Hairy Bikers Bakeation Challenge - Germany

Whoops!  I've slacked off for a couple of weeks on my Bakeation Challenge, but I did 'Jubilee' it instead, so I won't feel too guilty.  This weekend I'm having a go at the German Potato Bread recipe or Kartoffelbrot.  I would dearly love to try the Riesling Wine Cake and the German Bee Sting Cake, but until I can start running again to offset the calories, a bread recipe it shall be!

I used up some old Charlotte potatoes that had started sprouting for this recipe and am doing the all white flour version. 

Its seems very odd adding potatoes to a bread dough, but it should make it super moist.  You use so little water than usual, that it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Potatoes were boiled and mashed well.  Then the liquid was added to the mix.....

Followed by gradually adding the flour.....................

I have again kneaded mine in the Kenwood, but only for 5 minutes before popping it out onto a floured work surface and kneading lightly for a further minute. 

Last weekend I made another Scandinavian Rye bread or at least tried too.  I must have left it in the Kenwood too long (only 7 or so minutes) as it felt rather sticky, not smooth and pliable as it should.  Still I shaped it, let it prove and popped it in the oven.  It looked great for the first 20 minutes of baking and then it totally deflated.  This along with my baking pride.  Another lesson learnt.  Using the Kenwood is great for relieving the shoulders, but there is a real fine line between a perfect knead and over-doing it!  I digress, back to the Potato Bread.....................

I let the dough prove for an hour in an oiled bowl, then popped the lovely soft dough out on a floured surface and squashed it.

It was almost like you could feel the softness added by the potato.  I folded it in on itself and left the dough to prove again for about 30 minutes. 

I slashed the top and scattered the onion seeds over the top (also known as nigella seeds) and popped it into a 200c fan oven.  I only needed to bake mine for 27 minutes, but I had managed to knock the temperature up by 10c for the first 10 minutes or so of baking.  Either way, check it well before the suggested baking time.

And voila!  One Kartoffelbrot loaf and boy is it moist.  You can't really taste the potato in it, but it gives a lovely texture to the bread and is surprisingly light and airy .  I had mine simply with some goats cheese.  Delicious.  I was sceptical about trying it, but really glad I did!

Next weekend its Eastern Europe where I get to choose from Slovakia, Hungary and Romania!

Happy baking!

Rise of the Sock Monkeys!

Now I would hate you to think I have been totally idle recently, but as the baking and knitting is on the slow back-burn I thought some more Sock Monkeys were the order of the day.  A perfect excuse came in the arrival of 2 1/2 year Maya to stay for the weekend.  As she walked into the kitchen and saw a little monkey sitting on the table, her smile made making them all the more worthwhile. 

For some strange reason, that can only be thought of in a toddlers mind is the naming of said monkey as Mildred the Ostrich Monkey.  By the following morning she was simply known as Poppy......................

I still find my lovely 101 year old Singer Sewing Machine the best to make the funny monkeys and its a great excuse to get her out on the kitchen table.

As you can see a second monkey is ready to be paired up with a new owner, plus there are many more pairs of socks begging to be 'Monkey'ed....................

Should keep me busy for a while!

How spoilt have I been though, as the lovely Rainflower from Ravelry has made me a gorgeous Chandra shawl out of some Manos del Uruquay Silk Blend yarn I had in my stash.  Its soooooooooo soft and yet so light, that I can't help stroking it.  She's a very talented and speedy knitter and I am eternally grateful to her for this Karma kindness.

Happy crafting...............................

Jubilee Union Jack Fondant Fancies

Now, I'm not an overly patriotic person.  Yes I'm proud to be British, but you won't see me flying lots of flags for big events, such as the Royal Wedding or the Jubilee.  However, spurred on by a street party in our road yesterday, I thought I would make my own little baked attempt at a Union Jack.  Trawling through the web, I came across these brilliant looking Union Jack Fondant Fancies and just couldn't resist giving them a go!

I made sure my butter was nice and soft this time and it does make such a difference to the smoothness of the batter.  Its also less likely to curdle when you gradually add the eggs to the creamed butter and sugar.  I only added a splash of milk to loosen the batter a tad. 

The recipe doesn't stipulate what size eggs to use, so I chose medium eggs and the batter looked OK to me.

Also I only have round cake tins or loaf tins, so I used 2 x 2lb loaf tins instead of a 20cm square tin and it worked a treat.

The cooking time was only 24 minutes, so a bit of a result.

The cakes were allowed to cool and then cut in half horizontally.  You then drizzle on the lemon sugar syrup.  I thought is was a good idea to put the clingfilm under the cake before I did this as I didn't want to waste any syrup!  Topped with the butter cream and then the strawberry jam and sandwiched together, before being chilled for a couple of hours.

