Looking to get your bake on this term? With the return of everyone’s favourite cosy British baking TV show and a group of new flatmates to impress, we’ve got you sorted with five easy autumnal bakes to make in your student accommodation kitchen – on a student budget.
Pastry-free apple crumble
Pastry can be one of the hardest things to make from scratch, but everybody loves apple crumble! This pastry-free version is super easy to make and tasty too, and uses one of the cheapest cupboard staples you can buy – oats.
You’ll need 1kg of apples along with 100g plain flour, 75g butter, 50g oats and 100g sugar. Chop the apples and layer in an ovenproof dish; then simply mix all of the other ingredients together into a crumbly topping to spoon on top and bake on 180c for half an hour to 40 minutes. Eat it while it’s still warm with ice cream or custard for the perfect autumnal dessert.
Chocolate chip banana bread
This recipe serves 10, meaning there’s plenty to share and some to save for breakfast or a snack the following day. It’s also a great way to use up all those bananas you bought when you swore you were going to incorporate more fruit into your student diet…
You’ll need 140g each of unsalted butter, self-raising flour and caster sugar, 2 beaten eggs, 1tsp each of vanilla extract and baking powder, and 3 peeled and mashed bananas. You can add an optional 100g of chocolate chips, which we’d definitely recommend – and to make it even more autumnal, you could add a dash of cinnamon in with the dry ingredients! Preheat the oven to 180c.
Mix the butter and eggs together, then add the eggs and vanilla extract. Add the flour, baking powder and your mashed bananas, as well as most of the chocolate chips – keeping a handful aside. Spoon all of this into a loaf tin, then scatter the rest of your chocolate chips on top before popping in the oven for around 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Delicious!
Easy cheesy scones
Cheese scones might sound like a tricky recipe, but this is a simple version that tastes incredibly delicious and will definitely win you some brownie points if you share them out with your flatmates!
You’ll need 225g plain flour, 2tsp baking powder (you can use self-raising flour instead, in which case just use 1tsp baking powder) as well as 150ml milk, 120g mature cheddar cheese, a pinch of salt and 50g butter. If you fancy it, add some black pepper in too.
Preheat the oven to 200c and then rub the butter, flour, baking powder and salt together into a fine breadcrumb-type mixture; add in the cheese, followed by the milk and the optional black pepper. Use a spatula to mix into a rough dough, then your hands to knead it into a smooth dough. Roll it out to around 3.5cm thick and use a cutter or a glass to cut into circles before putting onto a baking tray, brushing with a bit of extra milk and popping them in the oven. They should take around 12-15 minutes and are best eaten warm, smothered with butter. Enjoy!
These 3 autumnal bakes are equally tasty and relatively easy to make – be sure to tag us on Instagram if you do bake any of these in your Aspire accommodation…
