Frijj chocolate milkshake and the such like - this is actually the brainchild of the brilliant American pastry chef Christina Tosi. Whilst working at a restaurant in LA, she created a menu of dessert recipes inspired by her childhood favourites - one of which was cereal and milk - she managed to infuse panna cotta’s with cereal flavoured milk, created milkshakes, cookies and ice cream - honestly, she’s a wizard! Anyway, below is slight tweak on her recipe - you could also try it with Crunchy Nut Cornflakes for a slightly nutty flavour - you may want to omit the sugar in this instance. Side note - did you know that one of the best post-workout recovery drinks, according to a lot of sports nutritionists, is chocolate milk? WELL, MOVE ASIDE NESQUIK, there’s a new kid on the block…

Ingredients

60g Cornflakes
10g Soft light brown sugar
500g Milk
Pinch flaky sea salt optional

Method

Spread the cornflakes out on a lined baking tray and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes until toasty and fragrant.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Once cooled add to a bowl and pour over the milk - mix thoroughly to combine. Allow to steep for around 20 minutes, then pass the mixture through a sieve into a large bowl, once the majority of milk has passed through the sieve, use your hands to squeeze any excess milk out of the cornflakes - do not force the mushy cornflakes through the sieve, and reserve this cornflake mush for crunchy clusters - see below. Once you think you have extracted all of the milk from the cornflakes, add the sugar and salt to the strained milk, and mix thoroughly until dissolved. Transfer to a clean jug/pitcher, or bottle, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. ENJOY!

Cereal milk mush Crunchy Clusters

I can’t. bear. waste… it makes me anxious. Having made the epic cereal milk above, I was left with a rather unappetising sieve full of cornflake mush. I initially tried to eat a bit - it wasn't entirely hideous but resembled baby food in terms of texture, and a lot of that great Cornflake flavour seemed to have been robbed by the milk… so after a bit of head scratching, and some help from Cupcake Jemma’s YouTube channel, I decided it might benefit from some buttery, malty, sweetness and a little bit of oven action… and I think I was right! I wouldn’t say this recipe is foolproof - I’ve only given it a go a couple of times - but if you fancy cereal milk and can’t bear to throw away the discarded cereal, give this a go; the result is little, toasty sweet clusters, with a slight chew to them - kinda cute!
*Note: I added a couple of teaspoons of coconut in the pic below - whilst it was fine, I would say it’s better without so haven’t included it in the recipe.

Ingredients

Cereal mush from above
20g Unsalted butter melted
10g soft light brown sugar
10g Horlicks (malt powder)

Method

Preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan. Measure the cereal mush, sugar, and malt powder into a bowl - mix thoroughly to combine. Add the melted butter and mix again. Spread out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment, and bake for around 30-45 minutes or until dried out, golden and crunchy - timings vary here based on different ovens AND the amount of milk still retained in the cornflakes isn’t always the same, so stir them every 15 minutes as they bake and just keep an eye on them - you can feasibly bake them longer and lower if you’re oven is quite aggressive - you just want to avoid them becoming too dark or catching. When you’re happy that they are toasty enough, turn the oven off and leave them to cool/crisp up even more inside for an hour or so. Use to top… anything and everything.

WHAT ELSE?

• A special and personal little shoutout to my friend Georgia - she’s had a really tough week so I’m sending her an extra big hug!

• A really good dinner. As you may have gathered, I’m not a big meat eater - I don’t generally feel the need to chat too much about my dietary choices, but, just for clarity; I generally have a preference for vegetarian and vegan meals and always have. I love eggs most ways and could have cheese (melted is best) with almost anything. I also THOROUGHLY enjoy a piece of fish a couple of times a week; it’s what I generally choose at a restaurant given the choice. When it comes to meat, I’m just a bit… indifferent - I hugely appreciate the flavour it imparts, but it’s not top of my hit list - I think it’s a texture thing. HOWEVER, given the time and a bit of planning, a marinated piece of chicken can be a very pleasurable thing. This week I whipped up a yoghurt marinade, loaded with greek-inspired spices, and coated a couple of chicken breasts in it. I then left them for 24 hours before griddling and enjoying with flatbreads and a REALLY great yoghurt raita. Moral of this story - marinate your chicken for a few hours, chuck it on a griddle until charred and cooked through, then stuff it into a pitta with some yoghurt/raita, or guac and you have very lovely thing! I also tried a sort of chickpea rendition of this yesterday - chickpeas, quinoa and load of chopped salad, drizzled with a spiced olive oil and lemon dressing and served with cucumber raita - dreamy!

• FRUIT - I ADORE this time of year for the wonderful array of fresh fruit and veg that is in season. Firstly, everything is just so visually enticing - my eyes light up at the sight of so much colour in the fruit and veg shop, and I find myself LITERALLY marvelling at the sheer beauty of all the sweet edible offerings. Currently mangoes are in their PRIME - IMO, best served simply with lime zest, passion fruit and a dollop of coconut yoghurt - and I couldn’t be happier about it, I will be making the most of it in the coming few weeks. Also apricots are about to hit their peak and again, and I can’t wait! Similar to plums, I prefer to cook with apricots as I find you can really amplify their flavour with a little juice, sugar and touch of almond extract or Amaretto - OMG I’m smiling just thinking about this!

• The great outdoors - I know I discussed nature and the birdsong in the intro but isn’t nature just INSANELY beautiful and uplifting at this time of year - below are a couple of snaps I got this week from a beautiful local garden. DREAMY!

  

  Simply stunning scenes

• Finally… I feel the need to take myself to Italy (well metaphorically) so I plan to whip up some Italian inspired recipes for next week and I’m pretty excited to share them with you!

Right, I think that’s it from me. As ever, I hope you are all doing ok wherever you are in the World. I LOVE receiving message updates from you all, and am so unbelievable thrilled & humbled, to see you trying out some of my recipes - it is the best feeling ever, THANK YOU! Don’t hesitate to pop a note below; if you have questions, ask, and if you’re on Instagram, tag me in your bakes - I love to see them.

Sending so much love and hugs as always,

Steph xxx