Tag Archives: flour

Entrée, Main Dishes, My articles / researches, Recipes, Snacks / Appetizers, Steffi Says

Kickass Bacon Pancakes

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We all love our pancakes, and I prefer mine savoury. Not just savoury, but served with crispy bacon and butter. Sometimes, when I am in no rush and fancy a big breakfast, I even cook eggs and sausages. You could say, this is my version of an English breakfast.

Ingredients

2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 egg, lightly whisked

Serve with crispy, streaky bacon and butter (optional)

Method

  1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl
  2. Whisk in the lemon juice, whole milk and egg
  3. Leave the combined batter in the fridge for 20 minutes
  4. In the meantime, you can heat a non-stick frying pan and start cooking the streaky bacon in its own juices, until golden
  5. Clean the non-stick frying pan, and over medium heat, start frying the batter to make these lovely, fluffy pancakes. If your pan is good, you don’t need to put oil or butter.
  6. Allow around 2 minutes on one side, flip with a spatula and wait another 1 minute. Lower the heat if you notice that the pancake colour is darker than golden.

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With this recipe I make 9 pancakes of roughly 15 minutes in diameter. Serve with crispy bacon and butter, or anything else you might fancy for your breakfast!

And, if you don’t feel like making them yourself, look for some destinations that serve pancakes for breakfast.

Lessons Learned, My articles / researches, My Life, Steffi Says

Hobbies To Take Up As Summer Is Approaching

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The clocks have officially gone back! It’s no longer pitch-black at 6 pm. That’s right folks; spring is here. And what does that mean? Summer is just around the corner! Hurrah!

There is a still a little time, though. So how to make the most of it? Here are three hobbies to consider taking up as summer approaches.

Baking

Whether you’re slightly addicted to Masterchef and The Great British Bake Off or not, baking is a great hobby. Sure, buying all the ingredients can be quite costly at first. But actually, once you’ve built up a collection of the basics, you’ll save money on buying the products fresh. A bag of self-raising flour, for example, will be good for at least a handful of bakes.

Baking is also a great hobby for people with strict dietary requirements. It can be a real challenge to find products that are wheat-free or dairy-free. Plus, they tend to be pretty rammed with sugars and sweeteners. By making your own, you are in control of what does and doesn’t go in them. You can also make recipes just the way you like. You can make amazing brownies without pecan nuts if you don’t like them. Or make a triple chocolate cake with whipped cream in the centre; the world is your oyster. You can really let your creative juice flow.

Need some ideas? Facebook groups like Delish post different inspiring recipes every day, both for baking and cooking.

Photography

The days are getting longer, and nature is looking beautiful again. Capture the magic by taking up photography. You can focus on any genre you like, be it people, wildlife, landscape or cityscapes. Or just snap whatever takes your fancy from day to day.

Photography is one of those hobbies that can be as versatile as you like. If you like fast-paced environments, take shots of shoppers, or runners, or sunsets. Or, if you want to take it a bit steadier, go for landscape or nighttime shoots.

Don’t just use your phone either. The pixels might be high, but the quality just won’t match up. Invest in a good quality camera, and a sturdy Camera Bag to keep your purchase safe.

Getting fit

We expect way too much of ourselves when we sign up for gym memberships on New Year’s Day. Yes, the deal they’re offering is great but it is such a good price for a reason. Because hardly anybody then goes. The days are short; the nights are long and there is still loads of leftover chocolate in the cupboard…

Early spring, however, is a far more sensible time to join. Looking at summer holidays gives you some real motivation. Plus, you’ll find going to the gym after work far more appealing. Or, if you don’t want to join a gym, spring and summer weather and light lets you get fit outdoors. Go for a run in your local park. Take the dog with you. If you have one, that is. Don’t just take a random stranger’s dog…

 

Entrée, Recipes, Savoury Pies, Snacks / Appetizers, Steffi Says

Cheese-Burger Pie

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Today I will share with you a recipe I have conjured while experimenting in the kitchen. I have been sick the past few days, and I thought I needed an extra boost, so decided to make a meat pie. I also felt like eating something a bit more on the lines of junk food, so I came up with the idea of making a cheese-burger pie.

Here are the ingredients I made use of:

For the pastry:
– 250g plain flour
– 110g butter
– 90ml cold water (might not need it all)
– pinch of salt

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Cut the butter into rather small pieces and add to the flour mix. Using the ‘rub-in method’, rub in the butter into the flour. Once this is done, start adding the cold water gradually until the mixture can hold together when pressed. Form the dough into a ball and let it chill.

For the filling:
– 300g ground beef
– beef stock
– 1 large onion, chopped
– cheddar cheese (you can use as much as you want)
–  few pickled gherkins
– mustard (I used german, but you can use your favourite)
– red sauce or ketchup
– salt and pepper

Put some butter in the pan, and once it warms up, put in the ground beef. While it is cooking, at some salt and pepper. When it is half way cooked, put in the chopped large onion and add the beef stock.steffisays-cheeseburgerpie1 Let this cook until the onion is slightly brown and soft. At this point, I added 3 table spoons of red sauce.Once the mixture is less watery, add the chopped picked gherkins and a few drizzles of mustard. You can add more, depending on how strong you like your mustard.
While I left the filling on low temperature, I greased the pie tin with butter, and started to prepare the crust.
Once this was done, I spooned the pie tin with the mixture and added 4 slices of cheddar on top and added some more pepper.
Finally I kneaded the top part of the crust, and added some sesame seeds for decoration.

I cooked the pie in a preheated oven at 180° for about 30 minutes.

steffisays-cheeseburgerpie2

Recipes, Steffi Says, Sweets / Desserts

Chocolate Chip Rock Buns

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I will share with you my winner chocolate rock buns recipe. Now, you may think that this recipe is a bit weird, in the sense that it has ground almonds in it, but I thought this adds to both the texture and the taste of the rock buns. When I was young I used to eliminate this and replace it with flour, but boy was I missing out.

So, these are the ingredients you will need:

  • 200 g plain flour
  • 50 g ground almonds
  • 90 g butter or margarine
  • 90 g sugar
  • 90 g chocolate bits *
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • a pinch of salt
  • 2 table spoon of baking powder

*this can be changed to raisins or candied peels or any other fruit you might want to have in your cookies

And this is the magic, also known as the method to make these gorgeous cookies:

  1. Before you start making the dough, make sure you start heating up the oven up to 180 degrees celsius. When making sweets, it’s of utmost important that the oven has reached the desired warmth otherwise it won’t cook the cakes properly.
  2. Sieve the flour and add the salt, sugar and the ground almonds. Make sure this is mixed thoroughly before you add in the butter or margarine. Stir this first using a wooden spoon and then using the ‘rubbing in’ method.
  3. At this moment add the chocolate bits and once this is mixed thoroughly, make a hole and add the beaten eggs. Keep stirring until you get a stiff ‘not so sticky’ mixture.
  4. Split the mixture into buns and place them on your baking tray. Make sure the buns look ‘rough’ and you can achieve this by using a fork to rough in it up.
  5. Bake for 20 minutes until they are light golden. Cool the rock buns on a wire wrack. You can add more sugar for extra sparkle but I usually skip this.

And the outcome should be something like this:

rockbuns

I made 8 buns with these measurements; they were around 10cm each, in diameter.

My Life, Recipes, Steffi Says, Sweets / Desserts

3 Ingredients Brownie Cake

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Tried and tested; All you need is 2 eggs, 350g nutella and 150g flour. Mix them together until it forms a rather sticky dough. Place in a dish, and put in a preheated oven, and cook at 160 degrees Celsius. It took mine 25mins to be fully cooked, but always use a toothpick to check if the cake is ready. As soon as toothpick comes out of the cake clean, switch the oven off and wait for the brownie to cool down slightly before eating it.

Below, you can find a photo of the end result. I have added almonds and chocolate chips on top of my cake:

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Bon Apetit!

Entrée, Recipes, Snacks / Appetizers

My Bacon & Cheese Savoury Pancakes

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This is one of my comfort light on the stomach dishes I make from time to time. It is easy, tasty and gives you a feel good vibe. This is my method and I hope you like it 🙂 Continue reading My Bacon & Cheese Savoury Pancakes →