Pizza

 

One from before Christmas here... sorry for the delay!

 

Evan really loves pizza, and we tend to have it when we need a quick, no-fuss tea.  However when Megan came along and started her feeding adventure, I had to think again.  Of course frozen pizzas are far too processed and salty for a small baby, so I've been making my own. No, this doesn't please Evan, who would rather have an el cheapo Margarita from the freezer!  He gets very excited when I say it's pizza for tea, then his face falls when he sees me making it... "Oh, Mummy, I don't want homemade!" 

 

 At least Megan and Daddy appreciate my efforts, and as they say, 2 out of 3 ain't bad! 

 

I started with Delia Smith's scone pizza recipe, which is really easy and super-quick.  You just sift 4oz self-raising flour into a bowl, then add 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Rub in 25g margarine (or I sometimes use butter).  Mix together 2 tbsp milk and 2 tbsp water, and add gradually, to make a soft dough (you may not need all the liquid).  Now, at this point Delia instructs you to roll the dough into a circle.  I don't even bother with that part - instead, I just plonk the dough on a baking tray, and spread it with my hands until it fills it about evenly.  I will add that this recipe makes a fairly small pizza, and we tend to double or even treble the recipe for the 4 of us (perhaps we're just greedy!)

 

This is the pizza sauce recipe I tend to use... http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/3634463--Ultimate-Pizza-Sauce.  It does take a bit of time, but I usually make a large batch and divide it between freezer bags. 

 

Now to Rachel's pizzas!  Yes, they do take a bit more time but are well worth it - they look, and taste, just like an authentic Italian pizza.  They're topped with a fantastic roasted tomato sauce, which is really rich - sort of reminded me of Heinz tomato soup!  I don't really like using tomatoes out of season, but over the summer I'm going to try and make plenty and freeze it.  It will be great to have that summery flavour all winter long!  Rachel gives several ideas for additional toppings - I tried Gruyere cheese, thyme, roasted red onions, chorizo and goats' cheese.  Seriously delicious, although of course, not appreciated by Evan!  The great thing about making these however, is that they're supposed to prepared as individual portions.  So, everybody can choose their own topping, and all are happy!



Festive Baking

Hi all, happy new year!  This post feels distinctly un-seasonal now, with the festivities over and all the decorations down.  But Christmas turned out to be such a busy time, I've had no time to update the blog.  Maybe this will inspire you for the future!

I really thought Christmas wasn't going to happen this year... I'm always a bit last minute with the preparations but phew, this was a close call!  Evan was poorly for a fortnight at the beginning of December, with a nasty cold/flu type bug.  I sent him back to school twice, thinking he was better, but by lunchtime he'd crash out again and I'd have a phone call to pick him up.  Bless him, he really went through the mill.  He managed to miss his Christmas concert; disco; and Christmas at the Abbey Pumping Station - one of the highlights of his year.  Happily, he recovered in time for the last week at school and managed to enjoy a pantomime trip and visit from Santa himself.  At this point Nigel came down with the bug, so once again I was tied up doing school runs and trying to keep on top of things at home.  Suddenly, there was a week left to Christmas and I'd hardly done any shopping.  Much as I dislike shopping online, I had to resort to it in the end.  Things finally came together, as they always do, and we had 2 happy little ones who Santa was very good to.  I was very happy that Santa bought me a new laptop, and  hoping this will make my blogging much easier.  I've been using my tablet, and much as I love it in other ways, it doesn't seem to like Blogger.  The text has a tendency to jump about... I'll be typing away and it will suddenly end up in the middle of another sentence.  Plus, it won't seem to upload photos  - it just freezes in the process.  (If anyone is reading this and can tell me why, I'd be very grateful!)  I've had to upload photos from my phone, then go back to the tablet to input text, then back to my phone if I want any more photos.  Total PITA!  Hopefully, things will be a lot easier now.

