Cooking with Cathryn Dresser Baking Videos

With summer fast approaching, getting food on the table everyday isn’t easy as we find ourselves longing to spend less time in the kitchen and more time outside with friends and family.

Thankfully, Great British Bake Off contestant and mummy baker, Cathryn Dresser knows just how you feel and together with Sun-Maid Raisins has created three exclusive new recipe videos, proving that even the quickest and easiest of recipes can be enjoyable for the whole family.

The recipes include Cathryn’s nutritious and delicious Honey Nut Cereal Bars, which are great for those rushed mornings as a breakfast on the go, or a lunchbox snack.

When you’re snuggled up on the sofa with a cuppa, Cathryn’s Snickerdoodle biscuits make for a perfect treat that will satisfy your sweet tooth and can be enjoyed by all the family.

To watch Cathryn Dresser make these deliciously tempting recipes, take a look at the videos below and let’s bake!

Honey Nut Cereal Bars Recipe

Honey Nut Cereal Bars Recipe

MAKES 12 – 15 MINUTES PREPARATION – 30 MINUTES COOKING

Ingredients

100g butter, plus extra for greasing

200g Porridge Oats

100g Sunflower Seeds

50g Sesame Seeds

50g Chopped Walnuts

3tbsp Honey

100g Light Muscovado Sugar

1tsp Ground Cinnamon

50g Sun-Maid Raisins

50g Dried Cherries

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Grease and line the base of an 18 x 25cm baking tin.

In a separate roasting tin, mix the oats, seeds and walnuts in a separate tray, then pop them in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes to toast. Meanwhile, warm the butter, honey and sugar in a pan, stirring until the butter has melted and the sugar has mostly dissolved. Add the toasted oats, nuts and seeds, cinnamon, Sun-Maid Raisins and dried cherries, then mix until everything is completely coated.

Tip into the prepared tin, press down lightly, then bake for 30 minutes. Cool in the tin before cutting into 12 bars.

Snickerdoodle Biscuits Recipe

Snickerdoodle Biscuits Recipe

MAKES 20 – 15 MINUTES PREPARATION – 10 MINUTES COOKING

Ingredients

240g Unsalted Butter, Melted

180g Soft Brown Sugar

100g Caster Sugar, plus extra for rolling

1 Egg

1tsp Vanilla Extract

½tsp Cinnamon, plus extra for rolling

1/2tsp Baking Soda

50g Sun-Maid Raisins

1/2tsp Cream of Tartar

1/2tsp Allspice, plus extra for rolling

Pinch of Salt

300g Plain Flour

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3, and grease a large baking tray.

Melt the butter and add the sugars. Beat the egg well, then stir into the butter and sugar mixture. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, Sun-Maid Raisins, cream of tartar, allspice and salt. Mix well. Add the flour gradually mixing well each time.

In another bowl, mix the extra cinnamon with the extra caster sugar – approximately one teaspoon of cinnamon to one tablespoon of sugar. Form the cookie dough into small balls about the size of a walnut and roll in the cinnamon/sugar mix before placing on the prepared baking tray.

Remove from the oven, leave to cool on the baking tray for two minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool properly.

White Chocolate and Sun-Maid Raisin Fudge Recipe

White Chocolate and Sun-Maid Raisin Fudge Recipe

MAKES 15 – 20 PIECES – 5 MINUTES PREPARATION – 20 MINUTES COOKING

Ingredients

500g Golden Caster Sugar

500ml Double Cream

3tbsp Liquid Glucose

140g White Chocolate, roughly chopped

100g Sun-Maid Raisins

Method:

Line a 22cm square non-stick tin with baking parchment.

Put the caster sugar, double cream and liquid glucose in a pan. Heat slowly, stirring continually, until the sugar melts. Now turn up the heat and fast boil the mixture until a small amount dropped into a glass of cold water sets. Turn off the heat and keep stirring for five minutes, or until the mixture starts to thicken. Sprinkle in the white chocolate and Sun-Maid Raisins and very briefly swirl through the mixture.

Pour into the tin and leave to set overnight, then turn out and cut into squares.

What’s your favourite?

My Skincare Secrets By Nakita Grewal

I’m going to share a skincare secret of mine, well of my mums. As the teenage years approached me I battled with the dark side of teenage acne, I tried skincare product after skin care product, spending from a few pounds into hundreds but I never found a product I was satisfied with. Not only was my skin breaking out but I also have the great honour of having dry sensitive skin so I have to be very careful with what I put on my face. After another failed battle in my war to control my breakouts, my mum made me a home remedy, a lemon and honey facemask. She never shared this with me before due to the sensitivity of my skin and how the lemon may react but since I tried anything and everything that I could find, there was no harm in trying this.

kate bosworth, beauty, skin., skincare

Get great skin like Kate’s.

