My slight obsession! 

As you can probably guess by my blog name, I love strawberries! I would live of them if I could! It’s a shame you can’t get them all year round, and here in Spain you can only get them a couple of months a year. I’m originally from Kent, England where you can get some of the best strawberries in the country, I would love to say world, but I’ve never tried any strawberries apart from ones that come from Europe! Right, so strawberries... My favourite way to eat them is washed and straight out of the tub, but you can never beat a good old bowl of strawberries, sugar and cream either. It’s just plain simple. I do on the other hand have a few amazing strawberry recipes that I love to make, and are a great dessert for when guests come over as they are light and not to sickly.

Here is the dessert I made on Sunday for Mother’s day, it’s called a ‘Strawberry and mascarpone slice’ and is really simple to make. If you aren’t really a strawberry fan, you could always substitute the strawberries for raspberries or blueberries!

Ingredients: 

• 175g butter
• 80g caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 250g plain flour
• 300g mascarpone cheese
• 60g icing sugar
• 300g strawberries, cut up into quarters 
• 50g chocolate

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 180° and lightly grease a round springform tin (with a 20cm diameter is ideal).
2. Beat the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy, then the egg yolk. Sift in the flour and fold into the mixture until everything is well combined. 
3. Press firmly into the tin and pick all over with a fork. Bake for 25 mins. 
4. Once the base is cooked and cooled, you can start to prepare the topping. 
5. Beat the mascarpone and icing sugar until smooth. Add in the strawberries and spoon the mixture over the base. Leave it in the fridge for 2 hours until set. 
6. Melt the chocolate either in a microwave or on the hob. Once melted drizzle over the slice, cut, and serve. 

The final product; I have to admit, from this angle it doesn’t look like the best thing, and you can’t get a glimpse of the base, but honestly, it’s amazing! 

As I've previously mentioned, I love baking, and love making tasty treats for everyone to eat! So today, I've been busy making chocolate brownies, cookies and fig and cranberry flapjacks. 

First up I'm going to share with you my recipe for amazing chocolate brownies. They are incredibly moist, and rich in chocolate - not the best thing to eat if you are on a diet! 

Ingredients: 

• 80g butter
• 40g cocoa powder
• 145g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 60g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder 
• 100g chocolate chips

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 180° and lightly grease a shallow tin with baking paper. 
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the cocoa and sugar, then the eggs. 
3. Sieve the flour over the mixture and add the baking powder. Once mixed in, add in the chocolate chips. 
4. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 30 mins. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out and cut into pieces. 

I will publish later my recipe for my cookies! 

So, here goes, my first real food post! 

Tonight for dinner, I made pizzas. I love a good pizza, and I haven't actually ever made one from scratch. They are the perfect family dinner, as everyone loves pizza! To keep it simple, I just made plain tomato and mozzarella pizzas, but you can add whatever you want, that's what makes them such a fun and easy thing to make! So, if you want to get your hands mucky, here is the recipe: 

Ingredients: 

• 300g of plain flour
• 1 tsp of dry yeast 
• 1 tsp of salt
• 200ml of warm water
• 1 tbsp of olive oil

Method: 

1. Add together the flour, dry yeast and salt.
2. Mix in the warm water and olive oil until it forms soft dough. 
3. Scatter some flour on a smooth work surface and knead the dough for 5 mins. 
4. Leave in a warm place to rise (this usually takes between 1 and 1 and half hours).
5. Heat the oven to 220° and place some baking paper on a tray. 
6. Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it has a diameter of about 25cm. 
7. Add the desired toppings and cook in the oven for about 10-12 mins. 

As you can see, this is how my pizza turned out, the recipe does make two pizzas, but I have only uploaded a photo of one of them! 

A bit about me! 

Well, I'm Jemma, I'm 20 years old and I love cooking, and food! I've been living the last 6 years in Andalusia, Spain with my parents and two younger sisters. I've always been into food, and ever since I can remember I used to hang around the kitchen watching my Nan cook, and as I got older she bought me an apron and a chef's hat and called me her 'Sous-Chef'. I love to ask questions, because as everyone knows, asking is a great way of learning. She is an amazing cook, self-taught, and has always been a big influence on me. She cooks amazing food, all from scratch, and uses only the best ingredients she can find; some call it fussy, but I just think she has a high standards when buying food. 

So, as you can tell, my passion is cooking - I love it, I will try anything, although not everything I try to make necessarily works out! I love cooking just as much as I enjoy eating what I've made at the end! Baking is one of my favorite hobbies, as I have a sweet tooth. However I do enjoy just as much cooking up something new and interesting for dinner - although being part of a family of five, it's not always easy to find something everyone likes (Fussy sisters!). 

I've never blogged before, so I'm still new at it - it shouldn't take me long to get the hang of it though! Anyway, so my blog is basically to show what I've been making, and to share my recipes, and I hope to inspire at least one budding chef.