I like to pull the boat out a bit at the weekend when it comes to breakfast. During the week we keep mainly to the script having cereal or toast and fruit, but when the weekend rolls around, I really like to do something a bit more.
Doing something a bit more however, doesn't have to mean that you slog away in front of a hot stove for hours, as this delicious recipe for easy Cinnamon Croissants that I am showing you today will prove! They are not quite cinnamon croissants from scratch, but they are the next best thing!
And what's more you only need five simple ingredients. What else could you ask for ?
Not a lot I don't think, and I will pretty much guarantee that your family are going to love these! You will too, as they truly are a real doddle to make!
You will want to start off with a good store or bakery baked croissant.
In all truth, this is also a great way to pop some life back into stale croissants!
First you melt some butter and you roll the croissants in the melted butter. Truth here, I have also just spread the outsides of the croissants with softened butter without taking the time to melt it.
They have also worked very well. Seriously very well and anything you can do to save time and work is fine with me!
Once you have them coated in butter, shake them in a bag with cinnamon sugar to coat. Easy. Simple.
I like lots of cinnamon, so I add a lot of cinnamon to the sugar mix . . . a full TBS, but you can use less if you want to. A full TBS is what works for me.
Pop those butter and cinnamon sugar coated pastries onto a prepped baking sheet and then sprinkle them with some toasted nuts.
Walnuts or pecans both work very well. Pat them in a little bit so that they stick.
And that's it. Just pop those babies into a pre-heated oven and bake them until they are golden brown and nicely crisped! WOWSA!
Crisp, golden brown and nutty Cinnamon tasty good. We love these!
These were day old croissants that I used today and just look at how crisp and flaky they ended up.
They look (and taste) pretty perfect to me!
I served them with some cinnamon hot chocolate. I used the milk frother to lay some milk on top of the chocolates . . .
I tried to do the heart thing with it, but failed abysmally. I am sure there is a trick to it, but I am not in the know . . .
Other than that I like to serve them with some softened butter and a bit of jam.
Today it was black currant jelly, but any jam goes great really. Just pick your favourite. These are sooooo tasty!
*Easy Cinnamon Nut Croissants*
Makes 6 servings
Make your family something delicious for breakfast or brunch this weekend! Simple, quick and very tasty!
6 baked croissants
190g granulated sugar (1 cup)
1 TBS ground cinnamon
125g melted butter (1/2 cup)
60g chopped toasted walnuts or pecans (1/2 cup)
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line a baking sheet with foil and butter the foil.
Place
the melted butter in a large shallow bowl. Place the sugar and
cinnamon into a large paper or plastic bag. Roll the croissants in the
melted butter, one at a time and then shake in the bag with the cinnamon
sugar to coat. Place onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle with the chopped
nuts, pressing them down a bit to help them adhere.
It didn't take us very long to snuffle these up. My husband actually had two today as he was super hungry. I shouldn't have but I had one and I enjoyed it very much. So there. I can pay for it tomorrow with a bowl of gruel. Bon Appetit!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
I hope you are not superstitious about things such as Friday the 13th and the like. I have never been superstitious about such things. In fact I was born on the 13th of a month, so occasionally my birthday has actually been on a Friday, so it is actually a very lucky day for me. In fact on my 40th birthday, I went to Bingo with my SIL and I won the jackpot. So, yes, very lucky for me. Hmmm . . . perhaps I should buy a lottery ticket! And this has absolutely nothing to do with today's recipe, except for the fact that today you should absolutely make this, Friday the 13th or not!
These are actually a lot easier to make than one would suppose and use only three ingredients, four if you count patience. Rosebuds. Sugar. Water. That's it! Simple!
You want to pick really tiny rose buds. You want them to still be pretty tightly closed . . . these ones work the best. Loose petals would fall off when you are crystallising them, which isn't exactly what we are looking for here. We want buds.
We don't use any pesticides on our flowers, so they are pure and organic. It is really important to use pesticide free rosebuds. You will want to wash them in cool water and then just shake them out gently in a colander. This will get rid of any insects that you might have inadvertently brought in with your flowers.
Gently, gently keeps them from bruising. We don't want that. Then you clip off the stems with a pair of kitchen scissors. I clip them off right below that little ball at the base of the bud, just so you know.
Cook, stirring gently and constantly until the sugar syrup comes to the soft ball stage, at which a small amount of it will form a soft ball when dropped into cold water. That is a ball that is soft and malleable, not hard or brittle. I use a candy thermometer myself, which gives me a precise result. The temperature you are looking for is in the recipe below.
