Recipes | The Mindfulness Kitchen

Salted Caramel Cookie Bars

By Emma Hawkins | September 19, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

During my time in Canada this summer I was surprised to find myself being more sociable than I’d ever been in my 19 years living in the UK. As my sister used to live out there she had loads of people to catch up with, and as all of them were so lovely and hospitable we were invited to more BBQs and picnics than I can count! It was so amazing to be in a culture where everyone is so welcoming. Maybe it’s because I’m English, or maybe it’s because I’m more specifically a Southerner, but until then I’d never experienced so many strangers being so hospitable and kind to me. A few plates of ribs, wings and chicken breasts and it felt like you were slipping into a community you were already apart of, sitting around with friends you’d known for years.

On the evening’s we were lucky enough to have a BBQ to go to we’d always take some food to add to the table, and being a keen baker it was often a dessert that I contributed. I made these particular bad boys to take to a BBQ at my sister’s old work friends Bonnie and Wanda’s house. They were super quick to make, really easy to transport and perfect for sharing as we could cut them up into as many pieces as we needed. For these I made my own caramel because I happened to have to ingredients for it lying around, but you could use a pre-made caramel to make these super easy!

Recipe

Makes 16 squares

Time: 20 minutes, plus cooking time

Ingredients

For the caramel

125g Light brown sugar
350ml Double cream
50g Unsalted butter

For the cookie dough

300g Plain flour
A pinch of salt
½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
180g Unsalted butter, melted
130g Light brown sugar
100g Granulated sugar
1 Large egg
1 Large egg yolk
2 tsp Vanilla extract
100g Milk chocolate, chopped roughly
100g Dark chocolate, chopped roughly

Method

Begin by making the caramel. Put the butter, sugar and half the cream into a pan and bring to the boil whilst stirring. Leave to boil for 5 minutes, until starting to thicken and turning golden, and then take off the heat. Stir in the rest of the cream and set aside to cool until needed later.
Preheat oven to 170˚C and then line an 19x19cm square tin with baking paper.
In a bowl whisk together flour, salt and bicarb.
In another bowl mix together the melted butter and the sugars. Then add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and beat until smooth.
Slowly add dry ingredients, mixing as you do, and then the chopped chocolate. Mix together until combined.
Divide the dough into two and put half the cookie dough in the lined tin. Smooth over with a spatula to make an even layer.
Pour the cooled caramel over the cookie layer. Then spread the rest of the cookie dough over the top. (Spooning it on first can help here as the caramel will make it hard to spread out. If you can’t cover all the caramel don’t worry as they dough will spread itself out during baking).
Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden brown and the edges have started to crisp. Leave to cool and then cut into 16 bars.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Frozen Smoothie Bowl

By Emma Hawkins | September 16, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

There’s this new food trend (new in the sense I’ve only known about it for a couple of months, but it’s probably been around for centuries) called ‘smoothie bowls’. These are basically smoothies, often made with frozen fruit, then topped off with all kinds of healthy nuts, seeds and fruit to make them look really pretty. For a long time now I’ve been looking for ways to make my diet healthier as I’ve been living off my bakes and comfort food for way too long, so here’s the new nutritious side of my food.

These bowls are great because you can get all kinds of frozen fruit all year round and it’s way cheaper than fresh fruit so you can have vitamin-packed fruity bowls for breakfast whenever you want! Like with all smoothies this would also be a great way of using up leftover fruit, so if you’ve got it bung it in. This is also probably the simplest thing I’ve ever made on here, it’s literally two steps and two easy steps at that, so if you’re looking at it and thinking ooo that’s effort, trust me it’s easier than it looks!

Recipe

Serves 2

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

For the smoothie

170g Frozen cherries
130g Frozen raspberries
50g Frozen blueberries
3 tbsp Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp Maple syrup (or honey)
1 Banana, peeled

To top (all optional)

Handful of Cashew nuts
Handful of Ground almonds
Handful of Flaked almonds
1 Banana, sliced
50g Dark chocolate, chopped finely

Method

Put all the ingredients for the smoothie into a blender or food processor and whizz together until smooth. You might need to let the fruit defrost a little first so it’ll actually crush up.
Spoon the smoothie into two bowls. Top with the sliced banana, nuts and chocolate. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Canadian Salad

By Emma Hawkins | September 12, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

Have you heard I went to Canada this summer? Yup, in case you didn’t already know, a few weeks ago I crossed the pond once more on a spontaneous summer get away. As my sister used to live out there she and I spent our three weeks staying with her friends, going to tones of insanely good BBQs, and generally soaking up the stunning landscape. There’s something so relaxing and creatively inspiring about the mountains and the rivers out there. I found myself sketching for the first time in years (ironic as I’ve been doing an art course the past year), voluntarily exercising, and actually stopping and thinking rather than just hurtling through life like I usually do when I’m at home.

