Toffee Apples - Bonfire Night

Hi guys, so it's Bonfire night once again and in our books, one of the most Autumnal and festive nights of the year! We love this time of year and all of the accompanying traditions that it has - so, to be as traditional as possible, we have bought you our foolproof classic - Toffee Apples!

Makes 8

Ingredients:
100ml Water plus extra for boiling to cover apples
450g Golden Caster Sugar
2 tsp vinegar
4 tbsp Golden Syrup
8 Eating apples of your choice - not huge ones!
A dash of red food colouring

Method:
1. Place apples in a large bowl and pour over some boiling water to cover. This will remove the waxy coating and help the caramel to stick. Dry and twist off any stalks. Push a wooden skewer or lolly stick into the end of the apple where the stalk used to be.

2. Lay out a sheet of grease-proof paper (baking parchment) and place the apples on this. Tip the sugar into a pan along with 100ml water and put on a medium heat. Cook for 5 mins until the sugar dissolves, then stir in the vinegar and syrup. Set a sugar thermometer in the pan and boil to 140°C or the 'hard crack' stage. If you don't have a thermometer you can test the toffee by pouring a little into a bowl of cold water. If it hardens instantly and, when removed, be brittle and easy to break, it is ready. If you can still squish the toffee, continue to boil it. Quickly stir in the food colouring.

3. Working quickly and carefully, cover each apple in the hot toffee by dipping them in, let any excess drip away, then place on the baking parchment to harden. You can heat the toffee a little if it starts to set before you have finished using it. Leave the toffee to cool before eating.

Enjoy as a treat any time of the year or as a traditional Autumnal snack!

*You can use bright red and dark green food colourings (not both at the same time, but in separate toffees) to create some Christmassy festive treats!*

Fruit Punch

As you all know it was Halloween last night! Aside from all of the creatures, costumes and candy we were busy cooking up some Halloween treats! This fruit punch is an easy alternative to the more complicated variations. We served this up as a festive Halloween treat however it's a delicious drink all year round! If you're using this recipe in the summer, just add a few ice cubes at the end! Enjoy...

Ingredients:

2x 1 litre cartons of still (or sparkling), Carribean Fruit Punch

1x Bottle of Diet Lemonade

A few lashings of Grenadine Syrup

Sliced Lime, Lemon and Orange 

Ice (Optional)

Method:

1. Pour the fruit punch into a punch bowl.

2. Top up with lemonade to an inch below the rim.

3. Pour a few lashings of grenadine syrup into the mixture.

4. Stir gently and carefully with a wooden spoon, make sure the mixture doesn't seep over the sides.

5. Cover the top of the punch with some sliced citrus fruits.

6. Let the fruit punch chill for 1-2 hours in the fridge before serving.

7. Serve with a ladle, if you want throw in a few ice cubes!

8. Enjoy your fruit punch!

Grenadine syrup can be hard to find, Amazon sell it here quite cheaply :

Win! Win! Win! - Our first competition!

Hey Everyone, and welcome to Recipease if this is your first time here! This post is to announce the information about our first ever competition that we are holding here on Recipease. I hope you will all enter and we all wish you the best of luck - there are some really amazing prizes!!

You could win:

1st Prize: A copy of Claire Ptak's 'The Home-Made Sweet Shop ' (1 of this prize available)

2nd Prize: A set of cooking utensils, including a '6 tray' silicone cupcake tin! (2 of this prize available)

All you have to do in order to be in with a chance of winning these prizes is:
1. Comment on this post
2. Follow us on Bloglovin (http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4121683/recipease - it's really simple to sign up to!) or just follow our blog with your google account if you have one!
3. And finally, submit a recipe of your own using our 'Submit a Recipe' service on one of the pages at the top of the blog. This recipe should be a Dessert or 'Sweet' recipe and ideally include a picture that you have taken yourself, but this is not strictly necessary. The name you provide in the form should include your Bloglovin username or Google account name in brackets so that we can check that you have met all the requirements to enter!

eg. Name: John Smith (johnnysmith12)

The best and most original/interesting recipe we will pick as a winner! We will announce the deadline once we are getting a sufficient number of entries - but don't worry, you will be told!

You may submit as many recipes as you wish to be entered.

So - Good luck to you all and thanks for reading!!

Light and Fresh Farmers' Market Pasta Toss

As featured on: http://www.jillyinspired.blogspot.co.uk/

**A few notes about this recipe. You can swap out the fresh pasta for regular dried. You can add cannellini beans or sautéed chicken or shrimp for added protein. You can use dried and/or fresh basil instead of the oregano and parsley. I use scallions here because they're easier to chop, they're less harsh and allow for the flavour of the veggies and lemon to shine. Serve it with a sprinkling of feta, Parmesan, shredded mozzarella or fresh mozzarella. It makes an entire large pot full and reheats well for work-week lunches or dinners. Experiment, have fun and eat the rainbow!**

You'll Need:
24 oz fresh pasta, I used fettuccine, cooked according to the package directions.
4 tablespoons of olive oil, plus more for drizzling. I used extra virgin unfiltered.
2 pints of cherry tomatoes, sliced or quartered depending on their size
4-5 scallions (spring onions), diced
2 small to medium zucchini (courgettes), chopped into small pieces
2 small to medium yellow squash, chopped into small pieces
1 fresh red chilli pepper seeded and diced or a pinch of red chilli flakes. (optional)
1 lemon, zest the lemon and reserve. 
1/2 cup of olives, you can pit them if you feel like it.
1 teaspoon of dried oregano, when adding it to this dish, rub it between your fingers to release its flavour.
Sea salt or kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
A handful of flat leaf parsley chopped
Crumbled Greek feta, fresh mozzarella, shredded mozzarella or Parmesan for serving
Crusty bread or garlic bread for serving

Method:
Place a large pot of water on the stove and cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.

