Author: Karen Claassen

Pancakes, no matter their shape, size, topping or filling, are like good entertainment: they fill a room with excitement! Different cultures have different variations on pancakes; they might be small and puffy, thin and large or simply average and tossed into the air! These baby dutch pancakes tick all the boxes and whether you bake them because they puff right out of the pan or because you crave a sweet, chewy delicious snack, you can be sure that you will be popular with whoever eats them.

This recipe produces enough batter for a large (24cm pan) pancake for four people or two greedy, hungry people. I make two pancakes from this batter in a 16cm pan.

3 eggs

180ml cake flour

180ml milk, warmed for 30 seconds in the microwave oven

15ml sugar

10ml vanilla essence

a pinch of salt

45ml butter, for frying

icing sugar for dusting

Preheat your oven to 180℃

Add the butter to a cast iron frying pan or any other pan that can go into the oven – no plastic handles! If you don’t have an oven-friendly pan you may use a cake tin instead.

Leave the pan and butter in it, in the preheated oven to become really hot.

Add all the ingredients for the batter into a food processor or a container suitable for a stick blender. Blend really well until all lumps have dissolved and you have a smooth batter.

Open the oven, swirl the hot butter around and up the sides of the pan and immediately pour the batter into the pan.

Close the oven door and set a timer for 20 – 25 minutes.

Once cooked, remove the pan from the oven and transfer your beautifully golden, puffed pancake to a serving plate. Dust with icing sugar and spoon fruit, Chantilly cream or ice cream into the hollow.

Once you have devoured the pancake you may make another batch ….. they are quite sinful!

Easy, quick, delicious…..

1x 385g can of condensed milk

600ml double cream

60ml instant coffee powder

30ml vanilla essence

Add all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or add it to a mixing bowl and whisk by hand until the mixture forms soft peaks. It should be thick and foamy!

Fill a 2 litre container, seal with a lid and place in the freezer for a minimum of 6 hours.

I love aubergine, eggplant, brinjal … whatever you want to call this beautiful deep purple veg, I love cooking and eating it. This dish is more of an idea than a recipe and truly simple and uncomplicated but like most things simple, it is utterly delicious.

Preheat your oven to 190℃.

Slice an aubergine lengthwise into 1,5cm thick slices, keeping them together as a whole, as in the photograph above.

Brush some olive oil onto all the cut/raw, fleshy surfaces and sprinkle with salt.

Now lay a slice of tomato as well as a slice of mozzarella onto each slice.

Once you are done, drizzle generously with olive oil and stick them into the oven for about 40 minutes or until the aubergine is soft and gooey and the cheese toasty and melted.

Take from the oven and enjoy straight away with flatbread or a crusty white.

Bon appetito!

Ricotta is one of the most versatile ingredients in the kitchen: it often makes for the main ingredient in baked cheesecake, it adds a wonderful richness to any vegetable bake (especially potato), it is delicious baked in the oven with some honey drizzled over and a sprinkling of seeds or herbs and even served fresh with a tomato salad.

Ricotta is easily available but believe me, homemade is just sooo much better!

1 litre full cream milk

500ml double thick cream

5ml salt

45ml white vinegar

Pour the milk and cream into a large saucepan. Stir in the salt and bring it to the boil over a low heat, stirring occasionally.

Remove from the heat and stir in the vinegar.

Leave the mixture to stand for two minutes until it curdles. It will separate into curds and whey.

Line a large sieve or colander with a damp piece of muslin cloth and place this over a large bowl or sink.

Pour the milk mixture into the sieve and leave for 40 minutes.

You can scoop the mixture into a container to refrigerate or drain it even further by hanging the cheese in muslin cloth bound by string and then tying it to a wooden spoon, leaving it overnight to drain and firm up in the fridge – as in the above picture.

You now have wonderfully fresh ricotta to utilise as you please.

Thickly sliced tomato, basil, fresh ricotta and a generous drizzle of olive oil

This is a luxurious version of hot cross buns for those who are not fond of the dried fruits and spices in the traditional version. These buns have a wonderful warmth from the cardamon, melting rich chocolatey insides and a refreshing orange glaze topped off with pistachio. Yum!

50g butter

50g brown sugar

6 cardamon pods, crushed

50g pistachios, finely chopped

zest of one orange

150g dark chocolate, chopped

200ml milk

1 egg

400g bread flour

50g cocoa powder

10g dried yeast

Add the butter, sugar, crushed cardamon pods and orange zest to a small saucepan and combine over a low heat. 

