Frozen Snowflake Iced Biscuits & Christmas Pinnies and Petticoats

Christmas came to Aberdeen's Pinnies and Petticoats Baking Club at the end of November but I'm only now getting round to sharing. Such is the whirlwind of December. My own creation for our festive meet were Frozen themed Snowflake Iced Biscuits. Elsa? Knock, Knock, Knock. Do you wanna eat a cookie?

These came about as a result of a course that I attended run by Karen McCormack of Sucre Coeur. I'd first met Karen back in 2013 when she created an amazing Gingerbread Village for the Crail Food Festival. I'd been stalking her on social media ever since so was delighted to see that she was offering classes and wasted no time booking myself on to "Decorating Cookies with Royal Icing"

I spent a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon in the East Neuk learning the basics of biscuit decorating with royal icing. Karen of course made it all look so easy. Plenty of tips and hints shared along the way the first being to wrap the gap between your mixer and bowl with clingfilm to avoid an icing sugar cloud. Secondly to add small amounts of water to the icing with a plant spray bottle. However the absolute genius tip is to use a clippit to seal off the nozzle of a piping bag as you fill it so the contents doesn't immediately come straight out. This is a lifechanger.

All too soon it was our turn. Firstly paper to practice on, then rich tea biscuits before finally moving onto real biscuits. We were able to try out lots of different techniques and colours and get plenty of advice along the way. I was pretty chuffed with what I managed to create by the end of the afternoon and took my pizza box of cookies home with pride.

All very well decorating under Karen's watchful eye but would I be able to create anything worthy of Pinnies and Petticoats. As always we had a fantastic bumper selection of cakes, bakes and other goodies for our Christmas meet.

Ginger Stars

Gingerbread Men

Stained Glass Ginger Biscuits

Stilton, Parma Ham and Chutney Spindles

Bacon, Brie and Chilli Jam Pinwheels

Goats Cheese & Tomato Pastries

Pigs in Blankets

Chocolate Trees

Cornflake Wreaths

Savoury Candy Canes

Spinach, Cranberry & Goats Cheese Tartlets

Chocolate covered Stollen

Stollen

Snowballs with White Chocolate & Coconut

Sour Cherry Amaretti

Gingerbread Swiss Roll

Yule Log with Maple & Pecan

Bourbon & Honeycomb Yule Log

Gingerbread Latte Fudge

Cranberry & Hazelnut Biscotti

Christmas Pudding profiteroles

Candy Cane Marshmallows

Mincemeat Pies

The secret in decorating cookies is to get the consistency of your icing correct for each different element of your biscuit design. This is the part I worried about getting right at home. I don't have a stand mixer so had to use a handheld one. I was rather short of the right sizes of nozzles and didn't have a plant sprayer that hadn't been used for spraying plants. What's that saying about a bad workman always blaming his tools? I did however manage to use my oven on a very low temperature to dry my work-in-progress biscuits. After some stressful outlining and flooding moments I did finally manage to produce something recognisable as snowflakes and even got a reasonably close colour match to Elsa's dress. Thank goodness for edible shimmer spray and silver balls to bling them up a bit.

The first 2015 meet of Pinnies & Petticoats takes place on 14th January and the theme is to bake something from a book received for Christmas or with equipment/ingredients received. New bakers are always welcome. Check out their Facebook page for all the information. New Year, New Recipes!

Reviews - New in my Kitchen - December 2014

Today I'm sharing some of the new items that I've been sent in the past few weeks for my Kitchen. Nothing in itself edible in this roundup, but all very useful and well worthy of a place in my kitchen. 

Wipe Easy Tablecloths

I've always fancied the idea of an oilcloth tablecloth but for some reason have never actually got round to getting one. Wipe Easy Tablecloths got in touch to offer me one for review and I jumped at the opportunity. Then came the difficult decision. Which pattern to choose? I pondered over a Christmas cloth via an everyday one but in the end let my head overrule my heart and after much deliberation opted for the Alium Teal Oilcloth.

"This is a beautifully fresh and modern design with a Scandinavian influence. With bold flower head colours of teal blue, mustard yellow and charcoal on a natural background, a great all round wipeable tablecloth, that will make a real statement."

I am absolutely delighted with my oilcloth and kicking myself for not getting one much sooner. It arrived via courier on a roll which keeps in in perfect ccondition and crease free during the delivery process. The pattern is stunning and looks very much at home in my kitchen. The cloth is wipeable and water resistant - no washing required. The oilcloth coating stops any fraying but still allows a soft drape effect. There are some items which may stain the cloth (tomato based sauces/curry sauce/ink/shoe polish/nail varnish/lipstick/newspaper print) however as yet I've had no issues in keeping it clean. Its already proved to be a fantastic backdrop for photos on the blog and my social media so no doubt you'll spot it making regular appearances online.

