Image credit: Steve Lupton / Corbis

Here we are at the end of the not so long summer holidays and bracing ourselves to take the plunge back into the school routine. Early starts will soon replace the leisurely lie-ins and ties and shirt buttons the pants, t-shirt and shorts combo that was all LIttle Chap needed.

I’m looking forward to reclaiming two days a week as my own, if only to get to grips with the long list of chores I have neglected in favour of quality time with Little Chap over the past eight weeks.

To help us all readjust, I might be doing a little home-baking at the weekend, courtesy of Jus-Rol, those long time makers of ready-made pastry. You should know by now that I love my food, I like to eat a healthy balanced diet and I like to cook from scratch where I can. You will also know that as a working parent, I don’t always have time to and making puff pastry is something I have only ever done once – in Home Ec. class c.1987! I think I can safely say it is the last time I will make it, too. As the pastry requiring the most butter to make it successfully, it doesn’t pay to eat it too often anyway, so restricting it to eating out or special treats makes perfect sense to me.

So when those nice people at Jus-Rol sent me some vouchers to try some of their new Bake It Fresh range, which includes croissants, pain au chocolat and pain au raisins, I thought I’d take a tin of croissants on holiday with us and give it a try. Each “tin” is actually an easy-to-break cardboard tube with full, clear preparation and cooking instructions.

On our last morning, Mayfair Dad kindly got up to put the oven on so I would have to get up too. I opened the tube – the instructions worked! The tube popped open to reveal a roll of pre-cut triangles of dough which I rolled into crescents and popped onto a baking tray, lined with non-stick foil. Grease proof paper would have also done the job.

So far, so easy.

Into the oven at 200 degrees (180 for a fan oven) and ten minutes later, six beautiful golden croissants emerged ready for our breakfast. Pretty much in just the time it took to make a cuppa and lay the table. Perfect.

I’m afraid I wasn’t quite quick enough to get a photo, as they were quickly eaten with butter and strawberry jam before I was awake enough to think of that! So I hope that tells you what you need to know!

I think I’ll be trying out the Pain au Chocolat and Cinnamon Swirls next weekend to postpone that Summer Hols feeling as they go nicely with my early morning latte! Of course, the Apple Danish might be nice, or we could have some nice Crusty White Rolls, Focaccia or Garlic Pizza Bread with some fresh soup for lunch or maybe we could make pizza with their Thin Crust Pizza Bases and Tomato Sauce…

Hmm…maybe not so easy after all!