The Efx3 Recipe Collection

We don’t have US-style biscuits in the UK; closest thing is savoury scones. I made soup a few days back, veggies with barley and lentils, and had some left over and decided I’d like to make American biscuits to go with it. Found a promising recipe, tried it, and they came out fantastic.

Ingredients:

2.5 cups all-purpose flour

2.5tsp baking powder

0.5tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup milk

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 205C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Method:

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. I used self-raising flour so only added 2 level teaspoons of baking powder.

Cut or rub in the butter (I used salted, either works) until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. The butter has to be very cold for this, and if you’re rubbing it in, your hands must be cold too.

Add the milk and the beaten egg and stir either with a metal spoon or a knife until the mix is sticky, moist and lumpy.

Knead the mixture only enough to bind it. If you knead it too much the biscuits won’t rise as well.

Roll it out to around half an inch thick and cut with a cup/glass/cookie-cutter into circles. Try not to twist the cutter – this pinches the edges together and you’ll get flatter biscuits.

Brush the tops with a little milk and pop them in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick comes out  clean.

Nom!

I wanted to make oat biscuits and perused a few recipes before I found this one. It’s absolutely amazing – I demand that as soon as you finish reading this recipe you scurry off to the kitchen to make a batch.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup oats

1tsb honey or golden syrup

4pz salted butter

3oz brown sugar (I used caramel sugar, I imagine any light brown sugar will be good)

1/2 tsp baking powder

4oz self-raising flour

Vanilla essence

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar until soft and well mixed. Add the honey/syrup (melt in 1tsp water if it’s very thick) and a couple of drops of vanilla essence.

Slice in the flour, baking powder and oats until well mixed.

Gather walnut-sized balls of the mix in your hands, press together until the mix holds firm and place on a greased or lined baking tray. Makes ~10 depending on the size of your balls. *cough* You can squish them flatter if you like thin biscuits, but they do spread out when cooked.

Cook at around 160C for 15 minutes.

500g lean steak, cut into chunks

1 yellow pepper, chopped

1 medium to lge onion, chopped

2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard

1 slice white bread, crusts removed

pinch of salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper (or seasoning to taste)

method.

blitz everything in a food processor until very fine, shape into around 8 burgers, depending on how thick you like them, then chill for at least 30 mins.

grill under a hot grill for a few minutes on eavh side untill cooked through, again depending on how thick you like them, and according to taste.

Serve in buns with salad and mayo

Here is one for Hummus:
Hummus is a very popular dish all over the Mediterranean Basin and Middle Eastern region made out of chickpeas (hummus in Arabic). Other ingredients are tahini (sesame paste), olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and salt.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz of soaked and boiled chickpeas or garbanzo beans
• 2 fluid ounces of the liquid from boiling the chickpeas
• 3-5 tablespoons of natural lemon juice
• 1 ½ -2 tablespoons of tahini
• 2-3 crushed cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of virgin olive oil

Some people add red pepper powder to the mixture. Others, just sprinkle it later on the dish.

Process:

Soak about 3 ounces of chickpeas during a minimum of 12 hours. Boil them and set aside from boiler. Keep the water. Combine the chickpeas with the rest of the ingredients in blender. Add 2 fluid ounces (about ¼ of cup) of water from chickpeas. Blend for 3-5 minutes on low speed until is properly mixed and get a smooth consistency.

Place in a dish, forming a type of basin with hummus, with a shallow well in the center.

Add a small amount (1-2 tablespoons) of virgin olive oil in the center of the dish. Sprinkle some red pepper and garnish with parsley (both optional). If you want a low calories hummus, don’t add olive oil and reduce the amount of it you put in the food processor

Serve accompanied with warm or toasted pita bread.

Calories of a cup (8 fluid ounces or 250 grams) of hummus: from 350Kcal (low fat) to 500 Kcal. It is a rather rich food.

Hummus is very healthy. It lowers bad cholesterol, due to the cheakpeas. It is very caloric and should be eaten moderately.

Stupidly quick ‘n’ easy. No pics – they were gone too fast!

Base Ingredients:

2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup milk
2 tbsp cream
(If the milk / cream is sour, even better – it may sound icky but it makes the scones taste nicer )

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: roughly 20 minutes at 200C

Method:

• Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl until it makes a thick, sticky batter. If it’s too dry, add a little milk; too wet, add a little flour.
• Spoon blobs onto a greased baking tray. Should make 6 in total. Bake until the tops begin turning golden.

The good thing about this mix is you can add anything you want to the base ingredients. However if you’re putting something ‘heavy’ in, add a 1/4 tsp of baking powder too.

Last night I made them with 1/2 a small grated onion, some thyme and rosemary, and had one of those just now warmed with melted Camembert and plum jam on top – delicious!

This morning I used the same base mix and added about 1/4 cup of sugar and 2 tbsp of maple syrup (as well as the 1/4 tsp baking powder), and we had those for breakfast with butter and honey. Yum!