I also found myself eating more creatively – partly because I was on a tight budget and also because I was doing a lot of cooking with my sister who’s a fitness fanatic and eats way more vegetables than I’m used to! Whilst I’ve called this Canadian salad I didn’t actually make it when I was over there because food was generally expensive and this has lots of components to it. The reason for the name is that I first came across a variation of this at restaurant up the side of a mountain in Lake Louise. I’ve never seen something like this before and it tasted amazing so I thought I’d make my own, e voila!

The reason I love this salad so much is that it’s relatively healthy but it’s also sweet enough to satisfy a sugar craving. The combo of the fruit, the spiced pecans and the cheese is one of those things that shouldn’t work but just does. If you’re not a sweet-toothed person I’d recommend coating the pecans in just the butter and cinnamon, and leaving out the sugar so that the only sweetness is coming from the natural sugars in the fruit. This also originally had daikon in it (I hadn’t heard of it either, apparently it’s a vegetable like a radish), but as I couldn’t find one in Aldi this one is daikon-less, but you could use radish if you want some peppery-ness in here.

Recipe

Serves 2

Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

50g Pecans
1 tbsp Unsalted butter (or soya margarine)
1 tsp Brown sugar
1/4 tsp Ground cinnamon
2 Handfuls of Baby spinach
Roughly 4 Strawberries
1 Orange
20g Dried cranberries
20g Feta cheese
1 tbsp Maple syrup
20ml Balsamic vinegar

Method

Begin with the candied pecans. Put the pecans, butter, sugar and cinnamon in a small pan and leave the butter to melt. Stir the contents a little so that the pecans are covered in the butter/sugar mixture and then leave to bubble up for 3-5 minutes. Take off the heat and set aside for later.
Scatter the spinach across two plates, or one large serving dish if you’re making a salad to share.
Hull and halve the strawberries and scatter them over the salad. Then halve the orange and cut one of the halves into 6 wedges. Cut the skin and any pith off the segments and then arrange them over the salad.
Next scatter the dried cranberries, feta cheese and candied pecans over the plate.
To make the dressing put the maple syrup, 1 tbsp orange juice (you can get this from the other half of the orange) and vinegar into a small bowl or jug. Mix together and then drizzle over the salad. Serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Peach Crumble Slices

By Emma Hawkins | September 9, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

Is it too ott to say that my favourite thing about autumn are the crumbles? I mean yeah the leaves and the wooly jumpers are great, but there’s something so intrinsically comforting and autumnal about a crumble. It’s like an edible hug that makes use of all the beautifully plump fruit getting ripe at this time of year, and at the same time warms you up at the end of a long day when you went outside dressed in shorts and a strapy top because it was sunny and you forgot that as of 1st September the world is cold. I normally make apple crumbles because I’m English and apples are everywhere at this time of year, however this year the peaches have been so plump and delicious that I’ve turned to making peach crumbles.

The one thing, in my opinion, that crumbles lack is the ability to be eaten on the move. They’re amazing but they can’t really be sliced up, popped into a pot and eaten with your packed lunch. That’s why these little crumble bars are a bit of a hallelujah moment! They’re easy to make, just as tasty as a regular crumble, and they can be cut into squares and taken anywhere. You can even spread some custard over the base before topping with the peaches and the crumble if you want the full shebang in a bar to go.

Recipes

Makes 9-12 Squares

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the crumble

115g Unsalted butter
225g Plain flour
90g Rolled oats
100g Caster sugar
50g Light brown sugar
A pinch of salt
1 Egg

