PB & J Blondies - SKIPPY Peanut Butter and Jam Blondies #AD

On Saturday (2nd April 2022) it is officially National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day. Peanut butter and jelly (or jam) has been one of my favourite sandwich fillings for a very long time. I don't remember when or where I first enjoyed it, but it's a combination that I love. 

Jelly is generally made from fruit juices, whilst jam is made from real fruit, but here in the UK jelly is a completely different food, and I would not recommend using it in a pb & j sandwich!

For National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day 2022 I've decided to make some PB & J Blondies. if you're not familiar with blondies, they are similar, in the way that they're made, to brownies. They're relatively simple to make and, just like brownies, the key is to not over bake them, so they keep a soft and chewy texture.

I've used my go to blondie recipe, which can be adapted with different flavours and ingredients, and swirled creamy SKIPPY Peanut Butter and Bonne Maman jam through the batter, and scattered a few salted peanuts on the top.

SKIPPY® Peanut Butter: Extra Smooth and Extra Crunchy varieties are currently available in major supermarkets including Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Costco, Ocado and the International section of Tesco.

Take a look at my TikTok to see how I made these delicious blondies, and scroll down to see the full recipe.

@thecrazykitchen #ad SKIPPY peanut butter pb & j Blondies #ad #skippy #peanutbutter #blondies #baking #cakes #nationalpbjday #recipe #food ♬ For cooking and work videos. Marimba is an impressive song - Junya Ota

SKIPPY Peanut Butter & Jam [Jelly] Blondies

250g unsalted butter
350g caster Sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp baking powder

300g plain flour

2 eggs

100g SKIPPY Extra Smooth Creamy Peanut Butter

75g Strawberry Jam / Conserve / Jelly

30g salted peanuts

• Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C / gas mark 3
• In a saucepan, melt the butter and bring it briefly to the boil and stir in the sugar
• Add the vanilla
• Remove from the heat
• Mix the flour & baking powder together
• Add the flour & baking powder to the saucepan, and mix well
• Beat the eggs
• Add the beaten eggs to the saucepan, and beat until smooth
• Pour into a baking tray lined with non stick baking paper, and smooth out
• Warm the SKIPPY Peanut Butter in the microwave for a few seconds to soften
• Drizzle the SKIPPY Peanut Butter over the batter, and swirl
• Spoon jam onto the batter, and swirl
• Sprinkle with salted peanuts
• Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, but check after 25 minutes. The tops of the blondies should be golden brown but the centre should still be soft.
• Be careful not to overcook - blondies need to retain their fudginess - it will firm up as it cools down
• Cool in the tray and cut into squares when cold

BLONDIES ARE LIKE A GIANT CHEWY COOKIE

Recipe commissioned by SKIPPY Peanut Butter

More delicious SKIPPY Peanut Butter recipes :

 

SPAM®️ Quiche Lorraine {& a GIVEAWAY} #AD

This coming week is an important event in the foodie calendar as it's the UK's official SPAM®️ Appreciation Week 2021 (8th - 14th March). I know that many readers of this blog love having the chance of winning a SPAM®️ Sizzle Pack, and this year I also have a special anniversary t-shirt to give away along with the pack. (scroll down to find out how you can win)

SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham are celebrating 80 years in the UK this year, and to celebrate this very important birthday, along with the giveaway, I have created a very important dish. During the 70's and 80's, no birthday party or special occasion was complete without a quiche of some description on the buffet table, and with that in mind I've given the classic Quiche Lorraine a Sizzle Pork And Mmm twist, and replaced the bacon with SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham - pure genius I hear you say!

A quiche is pretty straightforward to make, and you can add just about anything you like to the filling. The classic Quiche Lorraine is generally just bacon, cheese, eggs and cream. I usually make my own pastry, but if you're not a confident pastry maker, or don't have much time, then a ready made pastry crust can be a life saver, and is available in just about every supermarket - make sure you buy the savoury version and not the sweet one though!

