Maz's Kitchen Ramblings

Cheese Scones

Tue, 28 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Savoury scones are the way to go!

Originally the English scone was baked large round and flat, usually the size of a medium dinner plate (known as a bannock) and griddled before being cut into triangles, these triangles become known as scones. As soon as baking powder made its way onto the baking scene, scones became as we know them today and were ready for the oven.

As a kiwi gal, scones were always something my English mum would bake, but we didn't have clotted cream available in NZ, well not back in my childhood, so she forever told us they weren't right! But our first adventure to the UK as children, we sought out and tasted the infamous clotted cream and our hearts were won over by this amazing bake. As I grew, my palette became more savoury focused, and as a cheese fiend, you can imagine my joy as a young chef finding a recipe for CHEESE scones. So this was a bake I was always going to pass onto my young cooks and bakers, and what a cracking job they did.

In week 4 of the summer term we made gluten free and regular cheese scones, as well as some vegan ones, all equally delicious .

Maz’s Cheese Scones

Serves: 6 approx

Prep time: 20 minutes

Total time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 30g butter (preferably unsalted), cut into cubes

• 125g self-raising flour, sifted with a pinch of fine sea salt

• 1/2 egg, lightly beaten

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 75ml milk

• 65g grated cheese

Method:

1. Lightly butter a large baking tray

2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Rub in the butter with the

fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir through the

grated cheese.

3. Break the egg into a measuring jug and beat lightly, remove half and

then add to the egg, milk until it reaches 75ml on the measuring jug.

Beat lightly to mix. Add to the bowl and mix to a soft dough.

4. Lightly knead the dough until smooth. Roll out until 1 cm thick, cut into

rounds with a pastry cutter and put on the baking tray. Brush the top

with a little of the remaining milk.

5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220C (200C fan/Gas 7) for about 10 to 15

minutes, until risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Serve with lashings of butter

Top Tip: Try adding some finely chopped chives or bacon (oven baked and cut very finely) to the mix

Happy Baking! Let us know how you and your little one got on in the comments section of our blog page.

Get in touch if you'd like to get IN or OUT of your kitchen, Maz and her team will take care of the rest.

contact@mazskitchen.com | 01273 640369 | @mazskitchenltd

Chocolate Cupcakes

Tue, 21 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Cupcakes are a great way to introduce your little cook to the kitchen

Baking is a great way to introduce kids into the kitchen, as I'm yet to meet one who doesn't like a cupcake! When I mention cake in my house, my two boys race one another into the kitchen to don their aprons and try to get the best position in the kitchen (which seems to be closest to the mixing bowl!)

Baking with my own children brings back the fondest memories of afternoons spent at my grandma's house, where there was always a bake in the oven and another ready for decorating. She was endlessly patient and didn't mind how messy we made the kitchen and ourselves, rather just enjoying the process of teaching and creating delicious treats with us. Top tip from my gran as time moved on, was to be prepared before letting us in the kitchen, so things were weighed and bowls were ready, that way she could concentrate on our participation rather than running round looking for the paddle for her kenwood; this makes baking at home or in the workplace with children a smoother and less stressful process, so by all means snag my Grans top tip for your kitchen :)

The extra curricular classes I teach in schools are 50 minutes long, so the girls have come up with some tricks of their own to make sure they get the bakes cooled in good time for their decorating. You'll see in the images below some of the girls didn't quite get theirs cool enough. So if you're tight on time at home and need to get your cupcakes out to guests, take a leaf out of this year 8 students baking book!

Chocolate Cupcakes

Will make : 12 approx

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:

100g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
140g caster sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
40g unsalted butter (essential that it is at room temperature)
120ml whole milk
1 egg
¼ tsp vanilla extract

To decorate

buttercream

Method

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Put the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, a pinch of salt and the butter in a free-standing electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk). Beat on a slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.
Whisk the milk, egg and vanilla extract together in a jug, then slowly pour about half into the flour mixture. Beat to combine and turn the mixer up to high speed, scraping any mixture from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour in the remaining liquid and continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the mixture is smooth. Do not over mix or your cupcakes will be dense and not spongy.
Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until approximately two-thirds full. Bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back when touched and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Meanwhile, make chocolate buttercream or plain buttercream and spread it over the cakes with a palette knife, or pipe using a piping bag.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Will make : 12 approx

