How are you planning to celebrate VE day?
Why not get the kids involved and do some baking ready for a special celebratory garden picnic?
Katie from local children’s cookery school, Cookery Doodle Doo, took a break from making her kids’ online cookery videos to share some easy sweet and savoury ideas with us…
Cheese Lollipops
Makes 4
• 1 tbsp Sun-dried tomatoes (optional*)
• ¼ sheet ready-rolled Puff pastry
• 50g Cheddar, grated
• 2 tbsp Green pesto
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• Milk for brushing
• 4 black olives or cherry tomatoes
• 4 wooden skewers
1) Pre-heat the oven to 200 °C and brush a baking tray with a little vegetable oil.
2) Pat the sundried tomatoes with kitchen paper to remove excess oil then chop into small pieces. *Alternatively, you could use diced ham, chopped olives or any other filling you fancy.
3) Spread the pesto onto one side of pastry, taking it right to the edges, then sprinkle the cheese all over. Scatter the chopped sundried tomatoes (or your chosen alternative) across the top.
4) Starting at a long edge, roll the pastry into a fairly tight ‘swiss roll’ and carefully cut into 4 slices.
5) Lay each swirl flat on the baking tray and push a skewer right through to secure the shape. If you don’t have a skewer, use a cocktail stick or similar. Brush each swirl with a little milk (or beaten egg).
6) Bake for 15-20 mins until golden brown and pufed up. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.
7) Finally slide an olive or cherry tomato up the skewer to help secure the lollipop.
Ta-dah! A savoury swirly lollipop that’s perfect for any celebration!
Marble Cakes
Makes 6
• 60g Butter, softened • 60g Self-raising flour • 1 tsp Vanilla extract • 60g Caster sugar • 1 large Egg, beaten • 1 tbsp Cocoa powder
1) Pre heat the oven to 180 °C .
2) Mix the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and beat together, followed by the flour and vanilla.
3) Once well combined, separate half the mixture into another bowl and stir the cocoa powder through the remaining mixture.
4) Line a muffin tin with 6 cases. Use a teaspoon to add a blob of vanilla mixture into each case, followed by a blob of chocolate mixture. Continue until all the mixture is used up.
5) Use a clean spoon handle to gently swirl the mixture, making sure it doesn’t mix too much.
7) Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until springy to the touch.
For an exclusive preview of Katie’s new cookalong video making this recipe, and including a fun icing tip – which will be released on Thursday 7th May 2020, click here: https://youtu.be/x6S5B7LoRIY
Very Berry Smoothies
Put a handful of fresh or frozen berries, a small peeled banana, 2-3 tbsp any yoghurt, a glug of milk and a squeeze of honey into a blender and whizz until smooth. Have a taste and add more milk if it’s too thick, and/or more honey if it’s too sharp. Any leftovers make fantastic frozen lollies (use a clean yoghurt pot for the mould and the middle of a calpol syringe as the stick!).
When they’re open, Cookery Doodle Doo use fantastic quality ingredients to cook fun, tasty recipes with your kids in a relaxed and friendly setting. Alongside weekly term-time preschool cookery sessions in North Hampshire, they also hold monthly Sunday Morning Pudding Clubs, and Afterschool (Bake Your Own Tea) Clubs for primary school children.
Additionally they offer a range of delightfully creative parties, and take cookery sessions into events, schools, nurseries etc. During the lockdown they’re filming weekly cookalong sessions for you and your children to share – take a look at https://www.facebook.com/cookerydoodledoonorthhants/
