Actual longform title: Marshmallow crispy hearts with a salted caramel & chocolate fondue.

Please don’t make this for your Valentine, because that would just show me up. We’re not doing all that this year. What you could do is add all the fresh fruit, like strawberries and apple slices, ‘cos it cancels out the chocolate. Fact*

Marshmallow Hearts

These are as simple as melting marshmallows and smushing in a load of rice crispies. It makes me wonder why we used to buy those packets of rice crispy bars for the boy for years, to be honest.

You also don’t have to make them into hearts. I just did that when people paid me for seasonal shenanigans. Just cut them into squares. Let’s not conform to the social pressures of enforced romantic gestures.

Actual ingredients and instructions, though:

• 170g Pink Marshmallows (use the white ones for dipping)
• 25g Butter
• 100g Rice Krispies
• Optional – dash of red food colouring

1. Add the butter and marshmallows to a non-stick pan and melt slowly, stirring regularly until smooth.
2. Add a dash of food colouring if you want them extra pink.
3. Remove from the heat and quickly add in the rice Krispies, stirring well.
4. Tip immediately into a loose-bottomed, or lined baking pan around 8”/20cm square.
5. Press down with a spoon or your fingers. You kind of have to sneak up on it and press quickly and lightly so it doesn’t stick to you or the spoon.
6. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours
7. Remove from the tin and cut hearts from the krispie cakes with a heart shaped cookie cutter, or just cut into squares.
8. Spike with a skewer for dipping.

The salted caramel chocolate fondue is totally unnecessary (isn’t all baking?) but if you fancy a go here’s how it starts:

I mean, I think we can see that this isn’t diet territory.

Ingredients for the ‘Fondue’ Dip

• 200g Chocolate Chips or Chunks – a mix of plain and milk
• 150ml of Canned (Carnation) Caramel (find it with the condensed milk in the shops)
• 150ml Double Cream
• A sprinkle of sea salt
• Extra caramel for swirling

Dip Prep

1. To make the dip, gently heat the chocolate, cream and caramel until just melted.
2. Add a sprinkle of salt and stir well until smooth.
3. Serve immediately, or rewarm in the microwave on medium in 10-20 second bursts.
4. Swirl in a bit of extra caramel and a sprinkle of salt crystals before serving.

Find some fruit, cake chunks, pretzels, marshmallows, marshmallow hearts maybe.

Dip ‘em.

Bonus points

• If you have any left over dip, chill it in the fridge then whisk with a food mixer to make a whipped ganache to pipe or spread onto cakes.
• Don’t like caramel? Weirdo. Miss it out and just make this as a chocolate dip.
• The spare bits of crispy cake from around the wonky edges are really good for the snacking.

Anyway. Love you, bye!

*lie 

Recipe originally created and photographed for Center Parcs

Hello friends.

I loved the colourful, supportive world that was created by food blogs over the years, but things move on and blogging is not the new-new thing any more.

The pull of Instagram and shorter formats means the food blogging community has drifted away, but I still enjoy keeping in touch with you all on other platforms. Places like Substack, where Ed has found a home for FirstLight Workshop, have risen from the ashes, but I can’t let my Things{we}make go, just yet.

I have moved on with my work life though, wound down Claire Sutton Images, and have been working for over a year in public sector communications. Luckily I am able to pull on the weird and varied collection of skills I have gathered during my career(s) and have found a home for most* of them in my new role, where I am enjoying working in a team again.

*I’ve not been asked to video slow-mo cream dolloping yet, but there’s still time.

Lots of my recipes and photos didn’t get shared when they were published, including this selection of ‘festive food’ that I put together for the Co-Op. Working with magazines was always quite different to my other work as I was given a brief and a colour scheme and a collection of products that I needed to use for product placement.

This post was originally written during the Christmas Lockdown of 2020…

This year is different. You don’t need me to tell you that.

Although today’s vaccine news means there’s a glimmer of hope for normality by the Spring, there will still be no popping around to the neighbours for sherry and a mince pie or Christmas Eve office fuddles. So with everyone’s new lockdown baking abilities, it’s the year to put up your fairy lights obscenely early and cook yourself whatever you bloody well fancy.

Most of the time I fancy a chocolate brownie.

