It's been a long time....

What can I say, it's been a long time since I've visited this blog let alone updated it with anything, not that I've stopped baking over the last few years as the pictures below will testify.

My cake making skills haven't improved much they still look home made but half the fun is making them the other half is eating them. My plan for the coming year is to start posting more on here.

First Christmas bake of 2016

Christmas Baking

This year I managed to get plenty of time off over the Christmas break, so no excuses not to do any baking. Not the fine baking one sees in fancy shops but every day baking, apple pie, panatone, mince pies and bread of course. The panattone was such an easy recipe, throw it all in the mixer and leave it to rise overnight, knock it back and leave it again for several hours in the tin and bake. It did take longer than the recipe stated to bake but just a matter of checking it every ten minutes or so. There are pics of course:

Still Going

Yes I'm still baking away even  though I haven't published anything on my blog for an age despite promising to do so. I could excuse myself by saying that I have been far to busy at work, decorating the house or just been on holiday too much,  all of them are true but I have found time to bake a few things every now and again.

Just a few things baked:

Start Again

New year, new post. well thats the theory anyway, it's been a long time since I wrote anything on here so apologies for that and yes I know it's february. It's not that I haven't been baking anything just haven't had time to blog about it since they stopped us accessing Blogger at work. Okay I know poor excuse. I have been baking all the usual stuff, bread, biscuits and the odd cake or two but nothing really fancy apart from a halloween cake that came out rather well also a little charity bake at work for the British Heart Foundation. raised a modest £72.00 pounds which for a few cakes wasn't too bad.

My Cherry Ring

Easter has come and gone with plenty of the usual treats, hot cross buns and Easter eggs. In addition I made what I thought was going to be a small fruit ring as a desert for Sunday lunch, it turned out the size of a dinner plate. The original recipe I followed was for a Swedish fruit ring but the dough was far too wet and I had to rescue it by adding another 100g of flour and another teaspoon of yeast, the result was a batch of dough that made rather a large cake. This turned out not to be such a bad thing as the cake was demolished almost in one sitting. The filling was a a mixture of pecans and hazelnuts with raisins and glace cherries, to the sugar I added a teaspoon of nutmeg and cinnamon, once baked I mixed up some lemon icing and then studded it with more cherries.

My Cherry Ring

A link to the original recipe I used:

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/2353/swedish-cinnamon-pecan-tea-ring.aspx

New Toy

Well it's been awhile since I wrote anything for this blog so I thought it was about time I did an update. I've not really had any time of late to do any baking apart from the odd loaf here and there but I had a bit of luck last week, I managed to buy myself a Brod & Taylor Folding Proofer and it has kick started my interest in baking bread again. I have already tried it out on my standard bread recipe and it worked a treat. It's supposed to be folded up and put away when not in use but I can see it being out most of the time.

This is the bad boy out and being used, dough rising nicely

On another note the lovely Tasha (a work colleague) was leaving to have a baby, she asked me to bake a cake, I have to say I'm not a good cake baker but I had a go.

The Art of Presentation

A few weeks ago it was my mum's birthday and we always go out for a meal, this year was no exception. I had planned to take her to Ask in Watford but the weather on the day put paid to that. So an alternative place came to mind, a pub called The Black Horse in Sudbury, it's part of a chain of pub/restaurants that seem so common these days. The service was good, fast and efficient, the meal was okay, mine being slightly overcooked but not inedible, desert however was a different matter, my mother and I both went for the same thing, chocolate mouse with a hot donut. It looked good on paper however the reality of it left a lot to be desired.

Suffice to say I will not be taking any tips from the restaurant on presentation!

Iced Ring

I have always fancied making one of those fruit rings that you used to get in the local baker's when I was a kid and when I was given the Two Hairy Bikers baking book for Christmas I came across their recipe for a Scandinavian Iced Ring. I took the ring to a New Year's eve party and it was gone in minutes, guess I'm not the only one who likes iced cakes.

It came out pretty well, maybe a bit too much cardamon for my taste, next time I'll tone it down a bit.

Inspiration

One of last years holidays was a trip to central Spain taking in Segovia, Salamanca, Toledo and Madrid, a whirlwind tour, it seemed like a month rather than a week. While wondering around these various towns I came across several bakeries and cake shops and not being one to pass up an opportunity to see what  was on offer I couldn't resist having a look. Okay, I know that they are professional bakers and they have all the right equipment, oven, etc. but I can't help but be jealous of what was on offer, a huge array of breads; sourdough,white, black, seeded and in so many different shapes and sizes it was hard to know where to look.

