Saturday Shopping

Having booked my baking course with Cinnamon Square I decided to go and pay a visit just to see the set up. The bakery that I will be taking my course at is based in Rickmansworth, it's one of those shops you have to step down into while trying to avoid banging your head. The place was packed despite there being lots of places to sit and sample the many mouth watering delights on offer. I bought a few cakes, very expensive but delicious and some sourdough bread. The bread looked fantastic and tasted as good as I thought it would, I just hope that I can emulate it when I come to bake my own. I have also joined the Real Bread Campaign I'm just waiting for my membership details to come through so I can browse all it has to offer. A friend is going to get me some live yeast, something difficult to find around here, from The Scandinavian Kitchen I have only used live yeast once many years ago, so it will be interesting to see how the bread I'm going to make with it turns out.

Booked

Earlier this week I finally got round to booking a baking course and boy do I need it. I made another loaf last night and though I left it to rise it seemed to struggle, I can't decide if it's the yeast I'm using or it's just not warm enough in my house. Back to the baking course, the course takes place at a bakery called Cinnamon Square in Rickmansworth on the 6th of April, a pre-birthday present to myself. In the mean time I will keep on practicing a variety of different loaves to see if I can make something that at least resembles a decent loaf.

Anus Panus

Every weekend I try to bake or make something, this weekend was no exception. It was the best and worst baking moment so far, I tried to make a Couronne loaf, which is basically a loaf of bread with a hole in the middle, my first attempt was a disaster, the dough just didn't want to rise, I think it was down to me not activating the yeast properly. Well I am still learning about this stuff. A chocolate sponge rose beautifully in the oven but decided to stick to the silicone baking tin that I'd used. What a pain to get the damn thing out. I covered it in chocolate in a vain attempt to disguise it. needless to say there will not be any pictures of my failures. A second attempt to make a Couronne went wrong as well, not because of the dough, far from it, it came out perfectly. I placed an oiled glass in the middle of the dough while it was rising just to make sure there was a hole. When the dough was baked however it closed up resulting in a loaf that looked rather rude.

The loaf was given an extra 12 minutes at a higher temperature which gave it a lovely burnt crust, not black burnt but well baked, nice and dark. I have to say it is the best loaf I've baked so far due to its taste and texture if not for it's appearance.More practice required but if I can reproduce the second loaf I will be very pleased.

Quick One

This week I've not really had the chance to bake anything until last night that is. I was due to go to the gym but I had been suffering from a persistent headache for most of the day and just couldn't face going out that evening. One of my work colleagues requested that I bake some Oat & Raisin cookies so I thought why not. I had all the ingredients in the cupboards and they didn't take long to make. The recipe uses wholemeal flour which gives them a nice flavour and you feel as if they are doing you good. I had to taste test several of them just after they came out of the oven, not bad, even if I say so myself. sadly there is no picture of them, though my colleagues all say they taste nice.

Sunday Baking

I stated earlier in my blog that I was going to make some Danish pastries on Sunday and so I have, still not up to the required standard so there will be no pictures. The results did taste nice though and all the evidence has been eaten to protect the innocent (me). Also on test today was a recipe for sun dried tomato bread, that came out rather well and I had a nice lunch of bread and cheese. There is enough left for a sandwich or two if I don't get too peckish after playing badminton.

Saturday Afternoon Biscuits

I know in my previous post I said I would be baking on Sunday but I found myself at a loose end on Saturday afternoon so whipped up a batch of Peanut Butter Cookies to dunk in my tea. Not that I really dunk any biscuit, I just fancied making them. As there are so many I will be giving them away at work, where I'm sure they will be gone before the rattle of the tea trolley is ever heard.

What Next?

So what will be next on my baking journey? I have had a request to make danish pastries from a colleague at work,  I attempted to make them once before but they were not quite up to my exacting standards. So I'm going to try once again this weekend, on Sunday morning I will be cutting up apples and wrestling with pastry in an attempt to create what I think is a danish pasty or two. Badminton for two hours in the afternoon should work off any that I sample.

Inspiration

Last night BBC 2 broadcast a programme called 'Baking Made Easy'  the presenter made everything look so simple and I'm sure it is if you have a BBC budget and all the right equipment to hand. Okay I'm just jealous, what was produced looked really good and should serve as an inspiration to what can be achieved in a domestic kitchen, I say looked good because I was on a treadmill at the gym and couldn't hear anything that was said. Sigh, I'm now going to have to up my game if I want to produce anything like it. So it's back to the cookbooks and get baking.

Something for the weekend

over the Christmas period I have been salivating browsing through the hundreds of books on baking that are littering stacked neatly in my house, one that caught my eye was a lemon poppy seed cake. The recipe called for a 4 inch cake tin (!?!), not something readily available so I improvised and used some 5 inch tart tins which worked out really well.There was enough cake mixture to make 5 cakes, a little over the top. I'm sure there must have been a misprint in the book somewhere. In the end I only used two of them stacked on top of each other with lemon butter cream between.