Meanwhile, sauté the scallions (spring onions) and the chilli (if using) in the olive oil with a pinch of salt and pepper in a large non-stick skillet on medium/medium high heat until soft. Add the zucchini (courgettes) and yellow squash with a bit more salt and sauté until tender-crisp. Covering the pan helps to cook them. The zucchini and yellow squash should be cooked, but not mushy. They should retain their bright colours  Be careful how much salt you add because the olives you will add are salty. Add the tomatoes, olives and oregano, lemon zest. Warm the tomatoes and the olives through. You don't have to cook the tomatoes too much. You want them to be whole and barely cooked. Adjust salt and pepper. 
Toss the pasta with the veggies and add a drizzle or two of olive oil and some squeezes of fresh lemon.
Garnish with fresh parsley.

I used my favorite eco-friendly nonstick Scanpan for this recipe. You can heat the pan up without oil or with very little oil. It's the best nonstick pan I own!

Submitted by: Jilly Inspired

Day of Preservation

Hey guys and welcome to our first 'update' post from us, the Recipease team! Jim is currently busy in the kitchen whipping up loads of pickles, preserves and chutneys for Christmas - so expect to see some preserving recipes and pictures coming your way very soon! (We are glad we're not at his house, as we have heard that his whole neighbourhood smells of vinegar at the moment! Hehehe!)

In other news, this Christmas we are releasing a new recipe every day in December as part of our Recipe advent calendar, so that you can have all your Christmas food wishes come true!!

Go to our 'news' tab to keep update with changes and additions to recipease!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for new posts coming your way soon!

The Recipease crew.

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

As featured on: http://www.kategowing.blogspot.co.uk/
and: http://www.jimmerickstheblog.blogspot.co.uk/

As this is someone else's recipe that we haven't made any significant changes to, We are going to link the posts where the recipes for the cupcakes, icing and caramel can be found on Kate's blog - it really is worth a looking at anyhow - and we will just pop a few of the pics that we took of our finished products below. It honestly is an amazing recipe, and is so easy to make - the caramel was surprisingly easy to whip up also, especially for such a useful and delicious ingredient.

The caramel can be used for so many different things: coffee, cakes, ice cream topping etc.

So, go and have a look at Kate's Blog! Thanks!

Kate's Blog 
Her Salted Caramel Recipe
Her Cupcakes and icing recipe

Our Cupcakes:

Black Olive Tapenade

This olive spread is from provence, it's lovely as an appetiser or light lunch. Also works great on a platter, be creative and impress your guests with this tapenade paired with some other Mediterranean delights! 

Makes around 1 ½ cups

Ingredients:
1 can Black Olives (Pitted), drained
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2. tbsp Capers, drained
2 Cloves Of Garlic, peeled
2 Anchovies
¼ tsp Black Pepper

Method:
1. Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender.
2. Process until finely chopped.

Serve spread onto crackers or French bread and relish the intense flavour of this easy paste!

Indulgent Chocolate Sauce

Ultra simple, indulgent chocolate sauce which can be used for 100's of different recipes, Enjoy!

Ingredients:

225g dark chocolate

80g caster sugar

120ml double cream

60ml hot water

Method:

1. Brake up the chocolate into small pieces.

2. Put all of the ingredients in a saucepan.

3. Place on a gentle heat.

4. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the sauce is hot.

Eggs Benedict

We put our own little spin on this recipe to enable it to be made more easily at home and with ingredients that most households are likely to have. We did this on a slice of bread, as it is more likely (and just as good) that you will have this in your cupboard than with the traditional base of half a bread muffin.

The ultimate satisfaction is at the end, when you get to cut through the layers of bacon, egg and hollandaise sauce and the egg oozes out!

** Tip: We made this recipe to include 3 egg yolks, as it is always easier to make the hollandaise sauce with more ingredients than with less **

Ingredients:

A slice of bread

A few rashers of bacon

2 whole eggs

A pan of simmering water

White Wine vinegar for the boiling water

For the Hollandaise Sauce:

3 egg yolks

1 tsp White Wine vinegar

2 tsp lemon juice

75g butter, melted

Salt and pepper 

Method:

1. Get a pan of water over a hob and heat until simmering

2. Whisk the egg yolks in a glass bowl over the pan of hot water - make sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water!

3. Add the dashes of white wine vinegar and lemon juice and continue to whisk.

4. Once the egg yolk mix is slightly lighter in colour (this doesn't take too long after the previous step) start to slowly add the melted butter, whilst still stirring - you can add this a little at a time.

5. The mixture should now start to thicken - once it resembles the consistency of a loose mayonnaise, take off the heat and add the salt and pepper.

6. Now for the fun part - tasting! Taste the mixture and you can now add more lemon juice, salt or pepper to your liking.

7. Into the boiling water still on the hob, you can add a dash of the vinegar and then crack a couple of eggs and begin to poach them to your liking (about 5 mins for a medium-hard yolk)

8. Put a slice of bread into the toaster and start to grill a couple of rashers of bacon.

9. Once the toast is ready, the eggs and bacon should be finished. Lay the slice of toast on your plate of choice (this can be a pretty plate if you so desire) and then put the rashers of bacon ontop.

10. Using a ladel, scoop the eggs out of the water and drain off all water. Place eggs on top of the bacon and then generously drizzle over your hollandaise sauce.

Enjoy!!

** Tip: You can add some finely chopped shallots to the egg yolks at the same time as the lemon juice and vinegar and then some shredded tarragon once off the heat, to make béarnaise sauce which can be served with steak (or is really nice to dip crusty bread into I seem to find) **