Yon't need to pre-cook the SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham, especially if you're short on time, but I think it's nicer when the edges have a little crispiness to them, but it's personal preference really, and who doesn't love listening to the sizzle in the pan!

SPAM®️ Quiche Lorraine

1 tbsp oil

1 onion, finely chopped

200g can of SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham

1 pastry case

100g Gruyere cheese, grated

300ml double cream

3 eggs

• Preheat the oven to 170°c
• Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onions
• Fry until softened, and set aside
• Dice the SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham to approx 0.5cm and add to the pan
• Fry until browned on all sides
• Add the onions and all but one large spoonful of SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham to the base of the pastry case
• Sprinkle the grated Gruyere cheese over the top
• Whisk the cream and eggs together with a fork & pour into the pastry case - if you have too much mixture you can make mini crustless quiches in a muffin tin
• Sprinkle the remaining diced SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham onto the top
• Bake in the preheated oven for approx 25 minutes, until golden brown
• Serve warm or cold, with salad and new potatoes, or baked beans & chips - whatever floats your boat!

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WIN a SIZZLE PACK and t-shirt(worth over £100)

To win your very own sizzle pack and t-shirt, including a SPAM®️ slicer, apron & spatula, you need to complete the Rafflecopter form by completing the Rafflecopter form below.

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More SPAMTASTIC meals and recipe ideas can be found on the SPAM®️ UK website

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Peanut Butter Magic Cookie Bars #AD

In my 2.5 years living in America some years ago, one of the great things I brought back with me (aside from 2 children) was a recipe for 7 layer magic cookie bars. It was a clipping that I'd saved from a Sunday newspaper, with a coupon for condensed milk. The coupons were always for the expensive brands so I rarely used them, but I kept the recipes all the same. In fact I returned home with a box full of recipe clippings and think I still have them somewhere, despite now being able to Google any recipe that I would ever need.

7 layer magic cookie bars were just that - 7 layers, with the magic being how easy they are to make. There's no mixing or rubbing in or blending involved, unless you include the crushing of the biscuits and chopping of nuts. They are pretty effortless though, and totally moreish, and perfect with an afternoon cuppa right before a lockdown afternoon nap.

As the recipe originates from America, the 'biscuits' (that's a TOTALLY different thing in America) were Graham crackers, which are generally substituted in UK recipes with digestive biscuits. The nuts used are generally walnuts or pecans, but as I'm using peanut butter I'm using peanuts. You could use unsalted, but I like a touch of saltiness to balance out all that sugar!

Look at all of those layers of sweet & salty peanutty goodness. Just perfect for National Peanut Butter Day 2021 on 24th January!

The best way to eat them is with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and warm SKIPPY Peanut Butter poured over the top. SKIPPY Peanut Butter is packed full of sweet American peanuts (over 90% in fact), and the Smooth, Extra Creamy variety is so smooth that when it is warmed up it could be mistaken for a sauce, which is perfect poured over puddings in these cold winter months.

Take a look at my TikTok to see how I made them, and scroll down to see the full recipe.

@thecrazykitchen

#SKIPPY Peanut Butter Magic Cookie Bars #peanutbutter #foodtiktok #cooking #cookies #foodporn #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #nationalpeanutbutterday #AD

♬ Coffee for Your Head - Vinyll

Peanut Butter Magic Cookie Bars

75g butter
200g digestive biscuits, crushed
100g SKIPPY Creamy Peanut Butter
397g can of condensed milk
75g dark choc chips
100g salted peanuts
50g desiccated coconut

• Melt the butter and mix with the crushed biscuits
• Pour into a 13" x 9" baking tin or dish, spread out & flatten down a little
• Warm the SKIPPY Peanut Butter in the microwave for around 30-60 seconds and then mix with the condensed milk
• Pour evenly over the biscuits
• Scatter the chocolate chips, salted peanuts and coconut over the top
• Bake in a preheated 170 C oven for approx 25 minutes, or until golden brown
• Allow to cool in the tin before slicing into bars or squares

