I’ve been searching for a whole grain loaf that is wholesome, tastes great and is relatively easy to make. Essentially, a loaf that behaves like white but is better for you. The Davinator has eaten a lot of experimental bread over the last couple of months but I’ve finally settled on this recipe. It has a manageable number of ingredients, a reasonable number of process steps and doesn’t result in carnage in the kitchen. It about 60% whole wheat, 40% white and that’s a good balance between health and taste.

You can eliminate the sunflower seeds and the rolled oats and still get a very good loaf. Use your sweetener of choice, ordinary brown sugar will do if you don’t have maple syrup or honey. Use a vegan friendly sweetener and you have a vegan loaf. Let’s bake.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 360 mls warm water (40-42C), just warmer than body temperature like a baby’s bath
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 30 grams of sweetener (molasses, maple syrup, agave, honey, brown sugar)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 10 grams flaxseed or linseed meal
• 300 grams whole wheat flour (the finest grind you can find, often call ‘whole wheat pastry flour’)
• 240 grams white flour (bread flour or all purpose flour) plus extra for binding the dough
• 15 grams sunflower seeds, raw or roasted
• 12 grams rolled oat

Instructions

1. Combine warm water, yeast, maple syrup. Whisk and leave for five minutes to give the yeast a start.
2. Put salt, flours, flaxseed in the bowl of your mixer. Add in the yeast mixture and combine to form a shaggy dough.
3. Put the dough hook on, beat for a minute. If you don’t have a stand mixer with a dough hook, knead the dough in the bowl until well combined.
4. Take a look at the dough, if it’s pulling away from the sides, stop. If not, add more flour and give the dough a few turns until it is pulling away from the sides of the bowl.
5. Transfer the dough to lightly greased bowl, turn it to coat. Cover with plastic wrap or a shower cap. Let it rise at room temperature for two hours – it should be close to doubled in size. If you’ve got time and the inclination, throw it in the fridge for another hour or two. It develops the flavour but it is not necessary and I’ve forgotten this step more times than I’ve done it.
6. Prepare your loaf pan (I’m a fan of lining pans, not greasing them but choose your method).
7. Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface. Make a hole in the dough – pour in the oats and sunflower seeds. Give the dough 20 turns on the work surface, it will give you a better quality crumb and distribute the add in through the dough. Make a loaf shape, place seam side down in your prepared pan. Cover with a shower cap or a tea towel. Let it rise at room temperature for an hour.
8. Preheat the oven to 220C (425F). Place a metal roasting pan on the bottom rack of the oven and have a cup of warm water ready.
9. When the dough and the oven are ready, slash the top two or three times (I cut mine with kitchen shears). Put the dough in the oven, throw the water in the heated pan (creates steam and gives you a good crust). Bake for about 30 minutes, should be 90C inside with a firm top crust. Leave to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then tip out to finish cooling. Cool completely for best results before slicing.

We have found this the perfect every day whole grain loaf good for toast and sandwiches.

Thank you for reading the blog, baking the recipes and commenting. Happy baking.

Roast leg of lamb has been an Easter tradition for longer than there’s been Easter. The tradition of lamb as a celebratory meal is as old as Passover. The Jews in captivity in Egypt marked the doorposts with the blood of a first born lamb so that the plague of the first born ‘passed over’ their houses. But it’s also a practical tradition, particularly in the northern hemisphere when lamb is readily available in the spring.

A fun fact about lamb – it’s the only meat (excluding poultry) that’s not banned by a major religion. And Americans eat much less lamb than Europeans. Several historical reasons for this: the rise of cattle ranching in America (sheep make pasture unsuitable for cattle for months) and the presence of more predators. Remember, Europe has been largely settled and agrarian for much longer.

Leg of lamb is nice but the first time I put a lamb shoulder in my slow cooker – I was a convert. I’m a big fan of slow cooking and making a stew that can be frozen in batches makes more sense this year when it’s just two of us. I have a CrockPot slow cooker that sautés as well as slow cooks. It makes this a genuine one pot dish. You can also make the sauce in deep frying pan on the stove.

There are a couple of variations to ‘finish off’ the stew. I prefer adding pearl barley towards the end of cooking – it takes care of the carbs and the pearl barley freezes well. You can also thicken the stew with either cornstarch or beurre manie, as you prefer.