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:

200 g all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt (optional)
40 g cocoa powder (about 6 tsp)
40 ml light olive oil/vegetable oil/sunflower oil
110 g brown sugar
200 ml water

To decorate

Vegan buttercream

Method

Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and arrange a baking rack into the middle shelf.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, then add a pinch of salt if you like.
Sift the cocoa powder into the bowl with the flour.
Add in the brown sugar, the pour the oil into the bowl.
Mix all the ingredients gently with a whisk, then slowly incorporate the water and continue to mix until all the ingredients are just combined and your have a smooth lump-free batter.
Divide the batter among a cake tin greased with a little extra oil (you don't have to use paper liners, but if you do, you can skip the greasing step), filling each to 3/4 of the mould.
Bake the vegan chocolate cupcakes in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Remove the cupcake tin from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then remove the cupcakes and top with vegan buttercream, serve at room temperature. Store leftovers into an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Happy Baking! Let us know how you and your little one got on in the comments section of our blog page.

Get in touch if you'd like to get IN or OUT of your kitchen, Maz and her team will take care of the rest.

contact@mazskitchen.com | 01273 640369 | @mazskitchenltd

Saussy Rolls

Tue, 07 May 2019 16:57:57 GMT

Picnic season is upon us! Maz's classic sausage roll recipe will have you and your little cooks the toast of this summers picnic!

With the first of the May bank holiday's behind us, it's time to try Maz's sausage roll recipe to become the toast of your next picnic gathering.

We spent a smashing, if not little chilly, day out at Eastbourne Miniature Steam Railway Adventure Park over the bank holiday weekend. The kids were pumped for the railway ride and the endless fun in and around the different play areas, but for the adults, you've guessed it, we were there for the picnic!

Days out can be expensive as a family, so a great way to tackle that, is to steer clear of the cafes and pre-bought goods and make your own. We had friends loaded with picnic hampers, one containing M&S sausage rolls! We unloaded our goodies, with our boys ready to crack into the sausage rolls they'd helped make earlier that day and eager to share with our friends to see if they liked them. So of course being the grown-ups we are (and not competitive at all) we had to do a taste test, so with little eyes closed and chilly little hands held open, they each got one of the shop brought sausage rolls and one from Maz's Kitchen. An internal sigh of relief, although I knew we'd beat therm(!), the consensus from the kids was that Maz's saussy rolls won the day. With kids back to play, the adults had a turn, and as we'd hoped, there's just no beating homemade and to top it off, at just a fraction of the cost compared to the store brought option.

So for your next picnic, have a go at Maz's Kitchen sausage roll recipe below and let us know how you and your little cooks got on!

Maz's Sausage Rolls

Will make : 16 bite size approx

Prep time: 30 minutes

Total time: 40-45mins

Ingredients:

Packet cumberland sausages
1 onion diced
1 garlic clove crushed
pinch mixed herbs
Squirt tomato ketchup
puff pastry sheet
1 egg whisked

Method:

Squeeze sausage out of casing into bowl
Add onion, garlic, herbs, tomato ketchup
Now SQUISH with your hands until thoroughly mixed
Cut pastry sheet lengthways so you have two long strips and divide sausage mix between the two sheets and roll, glaze the top with the whisked egg and cut to desired size and bake 12-15 mins

YUM!

Top tip:

Choose your favourite sausage flavour and use that for your sausage roll mix

Happy Baking! Let us know how you and your little one got on in the comments section of our blog page.

Get in touch if you'd like to get IN or OUT of your kitchen, Maz and her team will take care of the rest.

contact@mazskitchen.com | 01273 640369 | @mazskitchenltd

St George's Day Biscuits

Tue, 23 Apr 2019 15:16:36 GMT

So it looks like we're early! As this year St George's day falls on 29th April! Oh well these biscuits are too good to make with your little cooks to wait!

