Pan-fried Paprika Chicken

Looking for a quick and easy recipe to cook some chicken mini fillets, we spotted this one by Mary Berry.  Checking the ingredients, we had all that was required.

Gathering the 6 ingredients together, we began by making the marinade out of a Tablespoonful each of paprika, grainy mustard, runny honey (although ours was no longer fully runny!) and Worcestershire sauce (we used biona gluten free).

Mixing the marinade in  a pasta bowl, the chicken fillet/strips were added and thoroughly coated before being set aside for half an hour.

Once it was time to cook, a small amount of oil was added to a frying pan and heated through.  We then added the chicken fillets and cooked them on one side for a couple of minutes before turning them to cook the other side.  We made sure the chicken was thoroughly cooked.

Having measured out 150ml of double cream, this was added to the remaining paprika marinade and this cream mix was poured onto the cooked chicken.  Once the pan contents were bubbling, the heat was turned down and the 'sauce' was reduced slightly.

We served our chicken dish with mixed root vegetable mash and stir fried leeks and peas.  Mary suggests, in her recipe, serving with boiled rice and young spinach which we are sure would work well.

Pinwheels, Twists and Marbled Biscuits

Having seen Mary Berry make some simple two tone biscuits on the TV, we decided to give it a go with some gluten free biscuit dough.

Making up a batch of standard biscuit dough, (200g caster sugar, 200g unsalted butter, creamed, then one egg added and mixed through).  We split it in two after the egg was incorporated.  To one half we added 200g plain flour (we used Dove's Farm gluten free) and to the other we added 150g plain flour and 50g cocoa powder.

The doughs were then brought together using the electric mixer before being pulled into a ball by hand.

The two doughs were rolled out carefully (we used a silicone sheet to stop sticking but clingfilm could also be used if that is what you have to hand.) 

Once rolled, we laid two small sheets of dough one on top of the other and rolled it, carefully, into a long tube - this would be used to form the pinwheel biscuits

After chilling the dough 'roll' for about 15 minutes (whilst we got on with making biscuit twists) we sliced the dough roll into discs.

Each disc was just less than 1cm in thickness and was carefully placed on the non-stick baking sheet.

The twists were made by cutting thin lengths of the bi-coloured dough (we used a rule and pizza wheel), twisting slightly and placing directly onto a non-stick baking sheet ... making sure to push the ends down to stop them unravelling during cooking.








Mary Berry suggested making marbled biscuits with the left overs... and this is what we did too!  They're really simple.  By combining the leftovers of the doughs, we rolled out, used a cutter and put the biscuits on a baking sheet.


The biscuits were chilled until ready to be baked in a moderate oven (170ºC) for 8-12 minutes (you need to keep an eye on them because varying sizes mean they cook at differing rates)

Once cooked, we allowed thebiscuits to cool for a short while on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  Then they were ready to be stored in an airtight container for eating later... next time we'll make the twists a little shorter so they fit in our pots.

Pear and Marzipan Tart

Having been given the chance to attend the Winter BBC Good Food Show at the NEC, we also got tickets to the SuperTheatre to see a show by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood.  During the show, Mary was demonstrating a pie recipe using sweet pastry, marzipan and apricots.  As Mary's recipe used plain flour, we felt it would be something we could adapt to be gluten free by using Dove's Farm gluten free flour.

Ingredients we used are:-

For the pastry
300g Plain Flour
150g Butter, cubed and softened
150g icing sugar
one egg

For the filling
Marzipan, grated
400g Tin of pears, in juice, drained (Mary's recipe used tinned apricots)

Following Mary's demonstration, we placed all the dry ingredients for the pastry in our large hand blender jug and blitzed them to a breadcrumb consistency.

Then the egg was added and blitzed again.


Once the mix was coming together, we turned it out and brought it together into a ball.


We then halved the pastry, wrapped one half in greaseproof paper, placed it in a labelled plastic bag and froze for later use.  With the remaining pastry, we halved it again and rolled each part into a long rectangle (of about the size to fit the tart tin we have), using greasproof paper as a template.

After rolling out both pieces of pastry, they were placed on a baking sheet and put in the fridge to chill.

 Whilst the pastry was chilling, the marzipan was grated and the pears drained.

 Removing the pastry from the fridge, a line of marzipan gratings was placed down the middle.









The drained pears were then laid on top of the marzipan before placing the remaining pastry rectangle on top, sealing with a brush of water round the edges and cutting to shape using a tart tin.



 The tart was placed on a hot baking sheet and baked in a 180ªC fan oven for about 20 minutes.

We checked after 15 minutes and covered the edges with foil in an attempt to stop them burning.

Once cooked through, the tart was divided into portions....










...the remainder was stored in an airtight container for another day.