For an indulgent dessert, serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of warm SKIPPY Creamy peanut butter

Recipe commissioned by SKIPPY Peanut Butter

SPAM & Pineapple Tacos #AD

Just as we thought we were getting back to some sort of normality, lockdown fever has set in again and the stockpilers are out in force buying up all the toilet rolls, pasta and tinned tomatoes. I'm pretty sure many of them have still got a cupboard full from earlier in the year, along with a year's supply of flour & yeast, but each to their own with their crazy behaviour. Thankfully this recipe doesn't include any of those ingredients, so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding everything you need to make these tacos. They're easy enough to make, and quantities can be easily adjusted depending on how many people you're feeding. This recipe makes 6, which fits perfectly with the current "rule of 6", although you'll have to take the word of the husband and 11 year old that these taste great, as my eldest taste tester has gone off to uni, the middle one is now vegetarian (although she did have a vegetarian version & loved the flavours), and I'm experiencing altered & diminished taste following a bout of the dreaded Covid in March. It's not what you want when you're a food blogger, but it could be worse. Thankfully I have a family of willing volunteers when it comes to trying out new recipes, and it doesn't stop me eating, especially spicy food!

The fresh pineapple salsa works really well with the SPAM Chopped Pork & Ham, which is coated in a spicy taco seasoning and sizzled in a pan. The soft mini tortilla's are the perfect size for taco's, and easy for little hands to hold, if you're feeding the family. They can be made up before serving, or let everyone put their own taco's together at the table. As an optional extra you could add a drizzle of sour cream or yogurt, and a sprinkling of grated cheese, but we think the creaminess of the avocado is enough here.

SPAM & Pineapple Tacos - makes 6

1 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Garlic granules 

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Ground Coriander

1/2 tsp Chilli Powder

Pinch of salt

2 tbsp olive oil

340g SPAM Chopped Pork and Ham

4 tomatoes, chopped

1/4 red onion, chopped

1/4 fresh pineapple, chopped

handful coriander, finely chopped

6 mini tortilla wraps 

1 avocado, thinly sliced

• Make the taco seasoning by mixing together the dry spices and salt
• Chop the SPAM Chopped Pork and Ham into 1cm cubes and add to a bowl
• Toss the SPAM Chopped Pork and Ham cubes in the taco seasoning
• Heat the olive oil in a non stick frying pan
• Fry the coated SPAM Chopped Pork and Ham over a medium heat until browned and crispy
• Whilst the SPAM Chopped Pork and Ham is cooking, make the salsa by mixing together the tomatoes, red onion, pineapple and coriander
• Warm the tortilla wraps in the microwave for approx 20 seconds
• Load up the wraps with the salsa and spicy SPAM Chopped Pork and Ham, and add a couple of slices of avocado

For more Sizzle Pork and Mmm recipes head over to the official SPAM Brand website.

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Cheese, Tomato & Spring Onion Quiche - with a bread crust

Well, 2020 is turning out to be a pretty bizarre year isn't it - how are we already in August, but at the same time it feels like the year is dragging. So much has happened, but also so little. Never again will we complain about the length of the 6 week summer holiday when many of us have survived the kids being off school for the equivalent of 4 summer holidays back to back, without even a an actual summer holiday to break it up. At least the weather has been pretty good, mostly, other than the torrential rain, multiple storms and floods that have happened recently. On the good days many of us are grateful that we can now venture further than our back gardens, and can once again enjoy parks, beaches and countryside.

Picnic time

Picnics are a great option for lunches at this time of the year, whether it's to enjoy in your garden, on a beach, park bench or even your living room floor if the weather is bad. Whilst sandwiches are a safe bet they can sometimes be a little boring. Pies, pasties, sausage rolls and quiche are great go to picnic essentials, but if you want to go for an impromptu picnic and you don't have the time or inclination to to make pastry, or you don't have any ready made in your fridge, then this quiche recipe can be the perfect solution, as it uses sliced bread for the crust.