Well, with all that time stuck at home I did manage to get a fair amount of baking done.  I started at the beginning of December, with some homemade candied peel.  This is something I probably wouldn't have attempted if it wasn't for the blog.  However, I'm glad I did as it's so much better than the shop bought version.  It's really easy - basically you take 5 oranges, 5 lemons and 5 grapefruit (or 15 of 1 fruit).  Cut the fruit in half and juice it, reserving the juice for another purpose.  I made a breakfast juice, although I needed to mix it with a lot of extra orange juice as it was really sharp.  Place the peel in a bowl, sprinkle with a tsp of salt and cover with cold water.  Soak for 24 hours.  You then remove the peel and place in a pan of fresh cold water.   Bring to the boil, and simmer gently for about 3 hours until it's really soft.  Then remove the peel from the pan, scraping out any remaining flesh.  In another large saucepan, dissolve 1.25kg caster sugar in 1 litre water.  Bring to the boil and dissolve the sugar.  Add the peel, and simmer for 30-60 minutes until 'candied'.  Cool slightly, and then place into sterilised jars.  Cover with the remaining syrup.  (I was a little unsure whether to chop the peel at this point - the recipe doesn't say to, but I suppose I'm used to the shop bought stuff.  In the end I left it whole, and it did look lovely in the jars).  Incidentally, I have 3 whole jars of candied peel left.  It's supposed to last about 3 months, so good for a while but not for next Christmas.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it so, if you're reading this and you'd like a jar (oh and live fairly close by), you can have one! 

I used the candied peel as the basis for homemade mincemeat, and from there made a few batches of Rachel's mince pies.  Here's where my KitchenAid really comes into its own - I quickly whizzed up 3 batches of shortcrust pastry, and had them all chilling in the fridge, ready for a spare 10 minutes to roll them out.  Here are a couple of the finished articles, warm and dripping with brandy butter.  Yum!

 

 

The candied peel also went into my Christmas cake (pictured top).  This is Rachel's variation on the traditional recipe, adding dates; apricots and some crystallised ginger.  She then covers it in homemade almond paste, and toasts it in the oven to add flavour.  I have to admit, it was a bit strange not to cover my cake in the traditional white icing, and Nigel thought it was unfinished.  We've both been enjoying it though!  Bit of a mishap with the cake covering... Rachel says to use half of the almond paste to cover the top of the cake.  I was super efficient, and weighed out exactly half, setting the rest aside.  Covered the top of the cake, no problem.  Then rolled out the paste to cover the sides - well, there didn't seem to be a lot, but I rolled it out thinly and I had just enough.  I wondered how on earth I was supposed to have enough to roll the stars out, but I managed to put some trimmings together and produce 3 very thin stars.  It was only when I was cleaning the kitchen afterwards, that I found the other half of the almond paste sitting in a bowl.  Oops!  On the whole though, I think the cake looked and tasted fine.  I've just been watching 'Rachel's Christmas Bake' on the Sky planner, in which she made this cake.  Delighted to see that mine looked very similar, if a bit lacking in stars!

 

Finally, I had a go at Rachel's stollen recipe.  This is something I always enjoy at Christmas, and have been meaning to make for a while.  It's an enriched bread dough, filled with mixed fruit; more candied peel; rum and spices (black pepper, coriander, cardamom and nutmeg - not a combination I've used in baking before, but a good one!)  After rising, it's rolled out and wrapped around a 'sausage' of marzipan.  It's then left to prove, and baked.  My first batch, unfortunately, was a disaster  It looked great up to the baking stage, but I left it for 40 minutes (as per recipe) and it overcooked.  The fruit tasted burnt and bitter, so there was no salvaging it.  I had a second go, baking it for only 30 minutes - even then it was well done, but tasted good.  (The hazards of having a fan oven I think... I lowered the temperature from 200 to 180C, but there's always a bit of guess work involved in this.  Next time I'll try 160)

 

 

So there you have it, my festive baking.  I've loved having lots of homemade treats around, and hope this will be the start of lots of bake-filled Christmases to come.  I'll try and plan it a bit better next time though - the stolen freezes beautifully so could be made well in advance.  The cake, of course, can be made a while before - and all the better for being drip fed alcohol for a few weeks!  Mince pies freeze well (I freeze them uncooked in the baking tin, and then tip them into freezer bags).  And the candied peel and mincemeat could be made as early as September.  (Mind you, I always say I'll be organised about Christmas and start the preparations early..it never happens.  Watch this space!)