Let’s cook.

Ingredients

Lamb shoulder, 2 to 4 pounds, jointed so that it fits in your slow cooker

20 pitted prunes

Mild olive oil for sautéing

1 clove of garlic minced fine (optional)

Salt and pepper

1 chopped onion

2 chopped carrots

1 tablespoon minced ginger (I buy mine in jars, can’t be bothered to keep fresh ginger in the house)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

300 mls red wine (I like Beaujolais or a young Burgundy)

300 mls lamb stock or chicken stock if you can’t get lamb

200 grams or 1 cup of dried pearl barley (if using)

Instructions

1. Heat up the slow cooker.
2. Make the sauce, either in the slow cooker or in a deep fry pan on the stove. Heat olive oil, add onion, carrots, garlic, ginger, cinnamon and a twist of salt and pepper. Cook until the onion is translucent.
3. Add the wine, increase the heat and burn off the alcohol. Add the stock and bring to a boil.
4. Combine sauce, lamb and prunes in the slow cooker. I cook this for 6 hours on high in total but you’ll know how your slow cooker works.
5. About 90 minutes before the stew is done add the pearl barley, make sure it’s submerged in the sauce.
6. When complete, gently remove the lamb from the slow cooker, it will be falling off the bone. Allow it to cool until you can handle it, then shred it – use two forks to pull it off the bone. Return the meat to the sauce and it’s ready to serve.
7. If you haven’t used the pearl barley, the sauce will be thin. You can thicken as normal with corn flour (cornstarch to Americans). Here’s a link to BBC Good Food. Or you can beurre manié. Here’s a good description of how it works.

I serve this with some roast vegetables on the side. If you haven’t added the pearl barley, combine with your carbs of choice; mashed potatoes, rice or couscous.

Thank you for reading the blog. Let me know how it goes if you cook the recipes, find me on Twitter or Instagram @mamadolson on both.

What’s best thing to do with excess ripe bananas? Make banana bread! My recipe is based on this original from Hannah at Make it Dough. I’ve made some adjustments to use whole wheat flour and brown sugar and reduced the amount of sugar as well. That made my version a bit heavier so I went with a traditional loaf shape. It’s the Davinator’s new top snack – combines 3 of his favourites: bananas, peanut butter and chocolate.

I pounced on this recipe because I was ‘long’ on bananas and on peanut butter. I don’t really like the texture of bananas but this bread has a great banana taste, seemingly enhanced by the peanut butter. We try and eat healthy but like our treats, so this recipe is a good compromise.

You can use sourdough discard in this recipe or there is an easy alternative if you’re not a sourdough fanatic.

Let’s get baking.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 95 grams all purpose flour (not self rising)
• 95 grams whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda – SODA not powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 85 grams peanut butter of your choice (chunky or smooth)
• 55 grams unsalted butter – melted and slightly cooled
• 180 grams brown sugar (any type)
• 50 grams sourdough discard or 25 grams flour and 25 grams of water)
• 25 grams of milk (whole or semi-skimmed)
• 2 eggs
• 225 grams of mashed banana (2 large or 3 medium bananas)
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• Handful of chocolate chips or chopped nuts of your preference

Method

1. Preheat the oven 170C (160C fan) or 350F. Prepare a loaf pan (standard 2 pound or 800 gram pan). I line my pans with paper but you can grease and flour instead.
2. Whisk together the flours, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl.
3. Combine the peanut butter, cooled melted butter and the sugar in your mixer bowl. Beat until mixture appears very well combined.
4. Incorporate the eggs one at time, beating until well integrated.
5. Add the mashed banana, sourdough discard (or flour and water mixture) and the vanilla to the mixer bowl and beat until well combined.
6. Using a dough whisk or a spatula, fold in half the flour mixture. Add the milk and the remaining flour. Like any quick bread – resist the temptation to over beat at this stage. Scrape up all the dry bits from the bottom.
7. Sprinkle your chocolate chips or nuts on the top. I pressed down gently to encourage them to sink into the top. They still form a sort of chocolate topping, which we loved.
8. Pour into your pan and transfer to the oven. Bake for approximately 50 minutes. Keep an eye on the top and cover loosely with foil if over browning. Test with a temperate probe – it should be over 90C in the centre or a toothpick should come out clean.

