Granola Gravel – chapter, verse and verdict

The story so far …

In the pan with the granola and the cherries

Into the tray, ready to fridge

Out of the fridge, cubed and into a bowl

The verdict … at first I wasn't 100% convinced, a smidge too soft for me – don't misunderstand, it was good enough to send a boxful to my testers and it vanished. I gave H a small box to road test and after a minute or two he asked me to take it away, otherwise he'd finish it!

Then I had an idea …

Nothing ventured … nothing gained

Okey dokey, lets get this show on the road, here's my Granola Gravel – Take 1 recipe :

Granola Gravel – Take 1

250g dark chocolate

150g M&M's hazelnut spread

175g soft butter, unsalted

4 x 15ml tbsp golden syrup

350g Granola – mixed sizes

200g glacé cherries

Put the granola into a freezer bag and bash gently with a rolling pin so that you get different sizes.

Break the dark chocolate into small pieces, or use chocolate buttons made for melting and tip them into a heavy-based saucepan to melt with the M&M's spread, butter and syrup over a low heat.

Take the pan off the heat and add the granola and cherries. Turn the mixture carefully so that all the ingredients are coated with the syrupy chocolate.

Tip into a foil tray (I use a tray bake size – 31cms x 8.5cms x 3cms or 12” x 17½” x 1¼” in old money ) smoothing the top as best you can, although it is not meant to be perfectly flat.

Fridge until firm enough to cut, which will take about 3 hours. Take the set block out of the tray. With the long side in front of you cut it into half – set one aside. Slice 6 slices down and 4 across so that you have 24 squares – this will give you a good sized cube – cut smaller if you prefer which will obviously give you more. Repeat with the remaining half.

Freeze for up to 1 month.

If it lasts that long!

Chapter, verse and verdict next up.

A handful of this and a sprinkle of that

I did say I was going to have some fun with flavours and textures I liked – eek.

First things first, place your base on a mesh pizza mat or a pizza stone if you prefer. You'll be very upset when you realise you've not - having loaded your base with ingredients – too late was the cry, unless of course you're a champion juggler! 

My “tomato sauce” is hoi sin and spring onion sauce and for the purpose of this experiment I used a ready made stir fry sauce - spread 2 tablespoons over the base. We'll come to a home made sauce later.

I'd rather choose say three or four toppings and see how it goes and I'm loading half the pizza base. You'll also need one egg, beaten to glaze and help glue the edges of the calzone.

I'm using Quorn pieces which I've cooked from frozen – 100g, cooked in hoi sin and spring onion sauce, a couple of of tablespoons of sauce is fine – 12 minutes cooked ahead and fridged when cool and the pieces continue to marinade.

Next a sprinkle of mini portabella mushrooms, peeled and finely sliced. I used six or 60/70g.

I then added a handful of torn pieces of Mozzarella cheese – approximately 75g or half a ball.

Finally I added a sprinkle of pitted black olives, sliced – my handful is about 30g.

Let your inner Jackson Pollock go and create your own masterpiece!

Fold the unfilled half over and twist the edges to seal. Glaze the calzone with the beaten egg and bake in a pre-heated oven 220fan/240c/Gas 9. I baked mine for 12 minutes to suit my taste. Add another couple of minutes if you prefer a darker colour.

It's time to back up my mouth – and a wacky idea – step by step photo guide is on its way.

The divine dough

I know I'm very fond of saying that recipes are only meant to be a guide and so not set in stone – here's another of my favourites – rules are meant to be broken.

My favourite style of pizza is a calzone – you know the one I mean, you cover the whole base with sauce then half the base with toppings of your choice and fold it – it always reminds me of an Italian version of a Cornish pasty – which is meant to be a huge compliment to both iconic delicacies!

The best place to start is at the beginning and the base, or more accurately, the dough. Finally I think I have found the answer … The Northern Dough Co. (click here for more info!)  gives you two individually wrapped balls of dough each giving you a 12 inch pizza whether classically flat or folded into a calzone. The dough is the best texture, not too sticky and after lightly dusting your surface with flour it does exactly what it says on the box – you can roll, push, cajole and persuade into your shape of choice. The dough comes ready frozen so check out your freezer aisle. You can defrost in your fridge and then roll out or you can microwave – whichever method suits you best.

Here are the photos so far :

The Northern Pizza Dough Co.

A divine dough ball – ta dah!

Lets talk about pizza …

… what is there to say - plenty! Everyone has their own idea of the perfect pizza and made well it's the best “fast food” whether you prefer a thin, thick or stuffed crust.

We covered Monday to Friday suppers in our “multi-tasking morning” aka making the most of your oven when cooking a Sunday roast! Before we resume with a few more ideas for your working week suppers you deserve a night off!

Saturday night should be designated “slob night” - by slob I mean lazy – feet up in front of your favourite film at the weekend, so easy, uncomplicated but tasty food is required and I don't mean reaching for your favourite takeaway that I know you have on speed dial!

Those who are kind enough to have been reading my blog for a while will know that my mission is to make your life in the kitchen easy and so am not averse to recommending, for example, using a puff pastry sheet instead of making your own. Why not, when there's a quality product available! Which brings me to pizza bases. They are available in all sorts of guises from ready cooked bases where you add your own pizza toppings – probably more suitable as a Frisbee – to packet mixes and dough mixes and then there's the ready rolled dough i.e. just like a puff pastry sheet but pizza dough in a box.

I'm on a mission, which is to find the most convenient and delicious pizza base – if you like it's a half way house for my Saturday slob, not home-made but freshly baked with a decent product. Everyone deserves a night off!

Next comes my confession – I get bored with the same old pizza toppings and, bizarrely, I have hated tomatoes all my life but will tolerate the passata style topping that is used for pizzas. My plan is to have some fun with a wacky pizza using flavours and textures I like.

What's the worst that can happen?