Mine only got chilled for about 1 1/2 hours as they had a party to go to!  Topped with a mango & lemon conserve to bind the marzipan to the top, each cake was cut into 12 pieces and popped into Jubilee paper cases.

And here's the the yummy butter cream and jam filling.........

I decided to coat the fancies with the fondant icing in the paper cases, as I just couldn't get the icing on without it dribbling everywhere, including down me and I hate wastage.  Plus how they got it nice and smoothly down the sides I do not know.  I put my icing in a piping bag which did help control it.

However, as I was more interested in creating a white top for my Union Jack, I didn't worry about covered sides.  All I can say is thank goodness I saved a couple back for my Mum to try, as they disappeared faster than you can say 'Fabulous Fondant Fancies'!

My little salute to Queenie.  I think she would approve!

Happy Jubilee!!

Hairy Bikers Bakeation Challenge - The Low Countries

So here's my second instalment for my Hairy Bikers Bakeation Challenge.  This week I had a choice between Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg which are combined in The Low Countries chapter.

Now not another cookie recipe I hear you cry!  Well these are Amsterdam Caramel Cookies no less. Or Koggetjes in Dutch!  Apparently these were first baked in 1935, when the creator entered them into a competition to find a true Amsterdam cookie.  They were named after the Dutch ships 'kogge'.  A little bit of history for you :)

As I have never made caramel before, I thought this was a mini challenge worth trying.  Unfortunately I can't link the recipe as this one is only available from the Hairy Bikers Big Book of Baking (well worth buying as there are many more recipes than those available online), but any basic cookie recipe with caramel added should give the same effect.

For the caramel you put the castor sugar and water in a small saucepan and warm over a low heat until dissolved, then turn up the heat to a fast simmer, cooking for 5 - 8 minutes without stirring.
It starts of quite cloudy..........................

Then goes clear quite quickly ............................................

After 5 - 8 minutes the sugar caramelises and turns a rich, golden brown.  Tip it out onto a sheet of baking parchment on a baking tray and move it around until it forms a thin layer.......

Allow it to cool, then break it up with a pestle and mortar.  I managed to get some little bits on my t-shirt as I bashed it gently - a little snack for later!

Its then kneaded in to the cookie mixture and divided into 15 little balls, which are then flattened on a baking sheet........................

You're only meant to flatten them to a 1cm thickness, but I was a bit enthusiastic in my flattening, hence why they splatted a tad!  Still tasty though!

There are plenty more recipes in this chapter, so I will no doubt be blogging some more, but I do like a good cookie!

Next week Germany!

On the crafty front, I have had to put all my crafty loves on the back-burner for the while, shame really really as my toe-up socks were coming on a treat!  Patience little Scube, patience!

Happy baking!

Bruschetta to welcome in the sunshine!

There I was putting together the dough for a homemade Bruschetta and OH says "So why aren't you taking photographs for your blog?  Its a baked item isn't it?"  Hmmm I thought, he is correct and skipped off to get the camera.   Alright I shuffled really, but the thought was there.

Not wanting to upset my poorly neck more after a pounding at the physio, I had elected to make the dough in my Kenwood using the dough hook.  I have to say it worked a treat.  You do have to be a bit more careful that you don't over knead the dough, but it doesn't half save the shoulders. Keep an eye on it until its looking silky and the gluten has started stretching.

I used a basic focaccia dough recipe for my base which consisted of 500g strong white bread flour, 5g dried yeast, 10g fine salt and 325ml of warm water.  This was all popped into the Kenwood mixing bowl and put on the minimum setting until all combined and then I added 1tbsp of rapeseed oil and let it knead for 7-8 minutes.  You can of course use olive oil, but I love the colour and taste of rapeseed oil.  Our favourite at the moment is a local brand called Pratt's and is the most amazing colour.

Leave in a lightly oiled bowl, covered, for 1 1/2 hours or so until the dough has doubled in size, then tip into a shallow, oiled baking tray about 25 x 35 cm in size.  Stretch the dough out into the corners.............................

 and then leave to rise again, covered, until doubled in size.

Stick your fingers in to make some deep holes and then drizzle a little oil over the dough.  Pop into a 250c fan oven and cook for 10 minutes, turning towards the end if necessary to brown evenly.

Reduce the oven temperature to 200c and pop back in after you have covered  the dough with your topping* for a further 8 - 10 minutes.

I also added some grated parmesan to the top just in the last minute or so and voila.........

One scrumptious and rather healthy dinner................

Happy Summer Baking!


* My topping consisted of 2 chopped cloves of garlic, 1/2 a finely chopped red onion, 2 small punnets of plum cherry tomatoes chopped into quarters, a big handful of chopped basil, salt & pepper.  Yummy!

