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.