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) **

Hash 'n' Eggs

Ingredients:

2 Large-ish potatoes, cut into wedges

1 tbsp Sunflower Oil

1 Onion, peeled and sliced

1/2 a can of corned beef

A squirt of Tabasco sauce

2 Eggs

Salt

Pepper

Method:

1. Boil potatoes for 10-15 minutes, until tender, drain well.

2. Heat oil in a frying pan and add the onion.

3. Fry until golden.

4. Cut potatoes into small chunks, add to the pan and fry, without stirring too much, until crispy on the edges and underneath.

5. Add the corned beef, crumbled, and a squirt of Tabasco.

6. Stir for a few minutes.

7. Make 2 dips in the mix and crack an egg into each.

8. Put a lid on the pan a cook till the egg is set.

9. Season and serve.

Pancake Toppings - Sweet Strawberry Topping

Sweet Strawberry Topping:
6-8 large strawberries
1tbsp sugar
3tbsp milk/cream

1. Whiz the strawberries with a hand blender or push through a sieve with the back of a spoon into a bowl.
2. Stir in the sugar.
3. Stir in the milk/cream

Enjoy ontop of scotch pancakes on pancake day! (Or any day for breakfast)

Scrambled Egg Special

Ingredients:

3 eggs

500g cheese, grated

1 tsp Dried thyme

1/2 an onion, chopped

4 slices of ham, chopped

1/2 yellow pepper, chopped

Salt and Pepper to season

Milk as much as you need to make the basic scrambled egg

Method:

1. Crack the eggs into a pan.

2. Add a little milk.

3. Heat and add more milk until you get a basic scrambled egg, keep stirring

4. Add in the cheese and stir.

5. Add the chopped pepper, onion, ham and thyme and keep stirring.

6. Season and serve immediately.

Simple Scotch Pancakes

Ingredients:
120g self-raising flour
30g caster sugar
1 egg
1/4 pint milk


Method:
1. Sieve the flour into a bowl and then mix all the other ingredients together, whisk out all lumps.
2. Bring a frying pan onto a medium-high heat with a tiny bit of sunflower oil.
3. Drop tablespoon amounts of the pancake mixture into the pan, you can probably fit 2-3 in the pan at any one time, and cook on each side for about 1 1/2 mins or until golden brown.
4. Lay all pancakes out on a plate and cover with a tea towel between every batch until ready to serve.

Banana Choc Chip Cookies with Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

2 Bananas

175g Unsalted Butter Cut Into Pieces

175g Demerara Sugar

2 Eggs, Beaten

175g Plain Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

100g Jumbo oats

2x 100g Bars of Chocolate Cut Into 1cm Chunks

600ml Semi Skimmed Milk

3tbsp of Drinking Chocolate Powder

In a can Squirty Cream (As Required)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°c, gas mark 4. Lightly grease or line 2 large baking sheets. Peel the bananas and slice. Place in a food processor with the butter, sugar and eggs and process until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder and oats and blend until well combined. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in 150g of the chocolate chunks.

2. Drop heaped tablespoons of the mixture on to prepared baking sheets, spacing them well apart (you may need to bake the cookies in batches if they will not fit comfortably on two sheets). Bake for 15-20 minutes, moving the trays around once during cooking to allow for even baking, until the cookies are lightly golden and still slightly soft to the touch. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

3. If making the hot chocolate, heat the milk in a small pan, then stir in the remaining chocolate chunks and the drinking chocolate powder. Whisk gently with a balloon whisk until the chocolate has melted, then pour in to 4 small cups. Top with a swirl of the cream and dust with a little extra drinking chocolate, and serve with cookies!

Makes: 30-32 Cookies

Prep time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Cooks tip:

These cookies are best eaten on the day they are made. If 30 cookies are too many, freeze some of the dough for up to 3 months in an airtight container. Simply defrost as required  and cook as above.