Enjoy! We topped ours with cream cheese or a couple of spoonfuls of Greek yogurt.

Thanks for reading the blog, cooking the recipes and sending in your requests.

I fail spectacularly at absolutes. ‘Janu-dry’ in our household has lasted – once – until 20 January. Now we practice ‘Janu-less’ and only have wine with our meals twice a week. Same with ‘veganuary’. I’m happy that I got the Davinator to embrace ‘meat free Monday’, essentially by not telling him it was happening. One of the kids ratted me out but now he rolls with it. So vegananuary is not going to work in our house. But I wanted to get more vegetables into our diet.

I’m a fan of positives and my January resolution is to have more fun with vegetables. There’s a long back story about my love hate relationship with vegetables. Netting it out – I grew up in farm country and we had a large kitchen garden. I was used to eating what had just come out of the garden or had been preserved (frozen, canned, stored) within hours of harvest. That was my experience of how vegetables should taste. That was not what I encountered in the wider world and I ate vegetables but didn’t enjoy them.

So, I’m trying to make vegetables interesting and exciting without breading and deep frying them (the Italian method) or shredding them into cake. Ironically, this recipe is an onion tart mimicking tarte tatin. It uses the same technique to make onions into an exquisite savory dish. Here’s a link to my tarte tatin recipe if you really want to make a dessert.

I must confess – I love this onion tart. Even the first attempt was excellent and I’m going to work on a couple of refinements. I started with a recipe from Delia Smith’s Winter Collection and there are many fabulous recipes there. Perfect for Lockdown 3.0

Equipment for this recipe: you need a round 9 inch pan that can go from the stove top to the oven and back again. I love my le Creuset pans. They are expensive and you might look for good quality clones ( enamel covered cast iron – still will be pricey) but I’ve got le Creuset pots and pans that are older than my children. You can do this with a sturdy cake or pie tin but it will be more difficult to handle. A pastry blender also comes in handy or you can use your food processor.

This a great recipe to brush up your onion cutting technique. You’ll find a lot of advice on how to cut onions without serious crying and honestly not many of them work that well. I use a combination of techniques: peel the onions but don’t cut them until you’re ready to use them, turn the extractor fan on high and cut nearby, throw the waste into a compost caddy with a lid after each cut and rinse your knife and cutting board from time to time. Also, I keep a candle burning nearby – but this is probably just superstition.

There’s an easy vegan flex for this one – use your hard fat of choice (should be firm at room temperature) to substitute the butter. Vegan cheese for the crust.

Time to make ourselves cry……

Recipe

Ingredients – tart

• 1 kg onions (red or white) of fairly uniform size, mine were on average smaller than a tennis ball
• 50 grams of butter
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Fresh thyme if you have some but dried also works fine
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (use the good stuff but sparingly)
• salt and pepper

For the pastry:

• 75 grams wholemeal flour
• 50 grams plain white flour
• 50 grams chilled butter (grated)
• 25 grams (grated)
• 1 teaspoon chopped thyme

Instructions – onions

1. Prep your onions. Remove the outer skin. Trim any roots very close to the body of the onions. Put to one side. We will cut them just before we place them in the pan. Turn your oven on to about 180C (160C fan).
2. Place the pan over a medium heat melt the butter. Add the sugar to the melted butter.
3. When the sugar is blended and the mixture is bubbling, scatter six sprigs of thyme (if fresh) or a tablespoon of dried.
4. Begin cutting your onions in half and arrange them cut side down on the base of the pan. Think about doing a jigsaw puzzle as you place the onions. Once you have can put anymore halves in, start cutting wedges to fill in the gaps and the sides. The cut sides will be showing when you flip the tart so this is the moment to make it pretty.
5. Seasons the onions with salt and pepper and then sprinkle in the balsamic vinegar. Turn the heat down under the pan and let the onions cook very gently for about 10 minutes.
6. Put the lid on the pan or cover it with foil. Place it on the middle shelf in the oven and leave it cook for an hour.

Instructions – pastry & assembly

1. Combine the flours, butter, cheese in a bowl with a pastry blender or in your food processor. Pulse or blend until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add cold water, a tablespoon at a time until it forms a soft dough.
2. Gather the dough and place it between two sheets of cling film. Roll into a 10 inch round. Tuck the cling film around the dough and put it in fridge to chill. egradually add enough cold water – about 2-3 tablespoons – to make a soft dough.
3. Test the onions with a skewer at the end of the cooking time. They should be cooked through but still have texture and shape.
4. Move the pan to the stove top, turn up the oven to 200C.
5. Cook the pan on the stove top to reduce the onion butter juice. Try medium heat, keeping a close eye on the onions so that they don’t scorch. You’re aiming to reduce the juice to a syrup. This might take ten minutes.
6. Take your dough round out of the fridge. Take the pan off the heat and carefully fit the pastry over and around the onions. Tuck in the edges around the inside of the pan.
7. Put the tart back in the oven on top shelf and bake it for another 30 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool for 20 minutes before flipping it. Loosen the dough around the edges if it’s stuck.
8. Find a flat plate or a cutting board. Get your oven mitts or other protection for your hands. Place the plate over the tart, take a deep breath, hold it firmly and flip it over. Be bold!
9. Some of the onions might stick to the pan or become disarranged when flipping. Just pick them up with tongs or a spoon and fit them back into your tart.
10. Voila – Red Onion Tarte Tatin!

I’m going to work on some flexes for this recipe – I fancy using concentrated beef stock instead of balsamic vinegar. Also, changing the spices. I’ve been enjoying this tarte cold as snacks and with some cheese on the side as a meal. There are no Davinator remarks because – he’s very sensitive to onions and so this one is just for me.

Thank you for reading the blog, cooking the recipes, enjoying food and sending me comments and requests. Please subscribe and tag me if you post photos on social media. @mamadolson on Twitter and Instagram. Search Mama Dolson’s Bakery & Hangout on Facebook.

Cheesecake – impressive dessert and easy to make – a great party trick recipe.

Chain coffee shops have done a lot of damage to the reputation of cinnamon rolls. A cinnamon roll should not be a microwaved stale glutinous mass half the size of a brick and covered in gritty glaze. Make your own cinnamon rolls and eat them still warm from the oven. A warm cinnamon roll you’ve made yourself is a treat not a dietary sin requiring two hours atonement on your Peloton bike.

These cinnamon rolls are perfect for sharing over a lazy breakfast and relatively easy, even for first time bakers. Imperfect cinnamon rolls are just as delicious as ‘instagram perfect’ ones but I’ve included a few of my favourite tricks to help make yours picture perfect.

The recipe makes two dozen nice sized cinnamon rolls, cooked in two 9 inch cake pans and is perfect for sharing. Cut the recipe half to make a dozen and keep them all for yourself

Useful specialised equipment; paper liners for your cake tins, some dental floss or fishing line, a measuring tape and a stand mixer for dough. It’s a very sticky dough – which also gives it richness. You can also use your food processor to knead or ‘stretch and fold’ in the bowl. The dental floss is used to cut the rolls without crushing or compressing them.

Top tips for great looking rolls:

• spread the filling evenly and don’t leave too much empty edge space;
• roll up your dough loosely (link to short video);
• use the dental floss technique or your sharpest knife to avoid compressing your sections (link to short video) ;
• line your cake tin with paper (link to tin liners):

Cinnamon rolls are a multi-step process: so here’s a quick overview:

• Make dough and let it rest for 10 minutes or so,
• Make cinnamon filling
• Roll out the dough and cover it with the filling.
• Roll up the dough and cut into pieces, allow to rise.
• Bake the dough.
• Allow the rolls to cool and then glaze.

It sounds intimidating but step by step instructions are in the recipe. Time to get baking.

