Toasted brown bread with boiled eggs, sunny side up eggs, cloudy eggs – turned eggs, scrambled eggs, omelettes. Rashers, sausages – anyone that knows me and my family know that breakfast is a big deal in our house! We also eat  a lot of eggs!  I always buy free range eggs and, I love duck eggs; they are my weekend treat.

We never eat cereal – we are probably very old fashioned but it just never happened, I personally do not enjoy eating cereal and it goes with my mantra – you only get 3 meals a day so each one should be very tasty.

Brown bread is a great staple and is great with cheese, jam or just plain butter. My kids prefer it toasted but either way it is quick and easy to make (5 minutes)

I use a silicone  loaf mould  as it makes the brown bread process  much easier.

 

Recipe

 

450g of Coarse wholemeal flour

150 g of plain white flour

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons of bread soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pint of buttermilk

 

 

Directions 

 

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C

1. Weigh out the white and brown flour, and put into a wide mixing bowl, measure out the bread soda, I have measuring spoons and I would recommend using them to correctly measure the bread soda, salt and sugar.

For the bread soda weigh out and pour into the palm of your hand, using the back of your spoon run over the bread soda to remove any lumps and then sieve it into your flour.

2. Mix all the dry ingredients, make a well in the centre and pour 3/4 of the buttermilk into the well, using your left hand to hold the bowl, use your right hand to mix the dough, starting from the inside and imagining that your right hand is a mixer starting in the centre and moving in circles in the one direction, turn on the mixing and keep mixing until it all comes together , if the mixture needs more liquid use the remaining buttermilk.

3. When the mixture is all mixed pour into your greased  bread tin or silicone loaf mould.

4. It will be quite wet and should very easily pour into your mould, if you wish at this stage to put some sesame seeds on the top or oat flakes that’s optional but I nearly always do,they look great and are packed with goodness, place into the oven for approximately 45 minutes, test after 40 by placing a knife through the centre , if the knife comes out clean it is done. If not put it back in for 5 minutes and again check.

5. When the bread is done take it out of its mould/tin and let it cool on a wire tray if you have one , or take a shelf out of the oven – you want to allow the bread to aerate while cooling.

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My daughter Suzy got a chocolate pen for Christmas from Santa and we still had not used it, so I promised to make buns and then we could use the chocolate pen to ice /name them.

The kids love this part but be careful as they love the raw mixture so, if not looking, there would be no cakes! Split the spoon and bowl at the end. A spatula is good for getting in everything.

I fished out my friend Rita’s recipe which is super good and easy for making the best Queen cakes or as the kids like to call them ‘cup cakes’- more fashionable!

Rita’s Queen cakes

We used cake cases and a cake tin with the little cake holes

• 8 oz self raising flour
  1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
  8oz sugar
  10 oz butter
  4 eggs (free range and as fresh as possible)
  1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

170 degree C – preheat the oven before you start.

Setup Tip: Take the butter out of the fridge cut into cubes as early as possible as it makes it easier to cream

Method
1. Sieve the flour and the baking powder into your mixing bowl add your sugar mix well .
2. Cut your butter into cubes and add to the dry mixture, cream together by hand using a wooden spoon or an electric hand blender if you have one.
3. Next add the eggs and mix well, it should all come together, if it looks a bit like scrambled eggs keep mixing and it will come together.
4. Add the Vanilla essence and then fill your cases – 1-2 teaspoons per case.
5. The cakes only take 8-12 minutes super fast so take them out after 10 and the should be spongy to touch – if unsure stick a knife in and it should come out clean.
6. They can be eaten within minutes of coming out of the oven – but we used Suzy’s new chocolate pen to make some designs.

Serving suggestions

Great as they are , but you could add some jam & cream, melt some chocolate and stamp the top; but really perfect as an addition to the lunch box.

A tip here
Last night I had no self raising flour – no big deal I converted plain flour into self raising by adding 150g flour/6 oz add 2 teaspoons of baking powder!

Hope you enjoy making them!

Love Veronica x

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We recently had a lovely surprise in the form of a beautifully written letter and poem from Emma Goulding.

The letter read:

Dear Veronica,

I wrote this poem about Veronica’s Snacks because everyone in my class in school entered into a short story /poem competition.

We had to write about a local food producer. Everyone chose different food producers and I chose Veronica’s Snacks because I think Veronica’s Snacks is a fantastic idea and super tasty!

Lots of love from Emma Goulding xoxo

The Veronica’s Snacks team LOVE the poem and wanted to share it with the world. It’s well written and says it all really!

It reads:

Veronica’s Snacks,

They’re healthy and fun!

A perfect treat for everyone!

They’re gluten free and super cool

A handy snack for going to school!

Wherever you are,

Whenever you like.

After a walk,

A run or a hike.

Having a picnic,

Sitting back to relax,

Hope you enjoy ………

Veronica’s Snacks!

Myself and my two girls called into the 5th class girls today and presented Emma Goulding with her own box of munchy happiness.

I praised her for her fantastic poem and expressed how much it means to me,

She is a fantastic bright and popular girl and I wish her and her school buddies the very best,

They are starting their school holidays so let’s hope they all have a great time because these years are the building blocks of great people to come.

My two rascals were only delighted to join in!!!

Love Veronica! xoxo

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Crab Filo

• 225g of cooked  cooked crab meat – a good fish monger will have it available fresh or frozen.
• 1 teaspoon of fresh ginger crushed or grated – i.e. no lumps
• 2 cloves of  garlic crushed
• 1/2 red chilli very finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons of fresh coriander
• 1 teaspoon of thai fish sauce
• freshly ground pepper 3- 4 sheets of filo pastry
• a little melted butter
• egg wash

Thai dipping sauce

• 3 tablespoons fish sauce -salty
• 3 tablespoons  lime or lemon juice-sour
• 2 tablespoons sugar -sweet
• 3 tablespoons warm water
• 3-4 red or green chilli’s (2 of each for colour)- hot
• 1 teaspoon of fresh coriander.

Egg wash the rolls and cut the roll with very sharp knife, bake in preheated oven (very important)   just over 1 inch size.

The great thing with this starter is that it can be served straight from the oven or can be left cool to room temperature. Its great to serve with some roasted nuts and pickled ginger.

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