Add a pinch of salt and stir until the butter has melted and the mixture is lukewarm.

Remove from the heat and add the milk and egg. Whisk well.

Add the flour, cocoa and yeast to a separate mixing bowl and stir through.

Pour the milk mixture into this dry mixture and stir to form a rough dough.

Turn the dough out onto a dusted work surface and knead for 10min until smooth and elastic.

Lightly oil a mixing bowl and transfer the dough to it. Cover with a damp tea towel and place in a warm place. Leave the dough to prove for 1 – 2 hours until doubled in size.

In the meantime, chop the chocolate into pieces that are more or less the size of rice grains.

When the dough is ready, place it on a surface dusted with flour and knock out the air by kneading it for a minute or so.

Sprinkle the chopped chocolate onto the dough and start kneading. Push the pieces of chocolate that fall out back into the dough.

Preheat your oven to 180℃ and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.

Place the buns 1cm apart on the prepared tray, leaving room between them to expand.

Cover with a damp tea towel and prove for 40 minutes or until doubled in size.

Mix 30 – 45ml of flour with some water to make a thick batter. Pour the batter into a piping bag or make your own by using the corner end of a plastic bag and simply snipping off the tip of the corner.

Pipe a steady line across an entire row of buns. Keep doing this until all the buns have crosses on them.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Transfer the buns to a cooling rack.

Glaze:

100g icing sugar

zest of one orange

10ml orange juice

3 cardamon pods

Place all the ingredients into a small saucepan and heat over a very low heat, stirring constantly.

Paint the glaze onto the warm buns and sprinkle with the pistachio nuts.

Hot cross buns are not difficult to make – if you can bake a bread, which we know everyone can, you can make these. Your family will love you for bringing Easter to them, home made!

200ml milk

55g butter

15g dried yeast (one and a half packets in South African packaging)

450g bread flour

15ml mixed spice

10ml cinnamon

2,5ml nutmeg

55g sugar

1 egg

80g raisins

45ml flour

honey

Warm the milk and 50ml water in a small saucepan. You want the milk to be lukewarm which means you must be able to dip your finger into it without it burning you. If you overheat the milk, simply leave it to stand for a while before adding to the rest of your ingredients. This is important as a too warm mixture will kill the yeast and your efforts!

Melt the butter separately.

Pour the milk into a small bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Stir the mixture well and leave aside.

Add the flour , 5ml salt, mixed spice, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar to a mixing bowl.

Pour the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients.

Now give the yeast mixture another good stir and pour that in as well.

Beat the egg in a separate bowl and add it to the mixture. Mix with a spatula until you have something resembling a rough dough.

Tip onto a dusted work surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Oil a large mixing bowl and place your dough in it. Cover with a damp tea towel and put it aside to prove. I put mine into a drawer next to my oven where it is warmish and no draughts can get to it, but that’s just me! The dough should double in size and will take about 1 – 2 hours.

Preheat your oven to 190℃ and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Once the dough has doubled in size, dust a work surface and transfer the dough to it.

Knock out the air by kneading the dough for 1 – 2 minutes.

Sprinkle the raisins over it and knead for another 2 minutes. Some of the raisins will come out of the dough while you knead – simply poke them back in.

Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each into a ball. Place them on the baking sheet with a 1cm space between them to allow for expansion.

Cover the tray with a tea towel and leave for 30 minutes.

Mix the 45ml flour with some water to create a thick paste. This is what you are going to use to create the traditional crosses on your buns. The paste should go into a piping bag but if you don’t have one you can simply pour it into the “corner” of a plastic bag and snip off the tip, thereby creating your own piping bag.

Once the buns have risen and are ready to go into the oven, pipe a steady line across the entire row of buns. Repeat until you have crosses over each one.

Now place into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden.

Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and while the buns are hot out of the oven, brush them with runny honey.

Leave to cool and enjoy.

May you and yours have a blessed and peaceful Easter.

If you have an abundance of fresh fish from which to make fish cakes, you are indeed lucky. I make my fish cakes with canned tuna and because I know what they taste like I refuse to call them second best. They are easy to make, packed with goodness and even the finicky eaters in my family love them. Serve them with the yoghurt dip, some salad, fresh home baked bread and a cold glass of crisp white wine, for a meal fit for a king.

This recipe makes 18 substantial fish cakes which leaves the six of us with 3 each. You can easily half the recipe or you may freeze the cooked fish cakes: pack them in layers between kitchen/wax paper, seal in a plastic bag or container and store in the freezer.