The cake was then covered in icing and decorated with pale yellow flowers. I have to say not my best icing effort but the cake did turn out nice, all the spare cakes got eaten in less than a day, well I had to test them to make sure they were okay.

Baking over Christmas

Over the christmas break I managed to tear myself away from Grand Turismo 5 on the PS3 (sad I know) to do a bit of baking. Bread, raspberry muffins and red onion shortbread were the order of the day. A dozen raspberry muffins lasted a mere 24 hours before being consumed, not all of them by me I hasten to add.

Raspberry Muffins

Ingredients:

• 250g (9oz) plain flour
• 1tbsp baking powder
• 100g (4oz) golden caster sugar
• 75g (3oz) butter, chilled
• 1 large egg
• 175ml (6fl oz) milk
• 150g (5oz) fresh raspberries

Preparation Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC (400ºF, gas mark 6). Line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper muffin cases.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Cut the chilled butter into small pieces and add to the bowl making sure that the pieces are coated in flour.
3. Beat together the egg and milk then pour into the bowl. Mix lightly with a fork until just combined. Take care not to over-beat the mixture - it should still be a little lumpy. Gently fold in the raspberries.
4. Spoon into the muffin cases. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the muffins are risen and golden.

Baking Frenzy

As Sunday was cold and miserable due to the snow, I decided to go into a baking frenzy, so the following were produced: Amoretti, Cantuccini and Focaccia. So let’s begin with the Amoretti.

Amoretti

Ingredients:

• 340g/12oz ground almonds
• 340g/12oz caster sugar
• 4 eggs, whites only
• 30ml/1 fl oz amaretto liqueur
• butter, for greasing

Preparation method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170c/325f/Gas mark 3
2. In a large bowl beat the egg whites until firm.
3. Mix the sugar and the almonds gently into it.
4. Add the amaretto liqueur and fold in gently until you have a smooth paste.
5. Place some greaseproof paper on a baking sheet lightly brush with butter.
6. Take a small amount of the paste and roll into a small ball and place on the baking sheet, keeping them apart.
7. Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes until golden brown.

This was followed by Focaccia

Focaccia

 

Ingredients:

• 300ml tepid water
• 7g sachet of yeast (for hand baking)
• 500g Strong white bread flour
• 1 and a half tsp salt
• 3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing
• extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• medium coarse sea salt
• olives, marinated in lemon oil

Preparation method:

1. Measure the water into a jug, add the yeast. Leave for five minutes to soften.
2. Mix the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.
3. Make a well in the centre of the flour, pour the blended yeast and water into the well along with the oil. Mix thoroughly until a sticky dough is formed.
4. Transfer the dough onto a floured surface, knead the dough for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic and the dough no longer sticks to your hand.
5. Form the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover with a tea towel or oiled cling film. Leave in a warm place until doubled in size - about one and a half hours depending on room temperature.
6. Knock back and knead for a few minutes, Place on a baking tray and leave it to rise again for about 30 minutes, covering with a tea towel.
7. Preheat the oven to 200c/400f/gas mark 6
8. To create the dimpled effect a glass of tepid water is required. Dip your finger into the water the push into the dough, repeat until the required amount of dimples are created.
9. Place the marinated olives into the dimples, push them well down as they will rise.
10. Sprinkle with a generous amount of olive oil and sea salt.
11. Bake for 25-35 minutes.

The Cantuccini were made as per the recipe in the previous post.

Cantuccini

Saturday evening and bored so I decided to have a go at making some Cantuccini, they turned out surprisingly well, a tad large but I will know for next time to make two lots.

Cantuccini Biscuits

Ingredients

 150g roughly chopped hazelnuts

 150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

 125g caster sugar

 Pinch of ground cinnamon

 1 tsp baking powder

 1 tsp vanilla essence, alternatively 1 vanilla pod, seeds only

 2 free range eggs plus 1 free range yolk

 25-50g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 5

1. Mix the chopped hazelnuts, flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and vanilla seed (if using) in a bowl until well combined.
2. Beat the eggs and egg yolk together until pale and fluffy, then beat the eggs into the mixture until the mixture is well combined and come together as dough.
3. Dust a work surface with icing sugar and flour, only requires a small amount. Using the palms of your hands roll the biscuit into a cylinder shape on the dusted surface at this point I would make two logs, otherwise the biscuits will be a bit large. Flatten the dough a little to form an oval cylinder.
4. Transfer the dough to a baking tray and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the biscuit has doubled in size. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
5. When the biscuit has cooled, cut into 1cm thick slices, I would recommend using a serrated knife as it would be easier to cut the slices, a sharp knife may squash the biscuit log and break it.
6. Place each biscuit onto a baking tray and return to the oven for a further 20-25 minutes or until crisp, golden-brown and cooked through.