Happy St.George's Day or not as it would seem! Politicians were posting away over the Easter weekend to wish everyone a happy St.George's day, but the Church of England had to wade in today to explain why St.George's day doesn't fall on the 23rd April this year, "Church rules state that in order to prevent an overlap with a major festival like Easter, if a saint’s day falls during Easter week, it is “translated” to the following week." ( ITV.com )

But with the Easter holidays over and Maz's Kitchen back in teaching Year 7, 8 and 9's today, the lesson plans were set and you know what, these biccies are too good to miss and unfortunately we don't teach at this particular school on Monday's so, we thought, why not, the cooking classes can't miss out on this tasty baked treat.

If you'd like to try out this recipe with your Little Cook's at home, we'd love to know how you get on :)

St George's Day Biscuits

Will make : 8 biscuits approx

Prep time: 30 minutes

Total time: 40-45mins

Biscuits:

90g Butter

125g Plain Flour

55g Caster Sugar

Glacé icing:

100g icing sugar

1 drop Vanilla essence

Red food colouring paste

Method:

Pre-heat fan oven to 160C
Rub butter into flour to resemble breadcrumbs
Stir in sugar
Bring very crumbly mix together with hands
Roll out to approx 3 mm, cut out into rectangles, 50mmx30mm approx
Bake 8-10 mins
Whilst biscuits baking, make your glacé icing, sift the icing sugar, split the mix in half and add few drops of red food colouring to one half
Once biscuits ready, take out and cool on rack
Ice with white icing using the back of a teaspoon or knife to cover the biscuit and pipe red icing to resemble St George’s flag

Top Tips:

If using colouring paste, just use 1 tip of cocktail stick as it’s very intense, adjust to get the desired red - 1 drop if using liquid
You can add other flavourings to your biscuit mix, try almond essence or orange, lemon zest in the mix and instead of water in the glacé icing, use the juice from the fruit to give it extra flavour

Happy Baking! Let us know how you and your little one got on in the comments section of our blog page.

Maz's kitchen offers school's/groups extra curricular cooking classes, school holiday cookery classes, little and big cooks cooking parties, personal chef for dinner parties, celebrations, hen's parties, gatherings, corporate events and private chef tuition in your home.

Get in touch if you'd like to get IN or OUT of your kitchen, Maz and her team will take care of the rest.

contact@mazskitchen.com | 01273 640369 | @mazskitchenltd

Hot Cross Buns - Tear'n'Share

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Easter Monday and toddler twins down with chickenpox, well then, we bake!

It doesn't always go according to plan, be that in the kitchen or life in general. Take this easter weekend in the Hills-Daniels household, family visiting, big days out planned and then what could possibly go wrong, both our boys come down with chickenpox Easter Sunday. So by Monday, the pox were out on show in full force, so keeping the beasts quarantined, we bake, because baking means fun family times.

Being Easter, we just had to make hot cross buns, this simple, fun recipe can have the whole family getting involved, with good breaks for proving (playing) inbetween, so they don't get kitchen fever. Have a go at the recipe below and let us know how you get on.

HOT CROSS BUNS

INGREDIENTS

BUNS

200ml Full fat milk
100ml Boiling water
1 Tbsp Softened butter
7g Sachet quick yeast
450g Good quality plain flour
2 Tbsp Brown sugar
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Mixed spice
1 Cup currants, sultanas, raisins or a mixture of the three

BUN CROSSES

25g Butter
1/4 cup Water
3 Tbsp Plain flour
1 F.R.Egg

METHOD:

Pour the milk into a measuring jug, add the boiling water and butter and sprinkle on the quick yeast.
Stir and set aside for 10 minutes.
Sift the flour, sugar, salt and mixed spice into the bowl of an electric mixer or into a large mixing bowl.
Add the liquid and fruit. If using an electric mixer, use the dough hook to knead for 7 minutes. If mixing by hand, mix in the bowl to start with, then turn out onto a floured bench and knead for 10 minutes.
Return the kneaded dough to the mixing bowl, grease the bowl with a teaspoon of butter to stop the dough from sticking.
Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size. After the dough has risen in the bowl, lightly form it into a sausage and cut it into 16 pieces.
Form each into a ball and place on a warmed baking tray. Put in a warm, moist place and leave until doubled in size.

