Thursday, 17 February 2011

Comments

I wasn't aware that the comments weren't working! Please comment away, I'd love to hear your opinions. :)

Monday, 7 February 2011

Cumin and Fennel Bread

I've been thinking about baking a lot recently, although I know it doesn't really show on here. I'm serious considering a course in catering, it really is something I love and want to persue. With this in mind I'm trying to broaden my baking habits, so here I give you my first loaf of bread.

cumin and fennel


Cumin and Fennel Loaf

‘The Great British Book of Baking’

Ingredients

500g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsps cumin seeds
2 tsps fennel seeds
1 1/2tsps from a sachet of dried yeast
350ml lukewarm water
Olive oil
Wholemeal flour

cumin and fennel slice




Method
Mix flour and salt with the cumin and fennel seeds in a large bowl. Sprinkle the dried yeast into the bowl and mix in the water. Make into a soft dough by hand and cover with a tea towel. Leave for 10 minutes.

Pour a small amount of oil onto the work surface and lightly oil your hands. Tip dough onto surface, and turn over so both sides are coated in oil. Knead 10 times, and then leave in and oiled bowl covered in cling film for 10 minutes, Repeat twice more and then leave to rest for thirty minutes.

Tip out and knead one final time, shape into a ball and place on a silicone baking sheet. Cover with a slightly damp tea towel and allow to rise for one hour.

Meanwhile heat a baking tray in the oven at 220C/ GM 7. Sprinkle the dough with water and dust with wholemeal flour. Transfer the bread and silicone  baking sheet onto the hot baking tray and bake for 15 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 190C/ GM 5 and bake for a further 25 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.     

cumin fennel bread

Saturday, 4 December 2010

Gatherings

I know I have been somewhat slacking on the posting front, but here are a few updates.

In November I baked a six layer anniversary cake for my boyfriend's parents Ruby Wedding Anniversary. It wasn't as stressful as I had originally imagined, but transporting it by train was a little hair-raising.

Cake

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the inside, an afternoon of champagne and fantastic food makes me forgetful on the photograph front. You'll just have to believe me when I say there were six layers inside filled with dark chocolate ganache and a homemade raspberry curd.

I also went to a Birthday Tea Party for my friend Nancy (fame at last Nancy, you've made it onto the blog ;) ) The table was full of homemade cakes, biscuits and other sweet things.

Nancy's table

I made mini apple spiced pies which tasted very festive. I'll probably have the pastry recipe on here in the next few weeks when I crack on with the Christmas baking.

applepie

I promise I'll have some more substantial posts soon. :)

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Oatmeal Cherry Chocolate Cookies

Oat Cookies

The recipe for these cookies is based off the back of a Quaker Oats box! They are definatly the chewy, rather than crunchy variety of cookie, but I'm not one to complain. The weather has turned colder the last few days so I thought a hint of mixed spice would be an apt seasonal addition.

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
½ tsp salt
3 cups oats
½ cup of dried cherries
½ cup white chocolate chips
½ cups of macadamia nuts

Oat cookies

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C

Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Add baking soda, flour, salt, cinnamon and mixed spice, mix well. Add oats and cherries, chocolate and nuts. After mixing drop dough in tablespoon sized balls onto a baking sheet. Cook for about 10 minutes until starting to turn golden brown. 

oat cookie

Friday, 15 October 2010

Lardy Cake

It's has been a while, I did actually bake a hazelnut and chocolate cake last weekend, but forgot to take any pictures!

This recipe is taken from my 'Great British Bake Off' book, as soon as I saw I knew I had to try making it. Lardy cake reminds me of camping as a child, eating large slices of oozing cake and picking out the currents. This was a very time consuming recipe but enjoyable neither the less. It is best eaten nop later than three days after baking as it does go stale.

lardy cake


Ingredients

500g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 sachet of yeast
250ml warm milk
1 med egg
100g lard, room temp, small pieces
100g butter, room temp, small pieces.
200g caster sugar
150g mixed dried fruit

Method

Mix flour, salt and yeast in a bowl. Make a hole in the centre and add milk and beaten egg. Gradually mix flour into the wet ingredients with either fingers or a dough hook until it forms a soft dough.

Turn out dough and knead for 10 minutes. Return dough to the bowl, cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise in a warm place for an hour.

