Halloween baking is so much better with eggs fresh from your backyard chicken coop. This pumpkin cheesecake is the perfect dessert to serve to guests. Deceptively elegant but surprisingly easy to make, it’s great for holiday parties because it can be made a day or two in advance.
Sharing this yummy recipe from guest blogger Lisa Steele, Fresh Eggs Daily.
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The school summer holidays are in full swing and there’s no better time to do some baking with the kids! Ruby and Harry decided they would like to make some treats for their Syrian Hamster called Ginny!!
So here’s a simple recipe to make some yummy Crunchy Honey Delights!
Cheerios (sugar-free kind)
Sesame Seeds
Honey
Oats
1. Add sesame seeds and oats into a bowl
2. Crush the Cheerios in a small bag, don’t crush them into dust, just small pieces
3. Add the Cheerios to the sesame seeds and oats and mix together
4. Drizzle honey over the mixture and coat well
5. Use your fingers to mould the mixture into small balls that your hamster can hold,
then put them on a baking tray and into the fridge for 15 minutes
6. Heat your oven to 190 degrees and bake treats for 8-10 minutes and then let them cool completely
7. It’s time for the taste test….. does Ginny like the new treats….?
Ginny loved the Crunchy Honey Delights!
Happy Baking and remember to only give your Hamster little treats once or twice a week!
This entry was posted in Hamsters
We’ve always been fans of a super summer pavlova for dessert, but this year have been rolling up all that yumminess into a meringue roulade that guarantees a taste of all the flavours in every spoonfull!
6 Eggs (whites only)
300g Caster Sugar
25g Caster Sugar for sprinkling
1 tsp Cornflour
1 tsp White Wine Vinegar
400ml Double Cream, whipped
Small jar Lemon Curd (homemade if possible)
2 punnets of Fresh Raspberries
Icing sugar for dusting
1) Preheat the oven to 180c, line a baking sheet with non-stick baking parchment.
2) Whisk the egg whites until they form firm peaks.
3) Sprinkle the cornflour and white wine vinegar over the whisked egg whites then add the sugar steadily whilst still whisking.
4) Spread the meringue mixture onto the lined baking tray.
5) Bake for 10 mins at 180c then turn the oven down to 160c and bake for another 10 mins until the meringue is starting to colour and is firm to touch.
6) Lay a clean tea towel on the work surface, place a sheet of parchment over the top and sprinkle with 25g caster sugar.
7) Take the baked meringue out of the oven and turn upside down on the prepared sugar dusted parchment, remove the baking sheet, allow to cool completely.
8) Once the meringue is cool, peel off the sheet of baking parchment that it was baked on and spread the whipped cream over the whole area of of the meringue.
9) Dollop/spread spoonfuls of lemon curd at regular intervals over the cream and scatter the raspberries on top.
10) Using the parchment paper for support, carefully roll the meringue to resemble a swiss roll, ensuring the parchment and tea towel don’t get caught up in the dessert!.
11) Transfer to a serving platter, dust with icing sugar and enjoy!
Recipe courtesy of Hen Corner
www.hencorner.com
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Recipe courtesy of Hen Corner
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A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun made with currants or raisins, marked with a cross on the top, and traditionally eaten on Good Friday.
This quantity of batter makes 12 buns.
Ingredients:
Recipe courtesy of Hen Corner
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Pancakes are traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday as the last meal before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Historically, people would use up the goodies and treats in their larders before a 40 day fast as they pray and prepare themselves for Christ’s death and resurrection at Easter.
This is a great recipe to enjoy in February as pure breed hens are just coming back into lay and, hopefully, you’ll have eggs aplenty!
This quantity of batter makes 6 pancakes.
200g plain flour
1/5 tsp salt
2 eggs
400ml milk
Vegetable oil (we used organic rapeseed oil)
Sugar and lemon wedges
1) Combine the flour and salt in a large jug, make a dip/well in the middle of the flour and crack the eggs into the well.
2) Begin to whisk the eggs together with a couple of tablespoons of milk starting to incorporate some of the flour as you go.
3) Continue to add the milk a few tablespoons at a time, whisking as you go, gradually incorporating the flour. This will help create a smooth batter.
4) Once all the ingredients are combined, leave the batter to rest for 30 minutes.
5) Preheat a non stick frying pan over a medium heat, brushing the inside with a thin coating of oil.
6) Pour in a small amount of batter and swirl it around the pan for an even coating.
7) As it cooks, watch for the pancake to start coming away from the edges of the pan, then loosen under the pancake with a spatula.
8) Confidently toss your pancake (or carefully turn over) to cook the other side, they are ready once lightly browned each side.