The cloth I received measures 135cm by 250cm priced at £42.47 plus £4.99 delivery

Oxo

A trivet set may not sound like the most exciting of kitchen gadgets but with a new kitchen, new tablecloth and sparkly new work surfaces it's an absolute essential. The 3 piece interlocking trivet set from Oxo provides a snap together solution. Made from durable silicone with raised non slip feet so air can circulate. Its a really clever design which can be used together or separately to accommodate a range of pans and oven to tableware. The open centre means they can be hung up for storage. rrp is £12

My only gripe? They only come in red which doesn't match my kitchen colour scheme. More colours please!

Breville Blend-Active

Boy and Girl were both very excited when this parcel arrived. The prospect of making their own smoothies meant they couldn't wait to try out the Breville Blend-Active Family Pack. Up until now we've occassionally made smoothies in the food processor or with a handheld blender. Neither of which worked particularly well in terms of convenience. I was interested to find out if the Blend-Active could provide the promised quick and easy clean solution. 

The Blend-Active is a really clever piece of kit. The family set comes with two large and two small bottles. The difference between this and other smoothie makers is that you blend and drink from the same bottle just swapping out the blade for a lid. Another huge plus point is that it is super easy to clean. It's also really powerful and makes fast work of frozen fruit although I quickly found out that using too much frozen items left me with ice cream rather than smoothie!

Its great for the kids to use and seems very foolproof and we've had no issues with the bottles leaking. I'm definitely planning to try out its cocktail making abilities over the festive season. However come January when it will be back to reality after Christmas excess it will be time to put it to very good use in a healthy eating plan where I think it will work very well in combination with my juicer. 

rrp is £40 for the family size pack, whilst single cup is £25 and dual cup £29.99

Disclosure : Thanks to Wipe Easy Tablecloths, Oxo and Breville Blend-Active for providing the above products. I was not obliged to review positively in return. All views expressed are my own. 

If you're a brand who'd like to have your product featured here, please do get in touch claire@foodiequine.co.uk

Quick & Cute Christmas Foodie Makes

I love creating cute food at any time of the year and Christmas presents plenty of opportunities to get creative in the kitchen. Alas I simply didn't have time to come up with 24 new ideas for a 2014 Foodie Advent Calendar but you can still access all of my 2013 recipes and instructions on the blog via the links below

Foodie Advent Calendar Days 1-12

Foodie Advent Calendar Days 13-24

I've not been completely resting on my laurels however and do have a few new suggestions for this year...

Cornflake Holly Wreaths

Melt white chocolate, add green food colouring - gel works best, then mix through cornflakes. Shape into mini wreaths on greaseproof paper and leave to set. Adorn with red fondant icing berries.

Mini Roll Reindeer

This one was courtesy of the December Asda Magazine. Not quite as easy to make as they first appear! You'll need mini rolls, matchmakers, pretzels, melted white and milk chocolate, black fondant icing and red smarties.

Using a skewer make four holes in the base of the mini roll for the reindeer's legs. Cut a matchmaker into four and secure the legs in place by dipping them in melted milk chocolate then inserting them into the skewered holes.

Do the same with broken pieces of pretzel to make the antlers.

Dip the face of the reindeer in melted white chocolate and attach black fondant eyes and a red smartie nose (or pink if you've run out of red!)

Marshmallow Snowmen

Olaf in marshmallow form! You'll need marshmallows, matchmakers, cocktail sticks, orange tic tacs, fizzy belts, rolos, giant chocolate buttons and black writing icing.

Secure three marshmallows together with a cocktail stick. Attach the hat made from a giant chocolate button and a rolo using melted chocolate or icing. Insert matchmakers for arms and an orange tic tac carrot nose. Draw on eyes, mouth and buttons with black writing icing and finally wrap a fizzy belt scarf around your snowman's neck.

My kids after school cookery class at Aberdeen's Inchagarth Community Centre made a fantastic job creating wreaths, snowmen and reindeer's, including some fab freestyle creations. 

Snowman Eggs

Do you wanna eat a Snowman? He might look too cute to eat but this wee guy that I created for the Good Family Food Facebook page would make a tasty addition to any festive breakfast. Slice a wee bit off the top and bottom of two hard boiled eggs and secure together with a cocktail stick. Use two carrot slices to create a hat and stick it on the cocktail stick. A triangle of carrot for the nose and black peppercorns for eyes and buttons. Poke in some sprigs of parsley for arms and serve with bacon and sausage.

Champagne Cork Reindeer

Not exactly food, but a by product from all those Christmas bottles of Prosecco, Cava and Champagne! Skewers, googly eyes, pom poms, twigs and a hot glue gun will give you a whole lot of Rudolphs!