 

Rather than be jealous of all the fine bread and cakes on offer I will take it as inspiration of what can be produced. I have decided to make a speciality bread each weekend starting with Dan Lepard's Black Bread.

Christmas Baking

In the run up to the Christmas break from work I have a tendency to go in to a baking frenzy, by baking I mean making cakes, sweets and all manner of things. This year is no exception with Chocolate Fudge with Pistachios, Fruit and Nut Chocolate an Coconut Ice being a few of the items on the list. As always it seems to be a mad rush to get everything made in time but despite all the office parties and late nights I managed it.

Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

Triple Chocolate Fruit & Nut

 

Biscuit Tree with Lemon Icing

No Lead in these pencils

As the title of this blog suggests my pencils are lead free. One Sunday a few months ago I was invited to a very delightful lunch in Richmond. Having arrived a little bit early I had the opportunity to browse some shops, on passing a charity shop I noticed in the window a book about biscuits and as I am known to have one or two cookery books I thought one more wouldn't hurt. The book was all about baking and decorating biscuits, surprisingly easy and so many different ideas, I picked one of the least difficult ones and gave it a go. The resulting biscuits came out rather well, they didn't stay on the plate long anyway!

Rather annoyingly Blogger seems to have added adverts to random words in my blog. Please ignore them!

That's Shallot

Okay, first an apology for the badly titled post, I couldn't help it. Sometimes it's really difficult to think of a title, baked, baked again, more baking... see what I mean there's only so many ways to say 'Yes! I have been baking again, anyway I've not been baking this time rather I have been pickling, my one and only follower on here expressed a desire to pickle some shallots and I thought why not have a go as well. I've not made pickled onions for years and I had forgotten what an eye watering experience it is. In this case it was shallots but the method is the same.

2.5Lb's Shallots/Onions
Salt
Vinegar
Pickling spices

You can also add bay leaves, dried red chillies and mustard seeds to the jar when you place the shallots/onions in there.

Place the shallots/onions in a bowl and pour boiling water over them, when they are cool enough to handle, top and tail them, peel the outer skin off and place in another bowl. It was at this point that my eyes began to water, fortunately I wear contact lenses which seem to stop the worst of the effect of peeling so many shallots. once you have your shallots/ onions peeled you need to soak them in a brine solution for about 24 hours. The brine solution is made up by adding 2.5 grams of salt to every pint of water required to cover the shallots/onions.  Weigh the shallots/onions down by placing a plate on top of them. When you are ready to pickle you will need to have a  hot sterilised jar prepared. Place the vinegar in a non corrosive pan along with any spices you wish to use, these are best kept in a small muslin bad so that they are easy to fish out when finished with. Heat the vinegar slowly, remember to have the extractor fan going or the windows open as once the vinegar begins to boil it will make a strong smelling vapour cloud.  Wash the shallots/onions in cold water to remove any of the salt and place them in the sterilised jar, bring the vinegar to a boil for about five minutes, fish out the spice bag and pour the vinegar over the shallots/onions, seal the jar. They should be ready to eat in about four weeks, keep the jar in a cool dark place.

I weighed the shallots down in the jar by putting a sterilised glass ramekin dish on top, otherwise they would have floated, I'm looking forward to tasting these in about a month's time. The shallots weren't the only thing I've been making, mango chutney and lime pickle were also on the production line.

Lemon curd

I have to say that Lemon Curd is not one of my favourite things, however I know one or two people that love it. I also wanted to have some in the cupboard as one or two of the recipes I've been looking at call for it, so there was nothing else to do but make some. A fairly straight forward recipe the most time consuming part of it was grating the lemon peel, oh and stirring the curd for about 35 minutes!

6 lemons (grated rind and juice)

150g Butter

5 Eggs, beaten

400g Sugar

Put the lemon rind and juice in a small pan with the sugar, heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Add the butter and stir until melted.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl placed over a pan of simmering water, sieve the eggs into the mixture and stir for about 25 to 40 minutes (until the mixture coats the back of the spoon)

Pour the curd into warm sterilized jars and seal. allow to cool and keep in the fridge.