9) Continue cooking the rest of the batter, brushing the pans with a little oil in between each new pancake.
Recipe courtesy of Hen Corner
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Ingredients :
Mincemeat:
500g of dried fruit and nuts
Orange Zest
1 Apple
2 tsp Mixed Spice
1tbsp Honey
100g of Brown Sugar
100g of Frozen Butter
100ml of Brandy
Either buy Sweet Shortcrust Pastry from the store or have a go at making your own.
Pastry:
300g of Plain Flour
150g of Diced Butter
Pinch of Salt
50g of Caster Sugar
Egg Yolk
Dash of Milk
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This entry was posted in Recipes
Ingredients:
100g Dark choc chips
275g Golden caster sugar
165g Dairy free spread
1tbsp Cocoa powder
A sprinkle of Chilli Flakes
A pinch of Salt
5 Eggs
2tbsp of Ground Almonds
Edible golden glitter
Method:
This recipe is one of our favourites: these are Chocolate Chili Triangles. What’s great about this recipe is
that it is gluten free and it is dairy free. So if you’ve got friends who have got a special diet, this is a real top
treat for them. It’s also a very straightforward recipe.
In a heatproof bowl we are putting 100 g of dark
chocolate chips, 275 g of golden caster sugar, 165 g of dairy free spread, 1 big tablespoon of cocoa
powder, a sprinkle of chili flakes and a pinch of salt. This is simply going over some boiling water on the
stove until it’s melted down and we can mix it together.
The second part of the recipe is to whisk together 5 eggs. Once we’ve whisked the eggs together, we’re going to add two tablespoons of ground almonds, and once our chocolate mix is melted, combine the lot together and
bake it in the oven. Just fold it in, for even consistency.
Take a square baking tray, line it with parchment paper, and simply pour in the chocolate mix. This then goes into the oven at a 180°C or 350°F for 35 min.
Take the tray out the oven and allow to cool, then lift the parchment out of the tin.
Now is time to make your chocolate chilli sparkle and shine. Spray the golden glitter across the top of the square, covering it and then cut it into triangles.
They’re certainly something special. Enjoy!
Merry Christmas from Hen Corner and Omlet.
For the full video click here: https://vimeo.com/245899888
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Ingredients:
180g of Ground Almonds
120g of Golden Caster Sugar
Grated Zest of a Lemon
A Pinch of Salt
A tot of Amaretti liquor
2 Egg Whites
1 tbsp. of Honey
1 Handful of Flaked Almonds
Sprinkle of Icing Sugar
This recipe has a special Italian twist to it, It’s an Amaretti biscuit, lovely and chewy on the inside with flaked almonds on the outside, very quick and easy to make. We love this recipe as it uses contributions from both the bees and the chickens at the Hen Corner Urban Farm.
Pour all of your ground almonds into a mixing bowl and add the golden caster sugar. Add the grated zest of a lemon and a pinch of salt. Then we make this biscuit festively merry with a lovely little tot of Amaretti liquor. Give that a good mix with a wooden spoon.
Put that to one side.
Then in a separate bowl mix two egg whites with a tablespoon of honey. It’ll start to look similar to a meringue consistency.
You are then going to fold the egg whites into your almond mix.
You want this evenly combined and then you’re going to pipe it onto a baking tray that’s lined with parchment paper.
Coat the piped formations in flaked almonds and icing sugar before baking in a moderate oven for about 15-20 minutes.
You can either plate them up to pass around on a tray ready to be enjoyed or you
wrap them up with a bit of ribbon to make cute edible decorations, ready to hang them from the Christmas tree.
We hope you have a go at making these yourself, they’re really quite simple and really rather special.
Merry Christmas from Hen Corner and Omlet
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This entry was posted in Recipes
Makes 10
10 Soft boiled eggs
2 lbs of Sausagemeat
6oz Chorizo
1 Raw egg (whisked)
7oz Breadcrumbs
16.9 fl oz of Vegetable cooking oil
Start by boiling 10 eggs for roughly 5 mins, depending on how soft you like your egg, then run them under cold water to cool them down. Tap each egg on a kitchen surface and roll them under your palm, we find this the easiest way to peel an egg. Put the eggs to one side whilst you prepare your sausagemeat. Remove all packaging from the sausagemeat and empty into a large bowl. Finely chop the chorizo and then add it to your sausagemeat. Use your hands to work the sausagemeat and mix in the chorizo. Once you have done this, take a small handful of the sausagemeat and roll it into a ball then flatten it out into a patty in your hand. Place one egg on top of the patty and wrap the meat around the egg as far as possible, take a another small handful of the sausagemeat and patch up the remaining area to form a ball around the egg. Dip the ball in the whisked raw egg mixture, ensure it is all covered. Take a large plate and spread the bread crumbs across it, take the egg soaked ball and roll it around in the breadcrumbs. Repeat this process for the other eggs. Heat a pan of cooking oil until it is at roughly 330 degrees farenheit, make sure the oil is deep enough to cover the eggs and then cook roughly 2-3 at a time for 5 minutes each.
