Egg supply confirmed....Time to get baking!

For sometime I have been sporadically getting my eggs from Lavender Cottage, which is just round the corner from our house . I pop up there regularly hoping to see the blue cool box and honesty box on their garden wall . Some days it's there, sometimes it's not . If the box is not there my heart sinks because if I am honest I am a little bit addicted to the lovely blue, white and brown eggs fresh from the Lavender Cottage hens . Their eggs are so fresh and totally free range and make my cakes so rich .
Today I decided to take matters into my own hands and spoke to the lovely people who own the hens and have now made an agreement to get a regular delivery of eggs on a weekly basis . Hooray !

So I better get baking to use some of these eggs !

My Son loves breakfast breads and muffins. One of his favourites is banana muffins. He requested these muffins today and as it is the school holidays i decided to add an extra surprise to the banana muffins. Chunks of 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate . These muffins freeze well .

Chocolate Chunk Banana Muffins

250g plain flour
3tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
115g caster sugar
75g melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp honey
2 large ripe bananas
2 medium eggs (free range)
125ml Milk
100g 70% cocoa solids plain chocolate

Preheat oven to 190c .

Mash the bananas well .

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl .

Add the sugar and mix well . Stir in chocolate chunks .

In a second bowl, beat together the eggs, vanilla extract, honey, butter and milk .

Add the bananas to the egg mixture and stir.

Make a 'well' in the dry mixture and add the egg mixture . Stir with a metal spoon until the flour mixture is just incorporated (don't stir too much - its meant to be thick and lumpy!)
place mixture into muffin pan lined with paper cases .

Put in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
Once golden brown and firm remove from oven and place on cooking rack .

Enjoy Fresh . If you have any left over just pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds each to refresh them .

Viennese Whirls and fingers

I tried many years ago to make viennese whirls and just made an absolute mess and never tried again until today!
I have to say, with the aid of my food processor and a piping bag, these biscuits were so easy to make and so yummy!

250g unsalted butter
55g icing sugar
225g plain flour
75g corn flour
25g plain chocolate

Cooking Time: 15 minutes.


Place all the ingredients into a food processor with the metal blade . If you don't have a food processor then a mixing bowl with an electric mixer.

Mix the ingredients to a paste and then stop. You don’t want to add too much air.

For the classic look of the biscuit place the paste into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe the mixture out onto non-stick baking parchment .

Pipe the biscuits on the tray they will be baked on and make sure they are spaced sufficiently apart because they do expand.

Bake the biscuits at 170°c for 15 minutes until lightly golden brown, then place them onto a wire rack to cool to room temperature .
Melt the chocolate and drizzle across the biscuits leave to set .