Crispy crust

Yes, believe it or not, that crispy crust is made using sliced bread! Vogel's No Bits Seeded White loaf is ideal for those who want their children to have the benefits of milled grains and seeds in a seeded loaf but have children that won't entertain anything other than white bread. Not only does this sliced bread have all the nutrition and taste of seeded bread, but it has the soft texture of a white loaf, which children love.

Healthier option

Not only is this crust convenient, but it is also a much healthier option than using pastry, which has a high fat content (around 30% fat in your average shortcut pastry versus less than 3% fat in Vogel's No Bits Seeded White), and lower fibre content (around 1% fibre in shortcrust pastry versus 4% in Vogel's No Bits Seeded White). Some of the egg mixture soaks into the bread, but this is minimised by brushing the bread with a layer of egg mixture before 'blind baking' for around 10 minutes.

Get the kids involved

Making this quiche is a great activity to do with children of all ages. It's a simple enough recipe for older children to prepare on their own, as there are no tricky skills required, and younger children can help with grating cheese, cracking and beating eggs, and buttering bread, depending on their age and ability. They can also choose fillings for themselves - try adding a choice of fillings to small bowls and let children choose what they like, for example chopped ham, sweetcorn, cooked broccoli, cooked bacon, mushrooms and cooked leeks.

Looking good!

How good does that quiche look! Great for lunches, picnics or dinner, and when the kids are back at school you could pop a wedge into their lunchbox, or try making individual quiches in a muffin pan using a slice of bread for each quiche. Here's how to make a deep filled quiche, approximately 15cm x 20cm in size.

Cheese, Tomato & Spring Onion Quiche - with a bread crust

6 slices of Vogel's No Bits Seeded White bread

40g butter, softened

6 large eggs, beaten

2 spring onions, thinly sliced

half a pepper (I used 1/4 of an orange pepper & 1/4 of a yellow one), thinly sliced

75g mature cheddar cheese, grated

50ml milk

Salt & black pepper

4 or 5 baby plum tomatoes, halved

• Preheat the oven to 170°c
• Cut the curved top crusts off 4 slices of bread and cut the other 2 slices in half - you will need the halves with the straight crustUse a rolling pin to flatten the bread out a little
• Spread the softened butter onto the bread 
• Arrange the slices of bread, buttered side down, in the 15x20cm rectangular dish with 2 slices on each side, and the half slices on the ends, overlapping slightly. Use offcuts of bread to patch up any gaps or holes in the bread.
• Beat the eggs and brush a layer onto the bread
• Bake for approx 10 minutes until the bread is starting to crisp up
• Lay half of the sliced spring onions, half of the sliced peppers and half of the cheese onto the bread crust
• Beat the milk into the eggs & season with salt & pepper
• Pour the egg mixture into the crust, and top with the remaining onions, peppers, cheese & tomato halves
• Bake for approx 30 minutes, until the filling is just firm to the touch
• Enjoy warm or cold

Not only does Vogel's No Bits Seeded White make great quiche, but it makes pretty awesome toast too! Available to buy from Waitrose.

Recipe commissioned by Vogel's Bread

Breakfast SPAM®️ Burger {& a GIVEAWAY} #AD

Next week marks one of the most important events in every foodie's calendar - the UK's official SPAM®️ Appreciation Week 2020 (2nd - 8th March), and once again I'm giving away a SPAM®️ Sizzle Pack to one lucky reader of this blog (read on to find out how you can win). I'm also sharing a delicious  recipe for an everyday breakfast (ok maybe not EVERY day, just on the weekend), that incorporates SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham.

This year SPAM®️ Appreciation Week is inviting fans of SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham to show your appreciation by sizzling up some SPAM®️ product to create a prize winning recipe. There are 3 categories to choose from (America, Asia & Europe) to base your recipe on, and the winner of each category will go into a grand Sizzle-Off where they could be presented with the SPAM®️ Sizzle-Off trophy and £1000 travel or shopping vouchers! There will also be 10 winners from each category who will be picked at random to win a Sizzle Kit. Follow #SPAMsizzle on social media and head over to www.spam-uk.com for further details.