8. Crosses : Put the butter and water into a small saucepan over a gentle heat. Heat until the butter melts and the water boils. Remove from the heat and beat in the flour. Add the egg and whisk until smooth. Put this mix into a piping bag and use it to make crosses on the buns.
9. Pipe crosses onto the buns just before baking.
10. Bake at 220C for 5 minutes, then reduce heat to 180C for a further 10 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and, while the buns are still hot, brush with a glaze made by melting a couple of teaspoons of marmalade in the microwave or in a pan over a low heat.

To the batch I made this Easter Monday, I added the zest of an orange and the juice to the mix, this meant I had to add a little extra flour, so when you’re confident in your baking, start adapting your recipes with added twists and flavour combinations, as you never know when you’ll strike kitchen gold! If you'd like to be more confident in the kitchen, get in touch for more details on Maz's private chef tuition in your kitchen.

Maz's kitchen offers school's/groups extra curricular cooking classes, school holiday cookery classes, little and big cooks cooking parties, personal chef for dinner parties, celebrations, hen's parties, gatherings, corporate events and private chef tuition in your home.

Get in touch if you'd like to get IN or OUT of your kitchen, Maz and her team will take care of the rest.

contact@mazskitchen.com | 01273 640369 | @mazskitchenltd

The Alternative Easter Egg Hunt!

Sat, 20 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMT

With easter weekend promising to be a scorcher, you know it’s best to get out and about and wear your beasts (kids or dogs!) out for a hassle free Easter evening.

Harder said than done with the beasties filling up on chocolate all day, especially with so many smashing egg hunts happening around us in East Sussex and further afield. You can check out what’s going on in and around your area from the smashing folk at familiesonline.co.uk

One way my famalam will be tackling the choccy overload this Easter is to hunt for a different kind off egg. We’ve 3-year-old twin boys, so dinosaurs pretty much LIVE in our house and with Rottingdean beach a stones throw from our front door, we’re pretty lucky to have an abundance of dinosaur eggs (ie.rocks/pebbles) to hunt out and decide which old dino they’re from! But thanks to the amazing conservation work being done by the sharktrust.org , we’ll be hunting for ‘mermaids purses’ or shark and ray egg casings, recording our findings and joining the thousands of folk around the world becoming ‘Citizen Scientists’.

“Empty egg cases can help indicate species presence and diversity. By recording your finds, you're helping us to discover more about egg laying species in our waters.” Sharks Trust

And whilst you’re down on your local beach #pickup10. One of the mighty fine local dad's in our area started a community group after the storm that rocked us back in 2014. On seeing all the rubbish that had been out at sea end up on our coastline, spurred him on to create a facebook page to get everyone living in the area to take a bag when you visit the beach and pick up 10 pieces of rubbish. If we all take part in keeping our beaches clean, this will not only make our wonderful local beaches cleaner and safer for us locals, but for the wildlife too.

C leaner beaches, cleaner seas, cleaner food.

A little jaunt down Rotters beach and we found:

3 small spotted cat shark egg cases
1 undulated ray egg case
3 spotted ray egg cases

Not a bad little haul from our first hunt, so get yourselves out onto our beautiful shores and see what you can find amongst the seaweed. And thanks to the sharks trust, the casings were super easy to identify with their app, which you can download via the app or play store via the links.

You can learn about the different types of shark and ray egg cases found on beaches all over the UK, and see more about the hunt via the sharks trust youtube video below ��

Happy Easter!

Rights of this video belong to Discovery UK - subscribe to their YouTube channel via the link

10 things about Maz

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Maz's Kitchen is new to the Brighton & Hove food scene, but Maz certainly is not. She's been a Chef in our fine city since 2004 and before that was cooking up a storm in New Zealand and Australia, so we've asked her 10 questions to get you up to speed about Maz and her new venture.

1. Why on earth did you move from New Zealand?
I wanted to discover what else was out there, New Zealand can feel like it's very far away from the rest of the world, especially Europe. I couldn't wait to get to the UK, although I had heard of the dreaded 'Heathrow injection', which to be fair happens to the best of us, what with all the old traditional pubs serving tasty beer (see how I didn't mention the beer being warm, that's how you can tell Kiwi's apart from Ozzies!)

