Afternoon Tea in the Garden

Since we've been having this spate of glorious weather (who would want to leave the UK right now?!) I decided it was time to hit the garden again, just this time with baked goods. So my friend Harriet and I pulled on our aprons and got to work conjuring up an afternoon tea to be proud of, complete with decretive cake stand!

We prepared breads piled high with caramelised onion, brie and rocket, cream cheese pesto and pepper cups, fruit cups and lavender shortbreads, all topped off with some of my home made lemonade and a glass of bubbly. The best bit was all the food was relatively quick to make! My favourite little dish however had to be the breads, but that's mainly because I feel you can't go wrong with caramelised onion and brie!

Anyway, just before I rush back to the garden, here are two little recipes for you guys to enjoy. Tell me what you think!


Breads

You will need:
4 red onions
a wedge of brie
rocket
bread (I used a ciabatta style loaf)
olive oil
a teaspoon of sugar
a sprinkle of salt

The only time consuming part of this recipe is caramelising the onions. To do this, coat a large pan with a thin layer of olive oil and heat this on a medium heat. When the oil is just simmering, throw in your onions, finely chopped, and spread them evenly over the base of your pan. Now gently heat your onions. If they look a little dry, add a small dash of water- this will also help prevent them burning. Add your teaspoon of sugar and your sprinkle of salt. These will help the caramelisation process. They should be caramelised after around 40 minutes.
Simply pile your caramelised onions onto lightly toasted bread, pop on a slice of brie, cover with a handful of rocket and serve. Delicious!


Lavender Shortbreads

You will need:
125g of warmed butter (I pop mine in the microwave for 20 seconds)
55g of sugar
175g of plain flour
a couple of heads of lavender (mine come straight from the garden- I just wash them and break them up into individual flowers)

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees and then simply combine all the ingredients in a mixer until they're thoroughly incorporated. Next, roll the mixture out until it's around 5mm thick. Using a cookie cutter (or a knife- it doesn't really matter), cut out your biscuits and lay them on a tray lined with greaseproof paper. Bung them in the oven and leave them to cook for around 15 minutes or until golden brown. Pull them out and sprinkle over a dusting of sugar and leave to cool. That's all there is to it!

Say Cheese!

This little indulgent snack is one I quite often whip up when I'm feeling like a bit of cheap luxury- it's definitely food for the soul and maybe not a favourite if you're watching the scales, but who could resist it, honestly?

There is something about melted cheese that begs to be eaten. I don't know about you, but I'm the kind of person who will pick the stringy mozzarella straight off a pizza and gobble it right down, or eat a tosty burning hot so the liquid cheese will drizzle  into my waiting mouth. 

Well, if those cheesy dreams are not the most appealing to you, this yummy treat will allow you to get the same effect just with the illusion of some sophistication at the same time. Neat, huh? Its pretense at elegance makes it a great little recipe to dig out if you have guests and are in need of some sort of sharing platter- they may say you can't buy friends, but whoever 'they' are obviously never fed their would-be-friends this! It's also so mind numbingly simple it will literally take you 10mins which will buy you a little more time to natter and relax. 

All you need is a wheel of brie (or camembert), some honey (here I used the squeezy sort, but the thicker stuff is much nicer if you have any!) and some rosemary (again here I had to use dried, but if I'm at home I like to use the fresh stuff, straight off the bush).  For dipping I just used some nice crusty bread, but grapes, cranberries, figs, slices of apple, apricots and walnuts go deliciously as well! 

Take your cheese and put it in some kind of heat proof container- I used mini pie dishes. Stab some holes in it and drizzle over your honey. Then, sprinkle on your rosemary and put the whole thing in a warm oven (I normally put it in at around 180 degrees).

When you see your honey starting to bubble and the skin of the cheese 'doming' slightly it's done- don't let the honey burn! 

We caught her...

...then dived in ourselves!

 When you break the skin, you should find all the cheese inside to be deliciously melted. Dive in and dip to your heart's content!

One happy Gracey