Recipe

Ingredients

Dough

• 700 grams plain flour
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4  teaspoons active dry (or instant) yeast 
• 240 mls whole or semi-skim milk
• 120 mls water
• 100 grams of unsalted butter
• 2 eggs

Filling

• 90 grams unsalted butter
• 2 Tablespoon ground cinnamon 
• 100 grams light brown sugar

Icing

• 120 grams powdered (confectioners) sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 30 – 45 mls milk

Instructions

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer.
2. Melt butter in the microwave until well softened. Add milk and water to the melted butter. It should be warm but not boiling.
3. Start the mixer and add the melted butter mixture to the dry ingredients. Roughly beat eggs and add to the dough.
4. Knead for 3 to 5 minutes. The dough will be soft and will not form and tidy ball. Cover the dough and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Make the filling.
5. Filling: melt the butter, add the cinnamon and brown sugar, combine well and set to one side.
6. Prep your cake tins. Line with paper.
7. Generously flour the work top. Turn the dough out on to the work top, divide in half. Put one portion to the side and cover while working with the other half.
8. Roll into a rectangle, 14 inches by 8 inches. (36 cm x 20 cm). Don’t be tempted to roll it out thinner.
9. Spread one half of the filling on the rectangle. Spread to within 1/2 or a centimetre of the edges. Gently lift the long edge and gently roll up the dough into a cylinder.
10. Cut a length of dental floss or fishing line, about 20 cms or 12 inches. Slide the dental floss under the roll about one inch in – cross the ends and cut the first segment off the end of the roll. Repeat and cut the roll into approximately 12 segments. Place the segments carefully into the first cake tin. The segments will expand to fill the tin when they rise. Cover with a shower cap or cling film.
11. Repeat with second portion of dough.
12. Allow the filled dough to rise until doubled. The length of time this will take is based on how warm your kitchen is. If it’s cold, heat your oven to 100C. Turn off the element, wait 15 minutes and put your covered dough in. It will double in 45 to 60 minutes.
13. Remove and preheat oven to 190C (no fan).
14. Bake the rolls for 25 to 28 minutes. Rotate the pans half way through if they are on different shelves.
15. Remove from the oven and cool. Prepare the icing and drizzle over the rolls.

Share the rolls out equally amongst members of your household or guests. People can be very crabby when they feel shortchanged on their allotment of cinnamon rolls.

Thank you for following the blog, reading and cooking the recipes. Please send requests, comments and share photos if you make the recipe. Tag #mamadolsonbakes

We’ve had a pretty good summer in the UK. Okay, an entire test (cricket match) was essentially rained off, but in general it’s been good. Plus a couple of weeks of Indian summer in September. But it’s all change now and we’ve gone roaring into autumn – cool, windy, frequently overcast. Time for the first log fires, turning the central heating on and to make some comfort food.

This recipe is an easy low input recipe that uses your slow cooker or a low oven. Fifteen minutes early in the day gets you classic comfort food for your supper. Cooking time is a 6 to 8 hours depending on your cooker. The ingredients are simple and there’s not much special prep required. I make this is big batches, it freezes beautifully. Home cooked portioned meals in the freezer are a gift to yourself.

I use beef shin, on the bone, sliced about two inches thick by my butcher. Any beef suitable for stewing will produce good stew and feel free to substitute it for the beef shin. However, the marrow in the bones gives a lovely unctuous texture to your finished stew. I find it easy to fish the bones out at the end with any sinew or connective tissue that hasn’t fully dissolved.

I don’t brown meat when adding it to a slow cooked stew. What it the point of possibly toughening the meat to make it that little bit browner? Good quality beef stock will take care of that for you. Unusually, this stew has no wine or stout. I add pearl barley to the stew towards the end. It does a lovely job absorbing all the lovely juices. Give this versatile grain a try, lovely in stews.

Let’s get cooking.

Ingredients

• 2 kilos of beef shin (including the weight of the bones) or 1 to 1.25 kilos of stewing beef
• flour for dusting
• olive oil
• 1 large onion, halved and sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped fine (optional)
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 200 grams (one cup) of dried pearl barley
• 2 bay leaves
• a dozen whole black peppercorns or 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary or 1 tsp of dried rosemary
• 2 litres of beef stock
• salt, to taste

Method

1. Lightly dust the beef in flour. Place in the slow cooker in a single layer. If using the oven, use a large oven proof casserole, preferably deep.
2. Heat olive oil with a small knob of butter in a skillet. Sauté the onions and the garlic until well softened and started to brown. Add to the slow cooker or casserole.
3. Add the beef stock. It should cover or come to the top of your beef pieces.
4. Make a bouquet garni with the bay leaves, peppercorns and rosemary. If using ground pepper and dried rosemary, add all directly to the stew. Just keep an eye out for the bay leaves later.
5. Put your slow cooker on medium, or your casserole into a 140C oven and go about your life.
6. After four hours or so (no need to be precise) add the carrots. Two hours later, add the pearl barley. If you’ve decided against the pearl barley, make up some mashed potatoes or pasta when you’re ready to eat.
7. The sauce may need thickening if you haven’t used pearl barley. An hour or so before serving, either thicken with cornstarch or beurre manié. Beurre manié is one of those things that you won’t trust until you’ve tried it. Good explanation here.

