Chelsea Buns

1 cup milk, 1 egg, 50g melted butter, 500g plain white flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 75g sugar, 2 tsp dried yeast.

Into the bread machine to do its thing and make the dough for you.

Now, usually chelsea buns are filled with dried fruit but our kids aren't that keen on that so I do lemon marmalade and chopped white chocolate instead. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, spread whatever filling you're making, roll up into very large sushi roll and cut cylinders to stack tree-ring wise in a baking tray. Allow to rise. Bake on high until they're lightly coloured.

As soon as they come out, lather them over in a mix of orange blossom water and sugar (you'll need to heat it to get the sugar to melt) so they're sticky and delicious. Turn the little suckers out and separate them while they're still warm.

I think I have yet to meet someone who didn't go crazy about these.

White bread (bread machine)

Mind you I'm sure you can bake it as a normal bread as well. In the meantime,

1/1/3 cups water, 500g (4.5 cups) flour, 1.5 tsp salt, 25g butter, 2 tsp dried yeast, 1 tbsp granulated sugar.

Into the machine. Bake.

Voila

Tofu veggie burgers

For the burger night veggie option. I much preferred these to the meat.

Blend firm tofu (a fair proportion), cannelini beans and corn kernels (more sparingly) with an egg until smooth. Add kaffir lime leaves, ginger, seasoning, and whatever else herby stuff you'd like, then add breadcrumbs to get just the right consistency for a burger. Cook as normal. Absolutely delicious.

About 200g tofu, 1 egg and a handful of the beans and corn made about four nice burgers.

I'll take a picture next time. These ones disappeared too fast.

Chocolate Berry Pastries

Apparently these are 'Breakfast Of The Year.' Easiest breakfast since sliced toast. 

Cut a sheet of frozen puff pastry into squares, put an appropriate amount of Nutella and berries in a corner, fold each into triangles, seal with a fork and bake on high. Dust with icing sugar and serve hot. 

Big discussion amongst the kids today as to how frequently they should be served for breakfast. Some thought they were so special they should be kept for once a month, others thought to hell with that let's have them at least once a week. So there you go. 

Chocolate caramel cups

As made for us by Ms Gamer.

Make the base with 60g melted butter, 2 tbsp caster sugar, 1/2 cup plain flour, 2 tbsp desiccated coconut. Press into the base of little patty cups and bake at 180 until they're a bit golden.

Microwave up a can of condensed milk with 40g butter and a couple of tbsp golden syrup. (Yeah, 'cause it wasn't sweet enough already.) Pour onto the semi-baked bases. Return to oven until they're sent and slightly coloured. Lace over with melted chocolate if you like.

Kangaroo Pies

Half a kilo of kangaroo mince, fried up with onions, finely diced carrots and thickened with a cornflour and wine mix at the end. Season with plenty of salt and pepper, loads of herbs of your choice and a touch of chili flakes. Allow to cool. 

For this amount of mince you'll need shortcrust from 300g flour. (150g butter or a touch less.) I put in a bunch of thyme leaves and pepper. Looked cool, tasted great. Ok the kids said it looked mouldy but that's kids for you. They liked the taste. 

Make pies in deep muffin pans. Bake on 180 for quite a while, until they're golden. Serve hot. 

Coconut Macaroons

Four egg whites, 1 2/3 cups sugar, 2 cups desiccated coconut, vanilla essence.

Whip up the whites, meringue them up with the sugar, then fold in the vanilla and coconut. Dollop onto greased paper and bake at 150 for quite a while. Maybe 35 minutes or more? Makes tasty chewy biscuits and they're jolly easy. Good afternoon snack.