Once that happens, you just take them off the heat and keep stirring gently. Eventually, and it really doesn't take too long, you will see the sugar starting to crystallise and clump. It gets rather opaque as well. That's when you know the hard work is done. Just pop them into a wire sieve and gently shake them over a piece of newspaper or summat you can just throw away. This helps to get rid of any excess sugar. You might find some have clumped together and now is your chance to gently break them apart. Let them air dry after that and then store in a cool dark place in a glass jar with a lid! Voila!! You have some beautiful Crystallised Rose Buds.
*Crystallised Rosebuds*
Makes about 3 1/2 cups
You
can vary this recipe according to the number of rosebuds you have.
Just make sure you pick the tiniest ones you can find, and that they are
pesticide free.
600g tiny rose buds (4 cups)
380g granulated sugar (2 cups)
240ml hot water (1 cup)
Pick your rosebuds. Wash them carefully, being as gentle as you can.
De-stem them (I cut them off just beneath the bulb) and then carefully shake them dry.
Place the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat along with the hot
water. Heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the rosebuds.
Cook over
medium heat, stirring gently constantly, until the sugar syrup reaches
the soft-ball stage. (118*C/235*F) (The sugar syrup should form a soft
ball if a small amount is dropped into cold water.)
Remove from the heat and continue to stir gently, stirring until the syrup resembles the texture of coarse meal.
Put into a wire mesh colander and gently shake off any excess sugar.
Cool completely and then put the rosebuds into a jar and seal.
Store in a cool, dry and dark place
You might think these would smell really rose-like, but they don't. They just smell like a garden . . . green and foresty. I can't wait to use them as a decoration for cakes or cupcakes. Ohh, they would be lovely on sugar cubes, and then when your guests put one into their tea, the sugar would all melt off and they would be surprised with one perfect rosebud in their cup! Magic! Bon Appetit!
PS - Have you checked out the cost of buying crystallised flowers? I did and they are astronomical! The ones I made literally cost me pennies and there are no preservatives at all.
I love peanut flavours. True confession here, I have a slice of toast and peanut butter every night. If I don't, I miss it.
I don't have butter on my toast, or anything else . . . just a slice of thick whole wheat toast, lightly spread with peanut butter.
I am a happy camper. Peanut Butter is such a versatile ingredient and a real store cupboard essential, at least in my home it is!
This recipe today is for a delicious marinade that you can make for marinating chicken. You could also marinate other proteins, like pork, fish or even tofu in this tasty mixture.
It works great, and tastes even better!!!
I just love the flavour of this marinade. Its an interesting mix of ingredients that somehow work very well together.
A delicious mix of sweet and salty . . .
I like to use light olive oil. Its a waste of good olive oil to use extra virgin olive oil in something like this.
I use a good quality light olive oil, one which has been specifically been produced to be used in cooking.
You can use whatever brand of peanut butter you like. Myself, I prefer Skippy. Its the North American in me I guess.
I pick mine up by the HUGE jar at Costco, and I probably go through one of those a month, no kidding.
I also prefer smooth peanut butter over crunchy for this, but if you are a fan of crunchy, go for it.
Soy sauce. I like to use the dark one because it is filled with flavour. You can get low salt ones nowadays that are really good.
Honey, just plain regular clover honey works well, and again for the BBQ sauce, just pick your favourite one. Everything else is pretty self explanatory.
Fresh lemon juice (not the stuff in the plastic squeeze lemon, please!!!!) Worcestershire sauce and garlic, plenty of garlic. Its just yum, yum, yum . . .
I like to reserve some of the marinade for drizzling over the cooked chicken, or for dipping it in.
Today I grilled some tender stem broccoli along side of the chicken and served it with my Simple Sesame Noodles. This went down a real treat!
*Grilled Peanut Chicken*
Serves 4
A
delicious marinade which yields a really tasty bit of chicken. I like
to make extra marinade to dip the finished chicken in when I am eating
it. Its just so tasty!
For the marinade:
120ml light olive oil (1/2 cup)
50g peanut butter (1/4 cup) (creamy or smooth, you choose)
60ml of soy sauce (1/4 cup)
85g liquid honey (1/4 cup)
2 TBS your favourite BBQ sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
the juice of one lemon
pinch cayenne pepper
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and pounded to an even size
Poke your chicken breasts all over with a fork. Place into a
shallow dish. Whisk together the remaining ingredients. Remove about
1/2 cup of it and set aside. Pour the remainder over the chicken in the
shallow dish, turning the chicken over to coat. Cover and place in the
refrigerator to marinate for 2 hours, or up to 6 hours.
