Focaccia

This is rosemary garlic bread made with pizza dough. Simple but yummy, your guests will love it alongside any dinner.

You need (for 2 rectangles)

500 g of flour

1 sachet of dried yeast

325 ml lukewarm water

half a tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon salt

rock salt

fresh rosemary

olive oil

garlic

Mix a couple of tablespoons of olive oil with chopped garlic and leave at the side.

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix the flour, sugar and salt. Stir in the water with a fork. Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes. Don't worry if it keeps sticking to your hands, just get it off with the fork when you've finished kneading. 

Put the dough in a bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel. Put it in a warm place for at least half an hour (or in the oven at 60 degrees). 

Put half the dough on a tray lined with greaseproof paper. Flatten it with your fingers. 

Brush on the garlic oil. Sprinkle rosemary and rock salt on top. 

Bake at 250 degrees for roughly 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Ghanaian Greek Yoghurt

This is a bit of a random invention. My Ghanaian hostmum first introduced me to plantain. It's eaten as a vegetable in Ghana. Anyway, I bought some at the local market and fried them. Since I had not cooked anything else, I decided to improvise. I love banana and greek yoghurt, so why not try plantain!

You simply fry slices of ripe plantain in butter.

Keep stiring as they burn rather quickly. Fry until they are golden brown.

Place on natural greek yoghurt. You can add a bit of honey, but really the plantain is sweet enough.

Meet me for Afternoon Tea

... at the Grand Café in Oxford

Model: Anna Shelton           Dress: Coast

Darja's lovely farewell tea party

I

I didn't bake any of it, actually.

Apple Crumble Cupcakes

These are easy cupcakes with a bit of a wintery feel. My basic cupcake-sponge recipe is off the Sainsbury’s self-raising flour packaging. You can adapt it however you like.

I love the moist apples together with the crunchy crumble bits.

You need:

250 g self-raising flour

3 eggs

175 g Butter

175 g caster sugar

A bit of milk

1 large cooking apple

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Roughly 75 g Butter plus sugar (I like to use brown) and flour for the crumble

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Cream the butter and the sugar. Add one egg at a time (all cookbooks tell you to do this, so there must be some truth to the method). Fold in the flour and the cinnamon. Add milk if needed. Chop the apple into the batter. 

Melt the butter. Add flour and sugar to task until you get a crumbly texture. Add cinnamon here as well if you like.

Put the batter into cupcake cases (I like to use a tablespoon and a knife). Sprinkle the crumble on top. 

Bake for roughly 20 minutes. Enjoy warm and possibly with whipped cream.