You can serve these hot or cold, as a starter or as a delicious snack, enjoy!
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We all love a good runny poached egg but it’s impossible to cook more than one at a time without them falling apart. Out of all the tricks in the book I have never managed to cook multiple poached eggs so that they all come out perfect. I tried all of the old wives tales you can imagine, spin the water, add vinegar, cook them in deep water, cook them in shallow water. I officially gave up and resided to a life of scrambled and fried eggs….until now.
Behold the champion of all poached egg hacks, the clingfilm technique, huzzah! Below I will take you through this nifty method step by step so that you two can enjoy all the poached eggs you wish for:
1 – Lay out a piece of clingfilm and rip it off the roll
2 – Place the clingfilm over a cup and push the wrap into it slightly, creating a little dip
3 – Pour a small amount of oil into the dip and spread it around the area covering the cup (this makes sure that your egg is easy to remove from the clingfilm later)
4 – Crack a fresh egg into the dip in the clingfilm
5 – Pull each of the corners of the clingfilm up to meet in the middle high above the egg, wist the wrap down to the egg making a seal, it should now look like a pod at the bottom
6 – Repeat for the number of eggs you are cooking
7 – Fill your saucepan halfway and get it to a gentle simmer over medium heat
8 – Slowly drop your bunch of egg pods into the saucepan and time for 3 1/2 minutes
9 – Pull the eggs out and cut the twisted part of the clingfilm off (be careful the eggs and wrap will be hot)
10 – Slowly peel away the clingfilm and place your egg on toast, bacon, gammon, biscuits, pancakes whatever you prefer
Enjoy!!
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As we all try to detox this January, we thought we would bring you some healthy egg recipes to keep you on track with your goals!
Starting with a simple bowl of Scrambled Eggs and Smoked Salmon with Wilted Spinach.
Ingredients:
2 Eggs
Dash of Milk
Knob of light butter/marg
2 slices of Smoked Salmon
Handful of spinach
Pinch of pepper
Crack your two eggs into a bowl and whisk with a dash of milk.
Slowly heat your butter in a non stick pan, once butter has melted, pour your eggs in.
Stir occasionally, after 30 seconds, add your salmon and spinach, continue to stir.
Once the salmon has turned light pink, spinach has wilted and the eggs have started to solidify, remove the pan from the hob.
Allow the heat from the pan to continue cooking the eggs and then pour them either into a bowl or onto some wholemeal toast.
Enjoy!
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This entry was posted in Recipes
Ingredients
2 ripe peeled bananas,
1/2 cup of oats,
2 eggs,
1 tbsp of yoghurt,
Splash of milk.
To cook
1 tsp coconut oil
This is the easiest and quickest breakfast to make if you’re on the go. All you have to do is put all the ingredients apart from the coconut oil in a blender and blend until it’s smooth. Then heat a non stick frying pan with a little bit of coconut oil and then pour or ladle the pancake mixture into small ‘American style’ pancakes on the frying pan. You should be able to fry roughly 2-3 at a time depending on the size of your frying pan. Wait for the pancake to cook on one side, once you start to see air bubbles coming through, you can then flip the pancake to cook on the other side. They should come out golden brown and fluffy. Serve with any fruit of your choice, we personally like them with blueberries and a dollop of greek yoghurt. If you wish to reheat these pancakes at a later date for a healthy alternative breakfast, just pop them in the toaster for a minute for a crisp and warm pancake.
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In recent years people have tried harder and harder to find healthier alternatives to their favourite foods especially if you’re looking for a gluten free substitute. One popular recipe at the minute is a Cauliflower Pizza Base. We decided to test all the hype and see if it really does taste as good as they say!
Having made them, on reflection we think this was a good alternative to a standard pizza base and it’s particularly great for people who can’t eat gluten however if you put a deep dish pepperoni in front of us, you can probably guess which one we would choose.
Pizza Base
Topping
Method
Chop the cauliflower up into smaller chunks and put it in a food processor. Blend it up until it’s a fine crumb.
Take the cauliflower out and place it in the middle of a clean tea towel. Roll the corners of the tea towel up to form a ball at the bottom. Wring the tea towel over a sink to remove all the moisture in the cauliflower. Repeat this process quite a few times, you’ll find it surprising how much water cauliflower contains!