I reserve my more complicated New Favourite Brownies for special occasions. (A batch of which were recently posted to George, to distract him from first-term, lockdown blues in Sheffield) But this simpler version still offers you the gooey centred chocolatiness required of a brownie, plus they look proper Christmassy too.

No whipping or fancy gadgets are required here, as they are mostly just butter, sugar and chocolate, melted and stirred together.  If you make them in a round cake tin instead of a square brownie pan they are moments away from becoming Christmas trees with a bit of icing and some shiny balls. You could even stick in a chocolate (finger or Flake) tree trunk if you feel the need.

These brownies keep well in a tin in a cool place for up to 5 days.

Ha ha ha ha! (you will eat them in 2)

Ingredients

150g Chocolate (chopped) half milk, half plain chocolate works well
190g Butter (cubed)
50g Cocoa
50g Plain Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
270g Caster Sugar
3 Large Eggs
50g Chocolate Chips

For Decoration

Icing Sugar or Royal Icing Sugar
Food Colouring
Silver balls and stars

Method

Grease and line an 8” or 9” loose-bottomed tin and preheat the oven to 175ºC

Place the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of hot (not boiling) water and allow to gradually melt, stirring occasionally

In a large bowl sift together the cocoa, baking powder and flour then stir in the sugar

In a small bowl whisk the 3 eggs with a fork until combined

When the chocolate and butter is melted, remove from the heat and pour into the dry mix and beat until smooth with a wooden spoon

Beat in the eggs and stir in the chocolate chips

Pour into your prepared cake tin and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until there is ‘almost’ no wobble in the middle when you give it a gentle jiggle

Leave to cool in the tin

For the neatest edges remove from the tin and freeze for 20 minutes before you cut into 8 equal slices

Mix your icing sugar with a little water and food colouring and pipe tinselly patterns onto your trees and stud with silver balls and stars

This recipe was photographed for the Center Parcs Blog in 2019.

It seems a shame for these guys not to make an appearance, what with the spooky, misty evenings and everyone ‘going early’ on Halloween decorations this year.

These are a project that most kids…or big kids can get on board with. If you are short on time or baking skills you can decorate ready-made cakes and use ready to roll icing. Having a Halloween party? If that’s still a thing, keep guests amused by giving them some icing and a cake and getting them to decorate their own. To be honest this isn’t really a recipe post, it’s just a bit of inspiration to get you started.

At the bottom of the page, as well as a video of me decorating in super-speedy double time,  I’ve added my standby fairy cake recipe, you can add anything to the mix, but there’s a chocolate version too which is good for the first option…Spooky Spiders.

Spiders

For these you just need:

• Black & white ready-to-roll fondant icing
• Liquorice Catherine Wheels

1. Roll out some black icing and cut out a circle with a cookie cutter slightly bigger than your cake
2. Smooth the circle over the frosted (or Nutella’d) cake
3. Unravel the liquorice and cut into 3cm pieces
4. Make leg holes in the sides of the icing and push the liquorice legs in
5. Make eyes with small balls of black and white icing and fix on with a little water
6. Use the end of a brush or a skewer to make a mouth and add white fangs if you fancy

Next up are the slightly more fiddly pumpkin patch cakes.

Pumpkin Patch

• Green and Orange ready-to-roll fondant icing
• Brown icing or some flakes of chocolate

1. Roll out some green icing and cut out a circle with a cookie cutter slightly bigger than your cake
2. Smooth the circle over the frosted cake
3. Roll a ball of orange icing and mark it with a skewer to make pumpkin segments
4. Press a hole in the top and add an icing or chocolate stalk
5. Twist rolls of green to make tendrils and stick these and the pumpkin to the cake with a little water

Next we are onto Mr Jack Skellington skull cakes.

Jack Skellington

• Black and white ready-to-roll fondant icing
• Black food colouring or a tube of black decorating icing

1. Roll out some white icing and cut out a circle with a cookie cutter slightly bigger than your cake
2. Smooth the circle over the frosted cake
3. Make eyes with squashed balls of black icing
4. Poke nose holes with the end of a brush
5. Press on a wide mouth with the end of a brush or skewer and add a few ‘stitches’
6. Brush or squeeze some black icing or food colouring into the nostrils, mouth and stitches

Want to go a teeny bit gory? How about some bloodshot eyeballs?

Eyeballs

• Black, green and white ready-to-roll fondant icing
• Red and green food colouring 

1. Roll out some white icing and cut out a circle with a cookie cutter slightly bigger than your cake
2. Smooth the circle over the frosted cake
3. Cut a circle of green for the iris, and a smaller black circle for the pupil
4. Stick these one with a drop of water and add a small white dot of icing for a highlight
5. With a thin brush add a little colour to the iris and some extra bloodshot wiggles around the eyeball

Here are the whole cute, spooky bunch all together.

Plain Vanilla Cakes (x9)

• 125g Soft Butter
• 125g Caster Sugar
• 125g SR Flour
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 Tbsp Milk
• Some ready-made buttercream or Nutella for sticking

Plain Chocolate Cakes (x9)

• 125g Soft Butter
• 125g Caster Sugar
• 100g SR Flour
• 25g Cocoa
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 Tbsp Milk
• Ready-made (or home made) buttercream for topping, or you can use Nutella.

1. Beat the butter until soft and light
2. Beat in the caster sugar and vanilla until pale
3. Add the eggs and flour (plus cocoa and baking powder for chocolate version) and mix well
4. Add the milk and mix to a soft spoonable consistency
5. Spoon into 9 muffin cases in a muffin tin
6. Bake for 20 minutes at 175ºC turning the tin around after 15 minutes
7. Cool on a rack
8. Spread each cooled cake with a spoonful of buttercream/frosting

NB If you prefer to make smaller fairy cakes this mix will make 12, just use fairy cake cases and reduce the cooking time to 18 minutes

There are blackberries in every hedge and draped over every wall around here at the moment, so it seems like a good time to share this Blackberry Milkshake.

In fact whilst we are at it how about this Cookies and Cream Shake.

Or this PB&J version.

When me and my brother were kids and Mum and Dad were out, one of our standby activities was to pile a load of milk, ice cream and jam into her ancient Kenwood blender to make milkshake. We used to add blue food colouring because blue food seemed cool at the time. I have grown out of that now, but I did boost the purple of the blackberry shake in Photoshop, because old habits die hard.

Walking past blackberry bushes is making me a little bit sad at the moment as Ern loved a blackberry. I’d pick him a couple or sometimes he would reach up and graze them himself. This week has been hard without him, but he was such a happy little bear and we have a million special memories. Here’s a post about him from a remarkable 12 years ago. Meanwhile I am distracting myself with posting things like this.

All these shakes start with the same base, a couple of scoops of ice cream, and a cup of milk, then just pick your flavours. Add a handful off cookies for a classic cookies and cream shake, for PB&J it’s 2 spoons of peanut butter and some jam. For a lovely lilac shake pick a bowl of fresh blackberries, add that to the mix with a spoonful of honey and you are done! 

Top with cream and decorate your glass if you are feeling fancy. To get the ‘ombre’ effect on the blackberry shake, mix some cream with the blackberry mix for the top half of your shake then top with a mint leaf.

Basic Milkshake Mix (per person)

• 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
• 200ml Milk

Blackberry & Cream

• A small bowl of blackberries.
• A little honey to sweeten.

Cookies and Cream

• Add 3-4 Oreo Cookies

Peanut Butter and Jam

• 2 Tbsp Peanut Butter 
• 1 Tbsp Seedless Jam

Method

1. Using a liquidiser or a stick blender mix your ice cream and milk.
2. Add your chosen flavour and mix until smooth and creamy.
3. Taste and adjust the flavours to suit.
4. To decorate your glass you can drizzle the inside with chocolate sauce or jam.

The sun is properly out, out. But we are stuck inside with a blend of Covid 3.0 and an added layer of hay fever.

Seems like a good time to share these lollipops/popsicles/ice lollies. Good for cooling down sore throats and hot people. They are mostly made with all the healthy things: yoghurt, coconut water, fresh berries, chopped fruit, which is good, as after unsuccessfully squeezing into last years sundress, I think I ought to stick to these as dessert up until our Summer holiday.

Even Ernie likes these, once he discovered the one that’s made from two of his favourite things: blackberries and yoghurt. Yes, he does have unusual tastes for a dog. 

Once you start making pops, you just can’t stop, the options are endless. Just mix any berries with yoghurt or coconut water or liquidise soft fruit like pineapple and mango and it just kinda works.

What I am not going to bother sharing is the chia-seed version. I generally avoid faddy foods but back when I could be bothered to trial recipes I was intrigued by it’s frogspawn-like weirdness. When mixed with coconut milk and a squeeze of honey the seeds turn into a coconutty pudding. I froze it into a popsicle with kiwi fruit, but it didn’t really do it for me.

These are so simple that they’re easy to make with t’kids, plus it’s a stealthy way to feed them fresh fruit.

Happy summer holidays, may your travels be virus free x

Blackberry & Honey Froyo (makes 6)

• 1 450ml pot of Greek Style Yoghurt with Honey
• 1 Punnet of Blackberries (or Raspberries)

Mix a little of the yoghurt with some lightly crushed blackberries. 

Spoon alternate dollops of the blackberry yoghurt with the plain honey yoghurt into your moulds, swirling a little as you go. 

Freeze for a minimum of 4 hours and run a little warm water over the moulds to release the pops.

Pineapple and Mango Popsicles with Chocolate Drizzle (makes 8)

• 1 large can of pineapple slices or chunks – in juice
• 1 Fresh Mango
• 150ml Greek Yoghurt
• 1 Small bar of Plain Chocolate
• 1 Tbsp Honey to sweeten

Whiz up all the ingredients (except for the chocolate) in a blender and pour into the moulds

Freeze for a minimum of 4 hours.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Run a little warm water over the lolly moulds to release the pops

Place the pops on greaseproof or non stick foil then drizzle them with chocolate.

Place them back into the freezer briefly to set.

Coconut Water and Fresh Berry Ices 

• 1 Carton of Coconut Water
• A few punnets of fresh fruit: raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, nectarine, kiwi.
• A little Lime Juice
• A squeeze of honey.
• Mix the coconut water with the lime and honey until you have a flavour you like.

Half fill the moulds with the liquid, add some fruit and then top up with more coconut water.

Freeze for a minimum of 4 hours and run a little warm water over the moulds to release the pops.

Wrap frozen pops in greaseproof paper or cling film to keep them fresh.

The lolly maker I used http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0002IBJOG

It’s nearly Easter, so I thought you might fancy a bit of light baking.

My favourite pretzel will always be brushed with butter and dipped in cinnamon sugar, but here I offer up a ridiculous chocolate caramel sauce made from melted Mars Bars.

Pretzels aren’t nearly as complicated to make as they might seem, the only odd thing is that you dip them in hot water and bicarb before you bake them. The shaping can be done however you like, they taste the same whatever shape they are, but below is a video of me twisting them up in knots in super quick time. (I speed up the videos so the kids don’t get bored)

If you can’t eat 16 at once (I bet you can) you can freeze the shaped, uncooked pretzels on a baking tray, then defrost, prove and bake at a later date.

To make 16 soft pretzels:

• 1 x 7g pack quick action yeast
• 2 level tablespoons caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 275g bread flour
• 275g plain flour
• 325ml lukewarm milk
• 100g/4 tablespoons melted butter

For dipping

• 2 cups very hot water
• 2 tablespoons bicarbonate of soda/baking soda

For a cinnamon sugar coating

• 50g/2 tablespoons of melted butter
• A small cup of caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

For Mars Bar Sauce

• A Multi Pack of Mars Bars (4 x 39g)
• 150ml Double Cream
• 25g butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix the yeast, salt, sugar and flours in a large bowl.
2. Add the melted butter and warm milk.
3. Stir and then knead for 8-10 minutes (I use a stand mixer and dough hook)
4. Cover the bowl with cling film or a plate and let it rise in a warm room until double in size:1-2 hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
6. Cut the dough into 16 equal portions by cutting the ball into quarters, then quarter again.
7. Roll each piece into a thin sausage (don’t dust with flour or it won’t roll!) about 2 feet long.
8. To form the pretzel loop the rope around and cross over 3 or 4 times. Take the twisted ends up to the top of the hoop and press. Flip the pretzel over onto a board while you twist the rest.
9. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in a bowl with the very hot (kinda just off the boil) water.
10. Dip each pretzel into the bicarb water bath, drain on a cooling rack while you do the rest.
11. Place your wet pretzels, onto baking sheets lined with non-stick foil or parchment. 
12. Bake for 9-10 minutes.

For Cinnamon Sugar Dusted Pretzels (my favourite) melt 2 tablespoons of butter and mix some sugar and ground cinnamon. Brush the warm pretzels with melted butter then dip immediately in a saucer cinnamon sugar.

For Savoury Pretzels – brush with butter and sprinkle with sea salt.

For Mars Bar Sauce chop up the Mars Bars and melt then in a small pan over a gentle heat with the cream and butter. Keep stirring or whisking and eventually then will form a glossy thick sauce.

Eat quickly.

You can gently warm any leftover Mars Bar sauce and pour over ice cream – or anything else that seems appropriate.

It’s almost two years since I photographed this recipe. It was the last post I put together before the first lockdown, as the initial confusion swirled around what was going on.

The next time I visited the greengrocer they still had the glorious pink rhubarb, but we were standing in the street waiting to take our turn to go into the shop. Masks weren’t even a thing and everyone was being very stoic and calm with no idea what was to come.

My original brief for this post was to create something bright and colourful, and I think I fulfilled that. To start on that road I went with my old turquoise gate as a background. It’s one I bought from a local reclamation yard and it had to have a liberal dousing of woodworm treatment and some quarantine in the shed before it was allowed in the house. It then got layered with many, many shades of paint to get the colour just how I wanted it.

Forced (ideally Yorkshire) rhubarb at this time of year is a world away from the green, stringy, sour rhubarb I remember as a kid. I was never keen when mum announced it was stewed rhubarb from the garden for pudding. Now I can’t get enough of the stuff and will always choose rhubarb yoghurt, sweeties or drinks.

It helps when it’s this pretty though.

Gently roasted for half an hour with vanilla and sugar it creates a vivid pink syrup plus fragrant rhubarb pieces that you can use in any number of recipes.

I like the rhubarb pieces with yoghurt, or sometimes I fold them into cream to make rhubarb fool. They make the best crumble too.

But then there are my favourite retro Rhubarb & Custard Cakes. They have a spoonful of custard powder added to a basic cake batter, which makes them vanilla rich and golden. Then they are topped with freshly roasted, vanilla-y rhubarb. To double up the flavour I add two drizzle icings, one with syrup from the rhubarb and the other with a bit of custard powder, or vanilla.

Now you need to decide what to do with all that lovely pink syrup.

My preference is to make it into a pink rhubarb-tini, but I can testify to the fact that a couple of these can really knock you out, so I also am a fan of the alternative: fizzy Rhubarb, Ginger and Lime.

Anyway, what with pandemics and all that, there’s been a bit of satellite delay, from making this to posting it here, but we’re here now, so let’s bake.

Cooking the Rhubarb

• 800g Fresh Chopped Forced British Rhubarb.
• 260g Caster Sugar
• 1 split Vanilla Pod or a teaspoon of vanilla extract

Put the chopped rhubarb in a shallow oven proof dish, sprinkle on the sugar and add the vanilla. Cover with foil and bake at 180º degrees c for around 25-30 minutes. Cooking it this way keeps the pieces whole and stops it being stringy. Leave the pieces to cool in the syrup before you drain it to help the colour to develop. When it has cooled drain the juice into a jug .

The rhubarb will yield a good 350mls of pink syrup for use in drinks or pouring over anything you fancy. It’s great on ice cream or rice pudding.

The Cakes

• 125g Soft Butter
• 110g Caster Sugar
• 120g Self Raising Flour
• 25g Custard Powder
• 2 Large Eggs

Cream the butter, then add the sugar and beat until light in colour. Mix the custard powder with the flour and add this to the butter and sugar, add the eggs and beat well. Add a spoonful of the softest pieces of rhubarb and ripple through.

Place a piece of baking parchment in the base of 6 small buttered tins (or just make in 10 cupcake cases). Sprinkle some of the baked rhubarb on each cake.

Bake for around 15 minutes at 175º until they are only just golden brown. They should tip out of the tins easily after they have cooled for 5 minutes.

Custard Drizzle Icing

• 1 tblsp Custard Powder – or some vanilla and yellow food colour
• 3 tblsp Icing Sugar
• a splash of water

Rhubarb Drizzle Icing

• 3 tblsp Icing Sugar
• Some pink syrup from the rhubarb dish

Mix the icings until smooth and drizzle over the cakes with a spoon.