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I based my recipe on the USA region, where burgers are big business, to come up with my #SPAMsizzle recipe. My Breakfast SPAM®️ Burger is piled high with all the breakfast favourites - avocado, bacon, egg, potato waffle and a thick slice of fried SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham, all served in a sweet & soft toasted brioche bun. The beauty of breakfast burgers is that you can cook everything in advance and serve it all on a large board to let everyone build their own burgers, with all of their favourite breakfast ingredients - or why not go all out and include everything!

Breakfast SPAM®️ Burger - serves 2

1/2 tbsp oil
200g tub of Easy Open SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham
1 ripe Avocado
1/2 large Beef Tomato
2 Potato Waffles
4 Rashers of streaky bacon
2 Free range eggs

2 Brioche buns

Small handful of rocket leaves

• Heat the oil in a non stick frying pan over a med-high heat
• Slice the SPAM®️ into thick slices ( you will get 3 or 4 slices out of this tub) & add  2 slices to the pan
• Fry until lightly browned on both sides
• In the meantime prepare the other burger ingredients - mash the avocado, thickly slice the tomato, cook the waffles and bacon and poach the eggs
• Serve everything on a large serving board, alongside sliced brioche buns and fresh rocket leaves and allow everyone to build their own breakfast burger - eggs are best served on top to allow that runny yolk to drip down over the other ingredients!

WIN a SIZZLE PACK (worth over £100)

To win your very own sizzle pack, including a SPAM®️ slicer, apron & spatula, you need to complete the Rafflecopter form below.

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More SPAMTASTIC meals and recipe ideas can be found on the SPAM®️ UK website, and for additional chances to win a Sizzle Pack follow SPAM®️ on Twitter and Instagram, and follow the #SPAMsizzle hashtag.

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Wine and Food Pairings : Prosecco & Antipasti Pizza #AD

I've not shared too many recipes on here recently, due to one thing or another, but I intend to rectify that now I've got a little more time on my hands, and the days are getting a little longer, making it easier to take photographs in the evening.

Anyone that knows me knows that I like to enjoy a drink from time to time. I don't drink often but when I go out with friends I do like to let my hair down a little, and sometimes have trouble finding my off switch [don't judge!] My drinks of choice are usually lager or Prosecco, and sometimes both, although I have been known to regret that decision.

Recently I got to choose myself a few different bottles of Prosecco from Millésima, along with some champagne, which is a bit of a luxury for me. If you're a big wine connoisseur then you're sure to be excited by Millésima's huge stock of more than 2.5 million bottles of fine wine that they age slowly in their cellars in Bordeaux, including 100-250 en-primeur wines. Now I don't claim to be a wine expert by any means so I did have to research what 'en-primeur' wines are, and discovered that it's a method of buying wines early, whilst still in the barrel; offering customers the chance to invest before it's bottled. There are many reasons for buying 'en-primeur' including investment and securing wines that may be limited in quantity, but mostly because customers want to obtain great wine at the best price.

I received a gift card to purchase my wines, which arrived beautifully packaged in a black ribbon tied presentation box, along with a very comprehensive catalogue of wines from many regions, including a handy guide showing whether particular vintages are 'to drink' or 'to age'. Putting together my own 'tasting case' of wines, from the large selection of single bottles, was simple, and the checkout was straightforward. My tasting case arrived in around 2.5 weeks, and I decided to pair one of the bottles of Prosecco with one of my favourite food pairings - pizza.

As Prosecco is often the drink of choice at parties and celebrations, and pizza makes a great party food, then it's a no brainer that they would be paired together. The ideal Prosecco to pair with savoury foods such as pizza and antipasti is the 'Brut' style, as confusingly 'extra dry' and 'dry' are sweeter in taste, and may better suited served with cake and desserts, at an afternoon tea, for example. For this particular food pairing I selected a bottle of Treviso Brut Prosecco from Mionetto to pair with my Antipasti Pizza topped with salty cured ham and creamy Italian cheese.

