The great British fake off
With restaurants and cafes closed, some of the UK’s best loved outlets have released their secret recipes. But how hard are they to make and can they ever taste the same? JUDY YORKE finds out
PIZZA EXPRESS DOUGH BALLS
My teenage boys always have this as a starter when we go to Pizza Express, so they hovered enthusiastically as
I got to work.
The recipe is straightforward and if you’ve been baking your own bread during lockdown, you’ll find it pretty easy.
If you’re not used to home baking, don’t be put off by the length of time it shows on the recipe as it’s mostly resting time.
You need to make a dough, using store cupboard ingredients and knead it for about 10 minutes.
The recipe is easy to follow but it’s not always in a logical order. It doesn’t mention making the garlic butter until the dough balls are out of the oven but if you prepare it while they’re baking you can serve them piping hot. I also found it took about 15 minutes longer than the recipe said.
However you can forgive these minor irritations as the dough balls were fabulous – golden on the top, with a lovely texture and incredibly moreish.A massive hit.
VERDICT: Very like the restaurant version in taste, though ours weren’t as uniformly round.
● Find the recipe at: pizzaexpress. com/homemade-favourites
McDONALD’S SAUSAGE AND EGG McMUFFIN
This is easy but you do need to multitask at the end, so be prepared.
First you make the patty by rolling sausage meat into a ball and flattening it. As it’s sizzling on the grill, toast a muffin and fry an egg.
To get a round egg, take a metal ring (I used a cookie cutter) then put it in a frying pan with a little water inside, bring that to the boil and crack in your egg. Check your patty is cooked, remove it from the grill, retrieve the muffin from the toaster, slap on a slice of cheese and slide on the egg.
I made two and both times the egg stuck to the ring so it looked a bit of a mess compared to the McDonald’s version. My sausage meat patty had a homemade look too. Still, it tasted pretty good.
VERDICT: Delicious, but for presentation, I’ll definitely be asking McDonald’s to make this for me next time.
● Find the recipe on Twitter @McDonaldsUK
GREGGS STEAK BAKE
If you’re bored with your regular lockdown lunches you will be delighted to learn that Greggs has released a number of its recipes.
The steak bake had a skill level of “medium” but I found the hardest part was getting hold of puff pastry. Although the recipe is detailed and there’s even a helpful video, there aren’t any quantities of ingredients, which led to a bit of guesswork. The only exception is the mind-bogglingly specific size you need to roll your pastry out to, if you want it to be authentic (108x94mm if you’re interested).
To make it, brown diced beef and add stock and cornflour before scooping it into your pastry squares. Seal, brush with egg and then bake for 20 minutes. I liked the small details, like pressing the edges with a fork and scoring six lines, which made them look like the original.
VERDICT: Very good resemblance to the ones you buy in the shop and extremely tasty.
● Find the recipe on Twitter @GreggsOfficial
IKEA MEATBALLS WITH CREAM SAUCE
I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that
Ikea is really a Scandinavian cafe with a furniture shop attached, given the number of friends who wax lyrical about its food. Now you can make its famous meatballs from home, complete with creamy sauce.
There are quite a few ingredients that you might not have, including soy sauce, two types of mince and double cream.
And it takes a bit of time. Once you’ve made your meatballs, you have to leave them to firm up in the fridge for two hours.You then brown them before baking for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, you make the sauce, which requires a lot of stirring and hands-on time. The sauce was similar to the one you’d get if a proper Ikea chef cooked it for you, although the meatballs were a bit drier.
VERDICT: Takes a bit of planning in terms of ingredients and time but everyone gave it the thumbs up.
● Find the recipe on Twitter @IkeaUK
PRET A MANGER CHOC CHIP COOKIES
One of several recipes Pret has kindly given home bakers who are missing their regular fix. These are a doddle to make using butter, sugar, flour, one egg, a pinch of salt and large chocolate buttons. The balls didn’t look particularly big when put on the oven tray but the recipe warns that they spread.And spread they did.
I’d advise using two baking trays.They also took a little longer than the advised 10-12 minutes but it does depend on your oven.
VERDICT: Big, chewy and lovely. They looked pretty similar to the original, although ours were a bit raggedy around the edges.
● Find the recipe at: pret.co.uk/pret-recipes
WARBURTONS CRUMPETS
Although it’s not a restaurant, Warburtons has entered into the spirit by releasing its crumpet recipe. It uses basic ingredients – flour, yeast, salt, sugar and baking powder. It took less than 10 minutes to whip up the batter.
To cook them, put a metal cookie cutter in a frying pan and add a ladle of mixture.The mixture rises as it cooks and the top also develops those signature holes on the surface.
It took a bit of practice to get this right – luckily the mixture makes about six crumpets, giving you plenty of time to perfect it. Grease the cookie cutter very thoroughly or the mixture will stick.
I also found it tricky to get the top to cook without the bottom burning. The instructions say to toast them, which I did, though
they didn’t need it.
VERDICT: The crumpets were lovely and they did have a passing resemblance to the real thing.
● Find the recipe at: warburtons.co.uk