Once you think you’ve removed most of the moisture, empty the cauliflower out into a mixing bowl. Grate your parmesan into the bowl, add the egg and your mixed herbs, drizzle olive oil into the bowl and then mix all the ingredients together until it forms a ball.
You can make roughly 3 medium sized pizzas out of this mix so break the ball of dough into 3 parts and pat each one out into a circle onto greaseproof paper.
Place on a baking tray and bake blind for 10 minutes at 180 degress c to crisp up the bases.
Take the bases out the oven and then you can start adding your toppings. Spread your tomato sauce on the base, sprinkle with mozzarella and cheddar, then it’s time for the fun part!
Go wild with your toppings, add anything that takes your fancy. Be careful not to make the toppings too heavy as these bases are more delicate than your average pizza base.
Place back in the oven for another 10 mins and they should come out golden brown and ready to serve, enjoy!
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This entry was posted in Recipes
Ingredients:
Sandwich:
2 Slices of bread
2 Slices of cheese (Emmental, Gruyere, Cheddar)
2 Slices of thick cut ham
Bechamel Sauce:
25g Butter
1 Tbsp flour
125ml Milk
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
1 Tsp of Dijon mustard
Topping:
1 Large egg
To make the Bechamel sauce slowly melt the butter in a pan on a low heat, once melted, add the flour in parts and beat it with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball. Then slowly add your milk to the pan and keep stirring it over the low heat to keep it nice and smooth. Once you have added all your milk, add your seasoning and leave it to thicken for a couple of minutes. Set the sauce to the side.
Lightly toast your bread under the grill and then butter each slice, layer the cheese and ham on one slice and place the other slice of toast on top. Then spoon your sauce onto the top of the sandwich, place under the grill until it starts to turn golden brown. Meanwhile, put a knob of butter in a frying pan and crack open your egg. Fry the egg but make sure you keep the egg runny, once ready place on top of your sandwich and serve with a side salad.
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This entry was posted in Recipes
Makes 10
10 Soft boiled eggs
2x 500g Sausagemeat
150g Chorizo
1 Raw egg (whisked)
200g Breadcrumbs
500ml of Vegetable cooking oil
Start by boiling 10 eggs for roughly 5 mins, depending on how soft you like your egg, then run them under cold water to cool them down. Tap each egg on a kitchen surface and roll them under your palm, we find this the easiest way to peel an egg. Put the eggs to one side whilst you prepare your sausagemeat.
Remove all packaging from the sausagemeat and empty into a large bowl. Finely chop the chorizo and then add it to your sausagemeat. Use your hands to work the sausagemeat and mix in the chorizo. Once you have done this, take a small handful of the sausagemeat and roll it into a ball then flatten it out into a patty in your hand.
Place one egg on top of the patty and wrap the meat around the egg as far as possible, take a another small handful of the sausagemeat and patch up the remaining area to form a ball around the egg.
Dip the ball in the whisked raw egg mixture, ensure it is all covered. Take a large plate and spread the bread crumbs across it, take the egg soaked ball and roll it around in the breadcrumbs. Repeat this process for the other eggs.
Heat a pan of cooking oil until it is at roughly 165 degrees c, make sure the oil is deep enough to cover the eggs and then cook roughly 2-3 at a time for 5 minutes each.
You can serve these hot or cold, as a starter or as a delicious picnic snack, enjoy!
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It’s one of our favourite foods as a child so why do we forget about it as an adult? What ever happened to taking a soft boiled egg, putting it in a funky egg cup and dipping your soldiers in it? We love it! It makes for a fun breakfast with the family, or a quick tea if you’ve got nothing in the house. These days it’s all about the smashed avocado on sourdough with poached eggs (not gonna lie, we do enjoy this) but sometimes it’s nice to just keep things simple with an Egg and a Soldier.
The Egg
People underestimate the difference a fresh egg can make to the taste of their breakfast. There’s nothing better than walking out to your garden and collecting your freshly laid eggs and putting them straight in a pan. We would definitely vote for a home grown or free range egg vs a small battery egg any day!
Alternatively Duck eggs make great dippy eggs as they have such a large yolk, bear in mind cooking time will take longer and your ratio of soldiers will need to be increased.
The Cup
Half the fun of a dippy egg is choosing your cup! Why not take a look at some of our weird and wonderful egg cups to add to your collection?
The Seasoning
You can either keep it simple with salt and pepper or if you’re feeling adventurous why not add a couple of drops of Tabasco to get your day off to a fiery start? Other suggestions include a dollop of Marmite, truffle salt and paprika. The options are endless, try out some new ones and let us know what you think.