2. What food do you miss most from New Zealand?
Burger rings and Kiwi onion dip . Although that's probably not selling my cheffing abilities very well, but there you have it, we all have our guilty pleasures!

3. What's been your favourite place to work in Brighton & Hove and why?
The Foragers Pub , where I ended up meeting two of my best friends and certainly two of the most inspiring female Chefs I've ever had the pleasure to work with and learn from. I joined the Foragers as it launched and wow, what an incredible culinary learning curve. It really taught me about seasonality in the UK and what foods we can forage and use to enhance classic dishes.

4. What's your favourite place to eat out at the moment?
Oshio - Korean/Japanese restaurant in the North Laine. On my rare date nights these days, that's the first place we'll try to book into. The food is stunning, simple, fresh, bursting with flavour and goodness.

5. What's your favourite food to cook and indulge in?
As it's coming up to summer time, you'll find me at my happiest with a pinny on, tongs in hand guarding my BBQ. I love to spatchcock a chicken and make a rub for it with paprika, lemon, garlic salt and fresh thyme, let it marinade for 24 hours if you can and then get it over those coals. Being a Kiwi, give me a marinated lamb rack and char that bad boy on the barbie, serve with a Greek salad, garlic bread and Tzatziki. Barbie gold! (If you're unsure of how to spatchcock a chicken, click on the highlighted link above, we just made a quick video to show you how, let us know how you get on in the comments section on my youtube channel )

6. When & why did you move from a standard Chef to a Cooking Tutor?
It made sense to me to make that my next move. Becoming a mum and loving cooking with my boys, it was kind of organic and it gave me a better work life balance, which ultimately means I enjoy my job more. Having the flexibility in my hours and the ability to work with schools, I get to work more regular kiddie friendly hours than that of a chef working double shifts!

7. What's your favourite part of your new role?
I run cooking classes at a girls school and it's been an absolute delight watching the girls really enjoying cooking fresh food, embracing kitchen etiquette and working as a team, like a little kitchen brigade. They even master CACAYG! (Clean and clear as you go.) The washing up does make them cringe, but it's part of being in the kitchen, I don't want them going home and recreating the dishes, only to leave it looking like a disaster zone! It's a great atmosphere, we always have fun, laugh, have a wee dance here and there! They're learning really important life skills without realising, and their growth in confidence in the kitchen from the start of the term to the end is amazing.

8. What can people expect from Maz's kitchen when they hire you or one of your team as a personal chef?
Food cooked with passion made with love. Food of a high standard with some cheeky banter thrown in, oh and of course we won't moan about the dishes, we'll just crack on and get out of your hair as quick as we can, leaving you happy, satisfied and with a spotless kitchen to boot.

9. What can customers expect when they hire you as a private cooking tutor?
Again, food cooked with love made with passion, but this time by YOU! You're going to cook your pinny off, learn some great new recipes, tips and tricks and eat some fabulous food, whether it's a three course meal or freezer fillers. And of course we will always have a laugh and maybe a cheeky glass of bubbles!

10. How can parents get you teaching cooking to their children in school?
Mention it to the school and if possible, get a contact name and email address of the person who deals with extra curricular activities and we'll contact them to see if we can be of service to the little cooks at the school. Alternatively, they can contact us at contact@mazskitchen.com or give us a call on 01273 640369. After first contact, we make a site visit to see what we've got to work with and create a selection of cookery classes to fit in with their budget and time frame. After your first little cooks lesson, expect some tasty treats to be coming home for you to try, never fear if they gobble it all before you get a look in, as we always follow up our cooking classes with recipe and method cards so they can recreate for family and friends. If it doesn't work out at your kiddies school this time around, then don't fret, we can still cook with your little one at your home or party venue, we could even set up a cooking club if you had a group of friends who fancied having a cookery class once a week, fortnight, month.

Maz's kitchen offers school's/groups extra curricular cooking classes, school holiday cookery classes, little and big cooks cooking parties, personal chef for dinner parties, celebrations, hen's parties, gatherings, corporate events and private chef tuition in your home.

Get in touch if you'd like to get IN or OUT of your kitchen, Maz and her team will take care of the rest.
contact@mazskitchen.com | 01273 640369 | @mazskitchenltd