Disclosure - QMS commissioned me and compensated me for my time in creating a Christmas idea for their Facebook page. 

2014 Christmas Gifts for Foodies - Part 3

This is the last chance saloon for your Christmas shopping ideas for foodie friends (or to add to your own wish list!) 
If you missed my previous gift suggestion roundups you can catch up at Part 1 (Gillian Kyle, Tipplebox & Treat Republic) and Part 2 (Coast & Glen, North Hop, Ebury Press, Victoria Eggs, Edinburgh Gin

Rant & Stave

Based in Speyside, in the heart of Scottish Whisky County, Rant & Stave create beautiful and unique handcrafted and upcycled goods from vintage oak Whisky barrels. I'd already heard of them as they produced some wonderful branded items for North Hop Festival including cheeseboards and coasters. I was delighted to receive a parcel containing a bag of whisky barrel oak shavings to be used for food smoking and/or BBQ's, a personalised Foodie Quine Cheeseboard and the most adorable Gingerbread Man brooch pin. The products are beautiful to look at, wonderfully tactile and have an unbelievable smell!

I have a real thing about Gingerbread Men so the brooch is absolutely perfect and I suspect that my Foodie Quine Cheeseboard will become a regular feature on the blog topped with all sorts of goodies. All Rant & Stave products come with free UK delivery and while there are a range of standard items there is always the option of bespoke and personalised creations. I particularly love the distillery keyrings which come engraved with the coordinates of a Speyside distillery. Lots of ideal gifts for whisky lovers or those who just love beautiful handcrafted objects.

Here's a fascinating wee photo montage of the whole process transforming a battered old barrel head into a beautiful piece of wood ready to be upcycled.

Entwine Gifts

Based in Lancashire, Entwine Gifts provide a wine and cheese gift box service with a personal touch. They offer a selection of popular wine types from around the world and combine them with Lancashire Bomb cheese. I opted to try out their Prosecco and Green Olive Cheese combo, which is suitably entitled "The Diva"

My box arrived within the guaranteed 48 hour mainland UK delivery and the packaging and contents looked fantastic. The box is wooden effect cardboard and nestled within shred is the bottle and the glittery cheese bauble. A personalised message can be added to the accompanying gift card which also included tasting notes for both the wine and cheese. There's 15% off all boxes this Christmas with prices starting at around the £22 mark for wines and increasingly accordingly for Port and Champagne. Both the cheese and fizz tasted great and the sparkly bauble was a real talking point.

The Just Slate Company

Once upon a time the only place you'd find a slate was on a roof. Now however they now grace many a stylish restaurant table. A stunning range of slate tableware, gifts and homeware is available from The Just Slate Company all of which is handcut in Scotland. Pretty much all of their items would make fantastic gifts and look equally at home in a traditional or contemporary setting. I received an Oil and Vinegar dipping set and a Slate Tray with Antler Handles.

Both items are absolutely stunning to look at and came in stylish but sturdy gift boxes that will keep them safe between uses. I absolutely adore the antler handles on the tray. They will definitely be gracing my table over the festive period and beyond. No worries about any damage or scratching on surfaces from the slate as there's a foam backing on the base. I was unsure if the oil and vinegar dipping bowl would actually work but can assure you that it does. Proof in the photo with balsamic and olive oil.

Lots of lovely items on the website including coasters, trivets, place mats, cheese boards, cakes stands and adorable butter cloches. The Just Slate Company are offering a Foodie Quine 20% discount code on their website which is valid until 31st December 2014. To apply it, just enter FQ20 when it asked for “discount code” at the checkout.

The Store

Based in Foveran Aberdeenshire, The Store is somewhat of a local institution with its own butchery, farm shop and deli, kitchen and coffee shop. This year they are offering a #storetodoor full Christmas dinner service of Festive Feasts to take the hassle out of Christmas dinner. These can be delivered locally, nationally or collected. I received their Easy Turkey Roast which feeds a minimum of 5 people. Next step up is a Free Range Feast for 8 or you can go all out with the Bronze Banquet which feeds a minimum of 10 with plenty leftovers.

Also available are a huge range of hampers to suit every taste and budget featuring a fantastic range showcasing the best of Scottish produce and The Store's own butchery. Bespoke Hampers can also be created along with specific Cheese, Steak, Roast and Breakfast Boxes.

For the Aberdeenshire foodie who has everything, a voucher for a Butchery Masterclass would surely be the perfect gift. You start the day with Bacon Rolls & Coffee, followed by a tour round the butchery and maturation chill. The Store's Butcher will demonstrate his skills before you have a go for yourself. Finally a meaty lunch to finish off the half day experience. I really hope there's a voucher for this in my stocking.