 

It is a very quick and simple mask squeeze the juice of a lemon and mix it with honey in a bowl and apply to your face for about 10 – 15 minutes. After trying this the first time I’ll be honest I wasn’t that impressed but after doing this 1 -2 times a week for 3 weeks I noticed a difference I wasn’t having extreme breakouts and my complexion was starting to glow.

The lemon is the important ingredient in this. Firstly it dries up spots, and helps prevent breakouts as it is a natural cleanser. But it doesn’t stop there it helps in aiding an even skin tone and gives you a beautiful glow. But remember if you are using lemon on your face it is very very important to wear sun block as it does make your skin sensitive to the sun.

The honey works as moisturizer and a healer, as the lemon dries up and cleanses the skin, the honey works it magic to prevent over drying of the skin as well as healing the breakouts. These two natural products work hand in hand and leave you with gorgeous looking skin.

Also you can use the same ingredients to make a super face exfoliator by adding sugar. Use the scrub on your face for about 5 minutes going in circular motions to really scrub away at the dead skin cells and revive a new glow.

These techniques have helped me with my battle to control my skin and have worked wonders even with my sensitive skin.

 

What do you think? Do you have any beauty tips?

 

Put Fairtrade First: Great Products With A Clear Conscience

We have tried a range of Fairtrade products from Sainsbury’s and brought you a selection. Their fairtrade chocolate is amazing and the English Breakfast tea is a personal favourite of Frost editor, Catherine. Get your hands on some of the selection below.

This Fairtrade Fortnight (24th February – 9th March), enjoy a selection of treats and everyday essentials from Sainsbury’s, the world’s largest retailer of Fairtrade products. With over 800 Fairtrade products now available in store, £1 in every £4 spent on Fairtrade in the UK is spent in Sainsbury’s.

As part of Sainsbury’s commitment to Fairtrade, all of its bananas, sugar, own label tea, ground and roast coffee and Taste the Difference South African wines are Fairtrade certified, more than any other major UK supermarket. Sainsbury’s is committed to ensuring farmers get a fair price for what they grow and can invest in communities in developing countries such as Kenya or Columbia.

 

Everyday essentials

Sainsbury’s Fairtrade loose Bananas 

 

fairtrade bananas

£0.68/kg  Sainsbury’s was the first major supermarket to sell 100% Fairtrade bananas back in 2007, and nowadays sells an incredible 650 million Fairtrade bananas a year – that’s 1,200 every minute. Sainsbury’s Fairtrade bananas are sourced from farmers in Central and South America, the Caribbean and West Africa where Fairtrade premiums are crucial to many smallholders.

Great bananas to eat with a clear conscious.

 

Taste the Difference English Breakfast Teafairtrade english breakfast tea £2.14/ 80 tea bags Britons drink around 165 million cups of tea a day, so it’s refreshing to know that your everyday cuppa is supporting the communities in which it was grown. This Fairtrade tea is made from selected leaves from India, Rwanda and Tanzania. Sainsbury’s is the world’s largest retailer of Fairtrade products and all its own-label teas are now Fairtrade – including speciality teas. 

 A personal favourite of Frost editor, Catherine

 

by Sainsbury’s Original House Blend Coffee
 

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£2.29/227g
All Sainsbury’s own label roast and ground coffee has been 100% Fairtrade since 2009. Sainsbury’s coffee is sourced from across Africa and South America where Fairtrade premiums are now benefiting thousands of farmers, their families and communities in these countries every year.

 

Great coffee.

 

Tasty treats

Taste the Difference Fairtrade Sauvignon Blanc 2013

fairtrade wine

£6.99/75cl 

 

 

 

100% of Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference South African wine is now Fairtrade, and this fantastic zesty wine was awarded a silver trophy at the prestigious IWC awards in 2013. 

This elegantly balanced wine is made with exceptional care to preserve the flavours of crisp lemon and lime, green pepper, gooseberry and tropical fruit notes. It’s made for Sainsbury’s at the famous Boekenhoutskloof Winery, which dates back to 1776, from carefully selected grapes harvested from the best vineyards in Malmesbury, Wellington, Robertson and Franschhoek. The fresh and intensely fruity flavours are particularly good with lightly spiced dishes.

 

A brilliant wine.

 Taste the Difference Belgian Fairtrade Milk Chocolate

fairtrade chocolate

 £1.40/100g Sainsbury’s offers a great range of Fairtrade Taste the Difference chocolate, helping to improve the livelihoods of thousands of cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire and the Dominican Republic.

