Bake yourself a Cheese Cloud

Hello everybody ! Today I want to present to you a recipe for an edible cloud. It's called a Souffle ! I plan on baking many different flavours but today I'm writing about a Cheese Souffle. Yummy ! 

Ingredients : 

- Mature Cheddar Cheese (125g)

- Grated Parmesan Cheese 

- Plain Flour (45g)

- Butter (45g)

- French Mustard (1/2 tbsp)

- 5 eggs (5 whites and 4 yolks)

- Milk (225ml)

- Salt 

- Pepper

First I suggest preparing your space and your ingredients. I found it very helpful. Grate the Cheddar. Weight Flour, Butter and Cheddar and keep them in separate glasses so when you need one of them you just grab the glass. Separate the Egg Whites from the Yolks (remember that you need only 4 yolks, keep the fifth one in another container and put it in a fridge. You can use it later on for another recipe). Measure out the amount of Milk you need. Have the Salt, Pepper, Mustard and Parmesan close to you. You're ready to go ! 

By the way, I find a spiral whisk (http://homeware.fiskars.com/web/fiskarsweb.nsf/uk/utensils_functional_form_spiral_whisk_858150) the best to use when preparing the mixture for the souffle. 

In a small pot melt the butter. Add flour and stir until smooth. Cook it for a minute over a medium heat.

Pour in the milk and stir until the flour-butter mixture blends with the milk. When it's done bring it to the boil while stirring constantly until the mixture becomes thick and smooth. 

Remove the pot from the heat. Season it to your likings and add cheddar and mustard. Stir properly. Add the yolks bit by bit to the mixture and stir well. 

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Prepare a baking tray on which you will put the ready-to-bake souffle. 

In a large bowl whisk all the egg whites until it's stiff. Stir in a bit of the egg whites into the pot and stir well. Combine the mixture from the pot with the rest of the egg whites. Stir well. 

Grease the souffle dish with butter. Pour the mixture into the souffle dish. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top. Do not panic if at some point during baking, the souffle rises so much it breaks and starts to boil over. Just leave it alone, later on you can cut of the part that boiled over and eat them anyway. 

Bake for 20-30 minutes. 

When done serve immediately. The puffiness of the souffle goes away very quickly so you're trying to serve it as quickly as you can so your guests or family can see the souffle in a full glory. 

That's it ! Congratulations, you just made a cheese souffle ! 

Now hurry up and eat it while it's still hot. Enjoy this small piece of cheesy heaven. 

Bon Appétit ! 

Butterfingered Chef

Quick, Easy and Delicious Muffin Recipe !

The last time I tried to make muffins nothing worked out the way I planned. Well I did not give up and I made them again. This time they came out perfect ! 

I used the same recipe as in the previous post and perfected it a bit. 

Ingredients : 

- 1 egg
- 200g plain flour
- 100g caster sugar
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 120 ml milk
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt

I also made 4 different kinds : plain, coconut, raisins and dark chocolate. 

Before I started doing anything I heated up the oven to 180°C. 

I mixed all dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl I mixed milk, olive oil and an egg. I combined the two but I tired not to over-mix it. I separated the mixture into 4 glasses. To the first one I didn't add any additional ingredients. To the second one I added a teaspoon of coconut shreds. Unfortunately it was too little and I couldn't really taste it in a muffin so I suggest using around 3 teaspoons of coconut shreds. To the third glass I added a handful of raisins and to the fourth glass big pieces of dark chocolate. 

After everything was ready and the oven was hot I poured the mixture into plastic muffin cups. I filled only 2/3 of the cup (remember that they will grow in the oven and you don't want them to spill out of the cups). 

I've put them in the oven at 180°C for 13 minutes. I was checking every 5 minutes if it's already dry inside by stabbing it with a long toothpick. If the toothpick came out dry that meant the muffin was ready. Just in case after those 10 minutes I left it in the oven for another 3 minutes and then I took it out and left it to cool down. 

 The muffins came out really soft inside. The plain muffin can be eaten with butter and is great for tea-breaks. It has a very neutral flavour so it can be eaten with something sweet or with something salty. 

The coconut muffin didn't come out the way I planned as it actually tasted like a plain muffin. As I wrote before more coconut shreds are needed for this muffin. It still came out delicious though ! 

The raisin muffin is the sweetest. Great with strong coffee. 

Dark chocolate muffin is my favourite. Sweet with big pieces of dark chocolate that just melts in your mouth. I think it's great for meetings with friends for a coffee or as a small homemade gift when visiting someone. 

Hope you'll try to make them cause they're really easy , very quick and super delicious. 

Have fun, 

Butterfingered Chef

Everything's best when everything's fresh !

Remember those days when you felt sad, angry, annoyed and because of that you physically couldn't cope with anything and everything you did fell apart ? Add to that being kept in a small cage with others like you and being forcefully fed with the worst possible food around.