Disclosure : Thanks to Rant & Stave, Entwine Gifts, The Just Slate Company and The Store for providing the above products to review. All views expressed are my own.
If you're a brand who'd like to have your product featured in one of my Christmas Gifts for Foodies posts, please do get in touch claire@foodiequine.co.uk

Slow Cooker Recipes with Scotch Beef, Lamb and Specially Selected Pork

Over the past month I've been working on a project to develop some slow cooker recipes in conjunction with Quality Meat Scotland for their Good Family Food Facebook Page. I'm delighted to now share the first three using Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork.

Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks with Red Wine and Butter Beans

Serves 4 

INGREDIENTS

4 Scotch Lamb Shanks

2 Tbsp Plain Flour

Salt & Pepper

1 Leek

2 Shallots

2 Cloves Garlic

400g Tin of Butter Beans

250ml Lamb Stock

250ml Red Wine

2 Sprigs Fresh Rosemary

METHOD

Coat the Scotch lamb shanks with the flour mixed with salt and pepper and place in the bottom of the slow cooker crock pot.

Peel and slice the shallots, crush the garlic and slice and thoroughly wash the leeks. Add all of the prepared vegetables to the slow cooker.

Drain the butter beans and tip them into the crock.

Make up 250ml of lamb stock and pour into the slow cooker crock along with the red wine.

Nestle a couple of sprigs of rosemary in amongst the lamb shanks.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.

Prior to dishing up, remove the rosemary sprigs and skim off any visible fat.

Serve with lots of creamy mashed potato

Slow Cooked Scotch Beef with Sweet Potato and Chorizo

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

500g Cubed Stewing Steak 

2 Tbsp Plain Flour

Salt & Pepper

1 Tbsp Sweet Smoked Paprika

150g Chorizo

400g Sweet Potatoes

1 Onion, sliced

2 Cloves Garlic Crushed

1 Red and 1 Orange Pepper

500ml Beef Stock

2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

Sour Cream to serve (optional)

METHOD

Coat the Scotch beef cubes with the flour mixed with the salt, pepper and smoked paprika.

Peel and slice the chorizo and add it to the slow cooker crock pot along with the beef.

Peel and chop the sweet potatoes into bite sized cubes, slice the onions, crush the garlic and core, deseed and chop the peppers. Add all of the prepared vegetables to the slow cooker.

Make up 500ml of beef stock and add 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. Pour the liquid into the slow cooker crock and give everything a good stir.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.

Serve on a bed of bulgur wheat topped with soured cream and a sprinkling of sweet smoked paprika.

Slow Cooked Pork, Pumpkin, Apple & Ginger Casserole

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

500g Cubed Pork Leg

Salt & Pepper

440ml Cider (or apple juice)

2 Shallots (or 1 Onion) chopped

3 balls of Stem Ginger in Syrup, plus 2 Tbsp of the Syrup

2 Red British Apples – 1 roughly chopped and 1 coarsely grated

1 small Pumpkin or Butternut Squash

Crème Fraiche (optional)

METHOD

Season the cubed pork with salt and pepper and place it in the slow cooker crock pot. 

Pour over the cider or apple juice.

Chop the shallots and grate three balls of stem ginger. Add both to the slow cooker along with 2 Tablespoons of the syrup from the jar of ginger.

Core and roughly chop one of the apples, keeping the skin on. Peel and roughly grate the second apple. This will help to thicken the casserole and make its own apple sauce. Add both prepared apples to the slow cooker.

Peel, deseed and cube your pumpkin or squash (no need to remove the skin if you are using a butternut squash as it will soften beautifully in the slow cooker). Alternatively if you are going to be carving your pumpkin you can scoop out the inner flesh in shards.

Add the pumpkin flesh to the slow cooker crock and give everything a good stir.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.

Optional - Before serving stir through a couple of tablespoons of crème fraiche. 

Serve with grainy mustard mash and greens stir-fried in Scottish rapeseed oil.

Quality Meat Scotland have provided a copy of 'Round the Table' Celebrity Cookbook, a Scotch Beef Apron and a £20 meat voucher (to be redeemed at a member of www.scotchbutchersclub.org) as a giveaway for readers of Foodie Quine. Entry is via the Rafflecopter widget below. 

To enter, let me know in a comment "What's your favourite of my three slow cooker recipes?"  For additional bonus entries you can follow me on Twitter and like me and Good Family Food on Facebook. Closing date is 31/12/14 Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm linking this post up to Farmersgirl Kitchen Slow Cooked Challenge where this month the theme is Slow Cooked Christmas

Disclosure - QMS commissioned me and compensated me for my time in creating Slow Cooker recipes for their Good Family Food Facebook page. All views expressed are my own.