Made for Sainsbury’s in Belgium, this luxurious milk chocolate is smooth and creamy without being too sweet, and melts in the mouth with a delicious caramel flavour.

 

 

Enjoy Sainsbury’s fairtrade products on their own, or try making these Fairtrade Banoffee Tarts at home

 

Banoffee Tarts Recipe

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A crisp pastry base filled with smooth, sweet caramel, and topped with bananas and cream…Naughty but so nice.

Serves 10

Preparation 40 minutes

Cooking 20 minutes, plus 45 minutes chilling time

Ready 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

180g Sainsbury’s British plain flour

120g unsalted English butter by Sainsbury’s, cold from the fridge, cubed

3 tablespoons Sainsbury’s Fairtrade caster sugar

1 medium British free-range Woodland egg yolk by Sainsbury’s, mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water

75g smooth dark chocolate by Sainsbury’s, melted

½ x 397g tin Carnation caramel

2 small Fairtrade bananas by Sainsbury’s, sliced

200ml fresh British double cream by Sainsbury’s

¼ teaspoon Fairtrade ground cinnamon by Sainsbury’s

2 teaspoons Sainsbury’s cocoa powder

 

Method

1.       Sift the flour into a large bowl. Lightly rub in the butter with your fingertips, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, then the egg yolk and water mixture, and use a round-bladed knife to bring everything together.

2.       Use your hands to form a dough, handling it as little as possible. (Alternatively, make the dough in a food processor to save time.) Wrap the dough in cling film, then chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

3.       Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C fan, gas 6. Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 0.5cm, then cut into 6 pieces. Line 6 individual 10.5cm tart tins with the pastry and chill in the fridge again for 20 minutes.

4.       Line the pastry cases with baking parchment and fill with baking beans or uncooked rice. Bake ‘blind’ for 15 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 2 minutes, or until golden.

5.       Pour or brush the melted chocolate around the inside of the tart cases and allow it to harden for 5 minutes in the fridge. Divide the caramel evenly into the pastry cases and top with the banana slices. Whisk the double cream until it forms stiff peaks, then spoon on top of the tarts. Dust with the cinnamon and cocoa powder and serve.

 

Cook’s tip:

This is delicious served with half-fat crème fraîche by Sainsbury’s.

 

Bonnie Marcus Collection Book Reviews

We received two cool books to review from the Bonnie Marcus Collection: Guilt-Free Girl Desserts and Cupcakes & Cocktails. First impressions of the book is that they have a great design. Second is: I am now hungry. And I want a cocktail.

Guilt-Free Desserts is my kind of book. Who doesn’t want to eat dessert without getting fat? It may seem like a pipe-dream but you can make dessert as guilt-free as possible. These desserts are low calorie, there are a lot of figure-friendly recipes. Some of the desserts have fewer than 250 calories each. The book is bursting with great desserts that will make you a domestic goddess. It is hard to choose a favourite but I particularly thought the Banana and Coconut Ice Cream Balls looked amazing.

The book also lets you know what ingredients to add that are super-foods and will make you healthier. This is a stylish book with great dessert ideas.

Bonnie Marcus collection, cupcakes and cocktails, guilt-free desert.

Cupcakes & Cocktails

Cupcakes and cocktails. Just so yummy and they really make a party. This book even helps you match cupcake and cocktail flavours, or make the ingredients clash. There is even cocktail cupcakes to try.

This book should be on every bookshelf. It has a huge amount of cupcakes and cocktails, all delicious. It doesn’t just have recipes, it also has tips on baking. There is also a lower calorie chapter and a chapter entirely on chocolate. Heaven awaits. There are so many to try it will take a while to get through them all. Which is only a good thing as it will be a lot of fun.

 

Bonnie Marcus launched her stylish stationery company, the Bonnie Marcus Collection “Where Fashion Meets Paper®” in 2002 from her dining room table, while expecting her first child.

As a former wedding planner in New York City, Bonnie was well-known for her event planning expertise, and found there was a void in the stationery market in terms of fashion-forward, stylish designs. She decided to combine her passion for fashion (having worked for designer Diane Von Furstenberg) with her love of event planning, and her collection took the stationery industry by storm!

Bonnie’s stylish designs are now available in thousands of retail stores world-wide, and celebrity fans include Cindy Crawford, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross and many others. Bonnie has been recognised as a pioneer for women in business and is proud to be an established partner of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Autism Speaks.

Available from Amazon UK

 

Healthy Pepper And Tomato Soup

Hey Guys

So the cold nights are still here. So here’s something hot, sexy and simple……NO not me.