Well, the last sentence may not apply to you but it sure does to a hen. As humans we know that it's difficult to do anything right when the environment isn't suitable. Most of us can't study maths while being at the death metal concert (I doubt anyone ever tried it...) At the same time unhealthy diet will damage our health which will also affect the quality of work we produce.
Why would a hen react differently to those obstacles ?

A hen that lives in a tiny space with lots of other hens and is being fed with chemicals can't be healthy nor happy so her meat and eggs she lays aren't very healthy. Most of the eggs and chicken meat that we buy at the shop are from unhappy hens and chickens which means that their meat and their eggs aren't as good as we could think they should be, but there are some places where chickens run around happy and hens lay their eggs in peace.

My dad has a cousin who has well... let's call it a farm. He has ducks, hens, three massive dogs and goats. He also has a garden in which he has his own vegetables. He says there's nothing better than your own vegetables that you cared about so they could grow big and tasty, fresh milk from a goat that you milk every morning, and eggs that you have to look for in a grass because the hens can run around and choose the layer for themselves.

Well, he sure is right. I don't know about vegetables but dad brought back home goat milk, eggs and goat cheese from his cousin. Now I wish I had my own farm so I wouldn't have to drink anything from the shop.

The milk has a silky texture, sweet taste and aroma of freshness. The eggs differ even in their looks. The yolk is much more yellow than most of the eggs bought in a shop. When we got them they were covered in faeces and that's actually better than perfectly washed eggs. As far as I know you should never wash eggs. They have pores in the eggshell which allow air inside. Normally nothing should pass through them but when you wash the eggs the water can sometimes go through and with it all of the bacteria from the shell. Also me and my family had a funny surprise when we opened the box with eggs. One of them went completely mad and decided to be a completely different shape than others. I guess if this chicken was born it would be a chicken Lady Gaga.
The goat cheese is amazing. Delicate, creamy, it melts in your mouth. I would imagine that's how it feels to eat a cloud. Great for breakfast, gives you a lot of energy, it's light. Goes perfectly with honey and dry fruits.

The hens are locked up for a night to protect them from foxes. 

Goat is a wonderful animal. Gives you milk and you can feed it with practically everything. You don't have to worry that something is going to waste anymore ! 

Great breakfast. Fresh milk, scrambled eggs and goat cheese with dry fruits, honey and nuts. 

I wish I could have it every day.... 

Butterfingered Chef

Blood Sausage Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner !

Blood sausage ? Wait, what ?

Well, if you never ate anything like that then you definitely should !

Kaszanka - it's a traditional Polish cuisine. It's a combination of buckwheat, pig offal (like liver, skin, lungs, fat) and pig's blood stuffed in pig's intestine. Sounds disgusting ? Well, don't let it put you off.

Kaszanka is somewhat similar to a Scottish Haggis (sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach). It is usually served with onions and potatoes but personally I love to eat it with scrambled eggs and toast. It can be eaten cold or grilled. I think the grilled version is much better and the crunchier the skin the more pleasure from eating it you will have. It is great for breakfast, lunch, dinner or as an appetiser !

I love Kaszanka for it's taste but also for the memories I have connected to it for example family grill at my grandparents summer house. 

I bet that even if you have doubts about it the smell of it will convince you to try it . 

Bon Appétit !

Butterfingered Chef

Breakfast with my family where Blood Sausage was the Queen of the table. 

Little breakfast muffins... Fail...

Sometimes I have problems deciding what I would like to eat for breakfast. But few days ago it had to be something quite sweet, soft and good with a cup of coffee. So what else could it be other than muffins ? Well... I wish I made myself a sandwich...

Ingredients : 

- 1 egg
- 200g plain flour
- 100g caster sugar
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 120 ml milk
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt

For this recipe you will need a muffin tin which you should grease unless you have bun paper cases.
You beat the eggs and pour in the milk and oil. In the other bowl you mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine both bowls but do not over-mix. When you pour the batter into a muffin tin or bun paper case remember to fill only 2/3 of it (the batter will grow in the oven). You're suppose to bake the muffins for 20 minutes.

This recipe was suppose to be for big muffins but because I didn't have a baking tin good enough for making them I decided to use the baking tin for small muffins. Unfortunately I completely forgot that small muffins bake faster than big ones (duh...) so as the recipe said I held them in the oven for whole 20 minutes.... As you can guess they burned. Also I didn't have bun paper cases so I just greased the tin. It probably would work if not the fact that I baked the muffins for too long. In addition to that I wanted to make my muffins in different flavours so before pouring the batter into the muffin tin I've put some dry fruits in the tin. Of course when I finished baking and tried to take the muffins out the burned fruits stayed in the muffin tin...

So, at the end of the day I ended up with burned, one flavoured muffins. It could have been worse. These were at least still edible.

I'll try to make them some other time once again. I will not repeat the mistakes I made. Now I know I have to bake them half the time, I probably should buy the bun paper cases and I will mix the fruits with the batter.


If you have any tips that could help me in learning how to make muffins share them in comments
below !

Don't burn anything,

Butterfingered Chef