My favourite morning has to have a turned on oven. Breakfast with fresh, still warm bread that filles the house up with comforting smell has such a positive effect. Simple 10 minutes recipe guaranties quick process and a quick delicious (and healthy) result.

You’ll need:

• 500 g light Italian or plain flour, plus extra for dusting (mines are made with 250 g wholemeal spelt, some spelt germ & 250 g rye flour)
• 1 heaped tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 heaped tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 100 g chilled unsalted butter, cubed (I used non dairy spread)
• 1 cup of mixed seeds (pine kernels, sunflower, pumpkin, linseed)
• 275 ml buttermilk or milk (I often use natural soya yoghurt)
• 1 teaspoon black molasses

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/gas 7.

2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and salt into a large bowl. Using your fingertips, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Add buttermilk or milk + molasses to the flour mixture and with a knife mix briefly to combine into a moist dough. Depending upon the absorbency of the flour, you may need to add a little milk if the dough seems too stiff but it should not be too wet. Place on a lightly floured work surface and knead ever so slightly to bring together, then press or roll out to a thickness of 3cm.

4. Using a 6cm round cutter, cut out approximately 12 scones and place on a floured baking tray. Or, like in my picture, simply form round buns, cut a cross on each top.
Bake in the oven for 10–12 minutes or until golden brown on top. Serve while hot.

Enjoy!

Adapted from Rachel Allen, Bake (Collins)

Mano megiamiausias rytas turi tureti ijungta orkaite. Pusryciai su zviezia, dar silta ir visus namus iskvepinusia duonute turi toki teigiama efekta… O paprastas 10 minuciu receptas garantuoja greita procesa ir greita (sveika) rezultata.

Jum reikes:

• 500 g miltu (mano gamintos is 250 g rupiu speltos, siek tiek speltos gemalu ir 250 g rupiu ruginiu miltu)
• 1 a.s. su kaupu sodos
• 2 a.s. su kaupu  cream of tartar
• 1 a.s. druskos
• 100 g salto, nesudyto  sviesto, supjaustyto kubeliais (as naudoju augalines kilmes|)
• 1 puodukas seklu (kokiu turima)
• 275 ml kefyro, pasuku ar pieno (as daznai naudoju naturalu sojos jogurta)
• 1 a.s. juodosios molases

1. Orkaite ikaitiname iki 220C.

2. Miltus sumaisykite su soda, cream of tartar bei druska. Pirstu galiukais istrinti sviesta miltuose, kol susidaro i dziuveselius panasi mase.

3. I miltu/sviesto mase supilam kefyro ar pieno bei molases misini. Peiliu viska ismaisom iki lipnios teslos. Priklausomai nuo miltu, jum gali tekti panaudoti papildomai kefyro ar pieno jei tesla per kieta, bet ji neturetu gautis per skysta. Tesla kociokite ant miltais pabarstyto pavirsiaus mazdaug 3cm sluoksniu.

4. Iskociota tesla isspauskite apvaliomis formelemis arba kaip mano nuotraukose, paprasciausiai rankomis suformuokit bandeles, o kiekvienos pavirsiuje ipjaukite po kryziu.
Kepama apie 10-12 min. arba kol graziai paruduoja. Patiekiamos siltos.

Skanaus!

Adaptuota pagal  Rachel Allen, Bake (Collins)

Who doesn’t like a good treat? Well, I’m sure there are some people who would say they choose savoury or something else  instead of anything sweet, but me – I’m a sweet tooth girl. Not too sweet, but still – a bit of sugar in my life does me good. And the baking process… the mixing, the smell that travels around the house and tickles your taste buds and makes you feel happier – hmmmm… It’s a perfect therapy! So I bake…

Here we have a simple ‘honey cake’ recipe, but since we did not use any of it, it has to be renamed into a ‘molases cake’ (although it’s very yummy with honey too)

Ingredients:

3 eggs (separated)

1 glass of milk

250 g butter

200 g honey (in our version it’s 4 heap spoons of black molases)

500g flour (in our case 250 plain and 250 wholegrain)

1 tsp baking powder

4 tsp cacao or carob powder

3 tsp mixed spice (ground: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, coriander seed, caraway)

100 g  chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 220C/ gas 7/fan 200C and lightly grease a cake pan. Dust with flour.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cacao and mixed spice.
In a large bowl,  cream together molases  and egg yolks. Add milk and melted butter. Add flour. Whisk the egg whites and gently fold it in the rest of the dough. Add walnuts.
Working in two or three additions, alternately add flour mixture and milk to the sugar mixture. Stir only until just combined, then gently stir in the diced pears.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean and the cake is brownish in color.
Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
Dust with powdered sugar before serving if you wish.