New Tin

This may be a bit strange but after what seems like ages I have finally managed to get my hands on a proper bread tin. As you will see from the pictures below they are a little bit different than the 'loaf' tins that are readily available in most supermarket stores or even specialist cooking shops. I used my ordinary white loaf recipe baking the dough for 25 minutes at 200 degrees then raised the temperature to 230  degrees for another 10 minutes. The results was a loaf that is nice and brown on top and doesn't seem to have gone soft when it has cooled down.

Basic White Dough

600g white bread flour
350ml warm water
1tsp salt
1tsp dried yeast
1tbsp vegatable fat

I use a bread machine to knead the dough and give it it's first rise, I then shape it as required (bread tin, freeform, rolls etc.) by using the bread machine I know it's going to be properly kneaded.

 Still a bit pale but not too bad.

Cupcakes

Every now and again some of the ladies in the office I work with hold a charity event, this usually takes the form of a cake and raffle sale. As I'm known to be fond of baking a cake or two I'm often asked to contribute, this time I was asked to make something but not 'the Green Thing' which was my last offering. The green thing in question happened to be a Grasshopper Pie, one of Nigella's recipes. With that in mind I thought I would keep it simple and just make some cupcakes. Even though I posses enough books on baking to fill a shop I thought I would use a recipe I found online, Raspberry Cupcakes. An easy recipe and I think I nailed it pretty well. This was my first major go at making cupcakes and I'm pleased with the resuslts.

This is one of a dozen that seemed to go down rather well, I did make some Lemon and Poppy seed cupcakes but didn't take a photo.

Latest Offerings.....

Okay,okay I know I've been bad about updating my blog but in my defence I have been rather busy. I work for a large construction company in there finance department and it has been the companies year end, so it was one mad rush to get things finalised. That's not to say that I haven't been baking anything, far from it, as you can see from the pics below and I even tried my hand at some cupcakes the other day using a recipe by Dan Lepard, the cupcakes turned out really well but the butter cream icing was a different matter. I think I need to try out a few different recipes and I know I'm going to need a lot more practise before they look as good as I want them to. So here are some of my latest offerings:

Stilton & Raisin Bread

Green Olive Bread

Onion Bread

Hot Cross Buns

Weekend Treats....

This weekend I decided to make one of my favourite cakes, Belgian Buns, Whenever I'm asked what cake would I like it would 9 times out of 10 be a Belgian bun, I'm not sure what it is about them, the sweet icing, the raisins or the cherry on top (always saved for the last bite). I trawled the net and was surprised to find only one or two recipes, having made my choice I found I was only missing one ingredient, raisins and they were easy enough to get hold of. So Saturday afternoon saw me throwing the ingredients in to the mixer and an hour later I had some well risen dough, a little bit sticky but workable none the less, so having flattened it out to a nice rectangle, brushed it over with some melted butter and topped it with raisins it was time to roll it up and slice it into, what looked like to me rather small portions. The yeast did it's usual magic trick of expanding the dough and 40 minutes later I had what looked like a decent sized cake. I popped them in the oven for twenty minutes at 200c, the recipe called for a much higher temperature and a longer duration, I'm glad I ignored it as they would have been burnt to pieces, all I had to wait to do then was ice them and pop a cherry on top. Lucky for me a few people were coming over for tea so I didn't have to eat them all myself.

Dodgy Jammers

Once again while salivating over perusing my books on biscuits I came across a recipe for jammy dodgers and as I have never made them before decided to give them a go, this was the weekend before valentine's day so I thought why not give them a bit of a better shape, so here they are:

Six for Dinner...

Well actually it was seven but who's counting. Every now and again I throw a dinner party just to test some of my cooking skill's out on some poor lucky people, on the menu this time round was:

Mushroom And Lemon Soup

 Melanzane Parmigiana with a crisp Salad

Lemon Tart with Creme Fraiche

Six Cheeses and Biscuits

All pretty easy to put together and and I have to say the results spoke for themselves, empty plates all round and every dish finished off. The Melanzane came from the BBC Goodfood Website, it was an easy to follow recipe and put together in under 30 minutes, the Lemon Tart also came from the same site, again easy to make, though never having made one before I was watching it like a hawk through the oven door. It seems everyone had a good time and I think we ended up drinking about five bottles of wine along with numerous gin & tonics. A good evening, now all I have to do is plan what to make for the next one.