Homemade Burger & Sweet Potato Chips

Time for a change this week - a savoury recipe. This is my ultimate burger recipe, a combination of all my favourite burger things but also a good foundation to start with and add your own favourite fillings.

You don't need any fancy tools, but the recipes include a few tricks I've learnt to help.

In case you were wondering, my ultimate burger starts with a toasted brioche bun, topped with one quarter pounder, burger sauce, grilled halloumi, cos lettuce, plum tomatoes and caramelised onion relish. Served with herby baked sweet potato chips and washed down with a Nutella milkshake.

Without further ado,

Brioche burger buns
(Recipe adapted from Rachel Khoo, makes 6 for burgers or 12 for sliders)

My personal favourite burger bun is brioche, below is the recipe I use. Regular shop bought buns of your choice are perfectly good also. Spread a little butter over the cut sides and grill before serving.

260g strong plain white flour
25g caster sugar
5g salt
2tsp dried instant milk
70ml warm milk
3 medium eggs
100g softened butter (cubed)

Egg wash:
1 egg, beaten
2tbsp milk
2tsp sesame seeds

Mix together the flour, sugar and salt with a dough hook in a mixer on a low speed. Continue to mix whilst slowly adding the yeast, milk and eggs until incorporated, approximately 2 minutes. Turn up to a medium speed and continue to mix for a further 5 minutes.

Once soft and elastic, tip into a greased bowl, cover with cling film and leave to prove in a warm place for 1 hour.

Dust your work surface and hands with flour, roll the proved dough into a long rectangle. Slice into 6 (or 12 for sliders), shape each individual bun and place on a large lined tray. Brush with the egg wash.

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Brush once more and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top. Bake for 20 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack before using for your burgers.

Hamburger patties
(Recipe adapted from hamburger gourmet)

 In order to make the most tender, juicy patties, handle them as little as possible. Keep a bowl of warm water to hand when shaping the patties, dip your fingers in after each one to stop them sticking. A burger press can help to make uniformly sized patties, but using your hands is just as good. After shaping, press a thumbprint into the centre to allow for even cooking when they expand with the heat. Season with salt which will form a nice crust whilst cooking and stack them up between waxed discs or greaseproof paper. Don't be tempted to make your patties too thick, they'll only take longer to cook through and loose their tenderness. To make a quarter pounder, you will need 150-170g of minced beef (you should be able to get around 3 patties out of a regular 500g supermarket pack).

Always cook on a high heat in order to get a patty that's crusty on the outside and tender in the middle. Cook the thumbprint side down first to allow an expansion in the heat. Flip over with a spatula and press down, once only, in a short, sharp motion. For blue, cook for 2 minutes on each side; rare, 3 minutes; medium, 4 minutes and well done, 5 minutes.

Fillings

Feel free to use a combination of your favourite cheeses, sauces and relishes. Bear in mind, some cheeses melt better than others and most have completely different flavours when pairing with relishes.

Sweet potato chips

1 medium - large sweet potato per person
To season, dried herbs of your choice, salt and 1tbsp of oil per serving

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into long 1cm chips. Place into a resealable sandwich bag. Add the seasoning, seal and shake the bag to give the chips a good even coat.

Spread the chips evenly onto a baking tray and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until golden and slightly crispy on the edges.

Nutella milkshake
(Makes 2, double up as required)

500ml milk
2 scoops vanilla ice cream
2-3tbsps Nutella

Place all ingredients in a blender and blitz until well combined and smooth.

Pour into glasses to serve.

Serving

In order to have everything ready at the same time, assembled burgers can be kept warm in the oven for a short while on a low heat, around 160 degrees.

Chocolate & Lime Mini Cakes

Inspired by last week's The Great British Bake Off, I found this recipe for chocolate and lime cake by a GBBO graduate, Ruby Tandoh.

Not a flavour combination I've tried before, but it's won me over. These cakes are so light and airy and the lime adds to the fresh feel. Not the usual dense chocolate cakes I'm used to...but that just makes it perfectly ok to eat a plate to myself.

Although these cakes are simple to make and have no complicated ingredients, along the way you will be using three different bowls. This requires a little coordination (though probably more for me!) so be sure to fully read the method before you start.

