Make a Christmas Pomander

With the school Christmas holidays fast approaching I'm always on the lookout for festive craft projects that I can do with with the kids.

One thing we look forward to making every year are our Christmas pomanders. Super easy and fun to make these will go down a treat and leave the house smelling very Christmassy.

You will need

Oranges

Ribbon

Cloves

Cinnamon 

Star anise

Skewer

1) Wrap the ribbon around the orange in any style you want but remember to tie it at the top and leave the loose ends.

2) Use the skewer to pierce the orange where you want to put the cloves then insert them. You could follow a pattern or place them randomly, be as creative as you can.

3) Once your happy with the way the cloves are arranged, attach the cinnamon to the loose ends of the ribbon and tie a know.

4) Slip the ribbon through the back of the star anise and push it down the ribbon to the cinnamon stick.

5) Tie the loose ends into a bow and hang around the house.

That's it, you'll now have some beautiful Christmas decorations and a wonderful smelling house!

                           M xx

Little Monsters Cinnamon Whirls

I'm enjoying just how much little monster wants to bake and as it's part of his learning at school this term, what better excuse!

Here is his recipe for Cinnamon Whirls (in his own words!)

You will need

Puff pastry

75g butter

75g sugar

3 tbs ground cinnamon

A pinch of grated nutmeg

Raisins

Egg

Icing sugar 

Glacé cherries

1- Mix the butter and sugar together until it's all smooth and fluffy.

2- Then you have to mix the cinnamon and grated nutmeg in really well.

3- You have to roll the puff pastry out into a rectangle shape then brush on the creamy butter with cinnamon in it.

4- Sprinkle all the yummy raisins all over the pastry.

5- Roll the pastry into a sausage shape( from the short side)

6- Put it in the fridge and let it get cold for 20 mins.

7- Take the pastry out of the fridge and cut it into 2cm thick slices.

8- Put the slices on a greased baking tray leaving gaps because the pastry grows.

9- Brush with the egg and get an adult to put the tray in the oven.

10- While they're cooking make up the icing sugar into a thick paste.

11- After 25 mins take the cinnamon whirls out of the oven and let them cool down.

12- When they are cool drizzle with the icing sugar paste and finish with a cherry on the too.

They're yummy!

Sam and M xx

Cinnamon Finger Buns #GBBO Week 2 Dough

Every so often the old man and I find a programme that we both really enjoy and make a point of settling down to watch it just the 2 of us and steal a nice quiet snuggle in the process. 

With me loving to bake and him loving to eat my baking we were both very happy to hear that a new series of The Great British Bake Off was back on our screens?!

With the competitors being set a new theme every week I am always encouraged to make something that fits in with the theme for my fiancé to enjoy. So you can imagine how excited I was last night when I stumbled across a blog post over at The Mini Mes and Me, a recipe for cinnamon swirls that was part of a Great British Bake Off bloggers challenge. Intrigued, I read the post very carefully and followed the links to the other blogs which contained all of the details; Mummy Mishaps and The Crazy Kitchen

That was it, I needed no more encouragement, with this week being dough week I scoured all of my recipe books and some of my own personal recipes and narrowed it down to 2.

I opted for the recipe that I hadn't made in a while and one the kids could help with, so without further a do here are our Cinnamon Finger Buns.

Ingredients

7g pack of yeast

1 cup of warm water

300g of strong white flour or bread flour

1 teaspoon of salt

3 heaped tablespoons of brown sugar

100ml oil

 3tablespoons of butter

1 heaped tablespoon of cinnamon

3 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar

Method

1) Firstly mix the yeast and cup of warm water together and set aside

2) Combine the flour, salt and brown sugar in a large bowl

3) Once the dry ingredients have been combined, mix in the yeast and warm water mixture followed by the oil.

4) Knead the dough until it has a shine to it and is smooth(approx 15 minutes)

5) Lightly flour the bowl and return the dough to it, cover and leave it to rise to around twice the size.

6) Whilst the dough is rising, grease and line a sided rectangle baking tray.

7) Once the dough has risen, put it into the prepared baking tray and press it into all of the corners of the baking tray. Using a knife, cut the dough about 2/3 deep, into lengths. Cover and leave to rise for a further 30 minutes.

8) Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees and bake the dough for 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

9) When the finger buns are nearly ready, melt the butter and in a separate bowl combine the cinnamon and icing sugar.

10) As soon as you remove the finger buns from the oven, brush them with the melted butter(use all of the butter)

11) Generously sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar mix all over the finger buns.

Serve whilst still warm, but make sure you take yours first because once the kids get hold of them they will disappear!

Enjoy!

M xx