4 cans of tuna, drained

4 potatoes, cooked, peeled and mashed

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 sweet pepper, finely chopped

a handful of herbs, chopped

1 clove of garlic, crushed

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Drain the tuna and add it to a mixing bowl.

Chop the onion, herbs, garlic and sweet pepper and mix with the tuna.

Now add the mashed potato and give the mixture another good mix.

Finally, add the egg, salt and pepper and give the mixture another good stir.

Preheat your oven to 180℃ and generously oil two baking trays.

Scoop two tablespoons of the mixture into your hands and form a thick patty.

Place on the baking sheet. Keep going until you have no mixture left.

You should be left with about 18 patties, depending on the size you make them.

Place the baking trays in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes before flipping the cakes over. You want both sides of the fish cakes to have a golden, crusty goodness to it, so leave it for a bit longer if necessary.

If you think it needs it, you may add some more oil to the pan, halfway through cooking.

Once the fish cakes are done, remove them from the oven and place them on kitchen paper to get rid of any excess oil.

Yoghurt dip:

250ml plain yoghurt

a handful of chopped cucumber

a handful of chopped caper berries

Mix the chopped cucumber and caper berries into the yoghurt.

Season the mixture with salt. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Serve huge dollops of the dip with the fish cakes.

Sinfully more-ish, these muffins are filled with buttery, garlicky goodness. They are however true muffins and therefore should NOT be over-mixed! The secret to soft muffins are simply incorporating the ingredients versus mixing. Enjoy them as breakfast, brunch or an afternoon filler…

Dry ingredients:

300g flour

7,5ml baking powder

2,5ml bicarbonate of powder

2,5ml salt

Wet ingredients:

1x large egg

250ml milk

60g yoghurt (or you can replace it with sour cream)

85ml vegetable oil

60ml chopped parsley (or any herb/mix of herbs)

1 clove of garlic

Butter and cheese:

50g butter

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

200g cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat your oven to 180℃.

Melt the butter and mix in the garlic. Brush a 12-hole muffin tin with the mixture. Be generous but reserve some of this garlic mixture to brush the tops of the muffins once they are cooked.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

Whisk the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix 8 – 10 times.

Add the cheese and mix as few times as possible – this is simply to incorporate the remaining bits of flour.

Fill the muffing holes to the top and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.

Brush each muffin with the butter and garlic mixture while still warm from the oven.

Leave to cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before removing.

A batch of these biscuits never last long…. They are crisp, chocolatey and more-ish! The mixture makes more than a hundred small biscuits and keeps well in a glass container. Easy enough for the kids to make on a rainy day.

400g butter

500ml brown sugar

5ml vanilla essence

2,5ml salt

5x eggs

700g flour

5ml baking powder

500g chocolate chips

Pre-heat your oven to 180℃.

Line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Fit your stand mixer with its paddle attachment. 

Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of your mixer and beat well.

With the mixer running, add one egg at a time, making sure it is well incorporated into the mixture before adding the next one.

Once all the eggs are incorporated, add the vanilla essence and salt.

Measure the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl. Run the mixer on low speed and add one spoonful of the flour mixture at a time, continuing until everything is well blended.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop a heaped teaspoon of the mixture and place on the baking sheet, flatten slightly by pressing down lightly with your fingers. The biscuit dough should be about 5cm apart as they spread when baking.

Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes until cool enough to handle. Cool the biscuits completely on a cooling rack or a clean tea towel. Repeat until you have used up all of the mixture.

Store your biscuits in two glass jars so that you can hide one container…. You will thank me later!

This vegetarian recipe will fool any meat lover and is packed to the brim with nutrition and taste. I prefer making it with dried split peas but lentils and even dried soup mix can be used. My family enjoys them most with a chunky tomato sauce as I serve them on rice, quinoa or couscous. If you don’t feel like making a meal out of them they will be perfect as a snack as well but do add a dip or something saucy on the side.

750ml dried split peas, cooked

3 eggs, lightly beaten

375ml sour cream

180ml grated, hard cheese like pecorino, parmesan

3x cloves of garlic, crushed

90ml parsley, finely chopped

10ml dried thyme

15ml salt

250ml dried bread crumbs

Preheat your oven to 200℃.

Pulse the cooked peas in a food processor but be careful not to make a paste.

Combine the eggs, sour cream, cheese, garlic, parsley, thyme and salt in a separate bowl.

Add the peas to the mixture and mix through.

Stir in the bread crumbs and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In the meantime line or spray a baking tray.

Roll the split pea mixture into small balls and place on the prepared tray. Brush each ball with some oil.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy on the outside.