Chocolate and lime mini cakes
(Recipe adapted from Ruby Tandoh, The Guardian)

150g dark chocolate
125g salted butter, cubed
zest of 3 limes
3 large eggs, separated
200g caster sugar
70g plain flour

Heat the oven to 170 degrees and thoroughly grease a silicone mould. (Ruby uses one 22cm loose bottomed cake tin lined with baking paper...this will be a lot easier to remove than individual mini cakes from a silicone moulds - the choice is yours)!

To start, melt the chocolate over a pan of barely simmering water, or on a low temperature in the microwave for short bursts.

Into the melted chocolate, stir in the butter and zest until fully melted. Set aside to cool.

Whisk together the egg yolks and 100g sugar until creamy and pale in colour.

In a clean, dry bowl whisk the egg whites until foamy. Whilst continuing to whisk, add the remaining 100g sugar a spoon at a time, whisking well after each addition. Continue until the mixture leaves a soft, glossy peak.

At this point, you'll have all three bowls on the go! To combine them...

Fold the egg yolk mixture into the chocolate mixture. Now fold a third of this into the egg whites until just combined. Add the next third, and so on.

Sift in the flour, gently fold until just combined - it this stage its really important to keep as much of the air in the batter as possible. Add the remaining flour by sifting into the bowl and fold once more.

Spoon the wobbly, light batter into the tin/mini cake moulds.

If you choose to make individual mini cakes, bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. For one 22cm cake, bake for 30 - 35 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin before turning out.

Serve with a drizzle of chocolate ganache.

Find my recipe on Supergolden Bakes #cookblogshare

Brownie Bowls

Here's one of those recipes you'll see floating around Pinterest and the like, brownie bowls. Quick and simple to make with nothing other than cupcake trays and your favourite brownie recipe.

Chocolate brownies
(Recipe adapted from Jo Wheatley's 'A Passion for Baking')

100g dark chocolate, chopped
85g milk chocolate, chopped
115g unsalted butter, diced
300g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, beaten
100g plain flour
50g self raising flour
30g cocoa powder

Two cupcake/small muffin trays
Your choice of ice cream and toppings

Grease the cups of one cupcake/small muffin tray and the underside of the second tray. Heat the oven to 170 degrees.

Melt the dark chocolate, milk chocolate a butter together in a large heatproof bowl either gently in the microwave or set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Once melted, stir until smooth and leave to cool slightly.

To the chocolate and butter mix, add the sugar, vanilla and eggs and combine. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder and mix until smooth.

Divide the brownie mix between the cups of the first cupcake tray filling each about two thirds full. Gently place the second tin on top and bake for 30 minutes.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and gently take of the top tray. Leave to cool fully before serving with ice cream and your choice of toppings.

Onken: Strawberry Yogurt Eton Mess

When the invite slipped into my inbox for a second, more intimate, masterclass with Onken and Lisa Faulkner I was more than excited. After the last event in April myself and fellow foodies learnt some simple and inventive ways of using yogurt in everyday cooking. Some of the recipes we learnt have even become weekly staple meals for me!

This time round we gathered at the gorgeous Ham Yard Hotel for an indulgent 'Treat Yourself' evening in which Lisa showed us how to make seasonal dessert dishes with the Onken fruits range. These included Creme brulee, Eton mess, smoothies and ice lollies.

Its always lovely to have everything perfectly prepped and ready for you...with a glass of Prosecco!

You can find all of the recipes (including the Creme Brulee shown above) on the Onken website, here.

My favourite recipe of the evening was Eton Mess made with Onken fat free strawberry yogurt. A lighter, fresher twist on the traditional using yogurt instead of cream. Perfect for summer evenings and it looks great served in wine glasses.

After a long day travelling back from the Cotswolds on Sunday, I made my own to enjoy.

Onken Strawberry yogurt Eton Mess
(Recipe from Onken, serves 4)

3/4 punnet of strawberries (roughly 180g)
3/4 punnet of blueberries (roughly 180g)
25g sugar
1 lime
1 pot (450ml) Onken Fat Free Strawberry Yogurt
6 readymade meringue nests
100g chopped hazelnuts

Place two thirds of the hulled strawberries and two thirds of the blueberries in a small pan with the sugar and a squeeze  of lime. Warm slowly on a low heat until soft. Crush with a fork until smooth and chill.

