Girl's Night

I haven't been up to anything very bloggable this week, let alone done any cooking, so I thought I'd show you some photos of our spontaneous girl's night that we had on Friday.

Hilary had a late lecture she couldn't get out of, so Hannah, Renuka and I had ages to get ready, resulting in lots of photos!

Best thing about living in a house full of girls??

Always an occasion to take photos

 
 Then things (meaning me) got a little silly..

There couldn't not be one of me eating..

Then we were finally reunited with Hilary, and we played a few games (and took more pictures), before going out.

It was such a good night, it goes to show that usually the best nights are the ones that weren't planned.

American Bacon Pancakes (D-F)

When I didn't have to avoid dairy, I made these every weekend, but when I had to stop eating dairy I thought it unlikely that I'd ever get to eat these again.

Last week, I whipped up these pancakes for my housemates and I, and who knew one could be full from three pancakes?

I made double the quantity which fed seven:

270g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

4 tbsp caster sugar

260ml soy or almond milk

2 large eggs

4 tbsp Pure spread

1 pack of bacon

 Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, then add the milk and the eggs.

Then melt a lump of Pure in the microwave and measure out 4 tbsp, Hilary found this in ASDA and it's definatley the best butter replacement that I've found. She's made lots of cakes for me with it and they taste even better than usual.

Plus, it makes exceptionally good buttercream.

Mix that in and keep mixing until it's all smooth.

Whilst that's going on you can be cooking your bacon.

Welcome to my student kitchen..

Once the batter is ready, and the bacon is sizzled, heat up a pan.

Lay a strip of bacon in the pan and pour over a ladle of batter.

I know that bacon and pancakes might seem like a weird combination initially, but they're SO good.

Drizzle with honey or maple syrup and tuck in.

 

Apple Kuchen (D-F)

"Oh my goodness, this is delicious Charlotte!" is always a promising response to get from your mother when you try and bake something new, I told you about the brownies H made for us when we went round, in my post before last, but I didn't tell you as much as I should have about the second pudding, kuchen.

It's sort of a extra special, extra large hot cross bun.
Heavenly soft dough, dotted with raisins, topped with crunchy sugar encrusted apples.
It's amazing, and you'll love it.

Use any hot cross bun dough, I used this dairy free one:

180ml soy milk

5 1/2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons caster sugar

2x 7g sachets yeast

80g raisins

2 large eggs, beaten

1 egg white

405g strong white bread flour

Topping, taken from Nigella:

1 large egg, beaten

a grating of nutmeg, I added about 1cm grated nutmeg

2 granny smith apples, peeled and chopped into 2cm chunks

1 tablespoon demerera sugar

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon allspice

Icing:

75g icing sugar

1 tablespoon hot water

Oven: 180C

Combine the soy milk, honey and sugar in a saucepan over low heat so that it's just warmed and has combined completely.

Pour it into a bowl, add the yeast and allow it to rest for 5 mins or until bubbles form on the surface.

Mix in the eggs and add the flour and raisins slowly, a bit at a time.

Knead the dough until it becomes elastic.

Let the dough rise in a warm place for 30 mins, knead again (knock it back), transfer it to the tin you want to bake it in, I suggest a roasting tin, and allow it to rise for another half an hour, if you want to do it overnight, clingfilm it, then put it in the fridge overnight and take it out an hour before you want to use it.

To make the all important topping, beat a large egg mixed with the nutmeg and brush the dough with it.

Scatter the chopped apples, sprinkle the sugars and allspice.

Bake for 15 mins at 200C then at 180C for another 15.

When it comes out, drizzle with the icing for extra deliciousness!

I made this for when my Godmother, mum and Josh took me up to uni as a road trip snack, Josh and I positioned ourselves well so that we had it in the middle of us.

It turned out that everyone goes the same way to Canterbury Christchurch, on the same day, so this meant traffic, which meant bored kuchen photos...

Then we battled it out on candy crush.