Lovely with a robust red wine, some crusty bread and green vegetables on the side. Thank you for reading, sharing and commenting and for cooking the recipes.

Summer time means time to eat more vegetables. Warm weather and lighter food go together. Also, I grow vegetables with varying degrees of success. Still not sure why given my childhood memories of vegetable garden serfdom. This recipe is a great ways to use what you’ve grown plus a few store cupboard staples to produce satisfying yet light food.

I was challenged to eat ten different vegetables in a single day – this recipe was the result and knocked out 8 vegetables in a single recipe. It was a Davinator favourite from the very first taste. It keeps well in the refrigerator for two or three days. I have not tried to freeze this. I’m not sure that freezing is a great choice because it will have a negative impact the texture of the chickpeas and the potatoes. But needs must sometimes.

The recipe is very flexible – the crucial elements are chickpeas, tomatoes and potatoes. Beyond that feel free to improvise. It is easy and forgiving to make a double batch as well.

I use my slow cooker for this and it takes 5 to 6 hours. You could also use a covered casserole in a low to moderate oven for the same time. Slow cooker does not heat up the kitchen in the same way.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 400 gram can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 400 gram can of chopped tomatoes or 6 fresh ripe tomatoes peeled and chopped
• Olive oil for sautéing vegetables
• 2 garlic cloves peeled and crushed or chopped fine
• 2 onions peeled and sliced
• 4 celery sticks, sliced
• 4 medium carrots, scrubbed and sliced
• 1 pepper (red, yellow or green) cored seeded and chopped
• 1 tsp mixed herbs (use any mixture of oregano, thyme, basil)
• 225 grams of potatoes in 2 cm pieces (if using new potatoes or young potatoes a good scrub is enough, don’t peel them. More mature potatoes you might want to peel)
• Vegetable stock cube or 1 tsp of loose stock granules
• salt and pepper to taste
• Chopped olives and either crumbled feta cheese or Greek yoghurt to serve).

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil with a small knob of butter in a large deep skillet until warm. Get your slow cooker or casserole dish ready.
2. Add the garlic, cook over low heat until softened.
3. Onions next and turn up the heat to medium. (Tip – I use a handheld mandolin and slice many of the vegetables straight into the pan. I dislike extended vegetable prep and this speeds things up). Cook until softened and starting to turn transparent.
4. Add the celery, carrots and pepper. Continue to cook over medium heat. I often pour a generous slug of brandy over the vegetables at this point and turn up the heat to high until the raw alcohol smell has gone.
5. Add the stock cube and a bit of water to soften it. When your stock cube has dissolved pour in the tomatoes with their juice. If you used fresh tomatoes, add a quarter cup of water. Bring the mixture to a simmer.
6. Transfer to your slow cooker or oven proof casserole. Stir in the potatoes, chickpeas and herbs.
7. Wait. Your kitchen will start to smell great. Stir from time to time and take a sneaky taste. It’s ready to eat when the potatoes have reached a good eating consistency. Correct salt and pepper, if necessary.
8. Serve with Greek yoghurt or feta cheese and a handful of chopped olives. Lovely with a chunk of crusty sourdough bread.

This is an easy recipe to adapt for vegans. Eliminate butter and make sure you’re using vegan stock cubes. Then consider your toppings. A vegan yoghurt or cheese would be perfect.

Thank you for reading, commenting, sharing and cooking the recipes. Your feedback is what makes blogging worth doing.

If you’re drowning in a sea of courgettes or swept away by the zucchini tsunami – this soup is the perfect remedy. Five ingredients and ready in 20 minutes. Low in calories unless you go crazy with the cheese at the end. Our favourite soup this summer.