Hairy Bikers Bakeation Challenge - Norway

So I've gone and set myself a little challenge.  As mentioned before I really enjoyed watching the Hairy Bikers recent Bakeation programme around Europe.  OH must have picked up on my enthusiasm as one of my recent birthday presents was the book to accompany the series - Yippee!

My little baking challenge is to bake at least one item a week from each chapter in the book and this week its Chapter 1 - Norway!  As this was one of my favourite episodes I've chosen two recipes to have a go at.  Of course one just had to be a bread recipe and I've gone for the Scandinavian Rye Bread or Rugbrod!

The yeast was added to warm water and milk and sugar and left to bubble for 10 minutes before being added to the flour, salt and caraway seeds.

I'm rather pleased with my new little mixing bowl which says "God Save The Cream" on the side (another pressie!) and the perfect size for the bubbling yeast mixture.

Once the ingredients are combined you pop the dough out onto a well floured surface and then knead for 10 minutes.  Its a very sticky dough, but does become more elastic with kneading.  It will still look like this after 10 minutes though, so don't expect a lovely puffed up ball of dough.

Popped into a bowl for an 1 1/2 hour or so and left to rise, you then tip it out, knead for a further minute (by this stage it is much less sticky and more elastic), shaped and placed on a baking tray to rise again for 40 - 50 minutes.

After rising it looked like this..........

Then it was baked in a static 180c oven for 40 minutes and came out looking like this........

I'm afraid I couldn't wait for it to cool before I sliced into it, hence the jagged cut, but its a really tasty loaf with a nice crust, moist centre and packing a great caraway seed taste.  Perfect with a board of cold meats and cheeses I think.  Definitely one to do again.

My second recipe was for the Cardamon and Lemon Stamped Cookies.  I mixed mine together using the K beater attachment in my Kenwood mixer until the ingredients all came together to form a stiff dough.  I popped the dough onto the baking sheet and divided it in half, then half again and then into 3's.  This way, rather than guess 24 portions straight out of the bowl, made it much easier to divide up.

Each portion was rolled into a ball.  If you have a cookie stamp, you use this to squash the dough down into a cookie shape and leaves a little impression on the top of the cookie.  As I didn't have one (add that to the list of baking wants!) I used the base of a little glass, which seemed to be just as effective.

They were then popped into a static 190c oven and baked for 11 - 12 minutes until a pale golden brown colour.  A nice quick recipe to make, with the ground almonds adding a nice crispness to the cookie and the cardamon coming through very faintly, adding more warmth rather than an over-powering flavour.  Perfect to enjoy with a nice cup of coffee in the garden along with some rare sunshine!

There's that phantom photographer again and a sneaky Aquilegia poking up through our table :)

Next week - The Low Countries - Belgium, Netherlands & Luxembourg.  I best get looking at recipes whilst munching on a cookie or two .................yummy!

Happy baking!

James Martin's Pistachio & Coffee cake

A few weeks ago I was browsing 'You' magazine that our neighbour drops off for me to peruse the cooking section and I came across a rather yummy looking offering by the chef James Martin.  Its for a Pistachio and Coffee Cake.  Rather handy that was, as I had a packet of pistachio's in the cupboard looking for a purpose, plus I wanted to try something new for OH's birthday cake.

Why is it sometimes that the same recipe can work brilliantly for you one time and then the next time you try.............a great big flop.  Thankfully on the occasion of his birthday, when I was rushing to make and finish it in a short time frame it worked.  Try it again for my birthday and I didn't cook it through in the middle. The outer parts were still very edible though!

The third attempt saw an improvement but not as great as the first.  I don't want to put you off, any which way its a lovely unusual cake.  I tend to always bake cakes in a static oven, but have a sneaky feeling that based on the timings for the first cake, I may have popped it on fan oven instead for that one.

I found its a good idea to whisk all the eggs before adding and then add gradually.

It;s quite a moist batter as you may be able to see.  Rather than grease and line cake tins, I like to cheat and use Lakeland's cake liners.  This way you don't waste loads of greaseproof paper when cutting it to size.

I popped it in a 190c static oven for 35 minutes (recipe says 30 minutes) and it was still quite wet in the centre.  You do leave it to stand in the tin for 30 minutes to continue cooking but it still needed a bit longer so popped it back for another 5-6 minutes.

The centre filling is a very simple mix of cream, a little icing sugar and more pistachios!

So here's my third attempt!  The photo makes it look darker than it is, but due to the extra cooking time its certainly got a crisper exterior.

Quite a nice slice and rather moist!

The next attempt will certainly see a go at the fan oven me thinks and perhaps a smidge more coffee.

On a totally different note I've finally got around to finishing my Katherine's, for the UK Sock Knitters February KAL.  The photo does them no justice as they are a much richer red.

Better late than never!

Now what to make next??
Happy baking