Megan's first baking lesson

Well, Megan and I had a rare morning in last Thursday, so I decided to have a little baking session.  Megan loves playdough at the moment, so I thought it was a good time to introduce her to the joys of baking.  We tried out Rachel's 'Almond and orange butter fingers'.  Well, Megan had a prod of the dough (note the big fingerprint in the front biscuit!) and then decided to empty the cutlery drawer underneath.  There ended the baking lesson.  Oh well, she's still only 17 months old, and it was fun for the few minutes it lasted!  The biscuits tasted good, very light and crumbly, and with a lovely nutty texture from ground almonds.  I'm not sure what happened with the shaping - Rachel says to roll them into walnut sized balls, then form in to oval shapes.  I presume they are meant to be roughly finger shaped (clue in the recipe name!)  However, mine spread and just joined together in the tin.  Hmmm, not scoring great marks for biscuit shaping so far.  Never mind, as long as they taste good! Here are the finished biscuits:-

On the same day, I made Rachel's brown soda bread.  I really love soda bread, and it brings back some great holiday memories.  In 2002, Nigel and I decided to go camping in Southern Ireland.  I can remember telling an Irish colleague of mine what we were planning. She just looked at me doubtfully.  "Are you sure about that?" she asked.  "There are some very nice youth hostels you could stay in".

"No, we'll be fine!" I replied cheerfully.  Being Welsh, I was quite prepared to put up with a little rain.

Boy, did it rain!  It was sunny on the drive down, and on the drive back.  In between, it poured down. We lived in our waterproofs, and spent a lot of time sheltering in shops and pubs.  On one particular day, we'd gone on a scenic drive - where we could see nothing as it was all shrouded in mist!  We then drove to Dingle Bay, and hung around the harbour waiting for the local dolphin to appear.  It never did, clearly even too wet for sea creatures that day!  We eventually gave up, and took refuge in a cosy pub where we ate big bowls of Irish stew and hunks of soda bread.  Delicious! 

I tried making soda bread after that holiday, but never had much success.  The secret seems to be (having read Rachel's books and watching her programmes), not to knead the dough.  Instead, you keep your hand stiff, like a claw, and gradually work all the ingredients together.  Kneading produces a stiff, inedible lump of dough.  Pleased to say that my bread worked this time, and tasted great. 

 

 

It isn't a 'sandwichy' type of bread, but goes well with soup or stews.  It doesn't really keep for more than a day, but after that it makes great toast. 

 

Oh, and a little tip here if you fancy trying soda bread.  You'll need buttermilk, which I don't often have in the fridge and can't buy in my local supermarket.  I found these alternative suggestions on Nigella Lawson's website (www.nigella.com)  You can mix natural yoghurt with milk, at a ratio of 200mls yoghurt to 50mls milk.  Or Greek yogurt can be mixed with equal quantities of milk.  Alternatively, take 250mls milk and stir in 1 tbsp lemon juice or white wine vinegar, to sour.  Leave for 5 minutes before using. 

 

I finished the week by making Rachel's 'Date bread & butter pudding'.  Our church is running an Alpha course at the moment, and we'd been asked to take turns in providing puddings.  A great opportunity for another bake!  I didn't get to try it myself, but I'm assured it went down very well.  It was one of the easiest puddings I've ever made, will definitely try it again soon.

 



 

 



Shortbread, scones & Yorkshire pud

 

3 very different bakes this week.  To start with, Rachel's 'Oat and vanilla shortbread cookies'.   These were rustled up in a bit of a hurry... I'd been busy making Welsh cakes for St David's Day (this will come in another blog post!)  A few days later, I invited a friend round for a cuppa and cake.  Then realised that Nigel had taken all the Welsh cakes to work.  Oops!  I had a few hours to bake something, from ingredients that I had in the house.  These fitted the bill, and had a lovely crumbly, melt in the mouth texture.  The dough is mixed and then rolled into a sausage shape, refrigerated and sliced into biscuits when chilled.  Here's where I need a bit more practice - I didn't roll it enough and ended up with a flat bottom, so misshapen biscuits.  It didn't affect the taste of course, but maybe I'll try again when I've got more time! 

 

Next, I made spicy bacon & gruyere scones.  No particular occasion, just fancied something different for lunch.  The spiciness comes from cayenne pepper , and really does give an extra 'edge' to the scones.  Oh, I didn't have any Gruyere cheese, so used a mixture of Cheddar and Gouda that was waiting in the freezer.  These were enjoyed by all the family - Nigel and Megan (who I thought would find them too spicy, but really loved them), my parents when I visited for the weekend, and my brother, who loves cheese; bacon and spice, so it was a perfect combination for him.  Oh, Evan was the only one who wasn't keen, but that's no surprise - fussy little monkey!  Sorry about the lack of a photo, the scones were gobbled up before I knew it!

 

Finally, I had a go at Rachel's Yorkshire pudding recipe.  This is certainly nothing new for me.  Back to fuss-monkey Evan, he really loves toad-in-the-hole.  So, we probably have it at some point each week.  I usually make the Yorkshire pud from a Delia Smith recipe.  This uses 75g flour; 1 egg; and a mixture of milk and water.  Rachel's recipe uses 100g flour; 2 eggs; milk and a little melted butter.  It makes for a denser, more 'puddingy' texture, whereas Delia's is more light and crisp.  I like them both.  I thought  I'd share our favourite family recipe - toad in the hole with onion gravy - using Rachel's Yorkshire pudding recipe.  Here goes...