The only special equipment is a stick blender but if you don’t have one you can mash by hand or whack it in the food processor or the blender. I have two stick blenders – a domestic one for small jobs and a commercial one as powerful as an outboard motor. The Davinator got tired of me burning out domestic ones with jobs too big for them and sourced a commercial one from Nisbetts – it’s about as much fun as you can have with a kitchen appliance. Your domestic stick blender will be fine for this soup.

The soup has a lovely consistency – this comes from cooking the potatoes with just enough water to cover them. This means the starch from the potatoes stays in the soup and isn’t rinsed away when you drain them. I scrub the potatoes and do not peel them but you might want to peel them if the skins feel thick or tough.

I’ve added this blog to my ‘courgette roundup’ blog, lots of other great ways to use your courgette surplus. Use a vegetarian cheddar to make it suitable for vegetarians. Also easy to make a vegan version of this soup – it’s lovely without the cheese or use a vegan substitute. Remember to check your stock cubes if you’re cooking for a vegan or vegetarian some use animal products.

Hope you are staying safe and keeping well in these challenging times. Thank you for reading and sharing the blog. Send in requests and tag me in photos if you post on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Why make your own buns for Independence Day or summer barbecue season? Because you can, I say. And they are yummy. The recipe that served as a basis for this blog was badged as ‘easy’. My experience suggests that’s stretching the definition of easy but it’s well within the grasp of most bakers. There are a couple of techniques that don’t change the taste of the buns but actually help your make your buns look like (but taste much better) than store bought ones.

A couple of great things about these buns – the dough is all machine kneaded and the first rise is in the refrigerator. You can refrigerate your dough for a couple of hours or 24 hours – the recipe works around your schedule.

You want your buns to be short cylinders (like hockey pucks but less dense) and not spheres (like a baseball or cricket ball). A couple of crucial techniques here to make this happen. First, weigh your dough and divide it into 8 equal pieces then roll each piece between your hands into a smooth ball. The second step is to place a a second piece of parchment paper over the shaped dough then a second baking sheet over the parchment. This forces the ‘rise’ to move out rather than up producing the cylindrical shape.

Once you’ve got the techniques in this recipe, you may never buy buns again. I’m working on perfecting the shaping and baking of the hot dog buns so watch this space. Have a great Fourth of July. On to the recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 500 grams all purpose or bread flour
• 130 grams whole or semi-skimmed milk, room temperature
• 90 grams water, room temperature
• 8 grams (2 tsps) active dry yeast
• 12 (1 1/2 tsps) grams salt
• 15 grams (1 tbsp) caster sugar
• 30 grams vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• Oil for the bowl
• Egg for egg wash
• Sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer.
2. Beat the water, milk and egg in a separate bowl.
3. Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix to combine.
4. Put the dough hook on and knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it forms a smooth ball. If it feels dry add water a tablespoon at a time. Be cautious – the dough needs to be quite wet.
5. Add the oil and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. You will stare at it during the early period of kneading thinking it’s never going to come together. Be patient, it will. If it’s not smooth and shiny at the end of 10 minutes, add flour a tablespoon at a time and knead for another minute each time. Don’t make the dough too dry – it will firm up and be easy to work with when its chilled.
6. Transfer the dough to a clean oiled bowl, cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours.
7. Lightly dust your work surface with flour and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut a second sheet to place over the top of your shaped buns.
8. Weigh your dough (tip – put a piece of parchment on the scale) and cut into 8 equal pieces.
9. Roll each piece into a firm ball and place on the parchment sheet about 7 cm (3 inches) apart.
10. Press each piece to flatten to a disk. Lightly dust the tops with flour, place the second parchment over the top, and cover with the second baking sheet. Cover the entire thing with plastic wrap.
11. Allow the dough to rise for about an hour. On a cold day, this might take longer or less time on a warm summer day.
12. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) about 30 minutes before baking.
13. Beat the egg with a pinch of salt. Wash the tops of the rolls with the egg wash. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.
14. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven when golden brown and puffy. Best eaten on the same day or wrapped tightly in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Enjoy! Thank you for reading the blog and baking the recipes. Please tag @mamadolson with photos on social media. Send requests!