The Soldier
Often not given the respect it deserves, the soldier element of a dippy egg is what makes the meal. You need a strong soldier that’s not going to bend, we would recommend toasted crusty bread, or a standard cut loaf, but make sure that it’s toasted enough to avoid the flimsy bread error. Alternatively you can try out different soldiers instead of bread, for example grilled asparagus wrapped in proscuitto, crudites or crispy bacon, get experimenting!
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Stuck for a lunch idea? What about an afternoon tea? Scones are easy and quick to make, paired with an egg mayo & cucumber sandwich and a steaming pot of tea!
Scones (makes 16)
450g self raising flour
110g butter
55g sugar
2 tsps baking powder
75g sultanas
300ml butter milk
(or 200ml milk – if using milk, add a tsp of lemon juice, as this turns the milk more acidic and reacts with the baking powder to create lighter scones)
* Rub the butter, flour and baking powder together until you have fine breadcrumbs
* Add the sultanas and milk, bring the mixture together using a blunt knife.
(Don’t overwork the dough, you just want to bring it together in a ball)
*On a floured surface, flatten the dough with your hand until it is around 3cm thick.
*Using a 6cm fluted cutter, cut out rounds, bringing the dough together each time until it is all used up.
Place on a baking tray and brush the tops with beaten egg.
Bake for 15 – 18 mins at 220C //Gas mark 7 until golden brown on top and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped with your finger.
Cool on a wire rack.
Serve with jam and clotted cream for an extra special treat!
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This entry was posted in Recipes
No one can deny that the delicious orange yolks from your own hens’ eggs is a sight to behold. Allowing your hens to free range in your garden, feeding on fresh grass is the best way to get those wonderful yolks, but this isn’t always practical in the winter when the grass stops growing. Feeding your hens green vegetables helps them produce these amazing eggs and keeps them happy, so why not try growing a few veggies at home and both of you benefit?
Winter isn’t the best time for sowing crops, but if you start planning now, there are a number of greens that you can grow at home to feed your hens over Winter.
Soak the seeds for 15 minutes in warm water to give them a head start, then plant them 1/2″ deep in previously water soil. I plant around 6-8″ apart to allow the plants to grow well as they can reach quite an impressive size. Water well for the first week or so and protect the emerging seedlings from slugs and snails. The seeds are in a cluster, so you will get at least a couple of plants from each seed.
You can also plant them into individual seed trays and plant out when the seedlings are large enough to handle.
When the plants reach 8′ high, start by pulling a couple of leaves from each plant. Pull the stalk at the base of the plant and they should snap off easily. They are classed as a cut and come again crop, so only take a few leaves from each plant at a time and they will crop over several months.
Swiss chard is very tolerant of cold weather, but if it is very cold where you live, they will benefit form a cover of horticultural fleece to give them added protection. It also grows well in a pot, placing 3-4 plants in a 14″ pot. There are many different types of Swiss Chard, but my favourite is ‘Bright Lights’ which has dark green leaves and thick stems coloured red, orange, yellow and purple. They also make attractive plants in a mixed border.
Kale is a member of the cabbage family and is very tolerant of cold temperatures. Most garden centres now have this winter vegetable as small plug plants available now. For around £2-£3 you can pick up a tray of kale and that should last your hens for the winter.
Kale isn’t demanding, but can grow quite tall, so place them in a sheltered spot or make sure you stake the plants when they reach 12″ + high to prevent them being blown over in the wind.
Plant the plug plants deeply, up to the first layer of leaves and this will help anchor them down. Firm the soil in really well and they don’t do well if rocked around and the roots are disturbed.
Water well for the first couple of weeks and the plants soon start producing dark leaves, that can be harvested in the same way as Swiss chard.
Varieties to try – Red Russian is one of the quickly to start producing leaves. Nero di Toscano produces large dark green leaves and plenty of them.
These little plants grow well in cold weather, but run to seed when it gets too warm, so perfect for growing as a winter crop.
Plant the seeds thinly 1/2″ deep and allow 6″ between plants. Water well and they will soon form little rosettes. Harvest a few leaves from each plant and they will continue cropping over winter.
They are also called Corn salad.
Any cut leaves should be placed into a wire wild bird feeder, similar to the ones that you can put suet blocks into. This keeps the greens off the floor and allows your hens to peck at the leaves.
Dedicating a small area of your garden or a few pots to vegetables, will keep your hens happy all winter. Don’t forget that planting a few extra plants and you can be picking fresh winter crops for your kitchen too!
If you have any questions, please contact me at Tom@Omlet.co.uk
This entry was posted in Chickens
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