After the dough has doubled in size, punch to deflate and turn out onto a floured surface. Cut in half, returning half the dough to the bowl, cover and set aside. Also set aside half of the lard, butter, sugar and fruit.

Roll out the uncovered portion into a rectangle 30x 15 cm. Dot 2/3 of the dough with 1/3 of the remaining lard and butter, sprinkle over 1/3 of remaining sugar and fruit. Fold bottom third over the filled portion, and fold top third down. Seal all edges by pushing down with fingertips.

Turn the dough and roll out. Repeat the above process twice and put the rolled portion aside.

Repeat with second half of the dough and leave to rest for 10 minutes. After resting roll out both portions of dough to fit into two 20cm sandwich tins.  Allow to rise at room temperature for 1 hour.

After dough has risen place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 220C.

Lightly score the top of the cakes and back for 25 minutes until golden. Remove cakes from tins and turn the upside down. Place back in the oven for 5 minutes to brown the bottoms.

Allow to cool.

 

lardy cake


Sunday, 26 September 2010

Chocolate Whiskey Cupcakes


whiskey cupcake

What is this, a recipe with frosting?! These were made for a friend's birthday, and knowing his love of whiskey I thought these would be just the ticket. These seemed to go down very well, the chocolate base with the whiskey syrup makes for a very moist cupcake. You can add more or less whiskey to taste, mine were fairly strong (to me anyway, who hates whiskey)  

The sprinkles were bought from Williams Sonoma in America, I thought it was about time to break them out. 

Makes 24 Cupcakes.

Ingredients

Cupcakes
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp espresso powder
1 cup of boiling water
½ cup of sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups plain flour
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
16 tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 ¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs

Whiskey Syrup
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
2 tbsp whiskey

Frosting
8 tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)
3 cups icing sugar
6 tbsp whiskey 

Whiskey Cupcakes

Method

Cupcakes

Preheat oven 180C

Combine cocoa powder, espresso in small bowl. Add boiling water and whisk till smooth. Set aside to cool at room temperature, when cool whisk in sour cream and vanilla.

 Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl, combine.

In a medium bowl combine butter and sugar until fluffy and light. Beat in eggs one at a time.

Add dry ingredients and sour cream mix slowly to the butter and sugar, beat sparingly.

Bake at 180C for about 18 minutes until done, they should be fairly flat topped. Cool in the pan for five minutes and then allow to fully cool on a wire rack.

Whiskey Frosting

Beat butter till light and fluffy. Add the icing sugar slowly. Mix in Whiskey until smooth.

Whiskey Syrup

Combine water and sugar in a small pan, heat gently stirring until the sugar dissolves. Take off the heat and add whiskey. Allow to cool to room temperature.


When cupcakes have cooled poke holes in tops with a fork, spread a teaspoon of whiskey syrup over. Allow to dry slightly before frosting.  


whiskey cupcakes

Thursday, 23 September 2010

Salted Peanut Brittle Cookies



peanut slice

Sorry it has been a while since my last update, I hope these make up for it. These cookie slices are not very sweet, they are deliciously salty though and quickly disappear. Perfect with a cup of Chai, but not so much on the way to work when you are hurriedly trying to brush the chocolate crumbs away from your mouth, cheek, nose!


This recipe is influenced by this blog, but I'm sure it is floating around the internet in many forms. 


Ingredients

225g unsalted butter, softened
200g granulated sugar
¾ tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
240g plain flour
175g roasted, salted peanuts roughly chopped

100g dark chocolate

Method

Preheat oven to 200C, line a 15 ½ x 10 ½ inch pan with baking paper.

With an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides and beat in salt and vanilla, add flour and combine. Stir in half the chopped nuts.

Turn the dough out into the lined baking sheet, press into the pan so the dough forms a thin layer. Sprinkle the rest of the nuts onto the top. Place another piece of baking paper over the dough and roll, or press the nuts into the dough.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the tops starts to turn golden brown. The mixture will still appear soft, but don’t worry it will harden as it cools.

Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then cut into squares. Allow to cool further and turn out.

Melt the chocolate and spread a thin layer on the bottom of the slices with a knife. Allow to set in the fridge for 30 minutes,  drizzle  the remaining chocolate over the top and allow to set before eating (if you can wait that long!)

peanut slice