Mix the remaining fruit, chopped, in a bowl with the yogurt and two crumbled meringue nests.

Divide the chilled puree between four glasses and layer over the yogurt mixture.

To finish, crumble over the remaining meringue nests, some fruit and a sprinkle of hazelnuts.

Feel free to use other fruit or any nuts of your choice. I used strawberries and raspberries in mine and some desiccated coconut.

Marmite Rolls

It's completely true, you either love it or you hate it. In my case, I love it.

   I'm a hoarder of recipes from neatly indexed magazines and books to a bursting folder of internet bookmarks. With the intention of actually getting around to baking them all sometime...Most often, sometime never comes.

   When I spotted a mention of this recipe in Olive's 10th Birthday edition (we're talking Autumn time last year), I'd already sussed the contents of my cupboards in order to bake these cheesy delights the very same day. For some reason, these rolls have stayed in my drafts ever since. This is by no means a reflection on how great they taste, because they truly are quite something.

   If you love Marmite then you'll love these cheesy delights. Although, the half of my family who strangely don't like it enjoyed these rolls just as much as I did.

Marmite rolls
(Makes 12, recipe from Lulu's Notes)
     600g plain flour
     360ml water
     12g salt
     12g fresh yeast
     125g Marmite
     300g grated mozzarella

• For the dough, place the flour, salt and yeast in a bowl and mix well. Slowly add the water and mix until smooth. Leave to rest in the fridge for 5-8 minutes to precent it from proving and becoming too sticky to roll later.
• In a small bowl put the Marmite, add a small quantity of water and mix well until it becomes smooth and runny. This will make spreading the Marmite on the dough a bit easier.
• Lay the dough flat in a rectangular shape. The thickness of the dough should not be above half a centimetre. Start spreading the Marmite evenly over the dough, leaving an empty gap of about a centimetre on the edge that is directly in front of you.
• Sprinkle the mozzarella on top of the dough and then start rolling your dough from the edge furthest away from you. The rolling does not have to be too tight, but also be careful that it's not so loose that Marmite will run down the tray. You can pinch the closure line just to make sure it will stay properly sealed. Cut your roll into individual pieces and lay them flat on a baking tray.
• While your rolls are proving, heat your oven to 210 degrees and add an ovenproof bowl of water inside to create some steam. Once the rolls are about one and a half times their original size, remove the water from the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. 

Lemon and Chia Seed Muffins

Chia seeds are a great replacement for poppyseeds in these lemon muffins.

The seeds are super nutritious, full of fibre, protein and omega-3 fats. Sourced from a flowering plant native to South America, these were a staple in the diets of ancient Mayans and Aztecs known to improve the energy and stamina of their warriors.

Coconut and Lime Bundt

During my university years, my flat mates and I decided that we'd make our own coconut water. All the trendy drinks in the shops were far too expensive, and being students, we decided to be frugal.

I'd seen someone crack open a coconut before, how hard could it be?

How to: Hollandaise

Not exactly the best thing to make to go with your Sunday brunch in a swelteringly hot kitchen. But I like to think its worth it, and I'm sure your eggs do too!

For a change, I made a little gif of the process - this includes all the mess I made and rescuing the too-hot mix with some ice cubes!

Coffee Hazelnut Amaretto Cake

This is the biggest cake I've made in a while. So big that I was too scared to transport it in the car over to my Mum's for her birthday. Although it now gives me the perfect excuse to buy another cake box especially for 3-tier cakes. Lakeland, I'm coming for you!

This cake is perfect for special occasions, a chocolate hazelnut sponge, amaretto coffee buttercream, chocolate meringue sand and a drizzle of chocolate ganache to finish.

Hello Fresh UK Review

Last week I tried out a Hello Fresh box to keep me going during a second week of night shifts at work. Although I had plenty of time in the afternoons to go food shopping, I decided to order in the box and let Hello Fresh do the hard work for me!

And here's how I got on...