‘Blow a raspberry at winter’ with our tasty summer treats

Posted on July 16th, 2013

Learning about food for children 

I am always keen to have the children understand the basics of food and where it comes from. Living on a farm this is not too hard. All our meat is home grown and we are tending a green house together for our summer salad and vegetables. However soft fruit is something we don’t have here until the blackberry season so we took the chance to go to Pencarrow House to pick our own raspberries. More on our adventures over on Country Kids this coming Saturday but here’s what we made with the raspberries that missed our mouth and made it home!

Raspberry Muffins

Cakes and muffins were the first choice of the children so I flicked through a new step by step cookery book I had received as part of a series of three beginners step by step cook books from Parragon Books following a chat at Brit Mums Live and found the perfect recipe.

I am not usually one to follow a recipe but this one looked so easy and so well illustrated I thought it would be perfect to make with the children. It requires no fancy equipment, just a pair of scales to weigh the ingredients, mixing bowls and cup cake cases. 

Ingredients

280g plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

125g caster sugar

2 eggs

150ml milk

100ml sunflower oil

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Rind and juice of a small lemon

140g fresh raspberries

Icing sugar to dust

Method

Whisk together eggs, milk, oil, vanilla and lemon in a bowl.

Stir in sugar

Sift in flour and baking powder and combine to make a soft batter.

Gently add the raspberries and mix trying not to break them too much. 

Spoon into cup cases

Bake at 200 degrees centigrade for approximately 15 to 20 minutes till risen and golden.

The result

They were quick and easy to make and all 12 muffins in a house of eight were gone in no time at all! I will be making double the quantity next time!

Frozen Raspberry Yogurt

Actually the kids asked for ice cream but since I didn’t have cream in the house we made frozen yoghurt instead, every bit as tasty and a little healthier!

Ingredients

1 400g ish punnet of raspberries

310g tin of carnation condensed milk

1 400g tub of Greek yoghurt

100g icing sugar

Desert spoon of vanilla flavour or good essence

Method

Place all ingredients in a blender and whiz till smooth, decant into containers and freeze overnight.

To serve

Take out of the freezer a few minutes before serving. Delicious served with the raspberry muffins, I had to hide one just to keep it long enough to try them together. Alternatively an ice cream cone is every child’s favourite.

Healthy Raspberry Lollies

Here at Coombe Mill my children will endlessly clutter up the freezer with DIY ice lollies from juice in a mug with a spoon in it! We found some purpose made ice lolly holders hiding in the cupboard and agreed to use our last punnet to make raspberry ice lollies.

Ingredients

400g of raspberries, 

Approximately 150ml water

Juice of half a lemon

5 good tablespoons of icing sugar  

Method

Blend all ingredients, if it is too thick add a little more water then pour into the lolly moulds and leave to set in the freezer overnight.

Serving

Loosen from the mould with a little warm water and enjoy. Any leftover juice makes the perfect summer breakfast smoothie too!

Don’t forget to pop over to Country Kids on Saturday and see all the fun and added adventures of our day out picking the raspberries. 

About Parragon Step by Step Cook Books

The Muffin recipe came from the beginners step by step book from Parragon Books. I also received the Vegetarian and Tapas editions which are equally well illustrated and as the name suggests step by step yet packed with great recipe ideas. They will all be available in our reception for our holiday guests to borrow when I have finished flicking through for new inspiration myself! These books are perfect for those a little afraid of scratch cooking, new to cooking, cooking with children or on holiday when a tasty meal that is quick and easy to prepare is just what you want. There is also a fourth book in the series for cocktails which I haven’t seen but sounds perfect for parties. The books retail for £16 each and I feel are well worth it.

Win a Step By Step Cook Book with Parragon Books and Coombe Mill 

If you would like to win a copy of one of the step by step cook books please leave a message on the post below saying which book you would like along with a way for me to contact you.

To increase your chance of winning: 

Follow Parragon Books and Coombemill on Twitter and leave ONE separate comment here to say you have done so with your twitter name.

For another entry like Coombemill and Parragon Books on Facebook and leave ONE extra comment here with your Facebook name.

For one final entry, please tweet the following sentence and leave another comment to say you have done so

I’ve entered to WIN a step by step @ParragonBooks cook book of my choice with @coombemill http://bit.ly/10Y1Kv5  Why don’t you? Pls RT:

The competition is open to UK residents and will close on Tuesday 30th July. The winner will be selected by RandomOrg.com and announced the following morning. Good luck to all taking part.

The Winner is Attachment Mummy . Many congratulations and I hope you make some great meals from your Vetetarian book.

Disclosure

I was sent the Parragon books to review and offer to our holiday guests. The muffin recipe is from the beginners book. The frozen yoghurt and lolly recipes are my own. All views expressed here are my own.

I am linking my raspberry recipes to these great linkys. Please do check some of the other posts there: