Garlic and Cheese Dough Balls

You can't go wrong with these plump little balls of garlic bready pleasure.  Made from my simple pizza dough recipe, they are easy to make, children love them (and love helping to make them!) and there are lots of variations that you can try.
Here I have used a combination of mature cheddar and Spanish Manchego, however many cheeses will work beautifully as long as they melt well.  Instead of garlic butter you can brush the balls with pesto then sprinkle with parmesan or pecorino at the end.  Try chopping sundried tomatoes with mozzarella, then strewing over the dough balls at the last stage before popping back in the oven for a few minutes to melt, yum.

Makes 32 Balls

Ingredients

350g Strong White Bread Flour (plus more for dusting)

1 teaspoon Salt

250ml Warm Water

2 tablespoons Olive Oil

1 teaspoon Sugar

1 sachet (7g) Instant Dried Yeast

75g Butter

2-3 Garlic Cloves, minced (I use a microplane grater)

A few generous handfuls of a good melting cheese

• Weigh the flour into a large mixing bowl then add the salt, stir to combine.
• In a measuring jug, measure the warm water then add the olive oil, sugar and yeast and give it a good stir.
• Pour the liquid into the flour bowl and mix vigorously with a fork to bring it together into a dough.
• Generously flour your work surface then tip the dough onto it.  Knead the dough by stretching it away from you then folding it back repeatedly.  Keep doing this, adding more flour if needed, for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and springy to the touch (it should spring back out when prodded with your finger).
• Sprinkle a little flour into your bowl then put the ball of dough into it, cover then leave for 1-2 hours until the dough has more than doubled in size.  Oil a large baking tray.
• Using your fist, knock the dough down then tip it out onto the work surface again.  Knead it for a few minutes to incorporate any flour that has stuck on then cut the dough in half.  Shape these two pieces into balls then cut them in half.  Keep doing this until you have 32 pieces of dough.
• Roll each piece of dough between your hands (lightly oil your hands first) until you have a smooth ball, then place each one onto the oiled baking tray.  Make sure you leave a few centimetres between each dough ball to allow for expansion. 
• Leave the dough balls for 30 minutes to an hour to rise.  Preheat the oven to 200C (fan).
• Make the garlic butter by softening the butter (I pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds, you want it soft not completely melted) then mix in the minced garlic.
• Once the dough balls are risen, brush (I use a silicon pastry brush) half of the garlic butter onto each ball.
• Bake the dough balls in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes until they are golden brown.  Take the baking tray out of the oven then brush the remaining garlic butter over the dough balls and sprinkle with the cheese.  Pop them back into the oven for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbling.
• Serve them after they have had a few minutes to cool...if you can wait that long!

 

Banana, Date and Walnut Loaf Cake

I am delighted to make this cake my first post of the new year, in fact I'm a tad smug.  Why, you ask?  I'll tell you why...it is slightly gooey yet light, full of fruit and crunchy walnuts, very easy to make and...(drum roll please)...it has no added fat or sugar!  And if we're going to get really excited, it's dairy free too!!

I even went as far as to calculate the calories in it and, going on the premise that you will get 14 slices, it is approximately 130 calories per slice.  I'd like to point out that this is not going to become a regular thing, rather an early-January enthusiastic calorie awareness on my part...I doubt it will last, it never does!

You can replace the walnuts with pecans if you prefer, if you don't like nuts at all you can replace them with sultanas, dried cranberries or glace cherries.

You should get about 14 generous slices

Ingredients

125g Dates, finely chopped

100ml Apple Juice

2 Medium Bananas

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Juice of half a Lemon

1 Large Egg

200g Self-Raising Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

75g Walnuts, chopped

• Put the chopped dates with the apple juice into a small pan.  Bring slowly to the boil then turn off the heat and leave to cool slightly.
• Preheat the oven to 175C and line a loaf tin with greaseproof/baking paper.
• In a small bowl, mash the bananas with the lemon juice and the vanilla extract then mix in the egg.
• Tip the self-raising flour into a mixing bowl then mix in the baking powder and pinch of salt.
• Pour in the mashed banana and egg followed by the cooled date mixture and stir thoroughly to combine.  Finally stir in the chopped walnuts.
• Spoon the mixture into the lined tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake.
• Leave to cool for a few minutes then transfer the cake out of the tin and onto a cooling rack to cool completely.  To store, wrap the cake in baking paper and keep in an airtight container.