But my red bell pepper and tomato soup that only takes a few easy steps to follow.

This will warm even the coldest of hearts and the bits bits are not only is it simple to make but you can even add to it.

But here it is Below

2 large red bell peppers, 5-7 tomatoes, 1 large red onion, 5 garlic cloves, salt & pepper in a over try with coconut oil.

Roast for between 30-40 mins or until soft and slightly charred.

500 mils of stock

all added in to a blender and go for it but then you can add anything you want like

You can also add into the mix chilli, ginger, cream, a bit of dark chocolate….anything you like. I even had mine with a home made chicken wrap.

Enjoy and remember to like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter

Kettlebell Strength

 

tomato-soup

 

 

A Cocktail Fit For A Royal

5AE6AE33-DE0D-4841-9728-65DAFA2B805ETo celebrate the arrival of Zara Phillip’s first child, a Royal baby girl who is sixteenth in line to the throne, Gallo Family Vineyards created a celebratory The Mini Monarch cocktail using Gallo Family Vineyards Summer White.

The Mini Monarch has sumptuous flavours of ripe apple, pear and citrus with subtle floral notes. Muddled with fresh strawberries, vodka, lemon and basil, this delicious cocktail is perfect for any royal celebration.

The Mini Monarch

6 oz. Gallo Family Vineyards Summer White

1 oz. vodka

5 Strawberries – keep 1 for garnish

1-tsp sugar

1 sprig basil

1 ounce lemon juice

 

–       Blend all ingredients, except wine

–       Strain into flute with a strawberry at the bottom

–       Top with Gallo Family Vineyards Summer White

 

Gallo Family Vineyards Summer White has an RRP of £6.99 and is available from UK retailers including ASDA, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Co-op.

 

How To Make Steak And Ale Pie

The first thing you need to know about making steak and ale pie is that it takes a long time. I mean hours. I underestimated this the first time I cooked and ended up eating at midnight. The second thing is; if you get it right it is the best pie in the world. My notoriously fussy fiancee loves it, calling it the best pie he has ever tasted. High praise indeed. Here is how you can make someone happy through their stomach.

You will need:

400g braising steak, cut into small, chunky pieces

3 tbsp plain flour

salt and pepper

3 tbsp olive oil

300ml brown ale. I use London Pride.

3 garlic cloves

3 onions

4 carrots

1 fresh or dried bay leaf

A handful of fresh thyme sprigs

300ml beef stock

1 tbsp tomato purée

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar ( I used red wine vinegar the first time, shown in the picture, balsamic vinegar is much better. Use sparingly)

500g mushrooms

A knob of butter

For the pastry: Buy it from the supermarket. Life is too short. You will need two packs of shortcrust or puff pastry.

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To start; chop the onions, garlic, carrots and mushrooms. This will make it easier as you go along. Make sure you cut the beef into bite-size chunks, using a separate chopping board.

Add some olive oil to a pan, add the onions and garlic and cook on a medium heat until golden-brown, then add the beef. Cook the beef until brown and no pink bits are left. Then add the ale, the thyme, bay leaf and season with salt and pepper.

Add the beef stock and then the carrots and mushrooms. Stir and then leave to cook for 90 minutes.

Get a casserole dish and cover the shortcrust pastry (you can also use puff pastry) with it, leaving some for the top. Take the filling and pour into the casserole dish. Put the rest of the shortcrust pastry on top. Cover the top.

Put in a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes at 200C/400F/Gas 6 or until golden brown. Take out of the oven and leave to cool for a little while. Enjoy!

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how to make steak and ale pie

Have a Spook-tacular Halloween With a Blood Berry Cosmo

 

To celebrate Halloween Barefoot Wine has created a spook-tastic and hauntingly delicious cocktail, the Barefoot Merlot Blood Berry Cosmo.

 

Combining the rich berry flavours of boysenberry and cranberry with the sharp tang of fresh lime juice, this dark take on the traditional cosmo cocktail is guaranteed to bring out the ghoulish in guests and make any fright night celebration a spook-tacular occasion.

 

Barefoot Merlot is the perfect rich red for this devilishly tempting cocktail, blending cherry, plum and chocolate flavours for the ultimate blood-like brew.

 

Follow the recipe below to create your own fang-tastic Halloween cocktail:

 

Barefoot Merlot Blood Berry Cosmococktail recipe , halloween

 

2 measures Barefoot Merlot

1/2 measure raspberry syrup

1Ž2 measure blackberry syrup

1 1Ž2 measure cranberry juice

1Ž2 measure fresh lime juice

 

·       Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well.

·       Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge or skewered cranberries.