Now, how about some very quick and very easy morning buns? Can be vegan if you choose! Originally it’s a scone recipe, but we change it a bit and those buns taste even better.

It takes 25 minutes. Makes 5-6, easily doubled and can be frozen after baking.

225g self raising flour ( I use wholegrain spelt)

1/4 tsp salt

50g butter (I used vitaquell spread), chilled, cut in small pieces

25g caster sugar (1 heap tbsp black molases is even better)

I also add 1 spoon carob syrup

125ml buttermilk (we substitude it with plain soya yogurt)

4 tbsp full fat milk (or soya)

a handful of linseed, sunflower seeds, rasins or anything else you want

I also put 1 tsp mixed spice and grated zest of an orange

a little extra flour for dusting

Preheat the oven to 220C/ gas 7/fan 200Cand lightly butter a baking sheet (unless you’re using a non stick sheet). Tip the flour into a mixing bowl with the salt. Shoot in the butter, then rub together with your fingers to make a reasonably fine crumbed mixture, lifting to aerate the mixture as you go. Try not to overrub, as the mixture will be lighter if it’s  a little bit flaky. Now stir in the sugar. If you’re using molases, mix is with the buttermilk or yoghurt.

Mix milk with buttermilk/yoghurt. Make a bit of well in the middle of the flour mixture with a round – bladed knife, then pour in buttermilk mixture. Using knife, gently work the mixture – just cut it till you get a soft, sticky dough. Don’t overwork at this point or you’ll toughten the dough.

Put the dough out of the bowl on to a lightly floured surface. Pat the dough gently with your hands to a thickness of no less than 2cm and no more than 2.5cm. Dip cutter into a bowl of flour , then cut out the buns. Place on the baking sheet and dust it with flour.Bake for 10-12 minutes until risen and golden/brown.

Eat them as fresh as you can and smile!

Among many many good things that Britain brought into my life I’m gonna mention scones today.  Plain ones, with raisins, cheese or cherries… but most importantly with a cup of  tea – I love scones so much, that to prove my love I bake them very often. My current best version is a wholemeal ones with shopped apricots, sultanas and raisins. I get them ready for breakfast and I’m not gonna say the number – all of them are gone (somewhere) by the end of the day.

I’ve also found a great apple cake recipe

and a new Polish recipe that makes  really yummy Christmas cookies

50g butter

1 tbsp golden syrup or honey (I used honey)

50g light brown sugar

225g plain flour

3tsp mixed spices (ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon..)

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

3tbsp milk

1 egg yolk

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Melt the butter, syrup or honey and sugar in a pan. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.

Sift the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Pour in the melted butter mixture, milk and egg yolk. Mix to a soft dough.

Kneed until smooth, then roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Stamp out forms using cookie cutters. Place on the baking sheets. Make a hole in each if you wish to hang them up later. Bake for 10 minutes, until a slightly darker shade.

Speaking of cookies, I had to make some for my kids school’s Christmas fair. I used simple gingerbread dough and decorated it with the icing. No idea how successful they were, but it was fun making these.

Ok. Next up buckwheat pancakes

Made from  wholewheat and buckwheat flour (50/50). My kids actually love them. I also substitute normal sugar for black molasses, it not only is healthier, tastes better, but also makes the pancakes look brownish, so my kiddos call our pancakes ‘the chocolate ones’

So that’s baking. Now making. Lina and her goodies. Already in my shop

I also have a bigger bear that needs to be finished… and a couple of other things…  so I might do my last shop update next Tuesday night, but no promises here

That’s it. The sun outside is calling – have a great Sunday!