Working from home has gifted many of us more time in the day as we no longer need to sit in traffic or commute to our place of work. Whilst some of us choose to have a lie-in, others use the extra time to exercise or even to read a couple of chapters in their current book and enjoy a quiet cup of tea to start the day. Whether out of passion, creativity, stress or boredom it seems the Jellybeans (foodies that we are!) have been spending the extra hours in our day with an apron on. Here we share some of the recipes we’ve been trialling and dare I say, mastering:

Sweets

Orange and Ginger Birthday Cake was baked (and left on the doorstep) for one Bean’s very special 83 year old father. Delia’s All-in-one Sponge Cake recipe was the source of inspiration, replacing the raspberry and mascarpone filling for an orange and ginger cream filling (this Bean mixed a liberal sprinkle of powdered ginger, 1 tbsp of orange marmalade and a little orange zest with whipped cream). The indulgence didn’t end there though as the creation was topped with Nathan Outlaw’s Cornish fairings.

Whoopie Pie S’mores Style – After falling in love with the Hummingbird Bakery’s Whoopie Pies (no longer available) this Bean has been spending their spare time attempting to recreate the chocolatey bombs. This time following Simon Rimmer’s recipe, swapping vanilla extract for rum. (Well, why not!)

Crème Egg Brownies were a hit over the Easter weekend. This Bean followed the BBC Food recipe for Chocolate Brownies and gently pushed mini Cadbury’s Crème Eggs into the top of the mixture for the final 10 minutes of baking.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies – Your mouth’s watering already isn’t it? Follow this recipe for soft and buttery shortbread. Minimal ingredients, maximum “mmmmms”.

Homemade Bircher Muesli – If like this Bean you’re sick of ‘something on toast’ for breakkie, try a deliciously healthy mix of Quaker Oats, grated apple, yogurt of your choice, some water and a splash of apple juice for sweetness.

Savouries

Sunday Roasties – The envy of many. We’re told by this Bean to par boil your potatoes, drain them then shake and rough them up with a fork. Sprinkle your potatoes with M&S Roast Potato Seasoning and place in approx. 1.5cm of super-hot olive oil in an oven tray. Pop into your pre-heated oven (same heat as for Roast Chicken) for about an hour, making sure you jiggle the roasties around every so often. Once crispy and golden, drain your roasties on kitchen roll and serve up.

The Ivy’s Corned beef hash with fried eggs is ‘comforting and entirely unchallenging’ says The Telegraph. A quick and delicious dinner made for one – a big thumbs up from this Bean.

Paul Hollywood inspired one baker bean to try out his Sausage Rolls with Pickle recipe. A shop bought puff pastry wasn’t needed as this Bean made their own pastry from scratch (props!). Golden, flaky, divine.

Cottage Pie – To help them feel closer to family during this time, one big-hearted Bean decided to make a Cottage Pie using their family recipe. We can’t divulge such secrets but we can tell you that it includes a mix of potato and sweet potato topping with the family recipe beef mince which we’re told always includes beans and plenty of veggies. The beef used was ordered from BoxFood who come highly recommended.

Homemade Chicken Soup – What’s not to love about soup, especially if said soup is a) easy to make, b) making good use of leftover food and c) good for you. This culinary Bean gave their first homemade Chicken Soup a crack using leftover roast chicken. Here’s their recipe:

Simple Chicken Soup

Prep time: about 20 mins

Cook time: about 2hrs 45 mins

Ingredients:

One roast chicken carcass with some meat attached (and preferably stuffed with a lemon)

One half fresh lemon (if above isn’t happenin’)

One large onion (quartered)

One large carrot (sliced)

One tin of sweetcorn

One medium sized sweet potato (chopped into chunks)

One large handful of frozen peas

One large handful of fresh spinach

Two cloves of garlic (roughly chopped)

One good pinch of fresh ginger (grated)

One or two good shakes of ground ginger (depending on how much you happen to like ginger)

One tablespoon of wholegrain mustard

One tablespoon of green pesto

One good shake of mixed herbs

One good shake of smoked paprika

Two or three good grinds of salt

Two or three good grinds of black pepper

Any leftover veg from the roast dinner (I do love red cabbage)

A handful of Cheddar (preferably smoked)

A couple of dollops of Greek yoghurt

Two slices of toast, buttered (preferably with smoked butter)

And I suppose you could add celery. If you like it.

Method:

Fry off the onion a little (preferably in butter) in a large pan.

Add the chicken carcass, onion, lemon and sweet potato and cover with water. Just put enough in to cover the veg and carcass mostly. Add the grated ginger, ground ginger, smoked paprika, mixed herbs, salt and pepper. Bring to a high simmer, covered.

Simmer for about two hrs, checking there is still enough water (if not, add a little more), before mixing in the frozen peas, sweetcorn, garlic, wholegrain mustard, green pesto and any roast veg. Simmer, uncovered, for about twenty minutes.

Remove from the heat and allow the soup to cool, enough that you can handle the carcass and strip off any meat. Remove the carcass and strain the soup (or patiently fish out the bones instead and do it that way round) to remove any bones and/or gristle, replacing any chunks of veg back into the strained soup. The lemon is really nice to eat cooked so I’d leave that in, too. Take any meat off the carcass and add to the soup. Put back on to a low heat and add the fresh spinach. Simmer for about ten mins, until hot.

If you want, take off the heat and blitz the soup with a handheld blender. I like this sort of soup chunky, so I kept it so.

Season if it needs it, and add a couple of dollops of Greek yoghurt if you’d like.

Top with big flakes of Cheddar cheese and serve with hot buttery toast.

Quantity will depend on the size of the chicken carcass etc, but should give you 4 servings.

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If you’ve Bean inspired by any of our recipes, give them a go and tag us in the results: Twitter & Instagram @jellybeanagency. If you use the hashtag #StayAtHomeBakes, the great folk at Camp Coffee UK will donate £1 to Fareshare who are in need of emergency funding to help feed vulnerable members of society during the current crisis.