When you are ready to cook, Remove the chicken from the marinade, discarding any marinade left in the dish.
I grilled my chicken outdoors on our Space Grill. I just love this fabulous BBQ Grill. It is just so easy to use and makes outdoor grilling fun instead of a chore. We have had a BBQ for years, and to be honest, we have used this Space Grill more in the few weeks we have had it than all of our other BBQ grills combined throughout the last 18 years.
Seriously I use it almost every day, and sometimes more than once a day, and the main reason for that is because it is just so darned easy to use. It literally folds out ready for use in seconds, and you can be cooking on it before you can say Jack Rabbit. Its unique patented design is probably one of the best I have ever seen.
When not in use, it tucks away, taking up very little space in the garden. Its attractive, easy to use, and works really well. I love using both the ceramic coated cast iron reversible cooking tray and the stainless steel grill rods. Today I used the tray. When done, I find that a simple soak and then scrub with a heavy duty plastic brush gets everything back and looking great again, ready to fold down and store away until next time.
I also love that the drip tray (which is located in the bottom front, beneath the easy to use controls) is so easy to clean. Just pop it off and wipe it out! I would not want to be without it now! To find out more do check out the Space Grill home page. If you're not impressed I'll eat my hat.
“Oh our hay it is mown and our corn it is reaped,
our barns are full and we’ve garnered the seed…”
Even in our time it is still a hot and dusty work. This recipe I am showing you today would have been a traditional drink that would have been served up ice cold to the workers as a means of refreshment in the field.
There is actually no real "Beer" involved. Not many farmers would have wanted to risk the bringing in of their hay by serving actual "Beer" to their men . . . nor could they afford the expense of quenching the thirsts of their hot and tired workers by serving them real "Beer." Instead, it is a drink which is meant to be thirst quenching without dulling the senses.
It actually does resemble a dark ale in looks, but that is where any true resemblance to beer stops. It might have faint echoes in flavour to the real thing, but not being a beer drinker myself, I cannot actually say this for sure!
It has a very faint malty flavour . . . probably from the use of molasses in this mixture, which also gives it it's dark colour . . .
More sweetness comes in the form of granulated sugar . . . but again there is a hint of sour from the use of white vinegar. Todd, who has been an ale-drinker in days gone past, says it is quite a pleasant drink. This is also a nice whiff of ginger, which is known to be refreshing!
Having said that I don't think it is ever going to overtake homemade lemonade in the scheme of popularity when it comes to thirst quenching drinks in our house! Then again, we are not out working in the fields and getting all hot and dusty!!
It is a recipe I have adapted from a very old paper-back recipe book I have had in my library for many years called The Farmer's Daughter Cookbook, by Kandy Norton Henley. In its day, it was called a delectable treasury of nostalgic home cooking!
Published in 1971, I have had this book for nigh on to 47 years now. (Oh that does make me feel old!) This is a recipe that I have always been curious about, and with the hot weather we have been experiencing, I decided to finally give it a try! (Better late than never!)
Todd quite likes it and has really enjoyed it after mowing the lawn, maybe not as hearty a chore as bringing in the hay crop, but still quite sweat inducing!
I have a huge jar of it in the refrigerator, and I dare say he will be enjoying it until we run out of hot weather. He normally isn't much of a cold drink lover (I wear that crown), but when it is hot he does enjoy something colder!
*Haymaker's Beer*
Makes a generous
4 litres/1 gallon
This
thirst-quenching refreshing drink would have been a treat on a hot day
to the farm worker's who used to help the farmer's get their hay crop
in.
4 litres water (16 cups)
385g sugar (2 cups)
240ml molasses (1 cup)
240ml white vinegar (1 cup)
1 to 2 tsp ground ginger
Mix all of the ingredients together until the sugar is dissolved.
Chill in the refrigerator until very cold. In the hayfield, this is
every man's drink.
Needless to say I did not make a whole gallon of this drink. I cut the recipe down by about 3/4, only making about 1 litre of it. I don't have a whole haying crew to please, after all, and I mostly wanted to make it more out of curiosity than for any other reason. Having said that, however . . . I am glad that I did! Here's mud in your eye!
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