 

Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan).  You can brown the sausages if you have time - Nigel likes them a bit more crispy so we usually do this.  But it's not essential if you're in a rush!  If you are browning, wait for the oven to come up to temperature, and heat about 1 tbsp oil in a medium sized roasting tin.  Then put your sausages in - 6 to 8 is about right for this Yorkshire pudding recipe.  Let them brown for 15-20 minutes.  If you're skipping the browning stage, put your oil in the roasting tin anyway and give it 5-10 minutes to heat up while you're making the batter.

 

To make the batter, sift 100g (3 1/2oz) flour into a large bowl.  Season, make a well in the centre, and crack in 2 eggs.  Whisk, bringing in the flour from the sides of the bowl, and add 275mls (9fl oz) milk in a steady stream. When it's all mixed, whisk in 15g (1/2 oz) melted butter.  Rachel does suggest putting the batter in the fridge for 30-60 minutes at this stage, to make really light puddings.  I never have time for this though!

 

Take the tin out of the oven, and place on the hob, on a moderate heat - this prevents the oil temperature dropping.  Carefully place in your sausages, if you haven't already.  Then, pour the batter all over.  Place in the oven, and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the sausages are well cooked and the batter puffy and golden.

 

While the toad is cooking, make up your gravy.  I'm really proud of this recipe, as I cobbled it together myself, adding red wine vinegar for flavour.  Then, one day I was watching Masterchef where John Torode was demonstrating his onion gravy method.  He put red wine vinegar in too, although apparently he uses it to help soften the onions.  So, heat some oil in a pan and add 1 sliced onion.  Cook on a gentle heat for about 10 minutes, until soft and golden.  Then, add about 1 tbsp. of red wine vinegar.  When this has been absorbed, add 1 tbsp flour and stir to coat the onions.  Have some beef or vegetable stock ready - about 500mls.  Add a little to the pan, and allow it to absorb.  Continue to add the stock in this way, a little at a time, until it is all used.  If you're cooking potatoes or vegetables to go with the toad, you can use some of the cooking water in the gravy.  Finally, add in a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a splash of mushroom ketchup (if you have any).  Season to taste.

 

Enjoy!

 

Happy (belated) birthday blog!

Yes, it is a bit late!  This blog was a year old in January, and I haven't written anything since.  For that, I apologise.  I don't know when life got so busy!  Anyway, my 'new year's resolution' is to try and blog more regularly, hopefully at least once a week. 

 

 

I promise I've been keeping up the baking!  Here's what I've made over the last couple of months:-

• Naan bread
  

  

  
  
• Jammy steamed pudding
  

  

  
  
• Corn bread
  

  

  
  
• Brown scones with seeds
• Baked potato, onion and rosemary gratin
• Calzone
  

  

  
  
• Crumpets
  

  

  
  
• Baked red lentil dhal
• Cardamom bread
  

  

  
  
• Scheiterhaufen (bread and butter pudding with apple and white chocolate - A-Mazing!)
  

  

  
  
• Crème Anglaise

Shout if you want me to write any of the recipes up, otherwise I'll try and fit them in when I have time.
 

Oh, Evan and I attempted to make a gingerbread house just after Christmas - this was to be my showstopper piece to put on the birthday blog post.  We managed to cook the dough and cut the pieces out, then it took about a week to get round to putting it together.  By that time, some of the pieces had crumbled and it just wouldn't stick together.  I got very frustrated, and ended up giving up.  Evan looked crestfallen for a second, until I said he could eat some gingerbread.   I've promised him we'll try again one rainy day! 
 

As for the next year, I have a plan!  I've made 53 recipes out of 139 - I make that 86 recipes to go.  I will complete the challenge, as I hate to be defeated! Most weeks, I'll be making at least 2 recipes to hit my target. Still some big challenges to go, including puff pastry; choux pastry; croissants and doughnuts.  Should be fun! 


Thought I'd tell you about one of my recent challenges, which is Seville orange curd.  I bought a batch of Seville oranges, originally intending to make marmalade again.  However, I saw this at the back of 'Bake' and thought I'd give it a go.  Really pleased with the result - it's deliciously rich and tangy.  I could eat it by the spoonful!  I made 2 batches, and used 1 in an orange meringue pie.  Took this for a church lunch, and it went down really well (thank goodness for church functions - they give me a great opportunity to share my bakes, instead of troughing them all myself!)

So, here's the recipe...

Simply take 150g (5oz) butter; 250g (9oz) caster sugar; the finely grated zest of 1 Seville orange and juice of 3.  Heat altogether, very gently until the butter melts.  Beat 4 eggs and 2 egg yolks together, then stir into the melted butter.  Stir carefully, over a very low heat, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  (It's really important to keep the heat low, or you'll get scrambled egg).  If the mixture starts scrambling, push it through a sieve (I did get a few lumps, despite keeping the heat as low as possible.  But a quick sieve sorted it out).  Remove the pan from the heat, and pour into jars. 

I think that's enough for now!  Back soon (I hope) with oat and vanilla shortbread cookies, and bacon and gruyere scones.