Home made pizza is really easy to make, and best of all, you can top it with all of your favourite ingredients. For this one I chose to top the pizza dough with fig jam instead of a tomato sauce as the sweetness of figs goes really well with Italian cheese & Prosciutto. Topped off with a scattering of thyme leaves and rocket (Arugula) and a drizzle of lemon extra virgin olive oil finishes off this sweet, salty & creamy pizza with a touch of pepperiness.

I find a pizza stone to be the best way of cooking home made pizzas to make sure that the base is cooked evenly. You need to preheat the stone in the oven, and by doing this the pizzas only take around 10 minutes to cook, so whilst one is cooking you can prepare the next. I've recently bought some wooden pizza paddles which makes transferring the pizza on & off the pizza stone easier

Antipasti Pizza - makes 4 small pizzas 

400g pizza dough - I have a recipe here
flour and/or semolina for rolling
4 tbsp fig jam
200g mozzarella, sliced
100g ricotta
150g garlic marinated artichoke hearts, sliced
1 burrata cheese
85g prosciutto
a few sprigs of thyme
handful of rocket
drizzle of lemon extra virgin olive oil

• Preheat the oven to 225 C and if you're using a pizza stone place it in the oven
• Divide the pizza dough into 4 pieces and roll out on a floured work surface to about 3cm thick
• Top the dough with 1 tbsp fig jam & spread evenly
• Add slices of mozzarella and artichoke and spoon small amounts of ricotta on
• Bake on the hot pizza stone for approx 10 minutes, until the cheese has melted and the pizza crust has browned
• Serve with small amounts of burrata dotted on top, prosciutto, some thyme & rocket leaves and a drizzle of olive oil

 

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Chilli Sweet & Sour SPAM with Noodles {& a GIVEAWAY} #AD

There are a few dishes that usually appear regularly on our weekly meal plan, and along with fajitas and roast dinner, sweet & sour is one of those. It's a lovely quick midweek meal that can either be made with raw or pre cooked meat of almost any variety, and many different vegetables. I usually keep it simple by adding just peppers and onion, and occasionally I'll throw in a tin of pineapple if I have some to hand. Sometimes I'll use a ready made sweet & sour sauce and other times I'll make my own, but for the ease and quickness of this midweek recipe I used a packet.

As it's the UK's official SPAM®️ Appreciation Week this week (4th-11th March) I've chosen to use SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham in this recipe. SPAM®️ is made from more than 90% shoulder pork and leg ham, and as it is already cooked this dish takes just a few minutes to make. It needs a quick sizzle in the pan to crisp the edges, before frying the peppers, onion & chilli, adding the sauce and stirring through the SPAM®️ to coat in sauce. Job done in under 10 minutes!

You'll need your volume up to listen to that #SPAMsizzle

Chilli Sweet & Sour SPAM with Noodles - serves 2

1 tbsp oil
200g can of SPAM®️ Chopped Pork and Ham
1/2 red pepper
1/2 green pepper
1/2 red chilli
2 spring onions
150g sweet & sour sauce
300g fresh egg noodles

• Heat the oil in a large pan or wok over a med-high heat
• Dice the SPAM®️ and add to the pan
• Fry until lightly browned on all sides
• Remove from the pan & set aside
• Chop the peppers, and thinly slice the chilli and spring onions
• Toss the peppers, chilli & onions into the pan & fry for a few minutes until softened
• Add the fried SPAM®️ back into the pan, along with the sweet & sour sauce
• Stir the sauce through everything in the pan until everything is heated
• Serve with the prepared egg noodles

WIN a SIZZLE PACK

To win your very own sizzle pack, including a SPAM®️ slicer, apron & spatula, you need to complete the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

More SPAMTASTIC meals and recipe ideas can be found on the SPAM®️ UK website, and for additional chances to win a Sizzle Pack follow SPAM®️ on Twitter and Instagram, and follow the #SPAMsizzle hashtag.

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