For the filling

2 Large peaches
65g Caster sugar
8g Cornflour
¼ tsp Ground cinnamon

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C and then line a 20x20cm tin with butter and baking paper.
Put the butter into a small pan and melt gently, then set to one side to cool.
Put the flour, oats, sugars and salt into a bowl and mix together.
Pour the butter into the dry ingredients, followed by the egg, and mix everything together until a crumbly dough forms.
Put 2/3 of the dough into the lined tin and then press it down to make an even layer covering the bottom of the tin. Bake this layer in the oven for 10 minutes, until starting to harden.
Meanwhile de-stone and peel the peaches. Then cut the peaches into thin slices.
Put the peach slices, sugar, cornflour and cinnamon into a large bowl and mix together until fully combined.
When the base has cooked, spread the peach mix out all over the base so that they form a layer. Then take the rest of the crumble mix and crumble it over the peaches so it covers as much as possible.
Bake the slices in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the peaches are soft.
Leave the traybake to cool a little before slicing it into 9 squares or 12 rectangles.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Maneesh Bread with Hummus and Lamb

By Emma Hawkins | September 5, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

Ok so, for those of you who were frequent Cocoa and Thyme visitors thank you for following me over to this new site and for those of you who are new, hello and welcome! As you’ve probably worked out by now I’ve changed the name and direction of m’ blog to be more centred around mental health awareness and support through food, (if you’re lost see my previous blog post or my ‘about’ page for more info). I’m still going to be the one behind each post so the style and general inspiration behind each recipe will be staying pretty much the same, but I will now be opening up more about my own mental health and will be aiming what I’m cooking more towards those who need quick, easy, comforting and/or nutritious food on a regular basis (whether that’s because of a mental health issue or just a general need). For now it’s worth saying that I normally prep my recipes a month in advance anyway, and most of what’ll be coming out over the next month will be stuff I made ages ago, so if it looks like it’s taking me a while to get into the swing of ‘The Mindfulness Kitchen’ that’s why.

So enough with the slightly angst explaining of what the hell I’m doing, onto the food! During my amazing time at Greenbelt we worked 4 hours shifts, often that went over a lunchtime or the time in the evening when you start to get peckish (some people call it dinner?). Luckily we were positioned right next to an little food truck that sold insanely good Middle Eastern dishes, so it was super easy to go and get some really good food in the calmer moments of a shift! My favourite of these was their maneesh, a soft flatbread topped with za’atar spice blend, which they stuffed with lamb and hummus. It was so good that as soon as I got home I just had to make my own, and this was the result!

This particular maneesh bread isn’t really a flatbread, more of a flat soft bread, but it still works well as dipping device. If you want more a pita type thing you could just roll your dough thinner but personally I wouldn’t for two reasons – 1. The big chunks of bread mean that this can double as a hearty lunch-type bread that’ll actually fill you up, and 2. the dough is really stubborn when it comes to rolling and springs back a lot, so you’ll be there ages if you try to get the dough thin enough to be a proper flatbread. Whatever you go for though, this is an amazing sharing bread that’s especially good served with oil, hummus, balsamic and minced lamb, so its perfect for parties or meze/tapas style dinners.

Recipe

Serves 4

Time: 40 minutes, plus proving and baking time

Ingredients

360g Strong white bread flour
8g Salt
15g Caster sugar
7g Fast action dried yeast
1 tbsp Olive oil, plus extra for greasing
250ml Water
2 tbsp Zaatar spice blend

To Serve (optional)

4 tbsp Olive oil
400g Minced lamb
A little Balsamic vinegar
4 tbsp Hummus

Method

Begin by making the bread. Put the flour, salt, yeast, and sugar into a bowl and mix together. Add the oil and ½ the water and then mix together until combined. Slowly add the remaining water, mixing constantly, until a soft dough forms.
Tip the dough out onto a lightly oiled worktop and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes should do it. Kneading is the process by which you stretch the dough, so as long as you’re stretching the dough as much as possible you’re doing it right, but if you want some more technique this is how I do it. With your left hand hold the end of the dough closest to you, then with the heel of your right hand push the dough away from you as far as you can. Roll the dough back towards you with your right hand, turn the dough 90˚and repeat.
When the dough is sufficiently kneaded (ie is smooth and lovely) form the dough into a ball, tip it into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave for an hour or two until doubled in size.
When risen knead the dough a little on a worktop to knock the air out. Split the dough into two, roll each portion out into a circle about 1 cm thick, then place on a lined baking tray.
Mix the zaatar with a little olive oil to make a paste. Spread this paste over the bread circles and leave for another 15-30 minutes to rise slightly.
Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Bake the breads in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and slightly risen.
Meanwhile prep the lamb. Put 1 tbsp of the oil into a pan and heat gently. Add the minced lamb and then fry until browned all over but not dry. Season with a little salt and pepper and then serve with the rest of the oil, the bread, balsamic, and hummus!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x