Rhubarb-tini

• Half fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
• Add a shot of rhubarb syrup, add a shot of gin, or vodka if you don’t like gin.
• Add a splash of vermouth, or lemon juice if you prefer things sour.
• Shake it for about a minute and pour into a glass.

Toffee apples instantly make me think of bonfire night. The fun fair usually comes to town around November the 5th and it’s traditional for us to have a crunchy toffee apple after a turn on the dodgems.

The last time I went to the fair though was pre-pandemic and the apples beneath the toffee were a bit grainy and sad, so I decided to make my own with crisp apples straight from the tree.

There is a glut of apples around here right now, there are baskets of apples at the end of people’s drives that they are giving away to good homes. This is a great way to use some of them.

Skewers or coffee stirrers make great handles, but I decided to go extra rustic with pruned apple tree twigs.

It’s best to eat these the day you make them, when they are at their crunchiest.

Happy 5th of November!

Ingredients

• 500g White Sugar
• 125g Butter
• 2Tbsp Hot Water
• 2Tbsp White Wine Vinegar
• 1/2 tsp Red Gel Food Colour

Make sure you wash the apples well first or the toffee will not stick due to waxiness on the apple skin.

To de-wax your apples

• A bowl of very hot water
• 1Tbsp Bicarbonate of soda 
• 1Tbsp Lemon juice

Beware of the hot sugar!

1. Place the bicarb, hot water and lemon in a large bowl and soak your apples for 2 minutes, then wash well and dry thoroughly. 
2. Stick a barbecue skewer or a well-washed sturdy stick into the stalk end of each apple.
3. Mix the sugar, butter, vinegar and boiling water in a heavy bottomed pan and warm over a low heat.
4. Heat slowly, stirring regularly until there are no sugar grains, this takes a good 15 minutes.
5. Add the food colour and stir well.
6. Turn up the heat and boil for 8-10 minutes until the toffee reaches 146º-154ºC. Do not stir whilst the toffee is bubbling, although you can swirl the pan a little if you can’t resist.
7. You can test the temperature with a jam or probe thermometer, or drop a blob into cold water and if it solidifies into brittle strands it is ready. Don’t heat too long or you will have burnt tasting bonfire toffee! (don’t ask me how I know this)
8. Remove from the heat and stir gently until the bubbles disappear.
9. Dip and swirl your apple into the mixture, allowing excess toffee to run off then stand them on greaseproof paper/parchment.
10. Pour any excess toffee onto a sheet of paper for nibbling at later.

Here’s a little ‘Pumpkin Spiced’ Autumn recipe that I made a while back.

I used golden pumpkin (from a can!) to enrich the creamy batter, then flavoured it with sweet Autumn spices.

Thick slices of brioche make the best French Toast, add hot syrupy nectarines, or any other fruit you have to take this from breakfast to a proper hearty pudding.

It’s a good thing to serve up for Hallowe’en. Just keeping it seasonal.

Oh and one more thing. If you can’t get hold of pumpkin you can leave it out. This is still delicious with just the egg, cream and those pumpkin spices. 

Pumpkin Spiced French Toast – Serves 2, double up for 4.

2 Eggs
4 Tbsp Double Cream
4 Tbsp Pumpkin – from a can, or puréed (optional)
½ tsp Ground Cinnamon
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
¼ tsp Ground Ginger
A Pinch of Nutmeg
A Pinch of Allspice or Ground Cloves

4 Thick slices of Brioche – ideally a few days old
1 Tbsp of oil and 1 Tbsp of butter for frying

Whisk the eggs, then add all the other ingredients and whisk again.
Heat the oil and butter in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat.
Carefully dip the bread slices into the batter and flip them over to give them a good coating.
Gently fry the toasts in the pan, turning once until golden brown.

Hot Maple Nectarines

1 Ripe Nectarine (or use apple or some berries)
Maple Syrup
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
A little butter for frying

Melt a little butter in a frying pan.
Slice segments from the nectarine into the buttery pan.
Cook on both sides until starting to brown.
Drizzle in some maple syrup and vanilla, then spoon over the French toast.
If you are feeling fancy you can add crème fraîche, cream or ice cream and a dusting of cinnamon.